On my travels to Nashville, TN
I don't think I ever would have chosen to travel to Tennessee by myself, certainly not for a first experience of the USA (my heart still longs for New York or California). However, due to the fact I have been blessed with some amazing friends (honestly, get some friends guys) then I was invited to their wedding in Nashville.
I'm awful at keeping a travelogue or diary so instead I wanted to write up some of my highlights and thoughts about the place.
Wedding
Let's start with the reason I was there at all. The wedding. I am a perpetually single, awkward middle aged man who lives with his cat. Celebrating everlasting love can be tricky, but I love celebrating anything. This was a brilliant day and I got to wear a tuxedo for the second time of my life. I think being abroad and surrounded by extremely positive Americans who all loved Disney also helped. Oh and there was a free bar. The free bar was great.
The wedding was at the Bode Hotel and there had been worries of thunderstorms and torrential rain but the day passed without incident and actually the cooler weather was a godsend compared to the heat of the rest of the holiday. Did I mention the free bar? I already mentioned the free bar.
Music City
Now, there's two things that you're gonna find out
They don't love you and they only love you right now
If I was smarter, I'da stayed my ass at home
And leave them Broadway girls alone
Nashville revolves around country music. It has a brand, it has a theme, and that theme is pushed at you in a number of ways, some more successful that others. Broadway is a mecca for hen parties and tourists and country bros and multi-generational families. Cowboy boots strut down the street while live music plays out of every open door and window from 11am to 3am, a cacophony of honky-tonk. Party buses (of which I did partake) pump out tunes as people dance and drink all day and night. If Dolly Parton or Jonny Cash had been born in Blackpool you can get a sense of what a UK version would be like.
But Blackpool this is not. The live music was consistently great. These are polished, talented musicians playing music day in and day out. These are not pub function bands. I imagine Broadway is one of the best places in the world to earn a living as a musician, and it's a well trodden path to stardom.
We made various trips down Broadway to places like Category 10, Morgan Wallen's and even Bon Jovi's own place who had great rooftop views. All these places are massive, multi-floor venues and they all offer essentially the same thing. Lots of booze soundtracked by the best cover bands you've heard with a Country slant. This is one side of Nashville that is very USA. It's a hustle, it designed to part you with money. There's very little soul in anything that's happening. But it is fun. It's great fun. There is heart in this music but you won't find it on Broadway.
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, Lord, by and by?
There's a better home awaiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
The Country Music Hall of Fame is a superb attraction, with an amazing amount of artefacts and information and history. It's here and the Ole Oprey that this music actually means something, that it is a vehicle for connection among people and a lifestyle. Even if that is almost exclusively white.
All the big hitters are there. Dolly, Jonny, Hank, Taylor. The outfits, the guitars, the cars. I had no idea who Lainey Wilson was and assumed her exhibition was a shrine after an early death - but no, she's alive and well and very successful.
Off-Broadway
Sports
Nashville is a truly modern American city. It has an NFL team (Titans), an NHL team (Predators) and an MLS team (Nashville SC) with a potential MLB (Stars) franchise on the way.
I saw the football team (I refuse to call it soccer) on my last night in Nashville and it was a very American experience. It was Star Wars themed for a start, I got a branded light sabre and the mascot had to choose between the light and the dark side. None of this makes sense in the UK. However it felt completely right in that stadium, which was full of multi-generational families. This is entertainment first with sport as the vehicle for taking your money. Nashville won 4-2 and I didn't hear anyone call the referee a wanker or a nonce.
After the game getting an Uber was impossible so I ended up singing karaoke at Santa's Bar which was an absolute hoot and a great post-match decision even though I sang Hey Jude on my own and not very well. Also, America, please, I beg you, get some decent public transport in your cities.
Culture
One of the days, to get a break from all the sounds and selling, I wandered to the Frist Art Museum which was a nice change of pace. There were only two exhibitions but both worth seeing. The first was a selection of local female artists and the second a selection of works from the impressionists include Van Gogh and Monet.
Recommendations
A few recommendations that are in no way an expert's opinion:
Stay
- Bode Hotel
- The Gallatin
To-Do
- Country Music Hall of Fame
- Fatherland District (A cluster of brilliant independent shops in the heart of East Nashville's 5 Points area)
- Frist Art Museum
- Nashville SC at GEODIS Park
- Parthenon, Centennial Park (A full-size replica of the Athenian Parthenon in the middle of Nashville, for reasons unknown.)
- Vanderbilt University Campus
Drinks/Dancing
- Bon Jovi Bar
- Bottle Cap
- Category 10
- Fleet Street Pub
- Morgan Wallen's
- Rowdy Party Bus
- Santa's Bar
- Whiskey River
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