So…we rolled up I-75 in the early afternoon to Nashville. It was actually snowing at the top of Monteagle! Wow! Fortunately, we had one of Wisconsin's finest (Jason Nackers) at the wheel and none of it was sticking anyway. Once we made it to the other side, we were safe.
We were back in the Cannery Ballroom instead of the Mercy Lounge this time. More people--the room holds about a thousand people. The final count on the door was 890. Pretty close! Make Me Smile, Nashville's authentic tribute to vintage Chicago, opened for us. It sounded great--the band leader, Scott Sheriff, did a terrific job organizing the band and writing the charts. Their horn section of Scott Kinney (trumpet), Jim Hoke (saxophone), and Chris Dunn (trombone) even sat in with us at the end of our set on a handful of tunes. Do some investigating of these guys…badasses!
Our part of the show went well--catastrophe free!. I made it through all my stuff just fine--I finally nailed a string run in She's Gone that I'd been practicing for a couple of weeks. During the Maneater solo (if I'm remembering correctly), a couple of women got through the barrier in front of the stage and grabbed my leg. That was kind of weird. We stuck Rosanna in as a request (we get requests via Twitter these days, and occasionally we will honor them). I was kind of ragged on my parts. I played piccolo on You Can Call Me Al for the penny whistle solo--big hit with the audience. Oh yeah, and my solo on Biggest Part of Me was a big stack of pentatonic bullshit. Booooooooo.
We got to the hotel around 1:30 AM. Lobby call was 7 AM. We got back to Atlanta just after noon and began loading our gear onto the little outdoor stage at Sweetwater. They had a tent that covered three sides of the patio and wrapped around the bandstand. Not too bad, except the gap where the tent had to come up and over the fence--it let every frigid breeze get me!
We did two sets. It was packed. It was really really cold. My fingertips and toes hurt, but the crowd was pretty slammin'. The owner of Sweetwater was out-of-his-mind-happy about everything. He gave some sort of a speech, then stayed on stage and danced for You Can Call Me Al.
We finished at 5:30. I packed and stacked my gear, and then met up with my ride to my church gig. Unfortunately, my church clothes and instruments didn't make it, so I grabbed my beater flute from my Yacht Rock gear and played my gig in the same clothes I wore Saturday night. Lots of staring people down. Yes, I'm wearing this.
Next week we're on the Rock Boat XIII, so some of my gear is leaving mid week to get down there. I also have a couple of gigs at the end of this week. Yacht Rock is in Rome, GA Friday night, so come see us if you can!
February 22, The Brewhouse (Rome, GA)
February 24-March 1, Rock Boat XIII (the ocean)
March 2, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
March 14, Wonder Bar (Asbury Park, NJ)
March 15, Theatre of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
March 16, Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
March 17, The Hamilton (Washington, DC)
April 20, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
April 26, (Atlanta, GA)
June 28, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
July 11, Mohegan Sun (Montville, CT)
July 20 (Atlanta, GA)
August 23, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
September 27, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
October 19 (Atlanta, GA)
