The Weekender: Remembering Michael Grannis

Good Morning, Clayton!

So... this past week I spent most of it chasing a story about stormwater, construction sites, retaining walls, erosion control, and a ton of emails containing the words "100-year storm."

And honestly, that story is still cooking.

One thing I'm trying really hard not to do with The Dispatch is publish something just because another Thursday has come around. I know if I still have questions, you probably will too. So rather than wondering what happened and having too many blanks to fill in, I decided to keep digging.

Then, on Friday, Michael Grannis passed away.

Michael served on the Clayton Town Council for 15 years. He and his wife, Betsy, helped build businesses downtown, spent decades involved in Civitan and other community organizations, and became fixtures in this town.

To put it mildly, Michael and I were cut from different cloths, and we rarely saw eye to eye with each other.

So I spent the entire weekend deciding whether or not I should write about him. But the more I thought about it, the clearer it became. You don't have to always agree with someone to recognize what they gave to a place.

Whatever disagreements Michael and I had over the years, there's no denying that the man gave a tremendous amount of his time, energy, and life to Clayton, North Carolina.

So, let's get into it.

The Dispatch Lead: Remembering Michael Grannis

The Former Clayton Council member, Mayor Pro Tem, downtown business owner, and longtime volunteer died last week at 79. His service to our town will be felt for generations.

Michael Grannis and I weren’t friends. 

That’s definitely an understatement.

Michael and I had a long history of not seeing eye to eye about what was best for Clayton, and I was never shy about saying that publicly. 

There were plenty of times that I thought he was completely wrong. 

I’m absolutely certain that there were enough times when he thought the same thing about me. 

I’m not going to rewrite history because Michael passed last week. 

But I’m also not going to let it get in the way of saying something that deserves to be said:

Michael Grannis gave a hell of a lot of himself to the town of Clayton. 

And whether you agreed with him, voted for him, argued with him, or worked beside him, it’s all worth remembering. 

He leaves behind his wife of 42 years, Betsy, two daughters, six grandchildren, and a long list of organizations, businesses, and pieces of Clayton that he helped shape. 

For a significant chunk of the past quarter-century, if something was happening around here, it was a pretty safe bet that Michael Grannis was somewhere nearby. 

Sometimes he was sitting behind a Town Council nameplate. Sometimes he was at the Civitan Club.  Sometimes he was trying to get a community project off the ground. Sometimes he was rolling up his sleeves to selflessly help the less fortunate. 

And for years, you could find Michael and Betsy running businesses right in the middle of Downtown Clayton.

Michael wasn't born here. But he was damn sure a Clayton guy. 

From Oregon to Clayton

Michael was born Nov. 4, 1946, in Portland, Oregon, but he was a Texan through and through. Hook 'em Horns.

His family moved to Texas when he was six, and he grew up in Corpus Christi before later moving to Austin for school.

Eventually, life brought Michael and Betsy to Clayton. And they didn't exactly ease into the place. They became part of it.

Together, they owned the Morning Glory Inn on Second Street, at a time when intentionally traveling to Downtown Clayton to stay overnight wasn't exactly the surest business proposition in Johnston County.

The Inn wasn't just a bed-and-breakfast. It became a gathering place.

Then Michael apparently decided that operating one hospitality business wasn't enough work.

So he and Betsy opened a restaurant.

Best Ribeye in Town

Clayton Steakhouse opened in February 2008.

A newspaper story from those early days shows how personal the whole operation was.

Betsy, who ran the Morning Glory Inn, made all of the Steakhouse's desserts. Michael was working with chef Eloy Vega to build the menu. The way Michael talked about the restaurant sounded less like someone discussing a business investment and more like someone trying to repay a town that had been good to him.

“Betsy and I feel like the restaurant is really a way for us to give back to the people of Clayton,” Michael said at the time.

He also knew exactly why they were in a position to open it.

“We wouldn't have been able to open the restaurant if people hadn't supported us at the Morning Glory Inn for so many years.”

That probably says more about Michael and Betsy's relationship with Clayton than a list of business accomplishments ever could.

They didn't just open places here. They built a life around Clayton.

And it's easy now, with restaurants, bars, and shops opening all over downtown, to forget that investing in an old Main Street building wasn't always an obvious thing to do. Michael and Betsy were doing it well before Downtown Clayton became what it is today.

They ran Clayton Steakhouse for years before eventually selling it to longtime employees Ryan Rubright and Bobbi Buckler, who still run it today and have the best ribeye in town. 

But Michael's relationship with Clayton had already expanded well beyond business.

Fifteen Years at Town Hall

Michael served on the Clayton Town Council from 2006 until 2021, including a stint as Mayor Pro Tem.

Fifteen years. That's a hell of a run.

For those of you who were here then, think about Clayton in 2006. Then think about Clayton in 2021. Those are two very different towns.

Michael served through a period of enormous change: population growth, development pressure, infrastructure expansion, downtown revitalization, and all of the arguments that come with trying to figure out what a growing town is supposed to become.

Budget meetings. Rezoning hearings. Water and sewer projects. Development fights. Closed sessions. Citizen complaints. Election seasons. Thousands of pages of agenda packets. Thousands of votes. And thousands of opportunities for somebody sitting in the audience to critique the job you’re doing.

Again, more times than not, it was me.

Here's something I think is easy to forget when we're yelling about local government:

Being a town council member is a pretty shitty way to become famous.

There's no mansion waiting for you.

There's no cable news contract.

There isn't some glorious political career at the end of the rainbow for most people who do this.

Mostly, you get a lot of nights away from your family, a giant stack of documents to read, and an inbox full of people telling you everything you're doing wrong.

You have to really care about something to keep doing a mostly thankless job like that for 15 years.

Michael Grannis clearly cared.

Town Council Was Far From the Whole Story

If Michael's obituary ended with his time in elected office, it would miss a pretty healthy portion of what he actually did around here.

He was deeply involved with the Clayton Civitan Club and the Clayton Recreational Foundation, along with numerous other community organizations.

And this wasn't the kind of civic involvement where your name gets placed on a letterhead, and you show up once a year for a photo.

Michael did the work.

Civitan meant youth sports, facilities, fundraisers, community meals, BBQ chicken sales, and the infinite little tasks that keep an organization like that operating year after year.

Even after his run with Town Council, Michael remained heavily involved.

He was still serving in Civitan leadership. Still recruiting people into the organization. Still showing up. Still working hard to serve the community.

One of the memories left by state Rep. Donna McDowell White after Michael's death recalled something else he pushed for: an inclusive playground that allows children of all abilities and their guardians to play together. Harmony Playground.

She remembered Michael routinely coming to her with ideas. 

“Somehow,” she wrote, “he always made it work.”

Another remembrance came from Georgia Anthony, who worked with Michael through Project Access, an organization focused on connecting underserved patients with healthcare.

She remembered his passion for the work and his support for staff trying to provide care to people who otherwise might not receive it.

Those are the kinds of things that go way past “Former councilman.”

Michael wasn't just sitting through meetings. He was rolling up his sleeves to make things happen.

Michael and Betsy

And so much of Michael's life in Clayton was intertwined with Betsy's.

Morning Glory Inn. Clayton Steakhouse. Volunteer work. Community events.

For people who have been around this town long enough, “Michael and Betsy” almost feels like a single proper noun. He called her his rock on several occasions that I know of personally. 

In 2021, Clayton named them Mr. and Mrs. Christmas, recognizing their years of service and generosity to the community.

Then in 2024, Michael was named Clayton Citizen of the Year.

And last week, the Clayton Civitan Club gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. His obituary says he was surprised and humbled.

A few days later, he passed on.

As sad as it is, there’s something pretty wonderful and poetic about that timing.

The people Michael had spent all those years working alongside got the chance to tell him what those years meant, while he was still here to hear it.

That’s pretty incredible when you think about it. 

The Honest Truth

If this were a movie, or a work of fiction, this would be the part where I’d tell you that Michael Grannis and I eventually worked everything out. 

We didn’t. 

There was no moment where we sat down over drinks and a meal, realized we had more in common than we thought, and rode off into the Clayton sunset together. 

That’s okay though. 

This isn’t about me and Michael Grannis. 

Respect doesn’t require agreement. 

One thing I’ve come to understand better as I’ve gotten older is that community isn’t built exclusively by the people you like and always agree with. 

Sometimes it’s built by the stubborn sons of guns sitting across the table from you. 

Sometimes it’s built through arguments. 

Sometimes two people can sincerely want what’s best for the same place and have completely different ideas about what “best” looks like. 

Michael Grannis and I definitely had our disagreements. 

Some of them mattered a lot. Some probably wouldn’t seem nearly as important today as they did at the time. But I never doubted for a second that Michael Grannis cared about Clayton. 

You don’t spend 15 years in elected office if you don’t. 

You don’t put your money into Downtown Clayton well before that became a smart decision if you don’t. 

You don’t spend decades volunteering, helping with youth programs, pushing community projects, serving meals, sitting on boards, and trying to get people to support one more idea if you don’t. 

And since Michael has passed, people have been leaving memories that make that pretty clear. 

They remember his advice. They remember his ideas. They remember his hugs. They remember him helping. They remember him showing up.

Michael Grannis really gave a damn about Clayton, and Clayton is a much better place because of him. And whether you agreed with him or not – whether I agreed with him or not— that deserves our respect and our gratitude.

Rest in Peace, Michael Grannis. 

Town Hall Watch

No meetings next week.

Council returns Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Enjoy the long weekend, Clayton. Town Hall will still be there when we get back.

LAST FRIDAY IN CLAYTON

The Clayton Center | 111 E Second St

PLUS Dueling Pianos Road Show | 7pm
The Clayton Center is bringing in PLUS Dueling Pianos for a loud, interactive mix of live music, comedy and audience participation. You request the songs, the pianists battle it out, and before long the whole room is singing along to everything from classic rock and pop to whatever ridiculous request somebody throws their way. Good pick for a date night, group outing or anybody who prefers their piano concerts with significantly more yelling.

Revival 1869 | 222 East Main Street

Bar School Drop Outs Menu Party + Magic Alley Burgers | Friday Night
Revival is using Last Friday to drop the next volume of its Bar School Drop Outs menu, complete with tarot readings and a crystal pop-up from Saren Bailey of Violet Raven. Magic Alley Burgers is also back for the night, serving Revival’s smash burgers alongside the new cocktail menu. If “it’s not just a phase, mom” still speaks to you on a spiritual level, this one’s probably your stop.

First Street Tavern | 115 East First Street

William & The Derelicts | 7–10pm outdoors / 8–11pm indoors
First Street Tavern is kicking off Last Friday with live music from William & The Derelicts. The band will play outside from 7–10pm if the weather cooperates; if things move indoors, music starts at 8pm and runs until 11. The Tavern opens at 3pm, so there’s plenty of time to get settled in before the music starts.

Crescendo | 231 E Second St

Last Friday Jazz Night with SweetLife | 7pm
Crescendo is leaning into Last Friday with a live jazz set from SweetLife starting at 7pm. If you’re looking for something a little more laid-back than the louder stops downtown, this is an easy place to post up with a drink and let the night unfold.

Ladida Wine Shop | 459 E Main Street

Last Friday with Josh Colton | 7–9:30pm
Ladida is taking Last Friday to the patio with live music from Josh Colton starting at 7pm. The adults-only, 21+ night keeps things simple: wine, local music and a few hours outside on Main Street.

Odd One Out | 400 E Main Street

Last Friday Pop-Ups + New Stuff | All Day Friday Until 9pm
Odd One Out is loading up for Last Friday with a 4 Track Records pop-up record shop, pastries from Buttermilk Boutique and handmade plushies from Cool Cat Crochet. There’ll also be fresh deals in Deal City and plenty of new weird, useful and completely unnecessary stuff hitting the floor.

Elixir VI | 425 E. Main Street

Last Friday with Wade Hill | 8pm
Elixir VI has local favorite Wade Hill setting the tone for Last Friday. If you want an easy downtown stop with live music and a familiar Clayton name behind the mic, this one’s a solid bet.

Deep River Brewing Company | 700 W Main St, Ste 102

Juicy Run Hazy Session IPA Small Batch Release | Open at 2pm
Deep River is dropping a small-batch session version of its Juicy Rapids Hazy IPA for Last Friday. Juicy Run keeps the bright, tropical, hop-forward profile but brings the ABV down to 3.7%, making it a lighter option for a long night downtown. It’ll be available on draft only in the taproom while it lasts.

Saturday

Deep River Brewing Company | 700 W Main St, Ste 102

Sip, Savor & Spice Up Your Shelf | 12–6pm
Deep River is hosting The Spicy Pages Bookshop for an afternoon of romance novels, craft beer and dangerously fast-growing TBR piles. Browse everything from sweet love stories to extra-spicy page-turners, compare picks with fellow readers and grab a pint from Deep River’s 24 taps while you shop.

Pottery Camp | 12989 US Highway 70 Bus W

Blown Glass Garden Orbs & Ornaments |
Pottery Camp is offering a hands-on glassblowing class where you’ll make three custom pieces — hanging ornaments, garden orbs or a mix of both — with your own color combinations. No experience is needed, and all materials, firing and instruction are included. Space is limited because everyone works with an open flame, so advance registration is required. Closed-toe shoes are a must, long hair needs to be tied back, and loose clothing or dangling jewelry should stay home.

Get Tickets

Crescendo | 231 E Second St

Reggae Night with Crucial Fiya | Saturday, 8pm
Saturday night shifts gears with Crucial Fiya bringing reggae to Crescendo starting at 8pm. They’re also teasing food and drink specials for both Friday and Saturday, so keep an eye on their socials if you’re planning to make a night of it.

Sunday

Revival 1869 | 222 East Main Street

Dungeons & Dragons Game Night | 3pm
Revival’s D&D night is back Sunday afternoon with another campaign starting at 3pm. If you want in on the adventure, join the Revival’s Dungeons & Dragons Facebook group and check the current post for details on gearing up before the game.

Deep River Brewing Company | 700 W Main St, Ste 102

Wasted Away Again in Deep Riverville | 12–6pm
Deep River is closing out the weekend with a Margaritaville-inspired Sunday full of beachy music, tropical beer shandys and local vendors including Carl’s Crafts and Squeeze the Day Lemonade. Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops are encouraged, and if you’ve been waiting for an excuse to spend six hours pretending Clayton is a beach town, this is probably it.

The Clayton Record Guy

Joel Fitzgerald turned a free record player, a stack of somebody else’s records and a lifelong need to make things into Four Track Records, Clayton’s little traveling record shop.

Joel Fitzgerald bought his first CD from Brad Hasty for five bucks.

It was Frogstomp by Silverchair, which is honestly about as perfect of a mid-’90s first-CD story as you’re going to get. Before that, Joel mostly did what the rest of us did: stole CDs from his older brother, borrowed them from friends and hoped everybody eventually forgot who owned what.

[Fun bit of useless Clayton trivia from Dan to give you an idea of how small Clayton used to be. I didn't know Joel except to see him back in what they call "the day", but Brad Hasty was my first roommate out of high school and we once listened to Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele on cassette for an entire road trip to Virginia and back. The more you know!]

Music wasn’t necessarily the defining thing in the Fitzgerald house when Joel was growing up in Archer Lodge. There were hymns and Christian music. His dad played guitar, and Joel would tag along to choir practice. Then his older brother got into country music, followed by classic rock and ’90s rock, and Joel followed him right down the rabbit hole.

But if there was one thing Joel was always doing, it was making stuff.

“I was always drawing,” he told me. “I was always building things. Making things out of clay.”

He describes himself as a creative, weird kid whose parents gave him room to be exactly that. These days, Joel teaches middle school art at Clayton Middle, and if you ask him what art actually teaches kids, his answer sounds an awful lot like an explanation for everything else he does too.

“All creativity, art, it’s all problem solving,” he said. “How do I start with a blank paper, or start with what I have, and end up with what I want or what I need?”

That’s a pretty good description of Four Track Records.

Because Joel didn’t start with a record store. He started with what he had.

A Record Player and a Grip of Records

Joel’s record collection began almost accidentally in the early 2000s, when he was staying at his friend Nick’s house while Nick’s mom was having a yard sale. She gave Joel an old record player and what he describes as “a grip of records.”

Then another friend, Zach, told him he could have some of his dad’s old records under one condition: if Joel took one, he had to take all of them.

At the time, CDs were still expensive and records absolutely were not. Joel was living in Downtown Raleigh within walking distance of Record Exchange, Schoolkids and Nice Price Books, so while everybody else was dropping real money on CDs, Joel could come home with stacks of used records for next to nothing.

“Pretty soon I had like a hundred records,” he said.

And anybody who collects records knows exactly where this story goes from there.

Today, a few records in Joel’s collection mean more to him than the rest. There’s an original pressing of the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, complete with the working zipper on the cover.

[Another fun fact from Dan: I gave him that record.]

There’s also an original Flex Your Head, the legendary early Dischord Records hardcore compilation. Joel doesn’t necessarily describe either as incredibly valuable. They’re just records he never really thought he’d find, and that seems to matter more to him anyway.

Ask him for his white whale and he doesn’t have some meticulously maintained Discogs want-list ready to go. Maybe an old rock-and-roll 45. Maybe a hardcore seven-inch. Maybe an original copy of The Wailers’ Catch a Firewith the Zippo-lighter cover that actually opens.

Something cool. Something with a story.

So Where Did Four Track Come From?

A few years ago, Joel’s parents owned an antique store, and his dad asked whether he’d be interested in putting together a record section inside the shop.

Joel wasn’t immediately sold on the idea. Then he started thinking about how he would do it: what records he’d carry, how he’d present them and what kind of shop he’d want it to feel like.

Suddenly, he was into it.

The antique store eventually went away, but the record-store idea didn’t.

Without a storefront of his own, Joel started thinking about what he could do instead. The answer was a pop-up, and Four Track Records was born.

The name comes from the four-track cassette recorders that became the gateway into recording music for generations of broke bands. Joel tried playing bass when he was younger, although he says he didn’t have the patience for it at the time. He has since learned guitar, but he remembers the friends who really did play. Eventually, playing songs wasn’t enough. They wanted to record them, and the four-track was the affordable way to do it.

Joel liked what that represented.

“This pop-up is about love,” he said. “Love for music, sharing the love for music, sharing music we love.”

To him, the four-track represents that point where music stops being something playing in the background and becomes something you actively participate in.

“It’s not just something you hear,” he said. “It’s a part of your life.”

That’s pretty much what Four Track has become too.

Clayton Has Some Record Nerds

Joel wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when he started setting up Four Track around Clayton. What he discovered pretty quickly was that there are a whole lot of record collectors hiding around here.

“Big time collectors,” he said, laughing.

And apparently we’re a pretty guitar-heavy town. The biggest seller is ’70s guitar rock.

But Joel says Clayton’s changing population also makes the local record-buying crowd surprisingly broad. People have moved here from all over the place, and they brought their music with them. That means Joel can find himself talking punk with one person, classic rock with the next and whatever weird thing somebody else has been hunting for after that.

Which is really his favorite part of Four Track anyway.

Yeah, he makes some extra money.

“Duh,” he said.

But mostly he gets to stand around talking about records.

“Meet people, make friends, talk about music, learn about music,” Joel said. “I love it.”

And now he has regulars. Real regulars.

People give him want lists. He knows some customers well enough that when they walk up, he can just hand them a record or point them toward a section he knows they’ll want to dig through. Sometimes he’ll see something while buying records and immediately know who needs it.

He has customers’ phone numbers. He texts them when something comes in.

“It’s cool to have friends that are customers,” Joel said, “and it’s cool to have customers that become friends.”

At some point, a pop-up record table became a tiny community of its own.

Ladies and gentlemen, Clayton’s Record Guy.

Okay, But What Should I Buy?

Joel is probably the exact kind of person you want running a record shop if you’re somebody who likes music but finds record collecting intimidating.

Walk up to his table and tell him you have no idea where to begin, and he isn’t going to start explaining matrix numbers and first pressings until you regret approaching him. His advice is much simpler:

Buy something you like.

“You don’t want to start off spending a ton of money on something really rare,” he said.

If you have a little extra money, grab a nice pressing of a favorite album. Maybe 180-gram vinyl. Maybe colored vinyl. Something that feels special. Or buy a handful of inexpensive used classics that aren’t particularly rare or expensive but are loaded with songs you already know you’ll want to hear again.

Creedence Clearwater Revival is high on Joel’s list. His wife, Carla, votes for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Joel also recommends things like Marshall Tucker Band, Steve Miller’s greatest hits and Bob Marley’s live records — the kind of stuff you can put on almost anytime and enjoy.

He also thinks classic-rock fans should spend some time digging into the music that influenced the bands they already love.

But there is one enormously popular classic-rock band Joel will apparently not be recommending to you anytime soon.

The Eagles. [Hard agree.]

“I know a lot of people love them,” he said. “They’re obviously talented, there’s gotta be something to them to make so many people love them, but I don’t know man. Not for me.”

See?

You can trust him.

Wildcat Comix

Maybe the best part of Four Track is that Joel isn’t always the only Fitzgerald running a pop-up.

His son Zeke has been making Wildcat Comix for the past couple of years and will sometimes set up alongside his dad, selling his own handmade comics.

Joel loves watching him have a good night, when people stop, look at something Zeke made, connect with it and actually hand him money for this thing that started as an idea in his head.

For an art teacher — and a dad — that’s about as good as it gets.

But Joel also appreciates the nights when it doesn’t go that way.

Sometimes Four Track has a slow night. Sometimes Wildcat Comix does too. And suddenly the pop-up becomes a lesson you can’t really manufacture in a classroom.

“It’s also tough when he has a slow night,” Joel said. “But then that leads to real conversations.”

Joel gets slow nights too. He has to rethink things, try something different, figure out what worked and what didn’t, and remind himself not to get discouraged.

Which brings us right back to his definition of creativity.

Start with what you have. Figure out where you want to go. Problem solve your way there.

The Fitzgerald house seems to have plenty of that.

Joel says his daughter Evie experiences music on an entirely different level from almost anybody he knows.

“She’s constantly singing.”

Their son Waylon is creative in another direction altogether. He’s a builder, a problem solver and an optimizer. Right now that shows up in video games, and he practices drums and percussion with his grandfather, but Joel is curious to see what outlet eventually clicks.

As a parent, Joel says the goal isn’t really to decide any of that for them.

“You want them to grow up to the best of themselves,” he said. “And part of that is to give them space to be themselves. Give them opportunities to find out who they are and what they like.”

Which sounds suspiciously like something an art teacher would say.

One Record

So naturally I asked Joel the most unfair question you can ask a record collector.

Desert island. One record.

He cheated and picked two. Which, if you know Joel, is Classic Joel.

The first is Pearl Jam’s Yield. If this is potentially the last music he ever hears, Joel wants something meaningful to him, something beautiful and something with enough different moods to live with for a while.

Fair enough.

But if he’s really stranded there for the long haul, he’s taking The Clash’s Sandinista! — mostly because it’s really damn long.

There are so many styles and so many different things happening across that record that Joel figures he might even eventually learn to love the songs he doesn’t particularly like now.

Also fair.

And if you’re sitting at home tonight wondering what record you should put on from beginning to end, phone somewhere across the room, Joel’s current answer is Modest Mouse’s The Lonesome Crowded West.

“That’s something you can get lost in, man.”

There are worse ways to spend an evening.

Side A Isn’t Over Yet

Joel would love for Four Track Records to become an actual record store someday.

Maybe that happens soon. Maybe it happens when he retires. Maybe it doesn’t happen at all.

He doesn’t know.

For now, Four Track is exactly what he figured out how to make with what he had: a table, some crates, a bunch of records, a pop-up tent, sometimes a kid beside him selling comics, and a steady stream of people who stop long enough to flip through the stacks and inevitably start talking about music.

That’s a pretty good little record store if you ask me.

You don’t necessarily need four walls and a permanent address. Sometimes you just need somebody who knows what you like, remembers what you’ve been looking for and sees a record in a stack somewhere and thinks, Oh, I know who needs this.

Clayton’s got a guy for that now.

His name is Joel Fitzgerald.

You can catch Joel and Four Track Records this Friday night on Main Street from around 6–9pm outside Odd One Out for Last Friday in Clayton. He also does regular Vinyl Nights at La Di Da Wine Shop. Stop by, flip through some records and explain to him why High Fidelity is obviously the greatest record-store movie of all time and not Empire Records.

Follow 4Track Records on Instagram for more updates on where he'll be popping up.

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