:mattLandia:

This weekend Natasha and I, along with our friends Karen and Eric, drove up across the state line for a little R&R in Nashville, TN. With all the travel I've been doing of late and all the travel that's on the horizon, I wasn't sure that I was really up to a weekend away from home, but Nashville, as always, did not disappoint.

Our plan was simple. Go to Nashville. Find some old school honky-tonk-hell-billy-boogie-woogie down on Broadway, commandeer a table and chairs, do some dancin’, unwind and relax. Mission accomplished!

Instead of boring you with a travelogue, let’s run through the highlight reel!

The Black Keys at Mercury Lounge: Our friend Jennifer (the sweetest friend of a friend I’ve ever had!) met us for dinner and then helped us get tickets to see The Black Keys at the Mercy Lounge. I really couldn’t believe our luck. Not only did we get tickets, I was standing no more than 10 feet away from the amps and got a first hand look at the genius of Dan Auerbach’s guitar playing. (For those long-term mattLandia readers, you’ll remember that one of my first entries here was about the Black Keys!) This duo makes some serious noise and is as good as billed.

Roberts and The Bluegrass Inn: For those of you not familiar with Nashville, you’ll find Roberts and The Bluegrass Inn side by side right in the thick of neon glow on Broadway. If you like old school country (Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, etc.) or old rockabilly (Gene Vincent, Elvis, etc.), Roberts is Shangri-La. Rows of boots line the walls, the drinks are cheap, the live music is close up and personal, and no leaves without dancing. Old, young, country, punk rock, middle America – every one is there having a boot stompin' hell raisin’ good time. The Bluegrass Inn, next door to Roberts, is not as well known but offers the same kick ass time but usually has a little more room to dance. We did the Roberts/Bluegrass Inn bar hop on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. By the time we left, we were on a first name basis with some of the help, but more on that later.

Karen and the Taxicab: Saturday morning, the wee hours of the AM, we’re all taking a cab back to the Hotel. Karen, pretty well sauced, leans up into the cabbies face and in her eagerness to pick up the cab fare, barks in the cab drivers ear, “When you need money, YOU LOOK AT ME – OK?” Scared us all half to death (including the cabbie), but we all ended cracking up (including the cabbie).

Saturday Night Fever: After a couple of warm up dances with me, Nat turned into a dancing machine. It started out with a dance with our barmaid Erika at Bluegrass, which led to dance after dance with Cowboy hatted men of all shapes, dancing ability and varying degrees of twang to the voice. When Natasha decides she wants something, watch out – she won’t be denied!

A Michigan Hillbilly and The Search For ‘D’ Tanner: While at the Bluegrass Inn on Saturday night, we happened upon the musical stylings of Phil Hummer, The Michigan Hillbilly himself. His band was hammering honky tonk standards like the best of them and as the show wound down, we ended up talking to Phil’s wife Ray (who also debuted on the dog house bass) and talking music, upcoming gigs and such. Before long, Phil, Ray, Natasha and I were hanging out, raisin’ hell and closing down Bluegrass Inn. We took out party to Roberts where at one point we struck up a conversation with ‘D’ Tanner of Brazillbilly. I’m calling him ‘D’ because I think his name was Dan, but it might have been Dave. I’m so tired right now, I honestly don’t remember.

Well, the South being what it is, it wasn’t long before Last Call signaled time for a change of venue. Our newfound friends invited us to head over to East Nashville where the bars are open longer, so we hoped in the band van and headed east. To our dismay, even the bars in East Nashville were closing up. SO. Having being casually invited to an impromptu party at ‘D’ Tanners place, we struck out in search of said party. It wasn’t long before we realized that none of knew where we were supposed to go, so Ray started working the phones in search of D’s address. Ray went so far as to call a guy in another state, interrupting him in the middle of a ‘delicate liaison’ with a new girlfriend, and keeping him on the phone long enough to guide us to D’s street. Alas, after a good 30 minutes of driving around, we found no party and headed home. It wasn’t a total loss though. Phil and Ray were absolute gracious and kind and hopefully we’ll get to hang out with them again soon.

The Nashville Star: While we were getting ready to go out, I was channel surfing and got the performance of Jody Evans on USA’s The Nashville Star. He seems to be a cross between Buddy Holly and Chris Isaak and actually performed really well. We were duly impressed. A day later, while shopping at this great boutique Katy Kay’s, I found myself in small room with this same Jody Evans where we were both trying on some stylin’ western wear. He had his little entourage in tow, Mom included, and you could just feel the nervous excitement in him. I totally approved of his choice in a black sequined jacket. If I had $300 to drop on a jacket, I would have picked the same. I hope he wins the contest.

All right, that’s enough for one entry. I’m beat tired but I wanted to get this done while it was still fresh in mind. I hope you like the photos, and if you have the chance, do yourself a favor and git on over to Nashvegas pronto. You can’t not have a good time.