I give a lot of thought to how the doors of perception get held open. There’s affirmation. There’s art. There’s well-timed nods. There’s finding something or someone familiar or wonderfully weird and then going to the trouble of risking something in an attempt to get in on the act (or the scene) you see going on. There’s also finding something or someone beautiful and…the desire to be nearer to the beauty. The longing to belong to the beautiful and the beloved. To be beloved. To be beheld.
In those days, Nashville was small enough that I’d see the men of Chagall Guevara around town. I remember seeing Lynn Nichols at the Blockbuster Video in Green Hills and asking if he’d let me buy him a doughnut at The Donut Den down the street. “Perhaps another time,” he told me. To this day, we still haven’t broken doughnuts together. *shakes fist at sky*
In time, Wade Jaynes would become a very good friend who turned me on to Paul Virilio and hefeweizen. When I approached Steve Taylor to ask him if he’d read any Dostoevsky, I seem to recall him recommending A Prayer For Owen Meany (Guess what I found, bought, and started reading right away). I only met Mike Mead one time at a Cracker Barrel, but I’ll never forget when he accepted an award on behalf of the band beneath a tent at our State fairgrounds saying, “This is the best thing that’s happened to me all day.”
I’m gonna pause for a moment at the thought of Dave Perkins (who’s giving us all a thumbs-up in the photograph above) to say something about what I call The Nashville Nexus. I mean to deploy the words in a neutral way. The Nashville Nexus names a weird, radiating, sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful…promise which moves along a spectrum of curse and blessing. Nashville’s embarrassing and freshtastik all at once (Have you noticed?). The Nashville Nexus appeared before me in a friend’s New York apartment recently when he told me that his cat has a sibling owned (or looked after) by Taylor Swift. The Nashville Nexus also showed up when Michael W. Smith played “Friends” at a memorial service for Public Servant 41. I felt a disturbance in the Nashville Nexus when a thoughtful young man at a skate park sighed in my presence and begrudgingly acknowledged that, yes, Donald Trump (not yet Public Servant 45) had recently delivered a speech at Rocketown, Rocketown. Come on, The Nashville Nexus!! Don’t do this to yourself. Show some self-respect.
I wrestle not against flesh and blood, but I hate The Nashville Nexus sometimes. I want it to stand up for itself when abusers, bullies, and opportunists promise it the world.
I also think of all the people in Nashville who’ve been so good to me, and then…I love it all over again.
I think of Dave Perkins. If you were there at the Martin Twin (which was eventually destroyed and replaced with Hollywood 27) when Robert Altman’s Nashville premiered in Nashville in 1975, you would have beheld Vassar Clements’ band serving as an opening act. You would also have beheld Dave in that band. Dave Perkins can’t be everywhere all at once, but he’s been there, at the still-beating heart, of all manner of awesomeness in famous and not-famous Nashville. When singer-songwriter-artist gadfly, Jimmy Abegg, began to lose his eyesight and was asked by friends if he’d allow them to conduct a fund-raising evening at Third Man Records to help pay for a backyard studio, he consented under the condition that Dave Perkins be the headliner. They agreed. Amy Grant was the opening act. It was a beautiful evening.
So anyway, Dave Perkins is my hero and friend. You can perhaps imagine the thrill it was to hear him sing this Chagall Guevara song at the Ryman auditorium a few weeks ago.
The picture above is a postcard Steve Taylor sent me after I wrote a review of their self-titled debut. It was just the validation I needed. I held on to it and often looked at it whenever I feared I’d never access what Jim Carrey’s character in Dumb and Dumber refers to as “the social pipeline.”
When I worked and lived in Northern Ireland in the Fall of 1992, I met a Presbyterian pastor named Steve Stockman while leading an outdoor exercise at a YMCA. Upon hearing that I was from Nashville, he remarked on the music that comes out of there. I replied, somewhat defensively, that it wasn’t all country music. He smiled and lifted up his sweatshirt to reveal a Chagall Guevara t-shirt underneath. I would go on to serve as his best man, he’d co-officiate my wedding ceremony, and he remains a mentor to me despite the ocean between us.
In short, be the rock and roll you want to see in the world. Thank you, Chagall Guevara, for everything.
Anybody know what happened to The Gunbunnies?
If anyone has any words or images for recovering the social fact of an establishment called Multi-Bob’s, please share them with me. This is some of the only evidence I have that it ever existed (right across the street from the pet store that became Fido.
Loved every word of this and the stellar interview. I didn't have a clue what I was really doing or listening to, back in those days, but I somehow purchased CG's album (having been a Steve Taylor fan) and now I feel a bit retrospectively cool.
"Who puts a Paper Mate pen in a song? Chagall Guevara, that’s who." Pure gold.
what a great piece! Ahh, the Nashville Nexus, I too have been caught up in it with these guys! I actually met Dave before my husband Rob (who went on to do some nyc dates with the DP Band in the 80s) when he asked me to sing back up for him along with Gary Pigg at a band booking event in North Carolina. We became good friends with Dave and Sue and their "young kids" when we had no idea what to do with a child... When Rob was a CCM artist and we would go to the networking events, we were befriended by Steve and Deb Taylor as well as well as Jim and Kim Thomas and Lynn and Kathy Nichols. I worked with Steve and Ben Pearson for several years doing makeup/hair on many of their christian music videos and also photo shoots with Steve as an artist. Fleming and John was another video project I worked on. Rich Mullins was a fav or Ben's and visa-versa. We also do so many sessions with Michael W. I used to hold him in high regard..... Jimmy became part of my world then as I worked with him on photo shoots as well as his collaborations with Ben Pearson. It was a very rich time in my life and I am so grateful for these connections. I am still amazed that Nashville was and still is sometimes a very small town. Thanks for this!
So cool. Started listening to Steve Taylor in mid 1980s. Dave Perkins has had great solo work. The Ben Folds video is priceless. I'm a big Ben Folds fan. And speaking of Nashville nexus, I may be in town in mid to late fall to see how Jim Becker is doing. Would love to break donuts or just say hello
This is so exceptional. How to summarize The Nashville Nexus, in which I am far less embedded than you—from my peripheral angle, it looks to me like Seeking with Uncertainty from many directions, but not being afraid to love despite the lack of a sure path, so it is therefore very brave. Lynne
Well David you talked about people I never heard about. I started listening to one of the songs, and was Sad, because I could not understand a word.
I guess you would have to know the words. I do know who James Carrey is, and never went to any of his movies.
I am 88 years old, so you have introduced me to a whole new world to me.
Let me ask are you familiar with the music of Frank Sinatra, Nate King Cole, etc. You can understand every word they sing.
I guess you would call me out of touch.
Religiously do you know Robert McAfee Brown. I knew him, and he is one of my heroes.
It would be an interesting conversation to get us together.
I am catching up by listening to Dianna Butler Bass, Brian McLaren, John Dominic Crossan , Marcus Borg. It is refreshing to hear the spin on their Theology and Bibical scholarship. I have met all of them, and I am excited about what I am learning from them.
Back Sept 3 or so
Rob was Dave's guitar tech for that night and my son Dillon was the drum tech--haha! Great show! Over the Rhine was stunning@
David,
I didn’t know of your connection with Steve Stockman, a friend of mine as well.
Let’s break donuts.
xp
Loved every word of this and the stellar interview. I didn't have a clue what I was really doing or listening to, back in those days, but I somehow purchased CG's album (having been a Steve Taylor fan) and now I feel a bit retrospectively cool.
"Who puts a Paper Mate pen in a song? Chagall Guevara, that’s who." Pure gold.
what a great piece! Ahh, the Nashville Nexus, I too have been caught up in it with these guys! I actually met Dave before my husband Rob (who went on to do some nyc dates with the DP Band in the 80s) when he asked me to sing back up for him along with Gary Pigg at a band booking event in North Carolina. We became good friends with Dave and Sue and their "young kids" when we had no idea what to do with a child... When Rob was a CCM artist and we would go to the networking events, we were befriended by Steve and Deb Taylor as well as well as Jim and Kim Thomas and Lynn and Kathy Nichols. I worked with Steve and Ben Pearson for several years doing makeup/hair on many of their christian music videos and also photo shoots with Steve as an artist. Fleming and John was another video project I worked on. Rich Mullins was a fav or Ben's and visa-versa. We also do so many sessions with Michael W. I used to hold him in high regard..... Jimmy became part of my world then as I worked with him on photo shoots as well as his collaborations with Ben Pearson. It was a very rich time in my life and I am so grateful for these connections. I am still amazed that Nashville was and still is sometimes a very small town. Thanks for this!
So cool. Started listening to Steve Taylor in mid 1980s. Dave Perkins has had great solo work. The Ben Folds video is priceless. I'm a big Ben Folds fan. And speaking of Nashville nexus, I may be in town in mid to late fall to see how Jim Becker is doing. Would love to break donuts or just say hello
I've always wanted to visit Murfreesboro to see my high school first hand!
This is so exceptional. How to summarize The Nashville Nexus, in which I am far less embedded than you—from my peripheral angle, it looks to me like Seeking with Uncertainty from many directions, but not being afraid to love despite the lack of a sure path, so it is therefore very brave. Lynne
Well David you talked about people I never heard about. I started listening to one of the songs, and was Sad, because I could not understand a word.
I guess you would have to know the words. I do know who James Carrey is, and never went to any of his movies.
I am 88 years old, so you have introduced me to a whole new world to me.
Let me ask are you familiar with the music of Frank Sinatra, Nate King Cole, etc. You can understand every word they sing.
I guess you would call me out of touch.
Religiously do you know Robert McAfee Brown. I knew him, and he is one of my heroes.
It would be an interesting conversation to get us together.
I am catching up by listening to Dianna Butler Bass, Brian McLaren, John Dominic Crossan , Marcus Borg. It is refreshing to hear the spin on their Theology and Bibical scholarship. I have met all of them, and I am excited about what I am learning from them.
Keep on keeping on, this OLD Lady is listening
Bette MULLEY
marywmulley@gmail.com