Cotton-Eyed Joe

It was okay, wasn’t all impressed but if your looking for some inexpensive shorts this is the place to go!

The only reason I come here is to buy typical touristy «Nashville» gifts for family members or to bring visitors here to buy touristy gifts. This place is lined with Nashville shotglasses, coffee mugs, cowboy hats, tshirts, keychains, toys, magnets, and other random trinkets. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here for two reasons: 1) the parking is tricky downtown. Some lots (like the one closest to the store) are crazy expensive to park in. 2) the employees have some of the wooorst attitudes I’ve seen. Seriously, they are zero help.
Moral of the story: if you want cheap touristy-​type souvenirs, this is your spot. Just be wary of the employee’s moods.

I came here for key chains + shot glasses + a descent shirt for souvenirs. The key chains and shot glasses costs $ 4 each and shirts cost $ 12-​$ 15. They have many different types of key chains + shot glasses… so it’s worth the stop if that’s what you’re looking for. Everything else seemed expensive. For example, a small guitar was $ 25. Beware of the second floor. They have the ugliest souvenirs on the planet up there. No wonder the shirts up there are $ 5.
Yeah the service isn’t fantastic and you don’t get the «Hello how are you greeting» when you enter, but whatever. I was in and out as soon as I found what I wanted.
⁵⁄₅ for key chains, shot glasses, (some) shirts. Everything else is too expensive.

I love this typical gift shop. It has a great on the corner of 2^nd and Broadway. just across the street from Hard Rock Café… a big tourist attraction. You can find your typical tourist gift items… tshirts, post cards, hats, pencils, stickers, etc…
not so cheap. but what do you expect. its for the tourist.

came in to get some souvenirs.
brought a 3D bookmark for $ 2.00.
Brought a red 9 LCD flashlight for $ 2.98.
Full of all kind of things.

This place had some cool touristy Nashville gifts. I found a super cute polka dot bag that is perfect for the pool or beach! I recommend stopping in if you are looking to treat yourself if you are here on vacation!

I love this shop. I’m a local, and it’s perfect when you need a cheap, tacky gift that’s Nashville or Southern-​related. The 2^nd floor is ALL sale stuff, and it’s terrible and super cheap. Actually, there’s some decent stuff up there if you look, but they have t-​shirts that are $ 4.97. This place is perfect for gag gifts.
The bottom floor is expensive, and the products are not really different than what is in the other 15 souvenir shops downtown, but this one is definitely worth it for the gigantic cheap-​o floor. Also, they take Mastercard and Visa only, I think — no AMEX, which was kind of a bummer for me.

As a local, I don’t go here except to show visitors what we sell to tourists.
Really low-​end Chinese-​made hats that have been spraypainted
Ornate frogs with huge dicks covered by a cup
Several obviously Roman-​faced Jesus’s with random sayings
Misc country-​themed shirts
Basically, the shop is what you would expect to find in a 1980’s Stuckey’s. Downstairs
Going upstairs there were two ladies who I believe worked there in an argument over whether one of them was talking to the other or not, cheap ass t-​shirts, and a bunch of stuff that was neither Nashville-​related nor well made.
It seemed overall if they got some quality merchandise there they would make significantly more of a killing than from selling busted plastic snowglobes of Nashville (seriously, Nashville and snowglobes… no)
I mean, perhaps I set the bar too high, perhaps overpriced vaguely southern stuff is what they’re about, but man… throw in some actual local stuff, give me a retro Nashville Kats shirt, or throw in some officially licensed product from either of our major teams, dunno…
Get rid of the dick frogs… just… seriously… get rid of it.

Husband and I did the tourist-​y thing a few weekends ago. He had just lost his (my) hat and was in need of one STAT. His pale, European skin burns easily under the Nashville sun, whereas my Pacific Islander skin browns in minutes.
He doesn’t like baseball caps with any type of logo and decided to get a cowboy hat, just for kicks. When we first arrived here, we were told that the natives do not go around in cowboy boots and a 10-​gallon hat except on special occasions; only tourists buy and wear them in downtown Nashville.
We had popped into the other stores in the area and found that the more specialty places had hats that cost more than we wanted to spend. We finally came to this store and saw all the kitsch. Tons o’ teeshirts, personalized keychains, pens, mugs, glasses … all the stuff that he and I have seen in the tourist traps of our respective hometowns of London and San Francisco. We didn’t bother going upstairs to see what they had there. After selling /​donating /​dumping a lot of stuff during our move here, we had no desire to spend more than necessary on anything any more.
We saw the stacks of hats. He chose the black felt one. Checkout was easy and after $ 13, we were out of there.

The only problem I have with this place. is its got no website
I wanted to get my mom and my new dad something. But because they were with me I was not able to buy the product. Plus I was not really able too look around mom was in a rush.

RUDE RUDE RUDE! Don’t spend your money here!

Wow… talk about low-​end souvenirs.
Do they really still make this kind of stuff?
Do people still buy them?
I can’t imagine.
The store is kind of like a time warp.
A scary time warp.

The name itself drew me in… it reminds me of that stupidly ridiculous song «cotton eyed joe» that makes me laugh if I hear it and just seeing a store by that name made me laugh out loud too. So, I went in. Hey, I was curious. The name of the store is alot like the items they sell… stupid stuff that only tourists would like. I walked out completely satisfied with a shot glass that said «Nashville» with pictures of downtown. It’ll at least add to my collection of shot glasses…

One of the millions of Nashville souvenir places on Broadway, Cotton Eyed Joe is definitely the biggest. If you are looking for a pink hat with «Rebel» on it, well you can thank Cotton Eyed Joe for having an entire rack of its kind. I always wondered what makes tourists walk around in ridiculous hats, and came to find out that Cotton Eyed Joe’s rack of the sparkly cowboy hats makes it hard not to. You can also find T-​shirts, shot glasses, novelty baby shirts, and of course the always present Elvis isle. Not to be missing in any Nashville souvenir store, the southern pride section, which you can find smack dab front and center. Cotton Eyed Joe also has a second floor of sale and miscellaneous items that might catch your eye. I think of all the Broadway tourist stores, this one has the most random useless stuff available.

I can’t believe Cotton-​Eyed Joes has gone almost two years since its last review. That is not to say that there is a lot to see here. CEJ is pretty much a standard souvenir store, with t-​shirts as the largest draw. But it doesn’t stop there. Shot glasses, mugs, Nashville collectibles, and all the other standard gift items.
Take it or leave it.

The king of all bad souvenir shops! If it’s hokey, they’ve got it. Rows and rows of tacky statues, shot glasses, and guitar shaped everything… Horrificly beautiful bald-​eagle motif t-​shirts, bottle openers of many sizes and designs…
Open until 10pm every night for your shopping pleasure.