Nashville has celebrated music and musicians throughout its history, from Music Row to Printer’s Alley, and every local bar in between. This week, and today, in particular, brings a new momentum for Music City to celebrate, because it's been 500 years since Nashville has been in the path of totality for a solar eclipse. The occasion has brought out all kinds of luminaries to the stage, and scientists to their telescopes, explaining how these diverse universes of music and astronomy beautifully collide. The city that creates music stars and the study that researches the bodies in the universe share a lot more in common than one would imagine.
“CBS This Morning” paid an August 21 visit to explore some of the ways that Nashville will make the overcast event shine in memories forever.
Big stars for the bright sun
Curly-haired Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town introduced the Grand Ole Opry as “Solar Eclipse Central” for a concert Sunday night. Her Grammy-winning quartet was among other beloved artists like Wynonna & The Big Noise and Darius Rucker, who all were making a big to-do of what the moon and the sun are doing today.
Wynonna paused mid-song to find her special solar eclipse approved glasses, and Darius Rucker demonstrated proof-positive that nothing else is visible from the lenses except for the bright orb in the earth’s sky that assists to sustain life.
Darius Rucker, the singer who made “Wagon Wheel” into a monster hit, is making his own plans to see the wheel in the sky. “I’ve Googled it so many times, “ the South Carolina artist confesses, adding that “it's something that’s so big in science that happens so rarely.”
“We've always been such fans of science,” Philip Sweet of Little Big Town gushes before interrupted by band mate Karen Fairchild.
“They would much rather work for Scott...” interrupts Fairchild, referring to NASA scientist Scott Bolton, who details the common threads of harmony between the sky and the music stage in this once-in-a-lifetime event. Bolton describes that “the same equation” is involved in “plucking a guitar string” as in “what's happening in the interior of Jupiter.”
The man of science relates that it's all a matter of harmony, resonance and “all of nature's vibrations.” The less-scientific soul would insist that something magical is at work in the celestial realm, too, just as something magical happens when notes and words work together to heal a wounded heart.
New moon and forever great songs
Those who predict life by the stars, like Tom Parsons, suggest that this time of “new moon on steroids” marks the perfect opportunity to make choices to move life in new directions. Nashville is the largest city in the path of totality for the solar eclipse, and 90,000 people are expected to fill just the Gaylord property surrounding The Grand Ole Opry alone, according to projections.
Some will be celebrating weddings, while others may be sharing last memories. Kimberly Schlapman welcomed another miracle into her world earlier this year with the birth of a daughter, Dolly Grace. Miracles come from the heavens, the earth, and between mortal humans. All are worthy of the effort and will be lifted in song by the city that does music, and gatherings for good times, best
