5 minute read
BY ABBY LEE HOOD
stereo equipment delivers that physical reaction, you’re gonna listen to it for hours. … Four or five bars [in Nashville] play records for people; it’ll be back. If COVID had never happened, it would be all the rage.”
Patricia Billings of Atomic Art & Sound agrees that listening to vinyl is an experience you can’t get elsewhere. She loves holding a record, looking at the art and making a connection with the music. She says Brucker was a mentor with infinite patience whenever she had questions as she learned the art of turntable repair, and she hopes Hi Tech leaves a “legacy of sharing information.” Brucker says he has 10 filing cabinets full of service manuals to archive, preserving multiple manufacturers’ guides for future technicians. “I’ve had a mission for the last 12 years to bring new techs up to speed, so they can mentor,” he says.
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During my visit to Hi Tech, regular customer Jeff Moritz wanders in and sits in a chair behind the counter. When he introduces himself as a customer, Brucker corrects him, saying Moritz is a friend. Moritz first dropped off an amplifier for repair about 10 years ago. Brucker quoted him three weeks but took only one to do the job, and he’s been coming back ever since. As Moritz describes his love of old cassettes and discusses the current high price of tape, Brucker pulls out some old tapes, recorded in Tokyo in 1978, and offers them to him.
Though Hi Tech is soon to be no more, Brucker isn’t putting away his soldering iron for good.
“I’m gonna specialize in cassette decks. There are online interested groups — tapeheads.net, professional technicians who help. That’s what it takes to keep those things ticking.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
TO SOOTHE THE SOUL
BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN AND MEGAN SELING
In 2020, East Nashville’s Queen Ave Collective — which resides in the same spot that was once the DIY venue simply called Queen Ave — made its public debut. The production crew contributed visually striking, excellent-sounding live-in-studio performances by area artists to local virtual festivals including Far Out Free Fest in June and Drkmttr’s Spirit of Drkmttr Halloween stream. It’s something the Queen Ave crew looks to do with more regularity. April 7’s set from Altered Statesman, streamed via Twitch, served as a test run for a semiregular online show series called Queen Ave Collective Presents, sort of akin to the work Todd Sherwood has been doing at the nearby 5 Spot.
Dubbed “The Mayor of West Nashville” by a viewer in the chat box, Steve Poulton is a local treasure hiding in plain sight. When you see Altered Statesman on a bill, it’s a safe bet that it’ll be a great gig. The lanky, sandy-haired bandleader has one of the smoothest voices around, and at Queen Ave, he was part of a six-piece ensemble that included vibraphone and pedal steel in addition to conventional rock instruments. They played with a remarkable looseness for probably not having gotten to jam much in the past year.
With bass and drums firmly in the pocket throughout, the group provided a jazzy, gently psychedelic canvas for Poulton’s evocative and soulful short-story songs. Much of the material sounds like it comes from a previous Nashville, maybe a bit of a seedier one — a milieu Poulton, who came of age here in the 1980s and started Altered Statesman in the late ’90s, knows well. “This song is a vibe,” commented one viewer during a tune labeled “Big Bounce” on the set list. They could’ve been referring to any one of the half-dozen numbers played.
Aside from an odd technical glitch where audio from a Mad Men-era Lucky Strike commercial popped up a few times midset, the broadcast was as tight as we’ve come to expect from the Queen Ave team. The moodily lit backdrop and subtle camerawork were well-suited for the latenight after-party atmosphere of the music. Like The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, Poulton is a guy one imagines came out of the womb with a pair of shades on. Knowing the band has the repertoire to easily stretch out, the only thing about the halfhour performance that could’ve been better is if it had been longer.
Speaking of technical difficulties: They just suck, man. April 10’s Alanna Royale livestream on Sessions, her first stream with a full band, was one more example of why this godforsaken pandemic needs to end.
Royale and her band — guitarist Jared Colby, keyboardist Kent Toalson and bassist Gabe Golden — were performing live together for the first time in more than a year, and they were coming in hot from Royale’s guest room. While the vocals were on point (as Royale’s soulful pipes always are), the instruments were almost entirely lost in the mix.
But after some knob twisting and plug checking, the show had to go on, and while the mix was less than ideal, there was still plenty of good to take away. The band did play those new songs, giving us a peek into what their upcoming record holds. It’s a record that Royale worked on while getting lost in her own head during a mid-pandemic road trip.
Royale wrote the song “Imagination” — a tune she hopes “shakes Isaac Hayes out of his grave” — while “driving through the desert in Arizona and New Mexico just contemplating some shit.”
The band covered “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” (the Gerry and the Pacemakers song, not the Ray Charles song) and Millie Jackson’s “A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe).” “I dedicate it to all you fucking racists out there,” said Royale. “It’s 2021, you need to get your mind right.” The band also threw in a less psychedelic and more R&B version of The Doors’ “Light My Fire.”
An hour later — with the instruments still just whispers in the room but Royale’s captivating presence keeping folks entertained — the show was over. The band deserved a better-sounding set; Royale fans deserved a better-sounding set. Knowing this, the singer left us all with parting words that would ensure the future is brighter: “Wash your hands, wear the mask, and get your fucking shot so we can all get on with our lives.” Hell yes. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
THE LIGHT THAT’S RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES: ALTERED STATESMAN
