Nashville: Pilgrims of Guitar Town

High marks for Michel Arnaud's photographic tour of Nashville. It seems to me that his (mostly) black and white portraits capture the essence of a generation - that host of Country and Western aspirants who flocked to Opreyville like the budding movie stars flocking to Hollywood. A few succeeded; many failed. There is less pulchritude in Michel Arnaud's book than if he had chosen to point his camera around Los Angeles, but many more characterful faces. He is a portraitist of the enthusiast, evoking the drink-fuelled abandon of the busking has-beens; the relaxed humanity of the established old-timers; the bounce of the new populists. They all come across as natural and relaxed: Alan Jackson lounging in split jeans on one of the floats of his private seaplane; Ray Wylie Hubbard peering cheerfully at the camera through steel-rimmed specs; wiry Chet Atkins, absorbed in tuning his guitar. The Roots win hands down for me, but there is something for everyone in this evocative album, which shows the Nashville that still retains its vitality underneath the publicised image.

At first glance I thought this book was going to be just another "picture" book about famous country stars; I was happily and totally mistaken. While Arnaud and Hicks have captured some beautiful images and descriptions of the Nashville scene's legendary greats, the unique quality of this book is the fact that it also depicts the "stars" of Nashville whose lights have yet to shine, or whose lights may never shine. I found this book to be a wonderful tribute, not necessarily to those who have "made it," but more to the "pilgrimage" of those brave souls who journey to Nashville seeking to "make it" in the music business.Although I am not a big fan of country music, nor am I musically inclined, as I gazed at the faces in this book, some recognizable, but many not, I felt a connection with them. That connection being the subject of hope and dreams.The common thread among the people photographed in this book is not only their journey to Nashville, but their hopes and dreams of acquiring success in the music business. Arnaud and Hicks have incredibly captured the visual and written theme of this pursuit of success. I applaud Arnaud and Hicks for not just honoring and capitalizing on the images of those who have "made it," but for honoring the image of the journey and those "pilgrims" still on its path in Nashville.