Thursday Tidbits
Posted on January 1, 2015 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet
One of the may jazz bands in the French Quarter
By the time you read this, New Years Eve will have come and gone and you will be staring at another long list of resolutions. These will last all of three weeks if you’re lucky.
We changed up our plans yesterday on Tuesday. We had every intention of spending part of a day in Memphis Tennessee but decided to head south to New Orleans so that we could catch New Years Eve. And why, pray tell, did we not make an appearance at Graceland? Well, we met Elvis in Nashville… in person and yes, he is alive and well. All these reports of his untimely demise in 1977 are simply not true.
Before leaving Nashville, we toured the famous Ryman Auditorium where all the greats in Country and Western music cut their teeth. We actually got to stand on the stage. The building is simply amazing and I guess the acoustics are among the best in the world. We then moseyed on over to Gruhn guitars. If you are a guitar junky, then you know the name well. In addition to an amazing collection of guitars and mandolins, they have a separate floor of the building for vintage guitars. You can only access it by private elevator in the company of a staff person. Peter charmed them into letting us go take a peek. He got to play an older Martin and the price tag was $37,000. Earlier in the day, they sold one for $100,000 and some Gibson’s have gone for as much as $350,000. Just a wee bit out of our price range.
Our last stop before leaving Nashville was another venerable institution… the Bluebird Café. Many an aspiring artist got their start in this small, non descript building in a strip mall. It is far removed from the hustle and bustle of Broadway. Unfortunately, they weren’t opening until the supper hour so we didn’t get a look inside.
Our detour took us through the heart of Alabama and Mississippi. We passed through Birmingham and I gave Peter a brief history lesson ( with the aid of Google ) about the civil rights movement and all the troubles back in 1963 when a peaceful protest turned ugly when dogs and water canons were turned on young people. Martin Luther King was jailed and only got out through the intervention of President Kennedy. It is hard to believe how African Americans were treated back then. We eased off the highway at Tuscaloosa, home of the “Crimson Tide” football team at the University of Alabama.
We drove the final few hours to New Orleans yesterday. We spent the afternoon in the French Quarter and it was bedlam. Besides the usual chaos which I’ve heard about, there was the specter of New Year’s Eve a few hours away and the College football championships at the Superdome tomorrow. ( Alabama vs. Ohio State. ). The streets were teeming with revellers. Lots of great street musicians ( mostly jazz. ) It will be too late to post, but we planned to go back to the French Quarter to see the New Year arrive.
The very best to all of you in 2015!
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