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Singer-songwriter-composer-producer Ruby Friedman continues to blur the lines between history and magical realism with “Music Row,” one of the most compelling tracks from her new Ruby Friedman Orchestra album, Chimes After Midnight.
WATCH the video for “Music Row” above and discover a side of Nashville’s past that rarely makes it into song.
Co-written in Nashville with acclaimed songwriter Philip White (known for cuts by Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire) and Adriene Smith, “Music Row” reaches back to the Civil War era — when the stretch of town we now associate with studios and song pluggers was known as “Smokey Row,” Nashville’s red-light district.
During the war, more than 100 sex workers in Union-held Nashville were blamed for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among soldiers. In response, officials forcibly exiled the women on a riverboat called The Idahoe, sending them downriver into Union territory. The plan backfired — no port would allow them to disembark. Ultimately, Nashville legalized prostitution in an effort to regulate the trade and stem the spread of disease, becoming one of the first U.S. cities to do so.
“I wrote this song in Nashville with renowned country music writer Philip White and Adriene Smith,” Friedman says. “When I perform the song live I always tell the backstory of when Music Row was Smokey Row, Nashville’s Red Light District. I think because there’s so much magical realism mixed with non-fiction in my catalog, people fact check the ‘first city in the US to legalize sex work’ upon hearing it. Even in Nashville, most people do not know this history of Music Row.”
That tension between myth and documented history gives “Music Row” its emotional charge. Set against Friedman’s signature blend of alt-Americana, orchestral swells, and noir-tinged storytelling, the song serves as both memorial and meditation — honoring women whose lives were pushed to the margins while the city evolved around them.
“Music Row” has already begun receiving airplay on WMOT, a fitting home for a song that invites Nashville to look inward at its own layered past.
Chimes After Midnight was recorded over two years in Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Rome, Athens, and Nashville, further cementing Friedman’s global yet deeply personal perspective. Throughout the album, she gives voice to “invisible women” and forgotten figures, blending poetic lyricism with historical depth.
–Jerry Holthouse
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