The Big Bang Theory

We had a great time this past weekend sharing time with friends. On Friday night we met our friends, John and Dori, at the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar in downtown Nashville. We have enjoyed this place a couple of other times with them, so when Rob bought a Groupon for entrance for four people, we knew exactly who we wanted to invite. The place was a ton of fun as usual and we sang along to dozens of great classic songs, some new, popular ones and even a few surprises...who knew Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire" could sound so good on piano!? Not only are the songs performed by truly gifted musicians and vocalists (photo above), but people watching is a hoot as well with lots of folks getting up and dancing and sometimes basically making fools of themselves...you gotta love the combination of alcohol and democracy! Thanks to John and Dori for coming out. They headed in a little earlier than we did for the drive back to their new house in Hendersonville. Plus, Dori is preggers...shhh, don't tell anyone yet. We grabbed a room at the downtown Hampton Inn to avoid any possible DUI problems and to gain a few more Hilton points for use farther down the line. Saturday night we hosted a holiday cocktail party at our house with a little twist. To attend, all we asked was that you make a donation of at least $10 to the "Save Cummins Falls" project (see earlier blog on this worthy cause) in nearby Jackson County. We had a large turnout despite some inclement weather (heavy rain most of the night and a cold front coming in behind it turning everything to ice). Ashlee had the house looking great with her decorating, and the smoked brisket we ordered from the new Blue Moon Barbecue here in town was a big hit. Thanks again to the following list of friends who attended: Joy, Paige, Brenda, Danny, Jim, Wayne, Chris, Tarryn, John, Monique, Nate, Ginny and Emily. Everyone made it home safe and it was a great way to kick off the holiday season.

You NEEDTOSEE NEEDTOBREATHE

November 18, 2010

We headed out to our beloved Ryman Auditorium tonight for our last scheduled show of 2010 on our calendar that we know of. We have a couple of shows in December that we are looking at, but haven't committed to yet. This time it was NEEDTOBREATHE, a fairly, new rock band out of South Carolina. They have had a couple of hits on the radio airwaves over the last couple of years and are really starting to get noticed. We saw them recently open for Train in Memphis and we missed another show of theirs at Bonnaroo this year thanks to traffic snarls getting in (see previous blogs on both events). The show in Memphis wasn't so great since their sound was a bit off and never really got adjusted in the short opening set. We were hoping for better results now that they were the headliner. Opening for them was a 3-man rock band called The Daylights who were pretty good albeit nothing too memorable overall.

NEEDTOBREATHE (N2B) took to the stage like gangbusters and the Ryman seemed to fill up magically by the time their first song was complete and they thanked the loud, approving crowd for a sold-out show. That's pretty impressive for such a young band. The sound again was not pitch-perfect from the start (sounds like someone needs to hire a new engineer). It steadily improved as the show went on. N2B is an interesting phenomenon in the current music world. They and their music have been rabidly adopted by contemporary Christians thanks to the uplifting messages in their songs. But these same songs are not blatantly reflective in one religion or set of beliefs which also makes them universally popular. There are no sermons given from the five-piece band headed by lead singer, Bear Rinehart, and his brother on lead guitar, Bo, nor any direct indication of their own beliefs at least in their performances that we have seen. They are just a good rock-n-roll band whose positive and inspiring music can be enjoyed by everyone.

They closed the somewhat short show (just over an hour) with a nice acoustic encore that sounded as clear as a bell in the hallowed Ryman. They plugged the amps back in for their last song, "The Outsiders" which is the title track of their third album and their current radio hit on mostly independent stations.

Thanks to our friends Casey and Ryan for attending with us as well to dinner at the always yummy Urban Flats downtown in The Gulch.

Breeders' Cup Weekend

Friday, November 5

We headed north for Louisville this afternoon with our sister- and brother-in-law, Paige and Andy, in preparation for our attendance of the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Churchill Downs racetrack on Saturday. We headed downtown for dinner at Browning's Brewery, a smallish eatery/bar that is built into the side of the city's minor league baseball park. The food was pretty standard pub fare, but decent and the beer was good as well (see Rob's beer blog for more on that). After dinner we headed over to the Tinseltown Theatres to catch the late opening-night showing of Due Date starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zack Galafinakis (of The Hangover fame). It was a bodacious, over-the-top-at-times comedy that keep us laughing throughout. Afterwards, we headed back over to our ho-hum but dirt-cheap, clean and efficient Best Western hotel to get some sleep before our big day at the races tomorrow. Saturday, November 6

It was Day 2 of the 2010 Breeders' Cup and there were 11 horse races on the slate today, eight of which would crown Breeders' Cup champions in different categories depending on age and track style (dirt or turf). The last race of the day would be the Breeders' Cup Classic and would feature the biggest "rock star" of the horse racing world right now, Zenyatta, whose 19-0 record is unprecedented. This would be her last race before retirement and she was going for 20-0 on one of the biggest stages in horse racing. It was going to be a historic day.

We got to the track bright and early an hour or so before the first race. It was unseasonably cold for early November and Churchill Downs, while historic and lovely, doesn't seem to be very well-equipped for really cold weather. There were very few heated areas to warm up in, but we made the best of it wandering in and out of gift shops and their on-site cafe for lunch to thaw out a bit. We were glad we had all bought gloves and long underwear the night before as the sunny skies never produced highs over the mid 40's. Our betting was as limited as our real knowledge of horse racing. We bet long shots most of the day in hopes of turning $2 or $5 bets into a little decent cash. Our seats were about 15 rows off the track right (photo above is from our seats) as the stretch for the finish line began. Not the best in the house, by far, but close enough to hear and see the action on the outer dirt track as well as the inside turf track.

As the races and the day were winding down with the sun setting, the cold got to us enough that we decided to miss a race or two from our seats (they ran about every 45 minutes) and go out to our car which was nearby, and warm up inside and then come back for the last, historic race. We weren't winning anything up until that point anyway. When we got to the car and felt the wonderful warm air, we remembered that earlier in the day when we got there before the gates opened, we were able to walk right up to the track in a little area the media was using and take some pictures and nobody said anything to stop us. Could we do it again during the races? We sure could! (photo above) We were able to watch the last three races track-side including The Classic with Zenyatta herself walking right past us as she was led to the starting gate in front of the grandstands (photo left). She was an amazing thing of beauty and power to see that up-close and personal. As would have it, Ashlee's bets on the last two races actually won including calling the heart-breaking upset win by a nose of Blame (9 to 1 odds at $5) over Zenyatta. Twenty more yards and "The Queen" would have won, but hey, that's racing. Ashlee ran in quickly and collected her winnings (about $90 in total) and we were able to scoot out of the parking lot and traffic fairly quickly and easily. What a great day and experience!

We went to dinner at a regional chain restaurant called, BJ's. They brew their own beer here as well (guess who found this and guess whose blog you can read more details about the beer on?). The food was excellent as was the beer.

Sunday, November 7

We slept in late this morning while enjoying our extra hour of sleep with the clocks rolling back. We found a great local place for brunch called Wild Eggs. The place was packed and for a good reason. The food was outstanding! Afterwards, we headed south toward home making one pit-stop at our favorite (and the world's oldest according to Guinness) bourbon distillery, Maker's Mark, in the tiny hamlet of Loretto, Kentucky. We have been here before but Paige and Andy had not, plus Ashlee wanted to get a unique birthday present for a friend of hers in California who is a fan of the product. She was able to buy a small bottle and hand-dip it in their famous red wax herself (photo above). Their tour is free and interesting, and our guide, Chase, was funny (and maybe a little tipsy since this was his last tour of the day that all end with samples that he partakes of as well). We were able to sample their newest product, 46, which came out in July. It's a little mellower (and more enjoyable to us) than their regular bourbon when you sip it straight because it's briefly aged in French oak before being bottled.

A great trip and a great first experience with world-class horse racing in the land where it matters the most. The Breeders' Cup is scheduled for Churchill Downs again next year and, of course, the Kentucky Derby is always there. We will be adding those to our possible endeavors for 2011 for sure.

Back-to-Back SOLD OUT Shows

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - Live Tonight! - SOLD OUT

We spent Halloween night being treated by the tricks of one of our favorite live bands, the up-and-coming Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at the legendary Exit/In near Vanderbilt University. In honor of the occasion the entire band dressed as Nashville country music legends with Grace herself making a splendid Dolly Parton while the Nocturnals turned themselves into Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson and Billy Ray Cyrus. Even going beyond the visual homage, the band also did a song from each star's repertoire throughout their nearly 2-hour set. A rockin' cover of "Jolene" was first, followed by a soulful Patsy Cline number, then it was off to "Luckenbach, Texas" for Waylon and Willie followed with an encore performance of the always-goofy "Achy-Breaky Heart." One other cover of "Take My Breath Away" was allowed in honor of an onstage marriage proposal (she said yes). The rest of the time was filled with great GPN originals. As always, the band gave it their all and we enjoyed it greatly. Thanks to our friend, Sharon, for coming along with us.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Mumford & Sons - Live Tonight! - SOLD OUT

It was back to Nashville again tonight to the downtown venue of the War Memorial Auditorium to catch the quickly sold-out performance of the London folk-rock band, Mumford & Sons. We caught most of a set from these guys at Bonnaroo this past summer and were blown away by their music. This time around was no different. An absolutely amazing show. It easily jumps into our Top 5 performances of all time. The show started with the first of two opening acts: an unusual gent who calls himself King Charles. This guy is truly a gifted musician and vocalist, but unfortunately it was hard to focus on his music given the fact that this obviously well-endowed dude was wearing silk pants and not a sign of underpants! Holy hog-leg, Batman!! We kept feeling like we were in a Saturday Night Live skit or on an episode of Punk'd. Despite the distraction, the guy, again, was a pretty talented musician. His updated version of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" was pretty cool. Next up was Cadillac Sky, an American alt-bluegrass/folk rock band whose current hometown is here in Nashville. These guys were great (and dressed appropriately!) with a lot of enthusiasm on stage and spot-on musicianship. Their music is hard to define since they swing back and forth from amped-up bluegrass to quirky folk rock from song to song and even inside the same tune. A really perfect opener for M&S.

The Brits took the stage around 10 PM and proceeded to play every song off their excellent debut album, Sigh No More. The mixing and sound was pitch perfect and we were once again very impressed with this venue and sure hope they continue to book great music here. The guys mixed in a couple of new songs as well that sounded great. They seemed very humbled and appreciative of the sold-out status of the venue and a much-appreciative audience in a town that is legendary for great music. Their encore was a collaborative effort with King Charles (with dark pants on now...thank goodness) and the members of Cadillac Sky. Just when we thought it was over (and the stage couldn't be anymore crowded) out comes the members of Old Crow Medicine Show (a big influence on M&S) and the crowd went nuts. This newly-formed supergroup finished the show with three songs including OCMS's biggest hit, "Wagon Wheel", and M&S's newest single, "Roll Away Your Stone." A truly amazing evening of music. We feel lucky and privileged to have been a small part of it.

At Last.....Up, Up and Away!!

After several months of waiting through bad-weather postponements including a 3-hour wait on-site earlier this month (previous blog) that led to a last-minute cancellation due to gusty winds, we finally got to take our hot air balloon ride today. It was well worth the wait! The weather was stunningly sunny and mild, visibility was amazing at around 80 miles according to our pilot, Richard, and the fall colors, albeit less than stellar in terms of previous years, were in full process.

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After helping prep the balloon (photo above), we took off around 4 PM from the grounds of The People's Church in Franklin, TN. The launch was smooth and effortless (somewhat blurry video below - sorry about that). We drifted east over I-65 reaching a max altitude of 3,000 feet from which we could see downtown Nashville to the north, Murfreesboro to the southeast and Pilot Mountain due east. Once over the interstate, we descended down to just over tree-top level into a more rural part of Williamson County. The ride was so quiet and smooth we could hear shouts of "Hello" from down below by onlookers. We even crept up on a small herd of deer in a pasture who never knew we were there until Richard hit the propane burners to give us a bit more altitude. After a half-hour or so flight, we landed in a farm field about 15 miles from our launch site. Richard's chase vehicle picked us up and we were delivered back to our car by around 6 PM. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday afternoon!

We highly recommend trying a flight if you are so inclined. Richard's outfit is Dream Flights Inc. and they serve the Nashville, Memphis and Atlanta areas: http://www.dreamflightsusa.com/ We hope to fly again someday perhaps in a different part of the country such as Las Vegas or Albuquerque.

Afterwards, we had dinner in downtown Franklin at one of our favorite Irish pubs in the area, McCreary's. The food was delicious as usual.

Finally, we headed downtown to meet our friend, Rick, who was driving up from Chattanooga to catch Big Sandy & His Fly-Ryte Boys and Los Straightjackets at one of our favorite music venues in Nashville, The Mercy Lounge. Rick is into rockabilly music and swing-dancing, and although it's not particularly our favorite genre of music, both bands were very entertaining and musically top-notch. Big Sandy, as the name might imply, is a large fella with an Elvis-like crooning voice and a beaming personality. Los Straightjackets is a four-man instrumental group formed in Nashville and led by legendary guitarist, Eddie Angel. Their schtick, besides being great musicians, is that they all wear elaborate Mexican wrestling masks while on-stage and introduce many of their songs with a goofy recording in Spanish. A little strange, but, again, quite enjoyable.

Franti-C at the Ryman

We visited the lovely Ryman Auditorium once again in downtown Nashville tonight to catch a couple of acts we have seen before in different venues who we really enjoyed. Opening was Nashville resident, Mat Kearny, who did a nice acoustic set. We saw him before at The Cannery in Nashville for a plugged-in show that was great. The highlight of this short set was his use of a 1970's Samsonite suitcase as a backing percussion instrument. Very inventive! The headliner was Michael Franti & Spearhead, one of our favorite live bands. They are the band who basically saved Bonnaroo for us this year by putting on an incredible live show including coming out into the crowd on more than one occasion including Franti himself performing one song right beside us. We weren't expecting the same kind of experience at this somewhat buttoned-up, assigned-seat venue. But, Franti & Co. would not stand for that. The show was as good or better than the Bonnaroo experience. He and the band came into the crowd numerous times and had the whole crowd dancing and jumping in their pews and aisles with their upbeat and positive music and message. This included Franti himself coming up into the balcony (see video below - he's in the yellow shirt in the center of the balcony) where we had excellent front row seats overlooking the stage. Thanks to our friend, Sharon, for coming along and being blown away as well by MF&S live and unleashed in The Ryman.

Bad Guster of a Day, Good Guster of a Band

We have been trying to cross "take a hot-air balloon flight" off our Bucket List for most of this year. And, after missing two previous booked dates to take a ride due to weather, we thought today was our day. Not a cloud in the sky, pleasant temps and a nice, soft breeze....well, not so fast, my friend...it was actually just a bit too breezy to safely take off and land according to our pilot. He and his crew went as far as rolling out the basket and the balloon (photo below) in hopes the winds would die down as sunset approached, but it was to no avail. After about 3 hours of waiting, we were told there would be no flight today. Very disappointing, but we will just have to try again. Our trip west to Franklin for the cancelled flight wasn't a total bust at least. We also had tickets to see the band, Guster (ironic, don't you think?) at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. We headed on into downtown after the bad news from our pilot and had dinner at one our favorite new places, Urban Flats. The flat-bread pizza and salads were great as usual. We made our way over to the War Memorial Auditorium which we had been to once before several years ago to see comedian, Dave Attell. This was our first time seeing a musical act there. It's a beautiful, general-admission venue with great sight lines to the elevated stage. There is standing room in front of the stage and seats upstairs in a large balcony area as well. We arrived in time to hear a few songs from the opening act, Everest, an up-and-coming band that we have seen at Bonnaroo a couple of times and really like. Unfortunately, their sound here was not real great compared to at Bonnaroo, and we weren't sure if it was the venue or the engineering. We were a little worried it was the venue which wouldn't bode well for Guster, who we've never seen live, plus another Mumford & Sons sold-out show coming there soon that we have tickets to as well. Well, it must have been the engineering because Guster sounded great from start to finish of their hour and a half set. Despite not getting a lot of radio play, these guys have been churning out great, melodic and positive music for over a decade with a strong underground following. The place was pretty full and the crowd knew the words to every song other than a few off a new album they have coming out later this month. It's exciting to know Nashville now has another great venue for live music. Let's hope they keep booking great acts like Guster there.