Renee learned that those are the lyrics of John Lennon's "Mind Games." Today, we said goodbye to Memphis and drove to Nashville, about 3 hours northeast. We drove first to the Ryman Auditorium to get our tour tickets for later that afternoon and then went to the Nashville Farmer's market.
It was sort of like Fanuel Hall but with lots more fresh produce. Dave got a tasty tamarind snowball for dessert, and Renee got a fresh lemonade.
Next we drove back downtown and found a great parking space. We popped into Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, where they had a great selection of country vinyl, CDs, DVDs and more.
Then we headed to the Ryman. This is where the Grand Ole Opry was performed and broadcast from the '40s to 1974. We took a great backstage tour and heard all about the history of the building, got to hang out in the dressing rooms and meet some super excited older adult country music fans. After the tour, Dave recorded a song! The Ryman has a small recording booth inside the main auditorium where you can record your own song. Dave did "Traveling so Far," and it came out pretty good!
After that, we drove to the Vanderbilt University area and had tasty chicken fingers at MacDougal's Chicken Fingers and Wings. It was quite tasty!
The interior was plastered with ephemera, and at the end of your meal you get a tasty mini ice cream.
Then we drove up to Opryland where our hotel is. Tomorrow we hope to hit the Country Music Hall of Fame, Third Man Records, and explore a little. Maybe catch some live music somewhere?
Sounds like another excellent day in the land of Tenneseeans! So I did not know the lyrics either - which is not a surprise in my case, but I am into fantasy stories as is widely known amongst friends. Which was makes the "Druid dude" very intriguing. Is there a fantastic element in a Lennon song; even if it's wrapped up in some other message? I will have to listen to Mind Games now!
ReplyDeleteThe recording news created excitement in our household! Does anyone else listen? How about the super excited old country fans? Do you record it on a CD? So about these old fans... Were they part of your tour or are their sole purpose in life to get the tour participants as excited as they are?
What? Chicken again? Is that all they serve there? Was the performance as good as yesterday's? The ice-cream looks good! Which reminds me; we now have a Pinkberry in our fine town. In case you don't know, it is a frozen yogurt place and allegedly that's where all the Holliwood celebrities go (in LA; not here obviously). It was REALLY good!
Yes, the live music was exactly what I kept asking in my head while I was reading today's post. Here you are, in what sounds like THE music Mecca, but I am not reading about these amazing musicians/performers you are meeting. How come?
Again, this was a great treat! Thank you for sharing and keep them coming!
Hi Benek! The song "Mind Games" was inspired by the book of the same name by Robert Masters. http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Games-Guide-Inner-Space/dp/0835607534
ReplyDeleteI don't think the book is mystical or fantasy-related, I am not sure what the "druid dude" is referring to. Probably it just sounded good at the time. The recording was fun, it's pretty much a souvenir thing. If you don't have your own song, you can choose one of 12 classic country songs to sing and record with back up music provided. It was fun though! I think the older couple were just country fans that were excited to be there. They were awesome and had lots of great stories.
The deal with the chicken is twofold: One, the south is known for its great fried chicken, so we wanted to make sure to get some, and two: we both like chicken. That's basically it. Renee had fried chicken again for dinner tonight!
We didn't manage to take in any live music while we were here. It is disappointing, but we had so much we wanted to do in a limited time, and we haven't stayed out past 6:00 either night because we've been so worn out. I think if we were here another couple of days we'd definitely get some music in. Next time!
Thanks for reading!!