The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will enjoy a 200,000 square foot expansion as part of the planned Omni Nashville Hotel, being built to accompany the Music City Center downtown convention center.
Construction for the Music City Center is already underway, and construction on the 21-story Omni will break ground early this summer. Both are scheduled to open in 2013.
Located on Fifth Avenue South between Demonbreun and Korean Veterans Boulevard, the Omni will have 800 guest rooms and suites, over 80,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including two ballrooms, and 560 parking spaces.
An internal pedestrian pathway will connect the hotel to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum expansion. Along the pathway will be Nashville-specific restaurants and retail spaces.
The $250 million Omni Nashville Hotel represents a public-private partnership that will create 300 new, full-time jobs when open, 200 of which are guaranteed to be filled by Davidson County residents.
During construction, Omni has committed to 20 percent diversity business participation and to spend at least 20 percent of the project’s construction costs with local businesses. The project is being privately financed by Omni Hotels & Resorts.
Mayor Karl Dean today (3/24) was joined by officials from Omni Hotels & Resorts and the Hall to unveil the design, which incorporates natural materials, exposed steel and regional limestone.
Focusing on sustainability, the hotel and expansion project is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification.
The Omni Nashville Hotel was designed by HKS Hill Glazier Studio, an international architecture firm based in Dallas, TX.
Brasfield & Gorrie will serve as general contractor on the project. The full-service contracting and construction management firm is based in Birmingham, Ala.

According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, the percentage of internet users downloading music from P2P file-sharing services has fallen from a high of 16 percent in Q4 of 2007, to 9 percent in Q4 2010.
While illegal downloading of this kind is on the decline, it is far from eradicated. NPD estimates there were 16 million P2P users downloading music in Q4 2010. This is down from 28 million in Q4 2007.
NPD believes the recent decrease in usage coincides with the October 2010 shuttering of LimeWire after a federal judge found the peer-to-peer service liable for copyright infringement.
According to NPD’s “Music Acquisition Monitor,” LimeWire was used by 56 percent of those using P2P services to download music in Q3 2010, shortly before it closed.
Since Limewire went offline, illegal downloading from Frostwire and u-Torrent has increased.
This information is from NPD’s “Music Acquisition Monitor” based on online surveys of U.S. consumers age 13 and older, which were conducted in January 2011. The final reporting is based on 5,549 completed surveys.

Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd have reunited for their first album of new material since 1990. The acclaimed duo of the late ‘80s will release It’s Already Tomorrow to digital outlets April 26, followed by a CD release May 17 on ‘Effin ‘El Records.
The duo co-produced and co-wrote all twelve songs on the set, which was recorded and mixed by Justin Tocket (Marc Broussard, Randy Rogers Band). Among the studio musicians are Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Keith Brogdon. And guests include pedal steel guitarist Lloyd Green, producer and steel guitarist Steve Fishell, vocals from singer/songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, and bassist Garry Tallent from Bruce Springsteen’s E. St. Band.
In 1985 Foster & Lloyd were paired together by their publisher, which led to a deal with RCA Records. “Crazy Over You,” made them the first duo in Country music to score a No. 1 on their debut single.
Before parting ways in 1990 for solo careers, they recorded three albums for RCA and had other hits with “Sure Thing,” “What Do You Want From Me This Time,” “Texas in 1880” and “Fair Shake.”
More recently, a request from the Americana Music Association to reunite for a fundraiser show got the duo together onstage. The show sold out in 15 minutes.
“It was so much fun getting back together onstage, and we realized that the new songs we had written together still had that magic,” says Foster. “We decided to start getting together once a month to write. Soon the songs were pouring out, and we knew we needed to get back in the studio.”
The duo will hit the road with a string of dates in Texas this spring and summer, as well as a May 18 CD release show at Mercy Lounge in Nashville, and a June 25 performance at the Blackberry Jam Music Festival in Franklin, Tenn.

The Roys‘ latest album, Lonesome Whistle, was released yesterday (3/22) on Rural Rhythm records. The duo is currently on a nine-day nationwide media tour.
The 11-song album includes 10 Roy originals, and was co-produced by the duo and Andy Leftwich. The disc’s first single, “Coal Minin’ Man,” is climbing the bluegrass charts. The video, which was filmed in Hazard, KY at the Teco Coal Company, rolls out very soon.
The Roys’ cluster of media appearances began yesterday on Channel 17′s Tennessee Mornings, followed by Bill Cody‘s WSM-AM 650 show, Channel 4′s Better Nashville show and GAC TV’s On The Streets.
Other media stops include The Daily Buzz, the G. Gordon Liddy’s syndicated radio show, Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, Sirius XM’s The Roadhouse “Freewheeling”, and FoxNews.com.
In April, fans can catch the duo on Better TV, Country Vibe, Inside Music Row, and Larry’s Country Diner.
The disc is The Roys’ first release for Rural Rhythm Records and they join a roster that includes Michael Martin Murphey, Randy Kohrs, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Mason Douglas and Lonesome River Band among others.
For more details visit theroysonline.com.