NASHVILLE: Music City U.S.A.

Market for Elephants – Nashville has several mammoths in the state museum.  They may have need of a replace for the state zoo.

Date of Visit:  Aug 7, 2015

History- Nashville is a city of about 650,000.  It is the capital of Tennessee and a major financial and transportation center.   However for tourists it is best known as Music City, and has the most valuable brand name in country music the Grand Ole Opry.

The city started as French Lick on the Cumberland River in 1780.  It was almost immediately renamed Fort Nashborough  after General Francis Nash a hero of the American Revolution and resisted a major Indian attack in 1781.  It was incorporated in 1784 as a town and named Nashville.  In 1843 it became the permanent capital of Tennessee.

For a one day visit I suggest a tourist go directly to the city center the physical music city.  It’s an interesting collection of museums, business buildings, and government buildings, including the Tennessee State Capitol building.  There is plenty of parking so, if you don’t take one of the several tours; I suggest visiting the following places.

County Music Hall of Fame & Museum:  I suggest starting here so you can go on the Studio B tour which prides itself as being the only tour of a studio in town.  Then take the audio tour of the museum allowing at least two hours so you can look at the video programs.  The audio tour will be of interest for both longtime fans, but even more for person like me who have only dipped their toe in it. For me the movie clips from Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Tex Ritter brought up many childhood memories.

The Lobby is open and able to be used as a performance area.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is a rotunda with a striking acrylic painting called The Sources of Country Music by Thomas Hart Benton.  Circling the room are round bronze plaques with the names and reliefs of musicians and a few comedians elected by the Country Music Association.  People are honored for business and technological contributions by other groups.

Country Music Hall Of Fame

The District: This is a two to four block area of old brick buildings centered on Broadway and 5th ave. Several restaurants have been restored to resemble old time honky-tonks, saloons and less savory establishments. The sort of places the riverboat men used to frequence. All of these have live music so you can choose your lunch and accompaniment. As you can see from these pictures at lunch time reservations are a good idea. There are also several clothing, instrument and record stores, the most famous being the Roy Orbison Record store. The spirit of The District is spread by these unique bar buses. The cycled model leaves a strong beer scent, similar to trucks before they took the lead out of gas.  

Pedalling Bar Maids.

Ryman Auditorium:  Often referred to as the High Church of Country 

Rhyman Hall

Music this building was designed as a chapel.  The self-guided
tour of Ryman starts with a film, really almost a magic show.
 It tells how in the 1880s a river boat captain and owner of a major transport company Captain Thomas G. Ryman was converted by traveling evangelist Sam Jones. Ryman helped raise the money so in 1892 the Union Gospel Tabernacle was opened to provide a permanent place for Jones to speak. 

The name was changed to Ryman Auditorium upon the Captain’s death in 1904.  From the beginning its acoustics attracted a white variety of performers, especially after installing a proper stage in 1901 for an opera performance. 

It had traveling theatrical groups, choirs, just about anything that could rent the theater. The radio program the Grand Ole Opry broadcast from Ryman from 1943-1974 cementing its place in country music history.  Even before the Opry left there were doubts that it could continue to operate, despite Johnny Cash filming his TV show there from 1969-1971.  It had to undergo a major renovation partly funded by donations and reopened in 1994.  Now it is not only a performance center, but a major tourist attraction.  You can not only view the displays but have your picture taken on stage (if it’s not busy) and record a disc in the attached studio, perhaps performing your own song on the Ryman label. Start practicing now. 

The Grand Ole Opry: is a radio program broadcast by station 650 AM WSM in Knoxville.  It also refers to their stock company of performers currently including people like Whispering Bill Anderson and Jeannie Seely.

The program started in 1925 when National Life & Accident Insurance Company began broadcasting from their downtown offices (WSM stands for We Shield Millions).  Its name was originally ‘WSM Barn Dance’. On December 10, 1927 the long running announcer, “Judge” George Hay, commenting on the previous program the NBC ‘Music Appreciation Hour’ said “we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera.  From now on, we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry.’

As the broadcast expanded to reach most of the east coast they developed their own stars such as Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, (who may be responsible for the term blue grass music) and the Carter family.  

Audience for the Opry

They also attracted a large live audience especially for their Saturday night show when farmers came into to town to blow off steam.  Several venues were tried before they settled on Ryman Auditorium.

War Time Opry

The Opry stayed at Ryman for almost 20 years, but in 1974 it departed for the new, larger, high tech Grand Ole Opry House across the Cumberland River, flanked by The Opry resort and the Opry Mills (a shopping center).  They broadcast four nights a week with a mix of their regular performers and guest stars, usually artists touring with a new hit.  

Among long term serious fans there are considered to be at least two major types of music presented at the Opry.  I found useful examples of both styles in the work of Johnny Paycheck,  Pardon Me I have Someone to Kill is a old type slow soulful song about how a man with only pride to his name must act when his wife is seduced. Take this Job and Shove It is about a man who cheerfuly realizes that his wife leaving him (and taking their savings) has left him free to leave a job he hates. 

MY VISIT- I purchased a ticket to the Grand Ole Opry well before my visit.   I got a great seat and was very happy with the performance that evening. 

However I suggest people with strong tastes in Country music check the performers at Ryman Auditorium, Opry House, and the Country Music Museum on the night of their visit to choose the most interesting show and then order a ticket ahead of time on the internet. 

The performance I attended was unusual because a contingency of Medal of Honor winners were their official guests.  Short videos were shown on the big screen with footage representing their feats.  

The one that stuck in my mind was the World War II veteran who emptied his flamethrower at Japanese fortifications, got back to the American lines and since no one else would go went forward and repeated the job. If I understand correctly he was running toward people firing hot bullets at him wearing tanks of explosive jellied gasoline.

In honor of the Medal holders Whispering Bill Anderson (nicknamed for his soft rough voice) performed his sentimental ballad “Old Army Hat". The official video for this is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=z90SxCg-0nU , A brief recounting of the song’s origin is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgEsQIY3_-U.

Guest performer Raelynn a contestant in 2012 on the TV show The Voice performed her song “For A Boy”  www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsfcpUc7KaE  and then lead the audience in “America the Beautiful.”   Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers host for this part of the show gave a short speech praising her for choosing to sing something in honor of their special guests rather than promoting another of her songs.  He took a selfie with her with a borrowed camera from an audience member. with a lot of help from the phone’s owner.

The program ended with the introduction of an oddly boastful song by the Gatlin Brothers “An American With A Remington.” Check out an informal performance of the song by the authors of the song Larry Gatlin and Billy Dean at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWtRpJucx3U.

An odd incident at the end of that night’s performance was, when it was announced that the Medal of Honor winners were leaving the building, a few voices booed from the back of the auditorium.  The two young men sitting beside me , probably serving military from their hair cuts were looking around. Invoking the power of gray hair over the young I suggested freedom of speech means putting up with rude people sometimes and we all set down to let the walkway clear.

Geek Factor  -  archives for episodes of the Grand Ole Opry from four years are available on wsmonline.com as well samples of their other shows, a special section of tribute shows and live streaming for those outside their broadcasting range.

Before visiting you may want to look at the many films set in the Nashville area especially William Altman’s Nashville (1975)  and Nashville Girl (1976).

Resources

Oermann, Robert T.  Behind the Ole Opry Curtain,  New York: Center Street, 2008  
 ISBN 1931722897

Havighurst, Craig,  Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City.  Urbana, University of Illinois Press 2007   ISBN 0252032578

Nashville Music City: www.visitmusiccity.com

Ryman Auditorium :  www.ryman.com

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: www.countrymusichalloffame.org

The District Nashville: www.thedistrictnashville.org

WSM Online

Devils' Tower

                         DEVIL'S TOWER, WYOMING

Potential as Market for Elephants- None really they might find grazing around base of the tower  and to the south but would never survive winter or even fall.

Date of My Visit: 8/14/15

Geology--Devil’s Tower is a truly surprising feature shooting out of a near flat basin off US 90 in Wyoming.     

The Tower and some nearby structures called the Little Missouri Buttes may

be the remains of the throat of a volcano or they may be intrusive upwelling’s of igneous rock that never broke thru the thick layers of sedimentary rock to the surface. 

 Whichever is true much of the Devil’s Tower current appearance is the result of erosion by the Belle Fourche (Beautiful Fork) River.  The national park service measurements for the tower in 2014 were

867 feet tall from its base and 1,267 feet above the river. Its diameter at the base is 1,000 feet and its ill regular top is 1.5 sq. acres.

History- The tower, and the entire area, is important in several Native American tribes’ religious traditions.   Anthropologists record that at different times the Lakota, Cheyenne, and other tribes spent winters in the rich Belle Fourche Valley, while holding prayer and healing ceremonies at what they called the Bear Tower or Bear Lodge.

The Kiowa tell the legend of eight children, seven sisters and a brother, who were playing on the river bank.  The brother suddenly transformed into a bear and chased his sisters.  They scrambled on a large rock and begin to cry for help.  The rock grew and stretched into the sky until they were out of reach of the now gigantic bear.  He left his claw marks on the sides of the tower and pushed it a little off center.  The seven sisters were taken away into the sky were they became the Pleiades.

The striking vertical ‘bear scratches’ are called columnar joints by geologists and are formed by the cooling and contraction of the rock once heated to near liquid.   A boulder field, eroded from the tower by weather, lies around the base. 

The modern name Devil’s Tower was given it in 1875 by Col. Richard Dodge who led a military/scientific expedition to survey the Black Hills and possibly confirm reports of gold.  His journals say he was told by Native Americans that the tower was a dangerous place were evil spirits were found.   It has been suggested that bear god was translated as bad god.  Many Native Americans feel naming their sacred place Devil’s anything suggests a connection between Satanism and their traditional religious practices.

I wonder if his choice of the name Devil’s Tower was simply the result of Europeans calling unusual geographic features the Devil’s this and the Devil’s that.   In my 1949 Encyclopedia there are five places called the Devil’s this or that on one page.   

A request for a name change back to Bear Lodge is being considered by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names (See the e-mail reproduced at the bottom.)

The first recorded ascent to the top of Devil’s Tower was on July 4^th 1893 by two locals William Rogers and Willard Ripley who had installed a wooden ladder for the first 350 feet. They raised a U.S. Flag and then sold pieces of it at their Lemonade stand.  An annual 4^th of July picnic and fireworks display became an important social event linking the many remote ranches and small towns.

Today about 3000 rock climbers come to challenge the tower every year.  It is necessary to register with the ranger service.   Climbing may be canceled for weather or out of respect for Native American ceremonies.

With Permission of Lakota County Times

An example is the Sacred Hoop Run is a five-day, 500-mile relay run based on a myth about how the Lakota first came to the Black Hills. In the story, it is said that all the creatures of the plains gathered together to decide whether to allow the two-legged animals into their homeland. The winged creatures were for it, and the four-legged creatures were against it. To settle the matter, they raced in a big loop, or hoop, through the Black Hills. The first time the four legged won, the second time the winged won, and the third time a magpie rode on the back of a buffalo, and they won. Thereafter, all the creatures gave their blessing for the two-legged Lakota to enter the Black Hills.

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devil’s Tower the first national monument using the Antiquities Act.  This bill passed in 1906 allows the president to, by proclamation, create national monuments from public lands to protect significant natural, cultural or scientific features.  It is one of the few things a president can do without any oversight.

My Visit- I was going west from Rapid City, South Dakota to Cody, Wyoming the day I visited so I left I-90 at Sundance, Wyoming.  Yes the site of Robert Redford’s famous film festival and the town the Sundance Kid took his alias from.  WY 14 takes one within sight of tower and then loops back to I-90 so I rejoined it at Moorcroft, a center of the coal and oil industry in the area. People coming from the east can just reverse my route.

One approaches the tower by a paved road that circles the base of the tower after purchasing a ticket.
Go to the parking lot and there is a paved path that leads to base of the boulder field.

I saw no one equipped for rock climbing, but the posted signs say that one need not register unless one climbs above the boulder field.  I saw several people climbing like these folks with only rubber sandals, flip flops we call them.

I took the short one and a half trail around the base of the tower getting a view of its vertical cracks from several angles.

 The further I got from the crowded parking lot and campground I saw more and more medicine bags and ribbons, religious items hung in the forest.   The paths have numerous reminders to stay on them and avoid disturbing these sacred activities.

The ranger station has nothing special in the way of souvenirs or books.


When leaving you get a good look at the red sandstone cliffs that surround the base and a prairie dog city.

 It is forbidden to feed the little animals or enter the actual field.  As you can see from these pictures they have learned to beg, but I recommend staying on the graveled overlook, history is full of people being injured stepping in prairie dog holes and they are sometimes occupied by rattlesnakes.