Mazal Tov, Y'all!

Well, back from a great weekend in Nashville with The Lovely Wife(tm). Wedding kicked major tush, and my legs are going to be sore for a week after all that dancing. Major highlight of the trip: Saturday night spent at The Stage, a downtown honky-tonk. My dear lord, they really do dress like that! (Cowboy hats, boots, denim, and about a dozen Harleys parked outside). Being a long-time Mets fan, I actually knew a few of the country songs being played (ten points to anyone who understands why that's the case) to the great amusement of TLW and the shock of Destiny, the token southern gal in the group (the look on her face when I started belting along to the chorus of "Rocky Top" is one that I will probably take to the grave with me).

A daytime tour of downtown Tennessee yielded some fun times at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where we got to see some great memorabilia and some awesome clips (my personal fave was seeing an impossibly young Minnie Pearl at the Opry... "how-DEE! I'm jes' so proud to be here!" indeed). Also took a tour of the legendary RCA studio B, where Elvis, Jim Reeves, Charlie Pride, Roy Orbison, and a slew of others recorded more hits than you could even try to name. The Hall has a London-born usher, and I don't think I'll ever hear a more surreal sound than a British accent wishing me off with a "May the ghost of Elvis be with you." Even with my ridiculously meager knowledge of country music, there was much to appreciate, and it seems like Nashville hasn't heard about price-gouging for souvenirs. I can't promise that the denim shirt that I got won't fall apart after two washes, but it looks nice right now.

Time for the pre-Tony show rush... not sure what we're going for over the next few nights, but I'll be durned ("durned?" It's gonna take a while to get Nashville out of me)if we don't catch something between now and awards night.