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!

Coming Out Of Retirement

Even though I have been very happy with not being a manager the last 7 months, the truth is, work has been a little boring since I am working part time again, and while I get to enjoy more time off and not be tied down to any kind of 40 hour week.  It’s just not realistic to survive financially without working.  So, last week my boss asked if I was interested in being an acting manager and “help out” up at a store that is closing down, in Nashville, because the Opry Mills Mall is re-opening.  (Giant mall by the Grand Ole Opry House, that flooded two years ago during the great Nashville Flood)  It was a bump in pay and more hours for only two weeks so I was happy to jump at the opportunity. 

            When I got to the store, I soon realized that “help out” really ment running the whole damn show.  I realized, although a lot of managers were working out of that building, they were all concerned about the new store opening just ten minutes away in a few weeks, so this store, which was still open for business, was just limping along till the end.  Closing down a store is about an eight week process, when I got there, we were about two weeks out from absolutely having to be cleared out, and nothing was done yet.  So, I looked at what needed to be done, made some phone calls to get the logistics of everything set up that needed to happen, let the whole store know who was in charge going forward, and took the helm of this store to ride it out to the end.  Last week was the hardest I have worked for Old Navy in years, both physically and mentally, I had to throw out all kinds of fixtures and metal hard wear, all heavy stuff.  The first day, I put it all in the dumpster and made sure it fit, and was going to call for it to be emptied, however the next day all the metal was magically gone!  Now, I just set any metal trash outside and the next day its all gone, crazy how that works.  I was given the keys to a very, very large U-Haul, to drive back and forth between stores, picking stuff up and dropping stuff off, I think I might have a future as a truck driver, I tell you what.

            The whole closing the store down has been an extremely un-organized process, I’m not blaming anyone really, the store just kind of got dropped by everyone and I had to come in to pick it up and finish it out.  Now, before I’m finished making it sound like I am the Peyton Manning of Old Navy, I still have a week left to get the store cleared out, Friday the 31^st the store has to be empty and I am not at all close to that being done, so this week will be the true MVP test for me.  I did talk to the store manager from the new store as well as the District Manager, about moving up to management again, they said they’d love that and sounded excited.  The only catch is I really want to go to the new store.  It is a long drive from The Boro, but its Nashville, and not just Nashville, the store is literally the same parking lot as the Grand Ole Opry!  I can see the Opry house from the back of the store.  I would be getting paid more, to do something I am good at, and I do like to do it, and I could hang out at the Opry house all the time!  Who cares that it’s Old Navy again, I like Old Navy, and I’m good at it. 

            With that, I hope to be working the Opry Old Navy as a manager within the next month, there is a chance I would be stuck in Murfreesboro, and that wouldn’t be so bad, I do really like my boss there, but, It’s the OPRY HOUSE!  Really hoping for a chance to be up there! 

Another Night In Nashville

I have not written much in here since I’ve been back from Seattle, BUT, I have been doing things around here in Nashville.  Tuesday nights I usually go to a college church service, however last Tuesday, I was Working during the day and through Twitter, I noticed there was a show at the Station Inn.  It was a last minute show, but was a super group of Nashville bluegrass pickers.  On Banjo and Fiddle, Justin Moses, of Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder, also on Banjo, and Guitar, Ron Block, a studio musician who’s been on country CD’s from Tim Mcgraw to Brad Paisley.  Pickin’ on lead guitar was Matt Wingate, who’s day job is Claire Lynch’s guitar player.  The star of the show was Sierra Hull, a 20 year old, Mandoline player and bluegrass singer, who has spent a lot of time playing under Alison Krauss, and Andrew has fallen in love with.

            So with all that in mind, after work, I went home and headed up to Nashville to watch the show.  I talked Andrew into tagging along with me.  I didn’t realize it was his first time to The Station Inn, and his first really Bluegrass show.  The show was great, and inspiring, especially after being at Wintergrass up in Washington last month.  Speaking of Wintergrass, while there I met Claire Lynch, IBMA Female Vocalist of the year, and talked to her for a little bit, I told her I was a banjo player in Nashville, and she asked if I ever go to The Station Inn.  So, who was in the audience of this show?  Claire Lynch, there to support her guitar player Matt Wingate.  I did get a chance to talk with her again, and she remembered me from Washington.  She is not only a crazy good singer and also such a sweet lady!  The band talked her into getting on stage for a song before the night was over.  It was another night in Nashville at a bar watching some amazing musicians that just doesn’t happen anywhere else I have lived, Sooner or later I won’t be in the audience anymore, but until then there is never a bad seat in this town.

On a side note, I took a temporary management position up in Nashville, it’s a little more money for me, and while Nashville is kind of a drive from Murfreesboro, but, I do like being up there more often. I am thinking about going full time again, kind of funny considering why I quit in the first place.  However, I am in  good spot with Church and have Musicians around me.  Besides, people have to work, right?

ChevyCoop is a Tennessean

The ChevyCoop is officially a Tennessean.  I am not referring to myself in the third person, I’m not that guy, instead I’m the guy that has a nick name for his car, which is way better… right?  Anyway, my car now has a Tennessee License plate.  Unfortunately I didn’t want to go through the trouble of getting my custom plates in Tennessee, but they only assigned ONE plate for the back of my car, so I left my California ChevyCoop plate on the front.  I had put off getting registered in Tennessee for as long as I could, my tags expired in February, and I just got them today, March 1, even with an extra day, I missed procrastinated.  I got up early expecting to go through an entire day of DMV problems, that’s from the Californian in me.  The DMV had no line and plenty of nice ladies working and they were not behind bullet proof glass, I wasn't sure if I was in the right place.  It cost $87 and I was done within a half an hour, including driving down to the smog check, which was a joke compared to California.  My car insurance should cost half what I’ve been paying for insurance in The Golden State.  The only catch so far, is I have to go to a different place to get my Driver’s License, and I need two forms of proof that I live in the state, kind of odd, but now I have one with my registration, and my next paycheck will have my new address on it, so that’ll be that.  Thank you Tennessee for being so nice and easy, California take note,  now if they just get an In-N-Out here, we’ll be good.

Andrew and I played some music for the Church here, a week ago, and have already been asked to come back, must have done an alright job.  Next step is to keep looking for more stages to play!  Last weekend I was up in Bellevue for my Dad’s birthday as well as a bluegrass festival, I’ll write separately about that, but the highlights, I met Ricky Skaggs, Claire Lynch, The HillBenders, and played with a lot of bluegrass guys, including my hero, Tennessee Jimmy Harrel.  Who knew I had to go back to my hometown of Bellevue WA, to meet a bunch of pickers from Nashville?

Side note, The HillBenders, while a great band, and excellent performers, do not do well in turbulence on a plane.  And Frontier Air is ran kind of like a Child’s lemonade stand.  More to come...

A Day in Denver

So here I sit in the Denver Colorado airport, how did I get here though?  Well, last month for my birthday I told my Dad I wanted to go to Wintergrass, a big bluegrass festival in my home town Bellevue Washington.  I didn’t know Dad would be on board with this, but he looked it up and said “Sure, let’s do it!”  And he foot the bill to not only the tickets to the all weekend event, but getting me from Nashville to Seattle as well.  He bought the ticket from Frontier Airlines and I left on Wednesday morning February 22, 2012.  Another great piece to this weekend, was that, Tennessee Jimmy Harrell was going to be coming up from California to meet us in Seattle as well!  This weekend was shaping up to be a great time, and still will be.

            My flight left Nashville to Denver at 9AM, it was delayed about an hour due to high winds in Denver, they told us not to worry about any connecting flights, because the whole airport was delayed.  When I got to Denver, and asked about the connecting flight, the lady at the desk said “It already left, go see the customer service desk, down by gate 36, there is a long, long line, you can’t miss it.”  Great…

After waiting in line with at least twenty other people that missed this flight, so they must have sent an empty plane to Seattle, I was told the best fastest option was to fly in to Phoenix Arizona, and then to Seattle.  A little odd, but ok.  Now, my main concern was of course, my banjo.  I had to gate check it back in Nashville, so I knew it was here in Denver, but at this point I didn’t really trust Frontier Air as the most reliable people.  So, I asked about it, and decided to go get it.  And I did.  I had to go out of security and back through again, but now I had my banjo, my clothes though, who knows where those are at this point. 

            Of course the gate to Phoenix was right next to a bar, and there was no way I was going to pass up a beer as cold as The Rockies, by The Rockies.  Turns out the flight to Phoenix was delayed for two hours, which means I would miss my connecting flight to Seattle from there.  I went to the customer service desk again and the first thing they said was, “You’ll have a problem getting that guitar on board, I can tell you now, they will make you check it…” To which I responded, “It’s a banjo, and I don’t care about that right now.  I need to get to Seattle.”  Which in five minutes they got me on an on time flight to Seattle from Denver that left at 6PM!  What the Heck?! If there was an open spot, why would you send me to Arizona? And if I hadn’t said anything I would be stuck there all night!  What is wrong with these people?! I feel like there policy is, “If you have a customer issue, just send them somewhere else, and let someone else deal with it!”  I would love to do that at my work, any complaints, just send them to another side of the country, odds are, we won’t see them again.  I’m pretty sure the only flight that left on time today, was the empty flight from Denver to Seattle.  So I’ll never be flying Frontier again, but that’s the breaks, how hard is it to use your head and problem solve? Phoenix Arizona? Really?

On a side note, Denver seems like a beautiful place, I would love to visit some time and see more than the airport.  I forgot how cool it is to look out and see the mountains.  Also, I’m sure I’ll have much more to write about after a weekend of bluegrass in Bellevue!

Empty Bar Room, Band Still Playing, Living The Dream.

            Yesterday, I noticed on Twitter that Ted Russell Kamp, was playing a show in Nashville.  I became a TRK fan years ago while he played bass in The .357’s, Shooter Jennings back up band.  I saw Shooter a few times in Seattle and in L.A. When I saw them in L.A. I was with Elliott, and we got to meet the band and hang out with Shooter a bit, and it was a great time, especially for the 19 year old country fan that I was.  At the time, Kamp opened the show with his solo act and it was great, Elliott and I bought a CD there and then the rest on iTunes, and I continue to buy his stuff when it comes out. 

TRK lives in Los Angeles now and plays shows all over the place, so when I saw he was in Nashville and I was off work I pretty much had to check it out.  It was snowing just a touch last night and in this town if it looks like snow, NO ONE goes out.  I got to 12^th and Porter, at 8:00pm when the first guy, Hugh Mitchell was supposed to be on.   There were 4 people working at the bar, and me.  The stage was down stairs and not open yet, so I thought maybe I read the times wrong, where was the line of people?  This was Ted Russell Freakin Kamp?!  I got a beer and leaned against the bar and waited for the show.  There as about ten of us down stairs by in the stage room and I was litteraly the only on that was not friends with the band… yet.  Ted played bass for both opening acts, it was real rock and roll, Americana, with some bluesy country twang, good stuff all around.  Hugh Mitchell was great, then Bart Ryan went on and did a solo singer songwriter act, it was a really fun show to watch.  Between acts before TRK went on, He was talking to a girl and I heard him say, “Excuse me I need to go introduce myself to the one guy I don’t know here…”  Which was me.  We talked for a bit I told him I saw him with Shooter a couple years ago and have been a fan ever since, and living in Nashville now I was excited to come see his show tonight.  He appreciated it and thanked me for coming.  He and his band did an awesome show, I felt like I got to sneak into his band practice, because at this point there were five of us in the audience, probably a little disappointing for him, but way cool for me. 

He did some new stuff, some old stuff, and then said, “Thank you to Mike, for doing the sound, Jeff, working behind that bar… and Hell, thanks Laura for being here, Cooper, and Michelle, thanks for staying.”  Then the last song he played was “Steady at The Wheel” a song he wrote and Shooter Jennings cut on his first album “Put the O back in Country” and said, “Coop, this one’s for you, welcome to the club, its not a big one, but it’s beautiful” He’d already dedicated the love songs to all the girls there. 

After the show we talked a little more, apparently he has lived in Seattle, L.A. and Nashville, places I too have lived.  I told him he rocked, I already had all his CDs, which he replied “Really? Cool!”  And he said good luck with your music, he loves banjo and said keep me updated on your music, as he comes to Nashville every few months.  And I signed up for his email list.

I realize Ted Russell Kamp isn’t Brad Paisley and a lot of people don’t know who he is, but I am a big Shooter Jennings fan, and I have been listening to TRK for the last six or so years, and I am a fan of his.  To me he is a great country artist just like Dierks Bentley, Jack Ingram or Brad Paisley.  I had no idea there wouldn’t be many people there last night, and they were so good, there should have been a packed house, but I enjoyed it the way it was. I also loved that everyone there loved being on stage playing, I'm sure they wanted a bigger turn out, but they were going to rock faces off either way.  to me,  he’s living the dream, I can’t wait to play an empty room and meet a few people that say “I love your music” or “I love that one song, I lived it!”  And head out to the next show the next day!  Keep it up TRK and if you want to hear some great music, listen to some Ted Russell Kamp!

We're putting the band back together, we're on a mission from God.

I have now played up on stage in Tennessee!  The church had a women’s retreat this past weekend and they put together a band for the services.  I was asked to play banjo on a few songs.  It was a lot of fun, and I just kind of noodled around for most of the songs and added a little banjo twang here and there, but for a few of the songs I took the lead and we played some fun bluegrass hymns.  I had a lot of fun up there playing and the drummer even told me after words that he had never played country/bluegrass drums but he really liked it, and I realized I’ve never actually played worship music but I really liked it too.  It’s fun to play with musicians that are humble and really talented, they all play by ear, they say what key its in, and then they all just start playing.  Since that weekend, I have been on a crazy banjo addiction.  I have been playing hours everyday and I LOVE it!  Mostly playing hymns and Steve Martin tunes, yep, you can play anything on a banjo, except a sad song of course.

After playing I started listening to some of my hero, Brad Paisley, as I often do, and came across “Life’s Railway To Heaven” an old hymn that he does bluegrass style on his latest album.  I have heard the song many times before, and I am pretty sure I listened to that CD non stop for the first three weeks after it came out.  But it was a little different this time because this is exactly what I wanted to play like.  Even though I really only played for two or three songs, it was really fun and defiantly was a confirmation of why I am in Tennessee.  I am really thankful they invited me to play with them and I am looking forward to doing more of it.  And Andrew and I were asked to play for a pre worship service on an upcoming Sunday!  Hope ya’ll are ready for some hillbilly praise time!

This weekend I’m house sitting and taking care of a co-workers dogs (Different co-worker that last time)  Although I’m not desperate to stay away from where I live any more, I do like playing with puppies and getting paid to hang out in someone else’s house, I forgot my banjo tonight though…

On a side note, I have been to many, many, country concerts mostly Brad Paisley, and I have always been in the audience.  So it’s a lot of fun to be on stage now, and the best part was it was al for Church and God.  However, it was nice to play on stage in a room full of beautiful women. ;)

For the Record-ing

So, how do you top a blog about drugs, murder, guns, and banjos? I had a somewhat less exciting week, and that is A-OK with me. 

I’m still trying to deal with some stuff from Monday’s events but it’s mostly behind me at this point.  I cannot possibly express how much I am blown away by the support I have received from people around here, and back home.  It truly amazes me how many people have helped me during this last week.  The only thing I can do is say “Thank You!” and know that someday if any of them or anyone else needs something I can provide I would do it in a heart beat.  As a songwriter, everyone is expecting a song out of this, and I do have one coming.  Not exactly what you might expect seeing as drugs, guns and shooting is more of the rap scene not bluegrass.  But I got a special one brewing.  Now it’s back to the music! And what I am doing here in Tennessee in the first place.

Andrew and I have been writing and recording music.  I could write a whole paper on recording.  Recording is a long process and much more complicated than what I used to do on my own.  It’s also much more rewarding when done right.  For the first time I am writing songs, that are really GOOD!  The other day we stayed up till about 5AM but we finished a song and I like it a lot.  The coolest part about it is that, it is honest, and it is clearly a song the two of us wrote.  It’s also really cool to start with an idea of a song, write it out, and get it recorded, then listen to the final product. Although, we don’t have final products yet, like I said, it is a long process. 

We have set up a recording studio in the McBride’s back barn room.  Everything we’re recording is through Garage Band on my laptop, so nothing out of control, but it sounds good.  I have some really big goals, but they are starting to seem like they could be really realistic goals.  We have a list of songs that we are fixin’ to record, and a few others to be written.  And now we need to get them in recording.  After that, we put it on a demo CD, and try to sell it around as well as selling ourselves at songwriter nights and music bars.  Sounds simple, but we have a long way to go.  The exciting part is, I am one step closer, and I am actually doing musical things, besides practicing in my room and working all week at an un-rewarding job. J

One injured, One killed, One pickin' banjo...

I don’t think of myself as a great storyteller, however since I started to blog and write things out I found, I can spin a good yarn.  I also found when I tell the same story over and over again it loses a lot each time.  The point here is that since last night I have told this story many, many times, so if any one asks, I will send them here.  This is a bit longer than my usual blog, so here it is again…

I have mentioned that I do not like my roommates, one of which is a drug dealer.  The past month I have been trying to move out with no luck, stuck in my lease.  On Monday night, I was in my room playing banjo, and my drug dealing roommate was in the living room outside of my room door, which was closed.  I heard someone break into the front door and start yelling “Where the weed at?!” and my roommate pleading, “Ok! Ok!” At this point I made sure my door was locked and I barricaded myself in the bathroom and called 9-1-1.  I told them someone was breaking into my apartment, she said stay calm where are you? I told her and said they were beating up my roommate.  Now if I was rooming with friends, like back in California or some of my new friends here, I can tell you I would be out there shoulder to shoulder helping fight the good fight.  However none of my friends would bring this kind of mess home.  So I have no shame hiding out in el bano, this was exactly what I was warned about and why I was trying to move away!  I talked to the 9-1-1 operator the whole time, she did a great job at what she does.  The struggle ended up moving down the hall and back out the front door.  At this point there were five gun shots.  The operator told me she heard five gun shots, to which I replied, “I didn’t even count.” She said, “That’s my job.”  And the responded, “Well, look at you doing your job all good…” totally calm and goofy, not like someone’s getting shot in my home or anything.  Any way, I heard my roommate’s voice come back in yelling he had just shot someone.

The police got there right about then, I stayed locked in my room until the came and got me by name, the dispatcher had told them Cooper was in his room.  There was so much chaos going on that needed to be cleared up.  I have to tip my hat to the Murfreesboro PD, they realized who I was in the mix fairly quick, and took care of me.  I was taken to the Police Station, and waited for hours, but I just hung out down stairs with a bunch of cops watching the Alabama, LSU football game.  I heard a detective talking about me to another detective, she said, “This one’s the banjo player that is already packed up to leave…” A title I am ok with having.  I waited for about 6 hours before the detectives talked to me.  I was a little annoyed, but I learned what went down, and I was ok with waiting.  Turns out these guys broke in going for the drugs and money, there was a fight, and they kicked in both my roommate’s doors and fought both of them.  The drug dealer getting the worse, no one touched my door.  This was God at work, I know that for a fact.  If you’ve ever been to a night club or bar, and seen the giant Michael Clark Dunkin looking guy, arms crossed wearing a black t-shirt that’s too small, standing out front of the VIP room.  That was God outside my bedroom door.  The Russian roommate bolted out and made it to another apartment to call the police. From what I could gather, I believe the drug dealer roommate, shot an intruder in the head, who later died.  He was a 19 year old kid.  The two other suspects got away.

            I never saw a thing, which I am pretty thankful for.  People keep asking me if I am ok and how I am doing, I’m not going to lie, it was scary, but I had a sense of comfort around me.  The last 3 months I have been a prayer addict and front pew church guy, as out of control as it all was, I wasn’t alone.  Not only did I have God, after the police took myself and the Russian, back to the apartment, and police waited while I packed ALL my stuff into my ChevyCoop, which took about fifteen minutes, I had a place to go.  I showed up at Andrew’s door at 230AM and he welcomed me to his couch.  The next day I got together with the Pastor and his wife, from the church I’ve been going to. 

It was a crazy night and a terrible thing happened to all involved, but I am ok, and got out with out a scratch.  I know that if I didn’t have the church here, and God hadn’t set me up like he has with the people around me, I would be somewhere in New Mexico, headed back West by now, giving up on everything I came for.  I saw my two roommates in the police station, druggie was taken away, and I knew I would never see either again.  The apartment complex offered another two bedroom, I had words with them, and will be going in tomorrow to be released from my lease and any thing I might owe.  I wanted to get out of my apartment, this is not exactly what I had in mind.  It’s over now, I am living with Andrew, writing songs, and reading the Bible.  It honestly wasn’t traumatizing for me, it’s more of a thankful feeling I have now.

On a side note, when some one is shot in the head outside of your apartment by your roommate over drugs, and your apartment is covered by cops, and they are taking you to the station to clear it all up.  They look at you funny when you say “Hey make sure my banjo stays safe!”  Priorities right?

PS

The banjo is just fine.

Twelve Steps Forward, One Hundred and Six Steps Back…

For some reason there is no Wells Fargo Banks in middle Tennessee except for down town Nashville, which is thirty miles from where I live.  So I headed up to Nashville on Monday to make a deposit, since I was there I decided to find something to get into while there.  I checked out Antique Archeology the American Picker’s shop which was super expensive, especially considering if you’re a fan of the show and you have seen them get this stuff for $5 at a garage in the mid west.  Anyway, I found myself at the Nashville Palace across the street from Opry Land after a quick stop at the Dukes of Hazzard museum.  The Nashville Palace was pretty empty and having a song writer’s night, and man, there were some great song writers there.  A couple were legit Nashville song writers and that was how they made their living.  One of my favorites was two guys, one did instrumental guitar and was great!  He told a story of how he played a bar like this once and after he got off stage an older man came up to him and said “You’ll never make it in this town.”  He replied with, “Well I wish you would’ve told me that before I played on all those platinum records, this is just some thing I do when I’m not Toby Keith’s lead guitar player.”  That was such a cool night for me because, not only was it a listening to good, original country music, but it showed that these talented professional guys come and hang out with new song writers at a local bar.  I never saw that in any other music, or in LA.

I can’t explain what its like to be at a bar like that was. I’ve been to many, many country shows. I’ve seen my hero Brad Paisley, over a dozen times, and while it is a blast and I’ll see him play anytime I can, that is in a great big arena with tens of thousands of people.  So being in a little bar, with less than ten people (and half of them musicians themselves) is a completely different and fun experience.  That is why I love this town so much.  With my new goals in set for this year, I will be playing these stages soon.  As of right now Andrew and I still play the streets busking, we made a cool $12 during the day.  Later my car was towed and cost $106, but it’s the little wins in life you have to focus on… right? 

On a side note, if you have a sign saying “No Parking in front of every parking spot except for 3 spots on the end, wouldn’t you think those spots are ok?  Not in Nashville. Still love it though.

Nashville New Year!

Nashville New Years!  A co-worker of mine went down to Alabama for new years with her boy friend; they live together here in Murfreesboro and have a dog.  She asked if I could house sit, and watch the dog, and I said gladly!  They were super happy I was able to because they couldn’t find anyone else to take care of the dog, but what they don’t realize was how happy I was to stay out of my apartment for a few nights.  New Years Eve, I headed to Nashville with a very big group of new friends, we took 3 cars to get up there. At about 10:15PM and about 10 miles out of Murfreesboro, Car #1 blew a tire, so we all met them up on the side of the freeway, they didn’t have a spare tire for the truck, however, Car #2 did so we put that spare on, and we went back on our way.  We didn’t get to far, until Car #2 called and said their battery died while on the side of the freeway, so we turned around again and met them back up, and jump started it, and again, went on our way. 

            We made it to Nashville, and actually, parking wasn’t all that bad.  Lower Broadway, where all the famous honky-tonks are, was PACKED, Lynard Skynard was rocking the place for the last hour of 2011, and a giant music note was ready to drop.  It was a good time, people watching, and singing along to Skynard in downtown Nashville.  I made it to church on Sunday morning and heard a great New Year’s sermon.  A friend said that the word “Resolution” was weak, and I completely agree, so I am making some New Year goals for 2012.  I had no idea what was coming this time last year.  I would have never imagined in January 2011, that by the end of it I would be living in Nashville actually going for a career in Banjo Music, but here I am. 

            So, my goals this year are simple, and kind of obvious.  In the last three months I have learned a lot and continue to learn each day.  My first goal is to play more music.  Plain and simple, I want to practice hours every single day, I want to play with more people as often as I can, and I want to start playing out and gigging and playing shows.  Another goal is to continue to write and write more.  This counts both for writing music, writing lyrics, and also writing in a blog! And finally, I want to get closer to God, and study the Bible more, and as much as I can.  Without evening realizing it, I have been set up in Tennessee, and surrounded by musicians, churchgoers or both.  With all that in place, I am very excited for 2012, it has the potential to be a very musical year.  However, like I mentioned, before, January 1, 2011, I had absolutely no idea that by September I would have quit my job and moved to Nashville.  Just goes to show that you never really know what’s going to happen, and A LOT can happen in one year. 

            Set your goals, make your plans and follow through.  Keep your faith strong, take challenges head on, and when things don’t work out exactly like you thought they would, just remember its probably for the best,  and Happy 2012!

            Side note, I got home at about 3:00AM New Years morning, and since I was staying and Amber and Kevin’s I was actually able to come home and sleep!  My apartment was gearing up for an all night rage that afternoon, which is fine, but suck when you live in that rage.  Another goal is to get rid of my lease this month!