Historic Downtown Nashville and Ryman Auditorium

Cold last night – down to upper 30s, but I was toasty warm with the furnace and two sleeping bags. It was windy too.

Went first to Panera Bread to: (a) get directions to Ryman Auditorium, (b) find out more about the Nash Trash Tour (sold out for my entire stay), and (c) upload some photos to the blog and upload another blog post – now up to the second day in Pigeon Forge.

Then drove into downtown Nashville to search for parking and a visitor center (Tuesday, April 5th). Found the visitor center and Ryman while driving around on their maddening downtown one-way streets that abruptly end. Went first to the Visitor Center after parking at Music Center. They gave me two self-guided walking tour maps of downtown Nashville. I bought a bunch of postcards, and then started my tour.

The first things you notice are the guitar pick signs that say: “Nashville, Music City, LIVE MUSIC VENUE.” I wasn’t sure where or why these signs would show up since some bars with live music had them and some places with live music obviously streaming out of open windows or doors did not. Tootsie’s did not have a sign and they have live music on each of 3 different floors. The signs are on a pole on the parking side of the walk. What a great idea!

The tour took me down Broadway from 5th Avenue to 2nd Avenue – this is not just a live music hub, right around the corner from the Ryman Auditorium (home of the Grand Ole Opry) – but is also Nashville’s historic district.

I walked along Broadway, listening to the music pouring out of the bars and grills on Broadway, snapping photos of the historic buildings, some of them beautifully restored, others still waiting their turn, and enjoying the bright, sunny day.

I stopped at Ernest Tubb’s record store. Ernest Tubb was a singer/songwriter who: (a) wrote and sang “I Walk the Floor Over You,” (b) a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1943, (c) sometime host of the Opry, (d) the father of honky tonk music, (e ) leader of the Texas Troubadours band the developed a lot of young honky tonk talent, (f) hosted “Midnight Jamboree” a radio program that was essentially an after-party for the Opry at his record store, (g) appeared as himself in the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and (h) is listed as #21 in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s line-up of country music greats.

I bought some post cards and tried to buy Rosann Cash’s album “The List,” but it was sold out. The clerk said it always sells out fast. I did buy Brent a shot glass there.

I walked a couple more blocks snapping photos of cool historic buildings – and then stumbled on the Johnny Cash museum. So I went in and paid my admission. He was born J.R. – just J.R. The Army insisted he had to have a real first name, so he gave himself the name Johnny. The museum did a good job of providing and displaying primary genealogy documents of his major life events. They did a very nice job of creating wonderful time-line boards. Side note: Johnny Cash was a regular on a radio show out of Shreveport in the 1950s: Louisiana Hayride on station KWKH. They had a movie room where they showed out-takes of his movie and TV roles, including an appearance on The Simpsons as a coyote spirit guide. And they had lots of little kiosk-type stands with music videos of him singing – these were also grouped by decade. And he had 5 decades as a singer/songwriter. They had even re-created a stone wall from his lake home that burned, using stones they recovered at the site. They also had actual costumes worn by him and June Carter on stage.

Continuing my walking tour, I stopped in the official Opry store on my way back on the opposite side of the street. I picked up some refrigerator magnets shaped like guitars.

Back at 5th Avenue where I started, I took a tour of the Ryman. I discovered that the Grand Ole Opry (for which I had tickets that evening) is in a new, bland building in the suburbs now. Ryman Auditorium is gorgeous!!! From the outside, it looks church-like; maybe a Masonic Lodge. Inside it is part church and part concert venue. It was built in 1892 by Ryman, a hard-bitten riverboat captain, as a Union Gospel Tabernacle to save the souls of the lost of Nashville. It also hosted concerts and lectures (like Booker T. Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt). In 1897, the balcony was added as the “Confederate Gallery” for a Confederate Veterans Association reunion. It should be noted that Tennessee remained in the union for the duration of the war, but its populace was deeply divided. Nashville residents still refer to "occupied Tennesse" but they mean occupied by armies from both sides.

The Ryman hired Lula Naff as the back of house manager in 1904, and then she started leasing the building as an independent agent in 1914. She is single-handedly responsible for all its success as an institution. She retired in 1955. In between, she booked all the acts, making annual trips to NYC to book Broadway shows and search for more national music talent. She was the booking agents, the CFO, the advertising department, the ticket seller (she would walk the streets of Nashville hawking tickets out of a shirt box). She brought in shows like Will Rogers, Helen Hays, Katherine Hepburn, Bob Hope, as well as boxing matches and political debates. She turned the Ryman into a national venue of great repute.

In June of 1943, Lula welcomed the Grand Ole Opry (a show put on by WSM radio that had grown too big for its space). The crowd was rowdy, but it built its own national reputation with Lula’s help. Early performers included Bill Monroe (of Prairie Home Companion fame), Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chet Atkins, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams,

Maybelle Carter, June Carter, and the incomparable Minnie Pearl, who was a regular on the show. My Grandma Birdie was a HUGE fan of Minnie Pearl’s. "Howdeeeee!" Elvis Presley appeared only once in 1954 and was NOT well-received. Later Grand Ole Opry members included Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, and Emmylou Harris.

National Life Insurance, eventually the owner of both the Ryman Auditorium and WSM radio, built a new home for the Grand Ole Opry in 1974 and planned a demo. Local and national celebrities started vocally advocating preservation of the “Mother Church of Country Music.” March 15, 1974 the last Grand Ole Opry show on WSM radio was broadcast from the Ryman. Minnie Pearl cried. In 1980, scenes from the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” – the Loretta Lynn story – were filmed there. In 1988, Dolly Parton started filming some episodes of her ABC variety show there. In 1989, the renovation began. In 1991 and 1992, Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers recorded two albums - “Live at the Ryman.” In 1992, an even bigger renovation began. Garrison Keiller brought a “Prairie Home Companion” there in 1994 for the Grand Opening of the Ryman – and returned in 2015. The musical "Always..Patsy Cline" also premiered there in 1994. In 2001, it was declared a National Historic Landmark.

I took lots of photos. They had some of the biggest stars in country music narrating about 6 different video history segments next to 6 different sets of display cases showing off the unique history of the place. At the end of the tour, I got a photo taken of me playing a guitar on stage at the Ryman.

I have to admit that, while I was watching the mandatory video, when they got to the part about plans to demolish the building, I started to tear up.

I walked to the corner hoping to find a seat at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which is on the self-guided walking tour. I walked up to the rooftop, on the way passing 3 bands each playing on a different floor of the Lounge. The one on the 3rd floor (rooftop) was playing off key. There was no room to sit, but there was one guy alone at his table with 2 chairs. So I asked him if he would mind if I sat there. He said to please feel free. He was a songwriter originally from England, now living in Spain, there at a new songwriters’ conference trying to get some interest in his songs. At the workshop that day, one judge was very negative but the other one said that he is interested in working with this Brit country boy. We chatted while I ate a really good burger and had a couple of gin and tonics. I showed him the self-guided tour description of Tootsie’s. Apparently the wild lavender was a mistake by a painter a long time ago, but the owner has kept it because it makes the place stand out on a busy strip.

I walked a few blocks west on Broadway to see a few other historic buildings including the Custom House. Then it was time to head to the burbs for the Grand Ole Opry.