The Ryman is in fact surrounded by honky tonk bars, and is near to the Country Music Hall of Fame as well (there is also a song writers hall of fame in Nashville). 
Maybe the most famous of these bars is Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and you can probably figure out that Tootsie was a piece of work. Nevertheless, she gave all sorts of country musicians a break that they needed, because record company scouts would camp out there and then sign people to this or that label.
You may well ask what’s the deal with all these country musicians wearing cowboy and cowgirl stuff. Well, back in the day the category used to be ‘country and western music’ (featuring among other things the pedal steel guitar, and the fiddle). And many of the performers (think folks that have an Oklahoma or Texas upbringing, like George Strait or Blake Shelton) in fact wore such apparel anyway, and then on TV there were the singing cowboys— Gene Autry, Roy and Dale Rogers, and more. However country music evolved to include Southern music, including bluegrass and folk, so you begin to have stars like Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter from eastern Kentucky, or Dolly Parton from Tennessee, or Chris Stapleton a current star from Lexington Ky. and more. Recently, Nashville is where rock n’ roll has gone to die, a trend partially started by Bob Dylan doing his Nashville Skyline lp, with the help of Johnny Cash. Lately, partly through the Country Crossroads series you have things like Stevie Nicks performing with Lady A, and them doing each other’s songs. Country music has adapted and adopted, and basically swallowed other musical genre, including the blues and rock. Below is the rather ugly concrete building which houses the Country Music Hall of Fame. 
What attracts more attention is the music bars…. and rightly so. Even the famous come and play there sometimes as a surprise.
Today country music is so famous worldwide, that it even attracts artists like Keith Urban from Australia.
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