KICKING AROUND NASHVILLE
With
our day’s course of action set by the compass of the tour company we were ready
to tweak our moral compass and go traipsing along historic Broadway in
Nashville, affectionately known as the Honky Tonk Highway. The area is in full
swing by 10 am and the revelry and music goes on until 3 am. Bar after bar has
a band in it, windows and doors open to the outside, blaring music. Find something
you like and go in. There are no covers and the bands play for tips. We started
our country music crusade in the mid-afternoon so the area was relatively calm,
but by evening with the Bachelorette Parties; Nashville is evidently the number one destination for "Hen-Do's"; drunken Frat boys and tourists and
the countless bike bars and golf cart tours and lighted Cinderella-like carriage
tours, the place is busy! Perhaps a bit too busy for these senior citizens!
ACME FEED AND SEED
The
first stop for us after our bus tour was food. We decided to go to Acme Feed
and Seed at 101 Broadway right at the Cumberland River’s edge. The building
served many purposes over its lengthy history, the last number of decades as a
farm supply establishment before closing its doors after 91 years of service.
It was reopened in 2014 in this current incarnation by a couple of smart
entrepreneurs and this very popular spot boasts three levels of bars. On the
first there is also a store where you order your food, take a number and
wherever you end up in the building they take it to you. The second is sedate
and offers sushi. The third is the rooftop and you get spectacular views of the
river, Nissan Stadium where the Tennessee Titans play, the pedestrian bridge
that crosses the river and Broadway’s Honky Tonk Highway.
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| JANET AT ACME |
At 1 pm
it was empty and no music on the stage. But we ordered our food sat at the bar
on the first floor and had a couple of drinks. Janet had something with whiskey
in it while I had a local beer, Blackstone. I had a hamburger and Janet had a
salad with chicken. After finishing our food we walked up to the roof, there is
an elevator, to stand in the sweltering sun to admire the views.
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| VIEW FROM ACME ROOFTOP |
MAN IN BLACK
Our next
stop was the Johnny Cash museum. I am more familiar with Cash’s music than
anyone else in the country world and thought this was a nice side trip. I got a
AAA discount on the admission price and we meandered a good while through the
memorabilia and watched clips of his performances in films and television
shows. He’s called the Man in Black because of his outfits. I’ve heard varying
stories about how he was poor when he started and the only shirt he had that
matched his band’s shirts was black, that black was easier to keep clean while
touring, that Manuel the tailor in Nashville sent him all black clothing once
saying he always considered Cash looked best wearing black…whatever. The museum was a
nice diversion before moving on to the bars on Broadway.
TOOTSIE’S ORCHID LOUNGE
The
tour guide gave us some story as to why the building is purple and that the
back door to the place empties into an alley directly across from the stage
door at the Ryman Auditorium, the home for the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to
1974. The story had something to do with getting out of the Ryman for a quick
drink, etc. at Tootsie’s. Not sure about the purple part though.
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| THE STAGE AT TOOTSIE'S |
The
crowd at the door was a bit too crowded and the bouncer said we couldn’t stay
in the door way like that, but invited us to go up the side entrance to the
other floors. The band on the first floor played in a little wedge of a stage,
with the drummer tucked into the window. There were three guitarists and a
violinist and another woman standing and singing from the bar. Yeah, we liked
who we heard but we couldn’t stand there and couldn’t get in, the place was
that crowded at 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. So, we took the side door steps,
but we heard nothing we liked compared to the “main” stage at the front. The
topmost floor led to an open rooftop area that was inviting but the music did
not keep us. We discovered though a way of descending to the back stage on the
first floor where there was another group playing and we were able to get into
the back area of the main floor via a stile configuration of steps. There we
got a great look at the bar and all the photos and memorabilia adorning the
walls, protected by plastic. The band was kicking up a storm and whipping the
crowd up and soon somehow got some seats at the last table in the back.
Whatever raw jokes I’ve made about country music in the past; like, you get
EVERYTHING BACK if you play country music backwards (your house, your wife,
your dog, etc.); it’s absolutely great heard live, especially with a band that
was so infectious and talented and funny. I have no idea what their name was,
or who was the front man, but we could have remained there all day and night
until 3 am. Every once in a while a waitress breezed by and got us beers, but
we didn’t have to order anything. The band too worked the room a few times with
a tip jar, but we could have gotten away with a handshake. Don’t worry we’re
not THAT cheap, we tipped the band and drank a couple of honest American beers
for $7.00 apiece. Janet had Bud Lite Lime and I had PBR.
Only
once did the band that day play original music, and he prefaced his song by
saying that this was some country artist's song... except he hadn’t recorded it yet. The
rest were covers.
Tootstie’s
Orchid Lounge is the premier spot to play on the Honky Tonk Highway. Patsy
Cline, Charlie Pride and Loretta Lynn among many others played there. Willie
Nelson would stop by between sets at the Grand Ole Opry next door. Sometime
Nashville resident Kid Rock has hung out there. Tootsie’s has the name and to land
a gig there can be the hopeful launch of a career.
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| THE WELL WORN STAGE AT TOOTSIE'S |
When
the Grand Ole Opry moved from the Ryman to its present venue outside of town the
tourists followed and lower Broadway went into a steep decline. Prostitution,
peep shows and crime were rampant, but with the new owners of the now 55 year
old establishment leading the way to a revitalization of lower Broadway during the past 20 years the area has changed to a destination where 90% of tourists will visit when they
come to Nashville.
NUDIES
After
the band ended their gig we didn’t want our adventurous afternoon to end so we
found another place. We liked the music blaring out of Nudie’s Honky Tonk.
Touted as the longest bar on Broadway, it has three levels and the walls are
adorned with outfits worn by people like John Wayne, Gene Autry and Johnny
Cash, as well as a 1975 Cadillac El Dorado convertible compleat with long horn
steer horns on the front grill hanging on the wall above the stage. I guess you can park here...
Despite
the name the bartenders were all fully clothed. It was much emptier on this
Tuesday afternoon than Tootsie’s but I’m sure this place fills up with the
evening. We got a couple of seats near the front of the bar and had some
whiskey drinks and listened to the band play its final couple of songs before
their set ended and then we moved on to our third stop of the day.
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| PARKING AT NUDIE'S |
SOULSHINE PIZZA FACTORY
Janet
had read that on Tuesdays a Blue Grass Band plays at this open airy place a few
miles from Broadway and near Music Row, where all the Nashville recording
studios are located. This small chain with 5 places located in Tennessee and
Mississippi was inviting and we hurried to make the 7:15 start of the show.
Sadly, though the food was good, I had a Carnivore pizza and the drinks were
very well priced, the hipster version of Blue Grass, two guys playing a banjo and a mandolin and two girls playing fiddle and an upright bass, played all new material
in their first set that was NOT the toe-tapping stuff that Janet was hoping to
hear. They had promised in their second set to play more traditional blue
grass, but we did not linger.
Our
Lyft driver back home was impressed that these two old geezers had even ventured
out to this area of town. The Division Street area is filled with a lot of hip new bars
and restaurants, but we had had enough revelry for our first full day in
Nashville.
Nashville
is growing. My daughter’s area of Germantown and even our area along Clifton
Avenue have lots of new construction. Some ridiculous number was tossed around
that something like 65 people move to Nashville EVERY DAY. Our area was once a
dangerous place to visit according to the driver, but I’ll bet that when we
eventually return to revisit my daughter, that will have changed completely.
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