Saturday I flew to Nashville to on a guitar shopping mission. Gruhn's Guitars, which is the Mecca of the vintage guitar world and Carter Vintage, Nashville's friendliest guitar shop. It was my first time in Nashville and hopefully I'll be back soon. There's a lot to love about that town. Hearing bluegrass at the Station Inn was one of the highlights of my musical life recently, Jim Lauderdale and his Bluegrass Millenials featuring a couple songs by the great Roland White. Yes indeed. Masters of rhythm, masters of stagecraft. My musical soul needs to be in the presence of the masters every now and then.
But this little story is about later that evening. I went out to see Broadway cause I heard it was the happening nightlife strip. I envisioned some good honkytonks and maybe some good roots joints around there. As I was walking along things got to be more typical America. Boom cars with cheesy bros rolling around with auto tuned hip hop blaring and all that. As I turned the corner I saw 2 young brothers exchanging some money with some chunky loud white dudes in what my highly trained American "Cops" or name any other popular culture TV land jive, had to be a drug deal. Whatever. None of my business. Enjoy your night fellows!
But on that corner? Maybe it was something else.... Too busy for an open air drug bit. You'd have to be really dumb to sell on that corner.
But I quickly forgot that scene and made my way to Broadway.
Broadway is anywhere USA it turns out. Fucking gross. Legions of the sad desperate, overweight, high and drunk. Swarms of 20 somethings trying to mate through being inebriated, lines around the corner 3 people deep trying to get in to nightclubs with bands blaring out the latest pop or country hits, and some classic rock. I didn't see anything that appeared to be original. Myself , overwhelmed and tired of stepping over chunder realized there's nothing wrong with this place, I'm just in the wrong place. There's a reason I never moved to Austin, Vegas or Nashville and got into all that. I love my New York.
So I made my way back to the hotel and saw the 2 brothers with the little money transaction on the corner. "Hey you like music?" one of the guys asked me. "Yes, I do." "I'm out here trying to sell my mix cds, it's my music a mixture of hip hop, r&b and country..."
That's a weird ass mix. I had to give up five bucks for that. So we got to talking. He tells me he's from some small town in Tennessee and his parents are Jamaican, and he asked if I'm from Nashville.
"Nope, New York, just down here for the day to buy guitars". All you need to say is New York and you are a king to a young musician. His whole face shined. "So you're a musician?" "Yeah, guitar bass and saxophone, been playing a long time"....
The next question is the whole reason I went on this adventure in the first place. "So when did things start getting real for you in music?" "From the first day...." I said.
"I mean, REAL?" He asked. "Oh, you mean when did I get popular and all that? Well, I'm not popular but I can say all those things come and go in waves and the popular part isn't why I do this, I do this cause that's what I'm supposed to do and it's what I love the most in this world."
"Oh man, that's beautiful" he said. "I'll never stop making music, no matter what" I say to him. "That's just what I needed to hear" he said with a huge smile.
We talked a bit about the trap of trying to prove yourself and the choice to just be yourself and not get caught up in all that noise out there. Do your thing and be you and have a good time.
We shook hands and parted ways. It was nice to touch someone like that and nice to be touched as well. I learned a lot from him in those few minutes. And that made the whole trip to Broadway worth it. I hope he does well in this world, there was a genuine sweetness to his being. I haven't listened to his mix yet but intend to today after my ears pop and I can hear again. One small victory for being too tired to have my guard up! One small victory for letting someone in for a few minutes. Good day for praise and thanks....
JB
But this little story is about later that evening. I went out to see Broadway cause I heard it was the happening nightlife strip. I envisioned some good honkytonks and maybe some good roots joints around there. As I was walking along things got to be more typical America. Boom cars with cheesy bros rolling around with auto tuned hip hop blaring and all that. As I turned the corner I saw 2 young brothers exchanging some money with some chunky loud white dudes in what my highly trained American "Cops" or name any other popular culture TV land jive, had to be a drug deal. Whatever. None of my business. Enjoy your night fellows!
But on that corner? Maybe it was something else.... Too busy for an open air drug bit. You'd have to be really dumb to sell on that corner.
But I quickly forgot that scene and made my way to Broadway.
Broadway is anywhere USA it turns out. Fucking gross. Legions of the sad desperate, overweight, high and drunk. Swarms of 20 somethings trying to mate through being inebriated, lines around the corner 3 people deep trying to get in to nightclubs with bands blaring out the latest pop or country hits, and some classic rock. I didn't see anything that appeared to be original. Myself , overwhelmed and tired of stepping over chunder realized there's nothing wrong with this place, I'm just in the wrong place. There's a reason I never moved to Austin, Vegas or Nashville and got into all that. I love my New York.
So I made my way back to the hotel and saw the 2 brothers with the little money transaction on the corner. "Hey you like music?" one of the guys asked me. "Yes, I do." "I'm out here trying to sell my mix cds, it's my music a mixture of hip hop, r&b and country..."
That's a weird ass mix. I had to give up five bucks for that. So we got to talking. He tells me he's from some small town in Tennessee and his parents are Jamaican, and he asked if I'm from Nashville.
"Nope, New York, just down here for the day to buy guitars". All you need to say is New York and you are a king to a young musician. His whole face shined. "So you're a musician?" "Yeah, guitar bass and saxophone, been playing a long time"....
The next question is the whole reason I went on this adventure in the first place. "So when did things start getting real for you in music?" "From the first day...." I said.
"I mean, REAL?" He asked. "Oh, you mean when did I get popular and all that? Well, I'm not popular but I can say all those things come and go in waves and the popular part isn't why I do this, I do this cause that's what I'm supposed to do and it's what I love the most in this world."
"Oh man, that's beautiful" he said. "I'll never stop making music, no matter what" I say to him. "That's just what I needed to hear" he said with a huge smile.
We talked a bit about the trap of trying to prove yourself and the choice to just be yourself and not get caught up in all that noise out there. Do your thing and be you and have a good time.
We shook hands and parted ways. It was nice to touch someone like that and nice to be touched as well. I learned a lot from him in those few minutes. And that made the whole trip to Broadway worth it. I hope he does well in this world, there was a genuine sweetness to his being. I haven't listened to his mix yet but intend to today after my ears pop and I can hear again. One small victory for being too tired to have my guard up! One small victory for letting someone in for a few minutes. Good day for praise and thanks....
JB
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