The high and low point of my musical career... (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, December 03, 2020, 15:18 (1239 days ago) @ bluerunner

... was the night I played in Nashville.

I was in Nashville on a business trip. Me and about a dozen or so music retail people from across Canada were flown down to Nashville by Gibson Guitars to go on a tour of their various factories. We spent a couple days in Nashville to tour the 2 factories there, then went to Memphis to visit another factory.

Our first night in Nashville, a small group of us went bar-hoping up the Main Street downtown. It was Sunday night, so most of the bars were featuring local bands. We ended up lingering at one bar in because the band playing was particularly fantastic (Nashville really is jam-packed with musical talent). The band went on a break, and my group ended up at the bar chatting with the singer and the guitar player. The guitar player stepped away for a few minutes, at which point the singer turned to us and said “so what are you guys doing in town?” Before I could answer, my co-traveler Matt pointed at me and said “oh, you don’t know who he is? He’s a huge deal in Canada!”. My jaw hit the floor, which gave Matt the opening he needed to dig out grave even deeper. “Reallly?” said the singer. “Oh yeah, big deal.” said Matt. “Well we’re almost done for tonight, but we’re playing across the street tomorrow night... you guys should come out and play a few songs if you’re still in town!”
“We’ll be there!” said Matt. (I should point out that at the time all this happened, Matt and I had only known each other for about 4 hours).

The next night, we decided to go bar hoping again, but agreed it was for the best that we don’t show up for our “gig”. 3 bars and 6 or 7 beers later, we’d forgotten all about that decision. We arrived at the venue and said hi to the band we had met the night before. They were on their break, and told us we could play a song at the start of their next set. Now it’s worth pointing out that on my best day, fully rehearsed, I might just barely be the caliber of guitar player who has any business getting on stage in Nashville on a Monday night. Maybe. Barely. Probably not. This particular night, after many adult beverages, playing a song I’d never played before with 3 guys I’d just met the night before... we’ll it was not my finest hour. I distinctly heard someone in the crowd shout “go back to Canada!”

But hey, I played in Nashville!