Run, Rose, Run

Ruthanna tells AnnieLee that she has come to listen to her and talk to her. She notes the importance of having allies in the industry and getting into a recording studio. Ruthanna says that she wants to hear how AnnieLee sounds with a decent mike and backup musicians. AnnieLee responds that she has never sung with anyone else before but that she’s ready to try something new.

Jack, Ruthanna’s manager, calls her and asks to meet AnnieLee. However, Ruthanna explains that AnnieLee is inexperienced, having never heard her own voice played back to her, and knows nothing of the technicalities of producing recorded music. Jack asks when he can see Ruthanna, and Ruthanna picks up on a more intimate tone in his voice, as though he wants to see her for personal reasons.

While AnnieLee says that she has her own unique style, Ruthanna insists that she needs to develop her own vision because signing with a label too early will mean that she’ll sound like any other commercial country star. AnnieLee says she won’t make any deals yet, but she reveals that a producer named Mikey Shumer has been calling her. Ruthanna tells her to “stay a million miles away from that man” (118). AnnieLee questions Ruthanna’s motives, not believing that anyone does anything out of pure kindness. Ruthanna wonders aloud if she’s being kind because AnnieLee reminds her of someone. However, she refuses to go into detail.

Ethan crafted his guitar by hand from East Indian rosewood and western red cedar. He has begun making a guitar for AnnieLee as well. When he performs, Ethan is too diffident to tell the audience his name. He doesn’t want fame, just the chance to write songs, earn money, and sleep without troubled dreams.

When he plays at the Cat’s Paw, he’s moved to see AnnieLee in the crowd and decides to play his own songs for a change. AnnieLee is gone before he can catch up with her.

AnnieLee is running as though Ethan is someone to be wary of. She laments that she hasn’t told him how good his voice is. She hopes he’ll forgive her when his songs play on every car radio in the world. AnnieLee is in her motel shower when someone deals her a blow. A man has been waiting for her and hits her continually. She reaches for the gun in the man’s backpack, and he bites her, telling her, “It’s your own fault for running […] you know how this works” (125). The man kicks her head with his boot and knocks her unconscious. Before she passes out, AnnieLee vows that she’ll get the man one day and God will help her.

AnnieLee goes to Ruthanna’s in her bruised, beaten-up state. When Ruthanna asks her what happened, AnnieLee pretends that she was beaten up by a bunch of kids who wanted to mug her. Ruthanna, however, thinks the incident has something to do with Mikey Shumer, the producer who has been calling AnnieLee multiple times a day. Ruthanna speculates that Mikey is trying “to scare you. Show you what could happen to girls who try to go it alone” (129). AnnieLee wishes she could believe Ruthanna, thinking that it would be nice to have a new enemy instead of an old one. She fears that this precious new life she has been building could come crashing down on her.

Ruthanna summons Ethan and tells him what happened to AnnieLee, again referring to the fact that Ethan likes AnnieLee, and he reveals that there has been no one since his last relationship ended badly. Ruthanna tells him that he can’t stay “solitary and wounded forever” (132) and that he’s about as stubborn as AnnieLee herself. Ruthanna asks Ethan to protect AnnieLee and adds that she doesn’t think the mugging was a random incident. In addition, she affirms that AnnieLee has “got what it takes” (133) and that they need to protect her from harm. Ethan agrees to help.

AnnieLee has made a deal with Ruthanna, whereby in exchange for musical guidance she’ll help with Ruthanna’s garden. She craves Ruthanna’s stories of her rise to fame, such as the two years it took for a record label to listen to the onetime Pollyanna Poole’s songs and how they got another singer to take her music to number one. AnnieLee thinks the glamorous hardships of touring seem wonderful, from the 4am starts to the spangly outfits. Ruthanna tells AnnieLee about the sexism in the country music industry and how she had to “work ten times as hard to get half the attention” (137). When Ethan turns up, Ruthanna asks AnnieLee if the two of them are getting on better now that she asked him to look out for her. AnnieLee blushes, though she admits to herself that she likes Ethan’s company and the fact that he drives her to her motel room after gigs and checks the premises afterward. She feels lucky to have both him and Ruthanna in her life.

AnnieLee is in Ruthanna’s recording studio and is nervous about teaching the band one of her songs. Ethan is there on guitar, and Ruthanna offers encouragement. AnnieLee is grateful, feeling that instead of trying to take her song away from her, the band members are engaged in making it as good as possible. Before they break for lunch, Ethan lets AnnieLee know that working on a single is a time-consuming process.

Ethan drives AnnieLee to WATC Country Music headquarters an hour early, where she’ll be pitching the single she recorded in Ruthanna’s studio a week earlier. Ethan affirms that there is no way he could do what AnnieLee is doing, but that he has faith in her. He says that he wouldn’t be able to say to himself, “‘I’m going to be a star, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen’” (146). He admits that he’s jaded and that he thinks that too many people around Nashville want to be famous without caring about whether they have the talent. AnnieLee is baffled, given Ethan’s obvious talent. He confides that when he got out of the army he had a tough time but doesn’t go into detail. He said that what got him through was learning to play country songs on his guitar and that now he wants to remain a studio musician. AnnieLee blurts out that Ethan doesn’t seem as happy as he says, as she can sense sorrow behind his good humor. He offers to come with her inside the radio station, but she refuses, not wanting to show vulnerability.

Entering the WATC studio, AnnieLee wishes she could run back to a place where she could play more songs. She objects to how Aaron Price objectifies her and raves about how the radio station has been instrumental in shaping the career of numerous young hopefuls. He tells her that despite one’s talent, it’s rare to “get something for nothing” and that “there are always ways to buy spins” (151). Price insinuates that AnnieLee could help herself by accepting his dinner invitation. AnnieLee is offended and insists that he hear her song. He’s astounded by its quality and says that he’ll play it “just about every hour for the next week” (153).

AnnieLee receives a ginormous gift basket at her motel the following week, which turns out to be from Mikey Shumer. She feels a sense of dread that “Mikey Shumer was sending her a very clear message: he knew where she was and how to get to her, and he wasn’t going to give up” (156). Curious, she calls him from the motel reception desk. Weighing her options, AnnieLee considers Ruthanna’s advice to take things slower, but this morning she doesn’t feel as patient, and she accepts Mikey Shumer’s offer of a meeting and the car he sends for her.

Mikey begins by telling AnnieLee that she’s even prettier than he expected and that she’ll be a hit with the photo editors. He says that her good looks will help her career. Although AnnieLee thinks that Mikey is “slick” and looks like “the kind of guy who could sell mud to a hog” (160), he’s not the “monster” Ruthanna made him out to be.

He bluntly tells AnnieLee that her song is a hit and asks whether she has checked her streaming numbers. Instead of doing this, she followed Ruthanna’s advice to focus on the music. He insists that the music isn’t enough. When AnnieLee points out that Ruthanna hates him, Mikey asks how much longer the older singer thinks AnnieLee should be playing in honkytonks and taking it slow. Mikey says outright that Ruthanna might see AnnieLee as more of a rival than a mentee. He asks her to play a song and then pronounces that she’s the real deal, even promising that he can get her a world tour. AnnieLee is tempted by Mikey’s offer of an easier path to success. The meeting ends with him handing her an iPhone.

Ruthanna has prepared an elaborate dinner for AnnieLee and herself. She then confronts AnnieLee about her whereabouts the previous night to determine whether she has been wasting her time with her. AnnieLee confesses that she met with Mikey Shumer, which Ruthanna already knows but wanted to see whether she’d lie. Ruthanna reaffirms that Mikey is dangerous and says that he once stuck a gun in a man’s mouth to coerce him into playing his artist’s song. Then, Ruthanna shares the story of her own experience with Mikey. She confesses that the person AnnieLee reminds her of is her daughter Sophia, who would have turned 27 this year and was a talented, albeit lazy banjo player. Sophia was spoiled, having a mother the world cared more about than her. She was on the path to being a music teacher before she met flashy country star Trace Jones and fell in love with him. She wanted to go on the tour that Mikey Shumer had booked for Trace, but Ruthanna deemed Sophia, who had spent a stint in rehab, too fragile. Mother and daughter fought, and Sophia left. She started drinking while on the tour. Mikey told Trace that he needed to break up with Sophia to serve his career. Sophia responded by drinking all the bottles in the minibar and taking pills from a roadie. She passed out—and never woke up. Ruthanna again warns AnnieLee to stay away from Mikey because he’s cold-hearted and cruel.

While staying the night in Ruthanna’s house, AnnieLee writes a song about her girlhood experiences of being ignored and then being too noticed by a particular man. AnnieLee was so moved by Ruthanna’s story that she allows some of her own story to come through in fragments, which inspires her song. However, she considers the “memories so unspeakable that the only way to survive them was to deny them” (173). Ruthanna insists that AnnieLee come to the studio and record with the band. AnnieLee has jotted down her lyrics along with the chords on paper so that the musicians can each find something that speaks to them. They settle on five songs to record.

Later, Ruthanna says that she and AnnieLee could work on the love song she began and finish it together. AnnieLee is happier than she thought possible.

Ethan has invited AnnieLee to see his set at the Cat’s Paw, and for once he introduces himself to the crowd. Although Ethan is a hit, both with his songs and the covers he does, “AnnieLee sat there, entranced […] like he was singing only to her” (180). However, a whiskey bottle shattering at her feet interrupts her bliss. Her assailant calls her “gutter trash” and tells her she has broken the rules. She sees the flash of a knife and screams Ethan’s name. She recognizes the man as the one from the motel. The man presses his weight against her and she doesn’t have enough air to scream. Ethan knocks the man off her and holds her while she cries tears of shock and relief.

Ruthanna and Ethan try to figure out why AnnieLee is so guarded with them. Ethan suspects that the men who have been harassing her are out-of-towners, and as he talks to Ruthanna he fiddles with a knife that belongs to his friend Antoine, who fought with him in Afghanistan and died there.

Ruthanna wants to get AnnieLee out of town and talks to a record label in New York City. She asks Ethan to go as AnnieLee’s chaperone. Ethan worries both that AnnieLee might fail at being a star and also that she might succeed too well and then leave him behind. However, he agrees to go.

At ACD studios, chief Tony Graham tells AnnieLee that at the moment she’s “just a pretty little nobody” (191) and that having a great voice isn’t enough given the number of girl singers just like her. He demands to know why she thinks she stands out from the crowd. She takes out her guitar and begins to play and is so good that Tony Graham signs her. However, when he refuses to grant her request to keep her publishing rights and choose her producer, she tells him that they don’t have a deal.

As she storms out of ACD’s offices, AnnieLee feels the weight of her decision and worries about wasting the opportunity that Ruthanna gave her. Sam, Tony’s assistant, runs after her and says that the crew want her back upstairs. Tony affirms that she’s the real deal and that to keep her they’ll make all the concessions she wants.

AnnieLee summons Ethan, and they explore New York City. AnnieLee is talkative and excited, whereas Ethan is remembering how his parents found the city overwhelming on vacation. However, he vicariously catches some of AnnieLee’s excitement about the city.

They go to the hotel and get drunk on champagne. AnnieLee is tired and asks Ethan to sing her one of his songs, although she finds it difficult to admit that to her, “his voice was one of the best sounds in the world” (203)—and that she finds his touch electric. His songs are melancholic, and AnnieLee wonders whether he can give them a happy ending. She thinks they might be able to write a song together.

Ruthanna picks up the phone to hear an incredulous Jack stating how she has changed her tune from thinking that AnnieLee wasn’t ready to setting her up with Tony Graham. Ruthanna affirms that she herself broke all the rules during her life, from being 16 and singing at dance halls, to hustling to get herself on country radio stations. She confesses to Jack that she misses him, and he confesses that he’s outside her gate. He brings a bottle of white wine to celebrate his management of AnnieLee. Her single has reached number 37.

He says that Ruthanna herself is still in demand as a star and that no one can understand why she left country music. Ruthanna is incredulous, and Jack confesses that he himself is still enchanted by her. Ruthanna responds to the intimate moment by taking out her guitar and starting to play a song.

Ruthanna informs AnnieLee that the more famous she gets, the more people she’ll have to hire. One of these is glamorous publicist Eileen Jackson. Eileen will make it her job to show the world that AnnieLee is a star and will put her on all the social media channels. In meeting with Eileen, AnnieLee uneasily takes in all the publicity she’ll need, as she never thought beyond playing her music on stage. Eileen begins by asking what story she should tell the world about AnnieLee. AnnieLee feels nervous talking about her past because it’s full of dark events. She wonders what’s wrong with who she is now. Eileen emphasizes that the story that they’ll spin about her needn’t have anything to do with the truth.

Within a few weeks, AnnieLee moves out of her motel into a rented cottage in Hope Gardens. She releases two more singles with ACD on her own terms. Unusually for modern times, the tracks are the ones she recorded in Ruthanna’s home studio. The tracks are popular, one critic even tweeting that “AnnieLee would be the next Taylor Swift—‘but fierier and fiercer, with a voice so raw and gorgeous it’ll make your jaw drop or your eyeballs leak’” (217). ACD wants AnnieLee to release a full-length album. AnnieLee reveals to Ethan that she’s scared, and he says it’s not as scary as riding an Apache over a Taliban stronghold.

She flies to LA for a Rolling Stone magazine shoot and gets a complete makeover with expensive clothes and styling. Ethan, who accompanies her, tells her she looks incredible but “really different,” and she knows this isn’t necessarily a good thing. She then changes back into her t-shirt and jeans and scrubs off the makeup, announcing to Eileen that she’s ready to get the party started.