it’s not to say I felt like I was walking the plank exactly but last week I stepped aboard a flight to Nashville and did wonder if it was an entirely prudent move. Anxiety crunched like heavy gravel in my stomach as I wearily eyed my colleague Josh Barrie across the plane. I’m an angel but he’s a wrong ’un and a bad influence to boot. We’d sworn that whoever made it back in one piece would write the other’s obituary.
In fact, the trip passed almost without incident, if you exclude the time I walked out of a honky tonk to find a new pal quite literally fighting racists — alarming — or the night we thought all Americans dressed the same, only in the sober light of day realising that we’d gone to the same bar twice via different entrances. Ah, bourbon.
But where the whiskey was notable, it was the music that was memorable. Nashville’s strip roars with guitars from around nine in the morning and bands strut well into the small hours. Bar after bar, owned themselves by country music stars like Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, have people dancing and drinking to the sound of someone singing about any one of country music’s six themes (heartbreak, regret, God, God loves the USA, booze, daddy hit me).
Meanwhile, here, there’s a countrywide problem; the 35 per cent of grassroots music venues that have closed since 2002. Anecdotally, London seems particularly quiet. A decade ago live music was everywhere — upmarket hotels always had pianists, pubs regularly called on singer-songwriters and great bars helped propel the new wave of British jazz — but London has switched off its amps.
True, some fabulous clubs still thump away and a few blues nights still wail, but shows seem few and far between. This shouldn’t be: by now it’s known live music has both physical and mental benefits — it ups mood, increases feelings of self-worth, boosts endorphins and lowers stress hormones.
I have never quite understood what Amy Lamé does for her £117,000-a-year as Night Tzar. But I do remember when she was appointed, Sadiq Khan was very keen that London had a 24-hour programme of culture. I’m not saying they need to kick off at 9am, but a few more gigs might be a start. If Nashville can do it, why can’t we?
