The Dream (Tootsie's Orchid Lounge)

“The Dream (Tootsie’s Orchard Lounge) was written in 1983. There were two versions of this song recorded. One was for Don Gant’s Old Friends Music in 1983 (don’t remember who was on the session, but Billy Earl and Jimmy Gunn probably played on it) and the other version was recorded by Rock Killough and the MkNyte Brothers Band (RKMBB) some time, somewhere and in some studio in 1983.

The members of RKMBB at that time were Rock Killough – acoustic guitar and vocals; Ken Beal – electric guitar and vocals; Tommy Gardner – bass guitar and vocals; Robert Bethea – drums; Randy Harrold – keyboards and vocals; Dave Brazeal – percussion and vocals; and me – keyboards and vocals. (Non-playing members of RKMBB were Jack Sheu, Randy Lee, Phil Draper and Carl Duffey.

I liked both versions. The Old Friends Music version was a little slower than the RKMBB version, but they were in the same key. So, I faded one out and the other in. The Old Friends version is the first 2 verses and chorus and the RKMBB version is the last 2 verses and chorus.

Mike speaking:

All these pictures! So many years. I’ll sort of let Randy tell all about that and I’ll just try to tell about the story of the song.

I tried over the years to put a little sage wisdom in each story song. A lot of them, most of the best of them seem to have that. The Gambler by Don Schlitz is like that. (“You got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em”) I try to do that here. Kris Kristofferson traveled this path in some of his early songs. (“To Beat the Devil”) I knew I was traveling on familiar ground, but I was trying to tread lightly. I hope I didn’t plow the same plot. I hope not.

Tootsie’s was and still is a touchstone of what’s real in country music. If I could go back this week, I’d do what I always liked to do, which was have breakfast at the Loveless Café - country ham, red-eyed gravy with a side of the little biscuits on a plate of two eggs, once over medium. Then, I’d take the road in front of Loveless back to town past Vandy and Centennial Park. It becomes Broadway, then lower Broadway. I know one stop would be eliminated. I hate that. Then, I’d stop by Tootsie’s.

Tootsie’s didn’t change much over the years. Some places are perfect as is. I heard they cleaned it up, but I hope they didn’t clean it up too much.

The backdoor of Toosties’ opens to an alley that went to the Ryman Auditorium. So, the Opry people could not get a drink in the Ryman and would go to the backdoor down at Tootsie’s.

I would always stop at Toostie’s every trip to Nashville. This is best done about 10:30am midweek. There’d be a guy playing for tips. (Usually for 6 or 8 people) I’d get a Miller High Life, tip the girl behind the bar a buck, and then, put another one in the guy’s tip jar.

I knew that who ever I saw that day would usually ask me, “What are you doing in town?” and I would say, “Making my regular inquiry into the state of the soul of country music.” Then, they would say, “How did you find it?” And, I’d say, “Had breakfast at the Loveless, bought a CD, had a beer and heard a song at Tootsie’s. As long as I can do that, I feel like the soul of country music is intact, and it might make it.”

Randy speaking:

I think I started this one while I was on the road with RKMBB, or Mike might have started it, I’m not sure (as you might have noticed with most of the other songs we’ve written – I don’t remember the beginnings). It sounds a lot like Mike lyrically, but it also sounds a lot like me lyrically at that time. After I moved to Nashville in 1979 and started hanging around with a bunch of really great song writers, my lyric writing underwent a marked improvement.

As I was looking for videos to use for this song, I couldn’t find any that fit what I was seeing in my head. But, the more I listened to the song and the more I read the lyrics, I began to realize that this song was pretty much the musical journey that I had been on since I was 15. So, a new vision came to mind. I looked through all the old photos I could find of my band days and was able to find pictures of every band I played in except the second one – The WindandSeas. This is my musical journey in pictures, which as I’m sure you know are “worth a thousand words”.

As it says at the end “What a trip it’s been so far!” I hope you enjoy hearing and seeing it as much as I did living it.

Thanks to the person who took this picture of RKMBB at the Nite Flight in Savannah, Georgia, for the thumbnail photograph.

Thanks to Edwards Photography, Steve Mason Photography, Wayne Lankford, Shirley Cato Photography and the person(s) who took the photographs that I don’t remember who took them. (The thanks are in chronological order as best I can remember)