Nashville

I’m not going to lie. Going to Nashville was the best vacation I’ve had in my adult life. And I’m certain Nashville will never be the same, after our group from South Dakota hit it, and hit it hard.

We had a bit of trouble getting there, due to the Chicago fiasco, so Zach and I ended up spending the first night in Minneapolis (sans luggage – thank you very much, Delta!). We made a trek to the Mall of America, where I’ve never been. I shopped in Sephora and wandered around in awe, like a girl who’s never been to a mall.

We left on Saturday and as such didn’t get to Nashville until Sunday afternoon due to our flight delays. On our flight to Nashville, from MSP, I sat next to an aspiring song-writer, Anna Marie Mitchell. We went and watched her play the first night we were in town. That girl (at only 16), she’s going places, I tell you!

Sunday night was a lot of fun, in addition to hearing Anna sing, there were shots, and vodka sodas, and an acoustic show, with the Friendly Fugitives. We were pretty much the only ones paying attention and tipping and dancing and generally having fun. They played everything from Ryan Bingham to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Sublime and the list went on.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m fairly certain that Nashville will never be the same, after our arrival. Did I say that already?

The two men that make up the Friendly Fugitives are Jutt Huffman and Adam Rausche. They’re ridiculously talented. We basically followed them around to their gigs each night – at Margaritaville, mostly, and Jutt had a gig at the Silver Dollar in the afternoon -the day after we managed to drag both he and Adam to the house we had rented, where we had an all-night jam session. Well I didn’t stay up all night. I was way too tired for that nonsense, but everyone else did! I think that might explain the sunglasses…

 

 

I’m not going to lie, though – the highlight of my trip was meeting Kacey Smith – I’ve blogged about her music before (and got the 411 on the song I just linked to -lucky me!). I got to have lunch with her and her manager. I took along my SIL and our friend, Steve Turner, who has one of the best voices you’ll ever hear – and is aspiring to move to Nashville. He actually got to take the stage at various venues around the city – and played a gig at The Commodore (where they’ve called him back to play again in January!).

Kacey is beautiful, and talented, and someday she’s going to visit me here at the ranch, I just know it! We’re going to ride horses and visit the cows and, and, and…

The rest of the trip was a whirlwind of stage appearances for our friend Steve, a singer/songwriter showcase at Margaritaville where were introduced to Laurel Taylor (who I love). Kelsey’s boyfriend grabbed her during a break in her set, and made him dance with her. That’s what you get when you mention you’d like to learn to jitterbug… Jus sayin’.

Someday soon I’ll share a video or two of Steve singing, so you can all “hear” how lucky we are to call him our friend!

Happy Trails!