Lucy's Record Shop – Details, episodes & analysis

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 heard her own story on how she came to be Lucy’s Record Shops’ heart and soul. We felt it was long past the time for her story to be told and we’re excited to share this episode with everyone!”

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 other tales from the live indie rock scene of the 90s, the records he bought at Lucy’s that he’ll never ever sell, and how he’s been able to build a successful community-oriented record store from the ground up.

Doyle has seen a lot of changes in the industry and he’s managed to weather them with creativity, humor, and a wonderfully infectious positive attitude, all while making vinyl the star of the show.

Instagram: @thedoyledavis / @grimeys

Facebook: @doyle.davis.75 / @GrimeysRecords

Twitter: @thedoyledavis / @grimeys

Episode Music

Lambchop with Yo La Tengo (excerpt - Autumn Sweater)

Pavement - Summer Babe (Live Brixton Academy, London, December 14, 1992)

The Pretty Things - The Journey

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Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

This show is brought to you by Give Forty the Finger Productions and part 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.

They played in a trailer in the middle of some scary woods, slept on the nasty floor of a club, and blew up snack cakes on a dusty back road with Steve Albini. This was life in the 90s for Montgomery, Alabama, noise-punk band bert. Guided by the mighty Book Your Own F*ckin' Life ‘zine, bert had all the resources they needed to put out their own records, connect with people who loved music as much as they did, and play tons of shows throughout the South and Southeastern U.S..

Mark Coleman (original bass player), Glenn Grant (drums) and Jeff McLeod (guitar and vocals) got together for the first time in a long time to hang out with Mary and talk about life in the studio and on the road, confronting racism and sexism in punk, and one of their absolute favorite places to play: Lucy's Record Shop!

In addition to touring, bert self-released two cassettes and two split 7"s, before Nashville's House O' Pain put out their 7" Ambient Doug. They went on to record with Steve Albini for two releases (1993's Quiet Positive Pump and 1997's Big Box Schwing) for Austin, TX's Chicken Ranch Records, who also released two limited recordings after the band broke up, and another for a one-off reunion show in 2008. 

Episode Music

Lambchop - So I Hear You’re Moving

The Dead Kennedys - Your Emotions

bert - Schizoweirdnik

bert - Dog Dark

Nufux (bert) - The Smoldering Turd

Additional Mentions/Links

Maximum RockNRoll

Boobyhatch

Impetuous Doom

Little Monkey on a Stick

Deadwood (Pensacola)

Craw (Cleveland, OH)

Art Chantry

Chicken Ranch 

Steve Albini

bert

Nufux

Jeff McLeod

• Bert - 1993-1998
• shtwrlds
• The Subversive Workshop
• Jeffmcleod.bandcamp.com

Follow us / Say hello

Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

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.

It wasn’t easy being gay in Nashville thirty years ago. Host Mary Mancini talks to guest Michele Crow about her personal experiences, digs into the compelling history of Nashville’s gay bars and nightclubs, and reveals what it's really like when a gay bar and a punk club try to co-exist.

Lambchop - So I Hear You’re Moving

Shea Diamond - I Am America

Follow us / Say hello:

Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

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.

Dr. 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.

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

Henry Owings - Chunklet

Hip Hop Public Health

Hip Hop Stroke 

Paul Burch - Wanna Jump (Let’s Move)

Arts and Minds

Follow us / Say hello

Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

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.

Lucy Barks! is a documentary about Lucy’s Record Shop that was made by Stacy Goldate in the mid-90s when she was a student at Vanderbilt University. It’s one of only a few physical recordings of the shop and it really captures the look, feel and spirit of the place with footage from inside as well as outside on the front sidewalk (an important part of the community). It features the kids who went there and interviews and performances from bands like the Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot, Brown Towel, Crop Circle Hoax, Lois, Lambchop, Fecal Matter, Brainiac, the Frothy Shakes, Bikini Kill, Wally Pleasant, and Little Monkey on a Stick.

Thanks to Stacy and Michael Eades, Lucy Barks! is now available to rent or buy with proceeds going to Oasis Center and Nashville Launch Pad, two youth focused non-profits that embody the Lucy's guiding statement of "No racist, sexist or homophobic shit tolerated.”

So, hop on over to lucybarks.vhx.tv to take a look and help out two wonderful organizations.

Lucy Barks! Synopsis: “In the mid-90s, Nashville’s music scene sustained under the weight of country, singer-songwriter, and Christian contemporary music with very few options for anyone under 21 who preferred punk, grunge, and indie rock. That was, until a little record shop with the mantra “no racist, sexist, or homophobic shit tolerated” appeared on the scene. Lucy Barks! chronicles the heyday of Lucy’s Record Shop, the all-ages music venue that put Nashville on the touring map for bands like Bikini Kill, Cat Power, and Brainiac and became a flashpoint for a growing alternative music and art scene of its own.”

In this episode host Mary Mancini sits down with Christine Doza who published her first ‘zine, Upslut, in 1993 to distribute to her classmates and out a predatory male teacher. After hearing from Christine it won’t shock you to know that her essays have been taught in universities or that the Riot Grrrl-inspired Upslut, which she also sold at Lucy’s Record Shop and distributed around the world, is in the permanent collection of both the Seattle Public and Columbia University Libraries.

Christine found herself in unexpected places over the last thirty years as a student, a writer, a teacher, and as a member of the electroclash girl group, Whatever it Takes (W.I.T.). But it was that first issue of Upslut that launched her as a feminist writer and thought-leader.

*‘Zines are self-written, designed, and published non-commercial print-works. Along with punk music, they were the main tools of activism for Riot Grrrl, the fierce, outspoken, and unapologetically loud feminist movement born in the early ‘90s.

Episode Music

Heavens to Betsy - Calculated

Whatever It Takes - Hold Me, Touch me

The Muslims - IDGAF

Follow us / Say hello

Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

This show is brought to you by Give Forty the Finger Porductions and 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.

Join Smilin’ Jay McDowell, guitar-player-turned-upright bassist from the small town of West Lafayette, Indiana, as he takes you on his journey from watching and playing in bands in the back room at Lucy’s to traveling the world with BR5-49.

If you lived in Nashville in the 90s and loved live music you may have known about the punk scene at Lucy’s, but you definitely knew about the resurgence of hillbilly and western swing played in the seedy honky tonks on Lower Broad. Jay felt equally at home in both places. Some nights he’d hang out and watch bands at Lucy’s or play a gig there with the band Hellbilly. Other nights he’d go downtown to drink cheap beer and watch Greg Garing, Paul Burch, Tim Carroll, or BR5-49 play at Tootsie’s or Robert's Western Wear. When he was asked to join BR5-49 he jumped at the chance (it may have been the liquor talking), switching his primary instrument from guitar to stand-up bass and adding some additional style and substance to a band already bursting with it.

Jay’s tales include his favorite shows at Lucy’s, what the scene was like on Lower Broad both pre- and post-BR5-49, chatting with Keith Richards and John Fogerty, touring with Bob Dylan, and what it was like when ALL the record companies came a-callin’.

Smilin’ Jay McDowell heads the video department at The Musicians Hall of Fame in  Nashville, TN, which opened to bring attention to studio and road musicians who play a vital role in the creation of music but rarely get the attention they deserve. He even has his own well-deserved exhibit in the museum celebrating his work as a session bass player with artists such as Marty Stuart, Dierks Bentley, The Black Crowes, Alan Jackson, Levon Helm, The Crickets and BR5-49. Go see it.

This episode is dedicated to John Van Etten (1966-1995), Timothy White (1952-2002), and Jim Bessman (1952-2021).

Episode Music

Hellbilly - Make a Mess

Los Straitjackets - Fury

Lambchop - Cowboy on the Moon

BR5-49 - Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)

BR5-49 - Ole Slewfoot (Live from Robert’s)

Additional Mentions/Links: John Van Etten, The Shindigs, John Delworth, Laura Matter (The genius behind kickball), Hellbilly, The ‘Boro, Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot, Deanna Varagona, Los Straitjackets, Danny Amis, Eddie Angel, Scott Esbeck, Jimmy Lester, Lambchop, BR5-49, Chuck Mead, Gary Bennett, Shaw Wilson, Don Herron, Tootsie’s, Robert's Western Wear, Zach Taylor, Garry Tallent , Timothy White (Billboard), Jim Bessman (Billboard), Greg Garing , Paul Burch, Tim Carroll, Keith Richards, John Fogarty, Bob Dylan

Follow us / Say hello at lucysrecordshop.com and @lucysrecordshop Instagram, Twitter & Facebook.

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.

In the mid-90s, Jon Sewell was a fish-out-of-water mischief-maker at a private conservative all-boys school. He was called “Johnny G” by the older kids and “Troublemaker” by the headmaster. Then he discovered Crass and an anarcho-punk was born. He protested against the military industrial complex, ran the local Food Not Bombs chapter, and played drums in the band Murdered Minority. When it came time to try and get a show at Lucy’s he did what any punk prankster without recording equipment would do, he faked the demo.

Jon still thrives in the current that runs underneath Nashville’s mainstream. In 2006 he turned an old, dilapidated house into a punk club. A few years later he turned an old, dilapidated meat packing plant into a community space for musicians, artists, and other creators. The Packing Plant is also the headquarters of Salt Weekly, his beautifully designed ‘zine with an open submission policy and a mission to radically upend traditional print publishing.

Now known as “Southside Jonny, the Mayor of Wedgewood-Houston,” Jon confused Nashville’s politicos by twice running for actual mayor on a platform he called CHIT: Corruption, Hypocrisy, Influence, and Taxes. He also spent two seasons acting opposite Billy Ray Cyrus on the CMT sitcom, Still the King. For real.

Episode Music

Murdered Minority - Shaking The Chains

Murdered Minority - A World Of Freedom

Lambchop - So I Hear You’re Moving

Additional Links

Murdered Minority

Crass

From Ashes Rise

Food Not Bombs

Anti-Racist Action

War Resisters League

Committee for Public Safety

His Hero is Gone

Infinity Cat

This Moment in Black History

Times New Viking

The Packing Plant 

WXNA

Riselogy

Salt Weekly

Nashville’s Dead

The Glenn Danzig House

Kathryn Edwards

Drkmttr Collective

Daniel Pujol

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.

Host Mary Mancini sits down with poet and artist Christine Hall. 

Christine was raised in a trailer at the edge of the Adirondacks by troubadours and cultist pornographers. Inculcated with American mythology—tool girl calendars, bible stories, science fiction—she built on this education while hitching across the continent.

Before she set off on her travels she was a teenager at Lucy’s trying to find her way out of a difficult and painful childhood. Christine found Lucy’s to be a safe space and her story has a happy ending, but the safety she found inside didn’t always prevent her from acting out her trauma in dangerous and self-destructive ways on the outside.

Now at home in the Nashville arts community, Christine hosts the Poetry in the Brew open mic. Her work has appeared in Out & About Nashville, several anthologies including Sinew (April Gloaming Publishing, 2021), Be About It zine, on MTA buses, and on stages with the Yoni Pearl Monologues, Cabaret Noir Collective, TSU, Third Man Records, and OZ Arts. 

This episode comes with a content warning. We talk about self-harm, and suicide, as well as the trauma brought on by religious indocrination. If you’re in need of resources or support, please go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org or call Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The Lifeline provides free and confidential support for anyone in distress and prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones 24/7. If you live outside the U.S., look for the local resources in your community.

Mentioned in this Episode

Mother Hubbard

Brazen youth

Teen idols

Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot

The Swindlers

Follow us / Say hello

Instagram: @lucysrecordshop

Twitter: @lucysrecordshop

Facebook: /lucysrecordshop

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.