Music City, USA

Still haven't got around to weaving the tale of the Nashville visit so here goes.

We got into town on the Friday afternoon, after a drive down the music highway, about 200 odd miles from Memphis. A nice touch was that when I stopped for a jacks break it was at the official George Jones/Roy Acuff rest stop. Does this state take it's musical heritage seriously or what.
When we hit Broadway looking for our hotel, little did we know that the CMA Fan Fair was in full swing, meaning the streets were teeming with country music fans of all shapes and sizes. The Coff almost crashed the car trying to get to the cowboy stores so we could get tooled up, we bought a fine collection of hats, boots and belt buckles so we could fit in, although we really only succeeded in standing out of course. High tailed it to the hotel, put on the gear and headed back out - the first thing that happened is as the four of us were waiting on the corner for a taxi, a baseball wearing fool in a truck roared out "Faggots!" in our direction. This upset us somewhat until we realised that we looked like extras from "Midnight Cowboy" standing on the corner, trying to drum up some business (see Photo).

Up and down the fine bars on Broadway, one thing to be aware of in Tennessee is that no matter what dive you go into, every band will be absolutely fantastic and prove the axiom that there aren't a lot of guitar players in Dublin, just a lot of people who own guitars. My favourite boozer was quickly decided upon as Tootsie's World Famous Orchid Lounge, I'd been hearing about this place for years in various books and documentaries but nothing prepares you for what a kip it first appears to be and how quickly you fall in love with the place. It's on two levels with a stage just inside the door and another one at the back upstairs, they advertised live music from 10 in the morning and I felt it my duty to put this to test on the Sunday morning which lead to a truly great day of boozing. The staff are great and ferociously easy on the eye and the clientele were second to none in their quest for a good laugh and a story. A GREAT spot. Let the pictures speak a thousand words...


I must point out that there are other things to do in Nashville apart from drinking, check out the old Ryman Theatre where they used to hold the Grand Old Opry before they built the facility out of town. We got the backstage tour with a sweet old dear who was near to retirement, three times she asked me where I was from and told the same stories over and over again but it was nice, they'll let you record a cd of your own beautiful voice as well but too many of Tootsie's cocktails meant this was simply out of the question for me.

Don't miss the Country Music Hall of Fame and RCA Studio B tour. They must have spent millions on the hall of fame, a fantastic building with exhibits on everyone who's ever mattered in country music - Jimmie Rodger's or Hank Williams' guitar? check. Merle Haggard's government pardon? check. The Original sign from Nudie's Taylors in LA? check. Elvis' matching gold Cadillac and piano? of course. Look at the photo of the "Waylon" wall - class.
Studio B is where anyone who was anyone recorded, it was Elvis' favourite studio in Nashville and they let me play the piano - heaven.

Make a trip to Ernest Tubb's Record Store of course, and don't miss the Grand Ole Opry. Warning: while it was great to go to the Opry, it does celebrate the worst in country music as well as the best, i.e. on the night we went we got to see Porter Wagoner which was pretty fantastic but also had to sit through some god awful "new" country by overweight no-counts who couldn't even be bothered to get dressed up for the occasion.

All in all, I'd go back tomorrow.