From You Guys to Y'all - September!

           Hey y’all!  This is Lexi Zarecky presenting our first expedition with country music!  Because Nashville is country music central, we decided to start our project by exploring the downtown area and the effects that music has had on it.  A couple weeks ago, we drove downtown and walked down Broadway – even at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon the Honky Tonks are full of people and bands.  We started out by walking through the Charlie Daniels museum, which had memorabilia from his past shows and his life.  For those of you who don’t know who Charlie Daniels is (as many of us did not), he is a famous fiddle player who sings “The Devil Went down to Georgia”.  It was interesting for me to see this museum because I had previously seen him live at the Grand Ole Opry before the flood.  After the museum, we went into a couple of stores that sold cowboy boots, and talked to one of the shopkeepers.  They mentioned how country music tends to bring people together, and Nashville is such a friendly city that it seemed fitting that country music is centralized there.

            Finally, we went to a Honky Tonk that had a live band playing.  It was really crowded, but we got to listen to some classic country tunes (such as those by Tim McGraw and the Zac Brown Band), and witness everyone enjoying themselves and the country music surrounding them.  It truly seems that country music is a defining factor of Nashville at any time of the day, and that everyone embraces it.  I believe that country music presents stories that many people face everyday, and is emotional and truthful.  I believe that these characteristics also represent Nashville, and that the combination of the city and country music makes Nashville a truly unique and wonderful place.

            Oh, and a great majority of us went to the Nights of Sun Concert!  It was wonderful to see how country music singers are willing to put on a benefit concert in the middle of frat row!   Especially Love and Theft, which, though many don’t realize it, is a pretty famous country band!

That's all for now!

Lexi Zarecky, Sara Perez, Evyn Cosgrove, Liesel Burks, Abi Hardaway, and Alex Manthey