Good music often has that certain power of stopping you in your tracks; with a few notes, it can relax your grip on life, shoot chills up your spine, inspire goosebumps. I had this reaction the first time I heard Luella and the Sun: when Melissa Mathes (a.k.a. Luella) howls a cappella in her voice that conjures up sleeping ghosts of gospel churches, Clarksdale clubs and New Orleans street corners, you are disarmed. And once bandmates John Radford, Joe McMahan and Adam Bednarik kick in, the sound slinks into a soulful, sexy, dirty rock n’ roll with an urgency so palpable it feels as if this music was made out of as vital of a lifeforce as breathing. Watch the video for their single “Fly So Free” (at the end of this post), and you’ll see what we are talking about.
Catch them tomorrow at 3rd and Lindsley, and check out their Nashville Five below…
By Luella and the Sun
1. Cheap living expenses: Relative to any other major city- especially ones with good music scenes- Nashville is still dirt cheap.
2. Hot Chicken: We love Pepperfire – it’s close by, the food is amazing and Isaac and his employees are super nice! And of course no conversation about hot chicken can go without mentioning the almighty Prince’s. It’s an industry standard. Endorsed by Jerry Seinfeld!
3. Billy Cox: It’s still hard to get over the fact that the one time Jimi Hendrix friend and Band of Gypsy’s bass player lives right here amongst us mortals! Machine Gun baby!
4. Grimey’s/Howlin Books: What a great resource and cultural center these guys have going. They are passionate about what they do and it’s quite obvious and that passion is contagious amongst the entire Nashville community.
5. The unbelievable concentration of amazing musicians and art-minded folks in a relatively small area. The zeitgeist here right now is fertile and wide open and encourages all to follow their muse to the fullest. As Jimi said (possibly while dragging his Twin Reverb down Charlotte in a little red wagon) “Wave your freak flag high!”
Lockeland Springsteen 