Nashville Today
I finally made my first pilgrimage to Nashville. We're staying in the heart of the "NashVegas Strip". Its hot, but having a blast. I got to play at the Blue Bird Cafe's open mic last night. What a treat playing in a small listening venue packed with songwriters from all over the world. (Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Ohio, Wisconsin, Charlotte, Atlanta, and several stereotype Nashville transplants- working musicians here playing the circuit and very good). It was an ordeal getting a slot to play as its gotten quite popular-sold out with people in line wanting to get in and couldnt now that its featured in some TV show. But worth it , I think, in the end. They gave me a tee shirt after I payed for it. And every time I bought a beer, they brought me one.
Then today I spent hours in Carter's and Gruhn's. I think I played every mandolin in both places and half the guitars. I didn't bother them to play the Loars behind the glass cases. I just felt lucky being able to play all the others. My favs were prob a Heiden , Mowrey, and an Ellis. I also liked an Anderson and a Red Diamond and an older Gilchrist...and a lot of the Gibsons. One of the Guicamals (sp?) was interesting and fun with super low action.. I played a very nice Weber Octave F style F hole at Carters which I preferred over a similar Smart at Gruhns. Several Webers were nice and Carters had a large selection of them. They had several Duffs too. Gruhns didnt have that many mandos but they did have a nice kentucky 1500 master and yes the reports of at least this one as quality and at a value is true. Lots of guitars and banjos at Gruhns.
My Harvey Gibson F5G stood up well against all of them so I walked away feeling pretty good. I didnt have as much envy as I thought I would. But there is something about the lighter, high end Ellis and Mowreys as well as that Heiden that I do prefer compared to mine. Compared to my Gibson, they are lighter and thinner at the neck somehow and I like that. But not worth the extra money to me. I'm a tight wad and a hack anyway really. My gibby has enough of the goods at less than half the price.
The guitars that stood out were a Huss and Dalton, a custom 15k guitar by someone I hadnt heard of (Kevin Ryan's Nightengale-outstanding) and a whole bunch of their Martins. There was a recent oo21 that I especially liked at Gruhns and a nice vintage one at Carters.
Had breakfast at the Frothy Monkey. Got the sausage biscuits. Had lunch at Arnolds. Its a local staple cafeteria type place right next to Carters so it fit the bill.
Tonight we will go out Honkey Tonkin. Dont worry, Uber is instantaneous here. I'll report back after breakfast tomorrow.
The pic below is from the Blue Bird Cafe.
Last edited by Astro; Jun-26-2018 at 5:45pm.
No matter where I go, there I am...Unless I'm running a little late.
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