Our visit to Nashville was a highlight of Jan's and my recent trip to the US. Certainly one of the places I would go back to - next time I would get to a show at the Ryman rather than just tour, have some more of Hattie B's Famous Fried Chicken and I would listen more attentively to some of the busking going on.
In terms of the music there the most lasting impression was just how outstanding the musicians were. Every band, every guitarist, every busker and every singer, every street corner. All playing for tips. All struggling to make a buck. As one person I spoke to in a bar said the difference between broke and stardom for these players is just a matter of luck.
When we walked around Music Row with all its fancy houses, recording studios and offices of music publishers the wealth that is available industry was obvious but .......... in Owen Bradley park there were a bunch of homeless guys whose swag always seemed to have a guitar or a mandolin shape inside. I said to Jan at the time that I bet a few of them are as good as any we had heard.
And so to Doug Seegers - I did not hear about him until after we got back to NZ and his song Going Down to The River popped up on a recommendation and there was a simulatneous story on the Rolling Stone website.
Doug's recent story is best told in the Wikipedia link but it is basically how earlier this year perhaps Doug was one of those guys in Owen Bradley Park and how a Swedish TV program filming music stories around Nashville was told they should listen to him. They did and as they the rest is history. A No 1 song in Sweden and an album recorded with the likes of Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller.
The Buddy Miller connection is interesting because as Buddy tells it Buddy and Doug were actually a duo singing around Texas until like Doug and his dog just up and left - no word no forwarding address. Buddy is of course now feted as the best country guitarist around, has produced and played with the likes of Solomon Burke, Robert Plant and Emmylou while it took Doug a few more years of living the hobo and homeless life. Great his story is now changing.
So I bought the album and it arrived this week and it is absolutely magical. I was surprised that 12 of the songs were originals and they more than hold their own up against the likes of She by Gram Parsons and Hank Williams' There be no more teardrops tonight. Many of them unsurprsingly considering his homeless years have a distinctly bluesy feel.
Standouts to me are the opener Angie's Song, Going Down to the River and Lonely Drifter's Cry, Pour me and Burning A Hole in My Pocket but really after a lifetime of writing songs it is not really surprising that all 10 are worth checking out.
I wonder how many more Doug's are out there.
In terms of the music there the most lasting impression was just how outstanding the musicians were. Every band, every guitarist, every busker and every singer, every street corner. All playing for tips. All struggling to make a buck. As one person I spoke to in a bar said the difference between broke and stardom for these players is just a matter of luck.
When we walked around Music Row with all its fancy houses, recording studios and offices of music publishers the wealth that is available industry was obvious but .......... in Owen Bradley park there were a bunch of homeless guys whose swag always seemed to have a guitar or a mandolin shape inside. I said to Jan at the time that I bet a few of them are as good as any we had heard.
And so to Doug Seegers - I did not hear about him until after we got back to NZ and his song Going Down to The River popped up on a recommendation and there was a simulatneous story on the Rolling Stone website. Doug's recent story is best told in the Wikipedia link but it is basically how earlier this year perhaps Doug was one of those guys in Owen Bradley Park and how a Swedish TV program filming music stories around Nashville was told they should listen to him. They did and as they the rest is history. A No 1 song in Sweden and an album recorded with the likes of Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller.
The Buddy Miller connection is interesting because as Buddy tells it Buddy and Doug were actually a duo singing around Texas until like Doug and his dog just up and left - no word no forwarding address. Buddy is of course now feted as the best country guitarist around, has produced and played with the likes of Solomon Burke, Robert Plant and Emmylou while it took Doug a few more years of living the hobo and homeless life. Great his story is now changing.
So I bought the album and it arrived this week and it is absolutely magical. I was surprised that 12 of the songs were originals and they more than hold their own up against the likes of She by Gram Parsons and Hank Williams' There be no more teardrops tonight. Many of them unsurprsingly considering his homeless years have a distinctly bluesy feel.
Standouts to me are the opener Angie's Song, Going Down to the River and Lonely Drifter's Cry, Pour me and Burning A Hole in My Pocket but really after a lifetime of writing songs it is not really surprising that all 10 are worth checking out.
I wonder how many more Doug's are out there.
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