Let‘s make an album! / Nashville again / Almost arrested / Nashville Groove / Exiting contrast / Teeter’s and Holly / The first day of recording / Tornado night / The second day of recording / Singing and Volunteering / Ray’s storage – gone with the wind / Back to Nashville; Comfort Inn / Meeting with Pat / Farewell to Nashville / Back to Berlin
Let‘s make an album!
I knew that my first album had to be a success. Twelve songs means twelve chances that one is a hit. That meant offering a certain variety, without making a potpourri. 25 songs were quickly selected, but which genre should I go for? In order to avoid the country trap, I decided to go for Americana: Blues, Country, Rock and Rock’n’Roll could be a part of it. The first songs, influenced by my weeks in Memphis and Nashville, were already written. But the Baltic Sea Child in me should not be forgotten. There was an ode to drowned sailors, a song about Galway and, of course, my hometown’s harbor. Two songs about the end of a relationship and one song about the way in which the flood victims had never been acknowledged would complete the picture. All in all it seemed a good mixture, one that would represent almost my whole musical work. I sent the acoustic versions of the songs to Tommy and Ray: why would I change my team? The biggest challenge was finding a time frame that would be suitable for everyone to record in Nashville. Ray could not make it this time, he had to go on tour with Eros Ramazzotti. Hey, a former tour manager of Devo now on tour with Eros? That’s America! I tried to coordinate the dates with Tommy. This went smoothly, and the first ten days of March 2020 were quickly booked. Two musicians from the EP recordings were on board, others had to go on tour. Alison, the bass player, regretted not being able to be there. Tommy promised a high-quality replacement, and I knew he would keep his word.
Udo wanted to accompany me again, but Anna stayed home: the trip promised more work than last time.
Udo knows a lot of people in the Berlin music scene. It is not a surprise that some people working at the Ramones Museum are among his friends. This is how we ended up celebrating our upcoming trip in the Ramones Museum’s pub.
Nashville again
After arriving in New York on time, we were stuck for five hours: the connection flight had broken down. We arrived in Nashville again late at night.
I had 20 EPs with me, some to give to musicians, others to distribute as advertising in Nashville. The customs officer opened my luggage, looked at the CDs, took a quick look at me and said:
„Is it you?“
„Yes, I recorded it six months ago in Nashville.“
„Cool!“
Since he was so thrilled, he got a copy. It was something I knew well, but I experienced it all over again: Americans love the show. No matter what you’re doing, you have to put on a good show. Be prepared, it may be that a customs officer will say „Sing something!“ if you say you are a singer.
Around about this time, we heard the first Corona news from Germany. „Never mind, our adventure goes on!“ We arrived in Nashville shortly before 11 pm, and we were back in Nashville mode straight away.
Udo had rented a car from Berlin, but it was quite late and the counter was almost closed. Due to some missing information, we did not get the car. An Uber brought us to the Comfort Inn. The Indian manager gave us a room on the second floor. Should we start with the Live Oak again? Hell, yes! Our favorite doorman was not there anymore, and the atmosphere inside was not as nice as we had expected, we had two beers and then went to bed.
Because of the jet lag we woke up at 4 am. Sitting on our kingsize beds, we made jokes and laughed so loud that I thought the neighbors were about to kick the door down. They didn’t.
Almost arrested
The next morning, we met Jeed again at reception. Last summer I had promised to bring him an EP. He recognized us immediately, and was very happy about the present. After breakfast we walked downtown to take a bus to the airport to get our rental car. The bus came, but stopped reluctantly, only when we waved. The driver was very annoyed. Now he had to drive all the way to the airport! But the sun was shining and nothing could change our good mood. At the airport, the car rental company sent us to the counter in the building, since the booking couldn’t be found. We went inside and Udo put his backpack against a pillar, sitting down ten meters away to call the rental agency in Germany while I looked for the counter. When I came back, a huge security guard was standing in front of Udo’s backpack. The guard was saying that he had already called the police, since no one had picked up the luggage. Udo finally noticed, came running and wanted to pick up his bag. But the security guard did not allow him to. It came very close to a physical confrontation! I spoke to the guard with the tongues of angels and described our plight to him. Finally he felt sorry for us, and called the police to cancel the arrest.
The booking problem was then clarified: two different companies worked on the same counter, and the employee was simply looking for our booking through the wrong company. Car keys in hand, blue sky outside, the city awaited us. We now had one day to get back into the Nashville groove before the recordings.
Nashville groove
We brought the car back to the motel and walked downtown to our favorite beer hall. It was already after noon: time for a beer. When we entered the beer hall, there was live music playing: a bearded singer was performing. We ordered a beer and listened. The songs were good, but for us God was mentioned a bit too often. Finally we understood that a festival of religious country singers was taking place there. We left for downtown. On the way I remembered that Luke the cowboy always sang in a certain bar at noon. „Let’s just go there!“
Lucky us! Luke was playing there again. He was in the middle of a program, but when he saw us he interrupted it briefly to greet us. „Wow, he recognized us!“ Unfortunately, Udo had left his ID at the hotel again, so we couldn’t order a drink. Luke took a break and came outside so that we could talk. I gave him my EP. Luke is still working on his first record. Some things never change!
It was already 3 pm, and we had given ourselves an 8 pm cut-off, since we had to drive to the recording studio in Lost Hollow the next morning. We ended up at Nudie’s Honky Tonk, the bar with the longest counter in Nashville. Above the stage in the entrance area hangs a Cadillac. The bands here do their best to get people dancing. Since Udo couldn’t get a beer, I stayed at the bar while he popped to the motel to get his ID. This is how I met Caroline from Arkansas. She was, like many people accompanied by a group of friends, here for a wild weekend. I told her why I was in Nashville. After a while Udo joined us, and we had a beer together. During the conversation Caroline told me: „You are a gentleman!” On that I gave her my EP, and she wanted a selfie with me, since I might become famous – better safe than sorry!
Before she left with her friends, she whispered in my ear that I would be full of energy the next day, and would record the best album of my life. Then she left. Motivation in America! I felt perfectly prepared. Back at the motel, Jeed came up to me and showed me my EP, on which he had circled one song several times. „This one I like de most!“ Motivation in America! The Nashville groove gave me exactly what I needed: the right feeling for the recording.
Exciting contrasts
There are many contrasts in Nashville. Farmers and their children cavort around, having a nice weekend, while fantastic musicians, producers and the Nashvillians them-selves, (nine out of ten of whom have a job in the music industry) play great music. Then there are the European tourists, but they are rarely noticed. The main part of the paying audience is American.
In the bars and restaurants the audience is mixed: conservatives meet liberals, Democrats meet Republicans. There is not much talk about politics here, and especially not with foreigners. Only when a real conversation takes place is it worth asking questions. What Americans don’t like in conversations at all is ambiguity or irony, but it’s easy to get into conversation with representatives from any group of people. However, they are not always so easy to distinguish as they are in this picture:
There are also different types of musicians. Hippies, hipsters, southern rockers, jazzers, country girls and boys. Everyone tries to put themselves in a scene. For these things alone, it is worth a trip to Nashville.
Teeter’s and Holly
We drove from our hotel to the studio the next morning. To stay as close as possible to the studio, we had booked a wooden cottage in Ashland City. The landlords were a religious couple that bred naked cats. We never got to see them or the cats.
We reached Ashland City much too early, which left enough time for a stop at Teeter’s, a small gas station with snacks and items for farmers. Some of the products on the shelves were left over from the 60s. Yellowed detergent packs and other rarities made it seem like an old movie. With a cheerful “good morning”, we got the attention of the local farmers having breakfast there. Due to our open-mindedness we got an exclusive “farmer’s breakfast“ for five dollars, which we could hardly finish. Then Holly came to our table. She wore a fringed jacket and smelt of hundreds of liters of whiskey and hundreds of cigarettes. „I think you’re a humorous guy,“ she said, and began to tell her life story. It was eight o’clock in the morning, and in one hour recording would start. Holly said that she had been a singer too, and was stranded here. However, she said she would like to come to the studio. The farmers asked where we were recording. As I mentioned Tommy, they said: „It’s a good place! Reba recorded there.“ As Holly was distracted by another conversation, we evaded her offer. The farmers had fun. Then we quickly Googled Reba: Reba McEntire is one of the most famous country singers in the USA. Well, off to the studio then!
The first day of recording
The reunion with Tommy and Pat was warm, relaxed and tense at the same time. I was not as nervous as I had been for the first recordings. What would we manage to do this time? While we were deciding which song to record first, the other musicians came in. Everyone was in a good mood, and we had a calm, productive atmosphere. The bass player for the day was Jimmy Carter, not the President though: he told us that he had decided to learn bass at the age of eight to get away from hard work on a farm. This had then become his livelihood for the last forty years. A typical Nashville biography. Most of the musicians here are very grounded. They live in the countryside and are happy earning money by recording and touring. Others, like Pat McGrath, are happy not to have to tour so often, and bring all their musical skill to the recordings. It was a long day and, in the end, we had recorded the basic tracks for the first six songs, an incredible achievement for all of us. Tommy, the magician, managed to conduct everything and everybody while playing his drums. „I did ten thousand sessions over the last ten years“, he told me incidentelly. In music circles, he is called Tempo Tommy, the groove master. He can work quickly, but absolutely precisely. We all were thrilled, and I was very tired when we left for our place in Ashland City. On the way, we stocked up on food and drinks from a supermarket.
After some difficulty, we managed to open the door to the naked cats people’s house. In the Airbnb, the landlord informed the tenants that, since they breed naked cats, they pay a lot of attention to cleanliness. Since their cats were very sensitive, the tenant had to behave similarly. There was no other accommodation nearby. Luckily for us, we did not meet the owners or see the naked cats during our stay. They must have had another house. In our house everything was perfectly clean, and all over the place there were signs about what to do and what not to do.
Absolutely everywhere! Clean, sterile, neat. We were too tired to read everything though, and went straight to bed after dinner.
Tornado night
During the night, loud voices woke us up. I thought „Oh, the Naked Cats people!”. Then I listened more carefully. The radio was saying „This is the Sheriff’s Department. This is a serious tornado warning. Go straight to the cellar and wait for further information!“ The announcement was repeated over and over. Udo came staggering out of his room and said: „I need to sleep!“ Then he unplugged the radio and went back to bed. I realized then that the house had no cellar! I sat on my bed and stared out of the window. Obviously, there were only few people living around here. It was dark. Two houses away, I saw a light. Then it started to storm and hail. Our house was shaking. I thought that if I could see the tornado coming, I would lie under the iron bed frame and may have a chance of surviving. Suddenly the power went off, and the place was pitch black.
Udo just kept on sleeping. The house wobbled a bit more for several minutes, then the lights went on again. “Lucky!” I thought. The next day we realized that the tornado had passed only 1 mile away from our place, and had left a trail of destruction. Hiding under the bed frame would not have helped much: even massive iron beams had been bent by the tornado, as I could see later on in Nashville.
The next morning the sun was shining, the sky was blue, a real spring day. Confused, we staggered to the car to drive to the recording studio. Udo said „Something crazy always happens to us”, and we had to laugh. „The recordings today can only be special!“ The car ride from Ashland City to the studio didn’t seem much shorter than the ride from Nashville. We could have stayed at the Comfort Inn! Well, sometimes it is what it is!
The second day of recoding
The second day of recording was marked by an intense feeling that everyone had survived. There were many dead: the tornado had swept through the middle of Tennessee and the north-eastern part of Nashville. On the way to Lost Hollow we saw the first traces of the devastation. Because fallen trees blocked the streets and damaged property, Jimmy Carter and James Mitchell couldn’t come, and Tommy had to improvise. Support from the neighborhood came immediately. A super nice guy helped out: Mike Brignadello, a 70 year-old bassist who had played with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mike had already played on 140 albums. Troy Lancaster, who had just won the Country Music Award for his work on Blake Shelton’s song „God’s Country”, came to accompany us. The next six songs were recorded in this special atmosphere, with lots of conversation between the recordings. Every musician was in a very special mood, which was captured on the recordings.
In spite of all of this, Tommy didn’t seem too stressed. One of his daughters had taken a group photo of us, capturing the mood perfectly. Later I called this picture “Band of the Spectacle Wearers”. It is on the inside cover of the album. The helpfulness of the musicians, even when there was not much to earn, is worth mentioning. After each recording, we listened to the song to check if any improvement was needed. Troy sent Tommy a new solo part for one song, long after we were back in Berlin, because he liked the song a lot and thought a new solo would fit better. The passion for music is really noticeable.
After the recordings, the musicians told me that they would consider performing with me in Nashville. This was a special honor for me. Troy wanted to come to Berlin with his wife in June, and stay with us. Things were going really well, despite the tornado. Corona wasn’t really in the picture yet. The farmers at Teeter’s were joking at breakfast that they fed their cows with Corona supplement and since, they ate them, they would be immune. I felt great, because now the musical parts for all the songs were done and I ‘only’ had to lay down the vocals next week. Tommy was perfectly with structuring it all. His recording schedule was hanging on the wall in the studio. The work at Tommy’s Dungeon was very efficient.
Singing and Volunteering
The next morning Udo took me to the studio and then drove on to Nashville. For me, the work had just started. I had to sing line by line with the right intonation, with Tommy as my vocal coach. I was thrilled, because I knew that each line would stand up to great scrutiny. At the same time, I had a teacher who wouldn’t let anything get through. „It’s nearly perfect“ and „just one more time“ were my least favorite sentences. I could relax only when I heard „now you’re a genius!“. Tommy brought the best out in me, and he told me a lot about the southern attitude of the liberal musicians. He was quite unhappy about the polarization in his country. „In better times, we came together and then we agreed to disagree. Then we ordered another beer.“ Now, there is no cohesion anymore. The intense studio work brought us closer to each other.
Tommy was the musical director of the recordings. After “The Drowned Sailor” (which Tommy called an art song) was finished, Tommy suggested violins for the song. He got the violins from Hans Zimmer, the film music producer, and the song now sounded like a real soundtrack. For “Galway Bay” Tommy bought an accordion, which he had always wanted to do. He said „Now I can give my wife a reason for it”, and smiled at me.
Udo had enrolled as a volunteer in Nashville, which was quite easy. „We need every helping hand!“ Everyone helped with the tornado cleanup. Udo’s team was very happy about the „guy from Germany“. First, the team drank coffee together. Then older ladies brought sandwiches, and finally the clean-up began. The tornado had left an enormous amount of damage in German Town: roofs and facades had collapsed and then buried people under them. Initial reports indicated 56 dead. All of this seemed very unreal in the sunny spring weather.
In the afternoon, Ray called from Palm Springs and said he had to come to Nashville because the storage with his technical sound equipment had been damaged, and he needed to sort things out and store everything elsewhere.
Ray‘ storage – gone with the wind
In the late afternoon, we drove out of town to help Ray. The tornado had done a great job in the storage complex. Many storages were completely destroyed. Ray was lucky, as he could save some of his equipment. Despite the loss, Ray posed for our pictures with a big smile. Americans don’t give up easily!
A friend of his (of course, a musician) came by in his truck, and Ray could store the equipment in his garage. It was in a small residential area, with clean detached houses, full of nice, devout Americans, protected by security guards. It was interesting to see such a settlement from the inside. Two grannies in jogging suits stood outside and waved in synchrony: a real movie scene. The tornado had blown a piece of cloth for a few miles, and now it hung in a tree. The inhabitants standing in front of their houses didn’t seem to notice it, or they just ignored this little flaw.
Ray appeared from his storage unit with a bottle of whiskey. „I really need it this evening!“
Back to Nashville, Comfort Inn
After several days of singing, it was a great feeling to get back to Nashville. Back in the Drive Inn Motel, Jeed gave us the best room and looked forward to our small talk. We told him about the last few days. Tennessee people are very open when you have something exciting or interesting to tell: the people there love stories. Eating in America is another thing entirely though. It is almost impossible to get good organic food. There are now restaurants in that direction, but they are really expensive. We went for a two-week compromise: to buy good food in the supermarket every now and then, and then accept chips and salad as alternatives. Drinking is all about beer. Be careful with good varieties names though. Most of them have a strange taste. When I told an American that I come from Germany, their first reaction was usually that he or she has someone in the family who also came from Germany. The second comment was usually „German beer is great!“ We had two or three beers in front of the pool with a typical American family and laughed a lot together. A nice farewell to the Comfort Inn.
Meeting with Pat
In the evening we had an appointment with Pat, who lives in a neighborhood outside the hustle and bustle of downtown. He wanted to show us a small venue with live music, off the mainstream. A great singer performed with his band: they played Honky-Tonks and Western Swing in the old-fashioned way. I talked with Pat about music history and the influences for my songs. He told me about the real country music that is rarely played in Nashville nowadays. We also got some recommendations for our next visit, and had a great time that evening. We were a little drunk after a week of abstinence during the recordings.
Two metallic red motorcycles stood in front of the Comfort Inn when we came back, just like out of a movie.
The TV in the hotel lobby was already showing reports about Covid 19 and flight cancellations. One airline had already canceled all of their flights. Luckily, it was not ours. „What are we going to do if we can’t get out of the US?“ we wondered. „What could happen to a dentist and to a musician. We will survive!“ We could not have known then how badly the virus would rage on.
Farewell to Nashville
The farewell to Nashville was difficult. A policeman at the counter asked me what I had been doing here. I told him about the recordings and he said: „I love your accent, man!” A nice final compliment. Goodbye Nashville! Switching planes in New York meant again waiting for a few hours. We met a woman from Ohio, who we told our latest stories to, then we were on a plane to Germany. Nobody wore masks. Behind me, a big woman was coughing the whole flight long. Slowly, the danger of the situation became apparent.
Back to Berlin
At the checkout there were no controls or other visible signs of change. Anna was already waiting for us at the terminal. Only during the ride back on the bus did I notice a depressing mood. Udo went directly to his dentist’s office. The euphoria of the recordings was quickly interrupted by the shutdown.
This complete turnaround was hard to bear. I immediately ‘translated’ the mood into two songs, which can be seen and heard in black and white on YouTube as a snapshot of the atmosphere of those days. „The great Unknown“ was a new song, and „Out of nowhere“ got some new lyrics. In the two videos you can see that my singing is rather strained, still trying to understand, to grasp the new situation. When Udo and I met again, we agreed that the best thing would be to return to the musical world we had just left. But there was still much work required to finish the CD.