Nashvill3 (A record store, a bridge, birds and an odd open mic)
My friends!
Nashville day three (Monday) confirmed a few things:
1. That I am addicted to Bolton's southern hit fried chicken.
2. That the music scene is very over-saturated with aspiring pop-country musicians.
3. There are many unique open mic formats.
4. The weather here is beautiful and there are some really pretty things to see here!
5. One should always make the best of their scenario while never compromising who they are.
As you are probably aware of, Monday is the first day of the work week so our friend and host Steve was out the door for his programming job before we were even awake! That left Alexa and I to have our peanut butter and apples breakfast and I got Bolton's again for a early lunch (pictured below, as well as photos of the charming and respectably independent little one window one room chicken and fish joint)! I sincerely have a problem! So good.
We set off to sight see and find Third Man Records, which is Jack White's (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs fame) record store and novelty shop. After running into some cool statues and fountains, and the giant pedestrian bridge erected in 1909, perhaps my favorite thing in Nashville (as you will notice my documentation of) we found the store and boy was it quirky and interesting! If you are a Jack White fan or a fan of Vinyl records or odd things like a jukebox for films or coin operated wax mold makers or photo booths and three inch portable record players, this is the place for you! A small store with a lot of memorabilia and music and intriguing items for sale, it also doubles as a music venue! I documented quite a bit of the place below!
We had some time to spend after so we found the library but discovered lamentably that it was closed in Mondays so we sat on a park bench and I tried sharing my carrots with groups of excitable and small black capped birds!
To close our night out we went to The Bluebird Cafe for an open mic! When we arrived there was a huge line of dozens of people looking to sign up! (Reference the pic below and note there were and 20+ people behind us!). The format is rather unique, everyone on line signs up on a piece of paper and the ordered is determined randomly as all the musicians are picked out of a hat! You are only permitted to play one song, as with commodore open mic, no pre-recorded tracks allowed! Also, the open mic runs from 6 to 9 only, so if you get picked in the late thirties or early forties Somehow Alexa and I got #38 and #40 by A stroke of poor luck which we figured guaranteed we wouldn't play.
I was feeling pessimistic and admittedly self conscious after seeing yet again the 3 hours of mediocre homogenous pop country music. What bothered me primarily was that everyone seemed like they were doing what they were doing because they were obligated to or because it served some ulterior motive outside of an intrinsic personal creative need. All the writing and performing, even a itsbest seemed creepily designed to accomplish one goal: adhere to the set of musical and cultural and genre conventions that would propel them to commercial success. Please note this is only an impression I got, and not meant to be an insult to anyone, although if the diluting of a creative medium for avaricious intent is your mission statement, I find it hard to have respect for you.
Finally, Alexa went up and played "collections" which is one of my favorites of hers! I then remembered I had my harmonica with me and for the first time on tour, played it with an a Capella verse section doing the AllOne & The Room song "It Always Pays". People definitely had their ears perked and didn't seem to hate it, despite the weirdness! Steve did not get to perform, so we went home and talked ourselves to sleep!
All and all it was a nice day and exceeded our expectations, which were, I confess, rather low at some points! We were a little dejected by feeling out of place in Nashville despite our budding friendship with Steve and an affinity his hilarious band Regdar and The Fighters (www.regdarandthefighters.com) whose new album "Spoiler Alert" just came out this week! I encourage you to support this funny and kind and talented man!
For now, good night!
Lead your heart,
-AllOne
Nashville day three (Monday) confirmed a few things:
1. That I am addicted to Bolton's southern hit fried chicken.
2. That the music scene is very over-saturated with aspiring pop-country musicians.
3. There are many unique open mic formats.
4. The weather here is beautiful and there are some really pretty things to see here!
5. One should always make the best of their scenario while never compromising who they are.
As you are probably aware of, Monday is the first day of the work week so our friend and host Steve was out the door for his programming job before we were even awake! That left Alexa and I to have our peanut butter and apples breakfast and I got Bolton's again for a early lunch (pictured below, as well as photos of the charming and respectably independent little one window one room chicken and fish joint)! I sincerely have a problem! So good.
We set off to sight see and find Third Man Records, which is Jack White's (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs fame) record store and novelty shop. After running into some cool statues and fountains, and the giant pedestrian bridge erected in 1909, perhaps my favorite thing in Nashville (as you will notice my documentation of) we found the store and boy was it quirky and interesting! If you are a Jack White fan or a fan of Vinyl records or odd things like a jukebox for films or coin operated wax mold makers or photo booths and three inch portable record players, this is the place for you! A small store with a lot of memorabilia and music and intriguing items for sale, it also doubles as a music venue! I documented quite a bit of the place below!
We had some time to spend after so we found the library but discovered lamentably that it was closed in Mondays so we sat on a park bench and I tried sharing my carrots with groups of excitable and small black capped birds!
To close our night out we went to The Bluebird Cafe for an open mic! When we arrived there was a huge line of dozens of people looking to sign up! (Reference the pic below and note there were and 20+ people behind us!). The format is rather unique, everyone on line signs up on a piece of paper and the ordered is determined randomly as all the musicians are picked out of a hat! You are only permitted to play one song, as with commodore open mic, no pre-recorded tracks allowed! Also, the open mic runs from 6 to 9 only, so if you get picked in the late thirties or early forties Somehow Alexa and I got #38 and #40 by A stroke of poor luck which we figured guaranteed we wouldn't play.
I was feeling pessimistic and admittedly self conscious after seeing yet again the 3 hours of mediocre homogenous pop country music. What bothered me primarily was that everyone seemed like they were doing what they were doing because they were obligated to or because it served some ulterior motive outside of an intrinsic personal creative need. All the writing and performing, even a itsbest seemed creepily designed to accomplish one goal: adhere to the set of musical and cultural and genre conventions that would propel them to commercial success. Please note this is only an impression I got, and not meant to be an insult to anyone, although if the diluting of a creative medium for avaricious intent is your mission statement, I find it hard to have respect for you.
Finally, Alexa went up and played "collections" which is one of my favorites of hers! I then remembered I had my harmonica with me and for the first time on tour, played it with an a Capella verse section doing the AllOne & The Room song "It Always Pays". People definitely had their ears perked and didn't seem to hate it, despite the weirdness! Steve did not get to perform, so we went home and talked ourselves to sleep!
All and all it was a nice day and exceeded our expectations, which were, I confess, rather low at some points! We were a little dejected by feeling out of place in Nashville despite our budding friendship with Steve and an affinity his hilarious band Regdar and The Fighters (www.regdarandthefighters.com) whose new album "Spoiler Alert" just came out this week! I encourage you to support this funny and kind and talented man!
For now, good night!
Lead your heart,
-AllOne
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