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 recap and recording of the 110th epic edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 109, I repeat … 109, 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’ 110. Let us begin, again.
Our first featured artist of the evening is such a regenerate. In fact, he’s such a regenerate, he started his own club called The Regenerates. He not only started that, but he also started a publishing company called April Gloaming Publishing. To be such a liberator, it is shocking to find out that he is so enslaved to the written word. During the day he sits at his computer and reads submissions and plots the next moves for April Gloaming Publishing. But, during the night, he is like a pseudo-Batman, patrolling the streets of Nashville talking and friending writers and artists alike, but not in a creepy way. Aside from other day jobs and awesome things ahead, this guy spends most of his days helping himself and others to have fun and take names. Author of And the Soft Wind Blows, the entire room joined me in giving a huge round of applause for the one and only Lance Umenhofer.
Lance calmly strutted to the podium and embarked on a creative reading and journey through a new story based in letters written by a fictional character abbreviated to HRC and his journal while fighting the war in Vietnam. It was gritty, intense, passionate, ugly, bloody, violent, maddening, vivid, colorful, and everything you’d ever expected to experience when hearing something set in the war backdrop of Vietnam. Lance did it all with a stern, straight face, an immense respect for the battle and all those who fought in it, and the whole thing just came across as something majestic, powerful, transcendent, and very relevant to the day and time he read it (the day after July 4th).
Lance did not preface the reading much before everyone filling in the seats about it being a tale about Vietnam. One of my friends who happened to have served during that time and was present for the entire reading later told me that he would have waited a bit before coming in the show if he had known beforehand. That wasn’t a diss to the reading, but actually quite the compliment when the friend stayed and paid attention to the entire set. Also, the day before the reading, I had dinner with a family friend who I never knew served our country during that same time until he flooded me with personal accounts of his experience with Vietnam over the course of a home-cooked meal. I listened with open ears, heart, and mind as this friend shared stories that his wife said he never mentioned before even to her. I distinctly remember asking myself why I was the person sitting there to be lucky enough for someone to share such personal things that obviously needed to be let go in the public. Fast forward to one day later and I was ready and fully prepared to totally take in Lance’s prose about gluttony and appreciate it in all its wonder. Now that I have prefaced you to the reading and recording, I beg that you give Lance’s words and fascinating story similar time and respect. It is well worth your experience.
Now, our featured music of the night is someone who, simply put, writes songs. His songs remind you that rock is, at its most pure and basic, just a person and a guitar, a story and some questions. I first met him while I was cutting East Side Storytellin’s teeth at the place formerly known as Mad Donna’s, RIP. Cutting his teeth in Kalamazoo, he played in country-rock bands alongside local punk outfits, listening to Springsteen records on repeat and living across from a graveyard. I too lived across from a graveyard at one point, but that was neither here nor there. This guy pens and sings songs that sound like elegies of his past self. His recent debut is a patchwork of 1960’s American poetry mixed with sharp guitar licks and faded record store finds. I once knew him as a thoughtful server and, much is the case for most servers in Nashville, I was honored to know him as an artist and introduce him to others on our show. I’m talking about the very talented Dylan Lancaster.
Dylan, like Lance, slowly approached the microphone and jumped right into his set like you do. He admitted that he was a little bit jittery because he had changed his normal gig routine from drinking a few beers to appropriately drinking a wee bit much of coffee at the establishment at hand. It may have given him jitters on the inside and out, but we couldn’t tell any difference in play because it was spectacular. Dylan is someone with a similar literature and music background that you find in most of the prolific Nashville musicians you already know and love. His sense of storytelling and craft in the lyrics is just as important as choosing the melodies that move your feet. Whether it was a song about Beaver Island (the King of Beaver Island actually), a time when his car broke down in Southern Indiana, or a solid advert telling others it’s not very cool to drink and drive, each song is a short story that takes you on just as many ups as downs in between.
Dylan likes to label his music and himself as a sad bastard type. I didn’t hear as much as I heard a new genre called country punk. You see, Dylan came from a Michigan scene where punk was just as prevalent as country is to Nashville. In my opinion, Dylan is the perfect pairing of both combined. I personally can’t wait to see Dylan play again and with a band of friends around him to elevate his lyrics and melodies even more than by himself. He may sing about some times that he can’t win, but I beg to write you now and say that we’re all winning because Dylan is writing and and playing his art his own way. And no, I’m not making a cut from Dylan’s record sales, if you’re wondering. I honestly believe he is on to something really special with what he has going on.
That said, I think that this pairing of Lance and Dylan is, as Lance would say it this night and I say it almost every show, serendipitous. These two guys know pretty much every good artist in the city on a friend level, and they both do pretty much everything and anything they can dream and think up in every creative scene imaginable. They are both just at the beginning stages of their works, with the effort, audience, and promise that the good stuff they are making now will only get better the more they share it (and that says a lot considering how good they are now). They are both humble and givers to the creative community-at-large, and I am honored to call them both friends. You can hear how honest and articulate and sharing they are if you take a few minutes to listen to the conversation we had together in the recording. Again, it is well worth your experience. I’ll stop beating around the bush with praises and words. Just listen to the damn recording.
So, here it is … the edited recording of East Side Storytellin’ 110. It was an extraordinary snapshot of Nashville and America today (July 5, 2017) recorded at The Post East for a packed house of awesome people. Feel free to listen to this link and share this post over and over again with everyone you know. Thank you in advance.
Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Lance and Dylan for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can read more of Lance’s writing here – www.aprilgloaming.com
You can listen to more of Dylan’s music here – www.dylanjameslancaster.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 WordsTab – see here – www.eastsidestorytn.com/in-our-own-words
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 love to give another big shout out for the very talented photographer and friend David Robert Farmerie. A man who just gets it, and he captures the most beautiful pictures of artists that I’ve ever seen = fact.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to give one last shout out to Tonya and Chris and the rest of the staff at The Post 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’ 111
Tuesday, July 18th
at The Post (1701 Fatherland Street) at 7pm
reading- Nick Rossi
singing- Zach Ryan
That said, that’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 110 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
