Almanac Travel: Col’s USA Trip – Nashville Tennessee

 

 

Nashville Skyline

 

Magnificent weather in Nashville, just about perfect – blue, sunny skies, hardly a breath of wind and a relatively mild humidity.

 

As I see and discover more of this wonderful city, I understand why it appeals to so many people. It is an exciting and vibrant place, full of life and colour, and has a nice, inviting feel about it.

 

 

It is also a rapidly expanding city with construction occurring everywhere you look, mainly highrise apartment buildings to meet the demand for housing from the new arrivals flooding to the city.  The pleasant climate appears to be a contributing factor, and of course the music.

 

The old and the new

 

The central downtown area is a mixture of old and new. The Broadway precinct incorporates the older area and is a hive of bustling activity.  Crowded with tourists with many bars, honky tonks and souvenir shops spruiking their wares in an effort to extract a tourist dollar or two from the punters. The majority of people in this area are either in their 20s -40s, usually in pairs, then there is the older demographic of senior citizens many a part of tourist groups. Children are rarely seen in the Broadway touristy area , except for a few babies in arms with parents,  a juvenile curfew in  place  over the summer period may also account for this.

 

Broadway – main tourist strip with bars and honky tonks

 

Broadway

 

 

Every bar has a band playing. There is an incredible cacophony of loud sounds as each bar competes with one another for the public’s attention, hopefully to draw them into their establishments, and of course to extract their dollar.  Generally, all the well-known old standards, both new and old, are played. I’ve refrained from entering these bars but from what I hear from the street, the quality of the playing is very good.  This all starts happening from  9am onwards and gets louder as the day progresses.

 

Within this precinct there are numerous music related museums. You need to pick and choose carefully as they are relatively expensive to enter. I considered visiting maybe three or four over a few hours but with an average entrance fee around U$30 (approx. A$45) I reconsidered my position. I decided on the Johnny Cash Museum as it is considered one of the best in Nashville, and obviously The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is one not to be missed.

 

 

 

 

The Johnny Cash Museum was fantastic, far better than I thought it would be. Obviously Johnny was a hoarder of all things important to him; the displays are full of original artefacts from the various stages of his life and career which I found informative, absorbing and very enlightening. You get completely drawn into Johnny’s world examining and processing all this presented information.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the many suits made by Nudie Cohn

 

 

The CMHOF is overwhelming in its size and content. It is a huge building with exhibits taking up three floors of display, and could easily have accommodated more space. There is so much history related to this music genre that it is virtually impossible to cover every aspect. I suppose the curators have played it safe and incorporated the well-known contributors presenting a more homogenous overview of the music.

 

I would have preferred more detail about some of the earlier and more pivotal influences such as the Carter Family. It is obvious that sponsorship, donations etc are appreciated and repaid with larger display space in the museum for the benefactors. For example Chris Stapleton had a whole display wall to himself. I know he is a huge star in Nashville, but a whole wall whereas Hank Williams only had a tiny fraction compared to CS’s allocation. Money indeed is influential in the land of the free!

 

 

Our week attending the Americana Festival was an incredible experience with so many stand out performances presented by the many artists who performed throughout the week. The one aspect that really stood out in my mind undoubtedly is the quality of the musicianship. Even acts that did not appeal to me, you could not fault the quality of their performances, and the bar is certainly set very high here in Nashville. The line between success and failure in the bigtime is a very fine line indeed.

 

There were so many highlights for me. I really don’t know where to start but undoubtedly the standout for me was The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performing at the Ryman Theatre on the last night of the festival.

 

Waiting for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the Ryman

 

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

 

 

 

These old floor boards at The Grand Ole Opry could tell many a story!

 

Now the NGDB have been around for a long time, their first record was released  in 1967. I have a selection of their albums, and who doesn’t like ‘Mr Bojangles’, a classic song and a great favourite of mine. I expected them to be good but both Brian Wise and myself were completely blown away by their performance, it was an incredible show and we both agreed it was possibly among the best, if not, the best concert we’ve ever seen. That is a big statement from Brian, and one I totally concur with.

 

Their playing was superb, their songs were superb, the sound was crisp and clear, and combined with the atmosphere of the historic Grand Ole Opry the stars were well and truly aligned on the night. And when they played ‘Mr Bojangles’ it was very emotional sending shivers up everyone’s spine, and like Brian and myself, a tear or two was shed. It was that sort of concert. The show was recorded live for television by PBS and will be shown in the USA in March 2023. Look out for it, it is sure to pop up on a platform somewhere.

 

With around sixty odd shows on offer most days made it difficult to pick and choose which ones to attend. As these shows as spread across many venues in Nashville makes it even more difficult particularly if relying on public transport or Ubers to get you there.

 

Milk Carton Kids

 

We attended two concerts on consecutive nights at the Riverside Revival Centre primarily due to the line-ups and the convenience of remaining at the one venue. First night included the subtle and sublime harmonies of The Milk Carton Kids, and along with some fine fingerpicking they had the audience in the palm of the hands. The sound quality was outstanding and without volume encouraged you to listen to their fine lyrics.

 

Asleep At The Wheel

 

Asleep At The Wheel gave a superb performance of their brand of Western type swing. The quality of the playing was outstanding and I reiterate again the noticeability of the musicianship of the players in these top level groups.

 

Brennen Leigh

 

Brennen Leigh reminded me very much of Iris DeMent with her voice and  the lyrical content of her songs. I have Brennen marked down as an act I will follow up further. I was fortunate to meet her during the recording of Brian Wise’s ‘Off The Record’ program at the Sound Stage the next day.

 

James McMurtry

 

James McMurtry with his songs of pain, darkness and hope was excellent. Great voice, and he handles a guitar exceedingly well especially the 12 string he played for most of the songs. If you haven’t check ed him out do so, well worth the effort.

 

Jerry Douglas

 

Jerry Douglas and his band of exceptional players

 

Last act of the night was the legendary Jerry Douglas and his band. They blew everyone away with their performance. Jerry is acknowledged as the top dobro player in America and is always in demand as a session player. He is a virtuoso of his instrument and indeed he clearly demonstrated this with his playing., a musician at the top of his game. His version of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was brilliant and brought the house down. His band were all exceptional players.

 

Brian Wise and Anne McCue recording ‘Off The Record’

 

Australian duo The Weeping Willows

 

Fanny Lumsden and her brother Tom

 

Setting up the studio

 

The Green Room – Brennen Leigh and Willi Carlisle

 

My travelling companion Brian Wise recorded his ‘Off The Record’ program for 3RRR at The Sound Stage Studios here in Nashville with many guests from the Americana Festival performing live in the studio.

 

We returned to the Riverside Revival Centre the following night for more great music. First up we caught Michaela Anne, lovely voice and songs all from the heart and her experiences of life.

 

Tommy McLain

 

C C Adcock

 

 

82 year old Tommy McLain is known for his swamp pop sound and is a Louisiana Hall of Famer, and was ably accompanied by well-known Louisiana player CC Adcock – he toured Australia with Little Band Of Gold a few years back. Tommy has a fantastic deep resonant voice reflected by the songs he sang, it was a terrific performance. Check him out.

 

Josh Rouse

 

Final act on the bill was Josh Rouse.  I was not overly familiar with his music but was pleasantly surprised by his songs and the sound he and the band generated. Very smooth, well crafted songs were performed with precision and the confidence of a very good musician.

 

 

The Drop Kick Murphys

 

Another highlight was a panel session and performance entitled – This Machine Still Kills Fascists: The Drop Kick Murphys’ Latest Collaboration With Woody Guthrie The Drop Kick Murphys were invited by the Woody Guthrie Archives to add music to a selection of the many hundreds of lyrics wriiten by Woody. They showcased some of the songs from their forthcoming album of the songs created. They produced an energetic and uncompromising performance of the songs to an enthusiastic audience.

 

The Americana Music Awards and Honours Night was a brilliant showcase of the music at its very best. A house band led by the incredible Buddy Miller on guitar, with producer extraordinaire Don Was on bass, Brady Blade on drums just to name a few of the incredible players. The sound quality was magnificent. Performances by War and Treaty, Brandi Carlisle, Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Alison Russell, Adia Victoria, Buddy Miller, Fairfield Four, Indigo Girls, James McMurtry, Lucinda Williams, Lukas Nelson, The McCrary Sisters, Morgan Wade, Neal Francis, Phosphorescent, Sierra Ferrell, and The War And Treaty had the audience in raptures. With a stellar line-up of performers, the audience were treated to a night to remember. Rather than spend time writing about the show check the YouTube clip of the entire concert, a full three plus hours but well and truly worth it. Look out for Alison Russell’s performance, superb!

 

 

Our last night in Nashville was dinner watching a performance by legendary Nashville players The Time Jumpers. Ten members of the group played superb renditions of many old and self-written songs reflecting the Texas swing genre, and more. Again, the sound quality was outstanding, obviously leaps and bounds in the advancement of sound technology have been created in recent years to make listening an absolute joy.

 

Next stop will be Tulsa Oklahoma for The Bob Dylan Centre and The Woody Guthrie Centre.