JUNE 10–16, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 19 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE
CITY LIMITS: TENNESSEE IS SEEKING AN EXECUTION DATE FOR THE ONLY WOMAN ON THE STATE’S DEATH ROW
MUSIC: A ’60S-BRED, WOMEN-LED GARAGE-ROCK GROUP FINALLY GETS ITS DAY IN THE SUN
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the
PET issue
An organization pairing service dogs with veterans, an exotic bird sanctuary, equine massage, training day at the Nashville Zoo and much more cover_6-10-21.indd 1
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
CONTENTS
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The Extremely Dark Allegations Swirling Around a Former Local TV Personality .....6
A Taste of the Future .............................. 28
CITY LIMITS
How a teen’s claims of sexual abuse and murder went from YouTube to the courts BY STEVE CAVENDISH
Tennessee Is Seeking an Execution Date for the Only Woman on the State’s Death Row .............................................................7 Sentenced to death at 19, Christa Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in roughly two centuries BY STEVEN HALE
Pith in the Wind .........................................7
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
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FOOD AND DRINK
An inside look at some Nashville wine experts’ en primeur tasting of Bordeaux wines BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN
Cheap Eats .............................................. 29 The menu at this new Gulch spot is chock-full of New Orleans-style dishes BY MARGARET LITTMAN
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BOOKS
Costly Redemption
William Gay’s Fugitives of the Heart is an homage to Twain BY FRYE GAILLARD AND CHAPTER 16
COVER STORY The Pet Issue
Birds of a Feather ......................................9
The Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee cares for bright and colorful birds who need a new home BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
Saving Lives on Both Sides of the Leash .. 10
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MUSIC
BY DARYL SANDERS
Reptile Style ............................................ 14
Here’s what it’s like living with three snakes, 17 lizards, two dogs and a very large tortoise BY STEVEN HALE
Horsin’ Around ........................................ 16 Chelbie Engle of Southern Comfort Equine Massage brings sweet relief to hardworking horses BY ERICA CICCARONE
Who Let the Dogs Pout?......................... 18 A local dog behavior expert gives tips for pet owners as we return to our out-of-the-house lives
Changes Slated for Brown’s Diner The 33rd Annual ‘You Are So Nashville If ...’ Submissions Are Now Open
ON THE COVER:
Lahna, a 40-plus-year-old wild-caught redlored Amazon. Resident of the Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee. Photo by Daniel Meigs
Much-loved bassman James Haggerty fired up his oven to cope with the pandemic
Your Quick-Reference Guide to Record Store Day’s RSD Drops for June ............. 34
A roundup of releases and happenings at Nashville record stores for the first of two RSD Drops events this year BY BRONTE LEBO
The Spin ................................................... 35 The Scene’s live-review column checks out Outloud Music Fest BY MEGAN SELING AND EDD HURT
36 FILM
Hello Videonasty
Censor takes a metatextual look at violent horror films
BY MEGAN SELING
BY NADINE SMITH
See the winners of our reader-submitted pet photo contest
Broadway hit In the Heights gets the bighearted big-screen treatment it deserves
Pet Su-purr-latives .................................. 20
Forrest’s Remains, the National Confederate Museum and Racist Hate
BY CHELSEA SPEAR
BY J.R. LIND
BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
Bearded Iris to Open Second Location, New Heights Expands Operating Hours
Vicki and Ronni Gossett and their band the Female Species get a long-overdue day in the sun
The Baker Man ........................................ 34
How vulnerable and endangered species benefit from the Nashville Zoo’s behavioral training programs
THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:
Gonna Make the Whole World Smile .... 33
The Tennessee-based Working Dogs for Vets is providing a lifeline for veterans across the country
Training Day ............................................. 12
JUNE 10, 2021
New York Stories BY JASON SHAWHAN
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CRITICS’ PICKS
Movies in the Park: Little Women, Tristen’s Aquatic Flowers virtual release show: Tristen the Night Away II, final performances of chatterbird’s Virtual Chamber Music Series, Pups and Pints, Nashville Opera’s Cinderella, Norf Wall Fest, check out Vice TV’s Dark Side of the Ring and more
Walk a
Mile
with J.R. Lind
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With feet on the street, we discover Nashville’s own unique beat – one mile at a time
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MASTHEAD SCENE PET-ITORIAL BOARD
Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Marcus K. Dowling, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Britton Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Managers Olivia Bellon, William Shutes, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Aya Robinson, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com
©2021, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.
In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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PHOTO: DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
FROM BILL FREEMAN
DONALD TRUMP AND GOV. BILL LEE, APRIL 2020
AS FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP CONTINUES TO IMPLODE, WHAT WILL GOV. BILL LEE DO? In bizarre fashion, former President Donald Trump is pushing his desperate attempts to cling to power — this time by reportedly saying he will be “reinstated” to the White House by August. What? August? This year? The Associated Press reported recently that Trump “has been consumed by efforts to undo last year’s election.” At every turn, the former president and millions of his most ardent fans have seemingly failed to apply logic and reason. Trump’s attempts to win back social media power and presence have foundered. His blog From the Desk of Donald J. Trump lasted fewer than 30 days. As noted by CNBC, Trump’s blog “seemed ill-equipped to take on the largest social media companies.” The New York Times has reported that Trump shuttered his blog due to his frustration over its low readership after “struggling to find a way to influence news coverage since leaving office.” A second attempt to influence news coverage and regain his grip on the far-right of the Republican party is also going the way of his blog. MAGA rallies are being planned for this summer, and as reported by CNN, Trump “is so obsessed with his unsuccessful quest for reelection, one ex-Trump official said, that he has been moving himself toward irrelevance.” Concerns over low turnout, like the lukewarm reception to his blog, certainly affected a number of MAGA rallies prior to the 2020 election. One in New Hampshire was reportedly canceled due to fears of underwhelming attendance figures, like those of the June 2020 Tulsa rally. Could it be that Trump is trying to distract voters from an impending criminal indictment over his personal and business dealings? From reports and sources on both sides of the political spectrum, it appears that a criminal indictment is looming from the New York prosecutors and the convened special grand jury in Manhattan. Even Roger Stone, the political operative whose criminal conviction was pardoned by Trump, has acknowledged that an indictment is quite likely coming. Despite the criminal investigations and Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories, many advisers are encouraging the former
president to focus on issues that matter to Americans going forward and to help their party refocus on issues that will impact the 2022 election season. The Tennessee gubernatorial election is one such election on the horizon. Similar to many other Southern states, we have a conservative state legislature and governor and a population that has twice voted for Trump. It will be interesting to see in the coming months what impact Trump will have on our next election. Gov. Bill Lee was one of the first GOP governors to acknowledge President Joe Biden as the winner, yet it was only after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., that he did so. It took a dangerous event to steer him away, for a short time, from Trump’s tactics. Now, as the former president attempts to build steam with a train that appears to be coming off the rails, Gov. Lee might just forget the past and be right there shoveling coal alongside him. I’ve known many Tennesseans who have long thought that Gov. Lee’s moral compass was much more finely tuned than Trump’s — but now they are having to rethink that position. The governor’s recent trip to Gallatin’s Beretta gun factory for a ceremonial signing of Tennessee’s permitless-carry legislation shows what the governor is really made of and who he cares about. I thought it especially interesting that The Tennessean noted that the governor and several other Republicans spoke and “posed for photographs.” This showy little display was all about the governor vying for reelection. While many Tennesseans may share some interest in Trump’s return to power, I believe more are interested in policy that improves our lives and the well-being of our families, businesses and neighbors. That is what clearly resonates with Tennesseans. As for what Gov. Lee will do going forward — and whether or not he’ll support Trump — that is anybody’s guess. But if his recent behavior is any indication, I’m not encouraged.
Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, Nashville Post, and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.
HOP SPRINGS
JUNE 19 & 20, 2021 MURFREESBORO, TN
FIRESIDE LINE-UP WILL VARY PENDING TRAVEL AND/OR SAFETY LIMITATIONS (4-7 BAND MEMBERS)
nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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CITY LIMITS
THE EXTREMELY DARK ALLEGATIONS SWIRLING AROUND A FORMER LOCAL TV PERSONALITY How a teen’s claims of sexual abuse and murder went from YouTube to the courts BY STEVE CAVENDISH
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s far as YouTube videos made by teenagers go, Gracie Solomon’s seems a little subdued at first glance. There’s no lip-syncing to pop music, TikTok choreography or elaborately rehearsed skits with friends. In this video, she sits in a family friend’s living room holding a script, piano music playing softly in the background. She’s deadly serious. “I just want to say before we get into any of this that it’s coming straight from me — all me — and no one else has told me what to do,” Gracie Solomon says. She looks like a typical 14-year-old: A pair of necklaces dangle around her neck, and a ring adorns her index finger. She is calm and measured as the first bomb drops. “My brother died protecting me from my father, Aaron Solomon,” she says. “My father is a monster. It makes me want to vomit. I’ve been minimalized, but now I’ve found my voice to be able to tell you that my father raped me, hurt me, and I’m not going to be a victim of this monster. He is a rapist, he is a molester, he is a liar and he is a killer.” It is an extraordinary set of accusations against someone who spent years on the television screens of many Nashvillians. For 15 years, Aaron Solomon was a sports reporter and morning anchor at WSMVTV, reading the day’s headlines alongside weather and traffic news, before his departure in 2011. After a short stint in sports radio, he left broadcasting altogether. He has been a financial planner since 2014. Over the course of the 18-minute video, Gracie Solomon lays out in graphic detail what she says are instances of abuse at the hands of her father. She also details what she says are the problems her brother Grant had with their father as well, before Grant’s death in a strange single-car accident in 2020. Gracie Solomon’s explosive claims might have stayed within a very small circle had it not been for social media. Between the 12,000-plus views her video has generated on YouTube and the thousands of likes on posts from the Instagram account @freedomforgracie — which consists mainly of clips from the video and other documents supposedly supporting Gracie — the teen’s very serious claims have been made very public since early May. So public, in fact, that her father has gone to court in an attempt to stop the people behind the accounts. In a filing in Williamson County Circuit Court, Aaron Solomon sued his ex-wife
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Angie, four others and an unknown set of defendants he hopes to find during discovery in the case (“John Does 1 through 25”) for defamation, false light and invasion of privacy, among other claims. The one person he has not filed suit against? Gracie. Angie and Aaron Solomon’s divorce was, to put it mildly, contentious. Initiated in 2013 and finalized in 2014, the couple’s Davidson County case file includes 278 entries from a seven-year period as the parties litigated any number of issues, including Aaron’s custody of Grant and Gracie. There have been a number of other post-divorce actions between the couple in Williamson County as well. Aaron Solomon’s suit makes clear that he believes his ex-wife turned his children against him. “Having been foreclosed from bringing new claims against Mr. Solomon,” the suit reads, “Ms. Solomon and her friends have taken her case to social media, publicly accusing him of egregious crimes such as sexual abuse of his daughter, the attempted murder of Ms. Solomon, and has implied that he murdered his beloved son, Grant, who died tragically in a car accident last year.”
Aaron Solomon’s attorneys say in court records that the abuse claims against him have been adjudicated, citing a Department of Children’s Services case opened during the divorce. Attorneys for Gracie Solomon tell the Scene that a thorough investigation was never performed. While Aaron Solomon technically retains custodial rights for Gracie, effectively she has lived with her mom for some time now, though a Williamson County juvenile court stepped in last week and placed her with family friends. A temporary restraining order filed in the fall prevents Aaron Solomon from seeing Gracie. Advocates for the teen say they hope this means an investigation will be made into her claims. Because Aaron Solomon’s suit hinges on Gracie’s speech, all of the defendants except Angie Solomon responded late last week with an anti-SLAPP petition. A relatively new legal alternative in Tennessee, anti-SLAPP measures (the “SLAPP” part stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation”) are meant to counteract lawsuits designed to silence constitutionally protected speech. In his suit, Aaron Solomon has requested permanent injunctions against the defendants from making
any statements about the case in public, essentially asking the court to institute prior restraint against their social media. For their part, the defendants filed affidavits with the court that none “operate, maintain or contribute to the Freedom For Gracie account in this dispute.” Gracie also filed an affidavit reiterating her molestation claims, including a detailed account of an alleged rape in a hotel in Asheville, N.C. The petition places an interesting burden on Aaron Solomon. If the defamation case were to proceed, he would be granted discovery to find evidence to support his claims. But now, the petition will likely force him to show proof immediately or face his suit being dismissed. “Instead of attacking his daughter’s statements directly, Aaron targeted those who support her, including two recent high school graduates, Wynn Hicks and Anna Smith, and one of each of their parents,” the petition reads. “It is designed to let [the defendants] (and anyone else who does not want to become one of Aaron’s ‘Doe’ defendants) know that he will drag them into court and subject them to potentially ruinous legal costs for speaking out against him.” Meanwhile, the Instagram account continues posting documents and videos alleging Grant Solomon’s death was suspicious and never investigated by authorities. And Gracie Solomon? “Since my video was posted online, I have felt good about it,” the teen told the court. “It hasn’t made me stressed, and I haven’t experienced any bad things as a result. When I spoke to my therapist about it, I told her how empowered I felt by the video, and she said she was proud of me.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
TENNESSEE IS SEEKING AN EXECUTION DATE FOR THE ONLY WOMAN ON THE STATE’S DEATH ROW Sentenced to death at 19, Christa Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in roughly two centuries BY STEVEN HALE
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he rhythm of regular executions in Tennessee was interrupted in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic, halting the resurgence of the state’s death penalty — which saw seven men put to death in less than two years. After Nick Sutton was executed in February of last year, four executions scheduled throughout the rest of the year were called off due to the pandemic, either by the Tennessee Supreme Court or Gov. Bill Lee. But the process of moving the condemned closer to the death chamber did not stop completely. On Aug. 27, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery’s office asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her attorneys were granted a series of extensions by the court, giving them more time to respond with their
argument as to why Pike shouldn’t be scheduled for death. Initially, Pike’s attorneys asked for more time because one of them was also representing someone facing execution on federal death row amid the execution spree carried out by then-President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The state did not oppose the extensions, the last of which was granted on March 5. But on Monday, Pike’s attorneys filed their arguments against setting an execution date. The filing clears the way for the court to decide on the matter, and if it schedules a date for Pike, Tennessee will be set to execute a woman for the first time in roughly 200 years. Only 17 women have been executed — by state governments or the federal government — since the beginning of the death penalty’s so-called modern era in 1976. Tennessee came within months of executing a woman a little more than a decade ago. Gaile Owens
had been sentenced to death for hiring a hitman to murder her brutally abusive husband. But in 2010, with Owens’ Sept. 28 execution date approaching, prominent Nashvillians and supporters around the country rallied behind her, calling for her life to be spared. In July 2010, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence. She was released on parole a little more than a year later. Owens died in 2019 at age 67. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the mur-
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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CITY LIMITS der of Colleen Slemmer while the two were attending a youth job-training program in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time and had reportedly come to believe that the 19-year-old Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, then-17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. The killing was horrific. Shipp, Pike and a third teen named Shadolla Peterson lured Slemmer to a secluded, wooded area. There, according to court documents, they tortured Slemmer, slashing her with a box cutter, cutting her with a meat cleaver and eventually beating her over the head with chunks of asphalt after she tried to run away. Pike, court documents say, kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull, which police later found in her jacket pocket. The murder was — and has continued to be over the years — the object of the particular sort of grim fascination reserved for killings carried out by women. In addition, Pike and Shipp were said to have dabbled in satanism, and Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike, who is 45 now, was 19 when she was convicted — making her one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death. In the 25 years since her conviction, she’s made headlines on more than one occasion. In 2004, she was convicted of attempted first-degree murder for trying to strangle another incarcerated woman, Patricia Jones, and nearly succeeding. In 2012, authorities announced that they’d arrested two men — one of them a former prison guard — for their role in an escape plan they’d been plotting with Pike. But Pike’s attorneys say that the young woman who committed her heinous crime was, like so many of the people on Tennessee’s death row, the product of abuse and mental illness. “Before her arrest at age eighteen, Pike had a horrific childhood,” Pike’s attorneys write in the filing. “Before she was even born, she suffered brain damage. Then, from the time she was a small child, she
endured abuse, neglect, multiple violent rapes, and suffered from severe mental illness.” Pike’s mother, they write, was an alcoholic who drank heavily with Pike in her womb. Later, a series of her mother’s romantic partners abused the young girl physically and sexually, they write. She was raped at least twice, the filing says, including once in her preteen years. Years later, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The filing also emphasizes Pike’s youth at the time of the murder and the arbitrary nature of her sentence when compared to the others who participated in the killing. Had she been just slightly younger, Pike would have been ineligible for the death penalty, just like her boyfriend. “Mr. Shipp was 17 years old at the time of Ms. Slemmer’s death,” her attorneys write. “Christa Pike was 18. That is the difference between a death sentence and parole eligibility in 2028. That difference cannot be equated with increased maturity or brain development.” If Pike’s history of abuse and mental illness make her similar to the vast majority of people on death row, her attorneys argue that the court should give particular consideration to the ways she is unique. “The Attorney General asks this Court to direct the Tennessee Department of Correction to commit an extraordinary act,” they write. “TDOC personnel would be required to execute a severely mentally ill, braindamaged, and traumatized child who became the teenager who committed a terrible crime. Christa would be the first woman Tennessee executes in over 200 years, the first teenaged offender Tennessee executes in the modern era, and the only teenaged female offender to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was found to be unconstitutional in 1972.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: With vaccinations continuing and case numbers declining, Nashville’s long battle against COVID-19 looks to be nearing its end. New cases are now back to where they were at the beginning of the pandemic. As of June 4, nearly 42 percent of Davidson County residents are fully vaccinated. A little more than 48 percent have received at least one dose of a vaccine. … With the relatively rosy COVID outlook, Mayor John Cooper’s $2.6 billion budget proposal — which still needs final Metro Council approval — allots $50 million for teacher raises, $30 million for affordable housing plans, new funding for emergency services, more money for WeGo Public Transit and a 2 percent raise for city employees. This contrasts starkly with last year’s so-called crisis budget, which Cooper presented at the time with cuts to the Nashville Community Education Commission and many other departments as well as no pay raises for city employees. Much of the budget focuses on appropriations of funds from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, from which Metro is receiving $267 million to respond to the pandemic-related expenses. … The Metro Nashville Police Department’s investigation into warnings in 2019 that Christmas Day bomber Anthony Warner was building bombs at his home was insufficient, according to a report from MNPD. MNPD Chief John Drake was not yet head of the department in 2019, but has defended the department’s handling of the warning despite the fact that officers
never actually spoke to Warner. The new report by the After Action Review Board says that despite claims by the department that a bomb squad detective pursued the investigation, there are no records of such an attempt. … Advocates for people experiencing homelessness and other community organizers held a press conference to speak out against Metro’s decision to close the encampment underneath the Jefferson Street Bridge. The closure was planned to take place on June 1, but as of press time, it has not occurred. In a statement, the mayor’s office said it is working to connect the camp’s residents with more permanent housing, saying the city is “not content to let our unhoused neighbors live under a bridge or anywhere they’re exposed to extreme heat and other dangerous conditions — especially not when we have an infusion of federal dollars to help encampment residents with alternative housing solutions.” … Confederate general, slave trader, alleged war criminal and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife have been disinterred from a Memphis park and are on their way to a Sons of Confederate Veterans museum in Columbia, Tenn. Contributor Betsy Phillips wonders what the SCV’s motivation really is, considering the only other person buried at the museum is another Confederate figure with ties to the early Klan, Gen. John C. Brown. “You can argue all you want about whether the Civil War was about slavery or not (it was). You can claim your Confederate flag is about heritage rather than hate (it’s not). But when you’re elevating Confederates who were early Klan leaders and ignoring Confederates who weren’t, that is just about racist hate.” NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM • @PITHINTHEWIND
nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
G RE E N E ST S T CARPET CLEANER
the
PET issue
An organization pairing service dogs with veterans, an exotic bird sanctuary, equine massage, training day at the Nashville Zoo and much more
It’s a literal fluff issue. Well, and scale, feather and fur issue. In this week’s cover package, we take a look at an organization that pairs service dogs with veterans, tour an exotic bird sanctuary, and find out just what the hell is going on with the practice of horse massage. We also check out the Nashville Zoo’s behavioral-training efforts, meet a couple who cares for a menagerie of reptiles, and look at how the pandemic has affected our furry friends.
Birds of a Feather
The Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee cares for bright and colorful birds who need a new home
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BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
LAHNA (LEFT), A 40-PLUS-YEAR-OLD WILD-CAUGHT RED-LORED AMAZON, AND CLARK, A 30-PLUS-YEAROLD LILAC-CROWNED AMAZON
PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS
t’s a gloomy day when the Scene stops by the Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee, but the space is full of bright flashes of color, an array of green and yellow, sky blue and gleaming white. It’s also full of chirps and songs. And at-times-deafening squawks and caws. Plus, there’s an Indian rose-ringed parakeet who will butt into conversations to ask, “Really?” The skeptical little yellow bird is named Britches, and he’s one of the permanent residents of the sanctuary. He’s also one of the more famous ones, having starred in a slate of videos posted online. Kim Hannah, founder of the sanctuary, says Britches was found somewhere outside Atlanta and adopted. When his family couldn’t care for him any longer, they surrendered him to the sanctuary. It’s a common story — most of the birds are surrenders, placed in care because owners either couldn’t take care of them properly or didn’t realize just how much work it would take. The barn-like space in Hermitage, decorated with a colorful mural by Charles Key, boasts nine aviaries, with sections devoted to parakeets, macaws and cockatiels. Some of the birds are up for adoption, but others (including Britches) aren’t. The adoption application includes a home visit and education for how to care for birds — they need fruit and vegetables, for example, not a seed-based diet. “Our philosophy is [that] they don’t really belong as pets, but the ones that are here, we’ve got to help,” says Hannah. (She notes
HEIDI, A SCARLET MACAW that she prefers the terms “companions” and “guardians” to “pets” and “owners.”) Hannah says many people don’t realize that birds can be destructive and loud and require specific care, and aren’t ready for
that kind of commitment. The cockatoos’ deafening song, akin to a fire alarm, underscores her point. They belong in the skies, not in cages, but since many of them can’t return to the wilderness or their natural
habitats, they need help. And Hannah says they’re worth the effort. “You fall in love with them. They’re incredibly intelligent.” Some research suggests similarities between parrots’ brains and primates’. Some studies even see parrots outperforming human children in intelligence tests. “You have to learn not to push,” says Hannah. “You need to let them have choices, and as long as you develop that trust relationship and give them a choice and don’t force them, you can have a really good relationship. And it’s very rewarding, you know?” Hannah says that after adopting an umbrella cockatoo in 2002, she began learning how many birds needed rescuing and rehoming. When the Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee incorporated as a nonprofit in 2012, Hannah was housing rescued birds in her own home. “I had birds in every room in every corner, and so my board and I got together and said, ‘Let’s look for some land and build a sanctuary.’ ” They found their current spot in Hermitage in 2018, and are already looking to expand again — ideally somewhere outside city limits, where they can have more space for the birds and get less hassle over noise ordinances. The sanctuary relies on volunteers, and Hannah encourages anyone interested in being a bird guardian to volunteer and learn first-hand about the creatures. The pandemic halted some of the work the sanctuary does, putting a pause on tours and benefit events. While they’ve reopened, they’re still looking for resources, and grants are harder to come by in the birdrescue game — at least when compared to organizations for cats and dogs. For all the challenges, Hannah says seeing birds who come in sick and recover, or who are surrendered and get rehomed, makes it worth it. Especially when the birds’ new families send pictures. “You see how happy that bird is, and you know they’re getting a good diet and they’re loved, and it’s amazing.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
the
PET issue
ANDY WITH HIS DOG LUCY
Saving Lives on Both Sides of the Leash
KEN AND BRENDA KNABENSHUE WITH SONNY
The Tennessee-based Working Dogs for Vets is providing a lifeline for veterans across the country
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BY J.R. LIND n 2018, 6,435 American veterans died by suicide, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. That’s roughly one every 81 minutes, and many veterans service organizations believe that number is undercounted. Despite accounting for less than 8 percent of the overall adult population, veterans constitute nearly 18 percent of all adult suicides in the U.S. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 670,000 shelter dogs are euthanized annually — though the actual number could be far higher there as well. A highly successful Tennessee-based nonprofit is trying to turn both of those numbers around. Born into a military family in Fort Campbell, Ken Knabenshue followed the tradition and joined the Army. After his discharge he was in a car accident, and his doctor suggested he might need a service dog. Knabenshue learned that a trained service dog can cost between $12,000 and $15,000, with waiting lists often upward of five years. But Knabenshue had experience training dogs. Prior to his military service, he’d even won competitions. So he reached out to service-dog organizations to learn about the
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process for getting a dog ready for service work. Despite his injuries from the wreck, he was able to successfully train his own service dog — that’s when the lightbulb went off. The VA estimates that nearly 2 million disabled veterans, including those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, could benefit from a service dog. Perhaps paradoxically — because of improvements in health care that have reduced battlefield fatalities — the rate of disabled veterans is growing. While soldiers returning from war have long suffered from what we now call PTSD, there’s now a much larger focus on the disease from the VA and Defense Department — and service dogs, along with therapy and prescriptions, have been found to be an effective method of treatment. The conventional wisdom since the founding of The Seeing Eye in 1929 (in Nashville, no less) has been that service dogs must be
certain breeds. But now animal behaviorists and researchers are finding that any sufficiently healthy dog can, if trained at an early enough age, work in service. Even shelter dogs. In 2012, Knabenshue — armed with his new knowledge of service-dog training and a mission to serve shelter animals and his fellow veterans — founded Working Dogs for Vets in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., to, as he puts it, “save lives on both sides of the leash.” Three years later, he incorporated the group and it received 501(c)(3) status. WDFV works with more than 100 shelters around the country, with the partner shelters identifying dogs that are young enough to participate. It has an army of volunteer trainers throughout the country, plus facilities in a handful of states, including a new 22-acre campus in Lawrenceburg. Dogs are paired with qualifying vets, who agree to participate in a year or more of training. They also
agree to return and help train the next class of dogs, providing a constant stream of new trainers and a lifeline for veterans. The success rate is remarkable. According to in-house studies, the average client is on 10 to 15 medications when beginning the program; 81 percent reduce or eliminate medication post-graduation. There is a 95 percent reduction in the occurrence of nightmares and night terrors and a 98 percent reduction in suicidal thoughts. Before receiving their service dog, 85 percent of participants reported that symptoms associated with PTSD played a major role in their inability to enjoy activities. That drops to 5 percent after graduation. Graduates are able to attend school or work with more consistency and report being more effective. In fact, the Teamsters’ latest collective bargaining deal with trucking companies allows WDFV animals to ride in the cab of the semi with truck drivers who have graduated from the program. A WDFV graduate was the first service animal ever photographed with a president, during a Gold Star Families reception with thenPresident Donald Trump in 2018. In less than a decade, WDFV has become the largest service-dog training group in America. There are now nearly 2,100 dogand-vet teams around the country, at least one in every state. That may seem like a drop in the bucket given the statistics, but for the dog who found a new purpose and the veteran (and the veteran’s family), it’s a miracle. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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the
PET issue
PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS
ZOOKEEPER CHECKING ON JOEYS
TRAINING DAY
How vulnerable and endangered species benefit from the Nashville Zoo’s behavioral training programs BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
“S
ince we’ve had a really cool spring this year, she’s doing it later in the year than what they normally do.” On a recent spring afternoon, J.G. Auman is standing on a small walkway over the Nashville Zoo’s American alligator exhibit, attempting to showcase one of the zoo’s many behavioral training efforts. A biologist and the zoo’s head of aquatics, he’s explaining why Prada — a 16-year-old gator who clocks in somewhere around 200 pounds — isn’t going after the rat carcass he’s dangling into the enclosure with an extended set of metal tongs. He bangs the tongs against the side of the enclosure and whistles down at Prada — her cue to know she’s about to be rewarded. Female alligators’ appetite is affected by their ovulation, and their ovulation is affected by the weather. But just as Auman is explaining why we might not get much of a show on this particular afternoon, Prada
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makes a move for the rat. Sure enough, she glides through the water, and with a sudden motion, she clamps down on the morsel in a seamless display of predatory prowess. Then she’s back down into the water. “She was just being slow, I guess!” Auman calls out to some of the zoo-goers watching from outside the exhibit below. He goes on to explain why this sort of training is part of the Nashville Zoo’s programming. “It’s actually exercise for her, and it also allows her to use a hunting technique that she would use in the wild. And so what it does is stimulate parts in her brain [as though] she’s hunting, in a sense. If you just throw food at a gator, they get really overweight.” American alligators like Prada were once near extinction, but conservation efforts bolstered their numbers, allowing them to be removed from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “endangered” list in the late ’80s. Like that of the American alligator, the Andean bear’s habitat has also been threatened by human encroachment, driving their numbers down and landing them on the IUCN’s “vulnerable” list. The Nashville Zoo also employs training techniques with a pair of Andean bears named Muniri (a 5-year-old male) and Luka (a 7-year-old female). The two bears — their telltale yellow facial markings showing that they’re both members of South America’s sole native bear species — have been partners for three years, but they haven’t managed to successfully breed just yet. The bears’ keepers explain that they use
what is known as target training on the two mammals, preparing to demonstrate as Muniri and Luka come bounding down a hill toward a barred opening in the enclosure. The keepers hold a long metal pole with what looks like a foam ball at its end high between the bars of the enclosure. Luka and Muniri — both very capable when it comes to bipedal locomotion — stand up on their hind legs, reach up and touch the end of the pole. They’re given positive reinforcement in the form of treats and the sound from a handheld clicker. Zoo employees explain that this form of training prepares the bears for veterinary procedures like vaccinations and blood sampling — if they can get Luka and Muniri to approach and hold their bodies upright, they can give them necessary shots and draw their blood without having to sedate them. A similar form of target training is used on another of the zoo’s animals — a 9-year-old, 130-pound male double-wattled cassowary named Sy. His keeper will tell you that cassowaries like Sy are birds indigenous to Australia, but given their long, sharp-clawed toes and reptilian looks, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re straight-up velociraptors. Target training is used to make Sy more comfortable with procedures like vaccination against West Nile virus. For Sy’s training exercises, keeper Lauren Covington moves a clip-on plastic target around the bars of the cassowary enclosure. When she says “target,” Sy pecks at the target and is rewarded with a grape. This prepares the somewhat skittish bird for interactions with veterinarians.
“He and I have a really nice bond,” says Covington lovingly. “I work with him every single day, I train him every day. So eventually he doesn’t care about the shot. Until it actually goes into his muscle — then he doesn’t like the vet anymore.” But for all the behavioral training practices that the Scene gets to witness on this late-May afternoon, far and away the most adorable is that of the red kangaroos. The Australian marsupials carry their joeys around in their pouches until the babies are about 9 months old. But how do Nashville Zoo employees check on the progress and health of the pouch-ensconced little ones without getting a kick in the face from Mom? That’s where more training comes in. A team of two keepers will approach the mother kangaroos — who have names like Pearl, Mandalay and Rooby — with a bowl of food. While one zoo employee will distract the mom with the snacks, getting her to raise up on her hind legs and grip the food bowl with her forelimbs, the second employee will gently open the sphincter muscle at the opening of the pouch and peer inside using a flashlight. Sure enough, when the Scene manages a peek into one of the pouches, there we see a joey curled up like a toddler in a hammock. It’s undeniably precious, but the interior of the pouch isn’t quite the fuzzy, stuffed-animal-like pocket you might envision. One of the kangaroos’ keepers puts it simply. “It’s like a sweaty, hairless armpit.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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the
Reptile Style
PET issue
Here’s what it’s like living with three snakes, 17 lizards, two dogs and a very large tortoise
W
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more than a dozen reptiles in enclosures. Those include a couple of leopard geckos, four bearded dragons, two ackie monitors, a beautiful Brazilian rainbow boa named Freja, the aforementioned king snake (the first reptile Kirk ever owned) and five uromastyx lizards (one of whom is named Baby Yoda). You look at all of this and the tattoos that cover their arms and you begin to pick up on a pattern. “We’re collectors,” Libby acknowledges. But really, to think of their reptiles as just another collection would be to miss the evident care they have for the animals and their attention to the way the snakes and lizards fit into their home. Kirk has built large wooden racks for the enclosures that line the walls of the former garage. One of his snakes, a jumbo carpet python they’ve had for about three years now, lives inside an antique china cabinet Kirk retrofitted into an enclosure. “I’m at the point now where I’m just like, ‘If I’m gonna have these animals, I’m gonna do it right or not have ’em at all,’ ” Kirk says. “Which, that should be the approach on so many things.” Libby says that when Ludo the chameleon passes away, she probably won’t want another. She clearly loves him — he’s tattooed on her arm — but chameleons are fragile, and early on she often fretted over whether she was doing everything she could to care for him well. (For what it’s worth, he seems to be doing great.) The Georges have acquired most of their animals by adopting or buying them through breeders, an option that ensures they’re not a part of plucking exotic animals out of the wild. It’s a lot of work taking care of the bunch. Their mornings are spent checking heat-lamp bulbs, and Kirk’s iPhone calendar includes the feeding schedule for the various creatures. Standing in their kitchen, Libby reaches over and opens the freezer, picking up fruits, vegetables and meat they’ve separated into individual portions for the larger lizards outside. She opens a drawer and pulls out a bag of frozen mice. “My fridge is full of tasty things,” she says. Their plan is to put a garden in the
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
hen we meet Watson, he is walking — slowly, purposefully — through Kirk and Libby George’s large backyard in Hendersonville. His stout and spurred front legs flank the leathery neck and stern face that emerge from his sculpted shell. He pauses to pull some grass from the ground, chewing on it — slowly, purposefully. He does not seem bothered by or remotely interested in the reporter kneeling down to look at him or the photographer lying on the grass to get a shot of him. Maybe he knows he will likely outlive us all. Watson is a sulcata tortoise, also known as an African spurred tortoise. He is about 9 years old now, and he could live to see 100. If you’re reading this, he could outlast you and quite possibly your children too. That’s due in large part to how well taken care of he’ll be as long as he’s living with the Georges. Kirk is a tattoo artist and co-owner of Island Tattoo downtown (where, full disclosure, he tattooed me last year). Libby is a hair stylist at Local Honey. The two first met around 10 years ago in Alabama, when Kirk tattooed her over the course of a year or so. He only had a few reptiles then. Among them: a king snake he’d had since he was 18, a tegu lizard named Hercules and a bearded dragon named Apollo, the latter of whom has since passed away. Eventually the couple got married and settled in Nashville. Libby, who’d grown up around more traditional pets, warmed up to Kirk’s lifelong love of reptiles, and their suburban menagerie grew. Watson is just one of the pair’s 23 pets, a brood that also includes three snakes, 17 lizards and two dogs. Watson shares most of the backyard — which includes a fully insulated and heated shelter that Kirk built as well as a small pond — with two tegu lizards (the aforementioned Hercules along with Rex) and the two pups (boxer mix Phaedra and pit bull Ares). The Georges adopted Watson from a tortoise rescue a little more than a year ago. Initially, they thought they’d give him the run of — walk of, really — the whole yard, including a paved portion that includes a driveway with a gate. But then Libby made a good point — although tortoises like Watson can sleep on a dollar bill when they’re born, they can ultimately grow to weigh more than 200 pounds. At some point, one morning when Kirk or Libby went out to the car to leave for work, Watson might be parked right in front of the gate and they’d have a hefty ordeal on their hands. They built a small wooden partition to keep him in the grass. By now you’re wondering, What does the inside of a home shared with 21 reptiles and two dogs look like? In the Georges’ case, remarkably nice. A bit eccentric, yes, but less so than you might think. There are a couple of collage walls with artworks that could be conversation pieces all on their own, a number of plants and, in a two-car garage that the couple converted to a finished room, a large collection of Star Wars figurines and
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
BY STEVEN HALE
KIRK AND LIBBY GEORGE WITH FREJA THE BRAZILIAN BOA AND WATSON THE AFRICAN SPURRED TORTOISE backyard so they can grow more of their own pet food. As interesting as the lizards and snakes are, the conversation eventually comes back to Watson. All of the pets require a bit more attention than, say, a cat. But Watson comes with a particularly serious commitment. For one thing, they’ve had to talk about where he might go when they die — possibly a zoo or tortoise sanctuary, maybe a family with children. There are also the logistical challenges. “Going to the vet’s not an easy task,” Kirk says. “With him, you’re the center of attention any time you take him anywhere.”
But sometimes that turns out to be a lovely thing. Recently, Kirk decided to let Watson walk around the side of the house and out into the front yard. He called over the fence to his neighbors to tell them. Soon, an elderly couple across the street came out to see the big fella, and another couple on a walk stopped to take in his slow, purposeful stroll. “I felt like I united the neighborhood,” Kirk says, still seemingly excited about Watson’s unique power. “I was just like, ‘This is crazy, I feel like I’m having a block party because of my tortoise!’ ” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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the
Horsin’ Around
PET issue
Chelbie Engle of Southern Comfort Equine Massage brings sweet relief to hardworking horses
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BY ERICA CICCARONE helbie Engle arrives at Liberty Run Stables at 6:30 a.m. to meet her clients. They’ve just returned to Portland, Tenn., after competing in a show in Florida. They know her truck, she says, and they crane their necks as she enters the barn. As a certified equine massage therapist, Engle knows horses — what hurts them, what heals them, and what makes them stretch and sigh with relief. Engle owns Southern Comfort Equine Massage, and she’s not so much a horse whisperer as a horse listener. When the Scene arrives at the stables, Engle leads a gorgeous horse named Crown out of his stall. Crown is an Arabian horse — “one of those hot-blooded horses that has a lot of energy,” says Engle. She starts by slowly drawing her fingers across what’s called the bladder meridian in traditional Chinese medicine. It runs from the top of the poll — that is, the part of the head immediately behind and between the ears — all the way down and across the body in parallel lines to the rear hooves. Engle watches the horse carefully, observing any twitching, fidgeting or shaking, and listens for whinnies, nickers and snorts. Engle says that horse skin is only 5 millimeters thick — whereas human skin is 8 millimeters thick — and the resulting sensitivity helps her diagnose any tightness or pain the horse is experiencing. Even a change in the horse’s eyes can tell her something important. Engle works with all sorts of horses: show horses, trail blazers, fox hunters, training horses, racehorses. Even geriatric horses living out their golden years. She also works with Western horses like barrel racers and ropers, although the rodeo crowd has been slower to accept massage than the English riding community. She says that all horses, regardless of breed or discipline, have a hard time releasing tension on their own. “Horses only sleep about 15 to 20 minutes a day that they lay down for,” says Engle. “That’s it. That is the only time that there is zero pressure on that poll, otherwise they’re holding up this giant, heavy body the whole time.” Crown, for example, weighs between 900 and 1,000 pounds. Engle grew up in Southern Mississippi about a half an hour from the Gulf of Mexico. Getting her first pony was the best day of her life. By 8 years old, she was putting a bridle on it, hopping on via the picnic table and taking off. She studied veterinary medicine and was a tech at a large-animal vet, but the goal was always horses. When a friend said she was heading to equine massage school in Virginia, Engle joined her. At Equissage International, Engle learned deep-tissue equine massage. Since then, she’s studied acupressure, and it’s her first choice for treating horses. “They feel pain so much easier than we do, and they’re big babies about it,” she says. She runs her thumb along Crown’s spine, using only as much pressure as it would take to fold a
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thick sheet of paper. “If you push on a horse, it’s gonna push right back. But because I use such a small amount of pressure, they can’t brace against it. The body has no choice but to release it. “When I first started working on him,” Engle says of Crown, “he had a knot about the size of a 50-cent piece on the right side of his poll. We’ve slowly been able to work it out. He’s been wanting to drop his head and really relax. That’s what you want to see.” As if on cue, Crown drops his head and sticks out his tongue. Engle laughs and praises him. “I would do this for free if I were independently wealthy. It’s so much fun to see the contentment and the joy that comes over their faces during a massage.” As Crown enjoys the endorphin rush, Engle explains that what we just saw is called a release. The tongue is like a gateway to the neck, shoulders and chest. It attaches to the hyoid apparatus near the jaw, which connects to muscles that go all the way to the horse’s pectorals and run along the bottom of the belly. A horse with a loose tongue is relaxed and happy. Engle’s knowledge of horse anatomy helps her to know where to apply pressure to release tension. And it’s
not always where you’d assume. “What’s funny is, if you start working on the poll, you start to see him shuffle on the back end,” she says. “And the same thing. You’ll be working on the hind end, and you’ll start seeing him shuffle back and forth on the front end, because everything is connected, absolutely everything.” Engle says that deep-tissue massage has its place, but she’ll always try acupressure first and observe the results. She’s worked with racehorses who have shaved a full second off their time — which in the world of racing is an awful lot. Other benefits include decreasing joint inflammation, increasing range of motion and improving circulation. “I love it because you’re able to give back to the animals that give people so much,” says Engle. “Horses, they weren’t originally meant to carry a 200-pound person over fences and chase down a cow. That wasn’t their original purpose. We ask so much of them, and it’s very nice to give back and help them feel better.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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Who Let the Dogs Pout?
Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.
A local dog behavior expert gives tips for pet owners as we return to our out-of-the-house lives
STAY POSITIVE.
BY MEGAN SELING
Positive training and behavioral modification. DogSpeak101.com info@dogspeak101.com
I
t wasn’t long into the pandemic before the jokes started rolling in — observations about how humans’ lives were turned upside-down, but our dogs, basking in the fact that many pet owners were staying home 24/7, were the happiest they’d ever been. In April, the popular Thoughts of Dog Twitter account posted the following: i have finally narrowed it down. to a few possible reasons. the human is home all the time now 4. can’t stand being away from me C. loves me so much 1. my presence is a gift. We were losing our minds while dogs felt like they were being rewarded simply for existing. Turns out that was only partly true. “Just like people, dogs are individuals, and I think much like us it was fun for them at first, but some of them were probably over it pretty quickly,” says Kat Martin Ray, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and the owner of the local dog training and behavior counseling business Dogs and Kat. “Dogs sleep 12 to 14 hours a day once they’re a couple of years old and older, and I think a lot of time it was hard for them at first to have people home all the time,” says Ray. “Not all of them, of course — some dogs probably thought it was the best thing ever — but I do think it’s overall been harder than we probably realized for some dogs.” Ray has been a trainer for nearly 20 years, primarily working with dogs and their owners to help prevent and overcome behavioral issues including anxiety. While it’s entirely possible dogs and puppies will experience anxiety or other issues as their humans return to work, school and out-of-the-house social activities, Ray says there are ways to prepare your pet for alone time. “The first thing, honestly, is teaching people to better understand their dogs by being able to read their body language,” says Ray. “That’s such an important way that dogs use to communicate how they’re feeling.” Ray cites “calming signals,” a phrase coined by Norwegian dog trainer and author Turid Rugaas, as one form of behavior to look out for. “[Calming signals are] one of the main things we
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PET issue
see when we’re seeing some separation anxiety,” she says. “You’ll start to see yawning, lip licking. Sometimes they’ll sit and start scratching as what we call a displacement behavior. Maybe you’ll say, ‘Go to your crate,’ because you’re about to leave to go to work and they sit and start scratching.” As important as what your dog does, Ray says, is the context in which the movements are happening. Those sad-AF puppy-dog eyes gazing at you while you eat lunch? That’s not necessarily sending the same signal as a morose dog dealing with depression. Buddy just wants a bite of your sandwich. “I always tell people there are two main things,” says Ray. “What just happened, and what does the rest of the dog’s body look like? Because it’s always contextual. If the dog is licking you because they want to interact with you, a lot of time that’s attention-seeking behavior. But sometimes — we call it ‘the kiss to dismiss’ — if you get all up in their face and you’re trying to kiss their head they might lick you, but that’s actually a request for you to back off. It’s contextual: What just happened, what were you doing, what were they doing?” If your dog is showing signs of distress as you begin to leave them home alone again — or for the first time if you’re one of the thousands of folks who adopted a “pandemic puppy” in the past year — Ray says the trick is to help the dog feel safe in the home by designating a space for the dog. Make a place where they can go and relax, and then consistently reinforce that it is a positive place to be. “Separation anxiety is panic, it’s a fear-based behavior that can have different levels of intensity,” she says. “What we want is for them to be relaxed, we want them to not feel like they have to follow us from room to room and constantly be vigilant and watching our every move.” “One thing I’ll do is, if the dog is on a walk with a significant other or in another room, I will magically make treats appear on the bed so when they come back into the room they’ll go, ‘Oh, wow! This is a magic space,’ you know? ‘This bed grows treats!’ Anything we can do to positively reinforce those things so they’ll want to hang out there on their own. “Once they’re going there and hanging out there,” she continues, “you’ll want to continue to intermittently reinforce that behavior forever. I always say you want it to be like a slot machine win. You want it to be unpredictable.”
Kat Martin Ray’s Recommended Reading ispeakdog.org On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugass Listen to Me!: Exploring the Emotional Life of Dogs by Tricia Hollingshead Canine Body Language by Brenda Aloff EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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the
Pet Su-purr-latives
PET issue
See the winners of our reader-submitted pet photo contest
BEST IN SHOW TANNER
Parent name: Emily Giglio “Watch out, you’ll fall for those ocean eyes and suddenly find yourself saying yes to anything he asks for ...”
BEST SMILE NIKE ADIDAS
Parent name: Patrick Grubbs “Nike Adidas on her way to see grandpa!”
BEST DRESSED PIPER
Parent name: Sarah Richie “Piper the Malshi — my late husband’s late fiancée’s dog is the most loving, resilient, and spunky 8-year-old pup, teaching us all to get along and roll with the punches with everything we’ve got!”
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CLASS CLOWN GUS
Parent name: Beth Downey “Gus clowning on the map at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.”
BEST SENIOR MARGO
Parent name: Megan Broman “Thirteen years young and we still get asked if she’s a puppy! It’s getting harder to walk with her back-leg weakness, but we will always find ways to make the best of it!”
BEST PALS FINN AND TUT
Parent name: Kelly Long “ ‘Little’ brother Finn is a real teddy bear, and Tut clearly thinks so too. Queen Tut is a pittie mix rescue and the goodest girl. Finnegan James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser was adopted as a 10-month-old Irish wolfhound and grew into an unrideable indoor pony. Measuring 36 inches at the shoulder, his head easily clears the kitchen counter for stealth hooman snack stealing and getting mom’s previously out-of-reach shoes for Her Majesty.”
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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6/7/21 7:23 PM
ONEC1TY PARK
JUNE 12
PUPSANDPINTS.COM
A FREE FEST FOR DOGS
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y
R O U N D U P
O F
T H I N G S
T O
D O
[SWING LOW]
FMRL: MICHAEL BISIO
[WHAT JO WILLS SHALL BE DONE]
MOVIES IN THE PARK: LITTLE WOMEN
Last week, we at the Scene kicked off our 27th annual Movies in the Park series with a screening of 2019’s Frozen II. This week we’re queuing up another film from that year for our second of four MIP installments: Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed adaptation of Little Women. Featuring outstanding performances from Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep — not to mention a refreshing approach to telling a long-familiar story
LITTLE WOMEN
MICHAEL BISIO Darkhorse Theater
FRIDAY / 6.11
MUSIC
— writer-director Gerwig’s Little Women is a treat for fans of the Louisa May Alcott novel and newcomers alike. It’s also family-friendly, and features one of the best titular-line-delivery moments in the history of cinema, thanks to a certain modern-day comedic legend. (If you’re a fan of alternative sketch comedy and are not familiar with the cameo I’m referencing, it’s absolutely worth preserving the surprise.) As always, Movies in the Park is free, and attendees can expect food trucks, contests and more — so get there early and bring something to sit on. Still to come in this year’s MIP series: Thor: Ragnarok (June 17) and 9 to 5 (June 24). 5 p.m. at Elmington Park, 3531 West End Ave. D. PATRICK RODGERS
[SEA CHANGE]
TRISTEN’S AQUATIC FLOWERS VIRTUAL RELEASE SHOW, TRISTEN THE NIGHT AWAY II
Tristen is a woman of many talents. In 2018, the Chicago-raised, Nashville-residing singer-songwriter-bandleader opened Anaconda Vintage in the space behind Grimey’s; the next year, she and husbandbandmate Buddy Hughen became parents to a baby boy, Julian. These experiences have humbled and inspired her, as she told the Scene in last week’s music feature on her fourth album, Aquatic Flowers. The moody, melodious 11-song LP is highlighted by a tearjerker written and named for Julian, now 2-and-a-half. For Tristen and Hughen, parenthood hasn’t meant losing touch with their community — they still know how to throw a party. The sequel to the Best of Nashville-winning record release show for Tristen’s last outing Sneaker Waves in 2017 — dubbed Tristen the Night Away — will feature comic and songsmith Chris Crofton as master of ceremonies, the band playing Aquatic Flowers in full, and virtual performances from Jenny Lewis, Robyn Hitchcock, Caitlin Rose and other notables. It’s “a reflection of what coming out of a pandemic looks like,” the 37-year-old says. The Crofton-hosted in-person show at The 5 Spot is sold out, but you can tune in and catch the livestream for a nominal fee. For more information visit tinyurl.com/ tristenthenightaway. 8 p.m. at The 5 Spot and online via stageit.com CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
[THE POWER TO HEAL]
FINAL PERFORMANCES OF CHATTERBIRD’S VIRTUAL CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
Music has the power to move, inspire and even heal. And for the past several weeks, chatterbird has worked to do just that with its Virtual Chamber Music Series. Curated by the innovative ensemble’s own musicians, this weekly series was created in response to the events of the past yearplus — from the isolation of the pandemic to myriad incidents of social injustice and unrest. The resulting performances have taken on a wide range of themes — from civil rights to LGBTQ issues and even environmental justice — and have featured a number of world premieres. Each concert also spotlights a local nonprofit, such as the Nashville Public Library’s Civil Rights Center, Brooklyn Heights Community Garden and the Oasis Center. The series continues this Friday with a performance from bassoonist Maya Stone, featuring spoken word from Stephanie Pruitt Gaines. The next performance will be on June 18, and will feature clarinetist Emily Bowland and the music of Dave Ragland. Performances are free to the public, and can be viewed via chatterbird’s Facebook page, where you can check out past performances as well. Noon via chatterbird.org AMY STUMPFL [BRING A NICKEL, TAP YOUR FEET]
MUSICIANS CORNER: ADIA VICTORIA, ALLISON RUSSELL, JASON ESKRIDGE & MORE
Nashville’s long-running free concert series Musicians Corner took a break
nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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PHOTO: ALBERT BROOKS
THURSDAY, JUNE 10
MUSIC
FILM
The career arc of bassist Michael Bisio might sound familiar to students of one of the world’s less lucrative art forms — jazz. After making his bones in Seattle in the 1980s, when he played pit orchestra and opera dates, wedding gigs and jazz engagements, Bisio moved back to his home state of New York in 2005. Bisio released his first solo album in 1983, Ours, and you can hear his massive tone on Barbara Donald and Unity’s The Past and Tomorrows, which hit the same year. The Past and Tomorrows remains an underrated record — Bisio swings relentlessly on the bluesy title track. These days, Bisio, who teaches bass at Vermont’s Bennington College, is perhaps best known as bassist in the trio of pianist Matthew Shipp. Beyond that, Bisio boasts a huge discography that includes his 2015 fulllength Accortet, which contains the oddly Zappa-esque tune “AM” along with freejazz tracks like “Giant Chase.” I also like his 2012 duet record with Shipp, Floating Ice, a bracing effort that gives Bisio plenty of room to make himself felt. Thursday night’s show with the master musician — he’ll appear solo — comes to town courtesy of Nashville’s long-running arts nonprofit FMRL. 7 p.m. at Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Ave. EDD HURT
MUSIC
MUSIC
THURSDAY / 6.10
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6/7/21 1:07 PM
[SHAGGY DOG STORY]
PUPS AND PINTS
Now that pandemic restrictions have eased up, you might be wondering who’s more in need of some socializing time — you or your dog. It’s a heartbreaker to make a beeline for your nearest happy
[GLASS SLIPPER? I BARELY KNOW ’ER!]
NASHVILLE OPERA’S CINDERELLA Nashville Opera returns to live performance this weekend with its
much-anticipated open-air production of Cinderella at Ascend Amphitheater. John Hoomes’ original staging crosses the gorgeous music of Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville) with “the madcap beach-party movies” of the 1960s, offering a playful and comedic retelling of this beloved tale. It’s interesting to note that this variation of the fairy tale is rather different than the familiar Disney take, with a wicked stepfather named Don Magnifico replacing the stepmother, and a kindly philosophertutor replacing the Fairy Godmother. This production also features a number of notable company debuts, including the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Emily Fons in the title role and tenor Matthew Grills as the dashing prince, Don Ramiro. The piece has been edited down to a 90-minute, one-act format with no intermission. Chairs will be placed in pods both in the floor and lawn sections of the venue. To learn more, visit nashvilleopera.org. 7:30 p.m. at Ascend, 310 First Ave. S. AMY STUMPFL ART
SATURDAY / 6.12
hour when Max is whining at the door, wondering where you’re going without him. The Scene has a simple solution for you: Saturday evening’s Pups and Pints event at OneC1ty Park off Charlotte Avenue offers a full evening of activities for the paw-having, tail-wagging crowd, plus craft beers and cocktails for their humans. (Well, the 21-and-up set, anyway — it’s an all-ages affair.) The winners of the Scene’s Pet Contest will be among the VIP guests, who’ll be receiving prizes; you’ll be able to find some of the featured pet-supply vendors in the Bark Market, too. Also check out photo booths for pups and people, food trucks and bars with edibles and potables for purchase and a pop-up off-leash dog park organized by Invisible Fence. No pup? No problem! The Nashville Humane Association will have an on-site pet adoption center. Admission is free, but a portion of funds raised will be donated to Nashville Humane — a very worthy, very furry cause. Follow @Nashvillepupsandpints and @nashvillescene on Instagram for updates. 4-8 p.m. at OneC1ty Park, 8 City Blvd. STEPHEN TRAGESER THEATER
from in-person events last summer due to — well, you know. I don’t have to say it. In May, Musicians Corner announced a return to Centennial Park for a three-day festival from June 11 through 13. Musicians Corner’s comeback weekend will include performances from triumphant folk-soul artist Allison Russell, ace blues singer and poet (and sometime Scene contributor)
Adia Victoria, dope R&B quartet The New Respects, soulful singer-songwriter Jason Eskridge, rock outfits Vacation Manor and Smooth Hound Smith, pop songsmith Jillette Johnson and others. Hours for the weekend fest will be 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Naturally, there will be vendors, adult beverages, food trucks, kids’ activities and more. Though the lineup has yet to be announced, Musicians Corner’s September Sundown is coming back, too: It’ll take place every Thursday and Friday in September, along with a three-day event toward the end of the month in conjunction with AmericanaFest. Find more details — including the complete schedule for the June event — at musicianscornernashville.com. June 11-13 at Centennial Park, West End Avenue at 25th Avenue North D. PATRICK RODGERS
COMMUNITY
ALLISON RUSSELL
PHOTO: MARC BAPTISTE
CRITICS’ PICKS
[NORTH STARS]
NORF WALL FEST
Five-and-a-half years ago, artist Jay Jenkins — aka Woke3 — hosted an event that brought on something of a renaissance in North Nashville. He invited around a
LISTEN TO THE TRAVIS SCOTT BURGER POD
STREAMING
Doing a four-part podcast about that time last year when McDonald’s collaborated with rapper Travis Scott for a limited-time-only meal — complete with a “Travis Scott Burger,” which was just a Quarter Pounder with bacon — may sound like an odd, even absurd, thing to do. And yet that’s exactly what writer-producer-host Michael Kaplan did with OneHandClap’s The Travis Scott Burger Pod, which debuted last month. Once you listen to it, you’ll discover how it’s not only a chronicle of Scott’s ascension from struggling mixtape MC to life-saving, taste-making, fast-foodshilling rap god. It’s also a study of the contemporary relationship between art and commerce, particularly in regard to how music stars collaborate with corporations and major brands. As this podcast reveals, selling out isn’t seen as a bad thing in the pop world anymore. And considering how Scott made $20 million off that deal, he’d be the first to tell ya so. Stream it via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. CRAIG D. LINDSEY [GET IN THE RING]
CHECK OUT VICE TV’S DARK SIDE OF THE RING
More than any other form of art or entertainment, pro wrestling lives on the line between fiction and reality. Real-life drama and trauma regularly work their way into the ring and become material for fictional story lines — part of the pleasure of being a wrestling fan is sorting out the melodramatic from the actual and uncovering the backstage machinations. That blurring of script and sport makes wrestling a perfect subject for documentaries, and few have done it
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better than the Vice TV series Dark Side of the Ring, now in its third season. Each episode of the show is an in-depth, noholds-barred look into an often unseemly or unexplored incident in wrestling’s long, chiseled past. There are, of course, many tales of hard lives and true crime: the horrific murder probably committed by Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, the tragic love story of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, the nightmarish last days of Chris Benoit. But most often, Dark Side is about the nitty-gritty history of a very American industry; an urban legend or unseemly rumor is often just a gateway to larger issues like the regulation of sports entertainment and the exploitation of its performers, steroid abuse and even international relations. One of the most recent episodes of the current season dives deep into the bizarre historical footnote that was Collision in Korea, a televised two-day wrestling event headlined by Ric Flair in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 1995 that still holds the world record for the highest attendance at a wrestling event — a collaboration between Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling, Muhammad Ali, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the North Korean government aimed at promoting world peace. NADINE SMITH [CURRENTLY WATCHING]
SUBSCRIBE TO FEMINIST STREAMING PLATFORM ANOTHER SCREEN
The exponential online-ness we’ve experienced since the start of the infernal pandemic has brought some satisfying new streaming options. One of these is feminist streaming platform Another Screen. It’s run by the folks who create the excellent feminist film journal Another Gaze, and it offers more than compelling films. Another
Screen is carefully curated, presenting movies around a theme, as well as smart essays, Q&As with filmmakers and other material to provide context that illuminates the work. Take last month’s “[Silence] [...] [Laughter].” Exploring the “psychiatrisation of female killers,” the program featured Marleen Gorris’ underappreciated but riveting 1982 film A Question of Silence, which you may have been lucky enough to catch in the Belcourt’s 2017 Essentials in Feminist Cinema series. You can still read critic Amelia Groom’s insightful essay about the role of laughter in the film. The latest collection, “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women,” shows that the curators are able to respond quickly to current events in order to amplify the voices of people most impacted by the recent violent clashes between the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas militants, which left roughly 250 Palestinians dead, including many women and children. The program includes films for children, like Layaly Badr’s animated 1985 short “The Road to Palestine,” which features a young girl living in a refugee camp who has never seen her homeland and learns early on that “struggling is our only way to Palestine.” In the haunting “Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old and So Was the Nakba,” interdisciplinary artist Razan uses Google Street View to show the city of Haifa, with the imaginary voice of the filmmaker’s grandmother describing her search for her son. Throughout, Razan superimposes images of forced relocation. Mahasen Nasser-Eldin’s “The Silent Protest: Jerusalem 1929,” shows the inaugural demonstration of the Palestinian women who would form their people’s women’s movement. Woven throughout are interviews with directors and writings that contextualize the films. Taken as a whole,
the program shows that the experiences of Palestinian women — most of whom are part of the diaspora — are diverse and complex, and their stories are crucial to understanding the turmoil faced by women in the region. Streaming on Another Screen is free, but definitely donate to the efforts when you tune in if you’re able. Your dollars will fund the project, and the Another Screen team also contributes proceeds to organizations related to its themes. Learn more at another-screen.com. ERICA CICCARONE MUSIC
[BURGER WEAK]
STREAMING
PODCAST
EVERGREEN: STUFF YOU CAN DO ANYTIME
[LURCH PARTY]
CHECK OUT THE NEW YAUTJA ALBUM, THE LURCH
The Lurch, the long-awaited Relapse Records debut from Nashville experi-metal trio Yautja, is here, and it’s my favorite study in thoughtful brutality since Kowloon Walled City’s Grievances in 2015 — the Bay Area band whose singer-guitarist Scott Evans, maybe not coincidentally, produced The Lurch. My Scene colleague P.J. Kinzer called Yautja’s new nine-song LP the best heavy album to come out of Middle Tennessee in 20 years (with the possible exception of Loss’ funeral-doom masterwork Horizonless). Yautja works slowly — there have been EPs, splits and other short-form releases, but this is only the group’s second full-length in its decade together — but an end product this considered shows why. From the energy in the performances to the expertly sculpted riffs, loose-cannon drumming and Evans’ raw, powerful recording (he and the band rendezvoused in Chicago to track at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio, and it paid off), The Lurch has all the je ne sais quoi of a heavy-music classic. Stream it at yautja.bandcamp.com and order the LP directly from Relapse: store.relapse.com/ item/98012. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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THE TIME JUMPERS
8:00
TUE
49 WINCHESTER
8:00
6/15 W/ MYRON ELKINS
WED
7:30 7:30
THE ANTIBODY JAM SMITHFIELD
THU
EP RELEASE SHOW
6/17
THE MIDNIGHT RIDERS
FRI
THE SAX LOFT SUMMIT LIVE! JEFF COFFIN, TIA FULLER,
SAT
JOY OLADOKUN
SUN
ALLMAN BROS REVUE PLUS JIMMY HALL
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ SOPHIA BORO
ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JULY 26
WHISKEY JAM
Ten Years of Good Music for Good People
6/18 6/19
KIRK WHALUM WITH NATE SMITH, FELIX PASTORIUS, CHRIS WALTERS 8:00
DAVID SPADE
6/16
FEAT. JIMMY WALLACE, NICK GOVRIK, JOSH HUNT, GUTHRIE TRAPP WITH THE 3RD AVENUE HORNS
8:00
MON
6/14
9:30
8:00
6/13 W/ ASHLEY RAY
WILDHEART WEDNESDAYS FEAT. THE ISAACS W/ HANNAH KERR
TIM AKERS & THE SMOKING SECTION
SAT THE LONG PLAYERS PERFORMING
6/12
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JULY 28
KING CRIMSON
with The California Guitar Trio
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7/16
TIM AKERS & THE SMOKING SECTION
DEREK ST. HOLMES BAND
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THE LONG PLAYERS : BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ‘RIVER’
COMING SOON 6-21 THE TIME JUMPERS 6-22 GRADY SPENCER & THE WORK W/ EVAN BARTELS 6-23 WILDHEART WEDNESDAYS 6:30 / 9:00 THE ANTIBODY JAM FEAT. JIMMY WALLACE, NICK GOVRIK, JOSH HUNT, GUTHRIE TRAPP WITH THE 3RD AVENUE HORNS 6-24 THE PIANO MEN: THE MUSIC OF ELTON JOHN AND BILLY JOEL W/ JESSE ISLEY 6-25 RESURRECTION : & 26 A JOURNEY TRIBUTE 6-27 AMYTHYST KIAH 6-28 THE TIME JUMPERS
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UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS 6:00PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 10
LAURIE FRANKEL
in conversation with NANCY PEARL One Two Three
SATURDAY, JUNE 12
2:00PM
DEV PETTY & ANA ARANDA
KYLE BAKER
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Luna Howls at the Moon
7:00PM
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES, & JEREMY MCCARTER in conversation with AMERICA FERRERA In the Heights
6:00PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16
BRITA SANDSTROM
6:00PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
AMIE THURBER & LEAROTHA WILLIAMS in conversation with STEVE HARUCH I’ll Take You There
GET TICKETS & LEARN MORE AT PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net
[WHERE YOU BELONG]
IN THE HEIGHTS: FINDING HOME BOOK LAUNCH WITH LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES & JEREMY MCCARTER
If you’ve been feeling the profound absence of the live musical-theater experience during the wrenching chasm that has been the pandemic, the looming release of the film version of In the Heights (in theaters and on HBO Max starting Friday — see our review on p. 36) has been a balm to troubled hearts. And in conjunction with the film
SCIENCE ON SCREEN: FORBIDDEN PLANET
in conversation with ELANA K. ARNOLD Hollow Chest
TUESDAY / 6.15
[SCI-FI PRIVATE EYE]
I’m gonna keep it real here: Forbidden Planet, playing this weekend as part of the Belcourt’s Science on Screen series, hasn’t aged well. The plot for this influential 1956 sci-fi flick — hailed as one of the earliest examples of techno-horror — is goofy as hell. A brotastic crew of spacemen (led by a dashing young Leslie Nielsen) land on a planet only occupied by a mysterious scientist (Walter Pidgeon), his gorgeous daughter (Anne Francis) — who, of course, everyone on the crew wants to smash — and the scientist’s ever-accommodating robot (Robby the Robot, who would be later used in other movies and TV shows). Oh yeah, there’s also an invisible monster ready to take these space cowboys out. Cheesy plot aside, it does have some impressive-forits-time special effects, and a trippy score from electronic-music trailblazers Bebe and Louis Barron. Some might argue that seeing this movie high would enhance your viewing experience. 12:45 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
SUNDAY / 6.13 SPORTS
COMMISSIONED PORTRAITS
is family-friendly, and kids under 17 get in free. Plus there will be prizes for the winners — perhaps a can of corn? A stick of gum? A flannel tucked inside a tiny, tiny box? Field day activities will include sack racing, Solo cup stacking, water balloon tossing, cornhole, Frisbee, horseshoes, a scavenger hunt and more. Ticket prices start at $35, there’s a free Retro Sno cone with admission, and proceeds go straight to the Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. Participation is open at no additional cost — so bring lots of movement clothes, aka jazz shoes, dance belts, Lycras, etc. And please, leave your bullshit attitude and baggage at the door because we don’t need it. More information is available at weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/a/ wet-hot. 3-6 p.m. at Shelby Park in East Nashville LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
BOOKS
VOTED BEST FOR 15 YEARS!
FILM
: Winners’ Reader poll
dozen artists to paint the walls in a storage yard under Jubilee Bridge with work related to social issues. It was the inaugural Norf Wall Fest, and the collaborations that day — with established artists like Sam Dunson and Brandon Donahue, along with up-and-comers like Elisheba Israel Mrozik and doughjoe — gave birth to five-plus years of community-based arts initiatives that have reflected and engaged with the experiences of historically Black North Nashville. Woke3 has been hard at work organizing another Norf Wall Fest. He’s been working with community members to design a mural that captures the history and vitality of the neighborhood. It will include civil rights luminaries like Diane Nash, John Lewis and Kwame Lillard; politicians Thelma Harper and Harold Love Sr.; and community leaders like Tennessee Tribune CEO and owner Rosetta Miller Perry. When the mural is complete, we’ll be able to scan QR codes to learn about the history of the neighborhood and listen to a mixtape curated by Jefferson Street Sound Museum owner Lorenzo Washington. The all-day block party will feature a kids’ zone where littles can paint, play in a jump house and set up to learn chess. There will be music, spoken-word performances and dance, as well as vendors and food. Woke3 and partner Angel Adams have a long-term plan of opening an artist-owned live-work space, so keep your eye on this power couple for more. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Jefferson Street and 27th Avenue South. ERICA CICCARONE
[YOU FRENCH GREAT]
PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S WET HOT TENNESSEE SUMMER FIELD DAY
What’s better than a summertime field day? A summertime field day that benefits Planned Parenthood — and provides ample opportunities to quote earlyAughts comedy classic Wet Hot American Summer! The Wet Hot Tennessee Summer Field Day (OK, technically it’s late spring)
finally being released, show creators Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda and co-writer Jeremy McCarter (who also worked on Hamilton: The Revolution with Miranda) are doing a Zoom discussion about their book In the Heights: Finding Home, which traces the development of the show and its film version. Thanks to the folks at Parnassus, a virtual front-row seat (that includes a copy of the hardcover) awaits for this discussion, and like the film and show, it will be a salve for the nerves. Not to be missed. Visit parnassusbooks.net for details. 7 p.m. via Parnassus Books JASON SHAWHAN
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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FOOD AND DRINK
A TASTE OF THE FUTURE An inside look at some Nashville wine experts’ en primeur tasting of Bordeaux wines
EN PRIMEUR TASTING
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f all the wines of the world, those from the Bordeaux region of France may evoke the most ardent interest. In particular, the red wines of Bordeaux elicit fascination because they have the ability to improve with age for as long as 50 years, making them investable assets. However, young Bordeaux wines need time to be palatable, exhibiting overpowering tannins until the years calm their palate-puckering characteristics. This makes tasting the latest vintages a difficult but very important proposition. In the past, Bordeaux collectors leaned heavily on the ratings of wine experts like critic and author Robert Parker to give some indication of which vintages and specific wines might become something really special — something worthy of the expense and cellar space as they made purchases years or decades before these wines hit their peaks. Parker’s influence has waned over the years as more collectors choose to make their own decisions. Participating in what are known as en primeur tastings of the latest vintages has become an important part of the decision-making process for wine buyers ranging from collectors and wholesale and retail buyers to sommeliers looking to craft wine lists for their restaurants. A group of these experts convened at the headquarters of the Nashville Wine Auction in late April for a special opportunity to sample 20 different bottles of 2020 Bordeaux wines, more than a year before they will be bottled and released to the public. Organized by the Commanderie de Bordeaux — an international group of advocates for the wineries along the Left Bank and Right Bank of Bordeaux’s Gironde estuary — this tasting allowed a dozen oenophiles to sample wines that were drawn directly from the barrels by vintners and packaged in bottles with hand-written labels. Since Nashville is internationally known for collectors with some serious Bordeaux stores in their cellars, our city was one of only 10 in the country chosen for this special tasting.
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David Morgan is one of the founding partners of the Nashville accounting group LBMC and the maître of the local chapter of the Commanderie, one of more than 30 across the country. As such, he is also a member of the Board of Governors of the organization and has taken frequent trips with the group to visit the Bordelais, as the collective vintners of the Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) is known. “Most en primeur tastings take place in April,” explains Morgan. “The Board of Governors takes a four- to five-day trip every other summer where we visit three or four wineries a day to taste their previous year’s vintage. It’s not like California where every winery has a big tasting room and welcomes visitors. In Bordeaux, you need appointments and invitations.” That’s why the opportunity to try some of the 2020 Bordeaux wines in Nashville was such a special opportunity — considering travel was shut down to the region. Merchants and collectors might be buying wines to hold for 10 to 20 years, and the Bordelais depend on interest and feedback from the Commanderie to make their plans for distribution. “It’s the dance that goes on every year,” Morgan says. “They want to sell that year’s vintage.” In addition to those precious bottle samples, the Bordelais sent reams of information about the winemakers and exhaustive analyses of the weather conditions last summer in Bordeaux. As Morgan explains, “There are two big things that make a wine great: the terroir and the weather. If the weather is good, the winemakers can make as good of a wine as the terroir will allow.” The weather in 2020 was, in fact, not good. But the farmers got a little lucky. “You don’t want storms, frost or hail that will knock down the young vines and reduce yields,” says Morgan. “You want a hot summer during the growing season, and you absolutely don’t want rain during harvest, because that will lead to diluted wines without a concentration of fruit.” The early part of 2020’s growing season
was cold and wet, and mildew became a problem. The second half was one of the hottest and driest on record. “It was two extremes that offset each other,” says Morgan. “The extra rain carried the vines through the hot summer, and the 2020 vintage could be exciting. The wines were showing well.” To come up with this assessment, Morgan relied on his years of experience tasting Bordeaux wines. “The whites could be drunk young, and some of the reds might be ready to drink in 2023 to 2025,” he says. “You have to taste for what the wine could be. [Wine expert] Clive Coates once told me that amateurs taste what’s in the glass, while pros taste for what they think it can become. I think about how they will evolve, considering that you might have to wait 10 to 20 years for some Bordeaux to hit their peaks, and you can still drink some of them for 50 years.” He adds with a chuckle, “Of course, at my age, I’m not looking for wines to put down for 20 years if I want to be able to drink them.” Jenn McDonnell is the director of events and wine at Nashville’s E3 Chophouse and was also present at the en primeur tasting. She came at the wines as a seller, not a collector. “I was immensely appreciative to be in a room like that with all those experts and fantastic wines,” she says. “I’m building a list for a classic steakhouse, so we’re pretty heavy with big Napa cabs, but I also want to make sure that we have Bordeaux available that are approachable in a way that doesn’t terrify a guest’s wallet.” Another unique aspect of Bordeaux red wines: They’re a blend of different grapes. The primary elements of the recipe are usually bold, tannic cabernet sauvignon grapes from the Médoc and Graves subregions of the Left Bank and rounder merlot grapes from Pomerol and Saint-Emilion on the Right Bank. Other varietals typically found in red Bordeaux are petit verdot, cabernet franc, malbec and carménère. French wines tend to market themselves based on the regions where they are made, whereas, for instance, California vintners differentiate some of their cult wines by focusing on the varietals. But guess what — Silver Oak, an iconic
PHOTOS: NASHVILLE WINE AUCTION
BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN
Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, is actually a Bordeaux blend, with 20 percent of its grapes being something other than cab sav. That’s why McDonnell intentionally lists domestic Bordeaux blends alongside their French counterparts on her wine list. “I like to keep cousins next to each other,” she says. E3 has invested heavily in its wine program under McDonnell, even during the pandemic. “We more than doubled our inventory,” she says, “and I want to make sure that Bordeaux is a big part of that.” As a slightly less experienced taster than some of the others present at the en primeur, McDonnell leaned on her preferences. “I was looking for what expanded on my palate,” she recalls. “What held my interest and evolved over time and on the palate.” So what is behind this obsession with Bordeaux wines? What is it that leads people to travel across the ocean or sit in a boardroom sipping (and spitting) wines that are, in many cases, not ready to drink yet? In Morgan’s case, he has a long history with the region. “When I started drinking wines in the ’70s, California cabernets were big, tannic fruit bombs that lacked elegance,” he says. “Bordeaux blends had more character. California eventually learned from Bordeaux that merlot softens the tannins and cabernet franc adds structure, but I still prefer the balance between fruit and acidity in Bordeaux.” As someone who recommends wine every evening as part of her job, McDonnell leans on Bordeaux often. “You generally can’t go wrong,” she says. “There are so many great choices. I like that Bordeaux has a mystery to it and that it evolves throughout the night. It’s different from the first to the last glass of the bottle.” Like fans of Yeti coolers who proudly display advertising stickers on their car windows, the Bordelais have created a group of advocates among the Commanderie and other Bordeaux lovers. McDonnell explains how she converts new fans: “I tell people that it’s like art and music. Bordeaux is something that someone crafted, grew, babysat, took care of and gave it space to grow and mature. Then they delivered it to the world purely for your enjoyment.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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here are reasons to go to the Gulch — the Station Inn, the Gulch Greenway and the Nashville Scene offices, to name three. I didn’t think a cheap lunch was one of them. But now, thanks to The Gumbo Bros, which opened in March in the old Bar Otaku space, it is. Chef Adam Lathan’s menu is chock-full of New Orleans-style dishes, including a new tasting trio of gumbo. For just $14, you get decent-size (10 ounces THE GUMBO BROS each) servings of three different gumbos. There’s the traditional 505 12TH AVE. S. seafood style with shrimp, made based on Lathan’s nanny’s recipe; a THEGUMBOBROS.COM Cajun chicken and sausage; and the Gumbo Z’Herbes, which knocked my socks off. That third option is a vegan and gluten-free gumbo made with kale, collards, parsley and roasted veggie stock. No, it isn’t as thick as Nanny’s, but it is textured and rich enough to be hearty and satisfying. If you don’t want the trio, just choose one (and make it the Gumbo Z’Herbes) for $5. Want a little extra something with your soup? Get a side of fried green tomatoes ($6), which have a secret ingredient (Rice Krispies!) in the batter to keep them from getting soggy. The Gumbo Bros is open Tuesday through Sunday. MARGARET LITTMAN
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SAFOR LE
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William Gay’s Fugitives of the Heart is an homage to Twain BY FRYE GAILLARD
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imes are hard for the characters who populate William Gay’s Fugitives of the Heart, the last in a string of posthumous novels pieced together by his friends from an attic full of scenes Gay left behind. The writing in these fragments, as always with Gay’s work, was exquisite. For J.M. White, Sonny Brewer and the other writers who figured out how the scenes fit together, the effort was worth it, a forensic labor of love they feel even now for a writer who died in 2012. William Gay, they will FUGITIVES OF THE HEART BY WILLIAM GAY OUT JUNE 20 VIA LIVINGSTON PRESS 252 PAGES , $28.95 tell you, was one of a kind; more precisely, he was a once-in-a-generation talent who could read the works of Mark Twain, William Faulkner or Cormac McCarthy, absorb what they were trying to do, then do it himself and make it his own. Fugitives of the Heart is Gay’s homage to Twain. Yates, the protagonist, is just a boy when his daddy is killed, shot for stealing a side of meat from a neighbor in the hills of Tennessee. He’s Huck Finn in a different century, a boy of battered nobility and heart, rough around the edges and living off the land, whose only real friend is a Black man getting by on the margins of the segregated South. This is the rough South, the hills and hollows of Appalachia, where the Depression came early and never went away and people just do the best they can. Some of them, anyway. But maybe not Yates’ daddy, whose body is dumped from the back of a wagon by the man who caught him stealing from the smokehouse. The killer also leaves the side of meat: “If he wanted it bad enough to trade his life for it then it’s hisn.” This is where the story begins, with a moment so cruel and unexpected that it is almost more than a boy can bear. But the mountains turn pretty in the spring — “a warm wind looping up from the south” — and Yates takes heart: He saw this early spring as a gift from the fates. A balancing of some cosmic scale. The scent of wildflower rode the winds and he moved through this Edenic world with a newfound confidence. He began to think he might make it after all. In a postscript to Fugitives of the Heart, White writes about the first time he visited Gay and they talked about Cormac McCar-
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thy. Gay urged White to read McCarthy’s Suttree, and White reported that he was “blown away” — not only by McCarthy’s exquisite language, but by his ability, as White put it, “to make readers aware of events without ever describing them in the text.” It was an artful literary device that White could see in Gay’s own writing. When they talked about it, Gay smiled. The prototype, he told White, could be found in Faulkner’s The Hamlet — such had been Gay’s study of the craft, the literary art, that he detected in other writers and incorporated into his work. He loved to talk about his favorites, almost to revel in his own admiration. His publisher, Joe Taylor of Livingston Press, recalls him as “one of the most humble writers I’d ever met,” and in Fugitives of the Heart, Gay lets his central character find words for his respect. Late in the novel, Yates, the boy, reflects on life with the Widow Paiton, an attractive neighbor who has taken him in, offering, in this cold and forbidding land, a warm place to stay: Nights by the fire she’d read to him Biblical tales. The stories of stern old prophets, their mad ravings. … She’d temper this with Twain, a chapter a night of Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Huck in a fix on the sunrimpled Mississippi. Ultimately, of course, Fugitives of the Heart is not The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, nor is it merely an echo set in another time. It is not as funny, for one thing. Its humor takes the form of irony, and while it is written in third person, not first, Gay has a gift for point of view, reflecting the world through the eyes of a ragamuffin boy, while still managing, as Twain did, to write in scenes that are lyrical and lovely — almost as if he were painting with words. But the portrait is dark. The interracial friendship at the heart of the story, which seems so promising at the start — flintier, perhaps, than the relationship between Jim and Huck, but a bulwark against a hard world — abruptly takes on the specter of betrayal. Redemption comes at a terrible cost, more in the form of authentic survival, and we are left with the unmistakable sense that this is the best Yates can hope for. Or the rest of us, for that matter. 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
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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MUSIC
GONNA MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD SMILE
THE FEMALE SPECIES IN 1969
Vicki and Ronni Gossett and their band the Female Species get a long-overdue day in the sun BY CHELSEA SPEAR
V
icki and Ronni Gossett are in an enviable position. A well-respected indie label recently released their debut album Tale of My Lost Love. The all-female surf band La Luz covered the title THE FEMALE SPECIES’ track. Another song, TALE OF MY LOST LOVE “Sooner or Later,” OUT NOW VIA NUMERO has appeared in an GROUP episode of the NBC sitcom Young Rock, with more film and TV placements in the pipeline. “And [the label] told us themselves that this really has never happened,” Ronni tells the Scene, “that they’ve got so many [placements] without even having the album come out, because this stuff was happening fast.” Like so many apparent overnight successes, the sisters’ rise — impressive by any metric — was a long time coming. What’s unusual, though, is that it has been more than 50 years in the making. The Gossetts started a garage band in California in the 1960s that morphed into a Las Vegas show band. Eventually, they embarked on a new career as Nashville songwriters, with cuts in the 1980s and ’90s by artists like Pearl River, Cricket Rhodes and Dolly Hartt. Only after leaving the business — and eventually retiring from day jobs — did their rock ’n’ roll career really take off. “To have all this happen when you’re retired, that’s pretty darn cool,” says Vicki. The sisters’ story starts in Whittier, Calif. After seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, 16-year-old Vicki wanted to start “a band that’s just like The Beatles, only it’s going to be all girls.” Ronni, who is two years younger, recalls, “Of course, I want in it because she’s in it.” The pair reached out to some of their classmates, and once the lineup solidified, the Female Species started playing gigs. Because the Gossett sisters were self-taught, they preferred writing original songs to learning covers, which was somewhat unusual among garage bands of the day. The songs from their demos featured on Tales of My Lost Love have a dreamier sound than many of their contemporaries, with their swaying tempos, surf-influenced riffs and the Gossetts’ close vocal harmonies. The band was a family affair. Their mother Loretta came up with the name Female Species, and their father, known to most as Big Al, was their booking agent and roadie for shows in the Los Angeles County area. “We were so young we couldn’t work a lot of places, but my dad would go to different military bases in California, or different little things that we could play because we were underage,” remembers Ronni. “We did a lot of that, and believe me, they would go all the time and drive us.” The Female Species’ popularity would
lead to shows in Hawaii and Alaska. After they graduated high school, a reconfigured version of the band had a residency in Las Vegas. “Vegas was great because we had it very easy,” says Vicki. “There’s a million lounges you can work. We had worked there for years, so we knew everybody. But it seems like you always want more. We wanted to have a hit record — at least something we wrote that we could get cut by a major artist. Vegas is not that place.” In the early 1980s, the sisters planned a move to Nashville. They hoped to get signed to a songwriting contract and get West Coast artists to record their songs. “We came back here to check it out — we were here for [about] a week,” Vicki says. “Ronni and I came back here, and we met a lot of publishers, and they heard we had all our tapes with us. It looked like [it] could work.” One month later, the Gossetts headed to Music City in a moving van with Big Al at the wheel. “We were out pitching songs pretty much three, four days a week, trying to get a writers’ deal,” says Vicki. “In the meantime, we’re playing Holiday Inns and things like that at night. … We might do a happy hour five days a week at some hotel or something.” With two years of this routine under their belts, the sisters finally landed a contract with publishing company Peer-Talbot. Their music had evolved from psych-tinged garage rock to a smoother, more countrypolitan sound, centered on the sisters’ sweet harmonies and poignant interior monologues. Working for a publisher, however, meant they had to write and demo songs in the house style. “We would have what we thought was a great song, and they wanted to arrange it really, really country — and that wasn’t us,” Vicki recalls. “When it came time to re-sign … we asked for a release. They were really nice people, and they did give us a release. And we asked if we could buy our catalog back, and they allowed us to do that.” They would later end up at Millhouse Publishing, which was owned by RCA A&R executive Harold Shedd. Millhouse seemed more in line with the sisters’ pop-influenced approach to country music. Shedd took a liking to the sisters’ work, and while he would send their songs to big-name artists like The Judds, he also had them hold onto some of their better songs. “They all were trying to get Ronni and me an artists’ deal,” Vicki says. Their boss’s ties to RCA also led to one of the sisters’ most heartbreaking near-misses. “We got a developmental deal with RCA, which was a huge thing [to us],” Ronni recalls. “They work with you; they do everything for you. They get your hair all the way they want it, they do everything that they want, and we’re going to go for it because
we want a deal. They did a really good job, and then they build all the way up, and they do a big showcase on you. They’d get you the clothes, they do it all, and you go and do that showcase.” Ronni describes the November 1991 showcase at Ace of Clubs on Second Avenue South as “top-notch,” with a stellar band of session and touring players. One thing stood out: “It wasn’t country, because our music wasn’t country.” Afterward, a rep from RCA called to thank them for their time. “To get that call the next day and say that they passed was more than a letdown,” Ronni says. “You pick yourself up — there’s always a letdown in the music business. We were used to letdowns, but this one was a real huge one.” Vicki shifted the bulk of her energy into auto sales and Ronni into record distribution. They continued recording demos in the home studio of their guitarist John Willis under the name The Gossett Sisters. But they’d put their dreams of playing music professionally in the past. “All this stuff, Female Species and Gossett Sisters, is stored under my bed,” Ronni says. “I got rid of a lot because I thought, ‘Who is ever going to listen to “Tale of My Lost Love” or any of that stuff?’ ” Unknown to the sisters, however, their Female Species demos showed up on YouTube. Soon came a fateful phone call. At first, Vicki thought it was a robocall and hung up. But the caller dialed again. “The guy on the other end says, ‘Don’t hang up, I’m not a telemarketer,’ and so I kind of stopped for a minute,” she says. “He goes, ‘Is this Vicki Gossett?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ so I figured this is somebody I know. He goes, ‘My name is Doug Mcgowan. I work for the Numero Group. Did you write the song “Tale of My Lost Love”?’ I think I first said no, because I didn’t even remember that song.” Mcgowan has worked on compilations for
the much-loved archival and reissue label featuring garage bands, girl groups and even Nashville-born transgender soul legend Jackie Shane. Mcgowan found “Tale of My Lost Love” through a Japanese YouTube account, and wanted to include it on the comp Louis Wayne Moody High. “That’s when we started sending him tracks over the internet,” Vicki continues. “Well, the more tracks he got, the more interested he became. And I guess it was about a year after knowing him, he called us up and he says, ‘Hey, you’re not going to believe this, but we’re going to do an album on you girls.’ We were kind of floored, like, ‘What? What?!’ ” In April, a beautiful vinyl edition of Tale of My Lost Love hit the record racks. It features nine Female Species demos from the 1960s and ’70s and eight more Gossett Sisters demos from the 1980s; streaming editions include an additional 12 tracks. The Gossetts’ music has found fans of all ages, most notably among women in garage bands. “I find that many, including myself, have found a passion in discovering underground music from past decades,” La Luz bassist Lena Simon says in a letter to Vicki and Ronni. “It was so wonderful to discover Female Species’ music and story, and see women pioneering through a [still] maledominated industry.” A new fan base is discovering the Gossett sisters and the Female Species. There’s one small hindrance to making new music: “We’d have to go out and buy a new bass, a new guitar and a couple amps,” says Vicki, noting that she sold her bass a few years ago. But don’t count them out. “From 14 and 16, music and the band — or the duo, whatever we were doing — that’s kind of been our whole lives,” Vicki says. “You just never really get out of it. You’re just always in it.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
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MUSIC
THE BAKER MAN
Haggerty made his own sourdough starter from scratch, a process of combining flour and water over a period of days until it becomes a yeast culture, which then can be used to make the dough rise. “You just keep feeding it,” he says. “My starter’s probably three years old now, but there are sourdough starters in Europe that are, like, 400 years old.” Pursuing his new interest with a passion, Haggerty spent the next few years experimenting with the recipe for his bread. “Initially, I was just using regular bread flour,” he explains. “After a while I started to think about how to make it even more flavorful, and was like, ‘Well, what about milling, you know, fresh wheat and rye?’ So
my girlfriend Tania [Cirone] got me a home mill, and I experimented with a bunch of different types of grains.” Within a few months, Haggerty had settled on a consistent blend of grains for his bread and was giving away several loaves a week to some of his friends and fellow musicians in East Nashville. “I was making so much of it, I started giving it away to Joe and Marc [Pisapia], Jack Silverman, Audley [Freed] and Jen [Gunderman], and just neighborhood people,” he says. “Then after a while, people started to say, ‘You know, this is really good. You should sell it, I’d buy it.’ ” And that was the beginning of Haggerty Sourdough. When the pandemic brought
live touring to a halt, Haggerty decided to try to turn his hobby into his primary source of income, at least until live music could make a safe return. So he commissioned a logo and had bags for the bread printed. “I kind of really dove into this bread thing not only for sanity reasons, but literally for the financial reasons,” he says. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I had about 12 people that were buying it. So then 12 went to 24, then it went to 40, and then it kind of settled at 60 for quite a while.” Haggerty baked twice a week, and people would stop by his house to pick up their bread, which he would leave on his front porch. Pickup was on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Before long, his front yard became a socially distanced hangout on those days, attracting even more well-known Nashville musicians: guitar legend Steve Cropper, Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick and Pat Sansone, a member of Wilco as well as Haggerty’s Autumn Defense bandmate. Sometimes, an impromptu unplugged jam would break out. “That became sort of my social life,” Haggerty says. “We would stand in the front yard separated from each other and have conversations. It’s been really great to have that kind of social interaction twice a week, sometimes with strangers that found me on social media and a lot of times with people that were friends. So it became like a hang twice a week, especially on nice days.” That’s one more way in which making bread is like making music: It can bring people together. Yet another similarity to the music world is that you can take your bread-making business on the road. Haggerty plans to do that mid-June when he and Cirone travel for the summer to North Adams, Mass., where he owns a small home that he typically rents out. “I’m going to take a little break, but I’m going to sell some bread up there. People I know there are excited about the bread, people that have been following me [on social media]. Then I’ll resume music — and baking — when I get back to Nashville in September.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
Drops dates: June 12 and July 17. With new CDC guidelines and an increasing number of vaccinated Tennesseans, a few of our mom-and-pop record shops will be celebrating the day with live music, special deals and on-site vendors. And of course, there will be exclusive releases that are only available from indie retailers. The June 12 selections include albums appearing on vinyl for the first time, like Nashville expat William Tyler’s New Vanitas, Strange Days by The Struts, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1 (1963-1967): Highlights
(featuring home recordings, broadcasts and live performances) and The Doors’ Morrison Hotel Sessions. You’ll also find some live sets like The Police Live! Vol. 1: Boston 1979 and Vol. 2: Atlanta 1983, k bye for now (swt live) from Ariana Grande and even a Live From Grimey’s set by The Brummies. There are also reimagined or remastered-and-expanded fan favorites like Tom Petty’s Angel Dream and Conor Oberst’s Ruminations. Also among the releases, find a handful of 7-inch selections like the double A-side “The Saint of Lost Causes,” which includes the late Justin
Townes Earle’s original and Steve Earle and the Dukes’ tribute (originally released on Steve Earle’s J.T.). You can find the full list of releases at recordstoreday.com and start planning out your shopping — both for this weekend and for July 17, which will include releases from All Them Witches, John Prine, R. Stevie Moore and more. In the meantime, here’s a quick guide to the various offers and events you’ll find at the record stores around Nashville on Saturday. While Alison’s Record Shop (994A Davidson
Much-loved bassman James Haggerty fired up his oven to cope with the pandemic BY DARYL SANDERS
YOUR QUICKREFERENCE GUIDE TO RECORD STORE DAY’S RSD DROPS FOR JUNE
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
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OVID-19 has hit few professions harder than touring musicians. Like players all across the country, when the pandemic shut down live performances, Nashville bassist James “Hags” Haggerty lost his primary source of income. Facing an uncertain future, Haggerty decided to try to make some bread by, well, making some bread. “It’s not that different from music,” Haggerty says of his baking business Haggerty Sourdough. “You spend a lot of time working on it, you make it with your hands, you share it with people, it makes them happy, and they give FOLLOW @HAGGERTY_SOURDOUGH you a little bit ON INSTAGRAM FOR UPDATES of money.” Haggerty is best known as a member of Nashville bands Joe, Marc’s Brother and The Autumn Defense, and for his extensive work backing Josh Rouse. But he didn’t just learn to make sourdough bread at home last year during his COVID lockdown. His journey to becoming an artisan bread maker began several years earlier. “My mom passed away in 2016, and she was a good cook,” he says. “When I was cleaning out her house, I took a lot of her recipes and cookbooks, and some pots and pans — and also a KitchenAid mixer.” As the new owner of a heavy-duty mixer, Haggerty decided to see what he could whip up with it. He first made pasta, then he turned his thoughts to bread. “I did The New York Times no-knead recipe a couple of times,” he recalls. “It tasted really good, but then I started thinking about more flavor, and that’s when I got into the sourdough thing.”
JAMES HAGGERTY
A roundup of releases and happenings at Nashville record stores for the first of two RSD Drops events this year
BY BRONTE LEBO
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n an effort to spread some extra love and generate revenue for record stores, artists and labels who were hit especially hard by COVID-19, Record Store Day 2021 is split across two RSD
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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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MUSIC
EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
THE SPIN
FILLED UP: TANK AND THE BANGAS
IT MIGHT GET LOUD BY MEGAN SELING AND EDD HURT
CRACKING OPEN SUGAREGG: BULLY
PHOTO: EMILY QUIRK
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wo songs into Bully’s set, singer Alicia Bognanno spoke coyly into the mic: “I have something to tell you guys, but I’m gonna wait until later to tell you.” The band was a last-minute addition to Outloud Music Fest’s bill on Friday, the first of its two-night run at the Main Event Parking Lot near Nissan Stadium. Fellow local rockers Soccer Mommy had to cancel, so Bognanno & Co. — Joey Howard on bass, Chappy Hull on guitar and Wes Mitchell on drums — took the stage to play, for the first time in public, songs from the stellar rock outfit’s 2020 release Sugaregg. The band blazed through “Where to Start,” “Every Tradition,” “Add It On” and “Let You,” as well as old favorites like “I Remember.” Only toward the end of the set did Bognanno come clean with the band’s secret. Laughing, she admitted, “Joey learned all these songs last night, and Chappy learned five songs last night, and this is our first time playing together.” While the set wasn’t as airtight as a typical Bully performance — understandably — it was still electrifying. Outloud, featuring its stacked bill of LGBTQ artists and allies, was the first dose of in-person live music for many of us in the audience too. It’s been more than a year since we’ve gathered together to breathe in the clouds from a fog machine; to simultaneously grab our ears after an especially piercing bit of unexpected feedback; to collectively gasp when a drag queen does a backflip into the splits while dancing to a Janet Jackson song — love you, Alexia Noelle Paris. Over the weekend, we did it all, together. It was the first in-person show since the start of the pandemic for Friday headliner Japanese Breakfast, too. Singer Michelle Zauner made it very clear she was happy to break that seal in Nashville. She took the stage in pink cowboy boots and an oversized pink
PHOTO: EMILY QUIRK
Drive) in West Nashville isn’t stocking any of the RSD releases, they will be offering 15 percent off their entire stock on Saturday and Sunday. The vintage shop is open noon until 5 p.m. both days, and all they ask is that customers wear a mask upon entrance. If you’re looking to snag some of the RSD exclusives, head right down the road to The Great Escape (5400 Charlotte Ave.), RSD DROPS 2021 open 10 a.m. to 7 HAPPENING AT RECORD STORES ACROSS NASHVILLE p.m. (that goes for ON SATURDAY, JUNE 12, AND all five of the store’s SATURDAY, JULY 17 locations, including Madison and Murfreesboro). In addition to stocking a number of RSD Drops, the shop will also be giving away freebies, including tote bags, buttons and up to five free records from its 99-cent LP section. For a bit of live music, head down to the Murfreesboro location for “chickenfried prewar hokum-billy jug music” from Jake Leg Stompers at 2 p.m. Third Man Records (623 Seventh Ave. S.) isn’t running any special deals, but they will be stocking the limited-edition Bobo Jenkins LP My All New Life Story, a Third Man comp featuring 12 electric blues tracks Jenkins recorded in the 1970s. They’re open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and masks will be required for all customers. Over in East Nashville, Grimey’s New and Preloved Music (1060 E. Trinity Lane) will stock the majority of the RSD releases. These include the Jazz Dispensary collection The Dank D-Funk Blend Vol. 2, curated by Grimey’s co-owner Doyle Davis. The shop is open 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and community radio station WXNA will be set up outside with DJs spinning vinyl 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Masks will be required while shopping inside, but if you’re fully vaccinated, you won’t have to wear a mask while browsing the outdoor RSD tables. A couple miles down the road, The Groove (1103 Calvin Ave.) is teaming up with Acme Radio Live for an all-day celebration. The store opens at 9 a.m., when customers will be able to shop RSD exclusives and also get 10 percent off of everything except for RSD drops and electronics. A series of live performances from Ian Ferguson, Keeps, Babe Club and more (see the full lineup via Facebook) kicks off at 11:30 a.m. You’ll also be able to grab food and drinks from The Gambling Stick, The Urban Juicer and Dreamers, and the shop will host a silent auction benefiting Music Neighbors. If you’re fully vaccinated, masks won’t be required, but the room with RSD exclusives will still have limited capacity, so show up early. For more RSD exclusive titles, head over to Vinyl Tap (2038 Greenwood Ave.). Customers can start shopping the RSD tables at 9 a.m., and the rest of the store (and the bar) will open at noon. Only two customers will be allowed at the RSD table at a time, but you’ll be able to line up outside to get access. Just outside of town, Viv and Dickey’s Oldies and Goodies (1264 Jackson Felts Road in Joelton) is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. They’ll have a limited number of the RSD exclusives available at a table outside the store, so if you’re looking for anything specific they recommend calling to check if it’s available before stopping by. Viv and Dickey’s will also offer 15 percent off all used records and vintage clothing, and Big Mike’s Little Doughnuts, Riff Raff Shirts and Hippie Dave tiedye will be set up outside. Masks are no longer required for vaccinated customers, but the shop will still be limiting the number of customers allowed inside.
cowboy hat with delightfully gaudy crystal fringe dangling from the rim. It was release day for the pop-rock group’s new album Jubilee, and they opened with the first song “Paprika,” in which Zauner joyously asks, “How does it feel to be at the center of magic?” We were all at the center of magic, dancing to Jubilee’s first single “Be Sweet,” cheering on the smooth and sexy sax solo in the song “Slide Tackle.” It was especially sweet when Zauner sat down at the keyboard for a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again.” “I have to say, I was so nervous to play that song, and it has a million key changes,” Zauner said as the crowd cheered her efforts. “And I would’ve played it flawlessly, but there was a fucking spider on me. … Let me just applaud my endurance for playing a Dolly Parton song with so many key changes with a spider on me. That’s possibly the most heroic thing I’ve ever done.” On Saturday night, the humidity crept up just a bit, and the crowd waved multicolored glow sticks in the dusk. The evening kicked off with a quartet of drag performances by Shelby La Banks, Britney Banks, Chyna and Portia Clinique. Host Coco Montrese worked the stage, warming up the dance-crazed audi-
ence, who got plenty of danceable odes to self-affirmation during the rest of the night. Nashville singer and songwriter Manrelic played one song, which was weird and fascinating. The stage persona of producer and performer Jared Park, Manrelic comes across like a slightly affectless Bowie clone, and you could also hear unmistakable hints of the influence of Prince during his brief turn. What was weird — and cool — about Manrelic’s shtick was the way he let his prerecorded music simply surge on while he switched from keyboards to guitar. He took a nice Prince-like solo, and his music came across, in the limited sample we got, as both pop and something more eccentric. If you want to talk about creative eccentricity, Tank and the Bangas shook up any expectations you might have had about a modern funk band from New Orleans. The group, which was augmented Saturday by two saxophonists (one also played flute) and two backup singers, defies category in a very specific way. Their approach definitely derives from, say, The Meters and The Wild Magnolias, and there were also elements of jazzy ’70s music on the order of Earth, Wind & Fire. Still, Tank and the Bangas — led by the overwhelming stage presence of singer Tarriona Ball — are, indeed, something else. They went from jazz-fusion-prog interludes to stomping funk-disco workouts, while Ball rapped and sang in a childlike voice that often seemed positively atavistic. Their songs rolled through stages of intense funk rhythms, and the music only hinted at chaos. Tank and the Bangas got the crowd up on its feet. After that, Freak Daddy, whose time slot was also among those that allowed for only one song, and Todrick Hall — who proved himself an expert post-rap-disco stage artist — both seemed anticlimactic. Hall performed several odes to himself and celebrity culture, and the beats were as arresting as the onstage dance routines. His self-regard felt a little canned, but that may have been the point. The proliferation of livestreams during the past year has reaffirmed how much it means — to artists and fans alike — to share the experience of music any way they can. The thrill that comes from being able to enjoy shows in-person with a crowd again is well worth the wait. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
nashvillescene.com | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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FILM
HELLO VIDEONASTY
Censor takes a metatextual look at violent horror films BY NADINE SMITH
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orror movies frequently reflect on our most existential fears, as individuals and as a society. But they also often expose us to unsettling images and uncomfortable ideas, CENSOR helping to drive NR, 84 MINUTES those fears — it’s OPENING FRIDAY, JUNE 11, only fitting that so AT THE BELCOURT many horror movies are about horror movies themselves. Even if your tolerance for terror and trauma is high, there’s probably some haunting on-screen image that has wormed its way into your brain, plaguing your thoughts and infecting your dreams. Metatextuality and reference have been the stock-in-trade of scary Hollywood movies since at least Scream, but horror’s selfreflective turn has intensified over the past decade with the development of what’s been described as “elevated” horror — movies from Get Out to Hereditary to The Babadook that use the genre to very explicitly explore meaty themes and social issues, often directed at a more arthouse-going, Oscaroriented audience that might not normally take horror seriously. The new horror film Censor, from emerging Welsh filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond, is — as its title suggests — very self-consciously about the content of horror movies. Enid is a film censor in 1980s England, tasked with viewing all the bits of horror
movies that are deemed too dangerous for general audiences to see. At that time, thanks to the emergence of the VCR, the U.K. was flooded with a wave of so-called “videonasties,” cheap and generally incredibly violent horror movies distributed directly to video, and eventually deemed a public menace by politicians. As flashbacks are quick to inform us, Enid is still grappling with the trauma of her sister’s disappearance as a child, and there’s an implied link between her desire to protect the eyes and minds of moviegoers and her failure to save her sister. She’s fastidious and thorough in her work, but one day, everything goes wrong. A man has committed a grisly murder that’s uncomfortably close to a scene that Enid didn’t cut from a film she recently reviewed. As one thread is pulled, Enid’s entire reality begins to unravel; she’s assigned a film with uncanny parallels to her own childhood trauma, and becomes convinced that an actress is actually her still-missing, presumeddead sibling. There are clear parallels to films like Brian De Palma’s Blow Out and Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio, both of which are about horror film technicians driven mad in part by the images they’re forced to view over and over again, but a little bit of The Ring too — much of the momentum is driven by Enid’s meticulous reviewing of ghostly videotapes. Censor does intersperse footage from real videonasties, but for most of its runtime, it
has little to do aesthetically with the films that inspired it. The camera is generally guarded, a little stern, with a pronounced color palette that recalls the relative elegance of Dario Argento’s Suspiria more than Z-grade, direct-to-video nightmares. It’s a largely guarded and clinical film, psychological in motivation and sparing in its scares, but Censor suddenly makes a pivot to a kind of garish, plastic violence more evocative of videonasties. Without revealing too much, you might just say the cutting Enid does as a censor suddenly becomes much more real — the film’s ending is polarizing, but at least deserves credit for going for broke more than the film’s previous 70 minutes do, unrestrained and imaginative enough to suggest Bailey-Bond’s potential as a filmmaker.
NEW YORK STORIES
Broadway hit In the Heights gets the bighearted bigscreen treatment it deserves BY JASON SHAWHAN
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here are times when speech does not suffice — when emotions and secrets and boundaries and deeply held convictions gain so much strength and momentum that the only two possible outcomes are a Scanners-style IN THE HEIGHTS PG-13, 143 MINUTES explosion or to break into OPENING WIDE FRIDAY, song and dance. And JUNE 11 while no one explodes in the joyous musical extravaganza that is In the Heights, I’d like to think that those who would deny the humanity of others might at least get a pronounced nosebleed at the kindnesses offered herein. I was already won over by the film’s smartly directed, thrilling approach to staging its musical numbers. But then In the Heights one-upped itself in the salon-set “No Me Diga,” when a crèche of bewigged mannequin heads becomes a lo-fi Greek chorus, displaying an understanding that a meme-able moment has a reach that is unbound by focus groups or the bonds of time. A quality wig moment is something expansive, and it’s one of the many intersections that writer Quiara Alegría Hudes, composer/lyricist/
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piraguero Lin-Manuel Miranda and cinematographer Alice Brooks find a place for in this festive dive into all the feelings. It’s a refreshingly polyglot experience, defiantly alive and determined to make the viewer feel connected to everyone. Director John M. Chu knows what he’s doing. He’s a veteran of the Step Up series (including its majestic 2010 3-D chapter) who knows how to stage the hell out of a musical number, as well as the guy who helped Crazy Rich Asians become a box-office phenomenon (and yes, there are set pieces in this film that comfortably sit beside that film’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous wedding sequence). This is an exceptional marriage of director and material. A Broadway smash in the Aughts, In the Heights is best known as Miranda’s pre-Hamilton endeavor. But it’s so much more. When a trip to the municipal pool becomes a 21stcentury Busby Berkeley extravaganza with regimented water ballet, Fossefied (say it like Clarence Carter) tangles and even Cirque du Soleil-style mass isolations,
it’s electrifying. The translation from musical theater to film is so often a battle between fantasy and realism, between visceral immediacy and resonant endurance. The tendency in recent years to rely on giant greenscreen environments and CG everything makes these tactile apartments, stoops and streets of New York City (and those that production designer Nelson Coates reconstructed on a backlot) into something that reassures our collective sense of space. Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) is the incarnation of the community. Cuban by birth, and without children, she has helped care for seemingly everyone in the neighborhood. A source of meals and understanding for whichever of the neighbors might need it, she’s a strong-willed woman who has borne decades’ worth of struggle to remain standing when the chaos and oppression momentarily relents. She has a number (let’s call it the Act 1 finale, even though it isn’t, really — the film has no act break, and it wasn’t the pre-intermission closer in the play) that utilizes New
In some moments, Censor feels like it genuinely wants to reckon with the violence of genre movies; in others, it blatantly takes the piss out of those who’d blame societal ills and structural issues on violent movies. Though it’s hard to miss the satirical motivations of its commentary, Censor is ultimately still a film about someone who loses their mind because they watch too many scary movies. Its world is one in which film sets are graveyards, directors are manipulative masterminds, and actors do real violence — maybe it’s the nightmarish delusion of a mad conservative who is too convinced of media’s ability to drive us to action, or maybe it’s just a muddled, unclear movie. Censor might be colorful on the surface, but thematically, it’s like a staticky tape of pure white noise. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
York City’s subway system as an Expressionist journey through history. It is one of the most amazing achievements in any film this year. If you see In the Heights and this sequence doesn’t make you feel something overwhelming, then I’m worried about you. If the foundation of the global-pandemic narrative is human empathy, “Paciencia y Fe” illustrates it perfectly. What’s utterly maddening, though, is that even at the film’s moments of triumph, the outside world can’t help but rob In the Heights of its transformational power. No matter how hopeful a sweeping piece of entertainment can make you feel about the process of helping the undocumented population become citizens, the banal horrors of what is happening in state legislatures and American homes all over the country can’t help but unmake hard-won joy. Roger Ebert rightfully said that movies were an essential tool for teaching empathy — but empathy has to be a two-way street, and it feels like so much reinforced hatred, classism and racism have gone into whatever you want to call the current right-wing movement that not even the biggest-hearted musical-theater feelings can help. But damn if In the Heights doesn’t try extra hard. For the majority of its runtime, the film finds and maintains an effervescent tonal balance that lets grit, glam, magical realism and sweeping feelings play nice together, bringing something for everyone to the table. As Broadway prepares to take to the stage once again, this gift of a film lights the way, understanding the healing power of a big ol’ musical when it comes to metabolizing tragedy and getting back in touch with the humanity we share, gathered in the dark. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
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Rental Scene
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206 Fairfax Ave Nashville, TN 37212 | www.fairfaxflats.com | 629.702.2840
To advertise your property available for lease, contact Keith Wright at 615-557-4788 or kwright@fwpublishing.com
Cumberland Retreat 411 Annex Ave Nashville, TN 37209 1 Bed / 1 Bath 675 sq ft $959
2 Bed /1 Bath 1008 sq ft $1259 2 floor plans
cumberlandretreatapartments.com | 615.356.0257 Dupont Avenue Apartments 601 N. Dupont Avenue Madison, TN 37115
1 bed / 1 bath 650 sq ft $872 to $1184 3 floor plans
dupontavenue.com | 615.285.5687
Gazebo Apartments 141 Neese Drive Nashville TN 37211 1 Bed / 1 Bath 756 sq ft $1,119 +
2 Bed / 1.5 Bath - 2 Bath 1,047 – 1,098 sq ft $1,299 +
3 Bed / 2 Bath 1201 sq ft $1,399 +
5 floor plans
gazeboapts.com | 615.551.3832 38
NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 10 - JUNE 16, 2021 | nashvillescene.com
East End Village Townhomes 307 E Village Lane Nashville, TN 37216
1700-1820 sq ft plus 400 sq ft attached garage $1950-$2400 4 floor plans
eastendvillageapartmentsnashville.com | 629.205.9131
Fairfax Flats 206 Fairfax Ave Nashville, TN 37212 1 bed / 1 bath
Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D54
$1200 to $1375 634 sq ft
DARIUS J PARHAM vs. NOVINA R KING
Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 21D745 MARSHALL HILL vs. DIANA MARIE BURKE
InjuRy Auto ACCIdEnts WRongFul dEAth dAngERous And dEFECtIvE dRugs
Voted Best Attorney in Nashville Call 615-425-2500 for FREE Consultation
www.rockylawfirm.com LEGALS Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 21D745
MARSHALL HILL vs. DIANA MARIE BURKE In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon DIANA MARIE BURKE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter Her appearance herein within thirty (30) days after July 1, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on August 2, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be
Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell Deputy Clerk Date: June 3, 2021 L.R. DeMarco Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 6/10, 6/17, 6/24, 7/1 Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D54 DARIUS J PARHAM vs. NOVINA R KING In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon NOVINA RAE KING. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 10, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 12, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville. Richard R. Rooker, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: May 12, 2021 Ellis H. Marshall. Ill Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 5/20, 5/27, 6/3 & 6/10/2021
Richard R. Rooker, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: May 12, 2021 Ellis H. Marshall. Ill Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 5/20, 5/27, 6/3 & 6/10/2021
Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 21D156 ANGELA P. BAILEY vs. ALBERT E. DIXON, JR. In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ALBERT E. DIXON, JR. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein within thirty (30) days after June 17, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 19, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville. Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: May 19, 2021 Mary S. Foust Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 5/27, 6/3, 6/10 & 6/17/2021
EMPLOYMENT Senior Developer (Software Developer, Applications ) needed for HCA/Management Services, Nashville, TN. Engage in analysis, design, programming, testing, and development of .Net based applications. Utilize ASP.Net, C#, Java Script, MVC, JQuery, VB Script, and knockout. Work with a SQL Server database. The employee may work remotely from home within commuting distance of Nashville, TN up to 3 days per week. Must have a BS degree in computer science or engineering and 5 yrs. of
1 floor plan
fairfaxflats.com | 629.702.2840
2100 Acklen Flats 2104 Acklen Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212 Studio / 1 Bath 1 Bed / 1 Bath 517 sq ft Baker, Donelson, Bearman, 700 sq ft Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. TN. Associate, Global- $1975 $1600 - $1625Nashville, $1825 Business Team. Performs
Senior Developer (Software Developer, Applications ) needed for HCA/Management Services, Nashville, TN. Engage in analysis, design, programming, testing, and development of .Net based applications. Utilize ASP.Net, C#, Java Script, MVC, JQuery, VB Script, and knockout. Work with a SQL Server database. The employee may work remotely from home within commuting distance of Nashville, TN up to 3 days per week. Must have a BS degree in computer science or engineering and 5 yrs. of overall progressive IT exp. which includes at least 2 yrs. of exp. in the skill sets listed above. Will also accept a MS degree in computer science or engineering and 3 yrs. of overall progressive IT exp. which includes 2 yrs. of exp. in the skills listed above. Send resumes to: elaine.healy@hcahealthcare .com
substantive legal functions in client matters and maintains positive contact with clients while observing confidentiality in client matters. Req. a Juris Doctorate (JD) along w/a bachelor’s in Economics, business or rltd field to include courses in Int’l Law & Int’l Trade. Must have state license to practice law or able to obtain licensure w/in 12 months of hire. Qualified candidates must be fluent in Mandarin & must have knowledge of either Chinese or Korean law & be willing to travel internationally. To apply, please visit https://www.bakerdonelson.com/op en-positions-lateral-attorneys & apply under ID #680 (req. # ASSOC01535). Please also include your resume, law school transcript, & cover letter addressed to Rebecca Simon, Director of Recruiting.
2 Bed / 2 Bath 1036-1215 sq ft $2400 - $2800
12 floor plans
2100acklenflats.com | 615.499.5979
Developer II (Multiple positions. GEODIS Logistics, LLC, Brentwood, TN): Reqs: BS (US or foreign equiv) in CS or related; 5 yrs exp implementing Data Warehouses in commercial environ; exp w/ dimensional modeling, star schemas, & data cubes; exp w/ SQL, ODI, & Oracle RDBMS; exp w/ Unix/Linux, .Net, NodeJs , Java, JavaScript, Shell script, & Python; exp w/ cloud infrastructure tools, Docker, Kubernetes & Ranchers. Mail resume to Sharon Barrow, GEODIS Logistics, LLC, 7101 Executive Center Drive, Suite 333, Brentwood, TN 37027. ID: DEVEL17458
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. Nashville, TN. Associate, Global Business Team. Performs substantive legal functions in client matters and maintains positive contact with clients while observing confidentiality in client matters. Req. a Juris Doctorate (JD) along w/a bachelor’s in Economics, business or rltd field to include courses in Int’l Law & Int’l Trade. Must have state license to practice law or able to obtain licensure w/in 12 months of hire. Qualified candidates must be fluent in Mandarin & must have knowledge of either Chinese or Korean law & be willing to travel internationally. To apply, please visit https://www.bakerdonelson.com/op en-positions-lateral-attorneys & apply under ID #680 (req. #
Acadia Mgmt Co seeks an ITSM Administrator in Franklin, TN. Req BS in CS, Info Sys, or another computer-related field & 2 years of IT work exp using an enterprise ticketing system (Will also accept MS in CS, Info Sys, or another computer-related field + 1 year of IT work exp using an enterprise ticketing system). Must also have exp or bkgd in each of the following: coding with C#, SQL, PowerShell, JavaScript, HTML or CSS; data integration using SOAP or REST API’s, or via direct connections to a database; SQL Server; SSRS; working with an IT ticketing system; ETL; Agile software development; SQL Server Management Studio; & Postman. For a full job description and to apply, visit acadiahealthcarecareers.com.
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Architects, IT Solution. Drive cross domain technology plans to align with enterprise goals, business plans, and business processes for a major retailer. Employer: Tractor Supply Company. Location: Brentwood, TN. Multiple openings. To apply, mail resume (no calls/emails) to P. Hatcher, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027 and reference job code 0173.
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In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon DIANA MARIE BURKE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter Her appearance herein within thirty (30) days after July 1, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on August 2, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon NOVINA RAE KING. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 10, 2021 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 12, 2021. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
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