Local Blues Rocker Reed Turchi Teams Up With Sean Brock

Inglewood resident Reed Turchi’s music often defies categorization, with words like “psychedelic,” “rootsy” and “Kudzu boogie” occasionally bandied about. He’s best known for his interpretations of Mississippi hill country blues, like the sort made famous by Junior Kimbrough and other artists on the Fat Possum Records label.

When Sean Brock wanted to learn that style of guitar playing, he connected with Turchi. The two became friends and collaborators in several interesting projects. Brock brought Turchi to visit the Willett Distillery in Kentucky, where Turchi picked out a special single barrel of bourbon and then recorded his album Angel’s Share on the top floor of the Willett rickhouse that was aging his barrel.

This is to say, Turchi is the good kind of crazy and obsessive, which is also an accurate way to describe Chef Brock when he is deep into a culinary groove. Brock’s latest restaurant Audrey is exactly the sort of result that arises from his maniacal dedication to creativity, research, experimentation and love of history — in this case, the culture of Appalachian cuisine.

Audrey seems like an ideal spot for these two visionaries to come together on Thursday, March 10, to unveil Turchi’s latest project, an interactive multisensory homage to the Southwest featuring a special single-barrel agave spirit that he has selected served along with snacks from chef Brock and cocktails crafted by another of Audrey’s geniuses-in-residence, bar director Jonathan Howard.

The event will take place in the small upstairs bar at Audrey, intentionally limiting the audience to 10 patrons per seating at 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. As part of his latest album, Creosote Flats, Turchi traveled the area around Sedona, Ariz., recording ambient nature sounds which he then enhanced and played over in his studio. That natural soundtrack will greet guests as they enter and sit down to a welcoming straight pour of Turchi’s specially selected NETA's Pulquero Agave Spirit, created by master agave distiller Niki Nakazawa, co-founder of NETA. She will also be on hand to guide guests through a description of the agave distilling process, including a lesson in how different varieties of the plant contribute vastly different flavor characteristics to spirits like tequila, mezcal and sotol.

Brock will serve small bites along with each course, which will also be accompanied by songs played by Turchi and his multi-instrumentalist partner in the project Ben Sparaco. Howard has created a five-cocktail flight to complement the food, the music and the complex flavor components of the mezcal distilled from the pulquero strain of agave. These are some intense notes, like creosote (hence the album title), bold minerality and unique esters contributed by the open cypress-vat fermentation that draws in the natural yeasts of the village of Logoche in Oaxaca.

Needless to say, this is a spirit and an experience that will be unrepeatable, not even among the three seatings because everything is designed to flow together in whatever direction the vibe of the music, food and drink drives it. Astonishingly, Turchi and Audrey are only charging $75 for what is essentially a private concert, the chance to drink a one-of-a-kind spirit, cocktails crafted by one of Nashville’s best bartenders and food designed to tie it all together by a James Beard Award-winning chef.

If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, visit the reservations page on Turchi’s website. Payment won’t be taken until the night of the event, so if for some reason you decide you can’t make it, please let them know in advance. You’d hate to see even one seat go empty for something as singular as this!