I really wanted to love Nashville. The country music scene is massive, which I already knew, but I didn’t realise how much I generally dislike country music. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind it from time to time but not every second. If every day! It is also a very spread out town and even if you stay in the centre (in a over priced motel/hotel) it still requires you to drive around as there is no public transport. We opted to stay a couple of miles out and save ourselves the cash.
Walking down the main downtown Boulevard was cool but packed with middle-aged people, very commercialised, and no one similar to us and our age (Bon Jovi was playing that evening so maybe that didn’t help). We went for a drink in one of the bars (it was happy hour after all), but soon gave up as they started to play Bon Jovi. We found out about a few dive bars over the west side so headed over to ‘Losers’ which was on a strip with other dive bars so we instantly felt right at home. I blame New York For my new love of dive bars. The amount of reviews I have read about dive bars being dirty and having the wrong crowds, they are retarded. They are allied DIVE-bars for a reason. They are dirty, the toilets are rank, they smell of cigarettes and beer but play great music (I forgave them for playing country as it was a cool bar), attract a diverse crowd, the drinks are cheap, you meet interesting people, also the barmaid/man is always chatty and is happy to be there. We decided not to stay another night but head West to Memphis.
Driving the 240 miles for to Memphis, suddenly the radio misusing on the radio from country to old rock… Johnny Cash, Elvis, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads… The list goes on, it was bliss. We stayed in West Memphis, just over the Mississippi River in Arkansas state. There was a massive casino right next to us, it was my first time in a casino that evening. So many people with massive gambling issues.
Memphis is so much better than Nashville, in my opinion. The main strip Beale Street was similar to Nashville, but not as commercialised and had a better range of people (including people our age). My favourite tourist spot was visiting Elvis’s Graceland, definitely worth a visit. A nice tour around his mansion, I did not realise he has sold over a billion records! There was loads of other areas to visit but my other favourite was his collection of cars. He has some amazing cars and it got me excited which is impressive as I am not even into them. A short drive from Graceland took us to Sun Studio ‘the birthplace of rock n roll’. you can pay $20 for the tour but in have been to Metropolis, Londons and Electric Lady NYC so did not feel the need to do the whole ‘Johnny Cash sat there’ etc etc, if you have never been to a studio it would be worth paying for. After this we went to the botanical gardens as it was a sunny day, totally found out after we were supposed to pay (Botanical gardens I will pay next time I am in Memphis).
From Memphis we literally did not know which direction we wanted to aim for, but then we spotted Highway 61 leading south to our 7th state Mississippi which has a lot of blues history.
lucys tea party 