October 20, 2006
Fall is definitely here. Been having some fun with my scanner.
Maple leaf art is going to intrigue me for awhile, I can tell...
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| The Nashville trip was wonderful. Went to a few critique/pitch sessions before three intense days at Song Camp 102. Had my songs picked apart by the pros, and got totally opposite opinions from a number of different sources. Overall it was very encouraging, and good things may come of it in future. Will keep you posted. See new photos in the Gallery. |
Saw two shows, my first time at the Ryman (a.k.a. The Mother Church of Country Music).
Drove through a monsoon rain storm and braved the madness of Broadway on a Friday night to see The Americana Music Awards, which was essentially a cavalcade of stars, each performing one song.
Saw Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Delbert McClinton, Ronee Blakely, Sam Bush and Elvis Costello doing a duet with Allen Toussaint... Wow! it was amazing. And Buddy Miller led the house band.
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It just doesn't get much better than that, but what the heck, on Saturday night, Nickel Creek performed one of their last shows as a group at the same venue and blew the roof off the place.
They were still playing encores when I left at 11:30 to head back to my hotel. I couldn't cram one more musical note into my skull, it was full to overflowing. Also had an almost uncontrollable urge to buy a mandolin... |
Tennessee was hot and muggy, and there were tornadoes all over the place except in Nashville, where we got the tail end of the massive storm system with cats'n'dogs rain and scary winds.
Fortunately I had a monster truck to drive around in (it was all they had left by the time I got to the airport rental desk), so I hardly got my feet wet most days.
Getting there and back becomes more arduous each time though ... boy, I remember when flying used to be considered quite glamorous. What a concept! *sigh*
Still, it's always exciting and fun to visit Nashville, and I got to spend half a weekend in Seattle, grazing through Pike Place Market, and that's *always* fun! Came home exhausted as usual, but my brain is full of new song ideas and new techniques I picked up from the very inspiring speakers at Song Camp. Special thanks to NSAI, a songwriter's home away from home, and FACTOR, who funded me for half my budget on this trip. Looking forward to going back in the spring and doing some great new demos of some stuff I've been working on. Stay tuned...
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:: End of Farmer's Market October 28 ::
still enjoying potatoes, broccoli, corn, tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, mixed greens, Gravenstein apples and lots of apple juice. Yum!
New culinary delight
which I did not indulge in while in Nashville:
deep fried mac and cheeeeeese!!
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What I've been reading...
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire / Edward Gibbon
:: More accessible than you might think. I chew on little bits of it over breakfast, call it continuing education :)
Main Street / Sinclair Lewis
:: This book was first published in 1920, and it's a delightful peek into small town frontier life around WWI.
I picked up a pristine Signet paperback edition at BookMan BookWoman Books, my favourite bookstore in Nashville, along with a William Faulkner trilogy. Good thing, too, because I seem to have lost my library card! ::
Listening to:
Nickel Creek / Nickel Creek
:: Their first CD released in 2000. Makes me wanna get the rest of their discography ::
Current Day Job:
I'm looking...
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