NASHVILLE, one of my two all-time favorite prime-time soap operas about music and infidelity that I had to stop watching after I realized everybody on the show was going to sleep with everybody else on the show and/or everybody was going to screw everybody else (hi, EMPIRE) comes to an end tonight on CMT. For all my complaints, "Nashville" was probably the closest we've come to a sort of realistic depiction of music-making and the music biz on TV; it had CONNIE BRITTON (who rumors say may make a surprise return in the finale), and the songs, which could fill several box sets, were consistently good. Using actual MUSIC ROW songwriters to write actual Music Row songs was the show's greatest, and simplest, trick. The TENNESSEAN's DAVE PAULSON offers his six favorite songs from a six-year run. I'd add this SARAH BUXTON and KATE YORK ballad that ended the first season, and this one by Buxton, JEDD HUGHES and KEVIN GRIFFIN, which we got to see being written and arranged over a number of episodes. Maybe the BLUEBIRD will be a little easier to get into now... Another thing about "Nashville": Its protagonists were women, and while diligently portraying some of the obstacles they face, it also dared to envision a business that might welcome them. An activist group called the WOMEN OF MUSIC ACTION NETWORK on Wednesday posted this graphic showing what current country radio playlists would look like if you removed all the men. To quote the network, "Words really aren't needed here." Women's voices apparently aren't needed here either. For a nice contrast, this tweet from the WASHINGTON POST's CHRIS RICHARDS suggests what might happen if you didn't actively, consciously try to deny women access to a microphone... I love stories about the process of making music. How and why songs come to be, what tools are used, which gospel song served as inspiration. MusicSET: "Behind the Song, Vol. 8"... Resistance and protest are built into the very fabric of music. Maybe stop asking why you think there are no protest songs anymore and ask yourself how and why someone who is not exactly like you would express their resistance, and what that resistance might sound like. Because it is there, and always has been. "On Resistance," by HANIF ABDURRAQIB... This year's KENNEDY CENTER HONORS will fete REBA MCENTIRE, CHER, PHILIP GLASS, WAYNE SHORTER and the musical HAMILTON... MusicREDEF is taking a long weekend; we'll be back in your inbox Monday morning. But Friday will still be FRIDAY, and that means new music from DENZEL CURRY, MASAYOSHI FUJITA, RL GRIME, KENNY CHESNEY, MADISEN WARD & THE MAMA BEAR, DANIEL BACHMAN, OTEP, HALESTORM, BOZ SCAGGS, UNDERWORLD & IGGY POP, TONY MOLINA, FACE TO FACE, RISE AGAINST, N.O.R.E., PHANTASTIC FERNITURE, CODY JINKS, SHADOWPARTY, ISRAEL NASH and RAFFI... RIP PATRICK WILLIAMS.