#also every time una starts singing she turns to chris

[justreckin]

But why are we singing?

[the-redhead-in-a-dress]

Throwing some ideas out there before I forget to be picked back up when I'm less insanely busy with work... The merging of two head canons about some of the crew freakishly de-aging into toddlers. I am now totally obsessed with the idea of Una's boys (Chris + Spock) and Chris' girls (Una + La'an) (thanks @emonydeborah)

_____

La'an is turned into a three year old in a freak accident and Una and Chris become her primary caretakers.

Then....It's been months and Spock, Pelia and the science division are working tirelessly to try and fix the situation and turn La'an big again. In which time Una and Chris are growing closer whilst learning to parent a toddler who happens to be their co-worker. Lots of very cute and adorable moments occur between Una, Chris and La'an. Chris is very protective of his girls.

Spock comms that he might have a lead, Chris gets excited and goes down to see what Spock is up to. Una is on the bridge, busy, and can't get there until Chris comms her saying "Uh we might have a problem". Una rushes to them to find a lot of blue smoke and when it clears Chris is standing there with a baby Vulcan in his arms...

"Not again!"

Chris just shrugs his shoulders and gives her a look to say "Well we already have one kid, what's one more"

Una just rolls her eyes. "Come on boys, let's go home."

Adjusting to ~three year old La'an was tough, but to have a 1 year old Spock is certainly a new experience, full of a lot of bodily fluids neither of them were quite prepared for.

La'an is not happy when she gets home from being babysat by Uhura to find a baby in Chris' quarters. She's very grumpy that Una and Chris' attention is on Spock and she definitely tries to pinch him when they're not looking.

Chris gives her lots of cuddles and extra stories that night to try and compensate for the unexpected arrival of Baby!Spock.

Later on, Uhura replicates a book her parents read to her when she was a kid when her baby brother was born, about getting a new sibling. La'an tears out the pages and cries.

La'an still ends up extra clingy to Una and throws a tantrum every time Una tries to hold Baby!Spock.

Chris and Una are exhausted looking after Baby!Spock and Little La'an whilst also trying to take care of their crew. Una has to pull extra hours in Science with Spock now incapacitated and Chris carries baby Spock in a carrier everywhere he goes. (thanks @m0rbs for the inspiration and image in my mind).

Spock hates all clothes and takes off whatever he can...in the end Erica replicates him a little Star Fleet uniform as a last resort and it ends up being the only clothes Spock doesn't immediately scream over and try and take off.

Chris' quarters become the defecto base for both kids and Una. When the next crew dinner rolls around there are a lot of shocked faces when they enter to see how messy the living quarters are...clothes and toys are everywhere, there's stuffing coming out of cushions and crayon marks on the walls. Christine and Uhura stay behind to tidy up and clean. Chris mutters to Una as they try not to fall asleep at the kitchen counter that they have the best crew in the fleet.

Una singing Spock Illyrian lullabies to him and rocking him in her arms.

One night Spock will not stop crying...to not wake La'an, Chris takes Spock on a walk around the Enterprise. They end up seeing the Warp Core...the sound is soothing and Spock finally sleeps through the night whilst Chris slumps against a console. In the morning, Una and La'an bring Chris breakfast and Spock a bottle in the morning. Chris kisses Una's cheek in thanks, she blushes but puts this display of affection down to his sleep deprivation. La'an is finally starting to warming up to Baby!Spock and even helps Chris feed Spock his bottle.

Another night both kids are being difficult, Chris takes Spock and Una takes La'an. After several hours, La'an finally falls asleep and Una carefully untangles herself from toddler limbs and the bedcovers, she leaves the bedroom to find Chris fast asleep on the couch whilst Spock is wide awake but no longer crying, his fingers tracing Chris' face. Una smiles...her boys.

One night Chris and Una end up cramped on the edge of his bed nose-to-nose because there's no other space because La'an and Spock have spread eagled across 90% of the space. They laugh in their tiredness and say they wouldn't trade this experience for the stars. Chris comments that all they need now is a dog and Una says not to jinx it because what if a crew member turns into a Beagle next, and she really needs Pelia to find a cure for Baby!Spock and Little!Laan and not bark demands.

The rest of the crew sees how exhausted the command team are and offer to babysit Baby!Spock and Little La'an whilst Una and Chris go on a date rest...I can only see this going badly (but in an utterly hilarious way).

At some point they'll need to call Amanda and Sarek to explain what's happened to their son. Sarek will be like 'not my problem' and walk out of shot and Amanda will just coo at how cute baby!Spock is and explain how he was a very colic-y baby and totally cried for like a month straight when he was a baby before.

[hemcountry]

A NASHVILLE AND DUBLIN LOVE STORY....

Where does one even attempt to begin when setting out to review the recent Nashville concert in Dublin? That’s the question that’s been troubling me this past week. You see, thinking back on what transpired in the 3Arena on June 19th last, all I can do is smile. And I’ll be damned, but it turns out that too much smiling can be quite the distraction when you’re trying to write!

Let me put it to you guys this way, Nashville in Dublin wasn’t just a concert. To label it as simply that would be doing Charles Esten, Clare Bowen, Sam Palladio, Jonathan Jackson and Chris Carmack, not to mention their magnificent band, a world of injustice. What happened in the 3Arena on June 19th was a love story, a Nashville and Dublin love story.

  The first memory to flash back into my mind is also the one that I’ve been sharing with everyone (and by everyone, I mean ANYONE who’ll hear me out) when I’ve been trying to sum up in one image what this remarkable night was like. It’s also the moment that, for me at least, defined the night. Clare Bowen, while singing with Charles Esten, suddenly disappeared off to the side of the stage, only to take everyone by complete surprise by coming back into view as she walked right out into the audience while still singing away! And Charles was doing the same thing on the far side of the Arena at the same time. Nobody expected it, but my word, everybody loved it! Clare shook hands while she walked (still barefoot all the while, as is her preference when she performs), paused for photos, and even hugged people.

Charles Esten Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

But then it happened. And though it didn’t last long, it didn’t need to. The fact that it happened at all was what mattered. Right below where I was seated (although I was standing at this point, as was everyone, to follow Clare’s path), Clare, still singing remember, embraced a fan….and they danced! Right there in the middle of the show, in the middle of a song, in the middle of thousands and thousands of fans, they danced. And we were all that lucky fan for that moment, and it really felt like Clare was dancing with all of us. That’s how close the connection was between Clare and everyone who had come to hear her, and Charles, Sam, Jonathon, and Chris. It was that kind of night in Dublin. Sound crazy? Maybe. But only if you weren’t there.

  Clare Bowen dances with a fan in Dublin

  So here’s the thing, right, I’ve been to a fair few country shows over the years, and to be honest, I can’t remember even one that I haven’t enjoyed. And that’s because first and foremost, I’m a country fan. I go to shows to have a good time. I go wanting the artist to be amazing and to have one of the best nights of their lives so that it’s something special for them, too. I look for and focus on the positives. And when that’s what you look for, and what you focus on, that tends to be what you find. But for the life of me, I can’t remember ever knowing a show as spectacularly wonderful as this one before. In fact, I’ll go further, and this should offer some kind of clearer context for what I’m saying. I can honestly say that not since Garth Brooks played Croke Park back in 1997 have I ever experienced the kind of feelings I did at the Nashville concert in Dublin. And Garth was a God in Dublin that night! And still is to me, and to millions of country music fans.

Charles Esten emotional at Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

At most shows, the audience is made up of fans who are there because they know the artist and like their music. And so, naturally, you can really feel the appreciation for the artist’s ‘live’ performance as a result. But this, THIS was something else altogether. This, like Garth twenty summers ago, was sheer love flowing towards the stage from every heart in the crowd, from when the first chord was played until the last note faded. When Charles Esten, in an Elvis-mania like moment, brought the roof down simply by walking out on stage, without even saying a word – or needing to – but just flashing that smile and with a wave of his hand, well, the scene was set! And I don’t think many would disagree with me when I say that love flowed right back out into the audience as well. Irish audiences have a reputation for not holding back in their praise and warmth, so if it’s on display, it’s because we’re feelin’ it. It’s not the kind of thing we fake just for the sake of being nice. Not that we’re mean just for the sake of it, either. My point is, that when we cheer you on, and roar for more, and stomp our feet, and sing-a-long, it’s real. And thousands of us cheered on Charles, Clare, Sam, Jonathan, and Chris, and thousands of us roared for more, and we stomped our feet, and we sang along. And it was real, and it was love. And it was love both ways, being given, and being given back.

Chris Carmack Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

I’ve been a fan of the Nashville tv show right from the get-go, and with all ten volumes of the show’s soundtracks to date in my collection at home (and a boxset, because you always need to have the boxsets, too!), the ‘live’ concert was a night I’d been excited about ever since the date was announced. I think it’s safe to say that the show has surprised, if not confounded, many potential critics in that its music has been every bit as impressive and outstanding as its acting and storylines. Where it may have been feared, possibly expected in some quarters, that one might have let down the other, thus reducing the whole, such worries have proved to be unfounded and unwarranted. In fact, the show has managed to seamlessly conjoin its dramatic and musical elements. And that’s something which shouldn’t be taken for granted, shouldn’t be overlooked, and for which great credit is due to all concerned, most notably the show’s Academy Award winning writer Callie Khouri, and executive music producers T Bone Burnett, Buddy Miller, and most recently, Tim Lauer.

Sam Palladio Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

  So, I had no doubts that a great night lay in wait. But what I could never have imagined is just how much the concert was going to exceed my expectations. For that, my friends, it most certainly did. Fans of the show will already be well aware of how supremely talented Charles (Deacon Claybourne), Clare (Scarlett O’ Connor), Sam (Gunnar Scott), Jonathan (Avery Barkley), and Chris (Will Lexington) are as far as acting goes. And we know they can sing, too, of course. Because they sing in the show. But let me tell you, NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, can prepare you for seeing with your own eyes and hearing with your own ears, and yes, feeling it with your own heart, just how damn good these guys are when they sing and perform ‘live’.

  Una and Sam Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

  I could have gone for a song-by-song review of the night’s set, but there’d have been little to be gained from that approach. Every song was brilliant, absolutely top class. The standard was impeccable in every way, and I for one was awestruck by the night’s end. This was a show of one beautiful moment after another. You can see from some of the images so fabulously captured by my buddy Ken Cassidy, from the expressions on the faces of Charles and Clare and everybody else, that they had fun in Dublin, too.

Jonathan Jackson Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

  Standout moments for me? So many to choose from! First of all, Clare coming into the audience and dancing with a fan while still singing. The reception Charles got when he walked out on stage to get the show underway. Jonathan Jackson’s spine-tingling rendition of ‘Love Rescue Me’, and ‘Unchained Melody’, dedicated to his wife, who was in the audience, and with the whole of the 3Arena on backing vocals. Chris Carmack playing the blues, and then the saxaphone! Sam Palladio’s gorgeous duet with Una Healy for ‘Stay My Love’, and then ripping up the drums later on! Clare again, sitting on the edge of the stage, wearing her wings, backed only by guitar (I was so lost in the moment, I can’t recall the song), and not a single other sound to be heard while she sang, just total silence and respect from the thousands in attendance. And Clare singing with her husband Brandon. And the group finale of ‘Danny Boy’…, perfect. It was love all round in Dublin.

Chris Carmack Charles Esten Nasville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

The truest reflection of the show’s highlights would require a minute-by-minute account of what happened from start to finish. Because every single moment, from start to finish, was a highlight. Every single moment was memorable. Every single moment was beautiful.

This was a Nashville and Dublin love story, and I can see it being a lifetime long affair.

Cast Finale Nashville in Dublin © Ken Cassidy

* Nashville is broadcast in a remarkable 225 territories worldwide. Soundtrack album sales have topped a million, as have sales of single tracks to date.

Note: All photos by KEN CASSIDY, unless otherwise stated.

A NASHVILLE AND DUBLIN LOVE STORY…. was originally published on HEM COUNTRY

[hemcountry]

INTERVIEW: THE ONLY THING I REALLY LOOK FOR IS HONESTY AND TRUTH

Some things in life are hard to put into words. While other things, however, can be easy as pie. Articulating Mo Pitney’s place in the world of country music right now definitely falls into the pie category! Simply put, this young man from Illinois is one of the most exciting talents to appear on the country scene in…well, you know what, it’s probably not wrong to say decades. Nor is wrong to say (at least not in the eyes or ears of this writer) that Mo, although at a slightly younger age, is doing much the same as what Chris Stapleton has been doing for country music over the last few years. By putting the song, and the story in the song, right back at the centre of a traditional country sound, Mo has been winning new fans, winning back old fans, and reminding everyone of the main thing that has always made country music so special: great songs, simply told.

When the chance came along for me to chat with Mo recently, I didn’t need to be asked twice if I was interested. In fact, I’m not sure the full question was even asked before I’d said yes! I was excited, and I wasn’t let down.

Now the first big reason Mo and I were actually chatting was because next month he returns to the UK & Ireland to take part in the first Harvest Country Music Festival and a set of shows across the UK, Harvest Fest held in Westport in Mayo, and Enniskillen in Fermanagh, on consecutive days and will be headlined by Nathan Carter and Miranda Lambert, and will also feature artists like Charley Pride, Kip Moore, Dan & Shay, and Sam Palladio, as well as Ireland’s Una Healy, Hurricane Highway, Catherine McGrath, and Pete Kennedy, and the proverbial ‘many, many more’!

Mo Pitney UK Tour Dates

Harvest Fest Line-Up

I asked Mo if he was looking forward to being back in front of an Irish audience again?

“Oh yeah. Totally. I mean, my first trip to Ireland has been my favourite trip, so to be able to come back and bring my wife and baby, well I’m just thrilled.”

Mo’s first time in Ireland had been for last year’s Irish TV Irish Country Music Awards.

“It was, it was. Me and my brother came over then, and we just had a great time. So yeah, this time thankfully, it’s gonna be my wife, and my baby and I, but also my brother’s comin’ again. And my sister is comin’ too, because they’re part of the band. And my dad runs sound, so he’s comin’. And my mom’s comin’ over just to join the ride, because she couldn’t be left out! [laughs]”

Mo at the dress rehearsal for last year’s Irish TV’s Country Music Awards

With the extended Pitney clan all boarding a plane for Ireland, I wondered if there was going to be anyone left at home to look after things there?

“Oh I don’t know, maybe we’ll just have to let it all go by the wayside and let the weeds grow over everything here, I don’t know! [laughs]”

Before we moved on to Mo’s own music, the second big reason we were talking, I wanted to ask him about something he once said about country music. And that was this: that when he began really listening to country songs as his love for the music grew, he started trying to, “…figure out what moved me and why it moved me….” So what I wanted to know was did Mo ever figure out what it is about country songs that move him, and why?

“Well, I think lookin’ back now I’m understanding more about what and why things move me. But I always knew I felt things very deeply. Whenever I was listening to Merle Haggard’s music or someone else’s music, even if I hadn’t gone through whatever they had gone through, I was still able to recognise that they had gone through something very, very significant or difficult, or joyful or whatever it was, for them. But I knew they were experiencing some very intense emotions, even if it was good or bad. And I think some of that [being able to to relate and empathise on such a deep level] got me into some bad places, especially with some depressed country music! [laughs]. I don’t know, I think it’s recognising artists that sing about something they had actually lived through, and wasn’t kinda puttin’ on somethin’ that was fake.”

Mo Pitney…behind that guitar!

So in a way, even when Mo was very young, it was almost as if he was an old soul really?

“Yeah, well my dad was a steel guitar player, so he was always playin’ the old stuff around the house, and we also played bluegrass music. So naturally when you’re a bluegrass musician you’re really tuned into the old stuff. So I think it was just the environment that I grew up in that just made it seem pretty normal to look to the past. So I owe a lot of my kind of traditional flavor to that.”

So, onto to Mo’s own music. ‘Country’, of course, is the song that really brought him to peoples’ attention and into their hearts. And it’s songs like ‘Country’, ‘Clean Up In Aisle Five’, ‘I Met Merle Haggard Today’, and ‘Everywhere’, that all possess a beautiful, simple sense of truth, something that’s very easy for fans to relate to. Now me, I’m a dog man. So with a song called ‘It’s Just A Dog’ on the album, and given that ‘I Met Merle Haggard Today’ was based on a real-life experience for Mo, I had to know….was ‘It’s Just A Dog’, with the heartbreaking line near the end, “….it just hits me/ she’s not with me…”, based on a true story, too???

“Well, it is, and in fact, there’s three true stories in that song. I wrote that song with Jimmy Melton and Dave Turnbull, and when we were writing all three of us were writing about certain different elements about our relationships with our first dogs. So depending on what line you’re hearin’, you’re hearin’ a true story about one of our first dogs. I think all three of us had lost dogs, and especially back then [when you’re younger], it just hits you like, oh my gosh, this dog that you’ve had for however long, that could always cheer you up, is not here anymore.”

Mo, on the day he met Merle Haggard

It must have been a pretty emotional song to write then?

“Oh yeah. And by the time that I had written that song, it was a long time after I had lost my first dog. But I did have my favourite dog with me still at the time when we were writing it. The song didn’t take very long to write, and the guys had already had it started before I jumped on in. So we recorded it, and then on my drive home I put my phone up to my ear and listened to it and cried, ya know. It wasn’t hard as we were writing it, but afterwards, when I was listening to it as I was driving home I knew the song had something special to it.”

When Mo writes, is every song that he begins or finishes one that might potentially be released some day, or are there some songs that he writes just to get things out of his system, or for personal reasons, or even just for practice almost?

“Well you’re always just writin’ and hopin’ that a song will be heard in some space or another. I think there’s certain ideas that you recognise probably won’t find room in a mainstream space, but you’re always hopin’ that it will get heard in some way. But there are songs that you can tell are more personal, and maybe just for you, even if you doubt that anyone else might feel it. But sometimes they do, because a song is so real. But I don’t think I’m always tryin’ to think about where a song might eventually show up. I’m normally just writin’ to write, and let a song be in whatever space it finds itself happen, rather than try and force it there.”

When you love what you do, it looks something like this!

Mo has been described as being a ‘Man who loves God and George Strait’, which is not a bad way for any man to be described in my book! Mo’s faith is clearly very important to him, and therefore a big part of his life. But what kind of role, if any, does it play in his songwriting? Are there certain subjects that he wouldn’t write about? Or does he try and weave some kind of positive message into most of his songs?

“What I’m recognising is that faith always hopes. And there’s a temptation when we feel down or discouraged to write in such a way that is really….. hopeless, overly sad. But I can tell that my desire, even if I do go through times of hopelessness or discouragement, is that I’m always tryin’ to bring in my songs an underlying faith element. Because I think there’s much too much art and music that really just pushes us down into the pit even farther. And I think that’s one thing that drives me. And then there’s also things that…I mean, you write a love song, ya know, and I recognise things that ‘The Word’ tells me you don’t want to idolise, like a relationship. You really want to treat a relationship with your wife, or with your children, as a gift from God and not an end in and of itself. And there’s certain inflections in the way that I write that I can’t really ever get away from because of what I believe. So I think that gives a little tone and twist on every song I write, even if it’s not about God. If it’s about my relationships here on Earth, or my experiences here on Earth, it always has a little different nature to it than maybe what someone who doesn’t believe would write.”

Mo and Emily, before 2 became 3!

I love the fact that Mo recorded ‘Behind This Guitar’ while singing and playing at the one time, in a very traditional, pretty much ‘live’ way. I wondered if he’d agree that with so many songs nowadays being recorded literally piece-by-piece, as opposed to how he had done it, if that has maybe contributed to the blurring of lines between what’s country, what’s pop, what’s rock, and so on?

“I don’t think it’s the way things are recorded in as much as it is just the actual people that are recording. We’re all looking for something new and exciting and different, and we’re tryin’ to ring the bell and make money, and survive on this Earth and play the game. And that just causes art to be confused. And I’m really not sayin’ this to say that what’s goin’ on is right or wrong, I have no problem with things evolving and turning into something different than it was in the past. The only thing I really look for is honest and truth. So even if someone thinks differently than I do, as long as in their art they’re being true to themselves, I think there’s something to be respected about that. Whether that be a party song, or a different type of track, whatever it might be, as long as they’re not not tryin’ to be someone else that they’re not. I think it’s ok to be however they’re gonna be.”

Mo Pitney Behind The Guitar available now. Click here to download ‘Behind The Guitar’..

Now, not only is Mo a young husband to Emily, and a young father to Evelyn, but he himself, of course, is a young musician. And as such, and even more so because of his success, he’s one who spends a lot of time on the road and away from home, something which must be quite tough at times?

“Yeah, it is. And I definitely strive in any way that I can to keep them on the road with us. And like I said, they’re actually comin’ over with us to you guys’ land when we go, both the baby and Emily, which I’m really excited about. It’s just kinda not very natural, historically, for a husband to be away from his wife. I think God really designed it for him [a husband] to come home and be in the same bed every night. I think there’s something really safe and healthy about that, that the music business can’t break up. And really in culture at large, I think we’ve really gotten the ability to get too far away from a rooted place called home. So it [being on the road] can make it difficult, but I’m thankful that in this day and age, even though we are travelling, we’ve got cellphones and that’s awesome. And we’ve got Facetime, that’s helpful. But we do strive to stay close together as much as we can. We just think that’s the right approach.”

Mo with his little girl Evelyn at the Ryman.

It’s the one question that Mo probably has fired at him in every single interview he does, so before I even asked him this, I felt like I should probably apologise for throwing it his way again. So I did. And then I asked him anyway….For any country artist, walking out onto the Grand Ole Opry stage, and setting foot inside that circle, which is sacred ground in country music terms, it has to have changed him. The Mo Pitney that walked off stage couldn’t have been the same Mo Pitney that walked on stage, surely? What was that experience like for him?

“Well there was a lot of fear before I went out, and doubt as to whether or not we would be received well. So being able to go out and step into the circle, and just be a kid that shared his song, and then have the place stand on its feet and applaud, really it blew me away. And I think there was a moment of recognising that wow, well maybe I do have a spot here in the music industry where I could make a livin’ and enjoy playin’ music the rest of my life. So there was a lot that happened, not just thinkin’ about that moment alone, but what that moment could mean for the rest of my life, too. It was pretty powerful. And I’m really thankful to be able to look back on my first time there and have such a great memory.”

Before saying our goodbyes, at least until Harvest Fest next month anyway, we closed our chat with a little what-if kind of a question. If any past country artist, someone who’s already passed on, could come back and play just one more ‘live’ show, who would Mo most love to go and see perform?

“Hmm. Let me think. Maybe….wow. Yeah, maybe George Jones, only because I didn’t get to see him. I got to see Merle. It would probably be a tie between Roger Miller and George Jones. I’m very much so a Roger Miller fan, too.

For me, the soul of Mo Pitney was revealed in that last answer about what it felt like for him that first time he played the Opry. Whereas so many people just want to be famous these days, and being a ‘celebrity’ is often seen as being a worthwhile goal in itself, for Mo, playing on the greatest stage of them all just made him think that maybe he could “make a livin’ and enjoy playin’ music” the rest of his life. Simple as that.

And I think you just might, Mo, I think you just might.

UK & Ireland Tour Dates

26th Aug Harvest Fest Enniskillen Tickets 27th Aug Harvest Fest Westport Tickets 30th Aug Thekla Bristol Tickets 31st Aug The Borderline  London Tickets 1st Sept The Bodega Social Club Nottingham Tickets 2nd Sept Brudenell Social Club Leeds Tickets 3rd Sept Night & Day Café Manchester Tickets 5th Sept The Prince Albert Brighton Tickets

  INTERVIEW: THE ONLY THING I REALLY LOOK FOR IS HONESTY AND TRUTH was originally published on HEM COUNTRY