Seasick Steve, "Scruffy" Bob & a Music City tourist tip

While reading "Uncut," a hip British pop-music magazine at Borders the other day, I came across these bits of funny musical trivia:

(1) In an interview with Seasick Steve, a cantankerous 67-year-old California-bred tattooed & bearded bluesman whose recent debut record -- entitled "I Started Out with Nothin' and I Still Got Most of It Left" -- has reportedly sold a quarter million copies, Seasick Steve asserts that "It's a good idea to bleed [as a performer onstage, a la Son House & Mississippi Fred MacDowell] or you're just a karaoke act." Let it bleed, Steve!

(2) After arresting a man, later identified as Bob Dylan, for being a suspected burglar or vagrant while the genius was walking in the rain without ID near Bruce Springsteen's boyhood home last July, 22-year-old Long Branch (New Jersey) Police Officer Kirstie Buble explained her decision by describing the Mystery Man a "an old scruffy man acting suspiciously."

Now, you can call him Bobby, or you can call him Zimmy, you can even call him Travelin' Lucky Wilbury--but ya don't have to call him "Scruffy," ma'am. No wonder Bob said, on the debut of his Theme Time Radio Hour, that "whichever way I go, I always end up in one place: Lonely Avenue." Hang in there, man. At least it's a better address than Desolation Row.

Obscure Nashville tourist tip: Check out the Tennessee Central Railroad Museum, if you can find it (near the river downtown; donations accepted). Pretty blond Miss Amy gave me a cool little tour. I bought a red "TC Nashville Route" patch there yesterday & have already sewn it onto my brown denim jacket. All aboard!