So the other night I did something I rarely do.  I had the night off and went and randomly saw another performer.  I had read over my morning coffee about this young great jazz player/singer Esperenza Spalding http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/  and thought "what the hell".

I might be tagged as a rootsy singer/songwriter who works in the darker realm of writing...but my own taste in what i listen to is (suprise) a bit more varied.  And so after a nice cheese and avocado sandwhich from the Saturn Cafe http://www.saturncafe.com/   in Santa Cruz, I strolled over to the Kuumba Jazz Center http://www.kuumbwajazz.org/index.php.  It's a really nice club, and several local DJ's told me it was their favorite spot. 

The show was amazing....Esperenza is gifted and charismatic and had the audience at the tips of her long stand up bass pluckin fingers.  She apparently became the youngest professor at Berkelee at age 20...and at the ripe olde age of 24 had played at the white house twice in the past 6 months.  Yikes...what a slacker.  But she is breathtaking. 

I could not help but think back to 24.  I had written a song called "Loserville" that I thought was very different than anything else I'd ever written.  It made me toss aside the 50 or so songs I'd written since my teens and re-focus.  Shortly thereafter I found myself at an old roadhouse bar in Manchester, Tn that had always been VI's Lounge (my Dad claimed he saw someone stabbed there in the 70's).  It was temporarily re-named 'Pappa's Roadhouse' and I played to my sister and her friend, two high school football buddies, and a man and woman in the back cheating on their significant other's.  But at the end of the night, after all my Steve Earle, Springsteen, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen covers....I whipped out "Loserville" and played it to just the owner and one lone drunk still hanging round.  The owner knew it was mine...it had taken me all night to get the courage to play it.  And one guy dug it..that's all I needed to hear.  'That thing' was starting to happen.

It would be years before I quit my job...recorded the first of my 5 studio albums, toured across the States and Europe,....etc, etc.  But at 24 I hadn't even had my epiphany yet...my artistic vision was just coming into focus.  So to imagine someone at that age, so together and so on top of it...wow.  She deserves it, but I for one stand back in awe.  I took a different path, I know.  Hell, we all have our own path for that matter.  But all the more impressive for her.

Last night I went back to doing MY thang.  And played a show at the Crepe Place http://thecrepeplace.com/ with buddies Kevin Gordon http://www.kevingordon.net/Home.html   and Sean Garvey http://www.seangarvey.net/  .  We had a good night and got treated just fine by the the good folks at the venue. 

Kevin is someone who got to Nashville almost a decade before I did.   I was a fan of his before I ever moved to town and became friends with him.  He got to town on the tail end of a different era, when things were alot better for us left of center dudes trying to make it in Music City.  But here he is, out here with me, slugging it out show by show just like he always has.  I am a fan of his music.  But also a fan of his spirit and his drive.  I found my tribe when I moved to Nashville.  And I look to those a tad bit more long in the tooth from time to time for inspiration. 

So it's been more than a decade since I was Esperenza's age and had my own epiphany.  And it's been many years since I walked in on my 30th Birthday and told my boss and good friend I was leaving for good.  Many great things have happened for me since then, but I would be dishonest to say it's been easy.  I'm appreciative for the opportunity to make art...and that people care about it, but while these have been the greatest years of my life, they've also been the hardest.  Funny huh?

From the time I could hold a crayon in my hand ...I was drawing all over the walls of the little rental house we stayed in when I was 3 or 4 yrs old  in Woodbury, TN.  Colonial Streets own little Picasso.  I really haven't changed....but the world around me has.

Oh, and by the way....

Esperenza Spalding is a badass....If you get the chance to, go see her.

And so is Kevin Gordon.  And buy him a Maker's on the rocks and tell him Shamrock misses him.

~SS