Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. My stepdaughter is visiting for the weekend. We spent the morning walking around Memphis. We walked all the way from my apartment, down along the river to the S. Main area. We walked by where I used to work. We spent some time outside the Civil Rights Museum, quietly looking at the balcony where Dr. King was assassinated. It was sunny but cold. We packed our things and went to the Cooper-Young neighborhood to a vegan cafe, Imagine. She loved their menu. We got on the road to Nashville around 1. Somewhere around Jackson, TN there was a really bad accident on highway 40 heading in the other direction. The one car was unrecognizable – they had a tarp over it, I’m guessing there was a fatality. Traffic was backed up for miles. Highway 40 is the main road between the two cities. It’s two lanes in each direction and when there are accidents, the highway is basically shut down.
Once in Nashville, we pretty quickly made our way down to Broadway – we were staying at an airbnb on 5th Ave near the state capitol – not too far from where I stayed the last time I was there. I’ve been to Broadway once before – it’s fun, but easily overwhelming. While the comparisons to Beale and Bourbon are appropriate – Broadway has way more people visiting it. I would guess it’s more than twice the size of Beale with twice as many bars. Things are newer and bigger on Broadway (and in fact in the entire city). While both cities have similar populations, the communities surrounding Nashville are much larger than those surrounding Memphis. We made our way in to Stage bar which was packed. There we had a couple of beers talked to a woman from Minnesota, and I talked to a couple from Tampa. The band played plenty of country covers, and at one point thanked all of our service members for their service. Nashville is the epicenter of all things country, and has a strong conservative and patriotic vibe to it – at least the Honky Tonks on Broadway do. The really big dude from Tampa was ex marine. I always feel a little out place – I’m not the biggest fan of country music, and I don’t really do the blind patriotism thing. I feel the same way about patriotism as I do religion – or I suppose any adherence to dogma. We made our way to So and so’s big whisky bar…. had a drink there before moving on. It was more of the same.
Our main reason for heading to Nashville was to see Michael Kiwanuka. He didn’t disappoint. The opening act, Sammy Brue was surprisingly good as well – I plan to check him out. We made friends with a woman named Celeste – she was there with her boyfriend Nico – they were adorably in love. The crowd was considerably more diverse than the Broadway crowd. One woman assumed that Carolyn was my date – she seemed a little embarrassed when we made the awkward correction. I’ve given up hope of trying to write music reviews… and I’m torn about even taking video – sometimes I just want to watch and enjoy. I did grab a few videos… and his encore had three of my favorite songs “Home Again,” “Cold Little Heart,” and “Love and Hate.” Here’s what I captured of “Home Again.” It’s supposed to be a video – but this site can’t seem top process the .mov format. I’ll see if I can get it to work.
Like the Marcus King show – this was over the top good. For me, music is my church. It is the constant in my life – pretty much at my beck and call. While it is sometimes sad, music never disappoints.
This morning we got an early start. Had a breakfast at a little cafe, walked Broadway so Carolyn could get a t-shirt, and got on the road back to Memphis. I have mixed feelings about Nashville. I’m impressed and turned-off by its growth. I’m impressed and turned off by its tourism. I hope next time I go back I can see other parts of the city – I’d hate for people to judge Memphis just on Beale St., and I’d like to get a better sense of what Nashville is like outside of the Nashvegas moniker. The drive home was long. It looks like they needed to do road clean up and repair from yesterday’s accident which shut one lane down – this added an hour on to the trip.
Tonight – the day after Valentine’s Day, we plan on going to a place called Loflin Yards, hitting a restaurant called South of Beale, seeing Beale Street and Ernestine and Hazels. Should be a fun night, and I like being able to show her around a bit.
Hope you all had a nice Valentine’s Day – whatever that means for you.