Looking for a night out on Saturday, Les and I wandered up the road a couple of miles to the Grand Ole Opry, planning to buy tickets to see Junior Brown perform. We have always enjoyed Mr. Brown's music and have never seen him live, and it seemed like a great opportunity to see him in Nashville, just a few minutes from our own front door. Coincidentally, we arrived to find Junior doing a free summer concert outside the Opry in between his two evening performances. We got to hear about nine or ten songs by him (including one in Spanish which we'd never heard him sing before, and another that sounded exactly like old surfer music) and decided to save our pennies for a later date when we knew more people on the Opry roster for the evening.
Instead, on a whim, we headed over to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop #2 just across the street to kill some time before going to the Midnight Jamboree at the Texas Troubadour Theatre next door. We couldn't believe our luck . . . country legend Charlie Louvin was the MC for the evening! He put on quite a performance, dancing around the stage, making jokes, and just charming the pants off the audience in general. We were so impressed at the number of performers they rotated on and off the stage that evening -- at least six special guests/groups set up on stage, performed one song, and then tore down during the show -- and the music was of superb quality. Junior Brown, just fresh from closing out the late show at the Opry, even appeared and performed two Ernest Tubb songs with Leon Rhodes, former member of the Texas Troubadours!
It really was something to see how it all happens on the other side of the radio broadcast, and I highly recommend the experience to anyone who can stay up late enough to see it. Interesting to me was the fact that most of the audience was over 55 and seemed to have no problem staying alert for the show. I wondered then if I needed to start taking more supplements.
The whole evening was unplanned and accidental and we had a great time!
2 comments:
I've found that the best way to approach a Saturday night in downtown Nashville is with no plan at all. You always stumble into something better than you could've anticipated.
I really wish I could've seen Junior.
The thing that amazed me about Junior Brown was his schedule that Saturday. Reading where he was supposed to be and when showed his first performance was scheduled for 6:00 PM. He finished up just before 1:00 AM over at the Midnight Jamboree…and in between he played and sang his heart out…moved to multiple stages to set up and tear down…and generally rocked! I didn’t get the impression he had known the other two members of his group for more than that day so I’m sure they also had to have worked in plenty of practice time before they started that evening which extends the day even more. And who knows, I wouldn’t put it past them to head down to the strip to play a bit more as the night wore on…you really have to have a love of the music to carryon like that…it’d wear me out. You’re right Lisa, we need supplements badly!
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