Springwater Supper Club.

Tennessee's longest continuously open drinking room.

Springwater Supper Club opened in 1896 in a wooden building on what is now 27th Avenue North, half a mile west of Centennial Park. The bar predates the state of Tennessee's modern alcohol laws and has poured continuously for 130 years, including through Prohibition under cover of an unlicensed grocery store. The Tennessee Bar Owners Association recognises Springwater as the state's longest continuously operated bar.

The room is a single long rectangle: a wooden bar along the right wall, a small carpeted stage at the back, six booths along the left wall, a pool table in the middle. The floors are uneven 1896 pine. The ceiling has been water-damaged in three places. The bar refuses to renovate any of it.

Why this matters. Springwater is the rare Nashville bar that has held its working-class identity through Music Row's commercialization. The bar is two miles from Music Row but pours beer at two dollars during happy hour and books punk bands on Wednesdays.

The same stage, three genres a week.

Springwater's small carpeted stage hosts three different musical traditions in a typical week. Tuesday is country open mic, with a rotating slot of Music Row songwriters who arrive incognito to test new material. Wednesday is punk night, with two or three Nashville punk bands playing forty-five minute sets. Thursday is karaoke, hosted by a regular who has run the slot for fifteen years.

Friday and Saturday nights rotate through the bar's regular booking, which often pairs a country band with a punk band on the same evening. The genre rotation is the bar's organising principle. The stage is the same. The audience adjusts.

The Wednesday punk night is one of Nashville's last remaining punk venues that does not charge a cover. The bands play for the door tip jar.

Pabst tallboy and a Yuengling pint.

• Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboy: two dollars during happy hour (11am-7pm). Three dollars after. The Springwater default.
• Yuengling pint: three dollars draft. The bar's regional fallback.
• Jack Daniel's: four dollars a shot. Tennessee whiskey is required by local convention. Order it with a Pabst chaser.
• The well bourbon: three dollars. Old Grand-Dad usually.
• The thing nobody knows: the bar pours a small Tennessee White Whiskey at five dollars from a bottle that is technically illegal in some states. Ask for "the white." The bartender will pour from a bottle behind the bar.

Wednesday at 9pm. The punk night.

Springwater opens at 11am for the lunch crowd and closes at 3am. Wednesday at 9pm is the Nashville punk night: the bar is at 60% capacity, the booths are full of music writers, the small stage hosts three bands, the regulars buy rounds for the bands.

The Tuesday country open mic at 8pm is the secret experience. Music Row songwriters arrive incognito, often without instruments, and play their songs on the bar's house guitar. The lineup is unannounced. You may see a Grammy-nominated songwriter test new material on a Tuesday night for an audience of fifteen.

The peak hour is Friday and Saturday between 11pm and 2am. The dance floor fills, the booths fill, the bartenders pour fast. The 11am happy hour is the slowest scheduled time and is the only hour the bar feels its 1896 age.

What the songwriters do here.

Music Row, Nashville's commercial songwriter district, is two miles east of Springwater. The bar has functioned since the 1980s as the unofficial after-hours testing ground for Music Row songwriters. The Tuesday open mic was created in 1987 specifically to give Music Row writers a low-stakes audience for new material. Songs that have later been recorded by Vince Gill, George Strait, Reba McEntire, and Miranda Lambert have been first played at Springwater.

The bar honours the songwriter convention of incognito performances. The bartenders know which regulars are paid Music Row writers and protect their anonymity. The audience claps for the song, not the writer. This is the bar's quiet contribution to country music history.

Twenty dollars per person, four happy hour beers.

Plan for fifteen to twenty-five dollars per person for a four-hour happy-hour-into-evening visit. Four Pabst tallboys at two during happy hour, two Jack shots at four after, twenty percent tip plus a five-dollar tip-jar contribution to the band. A pair of friends drinks for thirty-five to forty-five dollars total. The cheapest serious dive in Nashville.

Cards are accepted. Cash is preferred for the band tip jar. Two dollars per drink in cash on the bar is the local norm.

Music Row songwriters, Nashville punks, the West End regulars.

Springwater draws three populations. The first: Music Row songwriters, particularly the under-50 generation that uses the Tuesday open mic. The second: the Nashville punk and indie rock scene, particularly the Wednesday night audience. The third: a long-tenure West End regular crowd, including Vanderbilt graduate students and the occasional Vanderbilt music professor.

You will find a small tourist contingent on weekend evenings. The bar's price point and the lack of cover charges keep it self-selecting for music-first visitors. Country tourist crowds tend to stay on Lower Broadway.

How not to be the worst person at Springwater.

• Do not photograph the Tuesday open mic songwriters. The incognito convention is sacred. The bartenders will ask you to delete the photo.
• Do not request specific songs from the open mic writers. They play what they wrote that week.
• Do not skip the band tip jar at the punk night. The bands play for the jar.
• Do not bring a stag party in matching shirts on a Friday. The booths will be reseated for regulars.
• Do not order a craft cocktail. The bartenders pour fast and pour what is on the menu.
• Do not arrive before 11am expecting service. The bar is not licensed for early hours.
• Do not, ever, ask if a specific Music Row hit was first played at Springwater. The bar regards the answer as private and will not confirm.

Brown's Diner, Springwater, Santa's Pub.

The classic Nashville dive evening: dinner at Brown's Diner on Blair Boulevard at 7pm, the 1927 Music Row burger institution. Walk or drive west to Springwater at 9pm for happy hour into the Wednesday punk night. End at Santa's Pub on Bransford Avenue at midnight, the trailer-converted dive bar where karaoke regulars include Music Row writers.

For more bars in the area, see our Nashville city guide, the live music bars guide, and the Nashville hidden gems list.

Yes. Tennessee's most reliable music dive.