Nashville Thurs - Ryman Auditorium

Thursday 10/31

There had been a very strong storm during the night with high winds and torrential rains. Fortunately it had blown over by morning. We were scheduled for an afternoon tour and an evening performance at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. We’d decided to enjoy a lazy morning at the house, eat lunch there from the fixings we still had, then head out shortly thereafter. The car was parked in the alley that ran behind the house. When we went out there, lo and behold, there was a police car and patrolman  monitoring the situation of a downed tree at the far end of the alley. Apparently the storm was not the only thing that had blown over. No harm, no foul, though. We merely exited the alley in the direction away from the horizontal trunk.

We got to the Ryman Auditorium in plenty of time for our 2:00 PM backstage tour. It began in the upper level with a video of the history of its founding by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats. The drinking and gambling trades initially put Ryman at odds with the preachings of religion. But Samuel Porter Jones, a prominent revivalist Methodist minister won him over. Ryman became instrumental in building the originally named Union Gospel Tabernacle, initially as gathering place for revival meetings. The seating within is wooden church pews. It was later renamed Ryman Auditorium

The video at the start of the backstage tour was excellent. Called The Soul of Nashville, the graphics and scenes shot with six high resolution cameras from multiple angles made for an immersive experience. Shadows dancing along the wall near the end were not projected shadows because the audience passing by did not eclipse them. 

The overview was concise and well done. I am glad we did more than the self-guided tour. Also included in the backstage tour was a visit to the dressing rooms that the artists occupied before the show. No pictures were allowed in those rooms but each had a theme and a short video. The four themes were Carter-Cash Room, Women of Country Music Room, Minnie Pearl / Roy Acuff Room, and the Lulu C. Naff / Makeup Room. Three were on the second level and one on stage level. We emerged from the backstage area into the stage right wing of the stage. The backdrop of the show we were to see that evening was there as the crew was setting up in preparation.

We then continued with the self-guided portion of the tour. We started in the balcony area.

The seats are wooden church pews in a semi-circular arrangement. As is typical of a church, there are stained glass windows at the rear.

In front of the stained glass windows are the audio-visual controls. We walked by where the lightboard and soundboard for the upcoming show were being set up.

We passed a tribute to Lulu Naff, manager of the Ryman for fifty years who was instrumental in its growth and in securing the excellent variety of stage acts offered. In a time when women were dismissed and not taken seriously in the business world, she was extremely successful and preferred to go by her initials of L.C. Naff to avoid the gender bias as much as possible. She was a widow with a daughter and succeeded in supporting them both very well with this job to which she was devotedly dedicated.

We browsed cases of memorabilia for some of the stars of the stage. This red dress was worn by Dolly Parton.

This flour sack and stuffed doll are memorabilia from Roy Acuff of Wabash Cannonball fame and part of a comedy duo with Minnie Pearl. A bronze statue of Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl is in the lobby of the Ryman. I showed a photo of it in the part of my Nashville Downtown 11/26/19 post that addressed statues. Having sewed many stuffed dolls for grandchildren, the Roy Acuff doll caught my eye and I investigated if I could get one online. Sure enough, check out these items on eBay, the flour sack and the doll.

Text advertising the sack (which I could still bid on at the time of this writing) reads

Up for Bid is a Vintage 25lb Flour Sack Roy Acuff's Own Flour with a cut out pattern for a Roy Acuff stuffed doll. This was produced by Cherokee Mills Nashville, TENN. The bag is made of Pure Cambric material. The print on the front and back is in very good condition and ledgible.

What exactly is cambric? In the second, third, and fourth verses of the Simon and Garfunkel song Scarborough Fair the gentlemen wants his true love to make him a cambric shirt. Per the Wikipedia explanation

... one of the finest and most dense kinds of cloth, [cambric] is a lightweight plain-weave cloth, originally from the French commune of Cambrai, woven in greige, then bleached, piece-dyed and often glazed or calendered. Initially it was made of linen; later, the term came to be applied to cotton fabrics as well. Cambric is used as fabric for linens, shirts, handkerchieves, ruffs, lace, and needlework.

The text on the doll (which sold) reads

Up for Bid is a Vintage 25lb Flour Sack Roy Acuff's Own Flour with a cut out pattern for a Roy Acuff stuffed doll. This was produced by Cherokee Mills Nashville, TENN. The bag is made of Pure Cambric material. The print on the front and back is in very good condition and ledgible.

After browsing the display cases we went up on the stage for our complimentary photo. For Frank & me there was one pose side by side and one pose which Frank likes to call the worshiping pose. Then the whole gang got up there for a group shot. From the positioning, are we to assume that John is lead guitarist and Frank is backup?

A mural on the wall is a collage of the names of all the artists who performed there. Frank thought it would be a clever idea for me to photoshop in our names. I considered it but then felt bad that I would be supplanting someone far more famous than us, even if in my ignorance I did not know who they were. Anecdotally, Elvis Presley’s name is in there in a very large font although he played there only once when he sang a jazzed-up high-speed version of the classic Blue Moon of Kentucky usually sung by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Elvis’ stylized version did not go over very well with the audience and legend is, that although invited back, Elvis Presley never played at that venue again.

We went to the adjacent Cafe Lula for dinner before our show. The restaurant was named in honor of Lula C. Naff, manager of the Ryman Auditorium for fifty years from 1905 to 1955.

The place cards, designating where a food order once ready should be delivered, rather than mere numbers, sported names of favorite artists who had played at the Ryman. Merle Haggard, famous for song (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers, was for John & Sue; Gregg Allman, famous for song Midnight Rider, was for Joe & Margaret; and Miranda Lambert, famous for song Little Red Wagon, was for Frank and me.

Cafe Lula had great brownies and cookies for dessert.

We ate and then went on over to the auditorium itself for our show. Thre were two key words in the program title: OPRY and CLASSICS. Ryman Auditorium had been the home base for the Grand Ole Opry for many years but now the show is usually broadcast from a venue in northern Nashville. The program also described the host as Larry Gatlin, head of the famed Gatlin Brothers, and named the artists to be performing.

This was the view we had from our seats in the balcony. True to its heritage of origin as a church, there were three gospel songs sung mid-show, the titles chosen by input from the audience. Not truly a country music aficionado, I think I only recognized about a third of the country classic songs but it was enjoyable anyway. The show’s title reference to classics supported the fact that the artists were older, established performers, and not younger ones who were the hit of the day or on a fast climb to the top. There were a lot of gray hairs in the audience as well. I could not help but think of a poem by Milton Berle:

I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are.

While we were at the Ryman auditorium we were actually a part of a special Halloween broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry. Technically the Grand Ole Oprey is the name for the radio broadcast stage show independent of from where it is broadcast. Our applause that Halloween night became part of what was being broadcast to the stratosphere. Typically the Grand Ole Oprey is held on Saturday nights but this was a special broadcast and we were part of it! Per the Wikipedia entry for Grand Ole Opry:

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925. ... It is the longest running radio broadcast in US history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and internet listeners.

After the show we milled about in the lobby, admiring posters and taking “yes-we-really-were-here” type photos while John & Sue waited in line to have a Crystal Gale CD they purchased autographed.

When we emerged from the theatre it was bitter cold. (That is one reason Frank bought and put on the Ryman Auditorium sweatshirt.) The streets had some interesting Halloween scenes to enjoy but we were frigidly intent on just getting to the car before our cheeks and noses were made brittle enough to fall off from the icy wind. These scenarios were probably the Nashville night life we were missing out on by doing our tourist activities during the daytime hours.

Nevertheless we went home, unwound, and went to bed. Tomorrow would be our final day to tour Nashville before heading home Saturday.

Nashville Wed - Tennessee State Museum & Area

Wednesday 10/30
Upon a recommendation from a librarian we were talking to in the Civil Rights section of the Nashville Public Library, we chose to visit the Tennessee State Museum. Expecting to spend a couple hours there, we spent all day.

The museum layout was very innovative. On the following graphic, the center winding region in blue is termed a Time Tunnel. It wends its way around clockwise and had intermittent portals to different time zones, indicated by parallel double white bars. Mint green areas are permanent exhibits; orange areas are temporary exhibits.

Starting in the Grand Hall, shown in magenta at the lower left, the permanent exhibits in chronological, and therefore logically also clockwise, order are listed.

• Natural History
• First Peoples (13,000 BCE to 1760 CE)
• Forging a Nation (1760 to 1860)
• The Civil War and Reconstruction (1860 to 1870)
• Change and Challenge (1870 to 1945)
• Tennessee Transforms (1945 to Present)

I had never seen the terms BCE and CE used and learned they stood for Before Common Era and Common Era respectively. These terms show a sensitivity to the non-Christian element of the world's population, who are actually the majority. I had always been used to the terms B.C., Before Christ and A.D., Anno Domino, in the year of our lord, never considering its religious association before and never realized how behind the times I was. Per wikipedia discussion of Common Era

In the United States, the usage of the BCE/CE notation in textbooks was reported in 2005 to be growing. Some publications have moved over to using it exclusively. For example, the 2007 World Almanac was the first edition to switch over to the BCE/CE usage, ending a 138-year usage of the traditional BC/AD dating notation. It is used by the College Board in its history tests, and by the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Others have taken a different approach. The US-based History Channel uses BCE/CE notation in articles on non-Christian religious topics such as Jerusalem and Judaism.

The temporary exhibits when we visited (in the orange areas of previous graphic)  were

• Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Since 1900 (far left)
• In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900 (far right)
• Tennessee and the Great War; A Centennial Exhibition (upper right)
• Why Do Museums Collect? (lower center)
• Let's Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food (lower center)
• The State of Sound: Tennessee's Musical Heritage (lower center)

As I began to write this post I realized I had few photos of the exhibits. Near each portal was a film loop with excellent graphics and prelude of what was about to be seen. I got caught up in watching. The history in this museum started out as early as the formation of the planet Earth, the appearance of the supercontinent Rodinia.

The effect of ice movement as it pertained specifically to Tennessee was shown.

Tennessee has a fossil site that resulted from a sinkhole that trapped many species of animal and plant life. Named for the town of Gray where it discovered, it has yielded an abundance of fossils adding to our knowledge of early life forms.

Per the Wikipedia entry for the Gray Fossil Site

The Gray Site is a Pliocene-epoch assemblage of fossils located near the unincorporated town of Gray, Tennessee and dates from 4.9 to 4.7 million years ago. The current dig at the Gray Fossil Site was determined to have been the location of a semi-circular sinkhole that once harbored a pond environment over a long period of time and is now yielding the remains of the ancient plants and animals that lived, watered, and died within the then watery sinkhole. Some of the fossil finds from the Gray Fossil Site include a saber-toothed cat, short-faced bear, ground sloth, rhinoceros, alligator, camel, shovel-tusked elephant, Eurasian badger, tapirs, frogs, snakes, turtles and a red panda. Fossil records represent finds from approximately one percent of the total area of the Gray Fossil Site that has been explored --- and future fossil recovery from the entire site is projected to continue on for one hundred years.

It was lunch time and we had barely time traveled to the Civil War. We ate at an adjacent Farmer's Market with its produce and flower stands and food court. Everybody could investigate what food they wanted and then join up to eat. It was rather cacophonous but utilitarian. We all wanted to get back to the museum since at the snail's pace we'd been sustaining, we would miss a lot.

Frank and I went with Music City Crepes. I ordered a Philly Cheese, my go-to, can't-decide, high-fat, indulgent food of choice. But whoops... forgot to take a photo till we were mostly done.

When John& Sue and Joe& Margaret went back to the museum, Frank and I explored the rest of the farmer's market, leaving by a rear exit and being pleasantly surprised by this mural.

This a back view of the Farmer's Market from across the road behind it, 7th Avenue.

The Farmer's Market and Tennessee State Museum back to Bicentennial Park. Frank and I lagged behind our group's return to the museum to catch a glimpse of Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.

The western perimeter of the park is lined with obelisks designating decades in Tennessee's history. They extend in either direction.

Along the walkway adjacent to obelisks, is a low wall with varied interesting facts from Tennessee's history.

The significance of the World War II Memorial is cited through a Nashville Public Art link

An eight-ton carved stone globe, which rests on a cushion of flowing water and can be easily pushed into different angles, though it rotates on its own due to the flowing water. ...Ten pillars, five on each side, line the east and west of the platform. Reflecting the direction one travels to get to Europe or Asia from Tennessee, the ones to the east depict moments from the war in Europe, while those on the west depict moments from the war in the Pacific.

Frank stands by the set of pillars representing the war in Europe and I stand by those for the war in the Pacific. The first one on the Pacific side represents the outrage at Pearl Harbor.

The Centennial Memorial stands in the center of the park. This Gypsy Road Trip  link attributes the quote encircling the base of the trees to Governor Bob Taylor when he greeted President McKinley during the 1897 Centennial Exposition.

"Our honored guests shall see today the triumphs of our brain and brawn and the tangible evidences of our activity. And some of them who saw our ruined country thirty years ago will certainly appreciate the fact that we have wrought miracles."

When Frank and I did return to the museum he continued on with the permanent exhibits for the Civil War, Great War and post war. I had had enough war stuff, so I moved on and took in the food, music, and art temporary exhibits. A carved wood rocking horse type sculpture caught my eye where Aesop's fable of the race between the tortoise and the hare is depicted.

In the "Let's Eat!" exhibit, I enjoyed watching a short film about the National Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. You can buy a ticket and stroll down Cornbread Alley where $5.00 gets you a plate full of all nine recipes.

Leaving the museum shortly before it closed, we relaxed back at home base with a jigsaw puzzle, as is our annual tradition. Its theme this year was musicals, somewhat appropriate for "Music City".

Aah... satisfying completion at last. We took a timed photo with me in it but the head-on angle did not show the puzzle and I thought the jigsaw puzzle was more pertinent than I was.

A fond memory I have is that as Margaret and I dissembled the puzzle on that last night before leaving, we sang a song from every musical we could. How did we do?. We knew nine out of thirteen on the bottom row. If this rate were typical our grade would be 70% – barely passing. But we were enjoying ourselves and having fun – so there!

We had a laid back dinner of sandwiches that night. We had a lot of lunch meats and bread to consume by the end of the week since we'd eaten lunch out oftener than we thought we would. Relaxation was good. This night was the final game of the World Series and the Nationals pulled it off defeating the Astros by four runs. All those games were won as the visiting team. What a nice cap-off to the day!