It had got to that part of the trip where I was to meet up with the boys, so my flight up from Austin was a pleasant one. Transfer from the Airport was simple and fast, but my hotel wasn’t ready. There had been a major flood on the 15th Floor so there were huge pipes dangling down the outside when I arrived. No real problem so they shipped me to a Hotel 100 yards away for the night.
So I’m in Nashville and it doesn’t disappoint, live music in the bar of even this modest hotel. The only thing I couldn’t do was unpack as I was moving again in the morning.
So after a little bitching session with the Hotel over the Boys room I was set up for their arrival which would be in the evening, Tom thinks I am moanin’ too much (I think that I’m just a bit tired from the travelling), and ready for a venture down to Broadway, the place to be for music in Nashville.
It must have been about 11am when I hit my first bar. Two guys blasting out Country on a stage and as I looked at my watch my principle of no alcohol before 12pm had to be broken. It was real foot tapping stuff! I was conscious of time and alcohol consumption but to be honest I could have stayed in there all day, but with the need to be in a good condition for the Boys arrival I called a halt at 3pm. Walking up and down Broadway which is the main street in Nashville, the music just rang out into the street and the cowgirl boots were everywhere! This is the home of Country.
I arranged the Airport shuttle bus to pick me up and he apologised that he would need to call at a few Hotels in a loop before we could get underway. I was the only one on the bus so we had a good chat from hotel to hotel, but no one got on. At each he would dart into reception do his check for passengers and run back and get off. As we got to the final one he parked behind a sister bus, ran into the hotel, ran back and then we were off. Not exactly, he had got back into the wrong bus and drove it off a 100 yards up the road until he realised that I wasnt answering his conversation. I was watching and howling with laughter at this, but so was he when he got back to me.
I was still 3 hours early for the flight as the boys were on a delayed flight from New York.
Sitting at the arrivals lounge, plane after plane was delvering those ‘home coming’ moments where Mom or Dad was being met by the kids. Great to watch. When you see this it reminds you of the opening scene from Love Actually and these great words…
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
Then my turn, I hadn’t seen Jon and Tom for 3 months and it was excellent!
It was Friday night and the Boys were frazzled from the flights and the delay, so a quick meal, a bit more Music in our own Hotel and bed.
Saturday, Tom was pinging me at 7am. Those Brits who travel to the USA are always up so early and we were out in search of breakfast almost straightaway. My plan for Nashville was to be that we would be listening to lots of country music and having a few beers. Now here are some statistics, in our party 66% like Country Music, but 100% of us tipped the musicians for the next three days. Luckily for Tom, my Country agnostic, most bars had sport on huge TV’s or he had his iPhone playing games and the US Golf Open was being played.
We wandered slowly up the bars and managed to get to about 9pm with a short break. Saturday music was excellent. The volume and quality goes up a notch. The Cowgirl boots increased and the girls got “pruddier”. Jon and I were in our sweet spot, but novices to Country compared to many of those around us. Finishing off Saturday with some good Tennessee food and a fairly early night.
Sunday was much the same but we did walk around the main highlights of downtown and toured the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. Awesome, even for novices and very interesting. Back into the bars and a few more bands and singers that were just of excellent quality. It surprises me that TV talent shows produce average quality compared to this. Another BBQ dinner and sunday was done.
I was expecting Monday to be quiet and it was at first! The lunchtime sessions in our favourite bars, the Honky Tonk Central and Tootsie’s gave some really professional music and to think they survive on tipping is quite something. A lesser experience was the Crazy Horse, which Tom likened to a UK holiday camp, especially as lots of boot clad children learned their ‘4 step’ in the interlude. Meal done, we were off. We should have slowed down there but with Music comes liquid and more Music. Our last day was to finish with some of the finest music at Tootsie’s with a Concert style atmosphere in one of the City’s smallest but well known bars.
This was one big friendly fest with endless Country Music and most people in a similar mindset.
So that was our Nashville bit. I would definitely head back this way, especially after 66% of us invested in Cowboy Hats!
And for Tuesday, we were off to New York to take a bite out of the Big Apple. To be a slightly more sedate day as my head and definitely Jon’s were heavy with our partying of Monday.
Dave's Sabbatical 