October 23rd, 2009.

*Only in Nashville do you find a drumstick on the trashcan at the McDonalds.*

As Amy would say: I’m a sleepy button. As Heather remarked this morning: there’s no rest for the wicked. I’m not sure which is a more accurate reflection of my behavior, but I feel I’ve neither been particularly wicked recently, nor a fabric closure, and so I’ll just say that I’m tired, and there hasn’t been a morning that I haven’t had to stay up late and get up early in quite some time.

Part of our amazing lineup in Nashville, TN – Jenny Wood is perhaps one of the most awe-inspiring performers I’ve had the honour of sharing a stage with. This is her powering her way through her set at Cafe Coco. For all that it came from a double-booking caused by a venue that “uh, we forgot to write that down”, our night in Nashville turned into one Hell of a show. I’m not a voice person generally, but Jenny truly left my heart broken for the beauty of her vocals and lyrics.

Yesterday’s drive from Nashville was just obscene, filled with traffic, construction and an 18-wheeler that not only jackknifed across multiple lanes of traffic, but took out some power lines in the process. There’s nothing like feeling like you’re on the end of the drive and making good time, and then tuning into the local news station and having the traffic report speak up with “wow, this is the worst traffic day I’ve ever seen here in Charlotte!”

What should’ve been a 6.5 hour drive turned into almost 9, with most of that balanced in the Smokey Mountains in that uncomfortable 1.5th gear.

Christine Hogarth of New York City performing at Cafe Coco in Nashville, TN. She was quite the show. And also a spectacle. Oddly enough, though our impression of her was as a slinky-black-dress-clad torch singer, when I checked out her website later her usual aesthetic was an artsier sweatshirt sporting creature. Much more my type on the website – but great voice and unnervingly charming!

Kelly Zullo, one of my guitar idols, performing at Cafe Coco. She had set up the show and was mortified at the chaos that ensued. However, even though we had to fit all four artists into about a two-hour slot and Kelly’s closing set was performed with the hip hop artists who needed to set up for the REST of the night breathing down her neck, like everything during this tour, it somehow all turned out for the best.

We arrived at the show exhausted and played through the show exhausted and I’ve got to admit that despite my genuine attempt to put the same passion into every show, I was a little overly silly, a little overly relaxed and a little overly sloppy for this one. I felt pretty bad about that and we’ll have to return unto Charlotte again sooner than later.
I just remember the grateful euphoria of reaching the end of the set and then realizing that we had to breakdown.

We had a decent little crowd though. Despite the feeling that we were really too alarming for the space, at least 80% of the people were there for US and by the end of the night, the remainder had signed up on the mailing list as well. A win – and decent money was made for a slightly-off-the-beaten-track coffeehouse.

However, this morning we, as has been our wont, have to be up and out. A lot of THIS departure was predicated by the fact that I broke all the remaining A strings in our cache last night (something’s wrong there, but I have no time to work on my guitar, nor the tools) and so I had to find the earliest-opening guitar shop in the area and be there as they opened their doors. Voila – 45 minutes less sleep. They didn’t have the lowest-end Martin phosphor bronze strings (Heather’s favourite) and they didn’t have the top-end Martin phosphor bronze strings (my favourite) and so I spent far too much money on strings that I wouldn’t normally bother with for the last day on a tour that I THOUGHT I’d planned adequately for.

Staying in Nashville, we got to stay with Whitney and Freddie’s menagerie, watching bunnies and cats Live in a strange kind of harmony. And by got to stay I mean… we got in at around midnight after our show all too aware that we had to leave by 9am the next morning. Curse you time zones!
Ha! A toy for Brennan from the mountains of eastern North Carolina!