JarredCat’s Music Employee

Left:Outside of Cat’s Music on 3623 Gallatin Rd.

Cat’s Music is a family owned and operated music and records shop with locations in

Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis and the Tri-Cities area. They have a huge selection of

music by popular and local artists, as well as lots of music and albums from the past.

It is a well known spot for DJ’s and producers looking for something different to add

to their collection. I love the outside of this building. It has the characteristic Cat’s

Music Cat painted on the side of the building, and a great big yellow sign out front. I

also love the glass cubes on the outside of the building and the bright yellow awning.

I interveiwed Jarred, who was working behind the counter. When I asked if he would

be willing to do a 10 minute interview he was receptive and honest, and even had a

pretty awesome story to tell me.

So whats up?

Not much, whats goin on?

What is your name sir?

My name is Jarred.

And you work here, at Cat’s Music on Gallatin Road.

That’s correct.

How long has this store been open? Do you know?

No honestly I don’t know. But I’ve been here a year and a half. Its been here a pretty decent

amount of time though, I can tell you that.

At least 20 years you think?

Give or take.

Me: So, what’s it like to work here?

Its actually real cool! Its pretty chill, real laid back, a lot of locals come in here all the time. I can’t

complain.

You make good money?

No but you know, you get paid for what you work for.

1 The grafitti-esque sign on the side of the building. 2 Famous cigar smoking Cat.

Left:Jarred at his post inside the store.

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And you get to work with music all day! Thats nice.

I do, I do. Music and real cool people. So you know, its all good.

So, what kind of crazy stuff has gone down here since you’ve worked here?

Oh, um, robberies, shootings, Oh yeah. It happens. Especially in this neck of the town. Thats

just the way it is.

People come in here with guns and try to rob the place?

Not me. The store’s been robbed twice before. But I have seen customers with guns in here.

Drug deals go on here. Thats just how it is.

So you have alot of regulars that come in?

Oh yeah definately. Actually about 90% of our customers are regulars. Just people that live

around the city.

DJ’s trying to find music...

DJ’s, or just, you know typical people who want whats new, whats hot.

And you got all the hot music here.

Um, we try. We try to keep it in stock. We also have a lot of older stuff, jazz and a lot of indie

stuff that people don’t really know about. We try to be...not discriminating, definately on the

music front.

And you just work here. You dont live in East Nashville..

No, I live nowhere near here actually, I live in Goodletsville, which is the country side of the

city. I live way out.

So why did you come down here to work?

I filled out an application not thinking they were gonna hire me and they did. And a year and

half later I’m still here. The drive’s not really all that hot, but its worth it working here.

Awesome. So have you met a lot of cool people?

I have. A lot of artist come through here, a lot of local artists, local rappers, people from out of

town...there’s a lot of real cool people. Its real nice actually.

Have you met any famous people?

Famous per-say. I’ve met Haystack, he’s a local rapper. Mike Jones has been here, MJG, from

8Ball and MJG came here once, LeChat, Lord Infamous from 36Mafia has been here...

Wow, thats pretty hot.

Yeah, its aight. Its cool peoples man... its a cool place. Inside of Cat’s MusicRight: H

So have you got any other crazy stories you can tell me?

Um, actually once when I first started here a guy wanted to use the restroom and I told him

it wasn’t public so, what he did is he went to go take a...a movement in a bag and he actually

brought it in the store and kinda walked around with it.

Oh my god.

Yeah, just to kinda get on my nerves a little bit. And it was everywhere, it was on his shirt and

on his hands and everything so, it was not real cool.

That is nasty! Did yall call the cops?

Nope, he just kinda bounced. It was just a funny story to tell after that.

Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I think I’m going to look around a little bit.

Do you have anything you reccomend?

What kind of stuff are you into?

You know what the hot albums are–Whats flyin’ off your shelves?

Well the new India Arie is pretty good, you should check that out. We’re getting the new MIMS

in soon too, and people are excited about that. But just look around we’ve got all kinds of stuff

for everyone. You can count on that.

Left:

The rap and rock/pop sections have every album you could ever dream of.