Horses, Titans, Lillies and the Boys of Summer

We put a few more memorable events under our belts over the last week or so that are worth noting:

Hello again, new friends.



Farewell, old friend.

Friday, August 17, 2012 - Rarely do we go to a music show just to see the opener(s) but that's just what we did tonight as we caught a local Nashville-based band we have seen before (also as an opener) and really liked.  A Thousand Horses were at 12th & Porter opening for The Jompson Brothers.  They were spot-on and sound better every time we see them.  Thanks to our friends, Danny and Brenda, for also checking them out with us.  Another Nashville-based band we like, The Cadillac Black, were also playing, but we had to miss their set due to conflicting plans.  Beforehand,  the four of us had dinner at one of favorite independent restaurants in town, Rumba, which is sadly closing its doors at the end of September on West End Avenue after 10 years in business.  Ashlee and I parted ways after the music show with me going with Danny to catch a late showing of "The Bourne Legacy" along with his and Brenda's youngest son, Kyle; while Ashlee and Brenda headed over to The Belcourt Theater for a midnight showing of that goofy musical movie classic, "Xanadu."  Women...?

The North End Zone Titantron

Thursday, August 23, 2012 - Our friend, Wayne, invited us to a Tennessee Titans preseason game vs. the Arizona Cardinals tonight.  While we are not the biggest fans of football games that don't count, it was a chance to check out the vast new improvements at LP Field including the two huge "Titantrons" looming over each end zone with incredible high-def TV projection (the screens are almost too big and too perfect, making it  very hard to watch the actual game on the field!), express elevators to the top level (super fast!) and a booming new sound system (super loud!).  We had dinner beforehand at the always great Drifters BBQ over in East Nashville.  Thanks to Wayne for the tickets and the fun times (which always count in our opinion).  And yes, for those of you keeping score of preseason games (but why?), the Titans did "win."



18 years and growing

 

Saturday, August 25, 2012 - We headed back down to Chattanooga for the weekend and another attendance of the Southern Brewers Festival in Chattanooga.  We were excited to see that one of our favorite regional bands, The Black Lillies, who we just saw in Bristol recently, were on slate of bands playing during the day-long festival. 

We were fortunate enough to stay right beside the festival held downtown on the Tennessee River on the beautiful boat owned by our friends, Tiff and Brenda.  Another highlight of the day was watching the team from Goodlettsville, TN, in the American Championship Game of the Little League World Series on TV.  The Tennessee boys won in extra innings in a crazy see-saw of a game over another team from California.  Thanks to our friend, Mike, for joining us for the game viewing and the beer festival. 

Our lodging for the night.  Thanks Capt. Tiff and 1st Mate Brenda!

The Black Lillies opened the day of music on the beautiful
 Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.

Our view of the Little League World Series from the outdoor seating
at the Blue Plate Bar in downtown Chattanooga.

Bristol Stopover

We attended our second brand new music festival of the year(Bunbury in Cincinnati being the first) this past weekend hosted by none other than our favorite new band on the music scene in the last few years, Mumford & Sons.  Their day-long music festival is called "The Gentlemen of the Road" tour and the closest of the mere four "stop overs" it was making in the U.S. this summer was in Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee, so we grabbed tickets when they went on sale before it SOLD OUT in a brief amount of time and planned a long weekend up to the northeast corner of our state.

Friday, August 10, 2012:  We hopped in our new black 2012 Honda Accord and proceeded to take it on its first real road trip
as we headed eastward.  We stopped for a late lunch in Knoxville to use a Groupon we had bought for a beer and cheese flight at Cafe 11,  a newly-opened European-style coffee house (that also serves beer, hence the European influence) on Gay Street in the city's historically restored downtown area.

The place was really quiet for a Friday afternoon as the school year at nearby UTK doesn't start until next week.  We became fast friends with the owner, Mustafa, since we were the only ones in the place at times and he was gracious enough to whip us up a cheese board even though the Groupon was meant to only be used after 5 P.M.  We grabbed three craft beers as well and had a nice relaxing break from the 4-hour drive to Bristol from our home.  We bid Mustafa farewell and wished him the best on his new endeavor, hoping it does well enough for us to visit him again sometime



Maybe so, but definitely a good place to visit.



As part of the Mumford & Sons weekend, the city was putting on some
pre-festival activities as well including a classic car show up and down
State Street.  Many of the quaint downtown shops were open as well
and the art galleries were giving out free wine samples!

Saturday, August 11:  The music festival didn't start until 2 PM, so we lazily slept in and relaxed around the Doubletree hotel room over in nearby Johnson City.  We had about a 20-minute drive back to Bristol and we headed out a little after noon to grab some lunch before the fun started. 

We strolled back down State Street and decided to eat at  the famous (or infamous - it seems it's the last place Hank Williams was seen alive??) Burger Bar.  The place is tiny and we were lucky enough to grab a couple seats at the bar itself and have a couple of delicious made-when-you-order-it cheeseburgers combos.

Tiny Bristol was an obvious place for their  music festival for music lovers like Mumford & Sons given the long history in music here including the fact that it, not Nashville, is the true birthplace of country music.

The crowds were big with a SOLD OUT maximum of 17,500 tickets sold.

The first set of the day on the smaller of two stages, was one of the best performances of the festival in our opinion, and a great new musical discovery for us, was Simone Felice (far right) and his outstanding  band, joined here with "Big" Mike Harris of Nashville's own, Apache Relay, who played the bigger stage later in the day.  At another show at this same stage with the band, Haim, we had a personal thrill of seeing and meeting, James Trimble, lead singer of one of our favorite regional bands, The Dirty Guv'nahs who was taking in the music festival with his fiancee'.

The "big stage" was just that.  The weather couldn't have been much better.  The line-up was great all day with a few bands we had seen before and like (The Apache Relay, Dawes and, of course, Mumford & Sons ) and a few acts we've been wanting to see play live like Justin Townes Earles on stage in the photo above.

Mumford & Sons were awesome, as usual.  Several of their new songs off their upcoming and long-awaited sophomore album called "Babel" sounded great live.  They finished their encore by bringing all the artists who had played throughout the day up on stage for a raucous cover of Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel."

There was even a free after party show at the Mural Stage just off State Street by another band we are growing fond of called The Black Lillies, a dandy groove-grass band out of Knoxville that we've seen a few times.

Sunday, August 12, 2012 - We had nowhere to be but home today, so we slept in again and headed out around noon heading back southwest toward Knoxville.  Our only real destination was a late lunch at Pizza Palace, an East Knoxville tradition for over 50 years.  Yes, Italian's in their name, but onion rings are also their game and served with a spaghetti-sauce dipping cup - delicious!  Thanks again to the wonderful Food Network TV show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for scouting this place out for us that we would probably have never stopped at otherwise.

 

Music in "The Woods" and more "Dirty Birds"

We attended a couple good, albeit brief (for different reasons), shows this past week that are worth noting:

Sunday, August 5 - We took our first quick trip up into the White's Creek area just a little northwest of downtown Nashville to the The Woods Amphitheatre at The Fontanel Mansion (former home of Barbara Mandrell) to catch a couple of our favorite musical acts:  one of our all-time faves, and the band we've seen play live the most times, Train,  along with Nashville-based singer-songwriter, Mat Kearney opening for them.  Opening for both of these acts was young, Andy Grammer, who did a nice set as well.  The Woods Amphitheatre was a pleasant surprise for us.  The acoustics and sight-lines are very good.  The venue is not named for somebody with the last name Woods, it got its name because it's literally built in "the woods."  Surrounded by trees and facing east, the stage makes for a beautiful setting with the sun going down behind it.  Thanks to our friends Wayne, John and Monique for attending the show with us and doing a little tail-gating beforehand.

We took folding chairs in and watched most of the show from well back in the general
admission area, but we moved up to catch a closer view of Mat Kearney do his
thing.  Unfortunately, his set was shortened by an impending threat of bad weather in the
area, but he was able to play some of ours and the crowds' favorite at least.

Train played as long as they could before the bad weather to the west was too close for comfort.
We made it back to the car just before the rain clouds opened up and the lightning was
upon us.  It was a good show despite the shortened length of about an hour.
Despite the weather woes, we will definitely be back to "The Woods."
It's nice to have a permanent outdoor concert venue in Nashville again since
the old Starwood Amphitheatre closed several years ago.

Wednesday, August 8 - We attended a free concert hosted by Budweiser downtown tonight.  While not being fans of domestic, mass-produced beer, two things drew us in:  the fact that the show was at The War Memorial (a great little music venue) and that one of the three acts playing was Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, one of our favorite new-to-us bands discovered at Bonnaroo this year. 

Well, we have to give it to Budweiser.  This corporate giant certainly knows how to throw a party!  They call in the "Made in America Tour" and they are traveling all around the country to different cities with the following: unlimited free Budweiser beer, free customized event T-shirts, free local food, free live music from up-and-coming bands, and even free party favors.  The place was amazingly uncrowded despite the free admission and..hello??... FREE BEER??? So we were able to up close to the stage for all three acts.  First up was a bluesy band called Rosco Bandana who were OK.  Granted the sound engineering throughout the show was not the best, but, hey, it's a free concert.  Sister Sparrow and here eight compadres were up next and we got up close to the stage and the sound improved somewhat.  The band was full of energy and soul as we had seen before and we really enjoyed their 45-minute set.  The final band was Mountain Heart who were weren't going to stay for since we hadn't heard of them before and the fact that it was a "school night," but we stayed a little longer and caught some of their show and it was actually very good.  They are a young, jacked-up country rock/bluegrass band that includes some very talented musicians.

Sister Sparrow& the Dirty Birds rocking the Made in Nashville Budweiser party

Front row for Jim Van Cleve of Mountain Heart sawing away on his fiddle

OBX III: Money in THE BANKS

It's back to The Banks!

Thursday, July 19 - Thanks to yet another cheap flight to Norfolk, VA, from Nashville via Southwest Airlines ($39 each way!), we got another chance to grab some beach time in what is fast becoming one of our favorite places to visit:  The Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Our friends, Nate and Ginny, grabbed the flight deal as well and joined us for their first visit to the OBX.

 

After we landed, we ate a late lunch in Norfolk at a Diners, Drive-ins & Dives TV-show star called Doumar's. This car-hopping drive-in hasn't changed much since it started way back in 1934.  They are famous for their barbecue (which was tasty) and the fact that the original Mr. Abe Doumar invented the waffle ice-cream cone.  The photo above shows his invention still working today and making all their cones by hand (and machine).  The cones were delicious especially with some butter pecan ice cream in them!  Speaking of D,D & D, we came to find out that the show and its host, Guy Fieri himself, were in the OBX the following day doing a taping at on one of our favorite restaurants, Tortugas Lie).   

We got a sweet rental car from Avis, our first Subaru Outback.  We made a few quick stops on the way south into North Carolina at the Weeping Radish Brewery, then at The Outer Banks Brewing Station and then a Brew Thru (photo above) to stock up on more "provisions"'  for the long weekend.

The drive down was gorgeous as usual. 

Our first dinner in the OBX was at The Atlantic Coast Cafe in Avon.  Delicious, fresh seafood!

After dinner we took a walk on the rickety-looking Avon Pier.  Despite its appearance,
the 600'- long, pier  built back in the 1950s must be a sturdy one to have survived so many hurricanes.

We rented a large house through the Outer Banks Motel in Buxton called the Dillon House.  It had tons of room for us and was very quiet.

Friday, July 20 - Beach time!  We had tons of fun boogie-boarding and beach lounging. 
The booming waves were huge and the surf was very strong.
Afterwards, we opted for some boat drinks at Dirty Dicks Crab House.  We drove down to
Ocracoke Island via the ferry and did a little shopping.  Unfortunately, it was too windy
to rent bikes as we had planned.  We ended our visit with dinner at Howard's Pub.

Saturday, July 21 - We started today with a drive up to Kill Devil Hills to a kite festival at the Wright Brothers Memorial.  We were hoping for some more beach time later today,  but some bad weather dashed our plans.



We opted for dinner and drinks (this was Ashlee's blueberry martini) on the sound-side of the
OBX tonight at The Sandbar & Grille.  More great seafood and a wonderful sunset view.
We lazed around our rental house for the rest of the evening watching movies on the
sweet big screen TV in the den.

Sunday, July 22 - Back to the beach!  We grabbed some sand near the beautiful Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse for another day of seaside fun.

 Ashlee is now officially addicted to boogie-boarding.

After driving up to the lovely sound-side village of Manteo for dinner at
The Full Moon Cafe & Brewery,we dropped by The Elizabethan Gardens for what was
advertised as an after-dark "Gardens-a-Glow" event.  Unfortunately, without our knowledge, the
festivities had been cancelled due to bad weather earlier in the week??  Oh well, it looks lovely
through the locked fence and it will have to be on our list to check out on our next visit.

Monday, July 23 - It was early departure from the OBX for us as we headed back to Norfolk to catch an early afternoon flight back home.  Another great trip.  Come on, Southwest, run that sale again!!  We can't wait to come back!!



Browne Recluse

July 18, 2012: 

 I, more than Ashlee, have wanted to see Jackson Browne play live for a long time, and I finally got a chance to catch this reclusive Rock-n-Roll Hall of Famer at none other than the historic Ryman Theatre in Nashville.  Ashlee is all for trusting me with seeing shows of artists she's not really familiar with and having it work out great.  Cases in point include Toad the Wet Sprocket, Better Than Ezra, Roger Waters, etc. So we were hoping for the same affect here. Along with me and Ashlee, our friends John and Monique went as well.  Thanks to them also for grabbing the tickets while we were out of town when they went on sale.  We had good happy-hour appetizers and drinks beforehand at the bar at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

The show to be honest was a bit underwhelming for a couple of reasons.  Granted, Browne, is just a man and his piano or guitar most of the time anyway, so we weren't expecting a really lively stage show, but the song selection was a range of deeper cuts and very few of his popular hits, so casual fans (like Ashlee and Monique) became a bit restless with the performance and I don't blame them.  Another problem was that overall, Browne himself, sounded great in voice and instrument, but his backing band was a bit lacking in my opinion....well, other than when he brought out the great Jerry Douglas (photo above) for some dobro accompaniment to give his California-vibe songs a bit of that Nashville twist.  It was a good show overall, but just not great, and that's going to happen from time to time.  It's still good to say we've seen this legend live and in such a beautiful and historic venue.   Thanks again, Nashville.

What's a Bunbury?

We took a quick weekend road-trip up to Cincinnati to check out a new music festival called Bunbury.  The decision to make the trip was easy due to the fact that several bands were playing that we wanted to see and our friends, Derek and Laurie from Wisconsin, who we met on a music cruise last year, were going as well to celebrate Laurie's birthday.

Thursday, July 12, 2012:
Maui? Fiji?  Nope, just Horse Cave, Kentucky on the drive up
after work tonight.After leaving Tennessee and rain,
the weather cleared for us for most of the weekend.

Friday, July 13, 2012
We got a hotel room at a Hilton in Florence, KY
just south of Cincinnati across the Ohio River.
We slept in since the music didn't start until after noon.
We had brunch at Izzy's, a popular regional sandwich shop
featured on Man Vs. Food.  We didn't have the guts to
order the 5 lb. reuben,, but my pastrami on rye with
accompanying potato pancake were plenty filling and delicious.

The Bunbury Music Festival takes place right on the banks of
the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati.  There are six stages
in total set up along the river.  This is the mid-sized Landor stage.
Some of the better performances we saw during the afternoon
hours included Brent Kirby, LP, The Airborne Toxic Event
 (in the short video below) and The Henry Clay People.

This is another mid-level-sized stage sponsored by Bud Light.
There was plenty of room for viewing and the crowds were tolerable.
The evening performances included a great set by one of our
favorites, O/A/R, ( short video above) and a festival-best performance by local
favorite, Foxy Shazam (the video below is just a brief part of their
wild on-and-off stage antics).  The headliner, Jane's Addiction, was a
bit disappointing as it seems time has caught up with these
once cutting-edge rockers

Saturday, July 14, 2012
After arriving back in downtown Cincinnati before the music
started on Day 2 of Bunbury. We walked across the Ohio
River via The Purple People Bridge, a converted auto bridge
connecting Cincy with Newport, KY.  We had brunch at
another Man vs. Food star, Tom & Chee's, a gourmet
grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup restaurant.

This is the"BananaRama."  A dessert concoction at Tom & Chee's
consisting of a grilled glazed doughnut surrounding fresh
caramelized bananas and melted Gouda cheese.
Yes, it was outstanding.

The weather was a bit more threatening today and one of the first shows we saw
by Imagine Dragons (video clip below) was in a light rain shower.  However,
it didn't last long and the sun broke free of the clouds and left us with a fairly
nice, albeit steamy, afternoon and evening where we caught other
good performances by The Gaslight Anthem (second video clip below)
and headliner, Weezer.

Sunday, July 15, 2012
Since no bands we were interested in were playing until
late on Day 3 of Bunbury, we decided to head home a bit early
after having a delicious birthday brunch for Laurie at Virgil's Cafe
in nearby Bellevue, KY, which has been featured on Diner's,
Drive-Ins & Dives.  We enjoyed our brief visit to the
Cincinnati area.  Above is another nice view across the Ohio
of a neat, new condo building in Covington, KY called The Ascent.

We are going to keep the Bunbury Festival on our list of things to possibly do again in the years to come.  For a first-time festival they had a great line-up, were very organized and reasonably priced.

The boys from Chelsea vs. the boys from Shepherd's Bush

No, this blog entry title isn't about a soccer match in West London.  It's just the only way I could think of linking two events  together that we attended in Nashville over the last couple weekends. 

Saturday, June 30 - They "boys from Chelsea" are the comedians,  Jiffy Wild and Josh Wolf' from one of our favorite TV shows, Chelsea Lately.  They were at Zanies Comedy Club tonight.  They were both great and we even got to meet them after the show.   We had dinner beforehand at the always-delicious Whiskey Kitchen.   Thanks to our friends, Chris, and Tarryn (pictured above with Ashlee and the Chelsea boys), for coming along with us.

 

Saturday, July 7 - The "boys from Shepherd's Bush" are probably better known as the rock band, BUSH, who were at Marathon Music Works tonight.  After a long hiatus, the iconic band from the 90's is back with lead singer and front-man, Gavin Rossdale, looking and sounding as good as ever.  The one and half-hour set included all their old hits from their masterful debut album Sixteen Stone as well as new stuff from their most recent project The Sea of Memories  plus a damn fine cover of The Beatles' "Come Together."  During one of the songs off the new album called "The Afterlife" Gavin even came singing through the crowd and popped up right behind us before we even knew it.  The show was excellent from start to finish. Below is a brief clip of some of the first single "The Sound of Winter" off the new album. Our faith is restored somewhat in MMW as a venue now as the sound was pretty darn good.  We were much closer to the stage than the previous show we attended which might have helped as well.  We will definitely give this venue another try as they keep bringing in great acts.