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NBC will bring its nightly newscasts to Nashville on Thursday, while host Lester Holt travels on his recurring series Across America.
Nashville is one of five cities he will visit during the week, along with Austin, Texas, St. Louis, Missouri, Washington, DC, and Phoenix, Arizona.
You might be curious about what local stories you will highlight during your trip, but this is Music City so first things first: will Holt bring his bass guitar?
“I’m really glad you asked,” he says with a laugh, and calls The Tennessean from New York.
In case you didn’t know, the award-winning broadcaster has been playing bass since he was 15, from his school jazz choir to his cover band The Rough Cuts, made up of colleagues from NBC News. And yes, he’ll pack a “Travel Bass” for the trip.
“It’s just a little smaller, so I’ll be traveling with it, if only to run around with it at the hotel. And if the opportunity arises (in Nashville) to play elsewhere, I’ll be there. “
These opportunities keep cropping up for Holt, who has served as the anchor for NBC Nightly News since 2015.
You may have seen him on Kelly Clarkson’s house TV band or on The Roots on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. During a trip to Nashville in 2011, he landed on the Grand Ole Opry stage and assisted Luke Bryan on “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).”
“It was exciting to play with Luke,” says Holt. “I have great memories of that day.”
Holt and NBC plan to put the Opry in the spotlight during Thursday’s broadcast – especially at the historic 5000th performance of the legendary radio show on Saturday. They also sit down with Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley to talk about The Store, a nonprofit that enables food insecure Tenneseers to shop for groceries.
Holt will lead a post on “How Nashville is dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic that children and schools are facing … issue during the pandemic.”
This is the sixth installment in Holt’s “Across America” series, which began in 2017.
“It’s very invigorating to me,” he says. “Because I always want to make sure that this show reflects this diversity across the country. And you know, if you strap yourself to a desk in New York every day, every month, you might risk losing some of that perspective. “
Still, it sounds like Holt and his colleagues have drawn more than a sense of duty back to Music City.
“All of our team are big Nashville fans,” he says. “Nobody comes back with a bad Nashville story.”
“NBC Nightly News” will air from Nashville on Thursday, November 4th at 5:30 pm CT on NBC.
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https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/10/31/lester-holt-bringing-nbc-nightly-news-and-his-bass-nashville/6194727001/
