We were so sad to hear the news that Joey Bowker, better known as Nashville’s own Bat Poet, passed away over the weekend at the young age of 59. Your Nashvillest editors discovered the Bat Poet shortly after relocating to Nashville, flipping back and forth between whatever was on public access and weeklong Made marathons during caffeine-fueled college all-nighters. In a way, he was sort of our role model – capturing the quirky side of Nashville for all to see. For those who never had the same late night moment of discovery, allow us to point you to YouTube to get to know our longtime friend.

Cheers, Mr. Bowker. You’ve made our years in Nashville a bit more colorful and taught us to never take ourselves too seriously. In your memory, we’ll keep embracing all the weird that Nashville wants to throw our way.

Photo by HipNose Photography.