East Side Storytellin’ 43: When over 40,000 screaming Nashvillians missed out on the best show in town

Hello everyone, and welcome to another great round of East Side Storytellin’.  Similar to the 42 previous shows we’ve put together from East Side Story, we’ve come together here to get you cultured up just right in the form of a local 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.  Before I get started below, I’d like to dedicate this particular show to Robin Williams.  Despite your thoughts on mental illness and suicide, Robin dedicated his entire life trying to help everyone around him feel deeply entertained, enlightened, loved, and happy.  That is what this show is all about at its core.  Personally, I can’t ever think of another artist passing tragically in my lifetime when I felt more sad for the loss of such a big heart and more creativity and joy to be spread.  My thoughts are definitely with his family and close friends during this time.  This is my way of saying thanks to Robin for so many laughs, smiles, and happy times he helped create in my life.  This is East Side Storytellin’ 43.  Let us begin.

The first featured guest of East Side Storytellin’ 43 is an artist in every sense of the word.  In fact, he is one of only two creative people I’ve ever met (besides East Side Storytellin’ 15 alumnus Joshua Payne being the other) that eats, sleeps, speaks, thinks, sings, paints, reads, plays, and exudes art every second of every day that he is alive.  To somewhat put this guy in an artistic box or label, so that you can go and tell all of your friends about his current work and about this event later, I’d say he would be honored to have you tell others that he is a painter, musician, filmmaker, and author … for starters.  He was most recently featured for his words, drawings, and sculptures as part of the one-night events at OZ, alongside the talented musician Brooke Waggoner, and that was a big success for the entire city to witness first-hand.  For this show, he decided to share some of his new stuff never shared before to help make everyone in the crowd feel just as special as those did in the land of OZ.  The author behind “The Shovel & the Hare”, “Skinny Dipping in Daylight”, and “The Perils of Fishboy: A Tale Split In Two”,  it was my tremendous honor to introduce the big round of applause for THE Cory Basil!

Cory approached the stage and microphone with his extraordinary aura of humility and artistic grace.  Donning one of the coolest hats I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying a lot from a man of many hats), he welcomed the enthusiastic listening crowd to enjoy some of his fresh work of words that he had yet to share to anyone beyond his own journals up to that point.  That’s just one angle of how nice and daring this artist is.  He shared a solid set of poems that he had scribbled while on a recent trip to New York, and did so in a way that made me and others feel like we were in a groovy house show of poetry … something similar to Love Jones, but with more talk about deep connectivity of life more so than the sensuality of love.  Any way you heard it, Cory’s words were enlightening, touching, and often times profound to the core.  It was something to hear and take away with your daily thoughts and actions afterwards.

Cory put his journal to the side and jumped head first into excerpts of his book “The Shovel & the Hare”.  He read a handful of shorts before finishing his set with the short story of the same name as the title of the book.  With a few kids in the crowd, amidst some bigger kids of all ages, I’d say it is safe to say that there has never been a cooler children’s storytelling time in Nashville history.  I could’ve have taken a nap and called it a good night after that story concluded, had I not planned to have another amazing artist follow up Cory.

The second featured guest of the evening hails from Jackson, Tennessee.  Like the East Side Storytellin’ 42 featured author, Dave Wright, she attended Tennessee Tech University.  I first heard about her and her music from East Side Storytellin’ 34 alumnus Charlie Whitten and also from the very talented group Boom Forest (who we hope to get on the show sooner than later as well).  Speaking of talented bands, this lady has comprised one of the most genuine bands around by the name of her own namesake “and the meanwhiles”.  She takes up the singer/songwriter position and is joined by some other dear and close friends to fill out the rest of the parts: like her friends Graham, Cori, Molly, Kevn, and Mark, to name a few.  After successfully debuting the amazing EP “Crazy Talk” and traveling around the world sharing the love and meeting new fans along the way, I was sure that her music would be great and everyone would want to hear more by the end.  Listen, I had heard nothing but amazing things about this young lady and her music from more than the above.  This girl, as you may already know or will after listening to the recording below, is going to be a big hit very soon!  I was, yet again, truly humbled and honored to welcome to the East Side Storytellin’ family of artists and introduce the likes of Erin Rae of Erin Rae and the meanwhiles!  I almost wrote “freakin’” meanwhiles, but that’s not their real name to Google later.

We pulled up a stool for Erin to sit on the stage, solo, and rock the house with just her vocals and a nice guitar.  She instantly gave love to her friend Charlie Whitten, after he told her to just have fun and not worry about the East Side Storytellin’ show (not knowing what to expect at first), and she started playing some fresh tunes as well.  It was pleasantly eerie to me how much Erin’s sound and aura was so much like Charlie’s musically and Cory’s artistically.  I can’t help but notice I’ve said “aura” two more times already than in any other show recap, but Erin and Cory (and Charlie for that matter) truly do exude honest to goodness great feelings onto others when they share their creative passions and works with them.  Not sure if we garnered more orbs in the pictures (not going to go overboard touchy-feely here on you) than usual, but I know one thing … everyone was loving what they were hearing from the stage.

I saw children dancing, mothers smiling, and everyone having a good time.  Erin played hit after soon to be hit across the radio airwaves, and everyone was better for having been there in person.  Seriously, my wife and I talked about it after the show and we could sit and listen to Erin sing for days without hesitation if asked to follow and listen to her sing for days.  Point being, give her a listen on the recording below and get your butt to the nearest show she plays with her band when getting on a stage near you.  You’ll thank me later like we all thanked Erin for taking the time to come out and make a good show even better with her talent, words, and melodies.

After the music ended, and before the second show of the night took the stage, I had a few minutes to grab both Cory and Erin together to share some more insight in their art and creative journeys. The phrase I coined on the recording, just to let Erin know how I felt about her friendship and collaborative efforts with Charlie Whitten was that they are “kindred, soul siblings that create and relate simple, innocent emotions and stories into melodies that soothe the moment.”  Taking it one step farther and smack dab into Cory’s work, Cory is of the same nature with how clear and articulate his words are based on tales he creates from his impressions of the daily world he experiences.  I rambled on stage and here, mostly because I am so impressed with both of these artists and their works, but the main thing for me to express here is an immense gratitude that both of these two took the time out of their busy creative lives to join the East Side Storytellin’ stage and patrons to help make this idea better and better and a bigger circle of Nashville artists with every show.

Like every single East Side Storytellin’ show, this one fit the bill as being, yet again, the absolute BEST show in Music City on this particular evening scheduled (every 1st and 3rd Tuesday to be exact, if you forget or didn’t know already).  I don’t care how loud young teenagers screamed their lungs out for One Direction down at LP Field on August 19th, 2014 … East Side Storytellin’ 43, as the recording below shows and proves, as always, my point that we are the only ones saying, “Clear Talent, Full Heart = Can’t Lose!” … And we didn’t or don’t.

That said, HERE is the link for East Side Storytellin’ 43.  Please share it with everyone, including the young girls who packed in the Titans’ stadium to scream louder than even the Pittsburgh Steelers’ fans do every other year.  They will thank you for sharing it too.

https://soundcloud.com/eastsidestorytn/sets/east-side-storytellin-43-erin

Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Erin Rae and Cory Basil for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.

You can read more from Cory Basil (http://hereliescorybasil.com/)

You can listen to more of Erin Rae and the meanwhiles (http://themeanwhiles.com)

I’ll keep the gratitude going for Tom Eizonas, for the recording and sound of the night, Cory Basil for the amazing painting for the art print, for Kevin Anthuis at 5 Points Digital Imaging (http://5pdi.com) for printing those art prints,and to my lovely wife 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.  Side note, many thanks for my friend Otis James for helping keep my thinkin’ cap looking fresh.  If you need a great hat, call up Otis, my man!  I also want to take a quick second to give a HUGE shout out for my youngest and best customers at East Side Story that both appeared at the show in that of the reading young ladies of the Middlebrooks and Fenderson families.  You girls totally rock!!

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 – http://eastsidestorytn.com/in-our-own-words/

But we are not finished.

The NEXT East Side Storytellin’ event will be …

Date- Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

Time- 7 pm sharp (Central)

Location- Mad Donna’s (1313 Woodland Street)- http://maddonnas.com

With poet extraordinaire Ciona Rouse (www.thecrazything.com) and a very special musical guest by the name of Amita Fukui.  It will be a very transcendent, soulful night not to miss.

That’s all for the East Side Storytellin’ 43 show.  Thanks for coming out and sharing the good word.  Remember to be nice to one another out there.  Thanks and good day your way.

Much love.

chUck