Fashion
A Nashville Block Party for a Beloved Honky-Tonk
Step inside Robert’s Western World, and it’s the music that hooks you. Maybe you don’t know the words, maybe it’s the soundtrack your parents or grandparents loved. But there’s something about the rapid-fire twang of a guitar, the percussive pulse of …
Step inside Robert’s Western World, and it’s the music that hooks you. Maybe you don’t know the words, maybe it’s the soundtrack your parents or grandparents loved. But there’s something about the rapid-fire twang of a guitar, the percussive pulse of a slap on a double bass that threatens to burst out of this old honky-tonk.
On Monday, for the first time in recent memory, Robert’s took that music to the street outside. On its block of Lower Broadway, the famed downtown Nashville strip of country music bars, people gathered to celebrate JesseLee Jones, the owner of Robert’s, and the 25 years he has spent protecting its country roots from trends and changes.
“We don’t look at it like it’s a museum piece,” Joe Fick, a bass player and vocalist with the band Kelley’s Heroes, said of the music he frequently performs at Robert’s. Fresh off the stage, he added, “It’s really cool to see it out here.”
The free block party, which stretched through the sweltering day into a humid summer night, cemented how the musical dreams of Mr. Jones, a Brazilian immigrant, have become intertwined with the legacy of one of Nashville’s oldest honky-tonks. Perhaps more important, it was a homage to an era of live country music that has nearly been overtaken by the commercialization of a genre and a city.
The free block party was held on Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville. Credit…Liam Kennedy for The New York Times
“It’s also a celebration of country music, the celebration of a dream, the celebration of Nashville, Tennessee,” Mr. Jones said in an interview before the party. He added: “This is my heart. This is my home, and I made this the home for a lot of people.”
