I left Memphis in the afternoon in a filthy storm which threatened to beat in the roof of the car - not to mention the fact that for at least 10 miles I couldn't see anything more than 3 feet away...
I headed to Nashville where I am meeting up with family from Alabama.
Aside from a truck crash, torrential downpours and gas station stops where lots of men were wearing cowboy hats, the road passed by uneventfully. I listened to the blues all the way as some kind of inoculation against being infected by country music...
I arrived at the motel just outside Nashville in the early evening and met with my cousin. His wife wasn't due up from Alabama until the next night, so we set off on a boy's night out in Nashville - except neither of us are boys as I approach middle age and he adds 30 years on top of that.
First stop was a bar & grill called Nero's where we hoovered some great steaks and had the first of what seemed like an ocean of beers...
Then we headed into Nashville proper and Broadway where all the music and beer joints are...
Now after just a few hours in Nashville one soon begins to feel the urge to grow facial hair and acquire a cowboy hat. The next phases include changing your name to Floyd or Earl, sawing off the sleeves on your otherwise perfectly good shirt, getting a tattoo done and acquiring a pick-up truck . . .
Now I am a music fan generally and enjoy country music from time to time - but I generally prefer country with attitude. Townes Van Zandt is a good example of the country music I like. But I don't like the overall saccharine flavour of most country music nor the underlying ideals of country & western music . . . it seems too "sweet"and "easy" . . . and it's just not cool. At all.
Starting off at Tootsie's (one of the most famous and oldest of the music bars on Broadway) we drowned some more beers, admired the ladies (now that is one area where country seems to beat the blues - country seems to have better looking fans . . . ) and listened to the band play a bunch of well known songs from Merle Haggard to Lambchop.
They were pretty good, but it was a bit too "Rowdy Yates" for my overall tastes although I was enjoying the guitar playing quite a bit.
(Guitar nerd aside: If I had a dollar for every Telecaster I have seen so far in Nashville, I could probably afford to retire... there is no doubt about what country music's favourite guitar is. Of course the Telecaster also has a place in the blues (Muddy used a Tele), rock (Springsteen, Keeeffffff Richards) and of course in punk with Joe Strummer of the Clash. But it's fair to say there is a distinct absence of Les Paul's, SGs, 335s and 355s or Strats . . .)
One of my things tomorrow will be a trip to the Gibson retail centre for mandolins, acoustic guitars and Dobros . . . I am going to leave me wallet in the car....
After Tootsie's we headed on down the street and visited several more bars where several more beers were packed away before we called it a night after midnight some time....
A slow drive back to the hotel and lots of great reminiscences from my cousin about his early life in Nashville (this is where he grew up) and plenty of "man talk" about the way of the world, women and wine. . .
When I got back to my room, I read about the blues for about 45 minutes . . . a little therapy for the country assault of the earlier evening...
God knows what I am going to do when I hit the Grand Ole Opry on Friday night! I think I'll have to take my Mojo hand with me for protection . . .
My body is in Nashville, but my heart is still in Clarksdale and the Delta . . .
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