Traveling Music

My first trip to New Orleans was in 1995. My husband and I went to see Florida play Florida State. GO GATORS!!! This was about a 10 hour road trip. Long! Seeing New Orleans kinda took precedence over the game. I thought it was just the coolest place I had ever visited. While we were wondering around the French Quarter I found someone doing pastel portraits. I watched him for a minute then decided I wanted one. Well my husband was less than thrilled but he sat for it. That portrait of us is absolutely one of my favorites.
Now skipping forward to 1999 we returned to New Orleans because I signed up for a photography workshop through Outdoor Photographer. By then my husband was into Marty Stuart bigtime. So he persuaded me to listen to his new cd, "The Pilgrim". I had not listened to country music in forever. The whole cd tells a story of love, betrayal, wandering, and redemption. Needless to say I was very glad I listened to it, over and over. Then we sang every song over and over. When we arrived in New Orleans my husband just chilled out while I attended the workshop. The group I was in worked with 3 photographers and toured around the French Quarter, the swamps, and the Metairie Cemetery. Metairie was the best. They even brought in models for us to photograph around the graves. After the workshop was over my husband and I went back to the French Quarter looking for our pastel guy and could not find him. So we went into a local frame shop and asked about him and they said he had passed away. Very sad news. We really wanted to get another portrait done. We saw a few other artists around but were not impressed with their work. Lesson learned, sign your work! We never would have known who to ask for if his last name was not on the portrait.
Back again in 2001 for a conference. Get the Marty Stuart cd we need traveling music! I was quilting then so I had to locate every quilt shop I could find. We had to drive to one that was located outside New Orleans somewhere but I cannot remember where. I got my Mardi Gras fabric there. The shop in the French Quarter is where I bought some gorgeous crushed velvet for my crazy quilt that I will be doing in the future.
So what does all this mean? Well my husband had been obsessed with moving to Nashville since the whole Marty Stuart thing. He more or less fell in love with country music and wanted to be in the middle of it, so here we are. Then guess who he gets to meet? Marty! Marty invited us backstage at the Ryman Auditorium to hear him play. He is one talented individual. It's crazy how the world turns!
Song of the day: "Red, Red Wine and Cheatin' Songs" by Marty Stuart