Keith Anderson's Local Picks

For folks planning a trip to Nashville, there might not be a better fellow out there to give some friendly advice about how to make the most of a Music City visit than new top-ten hit maker Keith Anderson.  

Why should folks listen when Keith dispenses advice on a Music City good time?

For starters, he’s a very smart guy. The Arista recording artist graduated first in his class at Oklahoma State University with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in engineering.

Secondly, he has a lot of interests—he’s not going to just point you in one direction in Music City and say, “have fun!” The Oklahoma native seems like the kind of guy that’d tell you to pack as much into your time in Nashville as possible. He’s certainly demonstrated an array of talents and interests in his young life, among them: being approached to play baseball with the Kansas City Royals, placing second in the Mr. Oklahoma bodybuilding competition, working at a Dallas, Texas construction-engineering firm, entertaining at Six Flags over Texas and the Texas State Fair, taking pre-med courses at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, modeling for companies including Dr. Pepper and J.C. Penney’s, and even forming a singing telegram duo, the Romeo Cowboys, with a fellow musician. …And that was all before he moved to Nashville.

The “Picking Wildflowers” singer knows a thing or two about Nashville’s legendary Music Row. He’s seen The Row from the perspective of a waiter (“I was a terrible waiter,” he says. "I never figured out the computer system. I was messing up every day.”), a hit songwriter (he penned the George Jones/Garth Brooks duet “Beer Run”), and now a top-selling recording artist.

And any guy hoping to impress a date in Music City should listen especially close to what Keith has to say. After all, he was just named one of the year’s hottest bachelors by the editors of People Magazine.

So what does this guy with all those credentials have to say about spending a few days in Nashville?

Not surprisingly, Keith, who has visited country’s most famous stage a number of times since his debut single first hit radio, says “first and foremost, you obviously have to go to the Opry.” Keith recalls his first Opry visit was to a Tuesday Night Opry performance in 2003. “My mom surprised me and came into town,” he remembers, “so I brought her out to the Opry.” “I bought each of us a different flavored Goo Goo, and we sat out there and watched the show. I remember seeing Craig Morgan perform live for the first time, and I was blown away.” Keith remembers it was a great night because he felt as if he was on the verge of making his Nashville dreams come true. “We were watching everyone on stage, and my mom said, ‘that’s going to be you soon, isn’t it?’   And I said, ‘Yeah, I really think it’s about to happen for me, mom.’”

Keith also recommends Nashville’s songwriting haven, the Bluebird Café. The small Green Hills-area venue is known across the country for asking its customers to stay quiet to fully appreciate the performances they’re hearing. The list of writers featured in Bluebird performances on any given week might include some of the top songwriters with whom Keith has collaborated: Jeffrey Steele (“My Town”), Bob DiPiero (“Blue Clear Sky”), Kim Williams (“Three Wooden Crosses”), and more.

The Bluebird began to earn its wings when Kathy Mattea was discovered there in the 1980s. Since then, Mattea’s husband Jon Vezner is said to have made the entire room cry the first time he performed the award-winning “Where’ve You Been,” later recorded by his CMA Award-winning wife. Garth Brooks first heard “The Dance” performed there by its writer, Tony Arata. Songwriting legends Don Schlitz (“The Gambler”), Thom Schuyler (“16th Avenue”), and Fred Knobloch (“A Lover Is Forever”) introduced the “In The Round” format, which has spread to innumerable other venues in town. The casual, intimate setting lets audiences experience songs old and new from four unique perspectives, as the songwriters sit in a circle sharing songs and the stories behind them.

“This whole town is built on songwriting, and the best songwriters play there,” Keith summarized. “The Bluebird is the place to go to hear some of this town’s best songs played the way they were meant to be heard.”

A Nashville visitor also needs to visit the Gaylord Opryland Resort, he says, and take a drive up and down the heart of Music Row, 16th and 17th Avenues. “You never know who or what you’ll see there,” he promises. “And you gotta do 2nd Avenue and Broadway and all the real honky tonks down there.”

Finally, People’s hot bachelor answers the question countless Music City visitors want to know: where should I take a date for romance? “I like Virago,” he says. “They have great sushi. Ken’s Sushi is great, too. It’s nice and quiet so you can talk.”

For a really cool vibe, Keith says it’s all about the U.S. Border Cantina, off of West End Avenue. And the editors at People would probably say that vibe gets a lot hotter when Keith walks through its doors.

by Dan Rogers, opry.com staff