Life’s a pitch... and you might even get in on Keith’s big gig!
I’D just left my busker’s pitch on Grafton Street for a minute to grab a coffee when Keith Urban walked by and engaged with a 14-year-old singer. Fast forward to the 3Arena and Keith is only introducing the kid Sam onto the stage to sing George Ezra’s Shotgun.
Keith may be an Antipodean, and Nicole Kidman’s hubbie to boot, but he has long been an adopted Good Ole’ Country Boy with Nashville running through his veins.
The Deep South is like that. Meet a cowboy on the street, in a shop or a honky-tonk and the first question they’ll ask is ‘Y’all enjoying yourselves’?
Nashville bills itself as Music City and its state Tennessee could also lay a claim to being Music State... Country, of course, but also Blues, Soul, Rock’n’roll, Bluegrass... and Jazz, Classical and Pop too!
British Airways serves Nashville from London with a flight time of nine hours and return prices from £375 (€440).
And that’ll only build up the excitement for a trip to the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Of course a night in the company of Keith, Brett Eldredge, Cam and Chase Rice only whetted the appetite for more Country the following evening in the more intimate surroundings of The Wiley Fox and Canadian singer Kelly Archer, above, who has written for the best and who you can hear on the hit TV show Nashville.
A bit like Nashville really where you can discover the next Carrie Underwood or Garth Brooks at the smaller venues and those such as the Bluebird Café and the Listening Room Café. In a nod to the Bluebird, I sampled a Bluebird cocktail at the Wiley Fox (for research purposes).
So, that’s all you Country fans who were at the 3Arena last weekend now set up for where to go in Nashville.
And if you see your diarist strumming on the guitar outside either of these cafes and trying to draw the attention of a big Country star so he can get on the stage then please buy me a coffee.
I won’t then have to leave my pitch and miss my big chance.