Last weekend my right arm on this website Joshua Wallace and I went down to Nashville to see a show at the mother church, none other than the Ryman Auditorium. Before the show ( which was also right as the album dropped ) we went down to Grimey’s for the Silverada in store performance and album signing. Most of the time when Joshua and I get together, we eat like stuck hogs and take in a lot of shows. We also do a metric ton of record shopping.
Not long ago, Joshua wrote a review for the album and you can read about that Here. For the album party here, Mike Harmeier and Zachary Moulton were the only two that played, and they played a short 4 song set. After the show, the entire band signed albums we bought.
We went down to Jack’s first for lunch, then got to Grimey’s right when they opened and started shopping for signed vinyl and I always find some cheap CD scores there. What an amazing time we all had talking about stuff we liked, stuff we hated and stuff that was not yet released. my good friends from Indiana Venice and Melinda cane down for this with their son that my old ass did not remember meeting years ago. I tell you what, kids grow up too fast.
There was a pretty good turnout for this one here, and many of the same people that were here I did also see at the Ryman that night. This band took one hell of a gamble on changing their name like they did, and I admire them for it. This intimate show here helped us understand exactly why that happened.
This right here proved to me that Mike can still perform an intimate show alone like this, however at the same time he wanted to acknowledge the entire band as a unit. I could understand the Moonpies moniker if the lineup changed a lot, but this constant lineup here clearly shows their solidarity as a unit. In my opinion they don’t have anything to prove or to explain, they chose to do it as a unit. I’m very excited to see what sort of material they come up with in the future.
The four songs that were played at the pre show were all from the Silverada album, but at the Ryman they did play Moonpies songs of course. ‘Anywhere But Here” , “Stay By My Side”, “Load Out”, and “Hell Bent For Leather” were the ones I took note of on both shows. “Anywhere But Here” is a fun song about the road and freedom. Everybody interprets songs differently, and what I get out of it is a drama free road trip.
You know sometimes you need to just drop everything and take a trip away from reality for escape from the worries and turmoil of everyday adult life problems. Just stopping at a random bar for a roadside beer, and traveling with no absolute destination is what this song is about to me. “Hell Bent For Leather” is not a Judas Priest cover song, and “Load Out” is a terrific business song that mentions the toils of the industry. Load In, Load Out and off to the next city and the next show.
Then of course we had to hit Robert’s for cheese curds and Brazilbilly. We enjoyed a few hours of Honky Tonk music there while we waited for our friends to come downtown to eat with us at Mellow Mushroom before going into the Ryman, wandering around the load in area. Even though it wasn’t as deadly hot as it had been the last few days before…it still was humid out.
Out of all of the bars and places on Lower Broadway to see bands, I will say that Robert’s is indeed the ultimate best place around. There are many top notch bars in Nashville but none stand up to the stature of this bar. This is indeed the premiere bar that everyone goes to before the Ryman shows of this type.
Most of the fan pages that are out dedicating to all of the particular artists do a lot of their meet and greets at this bar, and just like back in the early nineties this is the place to go to hear some of the best local music that Nashville has to offer.
Ahhhh the good old Mother Church itself in all of it’s glory. So many Country Legends have played here, and it is an absolute honor for any band of performer to play there. It is also an absolute honor for any band’s fans to buy tickets to see their favorite people play there. It is also a prestigious step up for the many bands that earn their way up to this stage.
The history of Downtown Nashville is very near and dear to my heart, and I could literally wander around all of the stores and bars for days. Every piece of artwork and framed memorabilia is something I enjoy looking over piece by piece. The fact that the Opry rose to it’s pinnacle here is enough to make any band work their ass off to gain a headlining spot on it.
Tonight, we are about to see three of our favorite bands combine their talents to bring one hell of a lineup to the Mother Church tonight. Town Mountain was here tonight, and I have not seen them play live since the years I went to Kickin It On The Creek. I mean, Bobby Britt on fiddle…need I say more? I sure the heck DO need to say more about it.
This band just recently released a banger EP called “Dance Me Down Easy : The Woodstack Sessions”, however the songs that I took note of were mostly off of their 2022 ‘Lines In The Levee”. In fact, the very first song they played was the title track itself. Now, for this next song they released a series of e mail videos that shared the recording and meaning of the next song on the set list, which was “The Comeback Kid”. The actual video will be debuting soon via an email, that you can sign up for off of their own website.
Some of the other songs that were included in this set were “American Family” and of course they played “Down Low”. Town Mountain has a dynamite lineup consisting the tight sounds of THE MAN himself Mr. Bobby Britt! Phil Barker on the mandolin is an absolute beast up there, as well as Robert Greer, their guitarist. THE BANJO MAN Jesse Langlais is always a fun person to watch play for me, he is one of the OG’s of Town Mountain having helped form the band over 15 years ago.
So the second band here tonight were none other than local music legends Uncle Lucius, who played “Pocket Full Of Misery from their 2012 album “And You Are Me”. They disbanded in 2018 and took a 5 year break until in October of 2023, they rose again and released a banger album called “Like It’s The Last One Left”.
You see, even though the band was going through personal changes like children obligations to stay off the road and raise them to having momentum issues that forced them to feel like they were no longer gaining steam to move forward, the music lovers like me kept prodding at them to return. We knew damn well this band had more to stories to tell.
They made it quite evident that songs like “San Bernadino” were still in their setlist and still relevant, this song is from their 2009 album “Pick Your Head Up’. They played “All The Angelinos” which bumped back up to the latest album, before playing their most well known song “Keep The Wolves Away” from the “And You Are Me” album.
Finally it was time to see the band of the evening, the explosive Silverada (formerly Mike And The Moonpies). They came out and greeted us with “Wallflower” from their self titled album. It really was quite interesting to see how the new album would accompany their older albums during the course of their live show. Later on in the set from that same album they played “Anywhere But Here”, and the song called “Doing It Right, which is kind of along the lines of the Vern Gosdin song.
Their 2021 album holds their homage to Johnny Paycheck which basically names off different Paycheck songs and from there they went into their 2015 song “Mockingbird” which talks about the road and the music life. And then they went into another song about life on the road called “Load In load Out” from their new album.
They did indeed play some of their old songs from the Moonpies albums like “Steak Night At The Prarie In” which reminds me of the relationship I had with my own father as a young adult. He used to take me to see live bands in the dive bars and I learned how to play pinball. They also played “You Look Good In Neon” and their Priest cover “Hell Bent For Leather”.
They basically just changed the name of the band, and continued to keep the same direction they have been on lately. In my opinion the only album out of their catalog I did not like was the Cheap Silver album. Because I really just did not like the direction it went. Some of the song lyrics did indeed speak to me, but I just never could embrace the music on it.
As of today, this band is tighter and more impressive than they have ever been, and the crowds are growing exponentially by the day with every album. Together, they have an ambiance onstage of a unit and not just a backup band for one person. That to me is one of the reasons behind what they did whether it truly was or not. They are truly one of those bands that keeps the tradition of Honky Tonk Country alive and well in today’s world.
