Reagan Mitchell on Music, Community, and the Power of Asking Why

Big NC Show 9/28 + A new song demo

WINSTON-SALEM! THEY ARE PREDICTING SUNSHINE FOR TOMORROW! Join me for a special show under the stars TOMORROW 9/28 at my friends’ farm in East Bend! I’ll have the whole band with me! Bring a blank or lawn chair and BYOB! HEADS UP - our onsite chef had a family emergency so please bring a picnic!! Tickets are $20 adv/$25 at the door!

Episode 2 of Jess Klein’s Big Table is Out Now!

Today’s conversation is with my friend Reagan Mitchell, a musician, educator and activist with deep roots in Nashville. I love this clip where they explain an important and often neglected piece of how Nashville became known as Music City.

In addition to currently being an Associate Professor in the Division of Liberal Arts at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Reagan has freelanced as a saxophonist, composer, and arranger in the Nashville, New Orleans, Winston-Salem, Charlotte and other areas. Some of the musical luminaries he/they have performed with are Charlie Hunter, Bobby Previte, Jnerio Jarel, Randy Brecker, Ernestine Anderson; the list goes on and on.  

Reagan has laid the foundation for a program of research on the cultural and historical influences of race, space, gentrification, auditory architecture, and communal wisdom on education. Their scholarship brings together curriculum theory, ethnic studies, Black diaspora studies, critical race theory, Queer theory, critical geography, and critical sound studies.

When I tell you this was an educational and wide-ranging conversation you better believe it. Reagan embodies a deep well of connective wisdom to learn from.

Listen/Watch the Whole Episode!

Upcoming Shows:

9/28 Catoe Farm, East Bend, NC - FULL BAND SHOW

10/16 White Horse Black Mountain, Black Mountain, NC - Dark City Songwriter Series w/Beth Lee

11/9 Stone Soup Coffeehouse, Providence, RI

11/10 House of Play, Boston, MA w/Jenny Reynolds - 5 pm. Tickets $30. Please email for info/reservations

Today at the park I had something I like to call a “cry and write”. I start off journalling, then do a guided meditation and if that hits on something that wants to come out, the tears start flowing. Then once I’ve calmed down enough to put it into words, I start pouring the feelings and insights into a song. Then, if I’m really doing it right, I’ll probably cry some more, and honestly I try to ride out these waves for as long as possible in the creative space because I know that’s where the good stuff is.

It’s a very physical experience, writing, for me anyway. If I hit a motherlode of emotion, I emerge with a face raw from tears and a slight exhaustion. For this reason I sometimes try to avoid it since it’s not always practical to be raw and exhausted, say when you have to do pretty much anything else.

It’s purifying though. It usually means there’s one less lie i’m carrying around. One less burden.

I’ve been working lately with anger. Owning it inside of myself. Everyone thinks I’m so nice. They ought to see me when I’m angry. “You wouldn’t like me when i’m angry”. The Incredible Hulk, but small and pink vs. huge and green.

Most of us are taught culturally to repress our anger, which incidentally is probably why we are seeing so much anger and violence globally. So few people it seems are taught that anger has a purpose, and a message that deserves to be investigated. We deserve to have practices to soothe ourselves so we can understand our own anger, and have a true sense of what we need to change inside of ourselves and in our life choices, so that the anger isn’t running the show, but is a fire under our asses to get us moving towards what really does work. I haven’t read Prentis Hemphill’s new book, What it Takes to Heal, but it’s next on my reading list and maybe you’d like to add it to yours.

Below, if you’re a paid subscriber you’ll find a lyric and a *very* rough demo (morning voice and all) of a new song I’m working on. It’s about channeling bitterness and defeat into inspired determination I guess. Full disclosure, it’s not the one I was working on in the park this morning because on closer inspection that needs a clearer storyline. (I want to share my process with you, but I still have some pride here.)