Starbucks Nashville mug: Discovery Series
Nashville in music: an acoustic guitar, piano keys and a vintage microphone around the lettering, two dancers in cowboy boots, a row of brick storefronts like Lower Broadway, two swirled cones and a jar of fireflies, Tennessee's state insect.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
Sponsored links: we earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The night a radio man named the Grand Ole Opry
On 10 December 1927, George Hay, who had joined Nashville's WSM in 1925 to run a Saturday night show called the WSM Barn Dance [1], followed an hour of classical music with a joke. The show before his was Walter Damrosch's Music Appreciation Hour, broadcast over NBC [2]. Hay noted that the change in pace and quality was immense [1]. So he told listeners that they had been hearing music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on they would present the Grand Ole Opry [2]. That, according to Mental Floss, is how the show got its name [1]. The Opry's own history dates the show's birth to 28 November 1925 [2]. The vintage microphone beside the lettering on the Nashville mug (4) is a fair stand-in for that broadcast.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1NASHVILLE lettering
NASHVILLE in yellow-orange capitals runs across a dark green circle, the centre of the drawing.
- 2Acoustic guitar
An orange acoustic guitar angles up toward the upper right of the circle, its neck past the circle's edge, with a treble clef and music notes around it. It is a generic guitar; the mug doesn't name a make or a player.
- 3Piano keys
A strip of white and yellow piano keys with dark sharps curves along the base of the circle, with small notes and a treble clef scattered below it.
- 4Vintage microphone
A red vintage microphone with an oval, slatted head stands on a tall stand with a round base, to the right of the lettering. It is the old broadcast shape; the mug doesn't tie it to a particular station or stage.
- 5Dancers in cowboy boots
A woman in a yellow cowboy hat, red top and green patterned boots stands with a hand on her hip, one boot raised; beside her a man in a red cowboy hat, red vest and check shirt is partly hidden by the curve of the mug. They look like country dancers. The mug doesn't name a dance or a venue.
- 6Two swirled cones
A yellow and a green swirled mound, flecked with white, sit on red and white striped cones at the upper left of the circle. The wispy shapes and striped paper cones look more like cotton candy than ice cream, but the drawing is stylised and could be either.
- 7Brick storefronts, Lower Broadway style
A row of two- and three-storey brick shopfronts in red, orange and green, with arched upper windows on the green one, sits under a crescent moon, stars and a cloud. The row may stand for Lower Broadway, Nashville's honky-tonk street, lined with Victorian Revival and newer brick buildings, but the facades are generic and none carries a sign. The mug doesn't name it.[4]
- 8Mason jar of fireflies
A yellow-tinted mason jar with a pale yellow-green lid holds small glowing bugs, and more of them rise above it on dotted flight paths, up beside the handle toward the guitar's headstock. These look like fireflies, or lightning bugs; Tennessee named the firefly one of its state insects in 1975. The mug doesn't say whether that is the reason they are here.[3]
The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.
Collector notes
- Small treble clefs and music notes in red, green and yellow are scattered all around the circle, from the guitar's neck down past the piano keys.
- At the far left edge, a third figure in green and red stands half hidden behind the man, cut off by the curve of the mug; a side or back photo would show more of it.
Before you buy
The inside of this mug is dark red, which shows at the rim in the photo. The dancers (5) and the storefronts (7) sit at the far left, so a photo from the right misses them. Nashville also appears in the Been There, Icon and You Are Here series; this one is the Discovery Series, 14 fl oz.
