🏆 Nashville’s best neighborhood is …

🏗️ Construction Begins on the Music City Loop

• The Boring Company has dug a test pit for the Music City Loop near the base of the state capitol, to study the rock beneath downtown. [NewsChannel 5]
• Nashville’s soft limestone makes us a sinkhole hotspot. [WPLN]
• Governor Bill Lee conducted no environmental or community research before approving the tunnel. [Nashville Banner]

🚨 Mixed Feelings About New Precinct

Antioch residents and leaders express mixed feelings about the new Southeast police precinct set to open in October. While many say faster police response times are needed, and hope that gun violence and drag racing will decrease, they also worry the police won’t get to know the neighborhood’s people. [Nashville Banner]

☀️ Spend a Day in Madison

Here in Nashville, we’ve got pretty strong feelings about our neighborhoods — and why they’re better than everyone else’s. Acclaimed musician Ellen Angelico joins the City Cast Nashville podcast with a guide to the best restaurants, shops, and ways to spend a day in Madison. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

• What’s your pick for the best Nashville neighborhood? Make your case via email!

🎶 Good News for Swifties

Shortly after Taylor Swift announced her 12th album release, “Life of a Showgirl,” Spotify billboards began popping up in Nashville with a code to a playlist of Swift songs that likely contain Easter eggs for the new album. [Variety]

• Listen to the playlist [Spotify]
• Staycation idea: Nashville Swiftie Dream Retreat [Dream House Shop]

Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, and to honor his legacy, Graceland throws a week-long event, the largest Elvis celebration in the world. While Graceland, Presley’s Memphis home, is a Tennessee landmark, the King of Rock and Roll also frequented Music City. My dad met him once at a friend’s Christmas party! Presley was his friend’s cousin, and he gifted his friend a pair of red cowboy boots.

Obviously, Presley’s Nashville history extends far beyond a pair of red cowboy boots. Here’s more about Presley in Nashville, and how you can celebrate Elvis Week.

🎵 Elvis Presley Records in Nashville

While Presley recorded his earliest albums at Sun Records in Memphis, RCA bought his contract in 1955, and he began recording in Nashville, including “Heartbreak Hotel” during his first session. Because of Presley’s success, RCA was able to build RCA Studio B, which opened in 1957. Presley would record more than 200 songs there. According to local guitarist Jerry Kennedy, who recorded with Presley, “He loved staying up all night. That’s when he did his best work. We would show up at 6 p.m. and not get finished until 5 or 6 o’clock the next morning.”

In the summer of 1970, Presley recorded dozens of songs with the Nashville Cats, a group of Nashville’s top musicians, in marathon sessions that sometimes lasted five days straight. He recorded his last RCA albums in 1971.

🎤 Presley’s Nashville Performances

Presley performed for the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in 1954. He wasn’t a big hit with the country music audience, and was never invited back. He performed twice in 1973 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, and was much better received. Then in 1975, he performed four times at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center. The tickets — only $5-10 — sold out in a day.