After nine albums of sterling folk/pop/rock, Eleni Mandell had no need to alter her creative methodology. A chance stroll through the history of country music in the cradle of its development gave Mandell the blazingly clear vision to simplify her process on what would become the new Dark Lights Up. Mandell will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. What she will be writing about: “My kids are four-and-a-half years old (twins). We travel with my ex-boyfriend (not their father), who helps out as the ‘nanny.’ They have toured across the USA many times, but now they’re older and have opinions. The tour lasted five weeks, and we had a blast looking for fun things to do. Two places to avoid: Walmart and Cracker Barrel unless you want to listen to your kids hassle you to buy them stuff for hours on end!” Read our recent feature on Mandell.
Mandell: I guess to fully enjoy this museum you should be a country-music fan. We love this place. It’s got film footage, music, instruments, costumes, cars and so much more. My kids loved it the first time we went, and they loved it this time, too. There’s a lot of interactive stuff here that kids enjoy and there’s great music! This place is heaven for me, and I’m thrilled that they like it, too. My son especially loved the cars this time around, including Elvis’s gold Cadillac.
Video after the jump:
