It was just about the "no sleep till Sunday tour" for me this weekend. OK, so I'm exaggerating. It was just a whole slew of events happening which actually began Thursday night when I decided to go to the Commodore Grill. It was one of those wonderful warm nights when a dozen friends of mine happened to be there as well, so lots of hugs and company at the table. I also met a couple of great new people there, too. One act I absolutely loved to death was Dr. Jay and Miss Diana--what a great performer she is.
Friday night I stopped up at Red Tree Coffee and caught a "supergroup" known as Emotional Rex...made up of guitarist/vocalist George Hawkins; guitarist Bruce Gaitsch, writer of "Don't Mean Nothing" for Richard Marx and "La Isla Bonita" for Madonna; guitarist extraordinare Jon Conley and drummer/vocalist Kelly Keaggy, well known from Night Ranger. Yes, Kelly did sing "Sister Christian" and "Sentimental Street", the latter with a slower twist than the original recording but sounding super nonetheless. The group mixed some solid rock and blues with fine smooth jazz instrumentals.
Saturday began a 12 hour blitz of musical events pratically back to back. First, off to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum to catch Alex Harvey as part of the museum's Saturday songwriter session series. Alex was accompanied by Ronnie Fruge on guitar (I saw a fine set by him at Red Tree about a month ago) and John Grapes on percussion. Besides the wonderful timeless songs he's written ("Delta Dawn", "Ruben James", "Rings"), the reason Alex is a favorite of mine is that I love his heart and his passion that he brings to his performances. In particular, his very touching song "Somebody New" grabbed the soul in the intimate setting of the Ford Theater.
About an hour or so later, it was back to the Ford Theater for a "Nashville Cats" feature paying recognition to renowned session guitarist Wayne Moss, noted for his famous licks on Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman" and "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line" by Waylon Jennings, to name a few. Many of Nashville's finest session players were on hand in the audience to support Wayne, such as Charlie McCoy and Pig Robbins.
It couldn't be more perfect to have these events going on the same afternoon as one I've waited a few months for: the Ryman Auditorium broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion". It was really good to see the show live again...of course, living in St. Paul for so many years I've seen dozens of performances, but it was very cool to be in Nashville and see it in the setting which inspired Garrison Keillor to start the show in the first place back in 1974. Special guests were Sam Bush and Brad Paisley (performing acoustically and sitting in with the Guys's All Star Shoe Band). However, I couldn't stay for the whole show, thus my one regret is not having a chance to say hi to my Shoe Band friends Rich Dworsky and Pat Donohue. (Did the gal in front of me with the autograph hat get it signed by Garrison or the band members? I couldn't stay to find that out, either!) Because...
I was due in Pegram for the Friends of Pegram Park Writers's Night at Fiddle and Pick. I am a solid supporter of these shows so I pretty much burned rubber to make it there on time. I actually got brave enough to take the freeway part of the way there! (Well, it was either steel thyself or be sitting at traffic lights on 70S for the beginning of the show). I wanted to catch one of the performers, Les Kerr, before the show started. Les was a last minute add to the evening...he will be my guest on my "Never Too Old" radio show on May 24 and this was my first chance to meet and hear him after a bunch of e-mails. He was absolutely delightful and I can't wait to have him on my show. He was joined by Karen Angela Moore on vocals (I saw her at the Commodore Thursday, and I said to her, "you're playing at Fiddle and Pick on Saturday, right?" She said no at that time...then of course, she was invited to later. Am I a prophet and don't know it?)and her husband Matt Josephson on percussion.
Also on the bill was Gary Culley, who I saw most recently with Mark Elliott (another upcoming radio show guest!) as part of their Culley and Elliott duo. He's a powerful writer and singer and did a lovely song for his mom, "70 Years Of Love". It was a night of artists with diverse side occupations. Dave Parks is a Harpeth High School computer teacher who is also a singer/songwriter. In between songs he gave the audience some very interesting insights on planning and recording a CD. He plans to share videos documenting his process and hopes to create community with others in doing so. Singer/songwriter Renee Wahl is an active duty captain in the Air Force and teaches ROTC Air Force...many of her students showed up to give her support.
As my friend Joe Hrasna puts it, "here's to good music and good friends... I love this town." Me too, Joe. But I better run...Debi Champion's first Sunday writer's night at the Commodore is starting pretty soon...
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