Day 20. How Great Thou Art

You don't need to watch this video in its entirety, its mostly just a really long advertisement for a gospel CD. But do watch it long enough to watch Brad Paisley sitting on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium (the original home of the Grand Ole Opry). I've been there. Stood on that stage where the likes of Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Tom T Hall, Randy Travis, Charlie Daniels, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood... have all stood. It sort of has the same feel as touching the velvet rope in a museum. Its sacred. It was also originally a church, so saying that its sacred isn't nearly as blasphemous as you might think.



I didn't ever expect my trip to Tennessee last summer to affect me the way it did. I spent 3 days in Nashville and came away with this incredible new found love for the music. I've always liked country music, but this, this is different, this is... I don't know, humble respect maybe. Country music isn't all just whiskey, women and pickup trucks. Its so much more than that! The history of country music is so intertwined with other genres of music. Its amazing. I love it all. And I would go back to Nashville in a second.

You really can have no clue of what I'm talking about until you experience Tennessee for yourself. Down there, south of the Mason-Dixon Line (the line that separates north from south), its an entirely different world. The people love their country, their God, and their music, it is so blatantly, and jaw-droppingly, obvious everywhere you look.

Tennessee is a long narrow rectangular-like state. The mighty Mississippi River creates its border in the west; Memphis: Martin Luther King Jr, Civil Rights, racial tensions, Elvis, rock & roll, Sun Studios, The Stax, soul music - you'll find it, and feel it, in Memphis. Nashville is more in the central North. Its a menagerie of people from all over North America trying to make it big; most of them don't, but that doesn't stop the dream. This place is rooted in Gospel and Country music and it is very difficult to neatly divide the two as they freely, and tightly, intertwine; remember what Brad said in the video, 'There's often no lines separating the two'. With the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the RCA recording studios, the record stores and bars where people go in hopes of spotting someone famous... its a happy place full of hopes and dreams. To the southeast is Chattanooga and following the eastern border north into Virgina are the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge mountains, a place where people drive their pickup trucks with a shotgun mounted on the back window and a great huge American flag painted on the tailgate. They know they've been labeled as hillbillies, and they don't disappoint. Musically, this is the land of Banjo pickin' and guitar strummin' - mountain music, bluegrass. I won't get into the 'Deliverance' jokes, they're... sort of scary.

So where does that leave me? A lowly tone-deaf Canadian fascinated with the 'Home of Country Music?' From east to west, you can drive across Tennessee in about 5 hours, its not all that big, but its as diverse as the shades of the sky at dusk. A week-long road trip was hardly long enough to explore all the facets of the beautiful landscapes and cultural history, but it was more than enough time to fall in love.




If you'd like a suggestion for an amazing road trip, might I suggest Tennessee? (As long as you make room for me to tag along!)