Nashville’s Lower Broadway bar and honky tonk strip is a cash cow for the city of Nashville and a draw for tourists, yet the scene is mostly shunned by roots and Americana music fans who see it as crowded, chaotic and (mostly) musically uninteresting. That’s long been true. Now, findings from a survey by the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM Local 257 union chapter suggest that a lot of the musicians working in that scene feel estranged as well. Depending on where they play, they perceive compensation - monetary and personal satisfaction - for their rigorous four-hour sets as varying from decent to abysmal.
“I wish these clubs would respect us and treat us with dignity instead of treating us like an infinitely disposable resource,” wrote an unnamed musician in the survey’s comments. Another identified a cluster of “corporate bars” that are “killing the things that make Music City,” adding that: “Broadway has lowered standards of musicality in exchange for loud/party noise and over inflated prices, therefore people that come to Nashville for a true MUSIC experience, are being cheated.”
A third lamented micro-management by owner/managers. “Many of the clubs are texting the performers while they are playing (pick up the pace, too slow, don’t play that song etc.) they also will show their displeasure with bathroom breaks. I mean really?”
These remarks, made available to WMOT, have not been previously published. What has been known for the past few weeks is that the union’s survey of more than 300 working players in the Lower Broadway ecosystem has led to a new “Fair Trade Music” designation - a kind of good housekeeping seal of approval and a literal sticker in the window - of ten downtown establishments that the players believe treat them relatively well.
In mid March, the first batch of Fair Trade venues was announced: 1. The Stage, 2. Legend’s Corner, 3. ACME Feed and Seed, 4. Ole Red, and 5. Robert’s Western World. Then in early April, they rounded out the top ten with: 6. AJ’s Goodtime Bar, 7. Category 10, 8. Friends In Low Places, 9. Chief’s, and 10. Layla’s.
“We tried really hard to keep the survey to people who actually do the work down there,” says Local AFM 257 President Dave Pomeroy. “So we were very relieved when we saw that the top 10 clubs were actually, you know, the clubs that the musicians really did like the best.”
Of the 300+ musicians who responded to the survey, more than a third play at least 21 sets a month; more than half play at least 10 times monthly, implying it’s a foundational part of their income. And they have experience, with more than half having played Broadway for at least 6 years. Their top concerns, in descending order, are low base pay for sets, parking and loading gear, poor sound quality, booking and cancellations, and rules governing band tips, even as 81% of respondents said that tip income is very or extremely important to their livelihood.
“The key factor with almost all of these clubs is - the higher the base pay, the less comfortable they are with the band soliciting tips,” Pomeroy told WMOT. “And for years, you know, it's been a tip oriented place. And you know, the reason that some of these clubs are in the top 10 is that they have a higher base pay, but they still allow for tips.”
Nashville’s not the first city where the AFM has surveyed working musicians. Rather the initiative has its roots in Seattle and Portland. Pomeroy says plans for a Nashville survey had to be paused for the pandemic and its chaotic recovery. Meanwhile the Local 257 made progress on improving loading zones and parking for musicians, eventually securing free parking at numerous downtown garages for union members.
Nashville artist and independent music policy advocate Jamie Kent says the Fair Trade venues tend to be independently and locally owned, behaving more like small businesses than many of the larger celebrity licensed bars on the strip. But Kent, founder of Backstage Strategies, says it’s been a tough stretch for indie locations generally, pointing to studies by the National Independent Venue Association that suggest financial conditions at music venues have been deteriorating in the past couple of years.
“These third spaces are vital to our community, but between the competition for corporate interests coming in, rising costs, rising property tax - it may truly be the end of business for a lot of people,” Kent says. “We have so much data saying ‘hey, we need to address this and find some policies that can support our community.’ Other states are doing it. And we are playing catch up. Even Memphis just released their budget, and they’re investing $800,000 in the creative community. What’s Nashville doing?”
Pomeroy says the Union will be extending Fair Trade Music status to historic non Broadway clubs 3rd & Lindsley and the Bluebird Café, due to their years of tending to musicians’ interests. He also said that Local 257 will expand its survey of working musicians to other Nashville music hubs such as East Nashville.
“Whether we do it with a survey or if it's something a little more informal, I'm not sure yet,” Pomeroy says. “It starts with what we're doing with the live clubs, but it really has no end, because it's about respect.”
