Credit: James Gillham

"Hey boy, welcome to bean country"

Everything in the US is so old and so young all at once. Up in the hills of Lynchburg, Tennessee you find gray old barns, twisted and speckled with rusting tractors. With every Corvette you get a free bible, and if you have a building that dates back a hundred years, it is likely you have a national treasure.

I got the call last Wednesday - "can you do me a favour?" What is it? "Go to Tennessee and review a the Birthday JD Set at the Jack Daniels distillery". Man alive! Dream assignment! After a quick performance at the Royal Albert Hall (yeah I said it, rub on your titties), I hopped straight on a plane to Nashville. Have I arrived?

...Arrived in Lynchburg, TN, I have to to see the Jack Daniel’s lodge overlooking a pink sunset on a maple lined valley: Patti Smith, Juliette Lewis and Shingai Shoniwa. Three women almost generational in their division. Like an alternative holy trinity of talent, sexuality and the voice of reason. Three powerful women exercising their rock rights tonight in this place, the Mecca of the band rider.

Lynchburg is, ironically, in a dry county, having never had enough people to vote out prohibition completely. Which means you can't sell booze (an Englishman's nightmare), but rescue comes in the form of giving it away freely, a lot better method that I am sure we all agree on. Performing also has some laws left over from that period, and the three acts tonight are backed by the same band in order to get round some local law.

The New Silver Cornet Band, accompanying all three ladies this evening, are a reinvention of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band that was formed in 1856. Some of these guys looks like they were formed in 1856. But unless a certain Delorean was involved in the production, these guys are only veterans as far back as Willy Nelson and Paul Simon – pah, mere newcomers! The Cornet boys are sporting an enviable array of black cowboy shirts with some crafty embroidery work going on. The guitarist nearest me enviably seems to have the entire range of Hamer guitars.