I took a ride down highway 100 to the Loveless Cafe tonight to finally catch Music City Roots.

I love music. I love songwriting. I love acoustic instruments, and I love seeing people in a casual and intimate setting performing, collaborating and expressing creativity. So for me, Music City Roots was a little bit of musical heaven!

While hundreds of thousands of people across the country are going GaGa for the latest chart hype, I enjoy a very different type of music, along the lines of a live radio show, in a relatively small barn, on the edge of Nashville, with immensely talented artists making beautifully real music together. Now this, my friends, is a perfect example of why we earn our reputation as Music City!

The show opened with reflection from most talented guys in this town, Radney Foster, who performed songs from this latest album Revival, including the incredibly moving “Angel Flight.” And it closed with grooves from the Emmitt-Nershi band, which is the bluegrass duo of Drew (Leftover Salmon) Emmitt and Bill (String Cheese Incident) Nershi.

In between was another great Country/Bluegrass artist, Donna Ulisse, and the absolutely fabulous Hillbilly Swing of Knoxville’s own, Christabel and The Jons, who were my personal fave of the night, mixing genres and decades into musical perfection. Oh, and then there was a tasty jam of a finale of “Whiskey River.” And, best of all, you got all this music for only 10 bucks (and only 5 bucks for you students out there!)

If you haven’t had a chance to make it out to the Loveless Barn to hear Music City Roots, you have one more chance to do so this year, and then it will return for another season on January 6. Followed on January 13 with one of my favorite Nashville artists, the one-and-only, glad he’s doing well, Mr. Will Hoge. I so cannot wait to see that show!

Music City Roots is rich in musical culture, heritage, creativity and community, and it certainly is a welcome addition to our fine musical city!

Cheers,

Johnny T