Now known as America’s bachelorette party capital, or the Honky-Tonk Highway (as it’s been branded), Lower Broad has so much foot traffic from pedal taverns and revelers hopping between celebrity-themed event spaces, street parking on the strip is a thing of the past. It is five-block gauntlet of neon-lit, multi-story downtown honky-tonks, where tourists flock year-round to see country covers and Journey hits until last call at 3 AM.

Nashville’s Lower Broadway bares little resemblance to the guitar-pickers’ and songwriters’ hamlet it was in decades past.

This article is part of a special installment of Deep Dive created in partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey , telling the stories of bars of yesterday that shaped the neighborhoods of today.

But in a town known for chasing quick profits over preserving its own history, a handful of old-school honky-tonks, speakeasies and dive bars are keeping Music City’s past alive.

Established in 1960 by the late Tootsie Bess, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge—distinguished by its trademark purple-painted brick façade—is, perhaps, the world’s most famous honky-tonk.

“It’s a museum for, really, music in general, not just country music,” owner Steve Smith says, noting how sweating out tough crowds at Tootsie’s has been a rite of passage for Nashville entertainers from Kris Kristofferson to Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean, and countless others. “They come [here] looking for the highway of dreams. Some make it, some don’t.”