Read about our music travels in Nashville Music City
We had a late evening flight so there were a few hours to use wisely after the chore of packing was completed.
The Frothy Monkey on 5th Avenue has been the find of this trip. Good food, coffee, wine and pleasant ambience. So one last visit seemed appropriate.
To the Ryman Auditoriun gift shop, then Ernest Tubb’s record store on Broadway. I should remember next time to go CD shopping earlier during Americanafest, as the stocks were quite low.
The Johnny Cash Museum on 3rd Avenue South, less than a block off Broadway, is another Nashville attraction that I was determined to check out this day. Americans do music museums so well and this was no exception, outstanding and colourful displays and logical flow-through design, a good mix of audio, visual and as much information as you want to absorb. I focused on his acting career today as I knew less about it and watched an interesting collage of his acting highlights, both movies and TV. “Five Minutes To Live” (1961) is an early one where it is fair to say his acting skills are developing, “A Gunfight” with Kirk Douglas, “Gospel Road”, “Ridin’ The Rails”, “Stage Coach” as well as guest spots on TV shows, “Columbo”, “Little House On The Prairie”, mini-series “North and South” and even “The Simpsons”. The Johnny Cash Show TV series showcased some up and coming singer songwriters – James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young.
Johnny and June
Johnny’s Gibson J-200
Back to the car, a drive to the airport and heading to the departure lounge when we met John Prine which was an enormous thrill – he had a gig at St Louis before performing at our RootsnBluesnBBQ festival on the weekend. Also at the departure gate was Texas singer-songwriter Darden Smith who was on the same flight – for information on Darden’s latest release, go here.
The flight from Nashville to St Louis was short. The acquiring of a rental car could have been a problem but worked out fine in the end – we had no booking, assuming we would do it at the airport. However, almost all the rental companies are well away from each other and the airport, therefore requiring a company-specific shuttle to take you to their offices. But the shuttle won’t take you if you have no reservation and there was a big religious convention on in town so demand for cars was high. Anyway, Enterprise staff looked after us and by 7.45pm we were heading east in our Dodge Phoenix. We managed to eventually find a reasonable hotel in a place called Foristell by around 9, dumped our bags and had a great steak and salad at the truck diner next door.
Tomorrow Columbia Missouri.
Read about our music travels in Nashville Music City
