Tennessee: Nashville to Memphis

7/1-7/11:

After A couple of days in the woods it was time to head to Nashville. As a musician this was a place I knew I needed to explore so after checking into my Airbnb and headed straight toward Broadway. Broadway is the main drag in downtown Nashville upon which an obscene number of bars and restaurants line the sidewalks with bands playing from the early morn and deep into the night. The first thing that I did however was go to a Museum. The Johnny Cash Museum to be precise. This storefront exhibit holds a plethora of artifacts and information on the Man In Black. If you are a fan of his or Music in general I highly recommend checking it out.

The next day I visited the Musicians Hall of Fame. A Museum that I had not heard of, but found incredibly educational and interesting. It takes the history of America’s most important studio musicians and major recording artists displayed by both time line and region they called home. It also includes shrines to some of the major studios that made the Music business what it is today. Two exhibits that really stood out were the Jimi Hendrix room which puts the MOPOP in Seattle’s to shame in way of style and Brian Ahern’s Enactron recording studio trailer. built in the 1970’s the Enactron was the first professional mobile recording studio and in it audio engineer Brian Ahern recorded albums for artists ranging from Black Sabbath to Willie Nelson. This is a true piece of Audio history and for a sound nerd it’s an amazing site.

At Night I explored music scene around the city in the same way you do with any major city…. I went to Bars. I’m going to give you my dear reader a warning. Broadway in Nashville is INSANE. As the current Bridal Party Capitol of the US the streets are teaming with people from all over the middle of the country down to get rowdy. Approximately 4 blocks in length this stretch of road is lined with bar after bar each with their own band if not 3 at the same time. I’m not a drummer, but I could not imagine trying to keep time with another drummer separating us by a few inches of wall combined with the cacophony of the people. It’s impressive. Even more Impressive is the broad array of genres you' might here as you explore. One moment you’ll hear some outlaw country and then next you’ll be rocking out to sum 41. It’s a lot to take in, but worth a visit. Just remember that you are in the most touristy of areas in the city and drinks are going to cost you.

Broadway can easily get to be too much for people even me. So expect that to be a possibility on the first day I was in town I asked a bartender on broadway a question I often ask in new cities: “where do the locals hang out?”. She instantly told me East Nashville. So I headed out there one night to check it out. Not as happening as it might be prior to the pandemic I was able to find two really cool bars I suggest you check out if you are in town. 1) The Inglewood lounge. This small hipster dive has a craft cocktail menu to die for and a mellow experiment lounge rock back that I really enjoyed. 2) The Underdog. This unassuming Honky Tonk offers cheap bar and good live country music. With two steppers and a pool table to boot. The general crowd of East Nashville seemed to range from late 20’s to mid 40’s so my old ass fit right in, minus the vans I was wearing on my feet.

Since I was in Nashville I had to play some music. So I checked out a couple of open mics. The one I enjoyed most was at the Commodore Grille. This open mic is what’s called a Songwriters Round. A staple of the Austin Musician Community, Song Writer rounds are nights of all original music in which a group of 3 pre booked songwriters will take turn playing songs. Then another group and then another. At the end of the night is an open portion in which people can sign up to play a song in hopes of being asked to the booked rounds in the future. I was just there to play for funsies but was incredibly surprised and proud to receive an invitation in the future. I hope to one day soon make it back to Nashiville and participate. The last note on the open mic scene in Nashville I would like to make is that while it is a highly competitive space people are really genuinely kind, respectful and amazing talented out there. If you are a musician you should definitely go.

My final stop in Nashville was a drive out to the Grand Ole’ Oprey. While I did not go inside or see a show, simply walking through it’s courtyard filled me with a sense of history. I certainly will be making a journey back to Nashville and I will definitely be booking tickets to experience this temple to music a head of time.

After a few days in the big city I headed out to the much more rural area of Jackson Tennessee to visit a musician friend who had moved back during Covid. He was working when I arrived early in the day so I headed out to explore Jackson. In my search I found two attractions that I felt I had to check out. The first Was the Casey Jones home & Railroad Museum. A cultural icon personified for years in song, Casey Jones was an actual real life train conductor who ran his train engine off the tracks to avoid a collision and sacrificed his own life while saving everyone else on board. So, naturally the small town of Jackson has created a museum about him next to what was his house. I have to say that the story and the experience of seeing an old house are great. The smattering of Casey Jones Memorabilia, train wreck dioramas and general train stuff is somewhat interesting. What really kind of caught my eye though was the Railroads and Civil War portion of this museum. Essentially consisting of a wall sized time-line, this exhibit seeks to explain the prominence of Jackson as a Railroad hub between the north and south of the country and it’s battle history during the Civil War. What I found interesting was that the story being told seemed to infer that it was invaded and commandeered by the northern troops and commemorate the multiple southern generals who tried to take it back. Including the story of one who damn near burned the entire place to the ground Appomattox style. I get that I’m have more of a Yankee sentimentality , but when it comes to people burning down my town just because they can’t win a fight, I might not be so kind them in the history books. But that’s just me. I also admit that my reading of the exhibit most likely comes from a place of slight prejudice, but I don’t know how uncommon that is in the area so why not share my opinions.

The next stop was Rusty’s Museum of Tv and Movie Cars. A collection of automobiles that would ignite the fire of nostalgia in any child of the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s. The exhibit consists of both screen used vehicles and reproductions with a little bit of clarity of which is which. But I will say that the reproductions, many of which done by Rusty himself as I would learn, were very well done. I enjoy getting a look at Kit, the A-Team Van and Uncle Eddie’s RV. Rusty also has a small exhibit of Movie props including a copy of the Sport Almenac and the Guide to the Deceased. It was fun. However I will say that the most interesting part was when Rusty gave me my first warning about Memphis. Or in his words “Mempho”.

After my cultural exploration of Jackson I needed to find some grub so I headed out to a pizza place that google so Graciously found for me. Rock’n Dough Pizza was awesome. There is nothing better than great food and great beer when you are alone in a city. The staff was engaging, fun and diverse, which is a plus in the rural south. They offered beignets which are one of my favorite desserts, but I will warn you the order is large so be ready to take some home with you if you don’t have a whole contingency of powered cover dough lovers by your side. It was here that my friend Caleb met me. It was great to see him after nearly a year and to catch up. He drove us out the his families land where he was now living in his Grandmothers old home. It was roomy and he had set up a musicians playground that kept us jamming into the night.

The next day he took me on a tour of his Toonie the town where he lived. He introduced my to the Kudzu Vines that had invaded the area growing over the landscape and changing it to an odd otherworldly environment blob like greenery that resembled a magic I poster. He showed me the bomb factory and passed the combination police/fire station along with the city hall that seemed more like a ranch home from Pasadena. As a coastal city boy it’s always fascinating to see the way small town life rolls along. Later that night we went to the bowling alley and had a great time knocking down pins followed by a trip to the bar. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this, but I love a good dive. I will say that it is rare that I walk into any that prominently display the confederate flag, proclaiming that “the south shall rise again”. But Caleb assured me that the people were fine and he was right. I had several discussions most of which started off with the gem of “you aren’t from around here are you?” but continued into perfectly fine conversations. The second questions was often “So, What have you seen in town?” and upon hearing that I had visited the Casey Jones Museum, Rusty’s cars and the bowling alley the all let me know that I had in fact seen everything there was to see. The final part of most chats ended with me telling them my next stop and just like Rusty they were more then happy to let me know I should watch out. This recurring theme was something that certainly had me curious about what I might find in Tennessee’s only other city.

The next day I said farewell to Caleb and headed to Memphis. I was staying in an airbnb that seemed to straddle the tracks one might say. The first night in town I headed to an open mic I had found and had a great time. A near empty bar with a pool table and me trading off 45 minutes sets with the host is always a great experience, I don’t care who you are. It was here that I got what was thankfully my last warning. A white guy in his 20’s offered asked to play a game of pool and I of course obliged as I had been playing by myself for like an hour. He was an aspiring musician and appreciated my playing. Eventually he did what everyone in Jackson seemed compelled to do, warn me about Memphis. “You gotta be careful, I mean they’ll steal the wheels off your car right outside this bar”. It was at this point that I nearly asked the question I’d been dying to ask… “who is they?”. I might be a little sensitive to things, but it seems to me that every good Samaritan sharing advice was white and based on the demographics I’d seen so far it was most likely the black population I was to be warry of. And in my mind I automatically went to my first instinct of let’s have a discussion. Of wanting to know who are the “they” everyone was warning me about. Was it the black guy potentially robbing me due to hard circumstances brought on by centuries of systemic racism, disenfranchisement and displacement or the bars flying confederate flags that might not allow me look unkind upon my entrance and possible not allow my exit. I didn’t ask the question and you know what I really am mad at myself for not doing so. Instead I thanked the guy for the game and headed home.

The next day a friend from Chicago was flying in to hang out with me and I spend the whole day waiting on her incredibly delayed flight. While it was not my ideal situation for enjoying a new city I will admit that it was nice to just rest and gave me a chance to start the show lillyhammer. With Laura along to break the monotony of solo travel we explored the city for accouple of days. We went and saw the host of the open mic play at a fun pirate bar called “The Cove” in midtown who’s bar was shaped like a ship. We had drinks at Beal Street the home of Blues in America. We went to the Museum of metal which is dedicated the art of metal work. A really interesting place for sculpture lovers and metal aficionados. But I think the thing that Laura like the most was or visit to the Peabody hotel. The Peabody is simply a fancy hotel in Downtown Memphis, but the draw is apparently a group of ducks that are paraded through the lobby by an employee dubbed the prestigious title of duck master to spend the day in the large fountain located in the lobby. They are then escorted back to their multi million dollar penthouse duck coupe on the roof. It’s cute to watch children be amazed by ducks inside a building, but I think the best part of this eccentric tradition is that it was started by a drunken prank by a hotel manager decades ago. People are fascinating. My favorite part of Memphis has to be the visit to Gus’s World Famous Chicken. I try not to go to heavily into every single meal I ate along the way in this thing, but MY GOD this was hand’s down the best friend chicken I have ever had in my life. Go there, end of story.

There are plenty of places I should have gone and things I should have seen in Memphis, but after dropping Laura off at the airport and spending a few hours lounging, I came upon the surprising fact that I was supposed to have checked out that day had arrive in New Orleans. So there was not choice but to bit farewell to the land of the blues and race to kingdom of Jazz…..