Things you’ll only understand if you grew up in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee. Music City USA. The Protestant Vatican. And, if you’re Hunter S. Thompson, “City of 10,000 Whores.” Visitors of this fairer-than-average city might associate it with honky tonk bars and grown men dancing in graphic tees for money (and yes, they have business cards). But Nashville is a lot more complicated than what you see on tacky Lower Broadway. And anyone who was actually born there will be the first to tell you that.

We don’t go Downtown unless we have to

Downtown Nashville is a vibrant scene filled with loud bars, quirky performers, and horses that probably hate their lives. Though locals may traverse downtown for the occasional hockey game or our amazing public library, no one really likes doing so. Yes, we’re happy you’re having a good time with your cowboy boots (that you paid way too much for) and bar fights that tumble into the street, but most of the good stuff is outside of downtown.

Some of the most beloved music venues, like Exit/In in West End and The Basement in Wedgewood-Houston, sit past the outskirts of the touristy honky-tonk bars of downtown. You’ll have to drive a ways to get to Loveless Cafe’s legendary biscuits, but it’s totally worth it.

Most of us aren’t country

Though it has proud roots in country entertainment, Nashville is a city. You will probably see more mid-sized sedans than trucks. The accents are a mixed bag of kinda Southern and general American.

If you told a kid from Belle Meade to take care of your farm for a few days, he would accidentally build a strip mall on it. However, some of us would really, really like to believe we’re country. And it’s kind of hilarious.

Just imagine a teenager in a prep school uniform telling you he’s going to go “muddin'” as if that’s perfectly organic to him (and possible with his BMW). It’s like a dog telling you he’s going to go golfing. Silly dog! You can’t talk.

Our sports teams will disappoint you

It’s the South, right? We have to have good football going on! Well, we have this, I guess…

Okay, so the Titans are a disappointment. But we still have the Nashville Predators, right? They held that top spot in the NHL for quite some time last year. How did that end again?

Whatever. Our mascot is a saber-tooth tiger. Beat that, Chicago.

NO, I HAVEN’T MET TAYLOR SWIFT

STOP ASKING ME. That’s like me saying “Oh you’re from New York? HAVE YOU MET JAY-Z?” Even if you said yes, you know it doesn’t matter because he’s not Beyonce. And Taylor Swift isn’t Beyonce.

Let’s all remember what’s important here: Beyonce.

No, I haven’t met Nicole Kidman either

Although, whenever I hear stories about people seeing her and Keith Urban, it’s always at Whole Foods. I think they I live there. And were possibly convinced to live there by organic bedding deity Gwyneth Paltrow.

Nashville gentrification isn’t ‘cleaning up’ so much as ‘kicking out’

Real estate company Redfin recently named Eastwood in Nashville number two in its Hottest Neighborhoods of 2016. When I was growing up, East Nashville was known as a more blue-collar area.

Today, it’s a playground for hipsters and real estate developers to tear down the squat ranch homes and replace them with modern, cheaply made “tall-n-skinnies.” Many folks are thrilled by the rise of coffee houses, boutiques, and gourmet taco shops, but the great number of low-income East Nashvillians are struggling against the chic tide.

 

 

People who originally lived in East Nashville are finding themselves displaced as their landlords accept deals from real estate investors and the cost of living in their own neighborhood skyrockets.

Nashville is an amazing  spot.  The people are kind, the food is amazing and there’s live music on every corner.

I’m proud to be from Nashville, and to be honest, who wouldn’t be?