Aloha from Nashville

Disclaimer: This is not a paid advertisement for Tin Pan South, even though it may look like one! For the third time Willi and I have had vacation days that coincide with the songwriter's festival. Once again, we have come away feeling like it was better than ever. I'm going to roll through the shows we were able to attend. I've linked to pages that will give you an idea of some of the great music we heard. Sadly enough there are eight other shows going on at the same time and the choices are really tough to make. There were no disappointments here...

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Tuesday, First Show at the Mercy Lounge:
Benefit for the New Orleans Songwriting Community
Grayson Capps

Dr. John

The first time I heard Dr. John was in high school. I dug out my GRIS-gris album which was originally issued in 1968. He's changed some since then. But then again, so have I. This was a great way to start Tin Pan South. We have just started hearing Grayson Capps on XM Radio and pairing him with Dr. John was a real treat. There were good folk there from the New Orleans NSAI chapter which brought the benefit even closer to home.

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Tuesday, Second Show at the Mercy Lounge:
Gibson Baldwin's Texans in Tennessee

Gary Nicholson, Lee Roy Parnell, Leslie Satcher,
Jon Randall, Jessi Alexander

We all came to see Lee Roy Parnell, but there were other draws as well. Willi was anxious to see Gary Nicholson, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why...that is until partway through the show when I remembered that we have an incredible CD he recorded under that name of Whitey Johnson. My pick here was Jon Randall. We saw him at our first Tin Pan South and his new CD is outstanding. You may remember him as a member of the Nash Ramblers playing with Emmylou Harris earlier on. I was not familiar with Leslie Satcher or Jessi Alexander, but plan to be. John David Souther was scheduled for this show, but was unable to attend. I have followed him from way back in his own singing career, through Souther, Hillman and Furay, and enjoyed his writing for the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. Wish he could have been there.

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Wednesday, First Show at 3rd and Lindsley

ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Rivers Rutherford,
Anthony Smith, Tammi Kidd, Radney Foster

This was definitely one of those shows where I was not on the same page as most of the others attending. At least not in the beginning. In fact when we were waiting in line to get in, a big black Hummer pulled up on alongside us on the curb and the occupant got out and came over to the couple in front of us to say hello. Then he told Willi and I he was glad we came out to the show. We both smiled and nodded and then looked at each other for a clue. What a nice guy. He turned out to be Anthony Smith. We were probably the only ones at the show that didn't know who he was...that is until he started singing the songs he wrote. Sheesh. Both he and Rivers Rutherford have songs recorded by the biggest country stars. Radney Foster was our choice here. He is another one I have been listening to for years - back in the day when I had to check new music out at the library...the cassette was Foster and Lloyd, now out of print.

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Wednesday, Second Show at the French Quarter

Bonnie Baker, Troy Johnson, Mando Saenz, Lisa Carver

Troy Johnson, Bonnie Baker

I Googled Bonnie Baker and ended up on her myspace page. Her music stole me away. Sometimes there are slots where we know right off the bat which show we want to go to. For others we start searching to learn a little more. This turned out to be a great show. I have since found that Troy Johnson has a CD available, but nothing by Bonnie Baker and I'm sorry for that.

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Thursday at the Bluebird

Jon Randall, Danny Flowers
(on left not pictured Darrell Scott, Kevin Welch)

"A thin place is anywhere our hearts are opened. To use sacramental language, a thin place is a sacrament of the sacred, a mediator of the sacred, a means whereby the sacred becomes present to us. A thin place is a means of grace." -This is how Marcus Borg, a theologian we are fond of, describes a "thin place". Daddy D, if you are reading this, you will remember that we talked about this one Sunday. The music we heard this night surrounded me and lifted me up. I cannot explain it. It was a thin place for me if there ever was one.

These pictures are not very good. In the top picture you cannot see Kevin Welch because he is sitting so close. You can see his empty chair in the picture below.

Darrell Scott and Jon Randall

Darrell Scott is the best. That's all there is to it. His lyrics say what I feel and the guitar and mandolin seem to be extensions of his being. All four of these gentlemen were such talented musicians that they accompanied each other as they went the rounds from one to another. It was like sitting in a living room where four friends were playing together. It just doesn't get any better than this.

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Friday at 3rd and Lindsley

Sacha Skarbek, Jeff Cohen, Sherrie Austin, Chris Barron

This was our last show, but what an interesting story here. I wanted to see Chris Barron; you might remember him from the Spin Doctors. Willi was looking forward to seeing Jeff Cohen. We both had made a good choice and the show was another great one. The fun here was behind the scenes. One of the people we shared a table with drew my attention to the next table over, talking about Nick Lachey. I had no clue who he was until he mentioned MTV and a show he was in when he was married to Jessica Simpson. OK - now I got it, and so did a lot of other people. By the time the show was through we could not get out because of the gawkers. Poor guy. It turns out they were right though according to this article.

If you have made it this far, you are probably my daughter or music lovers like Willi and me. If so, maybe we will see you next year at Tin Pan South.