EAT

Oct. 14: Mount Vernon Marketplace turns 1!

Mount Vernon Marketplace, 520 Park Ave.
7-11 p.m. Free

We can’t
believe it’s been a year since our new favorite hangout was born. At the Mount Vernon Marketplace, we’ve found ourselves playing Ping-Pong and taking shots of
fire hooch from Pinch Dumplings, dancing to Rob Macy’s Save Your Soul mixes
with Taps Fill Station beers in hand, and indulging in one too many (if there
was such a thing) oysters and shrimp salad sandwiches at The Local Oyster.
Within 12 short months, the food hall has become a neighborhood staple, be it
for business lunches, first-date dinners, or happy hours with friends. This
weekend, celebrate this awesome addition to our city, with a big birthday cake
from Edible Flavors, live music by the one and only Rufus Roundtree and Da
B’more Brass Factory, and food and drink specials all night.

DRINK

Oct. 15: Das Wurst Oktoberfest Block Party

Das Bier Haus, 1542 Light St. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Free.

Das Bier Haus
has been a welcome addition to the band of sports bars that make up Federal
Hill (we even named it “Best Beer Bar” this year).
With a wide selection of German ales, sausages and schnitzel, and boots to
boot, the South Baltimore beer hall has quickly become a gathering grounds and
brunch destination for the local community. This Saturday, toast the month of
October (and the end of Baltimore Beer Week) with giant steins, a bevy of
bratwurst, and Bear Pong tournaments towards the end of Light Street. Engage in
a sausage- eating contest, play a round of cornhole, and enjoy up a cool,
alfresco, fall day.

SEE

Oct. 14: MICA’s Sweat Eyeballs Animation Invitational

MICA Brown Center, Falvey Hall Auditorium, 1300 W. Mount Royal Ave. 7:30-10 p.m. Free-$5.

For the fifth
year, the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Maryland Film Festival
present the Sweaty Eyeballs, a showcase of independent animations. These
narrative, experimental, and music video works were made by local, national,
and international artists using a variety of techniques—including stop motion,
hand drawing, and CGI. In this weird and wonderful display of creativity, see short
films by MICA alum-turned PBS design Lauren Puglisi, Los Angeles-based animator
Miranda Javid (who has shown at the BMA and who recently made this mesmerizing
music video to the new
single “Become Younger” by Baltimore band Peals), Sundance Film
Festival-awarded Korean filmmaker Kangmin Kim, and German illustrators Volker
Schlect and Alexander Lahls.

HEAR

Oct. 15-16: WPOC Weekend in the Country

Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Columbia. 1 p.m. $55-175. 410-715-5550.

Even the most serious country music haters are now putting on their cowboy hats for the boot-scooting Southern genre that’s made its way into the mainstream. Don your bandanas and cutoff jeans to hear big names like the party-starting Little Big Town (“Pontoon,” “Day Drinking”) and up-and-comers like the dynamic duo LOCASH (which is one-part Baltimore native). After 15 years, local country music radio station 93.1 FM has turned this swaggering Southern music festival into a favorite fall tradition.

DO

Locations & times vary, starting at 7 a.m. $15-280. 410-605-9381.

Marathon masters, after months of training, it’s the day you’ve all been waiting for—the Baltimore Running Festival is finally here. Whatever your abilities, hit the pavement with everything from a 5K race to 26.2 miles through the heart of Baltimore City. Test your endurance or run for one of many great causes, including the Kennedy Krieger Institute or One Love Foundation.

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What did it feel like to get your first Top 25 record?
Man, it’s surreal. We’ve been trying at this for 10 years. And coming from Baltimore, to where we [are] now in Nashville, we’ve been all over the country. It’s a surreal feeling; it’s amazing.

How does it feel when you come home to play in Baltimore? Do you feel a different kind of energy?
Oh, I love it. I love being home, seeing all my friends and family, and fans, and talking to them . . . It’s one of my favorite things to do, to come home and play.

Do you have a favorite venue in Baltimore?
[We] love everywhere we play. The other night we played Chesapeake Beach and it was different, but it was one of the prettiest venues that we’ve ever played. And we played Rams Head in Baltimore, and in Annapolis. But now, for the first time, we’re getting ready to play Merriweather. That was a dream of mine as a child.

How did country become such a big part of your life growing up?
I know a lot of people don’t think Baltimore is big on country, but [it has] one of the biggest radio stations in country music, WPOC. [WPOC DJ] Laurie DeYoung was one of the first. I used to listen to her show and I thought it was so cool. I’m an ’80s rocker, I love ’90s R&B. I just love good music. So when Garth Brooks came to town, my dad got me tickets and he said, ‘Go see this guy, I got you tickets, you’re in the third row.’ So I went and saw him and I fell in love with country music. He’s a great entertainer and that really got me into it. I started digging karaoke shows because I played baseball on the road. One day I sang and there was someone in the crowd that said, ‘Hey man, I work for Kings Dominion and we’re looking for singers.’ I was like, ‘What? I play baseball, come on,’ and then he told me how much money I could make, so I was like, ‘This is fantastic!’ And that was it—the start of my music career.

That’s such a crazy story.
Yeah, I called all my baseball friends and said, ‘You guys think women are into? Baseball? Nuh uh, check the entertainment industry!’

Okay, so I have to know—where does the name LOCASH come from?
LOCASH came from Preston, and he had a so-called ‘gang’ of buddies, kids that hung out. They were called the Locash Money Boys. [It was about] the best things in life are free and you remember where you came from. I love that mentality, and I said, ‘What if we were the cowboys, the Locash cowboys?’ And now we’re just LOCASH because everybody started calling us LOCASH anyway. But I thought it was a cool thing. It doesn’t mean you’re poor, even though we were back then, it just means you remember your roots.

Speaking of Preston, he’s from Indiana, and you’re from here. How did you guys come together?
We [met] each other at the Wildhorse Saloon [in Nashville] and we ended up working together. One night we had this band on the microphone and people were loving it and I was like, ‘Do you sing?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, man do you?’ and I said ‘Yup.’ So I tried to line us up a few record deals, but they really fell through. First thing they say, when you get a deal and then lose a deal, ‘Welcome to Nashville.’ We’re on our third one, and this one is the bomb. They put a lot of belief behind us and a great team is working on our record. It’s taken us 10 years to do it.

You guys have written for Keith Urban and Tim McGraw. How did those collaborations come about?
I write a lot with my brother and a couple other guys in Nashville and we just got blessed. We had ‘You Gonna Fly’ on hold for two years. We wrote it and didn’t think anything of it, and then Keith calls one day and says, ‘Hey man, I want to cut the song’ and we’re like, ‘Holy cow!’ Then you hope he makes it a single, and he did make it a single, and it changed our lives. Four months later, Tim McGraw called for ‘Truck Yeah.’ We write for ourselves, but we can’t record everything we write, so we hope that other artists will pick up some of our material.

How has the release of “I Love This Life” been?
It’s so cool because I wrote that with Preston and guys named Chris Janson and Danny Myrick, the same writers that wrote ‘Truck Yeah.’ That song was on hold for other artists, but we took it off hold, and we got a new record label and the record label was like, ‘Hey man, this is the song we want,’ and we were like, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to take it away from us.’ So we called the artist, and he was cool about it, he let us take it and here it is. It’s just one of those songs that’s a pick-me-up, a feel-good song. There’s a lot of negativity in the world right now—Baltimore’s going through a tough time and I truly don’t believe our city is like that. But we love the song ‘I Love This Life’ because there’s a lot to love, more than there is to be negative about.

That’s a great mantra to have. And the music video looks like an absolute blast. Is it all fun and games?
Absolutely not. [laughs] I mean, the stage shows, yes, it’s always fun and games. It’s always great because you’re in front of fans and you’re living for that moment. So all that work in between is for that hour on stage to perform. People don’t understand the inside scoop, the stuff where you get up at 4 a.m. to fly out to a radio station in San Antonio and fly into Fresno that same night, and the next morning you’re flying over Toronto to New York. We’ve been on 72 flights this year and we’re touring this album on a bus, so the hardest thing for me is being away from my family.

What do you say to people who brush country off as silly songs about beer and trucks?
‘Bro country’ has changed country music for the better. I don’t know why people call it bro country, maybe because it has a beat behind it. Country music has been singing about trucks, drinks, and girls for years. Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, ‘There’s a Tear in my Beer.’ It’s always been there, and I just think when something gets so popular, people tend to be negative. Music is going to evolve, as the world should evolve, and people will evolve. Taylor Swift brought a ton of young girls who never would’ve listened to country music before, and I think country music also has respect for different genres. Country music is wide open for any artist, even rappers. It’s very welcoming, and open-minded, and it didn’t used to be.

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Laurie DeYoung and Konan

WPOC’s country godmother and 92Q’s hip-hop connoisseur talk life lessons, longevity, and, of course, their lifeblood: music.

By Lydia Woolever & Gabriella Souza

Laurie DeYoung and Konan crack up at Rams Head Live In June. —Photography by Mike Morgan

For decades, Laurie DeYoung and Konan have dominated the local airwaves. Whether it’s a hot new rap track or a classic Southern song, the DJs have been the voices who introduced us to some of our favorite music. The two sat down together for the first time at Rams Head Live in June.

Laurie DeYoung: I came here in ’85, after I was already in [the business for] 10 years. This was my ninth station and I had never worked at a country station. For years I had done rock, talk-radio, hot hits . . .

Konan: Country’s not going anywhere.

LD: It ages well, because people of all ages like country. That’s the beauty of it.

K: It’s part of the blues that my dad used to listen to. It’s just a different version of it. The good thing about country music is young people are always coming up, like Taylor Swift, and they just fit right in. The only names making money in rock are the Fleetwood Macs, the Queens, and Billy Joels.

LD: The Stones are still touring, which amazes me.

K: That was the music I grew up on. It wasn’t broken up the way it is now. I have all those albums. I still listen to them.

LD: That was the stuff I used to play, in the late ’70s, early ’80s. I was into rock back then. Even when you look at country, those roots go back—Elvis used to be considered a country artist. There are a lot of influences.

K: My dad’s era was Motown. I grew up on Motown. Everything in our house was Motown.

LD: As a kid, I was a huge Diana Ross fan. People look at me and go, ‘Seriously? Diana Ross?’ But when I was a little girl, I used to make up these little dance routines to The Supremes. I thought she was the greatest, and then I saw her in Lady Sings the Blues—you know, the Billie Holiday story? She’s from Baltimore. I just remember there was just something about that skinny little girl. I was a skinny little girl at one time.

K: [Radio] is what I love to do. I really can’t believe the amount of money I get paid to do something I might do for free. You started when you were 19. I started when I was 19. My first check was $269 every two weeks.

LD: I think my first check was $108. I always get it mixed up with my first house payment. They were all kind of close.

K: Whoa, did you keep it?

LD: No, we sold it. It was a long time ago in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My dad moved around a lot. . . but I lived in Michigan a lot. I worked at a station in San Diego for a little bit, too.

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“I TOLD MY BOSS, WHEN I STOP HAVING FUN, I’M JUST GOING TO NOT COME IN.”

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K: I love San Diego.

LD: We weren’t there long. The guy who owned the station—this was back when individuals owned them, which doesn’t happen much anymore—got in financial trouble. He came and fired the morning show, the program director, and the general manager. We just walked in one morning and boom.

K: That’s how radio happens.

LD: Everybody should go through it. It gives you total empathy for others because, until that point in my life, I thought people got fired because they weren’t doing a good job, but I was working hard. It was a great lesson for me to learn, and I remember it well. San Diego was beautiful [but] people kept a distance. Baltimore was much more engaging, more neighborhood-y. It’s got more of a community feel.

K: The inner city of Baltimore was like everybody knew everybody. Growing up, you could get sugar from your next-door neighbor. We didn’t have a lot.

LD: You said that’s one of the things that really drove you.

K: Since I was 10 years old, I’ve always had a job—[that’s when I got] my first paper route. My dad was serious, like ‘Listen, you gotta do it.’

LD: I started working at 15 and never stopped. I just wanted to be out. I wanted to do stuff. I wanted that independence. I’ve always liked work.

K: I always knew I wasn’t a nine-to-five person. I was not going to be in an office.

Laurie DeYoung and Konan discuss their careers at Rams Head Live. —Photography by Mike Morgan

LD: And you’re a motivational speaker. Tell me about that. Motivate us.

K: I talk to young people because I was that class clown that got set back in the tenth grade. So when I talk to them, I explain the ups and downs they may go through. . . . I’m passionate about several things, as long as it involves helping other people. I fell in love with radio because I did this program called Reading is Fundamental. I read to some kids and one grabbed me around my leg and started thanking me for coming to this poverty-stricken area. The feeling that I got was just: This is what I want to do. I want to help people. Radio is about serving the community, disseminating information, and having fun. That’s the way I think about it, because if you’re the voice of the people in your time slot, you have to give them something.

LD: I’ll tell you the best true story that ever happened to me. It’s the highlight of my career. My husband used to be on staff at a big church. These two girls came up after the service and told me how they grew up—their mom was a drug addict and an alcoholic—and they said, ‘You were our mom. We listened to you every morning.’ How do you ever beat something like that? That’s the personal connection of radio. It’s more than just somebody playing the songs you like.

K: You just never know what your reach is.

LD: The radio is a very personal medium. It’s really unlike anything else.

K: I love the passion of the business. I told my boss, when I stop having fun, I’m just going to not come in.

LD: You have to keep it fresh. You can tell when somebody’s mailing it in. Fun is important to me. It’s one of the reasons I got into radio. You know, the whole ‘theater of the mind’ idea. I want it to be interesting. I want to serve the audience. If you’re not flexible and you’re not willing to grow and evolve and move and change, then . . .

K: The gavel swings.

LD: You want to be relevant. If there comes a day when I don’t want to go to one more concert or Preakness event, that’s when I just need to go, ‘Okay.’

K: It’s fun reinventing yourself. People like us have been doing it for a while but you know there’s always a young person just waiting for it—gunning.

LD: You want to be the one to say when you’re ready.

K: It’s so different from anything else I could be doing. It’s just so much fun.

LD: It is fun. It’s a fun job. You get so many unique opportunities.

K: I hope the people listening are having fun, too.

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• 

  Kwame Kwei-Armah & Lawrence Gilliard Jr.

• 

  Reverend Donté L. Hickman Sr. & David Warnock

• 

  David Simon & Laura Lippman

• 

  Dr. Leana Wen & Dr. Robert C. Gallo

• 

  Denise Koch & Stan Stovall

• 

  Josh Charles & Derek Waters

• 

  José Antonio Bowen & Shanaysha Sauls

• 

  D. Watkins & Clarence M. Mitchell IV

• 

  Gaia & Doreen Bolger

• 

  Deb Tillett & John Davis

• 

  Damian Mosley & Linwood Dame

• 

  A Conversation with Dan Deacon

• 

  The Burning Question

• 

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