On Tuesday, October twenty eighth, Stay Nation revealed plans for his or her newest venue in Nashville, with all of the publicity fanfare, architectural renderings, and boilerplate media rebroadcasting that comes with such a revelation. In the meantime, few if anybody is declaring some of the apparent issues about it: This new venue referred to as “The Reality” is Stay Nation’s rival to the Mom Church of Nation Music, The Ryman Auditorium.
To be positioned on Chestnut Road in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, the brand new venue will reside solely about 1 1/2 miles from The Ryman because the crow flies. The capability of The Reality will vary from 1,800 to 4,400 when going from seated capability to standing room, which is correct across the Ryman’s 2,400 seated capability. The Reality even feels considerably architecturally impressed by The Ryman with its rounded arched home windows and heart peak.
The brand new venue is predicted to welcome all genres of music, however the title “The Reality” is impressed by songwriter Harlan Howard’s definition of nation music.
“The legendary songwriter Harlan Howard stated all you want for an excellent nation music is three chords and the reality. The Reality is constructed on that very same thought,” says Sally Williams, President of Nashville Music & Enterprise Technique, Stay Nation. “Our objective is to create an area that might solely exist right here — the place uncooked, trustworthy music meets world-class manufacturing, and the place followers and artists from throughout all genres can join in a approach that feels unmistakably Nashville.”
The place did Sally Williams work beforehand? She spent 20 years working for the Opry Leisure Group, with a lot of that tenure spent as the final supervisor of the Ryman Auditorium.
In 2017, Sally Williams was promoted to senior vice chairman of programming and artist relations at Opry Leisure, and was additionally named the final supervisor of the Grand Ole Opry. She left the Opry in 2019 to work for Stay Nation.
Does this imply we ought to be fearful in regards to the future financial viability of The Ryman? Will The Reality undercut the Mom Church when it opens within the fall of 2026? After all not. No artist or band goes to take to social media to tout their debut or sellout on the TEMU Ryman. However the brand new venue does illustrate the incredulous approach Stay Nation appears to be like to nook markets and undercut competitors. Since they’ll provide a barely greater capability, The Reality will definitely siphon off a number of the occasions The Ryman would in any other case be capable to host.
The Reality is only one of many new items Stay Nation is including to their arsenal of venues as the corporate actively tries to nook the market on small and mid-sized venues after already monopolizing most bigger venues and excursions. This exercise continues to place stress on extra regionally and independently-owned venues that play such a important position within the dwell music ecosystem, particularly for native and impartial artists.
AI is threatening to fully reshape the paradigm for writing, recording, and releasing music within the months forward in very disruptive methods. However dwell experiences that solely music can ship in particular person are poised to stay insulated from AI’s onslaught, if not turn out to be much more beneficial within the immersive know-how period. Stay Nation is actively working to nook that market, and in each capability, with no bounds on who they’ll attempt to undercut. That’s “The Reality” about Stay Nation, and their new venue.
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