Put On My Blue Suede Shoes

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We started our musical tour of Tennessee in Nashville, so we'll start there and come back to the Memphis experience later....

Nashville was HOT - I mean, seriously hot, not like Miami-hot but 109 degrees when we arrived at 6 in the evening. It was like having an instant headache the minute you walked out the door. Still, what can you do when you've only got a day in a place - so we braved the temperatures and got ourselves outside.

First stop was the Tennessee State Capitol where we learned a little bit about the way they run their state. The building was lovely and it is the only state capitol to have a president buried on it's grounds (it's Andrew Jackson if anyone cares!). Then on the Tennessee State Museum which has lots of exhibits about Andrew Jackson - they love that dude here but we don't because we discovered that he killed Charles Dickens. Why would you do that?

Then we hopped on a bus and headed out to the Grand Old Opry theatre which is where they've been broadcasting a country music radio show for years and years and where loads of famous country music stars, like Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton, got their start. The museum was pretty interesting and we had a wander round that taking comedy photos of ourselves pretending to be country music singers. Next to the theatre is a huge shopping mall where we found a Glow Golf - imagine crazy golf in pitch black except for lots of UV lights with glow-in-the-dark golf balls and clubs....ooh, it was the most fun. We're rubbish at golf though and got overtaken by a 6 year old child which was slightly embarrassing.

Our evening in Nashville was spent listening to some live country music in a bar which was really good. Particular favourite song was one which included the line 'You're the reason our kids are ugly'. Then we headed to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and on to a club we had spotted on the way out, Decades, which claimed to be the #1 club in Nashville. We had high hopes. We have a few suggestions as to what 'Decades' is short for:

Decades - since this place was full (max. crowd 25 while we were there)
Decades - since anyone in Nashville compiled a list of the best clubs here
Decades - since anyone used that amount of dry ice on a dancefloor

It did have very high comedy value though and was worth a visit just for the dancing 'skills' of the other customers.

So after Nashville, we got on another Greyhound bus headed for Memphis - land of Elvis. Our hotel was slightly weird - they had a full-blown club night in the lobby when we arrived with about 5 people bumping and grinding on the doormat-sized dancefloor.

On our first day, we headed down to Sun Studios where Elvis recorded his first records and got on the bus to Graceland (driven by a guy with an Elvis-quiff, seriously). We had the best day ever - we went into the mansion and the grounds, on board his private jets, saw his car collection and all the outfits he used to wear on stage and watched a little film about him. The house is really nice (except the decoration which probably would have looked nice in the 60s/70s) and feels like an actual home rather than something you would see on Cribs. We both came away proper Elvis fans and have been humming Elvis tunes ever since. To top off our great day, we found an Indian restaurant - you would not believe the lack of curry options in this country - and ate until we could hardly move!

On our last day in Memphis, we headed down to Beale Street - home of the blues - for cocktails and live blues singers. It is a great place and home to our new favourite bar - Wet Willies - where they have all their cocktails in little washing machine things behind the bar and sell drinks called things like Call-A-Cab and Shock Treatment.

Our next port of call in New Orleans - just 12 hours on a bus and we'll be there!

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Comments

[Cecil Faberge]

Slander
WTF? Andrew Jackson did NOT kill Charles Darwin, what are you babbling about? Is this some kind of joke I can't get?