There were some empty seats at the Tennessee Theater last night for the Tony Rice / Allison Kraus / Union Station concert. Not many but a few. I was greatly saddened for those folks who weren't there. They must be in the ICU hooked up to tubes too short to reach downtown Knoxville or they'd be there for sure.
Tony Rice is a superior guitar player in a world of superior guitar players..."Acoustic Bluegrass Transcendant" I would call it. The world's best still breathing dobro player, Jerry Douglas, joined Rice for a way too short set of trade licks and trade back instrumental amazement and the crowd was nearly silent through most of the playing, fearing that any sound of approval would make us miss something awesome that we couldn't get back. Rice even asked why we were so quiet saying it was making him "a nervous wreck up here." We obliged but the recent drunken rowdy crowd noise at the Theater was much more contained last night...not subdued because we went crazy between songs, just contained so we could hear what we came to hear.
Did I mention Allison Kraus, Barry, Ron and Dan? They were awesome, too. But I could take a permanent Tony Rice band member in Union Station. It would cost me a small fortune in cd's but whatever. I'm still hunting through my collection looking fto see if I have Tony Rice and Norman Blake doing Church Street Blues.
One thing I've learned to take with me to TT concerts is a pair of my small birdwatching binoculars. How else would I have learned how differently Rice uses a capo or that Allison wears six inch heeled boots that would make that other Rice, Condi, jealous. Tony also had a matching gold pen and pencil set in his coat pocket to set off the gold chain and three gold rings on his pick hand.
Tony Rice plays a beat up Martin but his suit and tie were immaculate. John Edwards got nothing on this guy.
"Get myself a rockin' chair
To see if I can lose
Them thin dime, hard times,
Hell on Church Street blues."
Peace,
Steve
Now......
Montana Governor Switzer:
...Tuesday, Schweitzer announced he had signed a bill to "re-regulate"
NorthWestern Energy, paving the way for the state's largest utility to build or
own power plants again and pass on the costs to ratepayers. The bill is a step
toward cheaper electricity for Montanans, he wrote in his signing statement.
It also protects Montana consumers from out-of-state corporations "that
place its profits above the economic health of this state and its people," and
is the first step toward lowering carbon dioxide emissions by limiting
pre-approval to power plants that sequester the greenhouse gas, he said.
Governor Switzer is a Democrat who faces a Republican majority in the legistature and faces them well. He has a 70% approval rating in spite of Montana being a red state.
He faces token opposition but points out that a few things about a republican group airing ads against his proposals:
"They’re good at that," he said of Republicans. "They do not appear to be good
at legislating.They’re good at raising out-of-state money and saying mean
things about people."
Like I said...I like this guy!
Switzer
You have great taste in music. I have seen Tony Rice many times in my neck of the words at a festival called Suwannee Springfest. He is just as you described.
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