The Day After Christmas: A Show To Remember

Kevin Kinney

It was a cold night in Atlanta the day after Christmas. I was not quite sure what I was getting myself into, but I planned on having a good time and that is how I try to approach any new or unfamiliar situation. When I attend concerts I anticipate having a good time singing along to the songs I know and nodding my head to the ones I don't. I also anticipate having my ears ringing for the next few days which is fine and comes with the territory. The featured attraction was Drivin' N' Cryin celebrating their 25th year as a band; formed in Atlanta in 1985 (one year prior to my existence on this Earth). To be honest I only knew three of the band's songs, "Fly Me Courageous", "Honeysuckle Blue", and "Straight to Hell." You would think that someone who grew up in the shadow's of Atlanta would know more but I didn't and that was my loss. Of all the three bands that took the stage that night, the one's I was least familiar with was the one's that had been around the longest, Drivin' N' Cryin.

Sons of Bill, a five piece band out of Charlottesville, VA, was a band I had been listening to for a few years courtesy of college roommate who was from the bands' hometown. They only took the stage for about 35 minutes but more than held their own with the two bands that were to follow them. Being a Sons of Bill fan I wish they could have played longer as there were a good five or six songs that were worthy of being showcased and I know the crowd would have enjoyed them. James Wilson, the lead singer for the band has a special talent for songwriting with such lyrics from their song "Broken Bottles" as "Hank Williams might have been a love-sick drinker/but being a love sick drunk don't make you Hank." Honestly I think the two best live songs that they performed were "The Rain" and the one they ended with off their very first album A Far Cry From Freedom "Far Cry." Which they just absolutely brought the house down with some epic guitar rifts that I salivate thinking of at this moment. Sam Wilson, the lead guitarist is another special talent. I hope this band can start getting the recognition that they deserve.

The next band to go on was Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit. A band I started listening to in the last year, courtesy of a friend who lives in the area where these guys are from. The band is based out of Northwest Alabama in the Shoals region of the state that is famous for its renown recording studio FAME Studios, which has seen such artists as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Duane Allman record their at the studio. Jason Isbell, the lead singer, is a former member of the band Drive-By-Truckers from 2001 to 2007. He played a mixture of some of his old songs from Drive-By-Truckers as well as some of the songs he has recorded as a member of his current band. My friend who is an avid music listener and knew all of the bands that had played that night in Atlanta feels that Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit had the best overall set of the three bands that played and that is no slight to either Sons of Bill or Drivin' N' Cryin'. Jason ended with "Decoration Day," a song he recorded with Drive-By-Truckers off their album Decoration Day, gave me goosebumps and electrified the crowd and set the stage for the featured attraction. Being on the front row you could just see the sweat pooring off Jason's face as he ripped through his set and you could really feel the passion behind the words in his songs.

Around 10pm the buzz was alive in that old church. It had been about 15 minutes since Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit had left the stage. The press corps inside the pit in front of the stage was at full capacity. The stage was dark. You could see the band walk out onto the stage then.... BOOM it began with one of their more well known tracks, "Honeysuckle Blue." I thought my ears were about to explode.

I did some YouTube searches of the band in the coming weeks before the concert to get familiar with their sound and some of their more well known songs. I expected the band to sound different from their youth, a "past their prime" kind of sound. Boy was I wrong. Kevin Kinney(who sounded like he did 20 years ago) and the boys put on one helluva show. What ensued over the next two plus hours is something that I won't forget for a long time to come. Ending with probably their most famous song, "Straight to Hell," which Jason Isbell and a cast of characters joined in to bring the show to an epic, guitar blasting, ear-rattling close.

What added to it for me personally was that my uncle who has known the main guys from Drivin' N' Cryin' since the very beginning was there in the pit taking pictures and video of the crowd. He made a comment to me how it had all come full circle for him. A band who had first formed before I was born. Me, one of the younger members of the crowd enjoying music that he had embraced over 20 years earlier, standing in the front row nodding my head and singing along to songs by guys that he knows personally. I thought that was cool and brought an interesting and memorable experience to it all. I like to think that I have a good taste for music and have an open mind to branching off and exploring new music. This will probably be one of the few shows where I really enjoyed all three performances and actually had a working knowledge of all the bands that played, some more so than others. I also found it interesting to note the age progression of the bands that played and how one band fed off and built upon the next. Sons of Bill is compromised of guys who are in their 20's and early 30's. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit is a band that appeared to be made of guys in their 30's. Drivin' N' Cryin' a band in their 40's if not slightly older than that. The real treat for me was seeing Jason Isbell join the stage for the last few songs of Drivin' N' Cryin's set. His talent on the guitar was readily apparent and it was such a treat for me to see. You could really feel the appreciation that all three bands have for each other. All of the bands are wonderfully talented and skilled in different ways. I hope people will continue to support bands like these so we can be fortunate enough to hear what talents they have to offer. Kevin Kinney, Tim Nielson, Mac Carter, Dave V. Johnson, and company thanks for making the night after Christmas a night to remember.

MB

Photos courtesy of David S. Barron amFILMS HD

New Coach for the Gators

Greetings,

Welcome to the second installment of Tales from the beard.

Just wanted to touch on a few things that have been rambling around in my head these last two weeks.

The University of Florida has made former UGA defensive back, Will Muschamp their new head coach. Muschamp has a lot of experience as a defensive coordinator at Texas, LSU, Auburn, and even the Miami Dolphins for one year. He has worked his way up through the ranks, he has paid his dues to get to this position. There are not many places that are considered upgrades over being the defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting at Texas, but being the head coach at Florida does. Florida is one of the top 5 places to be a head coach in college football. Right up there with Texas, LSU, USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc. It is a high intensity, stressful type of job. If you watched Florida this year, you could just see the energy being zapped from Urban Meyer. His health scare from last year was pretty reflective on the performance this season. His energy was not there and by all accounts he was less involved than in previous seasons. I think losing his top 2 assistants over the last 2 years, Dan Mullen to Mississippi State and Charlie Strong to Louisville hurt his team this year.

The Florida Gators do not lack for talent, that is not the problem. They just need an energy boost and someone to give them direction. Can Muschamp do that? That remains to be seen. I think this is a fairly risky hire for a program of this stature. Florida AD Jeremy Foley hit a home run with the Urban Meyer hire, but struck out on his previous hire of Ron Zook. Where will he stand with Muschamp? It remains to be seen. My best guess is that it is somewhere in between. A few SEC East titles, maybe an overall SEC title, but no national championships. Look, Muschamp was the hot name, but I think his coaching acumen was a little overvalued. While he his a great recruiter and has a fierce sideline demeanor, his defenses could hit hard but also missed a lot of tackles.

How much of it was his defense at LSU (Nick Saban) or at Auburn (Tommy Tuberville)?

A side note to this, as a lifelong Georgia fan, there is no better opportunity to try and take the SEC East division (well other than this previous season). New coach at Florida, South Carolina is South Carolina and until they can consistently show that they are a 9-10 win type of program, I have my doubts. Tennessee is in year two with Derek Dooley, who I think will get them back to where they are used to being and that is the top of the Eastern Division. Kentucky and Vanderbilt are what they are, average and below average SEC programs. South Carolina should be the favorites going into next season and we will see how they handle that pressure.

Georgia will have the best QB in the division in Aaron Murray and although they will lose some guys to the NFL draft, most notably A.J. Green, they still have enough talent to have double digit wins and play in New Year's Day bowl games. I have my doubts on this happening. The UGA program has stalled under Mark Richt and it does not seem to be on the uptick. The defense has not been the same since Brian Van Gorder left after the 2004 season. The line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball has been lacking the last couple of years. Especially on the offensive line, where the past two years they have been regarded as one of the top lines in the preseason only to be slightly above average and struggling to find the "right combination." To me this is Richt's last year at UGA if he cannot win the East. That is what the administration should be telling themselves as well. You only get by so much as being a nice guy. Eventually you need to win some games. Being a nice guy sure does not scare the players that much. Go look at their off-season track record the last few seasons.

That is all I have for today. I hope you will continue to read. Enjoy.

Hugs and handpounds.

MB

Return of the beard

From those don't remember my old blog "tales from the stache", and who would have since I haven't posted one in over a year, this is the "return of the beard." A newer, hipper, more mature version. Stache 2.0 if you prefer. I decided to reboot this old thing because it was something I enjoyed doing and it really stirred some deep passions within me.

There is a lot that has happened to me since last September and most of you who keep in touch with me know what has been going on so I will only touch on the highlights. Since last September I have worked in retail and did that until July, it was a trying experience that taught me a lot of patience.

Also, I decided to enter graduate school and selected Troy University in Troy, AL. It is slightly bigger than my last school. Well, I say slightly, more like 10x as big if you can imagine that (700 to 7000). The smallness of Troy does not bother me as much as one might think. I have found this place warm (literally and figuratively) and I feel like I have made the right decision so far.

What else is new? Well I am still running, albeit not as much and not as fast as in my "younger" days. Logging around 20 mpw, enough to keep me in shape and my appetite up.

I have also been opening up my music tastes and have found many new artists in which to listen to , some are newer on the scene than others and I can say with great confidence that this music has helped me mentally get through some stressful times over the last few months. Some of those new bands that I have started listening to over the last year have been Drive-by-Truckers (props to my buddy Justin Haynes for introducing me to these guys), a rock band based in the South. I have fallen head over heels in love with everything these guys do and I can't believe I didn't listen to them sooner. I can't wait to see these guys live in concert. Another band is based right out of my backyard in Atlanta, Blackberry Smoke. A kick-ass Southern Rock band, whom I have seen twice this year. They have been described as if Lynard Skynard had had sex with angels. I'd say thats an accurate description. Sons of Bill is another band I would like to mention, who I have been listening to recently. I have heard and listened a little bit to them before the past year but did not follow them seriously as I do now.

This new version of the blog will also include my thoughts on sporting events going on in the world as well as any other random takes I may have on things ranging from school, life, and any new beer recommendations I encounter. I think that is enough for tonight. Hopefully I can get a decent following and let me know if there is anything you would like me to tackle.

Hugs and Handpounds.

MB