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Tens of thousands are still without heat in their homes in Tennessee and Mississippi one week after an ice storm hit the South. Power outages have presented challenges for work and life for people in Nashville. Yet the honky-tonks of the city's Lower Broadway played on. Justin Barney has the story.
JUSTIN BARNEY, BYLINE: One place that's had power all week is Nashville's iconic honky-tonk district, Lower Broadway.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) River take my mind. Don't let her memory...
BARNEY: The neon lights of Kid Rock's Honky Tonk and Tootsies stayed on because the power lines are buried underground, safe from ice.
(CHEERING)
BARNEY: As Broadway has grown as a tourist destination, more locals work on Broadway, but less locals hang out there. Though Robert's Western World bartender Conway Dickinson, aka Cadillac Conway, noted a different crowd this week.
CONWAY DICKINSON: We had a lot of local people in here 'cause power's out and were glad that we were open and the heat was on and we're serving warm bologna sandwiches.
BARNEY: That's because locals took up the rooms usually booked by tourists downtown.
TEETER BRENDEN: It's just been a lot of people from the areas where they're out of power. They're in these hotels.
BARNEY: That's Teeter Brenden, a bouncer at Alan Jackson's Good Time Bar, across the street from where Paige Cross works.
PAIGE CROSS: It's cool to kind of see the people that we live around out here.
BARNEY: There's still a lot a lot of tourists.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #1: We're from Chicago.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #2: West Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #3: Oregon.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #4: Iowa.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #5: London in the UK.
UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST #6: Just north of Anchorage, Alaska.
BARNEY: They helped keep the music economy going through this tough time for Nashville. Scott Bois, a syrup harvester from Vermont, was committed to this trip.
SCOTT BOIS: We had too much invested to say, let's just turn around and go back home, right? It's like, we've weathered the storms in Vermont. So it's like, we're going to take Nashville and the weather. It is what it is, you know?
BARNEY: Tourists and locals were going out of their way to support those working on Lower Broadway, says musician Matt Berninger.
MATT BERNINGER: People were so happy to be out of the house, man. And there's a lot of people that just - they didn't cancel their flights. So they came here and they just - they absolutely had a blast, man. Like, we're tipping the bands extra. That's what they said.
BARNEY: Walking downtown was legendary mandolin player Sam Bush. He also lost power.
SAM BUSH: The people that come here help those of us that play music make a living.
BARNEY: Right on.
BUSH: So thanks for coming to Nashville.
BARNEY: He was grateful to see Lower Broadway beating on through the storm. For NPR News, I'm Justin Barney in Nashville.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) I met her at the mercado. She was buying avocados. D***, she really turned me on. She reached for my pepper, and I grabbed her tomatoes. I knew it wouldn't be very long. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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