I have never missed a single year of the Nashville Boogie, and I’ll tell you why..the music and the people. The atmosphere is so wonderful and fun filled with color and flare, the western style dress and the ladies whirling all over on that dance floor. You have four places to go watch all different types of music and buy clothes of all types like western dress and rockabilly attire. This particular festival has no food vendors however instead focuses on the venues serving the food, next year in 2020 however Mr. Jason has already announced that it WILL BE capped at 1000 tickets. Also the Nashville Palace and the Scoreboard Bar And Grill have been named the official venues.
This early in the afternoon there was already many folks mingling and meeting for the first time, along with many old friends like I have here. And where better to begin a marathon of music and fun than with an American band like them? It simply doesn’t get any better than Mr. Ronnie Crutcher beginning with his guitar licks for the song “Violets In May”. If you have not known about this band, you need to and now you do..go buy their albums.
This event just grows and grows every year, and gets attended by more people than I had ever hoped to imagine, the vendor area truly has grown in size this year, and right away I noticed that the shuttle service has really improved in frequency and better interior. One thing I DO remember is catching the flu in this booth last year, it hit me hard.
The Palace itself has gone through some changes with the new management that created more space to dance up front, but I’ll be completely honest, they took out a lot of the historic decor that once adorned those walls. It was kind of heartbreaking to see that happen, and I noticed a few things went up in price. Once again the back room and front room menus were different to accommodate faster and more efficient ticket times for the heavier traffic back room
This has become much more of an entity than just a simple music festival or car show, no my friends this has become a whole other echelon of friendship and love for the common good. You have a car show going on outside of the Palace with Hillbilly Casino playing over at the Scoreboard Bar And Grill when I arrived today. It was indeed quite pleasant to park and get out of the truck to hear “Debt With The Devil’ , and their official anthem song the good ol “Tennessee Stomp”.
This right here is Hillbilly Casino’s guitarist Mr. Ronnie Crutcher right after they played the song called “Violets In May” which they additionally played in the front bar of the Nashville Palace on Saturday night. I eagerly watched both sets of wild antics by the entire band that vehemently persuade audience support.
He is drummer Mr. Matthew Armn as he riles up the crowd at the Scoreboard by standing on his drum kit and slamming beers while clapping. This fearsome foursome are one of the best bands around because of their eclectic roots and deep appreciation of history.
As they were finishing up their set, I went outside to see the car show. The entire car show was bigger than last year and continues to grow yearly with more sponsors and vendors contributing. Hot rod cars and music are big parts of the Rockabilly lifestyle, and it’s always fun to see these folks celebrate that.
The back room of the Palace was where I enjoy setting up my computer area and I sat and watched the Gin Palace Jesters play one hell of a GREAT SET here tonight. Chicago’s own hillbilly swing band. But first let’s take a nice look at some of the cars involved in the show, like the original cruiser from the television show the Munsters. Mr. Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster on the television show was kind enough to bring it for us to see, along with Grampa’s other coffin cruiser.
Now we shall revert back to the Palace where Chicago’s own The Gin Palace Jesters, who began their set blazing into “Honky Tonk Fool” which is from the 2005 album of the same name. From the 2015 album “For Better or For Worse”, they played “Show Me Your Tears”. That is one of my favorite songs they play about fake tears and cheating women, along with those old classic drinking songs they idolize.
This band played the 2016 Boogie, and tonight they brought a truly fine show, with note for note precision for the simple fact that Mr. Chris Casello was joining in on steel guitar. In fact, tonight we had EIGHT that’s right count them….eight members on stage tonight.
They were FULL of Western Swing fiddles complete with double stops and twin fiddle work, as they wove a tapestry of Hillbilly music. Other members included Mr. Hank Sandwich, Mr. Greg Hirte, Mr. Conor Ostrow and Mr. Mike Hobson.
Their second album called “Roadhouse Riot And Other Songs With Words” boasted the next song called “Moonbeam”. The song called “Lover Not A Fighter is fromtheir debut Honky-tonk Fools album. The next song had a great story tied in with it about his youth, the song being “Ol Webb’s Bullhorn Pontiac”. I have done a lot of studying about Mr. Webb Pierce and his silver dollar 1962 Pontiac Bonneville.
“Loosing Her Memory” was another great song off of the Roadhouse Riot album, and again off the debut album we had ” 18 Days And 18 Wheels” which was a GREAT trucking song. You know my friends, this band has some REALLY good beer drinking songs and old time trucker songs as well. Like the next song called “Drunk All My Troubles Away” and my personal favorite called “God Bless The Drinking Songs”. I love that one simply because it remembers the beloved Country Music Legend Mr. Jim Ed Brown, and his song called “Pop A Top”.
“Pomade On My Pillow” was a funny song, however the next song they played off the new album called “91 Proof” about drinking and brewing moonshine. I love me some good old home brew corn whiskey up here in Kentucky. The very last song I caught was called “Nashville Penny”.
Photo Courtesy of Mr. Dave Dowda
After that set I slid on over to the Opryland Hotel to the Presidential Ballroom to see Miss Nikki Hill I’m not exactly sure what to call her music other than powerfully fun, and I wasn’t very familiar with this North Carolina gal with three independently released albums under her belt. She has been called the Southern Fireball, among other things.
However on the way to the music locations I stopped into the vendor area to see many old friends like two fo the people I met around the first Muddy Roots ( what we call Muddy Roots main) festival. For the amount of you that may not know what we mean by Muddy Roots, allow me to explain. Muddy Roots began on Labor Day weekend in 2010 as a festival to provide a HOME for bands that didn’t exactly “fit” into any genre, and it began to be called “Roots Music”.
It’s really NOT ANY GENRE it was Outlaw Country, Folk, Bluegrass, String Bands, Punk Grass and other various types thrown into a jumble of whatever they played. Mr. Jason thought outside of a box, and outside of a corporate guideline while STILL maintaining a business sense about the overall outcome. He saw an opportunity to capitalize on a target audience that nobody else did…except me. I saw it RIGHT AWAY and I wanted to tell him TAKE MY MONEY!
I wanted to help his dream grow by involving others and bringing others into the crowd with open minds and open wallets, and help these bands grow to be able to sustain a viable income playing their music. Rusty Knuckles was (and is) what I used to call the BIG THREE labels of that Roots Music, and in their prime they were all three very incredible labels that produced GREAT albums. I cannot say enough good things about Mr. Ralph Miller and Mr. Buck Thrailkill whom both represent Rusty Knuckles.
Her band was exceptionally vivid and loud, just like her lyrics. Her stage presence was powerful and as she wailed out the song called “Tell The Next World”, I noticed that she gathered a huge crowd so early in the day. That is not always an easy task at any music festival of any magnitude.
I’ll admit I’m not too familiar with her music, and I’m not into it as heavily as other bands here. However I have great respect for her ambiance on stage, and I can appreciate her fierce vocal delivery of songs like “Get Down And Crawl”. Her lead guitarist Mr. Matt Hill is also her husband , and the two of them rotate band members all over the United States.
I remained in the Presidential Ballroom for the next main act there Miss Linda Gail Lewis, sister of Legend Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis. She plays or hell of a mean piano and along with Mr. Robbie Fulks, she has released a ton of great music including the first song she played called “Boogie Woogie Girl From Tennessee”.
Much like her older brother, she too pounds out a serious rock and roll piano beat with everything from blues to country variations within her songs. She defiantly kicks her leg out far above her seat while playing the classic song “Roll Over Beethoven”.
Before I had to move back over to the Nashville Palace for more bands, I got to watch her perform the title track from her latest album called “Wild Wild Wild”. I also wanted to give a shout out to the people that were emcees of this event this weekend like Mr. James Riley from the podcast Hillbilly Blues And Radio Hour, also the Aztec Werewolf Mr. Del Vilarreal whom is a disc jockey on WCBN FM in Michigan.
Both of them did a really good job keeping the crowd in touch with the next act, and kept them all out there dancing. You know there were many DJ’s and dance classes as well. That is what this whole entire concept is, it’s NOT JUST MUSIC it’s a celebration of a lifestyle and culture all their own.
I took the shuttle back over to the Nashville Palace where the front room and the back room bars are going strong at the same time. I have my laptop set up in the back room here in my little corner booth and I can easily ramble around and get all my information and watch this amazing music.
Like this next band from Nashville Tennessee called The Hi-Jivers, who play some mighty fine rock and roll, and rockabilly music with eccentric covers and really nice original music. They are featured quite prevalent at the Nashville Boogie, as well as many of the bands on the Wild Records label.
In 2014 Miss Dawna and her husband Mr. Austin John moved to Nashville to form this band that released their first full length album called “Something’s Gotta Shake”. They closed their set with the song of the same name there, I’m talking about the Hi-Jivers. This band went absolutely crazy on stage with an amazing stage presence and unique vocal delivery of songs like “Hot Wire Woman”, and “Blood In My Mouth”.
Along with Mr. Hank Miles on the upright bass, and Mr. Jason Smay on drums, they barreled through songs like “Mean Woman” and another called “Ol Feeling”. Miss Dawna danced and wailed out the lyrics for songs like “Just One More Time” with true Rockabilly fury, you know folks we had a LOT of great female artists in this festival this weekend.
“Bulletproof” was next followed by “Got Me Wrong” and another song called “Get My Way”. One of the songs off their album was called “Sweet Talkin And Lyin'”.
“I Smell A Rat” is another good song they do followed up with “Any Woman You Please”, and the last song they played was called “Knee High And Risin'”. Now, I chose to skip Mr. Marcel Bontempi over at the Presidential Ballroom in Opryland, because he is playing another set on Saturday.
As that was going on in the back room, we had Miss Cheryl Deser’ee performing in the front room with a full band of wonderful people, and smooth Jazzy Country Swing songs and all kinds of other musical influences here. I know her and I know her WELL, and she LOVES old Country and ALL TYPES of older music, and she knows her stuff! Incidentally off her album “Dreamy” that I didn’t hear tonight was the song called “Another Empty Bottle’. Like I said I was bouncing pretty hardcore tonight so I only caught parts of sets.
She is a little bit of EVERYTHING thrown into one album, the first song she did I got to watch was called “Home To Stay” which on the album featured Riders In The Sky, however with her stellar full band she had tonight this set was TRULY wonderful. One of the best sets of the weekend for SURE!
“Stage Door Jenny” was a pleasant slow song about getting drunk and mouthy and all kinds of other stuff filled with pianos and other things in the background. This young lady BRINGS IT when she does a show, and when she complements the music with her sultry vocals you get a CLASS ACT SHOW for damn sure. She is truly a pro, but you better ‘Keep My Name Off Your Lips” if you keep talking about her behind her back or she’ll kick your ass.
Shout out to ALL the Muddy Roots staff and volunteers that help Mr. Jason Galaz throw this damn shindig, at so many places at one time. Miss Cole, Miss Delany Chavez, Miss Kelly McNoldy and Miss Destiny make it so much fun to take part in the festivals. Always nice to see friendly faces at the ticket booth and merchandise booths. One of the merch booth ladies at Opryland helped put a shirt on a little baby it was adorable.
Sadly I opted to also skip Mr. Art Adams also, to catch this powerhouse band that only plays a few small dates in America called The Country Side Of Harmonica Sam. In fact, I am going to try my absolute best to recall everything I watched this weekend, but doggone it there was so much going on.
These five gentlemen deliver Honky Tonk Country in a 50s and 60s Bakersfield fashion.Country Side Of Harmonica Sam They dress the part and play the part equally well, and the five of them are a well oiled machine in every sense of the word. On upright bass you have Mr. Ulrik Jansson, on steel guitar you have Mr. Peter Andersson.
Mr. Johan Bandling Melin is on the lead guitars and back on the drums you have Mr. Patrik Malmros, to complete this band you have Harmonica Sam up front on vocals. Their stellar 2017 album “A Drink After Midnight” boasted their first two songs “Big City” and “Unjust Friends”. It equally possesses the wonderful song called “Empty Hours”.
“The Day I Let Him In” was next followed by the title track of “A Drink After Midnight” which is my personal favorite song about drinking your memories of a love gone wrong away in order to sleep well. They played a brand new song from their upcoming album called “If That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be”, which has a really cool retro look on Spotify. They made it look like an old album cover with the 45rpm label in the corner.
“That’s Why I Sing In A Honky Tonk” was another good song they play, and they closed with “Tears Don’t Stain” and the ever popular “Lookout Heart”. Now at the same time in the front room there were SO MANY GREAT bands playing like a good man I’ll be featuring more as he releases more music on the Country Roots Records label, and that is none other than Mr. Todd Day Wait’s Pigpen
You know folks I don’t know a whole lot of people out in the New Orleans area but right now this is where he resides and plays locally. Apparently he started out in Missouri and made his way around the United States, following his dreams. And I’m glad he did because his mind is focused on terrific original music and some truly enjoyable covers, like the Mel Tillis written “Heart Over Mind” made popular by Mr. Ray Price.
His song “Early Morning Blues” is an easy mellow song that keeps the listeners attention with vivid lyrics and smooth rich vocals. Many of his songs are influenced by old time fiddle tunes, as well as his heart. Once you delve into his style you see his own playlist is adorned with the likes of Mr. Brett Ratliff and Mr. Benton Flippen.
He played the Left Frizzell classic “She’s Gone Gone Gone” that Mr. Harlan Howard wrote in 1964, along with a Roger Miller tune “A World So Full Of Love” from the 1970 classic album “A Trip In The Country”. After him that first night I got to see my buddy Mr. Ben Jarell, who released a GREAT new album called “Troubled Times” on Country Roots Records, it’s on our TOP 50 right now!
As a dock worker at night in a factory I really relate to the song “Gearjammers Blues”, see just like the music business where I see how hard the road life is I also see the trials of the truck drivers. America really does move by truck folks, and being sad, tired and alone is indeed part of their blues. His band was truly tight up there, and I really enjoyed his set.
“Big Iron Train” was next and is a little heavier song than the rest, and is a well written song that he wrote with Mr. Brendan Mannion. It’s just a damn jam song about leaving home and going on adventures, this young man’s life has truly been an adventure for sure. He struggles with his father being away in jail, which is where the song “Daddy’s Prison Radio” comes from. He really and truly DOES WANT his father to hear him on the prison radio, we talked on the phone often in the past about parent problems with both of us.
“Highway Whine” was a great harmony song filled with great studio steel guitar provided by Mr. Mike Daly, and many backup vocals. ‘Marissa” he wrote with Mr. Garrett Miller. That song didn’t speak to me as vibrantly as the others like “Troubled Times In A Tribal Town”, it painted a grotesque picture in my mind of a horrible murder.
He finished up his entire album on the two times he played with songs like “Black Helicopter” “The Flyer” and finally he played “Colorado Bound”, a song about smoking pot, which pretty much helps these guys burn up the roads. Many people have gone to Colorado to do that, he also goes on toward the end of the album to thank everyone for their help.
His band tonight was Mr. James Robert Lanigan on the bass, Mr. John Papageorgiou on drums, Mr. Ryan Sanchez on lead guitars. On the steel he had Mr. Jordan Harazin, and on the keyboards he had Mr. Cullen Wade to complete his band. If you ever get the chance to catch him in your area YOU MUST DO SO!
The Cactus Blossoms…LORD I finally got to cover them on here, and their new album called “The Easy Way” featured their first song called “Desperado”, which OF COURSE featured their signature harmonies and soft guitar twang. This is a easy flowing song about being down by Mexico.
Next they played the song “I’m Calling You” which is also next on the album, and they played “Downtown” before they reverted back to their 2016 album called “You’re Dreaming”. This band does not move much on stage at all, however they are just absolutely captivating in many ways. Their precise musicianship is equal to nobody else at all, I would pay TOP DOLLAR to see them again.
From the first album they played my favorite song called “Clown Collector”, a toe tapper about a gal that loves loser guys. It just seems that too many gals nowadays want a man they “have to fix” or are jobless. They also played the song called “Powder Blue”, a much slower and more relaxed song about love and the sky. Once again we enjoy those wonderful harmonies and those golden voices from these two Minneapolis natives Mr. Jack Torrey and Mr. Page Burkham.
The first song off the first album was the awesome ‘Stoplight Kisses” which I’m sure by now they are tired of it, but they sound JUST LIKE the Everly Brothers. “Boomerang” is a song about a gal that keeps coming back with another name, I’m not sure if that means a married name or what.
“No More Crying The Blues” was one the higher points of their set tonight, they played that one REALLY good, also “Mississippi” was equally performed well tonight. “Change Your Ways Or Die” was one of their last songs and they finished with “Please Don’t Call Me Crazy”, from the new album.
The Screamin Rebel Angels from the great state of new York, man what can be said that already isn’t said about this trio of good folks? Miss Laura Palmer just absolutely SLAYS IT up front nightly for your entertainment, and whomever put together the roster for the front room did a splendid job. EVERY ACT I got to see was amazing in their own right.
“Oh! My Soul” is just a downright Rockabilly JAM with Little Richard screams and a steady hardcore beat complete with drum rolls and ramming guitar solos from Mr. Aaron and Mr. Al Martinez. From the “Hitch Hike” album they played the song “When I’m With You”. This new album they just put out called “Heel Grinder” was by far their best album vocally, what I meant was it was very well produced and captured her signature growl better than any other album.
Mr. Josh Bailey on drums beat away on those things with the title track from the “Heel Grinder” album also, one of the older songs I recalled was “Bumble Bee” but also the song “Baby Gets Down” had the dancing beats and stomping rhythm that this late night crowd needed, as I bounced back and forth to rooms, the other crowd could hear the Angels tearing up the front room!
“Mayday” is from the second album however they went pretty far back to the first EP called “Pounce Like A Tiger” with a song I LOVE called “Momma He Treats Your Daughter Mean”, as a father with a daughter I’ll KILL YOU if you are mean to my kid. THAT IS a Father’s song right there, and I love it. “Hands Off” was a good thump song about staying away from her man, get your hands off him..I wouldn’t mess with Miss Laura!
“Brassy Brown” was a slower smooth groove song, that had people dancing really fun, I was going around trying to take pictures of moving objects, so I used this opportunity to practice. I love the smooth guitar tone of this song and the solos. One thing about them is they got to play more songs in their set because they do not have longer songs like Country has a tendency to have.
“Right To Wrong” was another off the “Pounce Like A Tiger Album that I caught here tonight, I liked the vocals on the recording of this song, along with the song called “Let It Rain” which is a DAMN GOOD song here, saving my love for a rainy day is a good line. “Something On Your Mind” is a slower song about communication in your relationship, and they followed that with “Where You At”. The last song I caught of theirs was off their first EP called “You’re Pretty When You’re Quiet”.
Day two of the festival started pretty early in the morning with a wonderful lunch of Texas Brisket Sandwich at the Scoreboard bar and grill. Part of the festival focused on this bar and the Palace as well , and as a previously stated in 2020 it will house the entire festival.
The first band up during the car show on day two was the Psychobilly band called Hellfire Revival and although they have one album out, they did play a new song called “Ones In The Night” which had a horror theme to it. Their lead singer Mr. Chris Saint Clark growls out the lyrics to many of the bands gruesome horror punk songs as the rest of the band unleashed fury upon us VERY EARLY in the day.
Mr. Gary Burney and Mr. Jason La Lacona joined him upon stage today to deliver a rousing does of classic Hellfire songs like “Devil Don’t Run With Me” and “Drink Away The Bottle” followed by another called “Dv8or”. All of these songs can be found off their album called “Greatest Hits”.
“Necrotizer” was a rather different kind of a song however for a band like this with their shock rock demeanor it was quite fun. This band truly does entertain well with their bassist and the way he got into the music and went bat shit crazy.
The last song I got to see them play was called “Skeletons In The Closet”, I got the chance to see them play man years ago at the main Muddy Roots festival, when they played a lot of covers. Directly after them I stayed up there in the Scoreboard to watch Mr. Walt and the Psycho Devilles.
I’ll tell you what folks Hot Rod Walt has a TON of albums to pull songs from and he is STILL making more music, like their new album called “Rumble Road”. They played quite a few songs from that album like “Ain’t Got No Choice”. They pulled a few songs off their old 2005 album called “Psycho Cadillac”.
The songs they pulled off that album were “This Old Road”, which I have heard them play many times in the past, and also they played “Bar Fight”. Which makes the entire crowd yell you the name of it. There were two other songs they played that were new, and they were “Eighteen Wheeler Man” and also “Sex, Fire And Gasoline”.
There were other songs later in the set that were older, from his multi album catalogue and they were “My Guitar Saved Me” and also “Cute But Psycho”. Also in the Palace back room was Cherry Rat who comes to us from Las Vegas Nevada, and has Mr. Lee Jack and Mr. Kirk Highberger on the drums.
They have a 2014 album called “Bop To The Hell” which was their first song they played, along with “Rat Rod”. This is another good old fashioned Rockabilly band with bass thumps and hot rod lyrics that make people dance and swing into the night. “Candy Lips” is a good song that showcased her vocals truly well, and had some nice guitar solo work.
This was a pretty damn good energetic band that got an early slot for good reason, a lot of the couples that wanted to spend the entire day dancing on and off got an ample opportunity to do so because of these early bands. “Love Hate” was another good song that showcases her Brazilian vocals very well, on the album it had steel guitar in it and I love the sound of it.
Miss Cherry Rat is on vocals while Mr. Lex Tats was on the bass, Mr. Joe Marshall is on the guitar and Pigmew was on the drums today, now I do know there is indeed a new album coming soon, and I’ll be on the lookout for that as well. From that new album they played a song called “Lone Wolf”, and another called “Get Behind Me Satan”.
The song called “Rockachola Dolls” was a good faster song with a rock and roll beat that had even me tapping my feet with fun from the drum rolls and guitar work. Their last song was called “Burning Heart” and was a slamming good song, this band just kept steamrolling through songs and each one was just as full of fire as the last.
The Lonesome Souls I kind of caught bits and pieces of their set because I met up with a friend of mine Miss Juelane and later on we went over to the Opryland to see a few acts in the ballroom before taking over a table in the back of the Palace front room for music in both rooms. She was NEW to many of these people, and to share something like new music with new fans who want to spend time and money supporting it is VERY valuable to me.
I got to hear them play a song called “False Hearted Girl” and another called “Love Me Right”. I couldn’t find out a lot about this band and tried to research them, and didn’t come up with much. I’ll have to put forth further effort into featuring them more on later dates and later jobs.
Mr. Billy Harlan in my opinion is a local legend around my area of Kentucky.he is a former DJ and did a lot of work with The Everly Brothers and others from Greenville Kentucky and West Kentucky. He began his set with one of the songs that earned him a Rockabilly Hall Of Fame spot called “I Wanna Bop”.
He is one of the more rock and roll portions of the rockabilly genre, like many of his ilk from the Sun Records and old Starday era. He was prevalent during the 50s and 60s when many of my musical icons were alive and well. I actually envy him for his knowledge and memories of the past, he is a walking history book, and you just need to care enough to STOP and listen to his stories.
“Make This School House Rock” was next followed by “I Ain’t Elvis” but I’m cool…his songs and lyrics are pretty easy to understand and dance to, he is pretty much old school rock and roll, and if you allow it to, it will take you back in time to a long forgotten era of American greatness with songs like “Be Bop Annie” and “This Lonely Man”.
He played the Everly Brothers classic “Bye bye Love” that was written by Felice and Bouredaux Bryant along with other Everly Brothers hits, and he finished his set with a wonderful rendition of the classic song “Mr. Blue”. We both went back over to the Palace for the rest of Saturday night, and had a wonderful time together enjoying the music.
Mr. Marcel Bontempi was here this weekend playing some western swing and Country music for us, while in the front room there was Mr. David Ball going on. So OF COURSE I was traveling back and forth at a rapid pace, while still enjoying my guest’s company. I truly personally enjoyed this portion of it all myself. I LOVE the Country sound of all of these acts!
Marcel Bontempi’s Snake Oil Company is a different take on his original music in the fashion that they put more Country into it, with songs like “Snake Oil Song”. I liked their old time references to history’s stories of snake oil salesmen. They played one called “Dixie Fried” and another called “Rambler And Rover”.
“Pistol Boogie” was another good song along with his version of “Steel Guitar Rag”. This was a band that I make sure that I do not miss when they come to America because Mr. Jason bring some mighty fine overseas talent here during the Boogie. Next year will be truly interesting to see how he pulls off talent this good in a smaller area, and the ticket cap will be fun to see the result of as well.
Mr. David Ball is absolutely fabulous even still now,in fact I’d go so far as to say he is better now than ever! And right now he is celebrating his twenty fifth anniversary of the album called “Thinkin Problem” which in my opinion is an iconic album in it’s own right, as he played songs like “What Do You Want With His Love”, a song about a pining lover pleading to get her to stop cheating on him.
The powerful ballad “When The Thought Of You Catches Up With Me” was next followed by two new songs from the album called “Come See Me’. This album is fourteen songs of love and hate like “Are You Lonesome For Me” and his first single off the album called “Pretty Baby”.
He did dig back into the past with songs like “Hot Water Pipe” from the 2010 album called “Sparkle City”, and “Too Much Blood In My Alcohol Level” from the 2004 album called “Freewheeler”. He of course ended the set with his timeless classic called “Thinkin Problem”.
This year to be honest there is a real plethora of Country stars from the 80s and 90s that are recording new albums or re recording their previous hits on new albums and also touring. Some are touring together on package deals and also visiting the Opry. It is integral that we appreciate these performers because they are our future Legends of Country Music.
So now let’s go check out the second set for Country Side Of Harmonica Sam in the back lounge. Their set was pretty much different from their first set, as they opened with “True Lies” and from the first album they played “We Have Strayed So Far Away”. This was the difficult part to go from room to room and enjoy all of the bands playing here. This song talks about a lost love and a wanting to have a break up, their songs are simple and easy to understand and enjoy.
“Country Girl” is another amazing song full of steel and gallop beats and when the chorus comes around it’s a full of fiddle. Even though it’s a cover song, they do a unique job of playing in their own right. “Yes I Will” was also included in their set, along with “Cry Me A River”.
The third day I didn’t bring my camera into any of the shows because we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the nightly acts. So allow me to explain ONE RULE I HAVE ON HERE: I DO NOT AND WILL NOT put down ANY music I don’t like. Because YOU may like something I don’t at some of the festivals, and I just don’t care for the B52’s. Never have cared for them so after Mr.JD McPherson played his set I left for the weekend.
Mr. RAYNIER JACOB JACILDO, Mr. JIMMY SUTTON, Mr. JASON SMAY and Mr. DOUG CORCORAN make up this bandthat I got to cover in 2017 at the Master Musician’s Festival, and this set was just as energetic and grand. “Abigail Blue” was first followed by the rocking bopping tune called “Fire Bug”.
He dedicated the song called ‘On The Lips” from the “Undivided Heart And Soul” album to passed on Legend Mr. Dick Dale. and as he stomped around on the stage playing songs like “Lucky Penny”. One pretty cool thing was that he lengthens out some of the instrumentals to make the songs longer and more intense live.
He closed his set with “Let The Good Times Roll”. After I watched his set I walked around the Opryland hotel and took a few pictures of the beautiful gardens there.
