I am excited about this Thursday's Live on the Green. Lightning 100's FREE! all ages outdoor concert series in downtown Nashville, in front of the metro courthouse on public square plaza. This week's show will feature Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, and Maureen Murphy. I know we are working on interviews with Sharon & The Dynamites and Maureen is coming by the Lightning 100 studios this Thursday at 1pm. She is bringing her keyboard player to perform and show off her amazing vocals! Maureen was one of the finalists in the Music City Mayhem contest and the Hard Rock Ambassadors of Rock competition. Here is a video of Maureen performing at a Lightning 100 showcase at the Mercy Lounge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmu5F-4Flt8
The Dynamites have a new album out on Outta Site records. It's their second album with singer and frontman Charles Walker and an amazing production. I've had an advance copy on my ipod for a while now and know they will be selling a bunch of them this Thursday at Live on the Green. You can also pick it up anytime at Grimey's New & Preloved music. The co-owner of Grimey's is Doyle Davis, also known as D-Funk, and both of the Dynamites albums have been on his record label. Here is a preview of what you will get for free this week. It is a song from their debut album. I'm excited about hearing the new material this week! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMSKk8imYEI
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are this week's headlining act. They should be on stage around 9pm and will play for a little over an hour. I have all their records and have been a big fan for many years now. It will be my first time catching them live though and I can't wait! Here is a video for the song we have been featuring this week on the Live on the Green spotlight. It has over a million views! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE
Live on the Green is a six week concert series and October first is week number five. There will only be one more show after that and it will feature Citizen Cope, Ricky Young, and Next Big Nashville artist Courtney Jaye. Clarence Greenwood, aka Citizen Cope, always puts on a great live show, so that should be a fun way to end the series! I missed most of the concerts unfortunately, because of my health issues this month. The first week was suppose to be my only week off. I had 6th row seats to the Titans game against Green Bay. We caught the end of The Toadies set after Tennessee won. That was the first night I started having pain in my right side. It felt like a cramp you get when you are running and drink too much water. The pain just never went away. I had to DJ a wedding and reception Saturday night at the Music City Sheraton. That night we weren't sure if I would make it though the whole event. It turned out ok but I didn't tell the bride or groom I was afraid I was about to head to the ER. What they don't know can't hurt them, right? All's well that ends well...Actually, it did not end well. Sunday night the pain was so bad I did head to the ER and the rest is history...
My surgery was on Wednesday September 9th and I missed week two of Live on the Green. That week featured Here Come The Mummies, Space Capone, and H-Beam. My first day back to work was Monday, the week Derek Trucks headlined Live on the Green. That show was set to be our biggest one yet and we we're all excited, minus the torrential rain that was in the forecast. We ended up getting lucky that week. It was raining all morning and when we decided to go ahead with the concert that night at 1pm it was still raining. Somehow around 4pm it stopped raining and before it set, the sun even shined on us before the moon took over its duties. That is what I heard at least. I was still taking it easy, and from what I heard, I missed a spectacular live show. With Jack Pearson sharing a large portion of the Derek Trucks Band set. The opener that week is a local band named Homemade Water. They stopped by the Lightning 100 studios to chat and perform for David Hall. Here is the video footage from that afternoon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-PsnfJ34Fc
The day of the concert around 3pm, the owner of our company personally brought over Derek Trucks for an interview. I thought was really cool and that the interview went really smoothly. I do wish he had performed but there is always next year! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK5jjCuLvCM
Last Thursday was my first full week and one I certainly enjoyed. I was on site around six pm and grabbed one of the many open parking meters, that are free after six pm weekdays downtown. There is also three dollar parking underneath Live on the Green, below the metro courthouse in the underground five story parking garage, and a free manned bicycle check thanks to Walk Bike Nashville. There were break dancers performing at first. Then Thad Cockrell took the stage. He had performed earlier that day on my show and really impressed me. He has a great voice and has written with a ton of people in town. Here is one of the videos from when he was on my show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDcQSE3wtHY
David Hall spoke with the other two acts from last week. Here is footage from Dave Barnes performance on his show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APsjZUv3pYE
Here is David Hall chatting with Matthew Perryman Jones about Dave Barnes and his sense of humor... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gGxlqutwfE
I also want to include in this post footage from last Fridays Colin Hay interview and performance. I had only gotten a couple hours sleep after Live on the Green and was a bit punchy. They say some of the best airshifts are done when you are not feeling your best. I'm not sure if that is true here but Colin Hay (of Men at Work) is hilarious at times and performs two songs in the studio. I'll start with part three of this video series, where he has some incredibly funny things to say about Ringo Starr and performing during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU9b0_4_tGE
Here is Colin Hay performing Oh California in the Lightning 100 studios. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyJZmV3qtT0
Later that afternoon around three pm, Nashville's own Katie Herzig stopped by the Lightning 100 studios to chat with David Hall and perform for us. Here is a live acoustic version of her song, Wish You Well, which you've been hearing on Lightning 100. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yytlRpF204U
I'll leave you this month with a funny video from the Nashville Dragon Boat races. My dad and I were on the Lightning 100 team this year and it was my first time to be a part of the event. It was a lot of fun and really great to beat the Pirates! Especially since we didn't beat too many other teams! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSt0Ae_sWVk
