JANUARY 21–27, 2021 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 48 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE
WALK A MILE: TAKING IN THE SCENIC VISTAS OF NASHVILLE’S EDGEHILL NEIGHBORHOOD PAGE 8
CITY LIMITS: LEGISLATURE INAUGURATES NEW SESSION BY RUSHING MEDICAID OVERHAUL
Willie Nelson, Mickey Guyton and others showcased the power of country music in 2020
PAGE 9
21ST Annual
County Music Critics’ Poll
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FEATURING THE NEW SINGLE #2 BILLBOARD BLUEGRASS ALBUMS CHART #2 AMAZON ALT-COUNTRY/AMERICANA CHART
TOP 40 AT AMERICANA RADIO NO DEPRESSION BEST ROOTS MUSIC ALBUMS OF 2020 ALTERNATE ROOT TOP 100 ALBUMS FOR 2020
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
“One-of-a-kind group…Americana like no one else.” -American Blues Scene
“One of the most interesting folk-rock groups right now.” -Roots Highway
“Superbly crafted record! Formidable.” -Alt-Country Forum
“Kick ass a music.” -All Things Next
CONTENTS
JANUARY 21, 2021
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25
Cut the Carp ...............................................7
The Fest Is Yet to Come
CITY LIMITS
FOOD AND DRINK
With local tourism wrecked, a war on carp sweeps the Twin Lakes
How food and drink festivals have managed to survive in a pandemic
BY DAVID HOLLERITH
BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN
Walk a Mile: Edgehill .................................8 In the 13th installment of his column, J.R. Lind takes in the scenic vistas in the neighborhood due south of downtown BY J.R. LIND
With a Bang ................................................9 State lawmakers inaugurate new session by rushing through Medicaid overhaul
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BOOKS
From Fur Traders to Chart Toppers Hidden History of Music Row dives into the history of Nashville’s most iconic neighborhood BY SARAH CARTER AND CHAPTER 16
THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Morgan Wallen Gets Into Some Country-Ass Shit at the Mother Church Investigation of Dave Ramsey Solutions Prompts Unhinged Response Eastland Café to Close
BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT
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COVER STORY
21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll A Job for Art ............................................. 11
27 FILM
Primal Stream 39 ................................... 27 Exploding high-schoolers, an avant-garde documentary and more, now available to stream
Taking stock of what artists like Mickey Guyton can do that politicians and journalists can’t
BY JASON SHAWHAN
BY GEOFFREY HIMES
The twisted romanticism of Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
The Results .............................................. 14 Mickey Guyton, Ashley McBryde, Jason Isbell and beyond — 95 critics weigh in on the best in 2020’s country music COMPILED BY GEOFFREY HIMES
Data Mining ............................................. 15 Selected facts from the 21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll BY GEOFFREY HIMES
The Comments ........................................ 16 Selected notes from the critics who responded to the Country Music Critics’ Poll
Community Members Discuss How to Be an Antiracist in Metro’s Upcoming Panel Series
ON THE COVER:
Willie Nelson Photo: Pamela Springsteen
At a Place Called Vertigo ........................ 28 BY STEVE ERICKSON
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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
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MARKETPLACE
COMPILED BY GEOFFREY HIMES
Keeping Willie Weird .............................. 18 Talking with country legend Willie Nelson about blending tradition and weirdness for 65 years and counting BY GEOFFREY HIMES
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CRITICS’ PICKS Watch Robert Gordon discuss It Came From Memphis, dig deep into Chris Brokaw’s extensive catalog, build your own streaming Greta Gerwig film festival, explore the wild world of Roadside America, catch Film Chinois: A Radio Play via Pan Asian Rep and more
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FROM BILL FREEMAN WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY? As our nation looks forward to a new year and to healing from the global pandemic, we also look forward to President Joe Biden’s first 100 days — to seeing what our new president has in store for us as he rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. He has a great deal to do if he is to restore the faith of the American people in our democracy and our government. From his inauguration, President Biden will affect significant plans and policies as he steps into his role as commander-inchief. And the still-raging global pandemic tops his agenda. CBS News reported on Jan. 14 that Biden proposes a nearly $2 trillion coronavirus economic relief plan that includes “$400 billion for arresting the spread of COVID-19 and increasing vaccine capabilities; over $1 trillion to assist families needing direct financial support; and $440 billion in emergency funds for cash-poor small businesses and communities.” Biden’s “American Rescue” plan would contribute an additional $1,400 per person in stimulus checks, expand unemployment insurance and increase the child tax credit. The plan would increase coronavirus testing resources and, if his goal is reached, distribute 100 million vaccines in his first hundred days as president. A pandemic policy plan was expected, but what other plans does the incoming president have in store? President Donald Trump’s “Buy American” policy will likely remain in place. The policy pertains to government agencies buying medicine and medical supplies from U.S. companies. The new president may also retain policies curbing China’s technological ambitions, especially in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence. Defense spending is not likely to change, nor are there likely to be radical changes to policies that crack down on things like insider trading. There will also likely be continuity in terms of foreign, military and war policy. The exceptions are that Biden plans to end the ban on transgender military personnel and the Muslim travel ban. He will also rebuild relationships with key allies and plans to re-enter the Paris Agreement, a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. President Trump had pulled out of the agreement, and the U.S. was officially removed in November. In education, Biden will extend student loan relief, crack down on for-profit colleges and advocate for historically Black colleges and universities to be tuition-free. For local communities, he’s increasing police reform with plans to institute a national police oversight commission within his first 100 days. His goal is to infuse $300 million into community policing measures and have the Justice Department investigate issues of police misconduct. The greatest difference between the Trump and Biden administrations seems to be in regard to the direction of our nation’s approach to immigration. President Biden has said he will not take any of the U.S.-Mexico border wall down, but he will discontinue funding construction of the wall. Additionally, he plans to pass an
executive order establishing a task force for reuniting children and parents separated at the border — and make the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program permanent on his first day in office. DACA was instituted in 2012 by President Obama, but President Trump’s administration was working to rescind the program. Other changes we’ll see from Biden’s team are in the areas of finance and health care. The new administration plans to reverse Trump’s tax cuts and raise the corporate income tax rate to 28 percent, but Biden promises Americans who earn less than $400,000 will not pay higher taxes. No one likes to pay more taxes, but American Enterprise Institute analysis shows the tax increase could raise $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years — monies that could potentially reimburse funds spent on COVID-19 economic recovery. Of interest to homeowners, instead of privatizing the mega-mortgage entities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Biden will use them to offer mortgages to more potential buyers. Obamacare may not be expanding, but Trump’s regulatory changes — including those that allow some states to skirt Affordable Care Act coverage requirements — will likely be reversed. One of the most ambitious items on Biden’s list is the goal of holding a “global Summit for Democracy” to bring democratic leaders together to discuss ways to push back against corruption and to expand human rights. It is little wonder the rights of all Americans are on his mind. Trump has just been impeached for the second time, something that has never happened in our nation’s 245-year history. The charge? Inciting an insurrection at our own capitol. It was painful to watch! As Wyoming’s Republican Rep. Liz Cheney noted, the insurrection caused injury, death and destruction. No matter your partisanship, the divisions in our country sadden us all. We need to heal, and find paths that return “United” to America. According to President Biden’s “build back better” transition website, his administration will prioritize the following core values: • diversity of ideology and background • talent to address society’s most complex challenges • integrity and the highest ethical standards to serve the American people and not special interests • transparency to garner trust at every stage Biden and his team are hoping these principles, along with their desire to correct and heal our nation, will restore the American people’s faith in our government. I hope so too.
Bill Freeman
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, Marcus K. Dowling, 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, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Britton Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager Olivia Bellon, William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Aya Robinson, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 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. 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 $150 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
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.
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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JULY 29
NEWSBOYS
JULY 30
MATTHEW WEST
JULY 31
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nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
CITY LIMITS
BY DAVID HOLLERITH
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or several years, invasive carp have destroyed local tourism and potentially changed lake ecology in the Twin Lakes region, which straddles Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. The area, also known as the Land Between the Lakes region, is named for the parallel Barkley and Kentucky lakes. Now a coalition of fishermen, biologists and conservationists are at war with the fish, turning the lakes into a laboratory and battleground with the hope of restoring balance. First discovered in the region more than a decade ago, these aquatic invaders are made up of four different non-native carp species — silver, bighead, black and grass carp, brought over from Asia in the 1960s. Colloquially referred to as Asian carp, the fish first piqued the interest of farmers and government and university biologists due to their filter-feeding abilities. Because they eat matter and food particles such as algae, the carp were recognized as an environmentally friendly alternative for cleaning farm ponds without using pesticides. Facing no natural predators in North American freshwater ecosystems, these fish thrived. Thanks to negligence and extreme flooding, they eventually escaped into tributaries connecting to the Mississippi River Basin, a water system that stretches out across more than 30 states. From there, they spread. Their population ballooned. Since 2012, federal and state agencies have budgeted more than a billion dollars to monitor, control and contain this invasive species. The majority of funding has gone toward mitigating the risk that the carp might someday fully invade the Great Lakes, a fishing source that generates roughly $7 billion each year. Recently, lawmakers have begun funneling money to projects outside the Great Lakes where Asian carp already run rampant. “The two best tools we have to deal with the carp are barriers and removal or commercial fishing,” says Cole Harty, aquatic nuisance species coordinator with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. In December, Congress earmarked an additional $25 million to fund Asian carp barrier projects within the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. This funding came through in the $2.3 trillion mega-bill that combines stimulus relief for COVID-19 and 12 other annual appropriations bills. The environmental concern is that these fish, if left unchecked, will outcompete smaller native baitfish for food, causing a ripple effect wherein native fish populations like bass, crappie, buffalo and catfish could decline. But silver carp, the Twin Lakes’ most prolific Asian carp species, pose a more annoying, even hazardous, problem for fishermen and boaters. “They’re jumping carp,” says Darrow Wenom, conservationist and CEO of the nonprofit Silver Fin Solutions. “They get into people’s boats, it ruins fishing.” These fish, which can weigh anywhere from 9 to 90 pounds, have an aversion to
noise, especially boat motors. When disturbed, they jump as high as 10 feet above the water, creating great frenzies when they’re in large numbers. A former commercial fisherman, Wenom has made dealing with Asian carp his life’s mission. With a fleet of boats and an arsenal of fishing gear, his company works with commercial fishermen and state fish and wildlife agencies to test fishing methods and uncover ways to improve the saleable market for the invasive fish. Because the dam-controlled lake system is less subject to flooding and drought than rivers, Wenom says the Twin Lakes serve as a more controlled environment for testing carp-fishing methods. There is still some question about whether Asian carp cause environmental damage to the lakes. Matthew Quinn is the owner of HITEC Outdoors, a Twin Lakes retailer, and founder of Asian Carp Aid, a nonprofit that brings awareness to Asian carp’s impact on the Twin Lakes. He maintains that the fish’s perceived environmental consequences are overblown. Quinn believes the real threat Asian carp pose is giving the Twin Lakes a negative perception in the minds of tourists and sport fishermen. And financially, that perception is damaging. “It’s really decimated our local economies here,” says Quinn, who is also part of Marshall County’s Kentucky Lake Economic Development group, which focuses on tourism. According to Quinn’s research, combined recreational fishing in Barkley and Kentucky lakes has seen a sharp decline since 2018. The area has lost most of its nationally known sportfishing tournaments, a direct loss of more than $5 million. Smaller tournaments registering through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also declined from a total of 182 tournaments in 2018 to 26 in 2020,
tered in Kentucky. Like Wenom and Brooks, Stallins says the primary bottleneck for commercial carp fishing is finding a consistent whole-fish market that pays a fair rate. At present, carp don’t fetch as high a price as other commercially fished species like catfish and buffalo. That’s why Kentucky and Tennessee fish and wildlife agencies offer subsidies for invasive carp. “Ideally, the markets for carp will develop, and if they take off, we will no longer need to provide a subsidy,” says TWRA’s Harty, admitting the government cannot pay the subsidy forever. According to Harty, there are a total of three wholesale carp buyers and 17 commercial fishermen registered within the Tennessee program. This year, they will deploy an additional $600,000 to subsidize commercial fishermen. While the carp’s pervasive bone structure means less meat per fish, it has high omega-3 fatty acid content and a taste remarkably similar to that of catfish, according to Wenom, Stallins and others who regularly eat it. For federal taxpayers and the hurting Twin Lakes, changing the foreign fish’s perception to Americans remains a primary hope for finding some semblance of peace. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM SILVER FIN SOLUTIONS CEO DARROW WENOM STANDS ON THE DECK OF HIS BOAT THE FRYING PAN
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
CUT THE CARP With local tourism wrecked, a war on carp sweeps the Twin Lakes
no doubt worsened but not altogether explained by the pandemic. Ron Brooks is a retired fisheries director for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and a current board member at Wenom’s nonprofit. Like Quinn, he admits that while carp are economically damaging to the region, more direct scientific proof of environmental damage is needed. “Baitfish populations in lakes always go up and down over time,” says Brooks. “Right now, they are down in Kentucky and Barkley [lakes]. Whether or not these carp are part of what is causing that can’t be fully measured yet.” While assessing the environmental damage done to the lakes by carp will take more time, one 2019 study finds a direct link between the establishment of Asian carp and a decline in native sportfish in the Upper Mississippi River System. That concern is what drove Mary Stallins, a Twin Lakes commercial fisher, to switch from catfish to Asian carp in 2019. With her midsize fishing operation, she says she brings in roughly 50,000 pounds of carp per month. “If you run these [Asian carp], you’re gonna get hit everyday,” says Stallins, one of at least 28 commercial carp fishers regis-
WENOM AND COMMERCIAL CARP FISHER MARY STALLINS ABOARD THE FRYING PAN ON KENTUCKY LAKE
nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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CITY LIMITS
EDGEHILL
In the 13th installment of his column, J.R. Lind takes in the scenic vistas in the neighborhood due south of downtown BY J.R. LIND | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND
Walk a ill Ave
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ide A ve.
Summit Ave.
THE ROUTE: From Rose Park, south on Ninth Avenue, crossing Edgehill Avenue and continuing as Ninth becomes Hillside Avenue. Right on Summit Avenue and then right on 12th Avenue back to the park. CRANES: 0 ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 3
Hills
12th Ave. So
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with J.R. Lind
Ninth Av
Mile Edgeh
e. South
Rose Park
Once a month, reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind will pick an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he’ll walk a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville. If you have a suggestion for a future Walk a Mile, email editor@nashvillescene.com.
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ess than a mile from downtown, a triptych of hills rises as Eighth Avenue scoots south. There’s St. Cloud Hill, home of Fort Negley; Kirkpatrick Hill, topped by the reservoir; and there’s Curry Hill in Rose Park. Southern Davidson County is marked by a strong ridge of hills, and these three are the avant-garde, thus accounting for their strategic import during the Civil War’s Battle of Nashville. Fort Negley is the remaining testament to that martial significance. These days, these tors serve a more relaxing purpose, offering awe-inspiring panoramic views of the city, unblocked as they are by higher summits and with the expanse toward downtown proper cut low by the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Curry Hill is probably the least-known of the trio, as it doesn’t have the advantage of being topped by a major civic structure. (There was, however, a Union Army fort — Fort Morton — there between 1862 and 1867.) But its peak is the most easily acces-
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sible. There’s convenient parking, so reaching the top doesn’t require a hike like St. Cloud does, and it certainly isn’t considered a national security site like Kirkpatrick, which is surrounded by menacing fences and CCTV cameras. On a clear day you can see forever — or at least to the Tennessee State Capitol — particularly in winter, when the lush oaks are denuded of their foliage. Descending the hill and leaving the stunning views behind, Ninth Avenue cuts a neat line between Rose Park Magnet School and a pleasant if vacant lot dotted with oaks. Were it spring, these oaks would offer acres of shade, but as it is they are scraggled by winter. The Rose of Rose Park is the Rev. E.S. Rose, who pastored Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church on nearby South Street from 1928 to 1944. Rose Park Magnet opened in 1963, in the midst of Nashville’s prolonged and convoluted grade-per-year school integration. The school’s vintage is clear from its architecture, with all the lines and mirror-image windows one expects from a midcentury academic building. It’s also quite large and addresses Ninth Avenue directly, unburdened by a front parking lot — the kind of school a neighborhood should be proud of. There are no students within, of course, which is good because the noise from some kind of public works project on Ninth and Edgehill is cracking the otherwise silent morning stillness. Hammering also echoes from construction in the park proper. Ninth Avenue becomes Hillside Avenue when it crosses Edgehill. There’s no mys-
tery as to how the roads in this neighborhood came by their names, as Hillside climbs steadily up the side of the aforementioned Kirkpatrick Hill. Hillside serves as an interesting line of demarcation: On the east side there are squat but charmingly cottage-like apartments of the style common to the mid- to late 1960s, with wood siding painted in muted earth tones. On the west side? Hillside Flats, a metal-and-glass complex of the type that’s been the attestation of gentrification throughout the city generally — and in nearby 12South specifically — in the past decade or so. One wonders how long the suddenly anachronistic complex across the street will remain. There’s a series of these complexes as Hillside goes south, scattered about — rather than crammed — in a fashion similar to the way some European cities are laid out. With the big hill muffling the traffic noise and the rolling, tree-covered terrain of Reservoir Park nearby, the walk on Hillside Avenue is almost like a stroll through an English village, albeit with a looming, 144-year-old, bazillion-gallon water tank nearby. Construction on the Eighth Avenue Reservoir began in 1887 and was completed two years later. The limestone used to build the 33-foot-high walls was cut from what is now Rose Park. Those impressive walls enclose two 25.5-million-gallon tanks separated by a weir. The tops of the walls are castellated, and on the edge of the giant tanks sits a charming gatehouse, the inland version of a lighthouse keeper’s cottage. It’s a beautiful structure, and every now and then Metro Water offers tours. When those resume postCOVID, they are highly recommended. The care in construction and concern
for aesthetics that was once de rigueur for taxpayer-funded projects is clear, even now. But the big reservoir wasn’t perfect. Nov. 5, 1912, was Election Day. Woodrow Wilson would go on to easily defeat two former presidents — William Howard Taft and Teddy Roosevelt. But at 10 minutes after midnight, no one in this neighborhood was thinking about that. In the darkness of the wee hours, the southeast quadrant of the reservoir broke away, sending 25.5 million gallons of water rushing down Kirkpatrick Hill, reaching as far as the fairgrounds, more than three-quarters of a mile away. Later, folks would say they saw a stream of water creeping through a crack the day before, but paid it no mind. Despite this almost inconceivable amount of water rushing through the darkened streets, no one was killed, though the city did pay out $100,000 for damages — more than $2.5 million in today’s dollars. Engineers disagreed on what caused the breach. Some said the clay beneath the reservoir gave way, causing the wall to slip and eventually break. Others said a leak from the reservoir eroded away the clay. In any event, the crack was repaired — and is still apparent today — and the reservoir has served its purpose well for the subsequent century-plus. The woodsy Reservoir Park seems almost tailor-made for second-unit footage from a sword-and-sorcery movie. It’s easy to imagine Brave Sir Knight riding into the trees, the crows’ cawing serving as entrance music. It’s a fine park, crisscrossed by walking trails with occasional shelters and picnic tables and playgrounds. The stretch of Summit Avenue just west of Reservoir Park is a microcosm of
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS
CITY LIMITS
WITH A BANG State lawmakers inaugurate new session by rushing through Medicaid overhaul BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT
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the neighborhood. On the south, there are new homes — perhaps too wide to truly be what we call tall-and-skinnies, but in the same oeuvre — next to small run-of-themill ranches next to older Craftsman-style homes. On the north side of the street: Edgehill Apartments, a public housing complex in the midst of a yearslong transformation, along with its sister complex Gernert Studio Apartments. Traffic speeds by on 12th Avenue, past Progressive Baptist Church and the Midtown Hills Police Precinct, past the Edgehill Branch library with its opaque domed skylight and past those famous polar bears at the corner of 12th and Edgehill. The two snowball-throwing mammals have become the neighborhood’s mascots. One of them is currently wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask. Nothing about Edgehill screams “home of Arctic apex predators,” but it’s an enduring symbol nonetheless. There were once many such bears, crafted by a local figurine manufacturer for Polar Bear Frozen Custard Shops. The Rev. Zema Hill bought some and put them in front of his home and funeral parlor. (Jolly polar bears at a funeral home is a bit of an incongruity, isn’t it?) Eventu-
ally the Metro Development and Housing Agency bought the pair that’s become the most famous, and now their silhouette features on neighborhood signage. The starting point on the north end of Rose Park was relatively quiet and peaceful, but the climb back up Curry Hill from the south is walking into a beehive of activity as workers finish up a long-running revitalization project in the park. The project includes a new track and a quite pleasing baseball stadium, which serves as Belmont University’s home field. With a brick exterior and a slight curve, it evokes — intentionally or not — the reservoir. The view from home plate and the bleachers stretches all the way back to downtown. Were Nashville a Single A minor-league city, this would be the perfect place for the team to play, a quaint little Cracker Jack box in a peaceful park. So shoehorned in is the field that netting extends over the teachers’ parking lot at Rose Magnet, protecting our public servants’ cars from dinger-induced roof dents. Rose Park’s jogging path squeezes behind the stadium’s fence and back to the top of Curry Hill and its too-long-ignored vistas. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
ou know Tennessee Republicans were eager to push through their overhaul of the state’s Medicaid financing system because they took the rare step of showing up to work on a Friday. Typically, the Tennessee General Assembly’s first week back in Nashville is spent on organizational tasks, including the introduction of new members and the shuffling of offices to reflect waxing and waning holds on power. There was indeed some of that last week — committee members introduced themselves like it was the first day of school. But those committees also spent their inaugural meetings passing a resolution authorizing the implementation of a Medicaid block grant deal negotiated with the Trump administration just days before that administration shuffled out the door. The agreement, if the Biden administration doesn’t claw it back, gives Tennessee more flexibility in the way it spends the billions of federal dollars it gets for Medicaid, which is operated in Tennessee under the TennCare program that provides health care to the neediest 1.5 million Tennesseans. About a fifth of Tennesseans and about half of births in the state are covered by the program, making the speed with which Republicans pushed through the overhaul plan especially galling to those both opposed and simply seeking more information. It’s an unusual legislative session. The FBI raided several lawmakers’ offices as part of an unspecified probe a few days before the session began. Rep. David Byrd of Waynesboro is currently in the hospital with COVID-19, and others are staying away from the Capitol because of the spreading disease. Republican Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver marched on the U.S. Capitol along with fellow Trump supporters who breached the building on Jan. 6. She called the event — which left a police officer and four others dead — “epic” and was back in Nashville for the first week of session. But one thing about the session is entirely typical: Republicans in the super-majority can do pretty much whatever they want, no matter how loudly super-minority Democrats cry foul. That was evident when Republicans threw out procedural hurdles to pass the TennCare overhaul in less than three days. And it will be evident in the weeks and months to come. First up is a special session called by Gov.
BUT ONE THING ABOUT THE SESSION IS ENTIRELY TYPICAL: REPUBLICANS IN THE SUPERMAJORITY CAN DO PRETTY MUCH WHATEVER THEY WANT, NO MATTER HOW LOUDLY SUPER-MINORITY DEMOCRATS CRY FOUL. Bill Lee to focus on education matters. That may be completed by the time this issue hits newsstands, but Lee announced last week his plans to bring legislation related to lagging literacy rates and teacher accountability during the pandemic. After the special session, lawmakers will resume their regular session, when legislation to be considered will range from loosening handgun restrictions to loosening vaccination requirements. Criminal justice, medical marijuana and further conversations about public education and health care access are also on the docket. And despite the departure of the legislature’s three most enthusiastic culture warriors — former Republican Reps. Micah Van Huss, Matthew Hill and Timothy Hill — expect tense fights over Confederate symbols, the media, the federal government and more. As they spend the next few months debating bills and setting policy, at least some lawmakers will also attempt to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak in the crowded Capitol and adjacent office building. There’s no mask mandate in the 99-member House, despite the hospitalization of multiple members in recent months. Some take the pandemic seriously, though. Republican Rep. Sabi Kumar, a doctor, practically begged his colleagues to wear masks — even if they had already contracted the disease, as many have. “You’re not Superman yet,” Kumar said during the first week of session, highlighting the possibility that recovered patients could still be spreading the disease or could be reinfected. “We are leaders in our community. Let us set a good example.” To be determined on whether they will. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
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21 Annual ST
CountRy Music Critics’ Poll Presented in partnership with
A Job for Art
Taking stock of what artists like Mickey Guyton can do that politicians and journalists can’t BY GEOFFREY HIMES
PHOTO: PHYLICIA J.L. MUNN
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he past year has seen significant coverage about the scarcity of Black artists in country music. While this highlights crucial social and political problems, the music’s artistic significance often gets overlooked. And that’s a disservice to someone as gifted as Mickey Guyton, who dominated the 21st Annual Country Music Critics Poll with victories for Artist of the Year, Single of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. Ashley McBryde, Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell also received top honors in the poll, but Guyton led the way. The poll-topping single was “Black Like Me,” an autobiographical song about a small-town kid with a hardworking father who found that everything was “twice as hard” if you’re “Black like me.” The song’s message won’t be news to anyone who’s in touch with reality. But if moral clarity is necessary for great art, it’s not sufficient. The best music also makes us feel that reality in a way we never have before. And it’s Guyton’s artistry — not her race or her politics — that enables her to do that. A savvy blend of mainstream country music and Black gospel music — not unlike Ronnie Milsap’s — lures us into the story of “Black Like Me.” Guyton makes us see the setting by describing the swings on the playground, the used car in the front yard and the white picket fence along the sidewalk. She never claims that everyone else has it easy. Life is tough for all, she implies: “I know I’m not the only one.” It’s just extra tough if your skin is dark.
MICKEY GUYTON The key moment in the song comes when Guyton builds the chorus vocal to the clinching couplet: “If you think we live in the land of the free / You should try to be Black like me.” But just when you expect her to go into full diva mode like Mariah Carey or Carrie Underwood, Guyton pulls back into a quieter, more personal voice. It’s an indication that she wants to have a conversation, and that makes the song twice as effective. An even stronger song on her 2020 EP Bridges is “What Are You Going to Tell Her,” the No. 8 single in our poll. Here Guyton is pointing out something that’s not as obvious as the persistence of racism;
she’s puncturing the myth that the world is self-correcting, that sooner or later virtue is always rewarded and evil always defeated. Millions still cling to that myth, despite all the evidence to the contrary. “She thinks life is fair,” Guyton sings about the song’s teenage protagonist, “and God hears every prayer / And everyone gets their ever-after / She thinks love is love / And if you work hard that’s enough / Skin’s just skin and it doesn’t matter.” Why does she believe that? Perhaps because she listens to country radio, which provides a steady diet of promises that everything will turn out all right in the end as long as your intentions are good. “What
are you going to tell her,” Guyton asks over a rich layer of ballad piano chords, “when she figures it out that all this time you built her up / Just so the world could let her down?” Guyton’s two singles are not important merely because they point out injustices. They challenge us to stretch our imaginations until we can empathize with others — that’s a job that art can do better than political campaigns or political journalism. Tyler Childers does this on “Long Violent History,” the poll’s No. 7 single and the only vocal number on his string-band album of the same name. Childers dares us to imagine the reaction of whites in East Kentucky if cops shot and
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21ST Annual
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CountRy Music critics’ poll Presented in partnership with
CHRIS STAPLETON benefits from better songwriting than his previous solo efforts. That’s not only because he covered songs by Guy Clark and John Fogerty, but also because he brought in such gifted co-writers as Mike Henderson, Al Anderson, Mike Campbell and Tim Krekel. And despite two spectacular songs about childhood (“Dreamsicle” and “Only Children”), the songwriting on Isbell’s Reunions seemed a step down from 2017’s masterpiece The Nashville Sound. But the best Southern rock album of 2020 — and the poll-topper for Album of the Year — was Ashley McBryde’s Never Will. McBryde honed her skill in the rock ’n’ roll bars of Memphis, and is as much a rocker as Stapleton and Isbell. But she’s also a master of such traditional country music tropes as the pun song (“The First Thing I Reach For” and No. 3 Best Single “One Night Standards”) and the barroom sing-along catch phrase (“Never Will” and “Shut Up Sheila”). McBryde was also voted the No. 2 Female Vocalist, No. 4 Artist of the Year and No. 6 Best Songwriter in the poll, and had another single, “Martha Devine,” at No. 26. By reviving funny country songs, McBryde is carrying on a noble country music tradition. No one exemplified that tradition better than the team of singer Bobby Bare Sr. and songwriter Shel Silverstein in their heyday. One-hundrednineteen of their collaborations were gathered into a box set, Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus, which was voted the year’s Best Reissue in the poll. John Prine, another very funny guy, was honored with the No. 3 Best Reissue for Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980), and the No. 5 Best Single, “I Remember Everything,” a track released after his death in April from COVID-19. In a year when the pandemic’s daily death toll sometimes surpassed 9/11’s, fires and floods raged, live music got shut down, unarmed civilians were shot by police, and democratic elections were attacked, Prine’s tender humor was something we needed more than ever. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
ASHLEY McBRYDE
PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS
imprisoned their neighbors as often as they do in Louisville’s Black neighborhoods. Eric Church does something similar on “Stick That in Your Country Song,” the No. 6 Best Single in our poll. He too challenges his fans to imagine life in the poorer neighborhoods in Detroit and Baltimore, amid empty factories, boarded-up windows and overcrowded schools. It begins with a pretty acoustic-guitar figure over an ominous bass line and builds to a climax of gospel choir and screaming Skynyrd guitar. A thematic companion to “What Are You Going to Tell Her” is the Drive-By Truckers’ “Thoughts and Prayers,” the No. 13 single in the poll. Singer-songwriter Patterson Hood also takes aim at the same good-intentions myth that Guyton challenges. The Truckers, who once opened a tour for Church, take the phrase that right-wing politicians always trot out after the latest gun massacre, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims,” and throw it back in their faces for being as insulting and as inadequate as it is insincere. Neither of the Truckers’ two terrific albums of 2020, The Unraveling and The New OK, made the top 60 in the Best Album voting, though Reunions, the album from exTrucker Jason Isbell and his band The 400 Unit, was voted No. 3. I can understand why someone might reject all three albums as too rock ’n’ roll to be country, or alternately might accept all three as being as country as country-rockers like Luke Combs, Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Ashley McBryde, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price and Elizabeth Cook. What I don’t understand is how you can separate out the Truckers or American Aquarium and accept the rest. The crucial difference, it seems, is not so much in the sound and themes as in the home addresses. Combs, Church, McBryde, Price, Cook, Stapleton and the Osbornes have longtime Nashville connections — even if Stapleton sings a farewell to the town on his new record. The Truckers and American Aquarium don’t. Think of it this way: Was Lynyrd Skynyrd a country band? During their four years of greatness before the 1977 plane crash, no one would have said yes — they were coleaders, with the Allmans, of the Southern rock movement. But if they had emerged in this century, Skynyrd would almost surely have been signed as a country band, and would have been stars. After all, their songs have been recorded by Isbell, Church, Hank Jr., Wynonna, Alabama, Travis Tritt, Eli Young, Charlie Daniels, Aaron Lewis, Randy Houser and Jamey Johnson without much adjustment. If the new Southern rock is a subgenre of country music these days — as much as string bands, country-pop divas, retro honky-tonk and hick-hop — who’s doing the best job of it? Stapleton won both Album of the Year and Artist of the Year in the 16th annual poll back in 2015, while Isbell won the same awards in 2017. This year Stapleton finished second in both categories, while Isbell finished third. Where they part ways is in the more specific categories. In the 2020 poll, Stapleton won Best Male Vocalist for the fourth time since 2015, while Isbell won Best Songwriter for the second time over the same period. That seems like a reasonable assessment of their respective strengths. Stapleton’s Starting Over, the poll’s No. 2 Best Album (whose title track was the No. 2 Best Single),
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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— Dierks Bentley From a 2018 interview at the Museum
Before his name was known to the public, Dierks Bentley wandered into The Station Inn, watched the Sidemen perform, and was blown away by a visceral approach to bluegrass. For Bentley, the Nashville venue—a community hub for bluegrass lovers and musicians—became a musical classroom, a springboard, and a proving ground. Learn more through the exhibition The Station Inn: Bluegrass Beacon.
DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE Visit CountryMusicHallofFame.org to buy tickets. Photo: Jim Wright
nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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21ST Annual
The Results
CountRy Music critics’ poll Presented in partnership with
Mickey Guyton, Ashley McBryde, Jason Isbell and beyond — 95 critics weigh in on the best in 2020’s country music COMPILED BY GEOFFREY HIMES
Female Vocalists 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Albums
9.
1.
10.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
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Ashley McBryde, Never Will (Warner Music Nashville) Chris Stapleton, Starting Over (Mercury Nashville) Jason Isbell, Reunions (Southeastern) Brandy Clark, Your Life Is a Record (Warner Music Nashville) Margo Price, That’s How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista) The Chicks, Gaslighter (Columbia) Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me (Carnival) Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions (High Top Mountain) Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath (Agent Love) Hailey Whitters, The Dream (Pigasus) Ingrid Andress, Lady Like (Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic/Arthouse) Charley Crockett, Welcome to Hard Times (Son of Davy) Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers) Katie Pruitt, Expectations (Rounder) Little Big Town, Nightfall (Capitol Nashville) Lori McKenna, The Balladeer (CN) Sam Hunt, Southside (MCA Nashville) Mickey Guyton, Bridges (Capitol Nashville) Brothers Osborne, Skeletons (EMI Nashville) American Aquarium, Lamentations (New West) Cam, The Otherside (RC/Triple Tigers) Courtney Marie Andrews, Old Flowers (Fat Possum) Stephanie Lambring, Autonomy (selfreleased) Tyler Childers, Long Violent History (Hickman Holler/RCA) The Secret Sisters, Saturn Return (New West) Lilly Hiatt, Walking Proof (New West) Jaime Wyatt, Neon Cross (New West) Taylor Swift, Folklore (Republic) Brett Eldredge, Sunday Drive (Warner Music Nashville) Sarah Jarosz, World on the Ground (Rounder)
11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” (Capitol Nashville) Chris Stapleton, “Starting Over” (Mercury Nashville) Ashley McBryde, “One Night Standards” (Warner Music Nashville) The Chicks, “Gaslighter” (Columbia) John Prine, “I Remember Everything” (Oh Boy) Eric Church, “Stick That in Your Country Song” (EMI Nashville/Big EC) Tyler Childers, “Long Violent History” (Hickman Holler/RCA) Mickey Guyton, “What Are You Going to Tell Her” (Capitol Nashville) Miranda Lambert, “Bluebird” (Vanner/ RCA) Sam Hunt, “Hard to Forget” (MCA Nashville) Taylor Swift, “Betty’s Garden” (Republic) Miranda Lambert, “Settling Down” (Vanner/RCA) Drive-By Truckers, “Thoughts and Prayers” (ATO) Caylee Hammack, “Small Town Hypocrite” (Capitol Nashville) Adia Victoria, “South Gotta Change” (Canvasback/Atlantic) Maren Morris, “The Bones” (Columbia Nashville) Gabby Barrett, “I Hope” (Warner Music Nashville) Ingrid Andress, “More Hearts Than Mine” (Warner Music Nashville/ Atlantic/Arthouse) Maren Morris, “Better Than We Found It” (Columbia Nashville) Maddie & Tae, “Die From a Broken Heart” (Mercury Nashville) Brandy Clark, “Who You Thought I Was” (Warner Music Nashville) Carly Pearce and Lee Brice, “I Hope You’re Happy Now” (Big Machine) Tim McGraw, “I Called Mama” (McGraw Music/Big Machine) Hailey Whitters, “Janice at the Hotel Bar” (Pigasus) The Chicks, “March March” (Columbia) Ashley McBryde, “Martha Divine” (Warner Music Nashville) Breland, “My Truck” (Atlantic/Bad Realm) Bob Dylan, “Murder Most Foul” (Columbia) Lucinda Williams, “Man Without a Soul” (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers) Jason Isbell, “Dreamsicle” (Southeastern)
Reissues 1.
Bobby Bare, Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus (Bear Family) 2. Elvis Presley, From Elvis in Nashville (RCA/Legacy) 3. John Prine, Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980) (Rhino) 4. Gillian Welch, Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs (Vol. 1) (Acony) 5. Various artists, The Harry Smith B-Sides (Dust-to-Digital) 6. Bobbie Gentry, The Delta Sweete (Deluxe Edition) (Capitol Nashville) 7. Tom Petty, Wildflowers and All the Rest (Warner) 8. Joni Mitchell, Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) (Rhino) 9. Dave Alvin, From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings (Yep Roc) 10. Johnny Cash, The Complete Mercury Albums 1986-1991 (Mercury Nashville)
Male Vocalists 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Chris Stapleton Jason Isbell Luke Combs Eric Church Waylon Payne Sturgill Simpson Sam Hunt Tyler Childers Ruston Kelly (tie) Willie Nelson (tie) Brett Eldredge
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Mickey Guyton Ashley McBryde Miranda Lambert Margo Price Maren Morris Brandy Clark Katie Pruitt Courtney Marie Andrews Elizabeth Cook Cam
Songwriters 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Jason Isbell Lori McKenna Brandy Clark Waylon Payne Chris Stapleton Ashley McBryde John Prine B.J. Barham Stephanie Lambring Tyler Childers
Duos and Groups 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
The Chicks Brothers Osborne Little Big Town Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit The Highwomen Maddie & Tae The Secret Sisters The Mavericks Drive-By Truckers Della Mae
JASON ISBELL
PHOTO: ALYSSE GAFKJEN
Singles
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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21ST Annual
Data Mining
CountRy Music critics’ poll Presented in partnership with
Selected facts from the 21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll BY GEOFFREY HIMES
S INGRID ANDRESS
New Acts 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
MICKEY GUYTON
Ingrid Andress Katie Pruitt Mickey Guyton Hailey Whitters Jimmie Allen Tessy Lou Williams Gabby Barrett Caylee Hammack Carly Pearce Tenille Townes
Artists of the Year 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Mickey Guyton Chris Stapleton Jason Isbell Ashley McBryde Miranda Lambert Luke Combs Dolly Parton Maren Morris Sturgill Simpson The Chicks
THIS YEAR’S VOTERS: Kyle Akers, Don Allred, Michael Berick, Jonathan Bernstein, Jim Bessman, Jessica Blankenship, Bliss Bowen, Jon Bream, Grant Britt, Eryn Brothers, Jeff Burger, David Cantwell, Nancy Cardwell, Henry Carrigan, Rachel Cholst, Robert Christgau, Justin Cober-Lake, Mitchell Cohen, Thierry Côté, Kevin John Coyne, Steve Crawford, Madeline Crone, Dan DeLuca, Kerry Dexter, Marcus K. Dowling, Daniel Durchholz, Steacy Easton, Chuck Eddy, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Dan Ferguson, Bill Frater, Holly George-Warren, Holly Gleason, Gary Graff, Chris Griffy, Andrew Gulden, Craig Havighurst, Dave Heaton, Stuart Henderson, Jewly Hight, Justin Hiltner, Geoffrey Himes, Lorie Hollabaugh, Cillea Houghton, Charles L. Hughes, Josh Hurst, Thomas Inskeep, Jonathan Keefe, Zachary Kephart, Nancy Kruh, Olivia Ladd, Tom Lane, Devon Leger, Lorie Liebig, Alan Light, Andria Lisle, Dan MacIntosh, Jim Macnie, Jim Malec, Barry Mazor, Michael McCall, Kelly McCartney, Danny McCloskey, Markus Meyer, Rick Mitchell, Bobby Moore, Ken Morton Jr., Stuart Munro, David Nowels, Randy Patterson, George A. Paul, Bob Paxman, Amos Perrine,
Calvin Powers, Jeffrey B. Remz, Sarah Rodman, Steven Rosen, Josh Schott, Jason Scott, Sylvie Simmons, R.J. Smith, Angela Stefano, Scott Stroud, Bruce Sylvester, Rob Tannenbaum, Ken Tucker, Shawn Underwood, Jada Watson, Ellis Widner, Mason P. Winfree, Kurt Wolff, L. Kent Wolgamott, Mikael Wood, Ron Wynn, Lee Zimmerman
OUR VOTERS WROTE FOR THE FOLLOWING OUTLETS IN 2020: 1870, ABC News, Accidental Evolution, Adobe & Teardrops, All Music Guide, Alternate Root, Americana Boogie, Americana Highways, Americana Music Show, American Noise, American Songwriter, And It Don’t Stop, The Argonaut, The Arkansas DemocratGazette, Associated Press, Audiofemme, Best Classic Bands, The Big Takeover, Billboard, Blogcritics, The Bluegrass Situation, Bluegrass Today, Bluegrass Unlimited, Boomerocity, The Boot, The Boston Globe, Business Jet Traveler, The Call (Woonsocket, R.I.), Capital & Main, Center Line News, Cincinnati Magazine, Cincinnati CityBeat, City Pages, CMA Close Up, CMT, Concert Hopper, Cornerstone,
ome country artists were able to combine commercial and critical success in 2020. By comparing the critics’ voting for Artist of the Year and Billboard’s year-end list for Top Country Artists (based on sales, streams and airplay), we find that 12 of the top 25 in the Critics’ Poll also show up in the top 50 of the Billboard list: Chris Stapleton (No. 2 Poll/No. 18 Billboard), Ashley McBryde (No. 4/No. 44), Miranda Lambert (No. 5/ No. 17), Luke Combs (No. 6/No. 1), Maren Morris (No. 8/No. 4), The Chicks (No. 10/No. 47), Eric Church (No. 12/No. 32), Keith Urban (No. 17/No. 25), Carrie Underwood (No. 18/No. 26), Sam Hunt (No. 19/No. 6), Tyler Childers (No. 21/No. 35) and Jon Pardi (No. 25/No. 12). Some artists found critical acclaim without mainstream success. Mickey Guyton, Jason Isbell, Dolly Parton, Sturgill Simpson, Brandy Clark, American Aquarium, Waylon Payne, Margo Price, Lucinda Williams and The Mavericks finished in the top 20 of the critics’ Artist of the Year voting without finding a place on the Billboard list. Some of the biggest stars in mainstream country failed to get a single vote in the poll for Artist of the Year: Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, Gabby Barrett, Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay, Luke Bryan, Old Dominion, Florida Georgia Line, Kenny Chesney, Brett Young, Lee Brice and Kelsea Ballerini. These acts constituted 12 of the top 20 on the Billboard list. The Chicks (then known as The Dixie Chicks) dominated the early years of the Country Music Critics’ Poll, which began in 2000. The trio won both Best Album and Best Single in 2002 as well as 2006. They also won the hat trick of Best Live Act, Best Duo or Group and Artist of the Year in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2006. In 2020, the group released Gaslighter, their first studio album in 14 years. They didn’t dominate the poll as in the past, but they did respectably: No. 6 Best Album, No. 4 and No. 25 Best Single, No. 1 Best Group and No. 10 Artist of the Year. Six of the poll’s top 10 vote-getters for Artist of
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Perspective, Country Queer, Country Standard Time, Country Universe, Critical Studies in Improvisation, The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.), Downbeat, Dusted, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Exclaim!, Fifty Grande, Flood, Folk Alley, For Bass Players Only, The Freelance Mentalists, Fresh Air, Garden & Gun, Goldmine, Grammy.com, Hits, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, Calif.), In Review Online, Jazz Times, Journal of Popular Music Studies, KBOO-FM (Portland, Ore.), KCET-TV (Los Angeles), Kentucky Country Music, Kithfolk, Kyle’s Korner, The Last Word, Lincoln Journal Star, Living Blues, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Maggot Brain, Magnet, MediaNews Group, Memphis Flyer, Mojo, The Morton Report, Music Aficionado, Musical Divide, Music Blog, Music Connection, Music Road, MusicRow, Napster, Nashville Scene, Nashville Sound, National Public Radio, NBC News, News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.), The New Yorker, New York Times, No Depression, Orange County Register, Ovrld, Oxford American, Parton and Pearl, Pasadena Weekly, Paste, People, Pentagon Black Studios, Perceptive Travel,
the Year are female. Only two of Billboard’s top 10 Artists of the Year are women. Three of the top 15 Best Albums in the poll were recorded by out LGBTQ+ artists: Brandy Clark, Waylon Payne and Katie Pruitt. One can understand why some critics resisted the takeover of this year’s poll by Southern rock bands. It’s harder to understand the lack of support for string-band music, the oldest continuous subgenre in country music history. Yet the highest-ranking fulltime string bands in the Best Album category this year were Sarah Jarosz (No. 30), Colter Wall (No. 39, tie) and Della Mae (No. 65). On the other hand, Southern rock artists who released a string-band side project this year finished No. 8 (Sturgill Simpson) and No. 24 (Tyler Childers). Five artists who were covered as performers (not just talking heads) in Ken Burns’ 2019 Country Music history on PBS finished in the top 100 of this year’s Best Album category: Steve Earle (No. 38), Bob Dylan (No. 39, tie), Willie Nelson (No. 39, tie), Garth Brooks (No. 59), and Dolly Parton (No. 94, tie). Mickey Guyton may have done even better in the poll’s Best Album category if more voters had considered her 19-minute, six-song EP Bridges eligible. (Technically it wasn’t.) Guyton, who has released three EPs and nine singles since 2014 but never a full album, was technically eligible for Best New Artist, though many voters may have decided she’s not really that new. Ingrid Andress, who did win the Best New Artist category, also had the No. 11 Best Album (Lady Like) and No. 18 single (“More Hearts Than Mine”). Katie Pruitt, the runner-up for Best New Artist, saw her debut Expectations finish as the No. 14 Best Album. Miranda Lambert, who has been voted the poll’s Artist of the Year a record five times, didn’t release an album this year and finished at No. 5 in that category. She did, however, have the No. 9 and No. 12 Best Singles: “Bluebird” and “Settling Down” respectively. The past two times Jamey Johnson released an album of original songs — 2008’s That Lonesome Song and 2010’s The Guitar Song — he won Best Album and Artist of the Year in our poll. We’re still waiting for the next album of original songs. Ninety-five music journalists voted in the 21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll. They wrote for big coastal newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal as well as smaller dailies such as The Arkansas DemocratGazette, News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and Lincoln Journal Star. They wrote for big magazines like Rolling Stone, Mojo, People and The New Yorker as well as specialty websites such as The Bluegrass Situation, Country Queer and Country Standard Time. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pitchfork, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), Pollstar, Popmatters, The PressEnterprise (Riverside, Calif.), The Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.), Queen City Nerve, Redlands, Relix, Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers, Rock and Roll Globe, Rock NYC, Rock’s Backpages, Rolling Stone, Roughstock, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The San Bernardino Sun, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Shotgun Seat, Singles Jukebox, Sirius XM, Slant Magazine, Sounds Like Nashville, Spectrum Culture, Sports and Entertainment Nashville, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.), Substack, Taste of Country, Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society, The Tennessee Tribune, Texas Music Magazine, Texas Monthly, Third Bridge, This Is Country Music, Tidal, The Times (Pawtucket, R.I.), Twangville, Variety, Vevo, Vineyard Gazette, Vulture, The Wall Street Journal, Wandering Educators, The Washington Post, Wide Open Country, WFKY-FM (Frankfort, Ky.), WMOT-FM (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), WNXP-FM (Nashville, Tenn.), WRIU-FM (Kingston, R.I.), Wrong Highway, Xperi
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The Comments Selected notes from the critics who responded to the Country Music Critics’ Poll COMPILED BY GEOFFREY HIMES
The Year of the Pandemic and the President One of the most thought-provoking places to spend this isolated year was the Twitter feeds of country and country-adjacent artists like Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, Taylor Swift, Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves, who risked the wrath of MAGA nation to step up on matters of social injustice and political tyranny. It was scary, but kind of hilarious, to see the impotent whimpering: “I’ll never buy your music again,” as if people were spending that much money on music, as if there were concerts to be picketed or boycotted. —Mitchell Cohen John Prine and his music have been in my life for nearly 50 years, ever since I first heard “Hello in There” on Bette Midler’s first album. My college years were his Asylum years, and later I introduced my then-8-year-old daughter to him through “Christmas in Prison” — a song that shifted her musical interests into new directions. Before my daughter left for college this year, we sang a wobbly rendition of “Bruised Orange” together like we had “threatened” to do for a while. Trust me, you don’t want to hear it, but it was one of those moments that sometimes you don’t take the time actually to do, leaving you “wrapped up in a trap of your very own chain of sorrow.”
—Michael Berick Tyler Childers’ “Long Violent History” accrues additional impact by following a parade of old-timey fiddle tunes on one of the year’s most unique albums. It’s as if Childers is gently surveying a timeline of pernicious racism in America’s rural pathways before dropping the full citation on the album’s final track. With the loss of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (and others, of course) in the air, this self-acknowledged “white boy from Hickman” reaches his breaking point and queries how it would feel if it were whites getting offed on the reg. The plaint of his voice mixed with drones of a rosined bow and the clang of banjo strings give his perspective an even greater emotional thrust. —Jim Macnie Eric Church’s “Stick That in Your Country Song” is an important critique of the Nashville machine. But it also betrays how distant Church and the other lyricists are from the people they’re claiming to represent in their mainstream country songs. I’m an educator who works in the Bronx, and the verse about a teacher being afraid to walk the halls of their school was like nails on a chalkboard. —Rachel Cholst Country music is “three chords and the truth,” yet all we heard from the radio this year — while more than 300,000 Americans died, mind you — was how there’s “No I in Beer,” how most country artists enjoyed drinking beer on a “Champagne Night” or enjoying “One Margarita,” and how the only “B.S.” certain artists needed was “Beers and Sunshine.” I certainly don’t begrudge pure
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escapism, but if you wanted to hear country music that really spoke to this year like no other, you had to look beyond your radio dial. —Zackary Kephart I hope it’s true that “What doesn’t kill us will make us stronger.” Artists and the industry that promotes them will find different ways to deliver music in the future because the demand for music will never disappear. To quote another adage, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I think last year’s limitations on live music will make us treasure these things even more in the future. We’ll not be taking them for granted anytime soon. —Nancy Cardwell The CMA Awards had time for a multisong medley tribute to the late Charlie Daniels, but no mention of the passing of John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker or Billy Joe Shaver. Why was there no mention of COVID-19, which compelled Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts, Lady A, Lee Brice and reigning CMA Instrumentalist of the Year Jenee Fleenor to cancel their performances? And what about the CMA inviting frail good soldier Charley Pride, 86, in a year of racial reckoning, to come from Dallas to a maskfree Nashville indoor venue to receive a long-overdue lifetime achievement award during the pandemic? He died a month later of COVID, and the CMA offered no further comment. —Jon Bream
The Southern Rock Will Rise Again The funny thing about Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen is they look like most of the kids coming to the shows, and they sing about life as those kids have lived it. They’re not machining songs with the same 15 people or having writing appointments when no one’s inspired. If country music genuinely is life, then you can’t cobble together riff nuggets and a few random details of “rural” life and call that the truth. —Holly Gleason I went from loving Jason Isbell’s album to feeling almost indifferent — it was too precious, and a little too convinced of its own cleverness. But the “Dreamsicle” single does something the best of Isbell does: It matches emotional rawness with exquisite language. This song about the transience of summer pleasures is as good as Ian Tyson’s “Summer Wages,” but this one is about the balance of the individual and the collective.
—Steacy Easton Starting Over might be Chris Stapleton’s best album to date, but it’s not good enough to crack my top 10. To put it succinctly, Stapleton the songwriter has a narrow emotional bandwidth. You’ve got your God’s-own-hangover song, your fire-one-upand-feel-good song, your Nashville-kiss-off song, your angry-broadside song, and your manly-reserved-expressions-of-love-anddesire songs. I like the song about the dog, but he better hope Robbie Robertson never hears it. —Rick Mitchell
21ST Annual
In an election year that misread the flyover, where people are both lonely and broke, it’s a gift to have someone who writes so well about money and desire as well as Ashley McBryde does. Her album includes the inestimable “Martha Divine,” which has my favorite line in country this year: “Honor thy father / Honor thy mother / But the Bible doesn’t say a damn thing about your daddy’s lover.” —Steacy Easton Ashley McBryde’s “One Night Standards” found a spot in the top five of our Best Singles poll last year, but it also made a sizable impact in 2020, and still gave me goosebumps as recently as last weekend. I would’ve loved to have been in the room when someone uttered the phrase “How it goes is / Bar closes,” an “Aha!” moment that springboards the whole track into a blend of singer-songwriter poesy and hook-heavy power twang that, on a more level playing field, would tickle a mainstream audience and chart a bit stronger than its high of No. 21. From throwing Grandma’s ashes off the roof to responding to treachery with a murderous glee, McBryde has upped her artistic confidence, and the music soars in kind. —Jim Macnie
What Is Country Music? Some Americana artists do break through to the big time. They’re not changing their style; they’re just finding their audience and getting national attention for some reason or another. So if they’re country when they’re big, they must have been country when they were small. —Shawn Underwood Sam Hunt in so many ways feels like the future. Where Waylon and Cash brought a rock edge, where Kristofferson offered Dylanesque lyricism, where Willie straddled honky-tonk and jazz, where Emmylou merged The Beatles with The Louvin Brothers, Hunt welds Webb Pierce’s “There Stands the Glass” onto his rap-flow country for one of the biggest songs of 2020. It’s not gratuitous, not two genres tangled in a sleeping bag, all elbows and knees. It’s smooth stuff, and he keeps the hardcore real, instead of name-checking as our homages so often do. —Holly Gleason There’s a reason why Sam Hunt pisses off country purists so much. (Actually there are several, including some classically misogynist/racist/queerphobic ones that put him a lineage ranging from Jimmie Rodgers to Kenny Rogers and beyond.) Not only does he make far better records than most of the artists celebrated by the “authenticity” crew, but — in their absorptive sonics and heart-on-a-sleeve lyrics — they’re more reflective of country traditions too. —Charles
L. Hughes
Black Artists Matter Just because something felt radical for Nashville doesn’t mean it was actually a revolutionary act. Lady A’s name change is the best example of this: Three white people somehow did not understand the implications of having the word “Antebellum” in their band name, and then clearly did zero
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research into trademark compliance when choosing to change their name. Their public attempts to reconcile the situation with Seattle’s Lady A only made them look worse.
—Rachel Cholst Something happened this year at the Country Radio Seminar that should test the mettle of every radio programmer across the country. Mickey Guyton performed what just might have been the most telling song of 2020. The piano ballad “What Are You Going to Tell Her?” brought the entire Ryman Auditorium of 2,400-plus programmers to their feet. But what they do with such a powerhouse song will speak volumes. By calling out gender (and racial) injustices, Guyton has created the most important country song since Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” or Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” —Ken Morton Jr. In what was often a miserable and painfilled 2020, country music was never more inclusive and diverse. There are more glorious Black artists, male and female, getting their time in the sun. It is particularly inspiring to see the likes of Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen and Darius Rucker consistently getting access to and knocking out of the park A-list songs that get them the kind of hit exposure that such predecessors as Stoney Edwards, Big Al Downing, O.B. McClinton, Ruby Falls or Linda Martell never had. —Ron Wynn
Female Artists Matter Too Here’s a dirty little secret: The alternative and album-oriented rock programmers who’re aging out and getting slid over to country by the big conglomerates are the same programmers who squeezed women out of those formats. They’re going down Hootie’s Memory Lane with Darius Rucker and creating the same dude-centric reality in country. —Holly Gleason In May 2020, the Country Music Association announced changes to criteria for its Single of the Year category. Instead of reaching the top 50 of Billboard’s and Country Aircheck’s charts, the new criterion requires that a song reach the top 10 of these charts to be eligible for nomination. While narrowing the chart positions was done in an effort to “diversify” nominations (decreasing the number of eligible songs by men to increase opportunity for women), the new criterion puts an extra burden on artists of color, especially women of color. Under this new criterion, no woman of color now or historically would be eligible for a CMA Award. As for the Country Music Hall of Fame: Of the 142 inductions to date, 122 are solo men, all-male ensembles or male industry representatives (85.9 percent), 17 are women or female industry representatives (12 percent), three are male-female (family) ensembles (2.1 percent). —Jada Watson EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
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Keeping Willie Weird Talking with country legend Willie Nelson about blending tradition and weirdness for 65 years and counting BY GEOFFREY HIMES
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n the title track of his 2018 album Last Man Standing, Willie Nelson sings: “It’s getting hard to watch my pals check out / Cuts like a wore-out knife / One thing I learned about running the road is forever don’t apply to life / Waylon and Ray and Merle and old Harlan lived just as fast as me.” This, of course, is a reference to Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Merle Haggard and Howard Harlan. “I still got a lotta good friends left, and I wonder who the next will be.” During two terrible weeks this fall, he learned who the next ones would be. Between Oct. 16 and 28, Johnny Bush, Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver died in quick succession. And then Charley Pride died on Dec. 12, a month and a day after
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he received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMA Awards. If Nelson is the last man standing, at least he’s standing tall. His 2020 release First Rose of Spring is the latest installment of his late-career renaissance, due in large part to his collaborations with Nashville producersongwriter Buddy Cannon, who’s been awarded for his work with George Strait and Kenny Chesney. That album didn’t do as well as expected in the 21st Annual Country Music Critics Poll, barely breaking into the top 40 of the Best Albums category. But in a year of death, quarantines and conflict, Nelson remains a measuring stick for us all. “What’s discouraging right now is you can’t go and play to your crowd,” Nelson says over the phone from his home in Los Angeles — he also has homes in Texas and Hawaii. “How do I cope with it? I cuss a lot. I’m lucky; I count my blessings. I’m glad I don’t have that fucking virus. So many people are getting sick and dying. I’m just trying to stay out of the way and stay healthy, so I can get back to playing again.” Even at age 87, Nelson is plugged into country music’s best young artists. Chris Stapleton — who had the No. 2 Best Album
and No. 2 Best Single in this year’s poll — not only wrote “Our Song” for First Rose of Spring but also sang “Whiskey River” and “Always on My Mind” on a recent live release, Willie Nelson: American Outlaw. Recorded Jan. 12, 2019, at Bridgestone Arena here in Nashville, the 24-song, twoCD/one-DVD box set also includes contributions from Eric Church (who landed the No. 6 Best Single in the poll), Margo Price (No. 5 Best Album), Bobby Bare (No. 1 Best Reissue) and Steve Earle (No. 39 Best Album). It’s tempting to see Nelson as a bastion of tradition amid the metastasizing changes of commercial country-pop. But perhaps it’s more accurate to see him as a bastion of weirdness in a realm of formula. Few country artists are making records today as adventurous as the ones Nelson has made since he turned 65 — records full of harmonica solos, waltzes, jazz chords, swing phrasing, jokes about death and chronicles of irresponsible behavior. Maybe it’s most accurate of all to say that weirdness is the tradition that Nelson best represents. “I phrase each song the way I feel it,” Nelson explains. “I probably phrase it differently every time I sing it, because
I don’t remember how I did it before. It would be boring as hell to do it on the beat the same way every time. And I don’t like to be bored.” After all, Gram Parsons and David Allan Coe didn’t invent nonconformism in country music; it was there all along. In fact, the history of country music can be told as the struggle of an industry trying to counter its best artists’ eccentricity by drawing a line between the acceptable and the unacceptable. Nelson has been on the wrong side of that boundary more than once in his career, but that says more about the line than it does about him. Few country performers were as outthere as the eight-fingered Billy Joe Shaver. In 1981, when he recorded a song he’d written called “We Are the Cowboys,” Nelson sang harmony; Nelson sings lead on the version he cut for First Rose of Spring. Nelson leans into a definition of cowboys that, per the song’s lyrics, includes “Texicans, Mexicans, Black men and Jews.” Back in 1967, Nelson had been the first country star to take Pride, a groundbreaking African American singer, on tour — Nelson even went so far as to regularly kiss Pride onstage. And
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a few years later, Nelson hired the Jewish harmonica player Mickey Raphael. In the song, Shaver implies that cowboys are as likely to round up words for a song as they are cattle for a sale. “We are the cowboys, the true sons of freedom,” Nelson sings. “We are the men who will get the job done / We’re picking our words, so we won’t have to eat them / We’re rounding them up and then driving them home.” “Billy Joe wrote a lot of great songs,” Nelson says. “I was honored that he wrote one about me, ‘Willie the Wandering Gypsy.’ ‘We Are the Cowboys’ pretty much sums up who Billy Joe was. He knew where he was going and how he was going to get there. I loved everything about him, especially the way he wrote. He’s an old Texas boy — he knows what he wants to say, so he says it straight out and he says it well. We always say, ‘You can always tell a Texan, but you can’t tell him much.’ ” Jerry Jeff Walker migrated to Austin around 1970 because he heard Nelson was uniting folk-rock hippies and honky-tonk rednecks into one audience. Walker came from the former group, but he embraced the fusion and became the face of the scene almost as much as Nelson himself. They remained friends ever after. “I talked to Jerry Jeff in the hospital a few months ago when he was sick,” Nelson says. He pauses and adds, “I once heard Jerry Jeff say the funniest thing I ever heard anyone say onstage. He said, ‘The only difference between Hank Williams and me is that Hank went backstage to throw up.’ ” Nelson adds, “Johnny Bush and I were great buddies. We started out making music at the same time in San Antonio. I was his first manager.” Nelson and Bush were 20-something nobodies when they joined Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys in the early ’60s as a bassist and drummer, respectively. Nel-
son financed Bush’s debut album in 1967. In 1972, Bush had a top 15 country hit with “Whiskey River,” a song he’d written himself. Nelson admired the song so much that he began to open and close every concert with the number. Bush lived off the royalties for years. Nelson made a name for himself as a songwriter before he did so as a performer, crafting such hits as “Hello Walls” for Faron Young, “Night Life” for Ray Price and “Crazy” for Patsy Cline. But when he reached his peak of popularity in the late ’70s and ’80s, his songwriting production dwindled, and he shifted gears to become the finest interpretive singer of his era. But since he established his working relationship with Buddy Cannon, which first bore fruit in 2008’s Moment of Forever, the creative spark has come back. Nelson has contributed strong original songs to most of the albums he’s made since; Last Man Standing is all originals. “Roger Miller once told me, ‘When the well runs dry, you have to let it alone for a while and let it fill up again,’ ” Nelson recalls. “And that’s what I did. You know it’s full again when the ideas start bubbling up inside you again. You don’t have control over it; you have to wait for it to happen.” Cannon helped Nelson get the well flowing once more by coming up with an unusual co-writing methodology. The singer texts his producer with a stanza or a handful of lines, and the producer texts back with some rewritten and/or additional lines. After some more back-and-forth texts, when they’ve reached a critical mass of words, Nelson will email a sound file with some musical ideas. “He’ll send it back after he’s messed with it,” Nelson explains. “We go back and forth, and pretty soon we have a song. Buddy’s up there in Nashville, and I’m usually in Texas when I’m not on the road, so we have to do it
that way. I don’t know why it works so well. I just accept it and [am] thankful for it.” Nelson likes this approach because he can stick to his schedule of touring and relaxing at home — and during the pandemic, touring isn’t part of the equation. More importantly, he doesn’t have to endure those awkward pauses in a co-writing session where each writer is wincing, trying so hard to think of the next line that they seem to need a laxative. This way, he can wait for the next line to come when it wants to. No matter who writes the songs, Nelson puts his signature vocal stamp on every one. He never seems to land his accents where they’re expected; instead he lands them early or late if the resulting tension will get across the narrator’s emotional state. And when he performs the songs live, he’ll phrase them differently than he did on the record. Nelson attributes his strange phrasing to an unusual blend of the hillbilly and pop-jazz singers of his youth. “To me, Ray Price is the greatest country singer ever, followed closely by George Jones,” he says. “Frank Sinatra is my favorite singer ever. First of all, they had great voices, but their phrasing is what made them great singers. You can just say the words, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s how you phrase the words that lets people know how you feel about the words. You move the accent off the beat, and that adds some feeling.” Unhappy as he is to be off the road, Nelson is keeping busy. He’s writing more songs with Cannon for another album. He’s working with Cannon and Nashville producer-pianist Matt Rollings on a sequel to My Way, their 2018 album of Sinatra songs. He just finished a gospel album with his sister Bobbie and his children. He contributed to a Roger Miller tribute album that his sons Lukas and Micah are assembling. In all these projects, there are three constants:
just say the words, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s how you phrase the words that lets people know how you feel about the words. You move the accent off the beat, and that adds some feeling.” Nelson’s voice, his harmonica accompanist Raphael and his longtime acoustic guitar named Trigger. “I used to have a steel guitar in my band,” Nelson says. “For a while, I had Jimmy Day, one of the best in the world. When he retired, I couldn’t find anyone as good as Jimmy. Mickey stepped in and filled that role really well. “When I got that guitar, it sounded like Django Reinhardt, the best guitar player who ever lived, so I kept playing it and named it Trigger,” he continues. “I called Scott Jackson at his music store in Nashville, and he said he had a Martin I might like. He said it was $150, and I had just paid $150 for a roping horse, so that seemed like a good deal. I told him over the phone that I’d buy it sight unseen. That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
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FEATURING GENE MILLER
1/22 FEATURING KENNY GREENBERG, 1/23
WALKING MAN: A NIGHT OF THE
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
Critics’ Poll Results! See page 14 for the list of winners
CRITICS’ PICKS BOOKS
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fluff — far from it. I recommend you start with the three-minute clip titled “Jamel Campbell-Gooch speaks on how our systems of accountability are centered around punishment,” which has stayed on my mind since I watched it weeks ago. Moore shows genuine curiosity and is a good listener. And importantly, he’s modeling how to have conversations about the deep issues around racism, housing, policing, poverty and more. There is so much wisdom in each of these brains that Moore is picking — plus, I’ve got new ideas for where to get my next slice. Visit the Jerome Moore Community Changers channel on YouTube to watch.
[THAT’S ‘MR. BOY’ TO YOU]
WATCH ROBERT GORDON DISCUSS IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS
F O R C E D PA C E
Not a word of Robert Gordon’s It Came From Memphis — which is full of fantastic characters and anecdotes — would have to be true in order for it to be an enthralling read. But the book is a work of nonfiction, and that makes the story it tells even more fascinating and quietly uplifting. A music journalist, historian and filmmaker, Gordon grew up in the Bluff City during a crucial boom when the whole world wanted a piece of the blues. It Came From Memphis is mostly about artists, musicians and other misfits 10 to 20 years Gordon’s senior — including folks music fans will know, such as Jim Dickinson and Alex Chilton, and plenty more they might not. The Civil Rights Act may have been signed in Washington, but it was up to the people of each community to enforce the law — to take a stand against segregation and discrimination, however they could. In a whole host of ways, the individuals in Gordon’s book took up the mantle of the bluesmen who were all but ignored by the city that was their home. Third Man Books published an updated edition of It Came From Memphis in the fall, featuring a new chapter on how Memphis has evolved since the book’s original publication in 1995 and what a new generation of musicians is up to. On Thursday, Gordon will discuss the book in a Facebook Live event hosted by Parnassus Books. Here’s your chance to hear the tales behind the tales from the master himself — don’t miss it. 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Parnassus Books
THROUGH JAN. 30 Julia Martin Gallery
MUSIC
HANNAH HERNER
[FORCE MAJEURE]
“DREAM CATCHER,” JULIA MARTIN
SEE FORCED PACE
her “boobie bowls” are especially delightful. Through Jan. 30 at Julia Martin Gallery, 444 Humphreys St. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER STREAMING
ART
DIG DEEP INTO CHRIS BROKAW’S EXTENSIVE CATALOG
At 56, Cambridge, Mass., singersongwriter and sonic explorer Chris Brokaw runs circles around most artists half his age. Brokaw previously played guitar in Come, an exhilarating punk rock band that produced a mutation of the blues, and he drummed in Codeine, a band whose unnervingly slow sound foreshadowed doom and post-rock. He’s also The Lemonheads’ longtime touring guitarist, a current member of The Martha’s Vineyard Ferries (with Shellac’s Bob Weston) and Charnel Ground (with Yo La Tengo’s James McNew). Brokaw’s solo output, meanwhile, runs the gamut from placement-ready pop (2005’s flanger-fied Incredible Love had a song, “I Remember,” featured in episodes of Aughts TV classics Eastbound and Down and Friday Night Lights) to indie film scores (2004’s I Was Born, But…), abstract noise (2015’s The Periscope Twins), covers albums (2017’s Prince and Bowie tribute The Hand That Wrote This Letter) and, sometimes, a little of everything (2012 catalog standout Gambler’s Ecstasy, an eclectic-yet-cohesive combo of heartfelt folk, snotty punk and mesmerizing long-form guitar-scapes). Puritan, out this month, follows 2019’s gorgeous instrumental collection End of the Night — and based on the driving, epic sweep of teaser single “The Heart of Human Trafficking,” it’ll be a serious corker. Its release dovetails with a new Ferries LP,
STEPHEN TRAGESER
Julia Martin’s art is dreamy, colorful and interesting — and sometimes, that’s enough. Her solo show of new work, on view through the end of the month at her namesake gallery in Wedgewood-Houston, is a testament to her talent in various mediums. The mixed-media work that gives the exhibit its title is a sunset-colored portrait that shows off Martin’s skill at elevating a simple drawing into a fantasy of shapes and colors. And the wood carvings are just as captivating — “Dream Catcher” is the show’s highlight, with blocks of sycamore, pine and poplar that Martin EDITOR’S NOTE: has fashioned into a AS A RESPONSE TO THE kind of oracle. Its ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF head is a cubistTHE CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO inspired assemblage INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN of multiple parts — PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT one eye is painted, its HOME. lashes stretching out like sun rays — and it has a hinged face that, when opened, reveals a hidden compartment inside. Also on view at the gallery are ceramics by Bang Candy’s Sarah Souther —
[THE POWER OF CHRIS]
[ALRIGHT, DISH]
WATCH JEROME MOORE’S DEEP DISH CONVERSATIONS
“The more I learn, the more I want to learn,” says Nashville community organizer Jackie Sims over pizza at Gino’s East, discussing her experiences with social justice with native Nashvillian Jerome Moore as part of his YouTube series Deep Dish Conversations. I found myself
repeating Sims’ sentiment as I went through the episodes of the series. In it, Moore talks to Nashville’s movers and shakers about the social issues they address in their work. The series’ five 30-minute episodes (so far) feature leaders from prominent local organizations like Gideon’s Army, People’s Alliance on Transit, Community Bail Fund and the Tennessee Democratic Party. While we might be used to seeing guests like Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda speak in a formal capacity, it’s fun to see them in a more casual and candid conversation. That doesn’t mean it’s all
nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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PRETEND IT’S A CITY
TV
The days are cold and dark, the pandemic rages on, and the vaccine rollout is proceeding slowly. But you know what’ll always be there for you? Movies. And so let’s dive into the 31st installment of our ongoing build-your-own-streaming-film-fest Critic’s Pick series. Up this week? Academy Award nominee and multihyphenate Greta Gerwig. A good place to start is with 2008’s aggressively realistic tale of a long-distance relationship, Nights and Weekends (available via IFC Films Unlimited), which Gerwig costars in and co-directed with mumblecore maestro Joe Swanberg. If you’re not an IFC Films subscriber, jump ahead to 2010’s comedy-drama Greenberg (available to rent for $4 via Amazon Prime), one of Gerwig’s many collaborations with romantic and creative partner Noah Baumbach. After that, queue up Frances Ha (free with a Showtime subscription, or $4 via Amazon), which Gerwig co-wrote with director Baumbach and features a remarkable performance from the then-27-year-old as a struggling dancer trying to make sense of herself and her circumstances in New York City. There are plenty of other Gerwig acting performances to dip into at this point, but for our purposes, let’s skip ahead to her debut as a solo director — 2017’s Golden Globe-winning Lady Bird (free on Netflix). That film does more with fraught mother-daughter relationships and circaY2K weirdness than anything outside of the incredible Hulu series PEN15. Naturally, you’ll want to bring your streaming Gerwig fest home with 2019’s beautiful adaptation of Little Women (free with a Starz subscription, or $13 via Amazon and Google Play), which was nominated for six Oscars and breathes new life into familiar material thanks to a powerhouse cast (Ronan! Dern! Pugh! Chalamet! Odenkirk!!!) and Gerwig’s sharp direction. D. PATRICK RODGERS
[SOCIAL STUDIES]
WATCH PRETEND IT’S A CITY
Nobody complains better than Fran Lebowitz. It’s a surprisingly comforting quality — you always know what to expect. In Pretend It’s a City, the sevenpart documentary series from Martin Scorsese currently streaming on Netflix, you get to soak in her particular brand of self-serious cynicism. Each episode swaggers through Lebowitz’s range of opinions — from tourists (they don’t pay attention) to Times Square (you should avoid it) to books (they’re the closest thing there is to replicating a full human being). Scorsese clearly adores Lebowitz — his 2010 documentary Public Speaking was also about her — and the series’ plodding pace is a perfect antidote for the nonstop tumult of current events. As Lebowitz said in a 2019 interview with New York magazine: “I think this era is too interesting. It’s way too interesting. I don’t want to be this interested in this. I have other things I’d rather think about.” Hey Fran? I’ve got just the thing. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER [OH BABY BABY IT’S A WILD WORLD]
EXPLORE THE WILD WORLD OF ROADSIDE AMERICA
I’ve never been one for big monuments or monumental artwork. The former usually valorizes historical characters I find objectionable, and the latter is often plain ugly and uninteresting. But show me a monument to a peculiar obsession or
FRANCES HA
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some grotesque amalgamation of ideas, and I am on board, baby. The Roadside America website offers hours of delightful scrolling, giving us glimpses into weird American minds and natural phenomena in our very own state. Chief among my own Tennessee curiosities is Millennium Manor in Alcoa, Tenn. This rates high on the weird-o-meter because of the twin elements of religious fanaticism and endtimes obsession. According to Roadside America, William Andrew Nicholson believed he would be one of the 144,000 faithful allowed to remain on earth after the Day of Judgement, so he built a home that would survive it. His all-rock, 14-room home was mortared together with 4,000 bags of cement. He died before the Rapture, and the new owners open the mansion for tours on Memorial Day weekend. Tucked between the obligatory quilts and empty moonshine bottles at the Clinton, Tenn., emporium Museum of Appalachia is a “seemingly endless supply of oddities,” accompanied by lengthy, bizarro explanation cards that tell amazing folk stories. You’ll find a 6-foot-tall, Civil War-era “Perpetual Motion Machine” that’s made from thousands of large and small wooden parts, the whole of which the inventor hid in a cave from the Yankees. Some Roadside America attractions are worthy of a socially distant visit, like the Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park in Bluff City. According to the site, 70 life-size dinosaur sculptures are spread over six wooded acres for self-guided tours. You can walk across a 67-foot-long
[SEARCH ME]
WATCH THE NEW SEASON OF SEARCH PARTY
The next time you find yourself about to tweet, “Ugh, I’ve watched everything on Netflix and now I’m bored, what should I watch?” spare yourself the inevitable shitstorm of bad recs (we’ve all heard of Schitt’s Creek, Chad) and cue up Search Party on HBO Max. The show stars Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Transparent) as Dory Sief, a New York millennial who sets out to find a friend who’s gone missing. Sief’s shoddy though wellmeaning detective work results in murder, lying to cover up the murder, more lying to cover up the lying and several compelling “Why the fuck would they do that?!” cliffhangers. Season 4 looks especially promising with (minor spoiler) Cole Escola (aka Matthew from the never-should’vebeen-canceled Difficult People) joining the cast as a Dory-obsessed super-stalker. HBO Max is rolling Season 4 out a few episodes at a time throughout the month — the first three episodes premiered on Jan. 14, three more are scheduled to drop on Jan. 21, and the last four drop Jan. 28 — so you have some time to catch up before the finale. MEGAN SELING
FILM
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Apatosaurus suspension bridge and check out a Carnotaurus that is cannibalizing another dinosaur. The site also lists fun opportunities to get into nature. At The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tenn., visitors can grab a bucket of beef pellets and descend into the watery underground depths to feed rainbow trout. Last but not least on my list is Billy Tripp’s Mindfield, located in Brownsville, Tenn. At 13 stories tall, the Mindfield looks a little like L.A.’s Watts Towers from afar. Made up of salvaged steel and iron — everything from bridge trusses and railroad-track rails to basketball hoops and canoes — the sculptures seem to scrape the sky. Embedded in them are curious messages like “My Life for it Lived Knowingly For Death.” Visitors are not allowed to enter but can view the artwork from the parking lot of the check-cashing place next door. Visit roadsideamerica.com for more. ERICA CICCARONE
Suns Out Guns Out, coming Feb. 26 — not to mention that Brokaw’s own custom guitar pedal The Recidivist, a project seven years in the making, will finally be going into production. Begin a deep dive into the DIY rock lifer’s daunting but rewarding catalog at chrisbrokaw.com and chrisbrokaw.bandcamp.com, hear Puritan at chrisbrokaw12xu.bandcamp.com, and learn out more about The Recidivist pedal at reusseffects.com. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
[PAIR OF ACES]
WATCH THE CC SABATHIA AND ROY HALLADAY DOCUMENTARIES
A long, deathly slow offseason has followed the shortest big-league baseball
SEARCH PARTY
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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CRITICS’ PICKS
BOOKS
an Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play. Pan Asian Rep presented the East Coast premiere in January 2015 at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row. This virtual revival has been reimagined as a radio play, and features the original 2015 cast — including Rosanne Ma, Jean Brassard, Dinh James Doan, Katie Lee Hill and Benjamin Jones. The play will be presented in two parts — both are available on demand through Feb. 7. Tickets are $20. For complete details, visit panasianrep.org. Jan. 25-Feb. 7 via Pan Asian Repertory Theatre AMY STUMPFL
THEATER
season since 1878. Fans looking for alternatives to staring out the window and dreaming of spring should consider screening the hour-long 2020 bio-docs of two gifted, big-bodied, dominant 2000s pitchers. Roy Halladay, a white righthanded hurler from Colorado, and CC Sabathia, a Black lefty from California, were never teammates. But both were surefire Hall of Famers — and, it turned out, secret addicts. For ex-Blue Jay and Phillie Halladay, who in 2010 threw the second postseason no-hitter in history, it was pills. For longtime Yankee Sabathia, who won a World Series in ’09, it was booze. Only Sabathia outran his demons in time. The Sabathia saga, detailed in HBO’s Under the Grapefruit Tree, offers needed uplift after ESPN’s devastating Halladay doc Imperfect, but the grizzly-bear-like southpaw — just one of three Black pitchers with 3,000-plus career strikeouts — also came narrowly close to losing it all. Together, the two films illustrate the parallel lives the two men led, give honest accounts of how easily onfield pressures can beget lasting off-field problems, and show the massive impact that any one decision we make on any one day can have. Under the Grapefruit Tree is easily streamed on HBO Max; Imperfect initially aired back in May, so finding it might take some digging around ESPN’s archive — but if you too already rewatched all 19 hours of Ken Burns’ Baseball during the early pandemic months and can quote Bull Durham or Field of Dreams from memory, it’s worth the effort. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
: Winners’ Reader poll
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20% OFF YOUR TO-GO ORDER ONLY MUST BE PRESENT AT SITAR (EXP. 01/31/21)
[CONSTANT READER]
JOIN THE BOOKSHOP’S 2021 READING CHALLENGE
According to the online editing service Global English Editing, “35 percent of the world read more [in 2020] due to COVID-19.” The U.S. specifically saw a 33 percent increase. Even so, the same report claims physical book sales dropped 38 percent in our country. That is not great news for independently owned bookstores! This year, commit to supporting a local bookstore while maintaining your new pandemic reading habit by participating in The Bookshop’s second annual yearlong reading challenge. Every month, shop owner Joelle Herr announces a theme, and participants are encouraged to purchase and read one book from the shop that fits in that category. The theme for January, for example, is “a book that won an award in 2020.” Think Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, which won the Whiting Award, or The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In February you’ll read a book written by a person of color, in March you’ll read a graphic novel or memoir, and so on. Herr posts several recommendations on the shop’s online store every month, or you can make an appointment to shop in person. (Only one to three people are allowed in the store at a time.) Herr will keep track of your purchases throughout the year, and everyone who buys at least one on-theme book every month gets a prize. Visit herbookshop.com for all the info. MEGAN SELING
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UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS THURSDAY JAN 21 6:00PM FACEBOOK LIVE with ROBERT GORDON It Came from Memphis
SATURDAY JAN 23 2:00PM FACEBOOK LIVE with SHARON CAMERON The Light in Hidden Placess
[A VIRTUAL NOIR THRILLER]
CATCH FILM CHINOIS: A RADIO PLAY VIA PAN ASIAN REP
New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre has a long history of illuminating the Asian American experience, while lifting the voices of (and creating opportunities for) artists who are often underrepresented. Beginning Monday, Jan. 25, the company will kick off its 44th season with a virtual revival of its off-Broadway hit Film Chinois. Billed as a “noir-infused thriller of spy-versus-spy intrigue and dangerous romantic liaisons in the vein of Hollywood’s classic films such as The Maltese Falcon,” Film Chinois actually premiered at L.A.’s Grove Theater Center in 2007, earning playwright Damon Chua
JANUARY PICK
SUNDAY JAN 31 2:00PM ZOOM with ALEXANDRA BRACKEN Lore (Our ParnassusNext pick) & Brightly Woven Learn more about ParnassusNext and our other first editons clubs at parnassusbooks.net/first-edition-clubs
GET TICKETS & LEARN MORE AT PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net
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February 1-7 $7
Eat your heart out during the Scene’s 5th Annual Hot Chicken Week! Support local restaurants with your orders (carryout and dine-in encouraged) and indulge in a Hot Chicken Dish for one week only! Check out our participating restaurants and learn how you can win prizes, vote for your favorite dishes of the week and more!
Participating Restaurants Visit www.hotchickenweek.com to see the specialty dishes, restaurant hours and locations to start strategizing your week!
It’s gonna get HOT! and more to come!
#hotchickenweek21 24
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
FOOD AND DRINK
THE FEST IS YET TO COME How food and drink festivals have managed to survive in a pandemic BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN
L
ost amid the plight of local bars and restaurants dealing with capacity constraints and depressed sales during the pandemic is an adjacent hospitality industry also severely impacted over the past year — food and drink festivals. Lest you think food fests are small potatoes, consider what a big splash the Music City Food + Wine Festival made when it first hit the scene in 2013 with a roster of nationally recognized celebrity chefs and rock stars. Sometime in the first half of 2020, that festival pulled up stakes and departed with nary a whimper, deleting its website along the way. While MCF+W at times had a problematic relationship with some local chefs and foodies, it certainly shined a spotlight on Nashville as a culinary destination, and the prospect of trying to stage an event of that scale is just unimaginable in the current climate. But what about smaller events that traditionally drew most of their talent and audience from the local community? Matt Leff runs Rhizome Productions, a company known for putting on the best beer festivals in town and across the region. In fact, the company’s tagline is, “We probably threw that party you liked.” Leff and his talented team have been responsible for events such as Winter Warmer, the East Nashville Beer Festival, Nuit Belge and Tennessee Volksfest — which all depend on shoulderto-shoulder interaction as attendees stand in line to sample beers while brewery representatives offer education on their products. With a busy calendar already planned for 2020, Leff knew early on in the COVID-19 pandemic that his world was about to turn upside-down. “Our first in-person event of 2020 was March 12 to 13,” he tells the Scene via email. “When the NBA shut things down that week, we knew we were going to have to follow suit. At first, we figured maybe a few weeks, which turned to a few months, which turned into the year, sadly.” Relying on festivals for the vast majority of his company’s revenue, Leff sought alternatives. “Around late May/early June, we decided it was time to give our audience opportunities to engage via virtual events,” he says. “We didn’t want to host a virtual festival, but more so offer intimate tastings that speak to Rhizome’s focus on the great people and products offered by the craft beer industry.” Leff’s solution took advantage of the sudden popularity of livestreaming as people sought any sort of interaction while sheltering in place. His virtual tastings are much more than just an opportunity to discover some new favorite beers. At a Rhiz(H)ome online event, as they’re called, attendees actually interact with each other and the representatives of the breweries, cideries, kombucheries, etc.,
RHIZOME PRODUCTIONS’ VIRTUAL OKTOBERFEST while tasting samples. Leff lays out the logistics. “Generally, our virtual events take place on a Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. on Zoom,” he says. “Packages support at least two people if not more, and they include 8 to 12 beers, cheese, charcuterie and brewery merchandise like glassware, koozies, stickers, etc. Representatives from breweries join us, plus there’s usually a concert midway through the event performed by local Nashville-based musicians curated by [Grimey’s and The Basement co-owner] Mike Grimes. Some highlights include geeky beer talk between professional brewers and homebrewers, virtual tours of participating breweries and special guests from breweries in Belgium.” Leff says the streamlined logistics have actually been a nice change for all involved. “In many ways, these virtual tastings are much easier to put together since they’re geared toward 50 to 100 people. We have worked exclusively with Woodland Wine Merchant on our virtual events, so guests visit their locations to pick up a single box of all items for each event. From the guest’s perspective, we have received great feedback, and we have seen a lot of repeat customers. They’ve shared that they really like the intimacy and direct access to people behind the participating breweries, and a few even said they would like to do this once our in-person events return. … We felt it was important to keep our audience engaged, as we’ve been part of the Nashville event and craft beer community for 10 years. It was very much worth doing, and allowed us to offer a fun and safe experience for our guests and help numerous breweries stay connected to consumers in a new way.” As for the future, Leff wants to remain flexible. “I do think in the colder months we’ll continue offering virtual events. We hope that toward the third quarter of 2021 we can start activating in-person events again. We’re working closely with the city/Metro Parks to stay up to date on how they’re handling things. Our top priority is and will always be the safety of our guests, team and amazing partners, so while we are anxious to get back to work, we’ll only do so when the time is absolutely right so we can deliver above and
beyond the expectations that our guests (new and old) have from a Rhizome Production. Having 2020 as, let’s call it an unplanned sabbatical, has allowed us as a team to consider how we move forward, things we want to change, things we can improve and how we want to grow when in-person events continue. In some ways having the year off will be very beneficial to us as a company, despite the stress and anxiety it may have caused.” Since 2014, Paul Patel has run the Nashville Wine and Food Festival — not to be confused with the bygone Music City Food + Wine Festival, although we always did anyway — which was produced in conjunction with his Corkdorks Wine, Spirits and Beer shops in Midtown and Green Hills. Patel made a quick decision in late March to change course. “We postponed the Wine and Food Festival to Aug. 8 in hopes that efforts to ‘slow the curve’ of the coronavirus outbreak would allow us to meet,” Patel says in an email. “When that logic failed in June, we knew we’d have to cancel both the Nashville Wine and Food Festival and the Nashville Whiskey Festival.” But Patel didn’t completely punt on festival season. “We still had the time and means to create a virtual whiskey festival that was relevant, timely and entertaining for our consumers,” he says, “and immediately began to brainstorm ideas for what a virtual festival would look like, which brands would participate and how to make it a memorable event.” His Nashville Whiskey Festival has been one of the premier tasting events on the tippler calendar, attracting distillers from across the globe and presenting multiple days of educational seminars as part of the fest. But you can’t just carry Wild Turkey’s Jimmy Russell around door to door to charm potential Corkdorks customers, can you? Patel capitalized on his connections and emerging technology for an ingenious solution that actually brought more customers into his stores to pick up their samples for tasting events. “In many ways we were able to keep the same format of multiple tastings and ticketed seminars held over three days,” he explains. “The twist was found in meeting
the logistical demands of preparing sample packages and food supplied by the producers, while bringing distillers/brand ambassadors online in a virtual meeting to speak knowledgeably about the product. Both sponsors and attendees were enthusiastic about the new model. “For the most part everyone was on board almost immediately with the change to a virtual event,” says Patel. “We sold out of half the events in a single day, which let us know that our guests were excited to participate in the festival regardless of whether it took place in a ballroom or a basement. Sponsors were equally optimistic and honestly curious to see how we would pull it all together.” It took a lot of work from his team, but Patel pulled it off. “We were given a lot of room for error because no one had ever participated in an online event of this magnitude before. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback, especially from our patrons, who were genuinely grateful that we produced an event rather than cancel as so many others had. I’m proud to say our virtual Nashville Whiskey Festival 2020 has become a template for other brands to execute similar tasting events with Corkdorks this year.” While Patel hasn’t yet canceled his ballroom space at the Omni for the 2021 Nashville Whiskey Festival, he’s hedging his bets. “The changes we made to continue the festival’s legacy may be here to stay for the next few years, who knows? We are currently working to fill our calendar with tastings to bring to our fellow Corkdorks simply because we believe in educating our guests about the products in our store while keeping them safe. I think this is the new normal, and there will always be a combination of online and in-person events of this size going forward. “Keeping the online aspect of the festival going opens up our corner of the world to a national/global audience of whiskey lovers and whiskey suppliers. As long as our team has the capabilities and people are not burned out on virtual meetings, we’ll be keeping a lot of the changes we made to the festival’s format.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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f you’ve lived in Nashville for any time, it’s likely that you’ve heard one of its fur-trading founders lived in a cave. You’ve read that Kris Kristofferson used to tend bar somewhere down on Music Row and that songwriters used to pop by their publishers’ offices without appointment, casually writing chart toppers with the country icons who just happened to be sitting around. But the lore of country music’s heyday can be a lot like fish stories: It’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s just a good story. In Hidden History of Music Row, authors Brian Allison, Elizabeth Elkins and Vanessa Olivarez offer an accurate, engaging history of Nashville’s most iconic neighborhood (complete with instructions on how to find that famous cave). HIDDEN HISTORY OF MUSIC ROW BY BRIAN ALLISON, ELIZABETH ELKINS AND VANESSA OLIVAREZ THE HISTORY PRESS 185 PAGES, $21.99 Hidden History geographically defines Music Row as “the arrowheadshaped neighborhood stretching from Wedgewood Avenue and Belmont University on the southside to Broadway and Interstate 40 on the north, with Villa Place as an eastern boundary and Broadway or 18th Avenue as a western one, excluding the intrusion of Vanderbilt University.” This precedent for clarity continues throughout the book, which reads like a writers’ round, with alternating chapters that showcase each author’s expertise. Elizabeth Elkins, a songwriter and onehalf of the duo Granville Automatic, kicks off the book with a chapter on Timothy Demonbreun, the subject of her forthcoming book, Your Cheatin’ Heart: Timothy Demonbreun and the Politics of Love and Power in Nascent Nashville. She offers plenty to think about the next time you hear the name of the Nashville street. Elkins opens with a puzzling hypothetical: “It’s rumored that Hank Williams lived right off Demonbreun Street, at the corner of Division Street and 17th Avenue. When he wrote ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart,’ did he realize that the whole darn city of Nashville began with one heck of a cheating story?” She goes on to describe Jacques-Timothée Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun (anglicized as Demonbreun), as “the son of French Canadian near-royalty and brother of two nuns, a spoiled child who did what he wanted, a classic case misogynist and polygamist, a conceited adventurer.” He was also a slave owner, tavern manager, fur trader, landowner and cave
dweller. The directions for finding the cave where he lived with his second wife (near Shelby Park) are included. Elkins’ account of Demonbreun’s life gives readers a feel for the frontier-like wilds of early Nashville. Today’s Broadway experience doesn’t come close (even with the bachelorette parties). Writer and historian Brian Allison’s contributions range from antebellum history to true crime. In his chapter titled “Music City Nocturne,” Allison covers history’s impact on the neighborhood’s property values and the terrifying crime spree that rocked Music Row in the 1960s. The grand turn-of-the-century homes in the area fell into disrepair after the Great Depression, drawing struggling musicians, medical workers and blue-collar laborers to newly affordable rents. In 1972, the Nashville Housing Authority survey found that out of 452 residential/ nonresidential buildings in the Row, 409 were considered deficient. Neighbors lived in relative safety until, writes Allison, the violent crimes of the so-called Tennis Shoe Man began. This string of murders, brutal assaults and stabbings spanning a two-year period shocked Nashvillians. No one was safe — not even children. Not every crime in this spree was solved, leaving an open invitation to further research for readers who love cold cases. Vanessa Olivarez, songwriter and the other half of Granville Automatic, covers the ghosts of honky-tonks past in her chapter “Pop-a-Top: Tales From Dives and Honky-Tonks.” Olivarez traces the evolution of the Tally Ho Tavern, which became Kathy Jones’ Kountry Korner, a beloved dive where young Kris Kristofferson both tended bar and performed. Johnny Cash, Tompall Glaser, Bob McDill and Brenda Lee were all seen taking solace from the pressures of the music industry at Kountry Korner. In segments on The Professional Club, Maude’s Courtyard and the revered Bobby’s Idle Hour (which was dormant for an extended period but has recently reopened), Olivarez details the proprietors and celebrity regulars who made some of these bars as famous as the stars themselves. Whether your Music Row interest lies in its early beginnings, the birth of outlaw country or country’s ascent to platinum hits in the ’90s, Hidden History gives shape to the hard-to-pin-down ethos of this magnetic place. For those who didn’t live with the Row of the past, the book’s collage of essay, interview and personal narrative is about as close as they’ll get. For those who did live it, this book’s historical narrative is a fitting tribute to what’s been left behind. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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PRIMAL STREAM 39
Exploding high-schoolers, an avant-garde documentary and more, now available to stream BY JASON SHAWHAN
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fter recent stressful chaos and given the slow and measured vaccine distribution, it seems like we’re going to need to keep treading water emotionally and socially in the way we’ve been (hopefully) getting better at for a while longer. This week’s streaming offerings are all really good and will stoke up your personal supply of endorphins. Good art really does help in times of crisis.
SPONTANEOUS ON AMAZON PRIME After this film made such a showing in the Scene’s annual Jim Ridley Film Poll, I felt honorbound to check it out. I still can’t confirm whether or not this played at the Stardust and/or the Montana when it opened at drive-ins throughout the country back in early October, but if it did then I certainly dropped the ball — because Spontaneous is exactly the kind of gem that just sneaks up and surprises you sometimes. Our main characters parsing the erotic undertones of a Leonard Cohen song at a memorial assembly does precisely that, and that’s within the first 10 minutes. As far as teen films go, I would put this up there with Rock ’n’ Roll High School, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Heathers, Clueless and Mean Girls. But like those films, Spontaneous transcends the designation of “teen film” because it digs deep into operatic emotions that any adult can relate to as well — but it’s not trying to impress any of us. Like that pantheon, it’s speaking to the current moment first and foremost. And as a series of spontaneous explosions plagues Covington High School’s senior class, the medical terror, scientific curiosity and deep-seated uncertainty of every breath that you take just feels more and more relevant. And resonant. And by about 20 minutes in, just keep your hands inside the ride because turns are precarious and you can’t see where this track is going. Writer/director Brian Duffield was having quite a year before the plague hit, and the 1-2-3 punch of Underwater, Love and MonHER SOCIALIST SMILE
SPONTANEOUS sters and now Spontaneous (he wrote the first two films as well) is a remarkable trio of humanity on the edge — though this film sadly does not feature aquatic monsters. A versatile metaphor for school shooters, the pandemic, the expectations of others, the academic/student-loan industrial complex, and the dashed expectations of movie-fed imaginations, this is a very special film, and you should check it out. A tip of the hat to the poll contributors who brought this one to my attention.
THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT ON HULU A remarkably evolved dad movie that manages to have its cake and eat it too, this is a showcase for Sam Elliott (and Aidan Turner as a younger version of the character) that treads delicately around iconography and could go horribly awry at any moment but that never wavers. Writer/director Robert Krzykowski crafts a stoic, inventive story that never lets its fantastical elements take supremacy over its austere and reserved tone. While that diminishes a lot of the thrills one might expect from a title like The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, it yields tremendous dividends and keeps the focus on the character of Calvin Barr and what he does. A pleasant surprise.
HER SOCIALIST SMILE VIA THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART One of the triumphs of the fall’s New York Film Festival, documentary Her Socialist
Smile from John Gianvito (Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind) is devoted to Helen Keller. But this is not the Keller sold to elementary school students as an inspiration both for the disabled community and for humanity in general, a deaf and blind little girl whose tireless work with her teacher Anne Sullivan led to the perennial play and film The Miracle Worker. Gianvito focuses on Keller’s work as an adult, when as an inspirational speaker and writer she addressed issues of social justice and inequality all over the world. A devoted socialist with a sharp wit and an unwillingness to suffer the illogic of fools, racists and capitalists, Keller never stopped telling the world about itself. A lot of this is elided or omitted in the history books kids are given, because a verbally precise left-winger who can’t be bribed makes dominant power structures very, very nervous. Just know that this avant-garde documentary is incredibly educational and deeply funny. Any teachers looking for some vibrant and informative viewing for their students should check this out — currently streaming for free via the National Gallery of Art (apparently because there are many people who can’t process that Keller was a real woman). So saddle up for something unusual, and get ready to learn a lot of American history that gets left out of even the footnotes.
UPLOAD ON AMAZON PRIME A gift to the deeply frazzled mind, the 10 episodes of this show from Greg Daniels helped dissipate some of the stomach-acid-
chugging anxiety I developed after the attempted coup on Jan. 6. Set 12 years in the future, Upload extrapolates where we’re headed and blends genres effortlessly, succeeding as bawdy comedy of manners, sci-fi romance and captivating mystery. Uploading is the first step in humanity conquering death, as people can have their neural pathways scanned into a vast virtual space that allows them to “live” even after the death of their bodies. But in that way that we never learn from past mistakes, we not only carry economic and social stratification with us, we’ve built it into the next step in our evolution. Competing companies battle for your data, with your data being your soul. And after an accident kills coder/developer Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell), he’s got to navigate a whole new way of living as well as solve the circumstances behind his own death. Romantic complications ensue as the now-virtual Nathan is tied to his earthly girlfriend Ingrid as well as Nora (musician and Prince protegé Andy Allo), his digital customerservice representative. Nimble at satirizing the worst aspects of the gig economy and how tech disruption can be a crapshoot between innovation and catastrophe, this is a well-paced and captivating slice of the human experience (plus Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files and a soupçon of Matt Braunger). I’m glad there’s a second season coming. And I say that as someone who was never taken in by The Office in either incarnation. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
UPLOAD
nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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AT A PLACE CALLED VERTIGO The twisted romanticism of Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time BY STEVE ERICKSON
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he latest from Hungarian director Lili Horvát looks back at several kinds of filmmaking: classical Hollywood noir and melodramas, the arthouse puzzle. One could picture it playing American theaters back in 1994 alongside Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy. The heroine of Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Márta (Natasa Stork), has a glamour reminiscent of Juliette Binoche — and considering this is Stork’s first film performance, her control is remarkable. She also has the fundamental unknowability of noir PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN femmes fatales. UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME The story cenNR, 95 MINUTES; IN ters on Márta’s HUNGARIAN WITH ENGLISH obsession with her SUBTITLES AVAILABLE TO STREAM colleague János FRIDAY, JAN. 22, VIA (Viktor Bodó). An BELCOURT.ORG expert neurosurgeon, Márta remembers falling for him at a conference in New Jersey, where she lived for 20 years, and making a vow to meet in Budapest in 2020. But János doesn’t show up. She tries to track him down, eventually finding out that he works at her hospital. She also searches for him on social media, turning up photos of the two sitting in the same room. But of course, that doesn’t prove the truth of her memories of their connection. Preparations updates Vertigo and Rear Window for a sensibility shaped by the internet’s distanciation. It pays explicit homage to the former film with a shot of a spiral staircase and the latter with a shot of Márta peeping at a row of windows into János’ apartment. But it combines the twisted romanticism of Vertigo with a pervasive anomie — its characters may as well be
separated by glass. The film’s one moment of true erotic charge shows János and Márta gazing at each other while walking down opposite sides of the street, with Horvát cross-cutting between their faces and legs covered by boots. She expertly uses color throughout to lay out the emotional life of a woman whose scientific expertise and belief in her own rationality leads her to fear she might be crazy. As Variety critic Jessica Klang writes, “Perhaps this is what film noir looks like when the (unusually intelligent) femme fatale — traditionally an archetype with little agency and less interior life — is the protagonist of the drama, and not merely the projection of everyone else’s fantasies.” Márta knows that she’s in the grip of a potentially dangerous passion, and even gets checked out by a psychiatrist. The film is full of doubling around this subplot: It’s grimly ironic that Márta’s shrink looks like the heavyset, bearded János with about 50 more pounds on his frame. Horvát cuts from one of Márta’s patients reacting to flash cards to her doing the same. Preparations presents Budapest as an upscale but extremely alienated, almost anonymous European city. This reflects Márta’s inner dissatisfaction. When opera bursts out in the film’s soundtrack, it seems intended to speak for Márta’s turmoil better than her words can. Instead of spiraling toward darkness, Preparations does come up with a solution to its mysteries. That answer is a slight buzzkill. But if it seems drenched in past cinema, it still feels like something new: picking up the aura of strangeness and perversity from Hitchcock and Buñuel — and the many films they’ve influenced since their deaths — to domesticate mind-altering passion into a basis for a satisfying, if more prosaic, life. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE G A P S
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As a government entity dedicated to civil rights, equity, and inclusion for all, the Metro Human Relations Commission has a mandate to provide public spaces for conversations and experiences designed to advance those causes throughout Nashville and Davidson County.
WHAT To keep people engaged and create opportunities for residents to get involved, the MHRC is launching a public discussion platform – Just Conversations – where the first project will be a community book reading of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to be an Antiracist.”
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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.
WHo We ask local residents to join by reading the book along with others, viewing the video panels, using the material to discuss the issues it raises. For those who have already read the book, the videos and material are a resource to think more deeply about the material, hear and understand a diversity of perspectives, and connect with others.
JUSTCONVERSATIONS.ORG nashvillescene.com | JANUARY 21 – JANUARY 27, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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Rental Scene
Welcome to Fairfax Flats
Your Neighborhood
FEATURED APARTMENT LIVING
Local attractions near by:
Best places near by to enjoy the outdoors:
Best local family outing:
· Close to Belmont and Vanderbilt Colleges
· Elmington Park
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List of amenities from your community:
Best place near by to see a show:
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· Belcourt Theatre
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· The End
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JANUARY 21 - JANUARY 27, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
IN RE: HAILEY KAY HAGEWOOD, DOB: 02/20/2007 BRAYDEN RICHARD KEY, DOB: 01/19/2008 Children Under Eighteen Years of Age
Madison Flats Brinkhaven Ave Madison, TN 37115 Studio 325 sq ft $850
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It is further ORDERED that if Respondents do not enter an appearance or otherwise answer the petition, further personal service or service by further publication shall be dispensed with and service of any future notices, motions, orders or other legal documents in this matter may be made upon Respondent by filing the same with the Clerk of the Juvenile Court of Dickson County, Tennessee.
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TIFFANY KEY BYRON HAGEWOOD
IN RE: HAILEY KAY HAGEWOOD, DOB: 02/20/2007 BRAYDEN RICHARD KEY, DOB: 01/19/2008
Tina Romez, has filed a petition seeking custody of Hailey Kay Hagewood and Brayden Richard Key. You are hereby ORDERED to appear for trial on that petition on February 16, 2021, at 1:00 PM, at Dickson County Juvenile Court, 4000 Highway 48 North, Charlotte, 37036, phone number 614-7890250, or to otherwise enter an appearance in this matter. If you fail to do so, an order may be entered against you for the relief requested in the petition. You may view and obtain a copy of the petition and any other subsequently filed legal documents in the Juvenile Court Clerk’s Office at the address shown above.
Children Under Eighteen Years of Age
ENTER this the 4th day of January, 2021.
IN THE JUVENILE COURT FOR DICKSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE AT CHARLOTTE Docket No.: 09-20-100-DN
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It is further ORDERED that if Respondents do not enter an appearance or otherwise answer the petition, further personal service or service by further publication shall be dispensed with and service of any future notices, motions, orders or other legal documents in this matter may be made upon Respondent by filing the same with the Clerk of the Juvenile Court of Dickson County, Tennessee. NOTICE TIFFANY KEY BYRON HAGEWOOD
IN RE: HAILEY KAY HAGEWOOD, DOB: 02/20/2007 BRAYDEN RICHARD KEY, DOB: 01/19/2008
Tina Romez, has filed a petition seeking custody of Hailey Kay Hagewood and Brayden Richard Key. You are hereby ORDERED to appear for trial on that petition on February 16, 2021, at 1:00 PM, at Dickson County Juvenile Court, 4000 Highway 48 North, Charlotte, 37036, phone number 614-7890250, or to otherwise enter an appearance in this matter. If you fail to do so, an order may be entered against you for the relief requested in the petition. You may view and obtain a copy of the petition and any other subsequently filed legal documents in the Juvenile Court Clerk’s Office at the address shown above.
Children Under Eighteen Years of Age
ENTER this the 4th day of January, 2021.
www.rockylawfirm.com LEGALS
IN THE JUVENILE COURT FOR DICKSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE AT CHARLOTTE Docket No.: 09-20-100-DN
ORDER for PUBLICATION It appearing to the Court from the sworn allegations of the Pro Se Petition for Dependency and Neglect and Custody that the whereabouts of the Respondents, Tiffany Key and Byron Hagewood, is unknown and cannot be ascertained with reasonable diligence, it is, therefore,
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EMPLOYMENT Broadcast Music, Inc., dba BMI. Nashville, TN. CRM Developer II. Resp. for building, testing, & maintaining apps used for music performance licensing on Salesforce platform. Will work closely w/the Director & Sr. Director of Enterprise CRM Services as well as Salesforce architects. Req. a bachelor’s or higher in Comp. Science, Electr. & Comp. Engin., or rltd field & four yrs of exp. w/ Salesforce Apex develop. on Salesforce platform. Min. two yrs of develop. exp. in Performing Rights industry. Two or more yrs of exp. developing solutions on Salesforce platform for selling & maintaining music performance licensing agreements & developing Salesforce Community solutions using Visualforce & custom objects. Exp. in estimating business reqs for Agile sprint planning purposes & in reviewing purchased software solutions to meet business reqs. Have an understanding of object oriented & structured develop. methodologies, JSON, XML, SOAP & REST. Exp. working w/ JQuery, HTML5, JavaScript & working w/ Salesforce architects to design & implement solutions to maintain & manage music performance license agreements. Knowledge of CPQ (Configure Price Quote) software. To apply, please visit the careers section of BMI’s website or this link: https://careers.bmi.com/enUS/job/crm-developer-ii2216/J3T49D6KHVD6VZR3Z4F
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ORDER for PUBLICATION It appearing to the Court from the sworn allegations of the Pro Se Petition for Dependency and Neglect and Custody that the whereabouts of the Respondents, Tiffany Key and Byron Hagewood, is unknown and cannot be ascertained with reasonable diligence, it is, therefore, ORDERED that Respondent be served by publication of the following notice for four (4) consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper of general circulation published in Davidson County, Tennessee.
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Rental Scene
ORDER for PUBLICATION It appearing to the Court from the sworn allegations of the Pro Se Petition for Dependency and Neglect and Custody that the whereabouts of the Respondents, Tiffany Key and Byron Hagewood, is unknown and cannot be ascertained with reasonable diligence, it is, therefore, ORDERED that Respondent be served by publication of the following notice for four (4) consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper of general circulation published in Davidson County, Tennessee.
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