A Special Sunday Message from Meidas Contributor MeidasTouch Network Jan 5 Written by Tennessee Brando Dear Meidas Mighty, Tennessee Brando here. I wanted to thank everyone for helping us reach another milestone: we’ve crossed over 500K subscribers on my YouTube channel. That’s pretty hard to wrap my mind around, considering I’m sitting in a town here in East Tennessee with only 9,000 people in it. I grew up on the border of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia and spent over twenty years playing music in local bands on weekends and working factory jobs during the week. Being a blue dot in such a red state, there’s no way I could ever be in an echo chamber because MAGA is really loud in these parts. I came to a point in my life where I couldn’t stay silent about the issues at hand. I felt like democracy, equality, women’s rights, and shouting down bigotry and extremism were more important than getting a tip for playing another Hank Jr. cover. So, I sat down in a chair and started talking into my phone. That led to me first going viral on TikTok, with the likes of Texas Paul stitching my videos and shouting me out. From there, I became a contributor on the MeidasTouch Network and eventually moved most of my content to YouTube. It’s been very humbling to watch the channel grow, and looking back, the only regret I have is that I didn’t speak up sooner. I’m no longer wasting away on some dingy backwoods stage—I’m talking about what really matters. And I have the Meidas Mighty behind me. Y’all inspire me more than ever to keep fighting the good fight. I know we are headed into uncertain times, but if we stick together and put in the work, I feel we will weather this storm. Again, thank you for hitting that subscribe button. So many of you have written really encouraging messages telling me I give you hope. Always know this community gives me hope, and I look forward to all we will accomplish together going forward. We are on the right side of history, Meidas Mighty, and there’s no better group of people to be walking alongside. Thank you, Brando Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.