Dan Einstein, beloved Sweet 16th Bakery owner and music industry veteran, dies at 61

Dan Einstein, a beloved East Nashville bakery owner and former independent record label trendsetter, died Saturday of a prolonged illness, according to his family.

He was 61.

Most in Music City recognize Einstein for slinging must-try pastries and award-winning breakfast sandwiches from inside Sweet 16th Bakery, the shop he and wife Ellen Einstein opened in 2004.

In Lockeland Springs, many who frequent Sweet 16th view the bakery as a community pillar where an unassuming generosity from the Einstein family can lay groundwork for strangers to become friends and regular customers to adopt a family-like closeness to the shop owners.

And for decades before cornering Nashville's sweet tooth, Einstein worked in the record business on the ground floor of multiple influential independent operations, including co-founding John Prine's Oh Boy Records and aiding its artist-owner counterpart, Steve Goodman's Red Pajamas Records.

Raised in New London, Connecticut, Einstein enrolled at UCLA after his family moved to Los Angeles in 1978. Booking shows on campus offered his first experience in the music business, and Einstein's work ethic quickly propelled him to working with late Prine and Goodman manager Al Bunetta.

At Red Pajamas and Oh Boy, Einstein helped build a model for artists-owned labels years before it became an industry commonality. Launched in 1981 after Prine gave major contracts the boot, Oh Boy adopted guerrilla marketing — such as snail mail ordering, flyers, postcards, and PO box numbers on album reviews for fans to write in, for example — that helped grow the label and sustain Prine's now-coveted independent career.

"All you're trying to do is survive, or at least break even with what you're putting out," Einstein told The Tennessean last year. "We put together flyers, postcards, used whatever available information we had to get to people. ... I don't think it was ever a point of obnoxious. But it was always a point of fun."

His production credits include Prine's 1988 "Live" album, Goodman's "Unfinished Business" and a "Live From The Mountain Stage" series that helped elevate the public radio program in the 1990s. He won a Grammy Award in 1987 for co-producing the year's Best Contemporary Folk Recording, "Tribute to Steve Goodman" — a celebration of the late singer-songwriter that featured Bonnie Raitt, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Prine and others.

Success at Oh Boy swelled in the 1990s, with Einstein and company enlisting Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp on Prine's 1991 album "The Missing Years." And the label soon adopted likeminded artists: Roots rock band The Bis-Quits and songwriter Donnie Fritts found a musical home with Oh Boy in the '90s. Troubadour Todd Snider followed in 2000 before eventually lunching his own company, Aimless Records.

"If you think about the music at the time, most of these people didn't fit ...," Einstein said. "There wasn't room for the singer-songwriter in a lot of cases. You started seeing some artists that had a following — small, medium or large — follow the model. The model that we set, unintentionally."

More: 40 years of 'no B-sides' with John Prine's Oh Boy Records

In 2003, Einstein left the music business to open a self-described old school neighborhood bakery with his wife. The corner shop became a staple stop for breakfast, lunch, a custom birthday cake or an "One To Go" breakfast sandwich — the egg, green chili and biscuit combo that Food & Wine magazine once named one of the top in the country.

Inside Sweet 16th, bakers refuse to accept tips, instead a mug near the register collects change to be donated to local charities; the couple's giving spirit extended to the streets of East Nashville in 2020, when they provided locals with free food after a deadly tornado struck the neighborhood.

“We had survived the [1998] tornado so we had the feeling we had to stake our claim and bring something back to the neighborhood,” Einstein told the East Nashvillian in 2021 after he and Ellen Einstein were named "East Nashvillians of the Year" by the publication. “Seeing the goodness of people in the neighborhood and the way everybody came together. Our thing was to make a living, pay our bills, and give back to people who live around us.”

Some, including longtime Einstein friend Meghan Hayes, consider Sweet 16th to be the heartbeat of East Nashville — a friendly place where friends, colleagues and partners can connect for hours over coffee and a few muffins.

"Once you go, you can't leave," Hayes said, adding: "Some days, when you're having a rough day and you just have a minute [and] you want to go to the happiest place on earth, you go to the bakery. You walk in and there's just love and acceptance."

Einstein entered care at nonprofit Alive Hospice last week. As word of his illness swept the community, roughly 1,600 people donated to a GoFundMe account to aid his spouse. The fund raised about $140,000, with more than a dozen donations topping $1,000.

Many delivered online donations with words of kindness, much like what they likely received when visiting the bakery.

"He [knew] that it doesn't matter if you're a baker or a record producer," Hayes said. "What matters is how you treat people."

He is survived by his wife, Ellen Einstein. Donations can be made in Einstein's name to Alive Hospice or to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to support the research of Dr. Michael Savona. More information at give.vanderbilthealth.org/daneinstein.

The family plans to hold a private funeral due to coronavirus concerns, but a public celebration of Einstein's life hopes to take place this spring. Those wishing to celebrate Einstein this week can RSVP at eventbrite.com to a virtual community service, set for Wednesday evening.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dan Einstein, beloved bakery owner and music industry veteran, dies