Thank YOU, thank YOU, thank YOU. Hello Again! Welcome to another wonderful collaboration between East Side Story and The Post. Let me be the first to officially, whole-heartedly welcome you to the 77th epic edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 76, I repeat … 76, previous shows East Side Story has put together, we all decided to take a break from our busy schedules all over town in order to sit back and relax and get everyone cultured up just right in the form of a Nashville writer reading from original prose, followed by an amazing local musician performing and talking about their original music, and then a round-up creative conversation with all featured guests of this event to talk about their individual journeys and personal ties to Nashville. Without further ado, fulfilling the entertainment portion of your day, this is the recap and recording of East Side Storytellin’ 77. Let us begin, again.
Our first featured artist of the evening is quite frankly a Nashville living legend, poet and person. He is the author of 9 poetry collections and one writing textbook to grown on. His most recent titles are Elemental, The News Inside, and Late Winter (all of which you can purchase at East Side Story after you read this). In 1999, this guy wrote and co-produced the Instructional Television Series, Student Center Learning, for Nashville Public Television. The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him The Distinguished Teacher in the Arts. He has been a Scholar in Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a tw0-time recipient of Fellowships in poetry from the Tennessee Arts Commission. He has published hundreds of poems and articles in college journals, magazines, and anthologies. The Tennessee Writers Alliance named him the 2011 Writer of the Year. He lives with his wife, Suzanne, and a tribe of cats on the hills north of Nashville. I’m talking about the one and only Sir Bill Brown!
Bill, a man of average Nashville size and stature, is anything but whenever he gets on a microphone and shares his powerful poems. And when I say powerful, I’m talking about every sense of the word powerful itself. I’m not saying that he’s gonna knock you out in pure volume, but I am saying that he’ll knock you out with the pureness of his volumes (if you know what I’m saying).
Bill relayed the fact that he was gonna share several poems in the course of his time on stage and that they would cover the span of 35 years of writing since he first moved to Nashville. It was a delight to see the joy on his wife’s face watching the master do his thing and uncover several poems that hadn’t seen the surface in decades.
Each poem put every single person right in Bill’s shoes and creative mind at the time they were written. For me, good poets make you feel their words. For me, Bill is a great poet and makes me feel his world. Some of my favorite moments were his poem making a personal statement about nature over technology, another where he talked about his family member’s portrait posted in between the smoking and non-smoking section of Cracker Barrel, the way he recounted being a child who was free to play outside and collect lizards, snakes, and spiders (except black widows), an homage to a trail near Charit Creek, saying that it’s important to accept whatever comes in life, and seeing the beauty in things and remembering that even the poorest things shine. Everything he said slowed my frantic life down to the flow of a natural creek speed and brought things back to perfect perspective. I mean, how could one not be moved by the personal story about his parents’ reaction to Heaven if it really is made of gold and pearly gates and how they would want to be somewhere simpler and with a simple park bench instead of all the fancy stuff?
I beg you to listen the recording below and try not to feel better about yourself and life in general. Bill Brown has a gift and we are all better for him sharing it with us. And if Bill’s words don’t do the whole trick, chase it down with the music of our featured guest of the night. The combo is darn near lethal for all negativity and lost hope you may have in your life.
Never an artist to be upstaged, our featured musician of the night is a very special songster living in East Nashville. He is a self-professed folk satirist slash no point storyteller who travels a lot, plays music daily, and writes songs by the batches that celebrate both the humor and heartbreak of everyday American life. He’s spent the past decade traveling his way across the country and into your stereo and hearts via pit stops at dive bars, listening rooms, punk houses, and world-class theaters along the way. His music has been said to align with left-of-center influences of two of my personal favorites in John Prine and Shel Silverstein. He spent a half-decade as the frontman of Big Wilson River and typically plays as many as 150 DIY shows a year. Here to play some of his sad songs about funny people and funny songs about sad people and everything in between, we are honored to have this traveling musician on the rise make a stop near his home to join the East Side Storytellin’ family. Playing beside the East Side Storytellin’ alumnus and one of our favorites in Megan Palmer, I was extremely excited to introduce her current roommate and talented star on the rise in Mr. Darrin Bradbury.
Darrin was very Southern in the fact that he introduced himself again after I introduced him and him. He introduced Megan properly as well. He admitted that he was excited about so many people coming out to the show and that he was about to have fun goofing off.
He did more than goof off. He sang beautifully tragically awesome songs about love (the kind that’s so true you lose your teeth like meth and hurts so good), about protest disguised as a love song disguised as a protest song for student housing equality (even better with his transitions between homes at the moment of this performance), and a song about a man named Bob. I’m pretty sure if my name was Bob that I would play that song every day. But then again, maybe I wouldn’t if I was the Bob he was referring to in the song). That ol’ B.O.B, not short, not tall, the same backwards and forwards, such a classic Bob indeed.
In the same light of our recent musical guest in Aaron Lee Tasjan, Darrin has a gift of his own with tapping into as original lyrics and storytelling as you’ll find out on the Nashville scene or worldly scene for that matter. It was refreshing for me to hear him say that he’s not even thirty years young yet because I’m excited to listen to new stuff from Darrin for decades to come. I’m sure after you listen to the songs below or see him in person that you’ll feel the same.
Not to be outdone by the first few brilliant songs in his set, he finished with some of the funniest, saddest, and most truthful and honest stories set to music I’ve heard in quite some time. The story of the conversation between the two junkies in the next hotel room over from Darrin while on tour is an instant classic of laughs. The song about Elmwood Park, a song about baseball and now my all-time favorite song about baseball now that I think about it, was so poignant and poetic that I know Bill and the other scribes in the house took notes of the moment that the narrator’s mother couldn’t cry for JFK riding with the top down so the sprinklers in the lawn wept instead. Every time I hear that track it throws me on the lawn of another place and time when the country lost a lot of innocence. Then, Darrin and Megan brought the set to a close and the night back home with a ditty called Life is Hard. It’s dedicated to Lenny Bruce, Daffy Duck, and Jack Kerouac. You can listen to it to find the humor, wit, brilliance, and beautiful blend between Darrin and Megan’s tones and talents on one stage.
The whole show, from the packed crowd to the immense talent oozing from the stage so much so that The Post barely contained it all between Darrin and Bill’s sagacity. I honestly can’t explain the wonder of them both into word that give them enough justice and value to what they gave us and give every time out of the gate. They stuck around after the music stopped to answer some questions about their lives and personal journeys to and through Nashville. They shared answers that were honest and open and as enlightening as their poems and songs. Basically, we were all better people when the show ended than we were before it started, if nothing more than personal growth through osmosis.
I’ll stop rambling and just give you the damn link to listen to it for yourself. Here it is, the edited version of East Side Storytellin’ 77. It features the poems of Bill Brown, the songs of Darrin Bradbury with the backing of Megan Palmer, and everything in between. You will be more awesome after listening to and sharing this with all of your friends and family. Seriously, it contains that much magic. Don’t believe me? Press play (and by “play” I’m talking about clicking this here link).
Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Bill and Darrin for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can read more about Bill’s writing here-www.stilljournal.net/
You can listen to more of Darrin’s music here –www.darrinbradbury.com
You can listen to this show, edited, soon, alongside the previous shows too, on our website,www.eastsidestorytn.
I’ll keep the gratitude going for Tom Eizonas, my lovely wife and most talented artist in Emily Harper Beard (efharper), and everyone that came out live to support the show … and to everyone who has helped continue to spread the word and support the show online afterwards.
I’d also like to show much love to Clay Brunton for the beautiful artwork online to promote the show.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to give one last shout out to Tonya and Chris for making The Post so welcoming and positively life-changing for the East Nashville community at large.
Our next show will be
East Side Storytellin’ 78
Tuesday, March 1st
at The Post (1701 Fatherland Street) at 7pm
reading- Phil Kaufman (https://en.wikipedia.org/
singing- Sergio Webb (https://sergiowebb.wordpress.
That said- that’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 77 and another fabulous event at The Post with East Side Story at the helm. Thanks for coming out and sharing the good word and giving some love to all of these great Nashville artists and our creative ideas. Please remember to be nice to one another out there.
much love,
mE
PS- this was the first East Side Storytellin’ and concert and poetry reading and Nashville social outing for my main man Avett Otis Beard! He took it all in, the people to the words, and never cried once. So glad and honored this was his first show. Unforgettable it was!
