Nashville Country Music Mania

The sounds and party atmosphere of Nashville is pervasive with the heaviest concentration in just 2 throbbing blocks on Broadway, also known as the Honky Tonk Highway. The street itself seems to be alive and reverberating with music coming out of every crevice and doorway, and in many cases, 3 floors to a venue. Was it fun? Yes. Was it all just a bit much and overstimulating? I, Dinah, will answer yes to this as well. Still, I wouldn’t give up the experience of experiencing Nashville for anything. It’s quintessential America, with a mix of hillbilly later combined with cowboy for added allure. It’s African American and white, it’s power and salesmanship, it’s costume, glamour, sweat, and art. The songs are about everyday human things–love, loss, heartbreak, everyday struggles, rural life, and Christian faith–all very poignant.

Hatch Show Print, designing and letterpress printing Nashville show posters since the mid-1920’s.

We started our musical exploration by spending one night and another afternoon going from venue to venue, starting with a few recommendations from a very hip-looking ticket seller at the Country Music History Hall of Fame and Museum. First was the honky tonk, Roberts Western World, with a dance floor that promised 2-step later in the evening, fried bologna sandwiches on the grill and 2 bands in the evening. We followed this with Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, where the lead singer/musician made handmade banjos for sale from cigar boxes (very cool) and every song sung was sexist (not cool).  The next afternoon we visited all 3 floors of  Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, where mysteriously they card every single person, regardless of grey-haired appearance. Each place and band has its own distinct and interesting personality, but the constant is that everything is super loud—my watch kept saying that 30 minutes at these decibel levels would damage everyone’s hearing.

Poor Amazon delivery guy in the crosshairs of 2 peddle pubs.

Probably goes without saying, but there is a ton of drinking going on everywhere, and this includes many peddle-cart drinking “pubs” in the streets. As the tour guide at RCA Studio B (where Elvis Presley recorded more than 200 songs) said, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Max McNown and the extra extra production at the Ryman Auditorium.

For our last evening, we thought we’d try something a bit more “polished” at the Ryman Theatre, a venue which everyone was telling us was a must-see. Max McNown, noted as a rising country star who made his start on TikTok, was playing, and after listening to a few of his songs on Apple Music, we thought why not? The pre-show was a band called Briscoe, and as the lights went off and they started to play, we thought ah yes, this is definitely a step up. Then came Max, who was referred to by the opening band as ‘an upstanding man’. It’s a full house, and his fans clearly love him and mouth every word they know as he sings. They don’t care in the least that he recently lost his voice and is struggling to get the notes out. It seems the rasp and grittiness, and the promises he’s made to God, if he can just make it through these two shows, if anything, helps cement his authenticity as a country singer. At the same time, Steve and I couldn’t help but feel that the show seemed overproduced, that the rest of the band was too slick and loud, and that he is one of those rising stars that fits the mold enough to be honed into a big star in the machine of big country music. Personally, I’d wish for him musically to be “a little bit hurt, but a lot more free” (lyrics from his song “A Lot More Free”).