Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

If you’ve ever stepped foot in Nashville, you know that they don’t call it music city for nothing. This vibrant city is legendary as the county music capital but it’s not just country music that you’ll hear. Walking through the airport, I was greeted with the tightest rock band I had heard in a while. Browsing  Nashville shops, restaurants  and bars, I often spotted a stage where musicians would play all day and night.  I heard jazz, gospel, pop and lots of country music during my visit but you can’t grab the full experience until you visit Nashville’s famed honky tonks.

A wall of boots at Roberts

Before I traveled to Nashville, I never realized that honky tonk can be used as a verb but that’s how I heard my nightly forays into the crowded, whiskey-soaked bars that line Broadway in downtown Nashville described.  Making my way to the area, I heard the live music blasting four blocks away. Even crossing the street at intersections, there are boxes that play music according to the area you’re in. My first stop was Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which is probably the most famous Nashville honky Tonk. Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and a host of others are rumored to have gotten their starts on Tootsie’s stage. The walls are supposed to be orchid-colored, hence the name but I never glimpsed the walls because both levels of the bar were piled with people. Honky Tonks are free so visitors spend their money at the bar and in the tip jar that musicians pass around. Upstairs, I enjoyed a band with a sassy female singer and downstairs, I heard a blonde guitarist from Alabama tell naughty stories that passed as songs. As they say at Tootsie’s, I had a “holler and a swaller” and it was time to move on.  Next door, lined with walls of cowboy boots and a fun loving vibe, Roberts Western Wear proved to be my favorite honky tonk.  Dedicated to playing early country, roots music,  the band I heard played swinging rockabilly that required everyone in the bar to dance. I was twirled around the floor so many times that I stumbled out, dizzy from all the fun. Next was The Stage, billed as Nashville’s “most rockin’ country club,” the patrons were all flinging around like a huge mosh pit. The music was definitely rock so the rowdiness was required.

An elegant Hermitage doorman

After hours of standing and dancing, I ended my honky tonking evening at the historic Hermitage Hotel, where the top hatted doorman greeted me and a fresh cup of tea paired with cookies, soothed me. I relaxed enough to get some sleep and do it all over again the next night.

Photos courtesy of Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

Disclosure: all of the activities were part of a sponsored press trip,