Nashville is a destination for people from all over the world, and those considering relocation to Music City often post questions on the Nashville craigslist and other message boards about what it’s like to live and work here. While my website and soon to be completed book ‘The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide’ serve to answer these kinds of questions, your input is badly needed.
In the spirit of providing the information that you are looking for the most, I would like to conduct a kind of informal survey.
I want to know what you want to know about Nashville. What you want to know about living here, working here, becoming involved in the music community, the climate, the culture – you name it.
If I know the answer, I’ll post my thoughts and feedback. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll research it and post my results.
In the true spirit of perpetuating a sense of community in a music business that often lacks it, I would like to keep this discussion public. So I urge you to post your questions as comments here on this blog rather than sending me e-mails.
Your questions and thoughts will help me to provide the most accurate information possible and will help many other musicians in the process. Thanks for participating!
8 Responses to What Would You like to Know about Nashville?
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what songs do you need to know if you want to jam at fiddle and steel?
To be prepared to sit in at the fiddle and steel, or any other similar bar in Nashville for that matter, knowing what I call ‘The Nashville 100’ is essential. The Nashville 100 is a list I have comprised of what I have found to be the most commonly covered standards played in Nashville. The list is posted on the Survival Guide site, follow this link to view it http://nashvillemusicianssurvivalmanual.com/list.html. While these aren’t the only songs that might be played, knowing these songs will give you a lot of common ground with most players in town.
best places to live? I hear a lot about east nashville, so that must mean its over-crowded with wanna-be hipsters. Any other cool neighborhoods off the radar and reasonably priced?
The neighborhoods in east Nashville can vary greatly. There are some decent areas and some rough spots as well, but apartment rentals in that area are generally affordable. I’m not sure about the percentage of wannabe hipsters. The same thing could be said about many parts of the city. Reasonably priced apartments ($600 – $750 for a single bedroom) can be found in Belmont, Bellevue, Donelson, Gallatin, and many other outlying communities.
The desirability of an area could also be determined by whether or not you will have children living with you (ie quality of school systems, crime rates, etc.), and if you will be commuting in and out of the city during daytime hours (East and North of the city generally have the worst traffic backups).
what kind of gear should a guitar player have for studio gigs vs touring gigs?
Many of the successful Nashville based session guitarists have rigs consisting of multiple guitars; Teles, Strats, Gibsons, PRS etc., multiple heads; Class A style head (Matchless, Dr. Z, etc.), Marshall style head, and maybe a Fender style head, and a refrigerator rack full of effects with some type of pedal board set up as well. This kind of setup would be more typical for a full time A list session player. There are plenty of players who work in the studio on much simpler rigs but still have the ability to deliver a wide range of tones. Of course there are some ‘niche’ studio players that only have one basic sound and get calls to do that one thing they do best.
As far as touring rigs go it depends on the gig. But for most country/pop/rock gigs, a Tele style guitar, Class A combo, and a pedal board with the essentials (a clean boost or compressor, overdrive, delay, and tuner) will suffice (amp and pedals in Anvil style cases). A backup guitar is always a good idea too.
Quit playing Johnny Cash songs! Yup. I said it. I said it. And I’mma tell you all about a day when I was walking down Broadway and
the same Johnny Cash song was being played by three
different live bands, simultaneously, at Tootsies, The Stage,
and Roberts bar. It’s old. Tourists who come to Nashville are here to hear some real Nashville music. Nothing against ole Johnny, but give it a rest guys. Seriously. Quit kicking the horse.
Regarding the overplaying of certain Johnny Cash songs, I wouldn’t single out just Johnny Cash. While Folsom Prison Blues may be one of the most overplayed country songs of all time, that’s the only Johnny Cash song I would put in that category. Many songs by other artists – Working Man Blues, Ramblin Fever, You Never Even Call Me by My Name, Family Tradition and a few others are also on the ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ category. As overplayed as these songs are they are some of the most popular songs by the artists who originally released them. People still want to hear them and I doubt they will be going away anytime soon. It’s the same reason that most top 40 bands still play Mustang Sally.