2 posts tagged “lynchburg”

First item on the agenda was Jack Daniel's Distillery. I joined the very informative tour and know a lot more about how JD is made. It's free, too, so if you're ever in the area, don't miss it. Although Moore County is dry, the distillery have a special license to sell a special bottle of JD. I didn't buy one because I wasn't sure how well it would survive the journey.

Next stop was Shelbyville for breakfast and then I drove pretty much due North to Lebanon, stopping on the way at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park where I did the short walk through parts of the cedar glades. Very pretty.
From Lebanon I carried on West avoiding the Interstate to Nashville where I found my motel and checked in.

Then I decided on a whim to try if I could get into the early evening show at the Bluebird Cafe and indeed I could.
They say you should leave the best for last and I think I've just broken that rule. The Bluebird Cafe was on my high priority list to visit and as the time was just right for the first show and I wanted to eat something, anyway, I drove to Hillsboro. I think if you didn't have exact directions you'd never find it because it's a tiny store front tucked away in a retail park type street next to furniture shops, petrol stations and fast food joints. Not exactly an area where you'd expect the venue for up and coming as well as established songwriters. Many a big name in Nashville played here first, some even used to work there (like Andrew Jackson as a barman). Ever since I'd heard Together at the Bluebird, the fantastic live album by Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle and Guy Clark, it had been my firm intention to go there if I ever ended up in Nashville and I managed it.di
It's really small, I'd say about 80 capacity (seated at tables, the bar or in the back on a couple of church pews) so no wonder the second shows are sold out quickly. The musicians sit in the centre, facing each other. On "In The Round" nights, it's usually four who sing a song each, going round the circle several times, from 6 to 8.

Tonight it was Teresa Wright (all her songs are sung by others on her myspace but she has a wonderful voice, too), Ben West, Todd Caudill and Dar Franz who I couldn't find online, except in reference to tonight. Each had a different style which kept interesting although it was just the artist with an acoustic guitar. Nothing else. The sound system is superb, too, especially considering the size of the place. A wonderful wonderful evening and a perfect start for my time in Nashville.

I put a small collection of photos which might give an idea of how great this place is on flickr.

On my way back I drove through the Centennial Park and took a few photos of the Parthenon. Very strange thing, that. I'm going to have a better look during daytime tomorrow.

Took a variety of nice and scenic back roads, weaving my way West, North through parts of the Cumberland gap and West again until I arrived at Lynchburg around 5:30 (or 4:30? Was there a time zone change? All the clocks here are an hour earlier),

The drive was pleasant, I was just a bit unlucky with the weather as it was rather grey and either rained for a while so there wasn’t much in terms of nice photo opportunities. I was also unlucky in the way that there would have been some things I’d loved to have taken photos of but there was no way of stopping.

 There were some seriously bendy roads with a few actual hairpins through the beautiful Cumberland area which would have been cool in a manual car but driving a car that has different ideas of when and how to shift, even when set to lower gears, was a bit disconcerting as I didn’t really feel in control. I’m also used to cars responding to the throttle a lot more quickly, i.e. slow down when you release the throttle and accelerate nicely when you step on it. The kickdown sort of works but still not as well as I’d like. As a result, a car with twice the engine size of mine feels extremely sluggish. On top of that, it guzzles petrol like there’s no tomorrow, I used half a tank getting here. At least petrol is cheaper (a full tank cost me 30 bucks) but it’s still something I rather wouldn’t spend too much money on. Damn this wasteful society!

Was feeling rather tired so stopped at the Lynchburg Country Inn, wandered around a bit and then worked on photos and things.