Shania Twain Is Partnering With Gavin DeGraw For A Downtown Nashville Bar
By Aaron Ryan | Whiskey Riff | August 28, 2024
Is it even newsworthy at this point when another artist opens a bar in Nashville?
Just in the past year, we’ve gotten new bars from Garth Brooks, Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wallen and Jon Bon Jovi on Broadway, and most recently Riley Green announced that he was teaming up with another Nashville bar, Winner’s, to open Riley Green’s Duck Blind in midtown.
This is, of course, to go along with bars from Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley and countless others, making the whole “artist bar” thing less of a novelty and more of a cookie-cutter experience loosely branded around whichever artist is willing to license their name for the front of the building.
But anyway, I digress.
Right now, only two of those bars are owned by (or named after) female country artists. But it sounds like that could be changing soon.
According to the Nashville Business Journal, Shania Twain is partnering with pop singer Gavin DeGraw and his brother, Joey DeGraw, in their bar Nashville Underground.
The DeGraw brothers have owned the bar, located near the end of Broadway beside Acme Feed & Seed, since 2018. The five-story venue has recently been less of a “honky tonk” or country bar and has been more of a nightclub with rap and pop music (though they had a mechanical bull the last time I was there, which was quite a while ago). So it’ll be interesting to see if Shania coming in changes the concept back to country, or if they’re going to continue on with the nightclub.
There’s no word yet on the extent of Shania’s involvement and whether the name would be changing, although you’ve got to think that if she’s jumping in, having her name on the building and branding in the bar is probably part of the deal.
I definitely wouldn’t expect a new “Shania Twain honky tonk” though. Based on the bar’s history, as well as Shania’s tendency to lean more into the pop side of her music, I have a feeling you’re not going to be hearing much Merle Haggard or George Strait from this new-ish bar.
Some reports on other media platforms says she's opening up her own bar in Nashville and Gavin Is just helping her out. Be interesting to see how true this rumor is. Who knows
Some reports on other media platforms says she's opening up her own bar in Nashville and Gavin Is just helping her out. Be interesting to see how true this rumor is. Who knows
Here is the official press release from Nashville Business Journal.
Another female country star partners with downtown Nashville bar
By Julia Masters | Nashville Business Journal | August 28, 2024
Soon fans can “Come On Over” to Nashville’s latest celebrity bar.
Five-time Grammy Award winning country star Shania Twain is partnering with Lower Broadway bar Nashville Underground, multiple sources confirmed to the Business Journal.
Nashville Underground owners Joey and Gavin DeGraw, both singers themselves, will remain involved with the project, sources said.
The DeGraw brothers opened Nashville Underground at 105 Broadway in 2018. The multilevel, 55,000-square-foot bar, restaurant and entertainment venue neighbors Acme Feed & Seed and Whiskey River Saloon.
Twain’s team and Nashville Underground could not be reached for comment before the time of publication. Further details around their partnership remain unknown.
The Canadian-born singer has sold over 90 million records worldwide, becoming the top-selling female country artist of all-time since releasing her self-titled debut album in 1993. Her “Come On Over” 1997 album sold over 40 million copies and has become the most-sold album by a female artist in any genre.
In May, Twain began her “Come On Over” residency in Las Vegas’ Bakkt Theater.