The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • D1

LIFE COMICS PUZZLES ADVICE HOROSCOPE A ENTERTAINMENT ttm Text TNENTERTAINMENT to 44636 (4INFO) THURSDAY, MARCH THETENNESSEAN 11, 2010 NEWS ON YOUR CELL Hj for entertainment news headlines as they happen. Today's Top 5 deals 2D been a boost for Essex on several fronts. There's more excess merchandise for them to buy at great prices from companies going out of business, and there's plenty of retail space available for their ongoing expansion. Originally, the majority 85 percent of the shoppers were men, apparently drawn by the deals on electronics. But that's not the case any longer.

"There has been a reversal now we cater to female shoppers. I would say 60 percent are women," Chris said. "But we still have our guys in here for their techie things." As trends have changed, Essex has also become more customer-friendly by being open seven days a week and by lengthening its return policy to 30 days. "We want people to buy with confidence," Chris said, adding the good news that more store locations are in the works. To find the Essex stores, see www.essexretailoutlet.com or call 615-846-3938.

Stay cheap! Reach Mary Hance at 259-8282 or at mscheaptennessean.com. Read her online at Tennessean.commscheap. Josh Thompson's debut album is titled Way Out Here, submitted christian LANTRY Songwriter puts plenty of country in Way Out Here' By Cindy Watts THE TENNESSEAN Wisconsin is more than cheese and cows: Native Josh Thompson said the state has its fair share of rednecks, too. And they're well represented on his new Top 10 debut, Way Out Here. "Our houses are protected by the good Lord and a gun And you might meet 'em both if you show up here not welcome son," Thompson sings in the title track (also his new single).

"Our necks are burnt, the roads are dirt and our trucks ain't clean The dogs run loose, we smoke, we chew and fry everything." "(That song) could have been written about any place," Thompson said of "Way Out Here." "The trick is to try to take what you know and make it personal, but in a way that everybody can wrap their brain around. That song is about a way of life and a set of beliefs. I call it 'the American standard way of I think, bibles and guns, it's a beautiful thing." Thompson wrote or co-wrote all 10 songs on Way Out Here, a collection stocked with the country lifestyle songs country music fans are embracing these days. Thompson's debut single and Top 20 hit "Beer On the Table" focuses on working to pay for beer, butter and lottery tickets. On "You Ain't Seen Country Yet," he sings about porch swings, fishing, roads with no names and making love with a Merle Haggard cassette playing in the background.

By design, though, love songs are in short supply positive, up-tempo coming-of-age tune "Back Around" is the only one on the album. "I feel like I'll put more love songs on a record when I'm in love," said Thompson. "Everybody has love songs. The industry is flooded with them. I wanted the first record to be, 'This is who I am and this is what I bring to the table and hopefully you will follow along on this Thompson's journey started on Jan.

23, 1978 in Milwaukee; the singer was born to a mother who loved Patsy Cline, he said, and a father who worked in concrete and as a contractor. Dad's contractor skills led the Thompson family to do a lot of moving they'd buy a house and fix it up, then move and start over again about the time the last house "got fun to live in." By the time Thompson was 12, he was working in the concrete business with his dad. He graduated high school the skin of my teeth," the singer said) and then went into the family business full-time. JOSH, 6D Visit Tennessean.commusic to hear Josh Thompson's debut. Way Out Here, and to take a video tour of the country singer's "tour bus" (hint: it's not a bus, so much).

LIFE EDITOR ARIENNE HOLLAND, 726- Essex expansion equals better deals 4 patio furniture cushions, and racks of well-priced clothing for the whole family. I saw a Betsey Johnson winter coat for $44.99. All 10 stores still have computers and accessories and those giant-screen TVs. But you'll also find everything from Broyhill sofas ($999.99 for a handsome sectional) to Ty Pennington chairs for $20 apiece, to $1 books, to Okuma fishing gear, and great bedding like an 800-thread-count king sheet set for $29.99. Chris, who came to Essex by way of Best Buy, Sears and Sports Authority, says that most items are 50 percent of the retail price, while some are more.

"It just depends on the deal," he said. Essex started as an online-only company. Chris explained that Essex retail "was created to sell merchandise that did not sell well online due to quantity or because of weight and shipping." He said Essex buyers have become increasingly opportunistic, buying up whatever they can get a good deal on. "We have just had to add two more buyers to our buying department," he said. The economic downturn has When the Essex online sales folks opened their walk-in retail store in 2004, it was by the seat of their pants.

On opening day, then-new store manager Chris Loy grabbed a couple of guys out of the warehouse to help with customers. He manned one cash register, while Essex president Robert Echols operated the other one. "Nobody knew what they were doing," Chris said, laughing at the recollection that he had just 11 days to open that first store, which was jammed into about 2,000 square feet of outdated office space on Eugenia Avenue off Thompson Lane. "It was an experiment a 90-day experiment," Chris recalls. "They said when they hired me that it's either going to do well and we'll keep opening stores, or it's not going to work and we'll see you later." Fast forward six years with Chris opening the chain's store No.

10 a bargain retail gem in the River-gate area in space that used to belong to Circuit City. When I browsed the store on AHOLLANDTENNESSEAN.COM EVENT opening day, I overheard an enthused shopper (Linda Moore of Ashland City) say to her daughter, "This is a store Ms. Cheap would like!" And indeed she was right. This is my kind of treasure hunt! In the original 2004 store, the inventory was mostly electronics such as big-screen TVs and computers and small appliances. Nowadays, Essex has a much wider inventory mix, with sporting goods, tons of rolling luggage (one of the true bargains at $10 and $20 for any piece, including Samsonite, American Tourister, Chaps baby bedding (Sterling Annabella crib sets that retail for more than $500 are $89), $10 LISTINGS CALENDARTENNESSEAN.COM, 726 8902 OR FAX 259-8057.