Nashville
We arrived in Nashville on a Tuesday night we had just finished a long day of driving. After seeing both Clarksdale MS and Muscle Shoals AL that same day we decided to have a quiet night in Nashville. We had a classic southern dinner at a diner in East Nashville near to where we were staying.
I always had very high expectations of Nashville since I keep hearing about musicians moving from NYC to Nashville. There is also a massive songwriter community so i knew we would see great music. The city did not disappoint. Our first day we went to a cute cafe in East Nashville called Sky Blue Cafe. We then drove around downtown Nashville. After a short drive we interviewed David Benedict an amazing mandolin player. After the interview we headed to Music City Roots. Thanks to Maddie Gentis and Steve Keller we got put in touch with Craig Havighurst. Craig is a renowned journalist and senior producer for Music City Roots. He was nice enough to invite us to the show and give us an interview before the show started. The show was in Franklin during a snow storm but even with the snow it was a full house. Music City Roots is a variety show featuring different artists and after they perform Craig interviews them. It was exactly what we had been looking for. A place with quality American Roots Music with a unique way of keeping it relevant. The night we went to the show there were five acts Jamey Johnson, Tommy Womack,James House, Lisa Oliver Gray and Jonell Mosser. We were treated as VIP guests they gave us dinner and let us film the concert. It was an wonderful show and it was great to see that projects supporting American Roots Music are alive and well.
The next day we went to a small taco restaurant called Mas Tacos. It was a Mexican fusion style restaurant. After lunch we headed over to Yellow Hammer Studio. We interviewed the studio owner Justin Miller who is a Berklee alum and opened Yellow Hammer Studio a year and a half ago. We also interviewed to members of Carrie Underwoods band. Garrett Goodwin a fantastic drummer and Jimmy Herman who plays fiddle guitar, banjo, mandolin and more. After the interview we had dinner at a burger place called Pharmacy also in East Nashville. After dinner we headed down to Broadway street to watch some live music. The entire street looks like it belongs in Las Vegas there are neon signs everywhere you look. The difference with Vegas is of course the size and in every bar there is a live band playing. Another thing that amazed me was that most of the bars didn’t have a cover all they did was have a tip jar for the band. That night we saw three bands perform. The first bar we went to was Roberts Western World we stayed to see two bands the first was The Don Kelley Band and the second was Sarah Gayle Meech. Sarah played great Hanky Tonk she was a great performer and got everyone dancing. Andy even danced with a nice man Bill who played the fiddle. Our final band for the night was a great old time band called Memiss Jones Invisible.
Our last day in Nashville we decided to go see the Grand Ole Opry. I was surprised when I found out it is not in downtown Nashville. The Opry was truly a grand theater each dressing room had a theme and was decorated appropriately. The theater is decorated to look like the Rayman Auditorium. The seats are long pews that look like isles in a church After our tour of the backstage we got to walk on stage and stage on the same piece of wood where countless of iconic musicians have performed including Elvis. After our tour of the Opry we headed downtown and had more traditional southern food that we couldn’t get enough of. After lunch was one of the few times we split up I went to see the Country Music Hall of Fame. Rob and Andy went to the Tennessee History Museum. Our final night in Nashville we decided to have a little fun and take a break from filming so we went to a piano dueling bar. The next day we drove to Atlanta.
