quote:

---

Originally posted by OldManInaCoffeeCan

A Close Encounter with The Man

It was about 3 a.m. when I pulled up the driveway, turned off my JBW cd (17th and Shelby) and my truck, and made my way into the back door. Julia was sleeping, but my boy, Garrett, and four of his older friends (one being Taylor my 16 year old neighbor) were upstairs deep into a Halo 2 marathon. Before I went to bed I was able to convince Taylor to take a break momentarily so that he could retrieve his Sony 8mm digital video camera, put it on charge for me and give me a quick tutorial on it’s operation. I then download my still-photos from the evening and slipped off to bed while visions of Frank Black danced in my head (ha!).

I had set the alarm for 7 a.m. but I didn’t stop hitting the snooze button until 7:30 a.m.. Finally, by 8:00 I was in the shower and thinking about everything that I needed to bring with me. Shit, I had a lot to do and only one hour to do it. Before leaving the house, I chose a Frank shirt, I grabbed my other Frank shirts, I packed up the Sony 8mm, the tripod, my still-photo camera, kissed the wife and kids and away I went as quickly as possible.

On my way to the seminar I had to stop by Walgreen’s and purchase some Sharpee pens. However, because it was Saturday morning the traffic was extremely light and I was downtown at a parking lot within 10 minutes of leaving West Nashville. Another 10 minutes later and I was walking through the convention center doors on my way to room 209/210 “From Production to Mastering”. And 10 minutes after that my tripod was setup, my Sony 8mm had been tested and ready to go, and I couldn't believe no one was here yet and it was already 9:00 a.m.

So instead of hanging out in an empty room I decide to take a stroll and capture some of the conference’s trade show on film. After shooting a few minutes of panoramic views of the trade show, and while my camera is still rolling, all of sudden emerging from around a corner of the hall is The Man. He’s by himself, dressed in casual dark pants, a blue oxford button down shirt with the first two buttons undone, and sandals. He’s talking on his cell phone and as soon as he sees me, approximately 10 feet away, I can hear him say to the person he’s talking to on the phone, “Well, at least one person here recognizes me.” At this point he walks past me, gives me a smile and nod and proceeds up the staircase while he continues to talk on the phone.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty excited, but I try to remain calm. I decide the best thing to do is walk across the hall and back into Room 209/210 so that I can re-check and re-check my readiness status, i.e., 8mm will fit on tripod, Frank t-shirts in my bag, 4 new Sharpee-pens in my pocket, backup batteries in my pocket, etc…yep, everything was ready.

I did make one adjustment to the room. There were approximately six persons on the presentation panel and their names were printed on table signs and placed on the table in front of their chairs. Someone had put Frank’s name down at the end of the table. I quickly remedied that by putting The Man at the center of the table where he belonged.

Just a few minutes later, at approximately 9:30 a.m., in walks The Man. No one else, just Frank. I’m sitting on the back row trying to restrain myself, and after 10 seconds I figure it’s time to introduce myself. So he comes over to me, smiles, shakes my hand, and sits down next to me. I mean I’m the only other person in the room. I tell him my name and I ask if I may call him Charles, to which he responds, “Sure.” My next question, “So, how’s everything going man” was well received and for the next 30 minutes we sat along the back wall of room 209/210 and talked.

I shared with him that I no longer believed in “soul mates” because I thought I would live happily-ever-after with my first wife and she broke my heart. At that, Charles nodded with compassion.

He asked me if I was an artist or in the music business to which I responded that I was a divorce attorney and mediator in Nashville and that I had some artists and music business folks as clients.

Eventually we discussed his plans to record some more songs while he was here. He said he was going to use most of the same musicians he used last time [for the Sicilian/Nashville 2 album] including Billy Block, Buddy Miller, Steve Cropper, and Spooner Oldham. [I have since found out that he is recording in Cowboy Jack Clement’s "The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa" here in Guitar Town, the same studio he recorded the Sicilian/Nashville 2 album].

A few minutes before the seminar was to start we wound down our conversation and Charles took his place at the “Podium” [table actually, I just wanted to say “took [my] place at the podium, know what I’m sayin!]

There were six presenters on Charles’ panel. They were all top-notch producers, recording engineers, mastering engineers, and one studio musician. I’ve got their biographies somewhere but maybe you’ll recognize some of their pictures. Steve Tviet is a friend of mine and he was sitting immediately to the left of The Man [thanks of course to my rearranging of the names at the presenters’ table].

[I’m going to have to continue this and leave you with some photos right now. I’ll review my notes and tape, and try to finish this section soon, thanks, CoffeeCan.]


?????, Charles, and my friend Steve Tviet


The panel of presenters


A surprise for later


______________________________
I joined the noisy cult of six-sixty-six when I somehow agreed to the Registration Policy

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by kfs

More pics coming soon...

---