The rumble of a gasoline-powered generator thumps through the dome of the Chattanooga Choo Choo as workers pound away at a new 500-seat music venue. The four-stroke engine may be noisy, but it’s got rhythm, much like the Glenn Miller song that inspired the name of the famous train station-turned hotel.
The Choo Choo’s newest musical attraction is poised to douse the Scenic City’s smoldering entertainment scene with a big can of jet fuel, igniting the afterburners that may propel Chattanooga toward the musical future it has always coveted. Music and entertainment may be the next big thing in Chattanooga.
To be sure, that’s been said before. Chattanooga’s music scene has teetered on the verge of something great for years now, always poised to break through but never able to hang on to the next rung of the ladder. But thanks to waves of young people moving downtown to live, work and play, developers can’t seem to build new apartments fast enough, and the accompanying restaurants, venues and bars — complete with live bands and cover charges — aren’t far behind.
By some estimates, Chattanooga is already transforming into a destination city for live-music fans. As many as half of the paying customers at the city’s major music venues may already come from out-of-town. They come from Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Huntsville, Birmingham, and that’s just in the region. Others come from Chicago, Austin, Louisville, and Cincinnati.
They’re coming to places such as Track 29, Rhythm & Brews, Honest Pint and JJ’s Bohemia, Meanwhile, new venues are in the works and old venues going under the knife for a little reconstructive surgery.
“We view the Southside, Main Street, the Choo Choo as a portal, a gateway to an entertainment district or districts,” said Bob Doak, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It doesn’t have to be the Southside, or the Choo Choo or Main, but that’s where it’s happening. You fish where the fishing is good.”
This is a new thing. Ever since Bessie Smith died in the 1930s — and after the block of music venues on the Big Nine (now M.L. King Boulevards) shut down, Chattanooga’s music scene has been little more than a historical footnote.