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No, I didn’t need my taste buds, actually (Bolton’s)

BoltonsAbstractChicken

Maybe you’ve heard we have this thing called hot chicken in Nashville. Maybe? Of course you have. There is the famous story of the cheating man who prompted the creation of hot chicken. But that was only the beginning of a long history. First, there was Prince’s, founded in the 1930s. In the late 1970s, one of Prince’s cooks, Bolton Polk, left and started his own restaurant, originally called Colombo’s. Both restaurants have been forced to move repeatedly because of development, gentrification, and deliberate efforts of city government to push African-Americans out of valuable property. Colombo’s was forced to close when the Titan’s stadium was built. In 1997, the family reopened in a little concrete box on Main Street, under the name Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish, later expanding into a larger building behind the box. More recently, they’ve added new branches on Franklin Pike and in Chatanooga. The Main Street location is covered in art. Two main styles predominate. The older art has a more cartoon style, with jumping fish and hot plates of potatoes, while the newer works are more abstract, with chicken and fish surrounded by and belching flame. Which you will be doing when you get your food. I get the medium. It’s medium in the sense a Category 3 hurricane is medium compared to a Category 5. It’s still a hurricane!

Located at 624-B Main Street. The smaller building is right on the street and impossible to miss. Officially, the parking next door is for Center 615, though on weekends and evenings you’re fine parking there. Otherwise, you’ll need to walk a bit. Get some grub, buy some beer and milk, and enjoy the art!

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Just a few feet away

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Thousands of people pass by this exuberant graffiti installation every day and never see it (or maybe get just a tiny glimpse). It lies underneath Spring Street, alongside the railroad tracks that wend their way through the spaghetti junction where Spring, Dickerson, Main and Ellington Parkway all come together, and with Jefferson and I-24 just a little way away. Make that tens of thousands, maybe more, come close every day but never see it. I first caught glimpse of these murals from quite a distance – you can just see them from where Foster Street crosses the railroad tracks, but it was a longer distance down the tracks than I cared to walk. After much map studying and driving around, I realized the best access was right off Ellington, where there is a pull off area right under the bridge. There is also a good sized homeless encampment just south of the bridge, also hidden from view of the many thousands of drivers who pass through here each day.

Located under Spring Street, as it passes over the railroad tracks that parallel Ellington Parkway. The easiest way to reach this site is to get on Ellington at or north of Cleveland Street, heading south. Just past the Spring Street/I-24/I-65 exit, there is an area where you can pull under the bridge. It may also be possible to reach it by foot from the west side of the bridge just west of 5th and Main. Google Earth shows a gravel “road” starting from First Street North at A-1 Fun Cycle that parallels the tracks up to the spot – maybe if you have a dirt bike? To be clear, I have no idea if any of this is legal, and there is a large homeless encampment less than 100 feet south from where the murals are.

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Out of the shadows (for now)

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There used to be a Spanish language church on Trinity Lane, just a hundred feet or so from Gallatin. “Jesus te ama” – “Jesus loves you” declared the sign out front. It got knocked down. I’m putting my money on condos or apartments to take its place. But this has temporarily brought to light a graffiti mural that otherwise remained fairly well hidden. On the alleyway between Zophi Street and Trinity Lane (which Google declares to be “2036 Alley”), the backside of a small barn has become a canvas for the prolific local artist who goes by Rasmo, of the UH crew. The washed out psychedelic color palette is not something I’ve seen before here in Nashville, but I don’t claim to have seen everything. The man with the upturned cap is a common theme in UH installations.

Located in the alley behind 1076 Zophi Street. That’s a private residence, so I recommend parking at Checkers at 3001 Gallatin Pike, at the corner of Trinity Lane. The alley and the barn are just a few feet away.

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Now I know my ABCs!

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More and more businesses in Nashville are coming to understand that art sells, and thus we have at least three professional mural “companies” in Nashville (two seem to be just one artist, one is a team of two). Germantown Pub at the corner of Monroe and Rosa Parks is a prominent adopter of this trend. A huge, long mural speaks loudly of neighborhood pride, forming an informal gateway into Germantown. Of course, the pub itself is a symbol of the transformation of this area. I forget the name of the restaurant, but I remember years ago going to this building and eating in the kind of place you got fried fish on a piece of white bread for just a few bucks, and most of the crew and clientele were African-American. You can still get a catfish sandwich here, but it’s a decidedly more expensive place, and like the neighborhood, the demographics have changed. The mural is signed “Billups & Tomasek,” as in Anthony Billups and Dean Tomasek of Music City Murals, also responsible for the mural in Have a beer! A really big beer! (As noted in that post, at least two people/teams in town use the Music City Murals moniker – I don’t know if there is a connection.) The mural references many facets of Germantown and the Bicentennial Mall. In some cases, the letters make sense. The “A” is the Church of the Assumption, the “M” is Monell’s, and the “G” is Gerst Beer, while the second “N” is the “N” of the Nashville Sounds. But what the “E” has to do with Werthan Mills Lofts, or the “R” with the Farmer’s Market (or maybe Smiley’s Produce?), or the “T” has to do with construction or the first “N” with the World War II memorial in Bicentennial Mall, I don’t know. The “W” with the First Tennesee ballpark scoreboard at least flows into the second “N” of the Nashville Sounds. The “O” is Bearded Iris Brewing. Oh, what a good beer?

The address of Germantown Pub is 708 Monroe Street, but both the pub and the mural face the 1300 block of Rosa Parks Blvd. The pub has plenty of parking, and street parking is available nearby. Grab a brew and enjoy the art!

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You sure that was just a sugar pill?

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Down on Roy Acuff Place, across the street from historic RCA Studio B, a surreal scene may make you doubt your sanity. Two singing cowboys, one atop a crawfish, the other astride a snapping turtle, adorn the south wall of the building that holds Carnival Music and Little Extra Music. The surreal scene is brought to us by artist Mike Shine, who’s work often reflects a world just a little off-kilter, and often a whole lot. The mural itself is part of the Nashville Walls Project, which I described in Guitars and automobiles. You can see a slideshow of Shine working on the mural on the NWP website. Just lay off the peyote, ok?

The address of the building is 24 Music Square West, but the mural itself faces the 1600 block of Roy Acuff Place. This is a tough neighborhood to park in, though easier on the weekend. You might have to walk a bit, or catch it on a guided tour of Music Row!

SnappingTurtleandCowboyCrawdadandCowboy

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Down at the corner

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The east side has Five Points, where Woodland, Clearview, and North 11th come together. But what do you call a place where four streets and a cemetery entrance come together? Busy – you call it busy. On the north side of the confluence of Clarksville Pike, 13th Avenue North, Clay Street and Dr. D.B. Todd Blvd, and across the street from the entrance to the Temple Cemetary, lies a humble building nearly as busy as the intersection it presides over. At 2012 Clarksville Pike, The Belly Restaurant, Sam’s Market, and Joyce’s Barber and Beauty Salon ensure a steady clientele. And on the west and east sides of the building, we find art. On the west side, a self-referential mural that includes the 2012 Clarksville building, though showing a mural that looks more like the one on the east side (see below). The businesses named are no longer here. Portraits of students fill out the mural. On the east side, a simpler mural, with an intriguing incomplete portrait. And on a low wall to the west of the building, a fading tribute to the Family Affair Diner, which is lost to history, or at least to Google.

Located at 2012 Clarksville Pike, right where it makes a strong turn to the south and becomes D.B. Todd Blvd. Parking available, though if you park in front of the building, you’ll be backing out onto a busy road when you leave.

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The usual suspects

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Sometimes, when searching for outdoor art, you wind up in less than pleasant places. The easternmost support of the Jefferson Street bridge, where Jefferson passes over an unnamed access road just before reaching Cowan Street, is not a place Nashvillians would ordinarily take tourists, and unless you work at one of the industrial sites nearby, nor is it a place Nashvillians would visit themselves. Unless you are homeless, or a graffiti artist. There’s plenty of evidence of people spending time here – discarded bottles, food wrappers, and the like, as well as a mattress it’s hard to imagine anyone sleeping on. But the seclusion that some homeless people appreciate also attracts graffiti artists, given access to a large concrete wall. There are many layers of tags here, with each artist painting over the previous one. If you ever visit, you’re likely to see some names other that what I captured when I found it. Someone has labeled the current crop “usual suspects,” hence the blog title.  There is also an interesting “eye” on a nearby pylon (featured below). I should note that the panel on the far right currently has a reference to sexual assault. It’s not clear what the meaning is – I have chosen not to include a close-up of that part.

Located under the Jefferson Street bridge just west of Cowan, next to the Cross Point Church. To reach it, take Oldham Street west towards the river and turn right on the access road just after the railroad tracks. Just before you get to the bridge, there’s a dirt road on the right that leads to the graffiti. I suspect this will get paved as part of the large construction project underway just past the bridge. This is an industrial area, so try not to park where you’ll block large trucks.

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