It’s Not Just About Acme Feed & Seed. It’s About The Soul of Nashville

Random Notes 81 Comments

photo via Acme Feed and Seed

Nashville has a choice, and it’s one with major implications on how the city will be perceived heading into the future, its economic viability as a tourist destination, and how the musicians and the music fans who actually live in Nashville will be both supported by the city, and be able to enjoy the city they call home.

In late December of 2025, the U.K.-based travel agency Insure and Go conducted an in-depth study into the most “authentic” and “inauthentic” cities and tourist destinations in the world. As most any country music fan probably knows, “authenticity” is one of the hallmarks of the country genre, and thus, of Music City. Is an artist perfecting a put-on, or are they being true to themselves? Turns out that cities and towns can be judged similarly.

Insure and Go analyzed over 1.3 million online travel reviews for how often travelers described restaurants, attractions, shops, museums, and cultural venues as ‘authentic’ or ‘traditional’ in over 140 cities. They then calculated how many times locations were referred to as ‘tourist traps’ or ‘inauthentic.’ Then they created an ‘Authenticity Score’ from 1 to 100 to diagnose the cities offering the most authentic experiences around the world, and those offering the most inauthentic.

Where did Nashville rate on that scale? It came in at the 4th most inauthentic city in the entire world, and the 3rd in the United States behind Chicago and Las Vegas with a deplorable score of 3.8 out of 100.

The study concluded, “Known as the ‘Country Music Capital of the World,’ Nashville has been a standout destination for those who want to get immersed in the music genre’s history for quite some time. However, the famous Broadway strip has lost a bit of its shine the more it curates for visitors. Branded bars and polished venues overshadow the more organic local music scene, contributing to its lower authenticity score according to those who’ve been there.”

There might not be a better way to introduce the battle the Lower Broadway venue Acme Feed and Seed is currently undergoing to stay alive—one they seem to be losing, and very quickly. The response from Nashville’s mayor has gone viral and enraged many, especially local musicians who rely on the venue for regular gigs, and local residents who make the venue their regular Lower Broadway haunt, along with the tourists in search for authentic Nashville.

Though all of Lower Broadway tends to be painted with the stereotypical brush of tipsy bachelorette parties on pedal taverns, and cover bands belching out Def Leppard covers from multi-tiered bars named after mainstream country music stars, those who know how to navigate Lower Broadway understand where the pockets of authenticity still linger.

There’s Robert’s Western World, dubbed Nashville’s “Undisputed Home of Traditional Country Music.” There’s AJ’s right across the street owned by Alan Jackson, which also has a surprising list of actual country music artists performing on stage on a nightly basis. There are other bars that also get overlooked, like Layla’s located right next door to Robert’s. And at the very end of the entertainment corridor is Acme Feed and Seed located at 101 Broadway.

But it won’t be located there for very long, unless something changes. Acme Feed and Seed is one of the few Lower Broadway businesses that actively invites in locals as well as tourists, only features original artists as opposed to cover bands, and has been a mainstay stage for country music preservationists such as The Cowpokes.

Acme Feed and Seed operated as an actual feed store for 56 years before it closed in 1999. The building itself dates back to the 1890s, and was opened to be a music venue and restaurant in 2014. Current owner Tom Morales has also helped preserve Nashville’s beloved Loveless Cafe, as well as the city’s historic Woolworth building. Preservation has always been his motivation over profit, but for these historic places to remain open, a profit needs to be turned.

The biggest impediment to turning a profit moving forward is the recent tax hike the business has incurred that will almost immediately put it out of business. “It’s our property tax,” Morales says. “It went from $129,000 a year to $600,000 a year. That’s more than our rent and net profit combined. We can’t pay it. It’s punitive.”

When Morales approached the mayor to at least have a meeting about the nearly half million tax increase in one year, his request was denied. When the local FOX affiliate talked to Mayor Freddie O’Connell, his response was, “It’s not up to me whether he keeps that business open. The market evolves. New businesses start even as beloved old businesses close.”


Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s statement has since set off a firestorm, at least among the local musicians, music fans, and preservationists in Nashville and beyond.

Tom Morales goes on to say, “The way we survive as a city is embracing what is authentic. Tourists see through make-believe. They see a $17 drink and think ‘tourist trap.’ There are towns across America that wish they were Music City — and we’re trying to be Las Vegas. Why?”

This takes us back to the authenticity study out of the U.K. that verifies exactly what Tom Morales asserts. Though Nashville might be getting fat and sassy in the short-term off of $17 drinks and Def Leppard cover bands, they are undermining the authenticity that makes people want to come to Nashville in the first place, and not just from the region, but from all over the world.

Related: Why The Re-Opening of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop Failed


A town like Nashville probably needs businesses and locations that also appeal to a more generalized audience that doesn’t necessarily care about authenticity. The bachelorette parties that locals and other tourists complain about also import a significant amount of revenue into the city that allows local businesses and the music performers they employ to be supported.

But if Lower Broadway and Nashville in general become a monoculture awash in such establishments, it will doom the tourist boom for the city in the long-term, limiting it’s greater appeal to people from all over the world looking for the real deal country music experience locations like Acme Feed and Seed serve up, along with some of the best food on Lower Broadway, incidentally.

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