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Country
souls and guitar sounds Nearly 20 years ago travelling across the United States on a journalism fellowship and covering President J.R. Jayewardene’s meeting with President Ronald Reagan in Washington, I rued the missed chance of seeing some good old country music in the mid-west. A second
chance Invited to the US as part of a group of scientists and journalists from South and Central Asia to learn about genetically modified food and bio technology in the US, this time around I was not going to miss the chance to visit Nashville. My first foray into the country music scene in the US was at a small rural town called Clifton, an hour’s drive from Washington DC. Residents were celebrating Clifton Day as a fund raising project and the tiny streets in the picturesque town were filled with stalls selling food, household odds and ends, paintings and other knick-knack. As the unmistakable
sounds of guitars wafted across the street I made a beeline to a
nearby garden and found people gathered near a stage with a band
playing blue grass music. What a treat it was to watch some solid
guitar artistry coupled with banjo, mandolin and fiddle players
accompanied with a double or stand-up bass sans drums. At the MCI, the crowd, totalling at least 30,000 people, waits patiently. Sharp at 7.30 p.m., the Dixie Chicks; Natalie Maines, Emily Erwin, and Martie Seidel, come on stage and put on a powerful performance. The Dixie Chicks is one of the most popular bands in the US but the roar from the crowd turned to frenzied screams when Don Henley and Glen Frey and the Eagles get on stage. They have all grown older and put on weight, but Henley’s powerful rendering of ‘Hotel California’ and Frey’s soothing ‘Girl from Yesterday’ were unmistakably pure Eagles. In the US, the return of the 1960s and 1970s bands like the Eagles in what are called comeback acts has been a roaring success. The Eagles are currently touring the States, Simon & Garfunkel have combined with the Everly Brothers on a concert tour, while Herman’s Hermits was also on the concert scene with an engagement in Washington. The Rolling Stones is on a sell-out world tour. Music
city Didi, the pedal steel guitarist for the Mavericks, a country band from Germany, which has been touring Colombo for more than six years as part of the Country Road concert tour, helped me with a contact in Nashville. Thousands of budding country musicians converge on Nashville every year hoping to catch the attention of a kind music producer, cut a disc and become famous like Garth Brooks, Vince Gill or Dolly Parton. “It’s a city of shattered dreams and broken hearts for many musicians,” noted Gail Lloyd who took me around the city. Steve Haggard, a music producer in Nashville and his wife, Gail who has her own band, were wonderful hosts showing me around ‘Music City’. Nashville, amidst the row of country pubs and restaurants where there is live music even during the day, is not only famous for its roots in country music but also as a city with some of the best, specialized hospitals in the US. There’s a string of medical facilities dotted across Nashville. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has Elvis’ white Cadillac and his trademark jackets, Gene Autry’s guitar, a guitar donated by Jimmy Rogers considered the father of country music, Hank Williams’ suit and boots, Jim Reeves’ bright red tuxedo jacket and a number of guitars from the Chet Atkins collection with loads of other memorabilia at this three-storey institution. Visitors can listen to their favourite artistes on long-playing records, watch videos of country musicians, or stroll through the wall of gold records. You can even cut your own disc – select the songs of your choice and make your own CD like I did. Grand
old Opry The Grand Old Opry is where all the greats in country music have performed and still do. For any musician, to be able to play at the Grand Old Opry is a dream. The country music annual awards ceremonies are held there. Every Friday and Saturday, the Grand Old Opry explodes in a three-hour concert that has been broadcast live on a popular local radio station for the past 30 years without a break. Back stage is where the guests get to mingle with the musicians and what a surprise it was to see Vince Gill, one of the most popular American country artistes today, hands in his pockets, chatting to a couple of musicians. There was another surprise in store for the crowd when Gill joined one of the bands in an impromptu performance. Rushing upto him after he came off stage, Steve introduced me as ‘a guy who had come all the way from Sri Lanka,’ and Gill obliged with a picture and a brief chat. The Best Western Hotel where I was staying has its own country hall of fame bar where musicians hang out every night on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays performing original songs hoping to catch the eye of music producers. Apart from the country bars on Broadway there are also production companies and music labels including BMI. As I walked through the security checkpoint at Nashville airport to board a flight to Washington after three, virtually heart-stopping days, an airport guard checked my passport and asked me from where I was. “Sri Lanka… close to India,” I said. He was intrigued because this was the first time he had come across a Sri Lankan in Nashville! |
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