John Thursday, Author at

Taylor Joiner – Strange and Beautiful

I wrote this song in Nashville in the unfinished upstairs apartment of a friends house. There was no kitchen but we had a bathroom and a blow-up bed. The bus stopped one street over and I would take it to Broadway where I had a gig at Dixieland Delights – an ice cream shop across the street from Gruhns Guitars. There was a plastic Elvis out front on the corner and I would play 4-5 hour slots of covers and originals for tips. Sounds like fun, but it was work. One time a family came in and their daughters took one look at me and then each other and feigned to shoot themselves in the head with their finger guns. It was worth every hungover minute of those Sunday 8am-12pm gigs just to say I had a regular gig on Broadway.

Taylor Joiner – Polaroids

I burned them. If you were wondering, Polaroids don’t burn well…

It may seem a tad much for me to refer to a part of my own body of work as “The Canon”and it just may be, but the alternative, like “The Classics,” would sound just as silly, no? So, “The Canon” it is. And what is “The Canon” exactly? Well, in this sense, it refers to the songs I have written over the past 25+ years that have remained in my set from their birth. Songs come and songs go but some stick around for awhile. I’ve decided to record myself playing the songs I’ve written that have stuck around in my live set longer than the others; for posterity. I hope you enjoy discovering them as much as I did writing them.

I’m starting off the series with the first song I wrote specifically to start my first band, Cafeteria (the first one where I was the song-writer, I had played instruments in other bands). I wrote this in an apartment my roommate and I called “The Sweet Pad” cause we thought it was super sweet. “The Cafeteria Tape” (see “music.thejoinerhouse.com“) has the original recording. The backing vocals were done in the shower for the reverb (in the original) as I recorded it on a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder with very few reverb options back in 1997. Anyway, I digress….without further ado…Polaroids.

John Thursday Sings: Townes Van Zandt

John Thursday Sings: Townes Van Zandt’s “Waitin’ Around to Die”

The Joiners are streaming on all of your favorite streaming services.

Rachel and I had a band in Nashville with some wonderful musician friends. Calling ourselves The Joiners, we made two albums and a single that are now streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and all of your other favorite places to discover music. Go check it out and listen to our Nashville selves.

Condemned Man

A new take on an old song

Copy of the live stream from May 9th

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Saturday night’s live stream! It was a roaring success and we really enjoyed everyone’s participation in the discussion section during the show. We will definitely be doing something again soon, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, here is a streamlined copy of the set with the silence edited out of the beginning. Don’t forget to subscribe to the John Thursday YouTube channel while you are there, and thank you for watching!

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The Joiners – Live Stream

PayPal

If you’d like to tip the band, click the PayPal button above or use Venmo @TMJoiner. While it is appreciated, it is definitely not required as we know most everyone is facing uncertain times and we are here just to provide a little distraction from things.

At Dino’s back in the day…

Here’s a picture of The Joiners playing Dino’s Bar on Gallatin Ave. in East Nashville. We were the house band at Dino’s for a bit, playing every other weekend (when there wasn’t a NASCAR race on the TV). Back then we were a three piece, with the incomparable Joe Bidewell on the bass and harmonica and Rachel on the drums. Living in Music City and playing regular gigs at the local dive bar was my own version of living the dream. It was tons of fun and we were surrounded by so many great musicians and great friends. We’re really looking forward to playing all the old songs tomorrow night and hope to see everyone there!

Tune in Saturday right here at theJoinerhouse.com to watch as The Joiners perform their 2010 album “Glorious Glorious!” 6pm CST (You can also watch from YouTube at youtube.com/johnthursday). Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there.

Another photo from 2006 – Getting ready for Saturday’s Live Stream

Remember when I said we played on the street outside of Robert’s Western Wear? We would play inside every now and then, too. We liked to hang out downtown back in those days after our Ice Cream Shop gig, and every once in awhile whoever was playing at Robert’s would ask us if we wanted to come up and sing one or two. Of all the Honky Tonks, Roberts was our favorite. You could buy boots there too, which I did, after one or two too many drinks. I wore them once, they hurt my feet.

Daily Reminder – Live Stream Saturday

Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins circa 2006

Just another reminder about the livestream on Saturday. Here is a photo of The Joiners from the Nashville years. We had just returned from a trip across country where, by the end of it, we were homeless, broke, and driving a car without brake lights. We played on the street in front of Robert’s Western Wear on Broadway until we were invited in to play a regular gig at Dixieland Delights, an ice cream shop across the street. From there, Rae got a job at the Radio Cafe in East Nashville and we moved into a storefront on Gallatin Ave (which we even managed to rent out for an event once or twice) across from legendary dive bar Dino’s (where we became the house band).