The Other Side of Nashville book update

A few of you have been asking for an update on The Other Side of Nashville book, and so here it is...we're close, very close, to being done. The cover artist is finishing up his work now that we have a definitive page count (620 pages @ 8.5"x11" in size, a real monster!), and we're about 20% through the lengthy proofreading process.

There are a couple more interviews that I'd like to include in the book and, with the page count set, it looks like we'll have enough room to squeeze these in without messing things up. We hope to have proofreading completed by the end of January, and finalize everything and send it to the printer in mid-to-late-February. A lot of this depends on the demands of my day job (and those of my volunteer proofreaders), but I'm really itching to get this thing on the street!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you, and best wishes for 2012!

Glossary Long Live All Of Us CD review

It's no secret 'round these parts that Glossary is one of my all-time favorite bands on the Nashville rock scene. I've bought every new CD as they appear, and I'm always glad to hear new music from these guys. The band's latest album, Long Live All Of Us is no exception, and it struck me so strongly that I penned a CD review for my friends at Blurt magazine:

"Perhaps it's because of their geographic location - about 30 minutes south of Nashville in Murfreesboro, Tennessee - but Glossary all too often gets lumped in with the Americana or alt-country crowd. While Glossary has been known to let slip a little twang now and then on the edges of their guitar-driven rock 'n' roll songs, the reality is that for going on 14 years (and counting), Glossary has quietly earned a reputation as one of America's best, albeit obscure rock bands."

Long Live All Of Us is one of my top five fave albums for 2011. Read the rest of the review on the Blurt magazine website....

Pujol's Nasty, Brutish and Short CD review

I meant to post this two or three weeks ago when it was first published - Blurt magazine ran my review of Pujol's wonderful Nasty, Brutish and Short EP. Here's what I had to say:

"If one were to scratch out a blueprint for the archetypal indie-rock band, Nashville's Pujol would be the result. Founded by singer, guitarist, and songwriter Daniel Pujol - the only constant in a group that included the Police's Stewart Copeland at one time - the band that bears his name has made a lot of influential friends in a short period of time. In two years, Pujol has released ten different recordings, including the full-length X File On Main Street album, released by a variety of pureblood indie labels including Jack White's Third Man Records and Infinity Cat (JEFF the Brotherhood's imprint)."

Check out the rest of the album review on Blurt's website....

Other Side of Nashville book cover mock-up

Although I've been pretty quiet since our Kickstarter funding came through, work has continued on The Other Side of Nashville book. All of the interviews that I'd previously done have been transcribed and are just waiting for me to add some context to the artist's comments. I found a local company to digitally scan almost three-dozen vinyl album covers so that I can include some cool and rare LP photos in the lay-out.

Best news of all, however, is the cover design of The Other Side of Nashville. I've hooked up with graphic artist Tim Shawl, who created some great front cover artwork for The Metro back in 1990 and '91. Tim hit it out of the ballpark with the front cover you see here, which perfectly captures the spirit of the book and presents the vibe I wanted for the cover. Tim is working on the back cover as well, just waiting for text from me to finish his mock-up. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this uber-cool front cover design!

Kickstarter Project Launched (Again)

We fell a little short on our initial fund-raising campaign, so we launched another Kickstarter project to raise money to finish The Other Side of Nashville book. We have a ways to go, so check out our video (below) and please give generously!

Aashid - More Thoughts

The obituary I wrote below for the About.com Blues website tells Aashid's story as succinctly and straight-forward as possible. Culled from my interviews with Aashid, the artist bio we worked on together for the All Music Guide, and from the biography on his goarchie website, this obit combines a lot of truth, some hyperbolic opinion, and a little mythology as only Aashid could spin it....

But, the obit doesn't tell the entire story, my story, and I'm betting, the story of many of his fans. I first met Aashid in the early 1980s, at an Afrikan Dreamland show. We would run into each other frequently through the years, at various local shows, and he was always hyping not only his own band, but those of various young rockers that he supported. It's safe to say that Aashid was the local rock music scene's biggest cheerleader, and while I wrote at length about local bands for out-of-town rags like Progressive Media, CMJ New Media, Trouser Press, and others, Aashid got more exposure for local artists by allowing them to open for Afrikan Dreamland's typically sold-out shows.

When Gus Palas launched The Metro magazine in 1985, he was already a big Afrikan Dreamland supporter, and I penned a number of articles on Aashid's band during the zine's first couple of years. Sometime near the end of The Metro's 6 or 7 year run, Gus decided he wanted a lengthy interview with Aashid, so I spent a lot of hours with the big man both at his house and mine, taping conversations for the article. Later, Aashid and I would work together on a pet project of his, the induction of Deford Bailey, the first African-American star of the Grand Ole Opry, into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Aashid and I worked on a big article for The Metro on Bailey, Gus commissioned a great painting of Bailey from local artist James Talley, and we interviewed Deford Bailey, Jr. The result was a great article that had little impact on the country music community...until a few years later, when it was reprinted by my friends at Big O magazine in Singapore. It caught the eye of country music fans in Australia, who began to write the Country Music Hall of Fame in large numbers, asking why Bailey hadn't been inducted? The popular harmonica player was finally honored with induction in 2005 or 2006.

During the 1990s, I moved from Nashville to a farm outside of Franklin, living with my (future) wife Tracey. Aashid was a frequent guest in our home, his visits usually announced by a phone call saying "I'm coming out," or by an unexpected knock on the door. We always had a lot of young visitors, especially during the early part of the decade, and Aashid would hold court, sharing stories, playing songs, and teaching the young 'uns his philosophy of life. On occasion, some other musician friends would be hanging out when Aashid showed up, and some great music would ensue. I only wish that I had the digital audio and video equipment then that I do today, to have been able to document the events.

Aashid and I sketched out his book together, worked on gathering photos for the project, and kept in touch into the 2000s on various things. We celebrated the induction of Deford Bailey into the Country Music Hall of Fame by long distance after my move to West New York, but we had sadly grown apart the last couple of years as he battled his own problems in Nashville and my wife and I adjusted to our new lives and responsibilities in WNY. But I never totally lost touch with Aashid, and still listened to his music frequently as I worked on The Other Side of Nashville book project.

I had planned on contacting Aashid a couple of months ago to talk about the book, get some more quotes to use, and ask some questions about his lengthy (and often confusing) discography. But then I heard about the tragic death of his wife Kristina from cancer in January, followed shortly thereafter by the health issues that eventually took Aashid's life. More than a missed opportunity, it was also a lost moment to let him know the influence he and his music had on so many lives. Aashid's immense body of work is unassailable, and his death leaves a big hole in the Nashville rock landscape....

Photo courtesy Ross Smith


Afrikan Dreamland - "Television Dreams"

Aashid Himons - About.com Blues Obit

Archie "Aashid" Himons, an integral part of Nashville's non-country music scene for better than three decades, passed away on Saturday, March 19, 2011 after a brief illness. Himons was 68 years old at the time of his death.

A musical innovator that fused traditional country blues with reggae and world music during the late 1970s, Aashid, as he is known to his many fans, is best known for his popular "blu-reggae" band Afrikan Dreamland, which put Himons' myriad of musical influences into play in creating an energetic and unique sound. With bandmates Darrell Rose and Mustafa Abdul Aleem, the trio recorded six albums and would be the first reggae-oriented band to receive airplay on MTV. Himons' roots ran deep, though, and included a formative background in blues and soul music.

Himons was born in rural West Virginia in 1942, learning the piano by age 3 and the drums by 5 years old. Like many blues artists of the era, Himons sang in the church, and the talented youngster subsequently appeared on several radio and television shows, including The Today Show with Dave Garroway. Himons left home as a teen, hitchhiking to New York City and later joining the army.

After serving his stint with the military, Himons settled into the Washington, D.C. music scene, forming the R&B group Little Archie & the Majestics. During the 1960s, Himons would record a number of sides for various labels and with different bands, but it was a 1966 deal with Dial Records that would result in a pair of singles – "All I Have To Do" and "You Can't Tie Me Down" – that would become known as classics of "northern soul" music, and highly collectible, especially by British aficionados of the genre.

During the late 1960s, Himons worked throughout the country as a blues musician, performing coffeehouses and street corners as "West Virginia Slim." He landed in Toronto in 1969, forming the short-lived duo God & I with musician and actor Jim Byrnes. Himons' restless spirit would lead him to Mexico City, where he performed with a local blues band, but it was during a trip to the Honduras in 1972, where Himons experienced a performance by Count Ossie & the Mystical Revelation of Rastafari, that he had a musical and spiritual epiphany that led to his conversion to Rastafarianism and the creation of his "blu-reggae" style.

A hybrid of country blues, R&B, and reggae that was influenced by Count Ossie's mesmerizing nyabinghi rhythms and the Jamaican style popularized by Bob Marley, blu-reggae would later influence contemporary blues artists like Corey Harris. Himons landed in Nashville during the late 1970s; now known as "Aashid," he formed Afrikan Dreamland with Rose and Aleem. The trio would quickly become one of the Music City's most popular bands, Afrikan Dreamland helping kickstart an original local music scene that had little to do with the city's country music tradition.

Mostly written by Himons, Afrikan Dreamland's positive lyrics preached a philosophy of peace and love, and triumph over adversity, whether caused by economic or social injustice…a thread that would carry through Aashid's entire career. Aside from their popular recordings and seemingly ubiquitous performances, Aashid and Afrikan Dreamland would use their drawing power to help young bands, and many of Nashville's early rock 'n' roll talents got their start opening for Afrikan Dreamland.

After the break-up of Afrikan Dreamland in 1987, Aashid embarked on a lengthy and varied musical journey that saw the gifted artist applying his talents to blues, gospel, country, reggae, dub, ambient, and space music. Recording both as a solo artist and with a number of bands like the Pyramid Underground, the Blu-Reggae Underground, Akasha, and Aashid & the New Dream, Himons collaborated with a number of Nashville's most adventurous musicians, talents like Tony Gerber, Giles Reaves, Ross Smith, Gary Serkin, and Kirby Shelstad, among many others. Prolific to a fault, Himons would become one of the most popular artists on mp3.com during the 1990s as his musical collaborations resulted in dozens of albums that would capture a worldwide audience for Aashid's unique musical vision.

In 1995, Aashid reunited with his former bandmates Rose and Aleem, as well as a number of his more recent collaborators, under the Afrikan Dreamland name to release the two-CD set The Leaders, which further explored the blu-reggae sound. In the late 1990s, Aashid formed the Mountain Soul Band to experiment with country blues and Appalachian-inspired hillbilly music. Working again with friends like Reaves, Gerber, and Shelstad, the Mountain Soul Band also included the talents of brothers Victor and Reggie Wooten, and multi-instrumentalists Jody Lentz and Tramp, then of the Nashville trio Bonepony. This collaboration resulted in a pair of critically-acclaimed albums, 1998's studio release Mountain Soul and the live West Virginia Hills, released a year later.

Himons continued to make music during the 2000s, albeit slowed down by recurring problems with his health. The definition of the DIY artist, Himons utilized cutting-edge technology to record and edit complex, textured, and thought-provoking music on his trusty iMac computer. While not well-known outside of the Southeast, Himons nevertheless has thousands of fans worldwide that have been touched by his positive message, exciting music, and indomitable spirit. For more about the artist and his music, visit the goarchie website.

Photo courtesy of Ross Smith

Reprinted from the About.com Blues website

Chris Feinstein, Unsung Hero

Bass player Chris Feinstein, an unsung hero of the Nashville rock scene during the 1980s and ‘90s, passed away on Tuesday, December 18, 2009 in New York City at the too-young age of 42 years. The cause of his death is not known.

Feinstein’s supportive bass rhythms provided the foundation for many of the Music City’s earliest rock bands. Chris formed the influential early-80s band Shadow 15 with his brother Scott, playing drums on some of the band’s first recordings. Switching over to bass, Chris would join the Questionnaires, performing on both of the band’s EMI Records album releases in 1989 and ’91.

During the early-90s, Chris would enjoy a lengthy musical collaboration with guitarist Jay Joyce: first in the band Bedlam with former Questionnaires’ bandmate Doug Lancio, which recorded a pair of albums for MCA Records; then in Iodine with future bandmate Brad Pemberton for two albums on different independent labels.

In the early-00s, Feinstein became part of the Nashville supergroup the Cardinals with drummer Pemberton and guitarist Neal Casal, touring behind alt-country artist Ryan Adams. The Cardinals recorded three albums with Adams, including 2007’s Easy Tiger and 2008’s Cardinology, as well as the Follow The Lights EP in 2007.

Feinstein’s talents were much in demand in the studio, as well, and through the years Chris contributed to albums by artists as diverse as rapper Fat Joe, alt-country diva Patty Griffin, and singer/songwriters Tim Finn, Matthew Ryan, and Albert Hammond, Jr. of the Strokes. Chris also contributed his experience and vision as a producer to a number of artists, most notably working with Moby.

A multi-instrumental musician that was often overshadowed by the charismatic frontmen that he played behind, Chris Feinstein was undeniably an integral element in the evolution of rock music in Nashville, a talented and important member of several crucial bands that helped put the Music City on the map as more than the home of country music and gospel. As an ambassador of the local music scene, Chris brought an honest little bit of Nashville to audiences across the world. He will be missed….

Still Alive & Well....

It's been a long while since I've posted an update on The Other Side of Nashville book project, so here we go!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talkin' about, The Other Side of Nashville is the "incomplete history and discography of the Nashville rock underground, circa 1976 to 2006."

The book has been progressing, slowly but surely, and I figure that around 90% of the text has been written...of course, I continue to add text and massage previously-written material as I go along, so that 90% is a constantly-moving number. The book is laid-out in linear fashion, from the letter A to Z, with an annotated discography, historical notes, snarky comments, unvarnished praise, album reviews, and interviews thrown in, roughly, under the letter where they would logically fall.

To date, I have laid out 400 pages of The Other Side of Nashville, which will be a 7.5" x 9.25" sized trade paperback with color covers. Those 400 pages run through the letter 'Q' and include a heck of a lot of B&W photos of bands, gig posters, CD and album covers, and other graphics along with tens of thousands of words of text. I'm estimating that the final book will run close to 600 pages, which is the largest book project that I've ever attempted (of the four books that I have personally published). It will be published through my Excitable Pressworks imprint, distributed through Ingram (the largest book distro in the U.S./U.K.) and available through Amazon.com as well as a website that I'll be creating for the project.

Right now I'm editing the letters 'R' and 'S' and have scanned in photos for those sections. Honestly, with my current obligations to my full-time job, and my part-time writing gig as the About.com Blues Guide, it will take me through the end of the year to finish the final edit of the letters 'T' through 'Z', after which there will be proofreading (courtesy of my overworked wife) and lay-out of the remaining pages. As I usually do, I'll toss in some stuff at the last minute, and tweak and mess with the page layouts until I finally throw up my hands and send the whole damn thing to the printer.

The bottom line: I'm realistically looking at a publication date of March or April 2010. I've been working on the book for better than three years now, and I'd rather it be as great as I can make it rather than just crank something out and publish some crappy version. I know that there have been some rumours that I've abandoned The Other Side of Nashville book project, or that it will never be completed, but nothing could be further from the truth. We're still alive and well up here in WNY, and I'm working on the book with as much time and energy as my other (paying) gigs allow.

For those of you who'd like a peak, click the link for a two-page sample of The Other Side of Nashville in PDF format....

Yeah, We're Still Here....

Yeah, we're still here...I realize that it doesn't look like it, since I haven't posted to this blog in better than six months. I could give you all a bunch of excuses....I've been real busy working as the "Blues Guide" for my About.com Blues website...got involved in a couple of outside book publishing deals so that I could make a quick buck...even been writing a bunch for Blurt Magazine online to help those good folks get the new site launched.

Truth is, I've made very little progress on The Other Side Of Nashville book during the past few months....kind of in a holding pattern, really. The About.com Blues Guide gig that I took to make a few extra shekels has proven to take up more of my time than I thought, but after eight months I think that I've gotten a handle on it all. With the new year, I figure that I can re-focus my energies, shed some of the extra-curricular activities that I've been involved with, and get back to work on the book.

The writing of the book remains about 90% completed, and I've begun running through each section touching some stuff up and adding to others. I'm going to get cranking on the interviews to get them transcribed and done, and I'm hoping to get the book on the street this spring. I even began a tentative lay-out this week, to see exactly how I'd put the enormous amount of information that I've compiled down on paper. It looks good so far, and I hope to really get rolling on it and finish the book.

I know that everybody's heard all of this before, but as some of you know, working two jobs and trying to do anything else, much less write a book, is difficult. It will get done when it's done, and it should look great! What this means is if you have photos, recordings, or whatever that you'd like to submit for the book, please get in touch ASAP!

ONE MORE THING: I've noticed a little negativity creeping into the comments section of the blog. Somebody posted a comment a month or so ago that had some potentially-libelous comments about Gus Palas, and he contacted me about it. After reading it over, I agreed with Gus and deleted the post. I deleted another that had some questionable things to say about a local female rocker.

If you want to comment on the book project or talk about the good old days (or even the good new days) of Nashville music, please feel free to use this forum. Even if you want to call into question my skills as a writer and critic (as one anonymous poster has), I'll leave your post untouched. Of course, I'll probably add a snide and sarcastic response, 'cause if you don't care enough about your opinions to sign your name, why should I give a damn? But I won't have the blog become a weapon for unfounded (and unverifiable) accusations, character assassination, and ad hominem attacks on people...we'll leave that up to Republican bloggers....

The Old Tennessee Homestead