On our second day in Nashville we visited the Frist Art Museum, which was quite a bit better than expected! You can see from Kim’s attire that the weather had changed dramatically from yesterday’s 64 degrees to today’s 34! We even experienced a few snowflakes on our way to the museum. It was good to get inside!
Fortunately for us, the current Exhibition, Farm to Table: Art, Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism was ongoing. We love our Impressionist paintings! First up was our favorite Impressionist artist Claude Monet with a painting that we had yet to see, this one called “The Haystack”, from 1891. Monet created more than 20 paintings of haystacks. If somebody was going to paint a haystack, it might as well have been him!
I found this next painting to be quite interesting due to the subject matter. This is Narcisse Chaillou’s “A Rat Seller During the Siege of Paris” painted in 1870-1871. The rat seller, dressed in the blue, white and red of France’s flag, the young butcher represents French culinary nationalism during the food shortages of the Prussian siege. The French are apparently quite proud of eating rats, which explains that whole “escargot” thing!
The next painting is by the famous Pierre-Auguste Renoir called “Field of Banana Trees” from 1881. This depiction of Algerian banana trees focuses on a plant that could not be cultivated in France, evoking the economic drive that was central to European imperialism. The setting for the painting was a garden that had been built by France in Hamma, Algeria, which was created to test models for colonial farming.
Another exhibit at the museum was based on Japanese art, but it was mostly focused on kids. We did see one piece of artwork that we have seen previously. This is by Katsushika Hokusai, called “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, depicting three boats amongst the waves with Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain, in the background. This has been described as possibly the most reproduced image in art. The artwork was originally produced as a woodblock print, hence it’s easy reproduction.
After spending about two hours at the museum it was time for a beer, so we headed to see more honkey-tonks. We walked into two that were simply jam packed with people and then finally found the rooftop bar at The Stage, with a pretty decent band. We requested Drunk on a Plane by Dierks Bentley, and they performed a passable version. For the official music video, click on the link above. It’s one of our favorites!
Before heading to dinner we made our second stop at Ole Red, as the rooftop bar here seems to have the best setting with the best music that we have discovered so far.
We spent about an hour listening to Kelly and Sarah, who were excellent. Their harmonies were exquisite. Looking back on it I should have asked if they could have performed a Wilson Phillips song. I highly recommend this spot!
On the way out I got a photo of Kim with the owner, country star Blake Shelton! Despite the enthusiastic pointing he seemed a little wooden.
On our 3rd day in Nashville we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which is right in the center of Nashville.
After checking in they send you on the elevator to the 3rd floor, and you make your way through the top two floors. It’s set up as a linear history of country music, with tributes to the biggest stars during their time periods. You get a feel for how big the place is just off the elevator.
They have historic instruments from the early days of country, like this 1850 Martin guitar. The coffin-shaped case was designed to protect the instrument during travel by stagecoach.
This banjo from the 1860’s was used for performances in minstrel shows. Country music with guitars and banjos had some of their first audiences during traveling medicine shows, for “medicine” like Cherokee Chief (in the bottle on the left).
This is a photo of an actual medicine show for “Flagg’s Liver Pad”, whatever the hell that is, in Wilmington, NC in 1870. They would play music to get people to gather around, and it worked as most of these people had never heard professional entertainment.
We’ll skip ahead here before I bore everybody to tears. Here is look inside Elvis’ famous 1960 Cadillac, that was decked out with gold plated wheels, handles, knobs, a even a gold plated telephone (before cell service, just for looks?). Not sure how good the reception would have been on that TV back in the day.
There was an excellent video montage on the 3rd floor before you head downstairs. The linear part of the museum becomes lost on the 2nd floor, which is mostly there to give tribute to the stars of the 70’s (Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, etc.), as well as more modern stars up to today. I was surprised to see they had the original Mechanical Bull from Urban Cowboy!
We are huge John Denver fans, and this is the only display for him. He wore this outfit to the American Music Awards in 1976, where he won 3 awards. The Yamaha guitar was custom made for John.
One of our favorite country artists, who we mentioned previously, is Dierks Bentley. The pilot outfit in this display is from his performance in “Drunk on a Plane”, also mentioned previously. I love it when a blog post connects with itself!
This guitar belonged to another of our favorite country artists, Toby Keith, who we unfortunately lost just over a year ago. He used this guitar in his music video for “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”, a song he wrote and sang in response to the September 11 attacks. Click on the link above for the music video.
Across the street from the museum is the Walk of Fame Park, that had numerous plaques for musicians of various types, not just country. Here is one for a musician we’ve seen multiple times, Michael McDonald. What a voice!
We spent that afternoon in John Rich’s honky-tonk, the Redneck Riviera. John pays tribute to the military members and First Responders by splashing their badges all over the walls of his establishment. It felt like home!
The band, “Ponder This”, was excellent and a whole lot of fun!! The place was filled with ex-military and Firemen/Policemen. My kind of place!
On the walk back to our hotel I got a better shot of what is known locally as “The Batman Building”.
Coming up, we depart Nashville and head north, meeting up with one of Kim’s cousins (and family) and then venturing to Glasgow, Kentucky for more adventures!
