ime
in the metropolitan south
article featured in
FOLK m a g a z in e w w w. m a g a z in e by fo lk . co m
ISSUE V [summer 2012]
PHOTOGRAPHY & LAYOUT Jeremy Ryan Hatfield
ARTICLE Gavin O’Neill
ime
in the metropolitan south
ARTICLE Gavin O’Neill PHOTOGRAPHY Jeremy Ryan Hatfield A wise woman once told me that Southern people do not sweat; they glisten. On one particularly sticky evening I began doubting these words as I sat on my friend’s porch listening to a neighborhood folk band in Nashville, Tennessee. No tonic water could quench the thirst I had created, or keep the heat at bay. It was as if the whole city had broken into a life threatening fever. However, slowly and reluctantly, I felt myself slip into the pace of life around me. As the beat of the bass found my wrist, it spun and snapped my fingers to keep the time that seemed to drift by like smoke around me. It was a memory that forged new bonds I had been waiting my whole life to know. It was a return to the natural side of proper, civil living. It was the lifestyle that paid no mind to the clockwork of a nine to five but rather the tempo of your mother’s heart and the song your granddaddy passed down to you.
Big lights in the little city, the Metropolitan South. Slow enough to watch the flowers wilt, but fast enough to dump you on the side of the road. Nashville thrives in the heat of its spring and summertime. No city I’ve seen blooms, and fades, into such sultry evenings. It’s a bouquet of lifestyles, activities, events, and traditions that spring up with the early April buds. Every neighborhood boasts its own park, which hosts a handful of socials when the weather is swelling with humidity. Seasons here change in an hour, that’s sixty minutes tops. You’ll go to bed freezing and wake up to a blooming and sunny spring fever. From the trendy, tattooed boroughs of East Nashville, to the glitz and glam of Brentwood, its an assortment as unique as the flowers that open with the morning sun.
No matter how hot it gets, Nashvillians prefer to be outside. Whether it’s a concert in the park, a bike ride through downtown, or enjoying a new novel under a willow tree, locals never mind wiping the sweat off their brow. The Schermerhorn Symphony takes on several outdoor projects during the spring and summertime that brings music to whoever finds it suitable for their summer evenings. These events come without a bill, which makes classical music tangible to all of Nashville’s walks of life. The Symphony building downtown also hosts events completely free to the public with different music displayed in each room. Downtown also hosts an Art Crawl the first Saturday of each month. This brings locals to their local art with a sip and strut sensibility. Each art gallery opens up for guests to walk in and out, serving beverages along the way. Local galleries and the symphony have been a crucial stepping stone in preserving the culture that uniquely describes this Southern city.
Nashville is proud of its musical history, and the landscape of the city would not be the same without its landmark venues. However you don’t have to buy tickets to the Ryman to have the best seats in the house. Almost every bar and coffee shop hosts local bands and break out singer songwriters with limitless talent. Time passes so sweetly with a new tune to listen to and a beverage in your hand. Even street corners serve as grand stages to aspiring musicians, playing for a cool buck or two. Nashville is all about the grassroots of the talented. Creating a community of famous locals that are big enough to tear up the stage at the downtown bar on 3rd and Lindsley, and humble enough to play for their friends on the porch when the day comes to an end.
Nashville likes to remember. Its memory of the past serves as its guide to a bright new future. Whether it’s the majestic Parthenon in Centennial Park thats stood since the World Fair came through the South, or mothers that teach their daughters how to shuck corn on the porch like their grandmothers taught them. Traditions are preserved in our local’s memories. We like our summers because it brings people from all over together for fun, for knowledge, for music, and for memories. So if you think you’d sweat or glisten, come on down and test the waters. You never know what memory is waiting to bloom for you in Nashville, Tennessee.
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