July 7th - Nashville

We started our day with a two-hour visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Hank was most looking forward to learning about the history of country music, which turns out to be very eclectic. The old-time music was derivative of folk music from England, Ireland and Scotland. The movie "Song Catcher" is a delightful re-telling of how this was discovered and documented. The banjo was introduced by African Americans, the accordion by Germans and the mandolin by Italians. There were many regional and stylistic variations over the years - bluegrass, cajun, blues, cowboy songs, rockabilly, and outlaw. After Elvis, many people thought that it would be the end of country music but it just absorbed the influence and continued to evolve. Quotes on the outside of the museum capture a couple of artists view of what country music is. Hank Williams said that what it all has in common is "sincerity". Merle Haggard said "Country songs are the dreams of the working man."

We also visited the full-scale, detailed replica of the Parthenon, which was built for the city's centennial exhibition in 1897. For a small entrance fee you can:
- Read about the design and construction of the original Parthenon in Greece as well as the replica in Nashville
- See a full-scale replica of the statue of Athena (42-feet tall!)
- Learn about the Centennial event
- See exhibits of classic and modern art work
At the time of the centennial, Nashville viewed itself as the Athens of the West, due to it's commitment to knowledge and education. So the Parthenon seemed a fitting centerpiece.

We returned to camp to feed and exercise the dogs and take a short rest for ourselves and then headed back to Broadway for one more night of live music. Our first stop was Kid Rock's Honky Tonk, where we hoped to see our favorite front-woman again, but there was a different band on the stage where we expected to see her. On their main stage we found another great act - Noah Gardner and Fiddlerock 

Noah's description of Fiddlerock says it best: "FIDDLEROCK combines the honesty of a country lyric with the energy of rock ‘n’ roll, with me sawing my fiddle like a rock guitarist shreds his guitar." Noah fiddled on the dance floor and up and down the aisles of the bar. He danced and sang on the bar along with a dozen women he had invited to join him for the song. They played a combination of rock classics and country. We enjoyed every tune. We spent most of the night there, before dropping back in on Kelley's Heros at Robert's Western World. It was a fitting way to wrap-up our last night in "Music City".