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PULLIN’ ON MY HEART STRINGS

CREEM editor lets love blow up her Spotify algorithm and attends a Billy Strings concert.

March 1, 2024
Mandy Brownholtz

Darlin’, if you walk beside me, I will be a steady hand/If you need a rock to stand on, honey, I will be your man...

Who is this outrageous woman belting out Billy Strings songs, speeding down 83 to the Giant in northern Baltimore?

Believe it or not, she is me.

Given my role as an editor at a quarterly music magazine, I always believed “What kind of music are you listening to these days?” was an accurate litmus test of my compatibility with a potential romantic prospect. So when I asked my now-partner Cody this over text in the days leading up to our first date and he sent back a Billy Strings record, I was a little unsure. But the date went so well that the next day we ate some mushrooms and he played Fiona Apple and I realized that people can contain multitudes.

If you don’t already know, the dating scene in my former home New York City is trash. It’s a war of attrition: an endless cycle of mediocre Tinder meetups with dudes who “own their own streetwear brand” (read: unemployed) and “creative directors” who “aren’t looking for anything serious right now.”

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