Comin' to town (Fort Nashborough)

[J D Sauser]

Nashvilles was my first "America" experience on May 1st 1993.
The Ryman Auditorium was still "abandoned", the Broadway, just old. I went there to find me my first Pedal Steel Guitar. There wasn't Internet back then, so where else would you go.
I stayed a week and left with a ShoBud-II and a Nashville 400 amp and a book claiming it would tech me to play E9th PSG that I got at the Earnest Tubb Record Store, of all places. I knew nobody and nothing. Made a friend there who helped me find my guit'ar, Gene O'Neal, whom we lost shortly thereafter.

I went back in 1998 I believe. It had changed so much, the Ryman was redone, they had that "Batman" Bellsouth Tower and something called HardRock Cafe being just an eyesore on the Broadway.

We're taking an RV trip, leaving this coming Monday form Florida's Palm Beaches with our aim loosely on Nashville. We guess we'll be showing up there late July.
I plan to see Doug Jernigan so he and talk some sense into me (good luck with that to him!) and he is already warned, so if someone sees him packing up and wanting to get the heck out'a Dodge, you'd know why!

Anyways... I know I am NOT going to find the Nashville I briefly got to know 30 years ago, neither will Nashville find the 30 year old "Kid" it let go off roam the world with a steel guitar.

But if there's some old school stuff going down late July thru mid August, please feel free to let me know so I can bust a party or just plain annoy some folks with my charming presence.



Oh! And my 14 year old Son will be traveling with us. He started playing piano during "Covid" and now plays Jazz.

Here are some samples of him playing in case somebody would be able to place him with some jazz players to meet up and/or practice and what ever (it still IS Music City USA, right?):

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CQilhb28Llo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pav0Z0BbP2k

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l2xGDIHTlsc



Thanks!... J-D.

[J D Sauser]

So I just got back from Nashville.
We spend about 8 days up there and then decided to cut the trip short, turn around and go camping in Georgia and make it back to SE Florida.

I had 3 goals up there:
1 - revisit the my first US experience town (1993)
2 - take lessons with Dough Jernigan
3 - find some opportunities for my 14 year old Jazz piano son to play with like minded people.

We arrived with our camper trailer on a Friday afternoon after a day trip from SE Florida.
I had called and texted Doug Jernigan about our progress and we set up on a camp ground near his home just South of Nashville. For supper, we met up with Doug Jernigan at Outback Steakhouse. We decided that I would see him from Monday on, every morning for 2 hours.

So, we had the weekend to relax, buy some things we had forgotten to take along, like my son's underwear and finally rolled into Downtown with our car. Parked 3 streets off Broadway and walked right into what I immediately declared was a LasVegas'esque version of Times Square "ambiance".
Gruhn's Guitar... gone, Earnest Tubb Record Shop... gone, but "music" everywhere. It was Sunday afternoon, the Broadway was packed and bar after bar with roof top after roof top from which one could hear drums, drums, more drums and really ONLY drums. It felt like we had accidentally dropped into the IDC (Int'l DRUMS Convention). One bar off Broadway had a Blue Grass band. All in all, I counted 17 drum sets and as many shrill guitars, one fiddle, one banjo and one real DogHouse bass.
That with over priced bear, women/girls in short pants and pink synthetic "pleader" cowgirl boots and a 9.99 hat that says "Nashville" one it, men in Flip Flops... the low dow tourist crowd which doesn't really know WHERE they are, just hunting for selfie-spots.
We walked all the way to the river, then I decided I wanted to revisit Printer's Alley where I met Gene O'Neal who helped me buy my first PSG in 1993. Even the "Exotic Dancer's"-club next to where he played is gone... So is The Captain's Table (a "fine" dining restaurant in the basement 'round there). Boot outlets, one after the other, 3 of which are the same company, with the same scam.
I looked around and said "goodbye" and went hiding on our Camp Ground.
We did visit the Gibson Store and missed Carter's Guitars but came back to the new location of Guhn's and even got to sit with a very old George Gruhn... talking about the least likely subject in Nashville... French made acoustic steel string guitars; Selmer, Maccaferri, Favino, Busato etc., the "Django"-Guitars.

I had sent ahead some videos of my son playing his piano, and asked him if he could hook him up with some "cats" to "toy" around and maybe also get lessons with somebody interesting. Doug called around, left messages... no answer, no interest. Needless to say, our whole presence started to stink for my son and wife.

But I got to sit with Dough, talk and pick his brain. C6th only. I knew he could play it very well, but only there discovered how near and dear C6th and Jazz was to him...
He is one of the most humble persons I have ever met, generous, genuine and engaged. He WANTS you to succeed. He wants his students, which I only then learned he has quite a number of them to succeed and is quite busy, in very good shape, active and he loves to grow tomatoes and some special kind of peas in his back yard.

We approached things a bit differently than what he usually does, and instead concentrate on the Jazz Blues 12-Bar Blues, and then on Autumn Leaves... chords, melodies and evidently soloing concepts.
His thinking is very different to how I "organize" my music, but that has only broadened my horizon. He knows every note on the neck, with or without pedals and/or levers engaged. He knows all the tensions of his chords. He is very meticulate and just will not hold back.
He even went and started teaching my son how to fish, set him up a rod "Texas Setup" and equipped him with some rubber worms so could go the Waters and at least do that. When we left, and brought the rod back he told me to let my son have it. That's the man I am proud to have gotten to KNOW.

We had a hard time finding places to eat without shortening our life expectancy too much. There seem no more "Mom & Pop" restaurants to be left. Fast sugary fat food left and right. Except for some steak houses (chains), the only place we felt we were not terminally messing with our health was to go to Cheddar's (we knew it from their time here in SE Florida).

So, what did we learn, besides some big fat chords and new ways to single not away?

One thing for sure, about what a privileged area of the country we live in SE Florida. The food options, the more healthier people, the fact that the super market prices are the same there and "there", while money seems to be a LOT less easy to get by up there.

That places change. Some will like it and some won't. Only time will tell if it was indeed for the better or worse. I have been able to see it again, over 30 years after my first time. I've been able to say "bye" and am OK knowing that there are other places on the world I can visit. I changed too. When Country changed to the point I felt it left us, I left too. What worries me is QUALITY. While I had heard some people sing and play their soul out loud 30 years ago, so much that I felt hair I DON'T have on my back standing up... I did not experience that, except in Doug's Den.
And I can listen Wes run his brushed behind Cash, or Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich fight it out... I even have been caught listening to some Hip Hop "artists" and have a few flattering words for one or two. But what I witnessed Downtown that Sunday... nope.
Now, I am certain that IF had had not OD'd on the spot, I could have found some clubs and bars to go to... a little further outside. There must be, because we all know, there still are some marvelous musicians in towns, younger ones too.

Everybody's experience will be different, but I remember and jokingly reminisced there that I was out of place when I walked up the Broadway, on May 2nd 1993 in a black Country suite, black boots, black hat and WHITE shirt with a Country tie. I became instantly "famous" in front of the Ryman Auditorium as a bus load of Memphis-Nashville tourist thought I must be "somebody" and had their picture taken with me. "So, who are you?".... "ehm, I'm JD!"
"Hey folks, look, THIS IS JD!"

Now it's pink plastic cowgirl boots, printed T-shirts and rubber flip flops... ALL made in China.


... J-D