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 put on make-up by erecting a stage on your main thoroughfare where the Osborne Brothers will perform and hanging banners in the colors of the event from your lampposts.
For a week, you decided to combine my two passions: hockey and country music. The last time I saw you this pretty was when the Preds reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017. It was the same weekend as the Country Music Awards. Besides, at that time, you had proven that you were 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 in November 2011. So much so that I praised you to all my relatives. During my following visits, I introduced you to my wife, my father and my buddies who organized my 40th birthday party at your house.
But for some time, I no longer recognize you. I don’t know if it’s because of the pandemic, but you’ve changed. Take for example, this big glass cube that houses the Apple Store across from the Bridgestone Arena. An abominable wart at one end of Broadway Street, the face that characterized you with its countless multi-storey bars.
Even your voice has changed. That same Broadway street where the country bands of Legends Corner, Tootsie’s, Stage and Honky Tonk once crowded doesn’t quite sound the same. You were probably afraid of not being up to date anymore, so you gave a little more space to rock bands or pop artists.
Luckily, there’s still Robert’s to remind me of your roots and how you used to be different from the others. The melodies of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, the fathers of Outlaw Country are still present there.
It’s not just the music at Robert’s that allows me to remember our beginnings. The famous recession lunch (a baloney sandwich, a potato chip and a Pabst Blue Ribbon) at $6 reminds me of the good old days. But you see, inflation even affected the recession. Because, a few years ago, you had me by the stomach by charging me only $5.
The parties follow one another
Yet you didn’t need to sell your soul to be loved. You had your own charms with the Country Hall of Fame, the museum dedicated to Johnny Cash, the Ryman Auditorium, which is the Mecca of country music, where the greatest legends of this musical style have succeeded.
You now have your NHL team, your NFL team, your MLS team. Major League Baseball is also considering joining the party. Besides, your reputation as a party girl is so widespread that bachelor parties follow one another week after week.
You are no longer a well-kept secret that hotels are sprouting up all over the city center. It’s proof that everyone loves you.
Deep down, maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I’m just jealous. I preferred when I felt like I had you all to myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have touted your charms to everyone.