Day 1: November 15, 2014
Music City Luck

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Thinking that Louisville might be a good location for breakfast, I did an internet check before leaving home and located a promising place a little north of town and not too far off of the expressway. Verbena Cafe's address is in Prospect, Kentucky. There are online indications that this area should be called Worthington Hills and that there is a Kentucky town named Worthington on the Ohio River near Ashland. But lots of people don't seem to bother with the "Hills" part as evidenced by the name on the front of that fancy firehouse with the tall columns in front. The station caught my eye but I doubt I'd have bothered with a photo if I hadn't found the surrounding houses so interesting. The neighborhood seems to be filled with old looking new construction. I say "old looking" because of the style. These places actually have porches! It looks like a pretty cool place to live but I'm sure it's not cheap.

Next stop was Nashville where I wanted to check out the fairly new (May, 2013) Johnny Cash Museum. It's a pretty impressive operation covering his entire career and more. One of the first things to catch my eye was Johnny's 1946 FFA card. I also liked seeing the Folsom Prison drinking cups that were given to Johnny by the warden in 1968. There are a couple of movies, plenty of gold records, and lots of other memorabilia. One of the things I learned in the museum and which really impressed me was that Johnny Cash had at least two singles in the country music charts for 38 straight years. That's what you call a hitting streak.

"The Legends of Sun" exhibition opened at the Johnny Cash Museum in August. This is the museum's first addition and features artifacts from Sun Recording artists Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, drummer W.S. Holland, and Cash. Of course, there's a little bit of Sun in the original part of the museum including in the wall of Johnny Cash singles.

It's a short walk from the museum to Broadway and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop. I've only been inside the store a couple of times and don't believe I've ever taken a picture. Here 'tis.

Even though I had to wait and snap a quick shot to make the record store look empty, it really was virtually deserted compared to everything else including the sidewalks. The museum had not been overly crowded when I entered but was starting to feel a little cramped by the time I left. I eventually figured out that the NHL Nashville Predators, who play at nearby Bridgestone Arena, had a 6:00 game and fans started prepping for the game about 3:00. The bars, of course, were the favorite prepping spots. Tootsie's was so full that people were sitting outside on top of the building (which I didn't even know you could do) in the 50 degree weather. Other bars were nearly as bad. I did get into a not quite full Robert's to catch a few tunes from the band there then did the same at Layla's where an all girl quartet held the stage.

While in Layla's, I checked Facebook and was delighted to find an hour old post from Patrick Sweany announcing an 8:30 appearance about two blocks down the street. It didn't take me long to abandon any thoughts of hanging around Broadway for four hours. That just wouldn't be prudent. But, since it would be dark by the time I returned for the show, I walked down to the venue to grab an exterior shot before heading to the motel.

The venue was Acme Feed & Seed and the band was the Tiger Beats. This is not Patrick's touring band but a slightly flexible lineup he often appears with around Nashville. Although Patrick fronts the group, they play covers rather than his originals. They're very good and seeing him on his current home turf was great fun.


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