GOIN' TO NASHVILLE...

Here we go…

Tomorrow morning, the plane leaves from Medford “Unintentional” Airport for a Layover Tour of airports across the Western states. Destination (ultimately) Nashville, for the Pineyfest songwriters’ conference, a Just Plain folks “Roadtrip,” a performance at the famous Bluebird Café (probably of just one song—I’ve seen the agenda, and it’s long), and recording demos of six songs with a gaggle of Nashville studio musicians.

And play music for six days and nights, of course. My idea of a vacation (except for the Layover Tour part). 40 or so CDs are going with me, and I’ll see if I can sell a few while I’m there.

So this is the last gasp for Internet before the ‘puter gets packed away and not used for a week.

Got to play twice last night, once solo for the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (just 3 songs, but I sold a CD while I was at it), and with Dan Doshier’s “Loose Strings” band at the park in Central Point. That last was a paying gig—my first since I moved here.

And last Wednesday, at the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. open mike in Medford, the guys and gals were finally playing with each other (first time, one of ‘em told me). They sounded a lot better that way—I was sure they would—and I told ‘em so. (They noticed it, too.) I hope this starts a trend. I had mentioned at their board meeting a couple of weeks ago that I’d never record solo something I intended to sell, it’d have to be with a band. Maybe it stuck. Weird, though, to think that somebody regards me as an Elder Statesman.

Of course, I have ulterior motives here. I have an album of songs I want to record, and I’m new in the area and want to put together a band (or “band”—they don’t have to play together a lot) that are familiar enough with my material to be able to walk into a studio and record it live in one or two takes. I have a couple candidates now, and we’ll see how it works out.

“See” y’all in a week or so.

Joe