LANCO Adds “Greatest Love Story” Mural To Nashville’s Growing Street Art Scene

Nashville’s picturesque 12South area is home to popular eateries such as Bartaco and upscale boutiques including Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James and Holly Williams’ White’s Mercantile. Tucked throughout the area, several large-scale, colorful murals, such as the popular “I Believe In Nashville” piece, serve as compelling backdrops for unique photo opps.

Now, a new street art mural on the wall of 12South restaurant The FlipSide incorporates lyrics from Arista Nashville band LANCO’s current single, “Greatest Love Story.”

“We hang out over there in 12South a lot,” says LANCO’s Brandon Lancaster, as he and his fellow bandmembers are in the studio finishing up their first full-length major label project. “Corner Music is there and it’s a vibrant part of the city. It’s still kind of a hidden secret to some people. There’s a lot of culture in 12South.”

The band commissioned local Nashville artist Ners, professionally known as Neon Lumberjack, to craft the mural, which incorporates the idea behind Paris’ Love Locks Bridge and is emblazoned with the phrase “The Greatest Love Story This Town Has Ever Seen.”

“When we tour we see the love locks in a lot of cities,” Lancaster says. “Seattle, Tucson, Austin, so we’ve seen it a lot and we thought it would be cool to bring that to Nashville.”

Ners is known for his 3D spray paint art concepts, which were also incorporated into the piece.

“The coloring and the dimensions really pop out, he’s really good at that,” Lancaster says. “We talked about having dimensions and layers so that it catches your eye. The color scheme doesn’t look like some design on the side of a building that could be part of the restaurant. We really trusted him to take his own approach.”

Through October, visitors can chalk in their own names or initials as part of the mural.

Smyrna, Tennessee native Lancaster is the sole writer behind the intimate, sentimental tale told in “Greatest Love Story”—one that chronicles his own love story with his fiancée, whom he met during college at Lee University.

“She moved and we spent time apart,” Lancaster recalls. “We realized that what we were missing in each other’s lives was each other and we wanted that back. So the song is really personal. It came together really quickly because it was my story. I brought it to the guys in the band, and they liked it. I wasn’t looking to write a hit but I was looking to write my story.”