Reflections 3.

Firstly, if anyone is reading this, we’d love to know what you think. But best not to use the Indoulou site, because we’re getting about 100 spam a day on the site. Use our normal email addresses.

Ok, the Grand Ole Opry. I’m still very ambivalent about it. Or thoroughly underwhelmed. It’s a live 2 hr radio show, divided into 4 quarters, with each 30 min section carrying 6 to 8 mins of advertising, read out by the host, whilst studiously ignored by the audience. It’s certainly a step back in time, with everything from almost rock to the singing Japanese cowboy. I kid you not!  We had a singing Japanese cowboy, cheered on by I assume his extended family ( it was his 25th appearance, honestly ), a singing dwarf, one of the rudest jokes I’ve ever heard,  ( I’ll tell it when we get back ) and a real invitatation by one of the hosts to his church the next day in Nashville.

They also get all of their armed forces vets to stand up before the show, to great applause, and sing songs dedicated to and about their police forces. It’s all a bit confusing. Essentially white, and God squad, even lauding Nixon, who I thought was impeached over Watergate, and yet with the odd bit of rebellion thrown in, such as their induction to the Hall of Fame of the Dixie Chicks, just after they were ostracised after criticising Bush in their London concert.

Let’s just say that we’ve been, and that we’re unlikely to ever return!

Some more random musings now!

One of the concierges said something very useful to us. If you get great music, don’t expect great food. If you want great food, don’t expect great music. We have to agree.

Every time we see a sign for a state, city, town or county whilst we’re driving, there’s a song associated with it – Jackson, Indiana, Nashville, Memphis, Tupelo etc. It’s a great driving game singing along.

Not everything is as it appears. For example, we saw some Hells Angels/bikers in a chemists, buying sanitised hand wash!! 

It seems to be a very honest place – people get up to dance and leave all their things on the table, girls leave their handbags on the backs of chairs etc. Not what we expected. 

The local beers are great! 

We think that they put laxatives in their coffee. Can’t think of another explanation!

Lou’s had a belief for a long time that no-one should be allowed to sing Leonard Cohen songs but the man himself. We’ve now added Johnny Cash to that list.

Our credit card isn’t accepted in garages, and you have to prepay. It goes like this. ” how much will it take, sir?” “I’ve no idea.” “How many gallons?” “What’s a gallon?” Etc. You get the gist. In the end, you give them some cash, and if it’s less than that, you go back in and they refund you the change. But you have to pay in advance. For an advanced, technological country, some things are really illogical and cumbersome.

We got the chance the other day to talk to a waiter about tipping. He was a full time, professional waiter on $2.30 an hour, ( about £1.60 or €2.30 ),  who said that he earned good money, easily enough to keep his family, on tips! Why don’t they pay good wages, and price it into the food and drink? At the moment, for visitors, it’s very difficult to understand. It’s really just another tax. You have to pay, whatever the service.

On a lighter note, in search of a wifi connection, Lou took me to Hooters for lunch today. I can only assume that “hooters” is American slang for a certain part of a girl’s anatomy. Somewhere at the front, carefully kept just inside a tee shirt. Well, nearly. Lunch took me 2 & a half hours to eat.

And tonight, we saw some real blues, sung by some real blues men. Up to now they’d all been white. Memphis has a very, very different feel to Nashville. Looking forward to it.

Nashville!

Well, Nashville!
When we were in India last year, we met some Americans and we were discussing this trip. One lady said that 3 days in Nashville was 2 days too many, and on Sat, after the Grand Ole Opry, I could see what she meant. But yesterday was a great day and today was a blast.
All we did yesterday was a trip to the Johnny Cash “museum” which was wonderful. I’ve been into rock’n roll/60’s music since the 60’s, and when I was at Manchester University, it was Martyn who introduced me to Tom Paxton, Dylan, Johnny Cash etc thro’ the folk scene. And that’s when I first saw Johnny Cash in concert, with Carl Perkins & The Tennessee Three. Since then I’ve been a fan and loved most of his very last CD’s in the America series, produced by Rick Rubin in the time before and after June Carter Cash died.
But you learn so much more when you go to these places. He was a good actor himself, and his record on prison reform was fascinating. Hence the Folsom and San Quentin Prison recordings.
But even better was Lou’s reaction. She’s beginning to understand my enthusiasm for this trip. And the room covering the Sun studio recordings, and the good old fashioned rock’n roll was fantastic. We’re off to Memphis tomorrow and we’re trying to get a visit to the Sun Studios.
Yesterday was great for me too with a 90 minute deep tissue massage, and then off to the BB King club downtown. He died last week, but it was business as usual at the club, and it rounded off a great day.
But today was better!!
We started out at the Ryman Theatre, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry from the 40’s, and after it’s renovation, a great venue. Jeff Beck played here Sunday night, but it was sold out.
After that we went to the County Music Hall of Fame for a couple of hours, and only made the top floor before the Studio B tour took us over town to, yes, Studio B. That’s Nashvilles equivalent to the Sun Studio, and has produced a 1,000 no.1 hits!! The guide wax brilliant and played all the fabulous tracks, really loud, and encouraging us to sing along. When we looked around, it was us who knew all the lyrics, not the Americans. But it was so loud that we could belt them out. Elvis, the Everlys, Roy Orbison, Jim Reeves, Don Gibson, Waylon Jennings ( who gave up his seat to the Big Bopper on Buddy Holly’s fatal flight) etc, all produced by Chet Atkins. And we got to sit at Elvis’s piano.
Then back to the Hall of Fame to finish off the tour! The Hall of Fame is very well done, and it’s amazing in the 60’s how many country stars had crossover hits in the pop/rock charts. But the highlight for me was the Kenny Rogers exhibition, when it said that after Harry Chapin’s death, he took over the charities on world hunger that were so central to Harry Chapin’s concerts.
We learnt so much these last couple of days.
And then Lou just excelled herself tonight by finding a restaurant called Etch. A bit like in India, we wanted a change of diet, this time from southern “cooking”, and Etch would have at least 1 Michelin star if it were in France.
Off to Memphis tomorrow.
I’ll post some “music” photos with this!