Tall Tale Tuesdays

In the previous post I wrote about Cafe Coco. The above video is one of my Cafe Coco, "open mic" performances and was captured using a Sony Webbie.

There's a lot of stories I want to tell about my time in Nashville. I've told a few of them already...like the one about when I gave my CDs to Kevin Costner. There's the time I served K.T. Tunstal and she asked me where the bathroom was and whether I'd recomend taking a cab or walking back to her hotel. My best interaction with a famous person happened recently...I got to hang out with Eddie Montgomery and play him and his guitar player a few of my songs. The amazing thing about these guys is that they are still so excited about music and songwriting. There wasn't a shred of "coolness" surrounding these Kentucky boys. They just play music for a living because they love it and they'd be doing it even if they weren't making a living at it. There was also the time I sat a couple of seats down from Miranda Lambert, whose gravelly, Southern voice makes me a little bit quivery, and I swear she gave me the "up and down" look. Now she was with her fiance, Blake Shelton, so maybe I just had a boog hanging or something. Or maybe I'm just that handsome... I prefer to think the latter and I'll appreciate it if you don't correct me.

There's a lot of celebrities in Nashville and I have to admit that I still get a little excited when I see them. I may not even be a fan of whatever a particular person does but it's kind of cool to see these people in the flesh. Most of the time though it's the non-celebrities that make Nashville an interesting place to live. People have moved here from everywhere and a lot of them are trying to be musicians. Some of them ought to go home and some of them should have come here years ago. I think it takes a certain kind of person to pack things up and move to an unknown place in pursuit of an intangible, hoped for dream of a possibility. There's an above average number of these kinds of people in Nashville because they've all left wherever they hail from and are now scattered throughout Nashville, Murfreesboro and Franklin. They work in coffee shops and bars and restaurants and book stores and most of them live with a bunch of room mates and except for the ones who work at Starbucks, they all stay up 'til 5am every night. The Starbucks crowd have to get to bed early because their days start at 4am. Nashville may not be New York City but with all the hopeful artists here it's certainly a city where there's something going on 24/7.

In Nashville, I've played music to people from all over the world. I've played for the average joe and I've played for celebrities. I've worked the night shift and had my share of those 5am days. I've worked the day shift and had my share of days that start at 6 am and end at 4am the following day. So I've been tired a lot in Nashville. I've gone to watch bands that I've been listening to since I was a kid and I've been blown away by artists I'd never heard of before and just happened to be in the right venue on the right night. So after living here for a little over two years I'm starting to realise what a rich time of life this has been for me.

The night that the above video was taken was a Tuesday and I met Joel Crouse and Nick Zini that night. We talked about music and preachers and girls and snow and after I heard them play I invited them to play a gig with me next month. The open mic nights at Cafe Coco aren't particularly prestigious but there's something about them that makes them kind of cool to me. It reminds me a little of some of the places I used to play back home. Even though I want to tell the stories about famous people I want to capture the Tuesday nights too. Because those are the nights I met the Joels and Nicks. Those are the nights I remembered why I came to this town in the first place. Those are the nights that make me feel alive inside.

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I borrowed the title of this post from a song written by Adam Burrows, a fellow I've had the pleasure of playing a couple of shows with. I think he's one of the most talented artists I've met in Nashville and hopefully we both will play high profile shows in time. But until then we have our Tall Tale Tuesdays. I'll be playing a show with Adam and another Nashville artist, Joe Dunn at Drifters in East Nashville on March 4th. Please do come and show your support if you happen to live in Nashville.

I'll also be playing at Casablanca Coffee on Saturday, February 12th with Joel Crouse, Nick Zini and Anna Johnson. Mark your calenders and please come support.

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Kevin Costner Eats Sushi

It’s Thursday night at RuSan’s and Denny is all excited about something… “It’s him! I can’t believe it’s really him! Kevin Costner is here!” I’m thinking, “Sure Denny. Sure.”.

Today is the official first day of the weekend in Restaurant-Land and that means I have to work an hour later and there’s too many servers on schedule…. Because it’s still Thursday…people have to work tomorrow….mostly they don’t want to be eating sushi at midnight. An hour ago I was wondering who I could call to get out of work tonight. But here I am so hopefully we WILL be busy and I’ll make some money tonight.

Well, shoot me! It is Kevin Costner. Unmistakably, the man sitting in the corner of RuSan’s really is Kevin Costner. I’m trying to remember the movie’s he’s been in. All I can think of is “Dances With Wolves”. My brain starts spitting out Indian names for RuSan’s patrons… Grabs With Chopsticks, Sits With Sake, Makes Noise With Chewing. Robin Hood, Water World, The Post Man, Tin Cup; all these movies don’t pop into my head for some reason.

We are pretty busy tonight and it’s a little bit awesome that no-one seems to notice that Kevin Costner is here. They say that music celebrities appreciate Nashville because they don’t get hassled here. Well I guess it’s true.

Santo is asking me if I will ask Kevin if he will take a picture with him before he leaves. Santo is a sushi chef and he’s awesome but I don’t want to be the guy who approaches the famous movie star and attracts attention to him. Pretty soon we’ll have a restaurant full of people clamoring to get a picture with Kevin Costner and all he wanted to do was eat some sushi and go play some music with his band. Yes….if you weren’t aware Kevin Costner is the front man in a band called Kevin Costner and Modern West. Listen to him sing here (http://www.myspace.com/kevincostnerandmodernwest).

Kevin is getting up from his table and getting ready to go. So I approach as nonchalantly as possible. I realize as I approach that Kevin Costner is taller than he appears in movies. He’s wearing boots which add a bit but I think he must be at least 6’3’’. So I look up and say, “Excuse me, our sushi chef wanted me to ask if he can have a picture with you before you go?”. “Where is he?” Kevin replies. I say “He’s the short Asian at the front… Also I wanted to give you these” I hand him my EP, “believe” (with card cleverly slipped into the sleeve) and my album, “Beautiful Frustration”. I follow that up with this amazing statement, “You can listen to it in your car…I hope you like it.” He stares at the CDs for a few seconds and says, “That’s cool. Thanks Tim.”

I’m not making money from music yet. I’m pretty sure that Kevin Costner is. Even if he isn’t, it probably doesn’t matter for him. I hope to one day make a living at this but for now I can say what probably few independent musicians can say; I gave my music to Kevin Costner. Judging from the tour schedule on their myspace page Kevin is a busy man but I hope he finds time to listen to it.

Fearful - Defining Moments

I’m afraid of just about everything. I am the guy who never raised his hand in class. I never talked to girls who I thought were pretty. I never tried so many of the things I wanted to try. I didn’t dance because I didn’t want to look stupid. I didn’t take the game winning shot…I passed the ball to someone else. I didn’t say what was on my mind because of that little voice in me that told me I would fail. “You will look stupid.”, it said. “You will miss.”, it said. “She will think you’re a doofus.”, it said. “You will sound like an oaf.”, it said.
A habit of behavior becomes our very personality. Maybe I’m not cautious by nature. I just learned to be that way. That old familiar feeling of excitement that comes when some new opportunity presents itself is something I learned to dismiss so much so that my demeanor has been molded by it. I play it safe. I stay in the background. I’m the “strong silent type”. But really I know I’m just scared.
There is some truth in the voice. I do look insanely stupid on the dance floor. But in those moments when I did venture out and shove a sock in the throat of that voice and I did dance…I had fun. I had fun. Let me say it again. I had fun. It could be the fear itself that makes the experience all the more enjoyable.
So I wonder sometimes why I still listen to the voice. I wonder why I still accept the fear. I am convinced that successful people hear the same voice that I do but somehow they learn when to listen and when to disregard that voice. They’ve learned that sometimes failing is not so bad as it might have seemed. They’ve learned that certain, “must fail” situations turn out to be brilliant success.
In the movie, “Tin Cup”, Kevin Costner’s character talks about ‘defining moments’ explaining that at certain moments in life, either you define the moment or the moment defines you. I know that in my own life I’ve let the moment define me far too often. I’ve listened to the thundering sky and decided not to go out of my cave. I’ve heeded the call to safety. I’ve missed a lot of opportunities. I’ve missed a lot of fun.
I don’t know who said it but I am beginning to understand that famous statement, “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” Was it Churchill? It doesn’t matter. It’s true beyond belief. I hope and yes even pray that instead of listening to the voice I might start to understand that the moments when the voice is calling at its loudest and clearest are the very moments that I must act. Those are the moments that lead to greatness perhaps. At the very least I won’t spend my life sitting in the back of the class, never speaking out, only ever being noticed for the fact that I don’t say much.