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For the Love of Here is a podcast about Dalton, Georgia and life across Northwest Georgia—from local businesses and entrepreneurship to community leadership and hometown pride.
Hosts Erika Mosteller and Lauren Sneary sit down with founders, civic leaders, creatives, and neighbors from Dalton, Chatsworth, Ringgold, and Calhoun to talk about the ideas, challenges, and opportunities shaping our region.
If you care about small-town business, local culture, economic growth, and building a life where you live, this podcast is for you.
Because you don’t need a bigger city. You just need a better lens.
Produced by Here Local Media.
Ep02
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Welcome Back
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[00:00:00]
Lauren Sneary: So welcome Erika to the here Local media podcast, the love of here.
We have a couple guests today. Do you wanna go ahead and get us started?
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, I'd love to. So I'm especially excited about these guests because they were probably some of our first friends in Dalton when we moved here. Mm-hmm. So I did not know their story and I'm excited for them to dive in. But the way they described it is that it feels a little bit like fate and a lot like adventure.
So we have today with us. Amanda Michaels Brown and Chris Brown, [00:01:00] and they were born in the same hospital in Syracuse, but they did not meet until they went to college at Suwanee, and then they had a really strong connection and after college they decided to kind of test it out and they went on a hike for the entire Appalachian trail.
Somewhere along the way realized. They were building a life together. They went to Denver and then came back here to Dalton. And that's what we're excited to hear from them about today. Planting roots in various ways across the community entrepreneurship, the arts, raising kids, all the things. So we're excited to dive in.
Meet Amanda and Chris
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Erika Mosteller: So that's a little bit of your story, but if you can introduce yourself, tell us who you are, how you're involved in our community, and we'll go from there.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So, Amanda Michaels Brown. I am the executive director of the Creative Arts Guild, our multidisciplinary nonprofit arts organization here.
That was the one of the first in the state.
Chris Brown: Yeah. I'm Chris Brown. A lawyer at Geiger Legal, and I also [00:02:00] get to run a brewery, which is pretty fun.
Erika Mosteller: Which is called,
Chris Brown: it's called Dalton Brewing Company.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. And I feel like I have known you, Amanda, for probably the duration of my life. When did you guys come to Dalton? That's
Amanda Michaels-Brown: absolutely right. I was, I mean, I was let say 84.
Lauren Sneary: So when I arrived in Dalton in 1988 Yep. You were here.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I was alive. And one,
Lauren Sneary: So we went to the same church growing up. Your dad was my pediatrician, which I believe is a story a lot of people in Dalton share, which is really special.
So, I know that, you know, you guys have a lot of different connection points as Erika has just said to Dalton. But just to get us started with your story, how would you frame your, your Dalton story for our audience today?
Chris Brown: How would you frame it?
Lauren Sneary: Good job, Chris. Thank you.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Well, mine is different. Mine started earlier, so I will start.
How's that?
Amanda Roots in Dalton
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Amanda Michaels-Brown: So my family moved here when I was two and my parents were both in the medical field. My mom, an occupational therapist and my dad a pediatrician. And I like to tell the story of how they came here because it [00:03:00] kind of circles back to my return. But after medical school they were looking for a smaller community.
They had lived in larger cities Buffalo Alabama as well, and Birmingham and Buffalo, New York. And they were looking for something different. So they looked at a lot of towns. They wanted something beautiful, so they looked towns like Asheville. Dalton was on there as well. And I think they compared two or three.
They looked for the mountains and they also wanted a community that needed the healthcare they could provide. They settled on Dalton, but when they came here they really saw the need and wanted to serve, but they also found their way to the Creative Arts Guild my dad was also a musician and my mom was a painter and visual artist. And so they naturally knew the arts were gonna be important from raising children. So they found their way to the guild and then they said, okay, this can be home. The community, the size of Dalton can support the arts like they do.
This is a good place for us. So we moved here. I grew up my whole life here.
College Connection
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Amanda Michaels-Brown: And I guess when I met this guy, I just, when I left to [00:04:00] go to college, I met Chris in with the first semester, maybe the first day. The only other person that went to Suwanee from Dalton lived next door to Chris, and so we connected almost immediately.
Lauren Sneary: Is that how? So, it was a Dalton connection.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Was Dalton connection. It was, yes.
Erika Mosteller: Wow.
Chris Brown: Yeah.
So Chris Minor, tom Miner's son. He was next door to me in the dorm.
Lauren Sneary: Oh,
wow.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah.
Chris Brown: And Amanda popped over.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah,
Chris Brown: so
Amanda Michaels-Brown: then your story about
your injury.
Chris Brown: My story starts in Syracuse two months after you I was born.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: He loves to throw the two months in my face every time for that. His favorite two months of the year, every year.
Chris Brown: Moved around New York, Massachusetts, and then I came down to Suwanee for college and then we met. So I've been coming to Dalton since I was 18.
Erika Mosteller: Wow.
Lauren Sneary: Okay.
First Impressions Tales
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Lauren Sneary: So what was your first impression of Dalton? Do you remember?
Chris Brown: The better question is, what was Dalton's first impression of me?
Lauren Sneary: Fair enough. Wait, do you have a depot story? Chris?
Chris Brown: Kidding? I don't have a depot story. I have a cotillion story. I was
Amanda Michaels-Brown: gonna say, we have
to talk about
cotillion.[00:05:00]
Lauren Sneary: I wish
it was
Chris Brown: so, believe it or not, I had dreadlocks when I was a freshman, and so I came to Dalton and Dalton. Was not, was not ready for that dreadlock place.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: They were actually very welcoming. They were, yeah. Chris's mom was afraid because she was used to the northeast cotillions that they would require Chris to shave his head.
And she said, don't let them cut off your dreadlocks. So once she realized that they were allowed, she was thrilled.
Chris Brown: Yeah.
Arts Path and Guild Start
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Chris Brown: So we hiked the Appalachian Trail. I was teaching environmental education in Alabama after the trail, Amanda was at the Creative Arts Guild.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So my story started here, and I didn't go into the details of growing up here and all that, but my, my youth was very involved in the arts here in Dalton, taking classes at Guild, being involved in Dalton little theater, and then again in artistic civic theater when it. Kind of first began
Lauren Sneary: I'm gonna interrupt you. Yes. 'cause I remember so clearly when you starred in the king and I
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Oh.
Lauren Sneary: And I remember sitting in the auditorium at Dalton High School and thinking, wow, I [00:06:00] wanna be like that someday.
Erika Mosteller: And wait, what? What was your
role? Were you Ann?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I was Ann. Okay. But the longer story of that is I had not done a whole lot of.
So I had started in theater when I was really young, but when I got older I was really, really involved in dance. And as you know, with a young dancer yourself you know, dance becomes a priority and there's several days in the classroom that you have to be in studio and everything, and then performances.
So the last semester of my senior year when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up and, i, I did kind of a risky thing and after all these years of dancing and doing governor's, honors and all these things, like really pursuing dance, I took a step and said, I'm gonna pull back from the last semester of, of company that still let me perform in recital and I'm gonna audition for a show.
So, I auditioned for King and I, I got in it, and then I ended up majoring in. That's awesome. Theater later. So, really took me right back.
Erika Mosteller: Wait, what was your first job at the Guild?
Didn't realize you came back.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So when we moved, like, I guess college and then after college and after the trail, I came back here to root ourselves.
He [00:07:00] had an internship actually at. You did for a little while.
Chris Brown: Yeah. So, ~You were teaching here, ~
Amanda Michaels-Brown: ~but, but first you ~
Chris Brown: finished the trail and I went to teach environmental education. You came here to creative arts guild.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah. Yes, I got it.
Chris Brown: And so I went to, I was like, I'm gonna be a lawyer and change the environment, be environmental lawyer. So I took the lsat and then I was like, well, maybe I should see what the legal field is like. So I came here before law school and did an internship at the minor firm. Okay. With Tom Minor.
Erika Mosteller: That's awesome.
Chris Brown: Doing data entry and going through. Non-air conditioned warehouses looking through files,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: and he appreciates every moment of that.
Chris Brown: I did
Amanda Michaels-Brown: thank you for the opportunity. I grew up next door to the minors. That was a really fun family connection. But you asked me about my first job at the Guild.
So when I came back I had a friend who had come back to Dalton and was teaching dance and she said, come by and visit me. So I came to the Guild just to go visit my friend and to see the dance studio and see all that she was a part of. And the executive director at the time, Terry Ello, said, you know, come in the office.
I wanna talk to you, meet you. And she, I [00:08:00] guess, knew of me or somehow maybe my friend introduced us, I don't know. But we went down this conversation. The next thing I know. She hired me to begin some theater classes. And gosh, some of my very first students are now college grads, like doing all kinds of crazy stuff that are locals that everyone would know.
But I taught some theater classes and one of the most. Impactful things. Was I was connected to Westwood school and went in and did a whole kind of artist in residence. At the time, they didn't have an art teacher, so I did art on a cart for a case.
Chris Brown: The art cart?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah. Yeah. And I had a little closet in the cafeteria where they let me keep a few supplies and otherwise I was out on the. Art.
Lauren Sneary: Oh,
that is giving
Amanda Michaels-Brown: me frizzle. It was it was a really fun year and so we did an, a whole thing theme about renaissance art. And then we ended, ended with a big exhibition at the Guild with stain glass windows that we made on plexiglass with, with, oh tissue paper glued to it. And it was just, it was really, really a full experience. And I went ahead and planned the [00:09:00] curriculum for the next year, which was bringing the arts focus back home and looked at Appalachian art. But I didn't get to do the next year.
Chris Brown: Why not?
Denver Move and Proposal
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Amanda Michaels-Brown: Because Chris mentioned he was really enjoying his time at the minor firm doing the internship in the hot warehouse.
And during the time he did apply to GRA to law school and got in to a couple different places. And long story short, we landed on Denver. And at that point I was like, am I going or am I not going? But then he proposed and so I joined. Oh, so you're going Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: Made it official?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yes.
Chris Brown: The funny part was when we hiked the Appalachian Trail, her sister kept telling her, every time she communicates, she's like, oh, he's gonna get to the end and he's gonna repose to you when you guys finish the trail.
Lauren Sneary: Wait, you didn't propose
Chris Brown: that? I did not propose there. Yeah. That
Lauren Sneary: seems like the right time, Chris. ~I'm not gonna lie ~
Chris Brown: ~in retrospect, perhaps.~
But we did, he wasn't
Amanda Michaels-Brown: quite sure after that five months in 2000 miles,
Chris Brown: save a little more time.
Erika Mosteller: Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
That's
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So you guys have left
Erika Mosteller: Dalton and back? Yeah. I guess that's
Amanda Michaels-Brown: where you were
Erika Mosteller: going. That was gonna be my question.
[00:10:00] Yeah.
Life in Denver Changes
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Erika Mosteller: Is like, how was it to when you went to a bigger place, what were, what did you miss about Dalton, but also what did you appreciate about the bigger
place? So I hadn't been here, I was here for like a summer for that internship. So I wasn't totally plugged into the community,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: but
we did
live at Crown Mill.
Chris Brown: We did live at Crown Mill Village, and I, I walked that strip, which from Crown Mill down to the depot, which was where you went to hang out. And I remember doing poker there. That was the one thing to do.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Chris Brown: But then we moved to Denver and it was great in our twenties, no kids. I was in school, we were able to go up in the week and no lift lines to snowboard and ski, so, okay.
Lauren Sneary: Very different
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Dalton? Yes. Very different. Yeah. So at the time, I guess law school was three years, and during those three years I jumped around and. Did everything in the arts before I had my job at the Creative Arts Guild. I didn't ever have one job. It's, you piece it together as a working artist. So I taught at dance studios.
I taught dance. And I got [00:11:00] involved in a theater conservatory for children. And so really, really poured into, it's kind of like. A dance company you connect for the whole entire year.
And you create some shows, but it's really about kind of the studio work and the education portion of the theater, which I really, really fell in love with and I enjoyed it.
Chris Brown: Yeah. And we stayed out there. I graduated law school started to work out there and then we had our first child out there.
Mm-hmm. Okay. So he was born in Denver in a blizzard. Oh, wow. Which was fun.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: For everyone except my mother.
Chris Brown: Yeah. She was very nervous.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: That's what that laugh is about.
Chris Brown: Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Was she out here or had she gotten
out there?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: She came to see the baby be born and that meant she had to drive my little blue jeep through the snow to get home, to walk the dog.
And ah, that about did her in. Oh, you can't live here anymore.
Chris Brown: But what we realized is once you have a kid, all the things you could do in your twenties without a kid. The allure of Denver nightlife, snowboarding, you just don't have time for. And we had no family support out there.
Loss and Community Support
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Amanda Michaels-Brown: But the unspoken [00:12:00] piece that is important to speak, and it's not the fun part, but we lost my dad really unexpectedly and tragically, and I ended up just quitting my jobs, everything.
It was one of those moments in life where you just have to do the thing, right? Sorry, I, I'm a commitment person, but I just had to walk away. My family needed me, so I came home to Dalton and I was here for about, I guess six months. And Chris would fly back and forth every weekend to come to Dalton, but yet go back to Denver to work and, the reason that's so important is it was when I came back here and, you know, we had this huge loss, it's like, what do we do? And we, all of us, I mean, I was the oldest and we were all in our twenties. And my sister had basically just graduated and it was just like college. She had just graduated college.
I remember leaving the hospital and like, it was so surreal. What's gonna happen next? We're gonna go home to this empty house. Well. We went home to not an empty house. I still to this day have no idea how they got into our house, but our house was full of people who showed up.
They were doing our laundry. [00:13:00] They had cooked our meals, and so this was. December 22nd, the week of Christmas, they did not leave until New Year's Day. They stayed by our side. It was just constant.
And then my brother's friends came in, my sister's friends came in. It was just like crazy. I can't even, people sleeping everywhere. It was like a frat house. It was insane. But it, it, people really, really showed up to the point that finally on New Year's Day, my mom's like, okay, that's it.
Everyone out. But it showed me and demonstrated, I think, both to Chris and I and talking about one of our favorite things. I know it's a question along the way, but the people here, it, it reminded me why it's important to have community mm-hmm. In such a big way, so. After six months of being here and getting my family on their feet and making sure that was in a good spot.
I did go back to Denver, but I didn't go back to my job. Chris came home from work one day and I said, I applied for grad school today. He said, okay. So, I, you know, he had just graduated, so it was my turn to go back to school. And I focused on an arts [00:14:00] administration degree and in that time, that's when Arden was born.
Chris Brown: Mm-hmm.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah.
Guild Director Opportunity
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Chris Brown: I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason. Mm-hmm. And so she finishes her arts and administration degree and then she gets a call from her mom and she's like, the weirdest thing happened. I forget who it was, who came to talk to her was it Jane Snipes? Mm-hmm. Was talking to her and she's like, what's Amanda doing?
And she's like, oh, she just got this Master's in Arts administration. And she's like, oh, well the guild's looking for a new director. So Amanda's like, well, I don't know. You know, I don't wanna uproot our family and go back and,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: and I also was like, what a long shot. Like I am 32 years old. Every executive director is much more seasoned than I've ever known and to take on something to me and the creative Arts Guild was like the end all be all of the art scene.
And I say this after living in Denver, 'cause I was Wow. In school in Denver with all arts. Professionals there. But then I ended up, my last semester is 'cause I had a baby I tried online, which I ended up loving. And so, [00:15:00] but what I found out in the online courses is I was with people from all over the country all of a sudden, and they were all talking about this new wave of multidisciplinary arts organizations that are coming across the country.
And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. It's not a new wave. Dalton, Georgia has had one since 1963. And so then to graduate and not even like a month later, have an invitation to apply. I thought, well, I mean, what a long shot. Sure, I'll apply. I won't uproot our family 'cause I won't get the job. And
Erika Mosteller: famous last
words.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Chris Brown: So she winds up getting the job and then she's like, oh, I don't know. Now I got the job, but do we really move back?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Well, I remember that distinctly too. There was a little so. By this point we had purchased a home in Denver at the right time. I'll say that for you. Well, we purchased a home in Denver and we had just like been there two years.
Like we just did this big thing. Our street down was like so cool. Brew like two walk blocks away, breweries a park to walk my child to like. Sign language classes for my kid. Like [00:16:00] everything was like within
Chris Brown: coffee
Lauren Sneary: shop,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: so
Chris Brown: two restaurants,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: two blocks away, our morning walks and Farmer's Market was right there.
So it's like we have all of this and so there's a place, it was like a little park burger, I believe. Mm-hmm. We went to dinner that night and Chris didn't even know I had the interview that day, I don't think. I don't know how I worked that out, but
Erika Mosteller: probably because
you had a baby at home.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah, right. I just yeah, it was an online interview and one of many, it was like, I think a nine month interview process, but it doesn't matter.
But we went to dinner and I remember like I ordered a drink and I drank it really quickly and then I ordered another one and then he is like, it is like he was talking about his day and it was like, what happened? I just burst into tears. I'm like, I got the job. And I wasn't sure I was happy, to be honest.
I wasn't sure 'cause what a change it was going to bring and that's terrifying.
Erika Mosteller: Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Returning to Revitalize Dalton
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Erika Mosteller: But I feel like at some point I heard that when you moved back that you were able to bring some of that experience that you had in Denver and that all those third spaces and the walkability and just like having places to gather and that inspired you to bring some of that to Dalton.
Chris Brown: Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: absolutely.
Chris Brown: Well, [00:17:00] it like things happen for a reason, so I feel like we were part of a wave coming to Dalton of a younger generation. Assuming leadership position. Mm-hmm. So you had at that time, Tayto Gwen on the city council, you had Rob Bradham coming in. At the chamber you had Amanda coming in at the Creative Arts Guild.
And so a younger not that's been tried before type mentality was more of a, like, we want to craft Dalton for young professionals, younger people to get people to move back. And so you saw that change in a bunch of different ways. Some of it was investment downtown, so. When we came back in 2014, they had all the signs up in these abandoned buildings saying, you know, this is opportunity vacant.
It's full of opportunity. But people started to make decisions to start invest and to open new restaurants and everything. And we came back.
Dreaming Up the Brewery
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Chris Brown: I like beer, craft beer and especially Denver is a huge craft
beer.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I'll interject and say it was a, like in college, Chris was reading B books about beer.
We were brewing in our bathtub for years, and I think the [00:18:00] last batch that he didn't brew, I had actually made labels for the birth of our child and that batch never got done. I still have the labels for a birthday or a baby boy.
Chris Brown: We'll do it back
Amanda Michaels-Brown: beer.
Chris Brown: It'll be a little like, it's only 13 years later, but
Lauren Sneary: yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Right. So this special release
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: But this was really a dream for you for a long time. And then
Chris Brown: so I moved back and we weren't even thinking about starting a brewery. It was, I asked Drew, my brother-in-law, I'm like, so where, where's the brewery around here? And he is like, oh, it's just 30 minutes up the road in Chattanooga.
And I was like, oh, well that doesn't seem right. Right. So we started talking and started planning in like 2016 with a bunch of different people, Deanna Mathis, at that time, there was a different team. We We had like actual brewers who were teaching brewery classes up in Eton. Then that fell through and eventually it became four people, Deanna Gray Drew and myself.
Mm-hmm. And families. And started the brewery and yeah.
Erika Mosteller: So how did you, tell me how you got. Started on the block parties. I'd love to know that story.
Community Party Vibes
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Erika Mosteller: 'cause I think that's one of the coolest things that Dalton has when y'all just close down that area and have these big community parties.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I feel like we [00:19:00] experienced that right by Platte Park in Denver.
It was like that, that strip I was talking about, where the farmer's market came and where businesses where they would shut the whole thing down. They'd have music and it was just. Really comfortable. Kids were playing, dogs were playing.
Brewery As Third Place
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Amanda Michaels-Brown: And you know, as we were talking about the brewery, what we wanted was a gathering space in the community.
It was more than about beer
from the beginning.
Chris Brown: And so say Denver, the concept is not a bar. Right? I think most people think of breweries as, oh, you just go and buy. It's all for adults. In Denver it was like the neighborhood hangout. And so you had, it was like a brewery on a block. It wasn't like a brewery that everyone would just go to to get drunk.
People would come in, they'd grab a beer for the taste. Mm-hmm. Not to get hammered. There would be kids there, there'd be games there.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: There'd
be dogs.
Chris Brown: They'd have food trucks outside. So it really was a gathering spot and you would see neighborhood. Like the neighborhood would getting gathered at the brewery.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: And there
Chris Brown: were all, so that was the concept to bring here.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah.
Family Friendly Pushback
---
Amanda Michaels-Brown: And there were always kids activities and the families was really important. And so when we were talking about and doing the first marketing for what the concepts would be like, there was a lot of commentary about how are you gonna have babies in a bar?
[00:20:00] How are you gonna have dogs? What if that doesn't work? And a lot of fear around that. But we had. Seen and experienced that, and we were the ones with our dog and then the ones with our stroller and our dog. Mm-hmm. And it just made it so natural that we wanted to bring. That experience here.
Lauren Sneary: So let me ask this. That was about 2014. What's happening in parallel path for you as you're starting the brewery? What's happening at the Arts Guild?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Okay, so brewery was like 2016 ish, so yes it was. That was a concept. And then
Chris Brown: planning, we opened
in 2018.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: 2018 on Chris's 35th birthday is when we opened.
Oh yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Because y'all just had your eight year's happy birthday.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah.
Guild During Recession
---
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So at the Guild, gosh, when I first came, I thought, oh, this is gonna be fun. They just need nice, good ideas about new arts things to do. And what I didn't understand is how intense you know, basically the depression of Dalton was and how hard the recession, I guess I should say, not depression, but how I didn't realize how hard the recession was.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: And, it [00:21:00] was really like when you talk about the opportunity in the window. I remember we came back in November and that December, one of the first thing was, it was do the silver bell sprint. And I swear I saw a tumbleweed rolling down, but I'm like, look how cute this downtown is.
Look all these buildings, like what opportunity? But anyway, I, so at the Guild what that meant was really looking at the structure. Not, not the fun stuff you know, that got to that later. I get to do that now. But at the beginning it was really about how do we get financial security? How do we earn the trust of our community again?
And you know, how do we take what we have and make the most of it? So there were a lot of hard decisions and changes that were not fun in the early years. We got to have some fun along the way too. And that was, you know, new partnerships. Again, Chris talked about some of the energy in other organizations and that creates synergy.
Building Live Music Scene
---
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So I mean, early conversations about dreaming about what Bur Park has become today. You know, just again, like building on what was happening at the brewery, like more [00:22:00] gathering spaces, more places for live music. Like that was a big
Chris Brown: summer
concert series
Amanda Michaels-Brown: process. And like we were hosting concerts at the Guild.
And that's kind of how. For my experience with that started. And then of course the brewery started hosting music as well. I was helping book that as well. And now all that's outta my hands. Thank you, Andy. But yeah, it just, you know, we got to do more outward. I think the first few years were really, really like an inward kind of look at how we were doing, how we were working operationally and all that.
As things. Leveled out and people really just started investing and showing up at the guild. And it was just, it's been like everybody's been so supportive. We've been able to do a whole lot more and now we have so much going on. I don't even know what all is going on anymore.
Lauren Sneary: I mean, really this, I mean, we have you guys and a lot of other.
Venues and, and programs to thank, but the live music scene in Dalton does not get talked about enough in terms of how I think differentiated it is from other areas of our size and scope and all the opportunities that there are in the community [00:23:00] for those live bands to play. It's just so cool to see.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I think it's increased the number of.
Musicians who can make a livelihood doing that. I mean, you know, supporting professional musicians and even if it's their side gig, but supporting them, they've, they've played to this level to be paid for what they do. Yeah, because when I first came. Every band who played, volunteered.
Lauren Sneary: Mm-hmm.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Every one of them. In my experience. Now, we would hire a couple people at the Guild. That was a whole different thing, but if they played downtown or at an event, and my dad was one of those people mm-hmm. Who played Kudzu Festival and all the rest. Yes. It was absolutely volunteering.
Lauren Sneary: Was like busking.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yes. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Well, so thanks for bringing that mm-hmm. Picture.
Guild As Extended Family
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Erika Mosteller: I mean, I remember when we first moved here, the guild was like our third space. That, that Arden was. And yeah, just being able to take your kid to a place and there's always people there who are glad to see them and there's always community there and their events and it's, it was just, we have lived in a lot of other places and we had never experienced a third space quite like that.
Because one of [00:24:00] the cool things to me about the Guild is that it really does appeal to all ages. Mm-hmm. So it can start from the time a kid is. One or two until you're 80 and retired and wanna volunteer or get into a new art class or whatever it is.
Lauren Sneary: A photography
class?
Erika Mosteller: Yeah, a photography class. Yes.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Well, and that's why I always, I think of my involvement in the Guild as a family decision, which sometimes is a hard one. You know, there's a lot there. Right. But it, there's no way to do it if we're not all in. My kids have done every single festival. I was looking through pictures this morning for different things and oh my gosh, watching all my pregnant bellies at all the festivals and then watching all my babies at all the festivals.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And all the other things in between. I mean, you know, in events with one on a hip and doing a thing, and they just, we, we kind of came up with a slogan growing up at the Guild. But it's real, it's a real thing. And like I experience it in some ways and my kids are definitely experienced it.
They actually do live there. But but yeah, so it's, you know, it's like that extended family experience.
Staying Or Leaving Dalton
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Lauren Sneary: Well, this is maybe a little bit [00:25:00] asked and answered.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yes.
Lauren Sneary: But the, the Denver experience aside, now that you've kind of been involved and invested here, have you ever thought about leaving again?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Absolutely.
Chris Brown: Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I think, yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Not recently.
I think those early years were hard.
Well, the first little bit of it was just so, we were so excited and all that piece, but then there were some years in between where the work was hard. Mm-hmm. And young, you know, having like beginning to have a family and trying to weigh all that with the amount of work it takes to, I call it serving the community because that's really kind of.
F it was my parents' model, this active servants. And I feel that's how I feel about my job. I think you do too. But you know, so, you know, there were times where it was like, gosh. I will tell. One of the things I told Chris, one of the reasons I cried when I got the job that day, I said, if you, if we go to Dalton, we can never just be a fly on the wall anymore.
It's just not that kind of community.
Chris Brown: Oh. I think what you led with was you can't go to the grocery store in [00:26:00] sweatpants anymore.
Lauren Sneary: Hey, you told that story,
Erika Mosteller: which I learned the hard way when we first moved here,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: which now I think I kind of feel comfortable doing that. And also I order all my groceries online.
I've gotten really bad about that since COVID. It's just not, no, don't, I don't have two hours. It's convenient, it's convenient,
Erika Mosteller: helpful.
Chris Brown: But also during those initial years until 2020, I was commuting back to Denver. Oh, right. 'cause I was I had a law firm out there that I was. Going back and once we had the third kid, Amanda said, you can't go back for oh, two weeks at a time.
Do trials. Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: It also was wearing on him, I think the allure was, Hey, we can live in Dalton. Cost of living is great, get a Denver salary. But like at the end of the day, is it, is it worth it? And was it smart? And I think. Chris loved the people he worked with, and I think to this day there are some of his mentors and, and friends.
But I think you were also just ready not just to give up the, the flying, but I think you found once you invested in being here, a happier lifestyle.
Chris Brown: Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So I think once that was [00:27:00] settled, we felt more settled too. Right. ~But that was tricky. ~
Erika Mosteller: ~Yeah. Yeah. That does make sense. ~It's hard to have a life in two places when your kids are little.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Mm-hmm. ~For sure.~
Erika Mosteller: Okay.
Advice For Newcomers
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Erika Mosteller: So what is your best advice for somebody who's recently moved to Dalton?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I think show up. I, I think that I think one of the hardest things is kind of, I feel like sometimes because we're such a close knit community, and I'll, I'll say this about the relationships here and why I think the long-term relationships are important.
Chris moved around a lot as, as a kid and I. Grew up in one place, whether that was not my parents' experience, they chose that for their family. And I wasn't sure I liked it. I wanted to move around and do some different things, but I think what, living in community, and I'm getting back to the advice because here's why I think what living in community with the same people does is it, it requires a certain kind of resilience and relationship.
There's no way to not have experiences with people. The relationships require some maturity to work through whatever that is and come back around because we are living together. It's almost like a bigger network of family. And and again, you know, life [00:28:00] happens, you're gonna disappoint someone that you know, that those things come up.
But then you're gonna see 'em in Kroger, in your sweatpants. So, you know, how do you live through that? And again. That. And then also, experiences happen, deaths happen, marriages happen, you know, injuries happen. Like there are these things that just happen when you have a whole life together and you're in a closer knit community.
That. Can be hard, but if you look at the whole scope of that relationship, it's so deep and genuine and authentic that nothing breaks it by that point. Mm-hmm. So what I would say to someone coming in is. You don't have that maybe initially, but Dalton is here for that for you, and you just kind of have to put yourself out there and show up.
There's so many great ways to get involved and like the Creative Arts Guild, you can volunteer. But honestly, a lot of people, I've heard the story that if they came to the guild and volunteered, they met friends. They, they met, you know, people that start taking a class, things like that, and all of a [00:29:00] sudden they're a part of something bigger.
And there's, this is a community where I said, you can't be a fly on the wall in Dalton. This is a community of service. It'd be much easier just to sit back in our sweatpants and kick our feet up every Saturday. But no, we don't do that. Mm-hmm. We roll up our sleeves, we do the, the hard work and we put on these crazy events.
I'm so tired of carrying tents and heavy weights to put them up at every location in Dalton. But then the event happens, or the thing happens and we did it together. So I would say go get involved in the things that are happening. Go to the brewery, go to the Fair Park
Chris Brown: Show. Yeah.
So Much To Do Here
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Chris Brown: I, I would say when we first moved back here, I remember going through leadership Delton, Whitfield in like 2016, maybe.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: 17, 18,
Chris Brown: 17.
Mm-hmm. And there was a, even people from Dalton were like, there's nothing to do here. Mm-hmm. You know, we we're gonna go to Chattanooga. So this mentality of. Hey, if you wanna have fun, go 30 minutes up the road to Chattanooga. It persisted. And I still think to this day there are people out there that are telling new people like, Hey, if you wanna have fun, you gotta get outta town.
[00:30:00] Yes. Yeah. And so I, what I would say my advice would be, there's a lot to do here. It may not be apparent and I think here Magazine and, and other publications are trying to get that information out. But I would go into one of the third places, meet. Some people who've been here a while like Keith Patterson will tell you everything there is to know about Dalton and get plugged in.
And I think once you see that there's this group of people who are civic-minded who still wanna have fun, you'll find out that there's actually a lot to do.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. And one thing, and obvi, you know, I feel like I should disclose this. I am a board member of the Creative Arts Guild
Amanda Michaels-Brown: and we appreciate
it
so much.
Erika Mosteller: So I am one of their biggest fans, but one thing I have especially appreciated about the Creative Arts Guild is that it really is a place for everyone like you can come. Whatever your background, whatever your interests and the arts truly do connect you and bring you together. And it's been really neat to see how that has played out with the writer's club and the camera club and you know, all the different art [00:31:00] classes for various ages.
And you know, now my children all are involved in various learning opportunities at the Guild. And even just the events that you all have that bring all these people together multiple times throughout the year, it's a lot of work. But like you said, it's an act of service and. I have not experienced that in another community, so that's especially poignant for me as a newcomer,
as somebody who's not here.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Absolutely. And you mentioned events and it, and this is true at the Guild, but it's also true, like. I'm so proud that Dalton has so many free opportunities to show up. And so when I say show up, it could be as easy as go downtown and listen to the music. Mm-hmm. You're going to see someone next to you and they're going to say hello.
It's just that kind of spot and you know, we see it too with a lot of the stuff that's happening at Dalton State and some of that energy with the, the younger groups that are here. And it, it's just, it's, it's just that kind of place. Lots to do. Lots to do. Did you hear that? There's lots to do.
So much that I want a Saturday off. Please.
Lauren Sneary: Right. Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: But but, and like a lot of them are free to show up. Yeah. Just and enjoy. Right.
Lauren Sneary: We've covered so much [00:32:00] ground here with the ways that you guys have personally invested in the community, the, the organizations that you're a part of and what that's brought to the community.
You talked about the resilience of relationships, which I really do feel like resonated so strongly with me and is one of the reasons that I think this place is so captivating. Once you kind of let that in and, and you kind of understand like. What your kind of role is in that, in, in relation to other people and, and how you show up for your community.
Favorite Dalton Moments
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Lauren Sneary: So I wanna lighten it up a little bit, okay? And we ask everybody this. We'd love to know your favorite Dalton thing, favorite Dalton story, or favorite Dalton item. Maybe it's food, maybe it's an experience, whatever you'd like to share with us. What is your favorite Dalton thing today?
You're not locked in forever, but today, what is it?
Chris Brown: Hmm.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: I absolutely love the first light of the day over Fort Mountain.
Erika Mosteller: Oh yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: And seeing that sunrise,
Chris Brown: that's a good one,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: is just such, well, it's just, it's such a moment of positivity. Anything can [00:33:00] happen in that first light of day and it kind of. You know, spiritually, emotionally, all the things awakens me and gets me going.
Erika Mosteller: So are you talking about when you're driving to Hammond Creek? Is that what you're talking
about?
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Absolutely. See every day when I drive so many, many places,
Erika Mosteller: yes. I'm
like, gosh, what a view. It's so pretty.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: So, I mean, I just think the natural beauty of what we have, and I will say this, I lived lots of places and whatnot, and there were times when I'm like, maybe I will never live in Dalton again.
But something about whenever I came over the ridge and like. You know, even driving into the driveway at my parents' house, which we now live in, it's the whole story. But I, every time I'm home, I'm like, I've lived Colorado. Nothing is as beautiful. Wow. Like the green, the lush, the diversity of texture and colors.
Like, it's just, we live somewhere really pretty. Mm-hmm.
Chris Brown: Favorite thing, it's more of a concept, but, and we've nibbled around the edge, but community, I mean, I grew up moving around a lot like every three or four years. And so I never had that community, and so it's awesome to experience and see how supportive people are when [00:34:00] you have been here for a while.
Lauren Sneary: Mm-hmm.
Chris Brown: And so it's neat to have an actual community around you.
Dalton Stories And Laughs
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Lauren Sneary: Well, what do you think, Erika, have we covered it all
Erika Mosteller: except for the craziest, best, strangest thing that's ever happened to you in Dalton.
Chris Brown: I think one of the funniest is, so when we moved back, I got my Georgia bar license so I could practice law here. And as part of that, you have to get sworn in by a judge. And so I arranged it and it's just whatever judge is out there, and it was Judge Partain who I known.
Lauren Sneary: I grew up at his house over the summers.
Chris Brown: Right. So I, I've known him but obviously he knew Amanda a lot more and I hadn't seen him in a while. And so we go in and. A woman is getting sworn in as well, who's from Dalton, I forget her name. But he looks, he, he looks at her first.
He's like, oh, it's so good to see you, and you brought your parents and blah, blah, blah. And he's, they're telling stories back and forth and she goes through it and gets sworn in and then he turns to me and he is like, Now, who are you? And I was like, well, you know, I could tell you who I am, but the best way to explain is I'm Amanda Michael's husband.
He's like, oh, [00:35:00] yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: That is worn off. But Chris did go by Amanda's husband for a while, and I, I had to, I had to return to Amanda Michael's for many years until people finally
Chris Brown: That's right.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Understood. I'm now a brown.
Lauren Sneary: That's funny.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: so I was trying to think about this one.
There are so many things that happen at events, but one that I did not expect, and this is a little gross, but we had at our Dia de los Muertos celebration, which has become one of my favorite nights we decided one year and there was someone who offered to bring horses and we're like, yes, we would love that.
And they dance and the music is so neat. So, we were like, sure, bring 'em on under the guild. I did not realize that they were going to poop.
Lauren Sneary: Oh.
Erika Mosteller: Oh.
Chris Brown: Or how much
Amanda Michaels-Brown: they do do that. Yes. And they, and I guess as they're dancing, their bodies are moving and it was everywhere. And they're stomping in it, and they're kicking it.
Erika Mosteller: Because I've seen those pictures, but I know that we don't do that anymore.
Chris Brown: That.
was Arden's Favorite thing about the whole night was, I remember having him up and he was like, oh,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: And Zach Adamson was president of the [00:36:00] board at the time, and he grabbed a shovel and he looked at me.
He is like, all right, here we go. We started shoveling, like, what would you do for the Guild? I'll never forget it. It was,
Lauren Sneary: that's,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: it was a big night,
Lauren Sneary: but yeah.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: It was
Erika Mosteller: speaking of service.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Wrap Up And Plugs
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Erika Mosteller: Well thank you guys so much for your time and I just think it's really cool how you both are so invested in the community, and I know your kids are too.
I know your kids have their own little guild. Name tags? Yes. Do they
Amanda Michaels-Brown: have
Erika Mosteller: job descriptions as well,
Amanda Michaels-Brown: or It says staff. Kid.
Erika Mosteller: Okay. Staff
Amanda Michaels-Brown: and all staff children. Even up to like 18 and 20.
Erika Mosteller: I'm technically a staff kid.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Oh yeah. You need one. I'll get it printed next week.
Lauren Sneary: Guys, thank you so much.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Thanks for having us,
Lauren Sneary: and thanks for what you do. Is there anything you wanna plug? Like how should people connect with the arts guild? Of course,
Chris Brown: yes.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Yeah. Come to the brewery. Come to Geiger, legal and Creative Arts Guild.
Oh, nice
Lauren Sneary: plug. That's
Amanda Michaels-Brown: good. Oh yeah, we forgot. He does have another job. We should be on the brewery. That's all, that's all good. It's it all folds together. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: All right. Well thank you guys. And, please stay [00:37:00] open. You know, we might need to have you back on the podcast again, depending on how many guests we can get.
So thank you for being our first.
Amanda Michaels-Brown: Absolutely.
Erika Mosteller: A
Amanda Michaels-Brown: pleasure and an honor.
Erika Mosteller: Thank you. Oh, thanks
Lauren Sneary: guys.