On the first day of a new decade, singer-songwriter Shane Tutmarc left his home of Seattle to start from scratch in Nashville, this is where our coverage begins...
Life has gotten a bit busier the last couple of weeks. I've started working at my favorite honky tonk in downtown Nashville - Robert's Western World! The very first day we drove into town we stopped into Robert's. Seattle-native, and my girlfriend Meagan's lifelong friend, Sammy Barrett (who moved out here a couple years ago), has worked at Robert's for a while now and she helped me get the job. Most of the crew at Robert's has been working there for years, so I feel lucky that the timing worked out for them to hire on a new employee. For the most part I have been the "door guy", but I've also served as cook, and tonight I will be bar-backing for the first time. On my first night at the door, my neighbor and local photographer, Mickey Bernal shot this picture of me. It's been a great job to make new friends, and a good chance to meet some of the local heavy hitters - whether they are playing our stage or just quenching their thirst at the bar.
As I said in my previous entry, Meagan and I were very lucky that the recent flooding did not affect our home or our work. But to show you how bad some people got hit, here is a photo of Aaron Tosti, my frequent drummer, "fishing" in his normally lush, green and dry backyard. Tosti owns the place and has a few roomates rent from him. This gives me the chance to introduce Aaron's roommate and the newest member to my Nashville Wrecking Crew - the appropriately named, Eric Newcomer. Eric's main gig is playing bass with House of Heroes, but with lots of free time between tours, I've really enjoyed having him involved. Eric played bass for us at the 64-Ten show a couple weeks ago when my regular bassist Nathan Thomas was out of town. With Nathan securely behind that bass again Eric switched to lead guitar at our recent show at the Basement. This brings me to my next item...
The other personal headline of the week is that we are playing a *real show* this Monday night at the Basement. After a well-received short set last Tuesday for their "New Faces" night, owner Mike Grimes has asked us to return for a two-band bill we are sharing with Chelle Rose. He's hoping we can bring 25 people out, so I've been posting about it non-stop on facebook and twitter. If you are in the Nashville area, come on down, it should be the best show yet!
Witnessing the greatest Nashville flood since 1937 has made for a heavy week. This Seattle boy had never seen rain like this. I feel so fortunate that our house is on a hill, so Meagan and I came through unscathed. But many of our neighbors and friends across the city were not so lucky.
I will go more in-depth with photos and stories of the week when I get a chance... But for now, I wanted to pass along this info:
You can text 'REDCROSS' to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief. Please donate if you can!
I just returned to Nashville from my first out-of-town show since relocated to the Southern portion of this here United States. Hot Springs, Arkansas - the childhood home of Bill Clinton - and one of the coolest clubs I've ever seen - Maxine's! And this is all thanks to the great Paul Sammons.
I first met Paul, a native of Arkansas, when he was part of a duo called the Antiques. He had recently "moved" to Seattle, and we both had a weekly gig at the Can Can in the Pike Place Market of Downtown Seattle. When my girlfriend Meagan and I found out they living in their car, she invited the Antiques to stay at her place as they settled into Seattle. But within a few months, the band dissolved and Paul returned to Arkansas. Fast-forward a year and half, now we are living in the south and I reach out to Paul. Within a couple days he has me booked in Hot Springs playing an amazing club where he is the "Artist in Residence."
This club reminded me a lot of the Can Can, with its seated audience of little tables and it's everything-black-and-red, "French Quarters" decor - but it was much bigger venue. And the sound was amazing, thanks in large part to their wonderful soundman, Jake.
For my set, it was just me and my acoustic guitar. Jake let me use a guitar pick-up he had, so I didn't have to mic the acoustic (which is always awkward, and usually results in quite a bit of feedback). In Nashville I've been used to playing shorter 30-40 minute sets, but to fill the hour set, I pulled out a few covers.
HERE'S THE SET-LIST (w/ clips from various solo shows)
1 Fair Warning 2 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Dylan) 3 Honey I Choose You 4 Next Best Thing 5 Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson) 6 Idle Hands 7 Let Me Down Easy (Mark Pickerel) 8 Never Turnin' Back 9 I Gotta Get Drunk (Willie Nelson) 10 Death & Texas 11 Black Widow Blues (Townes Van Zandt) 12 So Hard to Make An Easy Getaway 13 Little Sister (Elvis) 14 Across the River 15 Country Heroes (Hank III) 16 I Know I Should Know Better
It was a chatty crowd, but a very responsive crowd. For the last song, Meagan brought our dog Boris on stage. I sang, "I Know I Should Know Better", to Boris as my closer.
Next up was Paul. I was immediately blown away by how much his music had evolved since I last shared a bill with him. With the Antiques, he had an interesting mix of classic country, originals with both southern and Seattle (grunge/folk) influences, as well as more gyspsy/vaudeville leanings. Now the music seems to come from a purer place, there is still the blues and country influences, but there is a positive force behind his music that wasn't as apparent before - and not in a sappy or cliche way, but very raw and inspired.
He is a very self-contained solo performer, using a very cool homemade "bass drum" (made with two pieces of wood around a pick-up that he stomps on), he alternated between acoustic guitar, and a hollow-bodied acoustic lap-steel that sounds amazing, and he also incorporates a didgeridoo, which adds texture and depth to these solo productions.
Being that he was the main attraction of the night, he broke up his 2 and half hour set with an intermission. During this break, the club owner Agnes (who incidentally was celebrating her birthday) encouraged Paul and I to collaborate on stage. I'm always up for something crazy, but Paul wanted to make sure we didn't make fools of ourselves - so we quietly strummed thru a few old songs then hit the stage together.
We kicked off with Hank Williams' classic, "Your Cheatin' Heart", which I sang lead, Paul added harmonies and took a few solo breaks on harmonica and guitar. Then we did "That's All Right Mama" which was still fresh in my mind from a recent Hootenanny at the Family Wash. And for good measure, I suggested we end our collaboration with Jimmy Reed's great blues song about trying to please, "Baby What You Want Me To Do." With that I handed the show back over to Paul and he played another hour or so, keeping the crowd happy til after 1am.
Paui was a great host as well. His mom lived only about a half hour away, and had an extra basement room (Paul's old room) so we had a free place to stay. We woke up around noon, and Paul lead us to a great local BBQ joint. We went back to his moms's, introduced Boris to the Sammon's family dogs, Babe and Lulu. What a great trip! I can hardly wait to get back to Hot Springs, explore Little Rock and see what other wonders this great South has to offer.
For the second installment of my "Perfect Song" series I've chosen Dolly Parton's 1973 breakout hit, Jolene. Like the previous song I focused on (The Beatles' Help!), I'm not choosing an esoteric song to prove to you the depths of my music appreciation. I've chosen a song that for all intent and purpose has probably gotten all the attention it's deserved. It was a #1 hit on the Country Billboard charts, it's been covered by everyone from Olivia Newton John to the White Stripes, and Rolling Stone includes it on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
I like to choose songs that I think about when I am writing a new song. Sometimes I'll look at a favorite song to study it's structure, or examine how the writer got out of a key-change during the bridge, or sometimes simply to figure out what I like about it. With Dolly Parton's Jolene, we have a perfect song. Like The Beatles' Help!, Jolene begins with the chorus. It throws us right into the fire of this housewife's jealousy. After she hooks us with the chorus, the first verse is pure poetry as she describes her competition, "Your beauty is beyond compare/With flaming locks of auburn hair/With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green."
Unlike Loretta Lynn's tough talking, You Ain't Woman Enough (to Take My Man), Dolly's protagonist exposes her fear and insecurity, "And I can easily understand/How you could easily take my man/But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene." It puts Dolly in a very vulnerable place, which makes the song all the more relate-able. And it's haunting, almost "House of the Rising Sun", chord progression adds more to the allure of the song.
During the first verses, you might picture the lyrics being sung in solitude, but the last verse reveals that this has been a conversation with Jolene the whole time, "I had to have this talk with you/My happiness depends on you/And whatever you decide to do, Jolene." And she puts her fate in whatever Jolene's next move is. Often there is the temptation to write a story with a beginning, middle, and end - but great songs like this show us that it can be more effective to just throw the listener into the middle of the chaos, and not try to wrap it up tidy in the end. The song ends the same way it begins, with that great acoustic guitar pickin', and the desperate chorus begging Jolene "please don't take my man." We know more about this woman Jolene, and we know that the protagonist fears for life after her man, but we are left in the dark as far as what happens next.
I've been focusing mainly on the lyrics, but its the combination of the words with the music that make Jolene a perfect song. I love that its in a minor key, still a rarity for commercial country. The chorus and the verses are basically the same progression, but the melody changes and creates beautiful tension, so you are never tired of the chord pattern. And I love the eeriy, almost middle-eastern final chant of "Joleeenne" at the end. The drum beat, though, has probably been the biggest influence on me. With it's almost country-disco "four-on-the-floor" feel, it uproots the traditional folk chords, and gives it a fresh shuffle that drives the song. I've opened my last two albums with songs using a Jolene-esque beat, and I've got a song or two in the works that employ more of the Jolene charm. I can't get away from this song!
My brother, Brandon Tutmarc adapted that beat for "Fair Warning" which opened our second family band album, Hey Lazarus!
As I've been posting for a few months now, I'm getting a better idea what this journal is all about. At first it was about the journey from Seattle to Nashville. Then it became a place to share my personal reviews of each show I played out here. And since then it's developed into a more all encompassing diary of my thoughts on many facets of life. With the scope of the journal expanding, the point of view stays the same: Through These Eyes. The title comes from a song off the second album with my family band, The Traveling Mercies' Hey Lazarus! album.
Here's a YouTube clip to welcome this journals new namesake.
Over the last few weeks, a few realities have come to my attention.
I need a job. My dreams are still intact, but I also have rent due. Between savings, and having my folks sell off more and more of my stuff that I left behind, I’ve been able to make rent work. Until now. My only hope for this month’s rent is my tax return. Although, Meagan and I moved out here with the dream that she would get a rad music business job and I would be able to focus entirely on my writing and performing – as the eloquent Spinal Tap line goes - "Money talks and bullsh*t walks." Meagan’s been working as a receptionist for a car dealership (which has inspired her very entertaining Receptionist Diaries) for over a month, and I suppose it’s time to man-up and start paying my dues to the man.
Another reality that really hit recently is that Nashville is not the town I should be spending all my energy trying to entertain. I knew this, vaguely, when I was planning the move, but now I see it more clearly. There is more than enough fish in this pond to go around. Nashville is a perfect location to live, so one can easily access many major cities within a day’s drive. Memphis, Atlanta, Little Rock, Chicago, Louisville, and the list goes on.
Also, I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to write as much as possible. And while, it’s never a bad thing to be prolific, in reality all my songs are brand new to most people in this region. So again, getting out of town and sharing my trunk load of songs with fresh ears is what I should be doing.
So these are my goals of the moment. Get a job (a part-timer or a flexible full-time) and start booking quick out of town gigs. No brick wall, just a few forks in the road.
I’ll leave you with a song that have been on my mind as of late…
I used to cover "I'm In Love With A Girl" by Alex Chilton (from Big Star's second album Radio City) during my Dolour days. He left us many great songs, and inspired so many great songs from all of his musical disciples. R.I.P. Alex Chilton
Life has gotten a bit busier the last couple of weeks. I've started working at my favorite honky tonk in downtown Nashville - Robert's Western World! The very first day we drove into town we stopped into Robert's. Seattle-native, and my girlfriend Meagan's lifelong friend, Sammy Barrett (who moved out here a couple years ago), has worked at Robert's for a while now and she helped me get the job. Most of the crew at Robert's has been working there for years, so I feel lucky that the timing worked out for them to hire on a new employee. For the most part I have been the "door guy", but I've also served as cook, and tonight I will be bar-backing for the first time. On my first night at the door, my neighbor and local photographer, Mickey Bernal shot this picture of me. It's been a great job to make new friends, and a good chance to meet some of the local heavy hitters - whether they are playing our stage or just quenching their thirst at the bar.
As I said in my previous entry, Meagan and I were very lucky that the recent flooding did not affect our home or our work. But to show you how bad some people got hit, here is a photo of Aaron Tosti, my frequent drummer, "fishing" in his normally lush, green and dry backyard. Tosti owns the place and has a few roomates rent from him. This gives me the chance to introduce Aaron's roommate and the newest member to my Nashville Wrecking Crew - the appropriately named, Eric Newcomer. Eric's main gig is playing bass with House of Heroes, but with lots of free time between tours, I've really enjoyed having him involved. Eric played bass for us at the 64-Ten show a couple weeks ago when my regular bassist Nathan Thomas was out of town. With Nathan securely behind that bass again Eric switched to lead guitar at our recent show at the Basement. This brings me to my next item...
The other personal headline of the week is that we are playing a *real show* this Monday night at the Basement. After a well-received short set last Tuesday for their "New Faces" night, owner Mike Grimes has asked us to return for a two-band bill we are sharing with Chelle Rose. He's hoping we can bring 25 people out, so I've been posting about it non-stop on facebook and twitter. If you are in the Nashville area, come on down, it should be the best show yet!
