Nashville Airport Adds Tootsie's

1/18/2008 Stephen L. Betts Nashville already has one of the busiest airports in the U.S., but it’s getting even livelier this month. The Canadian Press reports that the airport will open Tootsie's, an offshoot of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the downtown honky-tonk where Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson once swapped songs and cold beers. Nashville’s airport began offering music in the early '90s as country music was hitting a growth spurt. Today, musicians covering a variety of musical genres play its five stages most days of the week. “It's a nice touch,” Julie Wyte of Huntsville, Ala., tells the Canadian Press. “My husband has been in the military for 20 years and we've been to airports all over the world, and I don't think I've ever seen that before.” Nashville's niche has long been its music. From vintage concert posters on the walls to guitars and banjos in glass cases, there's no mistaking the airport for another. With the opening of Tootsie's - actually, two of them, one in the public area and one in the secure area - travelers can get a feel for the gritty downtown dive where country singers past and present got their starts. But while the new airport clubs have the same live music and decor as the original, don't expect the same rough edges, like beer-soaked floors and walls covered with graffiti and faded stars' portraits. “You've got to get that with age. You get that with hard knocks,” says owner Steve Smith.