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ItÆs a slow weeknight at RobertÆs Western World on lower Broadway in
Nashville and a middle-aged man in a straw cowboy hat sits on the
street, enticing tourists to step inside for a beer and live country
music. Inside, a few patrons relax in the dark honky tonk, lined with shelves
of tacky western boots, as a generic band plays for tips.
By contrast, the place is packed on Friday and
Saturday nights with a bizarre combination of locals, tourists
and hip 20-somethings as the Brazilian-influenced rockabilly
band, aptly named Brazilbilly, plays for hours without a break.
But the real heyday was a couple of years ago, when the
rockabilly band BR5-49 sold out the place nearly every weekend,
and writers from the New York Times were coming down to see what
all the fuss was about. Today, "home of BR5-49" has been added to
the sign outside Robert's Western World -- the same sign that
graces the cover of the band's debut CD, "Live From Robert's."
BR5-49, with their beatnik rockabilly sound, were
listed as a "hot country act" in Rolling Stone, and have been making
themselves known far beyond the tight
world of country music. And it all started in this honky tonk on
lower Broadway.
Robert Moore -- the Robert of RobertÆs Western World -- claims to have
had a hand at
getting BR5-49 together by introducing two of the original
members.
Gary Bennett was performing solo at Robert's for tips
before the band was formed. And Chuck Mead was performing
three doors up the street at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Robert
claims to have enticed the two to try a set together.
"It went
off so good with just them two playin' that we decided to put a
band behind them," says Moore, a man in his golden years who has
owned
businesses on Broadway for 32 years. Steel guitar, mandolin,
upright bass, drums and electric
guitars were added to the Bennett's and Mead's acoustic guitars and
vocals,
and a star was born. It wasn't long before BR5-49 was packing the
house every weekend.
The band eventually signed with Arista and
started touring, outgrowing the intimacy of Robert's along the way.
Although Moore wishes he could turn back the clock a couple of years to
"when it was goin' good," the bar is by no means a has-been. And Moore
has a good track record when it
comes to running bars on Broadway. He's survived the closing of
all of the Broadway hotels, the dark years when there were more
winos than patrons, and the current influx of standard tourist
faire -- a gaudy Planet Hollywood, a Hard Rock Cafe and other
shiny new businesses.
"Broadway's always been good to me," Moore says. "I don't
never remember when Broadway was bad to me."
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The Robert's Western World marquee remembers it's favorite sons, BR5-49
A happy couple is entertained beneath the boot rack.
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