It was a whirlwind weekend in Nashville: visits to old haunts and meeting friends old and new.
Taking the geographic route rather than chronological order, we start in west Nashville and head toward downtown. First stop: Bluebird Cafe. The restaurant/bar/listening parlor is closed at this hour, but there is, nonetheless, a steady procession of fans stopping by.
One of the skills I had picked up working for Opryland USA On The Road In Branson, Missouri, was repairing microphone cables. Later, Amy Kurland, the owner of The Bluebird Cafe, would occasionally hired me to fix microphone cables and demagnetize the tape heads on her place’s cassette deck. Later still, when I was doing standup comedy, Amy was kind enough to let me perform a set at the Bluebird. I bombed–Chicago standup was not what folks came to the Bluebird for in the mid-1980s (or now, I suppose).
Proceeding east on Hillsboro Road, the next stop is the relatively new Parnassus Books. It is Independent Bookstore Day, and, as luck would have it, the co-owners are there. One of them is Ann Patchett, the award winning, New York Times bestselling author of Bel Canto, who has a few kind words for A Roadkill Opera.
I am thrilled that Ann is willing to let me quote her: “Good luck at the Grammys. How could you not win with a name like that?” I tell Ann that A Roadkill Opera will have its premiere in Washington DC on January 8-9, 2016. Ann tells me that Bel Canto will have its premiere as an opera on December 7, 2015, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Proceeding further east on Hillsboro Road, another Nashville institution is reached: Pancake Pantry. While waiting in line to have breakfast with my brother Dave and his family, I make a new friend, the Los Angeles based television writer Stefani Novik (Cybill, Caroline in the City, Nub TV).
The easternmost stop on this tour: University School of Nashville, founded as Peabody Demonstration School in 1915. There the past, present, and future merged. The present: Vince Durnan, Director of USN, congratulated me outside his office as I gave away 100 CDs of A Roadkill Opera in celebration of the school’s centennial.
The future: after hearing him lead a terrific concert, I catch up with instrumental music teacher Joe Getsi in the band room, where he received a set of performing materials aka A Roadkill Opera DIY.
And the past: one of the distinguished alumni speaking at the centennial celebration was Amy Kurland, now a philanthropist. Congratulations, University School of Nashville/Peabody Demonstration School!
While in Nashville, Parker let people know about his upcoming appearance at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 16, 2015, and the premiere performances of A Roadkill Opera scheduled for January 8-9, 2016, at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC.
