It's no secret that Nashville's cup runneth over with musical riches. In addition to the boatload of hit songwriters, country stars, buzz-worthy rock bands and thriving Americana and bluegrass acts, we are home to a vast contingent of that breed known as the musician's musician: folks who are far from household names, but whose musical skills and creative instincts have earned them respect, admiration and often employment from the toughest critics of all, their peers.
Guitarist Bob Britt is among the cream of that crop. Perhaps you've never heard of him, but you've likely seen or heard him play at some point, if you're a fan of Leon Russell, John Fogerty, Pam Tillis, Wynonna (with and without The Judds) or John Oates, to name a few.
Or if you've ever heard Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind, the 1997 album that revived the elusive legend's then-stagnant career. Britt still remembers the night he met Dylan, a couple years prior. Dylan was in town doing a couple of shows, and he saw Britt play one night at 3rd & Lindsley.
"He came up to me and introduced himself — like he needed to introduce himself," Britt tells the Scene, laughing. "We talked for a while, and he invited me to come out to his gig at TPAC. So I did. And then ... it was probably a year or maybe two years later, I got a call from his manager. He wanted me to come down to Miami and play on the record."
Britt spent three weeks working with Dylan, producer Daniel Lanois and the other musicians at Miami's Criteria Studios.
"Almost every morning he would come walking around the studio with a tray of Cuban coffee, to see if anybody wanted coffee," Britt says. "It was pretty amazing, seeing him writing there. He'd play something, then go, 'Uh, I don't know.' And then he'd go back and work some more and he'd come back, and there would be different words, different chords, everything. To see the transformation of those songs was amazing."
For the past five years, Britt has played guitar for blues and soul icon Delbert McClinton. And he recently co-produced and co-wrote much of the material on a new McClinton album due later this year. But in February, Britt had to take a leave of absence when he was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive blood cancer.
"When we first got this diagnosis, I was really scared, of course," says Etta Britt, Bob's wife. She is speaking to the Scene from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, where her husband is undergoing his third of six rounds of chemotherapy, along with four lumbar spinal taps. "You don't know what's going to happen to the one you love."
Etta Britt is a respected blues and soul singer in her own right — in fact, she's toured with McClinton as his opening act. For Bob's birthday, which was the day after she spoke with the Scene, she decided to write a song.
"I knew I wanted Danny Flowers and Kevin McKendree to write it with me," she says. "So we wrote this cool song, 'I'm Gonna Grow Old With You.' We recorded it secretly yesterday. ... I'm going to put on a thumb drive, type up the lyrics and put it in a box."
To help raise money to cover the Britts' rapidly mounting medical bills, guitarist John Jackson, a friend of the Britts', is reuniting his band The Rhythm Rockers, a fixture on the Nashville music scene from 1981 through '91, for a benefit show at 3rd & Lindsley on Thursday. It's only fitting, as Jackson is another archetypal musician's musician — he played with Dylan through most of the '90s, and has worked with Lucinda Williams, Tom Jones, Shelby Lynne, Kathy Mattea, Sweethearts of the Rodeo and Minton Sparks.
Joining Jackson will be much of the original lineup, which includes longtime Steve Earle bassist Kelley Looney (who is flying in from Paris, where he lives), saxophonist Rock Williams and keyboardist Rich Wayland. Randy Leago, who joined in the mid-'80s, and Jim Hoke will provide the horns.
And another former band member, Etta Britt, will be up there singing. The Rhythm Rockers' last show was a reunion, a full two decades ago.
In the meantime, Bob Britt's friends and family are determined to stay positive.
"Bob is the most gentle, giving, wonderful, thoughtful guy," says McClinton. "There are no words to describe what it's like to have him as a friend. Sometimes I'll think of something, and before I can get started doing it, he's doing it for me. He's done that too many times. And he'll just smile. I'm not trying to say there's some supernatural voodoo going on. I'm just saying he's so incredibly in tune with anybody he's dealing with."
Another member of McClinton's band, saxophonist Dana Robbins, is battling breast cancer. "I'm just holding my breath, as we all are," McClinton says. "We've been putting everything we got into getting both Bob and Dana well."
Email music@nashvillescene.com
