CASHVILLE!
Johnny, Elvis and some other good Old Boys in the home of Country
WITH its honky-tonk bars, musical stars, and muscle cars Nashville hits all the right notes. Leaning against a bar, I shuffle awkwardly on my two left feet while shyly scanning the room for a dance floor date. I’m hoping a good old slow-talkin’ country boy, a modern-day Johnny Cash
or Elvis, will whisper those three magic words ‘Are ye dancin?’
My plaid prayers are soon answered as a Wrangler-clad chap tips his hat and drawls ‘Howdy’ before swinging me onto the sticky hardwood as the band plays another country classic.
My Rodeo Romeo is a magnificent mover and before long this dance floor dunce is two-steppin’ and toe-tappin’ like a local.
These honky-tonk bars on lower Broadway in downtown Nashville are terribly touristy, but a few, like Robert’s and Tootsie’s, maintain an old school character in this rapidly gentrifying city.
Their kaleidoscopic neon signs and pulsating music lure you in while the
cheap beer and party atmosphere keeps you there for longer than planned.
When it comes to nightlife in Nashville, you ain’t going home ’til the sun comes up.
But unlike the hooting hoards of hen parties that flock to the city, I’m not here to get smashed in Nash, I’m here to experience Nashville’s legendary live music scene and its annual Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival, the largest festival of its kind in the world.
FOR five days in late March/early April, hundreds of professional songwriters perform dozens of shows in intimate venues. This gives music aficionados a rare opportunity to hear some of the biggest songwriters in the world play the hits they’ve written which have been made famous by other people.
For example, in the 300-seat Listening Room Cafe, I heard Gordon Kennedy sing his song Change The World which was a hit for Eric Clapton. Also playing was Josh Kear who wrote Need You Now, a No.1 hit for Lady Antebellum.
In the 90-seat Bluebird Cafe — one of the most significant songwriter venues in the world — I listened to grammy-award-winning songwriters croon about cheatin’ lovers, heartache, small-town life and big-time dreams.
Between songs they traded tales and riffed off of each other. The banter was brilliant. The atmosphere was electric, well, technically
acoustic, but you know what I mean.
Nashville has been a music hotbed for decades with the Grand Ole Opry laying the foundation for what was to become ‘Music City’. This radio barn dance show was first broadcast from Nashville in 1925 and became one of the most popular broadcasts in America.
The radio beacon was like a bat signal for talented musicians who wanted to come and perform on the show. It still is today. If you want to be part of something spe- cial and unique to Nashville, book tickets to a Grand Ole Opry show. It’s a rootin’ tootin’ heck of a good time.
With so many musicians coming into town, publishing houses and recording studios began popping up mainly along 16th and 17th Avenue South. Eventually, this area became known as ‘Music Row’. For a great insight into the history and development of Music Row, take a walking tour with Let’s Go Travelin’.
If walkin’ a country mile ain’t your thing, see the sights on a Songbird Tour bus. On this tour, songwriters perform their hits live as you drive past notable landmarks such as the building where Pretty Woman was composed (Mercy) and the house where Hank Williams lived and Tammy Wynette died. For another tour bus experience, visit The Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum where you can walk through Brian Ahern’s Enactron Mobile Studio where over 40 gold and platinum records were recorded by artists like Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, The Band, Dolly Parton and Keith Richards.
The engaging museum features everyone from Hank to Hendrix (Hendrix credited Nashville as the place that he really learned how to play guitar).
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is another world-class institution where you can delve deeper into the history of music. But before you enter this treasure trove, admire the architecture, which is a homage to Tennessee’s musical heritage including a section that resembles a tailfin of a 1957 Chevrolet
sedan. Inside, you can admire a real classic car, the 24-karat gold plated Cadillac that belonged to Elvis.
Speaking of Elvis, he cut more than 200 records at RCA Studio B on Music Row.
BUILT in 1957, Studio B became known as one of the cradles of the ‘Nashville Sound’ and helped establish the city as an international hub for recording music.
The best thing about the studio tour is getting to sit at the piano that Elvis once played. This experience got me all shook up (sorry, not sorry).
But it’s Johnny Cash who is king in Nashville and at the Johnny Cash museum, you get to know the ‘Man
in Black’ through carefully curated memorabilia. From handwritten letters to his air force uniform and a limestone wall from his Tennessee home, the artefacts tell Cash’s story in a highly personal way.
Another Mecca for Johnny Cash fans, as well as any self-respecting music fan, is the Ryman Auditorium. Johnny Cash came to the Ryman in 1956 for his first Grand Ole Opry appearance and he recorded The Johnny Cash show here from 1969 to 1971.
Built in 1892, The Ryman is known as the ‘Mother Church of Country Music’ and is still used as a music venue. Musicians from Coldplay and James Brown to Patsy Cline and Bruce Springsteen, as well as current and rising stars of all musical genres have played here.
It’s famed for its acoustics which many claim are the second best in the world (behind the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Utah).
If you are looking for more culture with a little less country, visit The Frist Art Museum. The ornate art deco building is home to an array of art from around the world.
Nashville also has a full-scale replica of The Parthenon and its Athena Parthenos statue is the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western world.
Fans of Jack White of The White Stripes can visit Third Man Records, his Willy Wonka-style recording studio, performance space and label headquarters.
You can even make your own record using a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine.
Worked up an appetite? Nashville has some great James-Beard-award-winning Southern food.
The local speciality is hot chicken and Hattie B’s ‘Shut the Cluck Up’ dish is hotter than a pepper sprout. Be warned — it burns, burns, burns and it’ll make you cry, cry, cry.
Arnold’s County Kitchen is the place to try another local staple, the ‘meatand-three’.
This southern comfort meal consists of one meat, like fried chicken or fried catfish, and three vegetable sides, like creamed corn, collard greens or mac and cheese – yes mac and cheese is considered a vegetable in Nashville.
For food a little less fried and a little more refined, dine at Dozen Bakery, Folk, Stateside Kitchen or Cafe Roze in the hip and happening neighbourhood of East Nashville, which was voted one of the 12 coolest neighbourhoods in America.
Despite rampant gentrification, Nashville hasn’t lost touch with its roots and this growing city somehow still feels like a little big town.
It’s a city that’s got soul, as well as country and bluegrass and everything in between, from the most heavenly gospel to the most hedonistic rock and roll.
And coming to Nashville during Tin Pan South, turns Music City up to 11.