Nashville’s iconic Station Inn, the home of bluegrass in Music City for more than 50 years, is the subject of an elegant new coffee table-style book that relays its history, replete with dozens of photographs.
Titled The World Famous Station Inn, the book was written by Alisa Murphy, and published by the author in cooperation with the current owner of the Station Inn, Joshua Ulbrich. A nurse at Dollywood in east Tennessee, Murphy spent two years researching and writing this book, interviewing many of the biggest names in country and bluegrass music, and spending untold hours watching shows at the venue itself, located in Nashville’s popular Gulch district.
Now a mecca for music, fine dining, and upscale urban living, the Gulch was anything but when the current location opened in 1978. A natural depression in the local topography, it had once served as the home of a railroad yard, and the sort of industrial operations that supported such. By the late ’70s it was nearly deserted, and a bit forbidding to people unaccustomed to such a neighborhood.
These days The Station Inn hosts music seven days a week, including a Sunday afternoon gospel show followed by a bluegrass jam. The biggest names in bluegrass play there, and a good percentage of the weekend shows sell out.
In truth, the Station Inn is basically a dive bar, but with the best music of any saloon you might find in Nashville.
All that is covered in detail in this new book, which runs to 150 oversized pages, printed on a thick, high-quality paper, and expertly bound as an archival display volume.
Murphy tells the story chronologically, richly interspersed with comments from the many, many artists who have performed at the Station Inn over the years. Unlike many coffee table books, which include text only to describe the photographs, The World Famous Station Inn is a serious read, something any bluegrass lover will find tough to put down.
Of course for those who frequent the venue, or have even visited a time or two, this beautiful volume is a must have for your library.
Even at its $75 selling price, it is an investment worth making for the joy it will bring. The book would make an ideal gift as well for anyone who loves bluegrass music, and the people who play it.
Recommended unreservedly.
The World Famous Station Inn is available for sale at all shows there in the Gulch, and from the Station Inn web site online.
