Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Ryman, Neil Young, Will and Me

Today I'll chat about my son, Neil Young and the infamous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The three converged last night as I escorted my youngest boy, Will, to the first of two concerts in Nashville for Mr. Young on his "Twisted Road" tour.

Here's the best. Will and I were lying on the couch at 6:30 p.m. when we looked at each other and wondered, "Exactly why aren't we going to see the show?" A ticket price of $127.50, maybe? Hmmm. Could that be the reason? I told Will that if he could get two for the price of one, I'd take him. "I'll find them, Mom. I swear," he says. So we jumped in the car, flew down to the Ryman, and ended up on the main floor - great seats - for half price!! It's amazing how well the scalpers will deal a few minutes after the opening act starts!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a rock and roll lover. Well, freak may be more like it. And naturally, so is my son. The beautiful part about last night is that Will loves Neil Young because of me!! I used to dream about the day I could take my kids to concerts. Now, he even knows more about the legendary rock star than I do.

The concert was, well there isn't really a good enough word that hasn't already been used to describe Neil's shows. But for clarification sake I'll just say the concert was everything we hoped it would be. Neil carried the show solo but had all of his different instruments set around the stage. Both his acoustic and electric guitars were in the middle, his grand piano on stage right. His pump organ was in the rear of the stage and his upright piano was off to stage left. And of course, his harmonica was usually in the holder around his neck. He spent the evening rotating around each instrument sharing the depth of his talent with the audience. Mr. Young didn't say much, but if you've been following his career at all you know that's his way - quintessentially Neil.

Each time he sang an old song my son jabbed me in the arm and I got to watch a huge smile spread across his face.

That was heaven for me. So was getting to spend an entire evening sitting next to my twenty-year-old son.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww, that's so sweet! I have no idea who Neil Young is, please don't throw tomatos at me, because who knows I might actually know this person but I don't usually know unless someone sings me one of their songs... I'm a very complicated gal. But either way, its cool you two got to hang out and make a memory. When I worked at the Wild Adventures theme park in Ga, the Temptations came to perform and my goodness I about flipped. I love them, thankfully it had been my night off so I got to enjoy the show with my parents.

Lisa Patton said...

Jessica, don't worry about not knowing who Neil Young is. I'm old. But he's older! He was with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. But they were big in the 70s. No worries. Just glad you posted. You're right. The best part was hanging out with Will!!

Anonymous said...

Yep, I'm back to stalking ya'lls blog again. I was absent for a while but, now, I am here. lol.

Oh and I just checked up Neil Young on the handy dandy thing called the Internet I somehow forgot was a useful research tool, lol. I know him... well not personally but his songs. Yeah, my daddy was a hippie and he and my Uncle Bruce listen to him. I had to see the face and hear a song. :)

Maureen Lipinski said...

So much fun! I saw Neil Young in concert when I was in high school. It was the neatest mix of old/young attendees!