Nashville: Soaking, Chopping, Line Dancing

Through a miracle of planning and/or luck, I had made an appt at Essential Therapy Spa for the afternoon. I soaked in a tub of warm water and sandlewood, then hopped up on the massage table. With an electric blanket beneath me, my therapist Jill proceeded to turn my body into goo. Lordy! I have had good massages, even great ones, but this one was legendary. After awhile, I ceased feeling it in the traditional sense ... it was more like I was the massage.

And then she chopped me. If you're like me, you first saw a massage on some old TV show and chopping was the whole deal, using both hands like little meat cleavers on your spine. But I've never had a massage where they actually did it.

As I walked out a renewed man, to the left of me on the strip mall ... was Maggie Moo's Ice Cream. I wept for joy.

The Country Music Hall of Fame had a Ray Charles exhibit, so I had to go. If you've seen Ray, you know that he spent the 60's as mostly a country and jazz performer. In one of the video clips, Johnny Cash announces him with: "Nobody sings soul like he does. Nobody sings country like he does. Nobody sings like he does!" So true! Since then many rock groups have recorded country albums (Ween, The The, X - as the Knitters), but none have felt as authentic and heartfelt as Brother Ray's Modern Sounds in Country and Western.

So back down on Broadway, I stumbled into the Wildhorse Saloon for BBQ. (My descent continues). It's as huge as an opera house, with 1/2 the first floor marked for dancing. I was at the bar enjoying my new drink of choice (Jim Beam and soda), when the curtains parted and out steps a Southern Belle in jeans and a t-shirt, and shouts "We're going to teach y'all how to dance now. C'mon up! Don't be shah!" <--- Northern translation: shy

In a recent newspaper article, I read "When you have a funny, nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach, don't run away from it. Run towards it!" And so ... I'm out on the dance floor with about 20 other people, learning how to line dance. It was a blast! And no humans were harmed in the process. While I'm sure we weren't the most graceful, at the end of our lesson the Southern Belle declared "The song's inded, and y'all are facing the same direction. Mah work here is done!"

Plum tuckered out, I ambled down Broadway for less strenuous entertainment. On Broadway, all bands play for tips, there are no cover charges. This tradition was started my Willie Nelson back in the 70's. Anyway, Travis Birch was playing at the Stage, and from the street he sounded fantastic. Inside, he was even better. Here's the thing. Even if you can't stand recorded country music, played live it's impossible to hate. It's at once intellectually fascinating (the players are such virtuosos) and down-to-earth.

And really, you can't get more American than that.