Thank YOU, thank YOU, thank YOU. Hello Again! Welcome to another wonderful collaboration and the 2015 grand finale 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 73rd epic edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 72 previous shows East Side Story has put together, we all decided to take a break from our busy holiday 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 recap and recording of East Side Storytellin’ 73. Let us begin, again.
The first featured guest of the night is a writer currently living on the outskirts of Nashville in Murfreesboro, TN. She has said that rubbing shoulders with some of the most creative and talented people on Earth while in Music City has nourished and helped her growth as a writer more than she could’ve ever imagined. Her style is filled with wit and humor along with snappy dialogue and offbeat characters. She can be found on-stage in venues in and around Nashville reading her always funny and sometimes touching memoirs, as evident in her recent featured spots in the Nashville Scene’s Vodka Yonic, That Time of the Month’s second anthology compiled by East Side Storytellin’ alumnus Melanie Vare, and also in the last show of That Time of the Month this past month at their new Zanie’s quarterly location. I’m bias speaking about this ESS’ occasion but this lady was my favorite storyteller of that 1st TTOTM event at Zanie’s. She’s also collaborated with the good folks at Blackstone Brewing Company with her involvement with the Nashville Noir crowd and the Nashville Adult Literacy Council and the new storytelling series Life Out Loud, but tonight we are lucky to have her here sharing her fun stories to close out the holiday season in style. Ladies and Gentlemen, author of the two books Engulfed and Entangled (both of which you can purchase at East Side Story and, I’ll add, both have some of the best cover art images around), it was an honor for me to introduce and give a spotlight to the woman of the hour in Kathleen Cosgrove.
Kathleen was dressed very nicely for the night and was ready to take the stage by storm. She had skipped out on reading from either of her published books or the TTOTM anthology and decided to read something new for the captivated audience on hand. Not only did Kathleen bring something fresh to read, but she was ready to use all of her voice skills as well while bringing her characters to life. It has been 72 shows in the making for me on this note because no other featured author on East Side Storytellin’ had provided such a plethora of different voices to punctuate and articulate distinctive and unforgettable characters like Kathleen did since the very first East Side Storytellin’ with author Ann Shayne reading from Bowling Avenue.
To say that Kathleen was a treat would be the understatement of the year. Kathleen’s story, Sam Heart and The Case of the Pinned Up Kickers, was a most interesting period piece set in the 1940’s and in Nashville and the Grand Ol’ Opry. There was a main detective trying to solve a crime that was no typical crime. He was surrounded by ghosts who were coming forth to help solve the mysteries that took them down in the first place. It was a lot to take in but it was a lot of good characters, great lines, and even better vocabulary and voice inflections brought to the table by Kathleen. It was totally original but it had fun hints, at least for me, of Dragnet, Dick Tracy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Beetlejuice. You’ll just have to take my word for it again on the above and listen to Kathleen read her story on the recording link below to get the full picture of what I’m trying to relay. All in all, it was an absolute hoot of a story and time on a Tuesday night in December. Thank you, as always, Kathleen!
The featured musician of the night is a Tennessee native, born and raised between Nashville and Greenbrier, TN. His birth location has influenced him tremendously while he has spent much of his life exploring the duality of country and city, and the two run deep in him and are scrupulously reflected in the music he creates. Hypnotic and ethereal but still fixed in its earnest engagement of traditional country themes, this man’s upcoming record Up the Ridge is a sincere exploration of family and place in the style that he aptly terms dream country– having nothing to do with bro- or pop- country so don’t you worry or think you are in the wrong place to enjoy this show and this man’s music to the fullest. Another near and dear friend of East Side Storytellin’ alumnus and favorite Erin Rae, it was so good to let in another friend of a friend into the East Side Storytellin’ fold who is so talented at what they do as much as our special musician guest of the night … Austin Manuel.
Austin was fresh off of playing a grand holiday show around a handful of friends new and old the night before this particular show but he was still feeling the Christmas love from his sweater to another room filled with compassion and good vibes. He grabbed a water and a beer from a friend in the crowd and put them aside to grab his acoustic guitar and sound box and set sail in a new territory of sound for him to try and experiment. I was kinda bummed that he didn’t play the Casiotone MT-40 that he pulled out of his backpack and sat on the couch during sound check, but we can’t have it all, right? He was ready to rock the intimate coffee shop like he never thought possible before (Side note, for personal reasons that I told to Austin, the Casio keyboard hit close to my creative home for a project I’m currently working on in which I added such an instrument into the mix just this past week = yet another serendipitous sign for our East Side Storytellin’ pairing of the night, but that is another story altogether. I digress.).
Austin’s lyrics and sounds were very personal and ethereal and included such instant classic lines as “life like a kite” and “I just want you to love me” and “I can see me needing her” that hit right to my head and my heart. The way he combined and repeated lines and certain chords not only matched the mood he was trying to create but it also made everything more heartfelt than I’d experienced in quite some time. Sure, it didn’t hurt when he mentioned that several of his songs were inspired by his grandparents’ relationship with each other and dementia and life and death and then he came out swinging with a song that was inspired by his grandmother’s pumpkin pie and her changing up the ingredients on accident close to her passing. Not only was that the only song I’ve ever heard about pumpkin pie, but it was immediately my all-time favorite song inspired by a family dessert and that says a lot from this music-loving sweet teeth amigo typing this down. I’m serious, you have no idea how much I love sweets and this particular song until you listen to it below. Like everything Austin played, it was so so good and you’ll want more servings just when you think your plate is full.
Austin finished his set with two more songs that he said would appear on his upcoming album to be released in the spring of 2016. Both were close to home for him and hit close to home for all of us in the room. Just as the reverb went out on his sound box hooked up to his guitar, the sound was stripped down and allowed Austin to emphasize his songs about family love. He ended with “Love will last forever” but not before he laid down the lines about “between two heart love will find a way.” If you need any help getting into the perfect mood of appreciating your family, young and old, at this time before the holidays are upon us, look no further than Austin’s music and stories to get you just right. You can get a taste of the recordings below, but I encourage you to look on his website and/or contact him to buy the two CD’s that he had on site at the show and has more to sell you when you ask. For reference, the titles of each are Through the Night and then Love That’ll Last Forever. You welcome.
I was so thankful to have each of the guests stick around and talk about their creativity and journeys to Nashville, as I do for every show. There’s not much more I can say that we didn’t talk about in the recording below so I’ll just share that with you so you can get it all from the artists’ who shared it with me in the first place. Before I post that very link, I want to say thank you to both Kathleen and Austin and the family and friends they brought to the show because it was one for the ages. There was an overwhelming sense of honesty, openness, family, personal creativity, and love that I felt covered The Post and all who were there to witness this evening to close out this very special year even if nobody originally was trying to make that happen before we got started. Point being, I felt very thankful and engulfed (play on words?) by the holiday spirit despite the fact that the recent weather outside tries to make me feel otherwise. Thank you, Austin and Kathleen (and all who came out to support the show in person and online = I cannot say this enough)!
So here it is, the edited recording of East Side Storytellin’ 73 with the talented Kathleen Cosgrove and Austin Manuel leading us into the light at The Post on Tuesday, December 15th, 2015. Enjoy and feel free to share this link and overall blog recap with all of your family and friends. It may not be the biggest wrapped present under the tree this season for them, but it is quite the gift nonetheless.
https://soundcloud.com/eastsidestorytn/sets/east-side-storytellin-73
Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give one more big round of thanks for Kathleen Cosgrove and Austin Manuel for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can read more about Kathleen’s writing here- www.katcoz.com
You can listen to more of Austin’s music here- www.austinmanuel.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 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.
The NEXT East Side Storytellin’ event will be …
East Side Storytellin’ 74
Tuesday, January 5th
at The Post (1701 Fatherland Street)
at 7pm
reading- RashadThaPoet (www.rashadthapoet.com)
singing- Eric Dozier (www.ericdozier.com)
That said- that’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 73 and the best year ever of 2015 until the next 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