Nashville

Ed Sheeran is really staring to piss me off. He was in Dallas when I was there and now here he is in Nashville. I mean here I am minding my own business walking about the streets of Nashville only to be confronted by a horde of screaming women all wearing cowboy boots over their jeans and shirts with a giant "X" on the front and "Ed" on the back. No doubt he is a lovely guy and is probably kind to small children and animals but he is starting to mess with my mojo. 

Anyway the drive in from Memphis was uneventful. I even stopped at a rest area in the middle of a forest and was blown away by how nice it was. 

The bathrooms were clean and even airconditioned and there was a full time maintenance guy on duty.

I missed the turn to my hotel so I contintinued on to the downtown area, filled up with "gas" and drove around for a bit, it all seemed agreeable enough. Once I'd had enough of that I headed for the hotel and checked in, donned my runners and headed off exploring by foot.

At this juncture I have to confess I have no great love of country music and in some cases I would have to say some of it positively irritates me. That being said there are some truly outstanding country musicians and some seminal non country artists have chosen to record here using the local talent. Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and Leonard Cohen leap to mind in this regard. I wandered up and down "Broadway" in what is locally known as "The District" and listened to live music coming from nearly every second doorway. It warmed my soul to see such a thriving music scene. However I have not heard so much out of tune music (and lets be honest here it was the singing) since I was back at high school when I had the very unfortunate experience of hearing a combined primary school mass recorder choir all trying to tune up - 1200 out of tune recorders - positively ghastly! It was so bad I actually chose to eat at a venue that didn't have live music because the two venues that I found with agreeable music looked to have second rate food. 

I ate at some crab shack. The food was good but I sat near a couple of bouncers from a nearby stripclub who tried to drum up some business. After their epic sales pitch I explained that I didn't think $25 was a particularly good deal to see somebody's breasts and them have to tip them for the privilege when if I waited till the end of the night down on Broadway it would all probably happen for free. They did manage to convince all of the bar staff and the manager that it would be a good idea. These guys were a couple of hillbilly rednecks, the town is full of them. I wandered about for a while hoping that a decent band had come on somewhere but gave up and had a early night. 

It was then I grabbed a cab. They are incredibly cheap here as they only charge for distance and not for time. That's when I met my next charming local. This guy proceeded to give a complimentary character assessment of every minority he had ever met, told me how he wouldn't pick up and blacks as he's not paid enough for that. Fortunately it was a short trip so I bedded down for the evening with a somewhat disagreeable taste in my mouth about the fair city of Nashville.

I awoke the next morning ready to give Nashville another go. I walked the mile or so into town and joined the line to see the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame. I mentioned I'm not a fan of country right? Well this place was excellent, well laid out and comprehensive. I took an additional side tour to do the last part of my musical pilgrimage, being RCA Studio B. This is where many famous artists from the 50's and 60's recorded. Elvis recorded over 250 tracks there along with other such luminaries as Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Dolly Parton and many many more. In a quirk of fate it ceased functioning as a recording studio the day after Elvis died. It was an impressive place and had an old steinway grand there used by many of the artists. 

I returned and checked out the entire country music museum and learned a number of things. Firstly that Keith Urban is from New Zealand and secondly that the Taylor Swift Education Centre seems to consist of the originals of her revealing outfits accompanied by photos of her wearing them. Now she can write a catchy pop tune so I am sure there was other worthwhile stuff in there but I couldn't bring myself to look.

Elvis, Johnny Cash, Garth Brookes, Brooks & Dunne, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, The Rascal Flatts, Trishia Yearwood and strangely Bob Dylan were all covered in great depth and detail. There was Sam Phillips retrospective, he was the guy who founded Sun Studios in Memphis you may remember. Way too much to cover so I won't bore you with it. Here are some pics of the more notable displays.

You finish with a walk through the hall of fame itself where each recipient gets a bronze plaque that is mounted around a circular wall. They are meant to appear like notes on a music stave. The hall itself has an inverted radio broadcast tower at its centre signifying the important part that radio has played in the development of country music.

I left the museum and headed for a coffee. Let me tell you that the expression "good American coffee" is an oxymoron. Maxwell House was founded in Nashville so I had high hopes. Well after eleven days in country I can finally say I have found a coffee worthy of the name. I found it at Mike's Ice Cream Bar and Coffee Bar. I had grabbed an ice cream there as I wandered the streets yesterday. There was quite a line up out the front so I figured it had to be ok. Well everyone was ordering ice creams in a multitude of flavours but I thought I'd grab a coffee as well. It was excellent, so good in fact that I searched it out again and grabbed another that was even better. 

So that's Nashville, Mike and his coffee has redeemed the city in my eyes. I'm off to Birmingham Alabama tomorrow to check out the Civil Rights Museum, then I'll contimue on to Montgomery for the night. No doubt I'll tell you all about it real soon and as they say in Nashville (and yes they really do say it) "y'all come back and visit".