The Music Triangle…

Sue, Sue’s sister Deb, and I went to America recently to experience the music that came out of various areas – Country in Nashville, Blues & Soul in Memphis and Jazz in New Orleans.

We hadn’t realised that BA had just opened a direct route to Nashville from Heathrow so we were lucky not to have to transfer elsewhere.

I could of days before the flight I started to get a pain running down my right leg from the base of the spine to the foot, I assumed it was sciatica and as it was the weekend I got some strong pain killers and soldiered on.

When we arrived in Nashville it was evening and after checking into our ample rooms in the

Hotel Indigo, we went to get a beer in the bar where music was playing (NOTE: most turn up and watch live music is played in bars, and so that is where we ended up most of the time).

Our hotel is next to a narrow street called Printer’s Alley, and it was there that we found Skull’s Rainbow Room, where we ate a meal and listened to more music.

The next morning I woke up and found a nasty rash had appeared all down my leg. Not wanting to deal with American hospitals we found a local pharmacy and asked the chemist his opinion. He asked if I had taken anything different and I mentioned the pain killers which he suggested I stop taking (in case I was allergic) and try some antihistamines. I did so and also applied some steroid cream I have for my eczema, and over the next few days the rash improved. 

We wander off into town past many historic and musical places of interest and had a wonderful breakfast at the Sun Diner that was located next to the Johnny Cash Museum (where there is a moving display of his rendition of the Nine Inch Nails song, Hurt), and across the road from a local confectionary store – the GooGoo shop.

We then went over to the large Country Hall of Fame museum where we spent a good time exploring the many exhibits to stars old and new.

It was getting to warm to continue walking around so we stopped at the Famous Saloon which had a roof top bar overlooking the river and we had a cold beer whist watching a paddle boat pass. When it got too hot to do even that we went down into the bar where live music was playing.

During the evening the neon lights come on along the main strip showing shops, bars, eateries. We strolled along taking it all in, occasionally pausing for a drink and to listen to music. One of the famous music venues was Nudies Honky Tonk (Nudie was a well-respected costume/stage clothes designer), and his bar had a few of his works hung on the wall (along with a Cadillac car). Across the road was another called Tootsies Orchid Lounge, a smaller and crowded place with heaps of atmosphere, with a back entrance that faced the Ryman theatre (artists from days gone by would walk out of the theatre straight into the bar).

A place that became a regular for us was the Bourbon Street Blue’s and Boogie Bar near hotel (in Printer’s Alley, and which hosted amazing Blues artists – no Country at all). It was a small and intimate place far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the main strip not to attract the merely curious. The food was simple bar snack sort of fare, but in a Southern style (alligator bites for example). 

Another good restaurant for its roof top location overlooking the strip, was Ole Red Lookout. The food was a limited selection, but it was good quality and tasty.

The Hop on Hop off trolley bus tour was recommended to us be the hotel and so we bought two day tickets and initially did a full circuit without getting off, to get a feel for the place and to plan where we would return to.

The following morning, we went to the Bicentennial Park which has a few wonderful features (fountains – one for each major river in the state, a garden in a scale topographical representation of the state, a marble wall with a history of events inscribed on it – with gaps broken in it to show major conflicts, a WWI and WWII gardens, and bell towers – one for each county, that played various tunes). On one side of the park is the Farmer’s Market, which is not all that interesting (though the strawberries were huge and delicious). Next stop we got off at on the tour was at the former Marathon Motor Works (a former car factory and earlier cotton mill, now a collection of hipster shops. Also, here is the American Pickers shop, a museum of the Marathon cars and work benches, and the Green Brier Distillery).

Back on the trolley we went until we stopped for lunch at The Stillery (Beers, huge salads, and catfish & fries). Another short ride along Music Row we stopped at Bobby’s Idle Hour Tavern where it was Sam’s Jams open mike time. To finish off our heritage tour we stopped at the Ryman Auditorium (one of the former locations of the Grand Ole Opry).

A few more bars later we finished up at the Black Rabbit, a burlesque club. The atmosphere was fun and relaxed and the band played a few preliminary songs until the first act came on – a cowgirl stripper who spanked a guy near us. The most entertaining sight was Deb’s face, wide eyed and shocked at what she was seeing she insisted we leave.

Another worthwhile stop on a sunny day was Mike’s Ice Cream parlour (I had a great malt shake here).

After we checked out we went to pick up our car to drive over to Memphis, we did this early and headed for breakfast at the Loveless Café out of town, here the girls had moonshine bloody Marys. The ‘biscuits’ were a hit, the ‘grits’ not. We drove on to Jackson (Tennessee) and to the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame hosted by the eccentric Henry Harrison with his rambling tales of musical notables and his collection of oddball artefacts. Also on route we stopped at the school that Tina Turner attended and which is now a small museum dedicated to her.

At Memphis, we checked into the Hampton Inn & Suites which backed onto the main strip of Beale Street. Here settled into the relaxed Silky O’Sullivan’s garden space (where they have so-called Irish diving goats in an enclosure). That evening we dined at BB King’s and enjoyed the house band play into the night.

In the morning, we wandered around town (Gibson factory and Memphis Rock N Soul Museum – from the outside only), and then onto the Peabody Hotel for breakfast and the march of the ducks (several ducks are resident in their own penthouse suite and twice a day come down in the lift and a guided into the fountain in the lobby by a finely dressed wrangler.

The next day we went out to Graceland, a shrine/amusement park dedicated to the ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’. There were a great number of people there and we limited our visit to the house and his planes (missing the warehouses full of cars, clothes and other personal effects). The house was interesting and gave you a feel for how he lived at the end. It was a little disconcerting to see people weeping over the graves of him and his family.

On our way back into town we swung by Sun Studios before dropping the car of and attempting public transport. Unfortunately, the trolley bus we caught had a young disabled person in distress on it and had stopped waiting for the paramedics to arrive. So back to shank’s pony walk to the Mississippi riverside for views of Mud Island

We sought out more music in open air venue behind our hotel, Jerry Lee Lewis bar, and back at Slinky’s. There was a Blue’s festival about to start that night with music in the park, but I was feeling tired and suffering with the pain in my leg, so I retired early leaving the girls in a bar.

Our next leg of the journey was going to be a long one. We could not get down to New Orleans in one go see we had planned to stop off at Natchez. Instead of going direct we detoured to visit the birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo (a much more relaxed and moving place than Graceland). This then put is on the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway, a lovely road through the countryside. We happened upon a place called French Camp where there was a country fair with old cars, stalls selling various foodstuffs, an amusement fair and a general store and café. There also was an outdoor bluegrass show under the shade of huge tree in the field.

Once we got to Natchez it was late afternoon. Our accommodation was part of the Monmouth Historic Inn, an Antebellum style house and cottages (we had rooms in the cottages, each with a four-poster bed that was so high you needed a running jump to get on and risked serious injury if you were to fall out of). We had pre-booked a meal at the in-house 1818 restaurant in the old sitting rooms of the main building. A musician played on a piano in the hall and everything was refined and elegant (even us).

The next morning, after breakfast, we had a complementary tour of the hotel with an informed guide telling us about the history of the owners, building and local area. Luckily, they had managed to collect several of the original pieces of furniture and had replica wallpaper made to match what was there before (the house had been derelict for a few years during its checkered past). The grounds too were lovely, with several small lakes occupied by turtles and various fish, trees covered in hanging Spanish moss making us feel we were definitely in the Deep South now.

The last leg of our music triangle tour was New Orleans. We dropped car off at airport and took a cab to the Hotel St Pierre in the French Quarter where we had a couple of the old cottages for our accommodation. We went out into town and had a drink at one of the oldest establishments, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop bar, before wandering around town down to the river. We had booked a Riverboat Cruise on the Creole Queen that was for dinner and jazz as the sun went down over the Mississippi (luckily weren’t on the other boat with the screeching steam organ on the roof).

Bourbon Street at night is a shock to the senses, being the most popular of the three cities we visited it attracted a party crowd. The heat meant there were people with inadvisably little clothing on liquored up, shouting and singing, weaving and swaying, vomiting and roughhousing up and down the street. The drains stank, perhaps as an aftermath of the floods, but also due to the archaic facilities in many of the bars. All the bars tried to attract you in with loud music (a great deal of which was not Jazz). There seems to be an acceptance in America about putting drinks in plastic containers, perhaps to avoid broken glass as people drank in the street. There were some open air spaces with music being performed and various street performers out and about of varying skill. We did find a couple of venues we really liked, the first was Maison Bourbon promoters of great traditional jazz – here the first night was a band led by a female trumpet player, the second night a black guy with his oriental girlfriend dancing up a storm.

Hotel was the location of the first New Orleans Jazz Museum (Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong was a guest) and it was made from a collection of old French colonial cottages around intimate courtyards and small swimming pools (welcome relief from the heat). The only issue with this place was they charged us when we left (we had prepaid) and we are still after them for a full refund.

The next day we took a trip out to Mardi Gras World, the workshops and storage facilities of one of the larger float makers. It was very impressive to see their collection and only a month or so after the last Mardi Gras they were already working on the following year’s.

On our return, we paused for beignet fried doughnuts at Café du Monde (deep fried and covered in icing sugar), then stopped for a sharpener at Muriel’s (note to self – they regard a dirty martini as one with vermouth in it, not olive water, so I ended up with a glass of neat vodka). We decided to walk it off with a stroll through the lovely Armstrong Park, but eventually the heat beat us back to the hotel pool.

That evening we went for cocktails at the Carousel Bar (the bar looks like a fairground ride and slowly rotates. Then on to the Court of Two Sisters (well, we just had to) where we had a fine meal in their lovely courtyard. Then it was back to Maison Bourbon and on to our second of our favourite venues, the Fritzel’s Bar (here the resident band leader was a fabulous piano player with a band that changed each night). Both these venues hosted amazing music but they were both old and basic and had atrocious bathroom facilities.

The next day we decided to venture further afield and took the streetcar out to the Garden Quarter. There we stopped and walked around the atmospheric Lafayette Cemetery, cooled off in a lovely air-conditioned art gallery, walked down streets lined with huge mansions, strolled in the heat along Magazine Street with its bars and arty shops, and ended up at Audubon park opposite Loyola University.

That evening we went at sundown to the Hot Tin rooftop cocktail bar, where we had an interesting conversation with a lovely American couple before heading back into the heart of the French Quarter to the Bourbon O Bar and back to Fritzel’s.

On our final day, we ate lunch at Tableau (one of the many Dickie Brennan restaurants in town), strolled through the French Market, visited the Old Mint and Jazz Museum (with recital by Park Ranger – the only Musical National Park in the country, with all musical rangers). Our final musical stop was another fab bar, Bamboula’s on Frenchman Street. Eventually it all had to come to an end and we went to the airport for our return trip (New Orleans airport is a bit of a shambles, but they are in the process of building a new, bigger and better one).

After I returned Sue booked me in the doctor to see about the pain I was still having in my leg and the draining fatigue. In a matter of moments, he had diagnosed it as shingles and had signed me off work for more than two weeks.