Home of country music ... and a thousand hen parties!

I have been here before, albeit briefly. On a previous motorbike trip we only managed one night here as Hurricane Irma, cut short our stay and we hightailed it to Memphis - as far west as we could get in one day. We avoided the wind but not the rain. But that must have been on a weekday as the place has gone mad! Admittedly we are here this time on a holiday weekend - today is Columbus Day - and the American world has come to Nashville! Mostly dressed in short skirts and white cowgirl boots! There are a million hotel rooms, but it seems the demand outstrips the supply as the prices are sky high. We are inevitably, but somewhat relieved to be, a mile or so out of town. A pleasant walk away and definitely a bit quieter.

Every bar on Broadway on Saturday afternoon was not only banging out live music but rammed to the rafters with weekend revellers. Ha, we were expecting to wander in to a few bars and listen to some good old country music. What we heard was a cacophony of competing wannabe, pop stars bashing out Bryan Adams! And that was from the street. Apparently Broadway in Nashville now has a reputation a bit like Bourbon Street in New Orleans - scene of frat parties, bachelorettes (hens) and general piss ups. Much of the authentic country music has been replaced by pop covers designed to get people singing, dancing ... and of course drinking!

To add to the noise and general mayhem of the place, dozens of "beer trolleys" roam the streets with up to about 20 pissed twenty somethings murdering Shania Twain or Britney Spears, and glugging cocktails for all they are worth.

We decided the bars at that time were not for us - even if we could have got in - and we headed off to the Country Music hall of Fame and Museum.

We were not the only ones, it was busy too, but it was a revalation. It was superb, not only a dedicated hall of fame for country music stars and a home for all sorts of memorabilia, but also an informative explanation of how so many music genres flow from each other. It was excellent. And who knew there were two iterations of the Flying Burrito Brothers? Or that the Eagles started as the backing band for Linda Ronstadt! They had to chuck us out at 5pm.

Our attempts later to find an out of downtown bar with live country music were thwarted by the ubiquitous televised American football. We found bars all right (and good pizza to be fair), but all were crammed with college kids supporting their local football team - Texas A&M! Huh? Thats like hundreds of miles away. We couldn't work it out but some of them got very excited over a college football tackle! We may have been here a long time but some things we will never understand!

Sunday arrived, another beautiful coolish Fall day, but with bright blue skies, and we headed back into town expecting it to be much quieter! Ha, again! The beer trolleys still plied their trade and the popsters were still bashing out the tunes. At 10am. We dashed into the Johnny Cash Museum to pay homage and whilst it was not as good at the Country Hall of Fame it was still worth the visit. Of particular note to me was Cash's lifetime commitment to prison reform and his numerous concerts in the penitentiaries. I'm not sure he achieved much but I admired his stance.

We had saved the best till last. Sunday night at The Opry! We booked for the Grand Ole Opry, the longest running radio show in the world (97 years since you asked), and named in some random ad lib based on the show's original opera sources, in 1925. The name stuck and the rest as they say is history!

And it was a brilliant show, even if country is not your thing, the talent of all the artists was apparent and to be fair the genres ranged from country, to bluegrass, to blues, to rock. We even got a performance from Don Schlitz, unknown to us until he started singing a whole load of Kenny Rogers hits - that he wrote! "You gotta know when to hold em', know when to fold em', know when to walk away, know when to run".

We had a great night out, for our last night!

So we are on our way home. We are waiting at Nashville International for our night flight back to Heathrow, this evening. We made good use of the morning by visiting the Frist Art Museum...

And then managing a lunch time honky tonk on Broadway - a lot quieter than over the weekend.

So all in all another amazing trip. That really should be it for 2022. While we have been away work has been done on our new home and it is time to live there for a while! We get home to a new bathroom! At least this time we aren't homeless. Cheers to that!

But 2023 isn't that far away! Bye for now!