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...