TN Day 2- Best Friends, Bands, and Burgers in Nashville
Today I got up bright and early to set out for Nashville to meet my best friend and his family. They planned their vacation to line up with my trip, and I was so excited to get to spend most of the week with them in the country music capital of the world.
Before I saw them though I fueled myself for the roughly three hour drive by stopping for coffee at the Empty Cup. It was one of the coziest coffee shops I'd seen so far, and I definitely would have stayed and reclined if I didn't have places to be and people to see, so instead I contented myself with some good jokes and some good coffee. For a place called the Empty Cup they fill a mean cup of coffee.
Because I forgot that I would be driving to the central time zone, I actually got to Nashville with an extra hour of time that I hadn't planned for so I found a little cafe called Three Brothers Coffee to sit in and do some writing for a bit. The coffee was solid, and I also got a blueberry-hazelnut oatmeal which definitely made my stomach feel a little better after the nachos from the night before.
I met the Beaudets at the Holiday Inn near Vanderbilt University, and we got settled in. On the first day of first grade, I sat down next to a kid named James and we've been best freinds ever since, bonded forever over a mutual love of the Muppets, Futurama, and Invader Zim. They've been like a second family to me over the years, and I can't even begin to count the number of good times and adventures we've shared so I was so happy that they got to share in this one with me.
Our first stop was an early lunch, because we were all still on Eastern time. Mrs. Beaudet had read about a place called the Elliston Place Soda Shop, a retro diner and ice cream shop and the oldest continuously operating business in Nashville, so that's where we went.
It was amazing. We engaged in the noble Southern tradition of a Meat and Two meal, where you pick your meat and two sides. James and his mom got fried chicken with mashed potatoes and mac and cheese, and I got the day's special a pot roast with mashed potatoes and collard greens. Mr. Beaudet got the house chili. We were very satisfied. I don't know that I'd ever had real collard greens before, but I really liked them. They've got a very unusual flavor, but it complimented the pot roast (which was so tender and juicy) and the potatoes (just perfect) very well. Because we couldn't not do it, James, Mrs. Beaudet, and I also got milkshakes. I got a butterfinger milkshake which I'd never seen before but I thought worked very well as a mixed in candy. Needless to say we all left the place feeling pretty full.
From there, we had the hotel shuttle drop us off right in Downtown Nashville. Our first stop was the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Old Oprey. We wanted to keep moving after our big lunch so we didn't go in and take a tour, but just walking around the old outside, it's a beautiful old building with some impressive statues of local Nashville legends all around it.
Walking down the main street, we were bombarded (as pleasantly as one can be bombarded) with sights, sounds, and smells. There's neon lights everywhere, every bar has live music spilling out into the street, and the smell of BBQ is constantly wafting through the air. It was a happening street.
The first thing that struck us was an authentic cowboy clothing store. The boots in particular impressed me, because they were a couple hundred dollars but they just don't seem comfortable at all. I get that they were very practical and reliable, which was good for the cowboy life style, but for me personally I don't see the appeal beyond a certain aesthetic.
From there we made a loop down to the riverfront, and then looped back up main street to see the Johnny Cash Museum. The museum was really well done, collecting memorabilia from Cash's childhood up until his death. It's hard to think of another artist who remained as prolific and culturally relevant for as long as Johnny Cash did. It said in the museum that at the time of his death, he had had over 100 songs make the Billboard Top 100. That's unreal! My favorite pieces of memorabilia were his middle school yearbook, a photo of him, Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis just hanging out that had been signed by everyone but the King, and the photos from his wedding to June Carter and the birth of their first daughter. Cash absolutely had his demons, but the story of him and June seems genuinely sweet. And she was also a hell of a singer in her own right.
Something I didn't know about the Man in Black was that hew was also a pretty good artist on top of singing and strumming. He drew all his life as a hobby, and got to be not too bad at it. I think it's really sweet that one fan asked him for a drawing for her husband for christmas, and he happily obliged.
Probably my favorite things in the whole museum though were these two ridiculous album covers. Album art has definitely been the biggest casualty of the digital music age, but just look at the gems we're missing out on. "Look at them beans!"
Overall I really liked museum and I was really impressed by Johnny Cash as a person. He walked the line, and he also seemed to walk the walk. The albums he made at Folsom County Prison and San Quentin are two of his best, but they weren't just stunts. I didn't realized that he actually met with the president and campaigned for comprehensive prison reform. I think he was actually right about a lot of his suggestions, and I think prison reform is absolutely still one of the biggest domestic policy necessities we'll need in the coming years even if we don't seem to talk about it quite as much as we should. Cash came from nothing, and I think he always considered his fame something fairly unexpected so he tried to use it to do good whenever he could. I really loved the quote from one of his band mates "This year we've played for kings and queens, and we also played for prisoners."
On a more surreal note, one of my favorite stories from the museum was about how Brian Gibbs bought Johnny Cash's old house after he died but accidentally burnt it to the ground one night so they ended up losing quite a bit of memorabilia. There's also a few really funny stories from when he and Waylon Jennings were roommates. It was like a more coke-fueled Odd Couple, but the new show Mike Judge Presents Tales from the Tourbus actually goes into it more than the museum did, so I'd highly recommend giving that show a watch.
Three Amigos
After the museum, we stopped at Honkey Tonk Central to get a drink and see some live music. The band that was playing was really talented, and they played all kinds of styles not just country, so you could tell they were really trained musicians. They had a deal that if you tipped them, they'd play your request, but they'd only play Free Bird if someone tipped them $100. I thought that was a pretty funny rule, but then some people chipped in together and paid them the hundo so they had to play it. It was a blast to watch. To drink I got a Hap & Harry's Tennessee Lager, which I really liked. Just a good solid light beer.
After the brews and tunes, we all went back to the hotel to crash. Them from the jet lag, and me from the three months of constant motion.
When we all awoke we went back downtown for dinner. The city really comes alive at night with all the neon lighting up the skyline. We went to a restaurant called the Stillery after reading good things online. It's not a small pub, so it was packed with people but it was worth the wait. The quality and portions are insane for relatively low priced it is. James and I decided because everything looked so dang good, we'd divide and conquer. He ordered a pretzel burger (bacon, pub cheese, and two patties on a pretzel bun) and I ordered a BBQ Chicken Pizza and we split both down the middle. Neither of us could finish both halves, but we loved every bite along the way. They call their sandwiches and burgers "two handed" and for good reason. I barely had any room for pizza after just half a burger, but it was perfectly cooked and the pretzel bun really was the icing on the cake. While I didn't finish it, the pizza was also superb with more of a sweet flavored barbecue sauce on it. It might have been the best BBQ chicken I'd ever had. To drink I got a Jackalope Red Rye Ale. I was mostly inspired by the logo of the fabled Jackalope, but the beer was quite good with just a little hint of whiskey flavor from the rye.
After dinner, I went to my first mic in Nashville. It was at a bar called the East Room, and was unique among mics I'd been to before because they had a live house band called the Grey Grays, consisting of Sean Parrot on guitar and Gary Fletcher on drums. They both also did sets at the mic, so they were pretty multi-talented dudes, and they had really fun bantering chemistry with the host Aaron Webber. The live music to transition between comics really kept the energy up in the crowd which was nice because there were over 20 comics but I think people were still engaged at a point where they'd normally tune out.
It was a really solid mic with lots of diversity in terms of comics' ages, ethnicities, and styles. Some highlights for me: A guy named Brad Sativa saying he wouldn't know how to parent an asexual kid, but not for any of the more potentially reasons he could have said - "What would I do if they got bad grades? I'd have to know that they're stupid cuz they're not wasting their time trying to fuck"; A woman named Laura Peak talking about how weird it is that there's "sexy" writing on women's underwear targeted at men who might be seeing it, so that has inspired her to create underwear with affirmative messages written on the inside for the women- "You're doing a great job shitting!"; A black comic named Da Hern who just finished recording an album doing all the jokes that didn't make the cut for his album "I have to be careful when I go outside on a hot day. I might Pop-cornrows"
My personal Favorite line of the night was from an older comic named Cody Marley: "California is making it legal to buy marijuana which explains their new state bird: Doritos". A perfect monologue joke for a late night show in my opinion.
My own set went pretty well, I ended up going fairly late in the show because I was too busy chatting with other comics when the line started to form for sign-ups so I didn't notice in time. A lot of the crowd had dwindled by the time I got up, but they were really supportive and I got some nice compliments after the show.
From there, one of the comics, I started chatting to, Chance Wiley, (who also had a really solid set), was co-hosting a later mic after the one in East Room at a bar called Dee's Cocktail Lounge. I got in just around the end of the mic, but it was a nice bar to hang out in and what I saw of the show was funny. I thought Chance and the other Co-Host Mikah Wyman were really funny and welcoming. My favorite comic of this batch was a guy named Patrick Devine, who did a series of absurd one liners and anti-jokes. My two favorites were "I'm starting a ride sharing app for nicompoops. I'm gonna call it Goober" and "One of Ecuadors biggest exports is actually bat droppings used for fuel. Talk about a Gross Domestic Product."
I ended up going last but getting to do a slightly looser version set to just kind of play around and engage more with the smaller crowd. It was a real fun first day in Nashville.
Favorite Random Sightings: Tiger Rock Martial Arts; A big Highway Sign that said "Trees: Our Major Renewable Resource"; "Arrive Alive, No Fatal Crashes Today"; Man Toys; Nudie's Honky Tonk
Regional Observation: I'm so used to it being that if a bar has a live band that you don't have to pay a cover for, it's generally a fun but not very good band. In Nashville, it seems like there is no band playing at a bar that isn't really really good. My dad described it well saying it's a city for young musicians in the same way New York is for young actors.
Albums Listened To: Let My Children Hear Music by Charles Mingus (this is a really out there record with a big jazz orchestra); Let's Face It by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (easily their best album); Let's Get it On by Marvin Gaye (just the title Track); Let's Get Small by Steve Martin (holds up incredibly well for a comedy album); Let's Go by Rancid
People's Favorite Jokes:
Did you know Diarrhea is hereditary? It runs in your jeans
Songs of the Day:
Two very different kinds of weird geniuses
Maybe the greatest song name i've ever heard
Bonus:
If you're reading this and in the Boston area on December 30th, my brother Dave has organized this really great show with a bunch of very funny comics I went to school with and me trying to a do a half hour of material.
It's scary and exciting, but I'm looking forward to both the show and being home for the holidays. Yay Boston!