Nashville Cats

I spent a sweltering afternoon at the Jackson day event with a bunch of Democrats and those who would suck up to them. It was so hot that John Edwards had a tiny bead of sweat on his otherwise perfect brow. Talk about good genes...I looked at the picture of the two of us standing together near the bar (though neither of us was drinking) and I can't believe that I am a year younger than he is!

One of us has been "Rode hard and put up wet" way too many times, and the other is just too pretty for words. I'm not saying which is which.

Edwards was wearing a stunning blue tie that matched his eyes and he definitely made that two thousand dollar suit look good. My "Hey, Ladies, look at me!" inner preening male, Hates this guy.

He gave a great speech, but I wish he'd just grabbed his fiddle and stood in with the bluegrass band in the big tent.

Most folks don't realize that John Edwards is a fine violinist. I caught him in the backup musicians on Letterman. Played a fine solo, even if it was more violin than fiddle.

...No accounting for taste, huh?

I probably don't have to tell you this but the feed under the big tent was barbecue with Calhoun's BBQ sauce and Jack Daniels pecan pie.

That's "P"can pie, for you folks who aren't from around here. I made myself not go back for seconds.

The great thing about Nashville is the music and it's everywhere, with the street musicians being as good as the folks inside on the stage, just with less amplification.

We ran into two guys stepping fast carrying a standup base and a guitar, headed for their next gig, and we joked with them about our missing the last show. The unlikely looking guitar player flashed huge and incomplete smile and said, "Guys, for twenty bucks, we'll set it up and play for you right here!" but we declined and let them get going.

They work hard for the money.

We club hopped Nashville, settling in on a new place I think was called Rhythms, after making the rounds twice. Four of the best jazz rock musicians I've listenend to in ages, or maybe ever, gave the eight people left in the room an awesome show.

Two nice and very large ladies asked us to dance and rocked the floor without us when we declined. Folks...there are things I saw...that I didn't know a big girl could do. and that's all I'm going to say.

The music was incredible.

I kept staring at the guitar players fingers trying to figure out how he was doing what he was doing, as he and the keyboard man swapped stratospheric licks. Thirty minutes into the set, I figured out that the keyboardist and leader was Joseph Wooten, brother of Victor and Roy Wooten. Victor Wooten is the world reknowned bass player for Bela Fleck and Roy is actually know as "FutureMan", the synthesizer drummer for the Flecktones. That's all nice but Joseph was in the house tonight. Ten days earlier he had been playing for twelve thousand people in Knoxville's Market Square and eight of us had a private show going.

You could tell that those guys loved performing but they loved the music even more. Even though they had only us for an audience, they showed a ton of class.

We closed the place down. Thanks, Nashville!


Peace,

Steve

*****
Here's the leaderof the band:

Joseph_Wooten

Here's the music:



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Quote of the day:

I love Rock and Roll...Too bad there's not some of it left....Shelby Lynn