What happens at Blue Bar Monday Writer's Night?

South By Southwest

Wednesday - the first official day of South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX. I met up with Juli Newton Griffith, my plugger at Magic Mustang and Shannan Neece & John Mullins of SESAC. We ate at Kenishi on Colorado - wonderful sushi and we all shared the tempura fried ice cream for dessert. Yum.

After dinner, John and I went over to 6th Street to the center of the action. While we were walking around deciding what shows to see - Trevor Gale from the New York office of SESAC sent me a text message asking me to come over to Antone's to see an artist he was working with who was playing there.

John and I jumped into a cart pulled by a guy on a bicycle. The one we chose was special because the operator had an iPod hooked into the speakers in the canopy over the passenger cart and played wonderful music as he pedaled down alleys to avoid the closed 6th Street. We made it to Antone's just as the band was playing their final chords. Darn!




I told Trevor that he is good for my heart - seeing him genuinely excited about the artists he represents. He was taking photos and rocking out at the shows. He actually listens - and even more remarkably - he actually gets it.

Thursday, I went to the SESAC showcase at Gibson. I got to meet Don, the head of coach operations and he gave me a tour of the Gibson bus. It was the coolest. There is a room inside with amps set up and an SG velcro-ed to the wall. I was rocking out in there when a camera crew came in shooting a promotional video.

The showcase was great - very talented guys.

After, Melody, Nicki and I went back to the hotel to wait for my sound man, John Napier to arrive. We worked on my promo packages until he got there with his sister, Audrey. She gave him a hair cut while we finished the assembly.

Later, we went down to the hotel lobby where people were sitting around playing guitar and hanging out. It was a good night.



Friday, the film crew showed up around 10. We got started and everybody was acting like fish in a bowl. We started getting more relaxed as the day went on.

Matthew Burgess, my percussionist took me to the music store to get a green strap for St. Patty's Day (which turned out to be a disaster! It was so tight it ate my pickup plug!).

The show went great!! Everyone was wonderful. I met lots of new people and played my butt off. I even broke a string as the last chord of my set sounded! What a finale! Al Anderson was wonderful as usual as was Jon Nicholson. I really appreciate the opportunity to play with such wonderful musicians.

Angela & Stephen got 7 hours of HD footage which we will use for various purposes including a Music Video!! Whee doggie.

I can't wait to see what happens next! Thanks to everyone who made the show possible: Kristen Jackson for printing our beautiful packages & business cards, Juli Newton Griffith for printing all the CDs, Shannan Neece & John Mullins at the Nashville office of SESAC, Jim Yerger, Benny Brown & Paul Brown from BBR for helping me get out there to Austin, Matthew Burgess for driving all the way there by himself, John Napier for being the best sound man ever, Audrey Napier for keeping John in line ;), Melody Guy for being my friend & cowriter, Nicki Hayford - my assistant in training & Mr Jack for executive producing our video project, Angela & Stephen for making filming so foxxxy, Windswept for helping organize the show, & of course - Trevor Gale for everything.

The Strangest Guy I Ever Met

The names in this story have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

We turned the corner and approached the open door of the bar. The sign hanging above the threshold and the neighborhood clued us in that this was a dive. Good enough for me. We had been on 6th Street in Austin and had foolishly decided to walk to the open mic where we were meeting our local friends. Our path had led us by a wooded park and over the river - probably five miles in all. My feet were ready to perch on the rail of a bar stool and my throat was ready for something cool.

Amelia was standing just inside. My friend, Natalie was already there waiting with my guitar - flanked by overly attentive and slightly salivating men. They really didn't stand a chance - poor things.

The natives were friendly, to say the least. Seldom had this establishment seen so many female patrons sitting together blissfully resting along the short end of the bar. "Drinks on me!" announced the barkeep.

"I," he declared, "am the strangest guy you ever met."

The music was good. I was told this was the cream of the crop of Austin songwriters. The host was nice, but told me that tonight was not an open mic - he had a full roster. I understood - gave him a card and a hopeful wink and went back to rejoin my friends at the bar.

The bartender, rather - The Strangest Guy I Ever Met was engrossed in Natalie. His drunken counterpart, Larry the philosopher began telling us why she reminded him of a young Dolly Parton and we sat around laughing at their antics.

Presently, The Strangest Guy I Ever Met announced that he really didn't work here - "I'm rich," he said, looking me in the eye. "I inherited a lot of money a few weeks ago - I'm just helping out the owner." Then he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "I know you don't believe me and I don't care," and I didn't - but I wondered.

He threw a beer bottle end over end toward the trash can at the other end of the bar. He missed and it shattered all to pieces.

He laughed - walked down and picked up the shards and threw them in the garbage. "Hey," he said as he came back to our end of the bar, "did I tell you? I don't really work here. I'm rich."

A bearded man stumbled through the door holding a bottle in a brown paper sack,. He high-fived The Strangest Guy I Ever Met and poured a measure of the mystery liquor into a glass. The Strangest Guy I Ever Met glanced over at me, his eyes twinkling with mischief and downed the shot. He then reached down below the bar and picked up a joint, lit it and passed it to his bearded friend. And so it began.

I stepped outside the door to stow my guitar in Amelia's car - a couple of passersby giggled, "it smells like pot," and kept on walking. By now a hazy fog had settled over the corner of the bar. The Strangest Guy I Ever Met sat on a metal cooler cross-legged and leered at me - that is until he put the wrong end of the joint to his lips and cursed loudly as it fell to his lap. He leapt up saying, "Dammit - where did that go? Oh there it is." He picked it up off the floor and re-lit it and passed it to the bearded guy who was doing his best to avoid Larry the bar stool philosopher.

We decided to call it a night & waved goodbye. Larry yelled, "Bye Dolly! Bye Reba! See you next time."

Indeed.

What a Night!

Wow! We had quite a night at Blue Monday on the 6th. Our featured performers, Scott White from Dalllas and Ken Johnson were awesome. On top of that, Andy Griggs walked into the bar and we cajoled him onto the stage. He's a great singer. Then - John Michael Montgomery hopped up there and started singing harmony! The crowd went wild.

We also did the first of our call in radio interviews with Muscle Shoals to Music Row station Kix 96 broadcasting to Southern TN and Northern AL. David Havens is a gracious and wonderful DJ in a market too full of shock jock wanna be-s. Thank you, David. We'll be calling him again in April.

Gearing up for SXSW! See yall in Austin!

Sunday night in the studio

John Napier, sound man genius, and I are finishing up the acoustic recordings for my South By Southwest promotional package. I'm playing out there in Austin, TX on the 17th of March - and I'm going to get a record deal if that is what is meant to happen. I'm trying really hard lately to achieve non-attachment. It is a difficult thing to know what you are supposed to do with your life and not know how to go about it. :) All I can do is my best.

At any rate, I'm sitting here waiting for the next mix to come up and thought I might as well post a line or two.

Hope to see all you Nashvillians out at the Blue Bar tomorrow night for Blue Monday.

--A