Tennessee - Volunteer State
In May of 2019 we went to Tennessee. My paternal grandparents were born and raised in Tennessee, so I was excited to spend some time there, wondering if I would feel a sense of belonging. I can’t say that that happened, but we did have a very good time. When we were departing the plane at the Nashville airport, Al Gore was waiting to get on. We said, “Hello,” and he smiled and gave us a nod, so I always tell people that the former vice-president greeted us upon our arrival.
After checking into our hotel, located very near the Vanderbilt University campus, we walked down the street to a BBQ restaurant called The Row. We ordered ribs and a couple of martinis and stayed awhile to listen to some live country music by an artist named Tiera, a country music singer and songwriter. It certainly seemed like a good way to start this trip.
The next day we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I loved the front of the building, which looked like a curved set of piano keys with large paintings of past and present music icons below. Inside were room after room honoring country music legends, with plenty of cross-over music stars included. In the museum’s core exhibition, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music, we were immersed in the history and sounds of this musical genre. There were photographs, recorded sound, vintage videos, and interactive touchscreens. The connections between country music and other music genres, and between legends of the past and current performers, were revealed in text panels. There was a large photo of a young Johnny Cash with a caption by Bruce Springsteen: “Johnny, I want to send out a big thanks for the inspiration…not only was it all right to tear up all those lines and boundaries but it was important.” On the Walk of Fame, there was a star with Ben Folds’ name engraved on it. (I love Ben Folds.) Other artists that we enjoyed learning more about were Emmy Lou Harris, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, the Foo Fighters, Brooks and Dunn, Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Roy Acuff, Alabama and Chet Atkins.
Part of the Hall of Fame experience is to take a shuttle to historic RCA Studio B, which is considered the birthplace of the Nashville Sound. We learned that the Nashville Sound originated in the mid-1950s as a subgenre of American country music, replacing the dominance of rough honky tonk music with “smooth strings and choruses”, “sophisticated background vocals”, and “smooth tempos” normally associated with traditional pop. We also saw Elvis’s favorite studio and learned about Studio B’s contributions to the development of musical production and sound engineering in this era.
We had dinner that night with a college counseling friend of mine, Bunny Porter Shirley. She and her significant other took us to dinner that night and told us about all the gentrification and new building going on in Nashville. Indeed, there were cranes all over the downtown area and we learned that it was a popular place for people to move who were looking for a cosmopolitan area, but where home prices were less expensive than on either coast.
It was a short walk from the Hall of Fame to Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry until 1974. We were surprised to learn that the building, in the late 1800s, served as a tabernacle for Christian revivals. In its first 125 years, the Ryman played a role in many major moments in American History: women’s suffrage, the civil rights movement, as well as fashion trends in country music. Unfortunately, the day that we were there, a very loud heavy metal-type band was warming up and the sound was so deafening that it was painful. Once they finished, we walked down the stairs to stand on the stage, where a photographer put guitars in our hands and took photos. For a moment, we could imagine ourselves as country western stars. In the lobby there was a delightful bronze statue of Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff sitting on a bench engaged in conversation. I could just hear her saying, “Howdy!”
We decided to see where the Grand Ole Opry went after 1974, so we drove 10 miles east of downtown to see incredible Opryland. The scale of this complex is a little overwhelming. I had stayed at the hotel once before for a conference, and I remember getting lost trying to find my room multiple times. There are beautiful gardens in the atriums, huge multi-level musical notes hanging down from a towering ceiling, and waterways with boats cruising around. After walking around marveling at it all for a while, we went into a restaurant and had a cocktail. It had been quite a day!
We had dinner that night in up-and-coming East Nashville at a great restaurant called Lockeland Table. It had been recommended by my friend Bunny and it was fun to see a different part of the city. After dinner, we drove to Broadway, which is where all the bars are located. We went into about 4 places, all with live music, and we never had to pay a cover charge or order a drink. We could just find a spot to sit or stand and enjoy the music. All kinds of music, not just country western. The atmosphere was fun and lively, and we felt like we’d gotten a good taste of the current Nashville music scene.
The following day we entered a completely different world when we visited Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. The 1000+-acre site was owned by Andrew Jackson from 1804 until his death there in 1845. From 1804 until 1821, Jackson and his wife Rachel lived in a log cabin. A reproduction of the cabin is on the property, but the mansion is as different from that structure as can be imagined. It is a two-story home with a portico fortified by six modified Corinthian-style wooden columns which, to me, epitomize the classic “southern mansion” style. The tour guide provided several fascinating anecdotes about Jackson’s controversial presidency and the love story between him and Rachel. They married in 1791 before her union with her first husband had legally ended. This set the stage for a scandal that haunted them for the rest of their lives. They now rest together in the Greek inspired garden tomb Andrew built for Rachel when she died in 1831.
On Day 4 in Tennessee, we drove to Lebanon and Hartsville, the towns where my grandfather was born and raised. Lebanon has a population of 38,000 and is located about 25 miles east of Nashville. The Town Square, which was busy and looked prosperous, was dominated by a statue of Confederate General Robert H. Hatton. Later we drove a few miles north to Hartsville, grandpa’s birthplace. It was much smaller than Lebanon, but Grandpa received their weekly newspaper for the rest of his life, most of which was spent in California. Most of the homes were modest, but there was one large “southern mansion” that looked quite like The Hermitage. Old Hickory Lake, just outside of town, was very pretty and there was a boat ramp called Taylor’s Landing. In the small downtown, we were surprised to find the Original Hartsville Taco Company, with a sign advertising that it was founded in 1804. As the sign suggests, it specializes in Mexican cuisine. I’ll bet they served something different back in the early 1800s.
Shortly before our trip, I had read an absorbing novel called The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks which takes place in Franklin. The book is based on a true story about an 1864 battle, in which 10,000 men were either killed or injured, that took place in Franklin near the Carnton Plantation. Carrie McGavock, whose home taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a field hospital, somehow found the courage to face up to the horrors she around her. She built a cemetery for the dead, which she carefully tended and, whenever possible, found and inscribed the names of those who died. We visited the plantation and spent time walking around the cemetery, which was a very moving experience. Nearly 1500 soldiers are buried there, from every state in the Confederacy except Virginia. A listing of each soldier, by state, is available at the cemetery. The public square in downtown Franklin has a tall column holding up a statue of a Confederate soldier at its center, and a sweep of lovely Victorian buildings along Main Street. It is quite charming now, but I’m sure it looked very different in 1864.
As we drove towards Chattanooga, we visited Ruby Falls, a series of underground cascading waterfalls totaling 145 feet inside Lookout Mountain. Millions of years ago, cracks in the mountain’s limestone slowly dissolved causing narrow cracks to widen into passages. This process, called chemical weathering, caused various caves to form inside the mountain. We were amazed at the cave formations, some of which, like Leaning Tower, have been named. The falls itself is just a remarkable site. We had no idea before seeing Ruby Falls that there could be underground waterfalls. A guide took us in a small group through the passageways, which was a relief, because it seemed quite possible to get lost if you didn’t know where you were going.
We liked Chattanooga very much, especially the impressive Hunter Museum of American Art. The museum’s collection includes works representing the Hudson River School, 19th century genre painting, American impressionism, the Ashcan School, early modernism, and post-World War II modern and contemporary art. The museum is situated on an 80-foot bluff which overlooks the Tennessee River. The building represents three different architectural stages, and the beautiful 2005 addition now serves as the entrance. The quality and diversity of the art and the way they were displayed made this one of the best art museums I have ever visited.
We walked through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which is situated just one block from the Tennessee River. While it is adjacent to downtown, the spacious and beautifully landscaped campus provides a collegiate atmosphere which would give students the best of both worlds. A large plaque proclaimed the date of the desegregation of the University, January 4, 1961, when African Americans Charles Edgar Blair, Willie Mae Gillespie, and Theotis Robinson enrolled as undergraduates. There is also an elaborate bronze statue titled the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial. Clearly, this campus saw powerful cultural changes during the 20th century. It was quiet as we strolled around the campus because the school year had ended; nonetheless, we came away with an overall favorable impression of what college life could be here.
Since we were close to the Appalachian Trail, we headed in that direction. I was determined to take a hike on the trail, and Andy agreed if we limited it to five miles. As expected, it was gorgeous with dense forests, lots of moss growing on the trees, and plenty of colorful wildflowers. We didn’t run into many through hikers because they would need to be well north of here if they wanted to reach Maine before snowfall. We crossed paths, literally, with one man who was following his girlfriend. His job hadn’t allowed him to leave when she did, so he was walking fast to try to catch up with her. We wished him well, and off he went. This part of the trail is in Great Smoky Mountain National Park and as we drove through it, we stopped to take a photo at the sign marking the Tennessee North Carolina State Line, at elevation 5046 feet.
We drove through Gatlinburg, the Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, on our way to Knoxville. Coincidentally, we were there on the opening day of the SkyBridge. Located at the top of the iconic SkyLift, the Gatlinburg SkyBridge is the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America. The views of the Smoky Mountains were fantastic, both from the bridge itself and from the SkyLift which takes visitors back and forth. We felt like pioneers as we waited in line. The 30 feet of glass in the middle of the bridge gave me a queasy feeling, but it only added to the experience.
As we walked from the restaurant where we ate dinner back to our hotel in Knoxville that evening, we were treated to a full moon. We had beautiful weather the entire time we were in Tennessee and were treated with courtesy and friendliness wherever we went. While I didn’t really feel a sense of kinship, I felt pride of my Tennessee roots.
