因为在美国只有一个周末属于自己，所以做起计划来特别愁人。先是准备向东千里大跃进――进军纽约，让乡下来的我看看发达国家大都市到底是个什么样子；后准 备向西进发――西部淘金，追寻马克-吐温在密西西比河上的生活；再后来准备向北，探访汽车城底特律，拜访“三大”的朋友并小酌几杯，还有过一闪而过的念头 是沿着全长2450公里、有美国“母亲之路”之称的 66号州际公路一直开下去，看看《汽车总动员》里的“油车水镇”到底是否存在。。。。。但最后，我的行程却是沿着65号州际公路一路向南，去探访世界乡村 音乐发源地――田纳西州的纳什维尔（Nashville），那里不仅是底层劳动人民的音乐殿堂，也是本人喜欢的有“老山胡桃”之称的美国第七任总统安德 鲁·杰克逊主要生活过的地方。

其实选择这条路线也不完全是偶然，一是因为儿子出生起名 时就想到了这个地方，他叫田纳溪，个人感觉这个田纳溪比那个田纳西更有意境一点（我们小区经常有人提到，儿子这个名字起得不错），一字之异，胜过千里。二 是因为上周五的研讨会坐在我身边的哥们就是自田纳西州纳什维尔的，中间休息时给我“吹嘘”了N多这个乡村音乐之都的美妙之处，说即使不懂音乐的人到了纳什 维尔，也能被音乐之美所同化而爱上音乐的。我以为然，再加上距离适中（２４０多英里，约４００公里），时间和经济都能承受，最主要的是想看看我这样一个五 音不全、完全没长音乐细胞、绝对不会张嘴唱歌的人，是如何欣赏并感受到音乐之美的。

近 250英里的路，开了将近五个多小时，路上经过肯得基老家肯塔基州时曾经拐出去参观了一会有美国岩洞博物馆之称的Kentucky Down Under。在国内基本上麦当劳和肯得基齐名，开店也基本都在一个地方，相距不过几步之遥，而在美国后才发现，麦当劳和肯得基根本就不是一个数量级 的，65号公路沿途每个休息区都有麦当劳，而肯得基只在老家肯塔基州时才出现几家。

刚 进纳什维尔时是下午3点多，本应该熙熙攘攘的市区路上却一个人都没有，一辆车都没有，搞得我很紧张，而此时路边经过的又恰好是成片的摆满鲜花的墓地，墓碑 一块接一块的从车窗边滑过，墓碑旁的时而有花瓣被风吹起，更让我心跳突然加速，有进了鬼城的感觉，相当看过恐怖片的人都能理解，白天空无一人的城市比晚上 更恐怖。再加上快到市中心时前面出现了路障，写着closed，我晕，大路居然封锁了。我把车停在路障前面，安定了一下紧绷的神经，决定先找酒店再说。

找 了好半天才找到了酒店。后来当我问起为什么城里很空，街道上看不到人时，前台告诉我说因为政府此前为了让穷人也能享受到市中心的繁华，而以极低的房价来吸 引他们到市中心来住，并为他们提供就业岗位，这样大批穷人和流浪汉的到来使社会治安每况愈下，原来住在市中心的富人们不得不选择离来市中心，到郊区居住， 郊区逐渐成了富人聚集区。没了富人的消费刺激和投资，市中心的商业氛围更不好了，这样居住在市中心的穷人和流浪汉们失去了就业机会，不得不到郊区去给富人 打工，于是就出现了这种大白天空空鬼城的怪现状。不过政府似乎又意识到了这些问题，听说又兴起一种叫Revitalize downtown（复兴市中心）的运动，让富人再搬回市中心开住。

第二天一早便 来到了乡村音乐的聚集地，纳什维尔的第五大道，这里是以Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum(乡村音乐名人堂)为中心动而形成的以演出演艺、酒吧表演、音乐制作等为一体的音乐产业链。  从20世纪30年代开始，纳什维尔就不单单指一个地名，而成为人们印象中美国乡村音乐的代名词。所谓乡村音乐，个人理解，就是劳动人民的音乐，来源于民， 又娱乐于民。最早应该是从欧洲移民至此的乡间劳动者在田间劳动之余打发时间而创作的，继承并发扬了古老的英格兰、苏格兰民谣以及先辈们遗传的舞曲和器乐 曲，并在此基础上吸收了从非洲来的黑人音乐和从南美来的拉丁音乐，从而创造出来的大杂烩，而之后发扬光大刚是靠广播电台的作用，原来当地的广播电台“纳什 维尔之声”就成了乡村音乐的代名词。

提到乡村音乐，不得不提汉克·威廉姆斯。汉 克·威廉姆斯1923年出生于亚拉巴马州，他创造出了一种我听完之后称之为“郁闷唱法”的风格，当然因为大家喜欢，威粉无数（其中也包括俺老婆），在40 年代时变成了大红大紫的名星人物，也成为乡村音乐界泰斗人物，别的不说，他的Jambalaya就是老婆必唱的曲目之一。俗话说，内事不明问老婆，外事不 明问GOOGLE。至于汉克·威廉姆斯的其他成就，自己去GOOGLE吧。

除了 汉克·威廉姆斯，我这种音乐盲就只知道一个留着长长鬓角，开手工打靠汽车，穿着斗篷的家伙，对， Elvis Presley，一个被人称为“猫王”的家伙。记得N年前在出版社给中学生推荐英文歌曲时，总把“猫王”的歌曲推荐出去。当然了，我也经常收到一些中学生 家长写来的批评信，认为我推荐的歌曲有些“少儿不宜” 。

“猫王”的歌曲虽然拿 过多个唱片大奖，但在纳什维尔，有才华的艺人太多了，为了防止他的作品淹没在无数才华横溢的歌手之中，展览方特地拿出一面墙来展示“猫王”的形像，并在墙 边停着他那24K黄金做的凯迪拉克车和一架黄金钢琴。但似乎也有人喜欢歌手Webb Pierces，明显是和“猫王”对着干，在“猫王”黄金车对面停上了一辆白银做的庞帝亚克(Pontiac)，可能是怕敌不过那黄金车，庞帝亚克白银车 前以雕刻着Webb Pierces名字的牛角作为保险杠，车身上面更是镶着白银机关枪，右前角是白银骏马，连手门把手也居然设计成一个左轮手枪，足见Webb Pierces当年也是独霸一方的人物。

听着舒缓的蓝调，坐在视听室长椅上发了呆，我似乎没有听出音乐之美，听出来的却分明是歌手心灵的呼唤和感情的宣泄，或欢快，或忧伤，或心平气和，或歇斯底里，但这些似乎又都与我无关，因为我要关注的是自己的曲子。

“Wake up, wakeup, we are about closing (醒醒，快醒醒，我们要关门了)，”我极不情愿的走出了音乐名人堂，开车离开了纳什维尔，留在身后的是Glen Campbell的一曲 Gentle on My Mind。。。。。。

Nashville, a place to heal souls

Alfred Tian

There is only one 2-day weekend free for me during my stay at Columbus, therefore, it’s not easy to make a decision where to travel to spend this precious weekend.

I first planned to go eastwards—to visit New York and experience the prosperity of metropolis; then planned to go westwards—to follow the trail of writer Mark Twain’s life on the river of Mississippi and to feel “The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise...” like what Mark wrote in Eruption. The third idea is to visit Motortown Detroit—to visit Big Three and have beers with friends there.  Another flashing idea is to drive along with the 2,448-mile Route 66 to visit the legendary town Radiator Springs, where racing car Lightning McQueen found his friendship and love in the Disney movie Cars 1.

However, I was eventually found driving southwards along Interstate 65 to visit Nashvile, Tennessee, hometown of world country music. I chose Nashville as my destination because one of my workmates, a Nashvilla local, in last week’s product planning workshop did speak highly of Nashville. “Nashville is a place that can make a music deafness feel the beauty of music.” Also my 4-year-old son was named after the Chinese translation of the state name Tennessee, which makes me feel comfortable about the capital city of Tennessee State. Most importantly, Nashville is the hometown of Andrew Jackson, one of my idols, the 7th President of the United States. Jackson was nicknamed “Old Hickory” because of his toughness and aggressive personality.

After driving about five hours, I appeared in the downtown of Nashville—a city with 600,000 population. Surprisingly, there is no single car or single person in the street.  Later when I checked in my hotel, I got to know the reason for this empty ghost musical city. Back to 1950s-1960s, the wealthy lives in downtown areas while the poor lives in suburbs.  The local government offered good opportunity (with cheap house rental and more job opportunities as incentives) for the poor to move into downtown to enjoy the business prosperity and culture diversity. With more and more lower classes moved in, the crime rate in the central area increased substantially and the upper class was forced to move out of downtown areas to suburbs. The America’s urban and downtown areas began a long period of decline in the 1960s. The popularity of the automobile also accelerated the change of individual and commercial behavior, and the focus of commercial activity shifted from the cities to the suburbs. From late 1960s, cities declined further as the suburbs grew. The result was a vicious cycle in which downtown businesses closed because of wealthy population declines, which increased the rate at which residents and visitors left downtown areas. That’s why the city downtown area became kind of empty ghost city.

The crossing of 5^thAve. and Broadway Street features a line of bars, musical instruments, performance costumes and musical studios in Nashville. A music industry chain formed here since 1930s and a host of country music stars rose from here to national and international stages. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a must to visit in Nashville. The hall was founded to identify and preserve the evolving history and traditions of country music and to educate its audiences.  Walking into this piano-style building, you can see a number of big names like Kitty Wells , Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, Jack Stapp, Cliffie Stone, Sam Phillips, Port Wagoner, Harlan Howard, Webb Pierces, Sonny James, Elvis Presley, Brad Paisley , Zac Brown , Dolly Parton , Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw etc., etc.  Their music and angel voice can be heard anywhere you stand in the hall.  I like the songs of Elvis Presley most, who was billed as “The Hillbilly Cat and King of the Western Bop” in the history of country history. The “King” has been also quite popular in  remote countries like China. On the display is the King’s golden Cadillac and golden piano, which demonstrated his prestige back to his time during 1950s-1970s. 

Next to Elvis’ golden Cadillac and golden piano is Webb Pierces’ silver Pontiac, which features silver running horse and silver machine guns mounted on the hood. Obviously Web is also a real somebody back to his days. 

Personally I believe music is a way of expression of emotions, either cheerful or sorrowful. We can find a lot in common. Just like a comment I made in a song and lyrics publication years ago, “Languages makes boundary but music creates a boundaryless world and it can heal our souls”.

Listening to Glen Campbell’s Gentle on My Mind on the radio, I left Nashville and drove back to Columbus.