My Music Journal 2025: May 7, 2025

 

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Time: 8:50 PM
Song: Delta Dawn
Artist: The Baldknobbers
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl record “From the Hills of the Ozarks” while working on collage in our basement.

 Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/62qNdSlhFznQD0gHpCGrtw?si=92e58356fd604505

The lot of records I mentioned in the previous post included three albums from a group named “The Baldknobbers.” The name alone intrigued me enough to give one of the albums a listen while working on a project in our basement. 

The music was as expected: bluegrass, folky, etc.

I didn’t know anything else about the band.

Looking up now, I have learned a few things.

1. They are not on Spotify. That’s why you’ll notice if you follow the link you’ll get the better known version of “Detla Dawn” by Tanya Tucker.
2. According to the webpage, www.baldknobbers.com, they are a country music and comedy variety show at the Hughes Brothers Theatre in Branson, Missouri, featuring the Mabe Family.
3. They have been performing since 1959.
4. There was a group of vigilantes in the Ozark region of the Missouri from the 1885-1889. The group got its name from the grassy bald knob summits of the nearby Ozark Mountains. The Bald Knobbers for the most part sided with the Union during the Civil War and were opposed by the Confederate backing Anti-Bald Knobbers.

My Music Journal 2025: May 6, 2025

 

Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Time: Noon
Song: Hope and the High Road
Artist: Jason Isbell
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl record “Live from the Ryman.”

Link to Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4EwXbhNj6JApo3R9b6uciW?si=c8b7281840f84238

It’s our final day of vacation, but we are at home, doing all the chores that pile up when gone for an extended period. Jodi sits down as the record begins to play:

“So, if this record sucks, does that mean we will look to sell our tickets?”

She was referring to the tickets to a Jason Isbell show in Rockford later this summer. The record I bought in Nashville, during a brief stop at the Ryman Auditorium gift shop. I hadn’t expected to buy any vinyl on vacation, but I thought it was appropriate. One, to get a record of a live concert in Nashville, and to get a live record of someone that I was going to see live soon.

As it turns out, I had more vinyl to sift through. On Sunday, Jodi’s Aunt Betty was at an auction, and they had a couple crates of records. She called us as we were meandering through northern Kentucky.

She mentioned there being a half-dozen Elvis records, a Ray Charles, a Merle Haggard. I said if they went for less than fifty, I’d take them.

They went for five dollars per crate.

It was almost entirely a country lot. Lots of Marty Robbins and George Jones. Loretta Lynn. Kenny Rogers.

The condition was fair. They need a good cleaning. I think I’ll see a decent profit on this one.

 It was an appropriate cap to my time off. A solid Jason Isbell record for the collection, and about 150 country records to put up for sale. It all fit nicely at the end of a visit to country music’s home in Nashville.

My Music Journal 2025: May 5, 2025

 

Monday, May 5, 2025

 

Time: 5:20 PM

Song: Like a Prayer 
Artist: Madonna

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way on home from vacation.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1z3ugFmUKoCzGsI6jdY4Ci?si=78751ec1a3cc4811

 

Illinois Route 40 runs north from Peoria to Sterling, and this stretch of rural two-lane highway is often the homestretch for us when we travel south for vacation. There is a sign leaving Peoria that marks the span as 56 miles. 

 

It’s always the toughest stretch of the trip. A swirl of thoughts and emotions. 

 

Resignation that vacation is almost over and at the end of these 56 miles, it will be back to normal life. Laundry. Mowing. Groceries. Bills. Work. 

 

Weariness as the bustle of the previous few days of activities sets in. The concerts. The walking around downtown Nashville. The hotels. The restaurants. All the people we’ve passed that we will likely never see again, and wouldn’t know it if we did. 

 

Impatience as it’s usually the point where we’ve had enough of sitting the car. We’ve probably run out of things to say, or simply don’t have the desire to say them. The jeep feels cluttered with luggage and bags from purchases, and wintergreens in the console. The air seems stale. Even the songs seem redundant, even though I don’t think we’ve had a repeat the entire trip. 

 

It usually a slow feeling trip, one where it’s likely we’ll get stuck behind slow drivers, semis or farm machinery. Each mile counting off slower and slower. There’s a sign that marks 13 miles to Sterling, a distance that’s been nothing that last few days, and it always feels like those 13 miles take an hour each. 

 

But we make it. We stop at Kroger’s on the north end of Sterling, Madonna is singing, and while we have a few miles yet to get home, it feels like the trip is officially over. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 4, 2025

 

Sunday, May 4, 2025

 

Time: 11:30 AM

Song: Don’t Carry It All 
Artist: The Decemberists

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while crossing the Ohio River.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2UODQhPzz51lssoMPOlfy5?si=d0af8790c0a14122

 

I’ve grown accustomed to letting GPS do the work on our longer trips. Most of the time, I will research the longer stretches of travel and have a backup set of directions printed in case the technology fails us. 

 

We left Nashville earlier Sunday morning with the destination of Garden of the Gods Park in Herod, Illinois. The forecast called for rain so we weren’t in any great hurry. 

 

As we trekked through a rural section of Highway 91, we came to an intersection and on the other side the concrete ended on the banks of the Ohio River. The only way to cross at this location was by the Cave-in-Rock Ferry. 

 

I’m not a water guy, but even I was game for trying a ferry for the first time. Living in Northern Illinois, there just aren’t that many places near us that use a boat to cross water. We’re bridge people in the northern half of the state. 

 

We were one of four cars to take the ferry across to the Illinois side. Two young men seemed to be the staff for this vessel. One drove the ferry, the other opened and closed gates, and tied and untied the ferry from the docks. Both looked too young to me for such responsibilities, but I realize that probably just means I am getting old. 

 

The waters were calm and Jodi rolled down her window to let the cool air in. Two cars in front of us, a golden-haired dog peeked its head out their window. Sniffing the damp air that I am sure was saturated with interesting smells for its advanced snoz. 

 

In all, the trip only took a few minutes, and then we were back on the bumpy roads of Illinois. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 3, 2025

 

Saturday, May 3, 2025

 

Time: 7:50 PM

Song: The Gambler 
Artist: Don Schlitz

Mode of Consumption: Performed at the Grand Old Opry 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/64eovkdGR7xoIIyUjok9AQ?si=3af0d4269ffd4182

 

Three nights of live music, and three very different modes of performance. There was the massive stadium show of Metallica on Thursday night. There was the bar performance by a band that will remain nameless in my memory. 

 

Then there was the Grand Old Opry Saturday night performance. 

 

A two-plus hour show, featuring the likes of Vince Gill, Old Crow Medicine Show, Amanda Shires, Connie Smith, and others. There’s nothing like this show in any other genre of music that I am aware of. Two-plus hours of performances from artists spanning nearly seventy years. 

 

One of the highlights came from a name I didn’t know: Don Schlitz. 

 

Granted, I don’t consider myself a country music expert, but I would wager only the hardcore fans knew his name. 

 

Schlitz, as it turns out, is a songwriter. The guy behind hits like “Forever and Ever, Amen,” “When You Say Nothing At All,” and, of course, “The Gambler.” 

 

He admits to not having the greatest voice, although I though he delivered his songs with a certain authenticity. 

 

He closed with “The Gambler.” He paused in the song and said:

“I realize as I sing this that there is probably someone in here that has never heard this song before. It’s true. All I want to say is, welcome to the world.” 

My Music Journal 2025: May 2, 2025

Friday, May 2, 2025

 

Time: 7:10 PM

Song: Blister in the Sun 
Artist: Violent Femmes

Mode of Consumption: Listening to a band at Lucky Bastard Saloon in downtown Nashville

Link to Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7jIAttgQTpLDoNtykIQXjH?si=76ae8d4b3c22428e

 

We spent most of the afternoon walking around downtown Nashville. We toured Print Hatch Show, a poster making company. We had milkshakes. About mid-afternoon, it poured rain. We skipped from shop to shop, our coats, umbrellas and ponchos still in the car in the parking garage blocks away. 

 

I bought a green brimmed hat. When in Nashville…

 

By the time we settled on a place to eat, I was pooped. 

 

The bar was half-filled when we entered. The band in the next room featured both female and male lead singers. They covered Taylor Swift. Neil Diamond. Avril Lavigne. 

 

More people arrived. Girls likely working their way to being very drunk danced on the floor before them. Guys huddled around tables, gripping draft beers and whiskey drinks.

 

Up and down the streets of Nashville this scene played. Singers and bands, all of them trying to hit it big, played to crowds of tourist, revelers and I assume a few actual people from Nashville. 

 

I never heard the name of the band playing, we were focused on eating our nachos, and I worked on a Nashville Mule, I was being a tourist after all. I hope they make it, but I’ll never know. 

 

 

My Music Journal 2025: May 1, 2025

 

Thursday, May 1, 2025

 

Time: 9:30 PM

Song: King Nothing
Artist: Metallica

Mode of Consumption: Concert at Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/140u2dqlZbpi4ZLgeolKqA?si=04b42de820994d45

 

James Hetfield introduced the song: “This one is from the album…well, it’s from one of our albums. It was square, had a picture on the front. You probably remember better than I do.” 

 

The crowd cheered, and when the first chords hit, many of them jumped to their feet. The song was “King Nothing” from their 1996 album called “Load.” The picture on the album is above, I guess you would describe it as flames, almost like liquid flames, if that makes sense. 

 

Jodi and I have been to dozens of concerts over the decade. This was the first in a football stadium. The opener was Suicidal Tendencies, a group we didn’t know, followed by Pantera. 

 

This show was big production, headlined by a big-time band with 40-years of music to pull from. It was the first night of two for Metallica in Nashville, and the promotion for the tour including “No repeats,” where they wouldn’t play the same song at both concerts. The hope being to get more people to buy tickets for both shows. 

 

The t-shirts being sold featured skulls and snakes and most of them were black. There were individuals in the stands who stood the entire night, pumping their fists and banging their heads. Near the stage, a small pocket of fans even tried moshing at different times. 

 

It was totally a heavy metal experience.