A Good Friday

A few great things happened on Friday. The snow melted and we saw the sun, I finished a long overdue piece of art, we got a new camera and had a fun dinner with friends.

The first charcoal drawing I did of the Nashville skyline was for a show at Take 121 and it sold! Fortunately, I have had a photo of that drawing in my portfolio since then and this is the second commission I have had for similar pieces. I finished this piece just in time for Andrea to test out our new camera. What do you think?

After hanging out on the patio at Billups Art and enjoying the sunshine we went to Taco Mamacita with Brandon and Kristin. We really loved the atmosphere at this place and the fresh food and drinks (including the "Durty Sanchez") were the perfect ending to the day.

Catching Up

Open Road Monday was snowed out this week so I have some time to get you caught up on what I have been doing. I can't believe how much snow we have seen in Nashville this year. It is really starting to get kind of depressing especially when it means cancelling Open Road Monday!

We had a little gathering for the Super Bowl last week at Billups Art and despite my technical challenges we were able to watch the game, enjoy good food and a few beers. We played a little poker and even some Mario Kart.

Also last week, I finished a commission for Mr. Larry Crowe. He had asked me to create a piece in remembrance of his brother Dave who recently passed away. I think the piece is actually a gift for their mother and I hope they love it.

On Thursday, Coach Woody Hunt held the annual auction to benefit Cumberland University Baseball. I was happy to provide a couple pieces for the auction and be there to try to sell some commissions. Coach Hunt actually let me have the mic for a couple minutes and I did my best to entertain the crowd of over 250 people and was successful in selling couple commissions.

We had some really fun parties this weekend for Valentine's Day and to celebrate the Chinese New Year but I will wait to tell you all about that when I have some photos! But I will leave you with this as a preview courtesy of Laura Godwin:

Cruisin'

Wow, the vacation started on a great note in Miami. We had New York Roma Pizza and it had been a while since I had some great pizza to talk about. This was certainly a hit, and the beers were cold, and only $2. Then, that evening we busted our guts laughing at Pablo Francisco and crew...there are too many funny things to tell and I can't do them justice.


The next day, we headed to the ship. We got there, showed our ID and birth certificate to a dozen people and then we were on the ship. Upon boarding the ship, Andrea and mom went to the counter and dad said, "Don't you think we should have our first beer?" The apple don't fall far from the tree, so we headed to the bar.


We had dinner on the ship and loved our drink-man, Daniel from Croatia. While waiting in line we met some good folk, Kurtys and Liz, they are from Northern South Dakota and were our ship-friends for the rest of the week.


Our first landing was in Key West. Here we saw the Southernmost point in America, which was fishy to me because I could clearly see a piece of land sticking out further south. We were riding bikes all across Key West and ran in to the Little White House and learned about my man Harry S Truman, the buck stops here! We had some beers and food at Hog's Breath Saloon and it was pretty cool as well, not as cool as Cowboy Bills! They had topless bull-riding streaming on one of the TVs in the bar, sweet.


Back to the ship for the chest hair competition---can you believe I lost? I can, I had the only song I had never heard of...the guy who won had Right Said Fred...I had no chance. The next day, we had the best time in Cozumel.

Gerry picked us up at our drop point, took us the Mexican WalMart called MEGA, which was the nicest place ever. Then, we got a tour of Cozumel's beaches, downtown and different areas around town. On the way to the prettiest side of Cozumel, we stopped at the PeePee Station...only because of their brilliant marketing. A little further down the road, we got to our Tequila tour. El Gallo, spanish for The Rooster gave us our tour. Basically, we got about 30 shots of tequila for free and I ended up playing their guitar and dice-poker with a man at the bar. Next we headed to the Playa Bonita (Pretty Beach) where we enjoyed some authentic mexican food and sat over the ocean. I accidentally ruined our romantic walk when I pushed Andrea over a rock, she got out of that ocean quick though :) The ride back to the ship consisted of us singing classic songs with Gerry, "red, red wine."

Our day on the ocean was peaceful and relaxing until I lost $200 at the poker table. I did spend my layout time listening to Leroy Powell and the Messengers. Can't go wrong there.

Poof, it was over and our return debacle started. Miami was ruined by my experience at the aiport. I am never flying Delta again for as long as I live.

Returned on Friday for the end of Stephen Salyers and friends. The music was great. Top to bottom, everyone was amazing. I ran into some familiar faces, had a cold beer or two and then went home to catch up on sleep. The pictures of this event were taken by Karrie Bond. You can see all of the photos on her site:
http://kporterphoto.zenfolio.com/febfirstfriday

Re-Opening

So, it turns out, the new building setup-ROCKS!!! I couldn't be happier with the turnout and response from our Grand Re-Opening, it was amazing.

It started with Jeb Stuart Anderson. Jeb is an amazing songwriter. He started us off with a song he wrote for Joe Diffie called "Bigger than the Beatles," then he ended up his performance with the Tim McGraw smash hit "I like it, I love it." He also sang a song he wrote about his dad called "Cowboys" that I thought was great.


After Jeb, it was on to my dear friend, Isaac Hayden. Jackson Hole, Wyoming's finest captivated the crowd with his mellow demeanor and stellar voice. You can't help but love him, especially when he plays "Good Ol' Wyoming," "Stolen My Heart," and "Emily," all songs that we co-wrote!!! I beat Isaac in the beer race 27-15.


Next up was our fearless leader and host, Mr. David Oakleaf. David Oakleaf and the Open Road played a handful of songs. It was their first time playing together, but you certainly wouldn't have guessed so, especially not during the rendition of our theme song, "Open Road."


Then, it happened. Leroy Powell and the Messengers made their way to the stage. High on rock n' roll, life and Jack Daniel's, they rocked everyone. Leroy is reminiscent of watching any guitar-God play. Between "Telluride" and "I Ain't Human," you just can't get enough of their in-your-face stage presence and performance. We (Clint, David Oakleaf, Isaac and myself) had all been looking forward to hearing them play all week-it was well worth the wait.


Following Leroy, just like every Open Road Monday, we opened up the mic and let our friends and patrons play their songs. Anthony Adams, Hamilton Greer and others treated the crowd to their songs. In the middle of the Open Mic, we had a special guest show up and play.

Jerrod Niemann came in and played some of his awesome songs. From hits that he was written for Garth, like "Good Ride Cowboy," to his own "Lover, Lover." "Yellow Brick Road" is a song that he wrote about growing up in Kansas. Even though I am from Missouri and hate Kansas's guts (and they had just beat my Tigers by 20 in Lawrence), I love the song and it was definitely my favorite.



Here are some more pictures from the night:





Several of these photos are courtesy of Chris Hollo http://www.hollophotographics.com who was on hand to share a really cool series of photos called Smoke.

Todd and Sam's Mural

As promised yesterday, my friends and fellow "Yankabillies" Todd James and Same Les******* (I will never know how to spell her last name) had commissioned me to do a mural in their new condo at the Encore. I met with them yesterday and planned a 4' x 6' mural of downtown Nashville as if we were standing on Broadway looking towards the river. Since these are good friends and they have guests coming into town this weekend, I made this project a priority and committed myself to getting it done today.

Lucky for me they already had a great base on the wall and they had a great idea and were open to my creative interpretation of their idea.

Here is Todd and his cool place:


and here is the view into the bedroom and the wall pre-mural:



Now here are some photos I took this morning of the view from Broadway towards the river:


Here is the sketch and tape I started with:


And the finished product:

It is so cool that you can see the mural from their living room...even if that means Sam has to make the bed every day ;-)

Another satisfied customer!

Here are a couple close-ups so you can see the detail:

I drove through the pouring rain to an art lecture and show in Dickson, TN this evening so I will tell you all about that tomorrow.

Media Coverage of MLK Day

After some rest and reflection I feel great about the MLK day project. I met some lovely ladies from Alpha Kappa Alpha, had plenty of help from Allstate, Hands on Nashville and the Nashville Rescue Mission and great media coverage. Here are a couple links to the story:

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=11840979

http://www.wsmv.com/holidays/22262880/detail.html

Also, as is our new routine, Monday night was Open Road Monday with David Oakleaf and Laura Godwin. Several cool singer/songwriters were on hand including my good friends, Isaac Hayden and Tom Shreck. Laura Godwin also brings out her Open Road Vagabond Thrift and we had artwork by Lydia Hejney on display.

These photos courtesy of Laura Godwin.

Turns out the charcoal drawing I did on Sunday for the Mt. Juliet Baseball team was a hit and I sold a few more and worked on them today. I will be working on a cool mural for my buddy Todd at his new condo this week so be sure to check back to see it.

MLK Day Service Project

I am exhausted from the day and on my way to Open Road Mondays so this will be a short post. Please check out the local Nashville news tonight to see the work we did at the Rescue Mission. I did get to spend some time with Mayor Karl Dean and tried to teach him something about painting.

The Weekend

I spent Saturday morning chalking out the murals at the Rescue Mission. You can see a couple photos here. I have left them intentionally simple but expect to be able to enhance the details depending on the the pace of the day.




We had a great time at the Red River Writers Night Saturday evening. I think we had around 40 people attend and it felt like everyone really enjoyed the new space and the awesome songwriters. Thanks to TJ for organizing the songwriters, Chip and Ryann for a fun but brief dinner and everyone else who came out. Also, congratulations to Chipper on becoming the most recently licensed insurance professional at Initiative Insurance! We enjoyed being part of your celebration.




I had to miss all of the playoff games today because I had a bunch of work to do including a couple drawings for an auction that is rasing funds for the Mt. Juliet High School baseball team. I think they look great and I hope they help this team reach their goals.





It all worked out because I got everything done and made it home in time for Sunday night TV with Andrea AND to get another blog entry up! I am heading to bed now so I can get an early start on the murals in the morning!