Cold Lunch Recordings is many things; it’s a record label, a show promoter, festival organizer and non-profit relief refund. They’ve put out releases from Sad Baxter, Heaven Honey, TTotals, Fever Blush, Hari, Bleary, Nosediver and loads more in just the past few years. Those releases are fueled by undertakings such as Spewfest, Brown Bag Fest, Halloweird, Under the Sun Fest, Bob Fest and countless individual shows that the hard working trio books and exhaustively promotes.

In short, it’s a well-oiled machine that leverages income from live events to put out new music into the world; all while keeping a mindful eye on donating proceeds back into the community through their Heartstrings organization. Unfortunately, that machine comes to a grinding halt when you remove live events from the equation; a situation that the Cold Lunch Crew has found themselves facing because of COVID-19 precautions.

In order to keep their operation going, they’ve sold off some of their equipment and reduced their debts as much as possible. Unfortunately, those efforts have proven to be insufficient to actually have enough funds to continue actively putting music out into the world. With that in mind, they’ve turned to the community and started a GoFundMe campaign to help them restart their operations in this new era.

At publishing time, they’ve already raised $3,600 of their $7,500 goal. This means that they’ll survive to see the light of day next year but need to raise a minimum of $5,000 to actually start releasing new music. If they hit the top tier goal of $7,500, they’ll be able to release new music and press a sampler of their favorite local and regional bands.

It’s clear that many operations are hurting right now. Independent venues are struggling to find lifelines, restaurants and bars are in a similar boat and thousands of musicians are out of pocket for any sort of touring income. The Cold Lunch Crew is mindful of this and only asks that you donate if you can afford to, there’s no guilt being applied here.

Cold Lunch has always been a WOTT favorite and done an impeccable job of stretching themselves as thin as possible to support the local scene. There’s no doubt that they’ve got a backlog of amazing music ready to deliver to the world if they can reach their goals. Hopefully they can get there with our support.

Truth be told, this podcast was slated to debut back in March. We sat down and recorded a teaser episode, got everything ready to unveil and then a tornado struck Nashville. Following that devastation, the coronavirus spread made it clear that attending shows at a small music venue like DRKMTTR was going to be on pause for awhile. So, like everyone else, we paused. We worked to promote the GoFundMe that kept Drkmttr going for a few months and we are, personally, proud backers of their Patreon.

We Own This Town had no hand in that fundraising, that’s the result of Kathryn Edwards and Olivia Scibelli’s laser focused efforts, but it is evidence that we are unabashed fans of the venue, the people involved and the goals they seek to achieve – both as a venue and as a destination for community organization and empowerment.

There are few upsides to the quarantine life that we must embrace for the health and safety of everyone around us but there is a silver lining in that it gave Drkmttr a moment to regroup and refocus its efforts to be even more community oriented than it had been. They are using their space to host the Nashville Free Store, they’ve given room for Teens 4 Equality to help further their efforts in the Black Lives Matter protests and they’re continuously helping to educate about upcoming elections. These are not the goals of your typical music venue and we’re overjoyed to hitch our wagon to their star and help spread the good word.

Go subscribe to the show to get all the latest episodes fed right into your favorite app, leave a review to help spread awareness and, most of all, empower your community.

Early voting is now underway in Nashville for the State and Federal Primary, County General and Oak Hill Municipal Election. If you wanted to vote by absentee mail-in ballot, the window has closed for registering your vote to be submitted. However, no matter how you choose to vote – in-person or by mail – there’s a lot of information to consider before placing your vote. In fact, education about nominees is probably the biggest topic to wrap your brain around. Fortunately, Please Vote Nashville is here to help.

The partisan free organization has put together a free guide to what each election position means and what each candidate stands for. All of the information contained within the guide is based on documented sources and is presented to you as straightforward as possible. All you have to do is read it. If absorbing a 50 page PDF sounds overwhelming, then you can follow their Instagram, @pleasevotenashville, for more bite sized nuggets.

Choosing the politicians that represent you in all levels of government is an important undertaking. The Presidential election gets the most media coverage but the lower down the totem pole you go, the more impact you’ll see on your day to day lives. That’s a broad generalization but it is meant to impress the idea that your local state representatives and your school board members should not be trivialized decisions.

Voting in an of itself is not the only driver for change. There is much work that we can all do to make a difference beyond picking an individual that we hope represents our values. Operations like Gideon’s Army United, Nashville Free Store or the Nashville Community Bail Fund should also receive your support in some way. Having a thriving community in Nashville is a complex puzzle, with voting being an important corner piece to getting to a better place.

For more information about Please Vote Nashville, hit up their website, follow them on Twitter @plzvotenash, on Instagram @pleasevotenashville or listen to this podcast episode with founder Tristen Gaspadarek about the whole project.

Early voting ends August 1st and election day is August 6th. Brush up now and cast your informed ballot.