It's hard to believe that the six months have flown by; this will be our last travel post (although we will post one more kind of summarizing everything). We ended our adventure in Nashville, also known as the "Music City". Health Care may be the biggest industry in Nashville these days, but music, including songwriting, publishing, and recording, has to be a close second. It was a great place to end our trip; Nashville has great history, great food, and, most of all, great music!
We started off with a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Neither of us are big country music fans, but we still had a great time there; it is a huge repository of information, artifacts, and, of course, music! There were also a couple of special exhibits while we were there one on Chet Atkins, CGP (a title he created for himself, it stands for "certified guitar player") and another, very moving and sad, exhibit about the Hank Williams family.Some pictures will best describe the museum:
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| Some of Chet's Instruments |
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| Guess who's costume this is! |
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| Hat worn by Bob Willis at his last recording session (if you like Texas Swing you know who he is!) |
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| Guess who owned these blue suede shoes |
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| Tricked out car owned by Web Pierce, he had the upholstery lined with silver dollars and there is a silver rifle mounted on the back |
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| Display Case of Hank Williams Artifacts |
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| boots boots boots |
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| Hall of Fame Room |
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Johnny Cash Plaque in the Hall of Fame
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Gotta love the costumes!
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A side tour available from the Museum is a trip to fabled RCA Studio B, the place where 1,000 hits were recorded. Elvis alone recorded over 150 songs there, more than he recorded anywhere else. In fact, when he left Sun for RCA this is where he came; eventually RCA built a special studio for him (which they named "Studio A", thus this studio becoming "Studio B") but Elvis preferred Studio B and continued recording there. A few of the other artists that recorded hits there included Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins CGP, Willie Nelson, the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison.
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| Everything was the way it was- original floor, original walls, and the piano has been there from the beginning |
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| Colored "mood" lights- Elvis would make them red when he was recording something "hot" and green when he was recording something "cool" |
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| tour guide playing snippets of some of the hits; she turns off the lights completely and plays Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight"; you can almost see him singing it in the dark studio |
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| Playing the same piano tickled by many of the greats including Elvis himself |
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| How to get from the Hall of Fame to Studio B |
We spent a lot of time walking around several neighborhoods in Nashville- downtown, midtown, the Gulch, and Music Row.
Downtown was especially interesting and fun. The area had its heyday while the Ryman Auditorium (which we will discuss later) was hosting the Grand Ole Opry. When the Opry moved to its new location just outside of Nashville, the area took a turn for the worse; when the Ryman reopened as a general performance theater in the 90s the area began to renew; now there is a thriving nightlife along Braodway and spilling onto adjoining streets and areas.
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Looking down Broadway at Night
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| Some cities paint cows, or tigers; in Nashville it's guitars |
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| Elvis on Wheels; the statue seems to wind up in front of different stores all day and night |
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| When in Nashville........ |
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| Historic Hatch Show Print; a letter block print shop in continuous business since 1875; the posters are great and when they are printing the smell is fantastic! |
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| Lotsa boot stores! |
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| view of the river from downtown |
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| Ernest Tubbs- an iconic record store |
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| inside Ernest Tubbs |
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| Ruth outside the Wildhorse Saloon; we somehow didn't find time for the line dancing inside- next trip! |
Lots of music on Broadway at night- and actually all day long too!
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| this place had hundreds of license plates hanging on the ceiling |
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| We couldn't get close enough to the stage to actually see this guy but they had monitors set up; he was playing "Great Balls of Fire" (also seems to be a requirement of bar bands) and was jumping on the piano, hanging from the pipes in the ceiling and playing upside down, and generally earning his tips |
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| Inside of Iconic Tootsies- right across from the Ryman; performers would walk across the street during intermission, through a back alley, and have a couple of drinks before the second half of their show. |
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| Some of the wall memorabilia at Tootsies |
There are many beautiful buildings in the downtown area
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| Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School; been operating in one form or another since 1855; Dinah Shore went there and Bettie Page, the pinup queen, graduated second in her class in 1940 |
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| Union Station Hotel in Nashville- a restored railway station. We stayed there during our second visit at the end of the trip |
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| Inside the Union Station- it's set up for a wedding |
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| Hermitage Hotel; the nicest hotel in Nashville |
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| inside the Hermitage |
We also spent a serene Sunday late morning at Centennial Park, Nashville's great urban park. There is a replica of the Parthenon there, left over from Nashville's 1897 Centennial celebration. It now serves as the City's art museum.
The park is filled with ponds and artificial canals; we had a very relaxing hour sitting on the benches, looking at the ducks, and listening to someone practice a french horn across the way.
We went to a few other great areas of the City:
Music Row, where many recording companies and other music related business have offices:
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| This statue, Musica, was part of a 2003 urban renewal of the area; its nudity makes it controversial and we were told that the figures are actually clothed for certain events |
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| Not nearly as controversial is Owen Bradley park with a statue of Owen Bradley sitting at his piano |
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| We loved the microphone/bike rack |
The Gulch, a relatively new urban renewal area
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| How bad can a store called "Two Old Hippies" be? Actually although it was closed when we were there it looked like it had really cool stuff inside |
And, finally, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, which everyone should see (at least once) for its sheer size and indoor garden areas
We had a ball in Nashville, but we haven't yet discussed the best two parts-the Grand Ole Opry and reuniting with old friends.
First, the Opry- we went twice- on Tuesday and then again when we came back in town.
The Opry has operated continuously since the 20s; it was located in several different places but in 1943 moved to the Ryman Auditorium, which was formerly a Tabernacle Church (it has church pews for seats as a reminder of its origins!). The Opry stayed at the Ryman until 1974 when it moved outside of Nashville to the Opryland Hotel area. After sitting vacant for years, the Ryman was renovated and reopened in 1994 following a series of concerts held there by Emmylou Harris. It's known as the "Mother Church of Country Music". The Ryman is one of the iconic auditoriums for music; kind of like going to Preservation Hall.
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| The Ryman |
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| Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff inside the Ryman |
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| View from the back of the main floor; that's a Minnie Pearl Impersonator warming up the audience |
We were very very lucky in that the Opry theater actually has a Christmas pageant during the Christmas season, so they move the Opry back to the Ryman in December; we were able to attend two performances of the Opry actually at the Ryman!
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| Minnie warming up the crowd on Saturday Night |
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| Little Jimmie Dickens-90 years old and a stitch ["my wife said come upstairs and lets make love- I told her I could do one or the other"; "I took one of them blue pills but had trouble swallowing; I've had a stiff neck for four hours" ]; when we got home we found out his big song is called "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" |
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| Bobby Osborne doing his hit song, "Rocky Top". Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that is a zoot suit he is wearing |
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| Keb Mo- got a great response from the audience and put on a great set |
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| The Grand Ole Opry square dancers-they were a lot of fun to watch, but since the Opry is at heart a radio show.......... |
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| The Civl Wars with Emmylou Harris; it would have been worth coming back a second time to the Opry just to see them |
The Opry was great; but the greatest thing we did in Nashville was visit with dear old friends. Our friends Bruce and Marsha Brand moved down there several years ago, and we were able to spend some time with them; we had dinner with Bruce and Marsha our first night in Nashville, and they were gracious enough to give us the grand tour of the city; unfortunately Alan forgot to take a picture so we don't have one of Bruce, but on the last night of our trip, Marsha joined us when we went to the best little music venue in Nashville, the Blue Bird Cafe.
The Blue Bird isn't located in downtown Nashville, or on Music row, or in the Gulch or midtown, but in a strip mall in the middle of a suburban neighborhood with the area's biggest mall across the street. It's very small; you need to line up early to get in; but the Blue Bird features the best singer songwriters, both established and upcoming, in Nashville. We were there Sunday night, and it was upcoming singer/songwriter night. We lined up very early, and met the couple behind us in line; it turns out that they were the parents of singer Vanessa Oliverez, who now sings in Granville Automatic, the band that opened the show. We had a delightful conversation with them, and Vanessa did not disappoint:
After her performance, Vanessa came over to us and we had a chance to talk; she was as delightful as her parents and she posed with Marsha and Ruth:
After Granville Automatic, the Cafe opened the stage to 10 singer/songwriters who had auditioned earlier and had been invited back to perform. All of them were very talented; clearly Nashville is the place to be if you are a singer songwriter. The second performers, Gimm and Icky, were a duo; one of the guys (the guitar player Jeff) was from Grand Haven, Michigan, and we greatly enjoyed them- in fact here is a link to a video of them taken the night we were there; if you listen closely you can hear us laughing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RfRufjG68E
So, that was Nashville; and that was the conclusion of our wonderful 6 months of traveling. We had a ball and have a treasure trove of memories that will be with us forever. We'll do one more post to kind of wrap everything up but for now, we'd like to thank everyone who has been reading this blog and following us; we are blessed with great family and friends.
Last up: Memories and Dreams!
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