“True Companion”
Warning – whiny paragraph ahead. We closed out September in Austin with 16 days over 100 degrees. Ridiculous. Ludicrous even. Why such an effusive reaction, you ask? Well, an average September has 3 days over 100. Why is it necessary to have 5 times as many as normal on the year that I spend most of my time here? Just to torture a guy that was designed to excel in 50 degree, rainy weather. Just to finish off my whine, I’ll share that we’ve had 54 days over 100 so far this year – which interestingly is quite a bit below the record.
I’ve enjoyed watching the preparations for the ACL music festival this week on my commutes down Barton Springs. Oh sorry, some of you haven’t heard of ACL I’m guessing. Fast forward if you know all about it already.
Austin City Limits (ACL) is a long running and totally excellent Public Television music series filmed live in Austin. I’ve been enjoying the show for at least 20 years now. The ACL music festival was born in 2002 and has grown into a mammoth production, staged over two weekends in October. The event has 8 stages across Zilker Park and this year is October 4-6 and 11-13. 450,000 people attended last year and so you can imagine that central Austin is very busy right now.
I was by myself again on Monday night, but Diana did leave me some of her leftover sea bass. What to pair with that delight, I wondered. A tour of the freezer yielded the perfect accompaniment – veggie tater tots. A delicious bachelor meal. McD commented that she particularly appreciated the squiggle of mayonnaise.
We successfully concluded a massive, global, highly complex (I know I’m really overdoing it now) project at work on Tuesday. Seriously, they have been at it for over 3 years, with all kinds of challenges and starts and stops, and we finished successfully with our last sites in Mexico this week. Lots of back slapping congratulations, flowery thank you emails, and the like ensued. That lasted about 10 minutes, and then it was time to get back to work again. Worn out from all the celebratory high jinx, I enjoyed quiet nights at the apartment on Tuesday and Wednesday, reading and listening to music. More about the music discovered later, as usual in these posts.
Thursday took me from the “Live Music Capital of the World” (Austin) to “Music City USA” (Nashville) for a long weekend.
Diana made a similar trip from Dallas – greatest musical claim being the birth place of Stevie Ray Vaughan – and we rendezvoused in Nashville around the same time. A quick Uber to the Westin downtown and we were ready for a quiet dinner and an early night. The Decker & Dyer restaurant in the hotel fit the bill perfectly.
What do you think of this as a replacement for Penelope? I’ll be tallying votes and will report out next week. They do say that orange is the new black. Take my back condition and size into consideration when casting your ballots please.
Why did we choose Nashville for a few days away? Well…after the Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama concert that we saw in California a few months ago, McD said that she hadn’t had enough of just Marc Cohn at the show and wanted to see him again when it was just him playing his regular catalog. The best location we could find for that was the City Winery in Nashville on Sunday.
A workout was called for after a lazy start to Friday. Then, as it was a 
beautiful sunny day outside, I suggested lunch on the rooftop of the Thompson hotel in the Gulch area. My wife quickly approved that plan. One of our party should have applied sunscreen prior to the walk over to the Gulch and time in the direct sun on the rooftop. I’m sure it’s difficult for you to imagine who could have been so silly.
A quick regroup at the hotel, and then it was time to head over to East Nashville to reprise a few of our favourite haunts. There really are a lot of similarities between Austin and Nashville – a rapidly gentrifying East area of town with great restaurants and bars, a compact and walkable downtown, and a vibrant music scene.
We started with a cocktail on the back patio of the Rosemary speakeasy. This place has become a bit more commercial since our initial discovery, and not in a great way. Still a good spot, just not as charming. It was on the patio, once I had a drink in hand, that Diana informed me that she would like to go to Blake Shelton’s restaurant the next day. Yee haw!
Unlike Rosemary, our dining destination, the excellent Butcher & Bee, seemed even better than we remembered. The whipped feta and grilled mushrooms were fabulous. A huge thanks to Diana for asking the hostess to seat us away from the loud party of girls – they were very high pitched and loud and I wouldn’t have lasted through the meal beside them. Nashville has become a huge bachelorette party (hen party for my Scottish readers) 
destination – we saw so many groups riding around town in open topped buses and trailers, even a party fire truck, dancing and having a good time. At least it keeps them out of the way of folks trying to enjoy the restaurants. The book that our bill was delivered in sent us on a trip down memory lane – Beatrix Potter. I read some in my best upper crust English accent.
We were proud to get a workout in again on Saturday morning, before 
setting off for the madness of Broadway. This is a street similar to 6th street in Austin – one honky tonk with live music after another for 3 or 4 blocks. It was particularly packed at lunchtime on Saturday.
We satisfied D’s request and had a pleasant lunch at Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s place. The downstairs was communal seating and we sat with nice folks from North Carolina, who ordered the largest plate of nachos I’ve seen. Our fried pickles and quesadilla were equally massive. Lance and Lea provided a pleasant mix of musical accompaniment. I texted Alicia: “You’re Mom is torturing me!”. The rapid reply: “Welcome to the club. We’ve been waiting for you!”. Phunny girl.
My navigational skills failed me again after lunch. I was trying to follow the walking directions on my phone to get to the Ryman auditorium. Diana was quite convinced we were headed in the completely wrong direction – even more annoying because I was headed uphill. Of course she was correct, and we got some unnecessary exercise in after the large lunch.
We did a self-guided tour and really enjoyed exploring the Ryman. The movie that starts the tour was exceptionally well done and did a great job of covering the history. Originally opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats. Ryman conceived the idea of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones.
Lula Naff leased the building in the early 1900s and promoted all kinds of shows and events. Some of the names to perform in the early years include Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in ’45, Hank Williams in ’49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in ’54, Johnny Cash in ’56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in ’57, Patsy Cline in ’60, and Minnie Pearl in ’64. The Ryman also served as the regular Sunday venue for the Grand Ole’ Opry and Johnny Cash TV shows.
After falling into disrepair, and a renovation spear-headed by musicians, who loved the acoustics (said to be better than Carnegie Hall) and atmosphere of the venue, the Ryman hosts performances by big name musicians most nights of the week. Here’s a picture of some of the folks that have played there:
The tour finishes with a photo opportunity. Here are the next big stars to be discovered at the Ryman. Poor Diana is just trying to avoid being bonked on the head with my guitar.
I’m not sure you’d be very comfortable in the ancient pews while listening to us perform:
After another short rest at the hotel, it was time for a real highlight of the trip. I had read about a restaurant named Bastion that sounded right up my alley: only 24 seats large, advertising an “adventure menu”, and spinning vinyl records. On arrival through a sliding metal door, you are welcomed into the little bar for a pre-dinner drink. Jeremiah took very good care of us. Then we were seated at the kitchen counter and presented with our “adventure menus” to make selections. Only a couple of ingredients are revealed to aid in the decision making process.
D’s choices
The courses were excellent with lovely presentations and descriptions.
All of this deliciousness was set off beautifully by the “Fly Blind” wine pairings – some really unusual selections. And of course there was the treat of vinyl albums for background music – some early Elvis Costello for the 2nd course.
A very impressive fire was burning outside the restaurant with coals transferred inside regularly for the inside grills.
Bastion is so good that I would recommend people make a trip to Nashville just for the experience of dining here.
Sunday made three workouts in a row – a rare feat with our work schedules. Then we reprised another old favourite – brunch at Husk. The shrimp and grits were different and tasty, but still not up to the gold standard – Ricks in downtown McKinney. The rain stopped long enough for us to walk back to the hotel, passing the City Winery on the way. They were having their 5th anniversary harvest festival outside, with really good bands playing – including Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk. We chose not to spoil our musical appetite for the big evening show.
The Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers at 3:25pm and I found a sports 
bar just off Broadway to watch the game. The Corner Pub had a massive screen showing all the games and we found a good spot in time for kickoff. What a horrible first half – nothing working for the Cowboys and everything clicking for the Packers. Ugh! The Boys pulled it together in the second half with some good play, but it was all too little and too late. What a disappointment.
Can you guess what wasn’t a disappointment on Sunday? That’s right – Marc Cohn. Mark Erelli opened the show – a very talented singer songwriter, who had recently played at the Ryman. The sound in the City Winery is really fabulous. I appreciated his song “By Degrees”, which I believe is about the need for improved gun control. Erelli showed up later to play guitar on several Marc Cohn songs – and did an excellent job on slide guitar.
I have another of Erelli’s songs that I’ve been enjoying in the new music section at the bottom of this post.
Marc Cohn played all of our favourites and sounded as good as ever. Diana commented that she could hear the Blind Boys in her head on “Work to Do”:
Then came my favourite, “Listening to Levon”, a tribute to the late great Levon Helm of the Band:
The song that put Cohn on the musical map, “Walking in Memphis”, with the classic “Ma’am I am tonight” line:
“Silver Thunderbird” always tugs at the heart strings:
And now it was time for the closer, also the opener to our wedding reception and my marriage proposal, “True Companion”.
We were fortunate enough to have Marc Cohn sign a new poster he was selling, featuring the lyrics to the last verse of True Companion. Diana took the time to tell Cohn about the first time we heard him play the song, and his very kind gift of flowers to a military wife in the Kessler audience, whose husband couldn’t make it to the show – not a dry eye in the house.
Diana was very happy with the show and the experience – and isn’t that what life’s all about – sharing happy times with your True Companion.
She wasn’t so happy the next morning with her 4am start to get back to Dallas for a client meeting. I had a more leisurely start, time for breakfast, and even the best shoe shine I think I’ve had, before flying back to Austin.
Such a fun trip – I’m glad you were able to join me Diana.
As promised, here’s “The Hitter” by Mark Erelli. Did you already forget about him? Remember, he opened for Marc Cohn.
There’s a new album, “Ode to Joy”, by Wilco out this week. I’ve only listened to it once through. I was surprised in the first few songs that there was none of Nels Cline’s angular guitar playing. It did finally show up, but this is certainly mellower than their recent output.
I watched an interview of Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top this week, and he was talking about this Lightnin’ Hopkins song. I’m sure you can here a number of ZZ Top songs in this.
And finally, a new discovery for me, ZZ Top’s superbowl halftime performance from the late 90s: