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 137th epic edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 136, I repeat … 136, 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’ 137. Let us begin, again.
The first featured artist of the night is a mutual friend of my cousin Leslie Higgins Embry (shout out to the Blowout Co.). I feel like that is the only way I can lead into this intro. To follow that up, this lady is a friend a mutual graduate school (shout out to Sewanee School of Letters). A graduate of Alabama (Roll Tide) with a focus on English and creative writing, she is a now getting her MFA at Sewanee. She is a former intern of Slash Pine Press, and her work has appeared in Words Dance Publishing, Light Journal, Firefly Magazine, and one of our favorites in April Gloaming Publishing. She is a past participant of Writers in New York at NYU and a graduate of MTSU’s Write. Her poetry is awesome, and she is awesomer (you don’t need to fact check that spelling or concept). PIt was an honor to introduce and shed some light on the work of the talented Massey Armistead.
Massey is a relative newcomer to the Nashville poetry scene (self-described), although she is a unicorn (also self-described, because she is an actual Nashville native). All that said, she is a consummate professional. She didn’t shy away from the crowd or the spotlight or the task at hand to entertain and enlighten. To kick things off for her set, she chose a poem originally inspired by a writing prompt about one word, an underdog of sorts … the word moist. I’ve heard from several females, not just Massey prefacing her poem, that they don’t really like that word. Regardless of what you think about it, there’s no doubt in my mind that you will love the poem that Massey has written (and recorded below) that tells you exactly how she feels about and defines that word in a multitude of colorful expressions. And just like that, she jumped into a second poem that pinned our attention (pun intended) to every word and image she was dishing. Never a dull moment, things got very interesting very quickly.
Massey has a knack for taking the ordinary topics and thoughts that all of us have and twisting them all around, or throwing them in a mason jar and shaking everything all around before twisting the lid back open to see what happens, so that you can see a glimpse of yourself in her personal revelations. For instance, I’m not a smoker, never have been, but her poem about the various times that she only smokes when is a poem I could listen to her read for days. The examples she gives, and the candid nature of the concept behind telling this particular ongoing fable, gives me insight into the cycles that I only do such and such when … and, to me, those types of deeper thoughts are some of the best thoughts one can do for oneself often or as much as possible. Point being, Massey and her words took me to that place. She ended up sharing a few sad poems, equally as thoughtful, but it was the one about a sink that impressed her friends beyond words and she ended with one that was inspired by sitting in the audience of another poetry reading recently. For a lot of things and people, this set sent us all in full circles.
Our featured music of the night is mutual friend of several amazing musicians in the East Side Storytellin’ family, Lauren Farrah to name one of our favorite humans in Nashville. Canadian born, he lived in New York City for over a decade and was one half of the folk duo A Brave View of the Hudson, before calling Nashville home a few years ago. He has kept himself busy while playing plenty of festivals and traveling the world with such fabulous and notorious spirit guides as Darrin Bradbury and Jon Latham (also two of the best humans you’ll ever meet). He’s been busy working on and recording his debut solo album, but we were blessed with his time and energy for this special occasion. It was not hard at all to get the crowd excited and appreciative for the one and only Nick Nace.
Nick, like the best humans mutual friends I mentioned in the intro, has no filter. From the moment you meet him or see him step on stage, he is honest, open, funny, relatable, candid, smiling, genuine, and instantly makes everyone calmer and comfortable. His stories before and between songs not only set the perfect platform for you to fully dive into and think about the lyrics and the melodies like staring at a beautiful painting in any great museum, but he does so effortlessly … like he just woke up, picked up his guitar, and asked you if he could tell you a story. The first story that he shared this night was a song based on a true incident (like most of his extraordinary songs) that involved some friends running away to Mexico to get married because they didn’t want to do it in front of what they believed were horrible parents. These songs are so pure and good that you can’t make this stuff up. Thankfully, Nick has the talent to paint the pictures for the rest of us not privy to the actual experience to take it in like an award-winning indie film.
Nick not only exudes a cool personality of someone you could hang out with all the time, but his voice is familiar. To me, it sounded like if Willie Nelson and Robert Earl Keen had a baby. Well, disregard the image, because we know that can’t happen in real life. But the good-timing storytelling of Robert Earl Keen with a mix of the tone of Willie Nelson (but a younger, deeper, and stronger voice of Willie) is what Nick made me feel like I was listening to when I thought about it all. And speaking of legends, Nick had several songs that are as close to perfect as you can get. One of my favorites was the song that threw a bunch of old flames into one song, describing characteristics or fond memories line by line in a tremendously original homage to loves gone by. Another was the brilliant so so Nashville story of a songwriter on Mt. Rushmore who still plays with the help and propping up on stage with people who idolize his catalogue (Nick being one of those people who still love and appreciate that tall hero). But aside from cool stories about Brooklyn or talks of kissing at prom back in 1998 or finding happiness in the pursuit of loneliness, one of my favorite lines was in the ode to the Arkansas Travellers’ tomato jam that finished the set by including the self-deprecating line of “I was like a washed up Sherlock Holmes, I didn’t have a clue.” Point being, Nick’s music has everything you want and need to hear.
Once again, I was fortunate to have both of the featured guests talk a little more about where they’ve been, what makes them tick, and why they are so darn excited to be doing the things that they are doing, creating, and sharing with friends and strangers. Both are relatively new to the Nashville scene, but they have both made this place their creative home with the help of some very cool and talented artists who have befriended them. Each has a solid pulse on their craft and are working extremely hard to better their work by the day. Surrounded by love and encouragement and a rich soil of Nashville creativity, I believe that both of these artists are destined to make big breakthroughs sooner than later and stick around to help make this great place even better. Both Massey and Nick are the kind of people you take home to your family picnic and everyone smiles and is better for them coming to the party. Let’s just put it this way, I’m ready for the next party where these two artists are doing their thing. I’ll keep you posted on those details as I hear them too, and I hope you’ll join all of us again soon.
So here is the edited recording of East Side Storytellin’ 137, the night when Massey Armistead and Nick Nace made us all better people because of their words and music. This shindig went down on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, at The Post East. Feel free to listen to and share this recording with everyone you know and haven’t even met yet. You’ll thank me afterwards. Enjoy!
Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Massey and Nick for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can listen to more of Nick’s music here – www.nicknace.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’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 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’ 138
Tuesday, September 18
at The Post (1701 Fatherland Street) at 7pm
reading- Laurie Perry Vaughen
singing- The Danberrys
That said, that’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 137 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. I repeat, please remember to be nice to one another out there. Thank you and goodnight.
Much love,
mE