Nashville - Music City USA!

Watch my travel vlog for awesome footage from my trip!

This has been the epic dad trip and some of my last quality daddy daughter time before I have to grow up ---> i'm getting married in 2 weeks! (story of epic proposal to follow)

We arrived to Nashville full of hope and $1600 worth of Delta credit thanks to the LA flight being full and them needing to switch us.

On mine and Mitch's first date - we thought it hilarious that we were both going to Nashville around the same time of the year. Fast forward a few months and here we are! Our trips overlapping and both of our dads on a fun trip with us. (COINICIDENCE??!!! i think not)

I planned this trip around the DIY musician conference because I LOVE their podcast.... (all about music marketing and how to make it in the music industry)

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com

and my parents ended up paying for my flight and lodging so I could attend the conference. Dad wanted to tag along and it worked out great that Mitch and his dad were there too. We stayed in airbnb's the whole time which are SO affordable!!! Get $40 off your first booking with my code here!

www.airbnb.com/c/marissab3543

The first day was spent in Chattanooga - mostly exploring my family roots and learning about Tennessee and the civil war.

When I wasn't in conference sessions - I was exploring downtown Nashville! We got some City Passes that were a good deal if you are wanting to go to multiple museums/tours.

http://www.visitmusiccity.com/visitors/discountsdeals/totalaccess

My favorite was the Johnny Cash museum! (if you follow me on instagram you saw a lot of this! @marissajenell ) I have always loved Johnny Cash but also the first movie Mitch and I ever watched together was 'Walk the Line" We also loved not only TOURING - but going to a concert at the Grand Ole Opry. Basically everyone who has ever made it big in country music has played on this stage.

The best surprise of all was getting engaged to my sweetheart. I had asked him a few nights before if he had a ring yet because we have talked about getting married. He played it cool and LIED saying he had been very busy but would get on it as soon as we got home from the trip.

WELL THEN we went to dinner with his best friend that lives in Kentucky, and afterwards, walking over the pedestrian bridge, I asked if he wanted to have a spitting contest.

Mitch: "You know you're a weirdo, right?"

Me: "That's why you like me."

Mitch: "You know I lied to you last night right?"

Me: "........................."

Mitch: "You know I want to take care of you forever right?"

Me: "........................."

Mitch: "Look over there!!!!"

Me: *turns and looks and sees nothing*

Me: *turns back and Mitch is on his KNEE*

Well i'll spare you all the details but i'm just so happy.

And how fun is it that our story has so much to do with Nashville???? MAYBE it's a sign.....

The Origin of Music

What is music but sound?

What is sound but vibration?

What is vibration but a motion

---made by a feeling?

We can feel vibrations but also see them -

as they disrupt the ebb and flow of previous stillness

What is stillness but a lack of vibration?

What is silence but a lack of sound?

Is there such a thing?

For even though we may not vibrate,

everything else around us does.

Is music there, even when we are not?

For with that notion,

even the stars are musiking in the sky while we sleep.

-mb

Evelyn Glennie - An Empress of Music

Welcome to a composer spotlight! Music is an important part of not only my life, but every one else's as well. I would like to share with you a composer and musician who has had a great impact on my life.

DAME EVELYN GLENNIE!

Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. She fondly recalls having played the first percussion concerto in the history of The Proms at the Albert Hall in 1992, which paved the way for orchestras around the world to feature percussion concerti. She had the honour of a leading role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Evelyn regularly provides masterclasses and consultations designed to guide the next generation. With over 80 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour, Evelyn is also a leading commissioner of new works for solo percussion, with more than 200 pieces to her name from many of the world’s most eminent composers. The film ‘Touch the Sound’ and her enlightening TED speech remain key testimonies to her approach to sound-creation.

To this day, Evelyn continues to invest in realising her vision – to Teach the World to Listen – while looking to open a centre that embodies her mission: “to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening. We want to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower”.

As a composer, Evelyn writes and performs music for film, TV, radio, library companies and live performance. She regularly collaborates with other composers and has already worked with Fred Frith, David Motion, Terry Devine-King, MJ Cole, Ray Davies, Steve Hackett and Philip Sheppard. Evelyn’s unique style and the dizzying array of instruments in her personal collection make for an unforgettable sound.

Evelyn’s media credits include several multi-award winning films. This is very exciting to me because I am a student of film as well as music and would love to work more putting the 2 together.

A Dangerous Journey has been shown to governments around the world to highlight the humanitarian crisis of people trafficking.

Touch the Sound, which explores the nature of sound and its affect on our everyday lives, features Evelyn on-screen as well as on its soundtrack.

In one of my favorite recent projects, Evelyn joined celebrity of the technology world Paul Sonderegger as the star of this short film about Big Data. The on-screen conversation is accompanied by Evelyn’s newly composed soundtrack, co-written with Simon Lacey, which aims to mimic the structures and diversity of Big Data in a thrilling musical landscape.

Evelyn enjoys a long-standing relationship with Audio Network, one of the media industry’s fastest growing music library companies. Evelyn regularly works with a number of producers and co-composers to achieve a diverse portfolio suitable of the highest quality. This makes her compositions available to many different people and places around the world. Linked below is her audio network profile.

https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/composer/evelyn-glennie_28

Evelyn has composed many more works for a wide variety of instruments and I encourage you to listen to some of her music and get inspired! Check out her website below!

https://www.evelyn.co.uk