Nashville Red Neck City

Nashville

Redneck City - That’s what they say themselves

Monday 11th August 10th 

Yesterday, we flew from San Francisco to Memphis to Nashville. The music scene here is awesome but I’m not exactly sure about Nashville itself. The first thing we saw at the airport was a shopping catalogue for guns and the first song I heard was “I want a redneck woman.” Last night we went down to Broadway and saw some live Honky Tonk bands at Tootsies Orchid Lounge and Layla’s Bluegrass and Hillbilly Inn.  I couldn’t stop laughing (within) at all the cowboy hats, boots and cowboy clothes. The music though was wild - I know now exactly why people rave about the Nashville music scene.  We went to the Country Hall of Fame and Museum but I was totally disappointed. My only interest in country music has stemmed from the Dixie Chicks, they introduced me to the amazing Patty Griffin and Alison Krauss, but there was nothing in the museum about the Dixie Chicks.  No write up, no nothing. If you’ve ever seen their documentary “Shut Up and Sing” - you’ll know why. They made a statement a few years ago about being embarrased about the USA taking part in the war and embarrassed that George Bush is from Texas and this whole south region black banned their music. So they’ve also removed any information about them from the Country Hall of Fame Museum. Rob said I was being a stirrer, but I went to the information desk and asked if they had any information about the Dixie Chicks. The supervisor said in his Southern drawl “I don’t think we have anything on them just right now.” And that was the end of it! In the afternoon we visited tacky souvenir shops that had such delights as Hillybilly cookbooks, Redneck joke books and signs saying things like “Roadkill cafe - You shoot it, we’ll grill it.” We leave tomorrow sadly. Yes, and those are my legs, we went into a cowboy/girl boot shop and tried on some of dem der genuine cowgirl and boy boots fer fun. See ya'all later now.