Day Six - Nashville 

The Silly Goose Cafe

We're fans of Chopped! Chopped! is a Food Channel program that features chefs from restaurants large and small around the county, and offers four individuals the opportunity to prepare an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert, during which three of the four are eliminated, or chopped. During a recent program, a young man was chopped early on, but he mentioned he operated a restaurant in Nashville called the Silly Goose Cafe. We were planning to go to Nashville, so we included that on our itinerary. It wasn't easy to find, since alley bistros do not lend themselves to GPS instructions, but somehow we did find it, and thank goodness we did.

The food was superb. And even though I think couscous is not fit for human consumption, my bride does, and found hers to be excellent alongside a beef-and-any-other-things sandwich and many-types-of-greens salad with balsamic reduction, which is the primary specialty of the Silly Goose. I passed on the couscous, so they doubled my salad, and everything was beautifully done.

Chopped! or no Chopped! we give the Silly Goose 5 stars for food quality, originality, price and service. If you're a big fan of couscous, it gets a 6 out of 5.

The Johnny Cash Museum

A block or so from Broadway, where all the Nashville action is, the Johnny Cash museum occupies most of a block on South 3^rd Street, one of the major arteries in downtown Nashville. Although we've never been country music fans, we have enjoyed some of Johnny Cash's work over the years, but I must admit this small museum and gift shop is a first-class destination in Nashville. He enjoyed popularity and creative output in six different decades, and we recommend a visit here if you find yourself in Nashville.

Tequila Cowboy

From Johnny Cash it was a short walk to Broadway, which is the activity centerpiece in Nashville as it is in New York. Our first stop, after such a strain as the Johnny Cash museum, was the first bistro we could find for a cool drink, which turned out to be two doors around the corner, specifically the Tequila Cowboy Bar & Grill:

In the Tequila Cowboy we were served by a young man named Tom, who was no more native to Nashville than we are, having grown up in Buffalo, where we lived 50 years or so ago, and grown still more in Washington, DC, before being conquered by a Nashville girl. Now, I have searched the world over for a well-made martini and only twice been satisfied. First, at the Brown Derby restaurant in the MGM Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and more recently at Herrick's Tavern in Orange, Massachusetts, by the magician and son of my kids' teacher, Kevin Colo. Now, an extremely sociable young man named Tom, on his first try, nails it. To martini lovers everywhere, this is a place worth visiting.

Willie Nelson Museum

We didn't really take this very seriously, since the Willie Nelson museum and store looked like a tiny storefront in the hotel guidebook, but we were an hour early for the Nashville Nightlife Dinner Theater we had reservations for, and it turned out Willie's museum was two minute's distant, so we did a “What the hell?”

Turned out to be as pleasant, if not quite as thorough, as the Cash museum. And Willie has the advantage of still being alive, so who knows how many rooms have yet to be added. The Willie Nelson museum isn't just about Willie. To his credit it is about all the artists in his genre, including Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson and a lot of others, including Johnny Cash. The gift shop included as much Cash merchandise as Nelson's. Still, it was an hour worth spent, especially considering the T-shirt I bought for my son-in-law.

Nashville Nightlife Theater

After visiting the Willie Nelson store and museum (gotta love the honesty of that combination) we drove nearly two minutes to the Nashville Nightlife Dinner Theater, and were seated within a few minutes, though the performance had nearly an hour to occur. We were seated in sixes, our partners being a couple even older than we, from Tallahassee, Florida, married 61 years; and a couple from Switzerland, visiting redneck country in the USA, from the schedule they mentioned.

Both couples were most enjoyable evening companions.

When we entered the theater the ticket taker was entertaining, and the person who seated us was charming. But once seated and offered drinks and partaking of the buffet, the ticket taker appeared on stage to hawk the various items that could be purchased in the lobby. After the meal, it was the ticket taker who was in fact the first act in the Nashville Nightlife Dinner Theater. By now, we knew his name was Rick Murrell. Admittedly, he can sing well and covered several Cash, Nelson and other songs of the day. He mentioned that he had once been a back-up guitarist for Tammy Wynette. After several songs he introduced the next performer, Diana Murrell, which we naturally assumed was his wife, and expected this outfit might be somewhat more limited than what we might have expected. All along another female performer used some tambourines for tempo but was never introduced.

After several numbers another female singer was introduced, by the name of Brenda Best. Major talent. She hasn't made the big time yet, but it's only a matter of time. In our audience was a large contingent of tourists from Quebec. Brenda had been hired as a tour guide for them because of her fluency in Quebecois French, but hadn't let on to them that she was part of the show. She spoke French ahead of English throughout the many portions of her performance and was a hit for everyone:

She is a superb performer and doubtless headed for the big time.

It turned out that Diana Murrell is Rick Murrell's sister, not his wife; and that the backup singer/tambourine player is his wife. Still a family enterprise. But well worth the visit if you're in Nashville.