Representing Nashville

It’s been an astonishingly fast three weeks since Ms. Taylor and I got back from China. In that time I had my old Subaru totaled (rear-ended on 40 and replaced last week with a totally fun charcoal gray Pontiac Vibe), edited the program for the upcoming Americana Music Association convention, wrote a feature about Emmylou Harris for Acoustic Guitar, wrapped up work on the Last Train Home Live DVD, reported two coming-soon public radio stories about country music, hosted an IBMA panel on the future of bluegrass plus, most delightfully, celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary and held actual copies of my first book, which is now turning up in stores from Davis-Kidd to Ernest Tubb.
That is to say, it’s not been easy to find time to opine about some of the interesting news items breaking of late about our marvelous Music City. Chiefly, I invite you to consider two representations of Nashville that turned up in media space in the past couple weeks...

First, in a nicely developed appreciation/travel piece on September 23, novelist Ann Patchett, a long-time Nashvillian, describes the music scene here that lives and thrives off of and apart from Music Row. She centers her attention on East Nashville, where there genuinely is one of the nation’s great music cultures and pays respect to the community of artists, songwriters and musicians who fuel each other's work with supportive competition and crafty collaboration. She investigates the rootsy and eclectic Americana scene and opines: "It feels like the music that happens when talented country folk get together, as opposed to the music that happens when talented producers hire pretty girls."

And that’s a pretty decent description of the other Nashville, the woeful Fox television docu-drama that was cancelled after two episodes last week due to miserable ratings. I take heart that only a few thousand people saw this ghastly portrayal of Music City, which played to (and partly confirmed) the worst fears many music fans have about Music Row. In a certain sense, the show’s contrived storylines masquerading as “reality” perfectly reflected where the country music business is today, which is to say a place where perfect skin and teeth are more important than vision, and where a powerful voice is more important than a truthful one. I hated the “this town makes you or breaks you” rhetoric, when so many talented people here are happy working unglamorously as middle-class musicians, writers, producers and engineers. Not even a fraction of the musical people here think their happiness depends on global fame. I hated the idea that the tartlets who were cattily competing for the attention of nimrod self-appointed producers was all ostensibly trying to find a place in “country music,” which was once a genre where artists had to have something to say. It’s interesting that when Robert Altman’s Nashville came out in the 1970s, the citizenry was mostly embarrassed by the surreal and satiric portrayal of their city. Those were folks who couldn’t see the wit and subversive intelligence that went into the picture. Fox’s Nashville had neither, just hand-held cinematography of expensively made up game show contestants. I’m glad that’s over.

I say all this as someone who has made some television and some documentary about Nashville musicians, something I sincerely love doing. In my pieces, I strive to be as honest and uncontrived as I can. I also gave a lot of thought to how I should portray Nashville in Air Castle of the South. I asked a lot of people and consulted a lot of sources trying to get at the genuine nature of this city, and I came to some strong opinions that colored how I wrote the story of WSM. In a nutshell, I think Nashville is full of artisanship and aspiration, a magnet for creativity, but a place that’s often conflicted about change and strangely inept at public relations. Over the long haul and in the big picture, the industry has helped the art more than it’s hurt it, but I’m far from the only one who thinks art’s been taking quite a whipping in recent years, at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned. Of course, many artists don’t find that mainstream media as necessary or appealing as it used to be, and it will be fascinating to see whether Nashville’s independent sector can build a new entertainment business from the ground up, with sweat, inspiration and innovation. That's what happened here between the 1930s to the 1960s, which is what my book is fundamentally about. I fervently hope it happens again, because the Nashville of Fox isn’t one I’d invite friends across the country to come see. The Nashville of Ann Patchett’s story is the Nashville I live in and love.

Comments

[John]

ordered "Air Castle" and looking forward to receiving it. also was fortune to attend an Ann Patchett's reading at Davis-Kidd last week. thanks for the link to her article.

as for Fox's Nashville, just an fyi, it is on hiatus, and not yet canceled.

[Jan]

I worked in the industry in the late '70's and through the '80's in Nashville, as a singer. I am quite anxious to read your take on it from your perspective. I was one of those middle class working musicians (yes, singers can be musicians too, even "chick" singers). I was not in the country music industry, though I sang my share of country, whatever paid the bills. But I always found the roots of Nashville and its music intriguing. There is so much there, not just country. My husband was involved in the rock and roll side of Nashville's history (late '60's) and our lives intersected repeatedly through the years. One of my fondest memories is getting to sing to Hoss Allen (the famous D.J.) at a birthday party for him, and then about a year later being on a non-stop flight to L.A., seated next to Mr. Allen, quite coincidentally, and being mesmerized by the stories he told me of his experiences. He was a very fascinating part of Music City's history.