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East Nashville and the New Country Outlaws of Music City, U.S.A.
Nashville, Tennessee, also known as Music City, U.S.A., sits squarely at the center of the country music universe. This small city has dominated the country genre for the better part of the past century, and Nashville’s Music Row, where scores of influential clubs, studios, publishers, and record labels are concentrated in a few square blocks of real estate, is the middle of it all.
But Nashville’s reputation has been built on traditional country music that caters to commercial tastes. The so-called “Nashville Sound,” which proved a successful formula for legends like Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Patsy Cline, and George Jones is notable for its glitzy production, a strict adherence to traditional song structure, and an obsession with ill-conceived string arrangements.
Things began to change during the 1960s and ’70s with the rise of the so-called “outlaw country” movement. At the forefront of this uprising were artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings who emerged to challenge the Nashville establishment. In what is now a familiar story, Cash and Co. brought a new approach to Nashville and to country music, both artistically and philosophically. The Man in Black and his fellow outlaws made records that were looser and rawer in feel, going further than country music had ever gone before in embracing the sound and culture of rock.
And though traditional Nashville and the outlaw movement may have never truly reconciled their stylistic differences, Cash, Nelson, Jennings, and many others of the same ilk have gone on to become an extraordinarily valuable part of the commercial country establishment, selling millions of records in the process.
But across the river, to the east of downtown Nashville, sits East Nashville, Tennessee. And just as Willie, Waylon, and the boys abandoned mainstream country and its strict traditionalist leanings decades ago, a new generation of Nashville songwriters and musicians are building their own nascent artistic community across town. This group doesn’t claim to be challenging the power structure of country music, and they don’t aim for a wholesale shake-up of the industry. At the very least, like the country outlaws before them, the musicians of East Nashville are challenging conventions—and making first-rate records in the process.
East Nashville’s Eric Brace leads Last Train Home, a superb band that most recently released the excellent Last Good Kiss. A former arts writer for the Washington Post, Bruce was enticed by the cheap living down South, and the opportunity to work with musicians he’d long admired from afar. “When my band 
decided to make it full-time, we thought, ‘Why do we want to live in Washington where everything is so expensive?’”, he told me one recent evening from his home in East Nashville. “We had visited East Nashville and I thought, ‘Wow, I could be in an environment where musicians are taken seriously and are not always being asked when we’re going to get real jobs.’”
Like many musicians based here in East Nashville, Brace doesn’t play what would be described as country music, instead turning out records that lie somewhere between roots rock and alternative country. Brace contends that the music being created in Nashville proper is simply fodder for commercial country radio. “I’ve talked to Music Row executives and they don’t even pretend they’re creating something lasting and meaningful,” he said. “That’s not an insult—this is a business and they’re just producing a product.”
Brace, who runs East Nashville-based Red Beet Records, sensed a need to document East Nashville’s formidable musical talent. So he set out to do his part to put East Nashville’s fertile music scene on the national map, releasing The Other Side: Music from East Nashville, a superb double-disc compilation featuring 31 cuts of varied, but consistently excellent, roots rock, folk, and assorted Americana courtesy of East Nashville artists. A yuletide version was not far behind, with both arriving via his Red Beet imprint.
Though their differences are obvious, it’s unclear if any real tension exists between East Nashville and Music City, U.S.A. While some loyalists have sworn off the country music mainstream, there are certainly many East Nashville songwriters and session players who work with Music Row publishers and labels. More likely, what we’re dealing with is simply a burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll and Americana scene that is blessed and cursed by its location in the shadow of one of America’s most traditional music towns. And though there’s a definite East-West stylistic divide, many veteran musicians seem to think that East Nashville’s unique identity doesn’t necessarily conflict with the mainstream country establishment back across the river.
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13 Comments
great article! although i was there was some mention of patsy cline in here. or anything on patsy cline!
I disagree with your outlaw stance. Some people like Waylon and Cash came from a rock backbround (i.e. were formerly in a rock band) therefore it is natural for them to prefer to play in a similar rock style.
Yes and no. You might be right about Hank, though he certainly flirted with it before his death. Rodgers is also debatable (if I recall, he even made an LP titled Nashville Sound).
Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers were not part of the Nashville Sound – Rodgers in particular predated it by several decades….
Nice sentiment, spotty research. Waylon, Willie and Johnny Cash all did “Nashville Sound” records before they went “Outlaw.” And Hank Williams is as far from the “Nashville Sound” as you can get.
Friends,
I wrote the article–thanks for the comments. First, you’re right that I included some artists under the Nashville Sound that may not belong there. That’s my fault, though I would tend to agree with the commenter that talks about Hank’s later work, etc. As for Cash, etc., of course they did some Nashville sound records before becoming outlaw. I never wrote that they didn’t and don’t dispute that at all. But they certainly did end up becoming outlaw. And that’s what I wrote. If my writing is not clear on that point, again, my fault. In any case, thanks for all the comments. If nothing else, it’s good to know that people are out there reading this and hopefully getting to know some of the great East Nashville folks.
According to Waylon in his autobiorgaphy, there was little or no difference between rock and country when he got into the business, except who it was marketed to. Since he was married with a family, he chose Country. He and Willie were highly influienced by Austin’s diverse music scene, that was more flexible and inclusive than that of Corporate Nashvilles.
Waylon, Willie and Cash were known as outlaws even more for their dealings with the Nashville music industry than for their actual sound. Though Hank Williams was far from Nashville Sound, a few years after his death, MGM released albums of his music with strings added to “update” his sound. To the reader who stated that Jimmie Rodgers did an album called “Nashville Sound”: That was not THE Jimmie Rodgers (”the man who started it all” in 1927), but Jimmie F. Rodgers, the pop/folk singer of the 50’s and 60’s.
Want some new Nashville sound, try ‘NED VAN GO’ Ned Hill is one of the best song writers around right now. My own opinion.
East nashville’s great, the music scene has incredible artists. When I stumbled on this article, I thought it was about something else. One brave gal Brigitte London, teamed up with some of Waylon’s bandmates to create Spirit of the Outlaws, they had Indie artists perform their songs with that band that included Waylon’s right hand man, the great Ritchie Albright. They ran for a year and I think they just quit at Douglas Corner, and I heard she got blackballed by Nashville industry folks in the process. I went to several shows, the crowd was hit and miss at times but as long as I’ve been here, I’ve never seen anything like that. From what I gather, they’re only doing national shows now. I’ve seen some great songwriters in East Nashville and its definitely a different scene, but some play both sides of the fence. As for waylon and cash being rock or country, I never cared, I just loved the music.
Matt, nice article! A bunch of us, inspired by Will, Tommy and Todd, wanna come up and visit East Nashville. Think Tommy will let us camp on his lawn?
Sadly, I only know Tommy by reputation but, yes, I imagine his lawn would be open to all comers…enjoy your trip!
Anyone interested in old style country music served up Loretta Lynn style needs to check out East Nashville’s own Elizabeth Cook.
http://www.elizabeth-cook.com/