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Hannah Dasher\u2019s music is just like her food \u2014 it\u2019s made to stick to your ribs.<\/p>\n
For years now, she\u2019s been satisfying country fans hungry for a little old-school flavor, mixing unapologetic twang with the bold, spitfire attitude of a Southern diva. You might call her music \u201cgreasy\u201d comfort country, and she\u2019d take it as a compliment. \u2026 That is how she describes her new single, \u201cWaffle House.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, she set the table for a new era with the Scattered, Smothered, & Covere<\/em>d EP. But the main course was her debut cookbook, Stand By Your Pan: 100 Easy and Affordable Comfort Food Recipes So Good They\u2019ll Hurt People\u2019s Feelin\u2019s<\/em>. Brimming with savory succulence and side-splitting humor \u2014 plus some classic family wisdom \u2014 it\u2019s not just a celebration of hearty home cooking. It\u2019s a spunky send-up made to feed body and soul.<\/p>\n Currently balancing life \u201cbetween a Fender and a frying pan,\u201d Dasher spoke with Nashville Lifestyle<\/em>s following a book event in Tucson, Arizona, where she helped hapless professional chefs learn the secret art of Nana\u2019s biscuits.<\/p>\n With a personality (and hairdo) to match her Golden Age country vocal, the frequent Grand Ole Opry guest owes her sound to stars like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton \u2014 and Stand By Your Pan<\/em> follows suit. She calls it a labor of love, born from a boisterous childhood of triedand-true shared meals.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from a family of great cooks, and we\u2019re all \u2018opinionated,\u2019\u201d Dasher says with a laugh. \u201cBut I took for granted that everybody grew up having meals together as a family at the table every night. I didn\u2019t realize how many girls my age don\u2019t know how to cook. How many of us millennials can\u2019t hold our own in the kitchen. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Dang!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hoping to inspire a renaissance of Sunday suppers, Dasher\u2019s recipes match her larger-thanlife attitude step for step. Main dishes feature names like \u201cNaomi Judd\u2019s Possum Pie,\u201d \u201cGetchyo\u2019 Man Beef Roast,\u201d and \u201cMa, the Meatloaf!\u201d Sides include \u201cBusy Girl Green Beans\u201d and \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Nevuh Had These Black-Eyed Peas,\u201d which she calls \u201cthe best.\u201d But if any of that sounds sort of generic, just know: \u201cAll Southern cuisine wasn\u2019t created equal.\u201d<\/p>\n Dasher says her cookbook is more than a bunch of recipes. She grew up in a special part of the world, and her cooking reflects the unique mix of culture found in a small slice of Georgia and South Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cDown there in the Low Country, I was raised by Black women and white women, so I kind of got the best of both culinary worlds,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen the bold flavors of the Gullah Geechee African descendants meet the European techniques of my Salzburger ancestors, something really cool happens.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to do this food justice, Dasher had to resurrect some of the techniques used. Many were passed through the generations orally and never got written down. Or cooks would leave out critical information they just took for granted. Starting in 2020\u2019s lockdown period, Dasher put some serious effort into bringing it all back, filming the fun in her \u201ctime capsule\u201d Nashville home \u2014 itself a shrine of old-school country memorabilia. She ended up with a TikTok following of 1.6 million.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are secrets these old soul food cooks and little old ladies took with them to their grave,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, quarantine was a grace period for me to learn to perfect some of these things and figure these things out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The reception so far has been encouraging. After its release in March, Stand By Your Pan<\/em> hit the top of Amazon\u2019s Celebrity & TV Cookbooks chart (beating out Liza Minnelli, Dasher points out). She also hints at bringing the idea to TV, but she\u2019s careful to point out she\u2019s \u201cso much more than a cook.\u201d Part country singer-songwriter, part homespun comedienne, Dasher aims to be a do-it-all entertainer, inspiring multi-hyphenates in the real world.<\/p>\n \u201cI just really want folks to know that it\u2019s possible to be a rockstar at your job, and to come home and to be domestic \u2014 to put a meal on the table,\u201d she notes. \u201cWe can still make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She takes her own advice with the playful Scattered, Smothered, & Covered<\/em> EP. Recorded with the loose-fitting feel of a full (bellied) band, classic country covers join the new \u201cWaffle House\u201d in tribute to a Southern institution. On that original track, Dasher puts her own spin on sassy staples like Loretta Lynn\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Come Home A-Drinkin\u2019 (With Lovin\u2019 On Your Mind).\u201d<\/p>\n She actually wrote the track with Mark D. Sanders more than 10 years back \u2014 and after pulling it out of the freezer, found it still good. Dasher now says it marks the \u201cbeginning of a new sound era,\u201d and will be playing on Waffle House jukeboxes everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Waffle House \u2014 it makes your hair shiny!\u201d she says with an infectious chuckle.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The EP also features her versions of Hank Williams Jr.\u2019s \u201cOutlaw Women,\u201d Earl Thomas Conley\u2019s \u201cHolding Her and Loving You,\u201d and, of course, Tammy Wynette\u2019s \u201cStand By Your Man\u201d \u2014 all songs that helped shape her life, just like the home cooking she now feels moved to share. Thinking back to a dining room table filled with laughter and love, Dasher knows mealtime had a huge impact on her. And if we \u201cstand by\u201d those values, she thinks they still work.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where I learned to engage with adults. That\u2019s where I learned to pray. That\u2019s where I felt valued because we had to put our Game Boys away and have conversations and listen and participate, and ask to be excused,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt made me reverent and respectful of the ones that prepared the meal \u2014 that were putting that roof over my head. I have carried that gratitude, and I know that I\u2019m better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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