Rockin' In Nashville, USA

Nashville sells itself as the Country Music Capital of the World. The aim of this feature is to show that Nashville also rocks and rolls. And to celebrate the neon signage and other low-brow art-work that the various bars and clubs use to promote themselves. It is all based on our most recent visit, which took place in August (2016). (continues overleaf)

- Paul Waring & Dee Shore

First off, if you like live 1950s rock ‘n’ roll music, the best band that we saw in Nashville was an outfit called Nathan Belt & The Buckles. We came to this conclusion after investigating all the bars on Broadway, which is the main drag for music bars in Nashville. Nathan Belt’s band is a four piece with Nathan on vocals and rhythm guitar and an excellent lead guitarist by the name of Jake Bradley. You can check them out on You-tube. They play a wide range of cover songs, many well known, some not so, and they sing and play them well, in an authentic style. On the night we caught them at the Acme Feed & Seed warehouse right at one end of Broadway, they performed from 6 to 9 pm and presented at least 34 songs. These ranged from their opener “Good Rockin’ Tonight”, and “Johnny B. Goode”, through the classic pop of Conway Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe” to the rockin’ country of Dwight Yoakham’s “Guitars, Cadillacs and Hillbilly Music” and Junior Brown’s “Highway Patrol”. They said at the beginning of their set that if anyone in the audience was looking for current Top 40 selections, they had come to the wrong place, as the band would definitely not be playing them!

Acme Seed & Feed also serve up excellent pot roasts and there was room around the tables and in front of the stage for Dee & I and other couples to jive and wiggle.