Korby talks with journalist and author Jordan Ritter Conn about his new book American Men, interviewing 50+ men about masculinity, the four men whose stories made the book (Ryan, Gideon, Joseph, Nate), the process of getting men to be vulnerable, the permission structure concept, his first day at UC Berkeley journalism school, the cancer scare he hoped would get him out, the notepad as superpower, the Scotland trip with his dad, the impact of the book on his own friendships, Tom Wolfe, narrative journalism, the literary market and male readers, video games as time thief, Bowling Alone, male loneliness, the hardball league, and getting together in a room.

Tonight's the thing. 100 episodes of the Morse Code Podcast, celebrated at The 5 Spot in East Nashville. 6 p.m. Guests from the show - Bre Kennedy, Andi Marie Tillman, Tyler Merritt, Leah Blevins, Tim Easton, Ryan Rado, Jessica Willis Fisher, Paul McDonald, Packy Lundholm, Randa Newman, Joy Todd, and me - playing songs, an author interview, a film screening, live painting, more. Come join us. Tickets here.

Molly Tuttle was the first person I ever co-wrote with in Nashville. She’d just moved to town. I had a title. She had a guitar riff. We wrote “Friend and a Friend.” It made her debut album. Best-of nominations followed. A decade later she’s a 3x Grammy winner with a right hand that launched a thousand YouTube tutorials.

We talked about growing up in Palo Alto with a bluegrass-teaching dad who found the music through Hank Williams on a farm in Illinois, the kids-on-bluegrass festivals where she first met Sierra Hull and Sarah Jarosz and realized there were other kids in America who could already play, what it was like the first time she went to the Grammys (deer in headlights) and the second time (she handed Joni Mitchell a trophy and went through a goth phase inspired by Måneskin’s pyrotechnics), and the part that doesn’t go away no matter how famous you get — the work of keeping a band together, coordinating schedules, writing for the next release. Even at her level, its a sacrifice.

Then she played ”Friend and a Friend”. Solo in the room. Fantastic.

🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube

🎸 Watch Molly perform “Friend and a Friend”

AFTER THE CONVERSATION

After the Conversation is my Substack essay series where I keep thinking after the microphones are off. This week: the song we wrote on a swinging gate, cargo pants and homemade bread in the Bellingham woods, and an announcement about what’s next for the Morse Code Podcast.

Tabitha Meeks moved to Nashville from West Palm Beach with a folk band and a voice she’d been told five or six times wasn’t strong enough. The band didn’t last. One of her first Nashville experiences was getting fired as a backup singer 30 minutes into rehearsal. The guy who fired her said she’d have plenty of time for opportunities like this — she was, what, 21, 22? She was 28.

That could have been the end of the story. Instead, Tabitha got a gig at a bar called Sambuca during COVID, where nobody was around and she was forced to be the lead singer for the first time. That’s where she found her voice. She released 30 or 40 songs over the next few years — different tempos, different moods, different sides of herself — and watched to see what people responded to. The retro pop thing hit. Nancy Sinatra meets Nora Jones, she calls it. Happy energy, piano solos, not taking life too seriously.

We talked about the Pitch Meeting show she co-founded with her now-husband (and Morse Code Alum) Eric Fortlaza, building a social media following by posting nothing but live performance videos, the sync placements that are starting to pay off (including a Hulu show she can’t name yet), living in a shitty house so she could follow her dreams, the two voices in every artist’s head, and why couples therapy is non-negotiable. Then she played ”Waiting For My Day” on piano — a song about patiently trusting that your day is coming.

She actually played two songs in the studio. I picked Waiting For My Day to be the standalone because it showed a more tender version of the Tabitha I know. But this girl has serious chops as a pianist! For eveidence here is a link to the moment in the main conversation where she plays her (much flashier) set piece “Life of the Party” Watch it.

🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube

🎸 Watch Tabitha perform “Waiting For My Day”