Nashville Scene 3-30-23

A LOOK AT THE

FOR PAID FAMILY LEAVE FOR WORKERS

PAGE 7

WHAT’S THE DILL WITH PICKLEBALL IN NASHVILLE?

SPORTS: PAGE 10

THE CITY/STATE RELATIONSHIP IS BROKEN.

HOW DID IT GET THIS WAY, AND CAN IT BE REPAIRED?

PUSH

The Nashville Symphony & Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director present the World Premiere of an Epic Operatic Experience by Hannibal Lokumbe

An epic, fully staged production featuring the Nashville Symphony; ten vocalists including gospel and Mississippi Delta Blues; more than 30 actors; a 100+ person choir drawn from Tennessee and Kentucky Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Nashville Symphony Chorus; African drummers and dancers; and, a Jazz quintet with Hannibal Lokumbe on trumpet.

7

CITY LIMITS

Paid Family Leave Policy for State Employees Passes in Senate 7 Advocacy organizations hope state could set example for private companies

BY HANNAH HERNER

Know When to Hold ’Em ............................ 8 States are learning on the fly about sports betting addiction

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Metro Planning Releases Proposed Council Redistricting Maps 8

One proposal offers 17 district councilmembers and three at-large reps, the other 15 district councilmembers and five atlarge reps

BY CONNOR DARYANI

What’s the Dill? .......................................10

Pickleball is wildly popular, and Nashville pickleballers are looking for space

BY LOGAN BUTTS

13

COVER STORY State vs. Metro

The city/state relationship is broken. How did it get this way, and can it be repaired?

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, NASHVILLE BANNER

19

CRITICS’ PICKS

Breland & Friends, Robot Parade, Margo Cilker, Millennium Mambo and more

27

FOOD AND DRINK

Oodles of Noodles ...................................27

Sarah Gavigan looks to expand her Otaku empire with a new secret weapon

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

Can-Do Attitude .......................................28

The Wiley Canning Company Cookbook updates the how-tos of preserving

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

30

ART

Crawl Space: April 2023

Nashville’s spring art season sprouts this Saturday with outstanding shows at Lusk, Red Arrow Gallery and beyond

BY JOE NOLAN

THEATER

The Dog Has Its Day

Nashville Rep balances humor with heartbreak in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

BY AMY STUMPFL

33

MUSIC

The Shape of Feminist Punk to Come...33

Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill look to the future of riot grrrl

BY HANNAH CRON

In the Long Run .......................................34

Rachel Baiman looks at a long fight ahead on Common Nation of Sorrow

BY RACHEL CHOLST

The Spin ...................................................35

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Love Rising at Bridgestone Arena and We Will Always Be at City Winery

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA AND STEPHEN TRAGESER 36

FILM

Parenthood ..............................................36

Teyana Taylor shines as a tough but tender mom in A Thousand and One

BY ERICA CICCARONE Isle of Men ...............................................36

Enys Men is a slow burn of shock and terror

BY JASON SHAWHAN

PET OF THE WEEK!

HENDRYX. Being a tripod doesn’t slow him down one bit. As a 1-year-old he’s still has a lot of energy and loves to play in our off-leash area and go for walks. He’s great on the leash plus adores car rides, playing fetch and tug a war. When the playing is over, Hendryx is a calm and loving dog. He adores cuddles and really is just happy being next to his human friends getting a good belly rub! He is definitely a food motivated dog who will be the “goodest boy” for a treat! He’s an adorable 3/4 of a dog and 4/4 of a loving attentive BFF. If you are interested in meeting this loving boy, learn more about him on our website!

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org

GOV. BILL LEE’S OFFICE RECENTLY PUSHED LEGISLATION TO DISMANTLE THE TENNESSEE COMMISSION ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH

Gov. Bill Lee’s office recently pushed legislation aimed at dismantling the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, an independent agency that has been advocating for children’s welfare for more than three decades.

The legislation ultimately did not pass due to “widespread opposition from youth advocacy experts across the state,” as reported by The Tennessean. But the mere fact that it was proposed has raised questions about the state’s commitment toward safeguarding its most vulnerable population. Many professionals and advocates are grateful that the legislation failed to gain traction, and it is not difficult to see why. The dismantling of such a critical agency would have had far-reaching consequences not only for the children of Tennessee but also for the Department of Children’s Services, to which many of the commission’s duties would have been transferred.

DCS, after all, has had its fair share of challenges in the recent past.

In December, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury issued a gravely concerning audit about the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. According to the report, the department failed to adequately investigate dozens of reports of sexual harassment and sexual abuse among children in residential facilities.

An added plight: foster children having to sleep in the offices of staff members. As WSMV reported in December, according to DCS Commissioner Margie Quin, more than 300 children in DCS custody were using state office buildings as bedrooms over the past two years. And according to a Tennessee Lookout story from earlier this month: “Some Memphis lawmakers say children continue to stay in state offices because of an inability to place them with families.”

With these kinds of issues at DCS, along with the fact that the organization is already experiencing a reported 47.6 percent turnover rate in staffing, why the push to dismantle TCCY?

But Senate Bill 282 and House Bill 330 were on the table, and legislators were ready to pull the plug on TCCY. The legislation would have had the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth

removed from a taskforce overseen by DCS charged with preventing child sexual abuse. As Tennessee Lookout reported, “Officials within the governor’s office [were] upset with the agency’s ‘State of Kids’ report” because it noted that “‘Tennessee struggles with foster care instability at a level not seen in the rest of the country,’ showing the highest rate of foster care instability in the nation each year from 2016 to 2020.”

Even if officials were embarrassed by the report, isn’t it a good thing to have this information — rather than stifling it or shutting the commission down for doing its job? The commission is an independent agency with the power to lobby for children’s rights without fear of political interference. Isn’t that something desirable to our governor?

State Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) recently said: “Tennessee is not living up to our legal responsibilities, much less our moral responsibilities when it comes to these children, and we should all be grateful to the commission for trying to shine a light on those problems.”

The commission provides a valuable service by conducting research, developing policy and advocating for the needs of children and families. Transferring the commission’s duties to DCS would compromise the independence of the agency, potentially lead to policies that prioritize the needs of the agency over the needs of children and families, and result in a loss of expertise and resources.

The attempted dismantling of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth by Gov. Lee’s office was misguided and concerning. The problems at DCS highlight the importance of having an independent agency to advocate for the well-being of children and families in Tennessee. Dismantling the commission would not only undermine the progress that has been made in recent years, but also put the lives of Tennessee’s children at risk.

Gov. Lee’s office should instead focus on strengthening the commission and providing it with the resources it needs to continue advocating for the welfare of Tennessee’s children.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers

Managing Editor Alejandro Ramirez

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Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Hannah Herner, J.R. Lind, Eli Motycka, William Williams

Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Connor Daryani, Steve Erickson, Nancy Floyd, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steven Hale, Steve Haruch, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, 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

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GOV. BILL LEE

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

BE TIMELESS. BE THE BRIDGE.

American Currents: State of the Music

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Thrive provides funds for artists and organizations to create art, collaborate and strengthen communities. Proposals can include visual arts, craft, performance art, media arts, literary arts, and more. First time applicants are encouraged, and one-on-one proposal support is available.

PAID FAMILY LEAVE POLICY FOR STATE EMPLOYEES PASSES IN SENATE

Advocacy organizations hope state could set example for private companies

BY HANNAH HERNER

State employees are well on their way to having paid family leave, thanks to a bill advanced unanimously in the Tennessee Senate on Thursday. If the legislation is signed into law, employees will receive 12 weeks of paid leave for a birth or adoption.

Paid family leave is something organizations like Think Tennessee and A Better Balance have been advocating for for years, and they hope the state’s move will set an example for private companies. A report released recently by Think Tennessee found improved productivity, profitability and employee morale in companies that implement paid family leave. The report also asserts that paid family leave will keep Tennessee competitive compared to other states in attracting employees and employers. In the past two years, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina introduced paid parental leave to state employees.

Senate Bill 276/House Bill 324 isn’t the first whack at paid family leave for the state. Gov. Bill Lee announced in early 2020 that he would offer it for state employees, but the measure never came to fruition. Other related bills on the docket this year include SB 275/HB 323, which would in part offer a tax incentive for private companies to offer paid leave for employees on a twoyear pilot basis. Lee included $7.3 million in his budget proposal for this bill. Another bill (SB 1458/HB 983) would give teachers six weeks of paid leave after a birth or adoption.

Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, workers who qualify can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for the birth of a child, recovering from an illness or taking care of a loved one. However, the policy only covers about 56 percent of workers, according to Department of Labor surveys. Workers who have

been at their job for less than a year or who are employed at workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, for example, are not included. The United States is one of only six countries in the United Nations that do not not have a national paid parental leave policy, according to data from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Democrats in the federal government are pushing for a national paid family leave policy under the FAMILY Act, which calls for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. In 2019, President Trump signed into law a 12-week paid leave policy for federal government employees.

“Most of the families we work with — they’re not able to afford to take any extended number of weeks, let alone the full 12 weeks off of work without pay,” says Feroza Freeland, policy manager at the Southern office of A Better Balance.

Report co-authors Dawn Schluckebier and Amy Gore with Think Tennessee say that while they worked on the report for several years, it became especially timely when the pandemic brought up more conversations about parents and caregivers missing work to care for loved ones. According to data from the Urban Institute, from March 2020 through February 2022, employees reported a 50 percent increase in absences from illness, child care needs and family or personal obligations compared to the previous two years. Of those absences, approximately 24 percent of child care absences were paid, compared with 34 percent of absences for family or personal obligations and 45 percent of absences for a worker’s illness.

People of course don’t only miss work for the birth or adoption of a child. In an ideal world, Think Tennessee and A Better Balance would like to see 12 weeks of paid family leave cover birth parents and nonbirthing parents as well as family caregiv-

ers. Still, with no federal policies in place — and most of the country without a state policy — the heat is on private companies to provide paid family leave.

“More and more Southern states are starting to provide dedicated, paid parental leave to their state government employees,” Freeland says. “That’s important both for all of the tens of thousands of state employees and their families, but also to kind of set that example for the private sector.”

Of large employers in the area surveyed by the Scene, Kroger was the most generous, offering four weeks of paid paternity leave and 10 to 12 weeks paid maternity leave. BlueCross BlueShield offers eight weeks of paid leave for the birthing parent, and four weeks for a non-birthing parent. Dollar General offers birthing parents eight weeks and other parents two weeks.

Nissan gives up to 16 weeks, eight paid and eight unpaid. Vanderbilt University Medical Center and HCA hospitals offer two weeks of paid leave following a birth, though VUMC also advertises a flex PTO program. Ascension Saint Thomas and Community Health Systems did not answer requests for information. The Scene’s parent company FW Publishing provides two weeks of paid parental leave.

Whether CEOs or government officials have a heart for the issue or not, paid family leave is still smart business, Freeland says.

“From the state government’s perspective, they have struggled with worker shortages and high turnover and not being able to retain and recruit workers,” she says. “This is a really important potential tool to help them do that.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Police on Monday morning responded to a shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school serving preschool through sixth-grade students in Green Hills. At a press conference Monday afternoon, the Metro Nashville Police Department said three adults, three children and the shooter — a 28-year-old identified as Audrey Hale, who gained access through a side door — were killed.

Visit nashvillescene.com for more information as this story develops.

PHOTOS: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

KNOW WHEN TO HOLD ’EM

States are learning on the fly about sports betting addiction

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

This article was first published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The states that have legalized sports betting are reporting record levels of wagering and revenues, but with that growth comes questions about gambling addiction and whether regulators and sportsbooks are doing enough to fight it.

Two dozen states have active online sports betting, and other states are on the verge of joining them. As legalized gambling spreads, state legislatures, regulatory agencies, addiction experts, sportsbook operators and sports leagues all say they are working to address gambling addiction.

Jim Whelan is a psychology professor who runs the Institute for Gambling Education and Research and the University of Memphis Gambling Clinic backed by the state of Tennessee. He says that in the past, gamblers seeking treatment for addiction at his clinic were older and almost evenly split by gender. Now there’s been an influx of men ages 25 to 35.

“They pretty quickly got themselves, in a year or two, to where the gambling has created harms in their life,” Whelan says. He says spikes in problem gambling aren’t unprecedented, since they often happen when a new casino opens or a state adds a lottery game, “so I’m a little reluctant to say the sky is falling yet. We fear this is going to create some sort of addiction pandemic. We don’t know if it is or not.”

Whelan’s observations in Tennessee reflect similar patterns around the country.

Ohio launched its legal sports betting market Jan. 1. Immediately, its addiction help line saw call volumes triple, says Mike Buzzelli, associate director of the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio. The state saw the same trends as Tennessee: younger men rather than the older, mixed-gender cohort of casino bettors. Additionally, he says, people were reaching the breaking point sooner than before sports betting became legal.

Previously, Buzzelli says, most callers reported that their gambling had been problematic for three to seven years, but now most bettors who call the help line say they reached a problematic stage in less than a year. Gamblers often seek treatment when they recognize their financial distress or because a loved one told them to get help, Whelan says.

So far, according to Whelan and other experts, counselors are finding they can help younger gamblers by using the time-tested behavioral therapy strategies they’ve employed with longtime problem gamblers. In addition, some states and sportsbook operators allow gamblers to put themselves on a “self-exclusion” list that prevents them from gambling for a certain period.

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

In Ohio, officials are offering educational programs in schools and enforcing restrictions on advertising to students. Buzzelli says that as more funding for addiction programs continues to come in from sports betting tax revenue, the state could build partnerships with Ohio colleges. He considers it a benefit that many states legalized online sports gambling before Ohio did.

“We took a little bit longer, but that’s because we decided to really get prepared for it,” Buzzelli says. His group has educated social workers and addiction counselors on problem gambling and trained them to discuss luck and odds using the language of sports

betting, so they can better reach bettors who need help.

“We were really able to look at what [other states] did right and what they did wrong and work with legislators,” he says.

Vermont also has moved more slowly. State Rep. Matthew Birong, a Democrat, said he has been working on sports betting legislation since early 2020. The latest version of his bill has cleared a House committee and could make it through the legislature this spring. Since he started working on the legislation several years ago, Birong has seen other states wrestle with how to prevent young people from being aggressively targeted by sportsbooks.

“There was a hesitance towards expanding that style of gambling with a lot of policymakers,” he says. “Yes, there was money on the table, but the big question was, we’re talking about legalizing something that has a dark side to it. Do we want to go there?”

Limits in the Vermont legislation include restrictions on marketing to young people and accepting wagers on some college sporting events, plus a ban on extending credit to bettors.

Matt Holt is vice chair of the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association and founder and CEO of U.S. Integrity, which contracts with sportsbooks, regulators and sports leagues to help them identify suspicious gambling activity, abnormalities in referees’ calls or the misuse of insider information. Holt says some states rushed their sports betting programs into place because they were desperate for revenue during the confusing early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everyone was, ‘Legalize, launch, learn,’” Holt says. “We did the first two. Now we’re learning. I think the industry as a whole has embraced the fact that there were probably some holes to fill on the integrity and responsible-gaming side.”

Holt thinks U.S. Integrity’s tracking technology could be used to identify problem gambling sooner and streamline self-exclusion lists. He adds that, in general, the states legalizing now have more robust regulatory frameworks. Regulators and operators are learning side by side, he says.

“Everyone’s starting to put those in place now,” Holt says. “I think if we check back in 12 months, we’ll see how successful it is.”

Under the Vermont bill, 2.5 percent (and no less than $250,000) of overall gambling tax revenue would pay for programs to combat gambling addiction. Some other states also reserve some gambling revenue for treatment or prevention, including Tennessee at 5 percent.

Birong says his bill would use sports betting revenue to publicize the availability of addiction resources provided by the state Department of Mental Health. For now, the state contracts with an outside help line.

MORE GAMBLING, MORE PROBLEMS

Since launching in November 2020, Tennessee’s sports betting industry has grown rapidly.

In the first month of legal gambling, bettors placed $131.44 million in wagers, bringing the state $2.36 million in tax revenue. In January of this year, the most recent month for which data is available, that number jumped to $410.77 million in wagers and $7.27 million in tax revenue.

In fiscal year 2023, $1.2 million was allocated to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to combat gambling addiction. Thanks to increased revenues from betting, the fiscal year 2024 budget proposal nearly doubles that, to $2.3 million, according to department spokesperson Matthew Parriott.

Some of that funding helps support the Tennessee REDLINE, a hotline for people experiencing problem gambling. And while Parriott notes the hotline has seen “a significant increase” in calls since legalization, the “vast majority” of gambling calls are people seeking the latest winning lottery numbers or help with gambling apps rather than treatment, a phenomenon identified in other states. That’s one reason why spikes in hotline calls are a “fairly weak predictor of gambling addiction,” says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Tennessee’s gambling revenue also supports addiction research and treatment programs based at the University of Memphis and East Tennessee State University.

Virginia’s online sports betting program has been live for more than two years. State Del. Paul Krizek, a Democrat, is one of the lawmakers still focused on the issue. He led this year’s effort to create a new state advisory committee on problem gambling, establish March as Problem Gambling Awareness Month and commission a study to determine whether Virginia’s gambling regulatory bodies should be consolidated.

“I’m hoping we can take a pause on any more expansion for a while and really start to focus on the problem side of it,” says Krizek, noting recent efforts to expand poker and casino gambling in the state.

Legalization brought gamblers out of the shadows and made betting easier and safer, he says, “but by doing that it increases the numbers of players and the number of people engaged, and it does then increase the number of problem gambling issues, and that is something I’m not sure we were really prepared for.”

The amount of money wagered on sports in Virginia increased by more than 50 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to the state. Calls to the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling increased by a similar amount during the same period.

“We need to promote responsible gaming if we’re going to keep at it,” Krizek says. “We can’t have situations where people are going broke and becoming criminals because they’ve lost all their money. We’ve got to be very careful.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

METRO PLANNING RELEASES PROPOSED COUNCIL REDISTRICTING MAPS

One proposal offers 17 district councilmembers and three at-large reps, the other 15 district councilmembers and five at-large reps

BY CONNOR DARYANI

The Metro Planning Department on Friday released two possible redistricting maps to satisfy legislation from the state that requires Davidson County’s 40-member Metro Council to cut back to 20 members.

With election season fast approaching, Metro has been scrambling to get a plan together. The legislation to cut the council moved through the Tennessee General Assembly quickly, and it requires the city to have maps ready to be considered by the Metro Council by April 10. While a legal battle is underway to stop the cut, until the courts say otherwise, the planning department has begun the process of redistricting.

“This state law directs our department to perform a difficult task in a short timeframe,” says Metro Planning Executive Director Lucy Kempf. “The process, while far from ideal, must prioritize opportunities for our residents’ voices to be heard so that communities are able to stay together, and ensure we have a district makeup that reflects our diverse county. This is the purpose of releasing such maps today for public feedback.”

Two proposed scenarios for a reduced council are 17 district councilmembers with three countywide at-large representatives, and 15 district councilmembers with five at-large representatives. At a special Metro Council meeting earlier this week, some members suggested different scenarios and urged public comment on the makeup of a recomposed Metro Council; a public hearing has been scheduled for April 4.

One of the main concerns among critics of the legislation has been whether minority populations will be adequately represented after redistricting, and some experts have said that having five at-large councilmembers would be the best way to guarantee minority representation.

Planning officials estimate that both proposals would allow for two majority-Black districts in North Nashville and two plurality-Black districts in Southeast Nashville. Despite this similarity, Gregory Claxton, a member of the Planning team that worked on the maps, said in a Friday press briefing that the 17-district map might not allow for as much minority representation in the at-

PHOTO: CASEY GOWER

large seats. He estimates that the 15-district map would likely allow for 25 to 30 percent minority representation overall, while the 17-district map would allow for 20 to 30 percent minority representation.

Another point of concern is District 30, currently represented by Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda, which is a plurality-Hispanic district. Claxton said that under the new configurations, this part of Nashville around Nolensville Pike would remain a plurality-Hispanic district.

But with the increase in constituents per district — both maps create districts with around twice the number of constituents as the current maps — there are some unavoidable complications. One of the most striking differences between the two maps is the

downtown districting, which Claxton said was one of the most difficult parts of the process.

“As I look at this map I see a lot of borders that kind of make me cringe but are kind of what we can work with,” Claxton said.

“We anticipate a tough week ahead, as we are talking about cutting council roughly in half, and that will have a variety of implications for our city, and individually among council members,” said Kempf.

Kempf added that she hopes some of these issues can be resolved through a series of community meetings next week and at the subsequent April 4 public hearing.

Metro has published an interactive map on the redistricting website.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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WHAT’S THE DILL?

Pickleball is wildly popular, and Nashville pickleballers are looking for space

BY LOGAN BUTTS

The fastest-growing sport in the United States isn’t soccer, or even MMA. It’s pickleball.

By now you’re probably at least aware of the quirky game, sort of a mash-up of tennis, badminton and table tennis. Stephen Colbert hosted a celebrity pickleball tournament on CBS. LeBron James invested in a professional pickleball team. Major media outlets from The New York Times to CBS News have explored why exactly a middle school gym-class staple has suddenly become the up-and-coming sport across the country.

If you’re not among the 5 million or so Americans playing pickleball, the setup is fairly simple. The game is played on a badminton-style court with a tennis net, a Wiffle-esque ball and paddle-like rackets. Players, usually in pairs, play to 11 points — like in table tennis — and only the serving pair can score. An area near the net called “the kitchen” is a no-volley zone, as it is in tennis. Because the court is roughly half the size of a tennis court, it’s easy to stay moving without causing as much wear and tear on the body. This makes the game accessible for players of all ages, fitness levels and body types.

“There’s definitely some folks in their late 30s and 40s that come, but primarily I would say it’s 50-plus,” says Andrew Fishman, director of Camp Davis and Children’s Services at Gordon Jewish Community Center, a popular pickleball destination in Nashville. Fishman is part of an unofficial pickleball committee that formed at the JCC due to high demand for games.

Avid pickleballers describe an inherent social aspect to the game that is absent from other similar sports. Gone are the stuffy country clubs and strict dress codes of the world of tennis. The laid-back vibes offer a more welcoming atmosphere for newcomers. But without the local infrastructure of other more established sports, pickleball courts often have to be set up on the fly wherever space is available, whether that’s a basketball gym or, crucially, a tennis court.

When the sport’s popularity skyrocketed during the height of the pandemic, many people set up shop at their local tennis courts by taping out pickleball court dimensions and bringing their own nets. Because of the battle for space, there’s a bit of tension between tennis players and pickleball enthusiasts across the country, and Nashville is no different.

“Tennis courts are very political things,” says Randall Bedwell, the founder of Pickleball Kids USA in Hendersonville — one of the few pickleball spaces specifically for kids not just in Middle Tennessee, but in

the entire state.

Building a pickleball court can be expensive, with an estimated cost of $25,000 to $45,000. And the demand for courts is far outpacing the supply in Middle Tennessee. The situation is even more dire for kids interested in the sport. Children are often not able (or welcome) to join in at adult-aimed meetups. Unless their school offers it in gym class, dedicated pickleball surfaces for kids are hard to come by — despite the game becoming increasingly popular with teens.

“Nobody seems to be taking the time to [set up the infrastructure] with the kids,” Bedwell says. “And I think that’s a real travesty.”

Bedwell and his team offer lessons, organize summer camps and host tournaments. The former tennis pro and squash enthusiast has helped hundreds of kids learn to play racket sports, but he says pickleball is the easiest for them to pick up.

“It is a really great way to get kids physically active,” he says. “The court’s small enough that they can talk to each other and socialize and have fun, and it’s not as intimidating as a tennis court.”

Bedwell has been working with local schools to add pickleball as a club sport, and has made early inquiries into pickleball becoming a TSSAA-sanctioned sport — both important steps for improving the local youth pickleball infrastructure. But even Bedwell defers to a higher authority when it comes to Tennessee pickleball royalty.

Local P.E. teacher Stephanie Lane, a former Lipscomb tennis player who was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame in 2004, is a multiple national pickleball medalist, serves on the

nominating committee for the Pickleball Hall of Fame, and even helped write the pickleball rules portion of the AAU/USA Pickleball Association handbook. If you’re looking into Nashville’s pickleball scene, it won’t be long before someone directs you her way.

Lane first got into the sport in the late ’80s at Lipscomb. Her tennis coach Trish Hodgson-Carruth would have the team play pickleball on rainy days when they couldn’t practice outside.

“I wish that I had known back then that this was a real thing, because the rest would’ve been history,” Lane says.

Lane picked the game back up a little more than a decade ago, but its presence was nearly nonexistent, at least at the higher levels, in Middle Tennessee. To compete at a high level, one would have to travel out West. But in 2016, when Naples, Fla., built the Naples Pickleball Center — the selfproclaimed “Pickleball Capital of the World” — the game began to make an expansion eastward.

Before long, Nashville was bitten by the pickleball bug. But even with hundreds of dedicated pickleball players across the Middle Tennessee area, it’s still an ongoing challenge to find the funding for pickleball facilities, a problem that has rarely affected publicly funded tennis courts.

“I just gave up on trying to share those courts because, I mean, I came from the tennis world, and I’ll be honest, they’re completely two different worlds,” Lane says. “I’m just tired of fighting over the courts, so I just don’t play there anymore. It’s not worth it.”

Although the city has yet to fully embrace the sport, there has still been interest from pickleball’s highest levels. The Professional Pickleball Association Pro Tour was set to have a stop in Nashville this season, but it was quashed due to a lack of usable facilities.

“If you build it, they will come, because Nashville’s a destination,” Lane says. “It’s just a matter of time before somebody finally throws the millions in that it’s going to take to get the land and to build the facilities. We just don’t have the facilities right now to host those.”

There are 56 publicly available pickleball courts in Nashville, including popular spots like the Centennial Sportsplex, but many don’t have permanent pickleball lines and require players to bring their own nets.

“Occasionally there is tension [between tennis players and pickleball players], but that’s to be expected anytime you have multi-use facilities,” says Jackie Jones of the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation. “However, considering the size of our park system, conflicts across the board for multiuse facilities are for the most part small but can also be loud. The ideal scenario would be for both sports to have dedicated courts, and we are working very hard to make that happen for now and in the future.”

Despite the fight for space, pickleball continues to thrive in Nashville.

“Pickleball has changed my life in so many positive ways,” Lane says. “I just love to pay that forward and to let people experience it. I know it’s just a Wiffle Ball and a paddle and a court and a net, but it’s a community.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF PICKLEHEADS.COM

APRIL 2 & 3

CAEDMON’S CALL

APRIL 2 | SOLD OUT

APRIL 3 | LIMITED SEATS REMAIN

APRIL 10

ALY & AJ

JUNE 14

DIARRHEA PLANET

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

JULY 29

PESO PLUMA

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

OCTOBER 17

NICK CAVE

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

THE CITY/STATE RELATIONSHIP IS BROKEN. HOW DID IT GET THIS WAY, AND CAN IT BE REPAIRED?

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

If speed is sometimes a measure of intent in lawmaking, the Tennessee General Assembly was sending a message when they cut the Metro Council in half. When a bill passes, both the House and Senate speakers must sign it. In the normal course of business, this is an act that might sometimes take a day or two. After a bill is sent to the governor’s desk, Bill Lee has up to 10 days to sign it into law, veto it or simply let it become law without his signature. Most new laws take effect on July 1, so it is rare to see any amount of haste applied to the process. House Bill 48, a bill to cut the Metro Council in half, from 40 to 20, was different. After the House measure passed the Senate, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally signed the measure, followed quickly by House Speaker Cameron Sexton. The bill was then sent to Lee’s office, where he made the bill a law with immediate effect. In all, it took a little more than an hour. Republican leadership was incensed by the Metro Council’s refusal to approve a plan to host the 2024 Republican National Convention last year. Their response? Make some of those councilmembers lose their jobs. It was a hammer of a reply wrapped in the cloth of good governance language — “Government functions best closer to the people,” House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) said after its passage — and one designed to remind Nashville leaders that the state holds the power in their relationship. We’ve been hurtling toward this moment for years. State preemption of Nashville has been an ever-increasing function of a very blue city located in a very red state. In the past decade, the legislature has preempted Metro efforts on menu labeling (2010), antidiscrimination in hiring (2011), simple marijuana possession (2017), inclusionary zoning (2018) and short-term rentals (2022).

This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news and will launch later this year. For more information, visit NashvilleBanner.com.

And in 2023, the floodgates have opened. Beyond the council-size law, a nonexhaustive list of proposed legislation this session that is aimed completely or partially at Nashville includes:

• A bill to abolish community oversight boards of police departments

• A bill to strip the dedicated tax funding of the Music City Center

• A bill to outlaw community benefits agreements with nonprofits, a device used recently in agreements to build stadiums or large housing complexes to ensure affordable housing

• A bill to eliminate runoff elections in local races

• A bill to take death penalty appeals away from local prosecutors and give responsibility to the state attorney general

• A bill to remove Nashville control of its airport authority

• A bill to remove Nashville control of its sports authority

• A bill to exclude Lower Broadway bars from the authority of the beer board

• A bill to criminalize all-ages public drag performances

One lobbyist described the session to the Nashville Banner as “open season on Davidson County.”

This wasn’t necessarily the plan when state Republican leaders approached Mayor John Cooper last year about making a bid for the 2024 RNC. Gov. Lee viewed the convention as a chance to show off Tennessee’s success on a national stage. Cooper was not thrilled with the idea, but his administration began working on a plan.

Initially, Cooper’s staff attempted to trade the mayor’s support in exchange for state reversal on two of a list of four issues: increased education funding, inclusionary zoning, more leeway on impact fees, or Medicaid expansion. The state ruled all of them out.

The deal that was hammered out — what one staffer called “another classic Cooper deal” as they tried to sell it — addressed issues like cost and security for an event that would encompass both Bridgestone Arena and the Music City Center. It was not perfect, and behind the scenes senior advisers still had a list of concerns: The security perimeter could potentially close corporate offices for a week or more; the typical federal reimbursement for conventions might not cover everything; the Metro Nashville Police Department is still understaffed, and officers are currently on mandatory overtime; after Jan. 6, 2021, how would President Trump’s staunchest supporters react if he lost at a contested convention?

Complicating matters was the 2023 local election cycle — Cooper was still considering running for a second term, though he has since opted out of a reelection bid. With two candidates in and more on the way, the mayor and his staff were aware that bringing the RNC to such a Democratic city might not be well received. So Cooper sought political cover by insisting the Metro Council sign off on the plan.

The RNC draft agreement got only 10 votes in the council, setting off the round

of recriminations and legislation that continues today, including the slashing of the Metro Council.

The relationship between Metro and the state is at its lowest point since Nashville and Davidson County’s consolidation 60 years ago this week. How did we get here? And can it be fixed? To begin to answer that question, the Banner went to some of the people who know the relationship the best.

IN TALKING WITH MORE than 15 lobbyists, the three most frequent replies were as follows: “This is off the record”; “I can’t talk on the record because of my clients”; “you’re trying to kill my business, aren’t you?”

The Banner agreed not to name anyone in this section in exchange for their candor. As a reader, you may fairly view this with some skepticism. All of the parties involved, and their clients, could be negatively affected by on-the-record criticism of either the state legislature or the city. What we looked for were areas of agreement by multiple people and trends from a group of people who work with the legislature, state government and Metro on a regular basis. Here’s what we found.

ORIGINS

There is no clear origin story for the devolution of Nashville’s relationship with the state. Two people point to a 2016 decision to sue the state over inadequate funding of schools as causing friction with both the Haslam and Lee administrations. But multiple people say successive election cycles that saw the Metro Council become more liberal and the General Assembly become more conservative made the current situation inevitable.

Several lobbyists describe the most extreme voices in the state GOP deliberately antagonizing Nashville, particularly on social issues, while the air

of “Nashville exceptionalism” has rubbed many the wrong way. “Nashville doesn’t understand that, statewide, people don’t view Nashville as special as Nashville views itself,” says one person. “And it’s always been like that. It’s gotten a hell of a lot worse since that New York Times article, the infamous ‘It City’ piece.”

BLUE TARGETS

As cities have trended more liberal, states with conservative legislatures have increasingly targeted progressive policies and programs. In Florida, the state has struck down rent stabilization efforts while minimum wage standards have been preempted in multiple states, including Tennessee. The Local Solutions Support Center estimates that as of March 8, state legislatures have introduced more than 400 bills to preempt localities on issues from abortion to education to prosecutorial discretion to elections. “This is not just a Tennessee issue or a Nashville issue,” says one lobbyist.

FAILED EFFORTS TO FIX

In an effort to repair the situation, Cooper sent Vice Mayor Jim Shulman to the Hill to talk with legislative leaders. Shulman is a 30-year veteran of state government and spent some time in then-Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration. Most describe the efforts as a failure, with Shulman “wandering around without a strategy,” according to one lobbyist. Another notes that most of the current legislature had no idea who he was. Eventually, Cooper reined Shulman in. When asked about what seemed to be a thankless task, Shulman was candid about his attempts to increase communication in order to stop the flood of legislation. “There were times I thought we had slowed things down, but it just didn’t work,” Shulman says.

‘WOKE’ INOCULATION

“The playbook that used to work doesn’t work anymore,” says one lobbyist. A decade ago, a particularly egregious piece of legislation might be stopped by a big business heavyweight like AT&T, which employed a small army of lobbyists and had a footprint in most counties. But few companies have that kind of reach anymore, and nationally, the far-right campaign against a so-called “woke corporate agenda” has given some legislators a permission structure for resisting business interests, particularly on social issues. “The whole ‘woke’ thing is not just inoculating some, it’s emboldening them,” says one lobbyist. The result is that “sensible people keep their heads down.”

WHO SPEAKS FOR BUSINESS?

There is legitimate confusion about who represents the Nashville business community, which has often helped moderate these kinds of disputes. House Speaker Cameron Sexton has leaned on Republicans like Bobby Joslin for direction (and campaign cash). The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, led by Ralph Schulz, has largely stayed on the sidelines and, according to a few lobbyists, actively discouraged people from signing onto a letter to Sexton and McNally asking them not to downsize the council. “If they’re not going to take the lead, why are they there?” asks one lobbyist.

But if many in the lobbyist class are frustrated by extreme elements in the legislature, they’re also frustrated by at least one councilmember.

BOB MENDES HAS enemies.

At times the list might include the proponents of a new Titans stadium, various members of John Cooper’s staff, three-fifths of the Davidson County

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

METRO COUNCILMEMBER ATLARGE BOB MENDES

THURSDAY

3/30 6:00PM

THURSDAY

3/30 9:00PM

SATURDAY 4/1 6:00PM

SATURDAY 4/1 9:00PM

$15

REMAINING SHOW SCHEDULE

MARCH 30 - APRIL 1, 2023

Hadley Kennary, Bre Kennedy, Jessica Sharman, special guest Gabe Broussard, Preston James, Ava Suppelsa, Dan Wilson

THURSDAY 3/30 6:00PM

THURSDAY

3/30 9:00PM

FRIDAY 3/31 6:00PM

FRIDAY 3/31 9:00PM

Jennifer Hanson, Brandon Kinney, Karl Michael, Kaylin Roberson, Jon Wood

Dave Gibson, Michael Martin Murphey, Ryan Murphey, Bernie Nelson

Bonnie Baker, Raquel Cole, Troy Johnson, Stephony Smith

Jon Green, Mary Kutter, Jake Mitchell, Charlotte Sands $15

$15

Jamie Floyd, Ty Herndon, Jamie O’Neal, Joybeth Taylor

Megan Barker, Mike Reid, Mitch Rossell, Joel Shewmake

Becky Buller, Pam Gadd, Irene Kelley, Donna Ulissee Callista Clark, Eric Paslay, Anna Vaus, special guests

Gary Burr, Peter Cincotti, Mark Hudson, Victoria Shaw

Matraca Berg, Dickey Lee, Paul Overstreet, Allen Shamblin

Rory Bourke, Greg Friia, Mark Taylor, Danny Wells Troy Cartwright, Daniel Ross, Matt Roy, special guests

95.5 Nash Icon Presents

Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum Presents

Trannie Anderson, Chase Rice, Matt Rogers, Jordan Walker $20

Ross Copperman, Zach Kale, Emily Weisband, Chris Young $25

Hot 106.7 Presents

Zach Abend, Smith Ahnquist, Nick Donley, Dennis Matkosky

Cecilia Castleman, Scotty Emerick, Daniel Tashian

Lightning 100 Presents

Porter Howell, Paul Jefferson, Mark Narmore,

Josiah

Fraser Churchill, Zack Dyer, Summer Overstreet, Sophia Scott

Mark T. Jordan, Angela Kaset, Bill LaBounty, special guest

Michael Farren, Larry Gatlin, Dwan Hill, Jesse Labelle, Houston Phillips

Tony Arata, Marv Green, J.T. Harding, Ryan Larkins

Monty Criswell, Brett James, Kelley Lovelace, Bobby Pinson $20

Jim Collins, Matt McKinney, Rivers Rutherford

Austin Plaine, Luke Preston, Jordyn Shellhart, special guest

Mitchell Tenpenny, Riley Thomas, Michael Whitworth, Dallas Wilson

Jeffrey Steele & Friends

Ethan Hulse, Wil Nance, Jason Sever, Brian White $15

Adam Craig, Jason Duke, Jason Massey, Keesy Timmer

Deanna Bryant, Jaida Dreyer, Lauren Lucas, Kirsti Manna

Andy Albert, Tofer Brown, Lauren Hungate, Justin Wilson Lewis Brice, Dylan Marlowe, John Morgan

Julia Cole, Tony Evans Jr., Chad Michael Jervis, Fred Wilhelm

Sara Haze, Cameron Jaymes, Jenna LaMaster, Gordie Sampson, special guest

Tyler Dial, David Hodges, Ricky Manning, Steve Solomon, Dan Swank

Cary Barlowe, Corey Crowder, Chris LaCorte, special guests

Jack Hummel, Levi Hummon, Marcus Hummon, Stevie Woodward, special guest

Flat River Band, Taylon Hope, Dallas Remington, Bryan Ruby

Chris DeStefano, Emily Shackelton, Eric Van Houten, special guest

Willie Morrison, CJ Solar, Rob Williford

Abby Anderson, Michael August, Skip Black, Landon Wall

Jessi Alexander, Chase McGill, special guest Melissa Fuller, Jillian Jacqueline, MORGXN, Jeff Trott, special guest $15 $15

Sierra Carson, Kevin Kadish, Jake Rose, Theron Thomas

Cole Capshaw, Steve Cropper, Justyna Kelley, Emily McGill

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Election Commission and most certainly Republicans on Capitol Hill. A restructuring attorney at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, Mendes has used his at-large council seat as a megaphone to become one of the most prominent progressive voices in the city.

Many blame his strident stance against bringing the Republican National Convention here for the state GOP’s backlash against Nashville this session. “Mendes” is the name that those same critics spit out privately when describing a section of the Metro Council that is more willing to fight with the state than seek compromise. He’s become the informal spokesman for a more assertive relationship with the state.

“The RNC was the cause of this the way the assassination of the archduke was the cause of World War I,” Mendes says. “Maybe it wasn’t the actual triggering event, but the war was happening whether the archduke died or not. You know, my class of councilmembers have been in office for most of the time of the [Republican] supermajority. And clearly, the supermajority has been getting its legs under it and spreading its wings, expanding what it’s done to the city. And the object lesson that we’ve had in the council is that we can be ‘well-behaved’ and still get punished.”

The councilmember becomes animated, however, at the thought that last summer’s political theater inspired the current round of anti-Nashville legislation. Mendes runs through the council’s recent perceived sins in the eyes of the state.

“When we passed inclusionary zoning, there was a letter from the chamber of commerce expressly endorsing the legislation asking councilmembers to vote for it,” says Mendes. “Yet we got preempted.

When we spent two-and-a-half years finding a balance between property rights and neighborhood rights, to find a balance on short-term rentals, we still got partially preempted. When John Cooper went and worked with Gov. Lee to have the city take the lead on COVID regulations that every city in the Southeast followed — that the state of Tennessee follows — we were ‘well-behaved’ and gave the governor his kudos, and we got our health department power taken away. There’s no perceivable difference between us being ‘well-behaved’ and not being well-behaved in the eyes of the Republicans.”

It’s odd, then, to hear Mendes speak wistfully about Bill Haslam. There is respect for the former governor’s willingness to squash the worst impulses of the legislature behind the scenes. For example, the so-called “bathroom bill” aimed at transgender people was snuffed out in committee in 2016 after businesses complained vocally to the governor. In 2021, Bill Lee signed a version into law that later was struck down by a federal court.

Mendes’ critics say he and a large swath of the Metro Council frequently forget that the state holds almost all the power in their relationship. Mendes responds that Bill Lee and the GOP leadership in the legislature have been more concerned with their right flank than protecting Nashville and its economic engine, which accounts for almost a third of the state’s GDP.

Ultimately, that’s what Mendes thinks might moderate the relationship between city and state. He notes how the move to strip funding from the bonds attached to the Music City Center sent a ripple through the business community.

“I made this assertion to other business attorneys who aren’t on the payroll of any

of the major interests,” Mendes says. “If you were working on a deal, and you had to give somebody the legal advice like, ‘Listen, five years from now, I can’t promise you that you’re going to be in control of your board anymore. And I can’t promise you that half your revenue is still gonna be there, because an outside party that we have no control over may kill half your revenue. I can’t commit to you that those things are fine. Do you still want to do the deal?’ It would immediately be pencils down, people pack their briefcases. That’s terrible for business. The mere notion that that legislation is still pending without being squashed immediately by the highest parts of state government calls into question the financial architecture of every single major thing we’ve got going on.”

WHERE DOES METRO go from here? The first place will be to court next week.

On March 13, Metro Legal filed suit against the state, arguing that the law cutting the size of the council was unconstitutional. To understand why, you first need to know a little about “home rule.”

In 1953, Tennessee amended the state’s constitution to allow that “the General Assembly shall act with respect to such home rule municipality only by laws which are general in terms and effect.” When Metro consolidated in 1963, it was done under provisions that allowed home rule and, as a result, was not subject to any law passed by the legislature designed only to affect Nashville.

Metro’s suit argues that the so-called “Metro Council Reduction Act” does just that.

“If the General Assembly can unilaterally unwind an existing metropolitan government’s legislative body, the Home Rule Amendment’s constitutional requirement for local approval of a consolidated government charter becomes meaningless,” Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz says in a complaint. “In imposing these Council-reduction requirements on Metro Nashville just before a local election, the General Assembly undermines the purpose of local-government consolidation, ignores numerous other constitutional

prohibitions on such a reduction, and creates confusion and chaos among citizens and candidates.”

The case was filed in Chancery Court in Davidson County. But because the legislature was irate over losing cases in that court — notably a 2020 voucher case presided over by Chancellor Pat Moskal — the case will be heard by a special threejudge panel instituted to hear cases with issues of constitutionality. Chancellor Moskal, a Democrat, will be joined by Republican chancellors from Memphis and Athens.

That might not be the end of litigation, either. The Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship, a longtime civil rights organization, has retained counsel and is exploring a federal lawsuit based on provisions in the Voting Rights Act.

And while past lawsuits have angered state GOP leaders, there is a sense that Metro has little to lose by filing suit. As one observer close to Mayor John Cooper notes, “You can’t be in a healthy relationship if your partner doesn’t respect you.” A win might add a bit of balance back to the dynamic.

AS A PRACTICAL MATTER, the city’s relationship with the state won’t be reset until John Cooper leaves office later this year. There is deep enmity among state GOP leadership for how Cooper handled the RNC bid, and regardless of how this legislative session ends, there won’t be much trust going forward. A new council with new faces — whether there are 20 total members or 40 — will give both sides a chance to start over, too.

Among Cooper’s would-be successors, there are a few who have had a frontrow seat for this conflict — District 19 Councilmember Freddie O’Connell, Councilmember At-Large Sharon Hurt and State Sen. Jeff Yarbro — as well as others like Matt Wiltshire who have experience in Metro. So far, all of the candidates’ answers for how to repair the city-state relationship seem to include some version of “better communication.”

Until then, hold onto your seats. There’s another month left in the legislative session.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

METRO LEGAL DIRECTOR WALLY DIETZ

“CLEARLY, THE SUPERMAJORITY HAS BEEN GETTING ITS LEGS UNDER IT AND SPREADING ITS WINGS, EXPANDING WHAT IT’S DONE TO THE CITY. AND THE OBJECT LESSON THAT WE’VE HAD IN THE COUNCIL IS THAT WE CAN BE ‘WELLBEHAVED’ AND STILL GET PUNISHED.”

—BOB MENDES

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

Food trucks, games and fun start at 5pm. Movies start at sundown. Free to attend | Kid & pet friendly

CRITICS’ PICKS

WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

THURSDAY / 3.30

MUSIC [I KNOW THAT’S RIGHT] GHOSTFINGER

W/THE ALTERED STATESMAN

& INVITATION

Alongside other great Middle Tennessee rock bands like Those Darlins, Glossary, The Clutters and The Features, Ghostfinger was a group I grew up with in the Aughts. Those groups in general played a big role in showing me what a rock scene could be at its best. Ghostfinger in particular impressed me with a fine-tuned combination of self-effacing showmanship, prodigious chops (in a Venn diagram where the Stones overlap with, say, ELO) and songs that subtly illuminate the absurdity of selfrighteousness and exceptionalism. While I certainly wasn’t alone, you don’t have to have that kind of connection to singersongwriter and guitar mad scientist Richie Kirkpatrick, his rotating cast of ringers, or even the great records he released under the simple moniker “Richie” — or “Ri¢hie,” around the time he was in Kesha’s band and she dubbed herself Ke$ha — for Thursday’s show to be enticing. Kirkpatrick tells the Scene he’s got a whole new album on the way soon, and from here on out he’ll be using the Ghostfinger name. While the original members are set to be involved in the ’Finger whenever they’re able, Thursday’s ensemble includes drummer Jeff Ehlinger and keyboardist Matt Menold. Joining them will be the never-not-awesome The Altered Statesman, fresh off the release of a cool and inviting new EP called Hearts Around the Moon, and Cameron Reiss Wilson’s project Invitation, purveyors of exceptionally gnarly and danceable postpunk-y sounds. 9 p.m. at The 5 Spot, 1006 Forrest Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC

[COUNTRY SUBTEXT] MARGO CILKER

The music on California-born singer-

songwriter Margo Cilker’s 2021 debut album Pohorylle draws from the well of Americana, which means Cilker’s homages to The Band, Lucinda Williams and Lowell George support her music without distracting from it. Cilker grew up in the Bay Area before making stops in South Carolina, Spain and the U.K., and Pohorylle documents her time in rural eastern Oregon. Cilker enunciates and phrases like a student of Williams, and she conflates the universal with the personal in classic singersongwriter fashion. Pohorylle works as a covertly political album, which makes sense — Cilker’s title comes from the given name of German-born 1930s war photographer Gerda Taro, who died documenting the Spanish Civil War. In “Brother, Taxman, Preacher,” Cilker updates Jim Ford’s 1970 comedy tune “36 Inches High” as a protest song: “I wish I was a preacher / I could tell you who to love.” Meanwhile, “Broken Arm in Oregon” registers as the catchiest track on Pohorylle, operating at a medium tempo throughout. Something titled “Kevin Johnson” takes aim at traditional roles in the South, but it comes across like a bit of tepid Ray Davies-style satire. The album peaks with “Flood Plain,” in which Cilker seems to be weighing in on tourism and romantic love in the rural part of North America she calls home. At least, that’s the subtext — with singer-songwriters, you never know. Nashville rocker Sophie Gault, who released 2022’s Delusions of Grandeur with her band The Broken Things, opens. 9 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S. EDD HURT

MUSIC [COUNTRY JAM]

VINCE HERMAN

Vince Herman is a busy man. Between dates with his bands Leftover Salmon and The High Hawks, he’s barely had a chance to tour behind his excellent, countryinflected solo debut Enjoy the Ride, which dropped in late November. But that will change when the Vince Herman Band

BRELAND & FRIENDS

kicks off a mini-tour Thursday night with an appearance at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. Besides Herman on guitar, the VHB is Ian Craft (fiddle, banjo), Dakota Holden (pedal steel), Nate Graham (bass), Lawrence Nemenz (drums) and son Silas Herman (mandolin, guitar). Speaking from his home in Madison, the jam-grass legend tells the Scene he’ll be playing songs from Enjoy the Ride, as well as “some newer material” yet to be recorded. “I’m always so psyched to get to play with my son,” Herman says of the upcoming mini tour. “He’s a hell of a player, and I’m flying him out from Colorado for the dates. And I’m really psyched with this band and this cast of characters that got together to do this. I think they serve the songs well, and it’s a really fun hang to get to play with

these cats.” The Killer Dees, the club’s house band, will perform after the VHB. 8 p.m. at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, 102 E. Palestine Ave. DARYL SANDERS

FILM [YET ANOTHER MAMBO]

WEEKEND CLASSICS: MILLENNIUM MAMBO

It took a long time for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s neon-tinged 2001 tale of aimless youth and toxic relationships, set in Taipei’s nightlife scene, to make it to the States. Millennium Mambo had a divisive run on the festival circuit. While it won awards at some fests, folks who saw it at Toronto (on 9/11!) admitted that they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. And when it hit a Philadelphia fest the following year, a critic bluntly said Hou

TUESDAY, APRIL 4

The Ryman

MARGO CILKER

“offers no observations about the dull set except that they’re dull.” By the time the film played U.S. markets in the spring of ’04, even Hou had moved on. He released the Yasujirō Ozu homage Café Lumière the year before and was about to drop Three Times, starring Mambo muse Shu Qi. Nevertheless, Kino Lorber and Metrograph Pictures have made a new 4K restoration for all those hardcore Hou-heads who never got the chance to see this on the big screen. March 30 & April 2 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

FRIDAY / 3.31

MUSIC

[STRING THEORY]

MICHAEL LANDAU & KIRK FLETCHER

Michael Landau and Kirk Fletcher are co-headlining what promises to be an electrifying two-night experience of guitar prowess at The Underdog. Since the early ’80s, Landau has been a preeminent contemporary session guitarist. His extensive résumé includes an exceptional range of legendary artists such as Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, B.B. King, Celine Dion and Tim McGraw, among countless others. Fellow string-bender Fletcher has also collaborated with prominent acts over his career, including Cyndi Lauper, Joe Bonamassa and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. But it’s as a blues music apostle that Fletcher shines, most notably on his recent album Heartache by the Pound, released in 2022. His soulful playing and vocals echo the greats of the past while expanding into new sonic territory. Both of this weekend’s shows offer the duo a chance to let loose and explore the depths of their mutual talent. March 31 & April 1 at The Underdog, 3208

Gallatin Pike JASON VERSTEGEN

MUSIC

[JUST FOR YOU, FOR NOW]

HELLO DARLING

For fans of The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons and The Civil Wars: If you’ve ever wanted to have “I knew them before they were famous!” bragging rights, here’s your chance. Folk band Hello Darling was formed in 2020 when co-vocalists Grace Russell and Patrick Armould met in a music

class at Lipscomb University, and three more band members were added to the group in the following year. Both Russell and Armould are experienced songwriters and performers in their own right, but together they have the musical chemistry of artists well beyond their years. Hello Darling’s most recent single “Just for You” glows with harmonies and stirs up memories of years gone by. The band will play The East Room with support from Walter Slide and Legit Smitty. In a time when many critics agonize over the state of music, Hello Darling serves as a comforting reminder — the kids are going to be alright.

7 p.m. at the East Room, 2412 Gallatin Ave.

HANNAH CRON

SATURDAY / 4.1

[ROCK DOWN]

PARADE

ROBOT PARADE

For many people, it’s impossible to pass by East Nashville’s Electric Avenue without the lyrics of the 1983 Grammynominated song of the same name running through their head. If you’re one of those people, join your crowd at the Third Annual Rock Down to Electric Avenue Robot Parade Saturday. Bring or make your own robot costume from paper boxes, old Halloween costumes or stuff you find at Turnip Green Creative Reuse. Then show up at the intersection of 17th Street and Electric Avenue. Everyone will walk or march or move however robots move to the end of Electric Avenue, where there will be a dance break (I think you know to what song). Then everyone turns around and goes back to the start. It’s only about six blocks in total, so your cyborg doesn’t have to be as skilled as the Bellevue Restaurant Robot at 615Chutney. If you haven’t experienced East Nashville in its pure let-your-freakflag-fly goodness, this is your chance. The parade is free, and there’s no ulterior motive: Just be creative, be in community and sing the song you hear in your head anyway. By the way, the song refers to a street in London named such because it was the first to be lit by a lightbulb, and which was the site of racial-equity protests just a

few years before the song’s release. 3 p.m. at 17th Street and Electric Avenue in East Nashville MARGARET LITTMAN

[WHAT A DRAG]

WE

AIN’T FOOLS: A CELEBRATION OF SELF-EXPRESSION

On Saturday, Tennessee’s so-called antidrag legislation goes into effect. The law — widely derided by LGBTQ activists and allies nationwide — broadly bans “adult cabaret performance on public property,” including “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest.” It remains to be seen how or if the vaguely defined legislation will be enforced throughout the state, and how it will hold up in court. But in the meantime, plenty of folks are taking the opportunity to stand up for LGBTQ folks and celebrate the rich and wonderful culture of drag performance. Among those celebrating are local musician Jack Evan Johnson and friends, who’ve rounded up a bunch of resources for We Ain’t Fools: A Celebration of Self-Expression at Raven Beauty Bar. The all-ages event, to be hosted in the

venue’s grassy backyard by self-described “shameless Southern showgirl” BeBe McQueen, will feature a raffle to benefit Trans Aid Nashville including items like signed Dolly Parton memorabilia. Johnson’s band Jack Shit will perform, as will longtime rock ’n’ roll husband-and-wife duo The Smoking Flowers, plus fellow locals Rosa’s Basement, Elyse Wilkinson, Justin and the Cosmics and Budge. Naturally there will also be drag and burlesque performances, including by the performer formerly known as Truly Trollop (now Mona Von Holler). Johnson also promises food trucks, a bouncy house and educational opportunities involving sociopolitical issues beyond the state’s slate of anti-LGBTQ legislation. 3-9 p.m. at Raven Beauty Bar, 917 Gallatin Ave.

D. PATRICK RODGERS

MUSIC [BE REAL] VÉRITÉ

Vérité, aka New York singer-songwriterproducer Kelsey Byrne, introduced fans to the latest incarnation of her ever-evolving pop project earlier this year. Love You Forever, her third full-length, brims with

HELLO DARLING

MILLENNIUM MAMBO

GUITAR LESSONS

Jazz, Rock, Blues, Country, Fusion, Funk, Flamenco, etc. Technique, theory, songwriting. Programs available. 40 years exp.

Saturday, April 1

SONGWRITER SESSION

Terry McBride

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, April 2

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Derek Wells

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, April 8

SONGWRITER SESSION

Ben Johnson

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, April 8

CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE

Country Proud

With Emily and Jamie Dryburgh, Shelly Fairchild, Angie K, Sonia Leigh, and Adam Mac 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, April 9

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

John Hartford

Fiddle Tune Project

Featuring Tyler Andal, Megan Lynch Chowning, and Tristan Scroggins

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, April 15

SONGWRITER SESSION

Acoustic Guitar Project

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, April 22

HATCH SHOW PRINT

Block Party

10:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:30 pm

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY

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

Museum Membership

Members receive free Museum admission and access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and much more.

JOIN TODAY: CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership

melancholy reflections on the places where relationships teeter like precious objects on the edge of a table, ready to fall off and shatter. The production includes lush piano chords, gentle string-plucking and skittering beats — a variety of contexts to showcase the different ways she’s found to use her voice, skipping in a heartbeat from angelic harmonies to electronically warped demonic growls. Saturday, Vérité has the distinction of opening the next chapter in the ongoing saga of Exit/In. Hers is the first show at the historic rock club since Thanksgiving. New management took over Jan. 1, and this is the public’s first chance to see what the place is like with the planned modifications from property owners AJ Capital Partners that were made public in December. 8 p.m. at Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place

STEPHEN TRAGESER

OUTDOORS

SUNDAY / 4.2

MUSIC

[IN SEARCH OF PETALS]

WILDFLOWER HIKES

Spring seems to have been particularly elusive throughout parts of March, but Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary’s ongoing Wildflower Hikes offer the perfect way to shake off your winter blues and ease into the new season. You can look forward to exploring the scenic wildlife sanctuary with a guide, searching for everything from Blue-Eyed Mary (aka Collinsia verna) to Dutchman’s Britches (Dicentra cucullaria). Or you could just enjoy the fresh air and do a bit of bird-watching. Designed for teens and adults, these hikes are moderately strenuous, following a route of roughly two miles including some hills. While you’re there, be sure to check out upcoming events including a variety of educational programs and the always popular family campout. A reminder for guests: To help protect the sanctuary’s diverse wildlife and fragile habitats, please leave pets at home. 9:30 a.m. Saturdays through April 22 at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary, 545 Beech Creek Road, Brentwood AMY STUMPFL

[LET THOSE LAUGH THAT WIN]

WEEKEND CLASSICS: BARRY LYNDON

One of two movies that enigmatic-evenin-death Stanley Kubrick dropped in the ’70s (A Clockwork Orange is the other), his three-hour 1975 adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon is one of the most immaculate, visually stunning period pieces/ costume dramas ever put on film. In telling the epic tale of a roguish 18th-century Irishman (Ryan O’Neal) who goes through a very unpredictable, often unscrupulous and — some would say — ultimately unsuccessful hero’s journey, Kubrick came up with revolutionary camera techniques that made every shot look like a freakin’ painting. The movie went on to win four Oscars, including a well-deserved trophy for Best Cinematography. This is also the movie during which co-star Leon Vitali decided to quit acting and devote his life to being Kubrick’s right-hand man. (There’s even a documentary about his story, Filmworker.) Catch the sumptuousness of it all on the big screen this weekend — in glorious 35 mm! April 1-2 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[SCATTERED

PRISM] KNOLL

The distorted nihilism of pan-Tennessee death-grinders Knoll has been bubbling to the top of the metal underground for the past several years. With two LPs and a handful of EPs and singles under their bullet belts, Knoll takes a scorched-earth policy when it comes to riffs — burning through ultra-melodic guitar licks, haunting electronic FX noise and dissonant chords. Knoll’s 2022 album Metempiric is a fully realized piece of blasting snares and unearthly howls that puts wellcrafted nuance into the sometimes tired microgenre. Their sound pulls from a broad span of sonic ideas, creating art that feels both intentional and unpredictable. Catch these Middle/East Tennesseans now, because they’re going to be on the road for quite some time. God Is War, Bled to Submission and Thetan open this 18-and-up show. 7 p.m. at The End, 2219 Elliston Place

P.J. KINZER

[STEPPING BEYOND GENRE]

MUSIC

AARON DIEHL TRIO

Whether he’s performing a piece from Miles Davis or Johann Sebastian Bach, Aaron Diehl has a remarkable way of bringing his own distinctive point of view to the forefront. The acclaimed pianist and composer is widely known for balancing the daring of jazz improvisation with a deep understanding of the classical repertoire, but don’t expect a simple mash-up of genres here. Diehl takes a more sophisticated approach, exploring both musical traditions with passion, insight and imagination. His latest album, The Vagabond, came out early in 2020 and serves up a lively mix of original compositions along with works by Philip Glass, Sergei Prokofiev, Roland Hanna and John Lewis. This weekend, the Aaron Diehl Trio — completed by Ben Wolfe on bass and Aaron Kimmel on drums — will perform at the Schermerhorn, promising a dynamic evening of music that steps well beyond genre. 7:30 p.m. at the Schermerhorn, 1 Symphony Place AMY STUMPFL

MONDAY / 4.3

[TEENYBOPPER TERROR]

FILM

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: DER FAN

For those of you who’ve recently binge-watched Swarm — the Donald Glover-produced horror show about a disturbed young woman (Dominique Fishback) who kills anyone who talks trash about the Beyoncé-ish superstar she adores — catching a screening of Eckhart Schmidt’s 1982 made-in-Germany thriller Der Fan will either be right up your alley or complete overkill. It’s also about a crazed fan who does some wackadoo shit to get closer to the pop star she’s infatuated with.

Désirée Nosbusch plays a wistful-looking German teen who has it really bad for a Gary Numan-esque star who’s just named R (Bodo Steiger, the frontman for German New Wave band Rheingold, which supplied the music for this film). If you’re a fan of

batshit foreign flicks like Possession or Audition — first off, your ass should be on a watchlist. And secondly, spend your Monday watching this provocative nightmare. 4:30 & 8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[CORRECTING THE RECORD]

BOOKS

ALLISON SCHACHTER AND WOMEN WRITING JEWISH MODERNITY

History isn’t always terrific at telling women’s stories, and Jewish history is no exception. Allison Schachter — professor of Jewish Studies, English and Russian, and East European Studies, and chair of the Jewish Studies Department at Vanderbilt University — wanted to explore modern Jewish culture, and what that means for women, so she penned Women Writing Jewish Modernity, 1919-1939. The book then became a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. Schachter will be joined in conversation Monday by Nancy Reisman, a Vanderbilt professor of creative writing, to talk about it all as part of the Nashville Jewish Book Series. They’ll also discuss Yiddish women’s writing in the context of From the Jewish Provinces, Selected Stories by Fradl Shtok, a book Schachter co-translated. The event takes place at the Parthenon, so maybe Athena will pitch in with her perspective too. The NJBS event is presented by the Gordon Jewish Community Center, the Vanderbilt Department of Jewish Studies, and the Vanderbilt Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Nonalcoholic beverages will be provided by Killjoy. 7 p.m. at the Parthenon, 2500 West End Ave. MARGARET LITTMAN

TUESDAY / 4.4

[TRAP DOORS]

MUSIC

BRELAND & FRIENDS

In case you were wondering, mainstream country music continues to draw from hip-hop. On the evidence of recent work by country star Breland, the big-time country industry is toiling around the clock to come up with mutated versions of trap music that also reference, you know, good times, big trucks and hanging out. Breland’s 2022 album Cross Country is the product of many songwriters, including the 27-year-old rap-country singer born Daniel Gerard Breland. Cross Country includes hits like “My Truck” and “County Line,” which sound like variations on bro-country that fold in the deep bass and slightly off-kilter beats that characterize trap. As such, they float in a no-content space that I would call pop music, and “My Truck” is also kind of avant-garde in an unintentional way. I’m not claiming Breland is breaking new ground, exactly. Still, I have to admire a piece of musical product that manages to make room for songwriting from Keith Urban and samples from hit records by Sylvia and Shania Twain. Tuesday at the Ryman, Breland joins a group of musicians that includes Alana Springsteen, Tenille Townes and Danielle Bradbery — and a slew of others — to benefit Nashville youth outreach center Oasis Center. 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. EDD

BOOKS [DISH]

JEANNETTE WALLS

Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle struck a chord with so many readers that she could recite her grocery list at Parnassus and tickets would still sell out. Tuesday, she’s in town to celebrate her new novel, Hang the Moon. The book is an adventurous piece of historical fiction about a feisty young woman in Prohibition-era Virginia. Walls lives in rural Virginia and recently told The New York Times that she buried her mother on her property, then had her father’s body moved from 400 miles away. “I like it that Dad’s there … they can argue.” This event is already at capacity, but there is a wait list, so jump on it and cross your fingers to the moon and back. 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books, 3900 Hillsboro Pike TOBY LOWENFELS

FILM [I’LL JUICE YA UP]

STAFF PICKS: THE CABLE GUY

Upon its release, the Ben Stiller-directed 1996 Jim Carrey vehicle The Cable Guy was met with mixed reviews. Critics saw it as an uncharacteristically dark turn for Carrey, who was hot off a five-film streak that included Dumb and Dumber and two Ace Ventura installments and pulled in more than $1 billion at the box office. Still, it was far from a flop, and in the 27 years since its release, The Cable Guy has garnered a cult following thanks to Carrey’s peculiar performance as a lisping, television-obsessed stalker as well as its memorable set pieces — most notably that Medieval Times sequence. A staunch member of the Cable Guy cult is Belcourt Theatre employee (and accomplished local musician) Coley Hinson, who calls it “the most prophetic comedy of the ’90s — think ‘Hitchcock meets Jerry Lewis.’” Hinson selected it for the Belcourt’s ongoing Staff Picks series, so fans and firsttimers alike can peep the film’s glorious weirdness Tuesday night on the big screen. 8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

PATRICK RODGERS

D.

WEDNESDAY / 4.5

[NASHVILLE MAINSTAY]

MUSIC

BIZZ BIGSBY

Vocalist and top entertainer Wendell

“Bizz” Bigsby has been a fixture on the Nashville music scene for many years. Aside from opening for many top acts, he’s also an accomplished and versatile songwriter. The son of Music City stalwart Jimmy Church, Bigsby has long since proven himself as a fine performer in his own right, and he’ll showcase his abilities in a different setting Wednesday night as he appears at Rudy’s Jazz Club for the early show. 6 p.m. at Rudy’s Jazz Room, 809 Gleaves St. RON WYNN

MUSIC

[EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN] WEYES BLOOD

If Cat Power and Jewel had a baby — oh, what a world that would be — she’d turn out to be Natalie Mering, aka Weyes Blood, the brains and heart behind the indie-folk outfit out of Los Angeles. With a robustly romantic voice, she throws in a dash of rock that’s more Mazzy Star than Joan Baez. Currently on tour in support of her new album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mering can be found with her acoustic guitar or sitting at the piano, accompanied

by her band. A Weyes Blood set is warm and inviting, each song a shimmering invitation to be more tenderhearted with each other. As she sings in “The Worst Is Done,” a pandemic-era reflection: “It’s time to go out / Pick up where we left off from / They say the worst is done / And it’s time to find out what we’ve all become.” 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. TOBY LOWENFELS

MUSIC [BIRTHDAY BASH] NIOSHI JACKSON

Nioshi Jackson has excelled in multiple facets of the music business across Nashville. He’s been the drummer of choice on many great area jazz dates and sessions while also leading his own bands and booking jazz acts in both Nashville and Hendersonville. Jackson has also worked in the managerial and production end of the business with country artists. He will be marking his 46th birthday in style with a jamboree celebration Wednesday at Rudy’s Jazz Room, where he’ll be joined by some very distinguished friends and special guests. Expect to see performers like Miqui Gutierrez on saxophone, Manny Cole on bass, Ping Rose on guitar and vocals, Lance Lucas on keyboards and Samantha Seay and Marlon Woods on vocals. 9 p.m. at Rudy’s Jazz Club, 809 Gleaves St. RON WYNN

CALLING ALL FOODIES- THE BATTLE IS BACK!

Four of Nashville’s best chefs will throw down in a head-to-head cooking competition featuring one secret ingredient to win the coveted Iron Fork trophy! Watch the competition go down while you enjoy samples from 20± ofthe best restaurants in town and sip on cocktails, beer and wine.

Thursday, April 6 / 6-9:30pm / musicians hall of fame and museum

OODLES OF NOODLES

Sarah Gavigan looks to expand her Otaku empire with a new secret weapon

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

Sarah Gavigan readily admits that, when it comes to ramen, she’s an otaku — the Japanese term for someone obsessed with something, usually technology, music or anime. The author of the book Ramen Otaku: Mastering Ramen at Home, Gavigan has evangelized about her favorite subject and opened several restaurants in Nashville, sharing the joys of perfect noodles and an umami-rich broth. But she’s also closed restaurants, pivoted to carryout models during the pandemic and changed her business several times over the course of more than a decade since her first ramen pop-ups.

Although her POP, Bar Otaku and Little Octopus concepts fell by the wayside, Gavigan and her husband Brad soldiered on, operating Otaku Ramen restaurants in the Gulch and at Sylvan Supply in West Nashville — to be joined by a new East Nashville flagship location at Highland Yards and her first location outside of Davidson County at the Factory at Franklin later this year.

Gavigan also has her eye on opportunities to diversify her business. “After we sold Bar Otaku, we decided to focus on expanding Otaku Ramen,” she says. “We worked with a business adviser who helped us professionalize different departments and see a much bigger future.”

At the same time, the Gavigans encountered a potential existential threat to their business. “I’d been following wheat futures, and it was pretty dire,” Gavigan says. “At the end of the day, I’m in the wheat business, and a lot of countries have stopped exporting wheat since the start of the war in Ukraine. We have to go to Canada for ramen flour milling, and Canada has been going through a threeyear drought, producing one-third as much wheat as they used to. So I looked for a way to bring the supply chain closer.”

Otaku began working on a partial wheat noodle they jokingly called a “crisis noodle,” but more impactful was the idea of producing their own noodles in house. Gavigan has always worked closely with Sun Noodle, the producer of artisan noodles for her bowls, stretching back to those kitchen pop-ups a decade ago. She used to FedEx samples of her broth to the New Jersey company to match them with the proper noodles, so it’s a big deal to upend that relationship.

“We’re still going to be a partner with Sun,” Gavigan explains. “We’re buying our flour from them and now making all our noodles in house.”

When the Gavigans made the choice to start making noodles, there was another decision to make. “My first thought was about Tillman,” she says.

The Tillman in question is Tillman Gressitt, a young man who shares Gavigan’s zeal for ramen. “When I was very young, I got

interested in Japanese culture — anime and food,” Gressitt says. “There was a small izakaya on the street where I lived in Encinitas, Calif., and that’s where I really developed my passion for the culture and started learning Japanese.”

Gressitt moved to Nashville in 2015 and got his first kitchen experience flipping burgers. A job opening at Bar Otaku offered his first connection with Gavigan. “That’s where I got really passionate about learning to make noodles,” he recalls. “I started out using two cheap pasta makers that I broke and then a tiny Chinese noodle machine. I was practicing at home every day. Making noodles is incredibly therapeutic — all about science and a repeatable methodology.”

Gressitt began selling bowls of his ramen at his Fox Den pop-ups when Sarah gave him a call. “She approached me in May 2022, and one thing led to another and we were all on a plane to visit the Yamato factory,” he shares. Yamato, which is in Japan, manufactures the highest-quality ramen manufacturing equipment. Gressitt and the Gavigans toured the facility, eating in the company cafeteria and meeting some of their ramen idols.

After a high-five-figure investment in a new mixer and a sheeter/cutter, the Gavigans were ready to launch their new noodle-making subsidiary, Super Happy Noodle LLC. “It mitigated the risk by having a built-in customer in Otaku Ramen,” says Gavigan. “Tillman was excited to move out of the pop-up into business mode. Our next move is to get into the CPG [consumer packaged goods] market starting in April selling noodles from Highland Yards after we move the commissary kitchen there.”

Super Happy Noodle plans to make their retail debut at the Nashville Cherry Blos-

som Festival on Saturday, April 15, at Public Square Park. The fresh noodles they will be selling should last for at least five weeks in the fridge and need less than a minute or two in hot water before you can put them in a stir-fry or a bowl of Thai soup or pair them with your favorite broth — including those you can find in Gavigan’s cookbook or the SHN website, superhappynoodle.com.

The increase in productivity provided by these new heavy-duty machines is significant. Working out of a small space on Gallatin Avenue, Gressitt can produce 190 portions of noodles in two hours. (“In my pop-up days it took me all day to make 80 portions,” he says.) Working an 11-hour shift, Gressitt can produce five or six batches a day, and Gavigan says the machine has a capacity of 10,000 portions per week.

In addition to learning the mechanics of the operation, Gressitt took a deep dive into wheat. “Rogers Foods mills the flour for Sun, and they’re very particular about their wheat,” he says. “We use hard or soft red wheat, and they offer four different milling qualities versus two in the U.S. They can mill it finer, which affects the hydration and the ash content and exposes more of the endosperm to allow less graininess.”

Otaku Ramen began using the housemade noodles in the restaurants earlier this year while they worked through the last of their Sun supplies, but it wasn’t without trepidation.

“You feel a little more vulnerable when you can’t blame anyone but yourself,” says Gavigan. “One of our vegetable bowls wasn’t tasting right, and we realized it was our noodle that we’d built the bowl around. There’s definitely been some adjustment,

but I believe in, ‘Fuck up fast!’ People are very emotional about their ramen, and they don’t want it to change.”

“It’s like tacos and coffee,” Gressitt adds. “You have your favorites, and they don’t ever have to change. When they do, you notice!”

“We know that new competition is descending on Nashville soon, and that we’re a volume ramen shop,” says Gavigan. “We have to remember that we have a responsibility to give people something special when they’re trying ramen for the first time, so we’re going to try to continue to achieve a level of craftsmanship. We can’t step backwards.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SUPER HAPPY NOODLE SUPERHAPPYNOODLE.COM

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

TILLMAN GRESSIT MAKING NOODLES

CAN-DO ATTITUDE

The Wiley Canning Company Cookbook updates the how-tos of preserving

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

During my early interest in all things preserving and pickling, I would coordinate the recipe with my friend Judy — then I’d pack up my Ball jars, long tongs and Sharpies and take it all over to her place. At the time, I lived in a “charming” house, meaning it had no kitchen counter space or a dishwasher for easy sanitizing.

When I first toured my current house, I measured the clearance of the stove hood to make sure a canning pot would fit underneath. Once moved in, I felt emboldened to can with abandon. One year my friend DG was given an heirloom crock, so we decided to make sauerkraut for everyone we knew, which involved buying 40 pounds of cabbage in the mountains of Georgia. You might not realize how much space 40 pounds of cabbage takes up until you try to shove it all into the back of a Honda Element.

All that is to say, I was particularly interested when I heard about The Wiley Canning Company Cookbook by Nashville’s Chelsea J. O’Leary, which was released this week. Unlike the classic canning books I own and love, O’Leary’s new book takes apartment-dwellers, small families and non-homesteaders into consideration. Photos feature four lemons or a bowl of green beans, not enough produce to fill an SUV.

“The yields are less than in the Ball book because of how I shop,” O’Leary says. “I would usually bring home 2 pounds to 5 pounds of berries. I never go buy 10 red onions. So I made the yields much smaller.”

O’Leary launched The Wiley Canning Company in 2020, naming it after her grandmother, who was a next-level canner. O’Leary has happy memories of grabbing a jar from her grandma’s basement stash, and decided to teach people to preserve in a way that works for modern cooks in modern homes.

“Even if you are not living on a farm and just want to use what you bought at the farmers market, you can preserve things for later in the year,” she says.

O’Leary’s grandmother has since passed away, but she helped her granddaughter with the development of the book’s 45 seasonal canning, pickling, preserving and freezing recipes. In addition to yield consideration, O’Leary updates a lot of classics, such as using monk fruit as a sweetener. In addition to her grandmother, O’Leary’s got some other high-profile supporters. The book includes a foreword by Caroline Randall Williams as well as recipes in collaboration with Laura Lea Bryant and Sean Brock.

The Wiley Canning Company Cookbook includes tips on efficient workflow, especially if you don’t have a giant kitchen. And of course no book on canning would be complete without a section on safety of home food preservation, which O’Leary says is the part that intimidates many first-timers.

The book is available at area bookstores. O’Leary will appear at a number of signing events, including at Porter Flea later this year. She’s also available for private canning classes. Visit wileycanningcompany.com to sign up for those.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE WILEY CANNING COMPANY COOKBOOK

BY CHELSEA J. O’LEARY BLUE HILLS PRESS 248 PAGES, $35

CRAWL SPACE: APRIL 2023

Nashville’s spring art season sprouts this Saturday with outstanding shows at Lusk, Red Arrow Gallery and beyond

BY JOE NOLAN

Every now and then Nashville galleries shift their First Saturday events to accommodate an important event or a holiday weekend. April’s First Saturday falls on the first day of the month, but despite the April Fool’s Day’s penchant for practical joking, every word you’re about to read regarding the first Art Crawl of the spring season is as true as a tug at the end of a fishing line, as real as the light of the very first firefly of the year. It’s 41 degrees while I’m writing this, but a man will dream.

WEDGEWOOD-HOUSTON

Vesna Pavlović’s Perfect Memory continues at Zeitgeist on Saturday. If you made it to last month’s jam-packed opening during Nashville’s Tennessee Triennial celebration, you’d be forgiven if your memories of the actual exhibition amount to less than a blur. The pandemic taught us that the art world dies a whole lot when we can’t gather and socialize, but the return to normal gallery events is reminding me of the luxury of lazing in empty galleries on weekday afternoons. We want it all, really: the full return of galleries across the city holding evening events every First Saturday, and programming that has us scrambling back for a closer look.

Luckily, this is a show that rewards second — and third — visits. Pavlović’s images are predictably strong across selections from three different series, and my favorite part of the show is a grid of photographs from her “Searching for a Perfect Sunset” series. These pics all document the artist’s efforts to perfectly frame successive sunsets in Joshua Tree, Calif., using a box full

of vintage photography slides she sourced off eBay. Each picture offers a similar composition of Pavlović holding a slide up to the horizon and snapping an image of it, backlit by the last rays of the day. I love Pavlović’s photographs of photographs, and the desert magic and the performative element of this series make it a great new take on the artist’s longtime preoccupation with photographing photographic archives. That said, another image of a still escalator descending into an ocean of perfect blue carpeting at the silent, empty Congress Hall Sava Center in Belgrade, Serbia, spotlights

Pavlović’s penchant for bringing striking formalist chops to her documenting of abandoned spaces. Zeitgeist is also continuing its Triennial Room installation through the end of April. The exhibition-within-an-exhibition is a Tennessee Triennial project that includes a handful of multimedia works featuring Pavlović in collaboration with Alex Blau and Claudia Padrón Gómez.

➡ DETAILS: See these shows — or see them again — from noon until 6 p.m. this Saturday at Zeitgeist Gallery

David Lusk Gallery opened Carroll Cloar: Stories on Paper last week, and the show is sort of an about-face after Lusk’s excellent March display of abstract paintings and sculptures by Tad Lauritzen Wright. Cloar grew up in the countryside of Gibson Bayou, outside of Earl, Ark. And when he embarked on an art career in New York in the 1930s, his drawings and lithographs were full of the people and stories he knew from his own family, the pages of the Bible and the local legends of the rural South. Cloar captures all of these through the surreal lens of the daydream memories of childhood, resulting in meticulously rendered characters and narratives that still speak to Southerners and Southern culture three decades after Cloar’s death in 1993. Cloar’s prints read like collages with various images of church congregations, fish, angels, nudes, portraits of friends and family, baseball players and cowboys populating scenes tangled with numerous narrative threads. The exhibition focuses on Cloar’s intensely detailed lithographs, and they’re complemented by a number of drawing and tracing studies on paper and vellum. The studies appear minimal and spare next to the lithographs, and they speak to

the attention to detail and craftsmanship that Cloar brought to his most imaginative scenes and crowded compositions.

➡ DETAILS: David Lusk Gallery will hold an open house for the show on Saturday from noon until 5 p.m.

DOWNTOWN

Rolin Smith is one of the current artists-inresidence at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, and his new exhibition is hanging at the church’s The Browsing Room through April 28. Structure and Chaos is a series of geometric abstract designs representing the balancing act of maintaining a complex personality and an art practice between the Scylla and Charybdis of perfectionism and chaos. Smith’s own struggles with mental health issues inform these colorful and intricate works containing fractal-like designs of color-spectrum-spanning geometric shapes-within-shapes. Smith uses acrylic, watercolor, mixed media and digital tools to evoke circuitry, maps, video game screens and microscopic images all at once.

➡ DETAILS: The Browsing Room will host an opening reception Saturday from 6 until 8 p.m.

Rockwall curator Ryan Rado will be presenting the third iteration of his Low Brow exhibitions featuring paintings, drawings and

prints by Nashville tattoo artists. This time around he’s included work by more than 20 skin-inkers including Shannon Wages, Mike Kepper, Adam the Kid, Daniel Hughes, Carrie Cameron, Jake Hodson and many more.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 6 p.m. at Rockwall Gallery.

EAST NASHVILLE

Red Arrow Gallery’s Fifty Reds in Their Minds exhibition takes its title from Josef Albers’ legendary tome on color theory and perception, Interaction of Color: “If one says ‘Red’ — the name of color — and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds.” This exhibition is another example of how we’re seeing abstraction and formalism swinging the aesthetic pendulum back against a continuing flood of figures, narratives and content. Trends trend as they do, but I’ve been gratefully basking in the pure pleasures of color and texture and form and line at recent displays from Alex Blau at Zeitgeist and Tad Lauritzen Wright at Lusk (mentioned above). Come see works from Brianna Bass, Mathew Tom, Katie Hector, Duncan McDaniel and Jason Bard Yarmosky when they bring this colorful painterly display on Saturday night.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 6 until 9 p.m. at The Red Arrow Gallery. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

STRUCTURE AND CHAOS AT THE BROWSING ROOM

“EQUALITY,” ROLIN SMITH

THE DOG HAS ITS DAY

Nashville Rep balances

humor with heartbreak in

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

BY AMY STUMPFL

Imust admit that when I first heard that Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was being adapted for the stage, I was skeptical. After all, much of the charm of the 2003 bestseller lies in its unconventional format — complete with sketches and graphs that help take you into the mind of its young, neurodivergent protagonist. But Simon Stephens’ 2012 Tony Award-winning play — onstage at Nashville Repertory Theatre through April 2 — brings the oddly engaging tale to life with tremendous compassion and surprising humor.

As the show opens, we meet 15-year-old Christopher Boone — a young man with a brilliant mind, but who is “ill-equipped to interpret everyday life.” (The play never specifically identifies Christopher’s condition, but he exhibits many of the characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorder — such as challenges with social interaction and difficulty processing nonverbal communication.) But despite his many obstacles, Christopher sets out to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s beloved dog, uncovering a secret that will change his world forever.

Director Micah-Shane Brewer has elected to stage this unusual piece in TPAC’s intimate Johnson Theater — a wise choice that immediately draws the audience into the action. But performances are key to unlocking the elaborate layers of Stephens’ script, and Brewer succeeds here as well, putting together a marvelous cast that approaches the material with great respect, tenderness and emotional honesty.

Ben Friesen anchors the piece as Christopher, delivering a fearless yet beautifully measured performance. It’s an incredibly demanding role, and one that keeps Friesen onstage for virtually all of the play. But he tackles each scene with extraordinary focus — whether enjoying a quiet moment in the garden or navigating the overwhelming chaos of a London train station. It’s an impressive Rep debut, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this talented young artist.

Friesen receives excellent support from a tireless ensemble of players that features both new and familiar faces. Often moving together as a unit, these actors easily step in and out of the action, taking on a host of different characters — and even a few inanimate objects — along the way. It’s a very physical approach to storytelling, and I especially enjoyed the bit when they literally lift Christopher up — enabling him to dream of a life in outer space.

As Christopher’s troubled parents, Nat McIntyre and Lauren Berst give nicely layered performances, balancing their characters’ collective anguish and frustration with thoughtful restraint and an abiding sense of love. Sejal Mehta also is outstanding as Christopher’s teacher Siobhan, providing much of the play’s heart and a genuine sense of wonder at her student’s unique gifts. It’s

interesting to note that, while the novel is presented in Christopher’s voice, Siobhan handles narration in the play, which allows elements of both the past and the present to play out in seamless fashion.

Having seen the national tour of Curious, which stopped at TPAC’s Jackson Hall in 2017, I was eager to see how the Rep’s design concept might compare. Cody Stockstill’s sleek scenery and detailed projections do not disappoint. The grid-like set is quite efficient, supporting the fluid staging while effectively drawing us into Christopher’s mind. Darren Levin’s lighting and Gregg Perry’s sound also contribute to this highly immersive atmosphere, although I do wonder if they could have gone even further, amping up the sudden bursts of light and sound to give us an even more potent sense of how Christopher experiences the world.

But that’s a minor concern in such a polished production. And while Curious offers no easy answers, it poses important questions about the way we see the world and how we deal with our own particular quirks, challenges and fears. Balancing humor with heartbreak, it offers a wholly rewarding evening of theater. EMAIL

THE CURIOUS

Reid Haughton (7pm)

Emily McGill w/ Steve Cropper (7pm)

Mikey DeMilio (9pm)

The Lemon Twigs w/ Andrew H. Smith Spencer Sutherland w/ JORDY and Michael Minelli

QDP

Kitchen Dwellers w/ Sicard Hollow

Copeland w/ Kevin Garrett

COPELAND

Rittz w/ Emilio Rojas & Noble Poets

Felly w/ ThankGod4Cody

The Band of Heathens w/ Them Coulee Boys

Tamino w/ People Museum

The Minks w/ Molly Martin and Chrome Pony

Citizen Cope

Lolo Zouaï w/

Carolina Story w/ Adam Chaffins (7pm) Happy Landing, Lo Noom (9pm)

GET HAPPIER FRIDAYS: The Wans, Bee Taylor, The Silver Seas, Ian Ferguson (7pm)

Fortune Child, Wynton Existing, Heavy The Mountain (9pm)

The Chattahoochies (7pm)

Laura Lamb (7pm)

Joshua Hyslop (9pm)

Boys Club For Girls w/ Billy Allen & The Pollies (7pm)

Palm Palm (9pm)

The Bobby Lees, The Shitdels (10pm)

MUSIC

THE SHAPE OF FEMINIST PUNK TO COME

Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill look to the future of riot grrrl

BY HANNAH CRON

Kathleen Hanna and Bikini

Kill started a riot in the ’90s, and they’re back to do it all again. The legendary feminist punks and cofounders of the riot grrrl movement reunited in 2019, and they’re back on the road once more. The band’s show Thursday at Marathon Music Works, delayed from a planned 2020 date, will be their first in Nashville since they played the famed Lucy’s Record Shop in November 1994. The Scene checked in with Hanna — sporting her trademark purple lipstick — via video conference about the band’s choice to reunite, how crowds have changed since the ’90s and more.

Bikini Kill has just gotten back to playing shows together in the past few years, which I’m personally super excited about. Why did now feel like a good time for a comeback? Was it a personal decision or more of a social responsibility decision? I think it’s a little bit of all of it. But, like, everything that has ever happened in Bikini Kill — it was largely personal in that I had an opportunity to get back together with two people that I love. Probably more than almost anybody on the planet who I care so much about, and who I’ve been through a very strange experience with in the ’90s. Being in the band was really surreal. And so to be with people who went through that experience, we went through that experience together. It was a time in my life where I really needed that — like, I really needed to be with them.

And so to me, it was a lot more about the friendships than about even the band or the music. And then when we started doing the songs, that’s when it really became about a social imperative.

Yeah, it’s like coming home. I felt new vigor in the songs. I’ve said this a million times, but 15 years ago, it’s not that the world wasn’t as fucked-up. I mean, it wasn’t, but I wasn’t in touch with the part of me that could sing those songs. And now I am.

In preparation for this story, we found a zine that includes an interview from when you played Lucy’s in the ’90s. Something it specifically mentioned was that there were young girls at the show — sixth- to 11th-graders. How have you seen the crowds change in recent years, both demographicwise and in terms of energy? We’ve seen the audiences — they’re very, very intergenerational. Little kids all the way up to people in their 70s sharing space with each other, which is amazing. Definitely more people of color, more BIPOC people at the shows.

So we’ve seen the audiences change, but I think the remarkable thing is — I sort of thought it was gonna be people who saw us in the ’90s, who were like, “Oh, I wonder what they sound like now.” But it’s a lot more young people who were like, “I never

got to see them. I’d love to check it out.” You know? And then the people who saw us in the ’90s are bringing younger people. They’re like, “Here, this is what I was into.” Or, “This is the band I hated in the ’90s, but I based my identity off hating them.”

The “girls to the front” thing was cool when there are, you know, just a few women there. But one of the things I realized over the years is that the cool guys just went to the back because they were like, “Hey, I want to be respectful.” I never got to see their faces, and I never got to interact with them. I’m interacting with supportive cisgender men a lot more than in the past, and that feels good. There’s still some like jerks who harass people who come, but it’s way less. And the fact that the audience is more supportive, more than what the makeup is, has been the biggest change.

A problem we’ve been having in Nashville is that our alternative spaces are disappearing. What role do you think independent venues and alternative community spaces play in your life and the lives of people you interact with? It’s huge. I mean, having an independent music scene — these are the incubators of the great ideas of the future, you know what I mean? Like, these are the bands that are going to change people’s lives, that are going to have these shows that make somebody be like, “I can do this dream that I have.”

I mean, not to be too Disney about it, but … I remember seeing [Japanese rock band] the Boredoms in Seattle, and feeling like they just cleaned my brain, you know? Like,

it wasn’t a feeling of “I can do anything.” It was just like I was inside art, because their music was this art that was surrounding me. And I was inside of the art that they were making, and it was such a magical, otherworldly feeling that you don’t get to usually experience when you’re grocery shopping, or driving your car, or whatever. And those things aren’t going to happen if Clear Channel owns everything. It’s not. It’s really hard to put on all-ages shows. It’s hard as a band to play all-ages shows, because of capitalism. … I feel for the club owners because they make money off alcohol. But it’s like, the underground culture is where it all comes from. Yeah, doesn’t come from corporations, it comes from you — it comes from kids.

There has been backlash about the riot grrrl label, and whether that’s inclusive of trans women and people of color. Do you think the world still needs riot grrrls? Has the meaning of “riot grrrl” changed, or does it need to be something else? I think it’s really up to each individual person if it’s something that they identify with. And one of the things that we did that I think was smart was that it was open for everybody to interpret the way they wanted to interpret it. And the idea was everybody owned it, and everybody could make what they wanted.

I definitely feel like riot grrrl today — if it’s not trans-inclusive, fuck it. If it’s not inclusive of all different kinds of women, fuck it. I don’t want to be associated with shit like that. But it’s really — I don’t own it.

If there’s a girl in Tennessee who’s 13 years old, who finds it useful to say “I’m a riot grrrl,” great, you know what I mean? But I believe it can evolve and change. But I would love for people to have a different name and to accomplish something brandnew that’s their own, so that they don’t have to deal with the legacy of our mistakes. And they can make their own mistakes and not

constantly be creating in opposition to our mistakes — which was not being intersectional enough.

Last year, Tennessee’s state legislature enacted a nearly total ban on abortions, and recently passed a bunch of anti-LGBT laws. Is there anything you want to say to people who are feeling disillusioned about what’s happening in their home state right now? We’re specifically making the decision not to boycott places that have abortion bans, or bans on books, or bans on drag performance. Because we’re not going to let those fuckers tell us where we can and cannot go. And we feel like we’re most needed in those places as a site of community-building.

All I can say that’s positive is that these people know this is their last gasp, right? Like, they are the mouse that fell into the milk and they’re trying to make butter out of it. But these rats are not going to make it out of the bucket. You know, we’re not going to let them make it out of the bucket. They are struggling, they’re hanging off of cliffs. They know their time is up. They know that they’re old men and it’s a young women’s world, and they are fucked.

I’m currently working on a film about my second cousin Darcelle, who’s the oldest living drag queen in the United States. [Editor’s note: After this interview, Darcelle XV died at age 92.] And so definitely, the drag stuff has a specific meaning to me, because he was the only person in show business — in my family — who supported me and told me that I was good at what I did.

And so the attacks on drag performance really hit home for me, because these are people who are role models in the community who are being penalized. And they already have to live in fear for many other reasons, and they don’t need this added shit.

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PLAYING THURSDAY, MARCH 30, AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS

PHOTO: DEBI DEL GRANDE

Live Piano

IN THE LONG RUN

Rachel Baiman looks at a long fight ahead on Common Nation of Sorrow

BY RACHEL CHOLST

If it feels like you can never get ahead, you’re not alone. Nashville’s Rachel Baiman embraced her frustrations with debt and capitalism — and wrote a whole album about it. Common Nation of Sorrow is a richly textured folk album with subtle rock underpinnings that faces the problems of our age with clear eyes and stout resolve. It’s not a protest album so much as a statement of solidarity. The album will be out via Signature Sounds on Friday, and Baiman will bring her message to The Basement East on Wednesday.

The album kicks off with “Some Strange Notion.” The song is imbued with Baiman’s trademark confidence, yet it was born from feeling uninspired by President Biden’s acceptance speech. At first, Baiman had no plans to include it on the album — “I try to steer clear of lecture songs,” she explains.

Still, she felt that the song’s hypnotic chorus ultimately carried it through, and eventually its message — channeling her focus on generational activism and her insistence that change will happen eventually — would come to frame the rest of the LP. Other highlights include the rollicking banjo-driven “Self Made Man,” which looks at what lies underneath the myth of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps, and “Bad Debt,” a direct indictment of economic systems that perpetuate cycles of poverty. Even as many of the gains made by progressives in recent years have been viciously stripped away by the right, Baiman wants everyone to remember to work for the long haul.

“Progress is going to take longer than you want — forever and ever,” she says with a rueful chuckle.

The long view is a large part of Baiman’s upbringing. Her father belonged to a thenmarginal group known as the Democratic Socialists of America in Oak Park, Ill., which

Baiman describes as a “latte liberal” suburb of Chicago. Now that Baiman understands her father’s viewpoint, she embodies how activism must pass through generations, just as it has from her father to her.

Baiman is a co-founder of Folk Fights

Back, a now-dormant group organized in reaction to Trump-era policies that endangered immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community and others. Folk Fights Back held fundraisers for various community groups, and there was an overwhelming response to the concert series, but the support brought more responsibility and contingencies than Baiman anticipated. The group did not have a founding structure or bylaws, but as the energy behind the movement and the group’s funds grew, it became clear that these organizing needs did not play to Baiman’s strengths as an artist.

“It gave me a lot of respect for people who do that,” she says. “But I will do better supporting one of these organizations directly than trying to make my own separate organization.”

Baiman also incorporates this work into her songwriting workshops. She asks students to write a song from a viewpoint that opposes their own. The exercise is not intended to endorse all political views — rather it’s meant to help the songwriters themselves have a stronger argument.

“If you can’t get to the emotional piece of why someone believes something,” Baiman says, “then there’s absolutely no progress that can be made.”

Wednesday night, Baiman headlines The Basement East for the first time, following many visits as a fan to the East Side venue and its older sibling on Eighth Avenue South. As a Vanderbilt alumna who stayed in town after she graduated, she’s thrilled at the opportunity. Her band includes drummer Lauren Horbal, who played on half of Common Nation, along with Jacob Groopman on guitar and Steve Haan on bass; expect other special guests as well. Her aim for both the album and the shows is to unify her audience.

“If you feel like you’re the only one being pressed, it feels like there’s no path forward. But the minute someone says, ‘I’m dealing with that too,’ you can start to find a way to fight back through it. I’m hoping that the album exudes that kind of spirit that inspires people to find a place to move forward from, instead of just feeling like they’re at a dead end.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE SPIN

STANDING UP

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA

Astar-studded roster of local and national talent took the stage at Bridgestone Arena on March 20, all in service of one important goal: to counter the hateful anti-LGBTQ laws passed by the Tennessee state legislature in recent weeks. When word went out that bills targeting drag performers and genderaffirming care for transgender youth had passed, phenomenal singer-songwriter Allison Russell and other musicians and music-biz folks quickly got to work coordinating the energizing event Love Rising: Let Freedom Sing (and Dance). Heaps of artists joined their efforts — Maren Morris, Jason Isbell, Yola, Hozier and Brittany Howard were just a few of the musicians who gave their time. The lineup of drag queens and kings participating in Love Rising was just as impressive, with Obsinity, Jaxson Stone, Aura Mayari, Trey Alize and many others appearing throughout the show.

Emcee Asia O’Hara kept the proceedings lively, taking the stage between sets to introduce performers and educate the audience about the nonprofits Love Rising would support: the Tennessee Equality Project, Inclusion Tennessee, Out Memphis and the Tennessee Pride Chamber. Ticket sales benefited these organizations, while the Looking Out Foundation matched additional donations up to $100,000. The Rainbow Coalition Band, featuring top-notch players who perform regularly with Russell, backed most artists, showing a masterful versatility — and seemingly having a hell of a lot of fun — as they switched between genres and moods.

Nashville-based pop ace Jake Wesley Rogers kicked off the night’s performances with his song “Pluto,” a standout from his 2021 EP of the same name. East Tennessee’s Adeem the Artist followed, with their powerful ballad “For Judas” from their recent LP White Trash Revelry. Introducing the song, Adeem commented on the mood in the room: “It’s a weird juxtaposition of jubilance and fear.”

Sheryl Crow performed an acoustic take on “Everyday Is a Winding Road,” one of her earliest hits. “This song is 30 years old,” Crow said. “It’s strange how it rewrites its meaning all the time. Sometimes I do feel like a stranger in my own life, when I have to explain to my little boys that some of us don’t get to live like we want to live because it doesn’t line up with someone’s political beliefs. I just tell them, ‘Every day is a winding road, baby.’ You have to look around and ask, ‘Where can I show up to push humanity forward?’”

The show ran several hours, and magical moments just kept coming. A few of them included Brittany Howard serving up a particularly potent rendition of her fan favorite “Stay High,” Yola singing her own dynamic “Stand for Myself” as well as a cover of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman,” and Joy Oladakun’s mash-up of her song “Somehow” with Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle.” Among Russell’s contributions onstage was a trio rendition of Alicia Keys’ “A Beautiful Noise” with Ruby Amanfu and Shea Diamond

Before Hayley Williams and Becca Mancari teamed up for a striking cover of Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs for This?,” Williams decried the imbalance between how much energy Nashville focuses on catering to tourists and how much it spends on its own citizens. Izzy Heltai played his tender single “All of This Beauty,” set for release March 24, while Hozier did his defiant 2018 song “Nina Cried Power.” Though there have been some other popular covers in recent years, Jason Isbell reminded the packed house who wrote “Cover Me Up,” performing his signature Southeastern tune alongside Amanda Shires. Not all of The Highwomen were able to be there, but Shires’ Highwomen bandmate Maren Morris led a massive singalong to the supergroup’s “Crowded Table.” That’s in addition to Morris bringing the house down with “Better Than We Found It” and “The Middle,” as well as delivering one of the best quotes of the night: “Yes, I introduced my son to some drag queens. Fucking arrest me, Tennessee.”

Another powerful moment came when Cidny Bullens took a few minutes onstage to consider his trailblazing career, sharing his story of coming up as a musician and songwriter as well as his coming out as a transgender man in 2012 and his subsequent transition. Bullens called singer-songwriter Mya Byrne to the stage to perform “It Don’t Fade,” and Byrne delivered a message to the audience in the room and watching the livestream at home.

“Tell every cis person, tell every person who can and who is able to show up to these rooms — to these statehouses, to the courthouses, to the places where people are being protested and hurt,” Byrne said. “Show up and make your voice heard. We have to vote, but we also have to show up. We have to tear down the pillars of the thing that they are

trying to build around us, because we will not be put in cages again.”

SHOWING OUT

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Following the Love Rising show, the outpouring of support for LGBTQ Tennesseans in response to hateful state legislation continued March 21 at City Winery with We Will Always Be. A benefit for Inclusion

Tennessee — a Nashville nonprofit whose manifold projects include launching an LGBTQ community center — the event was co-organized by music journalist and radio host Hunter Kelly, who has focused attention on queer singer-songwriters in the country and Americana world, and the Black Opry organization, which makes crucial space for Black country artists.

Kelly and Black Opry founder Holly G gave a brief introduction, discussing the intersectional nature of their missions and how showing up to events like this lets allies show support and helps everyone feel a sense of community at a time when it’s very easy to feel alone. Holly G also emphasized another goal: to leave us with a sense of empowerment and determination to fight for change.

Then we were off on a four-hour extravaganza of standout songwriters and drag performances. A panoply of Nashville queens made a grand entrance to En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind” and remained a key presence throughout the night, with routines breaking up the songwriter sets and Vidalia Anne Gentry and Britney Banks trading off as mistresses of ceremonies. The queens in the house on Tuesday routinely perform at City Winery, as well as at heaps of other spots all over town; some have even appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race

As with any other art form, an important function of drag is to tell everyone something about ourselves through the artists’ experience — which for the queens includes lots of sequins and big hair, as well as the massive obstacles queer people face just to be loved, accepted and supported for who they are.

The first of two writers’ rounds was curated by Hunter Kelly, with Brody Ray, Harper Grae, Chris Housman, Brady Riley and Izzy Heltai

Accompanied by duet partner Carmen Dianne, Ray kicked off the set with the sweet, soulful “Make a Love Song With Me.” Grae followed with “Dead to Me,” written in response to worship leaders who had kicked her out of praise bands because of whom she loved.

Housman strode confidently through “Drag Queen.” Its narrative about a smalltown teacher who does drag on the weekends and is “the kind of man other men wish they could be” fits perfectly with country tradition. Riley followed with his forthcoming single “Fabulously Broke” — very personal but continuing the time-honored custom of putting struggle into perspective in song — while Heltai reprised Monday’s performance of his reflective ballad “All of This Beauty.”

Then the Black Opry round took over. Julie Williams sang “I Do What I Want,” about determining your own path amid the challenges of being bisexual. Jett Holden sang harmony, and Williams returned the favor on his breakup song “Better Off.” Carmen Dianne returned, playing a wickedly slinky bass line to her catchy country-soul song “Sober.”

Ally Free earned a standing ovation with the intense “Demons of My Past,” a song about being afraid that all the pressures that weigh on a Black transgender person from Alabama will make it impossible to move forward. “It feels like family in here,” said Free when the applause died down. Josey wrapped the segment, drawing strength from looking forward to all our efforts bringing better times with “Can’t Rain Forever.”

After a brief talk from Inclusion Tennessee’s Phil Cobucci and a big round of drag performances, a selection of other guest musicians commenced. Among many highlights: She Returns From War played her phenomenal “Swamp Witch” unmiked, with Fancy Hagood on harmonies. The crowd got silent, but cheered so loudly as the end neared that we drowned out the coda. Neo-girlgroup aces The Shindellas performed their forthcoming disco-tinged and communityminded single “Last Night Was Good for My Soul,” while Allison Russell led a heartfelt sing-along to “You’re Not Alone.”

The grand finale came from revered singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, aided by partner Jaimee Harris. Gentry noted Gauthier was the first gay singer to play the Grand Ole Opry; Gauthier, who quipped that she was “the O.G. — the original gay” of the Nashville songwriting world, mentioned that she and Harris were likely the first queer couple to play on the Opry as well. They sent the remaining crowd into the night with Gauthier’s autobiographical “Drag Queens and Limousines.” Gauthier’s delivery of the song, about finding her chosen family, was gentle and matter-of-fact. But the message — “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do / And pray the people you love catch up with you” — represents a vital kind of defiance.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

I WILL STAND UP NEXT TO YOU: ALLISON RUSSELL, JASON ISBELL, MAREN MORRIS AND JOY OLADOKUN

THREE’S COMPANY: THE SHINDELLAS

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

PHOTO: H.N. JAMES

PARENTHOOD

Teyana Taylor shines as a tough but tender mom in A Thousand and One

BY ERICA CICCARONE

Parenthood is a learn-as-yougo pursuit. You can rely on books, blogs and the advice of doctors and family members and psychologists, all while trying to operate from some core understanding you have of what a good parent is. Inevitably, the influence of your own parents comes into play. For Inez de la Paz, the heroine of A Thousand and One, not having parents at all motivates her to be the kind of mother who will “take on all of New York” for her child.

The debut feature from writer-director A.V. Rockwell — which won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival — A Thousand and One packs a punch, thanks to lead actress Teyana Taylor. As Inez, Taylor goes all-out to play the mom who rescues her 6-year-old son from the social services network that is failing him. When we meet Inez, she has just finished up a stint at Manhattan’s notorious prison Rikers Island for robbery and has a “rap sheet as long as a sidewalk.” Gripping a pile of wrinkled, handwritten ads for her services as a hairstylist, Inez holds up Brooklyn traffic to holler out to potential customers. It’s the mid-1980s, and Inez is rocking the look. She wears a ribbed red sports bra and jeans, heavy hoop earrings and a nameplate necklace that doesn’t ever come off. Inez is unapologetically herself — loud, quick to anger, and tough in a way that reveals how much the world has hurt her.

When her child, Terry, lands in the hospital after jumping out of a window to escape his foster mother, Inez knows there’s only one thing to do. They take the subway to Harlem, where she’s from, and spend stressful days trying to find a place to stay. But she lands a job, then a better one. She finds them a room,

ISLE OF MEN

Enys Men is a slow burn of shock and terror

BY JASON SHAWHAN

If it weren’t for that 2022 copyright date, it’s entirely possible you’d take Mark Jenkin’s folkhorror freakout Enys Men (pronounced EH-nez MANE) as a lost treasure from 1973 that somehow resisted the ceaseless searching of modern horror audiences. Of course, the unspoken irony is that in the field of horror, and especially folk horror, finding that which was hidden can often unleash whole other predicaments. Thankfully, this isn’t one of those films that curses you just by watching it (as best I can tell), but it does cast a very specific spell that draws you closer, even as shock and terror reveal themselves

then a small apartment, then the two-bedroom with the 1001 address that gives the film its name. Six-year-old Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) is quiet and observant, taking in everything and understanding more than we want him to. He wants to know where his father is, why other kids would say he was left on the corner when he was a baby. Inez gives away little, constantly assuring him that she’ll do anything to keep him safe. This includes changing his name and falsifying his birth certificate and Social Security card.

Adetola’s performance is superb, as are those of Aven Courtney, who plays 13-yearold Terry, and Josiah Cross, playing 17-yearold Terry. The elder Terry is at the head of his class, and his white teacher tells Inez she’s surprised to meet her — her son is so articulate! — as if to say, “How could such

with the patience and deliberate pace of a screwedand-chopped burlesque.

Enys Men isn’t about a curse reaching beyond its genesis, or even really beyond itself. The title means “Stone Island” in Cornish, and it’s a remarkable location, easily earning its titular status. It is picturesque, filled with a varied collection of biomes and landscapes and just a little bit out of sync with time; that’s part of why The Volunteer (Mary Woodvine) is there, the only sentient living being on the island, investigating anomalies in the flora. But it isn’t just those striking flowers that throw certainties into imbalance, because it seems everything that has happened on Enys Men is to some extent still happening. That line between Now and Then that we use to differentiate memory from experience? It’s not there. There is only Now, and there is more on this island than any one person could ever expect to bear.

Writer-director Jenkin knows exactly what he’s doing here. He’s seen the legendary films of folk horror and understands what works and what doesn’t, and he’s pared down the narratives mercilessly, avoiding

a smart boy have a hood-rat mother?” From midway through the film on, we hear thenMayor Rudy Giuliani promoting his toughon-crime approach to running the city. It was a time when jaywalking was a punishable offense, when stop-and-frisk ran rampant, putting the lives of Black and brown boys in mortal danger. Harlem is its own character — alive and pulsing with music and people. This character changes as white landlords start pushing Black people out, and the tension at 1001 gets near-explosive. It’s inevitable that Inez and her family will have to come to grips with her crime.

Taylor’s powerhouse performance is met by William Catlett’s as Lucky, the man just out of prison who comes to live with her and Terry in the beginning. Viewers might expect his character to follow the trope we too

often see in films — the violent Black father figure who neglects his family. But Lucky is not about that; instead, he provides the sense of stability that Inez and Terry need. He’s at odds with Inez’s fire, but he sticks with them, and Terry has the father that neither Lucky nor Inez ever had.

It’s refreshing to see Rockwell depict a mom and dad who are so much more than their circumstances — who strive against the odds to be the parents they never had. The film clocks in at just a smidgen under two hours, and it might have benefited from a tighter draft of the screenplay. But that’s a small criticism compared to what Rockwell has accomplished. In the end, we understand what Inez tells Terry: “There’s more to life than fucked-up beginnings.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

exposition and any authoritative voice beyond the film’s cuts. There are ghosts, and phantom maidens, and doomed sailors, and around it all a sense of teleological inevitability. Though set in 1973, the sense of fixed entropy feels unsettlingly relevant to modern viewers, and Woodvine does an impeccable job of bringing several different emotional vectors to

life in a remarkable, nearly wordless performance.

If Skinamarink was just a bit too abstract and The Outwaters was a tad too shaky or gory for you, this may be the avant-garde found-footage film that connects with wherever you keep your fears locked away.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

ENYS MEN NR, 96 MINUTES SHOWING MARCH 31-APRIL 6 AT THE BELCOURT

A THOUSAND AND ONE NR, 117 MINUTES OPENING FRIDAY, MARCH 31, AT THE BELCOURT

ACROSS

1 0s and 1s, in computing

5 Danny of the N.B.A.

10 Drive-thru conveniences

14 Conversely, in a text

15 Hair problem

16 Disturb

17 ___ research (info on a political adversary)

18 “Whene’er I need to get a bump / I find it right there at the pump …”

19 Prop for the Riddler or Willy Wonka

20 Lay of the land

22 Welcome in a yoga class

24 Nail polish applications

25 Guess posted at a gate, in brief

27 Leading

28 Sleep study diagnosis

29 “___, mi dicon venal” (aria)

30 Draft picks?

31 Jan. honoree

32 “For me, the Super Bowl’s a bore / But watching these is fun galore …”

34 Big name in outdoor gear

35 Holiday marking the Exodus from Egypt

38 Dons

41 Couleur de la Seine

43 “Fathers and ___” (Turgenev novel)

44 “Exams a must for future docs. / Make sure your answers fill the box …”

47 “A hospital has many specialized places / Where patients recover in bright, cheerful spaces …”

51 De Armas who played Marilyn Monroe

52 Colorful garment

54 Be behind, in a way

55 Actress Christina

57 Berkeley’s Bears, in brief

58 Dark force

60 “I don’t have the words / That rightly commend / Cerulean birds / And Harry’s best friend …”

63 Source of many an ode, in brief

64 Beyond strange

65 Former education secretary Duncan

66 Finance inits.

67 In again

68 Some bar stock DOWN

1 Basic training

2 Providers of assistance after a crash, informally

3 “It is such fun to fool the folks / And make them butts of harmless jokes …”

4 Beginning to end?

5 Sweet Italian bubbly

6 Without a pause

7 Badger

8 Family man

9 “Frozen” sister

10 Mysterious

11 “An avid flower lover sees / A fall bouquet that’s full of these …”

12 Snack item that’s green in the middle

13 Enjoys a leisurely weekend morning, say

21 “___ rule …”

23 Rowdy crowd

26 Madre’s hermana

32 Symbol for an angle in math

33 Unnerve

36 Robin Roberts’s network

37 Wearing

39 Shortsighted, say

40 Wanders around an airport, in brief?

42 Navy vessel in 2000 headlines

43 “Seinfeld” actor Jerry

44 Pattern that represents a clan

45 Like the German cake Zwiebelkuchen 46

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

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

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon DAVID DELL'AQUILA. It is ordered that said Defendantenter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after MARCH 30, 2023, 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 May 1st, 2023.

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.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

B. Poole, Deputy Clerk

Date: March 1 2023

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