After random talks of a Tennessee tour, it finally happened in June. One of my best friends, Jane, and I hit the road for a week to see what the Volunteer State had to offer us musically.
Our original plans didn't include a trip to Knoxville, but after thinking about the almost 12-hour drive from Virginia (where Jane lives) to Memphis, we decided to find a stop for the night. Sundown in the City- a free concert series Thursday nights from April to June was doing it's last show of the summer in the middle of the city's Market Square, featuring Drive-By Truckers and Eli 'Paperboy' Reed & the True Loves.
Certain roadside attractions and oddities were a big motivating factor, too. We saw a sign for Uncle Pete's and decided it was worth a shot. The walls were covered in coffee mugs and autographed photos of musicians who traveled through. Our waitress introduced us to Uncle Pete himself, who sat down with us. He told us about Dolly Parton stopping in and I pointed out the Brenda Lee picture next to Dolly. I'm named after her, and Pete told us she would visit whenever she was on her way from the Grand Ole Opry. Fun fact: he's convinced the King is alive and a waitress told us Elvis is Lady Gaga.
We checked into the Days Inn next to Graceland and lounged by the guitar-shaped pool. Everything was Elvis-themed as this year would have been Elvis' 75th birthday. There are two shrines to Elvis within Graceland, and his racquetball room was converted to display all his platinum and gold records. If you go, make sure you buy the postcard with a recipe for peanut butter and banana sandwiches on it. We did.
After spending money on useless items with Elvis's face on it in Graceland, we headed to Beale St. We stopped for dinner at Pig on Beale where an Elvis impersonator took time to introduce himself to every table before he went on. Aside from a little person Elvis I met in Vegas, I don't have much experience with such impersonators.
This is where Elvis first recorded. Johnny Cash was here, U2 did songs from their Rattle and Hum album here (and left their drum kit downstairs). So many musicians who were important to the progression of rock and roll have been in this studio. There are still marks on the floor from where Elvis stood. Our tour guide, Cody, was very adamant about not kissing or licking the mic. His band, The Gunslingers will be playing Philadelphia and NYC this October.
I don't generally enjoy bar hopping, but I could spend all day on Broadway. We went on three separate occasions during our weekend in Nashville. The first night, Jane and I bought cowboy boots and headed to Paradise Park - a trailer park-themed bar. Every bar had a band playing, all the time. Most worked for tips and there were no cover charges. A musician at one bar made the audience clap every time new people walked through the door.
Though it's small and situated in a strip mall, it's incredibly important to singers and songwriters. Some of the biggest names in music have come out of there (Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks). Two of our friends were performing the night we went. Adrian Hardkor and Ken Wenzel came all the way from the D.C. area to play three songs each.
TACKY! I've never seen so many dinner theatres, celebrity impersonators, arcades, gift shops, and museums in the space of a few miles. We went there to visit Dollywood and ended up having more fun in our hotel room watching Coal Miner's Daughter and driving the go karts across the street. On our way out of Pigeon Forge, we had to stop by the only auto shop we could find amongst the slew of "As Seen on TV" stores and outlet malls to get a stuck CD removed from the player (we won't mention names due to shame). The guy who fixed it gave us his number and said he could show us some good music in town. But the town was made up of only a Titanic museum a Bible museum.
Thanks to the trapped CD, we were able to catch our friends as they were also headed out of Pigeon Forge. The guys convinced us to follow them to Johnson City so they could stop by the Acoustic Café, which turned out to be one of the only happening things in town. We hung out there for a bit, then walked through the city and had a photo shoot at an abandoned train station. If anyone needs to perfect place to film a zombie movie, come to Johnson City. In fact, we found a few at the end of Main St. at a bar called Numan's. After a few sips of obviously-boxed wine, we were out of dodge.
