Hey folks,
God, I have slept later than I have in years! Guess the mountain air and having drapes that make everything black as night will do that! About to pack up and hit the road. But it was an amazing day and night and I'll fill you in in a minute.
John, Doak did stop the third Sunday's about three years ago but he is constantly active all over Nashville. His main thing is the NASHVILLE MUSE which is an internet newsletter that educates people on the goings on in the industry. You should sign up for that. He is the most active and well known networker in Nashville, being everywhere.He is involved in workshops on everything from hit writers and publishers, is in the thick of the industry about as well as anyone I have ever seen, actually much better than I am. And he is known literally worldwide by people which is how Simone knows him. This guy IS Nashville networking. He meets hundreds of people a week and when he finds someone who is a candidate for my services, he will send them to me.That is how Simone found me.
Phil, I thought that was right. When I get "official comfirmation" on shows, festivals, sessions, etc. through email, I put it into my phone for my calander. Then usually I send it to Tina who puts it on my web site. I sometimes have to go there to find out what I am doing.
The Frank Brown Festival and all songwriters festivals are notoriously confusing and all come together at the last minute. Trying to juggle hundreds of writers from all over the world, getting schedules, dealing with venues that come in and then drop out, sponsors that change their minds, and all the duties and responsibilities of a major Military operation, keep them so. So they are really bad about having the schedules even up until the last minute. You kind of just have to go and figure out what you are doing when you get there.
One year, I went to the web site about two weeks before to put my Frank Brown shows on my web site. As I started writing them down on my calander, I kept noticing that it was remarkably similar to the gigs from the year before. The same places, the same times, the same nights as the year before. About halfway through the week's bookings, I decided to go back the year before. I looked where I played and they were not only similar, THEY WERE EXACTLY THE SAME GIGS!! That is because THEY HAD THE SCHEDULE FROM THE YEAR BEFORE UP ON THE WEB SITE!!!
I quit trying to worry about it, zero out the time and just go, They'll let me know when I get there. I often pick up extra gigs becauase writers cancel, don't want the boring writers that are booked with them, or just want to book me,as someone who is a known entity. There will also be last minute changes, charity things, special guest things like television and school appearances they need someone because most songwriters sleep all day. So I can do all that easier than anyone. Plus, I know the history of the festival so I can tell it pretty well for a news program or radio show. One year, one of the writers got arrested for DUI at 4 in the morning. They called me to go give his speech to the Chamber of Commerce at 7:00 in the morning. After I had played three gigs the day before and been at the same late night party. MAB is the MINUTE MAN!!! Ready to go in a Minute's notice.
SMOKEY MOUNTAIN WRAP UP
This has been one for the ages. The SMOKEY MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL is a great time, great setting and this year has been very good for me. Yesterday, I decided to quit fighting the traffic and walked everywhere. The actual town is only about 10 block slong, although it is on a slope going uphill, so it can be a challenge.Glad I've been walking a lot. It is basically one street with hundreds of shops, stores, clothing stores, country kitch, miniture golf, Ripley's Believe it or not museums, a huge aquariam, and all kinds of things. And HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL PACKED IN TO TEN BLOCKS. It is a huge traffic jam with people either coming into town or taking the one road into the mountains.
I wandered the streets first trying to find a charger for my phone, which was a night mare in it'self. Not only getting a charger, but then trying to find somewhere to plug it in for a few minutes at a time to get any battery power. Tina of course was very unhappy with me which she lets me know frequently. She hates it when my phone goes down. I understand but sometimes there is not much you can do. So I was working against that and a tide of people that was very hard to get around.
I saw a few other shows, the venues are all pretty close to each other, you can catch three or four by walking two or three doors apart. Got to see some of my friends,eat, charge, etc.
Then it was time for my show. And this is so typical of amateur writers. They had me listed with three other writers. I was there 45 minute early to see this girl duo, the DARLINS, and saw a really packed patio area where the shows were going on. There were no other writers. As the Darlin;s show finished I was ready to go on stage, guitar in tune, ready to jump up becauase I HATE to lose people, and it was packed! Luckily also the weather was starting to cloud up which means it would be cooler as well as keep the people in with me.
I got onstage and set and still no other writers. So I just started. I got about six songs in and was really in my element. ik was connecting with the audience, they were crowding around, not only in the rocking chairs and benches but on the sides as both of the sides are open air. There were a couple hundred people in there and I was really rocking. Then this other guy shows up with his guitar case. He kind of ambles up onstage. I finish a song and invite him up. he pulls out his guitar, talks a little about why he was late, which actually was just a rambling statement that made no sense. Then he TUNES for the next five minutes. And never gets in tune.
I get him to play a song, which is overlong, out of tune, and LOUD! The sound guy seemed to not be able to understand to turn him down but man he was blowing me out. So I play my next song, Too Much Blood, where I do vocal impressions, do the song differently, and he just PLAYS LEADS ALL THROUGH MY SONG. No breaks, nothing just plays very badly all over the place. He did another out of tune song after the intro of the song, 'I know you're not supposed to do POLITICAL SONGS! Great! now he is going to run everybody in the audience off. And he tried. But by now it was raining so I at least had that in my favor.
By this time a third writer showed up, being late from another thing he was doing. I knew this guy,At having actually having worked with him. He was not bad but he was OUT OF TUNE TOO. And now both of them are playing with each other OUT OF TUNE. At least G.D.W.TH.EVH. (Guitar Dude WHO THINKS HE'S EDDIE VAN HALEN), was trying to ruin this guys stuff as much as trying to ruin mine. My next song, THING FOR YOU, was being crowded all over by him and I finally leaned back and told him to Lay out!" I HATE AMATEURS because they never LISTEN TO ANYTHING. But he finally did. For about a minute.
Then he starts playing on the other guys stuff out of tune again, and I got a FLASH OF BRILLIANCE. The guy mixing the sound was sitting a few feet from me, so while GD was wailing around on his latest oddyesee of LONG BORING SONG examples, (I think he was doing STAIR WAY TO HELL!!!), I very quietly pulled out my cell phone, kept it behind my guitar so no one could see it, and wrote out "PLEASE TURN THIS GUY DOWN ON MY STUFF, HE IS OUT OF TUNE AND HAS A CASE OF OVERPLAYERS ANNONOMYS!!!" And I handed the cel phone to the sound guy. He laughed his butt off, and did what I asked.
I didn't have any problem from GD afterward. He got turned off.
So the set went well despite all the crap going on. Sometimes it is a real fight to keep things going. But that is why I am considered a pro. The MAB will conquer all.
After that I wandered around a while, shaking hands with people on the street. I looked like I was running for office. And tried to find a place to plug in my phone. Suddenly I get a text from two of my friends from Nashville,who had last minute decided to come up, and were just around the corner from me. So we got together and for the next three hours I showed them around. We walked all over the place and were sweating wearing out and hungry. Now the one thing to always eat up here is TROUT! It is fished right out of the stream that runs throughout the mountains and very fresh and very good.
We ended up having to walk to my car, which was at the bottom of the hill, and I took them to my favorite resturant and venue where I play, and ate there and saw one of the shows. It was amazing! The food is astounding and I looked like a genuis, having to make up for my forced march to the Sea.
We went back and I showed them a couple of the major shows. Onstage was Doug Johnson, Kim Williams (Three Wooden Crosses, Papa loved Mama,Ain't Going Down the Sun Comes Up), Will Nance (Round about Now, She;s Everything), and joined by another friend and co-writer, Jim McBride, (Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochie, Chasin that Neon Rainbow). These guys put on a two hour show with nothing but hits. And most of them were the same group that I played for the other night.
As they did that, I went over to the GATLINBURG INN, the main place where the Festival orginzers were.
There, my friend Scott Southworth from the Music Row show was setting up a television show for after the other shows were over. It was set up like a late night guitar pull, and would have microphones, television cameras, and a real studio feel in the main lobby. He and Heino have a television version of the Music Row show in some cable markets. This was going to be filmed to play at a later date to promote the show.
It went down an hour later and about 60 people packed into this little room and we did the show. It was Jerry Salley, who wrote some Vince Gill hits, Will Nance, and Max T. Barnes. Max is amazing, not only having written some incredible hits, but is the son of MAX D. BARNES, who was one of Nashville's greatest songwriters, writing things like CHISELED IN STONE for Vern Gosdin.
The show was incredible with each of us doing two songs. Max told the story of the night he and his father were up for song of the year at the CMA's. He was nominated for LOVE ME, A Colin Radio masterpiece. Which he started performing, then in the middle he shifted to his Father's song, which is the one that WON the CMA song of the year. "LOOK AT US" by Vince Gill. It was the only time a Father/Son competition had happened in CMA history.
These are the kinds of magic moments you get at these things. Amazing night.
I finished that show, and was told I needed to go to another show/party going on back at the place I had dinner earlier. "Whisperin Bill Anderson" was supposed to be there because he had done a big concert that night and was hanging out afterword. And the Festival people wanted him to see me. I was EXHAUSTED but decided to go.
I got there as several people were leaving and I almost didn';t go in. SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA DO IT!
I went in and there was still a huge crowd. But it was not Bill. It was people from Sony and Curb records, publishers and that group of people, Kim Williams, Jim McBride, Doug Johnson, and several others sitting in there. One by one several writers got up and played. I just kind of hung around and talked. Kim and his wife have been talking about ALL ALONE AGAIN, since the other night and he wants to bring it back out and start pitching it. Jim McBride remembered a song we wrote long ago and wants to revisit that one and possibly write some more. Doug wants me to touch base with him back in Nashville,and his wife, who is a major publisher wants to know what I am up to.
At the end, they got me back up and I did All Alone Again. That is the most rangy vocal I do with the final note a HUGE HIGH "A" note. Usually only dogs can hear that one. But I pegged it and got a standing ovation. Then Kim wanted me to do the song from Les Mizerables", the one that got him interested in writing with me. So I did that.
Here we were MAB SINGS BROADWAY!! I hadn't done that song in about 10 years but still pulled it off I guess because it was another standing Ovation. Then the festival orginizer, Cindy Reeves,comes down and wants me to play THAT song! I figure it;s TABLES AND CHAIRS,and I do that one. Another standing o. I keep trying to get off the stage but i guess I keep doing encores at this point. The song she wanted was NOT tables and Chairs, but THE HARD WAY, the song SCOTT and I wrote after last years festival. Another standing O. I figured these people would be worn out by now. And they were.
We closed out the night. As I walked out, everyone was standing around in groups, and we were all hugging and saying good bye. Doug Johnson's wife, ( I can't remember her name) came over with this really perplexed look. She just looked me in the eye and told me she didn't remember when she had been so moved. She was nearly crying. Was really kind of odd. Here is a really jaded publisher, really involved in the business and she was moved the way we all love to be when it comes to music. She hugged me pretty hard and thanked me.
That is what you live for in this business. Respect of your peers. You throw out deals, because those rarely go through with anyway. Throw out money because you rarely make any. and Fame because no one ever knows or cares who you are.
You just have to have personal goals and touching lives. That is what I was able to do.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud to be a songwriter.
Gotta head back.
MAB