Athens
Right from the outset the South proves itself to be markedly different from the north-eastern pressure cooker. Being greeted with a big smile and similar "Howdy, how may we help you today?" at the Nashville visitors centre surprised me so much I just about turned and left. And help they most certainly did do making sure that I was able to use the few hours I had there to the best advantage.
It's a pretty cheesy place, even exluding the country, with a full scale replica of the Parthenon with some flimsy excuse about being the Athens of the South.
This included a visit to the Bluebird Cafe whose honour roll includes the Cowboy Junkies, dave Crosy, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and is credited with discovering both Garth Brooks and Lucinda Williams. Tonight however is was four unknows performing in the 'round' though apparently Willie Nelson has recorded one of the guy's songs. The concept is pretty cool really, a circle where everyone takes turns singing a song and so you get a nice flow as themes are taken up and dropped with some good banter in between.
I even found myself enjoying straight country music for a bit before the straight up honesty started to get to me. I the end I think that I need a bit more subterfuge. Lonely Planet reccomended the catfish sandwich which of course I followed and was well pleased with the result. Catfish seems to be pretty big down here.
Nashville was also the first 'car' city I've encountered. The Bluebird is quite a way from the city centre and after the 18hr bus ride from DC I quite fancied a walk. But was there a footpath to be found? There wasn't even a sidewalk! I got honked at a couple of times for daring to take up a little bit of the grass verge, at least I think that's what it was for.
It's a pretty cheesy place, even exluding the country, with a full scale replica of the Parthenon with some flimsy excuse about being the Athens of the South.
This included a visit to the Bluebird Cafe whose honour roll includes the Cowboy Junkies, dave Crosy, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and is credited with discovering both Garth Brooks and Lucinda Williams. Tonight however is was four unknows performing in the 'round' though apparently Willie Nelson has recorded one of the guy's songs. The concept is pretty cool really, a circle where everyone takes turns singing a song and so you get a nice flow as themes are taken up and dropped with some good banter in between.
I even found myself enjoying straight country music for a bit before the straight up honesty started to get to me. I the end I think that I need a bit more subterfuge. Lonely Planet reccomended the catfish sandwich which of course I followed and was well pleased with the result. Catfish seems to be pretty big down here.
Nashville was also the first 'car' city I've encountered. The Bluebird is quite a way from the city centre and after the 18hr bus ride from DC I quite fancied a walk. But was there a footpath to be found? There wasn't even a sidewalk! I got honked at a couple of times for daring to take up a little bit of the grass verge, at least I think that's what it was for.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home