The Porch Swing Ramblings: 4 Atlanta Amblings
Settling down on the porch swing out front of our home for the rest of the tour, quickly became my favourite place to be! Gently swinging in the breeze, reflecting on the wonderful experiences of the previous 10 days or so was my new guilty pleasure and the porch swing was quickly recognised as my “spot”! My thoughts became words and my memories, sentences and so my “Porch Swing” blogs began!
However, we were in a new city and there was more exploring to be done!
Rehearsals with our new chorus were well underway in an amazing venue! This time we were in a fantastic venue, the Science Gallery at Pullman Yards. There was a challenge though….the building was just that…floor, walls and a roof! It was a great space though, and the company worked incredibly hard hiring and buying everything needed to turn it into a theatre for the final run of the shows. There was a great buzz round Pullman Yards. It is an up and coming area and right beside us was an exhibition celebrating “Stranger Things” and a couple of quirky bars and cafes.
My first Atlantan adventure was a trip out to Suwanee to pick up a double bass that I was hiring for our Atlanta shows. That was a real treat in itself. The Uber dropped me off at a fantastic building which had formerly been the Rhodes Hotel back in the late 1800s. I felt I had just stepped into a movie set! When I opened the door, I was greeted with a buzz of chatter, music and smiles! The lovely owner, Anna welcomed me warmly and led me to a parlour where there were two double basses waiting for me to try! I had a lovely time playing on both basses as music lessons and instrument restoration was going on around me on different parlours! It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with a gorgeous double bass with blue grass roots which fitted into our band perfectly!
A new friendship was quickly made too and we are so excited that Anna is coming to round off this term’s Bessy Bass at Your Place Zoom Sessions on Sunday 4th June!
Once we were up and running with our show routine, we took advantage of any time off to explore our final destination. Walking along the Belt Line in the sunshine was lovely. Might have had a stop or two for some more southern hearty cooking! 🫢
The Museum of Civil Rights was powerful and in my opinion, something that everyone should have the opportunity to experience.
An escape from the city to the East Palisades trail was the perfect end to our adventuring. A lovely walk with a packed lunch and great company rounded off the whole trip perfectly!
For the double bass from Lower Largo in Fife, Scotland, this was magical for Bessy!!
As mentioned before in the previous blogs, this wasn’t an official “Bessy” gig but she is never far from my thoughts as every trip I make has potential material for future Bessy projects! From the first trip on the Washington Subway to the love shown by the wonderfully supportive Mould family who welcomed B with open arms, Bessy was as much a part of this tour as I was and even had her own social media coverage, #backstagebessy!
Thank you for joining me on my porch swing! I was really sad to leave it behind but my wonderful and thoughtful partner came up with a brilliant solution when I came home… a joint Christmas present was purchased… a garden swing seat…coming soon - “The Garden Swing Dialogues” 😉
