Beth Nielsen Chapman, Rodney Crowell, and Marcus Hummon performing (with a bluebird projected onto the observatory dome) at Dyer Observatory, Nashville, Saturday, May 22, 2010. David J. Eicher photo
On Saturday, May 22, 2010, I spent another full day immersed in astronomy and history and — this time — music. Rocky Alvey, director of Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory, has assembled a periodic set of music shows up on the mountain that brings together several hundred enthusiasts who hear beautiful songs by a variety of artists followed by observing with the observatory’s 24-inch Cassegrain scope. (And, by the way, Rocky himself is a very talented songwriter and musician: check out his CD
Blackberry Jam and Other Fresh Ingredients). This Saturday night, Rocky arranged his “Bluebird on the Mountain” concert with Nashville stars Beth Nielsen Chapman, Rodney Crowell, and Marcus Hummon. The “bluebird” comes from the observatory’s friendship with the owners of Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe, where many musicians have played to be discovered.
By 7 p.m., showtime, a crowd of 500 had assembled on the mountain and all sound checks were long gone. I was asked to make a short announcement about science and art coming together, so I spoke about numbers: how there are 400 billion or more stars in the Milky Way, 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and therefore perhaps 40,000 billion billion stars in the cosmos. And many more planets than that, probably. But we were on the luckiest one because of the great entertainment that lay in wait!
The three artists did not disappoint. For two and a half hours, they rotated songs, often playing together, both old and new. They were fantastically entertaining, and the crowd delighted in hanging out, listening, and eating picnic style in the chairs, benches, and blankets they set up sprawling from the stage all across the mountain’s summit. Afterward, we went into the observatory and filed through long lines to look at the Moon with Dyer’s 24-inch Cassegrain. What a night!
Earlier in the day, I had visited some old friendly places I hadn’t seen in some years: Stones River National Battlefield surrounding Murfreesboro, where Braxton Bragg’s Confederates clashed with William S. Rosecrans’s Federals during the first days of 1863; and Franklin, Tennessee, where the ill-judging Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood wrecked his Confederate Army of Tennessee, were still in good shape. I leave you with a few photos of those places, too, for they are of great historical importance to all Americans.
See all of my pictures from Nashville in our Online Reader Gallery.
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On the Road: Nashville astronomy, Day 2, by David J. Eicher, editor
On the Road: Nashville astronomy, Day 1, by David J. Eicher, editor