Nashville TN – the delta review

September 27, 2022

Dinner, Jazz and Dessert in Nashville

The South Central Chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society was held in March at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and the trip gave me an opportunity to spend a Friday evening in Nashville, as I was not scheduled to give a presentation until Saturday.

So after checking into my hotel in Murfreesboro, I drove up to Nashville to go to my favorite pizza place, Emmy Squared, which specializes in Detroit style pizza. But as I arrived in The Gulch district where it is located, it began raining, and I had to walk through showers to make my way to the restaurant. The place was crowded, and I had to wait nearly an hour, but the pizza was just as good as I had remembered from my first visit several years ago.

After dinner, I decided to go to Rudy’s Jazz Room, which is the new jazz club in the Nashville area, after the venerable F. Scott’s closed some years ago. I had not heard of the jazz pianist who was playing, but he was quite good, and I enjoyed the entire experience. Rudy’s Jazz Room is in fact a room for listening, and despite the place being crowded indeed, I was able to be seated comfortably and to hear the music. Low lighting and the ambiance of a living room characterized the club.

Afterwards, I wanted to grab a dessert, and fortunately Nashville has a branch of Atlanta’s great Cafe Intermezzo. Although it closes earlier than the original location in Atlanta, I was able to get in and to enjoy a piece of chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and a Viennese coffee. It was a great way to end a fun night in Nashville before driving back to Murfreesboro and to bed.

April 29, 2019May 27, 2019

A Friday Night in Nashville

After a day of research on my thesis in the Tennessee State Archives, I decided to enjoy my Friday night in Nashville. I headed first out to the new location of Grimey’s Records on the north side of Nashville in a former church. After many years on South Eighth Avenue near The Basement, they had decided to move to larger digs, and were taking advantage of the extra space to have live music performances in the store. I spent an hour or so there, but ended up not buying anything. Although it was beginning to rain, I decided to head to Nicky’s Coal-Fired Pizza in a neighborhood called The Nations where the streets are named for states. In my youth, this had been a rather rough neighborhood called West Nashville, not far from the Tennessee State University campus, but now it has been reborn into a trendy and hip district full of cafes and bars. Although I had enjoyed pizza the night before, I was eager to compare Nicky’s to Emmy Squared, and while they were different, I liked Nicky’s quite a bit. My pepperoni, bacon and mushroom pizza was quite delicious, and the space was cozy and inviting on a rather chilly, rainy evening. Just down Centennial Boulevard from Nicky’s I found a new coffee bar called White Bison Coffee, which was full of glass, chrome and white tables. It wasn’t particularly busy, but I had a delicious latte there, and a chocolate chocolate chip muffin.

Afterwards, my homeboy Otis Logan was supposed to be playing drums at a bar in East Nashville on Gallatin Avenue called The Cobra, so I headed up there, but the rain was growing worse. I kicked it with Otis for a minute, but the group he was supposed to play with wasn’t going on stage until 10 PM, and I had decided to drive back to Memphis, since the weather wasn’t getting any better, and since staying over would have led to me simply spending more money. So I left out, somewhat reluctantly, and got on the Interstate to head back home. But I accomplished what I had come for, and had a bit of fun as well.

April 28, 2019May 27, 2019

A Rainy Night in the New Nashville

I drove up to Nashville on a Thursday night so that I could spend Friday in the Tennessee State Archives doing research for my masters’ thesis, but the weather was a complete wash-out, with rain that would not stop all the way from Memphis to Nashville.

Tennessee’s capital is in the middle of an unprecedented growth spurt, and its downtown in particular is becoming a city that I hardly recognize anymore. The rain was making things particularly difficult, but I recalled reading about a place that served Detroit-style pizza in Nashville, so I looked it up on my phone, and found it. The little bar was in a neighborhood called the Gulch, and was called Emmy Squared. It proved to be a Nashville branch of a New York City chain, and although I was wet and chilled after running from the parking garage to the bar, the interior was cozy, warm and inviting. The pizza proved to be quite expensive, but very delicious, and worth the cost.

Afterwards, I wanted dessert, and to my surprise, I saw on my phone that Nashville has gotten a location of Cafe Intermezzo, my favorite dessert place in Atlanta. Getting there was difficult to say the least, but after running in the rain, I came to a place with a huge Lavazza Coffee sign, but that turned out to be a completely different place, a late-night eatery called The Diner, which looked inviting. The Nashville location of Intermezzo turned out to be in the next block of Demonbreun Street, and was slightly smaller than its Atlanta counterparts, but it had the same excellent desserts and coffees. Being a huge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup fan, I chose a chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake, and had a chocolate peanut butter latte as well! It was the perfect follow-up to my dinner. Then, with the rain continuing, I headed back to my Air BnB to call it a night. This is certainly not the Nashville I knew in my younger days!

July 8, 2018

A Reception for the Mentors and Apprentices of the Tennessee Folklife Arts Project

After the six months of mentoring under the Tennessee Folklife Arts Program, mentors and apprentices were invited to a reception at the Tennessee Arts Commission office in Nashville in order to highlight what they learned during the program. So Kesha Burton from Brownsville, R. L. Boyce, Sherena Boyce and Willie Hurt, who had all been involved in the project to reintroduce fife and drum music to West Tennessee, all headed out to Nashville for the reception. Although the weather was stormy and wet in Memphis, we found that Nashville was dry and sunny, with the downtown area extremely busy with various events and festivals. In addition to the fife and drum project, other apprentices learned basket-making, chair-making, guitar-making, Panamanian dress making, buckdancing, Black gospel quartet performance, and square-dance calling. Although the space for the reception was somewhat cramped, everyone had a good time. Afterwards, I took Kesha Burton to Shipwreck Cove out at Percy Priest Reservoir to celebrate. After a stop for gelato at Legacy Gelato, and a run by Trader Joe’s to pick up some items that we cannot get in Memphis, we headed back to Brownsville, and then I to Memphis.

November 14, 2015November 14, 2015

Nashville: The Capital of Hot Chicken

Nashville’s “hot chicken” is truly hot. At most restaurants, even the mild is just about the hottest thing you’ve ever eaten. And recently a number of new hot chicken places have begun springing up, including the somewhat upscale Hattie B’s chain. Hattie B’s is relatively new, and represents a slightly different take on the Nashville hot chicken tradition. For one thing, the restaurant has the ambiance of a sports bar, in contrast to the fast-food atmosphere that characterizes many of the other hot chicken spots. There is a full beer menu,an inviting outdoor deck, and a surprising number of choices for side orders. Although the line can stretch out the door, service is relatively quick, since you order before seating yourself. And the chicken is definitely worth the wait. Spice levels range from “Southern” (no heat at all) to “Shut The Cluck Up” which is defined as a “burn notice”, with three degrees in between. I tried the Mild, which was as spicy as any chicken I have had, but quite good. Altogether, Hattie B’s offers great Nashville hot chicken in a fast casual environment at a reasonable price.

Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
5209 Charlotte Av
Nashville, TN 37209
(615) 712-7137

Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
112 19th Avenue S
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 678-4794

June 22, 2015

Cool Runnings with Chinese Connection Dub Embassy and Roots Of A Rebellion at the Hi-Tone

Memphis has almsot no Caribbean expatriate community at all, and as a result, little Caribbean music either. What Jamaican music comes through the city is largely due to the efforts of one band, the Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, who not only perform and promote their own music around Memphis, but who also arrange for out of town ska and reggae bands to come to the city and perform, such as Nashville’s Roots Of A Rebellion, who opened up for them at the Hi-Tone in Midtown in early June. CCDE has developed something of a cult following in the Memphis area, and their authentic approach to dub and reggae is refreshing in an era where computerized digital styles are all the rage.

November 18, 2013

Getting Ready for @HAYSTAKMAK and @JellyRoll615 “Business As Usual” Album Out Tomorrow

The long-awaited new collaboration between Nashville rap veterans Haystak and Jelly Roll drops tomorrow. Entitled Business As Usual, it is coming out on Haystak Entertainment and being distributed by Memphis-based Select-O-Hits Music Distribution. To get you ready for it, in addition to the authorized single leak above, here are some videos of Jelly Roll discussing the new album and of behind the scenes footage.

September 9, 2013

Bethune-Cookman and Tennessee State at the John Merritt Classic in Nashville

On the Sunday before Labor Day, I decided to drive up to Nashville to see Bethune-Cookman University take on Tennessee State in the annual John Merritt Classic at LP Field. The game is held each year in honor of John Merritt, who for many years was the head football coach at Tennessee A & I/Tennessee State. The weather was perfect for a football game, and the battle between the two bands was definitely worth the drive. I was amazed at Bethune-Cookman’s snare line, all of whom had tambourines and cowbells attached to their snare drums, which was unusual. FOr some reason, the traditional “Fifth Quarter” battle between the bands was limited to 10 minutes per band. After the game, I had intended to go to M. L. Rose Burgers, but although they stay open until 2 AM, I learned that they don’t sell burgers after 1 AM, so I ended up having to go to The Slider House in Midtown Nashville near the Vanderbilt campus, since they stay open until 3 AM every night. Then, after stopping by Cafe Coco for a latte, I hit the road back to Memphis.

March 3, 2013

Trying the New M. L. Rose (@_mlrose) Craft Beer and Burgers in West Nashville

Frankly, the last time I was in Nashville, I considered eating at M. L. Rose, and then when I saw how far out it was on Franklin Pike, I changed my mind and ate at Burger Up instead. So on my snowy Friday trip to Charlotte for the CIAA tournament weekend, I was thrilled to discover that there is now an M. L. Rose West location on Charlotte Avenue, and that it’s right off of Interstate 40. Nothing could be more convenient. And I was impressed with M. L. Rose. The decor is unusual and attractive, with a number of ordinary found objects like hubcaps arranged artistically. The food menu is fairly large, but of course burgers are the stars of the show, and they possess true star quality. My cheese and bacon burger was perfectly cooked to order, and amazingly tasty, accompanied by waffle fries. I’m not a beer drinker, so I can’t speak to the quality of the beer, but there’s a whole beer menu, and many different brands are offered. At noon on a Friday, the place was packed to the rafters, and deservedly so, as M. L. Rose makes a wonderful shelter from an icy, rainy afternoon. Visit them at either of their two locations in Nashville, or at http://ml-rose.com/.

November 11, 2012

Tag: Nashville TN