Murfreesboro, TN – With similar pregame celebratory spirit as this year’s homecoming parade, a revisited, yet revamped, “Walnut Grove,” hosted a pre-game celebration, Party In The Grove, within “Peck Forrest,” between south Peck Hall and the OG Student Administration building on the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) campus as MTSU Blue Raiders (1-6) hosted Jacksonville State Gamecocks (4-3), 6:30 pm, Wednesday October 29, 2025, as well as MTSU alumni/Nashville-based, singer/songwriter/still new acoustic folk artist, Medium Build for an hour set at this year’s pregame artist showcase series, “Party in The Grove.”

The audio recordings of this afternoon are from a master recording, “Fairview Ave 64,” broken down into four pieces until filming the Medium Build video, lower on this page, with subsequent recordings, detailed, before and after that.

Middle Tennessee State University president, Sydney McPhee joined the pre-game at Walnut celebration an MTSU-block south of Floyd Stadium, for a walk-n-shake between the MTSU Blue Raiders, led by head coach, Derek Mason, before taking on Jackson, the blue horseshoe, and Sydney McPhee before guest-appearing on stage to raffle off Super Bowl XV tickets with Tennessee Titans mascot, T-Rack, RJ Ware, MTSU’s current student body president, and Bretlyn Warner, president of Blue Zoo, MTSU’s student fan club. to give away Super Bowl LV tickets (San Francisco), being MTSU’s emergency operations manager/superviser, Kaye Jernigan, of MTSU Police, and formerly of Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue.

The pregame spirit was followed by MTSU alum, Nick Carpenter, a.k.a, Medium Build, with an acoustic set heartfelt with nostalgia, a little serendipity, sage wisdom, and in-between song banter, explaining his origins.

Not only was their coincidence in Nick honoring a co-writer of a song he was about to play, only to hear, “this is his dad!” from a lady in the audience, pointing to the co-writer’s father beside her, but reinforcement of a newly set, personal rule to never look back and learn from your lessons, as I was walking away from the last song lyrcizing that exact sentiment and wanting to conclude a field recording with a walking-fade notion, but as my phone was dying, F&P turned to see notice another picture to take, opened the phone to take it, and killed the “walking fade” conclusion to the field recording. Also, Nick coincidentally said, “I’ve seen the rooftops,” when discussing navigating the music industry since I’d seen’m last.

“Middle Tennessee State University’s Walnut Grove, the traditional pre-game gathering spot for students, alumni and fans of Blue Raider Football, will be louder and prouder this season with the return of Party in the Grove, which will feature live music, food trucks and other fun activites.” –Official MTSU Facebook page.

Medium Build – Yeah, right on. My name is Nick. I went here, a long time ago, and I’m very fond of my time, here. Being able to carry the skills I learned here. I respond to Peck Hall. The first time I ever got to write my first poem, and a teacher told me that I had anything worth sharing with someone was on the third floor of Peck Hall.

I had a lot of Texas cheese steaks at the basement of the JUB, over there (slight applause). Y’know, it’s the important stuff that keeps you going , and [I”m] honored to be here and thank you to the class for having me. I’m gonna play some tunes. Biddle about. Obviously, this food smells amazing. I don’t know if you can still get a patty melt, down there, but if you can, swipe me in (crowd laughs).

“When I showed up to MTSU, I had a really shitty band. We played a lot of house parties, and kinda thought we knew everything, but really we were just kind of -we partied harder than we played music, and then I finally met some people here, on campus, that kind of… -Well, one of them is here, my buddy, Paul. He was like, ‘hey, man. You should tune your guitar and try harder. You’re not all that, and you think its going on.

And I think that’s the beautiful thing about my time here, I think of the people who’s hearts and brains I’ve mashed into. People I still talk to everyday, and people I’ve met out no the road. It’s good. Big Friends. Friendship’ll last a lot longer than anything else you’ll probably have. I know that, for sure. When all this fades away, at least I’m sitting next to someone and have a good meal.

We christened today. We started it out at Slick Pig, like so many days (laughs). Then we went through Mass Comm. and tried to tell all the kids that we -that we spent a lot of time in this room. It’s like the heaviness in their eyes, and you want to tell them everything that you think this means to you, and it’ll never relent, so we didn’t say anything (laughs).

8:09, F&P: “Will you let me see the last picture you took just to see what its look like? -met Addison.

Addison holds up her phone/instagram page, “If you want to check out my work, I have a lot of…”

F&P: I run a newspaper in town. I was with this guy on a rooftop when he started out [last year], and I’m trying to track his route.

Addison: So cool.

F&P: Thank you.

Medium Build’s between-song, crowd banter: Did you go to class today? Anybody? Yeah? Good. No, you didn’t? You came to campus for… -You don’t have any classes? Not today? You did your schedule good.

M.B.: Yeah, I tried to game the system, like that. Turns out I’m not good at doing everything on one day. There was on semester I was like, “I’m gonna have one day that’s gonna be crazy. I’m gonna go for, like, 12 hours, on Monday, and just chill for the rest of the week. That didn’t work out for me. Actually, that was really bad. I need to come here a little bit everyday and gotta push the rock a little bit. It gets away from me. You look like you have it more figured out than I did, at the time. Yeah.

M.B.: I also learned I can’t be here before noon (crowd laughs). This is the perfect time for me. I was really good between the hours of 3 -and sometimes I’d take the 6-9 class. That was good. Sometimes I like having the campus to myself… (strums guitar) -It’s good to be back.

Medium Build: One of the guys that I met here -wrote a lot of songs here… We drank a lot of coffee, and I remember when I first left MTSU and went out in the world and started making music, he booked me, like, a house show tour, and I played this random house in, I don’t know, maybe Chattanooga, or something, and I was like, ‘there’s no way I’m ever going to be able to do this for real, and he, at the time had just started tour managing for this country guy, who also wasn’t that big, yet. We both were like, ‘We’re doing our dream! I’m playing a backyard and you’re booking this guys shows, we’re doing it! None of us really believed in it, and now that guy works/tour manages for Tyler Childers, and his life is awesome. He, like, has a house. He’s near -He has, like, a family.

43:03 – “I Just Want You” -46.45

Umm46:52 – Shout out to -he doesn’t teach here anymore, but this guy called Marcus Jackson. I was a freshman, and I had this guy for Gen. Ed. lit class, with Marcus, and I wrote this really dark paper, like classic-freshman-year-paper, that was like, ‘I’ve been through crazy stuff. like, Crazy,’ and he -it was misguided. The paper was way too long, and the story was mainly about me getting drunk with my friends.

Build: He was like, ‘I see what you’re trying to do here. Can I… Can I, like, help you? -He was very, like, Microsoft paper clip. He was like, ‘I see you’re trying to be a badass, and a writer,’ like, ‘Can I offer you a different thing besides getting drunk, because it’s not very compelling.

Build: He, like, gave me these books, and I sponged them, and was like, ‘oh, this guy gets it. And he’d bring Drake and Lil’ Wayne lyrics into class, which was pretty cool, at the time. And you would wrestle with words. We would wrestle with words together, and then I kinda moved from his wings over to O.D. Blackman’s office, and I’d just yell all my songs at O.D., and he’d say, ‘All right, brother, I think you’re trying to do this. You’re not.’

“So, he, like, gave me all these records that kinda shaped me and it’s incredible what somebody giving an album or a book can do to your brain. But, people being patient with your dream… It’s very effective, and …yeah. Eternally grateful. But this is one of those songs I remember playing for O.D. and O’brien, in their office, and they’d be like, ‘Nice, kid.’”

52:21 – How we doing? (crowd woots) Nice. Thanks for coming.

Medium Build: Got any questions? Any deep concerns? Anybody need a cosign on their student loans, or anything? (Addison raises hand smiling)

Lady in audience, “What advice do you have for our students?”

Medium Build: Just general. Just fake advice.

“I mean, seriously, about the friendships. I mean, seriously about the friendships. I think the friendships last longer than anything. The pals I made here… Also, nobody really knows what they’re doing in the [music] industry.”

“If you’re trying to get in the music biz, this is specifically for music-biz kids, nobody knows what they’re doing. They’re all making it up.”

“I’ve been to the top of the buildings, now, and they’re just all making it up, and as soon as some guy does something wrong, they’ll fire you and put some other guy in there, and they’re -you know more than probably the head of Sony, no offense.”

“Just, in general, if you’re consuming art that you love, and you’re making friends, and you’re making stuff that you love -that’s the fire. That’s, like, what keeps anything going ,” said Build.

2:28, Medium Build, “Kiss Me When You Get Home,” a flowing, Joni Mitchell kind of rambler -5:15

5:23 – Hydration [Build takes drink of water], I think also, is key to career. If you don’t drink water, it’s not going to go well.

“I only passed out one time in my life, and it because I was -I wasn’t drinking water. Promise you. On the dancefloor at Play. Not where you want to pass out -not a cool place to pass out. It didn’t look hot when I fell on my face.”

6:05 – Medium Build’s “Be Your Boy”

7:51 – F&P, to stage hand out in crowd, “This show going until 5:30?”

Stage tech: I guess.

F&P: I was going off your shirt and assuming you work backstage.

Tech: I’m supposed to be. This is the first time I’ve worked this job/am doing this. I have no idea what’s going on.

F&P: That’s pretty cool. You go through Gigsmart, or something?

Connor: No. This is an on-campus job.

F&P: Gotcha. “Student affairs.” My bad.

Connor: Yeah, gigs is a good little site. I haven’t gotten anything out of it, yet.. Plus, I’m in college. -What’s your name, dude?

F&P: Bryce.

“Bryce? Connor.”

“Yeah, if you’re finding stuff like this within the college, when you get out, it can be just as easy. The type of work you’re doing, right now, it pays well outside, especially if you can hop on tour with somebody,” said F&P.

“I’m hoping to figure that out. I’m working, more-or-less, as a playback tech for people, right now. I’m doing the backing tracks, and stuff,” said Connor.

F&P: That’s awesome.

[…] Connor: This is, like, a lot, for something like this… Which is not a bad thing. You just gotta tak…..

F&P: They probably paid him for an hour gig, and he showed up to do it

next song, 9:50, Medium Build/Nick – “Oh, it was my first, maybe second semester, here at MTSU, there was this kid in my, like, science class -you know you had to take a science class even though you’re not a science guy… And I took physics, because it seemed closest to Math, and I like math. And I had it four days in a row, at 8:00, and I told you earlier I’m not good at getting here before noon, and it was a mistake- but there was this kid in my class that took it so serious, he couldn’t accept he couldn’t fully know. He needed to Know.

“I was like, this is gen. ed. main. We’re not trying to get to the bottome of physics today. And he would raise his hand [after] the teacher was like, ‘All good?’ And we’d all be like, half-bagged, when you’ve got, like, your backpack half on, and we’d be like ,’No!’ ‘No!’”

“His name was Jimmy, and we were like, ‘curse you, Jimmy!’ why you need to be knowing thta suff for??”

“Jimmy just liked knowing stuff. He’s from Murfreesboro. He had a big brain on him. He’s one to know everything.”

“And I swore, ‘I’m never gonna be like Jimmy. I don’t wanna know Jimmy. I can’t even with a guy that wants to know about physics at 8 am. And then, Jimmy -I went over to my Recording Industry [Managment] class. It was like, y’know, whatever has… Intro to Sound, or whatever, and there’s Jimmy, again. Wanting to know about audio as he is about physics.”

“I’m like, I can’t get away from this guy. He’s dying to know everything.”

“And so, the years went on, and I kept seeing Jimmy around, and one day Jimmy and I got put in this lab together. He was going to record one of my songs. And I was so stoked because in all his curiosity, Jimmy had found out everything you could find out about recording songs, and for the past ten years, Jimmy has mixed every Medium Build song you’ve ever heard. And, now Jimmy is one of my best-est buds, and I’m so glad he was curious, because I’m not, but he is.”

“He understands, like, stuff. Like, computers and audio. And I bet he even still remembers some physics that I’ve not used since I left that building over there, but I’m sure Jimmy’s used it just while he’s driving. He’s probably calculating the meters per second of stuff. I don’t know.”

12:48. Build: But, I wrote this song with my buddy Paul, and my buddy, Jimmy [12:52, Lady in audience: This is his Dad!] over the phone…

12:52, Lady in audience, again: This is his Dad!

Nick/Medium: Oh! OH! Hey! I didn’t even recognize him!

Nick, to Jimmy’s Dad: You know how smart that guy is! You made him! (crowd laughs). How many questions was Jimmy asking…. (laughs) Oh, you know! (laughs)

Nick: Yeah, well, Jimmy turned out to be the sharpest guy I knew. I told him this story a thousand times. 8:00 am. Not the time… I should’ve changed my life, but now, I’m very happy to have a Jimmy Mansfeld in my corner, 24/7.

“Anyway, this songs called, ‘Robin.’ we made it in the pandemic, over zoom. That’s also something he figured out. I was in an apartment in Anchorage, AL. I was zooming into Jimmy’s studio in Murfreesboro, and I could sing through his cold computer. I don’t know. It must’ve been some really good sht that Jimmy fired up,” Nick said.

F&P, to Connor: I run a newspaper in town, and we actually report on coincidences that happen, just like that. It’s cool that he came all the way back to MTSU to tell the crowd about this story -the guy that he co-wrote the song with -his dad happens to be in the audience.

Connor: That’s pretty cool. […] Little public interest stories people can get into

F&P: I call it socio-… SOCIO

Connor: If it wasn’t for music I would be in Journalism.

F&P: Both are emotionally fulfilling. Very much know them well.

[“I’m here to collect —–, of all things, but not in the way off… You’ve gotta be informed before you say stuff about another person [Connor speaking about getting the story right before you publish…]

—Medium Build’s “Rabbit,” is playing in the background.

F&P, to Connor: And he’s right about the whole “friends” stuff -you said the whole thing about finding an in for gig-work, touring with people [personally] I’ve got a friend that does that, tours with the Chili Peppers, and the likes, eventually somebody’s gonna grow up around you and they’re gonna call you back one day

Connor: One of my friends got the opportunity to go onstage with Parker McCollum and play guitar, and somewhere backstage made friends with the openers production manager, and now one guitar tech can’t help, they’ll take him out on the road with’m.

F&P: So cool, man. I was with Parker McCollum, last, in a very ‘MT’ Nissan Stadium (’empty’), while he was warming up. He sounded fantastic.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bryce Harmon (@folkandpropernews)

Connor: I’ve heard Parkers a great guy. We went to his Birmingham show after that…

[F&P: Alabama’s opening up a little bit. You got stuff like IV, and Katie Crutchfiled, and Daikaiju. Birmingham and Huntsville…] It’s getting a bit bigger and bigger. Huntsville. Birmingham.

Connor, taking off: Nice talking to you, btw.

[This is when I start pacing, figuring how the paper is going to start walking off from live recordings to produce a walking-away fade]

Nick/Medium Build, to Jimmy’s Dad: I can’t believe you came to this. Thank you so much for being here -You see Paul, over there? Paul’s hiding, over there (laughs) (they wave at each other).

Medium Build: Great. Wow. Beautiful. See how it is? That’s how it happens. One guys in your class, freshman year, and then 15 years later, his dad shows up at your show, and you tell a really long story about your buddy. It’s sweet, and its tender. That’s true blue. That’s true fckn blue, guys (laughs), amen.

Build: How much time we have? How we doing? Oh, we’re doing great. Great. Like, two more.

Build: -Of all the people that know any of my songs, is there any one you need?Yeah?

Audience speaks up: [1] Sure. [2] Great. There you go. The last two tunes.

Build: I write a lot about my folks because I’m a privileged person, and my life is pretty good, so I had to find something to rage against, and that was my parents. We’re buds, now. I kinda ream them in my tunes, but I think there’s a lot of love. My parents and I just did a road trip last month. We drove from Alaska to Atlanta, and travelling with your seventy-year-old parents, you’ll find a lot about people .

3:15, Build: Yeah, my career advice is just life advice.

“Try your best to forgive everyone you can, and let that forgiveness and grace come back to you,” Medium Build/Nick Carpenter said.

It’s fun holding a grudge.

I was holding a grudge, this morning, against a guy who was riding my tail on 24, and I was having real fun with it, ‘Aw, yeah. Me and this guy, enemies ’til the end. Then I was like, what if I really carried this through? This grudge. What if we got off at Bell Rd., and we duked it out? It’s not cute at that point. The grudge becomes embarrassing. Whatever grudge you’re holding onto -if its your folks, or maybe someone else, try to let it go before you do

My name is Nick Carpenter, and I went to MTSU. And, honored to be back, and grateful. Yeah, and Go Blue Raiders! Let’s beat Jax State! And, yeah, C’mon Reg! We’re gonna win. We’re gonna turn that record around. Cool

4:47, strums, Medium build: This song is about being depressed after I made it, and got a record deal, so that’s also to prove nothing can fix whatever hole’s inside you. Just keep making stuff.

5:03, Medium Build’s, “Never Learned to Dance,” as I walked out of the new Peck Hall Grove towards Middle Tennessee and (Murf’s) Bell, to Fairview, past the loud air conditioner on the side of the James Union Building-route.

Medium Build

transcriptions, in-between-song banter/origins:

More information on Peck Forest’s “Maple Grove,” Party in the Grove please visit MTSU’s Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/mtsublueraiders/, as well as their alumni page, https://www.facebook.com/mtsualumni/, as well the campus life page, https://www.facebook.com/mtsucampuslife/

Remaining MTSU Blue Raiders football schedule can be found at 2025 Football Schedule – Middle Tennessee State University Athletics.

Unveiling for the MTSU Blue Zoo 2025 Football season banner can be found here: MTSU’s Blue Zoo Banner Reveal | 2025 Football Season.

For more information about “join[ing] us, here, in the middle of the stage,” please visit Daikaiju’s Oct. 26, 2025, Cobra venue attack at Daikaiju, first edit, Instagram bumper