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They might call us Music City, but Nashville knows a lot about love, too.
In June 1973, for instance, Dolly Parton holed up in RCA Studios on Music
Row to record her 13th studio album, Jolene, which of course includes “I
Will Always Love You,” one of the greatest love songs of all time. And did
you know the “Victory” statue at War Memorial’s Legislative Plaza was
created by a husband-and-wife duo, Belle Kinney and Leopold Scholz?
They collaborated on the Parthenon in Centennial Park, too. Read on to
discover where several more romantic bits of local history went down,
from the site of Tennessee’s first legal same-sex marriage to the rock
club where Keith Carradine seductively performed his Oscar- and Golden
Globe-winning song “I’m Easy” in Robert Altman’s Nashville. Because
sometimes love is hiding where you least expect it.
Illustration by Katie Turner
nashvillescene.com | FEBRUARY 11 – FEBRUARY 17, 2016 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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13
Looking for Love
1
The Davidson County
Clerk’s Office
700 SECOND AVE. S.
The open space in a corner of the Davidson
County Clerk’s office, between the U.S.
and Tennessee state flags and a set of
ferns decorated with white lights, already
held a special place in the hearts of many
Nashville couples. But on June 26, 2015,
that unassuming spot earned an even larger
place in history — on that day, in that very
spot, Nikki Von Haeger and Lauren Mesnard
became Nashville’s first legally married
same-sex couple, with Megan Barry (then
en route to her election as Nashville’s first
woman mayor) officiating. Throughout the
day, several joyous couples, including Alex
Fortney and Kayla Nickens, followed them,
as straight couples showed up to pick up
their marriage licenses, too. That day, that
makeshift secular altar in the corner of the
clerk’s office felt a little bigger. STEVEN HALE
2
RCA Studio A
30 MUSIC SQUARE W.
While it’s true that Elvis and his
band cut their tracks next door at Studio
B, records show that overdub sessions for
Elvis records were commonplace at Studio
A. If you’re listening to an Elvis record
cut after 1967, there’s a good chance some
of the music you’re hearing was captured
inside the walls of Studio A. But there’s
one lost session that wasn’t captured (or at
least released). In his 2012 book Elvis and
Nashville — an encyclopedic compendium
of the King’s Music City sessions —
biographer/historian Don Cusic writes of
Elvis staging an ersatz 1970 session, on Sept.
21 of that year, in Studio A — which was
larger and grander than neighboring Studio
B — to impress Priscilla. “[She] wanted to
attend one of his recording sessions,” Cusic
wrote. “Elvis did not want her in the studio
when he recorded but relented and set up
this ‘mock’ session where he pretended to
overdub some instruments and vocals.”
How romantic! ADAM GOLD
3
John Seigenthaler
Pedestrian Bridge
Most know this beauty as the old Shelby
Bridge, the graceful link between downtown
and the beginnings of the East Side. But
Jessica Reed and John Pyle know the John
Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge as where
they got married on Jan. 22, 2016, in the
middle of one of the city’s largest snowfalls
in recent history. Weather be damned, the
determined couple marched up the bridge
through the snow — her in boots under her
wedding dress, he in a warm beard — to
pledge their love for the rest of time while
fluffy white flakes fell around them. The
view doesn’t hurt as a witness, having stood
in the background as many couples, friends
and romantics shared their love with one
each other over the years. ANDREA ZELINSKI
4
Exit/In
2208 ELLISTON PLACE
Virtually any scene from Robert
Altman’s expertly crafted 1975 ensemble
Nashville can stand on its own, thanks in
part to its array of outlandish characters,
from Henry Gibson’s egotistical little Opry
star Haven Hamilton to Jeff Goldblum’s
wordless Tricycle Man. But the scene
that — debatably, at least — serves as
the emotional pivot point of Nashville
(the movie) is also a characteristically
Nashville (the place) moment. In a
crowded Exit/In — looking significantly
more intimate than the Rock Block haunt
does nowadays — Keith Carradine, as
ceaseless lothario and folksinger Tom
Frank, performs “I’m Easy” for a hushed
crowd. The tune, written and performed
by Carradine himself, won both an Oscar
and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
It’s delivered beautifully in wounded and
lovestruck fashion by a womanizer who is
anything but, and as Tom looks around the
room at each of his conquests — Geraldine
Chaplin, Cristina Raines, Shelley Duvall
and, most heartbreakingly, Lily Tomlin —
it’s clear that each woman thinks the song
was written for her. Kind of gut-wrenching.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
5
The Former Site of Johnny
and June Cash’s House
200 CLAUDILL DRIVE, HENDERSONVILLE
For more than four decades, Johnny Cash
and June Carter Cash — whose great
love was well known to locals long before
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon
brought their caricaturish depictions
to the big screen — lived together on a
large lakefront property in suburban
Hendersonville. Builder Braxton Dixon
constructed a nearly 14,000-square-foot
house on the property in 1967, and the
Cashes moved in the next year. They stayed
there until their deaths, which occurred
less than four months apart in 2003. Sadly,
the house, which was purchased by famed
Bee Gee Barry Gibb in 2005, burned to the
ground in 2007. There’s not a whole lot to
see if you drive by now. But if you do drive
by with a special someone and gaze past
the gate, at the overgrown property where
June and Johnny used to reside, it’s easy to
see how a couple so deeply devoted to each
other could walk the line together there for
nearly a half-century. D. PATRICK RODGERS
6
Metro Courthouse
1 PUBLIC SQUARE
In the same year that Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner came to theaters, Herman
McDaniel Jr. and Joyce Prescott became
the first legally married interracial couple
in Tennessee history after a ceremony on
the Metro courthouse steps on July 22, 1967.
Television and newspaper crews gathered
around the couple, and one report stated
that the state attorney general had to inform
a reluctant county clerk that he was legally
obligated to issue the couple’s marriage
license — shades of Kim Davis. But love is
never simple, and an October 1967 issue of
Jet Magazine reported that the Davidson
County jury had indicted McDaniel on
bigamy charges stemming from two
previous marriages, including one that
occurred 14 years earlier. LAURA HUTSON
7
The Melting Pot
166 SECOND AVE. N.
The Melting Pot — voted Most
Romantic Restaurant by Scene readers in
last year’s Best of Nashville poll — strives
to be the go-to place for date night. On
Valentine’s Day, for instance, they fill the
restaurant with 1,000 heart-shaped Mylar
balloons and hand out gift bags stuffed
with Champagne glasses and other goodies.
And if you’re celebrating a birthday
or anniversary, you have the option of
decorating your table with rose petals or
flower arrangements. As such, the fondue
haven is also where a number of romantic
hopefuls pop the question. Owner Mark
Rosenthal has seen just about every scheme
imaginable, from guests requesting window
seats so friends standing by below could
propose via flashcards like in an INXS
video, to someone thinking it was a good
idea to hide the ring at the bottom of a pot
of melted chocolate. (So messy!) One man
even proposed as a knight in shining armor,
complete with chain mail, body armor and
a sword. Not all Melting Pot moments have
ended well, though. “Someone lost a ring
once,” Rosenthal tells the Scene. “And, yeah,
we’ve seen people say ‘No.’ ” MEGAN SELING
8
Tennessee State Capitol
600 CHARLOTTE AVE.
James K. Polk and Sarah Childress
met, like many young lovers, at school in
Murfreesboro. It was 1815. He was 19, she
was 12. But James held a torch, and in 1823
they married, the future president having
been urged to wed the pretty and intelligent
Sarah by Andrew Jackson. In 1844, James
was elected president, and though warned
by Sarah against overwork, he famously met
all of his policy goals in one term and didn’t
seek re-election. But the job took its toll,
and just three months after leaving office,
Polk died in Nashville at his home just
down the hill from the Capitol. His remains
the shortest retirement of any president.
Sarah lived for another 42 years at Polk
Place (and had the city’s first telephone in
1877) and wore mourning attire every day
until her death in 1891, endlessly devoted
to her husband. Two years later, the pair
were interred — forever together — on the
grounds of the Capitol. J.R. LIND
Looking for Love
9
Nashville Zoo
3777 NOLENSVILLE PIKE
Do you know how many li’l baby
kangaroos were born at the Nashville Zoo
this past summer? SIX! That’s a whole
lotta freaking kangaroo love happening
right here in Music City. And maybe the
best part of all the ’roo zoo lovin’ is that you
can actually walk around with and even
pet the marsupials, as long as they’re in
the mood for a snuggle. Dawwww. And if
newborn kangaroos ain’t your thing (are
you heartless?!) there are plenty more
lovey-dovey hand-holding moments to be
had at the zoo while strolling alongside the
seasonally fashionable flamingos, longlashed giraffes or really any of the many
fluffy baby creatures. AMANDA HAGGARD
10
Love Circle
A residential hilltop just off West
End, Love Circle has served for
generations as a place for young couples
to view the skyline and snog. And maybe
do more — like propose. (It worked for a
certain Scene editor we know.) Sadly, in
recent years, police have started to crack
down on late-night trespassing at the circle.
(Another Scene editor tells a story of woe
about getting busted and cited on a first
date.) And the scenery hasn’t been the same
since John Rich built his monolithic manse,
Mt. Richmore, atop the hill. But if couples
observe the 9 p.m. curfew and stay clear of
Mr. Rich, Love Circle can still live up to its
name. DANA KOPP FRANKLIN
11
Woodland Studios
1011 WOODLAND ST.
You can thank musical soulmates
and current co-owners Gillian Welch
and Dave Rawlings for the fact that East
Nashville’s Woodland Studios is still
standing and operating after (temporarily)
closing its doors in 2001. Having opened
in 1966, it’s where many of country and
rock’s finest sounds of the ’70s and ’80s
were captured. Scores of the most classic
heartstring-tugging countrypolitan and
AM radio love songs to ever set the mood
for decades of hilltop make-out seshes
were cut or mastered here, including Linda
Ronstadt’s “Long, Long Time,” Barbara
Mandrell’s “Married But Not to Each
Other,” Willie Nelson’s “Always on My
Mind,” Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind,” Reba
McEntire’s “You’re the First Time I Thought
About Leaving,” Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a
Rainy Night” and Jimmy Buffett’s “Why
Don’t We Get Drunk.” ADAM GOLD
12
Hillsboro Village
In fall 2010 Taylor Swift and Jake
Gyllenhaal shocked the world >> P. 16
by daring to appear in public together with
dozens of tiny hearts floating around their
heads. Celebrity blogs flipped — a 20-yearold country pop star dating a well-respected
Oscar nominee who’s nearly 10 years
her senior?! GASP! The two reportedly
celebrated Thanksgiving together in New
York, and not long after, on Dec. 1, the
twitterpated couple were spotted strolling
through Hillsboro Village, stopping for
maple lattes at Fido. What a lovely date!
Alas, it didn’t end well for Swiftenhaal —
their young love didn’t make it through
New Year’s. Don’t pity Swift, though — she
got her own happy ending. It’s rumored
Gyllenhaal inspired much of her Grammynominated album Red, which went platinum
four times over. MEGAN SELING
13
Hume-Fogg
700 BROADWAY
One of the sexiest celebrities ever
to come out of Nashville wasn’t a country
star, but a talk-show host: Dinah Shore. A
cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School
and a sorority president at Vanderbilt
in the late 1930s, Shore was a gorgeous,
gracious Southern lady — and as a Jewish
girl born in Winchester, Tenn., something
of an outsider in the society in which she
excelled. After heading to New York to
become a singer, she eventually found a TV
career, where her easy, welcoming manner
and genuine curiosity about other people’s
stories made her a perfect on-air host.
Dinah ruled pop culture in the 1970s — and
was half of one of the sexiest couples of
all time when she was romantically linked
with beefcake Burt Reynolds, 20 years her
junior! DANA KOPP FRANKLIN
14
Longview and Kline
avenues
Finding a perch with a view is challenging
in Southeast Nashville, what with its
working-class neighborhoods lacking
condo balconies and such. But you can
find a few if you look in the right places,
including this everyday corner just outside
the I-440 loop near Nolensville Road.
Down the industrial block of mechanical
engineers, HVAC sellers and tennis court
construction companies in Grandview
Heights, there’s a beautiful view of the
southern side of downtown, where you
can gaze upon the swishy neon light on the
Music City Center and the sunset off to
the west, while unseen cars hum by on the
highway below. ANDREA ZELINSKI
15
Vanderbilt University
2201 WEST END AVE.
The Vanderbilt Fugitives do not
have a reputation for romance. The 1920s
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NASHVILLE SCENE | FEBRUARY 11 – FEBRUARY 17, 2016 | nashvillescene.com
group is better known for a dark and dry wit
and their then-novel employment of irony in
poetry — and later for a very non-romantic
association with fascism. But then there was
Merrill Moore. Moore developed a deep,
obsessive affection for the sonnet, going so
far as learning shorthand to better crank
out the highly structured 14-line form. In
1938, he published M, the title a sly pun to
both his initials and the Roman numeral for
1,000, the number of sonnets in the book.
(By comparison, Petrarch’s most famous
collection has 317 sonnets; Shakespeare
is credited with 154.) A 1935 Time article
reported 25,000 sonnets in Moore’s files.
Three years later, The New York Times put
the number at 50,000, many composed in the
dedicated room in his home he called The
Sonnetorium. How many were romantic,
though? Certainly not all of them, as many of
the collections were illustrated by Edward
Gorey, not exactly America’s most romantic
illustrator. But surely Moore — whose day
job was as a psychiatrist and who was the
personal physician of Chiang Kai-Shek
during World War II — penned a few love
poems in there somewhere. J.R. LIND
16
Grand Ole Opry
2804 OPRYLAND DRIVE
The prime-time soap opera that is
Nashville has gifted us with many campy
and dramatic will they/won’t they storylines
— Scarlett and Avery, Avery and Juliette,
Scarlett and Gunnar, Gunnar and Will,
Will and Layla, Layla and Jeff, the mayor
and that woman who faked a miscarriage
using pig’s blood … but the most romantic
storyline belongs to Rayna and Deacon,
country music’s meant-to-be star couple
who could never get the timing right despite
years of trying. Their tumultuous history
finally comes crashing down all around
them in Season 3. As the duo performs a
tender ballad onstage at the Grand Ole Opry,
their feelings become undeniable, and that’s
the moment they decide to give it one last
shot. Aww, love. You are a complicated, but
wonderful beast. MEGAN SELING
17
Travellers Rest at
Franklin Pike
636 FARRELL PARKWAY AT FRANKLIN PIKE
The story goes that on Dec. 2, 1864, Lt. Gen.
John Bell Hood’s battered Confederate
forces, trudging up Franklin Pike near
Travellers Rest after the bloodbath of
the Battle of Franklin, were struck by a
sight that lifted their dashed spirits: six
young women, beribboned in Sunday
finery, there to greet their soldiers and
sweethearts. “They were thinking of life
and love — brown hair and blue eyes —
and long remembered kisses,” wrote
historian Hugh Walker in a 1964 Tennessean
commemoration. Among the women was
Mary Hadley, 24, who would be married
to Major William Clare 10 days later, just
three days before the Battle of Nashville.
According to Walker, the clergyman used
the $200 given him by the groom to bury
Franklin’s dead. JIM RIDLEY
18
The Former Site of Ernie’s
Record Mart
177-179 THIRD AVE. N.
In the 1950s and ’60s Ernie’s was a mailorder hub of Music City soul, serving
R&B fans as far away as the young Mick
Jagger. Push aside the racks, though,
and it became something else: the studio
where the Nashville soul label Excello cut
many classic sides. Among those: Louis
Brooks and His Hi-Toppers’ 1955 smash
“It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day),” written
and produced by Music City soul legend
Ted Jarrett and sung by the late, great Earl
Gaines. It’s among the most recorded of
Music City R&B hits, covered by everyone
from B.B. King to Ruth Brown — and it
remains a Valentine’s favorite, a call to
spend the day squeezing your honey “from 5
o’clock in the early morning / To 6 o’clock in
the early evening.” JIM RIDLEY
19
Plaza
“Victory Statue” on War
Memorial’s Legislative
301 SIXTH AVE. N.
Sculptor Belle Kinney, a Nashville native
born in 1890, created the “Victory” statue at
War Memorial’s Legislative Plaza with her
husband Leopold Scholz in 1929. Sometimes
alternatively called “Spirit of Youth,” the
goliath sculpture depicts a man holding a
miniature goddess Nike in his outstretched
hand. Kinney and Scholz collaborated on
many sculptures together, including the
“Lady of Victory” statue in the Bronx’s
Pelham Bay Park and the relief sculptures
on the Parthenon replica in Centennial Park.
LAURA HUTSON
20
Pick up pretty flowers along the way
Florists:
EMMA’S FLOWERS
21
BLOOM FLOWERS & GIFTS
22
The air feels different inside the
Ryman, where songs about falling in and out
of love have echoed through its hallways for
decades. A lot of history has happened within
those walls — far more than we’d ever have
room to recall here — but perhaps the most
romantic place among the historic theater’s
2,362 seats is the laughably tiny pew nestled
in the back corner of stage left on the main
floor. Seats 1 and 2 in row V make for the
only two-person pew in the house, and they
demand their occupants sit close. Being as
how these are the very same benches that
date all the way back to 1892, it’s safe to
wager that this small seat has seen a lot of
lip-locking while musicians such as Johnny
Cash, Louis Armstrong and Patsy Cline
crooned from the stage. MEGAN SELING
1517 Dallas Ave., 615-385-2402
ROSEBUDS EAST
1006 Fatherland St., Suite 102,
23 615-569-4626
OSHI FLOWERS
217A Sixth Ave. N, 615-254-6744 and
24 150 Third Ave. S., 615-259-0444
IMPORT FLOWERS
25
3636 Murphy Road, 615-297-0397
A VILLAGE OF FLOWERS
26
1712 21st Ave. S., 615-369-3030
JOY’S FLOWERS
27
2412 West End Ave., 615-329-3875
FLWR SHOP
28
123 S. 11th St., 615-401-9124
REBEL HILL FLORIST
39
4821 Trousdale Drive, 615-833-8555
Need some sweets for your journey?
Candy Shops:
CHOCOLATE F/X
29
1006 Fatherland St., Suite 306A, 404402-6562
TEMPERED CAFE AND CHOCOLATE
30
1201 Fifth Ave. N., 615-454-5432
31
609 Overton St., 615-251-0100
COLT’S CHOCOLATES
LEON’S CANDY
32
138 Second Ave. N., Suite 102,
615-254-5030
33
1300 Clinton St., Suite 127,
615-953-1065
Ryman Auditorium
116 FIFTH AVE. N.
2410 West End Ave., 615-327-0202
BANG CANDY COMPANY
GOO GOO SHOP
34
116 Third Ave. S., 615-490-6685
35
4100 Hillsboro Circle, 615-891-2122
36
310 Broadway, 615-313-9919
37
201 Second Ave. N., 615-730-8085
SUGAR DIVE
SAVANNAH’S CANDY KITCHEN
ROCKET FIZZ
THE PEANUT SHOP
38
19 Arcade, 615-256-3394
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