How I spent my Nashville vacation... well first stop was to my residence for the four days - Miss Ashley and Megan (both MA transplants) were lovely enough to let me couch crash!
We kicked off our Tuesday night with a label pre-party where we saw music performed by - LOCASH, Lindsay Ell (her new song is amazing "I Don't Love You") Tyler Farr, Dustin Lynch, Runaway June (Head Over Heels is their new single), Craig Morgan, Jimmie Allen, Jason Aldean! And we ended the night at the oh so famous "Losers" bar. Here's a tip... if you're planning a first time Nashville trip the real "Losers" is in midtown not the new location on Broadway. If you want an artist sighting off Broadway locations are your best bet ;-)
While at Loser's I spotted Riley Green where I awkwardly stared and said "Oh ... you shaved your beard". I'm not smooth a few BL Smoothies in. Also spotted Randy Houser who will be playing the Paradise on Dec. 12th - I thanked him for introducing me to a Moscow Mule years ago and said see ya soon in Boston. Again I'm not that smooth a few BL Smoothies deep! And I ran into our next opener for Country UnCorked at City Winery... LOUIE BELLO!
My geek out moment however came when my boss called me over to meet LON HELTON!!! The host of Country Countdown USA!!! I don't geek out over many fellow radio DJs, but this is one of the peeps that def infiltrated my country radio schoolin!
After a good nights sleep and a southern breakfast (grits were involved), I was ready to prep for the big night thanks to a little help from our friends Teddy Robb & Adam Doleac - they were essentially part of our glam squad ;-) No they didn't do the work, but helped hook it up! FYI Teddy has reworked "Really Shouldn't Drink Around You" as a duet with Meghan Patrick & Adam will be by our studios next week to hang. Check out Adam's "Famous"!
After prep ... SHOWTIME! Thanks to my boss Ginny for taking me as her date! My first ever CMA Awards being in the arena. Never did I think as a kid watching would I get to be there...I won't lie I got a little emotional reflecting on that!
Clearly you got to see all the performances and the winners - the performances were amazing (MIC DROP GOES TO REBA) and the winners... well I was pumped for most! The Big Machine After Party was amazing... sorry the only pics I took were in the photo booth with my frands!
I did get to chat with new artist Noah Schnacky who paid us a visit a few weeks back, tell Brantley congrats on the #1, tell Carly Pearce she looked FABULOUS, and give a congrats to Tyler Rich and his now wife Sabina (WMASS native) on their beautiful wedding!
Now most of Thursday was about recovery and a little tour of our Nashville station WSIX. My host for the week/former work wife Ashley is the Promotions Director for WSIX.
After she took me to an off the beaten path breakfast spot "The Nashville Jam Company"! Yes their jam is delicious but I went for a breakfast sandwich that consisted of a biscuit, jam, Nashville hot chicken, eggs, and potatoes. I HAVE NO GUILT it was delicious! TIP - GO HERE on your trip!!!
Thursday night we hit up a taco joint with some MA - Nashville transplants and hit up "Winners" for Whiskey Jam! It's every Thursday night - so many different artists to check out. In fact Baylee Littrell was supposed to play, but got sick. However, we did run into some MA friends Chris Moreno & Timmy Brown!
Friday was my last full day in Nasvhille so we did a little "Honky Tonkin"! What some in the south call a bar crawl. BUT first we made sure to get a workout at Tim McGraw's gym "TruMAV"! Love a good circuit workout! 6 moves - 45 seconds on - 15 off - repeat twice and then a 2nd set of 6 moves - 45 seconds on - 15 off - STRETCH! It was shoulder and core day and I'm still sore! TIP - if you want a great workout & love Tim check it out!
After we did our body good we then did all sorts of naughty things to it! We started at Yee Haw Brewing Company then hit Jason Aldean's Rooftop - ACME Feed & Seed - TIP - I'm obsessed with their "Rule the Roost" Chicken Sandwich YOU HAVE TO GET IT - then we hit some more hipster bars including "Never Never" where we spotted Mitchell Tenpenny. The bartender at Never Never was awesome! His name is Chris and he's from CT so he was most helpful and telling us where we could get some great drinks in the city! TIP go to NEVER NEVER! We wrapped the night in midtown where we hit the Patriots bar - DawgHouse and Tin Roof! In bed by midnight and up in the AM to head home to MA!