Visiting Ernest Tubb Record Store, Nashville TN
By John Roberts
@JohnRoberts (109857)
Los Angeles, California
July 22, 2019 6:23am CST
I was not aware of this iconic record store in Nashville until fourwalls wrote about it. When walking down the famed Broadway in downtown Nashville, I spied the sign with Ernest Tubb’s image and had to check it out. Much has changed since the country music legend opened the store in 1947. The original neon sign now hangs in the Tennessee State Museum.
Broadway’s lively night scene where music hopefuls once sang to be discovered has given way to crass tourist commercialism with chains like the Hard Rock Cafe and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Celebrities are in on the act to capture tourist dollars with places bearing names like Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Kid Rock and Florida Georgia Line. At one end is the concrete monstrosity arena serving as home to the NHL’s Nashville Predators. Cheesy gift shops. The street may light up well at night but tacky looking by day.
There is nothing special about Ernest Tubb’s Record Story except its name and history being just another downtown business. Not a store of size, depth and quantity. Of course it is a country music store so you will not be shopping for heavy metal. The center aisle has the CD’s. Some vinyl and stuff along the walls which are covered by faded Ernest Tubb album covers and not so recent autographed photos. A display case contains one of Tubb’s cowboy hats.
In the rear of the store is the Loretta Lynn shop. Literally. An entire section of the store devoted to Lynn who recorded albums with Tubb. There is a small display, photos and posters. Buy her CD’s and merchandize!
Not very many customers were in the store so it is understandable if the store is on shaky financial ground. They probably have to sell a lot of souvenir tee-shirts to make the likely expensive rent.
Loretta Lynn singing Coal Miner's Daughter at this historic record store - a once in a lifetime experience! Filming for American Masters on PBS.
13 people like this
12 responses
@FourWalls (62118)
• United States
22 Jul 19
The old store couldn’t stay open, despite having a theater and Tubb’s final tour bus on display. 
2 people like this
@FourWalls (62118)
• United States
22 Jul 19
@JohnRoberts — a George Jones bar? I appreciate the humor in that. Hope they have lawn mower parking in the front. 
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@FourWalls (62118)
• United States
22 Jul 19
As I mentioned in my reply yesterday, Nashville hasn’t been too keen on being affiliated with the hillbillies (even though Dylan recorded there...I’ve been in the studio where he recorded!). Back in the 60s you’d leave the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman and walk over to the ET Record Shop, where Ernest was hosting the Midnight Jamboree. They’d put a piece of plywood up on record bins as the stage, and you crammed yourself in between the record bins to watch. If you were lucky in summer, you couldn’t get inside so you enjoyed the show from outside through the window, where you weren’t squashed so badly and had a semblance of fresh air.
All that’s going by the wayside now. The Midnight Jamboree is at the Texas Troubadour Theater out on “Music Valley Drive” (there’s more music in the restaurant I frequent than you’ll find out there, although Ray Stevens is celebrating his Hall of Fame induction by opening a theater out there similar to what he had in Branson). The ET Record Store next to it is gone. So’s the one in Pigeon Forge. So’s the one at the Stockyards in Ft. Worth.
Now, I’ll say that the ET Record Shop is as much to blame for their demise as the change in record buying. If you noticed, the albums are sold at list price (e.g., $12.98). You can buy two CDs for that at places like Wally World or CD Universe (not to mention the proliferation of just downloading the one song on the album you like....as Jimmy Buffett once said, “This is not your 8-track: ‘I don’t wanna hear that sh*t in the middle of the album, I wanna hear that ONE SONG!!!!’”).
ET opened the store in 1947 because his fans were complaining that they could never find his records, prompting Tubb to see the need for a store that wasn’t ashamed to sell “hillbilly” records (an aside: Tubb was also the driving force behind getting “hillbilly” replaced with “country and western” in Billboard magazine). None of that matters anymore to the average fan. If that store is there in another ten years, it’ll be because either it’s owned outright by Tubb’s heirs or business associates; or the lease company can’t find anything profitable to replace it with.
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@FourWalls (62118)
• United States
22 Jul 19
@JohnRoberts — I agree with that. Robert’s, across the street, has survived doing that, with a rotating cast of “house bands” that have gone on to bigger things (e.g., BR5-49, Brazilbilly).
But I’m going to tell you the truth, as a longtime Nashville visitor and spectator of the trends in the city and in country music: even a “music cafe” wouldn’t do all that well. “The masses” are in no rush to make any effort to discover new music. Country music used to have the reputation of having the most loyal fans of any entertainment/arts genre. Today, music tastes for the masses are along the lines of that line in “Bohemian Rhapsody”: “any way the wind blows.”
Hit the gong in memory of what Nashville used to be.
2 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Jul 19
All record (or CD or whatever) store are in danger of going under in today's market. They'd be bother off converting to a music cafe or something using his name and having live genuine music.
1 person likes this
@CarolDM (203454)
• Nashville, Tennessee
23 Jul 19
@FourWalls Nashville is forgetting who they were. It saddens me when i watch the news every night. The old historic buildings are being torn down all the time.
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54413)
• United States
22 Jul 19
The name is really family, I've heard some of his music but I know he other stuff as well right?
3 people like this
@snowy22315 (169937)
• United States
22 Jul 19
It sounds like a fun store to visit.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62118)
• United States
22 Jul 19
BTW, I feel like I owe you an apology. I probably made you think this was something special. It is to old farts like me.
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@chrissbergstrom (10767)
• Banks, Oregon
22 Jul 19
Wow you get to visit so many historic places
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@Nakitakona (56302)
• Philippines
22 Jul 19
This is the first time that I have heard Loretta Lynn sings. She's a good singer.
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