Robert’s Western World is known as Nashville’s most authentic honky tonk and synonymous with country music. But for an hour on Sundays, no one can drink alcohol; everyone must listen to Christian music.
This is “Sunday Gospel Hour” in the Tennessee capital known as Music City.
For nearly 20 years, worship at this honky tonk has been led by the Rev. Ron Blakely — a 71-year-old musician and Catholic convert who was ordained a priest in another faith tradition.
“It’s been a blessing,” he said of his weekly gig. He was interviewed at his log cabin in the outskirts of Nashville where he rehearsed before the Sunday service with sheet music and scripture.
“It’s not like I got a board of elders and I have to meet all the money to pay the bills,” he said, comparing it to regular houses of worship. “I’m just there, playing my guitar and giving the message that God puts in my heart.”
On a recent Sunday, he strummed his guitar, wearing a black crucifix and white cowboy hat, while his daughter, Mimi Fischer, sang Patsy Cline’s “Life’s Railway to Heaven” in an angelic voice that moved some to tears. The stage was decorated with a fluttering U.S. flag.
“Her voice was just beautiful,” said Sonia Davis, 53, a nurse visiting with her husband from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She didn’t know about the Gospel Hour until she walked into Robert’s.
“I cry a lot,” she said, chuckling and wiping tears after the show-turned-worship. “I feel other people’s emotions, and I felt there was a lot of emotion from hearing her, and the whole band, and the fact that she was performing with her father, and it was family.”
It was past 11 a.m. on Sunday, when many Americans are in their churches, sitting on wooden pews.
At Robert’s, some locals and dozens of tourists from across the nation instead found their church sitting on the barstools of this beloved honky tonk. It is on Lower Broadway across from Garth Brooks’ multilevel entertainment space and just steps from the Ryman Auditorium — the so-called Mother Church of Country Music.
Outside, partying bachelorettes and country lovers on a musical pilgrimage strolled through a packed Broadway of bars blasting live music. Inside, tourists and locals, including children (open to all until 6 p.m.; 21+ after), fidgeted on their chairs. Some seemed moved by the spirit, Christian/country classics — or both. So, they sang along, clapped and even prayed.
“When I sing those songs, I want for people who hear them to have a glimpse of what it is to feel and follow Jesus,” said Fischer, who was joined that Sunday by his daughter Skyler, in charge of the red tip jar that later was passed around to the audience.
Around them, posters and framed photos of musicians, neon signs for bourbon and beer and shelves lined with cowboy boots — a remnant of the locale’s previous life: a boot and clothing store called Rhinestone Western Wear. At one point the building also housed the Sho-Bud Steel Guitar Company where a then-struggling country singer and pig farm owner bought what would become the legendary guitar named Trigger before he was universally known as Willie Nelson.
These days, Robert’s is proudly known for its no frills style as one of the last bastions of traditional country music and often stands out from the many brightly lit, TV-tuning bars on Honky Tonk row. It is home of the ($6) “Recession Special” with its famous fried bologna sandwich, Moon Pie, potato chips and a Pabst Blue Ribbon, although on Sundays drinkers must wait to get their beer after the worship service.
“You can hang for the entire service and then get a beer,” said John McTigue III, the band’s drummer and Blakley’s best friend since they met outside Robert’s more than a decade ago.
“A lot of people might come to visit or might have been there the night before. And they come back again, and they don’t even know that there’s a service going on,” McTigue said. “And once they’re in there, they realize what it is — and … don’t feel any judgment, pressure to stay there or get up and say anything. It’s just a place to enjoy the spirit of God.”
Robert’s is owned by JesseLee Jones, a Brazil-born longtime Nashville resident and the leader of the honky tonk’s house band, “Brazilbilly.”
The devout Christian likes to say that it’s not about the building — for you can find God anywhere — and he doesn’t mind losing money for a sober hour (or two) if “Father Ron” as he still calls him, can help everyone at Robert’s have “church.”
“Having church on Sunday brings a certain spirit into this place,” Jones said at a storage space above the bar surrounded by boxes of beer.
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s bar.’ Well, I beg to differ — Robert’s is not a bar. It’s a honky tonk. Yeah, we sell beer and liquor, because we’re in business. … But we ain’t got no televisions on the walls. It’s traditional country music from the time it opens, to the time it closes. … You have church services on Sunday.”
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