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CITY LIMITS: ONLINE ACTIVISM HAS MADE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS MORE ACCESSIBLE

JULY 16â€“22, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 24 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

FOOD & DRINK: HERE ARE 14 GREAT LOCAL BURGERS, BECAUSE WHY NOT? PAGE 18

PAGE 7

Here are three of the most interesting primary races in the Aug. 6 election

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The music. The artists. The collection. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is the beating heart of an integral American art form. The Museum, and its Hall of Fame, keep that history for all generations to come. We stand here for the world, and the city. CountryMusicHallofFame.org

NASHVILLE SCENE | MONTH 1 â€“ MONTH 2, 2018 | nashvillescene.com

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CONTENTS

JULY 16, 2020

Tree the Hard Way ......................................6

Subterranean Blues

CITY LIMITS

In the wake of the March tornado, tree lovers are replacing some of Nashville’s lost greenery

BOOKS

BY ABBY LEE HOOD

In Lee Conell’s The Party Upstairs, a father and daughter struggle to find their place in stratified Manhattan

Where IRL Meets URL................................7

BY SEAN KINCH AND CHAPTER 16

Online activism has made social movements more accessible

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Metro Council Votes to Allow Clients at Home Studios, Other Home-Based Businesses

MUSIC

Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Tennessee Abortion Restrictions

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

Back in Black .......................................... 21

Beth Cameron makes a timely return with Black Bra

Today’s Takeout Pick: Mac’s Cornedbeef

BY BAILEY BASHAM

Pith in the Wind .........................................7

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

COVER STORY On the Ballot

Strings of Good Luck .............................. 21

Primary Concerns ......................................8

Billy Strings makes the best of a tough situation with his Streaming Strings Tour

A veteran moderate faces a progressive challenger for Nashville’s congressional seat

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

BY STEVEN HALE

Station Inn owner J.T. Gray contributes as much to bluegrass as any star player

Senate to Win It ...................................... 10 Manny Sethi and Bill Hagerty both play the outsider angle in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seat

Picking Wisely ......................................... 22 BY DAVID HOLLERITH

The Spin .................................................. 23

BY J.R. LIND

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Kandace Springs, Afton Wolfe and more

A House Divided ...................................... 12

BY RON WYNN, OLIVIA LADD AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

In House District 52’s Democratic primary, a preacher takes on the incumbent

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

The DOs and DON’Ts of Absentee Voting ...................................... 12 Absentee voting is now open to all Tennesseans due to COVID-19 — here’s how to sign up BY NATASHA SENJANOVIC

Shop Hop: Everything You Need to Get Through This Pandemic

FILM

Primal Stream XVII — and You Know What I Mean ............................................ 24 An essential documentary, some very weird sci-fi and Dirty Dancing, now available to stream BY JASON SHAWHAN

Why Buy the Cow? .................................. 25

CRITICS’ PICKS Watch Art Wire Fellows, build your own streaming Alfonso Cuarón film fest, make a magical realism library list, check out SAGAFTRA’s Storyline Online, pick blueberries and blackberries, check out the Apollo Theater’s digital stage and more

I wish you could see First Cow in the theater. You can’t. So watch it at home. BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Bird Watching ......................................... 25 The Painted Bird is punishing, and it leaves its mark BY JASON SHAWHAN

Burger Time

FOOD AND DRINK

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

Try these 14 tasty local burger options BY SCENE STAFF

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Call for take-out!

Authentic Mexican Cuisine & Bakery...Side by Side!

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FROM BILL FREEMAN PRESIDENT TRUMP PRESSURES SCHOOLS TO REOPEN, WHILE CDC DIRECTOR SAYS COVID-19 CASES ‘WILL IN FACT OCCUR’ Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing our communities as we deal with surging cases of COVID-19 is what we should do about sending our children back to school this fall. There are many ever-changing unknowns that affect these decisions. First, of course, is the safety of our children and their teachers. From there, the concerns ripple out. With so many things unknown, delaying the opening while providing virtual leaning to students seems prudent if not mandatory. Our local leaders are working diligently to determine what path is best. What is not a wise approach is President Donald Trump demanding that schools reopen, threatening those that don’t with federal funding cuts to their budgets. As The New York Times has reported, Trump is pressuring state and local officials to open schools this fall, calling the Centers for Disease Control’s guidelines on reopening “expensive and impractical.” What did the CDC recommend? CDC Director Robert Redfield said the guidelines include “keeping students six feet apart, wearing face coverings and looking at changes in schedule.” Those seem reasonable minimums for students returning to in-person instruction in classrooms, particularly when 39 states currently have rising numbers of coronavirus infections. Another punch to the gut for many parents and PTA officials was U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos changing her tune — from being open to children learning remotely or virtually, to heartily backing Trump and flagrantly insulting concerned educators. “This moment demands actions, not excuse-making or fear-mongering,” said DeVos, insinuating that educators are overthinking the risks. But the risks to our children are very real, as noted by CDC Director Redfield when he said, as paraphrased by Politico: “Reopening plans should minimize the risk of COVID-19 while providing students the critical services. … And plans should anticipate that COVID cases ‘will in fact occur.’ ” The ongoing indifference from the White House has increased friction between the administration and our nation’s educators. Politico reported on a statement released by teachers unions, the PTA, special education administrators and secondary school principals, who expressed: “Throughout this pandemic, the administration has failed to address the needs of students, especially those students who need the most support. They have failed to listen to families and public school educators who have been on the frontlines serving their communities.” Educators are having a hard time reconciling being “forced” to send children and students back to school when every day more people are dying from coronavirus. It is not difficult to see why educators are struggling to find a safe and manageable means of teaching our children, especially in a world where some have turned safety issues into partisan issues. Yes, people are sick of rules. But if we don’t comply with safety protocols, more of us will get sick, more of us will die. What’s more, increased cases will undoubtedly

lead to further state and city shutdowns — something our economy likely can’t take. In Texas, for example, Gov. Greg Abbott has mandated statewide mask-wearing, saying: “I made this tough decision for one reason: It was our last best effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. If we do not slow the spread of COVID-19 … the next step would have to be a lockdown.” He went on: “If we do not all join together and unite in this one cause for a short period of time of adopting the masks, it will lead to the necessity of having to close Texas back down.” Like Texas, we all need to join together and “unite in this one cause” — that of wearing masks and staying apart for a “short period of time” so that we can remain open. We’ve all seen what it does to our economy to close. Imagine if it becomes mandated to stay in our homes for a more extended period of time, when it could have been avoided by wearing masks and maintaining proper distancing while going almost anywhere we wish. Also, like Texas, our state is seeing increased cases of the virus. On July 8, Tennessee health officials reported a record 2,472 new cases of coronavirus and 20 additional deaths — with more projected. These numbers make it very difficult for those in charge of our children’s education and safety to make popular decisions. Thankfully, and even under pressure from the president, Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Dr. Adrienne Battle has decided to allow Nashville students to start the school year with virtual classes. Doing so allows students to return to gaining their education, with attendance required and grades administered. There are challenges, but Dr. Battle and the school board are working to keep our children safe. Dr. Battle said one reason for delaying in-person attendance in the fall — at least until Labor Day — is because: “Our nation has not prioritized the steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We have not had our national priorities focused on that goal.” Dr. Battle is right. With the absence of presidential and national leadership, state and local leaders are taking the lead — and sometimes the heat. Trump didn’t wear a mask in public until July 11, when he visited wounded servicemembers and their families at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — where it was a requirement. No wonder many people are bucking the rules, likely thinking, “If the president doesn’t follow them, why should I?” Until we as a nation, including our president, make COVID-19 safety a priority, we will suffer.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Publisher Mike Smith Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Account Executive William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. Classified: 816-218-6732. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 â€“ JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

NEW TREES PLANTED IN LOCKELAND SPRINGS PARK

TREE THE HARD WAY

In the wake of the March tornado, tree lovers are replacing some of Nashville’s lost greenery BY ABBY LEE HOOD

t the bottom of a small lowland area near Holly Street, Lockeland Springs Park lies partially hidden at the end of a narrow trail through the greenery. Although a sign reading “Aquatic Classroom” and other features like bridges and benches are intact, there are fewer fully grown trees than there were in the past. Instead there are smaller, younger ones, planted as part of the reforesting effort following the devastating March tornado that tore through the area. Jim Gregory, chair of the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps, says residents came together following the storm, which damaged and blew over much of the growth in the park. Gregory says residents with the “good old Nashville volunteer spirit” planted more than 100 trees in the park, and continue to water and care for them in the summer heat. “People were crying happy,” Gregory tells the Scene. “People are adopting these trees.” The trees were donated by Hale and Hines, a nursery in McMinnville. The Tree Corps partnered with two other nonprofits — Root Nashville and the Nashville Tree Foundation — to deliver more than 1,000 trees to local residents in an effort to recover those lost in the storm. Gregory moved to Nashville in 2012 and was inspired to act after watching his own neighborhood trees disappear. He says the groups worked with an expert in local forestation at the sheriff’s department to set up a staging area with four semi-truck loads of trees, some of which are still being distributed around the city.

Despite the large number of trees coming in, it’s still not enough to completely recoup the loss. According to Gregory, Metro Nashville is still working on an official report and may be using numbers from the 1998 tornado to assist in the estimate. A public records request about tree loss and recovery efforts to the mayor’s office was declined because no such records exist yet. However, according to information from Metro’s Office of Emergency Management, 2,264 properties listed some form of damage, and those could include forestation loss. Root Nashville, a citywide campaign aiming to plant 500,000 trees in Davidson County by 2050, said in an email statement that tens of thousands of trees were lost in the storm. Root also said thousands more were lost in the high winds — or derecho storms — that have taken place since the tornado. Outside of storms, both Root and the Tree Corps say Nashville is losing swaths of trees each year to development, old age and disease. Many residents will remember the infamous cherry tree debacle last year, in which thousands signed a petition to stop several downtown cherry trees from being cut down to accommodate the NFL Draft. “The Tennessee Division of Forestry estimates that Nashville has lost 9,000 trees every year for the past eight years,” say Root Nashville’s representatives in their statement. “These trees are lost mostly to construction and development, but many are dying of old age. The invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer also arrived. It will destroy all of the city’s ash trees.”

The ecological impact of this tree loss adds up, causing problems with stormwater runoff, wildlife habitat loss, erosion, pollution and a reduction of neighborhood privacy and beauty. “While tree loss undoubtedly leads to ecological degradation and habitat loss, we have also experienced a loss in stormwater retention in three very important neighborhoods,” says Will Caplenor, field operations supervisor at the Cumberland River Compact. “As related to stormwater, this is probably the most detrimental impact we will experience. High sedimentation is already the leading polluter in Tennessee.” Stormwater runoff alone costs cities millions of dollars per year in management costs. An Environmental Protection Agency report states that cities losing 10,000 trees per year pay about $5.6 million for stormwater interception over a decade, and cities that lose about 54,000 trees per year pay

upwards of $46 million over a decade. Over time and compounded with exponential tree loss, the total adds up quickly. But besides stormwater runoff, Root Nashville says there’s no way to estimate how much debris and trash were dumped into waterways by the storm, including potentially hazardous chemicals distributed by destroyed houses. “Homes from many eras using different types of insulation were destroyed,” says Gray Perry, manager of the Clean Streams Initiative at the Cumberland River Compact. “Some insulation is treated with fire retardant. Those chemicals would be harmful if consumed. Fiberglass insulation might be picked up to build nests or dens, and it is easy to imagine that harming young wildlife.” While all three Tennessee-based reforestation nonprofits are hard at work replacing trees, their efforts won’t pay off for a long time. “We won’t see environmental recovery in our lifetime,” says Mekayle Houghton, executive director of the Cumberland River Compact. “We lost trees that were hundreds of years old. They provided significant environmental benefits that can’t be replaced by newly planted young trees.” Houghton says Nashville can’t afford to wait any longer to make trees and the environment a top priority. She says we as a city can expect to continue experiencing more severe storms, and investing in our “treelined stream banks, steep slopes and tree canopy” will help buffer and protect us. For its part, the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps is supporting legislation aimed at reforestation and protection — like the tree-density-increase bill that became a law in 2019. Residents can still request trees, which also gives the Tree Corps more quantifiable data about the city’s tree loss, and Houghton encourages locals to vote for officials who understand Nashville’s environment and value its protection. Gregory says the reforestation work that locals are doing is inspirational, and desperately needed. “One of the most magical things to come from the devastation is watching little seeds of hope grow, that people have planted.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: JIM GREGORY, NASHVILLE TREE CONSERVATION CORPS

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

CITY LIMITS

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

WHERE IRL MEETS URL

Online activism has made social movements more accessible BY BAILEY BASHAM

ists balled at her sides, Grayce Gadson — then 6 years old — was being fussed over by her aunt. She and her family were getting ready to go to town, and her aunt, the matriarch of the family, had knelt down to eye level with the youngster to offer a bit of advice. “She was buttoning my coat as she was telling me how I’d needed to behave,” recalls Gadson. “It wasn’t the first time I’d gone downtown, but apparently I was growing up, and I needed to make sure that when white people talked to me, I knew to always say ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘yes sir.’ That I knew to not drink out of the white water fountains and that when white people were walking down the street, I knew to step out of their way. Even at 6 years old, I knew it was wrong, and I was insulted. But still something in me knew I had to do what she told me to do. I knew it was about my safety. I decided right then that I was going to do something about that feeling.” Gadson says that — as an activist since that day in 1958, and a gay Black woman since always — her life has been categorized into periods of time. Those periods come between deaths of people who look like her at the hands of police and white supremacists. Gadson’s uncle, Alphonso Washington, who was killed by police in Goodlettsville in 1971, was the first death to really hit her. The year she moved back to Nashville from Indiana — 2014 — saw the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald and Tamir Rice at the hands of police. That year, she became a core member of the local Black Lives Matter chapter. Three years later, Jocques Clemmons was killed by a police officer in Nashville, and Gadson joined Community Oversight Now, a grassroots coalition calling for community oversight of the Metro Nashville Police Department. The next year, Daniel Hambrick was killed by a police officer; a little more than three months later, Gadson and her fellow Community Oversight Now members saw the passage of an amendment to create an oversight board. And since the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May, Gadson hasn’t stopped moving. “I’m tired and can’t do as much as I used to, but that sense of injustice is the same,” she says. “The Black Lives Matter movement is just a continuation of the work we’ve always done. These communities have always been prepared to make the current moment the one that changes everything. I’m so tired of Black people having this much work to do. … But now really is the time. Get ready to show up.” When she first joined the movement, Gadson was marching in the streets, her

voice a part of a collective demand for justice. But since March, when Nashville began to see a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases, much of her activism has been done digitally. Gadson says because of the shift toward doing more things online, there have been more opportunities to collaborate with people whose work is internet-based. Digital spaces of activism make it possible for advocates in more isolated rural communities to engage. And for many activists with disabilities, virtual activism is a platform for their voices to be heard. Passion Ray is a Black disabled activist and social worker. She says virtual activism makes it possible to show up for her communities in ways that her disability doesn’t normally allow. “There are people that are able to get out and do the groundwork, while people online sort of back it up,” says Ray. “Using all forms of activism to get people’s voices heard is a really powerful way to actually see some action. I grew up in the ’80s, and ‘online’ wasn’t a thing for us, but we live in a digital world, so we have to take advantage of that. The internet helps amplify voices and spread the message.” But the models of online activism are sprawling far beyond just retweets and petitions. Across the country, activists like Gadson and Ray have been organizing via Zoom calls, planning protests via group chats, building communities in Facebook groups, and widening both their network and their reach through Twitter. Last month, Gadson and Ray both attended and were featured speakers at a virtual protest and rally organized by the Nashville Disability Justice Collective. S. Craig Watkins is the founding director of the Institute for Media Innovation and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s college of communications. He says virtual activism has become crucial in the work for social change. “The connected nature of social media allows you to further the regional and national network, and that really enhances the scope of a political movement,” Watkins says. The Pew Research Center reported in 2018 that 34 percent of Americans had taken part in advocating for causes online in the past year, with 32 percent of Americans saying they had encouraged others to become active around causes important to them. The center also found that in adults ages 18 to 49, 24 percent had used social media to find rallies or protests planned for their area, and 20 percent had used hashtags related to a political or social issue. Watkins says the use of social media in activist work has allowed for the network of activists to grow more widely and more quickly. “One of the advantages is that the

use of social media can help change the narrative,” Watkins says. “It has democratized access to public discourse, and in this case, there are activists who are able to use social media as a platform to oppose or offer perspectives that may not necessarily be articulated by the powers that be. Every day, activists are putting their perspectives into public discourse, and that significantly changes the conversation, the terms and ultimately what makes it to the table to begin with.” Beth Thielman, a co-organizer of last month’s virtual protest and co-founder of the Disability Justice Collective, says she felt it was important to show up not only in solidarity, but to make sure there were ways for the voices of the Black disabled community to be heard. In some cases, as with Ray and the poetry she shared, their activism looked different from protest signs and petitions. “This is a deeply personal issue for us, because these are problems that disproportionately impact disabled communities, especially disabled people of color,” Thielman says. “This is a part of a legacy of disabled organizing in solidarity with the marginalized communities that so many of us are a part of. We wanted to create a space for people to share their writing, their music, their poetry. It’s been really powerful to see it all come together.” Betsy Greer, a writer and activist, is credited with coining the term craftivism — it’s a form of activism focused on crafting. (Think knitting, stitching, making and sending postcards, making ceramics.) Craftivism was born in the early 2000s from a knitting project done for a resident in a domestic-violence shelter, and Greer says the act of stitching, molding and weaving in the name of social change has taken off. “There’s something to me about these granular acts of activism that can make us better people and really improve how we show up in our own lives,” says Greer. “We have Facebook and Instagram and Twitter now, and you can put something online instantly that has the potential to spark an idea and make things go even further. I like really tiny acts. Everyone is going to show up in a way that is meaningful to them. I think people think they have to be an activist in one specific way, but that’s not true. Your body may not be able to do certain things, so you work with that instead of against it. Don’t feel guilty if you feel that your skills are too simple. Your skills are still skills someone else might not have, and they are needed.” As for Ray, she says she will continue speaking up, writing and organizing online to mend the hurt caused by injustices toward Black people and people with disabilities. And until the people in her communities are no longer suffering, she says she’s going to be loud. “This is my purpose,” says Ray. “I will be there for my people. If we have to be on the ground, we’ll be there. There are some times when I still feel like I have to get out and protest. I have to rest along the way, but I just pray I make it and keep going. If we have to be online, we’ll be there. The bottom line is they are going to hear us.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: Gov. Bill Lee didn’t even have time to post a video touting his signature of the so-called “heartbeat” bill (which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected) before a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the law from going into effect for two weeks. The law would effectively ban most abortions, since heartbeats are typically detected after six weeks of pregnancy — well before many women realize they are pregnant. The law also makes performing such abortions a Class C felony, punishable with up to 15 years of prison time and a $10,000 fine. Lee celebrated signing the bill into law in a post on Twitter, calling it “one of the most #prolife bills in the country.” But the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others, are challenging it in court. “While we can enjoy a moment of relief today, we can’t forget that legislators passed this dangerous abortion ban in the dead of night without any public input,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a joint statement with members of the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights. “While the country rises up against racism, it’s important to recognize that these laws are inherently discriminatory. Abortion bans are part of a larger public health care system that targets people of color through barriers to care, and systemically erases their freedoms and bodily autonomy.” State Democrats also condemned Lee for signing the bill. The temporary restraining order is set to expire July 27 at noon. The plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction will be considered at a hearing on July 24 … After more than 40 years, the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust is likely headed out of the Tennessee Capitol and to the Tennessee State Museum following a 9-2 vote by the State Capitol Commission on July 9. As reported by our own J.R. Lind: “The heretofore obscure State Capitol Commission voted Thursday to request a waiver from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as required by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, to move the controversial bust of the slave trader, Confederate general, early Ku Klux Klan leader and alleged war criminal from its place of prominence outside the Senate chamber. In a rather surprising move, Adms. David Farragut and Albert Gleaves will also decamp for the museum.” … Forrest’s bust has attracted protests for decades, increasingly so in recent years. For the past month, protesters have been camped outside the Capitol demanding the bust’s removal, among other things. “I’m feeling a sense of victory, but also a sense of grief of how much it took to get to this point,” activist Justin Jones told the Scene’s Alejandro Ramirez. “So many of us have been arrested multiple times in these past 26 days, have been beaten, have been threatened.” NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Here are three of the most interesting primary races in the Aug. 6 election

Primary Concerns A veteran moderate faces a progressive challenger for Nashville’s congressional seat BY STEVEN HALE

n June 26, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill granting statehood to Washington, D.C. It was the first time a chamber of the United States Congress has passed such a bill for the nation’s capital. The last time D.C. statehood came up for a vote in Congress was in 1993, and Rep. Jim Cooper — then a representative from Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District — voted no, with the majority. This time he was in the majority again, but this time he voted yes. Days later, a mailer from the Cooper for Congress campaign began showing up in mailboxes around the 5th Congres-

arly voting in the Aug. 6 primary election begins Friday, July 17, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 1, at 11 different locations throughout the city. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, absentee voting is also now open to all Tennesseans — and the sooner you sign up for an absentee ballot, the better. (More on the DOs and DON’Ts of absentee voting on p. 12.) Also in this week’s cover package, we dive into a handful of the most interesting races on the ballot: the Democratic primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 5 (p. 8); the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Lamar Alexander (p. 10); and state House District 52’s Democratic primary (p. 12). Be sure to visit nashvillescene.com for further ongoing coverage of these races and more, and find sample ballots via nashville.gov.

sional District, the Middle Tennessee area anchored by Nashville that Cooper has represented since 2003. The mail piece touted Cooper’s long-standing practice of giving out his personal cellphone number. It even included the number (615-714-1719) prominently on both sides. But it also featured a photo of the congressman speaking with four Black constituents, including former Metro Councilmember Erica Gilmore. Among other messages, one statement appeared under the heading “Ending Systemic Racism.” “Nashvillians from all backgrounds have come together to call for an end to systemic racism,” the mailer reads. “Jim Cooper will bring our calls to end racial profiling, hold law enforcement accountable and reimagine policing to Congress.” A subsequent mail piece featured an endorsement from Davidson County Clerk Brenda Wynn, the first African American elected to a constitutional office in the county’s history. Then, on July 5, Cooper posted several

photos on Twitter that showed him marching in the previous day’s Black Lives Matter demonstration organized by the newly and rightly famous Teens for Equality. “Yesterday, I joined thousands of Tennesseans in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Cooper wrote. “Inaction and indifference towards racism is unacceptable, and Nashville couldn’t be luckier to have inspiring leaders like @teens_4equality.” In decades of representing the Nashville area as a Blue Dog Democrat — that is, a moderate — Cooper has not developed a reputation that would suggest opposition to the ongoing protest movement. He has not been seen as an opponent of racial equality. But these issues have never been central to his brand as a politician, nor a particular point of consistent emphasis for him as a member of the U.S. Congress. The recent messaging from his campaign has not been subtle, and it certainly caught the attention of longtime local Democrats and insiders — including his former campaign manager

Taylor Walker, who replied to Cooper’s tweet from the march by saying: “WHAT TOOK SO LONG?” They read one obvious conclusion between the lines: This is a man with a primary challenge, specifically a primary challenge by a Black woman from his left. Her name is Keeda Haynes. A lifelong Middle Tennessean, Haynes became a public defender after a five-year stint in federal prison on drug-related charges of which she has always maintained her innocence. (She was the subject of a 2016 Scene cover story.) Haynes was one of several local Black activists and community organizers considered by Justice Democrats, the national progressive group that has backed a number of primary challenges against incumbent moderate Democrats. Ultimately, Justice Democrats decided against putting resources into a primary challenge against Cooper. But Haynes has nevertheless attracted support that has solidified her as Cooper’s first legitimate Democratic challenger in memory. She has been endorsed by state Sen. Brenda

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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KEEDA HAYNES

Gilmore, who served on the Metro Council for 10 years and has been at the state legislature since 2003, and Abby Rubenfeld, the Nashville civil rights attorney who represented the Tennessee plaintiffs in the 2015 marriage equality case decided by the United States Supreme Court. Local chapters of national progressive groups Indivisible, Sunrise Movement and Our Revolution have backed Haynes, as has the national organization Democracy for America. But Haynes and Cooper are not the only Democrats on the primary ballot. Joshua Rawlings is running too, although he previously ran as a Republican and has only voted in Republican primaries. He has not gained much traction. In a Zoom call from his home in Nashville, Cooper calls the first half of 2020 “one of the craziest and one of the scariest times in American history.” He cites the March tornado that tore through the city, and the deadly mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic by Trump, whom Cooper calls “the worst president in American history.” Of everything going on, he says, ”probably the most important, history-making one is Black Lives Matter, because that’s the final longawaited stage of the civil rights movement.” Asked why he thinks he’s facing a primary challenge now, he suggests it’s a matter of outsized focus on a small amount of differences. “The most important thing to remember is we’re all on the same team,” he says. “We’re all Democrats. I have a 95 percent voting record with the Democratic party. That’s an A by most any standard, but it’s easy to focus on the 4 or 5 percent, but it’s most important to remember the 95 percent.” Haynes has argued repeatedly that it’s not enough for Cooper to be on the righteous side of many issues on paper. His moderate

JIM COOPER

approach has long been a source of consternation for local progressives who have found him generally likable but frustratingly disinterested or slow to take up some of the causes they care about most. “We don’t need people that are gonna wait for the party to start, we need people that’s gonna start the party,” Haynes says during a phone interview with the Scene. “That’s just not what we have with our current representative now. The issues that people are most concerned about in the community are not issues that he actively advocates for, that he actively takes a stand on, and if he gets involved at all, it’s because he’s been late to the party. We can’t afford that anymore.” In the middle of a national reckoning with the legacy of racism and the grooves it has dug into American society, Haynes says it’s time to center Black voices. “I believe that those of us that are closest to the problems are the ones that are closest to the solutions,” she says. That line of thinking also applies to her views on the criminal justice system. Between her personal experience as a formerly incarcerated person and her time as a public defender, it’s a topic she says she can discuss “all day long.” Among the policies she advocates on her campaign website are the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences, the legalization of marijuana at the federal level, the restoration of voting rights and the abolition of the federal death penalty. Haynes says she supports the idea of taking money from police departments and reallocating those funds to other areas of the community that contribute to public safety in different ways. She also cites U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s recent proposal to take the same approach to the country’s enormous military budget. Asked what he would point to in his

30-plus-year congressional career that falls under the category of working to end systemic racism, Cooper cites a bill passed by the House last month. “The most important police reform act in U.S. history just passed a couple weeks ago,” he says. “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. That does several things that are absolutely historic — bans chokeholds, bans warrantless searches, it ends qualified immunity for police officers. It also prevents bad officers from getting fired in one department and going to work in another department.” But before this year? “Well, I have an excellent civil rights voting record,” he says. “And I’ve avoided some of the mistakes that, for example, Joe Biden made in his career. He championed the 1994 crime bill. I voted against it.” The congressmember says he has a very diverse staff and “the best intern program in Washington to help develop new talent.” He also highlights the work his office has done consistently over the years to register young voters, even holding registration events at area high schools. He supports automatic voter registration. He has also supported raising the minimum wage. “That might sound minor, but so many of the most vulnerable people in our society hold those jobs,” Cooper says. There would seem to be little doubt that the future of the Democratic party looks more like Keeda Haynes than Jim Cooper. “Well, I won’t point out that the same charges could be leveled at the media and at journalists like you,” he says when asked why a white man is still the right person to represent the district. This is true, but not actually an answer to the question. He goes on: “The voters of the Nashville area have had a chance every two years to judge my work, and their approval has been

amazing, and for many years.” Cooper says the suggestion that things like his recent appearance at a Black Lives Matter march are motivated by campaign pressure is unfair. “Well, I think that’s a cheap shot,” he says. “I think if people had paid attention they would have seen me at the Women’s March, they would’ve seen me at the March for Science, they would have seen me at many other marches in Nashville. Now, it is true, I’m often in Washington, so I’m not able to attend every local event. It’s also true that I have duties with my wife on the weekends — she has Alzheimer’s, and so far we’ve been unable to get as much help on the weekends. But I participate to the fullest extent of my ability.” Haynes’ challenge is to convince Middle Tennessee Democrats that the man they’ve spent decades voting for, a man they largely like, is no longer right for the job. “There are people who are loyal to the Democratic Party and that are loyal to the Democratic establishment,” she says. “If you’re gonna publicly support Keeda Haynes right now, you have to consent to never talking to Lisa Quigley at a party again,” says one Democratic operative, noting widespread reluctance to cross Cooper or his veteran chief of staff. But Haynes also says she’s encountered many voters who recognize “that he really no longer is the right fit for this moment in history.” “It doesn’t take away from who he is,” Haynes says. “I don’t know him personally, and some people say, ‘Oh, well he’s a nice man,’ and he very well may be. But is nice what we’re looking for now? Is a ‘nice man’ what we need now in this moment to help move this country forward?” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Senate to Win It Manny Sethi and Bill Hagerty

MANNY SETHI

BILL HAGERTY

both play the outsider angle in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seat BY J.R. LIND

mericans love an outsider. Well, at least they say they do. For all our anti-establishment preening, it’s still careerists who most often win elections. That may be hard to remember in an era when the president is a twice-divorced, six-timebankrupt former reality-show personality, the governor is an HVAC man, and the most famous member of the U.S. House of Representatives is an ex-bartender. Plenty of candidates bank on Americans’ thirst for the underdog, for the unexpected and the unvarnished. And in 2020, why not? Especially considering the fact that Donald Trump is one of just five men to become president without having previously held elected office — and the only one of that quintet who wasn’t either a general or cabinet secretary beforehand. In the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Lamar Alexander, Manny Sethi wants to remind you that he is the outsider. In a way, he always has been. He was the only person at Brown University and Harvard Medical School from Hillsboro, Tenn., a small community in Coffee County that could be called a jerkwater, except the railroad doesn’t go there. He’s the son of two immigrants from India — not exactly a booming demographic in Hillsboro (population: 450). “We looked a little different, but no one ever treated us different,” Sethi says. An orthopedic trauma surgeon, Sethi has never held elected office. In addition to practicing medicine, he started Healthy Tennessee with his wife — it’s a nonprofit that operates health fairs, providing free screenings and health education to often underserved communities statewide. Sethi’s opponent, on the other hand, seems like he was practically groomed from birth to be in the Senate. Bill Hagerty was a White House Fellow under George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney’s national finance chair in 2008, a pledged Jeb Bush delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention and then-Gov. Bill Haslam’s economic and community development commissioner. Now the longtime associations with the uber-Establishment Bushes and Romney (and for that matter, with Haslam, who called on Trump to step aside as the GOP’s nominee less than a month before the 2016 election, and said he’d write in another Republican if he didn’t) may seemingly wrap Hagerty in the trappings of the Never Trump wing of his party. But his loyalty to the president is unquestioned: After serving as director of appointments for Trump’s transition, he was named ambassador to Japan, where his performance won praise from foreign policy observers — a rarity for Trump appointees. Hagerty makes it very clear he’s Trump’s

man (though not in an interview with the Scene; his staff hemmed and hawed through multiple interview requests). The president endorsed Hagerty in a tweet (naturally) in July 2019, months before Hagerty made his candidacy official. Since then, the candidate has adopted his former boss’s favorite media strategy: bombastic tweets. Lately, they’ve featured the words “left-wing angry mob” and “Socialist” and included calls to jail people who burn the American flag, despite 30 years of jurisprudence protecting that particular form of protest. Hagerty’s strategy is to tie himself as tightly to Trump as possible — not unwise in a deep-red state where, according to the Vanderbilt poll, the president’s approval rating hovers at 51 percent. Hagerty ends all his tweets with “#TrumpEndorsed,” and the bottom third of his yard signs are splashed with “ENDORSED BY TRUMP.” A few around town don’t sport the endorsement, but the campaign says don’t be fooled by any of those — as, they insist, they were printed early in the campaign, and the latest signs include the verbiage. It’s worth remembering, however, that Trump endorsed Hagerty months before the latter officially filed his campaign paperwork, authorizing him to spend money. Sethi isn’t really fazed by Hagerty’s seemingly disingenuous performative outsiderism. “I think people know what’s real,” Sethi says. “That’s the incredible thing I’ve really learned during the campaign and I’ve learned in my medical practice. Patients know what’s real, voters know what’s real. They know who we are, they know the truth.” Sethi isn’t exactly running away from Trump either. For much of his campaign, he’s remained focused on fighting illegal immigration. “My parents came here the right way, they waited their turn,” he says. “We need fundamental reform.”

To him, that includes ending benefits like welfare and food stamps for the undocumented and prosecuting border-crossers and those who overstay visas. He’s also in favor of repealing and replacing Obamacare with a “free-market solution” that relies, in part, on allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines. Immigration and health care aren’t exactly new issues, but Sethi says establishment Republicans have given up the fight. “They’ve been so ineffective because they can’t articulate a clear plan to the American public, and that’s why we need people who come from outside of government,” Sethi says. Sethi also says the cabal of Washington insiders, such as they are, have been giving away the farm to China — “the communist Chinese government,” he repeatedly calls the world’s largest country. That reliance, he says, has shown up during the pandemic, as so many masks, gloves and antibiotics are manufactured there. There’s a dose of localism in Sethi’s platform too: He wants a renewed focus on fighting opioid addiction that counts on state and local leaders knowing what’s best for their constituents. “[Healthy Tennessee] traveled the state talking to mayors, sheriffs and drug courts and recovering addicts,” Sethi says. “The federal government has a one-size-fits-all approach, but Anderson County, Morgan County, Scott County have different challenges than Shelby County. We need a locally based solution. … We need to talk about faith-based treatment. With prescriptionbased recovery, the recidivism is so high. Drug courts are a good answer. Getting people back to work is a good answer, and we need to look at how adverse childhood events affect addiction.” That said, there’s plenty of Trumpian rhetoric about current events, too. “The biggest issue right now is taking on this mob that’s rioting, burning and looting in the streets,” he says. “Some-

one needs to stand up to them. I’ve had enough of this. This country has given us everything.” But he tempers that blunt instrument with an unexpected piece of reconciliatory language. “We need to be talking about the things that bring us together as Americans. We need to have that conversation.” Still, Sethi doesn’t hesitate to swing the big stick at the left. In a recent video he railed against protests — complete with footage of burning buildings and the beating of a man in a wheelchair — and against business closures. He tweeted that Metro Mayor John Cooper’s decision to wind back Nashville’s reopening plan is “lunacy,” and that Cooper “is more interested in shutting down Nashville’s economy than he is in leading.” “He was more than willing to join mass protests and allow riots,” Sethi’s tweet continued, “only to now revert to closing down Nashville, destroying small businesses and hurting working families.” In broad strokes, then, there’s not much difference in Sethi and Hagerty’s messaging style. And in policy terms, there’s little space to be found (insomuch as “being mad at protests” is a policy, for example). In Tennessee’s 2018 U.S. Senate election, Democrat Phil Bredesen, an overwhelmingly popular former governor, lost by more than 10 points to Republican Marsha Blackburn. Over on the other side of August’s ballot, James Mackler — who dropped out of the 2018 race to make room for Bredesen — leads a pack of hopefuls in the Democratic primary race. But barring a massive realignment in the state, the Republican nominee is all but certain to win the November general election, so electability isn’t a factor either. Thus, Republican primary voters can only base their decision on what kind of a person they want in the world’s greatest deliberative body. And Sethi is betting they want an actual outsider. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Democratic primary, a preacher takes on the incumbent BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

he boundaries of state House District 52 are, like the rest of the districts in the county, confusing. Most of the district is in the southeast part of Nashville, around Antioch. But it protrudes across the Cumberland River into East Nashville’s Lockeland Springs for a few blocks. From incumbent Rep. Mike Stewart’s home in that near-island part of the district, he can see its boundary. For the first time since Stewart was elected to the House in 2008, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus is facing a primary challenger, and it comes from the more populous and more diverse Antioch area of his district. COVID-19 and protests over police brutality and racial injustice have thrown this summer’s campaign season into uncertainty. But some observers believe James Turner, a second-generation pastor at Edgehill’s New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, has a chance of at least giving the incumbent lawmaker a run for his money in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary. Turner, mostly indirectly, seeks to contrast himself from the incumbent by arguing that he has been fighting for civil rights and social justice “in between tragedies.” “You see it even more now that the city and the state and the world is looking for change, is looking for social justice, looking to continue to fight against injustice, against racism and against hate,” says Turner, who lives in Antioch and is a past president of the influential Interdenominational Ministers

The DOs and DON’Ts of Absentee Voting Absentee voting is now open to all Tennesseans due to COVID-19 — here’s how to sign up BY NATASHA SENJANOVIC

ntil recently, there was a glitch in Nashville’s — but not the state’s — online absentee-ballot request form. If you filled out the form online and wrote your birth date without hyphens or dashes, it would automatically be changed — by a century. For example, 03301988 became 03/01/2088. Jeff Roberts, the city’s election administrator, says he hadn’t heard of anyone in his office encountering the futuristic birth dates. If they did, as with any problem on the request form, a staff member would reach out, asking you to fix the form or send in a new one. And that’s why voters should include their email address and/or phone number on the request form, says Roberts. If staff has to resort to snail mail, “By the time we reach out to you with a letter and you get back to us, it could be too late.” Previously, the county had a relatively small num-

among the first to call for former Speaker Glen Casada to step down. And in recent weeks, he has been a frequent presence at the ongoing protests against racial injustice outside the Capitol. “My mission is to push back on Trump and push back on the Republicans,” Stewart says. “I do that whether I have a primary challenge or not.” And, he says, his four years of service as caucus chair have had a wider impact than just District 52, as Democrats have picked up formerly Republican seats in the state’s largest counties (while losing some seats elsewhere). The statewide political work can be complicated by a frayed relationship with state party chair Mary Mancini, whom the House Democratic Caucus unsuccessfully sought to ouster last year. But this year, in addition to the Democratic strongholds in Nashville and Memphis, the party has its eyes on a couple of House seats in Rutherford and Knox counties. In the Democratic Party, hand-wringing about the efficacy of primary challenges is a favorite pastime — especially in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 win in New York. Tennessee Democrats are not immune,

MIKE STEWART

and this election season also features Keeda Haynes, a young Black attorney challenging longtime moderate Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (read more on that race on p. 8). One side of the debate argues that challenging sitting Democrats diverts resources from flippable seats held by Republicans; the other argues you can walk and chew gum at the same time. And while Stewart hasn’t faced a primary challenge since he won the seat more than a decade ago, other members of the delegation frequently do — including District 58’s Harold Love, one of the Nashville House delegation’s two Black members, who himself won his seat by beating an incumbent in the primary. (Love, who preceded Turner as president of the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship, declined to comment on the District 52 race.) “For some priorities like [Medicaid] expansion, we have to win more seats,” Stewart says. “The fact is, the Republicans are against expansion, and so to accomplish that task you can’t just be skillful politically, you have to get more seats. I have been systematically working with Democrats to win seats, and we have been successful, but we have to do more.”

JAMES TURNER

PHOTOS: STEPHEN ELLIOTT

AIn House House Divided District 52’s

Fellowship. “I have dedicated my life to that, been consistent in that and been engaged in that. When I look at my district, I saw a void.” In recent weeks, Turner has landed endorsements from two of the city’s Black countywide elected officials — Metro Councilmember Zulfat Suara and Juvenile Court Clerk Lonnell Matthews. His campaign manager is Kara Turrentine, a veteran of local campaigns. “The district deserves better,” Turner says. “I think I deserve better. When I was fighting for social justice, standing with state legislators in the Capitol, I did not see who represented my district there. … I’ve worked with city officials, I’ve worked with state legislators on social justice issues, stood with them, press conference after press conference, stood with them on so many social justice issues. I did not see the one who represents me. I did not see that come from my own legislator.” At the Capitol, Stewart is one of the most visible Democrats. As the caucus chairman, he often speaks in committee hearings and on the House floor in opposition to Republican bills. He holds frequent press conferences decrying the latest GOP outrage. He was

ber of absentee requests. Those were handled by four of five employees, and turnaround wasn’t much of an issue, says Roberts. But with absentee voting now open to all Tennesseans due to COVID-19 concerns, this year the Davidson County Election Office has added more than 15 staff members to process the hundreds of request forms that pour in daily. Most of those requests are problem-free. When they aren’t, says Roberts, it’s usually due to human — not computer — error. And those errors are on the part of voters. So here are the DOs and DON’Ts of absentee voting, to avoid invalidating your ballot request form, or the ballot itself.

Do download the absentee-ballot request form Once filled out and signed, the form can be delivered in multiple ways. The fastest way is to scan it and send it via email to moaballot@nashville.gov. There’s also fax: 615-880-1729. By mail, the form can be delivered to: Davidson County Election Commission ATTN: Absentee Department P.O. Box 650 Nashville, Tenn. 37202-0650

Do include your full Social Security number and signature on the request form and ballot affidavit “People want to put the last four digits of the Social Security number on there,” says Roberts, explain-

ing that people are accustomed to doing that with some other forms. “But the law requires us to get the whole number.” A missing signature is even more frequent, Roberts says — and more problematic. On request forms it can be a pretty quick fix, if the Davidson County Election Commission has your email. “We can get you to fill out another form [with] your signature and scan that to us,” he says. But if your signature is missing from the ballot affidavit, your vote cannot be counted. The affidavit is a detachable flap on the yellow envelope in which absentee ballots are returned. If it lacks a Social Security number or signature, Roberts says: “We have no way of getting back in touch with you because we don’t open up those ballots until Election Day. We will check your signature again and the information on that affidavit. If you’re good to go, we tear that off.” Detached from a name, the ballot becomes anonymous, and your vote is secret — just like at a polling station.

Don’t wait until the last minute to send in your request form Yes, the deadline is July 30, a week before the election. However, according to Roberts, “The post office has told us that you should allow for a week each way just to be secure that it will get here.” So if you’re planning to mail in your request form,

ideally you should do so by July 20.

Do track your absentee-ballot request form and ballot Each request form and ballot has a barcode, which is scanned and uploaded nightly to the state’s elections website. That allows voters to check whether their request form and/or ballot has been received. The tracking system was previously available only to military and overseas voters, but as of June it can be accessed by all absentee voters.

Don’t plan on hand-delivering your absentee ballot In Tennessee, absentee ballots must be delivered through the mail or through a private carrier like FedEx or UPS. The election commission cannot accept ballots any other way.

Don’t forget the stamp on your ballot envelope It may be government mail, but an absentee ballot cannot go out without a first-class stamp.

Do this all over again for November The current absentee-ballot request form is good only for the primary and county elections on Aug. 6. To cast an absentee vote in November’s general election, you will have to send in a brand-new request form. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Moving Tennessee

FORWARD

JAMES TURNER DEMOCRAT FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 52 ENDORSED BY

 EARLY VOTING IS JULY 17 - AUGUST 1

ELECTION DAY IS AUGUST 6

TURNERfoRTENNESSEE.coM PAID FOR BY TURNER FOR TENNESSEE, DR. KELLI TURNER, TREASURER

Juvenile Court Clerk

LONNELL MATTHEWS

CounCilmember At- lArge

ZULFAT SUARA

Wondering Wondering where where to to find find the the Nashville Nashville Scene Scene while while sta staying ying safe? safe? Visit our website for an updated list of outdoor pickup locations. Other locations are shown on our pickup map, but check with businesses first to make sure they’re open. You can also have the Scene delivered to your house! NASHVILLESCENESHOP.COM

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

IT’S BACK! The Nashville Scene is excited to announce our new drive-in movie series, Movies in the Park-ing Lot!

NurtureTheNext.org

Formerly

Parenting isn’t easy, but you don’t have to walk the journey alone. Nurture the Next is here to help. Free in-home programs that help build healthy relationships between parents and children.

Parenting and crisis support here for you 24/7. Call 1-800-CHILDREN Sharpen your parenting skills by visiting ParentingTN.org.

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

Join us at OneC1ty this August, where you can pull up your car instead of a blanket or chair and enjoy four movies under the stars!

Each week we’ll be screening a fan-favorite film FOR FREE, and guests can order a delicious picnic dinner and sweet treats.

MOVIE LINEUP COMING SOON!

S TAY T U N E D F O R M O R E D E TA I L S !

S AV E T H E D AT E :

August 6, 13, 20 and 27 I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H

CRITICS’ PICKS E D I T I O N

[FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD]

WATCH ART WIRE FELLOWS

ERICA CICCARONE [RAISING THE BAR]

WATCH LIVE FROM THE NEW BOBBY’S IDLE HOUR

At this point, February 2019 feels like a mythical, long-ago time when hobbits and wizards roamed. But if you can remember back that far, there was some good news:

MANDO SAENZ

ROMA Bobby’s Idle Hour, for decades the only bar on Music Row, had found a new home on Music Square East, barely a block from the one it had been pushed out of a month earlier by impending development. Barkeep Josh Distad and a business partner took over the name and set to work renovating their new space, aiming to continue the traditions of being both a neighborhood watering hole and a songwriter hangout. The new Bobby’s is almost ready for regulars to start staking out their spots, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put the grand opening on hold. In the meantime, longtime local songsmith Mando Saenz has launched a performance series aptly titled Live From the New Bobby’s Idle Hour. Each week, Saenz — who’s had songs cut by Miranda Lambert, Kim Richey, Lee Ann Womack, Jim Lauderdale and many more — and a guest swap tunes on the Idle

Hour stage, just for the camera. Guests so far have included widely loved singersongwriter Hayes Carll, who Saenz came up with in the Houston scene before moving to Nashville, and Aaron Raitiere, whose songs you heard in 2018’s A Star Is Born, among other places. The show’s greatest asset is how it feels casual, like you’re just hanging out with a couple of pals shooting the breeze. Episodes are filmed on Wednesdays and premiere on Saenz’s Facebook page and YouTube channel at 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The series also raises funds for the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration and racial inequality. STEPHEN TRAGESER

event, Sweet Relief: Dances for the Wash Room, will take us into the bathrooms of six dancer-choreographers: Megan Carvajal, David Flores, Hannah McCarthy, Amanda Reichert, Sarah Salim and Shabaz Ujima. So put on your interpretive dance pants, clear a space in your living room, and watch the performance on the Kindling Arts YouTube channel. Kindling prioritizes paying artists, so make a donation to the nonprofit through its fiscal sponsor, the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville. 8 p.m. Friday, July 17 ERICA CICCARONE FILM

A sure sign of a thriving arts ecosystem is when you see people collaborating across genres, responding to each other’s work and creating something new. The performance people at OZ Arts Nashville have teamed up with literary people at The Porch Writers’ Collective to see what happens when writers cross-pollinate. The collaboration is called Art Wire, and it invites around a dozen adult and teen writers to attend each performance in the OZ Arts season. With mentorship from Porch co-founder Susannah Felts, the writers draft original work in response to topflight theater, dance and musical performances. Amber Stewart responds to New Dialect’s playful dance performance First Fruit with poetry that “reflects queerness, femininity and monsters.” Inspired by several performances throughout the season, Yurina Yoshikawa has written four interlocking short stories. In one of these — inspired by Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein — a widower takes care of his young son Luke in the deep woods of Minnesota. Nashville-based artist Jana Harper’s performance This Holding: Traces of Contact — which the artist adapted for an online event — elicited an array of responses that circle the nature of relationships, both with the self and others. Hear all this and more when the Art Wire Fellows present their work in a video that will air at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 16, on the OZ Arts website and social media platforms. You can also read some selections at artwire.ozartsnashville. org. 8 p.m. Thursday, July 16, via OZ Arts

MUSIC

D I S T A N C I N G

[I HATE SPACE]

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING ALFONSO CUARÓN FILM FEST

For the 18th installment in our ongoing build-your-own-streaming-film-fest series, let’s focus on a director whose body of work is remarkably diverse, but united by We’ve all had to make more with less deeply poignant moments and gorgeous over the past four months. We’ve converted cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón. The kitchen tables to home offices, moved Mexican director (slash screenwriter, slash furniture to make way for aerobic exercises editor, slash … the list goes on) released and passed the time with new gardens three feature films in the ’90s, but and adopted pets. As performances let’s kick off our viewing session and events are canceled, arts with 2001’s tender and widely organizations are doing a EDITOR’S NOTE: beloved love-triangle flick stellar job adapting to onlineAS A RESPONSE TO THE Y Tu Mamá También (available only presences. Among ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, via Netflix). In addition those is Kindling Arts WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF THE to permanently lodging Festival, which encourages CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN PARTAKE heartthrobs Gael García bold performances by IN WHILE YOU’RE AT HOME Bernal and Diego Luna launching experimental PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCE. in the subconscious of acts and new works. Now countless adolescents, that in its third year, the fledgling film also established Cuarón as festival is going online with a force in independent cinema. It the Kindling Flares series, “a also had a hand in earning him his role at collection of projects across disciplines the helm of 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner that Kindling Arts Festival will premiere of Azkaban ($4 to rent via Amazon Prime). I in socially distant-friendly formats in lieu personally don’t care much about any of the of its annual multi-day event.” The first DANCE

ART

S O C I A L

[TOILET HUMOR]

WATCH SWEET RELIEF: DANCES FOR THE WASH ROOM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

BOOKS

[MAGIC HOUR]

MAKE A MAGICAL REALISM LIBRARY LIST

There’s a lot to be said about escapism — what I wouldn’t give to be transported to Middle Earth, Westeros or the USS Enterprise right now. But the challenges we are facing — a global pandemic that just won’t quit, a civil movement that has the makings of a revolution, and an upcoming election that can literally save lives — require us to stay firmly in this world, engaged with and contributing to the health and safety of our communities. That said, we also need art to nourish and sustain us so we are strong enough for the road ahead. My compromise? Magical realism, a broad-ranging, multicultural literary genre that reveals sociological truth via strange and wonderful phenomena. Required magical realist reading is One Hundred Years of Solitude, the 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. One Hundred Years tells the story of an extraordinary family from the fictional village Macondo. Through realistic events and magical phenomena, Márquez reveals centuries of political strife in Latin America alongside the unforgettable Buendía family. This is a life-changing book. My North American pick is Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a landmark novel about the lives of Black women postCivil War. It’s a haunting — and haunted — novel with prescient lessons for today. Writes The New Yorker’s Hilton Als, “the enormous wound at the center of ‘Beloved’ (1988) has to do with how slavery not only killed bodies but made a mess of our minds, thus creating a particularly American way of thinking.” Read it. My third pick is from Japanese author Haruki Murakami, who is most known for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I prefer his dreamlike 2002 novel Kafka on the Shore. The titular character is a 15-year-old boy who has run away from home to a faraway library, along with his metaphysical alter ego, a boy named Crow. His story runs concurrently with that of Nakata, a man who was mysteriously and permanently injured as a child during World War II and can now communicate with cats.

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CHECK OUT SAG-AFTRA’S STORYLINE ONLINE

What could be better than an awardwinning children’s literacy program to keep your kids occupied this summer? How about a program that features your favorite stars from Broadway, Hollywood and beyond? Since 2002, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Storyline Online has been serving up videos of acclaimed actors from stage and screen reading popular children’s books. Each video includes fun, colorful illustrations, and there are even supplemental activity guides available for parents and teachers. Readers include everyone from Kristin Bell (Quackenstein Hatches a Family) and Rami Malek (The Empty Pot) to Wanda Sykes (The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake) and Betty White (Harry the Dirty Dog). Check out the complete collection of videos — and learn how you can support this worthy program — by visiting storylineonline.net. AMY STUMPFL [BLUEBERRY GIRL]

PICK BLUEBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES

Berry-picking is a delicious, affordable way to get out of the house and enjoy the sun and fresh air while keeping a healthy distance from others. And this is the perfect time of year to fill your baskets with plump, ripe blueberries and blackberries. Last week at Kelley’s Berry Farm in Castalian Springs (check facebook.com/kelleysberryfarm for hours and availability), I scored four pounds of picture-perfect bluebs for about $15. I stress-baked blueberry-banana bread, blueberry-almond cookie bars, and blueberry-orange cinnamon rolls, and still had enough left over to put in cereal for days. For the blackberries, you can’t go wrong with Jerrell Guy’s Blackberry Corn Cobbler recipe, which is available on the New York Times food blog NYT Cooking. She tops two pounds of lightly mashed and

KELLEY’S BERRY FARM

MEGAN SELING

FILM

KIDS

[ONCE UPON A TIME …]

[BIG IN JAPAN]

STREAM JAPAN FILM CUTS FESTIVAL

Programmed and hosted every year by the New York-based nonprofit Japan Society, Japan Cuts is one of the city’s best-kept film secrets — an annual offering of the absolute best in new, classic and restored Japanese cinema. Because of COVID, the festival won’t happen in the flesh this year, but that has allowed Japan Cuts to reconfigure its programming and reach a broader audience than ever before. From July 17-30, viewers across the country can stream the titles from home. Films in the program include the avant-garde nature documentary Cenote; restorations of three films from the classic comedy series Tora-san; Fukushima 50, a blockbuster disaster spectacle about the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear accident; Special Actors, a metacomedy about a theatrical troupe that infiltrates a cult; and Labyrinth of Cinema, the final film by iconoclastic director Nobuhiko Obayashi (best-known in the United States for the utterly insane Hausu), who died in April and to whom this year’s festival is dedicated. Streaming July 17-30 via japansociety.org NATHAN SMITH THEATER

ff with us!

ERICA CICCARONE

sweetened blackberries with a cornmealbased biscuit-like topping that is made even more flavorful by replacing the usual heavy cream with the milk and meat from freshly grated cobs of corn. Genius! It is everything you need in a summer dessert (and best served warm out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if you ask me). A tip: Throw some blueberries into the mix too. They get all big and fat while baking and then burst in your mouth like sweet, juicy pearls popping in bubble tea. So delightful.

[VIRTUAL FRINGE]

TUNE IN TO THE ONLINE FRINGE THEATRE FESTIVAL

Fringe theater artists are widely known for thinking outside the box. And while the famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe and other popular events won’t be happening this summer, we can still experience plenty of fringe-y goodness through the Online Fringe Festival. Founded by stage director and filmmaker Aydan Wilder and Vibes Art Studios, this virtual festival features an impressive lineup of emerging theater artists from the U.K. — serving up everything from full plays to solo performances and more. There’s Emily Rose Simons’ charming musical Confessions of a Rabbi’s Daughter; Caroline Burns Cooke’s tribute to the British comic actress Yootha Joyce, Testament of Yootha; and Double Trouble Theatre Co.’s first online production, The Lady Killers — a collection of monologues centering on women who have committed murder. And while all performances are available to stream for free, donations are encouraged — with 90 percent of proceeds split among the artists. Check them out at onlinefringefestival.com. AMY STUMPFL THEATER

Burger Week

This extraordinary premise makes for a consuming read. Reading each of these novels is like witnessing the reinvention of language and form, and they are just what the doctor ordered for unprecedented times. And all are available at the Nashville Public Library, which is offering curbside pickup in addition to ebooks and digital audiobooks.

FOOD & DRINK

Celebrate

Harry Potter books or films, and don’t love supporting J.K. Rowling’s work in light of recent transphobic comments she’s made. That said, lots of critics and fans seem to think Cuarón’s installment is the best in the series, so do with that information what you will. A definite must in our fest is 2006’s dystopian sci-fi effort Children of Men ($4 on Prime), a heart-wrenching and beautifully acted feature that is especially potent In These Times. After that one, 2013’s innovative sci-fi thriller Gravity (also $4 on Prime) ought to go down easy. Even though it’s got some scientific inaccuracies, Gravity is a fun watch, and it made Cuarón the first Latin American director to win the Academy Award for Best Director (one of seven trophies the film landed). After that, bring your film fest home with what, for my money, was the best movie of 2018: The gorgeous and affecting Roma, which is available on Netflix. It’s one of the few films on which Cuarón didn’t collaborate with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki — the director lensed it himself, and won yet another damn Oscar for doing so — and each shot is a work of art. D. PATRICK RODGERS

[TONIGHT AT THE APOLLO]

CHECK OUT THE APOLLO THEATER’S DIGITAL STAGE

Situated in the heart of Harlem, the historic Apollo Theater has long been a driving force in music, comedy and theatrical entertainment. And thanks

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CRITICS’ PICKS

MUSIC

to its new Digital Stage offerings, the Apollo is still finding ways to connect artists and audiences during COVID-19. There are educational resources and fascinating community conversations, along with curated playlists and archived performances — including the alwayspopular Amateur Night at the Apollo. You can also check out the full performance of Opera Philadelphia’s We Shall Not Be Moved (which had its world premiere in 2017 and explores the deadly 1985 bombing of a Black liberation movement known as MOVE) or Let’s Stay in This Together: A Benefit to Support the Apollo Theater (which featured special appearances by everyone from Dionne Warwick and Gary Clark Jr. to Ziggy Marley and Keb’ ’Mo). Visit apollotheater.org/digitalstage for the complete lineup. AMY STUMPFL [CAN’T TOUCH THIS]

WATCH THE NASHVILLE SCENE’S NOCONTACT SHOWS

well is New York’s Pace Gallery. Two shows that are currently available online are fascinating in different, unexpected ways. The exhibit of Peter Hujar’s late-’70s and early-’80s photographs, Cruising Utopia, is a perfectly titled examination of New York in the decade before AIDS. Hujar’s works are strong enough to stand on their own — particularly his portraits of downtown icons like Greer Lankton, Susan Sontag and Fran Lebowitz — and that’s exactly how the gallery presents them. There is the occasional anecdote or quote from a subject, and the minimum contextualization needed for novices to get a deep appreciation from the show, which will remain on view through July 28. Also on view in the Pace online viewing rooms is an exhibition by Light and Space artist James Turrell. The artist’s recent series of so-called Constellation works are no doubt luminous, but surely some of that quality gets tamped down when presented through the screen of my laptop. It’s an interesting experiment — and one that Turrell fans should not miss — but the intimacy I feel viewing Hujar’s photographs in my own home gets lost when I’m trying to experience the Turrell works. It’s like the difference between hearing a worn-out copy of your favorite record on a busted turntable and the remastered version through highquality headphones — some artworks demand high definition. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

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So Refreshing! Refreshing! A women’s column featuring a rotating cast of contributors

ART

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues with high rates of confirmed cases in Nashville and around the U.S., it feels like streaming shows will play a key role in our music scene for the foreseeable future. Whether you look at it from an artistic, a social or an economic standpoint, streams simply can’t replace the ecosystem built around people coming out to clubs to see live music. But streams at least offer an opportunity for musicians to replace a little of the income they’ve lost from [MYSTERIOUS WAYS] canceled gigs and tours, and to do as much WATCH THE NEW UNSOLVED as possible of what they do best: connecting MYSTERIES ON NETFLIX with audiences. In April, we at the Scene Enthusiasts of the original Unsolved launched our own streaming performance Mysteries program hosted by the dignified series, No-Contact Shows, and we’re going Robert Stack (and even the 2008-2010 to keep it going. Most shows stream at 6 p.m. version with Dennis Farina) might find it on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with occasional deviations from the schedule — this is the internet, after all. Most are live, but occasionally artists will prerecord a set in order to bring in more band members at a safe social distance or to get around an unreliable internet connection. The next show is set for Thursday, July 16, at 6 p.m., featuring ’60s- and ’70s-pop-inspired rock quartet UNSOLVED MYSTERIES The Medium. If you’ve missed out on previous installments, you’ll find more than 15 shows to check out via our website. Those include singer-songwriter Liz sacrilege that the glossy six-installment Longley kicking off the series, ace rapper Netflix reboot doesn’t have a host, or jump Rashad tha Poet firing off choice rhymes between multiple cases per episode. But and engaging in poignant real talk about the part-true-crime, part-paranormal show systemic racism, Thelma and the Sleaze’s did keep Gary Malkin’s theme music, which Lauren “L.G.” Gilbert rocking out in her remains unnerving and creepy as ever. van, pop and R&B songsmith R.LUM.R Though the new program’s sole ufology ep keeping it chill, and lots more. Visit (“Berkshires U.F.O.”) feels like fan service, nashvillescene.com/music to get started. its two standouts are heartland horror stories that will shake you to your core. STEPHEN TRAGESER “Missing Witness” tells the sordid tale of a mom from hell and the daughter who knew [WE OUT HERE] CHECK OUT THE ONLINE EXHIBITIONS too much (think HBO’s macabre Sharp Objects), while “No Ride Home” reexamines AT PACE GALLERY the suspicious death of a young Black man OK, sure, online exhibitions are not going to who went to a sketchy party in a rural area replace the reverential feeling of spending one night a decade ago and didn’t return. time in a gallery or museum. But the Here’s hoping that in our current racial innovation with which some galleries are exhibiting work is a most welcome change in reckoning, signal-boosting the latter case leads to justice for the killers and closure an industry that has spent decades fighting for the man’s family. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN for relevance. One institution that is doing it

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FOOD AND DRINK

BURGER TIME

Try these 14 tasty local burger options BY SCENE STAFF

PHARMACY BURGER AT THE PHARMACY BURGER PARLOR & BEER GARDEN $9 with a side The corner of Eastland and McFerrin is noticeably quieter these days, without the large crowds typically congregating in front of the Pharmacy. Fortunately, the popular eatery is still satisfying burger cravings with takeout and delivery, even letting diners enjoy a socially distanced meal, sans service, in the beer garden. Thirteen unique combinations await you — including vegetarian, vegan, fish, turkey and chicken options — but the Pharmacy Burger is surest to satisfy purists. The oversized Tennessee beef patty topped with yellow cheddar, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, chopped onions, crisp pickles and a dollop of yellow mustard is simple, sure — but a surprisingly

refreshing choice amid the menu of smothered and slathered alternatives. NANCY FLOYD

LITTLE MO AT FAT MO’S $3.09 Fat Mo’s is a Nashville institution. The unassuming drive-thru burger shacks — in Nashville, there’s one on Gallatin Pike, one on Eighth Avenue South and another in Antioch — predate the city’s restaurant boom, and have none of its pretensions. Namesake owner Mohammad Karimy and his wife Shiva moved to Nashville from Iran in the late 1980s, and Mo worked at McDonald’s for a stint before realizing he could improve on that model. Each burger is made fresh, but it’s worth the wait. The Little Mo and fries, my go-to order, tastes the way I always wanted a fast-food burger to taste, but with lean ground beef that’s perfectly seasoned and never frozen. We have to give them a point deducted for their Styrofoam containers, but their fries are very tasty as well. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

BARE BONES BUTCHER

CHEESEBURGER AT JOYLAND $9 Among the latest additions to Nashville’s burger trail is Joyland, the East Nashville biscuit-and-burger joint opened in recent months by noted chef and restaurateur Sean Brock. Joyland’s cheeseburger, whose beef comes from nearby Bear Creek Farm, is not like the burger at Brock’s first Nashville restaurant Husk (more on Husk below). Instead of the rarefied nature of that burger, the one at Joyland evokes the past. With its oozing American cheese, “Joy Sauce” and pickles and onions, the Joyland cheeseburger is the apotheosis of the fastfood burger. For $3 extra, make it a double to end your day, or add curly fries for $3. STEPHEN ELLIOTT

CHEESEBURGER AT HUSK $15 with fried potato wedges

a frequent query to recent diners at Husk, as that burger is as special as anything else on the hyper-local farm-to-table menu. Former chef Sean Brock undertook his normal obsessive amount of research to develop every aspect of the burger, from the grind of chuck, flank steak and Benton’s bacon to the Duke’s mayonnaise, yellow mustard, hot sauce, diced pickles and jalapeñoinfused special sauce and custom bun. Current Husk chef Katie Coss actually lives at Bear Creek Farm, which supplies the beef, so you know she won’t let quality slack one iota. CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

at Bare Bones Butcher are pretty talented in their tiny kitchen too, and the team is cross-trained to work both the counter and the griddle, so wait times are limited. They use their own dry-aged beef in the grind for their exquisite version of the prototypical double-patty smashburger, and it’s topped with Duke’s mayo, yellow mustard, housemade pickles and American cheese. Add a side of their beef-fat-fried potatoes for $4 if you’re feeling especially decadent. CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

CHEESEBURGER AT JACK BROWN’S BEER AND BURGER JOINT $7.49

I love a good smashburger — it’s like if you cut the crust (the best part) off a bigger burger patty and served it up. I’m a big fan of what M.L. Rose calls its ANM.L.-style smashburger, but the tastiest thing on the menu at the restaurant’s three locations (in Capitol View, Melrose and Sylvan Park) is The Belgian. It’s made with two perfectly crusted smashed patties, smoked Gouda, sweet crispy onions, chopped bacon, lettuce and garlic-peppercorn aioli. Given that mass of toppings, M.L. Rose made a smart move in chopping the bacon instead of using strips — no whole strips of bacon just falling off the burger as you try to bite into it. I’d say you have to be extremely hungry to finish the whole thing, but I never seem to have a problem. AMANDA HAGGARD

Close your eyes and picture the cheeseburger — the classic, archetypical, allAmerican burger. That’s what you get when you order the cheeseburger at one of Jack Brown’s locations. (I like to hit the one in Germantown, though the small chain also has a location in Edgehill.) With a Wagyu patty and American cheddar, this one is straightforward, like that really good burger you got at the ballpark concession stand in your youth. That is, unless you go with one of Jack Brown’s more adventurous offerings — like the mac-and-cheese-topped Greg Brady, or the El Chupacabra, which is made with sweet-chili-bacon jam. Add a side of the tasty, crispy, crinkle-cut fries ($3) to really transport yourself back to the ballpark. D. PATRICK RODGERS

It’s rare that you visit a nationally regarded restaurant and friends ask, “But did you try the cheeseburger?” But that’s

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

CHEESEBURGER AT BARE BONES BUTCHER $10

JOYLAND

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

e’re just past the halfway point, and already it’s been a long year. We’re right in the middle of a hot, tumultuous summer. Not that you necessarily need an excuse to eat a good hamburger, but we’d say you’ve got plenty. Below you’ll find a list of 14 burgers offered at locations throughout Nashville. Ranging in price from $3.09 to $23 — and ranging in neighborhood from Antioch to the Nations, Germantown to East Nashville — these burgers are all over the map, with a little something for everybody. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some restaurants are currently open in a limited capacity — some are open for to-go and delivery only. We encourage you to call ahead and/or visit these restaurants’ websites to know what you’re getting into before you dive in. (And prices may vary when a burger is delivered.) Also worth noting: Some of these establishments are participants in the ongoing Scene-sponsored Burger Week event, which ends July 19. But some of them are not! Visit sceneburgerweek.com for more details on participating restaurants and specials.

Having a whole-animal custom butcher shop in your neighborhood is definitely a luxury for the denizens of the Nations, but having one that will also serve you up a fantastic burger alongside a beer from their cozy bar while you wait for your order is just goddamn opulence! The meat cutters

THE BELGIAN AT M.L. ROSE $11.99 with house chips or waffle fries

4/20 AT PHAT BITES $11.95 with mac-and-cheese and marinated vegetables Given Phat Bites’ hippie-ish decor and theme, it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that it has a menu item called the 4/20. While the Donelson deli also offers the more conventional Wisconsin Butter Burger and the vegetarian-friendly Black Bean Burger, the 4/20 is ideal for those suffering from, shall we say, a severe bout of the munchies. It’s got two beef patties, goat

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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FOOD AND DRINK just a hint of sweet to the savory. For the more plant-inclined or curious, they also offer a Beyond Burger option. JONATHAN SIMS

cheese, local blackberry jam from The Nashville Jam Co., greens and caramelized onions — plus it comes served with a side of mac-and-cheese and marinated vegetables. To be perfectly honest, it’s kind of a lot — a massive, hearty flavor bomb that ought to sate your cravings for both sweet and savory. Get one of these things and keep on truckin’. D. PATRICK RODGERS

VEGGIE BURGER AT GRILLSHACK FRIES AND BURGERS $9.95 with fries

Opening a restaurant during a pandemic is an act of community service. The longsuffering folks in Old Hickory Village have been patiently waiting for a local burger spot, and Burger & Company came along right when we needed them most — about two months ago. I’ve tried a handful of options from the small but specialized menu, but the turkey burger is by far my favorite. Served with balsamic onion jam and a spicy aioli they call BC sauce (which is good enough that you may want to order extra on the side), the Bosco feels like a treat in burger form. And the brioche bun is so perfectly round and smooth that it almost looks like a cartoon or a prop for a still-life — the Platonic ideal of a burger. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

THE 404 BURGER AT THE 404 KITCHEN/ GERTIE’S $23 with fries I’m always amused when someone tells me that a burger is too expensive, like there is some kind of internal value meter that sets off alarm bells when you pay more than a certain amount. We do this with all kinds of foods considered “cheap,” mainly because you can get them as part of a value meal in a drive-thru. Well, it’s time to give your meter the night off and get The 404 Burger for the low, low price of $23. Two Bear Creek Farms beef patties — dry-aged four weeks before being ground — are the anchor for this beast, and they’re topped with doublesmoked bacon, cheese, a truffle aioli and grilled onions. (I left the lettuce off because I’m not here for a salad.) The genius, though, is in the potato buns, which are baked in the style of English muffins. Lightly charred on the flattop, the bread holds up against all that’s going on in the middle, never failing but also not too chewy. These buns are the perfect fit for any muscular sandwich. Is it worth the cost? I’m still thinking about how delicious it was 24 hours later. When’s the last time you could say that about a drivethru burger? Plus, the $23 price tag gets you fries as well — they’re not monsters! STEVE CAVENDISH

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

BOSCO TURKEY BURGER AT BURGER & COMPANY $9

MAKEREADY LIBATIONS AND LIBERATION them. At $10.50, the burger alone is the ideal size for a meal, but throw in some of their quinoa salad ($3.25 for a small order, $4.75 for a large) for another healthier taste of Subculture’s pickled veggies. ELIZABETH JONES

back on the menu, topped with steamed onions, “gringo sauce,” pickles and a perfectly gooey slice of American cheese, which holds the works together beneath a sesame-seedstudded Charpier’s bun. CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

CHEESEBURGER AT CHAGO’S CANTINA $11 with fries

THE L+L BURGER AT MAKEREADY LIBATIONS AND LIBERATION $15 with fries

Wait, a great cheeseburger at a Mexican restaurant? ¡Por supuesto! Standing out like a delicious sore thumb on the menu at Chago’s Cantina on Belmont Boulevard, this double-patty smashburger is a matter of pride for the kitchen. In fact, Chago’s discontinued serving it during the first months of the pandemic because they lost access to their custom grind of beef, and switched to brisket instead for their beef tacos. In a sign that we’re at least figuring out how to make our way through this pandemic, it’s

This burger at Makeready Libations and Liberation beneath Noelle Hotel on Fourth Avenue North sets some eyebrow-raising expectations at $15, but damn, does it deliver. As any burger enthusiast knows, all the best ingredients mean nothing if the meat isn’t top-notch, and this meat is tender and flavorful. Oh, and it also has all the best ingredients, with a potato bun, American cheese and bread-and-butter pickles. Plus, the bacon jam and caramelized onions add

I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years. I don’t long for poultry or pork — and certainly not for red meat. But I cherish a meat-filled memory. My father was from a family of chefs, and fast food was off the table. But one summer evening, he came home with a big paper sack, and he spilled a couple dozen McDonald’s cheeseburgers onto the patio table as his four kids looked on, astonished — I’ve been chasing that memory for most of my life. In that time, I’ve determined that the deciding factor that makes a good veggie burger is texture. It must not be smushed together with gobs of quinoa, or contain whole beans. I don’t want it to taste like beef, and more importantly, I don’t want it oozing out of the bun onto my plate. Despite our many fine vegetarian establishments in Nashville, this Holy Grail burger is hard to find. Enter Grillshack Fries and Burgers. With a location in East Nashville and another in Germantown, this local business knows how to do it. The veggie burger is thin — about a half-inch — but big. It has a subtle flavor that the menu describes as Cajun, but we mild-spice lovers need not fear it. The burger stays together until the last bite and is served on a big, bountiful bun from Charpier’s Bakery. Get it with cheddar, blue cheese or muenster, and enjoy the best damn hand-cut fries I’ve had outside the Jersey Shore. It doesn’t taste like McDonald’s — I promise — but it’s got that summertime feeling that gets me every time. ERICA CICCARONE EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

As with any burger, the SC Burger at Subculture comes down to the meat. Subculture’s beef is Tennessee-raised and grass-fed, and it is seasoned impeccably and cooked to a perfect medium (unless otherwise specified). While the meat is the standout here, the homemade bun is chewy and perfectly portioned. The juicy patty is topped with cheddar cheese, thick-sliced bacon, aioli and house-made pickled red onions, which are so crisp and flavorful that I would buy them by the jar if I could. You can add pimento cheese or an egg on top if you’re an extremist, but you truly don’t need

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

SC BURGER AT SUBCULTURE $10.50

GRILLSHACK FRIES AND BURGERS

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BOOKS

SUBTERRANEAN BLUES In Lee Conell’s The Party Upstairs, a father and daughter struggle to find their place in stratified Manhattan BY SEAN KINCH

M Save the dishwashing for later. Visit nashvillescene.com for our daily takeout picks.

artin and Ruby, the fatherdaughter pair at the center of Lee Conell’s debut novel The Party Upstairs, live below ground level, but they don’t at first resemble literature’s famous basement dwellers. They’re not forgotten souls like Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, nor do they seethe at injustice like Ellison’s Invisible Man. Martin, superintendent for the elegant apartment building on New York’s Upper West Side where he lives with his daughter, appears content to unclog drains and shoo away pigeons. College-educated Ruby, though struggling to start a career, seems wellTHE PARTY UPSTAIRS BY LEE CONELL adjusted and goodPENGUIN PRESS spirited. As the novel 320 PAGES, $26 unfolds over the course of a single day, however, their facades crumble, and subterranean emotions explode to the surface. As the day begins, Ruby feels rudderless, while Martin — after two decades of nonstop maintenance calls — is exhausted. But there’s cause for optimism. A former art-history student with a lifelong love of dioramas, Ruby has an interview at the Museum of Natural History. The opportunity is made possible by Caroline, the trust-fund princess of the building’s penthouse and Ruby’s oldest friend. Caroline gives Ruby life-coaching with a breezy confidence that crosses the border into condescension, but Ruby will stomach the high-handedness — and even attend Caroline’s party that evening — if it means landing a dream job and thereby beginning to chip away at her mound of college debt. Martin roots for his daughter’s success for reasons both loving and selfish. He knows that Ruby will not be happy until she has steady work and moves out of her childhood bedroom, preferably to a faraway town. “Her return to the basement felt to Martin like a failure not only for Ruby, but for himself,” Conell writes. Martin attempts to lower his blood pressure through meditation and bird watching, but what he really needs is an empty nest. Conell, a graduate of Vanderbilt’s MFA program in creative writing, inhabits her characters’ minds and skillfully charts their mental pilgrimages. The chapters alternate focus between Martin and Ruby, depicting their selfinterrogations and flickering emotions with a nimble facility that recalls Virginia Woolf. Like Clarissa Dalloway in London, Ruby wanders in uptown New York, her memory attaching meaning to landmarks on each block. Conell follows Ruby and Martin through a wide range of moods, always circling back to the novel’s primary emotion: resentment. Living for so long downstairs from entitled

residents, Martin and Ruby have become bitter. Ruby fixates on Caroline in particular for her pretentious marble sculptures of disposable products (paper plates, sporks). Ruby wants to support her friend’s art, but “it was difficult not to feel like it was unfair that Caroline was profiting off an artistic take on trash when Ruby was the one who had grown up right next to all that garbage.” Caroline has the gall to horn in on Ruby’s preferred grievance. Walking in their neighborhood, they pass the time with an activity. “Ruby had titled in her head the resentment game,” Conell writes. “The best way to really feel like legal adults seemed to be cataloging their childhood resentments toward their parents.” Caroline’s divorced parents, both narcissists, make easy targets, but when she prods Ruby about her own mother, who was often absent in Ruby’s childhood, Ruby finds resentment toward her mother “hard to excavate today, buried under those more vivid moments when Ruby had raged against her father.” Father and daughter know their battles are pointless — Ruby wonders why she is “wasting all her energy on anger toward her father” — but neither knows how to break the pattern. Ruby resents Martin’s dirty fingernails and submissive attitude, reminders of the family’s inferior status. For his part, Martin had hoped when Ruby first moved out that she would begin to appreciate his commitment as a parent — a vain hope, it turns out: “Only now she was back, and things are just like before.” Though Ruby is resentful, Conell does not portray her as wallowing in self-pity. When her ex-boyfriend remarks that “it must have been hard” living next to garbage when so much wealth resided over their heads, Ruby wishes she had “a solid upstairs/downstairs story … like she was some Dickensian dungeon-scrubber.” Ruby has seen too much poverty in New York, “inequities … deeper than anything she herself had experienced,” to indulge in personal melodrama. The Party Upstairs, Conell’s follow-up to her remarkable story collection Subcortical, skirts the periphery of self-awareness, her characters experiencing moments of insight but struggling to achieve clear epiphanies. Paralyzed by self-consciousness, Ruby and Martin express themselves most authentically when they act on impulse, moments of sublimated violence and petty theft unleashing pent-up aggravation. Perhaps the lesson at the heart of this sharp and affecting novel is that sometimes destruction, in moderation, can be creative. Ruby and Martin need to figure out how much to destroy, leaving enough room and wreckage for rebuilding. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

BACK IN BLACK

Beth Cameron makes a timely return with Black Bra BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

Billy Strings makes the best of a tough situation with his Streaming Strings Tour BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

hen the COVID-19 pandemic ground the touring industry to a halt in midMarch, Billy Strings was, in many ways, on top of the world. The widely loved young bluegrass STREAMING LIVE FROM guitarist and singerBROOKLYN BOWL songwriter was midway NASHVILLE JULY 16-17, THE through a partially soldSTATION INN JULY 18-19, out tour in support of CITY WINERY JULY 22-23, EXIT/IN JULY 24-25 AND his acclaimed second 3RD AND LINDSLEY JULY 26

list of local musician crushes, turning up synth player Jesse Case and drummer Tyler Coppage. Playing matchmaker was cellistabout-town Larissa Maestro, whom Coppage knew from playing together in singer-songwriter Jasmin Kaset’s ensemble. “We’d just gotten offstage at The High Watt, and Larissa told me her friend Beth wanted to meet me to see if I’d be interested in playing some music with her,” Coppage says. “I was like, ‘Beth Cameron from Forget Cassettes? You’ve got to give me a minute because I’m fanboying out over this.’ ” Case, a stand-up comic when not playing keys, had just returned to Nashville after 10 years in L.A. when he and Cameron connected. “I had the same starstruck feeling as Tyler,” he says. “Forget Cassettes was my favorite local band in high school. … I was even at the last Fair Verona show at The Muse, and just remember watching this woman up there with an SG, thinking, ‘This is awesome.’ ” “I Was a Young Girl” opens Black Bra, and is one of the four songs written during Cameron and Price’s staycation. The track recalls PJ Harvey’s ’93 classic Rid of Me

with its urgent 6/4 riff and turn-on-a-dime dynamics. It’s an appropriately turbulent sonic backdrop for lyrics that confront childhood trauma head on and vow to conquer it, as Cameron sings: “If I have to live with it / I don’t want to believe it / I don’t want to relive it … I never wanna forgive / I never wanna succumb.” Cameron calls “Young Girl” the impetus for the band. “When we first got in a room and played it, it was immediate, like, ‘Oh, fuck. This is good,’ ” she says. “The chemistry of us playing, and the voice and message of that song took me to a place I really wanted to pursue further.” The foursome spent more than a year writing and finessing a set before first unveiling it in July 2018 at The 5 Spot. They were just as deliberate in preparing to track the LP, collaborating on a Spotify playlist of inspirational recordings that included songs from Portishead, Radiohead and Broadcast, plus two from Harvey’s Is This Desire? They went into engineer Jeremy Ferguson’s East Nashville studio Battle Tapes and knocked out the entire thing in four days.

“We set up close together in Jeremy’s tracking room — very non-COVID-friendly distances,” Price says with a laugh. “That helped a lot with keeping eye contact, playing off each other and realizing we could do a song in four or five takes and each would be inherently different, with their own moments of greatness but also human mistakes, the organic element.” The result is a texturally rich rock record that is serious in nature but neither rigid nor precious in execution. It fluctuates gracefully between outwardly intense and ominously sedate, with a penchant for dramatic codas that build and explode. Its eight songs are sturdy and sharp, tied together by Cameron’s arresting vocals and a trademark wall-of-sound mix from longtime Yo La Tengo collaborator Roger Moutenot. It arrives at a time when we could all use a good primal scream. “I think it’s a timely album — COVID or no COVID,” Coppage says of Black Bra. “The record, especially lyrically, has got some catharsis to it. It speaks to a lot of what’s happening externally from us.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

album Home. He felt a degree of momentum growing for him and his band that he hadn’t yet felt in the eight years he’d spent tirelessly touring. “The album was doing so well, and we were playing all of these sold-out shows,” Strings tells the Scene, calling from his home in Nashville. “The energy was just on fire. Then all of a sudden we couldn’t play any shows. … I didn’t know what to do with myself at first.” After a couple months at home in Nashville spent fishing and tinkering on cars, Strings is returning to the stage with his band for a series of streaming concerts. The Streaming Strings Tour is a nine-date run that visits some of Nashville’s most beloved venues. It kicks off Thursday and Friday with two nights at the brand-new Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. Strings began planning the series in late March when he and his band realized that live shows wouldn’t be returning any time soon. “I don’t think gathering large groups of people is going to be cool for a while,” he says. “So I got to thinking about that, and how there are so many cool

PHOTO: J FAATZ MEDIA

STRINGS OF GOOD LUCK

PHOTO: GIEVES ANDERSON

“S

ome people get romantic crushes — I get musician crushes,” says Beth Cameron of Black Bra, whose selftitled debut comes BLACK BRA OUT FRIDAY, out Friday via YK JULY 17, VIA YK RECORDS Records. “When I’m out and about watching shows and I see a musician I love, I keep them in the back of my mind.” Cameron had many admirers of her own in Nashville in the 2000s, as the creative force behind the artfully angsty Forget Cassettes and teenage punk phenoms Fair Verona before that. She moved to Chicago and signed to U.K. label One Little Indian around ’07. But the deal ended up falling through, leaving her disillusioned with the biz and music altogether. “I moved back to Nashville to pick up the pieces,” Cameron remembers. “I went to college, got a degree, did other stuff.” Gradually she eased herself back into playing, joining singer-songwriter Jordan Caress’ top-shelf synth-pop combo Ponychase on lead guitar — “It was nice to let someone else steer for a while,” she says — and occasionally performing solo under the Forget Cassettes moniker. (There were also some full-band shows in support of 2013’s O Cursa, a suite of three Forget Cassettes EPs collected on two LPs.) At one of her solo gigs, Cameron met future husband and bandmate Miles Price. The two married in 2016 and started casually making music at home, with Cameron on vocals and guitar and Price on bass. The following spring, a bolt of inspiration hit. “We took off work, sat in a room and worked on demos for five days straight,” Price says. “Four songs from [Black Bra] came out of that.” They didn’t have to look far to find players: Cameron just consulted her mental

nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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venues right here in town. The band could all get together and live together for a while — we could quarantine together.” In addition to two nights at Brooklyn Bowl, Streaming Strings will run Saturday and Sunday at the Station Inn and pick up with shows July 22-23 at City Winery, July 24-25 at Exit/In, and July 26 at 3rd and Lindsley. Fans will be able to watch each show, played to an empty house, via streaming services like Fans and Nugs TV. Strings explains that each show will be tailored to its venue. The Station Inn dates, for example, will feature covers of some of Strings’ favorite bluegrass songs, while the Exit/In shows will lean more heavily on his punk and rock influences. “To me, the Station Inn is one of the best venues in the world,” he says. (See our feature on the Station Inn and proprietor J.T. Gray, who’s been inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, on the right.) “It’s a little hole in the wall where all of my heroes have played: Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, all those guys. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring out more bluegrass for those shows — try to dig up some old songs that would fit the Station Inn.” A portion of proceeds from each night’s ticket sales will be split evenly among three nonprofits: the ACLU, Backline and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In light of both the pandemic’s effect on musicians’ mental health and the recent protests against racial inequality, it was important to Strings to use his platform to give back to causes he believes in. “I live among hippies and freaks and tie-dye people, lovely people who don’t have hatred in their hearts,” Strings says of donating funds to ACLU and NAACP. “But I have experienced white privilege. I mean, come on, I make a living playing guitar. I feel like I’ve just hopped, skipped and jumped to where I’ve gotten. … I’ve been let off easy compared to a lot of people who have brown and black skin. I’m really happy that we can help raise money for those organizations.” Backline, which provides mental health resources to members of the music community, is near to Strings’ heart, too. With the pandemic taking a catastrophic toll on many musicians’ livelihoods, Strings recognizes that having access to mental health care is of paramount importance. “I know a lot of people who are in traveling bands who struggle with anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies and shit like that,” he says. “I’ve lost a lot of friends that way, and I’ve battled with anxiety and smaller bouts of depression myself. … For myself personally, I’ve been through therapy, and it really has helped me a lot.” Home followed Strings’ debut album Turmoil & Tinfoil and marked his first release for Rounder Records. The album showcases Strings’ singular brand of bluegrass-inspired music — which draws as deeply from punk and psychedelia as it does from genre traditionalists — as well as his virtuosic guitar playing. In addition to those sold-out shows in support of Home, the album netted Strings four IBMA nominations, including a nod in the coveted Entertainer of the Year category. Strings was caught off guard by such a major nomination, but says he’s thrilled that he and his band are being recognized for the passion and energy they pour into their music. “It’s wild,” he says. “Entertainer of the Year — not to sound anything less than humble, but I’ll take that. We worked our asses off. We played a lot of shows and put a lot of miles and sweat into what we did last year. … And I really put myself out there with Home, and it really makes me happy that people connect with it.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

VISIT STATIONINNTV.COM FOR LIVESTREAM INFORMATION J.T. GRAY

PICKING WISELY

Station Inn owner J.T. Gray contributes as much to bluegrass as any star player BY DAVID HOLLERITH

sk just about any bluegrass fan or musician about their favorite places to see live music, and it won’t be long before the conversation comes to the Station Inn. In many ways, it’s been possible for the venue to earn the support of fans and the allegiance of musicians because of the commitment and passion of Earl “J.T.” Gray. He’s owned the venue for 39 of the 46 years it’s been in business; he stopped touring in Jimmy Martin’s band and took the reins from the Station Inn’s founders in 1981. When the International Bluegrass Music Association announced three new inductees to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in June, Gray was among them, and he’ll be recognized at the IBMA’s awards program Oct. 1. “Bluegrass is like one big family, and we’ve all stuck together through the years,” Gray tells the Scene. “If someone gets sick or down on their luck, their family is ready to come to their aid. It makes you appreciate your family.” “Every bluegrass musician of note considers the Station Inn home, and J.T. Gray is the connecting point who makes it all work,” says Chris Joslin, executive director of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, located in Owensboro, Ky. As a student at Belmont University, Joslin joined many other young pickers in looking to the Station Inn as a place to play bluegrass and to build relationships within that community. Well before they became stars, performers across a wide range of country, roots and string-band music — like Alison Krauss and Vince Gill — honed their skills in the room. The Station Inn played a vital role in making space for bluegrass in Music City at a time when top talent would seldom play here. In the 1980s and ’90s, legends like Bill Mon-

roe — the man who gave the genre its name and became its ambassador — would drop in unannounced and sit in with the band. Western swing aces The Time Jumpers got their start at the Station Inn, and the long-running lampoon The Doyle and Debbie Show still calls it home. Before COVID-19, there was still an open jam session each weekend. From far behind the scenes, Gray has cultivated an acoustic live music venue that feels naturally intimate and authentic. Like the Ryman Auditorium, the Station Inn is considered sacred by artists and fans, a piece of the fabric that holds country music together. “It’s almost like church,” says Ketch Secor, frontman and fiddler for Old Crow Medicine Show. “The audience are parishioners, and J.T. is the reverend. He is as important of a bluegrass legend as any banjo picker, record producer or Grammy-winning artist. Management of the Station Inn has been his five-string.” Despite not playing traditional bluegrass, Old Crow Medicine Show earned a recurring monthly gig at the Station Inn in 2000. The next year, the group played on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman, and in 2005, they headlined the first of many shows at the Mother Church. Their New Year’s Eve gigs at the Ryman have become a Nashville tradition. “If it weren’t for the Station Inn, my band probably wouldn’t ever have gotten a toehold in Nashville,” says Secor. “We probably wouldn’t have ever made it.” Molly Tuttle, a rising singer-songwriter and award-winning bluegrass guitarist, sees playing the Station Inn as a rite of passage for emerging artists. Despite the exhilaration and nervousness that playing on such a hallowed stage entails, Tuttle says Gray could not be more welcoming or supportive to young musicians. “He does so much for the community,” Tuttle says, “by providing a space for multiple generations to learn, grow, perform and make a living playing music.” Over the past two decades, the Gulch neighborhood has grown up around the Station Inn, becoming chic and trendy with high-rise hotels and condos and upscale restaurants. The club has changed little since 1978, when it moved from its original

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

MUSIC

home near Centennial Park into the square, limestone-faced building with a Wild Westjailhouse vibe at 402 12th Ave. S. Bobby Cudd, a booking agent with WME, has a long working history with Gray. He’s keen on both the Station Inn’s significance in bluegrass history, and what it represents as a bare-bones live-venue holdout in a part of the city that has morphed dramatically. When considering whether the Station Inn might one day need to move, he says he sincerely hopes not. “To me, it’s a national treasure,” says Cudd. “It’s too important to Nashville and music. I think everybody would be disappointed — then, maybe after 30 years, everybody would be OK with it.” As the city has reverted back to phase two of its COVID-19 reopening plan, Gray is determined to keep the music going. That’s nothing new. When times were tough — as they often were through the first two decades of his ownership — Gray would drive tour buses to keep both the club and himself afloat. This time, he’s especially well-equipped to keep the club in business. The venue established its innovative streaming platform Station Inn TV in 2019. During the pandemic, the platform has afforded the opportunity to showcase artists playing to an empty house via livestream, and to stream shows previously recorded on the venue’s stage. Though the four months since social distancing and self-quarantine began have been difficult, the club’s marketing director, Jeff Brown, remains optimistic. He also notes that streams from the club have raised approximately $26,000 for musicians playing during the shutdown. “We’re definitely losing a lot of money, but we’re not sinking,” Brown says. “Since livestreaming has become viable, we no longer have to ask whether or not we will make it through this.” Gray remains just as optimistic about maintaining the club’s location. He says the Wehby family, owners of the property the club sits on, have agreed not to sell as long as he wants to keep his world-famous bluegrass club rolling. EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

THE SPIN

FULL STREAM AHEAD BY RON WYNN, OLIVIA LADD AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

here are some artists whose style, sound and personality exude brilliance, and Nashville vocalist Kandace Springs repeatedly demonstrated that she possesses genuine star talent throughout her set on July 7. As part of the Scene’s No-Contact Shows series, she streamed live from her home studio. Given the music industry’s need to comfortably pigeonhole acts for marketing, it’s not surprising that Springs has been deemed a jazz vocalist. She can do all the technical things demanded of a first-rate improvising vocalist, with wonderful timing and lyric emphasis, and she’s a master at building and sustaining tension. She’s also a fine pianist, and didn’t merely use the piano for chordal support, weaving impressive runs, octave jumps, swelling phrases and delightful melodic foundations into and throughout her four songs. The two originals from Springs’ 2016 debut Soul Eyes were the most impressive. On set opener “Neither Old Nor Young,” her flair with lyrics and ability to weave a romantic tale was compelling. The same was true of “Too Good to Last,” which followed. Not that her other tunes weren’t outstanding. “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” appears on her latest Blue Note LP The Women Who Raised Me, a covers album dedicated to vocalists who influenced her. In her live rendition, she referenced Dusty Springfield and Barbara Streisand, and through her sensual, soulful delivery and sweeping crescendos near the end, she conveyed the impact those artists have made on her. Her finale, Brian McKnight’s “Never Felt This Way,” was just as powerful. It’s not too much of a stretch to compare Springs to Sarah Vaughan or Carmen McRae, two esteemed and magnificent vocalists who were also A-list pianists. Even if she’s not quite there yet, Springs is well on her way to doing the same thing as labelmate Norah Jones: attracting a fresh and youthful audience to jazz by combining amazing artistry with hypnotic performance and endearing personality. On July 8, beloved East Side venue The 5 Spot fired up its livestream rig to showcase longtime Nashvillian Afton Wolfe. Performed to an empty house and streamed via Facebook, the show served as the release party for the seasoned songwriter and musician’s debut solo EP Petronius’ Last Meal, released to digital outlets and as a limited-run 10-inch via TwangriLa Records. The beauty of The 5 Spot in pre-pandemic times was that you could wander in on any given night and find someone delightful onstage, whether you’d heard of them or not, without spending much on the cover. While it felt strange to not have to push through a crowd of friends and strangers, the show captured the room’s serendipitous energy with help from the

venue’s sharp new multi-camera setup. Wolfe and his band took the stage in socially distanced fashion, wearing bandanna face masks. Their opening number was “Notes Written on Basil,” which is based on Dave Eggers’ short story “Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone,” a piece that contemplates the ethics of death. Wolfe has been part of various other musical projects and groups around the South over the past two decades, but Petronius’ Last Meal is his first attempt at writing for himself and honing in on his own particular solo sound. The sound he’s developed comes across as Delta blues meets Tom Waits, improvisational jazz flavor included. The group moved along to a klezmertinged rendition of Mike West’s “Mrs. Ernst’s Piano,” a parable about race relations in the South that felt perfectly timely. The group also ran through songs like “Slingshots,” in which Wolfe accented his gravelly, growling singing with howls for the most Waits-like moments of the set, and “Wait on Me,” which ends the EP on a positive note in both sound and sentiment. The set was understated, and the livestream format almost fit better than if Wolfe had to sing over a talkative audience. He managed to capture the overarching anxiety of our current strife and play out scenarios that you could almost step into — a reminder of musicians’ enduring spirit under adverse conditions and the point of making music in the first place. As the sun set over the riverfront along the Cumberland on July 10, tourists continued heading out to Lower Broadway, even as cases of COVID-19 have skyrocketed in the downtown area. One establishment in the neighborhood that remains closed to the public is Acme Feed & Seed, though the venue is boosting its livestream offerings. Friday, their streaming arm Acme Radio Live launched its new series The Change Up, a weekly show streamed live from the bar’s rooftop featuring local rappers and R&B singers, which will raise funds for the North Nashville community restorative justice organization Gideon’s Army. Standout local MC The Blackson kicked off Friday’s show with an assist from beatmaster A.B. Eastwood on the decks, and saxophonist Austin Willé adding an undercurrent of cool. In addition to his verse from the 2019 single “No Issue”— a posse cut that also features Reaux Marquez and OGTHAGAWD — most of The Blackson’s bars came from his 2019 EP Fresh Air. Some of the tunes featured different beats from the ones on the record, but the messages about self-respect remained front and center. Fresh-faced pop and R&B singer-songwriter John Tucker closed out the show with a solo set, in which he sang and played electric guitar. None of his songs really translated well to this setting, unfortunately, and it felt like he hasn’t figured out how he wants to present himself. He seems dedicated, but he’d really benefit from a live audience — even if the reaction isn’t positive, it’s vital information he can use to hone his skills and get stronger. Livestreams are a great alternative to having no shows at all, but it’ll be a great day when it’s safe to have a real crowd in the room again. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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FILM

PRIMAL STREAM XVII — AND YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN An essential documentary, some very weird sci-fi and Dirty Dancing, now available to stream BY JASON SHAWHAN

e’re casting the net wide this week, because it’s just too much of a discordant sea of everything no matter where you look. As always, what follows is a list of recommended titles now available to stream. Look back at past issues of the Scene for more recommendations.

WELCOME TO CHECHNYA VIA HBO An immersive document of a loosely structured group specializing in helping Chechen and Russian gays and lesbians escape to other parts of the world, Welcome to Chechnya is an intense experience that left me shaken at just how high the stakes are. Chechnya, a breakaway Russian republic now run by wannabe strongman/caricature Ramzan Kadyrov, has been undergoing a purge of its LGBTQ population since 2016. Kidnapping, torture, betrayal, “honor killings” and internet snuff video are the weapons that are deployed on a daily basis, and the Russian government on the whole seems fine with letting it happen. So we meet refugees (their identities obscured through cutting-edge technology that I don’t quite understand but some of the animators I know vouch for, impressed), unofficial social workers and lawyers all working to help better the situation for the besieged community. This documentary puts you right in the middle of it. Essential viewing.

DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS ON TUBI There are a lot of killer-plant movies. The 1986 musical of Little Shop of Horrors is rightfully a classic; 2008’s The Ruins, currently streaming on HBO Max and a film I watched twice consecutively in the theater

following an emergency root canal, will fuck with your sense of security in the best possible way. But they both stretch a leafy frond in tribute to 1962’s Day of the Triffids, wherein a brilliant meteor shower both blinds the majority of Earth’s population and brings to the planet the titular shambling horror: man-eating plants with serrated tendrils and a tendency toward murder. It’s a good siege narrative, with uneven but sometimes very effective effects. And it features a moment involving an airplane so unbelievably ghoulish that it boggles my mind that it was ever allowed to be screened to the public.

DIRTY DANCING VIA AMAZON PRIME AND HULU Say what you will about its rough-aroundthe-edges qualities — this movie is a classic that endures because it addresses a lot of important issues. Because of Dirty Dancing, I knew growing up that abortion was a necessary option for women. Because of Dirty Dancing, I knew that agency and personal liberation are a necessary part of evolution and achievement. Most importantly, because of Dirty Dancing, I knew from age 12 that anytime someone tried to get you to read or study the philosophy of Ayn Rand, they were trouble and it was time to run. The soundtrack still rules too, and Tennessee’s own Cynthia Rhodes (also a part of synth-pop band Animotion in the late ’80s) remains the emotional heart of the piece.

SERENITY ON AMAZON PRIME As a society, we have The Room. We have Baaghi 3. We have Ben and Arthur. It seems like there’s always some film so utterly batshit-crazy (or inept) in its devotion to a narrative through line that average human beings just can’t key into it, and it thereby

DIRTY DANCING

SERENITY develops a cult following. So what to do with 2019’s Serenity? It’s a sexed-up thriller in the style of ’90s Cinemax After Dark (Matthew McConaughey serves more cake than the most relentless of bakers), but it’s also an elliptical meander like ’70s art cinema from the most obtuse of auteurs (specificity in this script is treated like flypaper). There’s domestic violence as a plot point (gross), repeated video game interludes (which I think writer-director Steven Knight is using like Assayas did in Demonlover), and a quest for a prized fish named Justice. Maybe you’ve encountered this film in the digital ether, and if so, you already know. But there’s nothing else out there like this. Have a mental margarita and strap in, because there hasn’t been anything in the intervening 17 months that compares — not even Cats.

BLACK BOOK ON AMAZON PRIME After leaving Hollywood following the fizzle of 2000’s interesting and provocative solid double Hollow Man, Paul Verhoeven regrouped to his home in the Netherlands and came up with this staggering World War II epic of deceit, survival and uncertain loyalties. It’s a masterpiece, and it will mess with you. Rachel (Carice van Houten, or Melisandre for you Game of Thrones fans) is a Jewish woman who infiltrates the Nazi power structure by any means necessary. When an errant bomber destroys the home she had been hiding in, she finds a new life as entertainer, resistance operative and bleach-blond badass Ellis de Vries. Verhoeven as a director has always blended arthouse and grindhouse aesthetics perfectly, and Black Book is a singular epic. You can see this film’s masterful blend of

maximalist brushstrokes and pointillist emotional details resonating in Petzoldt’s exquisite Phoenix, but that film is ultimately aiming for a different emotional space; a requiem. Black Book is a movie about the tenacity and patient endurance of a woman who refuses to fade into anyone’s memory. Van Houten is great, and her scenes with best friend/party girl Ronnie (Halina Reijn, whose directorial debut Instinct is among the more anticipated foreign-language films of the year) are superb, leaving the viewer wanting more.

SPLICE ON NETFLIX There’s something about Canadian scifi. Perhaps it’s the nondescript, desolate winters. Maybe the extensive government funding that leads to all sorts of interesting facilities and institutes. It’s just more plausible that neutral architecture can yield something unspeakable within, and this 2009 effort from Vincenzo Natali (the Cube trilogy, TV’s Hannibal) gives great monster, and grounds things in relatable and effective central performances. Sarah Polley (she directed the best film of 2012, Stories We Tell, currently streaming on Tubi) and Adrien Brody are the scientists looking to root around in the plasma pool and make something magical. Or monstrous. As it turns out, the scientists’ creation Dren (played by Abigail Chu and Delphine Chanéac) is a bit of both, like a butterfly that eats eyelids, or a wendigo with ballet instincts. This film is gross, imaginative and utterly captivating. It takes the goalposts of a made-for-SyFy movie and goes so far with them that we as viewers are left in awe. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SPLICE

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 16 – JULY 22, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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FILM

WHY BUY THE COW? I wish you could see First Cow in the theater. You can’t. So watch it at home. BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

or so many of us, both indie theaters like the Belcourt and corporate megaplex chains like Regal and AMC have long offered an essential means of escape. Whether you’re a Criterion-fixated FIRST COW cinephile, an MCU PG-13, 122 MINUTES apologist, a horror NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM nut, a documentary obsessive or some combination thereof, you know that feeling — the feeling of the lights

coming down in the theater, when excitement and anticipation wash over you, just the same as they did when you were 6 years old. The last film I saw in the theater was First Cow, Kelly Reichardt’s tale of hardscrabble frontier life in the 19th-century Pacific Northwest. It was a press screening at the Belcourt Theater one morning back in mid-March — Friday the 13th, to be exact. It was just eight days after the first case of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Tennessee, and though things remained uncertain, we

all knew more cases were coming. First Cow was set for an early-April release. But just two days after that press screening — which was attended by a dozen or so critics, bloggers and theater staff — the Belcourt announced that it would be temporarily closing, doing its part to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Not long after, A24 Films — the production and distribution company behind such critical darlings as Lady Bird, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Uncut Gems — announced the indefinite postponement of First Cow’s release. I don’t have to tell you that since then, it’s been a ceaseless barrage of deeply shitty news. I know I’m not alone when I say it’s been difficult withstanding these past four pandemic-besieged months without the respite of the movie theater. I want to recommend that you see Reichardt’s excellent First Cow. (And indeed, I do recommend it! Please see it!) It’s a tender, moving, painful depiction of friendship and classism and privilege and trust, and a film worth seeing in the theater. But for now, you’ll have to settle for watching it at home. Starring John Magaro as frontier cook Cookie Figowitz and Orion Lee as Chinese immigrant King Lu, First Cow does once again what Reichardt has proven to do so well with films like 2008’s Wendy and Lucy and 2011’s Meek’s Cutoff — it shows us the remarkable resilience of the underdog, and both the cruelty and the kindness that humans are capable of. As my late, great predecessor Jim Ridley put it in his review of Meek’s Cutoff, Reichardt strips away pageantry and empty gestures. Her films are about survival. With its beautiful score by Nashville’s native son William Tyler, First Cow follows Cookie and King as they hit upon a successful recipe for so-called oily cakes. Though simple, the deep-fried dough is a more rich

BIRD WATCHING

The Painted Bird is punishing, and it leaves its mark BY JASON SHAWHAN

his film is too much. That’s certainly the point it’s making, and it does so with skill, style and an absence of pity or humanity. Very likely in the opening scene, you — the hypothetical viewer — will start asking yourself if this film is right for you. Call it a small act of mercy that right at the beginning, The Painted Bird offers you an exit. Its act of violence against a ferret is not actual, but it sets the tone for the next three hours, and you already know if that’s right for you; the arthouse equivalent of a frat dare. There is no person or animal exempt from the tour of alienation and cruelty that follows. As humanity has demonstrated for millennia, from Neanderthal cave dwellings to the present day, human power structures are grotesque and numbing, and consciousness (in both senses of the word) is a THE PAINTED BIRD NR, 169 MINUTES; IN battle against our tenMEDŽUSLOVJANSKI WITH dencies toward entropy ENGLISH SUBTITLES and routine. AVAILABLE ON VIDEO ON The child Joska (Petr DEMAND VIA IFC FILMS FRIDAY, JULY 17 Kotlár) is buffeted

through a cavalcade of atrocity that no one person could bear. This is a secular passion play, unfolding against Nazi occupation as a parade of every horror the 20th century perfected, and it unmakes a human being before our eyes. Maybe to undertake this journey will help someone face the horrors of right now; hopefully it will do that for whoever needs to travel this particular path. Adapter/director Václav Marhoul, working from an acclaimed novel of disputed prov-

enance and authorship, has crafted a monochrome nightmare executed expertly — possibly, ideally, an exorcism of the worst of humanity. Is there some amount of naivete in thinking a black-and-white subtitled film (the first film shot in the Medžuslovjanski constructed language, among others) is going to break through when we’ve grown accustomed to seeing footage of police killing and brutalizing people on a regular basis?

and decadent treat than is often seen by the fur trappers of the Pacific Northwest. Cookie and King sell out of each batch as quickly as they can make them. The rub? The only way to make these oily cakes is by stealing the milk of the only cow in the territory, which is the property of wealthy landowner Chief Factor, played with impossible detestability by longtime character actor Toby Jones. Cookie and King are one another’s entire world, and these cakes offer them a real shot at the American Dream, or at least a life worth living. Their friendship is earnest and wholesome, in part the product of necessity. But their bond is also natural — these two outcasts seem to truly enjoy each other’s company. “Men like us, Cookie, we have to make our own way,” says King, the more industrious of the two. Indeed, life is tougher for the more sensitive among us — for the downtrodden and the abused. Things are especially difficult in this part of the world where, as King puts it, history has not yet arrived. The scale of First Cow is small. The stakes, too, are small — until suddenly they aren’t. First Cow is gripping and beautiful and very deeply sad. It’s likely the best new film I’ve seen this year. I’d love to send you to see it at the Belcourt, where you could truly enjoy cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt’s intimate lensing, and find yourself immersed in Tyler’s grand score. Since I can’t do that, I’ll recommend that you throw it in your athome queue. Given the seemingly endless supply of films to stream, I understand if a slow, sad movie about survival during frontier times isn’t near the top of your quarantine list. But if you’re able to lend it your full attention, to give yourself over to it, perhaps you’ll feel a fraction of what it’s like to be in the theater once again. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

The enduring, truly scandalous narrative films (documentary and snuff intertwine as a matter of course) always seem to be trying to address and exorcise some aspect of history or society that we do not speak of. Fascist excess recurs in the pantheon of the cinema of the truly disturbing, often represented as genocide, ritualized degradation, slavery — the callous exploitation and elimination of life. Salò, Emanuelle in America, Goodbye Uncle Tom, A Serbian Film — each of these works is fueled by deep philosophical horror, though each expresses that differently. Regardless of ideological aim or whether it’s meant for the arthouse or the grindhouse, each is remembered for its incursion into our collective cinematic awareness. They left their mark. And The Painted Bird does that too. When this film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, audience members fled the screening. Artfully structured, elegantly shot and punishing to the extreme, it rewards endurance; to experience it and find your humanity intact is an achievement. The film is very much like society, and it teaches us how to watch it and how to respond to it. We expect violence, and torture, and cruelty, and the id externalized against whatever can’t get out of the way — and we are given that in abundance. There are moments of ravishing beauty and grace that we simply cannot appreciate. This film reduces experience to instinct — all is propelled by the expected knife, the imminent bullet, the clenched fist. It is a remarkable work that I never want to experience again. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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celerated; and WHEREAS, Wilson Bank & Trust, as the owner and holder of said note, has demanded that the real property covered by the Deed of Trust be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said debt and the cost of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of said note and Deed of Trust;

CROSSWORD EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ ACROSS

Something cut by a lapidary 4 Lineup at a truck stop 8 Stunned, in a way 13 There was much of it in Shakespeare 14 Head of Harpo Productions 16 Conscious 17 Cry of disgust 18 Relative of a raccoon 19 Many eyes are upon it, informally 20 & 22 Mid-20thcentury giant in 59-/62-Across 24 Appear that way 26 Direction in España 27 Bag, in commercialese 30 Port in southern Italy 32 Secret knowledge 34 Counted toward the totality of 39 Turns (off) 40 Things exchanged between brides and grooms 41 Hit for 20-/22-Across (1969 or 1977) 43 About half of a regular soccer field 44 William and Mary, e.g. 46 Flag 48 Coffers 50 “Haughty Juno’s unrelenting ___”: Aeneid 51 Old TV knob abbr. 52 On 55 Adjusts one’s sight 59 & 62 See 20-Across 63 Shade of blue 65 Martin Luther King Jr. had one 67 Fill for a schooner 68 Actor who was People magazine’s 1992 Sexiest Man Alive 69 Cabinet department 70 ___ Arbor 71 Pastime for Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin 72 Tore 73 Soft component of fleece? 1

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First woman to receive her own New York City ticker-tape parade (1926) Native Arizonan Moon or Mercury N.Y.S.E. debut Understand Spoof Secret spillers Conscious Thai dip Squeeze (out) German “the” Duncan ___ Some clouds Old film dog Western city known as “Family City U.S.A.” Bone cavities Casey of “American Top 40” Bit of bucolic verse Country house Small songbird Where to find an American in Moscow? 1960s TV character who often said “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” ___ Jima First automaker to offer seatbelts as an option (1949) Coin collector’s interest

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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE G O B I I V A N F I N D D E E C N E E B A R N E D I T D I E A S K I O R A T W A N T E R T E S E E N

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LEGAL NOTICE Howard C. Gentry, Jr., Criminal Court Clerk

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It is my privilege as your elected Criminal Court Clerk to notify all citizens of Davidson County, that relative to grand jury proceedings, it is the duty of your grand jurors to investigate any public offense which they know or have reason to believe has been committed and which is triable or indictable in Davidson County. In addition to cases presented to the grand jury by your District Attorney, any citizen may petition the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County. This is subject to provisions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application. Your grand jury foreperson is Robert Davis. His address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punishable as perjury. For a request for accommodation, please contact 862-4260. FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE WHEREAS, Vinod T. Zaver and wife, Manglaben V. Zaver, by a Deed of Trust, dated July 27, 2005, of record in Book 1129, Page 1562 and Modification of record in Book 1473, Page 2407, Register’s Office for Wilson County, Tennessee AND of record in Instrument No. 20050803-0090649 and Modification of record in Instrument No. 20111205-0094622, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, conveyed to Randall Clemons, Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure payment of a promissory note as described in said Deed of Trust; and The notice required by 26 U.S.C. Section 7425(b) to the United States has been timely given, that the sale of the land thus advertised will be subject to the right of the United States to redeem the land as provided for in 26 U.S.C. Section 7425 (d) (1). WHEREAS, Robert Evans Lee having been appointed Substitute Trustee by Wilson Bank & Trust, the owner and holder of said note by an instrument of record in Book 1600, Page 153, Register’s Office for Wilson County, Tennessee AND in Instrument No. 20140714-0061742, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, with authority to act alone with the powers given the Trustee; and WHEREAS, default having occurred with respect to the note secured by the Deed of Trust, and the full balance owing having been accelerated; and WHEREAS, Wilson Bank & Trust, as the owner and holder of said note, has demanded that the real property covered by the Deed of Trust be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said debt and the cost of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of said note and Deed of Trust; NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that I, Robert Evans Lee, Substitute Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon me in said Deed of Trust, will on July 31, 2020 at 10:30 A.M., Central Time, at the front door of the Courthouse in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee as to the 5 acres on Sparta Pike, Lebanon, Wilson Co. property AND at 12:00 P.M., Central Time at the front door of the Courthouse located at 1 Public Square, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee as to the 1.74 acres on Bil-

Vinod T. Zaver and Vinodkumar T. Zaver is one and the same person.

NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that I, Robert Evans Lee, Substitute Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon me in said Deed of Trust, will on July 31, 2020 at 10:30 A.M., Central Time, at the front door of the Courthouse in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee as to the 5 acres on Sparta Pike, Lebanon, Wilson Co. property AND at 12:00 P.M., Central Time at the front door of the Courthouse located at 1 Public Square, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee as to the 1.74 acres on Billingsgate Road, Antioch, Davidson Co. property, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory or otherwise, homestead, dower and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as provided in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Wilson and Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows:

Subject property is unimproved and has the address of Billingsgate Road, Antioch, Davidson Co., TN 37013 The right is reserved to adjourn the day of sale to another day and time certain, without further publication and in accordance with law, upon announcement of said adjournment on the day and time and place of sale set forth above, and/or to sell to the second highest bidder in the event the highest bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale. Substitute Trustee will make no covenant of seisin or warranty of title, express or implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Successor Trustee’s Deed, as Substitute Trustee only. THIS sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes which exist as a lien against said property, including without limitation city and county property taxes; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable; any statutory rights of redemption not otherwise waived in the Deed of Trust, including rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or federal; and any prior liens or encumbrances that may exist against the property. This sale is also subject to any matter that an accurate survey of the premises might disclose.

MAP 104 GROUP PARCEL 023.00 PARCEL I A parcel of land situated in the 19th Civil District of Wilson County, Tennessee, and more particularly described as follows: Being a tract or parcel of land situated and lying on the northerly side of Sparta Pike and bounded generally on the north by Forbes and Spring Creek, East by lands of Smith and South by Sparta Pike, the same being a triangular tract running to a point at the westerly end, containing by estimation five (5) acres, more or less.

MAP 149 GROUP 340.00 PARCEL 2

PARCEL

Land lying and being situated in the Second Civil District of Davidson County, Tennessee, described according to a survey made by James L. Terry and Associates, dated June 12, 1985, described as follows, to-wit: Beginning a point living on the westerly line of the Pebble Creek Apartments at the southeast corner of the Ervin Entrekin, Trustee property as of record in Book 4940, Page 721, Register’s Office of Davidson County, Tennessee; thence running with the said line of Pebble Creek Apartments South 2 degrees, 53 minutes, 47 seconds West a distance of 375.21 feet to a point lying on the northerly line of Terragon Trails, Section I, as of record in Book 4860, Page 61, Register’s Office of Davidson County, Tennessee; thence leaving the said line of Pebble Creek Apartments and running thence with the said northerly line of Terragon Trails North 43 degrees, 57 minutes, 06 seconds West a distance of 555.18 feet to a point lying on the southerly line of the Ervin Entrekin, Trustee, property; thence leaving the said Terragon Trails and running with the Entrekin Property south 86 degrees, 28 minutes, 03 seconds East a distance of 405.05 feet to the point of beginning, containing 1.74 acres, more or less. Being the same property conveyed to Vinod T. Zaver and Manglaben V. Zaver, by Final Decree Confirming Sale from Clerk and Master, recorded on February 26, 2004 and filed for record in Instrument 20040226-0021868, said Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

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INTERESTED PARTIES are Mary Caraker; Dept of the Treasury - Internal Revenue Service; Community First Bank & Trust; and Bone McAllester Norton PLLC THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT, AND ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Being the same property conveyed to Vinodkumar T. Zaver and wife, Manglaben V. Zaver by deed to create tenancy by the entirety, dated 8/13/04, of record in Book 1067, Page 2192, with further reference at Book 1065, Page 2103, in the Register’s Office for Wilson County, Tennessee. Subject property is unimproved property and has the address of Sparta Pike, Lebanon, Wilson County, TN 37087

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