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TN Traveler: Fiddle & Pick in Pegram keeps musical ‘welcome mat’ at its front door




Founder Gretchen Priest-May fiddles outside the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee in Pegram.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

Founder Gretchen Priest-May fiddles outside the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee in Pegram.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

The sign in the window says you’re at the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee, but few people know that’s the formal name of this little spot along U.S. 70 in Pegram. For most, it’s simply Fiddle & Pick.

At its core, Fiddle & Pick is a music school, where highly skilled and award-winning Nashville musicians teach private lessons. However, it has an open-to-the-public persona that lets music wash over anyone who steps inside for jam sessions several evenings a month or comes for special events that spill to the outdoors.

The jam sessions are a step back in time and place to where you can experience the simple joy of acoustic music.

“Fiddle & Pick is a work of the heart,” said Gretchen Priest-May, professional musician, music educator and founder of the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee.

There’s a certain living room feeling when you come in off the front porch. That’s true in part because the structure was built in 1903 as a home in rural Cheatham County.

A dozen or more Tuesday night jam session participants play for the joy of playing at Fiddle & Pick.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

A dozen or more Tuesday night jam session participants play for the joy of playing at Fiddle & Pick.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

It later became a general store, complete with U.S. Post Office. Remnants of those years are visible, particularly in a back corner where an honor-system concession stand operates. (All items are $1. Just drop your money in the glass jar. Tips appreciated.)

Beyond the big “living room” is a labyrinth of small rooms for music lessons. In a back room is a wall with exposed wood framing that has become an autograph collecting location (Alison Krauss, Pam Tillis, Doug Dillard and others).

Priest-May and other hosts provide just a modicum of organization when pickers assemble for a jam. There are jams two Tuesday nights a month for old-time, string band and Appalachian music, and two other Tuesday nights are for Irish music.

The jams are casual to the max.

A cluster of musicians with various skill levels gathers in the heritage center’s main space and awaits someone’s inspiration to start a tune known by all – or at least by most. Some of the pickers are just feeling their way along and learning chords, patterns and rhythm changes.

A guitar player studiously watches the work of another guitar player during a jam session.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

A guitar player studiously watches the work of another guitar player during a jam session.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

On a recent Tuesday night, 13 musicians were clumped around the fiddle-toting Priest-May. There were a few guitars, a couple of fiddles, a bass, an autoharp, a banjo and a mandolin.

Someone would suggest a tune. Soft responses – positive and negative – emerged until a consensus was reached and a key selected.

“OK, will someone please start?” a plaintive voice said, and all of a sudden, everyone was playing and playing and playing. It was like being transported to a farm community gathering in the 1890s.

When the tune wound down, smiles of happiness and murmurs of appreciation spread among the musicians. Instead of applauding, the few spectators that night simply soaked in the experience.

The spectators – who had their choice among a hodge-podge collection of rocking chairs, upholstered living room chairs circa 1960, wooden folding chairs and metal stack chairs – were witnessing the depth of Nashville’s musical talent pool.

The resonating notes of a well-played mandolin are part of the mix during an old-time, string band and Appalachian jam.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

The resonating notes of a well-played mandolin are part of the mix during an old-time, string band and Appalachian jam.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

Among the pickers were a veteran of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, others who have recorded or toured with artists such as Randy Travis, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett and Charlie Daniels and one with extensive credentials playing programs with chamber orchestras.

Sitting in with them – and fundamentally their peers for the night – were veritable beginners. All were there for the pure joy of playing.

In a city of spotlights, big stages and sometimes big egos, this jam session was Nashville at its most basic. Music City, indeed.

Enjoy Tom Adkinson’s Tennessee Traveler destination articles the second and fourth Friday every month. Adkinson, author of “100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die,” is a Marco Polo member of SATW, the Society of American Travel Writers.

No jam session at Fiddle & Pick would be complete without a banjo or two – or more – because jams are for anyone who shows up.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

No jam session at Fiddle & Pick would be complete without a banjo or two – or more – because jams are for anyone who shows up.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

Fiddle & Pick is at 456 U.S. 70 in Pegram about 20 miles west of downtown Nashville. Jam and event information is at FiddleAndPick.com, and area visitor information is at DiscoverCheathamCounty.org and TNvacation.com.

The concession system is simple at Fiddle & Pick. Everything’s $1, and money goes into a wide-mouth jar.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

The concession system is simple at Fiddle & Pick. Everything’s $1, and money goes into a wide-mouth jar.Tom Adkinson/Main Street Nashville/mainstreet-nashville

Adkinson

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