"It’s so easy to notice what makes us different. And that spirit of
division is a real thing that we’ve all been so surrounded by this past
little while. I do think that music and that collective spirit of coming
together at a show is so very important for human beings to experience.
And I wanted to capture all of that to put in this song." Shattered mirrors, blotched walls, clipped cables of electrical wires hanging from the ceiling and torn off soda guns. That's what the new owners had to discover at the beginning of January 2023, when they were taking over legendary Nashville music club Exit/In. Unexpected wanton vandalism!
Even though not everyone seemed to be happy with the new ownership by private developing company AJ Capital Partners from Nashville, whose current real estate portfolio values at roughly 5 billion dollars. Metro council member Jeff Syracuse voiced his concerns early on, by fearing that the site might give rise to a swanky hotel or unaffordable multi-family development, turning the 1971-opened Exit/In into a tourist-focused, corporatized venue.
And indeed a swift announcement was made in mid-January for the first concerts to be staged at the Exit/In starting April of 2023. Among them a show by new country discovery Megan Moroney on April 19. After all the club has always been well liked by new artists as well as those wanting a live opportunity to introduce new album projects.
That's why Canadian artist Tenille Towns did just that, when she premiered her current EP "Masquerade" at the Exit/In last June. An appearance for her that also held the emotional significance of bringing back live shows after the pandemic. Well known for her talent as a songwriter to wrap her music in exceptional stories, the young artist took the opportunitiy to not only introduce her audience to the songs off the new EP, but also to lead her fans through the music repertoire of her career so far, and then some.
Among the materials played were such exceptional songs as 'Jersey On The Wall' and 'Somebody's Daughter'. As well as autobiographical tunes such as 'Villain In Me' or 'Girl Who Didn't Care'. Not everyone will care for the unconventional phrasing of her singing, but the result of it sounds honest and spills authentic emotions. Something which makes Tenille Towns one of those artists, whose music loses its authentic edges, when being smoothed over by too much of a studio production (such as on "Masquerade"). Lost edges and charisma that she radiates on stage all the more.
Like on the song 'The Sound of Being Alone',which she wrote together with Dan Wilson and Maggie Chapman. Only there on stage (with a simple bass guitar) the track is capable of conveying its haunting lyrics about a breakup. And leaving the missing sound of a call not coming, hanging in midair:
Is it the rain on the window falling?
Is it the washing machine that keeps on startling me?
Is it the sound of you not calling?
And 'Same Road Home', a song written by Brock Berryhill, Tenille Towns and songwriting icon Lori McKenna, does not unfold its magic in earnest until performed on a stage in front of an audience which lets go, safely taken care of by the band on stage.
The ones that that nobody knows.
Ain't we all just dying to feel like,
we're not made to be all alone?
There's a million different ways to go,
but we're all on the same road home.
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