NASHVILLE | Nashville, you dressed up to host the trophy ceremony and the NHL draft. Your Predators are celebrating their 25th anniversary and you made sure we knew about it. You dress up by setting up a stage on your main thoroughfare for the Osborne Brothers to perform and hanging banners in the colors of the event from your lamp posts.
For a week you decided to combine my two passions: hockey and country music. The last time I saw you so pretty was when the Preds reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017. It was the same weekend as the Country Music Awards. You also proved back then that you are a hockey town. I was fulfilled.
I still love you but you worry me.
I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. Love at first sight. It was November 2011. So much so that I commended you to all my relatives. On my subsequent visits I introduced you to my wife, father and friends who organized my 40th birthday party at your home.
But I haven’t recognized you for a while. I don’t know if it’s because of the pandemic, but you’ve changed. Take, for example, this large glass cube that houses the Apple Store across from the Bridgestone Arena. A hideous wart at one end of Broadway Street, the face that characterized you with its myriad multi-story bars.
Even your voice has changed. The same Broadway street that once crowded the country bands of Legends Corner, Tootsie’s, Stage and Honky Tonk doesn’t sound quite the same. You were probably scared of being outdated, so you gave rock bands or pop artists a little more space.
Luckily there’s still Roberts who reminds me of your roots and how you used to be different from the rest. The tunes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, the fathers of outlaw country, are still present there.
It’s not just Robert’s music that reminds me of our beginnings. The famous $6 recession lunch (a junk sandwich, a potato chip, and a Pabst Blue Ribbon) reminds me of the good old days. But you see, inflation even affected the recession. Because a few years ago you turned my stomach by only charging me $5.
The parties follow each other
Still, you didn’t have to sell your soul to be loved. They had their own charm with the Country Hall of Fame, the museum dedicated to Johnny Cash, the Ryman Auditorium, the mecca of country music where the biggest legends of this music style thrived.
You now have your NHL team, your NFL team, your MLS team. Major League Baseball is also considering joining the party. Also, your reputation as a party girl is so widespread that bachelor parties follow each other every week.
It’s no longer a well-kept secret that hotels are springing up all over downtown. It’s proof that everyone loves you.
Deep down, maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I’m just jealous. I preferred it when I felt like I had you all to myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have advertised your charms to everyone.