David Byrne Journal: 09.22.2008: Asheville and Nashville

Asheville

A lovely small town with a few schools tucked in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. The sweet pungent smell of North Carolina’s finest filled the air during the concert. The county also harbors a lot of money — a Vanderbilt mansion is open for tours at $47 a head, so we gave that a pass. Instead, a group of us — Natalie, Jenni, Lily, Steven and I — went for a bike ride on a road that goes through Biltmore Forest, passing one large house or mansion after another. A beautiful old one was for sale; we found an open basement window and took a look inside.

Further down the road, we passed an incredible country club with people on the porch of the clubhouse drinking ice teas enjoying a view of the surrounding mountains. At another empty mansion, we discovered a flock of wild turkeys on the back porch that calmly fled into the nearby forest as we approached…and there was an abandoned trampoline. Steven knows how to do flips — front, back, and a side flip, I think, he called a Brandy. He also showed us how to “assist your bounce,” where he pushes down on the trampoline while someone else is bouncing on it, shooting them up in the air.

The ride back to the hotel was mostly downhill so one didn’t have to pedal as much.

Nashville

In Nashville, I stopped by a great local record store, Grimey’s, and signed a bunch of old records and various odds and ends. Mostly though it was just to say hello. Kurt from the group Lambchop stopped by — also on his bike, as he lives nearby — and gave me a copy of their new CD. There was a lot of talk about the gas shortage in the area, which was news to me, as there has been no mention of it in the national news. Many gas stations have closed (temporarily, they hope) because they can’t get gas. Hurricane-related disruptions on the Colonial Pipeline, which runs from the Gulf to New Jersey, are the reason, so we are told. It seems pretty serious, at least around here. The guys at the record store said no one has been in lately since everyone is conserving gas. People spend hours searching for a station with gas, and then they have to wait in line, sometimes for hours. Some folks can’t get to work, as they are totally reliant on their cars for transport.

For our show at the former Grand Ole Opry, we quickly learned a couple of country standards, “There Stands the Glass” and “Half as Much,” which both sounded pretty good, given an afternoon’s rehearsal.