Tim Rushlow Takes Us Back to the Golden Age of Big Bands at the Nashville Palace

Close your eyes and Imagine. . . .

. . . . . A red carpet. An elegant performance space. A maître d’ wearing a tux escorting you to your candlelit table for a delicious and carefully prepped three course meal. A sultry martini. Or perhaps a glass of wine. Unless you’re a bourbon connoisseur with a knack for an old fashioned. The timeless sounds of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bobby Darin. Music you can dance too. Music you can fall in love too. No auto tune. No computerized tracks. Just pure talent and style in the form of a big brass band and a poised and passionate singer.

Think it’s all a nostalgic look back at a time and place you never knew? Think it can’t happen again? Well, this is Music City USA for a reason . . . and in Music City, anything can happen. Especially when you pair twenty-two gifted souls, twenty-two perfectly tuned instruments, and one talented country star turned classic crooner on the same stage for two hours of magic.

And it’s happening every weekend now through December 31st at the historic Nashville Palace. Former Little Texas front man, Tim Rushlow, who enjoyed a string of hits with the band in the early to mid ’90s, transports us back to a time when the music was about the music. And good songs were recorded and released just because they were good songs. It’s a much different landscape from today where fillers continuously surround the chart toppers and politics and trends all too often upstage the purity of the sound.

Tim Rushlow grew up with two musically gifted parents and was therefore, smitten with cats like Sinatra and Darin. Moving to Nashville at the tender age of 18 with a guitar and a packed car full of dreams, Rushlow told the audience he quickly learned the hard knock realities of trying to make it in the music business.

“I realized that everybody was a singer. Everybody was a songwriter and everybody was good. I had two choices. Leave town or get good. And that was really the bottom line.”

It’s pretty clear what choice Rushlow made. From his spot on rendition of Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” to his spunky version of “On the Street Where You Live” courtesy of My Fair Lady, Rushlow proves that the Great American Songbook never lost any pages.  “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” takes us back to 1969 where Sinatra hung out at the Copa Casino in Vegas with Count Basie and an undiscovered Quincy Jones. Every single detail, from Rushlow’s custom tailored suit and tie to his finger snapping and Elvis inspired mic stand lean (especially on The King’s “Please Love Me”), is carefully crafted yet naturally executed.

Rushlow’s excitement for his residency sparkles like a Winter Wonderland through a child’s eyes, which is fitting considering he’s about to add a special Holiday show just in time for the season! Rushlow will be bringing Christmas classics to life, just like those vinyl recordings of Bing Crosby and Judy Garland that we listen too year after year, generation after generation. Make sure you get your tickets now at www.nashville-palace.com/timrushlow so you can have yourself a Merry Little Christmas this year. And don’t worry-the red carpet and the maître d’ will still be there . . . maybe just covered in a little more tinsel and glitter than normal.

Besides more Christmas garland, who could ask for anything more when we’ve got starlight and sweet dreams after watching this show (and for the Ella Fitzgerald fans, yes he covers “I Got Rhythm”).

And if you need that second dose of energy after the cheesecake and wine, just remember they’ve got an awful lot of coffee . . . wait . . . that’s in Brazil. . . .And we’re honestly probably just thinking back to Rushlow’s charming version of the Sinatra standard. After all, Sinatra did it his way and so did Tim Rushlow. (Literally. It’s the second to last song in his incredible set).  Not bad for a guy who was told that a country singer couldn’t do jazz. Because as Rushlow said, “I’ve learned that NO doesn’t exist. No means not yet. It never means no. If it means no, I need to quit and go home. “

“Luck Be a Lady Tonight” for us, he did neither. And although you have to eventually leave the premises and go home after this spell binding show, you can take a little piece of Tim and this talented group of guys home with you. Tim Rushlow and His Big Band-LIVE album is available for purchase, either at the merch table or online where music is sold. In fact, you may want to get it now before the price goes up as he did hint about involvement with a record label (although he of course, could not reveal his source). What he did reveal though, is that the Live Album just got nominated for a GRAMMY.

Congrats guys, and we shall see you when we come back Home for the Holidays at the Nashville Palace starting December 1.  For more info, follow Tim on Twitter @TimRushlow and Instagram @TimRushlowMusic. And for more information on the Christmas show and other tour dates, check out www.timrushlow.com.