Nashville Did You Knows?
That Franklin south of Nashville is the home of the Franklin Mint. I dare not go there lest I do the place violence on behalf of Letter Carriers everywhere. Do you suppose they smash those figurines before they leave the plant?
The price on Minnie Pearl’s hat was $1.98. No surprise, that wasn’t her real name.
That Nashville had the first FM Radio Station in the US?
The overnight temperature here was 39º F Monday night. Not so bad compared to that in Toronto or Halifax but cool nevertheless. At least I had an electrical hookup last night.
Now if Donald Smith were still alive what would he say about my being in Nashville?
I went on the Day Trip around Nashville Tuesday. It was nice of the sun to hang in there until the cloud cover settled in as we were getting on the bus to return and the rain to hold off until I was finally home at the end of the evening. When the skies opened up it thundered and poured.
Our tour guide/driver was a wealth of information. Who knew that aside from being home to the music industry Nashville is also a major educational centre boasting a score of Universities and a Religious Centre as well hosting the head offices and conference centres of several denominations. A city of 600,000 has 700 churches and about 1600 bars.
Any discussion of Nashville would have to begin with the longest running radio show in America, the Grand Ole Opry. Once it took on a live audience it began a tradition of outgrowing it’s venues. The Ryman Auditorium, its 4th home, began life as a church; it may no longer be a consecrated space but for Country Music Fans it is nevertheless a shrine. I was not tempted to pay $5 to have my picture taken on that stage with a cheap guitar but I would have liked to test out the acoustics reputed to be second only to the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. After all, when the Reverend preached his hell-fire sermons there were neither mikes, amplifiers nor speaker systems. After the Opry moved to its new 4400-seat venue 14 miles distant down the road from the KOA the pews were restored, removing decades of parked chewing gum and concerts resumed some years later.
Most music may be recorded digitally these days and listened to on CD or MP3 Players but the gold standard of the recording industry is still the vinyl record and at the Country Music Hall of Fame Gold Records overcrowd a wall three storey’s high by a city block in length. For the record a gold record has shipped 500,000 copies; a platinum, 1,000,000; and a diamond, 10,000,000. The Hall of Fame acts as an archive and public exhibit of the excesses of the Music Industry beginning with the shape of the building itself. Want to go for a ride in Elvis’ Gold Cadillac? If you lose a hubcap remember it’s gold plated. I wonder how good the reception was on that TV. I’d still like to hear that golden grand piano. Everything from Minnie Pearl’s hat with price-tag--$1.98 to studded, spangled and florescent coloured outfits are on display. Listening kiosks play hits of the past and life-sized mock-ups welcome you in. Tailoring jeans so that the stars look poured into them must be an industry all on its own. Squeezing ‘that’ part of the anatomy obviously doesn’t effect the ability to reach those low notes.
On another road lie the historic recording studios. RCA, Sony, BMI. You knew one of them was owned by Micheal Jackson? One artist it is quipped made her first hit when her car rammed the recording studio. And then the lesser performance spaces. Honky Tonks and Saloons line entire streets where performers work for tips. And if they aren’t performing probably wait tables. At Legends the walls were decorated by entire collections of Sun Records, the doors with life-size images of the greats. At Legends the performer welcomed our tour guide by name.
If you make public performance of Happy Birthday expect ASCAP to come knocking on your door to collect royalties on behalf of the two little old ladies who own the copyright. Anonymous may not collect his royalties but ASCAP does it on behalf of everyone else for anything not in the public domain.
Beyond the music industry Nashville has Federal, State, and City Offices and Courts. Our tour guide made sure we saw several nude statues including a large grouping celebrating the music industry. This wasn’t the only public art to win his ridicule. What looks like the twisted remains of a roller coaster in red is a million dollar public work. Office towers have nicknames including one that looks like Batman. Public Parks and the Bicentennial Mall are graced by more statuary, gardens, fountains, and at present flowering Redbuds. Did you know Nashville had its own full-scale model of the Parthenon with an art gallery inside? A militia group running wind sprints and lifting weapons cases out front were an odd touch.
Nashville also boasts businesses associated with the medical industry. Insurance Companies, Health Care providers and Research facilities associated with the universities including the Sarah Cannon Cancer Research Centre--Minnie Pearl I discovered. After all that rubber-necking I was glad that someone else was negotiating streets alive with after-school crowds and commuter traffic on the four major Interstate Highways that intersect in Downtown.
After a quick supper I wandered over to the Benny Goodman Music Barn here at the KOA for a free performance by Tailor Made Fable a five-man group of up and coming artists from Quebec City who live onsite and act as park house-band. The performers and staff out-numbered the audience but the performance was remarkably good. Four guitars and drummer make an interesting collective. Hope they manage to survive the industry and each other. Jeans, it seems, still need to be skin tight but nowadays the belt line is barely above the crotch.
That Franklin south of Nashville is the home of the Franklin Mint. I dare not go there lest I do the place violence on behalf of Letter Carriers everywhere. Do you suppose they smash those figurines before they leave the plant?
The price on Minnie Pearl’s hat was $1.98. No surprise, that wasn’t her real name.
That Nashville had the first FM Radio Station in the US?
The overnight temperature here was 39º F Monday night. Not so bad compared to that in Toronto or Halifax but cool nevertheless. At least I had an electrical hookup last night.
Now if Donald Smith were still alive what would he say about my being in Nashville?
I went on the Day Trip around Nashville Tuesday. It was nice of the sun to hang in there until the cloud cover settled in as we were getting on the bus to return and the rain to hold off until I was finally home at the end of the evening. When the skies opened up it thundered and poured.
Our tour guide/driver was a wealth of information. Who knew that aside from being home to the music industry Nashville is also a major educational centre boasting a score of Universities and a Religious Centre as well hosting the head offices and conference centres of several denominations. A city of 600,000 has 700 churches and about 1600 bars.
Any discussion of Nashville would have to begin with the longest running radio show in America, the Grand Ole Opry. Once it took on a live audience it began a tradition of outgrowing it’s venues. The Ryman Auditorium, its 4th home, began life as a church; it may no longer be a consecrated space but for Country Music Fans it is nevertheless a shrine. I was not tempted to pay $5 to have my picture taken on that stage with a cheap guitar but I would have liked to test out the acoustics reputed to be second only to the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. After all, when the Reverend preached his hell-fire sermons there were neither mikes, amplifiers nor speaker systems. After the Opry moved to its new 4400-seat venue 14 miles distant down the road from the KOA the pews were restored, removing decades of parked chewing gum and concerts resumed some years later.
Most music may be recorded digitally these days and listened to on CD or MP3 Players but the gold standard of the recording industry is still the vinyl record and at the Country Music Hall of Fame Gold Records overcrowd a wall three storey’s high by a city block in length. For the record a gold record has shipped 500,000 copies; a platinum, 1,000,000; and a diamond, 10,000,000. The Hall of Fame acts as an archive and public exhibit of the excesses of the Music Industry beginning with the shape of the building itself. Want to go for a ride in Elvis’ Gold Cadillac? If you lose a hubcap remember it’s gold plated. I wonder how good the reception was on that TV. I’d still like to hear that golden grand piano. Everything from Minnie Pearl’s hat with price-tag--$1.98 to studded, spangled and florescent coloured outfits are on display. Listening kiosks play hits of the past and life-sized mock-ups welcome you in. Tailoring jeans so that the stars look poured into them must be an industry all on its own. Squeezing ‘that’ part of the anatomy obviously doesn’t effect the ability to reach those low notes.
On another road lie the historic recording studios. RCA, Sony, BMI. You knew one of them was owned by Micheal Jackson? One artist it is quipped made her first hit when her car rammed the recording studio. And then the lesser performance spaces. Honky Tonks and Saloons line entire streets where performers work for tips. And if they aren’t performing probably wait tables. At Legends the walls were decorated by entire collections of Sun Records, the doors with life-size images of the greats. At Legends the performer welcomed our tour guide by name.
If you make public performance of Happy Birthday expect ASCAP to come knocking on your door to collect royalties on behalf of the two little old ladies who own the copyright. Anonymous may not collect his royalties but ASCAP does it on behalf of everyone else for anything not in the public domain.
Beyond the music industry Nashville has Federal, State, and City Offices and Courts. Our tour guide made sure we saw several nude statues including a large grouping celebrating the music industry. This wasn’t the only public art to win his ridicule. What looks like the twisted remains of a roller coaster in red is a million dollar public work. Office towers have nicknames including one that looks like Batman. Public Parks and the Bicentennial Mall are graced by more statuary, gardens, fountains, and at present flowering Redbuds. Did you know Nashville had its own full-scale model of the Parthenon with an art gallery inside? A militia group running wind sprints and lifting weapons cases out front were an odd touch.
Nashville also boasts businesses associated with the medical industry. Insurance Companies, Health Care providers and Research facilities associated with the universities including the Sarah Cannon Cancer Research Centre--Minnie Pearl I discovered. After all that rubber-necking I was glad that someone else was negotiating streets alive with after-school crowds and commuter traffic on the four major Interstate Highways that intersect in Downtown.
After a quick supper I wandered over to the Benny Goodman Music Barn here at the KOA for a free performance by Tailor Made Fable a five-man group of up and coming artists from Quebec City who live onsite and act as park house-band. The performers and staff out-numbered the audience but the performance was remarkably good. Four guitars and drummer make an interesting collective. Hope they manage to survive the industry and each other. Jeans, it seems, still need to be skin tight but nowadays the belt line is barely above the crotch.
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