Current Events
Making music in Nashville
I was remembering the first time I ever saw Nashville, the excitement of stepping off a plane to go to the Grand Ole Opry. I had been notified by RCA that a song I had written was climbing the charts! The song was I Feel A Cry Coming On. It had reached number eleven in the United States and ranking number one in England, top ten in Ireland and Germany. I was elated! That was my first song ever published. So, I fell in love with Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry and country music.
Now on this current visit, several more of my songs had been recorded in America, and by foreign artists in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. Going full circle, I was now bringing ten new songs I had written to Nashville to record them myself. My singing husband Eddie Joe would sing four of them with me. This felt good to me.
Eddie and I had met on stage when we were very young. Each of us were trying to win a singing contest. We each would stand on stage as a singer and play guitar, competing against each other for the prize of a recording contract. This was the first time I saw Eddie Joe, standing tall and handsome in a black suit and tie. He nearly took my breath away! Eddie had great stage presence, he was a powerful singer with his own band. He deservedly won the contest but we won each others hearts. It seemed appropriate that a comet actually shot across the night sky when we exited the building.
Now we would enjoy Nashville together for a few days and make a CD album. The next day I could hardly wait to eat at our favorite Red Lobster Restaurant. Yummy. We drove around Music Row and spent two hours in the Country Music Hall of Fame. We walked up Broadway, past Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and stopped at a few western shops.
The next day we arrived at the studio to sing and create our first rough draft of our songs to go on our new CD. Everything was set up for our arrival to make our music. Waiting there was part of the Kitty Wells band I had enjoyed working with on previous recordings. Now joining them was even more of Nashville's finest musicians! These are the musicians who play on many of the best recordings coming out of Nashville!
My guitar player is Shania Twain’s band manager when she comes to Nashville to perform and record. He was now our band manager and guitar player for this session. His job was choosing each part of the song for each instrument and assigning a musician. This happens when the tune takes a turn and another instrument takes its place in the lead part and backup. It was musical perfection in action and amazing to see and hear. It was a dream come true to write every song on the ten (10) song album. And to be joined with Eddie Joe and the incredibly talented Musicians.
Kitty Wells road manager and bass player, was on the walking bass and his brother Mike played electric percussion drums. Our steel player performs on the Grand Ole Opry as Jean Shepherds’ steel player. This band began to play the intro of my first song, Mother Teach Your Children How to Pray. More later on this story song that I wrote from my heart. Eddie Joe joined in with his strong deep voice and the whole sound studio was suddenly magic! I love the sound of Eddie's voice! What a feeling to have these incredibly talented musicians join us to make our songs come to life. And to sing love duets with my Eddie Joe, the love of my life. Sweet sexy love duets!
This music has surpassed even my sweetest dream. It was great to sing the ten (10) songs we recorded that week. And now I had Eddie singing duets on some of the songs with me. Now with everyone's help, I had set my music in motion and laid it down. I hope you enjoy listening to them.
Attracting Mountain Birds and Animals
A wild turkey hen walks through our flagstone court yard, looks at us, and walks on. We have the bird feeders and spread seeds on the ground for feeding whatever creature is hungry. It attracts a variety of unexpected beauties and species.
We saw a Carolina blue bird and her blue mate, a blue jay, a pair of redbirds, a dozen doves, two humming birds and various assortment of chickadees, nuthatches and titmice. We are frequented by five species of woodpeckers that range from five to 14 inches in length.
We have seen a family of flying squirrels who come to the feeder at night, which we watch with a soft flashlight. We have the three generations of squirrels, which we call Curly Sue, Nancy, Baby Sue and Scruffy. The rabbits began to eat with the birds. And then there is a pair of ground squirrels, and the list grows. We have observed a family of small brown lizards and others with blue stripes. They range from two inch babies to adults up to five inches, who make themselves at home on our stack of firewood.
How did this all happen? Three years ago we decided to make our mountaintop yard a safe place for wildlife. We have no cats or dogs to scare them off, which is important. Unfortunately, dogs and cats tend to kill small wildlife. We began by putting out wild bird seed and humming bird feeders, we made fresh water available and watched what happened. We also hung two socks of thistle seed to attract a charm of yellow finches.
Having lived on a farm in our youth, we called chickens at feeding time. We decided to call wild birds by whistling a special little tune. It worked. The birds quickly learned that our whistle is a feeding call, a time to eat. When they hear the feeding whistle they begin to whistle back to us from the trees with their own bird song. Each bird energetically comes to the nearest tree branches watching the new food arrive and waiting for us to go back inside the house, so they can eat.
From our nearest windows, we watch as creatures come to eat. When food is gone, they come to our windows and beg. A mother squirrel puts her paws on her chest as if she were praying. She stands on her hind feet and stares pitifully until we respond. Daddy red bird stands on the fence and looks pitiful. So we take fresh food. But we always remember to make it safe for each one. We are grateful to experience the wild creatures who honor us with a visit. Anna and Eddie