Shake em on down

Last night Chris and I went to a great venue in Asheville, NC called the Orange Peel. Someone sunk a lot of money into this joint. Even the bathrooms were beautiful.

I am really starting to like Asheville a lot. The place just has a very positive vibe surrounding it. Hippy chicks are everywhere, there are great privately owned shops, cool clean air, an attractive downtown, great privately owned restaurants and friendly people. Really friendly people. I would love to live there.

The show we went to see at the Orange Peel was headlined by a group called the Smiling Assassins. It's a side project for members of Widespread Panic and the North Mississippi All-Stars. We were there to see the opening band called the Kenny Brown Band. They are on the Fat Possum label and it's basically the band that backs up R.L. Burnside with a bass player thrown in. I hadn't heard some true Mississippie droning blues in a long time and as soon as Kenny hit that first note on his slide guitar and the band kicked into "Rollin and Tumblin" my body became like liquid and the music was a pool skimmer that swiped all of the negativity I possessed. I felt myself becoming thinner like my body was slowly getting less dense and I almost floated away. It was truly soul cleansing. Ever see those maniacs that get themselves worked up in a church over nothing? They should experience north Mississippi blues played by experts and they will truly encounter the spiritual.