Higher Grounds

In 1993, rock frontwoman Elle Harrison was found dead at Higher Grounds, the Nashville coffeehouse she owned with her three best friends. Authorities ruled it a suicide. Few believed that. Thirty years later, the remaining women break their silence for the first time. Told through candid interviews, Higher Grounds is an intimate oral history of lifelong friendship, ambition, and impossible choices, tracing four women’s lives from girlhood to the explosive moment everything came undone.Higher Grounds is the debut fiction podcast series from YellaBird MediaPremiering February 2026. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. Written and produced by Kimberly Conway, Starring:Laura Jane Jones as SylviaCynthia Ergenbright as JoniJanice Lynn Sykes as RozKaty Yoder as ElleKimberly Conway as KatRobert Fleet as GentryGervais Weekes as CharlesStacey Lightman as Randiand a full castSound Design & Mixing: YellaBird MediaMixing & Mastering: Rick SuchWebsite: www.yellabird.comInstagram:  @YellaBirdMedia  #HigherGroundsPodcast #fictionpodcast  #audiodrama  #womeninpodcasting #nashville #oralhistory #cinematicsound #womenauthors #scriptedpodcast #emotionalfiction #booktok

In the series premiere, journalist Kat Singleton arrives at Higher Grounds to speak with the women behind Nashville’s most infamous coffeehouse. Thirty years ago, the coffeehouse made international headlines when child star turned rock icon Elle Harrison was found dead in its parking lot. Six weeks later, mobster Carmine D’Orazio was gunned down in the same spot. Both cases were closed quickly, but questions have lingered for decades.Now, for the first time, the women who built Higher Grounds are ready to speak.Told through candid interviews, Higher Grounds traces four women’s lives across the decades—friendship, ambition, fame, and fallout—leading to the moment long-buried secrets erupted into one of Music City’s most explosive scandals.The story begins here, in the summer of ’62.Written and produced by Kimberly Conway.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonCynthia Ergenbright as Joni McKayJanice Lynn Sykes as Rozalyn MitchellKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonTara Madison as ReporterBrianne Buishas as Young ElleKyle Sanderson as AnnouncerRachanee Lumayno as Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com

It’s 1967. Sylvia, Roz, Joni, and Elle form a singing group called The Divine Darlings. What starts on church stages quickly grows into something bigger. But as ambition begins to surface and first loves complicate loyalties, the four friends take their first real step toward the spotlight—unaware of where that step will lead.Written and produced by Kimberly Conway.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonCynthia Ergenbright as Joni McKayJanice Lynn Sykes as Rozalyn MitchellKaty Yoder as Elle HarrisonGervais Weekes as Charles RichardsonKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonJennifer Tzoumas as Allison AndrewsRachanee Lumayno as Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com© 2026 YellaBird Media. All rights reserved

It’s 1969. The Divine Darlings are riding high on their first studio recording when real life closes in. A humiliating scene in a school parking lot. The Vietnam War divides the nation. As the world outside grows louder and more volatile, the girls are forced to make difficult choices, and the future they once imagined begins to slip out of reach.Written and produced by Kimberly Conway.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonCynthia Ergenbright as Joni McKayJanice Lynn Sykes as Rozalyn MitchellKaty Yoder as Elle HarrisonGervais Weekes as Charles RichardsonKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonRachanee Lumayno as Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com© 2026 YellaBird Media. All rights reserved

It’s 1970. The girls are scattered across the country, trying to hold onto each other through letters as their lives start to split at the seams. In Louisiana, Sylvia is pushed into survival mode by a relentless series of events. In Nashville, Joni is left to navigate a new kind of loneliness, when a day of celebration turns into a night she will never forget.Written and produced by Kimberly Conway.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonCynthia Ergenbright as Joni McKayGervais Weekes as Charles RichardsonKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonRachanee Lumayno as Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com© 2026 YellaBird Media. All rights reserved

It’s 1970. In the aftermath of a devastating year, the girls begin finding their footing in lives that look nothing like the ones they once imagined. A wedding brings Roz and Elle back to Nashville for the first time in years. Old friendships are rekindled, but the distance between their worlds is impossible to ignore. And in New Orleans, Sylvia wrestles with the growing divide between the girl she once was and the woman she is becoming.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonCynthia Ergenbright as Joni McKayJanice Lynn Sykes as Roz MitchellKaty Yoder as Elle HarrisonStacey Lightman as Randi McMillanGervais Weekes as Charles RichardsonKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonRachanee Lumayno - Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com

In Las Vegas, Sylvia meets a young musician named Gentry Wilder, but her attention is quickly claimed by another man. After a violent encounter leaves her shaken, her life begins to take a different path.Dive deeper into the story and explore upcoming YellaBird productions at: www.yellabird.comFollow YellaBird Media:Instagram: @yellabirdmediaYouTube: YellaBird MediaTheme song: “Everything Changes” by Laura Jane Jones, available on Apple Music and Spotify.Featuring performances by:Laura Jane Jones as Sylvia RichardsonStacey Lightman as Randi McMillan Robert Fleet as Gentry Wilder Gervais Weekes as Charles RichardsonKimberly Conway as Kat SingletonRachanee Lumayno as Opening and Closing NarrationSound design and mixing by YellaBird Media.Mixing and mastering by Rick Such.Transcript and additional information available at:www.yellabird.com