Back to Music City

It took me, Cash and Jean Claude Damn Van about 10 hours to make it home to Nashville from Arlington. It took just as long to get back, but for some reason it didn't feel near as long as the road there. Isn't that how it always works, the road back always goes so much quicker. I noticed this phenomenon when I took my first trip to Green Bay with my best buddy Steve Strait back in 7th grade-we will save that story for a future date.

I got home to East Nashville and immediately wished that I had cleaned before I left-yowzerrs, this place was a heaping pile of regret :) It was late, I was pretty tired but I still had my adrenaline pumping from the twelve redbulls I had just pounded out. So, I venture to my local bar, Beyond the Edge. I get there, sit at the bar and start talking to Mike, the bartender. Now, this is about the 50th time I have done this but I finally feel as though Mike and I are establishing a connection. Mike is a big dude, about 40 and played baseball so we have always had that. He is from Missouri originally and spent his time in St. Louis. We shoot the stuff for about an hour while the VaTech-Michigan bowl game finishes up. I get a text from my buddies Clay Evans and Connor Rand telling me to go to Bourbon Street down in Printers Alley. I tell Mike I would like to close my tab-he hooks me up, but then I read on the receipt that the name he refers to me as is not, "Billups" or "Anthony." Instead, its "KC." At first I was disappointed because I felt that we had just made that connection and he should know my name. Then, I was stoked that he referred to me as KC and chalked it up as exactly what I would want him to call me-ha.

I ventured to Bourbon Street just in time to catch some of Clay and Connor's set and see a few friends down there. It was cold and the beers weren't going down as smooth as hoped, so I headed home. The music was off the hook, you should check out Clay Evans and friends every Tuesday night! I made it home by 1am and hit the couch for some much needed rest in preparation for my first writing appointment of the year with Keesy Timmer and Matt Rogers.

Keesy Timmer is one of my best friends that I have ever made in my life. It would be impossible to tell you about Keesy, but here goes nothing. Keesy is an in-your-face, you get what you see, hard-working, out-spoken (really loud out-spoken), red-blooded American. The guy has been putting himself out there in this town as hard and long as anyone I know. He has a passion for music, song-writing, and people that is un-paralleled and I respect him so much for it. If it weren't for Keesy's incessant optimism and vigil for life, I don't know if I would still be in this town making music! I love him. I was so excited to sit down and write with him because every time we do it-I get a song that I love....songs like...

Northbound Train
Day-Drinkin
No Effin Way
My Buddy
If You Send Me Off to Heaven (Get Drunk as Hell)

The fact that it was our first time writing on 2012 was made even more exciting by the fact we were gonna write with our buddy, Matt Rogers (aka Rog-man). Rog-Man signed to Better Angels Music Publishing a while back and hasn't looked back since. Scoring cuts with artists from The Roys to Jordin Sparks, he has found out in order to make it, "You Got to Want It," the song that Jordin Sparks cut that you are bound to hear from the NFL games!!! I first met Matt when I met up with Keesy for a drink at The Closing Bell on Demonbreun. I immediately liked him and he has become a great friend over the past couple of year and I have been fortunate to write a couple of my favorite songs with him too...Old Time's Sake and Dancin' Machine! We were meeting at his place in Germantown to write, I was up early and on the way.

I pull in and immediately realize that Keesy has a new set of wheels. An old early 90s F-150 that he has already named "Betty Ford." Love it. Already this year, Keesy's life is falling in place. He asked his long-time girflriend and amazing supporter, Michelle, to marry him and now has the ride of his dreams. The guy always rocks a smile but he was pimping one as soon as I got there and I couldn't have been happier. I was tired but right off the bat, he says, "Billups, are you ready to write an effin party song today or what?

We went upstairs to Matt's living room and jumped right in. That is, right after Keesy put a highE string on Matt's guitar. Matt doesn't string for a damn, but Keesy has it down. The idea for the song was "Party-Trained." Needless to say, I was all about it. Before we could blink, we had...

"I used to be a holler and a swaller til the bottle was....gone
drank whiskey like water till my father found me out on his...lawn"

Keesy and Matt are songwriting machines! They have written hundreds of songs with each other over the last seven years and that familiarity is so awesome to be around. I just feed off it. Too many times in this town, writing a song can become stressful and the creativity just gets sucked out of the air. Not with these guys, as soon as they like an idea-they tell you, and as soon as they don't like an idea-they tell you. Its great. We hammered this song out in two hours and we even had a celebratory beer for Keesy and Michelle and a couple of rally-dips! I am a firm believer of letting things happen naturally and I quit on a song if it hasn't been written in three hours. Be it wrong or right, its just my belief. I had so much fun guys, and I am so happy with the song we came up with.

Afterwards, Keesy took us over to the Farmers' Market in Betty Ford. It ran like a champ! The whole way over and back, we listened to my rough tracks from Old Soul Radio. Such an awesome, Nashvillian Wednesday!

After that, reality sank in and I remembered that I had a court date on January 5th. This sucked beyond all sucking, ya'll, which will all be covered in the next blog, "The Lakewood Fiasco."

2012, I'm gonna give you hell!!!

DUDE! It has already been such a roller coaster ride, however, I am holding out that it was just a couple hiccups-of course, only time, and this blog, will tell. It started out amazing, which will be blog one. Then it got more amazing, terrible, and then even more amazing-blog two :)

I spent New Year's Eve at my girlfriend's family's house. Her name is Amy Wilcox-check her out on twitter, Facebook, and the web-your welcome :) Talk about a blast! They throw down like we throw down in Nashville. Music-Drinkin-Fun-Friends. Her whole family pitched in and threw a kick-ass party at their newly-renovated house. The food setup was amazing, the drinks were plentiful, the music was great and loud, the people were great and the energy was palpable. All were a recipe for a terrific New Year's Eve!! At one point her dad (Gare-Bear) literally hit the floor and did his patented dance, The Gator. Never saw it, I was either sneaking a cig (my resolution), controlling the living room fireplace (scoring points with Angie), or pulling a Billups (taking shots of whiskey). Just before midnight, Gare-Bear gave an amazing speech about his wife, his daughters and even included me. That made my night and totally made me get over the time he introduced me as "Amy's friend."

The highlight of my night was that everyone generally loved "my" vest. I sported a leather vest over a black shirt that my Papa Dickie gave me for Christmas. Thanks Papa. This vest was given to me a few months back just a couple days after the world lost a most amazing human being, Leighton "Pops" Railsback. Pops had a courageous battle with cancer and embodied everything that I aspire to be. He was a devoted husband, a loving and understanding father and grandfather, and a dedicated humanitarian who never knew a stranger. He was my friend and a hero as soon as I met him. The dude was SO cool that EVERYBODY called him Pops, family or not. After he passed, we were all at Nanny's place in Bedford, TX. All of a sudden, I hear Nanny's voice say, "Hey Anthony, come here for a second." So I walk to the other side of the house and she hands me a leather vest that she said Pops had gotten for a wedding but was too big and I might like it. Well, I loved it, but hadn't worn it yet. So, I wore it for New Year's and no one knew the back story and everyone loved it, I mean actually loved it. Believe me, I know when people are making fun, but I looked hot!! Thanks Pops, and Nanny.

The first day of 2012 was also my first hangover of the year-woo woo. By the time I had gotten downstairs, everything was pretty much cleaned up. However, Gare-Bear, needed some help taking the lights down off the tent poles. The ladder we were using was just tall enough that Gare-Bear had to stand on the top of it to reach the zip-ties. Hey, I offered to climb the ladder. He would have to climb and stabilize himself by grabbing the pole at the top of the tent. I was nervous, but he wasn't. Hell, he might've even had a cigar in his mouth :) My first classic funny moment of the year came when he was trying to cut down the third of four zip-ties at the top of the tent. A solid two-minutes he tried to get the wire cutters between the pole and tie, but it was just tied too tight. This side didn't work, that side didn't work. This angle didn't work, that angle didn't work. Finally I saw the cutters go towards the string of lights, he cut 'em-I lost it. Needless to say, the lights came down a lot quicker from that point on :)

Then, it was time to head out for the Chiefs game! My Chiefs were playing their last game of the season and all I wanted was for us to beat the Broncos and not get TEBOWED. Take that, Timmy. Amy took me to Redline in DC, by referral of her big sister, Erin. They had taps in the tables. I will repeat that in all caps, THEY HAD TAPS IN THE TABLES!!! Come on, where has that been all my life? Best idea ever. However, you had to have at least six people to sit at one of those tables and since my girlfriend is cool enough to spend our "date-time" watching the Chiefs-we didn't get the table-tap. Thanks Ames :) Then, we headed to Whitlow's which is where her HS crew all hangs. For the Rockford folks, its their Whiffle Tree. For Tiger Town, The Outback. It was awesome, her friends are so cool and we had sooo much fun. Clarendon got its money's worth between High Time's, Whitlow's, and Hunan (that is a chinese place with $6, 32 oz. beers)!

The second day was to be our Christmas with her family. An unwavering and respectable "no ringey-no bringey" policy resides with family through Christmas. This was cool, it gave us some time to get away from each other and spend time with our families without worrying about any of the drama. I for one had an amazing time with my mom, dad, brother and the rest of the family. I played a show at The Outback in Marceline that was amazing. My mother did the best job as Santa Claus, Nanny Ma made the best Dorrell toast, Great-Grandma Dell kept it real with her epic Mac and Cheese and Papa Dickie had the best Jack 'n Cokes. My highlight was sitting with Dad, Nick, Uncle Joe and my cousin Dustin on Christmas Eve watching the Chiefs. Nick at one point looks up and says, "You know, this is what Christmas is all about, having a beer and watching football." Tushay, Nick, Tushay.

Anyways, I had been stressing on what to get her family for Christmas. I wanted it to be meaningful and appreciated. I had already gotten her sister a drawing from her wedding-which was awesome! I knew I was going to get Gare-Bear a journal because he had been carrying around an old Mead notebook that was unacceptable. I just realized that I never even thought about Lyndsey-sorry Lynds-she got me the sickest stocking cap. I was going to draw Nanny's favorite picture of Pops and I knew I was probably gonna get some Uggs for Amy. But Angie, her mother, I had no idea.

So, Mitchell (Lyndsey's boyfriend), Angie, Nanny, and I are all sitting at breakfast that morning. The breakfast was awesome, grass fed sausage, eggs, OJ, mmm mmm. Well, when someone asks for the salt, Angie says, "what I really need is one of those automatic salt and pepper shakers where they are both together and you just press a button for one or the other." If we were in a cartoon, you would have seen me run the wall and there would have been one of those cartoon-cutouts of Billups. But, I played it cool, knowing the whole time I was going to rush to Crate and Barrel right after breakfast. After breakfast, I ask Mitchell if he wanted to take a ride to do some shopping. Of course he did, cuz he hadn't gotten anything either. Preparation is for the birds. We get in Abravan Lincoln (more to come) and head out. He asks, "Where do you wanna go?" I say, "Crate and Barrel." "Who do you wanna get something for there?" he asks. I say, "I wanna get get Angie one of those salt and pepper shakers!" He laughs and yells "Dammitt!" Turns out, neither of us knew what to get her. Second epic laugh of the year. Since it was a joint stress and idea, Mitchell and I went half-sies on all the gifts, which works out great! All of the gifts were received and New Years Christmas with the Wilcox clan was great. Amy immediately exchanged the Uggs...ugg :)

I left on the 3rd because I had a huge meeting and writing appointment on the 4th...a short ten hours later...I arrived back in Nashville and so will begin blog number two!!!