Nashville
If you have traveled around the US, you learn pretty quickly how diverse and expansive the music scene is here. There are so many cities that base a good portion of tourism on one thing. Music. I think one could spend a lifetime exploring these cities and even small towns and never hear the same sound twice.
I’ve made it a point to seek out music, players, and unique artists everywhere I have ever travelled. Living in Asia for 15 years was a good lesson in my music search. It’s not easy finding a country artist with an Oklahoman accent in the middle of China. But, I never quit looking.
Some of the most influential cities for music in the US are quite different in their styles. But they can also be very similar. The one similarity is the musicians themselves. They live for their craft. Nearly everyone who ever picked up a guitar or sat countless hours behind a piano will attest to the financial futility for all their hard work. Even though its one of the most skilled trades there is, it doesn’t pay the bills very well. One thing is for certain. The adulation is priceless. A smile, or a connection showing the admiration from an audience member, whether it is around a campfire or in an auditorium full of paying guests. The artist lives for that moment. That kind of admiration pays the bills of the heart. The payment needed to keep the heart fresh, full, and charged for the next round.
Nashville is one of these cities. Broadway is the main street to find these honky-tonks. Lining both sides and scattered around the corner, every beer bar has a stage, and every stage is full of players, well playing and making a living with their instruments.
New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, Austin, New York, are just a few of the cities that have a long history of influence. When I left Nebraska for Nashville I was going to find out what the difference between these towns really was. I had only been to Nashville one time previously, but I had been to all these other cities many times. New Orleans is considered the birthplace of jazz, Memphis the birthplace of the blues, and Austin the birthplace of Americana. New York and Chicago blended each of those genre’s and made it their own. They all had one thing in common. That was they had nothing in common. If you want impovisation go to New Orleans. If you want gritty blues guitar and vocals it’s Memphis or Chicago. Austin was a songwriters town. The kind of town where musicians try out their latest creations on 6th street in the pubs and beer halls. That’s Americana, the everyday kind of sound. But Nashville? What did they have that was different. I was gonna find out.
Layla’s on Broadway in downtown Nashville was just the place. I learned everything
