What a crowd. Not just a big one, and not just a loud one, but a talented one too. When Matt Combs of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble invited folks to sing along, our Loveless Barn Tabernacle Choir offered up the prettiest, mellowest version of “White Christmas” you ever did hear. I went from a 7 on the Christmas Spirit Index to an 11. Well done people.

Folks, I’ve got an early flight to catch so this is going to be brief, or lame, or both. But that doesn’t mean I have any less enthusiasm for tonight’s Roots, a journey that took us from the hills of Tennessee to the mountains of Colorado to the flatlands of Texas.

There’s a particular sound audiences make at the end of songs by the Quebe Sisters. It’s as if they’ve been holding their breath for five minutes. And when the trio’s harmony-drenched swing songs end, everyone lets it out with a startling roar. I'm told by authority Eddie Stubbs that the Quebes were the only showcasing band at last fall’s international bluegrass convention in Nashville to get a standing ovation. They are not, it should be said, a bluegrass band.

Maybe the holiday spirit was in the air or maybe the chemistry among the bands was just right, but from Jessi Alexander’s opening notes of “Late Night Ramble” with the phenomenal 18 South, something felt elevated about tonight’s Music City Roots. As good as it’s been since we launched in October, we may look back on this as the night the show found its voice and its soul. The crowd, our biggest yet, was keyed up from the top. The music flowed, song to song, act to act. The vocals from every act were just spot on. It sent everyone off to the Thanksgiving weekend in the best possible way.

I said in the intro that it was going to be an eclectic show, and our host and buddy Bill Cody acted like that was a bad word. Far from it. Variety is what makes a meal or a musical diet, and MCR had it tonight.

Halfway through James Intveld’s swooning, swaying deep-country set at the Loveless Barn last night, my friend Tom Perryman said “he’s hot!” and I thought ‘Well, he should know.’ And I thought how if it had merely been 1958, Intveld would have been a top artist on Decca or Mercury or Capitol putting out records that would have fit great between Ray Price and Faron Young and that Perryman would have been spinning his 45s on his WSM overnight show.

On his post-MCR record show tonight, Eddie Stubbs spun Johnny Bush, whose nickname is the Country Caruso. Well if that’s true, then Dex Romweber is the Pavarotti of Punk. During his show-closing set tonight, his voice rang out with big wide vibrato and a completely satisfying snarl. There’s rockabilly in there and surf and a sound the grunge movement strived for and missed. He even offered up an electric folk take on “Brazil,” with sister Sara drumming deftly.

Sam not only rhymes with Jam, it’s the same dang word with one extra kink in one of the letters. This is the kind of nonsense that occurs to me as I giddily reflect on this week’s Music City Roots, truly an inspired lineup if ever there was one, capped off by a raging, multi-dimensional “Up On Cripple Creek” jam, presided over by Sam, Bush that is.

October 15, 2009 - Walking into the Loveless Barn last night two hours before Music City Roots went on the air was an overwhelming experience. There were between 40 and 50 people buzzing around taking care of details from food to lights to amplifiers. Where the day before there had been only a bare platform, there was a magnificent stage complete with a great-looking podium on stage left (complete with vintage WSM microphone) and my amazing interview room stage right.