Run, Rose, Run

AnnieLee continues her habit of making music out of everything and composes a song, even though she had to pawn her guitar. With all her worldly belongings in her backpack, she’s determined to escape her sorry past in the state of Texas. Finally, a truck stops for her.

The grandfatherly guy who picks up AnnieLee tries to grope her. She threatens him with a gun and forces him to get out of the car while she jacks it and drives on. She thinks that “her stepdad might’ve been the world’s biggest asshole, but he’d taught her to drive stick” (15).

Although Ruthanna Ryder is still in demand as a country music star, she has reached a phase of life in which she only wants to compose for herself. Her manager, Jack Holm, tries to bribe her to return to the stage with the promise of diamonds and an honor at the Country Music Awards, but Ruthanna insists that she’s done performing.

Country-music hopeful Ethan Blake turns up at Ruthanna’s house late for a recording session because of his busted truck, Gladys. Ruthanna, his idol, witheringly tells him that if he doesn’t sharpen up, he can easily be replaced with one of the many country music hopefuls. Like Jack, he’s mystified as to why Ruthanna won’t release new songs.

At the Cat’s Paw Saloon in Nashville, AnnieLee begs Billy the bartender to let her play, despite his cynicism about hearing yet another young hopeful. AnnieLee insists that she’s good and that she came to Nashville to “make it as a singer or […] die trying” (27). When Billy agrees, AnnieLee asks to borrow a guitar, as she has none.

AnnieLee touches pictures of Emmylou Harris and Ruthanna Ryder to calm her pre-performance nerves. She considers following the safe route of playing country classics to this strange audience but in the end daringly decides on the song she composed while waiting for her ride. She sings like her life depends on it and senses that the audience is with her.

Billy concurs that AnnieLee can sing, and the audience demands another of her songs. Ethan Blake approaches her afterward and declares himself “a big fan” (36). Although AnnieLee is attracted to Ethan, struck by his resemblance to Johnny Cash, she’s surly with him when he asks if she writes her own songs. She’s then mortified to learn that Ethan is the next act.

AnnieLee doesn’t stick around to discover how good Ethan is and instead slinks off to her sleeping bag by Nashville’s Cumberland River. Sleeping outdoors reminds her of camping with her mother, Mary Grace, while she was alive and the two of them singing country songs. She thinks about composing a song of how she got to Nashville, and the name Rose comes to mind, but she represses it.

The next day, Ethan tells Ruthanna about the “amazing new singer” he saw at the Cat’s Paw Saloon (41). He’s still moved by AnnieLee’s blunt lyrics and the “soaring ache of her voice” (42). When Ruthanna teases Ethan about having a crush on AnnieLee, he says that AnnieLee resembles Ruthanna in her beauty, talent, and meanness. Ruthanna claims indifference because she’s retired.

AnnieLee wakes up to the sound of cops, who tell her that sleeping in the park is illegal. She talks them into leaving her alone and tells herself that it’s her lucky day.

AnnieLee gets a calorie-laden coffee and grooms herself in the café bathroom. She tries her luck at a few more places where she might be able to play but learns that many bartenders at music bars want her to produce a CD as a form of audition, which she doesn’t have. A woman at one bar informs her that a country singer needs good looks and fearlessness as well as talent. AnnieLee is realistic about her chances, expecting that doors will be slammed in her face; however, she continues to seek a bar that will let her play.

Out of sheer loneliness, AnnieLee ends up back at the Cat’s Paw. She asks about a housekeeping job to help her pay the bills. She then asks to be paid for her singing. When she picks up a guitar, the room falls quiet. She’s ecstatic after playing until she sees Ethan Blake. She feels that she should apologize for her rudeness to him but that if she shows “the tiniest glimmer of vulnerability […] her whole brazen façade would shatter” (53). She pretends that she hasn’t seen him and scoops up the $20 bills Billy hands her. Ethan approaches and tells her that her voice sounds better off-amp. When he offers her French fries, AnnieLee, hungry but proud, rejects them.

Ruthanna dresses up for an event and ignores Ethan’s text about coming to the Cat’s Paw to see AnnieLee. Although Ruthanna prefers to ignore social events, she continues to go to charity events, such as those at The Book Garden, her project for putting books into the hands of needy kids. Ethan texts her repeatedly, insisting that she come to the Cat’s Paw, but Ruthanna deletes the message. When Ruthanna takes to the stage, she’s nervous about speaking, as it’s more natural for her to sing. She feels “like a bird forced to walk when its job was to fly” (58). The audience unanimously asks for a song, but Ruthanna considers this “far more than she could give” (59).

Back in the car, Ethan has left a voice message on Ruthanna’s phone, begging her to come and see AnnieLee. While she likes Ethan and feels for him because he’s a traumatized ex-soldier, Ruthanna wishes he’d leave her alone. However, the champagne has gone to her head, and Ruthanna asks her driver, Lucas, to take her to the Cat’s Paw. As she enters, Ruthanna recalls her cocky young self. Billy asks her if she’ll sing, and she says no. She orders a Tanqueray Martini and hides from Ethan, not ready to face him yet.

Ruthanna is struck by AnnieLee’s beauty and decides to send a better instrument to the bar the next day, as the strings sound dull. When AnnieLee starts singing, Ruthanna is mesmerized, as the girl “looked barely older than a teenager, but she sang as though she’d lived for ninety-nine years and seen tragedy in each one of them” (67). She considers AnnieLee “a natural.”

Billy informs AnnieLee that Ruthanna Ryder wants to meet her. AnnieLee is in stark disbelief, especially when she learns that Ethan knows Ruthanna. AnnieLee gushes about how she looked up to Ruthanna growing up and mistook her for one of the saints when she was a little girl because her voice sounded so holy. Ruthanna tells AnnieLee that she has a special talent and that she’ll help her out. AnnieLee fantasizes that Ruthanna will help her onto the big stages. Instead, Ruthanna tells her to “get the hell out of Nashville while you still can” (72). She even advises her to get an ordinary job and marry a man like Ethan who will make her a good husband. AnnieLee then tells Ruthanna that while she admires her, she should “go screw yourself” (73).

Afterward, AnnieLee is angry with herself for challenging a “country music goddess to a street fight” (74). Ethan, who’s also there, urges AnnieLee to apologize, but she declines, feeling that she needs to stand up for herself. Ruthanna then says that she likes AnnieLee and asks where she’s staying. She offers to host her, and AnnieLee steps into Ruthanna’s limousine.

Although astounded by the lavishness of Ruthanna’s dwelling, AnnieLee is quiet and nonchalant, not wanting to reveal the scale of her poverty. Ruthanna shows her to the lilac room and asks about her home life. AnnieLee finds it difficult to share the truth and says that her parents were survivalists in Tennessee’s backwoods. When Ruthanna shares that her mother was a “dyed-in-the-wool, redheaded bitch on wheels” (80), AnnieLee reveals that her own mother died when she was 10. She doesn’t reveal that the cause of death was cancer. Ruthanna says that AnnieLee should take whatever clothes she likes.

Ruthanna considers that AnnieLee is “like a half-broke horse: broke and skittish at the same time” (82). She wakes up and makes pancakes for AnnieLee, enjoying having someone to care for. However, when she goes to AnnieLee’s room, AnnieLee has left a note, saying that she has taken sweatpants, shirts, and an old guitar that she’ll return as soon as she can. Ruthanna is so overcome that she crumples the note in her hand.

When Ruthanna’s assistant, Maya, arrives and hears the story of AnnieLee’s visit and departure, she jokes about AnnieLee running off with the silver. Ruthanna remembers that the last time they used the silver was at her daughter’s birthday on a gorgeous Sunday in June. She confesses to Maya her harsh exchange with AnnieLee and how she tried to save the girl by telling her to get out of Nashville as fast as she could. Still, Ruthanna wants to do something for AnnieLee and tells Maya to call Jody at BNH Music and tell her to watch out for AnnieLee. Jody doesn’t like the name AnnieLee Keyes, thinking that it sounds Appalachian and rustic. When Ruthanna, who had her name changed from Pollyanna Poole, gets on the call and Jody asks her if AnnieLee is pretty, Ruthanna rues the modern tendency to want a “good-looking package” (88) in music and tells Jody that she’ll have to find out for herself.

AnnieLee goes into a bar called the Lucky Horseshoe, feeling more confident with her guitar and the song she wrote on the way back to the city. She asks the bartender if she can play. The bartender is cynical and announces that they rely on a jukebox of ancient songs except on Fridays and Saturdays, which are live music days. AnnieLee offers to be the jukebox and play all the songs people want to hear. She begs, saying that the bartender doesn’t have to pay her and that she’ll sing for her supper.

AnnieLee stays a while at the Lucky Horseshoe without anyone making requests for songs. However, she’s determined to sing and earn her dinner. She approaches a man wearing a t-shirt with country singer Charlie Daniels’ name and pretends she heard him request a song. She then riffs that with her guitar alone, she can’t play a Charlie Daniels song but will play a Willie Nelson one instead. The man says he doesn’t object to hearing a song, “especially not from a pretty little thing” (94). When she finishes the song, the man tells her that he has never heard it played that way and requests that she play a list of songs, including “Two Doors Down,” a song that Dolly Parton recorded in 1977. AnnieLee is flooded with requests, and a tip jar soon fills with small bills and loose change. AnnieLee can’t continue and begs for Ingrid the bartender to give her a big greasy supper. Ingrid laces AnnieLee’s Coke with Jack Daniels, and she feels as though she’s in a position to make all her dreams come true.

On her way back to her pawnshop sleeping bag at Cumberland Park, AnnieLee lets her guard down. However, she soon senses a man following her and runs until she finds two dumpsters to hide between. She feels dizzy and nauseous and vomits her dinner. Afraid, she tells herself that her pursuer only wanted to rob her, but “that old, subconscious part of her knew this wasn’t true. Whoever it was hadn’t wanted her money. He had wanted her” (101).

Although AnnieLee finds it difficult to sleep, she begins a sort of routine, whereby she picks up her guitar at the Lucky Horseshoe and walks with it down to Lower Broadway to busk and then looks for a dive bar to play in and earn some money. One quiet Thursday, AnnieLee visits Music Row, which she expects to be “the industry’s heart” (103). However, she’s disappointed to instead find it overly corporate, and it makes her feel like “a little nobody” (103) despite her nightly playing in bars all over the city.

However, at a café, the waitress asks AnnieLee about her singing, saying that she has seen her around and admires her. She gives AnnieLee a free coffee and scone, and AnnieLee doesn’t feel as invisible anymore.