August 15, 2003

Slow long, Slow Bar

When bass player/music entrepreneur Mike ''Grimey'' Grimes and drummer/partner David Gehrke launched Slow Bar three years ago, they weren't trying to change the face of east Nashville. They really just wanted to create an environment with a great jukebox, occasional live music and space for friends and would-be friends to gather.

But Slow Bar's aggressive booking of local and national off-the-charts but excellent artists made it a destination for music mavens and scenesters, as well as a drop-in for thirsty neighbors.

That's what makes Slow Bar's closure, announced this week, particularly sad for those enjoying and spearheading East End growth. But Grimes says rent hikes kept him sweating long hours to keep the place fuller than he ever intended. Attempts to find a partner to make renovations and share day-to-day management didn't come to fruition, and the bar will celebrate its final night Sept. 1.

Slow Bar's three years produced more lore and memory than most bars ever will. Residencies helped shape the sound of bands such as Departure Lounge and The Bees. All-star nights, including a celebration for Johnny Cash's 70th birthday, produced explosive performances. Maximum Twang, spearheaded by Slow Bar booster Mark Robertson, evolved into Jook Joint Mondays, offering Nashville's best weekly jolt of genuine country-billy.

And perhaps most popular of all were Slow Bar's Guilty Pleasures nights, when a house band of already hard-working pros rehearsed in all-day marathon day-of sessions to develop uproarious sets of 1980s music.

Grimes plans to focus on his record store, Grimey's, in Berry Hill and consider another bar/venue. For boosters of the east Nashville renaissance and fans of Grimey, whatever he does next, it's time to trust in fate, he says. ''There's a grand plan somewhere down the road.''

— Craig Havighurst, Staff Writer

December 5, 2001

Small investment leads to music shop’s success
By William Williams
 
As Grimey’s Preloved CDs and Vinyl shop prepares to celebrate its second birthday, Mike Grimes fondly recalls the birth of his quirky little business. It was late 1999, and Grimes wanted a new challenge. So the former Bare Jr. bassist decided to sell his massive CD and record collection — about 6,000 pieces total.

He then found space in a Berry Hill building owned by dentist O.H. Rutherford. However, Grimes needed money for the first month’s rent in the store, which was a converted 700-square-foot house, and other start-up costs. “I had a dollar in the bank when I opened Grimey’s,” Grimes said. “I had to borrow $500 from a friend (Brad Jones) and $1,000 from my parents.”

Opening day was Dec. 11, 1999, and about one year later, Grimes was pleased to see his shop, now a mainstay in the eclectic Berry Hill commercial district, had generated sales revenues of about $90,000.

Though sales figures for 2001 are expected to be flat at best, Grimes, who now stocks about 6,000 CDs and 4,000 records, said he is nonetheless pleased with the progress of his store.

About two months ago, he hired Mickey Parks to man the shop. The move has freed Grimes to concentrate more on his other business, Slow Bar, which he and co-owner David Gehrke opened in East Nashville in November 2000.

Because of Grimey’s potential, Grimes said he is talking to a friend about forming a partnership and moving the shop to a larger, and as-yet undetermined, location.

Grimes said he views his tiny shop as a community gathering place of sorts. He loves introducing his customers, many of whom are friends, to new and non-mainstream music.

“We’re almost like the Floyd’s Barber Shop (of Andy Griffith fame) of used CD/record stores,” said Grimes, a Kentucky transplant. “We place so much emphasis on getting to know customers. And I kind of pride myself on having great left-of-center music.”

With a pleasant persona and extensive music knowledge, Grimes has earned great respect from others in the business, including longtime friends Doyle Davis, operations coordinator of The Great Escape, and Phonoluxe owner Mike Smith.

Davis said the upstart Grimey’s provides respected competition for the long-established Great Escape, a comparative goliath in the used-music product industry.

“Mike’s got a great selection,” said Davis, who has known Grimes since the late 1980s. “Nashville’s music afficianados have migrated [to Grimey’s]. There’s a buzz over there.”

Grimes said he chose his location in large part because of his friendships with two Berry Hill business persons: the aforementioned Jones, owner of Alex the Great Recording Studio, and Amy Patterson, owner of Venus & Mars, a hip vintage clothing shop. “Amy was my bookkeeper for a while,” Grimes said. “And Brad let me stay at his place rent-free when I first opened.”

Grimes said he envisions Grimey’s becoming more big-time at some point. Until then, however, he is pleased to turn on people to great music. “I don’t have any [non-music] outside interests,” he said. “A friend once said, ‘Mike, you’re just somebody that music likes to be around.’”

November 25, 2001

Two men from worlds apart find home in the Slow Bar
by Henry Piarrot

  "Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you."
    – English novelist Aldous Huxley

Athens, Greece, is the cradle of Western civilization as well as the birthplace of philosophy and democracy. Geographically, it belongs to Europe, because it forms the southernmost extremity of the Balkan Peninsula.

Owensboro, Ky., nestled along the southern banks of the Ohio River, is known by its residents as the City of Festivals. With the third-largest population in the commonwealth, it is also the Daviess County seat.

A world apart, these two cities have few cultural similarities. However, a son from each made his way to Music City and carved a slice of Americana into a ''five points'' corner of east Nashville last year with the opening of the popular Slow Bar at 1024 Woodland St.

Proprietor Michael Grimes was born Dec. 28, 1963, in Owensboro. He is the second of John and Nancy's four children. After graduating from Owensboro Catholic High School in 1982, young Mike, a self-taught musician, entered Western Kentucky University. After his third year, he decided to take a break from school and began working in a record store. Although Mike liked the work, he soon learned that selling music was not as satisfying as making it. So in January 1989, the aspiring guitarist headed for Nashville.

Co-owner David Gehrke grew up in Athens, but he was born in San Antonio, Texas, on Feb. 24, 1973. His father, Charles, an American soldier on guard duty in Greece, fell in love with beautiful Eleni Zabos while stationed there. The younger of the couple's two sons, David was less than 3 months old when the family returned to the ancient city. Then at the age of 13, David left the only home he'd ever known when his father was transferred to Fort Campbell. Finding little in common with his new contemporaries, he filled the hours learning to play music. After graduating from Clarksville's Northwest High School in 1991, the still displaced teen-ager became a psychology student at Austin Peay State University.

Mike was settling into a busy marketing position with Sony Music Group, playing the guitar whenever his hectic schedule would allow. In January 1996, he was promoted and sent to Atlanta, where he soon remembered that selling music is nice, but playing music is better. He returned to Nashville in June without a job.

After his third semester, David left college with dreams of becoming a rock star. He traveled across the United States and Europe, playing drums and guitar for several bands, and came to Nashville in 1995.

Meanwhile, Mike was at last playing music, performing as a band member of Bare Jr. for more than two years. When that gig ended, he decided to sell records again. This time, he wanted to own the store.

The road-weary musicians eventually met during the summer of '99 at a Berry Hill coffeehouse. Mike was opening Grimey's Music Store a block away at 2825 Bransford Ave. He hired David to build the store's display racks, and the two became great friends.

Mike and David decided to open a neighborhood bar where their many friends in the local music scene could gather to relax and unwind. Both men knew what they wanted; they just needed to figure out how to make it happen. After the first location they selected fell through, the disappointed duo found themselves drowning their sorrows at a place called Shirley's in east Nashville. They heard a rumor that after 17 years, the owner was ready to sell. Then, much to the surprise of the hopeful entrepreneurs, they left the bar that night as the new owners, and three weeks later, the Slow Bar opened in November 2000.

One year later, the Slow Bar has all the required elements for becoming an institution in a revitalized east Nashville. While both men are happy to have survived the first year in business, they confess the greatest thrill is that they have finally found a home.

Henry Piarrot is a Hillsboro Village merchant. Please send Mirror, Mirror story ideas to hpiarrot@home.com.

September 13, 2001

Grow Bar
East Nashville hangout's expansion proves a good thing
By Heather Johnson

Patrons of the Slow Bar are starting to enjoy their personal space now that the East Nashville hangout has almost doubled in size. Earlier this year, co-owners Mike Grimes and David Gherke acquired two retail spaces next door to the bar, located at the corner of 11th and Woodland streets. With help from friends, they began tearing down walls this summer to create a roomier space.

The beer-only bar and small stage remain at the front and center of the original room. But now the long, narrow venue contains additional "hang space" with a few tables, red vinyl booths, a black sofa, and the tastefully diverse jukebox. The pool table, formerly located at the back of the club, now resides in its own cubby in the new room.

"It was something we had to do," Grimes says. "Even when we weren't having bands, there were people standing shoulder to shoulder." He points out that the extra breathing room allows him the freedom to book more established performers. Prior to the expansion, Brit-pop troubadour Badly Drawn Boy, a double bill featuring Georgia bands The Glands and Japancakes, and a fortnightly stand by U.K.-to-Nashville transplants Departure Lounge had attracted crowds in excess of 150--enough to turn a friendly gathering into an uncomfortable and often sweaty mass.

Grimes expects customers to have a little more elbow room when former Squirrel Nut Zippers violinist Andrew Bird brings his band, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, to Slow Bar Sept. 13. Grimes is also looking forward to a Sept. 25 appearance from lo-fi Sub Pop group The Shins, followed by an evening with singer-songwriter Angelo in early October. "It's like Morphine-meets-Dr. John," Grimes says of Angelo, who plays with a 12-piece band. "It's a total do-not-miss experience."

The two entrepreneurs (both of whom are also musicians) will continue to make improvements on a regular basis. They plan to add more draft beer selections and more furniture, and to create "more nooks for people to hang." The partners also intend to expand their current beer-and-pretzels menu. "We want to gradually add something each week to accommodate people," Grimes says.

Some patrons have expressed worry that the Slow Bar's cozy vibe will disappear now that the sawdust has settled. Most regulars, however, support the facelift. "You can move around so much easier now," says East Nashville resident Tommy Keenum. "If you want to hear music, you can go to one side; if you just want to play pool, you can go to another."
"When I heard they were expanding, I was skeptical," says another frequent visitor, Hugh Mundy. "But they managed to increase the space while preserving the atmosphere."

Grimes, of course, is more than pleased with the expansion. "Everybody's digging on it," he says with his usual contagious enthusiasm. "I think we've had a pretty driving business considering we only have one product."