Nashville’s Music Row hosts the hopes and dreams of thousands of young musicians. The major record companies, publishers and management announce any new successes with freshly printed banners on their offices on 16th or 17th Avenues. Some bands stick to the age old guerilla marketing techniques.
What are you up to? I have avoided that question on Facebook as it’s part of the same mindless prompting that gives us Radio DJ’s asking us to text in and tell us what we’re doing. However………..as I write I can tell you that right now as I sit on a sofa as I write this blog and I’m listening to Ike and Tina Turner singing You’re Up To Something and I’ve just had a Buck Owens day!
OK I’ll confess- I’m in Nashville Tennesse – and, as the jet lag finally wears off I’m getting really edgy and staying up till after 11 o’clock.
In actual fact this is NOT a late town. I remember being here the first time and having a meal with a friend and I kept wondering why the waiter in the Thai restaurant was hovering over our table. Then I looked round and found that at about 10.20 we were the last customers in the place and he was trying to close up. Whatever mayhem The Outlaws got up to in the seventies must have happened elsewhere or it would have been all over very early on any given evening.
I’m staying downtown so I decided to check out some tourist type things. This is something I’ve never done here before so it’s been very interesting to see what you would do if you were here on holiday. Saturday morning felt an ideal time to see The Hank Williams family exhibition at the Hall of Fame. Good though this was I couldn’t help but feel that the Williams family was trying to convince us that the Hank Junior and Hank III were right up there in the talent stakes with the old man. I will admit there’s much about country I don’t know but I do know this much – Hank Williams was one of the greatest song writers of the last century and his offspring will have to go a long way as songwriters before they enter that league.
Talking about famous offspring; John R Cash cut a lonely figure in the souvenir shop signing copies of his new children’s book. When I last checked he was making polite conversation with the souvenir shop woman.
Upstairs in the general country music exhibition they have an interactive song writers feature. There are six song writers who share their tips and stories. I was glad to find I’d worked with one of them (Gary Burr) and was about to meet another (Matraca Berg) when she comes in to sing with Gretchen Peters and Suzy Boguss on Tuesday.
It’s been raining here off and on all week. I went out tonight to Mt Juliet to see my good friend Mr Tom Jutz for a catch up on the gossip and a song writing session. Tom has just produced the new Nanci Griffith album which is set for a June 9th release. We’ll
hope to get Nanci in for a chat when we return in September. More later…..
About Me
All year round I present a weekly program called Another Country which goes out every Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. You can find the show on BBC Radio Scotland.
Occasionally you'll find me on BBC Radio 2 with my New Tradition.
I also make special programs about artists whose music has inspired me; Ricky Ross Meets... is on BBC Radio Scotland.
You can listen to previous versions of all these shows via BBC Sounds.
