Listen to this one before your next trip to Nashville so you don’t stick out like a sore thumb.
There are quite a few famous streets in Music City. Of course there’s Broadway, which is the strip of bars in downtown Nashville most popular with tourists and visitors to the city. And then there’s 16th Avenue, in the heart of Music Row and home to some of the most famous recording studios in country music.
But the one that always seems to give people the most trouble is Demonbreun Street.
If you’re familiar with Nashville you no doubt know that Demonbreun is parallel to Broadway, just one block away and running into midtown.
Visitors to Nashville may have even spent time on Demonbreun during their time here. The street contains bars that are often frequented by tourists, places like Tin Roof, Two Bits and the Dawg House (RIP). But it seems like nobody outside of Nashville actually knows how to pronounce it.
The most common pronunciation that I’ve heard from visitors is usually something like “Demon-brewin.” But I’ve also heard “Demon-brawn,” “Dim-un-brewin,” and all kinds of other close-but-not-quite pronunciations of the downtown road.
@winedinenashville Demon 😈 brawn 💪is how you say it, right? #nashville #nashvilletn #visitnashville #bethanyonthestreet #12south #nashvilletennessee #nashvillefood #nashvilleeats #nashvillefoodies #nashvilleplacestovisit #nashvilleplacestoeat #nashvilleplacestogo #nashbach #nashvillethingstodo #demonbreun #nashvillethings
But luckily, Morgan Wallen is out there setting the record straight.
Morgan has a new song on his latest 37-track collection, I’m The Problem, called “20 Cigarettes.” It’s already become a favorite among his fans on social media, and it’s actually one of my favorite songs on this latest project from Big Loud Records (full disclosure, I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet).
The song tells the story of a night that starts out with a fresh pack of cigarettes and ends when the final “lucky cigarette” is smoked.
And the night just happens to start out – you guessed it – on Demonbreun Street:
“Twenty cigarettes and I lit me one
On that redwood deck on Demonbreun
She was with her friends, left ’em standin’ there
There was more than smoke in that summer air
We burned two while she told me ’bout her hometown
She was drinkin’ Tito’s, said I better slow down
I was like, “Hell nah
I ain’t drinkin’ by myself, nah”
Said she loved my accent, so I kept talkin’
Reached for the pack on the table by my wallet
We tore off to light the night we had left”
Now, the “redwood deck on Demonbreun” is likely referring to the Red Door Saloon, a bar in midtown Nashville that’s a popular hangout for musicians, as well as some of the best songwriters in Nashville.
@nashville_stacy On that redwood deck on Demonbreun #morganwallen #morganwallenmusic #imtheproblem #nashville #musicrow #reddoorsaloonnashville
And while Red Door Saloon isn’t technically on Demonbreun (it’s on Division Street, just off Demonbreun), the most important thing about the song is that it’s teaching everyone how to actually pronounce Demonbreun:
@smashvillerach
@rachelannslee You’re doing amazing sweetie !!! #morganwallen #morgan #imtheproblem #nashville #Demonbreun #20cigarettes #country #countrymusic
There you have it: “Dee-mun-bre-un.”
The street was actually named after Timothy Demonbreun, a French-Canadian fur trader and Lieutenant in the American Revolution. He began traveling to Middle Tennessee in the 1760s, making several trips to what would later become Nashville to conduct business in the fur trade with Native Americans.
Demonbreun eventually moved to the area, living in a cave at the mouth of a creek that flowed into the Cumberland River in what is now Davidson County, Tennessee, before building a cabin that he used as the base of his fur trapping business. And today, Demonbreun is known as the “First Citizen” of Nashville – although visitors still have some trouble with the street named after him.
If you’re planning on coming to Nashville, make sure you turn to this one on Morgan’s I’m The Problem album to learn the correct pronunciation. You definitely won’t stand out as a tourist as much if you can correctly pronounce Demonbreun.
