road trip USA

music city - nashville - my mate Don rumsfeld & I

Davey's (Pa's) On the Road Again...

...wearin' different clothes again. Tempting though it was to tarry a while longer with the Den Boef family, it was time to hit the road. Mrs T would not forgive a late arrival in San Francisco.


The Long and Winding Road

Bearing in mind I have to reach Nashville in one go, and skirt the Smokey Mountains, The road is long, with many winding turns - some 518 miles. However, it's sunny, and the wooded Smokey Mountains are particularly beautiful. Many folk tell you to visit the US in the fall to see the trees, but they are also very striking as spring turns to early summer.

Whilst driving I got to thinking about the music on the radio. And can I find a news broadcast on the hour? Not likely...! Much though I love listening to the schmaltzy Mothers' Day tribute songs, and 9/11 Memorial Songs, this is where I start to yearn for Radio 5 Live, or 4, even BBC2. Yes, its Mothers Day here in US, so Mom, I luuurv ya, and a (another) card is on the way.

Here I return to my point about Public Service Broadcasting. Listening to the radio in the US of A is all very well. However, in the car if you are going anywhere (as opposed to loitering in one area) it is particularly frustrating, as the airwaves are full of small local stations. Many of them are broadcasting C&W (that's Country and Western, Dad, not Cable and Wireless) which I enjoy, but one has to keep retuning: as soon as you have you found a station that you enjoy, it fades out and something starts to compete on the same frequency. I love country and western to bits, and its all very homely to listen in to KYDB63-on-97.3FM as one passes through the hamlet of KYD: but eventually one longs for a decent news programme. Ironically, when I finally do find a public service radio station, it's broadcasting BBC News24, courtesy of a donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is paying to buy in the program(me). So I consider my case made on this one, M'lud.

Incidentally, I had no idea quite how many songs have been written about 9/11, including Have You Forgotten (How It Felt That Day) and Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning), which includes the wonderful lines that could have come straight from Dubya's policy handbook -

I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in I-raq and I-ran.

As you can tell, Mr T has time on his hands today!

Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of War and Mr T have at least one thing in common. A belief in Unknown Unknowns. He famously went on record saying that there are things we know we don't know, but also Unknown Unknowns, the things we don't realise that we don't know.

Unknown Unknowns

Arrive in Nashville at dusk, check in at Super 8, and desk clerk is particularly helpful in allocating me a room away from main road. At 5-30am the Unknown Unknowns factor comes into action. I know that in not knowing the area, I'd better make a contingency plan and ask the desk to put me away from the road: so far so good. But as the first flight of the morning rises gracefully (seemingly) out of the car park across the road, I realise that my mate Don was right. Over the next 90 minutes I become intimately acquainted with the start-of-day flight schedule of Nashville International Airport. I resolve always to ask about the airport runway in future.

Music City

Downtown Nashville's Honky Tonk Strip is described by some as tacky, but I like it. It's very walkable, and there are more bands playing than you can shake a stick at. I'm in musical heaven.

 
As the only audience, I'm Their Best Friend

In fact, it's Tuesday evening, and there are more bands than tourists, so I end up having a 30 minute performance from one C&W band as the only member of the audience. This is great, but does put you on the spot when the hat is passed around - all these bands play just for the love of it, and the tips they can collect. In Tootsies, they have 2 stages - one in the window, and one at the back of the building, and if you stand at the bar midway, you can hear 2 bands playing, one in each ear, which is a novelty.

JYPSI are playing at Layla's Bluegrass Inn, and this is my fave musical experience of the day. There are many technical reasons behind this choice, and having nattered on about music all day, and recognising that some might consider me a bit of an anorak on this, I don't want to bore my entire worldwide audience with advanced musical analysis. (In the Nature v Nurture debate, I'm a strong believer in Nurture: so you can blame my Mother.) Suffice to say if you would like to understand my reasoning, click here for further info.

The evening finishes with supper at the bar, and I discover a kindred spirit. Jeanie is doing something similar, driving the family Porsche from West to East, as their family has moved to South Carolina. Cunningly, she let her hubbie drive the van, and then the Estate Car, then insisted that she do her share of the driving chore. Another band is playing.


Six bands in as many hours: Mr T retires exhausted but happy. Walking back to the car, music is found to be emanating from the traffic light pillars. Oh man!

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