From Music Hell To Music City
Sunrise over Austin airport...
I've been kind of obsessing on older music lately, mostly the 50s Sun Records stuff. All that music- the first (and best) recordings by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a bunch of other more obscure artists- was recorded in the same room by one guy. I really wanted to visit the studio when the Strokes were in Memphis but basically slept thru my window to do so. Now, as we move from Austin to Atlanta to Nashville, it all seems like a perfect soundtrack for this part of the country. I'm also reading Cash, the autobiography of Johnny Cash, so that adds to the overall aesthetic. The book is amazing, just JC speaking plainly yet profoundly about his life & career. I had to struggle not to weep openly on the plane when I was reading about when Roy Orbison lost 2 of his sons shortly after the death of his wife. Poor Roy. Such a rough life for such a good man.
So anyway, after a few hours rest at the hotel after the Blender party, we got to the airport in Austin just in time for sunrise. I hadn't slept at all. Most everyone else had slept a couple hours, which I think was worse. I'm much better at staying up all night than getting up after a few hours sleep. We flew to Atlanta and took a van straight to the gig. The bus wasn't there yet so we went to Whole Foods for food. It's always a treat if there's a Whole Foods walking distance from the gig. It was a cool but nice day in Atlanta. The sky looked like this as the day faded...
Another show came and went and we rolled off into the night towards Nashville. Being on tour for so many years I've come to develop a strange relationship with the Great American Night. It's a whole other world going on out there while everyone else sleeps. The sights, smells, sounds and especially the people of a truck stop at 3am somewhere outside Memphis, Tennessee or Davenport, Iowa take you a long way towards understanding America. Maybe I hyper-romanticize it. I did read a lot of Kerouac when I was younger. Still, there's something about it that makes me feel at once like I belong here yet totally alienated, much like America as a whole. And so, after another night spent flying across middle America, I awoke in Nashville. Music City. Home of the Opry. Strange then that we had my least favorite show of the tour there. As complaining about venues and such can't make for interesting reading, I'll skip that part. We did the show and went to sleep at the hotel.
Downtown Nashville, just before a rain...
We had a day off in Nashville so I walked downtown with Bri. Downtown Nashville (or at least the 'Music Row' part) is lined with historic bars (all of which have live music ALL the time-including 4pm on Monday) and record stores and such. The Ryman is right there which is where the Grand Ole Opry was for years. We checked out Ernest Tubb's record shop which I think must be the site of the first ever 'Instore performance'. They've been doing the 'Midnight Jamboree' there since 1947 and it's still going. On Saturday nights, after the Opry ended, various folks would go across the street to Tubb's and play on the little stage in the back and it was broadcast on the radio. That little stage has seen the likes of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and countless others. It was pretty cool to see it. It's still going on every saturday on WSM 650am only now you can also listen online. Ah, progress.
Ernest Tubb's...
Across from Ernest Tubb's is Gruhn Guitars, a pretty famous guitar shop that I like to visit whenever I'm in town. I've never bought anything there but it's always fun to gawk. They have a ton of sweet, vintage guitars.
This time I was in the mood to buy something. I actually went there in hopes I'd find something I liked that I could afford. There were about 12 guitars I could've easily walked out of there with but this one spoke to me...
It's a 1955 Gibson ES-225. And it's mine. Defintely one of the best purchases I've made in ages. It sounds great without even plugging it in. It's the first guitar I've bought in 10 years which is strange given how much time I've spent drooling over them. It looks amazing with it's perfectly cracked finish and classic sunburst. It seems apt to have bought it in Nashville. And so, new baby in hand, we were off to Indianapolis. A darkness looms...
I've been kind of obsessing on older music lately, mostly the 50s Sun Records stuff. All that music- the first (and best) recordings by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a bunch of other more obscure artists- was recorded in the same room by one guy. I really wanted to visit the studio when the Strokes were in Memphis but basically slept thru my window to do so. Now, as we move from Austin to Atlanta to Nashville, it all seems like a perfect soundtrack for this part of the country. I'm also reading Cash, the autobiography of Johnny Cash, so that adds to the overall aesthetic. The book is amazing, just JC speaking plainly yet profoundly about his life & career. I had to struggle not to weep openly on the plane when I was reading about when Roy Orbison lost 2 of his sons shortly after the death of his wife. Poor Roy. Such a rough life for such a good man.
So anyway, after a few hours rest at the hotel after the Blender party, we got to the airport in Austin just in time for sunrise. I hadn't slept at all. Most everyone else had slept a couple hours, which I think was worse. I'm much better at staying up all night than getting up after a few hours sleep. We flew to Atlanta and took a van straight to the gig. The bus wasn't there yet so we went to Whole Foods for food. It's always a treat if there's a Whole Foods walking distance from the gig. It was a cool but nice day in Atlanta. The sky looked like this as the day faded...
Another show came and went and we rolled off into the night towards Nashville. Being on tour for so many years I've come to develop a strange relationship with the Great American Night. It's a whole other world going on out there while everyone else sleeps. The sights, smells, sounds and especially the people of a truck stop at 3am somewhere outside Memphis, Tennessee or Davenport, Iowa take you a long way towards understanding America. Maybe I hyper-romanticize it. I did read a lot of Kerouac when I was younger. Still, there's something about it that makes me feel at once like I belong here yet totally alienated, much like America as a whole. And so, after another night spent flying across middle America, I awoke in Nashville. Music City. Home of the Opry. Strange then that we had my least favorite show of the tour there. As complaining about venues and such can't make for interesting reading, I'll skip that part. We did the show and went to sleep at the hotel.
Downtown Nashville, just before a rain...
We had a day off in Nashville so I walked downtown with Bri. Downtown Nashville (or at least the 'Music Row' part) is lined with historic bars (all of which have live music ALL the time-including 4pm on Monday) and record stores and such. The Ryman is right there which is where the Grand Ole Opry was for years. We checked out Ernest Tubb's record shop which I think must be the site of the first ever 'Instore performance'. They've been doing the 'Midnight Jamboree' there since 1947 and it's still going. On Saturday nights, after the Opry ended, various folks would go across the street to Tubb's and play on the little stage in the back and it was broadcast on the radio. That little stage has seen the likes of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and countless others. It was pretty cool to see it. It's still going on every saturday on WSM 650am only now you can also listen online. Ah, progress.
Ernest Tubb's...
Across from Ernest Tubb's is Gruhn Guitars, a pretty famous guitar shop that I like to visit whenever I'm in town. I've never bought anything there but it's always fun to gawk. They have a ton of sweet, vintage guitars.
This time I was in the mood to buy something. I actually went there in hopes I'd find something I liked that I could afford. There were about 12 guitars I could've easily walked out of there with but this one spoke to me...
It's a 1955 Gibson ES-225. And it's mine. Defintely one of the best purchases I've made in ages. It sounds great without even plugging it in. It's the first guitar I've bought in 10 years which is strange given how much time I've spent drooling over them. It looks amazing with it's perfectly cracked finish and classic sunburst. It seems apt to have bought it in Nashville. And so, new baby in hand, we were off to Indianapolis. A darkness looms...
posted by JJL at 10:35 PM
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