Hello everyone -  

Last month I made a last minute decision to celebrate ComboPlate's anniversary. As Austin is still having new covid cases every day, we decided on an already scheduled outside show where two artists from the roster - Nathan Hamilton & JM Stevens - were playing. It was our first time to go to Meanwhile Brewing Co. We LOVED the space, the stage, the sound, the staff, the beers, the food trailers, all of it. Thanks to everyone who came out and kept it safe and sound, it meant the world to see you. Regarding this photo from the celebration, you had to be there...
  And now for a very special edition of our occasional feature "Friend In Music". Reminder and for those who are new, this is where we like to share something cool that friends in our music community are doing. We are happy to introduce you to this month's Friend In Music: Telisha and Doug, the husband-wife duo who front the Nashville band Wild Ponies. They had an interesting - and inspiring - pivot during the pandemic. To learn more, we asked Telisha & Doug to share about Dreamers: 

Everything worthwhile starts as a dream.  When our dreams of touring as musicians were halted by a global pandemic, we turned toward another way to serve our community. Inspired by the beautiful meals we were cooking in our home, with our partner, Laura Schneider we started a food truck. Dreamers Food Truck. As the world shifted, we reached back to the things that helped us grow Wild Ponies as a successful small business in the pre-COVID days and dreamed about new ways we could combine our strengths moving forward through COVID and beyond.

Community - Service - Hard Work - Creativity . . . and now FOOD!

As we wrote the business plan for Dreamers Food Truck, we included serving Nashville’s houseless and food insecure community on a quarterly basis. We had no idea that a fire during our second week of service would shift that mission beyond our wildest dreams. It was actually our Wild Ponies’ fans that came up with the idea. In an effort to help sustain our new business, fans reached out to sponsor meals for the houseless and hungry. Through the winter and rebuild of our food truck, we partnered with fans, SAFPAW, and our Nashville Community, serving more than 1500 meals to the houseless and hungry from November to March.  We were so moved by this response that when the truck was back on her wheels, we decided to add a permanent “Pay-It-Forward” menu item.  With each and every transaction at our Dreamers window, we offer customers the option to “Pay-It-Forward”.  Fifteen dollars serves two meals to the houseless and hungry.  What happened? Well, we’ve been blown away by the response. It is consistently our top selling menu item. It’s restored our faith in humanity again and again. Currently, we’re setting up at least twice per month to serve those sponsored meals. Those Days of Service are the days we always look forward to most on the truck. To date we’ve served more than 2600 meals to the houseless and hungry in and around Nashville, and it’s a mission that we’re committed to sustaining. (If you’d like to be a part of this program, check out www.DreamersFoodTruck.com.)

Wild Ponies are touring again, though very cautiously. Dreamers Food Truck is alive and well, and even though it’s difficult, we’re loving finding the balance (#folklifebalance) of it all.  Now, we have more community to serve and more dreams to dream!
   

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ComboPlate Booking September Shows 

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