For once I’m not going to talk about the food. We planned this road trip to Nashville even though
we’re not really country music fans. We’re
big fans of music in general though. The
impetus behind this trip was an Arcade Fire concert. We wanted to see the band and they were
playing in Toronto and Detroit, each about two hours away from home, but since
the concerts were on weeknights we’d have to take a couple of days off work to
drive to the concert in time and then stay overnight and get home. So we figured if we’re going to take time off
work, let’s go somewhere fun! We’d
wanted to check out Nashville for a while because we’d heard
it was a great city to visit. So it
seemed like the perfect place to check out a band we like, and see a bunch of
other music too.
Nashville has fantastic food, great shopping and attractions
but the best, most unique thing about Nashville is the honky-tonks. In Nashville, a honky-tonk is a bar that has
live music all the time. There is no
cover charge and the musicians don’t get paid so they pass around a tip
jar. I’d read all about the honky-tonks
in planning our trip but I wasn’t prepared for the amazing quality of the music
and the fact that it cost practically nothing.
On our first night in town we visited Robert’s Western World. I’d read this place was popular with locals
and not too touristy so that’s why I picked it.
Well, it was full of tourists – the people at the next table lived an
hour away from us – but it was still our best experience of the trip. When we walked in at around 7pm the place was
packed but we were able to sit at a table right up front. A female singer was singing an old country ballad
and an old couple was dancing the two-step.
Between the amazing music and the couple who had obviously spent many
years dancing together, we both had a tear in our eye. It was wonderful.
The band, we found
out later, was Rachael
Hester and the Tennessee Walkers.
Rachael sings and plays guitar and her dad’s on the fiddle. They also had an incredible guitarist whose
name we didn’t catch, a stand-up bassist and a drummer. These were some of the best professional
musicians we’d ever heard and they were playing for free! Of course, when the tip jar was passed
around, we showed our appreciation. The
band played mainly traditional country music, which we loved, and a few
originals too. They played for four
hours straight, with only occasional breaks where a couple of musicians would
grab a smoke or a drink and the rest would keep playing. Once their time was up, another band took the
stage right away. This time it was a rockabilly
band who were talented and energetic, but a little more showy than Rachael’s
band. We stayed a while longer. We had many, many drinks and some
cheeseburgers and our bill was laughably cheap.
We headed back to our hotel after a perfect first night in Nashville.
The next day we went to Third Man Records, Jack
White’s record store in The Gulch area of Nashville. The shop is really neat. Lots of vinyl
records and trinkets, plus a recording booth where some young musicians were
recording a song! It is a neat place to
visit.
Tonight we went to Layla’s Bluegrass Inn on Broadway
for some more great bands. After a while
we walked out onto the street and just popped in and out of bars when the music
tempted us. We heard some girls singing
TLC’s Waterfalls and ran in but unfortunately they were just finishing their
set of current hits sung in a country style.
We really enjoyed popping in to the honky-tonks and hearing so many
different bands. Several of them used the pedal steel, an instrument we'd never seen before, a kind of slide guitar. The talent on display was so impressive everywhere.
The next day we visited the Johnny Cash museum, a newer attraction
in Nashville. It is small but very well
set up with tons of pictures, costumes and videos from his long career. One of the first exhibits was stations with
headphones to listen to music from each decade of his career.
We spent about an hour in the museum, then
popped back over to Broadway to see it in the daytime. We were shocked to find out the honky-tonks
are open in the daytime too! This is the
time when kids and families are welcome.
It wasn’t as busy as the night before, but the musicians were just as
talented. So, there's free live music from 11am until
2am every day. You can’t beat that!
That night was the Arcade Fire concert and our last night in
Nashville. There are tons of fantastic
restaurants in Nashville but we decided to forgo fine dining in favour of
another session at Robert’s Western World.
We had $5 cheeseburgers again and some drinks before our concert at the
arena across the street. I’m so glad we
returned here because we saw the most amazing guitarist we’ve ever heard and he
was only 19 years old! His name is Daniel Donato. I think he’ll have big success in the future.
Our concert at the Bridgestone arena was great. The staff there was so friendly and it was a
great venue. People couldn’t believe we’d
come all the way from Canada to see Arcade Fire, but it was well worth it to
see all the great musicians in Nashville.
