Jason & the Scorchers concert / Perry Baggs benefit

Oh man am I tired. But was it ever a nice weekend (Warning: long post). Lady Jane and I drove to Nashville, TN, and other than mapquest missing one key line in the directions, it was an exceptional weekend.

Things started off Friday evening with a meeting of Reckless Country Soup members at the Gold Rush on Elliston. I’m sure I will forget a name or two, so lets just say it was great to meet and re-meet faces that belong to email addresses. And little did we know we would find Ken Fox and Andy York sitting at the bar too (former JATS members). Andy took quite a ribbing over the next two nights for leaving JATS to join John Mellencamp.

After the ‘soup’ reunion, we headed over to the Exit/In. Friday was a benefit show for Perry Baggs, who is courageously fighting diabetes, kidney failure and is on dialysis 3 days a week. Perry is the original Scorcher's drummer, harmony singer and songwriter of some of the band's biggest songs. His courage in the face of his illness is a great inspiration to many in the Nashville music community, as well as other diabetes and dialysis patients. All proceeds from both shows will help relieve his medical expenses. Tonight kicked off with Back Porch Mary – an incredible band who, from what I heard, drove 800 miles to play this gig for FREE, and then couldn’t even stick around to hear Jason & the Scorchers the next night. How cool is that? Next up Chelle Rose tore the place up, backed up by none other than Warner E. Hodges, Kenny Ames, and Fenner Castner. Following her was one of the big highlights of the night for me – Tommy Womack was simply awesome. Whenever I’ve seen him he always reacts like he’s my long, lost friend. Tonight was no different when he gave me a big hug and said, “PREACHER DAN!!!” After that we were blessed with a few numbers by Mr. Baggs himself. Backed by a band of bluegrass pickers he did some John Denver and a medley of gospel hymns. Totally, totally cool. Stacie Collins then took over, and like she isn’t beautiful enough, and a good enough singer, and talented harpist, and can move her body in ways that I shouldn’t a’ been seein’…. she was backed by an all-star band of Warner, Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Billy Block, Ken McMahan, and there coulda been more – I can’t remember. Then… right around midnight The Bottle Rockets took the stage. I really wished I hadn’t just driven 6+ hours and stood leaning on a pole in the smoke-filled Exit/In for 5 more… but after a couple of songs we had to get some rest. Sorry BR. It was nothing personal.

After a few hours sleep we started Saturday off picking up fellow ‘soup-er’ (and originator of the soup) Bill Reiser and headed for the Fairview, TN library to see a Farmer Jason show. There were likely more adults than children at this show, but it was everything I expected and more. Then we followed the farmer himself to his actual farm for a picnic and good ole’ Tennessee guitar pull. I didn’t bring my guitar ‘cause Isaac needed it to lead worship in my absence, and am I ever glad. Once again I was reminded that I am not a player. My goodness. And I can’t believe the hospitality/generosity of Jason and his wife Suzie. They invited all the people from the RC Soup (JATS fan email list), plus some others, and reports were that 127 RSVP’d. I had a great time distributing name tags (until they ran out), and meeting people literally from all over the world. There were people here for this weekend from Canada, Scotland, UK, Hong Kong, and all over the USA. The party wasn’t even dampened in the least by the torrential downpour and hailstorm that erupted, or the power outage caused by the downed tree next door. And how many rock stars invite you to their house (other than Tommy Womack)?!?!

After a great time at the Ringenberg’s we finally made it out of the mud horse pasture/parking lot; and we were lucky enough to make it around the downed tree (my apologies for driving through the neighbors yard); and then we drove through some of the hardest rain I’ve driven in in awhile as we came back into Nashville. But we survived, got a little nap, and headed to the Exit/In for the main show – Jason & the Scorchers (Or, Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, as I’m still fond of sayin’)!!!

We wanted to get there early, but as we walked down Elliston from the hotel we saw this loooong line of people. It came down to the corner and halfway up the next street waiting to get in. Seemed like we stood in line forever, but we finally got inside. Tickets for this show were $25, but a guy in front of us said someone offered him $125 for his extra ticket. It was sold out, and I think they musta let another 100 or so above capacity in too. Before Stace England and his band even took the stage to open it was wall-to-wall people. Jane and I assumed our spot by the pole towards the back, next to none other than Mr. Bonemachine himself. It wasn’t a great spot for short people, but we could see and hear. Before the night was over we made our way up to the balcony though. It wasn’t front row, but we had a great view, and the air conditioning duct was blowing right on us! Of course, I had already been drenched in sweat for hours.

I can’t even begin to describe how awesome this show was. JATS had always been known as one of THE BEST live bands in the world, and tonight – even though they haven’t played in years; even though they’re all a bit older, out of practice, out of shape, and everything else – tonight was special. I don’t know what else to say. After Mr. England finished up, Perry and his bluegrass mates came out and I literally had tears running down my cheeks as he led us in several old hymns. I mean… I bet that doesn’t happen too often at this place. It WAS a religious experience. And I can’t come close to trying to write out what it was like going from Perry on acoustic, to Perry climbing behind the drums and THE SCORCHERS taking us for the ride of our lives the rest of the night. And it didn’t seem to matter if it was just Jason, Warner, Perry and Kenny; or if it was when Fenner took over for Perry, or when Ken Fox and Andy York came out, or Warner’s mom (Blanche rocks!), or Ken McMann, or Dan Baird, or Bruce, or whoever-the-heck else ended up on stage during the night… there was a tightness to the music that had to have some divine orchestration involved.

I don’t know how long they played. I think Stace must have started around 8:30. Before I knew it it was 3 am and the bartender was kicking us out. And I wasn’t even tired! All I can say is… wow.

We slept a few hours and headed back to Indiana Sunday morning. We sang enough hymns the previous two nights, and witnessed the gospel in action enough that church wasn’t even necessary on this day. Somehow we managed to dodge any rain all the way home too. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. May God grant Perry hope, strength, and everything he needs. Peace, blessings, and a big amen.

(pics to follow later)