Nashville's where you go, to see if what is said is so...

We entered Nashville in the evening, passing the Gibson headquarters, pulling into the 8th Ave Greyhound station, my last Greyhound station. Walked up to Broadway as the sun went down, surrounded by cathedrals. I stood on the corner and could see churches in every direction, it was incredible. Temperature - still hot.

Music City Hostel, a nice quiet easy-going place; I felt most at home here after the crowds of the Hollywood, Seattle and New Orleans hostels. In the office I met Klaus, a real German gentleman, with a name that makes me chuckle (See the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). He found out I was from NZ and immediately went off to find the "other kiwi guy", who turned out to be Brett, one of the assistant managers, originally from Invercargill. I felt most at home. Over the days I was there I admired Brett's progresss in painting a chess board onto a table, using post-it notes and glow-in-the-dark white paint. It really looks awesome now.

My great Nashville companion was Tanja, from Berlin. Another wunderbar German. She too was taking Greyhounds, checking out Americana. So together we visited the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and various other landmarks and record stores.

The Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ol' Opry, is a beautiful hall which has hosted pretty much every great artist in music. My favourite is Neil Young - see the dvd 'Heart of Gold' - it's a concert that pays homage to the Ryman and the tradition of Nashville. It's amazing to see the scars in the stage floor and think of Johnny Cash and June Carter, Hank Williams, and so many more, singing and dancing up there. Garrison Keillor performed A Prairie Home Companion up there. The Ryman is certainly a soulful place, you can sense it as soon as you enter. The rest of Tuesday was spent wandering downtown, Ernest Tubb's Record Store, the Cumberland River, like the Ryman, potent with history.

Tuesday night, the first of two concerts that had drawn me to Nashville: Animal Collective at the Mercy Lounge on Cannery Row. I walked in to a dark room, laser-lights, huge skeleton props, and freaky electronic folk psychedelia. It was stunning, such an amazing show. I bought a record from the merch desk, and walked home, my head spinning, loving what I'd heard.