## And A Melody ###### *Molly Sullivan, Stevie Knicks, that Pink Pony Club Feeling and What It Means to Not Justify Your Life to Anyone* Nestled on a well-traversed city block in California next to a 7-day-a-week karaoke bar, is the [Shout House, San Diego](https://theshouthouse.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20573725909&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYLABhD4ARIsALySuCSZfPfE8B_mlN5TAw14kRGPOM0qJSlfwpcNwDozTQGyiVPTYamZevcaAl0ZEALw_wcB). If you venture over on a Saturday night, weaving through drunk girls on the curb and the near-mile long line to a 4AM taco spot, you can hear the sweet sound of hooting, hollering and piano music drifting from within. When I first walked in, tipsy from white wine and jet-lag, I was met with a drunken chorus of Billie Joel's Piano Man and a feeling that I stumbled upon something special. Weaving through the packed room, I witnessed dollar bills piling up on a massive double baby grand piano up on a stage in the front of the huge room. Double whiskeys in hand, my partner and I took a seat and got into the fun. The Shout House is a dueling piano bar in San Diego's Gaslamp district, home to the soon to be married, birthday bitches and those who really want to sing Journey after 5 beers (honestly deep down we've all been there). At the front of the huge space at a double grand piano, 2 musicians fend off flying twenties and song request scraps as they switch through song choices from the crowd. They cover everything from the Backstreet Boys to that song that Jason Segal wrote for his [vampire opera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l82XiCJT-fs) in Forgetting Sara Marshall. You throw enough money, you can stop whatever song is currently playing and push yours to the top of the list. The piano players/singers whiz with remarkable speed and talent through the American songbook and often bring up the crowd for bits including lap dances and something involving riding around on a toy horse. After about an hour of banging on the table to the piano beat and howling what we hope are the right words to songs we love, the piano players bring up one of our waitresses. About 15 years younger than the other musicians with long brown hair and a collection of Miley-esc tattoos, she gets up on the piano and starts singing Stevie Nick's with a power and rasp that makes my jaw drop. *By the end of the song, she's standing on top of the piano, the crowd is on their feet and I'm thinking, "Who the fuck is this girl?" Enter Molly Sullivan.* I approach her after the show and am met with the kind of warmth and connection that you find from an old friend. We grab coffee the next day and as she walks into the little tea house, the bass line of Stevie Nick's Edge of Seventeen started playing through the speakers. We crack up and exchange a look of get the fuck out of here. Molly is all rings, cowgirl boots and positive nonchalance. She is, no other way to put it, very much a "cool girl" (not the Gone Girl connotation). She sat down with me and told me her story. After trying college, she opted instead to "fuck off to Italy" to travel and after just about running out of money, finally decided to buy a one way ticket to San Diego. She told me that she's been singing for as long as she can remember and that she's always been known in all of her circles as "the girl who sings." She's been at The Shout House for a year and half now, singing and waitressing. We talked about our personal worship of Miley Cyrus, how she isn't interested in coming up with a "personal brand" to gain success and our intense love for Gaga in A Star is Born (2018). "Serving is the best job in the world," Molly told me with a toothy grin, and when she said it I believed her. Molly exudes an aura of confidence and power, you can feel it when she sings as much as having a cup of coffee with her. She told me how lucky and content she feels to live where she lives and make her money through slinging drinks and singing every night. It's not everyday you meet someone who can sing like her, but it's also not every day you meet a 20-something year old artist who is content with where they are and doesn't feel like they have to explain their choices. She reminded me of Tess from Stephanie Danler's [Sweetbitter](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26192646-sweetbitter), a 22 year old who moves to New York City and works in a restaurant. The book is about good food and desire, but also about being young and being comfortable where you are and not feeling like you have to justify your choices. Lots of meeting Molly for me personally feels really fated, just like that song playing right when we met up. It turns out, even though we live 2,500 miles apart, she grew up 15 minutes away from where I currently live in New England. We share a love for the same kinds of music and honestly even kind of look alike. On my last night in San Diego, even though we had to catch a 4AM flight the next morning, my boyfriend and I stopped back at The Shout House one more time to see Molly sing and to say goodbye. She dedicated [Shallow](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIzWI4TyKBt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) from a Star is Born to me and I stood up and cried. With no music downloaded, on the plane ride back, I listened to the recording of her singing on a loop and thought about what it means to be young, to be an artist and to not have to answer to anyone about your life. Three weeks later I quit my full time job and embarked on a new phase of my life the refrain from [Molly's Edge of Seventeen ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6tRx9hRTrk)echoing in my head: *Well, the music there* *It was hauntingly familiar* *I see you doing what I try to do for me* *With the words from a poet and a voice from a choir* *And a melody, and nothing else mattered.* --