July 31, 2015

At Home In Music City

At Home In Music City

It’s an unwritten rule in Nashville. If you see a famous musician who lives in town, you let them be. Your heart might skip a beat when you see Robert Plant, Jack White, Emmylou Harris or whoever it is for you, but you let them be. “Music City” has always been a safe haven for musicians. It’s where they raise their kids and buy their groceries. It’s their home and people generally want to protect that. Today we explore that idea of home by going into the houses of two very different Nashville musicians. The first is Roger Weismeyer, a classically trained English horn and piano player who plays for the Nashville Symphony. The second, the introverted indie rocker, Ben Elkins of the band El El. To get to know what our musical neighbors and their spaces are like we have come up with a format that includes a bit of music. We go to their house and ask them to play two songs: One, an original, played in the space in which they often create, write, and practice. The second, a cover of a song that for them is the pinnacle of what they want to achieve in music. Since they create not only music but their lives in these houses, we ask them to tell us about a meaningful object in their home and see where that takes us.

It’s an unwritten rule in Nashville. If you see a famous musician who lives in town, you let them be. Your heart might skip a beat when you see Robert Plant, Jack White, Emmylou Harris or whoever it is for you, but you let them be. “Music City” has always been a safe haven for musicians. It’s where they raise their kids and buy their groceries. It’s their home and people generally want to protect that. Today we explore that idea of home by going into the houses of two very different Nashville musicians. The first is Roger Weismeyer, a classically trained English horn and piano player who plays for the Nashville Symphony. The second, the introverted indie rocker, Ben Elkins of the band El El. To get to know what our musical neighbors and their spaces are like we have come up with a format that includes a bit of music. We go to their house and ask them to play two songs: One, an original, played in the space in which they often create, write, and practice. The second, a cover of a song that for them is the pinnacle of what they want to achieve in music. Since they create not only music but their lives in these houses, we ask them to tell us about a meaningful object in their home and see where that takes us.