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Whew! Americana Fest week is (kind of) underway. Last night was like a pre-pre AMA Fest night. And what a night, it started for me at Betty's Grill to check out Jon Byrd and the awesome pedal steel player Paul Niehaus who played a fun mix of traditional country songs and original tunes (included a couple of Davis Raines songs). Betty's is a great DIY venue which works very hard at providing a space for a wide variety of great music.
Next, it was off to The Family Wash for Homemade Sin (less Dan Baird - who is undergoing treatment for a form of leukemia). I have been looking forward to this show since I heard about it, and my expectations were pretty high... and they were wildly exceeded in every respect. First of all, it was yet another reminder of the incredible community that exists around music. Time and again, when I musician goes down to illness or injury or other hardship, it is heartening to see the community rally in support. It belies the common (and IMHO false) narrative of musicians being selfish or self-centered.
There were so many aspects to last nights show that were meaningful to me that I am having a hard time putting them down (at least in time I have to write this). First off all, it was all just really, really great rock and roll music. Call it roots or Americana or whatever, it was just rock and roll and it was damn good!
Homemade Sin features Warner Hodges (Jason and the Scorchers), Mauro Magellan (Georgia Satellites), and a brand new bass player Sean Savacool. Joe Blanton is filling in for Dan Baird.
Seeing Warner and Joe on stage together was pretty awesome. I have been a fan of both of their music for over 30 years. Warner from the Scorchers and Joe Blanton from The Enemy and Royal Court of China.
Speaking of The Scorchers. With Dan out, the band have added a few Scorchers songs to their set and last night Jason Ringenberg himself was on hand to sing a few. When they ripped into the classic Scorchers version of Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" the usually sedate dinner crowd at The Family Wash exploded and everyone sang along. It was thirty-two years ago this month when I first say The Scorchers live. Jason still bounces around the stage like a whirling dervish and Warner still slings his guitar effortlessly and deftly. Other special guests included Elizabeth Cook, Chuck Mead, and Aaron Lee Tasjan (with Jon Latham).
I was happy to get to hang a little with Robert Logue (Royal Court of China, The Shakers) and Chuck Allen (The East Nashvillian) and hear and share stories from back in the day.
One last thing (and this is kind of a hard story to explain so bear with me): Dan Baird's old band The Georgia Satellites were a big part of the Nashville music scene in the 1980s when I was coming of age. The Satellites are probably best known for their huge hit "Keep Your Hands to Yourself". When I was nineteen years old, I started keeping a journal (I kind of think I was blogging but there wasn't any way to post it back then). The journal was mostly mundane details of my life, stray bits of random writing (fiction etc.), and song lyrics. From the time, I first heard "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" on WRVU (the Vanderbilt student radio station and predecessor to WXNA), I must have included lyrics to that song in my journal dozens of times. And I watched in amazement as it grew from this local thing to a #2 song on the pop charts. It was a pretty cool and pretty rare thing since most of the music I listened to was pretty non-mainstream. So, there was a strange and wonderful feeling when the band launched into that song I got to sing along with Jon Latham and Aaron Lee Tasjan. And then when Joe Blanton turned his guitar over to Aaron Lee Tasjan... I was just floored. Music for me is ALL about connections and there were so many connections made last night. It was a perfect way to begin a very busy week that promises many great moments.
As I mentioned yesterday, E2TG is going to break some new ground for us this week, as we welcome our first guest blogger - Collins de la Cour who will be covering some select Americana Fest shows for us. Her introductory post is coming later today, and I am blown away by how good it is, and I think you will be, too.
It is Tuesday, and this is the day that we shuffle up songs from the "New Music" which is mostly (fairly) recent music that we have had the chance to feature here. We have a pretty cool mix today so let's not dally any more....
