This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night ASCAP will do its best to display what they believe to be Nashville’s new crop of rock music. The event is called Next Big Nashville. All the fun is going down at Mercy Lounge. I’ll see you there Saturday night.

Tonight it’s me and the computer.

I walked out of my office today to see a Nashville Star tour bus parked in front of the Wildhorse Saloon. According to the side of the bus, the new season starts tonight. I hadn’t heard about a new season until I saw the bus.

Now I am not a big fan of country music, but I do think the caliber of artist on Nashville Star far surpasses what is seen on American Idol. I enjoy watching the first couple shows in an American Idol season to see people make a fool of themselves. Nashville Star on the other hand seems to be more serious. I would imagine there are not the same youth requirements for Nashville Star that there are for Idol.

I won’t be watching Nashville Star tonight though. We are getting together to watch The Soprano’s episode that we missed on Sunday night ;)

I was in attendance this evening as both the Eagles of Death Metal and The Strokes put on blistering performances at the Ryman Auditorium. I have to brag a bit–my seats were great. I was on the first row of the balcony, so there was no need to worry about people standing up in front of me. This was also my first “real concert” in the Ryman. I went to see the Fisk Jubilee Singers there last year. That concert just didn’t pack the same punch as this one did. I was able to really appreciate what an asset the Ryman is to Nashville.

On to my thoughts on the show. The Eagles of Death Metal came on stage promptly at 7:35. This seemed to catch most of the audience by surprise since the seats were only a quarter full around this time. I’m guessing most people were expecting the typical delayed start of a rock n’ roll concert.

Now, I didn’t really know what to expect of the EoDM. I’ve listened to a few of there tracks online, and I know that they are a side-project of Queens of the Stone Age lead singer, Josh Homme, and his buddy Jesse Hughes. Homme supposedly was handling the drums in this new outfit, but there was a hot, drummer chick rocking out with EoDM this evening. She seemed to be working harder than all of the guys in the band tonight.

Other than that, you could kind of tell this was more of a side-project instead of the the members main focus. They sounded great, and certainly rocked, but most of there songs seemed half-baked. Hopefully this tour in support of The Strokes will allow them to focus in on whether or not this should be a full time thing. I will wait to see what comes of this band in a year or so. If it peters out, so be it. They do have the potential to be really good if they decide to take it seriously.

So after a 45-50 minute performance by the EoDM, and a 45-50 minute stage reconfiguration (there’s the rock concert timing we all know and love), The Strokes finally took the stage. It was well worth the wait. The set list was long and deep. They hit all of the top cuts from all three albums. I know there are some bands out there that refuse to play their old stuff. That’s not so with The Strokes. For every two or three of their new songs they’d play, two or three of their old tunes would be interspersed.

It was also interesting to watch Julian Casablancas stagger around on stage. He looked bombed out of his mind. It made the show all that much more impressive. His musical timing was spot on, and he didn’t seem to blow any of the lyrics. There was one point during the set where he jumped down off the stage and started wandering through the crowd. This was when I wished my seats were on the floor level instead. You could totally tell the security guys had no idea what to do about this.

This was a fantastic show. I’m going to start looking into attending more shows at the Ryman. It’s a great venue, and there doesn’t seem to be a bad seat in the place. Maybe The Strokes will make it back to Nashville for their next tour. I’ll be in line again if they do.

I don’t normally listen to the radio while I’m driving to work. Most days I just bump along listening to a variety of CDs or burned mixes. You’re liable to hear anything from Creedence to Snoop Dogg if you were to get in my car. I have what I think is a genre spanning music collection. My taste in music usually gravitates towards Lightning 100 whenever I listen to the FM dial.

That’s where I found myself this morning on my drive out (I’m a backwards commuter). I didn’t really have the urge to switch out any of the discs in my changer, so I just popped on WRLT instead. I’m sure glad I did. I would’ve missed out on hearing a new Will Hoge song called “Pocket Full of Change”. This song is classic Will Hoge. Listening to it made me realize how much I’ve been missing out on his progression as a musician. Will, I promise I’m going to be a better fan. Local talent of this caliber is few and far between.

The other thing that caught my ear was an ad for the Rites of Spring concert at Vandy. The lineup of artists listed was most impressive. Ben Folds, My Morning Jacket, Blue Merle and Gov’t Mule would make for an impressive show just by their lonesome. It’s only when you throw in Bone Thugs N’ Harmony that this event really takes off. All kidding aside, this is shaping up to be a hell of weekend. If you like music, April 21-22 should be right up your alley. $40 for 3 2 solid days of rocking is a bargain (I can’t seem to count.). You can buy tickets online at Ticketmaster, or you can purchase tickets with no service fee at the Sarratt Box Office.

Tim McGraw has covered a Ryan Adams song. How cool is that?

McGraw was on Gerry House’s show on WSIX Tuesday morning, ostensibly to talk about his new Soul 2 Soul II tour with wife Faith Hill. But he had a second, secret motive: he presented House with a two-song CD intended for inclusion on his forthcoming album, Tim McGraw Reflected: Hits Vol 2 (due out March 28th). Among the new songs he wants to include on the album is “When The Stars Go Blue.” Ryan Adams wrote it, and “Stars” was a hit in 2002 for The Corrs and Bono.

Apparently, he’s hoping fans will call in and show support for the new songs and help encourage the label to include them on the CD.

Want to weigh in? Here’s the WSIX Studio Line: 615-737-9800.

I’ve been waiting a long time to say this. I’m from New York (yes ma’am, I’m a yankee), and I’ve lived in Atlanta. I’ve spent time in smaller towns along the way as well. Nashville has THE WORST excuse for a Hip Hop and R&B station in 101.1 the Beat. Everytime I turn on the station I can plan on hearing 1 of 10 songs without fail. It reeks of Clear Channel or Cumulus or one of the super conglomerate media corporations.

The absolute truest sign of the quality of a Hip Hop station is the prime time and late night DJ shows. Here in Nashville we have Dolewite and Scooby. They have not changed ANYTHING about their show in the four years they have been on the air. The intro music, the break beats, the segments. All of it. And then… they might break one new record a week. The rest of the playlist is pop 40 hip hop. It’s ridonkulous.

To their credit, they have ONE good DJ, DJ Buddafly. She plays the 4-6 show and she actually mixes and plays some stuff you might not typically hear. But overall, it still blows badly. If you want to hear good hip hop in Nashville, you might try your luck with the Vanderbilt boys at WRVU. They have a show called Stylezz of Hip Hop and another one called Beats, Rhymes and Life. The DJs have no charisma, seriously, but at least they play some dope music.

Oh yeah, the other thing is that we used to have a good radio station for Hip Hop with a good DJ (DJ Tazz Daddy) who

a) had charisma
b) broke local artists
c) had skills on the tables
d) was funny as hell
e) was extremely funny when he made fun of 101.1 the beat

Oh well, we lost that station one day without any warniing and we are left with 101. How much is Sirius again?

This past weekend, my partner Karsten and I celebrated our three-year anniversary of having moved to Nashville with brunch at Cheekwood’s Pineapple Room. One of the things we’ve learned since coming to town is that everyone has advice, everywhere we go, whether we ask for it or not (and really, we never do).

One night, for example, about a year into our tenure here, I had just finished playing at a writers’ night and was getting ready to leave the bar. In walked a brash young would-be cowboy, and he strolled right up to me and asked if I was getting ready to play. No, I told him, I just got done. I don’t know what about that answer signified “please give me advice,” but it must have, because this guy launched into ten minutes of suggestions — not having heard me play, mind you — for how to succeed. The clincher was, he’d only been here two days.

Anyway, last night, we went to the “meet and greet” reception for the Harry Fox Agency. HFA is “increasing their presence” in Nashville, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually setting up an office here. Still, they reassured us all that their relationships in Nashville are very important to them. And hey, they threw a pretty good party, so I’d like to extend a hearty welcome.

But what Nashville greeting would be complete without some unsolicited advice? So HFA, my advice is this: DO set up an office here. Convince us you’re taking us seriously.

And keep throwing parties every so often, ’cause ya know. We songwriters can really swill the booze.