A few nights ago, Craig Ferguson was in town for a one night stand up comedy show. I seriously thought about getting tickets to go but blew it off. I like the guy on TV but didn’t feel like blowing a couple hundred bucks to see him on stage.
So last night he was back on TV and talked about coming to Nashville. He had a show in St. Louis the night before and for reasons unstated he drove from St. Louis to Nashville. I can tell you the reason – you can’t get a decent flight from St. Louis to Nashville. It actually faster and a whole lot cheaper to rent a car and drive the 5 hours through Illinois and Kentucky.
So his routine last night was all about the predictable Nashville jokes. He joked on the guys wearing cowboy hats and belts with big buckles. He joked the women wearing fur – except they wear it because they were the ones who killed and skinned the animals. Ha ha.
Truth is, Nashville is a pretty cosmopolitan city. It is the state capital and the county seat, and the downtown is full of lawyers, bankers, stockbrokers and real estate companies. Plus publishing, healthcare and, don’t forget, music business professionals. You have to drive out of town quite a ways to find any farms or ranches.
The only people downtown who wear cowboy hats and big buckles are the tourists, a handful of musicians, noobs, and maybe 1 out of 100 will be a “real” cowboy.