On this episode of Pocket Change Podcast, we talk to Jackson's own Lauren
“Lolo” Pritchard, a singer-songwriter whose journey has taken her from Broadway to giving back to her hometown. She shares the story behind her annual Christmas show, her passion for supporting local artists, and why she believes in investing in the Jackson community. We hope you’ll be inspired by her commitment to staying true to her music vision and making a difference in her hometown here in West Tennessee.
“I am wired in the sense that I always feel compelled to give back to others because I've been very grateful to have generous, incredible teachers, mentors and experiences throughout my life. I try to just give back any way because I've been able to receive that kind of kindness myself,” Lolo said.
Lolo was born and raised in Jackson and moved to Los Angeles to pursue songwriting after high school. She landed a role in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, which won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy Award. While in New York, she signed a publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing and released several albums. In 2018, she moved back to Jackson and started her own record label, No Reverse Records.
The Lolo Christmas Show and Gospel Brunch is now in its eighth year and it started as a way to provide an all-ages Christmas event that was "come as you are." The show benefits the RIFA Snack Backpack program, which provides food to children in need. This year's show includes three brunches (sold out) and a Saturday evening rock and roll show ($25 tickets).
Lolo feels a responsibility to give back after receiving so much support from teachers, mentors, and the community throughout her life. Jackson is in a period of exciting growth, but it's important that the existing community doesn't get left behind. Investing in people and organizations like RIFA is what will help Jackson thrive in the future.
If you’d like more information on the Snack Backpack program at RIFA, visit their website. You can purchase tickets to Lolo’s Christmas show on her website.
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Maddie:
And this is Maddie.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change podcast.
Maddie:
Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
So, Maddie, Christmas is coming up this month. You know, families have traditions, things they do, events they attend. Pictures with Santa - those type of things. So we've got an exciting thing to talk about this month, something that's coming up.
Maddie:
Yeah. So here in Jackson we have LOLO's big christmas concert and I’m super excited to talk to a local celebrity, LOLO, today on the podcast.
Shea:
LOLO is a big name!
Maddie:
Yeah!
Shea:
Let me just say, I have high hopes for this podcast.
Maddie:
That's a good one.
So we're excited to welcome our guest LOLO who is a local songwriter and musician here in Jackson to Pocket Change today. Welcome to Pocket Change.
LOLO:
Thanks for having me!
Maddie:
We're excited to have you. So just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in your music career.
LOLO:
I was born and raised here in Jackson until junior year of high school, and then I moved to L.A. and wanted to be a songwriter. I had also been doing professional theater for a long time from the time I was really young. So when I moved to L.A., I had some connections from the songwriting world in Nashville, started doing that there sort of kind of thing getting underway, making connections, writing songs, playing in a reggae band.
It was a funny time. I also got an acting agent because I figured I can make some money filming commercials, and I ended up auditioning for a musical in New York, and I moved to New York senior year of high school, and I was cast in a show which, at the time when I was cast in it, it was still in production musical, and it turned into a big fancy Broadway show called Spring Awakening, and it won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy Award and all this craziness.
And while I was in the middle of doing that, when I was 20, I signed my publishing deal to Sony Music Publishing, and I've been with them for 15 years, and I've put a bunch of records out. My first album, Wasted in Jackson, came out with Island Records in 2010. I put another album out in 2016 with Atlantic Records, and then a few years ago, I started my own record label called No Reverse Records, which is where I've put all of my most recent albums out.
When I'm not doing those LOLO things,
I've written three musicals of my own that are all in varying stages of becoming Broadway shows. And then when I'm not doing that, I write songs for fancy bands like Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy and artists like Matt Nathanson.
Maddie:
Just small, small people.
Shea:
Never heard of them.
LOLO:
Most of my time away, I lived in New York City. I was there like cumulative time of 12 years. Then I also did three and a half years in the United Kingdom, living in London. And so I moved back to West Tennessee and moved back to Jackson in the Fall of 2018. So it's been five years total that I've been back here. And the record label, No Reverse Records, is based both here in Jackson now and still in New York City.
We have our partner there and, um, and I just kind of like bop around just go back whenever. Sometimes I'm here working like a crazy person and sometimes I’m touring.
Shea:
Coming on podcast.
LOLO:
Sometimes I'm back in New York or whatever, you know, sort of everywhere all the time.
Shea:
Not just all that, you do all that but I also have a Christmas show in Jackson that many people are familiar with. So, tell us a little bit how that got started and how it's grown.
LOLO:
The LOLO Christmas show now, the full long title is - it's always been called The LOLO Christmas Show - but now it's called The LOLO Christmas Show and Gospel Brunch. Because it's evolved over the eight years that we've been doing it, You know, like I said, I grew up here and there's a lot of Christmas tradition type performances or things that happen throughout the season.
We've got the Jackson Symphony that does a beautiful Christmas concert. You've got various churches that do their thing and plays and theater whatever, but it didn't seem like there was just a like, “come as you are” Christmas show that happened that also was truly all ages. Like a lot of the Christmas stuff that goes down is it's either strictly for little kids like meeting Santa or, you know, adults that have to be like in a tux or whatever.
And the holidays are a weird time and busy. And so I wanted to, I just sort of thought, I think people would like to come to something that's a little more dressed down and also something they can like truly bring their whole family to if they want to. So that was really like where the initial idea came from.
And the very first year we did it, I wasn't living here then. I put a post on Facebook and, like the week before, we have a 400 people show up.
Maddie:
Wow.
LOLO:
Which was a very big surprise. You just don't know what the holidays are going to be like anyway. People are busy and whatever. So that was interesting and we did it as a free show the first year. And so I thought, Well, hmm, if we did a show next year and 400 more people showed up, and even if everybody just gave $5, you know where could we put that money to be of use to the community? And I still wasn't living back here again, so I was calling friends here, going like: If I was going to partner with an organization, what are your thoughts of who that should be and that was when I learned of the Snack Backpack program at RIFA.
And I was really stunned to find out the numbers and the reality of the children that were not being fed right here.
And I mean, I can remember the early couple of years going and speaking to people and raising money for the event, and people would be like: Here? That's happening here in Jackson? I mean, people really did not know and think that the awareness of the Snack Backpack program obviously gets more and more each year. But especially those first couple of years, I felt like people really...it was hard to believe.
So being able to work with Lisa Tillman and really just the whole of the RIFA organization and support them because ultimately the other hard reality of the Snack Backpack program is they always need resources, not just at Christmas, not just, you know, not in the sort of holy holidays, if you will. It's like they need...they always need our services.
Shea:
They’re serving meals every week at the soup kitchen.
LOLO:
They serve meals to everyone, but also like not just through the school year, but through their bus stop ministry that they do. And so just being able to contribute to what they do is so important and they are able to and give these kids and these students a much better quality of life because I think about how I am when I'm hangry. And I, as sometimes a fully functioning adult, can go get the things I need.
I'm very grateful I can do that.
Shea:
We can open our fridge and get whatever we need.
LOLO:
Or drive to the store. Drive through a drive thru, whatever, you know, kind of thing. And, you know, these are kids. They're young. They can't drive a car, let alone get a job, have their own money, have resources. So to be able to support these young kids in our community who really genuinely need it is been a wonderful thing.
Maddie:
And I just love that you're meeting several needs with the concert. You know, first you saw the need of okay, we need more Christmas things here in Jackson to provide entertainment for people. But beyond that, you're meeting a physical need, a practical need of people who don't have what they need during the holiday season or year round. So I just love that it's meeting so many different needs across a wide spectrum.
LOLO:
That’s really sweet.
Shea:
It's just what community is all about. I mean, bringing people together and serving the needs of the community.
LOLO:
I mean, I feel like, you know, I'm willing to sort of call myself out and say, really, until I became aware of I mean, I have done, you know, fundraising type things throughout my life. But this is the first time where I had really ever taken something head on. Me spearheading the thing.
I don't know that I- until I really started working with the program and doing this - because it's become a year round activity for me. I don't, you know, it never really occurred to me how much people might be struggling.
Even though I think that's a thing that we all can be like sort of aware of in a peripheral way. But I think that's also a hard thing to confront. And I think also with children involved, I think that can be an even more difficult thing to confront. Like it's very hard to sit around and think about the fact that, like kids are going home and they're not eating.
That is very hard. It's a very hard thing to have to picture in your mind. And so I think also, like I understand sometimes why people don't necessarily want to have to be confronted with that. Think about it. Kind of let it be that thing that, like they might hear on the commercial that passes by on TV as they're kind of cooking their own dinner or whatever, you know, it's like that weird thing that that can just sort of exist around us, but not really make it bellow the surface.
Shea:
Get into our hearts.
LOLO:
Yeah.
Maddie:
So how can people get tickets for the Christmas concert this year?
LOLO:
So the Christmas concert, the brunch- so we're doing three shows this year. The brunches are sold out and there are tickets still available to the Saturday evening show. Which will not include food. It's just a good ol rock and roll Christmas show. And that will be Saturday, December 16th at 7 p.m. at Hub City Brewing Company. And the tickets are $25 each, but it's essentially a $25 donation to RIFA.
So every dollar we raise goes to RIFA. The other thing that we encourage people to do is if they want to bring food donations of any kind to the show. Jerry Corley, who owns Hub City Brewing, he's been a huge part of our fundraising efforts through the brewery and through the brunch and everything, and he always sets up a huge basket where if people are bringing food, they put it in the basket and then they literally basically like forklift it across the street to RIFA. So people can bring food and then it's a $25 donation for tickets and you can buy tickets at the door or you can go to lolomusic.com/christmas and buy your tickets.
Shea:
So why is it important to give back to Jackson, your hometown, through your music?
LOLO:
I just in sort of wired in the sense of I always feel compelled to just give back to others because I've been very grateful to have really generous, incredible teachers, mentors and just experiences throughout my life that I try to just give back any way because I've been able to receive that kind of kindness myself.
But I think that right now, specifically, Jackson is in a it's such an interesting growth moment as a city where we have so much coming here between these sort of big new businesses that are choosing to invest in our community and decide to relocate or plant themselves here because they see a valuable opportunity and a resource. And I think that those things are good.
But I think that those things- they have to be met halfway. You can have these outside things coming in. But if the things or the people or the places that are already here are not meeting those things halfway, accepting those things and finding a way to have it be a very healthy give and take of how all of that functions together.
I think sometimes what should seem like it will just turn into an immediate great possibility can kind of fall by the wayside. So I think it's really important for folks to invest in our Jackson community in lots of ways. In giving back, in volunteering, not just through organizations like RIFA, but in all these ways that our community is transforming.
Because I think that that's how, one, it helps it to stay true to itself does not lose sight of its sort of root and core throughout the changes. But I think it also helps people get excited about the future because I think that there's been a little bit of a push-pull of there's people that are fearful of Jackson growing any bigger and then there are people who are so excited that they they really don't even want to hear from the fearful side.
And I understand both sides of it. I have been through a lot of exciting change in my life and I've been grateful for those moments. But sort of also at the same time being like, I think I hate this, what's going on kind of all at the same time, while it's happening. And so I think those fears or excitements are all very valid on either side.
But I think investing in your community and investing in the people of your community, like that's what's going to be there to support what is coming to town or what is being created or what is being built or what is, you know, whatever the changes are. And so if we're not investing in our people, if we're not investing in our community, what is the point of any of the growth or the new additions anyway?
But I think that the more people are willing to take a risk, go to an event, see certain things, volunteer, kind of reach outside their normal circle or whatever their sort of regular routine might be, it always is going to teach you so much more that you thought you knew or didn't know. I mean, kind of like my involvement working with RIFA, like I could never have imagined the ways my life has changed since working with that organization. And I also never could have imagined that there were parts of the community that had such great need. And it was a huge risk to take. And I'm so glad that I did it. And I hope to encourage others to do the same thing.
Maddie:
With your career, like you were mentioning, you've lived all over the country, all over the world. So kind of tell us why you decided to move back to Jackson, your hometown.
LOLO:
The main reason beyond just being close to my family - like, I left when I was really young and my college years were like immediate working years where it wasn't easy for me to come home and visit whenever I wanted and all of that kind of stuff. Because I honestly, between the type of work I was doing and the schedules and everything, it was an interesting time.
And so by the time I was five, six years into my working life, I'd come home and I'd be like, okay, maybe next year's the year I move back here because I was perpetually homesick, honestly, like, oh, I loved doing what I was doing and especially like doing a Broadway show. There's only one place where that happens and that's in New York.
I can't do that here. So it was sort of like those types of things. I literally had to be somewhere else. Between being chronically homesick and reaching a point where I was doing a lot of work in New York in the fundraising spectrum of things and the sort of giving back and community aspect. And it wasn't that that was not rewarding, but I just sort of felt like my resources were not needed there.
And I felt like I wanted to invest whatever energy I was investing, time and energy there, I really wanted to come and invest it here. And that came from a place of growing up here I had really incredible teachers and mentors that helped me even be able to be of the mindset to go and do the things that I wanted to do.
Because I didn't go to college or any of those things. I just sort of started working right away. And some of that came from the fact that I've really had some amazing, amazing teachers and amazing people here, and I had been able to learn so much already and do so much in my life, and I knew what the art community was like here.
And I know the passion that people have for art specifically. And so that was kind of where it started initially. I really didn't know what to expect because I had been gone for a long time. And, you know, and when I came back, I didn't really come back and be like: I'm here! And I'm da da da. Like, I came back and I let people know that I was back and that I was still going to have to, you know, be away working at times or whatever.
But I just sort of came back and said, hey, however I can be of service to whatever you need, I'm here for you. And I think one of the gifts that God blessed me with is I'm not afraid to be the loudest person in the room if, especially if, it is for the benefit of others. And I think that there have been people or things or organizations or whatever where like, you know, it can be hard to put yourself out there.
It can be hard to ask for things. It can be hard to advocate for anything really, let alone yourself. And I've been through a lot in my life. I've had some incredible successes. I've had some incredible failures. I've been so broke once that I couldn't even afford to buy myself a bottle of water. And I've had lots of different, all different types of struggles throughout my journey.
And I understand that the human condition can include a lot of different things. So that was also why when I came back, I kind of went to all the people that I knew and just said, hey, like I'm here and I am happy to be back here and however I can be of help to whatever it is that anyone is doing, I'm here and happy to use my art and my obnoxiously loud voice.
For whatever that is.
Shea:
So you're using that from the encouragement of others and the mentors you've had, and has that played a role in how you've brought your record label here and started that here? And tell us a little bit more about that.
LOLO:
Yeah, I mean, definitely. I'm very grateful that I've been able to do what I've done in my life and also grateful that I've been able to like, make the records I've wanted to make. I’ve not had to compromise or feel like I've been misrepresented through my own music. And I just wanted to be able to support artists in doing that.
So we work with all kinds of artists all over the US, including a couple of artists from West Tennessee. And and it's nice to give people an opportunity to share themselves because this day and age where the digital everything has changed the music industry. The old school model of like you must be signed to a major label in order to succeed just is really not the truth.
The truth is that if that's the thing you want, then that's what you should try to go get. But it's not a barometer of success anymore because we have these beautiful things like podcasts or social media or whatever that give us access to human consumers right away. And so, yeah, being able to support other artists and what they want to do is totally been a dream of mine. Being able to produce albums, that kind of thing.
It's been a big, big dream. So yeah, to be able to give especially back to the West Tennessee community, that helped raise me, is huge.
Maddie:
So kind of along those lines, what's your best one piece of advice for maybe a new artist?
LOLO:
Always be willing to listen, but never be willing to compromise what you know your gut is telling you. And I think especially with anything creative that you choose to do in your life, I think when you're going into that, you have such a clear picture of what that will look like or feel like. And I think it can unfortunately be very easy to be persuaded out of that along the way, depending on what you're working on, who you're working with, whether people feel like they know more than you, especially if you're newer artist.
I came up in an industry, as a very young woman before the Me Too movement, that did not want to listen to a loud mouth, young, southern girl that felt very strongly about what she did or did not want to say, and I legit had to just be like, I do not actually care if you like it. This is what I'm doing because this is what I believe is right for me.
And I'm not willing to compromise my moral compass or whatever, because you think it's gonna, I don't know, sell more records or whatever. And so the best piece of advice I would give to humans in general is be who you are. You know what you want to do and not what you want to do. And those are not the things you can compromise on because you are going to be the one who has to die by the sword at the end of the day.
And only if things go right will people get behind you and be like: Yes, I was a part of that too. Good for us. But if you fall hard, you are the only person that has to stand up behind it till the day you're gone. And so if you can't be at peace with that, then probably don't do it.
Maddie:
That's good advice.
So we have one final question for you today, and it's a fun one. So if you had any extra pocket change, what would you do with it?
LOLO:
I would probably buy my son shark toys. He's obsessed with sharks and he loves finding tiny little shark figurines.
Shea:
Not baby shark? Just sharks.
LOLO:
Well, I mean, he doesn’t discriminate sharks. He would accept any shark in general, including baby shark or mommy shark, daddy shark, grandma. The whole family would make the cut.
Shea:
Sorry to bring that up. It's now in everybody’s head. All the song.
Maddie:
Well, thank you so much for being with us LOLO. Thank you for just all that you do for the Jackson community, for musicians, but also just for people in need. Thank you for being here today.
LOLO:
That's sweet. Thank you for having me.
Shea:
And we'll catch the brunch next year.
LOLO:
Yeah, for sure!