The Nashville Sound

Greg:

We arrived in Nashville on Thursday night. There we stayed with Tiffany and Joshua, a really nice couple we had found on couchsurfers.com and who let us crash in their spare room.

As soon as we got to downtown Nashville, we realized how much the city deserves the nickname "Music City, USA". Everything there is centered around the music scene. Every bar on Broadway, offers live music almost around the clock. Of course, country music dominates the scene, but there is a little bit of almost everything. We even passed by a hip hop bar/club.

On Thursday night, we went downtown for dinner and music. We ate at Jack's BBQ, one of the most famous places in town, which serves fantastic ribs and pork shoulder, and offers 6 types of BBQ sauce. They are 1) Kansas City Style (tomato based, sweet, smoky), 2) Texas Style (similar to KC style, but a little less sweet and more spicy), 3) Tennessee style (vinegar based), 4) Carolina style (mustard based), 5) Extra hot Texas Style, and 6) Music City White BBQ Sauce (made from mayonnaise and horseradish). The first 2 were delicious, and the rest were "interesting". After dinner, we walked up and down Broadway and stopped in various bars to listen to the live music. Very few had covers. Unfortunately, we arrived to late to take part of the free line dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon.

On Friday, we went for brunch at the Loveless Cafe, a restaurant opened in 1951 which was recommended in our roadtripping guide despite being 20 minutes out of town. Boy was the drive worth it. Both of us agree that the biscuits were far and away the best we had ever had, and the eggs, hashbrown casserole, and preserves were also delicious. After brunch, we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and got to learn all about the style's history and characteristics. Neither of us are big country music fans, so we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the museum. We ended up spending 3 hours there, much of the time spent listening to excerpts of great songs.

That night, we capped off our whirlwind tour of the country music scene by going to a performance at the world famous Grand Ole Opry. This is a live radio show recorded in a large theater, in which about 15 member bands and singers perform one or two songs. Supposedly, the Grand Ole Opry has dominated and shaped the country music landscape over the years similarly to how SNL has dominated the sketch comedy scene. We had a blast, especially when Little Jimmy Dickens, a tiny old man in a ridiculous cowboy outfit, played and made jokes about his wife (e.g.: "my wife was looking at cars for Christmas, and said she wanted me to get her something that went from 0 to 160 in 10 seconds ... so I bought her a set of bathroom scales).

Before leaving the city we had to see the great spectacle of The Parthenon. Who knew you could visit Ancient Greece by visiting Nashville. A full size replica of the The Parthenon stands in Centennial Park. Oooh wee!

Next up: I'm going to Graceland, Graceland ... Memphis, Tennessee ... I'm going to Graceland.