I haven’t said anything about Leg 2 of the road trip yet, because I didn’t really think it would start in earnest until after I’ve made it up to Brooklyn to check out the place and drop off my stuff.
So far I’ve been to Nashville, where I spent the night at Shelley‘s place. We went to the Broken Spoke Songwriter’s Cafe where she played a few tunes and we watched some other songwriters play their tunes. Very laid-back, very few people there – it was really fun. Then we went over to The Basement to see Hotpipes, who were very good. Shelley is an amazing singer and songwriter. Check out her tunes, especially “The Time” (a true story) and “Me.”
We were having breakfast on Sunday morning at a local coffee shop, and while we’re waiting for our food, she was reading the paper and started quietly singing “All is Forgiven” by Jellyfish. Now, Jellyfish is my favorite band in the world. I can’t recall if I’ve told her this but I suspect I haven’t. She just happened to have their CD, Spilt Milk, in her car’s disc changer. Anyway I started singing it with her, and afterward we drove home singing along with the CD. Life rarely gets better than that.
Of course, life also rarely gets better than eating fudge, drinking blackberry tea and watching snow fall, which is what I’m currently doing in Alexandria, Virginia. I’m staying with my friend Tracy, who works for the State Department analyzing information about Cuba[1]. It’s snowing pretty hard right now, and my people in Brooklyn say that it should hit New York tonight, so I’m going to delay a while. My future/potential roommate Hayden will be working late on Thursday so I’m going to stay here with Tracy until Friday.
I also stopped off in Roanoke, Virginia, for a night to hang out with my Internet chum, Trina. We met years ago on a Dweezil Zappa fan list. We share an interest in guitars and guitar players, especially Mike Keneally and Frank Zappa. I haven’t seen her since 2001’s maiden voyage road trip of my vehicle. We played tunes, made CDs, and jammed in her music room. She has the distinction of owning Dweezil Zappa’s 5149 1/2 “Shamer” guitar[2]. I got its sister, the white/black version. Dweezil had a big garage sale at Zappa.com a few years back and we picked them up dirt cheap.
So it’s only been a few days and I’ve had some big fun. No pictures yet, though. I’ll rectify that soon.
1.) That may be classified information, so you didn’t hear it from me.
2.) Non-guitar monkeys should know that this is Eddie Van Halen’s trademark style, but his was a “Kramer” and had the number “5150” on it.