Oi! I just got back from playing a gig at the world’s best BBQ festival - Churrascada, in São Paulo, Brazil. This one-day event pits the world’s top Pit Masters against each other. Spoiler alert: There are 5,000 winners because everyone who attends eats and wins! My American band & I unanimously agreed that we had never witnessed such a spectacle nor felt energy like we did on Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at Churrascada.
Nestled in the heart of São Paulo (pop. 23 million), Komplexo Tempo (the venue) is an unassuming industrial concrete building. However, upon entering, you see that the facility is nothing short of amazing as it is equipped with world-class sound, lights, stage, & outside (where they used to load trains), there’s plenty of room for cooking. The décor, ambiance, and overall vibe Churrascada brings to Komplexo Tempo is simultaneously high energy, laid back, exotic, and down-home.
Brazilians are the best part of Churrascada. They are hospitable, warm, & appreciative. They possess a positive vibe that is highly contagious. Their energy permeates throughout Komplexo Tempo like the BBQ smoke & enhances the flavor of all the food & music. Endowed with competence & fierce national patriotism, Brazilians are a divinely appointed people to be reckoned with in all facets - so it should be no surprise that they know how to throw a BBQ!
As for the music at Churrascada, I encourage you to look up the other groups that played, like Lucas Reis E Thacio - They perfect & preserve their national music traditions (cool dudes, too!)
Speaking of cool dudes, Rodrigo Hadad is our new best friend. Rodrigo has had his own country band in Brazil for 20 years - they’re killer! They’re better than most country bands in Nashville, TN! I sat in with Rodrigo’s band the night before Churrascada when they were playing at Fazenda Churrascada - it felt like Martin’s BBQ in a parallel universe! Then, when we played the next night, Rodrigo & his band joined us & the whole crowd sang. It was a supernatural moment when our band of foreigners were welcomed into the fold & made to feel like we had always been there.
Thank you, Felipe Aversa, for cultivating a relationship of Country music family between our two great nations.
Order & Progress. In God We Trust.
Muito Obrigado!
James
"You Left Me for My Brother" - A Hillbilly Crime of Passion
Every five seconds, or the time it takes you to read this sentence, an Appalachian American has begun feuding with their in-laws. Every 45 seconds, or the time it takes an Appalachian American to read this sentence, the feud spreads into his or her immediate family. Kentucky math tells us that this equates to a whole bunch of trouble for everybody.
Now, I know a lot of “fancy people” want to “look the other way” and that these are just “hillbillies” that act crazy in their “hollers.” But, I, for one, say that NOW is the time to take a stand against these redneck-on-redneck crimes of passion.
This particular crime of passion scenario was brought to my attention by Adam Pope, a young man from the hills of North Carolina. He wrote this song and sang it at one of our weekly Tuesday night duo gigs at The Nashville Palace a few months ago. After he sang it, I looked at Adam through my tears and laughter and said, “Wow, I’ve never heard anything quite like that!”
In all honesty, these hillbilly crimes of passion are not localized to one specific region, not limited to one country, not prejudiced to one ethnicity - no, they’ve existed in one form or another EVERYWHERE throughout history!
Please share this song with your friends and family in all corners of the globe so that, together, we can make an example of these particular hillbillies’ bad behavior, learn our lesson, and strive for world peace!
I had an absolute blast recording this one with my buddies on reel-to-reel tape at The Bomb Shelter here in Nashville with Jack Tellman at the helm. There’s not much editing on this one, so you’re pretty much hearing a live recording.
