Category Archives: Music

A Nashville weekend

Posted on by
Reply

A little indulgence. This post is as much for me to remember what went on in Nashville as it is to give a holiday update. Plenty of links to follow later.

 

Phil and Tany in NashvilleAbout

Nashville is probably one of my favorite places in the world. It’s a city, so it’s big enough to have things going on, it’s also small enough to easily walk around (at least in the centre). Add to that,really friendly people and great music and it’s no wonder I’m tempted to move here every time I visit.

We arrived on Friday evening, in time for a steak dinner and to make it into the Honky Tonks on Broadway to listen to some bands.

Broadway, Nashville TNLive Bands

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

The Cory Batten Band at the Bluebird CafeThe Bluebird Cafe is a legendary venue. The place where bands and writers go to get discovered. On Sunday and Monday you can just stand in line to get in.

The Sunday we turned up the band were recording a video of their performance, so they played the same set twice. It was pretty cool but maybe not what a ‘usual’ evening comprises of.

Tany and I got to sit with a couple who had moved to Nashville from Seattle. She works as a songwriter.

Monday

Saturday also included a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Studio B.

Country Music Hall of Fame

Studio B - the piano Elvis lovedThe CMHF is an amazing exhibition. It tracks the history of Country music, from Roots, through Bluegrass and the Nashville Sound to more contemporary music. Included in the exhibition are items like Elvis’s Gold Cadillac and the Gold piano he was given by Priscilla Presley. While Elvis is well-known for his connections with Memphis, he recorded most tracks in Nashville. Using the Gold Cadillac to drive himself between the two cities. Part of the CMHF is a tour of RCA Studio B, where Elvis and many… many other artists recorded. The piano he loved to play is still in the studio, and if you want you can sit at the keys and play.

Church on Sunday

Nashville isn’t just known as Music City, it’s also the Buckle of the Bible Belt. More churches than you can shake a stick at – though why you’d want to do that is beyond me.

We visited Brentwood Baptist Church. The kind of church where you need to take careful note of where you parked your vehicle (because of the size of the parking lot, not for security reasons). Two services and over a couple of thousand attendees.

I was relieved because the service was excellent. They were just starting a series on the importance of Scripture – which is good for a guy from Wycliffe to hear. What was just as good was the fact that after dropping a response card in the offering we got a personal email response from the church in 3 days!

A weekend in Nashville

So that was our weekend in Nashville. Kind of fun!


View Phil’s Nashville in a larger map

Brandenburg Concerto at St Martin in the Fields

Posted on by
1

I love music. Any music. If its good quality and performed with passion and belief I’m happy to fight my way through howling gales and driving rain, just like last night, to take my seat.

To be honest, I wouldn’t think of buying tickets for Tany and myself to go to a classical music performance. I simply don’t know enough to be able to work out in advance if I’d like it or not. But, when my father-in-law is offering to pay there’s nothing to lose.

So last night I made my way up to Charing Cross to meet Tany after work. We met the in-laws on the Tattersall Castle for a quick bite to eat, then it was off to St Martin in the Fields for the concert.

Two things to note.

1) St Martin in the Fields is a stunningly beautiful building.

There’s been some serious effort been put in to turn an early 18th century building into something that works in central London, long after the fields that give their name to the church, have disappeared.

The crypt now holds a large food court and church shop, while the church building itself makes a good performance space. Not sure I’d want to have to sit on the pews for two hours, but we had chairs which wasn’t so bad.

2) All six of the Brandenburg Concertos are stunning.

I guess proper musicians will have their favourite pieces, but I liked it all. Given a more comfortable seat I could have leaned back and listened to it for hours. Maybe I’ll just have to pay out for the CD.

Cheap gifts

Posted on by
Reply

Tany and I have been talking a bit about how we can make our money go further when I give up the life of having a monthly salary. I like music and novels so have made the suggestion that if she wants to go shopping to get me something she can visit some of the second hand stores and buy me some random stuff. I’ve got to give her a list of books that I’m looking out for, but on music she can go for anything she thinks I will like, or music that we should have around the house. Anything other than Disco or Abba and I should be pretty happy.

Singing songs about Jesus

Posted on by
3

Tany and I are on service leading duty this Sunday. The main responsibilities are getting the service planned, songs, order etc, and then trying to make the whole thing hang together on Sunday evening without saying anything inappropriate. Sometimes this is more difficult than it would appear, for example, in exams at school I always had this temptation to swear very loudly as I turned the exam paper over. Fortunately I didn’t give in to this temptation, but the thought is always there somewhere.

This week’s service planning is made even more interesting by the return of Eddie and Sue to the church. Eddie’s just been made Supreme Intergalactic Ruler of Wycliffe UK (or something like that) so they have had to move to a small village in the middle of pristine English countryside to keep the Christians in order. But, they are still church missionaries (and Christians, I’m pleased to say) and need our support, prayers and love, so they’re back and get to talk to the church about what they’ve been up to. They’re both wonderful friends and I miss having them around, so it’s going to be a good evening and I’m so pleased that I’m leading the service [Tany is too].

What’s this (and shouting out in school exams) got to do with singing songs about Jesus? Well, Eddie has this little frustration with modern worship songs,

The worst worship songs ever
Out of context worship songs
Jesus, I’m not in love with you
A new hymn book
Blokey blokes and worship songs
The song remains the same
Does worship grab you

After his comments it’s really tempting is to pick a whole load of JIMG songs in retaliation. But that could imply that I disagree with Eddie’s comments and I don’t. I’m about 90% behind him in most of what he’s written and the other 10% is probably just cultural or the fact that I can ignore the words if the tune is wonderful (sounds bad I know, but it’s true). The retaliation is instead for the day I was leading singing from the front of church and while someone was making very important announcement (as all church notices are very important) and I was trying to appear small and out of the way (kind of difficult at my size and shape) Eddie pulled a face at me. I don’t know how I didn’t burst into amplified howls of laughter but I couldn’t keep the amusement completely hidden so turned very red and looked quite awkward in front of a lot of people.

This Sunday could be my chance to return the favour.

Pastiche Musical Theatre presents Musical Mosaics

Posted on by
3

That was my Friday evening, at the Compass Theatre in Ickenham near Uxbridge, watching everyone from children to OAPs singing and dancing their hearts out. Then there was my friend Lou, who removed clothes and tried not to do too much damage to herself or her boyfriend – you had to be there to understand.

The whole thing was good fun. Lots of people who could really sing and dance, as well as a few who couldn’t, all raising money for the Peter Pan Ward at Hillingdon Hospital.

The drawback to the whole experience was that they had to sing Thank You For The Music by Abba… twice. It’s hard to explain but honestly, I really hate Abba.

Grandstand at the Jazz Cafe

Posted on by
1

The sound that dominated my Saturday afternoons for so many years.

Alan Hawkshaw plays Grandstand. According to legend the group were only given the music a few moments before playing this. If that’s true it’s amazing, if it’s not I don’t really want to know.

Enjoy!

LA – the music

Posted on by
1

I asked a few weeks ago for suggestions of music that I should be listening to driving around LA. Well, here’s the final playlist, including some videos because I can’t work out how to upload audio files on their own. Be prepared for some flashbacks to the 1980’s.

Linkin Park – Numb

Nickleback – Rock Star

Alphabeat – Fascination

Gwen Stefani – Cool

(beautiful video on so many levels)

Don Henley – Boys of Summer

Van Halen – Jump

Starship – We Built this City

(OK, so it’s about San Francisco, but at least I got it in the same state)

Steve Winwood – Valerie

Poison – Every Rose has its Thorn

Marc Cohn – Silver Thunderbird

Amy MacDonald – Mr Rock and Roll

The Gougers – Rosaline

King of the Hill

Posted on by
Reply

Maundy Thursday we ran a King of the Hill event at church. It is basically the Easter story set to music and narrated in English (opposed to Bible English). We started with a meal and welcomed quite a few first time visitors to the church. It was a good evening. OK, we’re not professionals, but it was good I think.

I was searching YouTube for a video that may illustrate what was going on. No success on that front. But I did fin this one, a collection of different videos of the Easter story, cut together over the track King of the Hill by Eli. It’s 80s videos with white actors and actresses playing the parts, and the quality’s pretty poor and the editing is rough to say the least; but the song… the words say it all.

World tour – the music

Posted on by
6

It’s less than a month until my world tour. Somehow I’ve managed to arrange visits to Los Angeles, Sydney, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide (I hope) and Singapore; before getting back to London. Things are looking pretty good, I may even have a couple of days to do almost nothing.

My travels have always been accompanied by a soundtrack. Songs that fit the place and time. So I’m preparing a running order for the trip ahead.

Currently I have the following ideas:

Los Angeles

  • Cool – Gwen Stefani
  • Boys of Summer – Don Henley
  • America – Simon and Garfunkel
  • Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Poison
  • Valerie – Steve Winwood

To also be supported by Beachboys – Pet Sounds.

Australia

The Waifs

A song by Paul Kelly about traveling (some people will know the title of the song). I used to own a copy but I gave it to a Finnish friend of mine who I ended up dancing to Livin’ La Vida Loca with.

That’s as far as I have planned so far. I need help to work out the rest. Good Australian music and 80′s power ballads for LA – any ideas?

Lingamish’s birthday celebrations

Posted on by
2

Lingamish is asking what book, movie and album he should buy with his birthday money.

So my suggestions…

Album: American V – A Hundred Highways Johnny Cash

Released in 2006 after Cash’s death the quality of the vocal is fantastic. Many of the tracks Cash had to record this in short chunks, a couple of lines at a time, stopping to rest in-between.

Film: Bobby

Book: True Tales of American Life Paul Auster

Published in 2001, this is book is edited by Auster. It came about after he invited listeners to an American radio talk show to write in with their own short stories. He had 4000 plus entries, this book is a collection of many of them.