As the area started to develop, more bands started to play down there. One of the great things about their shows is I would go down there in cutoffs and a punk band T-shirt, and sit next to an old man in a trucker hat, and on the other side of me is some chick with blue hair, and we’re all just having a good time listening to this music. That was really directly due to BR549 playing down there. I watched Lower Broadway evolve from being the wrong side of the tracks to being sort of the focal point of tourism in Nashville. Then about 1999 I started playing upright, and started taking any gig I could get my hands on, and got to play with some cool artists and see a lot of stuff. It was not the tourist destination that it is now.
It was a few honky tonks, a pawn shop, and couple of porno shops. We would see Greg Garing, Harry Fontana, Paul Birch, and those guys that really did revitalize Lower Broadway because in the mid 90’s Lower Broadway was a ghost town. And when he left Hellbilly to start playing with BR549, a couple of my friends and I would go to see what he was doing down there. I was very involved in the Nashville punk scene in the 90’s. Jay McDowell who was the original bass player for BR549 was a friend of mine and he used to play in a rockabilly punk band called Hellbilly, and I would go see that band a lot. I stared going down to Lower Broadway before I started playing down there. Geoff Firebaugh – Photo Brittany Boydstun I played in crappy punk and metal bands in high School, and continued to play in punk bands in Nashville, and was really involved in that scene and still support it as much as I can. I was stationed at Fort Campbell which is an hour from Nashville after I joined the army to get away from stuff in the Northwest. I’m from Bellingham, Washington originally, and officially moved to Nashville in the early Spring of 1992. When did you start playing on Lower Broadway in Nashville? Purchase Hillbilly Casino’s Live in the USA We spoke about Hillbilly Casino, their new album, and Lower Broadway lore. Upon the occasion of the new release, I spoke to the Hillbilly Casino bass player Geoff Firebaugh-a fixture of Lower Broadway who once played bass in BR549, and now constitutes one of the bridges between the revitalization of the area and today.
Known for their wild and raucous shows spearheaded by the ridiculous energy and antics of frontman Nic Roulette, Hillbilly Casino is the perfect fit for a live album, and fans of the band have finally been rewarded for their long wait. Nearing their 10-year anniversary, the band that can regularly be seen playing Layla’s Bluegrass Inn has released a live album recorded at the Exit Inn called Live in the USA. One of the last remaining bands that still holds onto that spirit that revitalized Lower Broadway and still plays there on a regular basis is Hillbilly Casino.
One of the reasons for the revitalization of the area was the strong group of young musicians who arrived in the mid 90’s and set up shop there, some traditional country, some rockabilly, some more punk, and some a hybrid of all three. Now it’s arguably the epicenter of Nashville tourism nestled between The Ryman, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and many other Nashville landmarks. In the mid 1990’s, the Lower Broadway portion of downtown Nashville was one of the toughest parts of town.
0 kommentar(er)
