the Slippery Noodle

Sunday, 29 April 2012 22:32

Our detour to Indianapolis sent us to the “Slippery Noodle” this evening - Indiana’s oldest bar... with blues music 7 days a week...

We caught Tony Cheesebourough with a stripped down band bass, guitar and keyboard... Reuben on keyboards was quite amazing... and Tony is quite the front man... he tested the boys in the band... just sailing from song to song with no warning... and they followed without a hitch... very cool... of course Clive had to suck up to the band and get a picture with them.

Nashville... and then Indianapolis!

Saturday, 28 April 2012 22:25

So... we couldn’t find a hotel in the Nashville area (or witihin a 30 mile radius!) for tonight (well especially not one that suited our budget!)...what with a marathon going on in Nashville and what seemed like some major dog show (we kept seeing people with fancy dogs coming out of the hotel we were at last night, and various important sporting events ...etc...)... so we made an executive decision this morning that we would head into Nashville for a few hours and then head to Indianapolis where we booked our hotel room. Thus getting a bit closer to home... and our research uncovered a promising venue for music... but that will be tomorrow night.

So in Nashville I headed straight (excitedly) over to the Ryman Auditorium... only to discover it to be closed! Apparently a live radio show was being recorded today... drats! anyway I headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum which I hurried through - but found to be quite excellent. I especially liked the Chet Atkins exhibit... Always loved his playing...

I also popped in at the Hatch Show Print shop. I had read a bit about the shop and was excited to check the place out... they are one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. They did a lot of the posters for shows at the Grand Old Oprey and stuff like that. The presses weren’t running today but it was still cool to see all the equipment and look at poster prints.

Then we drove 5 hours to get to Indianapolis... it reached 90°F today when we were in Nashville... it was around 80°F when we hit the border of Pittsburgh... within an hour it was 46°F !!! We were in summer clothes and freezing when we got out of the car!

Well once we got settled in our hotel... ate some Denny’s... Skyped home... and I got a couple of shots of JD in me... David was insisting that I give Clive a bath (which I have been promising for the last few nights - Clive has gotten to be a bit o a mess. What with hanging out in bars... lying in puddles of beer... numerous face-plants... a dive behind the bar in New Orleans... etc). So I undertook the project and have some stills to document the ordeal...

Waking up in Columbia... Nashville

Saturday, 28 April 2012 09:04

Good morning... hmm... ok... so we left Memphis yesterday morning... the day before that (Thursday) I spent a large chunk of the day at Graceland (and the associated ELVIS attractions )... I found it all fairly ridiculous... like being at an amusement park, with a gift shop at the end of every attraction. But I was a huge (yes i used to be pudgy) Elvis fan as a kid and his was the music that moved me in a big way and had a lot to do with me wanting to make music of my own. I used to sing into the hairbrush... the empty toilet roll tube... the broom handle... you name it... and sneer and wiggle my knees around. So, just hearing the music and seeing some of the old tv footage, walking through Graceland and seeing the house that was so familiar to me (from fan magazines and newspapers)... I gotta say I was touched.

The evening found us at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street to enjoy their excellent house band James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band had a great time... and Clive met a friend ... matter of fact Clive met a friend at Alfred’s where we had dinner.... Clive has been very popular....