“Eastside” was recorded a few months ago at Columbia Studio A in Nashville. That’s where Bob Dylan made Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline. It’s been closed to the public for decades, but we were given permission to record my new album there. As a lifelong Bob fan, it was an absolutely beautiful experience.
The album is called The Trust Of Crows and it’ll be released in September. You can help me by clicking this link and listening to Eastside on Spotify. Be sure to save it to your library and add it to playlists.
For those of you who dig backstories about songs:
Amy and I moved into our house in East Nashville almost 20 years ago. The day after we moved in, Chuck Mead called and told me about a neighborhood party that we needed to attend. When we showed up, there was a band playing on the front porch of a house. In the front yard, there were about 30 people sitting in lawn chairs facing the porch.
The band was lead by Cowboy Jack Clement. He’d sing a song and then tell a story about recording Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records and recording John Prine at his studio in Nashville. He was hilarious and had endless stories like that between songs.
Then he introduced the great WS Holland on the drums. They’d play a song and then WS told a story about playing on Blue Suede shoes with Carl Perkins. He talked about playing with Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. I couldn’t believe I was witnessing all of this this on a front porch in East Nashville.
There were a few people backing them up, like Chuck Mead, Tim Carroll, Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and maybe a couple other folks.
When they stopped playing, Peter Cooper walked up and started chatting with me. He knew who I was and I knew who he was. He was a journalist for The Tennessean, a songwriter, a music historian and he was also one of Todd Snider’s buddies.
Todd is the patron saint of East Nashville weirdos. At that time, Todd was pretty much the Pied Piper of folk, leading us all to The Land Of Misfit Folk Singers, otherwise known as East Nashville.
When they were done playing, Peter asked me if I’d like to get up on the porch and play a few songs for the people in lawn chairs. I joked with him that following Cowboy Jack on that proch seemed like a really bad career decision. He got the joke and said something along the lines of, “Otis, we’re in East Nashville now. We didn’t get here by making career decisions.”
Well played, Peter.
Later that night, Amy and I were laying in bed talking about the party. Our heads were swimming. It’s scary to move away to somewhere else, but that party was a beautiful affirmation that we’d made the right decision.
We kept saying things like, “This is our new life, now.” Amazingly, that was just the start.
This isn’t necessarily what the song is “about,” this is just what was going through my head as I wrote the song.
Eastside was produced by Otis Gibbs and Thomm Jutz. Thomm went above and beyond and did some heavy lifting to make this record happen. He’s been a wonderful friend over the years and I owe him dear
The band is:
Thomm Jutz -guitar
Dave Jacques -bass
Lynn Williams -drums
Engineered by Sam Jenkins
Mastered by Alex at True East Mastering.
Video is filmed by Todd Fox and Otis Gibbs.
Thank ya kindly to my buddies, Todd Snider, Chuck Mead, Jon Byrd, Butch Primm and Kevin Gordon for being in the video.
This is a completely grass roots/DIY effort and I need your help to spread the word.
Thanks for giving a damn,
-Otis