Registering a Complaint about the Sound at Cannery Hall in Nashville

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Indulge me for a minute as I engage in some good ol’ fashioned musical criticism.

The ire in this instance isn’t being pointed at a song, album or artist, but a music venue of all places. Far be it from me to tear into a local watering hole in a way that could impinge on important commerce. After all, these places are the lifeblood of live music, and deserve our support, if not a little grace while operating in such formidable times. But sometimes someone needs to flip a table to get something to change. This is me flipping a table.

The Cannery complex just south of downtown in Nashville has been a favorite of locals and visitors to Nashville since the early ’00s when it formally opened in its latest incarnation, but the building has been hosting music well before that. You can watch Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta talking about a new club called “Roosters” opened in 1984 that he describes as “The Cannery upstairs” when being interviewed in his hair metal band Burning Hearts.

Due to its prime location in a neighborhood where many of the older buildings have already been razed and condominiums erected, it felt like it was only a matter of time before the same fate befell the 140-year-old Cannery structure that houses three separate stages, plus a fourth private event space.

This multi-stage configuration comes in especially good use around September’s annual music gathering in Nashville, AmericanaFest. Folks can come to The Cannery and drift between the stages to see their favorite performer and perhaps find something new without having to hopscotch across town. Officially opened in 2003, the respective venues of The Cannery were called the Cannery Ballroom, The High Watt, and The Mercy Lounge.

Then in 2019, the property and building were purchased by New York-based real estate company Thor Equities Group, along with a Nashville-based property management company called DZL for $32 million. DZL became the sole owner in 2020. In October of 2021, the previous lessee of the building, Todd Ohlhauser, let it be known that their lease was ending and they would officially be closing the doors of The Cannery in May of 2022.


At this time, some just assumed the building would be bulldozed and a high rise installed. At the least, it would no longer operate as a locally-owned music venue supporting local Nashville talent, despite assurances from the new owners that The Cannery would continue on after extensive renovations. Local Nashville NPR affiliate WLPN offered a strong lament amid The Cannery closing in May of 2022, with the prospects for the 3-stage music venue seeming bleak.

But none of the worst fears about the future of The Cannery came to pass. Earlier this year, it was opened once again with the same basic configuration of three stages, just now with new names: The Mainstage downstairs, and Row One and The Mil upstairs.

“Every choice we made in the restoration and modernization of Cannery Hall was to create the best show possible for music lovers and artists,” said Brent Hyams, General Manager of the new Cannery Hall in a press release. “We built brand-new systems from scratch, while simultaneously redesigning the spaces. Our architects, and interior designers Smallwood in Atlanta and the some of the best audio-visual engineers in the world collaborated to create a spectacular show.”

But it’s unfortunate to report that after attending numerous shows during AmericanaFest 2024 at The Cannery, this is not the case at all, especially for the Row One stage upstairs.

During multiple sets over multiple days, the sound and lighting on the Row One stage was so horrendous—both for the audience and the performers—it inspired this whole article to be written about it. I’m sure for some performers, the sound was fine. But sound issues affected so many artists, it’s fair to characterize the issue as systemic.

Here’s Taylor Hunnicutt’s reaction to the terrible sound (among other grievances):


During AmericanaFest, The Cannery’s Row One stage wasn’t a performance space, it was a meat grinder, chewing up performers who were there not to make money, but to showcase for potential managers, promoters, labels, booking agents, and journalists as they try to get a leg up in the industry. But beset by some of the worst sound of their entire careers, they struggled to put their best foot forward. The only hope was to survive.

For sure, whenever you have a situation where bands are doing line checks on a tight turnaround as opposed to proper sound checks hours before a show, things are going to be intense, and mistakes are going to be made. But what happened at Row One went well beyond that. This appears to be a systemic issue with this venue that in part is tied to their fancy new futurama sound system that either sucks, or is too sophisticated for the individuals operating it.

The weird PA speakers for Cannery Hall’s Row One stage by the upscale Void Acoustics.


As one performer told me off stage after their mic went out mid performance and one of his side players literally threw their monitor speaker off stage because it was easier to play with out one, “They should just get a couple of old Peavy speakers in here as opposed to this Star Wars bullshit.”

Meanwhile, it’s fair to question what exactly was remodeled at The Cannery? The venue looks almost exactly the same. The configuration of the performance spaces is the same, so are the bar locations and restroom facilities. They added a gift shop that wasn’t even staffed most of the time when people were milling back and forth during AmericanaFest, and they put some new art deco lights over the bars.

I’m sure the new owners can produce a laundry list of additions and renovations they ponied up for over the nearly 18-month renovation. But to the outside facing world, The Cannery looks and functions basically the same as it did before, except for the shitty sound on Row One.

And this speaks nothing of the lighting, which was terrible for all three of The Cannery’s stages. Though you could certainly ascertain that the lighting had been revamped and a massive new system installed for each stage, the performers were regularly washed out in harsh red, purple, and blue settings. At times you could barely even see them, let alone experience the emotive expressions on the face of the singer or instrumentalists that are so critical to an audience connecting to a song, and make the closeness of intimate venues so special.

An example of some of the horrendous lighting at The Cannery with J.P. Harris performing.

In truth, the lighting at The Cannery was always terrible, even before the remodel. The venue’s Mercy Lounge was backed by a red curtain and often used red lighting that made photography in the venue less than ideal. But that was an issue for photographers, not for the audience. The issue now is they could actually fix the lighting by simply using the settings that emphasize the performers as opposed to obfuscate them. But in the nearly dozen or so sets experienced at AmericanaFest last week, those moments were preciously fleeting.

Cannery Hall is too important of a venue complex to simply allow for these systemic issues to persist. Perhaps when you’ve spent millions of dollars on new lights and sound, it’s tough to concede defeat and admit that changes need to be made. But that’s what feels like what needs to be done in this instance. Because music performers have it tough enough. They don’t need to be held back by venues who overspent on space age sound that sucks.



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