Nashville

The title of one of my favorite albums by Ian and Sylvia. Done in 1968 in Nashville, it contained two Bob Dylan songs, "The Mighty Quinn" and "This Wheel's on Fire" (now noted as the theme song for AbFab). For other great Ian and Sylvia records, try Play One More, So Much for Dreaming and "The Early Morning Rain" (a classic).

As for Nashville, the town; that's another story. It's turned into one of the nastiest cities in America. Too many would-be country singers down on their luck, too much liquor and hard drugs, too much porn, etc.

Nashville is also, the name of one of Bally's now defunct pinball for money games. It was one of the first generation of the quarter machines that took the gambling to the next level from the nickel machines.

The movie Nashville is a masterpiece directed by Robert Altman and considered by many to be one of the best movies of the 70s, if not of all time. The film wanders through the lives of 24 main characters in the Nashville 1970s. What we end up with is a short character study of many odd people, that all combine to give us a general feel of that time and place in the world.

Country music is omnipresent in the film. Be it the numerous country music stars who have lead roles, or the wannabes, the characters who think they have what it takes to become a famous country musician, but haven't quite gotten there, watching this film requires listening to a lot of country music. Although there are a lot of people out there (including myself) who aren't particularly fond of that genre, I found the music tolerable, even enjoyable. Many of the actors were assigned to write and perform a song for Nashville, and plenty of the actors' songs are used. Most notably being Keith Carradine's Oscar and Golden Globe winning I'm Easy

Politics is the other essential theme, all of the events lead up to a political rally. The third-party candidate Hal Phillip Walker is an important part of the plot, yet he never appears in the movie. Most of the rest of the cast either appears at the climatic rally or performs in it.

The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actress Best Picture Best Director and Best Song )

It had tough competition and only walked away with Best Song.

Nevertheless, it is considered a classic. Not only did it spawn new technology for sound in film, but it also was one of the first films to use the technique of multiple plotlines, something that is becoming more and more mainstream these days, with movies like Magnolia and Pulp Fiction.