Stream: “Dancing in the Dark”

01 Dancing In The Dark

iTunes | Spotify

Photographed by Jamie Clayton in Nashville, TN
Nikon F100, Portra 400

Raised in:
Sugar Land, Texas

Lives in:
Brooklyn, New York

What you miss most about living “below the line”:
In general, I miss the country. I miss nature and constantly being a short car ride to hiking, camping, or swimming. Specific to Nashville, I miss the music scene so much. I miss live old country and bluegrass. 

Now would ya look at that:
Alex Crawford is the Head Photographer, Art Director and a Co-Owner at TSBMen.com. I’m a huge TSB Men fan, so a while back when they tweeted that Alex was in Nashville, I reached out to see if Jamie could shoot him. Everyone obliged and made it happen.

• Indochino linen blend suit and fan patterned shirt.
• Vintage tie and pocket square.
• Hand-me-down crocodile belt and croc shoes from his father.
• Bourbon.

Photographed by Alex Shahmiri

On Wednesday, I got this text from my friend Larry: You need to check out James Bay, esp his song “Move Together.” James Vincent McMorrow meets John Mayer.

So Thursday morning, I sat down with my cup of coffee, and routinely started some searches for new sounds to get my day going. James Bay was first, and I didn’t get any further than that for about an hour.

“Move Together” on repeat, with breaks to scour YouTube in search of performances of other songs (like this one). 

Larry never leads me astray, and he has a way of describing musicians sounds perfectly. James Vincent meets John Mayer? Nailed it. But also so much more, with his own uniqueness and way of making you want more. He’s from the UK, of course, Hitchin to be exact. Oh, and he’s 22.

Stream: “Move Together”

Move Together

This single precedes his debut EP release, The Dark and the Morning, coming July 22nd.

Download “Move Together” for free on his website or Soundcloud.

______

Subscribe to Go Back Down South, a Spotify playlist for all the songs featured here.

Photographed in Nashville, TN

Raised in:
Omaha, Nebraska

Lives in:
The island of East Nashville.

Favorite southern style trend:
The trend of bold colors is one I think will stick around for a while. I also love blending the formal and casual line – dressing up denim & dressing down suits – the unexpected is much more fun!

Now would ya look at that:
Meet Matt, a Sales Associate at Nashville’s FLIP consignment store for almost four years.

• Warby Parker glasses.
• Broletto jacket from Nordstrom.
• hook +ALBERT lapel flower.
• Vintage hanky.
• Sid Mashburn spread collar shirt (from FLIP).
• Billy Reid tie.
• J. Hilburn slacks.
• Ralph Lauren double monks (bench made in England, snagged from FLIP).

Photographed in Nashville, TN

Raised in:
Greenville, South Carolina

Lives in:
Nashville, Tennessee

Favorite southern based designer:
My favorite designer, hands down, is Sid Mashburn. What I love about Sid is that his clothing is indicative of his personal style. It’s timeless menswear with a perfect blend of European & American influence. When it comes to southern dress, Sid is the Godfather.

Now would ya look at that:
Meet Justin, a Sales Associate at Nashville’s FLIP consignment store for two years.

• Ray-Ban glasses.
• Sid Mashburn for Garden and Gun tie (from FLIP).
• Jack Spade OCBD.
• Ralph Lauren Rugby raw denim.
• J.Crew belt.
• Footjoy crocodile tassel loafers (handcrafted in USA, snagged from FLIP).

So we’re going, and we’re taking some friends, and we’re going to tackle as much as humanly possible in 36 hours. Feel free to comment on this post and add to our already unattainable list of places to eat and drink because we’re only visiting places recommended by readers. Or tweet us your suggestions.

Why are we going now? Well, we’re teaming up for a really fun campaign with Southeast Toyota Distributers, LLC (Toyota). They’re providing us with use of a RAV4 for a short period of time and a gas card. We’re receiving no other compensation from Toyota.

As we prepare for the trip, I had to whip up a playlist for the 3.5 hour drive and thought I’d share it with y’all.

Subscribe to Go (to) Birmingham. A few more tunes may find their way on the playlist in the next few days.

Make sure to follow the fun on instagram (all related posts on the gram/twitter will include #rav4inspired).

The Drink: When it comes to such a historic cocktail, you’re going to find various ways to make it. Some use sugar cubes, some use syrup, some use lemon peel, some flame orange peel, Herbsaint or Absinthe…the options seem overwhelming. But, what we want whiskey lovers to know is that this drink is actually incredibly simple to make at home.

First – don’t let absinthe scare you. It’s an anise-flavored liquor derived from leaves and flowers and putting it in your cocktail(s) will not make you hallucinate. For those interested, read more about it here. It can also be pricey, but the small amount used in your drinks will make it last longer than anything else in your bar. Some liquor stores sell mini bottles of Absente for about $10. I (Caroline) have been using mine for months.

Second - you’ve got to use Peychaud’s bitters. Peychaud’s is comparable to Angostura, but has a lighter body, sweeter taste, and is what helps make the Sazerac such a pretty drink.

So, here is what we use, what we do, and why we use and do what we use and do…

• Rye Whiskey – we recommend Sazerac for your Sazerac.
• Absinthe – we both use Absente. Herbsaint is often recommended because its drier than Pernod and sweeter than Absente. We love Absente because of its price and because it’s not as sweet as Herbsaint.
• Peychaud’s
• Simple syrup
• Orange or lemon peel – we like flaming an orange peel to a lemon zest, but sometimes it just depends on what we have in the fridge. Both are delicious, but flaming an orange peel is also a lot more fun.

Chill an old fashioned glass.
Take another old fashioned glass and add 2.5-3 oz Rye (we like 3), 3/4 oz simple syrup and 2-3 dashes Peychaud’s.
Add ice and stir until cold.
Take your chilled glass and a splash of absinthe for an absinthe rinse (1/4 oz or less).
Swirl the absinthe to coat the glass and discard the rest. You can also fill a small spray bottle with absinthe and spray your glass instead of rinsing.
Strain the rye, bitters and syrup into your absinthe rinsed glass.
Flame an orange peel to add caramelized citrus oil, or lemon peel twist.
No garnish.

The Glass: Crown Royal lowball glass.

You may remember in this post the story of how Jamie really wanted to impress a girl who will go unnamed but her initials may or may not be AC. He did some pretty extensive research and discovered that she liked St-Germain (she told him over Twitter). This is the drink that he made for her. I’d been hearing him talk about it for a while now and wanted him to whip it up for this series and dang…I’m glad I did. 

The Drink:

• 2 oz gin – we used New Amsterdam
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 1/3 oz St-Germain
• Lavender bitters
• 1/8 lemon
• 1 strawberry
• Mint

In a cocktail shaker, muddle lemon, strawberry and one sprig of mint (smack that mint before you muddle to release the mint oils).
Add gin, simple syrup, St-Germain and 2 dash lavender bitters.
Add ice, shake it, strain it.
Garnish with a mint leaf.

The Glass: Coupe from The Boston Shaker.

“Hermano is the Spanish word for ‘brother’ – a fact that neither Michael nor Gob knew when they were tracking down the elusive man they believed was named Hermano. Turns out, Marta was interested in Gob’s hermano – Michael.” 

The Drink: I (Caroline) was inspired by Proof and Provision‘s Retox cocktail. I didn’t try it while I was there, but I wrote down the listed ingredients thinking it would be interesting to make at home. That being said, I have no idea if this cocktail tastes anything like their Retox, but will be going back soon to find out. Ours definitely has a perfectly balanced sweet and sour flavor with a little kick!

First, the ingredients.

• Silver 100% agave tequila – we used Camarena 
• Maple chili syrup (you’ll need pure maple syrup and 1 serrano pepper for this).
• Fresh lime juice
• Orange bitters

Second, the syrup. I made a small batch, but if you use equal parts you can make however much you want.

• 1:1 maple syrup to water. I did 1/4 cup water to a 1/4 cup maple syrup. 
• Put it on the stove and heat it up. Stir until syrup and water are combined well. Turn it down.
• Cut 1 serrano pepper, get the seeds out, and then slice.
• Add a few slices at a time and let seep for a few minutes. I did this to taste. You want this to have a kick, but not be so spicy that it overpowers the syrup flavor. I ended up using almost all of the serrano, but this is up to you. Just keep adding, letting it seep, then tasting. Once it’s where you want on the spice level, take the peppers out! Also, note that I used almost an entire pepper for the small amount I made, so make sure to get enough peppers if you want to make a large batch of the syrup.

Now, the cocktail.

• 2 oz tequila
• 3/4 oz maple chili syrup
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 2 dash orange bitters

Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
Strain into a glass with some large ice cubes (we have Tovolo tray’s).
Garnish with a lime slice.

The Glass: Anthropologie Color Pop glass.

The Drink: It’s a beer cocktail, baby! We adapted this one from Chow’s Dirty Flower recipe. We nixed the grapefruit and Ludacris’d it up with a Southern wheat beer. Instead of making a pitcher of it and passing out, we altered it to a single serving. 

• 2 oz gin – we used Plymouth
• 1 oz St-Germain
• 3/4 oz lemon juice (fresh to death)
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 2 dash orange bitters
• Southern wheat beer – we used Yazoo’s Hefeweizen (Nashville brewery love)

Put a handful of ice in a pint glass.
Pour all of the ingredients, minus the beer, and stir ‘em up.
Top with beer, garnish with a big lemon peel.

The Glass: Target pint glass.