CITY LIMITS: AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND THE MAYORAL RACE
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NASHVILLE’S WEIGHTLIFTERS
COMPETE AND BUILD COMMUNITY BY ALEJANDRO
EARLY VOTING FOR THIS YEAR’S METRO ELECTIONS BEGINS FRIDAY, JULY 14
FOOD & DRINK: DATE NIGHT AT JACQUELINE AND MOTHER’S RUIN
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MUSIC: CATCHING UP WITH NASHVILLE ART-PUNKS SNOOPER
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Ron Jude’s imposing, large-scale black-and-white photographs depict the raw materials of the planet and its systems that are the foundation of organic life. Stripped bare of the evidence of human existence, they remind us that these natural phenomena operate indifferently to our presence in the face of an ecological crisis. The exhibition’s title references the lowest threshold of human hearing, 12 hertz, suggesting the limits of human perception.
Downtown Nashville 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
50 Years of the Metro Council on the
Talking to Pat Nolan, Bill Higgins and others about five decades of televising Nashville’s legislative body
WILLIAMSAn Enlightened Message In Nature’s Messenger, Patrick Dean follows an 18th-century naturalist of the American South
Upcoming Shows and Releases: Far Out Fest, Becca Mancari and More
Appeals Court Reinstates Trans Health Care Ban
Pastaria to Introduce New Executive Chef With a Roman Wine Dinner
Former Senator, Democratic Leader Roy Herron Dies at 69
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Since news has spread of Butch Spyridon’s retirement from his role as head of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, the city has collectively risen to its feet to applaud. It’s a bittersweet moment for Nashville, as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of this fine leader while reluctantly bidding him farewell. Spyridon’s unwavering support, tireless dedication and infectious enthusiasm have transformed Nashville into a thriving global brand and a sought-after destination. The good news for us is that, as recently reported by the Nashville Business Journal, he will continue to serve the city in a consulting capacity for the next two years. And as he told The Tennessean last month, that will allow him to “chase large events” — something he does very well.
Everyone deserves to sit back and see that good results have come from their hard work, and no one should be prouder than Spyridon. Under his leadership, Nashville has experienced extraordinary growth in the tourism industry. The NBJ reports:
“Since 2013, the number of hotels in Nashville has gone from 187 to 273, representing 46% growth. Hotel room revenue has seen 157% growth, growing from $730 million to $1.9 billion. Music City earned the No. 2 spot on Cvent’s 2023 Top 10 Meeting Destinations in North America list, up from No. 6 in 2019.”
But statistics alone don’t define Spyridon’s impact on Nashville. He also has an unwavering belief in Nashville’s potential, an infectious passion for the city and the ability to rally others to share his vision.
“Getting Nashville to believe in itself in terms of what we could do,” Spyridon told The Tennessean, “here in Nashville and outside, convincing people that we’re worthy, we’re capable and we’ll probably overdeliver on that. That challenge, it really doesn’t ever go away.”
As the NBJ put it, “Butch didn’t coin the name Music City, but he made Nashville’s casual nickname a global brand.” His focus on songwriters and their stories added an authentic touch to Nashville’s narrative, captivating the hearts of visitors and locals alike. Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International, told the NBJ: “Just from my perspective, outside of the songwriters themselves and a small handful of congressional leaders, Butch is the most important advocate we’ve ever had in America for songwriters in modern times.”
Spyridon’s collaborative approach has extended beyond the realm of music. Spyridon sought partnerships with diverse organizations. Whether it was the 2019 NFL Draft (which attracted upwards of 600,000 attendees), the recent NHL Awards at Bridgestone Arena or the numerous Stanley Cup Final watch parties, Spyridon’s ability to bring people together and create memorable experiences is unparalleled. “A global map, a destination map … doesn’t happen without sports,” Spyridon said.
Back in January, the Nashville Scene relayed Kevin Lavender’s thoughts on Spyridon’s impact. As Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp chair and head of commercial banking at Fifth Third Bank,
Lavender knows the NCVC better than nearly anyone in Nashville’s business community. “It is hard to imagine anyone else who has shaped Nashville’s growth and success as much as Butch,” said Lavender, “from branding it as Music City to making it attractive to professional sports teams and corporate relocations to elevating the quality of life by drawing world-class events, restaurants, retail and hotels.” I wholeheartedly agree.
Nashville will miss Butch Spyridon’s leadership, but we embrace the future with gratitude for the foundation he has laid. Spyridon’s successor, Deana Ivey, has had the privilege of working closely with him for many years and possesses the knowledge and experience to continue building upon his achievements. After all, Deana has been with the NCVC for nearly as many years as Butch. She is currently the president of the NCVC and has been instrumental in Nashville’s growth since she began in 1997. Under Ivey’s guidance, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp will remain in capable hands, ensuring the city’s continued growth and prosperity.
And what can a newly minted CEO expect to hear from her former boss? Here’s what Spyridon said about Ivey when she was promoted to the position of NCVC president: “She has been a committed partner these past 25 years and has been integral in shaping the Music City brand, creating and attracting major events, and marketing Nashville around the world.” Ivey’s history with Nashville, her experience in the tourism industry and her dedication to charitable organizations make her Spyridon’s clear successor.
We are in good hands with Deana Ivey. And to Butch Spyridon, we express our heartfelt gratitude.
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In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016
PAT NOLAN
BY NICOLE WILLIAMS
It all started with some angry neighbors and a contentious zoning bill.
In 1968, Vanderbilt University had entered into an agreement with the Nashville Housing Authority — the precursor to the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency — in which the department promised to condemn properties to facilitate Vanderbilt’s expansion if the university was unable to negotiate a price the homeowner would accept. By the early 1970s, the Metro Council was considering expansion of this so-called urban renewal area, putting additional parcels under threat of condemnation.
The neighborhood holdouts were furious. They formed a neighborhood association and approached PBS affiliate WDCN-TV with a proposal: Why not televise the public hearing on the proposed expansion? Perhaps the threat of sunshine could convince councilmembers to vote against the plan.
WDCN’s producers seized on the idea. “There was so much interest back then in the council,” recalls then-Councilmember and former Judge Bill Higgins. “I think it was real widely watched.” Vice Mayor David Scobey agreed to allow WDCN to televise the council meetings beginning on July 3, 1973 — the night of the public hearing — under one condition: They couldn’t leave when the hearing ended. They would have to cover the entire meeting, gavel to gavel.
Pat Nolan was fresh out of college, having graduated from Vanderbilt in May 1973. He was looking for a job. By chance, his nextdoor neighbor saw a notice on the bulletin board of the Green Hills Library. WPLNFM, the local NPR affiliate, had received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They were hiring. “I barely
knew what WPLN was,” says Nolan. But he’d worked for Vanderbilt’s station WRVU during college.
It wasn’t the path his mother envisioned for her son, the first in his family to graduate from college. “My mother wanted me to go down to the banks, the insurance company, the telephone company, and apply to get into their training program for executives,” Nolan tells the Scene. She told Nolan that if he worked hard, he could retire in 40 years “with a gold watch and a pension.” Nolan wasn’t swayed. He took the job at WPLN.
Not long after he started, Nolan received a call from WDCN producer Mike Kroger, who asked if Nolan would be willing to anchor WDCN’s first live broadcast of the Metro Council. Kroger would pay $25. “If I thought I was doing something unique,” says Nolan, chuckling, “I would’ve asked for more money.”
It was Nolan’s first television job. He’d never even been to a council meeting before. “I guess, thinking back on it, it was like getting thrown in the deep end of the pool and being told to swim.”
After a lengthy public hearing amid a standing-room-only crowd, the council voted to defer Vanderbilt’s proposal to a later date. Then Vice Mayor Scobey abruptly called a recess.
Nolan would come to expect this and devise ways to fill the time for the television audience. “They used to do this,” Nolan recalls. “They’d do something important, and they’d take a recess to go out in the hall and talk about it.” That first night, though, Nolan was unprepared. “So there I was: dead air.” He scrambled to flag down Vanderbilt’s lawyer for an impromptu interview.
After a time, the council returned to the chamber and resumed business as usual. The meeting, which began at 7:30 p.m.,
lasted for five-and-a-half hours. When he left the chambers in the early hours of July 4, Nolan made a beeline for the International House of Pancakes.
Nolan quickly became a fixture in the Davidson County Courthouse, covering the council for WPLN, WDCN, and NewsChannel 5. For Nolan, “The council is democracy in action: the good, the bad, the ugly and the, ‘Oh my God, is that really happening on live television?’”
One such “oh my God” moment came during a vote to censure Councilmember Jack Clariday. Clariday had been indicted and convicted of accepting a $2,500 bribe in a quid pro quo uncovered by a young investigative reporter by the name of Albert Gore Jr. Clariday hadn’t yet resigned from his post, though he was facing a prison sentence. Nolan was crouched in front of Clariday, holding a microphone to ensure he’d have solid audio coverage of the proceedings.
Called on by the vice mayor, Clariday slowly stood, faced the dais, and said, “Mr. Chairman, now I know how Jesus felt when they nailed him to the cross.” It was all Nolan could do to stop himself from laughing in Clariday’s face. “I knew we had the soundbite of the night,” Nolan says. “It wasn’t going to get any better than that.”
These days, you can catch the council meetings streaming on the Metro Nashville Network. In 2017, under the leadership of then-Vice Mayor David Briley, that coverage was expanded to include committee meetings, where much of the deliberation on legislation takes place.
Briley doesn’t recall any particular impetus for expanding coverage — just a general feeling that “the time was right.” Councilmember At-Large Bob Mendes remembers District 24 Councilmember Kathleen Murphy being the voice of the push for greater coverage. Murphy doesn’t remember the specifics, but thinks it was a group effort. “I think when we got elected,” Murphy says, “we were a lot younger than previous councils, and we were like, ‘Metro, meet technology.’” Then-Council Director Mike Jameson, renowned for his extensive memory, doesn’t recall specifics either. “Everyone just immediately acknowledged that this was the thing to do,” he says.
“Maybe it’s good that none of us really found this eventful enough to remember,” says Murphy, who sees the collective amnesia as indicative of a general acceptance of public scrutiny.
Murphy, who is term-limited, challenges the next council to build on this work to find “the next iteration of transparency in government,” perhaps by expanding coverage of Metro’s various boards and commissions. Bill Higgins agrees.
“It’s good to have somebody looking over your shoulder,” he says.
Nicole Williams is a fervent observer of the Metro government’s comings and goings. On the Scene’s news and politics blog Pith in the Wind, Williams writes the “On First Reading” column, in which she recaps the bimonthly Metro Council meetings and provides her analysis.
EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
After a late-term push from state legislators to assume control of the Nashville International Airport, BNA now has two boards — one appointed by Mayor John Cooper and the other appointed by state leaders. While the two wrestle in court, the Federal Aviation Authority announced in a letter it will continue to recognize the city’s board as the airport’s rightful authority. … Mayoral candidate Jim Gingrich told the Nashville Banner that pro-NASCAR interests threatened him with attack ads because of his opposition to a proposed $164 million plan to renovate The Fairgrounds Speedway. The plan, which has taken years to solidify between the mayor’s office and regional NASCAR operator Speedway Motorsports, would require more than $100 million in city-funded improvements and cede operational control of the site to Speedway Motorsports for 30 years.
… The Islamic Center of Tennessee filed suit against former organization board chair Salah Ayesh for staging a “hostile takeover” of the Antioch community center for Muslims. The lawsuit alleges that Ayesh, accompanied by two of his employees from his real estate business, stole documents from the center and interrupted worship services. … Former state Sen. and Democratic Party leader Roy Herron died Sunday from injuries sustained in a jet ski accident on July 1. Herron represented Dresden and parts of West Tennessee in the state House and Senate from 1986 to 2012 and chaired the Tennessee Democratic Party from 2013 to 2015. … The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s request to lift last month’s partial block of the state’s ban on gender-affirming health care options for minors. By reversing the previous ruling by Nashville Judge Eli Richardson, the appeals court effectively reinstates the controversial Tennessee law targeting health care options for young trans people in the state. … Vice Mayor Jim Shulman spoke with the Scene about the council’s top job and his reelection challenge from Councilmember Angie Henderson Community Oversight Board leader Arnold Hayes also answered questions about his bid for one of Metro’s five at-large council seats. Stay tuned for more interviews with at-large candidates as Election Day (Aug. 3) nears.
… Contributor Betsy Phillips reminds readers that the country’s founding values are rooted in the same white nationalism that continues to drive government today, specifically Republican lawmaking. … Despite a last-minute maneuver last week by Councilmember Zach Young, the NASCAR deal will likely die in council this term. At its July 6 meeting, the body also moved forward approval for a controversial apartment complex in Bellevue, which was brought directly to the council by the district’s representative, Dave Rosenberg. Columnist Nicole Williams recapped the special Thursday meeting in full.
Advocates say making the city safer for people with mobility issues could make the city a better place to live for everyone
BY CONNOR DARYANIIt’s no secret that getting around in Nashville if you’re not in a car is often a nightmare. Last year set a new record for pedestrian deaths in the city at 49. Even for a non-disabled individual, navigating some of Nashville’s busiest pikes can be harrowing. For someone in a wheelchair — or someone who’s visually impaired, or has one of any number of other disabilities — a trip of just a few blocks can present dozens of challenges.
“Not everyone identifies the dangers we face if they’ve never experienced them, such as when an incomplete, poorly maintained, poorly designed sidewalk becomes an obstacle to one’s mobility,” says Joy Andal.
Andal lives near Nolensville Pike, a street that ranks as one of the most dangerous in the city for pedestrians. She uses a wheelchair to get around, and consistently has to risk her life just to go down the street for dinner.
Many of the problems Andal faces are issues that a non-disabled person might never encounter. Nashville’s sidewalks are inconsistent, often randomly stopping and picking back up again. The sidewalks the city does have are often laden with debris. On a recent trip down Nolensville Pike, Andal points out a small crack in the ground — one that a non-disabled person would likely step over, possibly not even noticing.
“Something like that could catch one of my front wheels and launch me into the right of way,” says Andal. Even on wellconnected sidewalks, she’s at frequent risk of being hit by cars as they pull in and out of parking lots. Crossing the street, not only does Andal say the signal doesn’t give her enough time to cross, but because she is lower to the ground than someone who is standing — she points out, around the same height as a child — in many cases someone in a car cannot see her.
And while fixing these issues would definitely make Andal’s life better, the positive impact on the lives of non-disabled Nashvillians could also be immense.
“It wasn’t until I had small children and was pushing them in a stroller that I even grasped how crucial some of these things are,” says Peter Robinson. He and Andal both serve on Nashville’s Vision Zero Advisory Committee, where they make recommendations to the Metro government on how to achieve the goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths in the city. “I started benefiting from some of the same infrastructure improvements like curb cuts and things like that, that are just absolutely necessary for somebody who has maybe a mobility issue or whatever else.”
The Vision Zero Advisory Committee is made up of Nashvillians from all different
walks of life. While they don’t have much power outside of making recommendations, in a city like Nashville — a city that is in major need of pedestrian-focused infrastructure — their voices can play a huge role in shaping the city’s future. Robinson says Andal’s voice has been vital in ensuring they can make recommendations for accessible infrastructure.
Although any new infrastructure has to be ADA compliant, the Americans with Disabilities Act didn’t come around until the 1990s, and even following that, enforcement has been an issue. Andal says that on top of having to retrofit old, inaccessible infrastructure to make it ADA compliant, even something that is compliant isn’t necessarily safe or easy for her to use.
Natasha Wilkins, a Nashvillian who is blind, has had similar experiences.
“A lot of the ADA compliance standards are unfortunately the floor, and not the ceiling,” Wilkins tells the Scene. One example she gives is the chirping at crosswalks that is meant to let people who are visually impaired know when it’s time to cross. “That is technically ADA compliant … but that is woefully inadequate, woefully inefficient, exceptionally unhelpful.”
One of the first pedestrian deaths in Nashville this year occurred when a visually impaired woman was walking her dog in Madison. Wilkins says the woman was on a street that did not have a sidewalk — a standard in Nashville. For someone who is blind, not only can sidewalks be lifesaving, they can also greatly improve quality of life.
“If you have vision loss, nine times out of 10 you’re not able to drive,” says Wilkins. “If I can walk somewhere, then that’s going to improve my quality of life as a Nashvillian.”
Members of the Vision Zero Advisory Committee leave the board in intervals. Andal says she has volunteered to be the next person to roll off in hopes that someone could join who is visually impaired. She hopes that by including more Nashvillians who are disabled in conversations, the city can begin to become a safer, easier place for everyone to get around.
“We have to have people who are already at the table open and willing to create a seat at the table … for people with disabilities,” says Wilkins. “But then we have to have people with disabilities willing to step up and take those seats at the table so that we can ensure that perspectives, ideas and concepts that only a Joy or myself will be able to understand are included in the discussion and hopefully etched into the policymaking.”
EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COMThere are a dozen different metrics that illustrate just how unaffordable it has become to buy a home in Nashville, but this is one of the simplest: In September 2018, according to sales data compiled by Redfin, the median price of a home sold in Davidson County was $275,000. By May 2023, that median price had risen to $446,000. Data compiled by the Affordable Housing Task Force shows the picture is no better for those who rent. In January 2020, the average monthly rent being asked in Nashville was $1,400, but by July 2022, that number had grown to $2,400.
BY CONNOR DARYANI, NASHVILLE BANNERThose are staggering figures that have implications for both buyers and renters alike at almost any price level. And it means the affordable housing crisis is the most urgent issue the next mayor will face.
The core of Nashville’s affordable housing problem is simple: Nashville needs more places to live for lower prices. But when you begin to consider what creating that housing actually looks like, things begin to get far more complex. As with most issues, the elephant in the room is funding. But between for-profit development eating up land, state preemption interrupting incentives for developers, out-of-date zoning
code and a bottlenecked permit system, an already expensive problem begins to feel insurmountable.
“Nashville really hasn’t made a bit of headway on any front of affordable housing,” says Brent Elrod, the managing director at Urban Housing Solutions, a nonprofit that develops and manages affordable housing. “It’s a wicked problem, and it’s affecting so many different levels of income across the city. It’s not really neighborhood-specific or demographic-specific anymore.”
The affordable housing crisis has been emerging in cities nationwide, and with the continued rapid growth in Nashville, solving the problem is truly a race against time. Nashville has grown by 20 percent in the past decade, making it one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. On top of population growth, inflation of construction costs and the sheer price of acquiring land have made it more difficult for numerous nonprofits to develop housing at a cost that allows them to sell or rent at
Nashville’s problem is simple: We need more housing and we need it now. The solutions for the next mayor are not as simple.This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news and will launch later this year. For more information, visit NashvilleBanner.com.
affordable rates.
“Before 2015, we could buy land very cheap — it wasn’t an issue,” says Mark Wright, executive director of Be a Helping Hand, an affordable housing nonprofit. “After 2015-2016, it was nearly impossible for us to buy land.”
As people moved to Nashville from more expensive parts of the country, housing prices were driven up, and for-profit developers began buying up land in prime areas of the city where housing is needed the most, along major pikes and surrounding the downtown area.
It’s not uncommon for a Nashvillian working a hospitality or service job downtown to get priced out of anywhere nearby and have to move farther from the city center.
The Affordable Housing Task Force established by Mayor John Cooper found in a 2021 report that in order to meet the city’s needs, taking into account both current demand and future growth, Nashville needs to create 52,498 new units of housing by 2030, which would require creation of an average of 5,250 units per year. At the time of the report, the production level of affordable units was 1,344 per year.
This mirrors an overall national trend in new home starts. Since the economy crashed in 2008, new home starts in the U.S. have consistently lagged behind need. This is particularly true for homes at the lower end, leading The New York Times to write in 2022, “What Ever Happened to the Starter Home?”
Area median income is the metric used to determine what is affordable. If a household pays 30 percent or less of its income on housing, it is considered affordable. A household that spends more than 30 percent of its income on housing is considered costburdened. The need for housing units in Nashville largely falls between 0 and 80 percent of AMI.
“In 2021 for a family of 4, that range represents income levels from $0-$67,450,” notes the Affordable Housing Task Force’s report. In 2023, rent for a onebedroom apartment at 60 percent of AMI should cost no more than $1,070 to be considered affordable. The heaviest burden lies in the lowest income ranges, where there is a need of 35,715 units by 2030.
Some grants, such as those coming out of the city’s Barnes Fund, are made available to developers based on building housing that is affordable to households making 60 percent of AMI or less. The Barnes Fund was established in 2013 by then-Mayor Karl Dean and is the most significant source of funding for affordable housing, investing almost $93 million in affordable housing to date — funding that in turn makes the city more appealing for competitive federal grants. The Affordable Housing Task Force’s report recommended budgeting $30 million per year to the Barnes Fund, a number that was met in this year’s budget. But experts say that won’t be enough.
“The Barnes Fund has been a very well-used, effective tool,” says Eddie Latimer, CEO of Affordable Housing Resources, another affordable housing nonprofit. “But the emphasis is on ‘a.’ It is a tool, and it’s working really well. But with the cost of land, with the cost of construction, it just doesn’t produce as many units as it used to. We need other tools.”
The biggest product of Cooper’s time in office has been the establishment of a baseline for moving forward.
The creation of the Affordable Housing Task Force and the ensuing 2021 report was a wakeup call for the city. While the affordable housing crisis had already become apparent by the end of the last decade, it really wasn’t until Cooper’s term that we
with us on june 18
figured out just how drastic of a response the crisis would require. The task force and the data it put together is vital in figuring out what the city’s housing needs are.
Cooper also managed to get funding for the Barnes Fund on track. While a budget crisis at the beginning of his term temporarily threw things off, his administration has since been able to meet requests, outpacing Barnes funding from previous years. In fiscal year 2019, the Barnes Fund provided for construction of 327 new units. In fiscal year 2022, that number grew to 1,434.
It’s a drastic problem that will require drastic solutions, but at the very least, the past four years have established a good baseline for the next mayor to build on.
It’s become a common refrain on the campaign trail to say Nashville has had enough of plans and it needs action. But when it comes to affordable housing, a cohesive, streamlined plan might need to be the first step if the next mayor wants to start making a dent in the crisis.
Nashville has a lot of nonprofits and organizations working to develop housing, and with each one focusing on different needs, income levels and demographics, the next mayor will have plenty of experts to tap in forging a path forward.
“I don’t want to see somebody get elected and then shut the door to experience, which has happened over and over and over again,” says Latimer. “They hire these out-of-town gurus out of Denver and [Washington] D.C. who know nothing about our market to come in and come up with some plan, which winds up on the shelf.”
Affordable Housing Resources, Urban Housing Solutions and Be a Helping Hand recently came together with seven other affordable housing nonprofits to create the Alliance for an Affordable Nashville. The 10 nonprofits hope they not only can become a resource for the mayor and other elected officials to tap into going forward, but that they also can begin to coordinate their efforts to create housing as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Nonprofits have to follow the same guidelines as for-profits, but we’re not as lucrative [and don’t] have as many funds to apply for our projects,” says Wright. Wright, Latimer and Elrod all say one of the most significant issues is that people don’t understand what is required to create a unit of affordable housing. Costs typically grow from the time of a proposal to final approval and funding. In one case, Elrod says UHS had to apply for a second round of Barnes funding just to fill the gap that was created by the time it took for them to get the project approved and finalized.
One of the biggest steps the next administration will need to take is simply making it easier to build affordable housing. This could mean a number of things: prioritizing affordable housing in the permitting process, updating codes to smooth out the process of getting approved and even eliminating single-family zoning to allow more multifamily homes to be built in the urban core.
Housing is a simple problem with complex solutions. The next mayor will need to be ready to prioritize finding creative ways to streamline and simplify the rapid creation of a diverse portfolio of housing units.
“I feel sure that the next mayor will have affordable housing as their No. 1 priority in office,” says Elrod.
“It’s a mandate, and I think if the next mayor fails to deliver, they won’t make it to a second term.”
EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
This Gibson Hummingbird Dark model acoustic guitar was used by Eric Church on his “Double Down Tour” in 2019—three years after he contributed to the limited-edition guitar’s design, which features a translucent Ebony Burst lacquer finish, dark mother of pearl fingerboard inlay, and matching Hummingbird Dark pickguard.
From the exhibit Eric Church: Country Heart, Restless Soul, presented by Gibson
artifact: Courtesy of Eric Church artifact photo: Bob Delevante
RESERVE TODAY
Acacophony of thuds and crashes resounds through a boxy brick warehouse in Madison. It’s the sound of athletes pursuing the elegant art of lifting heavier and heavier loads of iron high over their heads, and letting them fall to ground once that task is complete.
There are no windows in the main lifting area — just wooden platforms, a clutter of weights and rows of barbells on the walls alongside various flags and banners. The smell of worn metal is in the air, and there’s no juice bar, no high-tech bikes or treadmills. This gym, the Nashville Weightlifting Club, focuses on Olympic weightlifting, and the goal is to master the two specific moves practiced in the official games: the snatch and the clean-and-jerk.
Thin metal bars are decorated with different colored plates: blue, green, yellow and red, each denoting different kilogram totals. The plates are added, removed and exchanged, but the athletes continue to repeat the same movements, aiming for flawless form. Kilograms are the language of weightlifting, as coach and former Olympian Osman Manzanares puts it. Events sanctioned by international bodies don’t let you work in pounds.
Aubrey Hutchinson has been training at Nashville Weightlifting Club for seven years. She’s already back in the gym just days after winning a silver medal at the most recent Pan American Masters compe-
tition, held in Orlando, Fla., in May. In a competition, athletes have only three attempts at each move.
She’s hard at work performing the snatch: She shifts into a squat, and swings the bar from the ground to above her head in a fluid swing. She holds for a second in a low squat, arms raised straight into the air, her balance unshifting as she stands herself upright. Manzanares smiles as Hutchinson’s form doesn’t change even as she continually adds weight.
Manzanares doesn’t hesitate to push an athlete when he knows they can do a little more. A tall man, Chris Garvey, is performing the clean-and-jerk, a motion that sees the bar raised from the ground to his shoulders in a squatlike position (clean), and pressed once more over his head (jerk), sometimes with a lunge. Manzanares shakes his head and walks over to Garvey to offer advice. He also tells Garvey to add two 5-kilogram (11-pound) plates to the bar, already adorned with at least 150 kilograms (roughly 330 pounds). Garvey doesn’t hesitate, and adds it.
Manzanares believes the extra weight will cause Garvey to focus more on the pulling motion needed to get the bar off the ground. The coach isn’t wrong, and the next clean attempt goes better. Manzanares still has advice, but he’s beaming.
“I know the training that he does,” says Manzanares. “He’s training for a lot more than that.”
Garvey has been a competitive lifter for 10 years, and has trained with Manzanares
for six. He’s qualified for the North American Open Series, a national competition taking place in December in Wilmington, N.C.
Garvey continues to add weight, and completes a full clean-and-jerk. The move complete, Garvey lets the weight crash to the ground. He sits and recovers before it’s time to go again.
To the untrained eye, Olympic weightlifting may seem a bit routine. While a bar bowing under the weight of heavy plates is a dramatic visual, the subtle footwork, explosive movements from the legs and hips, and the national and world records associated with the different weights are all lost on a casual viewer.
Garvey tells the Scene that what makes the sport special is that it’s not just a matter of strength — it’s about finesse.
“You look at some of the Olympic guys … pushing 400 pounds, they’re lifting lightning-fast,” says Garvey. “It’s graceful.”
Emily Prostko, who has trained for a year at Nashville Weightlifting and hopes to qualify for a national competition, says mastering the technique is part of the appeal.
“The snatch is the most technical movement that you can do with a barbell, and because of that, it’s the most challenging,” Prostko says. “It’s a little addicting to have a constant challenge that you can never beat, because you can always put more weight on the bar.”
MANZANARES HAS BEEN weightlifting for 40 years, and represented Honduras in the
1992 Olympics. He was introduced to the sport around 1984, when a Polish weightlifting coach and his athletes held a seminar in Honduras during a tour of Latin America.
Manzanares, who was a bodybuilder back then, was awestruck. A Polish man smaller than himself — Manzanares is maybe around 5-foot-7 — lifted 90 kilograms, or 200 pounds. Manzanares says it was a remarkable sight in the ’80s, especially in Honduras. Manzanares tried to lift the same weight, but lacked the technique.
“That guy used to defy gravity with the weight he actually lifted,” says Manzaneres. “That’s what we do, we’re defying gravity.”
The words echo a sports medicine paper from 1970 titled “The Defeat of Gravity in Weightlifting,” which frames the sport as a battle between the athlete and physics. The lifter needs to act quickly to stand a chance against the relentless nature of gravity — hence the need for speed and finesse.
Manzanares trained. He learned the proper skills, surpassed 200 pounds (“I couldn’t believe it!”) and went to the Olympics. He didn’t medal, but he still displays his shoes and nametag prominently in the gym.
After living for years in New York, Manzanares arrived in Tennessee around 2001
to continue coaching athletes he knew from Honduras. There wasn’t a competitive weightlifting scene in Nashville at the time, he says, and he and his crew trained at odd places, like a room loaned by the Parks and Recreation Department. But they were still fearsome, world-class competitors, representing Nashville at events around the country.
Manzanares officially opened his first gym in 2009 in The Nations, and then moved to the current location in Madison in 2016. Around the time of the first gym’s opening, a trendy new fitness regimen emerged that led to more people seeking out his worldclass advice. Competitive CrossFit athletes wanted to improve their weightlifting to excel in competitions and began training at Nashville Weightlifting Club.
Manzanares trains adults and youths who want to compete at the national level, but he also helps athletes looking to cross-train and build knowledge. He even coaches remotely, and — now in his late 50s — still competes himself. Manzanares says many of his athletes have started their own gyms in Tennessee and elsewhere.
Manzanares trains each person differently depending on their goals. A wrestler who wants to build strength has different needs than a CrossFitter. But if someone wants to compete in Olympic weightlifting, Manzanares needs to see two things: “The first is the willingness to train,” and the second is “the love of the sport.”
“He loves coaching,” says Garvey. “He’s very knowledgeable, he’s very passionate, and he loves what he does.”
Nate Chung, who has trained at the gym since October, says Manzanares has a lot of insight into what an athlete is capable of. Chung also says there’s a tight-knit community fostered at the gym. “It’s super encouraging, and that vibe, you can’t really find everywhere.”
Prostko, who was part of an Olympic weightlifting team in college, also sings Manzanares’ praises. “I have gained more strength in the last year than in the three years before that.”
A few trophies in the back of the gym display some of Nashville Weightlifting Club’s accomplishments. In addition to Hutchinson’s silver at the recent Pan Am Masters, three other club members won gold. Manzanares’ own prizes decorate the club as well. At least two dozen medals hang in his office near his desk — “and not many of them are second place,” he says — and his hall-of-fame plaques from various organizations adorn the walls. He received the most recent hall-of-fame award at the Pan American Masters event in May. “They actually surprised me with that,” he says, smiling.
Manzanares’ athletes have gotten to travel to take part in competitions, including the international tournament El Criollo in Puerto Rico. Garvey says everyone seems to know Manzanares, and coaches from all over stop to chat with him at big meets — it’s a tight-knit community, especially for those with decades in the sport.
Manzanares will host a pair of USA Weightlifting-sanctioned events this year as well. The first is July 15, hosted at the gym and billed the Battle of Champions. The second is the Howard Cohen American Masters Championships on Nov. 9, which will be held in Lebanon, Tenn. (“Masters” in weightlifting refers to athletes age 35 and older.)
Manzanares says it’s the first time an event of that caliber has been held in Middle Tennessee. It’s a big responsibility, with the gym seeking sponsors and partners. But he also calls the hosting duties an honor.
THE COMPETITIVE WEIGHTLIFTING community in Nashville is small but growing slowly. It’s far easier to find boutique gyms, CrossFit clubs, high-intensity cardio programs, and even gamified OrangeTheory outposts than no-frills spots like Manzanares’.
Garvey — who also sits on the TennesseeKentucky Weightlifting State Organization, which helps support the sport in both states — says competitive lifting gyms were easier to find when he lived in Chicago.
Weightlifting sports all emphasize different movements and goals. Olympic weightlifting focuses on technique and
speed to perform its two main moves, while powerlifting emphasizes three moves — the squat, the benchpress, the deadlift — and the smaller range of motion means athletes are moving heavier weights.
But then there are the strongman competitions, which can see athletes do everything
from multiple reps of a classic lift to pushing a sled loaded with weight or even pulling a truck.
“Every other strength sport is static, meaning you don’t move,” says Blake Harris, a strongman coach and competitor. As explosive as Olympic weightlifting can
NATE CHUNG ALSO SAYS THERE’S A TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY FOSTERED AT THE GYM. “IT’S SUPER ENCOURAGING, AND THAT VIBE, YOU CAN’T REALLY FIND EVERYWHERE.”
RETURNS TO TPAC DECEMBER 8–24!
Tickets on sale NOW at NashvilleBallet.com
be, competitors usually stay more or less in place, he says. “Whereas with strongman events, there might be a few different events where you’re actually moving with something.”
Harris adds that every strongman competition features a different challenge: “different equipment, different types of lift, what you’re lifting, how you’re lifting.” The sport even has its own accessories, like logshaped apparatuses. In comparison, Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting focus on the same few lifts with standard barbells.
Before getting into strongman, Harris had been chasing an NFL career, and while he played professional arena football, he also worked part time at a gym. One day back in 2014, he noticed a regular coming in and training with odd equipment and doing strange exercises. Harris couldn’t help but approach the man and ask for details. It turns out he was training for an amateur strongman competition, and Harris wanted in. The contest was less than two weeks away, and although Harris couldn’t find the right coach in time, he still competed.
Harris says he “just kind of went in blind,” and still “placed six out of like 14.”
Harris had fun, and kept up with his strongman training after that. Eventually he ended his pursuit of an NFL career, but all that football training still comes in handy: He’s used to challenges that require him to move with heavy weight, like yoke carries and sled presses. Harris still competes in events, and has been hosting competitions in Nashville since 2019. He also teaches a strongman class on Sundays at the gym he owns, Music City Muscle.
Harris says that even though Nashville is “not a nitty gritty ‘strength Mecca,’” it
hasn’t been hard to carve out a community of weightlifters at his gym — which is open to everyone, not just strongman athletes.
Harris says the biggest hurdle facing the sport is its name: strongman. He tries to demystify the sport for new participants. “Even the name itself would almost lead people to think that they’re not strong enough to do it, when that’s really not the case at all.”
Harris is not just a competitive coach but also a personal trainer. While many people go to gyms wanting to look better, Harris wants people to leave the gym feeling better and stronger rather than being focused on appearances.
“It’s … helping people get into a performance mindset and celebrating what our bodies can do instead of being so stuck in our heads about what it looks like,” he says.
A DUA LIPA SONG blares from speakers at Music City Muscle one Saturday in June, the early-morning sun lighting up the gym through its massive windows. Rainbow
decorations are strewn about, and a line of shimmying people take turns stepping up to a bar loaded with weighted plates, pulling it off the ground and past their knees in a deadlift. There’s applause every time someone steps up to the barbell, and the crowd cheers every time the bar goes up and clanks back down. Participants go to the back of the line after a successful lift, readying themselves for an increase in weight, or to tap out if the load becomes too heavy.
It’s a Pride Deadlift Party, benefiting local LGBTQ causes Trans Aid Nashville and Oasis Center. Local trainer Barbara Puzanovova organized it, modeled after a similar fundraiser she saw in Seattle.
Under her brand The Non-Diet Trainer, Puzanovova has worked with women — especially women who have experienced eating disorders — to help them build strength and confidence. Puzanovova isn’t a competitive lifter herself, but she enjoys strength training, and meets with clients regularly at Music City Muscle.
The message most women receive about
fitness, says Puzanovova, is that “exercise is for you to get smaller for you to burn calories. I find that a really boring reason.”
Inclusivity is a big problem in the fitness world, says Puzanovova — though it’s not necessarily because gyms are outright prohibiting people. “There is a big difference between saying all are welcome here, and then also making sure that the spaces are actually welcoming,” she says.
Puzanovova says she’s seen that among Nashville’s competitive and noncompetitive weightlifters.
“We will cheer just as much for you if you’re lifting something that feels heavy for you [instead of] only cheering for you if you’re lifting something that’s over X amount of pounds,” she says.
One of the participants at the Pride Deadlift Party — Ali Wine, who also trains with Puzanovova — echoes the sentiment.
“The reason that strength training appeals to me is really at the end of the day, you’re just competing against yourself,” she says. “You have a defined number that you work towards, and you grow, and [build] up your strength.”
Weightlifting is all about progress, and no one starts at moving a record-breaking amount of pounds, whether that’s strongman, powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting.
Emily Prostko, back at Nashville Weightlifting Club, says the first step toward success is “being humble enough to just sit down and learn the technique,” even if that means lifting an empty bar for a while. That’s where even the top competitors in the country began.
“They all started out with an empty bar — everyone did.”
WHILE MANY PEOPLE GO TO GYMS WANTING TO LOOK BETTER, HARRIS WANTS PEOPLE TO LEAVE THE GYM FEELING BETTER AND STRONGER RATHER THAN FEELING FOCUSED ON APPEARANCES.
JULY 13
SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS BLUEGRASS NIGHTS AT THE RYMAN RHONDA VINCENT WITH THE KODY NORRIS SHOW
JULY 19 SCHOOL OF ROCK
JULY 20
SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS BLUEGRASS NIGHTS AT THE RYMAN DAILEY & VINCENT
AUGUST 28
DRAKE WHITE’S BENEFIT FOR THE BRAIN WITH RANDY HOUSER, RILEY GREEN, JAMEY JOHNSON & MORE ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
OCTOBER 7
LUCINDA WILLIAMS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
NOVEMBER 5
NOT THAT FANCY: AN EVENING WITH REBA & FRIENDS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
NOVEMBER 15
PORNO FOR PYROS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF THE USA WITH HILARY HAHN
July 20*
CYPRESS HILL PERFORMS “BLACK SUNDAY"
September 5 at Ascend Amphitheater STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW LIVE
September 6*
WANT SYMPHONIC: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT with the Nashville Symphony, An Americanafest Special Event
September 19
RUBEN STUDDARD & CLAY AIKEN: TWENTY YEARS | ONE NIGHT
October 8*
THE BLACK VIOLIN EXPERIENCE
October 10
BILLY OCEAN
October 12*
AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH DAVID FOSTER AND KATHARINE MCPHEE
November 5*
*Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
There’s a huge array of artistic expression that falls under the broad umbrella of “psychedelic,” and the folks who bring you Far Out Fest have consistently offered an extensive sampling of it through visual and video art, poetry, music and more. The pandemic forced a detour into the online realm for 2020 that turned out to be exceptionally fruitful, and the fest stayed on the web in 2021. After a year off, Far Out comes back as an inperson happening for its sixth iteration. The festivities begin at The Groove on Thursday with the Far Out Flix Movie Night, which includes two hours of short films curated by Defy Film Fest’s Dycee Wildman and a musical performance from Gardening, Not Architecture. That’s a free all-ages hang. Friday and Saturday, the party moves over to The East Room, where you’ll find vendors of psychedelic wares at the Far Out Market as well as music. The bill includes Far Out veterans like punk outfit Mouth Reader and Atlanta sitar player Arjun Kulharya’s Naan Violence, as well as newcomers like Afrobeat aces Afrokokoroot, electronic ensemble Sugar Sk*-*lls and Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s Harleigh Colt doing a DJ set. Check out the full lineup and all your ticketing options at faroutfestnashville.com.
Thursday at The Groove, 1103 Calvin Ave.; Friday and Saturday at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Ave.
STEPHEN TRAGESERART [ODDS AND ENDS]
Wayne Brezinka has one of the most recognizable styles in Nashville’s contemporary art scene. His multimedia collages are a little like Vik Muniz-
style optical illusions — Brezinka takes ephemeral materials like concert tickets, bits of fabric, vintage photos and newspaper clippings to create uncannily lifelike illustrations of icons from Fred Rogers to Bob Dylan. His exhibition Past Forward: 2008 to 2022 features 14 works that span the past 15 years and is the artist’s first career retrospective. Exhibition highlights include the work Brezinka was commissioned to make for Willie Nelson’s 2009 album Lost Highway, as well as a portrait of Bruce Springsteen that’s made from rare concert ephemera. It should be like an “I spy” game for music fans and art enthusiasts — pinpointing Brezinka’s source materials is an art in itself. Opening reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Chromatics, 701 Murfreesboro Pike
LAURA HUTSON HUNTERTHURSDAY, JULY 13
culture in the region and a profitable venture for local musicians, among them Bombino and Mdou Moctar. Stratocasters plugged into loud amplifiers bring jubilation to everything from baptisms and weddings to political events and holidays. For more than a quarter-century, the group Etran De L’Aïr has worked the city circuit, developing a sound that’s become uniquely their own. The quartet’s 2022 album, aptly named after their hometown, showcases their range of progressive Afrobeat that’s steeped in tradition while exploring the transcendental limits of desert blues. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. JASON VERSTEGEN
[INTRO BUST]
[MODERN
If the concept of post-country exists, it’s safe to say the genre bears little resemblance to post-rock. The pleasures of updated country that isn’t tied to the production values of the bigtent commercial stuff lie in things like songwriting and relaxed presentation, while post-rockers scramble to make their music as avant-garde as they can. For Nebraskaborn and Texas-residing country singer Melissa Carper, the form is elastic, as you hear on her 2022 breakthrough album Ramblin’ Soul, which she cut in Nashville.
Carper sings in a manner that’s both humane and sly, with fadeaway phrasing and a finely honed sense of humor. Ramblin’ Soul got national distribution via Nashville marketing company Thirty Tigers, and it shows off Carper’s chops in Western swing, country and blues. Carper is a prolific artist who has also done fine work with fiddler Rebecca Patek in Buffalo Gals. The duo’s 2020 collection Where the Heart Wants to Go shows off their instrumental skills — Carper is a superb bassist, among other things — and the track “Pray the Gay Away,” which Carper wrote with Nashville singer and songwriter Brennen Leigh, is queer country at its funniest. Thursday at Dee’s, Buffalo Gals take the stage one day after Carper plays her first show on the Grand Ole Opry Whatever you want to call Carper & Co.’s take on the traditional verities of country, it’s great to see artists who know how to advance the genre without buying into the nostalgia that so many post-country artists indulge in. 8 p.m. at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, 102 E. Palestine Ave. EDD HURT
Nestled among the mountains of Niger in West Africa lies the city of Agadez. The bustling urban center is a haven for guitar-centric psychedelic surf rock born out of the Saharan sand that surrounds the community of more than 100,000 residents. Electric guitar rock is a pillar of social
It may be a late show on a Thursday, but the lineup feels like a CBGB matinee 35 years ago. CMI (aka Conservative Military Image) has a name that gets a double-take from suspicious members of the punk scene police, especially when a name like that comes equipped with shaved heads and Fred Perry polos. What started as an antisocial one-man band has quickly grabbed a lot of attention in the hardcore scene, wearing their WarZone influence on their sleeves proudly. Drawing from working class U.K. bands like Blitz, early New York hardcore and the nasty Aussie hard rock of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, Midwestern menaces CMI
seem bent on smashing every stereotype that comes along the way. Atlanta’s Strangle You made some noise last year with their 7-inch on Life and Death Brigade Records, a seven-song EP with the unleashed fury of bands like SS Decontrol, Downset and Sheer Terror. Make sure to catch locals Great Minds, fresh off their ironclad Livin’ N Color EP. Hard Way Out, a heavy/dissonant five-piece from Chattanooga, will be joining in too. 9 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave S. P.J. KINZER
[INDIAN-AMERICAN ROCKERS]
MUSIC
YOUNG THE GIANT
Multiplatinum alternative rockers
Young the Giant bring their American Bollywood tour to Nashville Friday night with a stop at Ascend Amphitheater. The band’s fifth studio album, American Bollywood, was released last year in four four-song parts — Origin, Exile, Battle and Denouement — with the album being released in full in November. It’s a sprawling and ambitious work that speaks to the band’s growth musically and personally — three of the band’s members became fathers prior to the making of the record. “This is not just the story of an IndianAmerican caught in between two worlds,” lead vocalist and principal lyricist Sameer Gadhia says. “It’s also our universal search to find meaning in chaos.” The band has released two singles from the collection, “Wake Up” and “The Walk Home,” both of which reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. In addition to the material from American Bollywood, fans at the Nashville show can expect to hear past favorites, such as the Top 10 alternative hits “Something to Believe In” and “Cough Syrup.” German rockers Milky Chance open. 7 p.m. at Ascend Amphitheater, 310 First Ave. S. DARYL SANDERS
[SPITTING IMAGES]
ART
Have you been looking for a reason to check out the West Gallery of the Parthenon, one of the most overlooked museum spaces in the city? Well, here it is.
Opening this week is The Role of a Replica, an exhibit organized by the Centennial Park Conservancy and Parthenon curator Jennifer Richardson. It features hands-on displays and activities to let you pretend you are an archaeologist and explore replicas related to the Parthenon. Through these exhibits you’ll learn about the process of using molds and casts to reconstruct friezes and other work and how modern imaging and light technology can reveal lost colors and pigments on ancient statues.
“When the [Parthenon] was reconstructed to be a permanent icon of the city, Nashville also committed to creating a full-scale replica of the ancient temple’s interior,” Richardson says in a statement. “This devotion to scholarship and accuracy has created an opportunity for people to experience the pinnacle of Greek architecture in a way that is no longer possible, even in Athens, Greece.” The
free gallery opening for The Role of a Replica takes place July 13; the full exhibit runs through the end of the year. Opening reception July 13, 6-8 p.m.; through Dec. 31 at the Parthenon, 2500 West End Ave.
MARGARET LITTMAN
The seven films that make up this year’s Sundance Shorts Tour are a fascinating, funky bunch. Most of them are U.S.-based films about family. “When You Left Me on That Boulevard,” which won the acclaimed film festival’s Short Film Grand Jury Prize this year, has a Filipino-American teenager getting high and quietly freaking out during a raucous family gathering. U.S. Fiction Jury Prize winner “Rest Stop” follows a Ugandan-American woman and her kids as they travel by bus to reunite with the man of the house. The documentary “Parker” chronicles an African American man and his kids changing their last name, and “Take Me Home” is a drama in which two Asian American sisters — one of whom is intellectually disabled — must sort things out after the death of their mother. The rest are just quirky efforts: the animated “Inglorious Liaisons,” where emotions rise at a party full of French teenagers; the fast-paced comedy “Pro Pool,” about a French-Canadian college graduate getting stuck working at a pool shop; and the darkly comedic “Help Me Understand,” where women learn a lot about each other while being part of a focus group. July 14-20 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
Fans of determinedly lo-fi garage rock probably have fond memories of The Beets, a New York band that released what I guess is its best album, Let the Poison Out, in 2011. Led by Uruguayan-born singer
Juan Wauters, the band sounded like a more folk-oriented Troggs, or maybe a little bit like the great 1960s Uruguayan garage-rock group Los Mockers. Let the Poison Out went beyond standard rock irony on tunes like “I Think I Might Have Built a Horse” and “Wipe It Off,” which gained resonance via a style of playing you could call nondoctrinaire. Wauters returned to Uruguay in late 2020 after living in New York for nearly two decades, and his 2023 solo album Wandering Rebel finds the rock auteur in fine form. If you’re hungry for a song about enjoying a sandwich with your significant other, Wandering Rebel features something titled “Milanesa al Pan.” Meanwhile, “Millionaire” covers Wauters’ experiences in Los Angeles. As he sings, “It’s hard to get around Los Angeles / When you don’t have a car.” Wandering Rebel is wobbly and melodic with plenty of charm to spare. Wauters might have transcended The Beets’ halting garage rock in order to perfect equally halting folk-pop-rock. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room, Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. EDD HURT
The Belcourt has an interesting double feature planned for this week. Prepare to go back to 1969, when a wannabe cowboy gigolo (Jon Voight) and a limping lowlife (Dustin Hoffman) form a friendship as they scrape, steal and scheme on the dirty, lonely streets of New York in Midnight Cowboy. Notoriously known as the only X-rated film to ever win three Academy Awards (including Best Picture), John Schlesinger’s adaptation of James Leo Herlihy’s 1965 novel practically ushered in the blunt, bleak and brazenly adult cinema that ruled throughout the ’70s. But, according to documentary vet Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story), it brought so much more to the table. Before Cowboy, you’ll see her new documentary, Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, where Buirski uses the classic as a springboard to basically discuss the ’60s. Buirski interviews several people (including Voight and other Cowboy castmates) about the Vietnam War, LGBTQ rights and all the other era-defining things they believe Cowboy boldly addressed way back when. Friday and Tuesday at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
When you ask a comedian to share with you the worst joke they ever heard, you’re engaging in the kind of Indiana Jones villainy you know could blow up in your face. But the concept for local comedian Peter Depp’s inaugural Worst Joke Ever event is an approach that allows comedians to work as storytellers, freed from the tyranny of expectation. In theory, removing that unspoken aspirational “good” from the comedy experience opens up whole new vistas; given the road miles and
Saturday, July 15
SONGWRITER SESSION
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, July 15
WRITERS’ ROUND
Featuring Luke Laird and Jeremy Spillman
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, July 16
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Jen
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, July 22
Saturday, July 22
SONGWRITER SESSION
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, July 22
POETS AND PROPHETS
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER SOLD OUT
Sunday, July 23
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Friday, July 28
BOOK TALK
HATCH SHOW PRINT Block
10:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:30 pm
HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY
am
TAYLOR SWIFT EDUCATION CENTER
THU 7.13 COLEMAN X • TRAVOLLTA • AMANDA STONE
FRI 7.14 FAR OUT FEST DAY 1
SAT 7.15 FAR OUT FEST DAY 2
SUN 7.16 BLUPHORIA • KILLJOY • ALL POETS & HEROS • WEAKDAZE
MON 7.17 NASH HAMILTON AND THE C.H.O • NOAH G. FOWLER • SOPHIE GAULT • STELLA HANSEN
TUE 7.18 ULTIMATE COMEDY FREE OPEN MIC
WED 7.19 AUNT KELLY • YOKO AND THE OH NO’S • FATHER SUNN • STEPHIE JAMES
THU 7.20 TENNIS COURTS • MICHAEL ALLEN CLAYTON DILL • EMMA OGIER 2412 GALLATIN AVE @THEEASTROOM
countless hours comics spend honing down material from coal to diamond, we’re more able to appreciate the aesthetic and critical mind of the comedian just for the inordinate amount of insanity they have to filter through in society. At the very least, this is the kind of window into the creative mind that only therapists and bartenders tend to get. 8 p.m. at Third Coast Comedy Club, 1310 Clinton St. JASON SHAWHAN
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT FOR TICKETS & UPDATES
THURSDAY, JULY 13
6:30PM
JUSTIN A. REYNOLDS at PARNASSUS Disunion Among Ourselves
4:00PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19
KIDLIT SUMMER CELEBRATION with CHRISTINA SOONTORNVAT, JAMIE SUMNER, & KRISTIN O’DONNELL TUBB at PARNASSUS
Into the Shadow Mist (Legends of Lotus Island #2)
SATURDAY, JULY 22
2:00PM
SHANNON STOCKER at PARNASSUS
Warrior: A Patient’s Courageous Quest
4:00PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26
WALDO CELEBRATION at PARNASSUS
Join the hunt for Waldo! parnassusbooks.net/event
FRIDAY, JULY 28
6:30PM
RICHARD RUSSO at PARNASSUS
Somebody’s Fool
6:30PM
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1
KIRSTIN CHEN with SHEBA KARIM at PARNASSUS Counterfeit
3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243
Shop online at parnassusbooks.net
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@parnassusbooks1 Parnassus Books
[WORK
As we approach the height of summer, West Side arts space Random Sample celebrates the abundance of the world in full bloom with an extensive and widely varied bill of exceptional musicians. It’s hard to think of a better artist to top the bill than Frank Hurricane, a widely traveled rock, blues and folk minstrel who uses his work to examine the spiritual dimensions of our complicated life on Earth, who comes on the heels of his new LP River of Love Some of the participants — The Cherry Blossoms, Ziona Riley, Kevin Coleman, Kyle Hamlett, Joseph Allred, The Angels of Death — lean toward the folkier range of the musical spectrum within their own unique expressions. And then there are musicians like Kelby Clark, Drug Mall, Taphead, Picture Rather Muted and Memphis’ Mono Lisa, whose work is more electronically focused, leaning toward manipulating texture and ambience whether their style is intense or relaxed. Come to listen closely, come to relax and dance — it’ll be rewarding in any case, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. 3 p.m. to midnight at Random Sample, 407 48th Ave. N. STEPHEN TRAGESER THEATER
With the continued rise of single-parent households it can be difficult to find someone who doesn’t have some form of daddy issues. Almost 80 percent of all single-parent households in the U.S. in 2022 were headed by single mothers according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With this in mind, the stage play Daddy Issues seeks to provide a space to heal some of those paternal wounds. The two-and-a-half-hour show from Memphis’ Latoya Tennille aspires like many other art forms to bring forth these unresolved and damaged feelings in order to help recognize and heal them. The show will describe how the family as a whole is impacted by the absence of fathers and how the effects can linger with children for their entire lives, providing a more nuanced approach by showing how these situations can impact and damage the family as a whole. Come and join the important discussion and begin healing those unresolved daddy issues. 7 p.m. at The Barber Shop Theater, 4003 Indiana Ave. BRADEN SIMMONS
ART
This playful but ambitious group show has all the makings of greatness. With Seven Surfaces, some of Red Arrow’s best artists — Paul Collins, Lauren Gregory, Wansoo Kim, Desmond Lewis, Jean Nagai, Moises Salazar and Margaret Thompson — show what they can do with nontraditional
or previously unexplored surfaces. For example, Collins is known for his paintings and works on paper, so the wooden carvings he’s exhibiting here are a change of pace that shows the range he’s capable of producing. Other artists are already known for idiosyncratic mediums — Salazar’s glitter-and-faux-fur canvases have garnered attention from Hyperallergic and artnet. Other works include quilts, porcelain and stoneware, and a correctional fluid piece from Nagai that looks a little like an astronomical map and a little like the Magic Eye posters from the ’90s. Far out Opening reception 6-9 p.m.; through Aug. 26 at Red Arrow, 919 Gallatin Ave. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
All hail the queen! After another metamorphosis, musical icon Beyoncé has emerged from the hive and headed straight to the dance floor. The multitalent’s seventh album, Renaissance, entered the world last year to critical and commercial acclaim and took home many coveted honors (except the Album of the Year Grammy, which went to a white man who said, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” while accepting the award). Renaissance sees Queen Bey explore everything from disco and bounce to house and electro pop, exhibiting further evidence of her versatility across style and genre. Earworms like “Cuff It” and “Break My Soul” blend into the more experimental tracks with seamless ease. The Renaissance World Tour is a display of opulence and a portrait of a woman at the top of her game, not to mention being one of the most coveted concert tickets of the year. Beyoncé’s diamond-studded spaceship lands at Nissan Stadium ready to abduct the crowd for a trip through dance music history they’ll never forget. 7 p.m. at Nissan Stadium, One Titans Way HANNAH CRON MUSIC [THEY
Back in the mid-1970s, The Contenders wowed audiences in Nashville and beyond with their superb songwriting, their accomplished musicianship and their tight vocal harmonies. In 1977, not long before
Tommy Goldsmith (guitar, vocals), Champ Hood (guitar, vocals), Walter Hyatt (guitar, vocals), Steve Runkle (bass, vocals) and Jimbeau Walsh (drums, vocals) decided to part ways, the band made a well-regarded album for Moonlight Records. Their eponymous LP was the very first release for the North Carolina-based indie label and has long been out of print. But that all will change later this month when a remixed, remastered edition of The Contenders will be released on CD. This Saturday at Springwater, the two surviving members of the band — Goldsmith and Walsh — will be joined by bassist John Owen, guitarist Joe “Hoze” Fleming, guitarist Walter Carter and vocalists Tomi and Nancy Lunsford to celebrate the reissue, of which advance copies will be available. “We hope to see a lot of people and make some small re-creation of the spirit of that music,” Goldsmith tells the Scene. Hood’s nephew, guitarist Warren Hood, and Hyatt’s son Taylor and daughter Rose will also perform. 4 p.m. at Springwater, 115 27th Ave. N. DARYL SANDERS
Led by former The Hard Corps vocalist Ronzo “The Beast” Cartwright and former Ludichrist guitarist Glen Cummings, Nashville rap-rock pioneers Stone Deep released a series of cutting-edge recordings in the ’90s that were important additions to that burgeoning subgenre. Late last year, the band began reissuing remastered versions of their ’90s recordings and thus far have released new versions of their first two EPs, Nashville and Gangs and the Govt. To celebrate the recent release of the latter, Stone Deep will be performing an all-ages “Migraine Matinee” at Drkmttr Saturday afternoon. It will be the group’s first show in 24 years. “It felt like the world had somehow realigned to Stone Deep’s music and message,” Cummings says. “We all felt it, started talking and realized everyone was thinking this same thing — Stone Deep needed to start playing again.” The band’s current lineup features three founding members — Cartwright, Cummings and vocalist-turntablist Terry Hayes, aka DJ KUTT — along with the group’s longest-tenured rhythm section, bassist Tim Brooks and drummer David
Howard. Seize & Desist, Tower Defense and The Shanks join Stone Deep on the matinee bill. 2 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike
DARYL SANDERS
MUSIC
[I WILL NOT GO] BLINK-182
Are you a millennial who peaked in middle school? Do you still think poop jokes are funny? Do you have a skateboard hanging on your wall as “home decor”? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be entitled to financial compensation from 1-800-Lawyers. Just kidding! But you might like Blink-182, the pop-punk patriarchs who never quite seem to grow up. The band’s influence on early2000s teen culture is undeniable, but are their songs really that good? They might not be, but you probably still know all the words, and that’s really all it takes to have a great night at a show. Who knows, you might even see a Kardashian! Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge — the latter of whom recently returned to the band after a long fill-in stint from Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba on guitar and vocals — will play Bridgestone Arena July 16, with support from hardcore punks Turnstile, whose most recent record Glow On topped the U.S. Hard Rock Chart and was acclaimed as one of the best of 2022. 7:30 at Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway
HANNAH CRON
[I
At the intersection of Blaxploitation and Afrofuturism is this far-out early-1970s artifact courtesy of experimental-jazz icon and Alabama native Sun Ra. In Space Is the Place, Ra and his band the Arkestra take their music-powered spaceship to an alien planet, which they decide will be a new home for the African American diaspora. What follows is a combination of dramatic scenes and performance footage that at times feels pretty cobbled-together — journeywoman B-movie editor Barbara Pokras did some pretty heavy lifting making the pieces fit. But it’s also a fun, trippy time, full of Sun Ra’s wild and influential freejazz sounds, funky fashions and excellent sci-fi gibberish. And at the core of Space Is the Place is a philosophy that was key to Sun Ra’s whole body of work — that Black Americans deserve a place in culture free from the toxic structure of white supremacy. “For him, outer space wasn’t just a gimmick or a convenient source of song titles,” The New York Times’ Jon Pareles wrote of Ra’s film in 1993. “It was a zone where racism was inoperative.” Space Is the Place will screen twice as part of the Belcourt’s Music City Mondays series. 3:45 and 8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2101 Belcourt Ave. D. PATRICK RODGERS
Because she plays what sounds like a Guild acoustic guitar and writes lyrics about her relationship to a world that can be decidedly unfriendly, Massachusettsborn singer-songwriter Eliza Edens has been described as a folk artist. What you hear on her 2022 album We’ll Become the Flowers, though, is the influence of English singer and guitarist Nick Drake, who died in 1974. Edens shows off a nice touch as a finger-style guitarist throughout We’ll Become the Flowers, and the production — by Minnesota bassist Pat Keen — folds in bits of mild electronica that give weight to Edens’ carefully wrought songs. The album also features guitarist Dexter Wolfe, who has worked with Keen on records by the similarly experimental post-folk band Humbird. I find Edens’ musical structures more expressive than her lyrics, which can meander into vagueness. For example, this couplet, from the otherwise beautiful We’ll Become the Flowers track “Ineffable,” seems a trifle overworked: “My mother of the mountains wears her heart out on her sleeve / She has trouble explaining the day-to-day happenings.” Still, We’ll Become the Flowers is superior singer-songwriter music that bears comparison to the work Drake and Joni Mitchell were doing in the 1970s. The record is too arty to be called folk music, and there’s nothing wrong with a little pretension, as both Drake and Mitchell have taught us. Hayes Peebles and Charlie Hill open. 8 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike EDD HURT
Until One Direction comes off of “hiatus,” it’s a quest to collect live performances for the members’ solo careers. Supporting his 2022 album, Faith in the Future, Louis Tomlinson will visit Music City with German indie rockers Giant Rooks and U.K. singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin opening. I became even more endeared to Tomlinson after watching his 2023 documentary All of Those Voices earlier this year. Did you know he has the most One Direction writing credits of any of the band members? Tomlinson is someone who relished the band experience and the camaraderie that went along with it — he didn’t want it to be over! (Same.) In the eight years since the band broke up, Tomlinson has released some bops. There’s “Back to You” with Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals right out of the gate, and “ Kill My Mind” a few years later. I love that Louis preserves his accent in his singing, which is especially on display on the recent track “Written All Over Your Face.” As a treat, he has also been adding two One Direction songs to recent sets. As I feel for any of the boys, I just want him to be happy. 7:30 p.m. at Ascend Amphitheater, 310 First Ave. S. HANNAH HERNER
UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER
JULY 22 and OCTOBER 7
BOBBY BONES
COMEDICALLY INSPIRATIONAL ON TOUR
JULY 25
AUGUST 5
STEVE VAI INVIOLATE TOUR 2023
LORI M c KENNA
THE TOWN IN YOUR HEART TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUEST BRANDON RATCLIFF LIMITED TICKETS
AUGUST 29 and 30
ERIC CHURCH
THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S 18TH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE SOLD OUT
SEPTEMBER 6
JOHN OATES
AN EVENING OF SONGS AND STORIES FEATURING GUTHRIE TRAPP
SEPTEMBER 17
CORINNE BAILEY RAE
THE BLACK RAINBOWS TOUR
OCTOBER 8
THE PRINE FAMILY PRESENTS
YOU GOT GOLD: CELEBRATING THE SONGS OF JOHN PRINE LIMITED TICKETS
DECEMBER 21
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY’S WILD & SWINGIN’ HOLIDAY PARTY
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Museum members receive exclusive pre-sale opportunities for CMA Theater concerts. Learn more at CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership.
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BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
JACQUELINE
1400 ADAMS ST. THEOPTIMISTRESTAURANT.COM/ NASHVILLE
MOTHER’S RUIN
1239 SIXTH AVE. N. MOTHERSRUINNASHVILLE.COM
Eighteen years ago, my thenfiancé Dom and I were in the final stretch of planning a destination wedding in New Orleans: Mass at St. Louis Cathedral. A second line through the French Quarter to the courtyard reception. Canoes full of raw Gulf oysters on ice.
Hurricane Katrina had other plans. We kept the date and cobbled together a Nashville version in six weeks: Mass at Church of the Assumption in Germantown. Stretch limo to the Parthenon, where we danced at Athena’s gold-sandaled feet. Cupcakes instead of a wedding cake, which felt cutting-edge at the time.
Many literal and metaphorical hurricanes have blown through our marriage over the years, shearing off a lot of the schmoopiness I felt in the early days. But every time I’m in Germantown, it brings back that warm fall afternoon, a long veil looped over my arm as I crossed Seventh Avenue from the bridal room to the church. I feel the overwhelm
and anticipation (Should I have worn my hair down instead of in an updo? Is there time to change it?) and the peace that came over me when the chapel doors opened — when I saw Dom smiling on the altar steps and remembered the real reason I was there.
That’s why, for our recent Date Night, I asked him to meet me at Assumption, a 10-minute walk from his downtown coworking space. I watched him stride up in his Don Draper shades with the sleeves of his button-down rolled up. I leaned in for a kiss as he said …
“Don’t even think about touching me. I’m sweating my dong off.”
Romantic vibes obliterated, we started our steamy 16-minute walk down Monroe Street from the gorgeous Assumption — sadly still closed for renovation and restoration after the 2020 tornado — to Jacqueline, The Optimist’s patio bar. It was a scenic walk at first — a mix of original shotgunstyle houses, new builds and restaurants like 312 Pizza. Then things took a turn when we dead-ended into the Cumberland River Greenway — a misnomer if there ever was one, as there’s no actual green on that stretch and plenty of abandoned or partially built structures that’d be perfect should you need to dump a body. Don’t worry: By this time next year it’ll be gorgeous and unaffordable. A few hundred feet of train tracks
later we entered the pocket of Adams Street restaurants that begins with The Optimist. Open 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday while the weather is warm, Jacqueline is an adorable outdoor walk-up bar, the kind that makes you feel like you’re on vacation even if you live 12 minutes away. Consider the short drink list a suggestion: Our bartender asked what we like and created cocktails on the spot. I said I’m not a fan of heat, smoke or soda: He made a clean tequila martini. Dom’s concoction had pineapple juice, heat and tequila and was delightfully over-garnished in the way tropical drinks are — with a lime, long leaf, umbrella and red skull cocktail pick with half an orange wheel and two sugar-crusted gummy sharks on it, which the bartender advised eating after they soaked up some alcohol.
When it’s this hot outside, I don’t want to eat anything hot or heavy. Jacqueline offers the perfect summer snack list: ceviche in green chimichurri with thin slices of serrano; tuna poke in citrusy ponzu; smoked fish dip topped with mustard seeds, all of which are $6 and come in a small glass ramekin with tortilla chips on the side. We got The Works, $17 for all three, a dozen chef’schoice raw oysters on ice and a couple bar stools overlooking the colorful courtyard of The Griff apartments, where we sweated our dongs off together.
INSIDE THE DELICIOUS air conditioning, The Optimist shares a hallway (and a management group) with Star Rover Sound, a smallish music-venue-bar-restaurant with an incredible beaded curtain featuring young Tom Petty in its entryway. One way to work the night is to do drinks and oysters at Jacqueline until 7:30 and catch the dinner show at Star Rover Sound at 8 — two completely different experiences and cuisines within 100 feet of each other.
Looking back, that probably would have been the better call. Instead, we worked up another sweat walking up Taylor Avenue, past abandoned train cars covered in graffiti and up cobblestone sidewalks, then cut over a block to Monroe at the corner of what was previously Little’s Fish Market and Mad Platter, and is now Taco Mamacita and Mother’s Ruin.
Though its name is really-not-all-that-fun 18th-century slang for gin’s destructive effect on poor women, Mother’s Ruin is the Nashville outpost of the NYC original and checks every box of a great neighborhood bar: big, loud indoor area; smaller and super leafy outdoor street-facing patio space + bar strung with lights; irreverently named drinks (Demonbreun Fucks, Satan’s Rose Garden) and bar food that doesn’t come out of a box.
This isn’t the place to have a course-
by-course meal; it’s a place to suck back a “dressed” Superior cerveza — which means they crack open the can, shake a few dashes of Cholula around the opening and stick a lime on top — and jabberjaw with friends while you share Old Bay waffle fries and dip fried saltines in bowls of pimento cheese. It’s where you head when you roll out of bed at 2 p.m. on Sunday, still in your oversized, ironic PJ bottoms, and can’t function properly until you’ve had a bloody mary and bowl of potatoes and eggs.
All of that is to say, it’s a young crowd. Mother’s Ruin is open until 2 a.m., and the cool kids are their bread and butter, but it doesn’t strike me as a place that’s generally comfortable for all ages, since it gets younger as the night goes on. As we were paying out, a young guy came in with his parents, who looked sheepish and out of place. “Look, babe,” Dom said. “We’re not the only olds here anymore.”
I like Mother’s Ruin best when it comes to me instead. A few weeks ago, when I had the house to myself, all I wanted in the world was a breakfast burrito stuffed with fries and eggs and a bowl of queso that I didn’t have to share with anyone. I had both delivered from Mother’s Ruin, ate them in glorious silence on my couch. I felt right at home, because I was. EMAIL
BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR
Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World, the second book from Sewanee-based writer Patrick Dean, relates the history of a little-known man and his greatest achievement. It’s a formula Dean mastered in his 2021 book, A Window to Heaven, which tells the story of Hudson Stuck, an Episcopal priest and Sewanee graduate who made the first ascent of Denali. Dean’s new effort profiles Mark Catesby (1683-1749), a naturalist remembered for his influential — and lavishly illustrated — book, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands
subject with a detailed history of the explosion of scientific knowledge that surrounded Catesby. His life spanned the central years of the Age of Enlightenment, a time that saw the birth of the Royal Society. He was 20 when Sir Isaac Newton became president of that organization, whose membership was largely made up of eager amateurs. After his book appeared, Catesby himself became a fellow of the society.
It was a time when anyone who could afford a library could read essentially all that was known on a particular subject. While universities taught the classics, coffeehouses offered free education in the form of direct conversation with leading scientists, whose discoveries appeared in Philosophical Transactions, the society’s journal. “A visitor to a London coffeehouse could take lessons in French, Italian, or Latin; listen to lectures on poetry, mathematics, or astronomy,” Dean writes.
Published in sections beginning in 1729, nearly a century before the first installment of Audubon’s Birds of America, Catesby’s ambitious life’s work was not finished until 1747, two years before his death. Sponsored by a who’s who of British scholars and nobles, it inspired generations of artists and explorers.
During the decades Catesby labored to classify flora and fauna of the American South, he shipped thousands of seeds and pressed plants to England, some of which remain in university collections today. He also helped launch a commercial horticulture industry to fill a growing demand for exotic plants of the New World. Catesby was the first to describe the magnolia to a European audience, and by the time he finished his Natural History, magnolias flourished throughout London and in many estates beyond, grown from seeds he had shipped from Charleston.
Little is known of Catesby’s early life. As Dean relates, his earliest surviving letter was written when he was 39, and there is no known painting or sketch of him. To approximate the appearance of a young naturalist in the field, Dean relies on a contemporary painting by Thomas Gainsborough, included among the book’s color plates. From early biographers and scant existing records, Dean reconstructs Catesby’s life as best he can: The son of a prominent Essex solicitor with business in London, young Catesby spent much of his time at the country estate of his mother’s uncle. He was a neighbor and friend of the British naturalist and clergyman John Ray, who likely gave him an informal scientific education and encouraged his growth as a writer and artist.
To overcome a dearth of historical data about the man himself, Dean rounds out his
Catesby, like Dean’s earlier subject Hudson Stuck, was a product of his time and culture who grew to recognize the harm of widespread prejudice. In Stuck’s case, the prejudice was directed against native Alaskans, while in Catesby’s, the targets were natives in the Colonial South and enslaved Africans, who greatly outnumbered white settlers. Catesby, Dean writes, was the first European to describe the creation of gumbo. He learned the properties of plants from enslaved healers, who taught him, for example, that snakeroot could “calm stomach ailments, induce perspiration, alleviate the pain of childbirth or affect the menstrual cycle.”
While the naturalist had inherited land from his father and procured sponsorship from wealthy patrons, his lengthy explorations gradually sapped his financial reserves; if not for his income from seeds and plants, he might never have finished Natural History. The slow development and eventual success of the book were well documented at the time, and Dean creates an interesting narrative of the process, but the biographer struggles with the scant personal details that remain of Catesby himself. By 1730, he was living with a woman named Elizabeth Rowland who bore him several children, but they did not marry until 17 years later, when Catesby found himself in poor health and in want of a will. While Elizabeth did much to promote his work and reputation after his death, we learn nothing at all of her or their unusual relationship.
In the end, Nature’s Messenger delivers on the promise of its title and subtitle with a tale of adventure in Colonial America and the Caribbean. The messenger is surpassed by his message in this story of a great book — one created by a talented, if enigmatic and largely forgotten, lover of Southern nature.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
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July
Sixty Five Roses Showcase featuring JAKE ETHERIDGE, KAYLEE FEDERMANN, PHILLIP-MICHAEL SCALES, YOUNG SUMMER & ZG SMITH
KIRK FLETCHER + YATES MCKENDREE
Jamie Rowe, the Voice of Guardian
Yep rewind
MJ Lenderman w/ Styrofoam Winos
Metal for Nashville: a tribute to METALCORE!
Royal Bliss w/ Royal Thunder and New Monarch
Altin Gün w/ Rogê
The Drums w/ Cold Hart
Shadowgrass W/ LANE BROTHERS
The Wans w/ DE3RA and Iguanahead
Havok & Toxic Holocaust
the criticals
Tessa Violet w/ Frances Forever
Leanna Firestone W/ Abby Cates
jerry garcia birthday party
Galactic Empire
a tribute to david bowie
josh meloy
QUEERFEST orthodox & friends
tribute to led zeppelin
treaty oak revival the emo night tour
ziggy alberts w/ kim churchill
Hinder w/ Goodbye June old 97's w/ angel white
TRASH PANDA & HOTEL FICTION
SEAN MCCONNELL W/ Bowen*Young
DARLINGSIDE w/ Jaimee Harris
THE TESKEY BROTHERS
WYATT FLORES
KENDALL STREET COMPANY & DIZGO w/ Connor
THE SILENT COMEDY [7PM]
Conservative Military Image, Strangle You, Hard Way Out, Great Minds [9PM]
Quinn O'Donnell w/ Jackson Price [7PM]
BOA BOYS, BEAU BURNETTE [9PM]
JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD W/ TANYA MONTANA COE [7PM]
GABE LEE W/ ZACH MEADOWS [9PM]
Louise Page, Lina Beach, Lauren Strange
Andrew Leahey & Jon Latham [7PM]
SUPERSTAR DAMUS1DAY, THE ROOF DOGS, SOPHIE GRIFFIN [9PM]
JUSTIN NOKUZA
WILBY & NOAH POPE [7PM]
A Tribute To Lynryd Skynyrd [9PM]
Ready Revolution, Mickey Commodore, Tommybomb
Eddie Clendening and the Blue Ribbon Boys
Mercy Bell, Fauna Halo, Gil Costello
eddie flint
jake xerxes fussell w/ sam moss [7pm]
grady spencer & the work [9pm}
kate yeager, myylo
juke of june, oweda, black light animals
jr carroll w/ Maggie Antone, Forrest McCurren lo naurel, ag sully, shelldhn
When Killer Mike hits the Ryman Friday, he’ll be just the second act known primarily for rap to grace the stage, after Wu-Tang Clan in 2019.
“Johnny Cash is coming to the Apollo,” the Atlanta rapper says on a phone call, adding that he’s honored to perform at the Mother Church of Country Music. Mike grew up appreciating outlaw country, and says it helped him realize that working-class communities have a lot in common.
He also shouts out Antioch native and rapper-turned-country-star Jelly Roll.
“I’m a fan because our stories — although culturally and racially different — are eerily similar,” Mike says. “We’re just two working-class kids who made some mistakes, found the women who we love beyond life, made some kids and worked our butts off to … be the best fathers we can be.”
And it’s been hard work. Despite winning a Grammy in 2003 with OutKast for the song “The Whole World,” and Atlanta becoming the hottest hip-hop market in the world, Mike’s career stagnated. He hustled on the indie circuit, and when he and underground rapper-producer El-P connected for 2012’s R.A.P. Music, it was a shot in the arm for both artists.
The album was fiery, and Mike’s Southern swagger was a surprising complement for the New Yorker’s more industrial beats. That was Mike’s last solo album before he and El officially formed the superduo Run the Jewels for a four-album (and counting) run that delights in anarchic, rebellious music. And then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit pause on touring — and recording as well, since the two prefer to work in person.
As the life-threatening disease spread, Mike realized he didn’t want to leave anything unsaid. He had to show the world not just Killer Mike — a “character” who sometimes reveals his personal side — but Michael Render, that smiling boy on the album cover with the devil horns and the halo.
The result is the reflective Michael, his first solo album in 11 years, executive produced by the legendary No I.D. (The Chicagoan also contributes several beats.) Lush Southern sounds, specifically soul and gospel, bring the setting to life as Mike recalls his youth, his loves, his griefs.
The women of Killer Mike’s life play a big role in the album too, especially in the standout “Motherless,” on which the MC mourns his late mother and grandmother, two constant sources of wisdom. He has amazing rap technique — “Two Days” and “Scientists & Engineers” show off relentless flows, “Slummer” his storytelling skills. But on “Motherless,” he keeps it blunt: “My
mama dead / My grandmama dead / I miss ’em so much, sometimes, I just cry and hold my head.” Singer Eryn Allen Kane croons bits of the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel like Motherless Child” throughout, as Killer Mike navigates sadness, loneliness, uncertainty and anger.
“It is ultimately me expressing the deepest, darkest and the most hope-filled place in myself,” says Mike. “[Because] this album does not just take you into a brutally honest place that hurts you — it gives you hope.”
The sounds of the Southern Black church give volume to Mike’s “testimonial,” as he calls it, culminating in the sermonic final track “High & Holy.” Mike says Ray Murray, of legendary production crew Organized Noize (OutKast, Curtis Mayfield and more), charged him with maintaining a clear Southern sound. He gets assistance from other fellow Atlantans as well, including an
electrifying André 3000 feature on “Scientists & Engineers.”
Of course, reviewers and interviewers have scrutinized Mike’s politics. Mike has always rapped about injustice and the ills of racism and classism. But off the mic, it gets messy. The MC boosted Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid, but also seems to get along with conservative Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and conducted a friendly interview with Republican Herschel Walker during his failed Senate bid. Michael doesn’t clear up the politics. He shows compassion for addicts — and calls for fair wages — on “Something for Junkies.” But elsewhere, he calls haters broke and lazy while he brags about being a landlord (“Spaceship Views”). He lobs a dated Brokeback Mountain joke on “Talk’n That Shit!” but in interviews claims he’s still an ally to LGBTQ folks.
Mike calls the scrutiny “shameful,” and dismisses it as “personal vendettas based on politics.”
If anything ties his views together, it’s a vision of radical self-sustainability in the Black community: Mike says it’s far more revolutionary to hunt or grow your own food and support local services than rap on a microphone. And his businesses — which he says help provide affordable housing and safe working environments to his community — are his contributions to Atlanta.
“I make no apology,” he says. “If you disagree … that’s fine. But I’m making my great-grandparents proud.”
Those complications might make Michael frustrating at times. But juxtapositions make for compelling art — and once you hit play, Killer Mike is taking you to church.
All the world’s a stage for Snooper and their debut
LP Super Snooper
BY P.J. KINZER
It was just after 8 a.m. in Nashville — which is 11 p.m. on the eastern coast of Australia — when we finally overcame the inevitable technical difficulties of a Zoom interview. The five members of Nashville’s Snooper were seated on the floor, crowding into the frame so they were all at least partially visible. Front and center were founding duo Connor Cummins and Blair Tramel, with the heads of drummer Cam Sarrett and touring guitarist Ian Teeple poking up from behind. Off to one side, bassist Happy Haugen swayed in and out of the frame. Across their faces was a unique composite of exhaustion and enthusiasm that could only come from flying halfway around the planet before starting a two-week tour.
By now, if you have an ear even pointed in the general direction of Nashville’s underground, you’ve heard the impending rumble of Snooper. After only a handful of cassette tapes and 7-inch EPs, the band is on the latest of many tours, 9,000 miles from home, just weeks ahead of their debut full-length; Super Snooper will be out July 14 via Third Man Records.
“There’s a lot of ‘Pinch me’ situations,” Cummins tells me, “where me and Blair will be standing next to each other and we’ll be like, ‘Can you believe that we did Music for Spies and now we’re in Australia?’”
So how does a DIY band — which began as a COVID quarantine bedroom project, with no intent of playing a single show — end up touring a continent that’s about as far as you can get from home?
“We’re actually at Billy’s house right now, who runs Computer Human Records,” Cummins explains. “He put out our first 7-inch ever, Music for Spies.” He and Tramel made
that EP together at home in 2020, and with a limited pressing of only 200 records, helped foster connections between the DIY scenes in Middle Tennessee and Australia. (Shoutout also to rock polymath Ryan Sweeney, whose Sweet Time has frequently booked Aussie bands in Nashville and released or distributed their records.)
“People were buying our records, technically, in Australia, before they even reached the States,” Cummins continues. “So we kind of felt like we had a fan base here from the beginning of the band.”
The EP has since been reissued on the band’s own imprint, Electric Outlet, which has in turn released music by Aussie punks Research Reactor Corp and Gee Tee. Those two are among the bands sharing bills with Snooper while they’re Down Under, part of the Snoops’ deep connection to the Oz avantgarde. Throughout our conversation, they refer to the bands and labels in Australia with a kind of familiarity more akin to friends than just peers or co-conspirators.
Snooper’s sound is frenetic and turbulent, like watching early silent movies whose film is sped up ever so slightly — just enough to feel off-kilter and surreal. Their hyperactive staccato mania is a throwback to the spirit of primitive Midwestern art rock, à la Devo, Pere Ubu or even Sparks. The band finds inspiration in their layered textures of what you might call multi-fidelity, marrying the immediacy of 8-track home-recording techniques with the craft of professional studio sound.
Super Snooper is the product of almost four years of creative collaboration between Tramel and Cummins, picking up new members along the way. By the time they got to pro-level East Nashville studio The Bomb Shelter to make their album for Third Man, they were ready for the moment at hand.
“We were playing [the songs] live for so long that we just, like, kind of went and knocked it out,” says Cummins. The LP includes new songs as well as new versions of ones from previous releases, updating the sound to a full-blown rock quintet. Super Snooper’s hodgepodge spirit mashes together samples and 808-inspired percussion with the group’s traditional punk instrumentation, tracing their further evolution. “It kind of just feels like we’re still doing the exact same thing,” he continues. “It’s just, like, now
there’s new aspects to it.”
It’s impossible to limit a Snooper live set to just the sounds blasting from the P.A., though. There is a spirit of experimentation and satire that sets Snooper apart from the rest of the Music City underground. Tramel, a keen video artist, created a visual component to what would become the full Snooper artistic package at the beginning. But the YouTube shorts, elements of which eventually made their way into the band’s live show, were more than music videos: Her lo-fi cable-access animation and larger-than-life puppetry are just as much a part of Snooper as the guitar riffs or the beats.
Tramel’s over-the-top imagery, cartoonish costumes and giant grotesque sculptures play off mundane trappings of consumerism from decades past — especially the 1980s. Gargantuan handmade takes on pop-culture paraphernalia like dumbbells, the Magic 8-ball, arcade consoles and massive brickstyle cellphones are woven into the lampooning. In addition to needing the band’s gear to make it safely across the Pacific, they had to make sure all the props and costumes got there, too.
“This big, huge box has been a pretty big liability,” says Tramel. “[Rideshare drivers] see the box and drive right past us. They’re like, ‘We’re not doing that!’ [Laughs] We want to keep the box intact because … we’re doing domestic flights [throughout Australia] and we’re trying to ship this box with all the props from place to place.”
Though it’s the product of years of work, Super Snooper positions the band to reach a whole new level. Their Australian tour wrapped July 1, and the next day they were due in Oakland, Calif., for their second appearance at the Mosswood Meltdown festival, with a string of Golden State shows to follow immediately. In November, they’re set to head to the U.K. Not for nothing, punk legend and recently arrived Nashvillian Henry Rollins gave the LP a ringing endorsement. But more importantly than where the group is geographically or professionally, the new record represents where they are creatively.
“For me personally,” Haugen says, “it would be cool to look back in 20 years and have an exact — almost — replica of what the live show sounds like.”
EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
Approaching East Nashville Thursday evening, it didn’t seem like the sun was all that interested in going down. It hung around during rush hour, beaming languidly through the thick blanket of muggy heat unrolled by the afternoon’s showers. In the relative cool of Red Arrow Gallery, however, there was a great hustle and bustle as final preparations were made for Eve Maret’s album release party. The electronic musician, composer and community organizer’s fifth LP New Noise had just been released, and all manner of keyboards, laptops, stringed and wind instruments, cameras, projectors, speakers and lights were getting a final test ahead of the celebration.
Around 7 p.m., a hush fell suddenly over the folks who’d filed in — about 30, though the number would keep growing through the night — as Netherina Noble took her mic. With her production collaborator The Orbit Sound managing the contemplative R&Bschooled beats, she kept the crowd silent with her rich, poised voice, which you might expect to hear singing ballads with a big band or an orchestra in a different century. Songs like her opener “High Seas” — Noble told the audience Maret helped bring the as-yet-unreleased recording to life — focus on self-reliance.
Her lyrics don’t shy away from the discomfort that can come with gaining selfconfidence, and her cover of Clairo’s “I Wouldn’t Ask You” lines up neatly alongside her originals. Another piece, which rides on rhythms from hip-hop and spoken-word, addresses the long-lasting impact of the narrator’s mother’s death. The song may or may not be about Noble’s own life experience, but she made it feel deeply personal.
After a quick break, Proteins of Magic, aka New Zealand-born Nashvillian Kelly Sherrod, put the finishing touches on her setup. As Sherrod’s stage look includes teasing her hair into faun horns and a bit of a devilock, you might forgive someone on the other side of the gallery’s roll-up glass door for thinking a Misfits tribute was about to happen. Her set did bring the emotional immediacy of the famed Jersey horror-punks, but in a radically different way. Built around patient but insistent rhythms, her songs have layers of performances on bass, acoustic guitar, keys and flute that she records into a looper in real time and manipulates expertly, all while singing in a powerful voice that would shine in a chorus.
She deftly shifts from intimate examination of fine details to expression on a Cinemascope scale, exploring an array of life experiences, from “Switchblade” — a song she told us was about “a boundary crosser” — to her recent single “Divine Physics,” which considers how a long-ago relationship can simultaneously mean a great deal and not much in the grand cosmic scheme of things. The set even had evocative animation that Sherrod controlled with a pedal; it was an immersive presentation that could
work well in this intimate setting or at a festival like Barcelona’s Primavera Sound, where WNXP’s Celia Gregory recently caught up with her. Mark your calendars: Proteins of Magic has an EP due in early 2024 called By Ear
When Maret was nearly ready to begin, lights were turned off around the room. One of the switches that was flipped inadvertently cut power to her gear, a subtle reminder that we were in a space typically used for other purposes. Fittingly, Maret — resplendent in a sequined suit with slicked-back hair reminiscent of Roxy Music-era Eno — had just thanked the gallery’s owners for supporting her somewhat unusual happening. It bears repeating that venues — whether they’re conventional ones or not — being willing to book creative endeavors that may not have a guaranteed crowd draw is critical to the health of any city’s music ecosystem.
Finally, all the gear was communicating properly again, and Maret kicked off her brief but wide-ranging set with a suite of shape-shifting drones and slowly flashing lights that felt like an orchestra tuning up. Using drum machines, synths, samplers, a
vocoder, a clarinet and even an electric guitar that she told us she was playing in front of an audience for the first time, she welcomed us into the latest phase of her everevolving sonic expression. For a little more than 20 minutes, quiet motorik heartbeats morphed into funky proto-rap beats, and arpeggiated loops swelled and exploded like fireworks left over from the Fourth of July in songs old and new. Meanwhile, the lights danced, making the shadows of Maret and her rig part of the show across the gallery’s white wall.
As the set drew to a close, two lyrics stood out, too: “I need a break from the noise” and “I guess I’ll make my own kind of noise,” as she sang in “New Noise,” just before she guided the floating threads of sound into a black hole of harsh metallic squeals. The song, reflective of Maret’s work in general, takes a stand in a world humming with chaos; even if you can’t control it, there are ways to orient yourself within it. Infused with this energy, conversation buzzed as DJ Afrosheen took to the decks and the gathering slowly dissolved into the night.
EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
The seventh Mission: Impossible is a great ride, but only half a film
BY JASON SHAWHAN
The Mission: Impossible film series has been pulling off a remarkable balancing act over the past 27 years: maintaining a devotion to state-of-the-art action film tech and procedure while maintaining the enduring hook of the 1960s TV series that gave the whole endeavor its distinguishing flourish — peerless mask-making skills. A full-on embrace of that corny cornerstone has allowed this series of films (seven so far, not including the forthcoming Dead Reckoning Part Two) to stay true to itself even as the nuts-and-bolts of espionage have shifted and superseded one another. Dead Reckoning’s Big Bad, a superintelligent algorithm that has basically attained sentience, would have felt more like Ghost in the Shell than Mission: Impossible back when the first film came out in 1996. But producer/ star/stuntperson Tom Cruise has made a point of keeping things relatable, if not completely relevant.
We start out in a tense submarine sequence that puts the viewer through an emotional wringer before giving us a visceral shock and a surreal image equally poetic and horrifying — things kick off with the kind of visceral cold open that sets up everything that follows in the way that yields liminal dread whenever you stop and piece it all together. And before you know it, there’s a desert siege and a government infiltration
(including a look that can only be described as Rami Malek cosplaying as Ray Wise, or vice versa), and all that is before we even get the opening credits.
Occasionally, we get some low-key metatextual banter in the dialogue. But the strength of the script (by director Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen) is in the way the menace of rampaging AI mirrors the absolute chaos and salt-sown scorched earth that AI and CEOs seeking tax write-downs have recently wrought on writers and all manner of creative artists.
These movies are literally and figuratively chasing the peak of 2011’s Ghost Protocol, when Cruise climbed the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 70 mm IMAX. That sustained sequence did a better job of demonstrating the power that movies have in creating suspension of disbelief — both in the way that audiences felt sincere, empathic terror for a multimillionaire movie star who genuinely seemed like he might die before our eyes, as well as an irrational and vertiginous dread that felt like somehow (shades of Nightmare on Elm Street 4) gravity was going to pull the actual audience out of our seats and into certain doom on the screen. The latter feeling has been minimized in the intervening years, but Cruise has found a way to explore his own tempting of fate and turn it into a marketing hook that keeps everyone focused on exactly how he is raging against the passage of time. But in the way that Dead Reckoning Part One avoids that brick wall of enthusiasm that hit this summer’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at its end by being very upfront that this is but Part One in the opening credits, it still means that we’re not getting quite the full experience. So we get action and chaos and reversals and deaths and rebirths, but there’s a tenuous vibe to everything, because we’re not going to know how it all fits together until we get through Part Two
At times, it feels like things are going to go full-on sci-fi/horror. The rampaging
AI whatsit (referred to ominously as “The Entity”) is genuinely scary, both in what it is capable of and in the way its emissary Gabriel (a magnificent Esai Morales) syncs with its vast and uncontrollable knowledge, adding a facet to the big confrontations that we’ve never seen before in this kind of film. It is impossible to overpraise Morales in this film — adding a kind of exquisite menace steeped in both Mentat (from Dune) and Vermillion (from Legion) vibes. While we all love Nicolas Hoult (who was originally supposed to play the role), it’s difficult to imagine him bringing the same sort of saltand-pepper imperiousness to the part, and it’s how Gabriel fits into Part Two that’s asking the big questions in this epic. There are several instances of wordless flashbacks to decades ago that seem ill at ease in the visual language of the series up to this point, and there are edits that seem to call unnecessary attention to themselves.
There are four different women characters in play. Returning are badass Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) and arms dealer/fashionista The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby). Newcomers are international thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Bond-villian-style chaos agent Paris (Pom Klementieff). They all have different things to do, but Klementieff and Atwell get a rip-roaring Italian cobblestone chase involving a Fiat and an urban assault vehicle that can’t help but be the highlight of Part One, and I say that as someone who is in the bag for any kind of train-based scamadjacent chase — and this film has a stellar third-act 90-degree chase through train cars.
After a summer of perfectly fine films being openly rejected by audiences, it’s hard to say exactly how crowds are going to respond to this one. Dead Reckoning delivers most of everything that series fans could want, though it’s still only half a film. So all bets are technically off, even though this is stuffed to the gills with all manner of escapist action set pieces.
Note: When this puzzle is done, reinterpret each set of shaded squares as three words (1,2,1). Then apply the result to 20-, 22-, 54- and 56-Across to see what 34-Across was once tasked to do.
ACROSS
1 Sea urchin, in Japanese cuisine
4 Noted Swede of the silver screen
9 In the slightest
14 Prince, e.g.
15 “___ the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference”: Robert Frost
16 Prefix with biology
17 Agent Mulder’s obsession, in brief
18 Notes to self?
19 Amazon deposits
20 With veneration
22 End analysis paralysis
23 Support
24 “___ expected …”
26 One who’s bound to succeed?
27 It’s due in court
29 Gives props
31 Christmas tree lighting reaction
32 N.B.A. team with the most Hall-of-Famers, familiarly
34 English site of W.W. II code-breaking
40 Device patented in 1970 as an “X-Y position indicator for a display system”
41 What’s in the middle of Nashville?
42 Boil down
46 Convention winner
50 Something that Dr. Mom might tend to
51 Scale abbr.
53 U.S. capital in Lewis and Clark County
54 Meter-reading guy
56 Rubs the right way?
58 Has finally *had* it
59 Shakespeare’s “___ Andronicus”
60 Word of favor
61 Shelter from a storm
62 Squirrel away
63 Second-smallest of 50: Abbr.
64 Gospel singer ___ Cobbs Leonard
65 “Arabian Nights” prince
66 Ones with issues to work on, for short
DOWN
1 Drains
2 “’S all good”
3 Like over 40% of all Americans aged 18-24
4 Supermodel Bündchen
5 Crossing swords
6 Turn in Yahtzee, e.g.
7 Poor winner’s shout
8 Licenses, say
9 Nook for a cardinal
10 Exercise often described as “meditation in motion”
11 They’re on your side
12 Abandon, as a conversation topic
13 Duds
21 Swiss drug giant
22 Like some jobs and jokes
25 Bad temper
28 Woodstock artist
30 Sight in the final scene of “Cleopatra”
33 Rapid transit options
35 “Enough!,” said?
36 It goes between chapter and verse
37 Walled city of Spain
38 Rogue
39 Highly observant
42 Spend time on a doodle, perhaps
43 “Lemme!”
44 Plants from which ropes are made
45 Soybean product
47 Words from a doubter
48 Tinkered (with)
49 Things that Jackson Pollock famously eschewed
52 One of the Seven Sisters colleges
55 “The Thin Man” pet
57 Tiny bit
59 Org. that lets you carry on
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
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Non-Resident Notice
Fourth Circuit
Docket No. 23D588
resident of the State of Ten-
nessee, therefore the ordi-
nary process of law cannot be served upon Mae Jean Bolden. It is ordered that said
Defendant enter her appearance herein with thirty (30) days after July 6th 2023, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on August 7th 2023.
It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
Joseph P. Day, Clerk Bill Riggs Deputy Clerk Date: June 8 2023
Brian O. Bowhan Attorney for Plaintiff
ville, Tennessee, and defend
It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
Joseph P. Day Clerk
Bill Riggs, Deputy Clerk
Date: June 15, 2023
Randi Benton Attorney for Plaintiff
NSC 6/22, 6/29, 7/6 7/13/23
Non-Resident Notice
Third Circuit Docket No. 23X291
KATELYN NORDBY vs. DARRELL REED
Titan Franchising LLC seeks Sales Director in Nashville, TN. Req. Bachelor's degree or equiv. in Business Administration, Marketing or rel. field + 2 yrs wrk exp. Duties incl market analysis & intelligence gathering for business dvlpmnt. Up to 20% domestic trvl req. Send resume w/ cvr ltr to vberrios@janikingnash.com - ref job #SD001
Computer/IT: Sensormatic Electronics, LLC seeks Sr Embedded Engineer in Nashville, TN. In charge of defining ExacqIQ’s cloud strtgy & devlpmnt activities.
Application Systems Analyst.
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon Mae Jean Bolden. It is ordered that said Defendant enter her appearance herein with thirty (30) days after July 6th 2023, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on August 7th 2023.
It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
Joseph P. Day, Clerk Bill Riggs Deputy Clerk Date: June 8, 2023
Brian O. Bowhan Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 6/ 15, 6/29 7/6, 7/13 /23
Mansion
Qingzhe
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon Ziyan Gao It is ordered that said Defendant enter his appearance herein with thirty (30) days after July 13th 2023, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on August 14th 2023.
It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville. Joseph P. Day Clerk
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon DARRELL REED It is ordered that said Defendant enter his appearance here in with thirty (30) days after AUGUST 3, 2023 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 31st 2023. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.
Joseph P. Day Clerk
Keisha Bass, Deputy Clerk
Date: July 5, 2023
BRIDGID CALDWELL Attorneys for Plaintiff
NSC 7/13, 7/20, 7/27, 8/3 /23
Cumming Management Group, Inc. has an opening in Nashville, TN for (Project Manager (AMPMTN): Responsible for the overall coordination of the project team, appropriate communications with the client, management and control of the scope, cost, and schedule objectives for the project as a whole.
Telecommuting Permitted. Salary range: $107,162 to $127,162 per year. To apply, please email resume to Tami Hoyt at tami.hoyt@cumminggroup.com with reference to the job title (Project Manager) and job code (AMPMTN).
It’s like little billboards right in front of you!
Contact: classifieds@ fwpublishing.com
Reqs: Bachelor’s degree, or forgn eqvlnt, in Embedded Systms, Comp Sci, Comp Engrg, Electrical Engrg, Info Tech or rltd fld, plus 7 yrs exp as a sftwr engnr wrkng w/ embedded engrg. In the alternative, will accept Master's degree, or forgn eqvlnt, in Embedded Systms, Comp Sci, Comp Engrg, Electrical Engrg, Info Tech or rltd fld, plus 5 yr s exp as a sftwr engnr wrkng w/ embedded engrg. 100% Telecommuting. To apply: Email resume to nicholas.clay.anderson@jci. com. Must ref Senior Embedded Engineer / Ref # SEE-KAN.
Senior Engineers, IT Cloud Infrastructure. Design, engineer, and support public and private cloud infrastructure services for a major retailer. Employer: Tractor Supply Company. Location: Headquarters in Brentwood, TN. May telecommute from any location in the U.S. Multiple openings . To apply, mail resume to S. Case, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027 and reference job code 21- 0344.
Cumming Management Group Inc seeks Scheduler in Nashville, TN. Coordinate the preparation of project schedules based on defined project execution philosophies. Telecommuting permitted. Salary range: $138,988$158,988 per year. To apply, submit resume to: tami.hoyt@cumminggroup.com w/ ref. no. ADSTN.
Monitor, modify, and administer business intelligence and data services systems in an enterprise data warehouse, local, and/or cloud environment for a major hospital corporation.
Employer: CHSPSC, LLC.
Location: HQ in Franklin, TN. May telecommute from the metro Nashville, TN area. To apply, mail resume to Leanne Reeves, 4000 Meridian Blvd., Franklin, TN 37067.
Senior Engineer, IT DevOps. Implement continuous integration and continuous deployment (CICD) technical initiatives and deliver cutting edge solutions for a major retailer. Employer: Tractor Supply Company. Location: Headquarters in Brentwood, TN. May telecommute from any location in the U.S. Multiple openings. To apply, mail resume to S. Case, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027 and reference job code 21- 0351.
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3 nearby places you can enjoy the outdoors: Creekside Riding Academy and Stables Erwin Park
Self-guided battlefield tour
Best place nearby to see a show: First Bank Amphitheater Whiskey Room Live Kimbro’s Pickin Parlor
Favorite local neighborhood bar: Froggy and Jeffro’s
