Barefoot & Pregnant with Gwen Levey and The Breakdown
A quick and easy breakfast sandwich recipe, and an interview with Nashville country rock star Gwen Levey!
Hi friends,
I make sandwiches and chat about sexism, misogyny, reproductive rights, and other stuff on TikTok and Instagram. I wrote about how it all started in this post. There’s a recipe for a super quick and delicious eggy sandwich below, and an interview with Nashville’s rising country rock star Gwen Levey, who joined me this week for my first-ever sandwich collaboration video!
An Eggy Brioche Breakfast Sandwich Recipe
I made this sandwich for a video I posted last week called “Gossip Saves Lives.” I wrote about the story behind the vid in this post, but I neglected to share the ingredients… and a whole bunch of folks wrote to me to ask if I’d put peanut butter on my breakfast sandwich. I would definitely try that, if I weren’t allergic to peanuts. So, friends, here’s the easy recipe (I used Spicy TRUFF Mayo, which is a condiment that I have no business spending money on, but I am wild about)!
Yield: 1 serving
2 eggs
Toscano cheese with black pepper (any hard salty cheese, Parmesan or sharp cheddar would be yummy too)
2-3 tomato slices
Olive oil
Ume plum/red wine vinegar (I used Eden Foods, but have since learned that the company’s owner is a terrible douchebag, so I won’t be doing that any more!)
Aioli, or any kind of flavored mayonnaise you like (TRUFF is my mayo extravagance)
Flaky sea salt
Make Yourself a Sandwich
Marinate the tomato slices for a few minutes with a splash of olive oil and vinegar. While they’re bathing, soft scramble the eggs in plenty of butter over medium heat with a pinch of salt. Grate the cheese into a cloud of deliciousness — about a quarter cup should do, but you know your own cheesy limits. Toast the brioche bun. Slather the bottom half of the bun with aioli, and butter the top half. Slide your perfectly cooked eggs onto the bottom piece of brioche, pile on the floofy cheese, and complete the breakfast sammy stack with tomato slices. Anoint this perfection with a sprinkle of sea salt, and close up the brioche with its buttered top half.
Light a candle. Utter a word or two of gratitude for this quick and delicious meal, and tuck a napkin in your collar to enjoy it with a cup of coffee and Gwen Levey and the Breakdown playing. Eat it with your eyes closed to shut out the patriarchy while feeling the deep gratification of your delicious breakfast sandwich, which you made for yourself. Enjoy!
Breaking It Down with Country Rock Star Gwen Levey
Sometimes, you’ve gotta love the algorithm. Mine was recently blessed with Gwen Levey and The Breakdown’s bop ‘Barefoot and Pregnant.’ Gwen is making waves in the country rock/ Americana scene with her satirical takedown of the results of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Her new album Not The Girl Next Door bears the righteous lyrical imprint of iconic artists and activists like The Chicks and Willie Nelson, while her sweet, luscious singing voice invites you to listen to something you miiiight not agree with, especially if you’re a Republican. I was hooked on her music, humor and activism straight away.
I reached out to Gwen to ask if she’d be down to collaborate on a sandwich video. She said yes! We made this sammy about the abortion trafficking bills recently introduced in Tennesse and Oklahoma:
Gwen and I caught up for a chat about reclaiming your voice, dealing with online hate, and what it’s like to move through Nashville’s music scene as a pro-choice artist.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Jane: Gwen, I'm so happy to chat with you. The experience of getting to know you and your music and making this sandwich video with you — the synchronicity has been great.
Gwen Levey: It's been amazing.
MJ: I'm based in Los Angeles, and I have friends here who are leading a charge to move us all to Nashville and live in a commune. I’ve never known anyone in Nashville until now — you're my first contact on the ground there, so I'm looking forward to learning a bit about your life in Tennessee. But first, I want to ask you about your viral hit ‘Barefoot and Pregnant.’ Can you tell me about the genesis of the song, and how it came to be made?
GL: The day Roe v. Wade was overturned, I was working at a little boutique shop in Nashville. I remember, I was so stunned. A few other women came in, and everyone was just silent. It felt like this huge weight, a darkness that got put over everybody.
I was a victim of childhood sexual assault — well, I'm a survivor of it. With the crazy restrictions on abortion happening in red states like Tennessee, we're seeing children who aren't able to get the healthcare they need, even in cases of rape and incest. It's awful. So I went to my co-writers Will Rambeaux and Sherrie Austin — we were putting together our latest EP, Not the Girl Next Door — and we had all the songs, except for a social commentary song. Every album I have has at least one. I told them I wanted to write a song about Roe v, Wade being overturned, and they said, "We've got a title: ‘Barefoot and Pregnant.’”
We wrote it in an hour and a half. It was magical. You felt something in the room that day. I remember sending it to my parents and they were like, “That's it. That has to be the song on the album.” We put it up on TikTok before we went into the studio, and it went viral. Then we went into the studio, and recorded, and shot a music video for it. It was one of the best days of my life — there was synergy in the whole room.
Andi Marie Tillman stars in the video — at the time she was starting to blow up, and she just happened to want to be in it, graciously. My parents did the sets. It's all my friends in the video. And then, I got to play the song for my debut at the Bluebird Cafe.
MJ: Wow! [n.b.: The Bluebird Cafe is the famed Nashville venue where Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks were discovered]
GL: I played ‘Barefoot and Pregnant,’ and the whole room was in stitches. There were a couple of people who didn’t look happy, but a ton of people were laughing. My co-writer was like, “You definitely started a big conversation.” That's how ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’ came to be. It was a no-brainer — I wasn’t like, “I want this song to go viral” — I just wanted it to help people during this dark time.
With all of the success that's coming from the song, especially in 2024, I just hope it inspires people to get out and vote. That was my intention. I wanted to write it in a way that’s obviously satirical so that it disarms people, so they’re not immediately like, “I don't wanna listen to this pro-choice song.” But, as we see in the comments online, a lot of people don't even realize it's satire, which is kind of crazy.
The Gender Gap In Mainstream Country Music
MJ: My understanding is that Nashville is fairly progressive, but also, as you say, there are some people who fold their arms about a pro-choice song. Can you tell me about your life in Tennessee, and the environment you're in as a female country rocker?
GL: In the music industry, especially in country music, there's a huge gender gap. A tiny percentage of songs played on mainstream country radio in 2023 were songs by women. That's really sad to me. It's very, very male driven in the mainstream country market. I played a lot of mainstream shows, and have written with a lot of mainstream country artists, because when I first moved to Nashville, I was thinking I was just gonna be a songwriter. Then I signed a development deal with Go Long Entertainment, who I've been writing with for five years. Will Rambeaux and Sherrie Austin, who wrote ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’ with me, are a part of that company. They also wrote with Brooke Eden, who's one of the first openly LGBTQ+ female artists in mainstream country. They're very progressive.
MJ: So you're dealing with Tennessee politics, and also the politics of the country music industry, as a woman. That sounds like a Venn diagram of “hard to deal with.”
GL: Yeah. And ‘Barefoot and Pregnant” is mainstream country, but it’s also Americana. It goes both ways. It's a crossover kind of song — but because mainstream country is so conservative, it's hard to get through the door there. With the Americana genre, I've been told it's “too slick,” or that it's “a risk,” and I understand that. But the song is slowly making its way.
The Tennessee Three put a spotlight on Tennessee, politically speaking. And thankfully, I feel like there are a lot more people who want to see change in Tennessee. I've been working with Allie Phillips, Gloria Johnson, and Heidi Campbell — politicians who are fighting for change. It's not always easy, because the song isn't always well received. I have no problem with people having different political views from me, but I've had people be rude onstage and off, so…
MJ: Can you say more about that? [Gwen says yes, if it’s off the record, and shares a recent experience of people being phenomenally rude to her onstage.]
GL: I’ll say this on the record: I don't want to hurt anybody, and I don't want to upset anybody. I'm a really empathetic person. I lost a lot of sleep about [the phenomenally rude incident]. My therapist said, “What you're doing is controversial, but it's the right thing, and it's gonna mean some people aren't going to agree with you. That includes people in your community.”
So I'm keeping my head high. This is just probably the first of many backlashes that I'm gonna get because I get so much hate online already. But it's different when it's in person, and it's people in your community, you know?
Comments from The Haterrrrs
MJ: Can you say more about dealing with online hate? How do you withstand it, and what do you do to soothe yourself, and get away from it?
GL: Even before ‘Barefoot and Pregnant,’ I was getting hate online. If you're a woman in the entertainment industry, and you're putting yourself out there, so many people are cruel, and project onto you. The biggest hate I get is because people don't agree with the song, but they'll obviously talk about my weight, and body shame me, because they have nothing intelligent to say. As someone who's struggled with eating disorders all my life, and has gone up and down with my weight for different reasons, it's taken me a long time to just be okay with it, and know that it has nothing to do with me.
It's taken me a while to get here. At first, when the song started going viral, I was getting nothing but hate. That was really hard for me. I had to take a mental health break, because it was weighing on me, and on my personal relationships. I was reclusive, and feeling depressed — I struggle with depression too, so it all just piles on.
Now, I try to find humor in the hate comments. I tell myself, these people don't know me personally, so they have no idea what I'm going through. And clearly, they wouldn't be commenting if the song wasn't triggering them to feel something. If it didn't have value to them, they would just scroll past. So I know I'm making a difference. It sounds weird. But your biggest haters are actually your biggest fans.
MJ: It’s wild.
GL: Seeing women who are defensive about the subject matter — I've gone back and forth with anti-choice organizations who have been really nasty to me, and then suddenly they wanna talk to me, so they're all nice. I've had to be careful about how I approach those people because I'm trying to reach across [the divide] and not only educate, but also hear what people have to say. They are women with hearts too, and they think they're fighting for the right thing. Having Allie Phillips as a friend has really helped me understand things because she had an abortion, she's gone through it, she’s trying to make a difference, and she gets hate as well, obviously.
Fighting for Reproductive Justice
MJ: I'm so glad you mentioned Allie Phillips. What kind of work are you doing together?
GL: At the Barefoot release party, I raised funds for Abortion Care Tennessee and Healthy & Free Tennessee. I asked Allie if she’d be interested in me planning something like that for her. It’ll be on June 27th at Anzie Blue in Nashville. We’re still working on the lineup, but,I'm collaborating with A Girl Has No President and the Tennessee Holler. We're banding together because we really want Allie to win. I feel like she has a chance because her seat is so flippable. I really hope people come out and support her.
MJ: Your album Not The Girl Next Door chronicles your triumph over being silenced, and enduring abuse. You also address coping with grief in your song ‘The Next Lifetime.’ Can you tell me more about that?
GL: I wrote it as a breakup song, but it ended up turning into so much more than that. My Aunt Leah died suddenly in a diving accident two years ago. And in December, my Uncle David died from cancer after a 10 year long battle. He was only 58 years old. We've had a lot of loss in our lives. My bass player lost her husband to a brain aneurysm not long ago. I feel like that song has resonated with people in a way that I didn't originally intend it to. And I hope it helps people. The idea behind the song is, “I'll see you in the next lifetime. It may not be exactly as we are now, but I'll see you again.” That gives me comfort.
MJ: My sister died from cancer in 2021, so I feel your loss, and I know how difficult it is. And I’m grateful for your music addressing it because it's hard to navigate, and talking about it in a creative way is powerful. Thank you.
GL: It still makes me a little teary-eyed thinking about everything.
Leading with Love, Kindness and Awareness
MJ: The title track on your EP, ‘Not The Girl Next Door,’ is about coming into your power.
GL: That’s really what the whole record's about. Going from, “I'm trying to be the good girl. I'm always being forced into this role,” to “No, actually, I'm a goddess. This is who I am.” So, yeah! [laughs]
MJ: That's our rallying cry for 2024: “Fuck no! This is my time and my power.”
GL: You feel it. People are feeling it. And, people will treat you however they're gonna treat you. You just have to remember who you are. I want to always lead with love, kindness, and awareness. And it's not always easy. I'm doing the best I can, especially with all the hate that's thrown at me. I hope people remember that, and I hope it influences them to do the same, especially with an issue like abortion, that’s so polarizing in an election year when people have never been so divided. I know people probably think ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’ is going to keep dividing people, but that's not the aim of the song. I just hope it helps people wake up on both sides, helps us come together, and realize what's going on.
Follow Gwen Levey on Instagram @GwenLeveyMusic and @GwenLeveyAndTheBreakdown. And if you’re in Nashville, check out her live shows!
March 2 at The 5 Spot - opening for the Raelyn Nelson Band
April 9 at 3rd and Linsley - voter registration concert with Headcount
June 27 at Anzie Blue - Allie Phillips fundraising concert
That’s it for this week. I am so grateful to Gwen, and to all of you who are sticking with me through the sticky parts. Thank you so much for being here. It means the world to me. More soon.
Much love, MJ ❤️
What a great interview