Nashville Cats

Day 8-9 - Nashville
Fri Aug 25 – Sat Aug 26

by Craig

When John Sebastian penned “Nashville Cats” in 1967, he says “There’s thirteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers…” in the town. Basic math skills and US census figures would put the number at more like 2,500 today. I’d believe it. And that doesn’t even count the fiddlers, pedal steel players and mandolin players. This IS Music City, no doubt about it.

After a quick stop by Taylor’s Vintage Guitars, the Memphis to Nashville leg of the trip had one more required stop – Gus’s World Famous Chicken in Mason, Tennessee (birthplace of Isaac Hayes). Nothing like spicy fried chicken for breakfast. Gus does it up right. Or rather did it up right; he died this past July, but has passed down the recipe to his kids – they’re doing a fine job.

We rolled into town about a half hour too late to see an in-store performance at Grimey’s records, but that was a good place to get our bearings. (Gotta love the clerks in independent stores – they’ll usually hook you up with some good places to check out.) Met up with my friend Mary Sack at South 5th Tap Room for happy hour and met her friends Rodney and Earl. All music biz folks – imagine that in this town. After a pretty quick stop to check in at the room, we headed for Mercy Lounge to see a show. One of the few that we’d actually planned in advance to see, and it was a great one. Jason Isbell (formerly of Drive By Truckers) headlined the show, but the highlight was Centromatic (from Denton, TX). Will Johnson was more animated than I have ever seen him, and the band was really tight. Great club, too – good sound, sightlines, a balcony/patio with a view of downtown. The opening act Sons of Roswell is a pretty hard rocking bunch of young kids from Muscle Shoals, Alabama – they kicked out some real fine southern fried boogie.

Our self-imposed curfew was about 3:30 in this city; the 6 am, 4:30 am bedtimes in Memphis were beginning to take a toll. So, up and out bright and early (about noon), we hit Robert’s Western Wear on Broadway for chicken wings and jalapeño poppers for breakfast. If you’re going to hit just one of the spots on Broadway, go for Robert’s. Then a stroll down Broadway with a stop in at Gruhn’s guitars, a visit to Hatch Show Print (a must-do), and we were off to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

That place is incredible. Of course the history of country music is quite rich, but the artifacts, information, displays and even the building itself (built in 2001) are top notch. Bill Monroe’s Gibson mandolin; Hank Williams’ Martin guitar; Gram Parson’s nudie-designed stage costume … . The Ray Charles exhibit in the special exhibits section was an unexpected treat as well.

No going out to the bars for us on a Saturday night. Instead, we accepted a gracious invitation to join Mary and her boyfriend Ed for dinner on the patio at their home just west of Nashville. It’s funny, I’ve only met Mary a couple of times -- SXSW in 2002, and another quick hello in Austin in 2004. But she just seems like a dear old friend. And Ed – well, that dude is quite a character. He’d been marinading the meat since early Saturday morning, and judging by the 18 or so empty cans of Miller Light (by the way, the dog’s name is Miller) on display, he’d got a pretty early start in that department, too. Earl and his new girlfriend Erin stopped by to say hello; Earl played some piano for us, Ed philosophized and provided trivia tidbits and historical background on Nashville, and a good time was had by all.