Covered Grass Journals Their First Two Days in Nashville!

20120924

Covered Grass Journals Their First Two Days in Nashville!

GUEST BLOG POST #2 AND MORE PICTURES FROM COVERED GRASS’ VOLKER FISHER

Saturday, 22nd - Lost in Nashville.

First day in town - taking the downtown Nashville sight-seeing tour and having a look at the Convention Center - the place to be Monday night. Everyone of us try to realize where we are, who we are, where we go and what time it is.

Corina is still fighting with the flu and I'm gettin' nervous if she could sing the next day at Valerie Smith's "Dare To Be Different".

The weather is perfect - blue skies and all the kind and friendly people here makes us feel welcome. Downtown feels like an input overkill to me - too much people and too much points of interest.

What's that...? It looks like Gruhn Guitars....., yeeeeees!!! The land of milk and honey - banjos everywhere - real banjos, like Gibson, Stelling or a beautiful eighties Gold Star - gold plated. Damn....., 3500 $ a "wee" bit too much for today's purse. Leaving the store sadder than when entering.

We need to find a GPS system because our car doesn't have one and Alamo would charge 129 $ for it. Ooooops..?! Our cellphones work well but roaming fees are horrible using a German provider in the states. I checked out something on Google Maps at Dallas airport during our stopover and forgot to turn off data transfer in my phone. When we arrived in Nashville Google went online again and later my provider sent an message including the fees for using data transfer...., ooouch - $150.00. So..., we could not use our cells for navigation and need a GPS. But....., what's that? No place to find where we can buy a GPS. We ask for electronic device stores in Nashville......, nobody knows?! They refer us to Wal-Mart: Nothing! To K-Mart: The one for $89.00 was sold out. Then further to "Super (!!!) Wal-Mart" which had two: $ 179.00 and $199.00 - too much! Back to K-Mart where we bought one for $120.00 . Now driving is more relaxed.

Sunday, 23th.

We used our new GPS and headed to Bell Buckle. Valerie Smith invited us to play at "Dare To Be Different" and it was really our first show in the united states.

So, after an untypical German breakfast including waffles and other interesting cinnamon stuff we enjoyed our 50 mile ride to Shelbyville/Bell Buckle watching landscapes and farmhouses outside the Nashville area. It's was really beautiful and I enjoyed the air conditioning a lot in the Chrysler - my colleagues didn't!

Arriving at the Bell Buckle Café: What a nice little town this is! We took a walk and smelled the air - that air where everything comes from that made bluegrass music.

The audience at Dare To Be Different was fantastic although many seats were empty. They loved our show and gave a warm welcome to a German bluegrass band. Gregory Heinike introduced us on stage and took a short interview about the story behind "Goodnight John-Boy". It seemed that most middle aged people love that heartfelt story. The burgers where pretty good and after the official program was finished - round 8:30 pm. - we had a good time surrounded by new American friends and fans and jam till midnight.