<h2>Part I</h2>
<h2><strong><img src="images/stories/5075posterharper.jpg" border="0" alt="George Harper Interview" title="George Harper Music" width="332" height="510" style="float: left; margin: 15px; border: 2px solid black;" /></strong></h2>
<h3><strong>Who Is George Harper? ***</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Think in English (T):</strong> What I thought would be a good thing to start with is for those people that don’t know who you are how would you describe yourself? Who is George Harper?</p>
<p><strong>George Harper (GH):</strong> Nathan, George Harper is a guy that was born in Nashville, Tennessee and grew up there and I put a guitar in my hands for the first time when I was about 12 and never really ever took it out. I’ve always played and just like a thousand other guys or ten thousand guys in Nashville… I mean, everybody in Nashville was born with a guitar in their hand and it’s nothing special there. And you’ve gotta be humble in Nashville because if you start thinking that you’re the best or that you’re good even, there’s a lot of guys following you that’ll show you just how ‘good’ you really are.</p>
<p><strong>Th:</strong> Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>GH: </strong>And I’ve been able to make friends in the music business, not necessarily in the music industry end of it but in the music…musicians end of it. I’ve been able to… I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to be invited and get to play in jams with some – y’know – very special people. I’ve played with John Prine. I’ve played on stage with John Paul Jones, Dierks Bentley, Marty Stuart. I’ve played on the Grand Ole Opry and the list goes on and on of these wonderful things that I’ve had the opportunity to do. But I’m just very average when it comes to what’s goin’on in Nashville. I’m maybe even below average.</p>
<p><strong>Th:</strong> Yeah. And for people that aren’t from the States, is there an easy way to explain why Nashville, why that area, is such a…. I guess you could say a ‘Mecca’ for great musicians. Has it always been that way?</p>
<p><strong>GH: </strong>Yeah, it really has. But I would say that in the last 20 years they’ve had an influx of music from all genres. Sheryl Crow lives there now. Peter Frampton lives there. Every day I hear somebody else is living in Nashville. And they come there not just because the music’s good, it’s because all the picker are good. There’s so many real good musicians and although there’s not a lot of  places like pubs or bars that pay a lot of money for bands because there’s so many musicians it’s still a place that you like to be because you enjoy the music being so good.</p>
<p><strong>Th:</strong> Sure, sure, sure. You said you’re from Nashville, but I believe you’re from a town right outside Nashville, is that correct?</p>
<p><strong>GH:</strong> I was born in Nashville and I grew up in a town just north of Nashville called Goodlettsville and I still live very close to there in a suburb called Union Hill. And it got its name from the Union troops occupying it.</p>
<p><strong>Th:</strong> OK.</p>
<p><strong>GH: </strong>And there’s a lot of Union Hills in the South ’cos the Union Army would take the hills and… so they could overlook the valleys.</p>
<p><strong>Th:</strong> Sure.</p>
<p><strong>GH:</strong> So, there’s a lot of Union hills but I live in Union Hill and it’s about 20 miles north of Nashville.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Permissions obtained from Think in English. Transcripts from Think in English Issue 143</strong></p>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong> www.GeorgeHarper.com</strong></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Americana, Roots, Bluegrass, Country, and Rock.</strong></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nashville Tennessee George Harper Band</strong></h2>