09.21.06

Bluegrass: 1, Cricket: 0

Posted in hot live action, stephen simmons - September 21st, 2006 at 7:44 pm by Cricket

Wow, the weather in Tennessee sure has been gorgeous the last few days. Autumnal, a hint of chill in the air, lovely, bright blue skies. You see that? It’s diversion. Hopefully you will be so caught up in thoughts of beautiful fall weather that you won’t really notice what I’m about to say.

Okay, I’m sure some of you anticipated this, especially those of you who actually know me, but every ridiculous, uninformed, lame negative thing I ever said about bluegrass? I take it all back. Yep. I was wrong, you all were right. Yes, I have loved a bluegrass band here and there, but I’m wholly won over now. Converted, as it were.

I went out on the town last night with my neighbor, Miss Sparkle, and few other ladies. Mimi, rather unfortunately, has the bubonic plague, or perhaps tuberculosis and is resting in a sterile room, isolated and pumped full of weird drugs (because House is her doctor and he hasn’t made the final diagnosis). The event was sadly lacking for want of her company, but we soldiered on and made the best of it. My goal? See the Wrinkle Neck Mules play live at one of the showcases for the Americana Music Association Conference. Sadly I did not achieve this. I could perhaps blame the cute record label guy for giving me too many free drink tickets, which I was obviously obligated to use all of, thus making me easily distractable and causing me to wander out of the bar before WNM played. Or perhaps it was because Miss Sparkle was about to turn back into a normal girl and we had to get her home before the carriage turned into a pumpkin.

Right, here’s what happened: we managed to catch Little Country Giants, Hoots & Hellmouth and the Stephen Simmons Band. Each of whom was amazing, like really, unbelievably good. Little Country Giants have a sort of slowed down, almost ethereal quality to them. It’s in line with the kind of heart-wrenching, soul-uplifting back porch music the Hollyfelds make. The harmonizing between all the singers is rich and warm and comfortable in way that makes me wish I was laying under a tree, in the middle of a wide open field on a warm Indian summer day, with my head in someone’s lap while the Little Country Giants sing just for me. I imagine that would be so wonderful that if I closed my eyes I’d feel transcendent, like I was riding on clouds. Yeah, it was that great to see them live. These kids are from Georgia and you can buy up all their good stuff at my beloved CD Baby.

The pace picked up a little when Hoots & Hellmouth came on. This band was a stompin’ good time. Head-banging folk music straight out of Pennsylvania. I defy anyone to watch this band and not have a great time. Man, they look like they are having such a good time that you can’t help get a little more up yourself. There’s a little undercurrent of old-timey sound here, but it’s grittier, rougher and has maybe a hint of dirty ashtray and empty PBR cans to it. They’ve got an album coming out sometime next Spring, I think, so until then, if you can’t catch one of their live shows, you’ll have to satisfy yourself by playing every song on their MySpace page over and over and over.

I only made it through half of the Stephen Simmons Band set before the evening turned into something else all together. There were mitigating factors, otherwise I never would have missed the rest of his songs, because he was completely my kinda singer songwriter boy. He’s definitely a troubadour, and a pretty hard-core one at that. He has a gruff, gravelly thing going on when he sings and lyrically he recalls all the greats, yeah, I’m gonna go there and say he’s got ♥Steve Earle♥ and Townes Van Zandt style. Yeah, really. He’s recently released an album called Drink Ring Jesus and I suggest you run right on out to get it. This boy tours extensively too, so watch for him. I swear if I had any money to speak of I’d offer to pay for you to go to one of his shows, just so I know you’d see it.

As things roll crazily sometimes in Nashvegas, the free beers I was drinking one way or another got a few whiskey drinks in between them and somehow I ended up at a house party in East Nashville with charming, wonderful folks from Little Country Giants, David Long and The Hunger Mountain Boys. Everyone was sitting around drinking, chatting, pickin’, playin’ and singin’. The kind of night where I think, just for a second, “how is my life this incredibly cool?”

So I’ve swallowed all my wrong-headed words about bluegrass because I get it now. I mean really get it. It isn’t just the sounds, or the music, it’s the whole experience of watching the players jam, watching them switch off solos and just kind of magically pass the songs around the room as they play. The things is, it’s just joy. Being surrounded by people making music just for the pure joy of doing it is why I even do this at all and it’s what bluegrass is really about. So, yeah, I get it now, aren’t you glad I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong?

While I’m here preaching at you about all the great music I devoured last night, why don’t you take a break and go on to CD Baby and put The Hunger Mountain Boys album, Three, in your cart along with the Little Country Giants ones you already have there. There a song on it called “Mt. St. Helens” which alone would be enough to make me love them, but it’s damn fine song as well, so go get it.

This update was brought to you during my recovery period before I go on to the next show. It’s sponsored by bacon, eggs, Gatorade and my being so lazy that I’d rather sit in this chair and type than walk across the street to buy cigarettes. And although I feel like death warmed over, I feel thankful for the awesome showcase last night, for the cute boy from Shut Eye Records who was passing out beers like they were candy and for the host of the party. It was one of the better nights I’ve had out in Nashville. Searching for those last few hard-core troubadours may be playing hell on my liver, but it sure is rewarding to my ears.

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