Remember Bob’s Country Bunker in the Blues Brothers movie? If not, time for y’all to watch that again! Belushi asked what kind of music do you play here? Waitress replied “we have both kinds, Country and Western!”. Well, between Bristol and Nashville we heard and learned about it all.
Thursday, February 27: Apparently the cold has decided to join us for the road trip. After a 265-mile (430 Km) drive, we got to Bristol early afternoon and it was about 2 degrees (C) and the wind was really strong. Brrrr!
On I-81 they had signs up whenever you entered a new county. The “Entering Botetourt County” sign was a reminder of the Vin(e)yard genealogy. Jeannie’s 3rd great-grandfather, John Vinyard, moved there from eastern Virginia about 1805 and her 2nd great grandfather, also John Vinyard, was born there in 1817. The family all headed to Missouri about 1830. Definitely early pioneers – there aren’t many towns here today, so it must have been really remote more than 200 years ago.
The main street in Bristol is the state line and they have this huge sign that is lighted at night to celebrate that. The states take turns paying the electric bill for it. We got to see it lit up at night and it was very cool!
Our first stop in Bristol was the Burger Bar. It looks like a bit of a dive but they make a great burger (you can even get a 1/2 burger) and they’re not ashamed of liking mayo.
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is a real gem. Excellent exhibits with many telling the story of the original Bristol recording sessions in 1927. The Victor Co. brought a recording machine to Bristol for 10 days to capture the sounds of local musicians including the original Carter family and Jimmy Rodgers. The sessions are widely referred to as the “most important historical event in country music”.
Friday: Started with a 300-mile (500 Km) drive to Nashville.
We stopped at Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, right outside of Nashville. Decent exhibits in the museum and beautiful grounds but the mansion tour was disappointing.
Arrived in Nashville late afternoon and went straight to AirBNB to offload and get ready for Tedeschi Trucks Band concert at the Ryman auditorium.
Got our first look at the Honky Tonk strip in Nashville around 6 on a Friday evening. The party was in full swing! By Saturday afternoon the number and variety of party groups and vehicles was overwhelming. Nashville really is a mecca for bachelorette and bachelor partying.
The concert was great and definitely enhanced by the crowd. It felt like the whole Ryman was shaking at times! I did notice that crowd was way more law abiding than you would see at a concert in Boston. No sign of the devil’s weed anywhere. I suspect the long arm of the law is a bit longer and stronger in Tennessee.
Saturday we headed back into Nashville to tour the Country Music Hall of Fame. We spent several hours in the museum including a side trip to RCA Studio B where many country music greats recorded.
We strolled through some shops around the Omni and then had an early dinner. Dropped in on a couple of bars with music but decided to head back for an early night. The honky tonk scene in downtown Nashville is not really our thing so we left it to the drunken brides-to-be and took our old asses home!
Sunday we had a leisurely morning as we waited for the temperature to climb a bit. Around 11 we drove to Shelby Bottoms Greenway, a park right on the edge of Nashville, to do some biking. They have about 6 miles of multi use trail that we rode. Scenery was very nice, all along the river
We took a connection to another bikeway and rode over the Cumberland Pedestrian Bridge aka Two Rivers Bridge. It was a climb but well worth it for the views and the fun we had watching skateboarders at a park on the other side of the bridge.
On the way back we took another detour and found ourselves biking on an abandoned airfield! There were several guys going full out in a mini peleton and Tom had a good time doing his own race down the runway.
Added up to 12 miles which was just right for the first ride of 2020.
Back at our wonderful cottage we caught up on laundry and cooked up some eggs from the owner’s chickens. Early evening we headed to the Gulch neighborhood and had dinner at a restaurant with live Blues. Supper club jazzy blues and very good. We were pretty much the only ones paying attention which was appreciated by the band I guess as the keyboard player came over to say hi and chat during a break.
We stopped in at the Station Inn just around the corner for their Sunday night Bluegrass jam. Local talent in Nashville is real good! Small place and packed when we got there but as we stayed for a couple of beers the crowd gradually thinned. Some of the jammers alternated between playing and working behind the bar or clearing tables. And back to the Blues Brothers, they actually did Stand by Your Man!
I sure would come back to Nashville but I’d stick to the neighborhood bars and music scene and stay out of downtown except for anything happening at the Ryman. Had some good food and heard some great music!