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CITY LIMITS: GENTRIFICATION IS DRIVING AWAY YOUNG BLACK RESIDENTS

OCTOBER 28–NOVEMBER 3, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 38 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

PAGE 15

CITY LIMITS: METRO COUNCIL APPROVES TRANSPOTAINMENT REGULATION PAGE 18

FOOD & DRINK: LOCUST IS A CULINARY HAVEN IN 12SOUTH PAGE 45

SIGNAL AND

NOISE HOW AN OBSCURE NASHVILLE RADIO STATION BECAME A CENTER FOR CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE ’90s BY J.R. LIND

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CONTENTS

CITY LIMITS

Whose Nashville Is It? ............................ 15 The frenetic pace of Nashville’s gentrification is driving away some of its most valuable assets: young Black residents like me BY DESTINY O. BIRDSONG

Rolling Stop ............................................. 16

CULTURE

Pod Goals: Something Wonderful ......... 53 We Own This Town’s The Hills Are Alive podcast finds fantasy-filled escape in the best — and worst — movie musicals

BY STEVEN HALE

BY MEGAN SELING

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

State lawmakers finish one special session, begin another BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Flowers for Lillian .................................... 20 Local floral studio honors parents who have lost young children BY HANNAH HERNER

COVER STORY Signal and Noise

How an obscure Nashville radio station became a center for conspiracy theories in the ’90s BY J.R. LIND

CRITICS’ PICKS

A Nightmare on Elm Street & Halloween, Hocus Pocus, The Darkness and Other Black Things, Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk, Farewell to Fran’s, Badfest, All Them Witches, Pamela Paul in conversation with Ann Patchett, Loud: The History of Reggaeton and more

FOOD AND DRINK Swarm Regards

BOOKS

A Tale of Two Women

A nurse and a teacher from different eras follow similar paths in The Light of Luna Park BY PEGGY BURCH AND CHAPTER 16

BY ABBY LEE HOOD

Bossa Nova Charlie ................................. 60

Legendary Nashville cat Charlie McCoy swings Brazilian-style on his new EP BY DARYL SANDERS

The Spin ................................................... 61 The Scene’s live-review column checks out Joy Oladokun and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at the Ryman BY MEGAN SELING

63 FILM

The Style Desk

20 years after The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch left me wanting Edgar Wright’s new thriller Last Night in Soho has lots of style, some substance

Breakups can really haunt you, but revenge is its own kind of magic BY ELIZABETH ULRICH

Spice Up Your Life: Dune Is Majestic, but Sands Off Much of the Book’s Weirdness

Fiddler George Jackson and a stellar cast of banjo pickers duet on Hair & Hide

BY DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

You Could’ve Had a Bad Witch

Get in the Halloween Spirit at These Restaurant and Brewery Events

Rosin Up .................................................. 59

BY ERICA CICCARONE

VODKA YONIC

Metro Public Health Department Offering COVID-19 Boosters

MUSIC

Chef Trevor Moran’s Asian-inspired restaurant Locust is a culinary haven in 12South

Be the Boo Dudes You Want to See

A Design for Life ...................................... 54 Get to know three talented artists and designers ahead of their appearances at Nashville Design Week

One Down, One to Go.............................. 18

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

BY MEGAN SELING

The Metro Council approved transpotainment regulation, but the party isn’t over yet

Pith in the Wind ...................................... 16

OCTOBER 28, 2021

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UT FANS — WHY TRASH YOUR OWN ‘FRONT PORCH’? Athletics have been called the “front porch” of our universities — in many ways, they’re also the front porch of our state. That is, they’re something we use to attract visitors so they feel welcome. So why did some University of Tennessee Volunteers fans trash their own front porch? On Oct. 16, the UT football team faced Ole Miss in what should’ve been a great game. It was an exciting game, but now, all that’s being talked about is the way a number of fans threw trash and debris on the field as Ole Miss closed in on taking the win. It added a 20-minute delay to the game, and Ole Miss still won. Whatever happened to sportsmanship? Though a minority of attendees participated in this unacceptable behavior, it made the majority a laughingstock. It made Vols fans look like sore losers. As a donor, longtime UT football fan and season ticket holder, I was outraged — and I would imagine many others were too. OK, I understand that Tennessee fans were angered because they thought Ole Miss players were faking injuries to “catch their breath” while UT was trying to score. Even if that’s true, hurling things from the stands doesn’t change anything — well, except to make UT’s fans and team look bad. Think of the recruits who were on the sidelines. They were hearing the roar of UT fans, seeing a sea of orange and white — hearts pounding, UT band playing, just an incredible atmosphere, experiencing everything they’d hoped for. It’s an environment any university would be envious of. Then those recruits witness the fans throwing things — one fan even hit Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin with a golf ball. I’m guessing these events did not generate a positive impact. Now other universities have fodder to use against the Vols in stealing away recruits. They might remind young athletes that playing for the Vols could be risky, because fans will throw trash at them or onto the field no matter how well they play. And are the parents of recruits — current and future — going to be pushing them toward UT now? I find it concerning that so many people seem to feel that throwing a tantrum if they don’t get their own way has become acceptable — even at the risk of harming others. Does this ill-mannered, self-serving behavior stem from our nation’s political

and cultural discourse? Does it stem somehow from the January insurrection? Do some people simply think, “Hey, if we stormed the U.S. Capitol and got away with it, then why worry about trashing Neyland Stadium?” How far will we take this attitude? It has to stop. We cannot become so divided that we aren’t able to come together to enjoy the things that please us — like a great, competitive football game. It is supposed to be fun! Competitive, yes! But safe and fun. Football games should be a place to take the kids for a night out, for them to enjoy all the same things we did when we were growing up: The sound of the crowd, the food that’s bad for you, getting to wear your favorite team shirt. Why risk ruining that experience? I realize the majority of Vols supporters were not part of this behavior, and that many fans were as taken aback as I was. Nobody likes to lose, but as adults we still realize that’s life — sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And when we lose, we stand up, brush ourselves off and move on (and get back to practice, I hope). At least that’s the way it used to be. If folks now think that if we don’t like something we can throw things or hurt people, I hope that doesn’t last too long. This kind of behavior doesn’t help our community, our state or our sense of unity. UT’s program was fined $250,000 because of the behavior of their fans. This event not only tarnishes the image of UT football — it tarnishes the image of everyone in the school and in our state. And speaking of our state, in his usual fashion, Gov. Bill Lee has remained quiet once again. As chief executive of Tennessee, Lee should have something to say about this and how it reflects poorly on our state and its residents. If athletics are the front porch of our universities, by trashing Neyland Stadium, the fans were not only turning the rocking chairs upside-down — they were also pulling up the welcome mat and slamming the front door. The real cost of that behavior, and the governor’s silence, remains to be seen.

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 Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, Kathryn Rickmeyer, 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, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, 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 Marketing and Promotions Manager Robin Fomusa Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Managers William Shutes, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Jada Goggins, Caroline Poole, Alissa Wetzel 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

©2021, 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.

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

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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A call for justice. Right Now! Given South Africa’s devastating political past, it’s no wonder so many South Africans dream of a better life for themselves and their country. Johannesburg-based artist Mary Sibande boldly captures this sentiment while confronting the racial, gendered, political, and economic inequities in South Africa through hyperrealistic sculptures and photographs that prominently feature powerful women of color.

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Mary Sibande. Right Now!, 2015. Color print (edition of 10 + 3 AP), 39 7/8 x 92 5/8 in. Courtesy of the artist and SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. © Mary Sibande

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10/13/21 2:54 PM

CITY LIMITS

WHOSE NASHVILLE IS IT?

The frenetic pace of Nashville’s gentrification is driving away some of its most valuable assets: young Black residents like me

fell in love with Nashville the moment I arrived at Fisk University as a freshman in January 2000, and for many years, I thought it would always be my second home. But the past 10 months have given me pause. While Nashville’s frenetic pace of gentrification has certainly committed acts of economic violence against people who can neither afford to keep living here nor move elsewhere, it has also created another phenomenon: instances of microaggressions, threats and physical violence that have made it difficult for many of us to want to stay. This city is systematically eliminating historic neighborhoods and businesses, but it’s also driving away one of its most valuable assets: young Black residents like me. About two months ago, when I walked into Bellevue’s Value Vet location, I had no idea I’d be ticking battery and racism off of the day’s bingo card. I spent most of my half-hour visit seated in the chair farthest from both the door and the service window, watching news stories about the COVID-19 Delta variant and half-listening to a white woman in blue scrubs berate the receptionist for being unable to find her dogs’ vaccination records. As she grew more irate, I grew more anxious, tapping my phone’s PopSocket. I hadn’t planned to be in such a small public space for so long, but my elderly dog needed her eye medicine. Suddenly, I felt someone standing over me. It was the customer. “Stop fucking tapping!” she screamed. I yanked out my earbuds and stared in disbelief. A second employee emerged from the back of the office, and I turned to her, hoping she would intervene. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked away. Neither she nor the receptionist said a word. I looked up at the unmasked woman towering over me. “No,” I said. “You’re looking for records that don’t exist. You need to lower your voice, and you need to leave me alone.” She stomped back toward the service window. “I can’t take this,” she sobbed, dramatically and disingenuously. “Just give me whatever receipts you have for my visits so I can go.” While her false tears weren’t surprising, what she did on her way out of the door certainly was. “You’re an asshole!” she hissed as we passed each other. Then I felt a hard thump on my lower back. It was my very large and very full tote bag, which the woman either struck or kicked on her way out. After asking the receptionist to call the police, I followed the customer to her car, recording both her and her license plate number. Then I returned to the office.

“Did you call?” I asked. “No,” the receptionist said flippantly. “I’m not getting into whatever that was.” As I waited on hold with the nonemergency number, something else hit me. I was a Black woman in an all-white space, and there wasn’t a single person there who was interested in my safety. While my money was welcome, I was not. As I took the tiny $50 tube of medication from her, I shook my head. “White people,” I said ruefully before walking away. One week later, I received a sloppily taped envelope containing 14 years’ worth of my dog’s medical records and a letter. “It has come to my attention that you have indicated displeasure with our services,” it read. “You became hostile with our staff and used words we do not tolerate in our clinic.” It was allegedly written (though strangely, not signed) by Dr. Robert Watts, the practice owner. I — the person who’d sat quietly and watched a customer treat a worker so badly that I’d felt sorry for her — was labeled “hostile” and unfit to receive services. To say that I was enraged would be an understatement. But the far more familiar feeling, the one as familiar to me as the white woman’s tears, was exhaustion. When I first moved off campus to Bellevue in 2001, it was a diverse enclave. White people lived alongside Asian families whose elderly grandfathers did tai chi outside in the mornings, and Black college students jogged past South Asian mothers pushing toddlers in strollers on evening walks. But the Bellevue I returned to in 2018 has lost much of that cultural verve. The frenzy of progress has many longtime residents shook. They eye everything that “looks like it doesn’t belong” — whether it’s a sign advertising new condominiums or a person of color — fearfully and in many cases with hostility. Message boards on apps like NextDoor are rife with reports of “suspicious” individuals who a few years ago would have simply been perceived as doing what they most likely are doing: trying to get through the day, trying to do their jobs — trying to live. This phenomenon of over-policing isn’t unique to the suburbs. Danyelle Valentine, a recent Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduate who now works at the university as a fulltime lecturer, has been stopped several times, both in local stores and on campus, and questioned. One night, a Vanderbilt University Police Department officer pulled her over to inquire where she was headed, only driving away after she showed her student ID. In another instance, a security guard who’d waved a group of white students through the doors of the locked library scrutinized Valentine’s ID before asking incredulously if it was really

DESTINY O. BIRDSONG

PHOTO: HUNTER ARMISTEAD

BY DESTINY O. BIRDSONG

“I — THE PERSON WHO’D SAT QUIETLY AND WATCHED A CUSTOMER TREAT A WORKER SO BADLY THAT I’D FELT SORRY FOR HER — WAS LABELED ‘HOSTILE’ AND UNFIT TO RECEIVE SERVICES.” her. Valentine viewed both instances as more than simple affronts to her safety — she felt they were also threats to her sense of belonging. “To be questioned and scrutinized, that my presence is valid, that my identity is valid because I look like a different Black person in my student ID than I did in that moment?” she says in disbelief. “That always triggers that sense of self-doubt [about my] validity: Do I belong in this space? Do I deserve to be in this space?” I’ve recently begun asking similar questions about Nashville. I still love this city as much as I did during my college years, when I witnessed my first snowstorm and drove my first car (and ran out of gas) on I-40. But I’m older now and have concerns not only for my safety, but for my emotional well-being. As Valentine points out, the psychological impact of such racism can be profound. “I have a genuine

underlying fear that even though I’m now a faculty member, I’m still young, I’m still Black, I can still be questioned,” she says. “It wears on you.” In many ways, I came of age here, but my recent encounters have made me unsure how long I can stay. Joshua Moore, a Black podcast host and audio producer who grew up in nearby Hendersonville and still has family in the area, articulated a feeling I’ve been grappling with for months. “I would like to live in a city where I feel safe in my body,” he says. “Where I feel at home inside that sense of safety. That is not anything that I’ve ever felt in Nashville — both at home and safe.” I am a hopeless optimist; I believe that my second hometown could be that kind of place. But in spite of all Nashville’s progress, the realist in me questions whether some of its residents are willing to let it be. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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10/25/21 5:43 PM

CITY LIMITS

PHOTO: RAY DI PIETRO

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

ROLLING STOP The Metro Council approved transpotainment regulation, but the party isn’t over yet BY STEVEN HALE

new era is coming for Nashville transpotainment after the Metro Council approved a bill earlier this month clearing the way for the phalanx of downtown party vehicles to be regulated by the Transportation Licensing Commission. The commission has until April to put most of the regulations into effect. Among them is a requirement that party vehicle operators be approved by the commission before hitting the streets. It will mean an end to the virtual freefor-all that led to Nashville’s current status quo. Pedal taverns, those slow-moving bars with wheels that are powered by pedalingwhile-drinking tourists, have been pretty well regulated. But beyond that, basically anyone with a bad idea and access to a tractor, trailer or topless school bus has been free to ferry bachelorettes, bros and other vacationers around the downtown core. (It’s been a long time now since their motorized merriment was limited to Lower Broadway.) One part of the council bill that will go into effect soon is the ban on alcohol use on the party tractors, tubs and buses. That prohibition is set to be implemented in December unless the council passes more legislation. District 19’s Councilmember Freddie O’Connell, the lead sponsor of the bill that passed earlier this month, says he’s eager to bring another bill that would allow some beer sales or permit passengers to bring their own beer. But that legislation

will have to move quickly, and the situation it presents — banning perhaps the key element of the transpotainment industry with a promise to unban before the ban goes into effect — was cause for some criticism even from co-sponsors of O’Connell’s bill. “The alcohol sales being stopped fully is meant to be, frankly, a punch in the face to the industry to get their attention,” At-Large Councilmember Bob Mendes, whose law office is downtown, said to the council at its Oct. 19 meeting. “What I hope we see for round two is a more widespread conversation. At least for me personally — and remember, I listen to this all week, especially the end of the week once tourists come to town — but if we don’t come up promptly, all the parties who have hired all the lawyers and all the lobbyists, figure out a way to find an avenue to allow alcohol on these vehicles then we’re really more killing an industry than we are regulating.” As of this writing, O’Connell says he’s expecting to have the text of a new bill before the end of the month. Meanwhile, some members of the party fleet are already hitting legal speed bumps. Earlier this month, Metro officials sued in Davidson County Chancery Court trying to shut down the infamous Music City Party Tub, alleging that it has been operating illegally because it doesn’t have a public pool permit. More recently, WKRN reported that the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission issued a cease-and-desist letter to The

“THE ALCOHOL SALES BEING STOPPED FULLY IS MEANT TO BE, FRANKLY, A PUNCH IN THE FACE TO THE INDUSTRY TO GET THEIR ATTENTION.” —COUNCILMEMBER BOB MENDES

Nashville Tractor, accusing its operators of selling alcohol without a permit. Industry representatives have also suggested they might take legal action over the council legislation. “We support reasonable regulations, but we can’t get that,” attorney Jamie Hollin told the Scene ahead of the council’s Oct. 19 vote. Hollin represents the Nashville Transportation Association, a group of transpotainment operators. He singled out Butch Spyridon, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp CEO who has started voicing concern recently about the atmosphere on Lower Broadway after spending years as the city’s loudest tourism booster. “Butch and his minions, including a front group with anonymous donors, are great puppeteers of our city’s legislative body,” Hollin says. “Guess we’ll have to see what survives judicial scrutiny, because they have the votes and have no interest in allowing business owners and their employees to have a voice in the process.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

A federal grand jury indicted Shelby County Republican state Sen. Brian Kelsey and Joshua Smith, owner of Nashville social club The Standard, on campaign finance charges. The charges stem from Kelsey’s unsuccessful 2016 run for U.S. Congress. Prosecutors allege the pair defrauded the Federal Election Commission by illegally transferring soft money as a federal candidate and doing the same as a state officeholder. Kelsey is also charged with making and accepting excessive campaign contributions. Kelsey is the second Shelby County lawmaker to face scrutiny over alleged campaign finance misdeeds. A jury convicted Democratic state Sen. Katrina Robinson on fraud charges in early October. … Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) has supported some unusual, if constitutionally permissible, candidates for speaker of the United States House of Representatives, notably once voting for the late Gen. Colin Powell rather than Nancy Pelosi. There’s a seemingly wacky idea making the rounds that if, as seems likely, Republicans retake control of the House after the 2022 elections, they could install twiceimpeached former president Donald Trump as speaker and then, presumably, impeach and remove President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, thrusting Trump back into the Oval Office or, failing that, giving Trump the bully pulpit he needs to be a frustrating force for the Biden administration. Cooper says don’t discount the idea. “In 2016, the idea of the election of Donald Trump seemed mad to many, including myself,” Cooper told the Scene. “But in the world of politics, this is less far-fetched than the thought of Trump in the White House was five years ago.” … Metro Homeless Impact Division director Judith Tackett stepped down after four years on the job. Some notable achievements of Tackett’s tenure include the development of a coordinated database to track homelessness and available services, overseeing the merger of two separate government entities involved with homelessness services, and getting increased Continuum of Care funding. “It is important to me to highlight the big picture goals,” Tackett wrote in an email to colleagues, copies of which were shared with the Scene. “But let’s not forget other achievements that you, Nashville, have reached.” Tackett has been a visible figure recently due to several discussions about homeless encampments that have riled up certain neighborhoods and garnered media attention. While some citizens want to see the camps closed down — like those who live near the Brookmeade Greenway camp in West Nashville — Tackett has been vocal that housing, not enforcement, is the answer. She also voiced resistance to sanctioning camps — an idea supported by some private services providers — for the same reason. ... The Metro Public Health Department has begun offering Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 booster shots to eligible recipients at its two drive-thru assessment centers and pop-up locations. NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO State lawmakers finish one special session, begin another BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

THANK YOU!

dd-year autumn is supposed to be a sleepy time for the state legislature. There’s no campaign to run, no laws to make. This year, though, that typical peace was interrupted by a call from Gov. Bill Lee. He needed the legislature to approve nearly $900 million in new spending so the state could convince Ford Motor Co. to build its new electric pickup trucks at a long-vacant state-owned site in West Tennessee. Though the price tag is high — the most for an economic development deal in Tennessee to date — the typically conservative legislature was eager to back the idea, and did so in just three days last week, which is the quickest such a deal can be approved. The state is paying for the Ford incentives and related infrastructure with spare change, more or less. Lee’s top aides told lawmakers the money would come exclusively from over-collections from the past year — money the state brought in but did not expect to. Despite one minor and ultimately unproductive diversion into debate about COVID-19 mandates, lawmakers remained focused on the purpose of the special session: giving Ford hundreds of millions of dollars. That was in part because specialsession legislation is supposed to be limited to the topics described in the official call. But Republicans were clearly frothing at the mouth to take a crack at what they consider to be the tyrannical overreach of government bodies both above and below them, namely Joe Biden and local school boards. They’ll get their shot to do that in the coming days after lawmakers called a special session of their own — the second of the month and the third for the year.

It was set to begin Wednesday and could last as long as a few weeks with its agenda more open-ended than the Ford meetings. Lawmakers took the extraordinary step of calling a special session themselves rather than waiting for the governor to do so, for several reasons. Their official call, signed by more than two-thirds of members from both chambers, opens up the possibility for legislation related to COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements at both public and private entities, a response to a proposed federal vaccine requirement at certain businesses, making school board elections partisan, punishing local district attorneys (like Nashville’s Glenn Funk) who decline to enforce certain laws, and more. As a preview of the tone that can be expected during the new special session, House Speaker Cameron Sexton promised a “nullification type of bill” in response to federal rules. Passing the Ford legislation created some strange allegiances, as Republicans found themselves cheerleading a move that could help spur a full-scale transition to electric vehicles while also creating what might end up being the home of one of the largest union shops in the state. And the strangeness could continue in the next special session, as the Republicans who control both chambers find themselves at odds with business groups with whom they are typically aligned. Some Republicans in the legislature want to add regulations to businesses, preventing them from requiring employees or customers to do anything related to COVID-19. In a normal year, the same Republicans fight tooth and nail to prevent new regulations on businesses, or to end existing regulations, and the business groups respond by generously funding their campaigns. Some business groups are now taking the rare step of openly criticizing Tennessee Republican lawmakers. Is that the sound of trouble in paradise? “We do not believe government, at any level, should unnecessarily interfere with health, safety and operational decisions of private businesses,” the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce said in a release. “We look forward to discussing this with our elected leaders in the Tennessee General Assembly who have expressed their commitment to ensuring that Tennessee remains one of the best states in the country to do business.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

FLOWERS FOR LILLIAN Local floral studio honors parents who have lost young children BY HANNAH HERNER

fter Rachel Penn lost her newborn daughter Lillian in June 2020, making floral arrangements to take to her grave each week gave her some solace. It eventually grew into her own practice, Lillian’s Floral Studio. Now she’s looking to support other families who have experienced a loss like hers. October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and until the end of the month, Penn will donate 20 percent of the proceeds from two separate arrangements — The Lillian and the Support Strong Gift, the latter of which also includes a candle. Receiving those funds are Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a nonprofit that gives families remembrance photographs of their premature babies and babies with life-limiting conditions, and Sharing of Middle Tennessee, a mental health support organization for loss parents. Loss parent is a term used to describe anyone who has experienced pregnancy loss, stillbirth, neonatal loss, infant loss or SIDS. “We’ve gifted over two dozen loss moms or parents those gifts to basically help support them through this difficult month and to light a candle in honor of their babies,” Penn says. “The community has really come around to wanting to help sponsor loss moms.” Penn, a Nashville native, picked up floral arranging as a respite from her corporate job — she worked at LinkedIn and Google for a number of years. The two evenings a week she dedicated to her new passion led to a floral arranging certification, freelance work and helping get a flower shop off the ground in Singapore, where she most recently lived. “I think being from the South, you’re very used to gifting or receiving flowers,” Penn says. “They’re kind of the immediate thing you go to when you think of celebrating an event, a birthday, or supporting someone through a crisis or a loss, like death, or an accident, etc. My mom’s a huge gardener, so I’ve always been around flowers.” When Penn and her husband Allen moved back home in early 2020, she had let go of her corporate job. She hoped to work for an existing flower shop as the two prepared to welcome their daughter. When Lillian died, Penn needed to find some kind of routine in the midst of her grief. “I started going to the wholesalers, picking up flowers, putting an arrangement together and bringing it to her every week at her gravesite,” she says. “It let me talk to her because I could tell her, ‘I picked out these flowers, these flowers are called X, and I love them for you because of Y,’ and it gave me a wonderful routine and a way to express all of this pent-up parenting energy and emotion and love that had nowhere to go.”

Starting her own business wasn’t the plan, but it has let Penn keep her commitment to sustainability, avoiding plastic packaging, composting, using local flowers and purchasing carbon offsets for flowers that are flown in. What’s more, it allows Penn and her husband to hear their daughter’s name every day. “When people use Lillian’s name, when they mention her birthday to me, it’s an incredible gift because it actually reminds me that they remember that she was alive, versus being scared to bring up her name because they would be reminding me that she died,” she says. “I always know that she’s no longer with us, but it is important to me that other people recognize that she was alive, that she was a child and she was a life that was here.” Penn says what helps loss parents with their grief isn’t necessarily gifts or tangible items — and it’s definitely not about advice. What helps is acknowledging the loss and allowing lots of time to process the emotions — understanding that they might need space from things like pregnancy announcements, christenings and baby showers for a while. Penn says she’d tell loss parents like herself: “It doesn’t get easier. You just learn to manage your grief better, and it becomes a part of your life. And the best part about what I found with living with that grief is being able to share it, because it lets other people share their grief as well. That’s been a very healing thing for me.” She says it’s important for the Lillian’s Floral Studio team to think about the intention of the sender, and the occasion for the flowers as they design. It’s something she did for her daughter, and now she can do it for others in her daughter’s name. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

RACHEL PENN

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

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NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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HOW AN OBSCURE NASHVILLE RADIO STATION BECAME A CENTER FOR CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE ’90s BY J.R. LIND

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nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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magine this: a worldwide network of communication, beaming out in waves, bouncing off the ionosphere, continent-wide (and in the right conditions, even farther). To get on the receiving end requires a fairly low investment, all things considered, and once the infrastructure is in place, sending the messages doesn’t require an overwhelming investment either. Regulations are bare minimum. Sure, there are respected news sources,

military and intelligence applications and a smorgasbord of music and sports and entertainment of all kinds from around the world available right in the comfort of your home. But there’s also unfettered nuttery; nonsense or lies or conspiracy theories can go out just as easily and spread just as far as information brimming with integrity. This is, of course, easy to imagine in 2021. We carry all the world’s knowledge with us on our smartphones, we can listen to podcasts in our cars, and the price we pay is that unscrupulous disseminators have just as much power to spread their vitriol as eminent academics and respected legacy media have to spread their truth. With great power comes great responsibility, as Uncle Ben Parker once told young Peter, and social media companies and internet service providers are being called to the congressional carpet to answer for how much responsibility they bear for the hate speech, disinformation and conspiracism their services host. It’s not a new struggle. Indeed, it goes back to the very earliest days when civil rights were a nascent idea. And so every generation wrestles with every new technology, and the awesome power that mass communication brings, and the responsibility the operators of that technology have. But long before Facebook and Reddit and 4chan and 8chan and whatever else has popped up in the time since you started reading this story, kooks and skeptics and conspiracy theorists beamed their sweaty-browed screeching over the radio. And for a time, a lot of that nuttery beamed to the world from Nashville.

••• THESE DAYS, the stretch of Ashland City Highway between Briley Parkway and Old Hickory Boulevard is known to nature-loving Nashvillians as the way to Bells Bend. To obscurantists and lovers of local quirkiness, it’s known as the home of Travis Tritt’s Biggest Fan in Tennessee. And to local news watchers, it’s the location of Lewis Country Store, a gas station best known for the vitriolic messages on its roadside electronic sign — angry messages about Democrats and anti-Trumpers and people who believe in science and the rule of law. But halfway between Briley and OHB, there’s a small street sign on the south side of Ashland City Highway: WWCR Avenue. “Avenue” is a bit of a grandiose moniker for the road, a 700-foot stretch of pavement sliding through the woody shoulder of the main drag and easy to miss between the salvage yards and the riverside industry that surrounds it. There are a few satellite dishes in front of a squat studio building, and beyond the tree line — four massive radio antennae, pushing 100,000 watts of signal on the shortwave frequencies. This is WWCR, and in the 1990s, it was the global nerve center for conspiracytheory radio. Shortwave radio is mostly the domain of hobbyists. It uses high-frequency waves — higher than AM radio but lower than the

VHF waves used by FM and television — pointed into the atmosphere, where they can bounce off the ionosphere and propagate for massive distances. Globally, the best-known shortwave broadcasters are the BBC World Service and the Voice of America, the U.S.-government-funded quasi-independent broadcaster of Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Radio Liberty. But there are thousands of shortwave broadcasters, and sliding around the dial is like traveling the world (and occasionally stumbling across obvious diplomatic channels intended to communicate with intelligence operatives — their bloops, beeps, seemingly random words and alphanumeric gobbledygook meaningful to someone, somewhere, surely). Blasting out on shortwave, especially for broadcasters craving a global audience, requires a significant amount of energy. (100,000 watts, remember?) That takes money. And that’s where our story begins.

WWCR WAS LICENSED in 1989, its call letters originally meaning “World Wide Country Radio.” Its owners struggled to find their niche, even though the number of dedicated country music stations on the shortwave band was, and is, fairly small. So

they switched. “Country” became “Christian,” and the station focused on evangelical Christian broadcasting. Music, sermons, biblical exegesis. Sure, there was some hellfire-and-brimstone revival-type preaching, but there was also fairly mundane loveydovey Jesus-loves-you stuff. But WWCR also had a fairly loose policy on leasing its airtime and its frequencies to anybody whose check was good. That brought in fringe personalities with fringe ideas who had difficulty finding airtime on other stations, or whose message was heretofore limited to local cable access — which, though similarly lax with its broadcasting guidelines, had a far smaller reach than the megawatt transmitters off Ashland City Highway. By the early 2000s, a former Austin, Texas, talk-radio man named Alex Jones was sending his show out on WWCR (among other places). But the world’s most famous radio conspiracist wasn’t the one who laid the groundwork. For a decade before the Infowars magnate beamed his tenuous grasp on reality from the big towers, WWCR was already brimming with the hypertensive wailings from the cliff’s edge of the political spectrum. Before that, the shortwave station’s most noteworthy program was from a collection of veterans of the pirate-radio movement. Pirate radio first rose to prominence in the United Kingdom, where for decades the BBC had a stranglehold on the radio spectrum. But with the right know-how and the right equipment, anybody can broadcast a radio signal. Of course, you’d risk prosecution doing so. Unless you set up beyond the reach of the constabulary, which is what pirates in the U.K. did: They broadcast from ships or disused oil platforms in international waters off the English coast. Allan Weiner, a Maine man who had worked in both legitimate and illicit radio, visited one of these British pirate stations, Radio Caroline, and decided to replicate it in the United States. It’s a convoluted tale involving a wrecked Japanese fishing vessel in the process of being seized by U.S. Customs because drugs were found on board. Over a holiday weekend in 1988, Frank Gantner — an associate of Weiner’s — bought the ship for $100 and re-registered it under a Honduran flag with that country’s New York consulate. Gantner towed the ship, named Sarah for Weiner’s wife, to international waters, and “Come On Down to My Boat, Baby” by one-hit wonders Every Mother’s Son beamed to more than half the continental United States. Customs took the bait, arresting Weiner, a radio engineer and a reporter from The Village Voice. While the case was pending, Weiner agreed he wouldn’t broadcast as a condition of his release. He eventually sold the ship to a Virginia woman who had plans for a shortwave station featuring expatriate Chinese students (this was in the wake of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square) and for a link with Nashville’s WWCR. Unfortunately, Weiner couldn’t produce a valid paper trail for the ship. And in the meantime, as his would-be buyer tried to verify ownership, Weiner came to an agreement to sell Sarah to MGM for use in the climactic final scene of the 1994 Jeff Bridges action flick Blown Away. (That film is largely forgotten to history because 20th Century Fox rushed the similar movie

Speed to open against it.) Before the big bang, though, Weiner transferred his broadcasting equipment to another ship, and with the help of the duped Virginia woman, the FCC was able to show that the ship made a broadcast within the United States’ territorial waters, and Weiner finally faced the music. Nevertheless, Weiner’s show — Radio Newyork International — was broadcast on WWCR, and there was a sort-of pirateradio reunion broadcast on the station in 1991, which brought together pirate-radio personalities from all across the country. The Sarah/RNI folks were fairly benign. There were some garden-variety libertarian politics there, but by and large, these were mischief-makers out to have a good time and thumb their noses at the government. The whole saga only tangentially involved WWCR, and what press there was — particularly about the reunion show — was of the “well wouldyalookatthat? And now sports …” variety.

THE CONSPIRACISM SHOWS were going out from the banks of the Cumberland through the early 1990s, but by and large they flew under the radar. Despite its long-range capabilities, shortwave wasn’t — and still isn’t — terribly common, and the chances of running across at random a show about, say, how the United Nations is building reeducation camps? Pretty low. It’s the sort of thing that has to be sought out, and it requires a shortwave radio receiver. But at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, everything changed. The explosion that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City thrust the “militia movement” into the national consciousness. Bomber Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols had ties to the movement, and in the weeks after the bombing, the media followed every thread they could find. One of those threads led to a Michigan man named Mark Koernke, known to his listeners on WWCR as “Mark from Michigan.” His show, the airtime paid for by precious-metals dealer Viking, told tales of secret U.N. facilities in Gulfport, Miss., the U.S. government’s plans to subvert the Second Amendment, and the rise of socialism. He’s notable for popularizing the “black helicopters” conspiracy theory, which — in its various multitentacled forms — encompasses everything from aliens to the New World Order. Koernke, at the time a dormitory custodian at the University of Michigan, was so extreme — claiming, for example, that 15,000 Gurkhas (Nepalese soldiers who serve in the British Army) were in hiding in the Great Lakes State to effect a U.N. takeover — that even other paramilitary groups tried to distance themselves from him. He said he never met McVeigh, though numerous people reported that McVeigh acted as part of Koernke’s “security force” during a Florida visit. In the days following the Oklahoma City bombing, Koernke’s WWCR-broadcast Intelligence Report claimed, among other things, that the bombing was an inside job, that the government had foreknowledge of the attack (this is based on a fax received by a Texas congressman that was received after the attack but had a timestamp from before the explosion; this was due to a

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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“Words of Comfort, Courage, and Hope” An in-depth look at three Psalms – Psalm 23, 51, and 121. Drawing from the success of last winter’s study,

Dr. Jon Roebuck and Rabbi Mark Schiftan will offer a three-week virtual bible study on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 pm November 2nd, 9th, and 16th Executive Director of The Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership

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nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

faulty clock on the fax machine), and that it was all a setup for the federal government to implement a U.N.-backed police state. Another WWCR host, Kurt Saxon, gave over-the-air instructions for building a bomb from easily acquirable materials, though he claimed he was just reading from a book. On another show, the hosts laid out a complicated theory that the bombing was undertaken at the direction of the Japanese government in retaliation for the sarin gas attacks on a Tokyo subway a month prior to Oklahoma City. In this theory, the sarin attacks were ordered by President Bill Clinton in retaliation for stalled trade talks between Japan and the U.S. For a few weeks, the station’s ownership — the F.W. Robbert Broadcasting Co. of New Orleans — tried a pretty common defense: We don’t know what you’re talking about. “We’ve never had contact with Mark Koernke,” the company’s president told The New York Times on April 30, 1995. In numerous interviews in the weeks after the bombing, with increasing coverage of Koernke’s statements, the station’s general manager told reporters that militiathemed shows made up less than 1 percent of what WWCR broadcast, and that there was no way anybody could monitor all of the content. But eventually, the pressure got to the station. WWCR pulled the plug on The Intelligence Report May 1, one day after the company’s president said he’d never heard the show. In a reaction that’s predictable, Koernke and his cohorts said they were being silenced, that the station had been pressured by the FCC, that the jackboots of broadcasting regulators had come to their threat. For its part, the station’s move to cancel the show was inspired more by upset mamas — horrified that Koernke was spewing nonsense about a bombing that killed children in a day care center — than by federal regulators. Despite the station’s statements that it would review the content of its shows in an effort to be more responsible, no other shows were canceled, and Koernke was back on the air after a few weeks.

THE MEDIA MOVED ON, as it often does. Koernke’s (short) cancellation eased the pressure on the station, which continued operating in its usual way — Christian-geared programming with a smattering of the hard-right/conspiracy stuff — until 1997. Among the shows then carried by WWCR was one hosted by Ted Gunderson, former head of the FBI’s Memphis field office and, at one time, a candidate to become FBI director. But after leaving the bureau, Gunderson took his investigations in a more bizarre direction. Gunderson became a purveyor of the debunked satanic ritual-abuse conspiracy theory. He warned about the New World Order. He warned that a shadow government was on the verge of seizing the reins of power in the United States. He said children were sold to Saudi Arabian government officials at Las Vegas slave auctions. He said more than 4,000 human sacrifices took place in New York City every year. And in a stomach-churning foreshadowing of QAnon, he said powerful interests connected in a network of cabals kidnapped children for

sacrifice and sexual abuse. But none of that was what got him in trouble. On Dec. 9, 1997, Gunderson’s guest was a man named David Hinkson. Hinkson claimed that Art Bell — the host of over-

night paranormal radio sensation Coast to Coast AM, the famously freewheeling radio home of ghosts and alien sightings and so on — was a known child molester who bribed local police to cover it up. Bell, as one might suspect, was apoplectic about the accusa-

BELL SUED WWCR FOR SLANDER IN DAVIDSON COUNTY, CALLING THE STATION “ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S LEADING BROADCASTERS OF HATE RADIO” AND “ONE OF THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE STATIONS PERMITTED TO BROADCAST OVER THE AIRWAVES OF THIS COUNTRY.”

tion, but no one would know why for three years. On April 1, 2000, Bell announced his (first) retirement (of many). “In order that you all understand the gravity of the announcement I’m about to make, it’s going to be necessary for me to repeat some very painful events that have occurred to my family over the past several years,” Bell told Coast to Coast listeners, according to a contemporaneous report in the Scene. “On May 16th of the year 1997, my son, Art Bell IV, was kidnapped, transported across state lines, and raped by a substitute teacher from his own high school. The assailant was HIV positive. My son was a minor. He was only 16 years old at the time. The teacher involved was tried, convicted, and is now serving a life sentence. “As our family was working through this trauma in private, an event beyond all bounds of decency and humanity occurred,” Bell continued. “On Dec. 9 of 1997, just a few months after my son’s ordeal, my own began. Ted Gunderson, a retired FBI agent, along with David Hinkson and the assistance of others, aired a broadcast which — incredibly, absolutely incredibly — accused me of committing the very same crime my son had suffered, child molestation. … Of course, these accusations were entirely false.” Bell sued WWCR for slander in Davidson County, calling the station “one of the country’s leading broadcasters of hate radio” and “one of the most irresponsible stations permitted to broadcast over the airwaves of this country.” Station manager George McClintock — he who pulled Koernke and then put him back on — didn’t answer the Scene’s question about the lawsuit. Instead he went on a rant about the litigiousness of America, how his station represents “real people” and how criticism of his station is tantamount to trampling his constitutional rights. (Sound familiar?) Despite this spirited misdirection, the station ultimately apologized to Bell, with the Radio Hall of Famer announcing in October 2000 that the case had been settled.

THE INTERNET SEEMS to have spelled the end for WWCR’s days as a hotbed of reactionary thought. These days, the program listings are almost exclusively religious programming. Everything from the Salvation Army to the traditional Roman Catholic Mass in Latin to Pentecostals to various strains of Baptists and prophecy churches. There are a few political programs. Tony Arterburn, a former Army paratrooper who finished a distant fourth in the four-man Republican primary for Texas’ 4th Congressional District seat in 2014, hosts a program now and again. His politics are definitely conservative — he’s strongly anti-choice, strongly anti-gun-control, strongly low-tax and so on — but he’s not suggesting the U.N. has a secret base in Mississippi. And yes, there’s Infowars available plenty. But there’s also one other hint of the station’s old days: its original vision. Running at the same time as Infowars on one of the station’s sister frequencies: World Wide Country Radio. Maybe the world is ready for it now. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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NOVEMBER 20, 2021 – JANUARY 9, 2022 OVER A MILLION LIGHTS ON A ONE MILE PATH REAL REINDEER DANCING LIGHTS OF TRAINS A BOTANICAL HOLIDAY IN THE MANSION S’MORES, SEASONAL DRINKS & GOODIES NEW! HOLIDAY MARKETPLACE AND MORE! Advanced reservations required at cheekwood.org.

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LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS CITY WINERY PRESENTS THE FOURTH ANNUAL

Harvest

Festival

10.30

10.28

Kenny Lattimore and Faith Jenkins

taste 20+ wines music & wine pairings winery tours raffles & more! two stages vip options available

10.28

Bedouine

with Lydia Luce in the Lounge

LOW T I C K E T A L E RT

10.31

10.29

SuperBlue: Kurt Elling ft. Charlie Hunter & Nate Smith

Roxy Regional Theater Presents:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Wine paired with 10.31

Nashville Beatles Brunch

The Music of Aretha Franklin LIVE SET BY HEIDI BURSON BAND

SAM SARDINIA

JARROD DICKENSON

MIKE CAPRAROLA

ROSS LIVERMORE

T I M FAG A N

scan for tickets & more info 609 LAFAYETTE ST. NASHVILLE, TN 37203, NASHVILLE, TN 37203

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

10.31 Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio in the Lounge

11.3

SAWYER FREDERICKS & THE ACCIDENTALS

11.3

KIEFER - WHEN THERE’S LOVE AROUND TOUR IN THE LOUNGE

11.4

KAKI KING’S SEI

11.7

GAELIC STORM - WE MISSED YOU TOUR

11.8

SAN FERMIN - VOICES TOUR

11.9

AN EVENING WITH DAMIEN ESCOBAR

11.23

11.10

WOOFSTOCK AT THE WINERY FT. EMMYLOU HARRIS AND FRIENDS

THE QUEBE SISTERS IN THE LOUNGE

11.27

CHRIS KNIGHT PRESENTED BY WMOT

11.11

BOB SCHNEIDER

11.28

NASHVILLE BEATLES BRUNCH FT. FOREVER ABBEY ROAD

11.13

SAM BUSH

11.29

WOOFSTOCK AT THE WINERY FT. EMMYLOU HARRIS & FRIENDS

11.14

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON

11.15

DENNIS QUAID LIVE

11.19

ERIC ROBERSON

11.20

THE HEATHER MCDONALD EXPERIENCE: STAND UP COMEDY AND JUICY SCOOP

LOW TICKET ALERT

nov 10

Pie & Wine Tasting @CITYWINERYNSH / CITYWINERY.COM / 615.324.1033

CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y

R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

T O

D O

MUSIC

THURSDAY / 10.28 [COMPLEX MIND]

MANNIE FRESH

New Orleans-born producer and rapper Mannie Fresh helped define the sound of Southern hip-hop in the early Aughts. As a producer for the label Cash Money Records, Mannie Fresh worked with nowlegendary artists like Lil Wayne, and his production style incorporated touches of blues, schlock-pop and a rich gumbo of seemingly disparate elements. On his own, Mannie dropped one of the great hip-hop collections, The Mind of Mannie Fresh, in 2004. As his Cash Money productions had already demonstrated — he left the label in 2004, later hooking up with Def Jam South — The Mind of Mannie Fresh proved that hip-hop was pop music that embraced both complexity and bone-simple constructions. The Mind of Mannie Fresh features the auteur making a call to his local mayor: “First of all the crime rate is out of control / And every time I call your office / They put

BEDOUINE PHOTO: CLAIRE MARIE VOGEL

THURSDAY, OCT. 28 City Winery

MANNIE FRESH

FILM

[PRIME TIME]

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET & HALLOWEEN

It should come as no surprise that Full Moon Cineplex has spent the entire month of October packing its calendar with a heavy array of classic and less-than-classic scary movies. The revival house will be winding things down this weekend by showing a couple of beloved, bona fide bloodbaths. It

all starts on Thursday night with the 1984 Wes Craven supernatural slasher film that gave us Robert Englund as nocturnal serial killer Freddy Krueger — not to mention oodles of sequels and reboots. (Who can forget when A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy went toe to toe with Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason?) And if the new Halloween Kills didn’t properly satisfy you in the terror department, you can go back to the original — John Carpenter’s groundbreaking 1978 Halloween, which made a timeless scream queen out of star Jamie Lee Curtis, screens on Friday and Saturday night. This will also open up the franchise floodgates, as Full Moon will screen Halloween II on Friday night at 9 p.m., and the Michael Myers-

less Halloween III: Season of the Witch on Halloween night at 9 p.m. Oct. 28-31 at Full Moon Cineplex, 3455 Lebanon Pike CRAIG D. LINDSEY

MUSIC

me on hold.” Fresh is reportedly working on a collaboration with Lil Wayne, which should prove interesting. Thursday’s show kicks off Tennessee State University’s Homecoming festivities, and there will be an opening set by DJ AB Eastwood. 7 p.m. at Pizza Park, 1004 Buchanan St. EDD HURT

[PLEASURE PRINCIPLE]

BEDOUINE W/LYDIA LUCE

On her 2020 cover of Chris Bell and Alex Chilton’s classic Big Star tune “Thirteen,” Los Angeles soft-pop singer Bedouine gets to the delicate heart of that great song. Along with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra, who also play on “Thirteen,” Bedouine shows off an understated vocal style that suits Bell and Chilton’s tale of adolescent rebellion perfectly. Although some commentators

have compared Bedouine’s approach to that of, say, Minnie Riperton or Karen Dalton, Bedouine — the stage name of Azniv Korkejian — sounds like a post-bossa nova singer, or maybe Vashti Bunyan. Her 2019 album Bird Songs of a Killjoy shows off her clear, vibratoless voice. Bird Songs tracks like “Hummingbird” float on layers of acoustic guitars, synths and viola — you could also compare Bedouine to the superb late-’60s guitarist and singer Bridget St. John. The subtle pleasures of her 2021 fulllength Waysides include gorgeous creations like “It Wasn’t Me,” which combines romanticism and pain in equal measures. What’s most impressive about Bedouine’s work is its commitment to pure pleasure, and you can imagine her singing with a

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

Small Bites

Intimate Atmosphere HOCUS POCUS

4210 Charlotte Ave. | 615-678-4086

ottosnashville.com

rhythm section that swings in bossa nova style. Also appearing at City Winery will be Nashville singer and multi-instrumentalist Lydia Luce, whose 2021 album Dark River is a version of folk-pop-rock that’s more elaborately orchestrated than anything Bedouine has attempted so far. 7 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. EDD HURT

UPCOMING EVENTS

GET TICKETS & LEARN MORE AT PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29 3:00PM - 4:00PM

PAIGE CRUTCHER BOOK SIGNING at PARNASSUS The Orphan Witch

OCTOBER IS THE NEW DECEMBER

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1 6:30PM

F. LYNNE BACHLEDA

at PARNASSUS A History of Nashville’s Warner Parks 6:00PM

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

PAMELA PAUL

on FACEBOOK LIVE with ANN PATCHETT 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet 6:00PM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4

KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT

with MIKE LATTING, GLENN JACKSON, & ANDREW MARANISS on FACEBOOK LIVE Black Cowboys of Rodeo

SHOP OUR DIGITAL CATALOG:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5 6:30PM

SAM QUINONES

[ANOTHER GLORIOUS MORNING]

NIGHTLIGHT 615: HOCUS POCUS

To wrap up its season and ring in Halloween weekend, outdoor film series NightLight 615 will screen 1993’s Hocus Pocus on Thursday night. You know the one: Three witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, all giving it 100 percent) are resurrected 300 years after being executed in Salem, Mass. When they arise on All Hallow’s Eve, they need the vitality of a child to continue living — but navigating this challenge in a 20th-century world proves difficult for the old hags. If the supernatural Sanderson sisters were to somehow stumble upon this NightLife 615 event looking for children to drain, they’d be shit out of luck — it’s 21 and up. Gather some friends, take advantage of the food trucks and libations that will be for sale, and try not to run amuck … amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck! 6:30 p.m. at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, 653 Harrison St. KELSEY BEYELER

FRIDAY / 10.29 THEATER

Cocktails

[GLOW IN THE DARK]

THE DARKNESS AND OTHER BLACK THINGS

Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva is among Nashville’s most interesting theater artists. As an actor, she brings life and complexity to comedic roles. As a writer and director, she forces her audience to face hard truths about social issues. In August, she described her style to the Scene as confrontational, but that’s no reason to fear the reprisal of her one-woman show The Darkness and Other Black Things. Debuting at Kindling Arts Festival in 2019 and revamped for this production with Verge Theater Company, The Darkness “shares biting truths about the Black experience, as observed by a Black vampire.” The extraordinary Alicia Haymer directs. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29-30 at The Barbershop Theater, 4003 Indiana Ave. ERICA CICCARONE

SATURDAY / 10.30 THEATER

FILM

PRESENTED

T h a n k s f o r vo t i n g u s B E ST N E W BA R in Nashville!

[LET’S GO GHOULS!]

FABLE CRY: FESTIVAL OF GHOULS

If you’ve never experienced a Fable Cry show before, you’re truly missing out on one of Nashville’s most distinctive — and

at PARNASSUS The Least of Us

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8 6:00PM

ROBIN PREISS GLASSER

on FACEBOOK LIVE with KATIE VASILOPOULOS Grand Jeté and Me TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 7:00PM

LOUISE ERDRICH

on CROWDCAST with ANN PATCHETT The Sentence 6:30PM

LILY KING

@parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10 at PARNASSUS with ANN PATCHETT Five Tuesdays in Winter

PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/ HOLIDAY-CATALOG-2021

3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net

FABLE CRY: FESTIVAL OF GHOULS

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BE RARE. B E DY N A M I T E .

Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present EXHIBIT NOW OPEN

DOWNTOWN MKTG_BeHere_SceneAd_10-21-21 Brenda Lee.indd 1

VISIT TODAY

CountryMusicHallofFame.org

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10/18/21 11:01 AM

memorably macabre — rock acts. Following the success of its fabulous Halloween bash in 2019, this uniquely theatrical band is finally back at OZ Arts this weekend for Festival of Ghouls. Drawing from the worlds of burlesque, cabaret, puppetry and circus, it’s an immersive celebration that invites guests to dress up and be part of the spooky spectacle. The lineup also includes Suspended Gravity Circus, Pepper Said, Quiet Entertainer and Reversals. 7 p.m. at OZ Arts, 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle.

COMMUNITY

AMY STUMPFL [REMAIN IN LIGHT]

OUT OF THE DARKNESS SUICIDE PREVENTION WALK

More than 47,000 Americans died by suicide in 2019 — that’s roughly 130 people per day. What’s more, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated some of the factors that can lead to suicidal thoughts, including financial strain, social isolation and barriers to mental health care. The statistics can be heartbreaking

MUSIC

CRITICS’ PICKS [HOT MIC]

FAREWELL TO FRAN’S FEAT. JUSTIN AND THE COSMICS, HEAVEN HONEY & MORE

In late July, word went out that Fran’s East Side, a dive bar and karaoke hangout loved by Nashvillians young and old, will have to vacate its space on Greenwood Avenue near Vinyl Tap. Fran’s owner Frances Adams and karaoke master Gowa (who just goes by her first name) remain hopeful that they will be able to reopen Fran’s in another location, with help from donations to a crowdfunding campaign. Still, there’s the closure of the current spot to face, and a broad collection of folks who love Fran’s will be making Saturday, the last day for the current iteration of Fran’s, an occasion to remember — and help pour some coin into the relocation fund in the process. There will be live performances from noon until 8 p.m., with sets from rockers like Justin and the Cosmics, Heaven Honey and The Smoking Flowers, as well as poet Ben Burr. Revered chef and restaurateur Sean Brock’s Joyland

DOWNTOWN

Saturday, October 30

Friday and Saturday, November 26 and 27

SONGWRITER SESSION

Alan Rhody and Dave Gibson NOON – 12:45 pm

•

FORD THEATER

STRING CITY

Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry 10:00 am and 11:30 am

•

FORD THEATER

NOON – 12:45 pm

•

FORD THEATER

Saturday, November 13 BLUEGRASS AND BEYOND

Wil Maring and Robert Bowlin 11:00 am

•

FORD THEATER

Saturday, November 13 BLUEGRASS AND BEYOND

Kenny and Amanda Smith 1:00 pm

•

FORD THEATER

Saturday, November 13 BLUEGRASS AND BEYOND

Jim Hurst 3:00 pm

•

FORD THEATER

Thursday, December 2 LIVE IN CONCERT

Carly Pearce 7:30 pm

•

CMA THEATER

•

SOLD OUT

Thursday and Saturday, December 9 and 11 LIVE IN CONCERT

Keb’ Mo’ 7:30 pm

•

CMA THEATER

Saturday, December 11 SONGWRITER SESSION

Steve Dean and Bill Whyte NOON – 12:45 pm

•

FORD THEATER

Friday, December 17 LIVE IN CONCERT

Mike Farris Sings! The Soul of Christmas 7:30 pm • CMA THEATER

Check our calendar for a full schedule of upcoming programs and events.

CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Calendar

Museum Membership Museum members receive unlimited Museum admission, ticket pre-sale opportunities, and much more. JOIN TODAY: CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership

JUSTIN AND THE COSMICS and overwhelming, to be sure. But the good news is suicide can be prevented, and many suicide-prevention organizations are working to expand their outreach efforts every day. Among those groups is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, whose Out of the Darkness Community Walks have raised millions of dollars and taken place in hundreds of cities across the country since 2004. On Saturday, the Tennessee chapter of the AFSP will host one such walk in Nashville’s Two Rivers Park, where more than a thousand people reportedly turned up for 2019’s event. (Last year’s walk was held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns.) Attendees can expect speakers as well as a “bubble release” to commemorate the lives of loved ones lost to suicide. If you’ve been affected by suicide — whether you’ve lost someone close to you or you yourself have experienced thoughts of self-harm — Saturday’s event will be a great place to see that you’re not alone, and to do something tangible about an issue that can so often make people feel helpless. It’s a beautiful thing. For more information on the event and fundraising efforts, visit afsp.org/ chapter/tennessee. Registration at 8 a.m.; event 9-11 a.m. at Two Rivers Park, 3150 McGavock Pike D. PATRICK RODGERS

is also set to sling burgers from a pop-up at Fran’s from noon to 3 p.m. that day, and there’ll be some special limited-edition Fran’s merch available. Following the bands, there will be karaoke “until it’s dead.” No cover charge has been announced, but all proceeds are slated to go to the relocation fund that, if all goes as one might hope, will ensure that the impending closure of Fran’s is only temporary. Noon at Fran’s East Side, 2105 Greenwood Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER MUSIC

SONGWRITER SESSION

Jamie Floyd

PHOTO: EMILY BEAVER

Saturday, November 6

[KENTERTAINMENT]

BADFEST FEAT. KENT OSBORNE, SUGAR IN THE GAS TANK & MORE

Atlanta-raised, Belmont-schooled rapper-producer Kent Osborne’s post-genre stylings are equal parts pathos, politics and visceral power. Onstage, Osborne is a headbanging, missive-spitting whirling dervish. At his Spewfest set in the halcyon days of February 2020, Osborne looked like a generational voice on the verge. He and his crew headline this Midtown mini-fest at The End. The undercard includes Belmont poppunk foursome Sugar in the Gas Tank, with Reese Marshall — nephew of Blink 182’s Travis Barker — on drums. 6 p.m. at The End, 2219 Elliston Place CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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36 TH ANNUAL TM

KEY RESTROOMS

so y

J B

HERITAGE FOUNDATION & FESTIVAL HQ

WHISKEY LOUNGE presented by

LEIPER’S FORK DISTILLERY

SPONSORED BY

VENDOR + RESTAURANT PARTNERS Action 247 • Adventure Science Center • Arnold’s Country Kitchen • Banh Mi and Roll • Bates Nursery • Chauhan • Chef’s Market • Crieve Hall Bagel Co • Cupcake Collection • Daddy’s Dogs • Double Dogs • Edley’s BarB-Que • Elevator Vinyl • Hattie B’s • Haute Wheels Rolling Sandwich Co. • Labcanna • Las Palmas • n.b Goods • Nashville Ballet • Nashville Farmer’s Market • Nashville Repertory Theatre • O-ku Sushi • Rosepepper Cantina • Soccer Moses • Sunflower Vegetarian Cafe • The Golden Slipper • The Gumbo Bros • The Southern • Third Coast Comedy Club • This is the Finale • Union Station Hotel • Vinnie Louise

EVENT PRODUCTION PARTNERS Tennessee Titans • Metro Parks and Recreation • OSHi Floral • Bright Event Productions • Bashpop Co. Balloons • Massive Mission Media • The Picnic Tap • Picolle Bolle • Sizemore Event Solutions • The Oasis Center

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PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS

FOOD AND DRINK

SWARM REGARDS

Chef Trevor Moran’s Asianinspired restaurant is a culinary haven in 12South BY DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

evelopment has radically transformed Nashville neighborhoods in recent years, and one of the most notoriously congested sites is the neighborhood called 12South. (That name LOCUST itself is a neologism; 2305 12TH AVE. S. previous monikers 615-205-3737 include Sunnyside.) LOCUSTNASHVILLE.COM The once sleepy stretch of 12th Avenue South between Wedgewood and Kirkland has improbably become a tourist destination, jammed with restaurants and boutiques. Parking is so tight that some cranky locals refuse to even

patronize the neighborhood — the idea of paying to park is a bridge too far for some stubborn longtime Nashvillians. But avoid 12South at your own peril. Among the attractions are some notable restaurants, including one I recently visited, the gem called Locust. Locust is the brainchild of chef Trevor Moran, who we recently awarded a writers’ choice for Best Chef in the 2021 Best of Nashville issue. Before even arriving in Nashville, the Irishman spent four years cooking at Noma in Copenhagen, which is sometimes cited as the best restaurant in the world. After arriving in Nashville in 2013, Moran got a high-profile gig running the kitchen at The Catbird Seat, the flagship for Strategic Hospitality, the Goldberg brothers’ restaurant group. Moran’s time at The Catbird Seat proved he has the chops to turn his culinary obsessions into superior cuisine. Now he has his own restaurant, the Asian-inspired Locust, also in the Strategic Hospitality family. It opened a year ago, but didn’t immediately get the kind of fanfare it deserved due to the pandemic. Word is now out that Locust is a

very special spot. I recently ventured to Locust a couple of times, and first I have some basic notes to report. One: Reservations are a must. Two: The restaurant is open only three days a week — Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In other words, Locust is a hot ticket, and you have to plan ahead. Is it worth your efforts? The answer is emphatically yes. The menu is small — five items plus specials — but everything is worthy. The star of the show is the steamed pork dumplings ($20 for a basket of 12). These are really fresh; on our visits, the view into the open kitchen revealed chefs making dumplings throughout the service. The pork is from local Bear Creek Farm, seasoned traditionally with ginger and garlic. The wrappers are made from scratch with finely milled rice. After a quick steam, the dumplings had the perfect bite and weren’t soggy at all. The flavor was enhanced by judicious use of the little squirt bottle of chili oil that came on the side. (Moran says the chili oil is seasoned with a secret blend of spices. “Even I don’t

know what’s in it,” he jokes.) Perhaps the most mind-bending of the dishes was the beef tartare ($20). The succulent raw beef is Bear Creek Farm bottom round, seasoned with horseradish oil, onion oil and salt. It came with warm rice moistened with a cream made from pickled, smoked egg with some crispy rice pieces and green onion. Also on the table: sheets of nori, or seaweed. The idea was to roll the two ingredients inside a nori tube and then enjoy. It was enjoyable indeed, with the luscious beef and rice combining inside the piquant seaweed delivery system. Moran’s take on shrimp ($13) was also novel. Royal red shrimp mousse luxuriated inside a pocket of pastry with chili oil. It was like a savory version of a hand pie. To complement the intensely flavored meat dishes, I highly recommend ordering the vegetables with dipping salt ($6). On one visit it was raw cucumber spears. On another it was mini hakurei turnips. With that we’d eaten almost the entire menu. In fact, going with a companion or two and ordering the whole menu is a savvy approach at Locust.

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Thank you for voting us: PRESENTED BY

FOOD AND DRINK

Best Italian Restaurant

y family would be thrilled to know that their eﬀort and recipes are popular and appreciated in Nashville. Thank you so much for voting for us and we are honored to continue to keep the tradition that they started alive. Chuck Cinelli, Owner of Coco’s Italian Market Serving Family recipes since 1964

411 51st Ave N. & Charlotte Pk. (615) 783 0114 • www.italianmarket.biz

FOR VOTING US BEST OF NASHVILLE!

On our visits there was also a daily sashimi special: a generous portion of raw tuna belly or toro ($40). Toro is one of my favorite dishes on any menu, and Locust’s version was impeccable. The savory dipping sauce looked like soy sauce but was actually made from malted potato. One thing you don’t want to do is skip dessert. Moran has long experimented with kakigōri ($12), Japanese-style shaved ice, which is nothing like a snow cone — though the ice is indeed as fluffy as snow. On our visit it was topped with marzipan mousse and a drizzle of salted caramel. Inside was a dollop of local maypop and passionfruit. It was one of the more memorable desserts I’ve ever had. Service was friendly and on-point. As for the vibe, it was pleasant. When we visited for weekend lunch, the music playing was Paul McCartney’s early solo record Ram, complementing a mellow mood. When we visited on a Saturday night the soundtrack was metal, and the mood was more high-energy. But either way, Locust has a fun, convivial atmosphere. Large windows open onto 12th Avenue South. It’s like a culinary oasis on a

PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS

Thank you

hectic but buzzworthy strip — and an excellent addition to Nashville’s dining scene. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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NASHVILLE'S CRAFT CIDERY

Thank you for recognizing us for Best Brewery,Best Patio and Best Service. We are grateful for our community's support.

1235 Martin St. @diskincider

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WHERE NASHVILLE WORKS

VODKA YONIC

YOU COULD’VE HAD A BAD WITCH Breakups can really haunt you, but revenge is its own kind of magic

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Free parking, free meeting rooms with a suite, private phonebooths, 24/7 keycard access, a mile from downtown —just across the river, free local coffee/tea, event spaces, fitness center, Google Fiber and plenty of space to spread out. Flexibility within lease terms to downsize or expand at no penalty.

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BY ELIZABETH ULRICH

Vodka Yonic features a rotating cast of women and nonbinary writers from around the world sharing stories that are alternately humorous, sobering, intellectual, erotic, religious or painfully personal. You never know what you’ll find in this column, but we hope this potent mix of stories encourages conversation.

believe in the magic of getting messy after breakups. When you’re reeling, you’re not obligated to break like fine China and mend yourself with kintsugi. You don’t need to fill the cracks with gold. You don’t owe anyone the relief of a pretty fix. Last year when I left an abusive relationship with some debilitating parting gifts — complex PTSD, trauma symptoms so severe I couldn’t eat or sleep, a mountain of debt, and lies and betrayal that could inspire a Lifetime movie — I let myself break like a wave in a storm. On a hot summer day — my last in the home I shared with my abuser — I finished a bottle of rosé and instinctively gathered some provisions. As I maneuvered around neat piles of clothes and keepsakes I had set aside for him while sorting through the rubble of our marriage, I grabbed a shoebox and filled it with shavings from his beloved pencil collection, rusty nails from his toolbox, hair from his side of the bathroom vanity and a notebook (where I later discovered journal entries that outlined abuse he once denied). Then I snatched a halfempty bottle of his favorite whiskey and slammed the backdoor. I had no idea what to do with any of it, or why I collected it all. As fall arrived and I brought that shoebox into my new place — where I was waking nightly with a panicked sense that he was watching me sleep — I felt like the box might be haunting me. I invited a friend over for drinks and confessed my plan to rid myself of those last bits of him. “I want to put his things in a jar and curse him,” I said. “Is that awful?” “I have a curse jar in my freezer right now,” they said. “When are we doing this?” It had to be Halloween, which coincided with the second full moon of the month. “Here’s the thing,” I said, searching her face for a sign that I’d crossed the line. “I want to bury it in a cemetery.” I liked the idea of leaving him somewhere cold, dark and permanent. But one cannot simply walk into a cemetery and start digging. We’d be trespassing. And what if I had a knack for dark magic that killed him instantly? “I know a place,” they said. The next day, I headed to the bookstore

and bought two books of spells. Hell hath no fury like a woman in the occult section of McKay’s. Does this mean I’m a witch now? I had every right to hex him (and the patriarchy that protected him). Still, that label was an odd fit. When you look at me, I’m all blond hair and floral sundresses. But if you’re paying attention, you might say I’m witch-adjacent. I fill bowls with crystals and rocks I’ve pocketed from distant shores. When the moon is full, I charge them in its silvery glow. I burn sage. I pull tarot cards when I’m feeling lost, even though I’ve never memorized their meanings — that’s what the guidebook is for. It felt natural to pluck a mason jar from my cupboard and add ingredients from the pantry: vinegar (to sour his life), and cayenne, paprika and pepper (to inflict the burn of misdeeds). I dropped his belongings into the mix, topped it with a heavy pour of whiskey and tore two pages from his notebook — one to write his name and place in the jar and the other for my first spell: “This sickness and shame is yours to keep. I give it back to you. If you own the pain you’ve caused, I release you. But if you refuse, may the truth burn you eternally. I’m burying this darkness with you.” I read the words aloud as I held the jar, summoning the pain of every bruise and scar, especially the invisible ones. Then I gave it a good shake, wrapped it in a shroud of tinfoil and popped it into the freezer next to my organic smoothie mix. I showed up on my friend’s doorstep later that night in a lavender sweater, carrying my jar and a trowel. At the cemetery sometime after midnight under a moonlit magnolia, I started digging. “This dirt is really hard,” I said. “Will you help me?” “I think this is the kind of thing you do alone,” they said. I tore at the dirt, moving the soil aside with my bare hands until I carved a space the size of the jar. Then I covered it back up. It was primal. As we snaked our way out of the cemetery with the headlights off, the headstones guiding our path in the moonglow, my friend asked how I felt. “Actually kind of free.” The next morning, as I drank coffee on the patio while the dogs sunned themselves, I saw the thick layer of cemetery dirt on my shoes and smiled. I’m not sure if the spell worked. But I’ve come to realize that mornings like that possess their own alchemy, the kind where I can meet myself in the stillness without listening for his footsteps in the hallway. The contentment found in his absence is the real magic. And knowing that I’m happier without him? Well, that must really haunt him. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL THROUGH NOV. 6 AT DARKHORSE THEATER TICKETS AT STREETTHEATRECOMPANY.ORG

YOU AXED FOR IT

Street Theatre Company’s Lizzie serves up a bloody good time BY AMY STUMPFL

t’s been nearly 130 years since Lizzie Borden was tried for (and acquitted of) the horrific murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Mass., in 1892. But the notorious case continues to fascinate, and over the years, we’ve seen countless adaptations of the gruesome legend — from stage to screen and even opera and ballet. But I doubt you’ve ever seen anything quite like Street Theatre Company’s production of Lizzie: The Musical, currently onstage at Darkhorse Theater. Penned by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt, this version offers a fresh — and decidedly badass — approach to the familiar tale, with an all-female cast, a rocking onstage band and plenty of girl power. The book plays a little fast and loose with the facts, leaning heavily into the more sordid details and speculation surrounding the case — including the idea that Borden had been sexually abused by her father and rumors of a lesbian tryst. Regardless, it’s the music that really drives the story. And the opening number “The House of Borden” kicks off the evening in blistering style. Leslie Marberry directs a terrific ensemble of actors, all of whom seem quite comfortable with the rowdy concert vibe. Delaney Amatrudo anchors the piece in the title role, demonstrating impressive vocal range and control, while making a believable journey from traumatized young woman to swaggering, ax-wielding heroine. Act I’s “This is Not Love” is particularly potent, revealing Lizzie’s emotional state and reminding us just how precarious her situation actually is. But her steely resolve and powerhouse vocals quickly pick up in big numbers such as “Gotta Get Out of Here” and “Burn the Old Thing Up.”

PHOTO: NYLAH BANNISTER

Thank you

Caitlyn Porayko also is excellent as Lizzie’s neighbor and love interest Alice. She provides a nice counterbalance to Amatrudo’s more brash delivery, particularly in reflective ballads such as “If You Knew” and “Maybe Someday.” As Lizzie’s big sister Emma, Hannah Arn delivers plenty of fireworks, commanding the stage in “Sweet Little Sister” and “What the Fuck Now, Lizzie?!” But it’s the beautiful hymn “Watchmen for the Morning’’ (which she shares with Amatrudo) that really showcases her voice. Mileah Milstead rounds out the quartet as the family’s housekeeper Bridget — her lips curling around each haunting lyric in “Shattercane and Velvet Grass.” And she gives us a delicious blend of disdain and droll delight in “The Fall of The House of Borden.” Of course, some of the best moments feature the entire ensemble, including Act I’s fiery closer “Somebody Will Do Something.” Other highlights include the percussive “Questions Questions” and the scorching “Thirteen Days in Taunton,” which fully draws us into the spectacle of the courtroom. By the time a triumphant Lizzie emerges with “Into Your Wildest Dreams,” you may just be ready to grab an ax and hop onstage yourself. Meanwhile, music director Lee Druce plays keys and leads a great band, with Danielle Aslett on drums, Sarah Eitel on guitar and Sean Zywick on bass. In the hands of a lesser cast and crew, the pulsating sound could easily overwhelm, and I must admit that I did occasionally lose some of the lyrics at Friday night’s opening performance. But the raw energy adds to the fun, and truly serves the story. Cassie Hamilton’s multilevel set makes the most of the intimate Darkhorse, and is nicely enhanced by Kristen DuBois’ dramatic lighting. J. Robert Rains deserves special mention for his effective sound and projection designs, and Mycah Kennedy’s costumes provide an eye-catching mix of Victorian and punk fashions. Often exhilarating and wholly entertaining, Street Theatre’s Lizzie is just a bloody good time. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

CULTURE

SOMETHING WONDERFUL

We Own This Town’s The Hills Are Alive podcast finds fantasyfilled escape in the best — and worst — movie musicals BY MEGAN SELING

hings got weird last year. A lot of us found comfort or temporary reprieve in unexpected places. Maybe you baked a lot of banana bread; maybe you refamiliarized yourself with the popular 1970s knitting alternative latchhooking. Alex Caress and Kelsey Jayne, the hosts of The Hills Are Alive: A Movie Musical Podcast, found their escape in musicals. “I don’t want to be dramatic and say [the podcast] rescued me,” says Jayne, “but I would say my top motivation for doing it was [to have] something healthy to do, and something totally different from anything that I’ve ever done before. If the pandemic hadn’t happened, I don’t think the podcast would’ve happened.” Caress and Jayne are sitting at a table outside Earnest Bar & Hideaway, a Wedgewood-Houston spot just down the street from the We Own This Town studio where they record The Hills Are Alive. The two banter just as they do on the podcast, with the same warmth and ease that comes with knowing one another for years. Caress, a professional musician who

fronts the alt-country band Little Bandit, is a lifelong musical devotee. He was hooked as soon as he saw The Sound of Music on TV as a kid, and began acting in theater productions shortly thereafter. “I started being in musicals in, like, second or third grade,” he says. “I was in The Music Man. I was Winthrop. I had to thpeak with a lithp. Then I was in every musical I could be in after that, through high school.” Jayne, a lawyer by day, admits to being more of a casual fan. “I wasn’t a theater kid,” she says. “I definitely started watching more and have gotten a little bit more invested as we’ve been doing the podcast, but when we first started talking about doing the podcast, my role was intended to be your casual viewer. Not somebody with a lot of musical theater experience.” What sets The Hills Are Alive apart from other film- and pop-culture-focused podcasts is the level of sincerity Caress and Jayne bring to the discussion, while still maintaining a critical eye. In Season 1 they recapped musicals they sincerely love, for the most part — The Sound of Music (“Nuns. Nazis. Hills!”), Dreamgirls (“If you love

spinning newspaper montages, you’ll love 2006’s Dreamgirls!”), and Fiddler on the Roof (“Papas! Mamas! Sunrise! Sunset!”). And while they disagree on Annie — Caress loves it while Jayne says, “I would never watch it again” — they both enjoyed openly mocking “the erotic weirdness” of The Phantom of the Opera. “We’re not Andrew Lloyd Webber fans,” Caress says. For Season 2, which kicked off last week with a special Halloween episode about The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Hills hosts will travel through the decades. In November they’ll discuss The Wizard of Oz (1939), in December they’ll cover what Caress calls the “not very Christmassy Christmas movie” Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and after that, they’ll have an episode dedicated to one of Jayne’s favorites — Oklahoma (1955). “I’m really excited to do that one,” says Jayne. I personally can’t wait until they get to the ’70s, when they’ll watch and discuss The Wiz, Motown Productions’ adaptation of the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with an all-Black cast featuring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne and more. It’d be so easy to fall back on snark when discussing many of these films — musicals can be very goofy! In the world of musical theater, a conman convinces an entire town to buy his musical instruments as a way to break a nonexistent billiards habit. A dead man dramatically and selfishly terrorizes a theatrical production because he’s still in love with his childhood friend. People are constantly breaking out in song and dance, and sometimes puppets are involved! Musi-

cals require a certain amount of imagination and willingness to embrace the fantasy, and that can make for some pretty low-hanging comedic fruit when put in the wrong hands. But Caress and Jayne sincerely love musicals. Even the not-so-great ones. “Musicals are about escapism,” says Caress. He hasn’t been able to tour or play shows for going on 20 months. He’s working on a new Little Bandit record, but the pandemic has paused that process, too. “I feel like the pandemic and lockdown have affected people in different ways,” he says. “Some people have felt really creatively motivated by it. I have felt the opposite. I feel like the podcast has given me a chance to do something creative. I’ll have another album in the works, eventually, but this has been more of a chance to do something rewarding in the meantime and scratch the sort of musical itch I’m not getting other places.” “We try to bring as much earnestness and appreciation for the musicals as the movies do themselves,” says Jayne. “And a healthy amount of cynicism!” Caress adds. “Yeah, I mean, we’ll talk some shit,” Jayne agrees, laughing. “I kind of describe it is as going downtown on Broadway [in Nashville]. You can have a good time if you are willing to embrace it.” “Accept it for what it is!” “Yeah, if you go into it like, ‘I hate honkytonks! I don’t like country music! I don’t like musicals! Why is that gang dancing?’ You’re gonna have a bad time! I think everyone can enjoy musicals if they just let themselves.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE: A MOVIE MUSICAL PODCAST IS AVAILABLE ON APPLE PODCASTS, SPOTIFY OR WHEREVER YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTS ARE FOUND

ALEX CARESS AND KELSEY JAYNE

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CULTURE

A DESIGN FOR LIFE BY MEGAN SELING

esign is everywhere — in the buildings you live in, the streets you drive on and the alt-weekly newspapers you read. This year’s Nashville Design Week schedule is packed with discussions, panels and workshops set to take place Nov. 1 through 5 (see some highlights in our sidebar) that explore all the ways in which design impacts our lives. Ahead of the weeklong event, the Scene caught up with three of Nashville’s talented designers who are not only participating in Nashville Design Week, but are also creating the art, brand campaigns and social media content you probably already love.

NASHVILLE DESIGN WEEK IS NOV. 1-5, ONLINE AND AT LOCATIONS AROUND THE CITY. LEARN MORE AT NASHVILLEDESIGNWEEK.ORG

PHOTO: JOHN GUGALA

Get to know three talented artists and designers ahead of their appearances at Nashville Design Week

LINDSEY LASETER

PHOTO: BROOKE DAINTY

Ladies, Wine & Design Mentorship Huddles 5-6:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 1. Lindsey Laseter is one-half of Lasso, the motion-led branding studio she founded with her partner Allen Laseter. Together, they’re the brand partners and the creative directors of Nashville Design Week. Laseter also founded the Nashville chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design, which will host the Mentorship Huddles workshop on Monday, Nov. 1. Follow Lindsey on Instagram at @lindseylaseter. When did you start the Nashville chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design, and what inspired you to do so? I started the

NDW Opening Party & 2021 Community Art Project Reveal 7-9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1; For the Sake of Creating 5-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3 Cymone Wilder is a designer, lettering artist and one-half of Simon and Moose, the family-run design firm she founded with Cedric Wilder. Her eye-catching work is full of energy that brings new life to words. Follow her on Instagram at @simonandmoose. It’s amazing to flip through your portfolio because each project is so different from the last. Where do you find inspiration for all your different styles? Each client or project is so different, but I always start by asking, “How can I infuse my style into this?” The main thread through all of my work, no matter for who or what, is this tangible and authentic feeling. Something you can touch, feel and interact with. I’m first and foremost inspired by jazz, and then often inspired by the original signage throughout Nashville.

Lettering is an especially interesting design element to me because, as a writer, I think the words themselves are so important. Here, you have the job to make those words look good while also still clearly relaying the message. Is that challenging? Lettering has always felt like the easiest way for me to communicate in my work. It says exactly what it means. Sometimes when something feels too difficult to say out loud, I know that I can get it out in my lettering. And when something is flat or trivial, I know I can elevate it with my work.

You’ve done work with some really impressive clients — Nickelodeon, HBO Max, Wired and more — what has been one of your favorite projects to work on recently and why? It’s been a busy year, filled with a lot of incredible projects, for which I am so grateful. I think my favorite project was creating a wordmark for That Girl Lay Lay/Nickelodeon. [Show star Alaya High] is such a bright light and good omen for what’s to come with Nickelodeon, and I was pumped that what I created is able to reflect that.

You’re not just a designer — you’re also a partner at Lasso, which specializes in “motion-led branding.” Can you tell me what that means in the design world? Lasso is the creative studio of myself and Allen Laseter, an incredible animator, illustrator and director who also happens to be my husband. After both working independently for a decade, we realized how the overlaps of design and branding were filled with opportunities for motion and animation to empower brands at a new level — we could do more as a team merging our expertise. There are so many talented design and branding studios, but not many who have merged motion as a key component to how a brand and story can live in the world. Nashville Design Week 2020 was actually our first official project as partners and led to the decision to start a formal studio! Who is your favorite designer in Nashville right now? It’s hard to choose just one, but New Hat has always been a source of inspiration for us. Kelly [Diehl] and Elizabeth [Williams] are creating work with such a unique point of view, and we love to see artists and designers that have made such a formative impact on the city. We’re hoping to do the same.

PHOTO: NICOLA HARGER

CYMONE WILDER

Nashville chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design in the spring of 2017. At the time I was working at a small design studio with only two employees and craving community and connection to other designers. It was born out of personal desire but has evolved into a beautiful space for women across the city to connect on a personal level and support one another as professional creatives.

XPAYNE

NDW Opening Party & 2021 Community Art Project Reveal 7-9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1 You’ve seen Xpayne’s work, though you may not know it. He’s designed logos and art for Slim & Husky’s, WNXP, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival and more. His work has also appeared on the cover of the Scene. Another client? Spike Lee. The director purchased and licensed XPayne’s portrait of Bill Nunn as Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing. Follow him on Instagram at @xpayneart. You also paint, do digital design, branding campaigns and more. In all the ways in which you create, do you have a favorite medium? That is difficult! I think my all-time favorite medium might be airbrush (plot twist!). Like those oversized airbrushed T-shirts of Aaliyah that Missy Elliott used to wear in videos, I used to make those. Lately, I’ve been using spray paint as a means to reconnect with my airbrushing roots.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of — or more support for — in the local visual art and design community? Unbridled Black feminism, and a Nashville that is not afraid of subversive art. I think Nashville wants to support the arts but still needs to understand the circumstances that artists have to deal with.

You call your work “Black Pop.” I totally see it — you have a similar bright, vivid energy and simplicity in your work as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama. Can you tell me more about that phrase and how it fits your work? I started writing the term in college, looking at folks like Haring and Kara Walker and Takashi Murakami. It was a means to identify myself within the art world that some took seriously and others not so much. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that it also speaks to a certain creative approach as a participant in American life. I think “popular” is a word that has layers to it, and when one changes perspectives on what is popular, the world becomes much deeper and nuanced than just the Top 10 charts. My goal is to explore Black life within this framework as a means to enrich our cultural language. Simply put, Black Pop is pop art from a Black American perspective.

You celebrate a lot of musicians in your work — Whitney Houston, Sade, Mary J. Blige, Aaliyah — I have to ask, what are your three favorite albums? Axis: Bold as Love by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ATLiens by OutKast, By Your Side by Breakbot.

Who is your favorite visual artist or designer in Nashville right now? It’s been awesome to see Marlos E’van evolve over the years.

Who is your favorite designer in Nashville right now? John Martinez has been dropping some really impressive video vignettes lately. I love seeing Nashville through his eyes.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021

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CULTURE

NASHVILLE DESIGN WEEK HIGHLIGHTS

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Designer Round Robin featuring Joey Verzilli, Van Hoang, René Manuel Ramos and Lizzy $OUR; moderated by Kelly Diehl and Elizabeth Williams — 11:30 a.m. online Nashville Design Week Opening Party & 2021 Community Art Project Reveal featuring LeXander Bryant, XPayne, New Hat and others — 7 p.m. at Gray & Dudley, 221 Second Ave. N.

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THURSDAY, NOV. 4 Defining Nashville’s Culinary Arts Impact featuring Victoria Rothberg and Julia Jaksic; moderated by Nashville Scene contributor Margaret Littman — 8:30 a.m. online and in person at NDW Live Studio, 1015 W. Kirkland Ave., Suite 301

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When Design Matters Most: Affordable Housing in Nashville featuring Dominique Anderson, Kara Babin Gee and Kelsey Oesmann — 11:30 a.m. online and in person at NDW Live Studio, 1015 W. Kirkland Ave., Suite 301

FRIDAY, NOV. 5 Into the Metaverse Reception featuring Nova Lorraine, Israel Wilson and Teddy Pahagbia; moderated by Kamilah Sanders and Opé Majek — 5 p.m. at Ce Gallery, 112 Gallatin Pike S., Madison Nashville Design Week Closing Party featuring Southern Word and Hunter Gee — 7 p.m. at Monday Night Brewing, 1308 Adams St.

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Nashville Design Week will require attendees to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination (14 days after final dose) or a negative COVID-19 test dated within 72 hours of the in-person event. See the full roster of events, purchase tickets and register at nashvilledesignweek.org.

NASHVILLE DESIGN WEEK 2019

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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A TALE OF TWO WOMEN A nurse and a teacher from different eras follow similar paths in The Light of Luna Park BY PEGGY BURCH

ddison Armstrong’s debut novel, The Light of Luna Park, is a deft fusion of fiction and the facts about a startling moment in medical history, when a project to save premature infants became an amusement park THE LIGHT OF LUNA PARK sideshow. BY ADDISON ARMSTRONG G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS Armstrong, an 312 PAGES, $17 elementary school teacher in Nashville who graduated from Vanderbilt in 2020, found the inspiration for her story in the career of Dr. Martin Couney, a Polish immigrant who opened The Infantorium at Coney Island’s Luna Park. There, for 40 years until 1943, visitors could pay to see babies whose birth weights were as low as two pounds displayed in the incubators Couney used to support them. Admission fees sustained the expensive care for the premature infants, who might otherwise have been left to die in hospital obstetric wards of the era. Historical figures such as Couney and the nurses he employed interact with the characters Armstrong creates in Luna Park. Chapters alternate between the firstperson narratives of the fictional Althea Anderson, a young nurse-in-training in New York City in 1926 to 1927, and Stella Wright, a newlywed teacher in the college town of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1950 to 1951. Their story lines gradually merge as Stella solves a mystery about her origins. The parallels in their trajectories are insistent. Both women work in environments dominated by imperious men with little respect for the “woman’s work” of nursing and teaching as those vocations existed in the first half of 20th-century America. The intellectually curious and highly competent Althea must pretend she knows less than she does to succeed as a nursing student in a 1920s obstetrics ward. She has read about the incubators on Coney Island, but hospital doctors are disdainful of the amusement park “freak show.” After witnessing the birth of a two-pound infant and a doctor’s deliberate decision to let the child die, Althea decides to take action when a second baby is assigned the same fate. She heads to Luna Park with the precarious patient — Armstrong alludes several times to lax hospital oversight of the day — and her dangerous and potentially illegal act of compassion sets the plot in motion. The New York City of 100 years ago has provided a rich backdrop for historyminded novelists. E.L. Doctorow plumbed it in Ragtime. Jami Attenberg takes readers to Coney Island for Saint Mazie, her fictional diary of a real-life movie-theater proprietress, and a Coney Island sideshow is the setting for Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things. Armstrong grounds us in the customs of the day when she takes Althea to a “best baby” contest and into the World Circus Sideshow with “Pinheads

Flip and Flop” and the four-legged Myrtle Corbin, aspects of Luna Park that stand in stark contrast to Couney’s peaceful, efficient hospital for infants nearby. The novel re-creates the formal manners and dress that constrained the physical freedom of women just as male supremacy confined their practical reality. When the baby Althea rescued — or kidnapped, as some might suspect — gets pneumonia, the nurse must rush a mucus sample in a glass tube to a hospital a mile away. “Even without the boning of decades past, my corselet makes it difficult to run without growing short of breath, and I count my steps to center me. At step 897, I feel the fabric at the heel of my right foot give way; at 905, the left. Both heels are bleeding by 1,000.” Twenty-five years later, the specialeducation teacher Stella Wright will be challenging the dominance of a condescending man in her own battle for powerless children. When she requests books and art materials for her class, the “supplies” the school principal orders are straitjackets. “Now Mrs. Wright, I know they might seem upsetting to you, but they’re highly recommended for children like yours,” he tells her. Althea and Stella find sympathetic men who get what they’re up against and support the good fight against the bureaucracies that permit the effective culling of premature babies and isolation of disabled children, all of which may make this story seem like a virtuous exercise. But while the story hews to history, it is an intense emotional ride, as Althea discovers the fate of the child she saved and a grieving Stella finds letters that draw her into the history of Luna Park. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

ROSIN UP

Fiddler George Jackson and a stellar cast of banjo pickers duet on Hair & Hide BY ABBY LEE HOOD

PHOTO: NATIA CINCO

n hearing George Jackson play a fiddle tune from his new record Hair & Hide, you might think he’d lived in Appalachia all his life. In fact, the New Zealand-born fiddler and comHAIR & HIDE WILL BE poser made his way SELF-RELEASED FRIDAY, to Nashville just five OCT. 29 years ago. Jackson graduated from the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Leadership Bluegrass program, and later he performed in the IBMA’s official 2019 showcase concert. Seven banjoists take turns accompanying him on Hair & Hide, which is out Oct. 29. Each plays on one traditional tune and one original among the 14 tracks. Jackson connected with many of these pickers through the IBMA, and others through the nonprofit Bluegrass Pride. Without prior knowledge, it’s hard to distinguish between the new tunes and their traditional counterparts, and that’s exactly how Jackson likes it. The opening piece “Mississippi Sawyer,” a traditional tune that features banjo picker and teacher Wes Corbett, is one exception that sounds decidedly old-school. The lively tune is built for buck dancing, and sounds like waiting on the porch of the cabin while supper’s cooking — filled with Jackson’s intricate bowing, trills and runs up the neck of the unfretted instrument. He also keeps time during Corbett’s solos with bow chopping, adding a bit of percussion to moments that might otherwise be a little quiet with only two instruments in the mix. “I was going through a bunch of different versions I found by two fiddlers from West Virginia,” Jackson says of the tune. “I took a part from this fiddler and a part [from the other]. It’s new, but an old West Virginia chestnut as well.” Near the end of the album, Jackson plays “Smoky Hole” with 14-year-old Uma Peters, a young talent who’s been a standout in the bluegrass world for some time now in a duo with her brother Giri. Originally written by Black fiddler Will Adams, “Smoky Hole” is a slower tune with a bit of an Appalachian Gothic sound; you hear Jackson doubling his bow strings for a deeper resonance. He notes that the piece was a perfect fit, offering an opportunity to open up the discussion about the critical roles of Black musicians in the string-band tradition and to shed light on a lesser-heard tune. Peters meanwhile picks with an old-timey style influenced by her mentor, string-band scholar and Carolina Chocolate Drops

founding member Rhiannon Giddens. She says that for a while, she was playing Giddens’ traditional gourd banjo. It was important to her to play a tune similar to the ones she learned during an internship with the Tennessee Arts Commission. “I was learning all the really old tunes from Africa, what slaves played, and what

they would play when they were brought here to America,” Peters says. “That was very eye-opening for me, because I really learned a lot about where this music originated from.” The original the pair played together is “Turtle Rock,” a nearlullaby-soft, slow tune that features a syncopated beat; it’s easy to imagine serenading turtles as they sun themselves on a rock jutting out of a pond. Jackson says that while some of the original tunes weren’t necessarily written for any particular banjoist, he wanted to create something groovy for Peters and followed the kinds of melodies she already likes to play. “Turtle Rock” was the result. Jackson also worked with Brad Kolodner, an IBMA board member and clawhammer banjoist in Baltimore roots band Charm City Junction. Kolodner, who has been playing clawhammer banjo since he was 17, says he grew up in a musical family with a father who played hammer dulcimer. Kolodner and Jackson first met at an old-time fiddle convention in West Virginia, where the two really hit it off. “We just hung out playing tunes, enjoyed the chemistry we had musically,” Kolodner recalls. “[Jackson is] such a great fiddler,

and we would seek each other out.” The pair worked well together on Jackson’s previous album, a 2019 collection of pieces for a full bluegrass ensemble titled Time and Place. Jackson pitched Kolodner on the idea of a record that mixed original and old tunes, and after they performed together at Nashville bluegrass mecca the Station Inn in February 2020, Kolodner was ready to dive in. They recorded Jackson’s own “Neighbor Mike” and the classic “Ida Red” together for what eventually became Hair & Hide. “Ida Red” is another hoedown staple, and the smoothness of Jackson’s playing despite the fast tempo of the song could easily be mistaken for a fiddling legend like Kenny Baker. There are lots of instances of a tricky fiddle maneuver called a double stop, and Kolodner does a catchy descending run down the neck of the banjo that sounds like what you’d expect a bass to play. Jackson says it’s hard to pinpoint particular goals for the record. But he does remember magical moments following the release of Time and Place in which he’d find fans or friends playing his own tunes back to him. He hopes for more of those moments soon. “I never want to expect that that would happen again, but it would be really fulfilling to hope some people would be interested in playing some tunes. Whether it’s tunes I wrote or chose to put on the album. I love hearing that stuff come back to you.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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10/25/21 5:00 PM

MUSIC

BOSSA NOVA CHARLIE

Legendary Nashville cat Charlie McCoy swings Brazilian-style on his new EP BY DARYL SANDERS

armonica virtuoso Charlie McCoy says the idea for his new EP Charlie Goes Brazil came from bassist James “Hags” Haggerty. Haggerty made the suggestion when they were talking CHARLIE GOES BRAZIL with drummer OUT FRIDAY, OCT. 29, VIA Martin Lynds INGLEHOOD RECORDS backstage at 3rd and Lindsley in December 2019, after one of The Ornaments’ annual performances of A Charlie Brown Christmas. McCoy, a member of the Nashville A Team who’d played on records by Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Jones and hundreds more, sat in that night as a guest soloist. “Hags said, ‘Man, we ought to do a bossa nova record,’ ” McCoy recalls with a laugh. “And I thought, ‘Yeah, that would be fun.’ ” Inglehood Records chief Cowboy Keith Thompson, whose label will release the EP to record stores and streaming services on Oct. 29, was in the audience that night. He remembers Haggerty excitedly sharing the idea with him as well. “I’m sitting with Charlie’s wife, and Hags came up after the performance and said, ‘Man, I think maybe Charlie and I hit on an idea that might work for the next record,’ ” Thompson says. “And I’m like, ‘What’s that?’ He says, ‘Bossa nova.’ I said, ‘Wow, that’s fucking great. Let’s do that.’ ” Inspired by the idea, McCoy wrote “Rio by Night,” the song that opens the record, a few weeks later at his condo in Florida. He sent a demo of the song to Thompson, and they began to sketch out a bossa nova EP. However, what happened next is a story you know well by now: The pandemic hit, and their plans were put on hold. They kept the idea alive and finally brought it to fruition with a daylong recording session at Thompson’s home-based Inglehood Studios on July 13 of this year. Charlie Goes Brazil is McCoy’s 46th release as a solo artist and his second for Inglehood Records. His 2017 EP of Henry Mancini compositions, A Shot in the Harp, remains one of the label’s most popular titles. On the new record, McCoy plays both harmonica and vibes. As with A Shot in the Harp, he’s backed by the Inglehood Rhythm Section and the Inglehood Horns. In addition to Haggerty and Lynds, the rhythm section includes a variety of other Music City aces, with Joe V. McMahan on electric guitar, Joe Pisapia on acoustic guitar, Micah Hulscher on piano, Jen Gunderman on Hammond B-3 organ and Glen Caruba on percussion. The horn section features Randy Leago on woodwinds and Roy Agee on trombone. In addition, Laura Mayo and Alexis Saski contribute backing vocals. All the material was arranged by McCoy, and the record was produced, recorded and mixed by Thompson.

McCoy, who in his six-decade career has recorded with some of the world’s greatest musicians, enjoys working with the talented Inglehood crew. “That group that Cowboy has assembled — man, those dogs can hunt,” he says. “It’s so cool to play that stuff all together,” he continues. “This ‘making records one person at a time’ — I appreciate it because I get a good amount of work from that, but there’s nothing like going in there with a whole band and playing it. Great ideas come out of that. I go in with a plan, but my

mind is completely open to things that can happen at the last minute, because all these musicians are brilliant, they’ve got so much creativity. And if you close your mind to what they might come up with, you’re crazy.” In addition to “Rio by Night,” the EP features two other McCoy originals — “Lovers Key” and “Amor Esta Noite” — both of which were written a number of years ago and given bossa nova arrangements for the record. McCoy had previously released “Lovers Key” as a duet with Laney Smallwood on his 2009 album

Over the Rainbow. “The first condo we bought in Fort Myers was on Fort Myers Beach,” McCoy says. “When we looked out the window of our lanai, across the channel was an island called Lovers Key, and I just thought that was a great song title. I decided to do it as an instrumental because it fits that kind of groove.” McCoy wrote “Amor Esta Noite,” which means “love tonight,” while taking a night class at Hillsboro High School. “I was working in France all the time, and I wanted to learn some French,” he recalls. “It’s got French lyrics — bad French lyrics,” he adds with a smile. With the help of a language app, he translated the title into Portuguese, the official language of Brazil. Charlie Goes Brazil also includes a cover of “Jimmy’s Buffet,” written by the late Nashville guitar great Jimmy Capps. “Jimmy did an album they sold on [the television series] Larry’s Country Diner,” McCoy explains. “I played on the record, and when we recorded that song, I told him, ‘Jimmy, man, I love this song. I’m gonna record it someday.’ ” McCoy also includes a pair of songs on the record by the “father of bossa nova,” Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim. A version of Jobim’s “Meditation” graces the record, as well as a take on his worldwide hit “The Girl From Ipanema.” “I wanted to definitely have a couple of Jobim songs,” McCoy says, “because he’s the master of this, you know.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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10/25/21 5:01 PM

MUSIC

THE SPIN

EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS BY MEGAN SELING

A HELPING HAND: JOY OLADOKUN OL’ NO. 5, OR MAYBE 6: JASON ISBELL

PHOTOS: BRITTON STRICKLAND

n Saturday, Joy Oladokun took to the Ryman’s stage for the first time to open night seven of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s eight-night residency. She said what many artists are probably thinking the moment they look up and see the pews, crowd and iconic stained-glass windows: “This is crazy! This is the Ryman!” “I don’t know if you knew, but I know,” she added with a laugh. “People have been reminding me all day. A nice white man gave me Champagne!” After the audience laughed and applauded, Oladokun explained the “nice white man” was her manager, garnering even more laughter and applause. Oladokun, along with backup singer Jaime Woods and keyboardist/guitarist Elliott Skinner, began her Mother Church debut with “If You Got a Problem,” a buoyant Stevie Wonder-inspired pep talk she wrote for her girlfriend. I’ve been following Oladokun since I heard her song “Sunday” in 2019, and she has made it a point to share the stories behind her songs and give fans snippets of her day-to-day life. She kept up the tradition at the Ryman, but somehow it felt different. Her vulnerability commanded the room with a force that could never be experienced through Instagram or Twitter. Oladokun and her band played “Sorry Isn’t Good Enough,” a smoldering and pissed-off fuck-you from the complete edition of her debut album In Defense of My Own Happiness, released in July. The song is about “dating someone who was not dating me back,” she told the crowd with a laugh. “But I was trying anyway. … She broke my heart, because that’s how those things always go.” A little later in the set came “Smoke,” the opener of last year’s In Defense of My Own Happiness (The Beginnings), which was subtitled Vol. 1 on its initial release. The tune smolders in a different way. “I have social anxiety, and I have to be around people for a living,” she explained, “so I smoke pot. This song’s about that.” Each honest and often funny story she told received more supportive cheers and applause. Many of us in the room have felt that heartbreak and have tried to quiet that anxiety too. Once the audience was fully mesmerized, she turned up the heat. Oladokun, who is Black and a child of Nigerian immigrants, spoke about being born just a few months before the 1992 Los Angeles riots. She’s seen little change. “We’re waving flags saying we’re the greatest country in the world,” she said, “and people die on our watch. Regularly, without any accountability. And I’m not a fan that so many of them look like me and talk like me and walk like me and love like me, quite honestly. So when I watched this happen for the 80th time in my lifetime, I decided to write this song called ‘I See America.’ “It is about the tension between America the ideal and America the reality. … It’s not

a perfect place, and I strive every day to make this country a compassionate, hospitable place for everybody. And honestly, go fuck yourself if you don’t agree.” On its own, “I See America” is gripping, but halfway through the song on Saturday, Oladokun’s guitar work took an unexpected turn. She started to veer away from “I See America” and began to play an eerie, famil-

iar riff. It took me a few seconds to place it, but then it hit me … it was the motherfucking intro to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” My God, Oladokun sandwiched Nirvana’s anticonformity anthem into her own song about seeing the problems that America tries to ignore. Then the band did a live mash-up, singing the chorus of “I See America” over the music of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

You’re goddamn right it received a standing ovation. After the applause died down, Oladokun grinned. “Didn’t think you were gonna see a soft butch playing Nirvana on an acoustic, did ya?” Our first sighting of Isbell came next, when he joined Oladokun onstage to add a searing guitar solo — as he did in the studio — on Oladokun’s just-released Spotify single, a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” Oladokun was one of eight different women to open a show on Isbell’s eight-night run: Amanda Shires kicked things off on Oct. 15, followed by Brittney Spencer, Mickey Guyton, Amythyst Kiah, Shemekia Copeland, Allison Russell and Oladokun, with Adia Victoria wrapping it up on Oct. 24. Over the past two weeks, my social media feeds have been filled with praise, video clips and inspired wonder for each of these women. These shows are as much about them as they are about Isbell. Not that the headliner and his longtime band The 400 Unit have anything to worry about when it comes to being upstaged. (Though Shires played with the group during some of the residency shows, she was not onstage Saturday, so guitarist Sadler Vaden, keyboardist Derry deBorja, bassist Jimbo Hart and drummer Chad Gamble filled out the lineup.) Isbell & Co. took the fans on a two-hour rock ’n’ roller coaster with thoughtful and humanist songs from his solo albums and from his former band Drive-By Truckers. Live, many of the tunes were surprisingly explosive. “What’ve I Done to Help,” the remorseful opener of 2020’s Reunions, outlined a failing relationship with intricate guitar and keys that drove the song into ferocious and urgent territory. “Be Afraid,” also on that record, shone brighter too, becoming a commanding call-to-arms rock anthem that Dave Grohl would probably love to have written. Of course, Isbell flexed his guitar-god muscle throughout, stunning the crowd with solos played across seven different six-strings, by my count. In the 19-song set, I clocked an acoustic, an SG, a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, a Les Paul, a 335 and a resonator guitar. And that Les Paul — which may have been the Redeye owned by the late, great Ed King and now in Isbell’s care — contributed to an especially captivating version of DBTs’ “Danko/Manuel.” The song, about the deaths of The Band’s Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, has always been haunting, but Isbell and band made it feel heavier and eerier, with the slow, repetitive beat moving at the pace one might have when hesitantly checking the house for ghosts. According to my notes, the guitar solo sounded like “a slow murder scene in the twist ending of a film.” Then, after stunning performances of fan-favorite love songs “Cover Me Up” and “If We Were Vampires,” Isbell and the 400 Unit all but burned the house down with a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” It was so raucous and joyful even Jagger might have had a hard time keeping up with it. If there were any ghosts — or perhaps embittered, closed-minded conservatives — lingering in the Ryman, Oladokun and Isbell exorcised them all. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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FILM

THE STYLE DESK 20 years after The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch left me wanting BY ERICA CICCARONE

he first time I saw The Royal Tenenbaums, my first Wes Anderson film, I left the theater wiping happy tears from my cheeks. I had never seen anything like it. I felt buoyant and full of energy, and I wanted to call all three of my siblings to tell them I loved them immediately. Some six weeks shy of the 20th anniversary of The Royal Tenenbaums’ release comes Anderson’s newest venture, The French Dispatch. Set in the fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, France, the film THE FRENCH DISPATCH R, 108 MINUTES illustrates the last OPENING FRIDAY, OCT. 29, three features AT THE BELCOURT AND in the Sunday inREGAL OPRY MILLS sert of a Kansas newspaper. The French Dispatch, as the insert is called, was created by its editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray). We are introduced to the town and each of the newspaper’s eccentric writers in Andersonian fashion, with a brief list of specific, blinkand-you-miss-it details that unfortunately get lost in the cacophony of this busy film. Howitzer loves his quirky band of writers and tolerates their idiosyncrasies. One has filed her story 9,000 words over the assigned word count. The editor won’t cut a thing. Another has again waxed poetic about “hobos, pimps and junkies” of the town. “Those are his people,” Howitzer says with finality. We

LONDON CALLING

Edgar Wright’s new thriller has lots of style, some substance BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

dgar Wright contains multitudes. The British writer-director has built a pretty fascinating filmography over the past decade-and-ahalf, zigzagging his way from his so-called Three Flavours CorLAST NIGHT IN SOHO netto Trilogy (that’s R, 116 MINUTES Shaun of the Dead, OPENING WIDE FRIDAY, Hot Fuzz and The OCT. 29; SHOWING World’s End) to Scott IN EXCLUSIVE 35MM ENGAGEMENT AT THE Pilgrim vs. the World, BELCOURT Baby Driver and this year’s exhaustive The Sparks Brothers documentary. With the brand-new Last Night in Soho, which he cowrote with 1917 screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Wright journeys into the realm of psychological horror, marrying the titular London entertainment district’s contemporary version with the more free-spirited — and more dangerous — Soho of yesteryear. Last Night in Soho does this through the eyes of Thomasin McKenzie’s Ellie, a 1960s-obsessed modern-day country mouse who earns admission to

quickly head into the first of three stories — the best one. It features Benicio Del Toro as Moses Rosenthaler, a mentally ill man in prison for double homicide who happens to be a groundbreaking avant-garde painter. His muse is prison guard Simone (a sublime Léa Seydoux), and every work is an abstraction of her. Serving time in the same prison for tax fraud is art dealer Julian Cadazio (a flawless Adrien Brody), who discovers Rosenthaler in an inmate art show and decides to make him famous — and make himself and his uncles rich. The story is both surprising and feels true, for Anderson’s script handles backstory and dialogue economically, like a skilled short-story writer. In the second story, journalist Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) investigates a student uprising and begins sleeping with its leader Zeffirelli (a cloying Timothée

Chalamet). Zeffirelli and his compatriots are thin approximations of real people, so committed to being stereotypes that they and their cause are trivialized. Krementz — an old maid who chose journalism over love — is nothing we haven’t seen before. McDormand’s usual deadpan realism can’t save her, but I bet some more workshopping of the screenplay could. The third story stars Jeffrey Wright as Roebuck Wright, a gay Black American who expatriated because, like James Baldwin, living in the U.S. was simply unbearable. His is a food story that is not about food, but a tale about a dinner gone wrong when the chief of police’s precocious son is kidnapped. Partly animated, the ensuing chase is a dizzying romp that’s enjoyable, if unbelievable. Wright leaves us with a final comment that out-Baldwins Baldwin and hints at

the University of the Arts London’s College of Fashion. Ellie just so happens to have a sort of vaguely defined sixth sense. She can see dead people. Or anyway, she can see her dead mother — who died by suicide when Ellie was just 7 years old — staring at her wordlessly over Ellie’s shoulder when she looks in the mirror. She’s a fish out of water in London, and aside from the advances she receives from a handsome and extremely persistent young man named John (Michael Ajao) who breezes right past her myriad red flags, Ellie isn’t treated kindly by her fellow fashion students. So she moves out of the dorms and into a nearby oneroom apartment managed by the dour and prickly Miss Collins, played by onetime Bond girl Diana Rigg in her final performance before her 2020 death. But there’s something peculiar about this apartment — a paranormal imprint left by former resident Sandie (Anya TaylorJoy). Sandie was an aspiring singer five-plus decades back, and each night when Ellie sleeps, she finds herself inhabiting Sandie’s body as she tries to make it as a performer in the neon bustle of Swinging ’60s Soho. Wright & Co. obviously had fun with their mirrorcentric dream-sequence trick shots and retro, technicolor production design. It’s a visual feast rife with primo music cues (The Kinks! The Searchers! Dusty Springfield!), and while there are of course shades of master suspense-builders like Hitchcock and Polanski, the plot itself is a relatively original one. In a landscape littered with recycled IP, countless sequels and ballooning cinematic universes, that alone is

refreshing. As we watch through Ellie’s eyes, Sandie’s dreams buckle under the weight of Soho’s seedier elements, personified most directly by scummy manager-slash-pimp Jack, who’s portrayed by strikingly visaged former Dr. Who Matt Smith. The tension mounts as the past and present hew ever closer to one another, and Ellie — played with increasingly frantic energy by the lively and talented McKenzie — must discover what became of the glamorous Sandie. Even so, there isn’t a great deal of depth to Soho’s first two acts. Psychological horror films so often spend their first 90 minutes leading us down one path, only to

what the film might have been if Anderson got out of his own way. Other usual suspects appear in smaller roles: Owen Wilson (always at home in an Anderson film), Willem Dafoe (on brand and brooding), Edward Norton (could have been anybody), Jason Schwartzman (around for moral support, I suppose) and Anjelica Houston (as a narrator). Like Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban and Elisabeth Moss, they’re crammed distractingly into the film. If you love Wes Anderson movies, you will find things to love. If you are tired of the twee details, the studied narrative voice, the overly particular characters, you will find little endearing from the director this time around. I did not think myself so jaded, but The French Dispatch’s set pieces, conceits and props clutter up the joint and prevent the director from giving us a story with heart. For all of the preciousness of The Royal Tenenbaums — the book jackets laid out like wallpaper, the personal artifacts displayed as if in a museum, the matching tracksuits — that film’s gut-punch amounts to more than the sum of these parts. Drug addiction, adultery, forbidden love, fraud, self-pity — whatever their vices, the Tenenbaum clan realize all at once that the jig is up. To surrender means to toss their resentments and disappointments into a burn pile and be cleansed by the fire. We want that for them. As a result, we want that for ourselves and for those we keep loving in spite of their indifference to us. We could pinpoint such an apotheosis in Anderson’s early films: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic and even the middling The Darjeeling Limited. Anderson is capable of creating a world that is both in love with itself and about much more than itself. There’s plenty to enjoy in The French Dispatch — but if you’re looking for catharsis, you may find yourself out of luck. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

spend the final 30 undoing all of our expectations. In that regard, Wright and Wilson-Cairns manage to keep their denouement compelling. Clever creepy imagery abounds, but things get awfully convoluted as the film seeks to tie up all of its loose threads. Ultimately all of our questions about Sandie are answered, but none of the answers are quite as interesting as Soho’s sights, sounds and performances. Bright and energetic and unique, Last Night in Soho is a good film. But it isn’t a great one, and Edgar Wright most definitely has more great films in him. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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Marketplace

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www.rockylawfirm.com LEGALS Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 21D787

Rental Scene

COURTNEY KNIGHT-THOMAS vs. KEZWIC DECONTE' THOMAS In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon KEZWIC DECONTE' THOMAS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after October 21, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on November 22, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon KEZWIC DECONTE' THOMAS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after October 21, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on November 22, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville. Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: September 22, 2021 Rebecca Toca Attorney for Plaintiff

proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application. Your grand jury foreperson is Parker Toler. His address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punishable as perjury. For a request for accommodation, please contact 8624260. NSC 10/28/21

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LEGAL NOTICE Howard C. Gentry, Jr., Criminal Court Clerk It is my privilege as your elected Criminal Court Clerk to notify all citizens of Davidson County, that relative to grand jury proceedings, it is the duty of your grand jurors to investigate any public offense which they know or have reason to believe has been committed and which is triable or indictable in Davidson County. In addition to cases presented to the grand jury by your District Attorney, any citizen may petition the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County. This is subject to provisions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application. Your grand jury foreperson is Parker Toler. His address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punishable as perjury. For a request for accommodation, please contact 8624260. NSC 10/28/21

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Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: September 22, 2021 Rebecca Toca Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 9/30,10/7,10/14,10/28/2021

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NASHVILLE SCENE | OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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brightonvalley.net | 615.366.5552 nashvillescene.com | OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

S U H P I TC

Nashville is a diverse city, and we want a pool of freelance contributors who reflect that diversity. We’re looking for new freelancers, and we particularly want to encourage writers of color & LGBTQ writers to pitch us.

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Nashville Scene’s Marketplace on pages 66 - 67.

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