September 17, 2008 – September 19, 2008
Contrary to any misconceptions, Tennessee is a fascinating state with great cities, parks, music, and people. After thoroughly enjoying our time at Natchez Trace, we hitched it on up to Nashville. We took an exit that stated “Visitor Center” with the false hope this meant there would be a visitor center. After an unsuccessfully search, we decided to high-tail it to a hotel to get ready for an impending visitor. With merely two hours notice of our descent upon the country music capitol of the world, D-Bird agreed to meet us at our hotel and then take us out and show us the Nashville scene. D-Bird, aka Daniel, is a great friend from our not-so-long-ago Ithaca days. He now has a high-paying, super-awesome, ultra-flashy post-production job at one of the most famous and influential music recording studios in town and the world. Extremely impressive. And after a long day at work perfecting those platinum golds, he was gracious enough to take us out and about. But not before making a fuss over the beautiful red moon that was out that night.
This place had two perks: live music and the best cheese sauce we ever tasted.
D-Bird was full of really good things to say about the first place he was taking us. It only slightly discredited him when there was no live music playing there that night and we went down the block to another bar. After the boys enjoyed a nice brewskie and Caitlin convinced the waitress to let her box up her remaining cheese fries, we moved on to our second musical destination of the night.
The second place quickly become our favorite. The main drag in Nashville is Broadway Ave, and The Stage on Broadway is a cover band’s haven. It was a Wednesday night, but they had a, literally, rockin’ band. We were expecting to see a bunch of guys in cowboy boots playing Garth Brooks covers, but instead got…well, they were a bunch of guys in cowboy boots playing Garth Brooks covers, but they were also a bunch of guys in tight jeans and studded belts playing Greenday covers. Huh. Out of the five member band, the most animated was the lead singer, center, above. He danced and bounced and swung and sung and poured more passion into the songs than the originators. The bass player, on the other hand, just stood there looking uninterested.
Old friends, new cities. How poetic.
New city, same old freakazoid Andy smile. The Stage, as Andy pointed out, was a sausage fest. There was a group celebrating a very drunk man’s birthday and just watching the interactions between all those people was entertainment enough. They were over the ledge, to the left. Their dancing-mating rituals were not for the faint of heart. Alas, if only the video would load.
Broadway. That electric green sign across the street signifies a super exclusive bar for only the fancy pants of Nashville. Patrons pay a flat fee every year and then you get all your drinks for free. D-Bird’s boss frequents there. His boss also frequents the recording studio in which he works. But not at night! Which means some of us got a super exclusive tour of a super exclusive recording studio. AND we got to listen to some music on the most perfectly set up speakers. Too bad it was too exclusive to photograph.
And, now, for our inter-post pictorial political message of the day!
Nashville really knows how to DRIVE home a point.
Now back to our regular programming…
OMG! Buildings! Nashville has them, too! But in all seriousness, Nashville has some very interesting architecture. It has the the rustic Broadway buildings which are two to three floors high and all connected to each other, framed by tall, glass buildings in the background. We really got to see the glistening of the city the next day when we explored it in the light without our very own tourguide.
We found a water fountain all by ourselves!!
This is a famous place: The Something Symphony Center. And you have to pay money to film it for commercial use. Luckily, we can’t do anything with our footage, so that won’t be a problem for us. Also, take notice of what security of fancy something symphony centers look like. CIA?…maybe he’s confused and thinks it’s actually the Lincoln Memorial.
No, no, this is not an alien spaceship. It’s the Country Music Hall of Fame!
There are rumors going around that that camera is actually just a prop. That angel would be inclined to disagree.
The Sommet Center. We were sitting in a restaurant/bar across the street and were asking about happy hour specials. The waitress informed us that there weren’t any that day because the Eagles were playing that night. We didn’t really understand what that meant. Turns out it meant that the Eagles were playing that night. At the Sommet Center. Across the street. The Eagles – the band.
There’s The Stage on the right, and above that is Tom Cruise’s new legacy. They don’t lack for charismatic electric signs.
The grandeur of Broadway with the towering grace of modern architecture. The streets of Nashville are constantly filled with music. Any vagrant with a mandolin or banjo can claim a corner and play until they have enough money to get their VW minibus to the next town.
Some call it The Coliseum. Some call it the LP Field. Others call it the Home of the Tennessee Titans. We just call it a nice photo opportunity. But to get to it we had to stroll through hobo-town. Unfortunately we only took video of the 1800s style compound, but surrounding it was every hobo in Nashville. Like every other human being, they like the waterfront.
Because we couldn’t film the hobos, we photographed this little gem on the horizon.
The Shelby Street Bridge and lots of flags.
Suddenly, the daylight disappeared and it was night! Formerly the Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman Auditorium, was abandoned and then restored years later to become one of the premier performance halls in Nashville. There were lots of fancy people coming to see a show that night.
If you want to picture Nashville, imagine that someone took Memphis, sent it through a car wash, laminated it, and planted the Country Music Television tower in the middle. It’s got all of the music of Memphis, but none of the soul or style. Unless you count cowboy boots, cowboy boots, and cowboy boots as style.
Nashville at Night. We went back to The Stage on our second night there, but we were too early for the really good performers, so we decided to walk around some more. That’s when we ended up at the Sommet Center and learned about those darn Eagles. The fact became increasingly clear when three mid-aged women came stumbling out complaining to their limo driver about the people who were sitting in front of them. Apparently, the women were loudly enjoying themselves and the people in front of them thought it should be a quiet performance, so the women left early. Quiet (or subtle) was not their specialty.
The Eagles inspired Andy to channel The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, because that makes sense. If only the video would upload.
The next day, we were ready to move on to Kentucky, but first we had to stock up on some shiny camping plates. So we found the ever elusive Bass Pro Shop. It’s one of the most impressive stores we have ever seen. It was probably the one place in Nashville that we spent the most time. There were aisles of camping supplies, rows and rows of shoes, and giant, mind-numbing closets of clothing, not to mention a shooting game and tons of dead, stuffed animals. After making friends with all of the employees, we started back on our journey north, but were quickly sidetracked by the Grand Ole Opry which just so happened to be right around the corner. But we didn’t know that so we drove all around the area to find it.
All around the country are nice people who are willing to take pictures of complete strangers just out of the goodness of their hearts.
This is the cover of our pending country cd. Hardcore, we know.
Up next: We learn the difference between spelunking and caving!
