Michael and the Magic Shirt -- Part Two; "The Gunfighter"

Current mood: chipper
My pal Erin wrote a great blog back in August about Lucky Shirts (scroll down to Aug 6, 2007, if you're clicking on this link). Hers is a fantastic brown t-shirt that says "Just Add Bourbon." My lucky shirt of late seems to be a 28-year-old thin-like-it's-vintage (oh, wait it, is vintage), faded blue t-shrt from the old Bluegrass Festival on the Belvedere. My mom bought one every year of its existence, and I liberated them from her when I was in high school. Good things seem to happen when I wear the dark blue one from 1979.

And when Michael tried on that black Scully western shirt, he had no idea he had just found his lucky shirt. The shirt that turns an introvert into the outgoing life of the party.

The storekeeper told him it had a name: The Gunfighter. It was an old pattern, from the real days of the wild west.

Michael the Gunfighter wore his shirt to dinner, where a smug Charles snickered condascendingly and said to me, "I knew you were going to convince him to buy a shirt."

I told Charles, "That shirt found him."

After dinner, the shirt worked its magic throughout Nashville's hotspots. It heard Dale Watson at the Mercy Lounge, an incredibly loud gospel singer at the Cannery, Grayson Capps at 3rd & Lindsley, and Tommy Womack at the Basement. The shirt hit four clubs in three hours, but it was ready to go home yet.

Now, a standard red polo shirt might have convinced Michael and his partner-in-crime (AKA me, the designated driver) to call it a night at that point. But the shirt asked: what now? The shirt was the life of the party, and it wanted to go back to the Cannery for Chicken-n-Waffles, the big after-party of the Americana Music Conference.

Music was heard, chicken and waffles were consumed (just waffles by me, the vegetarian), and at some point the shirt magically even got me up on stage, playing accordion with various Nashville cats and a gospel singer.

It was a fun evening.

And the shirt made another appearance at Sunday night's MERF benefit show, featuring Sam Bush, Tim Krekel, John Cowan, Greg Martin, etc .... you just might be able to hear the shirt and its vibes every Sunday night from 6-8pm on my favorite Americana show: WFPK's Roots 'n' Boots.

What's your favorite shirt?

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