It is the eve of country music's greatest annual get-together and yet Music City seems remarkably sedate.

While downtown Nashville honky tonk bars and the Country Music Hall of Fame buzz with tourists, the industry centre of Music Row calmly prepares itself for the nearest thing to a luvvie-fest on the Tennessee calendar.

Maintaining its image of family-centric tradition, this is the least brash of all American cultural capitals.

Covering just a couple of blocks, the offices and studios of publishers and labels nestle next to quaint little wooden houses on leafy avenues.

Newcomers

It's here that you find RCA Records Studio B, home to Elvis' first major label recordings and the country classics crafted by Chet Atkins.

The only sign of the impending star-studded celebration is the occasional banner celebrating each label's CMA nominations.

Nashville is the traditional home of country music

It's all very restrained for a town where, to quote a local cab driver,"you can't swing a cat without hitting a songwriter".

This year's list boasts the usual collection of legendary artists, including Willie Nelson, George Jones and Garth Brooks.

Performers and presenters billed to appear include platinum-selling Dolly Parton and Shania Twain, returning to music after a lengthy break.

Heroes

The contenders to win the main prizes however demonstrate how much of a celebration of Americanism this night really is.

Names such as Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson and Toby Keith are hardly household names in Europe and the rest of the world.

But in the US they are truly multi-million sellers with a gigantic fan base. Songs like Jackson's Drive and Tritt's Strong Enough To Be Your Man offer country fans simple home truths about the "land of the free".

It's Jackson and Keith who have caused most controversy around this year's ceremony.

Keith's song Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue (The Angry American) has already garnered negative press for its somewhat reactionary response to September 11th.

Toby Keith, one country star who sang about 11 September

Keith himself plays the hard working, no nonsense blue collar image for all it's worth. His nomination for best video for the song Let's Talk About Me revels in a macho political incorrectness.

Jackson, while still a stetsoned straight-talking man, presents a more sensitive approach to the heartland's response to 9/11.

Nominated a record 10 times - beating Merle Haggard's previous record from 1970 - his song Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) looks set to win at least one gong.

Entertainment, not politics

Yet Jackson's response says a lot about country music's reluctance to make any political statement beyond the right to raise one's family the American way.

He says: "I am proud of the way it has been accepted, but it makes me a little uncomfortable with the wake of the tragedy. I've always been a little uncomfortable with the attention.

"I've never really tried to write preachy songs or world-healing songs. I've always looked at music as more of an entertainment. But that one just came out and kind of made its own way."

Whatever the political undertones, Wednesday evening at the Grand Ole Opry will primarily be about entertainment, with its unique mixture of rhinestones, couture and denim.

Or as Phil Vassar, a nominee for the CMA Horizon award, said on Tuesday: "It's a chance to see a bunch of hillbillies dressed up!"