Good morning from Nashville! It's been a very busy, fun trip. First, Tuesday when I was about an hour south of my hotel on I65, I got a call from Justin that his truck had broken down about 45 miles west of Nashville on I40. Got to my hotel, and OD was already there. Checked in real quick, put my luggage and guitar in the room, a quick, "hi", to OD, then headed out to get Justin. I got to him just as the tow company was finishing loading up his truck. We followed him to the garage which is still about 30 miles west of Nashville. Then I took Justin over to MAB's place and rushed back to the hotel to get OD. The 4 of us went to Carol Ann's Home cooking for dinner and some really great music. It was actually a R&B jam session night so the musicians and singers were taking turns in the spotlight. MAB actually got up and entertained us with an old Otis Redding tune and brought the house down!! Was a great evening, and great food!
Wednesday, we all met at Bobby's Idol Hour for Sam's Jams, which is actually an open mic. Justin, OD, and myself had a 1pm slot. Was such a treat to have those two guys on stage with me. One of the highlights of my journey! THANKS SO MUCH guys for doing this!! Went over to Loosers for lunch, but came back and spent the rest of the afternoon there listening to some pretty good music. MAB got up and did a set, which was the best entertainment of the afternoon. MAB had to leave for his birthday bash at the commodore, but OD and I stuck around to hear one song from a guy we met there. We got to Commodore right at 7pm and caught the last song or two of an early set. There was one more set of 4 writers, then MAB and Jimbeau took over. They REALLY brought the house down!! MAB is a great entertainer by himself, but when you add Jimbeau into the mix, WOW!! What a duo!! The rest of the evening was just some really great writers and artist that MAB has worked with. So glad I decided to make this trip!!
Thursday morning I took Justin over to get his truck out of hock. He wanted to take back roads back tot the hotel, and I wanted to take the interstate. The race was on!! I pulled into a parking space at the hotel and before I could even get out of the car, Justin was pulling into a parking space. He "claims" he would have beat me if he hadn't missed a turn and had to turn around and come back. Sure! I GOT THERE FIRST!!! But, the REAL FUN started around 2pm when we all went down town to settle the 3 year old argument about where were OD and Justin. Was it Tootsies? NO IT AS NOT, says the old dog. YES IT WAS, says the kid. Well, Thursday afternoon the argument was solved, but NOT the mystery. We parked and went straight to Tootsies. We couldn't even get in the door it was so crowded, but Justin looked in and the argument was settled. He just hung his head, and we went over to Legends, and the kid bought OD his beer. They shook hands and are still friends. BUT, the old dog has won the argument. HOWEVER, the mystery still has not been solved. Just where were those two clown on that Saturday afternoon 3 years ago? We may never know!
We were supposed to go over to Maxwell House Thursday evening at 6pm for a special Broken Spoke Reunion writers night, but somewhere between Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening, two friends of ours, Charles and Janet Cox, got the impression the three of us were going to do a set at their writers night at Bobby's Idol Hour, starting at 6pm. So, we decided we had to go over there and make sure we were not needed. Turned out, they had 2 of 3 folks for the first round, so Justin sat in to complete the round. For someone who has never played in a writers night, he kid has jumped right in the deep end of the pool this trip, and has done a pretty good job of holding his own. We're proud of ya kid!!
After Justin's round we thanked Charles and Janet, and headed over to the Maxwell house. BUT, we got there too late and there were no seats. We had to stand up for about an hour of the show. The evening was 4 writers at a time in a round doing 2 or 3 songs each. These were all the old guard writers that had grown up at a place here in town called The Broken Spoke. Back in the day, it was THE place to go, second only to the Bluebird. A lot of the writers that night got up and played some of their hit songs. It's always a great evening when you can hear the original writer sing their song the way it they wrote it. MAB finally got up and played. He only got to do 2 songs, but they were the ones that brought the audience to life. More so than any of the other writers to that point. Even with their big hits. MAB does more than just sing his songs, He performs his songs for the audience, and it really gets them engaged. Was another great evening!
Thursday evening, Justin went home with MAB and spent the night there, so Friday, he worked with MAB while OD and I kind of just chilled out for the day. We went over and picked up Justin at 2:30 and spent the rest of the day back at the hotel writing a new song about hotel rooms. Maybe we can get Justin to post it when it is done.
Today is a brand new day and we'll see how it goes!
phil g.