Lots of good music and entertainment this week.
It started with a nice surprise on Wednesday night when my friend Kevin invited me to join him at an event his company was hosting at ATT Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys). I wasn’t sure what to expect when I met up with Kevin at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine. Apparently 
the “Royal Treatment” is what I should have been expecting. Our bus had an escort of four police motorcyclists who sped us through busy traffic and intersections over to the stadium in record time. Upon arrival we were whisked up to one of the luxury boxes for a drink and pictures with the Cowboys cheerleaders. Then it was down to the field for dinner and an excellent concert by Aerosmith. We were supposed to have pictures taken with 
Steven Tyler but their flight was delayed and they had to go directly on stage. I heard all of my favorites from their catalog – Dream On, Walk This Way, and Sweet Emotion. It was a huge langiappe when the Cheerleaders joined the band onstage for “Walk This Way”. A very pleasant evening all around with the highlight being taking a picture with Emmitt Smith (running back for the Cowboys with three Superbowl rings) and Cheerleaders. Thanks for thinking of me Kevin!
On Friday we flew to Nashville for a weekend with Denny and Anne. Festivities got off to a great start with lunch at Pinewood Social which is an old building converted into a bowling alley and really excellent restaurant. It was a good scouting visit as we’re planning on visiting there for an evening when we have a work trip to Nashville later in the month.
A pleasant walk down the riverside took us to Broadway. This is the main street in Nashville for music clubs and bars. There are about 3 or 4 blocks which are solid music clubs enabling one to stroll along and stop into whichever place sounds best. I had met a guy at the Aerosmith event who gave me his favorites. We mostly followed his recommendations with one addition and that worked out very well. First up was the Acme feed store with a very pleasant rooftop bar looking over the river.
Rooftops seem very popular in Nashville – many places had them and a lot of the hotels had rooftop pools. Not sure I’d enjoy them in the heat of 
the summer but for our visit they were very pleasant. The unscheduled stop was at the Bootlegger’s Inn where the musician playing attracted us in. He did great covers of Chris Stapleton songs and a few Johnny Cash songs at Anne’s request. From there we went to a place called Nudie’s which is not what it sounds like – just another music bar with a high ceiling and an extended length Cadillac complete with cowhide seats and longhorns on the front grille mounted above the stage.
The evening entertainment was Anders Osborne and Jackie Greene at the 
City Winery. Two of my favorite singer songwriters in an excellent listening room environment. We enjoyed a couple of flatbreads for dinner after recovering from “the burning menu incident”. What happened you ask? Well, let’s see…one of our party placed a menu on top of a candle. What’s that burning smell we wondered? Root cause was identified just as an employee came sprinting towards us from the back of the venue. No harm done and a great way of introducing us to our neighbor, William “Billy” Robertson. It turns out Billy had enjoyed dinner 
at the Millhouse in Stewarton a few weeks previously and has a family home near Dunlop. What a very small world. For those of you not familiar with the Millhouse, it’s a restaurant and bar about a quarter of a mile from the house where I grew up in Stewarton, Scotland.
As we 
exchanged stories, I learned that Billy had also made a visit to Portpatrick, a small seaside village on the West coast of Scotland near Stranraer. We used to go there as a family on a regular basis when we had a caravan in Glenluce. I remember walking along the cliffs, looking at the lifeboats, and enjoying ice cream cones. Back to the music now. I had seen Jackie Greene several years ago in California and enjoyed his blues piano playing and so hoped he was going to have a piano in addition to his guitar. Turns out he had a very nice grand piano and sounded great on some of his classic songs. I believe Anders Osborne is best in a quiet setting on the acoustic guitar and really enjoyed his songs as well. Here are short videos of both and the encore of “Break Down” – another in the recent series of Tom Petty tributes.
Brunch on Saturday morning was at Husk and everyone enjoyed the meal 
and setting of the restaurant in an old Victorian house with its own herb and vegetable garden very much. The smoked trout deviled eggs were a definite stand out.
After brunch I made a quick trip to a mall to pick up some work clothes. I hadn’t planned on going from Nashville directly to New York for work and so had to do some emergency shopping. After that fun excursion I met back up with the crew, who had been through the Johnny Cash museum, on Broadway. We decided it was too busy and noisy for us old folks during the day and so headed to Jack White’s Third Man records where an album for Jack and Mason was purchased and from there to the rooftop bar at the Thompson hotel in the “Gulch” area that we had enjoyed on our previous visit.
The Butcher and Bee was our dinner destination and we tried a speakeasy style place for a drink before dinner. Rosemary is a lovely bar and patio in what looks like a small house at the end of a quiet street – all except for the large bouncer checking identification on the porch. I highly recommend Rosemary and the patio out back to anyone visiting Nashville. The walk to Butcher and Bee was the perfect length to finish working up our appetite. Food and drinks were very good with highlights being 
braised lamb and seabass dishes. The food came out in a somewhat random order with some entrees before some appetizers were ready and dessert after our coffees were finished but we enjoyed it nonetheless. The East Nashville neighborhood where these establishments are located seems to be a very up and coming part of town with a lot of great looking restaurants. It reminded me quite a bit of the Bishops Arts district of Oak Cliff in Dallas.
Sunday got off to a reasonably slow start and we all certainly enjoyed the 
extra hour gained from the clocks “falling back”. Anne suggested the Hillsboro Village neighborhood for brunch and so that’s where we headed. There were several places to choose from including Biscuit Love which always has a very long line and must be good. Some of our group weren’t feeling like standing in a line and were ready to eat so we opted for Jackson’s and a decent brunch. Part of the strategy in selecting this area near Vanderbilt University was a potential trip to the Parthenon. Timing didn’t work out 
but a very kind Uber driver gave us a tour of Centennial Park on our way back to the hotel. The Parthenon is a full scale replica of the Athenian original and was created for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exhibition. It includes a 42 foot tall statue of Athena just as in the original. The park housing all of this seems to have a lot to offer with amphitheaters, Shakespeare in the Park, art exhibits, dancing classes and lots of open space for other activities.
As the time for airport runs loomed closer, Anne did some gift shopping and the rest of us relaxed watching the Saints football game. I made the first airport trip for my 4pm flight but shouldn’t have bothered as it was close to 7pm before it left due to air traffic weather delays in New York. This did allow me to watch most of the Cowboys versus Atlanta Falcons. How did that finish up, you ask? Well…with another excellent Cowboys win over a team with a great record. It wasn’t too late when I arrived at my New York hotel and as I reflected on the weekend I was yet again amazed at how much fun and action ends up getting packed into a weekend with the Ogans.
This piece of art from the hotel room sums up my thoughts on the weekend and music very nicely. Tennessee Williams was spot on I think.
I have a couple of langiappes if you made it this far this week. A pretty 
view of the fall colors as we arrived in Nashville and a video from the Aerosmith concert of “Dream On” with Tyler and Perry posing on top of the white grand piano.