Author Archive

“Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!”

English new-wave rockers Kaiser Chiefs (Wikipedia, MySpace) will *not* be stopping into Nashville tonight for a show at City Hall. White Rabbits and Datarock will *not* be opening. SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED!

Don’t fret… you can still catch LeAnn Rimes @ the Schermerhorn or Rascal Flatts @ the Sommet Center!

The legendary Bob Dylan wrapped up a two-night stand at the world’s famous Ryman Auditorium last night.

I was fortunate enough to attend the show on Wednesday night.  It was indeed a special evening of music.  Highlights included a surprise 45 minute opening set by a solo and half-plugged-in Elvis Costello AND a soon-to-be-legendary version of “Meet Me In The Morning” featuring relatively new Nashvillian Jack White.

I wasn’t able to attend last night’s show.  From what I understand, there was no Elvis opener this time around, however Jack White did join Bob on stage for two songs this time around, “One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)” and “Outlaw Blues.”

Were any of you out there fortunate enough to attend both shows?  Which one was better?  Were they both incredible?  Share!

I’m just so glad I can finally talk about this deal.  It’s been killing me!!!

Today we were finally able to announce that Dave will be hosting his own primetime show (Monday through Friday) on the new Fox Business Network.  This will not be a re-hashed hour of the radio show.  It will be new and exclusive content for Fox Business Network.

Congratulations Dave!

You can check out all of the details HERE.

Dave’s flagship station is local talk radio powerhouse 99.7 WWTN!

The facts:

• The one and only Bob Dylan kicked off his two-night stand at The Ryman Auditorium last night.
• Amos Lee opened.
• The Rymanazis were in rare form, so no pictures or video. I like living too much to have tried.

The celebrity sightings:

• Predators head coach Barry Trotz was rocking out in the balcony with his lovely wife.
• Too many more to list. More on that later.

The observations:

• I caught the very last song of Amos Lee’s set. This dude is extremely talented. I did hear him say he was felt so honored to share the Ryman stage with two of the greatest songwriters ever. Only Amos and Bob were on the bill, so I thought that was weird.
• After Amos and his band shut down, the crew came out and began clearing away their gear. Some roadies came out and began setting up a microphone and a guitar stand with 4 or 5 different guitars. All of Bob’s gear was covered up and nobody was working on uncovering it. Then someone in front of me said he heard there was a second opener but he didn’t know who it was. I got on the phone with one of my buddies to see if he had heard anything but I was promptly shut down by the Rymanazis who asked me to put my phone away because the next act was taking the stage in 5 minutes. I asked who it was and he matter-of-factly told me “His birth name is Declan McManus. Just some Irish guy with a guitar. It’s not Bono.”
• Five minutes later the house lights went down and Elvis freaking Costello walked on stage. The crowd went nuts when they figured out what in the crap was going on. Elvis fired up what looked to be a Gibson J-160E with this cool half-acoustic/half-electric tone and played for the next 45 minutes or so. I didn’t love his song selection (like 4 protest songs!) but he sounded great. As this was the first time I’ve seen Elvis live, I now appreciate what a showman he is. Outstanding. Oh, and he has the shiniest shoes ever made. Seriously.
• Bob and his band took the stage about 15 minutes after Elvis’ guitars were cleared away. He played several songs I wanted to hear (”Masters of War,” “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” “Desolation Row”). It was a very bluesy feeling show, and now that I look back on it, it may have been designed that way because those guys knew what was coming! The highlight of the night: After “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine),” the lights went down and when they came up a blistering version of “Meet Me In The Morning” had begun with freaking Jack White on lead guitar and vocals. The entire place erupted. Has Nashville embraced this kid or what???!?!?! It was beautiful and Jack seemed legitimately humbled. Side note: Geez, I just know that Jack and I could be best friends! Jack, call me! Jack was lights out on the guitar and it was great to see him coax Bob to the mic to share vocals later in the song. I didn’t realize until this morning that this was the first time the song had been performed live. Unreal. From now on when people ask me if I have a favorite Dylan song, I will have an answer.  Complete set list can be found HERE.
• Elvis showed up in the sound booth at the back of the balcony about half way through the show and stayed there until the end.

The conclusion:

• Being my first Dylan show, I have to say it wasn’t what I expected to see. It was very good though, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Elvis and Jack were worth the price of admission alone. Seeing a living legend in Bob Dylan was just icing on the cake.

The end of summer/beginning of fall is just an incredible time of year in Nashville. I was driving to lunch yesterday with a friend from work and we had the windows of my car down and the world just looked different. Everything was clearer, brighter, yet not so bright that you couldn’t take it all in. So enjoyable. So gorgeous.

This is also the time of year when the calendar can start to go on overload with all of the cool things available to do around town. Things like…

• The 2007 Boro Blues Fest kicks off tonight at 5:00 at Patterson Park in Murfreesboro. It will run through tomorrow night.
• The Music City Triathlon starts at 7:30 am this Sunday - Race is SOLD OUT but you can come hang out and watch the in-shape people swim, bike and run. And hey, if you have some used running shoes you’re not using anymore, bring them out to the race because Tri for Africa will be on hand accepting donations.
• Wine on the River goes down on the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge tomorrow from 3:00 until 7:00.
• The Maple Lane Farms corn maze opens up tomorrow and will remain open until October 31 - Call 865.856.3517 for details.
• The city of La Vergne is holding it’s annual Old Timers’ Day tomorrow at Veterans Memorial Park - Festivities will include a parade, bluegrass music and fireworks!

So all of the votes have been counted and it looks like “Smilin” Karl Dean is the new Mayor of Nashville. He’ll be taking office in less than two weeks!

What do you think? Are you excited about Mr. Dean taking office? Do you see this as a good thing for Nashville or are you of the opinion that he’s going to run our beloved city into the ground?

What about Bob Clement? Where does ol’ Bobby Boy go from here?

One of my favorite times of year, along with the release of the “You Are So Nashville If…” edition, is the arrival of the “Best of Nashville” reader’s poll from the Nashville Scene.

You can let your voice be heard on your Nashville faves! Vote on everything from Best Cheeseburger (Rotiers?) and Best Wine Bar to Best Non-Profit (Tri for Africa?) and Best Scandal Not Yet Reported (Have you heard the one about Kenny Chesney???)

You can vote online HERE so go crazy people!

And FYI Scene people… you should totally have a Best Blog category.

Geez, I’ve noticed lately that most of the posts here at NiMH involve music.  Look, I’m a music freak, so that’s going to bleed over from time to time, but I fully realize that there’s a lot more to Nashville than music.

I’ve got posts in the works on topics like…

• The relatively new HD setup over at News Channel 5 (complete with behind the scenes video)
• Tri For Africa: a really cool non-profit recently founded by a native Nashvillian

And then there are some ideas for posts that really haven’t taken shape yet.  Ideas like…

• Profiling Stalking The Muse
• A video tour of Grimey’s, Nashville’s legendary record shop
• Profiling a local company each week (Griffin, Standard Candy, Hatch Show Print, Yazoo Brewing, etc.)

Here’s the deal: I really want NiMH to develop a deep sense of community.  I want to hear what you would like to read about on these pages.  Talk to me.  Please.  I’m begging you.  Okay, maybe not begging, because begging is totally not cool, but I’m at least asking nicely.

Fire away in the comments section with ideas for future NiMH posts, and the best idea (as subjectively judged my me) will win a really cool prize.

Karl Dean and Bob Clement will square off tonight at the Avon Williams Auditorium on the campus of Tennessee State University.  According to News Channel 5’s website, the debate will start at 7:00 pm and will last for one hour.  This will be the last time that the two candidates meet (publicly at least) before the mayoral election run-off scheduled for September 11.

One week left people… Any idea as to which way this thing’s going to go???

You know what would be great? If someone could put together a 5 day showcase featuring 130+ of Nashville’s finest up-and-coming musical talents playing on 10 of the hottest stages in town and charge like a ridiculously low $30 to see all of the shows. Geez, that would be awesome. Yeah, they could get bands like The Features, The Clutters, Ghostfiner, The Gabe Dixon Band, The Silver Seas and How I Became The Bomb and they could book them in venues like Exit/In, The Basement and Mercy Lounge/Cannery Ballroom. Wouldn’t that be the coolest?

Oh wait… that’s exactly what Next Big Nashville (MySpace) is. Good. I’m glad to see someone is finally listening to my brilliant ideas.

NBN kicks off tomorrow evening at 7:30 and will run through Sunday, September 9! Check out the complete schedule HERE and buy your wristband tickets HERE.