Day 167, October 9, 2012 (Grand Rivers, KY):

Honky-Tonkin’ in Nashville

With 14 of our closest looper friends we descended on Nashville—two van loads of us plus Rusty the ageing Labrador aboard Good Karma. Nashville is the epicenter pf the country music genre, the Hall of Fame a must-see. In two days we managed the 87th anniversary show at the Grand Ole Opry and several forays into the downtown honky-tonks for outstanding country music—you know the genre, “My horse died. My wife ran off with my best friend. Ole houn’ dog found  me a new horse and a new woman …” Actually, the music was quite good. We roamed from one bar to the next but only the ones with the windows rattling and folks hanging out the doors. At the left is Legends Corner where many of the names in Country Music got their start playing for tips as these guys were. Judging by the downtown crowds you would think that  music is Nashville’s leading industry. Guess again. It is health care. Despite the crowds  at the Grand Ole Opry and the gridlock to get in and out of the new Opryland venue out by the airport music is probably number three. General tourism is number two.

Downtown is quite handsome with new and old mixed. At left is the AT&T building. The old American Bank building on a streetcorner opposite  Honky-Tonk Central is now a tattoo parlor. No telling what will pull up at a downtown traffic light next to you.

Nashville does project a sense of history. The two centenial parks, one  for the hundredth anniversary of the founding and the other for the two hundredth are worth the walk through. The replica of the Parthenon is in theCentenial Park and extravagantly full size with adornments that no longer exist in the glass, steel, and concrete of modernday construction.

Our jumping off point was Green Turtle Bay, KY, next to Grand Rivers, which is a wide spot in the road in the Land between the Lakes. We have been here a week but today, the pack heads up the Tennessee. Our destination for this leg is the looper rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park in northwest Alabama on October 21st.

Before we leave Nashville i must include some images for friends Bill and Peter.

The Patsy Cline commemorative wall in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Who else, Bill?