Sparkle and Twang and Bluegrass

One of the great things about living in Nashville is a lot of good stuff happens downtown that you can take advantage of and participate in. Today I finally got a chance to get over to see Marty Stuart's "Sparkle and Twang: Marty Stuart's American Musical Odyssey" exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum. It's an amazing collection of country music memorabilia that Marty has been compiling for many years. There are a lot of items tracing the development of Marty's career. The most fascinating of those is an essay he wrote in the 6th grade talking about how he wanted to be a famous musician and laid out exactly how he wanted to do it. Don't you know just about everything in there came to pass for him. Another interesting one is the display of the dress Connie Smith wore the day Marty went to see her perform when he was a youngster and declared he was going to marry her.

But Marty, you've got to make that video feature in the exhibit available for folks to buy on DVD. It's a compelling look at Marty's career which features lots of great archival footage, interviews, a feature on Johnny Cash including video from one of his last recording sessions, and a couple of songs. I about spent half my time watching that as well as looking over the displays.

Later, I headed down to the IBMA Bluegrass Fan Fest (thanks, Buddy, for the ticket!). I heard some great music, got a free lunch and checked out the exhibits. Most of the booths were instrument vendors or otherwise geared toward musicians. I walked around and heard so many amazing young kids trying out the instruments.

When I was in grade school, I was in a music program for a short time. I tried violin and flute, but didn't stay long with either. Now I've kicked myself for that from time to time. If I had known of the existence of bluegrass back then, I'd have stayed with the violin and of course, called it a fiddle. I talked to a fellow who was representing a great program called Bluegrass Apprentice Program, which is a curriculum for learning bluegrass in a school music class, including banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass. He also showed me a G chord on the mandolin. I am a mandolin fan and still entertain thoughts of taking lessons one day. Getting involved in a program like that would give me a good reason for wanting to be a kid again.

Did I mention that I love this town?