Booklist Review
Until the Grand Ole Opry moved out of neighboring Ryman Auditorium, the 400 block of Broadway Avenue in downtown Nashville was the launching pad for country-music stars. When photographer Rouda became a denizen in the mid-1990s, the street had known hard times but was on the way back up. A revivified Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and the clothing-store-turned-honky-tonk Robert's Western World each had a smokin' house band. Across the street, the Turf and the Music City Lounge kept the faith with humbler talent. Rouda made friends with street regulars and bar staff and took a lot of pictures. Black-and-white and slightly, artfully soft-focused, they depict a gritty place, where whiskery Blue-Eyedohn drains a pint in front of the Turf in broad daylight and bar proprietor Miss Pat posts etiquette instructions over the urinal that conclude, Do not tear this sign off wall or I will kill you. Young band members and patrons are rawboned. Older folk are as weather-beaten as the buildings. Everyone looks working-class, which, according to a musician David Eason quotes in the sterling introduction, is essential to country music. In 1998 a tornado took out the Turf and the Music City. By then the hot bands had split or split up. Rouda recorded those developments, too, for this outstanding photo-essay and fine work of Americana. --Ray Olson Copyright 2004 Booklist