The night air was humid and silent, the crew and passengers were all eager to land as the small, domestic TWA plane flew slowly over Nashville Tennessee. It had been a long, tiring few days for Brett and myself. They consisted of boredom, running for flights, rubber airline meals, cancellations and more rubber food. I couldn't believe we were actually here in Nashville. ..Heaven for any fingerpicker. As we looked out of the plane window at the huge stream of lights down below in Music City a few worrying thoughts started up in our minds:

• What are a pair of Aussie kids doing a big place like this?
• Will they know who Slim Dusty is?
• Will they have pies and tomato sauce?
• Do they have Home and Away on TV here?

These are life-threatening situations but we decided to land before we started having breakdowns and committing suicide because we can't jam with Slim Dusty songs nor have sauce on our pies.

After retrieving our babies (guitars) and suitcases we continued out journey to the Hotel Sheraton. I can still remember walking through those fancy, huge crystal doors and seeing all those fingerpickers in a circle jamming, having the time of their lives. It was then we realized, we belong here.

The next day we hung around in our hotel room waiting for a call from Tommy (Mr Groove) Emmanuel to tell us what is going on in that week. While going down for breakfast we heard more guitar pickers coming from level 1. We decided to investigate. Were we in for a suprise, the whole floor was full of people jamming, workshops and record stalls. I have never seen so many Chet Atkins albums and spent $200 just on CD's. We met Tommy in the afternoon and after the whole excitement of meeting him again he told us what would be happening that week. He also told us that we would be playing at the big Saturday night finale concert with him and in the audience would be Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, Jerry Reed and Arthur "guitar boogie" Smith. We would also have a chance to meet Chet.

We were very nervous but honoured to play at the finale concert so all week we practiced our arses off. To think about that week now, from Wednesday to Saturday is just a blur of meeting more guitarists, workshops, Tommy's jokes and being more and more inspired to keep playing and working hard.

The big day came and we got dressed and ready to go downstairs to wait for our big appearance in front of 2000 people!  About ½ hour before we went on, Tommy came up to us and told us to bring our guitars next door. We walked in this fairly small room and sitting in two office chairs was Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed. We both froze. Tommy introduced us and he made us play Waltzing Matilda for them. They seemed really impressed and this gave us both a lot of confidence to get up there. I can't remember much of my performance, as I was so exhausted with stress but what I remember I had the time of my life.



We performed together one more time on Monday a day before I left to get back home. We played with Tommy at the Cafe Milano where we met Chet's daughter and her husband. Once again we had the time of our lives. Coming home on the long flights I had been so inspired by Nashville it felt like a home away from home. I also realised that if it weren't for our own "Mr Guitar" Tommy Emmanuel, Maton guitars and the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society that none of this experience would have happened. Tommy worked so hard to get us over there in between touring and spending time with his family. Nashville has certainly changed my life and I'm doing everything I can to get back over there next year. In the meantime I better keep practicing because after hearing the pickers in Nashville I've got a long way to go.

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This page created 10th September 1999