Eddy Arnold’s grandson keeping his legacy alive

By RICHEL ALBRIGHT

Depending on who Nashville-native Shannon Pollard is talking to will determine which business card his hand reaches for.

Depending on who Nashville-native Shannon Pollard is talking to will determine which business card his hand reaches for.

“I’ve got two business cards,” Pollard said. “It can get a little confusing switching between businesses. When you pick up the phone you never know what it’s going ot be about.”

Pollard is an owner and real estate agent at Armistead Arnold Pollard Real Estate Services, LLC., and more recently he’s co-founded a record label – Plowboy Records.

“I’m a recovering musician,” Pollard quipped, adding that the label offered different ways to keep legacies of country music legends alive.

Pollard – grandson of the late country music legend Eddy Arnold – had his first release on Plowboy in late 2012 with “Darker Than Light” by Bobby Bare, who was one of the 2013 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees.

Bare’s vocals are featured on the Plowboy’s second release, “You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold,” which was released in early June.

“I actually started on the Eddy Arnold project first but Bobby’s project got done first,” Pollard said. “The label spawned out of continuing [Arnold’s] legacy but I also thought it would be a way to promote emerging bands.”

The latest band to sign with Plowboy is JD Wilkes and The Dirt Daubers, who are currently in the studio working on their album.

Pollard, whose real estate business primarily deals with properties in The Gulch in Nashville, now owns the building where – until his death — his grandfather and his devoted secretary Roberta Edging conducted business for years. Arnold was one of the first developers in Brentwood. “Miss Roberta,” who died in 2012 at the age of 87, continued to work daily in the office for years after Arnold’s death in 2008.

While Pollard has run his businesses out of his grandfather’s bottom floor office in the Franklin Road building Arnold built, he will soon take over the entire building. Longtime tenant Tom Jones retired from his insurance company on May 31. Once State Farm closes its interim office, Pollard plans to bring his label out from the shadows.

“Right now I operate out of my car a lot so we’ll utilize the space in that building for the label,” Pollard said.

Pollard plans to release one to two more projects this year, including from his most recent signees.

“We are trying to keep things legacy related but we’re excited to grab some other artists and help with their career,” Pollard said. 

Richel Albright is a reporter with Brentwood Home Page. She can be contacted at richel@brentwoodhomepage.com or you can follow her on Twitter @rwalbright.