Thank YOU, thank YOU, thank YOU and hello again! Welcome to another recap and recording of quite the monumental event at Riverwood Mansion that went down on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015. With Unbound Arts at the helm of another beautifully planned evening, let me be the first to officially, whole-heartedly remind you that we celebrated the 54th spectacular edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 53 previous shows East Side Story has put together, we all arrived at Riverwood Mansion to get y’all 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, this is East Side Storytellin’ 54. Let us begin, again.
Wait, before I talk about how the event started, I should remind you that the guests knew what their pre-ordered tickets got them on top of another killer East Side Storytellin’ show. Everyone arrived with smiles beaming and knowing they had the chance to meander around the mansion and experience a wonderful, historical trip through a house like few others near or far. Riverwood Mansion, if you haven’t seen it in person, is a treat to enjoy.
And speaking of treats, one of the coolest things we did for this epic series of events on Welcome Lane (so appropriately titled) was to involve a Riverwood Mansion chef, Eric Reed, to create something very special for the night. He had contacted the featured guests before the show and planned a 4-course meal to add to the mix. Eric greeted the packed and seated crowd with pleasantries. Then, without skipping a beat, he described the food and its inspiration in the order that it would be served.
(You’re mouth may be watering as you read right now. If not, listen to it from the chef’s mouth again here- https://soundcloud.com/eastsidestorytn/east-side-storytellin-54-7)
When the plates hit the table, East Side Storytellin’ 54 began. Here it is, for you to remember and plan ahead for the next.
The first featured guest of the evening was a woman who lives and breathes stories every day of her life. She is the co-founder of the wildly popular online book club called She Reads (http://www.shereads.org). She is a successful novelist, blogger, and life-long reader. She lives in the rolling hills outside of Nashville with her loving husband and four young sons (aka The Wild Rumpus). Her debut novel was published by Doubleday and is called The Wife The Maid And The Mistress. She believes that a good story is the shortest distance to the human heart. The excited crowd gave this featured artist a huge heartfelt and much deserved round of applause. Her name? Well, since I was honored to introduce her for this event, I’ll do it again … it is the one and only Ariel Lawhon!
Ariel took to the stage with book and water in tow (actually, I served up the water while pulling off more than the average host, gladly) and she was right at home in the lovely mansion with attentive and gracious people looking back at her. Before she jumped into a quality excerpt of her book, she first wowed the audience with the backstory of how the book came to be. It was the crossroads of yet another story where fact met fiction and a talented writer heard a story worth working on in her own head and creating for other interested parties to imagine what happened in a true-life mystery for the ages. As always, I’ll let the recording below with the reading and talks serve its purpose and clear the air of any further mystery I would inevitably dilute Ariel’s masterpiece with, but she built up the origin of her book and the mystery behind the original story and how it all unfolded off the page in a way that would make every crime show writer on television be a wee bit jealous. I should know. My wife watches a ton of those shows.
That said, Ariel finished off her talks with a reading of the beginning of her book. It was a perfect teaser for everyone in attendance to get excited about purchasing the book at East Side Story after the fact. Ariel was a tremendous reader, and her passion for stories in general was glowing from the stage through her words and delivery. It was quite the start of the show.
And, before you knew what hit you, it was time for the musical portion of the show. The featured musician of the night was also a talented author, but this night we were all about his musical talents. He has opened for the likes of Willie Nelson, Nickel Creek, Keith Urban, and Tristan Prettyman to name a few. He is a past winner of the Merlefest folk songwriting contest as well as the Kerrville Folk Festival’s elite New Folk songwriting competition. Lucky for anyone wanting to contest him this particular evening, I was happy to say that he had no competition in sight. Author of the book titled Medium Hero And Other Stories (which you can purchase at East Side Story as well), joined by his amazingly talented and dear friend Lucas Leigh, the festive crowd gave a big round of applause and appropriate Nashville homecoming fresh off of Korby Lenker’s Winter 2015 Pacific Northwest Mostly Tour for the man himself, Sir Korby Lenker.
Korby and Lucas were like peanut butter and jelly. Seriously, they combined melodies into a funk, folk, history meets the future of stories and sounds while everyone in the room was completely present. I couldn’t hear a fork or knife drop one. From the get-go, with the Ah-Oh song, to the deep and breezy April May tune a few songs later, it was as mesmerizing as the mansion itself. Just when you thought it couldn’t get better, Korby told a story about one of the books that really rocked his world about Sitting Bull and followed that up with not only a history lesson worthy of a cool college professor but also with a song that cut to the core of the meaning of our society and life in general for every being in the house and beyond. Saying it was amazing does it no justice, but it was amazing!
After the music was finished, finishing with a happy song of sorts, I was able to get Ariel and Korby on stage alone to share some further thoughts and ideas about their creative paths and why they do what they love to do. You can catch that lovely moment, including the serendipitous non-Nashville moment of when Korby first met Lucas and more about how Ariel grew up inside and left a real-life hippie commune, on the recording as well. Anyways, I’ll let the recording speak for itself to give these great artists the credit they deserve. It was so pleasant and priceless.
So, as promised, here is the edited version of Unbound Arts presents: East Side Storytellin’ 54 with Ariel Lawhon and Korby Lenker (featuring Lucas Leigh). Enjoy it over and over and share it with a friend or two:
- Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Ariel Lawhon and Korby Lenker (and Lucas Leigh) for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can read more about Ariel Lawhon- http://www.ariellawhon.com
You can listen to more from Korby Lenker – http://www.korbylenker.com
You can listen to this show, edited, soon, alongside the previous shows too, on our website, www.eastsidestorytn.com, at our In Our Own Words Tab – see here – www.eastsidestorytn.com/in-our-own-words
I’d also like to show much love to Clay Brunton for the beautiful artwork for the prints made by Kevin Anthuis at 5 Points Digital Imaging (http://5pdi.com) to celebrate the show.
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.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to give one last shout out to the crew at Riverwood Mansion: the special event’s chef- Eric Reed, also Shannon Marie Smith and Jennifer Anderson, for allowing us to celebrate East Side Storytellin’ in such a fun place and way.
The NEXT East Side Storytellin’ event presented by Unbound Arts will be …
Tuesday, February 17th
East Side Storytellin’ 55
Riverwood Mansion (1833 Welcome Lane)
7pm
reading- Matthew Leavitt Brown (www.riversonnet.org)
singing- Lilly Hiatt (www.lillyhiatt.com)
For more information: Email chuck@eastsidestorytn.com or unboundartsnashville@gmail.com to see about purchasing tickets.
OR
Purchase your tickets and share with friends here (you can note that the next shows at Riverwood Mansion will be 2-tiered and lower prices for even more people to join the fun-
Read more information about the location and all involved in this limited run of shows here-
That’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 54 and another fabulous event here at Riverwood Mansion with Unbound Arts. 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. Thanks and good day your way.
Much love,
mE
