BRANSON

BRANSON is about what happened to Nashville’s Lower Broadway. For generations, those blocks represented something uniquely Nashville — honky-tonks, musicians, rough edges, history, and the bars where country music legends were made. Then Broadway got bigger. Celebrity-branded bars, enormous entertainment venues, pedal taverns, bachelorette parties, hayrides, neon, tourism, and spectacle began changing the character of the street. The title comes from Branson, Missouri, the well-known tourist and showcase-music destination. In the song, saying “they turned Nashville into Branson” means Nashville’s historic music district has started feeling more like a packaged entertainment attraction than the Music City that came before it. The lights are brighter. The crowds are bigger. But the song asks what was lost along the way. They took away the soul.

Just another night Down on Broadway Neon lights and honky tonks Drum beats and guitars fill the air From all the bars Named after all the stars They turned Nashville into Branson It'll never be the same Now it's just drunk adult Disneyland Nash Vegas Music City U.S.A. Hillbilly Hollywood Redneck Bourbon Street Bachelorette parties Pedal taverns and hayrides Drum beats and guitars fill the air From different bars named after all the stars They turned Nashville into Branson A southern treasure Of days gone by Music history Born in those bars Country music legends and royalty Rolling in their graves Now it's just a memory They turned Nashville into Branson Took away the soul Took away the soul They turned Nashville into Branson They turned Nashville into Branson I never would have thought that they would Turn Nashville into Branson