Live The Dream

Today I realized I am a dreamer, not a realist.  I think things through and weigh my options and consiquences, but I dream, and then follow those dreams, after considerations.  I have been thinking a lot about the record contract Andrew and I turned down for McBride Nelson (which, if we accepted, would have been Nelson McBride)  Although it seemed legit and fair, and everyone involved wanted the same out come, I want to be surrounded and work with other dreamers.  I want people that believe in me, and that I believe in, but that want to chase a crazy dream and take a few risks, because without that, there will be no gain.  One thing we were told was that the CD format was dieing, “They won’t even be making CDs after next year” Well don’t tell Taylor Swift that, because she just sold, over 262,000 hard copies in one day, Jason Aldean, is up to 400,000 copies in week one.  Mumford and Sons sold 600,000 copies in one week.   Why would any one stop making an item that sells for about $10 a pop and can sell those numbers in a matter of days?  Singles and digital downloads are great, but there are a lot of people like me that enjoy getting a new CD from their favorite artist.  Now they are anomalies, I know that.  We are not all going to have the success of Swift, or Aldean, or The Mumfords  But isn’t that the dream? 

Ramblin' Fever

Andrew and I have settled on, “McBride Nelson” as out duo name.  I think “Nelson McBride” flows better, however it does sound too much like one person’s full name rather than two dude’s last names.  Facebook page is up, Facebook.com/McBrideNelson, check it out, give us a “like”

We have been recording, and re-recording and writing and re-writing for months now, and we are going to California at the end of July to do some pickin and hanging out in Sunny SoCal.  The most exciting news about it, is we are finishing up all out recordings, and will have a McBride Nelson Demo for sale by the time we get to the South Land.  The songs are all original and I am proud of what we have come up with.  We went back and fourth on a lot of things and argued and discussed about different options, but the final product has become something I am very happy with, and hopefully others will agree with that!

I’m not sure what the next step is, other than keep practicing, day in and day out, try to sell these demos like crazy, keep playing on any and every stage that will have us, keep praying, and hope the right people hear us, at the right time.

After coming to Nashville, and taking a trip to Chicago, this up coming trip to California, I now know I have the rambling fever that all my Country and Bluegrass hero’s sang about. “Keep on rollin’ like an old banjo”

Banjo Player in The Windy City!

What an awesome city!  I have never been anywhere quite like it.  So many skyscrapers, nice people, A LOT of pan handling on the streets, and were I was, was pretty tourist-y so pretty expensive.  I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, overly excited for the upcoming week.  When I checked into the Hotel, I walked into my 30^th floor room, overlooking the Chicago River.  I went down to the company check-in, they gave me $140 cash for spending money, and said I was welcome to hang out and enjoy the refreshments and cookies… Soo Cool!  I was asked to go to Chicago for a company trade show.  Each of the 53 markets in the entire company sent ONE person to set up a booth and represent their market for all of the upper field and managers to view and get a feel for what makes each market unique.  Some how I was selected to represent Tennessee.  The previous week we set up what the booth should look like and went over what to talk about and I got ready to go.  The best part was, I was not only going as a manager, but as a banjo player!

I set up the booth on Wednesday, after noon, and it looked great!  Then on the day of the show, I tuned up the banjo and played and talked to high-ups in the company for a few hours while they came in and out of the different booths from around the country.  I loved being able to play and talk to all these different leaders in the company that I have worked for, for the last seven years.  I also saw a few managers from California that I used to work with, and that was nice to catch up with them a bit.  The work part of this trip was amazing, and inspiring, especially when people started to find out that I was a Service and Training Manager, not a Store Manager.  Which, I realized was kind of a big deal, since they all were impressed with me.  I don’t want to brag or get a big head about any of it, but it was such a great experience for me, and I’m still blown away that I was asked to go, and feel like I did a pretty good job for Tennessee.

           

Now the hard part is coming back to the store after all this inspiration, and “Go Team!” attitude and having to deal with some everyday BS.  I hate being Micro-managed, I’m actually pretty good at my job, believe it or not, so just let me handle it.  Ok, I’m done venting now, The Windy City was awesome!

Jammin' For Jamaica!

Tuesday nights I go to Northside Baptist Church here in the ‘Boro to a college/young adult church group, called “The Orchard” and I really enjoy it.  This group took a mission trip to Jamaica last year to lead worship and build churches and help the locals, and they are planning to take another mission trip for a week this summer.  There are 30 people going on this trip from The Orchard and there should be some great things going on there this summer, However, like any trip they had to do different fund raisers to make money for it.

A month or so ago, some friends decided to have a party marking the beginning of summer, the date changed a few times do to scheduling conflicts, but they finally decided April 28^th would be the party and it took off from there.  Andrew and I were asked to play music as Nelson/McBride, as well as The Artisan Stage, a band that is well known locally and consists of members of the surrounding churches and all good friends of mine now.  The party kept growing until it was decided to become a Show to raise money for Jamaica with a $5 cover. 

Andrew and I put together a list of songs we could do, a set list was actually harder to make up than I thought it would be.  We had about 45 min to entertain, so we narrowed it down to 12 songs, 3 originals and 9 covers.  We played through our set list at least once a day for two weeks up until show time.  The turn out was great, a lot of money was raised and I sang, which isn’t something I thought I could do, but I would say I did just fine.  I was most happy with the songs we wrote, my rendition of The Ballad of Jed Clampett, and The Eagles Hotel California, actually sounds cool on the ole five string.  A lot of people showed up after we played, but we were the opening act so that’s just how it goes.  There was a large group of Prom goers there watching us as well, I tell ya what, I wish I got to go see a country duo playing a back yard party before prom! 

So our first show as a duo is in the books, plenty of pictures were taken, I had my cowboy hat, and was doing my best Brad Paisley with one less string of course, and now we work towards playing more and more shows, every chance we get, any stage that will take us!

East Bound and Broke Down

            Tennessee Jimmy Harrell was back home in Morristown East Tennessee this week to visit his Mom and family.  Unfortunatly, I had to work a lot this week, but I did have a day off so I went out to see him.  It is about a four hour drive, almost the same as Long Beach to Paso Robles CA.  Andrew was actually in East Tennessee the same time to see his brother who was running for Tennessee FFA office.  But with the timing, we did not get to meet up.  His brother did win, and is the current FFA state president, so that is awesome.  I was about 15 miles out of Morristown when I felt something wrong with my car, I’ve actually never had a flat tire, I have fixed them more than once for other people.  My Dad taught me how to change a flat, not so much for when I get one, it was more of a, “Son, someday a cute girl is going to get a flat tire and you don’t want to be the guy that doesn’t know what to do, besides call AAA.”  Good call Pops. 

            My tire was completely blown out, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but Mr. Chevrolet decided to put little plastic lug nut caps over the lug nuts, and one of them had broken off, so I couldn’t get the lug not off.  I’m not sure when, or why they decided to start using so much plastic on cars, but there is just something about a car that has more plastic than metal or you can’t hear idol that I just don’t trust.  I managed to get it off with a paper clip actually, kind of weird, but it worked.  Then With a little donut tire on, I made the rest of the trip.

            East Tennessee is BEAUTIFUL!  The hills are amazing to see and drive through.  Jimmy (Out here he is just Jimmy, since everyone is a “Tennessee” here) and I headed up to the Harrell old home place, I had a nip of moonshine, the best wine I have ever had, made right in the basement.  We played music with different people there, and played for a nice couple, Georgie and Bruce.  Georgie is a sweet lady that was good friends with Jimmy’s parents. She has been living in her house for 90 years.  She is 91.  We would pick a song, and then she would say something about how things used to be around there, and then we’d play another.  Her husband Bruce, said he used to hunt Turkey there but hasn’t in a while, then showed me a necklace he made that had to be six feet long, with turkey spurs all over it, he pointed at one of them and said, “That was from the biggest turkey I ever shot…” Very cool.

            Not only did I have some of the best wine I’ve ever had, made in the basement, I took a sip of real Moonshine, pretty sure you can run a car on that stuff, how people drink it, I’ll never know.  Jimmy’s family was crazy nice, the defintion of southern hospitality and I do plan on heading back to East Tennessee to see them all and play some more great mountain music! Made it back to Murfreesboro, just in time for work more flat tires!

On a side note, since, I have an extra good tire, I’m going to buy an extra rim and keep a real spare tire, what’s the deal with those “donut” spares?  

Scruggs, 'Nuff Said.

On Wednesday of last week, as I was working hard, I got a text from a good friend that said, “I just heard about Earl Scruggs, my condolences” I hadn’t heard the news yet, but I knew what this meant.  Earl Scruggs had passed away that morning at the age of 88. 

            Many people may not know who Earl Scruggs is, in fact I didn’t see anything about it on some contemporary country radio Face book pages or Twitters.  It didn’t spread around on every news station for days, like Whitney Houston.  However, Earl Scruggs was not another banjo player, he was THE Banjo player.  I play Bluegrass banjo, and Country Music.  It is known as “Three Finger Scruggs Style” Earl played with his three fingers on his right hand, thumb, index, and middle.  Until he started this and made it popular, banjo was played with just the thumb and index, which is still popular today, Mike Snider, Uncle Dave Macon, String Bean, Grandpa Jones all played that frailing style.  Earl didn’t just add an extra finger, he changed banjo playing, and he started the three-finger roll that you hear in today’s Country music.  When all the little girls are singing a long with Taylor Swift crying on her guitar about how a boy doesn’t like her, that banjo wouldn’t sound like that had it not been for Mr. Scruggs. 

            The first thing I did when I started banjo, was buy a Flatt and Scruggs greatest hits.  Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs came from Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass band, and started their own group.  As a banjo player there are a few tunes people always want to hear, two of them are, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “The Ballad of Jed Clampet” both Flatt and Scruggs songs.  I would not play banjo had it not been for Earl, and I would not be in Nashville now.  I did get a chance to see Earl play twice, The Stagecoach Music Festival in California, and it meant a lot to me to be able to watch him play, there is a punch and a drive to his banjo that cannot be explained other that “Scruggs, ‘nuff said”

            This Sunday, most of the big Country Stars were in Vegas for the ACM awards, but I was in Nashville.  After Church I went to the Ryman Auditorium for the public funeral of my fallen hero, and anything that happened at the ACMs, won’t hold a candle to what went on in the Ryman this afternoon.  This was actually my first time in the Ryman, the second level of pews were filled up, Andrew and I snagged good seats though.  Eddy Stubbs of WSM 650Am hosted it and delievered the eulogy.  I don’t have much experiences with funerals, however this one was amazing.  Charlie Daniels, Bela Fleck, The Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs and The Whites, Patty Lovelace, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Jim Mills, John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, all spoke or performed, or both.  There were many highlights and moments that I’ll never forget.  When Ricky Skaggs talked about how much of an impact Earl had on the next generation of players, Ricky asked everyone to raise their hands if they were banjo players, I raised my hand high and looked around at the hundreds of other hands in the air.  That was the impact this man had on everyone in that room and listening on the radio, or anyone that has ever played the banjo, or even just heard a banjo, Earl Scruggs gets credit for that in some way or another ad far as I’m concerned.  Another special moment was towards the end, Vince Gill had already sung a little bit with Emmylou, but he came back to the stage and spoke before singing again.  Vince talked about Earl having to lay a son in the ground, and how Vince’s parents had to do that with his brother years ago.  He got choked up (Along with the rest of the place) when he said the first time he ever heard himself on the radio, was a banjo intro to a song.  Of all his number one hits, and platinum albums, Opry Member, Country Music Hall of Famer, known for his guitar work and amazing vocal talents, Vince Gill’s first time on the radio was playing banjo, influenced by Mr. Scruggs.  Who knew? 

            When Vince sang “Go Rest High on The Mountain” With Ricky Skaggs and Patty Lovelace, just like the did in the original cut, everyone lost it, at this point, no one in the Ryman could keep their cool, there was not a dry eye in the house.  A great quote from Ricky Skaggs that day, went something like, “If you are not a believer, I challenge you to look and listen to Earl Scruggs and say that is not a gift from God, because Earl Scruggs was just that.”  Everyone that played and spoke received a standing ovation, and rightfully so, but the loudest applause and the longest was for Earl himself.  Eddy Stubbs said a closing prayer, and they walked the casket out of the Ryman Auditorium, to “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” And what an honor it was to be a part of Earl Scruggs that day. 

Thank you Randy, Gary and the rest of the Scruggs family, for sharing your talented father and friend with e and the world, and for letting me be a part of that day.  April 1^st 2012.

The Ryman was the perfect place for this, it is where Earl got his start.  They had programs, and they won’t be sold on EBay for hundreds of dollars, there was no over the top show boating, just true talent paying tribute to the master of the 5 string banjo.

Done and Done!

The final days of closing down this store were very hectic, long days for me.  By Tuesday evening I was the sole manager for this store, everyone had headed to the new location in Opry Mills, which opened on Thursday.  Tuesday was our final day of business and it went well, I had a few issues getting all the money taken care of, but nothing to write home about.  Wednesday morning I had to be there at 8:00Am and the contractor and was there to start taking down anything that resembled an Old Navy, and what a peach this guy was.  He was an old man with snowy white hair and a thin beard, he looked a lot like the cartoon version of Nixon, with a beard.  He and I did not get along.  To be fair I was very nice and respectful… at first.  His crew was all labor ready workers.  Guys that are paid minimum wage, recently released from prison, and will work very hard.  Bearded Nixon, stood around the whole time watching, and it’s not like he had a lot to supervise, these guys weren’t building anything, they were just taking it down, not complicated.  My main job and concern was to make sure all the merchandise was scanned and boxed up ready for pick up by Friday.  I finished my job Friday evening.  Bearded Nixon’s job was to make sure the building was clean and empty by Friday, he might finish late Sunday night, but I doubt it. 

I have discovered a new TV show for A&E or History Channel, “Tennessee Junkers”  Apparently the metal scrapping business is huge, since we had a lot of metal to be thrown out, there was a lot of money to be made.  Word got around in the scrapping community that this store was closing and had metal…  And people came.  This was a combination of swamp people and storage wars.  Rusty trucks were circling the store like vultures.  I had the pleasure of meeting a few of these charactors, my new friend Tammy, (Prounonced Tammaaay) Had a great week getting a few good loads of scrap.  Then more people and more people would show up at the back door.  In this crowed there were more pick up trucks than teeth.  They were stressing me out and Nixon was not helping the situation.  At one point he started letting these crazies in to the store, which still had merchandise, to get some junk, I had to tell this old man, that unless they work or him, or the work for me, the cannot cross the threshold.  And suddenly I’m and ass hole because “This guy says you cant’ come in…” What are you new? Is this your first job? You can’t let random people walk around in the store!  Old Navy was able to get two loads worth $1200 and I wanted to go for more since the scrap yard sent us a dumpster that they would drop off and pick up and cut us a check.  Nixon and his crew of roughinons were loading metal into the pickups, so I said “Hey how about instead of giving all the metal away you just throw it in this dumpster.”  This did not make him happy, though I’m not sure why?  He said it would be harder, he didn’t want to cut it up to fit it in there, I said what are you talking about? It’s a big dumpster you don’t have to cut anything up just put it in.  He got mad asked if I wanted to do his job, I said “Walk around all day?”  He yelled something at his employee with an F-bomb in it, I walked away.  He later said something to me and I said, “I’m done talking to you, you have a job to do, I suggest you get it done…”  The last time I spoke with him, He asked if these tables were being trashed, I said “Yep” he said “Huh?” I said “Yup.” He said “Yep, what?” It’s a yes or no question, or in this case Yep or Nope, what needs clearification?  I said  “Yep, they are trash.”

So by Friday evening, my job was finished, his job about half way, I told the project manager, I was done, not only with what I needed to get done, but done with this store and Bearded Nixon.  The merchandise won’t get picked up until Monday, so the hired a security team to guard it while work goes on.  I also have to point out that there is an Old Navy in Cookeville Tennessee, and that store manager had a team of about 4-5 people with me every day this week until EVERY piece of merchandise was scanned and boxed, I had no one else to help with this huge task.  If it had not been for the Cookeville team, this job would simply not have gotten finished.  My gratitude for them is beyond words. 

On a side note, the Opry Mills mall is way cool, and I would love to work there, the Grand Ole Opry is barely a hundred yards from Old Navy!