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. ;)