Americana Fest continues

Our Nashville stay continued with Charles 'Wigg' Walker's weekly Soul Brunch at Acme Feed and Seed on Broadway. His recording career goes back over 50 years and his voice remains powerful and deeply soulful. His set, to an audience of mostly party lovers but a few soul afficianados, included originals such as 'Got To Get It Out Of My Heart' and Soul standards like 'You Send Me' and 'Me and Mrs Jones' and very good it was too. From there we headed to Grimey's record store where they were selling LPs for 50 cents (we all bought a few except Alan who had gone off to meet some friends). They also had live music and we watched a bit of gospel group the Caldwell Singers, four plus size ladies dressed mostly in pink taffeta. Great harmonies..

A long evening began with an Uber ride (what a brilliant service this is proving to be) to Basement East for Daddy Long Legs, a three piece rock and roll band from New York who I saw in New Orleans a couple of years back. They are loud, wild and very visual as the tall, skinny singer attacked his harmonica with venom, the drummer hammered his skins with a mallet and the Mod guitarist created a fabulous backing. Exciting stuff. Onwards we went to 3rd and Lindsey where we ate and sat through a number of rather average acts, the best being Dee White, who was good on a version of 'Old Man River', 'Little Old Wine Drinker Me' and 'Games People Play'. Female singer Nikki Bluhm I found a little screechy  and The Red Dirt Band rather bland Americana. The wait was worth it however as the final act, Delbert McClinton, was superb. I haven't seen Delbert for nearly 30 years but at the age of 78 he remains a great performer. Backed by his cracking band  the Self Made Men  and supported on a couple of numbers by Dana Robbins, this 'roots visionary' swung through bluesy originals like 'Mr Smith', 'A Fool Like Me, 'Oughtta Know', Why Me' and 'Fine and Healthy Thing', plus some well chosen covers including 'Take Me To The River' and Tyrone Davis's 'Can I Change My Mind'.  He finished with a barnstorming version of 'Giving It Up For Your Love'. In terms of quality this was perhaps the best set of the entire week, running the Mavericks close at the very least.