A while since I wrote and much has happened since then. The 5 week tour of Long Gone Lonesome finished 2 weeks ago. Since then, I've been in Nashville, TN, back in the city that was home to me for three and a half years. My first night in this town was in May of 2005. I travelled with Alison Brown, looking after her little girl Hannah, during her tour round the North East of the US after meeting them at the Shetland Folk Festival. Driving towards the final gig of the tour in Nashville, I tried to picture what it would look like... all I could conjure up was a big stage, with sparkling boots, cowboy hats and country music. Alison was playing a spot on the Grand Ole Opry so we rolled up and checked in backstage. The reality we met wasn't far off the picture in my mind. I was very naive at that time of what the Opry really means within country music (the stage that gave birth to the commerical success of country music). I feel a bit embarrased looking back to that night when I had to ask who that guy in the sparkly suit that I just squeezed past in the corridor was. It was Porter Wagnor. Maybe as well I didn't know the names and faces at that time, it probably would have been a bit overwhelming otherwise. Little did I know that years later I would be lucky enough to be invited to play a few tunes with Mike Snider and to stand on the well known stage in front of 4000 people.
The names & faces might have been unfamiliar but the sound of country certainly wasn't at all, having grown up with hearing Jim Reeves & Hank Williams in the house, and the old songs sung at local concerts in Yell. Country music has a lot of fans in Shetland, not least of which Thomas Fraser! Modern country music is not a sound that interests me so I soon hunted out the places I could hear the good old honky tonk sound of the 50s - Carl Smith, Faron Young, Hank Thompson, Jimmie Rodgers. I found them all in Robert's Western World on Lower Broadway, and instantly loved the place. I've spent many great nights in there since then and it is my honky tonk home from home. It's always one of my first stops when I come back here, and great to see the familiar faces and still feel at home there.
I've spent the last couple of weeks catching up with old friends - scientists I worked with at Vanderbilt, musicians I played, and other friends I met through the worlds of science and music. Enjoying revisiting, 12th South Tap Room, Station Inn, Frothy Monkey, Robert's, Fiddle House... Nashville is a town of kind and friendly people, with round the clock great music and I feel really grateful to have had the chance to get to know this city and make great friends. Although I left over 2 years ago now, I feel as connected to this city as to Shetland and I hope that never goes away.
Right, time to head to Robert's for some honky tonking... 3 more days to squeeze as much as possible in, then back to Shetland.
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