The East Nashvillian 11.4 July|August 2021 by The East Nashvillian

JULY | AUG 2021 VOL. XI ISSUE 4

Lawrence

Rothman Track by track Q&A with Amanda Shires about his new album Good Morning, America

TOMATO ART FEST 2021 Official Guide

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Architect. Designer. Artist. Visionary. At the end of the 19th century, the Glasgow Style emerged as the major manifestation of Art Nouveau in Britain, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh was its greatest proponent. Experience the first US exhibition in a generation to highlight Mackintosh’s innovative architecture, designs, and paintings. See how he played with light and dark, soft curves, and delicate lines to achieve opulent effects. Explore the larger circle of artists and craftspeople, including many women, with whom he collaborated to create the unique and dynamic Glasgow Style.

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 12

FristArtMuseum.org @FristArtMuseum Downtown Nashville, 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203 #TheFrist #FristGlasgowStyle

Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style is a touring exhibition co-organized by Glasgow Museums and the American Federation of Arts. The exhibition comprises works from the collections of Glasgow City Council (Museums and Collections), with loans from Scottish collections and private lenders. Support for the US national tour is provided by the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation. Platinum sponsor

Hospitality sponsor

Education and community engagement supporters

Spanish translation sponsor

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by Friends of the Arts of Scotland and

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. The May Queen (detail), 1900. Made for the Ladies’ Luncheon Room, Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms, Glasgow. Gesso on burlap (hessian) over a wood frame, scrim, twine, glass beads, thread, and tin leaf, 62 1/2 x 179 7/8 in. overall. Glasgow Museums: Acquired by Glasgow Corporation as part of the Ingram Street Tearooms, 1950. © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection. Courtesy American of Arts July | August 2021 Federation theeastnashvillian.com

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Decorated-Veteran woman expands roofing business to Nashville

lizabeth Evans, Founder & CEO of award-winning, Florida-based E2-Roofing, has expanded into East Nashville. From Veteran to woman business owner, she was able to scale her management career into a $300 million construction vertical over the past decade. She found her passion for construction as a cadet at West Point where she studied civil engineering. Elizabeth has worked at every level in the construction field from Superintendent through Regional Director of Construction positions in Florida and the Southeast United States for private and public companies while continuing to serve in the Florida Army National Guard. Currently, she is proud to hold the rank of Colonel. Her business acumen is coupled with her desire to lead, mentor, and develop the E2 Team of technical and creative professionals to serve communities after disasters. Her certifications as a General and Roofing Contractor allowed Elizabeth Evans, her to expand her state licenses, which led her to stay on Business Leader, General Contractor, and Entrepreneur, the cutting edge of construction technology while branching Expands E2Roofing To Nashville into new markets. In just four years, she built a strong base of operations for an expert roofing company to assess whether repairs will the E2 family aligned with the core values of integrity, trust, extend the life of your roof or if it is time for replacement. Protect your investment from storm damage, high winds respect, and professionalism. As residential roof experts with more than 50 years of collective industry experience and hail. Appointments are flexible to meet the homeownin inspection, repair, and replacement, E2 services include er’s schedule, and most installations (2500sf) take 1-2 days. a no-obligation, FREE inspection and estimate; insurance High-quality roof installation adds to curb appeal and home claim assistance, a transferable warranty; annual mainte- value. East Nashvillians can now consider the E2 Team nance contract options; and financing options. Homeowners of professionals as their neighborhood roof experts. Still value her crew’s on-time response, efficient communication, wearing two hats, look for Elizabeth around Nashville on job sites, meeting with homeowners, or working with her and attention to detail throughout the roofing process. Elizabeth is building industry relationships in the Nash- Team – or you may see her running in the local marathons ville market. She’s educating communities on the impor- as a pace-group leader between spending time serving on tance of roof maintenance, especially with insurance rates nonprofit boards in the local community. rising. After 15 years, it’s time for a comprehensive home roof inspection, evaluation, and estimate for repairs or reE2 Roofing-Nashville placement. If you find interior ceiling stains/leaks or exteri1100 Douglas Ave #2 Nashville, TN 37206 or shingles missing, discoloration, or bald spots, you need RoofingSales@E2dc.net

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18TH annual 2021

“A Unner, Not A Divider! Bringing Together

Fruus & Vegetables!”

five Points, East Nashville, TN

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t by Jason B 1 ar ru ec 202 k, al Ra ci fi

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n ve

theeastnashvillian.com

Founder & Publisher

Creative Director

lisa@theeastnashvillian.com

Layout & Design

Lisa McCauley

Chuck Allen Benjamin Rumble

Editor-in-Chief

Photo Editor

Chuck Allen editor@theeastnashvillian.com

Travis Commeau Illustrations

Managing Editor

Randy Fox

randy@theeastnashvillian.com

Contributing Editor

Jack Evan Johnson jack@theeastnashvillian.com

Social Media

Jay Levin

Benjamin Rumble, Dean Tomasek, Tommy Womack

Contributing Writers

James Haggerty, Leslie LaChance, Andrew Leahey, Megan Seling, Brett Withers, Tommy Womack Contributing Photographers

Madison Thorn

Advertising sales@theeastnashvillian.com

Ad Design

Benjamin Rumble Distribution Manager

Whit Hubner

The East Nashvillian is a bimonthly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. All editorial content and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media, LLC unless otherwise noted. This publication is offered freely, limited to one per reader. The removal of more than one copy by an individual from any of our distribution points constitutes theft and will be subject to prosecution. Reprints or any other usage without the express written permission of the publisher is a violation of copyright.

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K O5

EAS T

ILLE TOM V H S A AT N

M AR GA MC Y RET Y MADDOX FAMIL

EAST PARK

Saturday, August 14

5K — 7:30 a.m. Kids Fun Run 1K — 7:00 a.m.

For more information and to register visit YMCAMIDTN.ORG/RACE-SERIES THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS Bootstrap Architecture + Construction • Lockeland Table • JRH Attorney • Nations Lending Corp The Drimmer Group • East Nashville Agent • Hodgson & Douglas LLC • ACRE Tennessee Adoption and Family Law PLLC • Academy Sports + Outdoors • Snapshot Interactive City Construction LLC • Madison Pools LLC • Publix • Rosepepper Cantina Sean Shariati – Reliant Realty • Brightside Lawncare • Superior Development • JumpCrew LLC TNT Group LLC • Turnip Truck • Zaghop • Hempsterville Our Mission: A worldwide charitable fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of helping people grow in spirit, mind and body. 10

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Contents

13. 14.

On the Cover Lawrence Rothman

17.

Photograph by Travis Commeau

23.

24.

Official Guide

36. 47. 51.

New!

55. 58.

Editor’s Letter Astute Observations

by James “Hags” Haggerty

Matters of Development By Randy Fox & Megan Seling

Know your Neighbor

Brittany Carlberg By Randy Fox Cover Story

LawrenceRothman’s Good Morning, America

Track by track Q&A with Amanda Shires Introduction by Chuck Allen

Tomato Art Fest 2021 39 - Contests & Activities 42 - Map 45 - Entertainment Lineups

Authentically Dapper Christopher Lester goes a little extra with Clifton+Leopold accessories By Leslie LaChance

Sometimes the Good Guys Win Dualtone Records turns 20 By Tommy Womack

Out East Soundtrack Featuring Brett Withers

Curated by Andrew Leahey & Jay Dmuchowski

East of Normal by Tommy Womack

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Ready for the next big adventure? Register for kindergarten and apply for Pre-K for the 2021-22 school year.

bit.ly/MNPSPKK

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Editor’s

Letter

Of Wolf Peaches & The Republic (Revisited)

Sometimes it’s worth taking stock of the road covered in order to come to grips with what lies ahead. With this in mind, I decided to mine the archives for an “Editors Letter” written for our July/August 2013 Tomato Art Fest Special Edition. It seems like forever ago, and East Nashville was a much different place at the time. So was the country. What I wrote then still applies now, as far as I’m concerned, even if it often feels like I’m pissing in the wind. In Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304, 1893), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the tomato is a vegetable within the meaning of the Tariff Act of 1883. Writing the court’s opinion, Justice Gray basically boiled it down to how the tomato was commonly used in cooking: “Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables

which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.” Within this opinion is the acknowledgment that botanically tomatoes are a fruit; specifically the fruit of plant Solanum Lycopersicon. They originated in Mesoamerica and were widely and rapidly distributed across the globe following the Spanish conquests in Central America. That’s right — Pomodoro sauces weren’t present during Caesar’s time in Rome. To sum it up, the tomato is botanically a fruit, gastronomically a vegetable. So, you see, the tomato has always had something of a split personality; one more along the lines of the yin yang, rather than a chemical imbalance. The light and the dark become one, and such and so forth. This is why the slogan for East Nashville’s Tomato Art Fest is so … sublime: A Uniter, not a Divider

— Bringing Together Fruits and Vegetables! That’s right. We’re all in this together, like it or not. Recent anthropological studies done among the few remaining primitive tribes that have little or no contact with the outside world uncovered convincing evidence that they are better at resolving disputes than us civilized folk. Of course, it’s all about community to them. Concepts like nation-states are as inconceivable to them as passing a bill is to congress. A close-knit tribal community can’t afford divisions along party lines or winner-takeall politics. To them, resolving their differences amicably is a matter of survival. Sure, I’ll stipulate the fact that we are indeed a nation, albeit a schizophrenic one undergoing a paradigm shift. What’s more important to me is that we are a people, and as a people, we live and die by the covenants set forth by our enlightened forefathers in the Constitution. Its essence, its brilliance, lies in the framework it provides for balancing two constant, elemental, and powerful forces that

are often diametrically opposed to one another: The General Welfare and Individual Liberty. In this respect, we all have both some of the liberal as well as some of the conservative in us whether we like it or not. Our republic was designed for these opposing forces to forever be in a dance with one another, and for things to work — for our tribe’s survival — there must be compromise. It’s easy to stand behind party, or worse — the anonymity of the Internet, and lob spitballs at the other side. It’s a much more difficult proposition when the spitballs one is lobbing are aimed at one’s neighbors. Community is the last bastion of compromise. Working together we can promote the general welfare and at the same time respect one another’s individual liberties. Or, as Tomato Art Festival cofounders Meg and Bret MacFadyen once described it, the community coming together in unity, led by a fruit that’s also a vegetable. A uniter — not a divider. The tomato.

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

Astute Observations

by James “Hags” Haggerty

SUMMERTIME, & THE LIVING IS EASY

he Tomato and Arts Festival issue of The East Nashvillian is always my favorite. I get a kick out of coming up with tomato themes upon which to observe astutely. In past fest columns, I have written about my mom’s delicious tomato sauce, the wacky names of the many varietals in the ’mater kingdom, and how the festival makes me fall in love with our neighborhood, its creativity and camaraderie, each and every year. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this year… Just like the bountiful, plump, juicy-red beauties we celebrate at the festival need nurturing, sun, and the loving hand of the gardener to thrive, I, James “Hags” Haggerty, also need the sunshine, the fresh air, the literal and the figurative cool drink of water, if you will. That’s what this summer is all about for me. You see, friends, I have been summering in the Berkshires with my sweetheart. For those that aren’t familiar, the Berkshires are a mountain range in Western Massachusetts. Hiking, biking, skiing, swimming, fishing, scenic beauty, and legal weed in a blue state? Count me in! Like many of you, both of my parents are gone. After my mom passed and the estate was settled, I inherited the townhouse they retired to in New York’s Hudson Valley. I was not able to keep the house. The money from its sale enabled me to buy a small house in North Adams, Mass., in 2019. I first visited North Adams in 2010 as a member of the band, The Autumn Defense, to play Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum is housed within the massive former Sprague Capacitor factory. Sprague was North Adams largest employer. When the factory closed, the town and its economy were fractured. In 1999 the museum opened and, over the ensuing 20 years, artists of every stripe started showing up. In the years since that first show with The Autumn Defense, I have frequently returned to play Solid Sound and to enjoy the perfect summer weather. Each time I visited, I would notice another beautifully rehabbed Victorian home and a new shop or gallery on Main Street. A few years ago it dawned

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

on me — the energy in that mountain town is what Nashville felt like to me when I moved here 25 years ago. It felt wide open, wild, and free. I knew I had to be here. A town full of music, music nerds, the best musicians, recording engineers, and techs in the world, low cost, beautiful homes and no traffic?! Yes, please! It’s the romance of creativity and passion. It draws me right in every time. I felt that same energy, that bubbling creativity in a city of 12,000 people, on the New YorkVermont-Massachusetts border. In the two years that I have owned the house, affectionately named “The Exile on East Main Street,” it has been both a long and a short term rental. Up until this summer, I have only spent about 2 weeks within its walls. The income it generated kept the lights on and the mortgage paid here in Inglewood when the pandemic decimated live shows and recording work. It warms my heart to think that my parents gift could be so meaningful. It is tough to find the words. Somehow, they are still caring for me. COVID kept me isolated and home bound for 18 months. In pre-pandemic existence I regularly toured Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. I didn’t realize how much inspiration and gratification I gained from experiencing different cultures until that freedom of movement was taken away. Between the plague and the failed insurrection, I feel as if I have PTSD. Even as things edge back towards normal, I don’t feel quite ready for it. I need to heal up — to reconnect with the muse, as it were — and stretch my legs a bit. East Nashville will always be home, but I’ll take a left leaning, blue collar, artist colony, and cool mountain breezes eight days a week. In full disclosure, I am actually writing to you from my cozy Inglewood cottage. I’m home for a few days to make a Charlie McCoy record with the Inglehood Records gang. Folks, I have to tell you, I’m a lucky fellow. If you need me, drop me a line. Address it to The Exile on East Main Street. I’ll be there baking a little bread and making some music as I while away the hours, summering. See you in September, friends!

Hags is a bass player, bread maker, and regular contributor to The East Nashvillian. He summers at his idyllic retreat — known fondly as “The Exile on East Main Street” — in North Adams, Mass.

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

(To)Matters of

Development By Randy Fox & Megan Seling New & Noteworthy Rusty Rats Antiques & Vintage’s new Shoppes on Fatherland location opened in May at 1006 Fatherland St. The shop is now located inside the recently renovated pavilion, and their new space is about three times bigger than before. Visit them in person on Facebook @ shoprustyrats. The BE-Hive deli at 2414 Gallatin Ave., is now open to the public for indoor dining after being closed for more than a year. During the pandemic, BE-Hive gave their space a bit of a makeover, with new tables and booths as well as a small vegan market with their line of notmeat products and vegan grocery staples. For more info, visit them at bethehive.com. In June, The Daisy May Hat Co. officially opened its doors at 1100 Douglas Ave. The shop is owned by hatmaker Gage Seas who began blocking, sanding, and shaping custom hats by hand two years ago and he has since accrued some noteworthy clientele including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, musician Tim Montana, and comedian Shapel Lacey. In addition to custom-made hats, Daisy May also carries a selection of ready-made and one-off hats, as well as belts, wallets, and key chains. More info at daisymayhats.com. I Love Juice Bar is now open in Hunters

Station, 975 Main St. Founded in Tennessee by John and Vui Hunt, I Love Juice Bar has several locations throughout the South and Midwest, with The Hunters Station shop being their first in East Nashville. More at ilovejuicebar.com. The owners of Tabla Rasa Toys are getting closer to opening their new storefront at 1200 Porter Road. For now, the shop, owned by the same folks who run Green Fleet Bicycle Shop and Shelby Ave. Bicycle Co., offers a selection of toys and games in their online store, and stock includes wooden toys from the East Nashville-based Okay Have Fun toy company. More info and updates at tablarasatoys.com. Music City Brew Hop began taking guests on an eight-brewery tour with stops at Smith & Lentz Brewing (903 Main St.), Crazy Gnome Brewery (948 Main St.), TailGate Brewery East (811 Gallatin Ave.), Southern Grist Brewing Co (1201 Porter Road), Living Waters Brewing (1056 E. Trinity Lane #101), and East Nashville Beer Works (320 E. Trinity Lane), and Barrique Brewing & Blending (30 Oldham St.) on the East Side, as well as Bearded Iris Brewing (101 Van Buren St.) in Germantown. In a pleasant change from the roving bacchanalian pestiferousness of many downtown tour buses and pedal taverns, Music City Brew

Hop’s founder Adam Smith, an East Nashville native, notes that the tour is family-friendly with “no bells and whistles on the trolley, just vintage wood, a local tour guide, and some good tunes.” In addition to a lower volume, Smith says the music will include tunes from local artists, including Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, and Billy Strings as well as folks that “often play places like The 5 Spot or Dee’s” like LadyCouch, Alanna Royale, Molly Tuttle, and more. For more info, visit musiccitybrewhop.com. One very happy return was the reopening of The Wild Cow’s dining room at 1100 Fatherland St. The Wild Cow had been serving up vegetarian and vegan cuisine in their new, and bigger, Fatherland Street location for just a few months when the March 3 tornado took out their power and forced them to close for a couple of weeks and then the pandemic hit. “It’s been a crazy year for us for sure,” co-owner Ryan Toll says. “[The pandemic] definitely cut us down, and since we didn’t have a dining room that really cut down opportunities for shifts for a lot of our employees. Over the year we had to adapt as best we could.” The restaurant was still able to keep up a decent amount of business, Toll says, partly because they already did a good amount of takeout business in the Before Times. Now, they’re looking forward to finally enjoying aspects of the new space they hadn’t yet had the chance to fully showcase before everything closed down. They have a patio, for one, and they also now have a full bar. “We have some really great cocktails,” says Toll. “We’ve got four signature cocktails and a signature mocktail. We also have a lot of really great kombucha on tap and all the beer we sell is local. A lot of the liquor is local as well.” The current cocktail menu includes a matcha mojito, a Primavera with rosemary-infused gin, and another drink featuring coffee and chicory liqueur with lime. For more info, visit thewildcow.com, and for daily specials and updates follow them on Facebook or Instagram @thewildcow. Also, Matt Charette’s Five Points trio: Boston Commons, Drifters Tennessee Barbeque, and Beyond the Edge Sports Bar are on the way back. All three East Nashville favs were severely damaged by the March 3 tornado. It’s been a long road back, but the end of that road is finally in sight. Boston Commons reopened in February and remains open 5-9 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays. Charette plans to maintain that schedule for the foreseeable future, and progress is being made at the other two locations. “We’re getting close at Drifters, but we’re a little bit further away at Beyond the Edge,” Charette says. “I’ve maintained all my licenses over the past year and my goal is to →

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

Matters of Development participate in Tomato Fest in some form with all three locations. Even if we’re just serving beer and drinks at Drifters and Beyond the Edge it will be amazing. It’s been a long year for everybody, but we’re working our way back and hopefully, we’ll be better than ever.” For more info and updates, follow all three on Facebook @bostoncommonsnashvilleTN, @ driftersBBQ, and @beyondtheedgesportsbar

Closings & Moves Since July of last year, The Nashville Free Store at Drkmttr on Dickerson Road has been inviting their East Nashville neighbors to shop their shelves and grab whatever they may need, no questions asked. The Free Store first opened as a way to put to good use a concert-less music venue and the Nashville Free Store has since provided mutual aid

Harpeth Hall educates young women to think critically, to lead confidently, and to live honorably.

Juicy Red Tomatoes, Pauline Bailey, rising 11th grade student

Join us for Preview Day Sunday, Nov. 7

Campus tours and student visits begin late September for students applying for the 2022-2023 school year For more information: admission@harpethhall.org

HarpethHall.org

A college preparatory school for girls in grades 5-12 • Financial aid available 3801 Hobbs Road • Nashville, TN • 615-297-9543

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— groceries, school and office supplies, and cleaning and hygiene products — for hundreds of individuals and families. The plan was always to find a more permanent space when live music returned and in June, they relocated to a new location in the lower-level of 1213 Dickerson Pike, accessible through the gate in the driveway during donations and shopping hours. For updates and hours, follow them on Instagram @ nashvillefreestore. In May, Edley’s Bar-B-Que announced they’ll be moving their East Nashville location from 908 Main St. to 1000 Woodland St. at the corner of South 10th Street, which was once home to a Family Dollar store. The move will happen next year once the construction of the development is completed. Magnolia Investment Partners is overseeing the new development and in March the Nashville Post reported the completed property will feature two eateries joined by an outdoor eating area. Sorry, East Nashville, but St. Vito Focacciaria has left the neighborhood. The popular pizza peddler’s stint at Van Dyke Bed & Beverage recently ended. If you still need that focaccia fix, St. Vita’s next residency is at Hathorne on Charlotte Pike starting July 18. Van Dyke Bed & Beverage hasn’t yet announced who their next guest will be, but they plan to continue working with local pop-up eateries. Chris Saint Clark’s Kustom Thrills Tattoo shops have had an eventful spring; not only has the original location at 1000 Main St., Suite 107 been remodeled, but the second location in Cleveland Park has moved to 1603 Riverside Dr., into the storefront formerly occupied by The Catio. “We downsized the footprint at Main,” Saint Clark says. “It’s only 1,000 square feet smaller, but now all the artists are in one big room together. We’ve ditched the old red color and updated the interior with a more regal look — a button-tufted couch and chandeliers and soothing color scheme.” Kustom Thrills Riverside has the same artists as the Cleveland Park location did, Saint Clark says — including Kustom Thrills co-owner Adam Wakitsch and cosmetic tattooer Briana Walker — but both studios have new hours. They’re open daily from noon to 8 p.m., and while walk-ins are welcome, appointments are encouraged. For more info, visit kustomthrills.com. Finally, not a closing or move, but some sad news about an East Nashville business pioneer. On June 2, 2021, Bolton Matthews of Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish passed away after fighting Stage IV colon cancer for the past three years. Bolton Matthews and his wife Dollye opened Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish →

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

Matters of Development at 624 Main St. in 1997, using the family recipe he inherited from his uncle, Bolton Polk, who ran the East Side eatery Columbo’s Hot Chicken Shack in the 1980s. Under Matthew’s management, Bolton’s expanded to a second location in Antioch and successful mobile kitchen while Nashville Hot Chicken, once a dish exclusive to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack and Bolton’s, became world famous. In May, the city presented Matthews with a resolution that recognized him “for his contributions to the culture, economy, development, and panache of the City of Nashville.” The official document, which was presented to Matthews on May 23, celebrated many of Matthews’ accomplishments, including the fact that Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish is one of the oldest Black-owned businesses in operation on Main Street and that Matthews and his wife Dollye continued to keep Bolton’s running — serving “delicious and comforting food to the friends and neighbors of East Nashville — throughout multiple catastrophes, including the 2020 Nashville tornado and COVID-19 pandemic.”

that Wild Berry’s 1,100-square-foot space will allow for take-out only. Real Estate Quick Bits FieldHouse Jones Hotel on Main Street has been listed for sale. FieldHouse Jones opened in August 2019 but closed just months later after being damaged in the March 3, 2020 tornado.

A Minneapolis-based development company purchased the lot at 900 Dickerson for $4.2 million. Dominium plans to build a residential building that includes affordable housing. The property at 1222 Gallatin Ave. has sold for $1.02 million. Two parcels at 714-716 Gallatin Ave., have sold for $1.3 million.

Coming Soon Guerilla Bizkits — the plant-based biscuit company that combines love of a good biscuit with a hardcore punk ethos is moving from the virtual world to the brick & mortar. Founded by East Nashvillians Ali Humbrecht and Zach Halfhill after both lost their jobs due to the pandemic, the pair are putting the final touches on the biscuit business’ first real world storefront. The initial menu will be simple: fresh biscuits, frozen three-packs, and cold brew from Crisis Cold Brew (another East Nashville-based pandemic project that took on a life of its own). But eventually, they hope to offer rotating specials. To stay updated on their shop’s progress, follow them on Instagram @guerillabizkits and to order online, visit bizkits.biz. Melvil Arnt of the popular East Side French restaurant Once Upon a Time in France has announced plans to open The Authentique, a French wine bar to be located at 925 Gallatin Ave. Plans include a list with at least 50% French wines, as well as beer and a small food menu, along with offering wine classes. Arnt also plans to open Overlord, a 1940s Bohemian-themed European style bar at 2503 Gallatin Ave. this summer. For updates follow on Instagram @overlord_nashville. Coneheads owners Marcus and Jennifer Buggs plan to open a cocktail bar called Plane Jane this summer in the same building as Coneheads, 1315 Dickerson Pike. For updates, follow “Plane jane bar” on Facebook. According to a Metro Codes Department permit, a new juice bar, Wild Berry, is under construction at 819 Main St. The permit notes July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

United & Growing Tomatoes come in all shapes, sizes and colors – just like our kids.

We embrace the beauty that diversity brings to our East Nashville classrooms and playgrounds. Our magnet schools are united by purpose, passion and innovation. It’s not too late to enroll. Learn more about our magnet schools at mnps.org/steammagnet

The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, color, age, and/or disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs, services, or activities. MNPS does not discriminate in its hiring or employment practices.

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

Brittany

CARLBERG

“T

B Y

R A N D Y

KNOW your NEIGHBOR

F O X

P H OTOG RAP H BY M ADI S ON T HO RN

he day after an event I wake up, start my coffee, and I’ll do a social media scroll to see everyone who has tagged the event in their posts. Seeing the joy on people’s faces gives me an appreciation for all the hard work we put into making it come together. It makes the long hours and hot temperatures totally worth it.” — Brittany Carlberg

Brittany Carlberg’s position as Festival Director for the Nashville-based Good Neighbor Festivals is a big job. For Tomato Art Fest alone, she has to coordinate vendors, planning, programming, music stages, and more, for an event that regularly draws in the neighborhood of 60,000 people. Add in the numerous other events throughout the year and the job sounds overwhelming, but Carlberg not only gets the job done, she loves it. A native of Southern Illinois, Carlberg arrived in Nashville in the summer of 2013 to finish her senior year at Tennessee State University. “I knew I wanted to be in Nashville and I knew I wanted to do something with music,” Carlberg says. “Nashville was kind of close to home but far enough away. I had internships at a booking agency and a marketing PR firm, but I realized they weren’t for me.” While general PR work held little appeal, working on campaigns for various music festivals piqued her interest in festival management. “I was working as a server at the Mad Platter at the time and my boss, Marcia Jervis, suggested I talk to Jack Davis [founder of Good Neighbor Festivals] about how to get started in the music festival world. We met for coffee and two weeks later he offered me a job — three weeks before the 2014 Tomato Art Festival. It was definitely a case of jumping into the deep end, but Carlberg loved the experience, found her calling, and quickly rose to her current position. An outstanding achievement, especially when you consider Good Neighbor’s hallmark style of tailoring events to the local community excludes a simple “one size fits all” approach. “Every neighborhood has its own personality, and we try to highlight that personality and build on what makes that neighborhood unique,” Carlberg says. “What I love most about what I do is, getting to know local Nashville — people, businesses, and more.” A local focus remains paramount whether Carlberg is working on neighborhood-based festivals like the

Tomato Art Fest, Light the Nations, and Sevier Park Fest, or city-wide events built around non-geographical communities like the American Artisan Festival, Middle Tennessee Highland Games, and Nashville Pride. While Carlberg brings the same level of care and devotion to every event, she freely admits she has favorites. “Tomato Art Fest is a favorite because it was my introduction to festival management, and the community really shines through,” she says. “It’s really amazing to see people champion something that is so unique and different. For me, that East Nashville sense of ‘come as you are, we accept you,’ really shines through.” “And then Nashville Pride gets me every year,” she continues. “For some people it’s the only day they get to feel truly themselves in a safe space with nobody judging them. Usually it will hit me about mid-day. I’ll get the chance to step back from my event management brain and just take it all in. Just seeing the joy and feeling the energy of the crowd. It’s very emotional and having any part in inspiring that joy in others is powerful. It makes my soul happy.” It’s a happiness that was in short supply last year for Carlberg and the Good Neighbor team when the pandemic gutted their usual schedule. “We need to have the ability to pivot, be flexible, and think outside the box in our industry,” Carlberg says. “That’s in a normal year, but it was amplified by a thousand last year. There was a lot of planning, then re-planning, and then planning it again to ultimately decide we couldn’t do an event safely.” Despite those challenges, Good Neighbor persisted and crafted pandemic-safe events like the first Drag Drive-In show, virtual events for Nashville Pride, and an ultra-simplified “Tomato Art Fest…ish.” With the arrival of vaccines and studies indicating low transmission for outdoor events, Carlberg is cautiously optimistic about the future. “We’re grateful that the vaccines are allowing us to pick back up and bring people a sense of community and joy after a year that was separating for us,” Carlberg says. “Obviously, do whatever you’re the most comfortable with, but we’re excited to see you whenever you feel comfortable to join in.”

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

Lawrence Rothman’s Good Morning, America Track by track Q&A with Amanda Shires On their new album, Good Morning, America, Lawrence Rothman takes the micro approach to the meta. It’s like ‘as above, so below,’ only in reverse. In other words, this collection of songs sees Rothman confronting the insanity of the past year in the context of their own life experience and, in doing so, finds their humanity. As you might’ve noticed, Rothman identifies as gender-fluid — hence the use of they/them pronouns. But they’re not militant about it. As a matter of fact, during the photoshoot for this story, I repeatedly caught myself forgetting this. I finally confessed, “You know, Lawrence, I’m a boomer and I call everyone ‘dude.’” To which they replied, “Dude is totally OK!” The point, indeed the overarching gist of the record, is to seek and see the humanity in others. Through this exercise, we might actually find acceptance — not just for them, but for ourselves. Looking beyond the lyrical angle, the music and production are, in a word, stunning, with guest appearances by Amanda Shires, Lucinda Williams, Katie Pruitt, and Caroline Rose. Rothman chose well and weaves each of them seamlessly into the tapestry; the performances work whether taken alone or in the context of the album as a whole. Good Morning, America is a musically complete statement. Yes, the songs hold up beautifully on their own — I definitely have my favorites! — but do yourself a favor and listen to the entire album. Much love and thanks to Amanda Shires for her participation, and to Jaan Cohan for letting us hang out at Jaan’s House artist hostel to do the interview. —Chuck Allen

Photography by Travis Commeau

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

“Thrash the West” (feat. Amanda Shires) amanda – The first time I heard this was October or November when I didn’t know you from Adam. I used to play with this guy named John Prine, and he told me once when we were on tour together, after me asking, “How come I’m allowed to be on tour with you?” He said, “Oh I listen to everything that comes across my desk.” When he did that, I’m like, “I want to do that like John Prine does.” So every time somebody asks me to come sing on a record, I always listen to it. During COVID, I wasn’t really into music, not playing, and then this song came. I put it on my little speaker, and I thought Lawrence’s voice was beautiful, so I said, “Okay, I’ll do this.” I know that songs are lots of layers and meaning, they can be about whatever you want them to be really, but what I think is, it’s like a post-apocalyptic song. What is it about?

lawrence – Well, what’s interesting about it is, I wrote it in a place where it was like a post-apocalyptic version of yourself after you’ve had a nuclear meltdown; like you’ve been nuked as a person. What’s that feeling like after you’ve been nuked; it is almost like your body’s like an apocalypse. I wrote it from a very personal situation that happened as a kid where I felt like a nuclear bomb hit me and I was in a chaotic state; I never really dealt with it in song or poetry or anything. I was sitting at my table one day and thought I needed to deal with it, and I started writing “Thrash the West.” Also, the state of the world, and COVID, and Donald Trump — it felt like our country was being nuked from the inside — like a madman was in office. So that was hitting me from the left and my own experiences hit me from the right, and all the lyrics just came out of the older me grown up. There’s an apocalypse that’s happening in the world right now that’s affecting me and then there’s the younger me; merging the two together into a song. amanda – How long does it take you to feel comfortable about songs that personal?

lawrence – I never did it until this record. My last record I did a little bit, but this record I did it on almost every song, and I think it was a result of being kind of inside this COVID bubble, where you are coming to terms with a lot of things you never want to think about. I reached out to you, Amanda, to sing on it because I just love your voice so much. I didn’t think it was going to work out. I thought it was a long shot and you agreed to do it. I didn’t want to believe it would happen until I actually saw the file in my inbox. amanda – You know what else is interesting? I said yes because you asked me to sing. You know, people ask me to play fiddle and I’m like please don’t do that! I love to play the fiddle, but why can’t I just sing? lawrence – I have always liked a woman’s voice in the background or with mine because my voice is so deep, and when I try to sing my own harmonies or have a more masculine voice behind me it never works. I’ve really struggled — I’m always looking for vocalists that can guest with me that can compliment me somehow. I have a very diverse pallet of what I listen to as well. My daughter, my brother, and I discovered your music pre-COVID with the To The Sunset record. There’s a song called “Swimmer” that I must’ve played a thousand times, and your older records, a song called “Harmless” [from the 2016 album My Piece of Land]. I just became very appreciative of your songwriting, the poetry in the lyrics. I’m a very big lyrics person, and the voice just felt to me like all of the voices that I like: Emmylou, Dolly Parton, and things like that. I do a lot of indie rock music, so I thought, how am I gonna get this wonderful poetic country artist to sing on my songs? So, I threw a dart out there.

“Benadryl and Cereal” amanda – That sounds like a lovely combination. Have you tried that? lawrence – I have.

amanda – Why would you do that?

lawrence – Well, this is why I don’t take Benadryl anymore, or any of those over-thecounter cold medicines. I took too much of it one time and I felt really shitty. … There

was nothing in the house except for milk and cereal, so I thought if I ate a bunch of cereal maybe it would counteract the Benadryl. And I ate so much cereal that I got really sick. And Benadryl is purple? amanda – Kind of a pinkish.

lawrence – Pinkish-purple, yeah. I thought I was throwing up blood, so I said never again. Going back, the whole record deals with past wounds and sort of getting attacked, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Then this COVID situation, everybody at the same time going through this emotional attack on our brains and our well-being. I felt there was a parallel there. So when I was writing the Benadryl and cereal one, I had a cold, and I thought at least it wasn’t COVID, then I got COVID, and I thought what do you do? Do you go to the doctor? Do you stay at home? If you go to the doctor, are you going to get somebody else sick? It was very confusing, especially in the early days of COVID when I got it … confusing what you did when you got sick, especially when I didn’t feel like I was on my deathbed. After three days I ended up going to the doctor, and in the office, the wait was so long, and they’d do you one by one, it was so isolating, in there for hours by yourself. amanda – Do you think the title should’ve been COVID, Benadryl, and cereal?

lawrence – Ha-ha maybe! And I toyed with COVID in there, but I didn’t want to date the song. amanda – Yeah, as a professional songwriter I think you made the right choice. But did you write the music first?

lawrence – No, I wrote the poem first. That day I went home, and I couldn’t be around anybody. I was in my studio, so I went to my piano and wrote that into a voice memo. So that’s that.

“Breathe” (feat. Caroline Rose) amanda –That song sounds really personal. If you’d like we could talk about the production.

lawrence – What’s funny about that song is — the production. I completely finished the song — full mix, full everything — it was one of my proudest productions I’d ever done. → I had Pino Palladino on the bass, Jim July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

Keltner on drums, I had two piano players, I was playing all these African instruments that were super hard to get into my house, I recorded myself playing those, so I went really deep with the production, and had a 12-piece string ensemble.

amanda – I don’t know the whole story of the song, but it’s really cool for what I interpret as you survived to put all that stuff into it, it was crazy cool. lawrence – I wanted to overdecorate the pain to kind of mask it, so it was a very grandiose production.

amanda – But not to mask it but to me it sounds like — decorate the pain was a good way to put it but I was thinking, “Make something beautiful out of something ugly.”

lawrence – Yeah, I wanted to do that, too. I think that’s where I ended up. I did all that and was so proud. So, I got to London — during COVID I had to go to London to score a film. And it was the last song I mixed. And it’s like 1 a.m., London time — I actually had just met you, we had already met but you texted me a song idea and we wrote a song through text that night. It was a Sunday at the end of my session, so I leave the studio and I thought I needed to play my mix and rock driving through London with it. The closer I’m getting to the flat where I’m staying, I started to think, “I hate this. I fucking hate this, this is terrible.” I’m like, “Where is my voice? Am I tired?” And I’d spent two weeks on this production and four days mixing this song on two mixing boards. We had a multi-track, so it was 64 tracks of tape that we put it on — it was nuts. I wasted so much money, and I’m like, “I fucking hate this!” And the mastering session to master the whole album was the next morning, but I was ahead of time because I was in London, and I couldn’t move it because it was right before Christmas and it was the only time my engineer could do it. If I missed it I’d have to find somebody else, so I was like, “No! It cannot go on my record like this. It’s fucking terrible.” I get back to my flat where I had a mobile Pro Tools rig on a laptop, opened up the hard drive — because I always carry a hard drive backup with me — with headphones on, and I muted everything but the piano and my voice. And I thought, there is the song. I unmuted some synths I had done, and a drumbeat that I had done, just me playing the drums. And the bass. And I was like, now, that’s the fucking song.

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

“The Fix” Amanda – Who’s that about?

lawrence – That’s about my mom.

amanda – Oh that’s awesome. I also like to think about it in my own way as a love relationship. Is that wrong?

lawrence – Oh that’s wrong. I mean I love my mom.

amanda – I mean is it okay if I have my own version? lawrence – The thing is songs should be for the listener to put their own interpretation on. amanda – Yes, I used to get upset when I learned that a song wasn’t about what I thought it was about. What is “The Fix” about?

lawrence – I wrote that one about my mom and her father. I got her mother’s — who passed away before I was born — I got a hold of her diary, and there’s an entry in it that was really beautiful; when he went off to the war, about how there was an ocean between them, and she missed him, and she was like an alcoholic and struggled all her life, but her diary entries were like poetry. So, my mom had given that to me because they were so poetic, and she thought maybe I could use them for something. But back to the theme, it was always trying to pull from the past. I just thought I’d open my grandma Lillian’s diary and see what I could pull from that, and that entry. She was like, “I wish I could fix this so I didn’t drink so much so I could be present.” My mom struggled all her life dealing with the fact that her mother was an alcoholic who died when she was 17, so I thought, “I’m gonna write a song that is my grandma’s story for my mom.”

“My Body is a Perfect Storm” lawrence – So I wrote that because I was watching a Daniel Day Lewis movie [Phantom Thread] where he … he was a fashion designer, and it came out about three years ago, and in the movie, the wife would get him sick on purpose so she could care for him. I was thinking about it during COVID and how our bodies are — you don’t really think about them every day. But once that virus hit, we were so much more aware of everything inside my body, appreciating “Oh my god I can breathe!” — because some people can’t breathe with COVID, the fact that you can inhale and exhale, you take that for granted every day. I was thinking about how much I took my body for granted all my life, but also how as a human you like the things that are bad for you — the sugar, the alcohol, the drugs. And your body’s like a perfect storm, how you can beat it up and what is it they say like every seven years you have like a new complete cell makeup?

So, that’s where I was getting at with it really, your body is just the wildest thing ever when you think about how much it can take, how much of a beating it can take it and how much you can abuse it, how some people have abused it and lived to be 90 and others abuse it and live to be 20. →

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

“Decent Man” (feat. Lucinda Williams) amanda – I play that song on loop a lot. I really like it. I think Lucinda Williams did a great job on it. Production-wise, I don’t know how you got her in the same room. I mean I love her, but if I called her she probably wouldn’t come over.

Amanda and Lawrence lift their spirits up to nature after the interview at Jaan’s House while rocking some serious footwear. photograph by Chuck Allen

lawrence – We had to do that one virtual. It was in the thick of COVID when we did that. She was the first person I reached out to, to feature on the record because I had been listening to a lot of her catalog during COVID. I wrote that song at my kitchen table — it was in the thick of Donald Trump craziness, and the country erupting with all the racist things that were going down, and all these states and protests. One day my daughter just got so frustrated, because she was at home and couldn’t go to school, and she goes, “Are there any decent men left? With these presidents and all these #metoo men.” And I thought that is a really good question! I took that and it was like, instantly, it was like a waterfall. I wrote that entire song, in a 20-minute spew.

I was listening to Lucinda’s catalog, and I thought there’s no way I can sing this song by myself. I needed someone to do it with me and I wanted someone from a different era. I didn’t want to do it with one of my peers, my age, I wanted someone who had really lived, and thought Lucinda would really be the dream. I’d been listening to Lucinda since I was 12. So, we just cold-reached out and I was like, there’s just no chance. But we did it, and that was wild because she really loved the lyrics and got right back. It was just a matter of how we were going to do it because we were in the thick of COVID. I hadn’t done remote sessions at that point at all, so I was a little nervous because I have such a particular way that I like to record things. amanda – You’re very meticulous.

lawrence – I was like, hopefully, it’ll fit, you know? And they did their thing – Ray Kennedy recorded it. I got it, and I was just like, what’s it gonna be? I put it right into the Pro Tools session it was in, and I was like, oh my god MY vocal sounds like shit now! And then Ray was asking me how I recorded my vocal because he liked it, and I said, “How did YOU do that because what you did is the perfect vocal!” And he did it on that mic, the actual mic from Car Wheels on a Gravel → Road, so that was really cool.

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

“

Really, truly, do they really care

about you and all your glories and all your ego and your boasting “look at me” stuff? It’s all just wiped out when you die. It doesn’t really matter how big you are. You just fade away.

“

Lawrence Rothman

on writing “Glory”

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

“Dear L.A.” amanda – Well, this one, when we were becoming friends, you wouldn’t let me hear any of the music, at all. You used to be way more guarded about it. Because I agree, people do listen to music passively sometimes, and it’s not cool if you put all your heart and soul and your feelings and life out there for display and people aren’t listening to it right. I got so offended, that they would even think that I would listen to it poorly. Then I felt guilty. But I remember when I got to hear “Dear L.A.” and I was so thrilled. lawrence – “Dear L.A.” I wrote while in Nashville when staying in a friend’s guest house. I had been away from L.A. for about a month and, though I was born and raised in Missouri, sometimes you gotta check yourself that you aren’t getting sucked into the negative part of Hollywood/L.A. culture. People can be very vampiric. Recording in Nashville gave me a perspective on L.A. I hadn’t had for a minute. In that song I wrote from the perspective of me now and the perspective of when I was 19 driving 36 hours straight from Missouri to California with my brother and an old girlfriend. The L.A. I dreamed about and now 20 years later the L.A. that lives in me and the scars I wear.

“Glory” (feat. Katie Pruitt) amanda – I said you are a goddamn fool if “Glory” is not on your record! I’m not going to work with you anymore if it isn’t on the record!

amanda – Is it also about a person?

lawrence – No. It was about me looking at a bunch of people. I was getting a little too misanthropic for a second and I was looking at my peers in music and thinking, “You all need to just take it down a notch.” And social media just sort of amplifies everybody’s egos in a way, just “look at me look at me look at me,” and one day you’re just going to be old. The only sort of celebrity story I have — which was the one that kind of changed my career path — was that in 2012 I met David Bowie. He was actually at my house — that part of the story is too complicated — but he was at my recording studio at my house. I had built up a collection of solo songs and got comfortable enough with him to play the songs that would become my solo music. amanda – And y’all probably got to know each other?

lawrence – Yeah, as much as you can be acquainted with a person like that because there was a wall. But the thing he said was that’s what you should be doing. Don’t change a thing. And I was like, OK. Because at the time I was experimenting and thinking of things like alter-egos and becoming nine different people when performing live, and he said that’s exactly what you should be doing and don’t change a thing. amanda – Be yourself ?

lawrence – Yeah. And that put me onto doing my solo music. At the time he brought up what we were just talking about with Twitter. He said, “One day when I’m gone, I’m just a tweet. I’m a birthday tweet.” And then he died four years later, and I always think about him saying, “One day I’ll just be a ‘Happy Birthday David Bowie’ tweet.” That’s how he thought about it, and I was thinking about that a lot.

lawrence – I was in a mood. I was looking at Twitter and all these people tweeting their lives; famous musicians, all the rhetoric you see on Twitter. People had a lot of time to Tweet, and I thought at the end of the day, nobody is going to care about you when you’re gone. Really, truly, do they really care about you and all your glories and all your ego and your boasting, “look at me” stuff ? It’s all just wiped out when you die. It doesn’t really matter how big you are. You just fade away. I mean, you look at fame and musicians, the whole thing just fades away.

The second solo album from Lawrence Rothman,

Good Morning, America, is available now via KRO Records. Check out the online version of this story at theeastnashvillian. com for videos, links, and more. + Follow @eastnashvillian on Instagram for exclusive photography

lawrence – Yeah, so that would not be on the record if you didn’t intervene, Amanda.

amanda – What was the inspiration behind that?

Carthage should be a song; don’t waste it on an interlude, but bring it back home to being about gender fluidity and the struggle with that, and bring it back into the title.” So I thought, “Okay, how did I feel my first sexual experience being gender fluid and not being open about it?” I felt sexless, and that’s why I called it “Sexless in the bedroom.” And it opens up the second to last song called “Not a Son,” which that’s the most personal thing to deal with, like, gender fluidity and …

from this and other features.

“Sexless in Your Bedroom” “Not a Son” lawrence – So then, “Sexless in Your Bedroom” is an interlude, just music. You helped me with that as well, because it was originally called “Open Mic Night, Carthage, Missouri.” amanda – Oh, God …

lawrence – I know, and you said, “First the title’s too long, and I like it as a song. Well,

amanda – Sidebar — Do you ever feel like people are too curious?

lawrence – No, because I think it’s a conversation that needs to happen. I kept it personal for my whole life. When I was in bands and doing interviews, I never was open about it until 2016. That’s when I started doing interviews and talking about it because I think it’s something people need to be more aware of. And in 2016 you could barely →

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

call it gender fluidity because it was all very new to a lot of people.

amanda – Because in hindsight, I asked you way too many questions, probably. Hopefully, I didn’t make you feel like a curiosity. lawrence – No, but that’s the point of why you write about it and are open about it, to educate people. amanda – Yeah, and I’m not anymore, because I know you. We’ve talked a lot.

amanda – We were too because I have a high risk, with some heart stuff, but it’s cool, it’s fine. But also, my darkness did not like COVID.

lawrence – Yeah, I don’t know if I want to leave my cocoon. And what kicked my ass out of it is I had to go score a movie. I wasn’t making any money and had to make some

money, so I scored a movie and left and went to London, and then I mixed my record, and that led me to Nashville where I worked with you in December. Well, that’s all the tunes.

amanda – You did a good job letting me ask personal questions. I know you’d much rather talk about production!

lawrence – Well, we ran into an experience with some really nice people who owned a restaurant – we’re not going to say the name of it, but it was a great experience. Because the more you’re open about it the more people can fix old rules, or maybe rules they weren’t even paying attention to. We had the conversation, and that’s why you have the conversations. It’s why I have the conversations, so at least I can update their thinking or turn them on to new ideas about what is going on in society that they weren’t thinking about. Like a lot of my parents’ friends have no clue about this kind of thing. amanda – I think Nashville does it kind of good.

lawrence – As you travel deeper into the country, there are more people who aren’t aware of these things. That’s why I like to talk about it because they’re not against it; they’re not bigots or have a problem with it, they’re just not aware. Like my family in Missouri, they’re not aware of being gender binary or gender fluid; they don’t even know what that is. But when you talk about it and show them, they’re like, “Oh!”

“Homesick” lawrence – And then the last song is homesick, which was strictly about COVID, being homesick, and actually I was home sick. There’s also that weird thing about being in a COVID bubble and being sick, and everything shut down; you kind of get used to liking the fact of not seeing people and get comfortable in this weird closed-off isolation. Especially for somebody like me, I like being alone a lot …

And so there’s that weird comfortably numb feeling that you can get — that moment there where you think, “Oh, you don’t have to have an excuse anymore, you don’t have to leave.” I wrote “Homesick” about that. I like being home sick right now because it’s an excuse to blow off responsibility and write songs, and nobody has to tell you to get out of bed. July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

Tomato Art Fest has been uniting fruits and vegetables since 2004. The annual festival attracts people from all over with fun-themed art, local music, delicious food, costumes, wacky contests, shopping, kids activities, & more. The 2021 Tomato Art Fest will take place on Friday, August 13 and Saturday, August 14 in Historic East Nashville’s Five Points.

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

theeastnashvillian.com July | August 2021

TAF 2021

Contests & Activities The Fest and official kickoff events are free to attend and wide open to the public, uniting the community for a day of inspired art, wacky contests, great live music, unique vendors, creative kids activities, favorite local food trucks, and a commitment to ensuring that the fest is green in every possible aspect and maintains Nashville and community traditions.

Home Decorating Contest Sponsored by Crye-Leike Realtors and Community Mortgage

Turn your yard, porch, garage, or front door into a tomato masterpiece the week of Tomato Art Fest! The neighborhood has always had a flair for tomato yard decor, so let’s celebrate the creativity! Decorations include tomatoes, arts and crafts, humans, pets, and vehicles — we’ve seen it all! A crew of local judges will come judge your decorations on Wednesday, Aug. 11. Winners will be announced on Thursday, Aug. 12 and cash prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

WHEN: Decorate the week of Aug. 9; Judging on Wednesday, Aug. 11 WHERE: All over East Nashville REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/homedecorating

Tomato Art Fest Haiku Contest

HAIKU: an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively. Add a Tomato twist and enter the contest to snag some pretty sweet prizes! Submit a tomato-related haiku in classic 5-7-5 style. Contest is free to enter, and judges accept up to five entries per person. This year’s categories are: Heirlooms (adults, ages 17 & up) Greenhouse (youth, ages 16 & under) Funnies (humor) Oddities (limerick, sonnet, freeform, anything under 200 words)

When: Now through Monday, Aug. 9 Enter: email tomatohaikucontest@gmail.com with your name and submission Community Ambassador: Christine Hall

Tomato Art Show Pre-View Party Sponsored by Amazon

Be the first to see the 2021 Tomato Art Show at the Pre-View Party! Guests can enjoy local snacks, drinks, and local art. This party is for the tomato art enthusiast and community supporters. A ticket to the Pre-View Party also gives you early access to the online Tomato Art Show where you can view and purchase tomato art.

WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 12, 6-9 p.m. WHERE: Tomato Art Show Gallery TICKETS: tomatoartfest.com/events/artpreview Community Ambassador | Christine Hall July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

TAF 2021

Tomato Art Show

Have you ever seen a gallery full of art inspired by the tomato and its fruit and vegetable friends? We have, and we think it’s awesome, quirky, and different than anything you have ever seen. Stop by the gallery to browse and purchase some great local art. Be the first to see this year’s gallery by purchasing a ticket to the Tomato Art Pre-View Party.

WHEN: Aug. 13, noon to 9 p.m. Aug. 14, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 15, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Start your tomato day by walking, jogging, skipping, or sprinting a 5K through East Nashville. This event is for the whole family, with a Kids Fun Run before the 5K kicks off. Wear your tomato red and stop by the festival to celebrate finishing the race!

WHEN: 5K at 7:30 a.m.; Kid’s Fun Run at 7 a.m. WHERE: East Park Community Center (600 Woodland St.) REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/tomato5k Community Ambassador | Margaret Maddox YMCA/Jenny Cross jcross@ymcamidtn.org

Tomato Story Time at Tomato Art Fest Join Mr. Andrew on the Main Stage for a special story time about our beloved tomato and all of its fruits and vegetable friends! Mr. Andrew brings the tomato love with stories and songs that can’t be missed. Children of all ages are encouraged to attend.

WHEN: 10:40 a.m. WHERE: Main Stage Community Ambassador | Mr. Andrew!

Tomato Art Fest “Push, Pull, and Wear” Parade We want to see your group marching proudly through East Nashville in your best tomato themes! Push it, pull it, or wear it, it’s all the same to us, just bring that tomato spirit. Tomato Lovers line the streets of Five Points to see the quirky and original parade entries every year. Local bands and drumlines bring the excitement and get the crowds involved. The parade is free for community groups to participate, but registration is required.

WHEN: Line up at 8:30 a.m., parade begins at 9 a.m. WHERE: Parade line up at the corner of South 12th and Russell Streets; ends in Five Points. REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/parade

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Sponsored by SmileMaker Orthodontics and East Nashville Pediatric Dentistry Hey, kids — what do you think of when you hear “Tomato”? Draw it and submit it to the Kids Art Show!

Saturday, Aug. 14 East Nashville Tomato 5k

Kids Art Show

Any two-dimensional art is accepted, and all pieces should be on paper or thin cardboard. Ribbons will be awarded to Best of Show and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in each age group. Festival goers can be sure to stop by the show to see all of the great creations.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: 11th Avenue REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/kidsartshow Community Ambassador | Debbie Flynt

Tomato Art Fest Vendor Marketplace grown by Publix Super Markets Some of the most unique and creative local and regional vendors take over the streets of East Nashville for Tomato Art Fest. You’ll be sure to find a one-of-a-kind, have-tohave tomato treasure while you’re exploring the marketplace. The beloved tomato takes on many forms, including jewelry, pottery, blown glass, figurines, art, clothing, toys, and so much more. Vendors also offer original, non-tomato items for sale that are guaranteed to be just as impressive as the tomato art.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m WHERE: Five Points

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TAF 2021

Bloody Mary Garden Party Sponsored by Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Zing Zang

Calling all Bloody Mary enthusiasts — do we have the event for you!

East End UMC’s KidFest Join in the family fun as East End United Methodist Church will once again host the ever-popular KidFest. There will be crafts, popsicles, hair painting, and more.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: Corner of 12th and Holly Streets Community Ambassador | Emily Grammer and the community at East End UMC

Faux Paws Photo Contest Our furr-ends at East C.A.N love your pets, but in an effort to discourage bringing them out on what is usually the hottest day of the year, we’ve decided to discontinue the in-person Pet Fashion Show. This year your pets can participate in the festivities and even win a prize from the temperature-controlled safety of your home. Do they fall asleep in their food bowl, roll around in mud puddles, wear a red tutu, or sleep standing up? We want to see it! Submit by the deadline, then visit the East C.A.N. Booth during the festival to see photos of all the submissions and place your vote for the best Faux Paw and Tomato Costume. For more information, visit tomatoartfest.com/events/petphotocontest

WHEN: Submissions accepted Aug. 1-13 WHERE: Visit the East C.A.N. Booth to see the entries and vote on a winner REGISTRATION: Email photo submissions to info@eastcan.org with your pet’s name

Come celebrate your favorite brunch drink with Bloody Mary samples, the ultimate garnish bar, yard games, brunch bites, and a mimosa bar for a break in the Bloody Mary tastings. This event will be in shade and include entertainment from a local DJ. Decorate your Derby-style hat and compete in our hat-decorating contest to win fun prizes from sponsors and local restaurants. This event is 21 and up and ID is required.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon WHERE: The Garden (Corner of 11th and Woodland Streets) TICKETS: tomatoartfest.com/events/bloodymarygarden

Biggest/Littlest/ Ugliest Tomato Contest We love UGLY tomatoes! That’s right, the uglier the better. We also love those big tomatoes — and the teeny weenie ones too! Enter your Ugliest Tomato, Biggest Tomato, or Littlest Tomato for a chance to win PRIZES! Email hello@goodneighborfestivals.com or visit tomatoartfest.com/events/ biggestlittlest for more info.

WHEN: Drop off entries from 9 a.m. to noon; winners announced at 1 p.m. WHERE: INFO booth at 11th and Woodland Streets

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TAF 2021

Recipe Contest Sponsored by Nashville Scene

We challenge you to put your spin on the classic marinara sauce and fresh tomato salad! Create your best recipe and bring your dish to Lockeland Table on Saturday, Aug. 14, for official judging. Local judges will taste the creations and name a winner on Saturday afternoon. Pre-registration is required.

WHEN: Drop off dishes between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. WHERE: Lockeland Table REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/recipecontest Community Ambassador | Mike Smith

Tomato Art Fest Cornhole Tournament Does your team have what it takes to go all the way to the top of the bracket in the Tomato Art Fest Cornhole Tournament? Truly a fan favorite of the festival, teams compete in a bracket style tournament to crown the top team and win prizes from local restaurants.

WHEN: 11 a.m. WHERE: 1015 Clearview Ave. (Next to Treehouse) REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/events/cornholetournament Community Ambassador | Lee Davis

Tomato Costume Contest Sponsored by Phillips-Robinson Funeral Home We see them every year, your outstanding tomato costumes, hats, and outfits. This year, we want to make it official and highlight all of the tomato wears. Join in and show us what you got! A host of local Judges will determine the winners and give out sweet prizes! Categories include: Red Hair Don’t Care

Best Hat

Tomato Talents

Best Dressed

Other Uniters

Heirloom Tomatoes (Kids under 12)

WHEN: 12:30 p.m. WHERE: Garden Stage (Corner of 11th and Woodland Streets) REGISTRATION: tomatoartfest.com/ events/costumecontest

Beautiful Tomato Contest Hosted by East End Neighborhood Association Picture a beauty pageant with beautiful contestants, perfect outfits, and exciting judges. Now just picture those contestants as your favorite garden tomatoes. Dress up your homegrown or store-bought contestants and enter them into East Nashville’s favorite pageant. This year’s pageant is hosted by the East End Neighborhood Association and will take place on the Garden Stage in front of a panel of judges. Set the scene and be ready to present your masterpiece in front of an audience.

WHEN: 2:15 p.m. WHERE: Garden Stage (Corner of 11th and Woodland)

THANKS FOR NINE WONDERFUL YEARS OF SUPPORT! YOU’RE HERE FOR US, AND WE’RE HERE FOR YOU. TOGETHER, WE CAN WEATHER ANY STORM.

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TAF 2021

Entertainment Lineups

11th Avenue Stage

Garden Stage

Located at the corner of 11th and Fatherland Curated by Mike Grimes | The Basement East

Located on Woodland Street next to MOAB Bike Shop

11am TBA

10am-12pm Bloody Mary Garden Party

12pm Queens Of Noise

12:30pm Costume Contest 2:15pm Beautiful Tomato Contest 3pm Farmer and Adele Kids Show 5:15pm Special Guest DJ Set

Muddy Roots Stage Located at the corner of 11th and Clearview Curated by Jason Galaz | Muddy Roots

37206 Stage

In the Beyond the Edge Parking Lot

Friday, August 13

5:30pm Pet Envy 6:30pm Sophia Boro 7:45pm Haiva Ru 9pm Aaron Lee Tasjan Saturday, August 14

10am Farmer and Adele 10:40am Mr. Andrew

1pm Girl Tones

11am Travollta

2pm Hew G

12pm EG Vines

3pm Gyasi

1pm Miss Tess

4pm Backhand 5pm Jive Talk 11am-1:30pm Cedric Burnside 2-2:45pm DJ Jason Galaz 3-4:30pm Terry “Harmonica” Bean

2pm Lombardy 3-7pm 650 AM WSM Jamboree ft. Brazilbilly, Jett Williams, Abbya Walters, Scott McMillen, Rob Snyder, and Nick Davisson

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E N A V A S IL S T L H

We’re Everywhere You Go & Beyond 46

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(615)327-8115 www.GraffitiIndoorAd.com

Authentically Dapper “I love spats. Oh, what I’d do for a great pair you’re going to put together a cocktail party, the of spats!” Christopher Lester declares, least I can do is put together an outfit. laughing and reveling in his enthusi“I’ve always loved accessorizing, since asm for all things dapper. “It’s true! Spats. I was kid. Like tying a red bandanna Suspenders. And nothing says ‘dapper’ around my leg and going to school like a bowtie. In fact, bowties are havbecause that’s what Madonna and ing a bit of a moment.” Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson Lester would know. He’s the were doing. A friend and I made founder and chief proprietor of trash bag outfits once just because we Clifton+Leopold, a brand of bowties thought it would be cool. It was the and other men’s accessories, launched ’80s. I also was the kid who, in junior online in 2020. “I’ve always loved high, wore a bolo tie and had a fedora classic men’s accessories,” he says. in my yearbook picture. I would say “Clifton+Leopold isn’t just about men, the whole idea of ‘never be afraid to though. We want to be more reflective be too much’ has always been a theme of the world now. Just human. We’re for me,” Lester says. making men’s accessories for the dapClifton+Leopold accessories are per human,” he explains. meant to be conversation starters. Those accessories — ties, bowties, “It’s a way to introduce yourself. The pocket squares, kerchiefs, twillys (and tie catches their eye. Now all of the for the moment, masks) are gorgeous. sudden you’re in a conversation with They come in glorious florals, jewsomeone,” he says. And maybe that’s el-toned geometrics, and pretty paisalso because you feel good wearing leys — lush patterns with names like it, and you’re exuding something Chrysalis, Wild, Flash, and Alice, so because you feel good.” Lester hopes eye-catching they dare you to wear Clifton+Leopold products encourage them. Yes, even the pocket squares, customers to make brave fashion because, as the website suggests, “We choices with confidence, and that adore a well-dressed pocket, and a those choices will help them feel more Christopher Lester goes a little extra little peacocking never hurt anyone.” authentically themselves. “I understand with Clifton+Leopold accessories “For me, ‘dapper’ has always been it’s just clothing. And someone else By Leslie LaChance about the idea of going above and could read this and say that’s so dumb. Photography by Madison Thorn beyond and putting a little effort into And that’s okay. I’m not calling you out a look, being a little extra. And it was for what you’re wearing.” a word that used to just get applied to men. But dapper is something all “The truth is most people now don’t have to buy a tie. Except for a humans do,” Lester says. wedding or a funeral, you can get through most of your life without a “So, we make our ties in two sizes for a wider spectrum of body types. tie. So you buy a tie, or a kerchief, you buy our products because you love Anyone can wear our kerchiefs and twillys, so we show that in our mar- them. People buy it because it just resonates with them.” keting and in our stories on the site. Like, you’ll see a woman, and she’s Part of what resonates — besides the look of the tie, or kerchief, or not just wearing that bowtie, she’s rockin’ it and looks really, really great. pocket square — is the story that accompanies it. As customers explore And you’ll see a guy with one of our kerchiefs around his neck, or a the website and click on the names of the various products, they’ll distwilly maybe wrapped around his wrist.” cover a thread of a story, a micro-narrative inspired by the piece. For Dapper style isn’t a prescribed way of costuming oneself, though. “I love instance, the one that accompanies the tie called Sweetheart reads: the hipster movement. I think it’s dapper as fuck, but it’s its own version of “He straightened his tie twice before he got to the door. It might be it. Dapper can mean a lot of things. It doesn’t have to mean a tuxedo or a 20 years late, but he was finally taking her out on that date.” The story pocket square. It can be steampunk. It can be the hipster who put together for a grey and yellow floral kerchief dubbed Rise reads: “This was their the perfect outfit to look like they didn’t try,” Lester observes. time, and now, it was their story to tell.” The micro-stories for the varFor him, a put-together look isn’t just about appearances. It’s a way ious products feel connected and a little mysterious, like an overheard to connect with others, to show appreciation. “When you’re going to an conversation. The characters feel like people we might know. As Lester event or something at someone’s home, that little bit of extra work to look sees it, the narratives he and his team write become part of the tapgood is a sign of gratitude. I appreciate being invited into your space. If estry of Clifton+Leopold, woven into the experience of the brand → July | August 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

A little peacocking never hurt anyone -Christopher Lester

The dapperly dressed Christopher Lester chills out with his chilled drink at Sid Gold’s Request Room on Gallatin Pike. 48

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and the website, which also includes danceable playlists, cocktail recipes, and a “How They Do Dapper” series featuring customers who have connected with the brand. The experience of the brand doesn’t end with clicking “buy” and getting a brown package from UPS. The folks at Clifton+Leopold ship out orders in individually wrapped, scented boxes, each with an added personal touch like a handwritten thank you, and a waxed seal with the initials C+L. “It’s that little extra detail that says, ‘I care, I was thoughtful about it,’” Lester explains. “We want to tell a story that other people can see themselves as part of, and we want the experience of Clifton+Leopold to feel personal. We get a lot of really generous feedback from our customers on the website and on our social media, and that has been really important in shaping what we do,” Lester says. The name of the brand is part of Lester’s personal story. When he first conceived the project several years ago, he decided he didn’t want to create an accessory brand in his own name, but he still wanted to feel connected to it in a personal way. He took the thoughtful path to arrive at Clifton+Leopold. Clifton, it turns out, is the name of the neighborhood in Cincinnati where he was born. The name Leopold means brave, which Lester says is the aspirational version of himself. “If in the end people just say, ‘He was a lot of fun, and he

was brave,’ I’m good with that.” The initials of the company, then, are the same as Christopher Lester’s. “Every time we wax seal a package, there are my initials, and it’s a way of saying, ‘You’re in this, say a good thought as we ship it out the door.’” Another aspect of Clifton+Leopold that feels personal to Lester is the choice to have all products manufactured in the U.S. Because there is almost no textile manufacturing in the states, the fabrics themselves are imported from Italy, Spain, Japan, and Brazil. But the ties and kerchiefs are manufactured in the South, handstitched by artisans in North Carolina. Clifton+Leopold also added candles to their collections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and those are made in Tennessee. “The world doesn’t need another tie made in China. That market is fine. It’s all taken care of. Having everything we do made in the U.S. isn’t necessarily about being pro-U.S. over some other place. It’s more about the fact that manufacturing here means more jobs, and more jobs means a better life for our neighbors and our friends and their friends,” Lester explains. What was Lester thinking when he launched a new business enterprise at exactly the same moment a pandemic was wreaking havoc across the planet? “Be brave,” he says. He’d been sitting with the idea for Clifton+Leopold for a while, he says, and even before the pandemic

struck, he’d made the decision to launch online and forego a brick & mortar establishment. That turned out to be a fortuitous choice, as customers worked from home and bought pretty things from there. “If you don’t ever launch, you’ll never sell anything, so you just have to run really hard and not be scared,” he says. Perhaps it was that fearlessness that led, at least in part, to the Nashville LGBT Chamber Commerce recognition of Lester as an Entrepreneur of the Year in June. “It’s such an honor and a gift,” Lester observes. After a year of selling luxury goods online in a pandemic economy, what’s next for Clifton+Leopold? “We’re definitely broadening our collections,” Lester says. While the initial launch catered to dapper adult humans, fans can look for additions to the brand that will be more suited to other dapper creatures in the family, along with some custom options. Also, Clifton+Leopold products are finding space in boutique shops like the one at The Hermitage Hotel. And of course, there will be more playlists and cocktails, and stories. Always more stories. “It’s all just art, just different ways of expressing beauty. They all get us there together.” Clifton+Leopold cliftonandleopold.com

SEPT 18 &19 Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park

PRESENTED BY

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CONGRATULATIONS TO J O S H UA M C C A L LU M FO R H I S P RO M OT I O N TO O U R LU M B E R S TO R E M A N AG E R .

C U S TO M F LO O R S / F U R N I T U R E / FAC A D E S A N D N A S H V I L L E ’ S C O O L E S T LU M B E R S TO R E . WW W.G O ODWOO D N A S H V I L L E . CO M | 13 07 D I C KE R S O N P I K E , N A S H V I L L E T N 37 2 07 50

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Sometimes the Good Guys Win

Dualtone Records turns 20 By Tommy Womack

a tough business, a damn good independent label started up next to the Krispy Kreme on Elliston Place in 2001: Dualtone Records. The brainchild of co-founders Scott Robinson and Dan Herrington would expand into a bungalow on Music Row and then move over to the East Side in 2013. Along the way, the label racked up sixteen Grammy nominations and four wins, becoming the home of The Lumineers, Hayes Carll, Langhorne Slim, and Kathleen Edwards, among others, and includes towering talents like Matraca Berg and Darden Smith in their back catalog. The Dualtone crew got a bit of a jump on the rest of the world as far as working from home courtesy of the tornado that barreled through the heart of East Nashville’s business district last year. The wind ripped away the HVAC machinery from The Basement East and a couple of other buildings and threw it across McFerrin Avenue and into the front of the building housing the offices of the label. “I was in New York with The Lumineers where we had two soldout shows in Brooklyn,” says Robinson. “I came back home to a destroyed building, and then, boom, the world shut down.” The building was a total loss, but the one truly irreplaceable thing was Dualtone president Paul Roper’s hard drive. And that was recovered. The only real lasting damage was a muted sense of survivor’s guilt, which prompted a conscientious effort to keep a lid on any celebrations in the wake of a calamity that took people’s lives mere yards from their destroyed office. Nevertheless, in order to work from home, 12-ish employees tend to need an office they can work at home from. And so, Dualtone sits now in the building owned by their parent company, Entertainment One, which bought the label in 2016. It’s just a couple of suites on Fifth Avenue South, on the west side of the river, but it’s apparently all they need. As Robinson and Roper met with this reporter on a blisteringly hot day in June, they were sitting at a table in the air conditioning and radiating the serenity of people who are at peace with their place in life. A curious thing happened during the annus horribilus. The world

may have shut down, but art didn’t. The gigs, yes, they shut down, but the artists themselves went into hyperdrive. “We didn’t really have to push back any of our releases,” says Roper, who came on board as an intern in 2002. “For a lot of our artists, it became this thing where music was the salve and the balm that held people together. “Our artists were just doing what they do and creating at this time,” he continues. “They were at home, couldn’t tour, so they were writing, and they were recording new content, cranking out songs. We have five or six albums we didn’t anticipate that just came to us during the pandemic. “Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers both delivered solo albums we didn’t know were happening, which was an awesome surprise. Hayes Carll recorded what he called Alone Together, which is kind of acoustic renditions or reinterpretations of a lot of his big songs. We had Langhorne Slim, who lives in East Nashville and has been on the label for several albums; he started recording one-take recordings every day. For a lot of artists, being isolated is just the worst thing. One of Langhorne’s friends told him he just needed to write songs, so he started writing a song a day and recording it and putting it on Instagram. They’re some of the best songs he’s written in his career. The fans were engaging and commenting on the songs like we’d never seen before for him, and it was really exciting to see that fruit come to life. That became a 20-plus song album.” “My love for Dualtone starts a long time ago,” says The Lone Bellow’s guitarist Zach Williams, whose band was formerly based in New York City but is now ensconced on the East Side. “Back when we put out our first record, there was a bidding war and we were flown into L.A. Very hoity-toity, guys with flames on silk shirts all standing in their back yards with waterfalls and saying, ‘you want to sign?’ “We were very excited; there was a month or two of back and forth, and I get this phone call. ‘Hey, they’re not going to go with you all. There’s another band with two guys and a girl called The

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Lumineers, and they want them instead of y’all. They’re on this little up. So that’s the art that we’re trying to find and hang our hat on. We indie label out of Nashville and they’re just going to take them from always want to be in a position where we feel we’re adding value to an that label.’ Then six months later I found out that The Lumineers said artist’s career.” ‘no’ and stayed with this little label called Dualtone. Nevertheless, and as you might’ve guessed, things have evolved since “We ended up signing with Sony and that was great. But when the the label’s humble beginnings. “Twenty years ago, when the company opportunity rolled around and I got to meet Paul Roper for the first started, we were calling Tower Records on West End trying to work to time and really sit down with him and hear his story, I felt like, ‘This is get our records in there, and now technology has changed the game,” good.’ I felt like I’d been on a huge cruise ship lost on the seventh floor says Roper. “From home recordings to DIY services, anybody can get when I could be on a little speedboat that knows how to zip.” on Spotify or iTunes. I think that’s created a conversation around the And zip they do. After three albums for Sony, The nature of labels; why do you ‘need’ a label?” Lone Bellow moved to Dualtone in 2020. Meanwhile, Good question. The genesis of Dualtone’s relationunder Dualtone’s guiding hand, The Lumineers have ship with their artists begins with it. “Every time gone triple platinum. In addition to the artists menwe sign a band, we have that conversation,” explains tioned earlier, there are Mt. Joy, Shovels and Rope, Roper. “I think being able to lay out a vision for each Robert Earl Keen … the mind reels. artist specifically that we work with and help them But back to the biz part of things. Roper says, “The understand the value that we can bring — and really Dualtone store just exploded during the pandemic. mean it and have it be legitimate — is something And we bought Magnolia Record Club from the we’re really proud of. Success looks different for every artist Drew Holcomb two years ago and started kind act but defining what that is on the front end and of a parallel store where we sell exclusive pressings. helping people achieve those goals ... can actually It’s not Dualtone-centric, it’s any label under the sun bring that value to the table.” that has great records we’re trying to curate for the Leave it to co-founder Robinson to sum up. “That Amerikinda: 20 Years Of audience. I think we’re just tapping into and filling a is really the DNA of Dualtone: treating our artists Dualtone drops Aug. 6, in celebration of the label’s landmark void that people have. like partners. Yes, we are a record label from the outbirthday. The album features “People know what Dualtone represents,” Roper side looking in, but the deals we’ve structured and a slew of Dualtone artists and continues. “Here we are at 20 years, and the stores the way we communicate is really a partnership. It’s alumni including The Lumineers, represent the brand and they both complement each a really great time for artists to take control of their Brett Dennen, Gregory Alan other. Dualtone has really established itself for people art and find the right partners and the right team. Isakov, Mt. Joy, Shovels & Rope, to know where to go for a certain type of record. I Paul and I, in all the meetings with artists, say, ‘We’re and Langhorne Slim all covering think we have succeeded to some degree at filling that just an extension of you. You’re the CEO of your each other’s songs. gap for this type of artist. It’s very singer-songwritcompany, we’re just experts in this division of your er-oriented. There are a few curveballs in there like a company.’ jazz record or a blues record, but as long as it’s great, “Even with The Lumineers, I remember industry we’re all about it.” friends saying, ‘You fools! You didn’t sign them for four records?!’ And So, what’s next? I’m like, ‘Well, one, the band didn’t want to do that, and two, we’re really “I think we’re going to keep doing what we do,” says Roper. “Keep thankful we got to do the one record with them and have the worldwide putting out music we believe in and can give a voice to. That’s always success and prove to the industry and to the world that you don’t have been the core of what Scott’s built the company on. Let’s put out great to have a major to have a massive hit record. And we all won, and it art and hopefully the commerce will fall in line. was pretty amazing. And now here’s the band delivering their fourth “But we’ve never been driven by chasing a ‘hit song’ or the next hot record to us.’” thing,” he continues. “It’s always been to put out music that’s culturally And that’s how Dualtone’s karma ran over Music Row’s dogma. relevant and that’s going to stand the test of time. Something that holds Happy 20th to the little indie that could.

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Thank YOu, Nashville. Your Support of LIghtning 100’s save our airwaves campaign kept independent radio alive in music city.

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Out East Soundtrack

Brett Withers

“I never thought I’d be an elected official,” admits Brett Withers, the Metro Council representative for District 6. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, he played guitar in local bands and sharpened his chops on a secondhand church organ before college took him to Chicago. Now a proud resident of East Nashville, he spends his free time listening to music rather than playing it. What hasn’t changed, though, is the joy that a good song can bring to his life. “I listen to Lightning 100 for new music,” he says. “But whenever I listen to something older, it’s a way of remembering things I grew up with. Music is very associated with memory. It can remind you of a

specific time and place.” Asked to compile a playlist of songs for our inaugural installment of the “Out East Soundtrack,” Withers turned to music that reminds him of the modern moment. This is a playlist that reflects the unique challenges of the 2020s, a decade already characterized by a pandemic, social rights stagnation, and political upheaval. “The songs that resonate with me at one point in time may change, and other songs from the same record sometimes take on a more important meaning,” he explains. “It’s part of the immersive experience of an album.”

Curated by Andrew Leahey & Jay Dmuchowski

“Beware of Darkness”

by George Harrison I grew up with the All Things Must Pass three-record set and return to that 1970 collection a lot. This song really resonated with me over the last year: “Beware of thoughts that linger. Beware of sadness ... that is not what you are here for.” Some apt warnings about political figures and pop stars being false leaders or distractions from seeking true meaning. I love the odd chord progression and the way that the song ends without resolution.

“What Is Truth”

by Johnny Cash A song about epistemology! This is a great title and lyric that spoke to the cultural turmoil of 1970 but still resonates with recent events today. The verses describe truth not by what it is but by what it isn’t. We’re still searching for the answer to this question.

“The Farmer’s Daughter”

by Merle Haggard My parents had this album [Hag, (1971)] which also wrestled with divisions in America in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Whereas today many country songs on the charts use imagery such as this as mere tropes, Merle sings of a farmer whose wife died and he then raised his daughter alone, only now to see her marry “that city boy from town.” We learn that “His hair is a little longer than we’re used to, but I guess I should find something good to say.” The narrator sometimes uses abstract language to describe what is happening, as if using first-person pronouns would invite too much pain, which is nevertheless still palpable. It’s a fascinating song that dealt with the difficulty of putting families back together to heal a painful political and cultural divide in America. In the aftermath of recent political events, we are dealing with that again today. How do we move forward as families and communities?

“A Shoulder To Cry On”

by Charlie Pride Charlie Pride was a huge star in the late ’60s and through the ’70s. People today mostly remember the more upbeat songs. This 1973 single is much more subtle and deals with complex relationships, even the temptation to use people as an emotional prop or an outlet for ego validation. There is vulnerability and even guilt in the lyrics: “So once again I’m here to take advantage.” Merle Haggard wrote this song and also released a version of it on It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad) (1972).

“No Expectations”

by The Rolling Stones This song marked a return to their roots and featured the last major contribution by multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, who plays slide guitar. Beautiful piano by the always-good Nicky Hopkins, a sustained organ background tone and understated percussion are nice touches. It was an album track on the Beggar’s Banquet LP (1968) and was released as the B-side of the “Street Fighting Man” single, from which it couldn’t be more different. “Our love is like our music, it’s here and then it’s gone.” Much like Brian himself.

“Dark End Of The Street”

written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn Like most country rock fans I first heard this song by The Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1969 album, The Gilded Palace of Sin. They may have heard it from soul singer Percy Sledge, who had recorded it as a cover of another soul singer named James Carr. Percy Sledge’s vocals are similar to Carr’s, but Carr’s original version with a horn section is pretty spectacular. To me this song has a particular resonance because it describes forbidden love that must be kept hidden in the shadows and the couple must deny each other in public. This is what it used to be like for gay people in the pre-app dating world when I was growing up. You had to go outside your house to meet people but were afraid of being discovered and possibly hurt, killed, or arrested. “They’re going to find us!” is sung with a compelling sense of dread and terror. The sweetness with which the unaccompanied vocal duet humming closes out the song savors the embrace that makes the risk worth it. It’s no wonder why soul music was such a major focus of gay community musical preferences in the pre-disco days.

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“Listening To The Rain”

by The Osborne Brothers Not The Brothers Osborne, LOL! The Osborne Brothers were Grand Ole Opry stars who had a connection to my hometown of Dayton, Ohio. They experimented a lot with mixing acoustic bluegrass and then-current country & western instrumentations such as piano, pedal steel, and clean-channel electric guitar leads. That was controversial in bluegrass circles at the time, sort of like Dylan plugging in. This song is about being stuck at home during a rain storm wondering when a loved one will return. The upbeat playing belies that loneliness, tediousness, and frustration and makes the experience sound surprisingly fun. The Osborne Brothers could certainly deliver tearjerkers but specialized in punchy tempos and clever vocal and instrumental arrangements. Bobby’s high but smooth vocals inspired countless future men and women singers. Sonny’s banjo work was always fresh and inventive. They experimented with new vocal harmony stacks that sometimes emulated extended pedal steel twists and turns. The Osborne Brothers are a go-to group for me to raise my spirits.

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“I Never Once Stopped Loving You”

by Connie Smith Written by Bill Anderson and Jan Howard, this song moved into more mature territory for Connie Smith than some of her earlier hits. Nods to late-’60s trends such as an organ are subtly audible. Tammy Wynette also released a version of this song that same year (1970) with a more traditional C&W arrangement featuring gorgeous pedal steel work. But Connie’s version was the hit and rightfully so. For anyone feeling isolated last year or anyone who has ever gone through a breakup or separation and longed for a reconciliation, Connie’s vocal delivery offers hope: “My patience was rewarded.”

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“We’re Gonna Hold On”

by George Jones and Tammy Wynette I grew up with George and Tammy. They were powerhouses separately but sometimes their early duet records could be a bit cheesy on the lyrics side. Divorce brought autobiographical gravitas to their later duets. But this is an all-time classic with a clever arrangement and is about holding on during tough times. We have all been through a lot of that lately.

“Going Up Home To Live In Green Pastures”

by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys My dad’s mother was from Southwest Virginia (Damascus/ Abingdon) and I grew up loving Stanley Brothers songs. I didn’t discover Ralph’s solo work (which began after his brother Carter’s death in 1966) until I was in college. The Stanley Brothers re-recorded some of their songs several times and Ralph continued to do that quite a bit as a solo artist in the late ’60s and ’70s. This an important song from Ralph’s post-Carter solo career when he was introducing more a cappella or nearly a cappella songs to his repertoire, drawing upon hymn singing traditions that were older than bluegrass. A 1968 first recording of this song was a bit square in arrangement. He revisited it in a more well known early ’70s Rebel Records version that presents a more fluid articulation and features the great singer, Roy Lee Centers. This 1973 version is likely the basis for Emmylou Harris’s version featuring Ricky Skaggs and Dolly Parton, which she included on her 1980 album, Roses In The Snow. I am a great lover of traditional gospel music and hymns and this song is a favorite if mine. It understands getting lost not as damnation but as despair. It depicts Jesus not as a distant judge but as a shepherd out among us seeking to gather us together again. It’s a much more inclusive message than what one often hears.

marketplace Misty Waters Petak M.S., CFP ®, CLU® Financial Advisor (615) 479-6415 mistypetak.nm.com

March | April 2021 theeastnashvillian.com

BESPOKE ANGER

I’m

sad that Kenny Rogers died. He was a great singer who knew how to wring emotion out of a love song. But it’s not the loss of that voice of his that makes me sad — it’s that I didn’t get to kill him myself. In 1979, Kenny put out a song called “Coward of the County.” The moral of the song is: violence is never the answer, but then again, sure it is. This is the chorus: “Promise me son not to do the things I’ve done. Walk away from trouble if you can. Son, it don’t mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek. No, you don’t have to fight to be a man.” A laudable sentiment. And, for the first two verses, the protagonist walks away from trouble while guys call him a sissy. Then, in the third verse, he blows a gasket and kicks the shit out of everyone. The closing line of the last chorus is changed to … “sometimes you gotta fight to be a man.” I was in my senior year of high school when that song was a hit, a dishwasher at the Regional Medical Center in Madisonville, Ky. To say I had an anger problem would be like calling Hitler a rascal. That country music piece of shit resonated the way things only can when you’re Napoleon Dynamite smelling like wet food in a steamy dish room with four other guys who have a combined IQ of 6. There was a new guy working back there named David who’d just dropped out of high school. He was short with a creepy combination of blonde hair and dark brown eyebrows. He talked a lot. And he liked to say how he didn’t take shit off nobody. His first week into the job, he got into it with Glenn in the dish room on my day off. They were going around and around, David throwing punches like a drunk chimpanzee. I heard how major domo Mrs. Yonts gave him a warning: fight again and you’re out of here. Then there was Carolyn, a strapping

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six-foot lesbian who looked like she could kill David just by head-butting him. Well, he made her cry somehow. A man/boy with inbred mismatched follicles who could make Carolyn cry was something for the record books. David called in sick for the night shift on New Year’s Eve and I had to cover for him. Not that I had great social plans, but I didn’t plan to ring in 1980 smelling like coffee, meatloaf, and soap either. Two days later, he was laughing and told me he wasn’t really sick. I said, “You’re talking to the wrong guy. I had to cover for you.” He laughed at me. I took it no further, because I was a wimp. Just more gasoline for my rage. Then I heard Kenny in my head and I knew. This was my third verse. I swung at him and missed by a mile. The ceiling opened up, the skies parted and The Lord spake, saying, “You dumb son of a BITCH!” The next ten seconds took a year. First his gray eyes beneath those brown eyebrows registered amazement, then they said, “You dumb son of a BITCH!” He swung expertly and connected right where my jaw became my chin. Somebody broke it up, probably to keep David from killing me. Then he said, “You fucked up, Womack, you just cost me my job.” I had two hours left on my shift and they put me by myself in the pots and pans room. On his way out the door, freshly unemployed, he stopped in and told me he’d be waiting for me in the parking lot. The next two hours took ten years, and he was indeed waiting for me. In the cold January darkness, he whacked me across the head and said, “That’s it! But the next guy might not be so nice! If I broke your glasses, I’m sorry.” And he was gone. And now Kenny Rogers is dead. I totally thought I’d run into him someday. I’ve been at a party with Emmylou Harris and Bill Monroe singing in the corner, been at a salad bar next to Grandpa Jones — surely Kenny figured in my future. And when that day came, I was going to come at him with all the tools at my disposal, a plastic fork to the neck, whatever it took, that fucker was going down. Oh … just as well. The skies would have probably just opened back up and I’d have God yelling at me again. Rot in hell you white beard phone sex bad plastic surgery piece of shit. I’ll get you yet.

EAST OF NOR MAL by Tommy Womack

Tommy Womack is a musician & writer and a regular contributor to The East Nashvillian. Tune in to “Tommy Womack’s Happiness Hour” Monday mornings from 9-10 on WXNA 101.5FM.

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