Starbucks Nashville mug: Discovery Series
The Nashville mug from Starbucks' Discovery Series sets the city name in yellow-orange over a dark green circle, with a guitar, a strip of piano keys, a vintage microphone, dancers in cowboy boots and a row of storefronts.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozstandard mug size
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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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
- 1Lettering
NASHVILLE in yellow-orange capitals over a dark green circle.
- 2Guitar
An orange acoustic guitar angles up toward the upper right of the circle, with music notes around it.
- 3Piano keys
A strip of piano keys curves along the base of the circle.
- 4Vintage microphone
A red vintage microphone on a stand stands at the right of the lettering.
- 5Dancers in boots
Two dancers in cowboy hats and boots, one in a red top, stand at the far left.
- 6Swirled shapes
A yellow and a green swirled shape at the upper left look like ice-cream cones.
- 7Storefronts
A row of brick storefronts in orange, green and red stands at the upper left.
- 8Glass jar
A glass jar with a yellow label sits at the lower right beside the handle.
The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.
Collector notes
- The inside of this mug is dark red, which shows at the rim in the photo.
- The guitar, the microphone and the piano keys ring the circle, while the dancers and the storefronts sit at the far left, so a photo from the right misses them.
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.
