Shelby Bottom Duo (Nell Levin & Michael August) formed the “formidable” (Nashville Scene) Shelby Bottom String Band in 2008. Shelby Bottom Duo continues the band’s tradition of entertaining, irreverent social commentary, humanity and humor. Their repertoire includes originals like “East Nashville Rag”, the title cut of the band’s CD, “Displacement Blues”, named by the Tennessean as “Nashville’s newest social justice anthem” and “Fat and Bald”, an audience favorite about life’s unintended consequences. They also delight listeners with some obscure, quirky songs that deserve a wider audience.
The Duo just completed two Joe Hill 100 Road Show appearances -- one in Nashville and the other in Knoxville. It was great to play for our comrades who carry on the Joe Hill tradition of radical organizing on behalf of equity and justice.
We also played a wonderful house concert in October in Berkeley CA. Great playing for this audience. They totally "get" us. They understand and connect with who we are and what we are saying with our music. We are looking forward to a brilliant 2016 with a lot more shows like these!
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Time for hot weather and hot chicken in East Nashville with the annual Hot Chicken Festival this Saturday July 4th. Shelby Bottom String Band will play its usual opening set starting at 10:30 am, interrupted by former Mayor Bill Purcell's arrival on his old fire engine. Mayor Bill, a hot chicken gourmand, started the Fest to raise money for Friends of Shelby Park. What started out as a modest happening has morphed into a crowd of 5,000 plus people, rain or shine. Come early, hear our band, drop a tip in our jar, beat the heat and get free hot chicken if you are one of the first 500 attendees! It's a great way to start out your 4th of July celebration.
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Whew! Shelby Bottom String Band has a busy month coming up in October. We have gigs at Southern Festival of Books (Oct 12), East Nashville Farmer's Market (Oct. 15), Puckett's in Nashville (Oct. 16), Douglas Corner (Oct. 18), The Post in East Nashville (Oct. 19) and Puckett's Franklin (Oct. 30). We especially recommend our gig at Douglas Corner, early show at 6 pm on October 18. The best club we play! Great analog sound, big stage, wonderful vibe. Would love to see you there (or at any of our other gigs...)
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Shelby Bottom String Band playing with East TN story tellers Herman & Patsy Hatfield Lawson at Top O' Woodland at 16th St. & Woodland Av. in East Nashville at 7:00pm. Potluck event, no cover. Add this to your Americana week schedule.
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SBSB played a benefit on April 13 for the Swan Trust at The Farm, the longest running intentional community in the nation. After a six mile hike crossing stream after stream on the Swan Trust land, we were pretty pooped but we rallied when we hit the stage and saw all those beaming faces. This was a heavenly gig for SBSB. These folks are our folks. We played for an hour and a half to a rapt audience, got a standing ovation, came back, played three encores and sold 6 CDs. It doesn't get any better than this. To quote Doug Stevenson who runs the Swan Trust: "You all have such a good vibe. Positive. Funny. Even your serious stuff has a positive message. We are very much in sync."
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Played a benefit Saturday night for Frack Free Tennessee. Great crowd. They loved our stuff, hanging on every word. They even got up and danced to East Nashville Rag! That don't happen too often but, I gotta say, those tree huggers sure know how to get down... Looks like fracking is coming to Tennessee big time. Big Oil is bribing the University of Tennessee to allow fracking on its land to do "research." Oh well. While the environment goes to hell, it's a damn good thing that we can still get together, play some music and have some fun!
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SBSB has had two fantastic gigs in the last week: Blue Monday at Kimbro's in Franklin, for the Williamson County Democrats and Two Old Hippies. We measure success in terms of 1) how intensely the audience listens to us and digs us and 2) what we sound like on stage (and hopefully in the audience). Both were wonderful! More to come we hope, especially now that our CD is just about done!
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Shelby Bottom Duo / Blog
Shelby Bottom Duo - in it for the Long Haul
Shelby Bottom Duo (Nell Levin & Michael August) formed the “formidable” (Nashville Scene) Shelby Bottom String Band in 2008. Shelby Bottom Duo continues the band’s tradition of entertaining, irreverent social commentary, humanity and humor. Their repertoire includes originals like “East Nashville Rag”, the title cut of the band’s CD, “Displacement Blues”, named by the Tennessean as “Nashville’s newest social justice anthem” and “Fat and Bald”, an audience favorite about life’s unintended consequences. They also delight listeners with some obscure, quirky songs that deserve a wider audience. The Duo just completed two Joe Hill 100 Road Show appearances -- one in Nashville and the other in Knoxville. It was great to play for our comrades who carry on the Joe Hill tradition of radical organizing on behalf of equity and justice. We also played a wonderful house concert in October in Berkeley CA. Great playing for this audience. They totally "get" us. They understand and connect with who we are and what we are saying with our music. We are looking forward to a brilliant 2016 with a lot more shows like these!
Reply
Hot Chicken Fest Time Again
Time for hot weather and hot chicken in East Nashville with the annual Hot Chicken Festival this Saturday July 4th. Shelby Bottom String Band will play its usual opening set starting at 10:30 am, interrupted by former Mayor Bill Purcell's arrival on his old fire engine. Mayor Bill, a hot chicken gourmand, started the Fest to raise money for Friends of Shelby Park. What started out as a modest happening has morphed into a crowd of 5,000 plus people, rain or shine. Come early, hear our band, drop a tip in our jar, beat the heat and get free hot chicken if you are one of the first 500 attendees! It's a great way to start out your 4th of July celebration.
Reply
Shifting Into High Gear
Whew! Shelby Bottom String Band has a busy month coming up in October. We have gigs at Southern Festival of Books (Oct 12), East Nashville Farmer's Market (Oct. 15), Puckett's in Nashville (Oct. 16), Douglas Corner (Oct. 18), The Post in East Nashville (Oct. 19) and Puckett's Franklin (Oct. 30). We especially recommend our gig at Douglas Corner, early show at 6 pm on October 18. The best club we play! Great analog sound, big stage, wonderful vibe. Would love to see you there (or at any of our other gigs...)
Reply
Americana Story & Song -- Sept 19, 2014
Shelby Bottom String Band playing with East TN story tellers Herman & Patsy Hatfield Lawson at Top O' Woodland at 16th St. & Woodland Av. in East Nashville at 7:00pm. Potluck event, no cover. Add this to your Americana week schedule.
Reply
Hippie Heaven: Our Gig at The Farm
SBSB played a benefit on April 13 for the Swan Trust at The Farm, the longest running intentional community in the nation. After a six mile hike crossing stream after stream on the Swan Trust land, we were pretty pooped but we rallied when we hit the stage and saw all those beaming faces. This was a heavenly gig for SBSB. These folks are our folks. We played for an hour and a half to a rapt audience, got a standing ovation, came back, played three encores and sold 6 CDs. It doesn't get any better than this. To quote Doug Stevenson who runs the Swan Trust: "You all have such a good vibe. Positive. Funny. Even your serious stuff has a positive message. We are very much in sync."
Reply
Holy Moly, Those Tree Huggers Can Sure Dance!
Played a benefit Saturday night for Frack Free Tennessee. Great crowd. They loved our stuff, hanging on every word. They even got up and danced to East Nashville Rag! That don't happen too often but, I gotta say, those tree huggers sure know how to get down... Looks like fracking is coming to Tennessee big time. Big Oil is bribing the University of Tennessee to allow fracking on its land to do "research." Oh well. While the environment goes to hell, it's a damn good thing that we can still get together, play some music and have some fun!
Reply
High Cotton!
SBSB has had two fantastic gigs in the last week: Blue Monday at Kimbro's in Franklin, for the Williamson County Democrats and Two Old Hippies. We measure success in terms of 1) how intensely the audience listens to us and digs us and 2) what we sound like on stage (and hopefully in the audience). Both were wonderful! More to come we hope, especially now that our CD is just about done!
Reply