Lucy's Record Shop
In episode 1, host Mary Mancini interviewed Don and April Kendall of House O’ Pain to get their personal stories and talk about the origin of the Lucy’s/House O’ Pain collaboration. Then Don and April wanted to turn the tables and interview Mary, who resisted at first but is glad she finally agreed because, she said, “After 30 years of friendship we’re still learning new things about one another.” Don Kendall adds: “Mary Mancini has done a wonderful job of sharing the stories of the kids and caretakers of Lucy’s, but what about Mary? We’ve known her forever, but have never...
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Doyle Davis' business cards read “Vinylist,” which is so perfect since he’s been a champion of vinyl as a music delivery system his whole life - as a kid picking through his parents’ collection, as a used record buyer at The Great Escape, as a Lucy’s Record Shop customer buying every Guided By Voices record he could get his hands on, and as the co-owner of Grimey’s New and Preloved Music, a Nashville institution he helped build from the ground up. In this episode Doyle talks about what it’s like to run a record store, seeing Rodan play a house show, Yo La Tengo soundcheck, and...
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There is no other band more legendary or more inextricably linked to Lucy’s than the Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot. Chris Fox, Troy Pigue, Charles “Cat” Tidball, and Donnie Kendall dressed in women’s clothes when they played, which caught people’s attention, but it was their songs - short bursts of frenetic pop-punk energy and clever lyrics - and their stage antics that earned them a devoted following. To really understand how incredible they were you have to talk to the people who were at their shows. They say things like “mind-blowing,” “transformative,” “the...
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Travis Howell started playing the drums because his dad told him he couldn’t. His first band, No Remorse, was the first metal band to grace the Lucy’s stage and the first and only to be mistaken for neo-nazis. Sloppy, a punk-metal hybrid kind of thing, came next and then Adrenaline Hammer, which went on to become 12V. When 12V sold out Lucy’s, Travis realized a long-held dream. Travis’ time at Lucy’s included seeing bands like Javachrist, Impetuous Doom, Teen Idols, and the Wesley Willis Experience (“Rock over London! Rock over Chicago!”), judging Green Day’s choices, and...
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Joshua Toomey has loved metal since he was a kid. He went to metal shows, played bass in metal bands ( including Primer 55 with his friend Bobby Burns), and is now host of Talk Toomey, a podcast dedicated to metal music and news. Josh remembers his time in Nashville in the 90s well, selling out Lucy’s as a member of 12V Negative Earth, applying the DIY-punk ethos to playing and touring, and the miracle of living in a place where you could easily connect with people like Fred Coury of Cinderella, who would then record your band for free in a gigantic fancy-pants studio. When Josh was a kid he...
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Dallas Thomas picked up a guitar and became a prolific Lucy’s regular when he was just 14-years-old and barely able to lift his amp, playing with his friends in Fingerhutt, High Strung, Brown Cow, Little Monkey on a Stick, and Boobyhatch (to name just a few). And he was just getting started. After Lucy’s, Dallas, Erik Holcombe, John Roberson and Chris Fox formed the “satanic thrash rock juggernaut” that was Asschapel. For seven years Asschapel toured the Western world. They even made it to Bosnia using only a German map, where they met that country’s version of House O’ Pain’s...
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Do you ever wonder what has and hasn’t changed in the punk DIY community in the last 30 years? To find some answers host Mary Mancini spoke with 17-year-old Dru the Drifter who does it all - he writes and performs, books shows, and records and releases his own music. They talk about his musical influences, his struggle to find places to play, his songwriting process, how living in the bible belt fuels the punk rock scene, and his goal to release 100 albums by the time he’s 27. Dru the Drifter has released three albums (41 songs) in 2021 and almost an album a month so far in 2022 (92...
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John Rogers, who first stepped into Lucy’s Record Shop when he was just 14-years-old, is an accomplished writer and photographer who uses his camera to document both the jazz scene and the streets of New York City. In this episode you’ll hear how growing up in Nashville - from seeing live music at Lucy’s and playing in his own bands to drinking coffee at Bongo Java and collecting records from The Great Escape - influenced his life and art. You’ll also hear about the numerous inexplicable and mysterious coincidences that manifest in his life and bring him closer to the people,...
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Corey Kittrell’s story is similar to many of the kids who came to Lucy’s. But if we look through the lens of race, it is very, very different. Not many kids who looked like Corey came through the doors of Lucy’s or had the negative experiences that inspired him to write his ‘zine, My God Shaves. Corey was born and raised in Franklin, TN., a quaint, historic town about 20 miles south of Nashville. In this episode we talk about what drew him to punk rock, Lucy’s, and the do-it-yourself culture, how writing his ‘zine helped him deal with the anger he felt as a black high school...
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In 2019, music writer Randy Fox discovered a long-forgotten nugget of info - sixteen years before Lucy’s opened its doors at 1707 Church Street in Nashville it was home to another record store called Buckley’s. Randy has an insatiable curiosity and an unbridled enthusiasm for music and history, so this story has lots of twists and turns. It starts in Kentucky and his discovery of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones in college, zigs into the history of mid-20th century radio and record shops, and zags to the use of urban planning as a tool for white supremacy. Chock full. Enjoy! Randy Fox grew...
info_outlineDr. James Noble is a BFD neurologist at Columbia in New York City. But as a college student in the 90’s, Jamie Noble hung out at Lucy’s Record Shop to feed the love of live music that’s clearly part of his DNA.
Jamie remembers a lot about Lucy’s - the bands he saw (Bugskull, Low, Blonde Redhead, Crop Circle Hoax, etc.), the 7” records he bought, the time everybody got kicked out and had to watch Doo Rag play their show on the sidewalk, and the one time he played a show there with his band, Lepus.
Music and the arts have informed a lot of what Jamie does. He’s been taping shows since 1998 and his recordings are housed at the University of Georgia in the archives of Henry Owings of Chunklet. With his colleague, Dr. Olajide Williams, he started what has become the Hip Hop Public Health fleet of programs, working closely with Sesame Street animators, producer Artie Green, and musicians like Doug E. Fresh, Easy A.D. of the Cold Crush Brothers, DMC, and Chuck D. He also founded a non-profit organization, Arts & Minds, which promotes well-being for dementia patients and their caregivers via art-centered, museum-based programs and experiences in upper Manhattan.
As a neurologist, Dr.Noble specializes in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and has just released a book, “Navigating Life with Dementia” (part of the Brain & Life series, Oxford University Press/American Academy of Neurology).
It’s a joy to listen to Jamie talk about his time at Lucy’s and his love of music.
SHOW NOTES
So She Says - http://soshesays.net (Jamie’s HS band archive)
“Skin Deep,” featuring Louis Bellson on the Duke Ellington band’s Hi-Fi Ellington Uptown Album
Bob Nastonovich & Pavement - Unfair
Brown Towel - Laura Moore Live at Lucy’s
Crop Circle Hoax - Warm Up Set
Doo Rag - Hog Tied
Lambchop - Soaky in the Pooper
Paul Burch - Wanna Jump (Let’s Move)
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This show is part of We Own This Town, a podcast network of original entertainment and documentary content. You can find more info at the official site at WeOwnThisTown.Net and on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.