Trending Tuesday Morning Shuffle - Taken Away Mix

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E2TG's connection to Darrin Bradbury goes back to 2012 when his old band Big Wilson River was a "Featured Artist". What I didn't know is that the band was in their final days, and I never really connected with them - although I had several mutual friends.  Fast forward to late 2013 when one of those mutual friends Papa Tunes (who was a vital part of the early days of E2TG) sent me a message that Darrin was moving to Nashville and that I should keep an eye out for him. I immediately went out and found some music he had out on Bandcamp - mainly a collection of demos called The Almost Great Crepes. I was utterly blown away by his songwriting.

Darrin moved to Nashville with bassist Cameron Carrus (Buck N Stuff, Tim Carroll, Nikki Bluhm etc) and lived for a time in a car in the parking lot of a Wal Mart. He also started playing every open mic in town and meeting fellow musicians and songwriters.

Early 2014, Darrin went out on an extended tour and my life kind of fell apart.  Meanwhile, his songs started showing up in my shuffle - like every day.  Finally, in the Spring of 2014, I met Darrin in person.  In the Fall of 2014, I followed Darrin to open mics of every kind imaginable. Through him, I met a bunch of people. I began to dig myself out of a personal hole and E2TG was revitalized.

We had a lot of late night, early morning conversations when he was working the back door at The 5 Spot.

Last night, on my birthday - no less - I learned (officially) that Darrin had signed to ANTI- Records out of L.A. - the home of Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, Wilco, and so many more. I could not be more proud of him. I claim no part in his success, but I am grateful to have been along for what has been an incredible journey.

As is always the case, the road ahead is filled with unknowns, but I will happily follow along and see where and how it goes.


I need to add - there is no formula for success and I do not consider myself to have any particular skill in assessing who will or will not be a "success" (whatever that term means). I simply write about music I like and love. In the 7 and a half years of E2TG, I have written about artists/bands who I thought were incredible who are now no longer making music. I knew Darrin Bradbury was something special, but I didn't know if anyone else would ever see and know that. I am happy that it appears that some have.


Back to the here and now.   I am super-stoked about the variety and quality of the music in my new "Trending" playlist.  It's Tuesday - so let's shuffle!

Music City Monday Shuffle - Thankful for the Small Things Today Mix

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Back in the early 1990s, before blogs and social media, I used to change my outgoing answering machine message every day.  On January 14, 1993, I used a portion of this song from the self-titled debut album by Cracker. Since then, it has become a (not exactly annual) tradition.  Twenty six years after the first time I used this song, here is "Happy Birthday to Me" by Cracker.  I remain, "Thankful for the Small Things Today".

I will be celebrating tonight at the Radio Cafe with a show featuring Ryan Sobb, Jeremy Ivey, and Darrin Bradbury.  Three of Nashville's finest - a great way to spend the evening.


We have our weekly Music City Monday shuffle.  This is a good one!  Let's get to it!

Featured Friday Morning Shuffle - Such a Jerk Mix

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Well, this post will wrap up the first full work week of 2019.  For those new here, I typically post shuffles every day I'm at work (with a few exceptions). The shuffles are just the random song shuffles of what I listened to on my way to work.

Here is a run down of a typical week at E2TG:

Monday - Music City Monday - a shuffle from a special Spotify playlist of music from people who live or have lived in Nashville. It is the only shuffle that comes from Spotify. I created this just to give a glimpse into Nashville's musically rich past, present, and future.

Tuesday and Thursday - Trending Tuesday and Trending Thursday - a shuffle of the newest of the new songs to the E2TG playlist. This is new for 2019.  I am going to try to keep this playlist fairly small and rotate music in and out more often.

Wednesday - Wild Wednesday - a shuffle of ALL the songs saved to my phone memory card. This shuffle can be anything from new stuff, classic songs, rare/weird tracks, songs ripped from CDs I've owned for up to 30 years.

Friday - Featured Friday - This shuffle comes from the "Featured Friday" playlist.  This list is also kind of new. It is basically the old "New Music" playlist (music submissions from late 2017 to 2018, but it also includes all music from the Trending playlist, plus any new to me music I get which doesn't fit the "Trending" designation - for example - I got a mix CD for a friend over the holidays - that is included here, I received a CD as a gift - that is included here.


The Video Playlist - every day there is a shuffle, I create a Video Playlist (a YouTube Playlist) as a representative playlist for the daily shuffle.  The approach I generally take is,  if I find an "Official Video" in my cursory search, I include that video, if not, if there is one of those automatically generated videos, I include that, otherwise, I include interesting live clip of the song or at last resort - I will include a "fan-made" video.  If I cannot find a video of the song at all - which sometimes happens - especially if the song is from an upcoming release, I pick a different song to represent. Rarely (although it happened yesterday), I cannot find any video by the artist in question, in which case I just skip the song.

The video playlist is really just a convenient way for E2TG readers to hear a playlist similar to the one I listened to on my commute.


Now, let's shuffle!

Trending Thursday Morning Shuffle - True or Not Mix

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I know some people may get tired of me saying this... and I freely admit, Nashville is the only music town I know really well... and I know there are extraordinary music makers all over the world...however, I continue to be blown away by the depth and breadth of the musicians and music here in the Music City.

Last night, I arrived at The 5 Spot at 6pm and left a little after midnight.  During that time, I saw five different bands.  Jim Hoke - who I think is the most inventive and creative minds around - highlighted songs from his new album backed by an incredible collection of musicians, singers, and guests. Interspersed throughout the good sized crowd, was a veritable who's who of Nashville songwriting and musician greats.  Jim Hoke is the mastermind behind the visionary group Aqua Velvet and he is also a multi-instrumentalist who backs many other talented folks.

The late show - featured four bands. Lakehouse Boys went on first, I was very impressed by their pop-oriented sound and on-stage humor. The band features one of the regular sound men from The 5 Spot as wells as a member of the band Boy Named Banjo.  Born Animals was next. Despite some technical problems that shortened their set time, I really liked their high energy punkish sound.   Timothy George aka The Singing Butcher was next - backed by an amazing band. George is one of my favorite songwriters in town, and it has been a little while since I have seen him with a full band.  E2TG Band of the Year, The Big Dumb, closed the night with a typically manic/amazing set of songs. I have already said a lot about them this week, so suffice it to say, I was not in the least bit disappointed by last nights show.

Now, it is time to dig back into our newish "Trending Playlist" - some of the more recent additions to the E2TG playlist. Let's do it!

Wild Wednesday Morning Shuffle - Wherefore Art Thou? Mix

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I am sometimes asked (not really, I just wanted to tell you) why "Wild Wednesday"?  Well, to my way of thinking, we've made it this far through the week and that is worth celebrating. So, on Wednesday, we open up and shuffle music from all the songs saved to my phone. The songs on my phone include current and previous featured music, songs from legacy E2TG favorites, other music from my personal collection, and random music files that came my way but didn't meet the criteria to be featured music.  The shuffle always ends up being a lot of fun and usually a little wild.  The "wild" in wild Wednesday, however, is a reference to a "wildcard" in that this shuffle be anything.

Let's jump right into the shuffle!

Trending Tuesday Morning Shuffle - Bayou Lady Mix

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Now that 2018 has been wrapped up tight, let's move back into our Trending music for 2019.  Today's shuffle comes from the new "Trending" playlist - which is new music we added in November 2018 or later.  Not sure how often I will refresh this playlist, but I want to limit the size of it. 

We have a bunch of first listens today, so let's jump right into the shuffle!

Music City Monday Shuffle - Gaza to Paris Mix

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In case you missed it, we had two final 2018 posts including the Bands and Artists of the Year which were posted over the last two days.  Below are the links:

1. Penultimate Earie Shuffle 
2. 2018 Fimale - Bands and Artists of the Year (plus one)

Now we can get back to 2019.  Today, we have our first Music City Monday Shuffle of the new year. 

The name "Music City" is traced back to 1950 when it was used by WSM-AM announcer David Cobb. Nearly eighty years earlier, Queen Victoria, herself, upon hearing the Fisk Jubilee singers, is quoted as saying, "These young people must surely come from a musical city."

Truly, I am willing to put Nashville up against any city in the world for the depth and breadth of the talent.

The Music City Monday playlist (Spotify:Music City Monday) was made to showcase a good cross-section of that music past and present. Every artist in the shuffle is connected to Nashville - even though a particular recorded included by pre-date or post-date their time here. My logic is that every artists adds to the music culture of our fair city when they come and leaves changed in some way by their time here.

Without further ado - let's get right to the shuffle!