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Remember when we had a President who was not under investigation for obstructing justice? Good times!
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Had a blast last night at Music City Roots! Note to myself: it's not really that bad driving down there.
Peter Cooper hosted and opened show with a song. It's always good to hear Peter Cooper - even if it is just one song.
E2TG favorites Adrian + Meredith were the first guest act. Every time I see them, I am more and more impressed, and they sure won over the crowd at the Factory in Franklin.
Sean McConnell was next. I was not that familiar with his music - though he has a quite a following. Great voice, great playing, catchy songs.
Mark Robinson Band - another E2TG favorite was smoking as always - doing some of my favorite songs of theirs. Somehow, no matter the line-up, Mark Robinson always has a killer band and he is - a consummate entertainer in the truest sense of the word.
New Orleans legend Walter Wolfman Washington closed the show. Smooth rhythm and blues music that was dripping in New Orleans charm and history. Backed by a great band - Washington has roots back to many of the New Orleans legends - like Ernie K. Doe for example, and it is great to hear him still making great music in 2017.
The closing "jam" was a treat. I have to say, I had never seen someone clogging to a blues song, but I have now thanks to Meredith (of Adrian + Meredith). All that and I was home not long after ten.
As you may know by now, we are still "celebrating" the sixth anniversary of this blog via a special playlist I created. Basically, I went through my entire collection of music and selected one song from each artist that I determined was an E2TG alumnus. It gets complicated - I admit. Back in the early days of the blog, I had "Bands of the Week" "Bands of the Month" "Featured Artists" and the like. I considered any band/artist that fit one of those categories to be part of the E2TG "Family" (whether they liked it or even knew about it). Later, I decided just to keep writing about bands but not worry about designations. Nowadays, I get music submitted to me from a variety of sources. I still think about the bands I write about as "family" - albeit a very extended family. Of course, in some cases I never really connected with the band/artist - or I have lost touch in the intervening years, or whatever... but in any event, I went through all of the artists I had songs for - and the ones that I deemed E2TG artists were added to this playlist. 450 in all originally. Every Thursday, we shuffle that list - we'll do it until I get tired or it or we run out of songs - which ever comes first.
"Light/ Beam" by The Poorhouse Says
St. Louis band The Poorhouse Says contacted me just over two years ago with their album As Patterns Go, and I featured it pretty heavily for several weeks/months. This is a track from that album.
"Church Kids" (poem by Jordan Gaines, prod. Envoy) by Christian Robins
Sometimes, music comes to me from professional publicists, and sometimes from the artists themselves. And sometimes, it comes from old high school classmates who I have reconnected with on Facebook. It has been my goal to always be as open as I can to however the music arrives. The last is exactly how I came to hear KidGrownUp by this hip-hop artist. He nows goes by Rich Robbins and he has taken his music onward and upward, but this mixtape was my first introduction, and it fairly well blew me away.
"The Next Act" by The Suitcase Junket
Sometimes things come full circle. I first saw The Suitcase Junket a couple of years ago at The 5 Spot. He is a one man band that employs a suitcase as a kick drum. There are a handful of artists doing this - and they all have a unique style. The Suitcase Junket uses throat singing and gloriously noisy music to create his unique style. The full circle thing comes about because earlier this year, one of my favorite publicists (as in one who always sends me great music) contacted me about the new album by The Suitcase Junket - Pile Driver and the video for this song. I was really impressed. Really cool stuff.
"Night Owl" by Willie Ames
Willie Ames is a California singer-songwriter this is the title track from his 2011 album which we wrote about back in early 2013. Really dig this song.
"It's All Politics" by Tim Carroll
Tim Carroll is an E2TG artist just because I want him to be. After seeing him perform dozens (if not hundreds) of times - I can say that I never get tired of his songs and I never get tired for watching him play guitar. This happens to be the title track of his most recent release.
"Wichita Lineman" by Kevin Jenkins
I was introduced to Kevin Jenkins via the True Groove Record label, and I love everything I have heard, but this cover of this Jimmie Webb song made famous by Glen Campbell blew me away when I first heard it.
"Drive Real Fast" by Mark Robinson
Fresh off his Music City Roots appearance, we close today's shuffle with one of favorite Mark Robinson songs (he sang it last night). It's from his album Have Axe, Will Groove - and a live version is included on his upcoming Live from The 5 Spot CD. I was thinking about it this morning, and I have to say that along with Darrin Bradbury, Mark Robinson is probably the most important E2TG artist in shaping the present and future of E2TG and my various pursuits (it is only because of his music that I met my radio DJ partner Sue Havlish) (Mark's wife - btw). I cannot not even imagine my life today with out Double Shot.
Kevin Jenkins! An old friend from the NYC 80s. Great to hear this cover.
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