Nashville musicians have spoken on what they feel are the best places to play on Broadway.
Take a stroll down Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville and you’ll hear live music bursting out of nearly every venue. The talent on the street can be taken for granted, and it’s easy for the thousands of tourists that visit every year to hear the performances as background music rather than main attractions.
That’s obviously a shame, because Broadway wouldn’t have the massive draw that it has without the musicians up on stage.
And those very musicians were able to have their voices heard through a recent survey conducted by the Nashville Musicians Association. The NMA put on what they called the “Best Bars on Broadway for Musicians Competition,” and asked over 300 musicians who work downtown what they believed to be the best bars to play at on the famous Nashville street.
Nashville musicians considered pay, safety, overall treatment and respect for artists when they voted, and the Nashville Musicians Association collected all of the data and then shared the results. Unsurprisingly, only one artist bar showed up on the list, although it being owned in partnership with Ryman Hospitality might explain why. The other four that made up the top five are considered “Old Nashville” staples of Broadway:
Top 5 Best Bars For Broadway Musicians
5) Robert’s Western World
4) Old Red
3) Acme Feed & Seed
2) Legends
1) The Stage
That right there is one heck of a list.
Funny enough, if you asked locals – or even well-versed tourists – what they would consider to be the best bars in Nashville’s Broadway scene, those same five places would probably populate the list (I’d personally throw Chief’s and AJ’s Good Time Bar in there if I was ever surveyed).
The best part about that survey? The results are not just going to exist as a list online. The NMA is going to gift each establishment with a sticker to display in the front of their business, letting the world know that it’s officially recognized as a top-of-the-line, musician-respecting bar.
Dave Pomeroy, the Nashville Musicians Association President, told WKRN that the stickers will be called “Fair Trade Music Stickers,” and it’s one small step in helping to preserve the Nashville of yesteryear:
“We are going to put what we call the Fair Trade Music sticker on the front windows of these bars to make the public aware that these are the places where musicians feel like they are treated the best. If we’ve got to do one thing in Nashville, it’s preserve the tradition of musicians being respected.”
So if you find yourself on a trip to Nashville soon (perhaps as a part of a rowdy bachelorette party), and you care about the well-being of Broadway artists, maybe keep an eye out for the Fair Trade Music stickers. They should be proudly and prominently displayed on the front windows of Robert’s, Old Red, Acme Feed & Seed, Legends and The Stage.
And if you go in to any of those places, you can rest assured knowing that the performers up on stage are well taken care of.
