Woo woo! Two posts in one calendar month!

 What's the world coming to? Well, now, that's a question, now isn't it. 

I can only speak for my own.

It's good. Stressed about the election on Tuesday of next week. But making the prediction that turnout will be high and remaining confident it will be so in favor of reason, kindness, and joy. 

Indeed, part of today's motivation to post is that independent media may well be under attack after Tuesday, if things go particularly bad. We don't need a fascist narcissist at the head of the government. But if I believed in polls I would perhaps be packing right now. The scary part (in my essentially non-political mind) is that, due to the ancient and pointless Electoral College system Vice President Harris may win the popular vote by a landslide and lose the presidency according to that system. Sigh.

On more ground-level news, I spent a couple nights up at my favorite campsite at Lock A Campground last week. The reservation was for Monday and Tuesday nights, and I got up there around 2-pm Monday and took my time setting up my new tent at campsite #45, my little Holy Land. It was a breeze, and the Core 6 person Instant Setup. tent is sooooo happymaking. Here's a pic:

My home away from home at Cheatham Dam's Lock A Campground. 

The first thing I put inside the tent was my camping air mattress, seen above acting in its new role as doormat. I blew it up not with a pump, but with my breath, counting around 150 lungsful before its 5 air chambers were in bedtime shape. Checking on it at dusk, I found two chambers flat as a proverbial pancake. I zipped up tight, grabbed my keys, and drove the 10 or so miles into Ashland City and past to the Walmart store, picking up one more bundle of firewood and a home floor air mattress. This baby has a built in electric pump for inflation and deflation. OMG, this is a life-changer, or at least a camping life-changer. The thing, once inflated, is a smooth 6-8 inch layer of air between me and the earth and stays inflated. And it cost less than the frickin' camping mattress. Win win win.

I had a little ceramic heater in my tent and ran it all night, but at 42 degrees outside all it could do is heat a small area directly in font of it. It did not help that the tent was significantly larger than my 4 person one. I awoke at around 4 in the morning, 'way prior to sunrise, and spent a couple hours reading in my little 40 degree rated sleeping bag. Light awakened me and I arose, spending the morning simply cooking, boiling water for coffee, eating breakfast, and cleaning up. I fished some, but it's awkward fishing off that Army Core of Engineers large granite and sandstone cluttered shore. 

Around 1 pm I grabbed my Montana lodgepole pine hiking staff and headed off to hike for 2 hours or so, taking the camp trail east from the campground and hooking into the gorgeous Cumberland River Bicentennial trail that follows the river bank all the way to Chapmansboro and Sycamore Creek. So beautiful. Here's a pano I took along the way:

Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail, east to the left and back to the campground west on the right. Doubleclick to scroll through the pano. This stump marks my turnaround point. I'll be back to do the whole thing one day.

A Great little walk (not sure I could classify it as a "hike," but it felt great to have that quiet time in nature). 

Here is my Google Album from the early-in-the-week weekend.

Fall Fall Fall

 To everything, Fall, Fall, Fall, there is a season, Fall, Fall, Fall...

And so here we are, October 6, a full 15 days into Fall. There's a lot going on, there's nothing going on, and everything in between. I'm up before dawn, after a lovely night's sleep beside my honey, with our dog at my feet and Google still laboring away to "play the sound of the ocean." I got up to use the bathroom and when I returned to bed my place was taken by pooch Lemon, who had relocated to locate her whole 85 pound furry self sideways across my pillow. No room for the old man, eh?

From Forbes Magazine: "Comet A3 will now dip from dawn into the sun’s glare, getting closer to our sun until it passes through to the other side — sunset. It will re-emerge in twilight around Oct. 12 for those in the northern hemisphere and should be easily visible — and possibly super-bright — for around two weeks."

That's one thing going on, for sure. 

I hope to get out for a night or two camping in order to view this thing. It's rare, I gather, and I also intuit, since I've never really viewed a comet in the sky and I'm approaching my 75th trip around the sun. 

I've got a couple musical adventures this week. My brother-from-two-other-mothers, Rocky, has been invited by his friend Don Henry, songwriter extraordinaire, to attend his party at Vinyl Tap Records, to which one must wear some attempt at Halloween appearance, and he has in turn invited me to come along. I saw Henry at an event just a couple weeks ago, one which was not officially connected to Americana Fest here in Nashville but coincided with it. The event took place at the Roof Top lounge downtown, and its purpose was to honor Rocky for his songwriting accomplishments, including creating the music for the Grammy nominated "The Mighty Sky" science-themed record. On the little stage in the corner Beth Nielsen Chapman, Don, and Matraca Berg, took turns singing songs, some from Mighty Sky but also others of their choice. It was an endearing performance, each singer singing maybe 4 or 5 songs, and Matraca Berg's husband, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jeff Hanna, got up from his hors d'oeuvres to sing "Mr. Bojangles,"  the Jerry Jeff Walker folk classic his band helped make a standard.

Honor event for my dear pal Rocky Alvey (orange cap)

The Wonder Women of Country at WMOT Americana Fest Day Stage, Eastside Bowl

Nielsen Chapman presented Rocky with a bangin' glass trophy to mark the occasion, and the proud brother Scott exited to the street to head out on his second night of Americana Fest 2024.

Ah, Americana Fest. I had hoarded my Festival Pass ticket for months, purchasing it like back in March, very soon after they became available. I was most excited about two performers, Madi Diaz and Chris Smither, the first of whom I did not see for reasons I will reveal, and the second of whom I saw perform two substantial sets and two venues over the September 17-21 time spread. I saw but a fraction of the performances at only a handful of the venues where they were taking place, but friends, this was the best ~100 dollars I spent last year. 

See the full schedule here.

When I look back at that, it's pretty amazing that I only saw a few shows, but then I'm old and I was just the other side of a pretty nasty bout with Covid. 

In order, though, I saw:

• City Winery main room: A Tribute to Mary Gauthier, Mary Gauthier, Jaimee Harris, Rodney Crowell, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Creekbed Carter Hogan, Emmylou Harris, Gretchen Peters w/ Barry Walsh, and more...

  Silver and Festival Passes Only

• City Winery main room: "25 Years of "Drag Queens and Limousines", Jaimee Harris, Mary Gauthier

  Silver and Festival Passes Only

• Vinyl Tap: Oh Boy! Records "Independents' Day" afternoon hangout 

• At home, the fantastic 2024 Americana Music Awards live from The Ryman Auditorium. I was just a bit beat from earlier activities, so I jacked up the stereo Google Hubs in the living room, poured me a bourbon, snuggled with my fluffy Grand Pyrenees mix, Lemon, and listened to the show from top to bottom without any Mother Church columns in my viewing path (I had no viewing path, though I later learned it was livestreamed). I enjoyed simply immersing myself in the audio in my living room, but I highly recommend you view the entire night's events at WMOT.org -- it includes performances "from award-winning legends, buzzworthy new artists and longtime fan favorites, including Blind Boys of Alabama, Brandy Clark with SistaStrings, Charles Wesley Godwin, Dave Alvin, Dwight Yoakam, Fantastic Negrito, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Jobi Riccio, Kaitlin Butts, Larkin Poe, The Milk Carton Kids, Noah Kahan, Sarah Jarosz, Shelby Lynne, Sierra Ferrell, Turnpike Troubadours, The War And Treaty, Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman, and Wyatt Flores."

• Eastside Bowl: WMOT Day Stage 12 to 5 pm, featuring Chris Smither, Leyla McCalla, Melissa Carper, Sam Morrow, Uncle Lucius

• City Winery Lounge: Betty Soo, then Chris Smither.

• Basement East: I really wanted to see Madi Diaz so after Chris Smither finished, above, I took a Lyft over and managed to get inside the venue, only to judge it a veritable Covid cesspool. I swear it was body to body packed with sweating 20-30 year-olds and also older folks like myself, and the stage fog hung unmoving in the stage lights and in the room--a clear clue the air circulation was dysfunctional. Spotlights played on the performer onstage (not sure who it was, a young dark haired male rocker) and after finding myself just inside the door and, daunted by the huge clump of sweat-dripping humans between me and the bar, I reluctantly turned tail and took the next Lyft home. 

• Alisa Amador, Amy Helm, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones, The Cactus Blossoms, and Wonder Women of Country again at the Basement East WMOT Day Stage. 

There were shows Saturday, but I, ya'll, was done. I really only wanted to attend the Americana Music Association meeting that morning, but I had an epiphany based on an old (not original) axiom from my teaching days: "The best way to make your next meeting productive is to cancel it." I stayed home, caught up on some rest, and embraced the next stage of my future. 

You can see nearly all my photos, with some short video snippets, at my Google Album, "Scott's Americana Fest 2024" anytime you want to. 

Heck, let's embed that Honors Award show at the Ryman, to save you a click or two (via YouTube):