]]> http://www.alexnelsonmusic.com/2010/02/30a-songwriters-festival-video/feed/ 0 http://www.alexnelsonmusic.com/2010/01/30a-songwriters-festival-day-4/ http://www.alexnelsonmusic.com/2010/01/30a-songwriters-festival-day-4/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:51:34 +0000 nelsone http://www.alexnelsonmusic.com/?p=700 So on this day, I woke up a little late.  The night before we were out watching some really amazing people and then during the night I was working on some video editing.  So that made for a really

hotel courtyard

late bed time.  I believe it was 4:30am when I finally laid down to try to get some sleep.

It was a overcast day and finally rolled out of the room around 11am.  Some friends that had come up from Gainesville to attend the festival (who are obsessed with the Indigo Girls) were already in line at that show.  I had gotten a txt from them around 8am that they were in the line already.  I was hoping that I would be able to make it to the show but having woke up late, I had some things I wanted to get done.  As a result of the Indigo Girls show, some of the events were postponed and this ended up working in my favor.

Central Square Records

One of the things that I wanted to do was to get to Central Square Records and have the guys film an intro to their store for my ‘are we there yet?’ project.   So we headed over the store, hoping that there wouldn’t be too many people there so that they would have the time to do it.  And… they did!  There were people there however as Louise Mosrie was just finishing up her in-store there, but the guys still made some time.  I’m hoping to post what they did soon.

After that, it was a walk around the town and trying to decide what to eat.  While we were getting some outside shots of the Central Square building we ran into the sound guy from Bud & Aly’s from the previous day.  Since everything was pushed back for the Indigo Girls show, he was waiting in Seaside for things to get back on schedule.  He couldn’t make it down to the IG show because he was driving a large shipping truck so we just told him to hang with us.

We ended up at a nice restaurant right next to the record/book shop.  I can’t recall the name.  Mostly because my tooth, which had started to bother me the night before, was really killing me.  Needless to say, I worked through the pain and ate my lunch.  The highlight?  The sound guy telling our waiter that he was serving a ‘platinum selling recording artist.’

After lunch it was back to the room for some string changing and warm ups.  I had no idea where the time went, but it seemed to me like the day was flying by.  Well, waking up late couldn’t have helped.  I thought I was going to have to rush, but we received word that the IG show was being delayed a little bit.  From what I understood the show was being held at a stage on the beach.  I was just imagining it being super cold and perhaps windy and wet.

So then, with new strings on it was time to head to the venue.  Packed the guitars into the car and headed out.  The venue was Caliza at Aly’s Beach which was where we saw Matthew, Susanna, Amy and Shawn the night before.  This venue was also right across the street from where the Indigo Girls were playing.  The parking situation was crazy.  Lines and lines of parked cars.  Luckily, we were able to park near the venue entrance.

Once there, we were able to listen to the last few songs of the IG show while we let the sound engineer for this show to warm up and setup some additional equipment.  This show was with Bob

Corley, Effron White, and Blake Guthrie.  Once the Indigo Girl’s show was over, people started pouring in over to our venue.  It filled up rather nicely. The host for the night was Kevin Boyle whom I had met at my show on Friday night.  All in all, this was a great show. It was a little cold and I think you will see in the video that I’m rubbing my hands together a lot.  But it was great.

After the show I stood around the merch table and met some of the people that came out. It was great to see people who had seen me from some of the previous appearances I had done.  It meant a lot that they took the time to come back out to see me.  I’m super appreciative of this.  I think this is a little better than selling things because it reaffirms for me that the feeling that I am doing what I think, what I feel,  I should be doing with my life.  Performing. Playing music. Is right.  I’m making a connection.  (don’t get me wrong, I like to pay my bills too!)

Once things settled down at the merch table I started to pack things up. This was my last performance for the festival (this was the last night) and I wanted to head over to see Carmel Mikol and Cody Copeland play.  I got distracted on the way out because the guy who wrote “people are crazy” was up on stage.  So I watched a little bit of that before heading out.

Carmel and Cody were at the Rosemary Beach Town Hall.  We were lucky enough that on our way in we ran into Mr. Troy Evans.  On the phone, of course. This is how I remember him for most of the weekend.  HA!  Kidding.

The Town Hall was an amazing indoor venue.  Cody and Carmel blew my mind.  They were performing alongside Ryan Parker and Michelle Luchese.  An amazing round of performances.  As with a lot of the performances at the festival, I wish it could have gone longer.  Troy, Christy and  myself had a great time.

Matthew Sweet

After that we left Cody and Carmel to deal with the swarm of new fans and headed over to see Matthew Sweet.  That would be our last show to attend for the night.

went back to room. packed and watched psych. got ready for leaving next day.  bummed it’s over.

Michelle Luchese & Cody Copeland

Was supposed to wake up much earlier to have  breakfast with Bob Corley but I just couldn’t wake up early enough.  woke up in time for lunch with Carmel (Mikol) and Evan (LeFloch).  Luckily, lunch was at Bud & Alys across the street from the hotel.  I was really hoping to see Cody Copeland play.  And that’s what happened.  We met Cody at the private kick-off party on Thursday and really got a good vibe.

He did not disappoint.  His setup for this show was a micro-korg, a floor tom & snare, and a guitar.  He has a really unique way of playing the guitar and his songs were simply amazing.  as an added perk we got to see  Michelle Luchese who was also just amazing.  Cute little quirky songs that just make you smile.  All in all, it was a great start to the day.   Just seeing Cody play the drums, the keyboard and sing at the same time made my head spin.

Augustine

Then a little bit of Augustine.  Augustine is a acoustic duo comprised of Louis Johnson and Jordon Meredith.  They are not a couple.  Why is it when two people from the opposite sex hang out or do something together people assume they are a couple?  huh? huh?  Anyway, they ARE NOT a couple and they made it pretty clear “We are not a couple, you can hit on us.”

Anyway, they rocked it.  Totally awesome.  You can check them out at http://augustine-music.com/.

Bud & Ally’s was a great venue.  It was pretty much the center venue of the festival. The nice thing about it was that it was a covered patio.  So you got the nice sea air but since all the sides were covered, none of the gusts.  Sweet.

I just realized that this was the last time I was able to have a decent meal.  Later that day, I had a tooth that decided it wanted to cause some trouble.  So it was super painful to eat anything after that.

Shawn Mullins and Nicole Witt

Then over to Central Square for the workshop with Shawn Mullins and Nicole Witt.   By the time we got over there it was very crowded.  I remember a lot of people trying to ask about where the inspiration came from and it was suggested that everyone just throw out their televisions.  Nicole sang an amazing song that I just can’t remember the name of.  All I remember was that it was amazing.  If anyone reads this far into the post and was there or knows here, please let me know what that song was called.

Ok Then, so in the middle of the ‘workshop’ I was forced to go back to the hotel to start getting ready for my show at 2:30.  So off I went.

Then run back to room for warm up and practice.

Alex Nelson @ Bud & Aly's

Over to Bud & Alley’s I played with Louise Mosrie and Jeep Rosenburg.  Holy crap I played fast.  It was super cold. I couldn’t stop shivering and I moved around WAY more than usual.  You know what those last sentences were?  Excuses.  But seriously, it was a really windy day and each time a huge gust would blow against the outiside of the tent I felt like we were going to take off!  This was the same place Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs opened the festival at.  Only today it was really windy.  The wind would sneak into the tent and it would make this sound that made me think we were going to go flying.  I was assured that we were safe.

A special thanks to Suzi.  Suzi, it was really nice meeting you. Thank you so much for your support!

Alex Nelson @ Central Square Records

Then over to central square for a set.  Brian, whom I met the night before was also there.  Thanks Brian!  This was a good set.  I was able to do an actual full set since this was just me performing.  Since this wasn’t a performance that was part of the festival, I was able to meet some really nice people from all across the country.   So people who were just in the store visiting got a chance to hear and be a part of the festivities of the weekend.

The store was host to several performances and workshops.   It was one of my favorite places to play.  Surrounded by books and albums.  Everything inspiring.   It was great. I had one of those “this is really cool” moments and the audio couldn’t have sounded better.

There will be a little intro of the store in the next episode of “are we there yet?” The place was amazing, I had to share.

Susanna Hoffs, Paul ?, Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, Amy Ray

then over to aly’s beach for shawn mullins, amy ray, matthew Sweet, susanna hoffs.  Amy Ray ROCKED IT!  Totally.   The entire night was great but I had two ‘favorites’.  The first being Susanna’s Bangles medley and the second was Amy Ray doing “Rural F****t.”   Simply amazing.   The show ended with everyone on stage (and audience) singing Here Comes the Sun.  There was a little hickup at the beginning since there was  a brain fart and some people couldn’t remember the second verse.  but after a quick restart it went well.   Mistakes like that are humbling.  Sometimes when I’m on stage I might drift away and forget some words.  It’s nice to know that it’s just human and it happens.  The nice thing is when it’s live we can just move past it. Unless someone is recording it.  ha! I filmed a little of this and I’ll see if I can post some of the highlights up.  I’ve got hours of footage, so it might take a while.

One of the nice things about the venues is that the organizers setup special reserved seating for artist that were performing.  It was really nice since we were able to go see our peers without having to rush from one show to the next.  This made the entire weekend amazing and everyone was able to support each other without any troubles.

After the show I ran into Shawn and had a little conversation about what he’s been up to. Turns out this year I’ll be playing a lot of places he’s played and he offered up some advice and story’s about some of them.  Then it was back to the hotel for a clean up and getting some work done.  While in the room, I noticed that I had missed a call from Flash at the Wallflower Gallery in Miami.   When I called him back he mentioned that he was thinking of something that perhaps I might be able to be a part of.  In the end though, I think it turned out that I was going to be out of town and wouldn’t be able to do it.

For only three weeks gone by, it’s sure feels like we’ve crammed a lot in.  Anyway, after returning a bunch of phone calls and catching up on emails is on to get some entertainment.

Greg Barnhill & Tim Nicols

then over to Seaside meeting hall theater for Tim Nicols  & Greg Barnhill.  Tim Nicols wrote “live like you were dying” which was made famous by Tim McGraw and Greg wrote “House of Love” which was made famous by Amy Grant.  They had a bunch of other ‘hits’ as well but I think those are the most recognizable.   It’s really nice to see the ‘invisible’ guys behind the curtains of the big stars.   Sometimes I think these performances are better than the actual mega-star that sings them because the writers of the songs, actually have a connection to it.  Not that the big stars don’t, but there is actually a true connection between the song and the songwriter that makes it more powerful. At least, that’s what I think.  Or like to think.

Gre and Tim’s show was the last for me that night.  I walked over to the room afterwards and changed my strings for the next day then sat up all night watching Psych.  I started to feel a pain too in the back of my mouth.  Something weird was going on there.  More on that later.

I would like to end this by saying Adam Shiland is awesome.  The awesomenest.  A super hero.  A super model. You should find him and give him hugs and money.  He also has impeccable fashion sense. FYI ladies, he gives johnny depp a run for his money.