Nashville, Tennessee is the Country Music Capital of the United States, and the city has some of Tennessee's best food and drink, frequently accompanied by live music. One type of Nashville bar emblematic of the city is the honky-tonk, a bar where rural aesthetics meet southern sound, frequently the live variety.

As Nashville becomes increasingly popular, honky-tonk bars are spreading nationwide, though some worry this generally represents the commercial gentrification of Nashville. Such bars rarely represent the authentic honky-tonk tradition and offer visitors a rough approximation of the style to profit off it, not necessarily honor it

If you want to experience honky-tonk for yourself, it's probably advisable to visit Nashville, but it isn't strictly necessary depending on your tolerance for arguably inauthentic ambiance. "Yankee-tonk" is now widespread in the northeast, and in other major U.S. cities like Chicago, you can find places such as the aptly named Honky Tonk BBQ.