Top 10 Music City Moments

The last few days in Nashville have been full of music history, delightful encounters, and just plain ol' fun.  In order to make it manageable, I decided to write up a countdown of my Top 10 Nashville Moments.

#10  Running into Reggie from Atlanta
When we arrived in Nashville, we immediately got confused on our directions.  Rush hour on Friday didn't help much, and soon enough we, uh, ran into Reggie.  His Ram truck wasn't damaged much, and frankly, our Prius held up pretty well in the fender bender.  Reggie is from Atlanta and has been in town working on refurbishing the Hilton hotel.  He was trying to sneak out of town early to spend a weekend with his family when we bumped up against him on Lafayette Avenue. Yet, he was good-natured about being delayed while we waited for a Nashville cop to come and write a police report for the insurance companies.  He even said at one point he was glad we ran into him because otherwise he wouldn't have got to meet us, and "we're good people."  If ya gotta have an accident, running into a guy like Reggie is the way to go.

#9 The Oak Ridge Boys leading the entire audience in "Amazing Grace"
The first night in Nashville, we attended the Grand Ole Opry, and it certainly provided many memorable moments.  The Oak Ridge Boys were the last major act to sing, and they led the entire audience in a rendition of "Amazing Grace" for hospitalized country artist Randy Travis.  The Opry is already like a large church -- the seats are basically pews -- and this just made it feel even more so.  It was a perfect ending to a thoroughly enjoyable Opry night.

#8 The People of Nashville
I have been many places where the people are friendly.  But in Nashville, everyone takes it one step further -- they are professionally nice people.  Hotel employees, restaurant servers, clerks in stores, and taxi drivers were all polite, direct, helpful, and organized.  There just wasn't a false moment with any of them, and they never steered us wrong. This alone makes Nashville stand out as an excellent tourist destination.

Contrast of old and new buildings from riverfront Nashville

#7 Contrast of Old and New

Kalisa Ewing performing at Grand Ole Opry

Everywhere in Nashville, the contrast of old and new stands out -- and both are equally regarded.  This was evident our night at the Opry when Jeannie Seeley -- the host for the first segment -- sang the Eddy Arnold hit "Make the World Go Away," her voice ringing out as clear as a bell.  I realized then that the Opry has magnificent acoustics and sound system.  Soon afterward, Jeannie introduced a new songwriter and singer, Kalisa Ewing.  Kalisa sang a new song she wrote, inspired by Hank Williams, called "Montgomery."  Both singers impressed and served as the first of many contrasts I would witness the rest of the weekend.


#6 Henry, our Backstage Tour Guide at the Ryman Auditorium
A fiesty and knowlegeable expert, our 80-year-old tour guide for the Backstage Tour at the Ryman gave us his one and only perspective on all things country music, including the fact that he doesn't "get" modern country and that he likes his music with "twang."  He saw Hank Williams and Patsy Cline before they were Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, and he's a dyed-in-the-wool Roy Acuff fan.  Regardless of his personal feelings, he gave us a ton of information in a short half an hour, and took us through the various Ryman dressing rooms, each named in honor of specific artists such as Minnie Pearl and Johnny & June Cash.  Henry added the icing on the cake to our already awesome Ryman visit.  (More on #3)

Sarah and her band perform

#5  Sarah Jarosz's performance at the Grand Ole Opry
Unpretentious and a true musician -- this is Sarah Jarosz.  She to me is the new Alison Krauss, and the reason I wanted to be at the Opry on July 12th. Like all the other artists, she only sang two songs, one of them being "Ring Them Bells" by Bob Dylan.  She was definitely my favorite performer at the Opry that night because she is all about the music.

#4 Gram Parson's Nudie suit and Emmylou Harris's rose guitar
On Sunday we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, and it certainly has its share of interesting artifacts -- Bill Monroe's mandolin, Elvis's gold piano, and an entire exhibit of Carrie Underwood's costumes from her "Blown Away" tour.  But by far my favorite was the display dedicated to the inventor of "Cosmic American Music" -- Gram Parsons, and along with him, Emmylou Harris.  Their duets are still among my favorites of any music ever, and I was glad to see that the Hall of Fame gave him his due.  The suit is displayed so that the front and back are able to be seen, and along with it is Emmylou's beautiful black guitar with the red rose.  Breathtaking.

Emmylou's guitar -- I want it!!!

Roses on the butt cheeks!

Front display

#3 The Ryman Auditorium

What can I say about the "Mother Church of Country Music" that hasn't been said?  It was grace and a blessing that artists like Emmylou Harris did whatever it took to be sure this building was restored.  This was the first home of the Grand Ole Opry, but was originally built as a church -- this explains the pews, the stained glass windows, and the amazing acoustics.  I just couldn't get enough of the stage, the windows, the staircases, the artifacts, the paintings, the autographed Hatch prints.  It truly felt like sacred space; hundreds of artist have shared their music in this place, and thousands of people throughout the years their personal pilgrimages to worship the music that means the world to them.  It will forever be one of the most awe-inspiring buildings I have ever visited because it is definitely more than a building -- it is holy ground.

Ryman Stage

Jim -- stained glass windows

The staircase and one of the fine paintings

The one of a kind Ryman Auditorium -- Nashville

#2 Meeting Will and Lisa
Sometimes you meet someone and you know immediately that you are going to be friends.  This is exactly what happened when we met Will and Lisa.

Jim knew Will because of their common interest in collecting guitar picks, but this was the first time they met face to face.  Will and Lisa drove down from Hendersonville, picked us up at the hotel, and before we even got to the restaurant it was clear we were fast friends.  In fact, I asked our server at Amerigo if he could believe we had just met, because we were talking and laughing like we had known each other for years. (He didn't believe us.)  After wonderful food and conversation, Will drove us over the Centennial Park to see the replica of the Parthenon.  We were fortunate to find someone there to take some pictures of us.  We look forward to seeing Will and Lisa when they come down Florida way next spring.

Me, Jim, Lisa, Will

#1 The Best Tour Story

As part of our visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame, we took the Studio B tour.  This is a 30 minute tour of the RCA studio where thousands of songs have been recorded, among them "Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers, "Crying" by Roy Orbison, and "Coat of Many Colors" by Dolly Parton.  (Side note: Dolly also wrote "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" at the studio on the same day!)  Today this studio is the home of recording artists like Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride.

The studio was scheduled to be closed on August 17, 1977 -- it was no longer going to be used.  As many of you may remember, that is the day after Elvis Presley died.  Elvis recorded over 200 songs in Studio B, and was the focus of the today's tour.  The studio never did close, and is still in use today. 

When we got in the bus to go to the studio, Ron Herman (our guide) asked if there were any Elvis fans on the tour?  Only about half the people raised their hands.  I did not.  I have never bought an Elvis record, nor have I ever downloaded one.  He just has never been of much interest to me, although I don't have anything personal against him or his music.

Studio B

Once inside the actual studio, we were told various recording stories about Elvis.  We saw the piano where he played "How Great Thou Art" for his gospel rendition of the song.  We heard how he insisted on the studio being totally decorated for Christmas during the month of May while he recorded a Christmas album, complete with a large Christmas tree in the center of the room and gifts underneath.

Elvis knew about aesthetics!

Then Ron told us that Elvis never came to record in the morning.  He would come at night -- around 10 p.m. and could still be found recording into the wee hours of the morning.  As shown in the photo above, the studio has lights in groupings, and they have different colored bulbs. Elvis would often ask for certain colors to shine for specific songs -- red & green for the Christmas songs, perhaps blue for another song.  But on this one night in 1960, around 4 o'clock in the morning, Elvis asked that all the lights be turned off. And this is when our tour guide made the magic happen.  He put on the song that Elvis recorded in the dark, and he proceeded to turn off all the lights -- leaving all of us standing in total blackness listening to Elvis sing "Are You Lonesome Tonight."  It was one of the most emotionally moving musical moments I have ever had, and I felt the effects of it for several hours afterward. Ron made Elvis come fully alive in the studio for us, and I will never, ever hear that song again without getting the same goosebumps and the same tears in my eyes I had today when Elvis was in the building!  And yes, I will be downloading the song.  Want to listen? -- Elvis recorded this April 4, 1960

The piano has been in the studio since the late 1950's & heard on many recordings

On Monday, we will bid a fond farewell to Nashville, taking these 10 amazing memories and many more with us to Indiana and beyond.