Nashville is funny. Even though the music industry is brewing all around you there can be stretches when it seems like nothing is happening at all. It's like the whole city is in a closed door meeting and you didn't get a memo. Then just as you start to wonder if you'll ever work again the phone rings and you're right back at the party. 

It happened to me recently when I got to play with an artist named Sarah Buxton. Sarah has one of the smokiest voices in town and is well respected as a great singer/songwriter. She also has a record deal on the same Nashville label (Lyric Street) as Rascal Flatts, which puts her right in the middle of things, and for a few weeks last summer we played shows all over the country, trying to break a single called "Outside My Window".

Though Sarah isn't a household name (yet!) she's had some of the good breaks that talented people seem to attract. Like the time Keith Urban recorded a song she wrote about her ex-husband"Stupid Boy". As the story goes, Keith heard the song and wanted to record it but felt strange about a lyric lecturing a guy who had just lost a great woman. (He's right! Men don't do that to men.) And it looked like he might move on, when his famous Australian wife Nicole solved the problem with a simple question, "Why don't you sing it into the mirrah?" And so, by changing "You're just a stupid boy" to "I'm just a stupid boy" Sarah Buxton became the writer a huge hit song.

With the Urban/Buxton connection it had occurred to me that we might get a chance to open a Keith Urban show at some point, and sure enough it happened. We were heading to a one off in Memphis and got a phone call from Keith's road manager. The info trickled forth in a series of quick calls to Sarah's musical director/tour manager/guitarist, Tony Lopacinski. Apparently Sugarland was supposed to do it but the girl's voice went out... and so Keith needed an opener... in Phoenix... in two days. 

As we bounced down Highway 40 I tried to put the whole thing out of my mind. These kind of things tend to come and go quickly and I didn't want to get my hopes up too soon. It occurred to me also that if the show DID come through I would have to cancel a gig I'd booked that night - playing a Cajon behind a singer in a restaurant. 

The phone calls between Tony, the label, and Urban's people continued as we cruised West towards Memphis. At some point I found myself pondering the difference between playing a Cahon in the corner of a restaurant and pounding out a show on a drum set in front of 20,000 people. I tried to gage Tony's face as the calls came in but he was all business; answering questions, ironing out details, and jumping from one call to another. 

I started practicing my cancellation phone call and then realized I was getting my hopes too high again. So I forced myself to forget about the Urban thing and just enjoy the fact that I was currently heading to Memphis on a tour bus to play great music with an incredible artist. I then reminded myself that I would get to play music two nights later either way. It might be opening for Keith Urban or might be a gig with a different singer/songwriter. But that guy had some good songs, too! And a strong voice! And the gig included dinner at a pretty nice place! 

Then Tony set the phone down and said, "It's on. Can everybody play Phoenix two nights from now?" and I broke the "wow" moment by saying "YES!" too loudly as I bounded to the front of the bus to make my call.

We played a great show in Memphis that night and then the band rode back home while Sarah and Tony stayed for some extra radio promo stuff. The next day there was a flurry of emails. Apparently two of Sarah's band members had gigs they couldn't get out and wouldn't be coming to Phoenix, which meant we'd have subs on lead guitar and bass. Add to that, Sarah and Tony were flying straight to the show so we'd have to play the gig without a rehearsal. I thought for a second and realized I wasn't worried. Pulling off an arena gig unrehearsed is fine in Nashville. Just another "Music City" perk.

On the day of the big show Sarah and Tony flew to Phoenix from the West coast and I flew out from Nashville on my own. I looked for players on the plane that might be subbing the gig with us but I didn't recognize anybody. Then, upon landing in Phoenix, I ran into Tom Bukovac. Besides being Sarah's boyfriend, Tom also happens to be one of the busiest A-List guitarists in town. In fact, he has played on, among other things, a bunch of Keith Urban records. I was kind of hoping he'd be the sub guitarist and was glad we would get a chance to play together.

The sub bassist was there, too. He introduced himself as Jimmie Lee Sloas. Jimmie was kind and self-deprecating. He laughed and said he was nervous because he'd only received the songs the night before. I figured he was a competent player if he was hanging with Tom, but he was such a great guy that, within ten minutes of our meeting, I had already decided to go out of my way to help him through the set anyway I could. 

The record label had a rental car in Tom's name and we got it and drove to the hotel. There was a little time before we had to go to the venue so the three of us got lunch in the hotel restaurant. We wouldn't get to play together until the show so it was nice to hang a little before we hit the stage unrehearsed.

After we'd eaten Sarah came down and the four of us drove to "Jobing.com Arena". On the ride there we listened to the new Rob Thomas record. I almost objected but it was pretty good, and later it came out that Tom was involved in the production so I was glad I'd kept my yap shut.

We got to the arena and there were already fans walking in groups towards the lines by the doors. We drove around the place until we found the artist entrance and were then directed down a ramp to the side of the building. We got out and walked past Keith Urban's tour busses. His personal bus had a matching trailer on the back with several beautiful motorcycles inside. I might of said "To the victor go the spoils!" but it was too hot to think about anything except the AC inside the building. 

We went in and found our dressing rooms, one for Sarah and one for the band, and then went out to see Keith Urban's soundcheck as it wound down. Keith's drummer had a full set of Craviatto's in Bonham sizes as well as a little matching kick and snare to the left of his riser. He also had cymbals all over the place, some electronics, and a laptop next to his hi-hat stand.

When their check was over Keith greeted everyone and handed his guitar to Tom to play. While that was going on Jimmie Lee introduced me to Keith's drummer, Chris McHugh. I thought it was interesting that Jimmie seemed to know McHugh so well. Maybe they'd played together? It would all snap into place later when Keith's long time bassist, Jerry Flowers, said to Jimmie, "I'm just out here tring not to mess up your parts, man." Ooooooooooh. I should have guessed. Jimmie Lee was a heavy weight. It turns out he, like Tom, had also played on, among other things, a bunch of Keith Urban records. Gotta love Nashville.

It was time for us to set up and I checked the drums we'd rented from Studio Instrument Rental (SIR). The drums were DW even though I'd asked for Ludwig but what really bugged me was the color. Despite DW's many amazing finishes and wraps they also have some real dogs, and this kit was wrapped in what looked like Aqua snakeskin. Worse than that, SIR had forgotten the rack tom, leaving me with just a kick, snare and floor. 

Chris McHugh's tech came around while I was setting up and I told him what had happened. He said "You want some rack toms? We have a bunch of kits out here. I can get you whatever you need." Wow. I was grateful for the offer but had already decided to accept the challenge of playing all the tom parts on the floor tom alone.

Another tech said " Who did you get those drums through?" I said "SIR". And he said "OH! Sorry I Rented?" I laughed a little but was still reeling from the thought of McHugh having "a bunch of kits out there" - in addition to the $10,000 worth of Craviatto gear set up on stage behind me. "To the victor go the spoils." I said then to myself. (It was cooler inside.)

After we checked, Jimmy, Tom, and I went to catering to hang out with some of the guys in Urban's band. The food was amazing and everyone was really nice. These guys tour a lot and the production is big enough to accommodate the band member's various hobbies. Some of the guys had motorcycles out with them. Or road bikes. I'd heard that Chris McHugh brings enough recording gear to do professional drum tracks from the road.

We hung around catering for a while and then the venue "opened the doors", and since it's not often I find myself in a hockey stadium I decided to walk around the building. There were huge merchandise booths set up and people coming through the doors in droves. And then I saw a little sign on the wall that said: "SUGARLAND WILL NOT BE PERFORMING THIS EVENING. REPLACED BY LYRIC STREET RECORDING ARTIST SARAH BUXTON. TICKETS MAY BE REFUNDED AT THE BOX OFFICE." And I realized for the first time we would be playing for a bunch of Sugarland fans who'd just found out they weren't seeing Sugarland. Yikes!

I walked to the very back of the venue and looked at my little three piece Aqua snakeskin drum set on the stage. They looked great and I was glad to see that without the rack tom nobody would notice the finish anyway.

After a while I returned to our dressing room and went through the songs with Jimmie Lee, tightening up some of the breaks and changes . Our set time was only 40 minutes. Time for just six songs. And it turned out Jimmie'd recorded the bass on a few of the tracks anyway so I was sure he'd be fine. 

Soon it was time to go on and we started heading down the long, concrete hallway towards the stage. Just before we got to the end Chris McHugh called us into the Urban band's dressing room to check out a video and I walked in to see Buddy Rich soloing on a beautiful monitor with perfect sound. I looked around the room and there was recording equipment everywhere. Just past that there was a fully loaded gym. 

I thanked Chris sarcastically for freaking me out with a Buddy Rich solo just before I was to play, and then Jimmie, Tom, Tony and I went out and stood in the wings. Sarah came over looking fantastic, and soon the lights went down and we were on.

Since it was a short set we got right to work with the single from her last record and rocked it. After the song I listened but there was no booing. The weird thing was they didn't cheer much either. Then Sarah said "I'd like to thank Sugarland for cancelling tonight." and I thought we'd get it then for sure, but no! I think they were too stunned to speak. A couple people yelled "Sugarland!" randomly from deep in the crowd and we went into the second song. 

As the show continued Sarah would slowly win over the entire crowd. She flipped them out by running shoeless down the ramp into the audience and singing and dancing with some of the fans. The drums were nice and loud in my monitors, Sarah was on fire, our background vocals were in tune, and the band sounded great. 

Bukovac was off to my right, snarling and twitching and playing the hell out of his guitar, while Jimmie Lee was on the other side, smiling and bobbing and tearing up his bass-neck like a madman, all the while reading little hand-written charts he'd sat on an amp next to my floor tom. We finished the set to a great ovation and walked off stage and back down the long hallway to our dressing rooms - like a team that had just pulled off a huge road win, which, in a way, we had.

One of the great things about opening a big show is that after you come off stage... you get to see a big show! So after I toweled off I went out to watch Keith Urban from the pit area on the side. The rest of Sarah's band was there, including Sarah, with about twenty relatives who had flown in to see her. 

Then Keith Urban came on and blew us all away! I knew Keith Urban as a good singer with a few cool songs, but I didn't know he was a rock star! At one point he ran through the crowd with just a couple of burly blockers, and even as people grabbed his hair, shirt, and guitar he continued to knock out a solo Angus Young would have been proud to have played. His band was chock full of top notch players, too, and every one of them sang like a lead singer. Keith pointed out Sarah during Stupid Boy (Goosebumps for everybody!) and it ended up being an amazing night all around.

The next morning we flew back to Nashville. The return flight was packed with players coming home from gigs. I sat with Leann Rimes' band and crew, next to her personal stylist, Kari, and we had a nice conversation. One of Leann's band members fell asleep and the other guys took turns throwing things into his mouth. It was a festive flight and I was happy to be included with a bunch of working Nashville players. 

"Music City" is a tough but magical town. Sometimes it feels like it's a million miles away and then all of a sudden it feels just like you'd hoped it would.