A Night At Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant 2/9/08

Strange as it seems, I don't think I've yet to see much of the town of Franklin in the daylight hours, outside of the Cool Springs area and my church's office. I'd only ventured south of Nashville in the evening for one show before going to Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant for the first time. I'd never been to downtown Franklin, either. From what I could see in the dark, it's a very cute area. It reminds me perhaps of downtown Milford, CT and a town I know I've been to in Minnesota that I can't for the life of me think of now. What impressed me the most was the big parking garage I pulled into across from Puckett's --I tried to figure out where to pay for parking and how much...and then realized parking was free. Too cool.

Puckett's is probably about the size of the Bluebird Cafe, maybe a little larger. I was there this evening to have dinner and hear my friend Buddy Greene along with multi-instrumental genius Jeff Taylor and fiddler Aubrey Haynie (both of who are also members of the Grammy-nominated Time Jumpers. They skipped the awards ceremony to play this gig).It was a packed house so at first they sat me at the bar. I'm really not a fan of sitting at bars...the only advantage for me is being short I can sometimes get a better view. Plus, sometimes people think you're only there to drink or you get forgotten when it comes to food. Not at Puckett's. The wait staff was superb...no less than three waiters checked in with me to see if I put my dinner order in. The food was quite good, although I would have liked to have seen a vegetarian option among the three menu choices.

Just before the show, Buddy saw to it that I was moved to a table, so I joined Buddy's assistant, Ann, and a friend of his from Indiana, Tobin Wingard. Later on, Buddy called Tobin up on stage and he played some killer harmonica. As always, Buddy, Jeff, and Aubrey put on a musically excellent show overall with characteristic great playing and good humor.

Puckett's has two locations, in downtown Franklin and Leiper's Fork, that feature live music on the weekends. Check out Puckett's website for all the info on the great music and food (and did I mention the service?). It's won several "best of" awards in many categories.

I love Nashville and Franklin's pretty cool, too.

Gaither Homecoming, Sommet Center, 2/8/08

After several years of attending Gaither Homecoming concerts in the round with a large lineup of artists, I was interested how the new setup of end stage and decreased artist roster would fare (I also wondered how I, being "vertically challenged", would see from the middle of the 5th row with the new setup. But there were empty seats here and there, and by the time the second half came along, those who don't have the duration of some of us die-hards left). Indeed at first, I was struck by the smaller number of artists on stage in the opening, and did miss a few of the regulars I'd been used to seeing (Russ Taff, Jessy Dixon, the Isaacs). But in the end, the Gaithers showed they still had the ability to engage the audience like friends or family musicially and with good natured humor and bind us all in heart and spirit.

Some of my favorite highlights:
- Rory Rigdon and Kevin Williams remain two of the funniest guys out there when they gang up on Mr. Gaither (Rory's expressions are priceless), with a few blurbs from Gordon Mote. (This year's routine, rather timely, is "Bill For President"). It also helps that Bill is graciously willing to go along with it all.
- Ernie Haase and Signature Sound are charmingly haphazard in choreography at times (they could use a little Motown step instruction), but I enjoy it. Boogie down, guys.
- I thought having the onstage artists singing songs with some clips of some of those who have passed cut in (the Goodmans, George Younce, Jake Hess) was interesting and effective.
- Nice to see Eva Mae LeFevre (looking lovely at age 90), the Christ Church Choir, and Michael English who joined the convention singing portion in the second half.

By the way, the show was as long as ever--started at 7, was over at 11:30. But that's all good.

Stop by MySpace...

I just wanted to mention here that I am running a weekly feature at my MySpace profile. Each week I am featuring a different songwriter from the Nashville area who also can be found on MySpace. I post a song by the featured artist on my profile and have the artist in my "top friends" area. Here's hoping you will go to the artist's own profile and check out more of his/her work.

A couple of nights later at the Hall of Fame Lounge...

So I got this MySpace bulletin on Saturday from Brandon Maddox announcing that he, Brian James and Mike Seals would be doing a round at 7 p.m at the Hall of Fame Lounge. With Brandon plus half the lineup of Thursday's amazing show at the Bluebird (see previous post below), this was a little too good to pass up. Though I hadn't been home much at all Saturday and was thinking about kicking back in the evening, well, what's a few more hours away? I jumped in my car and came out to the Hall of Fame Lounge for my first visit there. It's got that "informal" atmosphere much like the Station Inn and reminded me a little of the rumpus room of the house I grew up in.

If the above lineup wasn't enough, the whole thing was kicked up a notch by the addition of the amazing Patrick "Moose" Hovious on harmonica. Though there was only a handful of us in the audience at the time, all these guys brought it as if it were a packed house. Only issue was that the round was way too short, but that's how sets are run in order to get more singer/songwriters on an evening's bill. Brandon, Brian and Mike were promptly booked for next week (update: set time back to 8:30 p.m. on the 12th; Moose will join them for a special appearance, as he's moved from town for awhile to attend college. Good luck and hurry back soon!).

I stuck around for a little bit and was pleasantly surprised to see "Simply Lauri" Merrow, who I knew from Doak's gatherings as a consistently solid singer/songwriter. I hadn't had a chance to listen to her her outside of that setting, so it was a treat to hear her in a half hour set. Joining her was a songwriter new to me, Paul Welch. I enjoyed his songs as well; one particularly touching one was "That's The One I Was Looking For", in tribute to his dad.

I'll be going back here, I'm sure, to check out some more singer/songwriters. Stay tuned.

Brian James, Arika Nash, Jody Serrato, Mike Seals-Bluebird Cafe 1/3/08

The first time I heard Brian James play some of his songs at one of Doak Turner's Sunday gatherings, I knew he was a major talent. The round which he put together at the Bluebird along with Arikah Nash, Jody Serrato and Mike Seals further convinced me of that.

This was one of the strongest early evening sets I've seen at the Bluebird, right along with Steve Craig's round of the previous month. The singer/songwriters touched on a variety of styles (country, blues, pop, a touch of gospel) and a couple of common themes: commitment in relationships, having faith to move into the unknown, and importance of family. It was interactive from the get-go, with the souvenir bookmarks on each table to solitication of song ideas from the audience on index cards (taking a cue from the old Mac Davis TV show in which he would make up songs on the spot from audience suggestions). Brian was up to the challenge, creating improv songs about riding a horse and burgers and election day.

Brian clearly has the full package--great songs, great singer, great guitar player, charismatic performer. He won the crowd over in a big way with a comical song, "You Don't Know Jack About Jill", about how little men knew about women. He also did a couple of songs which were already well known to some of us, "Fallen Angels" and "Footprints".

Brian blew me away at a recent gathering with a song about fatherhood, "Daddy Let Me Go". The song was co-written by one of the night's other artists, Jody Serrato. Described by Brian as "a young Mexican Billy Joel", Jody gave us some strong songs about his experience with marriage and fatherhood and the commitment it takes to keep them going as a traveling performer ("First Step", "Worth the Wait").

Arikah Nash, a singer/songwriter/actress, is full of personality and has a very powerful voice that effectively handles a variety of styles. She wrote her first country song while out in L.A., "Faded Blue Jeans" and it worked well with this crowd. She also teamed up with Brian for an electric performance of their song "Walk On Water".

Mike Seals, originally from Chicago, told us he was a rookie songwriter and had only written five songs so far, but they certainly were excellent. Favorites for me were "Crying My Eyes", a traditional country-blues style, and a highlight for the audience, "One Step" a blues number that got the crowd hand clapping and singing along. Mike, keep writing, so far, so good!

The strongest performance of the evening for me was "Stepping Out On Faith", a gospel tinged number with a solid lead vocal from Brian, backups from Arikah and Mike and some nice organ work from Jody.

You can go on the available MySpace pages for these artists and hear some of these songs for yourself. I was talking to someone the other day about how much fun it's going to be to watch some of these marvelous people I've met and heard here so far get that high-profile break that I am absolutely convinced is coming down the road.

It's 2008 and I still love this town.

Steve Craig, Nikki Cole, Stephanie Layne, Elizabeth Runde - Bluebird Cafe 12/18/07

The last time I saw Steve Craig out at the 3rd Sunday gathering, he told me that he was excited about three female artists he was working with: Nikki Cole, Stephanie Layne and Elizabeth Runde. Steve put together a row at the Bluebird Cafe to showcase these three singer/songwriters who each did a very fine job of interpreting Steve's songs, and he in turn supported them well with guitar and backing vocals.

Steve kept noting through the evening about how "cute" Elizabeth is. Indeed, she is a darling young redhead with a powerful voice...currently a student at Middle Tennessee State University who plans to study music at Belmont University, Elizabeth has won several talent contests. Steve made good song choices to fit her voice, particularly "That's A Different Story", "Just A Dream", and "Way Too Many Tears Ago" (which Steve sang last time he was at the Bluebird in June).

Nikki Cole has a good stage presence and strong voice, as she showed on Steve's very clever song "Frequent Liar Miles", and her own composition "Roses" (accompanied by Tim Smith on guitar), a song about people trying to be strong on the outside in the face of trouble. Nikki has opened for several major acts including John Michael Montgomery and Tracy Byrd.

Northfield, MN native Stephanie Layne did a great job capturing the joys and sorrows of trying to carve out a career in Nashville in the song she and Steve co-wrote "Heart Wide Open". I also enjoyed her songs about cowboys and falling in love at the county fair. Stephanie fronted a band for a couple of years at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.

Steve seems to have a wonderfully successful gift of writing songs that just flow out of him easily. He described a few of the songs he did last night as having come forward that way, and every one of them were good. I've yet to hear a not so hot song from him. I find his songs very easy to picture hearing on the radio. Keep an ear open...

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Speaking of Doak's 3rd Sunday gathering, I want to share with you a link to an article about it that Tennessean columnist, and songwriter, Rick Moore wrote:

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/MICRO020201/712140433/1197/COUNTY01

Buddy Greene and Friends Christmas Concert, Christ Community Church, Franklin 12/14/07

It's been a wild week. I spent three days at Gaylord Opryland for Mark Lowry's Christmas Celebration Senior Trip. On Friday, it was off to Christ Community Church in Franklin for Buddy Greene's Christmas concert featuring Buddy, Jeff Taylor, and Tricia Walker.

Sometimes when you get a few moments into a show, you know it's going to be special. This one truly was. What I liked the most about it was that it wasn't a concert where the same tired Christmas songs were sung. Buddy, Jeff and Tricia took it out of the box and also brought in songs that really reflect the values that should be remembered at this time and beyond: loving and caring for one another. If you go to one of Buddy's shows, you'll also find much of his gentle humor, and that too was mixed well into the concert. (Best line of the evening: while introducing Jeff Taylor, Buddy said "One of Jeff's ministries to me is being balder than I am.")

Admittedly, I wasn't very familiar with Tricia Walker, but the buzz on her at the product table was accurate. A singer/songwriter with songs recorded by Faith Hill, Patty Loveless and Alison Krauss, her voice is exquisite and her song "Heart of Dixie" grabbed the soul. Jeff Taylor is one of the most diverse musicians around, supporting Buddy superbly as usual on piano, accordion, penny whisle and perhaps other instruments I've left out. One moment that brought down the house was Buddy and Jeff's "movements for accordian and harmonica, two lost instruments of the classical era".

As for Buddy...aside from his musical excellence, I love his soul, and I love his spirit. His rendition of the Stephen Foster classic "Hard Times" was passionate and heartfelt, a highlight of the evening. He also shined on "Glorious Impossible", a widely acclaimed song that the Gaither Vocal Band recently recorded, and of course, no way could he do a Christmas show and not do "Mary Did You Know". He told the audience the story of how Mark Lowry handed him the lyrics and asked him to come up with the medley, and that the reaction he got when he first played the tune in South Africa told him the song was something special. It was a neat experience for me to hear both composers put their own stamp on their performance of the song in the course of the same week.

Buddy told us not to go home early, as he would have a surprise for us at the end of the show. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you in the picture--that is indeed Amy Grant, who joined Buddy, Jeff and Tricia on stage. Buddy and Amy did a couple of special appearances together in the past weeks and she stopped in on the show as a favor...it was a treat for all of us. Amy sang "Tennessee Christmas" and joined in at the end for "Go Tell It On the Mountain".

I'm here to tell you too that Buddy Greene is the real deal onstage and offstage, a guy who walks his talk and has a lovely family. Love ya, Buddy.

And of course, I love this town.