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Bobby Bare Jr.

New Year’s Eve in East Nashville (and Beyond!)

If you don’t have your New Year’s Eve plans nailed down just yet, never fear – we’re here with a few East Nashville suggestions to help you avoid being anywhere near a television showing prerecorded footage of Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest.

Roaring 2011 at The 5 Spot

Flappers and speakeasies and cocktails, oh my!

Over here in East Nashville, The 5 Spot is firing up its time machine and sending everybody back 90 years to the Boardwalk Empire era with Roaring 2011. Billed as “A Swingin’ New Year’s Eve Celebration,” this one-of-a-kind party will take you back with elaborate 1920s decor, 1920s dance music from Chubby and The Dots, Prohibition-era cocktails, champagne and more. The crew behind the party is none other than Jacob Jones and Reno Bo of Electric Western Productions, the same pair that keep The 5 Spot hopping every week with Keep On Movin’: The Monday Night Dance Party. You can order discounted tickets for $13 beforehand by clicking here, or get them on New Year’s Eve for $15. Doors open at 7:30pm and the party goes until 3am.

Bobby Bare Jr. and Caitlin Rose at The Basement

East Nashville's own Bobby Bare Jr. takes over The Basement with Caitlin Rose. (Photo: Joshua Black Wilkens)

If you’re looking to catch a live performance from some of your musical East Nashville neighbors on New Year’s Eve, you’re in luck. Bobby Bare Jr. & The Young Criminals Starvation League are playing at The Basement with Caitlin Rose . You probably already know a bit about Mr. Bare Jr., who has recorded with the Silver Jews and Will Oldham and toured with Bob Dylan, Dr. Dog, The Walkmen, The Black Crowes, The Decemberists, Aerosmith, My Morning Jacket, The Drive By Truckers and The Old 97′s and whose projects have inspired a post or two here on the blog. You’ve also probably heard about Caitlin Rose, whose new album Own Side Now is already out in the UK has garnered all sorts of praise on that side of the pond ahead of its US release next March. You can get your tickets in advance for $15 online by going here – probably a good idea since The Basement is on the smaller side. Show starts at 9pm.

18 South at Station Inn

18 South bring their southern roots sound (and collective millenium of stage experience) to Station Inn this New Year's Eve.

Also on the other side of the river, East Nashvillian Jimmy Wallace and his southern roots band 18 South will headline New Year’s Eve at Station Inn. We’ve already told you all about Jimmy’s pedigree. Well, the other five members of the band – Jon Randall Stewart (guitar, vocals), Larry Atamanuik (drums), Mike Bub (bass), Guthrie Trapp (guitar) and Jessi Alexander (vocals) - have resumes to match, having played with Emmylou Harris, Sam Bush, Allison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, The Del McCoury Band and co-written Billboard chart-toppers like Brad Paisley‘s “Whiskey Lullaby”. They’ll be joined for the evening by special guests Shawn Camp and Seth Walker. Tickets are $30 and are available on a first come, first served basis, so you’ll want to be there when the doors open at 7pm. Show begins at 9pm.

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A Weekend Treat: The Eastside Bulldogs “Come On Up and See Me Sometime”

Friend of EastNashvilleBlog.com Miranda Herrick shared this perfect-for-the-weekend stomper from Todd Snider and the Eastside Bulldogs on Facebook earlier and we couldn’t figure out exactly how it was we hadn’t already heard of it. The single is on sale at ToddSniderStore.com, with all the proceeds benefiting Hands On Nashville.

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Twistable, Turnable Man: Shel Silverstein Tribute Coming This June

If you’re anything like those of us on the EastNashvilleBlog.com staff who grew up in the 1980s, you were a fan of the poetry of Shel Silverstein. Collected in books like A Light In The Attic and Where The Sidewalk Ends, Silverstein’s witty verse lit a fire in our young imaginations and gave us a sense of humor that’s come in very handy living in modern America. If you’re from a previous generation you may have loved those books as much as we did, but chances are that you knew Silverstein more for the songs he penned back in the day for recording artists like Johnny Cash and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.

Regardless of which generation of Silverstein fan you represent, chances are you’re going to want to check out Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein. Totaling fifteen tracks, this Sugar Hill Records compilation is the brainchild of East Nashvillian Bobby Bare, Jr., who put together the disc with his father, country music legend Bobby Bare. Both men were heavily influenced by Silverstein – Bare’s biggest hits were written by him, while Bare Jr. counted the poet and songwriter as a musical mentor.

The Twistable, Turnable Man

Both men get a track on the disc – Sr. with “The Living Legend”, and Jr. with his daughter Isabella on “Daddy What If,” a new version of the same song that he recorded with his father at the age of eight (and for which the two were nominated for a Grammy). Joining them to cover Silverstein’s songs on Twistable, Turnable Man is a veritable who’s who of past and modern American music: Kris Kristofferson (“The Winner”), John Prine (“This Guitar Is For Sale”), Nanci Griffith (“The Giving Tree”), Lucinda Williams (“The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”) and Todd Snider (“A Boy Named Sue”) share the record with My Morning Jacket (“Lullabys, Legends and Lies”), Black Francis and Joey Santiago of The Pixies (“The Cover of the Rolling Stone”), and Dr. Dog (“The Unicorn”).

Check out preview versions of all the songs, not to mention a video of Shel Silverstein playing on The Johnny Cash Show in 1970, over at the Sugar Hill Records site for Twistable, Turnable Man. The album hits stores on June 8th.

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Bobby Bare, Jr.: “It’s more like the Austin, Texas part of Nashville.”

Chicago-based website The Beachwood Reporter recently did an interview with East Nashville musician Bobby Bare Jr. The man behind catchy tunes like “Valentine” (and Eastnashvilleblog.com favorite “Visit Me In Music City”) talks about his neighborhood, the differences between Chicago’s music scene and Nashville’s, his friend Justin Townes Earle, and his upcoming visit to the Windy City for a Shel Silverstein tribute.

Among the catalog of songs Silverstein penned was “Daddy What If,” the duet with his father that earned a then-six-years-old Bare Jr. a Grammy nomination. Says Bobby:

He and my dad were best friends. I had all my songs critiqued by him until he died. He and I co-wrote a song together. There’s something else in the works (for the future), but I’m not sure I can talk about it. It’s going to be amazing.

As fans of Silverstein since elementary school (our 3rd grade teacher loved to read us A Light In The Attic and Where The Sidewalk Ends), we’re sincerely hoping there will be some video footage available online of the tribute show.

The Beachwood Reporter interview with Bobby Bare Jr. here. Bobby’s Myspace page, where you can buy some of his music, here. And here’s Bobby doing “I’ll Be Around” at the Austin City Limits festival:

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