Mandy Moore Plays '60s Nashville Hero Sue Brewer on Audible Originals Podcast 'The Boar's Nest': 'Such an Important Story'

If Sue Brewer had never existed, the Outlaw Country movement led by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash might never have existed.

Although the artists already knew each other, in the mid-'60s Brewer gave them a safe haven in her Nashville living room, dubbed the Boar's Den, to create music and form lifelong friendships. He believed in them when naysayers in the Nashville music establishment doubted them and provided refuge from the outside world, including, at times, their husbands.

Brewer's story is told in The Boar's Nest: Sue Brewer and the Birth of Outlaw Country Musicone eight-part Audible Originals podcastdebuts Thursday (March 14).

Brewer, a single mother who worked three jobs, didn't play an instrument herself and never got the recognition she deserved for the big role she played as their confidant and muse, remaining an unsung hero. “As a woman who wasn't necessarily looking for a romantic relationship with these men, she really wanted to give them that safe space,” she says. This is who we are actress Mandy Moore, who plays Brewer. “They had tons of people pulling at them from all different directions and she wanted nothing from them. She just loved music. He wanted to help them.”

The Outlaw movement, which also included artists such as David Allan Coe, hit its stride in the '70s and '80s, with the music taking on a rougher edge than the overtly commercial, polished, smooth sounds that came out of Nashville. The music proved extremely popular with fans: a 1976 compilation album Wanted! The illegalswhich featured songs by Jennings, Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompal Glaser, was the first country album to be certified platinum for sales of one million by the RIAA.

In addition to Moore, the audio drama's voice cast includes The bearEbon Moss-Bachrach as Shel Silverstein, Brothers Osborne's TJ Osborne as Johnny Cash, DeadwoodW. Earl Brown as Waylon Jennings, John Hoogenakker as Kris Kristofferson and Jake Hart as “Cowboy” Jack Clement.

Longtime producer Dub Cornett, who most recently worked on the Audible Originals audio drama The Big Lie (with Jon Hamm), produced and created The Boar's Den for Fresh Produce Media and wrote the script with highly respected Nashville journalist/historian Holly Gleason and playwright Rachel Bonds. Kimberly Senior served as director.

Moore was unaware of Brewer's story until Cornett sent her the script, but immediately began reinforcing Brewer's vital role in country music history. “This is such an incredible and important story to be able to enhance this woman's legacy,” she says. “History has kind of been erased, and that's what's so great about being a part of a project like this: It's almost this little time capsule that captures the story of this woman at this very, very special time in Nashville's history in its music scene. country that I feel like I haven't been told that way before.”

Because there is so little archival material about Brewer and many of the artists she cultivated have died, Moore had virtually no material to base her character on. “That's what's so hard about playing a person like that who existed, but there's so little out there,” says Moore. “This is not the age we live in now where there would be an online presence on social media that would leave a footprint. Even her house is no longer there.'

Instead, Moore says she leaned heavily on Cornett, who was close friends with pioneering producer/songwriter Clement, and the scripts. “The scripts spoke for themselves. The writing was imbued with so much emotion and so much of her quiet ferocity and tenacity,” he says.

The authors' intention was to capture her quiet, yet indomitable spirit. “Sue Brewer was the glue and the rock for some of the most iconic, wild creative spirits who were at their most vulnerable,” says Gleason. “Before Willie, Kris, Waylon or even Johnny became superstars, they were songwriters beating up against a system that didn't know what to do with them. He did: Give them a late-night safe harbor, remind them why they were special, push them to push their songwriting even further, and dust them off and remind them they were great when they were on the verge of giving up. In a town that notoriously doesn't give credit to women who are midwives and catalysts for rule-breaking legends, Dub wanted to make sure the single mom who worked two and three jobs was celebrated for her huge contribution to Outlaw Country . Without her, who knows? But I don't want to think about it.”

Moore recorded her role when she was more than nine months pregnant and says she loved the ability to “jump in because I'm not on camera.” Compared to when voicing a character in an animated film, such as in Disney's fairy tale 210 Rapunzel, Entangled and working in complete isolation, Moore enjoyed recording her part on Zoom with other actors or collaborating with Brown by doing their scenes together in separate studios. “It was great,” he says. “With animation, you're never in the same place as someone. Interact with yourself or read with a director. Reading with these performers you were on stage with made all the difference.”

This was Moore's first podcast and she enjoyed “flexing a different muscle” knowing that her voice had to do the heavy lifting given the lack of visuals. “I've never done anything like this before,” he says. “It's so dynamic. We really have to rely on our voices to tell the stories and engage people. You're too focused on just listening to what someone is doing.”

Moore hopes that with the podcast shedding light on Brewer, it will elevate her story and others like her. “There are many people like Sue Brewer in the world who are at the core of supporting people to be the best version of themselves. They don't want to be in the limelight, but they have this incredibly innate and special quality that helps them bring out the best in other people,” he says. “I hope it helps us recognize that these kinds of people exist in all corners of the world, so we don't just recognize them after they die. They deserve to be celebrated right now.”

Silverstein and Vince Matthews, another Brewer-backed songwriter, paid tribute to Brewer in their 1972 song, “On Susan's Floor”. Recorded by Gordon Lightfoot and Hank Williams Jr., among other artists, the lyrics warmly recall the shelter it provided: “Like crappled ships that made it/ Through a storm and finally reached a quiet shore/ The homeless found a home in Susan's floor. ”

Brewer, who died of cancer in 1981 at age 48, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990 for her role in encouraging songwriters.