2003-05-08 - 12:12 p.m.
March 17th
In the morning we check out of the Renaissance and into the enormous Marriet. The rooms were amazing! The label footed the bill for 4 rooms so we each had our own beds instead of three of us crashing out on Aero beds. I was paired with Johnny Grub, our new bass player. We dropped our bags and headed down to the convention to get the lay of the land. Lot's of suits and cell phones.
We had some lunch and met in the hallway outside the trade show to be taken to our meet and greet. We did the meet and greet with the other artists that were on the showcase with us. It was cool hanging out with Del McCoury and Jerry Douglas. I was looking forward to playing with Jason Carter (Del's fiddler) and Gabe (Jerry's fiddler). They're two of the best out there! They had us scheduled to have a big jam session at the end with all the performers on stage at once! This was gonna be fun!
It was decided that we'd rehearse the two songs we would jam on after Del's soundcheck. That was supposed to be at 5:30. I had a little time to kill ["To think you could kill time without wounding Eternity." - Walt Whitman] so I went in search of swag. Rhino records was my first stop but no dice. Stopped by a bunch of other hospitality suites and found very little swag anywhere.
My old friend Joe Pzsonek stopped by the meet and greet. Joe's a great old buddy that I'd sort of fallen out of touch with since the band started. He used to work for EMI but is now with Disney. I've talked to him on the phone but the last time I hung out with him was at the Yankee game the night before 9/11. The world changed and both of us got busy. I will make an effort to keep in closer touch.
I showed up for rehearsal at the agreed time. Apparently Jerry and Del had switched their soundcheck times so I got to hear Jerry's soundcheck. His fiddle player Gabe is such a good player with nice tone and a great touch. His double stop work is fantastic. That's a part of my playing that needs work. After his check I pick his brains. He told me a couple of years back he made a concerted effort to practice double stops (2 notes sounded at once on 2 different strings). He worked at least an hour or two a day just getting the intonation and technique down. We exchange cards and we talk about getting together in L.A. the next time the band is on the west coast.
My brother and his friend Red arrive and I meet them in the lobby. We get back to the stage in time to see Del’s check. There’s only a few of us in there so it seems like a private concert.. Our buddy Fritz and his gal Carolyn have come all the way from San Francisco and are part of the private audience.
Jerry seems to be the ring leader for the jam at the end. We’ll do two tunes. “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “Rawhide”. I know the former but not the latter. John Skehan describes “Rawhide” this way. What “Donnalee” is to bop players, “Rawhide” is to mandolin players. Jason, Gabe and I split up the melody of “Rollin” in three parts for our solos. They split the A section of "Rawhide" and I take the B section. That’s a wrap and it sounds great. My brother offers to take me out to dinner. That’s cool ‘cause this place is expensive! $5 for a bottle of Evian!
Just before sound check “Governor Bush” comes on TV to tell Saddam he’s got 48hrs to pack his bags and leave Iraq. It seems the height of absurdity watching this beady eyed, puppet of corporate greed demand the sovereign leader of a country to leave it or we’ll blow the shit out of his nation. It is beyond arrogance. And those idiots in Congress have no power to stop him because they gave up the power to declare war to him!!
After sound check I head over to the Grand Ballroom to hear the Three Irish Tenors. For some reason there’s only two of them. They sound great and the thirty piece orchestra plays beautifully.
We were to start our showcase at 9:30pm but we’re held up to let the folks seeing the Irish Tenors shuffle across the hallway. When we hit the stage the place is packed. We play “Dandelion Wine”, “Bird In A House”. “Mighty River” and “Give That Boy a Hand”. We play well and the crowd of industry suits seem to like what they hear. The crowd doesn’t go wild but they are enthusiastic. Afterwards Bev tells us we did well and she was getting good responses from the folks she talked to. My brothers friend Red, who is completely shitfaced, is full of advice and criticism for me. I should smile more...look at the audience more...blah, blah, blah. Perhaps he’s right but I just don’t feel like talking to someone so trashed. He should have paced himself. There’s lot’s of night before us.
All the acts play great. Too bad the audience starts to thin out as Jerry takes the stage. Half are gone as Del comes on. What’s left of the crowd eats up the 2 song encore/jam. It was great fun! Here I am playing with two of the best fiddlers in the country! It’s inspiring. Backstage backslaps and all around good cheer ensues. We take the party over to the bar and bask in the afterglow of a fabulous evening; warmed by copious amounts of good Napa Valley Merlot!
