Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Saturday December 15, 2018 - Lexington, KY

Road Blog
Lexington, Kentucky
December 15, 2018

Our day started, under blue skies and in warm temps, at Grimey's New & Preloved Music, one of the top record stores in the country according to most people's lists. We usually stop there when we're in Nashville, but we haven’t been able to since they moved to a new location. Word has it that Jason Isbell had been shopping there the day before, for what that's worth. Anyhow, after a lot of perusing and flipping through stacks, I walked out with a medium sized stack of my own, only to be outdone by Gabriel, who had me beat by a few. From there we headed over to Prince's Hot Chicken, which is where we were told the REAL Nashville hot chicken can be found. We were disappointed to find it closed until 2PM, but undeterred, we headed to their south Nashville location. The place was hopping but we were served quickly and were scarfing down in no time. Our usual stop is Hattie B's Hot Chicken, but we felt we had to try Prince's, and we've since heard of a couple other spots less known to tourists that we'll have to try. Truth be told, Prince’s was good, but greasier than Hattie's, and the salt content was off the charts. Gotta give Hattie's the edge, but still open to new possibilities too.

As we left Nashville the sky turned grey and it started raining. I'll spare you the gory details, but let's just say that turbo-hot Thai food and Nashville hot chicken the next morning will take a toll on a fella's digestive system, and we were all percolating by the time we hit the freeway. There we're a few unplanned stops along the way, some antacids consumed, a bit of cussing, and some frivolous declarations about treating our bodies better as we passed through Bowling Green and the National Corvette Museum with the sinkhole and onto the Bluegrass Parkway east towards Lexington. We pulled into the city a bit after 6 in a pouring rain and checked into our AirBnB. We had to get into the city to meet friends for dinner before load in so there was no time for relaxation. Gabe took over the wheel and we met Bryan, Erica and then Will at a place called Oscar Diggs downtown, getting our orders in just before the UK basketball game wrapped up. We devoured some great burgers, Bryan Minks, Gabriel Doman and I opting for The Thorogood – cheeseburger with a shot of bourbon and a can of beer. Patrick and Erica took a slightly less risky path.

We loaded into The Green Lantern Bar and got rock star parking right next to the bar. This was our seventh show in Lexington and second at The Lantern. It's a classic dive/rock and roll joint with a band room on one side and a bar on the other. My pal M Tivis runs sound there, and he plays in a band called Yellow Cuss who we played with earlier in the year. Pretty soon our very own Riff Randall and dear friend Amy Foxworthy showed up, making the trek in from Indianapolis for Patty's last show, and a steady stream of familiar faces followed, with hugs and road stories and all the other things that go along with seeing your friends that you only get to see once or twice a year. I called TrooperGirl22, who is holding down the fort back home this weekend (and getting into a little trouble of her own), then went back into the bar to watch the first band, Nic Allen and The Troubled Minds. They're from Huntington, WV/Southern Ohio, and play a cool blend of Americana reminiscent of Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers with great songs, strong vocals, and a killer guitarist/pedal-steel player. Next up was Eric Bolander Music and These Assholes. I got caught up with Eric before the show. We'd met before and even played together a couple times, but it took us a while to figure out exactly when and where. Eric was playing with a drummer as a duo, again with great songs and vocals, and a great sounding Telecaster leading the way.

We went on third to a great room of rowdy friends and played a set that we were really happy with. Patty brought out `Buckskin` for his last show – a deerskin jacket he wore for his first couple years in the band until it nearly rotted off of him, including a stint under the 100f July Kentucky Sun at Fun Ranch and a special delivery from Louisville a couple years later after it was unintentionally abandoned at a Super 8 motel. It was hot and sticky and loud and beautiful and we had the best time. We ended with a sing-along to Hey Kentucky with Minks and the whole bar helping, and Bottled Regrets, before tearing down and watching Bryan Minks and the Kentucky Sons. Bryan was up in Michigan a couple weeks ago solo, but I haven't seen the band since June, and as usual they killed it. A bit rowdier than the last time, but every bit as awesome as always. They Ended up with a Those Crosstown Rivals song, Bryan and Cory's previous band, and NP and I hijacked the stage to sing The Replacements' Can't Hardly Wait with them.

We got back to the AirBB after 3am and I was up by 8, showered, and drinking stale instant coffee. The boys rallied, and we were on the road around 10:30, just in time to drive right into the heart of Cincinnati Bengals traffic as we made a quick pit-stop at our favorite liquor store in Bellevue, KY. We had a few laughs on the way home, telling stories about the weekend, like Amy darting through the front door of the bar from the patio like a mad-woman when she heard the opening notes of Can’t Hardly Wait, the boys struggling to find acceptable facilities to tend to their lingering digestive issues, and Erica wrapped up in a moving blanket in the back of the van while Bryan, Nate, Ben, the boys and I chatted before taking off.

I can't say enough about Lexington – soooo many great friends there who came out to hang. In addition to those already mentioned, Matt Sigler, Racheal Sigler, Christen Kincaid, D'Arcy Batson McArdle, Virginia Lacefield, J Tyler Gregg, Anj Drayer, Michael Jett came in from Louisville and Ned Hill/Ned Van Go was in town from Nashville. I know I'm forgetting people too, and some people have false FB names that are hard to tag, but it feels like home there and it remains our favorite city. It was also a bit bittersweet, being Patty's last show, but we made a party out of it and between last night and our show at PJ's Lager House in Detroit a couple weeks back it feels like we're sending him off in style. I’ll probably post a little bit more about his departure before the year is over, but I’m really glad he’s going out on a high note.

Thanks for reading the blogs. We’re off the road until late January. Have a great holiday and keep rockin’. Xo