Hi Everyone
Just a note to let you know we have made it to Nashville, and haven’t lost anyone yet. Great group, everyone seems to be having a good time. Contrary to media reports, Nashville is not flooded, although we have had some fairly heavy showers. We spent a few hours at the Opry Mill tonight to get the shopping thing taken care of for a day or two, and Dorothy and I dropped by the Willie Nelson Museum for a quick look.
Last night in Lexington, we entertained the motel guests with some old time and Gospel tunes, enjoyable evening. After three days on the road everyone is looking forward to a bit of a rest, although tomorrow will be a busy day with a Back Stage tour of the Opry, Hall of Fame tour and a visit to the Ryman. And of course Sat night at the Opry and the Midnight Jamboree. We are hoping for good weather so we can do a bit of a walking tour around Broadway as well.
Fortunately our motel is next door to the Midnight Jamboree so we can come and go as we please. Sunday we will travel to Pigeon Forge for a few days.
Hope all is well back home.
Garold

Hi everyone

I am sure you have all heard that Stompin Tom Connors passed away yesterday at age 77. I attended a show of his at the Aitkin Centre in F’ton back around the time he received his Honorary Doctorate. The place was full of university kids and he came out on stage carrying a piece of plywood, threw it down on the stage and then as if it were going to suddenly move he stomped on it. Well the place went wild and for the rest of the evening, as my mother would say, you could hardly hear your ears.

Graham Townsend was on the show with him and honestly, I went to see Graham but it was a great lesson in showmanship. Connors had his plywood and he made the most of it. He wore cowboy boots with a high heel and would stomp his foot in a kicking motion so it actually scuffed across the plywood tearing off slivers of wood and every time a piece of wood would go flying the kids would scream at the top of their lungs. It appeared the plywood had been scuffed up a bit prior to the performance because in the first song, Bud the Spud, I am sure he removed the first couple of layers of wood.

It was a great evening, they did the Good Old Hockey Game for our then Premier Frank McKenna who was in the audience.

The interesting thing about Stompin Tom, was his stomp was actually on the back beat instead of the down beat which certainly added to the effect. You will notice that Natalie McMaster often trots her foot to the back beat as well, maybe they are on to something.

Garold