We have some company at our house this week. A friend of Greg's and his 13-year-old son who are spending Spring Break cruising around Nashville looking for guitars. If I had ever given it much thought it would have been obvious that there are quite a few uber-cool guitar shops around here, even one worthy of a Visa commercial.
When I moved to Nashville the first time, I had a two-day temporary job in the Gibson factory. I was doing your standard boring temp stuff, but one entire wall of the office was glass and looked out onto the factory floor where they were putting the finishing touches on guitars of all colors that hung from the ceiling on a track around the room similar to what you'd see at the dry cleaners. I think I thought that was what living in Nashville would be like- all music, all the time. And for awhile it was. Although not musically-inclined myself, I ran with a musical crowd of young adults trying to make it in the music business. Frequently I'd end up sitting around someone's house while a bunch of folks played guitar and sang old Johnny Cash or Emmylou Harris songs. But life went on and I quit hanging around with those folks. Some of them ended up doing really well.
Since I live in the suburbs now and spend my life yawning through karate classes, any contact I have with the music business is all third and fourth hand. Trace Adkins and Aaron Neville live down the road. Local gossip says Faith Hill can be seen at Kroger. We're sometimes late to football practice because the Grayline tour bus is blocking traffic in front of Dolly Parton's house. One friend says she ran into Kimberly Paisley on the elevator at the mall last week. (Hey, David, she said to tell you hi!**) And last month my neighbor said that Wynonna stole her shopping cart at Target.
I guess I'm just not paying attention. Aside from seeing Eddy Arnold at a city commission meeting, I've never seen anyone remotely famous. And I only noticed him because they were declaring it "Eddy Arnold" Day. He was kind of hard to miss. Unless someone noteworthy steps in front of my car at the airport, I'll probably never see them.
I go to Target all the time, maybe I'll try leaving my cart unattended and see if Wynonna takes the bait.
**April Fools!
I'd much rather have been partying with Big and Rich and Lonestar than running over Tony.
I love me some Big and Rich...
You NEVER told me about that!
Posted by: Alisa | April 02, 2008 at 12:32 PM