Sunday Night Soul

Neighbors - Sunday Night Soul

[00:00:00] Cariad Harmon: Hey neighbors. We are here with a quick note before this week's show, I started making this story pre pandemic. So you are going to hear a lot of people and crowds and all kinds of things that we really miss, including live music.

Jakob Lewis: [00:00:15] So basically we just want you to know we're not gallivanting around the city.

Um, we are staying at home, keeping safe. But it's got us feeling that, that good, good feeling of nostalgia and, uh, missing things. And we hope that you [00:00:30] enjoy this little time capsule from not so long ago.

Cariad Harmon: [00:00:33] Okay, here we go.

Welcome to the 24-hour-party that is downtown Nashville, Tennessee, the unrivaled home of country music. Tourists flock here by the millions every year to visit the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman. And Broadway is packed from dusk till [00:01:00] dawn with out-of-towners in Daisy Dukes, and 2 for 1 cowboy boots.

Both in the bars and on the stages, underneath the sunburn and behind the steel guitars, everyone here pretty much looks the same. Like a lot of the mainstream music scene in Nashville, it's homogenous and, well, overwhelmingly white. But on the second and fourth Sunday of every month, if you were to leave the honkytonks and bars on Broadway, [00:01:30] take a left on 1st Avenue and head over the Woodland Street bridge, you'd find a whole other scene going on.

Jakob Lewis: [00:01:41] I'm Jakob Lewis.

Cariad Harmon: [00:01:42] And I'm Cariad Harmon.

Jakob Lewis: [00:01:43] And you are listening to Neighbors.

Cariad Harmon: [00:01:45] A show about what connects us.

Jakob Lewis: [00:01:48] Today's story: Sunday Night Soul.

Jason Eskridge: [00:01:51] I wanna spread the news...gonna spread the news.

Cariad Harmon: [00:01:58] That is Jason Eskridge, the [00:02:00] founder of Sunday Night Soul at The 5 Spot and the unofficial mayor of East Nashville.

Sunday Night Soul Attendee: [00:02:07] Jason knows so many people. So many people. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:02:16] Sunday Night Soul got started six years ago. In fact, they just celebrated their anniversary. Tonight, the room is packed. It's hot. It's sweaty. Drinks are flowing.

The dance floor is full. In a town built on [00:02:30] country, this is the only place you can reliably see live soul music, but that's not the only thing about this room that's special. There are young black men dancing next to white women in their sixties, openly gay musicians on stage and plenty of straight couples in the audience enjoying date night. In Nashville, you just don't often see so many different kinds of people in the same social space, but it's clear that everyone in this room has come here for one thing.

The music.

[00:03:00] Sunday Night Soul Attendee #2: [00:03:02] You never know, like, what musical genius is going to walk through the door, or even where the band is going to go in certain moments.

Sunday Night Soul Attendee #3: [00:03:12] It's soupy, it's warm. It's what you need on a cold day when there's snow outside. It's like he gonna melt that shit. You know what I'm saying?

Announcer: [00:03:19] Let's show some love for Jason Eskridge.

Cariad Harmon: [00:03:25] Jason grew up not far from Nashville in a tiny East Tennessee town called [00:03:30] Rockwood. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:03:30] The only reason you would stop there is if you were stopping to get gas, or there's a pretty good exit if you're into fast food.

Cariad Harmon: [00:03:41] His mom worked full time. And since his dad wasn't around, Jason spent a lot of time with his grandfather.

J.C. Eskridge was a gospel singer with his own group called the Five Star Jubilee Singers. They even had a show on local radio. They'd make church announcements, play gospel music, and take prayer requests. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:03:59] I [00:04:00] don't have any recordings of the radio show, but maybe two or three years ago, someone posted videos of, of them singing at a church and it was amazing.

Cariad Harmon: [00:04:15] J.C. Passed away in 1997 and by the time this video was taken, he wasn't well enough to sing regularly with the group. But about halfway through this [00:04:30] recording, he stands up from his seat in the front row, claps his hands in time with the music, and sings in harmony with the band.

Jason Eskridge: [00:04:42] My grandfather was one of those, one of those men who worked really hard during the week, but then Sunday came and, and, he went from having on like these coveralls to like these beautifully pristine suits and these shoes with the, with the tie and the matching, [00:05:00] you know, pocket square and tie tack. I mean, he was, he was just such a classy, you know, intelligent figure that from every walk of life people respected him.

Cariad Harmon: [00:05:12] It was in country churches, just like this one, surrounded by friends, family, and the Five Star Jubilee Singers that J.C. taught Jason how to sing. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:05:22] My signature song was a song called Roll Jordan, uh, and my grandfather would...he'd get it started and then he'd give it, [00:05:30] give me the microphone, and I'd take it on home.

Cariad Harmon: [00:05:43] Since then, Jason's built an entire career on the voice his grandfather gave him. He's toured and recorded with artists like Johnny Lang, Lyle Lovett, Randy Travis, and Keb Mo. He even sang on a Kenny Rogers album. A few years ago, he landed a gig with a [00:06:00] personal hero. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:06:01] Standing 20 feet from the legendary Taj Mahal, like, um, yeah, it was, it was just absolutely amazing.

Cariad Harmon: [00:06:09] Singing has taken Jason all over the world, but a few years ago, back in Nashville, the city he calls home, he knew there was something missing. Hundreds of clubs from small listening rooms to downtown theaters, booked music every night of the week. Broadway was literally ringing with the sound of steel guitars and [00:06:30] banjos. But the soul music he'd grown up on, the music that had carried him from a tiny little town in East Tennessee all the way to Carnegie Hall, was hard to find in Music City. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:06:41] There was absolutely soul music here in this town. There were absolutely fans of soul music who would love to connect with those artists, um, but there wasn't always a clear path between the two. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:06:58] In fact, there is such a [00:07:00] rich tradition of soul and gospel music right here in Nashville that the town is literally named after it.

That's right. The "music" in Music City is not country at all. It's gospel.

Remember Jason's childhood signature song Roll Jordan Roll? Well, here is an early version performed by Nashville's Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1909.

[00:07:30] 38 years before this recording in 1871. Original members of the Jubilee Singers set out from Nashville on a tour of the U.S. And Europe. They were on a fundraising mission for Fisk University. Enrollment had boomed in the five years since first black college in Tennessee had opened and the school needed desperately to expand.

The singers has [00:08:00] faced incredible hardship and horrendous Reconstruction-era racism. Despite these terrible odds, they became an international sensation, popularizing the entire genre of African American spirituals. They raised enough money to build Nashville's Jubilee Hall and save their school in the process.

By the time they returned, they played for U.S. Congress, the president of the United States and Queen Victoria herself. 

[00:08:30] Jason Eskridge: [00:08:29] When she heard the Fisk Jubilee Singers sing, she said to them, "your music is so beautiful. Where you're from must be called Music City." And, uh, as a, as a black artist in Nashville, you know, I, I never allow that sentiment to be too far from my thinking in that I don't have to leave Nashville to be an artist of color, um, because I understand why it's even called Music City.

[00:09:00] Cariad Harmon: [00:09:02] Jason was determined to keep that musical spirit alive. He wanted to build a soul music scene right here in the country music capital. Venues in Nashville are notoriously reluctant to book artists of color. I've heard from a lot of musicians who meet resistance from agents all over town. When I asked Jason about this, he told me that he had run into issues in the past, but instead of focusing on those venues, he'd rather lean into the positive.

And Jason is [00:09:30] one of the most positive people I've ever met. He said he looks for opportunities, spaces where his values are reflected and that's where he'd rather spend his energy. At The 5 Spot, Jason was welcomed with open arms. He was given a regular night where he could book whoever he wanted and he wanted everyone.

Jason Eskridge: [00:09:49] We said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do live soul music on Sunday night. We're going to make sure that we reach out to all the artists here in town that are, that are doing soul [00:10:00] music. And if they want to be a part of it, you know, the more the merrier. 2014 was the first one. Um, we, uh, we broke ground and, uh, we haven't looked back.

Announcer: [00:10:12] So Nashville, how y'all feeling?

Look around this room. Y'all look around this room. Ain't this beautiful? I don't know that there are very many rooms that, um, in this town, where on purpose there's black people and white people and Democrats and Republicans and [00:10:30] straights and gays, and any people group that could be represented...

Jason Eskridge: [00:10:33] I'm a huge proponent of the idea that we're all better together than we are separate.

And so when, when thinking about what I wanted Sunday Night Soul to be one of the, you know, one of the things on the vision board was "diverse". 

Cariad Harmon: [00:10:49] Jason says creating a truly diverse space in a town like Nashville isn't something that just happens by accident. 

Jason Eskridge: [00:10:57] We've been and will continue to be very [00:11:00] strategic in how we partner different acts.

If I know certain act has a huge following in the black community, well then let's partner them with someone who has, a, a huge following in the white community. So all those people end up in a room together. Um, and get to see that we're not as different as the world would have us believe.

[00:11:30] Cariad Harmon: [00:11:30] I started making this story six months ago, back in January, which honestly feels like six years ago now. When I interviewed Jason, Breonna Taylor was working as an EMT. Ahmaud Arbery was running just about every day in the neighborhood near his mother's house. And George Floyd was providing for his kids and looking forward to the future.

We had not yet heard the stories of their deaths or watched the videos on repeat. The entire [00:12:00] world had not yet erupted in protest. Listening to this story now, I can see how an event like Sunday Night Soul might seem like a small thing. When we think about the scale of racial injustice in our country, what good is a room full of people, eating tacos and dancing to Stevie Wonder?

But these kinds of diverse spaces, rooms where people from across the spectrum of race, religion, and politics are even in each other's [00:12:30] orbit, they are few and far between in the heart of Music City. 

Sunday Night Soul Attendee #4: [00:12:38] There's a lot of places in Nashville, of course, to see amazing music or playing this music at, but there're not a lot of places where I genuinely feel like anybody's welcome.

Sunday Night Soul Attendee #5: [00:12:52] Sunday Night Soul is incredible because it gives, a, a platform to what has been an [00:13:00] underserved segment of the Nashville community. That gives us a chance to share our culture, our history, our background, um, and, and also our music.

Sunday Night Soul Attendee #6: [00:13:12] There's different musicians and different singers that come through. You might get some Latino guys come through one night.

You might get some, some, some Europeans. Whatever man. But like, if you don't come see it, you're gonna miss it. Come get blessed, man. I mean, I guarantee you you'll feel lighter when you leave.

[00:13:30] Jason Eskridge: [00:13:30] I often show up to different things, whether it be like a tribute show, or, or something like that, and everybody looks the same and I'm just like, man, like we would so much better serve society, and serve each other, and serve the artists, and serve the audience if we just paused and said, "okay, here's the way that I could do [00:14:00] this thing and it would be easy and comfortable for me. What am I missing?"

Cariad Harmon: [00:14:08] I spoke with Jason again last week about why spaces like Sunday Night Soul are important. He told me that right now, our communities are so divided that we're almost like boxers standing in opposite corners of the ring. There's no communication between us, no search for common ground.

But at the beginning of a real boxing [00:14:30] match before the bell is rung, and the first round starts, the referee brings both fighters to the middle of the ring. That's where they look one another in the eye and talk about what's expected. His hope is that Sunday Night Soul can be the middle of the ring for us, a place where we lay down some basic ground rules and agree on our shared humanity.

If we can do that for a few hours on a Sunday night, then maybe we can take a little bit of that with [00:15:00] us when we leave. It's not a solution by any means, but for Jason, it's a place to start.

Jason Eskridge: [00:15:09] On the spectrum of glass half full, glass half empty,  I'm just always a glass-half-full person. Um, um, I'm going to try my best to believe the best about people, um, about my own circumstances and about what our culture will be.

I [00:15:30] certainly believe that things are going to be better, but I also, I don't believe I can just sit and wait for them to get better. There's work to be done.

Jakob Lewis: [00:15:52] All right. We will check in with our neighbors after the break, but first, a few things we want to draw your attention to. We will be right [00:16:00] back.

 Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Neighbors. A show about what connects us. So, Cariad, here's something interesting. We put out a call to our newsletter list, which you can sign up for www.neighborspodcast.com. And I said it that way because you actually have to type the "www" or else it [00:16:30] won't work. I, like, switched some things around on the site and created this domain name issue, and now I can't fix it for 60 days.

I'm literally locked out by, uh, ICANN. I-C-A-N-N, the international domain police, apparently.

Cariad Harmon: [00:16:44] Oh boy.

Jakob Lewis: [00:16:44] Anyway, um, there, as, you know, you can sign up for our newsletter and on that newsletter, we put out a call asking for... 

Cariad Harmon: [00:16:51] Yeah! I'm asking for people to tell us about an interaction they've had with someone recently that made them feel hopeful.

Jakob Lewis: [00:16:58] And the thing is, uh, the [00:17:00] response was overwhelming.

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:01] Yeah?

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:02] Overwhelming in the sense that people aren't feeling any hope right now. We literally had three people call in.

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:08] Oh no.

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:09] Yeah, I know.

But we got a lot of email replies saying they would contribute if only they could actually think of something hopeful. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:17] Yeah. Why do you think that is?

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:20] I don't know. I mean, the world, obviously the world has felt like it's on fire. Uh, and I think also people are registering like interactions, [00:17:30] neighborly interactions differently.

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:31] Mmm hmm.

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:31] Um, COVID is keeping us apart, which means we're interacting online mostly and you know, online can suck sometimes. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:37] Yeah. Yeah, it really can. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:39] So just one more thing to pin on this pandemic, I guess.

Um, what about you? Do you have an interaction recently? That's made you hopeful?

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:46] Yeah, I do. Um, making this week's story has made me hopeful.

Jakob Lewis: [00:17:51] Ah!

Cariad Harmon: [00:17:51] Um, you know, I think there are so many reasons to feel powerless right now, obviously there's COVID [00:18:00] and then there are these massive societal changes that a lot of us are trying to take on.

And that means calling senators and signing petitions and donating. And a lot of that can feel very distant and far away.

Jakob Lewis: [00:18:13] Yeah.

Cariad Harmon: [00:18:13] And while we have to keep doing those things, there are also changes we can make on a much more local level. And, I've just been inspired to look at those and look at the ways that I can be a positive force in my own community.

I just want to be more like [00:18:30] Jason basically. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:18:30] Me too.

Cariad Harmon: [00:18:32] I'll never be able to sing like him, unfortunately. Um, but, uh, I think he's, uh, he's, he's a pretty good role model. So how about you? How are you feeling in the, uh, "hopeful" department?

Jakob Lewis: [00:18:44] So, yeah, mine, mine's kind of, I mean it's personal. Um, I recently had a cousin who is white post online about her newfound understanding of the phrase "Black Lives Matter".

Cariad Harmon: [00:18:55] Mmm!

Jakob Lewis: [00:18:55] This cousin lives in the South and has honestly, like, [00:19:00] legitimately had a quite difficult life growing up in poverty, experiencing abuse. Um, they were definitely, staunchly, in the "All Lives Matter" crowd. And recently they posted a change of heart. Realizing that privilege does exist. White privilege does exist.

And the phrase that got me, uh, was they confessed that white privilege doesn't mean that their life isn't hard, like just that the color of their skin isn't one of the reasons that it's hard.

Cariad Harmon: [00:19:25] Right.

Jakob Lewis: [00:19:26] So, it made me hopeful. That people who honestly, I, [00:19:30] uh, can own that I have a prejudice against, which is white people in Trump country. That A: my prejudice is wrong. And that B: I'm really glad it is.

And that people are people and we can change. We can grow. And that gives me hope. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:19:45] Yeah. Yeah. People can change. Right. People can change. It's important to remember that, I think.

Jakob Lewis: [00:19:51] Yeah, and I think it's important for us to do that together. To keep these conversations going. And, and, um, [00:20:00] be hopeful.

Cariad Harmon: [00:20:00] Mmm hmm.

Jakob Lewis: [00:20:01] Okay, now  let's here our three neighbors that called in.

The first one is actually an old intern of Neighbors from before your time, Cariad. From the CUNY School of Journalism in New York. Her name is Paula and I have this really fond memory of driving her home from work one day and we both were screaming all the lines to Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of our lungs together. Really fond memory.

I'm so glad Paula called in. Here is Paula calling from New York City.

Paula Moura: [00:20:27] Hi Jakob and Cariad, [00:20:30] this is Paula. Uh, it's been almost four months of quarantine in New York and it was especially tough last week. I could only see a bleak future. Recently. I've been quarantining with my friend, Virginia. Uh it's, it's the first time we are neighbors. We share workspace, we jog and we go to the supermarket together. I usually buy roses, bring a little color to my home.

And last time we went to the market [00:21:00] she bought for herself like orange, yellow, and white  roses. 

I had no energy to buy any of it. But I'm glad I didn't. My friend Virginia gave me those flowers she bought and it completely changed the way I was seeing the world. Those flowers gradually filled my spirit and I turned grateful for friendship and everything I have in life right now.

Well, that's my experience. Thank you very much. [00:21:30] Big hug from New York. Bye bye. 

Heather Price: [00:21:33] It's July 3rd, 10 in the morning. And I just left Aldi. This was my first time back at the grocery in a week. And I was really tense because the last time I was at Aldi and Kroger, in my small town of Springfield, Tennessee, almost no one was wearing masks or honoring the six feet spacing. And it stressed me out so much [00:22:00] and I really was losing faith in humanity.

So fast forward to today and probably at least 80% of the people in Aldi were wearing masks and I felt much more safe and more calm. And as I was leaving, I handed my cart to an older woman coming in. She's probably great-grandmother age. And she was wearing a red, white, and blue top.

She was using a [00:22:30] scarf that had a flag print on it, wrapped around her face as a mask and tied in a cute bow, and had stars and stripes, earrings. And it just gave me pause for a moment to...recognize the humanity in her. Both of us looking at each other wearing masks, trading the cart, like the neighborly thing you do. And also that, [00:23:00] that patriotic, um, attire she had on was, it was just, it was all just really encouraging. Um, that we can love America. We can love our neighbors. We can take care of each other.

Um, so I'm feeling a little more hopeful today. 

This is Heather Price in Springfield. Thanks y'all.

Nikki Black: [00:23:28] Hey neighbors. This [00:23:30] is Nikki. One of the things that's giving me some hope these days is, um, finding common ground through deliberate or thoughtful discourse. Um, for example, my dad and I...I would generally say we don't have much in common or that we have different values or see the world in different ways.

Um, but we had a conversation recently about something that's [a] fairly charged issue. [00:24:00] Um, and I was certain that it would be something that we were on opposite sides of, um, and, and in a way we are. But we had a conversation about, um, what those things actually are and mean to us. And once we were able to kind of get past the rhetoric of our own individual sides, we were able to find that we had a lot of common ground and actually agreed in a lot of ways that I didn't expect.

[00:24:30] And, um, I know that probably isn't, um, rocket science or new ground for a lot of people, but for my dad and I that was pretty enlightening and encouraging. Um, and I've had similar conversations with two other people in my life that I love very much, but think differently than I do. And once we're able to get past, like, um, maybe the far edges of both of our sides or the opinions [00:25:00] of both of our sides.

We're able to find that we're, there's a lot that we share and a lot of values that we in fact have in common, even if the way that those manifest looks a little differently. And I think especially, um, in a time where a lot of people feel really isolated from each other, and there's a lot of really important and difficult conversations being had,  being able to find the common ground has been, has been hopeful.

Yeah. [00:25:30] Bye Neighbors. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:25:32] That was our neighbors, Paula, Heather and Nikki. Thank you so much for recording a voice memo and sharing your lives with us. And if you want to share your life for the next episode, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to neighborspodcast@gmail.com. And, uh, tell us about a surprising connection that you've made recently, whether that's with a person or, you know, you've, [00:26:00] a TV show, a long lost passion of yours, whatever it is. Um, go ahead and send us a voicemail at neighborspodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear what you have to say.

Cariad Harmon: [00:26:13] Mmm hmm.

Jakob Lewis: [00:26:13] Cariad had we have a new patron this week, Clark Hill. Um, if you're listening Clark, thank you. Thanks for your support. Uh, and for those listening, you can join our community of thoughtful, kind and intelligent listeners like Clark Hill, by going to [00:26:30] www.neighborspodcast.com.

Remember, "www", and click "Become a Member". 

Cariad Harmon: [00:26:36] We can't tell you how much we appreciate your support. So thank you so much as always. Our Sonic logo is from Dallas Taylor at Defacto Sound. Check out his podcast: Twenty Thousand Hertz.

Jakob Lewis: [00:26:58] Neighbors is hosted and produced by [00:27:00] me.

Cariad Harmon: [00:27:00] And me.

Special, thanks to our editor and story consultant on this episode, Andrea Williams. We could not have done this without you. And also a huge thanks to Mahini Magaugher for her editorial help as well. It really does take a village. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:27:16] Indeed. Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

A special thanks to The 5 Spot. Everybody at Sunday Night Soul.

And of course, Jason Eskridge. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:27:24] And it is Jason's music playing behind us now.

If you would like to hear [00:27:30] more of Jason's music, which of course you do. You can find him at jasoneskridge.com. That's E-S-K-R-I-D-G-E. If you want to be a part of the Sunday Night Soul family, they are live streaming music on the second and fourth Sunday of every month, starting Sunday, July 26, which is also Jason's birthday.

Jakob Lewis: [00:27:53] Aww! Happy birthday, Jason. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:27:55] Just go to [00:28:00] facebook.com/sns5spot. That is the number 5, not the word. You can find all the details there.

Jakob Lewis: [00:28:05] Uh, anything else? 

Cariad Harmon: [00:28:06] No, I think that should do it. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:28:08] All right. I am Jakob Lewis. 

Cariad Harmon: [00:28:09] And I'm Cariad Harmon. 

Jakob Lewis: [00:28:10] And we're reminding you to get to know your neighbors.

Cariad Harmon: [00:28:13] And Jacob, and have to say "neigh-Buzz" from now on. That's the rule.

Jakob Lewis: [00:28:18] Oh, ok. Got it. Get, get, not neighbors. Get to know your "neighbuzz", everyone. Pip Pip. Cheerio. Until next time.

[00:28:30] Announcer: [00:28:48] Neighbors is a production of Great Feeling Studios.