He coulda won a Grammy

For years and years I have loved Steve Martin, from back in the SNL days (reruns) to when our ABC affiliate out in the sticks played cleaned-up versions of The Jerk, to some of his movies, and then to the bittersweet experiences of his books. One thing about him that remains constant is his excellence on the banjo! How delighted I was when I thought that Jay had nabbed us tickets to see him at the Grand Ole Opry, pickin his banjo, on my birthday this summer. Disappointment in not seeing him (my intuition failed me this once) was swayed by a wonderful dinner at our favorite East Nashville restaurant, but I kept thinking, "Oh that was probably once in a lifetime! I'm sad we missed that..."
I learned some months later that he'd scored us some spectacular seats for Steve Himself on tour, at the Ryman, with his banjo and a backing band, and that we were going with some of our oldest friends in town, the Hudsons. He hinted that the seats were "killer"...
Well, they were, and my pictures don't do it justice, but we were so close to the stage we could even see spit fly. Upon entering, we saw the lights set up outside and then heard from a stage manager that, yes, the show was being taped for posterity! I couldn't wipe the grin off my face the whole night; everyone involved was terrific, and even Earl Scruggs made it out for the last song. We heard that Steve's latest CD The Crow had won an award or two at the IBMA awards in town the week before for liner notes and graphic design; the music itself has gotten rave reviews, as well our Ryman show. We grabbed a nifty Hatch poster to remember it all by, since our camera phones suck it... thanks to Jay for yet one more awesome show to add to our list this year!
I forgot about posting this a couple of years ago. Steve at his best! So fun...