When it comes to Nashville bars and music venues, it's often useful to divide them into categories to make an educated decision on where to spend your Friday or Saturday night. For example, it might be helpful to consider bars with live music and bars that play terrible (yet epic) rap, bars that are strict on IDs and those that accept library cards, and finally, bars that are frequented by the Vanderbilt crowd, and those that remain yet to be discovered. When it comes to that last category, Layla's Bluegrass Inn on Broadway definitely falls into the category of a Nashville gem untouched by the Vanderbilt influence.
If you have any question as to what you will find beyond its doors, the yellow lettering on the plate glass window will clear it up for you, as it reads "Layla's Bluegrass (Hillbilly and Country Music) Inn." The glass windows are grungy, the crowd that loiters outside is somewhat menacing, and to a Vanderbilt student, the decision to forgo the more familiar The Stage for a bar that might as well be the great unknown is a difficult one. Yet, if you do manage to cross the threshold into Layla's, you will likely find a bar that is as charming as it is unexpected, and that provides an experience you won't soon forget.
Layla's has the kind of messy character that chain restaurants and inauthentic bars emulate and never achieve. The memorabilia on the walls (pictures of past performers, blanched license plates from North Dakota, fiddles from the early 20th century) is real and hangs haphazardly on the graying brick walls and exposed plank ceilings. Rows of stringed red Christmas lights do little to adorn the worn wood ceiling, but they give the small venue a warmth and personality all its own. Customers sit at the bar or atop black leather stools at high tables sticky from hastily cleaned up drink spills.
A crucial element to the vibe that Layla's emanates is in the customers that sit on these very stools; on a recent Tuesday night adventure there, I noticed a couple in their 80s nursing McDonald's milkshakes, taunting the guitar player of the band of Nadine (a mainstream country songstress who plays at Layla's each week) to take a tequila shot before he played his set. It was, after all, Tequila Tuesday. A random assortment of other patrons milled about, including a heavy-set guy who walked in showcasing a T-shirt that read "Love Sucks. True Love Swallows." Moving on.
Of course, the reason to go to Layla's isn't for its hastily strung Christmas lights or the male customers with ill-fitting, lewd T-shirts - that is simply the ambience. Instead, Layla's real selling points are the accomplished and appealing bluegrass acts (hillbilly and country as well) that perform in the intimate setting so frequently. Check out Arista-signed sibling foursome Jypsi, whose sweet melodies, mod-inspired fashion statements and classic bluegrass instrumentals regretfully suggest that they will likely explode onto the country/pop scene and leave Layla's behind. Until that fateful day, head to Layla's and hear them perform for the low price of a few longneck beers.
Like Jypsi, Layla's is a Nashville gem that will likely not remain undiscovered for long. The next time you're craving a night away from the expected or the familiar, head to Layla's and behold its authentic honky-tonk charm.
