Steve Martin, Earl Scruggs, Jypsie, and Scott H. Biram

So this past Saturday Tiff and I went to Nashville to see the Steve Martin playing banjo at the Ryman. It was a super sweet awesome time. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of the night.

We got to the Ryman at 7:30 on the nose, just in time to see the opening act start. The opener was some guy who played banjo for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for 40+ years. He was good, but talked way too much. His jokes were not funny, plus he basically spoke with the mic in his mouth so we couldn't understand half the things he was saying.

Then Steve and his band came out. They were great! Steve Martin is an excellent banjo player, and a better song writer. I know you've heard King Tut, but he's got some non-funny songs that will blow you away. Go right now and download his song - "Daddy Played Banjo" and you'll see what I'm saying.

Here's them playing part of "The Orange Blossom Special," the most famous of all blue grass songs:

They were shooting the show for television so you'll get a chance to see it if you keep you're eyes open and you're DVR on. For the encore, they played a song with EARL friggin SCRUGGS! Who's basically the father of modern blue grass. If you lay in bed at night listening to Nicklecreek, you owe Earl Scruggs.

After that, we hit Broadway looking for a nice place to sit and listen to some more music. One of Tiff's favorite bands right now is Jypsi. It's a four person band made up of one brother and his three sisters. They're great, if you're into hippy blue grass country. That's just Tiff's speed. Here's Jypsi playing on some TV show.

So we're sitting there listening to Jypsi, and one of my favorite singer/song writers, Scott H. Biram, comes walking in. You've never heard of him, and he's prob not your style. But I think he's awesome. Tiff gasses me up to go and talk to him, and it didn't take much convincing, so I rolled on over to where he was sitting, and just stuck my hand out and said, "Scott?" He nodded, and I said "My wife Tiffany and I have seen you three times in Birmingham, and we think you're music is great."

That was followed by an hour long talk between the three of us. We talked about where he learned to yodel, the guy he used to tour with named "Joe Buck Yourself." (Which incidentally happened to be the reason he stopped at this place in the first place. Joe Buck was the owner's ex-husband.)

Here's Scott playing one of my favorites:

All in all it was a GREAT music night that neither of us will forget in a long time.