My son Jared, lived for four years in Nashville, he also accompanied Linda and I on two Cayamo Cruises. The Cayamo Cruise, subtitled “A Journey through Song”, is filled with Americana artists. Americana music draws on folk, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, blues, gospel and rock. It is a disparate and varied genre. While in Nashville and on the cruises he had some interesting experiences.
One of the artists that we both enjoy is Todd Snider. One of Todd’s more popular songs is “Play Me a Train Song.” This song is about a running buddy of Todd’s, Skip Litz, that died much too young. Skip was a well known character in East Nashville, often referred to as the Mayor of East Nashville. The song recounts his propensity for shouting out to whatever band was playing, to “play a fucking train song.” We both love that song and knew the background story
As Jared explored his new home, he calls me one night and says, “Dad, you’re not going to believe this. I just sat down at a bar in East Nashville and on the wall behind the bar is a portrait of Skip Litz inscribed with, Play a fucking train song.” We got to meet Todd on our first Cayamo Cruise.
We also got to meet Lyle Lovett. During the conversation Jared mentioned that he lives in Nashville and is doing some work at Lightning 100, hoping perhaps to DJ as he did in college. The ever gracious Mr. Lovett, tells Jared, “You have a great voice for radio, I’ll be listening for you“. Not missing a beat, Jared responds with, “I believe that between the two of us, Mr. Lovett, you’re the one with the great voice.”
While working for Lightning 100, Jared got to work the free concerts that they sponsor on the lawn in front of the state house. Once, as the Lone Bellow left the stage, the female singer, Kanene Donehey Pipkin rushed up to Jared and gave him a strong hug and kiss, she had mistaken him for someone else. Later during that show, Jared took the stage with the other Lightning 100 people, to sing the station director “Happy Birthday”. He said standing on that stage, singing in front of 15,000 people, was quite a singular experience.
Mistaken identity served us well on our first Cayamo Cruise as well. In the main venue, the shows were reserved, you could still attend, but getting seated was hit or miss. Early on, during a show we had not reserved seats for, Jared and I entered the left side balcony. We were greeted by a security guard that showed us to two seats. Looking around the section, we recognized several performers and carried on conversations with others. We visited this section repeatedly throughout the week, always being seated by the same security guard, always noticing artists nearby
Every one on the cruise wore a lanyard with the logo and the number of times on the cruise. Performers had different color lanyards but at a glance, in the dark, pretty undistinguishable. Late in the week, the guard finally noticed our lanyards. He tells Jared, “Damn, I though you were an artist, this area is reserved for artists, well I’m not going to stop you now.”
Jared also worked at The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. He worked in Celebrity Services, which was off the main lobby. Their job was to welcome and accommodate any celebrity guest. Through this he met many famous people, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Huckabee, Herm Edwards and many others. One day, Charlie Pride came in, he was assigned to Jared’s co-worker. As Jared watched, his coworker told Mr. Pride that he was his grandfather’s favorite artist and he wished he could have been there. Mr. Pride inquires. “Is the gentleman still alive?” Assured that he was, he then says, “Why don’t you give him a call?” The young man places the call and Charlie Pride proceeds to sing him a song over the phone!
Jared also worked for the music licensing company ASCAP. After work, returning to his car, parked on the street, he could see people looking out the windows in the adjacent building. Focused on these people, he didn’t notice that his car was damaged and the Porsche behind him was, for all intent and purposes, demolished. A few people then exited the building to talk to him. It seemed that an “older woman” in a gold pickup truck had careened drunkenly down the street, striking several parked cars before weaving off. They said it had just happened and police were on the way. When the bystanders described the woman to the officer, he recognized her as an individual who had several DUI’s on her record. After finishing with the police, as Jared’s car was still drivable, he drove home. Shortly after arriving, the police called to inform him that they had caught the drunken driver. She had driven from Music Row in the center of Nashville to East Nashville, where she crashed into the 3 Crow Bar! Sitting inside the bar, along the wall that she penetrated, was none other than Todd Snider. He was not injured.
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