From The Desk Of Laura Cantrell: Two Boots Nashville’s Kitty Wells Pizza

Laura Cantrell was born and raised in Nashville, and even though she was surrounded by country music, she never thought about being a singer or songwriter when she was young. She relocated to New York to attend Columbia University before the performing bug bit her. After graduation, Cantrell worked full-time at a bank, hosted a country radio show on WFMU in Jersey City, put together a band, kept writing songs and started making records. She used traditional country songs as a template for compositions of her own that stretched the boundaries of the music and won her a legion of loyal fans. BBC DJ John Peel called Not The Tremblin’ Kind, her 2000 debut, “my favorite record of the last 10 years, possibly my life.” Cantrell made two more albums in the 2000s, balancing well-chosen covers with her original material, but on her new album, No Way There From Here, she presents 11 originals with only one cover. Cantrell will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on her.

Cantrell: Calling New York home for many years, I’ve definitely enjoyed a late-night slice or 10 from this Lower East Side pizza institution with its Italy-via-Lousiana blend of ingredients and movie- and TV-character themed pies like the Mr. Pink or Larry Tate. In 2013, they opened an outpost in the Vanderbilt University area of Nashville in the site of a former, beloved used record store. And as a nod to their new home, they created a Nashville-themed slice named for the Queen of Country Music herself: The Kitty, featuring local Nashville delicacy “hot chicken” and pickles. Pass the pie please!

Video after the jump.