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."