Charlie Romans

Foundry Theater and Appalachian Film Festival

Aug 17, 202300:40:17Tap to summarize

Rachael Allinder, the Founder and CEO of Foundry Theater shares a little about the Foundry’s history and how it serves local creators. The nonprofit is located on the top floor of the city building in Huntington, WV, and the weekend of Aug 19 will host the Appalachian Film Festival. Patrons can view the Independent film King Coal and meet creators behind that film. Patrons will also be able to connect with screenwriter and n Ironton, Ohio native Mickey Fisher. Do yourself a favor and check out all the Foundry has to offer! Tickets and schedules for the Appalachian Film Festival can be found here.

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Jewel Art Gallery

May 4, 202200:25:12Tap to summarize

There weren’t many (read any) art galleries where I grew up. The irony to that fact was that I grew up painting, not pastoral scenes or portraits, but automobiles. And though there is a good amount of skill required in rebuilding wrecked cars and trucks and returning them to a “new” condition, I never considered it to be artwork as such. Airbrushing is a different thing entirely, and can be considered art, but that talent was never one that I possessed. Still, art fascinates me because it begins with a blank canvas, a field of pristine whiteness, and somehow the artists breathe passion and soul onto it until it becomes a living thing. I had of course seen pictures of art represented in textbooks or on television, but though often beautiful, I always felt there was something missing. I always wondered about this as I looked at the amazing book covers painted by my old masters Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, and John Jusko to name a few (yes, I was and still am a huge fantasy nerd) and tried to discern what was missing. After quite some time I figured it out, and the solution was frustrating. The problem was that I couldn’t see the brushstrokes, and how they “built” their art. And I had to realize that I probably never would, unfortunately. That’s one of the reasons why it was so wonderful meeting my friends at Jewel Art Gallery in Ashland, Ky. Bri and Elias Reynolds are the owners of the gallery that showcases local artists and are the manager and head artist respectively. I recently was fortunate enough to sit down and speak with Bri Reynolds about everything from art appreciation to different art mediums such as painting and sculpture. She is a wonderful young woman who appreciates art on so many levels and is always ready to answer questions. She let me see the brush strokes, the building blocks of art, from the inside out. Some days you also get really lucky and can talk to the local artists who made those bright swaths of color in person. The walls of the gallery are lined with so many different interpretations and themes. I saw a classic western painting of a cowboy with his horse and dog just feet from an amazing interpretation of African cultural history. “That’s one of the things we wanted to do,” Bri said as I looked around the gallery. “I tried to keep it very diverse so that somebody could come in and be a fan of that specific artist. So, we are creating collectors of people’s works,” she told me. “So, when they come in, they could ask if Gail has any new pieces this week. Or does Jerry have any new pieces,” she said. “For example, we have one artist that only paints endangered wildlife. She used to be a biologist until she got Lyme Disease.” Now the scientist turned artist serves her passion by painting it, which is a story unto itself. Honestly, that’s one I’d love to write. “We have all these different people who create different things,” she said. “And we wanted them to be identifiable for what they are best at, and that way they can create a following within our art gallery.” Different things . . . brushstrokes, sculptures, and wood carvings from dozens of different artists doing all the things that have fascinated me for decades. I don’t know why you might go to an art gallery (honestly, any reason is a good reason), but the opportunity to learn the how and why from people who do things I can’t do seems amazing to me. Am I jealous? No – well, maybe just a little – but I can and do appreciate things I personally don’t do. And at Jewel Art Gallery I can appreciate those things up close and personal, and personally ask the artist not only about the brush strokes, but why they decided to pick up a brush in the first place. That possibility is nothing short of wonderful. It also borders upon the surreal as well. I have used a chainsaw a lot in my life, cleaning hillsides and cutting firewood for instance. But there is an unbelievably detailed lions head at the gallery carved with a chainsaw, specially commissioned by Bri Reynolds for the gallery. “If I am going to value artists, then I am going to put my money where my mouth is,” she said. On a personal note, I feel relatively certain that the artist, Travis Williams, probably has cut firewood in his life, but how did that skill ever turn into amazing sculpture work – I don’t know, but I want to. Sounds like a future podcast episode to me… The list goes on at the Jewel Art Gallery. Walk in and I’m sure that there will be at least one thing you love, and dozens you can appreciate. I know I quit counting because there wasn’t anything there that I wouldn’t have been glad to have taken home. So, check it out, then drop me a line about your favorites. And expect to hear an episode in the near future about more amazing artists you can find there, including Bri’s partner in crime (artistically speaking) Elias Reynolds. Until then, I’ll be looking for the brush strokes, chisel marks, woodchips, etc. Jewel Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can see their online gallery shop and visit their website here. Jewel Art Gallery can be followed here on Facebook

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CRe05: Sky37 Bistro

Apr 22, 202200:29:04Tap to summarize

If you are in downtown Ashland Kentucky at the SkyTower business complex, you can find Jason Crum and his wife Carma at Sky37 Bistro brewing an amazing cup of coffee. “It’s been a long way to get here,” Jason said. “We worked a lot through the pandemic, and since it was difficult to find people to work we did most of this ourselves. But it was kind of a labor of love, and we are glad we’re open. And the reception in Ashland has just been great.” There has been, as in many things, and evolution of ideas, he said. “We started down one path,” Jason said of the initial idea. “At first, we were just going to sell coffee, some pastries, and the normal café type of stuff.” That changed, he said, when everyone got wind that his wide’s cooking was “pretty good”. “So the next thing I knew, we had a menu,” he added to customer smiles from behind him as we talked just before lunch. “And we’ve not had a bad meal go out of here,” he added, again to smiles and nods of his patrons. Crum said that his intent was to have a place where people could slow down and come in for a while, which is why he chose the pour over method of coffee brewing, and they also make the pour over kits for customers to use at home. “The standard pour over kit is sort of the camper’s way of making coffee,” he explained. “If you have access to hot water, all you need is some coffee grounds and a cone filter and you pour the water through it. Ultimately that creates a couple of cups at a time.” “It brings out the flavor, and ours is unique because there are channels in the holder that holds the filter better and extracts flavor from the coffee better,” he said. The coffee itself is also specialty coffee that Crum purchases directly from the farm, and then it is roasted at their facility in Lloyd, Kentucky. “So everything is local and we have very fresh coffee all the time.” Crum said that he has introduced Bourbon coffee, and will also be introducing Cachaca Coffee, or Brazilian Rum flavored. “Anything distilled in Brazil has to be called Cachaca, because they aren’t allowed to call it rum,” he said. “We cast the cones in the kit out of a food grade resin.” Jason said of his choice of coffee “brewer”. “That way if they are knocked off the counter they will just bounce or roll across the floor. They’re very robust, and they will last well,” he said. The wire framework stand that holds the cone in place for brewing is of a heavy hand shaped copper wire. The entire kit, he said, from top to bottom is hand crafted and extra durable. “If you break one of these, you really had to work at it,” he added with a laugh. Crum said that there has been a good response to his method and the kits, with quite a few customers purchasing them for home use. “That’s another reason I chose this method, because people can do this at home. It’s not like if I had bought a 30-thousand-dollar expresso machine that people could have it at home. This way you can take our coffee – or anyone’s coffee – and have it in your home and get the same results that we do here. But it forces the coffee to be better coffee, and really gets the flavor out of it. Here I play with the grind a little bit, because I have some customers who want a stronger cup of coffee and some who want a weaker cup of coffee,” he said. The dining room of Sky37 has a big screen television over a fireplace, and what Crum describes as a rustic theme. Clocks and bourbon barrels, as well as handcrafted tables all sit beneath lighting fixtures and Edison bulbs, most of which were crafted by Crum himself, evoke an industrial modern feel. “Lighting and furniture was actually how we got started,” he said. “We started JC Mercantile in Lloyd and carried Brazilian made furniture, and a lot of what we do is with reclaimed wood. We didn’t want to cut any trees down, so what you see in here, every piece is part of a barn we had taken down. Some of it is from a Lexington horse farm. The lady who owned it called and said she had an old barn, her horses were getting hurt in it, and she just wanted it off here property.” Sky37 is also filled with “slab” tables made from a single piece of wood. “That is actually from an old cherry tree that had fallen down,” he said, pointing at one table. “We slabbed it out at about 2 inches thick. And that,” he said, indicating another, “is from an oak that had fallen and we slabbed it out too. We have access to a sawmill, so any time we see trees fallen over after a storm we’ll clean it up. And if I see that it has a pretty decent log to it, we’ll cut it out and set it to the side. We never cut down trees,” he stressed. “Because there’s just so many in our area that fall down, and people will call. Then we go out and help them clean up.” The counter where Crum brews the coffee and the counter where the register sit are both made in a slab fashion, though in these instances there is an added benefit. These are coated in resin, and in the resin are Jason Crum’s signature coffee beans floating suspended. “On the one counter you can see the beans really floating out,” Crum laughed. “That’s because we didn’t know how much the beans would float. So when we started pouring, the beans started taking off on us. We got a little smarter on the second one and glued the beans down before we poured the resin.” Crum said that Sky37 was originally invited in to be an amenity for the tenants of the building. “They had just demoed offices on the 7th and 8th floors,” he said. “And at that time they hadn’t sold any of the condos, so we were working here while they were working on those,” he said. The building itself has transformed, he said, with offices, condos, and an Air BnB. “SkyTower is kind of a hybrid,” he said. “There have been a lot of changes just since we’ve been here, including new elevators.” Crum said that a lot of their customers are from the building, but over half are city residents who enter from the external door. And Crum said that he has plans to make that even more convenient. “We’re working on a drive through option,” he said. “And that will be huge for us. We’re getting the permits and we’ve purchased some equipment, so we are trying to make that happen as soon as possible.” But Crum said that the main thing is for people to know they are welcome to come in and stay as long as they would like, and the Wi Fi password is posted on the wall. “We’ve had people come in, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and close us down,” he said. “And it’s a good place to conduct meetings. And when kids come in I just hand them the remote. They’ll sit on the couch and watch tv, and you’ll see them with their feet propped up because they’re home. And that’s what we want. We even keep stuff like ice cream for the kids, or macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets for them. And if adults decide they want chicken nuggets, we can do that for them too,” he laughed. “We have a menu that is on paper, then we have what our customers call our “underground” menu. That’s when they come up and ask if we can make something like any omelet. We can and do, we just don’t advertise it,” he said. “We’ll pretty much make whatever you want. If you leave out of here and feel like you got your money’s worth, and maybe then some, that’s what it’s all about.” Sky37 is open 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the menu can be viewed on Facebook, where they update specials and let the community know what’s new. Sky37 Bistro can be followed here on Facebook

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CRe04: Geek Inc. Jarrod Greer

Apr 15, 202200:34:46Tap to summarize

My friend Jarrod Greer describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” and I have to admit that the title fits. Jarrod will trade on almost anything, and he regularly travels both locally and states away looking for people selling collections or even unique individual items that he can either resell or simply because it strikes his fancy. While we were recording the podcast, I was sitting directly across from one of his more recent acquisitions, a stuffed badger (Whom he promptly named Leonard) he had brought back from his latest buying trip. “I told them I hoped we could make some deals,” Jarrod laughed. “But regardless, that was going home with me.” Jarrod’s journey started a long time ago, he says, when his parents would drive him to reptile shows so he could buy assorted reptiles and then sell them to buy more. “I never met a hobby that I didn’t try to turn into a business,” he said. “I always thought that if I could make money off what I enjoyed, then it would subsidize doing more of it. If someone would introduce me to remote control car racing today, I’d have a remote-control car business within six months,” he laughed. And given his track record, I’m sure it would be profitable. Speaking of that track record, Jarrod and his wife Jaime own the popular Inner Geek stores in Ashland, Kentucky, and Huntington, West Virginia. They also own a sports card store called Pack Busters located not a block from the Inner Geek in Huntington. The Ashland store focuses on comics, and the Huntington store has a heavy focus on books, but both are available at both locations. And they both carry the collectibles that were part of Jarrod’s childhood - and everyone else’s because he likes anything cool and collectible. “With comic books especially, having the stores has allowed me to see massive amounts of cool comic books I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to own in my life if I wasn’t in the business,” he said. But surprisingly, although he is passionate about collecting, he is less passionate about keeping those collectibles. “I don’t have to keep it,” he said with the thrill of the hunt creeping into his voice. “I just want to find it. With comic books specifically, I want to find this amazing issue of Spiderman that is really hard to come by; but once I have it in my hand, I have climbed that mountain. I’ve made that conquest, so now I can sell it and go on with my life.” “It’s the challenge of finding cool stuff; that’s the comic book store for me.” And the thrill he gets is fueled by stocking the shelves of those stores. “I love crawling through people’s attics with a flashlight, and as you pan the light across the room, you catch on some boxes and go, “Oh my God, that’s the thing I’ve been looking for six years.” It’s a treasure hunt,” he said. “But once I have it in the van on the way home, it’s different. I guess I’m not a hoarder,” he laughed. “I just really like finding things.” The roots of Jarrod Greer’s insanely popular comic and toy conventions in Lexington and Huntington can be traced back to his interest in reptiles – and not simply the fact that he once traded some snakes for a comic collection. “We were promoting reptile conventions across the state,” he said. “We wanted to do one in Lexington, and I reached out to the Lexington Convention Center. But for various reasons, they really didn’t want me to do a reptile show in the building at that time. And I told them that we should get to know each other and asked what kind of shows we could do there.” The response he got was a question about what sort of things he was interested in. Greer said he replied that he liked comics and toys, and that was the beginning. “They said they didn’t have a comic con there, so we started one in Lexington just so we could get our foot in the door to do a reptile show. In the vein of you never ‘know what the future holds for you,’ six years later, I was out of the reptile business and was a full-time comic convention promoter. And coming from being a comic convention promoter, we needed a place to call home base, so we ended up with a comic book store.” The original “home base” was a store in the Ashland Town Center in Ashland, Kentucky. “The manager of the mall at the time likes to tell the story of how I would send her pictures of empty buildings (mall storefronts) for two years and tell her that if she would like a business in that building to let me know. But I didn’t understand how mall real estate worked at the time,” he admitted. “Sometimes a store will set empty for three months waiting on an opening of a particular brand, but to me, it was just an empty spot she could rent to me,” he said. “But it finally worked out. She called me at nearly five o’clock one evening and said, “I have a building I can lease you if you want.” I didn’t even know what I was going to do there, but I said yes,” he said. “Then I called my wife and said, “Don’t kill me, but I just leased a building in the Ashland Town Center,” he said. “She asked what we were doing, and I said I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out,” he laughed. Jaime Greer was happy, he said, that he could finally move his office/collection/mancave out of their basement. “So we basically started that store with my collection of stuff, and a $2,000 collection I bought.” “But I have been extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time,” he said. “Opening a comic book store in the mall when they never really had one was something we didn’t understand the true value of until we did it. By opening a business in the mall, where people walking out of JC Penney’s saw us immediately was magic. When we opened the store, people automatically just came in and gave us their money.” The experience, he said, was something he wasn’t prepared for. “It was like, “Wow. We have a viable business almost immediately,” We were in the right place at the right time, and at the time we were the only comic book shop in Ashland,” he said. Society as a whole, he said, was also realizing that comics were a viable medium as both an art form and as the basis of blockbuster movies. So the combination of the lack of a local store of its kind for some time, the growth of the industry, and a surge in pop culture allowed him to “Catch lightning in a bottle,” so to speak. “It really was the right place at the right time, and we were blessed to have an almost instant success with it.” Jarrod’s Inner Geek is no longer in the mall because he purchased a building off Greenup Avenue on 16th Street in Ashland to accommodate his growing customer base. “But I still believe that the mall is a great place to start and incubate a business,” he said. Even today, he said if he came up with an off-the-wall idea for a business, the mall would be his “first look” for a destination. “It’s hard to quantify what the built-in foot traffic of the mall will do for you,” he said. Through new business startup, purchasing and rebranding a bookstore (formerly Empire Books) in Huntington’s Pullman Square, and developing a healthy online presence, Jarrod Greer has also maintained his convention through a 100-year pandemic. Not only that, but he started another convention during that same pandemic. He said that the convention’s appeal is its mechanics - a broad spectrum of things that appeal to different people all under the same roof. And he said that, at its core, a convention is a social gathering people might not even know they need. “It gives people the chance to come out for one weekend and embrace the thing they think they are alone in embracing. And then when they get there, they realize there is a massive community around those things they are into. The commerce aspect of it is a necessity, but at root it is a social gathering and I believe they are successful sole because of the social aspect.”Going back to what he said earlier, being successful financially allows him to put on a wonderful convention each year. And because seeing people enjoy themselves is part of the thrill of the chase, so to speak, he is always looking for ways to improve the experience to keep things going. Inner Geek Ashland can be followed here on Facebook and Instagram Inner Geek Huntington can be followed here on Facebook and Instagram Lexington Comic and Toy Convention can be followed here on Facebook and Instagram Huntington Comic and Toy Convention can be followed here on Facebook and Instagram

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CRe03: Imel’s Greenhouse

Apr 8, 202200:34:39Tap to summarize

I have been listening to people brag about Imel’s Greenhouse on Route 1 in Greenup, Kentucky almost as long as I’ve known the owner Kenny Imel and his family. And that is quite some time, because I have known Kenny for over 25 years. He and his brother started the Greenhouse a long time ago, and his brother moved on to other things, but Kenny kept growing and sharing everything with the people of Greenup and pretty much everywhere else. But don’t take my word for it; we’ll let him help tell his own story about where he started and where he is right now. We got together most recently on a cold morning that lent itself more to hot chocolate than hot peppers, but Kenny is experienced enough to know that Mother Nature has her own schedule, and wayward temperatures don’t set her back much. “It doesn’t feel like it, but Spring is here,” he said. That’s the way it is, it’s up and down.” “In the beginning, my oldest brother and I were partners for about a year,” he said. “He went on to do another job, and I continued to do the greenhouse business.” The whole idea, he said, began as an FFA project to keep activities on the farm. The plan was to keep records of everything to show how everything progressed for that project, but it carried on beyond that. Forty-four years later Kenny Imel is still going strong, plowing through the rough spots, and planning for bigger and better things during his successes. “I’ll be sixty this year, so it’s been a long time. But it’s been a good ride too.” Kenny told me his hope was that he has done some good in the community, and in other areas as well. But at this point, I honestly don’t think my friend truly knows what he has accomplished – mainly because he isn’t a fan of blowing his own horn so to speak. But there are generations of students whose knowledge of agriculture, of the farms that built the area, would be quite a bit less if it weren’t for him and his family. Kenny is an agricultural champion whether he wants to own up to it or not, and he is always a willing set of hands when anyone needs help. Proof of that is his involvement with the Farm to Table Event. Imel’s partners with Farm Bureau, the Farm to Table Committee, and FFA each year to put on an event that showcases the necessity of farm communities in Kentucky and what they have to offer. The event serves as a fundraiser, with money equally shared with the FFA, the Historic McConnell House in Wurtland, and the 4H. The dinner is held in Imel’s two huge covered greenhouses, and Imel himself is dedicated to making the event as successful as possible because of his commitment to agriculture and the good it does in the community. “What they do is take that money and use it for youth projects,” he said. “And it gives some kids that maybe wouldn’t have the opportunity because they couldn’t afford it to do those things. It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” he said of Farm to table. “We have a good evening out and a lot to do. There’s food and fireworks, and the AG Commissioner usually speaks and there are other good speakers. There will also be some vendors this year from Farmer’s Markets, and we have a group of wood carvers coming in.” “What we are striving to do, number one, is build awareness about agriculture,” Imel said. “Number two is to let the kids get involved so that they will know and take pride in the things they can do in this community. And as a group, we have to build our communities from the inside out. If you do that with local folks, then people are going to stay here. If we do some of these projects ourselves, then it works out better.” Doing different things and bringing those things home is something Kenny Imel has perfected over the years. “We try to keep expanding and looking for different things to do and bring to Greenup County that’s not available,” he said. “When you go to a lot of bigger markets, there’s more stuff there, so we try to bring more stuff in here and make it better.” And his diversification means that area residents can always find things they need along with things they might want to try. The greenhouse carries a wide variety of vegetable plants, seeds, ornamental plants, flowers, and shrubs – and pertinent advice on how to make those things flourish. He also has an impressive array of concrete statuary as well that range from the fanciful bigfoot and alien statues to the more poignant veteran’s memorials and even simple welcome stonework and concrete benches. Concrete dogs, cats, rabbits, and ducks stand on or under benches surrounded by flowers, and even a few planters are shaped like pumpkins, llamas, and everything else. Still, it doesn’t stop there. Imel’s has a play structure that is free to the public on most days when school groups aren’t descending upon the greenhouse to learn and enjoy everything they have to offer, including pumpkins and feeding goats. And again, it is more for the impact that for the money. “There are kids here that couldn’t afford to go somewhere else,” he said. “And as long as we can, we’ll keep it where there is no charge. And they can come in here any day the greenhouse is open.” There is always more to the story, they say, and don’t think that just because Kenny Imel understands Mother Nature’s timetable that we were standing out in the weather. No, Kenny and I had a really pleasant conversation (you can listen to it all on audio) inside of “Granny Annie’s”, a specialty store inside of the greenhouse. Snacks of all sorts, jams and jellies, fudge, and other treats are available. “We try to do what we can local sourced,” he said. “And what we can’t get local sourced mostly comes out of Holmes County, Ohio in Amish Country. It’s Walnut Creek, wedding foods, and stuff like that.” The name Granny Annie’s is something near and dear to his heart as well. “My grandmother Anna Stephenson was the original salesperson when we first started,” he said fondly. “We started out at her house, in her front yard over the hill from here. So, we just wanted something in her memory.” A trip to Imel’s Greenhouse is something people from counties away look forward to. The family owned and operated business is all about family and community, about helping people learn about agriculture and enjoy their heritage. “Anytime you can help a kid learn and enjoy themselves, then that effort is never wasted. And in the end, it always comes back to you.” Imel's Greenhouse can be followed here on Facebook and Instagram Or call them at (606) 473-1708 Imel's Greenhouse is open: Monday - Saturday from 9am to 5pm Closed on Sundays.

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CRe02: Corduroy Brown

Mar 7, 202200:40:38Tap to summarize

Alan Brown - Corduroy Brown Take just a second to imagine that one of your closest friends was a talented musician, and not just talented but so good that he made everything look easy. Imagine that when he picks up a guitar, he kind of melds with it, and the sound that vibrates from the strings catch you on the most basic level and pulls you through into the story. The man becomes his music, and that music wraps around you until everything else falls away. Joy and sadness are immediate and intimate, the way good music and good friends always are. But you don’t have to imagine it at all. All you need to do is listen to the genuine passion of Corduroy Brown. Corduroy Brown is a pop-rock band out of Huntington, West Virginia, and lead singer Alan Brown grew up in Chesapeake, Ohio. “I grew up right here, and I’ve lived here all my life,” Brown said. “I live in Huntington now, but I grew up right down the road. I consider the whole area my home now.” Brown’s path to the music he plays was neither straight nor easy. “No one in my family is musical at all,” he confessed. “I think I have an uncle who plays the saxophone - kinda. But in 2008, when all my friends were bringing guitars to high school, I was like, “I want to do that!” So my mom got me my first guitar for Christmas, and it was a Fender CD 60 model from Mac N Dave’s, and she paid way too much money for it.” But proof that her investment paid off in his music, and Brown is quick to acknowledge the impact it has had on his life. “It has been such a blessing,” he said. “Music is something that has just and is still changing my life every day.” The timelessness of music also appeals to him, and Brown said that he loves seeing videos of musicians who are playing well into their eighties and beyond. “And music is something that uses both sides of you brain so it is so powerful, and I feel lucky to get to do this every single day.” Brown said he began learning guitar while he was listening to heavy metal and death metal, or, as he said, “anything with screaming and big heavy, chunky guitars.” “That eventually dissolved down a little,” he said with a laugh. “But don’t get me wrong, I still listen to it on road trips. So if I feel a little sleepy, we’re going to be listening to some heavy stuff,” he said appreciatively. “But some of my more formative stuff, when I really started learning to play were from groups like Flyleaf, from back in 2004.” That group had a female lead, he said and is still one of his favorite bands of the day. Other favorites included Dave Matthews and Howlmouth, but he said he grew up listening to tapes of Michael Jackson. The voice, that intangible quality that makes a musician’s music uniquely his own, is something Brown said was an evolution. And the current album, including the single “Who I am for Now,” began to gel when Corduroy Brown became a band. “The song and the whole album is basically me calling myself out for the things I didn’t like about myself,” he said. “It’s about how I grew from situations. The music takes a long time for me to write because I want to make sure that I really mean what I’m saying. I don’t want to fill in a verse with “Oh, that rhymes, so it works.” It might put me at a disadvantage, but I want to mean that.” “I think between getting mental health figured out, and just life in general, a lot of these songs are just my life encompassed in a three-and-a-half-minute package,” Brown said. And the mental health aspect became vital to him in 2017 when he began taking mental health seriously. Brown said that he thinks even in high school, he had started self-harm, which manifested itself in cutting himself. “It started off really small, and I wasn’t telling anyone,” he said. “But then through college, it became worse, and more violent and out of control. And then it became even more serious, and I finally got to the point where I had to do something.” Brown said he told himself he had to get help before he killed himself with the behavior. He said that was not something he wanted, but he became concerned that it could happen. And dealing with those struggles was something he said became part of who he is, another aspect of the man behind the music. “It’s part of who I am,” he said, and added that it is an important piece that seeps into the music. “I’m not trying to write mental health music, but it seeps into it,” Brown said. “Just like I consider myself a Christian, but I’m not writing Christian music. But it’s all part of the whole.” Corduroy Brown performing at the Clay Center on February 19th. Photo by Rafael Barker. “I didn’t know it was that bad until I started getting help,” he said of cutting. “And I asked my therapist why I was doing it. The answer was like the biggest light bulb moment of my life. He told me it was like a pressure relief valve and that I felt in control of it.” From that point, Brown said he realized that he no longer had to hurt himself, and was able to move past it. “But it was easy for me to get help because I was finally ready to accept it, and I don’t think I was ready before that,” Brown said he was lucky that he was able to get help, to see the other side of it, before he went too far. And now he feels strong enough to talk about it and help others with similar problems. Overall, he said, the album and the song are about growth. “We’re not supposed to be the same people we were, even five days or five months ago,” Brown said. “We’re supposed to evolve, we’re supposed to shift, and we’re supposed to grow. We are supposed to be changing because stagnancy, I think, is one of the most dangerous things you can ever be as a human. There is a difference between stagnancy and routine,” he qualified. “But you are allowed to change, and you’re allowed to grow. That song, “Who I am for Now,” was written back in 2017 when I was struggling, and I got help that year.” Corduroy Brown’s latest album came out in August 2021, and Brown said that it was in the works for about a year and a half. “A lot of the songs are about things that had been bubbling up, and waiting for the right things to happen. Before that could happen, though, Brown became extremely ill that February. “I caught COVID in January,” Brown said. “Then a month went by, and I went to the hospital, and they gave me medicine,” he said. Then when his condition didn’t improve, and added to his symptoms were insomnia and not eating, he decided to go to the hospital at St. Mary’s. “So, they came into the room and said, “Hey Mr. Brown, We’re going to have to put you on a ventilator.” The nurses were starting to panic, and there was an urgency to it, and I wondered what on earth was going on. I had been there for four days, but then it was like holy crap, we’ve got to go.” Brown said he was told that he was in heart, kidney, and lung failure, and he said that he texted his parents the grim news as he was being wheeled out of his room to be ventilated. And on the way, barely able to breathe, he said he could see the stark concern in the nurse’s eyes as he faded in and out of consciousness. “But then I remember being in this infinite white space,” Brown said. “When people talk about seeing a white light when they die, it’s completely real,” he said. “I could see myself and white space as far as I could see. And there was this ball of energy that started on my left side then slowly drifted off into the distance. What I didn’t know until later was that when I woke up days later, I was in a completely different hospital on life support in Morgantown.” Brown later discovered that he had died on the transport helicopter and was brought back to life – which coincided with the time he experienced the white light. Brown said that there is so much you learn in a hospital bed, and though most of the album’s songs were written, his experience provided the catalyst to truly finish them. And the experience has made him more introspective, he said. “When you are lying there faced with your own mortality and thinking of the things you had planned to do, you wish you had done them. So that has become my battle cry after that. Life is for living, and make sure that you live.” That experience also, he said, is a component of what his music has become, and more components are added to the mosaic every single day. Corduroy Brown can be followed on Facebook and Instagram, and currently, they are booking performances through September. Easily find them online here: https://linktr.ee/corduroybrownwv

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CRe01: Eridanus Brewery and Tea House

Mar 7, 202200:38:28Tap to summarize

Inside Eridanus Brewery and Tea House with a flight sampler of Eridanus Craft Beers Eridanus Brewery in downtown Russell Kentucky is the realization of the dream of Justin and Kristen Matthews, who blend their excitement into every batch of specialty beer and fine teas. “I’ve been brewing at home for about twelve years now, and Kristen has been brewing her teas for about 8 years now,” Justin Matthews said. “This idea has been years in the making, but we finally decided to take the plunge and start a brewery and tea house.” “We went back and forth looking at a lot of locations before we ended up in the City of Russell at the old train depot,” he said. Matthews said the road to where the pair ended was something of a saga, with a yearlong process of things such as getting approval from the state transportation cabinet (since the trains still run the tracks near the location), the Kentucky Heritage Association (since the building is historical), and of course the City of Russell itself. “When you are dealing with a historical building, it’s a process,” he said. “But everyone was all in and very supportive, but the levels you have to go through to turn a train depot into a brewery and tea house was a little more than we anticipated.” “All in all, it’s went well, but we did have some fun with plumbing,” he added with a laugh. “When we did the Grand Opening, one of the City Council members said something to the effect that it was admirable that we didn’t stop when we hit some of these roadblocks. It was definitely a saga getting there.” But before the pair were on the road to, and eventually, overcoming those roadblocks, a series of circumstances led to the final push to take the plunge. “A lot of people ask about what made us take the plunge,” Kristen Matthews said. “They say well, you had a dream, but what actually made you go for it?” she said. “We always preface this by saying that it might not be for everyone when we tell the story,” Justin said. “But it is a very cool story, and the payoff is worth it.” “It’s always been my dream to start a brewery and it’s always been Kristen’s dream to start a tea house,” he said. “She had made a business plan when she was in college for a books store and tea house and coffee house, so our dreams kind of blended together.” And what gelled the combined plans was a seemingly unrelated dream of Justin’s to see the Los Angeles Dodgers spring training. “It was on my bucket list, and for my 40th birthday (right before COVID hit), Kristen planned a trip for us to go to Arizona. We were going to the spring training and hit some breweries,” he said. “Because that is a must when we go on vacation. And one of the things she wanted to do was go to Sedona.” Kristen Matthews is also a practicing yoga teacher (yoga is also offered at Eridanus) and wanted to see the energy vortexes and explore the aura of Sedona. “So on a day there wasn’t training, we drove to the Grand Canyon and spent a few hours there then drove to Sedona and had lunch.” The pair walked around, he said, and visited what he described as a crystal store. “Justin calls it a “woo woo” store,” Kristen laughed. “I used to call it that,” he corrected her. The reason for his change of heart, he said, was part of the story. Justin said that the shop owner was very nice and told her they were from Kentucky. But as he looked around, she came up to him and said that she needed to talk to him although she didn’t want to startle him. “I don’t want to scare you, but I need to tell you something,” she said. “You are in the process of planning something, and it’s going to be huge, and it’s going to change your life,” she continued. “But what you need to do is don’t let anyone talk you out of it. But more importantly, don’t talk yourself out of it. She apologized and said she wasn’t wanting to freak me out, but I began to think this was supposed to happen,” Justin said. “How often do you go states away . . .” “I had been helping him make plans, but he was still on the fence,” Kristen interrupted with a laugh. “But all it took was one lady in Sedona for him to say, “We need to do this.” And I had been telling him for a year.” The final encouragement came when Justin took a card from the store’s blessing box after making a purchase. The blessing box dispensed cards with the store’s information on one side and a random encouragement on the other. “The card said “Faith’, and “It is when you take that leap that you grow your wings.” So with the lady’s conversation and that card, I walked away and told Kristen I was all in and that we needed to do this.,” Justin said. “And that was when we hit the ground running, and Eridanus became a real thing.” The dream had become a realization, and Kristen said, “We tell everyone we get to live what we love every single day,’ she said thankfully. But she also said that it took some effort to explain that dream. “We had to do a lot of education to show that breweries aren’t bars,” she said. “They are gathering places for community and connection, and it’s a place where we can share our passion and our craft with people. He is a beer brewer, and I am a tea crafter, and we get to do that together.” Charcuterie and beer sampler at Eridanus “We wanted to mix the two together,” Kristen said. “We have the coffee house vibe with the comfy couches, and we have the dining room. We also have the board game shelf and card games, and we really want it to be a gathering place where people come and meet their friends and hang out several hours.” Currently, the brewery side offers a blonde ale called the Chessie Blonde after the CSX railroad and a Red Devil Ale. There is also a stout beer “on deck,” an IPA, and a cream ale. “And I love ciders and sours,” Kristen said. “So those are going into the mix as well.” On the tea side, Kristen is a master of herbal tea crafting. “I grow the herbs I can here in the region,” she said. “And the ones I can’t, I order from organic suppliers.” And the reason behind her love of crafting teas is a story itself. “At first I delved into this tea crafting because I wanted to help my gran who had COPD,” she said. “And so I was researching all these herbs because the medications were so expensive. And I was able to find all these herbs that didn’t treat COPD, but help with the symptoms. Then my grandma would tell people, and they would ask if I had anything to help migraines,” she said. And from there a list of teas that helped with conditions and overall health was born. “Eventually I started selling my teas on Etsy, then in Ironton, Ohio at the Vault. So when Justin decided he was all in, I thought we were both brewers, so I could craft these teas there.” Adding to the wonderful craft beers and teas, Eridanus also offers food. “We offer homemade smoked trout dip, handcrafted pretzels and homemade beer cheese,” Kristen said. “And we have a food truck that is permanently parked on-site, and they are our food component for meals. They are open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and from 11 to 9 on Friday and Saturday. It’s my mom,” Kristen said proudly. “They own Dragonfly Outdoor Café and Dragonfly Outdoor Adventures, and they do all handcrafted food,” Kristen said that they offer a wide variety of made from scratch items, including the very popular wild-caught cod fish tacos. Eridanus is best described as a family business made for families and is poised to become an anchor destination in the area. “We can’t wait for summer to use our outdoor patio area,” she said. “And it’s going to be pet friendly so people will have a place to bring their dog. We are also going to have an outdoor beer garden, fire pits, Adirondack chairs, and outdoor games.” Eridanus can be reached through Facebook, or online at eridanusbrewing.com, or by calling 606-388-2326.

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CRe00: Who in the world is Charlie Romans?

Mar 7, 202200:01:34Tap to summarize

Hi, I’m Charlie Romans and welcome to the show. My life is probably a lot like yours. I grew up around here, I traveled a bit, and then I came home. Why? Because it’s home; and like the little girl from Kansas said, there’s no place like it. Home is where the family is and where our friends are – and those two things alone make home the most wonderful place you’ll ever be. Sure, it’s nice to visit other places and do different things, and I did that a lot when I was younger. But you know, there are a lot of cool things to see and do right out our back door. And more things pop up all of the time. That’s what this show is all about. It’s about the things that our families and friends are doing that are more interesting than we might think. It’s about the entertainment happening just down the road and the talented people we might be passing on the street every day without even knowing it. Who has the best food, the best deals, and the really cool stuff we might want to try at least once in a while. And of course, where do we find all of those people and things? The answers might surprise you. Long before I became a reporter and a columnist, I enjoyed talking to people. Doing that all these years has taught me that we really don’t realize how interesting or talented we are, and what our area has to offer. People tell me all of the time that they “aren’t that interesting” and that no one wants to “hear about them”. Honestly though, the exact opposite is true. And to prove just that, let me introduce you to some of the friends I have made along the way. You might know them already, but we’ll see “what they’re up to” anyway. . .

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All episodes

Foundry Theater and Appalachian Film Festival

Jewel Art Gallery

CRe05: Sky37 Bistro

CRe04: Geek Inc. Jarrod Greer

CRe03: Imel’s Greenhouse

CRe02: Corduroy Brown

CRe01: Eridanus Brewery and Tea House

CRe00: Who in the world is Charlie Romans?