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General Jackson, the Grand Ole Opry and a sniff of Jack Daniels

Monday, September 26th, 2011

September 9-10th

Our second day of sightseeing in Nashville, we decided to visit the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home and plantation.  Andrew Jackson was a controversial president…he called himself the people’s president, a military hero that led the U.S. to victory against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. We learned that he was the first president to have a political “campaign.” Previously elected presidents were usually chosen by a group of their peers and American citizens had little role in the election process. Andrew Jackson was also responsible for the displacement of millions of Native Americans and a promoter of slavery. During the visit of the plantation and museums, we learned about the lesser known sides of Jackson, and particularly his wife who was the victim of a personal scandal and died before he took office. We also learned about the lives of the slaves who lived on Jackson’s plantation. Something that has touched me during the trip about American history is that our country has been lead by very strong (and opposing) personalities and today we can still feel the effects of their decisions.

Friday evening, we had tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, the live country music radio show. I remembered going with my parents when I was a kid. It’s a three part show with three musical acts in each part and a different presenter for each act. The whole thing is broadcast live on the radio. The funny thing is that there is advertising between the acts.  I’ve never been to a concert before with advertising between the songs.  The show was oriented towards an older generation, but we saw a couple of good new acts and had a good time. It was late by the time we got out and we didn’t see many options for dinner so we stopped for a burger and milkshake at Checkers before going back to the hotel.  It was truly an “All-American” evening; all we were missing was a baseball game.

We left Nashville on Saturday morning and made a stop on our way south in Lynchburg, Tennessee to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. All of the Jack Daniels whiskey in the world is produced at this site using the same recipe for “old number 7” that Jack used himself. There is a nice visitor center and a free tour, where we saw where the barrels are made and the whiskey is distilled. The only hang up was at the end of tour when it was time for our “tasting” of Jack Daniels and we got lemonade instead. Yes, Lynchburg is in a dry county- it’s been illegal to buy or consume alcohol there since Prohibition. We had some nice lemonade and got a good whiff of the real stuff. Sometimes we really do have crazy laws in America.

Nashville, TN, the land of country music

Monday, September 26th, 2011

September 8th

We had been looking forward to going to Nashville since our stop in Memphis at the beginning of the trip. Everyone had said that Nashville was even more “happening.” We were actually disappointed when we arrived and started looking for a hotel.  It felt like we had entered another town suffering desperately from urban sprawl (strip malls and car dealerships greeted us!) Our guidebook mentioned that the area surrounding the Grand Ole Opry was a tourist area (not usually the type of place that we want to stay- but at least it gave us an idea of where to look.) When we arrived, the area was dead and the hotels were expensive- out of our budget. We found at later that this part of Nashville was devastated by floods a year earlier and that they were still rebuilding it. Hence, why it felt like a ghost town. We finally found a hotel and decided to stay in for the evening…it had been a long day.

The following morning, we drove to “downtown,” home of the famous country music “strip”, the state capitol and several museums and concert houses.  We had planned to spend the day visiting the town and staying out for some live music. We weren’t very inspired by the sites on offer, the guide book had been very optimistic, but it felt like another classic American “downtown” that was lacking much to do. We started by visiting the interior of the State Capitol, a simple building, that was built in 1850. It retained some of its historical charm. We left the capitol and walked down towards the riverfront where we visited a reconstructed “fort” from the early days was first settled by Europeans.  We had a picnic next to a large plaza where they were setting up for a concert and were approached by a tourist looking for help with the bus routes.

After lunch, we visited the Ryman Auditorium, a historic church that was converted into concert hall. The Grand Ole Opry had its origin in this charming building (complete with stained glass windows and wooden pews.) Today it houses a small museum about Nashville music history, the Grand Ole Opry and the auditorium itself. It must be an experience to see a concert there, but we would have to save that for another time. We purchased tickets for the Grand Ole Opry (which is now staged in its own enormous concert hall) on Friday night.

We had some time to kill before dinner so we went to the Tennessee History Museum. We had originally planned to pass it up, but there were some interesting exhibits, particularly about presidents from Tennessee, including the colorful Andrew Jackson, champion of the common man. There was also an interesting exhibit about the rise of “fire and brimstone” preaching and Christian extremism.  Somehow it validated a number of Southern stereotypes.

After a long day of sightseeing (it didn’t seem like there was much to do, but in the end, we kept pretty busy), we found our first bar to listen to some live music. This is what Nashville is about, country music at its soul. After one drink, we moved to another bar that doubled as a diner, and stayed for a couple of beers. It was enough time to appreciate the all-male band, which played a mix of classic country, blues, and bluegrass- we bought their CD and then moved on to another place for dinner which also had live music. Our day had ended on a good note, we decided to head back to the hotel and rest up for another day in Nashville.

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky and the road to Nashville

Monday, September 26th, 2011
September 7th We woke up to the same bad weather- gray and rainy. We dried off a table in front of our cabin to set up the stove to make coffee and toast our bagels. Then we ate inside sitting on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Memphis, Tennessee

Friday, March 25th, 2011
March 18th-21st We booked a motel in downtown Memphis so that we could take advantage of the nightlife. Beale Street in Memphis is famous for its Blues clubs and other live music venues. It’s closed to traffic over the weekend and ... [Continue reading this entry]