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Jamie RubinPhoto by Tiffany Head
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Jamie Rubin has been a bartender, bookkeeper, and band booker at The Family Wash in East Nashville. He's also a sound guy, stock boy, and the club's owner. On most Tuesdays, he's a songwriter and performer on stage belting it out with the Carpetbaggers, a band made up of longtime friends and veteran musicians such as The Cure guitarist Reeves Gabrels. But of all the roles Rubin plays at the Wash, which packed up late last month and will relocate by this summer, his favorite is something like a community center organizer.
'We would often joke that The Family Wash was the crossroads of the music universe,” Gabrels says. 'And it continues to function for a lot of us as a sweet alternative to the closed-shop, old-boy network of much of the rest of Nashville.”
After a 13-year run on the backside of East Nashville's ever-struggling corner of Greenwood and Porter, the Wash is in the process of moving to the neighborhood's front porch, off Main Street. Its funky vibe, good music, and good food without pretense will remain; the signature Smurf-colored hut will be left behind. That's created some handwringing in the community, but maybe a place this real and soulful had to be cultivated along the grittier backstreetswhere it's been shut down, revived, robbed, and raidedbefore it could step out front to truly shine. A lot of regulars hope so, and no one is more confident and enthusiastic than its ringleader, Rubin.
'I opened this place, my first son was born, and then I turned 40,” he said of that fateful one-month period in 2002. 'So there's a lot of attachment to this place. I used to think it couldn't be anywhere else. But it can, and it needs to be.”
Though cramped, the quarters have always been part of the charmas has the clientele. Many of today's loyal customers are the same ones who frequented the spot when it opened. On any given night you might find Roy Agee on trombone (if he's not playing with Prince) or Audley Freed, formerly The Black Crowes, on guitar. Freed's wife, Jen Gunderman, hosts the Wash's popular Ornaments extravaganza, an annual holiday show of Vince Guaraldi tunes.
Even when times weren't so good for the Wash, like in the late 2000s, the regulars stuck around for the camaraderie and the opportunity to express themselves in the laid-back and supportive atmosphere that Rubin fosters. Rubin has encouraged Pete Finney, a regular and pedal steel player for acts like the Dixie Chicks, to express himself through new genres with a jazz residency. Other Wash friends helped him produce themed nights like the Sons of Zevon, incorporating more rock 'n' roll (and a new customer base) to the space. All the themed nights will continue at the new location, and Rubin remains open, as always, to ideas of collaboration across all genres.
'I really want it to be like a living room,” he says, 'where people can try anything.”
Rubin talks in animated bursts of energy. Often wearing a scarf, a double-hoop earring combo, and a Rolling Stones pin on his vest, he has a rock 'n' roll swagger, a willingness to keep learning, and a curiosity in others that keeps him young in spirit. He grew up in a music-loving family in New England: His grandfather led a jazz band, and his father gave him his first Harmony guitar with nylon strings when he was about six years old. He wanted steel strings, though, so that he could rock. Those days would come soon enough, when as a teenager he joined a working band with members several years his senior. He moved to Nashville in 1997 with his wife, Michelle, as a singer-songwriter hoping to land a publishing deal in a new territory. 'I was immediately, pretty much, turned away at every avenue,” he said. 'It's not an unusual story for any artist that moves here.” He took a job at Fido and continued to play music. When a regular approached him about opening The Family Wash, he was wary at first, having bought a house just around the corner.
'‘Man, I don't know about that corner,'” Rubin recalls saying. '‘That corner's not ready'…[but] when he mentioned music, I was like, ‘All right.'”
Ask people around town about the Wash, and you'll no doubt hear stories of classic Nashville nights. For some, it's a go-to spot to take visitors. Others have had first dates and then later married there. Rubin's favorite night happened early on when his friend Peter Wolf of The J. Geils Band climbed up on the tables to play. Rubin also credits Wolf with encouraging him to fill the space with oddball tchotchkes like a Key West snow globe, old books, a rubber duck wearing a yarmulke Buddha-printed lanterns, and a pink statue of Jesus, which was stolen. A Wash regular had a replacement shipped from the United Kingdom.
All the tchotchkesartwork, quilts, strings of red lightswill make the move to the new space, joining the Main Street–Gallatin Road renaissance that has brought Scout's Barbershop, Fat Bottom Brewery, Hey Rooster General Store, Edley's Barbecue, The Hop Stop, and more. Chef John Stephenson, also formerly of Fido, will take over the new Wash kitchen, keeping the beloved shepherd's pie on the menu while adding his own creations. And many people trust that beyond the trinkets, pies, and pints, Rubin can also move the magic.
'He's the guy you can't help but like and root for,” says Gabrels. 'And any love you show him is returned many times over. That is why his clientele, in a town that is beginning to chafe at the change that comes with the progress and spotlight many wanted, is supportive and positive about the 'new' Family Wash.”
The magic, after all, is mostly in the music. The people who make and celebrate it will carry on the soul and vibe at The Family Wash 2.0. All that will be left at Greenwood Avenue are those crooked empty walls.