Our weekend in Tennessee is already coming to an end. We’re en route back to Minneapolis- Dad’s sitting by the window reading his book, Andy’s in the middle listening to my iPOD and I’m the nerdy one on the aisle with my laptop, alternating between free cell and Microsoft word.
Right away when we got to Nashville, we checked into the hotel and walked about half a mile to the center of downtown- Music Row. Andy has been to Nashville before and suggested that we have lunch at Jack’s, which is a well known bbq restaurant. Much more simple than I’d expected, sort of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (which we quickly learned are the best, most authentic places to visit) right in the center of Music Row. When we asked about the beef brisket, the guy behind the counter showed us the tender, pull apart meat and Andy and I were sold. From there we wandered through several hole-in-the-wall bars and souvenir shops. We spent some time at a bar called Robert’s Western World, where we listened to a country band with an unusual looking guitarist who had a clear, strong voice.
We pretty much spent the rest of the day/evening downtown, wandering through several different bars, Printer’s Alley, Coyote Ugly (don’t worry, we didn’t stay), Hard Rock Café, the Bluegrass Inn and back to Robert’s. My two favorites that night were the Bluegrass Inn and Robert’s. There was another unusual looking band performing at the Bluegrass Inn, but man they could play/sing. Dad quickly warmed up to the band at Robert’s – the Don Kelley Band. Two of the members have played with very well known bands- the bass player played with Dwight Yokum, a few others, and with Johnny Cash for 10 years. Apparently he’s one of the original Tennessee Three (whoever they are… still have to google them to learn more). The lead guitar player used to play with Allison Kraus and is now playing with Patty Loveless… he’s an amazing guitarist! It’s hard to believe his fingers could move so fast, let alone get all the right notes and sound so good.
Since we had two more full days in Nashville, we decided to drive down to Memphis Friday morning (about a 3 ½ hour drive). The drive was fine- probably would have been better if the sun was shining, but the highway was smooth and the scenery was great… lots of trees and rolling hills. We considered driving through Graceland, but since none of us are die-hard Elvis fans, we decided not to take the time. We got lost, I mean turned around on the way to downtown Memphis so spent more time than necessary in the car. I ended up getting the giggles about the whole thing… all three of us are very capable with maps and directions so it was sort of crazy that we were so mixed up. We blamed it on the maps, which were not nearly detailed enough, and bad signage.
In Memphis, we walked along Beale Street, had lunch at BB King’s and then went through the Rock & Soul Museum where we learned about the history of country/rock/soul music and the roll of music in Memphis during the mid 1900s. So interesting! On the way out of town, we drove through Rhodes College, which has a beautiful campus.
By the time we got back to Nashville, it was after 9pm so we parked the car and pretty much headed right for Music Row again. Being a Friday night, the bars were much more crowded than the night before, but we wandered through a few, stopping where we could find an empty table. One of the places was a karaoke bar- we went there in the hopes of hearing some people belting out some good country music, but it was like any other karaoke bar with some good and some not-so-great singers singing the typical songs. Andy was hit on (big surprise) by a woman from Wisconsin who claimed to have had a conversation with him before, but apparently she was confused, or just had a good pick-up line. After that, we wandered back to Robert’s- this time after 10pm so there was a different band (the Don Kelley Band only played until 10pm). Would you believe we sat there until after 2am?! We met the president of the AHL LA King’s, Andy had his picture taken with the waitress (who used to spend her summers in Delano with family), he also made a new friend with a guy from Nashville who bought him a beer, a shot and put $20 in the tip jug for the band. Somehow they bonded over their shared annoyance with some drunk guy hanging out by our table. No complaints from Andy.
Needless to say, all three of us slept well that night.
Saturday we hit the road again, this time heading straight south for Lynchburg, TN. We stopped at the Cracker Barrel for a heavy breakfast including biscuits & gravy, grits and eggs. The scenery on this drive was breath-taking! More rolling hills, cows grazing and large houses on the hillside.
Lynchburg itself is a teeny little town with a surprisingly cute and historic downtown. After wandering through a few souvenir shops, we headed over to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery for a tour. Our tour guide, Marge, had the thickest southern accent and wasn’t about to take any guff from any of us. She was entertaining, to say the least. When Jack Daniel was 13 he bought the distillery from his family friend who decided to devote his time to being a preacher. Interestingly enough, the distillery is in a dry county, so even though they can sell whiskey at the distillery (the only place alcohol can be sold in the county) we couldn’t have a sample of the whiskey at the end of the tour.
On the way home, we got lost again trying to find Opryland, drove through Opryland and stopped for dinner at the Santa Fe Cattle Company. Once back in Nashville, we parked closer to downtown and went for one more round of Music Row. This time we stopped at a place called the Second Fiddle where dad quickly made friends with a young guy from Huntsville and we listened to a woman sing country music. And guess where we ended the night. Robert’s. It was the perfect place to end our weekend, as Dad was lovin’ the old country music.
The lifestyle of the musician is hard to imagine- they perform at least 4 nights a week, playing the same music for different crowds, passing the same tip bucket around. It was interesting to see musicians from different bars interacting with one another… I’m sure there’s a little sub-culture of Music Row musicians.
There are hundreds of cities we could have traveled to this weekend, but we made the right decision choosing Nashville. All three of us love the toe-tappin’ country music, but I think Dad got the biggest kick out of it, which was the ultimate goal of the weekend. The city itself is nothing special, but the fact that you can walk into any hole-in-the-wall bar and hear amazing live music is pretty great.
