Deep South Road Trip 2018 - Nashville, TN
Thursday Afternoon 25 January - Pulaski, TN to Nashville, TN
We left Birmingham, heading north on the I65 towards Nashville through rolling hills covered in forests with a mix of fir and deciduous trees.
We turned off the I65 onto the N31 towards Pulaski, first filling up at a Chevron gas station where we were advised not to use Pump 1. It was going "drip by drip … if you’re prepared to wait". UK payment cards are hit and miss in the US, especially in gas stations, where we found it best to pay with cash.
At Pulaski, we located the address where the KKK began on West Madison Street opposite the County Court. In 1917, the United Daughters of the Confederacy attached a bronze plaque to the building that read, "Ku Klux Klan organized in this, the law office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, December 24, 1865." From 1986, in response to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, the KKK returned every January to parade to the plaque. The building's owners then unbolted the plaque, turned it around so its text was hidden, bolted it back and welded the screws in place.
The building also has a small metal plaque marking it as being on the National Register of Historic Places, without further explanation.
We stopped for coffee at Buckhead Coffee House. The car and truck decor created a curious ambience in what might otherwise have been a hip coffee establishment. Nearby, a 4x4 had an NRA logo for its front licence plate.
From Pulaski, we continued on the N31 to the I65 and Nashville. We noticed big rigs driving at 70 mph or faster, often in the centre or fast lanes. This is disconcerting for visitors from Europe, where heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are more regulated. In the UK, the speed limit for HGVs on dual carriageways is 60 mph. They aren't permitted in the fast lane of a motorway with three lanes or more, and truck drivers shouldn't drive more than 9 hours a day. Taxes make fuel expensive. HGVs in Europe aren't designed to go fast and can be 4m (13 feet) high. In the US, trucks are lower to the ground and built for speed. All these differences can make US freeways seem threatening to the European traveller.
In Nashville, our Airbnb at 822 1st Avenue North was in a narrow concrete multi-storey strip of apartments underneath a big hanger like structure. Inside our apartment, we had a view of the Cumberland River plus the use of an old acoustic guitar signed by previous visitors.
We walked along the river into central Nashville, passing big warehouse clubs with neon signs, offering bars, dining and music to tourists. We ate at the BB King Blues Club, where Carl Stewart was playing with his four piece band. A left handed, upside down guitarist, who once played with BB King, he served up a slick but bland menu of blues, gospel and fusion.
Afterwards, we combed the surrounding streets for any shop selling milk and instant coffee. Our efforts were eventually rewarded.
Friday 26 January - Nashville, TN
Before dawn, I walked along the Cumberland River Greenway, heading away from the city centre through a heavily industrial area with a cement factory and oil or gas storage, passing rough sleepers in tents off the path, some lightly concealed by the sparse winter foliage. I reached the city limits around sunrise and returned via Red Cycle Coffee, a welcome discovery.
At the apartment, Nige and I took turns with the resident guitar and made notes of our trip so far.
Downstairs in the hanger-like carpark, we bumped into Steve at his black truck. He told us he was once the drummer of a band called Exile, played ToTP in 1985, supported Smokey at a festival at Wembley, and had met Keith Richards. He lived in the condos, but was thinking of moving further out. His condo had increased in value by 200%. He told us the history of the condos and about the closure and proposed demolition of the nearby Stockyard Restaurant.
After brunch at Germantown Cafe, we walked up to the Tennessee State Capitol for a view of Nashville. Its a city in a state of constant change, with construction sites everywhere, a steel and glass skyline and little sense of planning or preservation. Outside the Capitol, there's an imposing statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse, identical to one outside the White House in Washington, DC. Jackson was the 7th US president, but his reputation is marred by his time as a wealthy slave owner and his initiation of an Indian removal policy.
More recently, Donald Trump expressed his admiration for Jackson, placed his portrait in the Oval Office and made a pilgrimage to his tomb in Nashville. In an interview on May 1, 2017, Trump claimed Jackson had been angered by the impending Civil War and would have stopped it had he still been president. Journalists quickly noted that Jackson died a decade and a half before the Civil War. Trump later responded with a tweet that "Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!"
We walked down from the Capitol to Nashville's beautiful Public Library. In the restrooms, basins have been replaced with a flat slab, with water draining backwards to the wall. Rough sleepers use the facilities and hang out in the library foyer for warmth. We visited an exhibition about Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
We continued past the Ryman Auditorium for a beer at Legends Corner, in time to hear a four piece band deliver a decent rendition of Ramblin' Man by the Allman Brothers, while female patrons danced appreciatively.
It was the last song of the set, so we continued past the Bridgestone Arena (Ice Hockey) and huge Nashville Music City Center to Carter Vintage Guitars. There we tried out dozens of guitars from the large selection. I found a used Epiphone acoustic for $350. Seth fitted it with strap buttons, after which Drew Smithers, playing with 4 piece rock n roll band Bishop Gunn based in Natchez, sold it to me, together with a $60 (!) strap and free t shirt. Drew gave us tips on where to stay and what to do in Natchez.
Our next stop was Third Man Records, Jack White’s shop. On the way, we passed the Room in the Inn Homeless Service in Drexel Street. Third Man Records was rammed with tourists but didn't have much of interest for us.
We headed back to our apartment via a southern section of the Cumberland River Greenway, near Ascend Amphitheater, and walked underneath the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge. At our apartment, we played with the guitars before setting off for dinner at 312 Pizza Company, a busy Chicago style restaurant with mostly local people.
Saturday Morning 27 January - Nashville, TN
Before breakfast we walked back towards the city centre and across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge at Shelby Street. It was "rehabilitated" in 2009.
For breakfast, we visited Frothy Monkey, where we bumped into Eric, an Art Agent who had moved to Nashville from LA the day before for six months to a year to promote an artist called Bahtel ("no agenda, no race, no class").
Our final objective in the city centre was to visit Chet Atkins' statue. We came across a hostile grifter called Tammy, with her sad and gentle companion Andy.
We returned to our apartment along the river, past Fort Nashborough cabins and a statue of Timothy Demonbreun. We peered into the shuttered Stockyard that Steve mentioned the day before. It was a famous old steak restaurant in a handsome former livestock stockyard building. Its impending demolition tells of the demand for development sites in this once neglected part of town.
We left Birmingham, heading north on the I65 towards Nashville through rolling hills covered in forests with a mix of fir and deciduous trees.
We left Birmingham, heading north on the I65 towards Nashville through rolling hills covered in forests with a mix of fir and deciduous trees.We turned off the I65 onto the N31 towards Pulaski, first filling up at a Chevron gas station where we were advised not to use Pump 1. It was going "drip by drip … if you’re prepared to wait". UK payment cards are hit and miss in the US, especially in gas stations, where we found it best to pay with cash.
At Pulaski, we located the address where the KKK began on West Madison Street opposite the County Court. In 1917, the United Daughters of the Confederacy attached a bronze plaque to the building that read, "Ku Klux Klan organized in this, the law office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, December 24, 1865." From 1986, in response to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, the KKK returned every January to parade to the plaque. The building's owners then unbolted the plaque, turned it around so its text was hidden, bolted it back and welded the screws in place.
The building also has a small metal plaque marking it as being on the National Register of Historic Places, without further explanation.
 |
| The KKK is said to have commenced at the white building on the right of this picture. The reversed bronze plaque is visible between the left hand window and the doorway |
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| County Court, Pulaski, TN |
We stopped for coffee at Buckhead Coffee House. The car and truck decor created a curious ambience in what might otherwise have been a hip coffee establishment. Nearby, a 4x4 had an NRA logo for its front licence plate.
 |
| NRA plate |
From Pulaski, we continued on the N31 to the I65 and Nashville. We noticed big rigs driving at 70 mph or faster, often in the centre or fast lanes. This is disconcerting for visitors from Europe, where heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are more regulated. In the UK, the speed limit for HGVs on dual carriageways is 60 mph. They aren't permitted in the fast lane of a motorway with three lanes or more, and truck drivers shouldn't drive more than 9 hours a day. Taxes make fuel expensive. HGVs in Europe aren't designed to go fast and can be 4m (13 feet) high. In the US, trucks are lower to the ground and built for speed. All these differences can make US freeways seem threatening to the European traveller.
 |
| Overtaken by a truck |
In Nashville, our Airbnb at 822 1st Avenue North was in a narrow concrete multi-storey strip of apartments underneath a big hanger like structure. Inside our apartment, we had a view of the Cumberland River plus the use of an old acoustic guitar signed by previous visitors.
We walked along the river into central Nashville, passing big warehouse clubs with neon signs, offering bars, dining and music to tourists. We ate at the BB King Blues Club, where Carl Stewart was playing with his four piece band. A left handed, upside down guitarist, who once played with BB King, he served up a slick but bland menu of blues, gospel and fusion.
Friday 26 January - Nashville, TN
Before dawn, I walked along the Cumberland River Greenway, heading away from the city centre through a heavily industrial area with a cement factory and oil or gas storage, passing rough sleepers in tents off the path, some lightly concealed by the sparse winter foliage. I reached the city limits around sunrise and returned via Red Cycle Coffee, a welcome discovery.
 |
| One of many tents along the Cumberland River Greenway |
 |
| The Cumberland River Greenway passes these concrete works in Germantown |
Downstairs in the hanger-like carpark, we bumped into Steve at his black truck. He told us he was once the drummer of a band called Exile, played ToTP in 1985, supported Smokey at a festival at Wembley, and had met Keith Richards. He lived in the condos, but was thinking of moving further out. His condo had increased in value by 200%. He told us the history of the condos and about the closure and proposed demolition of the nearby Stockyard Restaurant.
 |
| View of the Cumberland River from our apartment |
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| View of the carpark from outside our apartment |
 |
| Steve, who was the drummer with a band called Exile |
After brunch at Germantown Cafe, we walked up to the Tennessee State Capitol for a view of Nashville. Its a city in a state of constant change, with construction sites everywhere, a steel and glass skyline and little sense of planning or preservation. Outside the Capitol, there's an imposing statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse, identical to one outside the White House in Washington, DC. Jackson was the 7th US president, but his reputation is marred by his time as a wealthy slave owner and his initiation of an Indian removal policy.
 |
| Germantown Cafe for brunch |
 |
| Andrew Jackson statue on the Capitol |
More recently, Donald Trump expressed his admiration for Jackson, placed his portrait in the Oval Office and made a pilgrimage to his tomb in Nashville. In an interview on May 1, 2017, Trump claimed Jackson had been angered by the impending Civil War and would have stopped it had he still been president. Journalists quickly noted that Jackson died a decade and a half before the Civil War. Trump later responded with a tweet that "Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!"
We walked down from the Capitol to Nashville's beautiful Public Library. In the restrooms, basins have been replaced with a flat slab, with water draining backwards to the wall. Rough sleepers use the facilities and hang out in the library foyer for warmth. We visited an exhibition about Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
 |
| Nashville's Public Library |
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| Part of the Uncle Tom’s Cabin exhibition at the Public Library |
We continued past the Ryman Auditorium for a beer at Legends Corner, in time to hear a four piece band deliver a decent rendition of Ramblin' Man by the Allman Brothers, while female patrons danced appreciatively.
 |
| Legends Corner |
It was the last song of the set, so we continued past the Bridgestone Arena (Ice Hockey) and huge Nashville Music City Center to Carter Vintage Guitars. There we tried out dozens of guitars from the large selection. I found a used Epiphone acoustic for $350. Seth fitted it with strap buttons, after which Drew Smithers, playing with 4 piece rock n roll band Bishop Gunn based in Natchez, sold it to me, together with a $60 (!) strap and free t shirt. Drew gave us tips on where to stay and what to do in Natchez.
 |
| View from Broadway, Nashville |
 |
| Carter Vintage Guitars |
Our next stop was Third Man Records, Jack White’s shop. On the way, we passed the Room in the Inn Homeless Service in Drexel Street. Third Man Records was rammed with tourists but didn't have much of interest for us.
We headed back to our apartment via a southern section of the Cumberland River Greenway, near Ascend Amphitheater, and walked underneath the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge. At our apartment, we played with the guitars before setting off for dinner at 312 Pizza Company, a busy Chicago style restaurant with mostly local people.
 |
| John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge |
Saturday Morning 27 January - Nashville, TN
Before breakfast we walked back towards the city centre and across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge at Shelby Street. It was "rehabilitated" in 2009.
 |
| John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge |
For breakfast, we visited Frothy Monkey, where we bumped into Eric, an Art Agent who had moved to Nashville from LA the day before for six months to a year to promote an artist called Bahtel ("no agenda, no race, no class").
 |
| Art on display inside Frothy Monkey coffee shop |
Our final objective in the city centre was to visit Chet Atkins' statue. We came across a hostile grifter called Tammy, with her sad and gentle companion Andy.
 |
| Chet Atkins statue, with Andy and Nige |
We returned to our apartment along the river, past Fort Nashborough cabins and a statue of Timothy Demonbreun. We peered into the shuttered Stockyard that Steve mentioned the day before. It was a famous old steak restaurant in a handsome former livestock stockyard building. Its impending demolition tells of the demand for development sites in this once neglected part of town.
 |
| The permanently closed Stockyard Restaurant |
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| The Stockyard |
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| Last view toward our apartment in Nashville |
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