[Craig Manning]

Originally Posted by Cody Nelson

Promo

Synopsis

Rayna James (Connie Britton) is the established "Queen of Country" music. However, her latest album is not selling well and her tour is playing to half empty venues. Her record label suggests that she open for Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), the young and sexy best selling singer of bubble gum country. However, Juliette, seeing Rayna as washed up, purposefully alienates her and Rayna, who dislikes Juliette's style of music, rejects a joint tour out of hand. The two women come into conflict as both try to get guitarist Deacon Claybborne (Charles Esten), Rayna's bandmate and former lover, to sign onto their tour. Rayna's life is further complicated when her estranged father, millionaire businessman Lamar Wyatt (Powers Boothe), convinces her husband, Teddy Conrad (Eric Close), to run for Mayor of Nashville.

Anybody else watching what's arguably the best new drama this year?

Well-written, heartfelt, INCREDIBLE music (most of which written by John Paul White of the Civil Wars and T. Bone Burnett); there's only three episodes aired, so more than enough time to catch up.

Haha, I should have known that you would be the other ap.net guy watching this show.

I'm enjoying it a lot so far. When they let the music carry the proceedings, its something really special (the pilot balanced the music with the other narrative elements really beautifully). This week's episode only had one song and got a little too full-on soapy to compensate, but its still really enjoyable.

Are the soundtrack tunes available online? I knew T Bone was writing, didn't know John Paul White was, but it reminded me of his stuff right away, so that makes sense.

[Craig Manning]

Originally Posted by ParkwayTom

Dude, I've lived here for four years. The show is such an idiotic caricature of the way people in Nashville act (let alone the way the music business works here), its almost hard to watch.

You know how tv works, right? Everything is exaggerated and over the top. It's not a documentary.

[Craig Manning]

Originally Posted by SilenceBrokenTT

All songs are available on iTunes.

I'm a fan of the show.

Sweet, grabbing all of the Gunnar/Scarlett songs for sure.

[Craig Manning]

Originally Posted by ParkwayTom

I understand that. I just feel like they could have done a better job representing the way that people in Nashville actually interact with the city. I'm not looking for documentary level realism, but its not like Taylor Swift is hanging out at Tootsie's on the reg or Faith Hill is constantly chilling at Bluebird Cafe. You get the ocassional celebrity appearance at those places here and there, but its mostly just shitty songwriters. And the guy and girl duo that are obviously supposed to be the Civil Wars... Jesus.

My gripe is that its obvious the writers don't really understand that your average Nashvillian doesn't even like country, and your average country star is not hanging out in dive bars.

I actually really like what they're doing with the Bluebird: those are my favorite scenes in the show. And while, yeah, famous performers probably don't just show up there every night, but Swift got discovered there and the place obviously has a lot of history, so they're just trying to incorporate that facet of it. As for the duo, not sure why that's a problem, or how they are "obviously supposed to be the Civil Wars, other than the fact that the first song they performed was actually a Civil Wars song. But the Civil Wars are themselves a twist on a very traditional, age-old sound, and that duo is channeling a lot more country music history than just John Paul White and Joy Williams.

As for country stars hanging out in dive bars, I believe they've tied that concern into the story and the development of the characters. Rayna and Deacon have roots at the Bluebird, so it's justifiable that they would enjoy coming back. And Juliette only went to see Deacon play.

[Craig Manning]

Will watch the whole thing.