Nashville Scene 3-5-20

march 5–11, 2020 I volume 39 I number 5 I Nashvillescene.com I free

City Limits: Metro seeks input from Nashvillians for the future of transit Page 9

Music: Brandy Clark looks over bittersweet memories on Your Life Is a Record Page 41

The

People

cover_3-5-20.indd 1

Issue

20 20

wu fei

3/2/20 6:01 PM

germantown

elliott row Homes 7th Ave N & mA disoN st Gorgeous brick townhomes in historic Germantown with garage, front porch & amazing rooftop deck with panoramic views of downtown Nashville in select units.

Hardwood floors throughout & spacious bedrooms.

From $890,000

rutLedge HiLL

12 soutH

nortHwest nasHviLLe

CityLights

the Chelsea

ashland Place

Ru tledge s t & leA Ave

1 2 th Ave s & W g Ro ve Ave

As h lAN d Cit y h W y & d R Ake s B R AN Ch R d

71-luxury urban condos. Panoramic views, modern amenities & stylish interiors. Located on Rutledge Hill, CityLights overlooks SoBro & downtown – the hub of Nashville’s urban core.

Located in one of Nashville’s hottest urban communities and just 12 blocks from downtown. Choice of 18 floorplans in studio, 1 & 2 bedroom designs. Fifth-floor sky lounge, ground level outdoor patio with gas grills & firepit, fitness facility, music studio/multipurpose room, & bike storage.

Ashland Place offers luxury living at a welcoming price, located just past Mullins Park & Greenway Trail, minutes from downtown Nashville, the booming retail corridor on Charlotte Pk and The Nations. Prices starting at $249,900 - $289,000. Call today for an appointment!

From $759,900

From $230,000

From $265,000

Pictured above: Mark Deutschmann, Newell Anderson, Danielle Helling, Crystal Atkinson, Caroline Dean, Callie Hughes, Deborah Vahle, Anna Dorris, Katie Evans

Helping You F i n d va L u e in nasHville R e a l e s tat e 2

2206 21st Avenue south Nashville, tennessee 37212 615.383.6964 o f f i c e | 615.369.6151 v o i c e m a i l

TheCityLivingGroup.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

FRIST ART MUSEUM

February 20–May 31, 2020

FISK UNIVERSITY

February 20–September 12, 2020

The Frist Art Museum and Fisk University Galleries are pleased to present concurrent exhibitions devoted to the work of Terry Adkins (1953–2014), a multimedia and multidisciplinary artist whose practice explored the intersection of music, art, and African American history. Through a selection of sculptures, prints, installations, and videos, the exhibition considers how this internationally acclaimed artist was influenced by his time in Nashville.

Organized by Fisk University Galleries and the Frist Art Museum This exhibition is supported in part by

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by

Fisk University Galleries is supported in part by 919 Broadway Nashville, TN 37203 FristArtMuseum.org

1000 17th Avenue North Nashville, TN 37208 Fisk.edu/galleries

Terry Adkins (American, 1953–2014). Aviarium (Grasshopper Sparrow), 2014. Steel, aluminum, silver-plated brass cymbals, and trumpet mute, 18 1/2 x 96 x 18 1/2 in. | march nashvillescene.com Artwork © 2020 The Estate of Terry Adkins / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image © The Estate of Terry Adkins / Lévy Gorvy 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

FC002386-004_Mrr_TerryAdkins_NashvilleScene_10.75x12.5.indd 1

3

2/24/20 1:01 PM

4

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

Contents

marCh 5, 2020

8

25

A Soccer Town Too .....................................8

Seniors: A Dogumentary, Plata Quemada (Burnt Money), Miki Fiki, Midnight Movies: Cujo & Cats, Tom Papa, Saints or Monsters: Political Cartoons of the 19th Amendment, Weed Wrangle, Fisk Jubilee Singers Spring Sing, A Celebration of Life for David Olney and more

City Limits

Saturday’s kickoff game against Atlanta proved that Nashville SC has strong support

By Steve CavendiSh

Pith in the Wind .........................................8

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

Collaborate and Listen ..............................9 Metro seeks input from Nashvillians for the future of transit By alejandro ramirez

CritiCs’ PiCks

38

this week on the web: Soccer Mommy Rocks Out on Kimmel Talking to Nashville SC’s Ian Ayre

art

Crawl Space: March 2020

10

The March Art Crawl happenings embrace food, femininity and the fantastical

Cover story the People issue

By joe nolan

The Master Musician .............................. 10 Talking with the phenomenal composer and performer Wu Fei about getting beyond her training

39

Books

Her Version of Peace

By Stephen trageSer

In Privilege, Mary Adkins explores the aftermath of sexual assault on a college campus

The storied life of actor, musician and YouTube sensation Tom Willett

By Sean kinCh and Chapter 16

The Featureman ...................................... 11 By d. patriCk rodgerS

The Triple Threat ..................................... 12

Alicia Haymer has established herself as one of Nashville’s most talented theater artists

By Charlie zaillian

By megan Seling

Brandy Clark looks over bittersweet memories on Your Life Is a Record

Elizabeth Queener and John Ashworth fight to make sure Tennessee’s racial injustices are never forgotten

By lorie lieBig

The Psychic.............................................. 17

Put Another Dime in the Jukebox .......... 41

You’re All Gonna Die ............................... 42 Experimental metal heroes Today Is the Day return home after a trip through hell

By Sean l. maloney

Frank Castellano, proprietor of The Spirit Chrysalis, believes ‘there’s something else that’s helping you out’

The Spin ................................................... 44

By laura hutSon hunter

By megan Seling

The Defender ........................................... 18 Isaiah ‘Skip’ Gant represents capital defendants in a state that is executing prisoners at a historic rate

By Steven hale

The Councilmember ............................... 20 Sandra Sepulveda is the first Latina on the Metro Council, and wants to be the voice for a forgotten community By alejandro ramirez

The GM ..................................................... 22 Titans general manager Jon Robinson — a Tennessee boy made good By j.r. lind

Wu Fei Photo by Eric England

A Real Live Wire ...................................... 41

To Proper Bagel’s Jessica Bedor, the possibilities are endless

By Stephen elliott

on the Cover:

musiC

Wire, post-punk’s ageless wonders, make their long-awaited Nashville debut

The Rememberers .................................. 16

YA Author Court Stevens Ratchets Up the Suspense in The June Boys

41

By eriCa CiCCarone

The Pastry Chef ....................................... 14

Nashville Earns Six James Beard Award Nominations

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Nots with Safety Net and Donors at Drkmttr

46 FiLm

Deadly Sin

The satirical Greed is more cute than cutthroat

By Craig d. lindSey

To Dance the Dance of Another

And Then We Danced is intensely physical and deeply moving By jaSon Shawhan

47 47

NEW YORK TIMES CrossWorD

marketPLaCe

FREE SHOWS AT GRIMEY'S RECORD SHOP

4604 Gallatin pike nashville, tennessee

COME ROCK WITH US!

sho p o pe n daily

12 - 6pm

BUY * SELL * TRADE

MARKET vintage ~ makers ~ antiques i

march 8 11AM 7pm

LEO EAU D

RON

at

4PM

GRIMEYS.COM

Junk Punk Vintage • Jack Leg Skribe • Ericka Hammond Designs Relik Vintage • Breezy X Breezy

Proud Mary • Mismatch Vintage

Sadler Vaden - Fri 3/06 at 6PM Trigger Hippy - Sat 3/07 at 2PM Brandy Clark - Mon 3/09 at 6PM

see grimeys.com for details & follow @grimeys for the latest updates NEW RELEASES THIS FRIDAY: Stephen Malkmus, Brandy Clark, Sadler Vaden, Caroline Rose, Honey Harper, Swamp Dogg, Phantogram, U.S. Girls + more!

GRIMEYS.COM

Rock~n~Boho Clothing • Jonnie & Ru Holywell Vintage • Idlewild Emporium

Them Talons • Altar Space Crystals www.highclasshillbilly.com

nashvillescene.com nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

contents_3-5-20.indd 5

5

3/2/20 5:46 PM

FROM BILL FREEMAN METRO’S STATE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: HALFSTARVED AND SCREWED OVER

A safe & fun place for people in recovery to live life to the fullest

FEBRUARY AT NRC All events are free & open to the public

FRIDAY FEB 7th at 7pm

Greg Hall “Probably the best guitar player in comedy or the best comedian in guitar-playing” - THE TENNESSEAN

Friday, Feb. 14 at 6:30pm

Valentine’s Date Night Come with a date or stag and play classic game shows with us!

INTRODUCING

The team at NRhythm at Henry House teaches clients life skills and spiritual practices through a healthy community and a clinical program that empowers our clients to reclaim their lives.

We offer eight beds for men in a structured, high-end environment that combines clinical work with practical application.

For more info: LIVINGNRHYTHM.COM/HENRY-HOUSE

6

Metro Nashville Public Schools are faced by challenges on nearly every front, but it is heartening to see the support MNPS is receiving from our city administration.

MNPS has joined a lawsuit with Metro Nashville government and Shelby County Schools protesting the school voucher bill passed by the state legislature in April with the narrowest of margins. MNPS argues that the voucher program will unduly cause harm to its students and unfairly limit the financial support needed to keep schools operating satisfactorily.

Adrienne Battle, MNPS interim director of schools, understands our school system extremely well, because she has experience at every level. She graduated from an MNPS school, has taught at our schools, has been a principal and district superintendent before, and ascended to her current position. She knows too well what the ramifications of this legislation will mean for Nashville schools. “Taking money and students out of public schools is a terrible thing to do to a community,” she said. “We need investment in public education, not disinvestment. We need a firm commitment to our schools and an unwavering belief in what they can do for our children.”

Mayor John Cooper has put the full weight of the Metro government behind this challenge, calling it a “last-resort response” to ensure that MNPS is not burdened with an uneven redirection of tax dollars from public education funding to schools outside the oversight and responsibility of the public school districts. “It is both my job and the responsibility of this administration,” he said, “not only to protect Metro’s limited resources for public school funding but to seek more public education investment from the state.”

With the strong-arm tactics that the disgraced former House Speaker Glen Casada used to ensure passage of this legislation, it’s not surprising that even conservative lawmakers have taken issue with the voucher program. The bill designed to repeal the law has received bipartisan support. The bill’s sponsor, Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), referenced the lawsuit filed by Nashville and Shelby County schools when he commented, “This was wrong from the beginning, it’s still wrong, and I can’t wait for the courts to tell them it was wrong.”

It’s understandable that everyone, including our conservative legislators and Gov. Bill Lee, want to do everything within their power to improve our schools. We all agree on that point. But the methods of seeking improvement are where the differences lie. The school voucher bill and the state’s methods of calculating education funding illustrate the challenges Tennessee faces to properly fund all of the state’s school districts. Using the standard Basic Education Program methodology, the state determines the percentage of state funding for each school district, based in part on perception of the overall costs to run each district.

With this algorithm, the state has

routinely provided roughly onethird of MNPS’ budget needs. Recent news coverage showed that the state contributed $289 million to Metro schools in FY2020 and expected Metro’s portion of necessary funds to be $366 million. Not many would call that an unfair split. The problem lies in the fact that Metro spent much more on schools than the $366 million calculated by the state — in FY2020, they spent $625 million in local funding.

So where does the difference come from? Is it infrastructure needs?

Construction costs? Staff and faculty pay and benefits?

It isn’t from staff and faculty compensation, since a quick look at FY20’s budget shows MNPS with roughly 10 percent fewer employees than it had two years ago — with 9,079.4 budgeted positions during FY20 compared to 9,950.4 positions in 2017-18. Is it because of Metro’s comparatively needier students?

According to MNPS’ 2018-19 Annual Diversity Report, 16 percent of MNPS students are English Learners, 13 percent have exceptional needs, and 42 percent come from economically disadvantaged homes. The fact that Nashville’s public school students have more hurdles facing them than the average student certainly counts for something.

In the coming months, complex conversations and decisions will be made between the state and its capital city to determine what is best for our state, our cities and our schoolchildren. Gov. Lee has proposed the largest increase in teacher salaries in the history of Tennessee, equating to a 4 percent increase.

His recent State of the State address highlighted the importance of education.

“We know it is passion that brings teachers to the classroom,” he said, “but we also know our teachers deserve to be paid more for the important work they do.”

Regardless of differences in political ideologies, our children and their education are important to everyone. I am glad Metro is supporting our schools and working with the state to determine the most successful path forward. I am confident we will work out a plan for Tennessee and Nashville to succeed and, most importantly, for our children to prosper.

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Bronte Lebo Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Circulation Manager Casey Sanders Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Events Managers Ali Foley, Caleb Spencer Publisher Mike Smith Advertising Director Daniel Williams Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene.

210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203.

Phone: 615-244-7989. Classified: 816-218-6732.

The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $99 per year for 52 issues.

Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

letter_3-5-20.indd 6

3/2/20 6:02 PM

Only at the Hall LIVE PERFORMANCE

WILLIE NELSON

Willie Nelson and Family Tour

with special guests Tyler Booth (May 1) and Ben Burgess (May 2)

FRIDAY, MAY 1 – SATURDAY, MAY 2 • CMA THEATER ON SALE FRIDAY 10 AM

Country Music Hall of Fame member and Outlaw founding father Willie Nelson brings his 2020 tour to the Museum’s CMA Theater in May for two intimate nights of music spanning his richly awarded, six-decade career. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

LIVE SONGWRITER SESSION*

DON SCHLITZ

Deeper Than the Holler

MARCH 7 • 11:30 AM • FORD THEATER

Since writing “The Gambler” for Kenny Rogers, Country Music Hall of Fame member Don Schlitz has written hits like “When You Say Nothing at All” (Alison Krauss, Keith Whitley) and “Forever and Ever, Amen” (Randy Travis).

FEATURED EXHIBITION

WE COULD

The Songwriting Artistry of Boudleaux & Felice Bryant

Friday, March 6 – Sunday, March 8 CREATIVE ZONE

Sunglasses for the Spotlight

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM • TAYLOR SWIFT EDUCATION CENTER

Friday, March 6 FAMILY ACTIVITY

Beginner Ukulele Workshop DeFord Bailey Style

Thursday, March 19

Saturday, March 7

Friends & Family Acoustic Tour

FAMILY ACTIVITY

with special guests Micah Brown and Stoney Banks

11:00 AM AND NOON • TAYLOR SWIFT EDUCATION CENTER

Saturday, March 21

2:30 AND 3:15 PM • TAYLOR SWIFT EDUCATION CENTER

Introduction to GarageBand

ROME

&

DUDDY

KEANE

Sunday, March 8 FILM SCREENING

‘The Wilburn Brothers Show’ featuring Loretta Lynn, Jean Shepard, and Dolly Parton (1965 and 1967)

11:00 AM • FORD THEATER

Cause and Effect Tour

During their distinguished careers, Country Music Hall of Fame members Boudleaux and Felice Bryant composed more than 6,000 songs, many of which became enduring hits that crossed decades and genres. The Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie,” Little Jimmy Dickens’s “Country Boy,” and bluegrass standard “Rocky Top” all came from the Bryants’ pens. The exhibition We Could: The Songwriting Artistry of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant tells the story of Nashville’s first full-time professional songwriters, illuminating the couple’s groundbreaking music-industry moves and remarkable love story.

SOLD OUT

Saturday, March 28

GRAHAM NASH

FAMILY ACTIVITY

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

BOUDLEAUX & FELICE BRYANT

Make Letterpress Art

PRESENTED BY THE WILLARD & PAT WALKER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.

1:00 AND 2:00 PM • HATCH SHOW PRINT

State of the Music

AMERICAN CURRENTS

with Hatch Show Print: St. Patrick’s Day LIVE MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

KEITH WHITLEY

B. James Lowry 1:00 PM • FORD THEATER

Museum admission or Museum membership required for program admittance unless otherwise noted. Program passes required for select programs. See box office for details.

Tickets on Sale Now PRESENTED BY

Museum programs are funded in part by ACM Lifting Lives; Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission; Nashville Parent; and Tennessee Arts Commission.

Activities Daily

224 5th Ave. S. Nashville, TN | CMAtheater.com | @cmatheater The CMA Theater is another property of the Country Music Hall of Fame ® and Museum.

KACEY MUSGRAVES BROOKS

&

OUTLAWS

DUNN &

ARMADILLOS

Country’s Roaring ’70s

View the complete calendar at CountryMusicHallofFame.org nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene 7

WHO’S MORE FUN THAN BUBBLE GUM? Hubba Bubba, that’s who! This sweet, gentle guy is sure to stick to your heart??.

Good with other dogs, he walks nicely on a leash, knows sit and shake, and comes with a pair of adorable ears just made for scratching. Handsome Hubs (as he is sometimes called) is a people dog, so kennel life leaves him a bit lonely. He’d love a home ????where he gets to just hang out with his folks.

He is 2 years old and a svelte 54 pounds.

CITY LIMITS

A SOCCER TOWN TOO

Saturday’s kickoff game against Atlanta proved that Nashville SC has strong support

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209

Adopt. Bark. Meow.

Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

A

Shop + Donate To Help Our Veterans 615-248-2447 1125 12th Ave. S.

WE CARRY Cigarettes Tobacco Vape Products

Pipes Cigars Glass

WE NOW CARRY CBD Products & Hemp Flower Grown By Licensed Middle TN Hemp Farmers

WE ARE NASHVILLE’S ONLY ONE-STOP SMOKE SHOP 2204 Elliston Place Suite H, Nashville, TN 37203 615-457-3314

8

THIS WEEK ON OUR POLITICS BLOG:

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

friend who used to serve on the Metro Council once told me that their favorite time on the job was during a close vote, in the seconds between when council members voted and the final tally showed up on the board.

In that instant, all of the work had been done and nothing could change the outcome. The uncertainty was the electricity.

For soccer fans in Nashville, that same sense of electricity filled the moments before Nashville SC’s kickoff against Atlanta Saturday night.

Nashville has never been considered a hotbed of soccer like, say, St. Louis, or a natural market like San Diego. It never had the lower-division pedigree of someplace like Sacramento. And yet Major League Soccer chose to add a team in Nashville ahead of all those cities — its blend of potential, charm and willingness to put on a good show weighing more heavily than the size or history in other cities.

Being a soccer fan here has never meant massive support for a minor-league team mucking it out on some borrowed high school field (sorry, Nashville Metros). We turned out when the national team came to town, like the time a 19-year-old Jozy Altidore became the youngest U.S. player ever to score a hat trick.

And we suffered in the heat when the Gold Cup early rounds were staged here. We even broke records for English Premier League clubs that were in their preseason.

Those were big events highlighted by big stars. A team of our own? It’s always been an open question whether Nashville could sustain one. The metrics say yes. The market research says yes. But finding fans of a new sports team requires an alchemy of organic support and marketing. And as the game approached on Feb. 29, the lots filled up early.

Some 59,059 fans piled into Nissan Stadium, and the gamble looked for all the world like a good one. Sure, there was some goofy stuff that came off as forced, like a Nashville indie band rolling out an emo-ish “anthem.” But there were fun moments too, like the supporters’ section unfurling a massive Johnny Cash banner, or Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale playing a riff on a branded guitar for a

PHOTO: DAVID RUSSELL

PET OF THE WEEK!

minute ahead of kickoff. It was a distinctly Nashvillian party atmosphere.

In the press box, CEO Ian Ayre and team owner John Ingram spoke about their relief at having a game to play instead of trying to get a stadium deal done. Ayre had spent the past two years preparing for this day, trying to get inside the mind of a Southern sports fan, and he arrived at an interesting place: The best analog to the tribalism of European clubs is college football. If Nashville SC can somehow tap into that ethos, both inside and outside the stadium, they’ve got a chance to win over many of the fans who were sampling soccer for the first time.

On the field, the product wasn’t half bad.

The team is technically sound and gave up some possession, if not many chances. After conceding an early goal, center back Walker Zimmerman manhandled his defender in the 28th minute, heading down a free kick before poking it past Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan for the club’s first goal. The roar that followed was loud and authentic. And in that moment you could see the potential for the future of soccer in Nashville that was blueand-gold instead of red-white-and-blue, or the colors of some Premier League side.

Walking out on the field, the team had nerves, says captain Dax McCarty.

“I give them an A-plus,” McCarty says about the fans. “We knew the crowd was going to be big. We heard all of the rumors, and pulling into the stadium was amazing. There were tailgates going on, scarves everywhere.

You could feel the energy two hours before the game started. We knew it was going to be like that, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re always gonna have butterflies.”

Though Nashville SC would ultimately lose 2-1, and fans might have been a touch disappointed in the final result, they were definitely entertained. And that’s where the work begins for Ayre and his crew. On Monday morning, they were hitting the phones, trying to bring a lot of those samplers back for another taste and turn some of those casual soccer fans into regulars.

Nashville has always been a big event town and a sports town. Saturday night proved it just might be a soccer town, too.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

You can hardly throw a red Solo cup or a pink penis whistle on Lower Broadway these days without hitting some form of “transpotainment.” You know what we’re talking about — the pedal taverns, the party tractors, the damn open-air trailer with a heated pool in it. Interestingly enough, these bizarre vehicles operate between the cracks of current law. Local governments haven’t had the authority to regulate them. But Mayor John Cooper is looking to change that. Last week, the mayor announced he’s working with state legislators to give local governments more rule-making power over transpotainment.

“The complete lack of local control over these entertainment vehicles in one of our busiest neighborhoods has created safety concerns and tremendous headaches for both downtown brickand-mortar businesses, residents, and local commuters,” Cooper said in the announcement. The legislation is still in the early stages of the committee process at the state legislature. … For the 12th year in a row, the overlords at Metro IT will block government workers from keeping up with the NCAA basketball tournament at work. For real. From an internal memo sent out last week: “Each March there is a measurable degradation of the speed of many business networks due to employee traffic generated by interest in the college basketball championships, also known as ‘March Madness.’ In an effort to ensure that network priority is given to legitimate Metro business needs that utilize the Internet, Metro will implement additional blocking of certain Internet sites designated as ‘Sports’ category by Metro’s Internet filtering software.” Folks, the real madness is this rule. As Pith’s J.R. Lind puts it: “Now, look. In a perfect world, of course, public servants wouldn’t watch Kentucky throttle McNeese State on the taxpayers’ dime. But this isn’t a perfect world. For one thing, if it were a perfect world, Kentucky would lose to McNeese State. Here in the actual world, however, our public servants are just like everybody else. Unless they are landing an airplane or responding to an emergency, I trust that they can do their jobs with hoops playing on a separate browser tab just like literally everyone else in the world.” This is an excellent policy if you want to have a “measurable degradation” of morale. Not that Metro is really in the habit of taking our advice, but look, just let the good people of Metro government keep up with the basketball. If they miss a task or two, we’ll hardly notice.

We’ll be watching the tournament. …

Also, visit Pith to see our coverage of the Super Tuesday results in Tennessee.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

citylimits_3-5-20.indd 8

3/2/20 5:19 PM

city limits

CollaboRate and listen

Metro seeks input from Nashvillians for the future of transit

By AlejAndro rAmirez

Photo: daniEl mEigs

R

ob Allgood has $20 in pretend money to spend on Nashville’s transportation infrastructure. After a couple of minutes staring down his options — a row of nine cardboard boxes with initiatives like sidewalks, bikeways and traffic calming displayed on the front — he drops a few of his fake bills into the boxes representing the issues he finds the most important.

“I did $6 for transit, $4 for sidewalks, $4 for bikeways, and then I split the rest of it amongst safety, greenways and traffic calming,” says Allgood. While public transit got the most of his money, Allgood emphasizes the need to focus on pedestrians. “Your transit system fails if people can’t get to the [bus] stops,” he says.

Allgood and dozens of others are at Studio 615 in East Nashville, attending the city’s last listening session on transportation. In January and February, Nashville hosted a series of 11 events around the city to hear from residents about their transit and safety concerns.

The session at 615 catered to East Nashville and Madison residents, specifically, with dozens of Nashvillians in attendance. The centerpiece of the meeting was an exercise that gave attendees like Allgood a budget of $20, which they had to divvy up between different transit priorities.

Fay DiMassimo is the senior adviser to the mayor for transportation and infrastructure. She says the goal of these sessions is to “hear and understand what the community wants to see in their transportation plan.”

“What are those everyday issues that they need a transportation system to help address, to make it easier for them to get to ... the places that they need to go?” she says.

“The main thing for me is to figure out what form of mass transit people in [Davidson] County will support,” says Councilmember Brett Withers, who represents District 6 in East Nashville. While sidewalk funding is welcome, says Withers, a transit system is needed to keep up with the region’s growth.

In addition to the bank exercise, the Studio 615 session also allowed residents to answer questions on a sheet of poster paper — questions like, “What would make a transportation plan serve everyone?” They could also place sticky notes onto maps of their neighborhoods to identify problem areas, from dangerous intersections to a lack of sidewalks.

THU 3.5  ELIZABETH LYONS, CHARLIE

WED 3.11  DANIEL ROMANO

BRENNAN & IAN MCCONNELL

THE MEDIUM, THE COUNTRY WESTERNS

MERCY LOUNGE

THE HIGH WATT

THU 3.12  DEVIN TOWNSEND

FRI 3.6  WIRE

HAKEN, THE CONTORTIONIST

MERCY LOUNGE

CANNERY BALLROOM

FRI 3.6  US AIR GUITAR

Some attendees stress the need for improvements to the bus system. Mark Overton, a car owner who occasionally takes the No. 56 Gallatin Pike bus to work downtown, has to walk farther to his bus stop due to last summer’s service reductions to WeGo. He says some parts of his route to the bus stop lack sidewalks, which would make it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate. Overton decided to split his $20 evenly between safety, transit, signals and traffic calming.

These conversations are familiar to advocates like Lindsey Ganson at Walk Bike Nashville.

“There is broad consensus that our transit system and our transportation infrastructure is lacking and is not keeping up with the growth of our city,” says Ganson. “[But] nobody understands the options of how to get it done.”

Voters overwhelmingly shot down an ambitious transportation referendum, originally proposed by former Mayor Megan Barry, in 2018. Ganson says another referendum won’t fare well if there’s no support for or faith in the current transit system.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us to prove that we can deliver on this infrastructure,” says Councilmember Angie Henderson, referring to Metro officials’ need to build trust with residents.

Henderson, who represents District 34 in southwest Davidson County, has long advocated for walkability in Nashville.

She says the city’s sidewalks are 70 years behind those of similar cities due to planning that focused on car commuters over pedestrians, bus riders and cyclists.

Mayor John Cooper announced his commitment to a Vision Zero plan during a January memorial service for the 32 pedestrians killed in 2019. Vision Zero is a traffic safety initiative with roots in Europe. Ganson says the initiative’s issues emphasize an immediate need for funding to improve pedestrian safety.

Nashvillians seem invested in a better transit system. At all of the listening sessions but two, attendees put the most funding into transit — it topped the budget at Studio 615.

According to a release from Metro, a total of 759 residents attended the sessions, and an online survey received 1,506 responses. The mayor’s office plans to issue initial recommendations in the late spring and release a full transportation plan by the end of September.

Email Editor@nashvillEscEnE.com

T HU 3.12  THE ORPHAN, THE POET &

SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL FT. RAYGUN

DEAL CASINO

THE HIGH WATT

THE HIGH WATT

FRI 3.13  BEACH SLANG

SAT 3.7  SADLER VADEN

THE AQUADOLLS, H.A.R.D

MORGAN WADE, NEON CASTLES

THE HIGH WATT

MERCY LOUNGE

FRI 3.13  DESTROYER

SAT 3.7  SØ (OF NEW POLITICS)

NAP EYES

STRIKING MATCHES, MANON WARD

MERCY LOUNGE

THE HIGH WATT

SAT 3.14  THEE ROCK N ROLL RESIDENCY

MON 3.9  THE VOICE: OPEN MIC NIGHT

MERCY LOUNGE

MERCY LOUNGE

SAT 3.14  BAMBARA

MON 3.9  WINONA FOREVER

THE HIGH WATT

FUTURE CRIB, GRUMPY

SUN 3.15  BILLY RAFFOUL

THE HIGH WATT

THE HIGH WATT

TUE 3.10  KATIE MAC

MON 3.16  ANDREW DUHON

DANNY G, ABBY ROBERTSON

TOWNE

THE HIGH WATT

THE HIGH WATT

WED 3.11  LUND + GUCCIHIGHWATERS

TUE 3.17  JONATHAN WILSON

GUARDIN, CORY WELLS

THE HIGH WATT

MERCY LOUNGE

SAT. 3/7

SAT. 3/7

Sadler Vaden

SØ (of New Politics)

mercy lounge · Morgan Wade & Neon Castles

Striking Matches & Manon Ward · the high watt

WED. 3/11

SAT. FRI.2/23 3/13

Daniel Romano

kendrickDestroyer vs drake

mercy lounge · The Medium & Country Westerns

presented by joconap shows eyes· ·mercy mercylounge lounge

FRI. 3/13

SAT. 3/14

the high watt · the aquadolls & h.a.r.d.

the high watt

bambara

beach slang

just announced 4.17  THE BUTTERTONES

5.11  DINOSAUR PILE-UP

4.30  MOTIONLESS IN WHITE

6.21  YAM HAUS

5.8  BARNS COURTNEY

7.7  POTTERY

5.8  JOJO

8.4  THE HUNNA

MERCY LOUNGE

MERCY LOUNGE

CANNERY BALLROOM

THE HIGH WATT

MERCY LOUNGE

THE HIGH WATT

CANNERY BALLROOM

MERCY LOUNGE

Coming Soon THU 3.19  RANDOM RAB

MON 3.23  DAYGLOW · SOLD OUT RITT MOMNEY

MERCY LOUNGE

MERCY LOUNGE

FRI 3.20  NASHVILLE YACHT CLUB BAND MERCY LOUNGE

MON 3.23  ANASTASIA ELLIOT, JEFFREY JAMES & WHIT

FRI 3.20  FLORIDIAN SLIM, BASIC PRINTER, THE MUTE GROUP & THE BLAM BLAMS MERCY LOUNGE

THE HIGH WATT

TUE 3.24 3.  GRIEVES, THE HOLDUP STEALING OCEANS

THE HIGH WATT

SAT 3.21  CITY OF THE SUN WILLIAM WILD

WED 3.25  BRIAN FALLON JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

CANNERY BALLROOM

THE HIGH WATT

ONE CANNERY ROW NASHVILLE, TN 37203 · 615-251-3020 BOOK YOUR EVENT OR PARTY AT ANY OF OUR VENUES EMAIL SPECIALEVENTS@MERCYLOUNGE.COM FOR DETAILS MERCYLOUNGE

@ MERCYLOUNGE

MERCYLOUNGE.COM

INFO@MERCYLOUNGE.COM

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

citylimits_3-5-20.indd 9

9

3/2/20 5:19 PM

The People Issue

20 20

Our profiles of some of Nashville’s most interesting people, from a master musician to a public defender, the Titans’ GM, a YouTube sensation, a pastry chef and more

The Master Musician

Talking with the phenomenal composer and performer Wu Fei about getting beyond her training

S

By Stephen Trageser eated at the kitchen table in her warm, bright West Side home, Wu Fei explains that she goes by Fei in the U.S., but that her full name has an important meaning. Roughly translated from Chinese, “Wu Fei” means “the opposite of nothingness,” and it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate name for the master musician.

Born in Beijing in the early years of China’s one-child policy, Fei began studying music as a toddler. Her parents started her on a rigorous program that she compares to Olympic training, which led her to the China Conservatory of Music and later the University of North Texas. By 2002, when she began graduate school at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., she’d absorbed Chinese traditional music and Western art music. She became an outstanding performer on both piano and guzheng, an ancient Chinese instrument with 21 strings that resembles a harp on its side. But one of her professors at Mills, avant-garde guitar legend Fred Frith, noticed something about the pieces Fei was writing.

“He said, ‘I hear a lot of wonderful craft, but I don’t hear Fei,’ ” she recalls. “That shocked me. I didn’t go back to class for about a week. I just stayed home to think through my life. I was in a master’s program in music composition, and I had no clue why I wrote music!”

Following Frith’s advice, Fei began to explore ways to get away from traditional ideas about the structure of music by learning how to improvise. After graduation and between tours in Europe and elsewhere, she worked with electronic musicians in California and experimental jazz players like John Zorn in New York. She spent a few years in Boulder, Colo., where she fell in love with Appalachian music and was introduced to Abigail Washburn. The banjo wizard has a keen ear for the connections between

10

wu fei photographed at her home Photo by Eric England

American string-band music and Chinese traditional music, and invited Fei to play on her 2011 album City of Refuge.

The experience of working with Washburn and other Nashville musicians made an impression on Fei. A few years later, she and her husband were raising their two young children in Beijing, and the stress of getting by in a major metropolis — one where, she says, you have to self-censor to avoid getting in trouble with the government — was taking a toll.

“The culture of Tennessee, especially the folk music, was a big piece that I was missing,” Fei says. “You want to be a healthy person, you’ve got to eat all sorts of things,

right? I crave different nutrients every now and then. I draw those in, and I cook up a new dish.”

In early 2015, Fei and her family moved to Music City, and she dove into new projects. She joined the contemporary classical ensemble chatterbird as composer-inresidence. In 2019, they premiered a piece for chamber orchestra called Hello Gold Mountain. It tells a less-remembered story of the Holocaust, about a group of more than 20,000 Jews who fled Germany and took refuge in Shanghai. Fei has also collaborated with Washburn on a new album, out April 3 via Smithsonian Folkways and aptly titled Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn, which further

explores connections between Chinese and American folk music.

Fei is constantly composing for piano, percussion, voices and other instruments — more ideas than she has time to write in her lifetime, she says. Whatever shape her next major piece takes, she knows what she wants to address: the anxiety that’s come from watching the deteriorating relationship between her home country and her adopted country.

“As a composer, I can’t do anything to calm the politicians. They’re gonna do whatever they want. But these emotions have been buried deep in my head, my heart, my cells, my blood.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 10

3/2/20 5:58 PM

The People Issue

Tom Willett photographed at his home Photo by Eric England

The Featureman

The storied life of actor, musician and YouTube sensation Tom Willett

A

By D. Patrick Rodgers quick scroll through Tom Willett’s YouTube channel brings up hundreds and hundreds of clips exploring all manner of topics, from stock tips and original songs to video-effects tests, cooking instructions and fast-food reviews. One video is titled “Artificial Intelligence Good or Bad Idea?” Another is called “How to Eat Rice the Official Tutorial.”

Titled Featureman, Willett’s channel has garnered roughly 236,000 subscribers and 20.8 million total views since he kicked it off in April 2006, about a year after YouTube first launched. He’s an early adopter and a prolific poster, and thanks to reposts on Reddit and Twitter, the octogenarian has gained something of a cult following in recent years. An August 2016 video titled “Eating a Watermelon With My Clone” — a 14-minute clip in which Willett sits in his backyard munching on a halved melon alongside a second version of himself, created using

some video-editing sorcery — has 3.7 million views.

Willett has a charming, earnest presence and a pretty good singing voice, even if some of his recipes aren’t what you’d call conventional — particularly his pickleand-pizza sandwich, which features a very special secret ingredient. (It’s raisins.) As it turns out, Willett — a Kentucky native who spent much of his life in Los Angeles and Las Vegas — moved to Nashville right around the time he created his YouTube channel, and Featureman is far from his first brush with fame.

“YouTube was so right for me,” says Willett, seated at the kitchen table in his Madison home. “Most people probably wouldn’t have given it much consideration back then when it was starting out, but I’d been on The Gong Show.”

Indeed, the 6-foot-4 performer was on the NBC amateur talent program more than a dozen times, delivering a variety of acts. He played characters including Baryshni-Cop (“a policeman who dances ballet”) and the Mind-Reading Hamster (a wise-cracking rodent with a voice similar to that of Mickey Mouse). You can watch his 1988 appearance as Rockin’ Abe via his YouTube channel.

But long before the Gong Show bits and the YouTube tutorials, Willett was a working actor and musician who made his living

in piano bars and on movie sets. Raised in a small Kentucky town, Willett started shooting film when he was 17 years old. He began to teach himself camera tricks and techniques, and before long, the allure of Hollywood called him to the West Coast.

From there, Willett’s life story reads something like the plot of Forrest Gump.

After a stint in Los Angeles, he joined the Army in the late 1950s. He later relocated to Las Vegas, where he taught himself piano while working in a furniture warehouse.

He started a label by the name of Freeway Records, which counted amid its catalog some releases by Greg Penny (who’d go on to work with Elton John) as well as Willett’s own piano-playing persona Herman Schmerdley. He got some radio airplay with tunes like his rockabilly ditty “Mona Lisa” — it’s a good tune, look it up — and landed gigs playing in piano bars. But Hollywood was still calling his name, so he returned to L.A. and began pursuing work as a film and TV extra.

“You’re not supposed to crash auditions, but I crashed auditions,” says Willett of working his way into the industry. “One of the things I did, I got an Abe Lincoln beard and hat and everything. I was Abe Lincoln in a lot of productions, and that paid extra. I invested a little bit of money every week in wardrobe. I could be a cowboy, I could be a

prisoner, I could be a detective.”

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s there were bit parts, TV roles, extra work and stand-in gigs. Willett got work on Amen, a series starring Sherman Hemsley, as well as a recurring role on Dear John, which starred Judd Hirsch and ran for several seasons. He got a close-up in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and he says he’s danced with Lana Turner, stood in for Mel Ferrer and Harvey Korman, doubled for Chevy Chase and James Cromwell, and even kissed Mary Steenburgen in Jonathan Demme’s 1980 film Melvin and Howard — the film for which Steenburgen landed an Oscar. “She got an Academy Award for kissing me,” he says.

But Willett ultimately decided to relocate, and he landed on Nashville as his new home.

“When I relocated I would look for a city that seemed on its way up,” he says. “Like picking a stock in the stock market, you look for something that has a future. Nashville seemed — in 2006, and still — like, ‘They’ve got their act together.’ ” Willett says he likes it here. He points out that the parking is better, and — even though it’s not quite as good as it is in L.A. — the weather’s not too bad. Now entering his 15th year here, he seems to be having a nice time in Nashville — just him, his cat Stormy, and a couple-hundred-thousand YouTube subscribers.

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 11

11

3/2/20 5:59 PM

The People Issue

alicia haymer photographed at fisk University’s Little Theatre Photo by Eric England

The Triple Threat

Alicia Haymer has established herself as one of Nashville’s most talented theater artists

A

By Erica Ciccarone licia Haymer hasn’t stepped inside Fisk University’s Little Theatre in 20 years, and the narrow auditorium calls her back to her roots. “It smells the same,” the actor-director-playwright says with a smile. “It just feels like home.”

Haymer, a Nashville native, graduated from Fisk with a degree in speech and dramatics in 2000. She found her first post-college role in a play with the community theater group SistaStyle Productions in 2005. Back then, says Haymer, the best hope an actor had for getting work in town was landing a role in a production by Nashville Children’s Theatre or the Tennessee Repertory Theatre. While the competition was stiff for paid gigs, Haymer found a sense of community in local theater groups. In 2010, she was performing in a play at Amun Ra Theatre when NCT’s then-director Scot Copeland scouted her for a role in Bud, Not Buddy.

12

Haymer has been on the scene as an actor ever since.

Recently, she performed the role of Diane Nash at Fisk University Chapel in From the Back of the Bus, a choral and orchestral performance that honored the Nashville Freedom Riders. Local writer-director Jon Royal wrote the monologues that created the play’s narrative. In her monologue as Nash, Haymer addressed a group of Nashville activists before they set out to ride integrated buses across the South, knowing that mobs of segregationists likely awaited their arrival in Alabama.

“I can’t imagine being a college student, signing a will and writing a last letter to my parents, like, ‘This is what I believe in, and this is what I’ll fight for and what I will give my life for,’ ” says Haymer. “It was great to connect with people who literally did the work for me, so I could have the freedoms that I have.”

Last year, Haymer was luminous in the Rep’s production of Pipeline. The role required displays of conflicting emotions: courage and fear, toughness and vulnerability, pride and self-doubt. Haymer nailed it. But she’s found that her true love is directing.

“As an actor, your job is just one thing,” says Haymer. “You get to bring life to your character, but you don’t really get a say in anything else. But from a director’s standpoint, you get to shape the characters — but also the set and the costumes and the music and how people feel from the time they walk in the theater.

It’s terrifying but rewarding.”

Since 2017, Haymer has directed plays with Actors Bridge Studio, Nashville Story Garden, Kindling Arts Festival and more. She’s a member of the inaugural Directors Inclusion Initiative at Actors Bridge, a program that offers resources and training to people of color who have an interest in directing theater.

Last year, Haymer took part in the Tennessee Playwrights Studio’s fellowship for aspiring playwrights.

Her play A Free and Public Citizen — the story of a black family living in the shadow of a pork processing factory that is making the whole town sick — received a warm reception at a reading in December. The play addresses the intersection of race, class and environmental justice, all couched in the context of a loving family, and recalls both Lorraine Hansberry and Lynn Notage. It has cemented Haymer’s reputation as one of Nashville’s most talented artists.

While some people in the arts view Nashville’s deluge of transplants as a threat to an established hierarchy within the community, Haymer embraces the change.

“It’s really forced people to do their own thing and make their own way, which I really appreciate and respect,” says Haymer. “There are so many chances to work and be seen and write and produce. It’s definitely opened up for the little guy who believes in their art and wants to produce it and get it out there.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 12

3/2/20 5:59 PM

March 7 - April 5

Cheekwood NEW! in Bloom

Bracken Foundation Children’s March Garden 7 - April

5

Reopening March 28!

Blevins Japanese Garden NEW!

Bracken Foundation 150,000 blooms including Children’s Garden 100,000 tulips Reopening March 28!

Two flower wallsBlevins and a Shōmu-en, daffodil field Garden Japanese Beer Beer Garden featuring Garden live music every weekend Family Activities Tots! Art & Garden Activities Now Tuesday Saturday | 10 AM - 12 PM Live -Music YogaArt in Exhibitions the garden Yoga And more!

Bloom

When over 150,000 flowers blossom, When over you150,000 do too. flowers Cheekwood blossom, in Bloom you do too.

Tickets available Learn more at cheekwood.org cheekwood.org

Presented by

Cheekwood is funded in part by

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

13

The People Issue

Jessica bedor photographed at Proper Bagel Photo by Daniel Meigs

The Pastry Chef

To Proper Bagel’s Jessica Bedor, the possibilities are endless

J

By Megan Seling

essica Bedor is probably thinking about dessert right now. Wherever she is, and whenever you’re reading this, chances are her brain is tossing around sugar-coated possibilities like a rock tumbler full of soonto-be polished gems.

“I’ll never get away from pastry,” Bedor says, her words conveying a mixture of pride and exasperation, like she’s relieved to be owning up to some kind of secret. “I went on vacation last year, and the night I got back I baked something at my house because I hadn’t baked in an entire week.

I’m just always thinking about it! It’s always in my brain.”

Bedor is currently the pastry chef at Proper Bagel, where she fills the popular Belmont shop’s East Coast-inspired dessert display with tried-and-trues including black-and-white cookies, housemade Pop Tarts and rugelach. Before landing that gig, she

14

was the pastry chef at Sinema.

There she churned out stunning plated desserts.

Dip back into her Instagram to see a bright-golden wedge of mandarin semolina cake topped with a vibrant strawberry coulis and a lacey piece of almond Florentine. A bit further back you’ll see her dome of shiny tempered chocolate, which has to be cracked open to get to the stack of chocolate wafer cookies, blackcurrant ganache and cocoa meringue tucked inside. (I ate that, I loved that, I have had dreams about that cocoa meringue.)

Bedor’s flavor combinations have always been surprising and rooted in experimentation, but wrapped in a fun, familiar package — free from the intimidating frills other pastry chefs can get lost in.

“A.D.D.,” she says with a laugh. “Honestly, it’s not diagnosed, but probably. I can’t focus on a damn thing, and that translates into food like crazy.

I never make the same thing twice. At Sinema I made curd in every flavor you can imagine. Peach curd! It was so good! That was a good dessert.”

At Proper Bagel, Bedor has a new challenge: creating comforting and familiar grab-and-go sweets that still appeal to her modern, innovative impulses. So far she has embraced that challenge, and Nashvillians with a sweet tooth are happier for it.

“I do cookie sandwiches, red-velvet doughnuts,

whoopie pies. There’s this one cookie-dough dessert they’re actually asking me to bring back. It’s a brownie crust with chocolate-chip cookie dough and buttercream.”

Sounds like a dense brick of sugar, right? In Bedor’s hands it becomes an addictive feat of skill and balance.

“One person on staff will buy it and can’t eat the whole thing at one time, so they’ll pass it around,” she says. “And then one by one, people will come back to my station being like, ‘Um, this is amazing, how did you do that, what is it made of, I need more.’ Everyone went crazy for it.”

Bedor has topped blondies with slices of fresh blood orange. She’s placed a slice of red-velvet cake upon a swirl of bacon-fat caramel, forgoing the cream-cheese frosting for a brown-butter buttercream — a move that could be seen as sacrilege by some.

“Sometimes I make crazy things for myself,” she says. “Sometimes I have to dress [ingredients] up as something else, but then people eat it, and they love it. Several people have had something and been like, ‘I’ve never had this flavor combination before, I never thought about putting this in a dessert, and I really like it!’ ” She pauses and grins. “I live for that shit.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 14

3/2/20 5:59 PM

THURSDAY 6.11

GRAND OLE OPRY FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER: 99 NEIGHBORS • ANDY FRASCO & THE UN • BIG SOMETHING • BRISTON MARONEY • DABIN • DEVON GILFILLIAN

EZRA COLLECTIVE • THE FUNK HUNTERS • HE$H • KURSA • LARKIN POE • LIZ COOPER & THE STAMPEDE • MIZE • SCARYPOOLPARTY SPOCK • SWEET CRUDE • TASKA BLACK • THE REGRETTES • TOO MANY ZOOZ • ZÍA

FRI 6.12 TOOL

MILEY CYRUS BASSNECTAR

THE 1975 RUN JEWELS GLASS ANIMALS YOUNG GIANT MEGAN STALLION TIPPER BRITTANY HOWARD THE

THE

THEE

PRIMUS • DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL • BIG WILD • GANJA WHITE NIGHT • LENNON STELLA • THE BAND CAMINO • WALLOWS PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG • TURKUAZ WITH JERRY HARRISON & ADRIAN BELEW: REMAIN IN LIGHT TURNS 40 • EKALI • SVDDEN DEATH • STILL WOOZY REBILLET • YOLA • LUCII • ATLIENS • DETOX UNIT • UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS TONES AND I • MARC RESISTANCE REVIVAL CHORUS • PHUTUREPRIMITIVE • LUZCID • ALTIN GÜN • PLS&TY • MDOU MOCTAR • DYNOHUNTER

FLUME OYSTERHEAD

SAT 6.13 LIZZO

TENACIOUS D JASON ISBELL 400 UNIT KING GIZZARD LIZARD WIZARD DABABY SEVEN LIONS AND THE

& THE

SUPERJAM: SYLVAN ESSO PRESENTS WITH • KEVIN GATES • NELLY PERFORMING COUNTRY GRAMMAR • TROYBOI • DERMOT KENNEDY SUBTRONICS • DENZEL CURRY • J.I.D. • MANDOLIN ORANGE • THE GROWLERS • BILLY STRINGS • MT. JOY YAEJI • MOODY GOOD • EOB • THE MARCUS KING BAND • WOOLI • SURFACES • SLOWTHAI • DR. FRESCH • NILÜFER YANYA • JUPITER & OKWESS • WILLIAM BLACK • LICK • DJ MEL HERO THE BAND

SUN 6.14 TAME IMPALA

LANA DEL REY VAMPIRE WEEKEND

LEON BRIDGES YOUNG THUG REZZ GRACE POTTER FLOGGING MOLLY BOOMBOX CARTEL • GREENSKY BLUEGRASS • THE STRUTS • CAAMP • OLIVER TREE • PEEKABOO • MORGAN WALLEN LSDREAM • PINEGROVE • CUCO • SAINT JHN • ORVILLE PECK • FEMI KUTI & POSITIVE FORCE • COLONY HOUSE BONNIE X CLYDE • BILL FRISELL: HARMONY FEATURING PETRA HADEN, HANK ROBERTS & LUKE BERGMAN ELDERBROOK • MAKAYA MCCRAVEN

BONNAROO.COM

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

15

The People Issue

Elizabeth Queener and John Ashworth photographed at Queener’s home Photo by Eric England

The Rememberers

Elizabeth Queener and John Ashworth fight to make sure Tennessee’s racial injustices are never forgotten

E

By Stephen Elliott lizabeth Queener does not pull punches when recalling her childhood in segregated Maury County.

“That is no way to start out in the world, because it either turns you into a prejudiced idiot or a very confused child,” she says.

She may have been a confused child, but decades later the 82-year-old woman has achieved a sense of moral clarity.

A few years ago, a friend of Queener asked for help finding information about an ancestor, whom they discovered had

16

fought in the Civil War with the U.S. Colored Troops. Ultimately, Queener and others identified dozens of Maury Countians who died as members of the Colored Troops, and the group made it a mission to add the soldiers’ names to the war memorial in front of the county courthouse.

That effort kicked off a flurry of historical justice work by Queener, who calls herself “a buck private in the rear guard” of an ongoing statewide effort to track down as much information as possible about the innumerable racial murders committed throughout the state’s bloody history.

Though Queener has lived in Nashville for most of her adult life, she’s taken on the task of researching her home county’s forgotten lynchings, beatings and other race-based murders, compiling dossiers with dates, witnesses and information about surviving descendants.

The work brought her into contact with John Ashworth, a Brownsville man who has turned his retirement into a quest for

historical justice. He has done extensive work in Haywood and Shelby counties, and he’s the executive director of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis. Ashworth is also a board member of Tennesseans for Historical Justice, created last year by the state legislature to investigate civil rights crimes from Tennessee’s history and educate the public about them. In addition to the efforts in Shelby and Maury counties, similar projects are underway in Nashville, Chattanooga, Jackson and elsewhere across the state.

“We have a long ways to go, to be sure, but I think there is a groundswell of pentup emotion that wants to deal with this, in both the black and white community,” Ashworth says.

As part of his research, Ashworth interviewed a Tennessee woman who witnessed her father’s lynching. The woman is still living, reminding Ashworth that this history is far from ancient. Tracking down descendants of racial violence victims has led to

an unexpected consequence: the reunion of families ripped apart by the violence Ashworth is uncovering.

“When these lynchings occurred, obviously families fled in all directions in terror,” Ashworth says. “When you see relatives united that never knew the other relatives existed, but both of them know that something very horrible happened in their families, it’s a very cathartic moment.”

Both Ashworth and Queener believe uninhibited racism has become more common since Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016, and it’s part of the inspiration for their work.

“The atmosphere right now gives racist people a feeling of protection, a feeling that they can come out and get in your face, and I think that is very intimidating and very wrong,” Queener says. “We really have to know our history to see what can happen.

We have to be very careful now.”

“I’m doing what I can,” she adds. “I can’t do much.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 16

3/2/20 5:59 PM

The People Issue

The Psychic

Frank Castellano, proprietor of The Spirit Chrysalis, believes ‘there’s something else that’s helping you out’

W

By Laura Hutson Hunter hen you tell someone you have an appointment with a psychic, there’s an array of responses you’re liable to get. You might get a snort or an eye-roll, or maybe even a diatribe about the dangers of pseudoscience. On the other hand, you might get a raised eyebrow, or a look of sheepish curiosity. But among an increasingly large circle of Nashvillians, if you say, “I have an appointment with Frank Castellano,” chances are good that you’ll be met with nods of approval. He has that effect on people.

“I’m the sixth-generation medium in my family,” says Castellano. He has a good-natured, nobullshit earnestness — kind of like a metaphysical Jonathan Van Ness. Castellano’s family, which has roots in Italy and Spain, has a long history with what he calls “the gift” — a combination of certain strengths like clairvoyance (the ability to see the future) and clairaudience (the ability to hear it).

Castellano says he’s a precognitive clairvoyant, clairaudient, clairsentient psychic medium. But to hear him describe it, it’s not that dissimilar from, say, inheriting a knack for songwriting.

“I’m not a musician,” he tells me, sitting crosslegged on a chair in his Inglewood workspace, “but I would think that it’s like being a producer and listening to a song, and then somewhere in your head you think, ‘This could use a banjo!’ You’re still fully aware, but there’s another part of your mind that is processing different information.”

The 38-year-old has lived in and around Nashville for a little more than 10 years, and his business, The Spirit Chrysalis, is so popular that by the end of February, he’s already booked appointments through August. Castellano is immediately likable, greeting visitors with hugs instead of handshakes, and speaking effusively in a direct but carefree manner. He’s a far cry from the bescarved crone waggling her fingers at you over a crystal ball. If nothing else, he swears too much to fit that stereotype.

“Most of the time we approach situations and we’re like, ‘I got this, I can do this, I’m a fucking queen,’ ” says Castellano. “And that’s great. But what I want you to know is that there are all these beings from the other side that are just waiting to help you out.”

His periwinkle-blue office is arranged into two sections. There’s a room that’s dedicated to energy work, and looks similar to a massage studio outfitted with dozens of crystals. The main room resembles a therapist’s office, albeit one with dozens of burning candles and several tarot card decks.

This is where he does the majority of his readings, which he says consist of connecting a client with spirit guides that are already there.

Castellano says he begins each session by giving clients specific information that he wouldn’t be able to find online or through preliminary research. But he’s also reluctant to persuade nonbelievers in what he does.

“I mean, listen, I don’t need you to believe in spirit guides or angels,” he says, as emphatic as a best friend reciting Lizzo lyrics at you after a breakup. “But I definitely want to help you believe that there’s something else that’s helping you out.

“People in my generation, we want things super easy,” he continues. “And that’s great! But intuition is not about making life easy. It’s about making life rich and deep and fulfilling.”

Frank Castellano photographed at his office Photo by Eric England

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 17

17

3/2/20 5:59 PM

The People Issue

The Defender

Isaiah ‘Skip’ Gant represents capital defendants in a state that is executing prisoners at a historic rate

T

By Steven Hale

he walls in Isaiah “Skip” Gant’s office talk, but it helps to have him there to translate.

On a recent afternoon, he sits in his corner of the offices of the federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee, sinking into a large leather couch and easily unspooling his memories of more than 40 years as a criminal defense attorney. The names of judges, clients, country towns and courthouses come easily to him.

Hanging on the wall to his left is a framed courtroom sketch of a young Gant pointing up at a judge who’s angrily leaning down from the bench. A strip of paper on top of the sketch has “$1,000” scrawled on it. It commemorates the time a Chicago judge held Gant in contempt, fined him a grand and threw him in jail. (The story is long and colorful and terrific, but best told by the man himself. Gant insists he never pointed at the judge, but concedes the two had a history.)

The seeds of his interest in the profession were planted by his Aunt Polly, who used to tell him, when he was a young boy, “You talk so much you oughta be a lawyer.” The Gants lived in Joplin, Mo., in the early 1950s.

The Gant children — Skip and two siblings, a brother and sister — were the only black students at the Catholic grade school they attended. White students hit them with racial slurs as well as fists, but the Gant siblings never backed down.

“After you take so many ass-whoopings, another one doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “What are they gonna do?”

But even at a young age, Gant was wellaware of where racist violence could lead. He was in grade school when 14-year-old Emmett Till was famously lynched in Mississippi.

“Every black mother was telling black sons, ‘Look, you don’t want to end up like Emmett,’ ” Gant says.

The link between lynchings and the euphemized “capital punishment” was never abstract to Gant, and his attraction to the law was always tied to an interest in death penalty cases. More than half a century later, he represents capital defendants in a state that is executing prisoners at a historic rate.

Though Gant’s interest in the law was encouraged in his home, it faced racist roadblocks everywhere else. He never seriously considered attending the University of Missouri — the state’s major university accepted its first black undergrad in 1950; its law school didn’t integrate until the late 1960s. After a few years bouncing around smaller schools in the state pursuing a collegiate baseball career, he left Missouri in 1968 and went to Chicago with an uncle.

From there, his career was fostered by a series of towering legal figures. Chicago civil rights attorney Thomas Todd helped Gant land a law school scholarship after a chance meeting in the courthouse during the trial of Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party. R. Eugene Pincham,

18

Isaiah ‘skip’ gant photographed at his office Photo by daniel meigs

another pillar of the black legal community at the time, gave Gant his first job out of law school and his first chance to handle some high-profile cases.

“He had this filing cabinet, and in that filing cabinet were all these cases that had been continued for years,” Gant says.

“Most of the money had dried out. That was my cabinet.”

Among the cases Gant cut his teeth on was that of Linda Taylor, the Chicago woman who would famously become known as the “welfare queen.” Another file in that special cabinet? The one that led to the aforemen-

tioned contempt charge memorialized on Gant’s office wall.

Today, Gant — who will turn 73 this year — is on his second tour of duty in the Nashville-based federal public defender’s office. After a few years here in the early ’90s, he went to Cambodia to teach defense law (another experience documented on his office wall). After returning to the States, he did a stint working death penalty cases in Texas before spending a couple years working in New York. The current, relatively frenzied state of this line of work in Tennessee clearly troubles him. The way Gov. Bill

Lee has signed off on the executions of men with remarkable redemption stories while speaking publicly of his own Christian faith is “appalling,” he says.

“But this is what I wanted to do,” Gant says. “I wanted to be in this.”

When he was “young and stupid,” Gant wanted to work on capital cases because they were the type of cases that made a lawyer’s name, he says. Not anymore.

“Took me about 10 years, and I can’t tell you how many clients, to realize it wasn’t about being in the big leagues — it was about preserving life.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 18

3/2/20 6:00 PM

7 4 1

NASHVILLE PREMIERES

2020-21

BROADWAY BLOCKBUSTERS BOLD ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Brandon A. McCall as “Simba” in The Lion King North American Tour, ©Disney, photo by Deen van Meer

TPAC is alive with a remarkable energy and the joy of discovery during its celebratory 40th Anniversary Season that will entertain, inspire, and make your heart soar. Get your SEASON TICKET PACKAGE NOW to lock-in the BEST SEATS AT THE BEST PRICE. Plus, exclusive 2020-21 season package benefits include SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS, EASY EXCHANGE PRIVILEGES, FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLANS, and more!

© Disney

2020-21 8-SHOW SEASON

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

© Disney

P LU S 3 ADD-ON SPECIALS

NASHVILLE PREMIERE

THE MUSICAL PHENOMENON

ORDER YOUR SEASON PACKAGE NOW FOR SAVINGS, EASY EXCHANGE PRIVILEGES, AND MORE!

TPAC.ORG/BROADWAY | 615-782-6560 505 DEADERICK STREET, NASHVILLE, TN 37243 TPAC.org is the official online source for buying tickets to TPAC events.

T E N N E S S E E PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 1 9 8 0 - 2 0 2 0 nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020

| NASHVILLE SCENE

19

The Councilmember

The People Issue

Sandra Sepulveda is the first Latina on the Metro Council, and wants to be the voice for a forgotten community

O

By Alejandro Ramirez

Sandra Sepulveda photographed at plaza Mariachi Photo by Daniel Meigs

20

n Sept. 12, Sandra Sepulveda — after a long day of a long campaign spent knocking on doors and making phone calls — was brought back home by her campaign staff. They hid her away in her bedroom while a viewing party of friends, family and supporters watched the election results on a projector screen on her front lawn. They were all waiting to see if she’d be the new Metro Councilmember representing District 30 — the southeast Nashville district she grew up in — and feeling cautiously optimistic.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” says Sepulveda, who is 26. “I didn’t know if my message had connected.”

Campaigning isn’t easy: She had to sit her parents down and prepare them for the challenges ahead. Politics can be particularly tough on a young Mexican American woman, she notes, especially when straddling two cultures. Sepulveda says some people thought she wasn’t “white enough” to win the seat, while others told her she needed to wear more makeup and start drawing on her eyebrows to make herself “look more Latina” to win supporters. She also says strangers hurled anti-Mexican insults at her family on election night. But she and her supporters knocked on thousands of doors, worked the phones, put in the work.

On election night, all she could do was wait.

And she won.

“It was hard to believe,” she says. “It really was.”

Sepulveda’s victory was historic: She was the first Latina elected to the Metro Council. And the night saw other milestones — the first Muslim councilmember, Zulfat Suara, was elected, and the most women in Nashville history now serve on the council.

“I think you’re starting to see the city want something different and want something that reflects them,” says Sepulveda.

Sepulveda says she knows what life is like for people in her district — not enough textbooks in Metro schools, no sidewalks or bike lanes, no parks or even a library. Thirty percent of residents live below the poverty line. Her parents are immigrants, like many of the district’s residents.

They came from Mexico and began working factory jobs, and when Sepulveda was 5 years old, her family moved from California to Nashville. Her parents sometimes struggled to pay bills on time, but Sepulveda says they made it work: “My dad always said, ‘We might not have enough money, but we’ll always have food on the table.’ ” Sepulveda was the first in her family to go to college.

She attended Trevecca Nazarene University, where she majored in history and political science, and graduated in 2015. She soon got a job with the Tennessee Democratic Party, where she now serves as operations director and finance administrator.

For a long time, she still couldn’t see herself campaigning. That’s partly because there weren’t many politicians who looked like her or her neighbors, she says — not until Fabian Bedne, former councilmember for District 31, became the first Latino and first immigrant to win a seat.

As Sepulveda looked around her district, she saw the same old struggles facing her neighbors, and the continuing disparity between her community and others. She decided to run.

“I was tired of seeing the same thing and feeling like we weren’t being heard and [that] other parts of the city were having more resources than we were,” she says.

As a councilmember, Sepulveda says she’s trying to get more funding for her district, and is also interested in broader issues like workers’ rights. She often says the people of her district have long felt forgotten and voiceless, and that means she can’t take her council seat lightly.

“It means a lot to me because they had enough faith in me to believe that I could be that voice.”

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 20

3/2/20 6:00 PM

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

21

The People Issue

The GM

Titans general manager Jon Robinson — a Tennessee boy made good

S

By J.R. Lind o when does Jon Robinson sleep?

“June,” the Tennessee Titans’ general manager offers gamely.

Robinson, 44, is relaxed — even soft-spoken — but thoughtful. It’s a bit off-putting, given that he operates in the often-macho supercharged world of professional football. His openness is even more of a shock considering the fact that he’s a protégé of New England Patriots coach and GM Bill Belichick, a man who makes Calvin Coolidge seem downright garrulous.

If the stress of the most important offseason in Two-Toner history is getting to Robinson, he doesn’t show it. It’s just a few weeks before the NFL Scouting Combine and a few more before the league’s freeagency period begins, which bumps right up against April’s draft. Still, he seems like he’s having a good time. With rain pouring outside, he casually punts a ball inside the team’s practice bubble at MetroCenter. It won’t make Brett Kern nervous, but it was a serviceable high wobbler.

Still, Robinson knows what he’s up against this spring. Two breakout players — quarterback Ryan Tannehill and running back Derrick Henry — are coming off performances that definitely merit raises, having led the team to a surprise run to the AFC Championship. Robinson plays it close to the vest, but allows himself a moment of humor.

“Yeah, there are a couple of players we might like to bring back,” he deadpans.

So how did a kid from Union City, Tenn. — who played football at Southeast Missouri State and coached at Nicholls State University in Louisiana — rise so quickly to being the most-watched general manager in the NFL? “I don’t know,” he says. “When I was a coach at Nicholls State, I struck up a relationship with a scout from the Patriots.”

And with that, in 2002, he became an area scout for the Pats — the lowest rung on the administrative ladder in pro football.

Robinson remembers once watching game film of a defensive lineman projected onto a bed sheet hanging in a school’s gym. But he stuck with it, impressed his bosses and rose to regional scout, assistant director of college scouting, and finally director of college scouting. In the latter role, he was charged with helping the Pats formulate their (notoriously successful) draft plans.

It was those long nights on the road, watching player footage in weird places, that gave Robinson special affection for those hidden gems — players like tight end Jonnu Smith, who’s grown from a fourthround project to a top player, or safety Dane Cruickshank, a fifth-rounder who is now a special-teams monster. There’s also Anthony Firkser, the sure-handed undrafted tight end out of Harvard who made crucial catches in the playoffs and who, coincidentally, re-signed with the Titans the day after Robinson spoke to the Scene.

“It’s so gratifying for our scouting department,” says Robinson. “They spend a lot of time watching players without ever knowing if we are going to take them. It makes

22

Jon Robinson photographed at The Titans’ practice field Photo by Eric England

me really proud.”

After New England, Robinson joined Jason Licht — the scout who first noticed him at Nicholls State — in Tampa Bay to serve as the Bucs’ director of player personnel when Licht took the job as general manager.

In 2016, Robinson came home, in a manner of speaking, to manage the Titans.

“I’m from Tennessee. This team means everything.”

And that hometown feel is why Titans fans often run into Robinson at places where many general managers would never tread.

Unusually among the 32 men who run pro

football teams, Robinson loves to rub shoulders with the faithful, showing up at out-oftown bars for pregame parties, snapping selfies and talking shop with the folks from the bleachers.

“I want our fans to be proud of this team,” Robinson says. “They spend their hardearned money on gear and on tickets. I owe it to them to show them love.”

No ivory-tower wheeler-dealer, Robinson mixes it up with the city he now calls home.

It’s a sort of front-office analog to coach Mike Vrabel’s ritual of taking part in practice drills or doing pregame calisthenics. He

also spends what little free time he can find to fundraise to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, a disease his oldest daughter lives with.

“The good Lord blessed us with a bigger shovel and a bigger voice,” he says. “We’re heavily involved to help those who don’t have that voice.”

The kid from Union City who got into the business never thinking he could be a GM — “I just wanted to be a good scout,” he says — comes to work whistling every day.

“I have a blast,” he says. “I’ve never grumbled. I truly love what I do.”

Email edtior@nashvillescene.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_3-5-20.indd 22

3/2/20 6:00 PM

FIT FOR

YOUR LIFE

With endless exercise options, the most convenient locations and a beginner-friendly community where you’ll always feel welcome, there’s no better place to achieve your goals than the Y.

SPECIAL OFFER March 1-10,2020

NO JOINING FEE SAVE UP TO $125

Snap a photo and show this ad on your phone at a YMCA near you.

H

attie Louise “Tootsie” Bess purchased the building at 422 Broadway—then a bar called “Mom’s”—in 1960. Not long after, a painter she hired mistakenly bathed the exterior in a bright shade of purple, and “Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge” was born. It quickly became a magnet for songwriters like Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, and Tom T. Hall, as well as performers from the Grand Ole Opry next door. Though Tootsie loved the country stars who slid in the back door for a quick belt between Opry sets, she had a soft spot for struggling pickers, trading them food and drinks for paper IOUs she’d tuck into a cigar box behind the bar. “She ran a beer joint,” said Hall, “but to young songwriters and musicians, she was a small finance company, a booking agent, and a counselor.”

Photo ID is required. Valid March 1-10,2020.

Guest pass is not valid for out-of-town guests. Other restrictions may apply.

TryTheY.com

above:

Tootsie with a Christmas present from Marty Robbins, 1972

photo: lawson little

Our Mission: A worldwide charitable fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of helping people grow in spirit, mind and body.

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

23

24

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

Critics’ Picks W e e k l y

r o u n d u p

o f

thi n g s

t o

d o

PA G E

26

D I A RY O F A W OM B AT Saturday, March 7 TPAC’s Polk Theater

MIKI FIKI

Playing with Fulton Lee and Ally Burgess

PA G E

28 TOM PAPA

The Live From Here writer performs at City Winery

PA G E

FILM

THURS/3.05 [DOGGONIT]

Seniors: A Dogumentary

Old dogs suddenly have a new trick: documentary filmmaking. OK, so the aged canines didn’t actually make the movie Seniors: A Dogumentary themselves, but they certainly make the movie, if you catch our drift. Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary — a Middle Tennessee gem with

one of the most charming Facebook pages in existence — is featured in the film, and is joining with indie production company What Were We Thinking Films for a onenight-only screening at the Belcourt. The doc also includes the tale of Chaser the border collie, purportedly the world’s smartest dog, and National Geographic photographer Jane Sobel Klonsky, who documents the relationships between senior dogs and their humans. Tickets are $25. 7:30 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. J.R. LIND

[HEART-POUNDING NOIR]

Plata Quemada (Burnt Money)

With its unique blend of live performance and multimedia innovation, Chile’s renowned TeatroCinema is widely recognized for its unique approach to storytelling. And beginning Thursday night, the acclaimed ensemble arrives at OZ Arts with Plata Quemada (Burnt Money). Billed as a “heart-pounding noir tale of bandits, betrayals and blowouts,” the piece is based on a real-life bank heist in 1965 Argentina, and features stunning visual elements that are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Plata Quemada is performed in Spanish with projected English supertitles, and is recommended for those in high school and older due to violent content. March 5-7 at OZ Arts, 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle

COMMUNITY

AMY STUMPFL

Seniors: A Dogumentary

are serious safety issues too: In 2019, 32 pedestrians were killed by Nashville traffic — 10 more deaths than in the previous year.

The mayor’s office hosted transportationfocused listening sessions in January and February, but there’s still plenty to discuss on the topic. The second annual Transit Equity Forum will allow activists, bus operators and bus riders to discuss the current state of transportation in Nashville, and what changes and improvements are needed. The event will be hosted by Music City Riders United, NAACP Nashville, the Amalgamated Transit Union and Sunrise Movement Nashville, and there will be a question-and-answer portion at the end of the session. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Music City Central, 400 Charlotte Ave. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

FRI/3.06

[ANOTHER ONE RIDES THE BUS]

Transit Equity Forum

A transit system that doesn’t work for everyone can cause serious inconveniences for poor and workingclass people. For example, cuts to the WeGo transit system in Nashville mean that riders on certain routes are paying higher fares for less service — some may even have to walk farther than they used to in order to reach a bus stop as a result of route changes and elimination. That’s especially inconvenient in areas that lack sidewalks or safe crossings. There

MUSIC

Performing an acoustic set at the Belcourt

THEATER

guster

photo: Robert Catto

36

[STRUNG OUT]

Sicard Hollow Album Release

In our age of home studios and streaming services, just about anyone can record and distribute music. That makes a measured move like Sicard Hollow’s admirable — the progressive bluegrass band’s debut release has been two years in the making. Since its inception in 2018, Sicard Hollow has taken time to establish its sound, and has even changed players a few times. The current lineup includes Alex King (vocals, guitar), Will

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 25

25

3/2/20 5:08 PM

critics’ picks

1/2 MILE OFF BROADWAY ON THE SOUTH SIDE

LUNCH FROM 11AM MON-FRI DINNER FROM 6PM EVERYDAY FREE PARKING • SMOKE FREE

3/5

BIG SHOES FEAT. RICK HUCKABY, MARK T. JORDAN,

8:00

FRI

WMOT FINALLY FRIDAY (FREE)

12:00

THU

3/6

SAT

WILL MCFARLANE,KENNE CRAMER, TOM SZELL, BRIAN BROCK FEAT. FRUITION, CALEB CAUDLE, MY SISTER, MY BROTHER - SEAN MCCONNELL, GARRISON STARR & PETER GROENWALD, BILLY PRINE & MICHAEL DINALLO

BART CROW W/ HARDIN DRAW

8:00

BACKSTAGE NASHVILLE LIVE VIP HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

12:00

COLLINS,W/ DORIS WALKER

8:00

3/7 THE SISTERHOOD BAND, MATRACA BERG, HEIDI NEWFIELD, RUTHIE

3/8

TRIGGER HIPPY W/ NICOLE BOGGS & THE REEL KELSEY WALDON W/ LEAH BLEVINS

MON

BIG STAGE MONDAYS HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

SUN

3/9

2:30 8:00

TUE

NASH FM RHYTHM & BOOTS

7:00

WED

LINES AND RHYMES

1:00

THU

MEGAN NADIN AND LAYLA TUCKER PLUS KURT STEVENS

6:00

FRI

WMOT FINALLY FRIDAY (FREE)

12:00

3/10 3/11

3/12 3/13

SAT

3/14

SUN

3/15 26

THE TIME JUMPERS

8:00

SECRET SHOW!

OUT! D L O S

DAVE BARNES, MATT WERTZ, ANDREW T! 7:30 OU RIPP, & STEVE MOAKLER W/ ERIN GRAND SOLD PAUL BURCH, STEVE POLTZ, BOYS CLUB FOR GIRLS, KYSHONA ARMSTRONG ALLMAN BROTHERS REVUE

THE MIDNIGHT RIDERS ROCKIN’ THE FILLMORE ANNIVERSARY SHOW W/ JACK PEARSON AND SPECIAL GUESTS

BACKSTAGE NASHVILLE LIVE VIP HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

WORLD TURNING W/ JT BROTHERMAN FLEETWOOD MAC REVUE

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND

COMING SOON 3-16 3-17 3-18 3-19

The Time Jumpers SIXWIRE and Friends plus Angela Oliver The Petty Junkies Nashville Blues and Roots Alliance Show Hurricane Ruth,Sugar Lime Blue & Niecie 3-20 Vinyl Radio 3-21 Robben Ford 3-23 The Time Jumpers 3-24 - 3-28 TIN PAN SOUTH 3-29 Brandy Clark : Who You Thought I Was Tour w/ Cheley Tackett 3-30 The Time Jumpers 4-1 , Jordan James, Ashley Cooke, Kurt Stevens 4-2 Matthew Perryman Jones ,Peter Bradley Adams, Molly Parden, Katie Herzig, Lera Lynn, Sean Kennedy 4-3 The Eaglemaniacs : The Music Of Don Henley and The Eagles 4-4 Resurrection: Journey Tribute 4-6 The Time Jumpers 4-8 Colin Raye and Friends 4-9 Stairway to Zeppelin plus Kings of Pain 4-10 Pat McLaughlin Band 4-11 The Long Players 16 Year Anniversary Show Bruce Springsteen’s The River 4-13 The Time Jumpers 4-14 Songs and Stories for St Jude 4-15 Colin Linden 4-17 &18 Ray Wylie Hubbard 4-19 Corb Lund w/ Paul Burch 4-20 The Time Jumpers 4-24 Hurray for the Riff Raff w/ People Museum 4-25 Guilty Pleasures 4-26 Overcoats w/ People Museum 4-27 The Time Jumpers 5-2 Steve Moakler 5-4 The Time Jumpers 5-6 Koch Marshall Trio feat. Greg Koch 5-9 Rubiks Groove 5-10 Eric Hutchinson w/ Casey 5-11 The Time Jumpers 5-15 12 Against Nature Steely Dan Experience plus Live From Ventura Boulevard 5-17 Pokey LaFarge 6-18 King Buzzo feat. Trevor Dunn 7-26 JR JR

MUSIC

818 3RD AVE S. DOWNTOWN • 259-9891

Herrin (mandolin, vocals), Dan Davis (banjo, vocals), Matthew Rennick (fiddle) and Parrish Gabriel (bass), and they’re known for inspiring dancing with their insane strumming, beautiful lyrics and energetic jam breaks. Sicard Hollow’s shows have created a solid fan base that feels like family and provides a welcoming atmosphere that even newcomers can enjoy. On Thursday, the band will celebrate the release of its first album, Secret of the Breeze, with a free show at Yee-Haw Brewing Co. In a recent Instagram post, the band wrote, “We have zero intention of slowing down” — so stay tuned for more. 8 p.m. at Yee-Haw Brewing Co., 423 Sixth Ave. S. KELSEY BEYELER [GET JAZZY]

Miki Fiki w/Fulton lee & Ally Burgess

When you think about the typical sounds of Nashville’s rising pop scene, a saxophone-and-keys combo may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But that instrumentation — combined with pop hooks and danceable beats — is what sets Nashville-based band Miki Fiki apart from fellow acts in the local pop scene. Since releasing its debut EP in 2017, the quartet has put out a steady stream of singles that show off its members’ instrumental skills and songwriting chops. Miki Fiki will be joined for its show at The Basement by Fulton Lee, an energetic soul/pop artist whose live performances never fail to get the crowd dancing, and Ally Burgess, a promising R&B singer-songwriter with a knack for delivering relatable lyrics and memorable melodies. 9 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S. BRONTE LEBO MUSIC

INFORMATION AND TICKETS 3RDANDLINDSLEY.COM 866-468-3401 • TICKETWEB.COM

3RDANDLINDSLEY.COM

[DIRT EMO]

ruston kelly

It’s been a triumphant couple of years for Nashville’s Ruston Kelly, whose 2018 debut album Dying Star was released to critical acclaim and launched the Nashville-based singer-songwriter on

8:00

12:30 8:00 8:00

PRIVATE EVENT INFO FROM 30 TO 700 GUESTS EVENTSAT3RD@GMAIL.COM

extensive tours both here in the States and abroad. On Friday, Kelly will reach a new touring milestone when he plays his first headlining gig at the Ryman. Kelly brands himself as “dirt emo,” a genre that combines the raw, acoustic sensibilities of roots and alt-country music with the capital-F Feels of emo. The country-leaning Dying Star — with its narrative focus on Kelly’s previous struggles with substance abuse and his journey to sobriety — captures the dirtemo ethos, as does his most recent project, a covers EP titled, appropriately enough, Dirt Emo Vol. 1. Fellow critical darling Lucy

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 26

3/2/20 5:09 PM

MAR 12

MAR 13

FLY FISHING FILM TOUR

PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG

MAR 15

MAR 24

SILVERSUN PICKUPS

W/ GOOSE

DANCE GAVIN DANCE

W/ THE NEW REGIME

W/ ANIMALS AS LEADERS, ISSUES, VEIL OF MAYA, ROYAL CODA

MAR 27

MAR 31

HOT CHELLE RAE

THUNDERCAT

MARATHONMUSICWORKS.COM 1402 clinton st. nashville, tn | BOX OFFICE: FRIDAY 10AM - 4

MOLLY TUTTLE

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

CAM

GOOSE

THE MILK CARTON KIDS

WATKINS FAMILY HOUR

SAM LEWIS

YOLA

TV TAPING

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

BLACK PUMAS

MARCH

27-29

BLUEGRASS

MANDOLIN ORANGE

UNDERGROUND S E A S O N

X

SHOOTER JENNINGS

ON SALE NOW! WWW.THECAVERNS.COM nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

27

CRITICS’ PICKS

MUSIC

Adults who still engage in the old “What’s better, cats or dogs?” dispute will have a chance to live out their juvenile conflict this weekend with a pair of Midnight Movies. It’s going to be tough to say which is more terrifying: the 1983 flick about a rabid Saint Bernard that corners a young mom and her son in a sweltering Ford Pinto, or last year’s incredibly unnecessary curiosity (some might say monstrosity) that takes on Andrew Lloyd Weber’s felinefeaturing musical. Cujo, based on a novel of the same name by Stephen King, is a study in suspense that stars scream queen Dee Wallace. I’ve been haunted by Cujo since I was a child. But then I saw Rebel Wilson rip off her own CGI cat skin and bite the head off a tap-dancing cockroach with a human face in Cats. All bets are off, folks. The fact that the Belcourt is already showing Cats as a Midnight Movie seems to portend its future as a cult classic. Go with God, cat lovers. Cujo midnight March 6; Cats midnight March 7 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. ERICA CICCARONE [PAPA, PREACH]

TOM PAPA

Not to be confused with Nashville’s own Tom Pappas of Superdrag bass-playing fame, Tom Papa is a New Jersey-born stand-up and NPR/Sirius XM radio staple.

Now in his early 50s, the comic traffics in lucid, Seinfeld-ian affable-dad humor and serves as head writer for Live From Here, the current incarnation of Prairie Home Companion. On his recent Netflix special You’re Doing Great!, the married father of two muses on self-care and selfesteem issues, social media addiction and why everyone around him seems so highstrung all the time. Unlike other boomer/ Gen-X-cusp comedians who seem to hate

STORIES OF THE SOUTH

28

SAT/3.07 [SOUTHERN EXPOSURES]

STORIES OF THE SOUTH

A selection of photographs of the South, curated by Ground Floor Gallery director Janet Decker Yanez and photographer Mattie Ott from more than 90 submissions, is poised to be one of the meatiest exhibitions on display in Nashville. Stories of the South is the second big-picture photography exhibit we’ve seen recently — Zeitgeist’s Nashville Now: New Photographers, New Work was on view in January — but you’ll never hear me complain about an overload of strong Southern imagery. On the contrary, I welcome a Nashville with the confidence to shake its past rhinestones-and-cowboy-boots aesthetic for something more nuanced.

There are 15 artists in this show — keep an eye out for snaps of streetside details from Scene contributor Joe Nolan, epic explorations by Cocoa Laney and joyful, sexy portraits from Sean Thomas. Opening reception 6-9 p.m. at Ground Floor Gallery, 943 Fourth Ave. S. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER [CREATIVE LOAFING]

ARCHERS OF LOAF

As one-third of the Chapel Hill, N.C., flannel-flying triumvirate rounded out

by Polvo and Superchunk, Archers of Loaf imbued their ’90s slacker anthems — songs like “Harnessed in Slums,” “Underdogs of Nipomo” and the unimpeachable “Web in Front” — with an austere dissonance rooted in D.C. hardcore and U.K. post-punk traditions. After the band signed off in ’98

“SOMEWHERE IN ALABAMA, AFTER MIDNIGHT,” COCOA LANEY

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: CUJO & CATS

ART

[PET THERAPY]

what they don’t understand about younger generations, Papa — who works clean — approaches it with an outlook that is decidedly more curious and compassionate than snarky or dickish. That might not gain him much notice in the comedy world, but it certainly earns him my respect. 8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

MUSIC

FILM

Dacus will open. Dacus’ most recent project is last year’s EP 2019. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N. BRITTNEY MCKENNA

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 28

3/2/20 5:09 PM

PRESENTED BY

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

29

critics’ picks

ART

SaintS or MonSterS: Political cartoonS of the 19th aMendMent

In August 1920, Phoebe Burn sat down at the kitchen table of her East Tennessee farmhouse to write a seven-page letter to her son Harry, a member of Tennessee’s House of Representatives. That letter would ultimately secure the last vote needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, putting an end to the decades-long battle for the women’s vote and forever changing the nature of America’s democracy. Burn wrote to her son, “Don’t keep them in doubt,” and told Harry to “be a good boy” by voting in favor.

Like Mama Burn, political cartoonists of the time knew the power of a well-timed and well-crafted message. Dozens of the era’s best political cartoons will be on display at the Nashville Public Library, where they’ll remain on view through November. Saints or Monsters: Political Cartoons of the 19th Amendment kicks off with this reception on Saturday, and will feature a collection of cartoons that illustrate the political landscape of the time and speak to just how much was at stake for American women and our nation. 2-4 p.m. at the Nashville Public Library downtown, 615 Main St.

THEATER

BAILEY BASHAM

STARTING MARCH 2 Nashville’s music industry sends their emerging artists to perform on the World-Famous Wildhorse stage.

120 2nd Ave N, Nashville, TN 37201 | wildhorsesaloon.com

30

diary of a WoMbat

Each year, TPAC welcomes thousands of students and educators to programs presented through Humanities Outreach in Tennessee. But it’s rare for TPAC to offer a public performance from its acclaimed roster of youth-oriented plays. That makes Saturday’s Diary of a Wombat performance all the more special. Based on the awardwinning picture book by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, Diary of a Wombat follows the adventures of Mothball, the naughtiest wombat in all of Australia. Australia’s Monkey Baa Theatre Company brings the charming tale to life with clever puppetry and striking design, along with a live cello score. Best of all, proceeds from Saturday’s show will go to WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization, which continues to help animals injured and orphaned by the recent catastrophic fires. 11 a.m. at TPAC’s Polk Theater, 505 Deaderick St. AMY STUMPFL MUSIC

RETURNING MONDAYS

[A MARVELOUS MARSUPIAL]

[SPRING AWAKENING]

Sadler Vaden

Like tiny shoots of tulips or the first red-bellied robins, the arrival of Sadler Vaden’s solo record is a sure sign that spring is on its way. Vaden is a rare migratory

MUSIC

[FUNNIES]

species, a gunslinging sideman with a stockpile of killer songs, and he’s releasing a brand-new solo album. Anybody Out There?, his March 6 release via Thirty Tigers after a decade-and-change of DIY releases, finds the member of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit exploring the rich textures of the pop branch of Southern rock’s family tree.

Vaden crafts catchy psychedelic numbers with a critical eye and a comforting drawl that feel custom-made for sweating it out as we enter warmer months. A peer to his influences as much as a product of them, the former Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ guitarist summons the spirit of Tom Petty and Alex Chilton while probing the mysteries of the universe.

Catch him before he’s back at his day job.

Opening for Vaden are Nashville rockers Neon Castles and singer-songwriter Morgan Wade, whose debut album is being produced

by Vaden. 8 p.m. at Mercy Lounge, 1 Cannery Row SEAN L. MALONEY [I CAN SEE FOR MILES]

eternal ViSionS ShowcaSe Feat.

Glimmer, Ziona riley, almanak & arlene maria

Following a big year of growth and renewal for her electronic multimedia project HR Lexy, Arlene Sparacia is bringing back her periodic showcase series Eternal Visions, which highlights women who are making all kinds of music (and are engaged in other creative fields) around town. In addition to checking out an array of artists and crafters with work for sale, you’ll hear Glimmer, a new project from Sarah Bandy, executive director of youth arts nonprofit YEAH!, and outstanding drummer Tommy Stangroom — they’re new enough that you’ll have to come to the show to find out what they sound like.

Also performing are folk-schooled singersongwriter Ziona Riley, an outstanding lyricist and a master of magnetic acoustic performances, and Almanak, a hypnotic spoken-word and rap project led by Amanda Bahia. Sparacia will open the show herself as Arlene Maria, performing new solo work from an EP she’ll release that day. The new tunes are written and performed on the Omnichord, an electronic approximation of an autoharp introduced in the 1980s whose unique sound and performance interface have earned it a devoted following. 8 p.m. at The East Room, 2142 Gallatin Pike STEPHEN TRAGESER

COMMUNITY

with the bleak but compelling White Trash Heroes, AOL main man Eric Bachmann continued down that road with his moody follow-up project Crooked Fingers. Since reviving the band a few years back for some reunion shows behind a series of Merge Records reissues, Bachmann has been cagey about future plans. But last month, like manna from indie-rock heaven, a new tune, “Raleigh Days,” appeared on Spotify, and it’s the Archers-Springsteen-Thin Lizzy hybrid we never even knew we needed.

Local punk-pop power trio Peachy will open the show. 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[WEED EATER]

weed wranGle

For naturalists, weeds are more than annoying, unsightly clusters that disrupt our lawns — they’re a scourge upon the environment, and some are to blame for the decimation of native plant species that feed and provide habitats to pollinators. And pollinators play a vital role in getting food onto our plates. Most (but not all) invasive species are exotic, and when they become naturalized in a new ecosystem, they don’t have their own native insects to keep their growth in check. They form weedy colonies, reproduce at astonishing rates and throw the whole system out of whack.

This weekend, Tennessee State Parks and Natural Areas will host the annual Weed Wrangle across the state, where volunteers will battle kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, privet and much more. Wrangle weeds in Fort Negley Park, Shelby Bottoms, Two

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 30

3/2/20 5:09 PM

What’s next?

Tennessee Performing Arts Center

MAR 3-8 Through Sunday Only

Diary of a

The Art of International Whiskey

Wombat

Made possible by

MAR 7

MAR 18

MAR 12

War Memorial Auditorium

MAR 16

War Memorial Auditorium

MAR 22

MAR 24-25 AN EVENING WITH

DAVID SEDARIS

MAR 27-29

APR 7-19

APR 17

War Memorial Auditorium

TPAC.ORG 615-782-4040

Groups of 10 or more call 615-782-4060

TPAC.ORG is the official online source for buying tickets to TPAC events.

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

31

critics’ picks

SAT, 3/7

(Our regular hours: 11 a.m.-­ 9 p.m.)

50¢ LPs 50¢ CDs 50¢ 45s (From a special selection created for this sale only.)

Also, in our regular retail store:

$1 OFF ALL MUSIC ITEMS PRICED 2.99 & UP!*

LPs, CDs, DVDs, Toys, Posters, 45s, Tapes & more!

And, all 99¢ LPs & CDs in our regular retail store for this sale only! area will be 50¢ each Come early! Come often! ! Fresh stock will be replenished in our special 50¢ sale section while supplies last!

THE GREAT ESCAPE in our special 50¢ sale section while supplies last.

MURFREESBORO (Jackson Heights) 810 NW Broad St., STE 202 * 615-­900-­1937

Hours: Sun-­Thurs 11-­7, Fri-­Sat 11-­9

thegreatescapemurfreesboro@gmail.com *Holds, layaways, online and special orders excluded.

Shadow Show

[DYNAMIC DUO]

ShitKid

With ShitKid, Swedish musician Åsa Söderqvist has created a lo-fi cult following for herself, playing twangy, angular music that draws from garage rock and weirdo anti-pop influences. Her twisted, echo-laden guitar music is equally fun and catchy, as well as ugly and disjointed. At times she hints at a metal edge, with the catchy roughness of a K.K. Downing-like riff. Along with her partner Lina Molarine Ericsson, Söderqvist has been taking ShitKid’s manic, sexy rampage all over North America and Europe. It seems like every indie-rock rag is singing the praises of ShitKid’s new album Duo Limbo, so it’s

Fisk Jubilee singers

32

P.J. KINZER [VOCAL SPLENDOR]

FiSK Jubilee SingerS Spring Sing Feat. lediSi

Since the late 19th century, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have embodied the finest in a cappella vocal performance, consistently delivering splendid versions of vintage Negro spirituals. Their origin story is part of American cultural lore — a group of Fisk University students were recruited to help the school raise funds, and they quickly became international stars, playing in Europe (most notably for Queen Victoria) and the U.S. (one early tour was along the Underground Railroad path). In recent years, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have updated and expanded to include more modern material. They’re joining forces on the fourth annual Spring Sing with singer and actress Ledisi, who has not only earned praise for her powerhouse style — which has landed her 12 Grammy nominations across her eight solo albums — but also for her magnificent cinematic turns, including one as Mahalia Jackson in Ava DuVernay’s Selma. Multiple Grammy-, Dove- and Emmy-winning producer Shannon Sanders will join Dr. Paul T. Kwami as co-musical director of this grand event, which is a great way to signal the arrival of the spring season. 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N. RON WYNN

50¢ EACH!

[ONCE ON THIS ISLAND]

(I)sland (T)rap: The epIc remIxology of The odyssey

(I)sland (T)rap: The Epic Remixology of The Odyssey is an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey written and performed by Austin Dean Ashford, a Lubbock, Texasbased actor-playwright-musician. With beatboxing, ukulele and spoken-word poetry, Ashford tells the story of Black Ulysses, a man who seeks refuge from American society on an exotic island. He

PHOTO: BILL STEBER AND PAT CASEY DALEY

[ROCK TRIBUTARIES]

In the primordial dimness of the late ’50s and early ’60s, guitarists like Duane Eddy and Link Wray laid the foundations for garage rock. During the British Invasion, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks played tough, cold music that worked variations on R&B, while Los Angeles bands like Love and The Leaves codified the vocabulary you hear on Detroit trio Shadow Show’s new full-length Silhouettes. It’s a good record — Kate Derringer, Kerrigan Pearce and Ava East know how to deploy guitar riffs, and their songs are both intricate and simple. The Silhouettes track “Shadow Box” runs through a maze of interesting chord changes, and ends with a section that reminds me of Love’s 1967 song “The Castle.” Meanwhile, in the five-minute track “Dreamhead,” they sing, “You said / You could be the one / Oh no.” Silhouettes is an engagingly snide tribute to the band’s influences. Opening for Shadow Show will be Morgan, along with Nashville avantpopsters Ornament. 7 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike EDD HURT MUSIC

GIGANTIC 50¢ MUSIC SALE

MUSIC

At THE GREAT ESCAPE MURFREESBORO:

MUSIC

sUN/3.08

probably the last opportunity to see them play such an intimate venue. Local support will be rounded out by the brilliant weirdos in Z and the post-punk wildness of Burkish.

8 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S.

THEATER

Rivers Park (there will be goats!) and more.

Find all the locations at weedwrangle.org. 9 a.m. at various locations ERICA CICCARONE

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 32

3/2/20 5:09 PM

thebasementeast basementeast thebasementeast

917 Woodland Street Nashville, TN 37206 thebasementnashville.com

ARCHERS OF LOAF // MAR 7 w/ Peachy

HAILEY WHITTERS // MAR 10 w/ Ben Burgess

MARCH 8

FISK JUBILEE SINGERS®

with special guest Ledisi

DAMON JOHNSON // MAR 11 w/ The Ladies Of

BLACK LIPS // MAR 12

w/ Poppy Jean Crawford & Butthole

MARCH 14

COIN

with special guest Sure Sure

RUMOURS // MAR 13

SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS

A Fleetwood Mac Tribute

w/ The Yawpers & King Corduroy // mar 14

Upcoming shows Mar 5 Mar 6 Mar 8 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 19 Mar 20 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23 Mar 26 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 31 Apr 2

A Night of Rage: Rage Against The

Apr 4 Apr 4 Apr 5 The Nashville Moth StorySLAM: Apr 7 CHALLENGE Apr 8 Southern Underground Pro Wrestling Apr 9 Rare Hare 12: Well, they USED to be hits Apr 10 The Ataris w/ H.A.R.D. Apr 11 A Night at the MIPS: A Tribute to Queen Apr 13 Tow'rs w/ A Boy and His Kite Apr 14 John Moreland w/ S.G. Goodman Apr 16 QDP: A sPring Freak Apr 18 Life of Agony w/ Doyle, All Hail The Yeti Apr 19 & Denman Apr 20 Best Coast w/ Mannequin Pussy Lillie Mae & Aubrie Sellers w/ Out Apr 23 of Limits Apr 24 The Brook and the Bluff TAUK w/ Three Star Revival Apr 25 The Birthday Massacre w/ Julien-K Apr 26 Stick Men featuring Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, and Markus Reuter Apr 27 Machine Tribute Fruition w/ Katie Toupin

Meg Donnelly (2pm) Walk The West and The Cactus Brothers Chris Renzema w/ Ry Cox Flora Cash w/ Beau Young Prince Chaz Cardigan Avi Kaplan w/ Paper Wings The Districts w/ Glove Jade Novah Torres Brent Faiyaz w/ GRIP SOLD OUT! The Lil Smokies Lilly Hiatt w/ The Harmaleighs King's X w/ Sound and Shape SOLD OUT! Dick Jr. & the Volunteers with The Station Breaks Patrick Watson w/ Charlie Cunningham Shannon and the Clams w/ Thelma and the Sleaze Katie Pruitt w/ Early James Fozzy w/ Through Fire, Royal Bliss & Black Satellite

Fleurie / Ruelle

MARCH 29

ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

APRIL 28

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS AUGUST 5

HAPPY TOGETHER TOUR featuring The Turtles, Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), The Association, Mark Lindsay (formerly of Paul Revere & The Raiders), The Vogues and The Cowsills

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

SEPTEMBER 19

TOMMY EMMANUEL, CGP

with special guest Jorma Kaukonen

SHITKID // MAR 8

KATE BOLLINGER // MAR 11

w/ Burkish & Z

Mar 5 Mar 5 Mar 6 Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 7 Mar 9 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 12 Mar 12

w/Good Dog Nigel

UPCOMING SHOWS

Rob Aldridge & The Proponents Sir Woman (Kesley Wilson of Wild Child) Lowen w/ Marisa Maino (7pm) Miki Fiki w/ Fulton Lee & Ally Burgess (9pm) Trev Leigh w/ Mad Welsley (7pm) Caleb Johnson w/ Adam Chaffins (9pm) Jamie McLean Band (7pm) Mammoth w/ Say Kids & Sydney Layne (9pm) New Faces Night ft. Luke Austin, Kevin

Duggan, Josephine Johnson, Grease Trap (feat.

Adam Wakefield), Trujilo, The Dirty Names Bendigo Fletcher (7pm) The Pressure Kids w/ Brother Moses (9pm)

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 14

Thomas Csorba w/ Charlie Whitten William Matheny (7pm) The Western Sons w/ The Smokeshows

Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 16

Maya de Vitry w/ Courtney Hartman Ali Barter (7pm) MIMI Monday (Mariah Carey Tribute)

Mar 18 Mar 18 Mar 19

and Kaitie Forbes (9pm)

ft. Maureen Murphy, Hollie Hammel, and Kendra Chantelle The Dales w/ JD Clayton(7pm) Rascal Martinez w/ The A-Oks & The Garden of Eden

Zach Deputy

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 thebasementnash

thebasementnash

OCTOBER 11

BOZ SCAGGS

UPGRADE YOUR NIGHT WITH A RYMAN PREMIUM PASS FOR TICKET INFORMATION AND MORE, VISIT RYMAN.COM Historically Cool Since 1892

FOLLOW US @THERYMAN

116 Fifth Avenue North Nashville, TN 37219

thebasementnash nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

33

2219 Elliston Place 321-4457 ElgaR, andon R B / w oung R BoY REEcE YEinER, SwEatE wn 5 R a m o K thu PaigE ln thE unKn aSon & linco S w/SaEjma, jExtER BuRgo VEntuRa & Z 6 ERic o fRi maR codE, Paul mac /jonnYEd w n Y K a 7 Y inSKE Sat maR & KYndal ESEntS , ERtS PRaconundRum R, c n o c n S , o S m t E R 8 af ouSEl Rogu d jonES, oZ Sun ma caR iERcE, BRa oliVia PKing dRuS & uBlai Khan, oRdER w/K ing tERRoR udE, REStRain 0 1 R a tuE m magnit mindS & gREat EmBRacER hEcK, uRi w/ ing of man m K il / B w E 1 w R1 ting lif ijah nE wEd ma gRaduag watER & El 2 1 R a thu m tREadin E EffEctS id & thE S

HAPPY hour music

drink specials daily

critics’ picks

thu Dean Fields Album Release

3/5 Gary Burr FRI Truck Patch Revival 3/6 Kristie Lovelady Timbo and the Tennessee Studs sat Ben Donovan and The Congregation 3/7 Timbo and the Tennessee Studs Sun Sky Studios|Luke Munday 3/8 Chris Scruggs MON Hard Redemption 3/9 Beer Jam Monday TUE Life at ASCAP 3/10 Nashville’s Most Wanted WED Josh Gallagher 3/11 Music Row Freek Show THU Love Me in the Dark 3/12 Grindhouse

A Division of The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County

(615) 538-2076 • WWW.FRANKLINTHEATRE.COM •419 MAIN STREET, FRANKLIN, TN 37064

Friday, March 13

CHARLES ESTEN

Sat, April 4 & Sun, April 5

JOSEPH

RICKIE LEE JONES

MAX WEINBERG’S JUKEBOX

Thursday, April 2

Wednesday, April 15

Wednesday, April 8

Thursday, April 16

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY (3/4) A NIGHT OF SONGS & STORIES WITH SANDI PATTY (3/15) LYNDA CARTER (5/2) JOHN SEBASTIAN (5/6) THE WEIGHT BAND W/MEMBERS OF THE BAND & LEVON HELM BAND (5/16) BJ THOMAS (6/5) DAVID WILCOX (6/13)

MUSIC

FAREWELL ANGELINA

THE JAMES HUNTER SIX

embarks upon an artist’s journey of sorts, learning to navigate oppressive structures in American culture through song. The one-man show is in part inspired by artist Romare Bearden’s epic Odysseus series, and it builds a bridge between classical mythology and black culture, addressing “the healing power of community through fantasy, myth, creativity and escape.”

Ashford has been bringing (I)sland (T) rap around the world to high praise, and it arrives in Nashville via Destiny Theatre Experience. 3 and 7 p.m. at The Barbershop Theater, 4003 Indiana Ave. ERICA CICCARONE [EXACTLY WHAT IT’S WORTH]

Kelsey Waldon w/leah Blevins

Last year was a big one for Kelsey Waldon. The Kentucky native and longtime Nashvillian had already established a fan base, but she suddenly found her excellent country-schooled songs reaching more ears than ever, thanks in part to her third album White Noise / White Lines being released via John Prine’s Oh Boy Records. The narratives on the album are honest and casually poetic, and the music is true to the diverse interests Waldon developed growing up in the small town of Monkey’s Eyebrow. The structure of the album, broken up by interludes, is informed by hip-hop, and the sound finds a sweet spot between country and psych rock, playing off the hypnotic elements of Appalachian music. Waldon has a full dance card this year, including dates with Brandy Clark and Drive-By Truckers, so this is your best chance to catch her on her home turf for a while. She’s putting a spotlight on fellow accomplished local songsmith Leah Blevins, who will open the show, and whose own profile has been on the rise and whose forthcoming debut album is eagerly awaited. 8 p.m. at 3rd and Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S. STEPHEN TRAGESER

34

MON/3.09 BOOKS

kelsey waldon

[THERE’S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL]

author event With aniKa orrocK

I can trace my feminism all the way back to the Danbury, Conn., PAL Girls Softball League. My team was named after local business Omaha Beef, and I played shortstop. Of course I loved Penny Marshall’s 1992 movie A League of Their Own, in which characters played by Geena Davis, Lori Petty and Madonna take the baseball field while their husbands and brothers are off fighting in World War II. A new book tells the whole story of the women who stepped up to the plate. In The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, local author-illustrator Anika Orrock collects vignettes from the players themselves about their experiences in the league.

The text is accompanied by Orrock’s illustrations as well as photos of the players in action. Orrock’s event at Parnassus will serve as a book launch — the book’s official

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 34

3/2/20 5:09 PM

Presented by

THE BATTLE IS BACK! 4 Top Local Chefs + 1 Secret Ingredient

Chris De Jesus

Hrant Arakelian

Nina Singto

Praveen Pedankar

Chef de Cuisine M Street

Chef and Owner Lyra

Chef and Owner Thai Esane

Chef and Partner Chaatable

Thursday, March 19, 2020 6-9:30 PM / Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum Tickets are $45 at ironforknashville.com

Participating Restaurants

special guest judge

Ruby Amanfu

Virago | BB King’s | Daddy’s Dogs | Taco Mamacita Makeready Libations & Liberation | Nomzilla | Bavarian Bierhaus Trattoria Il Mulino | Taj Indian Cuisine | Las Palmas | Zulema’s Taqueria The Hampton Social | Stompin’ Grounds | Bakery Lopez | Bahn Mi and Roll UP Rooftop Lounge | and MANY more to come!

Sponsored By

Benefiting

Thanks to our partners

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

35

critics’ picks

aT 6:30 courT sTevens

Friday, March 6

The June Boys

sunday, March 8

aT 2:00 MarTha MaccalluM

Unknown Valor

Monday, March 9

aT 6:30 anika orrock

Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Tuesday, March 10

aT 6:30 Mary adkins

Privilege

Wednesday, March 11

aT 6:15 aT TPac salon@615 sPecial ediTion with glennon doyle

Untamed

Thursday, March 12

aT 4:00 sPecial nashville reads sToryTiMe with Mary cady feat.

Dreamers By yuyi Morales aT 6:30 Therese anne FoWler

A Good Neighborhood

parnassusbooks.net 3900 Hillsboro Pike in Green Hills 615.953.2243 @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks

36

tUEs/3.10 MUSIC

Thursday, March 5

aT 10:30 conscious aging Book cluB discussing From Age-ing to Sage-ing aT 4:00 sToryTiMe with Mary cady

[POP DESTINY]

Guster

When friends ask me why I continue to love pop music, I point to albums like Guster’s 2019 Look Alive. The long-running Boston band combines elements of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Coldplay and The Beta Band on Look Alive, which sports plenty of weird hooks and well-played instrumental sections. It’s a droll album — “Hard Times” and “Hello Mister Sun” are catchy, schlocky and a lot of fun. Since Look Alive is pop, a track titled “Terrified” turns out to be one of the record’s friendliest moments. Tuesday at the Belcourt, Guster will play tunes from Look Alive, along with older songs like 2005’s great “Manifest Destiny/Sorority Tears” and 2015’s “Long Night.” The show, which is sold out, will feature the band in acoustic mode — expect some nifty string arrangements along with the first-rate songs. 8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. EDD HURT

PHOTO: SPENcER BURTON

A CelebrAtion of life for DAviD olney

daniel romano’s outfit will take them to the NCAA brackets. While Kentucky and Auburn long ago stamped their ticket to a top-ranked seed in the field of 68, other SEC schools are looking to make a push. It’s a chance to see the Wildcats’ sensational young backcourt trio, Georgia’s future lottery pick Anthony Edwards and the thrilling deep range of Bama bomber John Petty. Head downtown early to witness the chaos of drunken, screaming herds wandering Broadway in their gang colors of big blue, big orange and the occasional crimson. The madness will be going on from Wednesday evening through the weekend.

March 11-15 at Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway P.J. KINZER [TIMES NEW ROMANO]

DAniel roMAno’s outfit w/the MeDiuM & Country Westerns

Daniel Romano contains multitudes. The Canadian songster has played with indierock and punk acts, co-founded the indie label You’ve Changed Records and created album art and guitar straps (he’s a leather worker) for many of his fellow musicians.

What’s more, his power-pop project Ancient Shapes released the satisfyingly Nervesesque A Flower That Wouldn’t Bloom late last year, and it’s one of 2019’s most underrated records. But mostly, Romano is known for the albums he releases under his own name — records like 2018’s Finally Free, a collection of shape-shifting, poetic folk music. His songs might put you in mind of The Byrds’ country-rock one minute and Donovan’s free-flowing folk the next. Now

on a four-week tour that will ultimately bring them to SXSW later this month, his current project Daniel Romano’s Outfit will stop off in Nashville, where they’ll play with a pair of delightfully catchy local outfits — vaguely psychedelic crafters of intricate, laid-back pop The Medium, as well as high-power shout-along power-pop crew Country Westerns. 8 p.m. at Mercy Lounge, 1 Cannery Row D. PATRICK RODGERS MUSIC

Eminent singer-songwriter David Olney died at age 71 on Jan. 18, and many fans (vast numbers of whom are also musicians) mourned his passing publicly.

But the suddenness of Olney’s death meant that they shared their remembrances in the media and on social media, rather than in person. That seems hardly fitting for someone who spoke passionately, including in a radio broadcast the day he died, about the importance of connecting with your fellow humans face to face. On Monday, folks will be able to gather to remember Olney at a memorial event at the Belcourt.

According to a release, the program will include both spoken portions and music, “in recognition of his life as a husband, father, brother and friend, as well as the author and performer of brilliant works.” As of press time, performers hadn’t been announced, but Olney worked with or had his music recorded by an array of phenomenal musicians, including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Paul Burch. The event is free and open to the public, and limited seating means you’ll want to be early — doors open at 6 p.m., and the program begins a half-hour later. 6:30 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER

[OPENING THE FLOOR]

hoMe boDy w/eve MAret & sunDAes

The name of Home Body — the Western Massachusetts experimental electronic duo of Haley Morgan and Eric Hnatow — highlights an interesting concept explored in their music: You’re intimately connected to the body you live in, but it is also its own distinct thing. They address big questions about biology, culture and more on their sometimes-dark second LP Spiritus, the tour for which brings them to Music City on Wednesday for the second time in a year.

Joining them at all-ages spot Drkmttr will be innovative electronic multimedia artist Eve Maret, who has moved back to town after several months in Oakland, Calif. Rounding out the bill is Sundaes, the project of New York transplant Max Nunes, whose Sundaes Volume 1 (out now on cassette and available digitally April 3) shows how well the artist knows the rules of pop songs by bending and breaking them. 8 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike STEPHEN TRAGESER

home body

WED/3.11 SportS

THis Week’s LisTinGs

[WITH STRENGTH SURPASSING UNDERSTANDING]

MUSIC

MUSIC

distribution date is the following day. 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books, 3900 Hillsboro Pike ERICA CICCARONE

[IN THE MONTH OF MADNESS]

Men’s seC bAsketbAll tournAMent

My most controversial collegehoops take is that I enjoy the conference tournaments just as much as the Big Dance.

The deep rivalries and familiarities between teams can make for a weekend of desperate, bloody basketball. Few phrases in sports are as exciting as “win or go home,” and for many teams, a good performance in their conference tournament is the only thing that

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_3-5-20.indd 36

3/2/20 5:09 PM

icy Ju & ! ity u r F

Authentic Mexican Cuisine & Bakery...Side by Side!

Lunch Buffet Daily: $10.95

SPECIAL COUPON OFFER:

$1 OFF LUNCH BUFFET ONE COUPON PER CUSTOMER

917A Gallatin Pike S, Madison, TN 615-669-8144 PanaderiayPasteleriaLopez

$5 OFF YOUR DINNER 615-865-2646 TacosyMariscosLindoMexico

: Winners’ Reader poll

WITH $30 MINIMUM PURCHASE

VOTED BEST FOR 15 YEARS!

116 21st Ave. N. | 321-8889 | SitarNashville.com

We Deliver: Call @ 526-9100

FREE PARKING!

Fresh poke bowls, healthy smoothies and breakfast bowls, fresh baked goods, craft beers and more!

Stop in for a taste of Hawaii in Music City.

901 Woodland St. #105 @kawaipokeco | www.kawaipoke.com

Find out what’s going on

.com Vincent font

BIGGEST & TASTIEST SOUTH INDIAN BUFFET IN NASHVILLE (SERVED DAILY) www.amaravatitn.com

5012 Thoroughbred Lane, Brentwood (behind Walgreen’s off Old Hickory Blvd.)

615-840-8860

OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER DAILY • BUFFET @ LUNCH ONLY

Presented by

Meet the competitors Chris deJesus Chef de Cuisine M Street Growing up in an Italian family in northern New Jersey, Chris DeJesus began cooking at a very young age. By the time he began thinking about colleges to attend, he realized that cooking was a passion he wanted to pursue. Chris attended Johnson and Wales University’s Culinary Arts program in North Miami and started his first professional cooking job in 2007 at the Eden Roc in Miami Beach. After finishing his degree, Chris moved to New Orleans where he worked under celebrity chef John Besh.

Here, he found his passion for charcuterie and love of all things Creole. He then moved to Washington, DC and worked as part of the Sous Chef team at Blue Duck Tavern where they earned 1 Michelin Star in the 2017 Guide.

In 2016, he found his way back to the south and led the kitchen at Butcher and Bee in East Nashville. Currently, Chris is M Street’s Chef de Cuisine where he works as part of the culinary innovation team to help elevate the cuisine at all of six award-winning concepts.

Thursday, march 19

6-9:30 PM / Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum

6688 Nolensville Rd. Brentwood, TN 37027 615-819-0721 Mon-Thurs 11 am to 9:30pm; closed Tuesday; Fri and Sat 11 am to 10 pm; Sun 11:00am to 9:00pm

Who will prevail in this year's throw down? only one way to find out!

Get your tickets at www.ironforknashville.com nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

37

art

Crawl Space: March 2020

The March Art Crawl happenings embrace food, femininity and the fantastical

By Joe Nolan

Blend Studio in the Arcade looks to recapture some of the communal energy that brought Nashville’s art scene into the 21st century this Saturday night. Local co-ops like Plowhaus and collectives like Untitled Artists provided First Saturday Art Crawl points of organiza6-9 p.m. Saturday, tion for Nashville’s March 7, downtown art scene in the days before there was a Arts & Music at Wedgewood-Houston Frist Art Museum, 5:30-9 p.m. Saturday, an Avenue of the March 7 Arts or even a First Saturday Art Crawl. Re-Titled reunites some of the artists who were active in Nashville in the early 2000s, and it’s the first iteration of similarly themed Re-Titled shows that Blend plans to host every quarter. This March show features work by more than 30 artists, including Robert Vore, Barry A. Noland, Franne Lee, Margaret Pesek and William Branham.

The Browsing Room at the Downtown Presbyterian Church opens a new exhibition by Nashville-based artist Paul Collins that marks a series of two-monthlong community art projects organized around the church’s Saturday breakfast events. Collins’ spontaneous painted sketches capture communal spaces like public parks and live music events. This exhibition is a collaboration with Bandy — an artist represented by Poverty and the Arts, a

Beast at The Red Arrow Gallery not-for-profit art-therapy project that offers free art supplies and instruction to Nashvillians experiencing homelessness. Magical Books and New Looks seeks to create a dialogue about poverty, creativity and community through art and hospitality. The show will be open for breakfast during every Saturday of the show’s two-month run, and the artists will be there to guide visitors through creative projects of their own. Collins hopes the interactive nature of the Saturday events will allow the exhibition to evolve and transform over time, giving visitors a chance to add their voices to these happenings, which take on class consciousness through creativity and communion.

Margaret Pesek

East Nashville

re-titled at Blend Studio

38

“Crouch,” Dana oldfather

Downtown

If the downtown and Wedgewood-Houston options just don’t start early enough for you, head over to East Nashville at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, where The Red Arrow Gallery is hosting a closing reception for Beast by painter Dana Oldfather. Oldfather’s exhibition is a vibrant affair packed with textures of intersecting lines that allude to female bodies in movement. Of course, women’s bodies are among the oldest subjects in all of Western art, but Oldfather’s abstracted works are more compelling and mysterious than more predictable nude-on-canvas affairs.

This show is ambitious, and if you’ve already seen this Beast, just know that it holds up to second and third viewings. Saturday’s closing will also feature a live episode of the

podcast Artist/Mother, with creator and host Kaylan Buteyn.

Wedgewood-Houston

Speaking of Kaylan Buteyn and her podcast, Fort Houston will host the very first Artist/ Mother exhibition in March. Reaching out to her network of guests and listeners, Buteyn has curated a massive roster of women artists for Painting at Night. The works on display all reflect art practices that take place in domestic spaces, between familial and household obligations. Like all things Artist/Mother, Painting at Night illuminates the strategies, obstacles and little blessings women artists confront and embrace as they juggle multiple roles while also engaging in creative production. Buteyn is a talented artist in her own right, and as a mother of three children, she walks the talk that’s featured on her podcast, as well as in the conversations she’s curated here.

Zeitgeist Gallery will crawl into March with an exhibition of new work by Nashvillebased painter Karen Seapker. The subjects and style of Circuities are a great fit for deep contemporary art conversations: Seapker’s vibrant palette and gestures inform the artist’s abstracted narratives about femininity and motherhood. But the most compelling aspects of the artist’s work have always been their explorations at the overlap of figuration and abstraction.

Fable opened on Feb. 18, but if you haven’t seen the show yet, you’re in for a treat at

David Lusk Gallery on Saturday night. The exhibition takes its inspiration from a book of Aesop’s Fables rescued from a Nashville thrift shop. The collection of parables credited to a storyteller in ancient Greece has some resonance with our own Athens of the South, and the magical menagerie of creatures it features is fertile ground for artists. Standouts here include Emily Weiner’s charged iconographic designs, Ashley Doggett’s brutal antebellum analogies, Huger Foote’s spontaneous snapshots and the psychedelic-folk horror of the Mellow Mountain Coalition. The show also features work

by Leslie Holt, New Hat Projects, Terry Lynn, Rob Matthews and Anne Siems.

Artist Danny R.W. Baskin serves up Old Testament narratives with a side of Southern irreverence this month at Coop. In the Garden at Night, Moses Dreams of Ribs offers a display of textile designs to explore a cornbread Kabbalah at the intersection of centuries-old Jewish tradition and life in the New South. Baskin’s soft-sculpture vases and vessels are constructed from fabric and thread, and wrought in mournful blues and grays that speak to that middle ground of grief between endings and beginnings. This show offers corporeal contemplation and mortality musing, but its best qualities are its irreverence and its communal engagement: Baskin will serve a meal to visitors on Saturday night, so bring your curiosity and your appetite.

Email arts@nashvillescene.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

art_3-5-20.indd 38

3/2/20 5:08 PM

books

Her Version of Peace In Privilege, Mary Adkins explores the aftermath of sexual assault on a college campus

By Sean Kinch

Privilege

By Mary adkins Harper 368 pages, $26.99 adkins will discuss Her novel 6:30 p.M. Tuesday, MarcH 10, aT parnassus Books second-year student from a small town in Georgia who feels like an outcast thanks to academic cliques and cryptic mating rituals. “I wanted to be like them,” Annie says of her classmates, “but didn’t know how.”

Bea Powers, fresh from a Connecticut boarding school, has enrolled in a selective program for undergraduates devoted to criminal justice reform. Bea and Annie attend prestigious Carter University in North Carolina, an institution that looms like an ivory tower to Stayja York, who works at a campus coffee shop, ignored by students. To them, Stayja is part of the scenery.

Adkins, a Nashville resident, rotates the narrative perspective among her principals and immediately establishes their primary motivations. After suffering severe burns on her legs in the eighth grade, Annie covered up her scars with pants, even in summer.

Now that she has paid for laser treatment with money earned teaching bassoon (her secret ticket for admission to Carter), she is ready for skirts and shorts. Bea wants simultaneously to escape the shadow of her mother, a successful physician, and to rebalance a justice system that favors the wealthy and connected — that is, people like her. For Stayja, raised by a single mother who can’t find steady work, “a single desire trumped

all others: to escape poverty.”

Adkins connects these characters through their encounters with one man, Tyler Brand, scion of a wealthy family and a serial charmer with a sadistic streak.

After Annie learns how vile Tyler is, Bea is assigned to be the “student advocate” for his disciplinary hearing. Bea comes to feel ambivalent about supporting Tyler. “Am I making a mistake?” she asks herself. “Am I the bad guy?” Simultaneously, Stayja thinks she has found in Tyler the one guy on campus who sees Carter as she does — namely, as a playground for overprivileged kids. In one dramatic semester, these three women come to new understanding of themselves and of the world’s Tyler Brands.

In Adkins’ telling, privilege is a relative concept, with Tyler Brand representing one extreme point on a spectrum. Compared to him, Bea appears to be a self-actualizing striver — a mixed-race honors student, raised without a father, whose mother died before she finished high school.

To Annie, though, Bea is a product of a prestigious New England boarding school, an elite who deigns to attend a Southern college only to attach herself to an exclusive academic coterie. To a rural public school girl like Annie, who needs a bassoon scholarship to afford Carter, Bea embodies the entitled class.

What Annie and Bea come to understand is that all students at top-echelon colleges enjoy advantages that Stayja can only dream of having.

From Stayja’s perspective, Carter students are not individuals but an undifferentiated mass of “bright shirts with little alligators on them or patterned dresses that looked to Stayja like children’s birthday decorations.” They even sound alike. “They spoke without accents, as if they were from everywhere and nowhere,” Stayja thinks.

“Their smiles were perfect.”

A graduate of Duke University and Yale Law School, Adkins brings clarity to the issue of sexual assault on campus. To readers who question whether women in Annie’s position bring false accusations against dudes like Tyler — as revenge for having been rejected, in hopes of a lucrative civil lawsuit or for other self-interested motives — Adkins has a simple answer: not on your life.

Annie does not want victimhood to define her, but she knows with certainty that “getting over it” is not a viable option. Instead, she learns that the best she can do is “find my version of peace.”

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

Email arts@nashvillEscEnE.com

8

Women Artists

on

T

he initiating event in Mary Adkins’ new novel Privilege remains harrowing to readers despite our having become far too familiar with stories of campus sexual assault. A young woman at a residential college drinks too much “punch” at a frat house and winds up passed out in the bedroom of a man she hardly knows. When the attack occurs, she is too scared and disoriented to resist. The next morning, and for the following week, she tries to convince herself that she is not a victim, and that the guy in question is not a rapist. Her rationalizations quickly wither.

Privilege treats the assault and subsequent adjudication by the campus disciplinary board with admirable alacrity, devoting a majority of the novel to the internal conflicts of three women who are entangled in the case. Annie Stoddard, the young woman at the frat party, is a shy

1

Concept Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 2:00 pm Terry Wait Klefstad with Bill Pursell Crooked River City: The Musical Life of Nashville’s William Pursell

The Green Man 77

2501 WEST END AVENUE (Across from Centennial Park)

First Saturday Art Crawl March 7, 6pm -9pm Rogue Gallery 77 77 Arcade Buiding 615-424-8932

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

books_3-5-20.indd 39

39

3/2/20 5:10 PM

American Legion Post 82

local

E S T . 1952

ALL WELCOME

crea v ille nash

3/5 Monthly Membership Meeting 3/6 No Judgement Karaoke 3/7 Honky Tonk Saturday 3/9 Open 3/10 Honky Tonk Tuesday 3/11 Bluegrass Wednesday

m.co m

M-F: 4:00 PM - 2:00 AM Weekends open at Noon

LIVE

MUSIC

review

s

3204 Gallatin Pike Nashville, Tennessee (615) 228-3598

SCALE MODEL GUITARS REPAIR, RESTORATION, & CUSTOM BUILDS scalemodelguitars.com 615-988-0411

WOMEN’S DAY: THE CAMBRIA WAY, WINEMAKER’S BRUNCH

3/10

CAVA MASTERCLASS

3/12

MARK LETTIERI OF SNARKY PUPPY

3/12

BEER 101 CLASS

CHE APALACHE IN THE LOUNGE PRESENTED BY WMOT/ROOTS RADIO

3/15

BULLET THE BLUE SKY - U2 TRIBUTE

3/15

CAVA & FRIED CHICKEN DINNER

3/16

KASIM SULTON’S UTOPIA

3/18

FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL PAIRING SERIES WINE DINNER PRESENTED BY AMERICAN AIRLINES : CONCHA Y TORO

AT H U T T O N H O T E L P R E S E N T S

24-28

ROBERT FRANCIS

MAR

3/8

3/15

5 6 9 10

ALEX WONG & MADISON MALONE EP RELEASE PARTY ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

NATHAN THOMAS

INTIMO NASHVILLE PRESENTA:

TUNES, TALES AND TROUBADOURS

LOS PERICOS

21 2 14 15

MAR

TENNESSEE JAZZ AND BLUES SOCIETY GREAT ALBUMS CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS: SARAH VAUGHAN’S “HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON” PERFORMED BY CONNYE FLORANCE IN THE LOUNGE

FRANK FEST 3 FEATURING SETH WALKER, ETTA BRITT, MISS JACKIE WILSON & SPECIAL GUESTS IN THE LOUNGE

APR

3/8

3/14

nashvillescene.com

APR

THE STOLEN FACES - WOLF BROS AFTER SHOW PERFORMING THE GRATEFUL DEAD’S LEGENDARY ‘SKULL & ROSES’ ALBUM IN THE LOUNGE

LADY LAMB – AN EVENING WITH STRINGS

APR

3/7

3/14

MAR

TONY LUCCA WITH SPECIAL GUEST ROGER STREET FRIEDMAN IN THE LOUNGE

POGUETRY - SONGS OF THE POGUES FEATURING SPIDER STACEY AND CAIT O’RIORDAN WITH LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS

MAR

3/5

3/13

MAR

PORT, SHERRY, VERMOUTH, AND MADEIRA: FORTIFIED WINES CLASS

MAR

3/5

TIN PAN SOUTH SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL

DOORS: 6:OO PM SHOW: 7:OO PM 21+ EVENT

THE PORCH AND NARRATIVE 4 PRESENT:

BOOKS, BARS & GUITARS: A STATE OF THE UNION THE PHOTOGRAPHS RECORD RELEASE

JOEY HYDE TONY LUCCA & FRIENDS SONGWRITER SHOWCASE

ANALOGNASHVILLE.COM

T I C K E T S AVA I L A B L E V I A E V E N T B R I T E E N T R A N C E T H R O U G H T H E I R O N G AT E S AT 1 8 0 8 W E S T E N D AV E N U E A N A L O G AT H U T T O N H O T E L ANALOGNASHVILLE

40

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

NASHVILLE

music

A Real Live Wire

Wire, post-punk’s ageless wonders, make their longawaited Nashville debut

By Charlie Zaillian

T

o stay a band for more than 40 years is hard. To make interesting music the entire time is even harder. Then again, there’s only one Wire. In January, the veteran British sonic experimenters, led by tireless singer-guitarist Colin Newman, released their excellent 17th studio album Mind Hive via pinkflag, the label established by Newman that has been handling the band’s catalog for almost two decades. Mind Hive came in at No. 66 on Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales chart and No. 13 on the industry mag’s Tastemakers chart (the latter of which tracks data from independent record stores) — some of Wire’s best U.S. chart performance ever.

On Friday, the group will perform in Nashville for the first time. The Mercy Lounge show, which has no opener, holds special relevance for one Wire superfan: Miles Goosens, who called Nashville home from 1988 to 2016 and, during the dial-up days, started the first Wire fan forum.

“I bought the reissue of Pink Flag in ’89 while I was a Vanderbilt grad student and liked it,” says Goosens, speaking with the Scene by phone from Lexington, Va., where he now lives. He’s referring to Wire’s acclaimed 1977 debut, the first in a trilogy of albums (along with 1978’s Chairs Missing and 1979’s 154) that merged the brevity of early punk with an untamed adventurousness.

But it was a later, lesser-known record, 1991’s The First Letter, that got Goosens hooked. Digging through the cut-out bin one day at The Great Escape’s Broadway store (where Two Boots Pizza now sits), he bought a copy on a lark. Soon, he was deeply immersed in the intricate details of the band’s complete catalog — but couldn’t find anyone to talk about it with.

What’s a music nerd in 1997 to do? In Goosens’ case, start an online Wire discussion group. Christened “The Ideal Copy” after the band’s 1987 LP, Goosens’ email list soon had between 200 and 300 subscribers. As it turned out, there were some lurkers, too.

“One day I checked my email and there was a message from Colin Newman, thanking me for having created the list,” Goosens remembers. “It was like getting an email from Paul McCartney, to me.”

The impact Wire and Pink Flag in particular had on alternative music is not lost on Newman. In the early ’80s, Minor Threat immortalized the album’s thrashing closing song “12XU” with a version of its own, and R.E.M. covered the track “Strange” on its Document LP in 1987. The group’s second incarnation lasted from 1987 to 1991 — with 1988’s moody, melodious A Bell Is A Cup the highlight. After that, Wire went dark for most of the ’90s.

“Not only did we not exist,” says Newman, speaking by phone from his home in Brighton, U.K., “there was no label, no formal or-

Playing Friday, March 6, at Mercy Lounge

ganization of any kind around the band.”

Newman calls Goosens’ list a catalyst in giving the group the confidence to consider another comeback.

“Miles was flying the flag in a situation where no one really expected us to play again — certainly not in places like Nashville,” he says. “And yet there were all these people talking about us, expressing strong opinions, getting into all kinds of discussions and arguments about everything under the sun. It made me realize that there was, out there, a fan base we could build on.”

Wire roared back to life in 2000 with a commemorative concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall and the founding of the pinkflag label. Thinking it might be his only shot to see them, Goosens made the trip across the pond. “I didn’t think lightning was going to strike a third time,” he says. “When the lights went up onstage and — boom! — you’re hearing the first chord of ‘Pink Flag,’ I will never forget that moment as long as I live.” After the show, he met Newman and bassist-vocalist Graham Lewis face to face for the first time.

To say that concert ended up being more than a one-off is an understatement. Wire’s inspired ongoing third act now enters its 21st year. It has yielded eight new albums and counting, including Mind Hive, which is as stark, incisive and intense as anything the group — which still retains three-fourths of its original lineup — has affixed its name to.

As a live act, Newman, Lewis, drummer Robert Grey and guitarist Matthew Simms, the last of whom replaced co-founder Bruce Gilbert in 2010, go at it with the fervor of musicians half their age. But the band is aggressively anti-nostalgia. Rather than dwelling on the greatness of their firstgeneration output, Wire’s set lists prioritize new material — sometimes even newer than the album they’re touring — as well as reimaginings of lesser-known corners of their songbook.

“There’s a viewpoint about Wire: ‘They did Pink Flag and a couple others in the ’70s, and did some more a bit later on,’ ” says

Newman, who turns 66 this year. “With our core fans, that attitude doesn’t exist. They appreciate that we do a lot of things, and didn’t stop being creative … didn’t give up.

We have a healthy respect for the past, but

Put Another Dime in the Jukebox Brandy Clark looks over bittersweet memories on Your Life Is a Record

By Lorie Liebig

B

randy Clark has been known as a topflight country songsmith for nearly a decade, writing or co-writing songs cut by fellow outstanding writers like Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert (among other Your Life Is a Record excellent country musiout March 6 via Warner Records cians, stars or not). When Nashville; it came time for her to get playing March 29 at to work on her third stu3rd and Lindsley dio album Your Life Is a Record, which is set for release Friday, Clark found herself looking at things through a new creative lens. Two years after the release of her Grammynominated 2016 record Big Day in a Small Town, she sat down with producer Jay Joyce to carefully map out the project.

“Jay is the most creative person I’ve ever met in my life — he can do anything,” Clark tells the Scene on a recent phone call. Joyce, known for playing in rock bands around Nashville in the ’90s, produced Big Day as well as other acclaimed and well-loved country records like Eric Church’s Desperate Man, Ashley McBryde’s Girl Going Nowhere and Lambert’s Wildcard. “I thought it would be really cool to challenge someone like him — who’s known for kind of a more electric, heavier sound — to cut all acoustic.”

Joyce jumped at the chance to try something

we are attempting to make classic records.

I don’t see any reason not to, unless you’re one of those people who thinks all the classic records were made before 1974.”

Email music@nashvillescene.com

a little different, recruiting guitarist Jedd Hughes and multi-instrumentalist Giles Reaves to help bring their vision to life. To elevate the stripped-down accompaniment, Joyce also recruited Lester Snell to compose Memphis-style string and brass parts for the tracks. The intricately layered arrangements add invigorating splashes of ’70s soul without tying Clark to that period. Not that it would be easy to peg someone with a voice and writing chops like Clark’s to a specific time, anyway.

Although Clark didn’t realize it initially, the impact of her own personal heartbreak and its aftermath played a large role in the record’s development.

“In the couple of years before, I had gone through a breakup of a 15-year relationship,” she explains.

“When we started to sort through the songs for this album, those are the kinds of songs that really floated to the top. It was Jay who said to me, ‘You know, this is a breakup record.’ I guess I was too close to it to see that.”

“I’ll Be the Sad Song” begins the album with Clark’s gentle and rich voice tracing the bittersweet memories of a relationship. The song also introduces the concept alluded to in the album’s title.

“I love the idea that if your life is a record, people or places are the songs,” says Clark. “To say, ‘I couldn’t be your happy song, but at least we had a song’ — it’s like that great quote about ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ ” Clark used this new chapter to experiment in several aspects of her art, recruiting Randy Newman for “Bigger Boat,” her first recorded duet. Clark also brought in John Osborne, renowned guitarist and onehalf of the country duo Brothers Osborne, for a fiery solo on “Bad Car.” “I think John’s one of the best guitar players ever,” she says. “When he came in, the first take could have been the one, but he just gave us a lot.”

Clark has co-written some of country’s most moving songs in recent years, including Musgraves’ 2013 standout “Follow Your Arrow” and Hailey Whitters’ “Ten Year Town,” the song that helped boost Whit- >> p. 42

nashvillescene.com | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

music_3-5-20.indd 41

41

3/2/20 5:07 PM

You’re All Gonna Die

Experimental metal heroes Today Is the Day return home after a trip through hell

By Sean L. Maloney

“I

t’s a really special day today.”

Steve Austin, the guiding force behind Today Is the Day, is radiating joy. This is a surprise, considering the fact that his band is legendary for its unflinching brutality and aggroavant-garde aesthetic.

“Last night at midnight,” says Austin, “we were all in the Sprinter and we realized today is the day — the record is coming out.

Such a long buildup to it, it’s a really great thing to see.”

Austin’s unremitting explorations — pioneering in their heaviness and influential on underground bands in Middle Tennessee and elsewhere — have spanned nearly three decades and 11 albums. The group first broke out of Nashville as one of the more extreme exponents of the ’90s noiserock scene, and Austin is renowned for the intensity of his anger. This is, after all, “The Man Who Loves to Hurt Himself” we’re talking about. (If you happen not to know what we’re talking about, that’s a longtime fan-favorite song from the group’s 1997 album Temple of the Morning Star, the title of which also graces a 2017 documentary film about Austin.)

But he’s very happy right now, speaking with the Scene by phone from the New York offices of BMG, the record label he’s recently signed to. He’s three days into his first tour in years. The group’s new album, No Good to Anyone, has just hit stores and streaming services. He just had Greek for lunch. Despite all the reasons Austin has for feeling pretty great, No Good to Anyone’s conception was extraordinarily fraught. It’s Today Is the Day’s first album since 2014, and it was forged in a fire of nightmare scenarios — crashed vans, dying pets, debilitating illness — that give the music a more terrifying cast than usual and the Feb. 28 release a more triumphant aura than expected.

“A lot of the time period, I felt like a prisoner — a prisoner to a living room with a TV, couch and a wood stove,” Austin says of

the months he spent recovering from Lyme disease, which he was diagnosed with about five years ago. “And the rest of my family’s lives had to go on, so I had a lot of time alone with a lot of time to think. So as I’d go along writing these tunes, my want and my desire to [make music] was a lot more than my physicality could handle — to the point that you’d go to play guitar and you couldn’t hold the pick in your right hand because it’s the size of a football. You’re supposed to do some articulate thing on guitar that’s very complicated, but each note strike causes a sharp pain in your carpal tunnel that makes you want to chop your hand off.”

There’s a woozy, panicked rumble coursing through No Good to Anyone that feels like waking up from a Sunday afternoon nap to a carbon monoxide alarm — a liminal, pain-induced psychedelia. It’s a different timbre of anger, a different hue of hate than the outward-facing hostility of Austin’s previous work. Rather than Austin shaking his swollen fists at God, this album is more akin to self-immolation. The process of making the record was often dependent on what kind of day Austin’s body was having, which added anxiety on top of the physical pain.

“There were times when the weather had to be right to get things done,” Austin says.

“I would have terrible, destructive days where I would go in [the studio] to play, and I’d realize that I’m not going to get what I want today. … So I would concentrate on other things, on writing lyrics.”

Though No Good to Anyone is as bludgeoning and powerful as his prior work — with classic screamers like “Attacked by an Angel” and “You’re All Gonna Die” — there’s a shift in theme and tone. The record highlights a more mature — and life-threatening — desperation and distress, fitting in better with the chaotic, soul-crushing spirit of 2020 than any of us could have expected. While so much of extreme music seems to hover in a (glorious) state of suspended adolescence, the society-wide pain of the past half-decade has elevated Austin’s writing to a gruesomely grown-up level. Case in point: “Callie” is the album’s beautiful and profoundly depressing centerpiece (and an homage to Austin’s late dog), and its subtle, unsettling modulations reflect another symptom of Lyme disease that was wreaking havoc on Austin’s life.

“Brain fog is a kind of constant confu-

ters’ profile substantially in 2019. That lyrical brilliance shines brightly throughout Your Life Is a Record. Even though personal relationships are a key element of the album, Clark uses those stories to explore many sides of the human experience. In the poignant “Who You Thought I Was,” Clark examines the distance — sometimes a wide gulf that you only see after you fall into it — between what you think you want out of life and what really matters most. Driven by a groovy bass line and soaring strings, “Love Is a Fire” weighs the risks you take by opening yourself up to someone, and reckons that the experience is worth the potential pain.

The eclectic mix of narratives adds up to Clark’s most engaging record to date. It all comes full circle with the final track “The Past Is the Past,” an intensely

42

photo: Nathaniel Shannon

music

Playing Saturday, March 7, at Little Harpeth Brewing

sion going through your mind,” he explains.

“You can be easily distracted. … You turn around one day and realize that there are all these half-done things around that you were going to do, but you had forgotten to because your brain didn’t have the capacity to organize them.”

The feeling of fighting through — and with — that sense of disconnectedness is the glue that binds together the disparate

textures found all across No Good to Anyone.

It makes listening to cuts like “Burn in Hell” and “Born in Blood” an intensely visceral experience, a physical phenomenon that creates an epic, oh-so-welcome catharsis.

And thankfully, it’s one that Austin can participate in himself, as he’s now completely free of Lyme disease.

“The day that the doctor told me I had beaten the disease, I was elated. I had to sit in my Jeep for, like, 30 minutes, just to let it soak in. It had been going on for so long.”

Email music@nashvillescene.com

honest look at what happens when one door closes before another opens.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling in my chest when I hear that song,” says Clark. “But it’s a hopeful feeling. It was really a reflection of the sadness and everything you go through in the ending of a relationship, when you’re putting your heart back together.”

In many ways, Your Life Is a Record is about giving old wounds a chance to heal. By recognizing how some bumpy roads led to the path she’s on today, Clark has seemingly ushered in an exciting new season of life, both personally and creatively.

“I think when you accept that the past is finally the past, that’s when you move on.”

Email music@nashvillescene.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

music_3-5-20.indd 42

3/2/20 5:07 PM

VENDORS ANNOUNCED! CRAFTY BASTARDS SPRING EDITION APRIL 18, 2020 | 10 AM - 4 PM 80 ARTISAN VENDORS | CRAFT COCKTAILS | FREE ADMISSION NASHVILLE FARMER’S MARKET | 900 ROSA L PARKS BLVD, NASHVILLE, TN 37208

FOOD VENDORS

CRAFTYBASTARDS.COM #CRAFTYBASTARDS

BENEFITING NONPROFIT

SCAN TO SEE V E Nnashvillescene.com DOR GALLERY!

| march 5 – march 11, 2020 | Nashville Scene

43

music

The Spin

Negatory Delights

By Megan Seling

Cable News: Donors a guitar amp. But with that issue fixed by song two, and a crowd of friends enthusiastically if politely applauding after every tune, the band gained confidence over the course of an all-too-brief set.

Most of the songs were from Donors’ recent self-titled EP, including “Top,” a two-minute blast of pissed-off punk. But the band also dipped into its 2018 release (also self-titled), notably with “The Move,” a chugging, heavy thrasher just begging for a circle pit. There was no circle pit, which I’m

Double Negative: Nots

44

Photos: Lance Conzett

I

had high hopes for Memphis postpunk trio Nots, who headlined Thursday night’s Drkmttr show. I didn’t get quite what I was expecting — I got so much more! But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s talk about Safety Net, the local trio that opened the three-band bill at the all-ages venue. Prior to the gig, I tried to get a taste of what Safety Net had to offer by checking out the demos they posted on Bandcamp last summer. But being demos and all, some of the recordings aren’t that great, and the rough mixes and lo-fi production made it tough to keep listening to some songs beyond the 45-second mark.

Good news for me: Safety Net’s recorded offerings don’t do the band’s live show justice. Their set alternated between songs laced with an appealing ’60s post-British Invasion swagger — “Neophyte” could fit on the Rushmore soundtrack alongside The Kinks, The Creation and The Who — and post-punk numbers with just a kiss of the anxiety that makes Talking Heads so great (see “Sleeping Pills”). Would I say the same based on the recordings alone? Nope, but that’s why you shouldn’t judge a band only by the demos they post on Bandcamp. Seeing them live can make a huge difference.

Donors took the stage next. Well, mostly took the stage. Singer Gabby Herrera preferred to go sans mic stand and perform at crowd level, pacing back and forth directly in front of onlookers. The first couple of songs were shaky — the band seemed a little nervous during the first number, maybe thrown off by errant static spitting from

not going to complain about. The only thing I’d change: I would have loved to see them play for longer than roughly 20 minutes.

Sure, Donors’ recorded repertoire is only 14 songs deep, and only about half of those songs are longer than two minutes, but it felt like they had plenty of gas left in the tank by the end of the set. More, Donors, more!

Then, at the relatively weeknight-friendly time of 10 p.m., it was time for Nots, who delightfully surprised me. In the Feb. 27 issue of the Scene, I enthusiastically compared

them to post-punk bands like The Delta 5 and The Make-Up. Those comparisons still hold strong with respect to the band’s 2019 album 3, but the live show had a whole new dimension courtesy of two Korg synthesizers, which seeped nearly every second of the set in a thick cloud of swirling, spacey sound. It was loud, it was relentless, and it was wonderful.

Nots started their set with “Low,” the beefy, psych-tinged post-punk jam that also opens 3. But the song was so much trippier in person! Natalie Hoffmann took her guitar into a full-on psych freakout with a Cry Baby wah pedal. Her vocals were run through a TC Helicon pedal, burying everything she said and sang in reverb and echo as though she were calling to us from outer space. “In space, no one can hear you scream,” I know, but Hoffman made me think the opposite is true — it sounded like she was floating out there in the deep dark, singing these songs at the top of her lungs.

The band didn’t say much as they jumped from one song to the next, but Hoffmann still connected with the crowd. She stared onlookers in the eye like an animal tracking its prey as she sang biting lyrics like, “What’s it like / What’s it like to feel the constant gaze?” from 3’s “Woman Alone.” Another 3 song, “Floating Hand,” was especially intense — the band dragged it out for an extra minute or two, speeding up with every bar until the performance boiled over into chaos. Interestingly, the group did the opposite for the following song, “Rational Actor,” slowing down more and more toward the end, as though their batteries were draining.

Before Thursday, I knew Nots were good, but seeing them live proved to me that they’re great. The show was an excellent reminder that while recordings are awesome, some bands can use the live setting to show many more sides of themselves.

Email thespin@nashvillescene.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

spin_3-5-20.indd 44

3/2/20 6:23 PM

muSic

The Spin

negaTory DelighTS

By Megan Seling

i

pHotoS: laNcE coNzEtt

Good Stuff, $10 or less

had high hopes for Memphis postpunk trio Nots, who headlined Thursday night’s Drkmttr show. I didn’t get quite what I was expecting — I got so much more! But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s talk about Safety Net, the local trio that opened the three-band bill at the all-ages venue. Prior to the gig, I tried to get a taste of what Safety Net had to offer by checking out the demos they posted on Bandcamp last summer. But being demos and all, some of the recordings aren’t that great, and the rough mixes and lo-fi production made it tough to keep listening to some songs beyond the 45-second mark.

Good news for me: Safety Net’s recorded offerings don’t do the band’s live show justice. Their set alternated between songs laced with an appealing ’60s post-British Invasion swagger — “Neophyte” could fit on the Rushmore soundtrack alongside The Kinks, The Creation and The Who — and post-punk numbers with just a kiss of the anxiety that makes Talking Heads so great (see “Sleeping Pills”). Would I say the same based on the recordings alone? Nope, but that’s why you shouldn’t judge a band only by the demos they post on Bandcamp. Seeing them live can make a huge difference.

Donors took the stage next. Well, mostly took the stage. Singer Gabby Herrera preferred to go sans mic stand and perform at crowd level, pacing back and forth directly in front of onlookers. The first couple of songs were shaky — the band seemed a little nervous during the first number, maybe thrown off by errant static spitting from a guitar amp. But with that issue fixed by song two, and a crowd of friends enthusiastically if politely applauding after every tune, the band gained confidence over the course of an all-too-brief set.

Cable News: DoNors Most of the songs were from Donors’ recent self-titled EP, including “Top,” a two-minute blast of pissed-off punk. But the band also dipped into its 2018 release (also self-titled), notably with “The Move,” a chugging, heavy thrasher just begging for a circle pit. There was no circle pit, which I’m not going to complain about. The only thing I’d change: I would have loved to see them play for longer than roughly 20 minutes.

Sure, Donors’ recorded repertoire is only 14 songs deep, and only about half of those songs are longer than two minutes, but it felt like they had plenty of gas left in the tank by the end of the set. More, Donors, more!

Then, at the relatively weeknight-friendly time of 10 p.m., it was time for Nots, who delightfully surprised me. In the Feb. 27 issue of the Scene, I enthusiastically compared them to post-punk bands like The Delta 5 and The Make-Up. Those comparisons still hold strong with respect to the band’s 2019 album 3, but the live show had a whole new dimension courtesy of two Korg synthesizers, which seeped nearly every second of the set in a thick cloud of swirling, spacey sound. It was loud, it was relentless, and it was wonderful.

Nots started their set with “Low,” the beefy, psych-tinged post-punk jam that also opens 3. But the song was so much trippier in person! Natalie Hoffmann took her

guitar into a full-on psych freakout with a Cry Baby wah pedal. Her vocals were run through a TC Helicon pedal, burying everything she said and sang in reverb and echo as though she were calling to us from outer space. “In space, no one can hear you scream,” I know, but Hoffman made me think the opposite is true — it sounded like she was floating out there in the deep dark, singing these songs at the top of her lungs.

The band didn’t say much as they jumped from one song to the next, but Hoffmann still connected with the crowd. She stared onlookers in the eye like an animal tracking its prey as she sang biting lyrics like, “What’s it like / What’s it like to feel the constant gaze?” from 3’s “Woman Alone.” Another 3 song, “Floating Hand,” was especially intense — the band dragged it out for an extra minute or two, speeding up with every bar until the performance boiled over into chaos. Interestingly, the group did the opposite for the following song, “Rational Actor,” slowing down more and more toward the end, as though their batteries were draining.

Before Thursday, I knew Nots were good, but seeing them live proved to me that they’re great. The show was an excellent reminder that while recordings are awesome, some bands can use the live setting to show many more sides of themselves.

Email tHESpiN@NaSHvillEScENE.com

Double Negative: Nots

nashvillescene.com/cheap-eats/

44

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

spin_3-5-20.indd 44

3/2/20 6:05 PM

Have a Spring Fling. $25 OFF $100 OR MORE

5 NIGHTS 10 VENUES

400+ SONGWRITERS MARCH 24-28, 2020 615-810-9625 | MyPleasureStore.com *Offer Ends 4/13/2020. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Discount Code: NSSF25

PRB_NS_QuarterB_020920.indd 1

- AT-THE-DOOR ADMISSION AVAILABLE FOR MOST SHOWS SCHEDULE AVAILABLE AT TINPANSOUTH.COM OR ON THE OFFICIAL APP!

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTING PARTNERS!

2/6/20 8:16 PM

ABS EXPERTS

$ 89 99

$ 59 99 FREE 03/31/20.

03/31/20.

$15

OFF $ 10 OFF 03/31/20.

03/31/20.

28TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL PRODUCED BY

03/31/20.

WWW.TINPANSOUTH.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 – MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

45

film

Deadly Sin

The satirical Greed is more cute than cutthroat

By Craig D. Lindsey

W

ith his latest, writer-director Michael Winterbottom has apparently decided to jack the title of Erich von Stroheim’s 1924 silent tragedy. But if Winterbottom was going to steal a title, a more appropriate one for this film might have been Fast, Cheap and Out of Control — the name of Errol Morris’ 1997 documentary on guys with quirky careers. After all, the title perfectly describes the manic, frenetic mess this movie is.

In Greed, Winterbottom goes after the rich and the decadent with satire, employing his usual muse Steve Coogan — once again at his obnoxious finest. (Sadly, Coogan’s good friend/traveling companion/ sparring partner Rob Brydon isn’t around to bust his balls in this one.) Here the English actor plays Sir Richard McCreadie, a fashion mogul celebrating his 60th birthday Greed R, 104 minutes on the Greek island Opening Friday, March 6, Mykonos. He’s at Regal Hollywood 27 known as the king of high street fashion, but he’s also known in the press as “Sir Greedy McCreadie” (or sometimes, “Sir Shitty McCreadie”), for building a clothing empire through buying up and dissolving businesses, avoiding taxes, and rounding up material on the

cheap from Sri Lankan sweatshops.

The movie often darts back and forth through time at a breakneck speed, and also serves as a takedown of fast fashion.

We bounce to McCreadie’s days as a crafty con man, pulling grifts on his private-school classmates until he decides to take his street smarts and make a killing in retail fashion.

It’s here he swindles his way to the top, talking people down on deals (his favorite line is “Nod your head and shake my hand”) and amassing his fortune as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Greed’s narrative always returns to the

60th birthday party, which is its own maelstrom of chaos. McCreadie, now rocking a hellish tan and big fake teeth, is trying to create an old-school Greek theme, complete with togas, a half-built coliseum replica and even a lion — albeit a lion who appears to be totally out of it. The whole fam has shown up, including ex-wife Samantha (Isla Fisher), resentful son Finn (Asa Butterfield), reality-show star Lily (Sophie Cookson) and crabby mom Margaret (Shirley Henderson, who is actually the same age as Coogan). But McCreadie would much prefer it if more stars had turned up to his

To Dance the Dance of Another And Then We Danced is intensely physical and deeply moving

By Jason Shawhan

W

e meet Merab — played tenaciously

by Levan Galbakhiani — as he struggles. He’s struggling with his family (they’re scattered, poor and struggling, and he codeswitches for them withAnd Then We Danced out even realizing it), with NR, 113 minutes; in his avocation (to dance Georgian with English subtitles in traditional Georgian Opening Friday, March 6, forms), with his shitty at the Belcourt job (waiting tables for some of the worst people in Tbilisi), and with his body (avian and sinewy compared with the macho statues who also labor in the Georgian National Dance Company). Merab endures throughout director Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced, as the protagonists of queer narratives often must.

46

But one day Irakli (Bachi Valishvili in a star-making performance) shows up in rehearsals. Irakli is a soft butch wonder — traditionally masculine from a distance, but subverting expectations when you get close enough to talk with him. He’s headstrong and has a tendency to peacock, but he’s kind at heart, and definitely good for Merab’s sense of balance, both physically and emotionally. He has the fuzzy, supportive nature that cultural theorist Anthony Oliveira calls “golden retriever boyfriend” energy in abundance.

The world of Georgian dance is one of those closed systems that sustains itself on the vitality and passion of youth, but which by necessity must sepa-

rate its devotees from their weirder selves. Here the body is a vessel for ideology, with nowhere to express the operatic chaos within except through the continuation of that same system. Is it any wonder that this Swedish co-production delights in giving its tireless laboring dancers safety valves in the form of ABBA and Robyn and Kite — sweeping, majestic odes to joy that offer three-minutes-and-change of freedom at a time?

Georgian dance is spoken of in this film the way that being an actor is talked about in anime: grand pronouncements that serve to wall off the paths available to Merab and his associated dancers; little

soiree. At one point, he gets desperate and hires several look-alikes, including a dude who resembles the late, great George Michael. Also lurking around is Nick (David Mitchell, of the beloved British cult comedy Peep Show), an awkward writer who’s been commissioned to pen McCreadie’s biography.

For a movie whose sole intention is to stick it to the rich — it can be read as a thinly veiled fuck-you to British retail tycoon Philip Green, who has done many of the dreadful things Coogan’s character does, and so much more — Greed could stand to be more ballsto-the-wall with it. Winterbottom (who collaborated with Veep/The Thick of It writer Sean Gray on the script) has basically crafted a rapid-fire burlesque farce, complete with serious subplots (like the one involving refugees residing on the beach) that are mostly there for finger-wagging social commentary. It’s almost like he’s been watching the dizzying, Oscar-nominated satires of Adam McKay and decided to do a posh, British version of those. I will say the movie has a savage climax.

As vulgar and obnoxious as this movie and its characters get, Greed is more cute than cutthroat. I was so hoping Winterbottom would go back to the snarling punk attitude he exhibited when he and Coogan did 24 Hour Party People damn near 20 years ago. No such luck.

Email arts@nashvillescene.com

flourishes of purpose that belittle any attempt to get past the prison of traditional masculinity. The company leader, a mountain of a man named Aleko, is the beardiest incarnation of the patriarchy you could imagine, so offended at the sight of Irakli’s earring that he almost busts a gasket.

“There is no sex in Georgian dance,” Aleko proclaims. “This is not the lambada!” His statement does two immediate things. It shows that he had his time in the club as well (circa 1988/1989), and that he is terrified of the discipline-weakening power of fun.

This film caused a furor upon its abbreviated release in Georgia, with sold-out screenings being attacked by bigots and religious groups. Some folks are threatened by any work of art that lets people know they have options.

And Then We Danced is a film that understands the liberating power of carbs and gay romance. Though its form is one well-known to viewers (especially in the LGBTQ community, and especially in the U.S.), its execution is tensely sensual and deeply moving — think Flashdance with actual human characters, or Murder Rock with more love and no murder, or Yuri on Ice with more societal drama. Like its emotional progenitors The Color of Pomegranates, Late Marriage and Since Otar Left, this is a film about struggle and liberation. It is inventive, intensely physical and informative — and rather hot as well.

Email arts@nashvillescene.com

Nashville Scene | march 5 – march 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

film_3-5-20.indd 46

3/2/20 5:16 PM

crossword EditEd by Will Shortz Across 1 8 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 25 27 30 32 33 35 37 39 40

45

46 47 48 50 52 56 57 60 61 62 64 65 69 71 72 73 74

High-profile pair Means of access Not so obvious classic Bob Marley song site of saguaro National Park It may bring one back to reality shoot the breeze Insult, slangily Dark period for poets Not written stinging plant It’s often the fish in fish and chips country bordering Togo “seize the ___!” chimney output “Don’t freak out” Uno tripled Dollar alternative Participate in a common children’s game, as illustrated in this puzzle Home of the oldest university in the Americas (founded 1551) Buffoon one of a Disney septet Eclipses, to some GQ or T Like much stand-up comedy Lira : Turkey :: ___ : Korea Have high hopes starchy tuber Practice before a game crazy popular, as a product Ending to a White House address root that’s roasted and eaten Test the strength of, chemically rabble-rouse Noted roosevelt Gift that comes in pieces classic Bill Withers song

1

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

15

16

17

18

19

20

23

24

30

40

21 25

41

57

14

38

28

29

34 39

44 47

50

51

58

52 59

61 66

27 33

46

56

13

68

53

63 69

71

72

73

74

54

55

60

62

67

64 70

PUzzLE BY EMILY CARROLL

2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 21

24 26 27 28 29 31 34 36 38 40

DoWN

42

“Whatever pays the bills”

43

Arrow poison “star Wars” Jedi, familiarly competitor of ruffles Tread slowly st. Petersburg was once named after him Wiped Disappear, as a trail Adams with a camera snickers Entrepreneur Musk Bowl over Michigan, in chicago: Abbr.

“Get ___ Ya-Ya’s out!”

Place to find corn dogs and funnel cakes Tripoli native Banks of “America’s Next Top Model” Quiet fishing spot “The Grapes of Wrath” figure Work station Book after Ezra: Abbr.

Mr. Met, for one “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper call off Post-blizzard need A long way to go?

Part of a church chorus Like some cellars

44 49 51 53 54 55 58 59 61 63

Mob man spa amenities sister in a Brothers Grimm tale 1998 olympics host city Positive particle shout before entering a gunfight Ill will official of ancient rome Grows fond of Traditional remedy for a sore throat

65 66 67 68 70

chum one may be bronze or golden oil worker’s locale Term of endearment campaigned

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE O S T R I C H

C O R O N A E

U N I C O R N

T H E M A M C L I F R T W A E A T A Y E

L O C K U P A G A P E

A R E S T G R O S E S S

910

LEGALS

43

49

12

22

37

42

48

11

PUBLIC NOTICE AHC Cumberland Open Admission Policy

32 36

45

65

10

26

31 35

41 1

2

No. 0130

R A P T H A B R I M K O D R E I V E I D T U E P

E Y E E X A M

T U R B I N E

W A R R E N S

I R E S

A S R T I G O L O W T I S I C A M O A S I N L T D F I C A S H L A I A I L L S T I L S E N A T R E X

A L G E B R A

P E A M E I

P A L E T T E

A M A S S E S

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

AHC Cumberland is designated as a facility dedicated to the best possible care of the sick and elderly.

AHC Cumberland will comply in every respect with Title VI and The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as characterized by the absence of separation, discrimination or any distinction on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any activity carried on in, by or for; the facility affecting the care and treatment of patients.

1. The facility will provide inpatient care without regard to race, color, or national origin.

2. Patients will be assigned to rooms and sections of the facility on a non-discriminating basis.

3. Employees will be employed without regard to race, color, or national origin.

4. AHC Cumberland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

5. Patients will be addressed by courtesy titles unless it can be specifically documented that one has requested to be addressed otherwise.

ried on in, by or for; the facility affecting the care and treatment of patients.

1. The facility will provide inpatient care without regard to race, color, or national origin.

2. Patients will be assigned to rooms and sections of the facility on a non-discriminating basis.

3. Employees will be employed without regard to race, color, or national origin.

4. AHC Cumberland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

5. Patients will be addressed by courtesy titles unless it can be specifically documented that one has requested to be addressed otherwise.

2000

EMPLOYMENT COMPUTER/IT Vanderbilt University Medical Center seeks an Application Developer in Nashville, TN, responsible for understanding, contributing to, advising other developers on core codebase for health information systems. Design, maintain, deploy patches and modules to meet user and business needs, gather and document user requests for future upgrades and enhancements.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or closely related field + 2 years exp as Software Developer or related IT position. Must have exp in Java/Javascript/PHP development, Java Frameworks, Spring, Spring MVC and Hibernate, NodeJS Javascript platform, Angular Front End technology, Relational Database Management system: MySQL, SQL Server, NoSQL databases: Mongo, Elastic Search, Linux/Bash Scripting, Windows, Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRs) development, OpenMRS EHRs, Tier 3 technical development support for EHRs implementations. Mail resume to Jessica Lucas-Stroud, VUMC, 2525 W. End Ave, Ste 500, Nashville, TN 37203; reference Job Code VM-1. No phone calls please.

Java/Javascript/PHP development, Java Frameworks, Spring, Spring MVC and Hibernate, NodeJS Javascript platform, Angular Front End technology, Relational Database Management system: MySQL, SQL Server, NoSQL databases: Mongo, Elastic Search, Linux/Bash Scripting, Windows, Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRs) development, OpenMRS EHRs, Tier 3 technical development support for EHRs implementations. Mail resume to Jessica Lucas-Stroud, VUMC, 2525 W. End Ave, Ste 500, Nashville, TN 37203; reference Job Code VM-1. No phone calls please.

Animal Scientist (Wean-to-Finish Specialist). Develop and implement PIC management and nutrition guidelines and specifications in commercial swine production systems. Employer: PIC USA, Inc. Location: Hendersonville, TN, with extensive travel to U.S. and international client sites required. Employee may reside anywhere in the United States. Mail CV to Karla Herring, PIC USA, Inc., 100 Bluegrass Commons Blvd., Ste. 2200, Hendersonville, TN 37075.

3000

SERVICES

EARN YOUR HS DIPLOMA TODAY For more info call 1.800.470.4723 Or visit our website: www.diplomaathome.com

Rocky McElhaney Law Firm InjuRy Auto ACCIdEnts WRongFul dEAth dAngERous And dEFECtIvE dRugs

Voted Best Attorney in Nashville Call 615-425-2500 for FREE Consultation

www.rockylawfirm.com

SELL YOUR CAR! Up to $900

We handle all title transfers and requirements (varies on vehicle make, model and year)

NO CHARGE FOR TOWING!

615-547-2703

mm mm mm .. .. efreshing!

So Refreshing!

So R

synnddicicaatteedd wwoommeenn’s’s syc o lumn feat ur ing caorluomtantfineagtcuarsintgof a r cotonattrinibgutcaorsst of c ontr ibut ors

Vodka Yonic Vodka Yonic hvil lescene.c om

nnaasshvil lescene.c om

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 5 - MARCH 11, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

crossword_3-5-20.indd 47

47

3/2/20 5:16 PM

Now Serving

monellstn.com

We can help!

gloverandglovercpas.com Local CPA firm helping tax resolution clients for 20+ yrs

615.370.0341

SATURDAYS: Midnight to 3 A.M. BREAKFAST

Southern Country Breakfast 7 Days a Week!

IRS Problems? THERE’S

Unfiled returns Penalties IRS and State Notices Payroll issues

Featuring

ONLY ONE

(Germantown Location Only)

MUSIC CITY

#1

“Undisputed home of Traditional Country Music!” ~JLJ robertswesternworld.com

PSYCHIC

20 special SPECIAL $

416B Broadway

Great Tasting Mexican Food East Nashville:

Happy Hour Daily

3-8P M-TH; 3-7P F/Sun.

(Five Points) 972 Main St. 615-434-6000

5 Minutes From Downtown: 2330 8th Ave. S 615-988-0404 cilantronashville.com

OPEN DAILY FOR LUNCH AND DINNER

615-915-0515 284 White Bridge Rd

HOME. AUTO. LIFE. BIZ.

HERE’S TO 25 YEARS OF SERVING NASHVILLE! Have we helped you yet?

COM P L E T E AUTO R E PA IR 15 MILES = FREE TOWING WITH REPAIR Fix your car without breaking the bank Mufflers starting at $89.99

615-678-8443

Thetford Insurance Services, Inc.

225 Brawner Ave · Madison, TN 37115

615-297-2200

IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT A NASHVILLE PREDATORS PODCAST

A PODCAST FROM 48

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 5 - MARCH 11, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

SUBSCRIBE ON NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PODCAST