Our Trip to Nashville—or “My Sweetie and I have found our new home.”

Posing underneath the cutest cowgirl pinup sign

1950s-style yellow and black polka dot peasant style dress

Narrow black belt

1940s black leather wedges

1940s black purse
1940s yellow flower earrings

Well, not really. At least not right now, that is. A move to Nashville is definitely a possibility for the future though—this is certainly the place to live if you want to set your music career into overdrive!

So. My Sweetie and I just got back from our mini-vacation in Nashville; we went to attend a family reunion, and took a couple of extra days to explore the city. Couldn’t think of a better excuse to head to Tennessee, in fact; the chance to tour a city that neither of us has ever visited before, and get to see some of my favorite family members (and have my Sweetie meet them)? Sign us up! (Note: This turned out to be a very wordy recap, so I’m splitting it up into three parts ;-))

And boy, did Music City ever feel like home to us! As soon as we stepped off the plane and heard Tommy Cash welcome us (you just gotta love an airport where celebrities welcome you and tell you such need-to-know facts as where to pick up your luggage. Nice touch, Nashville!) we knew we were in the right place.

We arrived late on Thursday evening, and after picking up a rental car, headed to our hotel to check in. Since we weren’t familiar with the city, we had booked a hotel near Opryland, which turned out to be about 20 minutes from the downtown area. The hotel was very nice though, and turned out to be right around the corner from Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop #2, so we were pretty pleased with the location! (Now that we know the scheme of things, we’ll probably stay a more centrally located hotel the next time we visit—parking, though plentiful, was quite pricey!) Once we checked in, we headed right back out the door; it may have been midnight in Tennessee, but it was only 10:00 in Arizona, and we were too excited to go straight to sleep! I mean, c’mon, we were in Music City! That calls for a celebration.

Lane Kristian and his band played Thursday night

Once we made it downtown, we were treated to the surreal neon sight that is Broadway—with its glittering signs advertising honky tonkin’ good times, it looked as if it had been untouched (and what city hasn’t been ravaged in the name of “progress?”). We hurried to park, and started walking up the street, oohing and aahing every couple of feet of course—and wouldn’t you know it, every club had a band performing, even after hours on a weeknight. My Sweetie and I knew we had hit the music jackpot—we could hardly believe of good fortune!

By chance, there turned out to be a club called Robert’s Western World (Roberts is my Sweetie’s last name, so we took that as a good sign), and we made a beeline to it, if only to snap a quick photo of the coincidental sign. Imagine our surprise when the band playing inside sounded straight out of the 50s—it turns out this is the place to go to hear good ol’ country, rockabilly, and honky tonk music! We ended up spending quite a bit of time throughout the weekend here, as every time we stopped in we were treated to the sounds of yet another world-class band. After spending an hour or so listening, we headed back to our hotel and went to bed.

My Sweetie was so thrilled to be here!

The next day, we slept a little later than we originally intended (the plan was to take advantage of the free breakfast spread lol) and headed into town around 11. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant a little ways off Broadway, then headed up the street to check out the shops we had seen the night before (we had excitedly peeked into the windows of each place, marveling as we went along: “Can you believe we’re standing outside of Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop?! Check out this place—look at all those boots!” and so on down the line.) The first stop was ET’s Record Shop, and stepping inside brought a tear to our eyes—there we were, standing in the store that has been in that same spot since 1947, looking as though it hadn’t changed a bit since opening. The music selection was incredible, the old pictures on the wall were amazing, and the display of vintage western stage wear was drool-worthy.

Wearing Able's Grable's "Ready Hedy" frock

1940s-style cherry necklace

1940s red Bakelite earrings

Rocket Originals "Georgia" wedges

Red patent 50s-style purse

1940s-style peach and green sunglasses

We continued down the way, eventually ending up at Robert’s again—and once more, we were in for a musical treat! We stayed there for several hours, hating to leave, but eventually headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before hitting the town that night. We had a delicious meal at Dinos—thanks to my dear friend Jere’s recommendations, we made sure to find this spot! Then, it was on the town for some more music and sights.

Check out those costumes!

To be continued...

xoxo,

Amanda Lee