Nashville: Honky Tonk Central
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Overview:
It’s a place that represents southern culture at its core. Country music, Blues, Jazz, Rock…you can find them all somewhere on Broadway Street in Nashville or Printers Alley. Early morning drinking, party buses, cowboy boots, drunk caravans, drunk women, this is Nashville at all hours of the day. It is a place people go to escape and party from all around the world. It is the Las Vegas of the south. You come to Nashville to get down and dirty.
Flying Into Nashville:
Flying into Nashville is interesting because you see The Blue Ridge Mountains and how The Cumberland River carves its way through the mountainous landscape. It looks big and brown from above, but is lush and green on the ground. You are flying over some serious back woods terrain, the stuff you see on Moonshiners on Discovery Channel. The history of bootlegging started here and it’s culture can still be felt. The terrain gradually opens up and you see a bunch of bridges leading towards a medium sized city.
Outskirts:
The outskirts of Nashville are pretty rough. You will see poverty at its worst driving from the airport into downtown Nashville. It feels different than most cities, something about the landscape and architecture just screams the rural south. Driving in Nashville can be challenging as the traffic lights and patterns are different from those out west or on the east coast. People really suck at driving in Nashville.
Hotel Buffet:
When arriving at my hotel the first thing I noticed was the setup. The main lobby was also a cafeteria of sorts. Dozens of people were grabbing coffee, donuts, and cereal. It was like people who were just breaking some kind of fasting ritual, grabbing what they could and shoving it in their mouths. I wondered if I was in the wrong place.
What was going on here was simple: hung over tourists replenishing their fluids and getting ready for the next day of partying. What kind of place is this? I thought to myself, man..things are weird down here. I came to this city by myself and it felt awkward not being part of some kind of party group.
The Allure of Nashville:
Downtown Nashville has become a tourist trap. You will find people from all over this country partying their way through Broadway Street, trying to live some twisted, romanticized version of what they think a cowboy is. Bachelorette parties are everywhere, buses and flatbed trucks hauling young drunk women around are just part of a normal day in Nashville. People come to Nashville to party 24/7. You won’t find anyone wearing face masks down here.
Relocation Hotspot:
So where are all the locals? They are hanging out and living in towns like German Town, The Gulch, Hillsboro Village. Locals really don’t go downtown for the most part, they are just trying to live peacefully on the outskirts.
This southern city is still very conservative and consignant of its unique culture. The people here are some of the nicest you will ever run into. However, they don’t appreciate new perspectives being pushed on them. Just accept them for who they are.
On the other hand, Nashville is developing fast and the tech companies have moved in. This has brought an influx of young hipsters to the city, which in turn has drastically changed the demographics of this traditional American city. You can find a little bit of Austin in neighborhoods like The Gulch. Electric scooters, coffee shops, expensive apartments, small businesses…this is the future of Nashville.
The Music:
Nashville is the home of country music. The amount of museums detailing this rich history are endless (Ryman Auditorium, Country Music Hall of Fame, Johnny Cash Museum, etc). Each of these venues offer their own take on the importance of music and why performers flocked to this city to perform. Places like The Ryman and Grand Ole’ Opry were originally churches. Great music usually has origins in the church and then eventually goes mainstream. The Grand Ole’ Opry was designed to make those rowdy frontiersman god fearing Christians, but it didn’t seem to work so the place became a world renowned venue for artists of all genres.
Broadway is the street where all those flashy lights and bars are located. It’s the image people think of when dreaming about Nashville. You will find live performances at all hours of the day and drunk people roaming the streets in disarray. It’s an experience that comes alive at night and you won’t forget your time here, it’s uniquely Nashville.
When Broadway gets too crazy, take a 15 minute walk towards Printers Alley; this is more of a local spot that has great bands performing as well. I saw a funk band perform Eric Clapton’s “Change The World” into Stevie Wonder’s “Living For The City” – it was pure genius. The place was jam packed with bodies all swaying to some of the best live music you will ever hear. The musicians in this town are doing this for a living so competition is fierce and each band is better than the next.
The Country Music Hall of Fame was the most interesting museum I visited. The history, outfits, guitars, and videos really did a deep dive into the culture of country music. It is a must see museum and I recommend buying tickets online and saving them to your phone.
The Food:
So there is one food in Nashville that has an occult like following, “hot chicken.” It’s all about that hot chicken in Nashville and places like Hattie B’s caters to this demand. It’s known to be fierce and delicious going down, and painful on the way out. People wait hours in lines that stretch out the door for this stuff. I admit the chicken is more tender than most, but I don’t think it was worth waiting in line for an hour. Just be prepared to wait in line for almost everything in Nashville.
Conclusions:
Overall Nashville is a very interesting town where you feel the culture everywhere you go. It’s southern to the bone and life still seems a little backwards down there. The girls are beautiful and have that certain southern draw that is just sexy.
I don’t think I could live in a town like Nashville, it’s just too crowded and busy for me. I was surprised by the amount of tourists roaming the town. The saying goes that if you see someone wearing cowboy boots in this town, they are most likely not from Nashville. Locals do not fall into these stereotypical cliches.
I recommend you visit The Belle Meade Plantation and Parthenon, both located on the outskirts of the city and worth a little drive to explore. The Belle Meade Plantation is also a winery that offers wine tastings from local producers. I enjoyed exploring this plantation and learning the history behind it. You can walk through the slave cabins and see what their living conditions were like in the 1800’s.
Nashville is a city like no other in the country. It’s proud southern culture permeates the attitudes, music, food, and people of the city. It’s a place to let loose and really get lost in the music. Every musician should visit Nashville and come back with a new perspective and attitude towards genres they usually don’t indulge in. When I left Nashville, I took Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings with me on my Spotify playlist. I never would have done so otherwise, that’s what is great about Nashville and music in general, it makes life richer.
https://youtu.be/B6LSI4ukF9k