"From what I've read, there's nothing like [the Ralston Library] anywhere in the United States, certainly at the university level, and perhaps even on a private level."
To produce their 1973 hit “Money,” Pink Floyd famously employed not only guitars, drums, saxophone, and piano, but also clinking coins, tearing paper, and a slamming cash register, plus several layers of vocals. Tandy Lewis, C’80, P’15, P’19, says each sound can be distinctly heard through the William Ralston Music Listening Library’s high-resolution speakers—and the effect is glorious. “I always tell people it’s one of the greatest songs to play [in that space].”
Though Lewis lives and works over 600 miles from Sewanee, in Shreveport, Louisiana, he says he visits the Mountain as often as he can, and the Ralston Library is always his first stop. “I tell people, tongue in cheek, that if they’d let me turn the music up louder and bring a bottle of bourbon in there, I’d probably never leave.” To preserve and grow the facility, and honor the legacy of its founder, the late Professor of English Tam Carlson, C’63, Lewis recently contributed a major gift to the Ralston Music Listening Library Endowment. He’s now working with Ed Crawford, C’72, and Jimmy Hungerpiller, C’78, P’12, to bring other funders on board.
Lewis says he was introduced to the Ralston Library by Vice-Chancellor Rob Pearigen, C’76, P’14, P’17, in 2008, when Pearigen was serving as Sewanee’s vice president for University Relations. At the time, Lewis was seeking to make a gift in memory of his father, who attended Sewanee Military Academy. “I knew Rob a bit, so I contacted him and said, ‘What do you recommend?’” Recalling Lewis’ involvement in Sewanee’s music scene as an undergraduate, Pearigen suggested the Ralston Library as a worthy beneficiary. “There was a matching gift [for the library] at that time, so I was able to leverage my gift,” Lewis says.
Soon, Lewis had a good excuse to visit the Ralston Library in person—in 2011, his daughter, Blain Lewis Coady, C’15, enrolled on the Mountain, and the Lewises bought a home in Monteagle. Lewis says his son, Brant Lewis, C’19, visited campus often and always headed straight to the Ralston collection. “He’s a music junkie like his father, and incredibly knowledgeable—much more knowledgeable about music than I’ll ever be.”
While spinning his favorite records, Brant struck up a friendship with Tam Carlson and his wife, Chris Ausley Carlson, C’83. “They started sending us Christmas cards every year,” Lewis says, “and on the back they’d write [to Brant], ‘We’re counting on you to come to Sewanee in 2015 and help us with the listening room.’” Brant took the Carlsons up on their invitation, and the Ralston Library became an integral part of his Sewanee experience, according to Tandy. “It was his varsity sport—his main focus for extracurricular activities.”
As Ralston Library devotees know, Tam Carlson conceptualized the space as a tribute to influential friendships with two Sewanee faculty members—Charles T. Harrison, former Sewanee professor of English and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Rev. Dr. William Ralston, C’51, who taught English at the College and moral theology at the School of Theology, and served as a poetry editor at The Sewanee Review. Both professors regularly invited Carlson and other students to spend afternoons listening to their personal record collections. After Ralston’s death in 2003, Carlson resolved to create a space at Sewanee where students and visitors could have their own formative music experiences.
While its comfy furnishings and warm lighting give the Ralston Library’s Carlson Listening Room a cozy, homelike feel, the space includes an unparalleled audio setup and tens of thousands of LPs and CDs—the stuff of most music lovers’ dreams. “From what I’ve read, there’s nothing like it anywhere in the United States, certainly at the university level, and perhaps even on a private level,” Lewis says.
Nathan C. Stewart, C’16, T’20, who serves as the library’s director, says the facility is designed to help students and the wider Sewanee community listen to music with intentionality. “A chasm stands between our culture’s ways of music consumption—through earbuds, alone, as background noise—and the way music has been experienced for millennia—as art that asks for our attention, as a shared experience,” he says. “The Ralston Library seeks to remedy that through thoughtfully designed spaces equipped with world-class audio playback systems and a collection that spans history.”
By significantly increasing the Ralston Library’s endowment, Lewis says, he hopes to ensure the facility’s permanence at Sewanee. “The bottom line is, we need to raise enough money so that we’re certain it will always be properly staffed and maintained.” Given the universal appeal of music, Lewis believes the library has unlimited potential to raise Sewanee’s profile and potentially grow admissions. “Music is an attitude changer, and you will have your attitude changed in [the Ralston Library] like nowhere on this planet,” he says. “It’s very special, sacred ground for anyone who appreciates music.”
To make a gift to the William Ralston Music Listening Library, click here. In the Designation field, select "Other" and note "Ralston Listening Library." For information about supporting the Ralston Music Listening Library Endowment, Email universityrelations@sewanee.edu.
