Lower Broad (LB) is the four block stretch from 5th Avenue to !st where Broadway ends at the Cumberland River.
The view from rooftop at Garth’s Friends in Low Places location
Today thousands flock to this acre oasis as Nashville was tabbed an “IT City” and later became the #1 party destination for Southern Bachelorettes. Pedal taverns, horse drawn carriages, and other conveyances prowl the streets, all with loud music and sloshed riders. It got so ridiculous that people were putting homemade hot tubs in the bed of pickup trucks and charging riders/soakers a stiff rate to ride along, BYOB, no charge for blaring music, it’s so crowded and loud that few locals make the scene. But it wasn’t always like this.
Looking down LB from 5th Avenue
When the Grand Ole Opry moved out of the Ryman in 1974, lower Broad soon became a moribund location. For years it was home only to porn shops, cheesy furniture shops, liquor stores, pawn shops, Linebaugh’s hotel/bar/restaurant,Tootsie’s and some very bottom feeder bars like The Southern Turf. During this period I remember going to LB several evenings and SEEING LESS THAN FIVE PEOPLE. At night it was a deserted, dangerous place.
For an extended look at those earlier days on LVB, Bill Rounda’s photo book NASHVILLE’S LOWER BROADWAY The Street That Music Made
A series of fortuitous events led the way in Lower Broad’s Renaissance, the biggest being the campaign headed by Emmylou Harris to save the Ryman (est. 1892) from demolition. Instead the fabled venue was restored, air conditioning was installed and upon reopening once again became a major attraction, booking, as did the original Ryman, all types of musical acts.
\The venerable Tootsie’s
Tootsie’s upgraded their marketing, Robert’s Western World performers like Greg Garing, BR549 and the Don Kelley Band started bringing in a young, “Hip” crowd. Then a huge arena was built, and our NHL franchise attracted thousands on 70+ nights a year for Predators games. And many of those folks stayed around to patronized the LB spots afterwards. Jimmy Buffett opened Margarityaville early in the transformation and it endures though very high profile establishments like Planet Hollywood and the NASCAR Cafe were dismal failures.
The Hall of Fame moved from Music Row to one block off Broadway and then we had a network TV show for several years and a new Convention Center opened up just one block off Broadway.
Our Convention and Visitors Bureau relentlessly recruited attractions and thus tourists to the area. Hotels mushroomed amidst the LB area and around the fringes. And is it ever HOPPING when the sun goes down!
Let’s have a look, shall we? My walk late afternoon on a Tuesday in mid-April was pleasant as the hordes had not arrived. I do plan a second LB column, the next one after dark.
It’s 528 feet on each side of the street and for the purpose of this article let’s say 100’ to either side of the cross streets. I methodically walked down one side of Broadway and back on the other.
On my stroll I tallied 16 Bars with licensed Star names and a like number of bars with no artist affiliation.
That comes to four on each side for that 4-block stretch, about 130 feet per block
Do you think these 32 establishments offered just one bar? No, many have multiple floors, up to six stories in fact and there’s usually a bar on each floor. About half of these places have rooftop bars.
I think it’s reasonable to say the average number of bars on offer in each venue is 4 so that means there are 128 places to quench your thirst and fill your belly in one rectangle of slightly less than four acres.
Let’s start with a peek at the newly-0opened Friends in Low Places , Garth Brooks’ entry.
the stage at the back of Ga
The stage at the back of Garth’s place on the 2nd floor
Garth’s gotta be dramatic, even on the stairways
Garth’s surprisingly tasteful rooftop aerie
And of course, the bars aren’t the only attractions on offer along LB.
Most of these spots offer up live entertainment, either bands or in solo, duo or trio lineups. i
Angie Rey onstage at Garth’s
Sammi Rae on Alan Jackson’s rooftop
Plenty of these spots feature a band playing right by the entrance so they can be heard plainly amidst the sounds of other cars passing, pedal taverns and cruisin’ folks all with their systems pumped to 11. I turned my hearing aids way down, probably could have removed them altogether.
In Part II I’ll continue down LB and then come back up the other side.
One last note: The area has re=instituted its diagonal street crossing system. Traffic proceeds one way, then the to her way, then all traffic stops and pedestrians can use the diagonal crosswalk. (see second photo above)
And I only had one drink, a glass of house merlot for a mere $10.
Oh Yes, Tony Alamo, the guy who kept his wife's dead body around for weeks, saying Susan would soon come back to life. Opearated a commune where residents were mistreated and abused.
I just read the 2nd one and thought, what was the name of the wonderful costume store--he went to jail for income tax but was crazy cult leader?