Shinybass journal entry 06-11-12

And now the gnus…

Good morning, friends.  It’s a serene Monday morning, and for this entry, I am trying something a little different.  Today I am wearing pants while I type.  OK, not really.  I am listening to music, which is something I don’t usually do whilst trying to ‘capture the pebble’ to remember the week and get it into 1’s and 0’s.  This morning’s selection is something special and easy – I bought 66 Spanish guitar tunes from iTunes for $.99.  For a crazy amount of music.  Can’t beat it with a pinata stick.  So today, if my words begin to come out en Espanol, pido disculpas. Ordenará sí finalmente. Amazon and iTunes both offer bargain music all the time – a few months back, I bought 99 classical pieces for a dollar as well.  If you just need some dinner or chill music, it’s a smart way to go.  There is your Clark Howard tip for the day.

This week marked the beginning (and end) of Fan Fair, or CMA Fan Fest, or ‘bring 150,000 people to Nashville to fight for parking’.  If you thought I was in Kermit the Hermit mode before, then you should really see me during Fan Fair.  I love playing in Nashville, but it’s usually a pretty big hassle to get to and from shows, around town, etc.  This year, however, was pretty low key – I was able to park and get to the River Stage with relative ease, which is unusual, because normally getting to the gig is like trying to get near Quantico, with parking worse than Black Friday at Wal-Mart. (they don’t get a hot link) We played at 10 AM, which is so nice – the weather was perfect, and there were thousands of country music lovers hanging with us.  Not that you would notice, but the configuration of the stage and ‘green room’ (waiting area) for the bands was set up differently this year, and so much nicer than in years’ past.  I was a fan of the layout, and everybody from the top down was a pleasure to work with on Friday.  Thanks for an amazing show.

What’s the first thing you do after rockin’ so many folks?  That’s right – I went home and changed into shorts and mowed my lawn.  Pretty wild stuff, I’ll agree.  I was pretty excited, really because I have a new attachment on my weed eater, which made my life a lot easier.  Sadly, now I look forward to getting out my weed eater to tidy things up.  I should be more excited about other things, but you don’t understand my relationship with the line spool.  I end up with such a huge, ineffective mess that I end up pulling weeds by hand, so this was a life saver.  And now, back to the music…

Whereas I would have loved to stay in town and wrestle with you all for a table at  Jack’s BBQ, we had to head to Cedar Rapids, IA for a street festival with Alan Jackson and Joe Nichols.  I had some decent plans lined up for the day.  I was going to lunch with staffers from Premier Guitar Magazine, and maybe even get in a work out somewhere before hitting the stage at 5:15.  Well, the trailer decided to derail those plans, and after a long delay, we were in Cedar Rapids by 2:30.  That basically meant we had time to unload the trailer, set the gear and do the show.  The whole thing was over faster than you could say ‘Alan Jackson’s Mustache’.  I finally was able to shower somewhere around 10 PM (sorry, Iowa), and we rambled out of town an hour late, which I guess was the theme for the trip.  I didn’t get home until about 3 yesterday, which was 4 hours later than originally planned.  That can destroy a Sunday pretty quickly.

Not 30 minutes after I was home, I had to head right back out and head to a rehearsal for a King’s X tribute show at Douglas Corner in Nashville.  I will not sugar coat anything – my rehearsal yesterday was pretty awful, and I blame myself for it (yes, I can admit my faults), so the day will be spent in the woodshed, re-learning the song I signed on to play. Back to last night- after a shower and a half a moment to breathe, I met my good friend Kyle DeVan for dinner, who recently signed with the Titans.  It was a welcome breather to have a ‘couples’ date, and now there is a sushi shortage in East Nashville.  October 11th may be a tough game for me, since the Titans take on the Steelers.  It’s hard to cheer against friends.  Oh the dilemma…

So the week is wide open – for you, for me, for everybody.  What are you going to do with it? I’ll be bringing you my updates during the via twitter (@shinybass), which I seem to like more than facebook – It’s faster and much more informative, and I don’t get bombarded with requests to water anybody’s damn farm.  Make this week a good I plan on it. And scene.

See you on the road!