Nashville 2.0 (August 19, 2024 )

If you’ve been keeping up with the travel challenge segment of this blog, you recently read that for a music nerd like me, Nashville was a pretty epic place to visit (if you haven’t already, you may want to check out Travel Challenge Month 8: Nashville, TN for some context). So much so that I was dying to go back (which you also may know by now, is not something I say about too many places that I visit). What you may not know, is my husband is not nearly as excited to travel as I am. Over the years of being dragged along, I think he has learned to appreciate the experience that comes with traveling. But if I died tomorrow, I’m not sure he’d choose to ever leave the state of Minnesota again. So imagine my shock when he was just as amped to go back to Nashville as I was! He doesn’t “play” music in the way that I do, but his love for music, especially live music, is equally great. I think he also loved that the flight to Nashville is only about 1.5 hours from Minneapolis and that on our most recent trip we got it down to spending just two nights away from home. So, just nine months after my first trip to Nashville, I talked him into booking tickets to go back to Music City. Whenever we talked about the impending trip, we told everyone that our tickets were booked but that anyone was welcome to join us. And wouldn’t you know it, two of our friends Shaun and Katie decided to book their own tickets overlapping our trip! So in November of 2022, we met Shaun and Katie down in Nashville.

After checking into our hotel Matt and I headed to Broadway Street to meet our friends who arrived in Nashville the day before we did. We had our first round at Rippy’s Honky Tonk and then hit up two other bars on Broadway, Layla’s and Lucky Bastard Saloon, all of which included live music of course. During this time, we decided to book a tour at Big Machine Distillery. Our guide was a fellow Midwesterner from Wisconsin, and he fed us several small samples of their whiskey and vodka after showing us around the distillery. By the end of the tour, we were hungry for some food, so we headed to a bar on the same block as Big Machine, FGL House. Housing three floors, including both an open and closed rooftop, FGL House would become one of my go-to bars near Broadway Street. The following day, the Tennessee Titans would be playing the Denver Broncos, and the Broncos were having their pre-party at FGL House that evening. Katie and I were lucky enough to snag a photo with the mascot. The boys were more excited to meet the cheerleaders. We ended the night at the biggest party bar on Broadway Street, Kid Rock’s, dancing the night away on the rooftop to the BAND ANA.

We didn’t stay at the same hotel as our last trip to Nashville, but literally stayed right next door. A perk to the hotel this time around was a free continental breakfast. This hotel was also supposed to utilize the same shuttle service as our previous hotel, but between the time we booked rooms and our arrival, the service was shut down due to liability reasons. I cannot imagine why. Anyway, we were back in the Music Row District which is within walking distance to many Nashville attractions if you’re up for it. We spent the first part of the day doing a combo tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and RCA Studio B. Known as “the birthplace of Nashville sound,” we got to stand in the same place where iconic artists like Elvis recorded historic hits. It was goosebump worthy for sure. We left the Country Music Hall of Fame, heading toward Broadway Street around the same time that the Titan’s game ended. The sea of people during this short walk was complete chaos. We witnessed a man sitting in traffic, driven to a near rage, nearly get tased by police. Needless to say, we were ready to duck into anywhere with an open table, which just so happened to land us at Honky Tonk Central. The band at the time (Jordan Barry) was so good that we stayed for the whole set and chatted with the lead singer afterwards. We had tickets for a tractor tour/dance party that just happened to be leaving from the side road off Broadway where my favorite dive bar, Doc Holliday’s, is. So we headed that direction next and waited for our tour time at a bar called Famous (unfortunately, it has since closed). The bartender there was a wizard with drinks. He asked what each of us wanted for a base liquor and whipped up something delicious. I named mine a Vodka Surprise. To this day I regret not asking what the ingredients were. The tractor tour was full dance party vibes, with two energetic female DJs ensuring everyone was having a good time. We stopped to take some awesome pictures of the Nashville skyline all lit up at night. 10/10 recommend. We ended the night hopping back and forth on our side road between Famous and Doc Holliday’s, listening to some more amazingly talented musicians (Jake Francis, Ben Law).

X Marks the Spot Where Often Elvis Stood

We spent our last morning in Nashville learning about the area on the Hop-On-Hop-Off Trolley. It was a fun way to get a different view of the city and the many neighborhoods that make up Nashville. We spent a couple of hours learning how to line dance at Whiskey Bent Saloon. They taught us three different common line dances. Could I do them still on command? No. Luckily there is video evidence if any of us need a refresher. It was nearing time for Shaun and Katie to head to the airport, but we found ourselves back at FGL House to finish off our time together. It was the nicest day of our trip, weather-wise, so we headed to the roof, where oddly enough the band happened to be playing one of the songs that we had just learned to line dance to. So, Katie and I showed off our new skillz before the four of us went our separate ways. I mentioned in my last post about Nashville that The Listening Room (TLR) is a must stop for me every time I’m there if at all possible. So that’s how Matt and I planned to spend our last evening. We had some time to kill before the show though, so we decided to check out an area near Broadway that we hadn’t yet called Printer’s Alley. Located between 3rd and 4th Ave, Printer’s Alley is known as a nightclub district with a bluesy vibe. At the first bar we stopped in, the music was about 45 minutes delayed because one of the two musicians in the band was running late. The man who was on time tried his hand at some jokes. Some landed, some not so much. After hearing the first few songs we decided to move on, unfortunately not much else was open in the area on a Monday night though. So we headed back to Broadway, ole faithful, vowing to check out Printer’s Alley on a weekend when we inevitably returned. We met a pink haired girl (Tera Fister) totally rocking the stage at our last stop before leaving downtown to go to TLR. If you missed it in my last post about Nashville, TLR is an intimate experience with the goal of showcasing songwriters. This time I didn’t listen to anyone participating in the writer’s round before the trip. We did recognize a few of these songwriter’s works though, including that of John Byron who wrote 865, (released by Morgan Wallen) one of my go-to sad songs. Another successful trip to Music City was coming to an end. I left early the next morning once again inspired by the enormous amount of talent that surrounded us in the city.