BARRY COURTER: Lisa, everyone is so excited about this Great American Eclipse event next Monday, I wonder if anyone is even aware that there are plenty of things happening between now and then. And I just want to be the first to say that I believe that whoever got the rights to have this celestial event happen only in the US of A was doing their job.
LISA DENTON: I know, right? Make Eclipses Great Again!
It is kind of a big deal. The last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. was in 1979, and it didn't extend this far South. The next one, which will extend from Northern California to Florida, will be on Oct. 14, 2023, and it's only a partial solar eclipse here. So this one is worth playing hooky for.
But like you said, that's still a week away. What else can we do in the meantime?
BARRY: The calendar is pretty full. Moon Taxi is at the Tivoli on Friday, and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame is there on Saturday. But on Friday at Revelry Room, local-boy-made-good artist Mitch Rossell returns to town. He's been writing and working with none other than Garth Brooks, having written "Ask Me How I Know," which is Brooks' latest hit. Rossell graduated from Silverdale Academy before going to Virginia Tech and UTC and has his own album called "Raised by the Radio" out as well.
LISA: Hats off to him. If all he ever does is write a hit for Garth Brooks, he can count himself a success. It's kind of amazing that he didn't pick up a guitar until his freshman year of college. His bio says he used to lock himself in his dorm room and skip classes so he could play, but he did graduate, with a degree in business management, before moving to Nashville in 2010.
BARRY: He's carving out a pretty good career and making some nice contacts in Nashville. He's also played with the Zac Brown Band and sung with Eric Church.
LISA: Church seems to like Chattanooga. He even included a song about a woman named "Chattanooga Lucy" on his last album, "Mr. Misunderstood."
The song turned out better than Garrison Keillor's efforts to write a limerick about the city. I heard Michael Edward Miller's interview with him on WUTC's "Around & About" the other night, and Keillor said he gave up the limerick after trying to rhyme Chattanooga with arugula and the ooga-ooga sound of a Model T Ford. I can't imagine why he didn't think of rhyming it with "sug-ah." Maybe he's never eaten in a diner here. Anyway, he'll be back in town Sept. 9 for the Prairie Home "Love and Comedy" Tour at the Tivoli Theatre.
BARRY: We also have Edwin McCain at Songbirds on Thursday, and Tinsley Ellis is doing his Blues Is Dead show as part of Riverfront Nights. This a show filled with blues covers done by the Grateful Dead. I talked with Tinsley last week, and he said he loves the Dead but really loves the Allman Brothers. This show is full of very danceable jam music, he said, and that it is a lot of fun. Tinsley is a great guitar player with a 35-year history of playing here at the Brass Register, the Sandbar, Michelangelo's and Rhythm & Brews.
LISA: He's paid his dues. It should be a great show, and be advised it's the last Riverfront Nights show of the season.
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Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.