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!