ABOVE: Country music legend Loretta Lynn

Nashville folks’ warmth and politeness is legendary. But such bonhomie makes some of the region’s more reactionary tendencies difficult to square. When Stylist visited, it was just after the 2012 election. “Obama must go” bumper stickers still emblazoned many cars. Then, late one night, we struck up conversation with a pristine, Presley-lipped 21-year-old barwoman, who explained in her lazy Tennessee drawl, “My house is protected by two things: God and my gun. If anybody breaks in, first they’ll see my gun, then they’ll see God.”

Nashville is part of America’s ‘Bible Belt’ and is said to have the highest number of churches per capita of all US cities. There are some rural churches, not far from Nashville, which have snake-handlers and preachers speaking in tongues. But, Lidell is keen to point out, his new hometown is far from primitive. “You can’t expect somewhere like Nashville to thrive by holding such a bigoted world view,” he says. “It has a huge university community and it’s an interesting melting pot. If Nashville was such a conservative Bible Belt… people wouldn’t move here and it wouldn’t get coverage.”

Indeed, Nashville is a city in transition. Away from Broadway, southern stereotypes are being quashed everywhere you look, whether it’s the garage bands of hipster enclave East Nashville or the city’s burgeoning foodie scene. While southern cuisine is still mind-blowingly calorific (an accompaniment for chilli is not rice, but a grilled cheese sandwich), there’s a new influx of visionary chefs updating it with fresh local ingredients. City House offers an Italian take on New-South food such as catfish with cornmeal crust and sweet potato fettuccine. In East Nashville, hipster types chow down at Pharmacy Burger Parlor, Marché Artisan Foods and Mas Tacos food truck. However, the undisputed jewel in the southern gastro-renaissance is The Catbird Seat. Run by two tattooed chefs with Copenhagen’s Noma and Heston’s Fat Duck on their CVs, their seven-course menu ($100) includes pigeon with sweet hay-grass yoghurt and burnt oak ice-cream.

But the best food Stylist ate in Nashville was at an eatery which we initially mistook for a soup kitchen. Inside Arnold’s Country Kitchen, street cleaners, doughty pensioners and bolo-tied businessmen queued up, tray in hand, for the classic Nashville meal, meat and three veg – a heaping portion of fried chicken or indecently drippy roast beef served with a trio of sides (note: mac’n’cheese counts as a vegetable).

Putting on weight in Nashville might be inevitable, but the food, just like the rest of the city, hits a homely spot. Yes, Nashville can be odder than a raccoon in a rhinestone jacket, but there are pockets of (southern) comfort if you know where to look for it. “Nashville is all about the people,” says Lidell. “They’ve got good soul, they really are incredible.” The currency of Nashville’s country music might be heartbreak, but you’ll struggle to find a happier or friendlier place…

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