"Carolina, you could do some good for my soul..."

The lyrics in this blog title are from new (to us) artist, Connor Christian & Southern Gothic, and they really express how we feel today after returning from Asheville, North Carolina, for our yearly jaunt to their downtown Bele Chere Festival. Just like last year, we hemmed and hawed over the decision to go to Bele Chere, and just like last year we were so happy we did afterwards because the mountains of Carolina plus Asheville's laid-back attitude are certainly good for the soul. We had a great trip with decent weather, good food, more great discovered music, and some fantastic scenery.

The ride up was smooth with a bit of heavy traffic. We changed our usual routine this year when we got to downtown Asheville and decided to see how close we could park to the downtown festival instead of riding the shuttle bus in from a perimeter mall. It worked out well as we got in a lot just a few blocks from the festival for just $5. The 31st Annual Bele Chere Festival had a somewhat new layout this year and was slimmed down as well according to their literature for a couple of different reasons: the economy and the fact that some major construction was going on in and around downtown. The crowds were still pretty good, but it did not seem as heavy as last year. We strolled around and our first stop was at the Winehaus - a wine and liquor store downtown that always has great beer deals during the festival. This year was no exception with a fine selection of ice cold quality bottled microbrews and imports for $2 each. The beer went down good because the humidity was up and it was pretty steamy in Asheville despite being nestled in the mountains.

We wondered around the blocked-off downtown streets taking in the sights and sounds of the festival while sipping our beers. The first year we came to Bele Chere was to see a band we really like, Train. But for the last three years, it's been the festival and not the music that draws us here. Yet, we always enjoy most of the music going on at Bele Chere and this year was no exception. We first happened upon GFE (Granola Funk Express), an eclectic group of local rap and hip/hop artists. While this isn't our particualr forte in music, these guys were pretty darn good and their lyrics were clever. Our favorite line was, "I'm tired of 40-ouncers and 20/20 hindsight."

Like programmed machines we headed for our next favorite Bele Chere stop, The Laughing Seed Restaurant - a wonderful vegetarian cafe' we discovered by accident during last year's festival. More tasty beer was ordered here as well from the Jack o' the Wood Brewpub located downstairs from the restaurant (for more details on the brew see Rob's beer blog). The food (and the air conditioning) was excellent. After our early dinner we ambled up to the Battery Park Stage and caught some of WSNB (We Sing Nasty Blues?). These guys were more our speed in terms of musical style with a great blend of blues, rock and Americana. Their lead singer, Willie Shane Johnston, has an amazingly powerful voice and could really wail on the mouth harp. We sought out more beer afterwards. Hey, that's what Bele Chere is all about! We then made arrangements to meet a new friend of ours known as Birmingham Steve. We met Steve at the recent Drivin' & Cryin' show in Chattanooga when he recognized Rob's "Blue Rodeo" concert shirt and struck up a conversation since he too is a big fan of the Canadian legends. In fact, Steve is quite the music lover and attends a lot of shows and tapes them to post on You Tube (he's kind of legend with more than a million hits on his posts). Steve had been in South Carolina for a show on Friday night and was driving back through Asheville and knew we were at Bele Chere thanks to Facebook. He recommended a band that was headlining that night before a huge crowd (photo above) on the Battery Park Stage called the Old 97's from Texas (photo below). We trusted Steve's judgement and he did not disappoint. The Old 97's are regional legends in the their own right and their Texas rock/Americana show was right up our alley. Third row vantage points made it even better to really appreciate the band's energy and showmanship. We became instant fans. After the great show we were drained and a little hungry (and ready for more beer. of course). It took a while to find a place that wasn't packed, but we stumbled upon Wasabi, a Japanese sushi bar and grill. The food was superb, the service was great and the chance to sit down for an hour or so was wonderful. Afterwards we bid Steve a good night and thanked him again for meeting us and making such a great recommendation.

We slept in late Sunday morning. Probably too late because by the time we got back downtown to eat brunch at the award-winning Tupelo Honey Cafe', it already had over an hour wait...no thanks...so, we went instead a few doors up College Street to Mayfel's which only had a 20-minute wait. It was worth it. Wonderful food and a street-side table made for a nice wake-up to Asheville. Bele Chere continues on Sunday but not for us...and it wasn't because they don't sell beer on the streets on Sunday...we had another Asheville locale we wanted to check out - the North Carolina Arboretum. This amazing botanical garden set among the already natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway was better than we even expected. For only a $6 parking fee you get immaculate gardens such as the quilt pattern (photo above), numerous wide walking paths and trails, clearly labeled plants and trees and two beautiful buildings that house a visitor center and a learning facility. You could easily spend all day here and we probably would have if it wasn't becoming another steamy afternoon. We plan to come back here in the fall and/or spring again and take more in during cooler weather. We stopped by the nearby Asheville Farmer's Market to snag some huge blackberries that Ashlee had seen a lady with in our hotel earlier that day. We got a call from Steve who was still in the area. We decided to meet at Asheville Pizza and Brewing (yes, more beer) - a quirky little pizza kitchen and microbrewery (photo below). The place is quite unique and the beer they brew is excellent as was the pizza we three designed on our own with wheat crust, pesto sauce, italian sausage, roma tomatoes and banana peppers. Steve was going back to Bele Chere for an afternoon set by Webb Wilder. Did we mention he loves live music even more than we do? We declined the offer to join him since we were a bit zapped from our humid walk through the gardens and still had a 4-hour drive in front of us. The trip home was uneventful as we dodged a few thunderstorms and some slow pokes in the fast lane. Another great trip to Asheville which is definitely on our short-list of places we would like to retire to someday.

There Aren't Many BETTER THAN EZRA

Why these guys aren't selling out stadiums is beyond me, but we were happy to see now-veteran rockers, Better Than Ezra, last night at one of Nashville's busiest (and smallest) music venues, 3rd & Lindsley.

We debated back and forth on our way there if we had been to 3rd & Lindsley before (another reason to have this blog - memory loss is real, people!) and almost convinced ourselves that we surely had based on all the great music they have there, but when we pulled up in front of the place and walked inside we knew we had not been here before because we would have surely remembered how down-right strange the place is.

3rd & Lindsley as it says on its sign is a "bar and grill" in every sense of the moniker. It's basically a sit-down restaurant that happens to have a small stage in the front of the establishment. There is no open area to stand in front of the stage like most venues that serve food, have tables and also have music. Here the tables push right up against the stage. They also have a small loft overlooking the stage with a few bar tables as well. This is where we got stuck for the show despite being there an hour before the music even started? Lesson learned if we come back. The show was sold out and we were actually lucky to get a couple of seats with somewhat obstructed views of the stage. The show was part of a weekly Sunday-night showcase broadcasted live from 3rd & Lindsley on the local indie station, Lightning 100. The opening act was introduced by their senior DJ, David Hall (rocks ya'll) and it was 16 Frames, a young up-and-coming band out of L.A. When the band started, we knew it was going to be worth the crowded conditions and obstructed views because the acoustics were spot on. 16 Frames is a solid ensemble whose original songs however all kind of sound the same. The most memorable part of their set were two covers of a Rolling Stones hit and a Tom Petty song.

After a quick break it was time for Better Than Ezra. These guys rose to fame in the mid-90s with their platinum debut album, Deluxe. They were in Nashville to support their seventh studio album, Paper Empire. They opened the acoustic show with the first indie hit off the new album, "Absolutely Still." Great, great song. They played for a solid hour cranking out one solid song after another. Unlike 16 Frames, there was no mistaking one BTE song for another. Let's just say, you will never mistake "Desperately Wanting" with "Juicy." After an hour the live broadcast was over and charismatic lead singer, Kevin Griffin, exclaimed, "OK, now we can curse!" The band continued on for another half-hour of great songs including a couple of quirky covers including Pete Townsend's "Let My Love Open the Door." A great night of music despite a few setbacks and learning experiences.

A Little Bit of Drivin' & a Little Bit of Cryin'

We made the usual 2-hour trek to Chattanooga to check in with the inlaws (and the outlaws) yesterday after work, but we also had another reason to do a little drivin'....and that was to see Drivin' & Cryin' perform at Chattanooga Rhythm and Brews. CB&R is a small music venue/bar located downtown. We have been here before to see one of our regional favs, Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, and weren't crazy about the place. First, it's a smoking venue. That's nice to keep the teeny-boppers out since you have to be 21 or older, but it's hell on your lungs and eyes (hence, the little bit of cryin'). Second, the acoustics and sound techs at CB&R are just not that great. Perhaps we are little biased since we've seen so many great-sounding shows at The Ryman and at Bonnaroo where they take sound engineering VERY seriously. But this was a rare opportunity to see a (somewhat) legendary band who get rave reviews for their live show. As lead singer, Kevin Kinney, proclaimed when they took the stage - they haven't put out a record in 12 years (a new one is coming out in the fall) - but you sure couldn't tell that from the crowd as it was packed to the gills with folks who roared to life when they opened with their awesome hard-rocking ode to the South, "Honeysuckle Blue." The went non-stop for the next hour and a half and closed with their great sing-a-long anthem, "Straight to Hell." The ol' watch said 2 AM (EST) by the time we got out of there, but it was well worth all the drivin' and all the cryin', Opening the show was another Atlanta native, Connor Christian, and his band The Southern Gothic. They were a tremendous surprise and we would love to see them again in a place with better acoustics and sound engineering. They had several catchy original numbers but their best performance was a cover of Guns & Roses' "November Rain" with a fiddle instead of a lead guitar...very, very cool.

Singing about Singer Island

We took a nice quiet beach trip over the 4th of July weekend to Singer Island just north of West Palm Beach, Florida. Unlike most of our trips which are pretty active and we usually have to come home to rest from them, this was a great time to just relax on the beach and pretty much do nothing. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale via some free Southwest flight credits and drove north stopping in Lake Worth for a quick bite of lunch at one of our favorite little South Florida delis called Too Jays. We arrived at our hotel in the torrential downpour of a nasty thunderstorm, but the weather quickly improved and obliged us the whole weekend with mostly sunny skies and a nice sea breeze to push the humidity away.

We stayed at the Singer Island Hilton, a beach-side property we stumbled upon during our last visit to this area. While it's a bit older hotel than we anticipated and was going through some renovation, our room was quiet, clean and had a nice ocean view (photo below) for a respectable price, plus we earned valuable Hilton-Points we can use for free lodging during our upcoming trip to Ireland. The beach it sits on is clean and wide with great swimming.

Besides the beach and the Hilton-Points, our biggest reason for selecting this particular location is because it is very near one of our favorite restaurants in South Florida, Captain Charlie's Reef Grill which we have driven 50 miles one-way to get to before (see previous blog). Yep, it's just that good and it was our destination that first evening we arrived. The long menu of specials is hand-written each day (photo below) and we chose to start from it with an incredible T-WA (tropical western Atlantic) shrimp appetizer that Ashlee has proclaimed one of the best dishes she has EVER had. Our entrees were sesame salmon and blackened tripletail (a fairly common Atlantic fish similar in taste to snapper). Both dishes were excellent. We got desserts to go (too stuffed to even think about dessert after our dinner). We chose the pineapple cobbler and banana/mango cake (more like bread). These were both quite enjoyable later on back in our beach-side room.

We were going to go to Capt. Charlie's every night, but then thought that sounded a little weird, so after a great day lounging on the beach with an occasional dip in the cool, refreshing ocean, we decided for a change the second night for dinner. We headed over to the lovely (and new) Garden Mall area and found the Yard House Restaurant. This is a favorite small-number chain of ours that we discovered out in Las Vegas recently. Not only do they have 100 beers on tap (which Rob loves), but their food is excellent. We had delicious chicken lettuce wraps for our appetizer and an Asian chicken salad and a hot pastrami sandwich infused with jalapenos for our dinner entrees'. Can you tell this trip was all about eating and relaxing? After dinner we caught a showing of "Away We Go" at the mall's nice movie theatres. It was a great quirky little movie that we were happy to catch here since it's in somewhat limited release across the country.

Saturday, the 4th of July, was another grand day on the beach. The crowds picked up a bit from the previous day, but it still wasn't packed thanks to Hilton's private beach. We had planned to go back to Capt. Charlie's that evening for dinner and were greatly disappointed (but not really surprised since it is a local establishment) to see they were closed for the holiday. Guess we should have asked about that on our first night there. Glumly, we opted for our second choice a bit further south in W. Palm Beach at another very nice mall complex called City Place. From some earlier research Rob wanted to check out a place called Brewzzi (yes, more for the beer than the food - see his beer blog for more info on that). It was a very nice restaurant and the food was pretty good, but it just didn't compare to The Reef Grill. After dinner we parked in downtown West Palm and strolled around their free Independence Day celebration called "4th on Flagler." They had closed off busy Flagler Avenue along the causeway and had music stages and vendors set up as tons of people milled about waiting on what was sure to be a huge fireworks show over the water at dark. We planned on staying for it, but the humidity and the tiredness of being in the sun all day took its toll and we decided to head out before the start of the fireworks, hoping to miss all the traffic and instead catch a show nearer to our hotel. When we got back to the hotel we were in luck as folks from the Hilton and the neighboring resort were having a small albeit pretty good fireworks show on the beach which we could see with ease from our balcony (and air-conditioned room). A great way to end a pretty darn good 4th of July on the beach.

We slept in Sunday morning, packed up our stuff and headed to the Palm Beach airport for an early afternoon flight home. As we said, the trip was quick, quiet and relaxing and we thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

Lisa Laugh-A-Lotti

Despite the fact that the Ryman Auditorium was built originially as a church and the foul-mouthed "Queen of Mean" (Lisa Lampanelli) took the stage last night, the roof did not fall in nor did the ground open up and swallow us whole. Yes, Lisa's jokes are mostly dirty, controversial at times and mostly based on stereotypes - but it's all in good fun - no one is left out of her insult barrage (including her boyfriend, big stars she has hobnobbed with and herself). She's a rare breed these days in the world of comedy, and perhaps the purveyor of a dying art. She's a pure insult comic , and if you don't get it, then you won't like her. But that's OK, because it leaves better tickets for us! We had tremendous seats just three rows off the stage (note to selves: Row D - Seats 1 and 2 are the bomb!! Too bad they weren't selling PSLs to the Ryman last night because we would have snatched these seats up!) While it wasn't a sell-out, the crowd there was boisterous, appreciative and interestly weird (ask us about the 6'-tall transvestite on the front row named "Daisy" sometime). We met our friend, Nate, at the 12 South Tap Room for some great beer and a delicious dinner beforehand (see Rob's beer blog for more details). We had planned to hit The Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar afterwards, but Ashlee's nursing a "Bonnaroo injury" that's slowing us down a bit, so we headed home a little early instead. Thanks, Lisa, for a great evening of laughs. You are one funny big-ass wop broad! Oh, sorry, "wop" is probably offensive to a guinea like you's.

"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends!" - Robert Earl Keen - Bonnaroo '09 - DAY FOUR

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The road does go on forever and the party might never end (except for this young gentleman pictured below who passed out for about an hour during a concert), but Bonnaroo '09 had to eventually end, and today was the day, but not before three and a half more good shows were notched in our belts.

After packing up our stuff, policing our camp site and closing up the pop-up camper for an easy get-away later in the day, we headed back into Centeroo to catch the last few songs of a noon set by Sons of Bill. These alt/country-Americana young 'uns from Virginia tore up the little Troo Music Stage (we still hate the set-up of this stage). As the band name might indicate, three of the quintet are brothers (whose dad is named Bill obviously). The lead singer is middle brother, James, who we got a chance to meet after the show and let us purchase their not-available-in-stores-yet sophomore CD, One Town Away. (We listened to it twice on the way home that evening and it is excellent.)

Next up was another short 30-minute set at The Sonic Stage by Erin McCarley, our lovely young songbird from Thursday night. She wowed us again as we sipped some great microbrews from The Brooer's Tent (see Rob's beer blog for more info on this). A quick walk back across Centeroo got us to This Tent in time to catch the start of Todd Snider's show (photo below) which was packed with great humor as well as his tremendous acoustic

balladeering. Rob was a bit disappointed that his favorite TS song, "Beer Run" was not included in the hour-long set, but the hilarious story of how Todd quit high school football to become one of the "burn-outs in the smoke pit" more than made up for it. We were able to move up closer to the same stage after Todd's set was over and wait about a half-hour to see the legendary Robert Earl Keen (photo below). Seeing this Texas troubador live was a rare treat because he hardly ever leaves The Lone Star State and basically has an open animosity for nearby Nashville (long story). REK was tremendous and the crowd loved him. He, of course, included his epic signature song that is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year, "The Road Goes on Forever."

On our way out of Centeroo and back to the campground to head home we caught a few minutes of Band of Horses on the huge Which Stage. These guys are an interesting rock band from Seattle that seem to have a great popularity among the young folks especially festival-goers without actually getting a lot of airplay or media attention...i.e. Phish (who was closing Bonnaroo '09 later tonight), Widespread Panic and The Grateful Dead. Their songs have simple lyrics and seem to focus more on melody. They sounded good, but we would have preferred a smaller venue. Just for a laugh and to say "we've seen him live" we stopped by the gigantic What Stage to see Snoop Dogg do whatever it is that he does. We really wouldn't call it music. All we can say is...at least he showed up when he was supposed to...unlike Kanye West last year...what a chump. We eased on back to the campground and then eased on home and were in the house before 10 PM - tired, but happy to say this year's Bonnaroo topped 2008 and we can't wait to see what they are gonna do to try and outdo it in 2010!

"if The Boss had been a preacher, he would've led us to The Lord" - Scott Miller - DAY THREE - Bonnaroo '09

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Epic day...epic, epic day...how else can you describe a day of music that starts with Jimmy Buffett and ends with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band?

We got up "early" (by Bonnaroo standards) and made our way over to the second largest stage in Centeroo called the Which Stage an hour before Jimmy Buffet was scheduled to appear at noon. We got within about 20 yards of the center of the stage and started our wait in the hot sun. Cold beer really helped along with an early appearance by Jimmy himself during sound check to confirm that our wait would be worth it. He was in great spirits and seemed genuinely happy to see fans already gathering for his Johnny-come-lately-announced show...it was not "officially" announced until the day before Bonnaroo was to begin that Jimmy would actually join his all-star Coral Reefer Band who were slated to play along with young African crooner and Buffett discovery, Ilo Ferreira. Jimmy's slated "appearance" turned into about a dozen songs in the hour-long set that included all his classics along with Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl." Ilo (as is his stage name) was actually the one who made the "appearance" sharing the stage with Jimmy on two songs and leading one other. His smooth voice and laid-back attitude certainly did emulate a Jimmy Buffett persona.

Sandwiched between Jimmy Buffett starting the day in fine style and the rising excitement of seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band headline on the humongous What Stage that night at 9 PM, were some more lesser-known acts that we were excited to see up close and personal on some of the smaller stages as well as another music legend himself, Elvis Costello, performing a solo early-evening set at That Tent. After singing along to "Margaritaville" we took a short walk and arrived at our favorite small stage from last year, the Sonic Stage, in time to catch the last couple of songs from Katzenjammer - four wild ladies from Norway whose style of music can best be described as a combination of circus anthems and sheer madness, but they sure seemed to be having a good time performing. We settled in close to the stage afterwards and awaited a much closer look at Grace Potter (photo below) and the Nocturnals once again. The band was scaled down a bit from their set yesterday at the bigger This Tent stage including no piano which meant no chance of our favorite GT&TN song, "Apologies" being played. So be it, but it was still a great quick half-hour of pure original soulful rock. We were able to move up even a bit closer to the stage afterwards for the next 30-minute set by Nashville resident, Brett Dennen (photo below). Brett is....well...a little different than your typical rock-n-roller. A big mop of bright red hair, pearly white skin and a squeaky little talking voice. But when the amps come on and the melody begins, out of this little guy comes one of the coolest most unique voices in the industry today. With uplifting thoughtful lyrics and mesmerizing melodic harmony, he protrays a very old soul on the brink of what could be genius. To say we loved this guy is an understatement, and to say that he made such a memorable impression on us with just a half-hour set that again was sunk in between a day of shows by icons like Buffet, Costello and Springsteen is really saying something. This guy is special. There is no doubt about it, and we absolutely cannot wait to see him again in a longer performance. Thank you, Bonnaroo, for inviting this incredible young man to perform. Please bring him back next year and give him a longer set!!

After Brett Dennen's amazing performance, we went over to the film tent (this actually is a tent - a huge circus tent) to try and get to see what Lebowskifest was all about. Apparently, there are celebrations each year all over the country honoring the modern cult classic movie, The Big Lebowski, with people dressed as characters from the film, free bowling (a major theme in the movie) and other weird and wonderful goings-on. However, like the Comedy Tent nearby, you have to wait in line in the sweltering heat to get in this "barely" air-conditioned venue and they are extremely popular. Since they are enclosed, it is also somewhat finite in available space and there always seems to be a line to get it. After 15 minutes of standing in a line that was not moving, we decided to skip it and head back to the trailer for some real air-conditioning and a little rest to gear up for what we knew would be a long night with The Boss.

Our friends, Brandon and Katherine, had scored some free passes (lucky dogs) that day and were wanting to meet us for the Elvis Costello show as well as to see Bruce and the E Streeters afterwards. We met up with them outside That Tent in time to hear the crowd erupt as Elvis Costello took the stage for an acoustic set. OK, we admit it, we thought he was a little boring. Tons of people love the guy and he had a huge crowd, but we just don't see the appeal. Sorry, Elvis. Before the Springsteen show we stopped by the small Solar Stage to check out a few songs by an alt-bluegrass band from Knoxville known as The Black Lillies. They were pretty darn good and can now always say they "technically" opened for Springsteen one time!

Springsteen live. Wow! You hear people talk about it, you see it on TV and think, "yeah, OK, I am sure he and the band are good, but is it really that big a deal." Oh, yeah, it is that big a deal. The man is simply amazing. He will be 60 this year and he came on a litte after 9 PM and did not slow down for three and half hours ---not a lot of long drawn-out yapping between songs, zero interludes or long solos - just Bruce and the band banging out song after song. New stuff, old stuff, stuff we had never heard before and even "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" - hey, he was taking requests and someone wanted to hear it...and it was awesome! They are simply some of the greatest entertainers we have ever seen and we have seen some good ones including The Rolling Stones, Robin Williams, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel & Elton John, Cher, etc. Our hats are off once again to the sound folks at Bonnaroo as well. They provide world-class sound for all these performers that is just amazing for an outdoor venue. What a day, what a festival! Thank youuuuuuuu, Bonnarooooooo!!!

We tried our best to sit in for a few minutes of Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 playing at This Tent after the Springsteen show, but we were just too spent (yeah, we're old). We will catch you sometime later, Ben. Keep on rockin'.