UNCOVERED

Hearts and heartache

The irony wasn't lost on Orchestra Nashville's guest artists or audience last night at Grace Chapel in Lieper's Fork. Three of the finest songwriter/artists in Music City, Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters and Suzy Bogguss, made for an amazing first half at our annual Valentine's Day show. The mood was festive, but the songs were not all about happy hearts. "This is the un-Valentine song" joked Peters as she introduced "You Don't Even Know Who I Am," her astonishingly powerful two-sided song of love gone cold that was made into a 1995 hit single by Patty Loveless. Suzy sang her own hit "Outbound Plane" where love almost flies, and "Aces" where it seems to be crash landing. Matraca offered a dose of young love with her smash hit "Strawberry Wine" (made famous by Deanna Carter) and had one of the night's show stoppers in a brand new song reflecting on the tragedy of post-Katrina New Orleans called "Muddy Water."

But fear not if you're thinking about catching tonight's repeat performance and you're in the mood for love songs. Raul Malo, the star of the second half, was all about romance, offering one delicious bon bon after another. He sang the Everly Brothers' classic "Let It Be Me," the kiss-filled "Besame Mucho" and a boiling Latin duet with Suzy on "Two To Tango."

Where you there? Please let us know what you thought.

New Content Alert: Silverman's Journey

One of the more unusual and innovative pieces on the program at last November's Thanksgiving Celebration concert was the Overture for strings by electric violinist Tracy Silverman. We've just posted two pieces of video that trace the journey of that piece from first rehearsal to the stage. It wasn't easy. Paul Gambill reports that after two rehearsals, he and Silverman discussed the possibility of dropping the piece, but Paul has seen how Orchestra Nashville comes together when the pressure's on, and the dropping idea was quickly dropped. In the rehearsal video, Silverman talks about the challenges of the piece and about what if felt like to hear it gel. The other video is the complete performance of the six minute work. This content is only available to Uncovered subscribers, so join up if you haven't. The season highlights CD is going to be awesome.