When: May 23-27, 2014
Where: Broadway / Nashville, TN
With: Barb
Of Note: One night in Nashville is fun. Two nights in Nashville is a LOT of fun. Three nights in Nashville pushes you to the brink of death. Four nights in Nashville? That makes you a champion.
So, because my life is awesome, I had the opportunity to piggy back on a work trip and spend Memorial Day week-end in Nashville, TN. And, since Barb is always up for anything and needed a week-end away, she flew down to meet me. Guys? Nashville is amazing because you can (almost literally) see bands 24 hours a day. Most of you who have been to this space before will understand that is essentially utopia. So, because I figure that at least one of these guys will BLOW UP to be the next country superstar, I'm going to try to document at least some of who we saw.
First off, though, fair musicians of Nashville, may I make a recommendation? Y'all suck at branding. Only one guy the whole time we were there had a sign with his name & social media handles. Everyone else just randomly mumbled their name at some point during the set and that... is not conducive to keeping an eye on you going forward. Like I said, I'm sure at least one of you is going to blow up and I'm committed to being a jackass who says things like, "Holy shit! I saw them at Stage Door/ Second Fiddle/ Rippy's/ whatever and thought they were great then!" So, even if it's just your name & twitter handle on a sign on the mic stand, that would be preferable to the massive amount of internet research I had to do to put this together.
Also, venues? I get that line ups probably change a lot but would it kill you to put a schedule/ list of in rotation performers/ anything in some sort of accessible place? It was SO HARD to figure out who I saw - even a daily Facebook status update with "Playing Today" or something would be so super helpful. To cobble together what's below, I had to try to triangulate blurry iPhone photos, twitter @ replies, YouTube videos and that one concert promoter guy's website and I still couldn't come up with most of the names. You're killing me.
So, instead of helpful links out to artists' online presences, have some crappy pictures and general gushing:
Saturday Night, Swingin' Doors Saloon
Though we went out Friday night, that was technically "work" for me, so it wasn't until Saturday that I really started to pay attention. The first band we saw Saturday night was at Swingin' Doors Saloon (approximately six inches from our hotel) and they were great. Barb was mildly in love with their guitarist.
No photo, but shout out to the guy playing on the first floor of Honky Tonk Central who made the joke, "You can go on upstairs but you're not going to see a pregnant man playing guitar up there," which made me crack up.
Sunday & Monday Afternoons, Rippy's
These guys were phenomenal. The younger guy (on the left in this photo) had one of the purest, "old country" gravelly type voices and it was magic. One thing that was pretty cool to see was that most of the musicians had little iPhone stands on their microphone stands, I'm assuming for the odd request that came up. Our young friend did a particularly lovely version of Jake Owens' 'Anywhere With You'. Swoon. No, really, like super swoon. (One note to all the bands: you may want to get some new jokes. The "Alcohol Free Band" and "If you don't like what you hear, put a little extra in and we'll get lessons" jokes were adorable the first time I heard them. Not quite as much the fourth.)
Sunday Later Afternoon, Tootsie's
This was such a great party band for a sunny, warm Sunday Fun-Day. Their female vocalist was great and they did a fun mix of country & rock. Fun fact: in any setting anywhere in the whole world, any version of 'Don't Stop Believin'' will cause an entire crowd of people to freak the eff out. So much fun! This band also prompted this twitter gem:
Sunday Night, Second Fiddle
This was one of my favorites; the band was so good and it was SUCH A PARTY! Additionally, I led several sing alongs and kept the dance floor a rockin'. What can I say? Drunk people love me. The fiddle playing was on point, the vocals were great. They played every song you wanted to hear and more. Their female vocalist did an awesome rendition of 'Heads Carolina/ Tails California' that I really liked.
Monday Night, Second Fiddle
This was the one guy who did a good job of marketing. As such, I can say that his name is Cory Farley and though he was not the best musician we saw, he was one of the better "packages" of music, image, stage banter, etc. Also, adorable. This band did a pretty funny pop music mash-up which was hilarious (or it was just very late). When he asked where Barb & I were from and she said Buffalo and I said San Francisco, he asked if we met on Match.com which cracked me right up. Standout song was definitely 'Country Girl Shake It For Me'.
Later Monday Night, Legends
This band is notable for the fact that they played 'The Way' by Fastball. Which... I mean, that's the best thing ever, right? This awesome funk/soul band broke out Fastball? Also notable: a VERY drunk girl climbing guys like trees leading to the crack, "I didn't realize we were shooting a porno." Right after Fastball, they played a song by the Rolling Stones and did a whole "You might know them," routine like they had done with Fastball. This gave me an in for my best crack of the week-end, "The Rolling Stones? They're no Fastball." Sometimes I am hilarious.
Even Later Monday Night, The Stage
This band is called the Matte Gray Band and I'm pretty sure we also saw them Sunday night. Monday night is more important, though, because right after we walked in, they started to play what is (apparently, who knew?) my very favorite song in the whole world 'Callin' Baton Rouge'. We must have heard that song a billion times over the four days in Nashville but I cannot get enough of it. Like, I listened to it for a solid hour today at work. I stand by the fact that the bridge is one of the best crafted phrases of music ever and I was super excited to hear it "one last time". (Spoiler alert: we heard it again the next afternoon before heading to the airport.) Anyway, this is a tremendous party band and the crowd both nights loved them.
So, that's Nashville! I've got my money on the Rippy's afternoon guy to be the one who makes it big but... what do I know?
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