Momma's Country Burned Down

It is so good to be home. We had a BEAUTIFUL drive back to Nashville today. James and I took our time :) The guys went back with Jenn last night, so it was just James and me today. I am almost in disbelief at this weather. I keep going outside with too many layers on. It's very strange to spend so much time in the Northeast and then BAM! Come back to Nashville and it is full blown spring here!!!! The Dogwood Trees are GORGEOUS. Right now they are making me reconsider the Ginkgo as my favorite tree :) (Not really, but pretty close!)

I found out last night from a friend that "Momma's Country" formerly known as "Big Jim Country" burned to the ground a couple of months ago. That is so crazy. Big Jim Country was my very first gig!

I had been singing backgrounds and playing fiddle for lots of other people's bands at Berklee, and James said "Why don't you have your own band?" And so it began :) I called my parents and said, "Hey. Ummm.... What do you think about having my band live with us this summer so we can tour around Nashville?" And WITHOUT hesitation, they said "Sure!" The first summer it was 4 guys and the second summer it was 5. We all have such good memories from those summers. And Big Jim's was a BIG part of that.

Big Jim owned the bar, but his ex-wife, Momma, ended up taking over the bar a few years ago. "Momma" had been a bar-tender there since the place began. She used to cook us dinner when we'd play there. She was so good to us. And they were not only our very first gig, but a source of a LOT of gigs (and stories) those 2 summers. If you ever want to hear "Big Jim's" stories - we've ALLLL got a BUNCH. That place toughened me up a bit... and taught me that I should NOT be the person that deals with money when talking to club owners. (That was back BEFORE Momma owned it).

So in memory of Big Jim Country in Lewisburg, TN... here's a picture of my VERY FIRST gig.... with my very first band at Big Jim's.

Me, James Bavendam, Dave Madden, Nate Telow, Adam Countryman

And the lesson here, folks:
Do NOT use a blow torch to thaw out frozen pipes. NOT a good idea.

Mt. Ida College!!!

Mt. Ida college was a lot of fun tonight. I love ANY excuse to go to Boston and ESPECIALLY when that "excuse" is playing a show! Plus, Hootie's sister Hannah went to Mt. Ida, so we already knew all about the school before we got there! (Thanks for those directions, Hannah... we needed HELP!)

The show tonight was in this cool student area called the "Shaw Living Room" and it reminded me of the shows we used to play at the MIT Sig Ep house.... you know... "back in the day" :)

They pretty quickly turned this very old, dark wood living room area into a concert hall. You take all the couches out, hire a sound crew and put a band on stage, and it looked like the room was meant for live shows!

Miguel and I were pretty excited. There is this one little part in "Freebird" that we have not been playing perfectly together - it was only a couple of notes but EVERY TIME we play the dang medley, I would get frustrated cause I would think "DANGIT!! I forgot to talk out this part with Miguel again" Well, we remembered in the car tonight on our way to dinner. And of course, he was going through the same thing - just kept forgetting to bring it up. So we worked it out quickly before the show, and got it perfect tonight! Whew. That felt so good.

After the show we made lots of new friends, but we had quite a few old friends show up as well. :)

I met Wayne (tallest dude in back) a couple of weekends ago at the Matterhorn in Vermont. He brought 5 of his friends to the show tonight!!!! They were rocking it out in the "balcony" :) I was so glad they were able to come! It's just amazing that we met first in Vermont and then he was at our show in Boston. I love being on tour :)


These guys were from Saudi Arabia! And tonight they were at a country concert at their college in Massachusetts. Sure seems to make the world small, huh? I wish I had caught their names - twin brothers and a friend. :)



Brittany (blonde on left) and Doug took such good care of us tonight! And Doug ended up buying 3 cds because none of his friends had any money. Welcome to college.


These guys liked the "free hugs". They came back for seconds.


Mr. Nate Telow and his beautiful "honorary southern" girlfriend Lisa! Nate was my VERY first guitar player in my VERY first band, Green Line South. He was part of the band the the first summer when all the guys moved into my parents' house and we played shows all around Nashville. Good Times! Oh, and did I mention that he won the Massachusetts State Body Building Championship??? Amazing.


Miguel's friend George from Chile (who now goes to Berklee) and his girlfriend came out!!! We all went out for a drink with Paul, my manager after the show. We dropped George and his girlfriend off at the T but after we left, he called Miguel to say that the Train had stopped running for the evening. We were already almost to Paul's (where we had to drop the trailer) so then we came back to the T to pick them up, and now they are sleeping in Miguel's room tonight!!! It's like a Chilean slumber party next door :) I love it - I could hear Miguel's laugh through the wall!!!!


No one came to see Hootie. :(

(He's probably just missing Bridget)

And just because I can...


I leave you with the last shot of the evening.... My pirate husband.

peace, love, fiddle

Hoods and Back Doors Flying Everywhere!

It was a good day today :)

I finally fell asleep somewhere around 7am. Didn't sleep very hard because I was so worried about waking up on time. :) Got up at 9:30 and headed to my writing session. On the way there.... my trunk flew open on my jeep... It's a Cherokee so the "trunk" is really just a back door. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden I could hear the cars and semi's WAY too loudly :) It's happened before... and gear has fallen out in the middle of the road... but thankfully, there was nothing in it today. I safely was able to pull over and get it latched quickly. Thank goodness I had already gotten off the interstate!

What happened was:
When we got in early this morning - I tried to open the back door to load the sound system into it. But the door was frozen shut. We realized we were probably taking the sound system on the next trip so we decided to leave it in the trailer. When I tried to open the door, it must have come unlatched... just enough. Even though I body slammed it (I was suspicious of it opening since it's happened before), and LOCKED it.... that all proved futile this morning while I was driving. Apparently my body slam isn't quite as ferocious as one might think. Once the door unthawed - it was open for the whole world to see!

That's much better than the night the hood flew up and covered my entire windshield on the interstate. I had given James' car a jump and I guess I didn't slam the hood down all the way. Once I picked up speed and the wind caught underneath it.... the hood flew up, rendering me completely blind to the road. I couldn't even see to get over. I was in the right lane though, and James helped talk me through getting to the shoulder. It all happened so fast. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I was on the way to a show that night, too. I was so shaken when I got there. Man, that was JUST the beginning of that night. But that's a whole other blog :)

So today was my first writing session with a lady named Angela Lauer. I am a big fan of her writing and we had such a great first day together! We have a lot more sessions on the books, so I'll have a lot of music to share with you soon :)

I came home and did an interview over the phone for our show at Bates College for next week. I am excited to go play in Lewiston, Maine! My very first guitar player at Berklee - Mr. Nate Telow is from Lewiston. He was in Green Line South and lived at my house with the band the first summer we played around Nashville. He has gone on the be the Massachusetts State Body Building champion!!! He used to train me back in my "buff days"... :) So I have been to Lewiston before, but never played at Bates!

And then I did a very monumental thing. I went to the grocery store!!!!! WOOO HOO!!! We are here for a few days, so I actually got to go get food to cook at home. It's such a rare occurrence. It makes me feel all normal and stuff. :) But alas.... it's 3:30 in the morning... and I am just now thinking about bed. So I guess I am back to being all weird and musiciany. But who am I kidding? I like it that way. :)