Kai Crowe-Getty Album Release, Part 1: Genna Matthew

Welp, we walked out of the Southern on Saturday night with a question. How the hell do we do justice to a show like the one Kai, Rebecca and Genna just gave us? Usually when we cover a show, there’s a headliner that gets the lion’s share of the writeup and Kai Crowe Getty (frontman of one of our favorite Nelson County Bands, Lord Nelson) certainly more than earns that on his great album release night.

But these are 3 heavy, heavy Commonwealth hitters. And these posts can only be so long!

Old Hank got it in his head that the night deserved a Durty Nelly’s Download™--ostensibly to spitball ideas on how to capture the show’s greatness and essential truth. Bazz did not utter a peep in protest and Uber was acquired. So, if it smells like you are reading this post through gauze soaked in beer and stale bowls, that may be why. 

That question--one that let’s be honest, ain’t getting answered at DN at midnight--continued to haunt Old Hank as he scraped himself up and into the kitchen Sunday morning to make coffee. And somewhere between the first and second cup, the answer quietly walked into the kitchen and sat down with him.

If you want to do justice to a show that moved YOU to a profound lack of words, do one thing: Study THEIR words.

While Kai, Rebecca and Genna are clearly elite musicians and Adam’s Plastic Pond may well be one of the best backing bands we see this year, this show was a writer’s showcase.

Last night’s performance had such a beautiful build and swell to it, we want you the reader to experience it the way we did. One artist at a time. Starting with the opener. And that’s our solve for the embarrassment of riches that was this show: break the write-up into 3 parts.

So with no further jibber jabber, Singer-Songwriter Genna Matthew.

Bazz and Old Hank were riding with no back-up on this one, and we got to the Southern in time to grab beers and watch Charlottesville native, Nashville resident Genna Matthew take the stage. She describes herself as a folk/indie-pop artist with timeless roots influences. Classically trained at Berklee’s Valencia Campus in Spain, Genna is a Grand Prize Winner of Nashville’s Music City Songstar Competition. 

So, yeah, heavy hitter.

While her guitar picking was flawless and clear as crystal, and her gorgeous voice can hold its own against the likes of Musgraves, Bridgers, Dacus maybe even Crow (the Sheryl), it’s the writing that commands attention.

Genna did backing vocals on Kai’s Wreckage album and would come out to join him for his set later. She played all the faves off her full length 2024 album Broken Record produced by Jake Finch, but it was one story and one song that shattered the room and set a profoundly high writer’s bar for Rebecca and Kai to reach later.

The song is called 10 Year Town.

Genna set the stage by recounting how when she arrived in Nashville, more than one grizzled veteran told her that it’s a ten year town—it takes ten hard, hard years to make it—if you make it. 

“But the math doesn’t math,” she went on to say.

Get there in your mid 20’s and that ten years puts a woman in her mid-thirties and perilously close to her “sell by” date. Then she pinned her ears back and tore into some bullshit women have been dealing with since men started running the place.

…How do I act my age in a 10 year town, 10 years too late?

I got lines on my face 

From late nights when I had time to waste

Now I’ve arrived but what if I’m 10 years too late?

The song goes on to hint at the feelings of invisibility women describe as they mature.

If I scream out and no one listens

Did I make a sound? Is there a difference?

Am I just a woman told by old men she missed her moment?

But then Genna does what a great writer does when presented with bullshit. Indefatigable, unbowed, she outsmarts it, shoots the counter straight left over, under or thru the incoming left hook, and knocks it the fuck d-o-w-n.

But I don’t feel old yet!

I’ll bend but I won’t break

I know better how to weather the storm

At my age 

I got lines on the page

From nights I thought my heart would break

Now I’ve arrived but what if I’m right on time if I’m ten years too late?

Right? There were audible gasps, and a few choked sobs from women all around the room (and the men who support them) who know the world cruelly and foolishly judges them by their appearance—fawns over them when they are young and starts ignoring them just when they are hitting their stride.

Everyone in that room felt the same thing. Genna, your songs are so, so good because of your experience, because you’ve ridden some hard miles, because you’ve taken your knocks and gotten up, because you are smart. Not because you are or were beautiful (and you are).

Thank you for how hard you’ve worked. How hard it is to do what you do. And for the heights we know you are destined to achieve.

Keep giving it the beans!

OK kids, next up, Rebecca Porter. And our *SPOILER ALERT* first Merch Table Talk™ live interview!

You kids stop reading internet crap while you’re supposed to be paying attention in your zoom meetings. I’m gonna blow a bowl, take a nap and bulk up for part 2.

Old Hank