And lo, Soccer Moses descended from the mountaintop with a guitar in his hand and delivered to the people of Nashville a sweet riff just before kickoff.
There aren’t going to be a lot of people outside of Nashville who understand what any of that means — The European mind could never comprehend, etc., etc. — but Nashville SC fans know that kickoff and a brief moment of shredding go hand in hand.
Before each home match, a musician gets 30 seconds in front of the GEODIS Park crowd to show off their chops on a Nashville SC branded guitar and signal the start of the game.
It’s just one way the Music City club works to connect with Nashville’s roots and reputation as a one-of-a-kind hub for the music industry.
Deep music connection
Music understandably permeates the matchday experience in Nashville. For each game, around eight to nine artists are booked and set up at stages in and around the venue.
There’s the opening riff, a halftime show and a club anthem created specifically for Nashville SC by local artist Judah & The Lion. The Man of the Match for each home game gets a custom-made vinyl record featuring audio highlights of that day's match. “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” by Johnny Cash is a pre-match staple.
And when the club wanted to give media members a thank-you gift for their coverage, they were given a collection of club superstar Hany Mukhtar’s best moments — on vinyl, of course.
Music even influences what’s worn on the pitch. When Nashville SC began working on a black secondary kit, they quickly realized they would be missing an opportunity if they produced just another standard kit. They pivoted from a “standard black kit” into “The Man In Black” kit featuring nods to Cash and the very first tifo in club history.
A couple of years later, the club had an opportunity to create a third kit with throwback influences. They took the chance to create a kit that reflected a Nashville that had fewer pink cowboy hats and party bikes on Broadway. The “Nashville Nostalgia” kit leaned heavily into denim in an effort to invoke a more old-school collection of honky tonks far removed from the current days of Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk (And Rock & Roll Steakhouse).
Symphony of sounds
That’s the line the club has to walk when incorporating music. There’s the city locals know and the Nashville tourists seek out. There’s an expectation that music will play a key role in anything the club does, but the city is more than just country.
“What you see on Broadway now is very different than the reality of living in Nashville,” Nashville SC VP of Marketing Teresa Tatlonghari said. “The reality of living in Nashville is, there are a lot of hidden gems that the tourists don't necessarily know about. Music is kind of the heart of who we are, but the music experience isn't just country music, it's beyond that.
"Country is part of the roots, but we're more than that. So we really try to lean into the idea that while country is part of who the essence of Nashville is, there's so much more, and we try to incorporate as much of that into what we're doing.”
That means the matchday music lineup tends to span multiple genres. The idea is to produce a mini-festival before fans head into the stadium. It’s not Bonnaroo, but it is a standalone experience in MLS. And it’s an experience designed to reflect a city of transplants.
“There is only a small portion of people who are from Nashville,” Nashville SC entertainment manager, Coleen Solitro, said. “Everyone else is from everywhere else. And so we try and highlight all genres. Of course, being in Nashville, country is the most prevalent. So we end up having more country than anything, usually.
"But we try really hard to make sure that we're representing all genres, doing so much more than just to highlight country, because Nashville is so much more.”
Bridging cultures
It’s all about connecting people through two universal languages. Soccer and music are instant unifiers. Nashville’s reputation allows the club to utilize both, hand-in-hand, in a way that just fits.
“Soccer is the world's game, and there's music at the center of every culture,” Solitro said. "Music is culture, soccer is culture. So to have both of them connected in one is really special. I got into this because I think live entertainment, live music, live sports, is such a special part of life, in the sense that you don't really care about what's going on outside of this moment.
"You're truly living in the moment when you're experiencing live music. When you're watching this game, you're only thinking about the game. You're only enjoying what's happening in front of you, and all the worries of the world kind of fade away for a little while."
Be it an insane Mukhtar goal or a sick pre-game guitar riff, Nashville SC fans get to enjoy a uniquely special experience at every home game.
"It allows people to connect with themselves and people around them who have a common goal and common views and common love for something," Solitro said. "I just think that's really special, and what we do is really, really a special opportunity to bring those two things together.”
