Nashville: Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

There may well have been no Willie or Waylon without Tootsie’s. The aged honky-tonk spot on Nashville’s storied Lower Broadway—where country music’s next superstars first arrive to make their bones—has played a pivotal role in Music City’s artistic legacy. Even if that role often consisted of getting the stars of the Grand Ole Opry properly juiced between sets: This shit-kicker’s paradise once was known as the “green room” of the original Ryman Auditorium, which was accessible through a door in the back. Local lore aside, the walls really are orchid-colored, a painter’s mistake that took hold when singer and comedienne Tootsie Bess (“My Little Red Wagon”) bought the place in 1960. The subsequent half-century has done little to diminish Tootsie’s aura of faded glory. Here, a frosty PBR is more vital than a plasma transfusion and the haints of honky-tonk heaven gaze down from the cluttered Wall of Fame. We’re pretty sure Hank done it this a’way.

Photos: Eric England