I'll start by saying that I truly believe that my Heavenly Father has blessed me through this bluegrass music that I love so much. I own good instruments, I've taught many people and especially many kids, (close to 300 I think) and I've had life experiences that are so numerous, I couldn't begin to talk about them all. I feel that He knows me personally and has chosen to bless me with these many gifts.
Today I want to write my feelings down, as I have just recently returned from Nashville and once again been blessed to be able to attend the World Of Bluegrass conference put on by the IBMA, (International Bluegrass Music Assoc). This is a huge conference attended by people from all over the world who play bluegrass, but of course mainly people from right here in America. There were small numbers of people from Australia, Germany, England, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and many other countries.
I started going to this conference back eleven years ago when it was being held in Louisville, Kentucky and then have been able to go all but two of the years since it moved to Nashville, which has been eight years now. If my math is correct that's nine years that I've gotten to go. This conference is held the last week of September each year, and goes the entire week beginning with a business portion of the conference from Monday through Thursday and ending with a Fan Fest show Friday, Saturday, and gospel Sunday morning performances by several bands. It includes seminars, luncheons, and an exhibition hall full of fun vendors.
I used to earn my money to get here by selling pizza at the Missoula fair and so each year five days of hard work more than earned my way, but since our retirement four years ago, now I have to teach lessons and save like crazy to afford it each year.
Now with all this preface I want to talk about this years trip to Nashville and the IBMA's WOB conference.
The week before I was to fly out my husband John and I had planned a trip to Billings to see my parents who are getting up in age, and the plan was for John to stay there at their home while I went on my Nashville trip. He was going to supervise a concrete project they had planned for their house. We drove over there and I left him behind as I drove myself back home to catch the plane, up in Lewiston, for Nashville. He was to drive their motor home back to our house when we were both through and that ended up with a whole story in itself that I won't go into here.
This was a perfect plan and so all was well. I drove home on Thursday and stopped in Hamilton, Mt to see my sister and her family overnight then continued home on Friday. After doing all my wash and packing I was ready to fly out early Sunday morning so off to Lewiston I went, very excited for the week ahead. My plane flew into Salt Lake City, Utah and then to Nashville. I had decided to only take my mandolin with me this year instead of the usual mandolin and guitar. It was an experiment to see if I'd miss my guitar or not, and it certainly was easier getting around in the airports with just the smaller mandolin in it's backpack case.
When I landed in Salt Lake City and was waiting for my connection flight, there was a man also waiting for my same flight to Nashville, who was from Japan. He wasn't carrying any instrument so I had no reason to think that he would be going to the same convention with me too, but he stopped me and asked in his best English "You, IBMA?, you IBMA?" I was so shocked and of course answered him yes that I was and was he also going. His reply was "yes, yes" as his eyes just danced to see me and know that I was also going. Then I proceeded to ask him where his instrument was and as best as I could understand him his friends were bringing it for him. Later I was to learn that even though he told me he played mandolin same as me, his friends were actually renting a bass for him. We landed and I saw that he had a wife with him and thought that we'd be on the same shuttle bus to the convention's hotel. They went on a different shuttle and he told me that he was at a different hotel for the first couple of nights.
I arrived at the hotel at around 10 PM Sunday evening and had made arrangements to sleep on the couch in the California Bluegrass Assoc's suite for that first night and then had plans to room the next two nights up at the Sheraton Hotel just two blocks up from the convention sights hotel, and then from Wednesday through the rest of the conference I would be right there at the Renaissance Hotel where the actual conference was being held. My friends back here at home thought I was nuts to move around like that, but I knew that in order to afford to be able to go, I needed to do anything necessary to have enough money to afford the trip. For me it is worth any amount of room changing that I need to do to afford the trip. I have Missoula friends, Phyllis Erck and Kimberlee who were also going to be at this conference and they were staying at the Sheratan two blocks away because the room fee was $40 per night cheaper. My friends, Kathy Nichols, and Peg Becker were going to be coming also but they always arrive on Wednesday and then stay through the weekend so that they can afford it also. Anyway my first night there was sleeping on the couch in the California Bluegrass Assoc's suite, of which they didn't have any blankets for me so I slept with my hooded sweatshirt on my legs all night, then the move to the Sheratan for the next two days, and finally to the Renaissance for the final few days. I never mind the inconvenience as long as I can get to go each year and so it was this year, but it was all good.
Once there Monday morning started out with me getting my registration packet and lanier badge, then reading the book to see which seminars, classes and fun activities I wanted to take in. Each year they have lot's of very fun and very educational seminars and activities. Everything began to kick off in earnest at around noon so I was very excited and the adrenaline was pumping through every fiber of my being. People ask how I can do it staying up late and I mean 4AM late every night jamming and still getting up by 8 to hit the bluegrass trail of activities, well that's my only explanation. I guess I just get so excited to be there that I don't want to waste a single moment of the time I have during that week.
I went to mandolin classes, classes on Earl Scrugg's banjo style, song writing classes, morning breakfast classes where they told stories about each of three different icon's in the music we've lost this year,(Earl Scruggs, Doug Dillard, and Everitt Lilly) and many more fun activities all week long. They even had several of the pro bands jamming in a scheduled area where you could bring your instrument and jam with the pro's. This has become a very popular activity and although I only listened this year but in past years I've participated myself.
Then I would jam each night until between 3:30 and 4 AM and still wouldn't be tired so would have to force myself to bed. The CBA (California Bluegrass Assoc.) would host their suite where you could jam in the bigger room and they would serve you free pop, and beer for those who would want that, and then snacks of chips, veggie trays, fruit and things of this nature. Most nights if a person were to want to jam in there earlier in the evenings would be great when things were fairly mild and fun but later in the evenings of course it became a wild house and so I would stay away.
About mid week I was walking around looking for a perfect jam circle to play in when the elevator opened up on the 3rd floor lobby area and here were several people from Japan, all jamming together. I decided that this would be fun to jam with them and so I stepped off the elevator and was immediately welcomed into their circle. They were grinning ear to ear and playing their hearts out with pure joy in every note. In years past I've had opportunity to jam with some Japanese bluegrasser's but those were just for a few songs and not for an entire evening like this ended up being. We all connected spirit to spirit and it was a wonderful evening.
Thursday evening I was able to go to the Awards Show which is similar to the CMA awards that we see on TV all the time. Now this has been held at the Ryman Auditorium for most of the years that this conference has been held in Nashville. I've gone to it every year except for last year because it costs $50 to attend and I just couldn't afford it last year, but this year with it being the last year for this conference to be held in Nashville and possibly my last year to ever be able to attend another show in the Ryman I bought myself a ticket and went to it. Now I bought the "cheap" $50 ticket, thinking that I would be up in the balcony as usual but was informed that my seat was down on the main floor and not very far back from the stage. Shocked! Yes I was and then as I sat there here it was that I ended up being right behind all the stars and in my same row sitting right next to me was a presenter for one of the awards who was from Italy (who I'm sure I should've known since he was obviously someone important enough to be asked to be a presenter), and next to him and his son was Byron Berline the famous fiddler (who at one time played with Bill Monroe and several other famous first generation bands), and his wife. He was also a presenter of one of the awards, and then next to them was Eddie and Martha Adcock also presenting, all in my same bench row and I was sitting on the end. How I got this seat is still a mystery to me and as I think about it I realize it was a huge blessing from Heavenly Father who knew how much I'd love it. I'm sure he was smiling down on me and hoping that I'd enjoy His gift to me that night. Needless to say it was a very spiritual and wonderful evening as I sat in awe!
The next night I once again tried to find my new Japanese friends, but they weren't in that same 3rd floor lobby area and I couldn't find where they were jamming, so as I wandered, I found a different jam that was in the lobby of the 18th floor where the California suite is located. Their jam was out in the lobby though so away from the chaos of the CBA suite. Two friends both from North Carolina were jamming with just themselves. One guy could really play the banjo well and the other could play the guitar really well and take leads on his guitar too, but the thing that struck me the most with those two were their vocal harmonies. It was amazing how magical it was hearing them sing together and they could execute perfect harmony on each tune. They had chose tunes to sing that offered great harmony parts too so each and every song they called would make the hair on my arms stand right up when they sang. I was so impressed with my own ability to keep up on my mandolin too and then I commented to the banjo player that I detected some Reno style licks in his banjo playing and he answered that yes that last song he had played was a Reno and Smiley tune. I was so proud of myself that I have learned to discern the banjo styles well enough to have picked this out with him and actually have been right with my knowledge. It was an exciting ah hah moment in time for me that week.
The next few nights I was able to find my new Japanese friends once again and so spent the nights jamming with them and becoming closer friends. By the time the end of the week came they were asking me to come to Japan to see them and had traded e-mails with me so that we could keep in contact.
None of these jams included the man I'd first met at the airport, so I don't know where he was at or ended up jamming at each evening, as I never ran into him again other than in passing twice in the main lobby or at a seminar until the very last morning when I was getting ready to leave again and suddenly there he was sitting in the lobby at 4 AM looking at a lap top computer. I'd seen him 3 different times in the lobby with different people from Japan but they weren't the same ones as I'd been jamming with all week. Bluegrass has become fairly popular in Japan ever since Bill Monroe first went over there and played some concerts in the 60's. This was a surprise to me when I first heard it but has been confirmed by just how many come to this IMBA conference each year, and how more and more of them attend each time too. Now in comparison, there are approximately 15,000 people who attend the conference and about 50 or 75 of those are from Japan.
Finally here it was the end of the conference, many fun luncheons, shows in the evenings at Ernest Tubbs Record Shop, a Martin Guitar showcase at Roberts Western World with Del McCoury and several other famous bands, the awards show at the Ryman, super good seminars on very interesting subjects, a great exhibition hall with fun booths, great time with old and new friends, and plenty of good jamming with all of them, and the week had to come to an end.
My flight was to fly out at 7:30 AM and I thought it through and decided that I would be a lot more tired and upset at myself if I would have gone to bed early that night, just so I could get up at the same time as I'd been staying up playing all week. I would have went to bed unable to sleep then woke up early tired and mad at myself for missing out on my last chance to jam with my friends. So with great thought put into it I decided that since I'd been jamming until 4 AM the entire week and hadn't felt any ill effects of being tired, I would be happier and better off to just stay up the entire night and then go up to our room by 4 to shower and get my suitcase to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport. As it turned out this was a perfect solution and worked just fine. The problem arose because I'd bought a round trip ticket on the Grayline shuttle bus costing me $25. What I hadn't done is check to make sure that the shuttle bus would begin running early enough for me to get to the airport on time. Now I realize that they want you there 2 hours before your flight and usually that is more than plenty enough time to get through security and make it to your gate. My dilemma came because upon looking at my ticket it said that the first shuttle bus would arrive at the hotel around 6AM and that they would be picking up passengers at several hotels in the downtown area before taking us to the airport. I'm not a person who likes to be last minute at anything, in fact if I'm not 10 minutes early I feel that I'm late. So I began to panic a little bit but also realized that the worse case scenario would be that I'd have to pay for a taxi even though I'd already paid for this shuttle. So as I'm thinking this all out and what my options would be here once again, as I mentioned already, was this Japanese man who I'd first met at the airport coming over and so I was explaining my dilemma and looking on my ticket which read, "if you need an earlier shuttle please call by 7 PM the evening before you'll need the ride." Of course when I called the number on my ticket at 5 AM they weren't answering phones and would just send me to an answering machine saying please leave your message and someone will be here to take your call after 7 AM. So upon all of this I was just about ready to call a taxi when suddenly here comes Missy Raines and her husband and a friend. Now Missy is the 7 time bass player of the year and a famous bluegrass musician. They were giggling and laughing as they walked by so I suddenly asked them if they might be going past the airport. My thoughts were that since they had a friend with them possibly they were taking her to the airport. They looked at me and answered that no they weren't and then just as my heart sank a little more they turned just as quickly and said, hey we can give you a ride there if you need to get there. We don't live very far from the airport and it wouldn't imposition us at all to give you a ride. So I walked with them to their van and they loaded Missy's bass, and my suitcase and all of us loaded in and headed to the airport. I kind of know Missy as an acquaintance anyway because I'd hired them to play a festival in Montana once but have also seen her and had association with her through the years at all these conferences. So that's how I ended up making my flight and arriving at the airport with plenty of time to spare, still not tired and full of adrenaline, we headed off. Missy was laughing saying that these "old folks" meaning her husband and friend had wanted to go to bed or she would have still been jamming. We had a nice drive and got to visit and I made it to the airport.
Now of course I was plenty early with my good fortune of getting the ride so I decided to get me some breakfast in the airport. I sat down to a table with a breakfast biscuit that I'd ordered from Popeye's Chicken, and then a few minutes later this Japanese man said to me, "do you mind if I sit here at your same table?" You see it was pretty busy considering how early it was but of course that was great by me if he wanted to sit at my table. He was very quiet and just ate his food without saying a word. Suddenly as we were both about finished he looked up and said to me, "did you enjoy the IBMA?" Shocked once again, yes! His English was very good but he definitely had an accent so I knew he was from Japan. I of course could have been knocked over by a feather when he said this. So I answered him that I sure did and was he there also. He told me that yes he had been there too and that this was his first year to have gotten to go but that he was going to try and go again next year. Obviously I hadn't seen him there. He proceeded to tell me that he'd been to Nashville 3 times this last year on business but this was his first time to come to the America to attend the IBMA. He didn't have an instrument so I asked him about it and he told me that he'd checked his guitar in the baggage.
So this year's IBMA seemed to center around all the new Japanese friends I made and will be remembered as the year of the new Japanese friends. Not only did I meet my first one in the airport upon the beginning of my trip but then I met the last one in the airport at the end of my trip and in between I had many fun nights jamming and making new Japanese friends too.
I've already written an e-mail to two of them and have received several e-mails back from one of them. The lady in the ball cap pictured here is named Yoko and I've also sent an e-mail too but haven't gotten a response yet. She was very happy to meet me and the one that really was excited to e-mail me once we got home so I anticipate that I will hear from her. She had showed me a movie of them playing out in front of the Ryman the morning of the Awards show and was excited to tell me that Fox News had contacted them and asked them to meet out there and play for them to do a news story on our convention and the Awards Show which was that same evening that they were filmed. So I got to see the movie on her phone with the Fox News reporter telling about it.
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| Missy Raines, and Chris Jones DJ on Sirius Radio give the keynote address to kick off the conference. |
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| The carpet in the Renaissance Hotel |
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| Roland White, (former Bluegrass Boy) Curly Seckler (mandolin player for Flatt & Scruggs) and little ole me.. |
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| Ricky Skaggs |
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| Me playing a Lloyd Loar that was for sale at a mere $175,000 which is a bargain compared to last year when they were going for $225,000. |
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| The Loar |
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| Missy Raines playing in the exhibition hall on a Kay bass that she's played since she was a little girl. |
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| The Japanese friend I met in Salt Lake City as I began my trip. |
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| Nice right hand technique on this banjo player. |
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| Nicky Sanders my favorite fiddle player and friend. He also plays for my favorite band "The Steep Canyon Rangers." |
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| Yoko and Kenichi my new Japanese friends that I jammed with every evening. Both play fiddle. |
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| Traveling museum of Flatt and Scruggs bus. |
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| Jesse McReynolds |
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| Sleepy Man Banjo Boy 10 yr. old Johnny Mizzone. |
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| New friend Mitso, who has been e-mailing me now. |
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| 8 time fiddler of the year Michael Cleveland as I watched him in a hot jam the first night. |
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| Mitso |
