The afternoon sun back-lit the band with its white-hot glare. The postage-stamp-sized stage at Robert’s Western World is against the front windows. It barely contains the quartet with their stand-up fiddle, drum set, and guitars.
I was entrenched on an aged chrome stool whose seat was leaking its foam stuffing out of a sizeable hole. A warm, humid breeze barely made its way through the open door to the rear of the narrow confines where we were seated.
The condensation dripped from my cold long-neck bottle, leaving concentric rings on the small, round-topped table that had a slight wobble from the uneven floor beneath its legs.
My right hand kept accompaniment to a very good rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Life was good in Nashville.
The Atmosphere
It was a Thursday afternoon, on our only day in Nashville, in the bastion of traditional Country Music in the Music City. The tables and barstools are filled with a lively crowd of all ages.
A mixture of local denizens, tourists of all ilk, and not a few bachelorettes, but it decidedly leans towards the baby-boomer generation.
They’re all here, myself included, to get that deep down, toe-curling-in-your-cowboy-boots country sound that is fast disappearing from Nashville’s perennial boulevard of Country-and-Western music.
Nashville’s self-proclaimed Home of Traditional Country Music, Robert’s Western World resides a few doors down from Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, another Broadway stalwart, and backs up to the famous Ryman Auditorium, the original home to the Grand Ole Opry, and often referred to as the Mother Church of Country Music.
As Sarah Gayle Meech, a long-time performer at Roberts, launched into “Delta Dawn,” the crowd began a ragged but enthusiastic accompaniment, their combined voices bouncing off of the walls. I could not help but join in, the passionate choir mercifully drowning out my contribution.
Browse Accommodations in Nashville
The Beginnings
The narrow confines are home to eclectic décor. One side is filled with the battle-scarred, but serviceable bar. The opposite side is lined with small, round-topped bar tables that can barely manage two stools, let alone the four that surround them.
The walls are covered with old photos, guitars, country music artifacts, and a wall of dollar bills with messages written on them, neon signs, and on the little space that is left, graffiti. And boots — cowboy boots, several of them.
This ancient building has served many purposes, including being used as a warehouse and office for river merchants, as the storefront for the Sho-Bud Steel Guitar Company, and eventually, in the ’90s, a western boot and apparel store owned by Robert Moore.
Shortly thereafter, entertainers, and a bar and a grill replaced the western wear. In 1999, Robert sold the business to JesseLee Jones, leader of the house band, who, with his wife, runs it to this day. The remaining boots are in recognition of its beginnings.
Now the walls reverberate with the sounds of Hank, Patsy, and Willie. Music that was once described as three chords and the truth.
While Meech belted out an up-tempo version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” Karen our bartender/server, slipped out from behind the bar and with practiced efficiency, grabbed empties and various trash without breaking stride.
With a nod, she acknowledged requests for another round, returning to her station where she snapped off bottle caps and popped beer can tabs, delivering the drinks with a quick smile, never writing down a single order.
A Holdout in a Changing Town
It’s an unpretentious tavern. There is no draft beer; its back bar houses the necessary bottles of brown liquor one would expect in Nashville, but, by far and away, the bottles and cans of Milwaukee’s finest appeared to be the drink of choice.
Their single sheet beer list includes a classy group of imports, crafts, and the standard domestics. Nevertheless, the favorite seemed to be the all-day, every-day $2.50 specials which include the likes of PBR and High Life.
Robert’s fight to keep classic country music alive is not an easy one. Our first trip to Nashville’s Lower Broadway more than a decade ago saw the likes of the Stage, Legends, Layla’s, and of course, Tootsie’s & Robert’s.
Dedicated venues where country singers, working for tips, traditionally had gone to get discovered.
A few t-shirt shops, the Opry Originals store, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, and several boarded-up storefronts filled out Lower Broadway at the time.
The Country Music Capital is Reinventing
In the midst of what Rolling Stone Magazine calls a Radical Reinvention, Broadway has since seen an influx of country-star-branded, 6-story mega-bars, with monikers of the likes of Garth, Blake, and Jason just to name a few.
Slick boutiques, coffee shops, Pan-American eateries, and even an Apple store, now cater to a new brand of visitors seeking a party-driven atmosphere filled with fun, free-flowing booze, and music; and not necessarily Country.
In our short walk to Robert’s, we heard Bon Jovi, Journey, and a bass-pounding, guitar-driven heavy metal tune that was unrecognizable floating down upon the street from an assortment of rooftop bars.
Based on the crowds, no one seemed to mind the irony. It’s not good or bad, just a reflection of the ever-evolving sound emanating from Nashville.
Friends in Low Places
From our central perch at the back of the tavern, I watched as the crowd ebbed and flowed in and out of the door, sometimes filling the single aisle to standing room only.
Near the stage, a couple slowly shuffled in place on the too-small dance floor to the strains of the Judds’ “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Old Days).”
It’s also a convivial crowd. One gentleman, who was particularly moved by the music, unknowingly bumped our table, forcing me to grab our teetering bottles. His friend Jerry, who saw the near catastrophe, leaned over to me and apologized.
“He’s from Wisconsin,” he stated with a smile, “What can you expect?” When I asked of his home, he replied Minooka, IL. As we are also from Illinois, we were soon swapping tales of what brought us all to Roberts.
He and his seven buddies, including Wisconsin, were on their way to Talladega for the NASCAR race, and a stop in Nashville was an absolute must on their buddy trip.
Our discussion was soon interrupted when Karen delivered 8 Recession Specials to the racing fans.
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The Recession Special
Besides the free-flowing alcohol, you can grab a bite to eat at Robert’s if you need something to soak it up or you just want to take the edge off your hunger. However, you’re not going to find blackened salmon or even chicken & waffles here.
No, this is bar food; burgers and fries cooked in front of you on a flat-top griddle right behind the bar and served in a paper basket. And the star of the menu is their fried bologna sandwich, the Recession Special.
For $6, the special includes a sandwich that has six thin, individually sliced pieces of bologna that are slapped on the flat-top and then stacked with lettuce and tomato, on Texas toast. Along with a bag of chips, a Moon Pie (Tennessee’s version of a S’more) and a cold PBR.
It may not be Michelin Star food, but it is a culinary delight that I never refuse.
Sarah Gayle Meech
In the end, though, it’s all about the music. As the band struck up the first notes of “Orange Blossom Special,” Sarah Gayle passed through the crowd with the tip jar and touted her newest CD.
Speaking to us as the fiddler tore through the Florida-bound tracks, she explained that she had been playing at Roberts for 15 years. She loves the atmosphere.
Raised in a small logging town in Washington State, she was raised on the classic sounds of traditional country music. I asked if she had time to do Haggard’s “Misery and Gin.” “That’s a great song,” she exclaimed.
She went on to say that they were wrapping up the set. “But if you come back Saturday morning, we’ll play it for sure,” she stated, “That’d be a perfect song for a Saturday morning after a Friday night in Nashville!”
The following morning as we drove north on US 24, with Tom T. Hall warbling his “Country Is” through the radio, I thought of Sarah’s invitation. I was sorely tempted to take her up on it and meet her back at honky-tonk heaven.
If You Go
Robert’s Western World is located on Lower Broadway in the famous historic district of downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Hours: 11am-3am
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