Missing Jackson, Part 6: "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me"
In September when I packed up all of my things and started my fall journey I had no idea what to really expect. Not because I hadn’t toured before or worked before, but because this time was different. Working two full-time jobs simultaneously is not my norm, and it felt like I was possibly biting off more than I could chew. But I had to trust that God was not giving me more than He thought I would be able to handle. So off I went to New York City to begin putting Songbird on stage. After a few weeks of that I boarded another plane and kicked off the Wilderness/Politics Tour, and another transformative experience began.
Touring is a strange and beautiful thing. You leave all comforts and normalcy of everyday life and routine to hit the pavement in an attempt to connect with audiences on the road. You’re in a new city every day with new faces around you in each venue you visit. On top of that you’re traveling as a group with various bands and crew members all working together to “make the donuts” and make it look seamless and easy.
“Touring is a strange and beautiful thing. You leave all comforts and normalcy of everyday life and routine to hit the pavement in an attempt to connect with audiences on the road.”
Sometimes you’re lucky enough to tour with people you’ve worked with before, but you’re always making new friends on the road. You spend anywhere from three months to a year and a half on the road with each other, depending on your album cycle, and whether you like it or not you become family. These are the people that see you at every stage of your day, start to finish. They see you at your best and definitely at your worst, 'cause after enough time has gone by it becomes hard to hide your feelings on the road. The loneliness is real, the tiredness is real, and the hangovers are real.
The Wilderness/Politics Tour for me was a combination of new friends and old friends. It was one of those special tours you get to be a part of where everyone actually gets along and wants to be around each other. Saying goodbye at our last show at the Fillmore in Philadelphia was hard, but it’s always hard. You get so comfortable being in the rhythm of tour, moving as a group, always knowing where you’re going, on a schedule. Eat, perform, sleep, repeat. Our last night we finished the show with all of the bands and artists on stage singing together to one of Andrew McMahon’s songs “La La Lie” while jumping on his piano and sharing champagne.
The Wilderness/Politics Tour came to an end, and I immediately returned to New York City to be present for the final week of my musical Songbird. It felt amazing to be reunited with my beautiful cast who helped change my life and bring my music to life. Our final show on Sunday, December 6, was one of the most memorable days I will ever have in my life. I got to be backstage with my cast and sing the ensemble numbers with them, which was so much fun. I got to play Bananagrams with them at intermission. After their final curtain call, I joined them on stage, guitar in hand, and played a song with them—all of us together, celebrating for one more time the show and story that brought us together.
“I’ve always believed that hard work pays off, but it’s great to be validated in that from time to time.”
I know that I still haven’t totally processed everything that has happened to me in the last eleven weeks. Being on tour I was able to see audiences respond to the songs I’ve written. They know the words to my songs! It’s so overwhelming in a good way! My show became a New York Times Critics’ Pick (cue me crying)! We also got beautiful reviews of Songbird (one more reason I believe that there is a God and that He is alive). They even did a feature on me in the New York Times (what were they thinking?!)! Miracles have been happening around me every day! I got to perform in the legendary Beacon Theater in New York City and share the stage with some amazing artists and bands: Fall Out Boy, Elle King, Sara Bareilles, and George Ezra. I sang the national anthem at the Brooklyn Nets game on December 1. Miracles! But I’m trying not to question things too much these days, I’m just trying to enjoy it as it happens and be thankful that it is happening. I’ve always believed that hard work pays off, but it’s great to be validated in that from time to time.
Next week I’ll be returning home for Christmas. I’ll be able to sleep. I’ll be able to see my family. I’ll be able to see my kitty cat. I’m gonna sing in a Christmas concert at the New Southern on December 22 with my sweet friend Bo Kitzman and a few others who are joining us. And I’m going to celebrate making it through what were absolutely the biggest tasks I’ve ever had to tackle.
Lauren Pritchard, also known as LOLO, is a Jackson native. She originated the role of Ilse in the eight-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Spring Awakening, and she is the composer and lyricist of the new country/folk musical, Songbird. You can find her new EP, the Comeback Queen EP, on iTunes (released by DCD2 Records), and you can catch her on the #WildernessPolitics tour this fall in the USA and Canada. For more information on her shenanigans, visit her website.
Header image provided by Lauren Pritchard.
Music is something that has forever been woven into the culture of Jackson. While Carl Perkins and the Rockabilly sound are what most people think of first, that staccato rhythm and piano twang is only a part of what Jackson’s music scene was and is. The musical talent that Jackson has produced — from Full Devil Jacket to Erin Rae to LOLO — is as diverse as the community. The problem, though, is that Jackson never had an infrastructure to develop that talent. At least not until now.
On Sunday morning at Historic First Baptist Church, Stedman Roebuck stands ready at the keyboard, looking out over the congregation. As the preacher’s voice rises, and a tune rises with it. He moves with the music, with the crowd, with the lifting of voices. Hands are raised and tears fall. Shoulders relax into a place that feels like home.
“We don’t like it to look too clinical,” remarked Chrissy Watson, board-certified Music Therapist at the STAR Center as she pulled out her guitar. The room’s lavender walls and smorgasbord of colorful instruments, complete with Watson’s warm guitar strums, banished any thought of the adjective “clinical”. Yet, this little room holds sessions where tangible healing takes place.
Grey skies, constant drizzling rain, drooping trees, and whipping cold wind welcomed us into Covid-19 quarantine with a sky that matched our spirits. My husband Rob and I had just moved into a new house a month before the pandemic and were finally feeling settled. Life pre-March was fairly routine. I
However one might choose to gauge her, Lauren Pritchard, who goes by the stage name LOLO, does not situate comfortably into the traditional West Tennessee templates assigned to a middle class white girl. The church choir, theatre class, prom-going standards simply don’t work.
Don’t let the cold weather keep you cooped up all month! Get out to catch some unique events offered this February for lovebirds and professionals to kids and students.
The first time I heard No Time Flatt perform was at the inaugural Tennessee Music Awards event. All five members of the ensemble (Kevin Wright, Patrick Cupples, Becky Weaver, Kevin Keene, and Steve Moore) lined up on stage, each with a microphone in hand, and proceeded to deliver the most beautiful harmonies. They performed to an enthusiastic crowd, who enjoyed the familiar songs and bluegrass twang. This past August, No Time Flatt released a new album of both original songs and covers: Calling After Me.
The Halloween fun may be over, but November is jam-packed of fun community events to get you in the holiday spirit! From shopping and eating to bingo and line dancing, check out what Jackson has to offer before Thanksgiving.
It’s finally fall! Well, almost. Join us as we gear up for arguably the most beautiful time of year in Jackson as we celebrate with drinks, music, and all kinds of outdoors fun.
My love for Alison Krauss began at a young age, between cassette tapes of John Denver and Clint Black (and Willie Nelson, of course) played in my dad’s truck. It wasn’t until college, though, that I truly began diving into her music, and because of the timelessness of her angelic voice, I couldn’t tell you which songs were produced in the 90’s versus her 2017 album. Her music has evolved like any other artist, but her balance of musical genius, heartbreaking lyrics, and bluegrass twang has been a solid rock in my relationship with true country music.
September may be Jackson’s overall best month for community events, and the great weather makes it even better! While we’re always excited for classics like the state fair, international festival, and Starlight Symphony, here are five other favorites we want to see you at. And don’t forget to sync our event calendars with Google or iCal so you don’t miss a thing!
Wow—what an incredible second year of our 731Day Porchfest! Check out this highlight reel by Jameson Winter, featuring LOLO's revised version of "Wasted in Jackson," written just for this event.
At the end of every school year, I have my students create a portfolio of different types of original poetry. I’d like to think I do it in order to foster their creativity, but it’s really because I’m too lazy to grade eighty-four final exams. Either way, it’s a win/win for all of us: they get to write sonnets and pretend that they’re actually writing their first rap hit, and I get to sit back and not grade bubbled-in answer documents. One poem they always struggle with is an elegy.
July is by far one of our favorite times of the year with 731Day on its way, but there’s so much more leading up to that beloved end-of-summer event! Check out all the laughs, music, and other fun in store for this month.
If you drive through the suburban sprawl surrounding Nashville, headed west towards Jackson, Tennessee, the rolling hills will soon taper to level ground. You’ll know you’re almost there when a field of trees swallowed in kudzu forms hovering masses, almost like ancient creatures gathered alongside the road. We don’t think about it too much, but there’s something to the landscape of a place. Plenty of artists have tried, but it shapes us in ways we can’t quite name.
When I was young, my family would take vacations to different cities to watch baseball games. While I loved baseball, the thing I looked forward to the most was seeing the skyline of whatever city we were visiting. In my single digit years, it was always St. Louis. Driving past the multitude of Drury Inns in the suburbs and waiting for the skyline to materialize in the distance never got old. Seeing the Arch stretch across the sky is something I can still see in my mind today. As I got older, the cities became larger: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York.
While the weather may be dreary these days, Jackson’s social scene is most definitely not. February is bringing the most dancing, learning, and new fun our city has seen since the holiday. Here’s just a handful of the awesome events happening throughout our community this month.
I had a college professor tell me once, “Remember, you are changing your generation and the generations of the people around you.” Those words are so true and are still relevant in my life today. In fact, that professor was living proof of that statement by changing my life with mentoring, advising, and pushing me to be better. It was not just that one professor, of course. There were (and still are) many people who continually wanted to invest in me as I grew up here. My father and mother met at Lambuth University, but my dad was not in school there.
“third wave coffee.” noun. 1. The most recent cultural phenomenon in the history of the coffee industry and consumption. Comes after the first wave of coffee, which included “growing coffee consumption exponentially,” and the second wave of coffee, which began to “define and enjoy specialty coffee.” 2. Purchasing coffee due to its “origin and artisan methods of production.” 3. A movement aspiring to produce the highest quality of coffee possible at every level while pleasing and intriguing the coffee consumer. “UrbanHouse.” noun.
January might not be the most exciting month following the joy of Christmas and entering the bleak midwinter, but Jackson has plenty of fun to offer, especially with a handful of annual events we’re all looking forward to. See what’s in store this month!
It’s a cloudy, dreary December day outside, but the laughter between the three musicians I’m sitting with is making things seem brighter. It’s their first time at theCO, and I had them crash on the couches to create a comfy environment for our interview. Ben Gilbreath, Nathan Megelsh, and Tyler Marberry are meeting with me today to talk about their band, Forked Deer Homeschool Parade. If you’re from around the more southern West Tennessee area, you probably know that it’s pronounced “Fork-ed Deer.”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, y’all! Jackson has so much family fun for you this holiday season, so check out these five favorite events happening this December.
Maybe it will be a high school production of the musical Camelot. An exhibit of stunning photography by a local class may catch your eye. Perhaps you’ll just want to see the downstairs museum, where dozens of photos, plaques, awards, and costumes recall the acting careers of Dixie Carter and her husband, Hal Holbrook. What will bring you to The Dixie? The Dixie Carter Performing Arts & Academic Enrichment Center is a historical performing arts and enrichment center in Huntingdon, Tennessee.
I bought the most reasonably-priced vinyl record of my life at a record store in Jackson. This is the kind of sentence I never thought I’d write. For one thing, reasonable prices, particularly for a brand new, remastered vinyl of an iconic rock star like David Bowie, are hard to come by in most record stores. If you go to Wuxtry Records in Athens, Georgia, you’ll find records for around twenty to thirty bucks.
Is there a better time of year to get out and enjoy the weather than October? Sure, there’s always fall break, Halloween, and a few good Saturday morning races, but don’t forget the local beer, fashion shows, and some dog-friendly fun! Check out Katie Howerton’s five top events for this month.
Great art is meant to be experienced. It is not enough to see a picture of a painting by Delacroix or Jacques-Louis David in an art history book. You must tramp across the wide corridors of the Louvre and encounter them in all the massive, unbelievable glory and beauty; anything else is only a poor substitute. This sort of artistic experience is a great blessing, and it explains why so many people continue to visit the great museums of the world.