Dive Bar Tour, Round Three

As promised, every five episodes of This Is The Place will be dedicated to pursuing the hunt of Nashville’s Greatest Dive Bar. Back in Episode 10, a selection of dives in South Nashville was pursued and saw Tin Dog Tavern emerge the winner. In Episode 15, the East side was hit up and determined Fran’s to be the dive of dives. Now, with Episode 20, we head West.

Host Matt Meeks is joined by We Own This Town proprietor Michael Eades and Charlotte corridor resident expert Paul Hinman to form some opinions on their four candidates. Over the course of the night, a standardized scorecard was used to test The Villager Tavern, The Centennial, The Nations Bar Grill and Betty’s Bar & Grill against our predetermined criteria.

Apologies to Springwater and Brown’s Diner, two very fine Dive Bar-esque environments that were excluded from this round for not being primarily bars.

If you have suggestions for spots to check out, please reach out to @thisisthaplace on Twitter or Instagram.

Intro Music by Uncle Skeleton, Outro Music by Jay Leo Phillips.

WXNA Spring Pledge Drive

From May 13th through May 19th, WXNA is running their Spring Pledge Drive. This is the community’s opportunity to give back to the station and help them cover their operating costs for the year and remain commercial free. Even more importantly, a successful drive this year will enable the undertaking to move to their new studio space in Wedgewood-Houston. Here’s the official insight:

The on-air fundraiser will coincide with preparation for the station’s forthcoming relocation to Wedgewood-Houston’s Packing Plant, where it will share the historic building with art galleries and the Free Nashville Poetry Library. WXNA’s move to the Packing Plant will enable the station to expand its current operations, with a larger broadcasting studio designed for live, in-studio performances, along with a secondary studio for program production, training and community engagement activities.

WXNA allows a large number of community DJ’s to play a mind-boggling diverse amount of music, helping to further confirm that Nashville is more than it’s stereotype. Please consider giving to their pledge – every little bit helps.

Julia Martin

Julia Martin is a visual artist who specializes in painting faces of women. As a teenager, seeing a painting in a downtown Nashville furniture store would change her life. She would eventually open the Julia Martin Gallery in the Nashville neighborhood of Wedgewood Houston.

On this episode of My Fantasy Funeral, she and host Ryan Breegle discuss the surprising origins of her gallery, how she would like to be remembered by friends and foes alike, and her never-dying love for the 1985 fantasy film Legend.

Hear Julia Martin Funeral Song Selections on Spotify

Follow My Fantasy Funeral on Instagram & Twitter.

Find host Ryan Breegle on Twitter.

Music by Kindercastle.

144: Chef’s Kiss Instruction Manual

After last week’s excellent interview episode with Jake Davis, we’re back to fundamentals – showcasing some great local music across a diverse range of styles. Since we, technically, took a week off from just playing music we’re using this as an opportunity to listen to eight songs this week, not the regular six. Win win all around!

Excellent selections from The Feminine Complex, Wax Mistress, Slush, Mouth Reader, Bloopr, Basic Printer, Dream Wave and our cover artist Brasko.

Follow us or submit your music:
Facebook: /weownthistown
Twitter: @weownthistown
Instagram: @weownthistown

The Femine Complex – “I’ve Been Working on You”

Wax Mistress – “The Florist”

Slush – “The Less You Do The More You Win”

Mouth Reader – “So Fucked”

Bloopr – “Brazzers”

Basic Printer – “Seaweed”

Brasko – “Lipstick Stains”

Dream Wave – “Blue Skied an Clear”

“Main Theme” by Upright T-Rex Music

Cover Image: Brasko.

Tea Time with Whoa Dakota

If you’re not familiar with Whoa Dakota take a moment to go listen to her 2018 album Patterns. It’s a fascinating pop record driven by Jesse Ott’s emotive vocal performance and consists of instrumentation choices that are surprising at every turn. For instance, “Clarity” starts as a mournful track with a banjo-esque guitar loop that slowly morphs into an optimistically triumphant rallying cry filled with swirling, morphing, what-the-fuck-was-that wall of sound. Long story short, you should hear it.

Aside from making compelling and interesting music, she has also launched a new YouTube series entitled Tea Time with Whoa Dakota in which she sits down with various musicians and discusses their journey, their struggles, their advice or whatever else seems compelling. The first episode is now available and features a chat with Tuxedo Wildlife. You can watch it in the embed above.

You can read more about the project over on B-Sides and Badlands or just simply tune in to the show on the Whoa Dakota YouTube channel.

S3E07: Easter Kringle

Believe it or not, the Christian tradition of celebrating the rebirth of Jesus Christ after three days as the undead (commonly known as Easter) is the frequent subject of fan/fiction. Zach and Andrew find variations on the classic including The Lion King and The X-Files before diving into the fact that Easter itself is fan/fic. Zach brings up Fanboys before calling for the end of humanity.

Official Site: http://fanfiction.show/
Twitter: @fanfictionshow
Instagram: @fanfictionshow

Theme song by Jordan Lehning

Ry Jennings – Poems, Prayers, Stories, Songs, and Sayings

In the age of skimming albums, you might be quick to judge the full-length Poems, Prayers, Stories, Songs, and Sayings from Ry Jennings as a Country album. There’s certainly a twang to his voice, as well as plenty of gently rolling acoustic guitars and lyrical tales of God and the Devil. However, if you allow yourself to pause and enjoy a few minor details, you’ll notice that there’s a whole lot more to this release than such an over simplification.

Robot Cowboy” exemplifies this attention to detail as it manages to combine a space-age lead and narrative about an actual robot with a horse clomping percussion that couldn’t sound more like the Old West if it wanted to. This genuinely surprising combination of instrumentation happens consistently throughout the record. “Thank You (Jeff and Jeffrey)” hops along with a jaunty percussion and a swirling flute, “When I Die” delivers mandolin and a deathwish to go to hell and “Heavenly Father“, though instrumental, still manages to combine a western whistle with shockingly unnerving field recordings.

The more time you invest in Poems, Prayers, Stories, Songs, and Sayings the more you realize what a delightful potpourri of styles you’re dealing with. It sincerely embraces the basics of Folk and Country but expertly turns them on their head by integrating just about sound Jennings feels will tell his story best. If “Robot Cowboy” doesn’t hit your Best Of lists, it’s a sin.

Abstract Expressionism in Tucson, AZ

Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre went missing in 1985 and stayed missing until 2017 when it unceremoniously appeared at an estate sale for two teachers, Rita and Jerry Alter. Had the mild-mannered couple stolen it? If so, why?

Sara and Veronica discuss the details of this mysterious case; including how the couple potentially pulled off the heist and, more shockingly, how they may have outed themselves.

Follow Thick as Thieves on Instagram.

Music by Patrick Damphier.
Show artwork by Saskia Keultjes.
Rita Alter Woman-Ochre by Julia Martin.

Listen to Jonathan Marx Funeral Songs

The latest episode of My Fantasy Funeral captures a discussion between host Ryan Breegle and renowned writer, musician and musical historian Jonathan Marx. Apart from discussing Marx history and insights on the passing of loved ones (including yourself), he chooses five songs that would be played at his funeral.

The above Spotify playlist includes the selections that were available for streaming. Unfortunately, Marx taste is so refined, his Yo La Tengo selection of “Be Thankful for What You Got” was not present. Fortunately, the Internet always manages to provide and you can hear it here.

If you wish to follow along with all selections from My Fantasy Funeral, hit up this playlist and follow along.

Changes [Meditations on New Nashville]

Typically, the show is one where I talk with a relatively new Nashvillian about something I’d like to understand further, then I talk with someone who’s been here longer and presumably an expert in that arena. I wanted to produce this as a means of getting to know the city, and to know its history and culture.

In this the fifth episode—it’s a comparatively short one, but it’s sort of a check-in. I don’t know if I am going to make this a regular occurrence throughout our first season, but I wanted to check in on the things people have said specific to modern Nashville—New Nashville, as it were.

When you get here, you hear over and over how Nashville is changing. That sentiment is not especially new. I opened the show with Nashville because it’s one long meditation on a changing city made at a time when the country was starting to reconcile how much it was changing at the same time. And while “Nashville” is changing has long been a constant refrain, it is safe to say that the rate at which it has changed since the recession is truly next level. Nashville’s rate of development is in the top 5% of the country, putting it on the same tier as New York City. In a documentary about Nashville’s urban and inner city areas called Cashville, I heard someone refer to it as becoming the LA of the South.

I wanted to check in with my guests so far to hear how they’ve described the city. Almost everything here, with a few exceptions, didn’t air in the episodes each guest originally appeared on. If this were the 90s, this would be the kind of supplemental material that comes on the second DVD in a special edition box set.

In order of appearance, you’re going to hear from:
Singer / Songwriter Carolyn Kendrick
Mandolinist and Fiddler Matt Combs
Katie Harford Hogue (who oversees John Hartford’s estate)
Fiddler Brittany Haas
Writer Sarah Marshall
Homeless and Human Rights activist Lindsey Krinks
Councilman Anthony Davis

Music in order of appearance
Don’t Stop – Mosart
Too Darn Hot – Mosart
Pond5 track – summertime acoustic guitar
The Blackest Crow – Brittany Haas
Pond5 track – Light Inspiring Piano Trailer
Pond5 track – Old School Hip Hop Instrumental

More on Nashville Demystified
Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com
Instagram: @nashvilledemystified
Twitter: @NDemystified

Brought to you by Knack Factory

143: Dropbox Purgatory with Jake Davis

If you took the recording history of Jake Davis and compared it to the tracks played on We Own This Town, you’d have a 90% match rate. From Teddy & The Rough Riders, Skyway Man, The Paperhead, Rainsticks, Peter-Stringer Hye and The Medium (to name a few) he’s worked with a diverse range of musicians, all of which we clearly love.

So, we sat down to chat about how he got involved with such a quality group of musicians, the hardships of being in a band and the frustration of future albums simply rotting in Dropbox. He also shares a lot of insight on upcoming albums he’s finishing up and, from the sound of it, we all have a lot to look forward to.

It’s a great chat and we play a handful of selections at the end that fill in that 10% we hadn’t played yet. Great stuff. Many thanks to Jake Davis for coming to talk with us, we look forward to every new thing coming from him.

Follow us or submit your music:
Facebook: /weownthistown
Twitter: @weownthistown
Instagram: @weownthistown

“Main Theme” by Upright T-Rex Music

Cover Image: Jake Davis by Jamie Goodsell.

slush – EP

Stumbling upon this EP from Slush the day after seeing Tame Impala play could not have been more impeccable timing. While the two are certainly unique and enjoyable in their own right, they both scratch a similar itch.

There are elements of shoegaze and psych abound in this 21-minute debut that strike a great balance between the energetic and catchy (“The Less You Do The More You Win“), the quietly subdued (“Precoitus“) and a floaty immersion (“Seriously“). It’s easy to imagine a backdrop of swirling visuals to accompany any piece of this.

The comparison to Tame Impala is a lazy reference but there’s clearly a similar approach to taking from several niche genres and combining them into a new, streamlined, version of itself. Slush is on to something and this EP should go into your rotation stat.