Goodbye San Marcos, Austin Texas hello Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve really been looking forward to this trip to Music City. Like really looking forward to it!
And hey boy, hey girl, has not disappointed, it’s actually exceeded my expectations on every single measure.
Our hotel is on Lower Broadway directly opposite the Johnny Cash Museum, we are smack bang in the middle of the Honky Tonk Highway. You want live music? You want loud live music? You want multiple bands all playing live loud music all at once? You’ve got it. These Honky Tonk bars are everywhere. It’s like peak Woolworth’s Pick ‘n’ Mix but instead of sweets, it’s live music.
Our friends were also arriving in Nashville so we headed to The Fleet Street Pub. This is a pub run by an Englishman who is also clearly a Gooner. We met up with Obi, also a Gooner, who we last saw on the last night in Qatar and Reg (2), who is Billy the Bee’s brother who lives in the U.K. Both great people. Billy has asked me on to his and Laney’s Brentford FC podcast Beesotted a fair few times when West Ham play Brentford and is always the life and soul of any party!
We watched the Canada vs Qatar game on the big screen. Qatar got a 6-0 drubbing, and Canada don’t look like mugs at all. We very confused about table vs bar service, because there are ‘obviously’ two separate regimes running each and the tips ‘real estate’ seems to be where the real value is. Getting caught up in this tipping turf war ain’t for us. Welcome to America!
At the end of the match we decided to change scene to one with bigger screens and actual commentary that we could hear. So we duly headed to Draft Kings where we were meeting up with the wonderful Reg 1, Mark, Supes and main orchestrator and all round good person, Billy, all of whom were coming in from Mexico.
Draft Kings is actually a betting company, so think a Paddy Power or Bet365 pub and ridiculously expensive. There were walls and walls of enormous screens and noise to watch the Mexico vs South Korea game on. Both teams looked unimpressive to be honest, and at the end of it, inevitable talk turned to a possible England vs Mexico in Mexico City down the line. Personally, I would love to go back to Mexico City and the Azteca Stadium. The last time I was there we lost 2-1 to Argentina to that goal and that other goal. It would be lovely to return and this time win.
And then back to Broadway, which is quite simply like nothing else I have witnessed. Literally thousands of people, thousands of pairs of Cowboy boots, Cowboy hats and Rhinestone everywhere. It’s like one big hen party sponsored by Ariat or Tony Lama (two of the big names in Cowboy boots). Humour is good and people are clearly out for a good time.
We hit Chief’s Honky Tonk Bar which like most of the bars has about 5 floors of music. Two things stood out. The extremely high quality of the bands playing and the overall friendliness of the Americans.
For those of us who have travelled many times to the US, the friendliness and openness shouldn’t be a surprise.
Relentlessly optimistic, Americans are always interested in what you think of their country and why you are visiting. When you tell them that we are here for The World Cup, and yes, we were travelling round watching England play their World Cup games, they are all completely enchanted and confused in seemingly equal measure.
Two young lads, Owen and Ryan, were on the other side of the bar and were smiling and pointing over at us. Kirsty thought there was something up. I disagreed. 20 minutes later and my confidence was repaid. The boys were just happy to see ‘an old timer like me having fun’. I did say ‘less of the old’, but they were genuine if a little drunk. That was better than the comment some English fan said when he asked where I was from, always tough question. Is that where I was born, where I have lived, or where I live now? Anyway when I told him I lived in the Cotswolds, he quipped ‘you’ve made some money as you have clearly got a trophy wife’. I corrected him on both counts, but Kirsty found it hilarious. Mind you, when he told me where he was from, note I didn’t actually ask him, he said ‘South London, just outside Gatwick’ to which I replied ‘West Sussex then’. Fortunately him and his very drunk mate decided their night’s entertainment laid elsewhere.
Next up the USA vs Australia match. And we had an early start to make sure we got into the American Outlaws venue to see it.
Y’all come back now…..
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