Tennessee

Being avid vinyl collectors we wanted to hit Jack White’s Third Man Records to pick up some limited edition pressings and see the hipper side of Nashville. It was close to our hotel in a transitional neighborhood just a few blocks from The Gulch. It didn’t disappoint. The Third Man store is a mix of hipster and branded merchandise (books, shirts, accessories) as well as Third Man Records pressings, many recorded live to acetate at the studio next door. It is also a museum of unusual instruments, mechanical devices, and a rare Voice-o-Graph booth that lets would-be musicians record directly to vinyl and produce a record on the spot. While the store is small we probably spent an hour there perusing the wares.

We had a list of used record stores to hit in hopes of finding some blues and classic country music that is hard to come by in Seattle. Our first and only used record store stop in Nashville turned out to be Grimey’s. The selection and the prices were good. We spend another hour or more and probably bought 50 records (blues, rock, southern rock, country, alternative, etc). We had worked up an appetite. Nearby was Arnold’s Meat & 3 (a new dining concept for me). We heard about Arnold’s from Diner’s Drive-ins, and Dives. When we arrived the line was out the door and we took at as a sign to stand in it. Everybody seemed to have the fried chicken and we did the same. It didn’t disappoint. The icing on the cake was the slice of spicy chocolate pepper pie.

Our afternoon found us across the tracks in another transitional and gentrifying neighborhood of Nashville called Marathon Village. The old Marathon Motor Works building has been taken over by a concert venue, some boutique shops and restaurants, a Jack Daniels tasting room, and our destination, Antique Archaeology. While the old building and spaces where very cool, Antique Archaeology was somewhat disappointing. While they did have some interesting artifacts from the show and a few antiques for sale, it generally was little more than a crowded and touristy t-shirt shop peddling American Pickers paraphernalia.

We drove out towards the Grand Ole Opry, Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, and Opry Mills Mall. It looked like an absolute nightmare. So we avoided it and instead headed across the street to Willie Nelson and Friends Museum and General Store. The store was just tourist trap wares, but the museum in the back proved interesting and informative. And we had the place to ourselves.

We took the afternoon to rest at the hotel and walked back into The Gulch to try and see the infamous Doyle & Debbie Show at the Station Inn. Unfortunately, we were unable to get tickets so headed nearby for a nice dinner at Adele’s. We made the most of our time in Nashville but felt like there was so much more we could see and do. We’ll just have to return to Music City another in the near future.

Boxing day found us wandering in 70-degree weather down Broadway towards Honky Tonk Row (the touristy section of Nashville). It was a spectacular day!

We had our list and were checking it twice: Johnny Cash Museum, Ryman Auditorium, Roger’s Western World, Tootsie’s World Famous Orchid Lounge, Acme Feed & Seed, and the Wildhorse Tavern. And we hit them all.

We started our tour at the Johnny Cash Museum which I half expected to be hokey. I was wrong. It was extremely well done. In chronological order, you really came to understand his life and career progression. The artifacts were complete, well presented, and overwhelming. It was great to see his connection to Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dylan (Nashville Skyline), and of course, Sun Records where we’d be visiting later in the week.

The museum moved us to tears. At one point we choked up, tears welling in our eyes while reading his letter/poem to June Carter Cash written on June’s funeral program complete with tear smears. Nearby was playing his award-winning video cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt”. The museum is a must visit for any Johnny Cash fan, but bring your tissues.

After exiting through the gift store we found ourselves in one of the many touristy boot stores along Honky Tonk Row. “Buy 1 pair of boots and get two free!”. It sounded too good to be true and it probably was, but we ended up with three pairs of boots anyway.

In our new boots, we headed towards the Ryman Auditorium but found ourselves standing outside the famous honky tonk on our list: Roger’s Western World. They had live music playing during the lunch hour. We thought we’d cool our heels with a beer and a fried bologna sandwich (with Miracle Whip). It was delicious and I was loving Nashville.

Around the corner was the Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry during the Golden Age of country music. We opted for the “Backstage Tour” which I don’t recommend. It was overpriced and historically not that relevant as it was added in later years after renovation.  Being in the Ryman and standing on the stage after viewing the history video and some of the historical memorabilia gives you a sense of musical magic. A must visit for any classic country fan.

From the Ryman we crossed the alley to Tootsie’s World Famous Orchid Lounge. The story goes that the musicians playing the Grand Ole Opry would head out the back door and across the alley to have a drink at Tootsie’s before, sometimes during, and often after the shows.

With our shopping bags full and our feet hurting in our new boots we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon rest before headed back into The Gulch for dinner. We had our hearts set on real Tennesee BBQ. Using Yelp we found one with stellar reviews (4.5 stars with over 1K reviews) and headed to the Peg Leg Porker for dinner.

After dinner, we caught a local free shuttle bus from The Gulch back to Honky Tonk Row. We walked down the street admiring the neon lights as we headed to Acme Feed & Seed. Acme Feed & Seed is a great multi-level venue with music and food on many floors. We stepped in to watch a jam band which sounded pretty good before we realized it was Grateful Dead Mondays :(. But we stuck it out for the rest of their set.

Just up the street was a venue well known for line dancing -The Wildhorse Tavern. Somebody recommended we may want to dance or at least watch some dancing. The place was a huge flashy multi-level venue with lots of people line dancing. It was culturally eye opening for us.

On a whim, we thought it might be interesting to travel for the Christmas holidays. I had always wanted to travel to Nashville. Why you ask? Well, I had driven past it one year in college when I drove from Annandale-on-Hudson, NY to New Orleans for Spring Break. I admired the Nashville skyline from afar. “That’s Nashville”, I thought. “Someday I gotta check that out”.

In October I pitched the idea to my family and they liked it, saying, “Let’s add Memphis to the trip”. And thus, a vacation was born.

Christmas morning we rose early and headed to the airport to fly Alaska Airlines direct flight to Nashville from Seattle. We arrived in the afternoon, picked up our rental car, and drove to the majestically over-hip Union Station train station that was recently renovated into an Autograph Collection hotel.

After checking in we took a concierge recommendation to walk to “The Gulch” and find some dinner. As it was Christmas day many businesses were either closed or packed. We stumbled upon a Southern seafood restaurant called Marsh House. They were full up for the night and as we didn’t have a reservation we were relegated to the bar. After realizing the pre fixe menu was going to be awkward to eat at the bar we bribed the hostess with a box of Almond Roca and suddenly there was an open table for us. We had a lovely Christmas dinner eating innovative and exotic dishes before finding ourselves stuffed like a Christmas stockings. We waddled out of the restaurant and into the streets of The Gulch in search of Music City.

We headed to the famous Station Inn to catch some live bluegrass. The Station Inn didn’t disappoint. It is a vintage honky tonk dive bar, complete with pimento cheese crackers served on a paper plate. There was a full-on bluegrass jam session happening when we arrived with musicians rotating in and out between songs and trips to the bar. It was gritty, grimy, and a little bit sticky, but overall an excellent way to spend Christmas night and a great introduction to Nashville and bluegrass. I could tell this was going to be a great holiday week.