I love Nashville. I love Nashville so much that I really don't understand anybody not loving it too. Like New Orleans, Nashville is a unique American City that still makes its own kind of music, and it does so in its own way at its own pace. Although I don't get to spend as much time there as I would like, Nashville still feels like a second home to me whenever I am fortunate enough to spend time there.
I blogged here about my ongoing love affair with Nashville last November right before the Country Music Association Awards, a big TV event that I feel very privileged to have written in recent years. I wrote that piece having just spent a night standing backstage at the Grand Ole Opry during its weekly radio broadcast feeling both at the center and the top of the world. Today the Grand Ole Opry building has been devastated by the flooding of the Cumberland River, as have so many other truly historic and special places in Music City. Nearly thirty people have died, and the damage there seems almost impossible to calculate or comprehend.
Earlier today I read a piece by Patten Fuqua, who I believe usually blogs about hockey for something called Section 303. Today, however, Mr. Fuqua wrote a short but powerful piece called "We Are Nashville."
In his piece, Fuqua quite rightly wonders why the heartbreaking death and destruction in Nashville isn't a bigger story in our media? As he wrote: "If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that's no reason to be ignored."
I think every American should take a few moments and read his piece. And I think everybody who loves music - any kind of music really - should make plans to visit Music City in the not distant future and be a part of this city latest and greatest comeback story. Knowing the city and the people pretty well, I fully expect Nashville to be greeting the world warmly again by the time the CMA Music Festival comes around in June.
See whether you know it or not, Nashville has already touched and graced your life through some of the greatest music America and the world have ever known -- all kinds of music too. Let's all do our part to help Nashville and its people keep the music playing forever more.