Tuesday, Jan 8, 2013
So yes I’m skipping a few days, as Sunday & Monday were pretty light days. We made a valiant effort to make church on Sunday, I had wanted to attend National Community Church, but obviously the evil “prince of the lost tourist” was more powerful than Google Maps. Sad. On the way out of town we drove right by the Air & Space Museum, so we stopped in for a quick look. Pretty amazing.
Monday we drove. And drove. And got to Nashville, checked into a great low-price hotel that has free food and a hot tub. Major score!
Tuesday was our “do Nashville” day, and it was a great day. We dropped onto Broadway St, the main drag, and our first stop was lunch at Piranha’s Bar & Grill, where I ate the most amazing sandwich I’ve ever put in my mouth. Fresh Italian bread, piled high with meat, cheese, fresh-cut fries, slaw, then more bread. Its called “Piranha way” and you pretty much cant get the sandwich any other way. Their motto is “our way is the best way, so we probably won’t do it your way.” They’re right.
After Piranha’s we dropped in to Gruhn’s Guitars, the most awesome guitar shop in the universe. Racks of 1960’s & 70’s Gibson’s, Fenders, 1930’s Dobro’s, if you're a connoisseur of fine instruments, Gruhn’s has you covered, that is, if you have a spare $2,500 - $10,000 lying around for a guitar purchase. My budget? I got a shirt. It is a cool shirt.
Then we took the tour of Ryman Auditorium. At first I was a bit sketchy on touring an auditorium, I mean its just seats and a stage, right? Wrong. Ryman Auditorium is rich with history. It was built in the 1880’s by Thomas G. Ryman. Ryman was a riverboat captain and bar owner who attended a tent revival of evangelist Sam Jones. Jones preached against the sins of the city (which Ryman made his living from), and Ryman intended to confront the preacher and heckle him. Instead of heckling Jones, Ryman got saved, and then made it his life mission to build and an auditorium where Jones could preach. I’ll spare the entire history, but the Ryman became the home to the Grand Old Opry, from 1943 – 1974 the Opry performed every Saturday night, and many country music stars got their start by performing at the Opry. Its an incredible venue, and the acoustics are amazing. Tammy and I were standing at the top of the balcony, and we could clearly hear a couple standing on the stage.
Next? Ok, Nashville is honkey-tonk central, so we had to step into a honky-tonk and hear some music. What better place than Honky-Tonk Central? Broadway is lined with establishments that have live music all day and night, and HTC was no exception. I have no idea of who the band was, matter of fact I later learned that the band members had only met each other that day. A thrown together group of musicians, that played song after song, and were TIGHT! Nashville is full of awesome musicians, ready to play, hoping to “make it,” but most will squeeze out a meager existence playing in honky-tonks.
Tuesday night we struck gold. On a whim I booked a table for the 9 PM show at the Bluebird Café, a place billed as the “one of the world’s preeminent listening rooms.” I had no idea what I was getting us into. We pulled into the parking lot at 8 pm, and there was already a line at the door. Luckily we had a reservation, so we got in. The lineup was Jeff Cohen, Kristian Bush, JT Harding, and Jon Nite, who were seated in a circle in the middle of the café. I’ve never heard of any of these guys, but as they started playing it dawned on me that “I’ve heard these songs.” So I started Google’ing the lyrics; Big and Rich, Sugarland, Keith Urban, it quickly became apparent: These guys write the songs that people hear on the radio! Jon Nite’s songs have been placed on One Tree Hill, CSI, and Vampire Diaries. If that weren’t cool enough, the MC started calling up people from the audience, and up steps Scotty Davis, who performed “What Faith Can Do” (a song he wrote, you've heard it on K-Love, Kutless cut the tune). Ha, the next night Vince Gill and Amy Grant are scheduled to play. If you ever go to Nashville, do not leave without going to the Bluebird Café. I promise, you wont be disappointed.
Today was a chill day, getting ready for the next drive - tomorrow we head for St. Louis MO.
Pastor Clay & Tammy
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