Nashville, Tennessee

On the Greyhound into Nashville there was an intense-looking young guy sitting in the front row, totally engrossed in a book.  Eventually he stood, turned round and began addressing the whole bus. He told us that the God of Abraham was dead and had been replaced by the God of Life. Sadly for him, denying the God of Abraham means denying Jesus Christ, and that sort of thing doesn't go down well in Tennessee. He failed to win the crowd over and sat down again in resentful silence.

Although I do like a bit of Gram Parsons and Hank Williams and Emmylou Harris, I can't say I'm as excited about the Nashville scene as I was about Memphis or Muscle Shoals. But there's plenty more than just country music here. It seems almost everyone you meet is in town to play a gig or make a record, and of course names get dropped constantly. ('I'm working with such-and-such...he did the xylophone arrangements for a solo album by the drummer of the band who used to open for Ugly Kid Joe...') It's like LA: everybody wants to be on the scene.

Of course, name-dropping and competitive boasting is a fairly universal thing. Last year in Detroit I said hello to a chap in a hostel kitchen and within about fifteen seconds he had found occasion to mention that he'd once been nominated for an Oscar. I looked him up later and in fairness it was true.

Aside from the record industry, Nashville is also a popular holiday destination for Americans to get drunk and shake their tails to live music. Most of this happens on Broadway and it's a good night out. In the pub where I got the food pictured below, I came across 'layered beers', meaning two different beers mixed in one glass. Snakebite, ie lager and cider, is familiar; as is Black Velvet, ie Guinness and cider. However 'Black Garden' - Guinness and Hoegaarden - is definitely a new one on me. (It's also known as 'Black Hoe', but obviously I'm not about to start yelling that across the bar...)

Broadway. If you like country music and/or beer, then this is the place for you.

Guerrilla billboard behind the Hustler shop on Church Street.
The shop itself is in fact fairly innocuous, like an Ann Summers, but the rest of the Hustler empire isn't.
For example they have a 'Barely Legal' strip club in New Orleans, with special offers for Father's Day. Words fail me.
Details of the campaign are here.

LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans (American football), with a game ongoing.
The visiting team was the Cleveland Browns, who came back from 28-3 down to win 29-28.
It was the biggest comeback victory by an away team in NFL history.

I think this rollercoaster needs some work.

The AT&T Building. It looks like Batman.

Savannah's Candy Kitchen on Broadway, by far the most impressive sweet shop I've ever seen.

Edd vs Food #19
A bit of comfort food at The Pub, an 'authentic' English-style boozer on 11th Avenue.
Shepherd's pie with beef, lamb, peas, carrots and chive whipped potatoes...all topped with mozzarella.
Since when did 'authentic' English shepherd's pies come with mozzarella?
I'm not complaining though!