NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Many of us find ourselves looking to connect with our family histories. One man's family history happens to be especially unique. Paying tribute to it was going to take something especially unique too.
When I met Jay Bragg, I found his music can tell about the people and places most influential to his story. One of his songs is about Santa's Pub, the bar where he first found community when he moved to Nashville.
On our latest visit, Bragg was talking about a musical inspiration that goes way further back than playing local gigs. This was about Bragg's childhood and his grandparents.
"Ernie and Ursula Basiner," he began. "I went over there after school a lot. There was always a lot of music in the house."
There's an incredible story of how his grandparents met.
The word "vaudeville" refers to a kind of variety show on stage from the 1880s, running the next decades.
"Vaudeville is you have music, comedians, dancers, ventriloquists," Bragg said. "Vaudeville was an escape in those days, often from a hard life. 20s and 30s, we're talking about the Great Depression era."
It was for working class people and a part of the vaudeville story was Bragg's grandparents.
"They met in 1932, 1933 in New York City at one of the vaudeville theaters there," he explained. "They had an act together. It was a couple's act, which was very common in those days, a man and a woman doing a whole routine."
The vaudeville era was winding down in the 1930s. Bragg began thinking about a tribute to an era and two people who lived it.
Tuesday night was a rehearsal for the Jay Bragg and the Transylvanians band. They were practicing for another in a series of shows called New Vaudeville.
"We've had dancers, magicians, jugglers, a guy on stilts, sword swallowers, and we're just getting started!" Bragg said.
The next show is a costume party at the 5 Spot Saturday night called Voo Doo in New Vaudeville.
Bragg changes up the shows, but there is one mainstay on the setlist.
"We do something called Ernie and Ursula's Vaudeville Medley," he said. "It's the actual medley my grandparents met playing in 1930s Vaudeville. It's still a part of our act. My grandparents died while I was still young, so it's one of the wonders of my life that I get to connect with them through the legacy of the songs they left our family, songs that not only tell their story but tell the story of America in a lot of ways. I get to visit them every time I pull those old songs out and carry that torch forward."
Bragg finished rehearsing another song.
"Yeah, alright! For Ernie and Ursula!" he said.
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