Days 3 and 4 Nashville

It was a short 175 mile drive from Knoxville to Nashville. We Checked in at Homewood Suites on Church around noon and immediately headed down the street towards Broadway where all the happenings are supposed to be. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it looked exactly how I thought it would. What I didn't expect was the number of bars (at least 30) that had live music on a Saturday afternoon. And, it's not all country, a ton of rock and roll too, no rap, though, to the disappointment of Sylvia.  We checked out a lot of places and never saw a performer that was anything less than fantastic. I don't know where they all come from, but this is their gathering place. We eventually got hungry and had a dinner at Puckett's Grocery which was down the street from the hotel. Crashed early.


I got up Christmas Eve morning and went back to Puckett's for a good country ham and red-eye gravy breakfast. We didn't expect to do very much, but had to do something. It was a bit too cold to do a lot of walking around. There wasn't much traffic so we got the car and drove around the Gulch and Pie Town districts even though they're both within walking distance of downtown. While we were there we thought we'd stop and investigate the The Pub and Bar Louie in the Gulch. We watched some of the football games there before going back to the hotel to drop off the car and walk back downtown to hear more music. I couldn't get over the fact that there were so many good musicians. Each band seemed to be mostly pickup bands that hadn't played much together, but it was hard to tell, they just figured it out on the fly. Another thing I found interesting is they never take a break, each individual will take a break and sit out a song or two, and when he comes back another will take a break. There's a lot of swapping of instruments too. Fabulous. Some of the places we stopped were Roberts, Tootsies, Nudies, and Whiskey Bent Saloon.  I think my favorite might be Roberts, but they're all good. We got something to eat at Merchants, an upscale diner. The wait staff could not have been nicer, especially since it was Christmas Eve. I'd go back in a second.