Nashville On My Mind

How you doin'?

Sensory overload, baby. Nashville was like a recurring bolt of lightening to the brain.

Zap, zap, zap.

And the yin and yang of NH to Nashville and Nashville to NH is a bit disorienting. One extreme to the other.

Got home last night at 7:30. To Carol. To Emmy Lou. To Patsy. The sweet comfort of home. I mean that sincerely.

I am shooting from the hip here. I have not planned my remarks. In an odd sense I feel high. Because I still have Nashville in my blood and because of that, I refuse to return to "normal". There are certain things about my life at home that gotta go - annoying, no mind things that waste my time and poison my karma.

If I am in this house I gotta be happy. 'Nuff said.

Nashville impressions: The area around our hotel - The Westin (no Motel 6 for us) - was like any boring, predictable city. High rises, businesses, sterility - typical American blandness.

However - a 10 minute walk, a right hand turn and Oh My God - Nashville! Broadway, baby.

Bars up and down both sides of the street. Neon signs, talented bands playing in every bar, music pouring out into the street. Roof top bars - lots of them - with bands. People!!!!!!!!!!! Happy, forget the facade, people!

Old school country music does it for me. 

So Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row, Jason Aldean's Kitchen and Rooftop bar, Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk and Rock 'N Roll Steakhouse - and others - don't do shit for me. Doesn't mean we didn't check them out - I think for two old guys in three nights we made a pretty good showing up and down Broadway. But my point is they were just bars to me.

However two joints melted my heart; they were the reason I was in Nashville.

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Church. I was in church. Absolute awe.

Opened in 1960. Some people who drank there and played there and wrote songs there - Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Emmy Lou Harris, Patsy Cline - recognize any of those names?

Brief aside - Carol caught an interview with Willie Nelson while I was away, during which he casually mentioned that he wrote Crazy in Tootsie's. Carol was blown away because she knew I was excited to see the place. Me drinking whiskey in Tootsie's - talk about carrying on a tradition.

The place is four stories high, but I am so glad they preserved that dive bar feel. No glitz and glitter.

Autographed 8x10's plastered on the walls - every available space, four stories high. I tried to find the people I love but there were 8 million pictures to choose from. So I just let the atmosphere wash over me, as I dug the bands (we were there more than once) that played there.

However, on Saturday night we caught a couple of seats at a table across from the bar on the first floor. Sitting there sipping whiskey, I looked to my right above the bar and noticed a large, framed picture of Kris Kristofferson - inscribed - Tootsie's, With Love, Kris Kristofferson.

I was saved.

I bought t-shirts for me and Carol from one place and one place only. That place was Tootsie's.

Do you know who Nudie Cohn is? You know those crazy over-the-top rhinestone suits a lot of country singers wore? Nudie was THE go-to guy for those suits. They were called "Nudie Suits."

He made suits for Hank Williams, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Roy Rogers, Elton John and Elvis and..........................

He has a bar - Nudie's Honky Tonk - that was another church for me. He's been gone since 1984 but his bar brings the funk in a big way. Hanging on the wall in glass cases are suits worn by these amazing people, with a plaque telling you who wore the suits. 

Very funky place, all kinds of funk going on, but the eyestopper is one of Nudie's Cadillac El Dorados - hanging on the wall. He was big on customizing cars -  called them Nudie Mobiles - silver-dollar studded dashboards, pistol doorhandles, longhorn steer hood ornaments etc. 

The man was eccentric - what's not to love?

I was in Nashville for the history and the music. And every band we heard was talented. I was immersed in great music from old country to new country to classic rock and newer stuff, fiddle music and on and on and on.

Got tired of one song though, that apparently every Nashville bar band is required to play. Of course it's a drinking song. "Whiskey Glasses" by Morgan Wallen. Everybody knew the lyrics. Repetitive but what the hell - drunken communal singing is therapeutic.

Christ - I got caught up singing "Friends In Low PLaces" in one bar. Belted it out with pride, along with every other person in the bar. And somehow, because we were in Nashville - it did not feel cliched.

I was also in Nashville for insanity. Got plenty of that.

More to come.