I Had A Brush With Greatness

[Timbofood]

I didn't call anybody. What do you mean JB?
I think maybe you have Jaycat and I confused, we get that a lot.

[travellerbytrade]

I have a good story. In the early 90's my ex went to Nashville to record with a friend of his who had just gotten a record contract. When asked what it was like, his friend said, "They want me to write songs with this other new guy. It's not what I expected." When asked who the new guy was, he said, "I don't know. Some guy named Garth Brooks." I love that story.

One of my history professor's was a room mate of David Byrne in college. David ventures over to Western every now and then. I have the urge to point and sing "DON'T NEED THE BOOK TO PUT YOUR HAND IN THE FIRE!" but I restrain myself.

At an athletic store in Chicago, I almost told Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to "walk this way" but I restrained myself...again.

[journeybear]

TBF, you're right, I got confused. It was jaycat who suggested I look up someonel from way back long ago.

[mrmando]

OK, I'm in the midst of writing an article about local Scandinavian food, so today I was in one of the two Nordic eateries Seattle has left, enjoying a sampler plate of pickled herring. ("Enjoying" and "pickled herring" aren't words I would have used in the same sentence until today, but anyhow.) Another guy comes in and orders the same herring plate. We get to talking, and he turns out to be ... Steve James!



I didn't tell Steve this, but I just traded for a National RM1 that used to belong to Butch Baldassari. Maybe that's another brush with greatness.

[soliver]

Does it count that whilst working for a high end white glove moving company in Atlanta, I delivered a bunch of furniture and accessories to Usher Raymond's house the day before MTV filmed Cribs at his house,... then showed back up the following Tuesday and took a majority of it back to where we got it from... ? No Mando content, but famous musician content

[mrmando]

You mean he doesn't really have a mother-of-pearl grand piano?

[soliver]

More relative to us might be that my first day working for the company, we delivered stuff to Patty Loveless' house... but she wasn't there.... I have lots of fun "famous people" stories from that Job... Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, Ludacris, Xavier Roberts (that guy was strange), A couple of the Braves, moved Isaiah Thomas from Carmel, In to White Plains, NY while he was President of the NY Knicks... Oh, I did do a household move for one of the Indigo Girls,... that one counts!

Back to Usher though,.... No, the piano stayed,... moving Piano's is the pits. Fortunately I'm in a different line of work now,... much less heavy lifting

But I checked Youtube and I was wrong, it was for BET's How I'm living, not MTV's Cribs... but Here's some of what I remember, but this was roughly 10-12 yrs ago, so give me a little grace:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBAteZVg4Tw at 5:04 it shows loads of Coral on the dining table,... I remember unpacking that stuff from boxes ... not sure that we returned it, but we probably did. I think we also hung some of the pictures in the opening sequence when he is talking about his "favorite artists."

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdPXdJcOyls the sequence from 1:20 to 1:45 around the pool, there are various and sundry Large Vases that I distinctly remember carrying in, because they were ridiculously heavy and difficult to handle, and all of the metal topiary trees in the background, I distinctly remember placing those, and those in particular I remember returning to the showroom's warehouse.

I know there was a fair amount of other stuff we delivered. Some stayed, a lot did not.

Ah, what fun to reminisce....

[soliver]

1 more,... went into Sir Elton John's place at least once.

And on a different line, before she fronted Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles used to sing with a group called Soul Miner's Daughter who me and some friends in college would go see at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta many many years ago,... that lady can SING!

[Richard58]

Took Tater Tate to the curb market to stock up on cheap North Carolina cigarette prices from a show while he was playing fiddle at the time for Bill Monroe. Met Bill in the kitchen area of a community college he was playing at. Jim and Jesse McReynolds was the second group playing. Mac Wiseman was there also but had no band but used Jim and Jesses band members to do his show. They all seemed like nice folks.

[Timbofood]

Mac never travels with a band, as far as I know he picks up guys from parking lots at festivals. At least ha has done that more than once!

[ManjoMan]

I wonder what year this was taken? And, if some of you don't know this, the guy standing in the background is Dana Cupp. The last banjo player to work for Mr. Monroe.

[Pepe]

Saw Hot Rize in concert last week. Didn't get a chance to visit w/Tim O'Brien after the show, but did spend a little time catching up w/Bryan Sutton, whom I had studied w/on Artistworks for a couple years.

In bygone times...years ago while @ the Fiddle Tunes Workshop/Festival in Port Townsend, I spent most of the week in Russ Barenberg's (mando/guitar) clinics; he was also the advisor for the band several of us formed to compete in the Bandlab contest at the end of the week. We stole a tune he played in class one day (The Everywhere Calypso - Sonny Rollins) to use in our contest set. He tried to dissuade us b/c he intended to play it in the faculty concert at the end of the week. We said he certainly could, but the Bandlab contest was before the faculty concert, sooo.... Anyway, we tied for 1st!

Also once, at a concert w/Mick Maloney, James Keane and Liz Carroll, Liz's fiddle encountered problems and she asked if anyone in the audience had one she could borrow. She played mine (poor her!) for the 2nd half of the concert. Didn't get to jam, but they were keen (no pun..) to go bar-hopping w/us afterward. ...and my chin rest smelled of perfume for the next year!

[MikeZito]

Have met and/or chatted on the phone with a few musicians over the years (from Johnny Mathis to Gordon Lightfoot to Bill Bolick of the Blue sky Boys, etc.), but perhaps the most memorable was the time I met Crystal Gayle back around 1984 - she was so stunningly good-looking that I was actually speechless for a few seconds!

[Jess L.]

... Fiddle Tunes ... Port Townsend, ... Bandlab contest at the end of the week. ...

I remember those! Fun. IIRC the Cajun bands always won though, the rest of us didn't stand a chance at 1st place.

I hear that nowadays they switched it from a "contest" to a "concert", meh, I don't know if I'd like that, the contest gave our little 'bands' some incentive to try harder.

[Timbofood]

I wonder what year this was taken? And, if some of you don't know this, the guy standing in the background is Dana Cupp. The last banjo player to work for Mr. Monroe.

That was on Bill’s birthday in Midland, MI. The show was great!
Mac Wiseman, The Osborne brothers, Bill, and a few locals, (not my band, though)
I have a great picture of Sonny around here somewhere!
I will try to remember the date and get back to you.
Yep, doesn’t Dana look YOUNG!!? But, back then I had hair too