Nashville Scene 5-11-23

PLEADING THE 5 TH

BY ELI MOTYCKA

CITY

Laws

CRITICS’

, Nashville

Photo by Hamilton Matthew

PET OF THE WEEK!

GLORIA is an affectionate 3 ½ year old dog who loves to show her love by wagging her tail and wiggling her body. She’s a happy-go-lucky dog who enjoys spending time with people and will greet everyone she meets with enthusiastic cuddles and kisses.

Gloria is also a cuddly dog who loves to be close to her humans as often as possible. Her affectionate nature and gentle personality make her an ideal companion for anyone looking for a furry friend to share their daily adventures with. If you’re looking for a furry friend to keep you company and warm your heart, Gloria is the perfect dog for you!

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org

Located

NASHVILLIANS AIM TO BECOME A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HUB

After several years of anticipation, it appears that Major League Baseball may soon be expanding its league by two teams. As of now MLB has 30 teams, but as ESPN reported last year, Commissioner Rob Manfred has been pushing for the addition of two new teams. Rumors have been circulating about potential expansion cities, and Nashville is among the top contenders.

Music City Baseball (aka the “Nashville Stars”) is the local management group working to bring MLB to Nashville. The Nashville Stars is also the proposed name for an MLB team, should it arrive in Nashville, and would honor a semipro Negro Leagues team that existed in the mid-20th century. According to Sportskeeda.com: “If the Nashville Stars were set to become the next expansion team in Major League Baseball, they would be the first new franchise since 1998. … If Major League Baseball approves the expansion, the franchise would become the first to honor a team name from the Negro Leagues.”

Former MLB pitcher Dave Stewart, a member of the Nashville Stars’ board, is leading the diverse equity ownership initiative. According to the Stars’ website, “Stewart was a legendary Major League Baseball All-Star with the Oakland A’s as well as the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks … [and] is a 3× World Series Champion.” Additional leaders in Music City Baseball include veteran real estate developer John Loar and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Early in this venture, I traveled with John Loar to several cities exploring the possibilities. Other longtime friends — like Reese Smith III, whose name is synonymous with baseball in Tennessee — are also excited about this possibility. And we’re not the only ones. Former MLB All-Star Don Mattingly has also joined the Nashville Stars as an adviser — and according to a January story from The Tennessean, he did so because he believes “the approach that Dave Stewart and his team have in Nashville is exactly what the game of baseball needs.” Mattingly added that more diversity is needed in baseball, and that “it starts from the top down.”

If the stars align (pun intended), Stewart would like to see the Stars “play their first regular-season game on Opening Day of 2026.”

The city’s economy is also pretty wellsuited to support a Major League Baseball team. The Nashville Business Journal reported in December that Nashville’s gross domestic product is growing at a faster rate than the national average: “All 13 counties in the metro area posted GDP growth in 2021, led by Davidson County’s 13.8% increase.” In addition to its favorable economic climate, Nashville is also geographically well-positioned for a Major League Baseball team. The city is centrally located — and there are no MLB teams currently located in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina or Kentucky.

All this said, we have been on the radar as a potential expansion city since 2018.

So while an MLB team would be one more feather in Nashville’s already well-adorned cap, we can’t know if and when this will actually come about. And bringing a Major League Baseball team to Nashville would not be without its challenges.

One major hurdle would be the construction of a new stadium. An area near TSU is already under consideration for its placement. In addition to the expansion efforts, there’s the possibility a team could relocate here, though finding an interested team could be a challenge. Earlier hopes had been resting on the Tampa Bay Rays relocating, but as Commissioner Manfred recently said, Rays principal shareholder Stuart Sternberg is “much more positive about being able to get something done in Tampa — which I think is the right answer for baseball — [and] that puts Nashville in the expansion category.” The prospect of expansion might encourage some teams to make the move, especially if they are struggling in their current markets. But let’s not forget about our minor league team the Nashville Sounds. What would an MLB team coming to our city mean for them? Back in 2020, The Tennessean reported that Sounds owner Frank Ward said if Nashville gets an MLB team, “the Sounds would leave Nashville and go look for another Triple-A city.”

But overall, the possibility of Nashville joining the MLB lineup is an exciting one for sports fans in the city and across the region. Only time will tell if Major League Baseball decides to expand to Nashville and whether residents will get to cheer on their own team. Like many others, I’m hoping for the best.

Bill

Freeman

Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post, and The News.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NASHVILLE STARS

DAVE STEWART

2 3 r e p j o h n l e w i s w a y n o r t h w o o l w o r t h t h e a t r e c o m

LAWS FOCUSING ON ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE FIND SUCCESS IN POST-ROE CLIMATE

Advocacy organizations, adoptees see room for additional improvements

BY HANNAH HERNER

This year’s state legislative session was a big one for foster care and adoption reform.

Three laws passed bringing forth a substantial list of changes meant to expedite the adoption process for children in the foster care system. Timing was ripe, with the reality that Tennessee’s abortion ban, which went into effect last year, will lead to more children in state custody. Local advocates and those with lived experience hope to strike a balance to provide more stability for these kids, foster parents and birth parents, while acknowledging the trauma implicit in the experience.

A new law shrinks the finalization period for an adoption from six months to 90 days. Also, an adoption cannot be overturned past nine months after it is finalized. (The period was previously 12 months.) Birth parents are now entitled to counseling for two years after the birth, and the law clarifies that the counseling can be offered virtually. Another law allows families to travel to a neighboring county to complete court hearings if their county’s docket is backed up. In addition, it requires that the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services prioritize family placements for the first 30 days, so biological family members can’t necessarily come out of the woodwork months later to gain custody of adoptees. It gives foster parents the option of a respite period, more say in court and more weight when deciding where the child will stay if they’ve had the child for six or more months. Another law cracks down on illegal adoption facilitators.

Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) has pushed for adoption and foster care reform for years, and acknowledged that the abortion ban plays a role in the political will to pass such laws this session. Haile also sponsored a bill that would allow for abortion in cases of rape and incest, which failed this year.

“If you’re more pro-life [than antiabortion], you try and address both issues,” Haile tells the Scene. “I don’t see that they conflict with one another or interfere with one another. I can chew gum and walk at the same time. I think we can approach both sides to this equation.”

The Adoption Project, which launched in 2022, was active in writing the legislation. Another piece of the puzzle to the success of this legislation, says co-founder and adoptive parent Jeremy Harrell, is that many organizations that focus on adoption and foster care don’t have the bandwidth for advocacy.

“They are just doing all these really, really great things, but they’ve all been operating in a system that really could be better,” Harrell says. “Nobody has had the time or resources to dedicate specifically to the policy side of it. That’s what we do.”

Pamela Madison is the CEO of local private adoption agency Monroe Harding. Madison says the legislation is great on paper, but hopes to see it work in practice. Waiting on court dockets and for certain timelines to run out before an adoption becomes permanent produces anxiety for the foster parents and the kids. The changes from this year’s laws could help quell that, she says. The state had a need for more foster parents, especially for older children, long before the abortion ban went into effect, and Monroe Harding offers classes and counseling for interested parties.

“We obviously want to give the birth parents time to do the things that they need to do in order to regain custody, because that is the ultimate goal of foster care in the majority of cases,” Madison says. “We

also recognize that the process can drag on, and when it’s obvious that the birth parents are not going to do what needs to be done in order to create a stable home for the kids — we really wanted to see that process speed up to create some type of permanency for the children.”

Star Ramos-Colwell, who entered the foster care system at 6 years old after her father was incarcerated, worries that these changes will be unclear for children. She was in 11 different foster homes between the ages of 6 to 10 before finding her foster mother, who adopted her when she was 28. Adoption was a process she needed more time to warm up to, and she’d like to see counseling for children included in future legislation.

“I know as an adult looking at this bill, it’s great that times are being shortened and that the children are able to get out of the situations and that it doesn’t take a really long time for adoptive parents to adopt,” Ramos-Colwell says. “But as a child thinking

back on that — that’s a scary thing. Because even though you’ve been abused, even though you’ve been traumatized, you still hold those connections really close, whether it’s your mom or your dad or the kinship — you still really love those people, even if it wasn’t the best situation.”

Harrell and The Adoption Project hope to drive additional legislation while taking into account the trauma that comes with children separated from their birth families to begin with.

“I’m so glad they’re here, and they’re a gift to me,” Harrell says of his adopted children. “But to get here, they lost the closest connection they’ll ever have. It’s important that we are making sure that we’re recognizing all of those things.”

HARRELL AND THE ADOPTION PROJECT HOPE TO DRIVE ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION WHILE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE TRAUMA THAT COMES WITH CHILDREN SEPARATED FROM THEIR BIRTH FAMILIES TO BEGIN WITH.

CO-FOUNDER OF THE ADOPTION PROJECT JEREMY HARRELL AND HIS FAMILY

PAMELA MADISON, CEO OF MONROE HARDING

A JOYFUL NOISE

A look back at the brief tenure of professional women’s basketball team the Nashville Noise

BY JARRETT VAN METER

Near the end of 1998, just a few weeks into its inaugural season, the Nashville Noise was in trouble. The city’s brand-new women’s professional basketball franchise had stumbled to a lowly 0-7 record. Head coach Candi Harvey knew her team was talented and capable, but they needed something. This being Nashville, that something proved to be a karaoke night.

Founded in 1996, the American Basketball League was a brief but formidable competitor to the early WNBA. As a means of differentiation, the ABL played during the traditional winter basketball season, paid competitive wages and aimed to place teams in markets with a demonstrated interest in the women’s college game. In Tennessee, Pat Summit’s Lady Vols and Jim Foster’s Lady Commodores were rolling. The state was a hotbed for women’s hoops, and ahead of its third season in the winter of 1998-99, the ABL took notice and awarded a franchise to the capital city.

Assembling an expansion team can feel like a rummage sale, but the Noise brass put together a solid roster pillared by a pair of recognizable names. Chattanooga native Venus Lacy was a serious post presence. Former Lady Vols standout Michelle Marciniak was a great shooter. Versatile veterans Vicki Hall and Saudia Roundtree brought experience and leadership. The pieces were there, but the cohesion took time.

The Noise lost its season opener on Nov. 6 in Chicago. With the Noise back in Nashville the following night, more than 5,000 fans filed into Municipal Auditorium for the team’s home opener. There was buildup. There was anticipation. But the Noise stumbled again — 84-76 to defending champions

the Columbus Quest. A few nights later, a third try, a third loss. Within two weeks the team was 0-7, and Coach Harvey decided to try something new. It wasn’t a defensive formation, inbounds play or rah-rah speech. She threw out the traditional coaching playbook altogether. She went off script.

“I brought everybody over, fed ’em, and we had a big ol’ time,” remembers Harvey.

“We did karaoke, and they kind of saw me as a human and not just as a coach, and vice versa. We had a blast, and after that, things just kind of started to fall in place.”

Whether the singing actually had a cathartic effect or was merely symptomatic of a greater shift, the Noise began to turn it around. Following the winless start, the team went 3-4 over the next seven games, including several close losses, to push the record to 3-11 for the season. One game remained before an abbreviated Christmas break — a Dec. 20 home date with the Seattle Reign. The night would be a culmination, in more than one way. The Noise scratched out a 8073 home victory over the Reign to move to 4-11 overall and 4-4 over their past eight.

“At that time, they were starting to get it together,” remembers Chip Ramsey, the Noise’s play-by-play commentator for WNSR-AM.

After the victory, the team was set to have the next few days off to travel home for the holidays. Spirits were high. In the post-win glow of the locker room, Coach Harvey exalted her group’s persistence.

“Ladies, we are about to turn the corner,” Harvey told them. “This is about to happen, this is about to blow up.”

They brought it in for one more huddle, then parted ways. None of them knew it would be their last time together as a team.

TWO DAYS LATER, back home in Fairhope, Ala., Harvey got the phone call. The ABL was folding, effective immediately. No more money, no more basketball, no more Noise.

“I went home for Christmas, and all of a sudden, I am learning for the first time how to fill out an unemployment form and go through the realities of not having insurance,” Harvey remembers.

Unable to secure the sort of television broadcast partnership that bolstered the WNBA, the ABL had run out of funds. In hindsight, the late checks and downgraded travel accommodations were harbingers, but on Dec. 22, 1998, the news was shocking.

TENNESSEE IS GETTING A NEW EDUCATION COMMISSIONER

Here’s what we know about former George W. Bush adviser Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Phone calls went out across the country, and an entire league of talented women was suddenly out of work.

“It broke a lot of our hearts,” says Venus Lacy. “There were outstanding players in the ABL.”

Some athletes — including Lacy, Marciniak and Hall — found work in the WNBA. Others used the ABL folding as an opportunity to retire and try something new. For Harvey, a former high school and college coach, the Noise was an entry into the world of professional basketball. Leading adult women required a different skill set, and her experience with the Noise proved valuable. She too was able to transition into the WNBA with the Utah Starzz, first as an assistant, then as head coach.

“On paper, it was an absolute collage of talent,” Harvey says of the Noise. “It just needed time to gel, and it just needed time for those big personalities to mesh and, quite honestly, for me to give them a foundation and then get out of the way and let them play. I think that would have happened if we would have been able to continue to grow.”

Lacy agrees — Nashville’s foray into women’s professional basketball was a success waiting to happen. With a little more time, more than 15 games, the ambient Noise would have become a sweet melody.

“I think if they would have kept it alive for a little longer, we would have won one,” Lacy says. “Honestly, I think we would have won it because Coach Harvey got us together. We had passion. She had players with passion. I think if we would have played that last year, we would have had a championship.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

At the end of the school year, after four years in office, Tennessee’s education commissioner Penny Schwinn will step down. The Tennessee Department of Education’s deputy commissioner of operations, Sam Pearcy, will step into the role in an interim capacity, and Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds will take over in July. Reynolds comes to Tennessee during an extremely fluid moment for the state’s education sector, and her leadership could shape the landscape for years to come. So what makes her qualified for the job, and what can we expect from her?

Reynolds arrives from Texas with a decades-long career in education policy. Most recently she served as the vice president of policy at the Florida-based ExcelinEd, a privatization-oriented nonprofit founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that shapes education policy nationwide. ExcelinEd has a consistent presence in Tennessee, having engaged with state leaders on matters including the state’s education funding formula, private school vouchers, charter schools, academics and more.

Before her role at ExcelinEd, Reynolds also worked for the Texas Education Agency in several capacities, including as chief deputy commissioner. (Schwinn also held a deputy education commissioner position while in Texas.) While at the TEA in 2007, Reynolds was involved in a controversy over an employee who alerted locals about a lecture related to evolution and creationism. The TEA’s then-director of science Christine Comer highlighted a speech to be given by Texas professor Barbara Forrest, author of a book about how creationism theories can creep into and threaten public education. Reynolds, as reported by The New York Times, considered Comer’s action “an offense that calls for termination.” Comer resigned. Other notable positions Reynolds has held include deputy legislative director for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. During his presidency, Reynolds worked as a special assistant in the office of legislation and congressional affairs for U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and as regional representative for U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Reynolds was open to an interview with the Scene, but Gov. Lee’s press secretary Jade Byers told us it would have to wait until she takes office.

Although school won’t be in session when she begins her tenure, Reynolds will need to hit the ground running as Tennessee undergoes several monumental transitions this summer. The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula — the first new funding formula in more than 30 years — will be rolled out in the coming

THEY BROUGHT IT IN FOR ONE MORE HUDDLE, THEN PARTED WAYS. NONE OF THEM KNEW IT WOULD BE THEIR LAST TIME TOGETHER AS A TEAM.

NASHVILLE NOISE TRADING CARDS

school year. Additionally, this is the first summer when many third-graders may be flooding summer learning camps to avoid retention. A 2021 law requires certain third-graders who don’t pass the English language arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program to either attend summer school, receive tutoring in fourth grade or both in order to be promoted. The initial TCAP scores are scheduled to be released on May 19, and a short retesting window will follow right before summer programming begins. The timing could make it difficult for some districts to properly staff and implement these summer programs, and they’ll likely look to the TDOE for assistance.

The TISA funding formula and the third-grade retention law demonstrate how aggressively the Lee administration has shaped politics in the past few years. Another major legislative priority for the governor was his Education Savings Account program, which allows the families of public school students to use taxpayer money to attend private schools. After being held up in court for years, the program quickly kicked off just before the start of the 2022-23 school year. Now that the program is in full swing — and was expanded to include Chattanooga alongside Memphis and Nashville during this year’s legislative session — rollout under a new commissioner will be worth keeping an eye on.

“She is going to carry out the agenda of sort of advancing choice, whether that’s around charters or ESAs — and that’s something that ExcelinEd prioritizes as well — so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that that will be part of her portfolio,” says Gini Pupo-Walker, state director of public school advocacy group The Education Trust in Tennessee. “We have to remember, it’s the same governor, same governor’s team with the same priorities, so that’s not going to change.”

We’ll stand by to see what Reynolds prioritizes during her tenure and how staffing in the department changes upon her arrival. We might see her make moves around topics including college pathways or the school accountability system. Schwinn, who received criticism from both the left and the right, struggled in her relationship with lawmakers — perhaps Lee expects a smoother path on that front.

Until Reynolds arrives and gets to work, Tennesseans can only hope she doesn’t further chip away at the state of public education in the state. But as long as Lee is governor, don’t get your hopes up on that front.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn will step down after four years leading the state’s education department. Schwinn worked closely with Gov. Bill Lee to implement a new funding formula for school districts and advanced the governor’s controversial Education Savings Account program. Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds will replace Schwinn in July. … The Metro Council approved rezoning plans for a redesigned shopping and residential center in West Nashville at the current site of Belle Meade Plaza. Developers AJ Capital have pushed forward an overhaul of the shopping center at the corner of White Bridge Road and Harding Pike, the longtime home of Kroger and several retail spots, despite concerns from neighbors about traffic and increased density. Public hearing on the plan featured accusations from opponents that developers and District 24 Councilmember Kathleen Murphy had not done enough to respond to residents’ pushback. The current plan would add hundreds of condos across four multi-story buildings and refigure commercial space. Kroger has already announced plans to vacate its current spot. The rezoning still must pass on third reading for developers’ plans to move forward. … Musician Hayley Kiyoko told fans that, ahead of her all-ages Nashville show at Marathon Music Works last week, she had been warned by “local law enforcement” not to bring drag performers onstage to avoid violating Tennessee’s antidrag bill, which is currently on hold due to a temporary restraining order. Nashville police denied communication with Kiyoko and disputed whether the singer had been contacted by an actual member of local law enforcement. Kiyoko’s show, which took place on May 1, went ahead featuring drag artists. … Several aspiring politicians have moved closer to runs for Metro Council, including Metro Board of Zoning Appeals member Payton Bradford and North Nashville activist and organizer Jamel CampbellGooch. … Writes Scene contributor Betsy Phillips, Tennessee Republicans have closed ranks, favoring their party line over widespread calls for reform on issues like gun control. Rather than respond to the people they represent, legislators remain deeply committed to outdated and unpopular positions that have produced devastating, deadly results for Tennessee, she writes. … Hoping to rebuild after an embarrassing late-season slide, the Tennessee Titans selected a slew of new recruits at last month’s NFL Draft, headlined by first-round pick Peter Skoronski from Northwestern. Nashville SC keeps climbing the MLS standings with recent wins over Chicago and Atlanta. ... Gov. Bill Lee on Monday signaled his intention to call a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to begin on Aug. 21. This year’s legislative session adjourned in April without heeding the governor’s calls for action on guns. While Lee still must issue a formal call, he says he plans to bring the body back with the intent to “strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights.” Lee’s office also shared an online form where Tennesseans can “engage in the conversation.”

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AUGUST 10 & 11

TURNPIKE TROUBADORS

WITH PONY BRADSHAW (8/10) AND LANCE ROARK (8/11) ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON

SEPTEMBER 15

RHIANNON GIDDENS

ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 19 AT 10 AM

SEPTEMBER 21

DANIEL TOSH

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

SEPTEMBER 24

RINGO STARR AND HIS ALL-STARR BAND

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

OCTOBER 29 LIVE AT THE OPRY HOUSE

DISNEY JUNIOR LIVE ON TOUR

COSTUME PALOOZA

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

NOVEMBER 9

TAYLOR TOMLINSON

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

NOVEMBER 12

STRAIGHT NO CHASER

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

LIZZETTE GONZALEZ REYNOLDS

WITNESS HISTORY

Charley Crockett wore this rhinestone-embellished, flower-and-alligator-embroidered suit when he performed at the Palomino Music Festival in 2022—a year that saw more of the prolific output that brought him from busking for a living to making a living with his music.

From the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music artifact: Courtesy of Charley Crockett artifact photo: Bob Delevante

PLEADING THE 5 TH

Nashville’s new congressman Andy Ogles has become a local embarrassment and a national liability

BY ELI MOTYCKA

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Andy Ogles does have an office in Tennessee, but it’s locked. No signs indicate that the U.S. representative for 708,000 Tennesseeans resides in suite No. 5 on the second floor of 22 Public Square in downtown Columbia, where — in our fourth attempt at contacting the Ogles office — the Scene handed a business card to Ogles aide James Amundsen through the partially cracked door.

Ogles’ campaign site lists another address in downtown Columbia: 29 Public Square, home to a law firm a few doors down.

“This is just where his mail comes,” says Madison Ausbrooks, who works the desk at Whatley & Ricci. “I think his office is somewhere on the square, but I honestly don’t know where you can find him. If I knew, I would tell you.”

Ogles has lots of reasons to hide. Shortly after gerrymandering by Tennessee’s Republican supermajority carved Nashville into three odd-looking new districts, Ogles won the Republican primary with a 36.9 percent plurality — about where polls put the size of the Trump base in Tennessee. He beat out Beth Harwell, a former speaker of the Tennessee House, and Kurt Winstead, a retired brigadier general in the National Guard, both of whom Ogles attacked as insufficiently conservative. “Liberals, we’re coming for you,” he told the crowd on the night of his primary victory, before cruising to a 13-point victory over state Sen. Heidi Campbell in the general election.

His first week in Washington, Ogles earned his far-right bona fides by opposing Kevin McCarthy through 11 ballots in Republicans’ embarrassing and very public battle to choose a speaker for their slim majority in the U.S. House. He found his people in Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and, most of all, Jim Jordan, whom Ogles appears to idolize. He quickly joined them in the House Freedom Caucus, the ideological successor to the Tea Party Movement of the 2010s.

Pretty soon after Ogles pissed off his party in January, a string of stories from NewsChannel 5 reporter Phil Williams blew holes in his reputation at home. In the heat of a national controversy over the fabricated résumé of first-term GOP U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York, Williams found a pattern of exaggerated and inconsistent biographical details in the stories Ogles told voters during his campaign. Questions followed about the confusing paper trail related to $25,000 that Ogles collected in a GoFundMe. Ogles has engaged with allegations only to blast Williams’ reporting as specious political attacks.

Since being elected, Ogles has rarely appeared in public and favored friendly environments. He has become an occasional guest on Fox News, where Laura Ingraham lets him rail against Democrats. His riskiest move was an interview with C-SPAN days after he made news for holding up McCarthy’s nomination, where host John McCardle focused on the speaker vote rather than Ogles’ positions. He headlined Republicans’ First Tuesday social club in March, focusing his speech on so-called woke banking and his desire to find mismanagement in government departments and fire large quantities of employees.

“Congress has delegated much of its authority to unelected bureaucrats,” he told

SINCE BEING ELECTED, OGLES HAS RARELY APPEARED IN PUBLIC AND FAVORED FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENTS.

the room at Ludlow & Prime in Brentwood. “The top brass lawyers up and stalls, so you have to work your way down — the totem pole, if you will — to find employees who can’t necessarily afford attorneys. These folks are gonna get hauled before Congress.

I’ll defer to [House Oversight Committee] Chairman [James] Comer and Jim Jordan on what that process looks like. They want to get to the bottom of this too.”

Weeks later, Ogles’ office hosted a public conference call, which they advertised as a town hall, putting the U.S. rep on the mic for a half-hour before taking screened questions.

A panel of government officials stood up behind Mayor John Cooper and first lady Jill Biden on March 30 at Public Square Park when the city held a vigil for victims of the mass shooting at the Covenant School, which sits just inside Ogles’ district. He was not there. In the days following the shooting, Ogles made national news for a 2021 Christmas card, in which the then-Maury County mayor and his family pose in front of a Christmas tree brandishing assault weapons.

“Check the disclosures in July,” says one source, who spent a career in the Beltway. “I’ll bet he fundraised big off of that.”

Guns, abortion, gender identity, critical race theory — Ogles’ playbook energizes the activist right, but it’s falling out of fashion among national GOP leadership. After Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020, a result that Ogles dismissed as fraudulent, Republicans across the country significantly underperformed in the 2022 midterms. To keep the GOP’s weak grasp on the House through 2024, Kevin McCarthy cares about five seats decided by swing voters in upstate New York, inland California and suburban Arizona. In recent weeks, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has told major news outlets that the party’s internal autopsy report blames Trump and the party’s hard line against abortion for GOP losses in 2022. Republicans have begun a national messaging effort to walk back the rhetoric of the far right, seemingly beginning to realize that viciously attacking transgender people, slashing popular government programs and fear-baiting about fentanyl and China do not woo swing voters; Trump-backed candidates lost competitive races in key states, and voters proved they

care about abortion protections rolled back by the conservative Supreme Court last year. Last month, Gov. Bill Lee shocked both sides of the aisle by cautiously advancing a watered-down form of gun control, despite pushback and reticence from House lawmakers. Last week, Lee signed a bill granting narrow abortion exceptions.

With a tailored district and a base of conservative activists, Ogles lives in his own kind of echo chamber, largely insulated from the fragile dynamics of the national GOP that is slowly turning against him. Fresh off of a national debacle in the Tennessee House, state Republicans are stuck with a right wing whose brazen and embarrassing abuses of power have enabled a destructive new brand of conservatism. Meanwhile, the party’s concerned center — still a majority at the ballot box by many measures — whispers about a challenger to Ogles who could peel enough Democratic votes to win in Tennessee’s open primaries. As pressure mounts in the coming years, Ogles’ natural response would be to go harder against RINOs and establishment conservatives, clinging to his seat while he forces his party into shambles.

THE STATE’S REPUBLICAN supermajority redrew Tennessee’s congressional districts last year, slicing Nashville’s seat into thirds and setting up GOP advantages for incumbent Reps. Mark Green (Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District) and John Rose (Tennessee’s 6th). Tennessee’s 5th District, historically the whole of blue Davidson County, had been represented for 20 years by Democrat Jim Cooper. It got the third slice, an awkward vestigial lump that covers Belle Meade and Oak Hill, meanders into Mt. Juliet, then turns back south, picking up a major chunk of its population near Franklin and Columbia in Williamson and Maury counties.

“I think people just voted for him because they saw the ‘R’ next to the name,” says Angie Jones, who lives a few blocks from downtown Columbia. “They don’t know who he is or what he represents.”

Ogles was elected to his first government office in 2018 as Maury County mayor, as opposed to Columbia’s city mayor, a seat held by popular politician Chaz Molder.

Molder has supported mask policies and defended the city’s LGBTQ community, and he handily won a second term in November. Ogles and Molder sparred constantly in 2020 and 2021, most notably when Ogles fought to host a “Mule Fest” — his own version of Columbia’s historic Mule Day parade and celebration, which had been shelved because of the pandemic.

“He got crossways with the mayor, with the Maury County Bridle & Saddle Club, with the whole city over that,” remembers Jones, who serves on the Columbia Arts Council. “He wanted to make a point.”

Ogles’ contrarian populism coincides with a larger shift in conservative politics in Middle Tennessee that’s matured over the past decade. Ogles, who lives outside of Columbia in Culleoka, explicitly identifies as a “Williamson and Maury county native” in campaign literature, correctly identifying that the two have strong ideological overlaps and represent strong bases of power for politics. The region’s new guard identifies with the far-right ideologies of Moms for Liberty, Tennessee Stands and Williamson Families, groups with active followings in Williamson and Maury counties that have attacked mask-wearing, Black history and discussions of gender and sexuality, much of it under the label of “parental rights.” They are a powerful minority that has targeted fellow Republicans and civic leaders in Maury and Williamson counties.

In August, Gary Humble, a relative newcomer to Franklin who describes his ideological wing of conservatism as a “force of nature,” came within 800 votes of taking down state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in the Republican primary. Johnson has been one of the most powerful Republicans in the state for a decade. Humble’s résumé bounces around between speculative business ventures and far-right propaganda outlets, matching Ogles’ pretty closely.

In October, Columbia’s library director resigned after parents attacked the library’s LGBTQ material as “filth” and compared the library’s Pride Month display to “Naziworld domination.” After opposing masking policies, banning books related to race, sexuality and gender identity has been a central obsession for Williamson County Republicans, particularly Moms for Liberty.

SATURDAY MAY 20TH 2PM - 7PM

In April, more than 600 Williamson County Republicans packed into the Factory at Franklin for a bloodless coup. The party swept out incumbents and installed a cast of further-right leadership led by new chair Tracy Miller, who has waded through political scandals for a decade. Officials on the county party’s Contest and Credentials Committee resigned in protest “out of concern for the integrity of this election process,” alleging “fraud, self-dealing and manipulation” from fellow members Steve Allbrooks and Cyndi Miller, wife of Tracy Miller. Ousted county party chair Cheryl Brown called it a hijacking.

The activist right has been Ogles’ home since before it was winning elections. Before the national Tea Party backlash in 2010 — and then Trump — muscled many of the flank’s positions into the GOP mainstream, far-right tax zealots struggled to win governing power in Tennessee. Current U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn — then a state senator — laid valuable groundwork for Ogles in 2001, parlaying popular resentment against income tax legislation into an economic tenet that now defines conservative politics in Tennessee. Ogles lost Republican primaries for Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District in 2002 and the state’s 23rd Senate District in 2006. He aimed at incumbent Bob Corker from the right in the 2017 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate before conceding his bid to Blackburn.

Ogles’ embattled résumé picks up around 2010, when he was in his early 40s. He hopped between a few nonprofits before serving as the first director of Tennessee’s Americans for Prosperity chapter, a political advocacy organization funded by the Koch family that argues for corporate power and lobbies against government regulation. He briefly worked at the Laffer Center, a think tank advocating for now-discredited economic ideas about trickle-down prosperity popularized by the Reagan administration. Ogles gestures to this background when he describes himself as an economist, which he does a lot. On CSPAN in January, he managed to say, “I’m an economist,” twice in one minute. Public appearances reliably return to his takes on economics. His takes on economics reliably return to his ideological bedrock: that the government should not exist, and he must shrink it to nothing.

Six months before Williamson County Republicans killed off their old guard, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz hosted a campaign event for Andy Ogles in the same airy event space in Franklin. Ogles attacked the government he hoped to join.

“This woke administration has weaponized the FBI and IRS,” Ogles told the crowd. “To the IRS agents — 87,000 — you better freshen up your résumé, because you’re fired.”

Like his ideological peers in Congress — Gaetz, Greene and, most of all, Jordan — Ogles is concerned with destroying things. The House Freedom Caucus has pushed libertarian anarchy, a natural successor to conservatives’ attacks on government programs in the 1980s and 1990s, by attacking major government pillars like the the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Education. Earlier this month, fellow U.S. Rep. Mark Green (of Tennessee’s 7th) privately assured donors he would pursue impeachment of Homeland

Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the fact that people continue to immigrate to the U.S. Broadly, Ogles has joined a debt-ceiling battle that threatens to plunge the country into a recession because it fits nicely into Republican crusades against government spending.

On his April 12 constituent conference call, Ogles boasted that he had “the most productive freshman office in the House.” Since arriving in the House, Ogles has sponsored or co-sponsored 107 bills. Two — a resolution ending COVID’s designation as a national emergency and a bipartisan repeal of a D.C. crime bill, which had 47 co-sponsors — have been signed. Two more have been vetoed. The other 103 are dead or stuck in committee. He has multiple pieces of legislation meant to legally dissolve the existence of transgender identity and more that sanctify gun ownership and seek to arm teachers. Several bills seek to abolish aspects of the government, like the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. On April 19, Ogles, along with fellow Freedom Caucus member Randy Weber (of Texas’ 13th), introduced an amendment to fiddle with the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. Stuck in committee, it would restrict the president’s ability to send aid to Ukraine, hamstringing the country’s ability to repel the full-scale land invasion launched by Russia in February of last year. Such a move to weaken America’s military capability would be indefensible for a Republican less than a decade ago.

WHEN JIM COOPER announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2022, he said the new-look 5th Congressional District was “unwinnable” for a Democrat. Polling data and political analysts agree that, barring a major realignment in Tennessee politics, Nashville’s 20,000-vote Democratic advan-

tage gets drowned out by healthy Republican margins in Wilson, Williamson and Maury counties. That’s the way it was drawn.

Tennessee Republicans have two paths forward for Tennessee’s 5th. The first and simplest is to do nothing and stick with Ogles. He will continue to parrot talking points he sees in right-wing media and soak up attention from fellow hardliners in the losing wing of his party, where his positions enjoy narrow but enthusiastic appeal.

“When Andy Ogles won the primary, he disappeared,” says Chip Forrester, former chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party and an adviser to state Sen. Heidi Campbell when she faced Ogles in the fall. “He put no ads on TV, and he didn’t campaign at all. Probably from the perspective that he had an R+11 district: ‘Now that you’re the nominee, keep your head down, because by talking, and people seeing you, they might realize how much of an idiot you are.’ I’m glad to go on the record with that.”

The second option would be to address Ogles, confront the party’s extreme right and build a political identity that can better ensure its own long-term survival and tackle predictable governing crises. Ogles is not a pugilist like Jim Jordan or Lauren Boebert, not a media mascot like Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene (none of whom, for what it’s worth, seems concerned with governing or delivering for their home district). Most have safe seats that exist outside the political calculus of the national GOP. Instead, they’ve become addicted to the attention from national media and used culturally divisive issues like guns, abortion, trans people and immigration to become media stars. Ogles clearly aspires to do the same.

After two years of stunt legislation in D.C., he will likely be weaker against a primary challenge, and a presidential cycle will bring out more voters. It doesn’t seem like the Tennessee Democratic Party has a

serious plan to challenge him (nor Green or Rose, Nashville’s other reps, or for that matter Reps. Chuck Fleischmann, Diana Harshbarger, David Kustoff, Tim Burchett or Scott DesJarlais). Republican elders don’t seem to care about the destruction of their party either. Senior statesmen like Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who were Tennessee’s ranking Republicans just seven or eight years ago, have turned away from weighing in on the fractures within their party.

Despite once winning huge majorities of Tennesseans as pensive legislators and measured diplomats, neither Corker nor Alexander seems to have shown interest in building bridges within their own party, perhaps because they once spoke more softly to many of the same reactionary impulses now exploited by Ogles and the MAGA base.

Last week, UT scholar Nathan Kelly spoke to the Scene about democracy, fascism and authoritarianism in Tennessee. He said, in part: “Democracies die a slow death by 1,000 cuts. And so, while I think we do have to be careful with our rhetoric and we don’t want to be overly alarmist, at the same time, any move away from democracy is a move toward authoritarianism. And if one doesn’t raise the alarm on initial steps away from democracy, you pretty soon find yourself 20 or 30 steps closer to authoritarianism.”

Early polls for 2024 favor Biden over Trump, the parties’ two likely nominees, but predict another close race. Ogles has explicitly indicated that, if given the chance, he will contest another presidential election.

“We can never allow what happened to Trump to happen to anyone else ever again,” he says on the “Issues” page of his website.

On the campaign trail, he called for the president to pardon those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

If we can trust his résumé, Ogles has a habit of showing up when it’s time to destroy things.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

ANDY OGLES (LEFT) AND TED CRUZ

CRITICS’ PICKS

WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

THURSDAY / 5.11

[LET THE BATTLES BEGIN]

MUSIC

THE FLAMING LIPS

THE FLAMING LIPS

THURSDAY, MAY 11

[REV UP YOUR ENGINE]

KENNY LOGGINS

To attend a Flaming Lips show is to enter an exploding rainbow of stimuli. When you leave, you’ll be covered in confetti and steeped in joy. During live performances, the band’s poppy, experimental psychedelicrock songs — drawn from a catalog nearly four decades deep — are typically adorned with endless bits of confetti, trippy props, myriad balloons, strobe lights galore and frontman Wayne Coyne’s enormous crowd-surfing bubble. Another staple includes a gigantic inflatable pink robot that appears when the band plays the title track of the 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It’s almost guaranteed to be present Thursday evening, since the Lips will be playing the album in its entirety as part of an extended 20th anniversary celebration. The tour comes alongside reissues, unreleased music, limited-edition vinyl and more. The beloved album, which is among the band’s most popular and most acclaimed, includes crowd favorites like its title track as well as “Fight Test,” “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” and “Do You Realize??” Recent set lists confirm that the Lips will dip into other parts of their catalog during a second set as well as an encore. But no matter what they give us, it will be magical. 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. KELSEY BEYELER MUSIC

Loggins and Messina’s 1972 single

“Your Mama Don’t Dance” is one of those weird tunes from the immediate post-Beatles era, when rock ’n’ roll was presumed to be dead. Like another oddball song from the period, Don McLean’s “American Pie,” it’s about the late 1950s, and it’s also not a piece of rock ’n’ roll music. After Loggins and Messina split in 1976,

Kenny Loggins went on to become an avatar of one of the most anti-rock ’n’ roll genres in history, yacht rock. Of course, it wasn’t called yacht rock in the ’70s, but the name is perfect: It evokes partying in nonslip shoes to the kind of subtly jazzy, disco-inflected middle-of-the-road fare that young rock fans hated back then — after all, what could be more riveting than Jerry Garcia or Dickey Betts jamming out for half an hour on a blues tune? On his own, Loggins co-wrote two of yacht rock’s biggest hits,

“What a Fool Believes” and “This Is It,” and his 1986 rendition of Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock’s “Danger Zone” has become a classic. As critic Robert Christgau pointed out in his review of Loggins’ 1979 album Keep the Fire, “His problems were actually less severe — he just couldn’t rock.” Well, yeah, but I really don’t think it mattered. In pop — and in yacht rock — the point is to be tuneful, superficial and above all happy in your pursuit of music that sounds good and will sell. Loggins says this is his final tour — hey man, your stuff definitely made me happy. Yacht Rock Revue opens. 7:30 p.m. at FirstBank Amphitheater, 4525 Graystone Quarry Lane, Franklin EDD HURT

FRIDAY / 5.12

[A TENDER BLOSSOM OF A MUSICAL]

THEATER

NASHVILLE REP PRESENTS VIOLET

Nashville Repertory Theatre is back this weekend, closing out its 2022-23 season with the tender musical Violet Based on the short story The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts, Violet follows a tragically disfigured young woman who travels across the American South in 1964 in desperate search of a miracle. Featuring music by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Caroline, or Change; Thoroughly Modern Millie) and lyrics/book by Brian Crawley, Violet serves up a compelling

blend of gospel, country and folk music. The intimate musical was first produced off Broadway in 1997 and enjoyed a successful run on Broadway in 2014 with Sutton Foster featured in the title role. Director Tracey Copeland Halter (in her Nashville Rep directorial debut) has put together a terrific cast for this production, including a fine mix of new and familiar faces. Already, the Rep has added a couple of performances, so you may want to grab tickets while you can. May 12-21 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater, 505 Deaderick St. AMY STUMPFL

MUSIC [GET BEHIND THE MULE]

GOV’T MULE

After three decades amassing a devoted global fan base, seminal jam-rock legends Gov’t Mule continue to release and perform compelling roots music that blurs genre lines. The band makes a tour stop at the Ryman Auditorium on a short spring run of Southern dates in preparation for the June release of their 12th studio album, Peace ... Like a River. The first single “Dreaming Out Loud” gives fans a preview of what’s to come and features outstanding performances by keyboardist/vocalist Ivan Neville as well as vocalist Ruthie Foster. The high-energy track is steeped in Southern soul and flush with funky horns reminiscent of Dr. John or Sly and the Family Stone. That said, all the hallmarks of the signature Gov’t Mule sound are accounted for, including frontperson Warren Haynes’ bluesy

The Ryman

KENNY LOGGINS

PHOTO: BLAKE STUDDARD

vocals and searing guitar work. The group plans to incorporate new material from their forthcoming record into an already extensive set list that includes fan favorites such as “Soulshine” and “Bad Little Doggie.” 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. JASON VERSTEGEN

[BRAIN SCAN] R.M.N.

“Stay away from wild animals when you’re unarmed.” That’s what lead character Matthias (Marin Grigore) tells his young son halfway through R.M.N., the latest feature (named after a Romanian acronym for nuclear magnetic resonance) from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days director Cristian Mungiu. While Matthias is referring to the creatures lurking in the woods around their Transylvanian village, there are other rabid beasts about. There are the villagers, who go apeshit when a few brown-skinned foreigners show up to take minimum-wage jobs at a bakery. There are the ethno-nationalists raising a ruckus while wearing bear suits. And then there’s Matthias himself, an emotionally stunted brute who thinks teaching his psychologically scarred kid manly stuff will get him talking again. In his trademark bleak/blunt/brilliant fashion, Mungiu basically reminds us how bigotry, ignorance and hatred continue to be a bigger global threat than COVID. If you think America is the only place in the world with Trumpers, you should definitely watch this. May 12-18 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[LOVE AMONGST THE STARS]

MIDNIGHT MOVIE: CARRIE

Maybe someday Brian DePalma’s film Carrie won’t be tragically relevant. People have always battled through high school trying to keep their self-esteem intact, either resisting or abetting the ceaseless reach of religious fundamentalism, establishing agency over their own bodies or trying to be a source of help (or a gleeful agitator) for the weaknesses of those around them. Anyone who’s felt put-upon can find something to exult in in DePalma’s majestic Stephen King adaptation, and even as its 1976-itude (split screens, locker room tracking shots, lethal lapels) remains, burnished by the respectability that 47 years of defining the non-gun revenge narrative can bring, it still plays like gangbusters. Sissy Spacek gives her all, and the ensemble is superb. This is DePalma firing on all cylinders, and one of the great works of both horror and teen films. From novel to film to musical to sequel to TV remake to revised musical to theatrical remake, there’s a reason this story sticks, and it’s a defining American narrative: quotable, electrifying, and the kind of tragedy we’re all aware of but never really learn from. Midnight at the Belcourt, 2101 Belcourt Ave. JASON SHAWHAN

SATURDAY / 5.13

[ALL HAIL KING PAIMON]

FILM

MIDNIGHT MOVIE: HEREDITARY

This one ain’t for the faint of heart.

For its Saturday Midnight Movie, beloved local arthouse the Belcourt is presenting Ari Aster’s 2018 feature debut Hereditary, a meditation on grief and trauma and, naturally, demonic possession. Aster — whose third film Beau Is Afraid is now showing at both the Belcourt and in megaplexes — received an MFA from the AFI Conservatory’s graduate program in 2010 and soon established his reputation as a director to watch with a string of psychological-horror short films. But for most audiences, Hereditary came out of the blue with its knockout cast, shocking themes and unforgettable imagery. The staggeringly talented Toni Collette stars as Annie Graham, an artist and the matriarch of a family besieged by grief, and is remarkable. No surprise there. But it’s Alex Wolff’s incredibly physical performance as Annie’s teenage son Peter that sticks with me the most. Well, that and every single shot from the film’s final 20 minutes. No spoilers, but if you haven’t seen this one before, it’s liable to shake you up a bit — you might want to have someone else drive you home when it wraps up shortly after 2 a.m. Just keep your head inside the vehicle. Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

D. PATRICK RODGERS

[SEEDS OF JOY]

FOOD & DRINK

NASHVILLE FARMERS’ MARKET STRAWBERRY JUBILEE

While embracing the seasonality of produce is no longer something that many folks prioritize due to supermarkets and a global food system, it’s still special. There are few simple joys greater than taking that first bite of a sweet, perfectly ripe strawberry grown right here in Tennessee (or maybe Kentucky). If you don’t want to make the one-hour drive out to Portland, Tenn., for their Strawberry Festival this weekend, the Nashville Farmers’ Market is leaning into that springtime delight this Saturday for a Strawberry Jubilee. The event will feature all the delights of a typical Saturday farmers market, plus special activities for kiddos and strawberry-centric shenanigans. Think strawberry hot sauce, strawberry shortcake popcorn, strawberry art, strawberry margaritas and more. Everyone will be in on it, and bluegrass

band Greenwood Rye will be performing as well. 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.

KELSEY BEYELER

[PRONOUNCED EE-LEN]

MUSIC

EILEN JEWELL

Charisma is a scarce resource these days. People don’t have enough of it! Eilen Jewell, on the other hand, has a wealth of this precious resource. The 44-year-old Americana singer-songwriter from Boise, Idaho, has released seven albums, each one brimming with honesty and confidence. She leads a tight quartet that plays bluesy folk with a 1960s surf-noir dynamic. The group has played coffeehouses and festivals, sharing the stage with Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples, Wanda Jackson, George Jones and Emmylou Harris, among others. Known as the “Queen of the Minor Key” for both her affinity for tales of hardship and her musical-key preferences, she gracefully toes the line between triumph and heartbreak. Along with her soulful songs and energetic performances, Jewell is beloved for her warmth and onstage humor. Come get your fill before she moves on to charm her next audience. Nashville-based Miss Tess, whose songs ring with plenty of retro influence, opens. 7:30 at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. TOBY LOWENFELS

MUSIC

THE WAR AND TREATY

As a fan of soul, country and the curious hybrid some observers call countrysoul, I hear Nashville Americana duo The War and Treaty’s new album Lover’s Game as a record in search of a subtext. Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter’s bid for the Americana market comes complete with production by Dave Cobb and songs written by the married couple whose music, you might say, embodies the wars and treaties that are common to any committed relationship. Lover’s Game is a skillful middle-of-the-road-Americana album that contains what sounds like an unintentional critique of the snares of modern Nashville and mainstream success. The richest cut on Lover’s Game might be “Dumb Luck,” which quotes Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor’s “Wagon Wheel” and contains these lyrics:

“I have known the fruits of a firm-feeling woman / She stole all my youth / But she never stopped me gunning / For the marquee, Opry / Slinging gospel country.” Elsewhere, The War and Treaty sing about riding around Nashville on a date night and whether rain means Jesus is crying. The Trotters say they’re influenced by the great soul songwriting couple Ashford & Simpson — let’s hope they learn to write songs as pointed as Ashford & Simpson’s epochal 1980 critique of materialism, “Bourgie Bourgie.” 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. EDD HURT

SUNDAY / 5.14

FILM [INTO THE DEEP] DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA

When you see a Latin title that means “on the structure of the human body,” you should know exactly what you’re gonna get with this way-up-close-and-personal nonfiction freakout from directors Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Anyone who’s seen their 2012 commercialfishermen doc Leviathan knows the pair takes fly-on-the-wall filmmaking to a whole ’nutha level. Here they immediately go to the extreme in chronicling the goings-on at several French hospitals, going all up and inside patients while also catching

[MARQUEE MOON]

THE WAR AND TREATY

EILEN JEWELL

PHOTO: AUSTIN HARGRAVE

Sunday, May 14

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Joseph Wooten

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 20

SONGWRITER SESSION

Alex Hall

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 20

NASHVILLE CATS

Brent Mason

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 20

HATCH SHOW PRINT

Block Party

3:00 pm · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

LIMITED AVAILABILITY

THU 5.11 INIKO • SOLD OUT

FRI 5.12 MICHAELA SLINGER • EMMA OGIER

SAT 5.13 FASCINATION STREET

MON

Sunday, May 21

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Laura Weber White

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 27

SONGWRITER SESSION

Porter Howell

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, May 28

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Alison Prestwood

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, June 4

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Nick Scallorn

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, June 10

SONGWRITER SESSION

Laura Veltz NOON · FORD THEATER

2412 GALLATIN AVE @THEEASTROOM

doctors and nurses griping about how overworked they are. (Even countries that have affordable health care have medical professionals who are fed the fuck up.) You need to know that this ain’t for the faint of heart. Paravel and Castaing-Taylor go to places in the human body you probably thought you’d never see on the big screen. But if you wanna take that plunge, this will be playing for a few days at the Belcourt. May 14-16 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[COLD BREW IN THE NEWS]

MUSIC

CHRIS CROFTON W/CALEY CONWAY AND BAD LUCK BENSON AND THE DOOMED

Whether you know him from his stand-up comedy, The Alcohol Stuntband, Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers or his “Advice King” column in this very alt-weekly rag, there is no denying that Chris Crofton has had one of the biggest footprints in Nashville’s left-of-dial art world. In many ways, Crofton is a reflection of the Music City of yore, when songwriters like Shel Silverstein and Kris Kristofferson would write books of allegorical nursery rhymes and appear in arthouse feature films.

Crofton’s solo album, Hello It’s Me, is an

easy-listening ode to the most humiliating parts of human existence, drawing comparisons to Glen Campbell and Will Oldham. Opening will be Bad Luck Benson and the Doomed along with the sharp, wistful music of Caley Conway. 8 p.m. at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Pike P.J. KINZER

TUESDAY / 5.16

[COWBOY STATE OF MIND]

MUSIC

IAN MUNSICK

I first heard about Ian Munsick because we went to the same tiny high school in Colorado (not at the same time). Munsick, who also grew up in Wyoming, makes country music that is evocative of our shared Western experiences, more Big Sky than honky-tonk. Munsick lives in Nashville now, and writing songs helps him get back to the West in his mind. “When I get homesick for the ranch, I go to it in my mind’s eye,” he says. “I can smell the alfalfa and see the aspen trees. The eagles and the culture that are out there are in my DNA.” His new album, White Buffalo, features 18 tracks that credit Munsick as a co-writer and coproducer. While music of the American

West features cowboys and cowgirls just like Nashville does, “the West is different because it emphasizes the landscape and the lifestyle we live on the landscape,” Munsick says. White Buffalo features some pretty special guests, including Cody Johnson, Marty Stuart and Vince Gill While he doesn’t make any promises, he says all three may make appearances onstage during his Ryman show, which is his debut headlining at the Mother Church. Munsick confesses to being a little nervous about commanding the hallowed stage, but is ready for it. “I’m living the Wyoming dream.” 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. MARGARET LITTMAN

COMEDY

[NO DUMMY]

RANDY FELTFACE

One of two things happen when I write up a comedy show: 1) I spend five minutes watching the comedian on YouTube then bounce to write my 150 words, or 2) I find a subreddit of sexual misconduct allegations against the comedian I was assigned to cover then bounce on the blurb altogether. Surprisingly, neither of those things happened when I sat down to write up Randy Feltface. In fact, I started his Purple Privilege YouTube special and lol’d through the entire 60 minutes. Randy Feltface is the alter ego of Australian comedian Heath McIvor. Randy Feltface is also a puppet.

hero Dan Savage, HUMP! has consistently delivered both shocking and profound erotic short films — but you can only see them at the screenings. That’s part of the appeal — these aren’t your standard PornHub fodder. These are everyday people making sexy short films that will change the way you think about sexuality. As Savage told me in 2019, “These are films that people make with their friends and lovers, and it comes from a place of joy.” So don’t be intimidated — I’ve been to multiple HUMP! screenings, and they always feel safe and inviting, never sleazy or illicit. (I mean, you’re in a room watching porn with a bunch of strangers, so maybe don’t bring your parents.) 7 & 9 p.m. May 17-18 at the Mark, 346 Herron Drive

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

[WHAT WOULD DOLLY DO?]

But this ain’t child’s play. You’re looking at an eight-fingered purple puppet who curses like a sailor and is going through an existential crisis. He has costume changes to show varying timelines, “like a Tarantino film without the graphic homicides” — and frankly, I’m pleasantly surprised that a puppet could be so funny. 7 p.m. at Zanies, 2025 Eighth Ave. S. TOBY LOWENFELS

WEDNESDAY / 5.17

FILM [HORNICOPIA] HUMP! FILM FESTIVAL

What do mud pits, corncobs and Ronald McDonald have in common? They all play a part in this year’s HUMP! Film Festival, which is one of the best sex-positive events around. Organized by Savage Love mastermind and alt-weekly

HERE YOU

COME AGAIN: HOW DOLLY PARTON SAVED MY LIFE IN 12 EASY SONGS

If there’s one thing we can all agree upon these days, it’s that we can’t get enough of Dolly Parton — whether it’s her beloved music, signature fragrances, baking mixes or even sassy pet apparel. And with the regional premiere of Here You Come Again: How Dolly Parton Saved My Life in 12 Easy Songs, Studio Tenn promises a fun new musical that celebrates all the wit and wisdom we’ve come to expect from the legendary country music star and Southern icon. Penned by Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio, the story follows a down-on-his-luck die-hard fan who decides to lean on an imagined version of Dolly when the going gets tough. Gabriel Barre directs the piece, which first premiered in September. The cast features Paoluccio as Dolly, along with Zachary Sutton singing familiar hits like “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and, of course, “Here You Come Again.” May 1728 at The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin AMY STUMPFL

BOOKS [FRIENDS, FICTION, FANTASTIC] PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including Becoming Mrs. Lewis Callahan has returned with her latest offering, The Secret Book of Flora Lea, and this celebration of sisterhood is sure to sweep you up in its fantastical, captivating tale of family, first love and fate. There are dual storylines, but both are equally represented and lovely, underscored by the fairy-tale quality of Callahan’s storytelling. Wednesday at Parnassus, catch her in conversation with Mary Laura Philpott and pick up a signed copy of the book. 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books, 3900 Hillsboro Pike

KARIN MATHIS

MUSIC [POP VIBES]

CAROLINE POLACHEK

One of my few Facebook activities is hanging out with the smart music writers and fans in the Expert Witness group, which is named after longtime music journalist Robert Christgau’s now-defunct reviews feature. Talking recently about New York-born singer and songwriter Caroline Polachek’s new album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You has been fun because the record reads like a masterpiece of modern pop that

IAN MUNSICK PHOTO: CHRIS DOUGLAS

BOOZY

5.18

5.19

5.22 TOM AND TIM OF PLAIN WHITE T’S

5.23 ZACHARIAH MALACHI AND THE NASHVILLE COUNTS

5.23 JACQUELINE NOVAK: GET ON YOUR KNEES

5.24 SUGARCANE JANE

5.25 AN EVENING WITH INDOLORE, CASSIDY MAUDE & PAUL HOWARD

5.25 AN EVENING WITH ALICIA WITT

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GUITAR LESSONS

with former Musicians Institute and Austin Guitar School instructor MARK BISH

Jazz, Rock, Blues, Country, Fusion, Funk, Flamenco, etc. Technique, theory, songwriting. Programs available. 40 years exp. 512-619-3209 markbishmusic@gmail.com

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SPECIAL SATURDAY STORYTIME with SYLVIA WALKER at PARNASSUS Hair to Share

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SPECIAL SATURDAY STORYTIME

with CHRISSY METZ & BRADLEY COLLINS at PARNASSUS When I Talk to God, I Talk about You

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CELIA BELL with LINDSAY LYNCH at PARNASSUS The Disenchantment

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6:30PM

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draws from a lot of what lesser artists would call influences without sounding influenced by much of anything. Desire improves on Polachek’s fine 2019 full-length Pang, which contains the amazing track “Hit Me Where It Hurts,” and the difference is one of depth and elaboration. Polachek’s trained voice soars throughout Desire, but it’s her flair for writing theme-and-variation pop tunes that hits home. Some of the album flirts with brilliance, as on “Blood and Butter” and “Billions.” I hear traces of Prefab Sprout’s approach, and “Billions” uncannily evokes ’70s Brazilian pop from the likes of Milton Nascimento. Over at Expert Witness, my pop theoretician friends make some acute comments about Desire. Blair Fraipont: “It’s a long distance from seeing her perform a Soma-inspired cover of ‘Wicked Game’ in a basement in 2009 that’s for sure.”

Meanwhile, Steve Alter chimes in with this: “I get absolutely ZERO Kate Bush vibes from it,” which strikes me as dead-on. You might hear hints of Paula Cole or Sarah McLachlan, but Polachek doesn’t sound like anyone else. Ethel Cain and True Blue are the openers. 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. EDD HURT

MUSIC [REBIRTH]

MAGGIE MILES ALBUM RELEASE

Virginia-born songsmith Maggie Miles got settled in Music City in 2019 and began building her career on the strength of a couple of singles, just in time for COVID to body-slam the momentum she was generating with her heavy-rock-tinged spin on danceable pop. Undaunted, she released her first full-length Am I Drowning or Am I Just Learning to Swim in 2020 and has continued to refine her approach going into her new LP The Lack Thereof. The record is filled with cinematic, electronically enhanced soundscapes — a little unnerving sometimes, as in the dentist’s-drill sound effects running through “Close.” Lyrically, Miles focuses on examining her perpetual journey of renewal, as in standout single “Momentum,” in which she sings: “I’m alone, but I know that I’ll grow / When I keep on putting on the pressure to change / I know it sounds easy / But I’m the only one that’s in the way.” She’ll celebrate the release Wednesday at Exit/In, supported by fellow complex popsters CHLSY and Essy. 8 p.m. at Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place

STEPHEN TRAGESER

CAROLINE POLACHEK

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

TEQUILA MADE YOU DO IT!

Join the Nashville Scene for our 10th Annual Toast to Tequila! Your ticket gets you entry to the event and 15 margarita samples from local restaurants. Sip and shake the night away while DJs rock the park and you enjoy food trucks, salsa dancing, photo booth fun and more! Vote for your favorite drink of the night to help crown the Best Margarita in Town! Tickets typically sell out every year — so get yours while you still can.

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BEST EATS AT MUSIC VENUES

Nope, you don’t have to eat before you head out to see a show — in fact, here are 10 reasons not to

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

When you’re booking tickets to a show, you’re probably paying attention to the artist and the experience — singer-songwriter night vs. honky-tonk vs. arena show vs. rock club. You’re probably looking at the ticket prices. Maybe you’re considering how you’re getting there — if it isn’t near a bus line, is parking limited? What you’re probably not thinking about is the food. In fact, you’re probably scrolling through Resy booking a table before you go.

But there are some good reasons to eat while you watch a show. Most importantly, many venues count on cash from food and drink sales to keep their doors open. At The Bluebird Cafe, for example, all of the ticket money collected at the door goes to the performing artists. So to keep the lights on at the historic Green Hills listening room, they need to ring up the tabs at the tables.

It can also be fun to make an evening of it, where you don’t have to coordinate an early-bird dinner and getting to a show on time. What’s more, many venue kitchens take their food seriously, and there are some eats you shouldn’t pass up. We at the Scene pulled together a (subjective) list of the best eats at 10 Nashville music venues. Our main criterion was that you have to be able to eat while you watch performers. Thus we had to exclude some obvious favorites, like the shepherd’s pie at Eastside Bowl — which, of course, you should eat before or after a show as often as possible.

CITY WINERY NASHVILLE

City Winery is designed for food and drink (hello, it is in the name), and the space has tables and generally tends to feature a crowd that likes to sit and eat and listen. (That was me shouting, “Get up and dance, people!” when I saw Dave Wakeling with the English Beat there years ago.) That means you get choices of lots of dishes, served with utensils, and you don’t have to hold the plate on your lap. Highlights include the fig and pear flatbread pizza and the seared airline chicken.

ROBERT’S WESTERN WORLD

If your reason for eating at home before heading out is lack of cash, you’ll never do better than Robert’s Western World’s famous Recession Special. That’s a fried bologna sandwich, chips, a Moon Pie and a PBR for just $6. It’s a selfie-worthy bargain and a quintessential Nashville experience. If you want a meat-free option, try a $5 grilled cheese.

THE STATION INN

Does frozen pizza and popcorn constitute dinner? It does on some nights when I’m not out researching for the Scene. But it also does when I’m at The Station Inn. The menu at the best bluegrass bar in the country also includes Goo Goo Clusters, Daddy Bob’s pimento cheese and nachos, but some things are classics. Like The Station Inn and frozen pizza.

RUDY’S JAZZ ROOM

My Scene colleague Chris Chamberlain is a fan of the chicken, andouille and shrimp gumbo at Rudy’s Jazz Room, which is available in either a cup or a bowl. Rudy’s has an extensive menu that will put you in a NOLA state of mind, including po’boys. There’s a separate limited late-night menu, which includes a $10 pairing of a cup of red beans and rice with beignets, and there’s an option for vegan beans, which is my personal pick.

AB HILLSBORO VILLAGE

As I recently reported for the Scene, the restaurant formerly known as Anzie Blue is now a music venue and event space called AB Hillsboro Village. From the venue’s catering kitchen they’re whipping up cheese and charcuterie boards for $20. They’re meant to serve two people … or one if you’re really hungry, says co-owner Marcie Allen Van Mol.

BRIDGESTONE ARENA

If we’ve had a conversation about restaurants closing since 2021, I’ve probably told you how much I miss Rotier’s. I miss the neon sign, the hash brown casserole, the dark interior that kept seven decades of city secrets. But I don’t have to miss their burgers on French bread: They’re available as a concession inside Bridgestone Arena.

THE BASEMENT EAST

I’ve also told anyone who will listen about my love of Chivanada empanadas. So I got very, very excited that the food truck is now going to be parked outside The Basement East on Tuesday through Saturday starting at 6 p.m. They’re the “official food truck of

the Basement East,” and you can take the warm gooey goodness inside with you.

DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE

Few things make me feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be more than sitting at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge eating a $5 Frito Pie out of a Frito’s bag while listening

CHIVANADA EMPANADAS AT THE BASEMENT EAST

RECESSION SPECIAL AT ROBERT’S WESTERN WORLD

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

to a favorite band. There’s even a veggie version if beef isn’t your thing.

THE BLUEBIRD CAFE

The aforementioned Bluebird Cafe has a menu worth eating your way through.

(There’s an added bonus: The more you’re eating, the less likely you are to be talking, and therefore can abide by the listening room’s policy to keep quiet while performers are singing.) The old-school baked brie and baguettes are a longtime local favorite. The Southern Peach ’n’ Brie Salad, with a raspberry vinaigrette, is a lighter, summery choice, made with fresh peaches.

THE LISTENING ROOM CAFE

Like at the Bluebird, at The Listening Room Cafe, the idea is that you’ll keep quiet and let the singer-songwriters do their thing. The brunch menu is one of the most popular, with legit Southern biscuits, served on their own or with gravy and sausage, plus a chicken-and-waffles dish. The lunch and dinner menus have plenty of sandwiches, salads and Southern-style entrees. There’s a $15-per-person food and drink minimum, which is easy to meet when you come hungry.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Good stuff, $10 or less

STK NASHVILLE — LIL’ BRG AND TRUFFLE FRIES — $6

Expanded happy hour means cheap Gulch eats after other kitchens close

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

If I were looking for an affordable late-night bite, say, something to snarf after a movie or show, my first inclination would not be to head to the Gulch, and definitely not to a steakhouse. But I would be wrong. STK Nashville recently expanded its already impressive happy hour to include 10 p.m. until closing Sunday through Thursday. This is in addition to its Monday through Friday 3 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday 2 to 5 p.m. hours.

This means late-night access to an extensive happy hour menu, with prices of $3, $6 and $9, plus $9 cocktails. Menu items are small, which make them perfect when you are borderline late-night hangry but don’t want to have a big meal right before bed. Highlights include the Lil’ BRG and truffle fries, a simple slider on a perfectly round bun, topped with black sesame seeds and an artfully displayed small quantity of fries. The truffle fries are salty and earthy and without risk of overindulgence. Choose between the beef burger (cooked to just the right temp — this is a steakhouse, after all) or a meatless option for just $6. Other bounty includes a $3 East Coast oyster on a half shell, $6 wagyu meatballs or a $9 shrimp cocktail. It’s all much better than what I’d find at the back of the fridge during a bedtime-snack search. The late-night happy hour menu is only available at the bar, lounge or on the patio.

STK NASHVILLE 700 12TH AVE. S. STKSTEAKHOUSE.COM

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

PHOTO: YAN NOLAN

SOUTHERN PEACH ’N’ BRIE SALAD AT THE BLUEBIRD CAFE

FRITO PIE AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE

LIGHTS! CAMERA! COMIC BOOKS!

BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR

The thing to remember about The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, the first novel from actor Tom Hanks, is that 10 minutes into the book, most readers will forget who wrote it. Yes, they may at first imagine Hanks’ familiar voice as that of Joe Shaw, the freelance journalist and film studies professor ostensibly narrating a “basedon-a-true-story” tale about the making of a Hollywood blockbuster. But in a fictional forward, Hanks-as-Shaw promises to focus solely on characters and story: I hope to have taken myself out of the

labeled a genius by some. Those who know him well would agree that the word odd should come before genius.” Should this novel ever become a film — a Herculean task, considering its complexity — Hanks would probably play the part. Beyond the odd genius who makes the movie happen, readers meet so many assistant producers, actors, makeup artists, location managers and others essential to production that the list might become tedious, if not for Hanks’ skill at inhabiting each new character. Hanks essentially writes more than a dozen short stories, each portraying some distinct and fully realized person. These form the gathering streams of a whirlwind that becomes the actual shoot in an all-but-abandoned small town in Northern California.

Sprinkled among the character sketches are watch-the-sausage-being-made moments of the sort only a Hollywood veteran could produce. These oftenhumorous insights help advance various stages of Knightshade’s production. Thus, by book’s end readers have gained a level of knowledge that feels roughly equivalent to a semester or two of film school.

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece weaves a universe held together by a love of creativity and craft, populated by overworked but basically decent folks. Despite humble beginnings, many of them find unlikely success. That’s a subject Hanks knows something about: In a footnote to his biography at the end of the book, he writes of himself, “For an idea of the depth of his career, consider that the New York City bank where he was once down to his last twenty-seven dollars is now a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant.”

Like the films that made Hanks famous, his novel combines entertainment, action, comedy and ultimately, as house lights come on and the fantasy fades, a rush of pure humanity. It has the power to leave readers emotionally drained — but smiling.

To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Los Lobos celebrate a halfcentury of blending Mexican and American music

BY DARYL SANDERS

Fifty trips around the sun is a lot for one band to make. But that’s exactly what Los Lobos is celebrating with their current tour, which stops in Nashville Thursday night at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater.

Teenage friends

Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez and Conrad Lozano formed the band in Los Angeles in 1973 and are still making music together. The members of Los Lobos, whose name is Spanish for “The Wolves,” have more than answered the question posed in the title of their 1984 breakout album, How Will the Wolf Survive? Speaking to the Scene recently from his home in Southern California, Pérez ruminates on the key to a long run that includes 18 studio albums, three Grammys and one No. 1 hit.

“We grew up as friends before we were ever a band together,” Pérez explains. “And I think that has a lot to say about why we’ve been together for this long. You know, our parents knew each other. We were kids from the neighborhood. We went to the same high school. We were friends. So we were all family before we were a band together, and that’s really how deep the roots are.”

Pérez met Hidalgo, who would become his songwriting partner, after transferring to Garfield High in East Los Angeles in 1970.

“I was going to a parochial school at the time, and I ended up at Garfield because — well, I’ll put it this way, they thought it might be a better idea if I went somewhere else,” he says with a laugh. “So I ended up in public school, and I was put into an art class, and lo and behold, there was Dave. We started chatting about music, and he had different tastes that most people wouldn’t connect with young Chicano kids. He was listening to Fairport Convention, I was listening to Incredible String Band, and he said, ‘Really, you like that?’ ‘Yeah, it’s great.’ And then we just became really good friends.”

Pérez describes how he and Hidalgo soon stumbled into a fascination with the traditional Mexican music of their ancestors — not something immediately of interest to Mexican American kids at the time. For that he thanks Rosas and another friend, Francisco “Frank” González, who Pérez credits with “reeling in” the rest of the group.

“When Frank and Cesar started messing around with this [traditional] stuff, they naturally just called us up because we were all friends, and we all hung out together. And then we needed a bass player and we all knew Conrad, who was playing with another local band. … We just got so totally smitten by it that we quit the bands we were playing in to do this full time.”

González, who died last year at 68, was a trained musician and the band’s early leader. But he had a falling out with the other members in 1976 and left Los Lobos just before they were to make their first record Sí Se Puede!, an album to honor Cesar Chavez and benefit the United Farm Workers.

“If it wasn’t for that project, this band could have remained in limbo,” Pérez says. “And who knows if it would have survived. But we owed this to the United Farm Workers and to Chavez and to the producer that was putting it together.”

So the four remaining members of Los Lobos decided to go forward, and not only survived but thrived with a sound that blends traditional Mexican music and instrumentation with rock, R&B and country. Working the L.A. club circuit, the band became friends with members of The Blasters, who helped them land a deal with Slash Records. Blasters sax man Steve Berlin signed on as co-producer for their EP ... And a Time to Dance, recorded in late 1982 and early 1983. Berlin recalls that The Blasters’ core duo, brothers

Dave and Phil Alvin, were prone to fighting with each other at that time, so during the sessions for the EP, he made the easy decision to leave The Blasters and join Los Lobos.

“When this all started, I didn’t think I’d be talking to anybody about looking back over 40 or 50 years,” Berlin says. “The main thing I would want to share with anybody is just how grateful we all are to be able to make our own way and make these records the way we want to, and not really have to compromise ever. We’ve done stuff that people have asked us to do sometimes, but more often than not, it’s just us trying to do what we want to do.”

Los Lobos’ place in the history of the L.A. club scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s led to the band being featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s current exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock

“About the time California country-rock reached its commercial zenith in the late 1970s and early ’80s with the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and other major-label acts, a new

breed of roots-oriented rock ’n’ roll emerged from the L.A. club scene,” says exhibit co-curator Michael Gray. “We thought it was important to also look at that next generation of bands, including Los Lobos, The Blasters, Lone Justice, Rank and File and The Long Ryders.”

On Thursday afternoon before the evening’s show, Rosas, Hidalgo, Pérez, Lozano and Berlin will participate in a panel discussion of their place in history that will be moderated by the exhibit’s co-curator Michael McCall.

“You know, you do this for a living, you don’t think that anything you’re doing is museum-worthy,” Berlin says of their inclusion in the exhibit. “[Musicians celebrated in museums] are gods, you know — not the normal schmoes like the guys in my band. Then you kind of realize, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I guess we’re getting there somehow, someway.’ So, yeah, it was nice. It’s always gratifying to feel like something you’ve done is worthy of commemoration.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PLAYING THURSDAY, MAY 11, AT COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER; PANEL DISCUSSION MAY 11 AT THE HALL OF FAME’S FORD THEATER

PHOTO: PIERO F. GIUNTI

LIGHTING A CANDLE

Joy Oladokun forges connections with Proof of Life

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA

When an artist releases a new record, there are typically a number of emotions at play: happiness, excitement, anxiety, perhaps a little sadness at the thought of letting go of a project that may have taken years to create. For Joy Oladokun, who released her new album Proof of Life April 28, the experience included a bit of all of the above.

“It’s a really personal body of work at a really interesting time, honestly, even in Nashville,” Oladokun tells the Scene. “So there was an anxiety I had for a little bit. ‘Does anybody even care? Is this any good?’ It helps to put it out into the world and let people respond. I also have my own moment of appreciation for it.”

Over the course of a half-hour phone interview, though, two feelings seem especially present for Oladokun: gratitude and relief. Oladokun wrote the bulk of Proof of Life — which serves up a truly singular blend of folk, power pop and indie rock — during the darker days of the COVID-19

pandemic. She’s happy not just that the wait is finally over, but that her new music is broadening her own community of likeminded listeners and folks with similar backgrounds.

“Seeing what people respond to, it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone.’ So I’ve been trying to be really intentional, for whoever is listening to it and engaging with it, to be as grateful as I can. I was trying to pin this feeling down before it came out, and I think it was just anticipation for that connection. Because it is something that sits in isolation for so long.”

Our conversation takes place just a few days after Proof of Life’s release, and a few days before a release show at Brooklyn Bowl. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter — who moved here from Arizona and is a child of Nigerian immigrants — returned to the States after time in Europe. She’s calling from New York, speaking while having makeup done for an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert later in the day. She will perform “Somebody Like Me,” which is among the more powerful songs on an album that packs a wallop throughout.

Proof of Life was a collaborative effort, which Oladokun co-produced along with Mike Elizondo, Ian Fitchuk, Dan Wilson (who you’ll know from Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic) and Alysa Vanderheym. Guests on the record include rockers Manchester Orchestra, country star Chris Stapleton and rapper Maxo Kream. It’s fitting that Oladokun tapped a broad and eclectic roster of

collaborators, as she feels that there’s something for everyone on Proof of Life

“Every song is different,” she explains. “The idea is for everyone to find their vibe and just live in it.”

Those differences span a number of genres, with Oladokun’s narrative perspective and preternatural sense of melody bringing a sense of cohesion to the wideranging collection of songs. Opener “Keeping the Light On” pairs a hooky chorus with textured production, its message championing hope in times of darkness. “We’re All Gonna Die,” a collaboration with songsmith Noah Kahan, doesn’t celebrate mortality so much as acknowledge the freedom that comes with accepting it. And the aforementioned “Somebody Like Me” directly addresses Oladokun’s feelings of being an outsider: “Can anybody say a prayer? / Can anybody light a candle / For somebody like me? / It’s the least that God could do / For giving more than He could handle / To somebody like me.”

“I had a moment of recognizing that, as a Black queer person, I represent a challenge to people who say they represent one thing and do another,” Oladokun says of “Somebody Like Me,” which also addresses religious hypocrisy. “I’ve known I was queer since I was 8 years old, then I’d go to church on Sunday and hear someone be homophobic for 90 minutes for no reason. The reality is, if God exists, there’s no actual way they give a fuck about who I kiss. I think they

care about how I treat them.”

At the top of our conversation, Oladokun explains that she’s been engrossed in a Netflix series called The Playbook. In it, legendary sports coaches like Dawn Staley and Doc Rivers share insight into their personal and professional successes. The words of Staley, a Hall of Fame basketball player and legendary NCAA coach, rang especially true.

“She talks about this ‘creating a homecourt advantage’ idea,” Oladokun says. “Especially being queer and Black in Nashville, I feel isolated in my brain a lot of times. So the gift of being able to put the record out and also see what people are responding to is also a way to feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone.’”

A true believer in the album format, Oladokun also hopes listeners will sit down and experience Proof of Life as she intended for it to be heard: from start to finish, in one sitting. She’s already seen this from some fans, like one who shared on Twitter that they listened to the LP while FaceTiming with their brother.

“That just meant a lot. It’s kind of a surprise, people’s investment and their appreciation. Sometimes you hear, ‘I’m gonna listen to your record,’ and then you never hear back. It’s cool to hear back from people who are like, ‘I had a really cool experience listening to the album as a whole.’ It means a lot to me, that that’s what people are taking away. There’s no guarantee for how people will experience a final piece of work.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PROOF OF LIFE OUT NOW VIA AMIGO/VERVE FORECAST; PLAYING BROOKLYN BOWL FRIDAY, MAY 12

THE SPIN

FOR ALL THAT WE’VE BEEN THROUGH

BY HANNAH CRON

There’s nothing quite like a hometown show. There’s a unique connection between the artist and the audience — a special solidarity and unconditional support, which might be spoken about or not, but can’t really be replicated at a show in some other town.

Of course, megastar Taylor Swift was born in Pennsylvania and has lived mostly elsewhere in recent years. But Nashville is where she launched her career as a teenager in the Aughts, and she still sees it as her true musical home. She greeted the crowd as such at the beginning of her Friday show at Nissan Stadium, the first in a run of three sold-out concerts on The Eras Tour that brought out a reported record-setting 70,000 or more fans each night — even with some rain on Friday and thunderstorms delaying the start of Sunday’s show till after 10 p.m.

“This dream came true for me because of this town and the people in it,” said Swift, beaming as the enraptured crowd roared back. She belongs to Nashville, and like any good guest on a visit home, she came bearing gifts. With her off-the-charts star power, you know Swift will line up a dream team of opening acts, from artists who inspired and encouraged her early in her career to songwriters who grew up on her music. And she delivered: The first act at Friday’s show was Gen-Z singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, who happens to be the daughter of famed director and producer J.J. Abrams. She warmed up the eager audience with a taste of her solid soft-pop ballads. Her set was a short and sweet 20 minutes, but the fans hung onto every last word, a rarity for a lower-billed opener.

Next up was beloved depressor of youths Phoebe Bridgers, clad in one of her signature skeleton-inspired outfits. Bridgers swept through even her most somber fan favorites with an unmistakable air of lightness; it seemed she was just as excited to be at a Taylor Swift show as everyone else. Midway through her set, two more members joined her “skeleton crew” of bandmates. Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, Bridgers’ collaborators in boygenius, met up with her at center stage and treated the eager crowd to a performance of “Not Strong Enough,” a standout single preceding their recent debut full-length the record. The boys stuck around to help Bridgers finish her set, screaming along to “I Know the End” with reckless abandon.

After a quick set change that included a bit of squeegee action to keep the stage slip-free, music began to boom through the P.A. It wasn’t a Taylor Swift song like you might expect, but rather Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit “You Don’t Own Me.” You could take this as a powerful statement from Swift; the rights to the master recordings of her first six LPs were sold without her involvement and against her wishes after she moved labels in 2018. Part of

Swift’s response has been to rerecord and rerelease those albums, and she announced the latest “Taylor’s Version” — of her third album, 2010’s Speak Now — on Friday. (More on that momentarily.) Her message is clear: Her songs can be bought, but her stories belong to her.

Befitting its name, The Eras Tour takes attendees on a high-octane road trip through each album in Swift’s discography. Unlike on most road trips, the passengers seemed to love every minute of the ride, with industry behemoth Ticketmaster’s bungling of ticket sales fading in the rearview mirror. Each of Swift’s 10 studio albums was represented in the set list, though special attention was clearly given to the four records released since her last

tour in 2018: Lover, Folklore, Evermore and her most recent LP Midnights.

The sheer scale of the production was mesmerizing. The stage extended more than halfway across the field, lifting Swift to new heights above the ground and even giving way for her to make an impressive exit, diving out of sight through a lake projected onto the surface. She had at least one costume change for each era of the show, each outfit more sparkly than the last. Massive set pieces helped to transport the audience between Swift’s meticulously crafted worlds, from office buildings and cabins to forests and fluffy clouds. Perhaps even more impressive: Each of the whopping 45 songs she performed came complete with expert choreography. An

elaborate dinner scene played out during her heartbreaking ballad “Tolerate It,” dancers smashed a digital Shelby Cobra with golf clubs during “Blank Space,” and Swift & Co. performed a sultry homage to the Chicago fan fave “Cell Block Tango” during the revenge-oriented slow-burn “Vigilante Shit.”

Critics have questioned the credibility of Swift’s songwriting and her shows practically since she started performing. But her catalog is exceptionally strong, and her showmanship is of the highest order. How many artists would perform a threeand-a-half-hour show outside on three backto-back nights, with rain during two of them? She sang live — not something that is always the case at massive shows like this — and did so with remarkable stamina. The masses screamed along to the lyrics, and when she spoke, they fell silent in awe. Only the highest caliber of performers can command a crowd so deftly.

Best of all is the way Swift responds to the way feelings are contagious among fans. At the top of Friday’s show, she quipped, “I’m not wearing sleeves, but I have some tricks up them.” She surprises the crowd at each concert with two songs that will only be performed on that one night of the whole extensive tour. In the homestretch of the show, she headed down to the foot of the stage to announce Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), before launching an acoustic performance of its single “Sparks Fly.” Then she reminisced about her very first hit, written at home in Nashville, and graced us with a piano-backed performance of “Teardrops on My Guitar.”

Hugs were shared, tears were shed, and Swift’s masterful storytelling continues to live on.

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MAKE THE WHOLE PLACE SHIMMER: TAYLOR SWIFT

READY FOR IT: AT NISSAN STADIUM

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

CARSON BEYER

7:30 CHRIS BADNEWS BARNES & THE BLUESBALLERS with Special Guests JONELL MOSSER, BART WALKER, TABITH FAIR

7:30 TROUBADOUR BLUE with GLORIA ANDERSON

7:00 A TRIBUTE TO BURT BACHARACH - An Evening with SHELBY LYNNE, MANDY BARNETT and

Blue Stones w/ The Velveteers

Pedro The Lion w/ Erik Walters

Greg Puciato w/ Deaf Club & Trace Amount

Senses Fail w/ The Home Team, and Action/Adventure

The Emo Night Tour

jax Hollow w/ Naked Gypsy Queens & Moon City Masters

Summer Salt w/ The Rare Occasions and Addison Grace

Annie DiRusso w/ Hannah Cole

loveless w/ Taylor Acorn

Be Our Guest: The Disney DJ Night

Rich Ruth w/ Crooked Rhythm Section No. 1 & Rose Hotel

Claire Vandiver w/ Suzie Chism (7pm)

Shakira Chinchilla, Johnny Sam Hall & His Big Bad Wolves, Henry Cruz Band (9pm)

Cabin Boys, Amanda Stewart (7pm)

Blackpool Mecca, Vera Bloom, Violet Moons (9pm)

Highwater w/ Ballhog (8pm)

A Man Called Stu w/ The Hi-Jivers and Heather Moulder (7pm)

Shlomo Franklin w/ Abigayle Kompst (7pm)

Bleary Eyed, Impediment, Angel LTD (9pm)

Evan Bartels w/ M. Dunton (7pm)

Rob Leines w/ LoneHollow (9pm)

SPLICES

The Belcourt’s glorious 1973 series approaches

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Hear that? That’s the rumbling of summer blockbuster season revving up in the distance.

Fast X hits theaters next week, and the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe installment, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, is still going strong at the multiplexes. Other big-budget outings will land over the next month, among them Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid on May 26 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on June 2. There’s also a really strong slate of upcoming mid-budget and small-budget fare heading our way — Carmen, Master Gardener, The Eight Mountains, The Starling Girl, Past Lives and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City will all hit the Belcourt’s screens very soon.

As exciting as all that is, that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about the Belcourt’s recently announced 1973 series, which will grace the Hillsboro Village arthouse for three glorious weeks. Featuring 18 films first released in that cinematically revolutionary year, 1973 will take over the beloved cinema center from May 19 until June 8 and feature groundbreaking works, from influential genre films to revolutionary animated efforts.

The series kicks off with George Roy Hill’s Newman- and Redford-starring Best Picture winner The Sting (May 19, 21 & 23), with the bundle of Blaxploitation dynamite Cleopatra Jones (May 19 & 21) hot on its heels. Up after that are Scorsese’s breakthrough crime flick Mean Streets (May 20 & 24) and my favorite animated film of all time, Robin Hood (May 20, 22 & 24), which of course features the exquisitely cast Roger Miller

LIFE OF THE PARTY

Director Daisy von Scherler

Mayer’s mid-’90s artifact

Party Girl will play this weekend at the Belcourt

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Party Girl is coming back to the theaters nearly three decades after its release in a remarkable restoration (seriously — this film didn’t look this good on 35 mm in its initial release) from Fun City Editions and Film-

Rise. Daisy Von Scherler

Mayer’s 1995 film is a singular and frothy blend of city symphony and character study, raw drama and screwball comedy.

It does what the best New York films do, which is capture the pressure cooker of life and how it forces

as Alan-a-Dale the rooster minstrel. Then it’s Hal Ashby’s Jack Nicholson vehicle, the naval comedy-drama The Last Detail (May 21, 23 & 25), followed by Jimmy Cliff-starring Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come (May 22 & 25) and its earth-shattering reggae soundtrack. One of the greatest martial arts movies of all time is next — Enter the Dragon, of course (May 26, 28 & 30) — but save your psychedelics for the Friday Midnight Movie: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s wild, decadent ride The Holy Mountain will melt minds late night on May 26. Come back down to earth with more Blaxploitation courtesy of powerhouse star Pam Grier and director Jack Hill’s Coffy (May 27 & 31) and Peter Bogdanovich’s Dust Bowl road comedy Paper Moon (May 27, 29 & 31).

(Tatum O’Neal, who turned 9 during filming,

the wildest and most unexpected facets of who you are out to where they can soar or plummet. Mary (Parker Posey, alive in a way that is iconic but not afraid to be real about the shitty choices we make sometimes) is a partier, a bon vivant, a beacon of fashionable life, and barely staying afloat. Is the respectability of the NYC library system her destiny? Maybe. But is the journey going to be fraught with a lot of difficult questions and an impeccable soundtrack? You better believe it.

As a portrait of early-mid-’90s New York City (and I was there), the film endures because it doesn’t insist on its own legacy. Hindsight allows Mary’s nightlife shenanigans to serve as a bulwark against the anti-club crusades of disgraced Trump crony/then-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a rightful moral correction to the way that the decade’s dance-floor reputation has for so long been tied to the Party Monster era (and its puppetmaster, tax evader Peter Gatien). But you don’t have to know that to understand that Party Girl gets that the nightclub and the library are both essential parts of the human experience.

It’s a film that rewards repeat viewings and

earned a Best Supporting Actress trophy for Paper Moon and remains the youngest performer to ever win an Oscar.) Anyone brave enough can catch the B-movie horror freakout Messiah of Evil as a Saturday Midnight Movie (May 27), or delve into the politically fraught romance between Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand’s characters in Sydney Pollack’s The Way We Were (May 28 & 30, June 1). Based on a beloved manga of the same name, the influential Japanese film Lady Snowblood (June 2, 4 & 6) follows, with one of the best cop films of all time landing after that: Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (June 3 & 7). (Along with Nicholson for The Last Detail and Redford for The Sting, Al Pacino was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his titular performance in this one. All three lost out to Jack Lemmon that

year, who won a trophy for his role in Save the Tiger. That one didn’t make the cut for the 1973 series.)

Beautiful and deeply weird French-Czech experimental animated sci-fi flick Fantastic Planet (June 3, 5 & 7) arrives next, with Sam Peckinpah’s first-rate Western Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (June 5 & 8) hitting screens after that. The Belcourt will bring 1973 in for a landing with The Long Goodbye (June 4, 6 & 8), Robert Altman’s comedy noir featuring a brilliant turn from Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe, along with Sterling Hayden delivering one of the greatest insults of all time. (“The albino turd himself!”)

Visit belcourt.org for five-pack tickets, full series passes or individualscreening tickets.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

carbonates lookbooks for all future generations. Proffer a sincere

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

“He-he-hello” to your best friends and most scandalous librarians and curl up with

some gleeful joy and an absolute minimum of tracks involving Teddy Rogers.

FANTASTIC PLANET

Nashvilleʼs longest running FREE movie screening returns this summer to Elmington Park, Thursdays in June. Enjoy games, giveaways and food truck fare before taking in a fan-favorite film under the stars.

39 Tall: Sp.

40 Part of a collage, perhaps

41 Family nickname

45 *Philadelphia university, familiarly

47 Booty

49 *Able to endure difficult conditions

50 Complete

51 Puts atop

53 Fruits you might aptly buy in twos?

55 Cowboy, sometimes

57 “___ asking?”

59 *Unwelcome bit of mail

60 Bravo in the movies?

61 PC “brain”

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.

FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF ONEIDA

In the Matter of an Article 6 Custody/Visitation

Proceeding File #: 33868

Docket#:V-01489-22

Deborah Bryden (Petitioner)

Alex Bryden (Petitioner)

Rikki L. Swackhammer (Respondent)

Roy M. Swackhammer Jr. (Respondent)

Charles W. Rayburn Jr (DOB: 01/05/2010)

SUMMONS- GENERAL (IN PERSON)

To: Rikki L. Swackhammer 1828 Second Street Salisbury, NC 28144

Roy M. Swackhammer Jr. 1828 Second Street Salisbury, NC 28144

A petition under Article 6 of the Family Court Act has been filed with this Court. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear IN PERSON before this Court on: Date/Time/Part: June 15, 2023 at 09:00 AM in Part VI

Purpose: Pre-Trial Conference, Respondent to Appear or Default, and First Appearance

Presiding: Peter Angelini, Court Attorney Referee Location: Rome- County Office Building, 301 West Dominick Street, Rome, NY 13440 Floor:

1 Room: VI to answer the attached petition and to be dealt with in accordance with the Family Court Act Please bring this notice with you and check in with the Court Officer in the Part. If you fail to appear as directed, a warrant may be issued for your arrest. Dated:

March 27, 2023 Amy Lawter, Chief Clerk

NOTICE: FAMILY COURT ACT §154(C) PROVIDES THAT PETITIONS BROUGHT PURSUANT TO ARTICLES 4, 5, 6, 8 AND 10 OF THE FAMILY COURT ACT, IN WHICH AN ORDER OF PROTECTION IS SOUGHT OR IN WHICH A VIOLATION OF AN ORDER OF PROTECTION IS ALLEGED, MAY BE SERVED OUTSIDE THE STATE OF NEW YORK UPON

A RESPONDENT WHO IS NOT A RESIDENT OR DOMICILIARY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

IF NO OTHER GROUNDS FOR OBTAINING PERSONAL JURISDICTION OVER THE RESPONDENT EXIST ASIDE FROM THE APPLICATION OF THIS PROVISION, THE EXERCISE OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION OVER THE RESPONDENT IS LIMITED TO THE ISSUE OF THE REQUEST FOR, OR ALLEGED VIOLATION OF, THE ORDER OF PROTECTION. WHERE THE RESPONDENT HAS BEEN SERVED WITH THIS SUMMONS AND PETITION AND DOES NOT APPEAR, THE FAMILY COURT MAY PROCEED TO A HEARING WITH RESPECT TO ISSUANCE OR ENFORCEMENT OF THE ORDER OF PROTECTION.

NSC: 4/27, 5/4, 5/11/23

Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit

Docket No. 14D1063

TALIA ELAINE CROUSE vs. THOMAS JEFFERSON CROUSE

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 Talia Elaine Crouse. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 1st 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 July 3rd 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

Bill Riggs Deputy Clerk

Date: May 4, 2023

Chelsey A. Stevenson

Robert J. Turner Attorneys for Plaintiff

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 Ju y 3rd 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

Bill Riggs Deputy Clerk

Date: May 4, 2023

Chelsey A. Stevenson Robert J. Turner Attorneys for Plaintiff NSC 5/11, 5/18, 5/25, 6/1/23

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