My curiosity obviously got the better of me and I googled said event only to be horrified by what I saw. The Country Music Festival! OH MY GOD! I was going to be in Nashville during the biggest Country Music Event in the World! Many thoughts ran through my mind, most of which had involved me wondering how on earth I was going to deal with 3 days of nothing but Country Music, of Country Music obsessed fans. I remember feeling like I was in my own private nightmare!
I happened to mention this to Emily when I saw her, only to be laughed at (sympathetically of course) "So do you know any country music?" She asked. "Do the Dixie Chicks count" I feebly replied. More laughter "Oh and I know that Achy Breaky Heart Song". More laughter, less controlled this time. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach.
And so it was that I came to be in Nashville for the Country Music Festivities of 2006. Unwilling to spend the rather hefty sums of money required to get passes to the main events I satisfied myself with the live music that seemed to be oozing from virtually every bar in town. Besides what was the point of paying to see someone you dont know sing a pile of songs you don't know when I could get that for free in any of the plentiful bars on Broadway and down 2nd.
From 10am till 2 or 3am the live music rolled out of bar after bar. During the day I was happy enough just plonking myself down in a bar, writing, listening and watching. Taking in the atmosphere, the people, the vibe. I knew very little of any of the songs, occasionally something by Johnny Cash would ring familiar bells or Lynyrd Skynyrd would become recognisable. Generally though I just took it all in. Some of it I found I actually quite liked, I mean, I couldn't define what it was or if it was one sort of Country Music but there were definitely things I preferred.
I could sit, sup a beer or 2, listen and watch some cool live music, write and chat (they would have the volume just perfect for it) and then when it was something I wasn't over keen on I could move on, find another bar and so it went on. I must have visited a pile of different bars over my time there, seen dozens of live bands, even got myself an autograph or 2 - Sometimes the artists would come round during a show and just sign stuff, wanting a little souvenir but having nothing for them to sign I got them to scribble in my journal. I think its made for a nice keep sake.
The Stage and Tootsies became my favourite hang outs and places I went back to visit the most. Tootsies I later learnt had a very storied history in Nashville. It was the place so many artists and bands had begun their playing careers or been talent spotted. It was in this bar that something quite unexpected happened.
I'd met an Aussie called Steve back at the hostel and the two of us had decided to go and check out some of the bars and music in town. This ended up being put on hold as the two of us were asked to be part of a documentary being filmed in Nashville by a Polish group staying at our hostel. We'd both agreed to it and after signing our lives away for them we were given our instructions. They asked me to appear to be teaching this woman how to play a country song on the guitar. Having never heard the song before I had no idea of the tempo of how it really went, I just had the chords and that was pretty much it.. Still, they seemed happy enough with it and got me to whack out a few other tunes as well before I left, the cameras still taking all the action in. It was certainly a strange experience and I guess not everyone can claim to have been on a Polish documentary!
We finally did manage to get into town and bounced around between bars to see what was going on and what some of the ones I hadn't been in were like. Obviously I knew very little of the music but the odd song was starting to become familiar and we were both now able to sing a few words to "I Love this Bar". Of course we had no idea whose song it was, we'd both just heard it a few times and we pleasantly surprised to catch a cool bluegrass version of it while we were out an about. Later in teh even we'd ended up in Tootsies and John Stone (who I'd seen earlier on in my time in Nashville) was playing so we decided to stay for a bit. We'd got chatting to a couple of lasses who were in town for the festivities but were getting a little tired of the music after John Stone had finished and were thinking of leaving. It was announced shortly afterwards that ABC wanted to get in and so some filming so they were locking the doors. If you wanted to leave you had to do it now or else go to the upstairs bar and wait for about 30 minutes.
Not feeling like we could be bothered to wait around we had decided to leave when one of the girls turned to us and said "Don't go, when they do this it normally means that someone good is going to be playing". Thinking it could be interesting, we followed the girls upstairs. They seemed to know what they were doing so we stuck around the back of the upstairs bit nearest the stair to get back down again.
Rumours upstairs started going round that a band called "Sugarland" were going to be playing. Now, of course this name meant absolutely nothing to neither Steve nor I. We were being told all sorts of stories ranging from the "they're really not that good" to "Think Nashville's U2" Whilst this may have been a rather big overestimation of their size they seemed to be a pretty well known, popular band. The pushing and shoving for position started creeping in.
45 minutes passed before we got the go ahead to make our way downstairs again. Somehow what we saw when we got to the bottom of the stairs was not the half empty room we expected but one already packed to the rafters. Locked doors my ass! Still they allowed just a few people from upstairs in, and being amongst the first few down we were allowed in. The girls were pretty excited by the whole thing and we were both getting into the mood of the occasion.
TV cameras were everywhere, apparently it was to be screened in an ABC special. The band played just a few songs, a couple of them I realised, I'd heard many times over the course of the past few days. Only know did it actually click that they were Sugarland's songs and here they were performing in a cramped by, free of charge to me and just a few others! The girls were teaching us the words and we were trying to sing along as best we could. The band shot back out the door pretty soon after they'd finished but I was totally blown away by the whole event. The atmosphere in there was just incredible, it seems everyone knew all the songs and the band captured me in those moments they were on stage. It was all starting to make me realise that some of this country music stuff was actually alright! Who the hell saw THAT coming??!!
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