Nashville Scene 8-3-23

ART

Crawl Space: August 2023

This month’s Art Crawl highlights include multimedia installations at Electric Shed and Unrequited Leisure, plus an artist’s talk at David Lusk

BY JOE NOLAN

BOOKS

Art and Intimacy

Tom Lake is Ann Patchett at her best

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

In Brief: Kyshona Kickstarter and More

Why Should We Trust the State AG With Very Sensitive Patient Information?

Reunion Opens as a Neighborhood Bar in Five Points

BY

HAMILTON CAIN; CHAPTER16.ORG 34

MUSIC Another Look

Wiltshire, O’Connell Lead in Final Fundraising Report

34

The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from The BlackSon, Dru the Drifter, Olivia Jean and more

BY EDD HURT, P.J. KINZER, ADDIE MOORE, DARYL SANDERS, STEPHEN TRAGESER, RON WYNN AND CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

ON THE COVER:

Cover design by Elizabeth Jones and Mary Louise Meadors;

photo by Eric England

PET OF THE WEEK!

3-year-old LIZA loves all of the attention and pets, but she isn’t a huge fan of being held and will wiggle out of your arms if you try. She’s just a sweet independent cat and that’s what all of us at NHA love about her. She LOOOVES little plush toys that she can bat around on the ground and carry around in her mouth. Liza is such a playful gal that loves getting attention from her people but will totally appreciate an owner that will give her some independence. If Liza sounds like that perfect cat for you... Visit NHA, Fall In Love, AND ADOPT!

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org

Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209

Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

CAN DONALD TRUMP BE PREVENTED FROM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT? EXPLORING THE CALLS TO LOCK HIM OUT.

As the 2024 presidential election draws nearer, a pressing question looms over the American political landscape: Can Donald Trump be prevented from running again?

A growing chorus of voices, including some within his own party, are advocating for measures to lock him out of the race. The result will likely depend on whether legal avenues are viable and on addressing the deeply polarizing consequences of his potential candidacy.

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The prospect of Trump seeking a return to the highest office in the land has stirred up impassioned responses from both his supporters and opponents. Among those who oppose his candidacy, there is a prevailing concern that the former president poses a significant threat to the stability and unity of the nation. They foresee further divisions and potential disruptions to the democratic process. In July of last year, Senate Judiciary Committee member Chris Coons of Delaware told Business Insider: “I think former President Trump is clearly, as was stated by Judge [Michael] Luttig, a clear and present danger to the democracy of the United States.” Luttig is a former federal judge who says Trump is plotting to overturn the 2024 election “in open and plain view” if he doesn’t get his way.

So the question remains: Can Trump be kept from running, and what legal avenues exist to address this issue?

One of the primary avenues being explored is the potential indictment in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Further, a target letter was issued to Trump, suggesting he might soon face charges related to his election interference — which adds another layer of complexity. If indicted and convicted, Trump’s eligibility to run for office could be impacted, potentially deterring his candidacy. According to CNN, “The target letter cites three statutes that Trump could be charged with: pertaining to deprivation of rights; conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the United States; and tampering with a witness.” And according to the Associated Press, “Such letters often precede criminal charges.”

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11

JAMES MCBRIDE with KHALIL EKULONA at PARNASSUS

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

10:30AM

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 15

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Moreover, Business Insider reported in November that the 14th Amendment could come into play, possibly preventing Trump from running in 2024. Section 3 of the amendment states that no person who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States shall be eligible for public office. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, this provision has been cited as a potential avenue to restrict Trump’s future candidacy — but there is some question as to the amendment’s application. As Business Insider’s Kelsey Vlamis reported, “While it lists senators, representatives, and electors as positions from which a person could be barred, the presidency is not explicitly named.”

The debate over keeping Trump from running also touches upon broader issues surrounding accountability, rule of law and the potential for further polarization. Critics argue that Trump’s history of divisive rhetoric and disregard for norms raises concerns about the integrity of the electoral process. Ensuring that candidates

meet certain ethical and legal standards is crucial for maintaining the public’s trust in the democratic system. As noted by CNN’s Stephen Collinson, “If Trump becomes the Republican nominee while fighting to clear his name in any of these cases, voters would also be presented with the extraordinary dilemma of whether to put someone who could be a convicted felon into the Oval Office and whether to entrust him with the nation’s most vital secrets, national security and democracy.”

All this said, to date Trump has seemingly had little trouble navigating the legal battles, the impeachments and indictments. Like Teflon, things just seem to slide off him. And implementing measures to keep a former president from running for office is uncharted territory, fraught with legal and political complexities. Balancing constitutional principles, individual rights and the need for accountability poses a significant challenge.

While many want to keep Trump from running again, the decision ultimately rests with the American people. As the 2024 election approaches, voters hold the power to shape the nation’s course by exercising their right to vote. Engaging in the democratic process, evaluating candidates based on their policies, character and leadership, is key to safeguarding the future of the country.

Whether Trump will be shut out remains to be seen. But remember that we all have a voice in what happens to our country, to our nation and the people in it. Your voice matters. My voice matters. Regardless of political affiliations, we all share a responsibility to participate in shaping the future of our democracy. Let us unite in our shared vision for a stronger, more inclusive America — in doing so, we can be prepared to confront even the most pressing issues of our time.

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AUGUST 10 | BIG SHOES

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Dogs welcome 5:30 - 10 PM | Visit cheekwood.org for tickets. Sponsored

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WHY DISABILITY ADVOCATES ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS

BY

Virtually everyone agrees that students should be safe at schools, but opinions vary on how to accomplish that goal. Some think the idea of “hardening schools” — or adding more security measures through building modifications and armed employees — is the answer. Others worry about the impact these sorts of measures have on students amid everyday interactions.

Following the Covenant School shooting, the Metro Nashville Police Department is deploying more school resource officers throughout the Metro Nashville Public Schools district. The increased police presence has some people, including disability advocates, concerned about the potential impacts — particularly when it comes to officers who have not received proper training.

National data shows that students with disabilities and students of color are disproportionately impacted by SROs. While there isn’t much local data on the matter, a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union study analyzing Department of Education data found that students with disabilities were arrested at a rate nearly three times higher (29 per 10,000) than those who weren’t disabled. Disabled students are also more likely to be disciplined. This occurs because students with behavioral disabilities may struggle

RESIDENTS BATTLE OVER CITY PRIORITIES IN NASCAR PUSH

to communicate their feelings, which can manifest in actions considered unruly or disorderly — like yelling or hitting. In 2017, a 10-year-old boy with autism was arrested in a school in Florida for kicking and scratching an employee six months earlier.

“The disability community is concerned that the proliferation of folks who are not trained to work with students with behavior needs, who are also not bound by the protection these students are due, could lead to a lot of bad outcomes,” says Jeff Strand, coordinator of government and external affairs for the Tennessee Disability Coalition. “Whether that be exposure to the juvenile justice system, exclusionary discipline practices like suspension, removal — things that are really going to exacerbate behavior issues rather than solve them.”

Strand acknowledges that folks within the disability community have different opinions on the matter.

Incidents involving SROs in schools can arise for a range of different reasons, from actual crimes to behavioral problems that may be manifestations of unmet needs. While the police department and school district maintain that SROs are not to be involved with student discipline, the line between disruptive behavior and criminal activity can be blurry.

Strand says that in these situations young

Sledge and Bristol Motor Speedway President Jerry Caldwell. The meeting was a show trial for the pricey plan, hammered out over several years between Mayor John Cooper and Bristol, to bring NASCAR racing to The Fairgrounds Nashville.

Caldwell and Bristol boosters commanded an army of red-shirted supporters who spoke repeatedly about sentimental connections to the track, the city’s historic support for racing and the other projects Nashville paid for while the racetrack languished. In its push to land the city contract, Bristol — also known by its parent corporation, Speedway Motorsports — has been working with Nashville PR firms Hall Strategies and Calvert Street. Calvert Street is led by principal Darden Copeland, who helped organize the successful 2011 referendum to enshrine fairgrounds racing in the city’s charter.

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Supporters and opponents of the city’s proposed racetrack overhaul packed a club suite in Geodis Park on July 25 to directly address District 17 Councilmember Colby

That fateful referendum marshaled a passionate, pro-fairgrounds constituency into a proxy battle over “old” and “new” Nashville under former Mayor Karl Dean. Major demographic changes and blowback from the Titans stadium deal have made it difficult to replicate the pro-fairgrounds groundswell of 2011, though the referendum’s overwhelming success still drives Copeland and NASCAR hopefuls.

students are “exponentially more vulnerable than older kids.” A traumatic experience like being restrained or arrested can damage developmental progress, especially for younger students who aren’t yet diagnosed or whose educators are still experimenting with individualized education plans.

Strand also acknowledges that he had positive experiences with an SRO when he was a special education teacher. “Our concern isn’t meant to vilify school resource officers,” says Strand. “Those are public servants who have made the choice that they want to work with kids and help them. We just know … that the statistics bear out that, in the broadest sense, [SROs] often don’t work for kids. And so some of them are great, some of them work really well. But kind of leaving that up to chance, especially with vulnerable populations, just does not seem worth the risk.”

Jolene Sharp is the chief public information officer for the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities. She’s also the parent of school-age students with disabilities, and shares her personal opinion on the matter.

“I have conflicting feelings,” says Sharp of SROs. “I understand wanting to have dedicated security personnel. … But I also understand the ways that it changes the educational environment. … I feel like we tend, sometimes after a crisis, to have a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to make everyone

In opposition, neighborhood groups joined with Stand Up Nashville, the economic justice organization that landed a community benefits agreement with Nashville SC in 2018. Citizens Against Racetrack Expansion for Nashville has funded countywide mailers, distributed yard signs and organized advocates against the deal. Pro-racing audience members heckled the group for its antagonism, often referring to opponents by the acronym CAREN.

“The more people learn about this giveaway, the less they like it,” CARE president John Spragens tells the Scene. “It’s a bad deal for taxpayers. We take all the risk while an out-of-state company makes all the profits — running loud NASCAR races in the middle of a neighborhood.”

While red visually dominated the space, a long line of opponents kept the meeting going for hours. Opponents spoke about noise, increased traffic, neighborhood quality of life, and the deal’s massive public subsidies, which they said would embroil the city in yet another financial thicket.

“I cannot do my taxes, record music, do anything when races are going on,” said Andrea, one neighbor speaking in opposition who didn’t share her last name. “This just feels like billionaire boys with their

feel safer, but I think we have to be so careful about understanding all of the costs and benefits of the actions that we take, and to make sure that the right trainings are in place.”

Nashville SROs receive de-escalation and disability-oriented training from the National Association of School Resource Officers and through MNPS. Officers who voluntarily patrol elementary schools do not. There are also state resources that families can lean on. The Tennessee Technical Assistance Network provides school employees and families with training and support to address behavioral needs — families can request assistance on the TTAN website. Additionally, Tennessee START Assessment & Stabilization Teams provide resources for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, ranging from remote crisis response to generalized education. The Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities’ behavior support checklist can help identify unmet needs, and MNPS has a range of programs and partners to address students’ needs inside and outside of the classroom.

“The goal is for people around the student or around any person with a disability to be able to [identify] underlying needs, so that we don’t end up in a cycle of escalation,” says Sharp.

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toys. There is a speedway 20 miles south of here. Go there if you really believe in NASCAR.”

Bristol’s parent company, Speedway Motorsports, also operates the Nashville Speedway in Lebanon, which hosts the Ally 400, a NASCAR Cup Series race. Both sides are angry about how the city has changed.

“I can’t afford to go to a Titans game every Sunday,” one red-shirted speaker said on the mic. “But I can afford to go to a race.”

Formerly a working-class white neighborhood (with a racial boundary at Fourth Avenue), the area now known as Wedgewood-Houston has become an enclave for wealthy young professionals. The NASCAR fans, who referenced public funding for a new Titans stadium and Geodis, say these people can deal with a little noise. Racing fans have been coming to the fairgrounds for decades — it’s time they got something too, said speakers. Opponents’ arguments connected plans to overhaul the track — a direct effect of growth-minded, tourism-obsessed officials, they argued — to generally misplaced city priorities that put arenas over transit or housing.

Speakers’ comments supported the consensus that, even across lines of race, class and geography,

‘We have to be so careful about understanding all of the costs and benefits of the actions that we take, and to make sure that the right trainings are in place’

KELSEY BEYELER

At a contentious fairgrounds meeting, competing sides agree Nashville is on the wrong track

residents agree that Nashville is on the wrong track. The same thread of resentment has animated local politics in recent years and, backed by a growing body of polling data, has formed an ideological basis for this year’s mayoral candidates, specifically downtown Councilmember Freddie O’Connell.

“Nine times out of 10, things go with the money,” said one racetrack supporter. He was on his way out, walking in the shadow of Geodis with two other redshirted compatriots. All were older, white and male, like many NASCAR fans and track proponents.

SPORTS

SPORTING CHANCE

Nashville’s quest for a topflight women’s professional sports team

BY LOGAN BUTTS

The history of professional women’s sports in Nashville can charitably be described as inconsistent. The city has been home to a smattering of minor-league-level franchises across a number of sports, particularly basketball and soccer. There’s also been a handful of teams competing at the highest level of their respective sports, but in leagues that are not necessarily on the level of the historically top-flight WNBA or NWSL — like the Nashville Dream of the now-defunct Music City-headquartered National Women’s Football Association.

On one brief occasion, the city was home to what could be considered a true top-flight women’s professional sports team — in 1998, when the short-lived Nashville Noise competed in the ultimately doomed WNBA rival American Basketball League. Nashville had a similar — albeit longer and more robust — relationship with men’s sports prior to the arrival of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators in the late ’90s. In the years since, the city has added MLS squad Nashville SC.

But despite being an engaged sports town that has hosted hugely successful events like the 2019 NFL Draft, several major NHL affairs and the 2014 NCAA Women’s Final Four, not to mention the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals, the city has yet to land a WNBA or NWSL franchise.

“Sports play a big role [in a city like Nash-

There is money on both sides. Conservative billionaire John Ingram, primary owner of Nashville SC, has come out against the track, which would nuzzle up against his new soccer arena. The Smith family took Speedway Motorsports private in 2019. One of NASCAR’s track giants, the corporation operates 11 sites and brings in hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

According to polling done July 17 to 19 by the Tennessee Laborers PAC, the track overhaul is unpopular across the city among both Republicans and Democrats. Just 32 percent of respondents support

ville],” says local attorney Margaret Behm. “It’s huge entertainment, and it brings people together. You can really relate to people, and I think it’s a big economic driver of the city.”

Behm is a longtime board and executive committee member of the Nashville Sports Council and the founder and first chair of the council’s Women in Sports Committee. Currently, she’s serving her second term as a board member of the Metropolitan Sports Authority, which oversees the city’s professional sports facilities, and is also the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Women’s Professional Sports Initiative.

The local market is crowded with three men’s professional franchises, a Triple-A baseball team in the Nashville Sounds, five Division I college athletics programs in the area, the constant noise of a potential MLB team coming to town, and countless other sporting and non-sporting events happening daily. But if the city truly wants to present itself as one of the country’s premier sportsentertainment destinations, Behm thinks a WNBA or NWSL franchise should be next on the bucket list.

“We are such a sports city that it’s important to have a women’s team too,” Behm says. “There aren’t a lot of teams out there, so it’s very important, I think, for cities like Nashville, who are so excited and support women’s sports, to be intentional about trying to get a team or teams here. But the owners of those leagues and the leagues themselves have to be in a position to want to expand too.”

The interest is there. When sports management consulting firm CAA ICON presented the findings of its Women’s Sports Initiative Strategic Assessment to the Ad Hoc Committee, the poll indicated that 80 percent of the nearly 4,400 participants supported a women’s professional sports team.

During a post-game press conference after the 2023 SheBelieves Cup — the firstever international soccer match hosted at NSC’s Geodis Park — U.S. Women’s National Team manager Vlatko Andonovski

“building a 30,000-seat racetrack facility on the current Nashville Fairground Speedway site with plans to attract a new NASCAR race and other high-profile racing events.” Strong support drops to 14 percent while 61 percent oppose the track (with 43 percent strongly opposing).

If anyone influential was swayed last week, it likely won’t matter in the short term. Now that Sledge held a community meeting, the Metro Council will need to hold a special-called meeting to officially approve the lease during this term. There’s been no indication

said, unprompted, that Nashville should be home to the NWSL’s next expansion franchise. Stars Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan shared the sentiment. It’s an idea that has been bandied about everywhere from local supporters groups to sources within the NWSL league offices.

“I go to the NSC games and I see all these supporters, and I’m thinking women’s sports can capture that audience,” says Chrissy Webb, organizer of local group Bring NWSL to Nashville. Webb says access and marketing are two of the biggest hurdles when it comes to growing local women’s sports fandom.

“If you don’t know something exists, then how can we support it?” says Webb. “That’s one of the main reasons why we started this little grassroots group. We just don’t have that access because we are still overcoming that idea that no one watches women’s sports. It seems like there really is a bedrock here that could be built on, and it just hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know why exactly that is, but hopefully that will happen one day.”

The city as a whole is largely mixed when it comes to the idea of professional basketball, but the college and high school scenes thrive here. College basketball and college sports in general have an especially strong foothold thanks to the many programs in the Middle Tennessee area and the SEC’s commitment to making Nashville its quasi-cultural center. Plus, a huge contingent of University of Tennessee fans, many of whom grew up watching coach Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols dynasty, live in the area. The foundation seems to be in place for a WNBA franchise to thrive, and the league has noticed.

“The league obviously wants the teams to be able to play in a particular city, but the ownership group is also very important,” Behm says. “What we looked at is what would make Nashville more attractive to a potential ownership group. We

from the mayor, vice mayor or council that such a meeting will take place. NASCAR’s prospects are dim. Metro power player James Weaver, the prolific Holland & Knight lobbyist enlisted by Bristol, has reportedly left for summer vacation. Most leading mayoral candidates are either vocally against the deal or silent on it, indicating that Bristol will have to take another expensive lap with the next administration to get their deal back on the city’s agenda.

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have the market, but one thing our consultants told us is that if you have a training facility, that’s attractive.

“The Metropolitan Council, in the last capital operating budget, provided funds that were available for a training facility for both a WNBA team and an NWSL team for $30 million each,” she continues. “So it’s sitting there in the event we find an option. The mayor has to put it in the budget and the council has to approve it, but that’s there to hopefully help Nashville have a leg up on a bid.”

There are several external factors beyond simply having the desire for a local women’s professional sports team, but Behm remains optimistic.

“There are folks who are interested in owning both WNBA and NWSL teams in Nashville,” she says. “I am really encouraged about us getting at least one of these teams relatively soon. There have been some encouraging meetings, and there are some folks who are willing to put up the kind of money that it’s going to take to be able to land a spot in one of these leagues.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

MARGARET BEHM

ELECTION DAY ARRIVES, WITH RUNOFFS LIKELY TO FOLLOW

More than 57,000 Nashvillians voted early in July

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

On Thursday, Aug. 3, Election Day voters in Nashville will take to the polls to select a mayor, a vice mayor and a new Metro Council.

A total of 57,461 Nashvillians voted in July’s twoweek early voting period. That’s roughly 14 percent of Nashville’s 413,981 active registered voters. The good news? That’s up from 2019, when just shy of 49,000 voters turned out to vote early in the city’s Metro elections. That year, then-incumbent Mayor David Briley edged out conservative third-place finisher Carol Swain to make it to a runoff with then-Metro Councilmember John Cooper. (Democratic state Rep. John Ray Clemmons finished a somewhat-distant fourth.) We all know what happened next: Cooper beat the pants off Briley in the runoff — by roughly 39 percentage points.

And after a term besieged by natural disasters, a terrorist bombing and a global pandemic, Cooper announced in January that he would not seek reelection. A dozen candidates ultimately qualified to run for mayor by the May 18 deadline, and after an inordinate number of forums, the field began to take shape. Polling and fundraising numbers established Metro Councilmember Freddie O’Connell, former MDHA official Matt Wiltshire, state Sen. Jeff Yarbro,

and Republican operative Alice Rolli as the frontrunners. After spending $2 million of his own money on the race, former AllianceBernstein exec Jim Gingrich dropped out in July — but not soon enough to keep his name off the ballot.

If none of the 2023 mayoral candidates earns more than 50 percent of the vote — and considering the fact that there are 12 names on the ballot, it’s incredibly unlikely that any will — the top two vote-getters will head to the runoff. Early voting for the runoff will take place from Aug. 25 to Sept. 9, with Election Day to follow on Sept. 14.

A runoff among the city’s Metro Council at-large candidates is extremely likely as well, though that will be a bit more complicated. The section of the Metro Charter about at-large runoffs is vexingly written. (“For the purpose of this section, ‘the total vote cast for the office of councilmembers-at-large’ shall be deemed to be one-fifth of the aggregate number of votes received by all candidates for the office of councilmembers-at-large,” reads one portion.) Written as simply as possible: Any candidate who gets at least 10 percent of the total vote will avoid a runoff, but most likely, we’ll see the current field of 21 candidates slashed down to 10, eight or even fewer as some of the top vote-getters race for the remaining open seats.

Runoffs are possible in the Metro Council district races as well. A candidate must receive at least 50 percent of the vote in their district, meaning crowded races — like in Districts 1 and 29 — might see September faceoffs between the top two vote-getters.

When it comes to the vice mayoral race, mercifully, only two candidates are running, and thus a runoff won’t be necessary. Whoever gets more votes on Aug. 3 — incumbent Vice Mayor Jim Shulman or termlimited Metro Councilmember Angie Henderson — will win outright.

Find more info, from interviews and financial disclosures to analysis and more, at nashvillescene.com/elections — and follow along with us there on election night.

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Happy Election Day! Voters across the city on Aug. 3 will choose Nashville’s Metro councilmembers, mayor and vice mayor after a long, hot, crowded campaign season. Prominent Nashville political figures like former U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, longtime Sheriff Daron Hall and state Rep. Jason Powell have come in with late endorsements for mayor while candidates spend big to reach voters in the final days of the race. Wealthy conservative businessmen Bobby Joslin and Bill Hostettler used an unregistered PAC to drop last-minute attack ads against mayoral frontrunner Freddie O’Connell under the name “Friends of Enoch Fuzz.” Fuzz, a local pastor, was not aware of the push. Several at-large seats and the mayor’s race appear headed for a runoff, which will narrow the field and extend contests six more weeks. … The Metro Nashville Public Schools board denied applications by three new charter schools — Invictus, Pathways in Education and Nashville Collegiate Prep High School — at its July 25 meeting. The board also considered the effects of new reading standards, which once threatened to hold back a significant portion of MNPS’ third-graders. Just 1.4 percent will be retained because of the law. An additional 20.1 percent will move on to fourth grade, but must receive additional tutoring and show proficient growth on the next TCAP in order to move to the fifth grade. … Two members of the Metro

Employee Benefit Board have been accused of ethics violations in their decisions to deny genderaffirming health care to Metro employees. At a June meeting, the board voted 5-4 against adding coverage for gender-affirming care to employee insurance plans. At the meeting, then-chair Edna Jones opposed trans-inclusive coverage on religious grounds. Maryam Abolfazli, chair of the Metro Human Relations Commission, filed the ethics complaint with the Metro Clerk’s Office on July 27 after a short press conference. … Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti had a “target list” of patients employed by the state who may have received care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, plaintiffs allege in a lawsuit filed last week. Information continues to surface about Skrmetti’s quest to obtain the medical records of transgender patients and VUMC’s compliance. Vanderbilt turned over personal information — possibly including pictures of individuals’ genitalia — to Skrmetti, a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, plaintiffs argue. Vanderbilt shut down its transgender clinic earlier this summer in anticipation of the state’s ban on transgender health care procedures going into effect. … Scene contributor Betsy Phillips skewers Skrmetti for his aggressive invasion of individuals’ privacy, which she likens to a “stash of revenge porn” collected on taxpayers’ dime.

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WITNESS HISTORY

This rare Martina Records 45-rpm single was recorded by sixteen-year-old Martina McBride at a radio station in Wichita, Kansas, on studio time she won in a local contest—nine years after she first started performing and nine years before she signed to RCA Records.

From the exhibit Martina McBride: The Power of Her Voice artifact: Courtesy of Martina McBride artifact photo: Bob

Delevante

Nashville’s Child Care Crisis

BY HANNAH HERNER

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

IF YOU’RE PREGNANT or may be pregnant, it’s past time to get on wait lists for child care centers in Nashville.

Cortnye Stone has been looking for child care for a year. It’s not uncommon for parents to join such lists when they find out they are pregnant, just to be told they should have started looking before conception. Stone started searching when she was three months pregnant and has not yet risen to the top of any of the six wait lists she paid a collective $700 to join. One local center, Bloom Academy in East Nashville, didn’t make the cut because it now famously advertises a three-year wait list.

“I have friends in major urban areas all across the country who are encountering this same thing,” Stone says. “And honestly, if I could give somebody a piece of advice, it would be if you plan to have a child anytime soon, start researching day cares and figure out how to get on the list. Because every month counts, every week counts, so that you can have an advantage over somebody else.”

Stone’s son is now 3 months old and her maternity leave has come to a close, and she’s been fortunate enough to find a nanny to care for him four days per week. She’s hopeful about one day care center, which told her they may have an opening in the first quarter of 2024.

Inglewood’s Fannie Battle Day Home, a nonprofit that is committed to enrolling 70 percent low-income families on a sliding scale, closed its wait list in 2021 and has been whittling it down since. At best, says executive director Kristie Ryan, they’ll be able to accommodate the pandemic baby boom of younger siblings to their current students.

“We have to really work hard to maintain that 70/30 [balance], because the demographics of East Nashville have shifted so much in the last 10 years,” Ryan says. “The biggest majority of the people who are on that wait list are full-pay. We could fill another center tomorrow with full-pay families, but we wouldn’t be meeting our mission. Those [low-income] families are the ones who are going to get called first. The ones who don’t have any other options and financially meet our criteria.”

Child care scarcity and cost burden are issues families have dealt with for years, but they appear to have reached a tipping point. Parents need assistance to support their dual-career lives, the care is more sophisticated and costly than ever, and the demand isn’t likely to slow down in a state with a nearly complete ban on abortion. Meanwhile, the underpaid child care workforce has struggled to fill the gap, and the state is getting more involved.

According to Feroza Freeland of local work-life-balance advocacy organization A Better Balance, the pandemic didn’t cause the scarcity but rather laid bare the issue.

“I think the pandemic really brought this issue into the public conversation in a way that it had not been before, because so many more people were impacted,” Freeland says. “When a family is not able to access child care, of course, it negatively impacts their ability to work, to put food on the table. It leads to worker shortages and has a lot of effects on the economy as well.”

One contributing factor to the child care crisis: Family structures have changed over the past several decades. According to 2019 data from the Center for American Progress, most children will grow up in families

in which all of the adults work. The share of breadwinning or co-breadwinning mothers (not taking into account stay-at-home dads or gender-queer couples) has more than doubled from 1967 to 2017 — from 11.6 percent to 23.2 percent, and 15.9 percent to 41.0 percent, respectively. In Tennessee, 44.2 percent of mothers are breadwinners, and 20.4 percent are co-breadwinners, meaning an overall 64.6 percent of mothers work outside the home. Nationally, Black mothers are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to be their families’ breadwinner, with 68.3 percent of them breadwinners, and 16.1 percent sharing the load.

According to a recent survey of Davidson County families by Tennesseans for Quality Early Education, 75 percent of parents with a child younger than 6 say access to child care is a significant challenge, and 51 percent also name affordability as a challenge. According to the same study, child care in Tennessee costs more on average than instate college tuition. The average annual price of center-based care is $11,068 for infants and $10,184 for toddlers. Home-based

care is a bit cheaper, at $7,194 for infants and $6,749 for toddlers. At the same time, a third of children younger than 6 live in families with incomes below $40,000, and nearly half with annual incomes of $60,000 or less.

The Tennessee Department of Human Services’ child care payment assistance program served 3,097 families in fiscal year 2023 in Davidson County.

“I get it, because he does take a lot of time, and we should be paying people fairly for the work that they’re doing,” Stone says of her infant. “It is an enormous cost burden for families. My family is a dual-income family, so we rely on my salary and we rely on my husband’s salary, and neither of us is able to leave the workforce to be full-time stay-at-home parents.”

The economy has taken a blow because of a lack of access to child care too. Of those Tennessee families surveyed by TQEE over a six-month period in 2022, 22 percent quit or were fired, 38 percent went from full time to part time or couldn’t increase from part time to full time, 41 percent turned down a job offer or promotion, and 26 per-

cent left the workforce — all due to struggles with child care. The survey estimates a $175.6 million annual loss in earnings for these families in Davidson County, with employers losing $55.9 million from lower productivity, reduced revenue, increased hiring and retention costs, and lost profits.

Looking to be savvy in a child-carestrapped city, some opt to run an unlicensed child care center in their home. This is legal for up to four unrelated children. But in the past year, there have been two infant deaths at unlicensed child care centers in Nashville — one of which made national headlines. Both centers were taking care of far more than the allotted number of children. In total, DHS has taken legal action against at least eight caregivers in the past year.

Courts can hold an individual in contempt if they violate an order to stop operating a center or to cut down on the number of kids, but court records show the lion’s share are repeat offenders. Per child care licensure rules, the license should be displayed by the agency in a place easily visible to parents.

What could get us out of this mess?

The yearlong Tennessee Child Care Task Force was created by a piece of legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2021, and it released its final report at the end of 2022 with nine recommendations: investing in apprenticeship models; improving data systems; conducting a cost study; introducing tax credits for employers to help pay for child care or establish child care centers; simplifying the regulatory process of creating a new child care center; expanding support for the child care providers as business owners; better communicating with families about available resources; encouraging smaller providers to become regulated and serve more children; and bolstering the pre-licensure unit.

Applications just closed for the inaugural round of annual $15 million Child Care Hub pilot grants aimed at establishing newly licensed child care locations. Jude White, assistant commissioner of Child Care and Community Services at the Tennessee Department of Human Services, tells the Scene via email that this portion of the $220 million federal Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) has relaxed restrictions.

“We greatly appreciate the $15 milliona-year pilot program from the General Assembly and governor, as it is the first time we have received state dollars,” says White. “We look forward to using it in a variety of ways, such as to assist with staffing needs and capital costs of nonprofit child care agencies. These state dollars allow us to provide assistance in ways that would not be allowable under the regulations of CCDBG.”

Adding at least a few more slots to the pool is the Martha O’Bryan Center, which will reopen its early learning center on Aug. 7 after closing back in June 2017. It’ll operate differently than before in an effort to be more financially stable, says CEO Marsha Edwards. The last iteration of the center survived entirely on state-sponsored vouchers and hosted about 78 children, but the new one will be mixed-income with 126 children and an estimated 60/40 split of low income vs. higher income, she says. It also reflects what the mixed-income

Child care in Tennessee costs more on average than in-state college tuition. The average annual price of center-based care is $11,068 for infants and $10,184 for toddlers.

CORTNYE STONE

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

public housing neighborhood is becoming under the Metro Development and Housing Agency’s Envision Cayce Project.

Edwards notes that child care access is important for low-income families to have a chance at economic mobility.

“Early learning is so incredibly important for kids as they start their educational journey,” says Edwards, “but it’s also just incredibly important for parents to have a great place that they have a lot of confidence and trust in so they can go to work and do what they need to do to provide for their family.”

When it opens, the center will host just 40 to 50 children, until it hires enough staff to reach full capacity. Fannie Battle opted against expanding for a lack of staffing.

To help address the lack of providers statewide, Tennessee State University will recruit high school and community college students to begin an apprenticeship in early childhood education through a new wing of longstanding state program Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA). The program, funded through DHS and the U.S. Department of Labor, will kick off this fall. The program also offers scholarships for those furthering their education in early childhood education and hosts a child development associate certificate program.

As with any small business, the profit margins are slim in child care. Martha O’Bryan will pay staff according to the center’s minimum starting salary of $42,000, Edwards tells the Scene. The Martha O’Bryan pay scale outpaces the average annual pay for child care workers in Tennessee of $23,780. Fannie Battle has reached a starting wage of $15 per hour only within the past year, with limited benefits, Ryan says. The average wage is now $18.79 per hour at the center.

In August 2021, DHS launched its PreLicensure Unit, which already claims increased capacity of 1,200 child care slots in Davidson County through adding licensed child care centers. The unit has also awarded $500,000 in grants to programs in Davidson County, which can be used to purchase supplies and curriculum to help them open with less debt.

Over the past couple of years, DHS has focused on creating employer-sponsored child care, White tells the Scene, including a child care center that recently opened near the Tyson Foods factory in Humboldt, Tenn. She calls on employers to support their employees in the cost of care or to establish a center. For example, in 2021, Michigan introduced what’s known as the TriShare Child Care Pilot Program, in which the state, parents and employers split the cost of child care three ways. It led to an increase in employee retention.

“There is no single strategy or solution that can affect all aspects of the child care system,” says White. “We believe the greatest area of opportunity is for more privatesector partners and local governments to actively engage in developing solutions. This includes local government review of zoning and business regulations that may be hampering development of more child care spaces. It also includes more businesses investing in their employees and engaging with us to explore resources that can be used to develop child care that fits work hours and family needs.”

Rhonda

Laird, head of TECTA at TSU,

says the program, which was created in 1992, was founded in part to help professionalize the industry. Since she began in the field in the ’80s, the licensing has gotten more rigid. She supports this change because people have a better scientific understanding of baby and toddler brains.

“We know that infants don’t just need to be babysat — that they can be read to, and they can be shown items that help stimulate their vision and stimulate their interest,” Laird says. “We know that infants don’t need to just cry it out, and we know that they do need to be held and nurtured so that their brains can develop.”

People work in child care in their late teens and early 20s and then go on to what they see as their “real job,” Laird says. Plus, the sector has lost 10 percent of its workforce nationally compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I think we have this lack of child care because people never took it seriously,” she says. “Now of course, child care providers

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

A PRE-K CLASSROOM AT THE NEW EARLY LEARNING CENTER AT THE MARTHA O’BRYAN CENTER

do not make enough money. There’s not enough investment in early childhood education or teachers. It’s hard to [work for] $10 per hour and when you walk up to, you know, Lowe’s and they’re paying $15 an hour for a second shift, and you’re still off at 7 o’clock at night. Why would I do that?”

Jennifer Hearn, a provider at Fannie Battle, started working in child care in 2008 and has an associate’s degree in child development. She says it’s been a struggle to find child care for her own children, especially for her younger son, who is autistic and requires one-on-one support. She says summer camps and after-school programs often don’t have the staff to offer that, so she has to adjust her schedule to be with him in the summers and when he gets out of school. Fannie Battle doesn’t have room for him either.

Her salary wouldn’t cover what it would cost to put him in day care over the summer, and she’s taken hour cuts to work only while he’s at school.

“It’s kind of unrecognized about how much energy and effort we put forth,” Hearn says. “I’m definitely not in it for the money, but it would be appreciated.”

Hearn bonds with the parents of the children she cares for — all elementary school teachers as part of a partnership with Nash-

ville Classical School. She takes care of five children of various ages — 6 weeks to 3 years old — and has four more on the wait list. School is already back in session at Nashville Classical, a charter school in East Nashville.

“I enjoy working with my parents,” she says. “I’m a parent myself, and I take my job very seriously. And I just want them to know that while they’re gone at work — because I know they have a little bit of guilt — that their child is in extremely good hands. I care for them as my own.”

Says parent Cortnye Stone: “That is a decision that families all across Tennessee and all across the country are making: How much can we give up? How much money can we spend to make sure that our children are cared for? And my husband and I are in a fortunate position to be able to spend money on his child care, but I know it is a privilege, and there are so many other families that are struggling to try to figure out how to get their kids taken care of. And that’s really sad, and frankly, it’s a pathetic state of affairs for people in this country.”

While Cortnye Stone works as a communications director for the city’s transportation department, she spoke to the Scene for this story in a personal capacity

PROVIDER JENNIFER HEARN (LEFT) AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KRISTIE RYAN AT FANNIE BATTLE

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

For 35 years, the Nashville Scene has been the source for the best of people, places and things in Nashville. From the readers’ poll results to the writers’ picks, our hugely popular Best of Nashville print issue is the definitive source on where to go and what to do in Music City.

Cast your ballot and help name the BEST this city has to offer.

#BON23

CAST YOUR BALLOT ACROSS 8 GROUPS AND MORE THAN 275

Arts, Culture & Music

Best Art Gallery

Best Art Happening

Best Band (local)

Best Beer Event/Beer Festival

Best Bowling Alley

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Best Cheap Date

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Best Country Music Artist

Best DJ (Performer)

Best Drag Performer

Best Drag Brunch

Best Event/ Festival (local)

Best Film/TV Actor or Actress (local)

Best Food Event

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Best Instrumentalist

Best Karaoke Bar

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Best Place to See a Play

Best Printmaker/Poster Designer

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Health, Beauty & Fitness

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Kids & Pets

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Birthday Party

Best Place to Take Kids when it’s Raining

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Media & Politics

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Music

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CRITICS’ PICKS

WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX

(a solo Saturday over prerecorded tracks) of a psychedelic and soulful song cycle. But it’s also a stage play, and a spoken-word happening — and also a dance recital and an interactive cinema event. I’m always more interested in the spaces in between art categories and creative techniques, and Saturday’s entire imaginative enterprise revels in liminalities and ambiguities. GNA has previewed Voyage at a recent residency at Coop and at the Far Out Flix experimental film event that kicked off Far Out Fest back in July. Here’s a firsthand review: Don’t miss this. Aug. 3-5 at Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Ave. JOE NOLAN

OUTDOORS [RUFFING IT]

DOG NIGHTS OF SUMMER

THURSDAY / 8.3

MUSIC

[PUNK METROPOLIS] SWEEPING

PROMISES

Post-punk duo Sweeping Promises performs a series of homages to the music of circa 1981 on their new album Good Living Is Coming for You. Because singer Lira Mondal has a voice that lends itself to the avidity of punk pop and embodies the sheer thrill of homage itself, the tracks on Good Living come across as tiny time capsules of style. Meanwhile, guitarist and drummer Caufield Schnug riffs in the manner of Gang of Four and early Scritti Politti, and I hear hints of Pylon and Liliput throughout. Sweeping Promises got together in Arkansas in 2008 and cut their 2020 full-length Hunger for a Way Out on a single microphone in Boston. After moving to the punk metropolis of Lawrence, Kan., in 2021, the band recorded Good Living, which is definitely more fleshed out than Hunger. Mondal’s bass parts are stark and a bit rubbery on Good Living. Schnug’s sinister guitar patterns and loitering drum patterns lay in the pocket of music that embodies the concept of disaffected anti-funk as it’s been taught by the great post-punk masters. The approach works best on the Good Living track “Walk in Place,” which proceeds in sections and gets close to the pop they seem to be striving for. Mondal and Schnug are miniaturists of the recording studio — it should be interesting to see how they

function as a live band. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. EDD HURT

[FIRST TAKE]

GARDENING, NOT ARCHITECTURE: VOYAGE: A LIVE MUSICAL ALBUM

We’re used to bands performing a new LP track-for-track live at a release-day gig. But that formula would mean thinking too small for the aesthetically ambitious local interdisciplinary artist Sarah Saturday

— the creative force behind the Gardening, Not Architecture musical project. GNA’s music marries groovy space pop to intimate lyrics about inner landscapes made of memories, aspirations, connection and surrender. Voyage: A Live Visual Album combines all of these in a live theatrical performance that’s drenched in trippy imagery thanks to a selection of bespoke short experimental movies created by local filmmaker and regular GNA collaborator Dycee Wildman. Voyage is a performance

Nothing says summer quite like an evening at Cheekwood, and thanks to Dog Nights of Summer, four-legged members of the family can also get in on the fun. Part of the estate’s Thursday Night Out series, this popular event welcomes well-behaved dogs (and their humans!) into the gardens every Thursday evening in August. You can grab a specialty cocktail, stroll the scenic grounds, enjoy live music and maybe even pick up a treat for your pooch from one of the on-site vendors. This week’s lineup includes a rockin’ performance by Shaun Murphy, and there will be plenty of food trucks including favorites like Tennessee Tatercakes, Hoss’ Loaded Burgers, Nashbowls Acai, Phat Pizza, Daddy’s Dogs, Moosic City Ice Cream and King of Pops. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out Bruce Munro’s awardwinning light installation, a magical display that complements the natural beauty of Cheekwood. Dog Nights of Summer runs every Thursday in August from 5:30 to 10 p.m. (Dogs must be kept on a leash at all times, and don’t forget to clean up after your pets!) For details, visit cheekwood.org. Thursdays in August at Cheekwood, 1200 Forrest Park Drive AMY STUMPFL

FRIDAY / 8.4

[WE HAVE A RACETRACK AT HOME]

SPORTS

MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX

GARDENING, NOT ARCHITECTURE:

VOYAGE: A LIVE MUSICAL ALBUM

After IndyCar’s first foray into the streets of Nashville in 2021, local sports columnist Gentry Estes wrote that “Music City Grand Prix wasn’t a race but a party, and Nashville does those well.” It was a pretty fair summary of the inaugural race: Even though the drivers struggled to navigate the tight turns of the street course, making for a less-than-stellar display of motorsports, tens of thousands of spectators had a grand old time watching 700-horsepower cars zoom across the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge. The third running of the race should be a bit cleaner than that crash-ridden first edition now that the drivers are more familiar with the course, but Middle Tennesseans also have someone to cheer for in Team Penske’s

AUGUST 4-6 Downtown

Josef Newgarden. The Hendersonville native not only won American auto racing’s biggest race, the Indianapolis 500, this season, but also finished runner-up in the 2022 Music City GP and should be a podium threat again this season as he looks to challenge Álex Palou for the series lead. There are of course music performances, races from lower series like Trans Am and a ton of other things to do over the weekend, so pick up a ticket — or just post up in a tall building with a view of the course — to see what all those bleachers on the side of the highway are about. Aug. 4-6 in downtown Nashville COLE VILLENA

[BLOOD MOON SINGER]

MUSIC

WILLIAM MATHENY

Last month, I was almost canceled for posting a Morgan Wallen song. So I apologized for living under a rock — it’s cozy down there — because I’m not willing to die on a hill for that dork. This month, I plan to make it up to my 300 followers by introducing them to William Matheny. The West Virginia-based singer-songwriter has an Americana feel that’s firmly steeped in the Appalachian storytelling tradition. His new album That Grand, Old Feeling takes narrative inspiration from the lovable characters who inhabit dive motels and roadside haunts and takes sonic cues from artists like Magnolia Electric Co. and Drive-By Truckers. He’s got a literary lyrical sensibility that helps him stand out even among the recent swell of great young Appalachia-based songwriters. Plus, he’s on Tyler Childers’ Hickman Holler label, so you know he’s the real deal. No cancellations here. 7 p.m. at the Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S. TOBY ROSE

[SAXOPHONE MASTER]

MUSIC

DON ALIQUO

Don Aliquo is both a superb mainstream jazz soloist and bandleader and a prolific educator at Middle Tennessee State University. His résumé includes collaborations with numerous top artists, among them Rufus Reid, Gary Burton and Greg Osby. His current release Growth ranks as one of the finest jazz records released in the area over the past year. The record’s eight original songs serve as a showcase for both his

powerful, evocative tenor saxophone playing and his compositional acumen by being challenging in structure but still accessible and enjoyable. He also recorded his The Innocence of Spring live on the MTSU campus, which paired him with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens. Aliquo will be performing songs from all his seven releases Friday as he leads a fine quartet into Rudy’s Jazz Room: himself on saxophone, pianist Jody Nardone, bassist John Birdsong and drummer Ryan Brassley. Aliquo’s dates radiate with an intensity that might not grab the listener at first, but over time will hook you due to his steady brilliance and the equally impressive fashion in which he establishes kinship with his band members. This is one not to be missed. 8 p.m. at Rudy’s Jazz Room, 809 Gleaves St. RON WYNN

FOOD & MUSIC [EVENING CLASS]

RIVERSIDE FISH FRY FEAT. JOSHUA HEDLEY

You know the characters in Joshua Hedley’s songs, whether they remind you of family or friends, of who you see in the mirror, or of people you know from listening to six or more decades’ worth of country music. They’re regular folks who might suffer heartbreak or deal some out, who drink fairly often and occasionally to excess, who wrestle with themselves or against long odds, and who might romanticize themselves a little bit — or a lot. Standout songsmith Hedley is right on the money when he describes himself as “a singing professor of country and Western” on his second LP, 2022’s Neon Blue. Beyond his rich baritone voice and exceptional band, he’s learned through decades of singing in honky-tonks what makes a country song — any song, really — worth a damn: Whoever wrote it and whoever is singing it understand what the characters are going through, from personal experience or not, and what that can tell you about living. Friday, you can hear Hedley as part of East Side performance space Riverside Revival’s Riverside Fish Fry, a Friday evening show series that continues through the end of August; Eddie 9V plays Aug. 11, City Hall on Aug. 18, and Half Brass on Aug. 25. There’s no cover, but $20 gets you a plate for the buffet-style dinner of catfish and fixin’s.

(And it’s family-friendly too, as kids 10 and under eat free.) 6 p.m. at Riverside Revival, 1600 Riverside Drive STEPHEN TRAGESER

FILM

[CRANK IT UP]

MIDNIGHT MOVIE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2

Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 sees the iconic Leatherface return for more blood-drenched, gasolineguzzling havoc in a sequel that’s equal parts campy, dark and undeniably ’80s. Don’t let the comedic tone and (totally awesome) retro soundtrack fool you, though — TCM2 still delivers the chills that Hooper came to be known for throughout his illustrious career, especially in the film’s surprisingly effective second half. Initially maligned by many critics, TCM2 is now embraced by moviegoing audiences, and there’s no question as to why. Who can resist a film featuring a maniacally charged Leatherface, a chainsaw-wielding, cigarettesmoking Dennis Hopper, and a Texas chili cookoff all in one movie? Melding together scenes of comedy, horror, action and allout gonzo craziness, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is one heck of a film, and it’s as sure to delight as it is to terrify as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing Midnight Movies series. Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

ROB HINKAL

SHOPPING

and while that is in large part due to the show’s crack writing and research team, its creator, host and executive producer Oliver deserves more than a little bit of credit. The 46-year-old Brit served as a Daily Show correspondent and occasional substitute host, and while he didn’t take over the Comedy Central program himself, Last Week Tonight is truly the spiritual successor to Jon Stewart’s version of that show — with all due respect to Trevor Noah and the other hosts who’ve manned the desk at The Daily Show, none has offered the incisive, progressive voice Oliver has in spades. Oliver also has a couple decades’ worth of experience in stand-up comedy, and he’s currently on the road with his John Oliver Live tour, which lands Saturday at the Ryman — rescheduled from a July date at the Grand Ole Opry House. Be there to find out who he’ll turn his incisive eye on next.

7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. D. PATRICK RODGERS

SPORTS

[HIT THE BIG TIME]

MICRO WRESTLING FEDERATION: MICROFEST

[BUY BLACK]

NASHVILLE

BLACK MARKET RETAIL STORE GRAND OPENING

We’ve been singing the praises of the Nashville Black Market since it began hosting pop-up events in 2018. But now — just in time for back-to-school shopping — NBM is opening a brick-and-mortar retail space in North Inglewood in the same vicinity as beloved spots like High Class Hillbilly and Backslide Vintage. To celebrate, NBM will host a grand opening celebration, which will be something like a block party featuring live music, food, booze, photo booths and more. And as always, the primary mission of NBM is to place intentional focus on developing ecosystems for Black entrepreneurs — hundreds of brands and businesses will be represented. Find out more information by following them on Instagram at @thenashvilleblackmarket, or visit the website thenashvilleblackmarket.com. 3-6 p.m. at The Nashville Black Market, 1100 Richmond Drive LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

SATURDAY / 8.5

COMEDY

[ZAZU HIMSELF] JOHN OLIVER

For nearly a decade and just shy of 300 episodes, HBO’s Last Week Tonight

With John Oliver — ostensibly a comedy show — has done some genuinely solid reporting on a broad array of issues. From political corruption and the opioid epidemic to media literacy, corporate monopolies and net neutrality, the satirical half-hour news broadcast has delved into some very serious issues with skill, aplomb and delightfully juvenile ribaldry. The show has earned two dozen Primetime Emmys and a couple of Peabodys over its 10 seasons,

The all-stars of the Pigeon Forge-based Micro Wrestling Federation will make their way to Nashville for the inaugural (drum roll, please) MICROFEST. Short-people shenanigans abound during this all-out extravaganza highlighting the peak of the troupe’s summer tour of muscular mayhem. Big matches include the battle for Music City between Disco Dom and the pride of Memphis, Zach “Little Elvis” Presley, as well as the main event — an epic cage match featuring title contenders Hot Rod and Lil’ Show, “The Redneck Brawler.” Fans can expect appearances by favorites Syko the Micro, Pinky Shortcake, Micro Jackson, High Flying Jamaican Joe, Lil’ Chola and many more. Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Nashville show without a bit of live music. America’s Got Talent contestant Little Ozzy will be backed by a full band as he pays tribute to the Prince of Darkness himself, and you can catch a duet from micro-wrestler/shredder Chief Littlefoot and vocalist extraordinaire, Ivar the Micro. DJ Cliffy D and Rubiks Groove round out the party. 4 p.m. at The Fairgrounds Nashville, 625 Smith Ave. JASON VERSTEGEN

MUSIC [LOST HORIZONS] LORI M c KENNA

You could hear Lori McKenna’s new album 1988 as a nod to ’90s country, but the world of 30 years ago might simply provide the setting for McKenna’s songs. I hear hints of The Gin Blossoms, who weren’t exactly a quintessential ’90s band but might serve as a signifier for guitar rock in the decade, in the title track and the brilliant “Killing Me.” McKenna is one of the planet’s best songwriters right now, and Dave Cobb’s production on 1988 adds a sheen of nostalgia to some of McKenna’s most unsentimental — and moving — songs. “1988” is about a marriage and the way some couples end up remaining fans of each other, while “Killing Me” is both high-level pop songwriting and a tune about learning to be happy. McKenna contrasts her present-day status with her state of mind in the ’90s, and every song operates at a level of twisting and turning craft that Elvis Costello might

JOSHUA HEDLEY

n m i s t a k a b l e S o u t h e r n i n f l u e n c e i n h i s m u s i c m a k e s h i m c a p a b l e o f c o n v e y i n g a n e m o t i o n t h a t o n l y a h a n d f u l o f a r t i s t s c a n i n t o d a y ’ s m u s i c a l l a n d s c a p e N o a h ’ s v e r s a t i l i t y a n d d i s t i n c t v o i c e a r e e v i d e n t i n e a c h s o n g , a n d f o r h i m , i t ’ s j u s t a b o u t m a k i n g g o o d , h o n e s t m u s i c – m u s i c t h a t s o u n d s l i k e h i m

envy. McKenna sings in a voice that doesn’t register as country or, for that matter, folk, and she never sounds impressed with herself for coming up with the insights that make 1988 a superb album. When she gets to the chorus of “Letting People Down,” she lets the simplicity of the concept sink in: “I’m sorry / I hate letting people down / And I do it all the time.” McKenna’s songs transcend country while remaining true to the genre’s great themes, which is quite an achievement. 8 p.m. at the CMA Theater, 224 Rep. John Lewis Way S.

EDD HURT

[I’M

GONNA FALL RIGHT OUTTA BED]

SQUEEZE MY LEMON: A BURLESQUE TRIBUTE TO ’70S ROCK ’N’ ROLL

With her House of Lux, the local burlesque maven best known by her handle Lux-O-Matic has long been an organizer and performer in Nashville’s sultryperformance scene. This weekend, Lux and her crew of fellow va-va-voomstresses will celebrate one of the most decadent decades in pop-culture history with a “rock ’n’ roll burlesque tribute to the ’70s.” Even though the event’s title is technically a reference to a song of the ’60s — the lascivious Led Zeppelin tune “The Lemon Song” was released in 1969, and the Howlin’ Wolf number it riffs on/rips off was released in ’64 — Squeeze My Lemon promises to lean into the sounds of the ’70s. In addition to Lux, performers will include Bonnie Valentine, Eden L and Oklahoma’s Cha Cha Nova. The best bit? A portion of the proceeds from your $20 ticket will go to Inclusion Tennessee, a local nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ outreach and support. The shimmyin’ goes down Saturday night at The Eighth Room, formerly the home of singer-songwriter outpost Douglas Corner. 9 p.m. at The Eighth Room, 2106 Eighth Ave. S. D. PATRICK RODGERS

IN BLOOM]

GLOOM GIRL MFG

Up-and-coming four-piece Gloom Girl

MFG has mounted a strong local-rock Rookie of the Year campaign during 2023’s first half, starting with a watershed New Faces Night performance that got Grimey’s honcho and namesake Mike Grimes

declaring charismatic lead singer Paige MacKinnon, guitarist Ethan Waggoner, bassist Stephen Sobolewski and drummer Connor McCourt his favorite new band in town. Gloom Girl has since backed that up with its can-do attitude and confident sound on its triad of digital singles “Litterbug,” “My Brother’s Meds” and “I Hope She Knows,” all equal parts glam-rock swagger and riot grrrl badassery, with a hint of shoegaze sweetness. Hear those tunes and more this weekend at the intimate East Room. Like other midsize college towns with punk scenes, Chattanooga’s scene is forever ebbing and flowing, but it’s been on the upswing lately, and openers Open and Havoc will make the short trip up I-24 on its behalf. Locals Invitation Worldwide fill out the four-band bill. 8 p.m. at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Ave. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[BACK FROM THE GRAVE]

MIDNIGHT MOVIE: THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

When George A. Romero and his Night

of the Living Dead co-writer John A. Russo got into a dispute over the direction of the sequels from that 1968 horror classic, they reached an agreement: Romero would do sequels with just Dead in the title, and Russo would do films with Living Dead in the title. And that’s how the Return of the Living Dead franchise was born. It all started with the hella-meta 1985 reboot, which has veteran character actors Clu Gulager, James Karen and Don Calfa fighting off brain-eating zombies. Dan O’Bannon — who by that time had already been involved with the making of Star Wars, Alien and John Carpenter’s Dark Star — wrote and directed this tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy, which is also surprisingly a commentary on the U.S. military’s overuse of chemical warfare. But this is still one crazy slaughterfest, complete with blood and brain matter all over the gotdamn place, a wild punk soundtrack and scream-queen icon Linnea Quigley spending most of the movie butt-bald-nekkid. Man, I miss the ’80s. This one follows Friday’s Midnight Movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

SUNDAY / 8.6

MUSIC

[STOCK UP ON D BATTERIES]

THE BOOMBOX TOUR FEAT. JYOU AND K.O.N., TIM GENT,

CHUCK INDIGO & JORDAN XX

The network of hip-hop scenes in Music City never stops bubbling. Sunday night, a weekend of release celebrations for rappers Jyou and K.O.N.’s new collaborative record

The Boombox continues at The East Room. Based on the pair’s recent collaborations — including “Brokeboi” from Jyou’s LP Living on the Edge and their collab track “M.I.A.” — they feed off of each other’s energy in a kind of chain reaction that you’ll want to witness for yourself. They’ll have support from a phalanx of fellow stellar local MCs and producers, including Jordan Xx, whose grooving Too Focused… landed in December. Chuck Indigo’s most recent release was 2021’s Shades of Indigo, which he described as consisting of material that didn’t make the cut for the album he’s continued to work on, building the anticipation for the next release even

further. Rounding out the bill is Tim Gent, who has been busy building up an arm’slength list of credits as a composer and lyricist on projects that are getting his name known far beyond Music City, from the soundtracks to Creed III and the Issa Rae-produced Max series Rap Shit, to rising Memphis MC Gloss Up’s Before the Gloss Up and rapper and producer Chiiild’s Better Luck in the Next Life. If Gent’s path represents one piece of the support structure that Nashville rap needs to thrive in the long run, the future’s looking bright indeed. 8 p.m. at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Ave. STEPHEN

TRAGESER

MONDAY / 8.7 FILM [LET’S ROCK, LET’S ROCK, TODAY] SCHOOL OF ROCK

It may be cliché to say an actor was “born to play” a specific role, but seriously: Try to imagine anyone but Jack Black leading the film School of Rock. Yes, there’s a Broadway musical version that’s apparently quite good — it was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2016 but lost to the all-conquering Hamilton — but the film is a nearly perfect comedy movie you can watch with your family, your cool friend in a band or anyone who loves music. As burnout rocker turned substitute teacher Dewey Finn, Black parades up and down the screen and puts his heart and soul into every single line delivery as his character teaches a group of prep-school kids what it means to rock. His young costars bring their A game, too: Scenes like the student band’s first rehearsal or the epic final concert sound corny on paper, but the actors’ performances help you remember just how amazing it is to share music with people you care about. The Franklin Theatre will show the film in celebration of its 20th anniversary, so round up the band, raise your goblet of rock, and catch one of the best music films ever made. 7 p.m. at The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin COLE VILLENA

FILM

[COMIN’ TO YA]

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: THE BLUES BROTHERS

The first instance of Saturday Night Live characters making the leap to the big screen is a tale worthy of a movie itself. Dan Aykroyd famously wrote a 324-page “script” for The Blues Brothers in which orphaned brothers Elwood and “Joliet” Jake Blues, played by Aykroyd and his SNL buddy John Belushi, go on an automobile-and-propertyobliterating “mission from God” that has them getting chased by cops, Nazis and even a heavily armed Carrie Fisher. The 1980 movie, directed by John Landis — who previously directed Belushi in National Lampoon’s Animal House, a film that Full Moon Cineplex is playing on Aug. 11, by the way — is just one of the many ’70s flicks mostly fueled by cocaine. (“We had a budget in the movie for cocaine for night shoots,” Aykroyd told Vanity Fair in 2013.) Although the chaotic musical-comedy, which includes performances from Black-music icons James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, was an over-budgeted

THE BOOMBOX TOUR FEAT. TIM GENT

CRITICS’ PICKS

Live Piano Karaoke

6 NIGHTS A WEEK!

*Closed Tuesdays

EAS T NAS HVI LLE

9-12 w/Benan

WED

Piano

Friday, August 4

CONVERSATION

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin on the Music of Ray Price

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 5

HATCH SHOW PRINT

Block Party

10:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:30 pm

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY

Saturday, August 5

SONGWRITER SESSION

Mark Irwin

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, August 6

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Steve Wariner

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, August 6

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT AND GUIDED TOURS

Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FRIST ART MUSEUM

Saturday, August 12 CONVERSATION

Rhiannon Giddens

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 12 CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE

The Black Country Music Association and the Black Opry

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

pain in the ass for Universal, it eventually became another beloved monster hit starring some original Not Ready for Prime Time Players. 7 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

TUESDAY / 8.8

MUSIC

[FALLING SLOWLY] THE SWELL SEASON

If you love tear-jerking love stories, music or movies, you owe it to yourself to watch Once. The 2007 film is like La La Land produced with 1/200th the budget (seriously) and 10 times the heart, and it tells the story of an Irish busker (onetime actual Dublin busker Glen Hansard) and a Czech flower seller (an extremely young and then-unknown Markéta Irglová) falling in love and making music together. Hansard and Irglová turned their onscreen chemistry into a real-world musical project,

The Swell Season, and released two albums together before pursuing their own separate lives and creative endeavors. Fifteen years after the release of the film that put them on the international stage — and won them a Best Original Song Oscar for the tender “Falling Slowly” — the pair started performing together again, and they’ll swing through the Ryman Tuesday. Irglová and Hansard are each happily married to other people now, but Irglová wrote in a release for their June single “The Answer Is Yes” that the bond viewers saw in Once is still meaningful all these years later: “Glen and I have been friends for a long time, and our friendship is a manifestation of deep love. The kind that does not die and nor does it end, it simply is and always shall be.” 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way

N. COLE VILLENA

WEDNESDAY / 8.9

MUSIC

WITNESS HISTORY

Museum Membership

Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and

JOINT JAM] THE BLACK KEYS

[JUKE

“Tell everybody that we’re back in town / Tell everybody that the party’s starting now.” The Black Keys are headlining an oldfashioned “juke joint jam” at Brooklyn Bowl Wednesday night, and you’re invited. The duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney will celebrate the release of Tell Everybody!

(21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound), a 12-song blues anthology of all-new recordings, which is scheduled for release two days later on Aug. 11. Produced

by Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville, the collection features the band’s new single “No Lovin’” as well as sides by a number of artists who’ve made albums for Easy Eye Sound, including Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Gabe Carter and Robert Finley, who sings the title track. At the Brooklyn Bowl, the band will perform songs from their 2021 Grammy-nominated album Delta Kream with accompaniment from some of the players who backed them on that record, including a pair of Hill Country blues legends — guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton. Finley, Holmes and Carter are also scheduled to perform. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, 925 Third Ave. N. DARYL SANDERS FILM

[ALL-OUT REVOLT]

SCREAMING QUEENS: THE RIOT AT COMPTON’S CAFETERIA

The Belcourt chose a great tagline for this year’s Queer Qlassics series: “THE QUEERS ARE REVOLTING!” In a year

of unprecedented attacks on Tennessee’s LGBTQ community and a federal Supreme Court that is all but threatening to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the lives of queer Tennesseans are on the line. The policies and resulting debate have been disturbingly vitriolic and dangerous when regarding trans people. I am too cynical to believe that art can change conservatives’ hearts and minds, but our queer community needs a whole raft of buoys to endure these attacks on our psyches. The arthouse’s Queer Qlassics series is a salve. Directors Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman’s Emmywinning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria shows what historians consider the first collective act of resistance of queer people against oppression in the United States. The 1966 riot in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district was in response to police harassment and abuse against trans women and drag queens, as well as discrimination at Compton’s Cafeteria. There one trans woman resisted arrest by throwing a cup of coffee in a cop’s face, igniting a riot that spilled out onto the street. The event preceded Stonewall and laid the groundwork for organizing and resistance across the country. With this documentary, Stryker and Silverman bring the heroic queens of the Tenderloin district to life. Dr. Marisa Richmond, retired professor of LGBTQ Studies at MTSU, will introduce the film at the Belcourt, and a post-screening discussion via Zoom with Stryker will follow. 8 p.m.at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. ERICA CICCARONE

8.9 HAGS REEL TO REEL HAPPY HOUR 6-8 BURLESK 8-9 ($7)

karaoke 9-12 w/Paul Loren

THE BLACK KEYS

VILLAGE PEOPLE

Three new restaurants try to protect Riverside Village’s community vibe

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

When it was announced earlier this summer that Ladybird Taco was the first official tenant in a new building at the intersection of Riverside Drive and McGavock Pike, people took notice. It wasn’t just that folks really like Ladybird’s breakfast tacos over in 12South. (They do.) There’s also been a lot of angst in recent years about what might happen in Riverside Village — and to the small collection of businesses there in Inglewood on the East Side — when the longdebated new-construction building opens at that intersection.

Ladybird, which plans to open its doors early 2024, is one of several new restaurants in the area, adding to an already-thriving collection of current spots. While online forums might suggest otherwise, the neighborhood is a collaborative community gathering place.

Ladybird and others hope they’re helping to solidify Riverside Village’s sense of community, with a different energy than culinary hubs in other neighborhoods.

Ladybird was founded by Gabe Scott, a session musician married to a woman from Texas. In 2020 Scott was preparing to open Ladybird in 12South, in part so his wife could find the breakfast tacos she loved and missed from Texas. The pandemic delayed their plans and forced them to open initially as takeout only. Quickly folks gravitated there for the all-day breakfast tacos, salads and coffee from local favorite Crema. The team started looking for a second location and brought in a co-owner and CEO, Brooks Veazey, who joined in June 2021. Together they opened Ladybird in Birmingham, Ala., in February of this year, while still looking for a second Nashville location.

When they started considering the Riverside Village spot, they invited 20 or so East Siders to Scott’s house to ask them what they thought about Ladybird. Many said they liked the idea of the restaurant, which serves bacon and eggs, brisket and chicken and has vegetarian and gluten-free options, but not the idea of crossing the river. But when they signed the lease for the corner spot on Riverside Drive, the team didn’t know that Mommy’s Tacos was about to open right across the street, Veazey says. While, yes, both Ladybird and Mommy’s

sell tacos, neither party is concerned about duplication. In fact, they think they can help each other.

“I hope a lot of people eat Mommy’s Tacos too,” Veazey says in a Zoom interview — during which both he and Scott are eating Ladybird tacos. “I plan to eat a lot of Mommy’s Tacos.”

Ladybird’s focus is on the earlier part of the day, while Mommy’s is a late-afternoon and dinner spot. And their tacos recipes couldn’t be more different. Plus, the owners of Mommy’s have plans for their corner that are bigger than their current lineup of super-cheesy tacos and quesadillas.

Mommy’s Tacos opened earlier this year in the gravel lot that used to be home to a furniture store. The bright-green taco truck features an illustration of three dogs (belonging to co-owner Chris Weber). Weber, who also owns Earnest Bar & Hideaway in Wedgewood-Houston, and Mommy’s co-owner Taylor Zamora serve tacos with cheese fried on the outside of the corn tortilla, filled with braised meats and vegetarian options. The process “really opens up the flavors,” according to Weber.

Zamora and Weber opened Mommy’s in a truck that Weber had intended to use to sell food at festivals before the pandemic hit. But Mommy’s is just one part of what they are calling Food Truck Forest. They’re not ready to go public with all the details, but a

second permanent food truck with salads and healthier eats is in the works. In July they reconfigured the layout to allow for the second truck and more tables. (As well as for more dogs. Mommy’s makes special chips as a treat for dogs who stop by. “When it is busy on the weekends almost every table has a dog,” Zamora says.) There’s now room for a small stage, which will soon be lit by LED trees. Food Truck Forest already hosts trivia nights, poetry readings, comedy and low-key (i.e., not loud) live music. Zamora hopes to bring back some of the spontaneity Fond Object was known for. For several years, Fond Object — a neighborhood record and vintage shop, music venue and community hangout — operated from a now-bulldozed building at the corner of Riverside Drive and McGavock Pike. And local residents were quite … well, fond of it.

In addition to Ladybird and Food Truck Forest, Sabell’s is coming to the brightly painted bungalow at 1301 McGavock Pike. Stephanie Sabelli and her husband Matt Sabelli are opening the spot, which will serve Mediterranean small plates, beer, wine, spirits and a selection of zero-proof cocktails. The space will also have a dog-friendly patio. Stephanie has worked in the neighborhood for years, including at the popular Mitchell Deli and the late Rudie’s Seafood and Sausage. The owners of Mitchell Deli are the landlords at Sabell’s.

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

MOMMY’S TACOS IN RIVERSIDE VILLAGE

The trio joins lou, Bite-a-Bit Thai Sushi, Mitchell Deli (in its second location on the street), Dose Coffee, Castrillo’s Pizza (the OG of the area, opened in 2001) and Village Pub and Beer Garden. In addition to the restaurants, the area is home to an independent pharmacy, an aesthetician, a gas station and other businesses. Thursday through Sunday, one of Amelia’s Flowers’ trucks sits in the parking lot in front of Dose, building bouquets for customers.

Zamora estimates that 80 percent of

Mommy’s Tacos’ business is from the neighborhood, with many customers walking or riding bikes. (The No. 4 WeGo bus serves the intersection too.) And it’s the neighborhood vibe that has him most excited, partly because he lives in the neighborhood himself.

Riverside Village tenants have a history of working collaboratively. When Mitchell first opened (at the time it was in the space where Bite-a-Bit is now), Sip Café was established next door. (Sip has since moved to Gallatin Pike.) In those days, Mitchell didn’t sell cof-

fee, so customers would still buy at Sip, and they were welcome to drink their coffee in the deli. Today, Mitchell sells drip coffee — but if you want an espresso, head down the block to Dose. Village Pub is now helping Mommy’s Tacos by sharing electrical outlets until the Food Truck Forest power pole connection is complete, Zamora says (with Zamora and Weber paying their share, of course). Lou, the most upscale of the Riverside Village restaurants, hosts regular bakesale fundraisers for different causes, pulling in chefs from around the city.

Of course, there have been some disappointing closures in the area too. Yellow & Lavender, the popular queer-owned vegan bakery, shuttered its doors in Riverside Village last month. Lines for its last weekend went around the block. In the past, the area has been home to a bagel shop, a piano store, a used bookstore and a grocery, plus meat-and-three Bailey & Cato, Rudie’s and a former location of Old Made Good (now also on Gallatin Pike).

For Inglewood residents, the intersection has long been a heated topic of discussion. In 2018, efforts to develop the block — and save the house that was the former home of the Bailey & Cato — were introduced. A plan included a new space for Fond Object, plus a vintage motorcycle shop and a wood-fired pizza restaurant, as well as more than 30 apartments. Some neighbors were concerned about the usual — traffic and parking — and after debate, plans were

withdrawn. This was the second such proposal for that site. Current zoning allowed the building to be razed and another to be rebuilt without community input. So that’s what happened, albeit with a few other proposals in there and a pandemic slowing things down.

In the intervening years, some have lamented the opposition to the proposals, arguing that it didn’t stop development — just those particular developments. And as Nashville has continued to grow, some opinions on density are evolving. Other than Ladybird, future tenants in the space at 2300-2310 Riverside Drive are unknown. For those who remain concerned about what else will open in that new development, perhaps the best perspective comes from something Fond Object co-founder Jem Cohen posted on Instagram back in 2019: Development, gentrification, and change is a part of living in a growing city, so everyone needs to accept that and work for positive growth. Don’t just sit at home complaining on Facebook, get up and do something positive and creative for your community and neighborhood. Start a local business, support local businesses, attend community meetings, and get involved with local politics. You can make positive change happen, I’ve seen it first hand, and it’s truly incredible what a community can do when it comes together to effect change.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

EXTERIOR OF LADYBIRD IN RIVERSIDE VILLAGE

BREAKFAST TACOS AT LADYBIRD IN 12SOUTH

TACOS AT MOMMY’S TACOS

FAMILY MATTERS

Actors Bridge closes its season with searing Things I Know to Be True

BY AMY STUMPFL

Families can be complicated, even in the best of times. The petty little differences, the big disappointments.

The perceived slights, the very real sacrifices, and the all-too-fleeting moments of joy. Australian playwright Andrew Bovell digs into all of it with his 2016 drama Things I Know to Be True — onstage at Actors Bridge Ensemble through Aug. 6.

Billed as a “complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family (and a marriage) through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents’ love and expectations,” Things takes on universal themes of love, loss and loyalty. It’s certainly well-worn territory, but Bovell is a strong writer, managing to open the door to a deeper conversation on how our individual

choices impact others, and what — if anything — we owe our families.

It’s interesting to note that Things was originally set in Bovell’s native Australia, incorporating highly theatrical bits of movement to emphasize high-flying emotions and feelings of disconnect. ABE’s production has reset the tale to the American Midwest, and has taken a more realistic approach to the storytelling, although director-designer Paul Gatrell’s sunny, childlike scenery offers a nice contrast to the heavy narrative.

As the play opens, we meet Rosie — the youngest of the Price family, who has been touring around Europe, wondering when her life will really begin. She returns unexpectedly, looking to mend a broken heart and seeking the familiar comforts of home. But comfort doesn’t come easily in this suburban household. And over the course of the next year, the Prices will be forced to face some new crisis or trauma with each passing season.

Such an intense story requires powerful performances, and Gatrell (impressive in his ABE directorial debut) has assembled an excellent cast. ABE favorites Rachel Agee and Clay Steakley are particularly good as parents Fran and Bob, providing the perfect dysfunctional planet for their grown children to orbit.

Agee turns in a positively searing performance as the no-nonsense Fran, delivering her lines with an often cutting

sense of practicality. In the hands of a lesser actor, Fran could easily be played as a Mommie Dearest-style villain. But Agee gives us a far more intriguing blend of worry, frustration and regret.

As Bob, Steakley is the quintessential befuddled dad — whether he’s searching for his garden shears or trying to figure out how to work the fancy new coffeemaker. Steakley is terrific in these bits of levity. But as he confides in Fran about all the hopes and dreams he’d imagined for his kids (“I thought they’d be like us — but better than us.”), you’ll feel it in your gut.

Erin Grace Bailey, Miles Gatrell, Luke Hatmaker and Johnna James are all outstanding as the Price siblings, with each actor finding their moment to shine. James is especially polished as Pip, and together with Agee, shares a potent meditation on mothers, daughters and the impossible, soulcrushing standards they set for one another.

There’s a great deal of truth in such moments. I just wish Bovell could have offered a bit more emotional balance along the way — the small victories, the inside jokes, the ball-busting humor that only families understand. And while Bovell’s script doesn’t exactly break new ground, it may leave you reflecting on a few painful truths of your own. Stark, honest and oh-sohuman, Things I Know to Be True reminds us that it’s often the people and places we try hardest to escape that sustain us the most.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

FROM LEFT: JOHNNA JAMES, RACHEL AGEE, CLAY STEAKLEY, LUKE HATMAKER, ERIN GRACE BAILEY, MILES GATRELL

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE THROUGH AUG. 6 AT ACTORS BRIDGE ENSEMBLE, 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE. ACTORSBRIDGE.ORG

CRAWL SPACE: AUGUST 2023

This month’s Art Crawl highlights include multimedia installations at Electric Shed and Unrequited Leisure, plus an artist’s talk at David Lusk

BY JOE NOLAN

SOUTH NASHVILLE

Morgan Higby-Flowers’ painterly video art is a great example of digital art done right. The glut of blasé design and illustration in the digital art space is numbing, and all the machined surfaces of AI-rendered art seem to be blending into a boring blur. But Higby-Flowers utilizes analog and digital materials, machines and methods to create moving images and stills that speak the language of formalist painting. This strategy places the artist firmly in one of the most vibrant digital art scenes, alongside digital/ video artists like Sarah Zucker and Sara Ludy. Like them, Higby-Flowers makes work that speaks to larger contemporary art and tech conversations way beyond crypto and Twitter/X. He even does video installations in South Nashville backyard utility buildings. Timestamp(s) opened at artist-curator David Onri Anderson’s Electric Shed space on July 29, but First Saturday art crawlers can see it Saturday night.

➡ DETAILS: Reception 6-9 p.m. Saturday at Electric Shed, 254 Morton Ave.

WEDGEWOOD-HOUSTON

Painter John Roberts’ The Long Passover opened last month at David Lusk Gallery and offers offbeat narratives about families and their evolving histories. Roberts is a

talented technical painter, but he brings imagination and style to his scenes of people, animals, cars and farm fields. The artist paints traditional subjects through creative, contemporary eyes, transcending Southern art clichés and treating viewers to rare combinations of the unique and the familiar. Roberts will give a gallery talk at David Lusk this Saturday at 1 p.m.

➡ DETAILS: Artist’s talk 1 p.m. Saturday at David Lusk Gallery, 516 Hagan St.

Believe it or not, the Scene is already gearing up for this year’s Best of Nashville issue. And Unrequited Leisure’s August program finds 2022’s Best New Media Gallery winner continuing to spotlight the evolving intersections of tech and aesthetics. (Aestech-ics?) Artist Maya Man’s love for the high stakes of live performance is rooted in her experiences as a young dance student who had nightmares about forgetting her choreography on the nights before recitals. Her latest browser-and-code-based work, Recital, features random loops of text — diary entries, essay excerpts, random thoughts, hearts, sparkles and stars. Each loop of her program — running 24/7 — brings new words and phrases in unique expressions, punctuated by random choices, just like in a live dance performance. Man creates conceptual connections between natural bodies and digital minds, and her deployment of language as choreography calls to mind instances of choreography as language: semaphore, Masonic hand gestures and ASL.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Saturday at Unrequited Leisure, 507 Hagan St.

Meticulous illustrations and found materials are combined in slice-of-live vignettes in HOME: Paula Rivera Calderón at Coop this month. Calderón’s painted scenes combine the imaginary with the mundane to picture a portrait of her life in Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community. Calderón’s painterly world is populated by dogs and butterflies, suns, moons, plants and rivers. She outlines

her figures and forms in black, bringing a graphic look to her bold marks and bright colors. The scenes depicted in the exhibition don’t combine into a cohesive narrative. Instead, they linger alongside one another in a poetic display of everyday moments and observations: a child’s hand, lazy Caribbean waves, dense urban architecture, colorful schools of fish. Calderón’s exhibition is equally ambitious and naive. And the process-based production of the works only adds to the authentic feel of her experiential transmissions.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 1-9 p.m. Saturday at Coop, 507 Hagan St.

Chris Cheney and Nieves Uhl’s Sawtooth Printshop was once a staple of East Nashville’s visual art scene, and a don’t-miss stop during the long-gone Second Saturday East Side Art Stumble. After Sawtooth closed its doors in 2018, Cheney’s designs have become synonymous with Jackalope Brewing Company, and his nostalgic enamel pin designs have celebrated everything from Davy Crockett and Universal monsters to mustachioed mandolinist Ricky Skaggs.

Chris Cheney’s work makes a long-awaited return to gallery walls this month at Red 225.

1995: Dirt Roads Were Everything is a nostalgic look at the artist’s life through the lens of his experiences as a 16-year-old growing up in rural Minnesota. The exhibition offers a unique take on the familiar Nashvilletransplant story illuminated by Cheney’s personal insights about childhood as well as fatherhood. Cheney uses letterpress, silkscreen and laser-cutting to illustrate his various scenes, which are informed by the erotic and violent woodblock designs of the

19th-century Japanese master printmaker and painter Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Saturday at Red 225, 507 Hagan St.

DOWNTOWN

Joel Daniel Phillips and Shane Darwent’s Plastic Sunrise is a multimedia tag-team interrogation of the ideas of truth in artistic representation, and progress as viewed through the lens of the built environment. The show, on view through Sept. 2 at Tinney Contemporary, pits Romantic ideals against concrete realities to ask questions about our aspirations as artists, citizens, communities and nations, and how they don’t always match our outcomes. Darwent’s large-scale minimalist sculptures look like mutated storefront awnings. The intensely lit structures are made from vinyl stretched over steel ribs, and the results recall both prehistoric dinosaur wings and the wreckage from some top-secret aircraft. The works are ominous and alien but also familiar enough to draw viewers in, and they put me in mind of all the small businesses wrecked by years of hapless government responses to the pandemic. Phillips’ oil paintings on transparent acrylic sheets depict images from the “killed negatives” of the Depression-era Farm Security Administration archive. The administration punched holes in the negatives to prevent their reproduction, and those dark circles become abstract elements in Phillips’ works, speaking to both the images’ materials and history.

➡ DETAILS: Opening reception 2-8 p.m. Saturday at Tinney Contemporary, 237 Rep. John Lewis Way

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

“10.19.2022-•-2.09.08PM,” MORGAN HIGBY-FLOWERS

“ELMER,” CHRIS CHENEY

TIMESTAMP(S) AT ELECTRIC SHED

1995: DIRT ROADS WERE EVERYTHING AT RED 225

ART AND INTIMACY

Tom Lake is Ann Patchett at her best

BY HAMILTON CAIN

Published four years ago, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House was that rara avis: a deftly crafted Pulitzer Prize finalist that graced the New York Times bestseller list for weeks. (In 2021 she followed up with a superb collection of essays, These Precious Days.) Patchett’s books move with a gentle, assured rhythm, evoking authentic nostalgia that veers clear of sentimentality while conducting little experiments of narrative subversion beneath placid surfaces. Amid seismic tensions she layers beautiful chapter on beautiful chapter; no other American writer pulls this off with such finesse. Quotidian lives, she suggests, are often the most radical.

diminished with every effort, so that the eldest daughter is strapping and the middle is middling and the youngest is a wisp. They might as well have been three birds.

I flick away a tiny green inchworm.

Note that subtle flick, how the gesture grounds Lara’s insights amid the cherry trees. Bit by bit Lara relates her long-ago romance at Tom Lake when, as a 24-year-old, she shared the spotlight and a bed with Peter Duke, a handsome, now-famous movie star. Her daughters want to know everything.

With over two decades experience working in Nashville we’d love to be part of your next addition, renovation, or custom build!

BY

Her new novel, Tom Lake, is Patchett at her best. In the early months of the COVID pandemic, her protagonist and narrator — Lara Kenison, 57 — hunkers down with her husband Joe on their fruit farm in Northern Michigan. Their three grown daughters — Emily, an agriculturalist who works the property with her fiancé; Maisie, a veterinarian-in-training; and Nell, an artsy undergraduate — have gathered to wait out the plague and help with the cherry harvest in the meantime.

In her youth Lara pursued a career as an actress, reprising the role of Emily in Our Town, from a walk-on performance in her native New Hampshire to summer stock in the bucolic enclave of Tom Lake, which brought her to Michigan. (Along the way she did stints in Los Angeles and New York, auditioning for an off-Broadway production starring the late Spalding Gray, but those venues were more stations of the cross than artistic affirmations.) Her daughters are enthralled by their mother’s thespian past, and as they roam the groves, picking “sweets” and “tarts,” she tells the tale in full. Or does she? Lara gets caught up in her memories and her daughters’ enthusiasm, but she’s careful to withhold crucial information. Although he’s largely offstage, tending to the farm, Joe’s more complicit than he lets on. Patchett painstakingly embroiders her characters:

Emily is tall like her father, strong enough to hoist full lugs all day long.

Maisie is smaller than her older sister, though by no means small, and her curls gave her extra stature. Nell is like me, or Nell is like I was. It’s as if the genetic material from which these girls were made

The tropes of plays and musicals are fashionable in our contemporary literature, as leading authors — Rebecca Makkai, Mona Awad and Susan Choi among them — tap our fascination with theater. Patchett captures the magic as well. Lara and Peter are cast in both Our Town and Fool for Love, and the plots thicken as the actors circle around each other, sparks flying in and out of rehearsals. Patchett’s wordplay delights: “The actual stage manager, as opposed to the actor playing the Stage Manager, sat with the assistant stage manager,” Lara observes. “I waved to them collectively and they waved back.”

Many (most?) novelists delve into familial frictions and twisted roads to maturity, but Patchett’s depictions of close relationships open up into sprawling murals, posing questions about the salience of art and intimacy in our troubled age. She counterposes Lara’s secret history with the stresses of quarantine. Lara recognizes her younger, more vulnerable self in her tenderhearted daughter:

Just like that Nell is crying and sobbing, a fierce storm blown up out of nowhere. She turns her back on Maisie and Emily in shame and presses her face against my breastbone. … She has lost these months to the pandemic, being stuck on the farm with no idea how much longer she will have to stay. … But really, she is crying for me. While her sisters stand and stare in utter bafflement, Nell the Mentalist has snapped all the pieces together.

Pain, Patchett implies, is the gateway to enlightenment, but Tom Lake teems with various and sundry charms and her bonedeep optimism. Another selling point: She nails the details, from the business of stone fruits in this book to Philadelphia’s architectural marvels in The Dutch House, and so on. She’s not content with a fresh slant on parent-child relationships; she offers up tutorials on topics we didn’t know we needed. Across her oeuvre Patchett has proven herself a generous, meticulous mentor, and Tom Lake is one of this year’s triumphs. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NEAL JOHNSTON STEVE AUSTIN

TOM LAKE: A NOVEL

ANN PATCHETT HARPER 320 PAGES, $30

MUSIC ANOTHER LOOK

The

BY

Musicians across Music City continue the proliferation of excellent records, and the Scene’s music writers have eight new recommendations for you. Add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite record store. Many of our picks are also available to buy directly from artists on Bandcamp, and Bandcamp Friday — the recurring promotion in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — is back Aug. 4.

THE BLACKSON, “FREE LUNCH THEORY,” “RUSH,” “BAGGIES,” “FLY,” “CRY” (BLACK CITY)

These five singles could be their own great record, starting with the slinky-grooved “Free Lunch Theory” and wrapping with the introspective “Cry.” Together they highlight formative moments in longtime outstanding Nashville MC The BlackSon’s life, and they serve as a prologue to his Juneteenth multimedia art installation “Do Something Important” and a forthcoming mixtape of the same name. He’s always had bars for days, but here’s a reminder that his vision is even bigger. Check out his YouTube channel to see the visuals accompanying the tracks and watch for a recap video from the installation.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

DRU THE DRIFTER, THE SNEAKER (SELF-

RELEASED)

The Sneaker keeps prolific punker Dru the Drifter (she/they/them/he) on pace to release an album per month in 2023. Impressively, quantity doesn’t outstrip quality across 14 brand-new tracks, spanning a compact 23 minutes. Standouts “Karma (Is So Funny)” and “What the Fuck

Are You on About” meet the moment by being as kooky as egg punk and as abrasive as chain punk. There are also ties to the nottoo-distant past, with the album’s grimiest moments evoking the garage-punk machinations of Jay Reatard, Mac Blackout and GG King. Stick around until the end for “Echo” and “Miami Airport,” which follow much different home-recording project leads than the previous tracks.

turn, which he’s now delivered. The far-out work on late-’70s and early-’80s records by classic-rock luminaries — Neil Young, Steve Miller, Van Morrison — looms large over Threshold’s half-dozen hypnotic, synth-driven movements. Peaking with the long-form highlight “Inner Everything,” it’s a blissful listen throughout, and resounding proof of life after buzz-band status.

CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

that soulless corporate bean counters have on urban contemporary radio, a whole lot of folks who love heartfelt, urgent artistic performance may miss this. But any fan anxious to know great, real soul singing still exists should be thrilled to hear Let’s Groove RON WYNN

ADDIE MOORE

OLIVIA JEAN, RAVING GHOST (THIRD MAN)

On Raving Ghost, singer, songwriter and guitarist Olivia Jean delivers her most focused and mature album yet. With able backing from keyboardists Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish) and Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), drummers Patrick Keeler (The Raconteurs) and Carla Azar (Autolux, Jack White, T Bone Burnett), bassist Erica Salazar and rhythm guitarist Alex Windsor, the Detroit native hits a sweet spot with an updated garage-rock vision informed by classic hard rock, surf rock, goth and punk. Like Olivia Jean’s previous solo albums, Raving Ghost is full of memorable hooks, both lyrical and musical. But on this, her third full-length recording for co-producer and husband Jack White’s Third Man label, the onetime frontwoman of The Black Belles has forged a sound that is more clearly her own — and highly addictive.

DARYL SANDERS

LORD GOLDIE, TRAP CONSCIOUS 2 (LIVE) (RARE BREED)

Following strong singles in 2022, Music City rap ace Lord Goldie has been clearing out her archives this year. She’s brought two older projects — Built 2 Last and her DJ Money Green collab ADHD (Another Dollar Hustlin’ Daily), both released under her earlier moniker Karizma — to streaming services. Also seeing the light of day is Trap Conscious 2 (Live), a fantastically rich and funky reimagining of cuts from 2018’s Trap Conscious EP and other singles released prior to tracking this record live in the studio in 2019. It’s highlight after highlight, but a piano-driven take on the heartbreaking “Kathleen” and a heavy-metal spin on “Flipmode” stand especially tall.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

WILLIE JONES & THE ROYAL JOKERS, LET’S GROOVE (PRAVDA)

MATTHEW KILLOUGH, OH, SILOAM (PRODUTRON REX)

Guitarist and singer Matthew Killough has a deft way with the advanced harmonies of post-Bert Jansch music, and he sings in a voice that’s stone country. Killough grew up in Georgia and lived in Colorado before he moved to Nashville in 2018. He bears down on the modal melodies he favors throughout Oh, Siloam, which registers as post-country by virtue of Killough’s gift for narrative on tunes like “Jimmy Holden’s Wife.” He controls the tone of his guitar playing perfectly on “Calcimine Blue” and the instrumental “Song for Meg.” Oh, Siloam peaks with the title track, which includes this couplet: “If you’re reading this I’m gone / No need to wail and cry.” File Oh, Siloam with recent work by fellow Tennessee guitarist Joseph Allred and Richard Thompson’s first solo album, 1972’s doom-laden Henry the Human Fly EDD HURT

J.

CHILDERS, THRESHHOLD (LITE BEING)

When I came to Nashville in 2018, Jonathon Childers and his three Blank Range cohorts were among the most talked-about bands in town — and for good reason, delivering down-home American rock ’n’ roll originals with big hooks and huge heart. The band dissolved — amicably, if far too soon for fans — before the pandemic. Since shows started back up after lockdown, the rural Illinois native has hinted at an ambient solo

Willie Jones, a masterful Detroit R&B singer, should have been a star decades ago. But it wasn’t until the intercession of a friend, fellow great vocalist Bettye LaVette, who got him on Dedicated — Steve Cropper’s 2011 tribute to The “5” Royales — that things began turning around for Jones. The session hooked him up with Music City production maestro Jon Tiven, and at 86, Jones has cut the definitive recorded statement he always wanted to make. Tiven not only helmed the session, but plays guitar, sax and organ on it, adding the tremendous guitar licks underneath Jones’ dynamic lead on “The Road From Rags to Riches.” LaVette comes onboard for a wonderful duet with Jones on “Without Redemption,” while Frank Black and Chuck Mead also take turns working with Jones on “Janie, Turn It Over” and “What Took Ya.” Given the stranglehold

G.U.N., G.U.N. (SORRY STATE)

The elusive G.U.N. recorded their newly released self-titled 12-inch for North Carolina’s Sorry State Records almost four years ago. Boasting ex-members of bygone rapid-fire destruction units like Chainshot, Life Trap and Neon Deaths — as well as current members of Snooper — G.U.N. keeps the gas pedal on the floor. Their LP is like a pan-American map of first-wave U.S. hardcore, evoking the reckless noise of early D.C. and Boston rippers, the poolskating guitar twang of Adolescents and the nihilistic vocal detonation of Poison Idea’s Jerry A. Not only is every song a stunner, the superb audio quality and toplevel packaging make the physical copy worth shelling out the bucks.

P.J. KINZER EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Scene ’s music writers recommend recent releases from The BlackSon, Dru the Drifter, Olivia Jean and more

EDD HURT, P.J. KINZER, ADDIE MOORE, DARYL SANDERS, STEPHEN TRAGESER, RON WYNN AND CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

FIND LINKS TO STREAM AND BUY THESE RECORDS AT NASHVILLESCENE.COM/MUSIC

THE

Tessa Violet w/ Frances Forever Leanna Firestone W/ Abby Cates

tribute to david bowie

meloy W/ TRENTON FLETCHER QUEERFEST orthodox & friends tribute to led zeppelin treaty oak revival W/ PARKER RYAN

emo night tour ziggy alberts w/ kim churchill Grunge Night 9 Hinder w/ Goodbye June & LOST HEARTS

97's w/ angel white

TRASH PANDA & HOTEL FICTION w/ Angel Saint Queen MY SO-CALLED BAND

SEAN MCCONNELL W/ Bowen*Young DARLINGSIDE w/ Jaimee Harris

THE TESKEY BROTHERS WYATT FLORES

KENDALL STREET COMPANY w/ DIZGO & Connor Kelly and The Time Warp

PROJECT PAT

YOKE LORE W/ GIRLHOUSE

thee sinseers AND the altons w/ Mount Worcester

phony ppl w/ Bryant Taylorr and AG Sully of montreal w/ locate s,1 and ritzy

evan honer w/ sierra carson [7pm]

tommy newport w/ OTNES [9pm]

william matheny w/ Dylan McDonald & The Avians

Sara Beck, Lauren Lucas and Kimberly Quinn [7pm]

Trashville Feat. DTL Jams, Lilla Sky & Social Animals [9pm]

Zip-Zapp w/ Afrokokoroot and John Condit

darren kiely [7pm]

Daikaju, Harriers of Discord, Bad Bad Cats [9pm]

Kiely Connell w/ Sophie Gault [7pm]

Leah Blevins, Kimberly Kelly & Jess Nolan [9pm]

Abby Johnson, Brennan Wedl, Lily Ophelia, DD Island

Will Hoge

OTTTO & BASTARDANE [7PM]

THE BRIDGES W/ CLAIRE ERNST [9PM]

CHARLES WALKER & LONEHOLLOW [7PM]

THE PSYCODELICS [9PM]

LOVETTA AND KEELY [7PM]

Kristina Murray, The Howdies, Domestic Bliss [9PM]

MOLLY PARDEN W/ DENI

JOSH HALPER & THOMAS DOLLBAUM

BAG MEN featuring Steve Gorman, Luther Dickinson and Nick Govrik

GEARING UP: TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Catching up with rocker and K. Butler Guitars

luthier Kelly Butler

BY DARYL SANDERS

In our occasional series we call Gearing Up, we profile some of the people around town who make, repair or sell the instruments and other equipment that musicians use.

Kelly Butler, the visionary luthier behind K. Butler Guitars, does not necessarily consider his precisioncrafted electric guitars works of art.

“I’ve seen a lot of guitars that were really done up in a way to be artistic,” Butler says. “For me, though, I want my guitars to be looked at as tools. I want them to be the tool through which a musician expresses himself. I want my guitars to be played. I want them to be beat to death and sweated on every night. I want them to be dirty. I want them to stink when you pull them out of the case [the next day].”

Spoken like a true working musician, which Butler was in a former life. From the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s, Butler was on the cutting edge of the fusion of hard rock and rap as a founding member of three Nashville bands who were pioneers in that hybrid genre: Mr. Zero, The Hard Corps and Stone Deep. But by the summer of 1994, he realized he no longer wanted to be a bass player in a band, and departed Stone Deep in July of that year. He admits he floundered for a while before answering an ad for an entrylevel position in the Gibson Custom Shop.

“I interviewed and got the job, surprisingly,” he says. “And within a week or so of being there, I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is it. This is where I fit in.’”

Not long after he joined Gibson in December 1995, he realized a smaller division within the Custom Shop called the Pro Shop was where the real action was.

“I’d see these four or five guys kind of doing all this cool stuff — all the prototyping and working on artists’ guitars and stuff like that,” Butler says. “And I’m like, ‘How can I be down with those guys?’ So I started talking to them, and it turns out they had all gone to school to learn the craft.”

So approximately a year into working at the Gibson Custom Shop, Butler requested a leave of absence to attend the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, with the understanding that he would join the Pro Shop upon his return.

“It’s a six-month intensive course,” he explains. “You learn electric building, and you learn acoustic building. It’s an intense eight hours a day, five days a week.”

After he returned to Nashville, Butler spent around six years working in the Gibson Pro Shop. Then in 2002, First Act, a Boston-based company that made beginner

electric guitars, hired Butler to launch a pro division.

“The owners of that company wanted to attempt to lend some credibility to the brand name by bringing someone on board who could make pro-level instruments in house,” he recalls. “First day on the job, they handed me a key to the building and a company credit card, and they said, ‘Go make guitars.’”

Butler hired a couple of his former colleagues from the Gibson Custom Shop to staff his shop at First Act. Within a few years, more than 100 touring guitarists were playing First Act guitars from their division.

“For several years there, almost every band on Warped Tour had at least one First Act guitar in their collection,” he says.

Although he describes his time in Boston with First Act as “a great opportunity and a great experience,” Butler and his wife were feeling the pull of Tennessee.

“We had started our family, and we really just wanted to get back to Middle Tennessee so that our kids could grow up around their aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents,” he explains.

So in 2008, he and his family returned to the Nashville area. He pursued other lines of work until 2017, at which time he took two giant steps back into the world of guitar making. He joined the faculty at Musicians Institute Guitar Craft Academy in Nashville, where he teaches electric guitar building, and he launched K. Butler Guitars.

Six years later, K. Butler Guitars has two

fabrication shops in the Nashville area and offers three different models of electric guitars and an electric bass that range from $1,800 to $3,500 in price, depending on the model and trim. The round-edged ’64 is typically outfitted with a single pickup, though Butler has made “V2” two-pickup versions. Meanwhile, The Shark’s more angular body style comes with a pair of single-coil pickups, a pair of humbuckers or a mixed set of the two. There’s also a bass version of The Shark, which Butler describes as a true rock bass. The MSPP-5 is the signature guitar of Nashville metal legend Mike Simmons and has a full-size humbucker in the bridge position and a bladed, single-coil-sized humbucker at the neck.

“Kelly’s body designs are totally original,” says Simmons, who is best known as the leader of the band Simmonz. “Which is pretty amazing, because you would think that every fucking guitar shape that you could imagine has been made.”

Simmons likes the way the MSPP-5 feels in his hands — importantly, it’s not too heavy. Producer, arranger and multiinstrumentalist John Mark Painter likes the same thing about The Shark models he plays.

“When I first played his guitars, I was like, ‘Oh, man, this is it,’” says Painter, who also owns a Shark Bass.

Butler Guitars are sold locally at Caldwell Guitars in East Nashville, but a lot of the company’s business comes via word of mouth. More than one player has purchased guitars from K. Butler after recording with Painter.

“They were like, ‘What is that? I need one of those,’” Painter recalls. “You just can tell it wasn’t made in a factory.”

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@K.BUTLERGUITARS ON INSTAGRAM FOR UPDATES

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

LEAVING THEIR MARK

Dyed-in-the-wool Nashville rockers Soot embrace the long game

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

Back in pre-pandemic halcyon days, smallscale fests like Spewfest gave East Nashville music appreciators semi-regular crash courses on rising regional artists. But only the hardest partiers ever stuck around for the late-night acts — bands like Soot. Since 2015, the foursome has gleefully unleashed multi-guitar cacophony on the after-hours crowd.

However, performances filmed as part of The 5 Spot’s run of streaming shows gave other folks a glimpse into what Soot — still known at the time by their previous name, Lacquer — and other pavement-pounding smallvenue regulars were up to. Of the dozens of gigs the club’s head honcho Todd Sherwood and his audiovisual crew captured, few hit harder than the one the quartet delivered in January 2021. Their set included a ferocious cover of Drive-By Truckers’ “Lookout Mountain” and an even more intense original called “The Family Gun,” a studio recording of which appears on Soot’s 2022 full-length Talons of Empathy Saturday, Soot co-headlines The Blue Room with local hardcore-and-metal agitators Waxed, commemorating Idlewild, the two groups’ new split 10-inch recorded by Israeli American guitar guru and All Them Witches consiglieri Elad Shapiro. Rapper Brian Brown and punks Circle K support. Ahead of the gig, Soot frontman-guitarist Micah Mathewson, his cousin and fellow six-stringer Cole Cosby, bassist Zane Lake and drummer Dan Hinkle caught up with the Scene over post-practice beers at Mickey’s in East Nashville.

WHAT’S BEHIND YOUR NAME CHANGE FROM LACQUER TO SOOT?

Micah Mathewson: We got a cease-and-desist from an electronic artist from France who’d been inactive since 2001, but was about to do a split with Fischerspooner. He was like, “Could you just change it, because you’re small?” To be fair, we were. Are. [Laughs]

HOW FAR BACK DO Y’ALL GO?

MM: I moved here from Knoxville 10 years ago. Zane moved shortly thereafter from Birmingham. Cole and I are cousins; he’s from near Chattanooga, and started playing in Lacquer at the tail end of 2015. Dan I met when I was in high school in Florida. He’s from Sarasota; we met in ’13, been music friends since then, but it’s been pretty effortless since we started.

Cole Cosby: My dad Craig taught Micah and I our first few chords, then set us loose. He’s a hobbyist, but taught us everything. We’d bring guitars to Thanksgiving starting at age 10, 11, and play.

Dan Hinkle: I’ve been in Nashville four years. I used to identify as a guitar player, but when I moved here, I realized the skill set of playing drums is a lot more in demand. Since starting playing in Soot, I’ve just tried to put my own spin on how [former drummer Luke Fedorko’s] parts were … hit the drums as hard as I can.

MM: There’s been a definite shift in the sound since Dan joined, in an organic way … leaning into things he loves. Momentum, drones … grooves.

Zane Lake: I love all kinds of metal, and try to utilize that with the bass. Lots of fuzz.

Was the material on Idlewild the first you’ve written together?

THE SPIN

ABSOLUTELY FREE

BY P.J. KINZER

To those visitors with more sensitivity to light, the walk from the entrance of Third Man Records around back to the event space in The Blue Room can play tricks on your eyes, and I don’t just mean Chris Clawson’s forced-perspective mural. Out on the street, the sweltering sun of the last Friday in July — reported that week ad nauseam as the hottest month on record — was finally low enough in the sky to call it dusk. The blue haze contrasted with the long brightly lit corridor into the complex, which opened up into TMR’s courtyard patio, again awash in dim twilight. Just when the ol’ pupils seemed to settle into their new surroundings, I opened up the door to the ticket counter in its radiant golden atrium, another stark shift. When the next door opened up into The Blue Room, it took a second for my eyes to dilate enough to evaluate just what I was seeing.

MM: Yeah, in this configuration. These songs feel like the best representation of where we’re at, right now.

DH: Not to get too sentimental, but I feel privileged. … These guys are my best friends. I got to see them at shows, now I get to play with them, and that feels pretty special.

ARE THE WAXED GUYS PART OF YOUR EXTENDED LOCAL-MUSIC FAMILY?

MM: They’re newer friends, but while we’re drastically different in our approach to heavy music, it complements each other. They’re good boys. Real sweeties.

CC: Only intimidating from the outside.

ZL: Ultimate sentimental meatheads.

IS ALL THEM WITCHES A MAJOR BAND FOR Y’ALL?

MM: I worked at Eastside Music Supply for five, six years. We all have, at some point. [ATW guitarist] Ben [McLeod] recorded some of the early Lacquer stuff. [Drummer] Robby [Staebler] is Elad’s best friend; they have a band called UVWAYS. It’s incestuous.

I’D IMAGINE BEING AROUND ALL THOSE PEDALS AND GUITARS ALL DAY WOULD MAKE YOU CONTEMPLATE YOUR SOUND, MAKE YOU WANT TO TRY NEW THINGS.

MM: Yeah, it helps a lot. [Laughs] Maybe too much.

TALONS OF EMPATHY IS PRETTY INTENSE — UNHINGED, SOMETIMES.

CC: A COVID baby, for sure. A remote album.

ZL: Take a month, make it weirder. Do whatever we want.

MM: That’s an important aspect of Soot. Nothing’s off limits. Genuinely.

YOU’D DO REMIXES? AN ACOUSTIC SONG?

MM: Yeah, anything’s fair game. We just got off a Midwest tour that went well. The 10-inch is coming

soon. That’s exciting. We’re doing the Northeast circuit in October, and the hope is that funds Talons of Empathy vinyl.

CC: The pandemic was actually a beautiful time for me. Since 2015 I’d been driving up from Chattanooga for rehearsals. Then when it all shut down, I finally got those dang ol’ Donnie dollars, saved up and moved [to Nashville].

MM: Serendipitous noise excursions are some of our favorite sounds. On the song “Monksdream,” Luke was recording a drum solo and there was echo delay on the microphone hitting his snare. … He picked up a trumpet, played some noise, and we kept it.

ZL: Then, on “Angels,” radio frequencies were bleeding into my fuzz. This cool old country song. That house had terrible electricity.

MM: But it was the fabric that held that album together.

CC: The sound of people going insane in a small COVID house.

A SONG THAT STUCK OUT FROM YOUR 5 SPOT LIVESTREAM WAS “THE FAMILY GUN.” WHAT’S THAT ONE ALL ABOUT?

MM: Southern mania. Characters we’ve all met, coming into a room, occupying a story. Leonard Cohen, Gillian Welch, Tom Waits … influences I can’t help but incorporate.

WHOSE IDEA WAS THE DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS COVER?

ZL: They’re secretly a heavy band.

CC: That song got me through high school. Like, “Throw myself off Lookout Mountain.” “Oh shit, that’s 30 minutes from me. I’m thinking about it.” [Laughs]

ZL: On tour, I had the visceral realization that we’re so much more Southern than anyone else playing up here. We’ve embraced that ever since.

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Friday’s Peering From Blue Shadows pop-up was the latest installment in a series of seasonal art-and-music events curated by artist Olivia Blanchard. For this one-night-only summertime happening, Blanchard featured the artwork of fellow locals Bunny Ames and Jameson Gerdon Ames, whose projects include psychedelic celebration Far Out Fest, makes video installations that create weirdly disjointed sensations by making the viewer into a participant. Producer and songwriter Gerdon is also a multimedia visual artist. With help from a stellar crew of Nashville musicians, recent New York transplant Curtis Godino provided the soundtrack for the evening; the conceit was that he was presenting the score he’d written to a legendary Italian art film short called “Discorporation,” whose only remaining print was destroyed in a fire. Without a film to show, there’d instead be an array of projected and manipulated visuals.

As I strolled in, the low-watt glow of coiled filaments struck me from across the matte cobalt concrete chamber. Observers were surrounding a display of whitish lamps of various heights. Much closer to me was a pair of antiquated TVs mounted back to back, each screen facing a seat; the two setups mirrored each other. This was Ames’ installation, and she was showing users how to interact with her work. Cameras facing each seat transmitted a low-fidelity image of the sitters onto the screens, blended with other imagery that Ames curated and manipulated. Though I didn’t get to participate, it was amusing watching people react to being a part of the installation.

Getting a closer look at Gerdon’s lamps, I noticed that each of them was coated in thick globs of a papier-mâchélike substance. While some of the structures had comparatively smooth

PLAYING SATURDAY, AUG. 5, AT THE BLUE ROOM

textures, others were rough, like tree bark or an old popcorn ceiling. Though the lamps were uniform in color, they were different sizes and shapes; some were like candelabras, others like limbs arranged to support a bulb dangling beneath. They seemed to form their own social circle, as if interacting with one another and mimicking the conversations of the people around them.

At the back of the stage was a white fabric sheet that spanned the full width and height of the wall behind it, and various

instruments were awaiting their players. Beyond visual art projects like the Droopy Eye Liquid Lightshow, Godino has been the ringleader of or co-conspirator on several musical projects, like NYC acid-pop vocal outfit The Midnight Wishers and one of my favorite rising stars of the Nashville underground, purveyors of warped, bleak grooving post-psychedelia Crystal Egg.

Before long, Godino sauntered over to his setup of synthesizers, joined by the rest of the ensemble assembled for the “Discor-

poration” adventure. Sans his Crystal Egg bandmates Jessica McFarland and Ryan Donoho, Godino played on Friday with flutist Caroline Cronin, Parker James on the vibraphone, guitar wizard Dillon Watson, drummer Walker Mimms and bassist Jack Lawrence. The projector fired up, and the light-andsound experience was underway. The fabric spanning the stage was just a little loose, an undulating movie screen that unpredictably manipulated the images of the black-andwhite film in tune with the air currents in the room. The music recalled the early U.K. art-school music of Soft Machine or Van der Graaf Generator — bending rock ’n’ roll into something simultaneously more orchestrated and less formulaic.

The hour I spent watching the haunting images was truly captivating. Though I occasionally looked down to check in on what the band was doing, they more or less dissolved into the total experience. Often what moves the audience at a show is making some kind of personal connection with the musicians through the performance; this presentation turned that traditional idea on its head, but it was still intriguing and affecting.

The end of the set marked the end of the event. As the crowd left the subdued glow of the filament bulbs, the TVs’ cathode-ray tubes and the projections, it was finally fully dark outside.

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SHORTING OUT

Randall Park’s directorial debut Shortcomings connects with humor and exploration of Asian American identity

BY DANA KOPP FRANKLIN

Shortcomings opens with a direct slap at the hugely popular Crazy Rich Asians. In a film within the film, we see a haughty white hotel clerk deny a chic Asian woman the right to book the hotel’s penthouse suite. The woman consults with her suave, tuxedoed companion, who makes a call, and she soon informs the clerk that the hotel has been bought, and he basically works for her now. The clerk grovels, chastened.

Next, we see the audience at the screening — attendees at an Asian American film festival — erupting into raucous cheers. But our hero, Ben (Justin H. Min), stays in his seat and grumbles.

The scene in the fictional movie (which alludes to a twist in Crazy Rich Asians) clearly grates upon Ben’s sensibilities Driving home with his girlfriend Miko, he derides the movie’s “capitalistic fantasy of vindication through wealth.” His negativity

irritates Miko.

That gives you a sense of what Shortcomings is all about. The directorial debut of actor and comedian Randall Park (Fresh off the Boat), it’s the pretty winning story of three young people in Berkeley who navigate the waters of life, and who like to talk — a lot — about Asian American identity.

Shortcomings is based on a much-loved graphic novel by Adrian Tomine, who also wrote the screenplay. Tomine is known for using autobiographical elements in his work.

Ben, like Tomine, is Japanese American. So is Mika. Ben manages an arthouse theater, spending time holed up in his office — leaving the popcorn and the serving of the public to his movie-nerd co-workers. Things are rocky with Mika, but he has a somewhat sympathetic ear in his friend Alice (the excellent Sherry Cola, who also co-starred in this summer’s Joy Ride). Alice is a lesbian and embraces life much more than Ben, though she hasn’t managed to tell her parents she’s gay.

When Alice recruits Ben to pose as her boyfriend for her parents, she has one other demand: He must pretend to be Korean. Alice’s Korean American family members despise Japanese people; this issue leads to a memorable exchange where Ben and Alice argue about who suffered the most in World War II: Koreans brutalized by Japan or Japanese Americans interned by the U.S. government. It’s not a conversation you’ll hear in any other movie.

When Mika leaves for New York, ostensibly for a short break, it affords Ben the

chance to explore his feelings. It turns out, as stereotypical as it might be, he’s really attracted to blond white ladies. (There’s discussion about whether this reflects selfloathing or cultural programming.) He tries his luck with a new employee at the theater (Tavi Gevinson), a white avant-garde artist who takes Polaroids of her pee.

At this point you may be getting the sense that Ben is not a very sympathetic character. He definitely isn’t, though he’s probably not meant to be. Tomine and Park are not looking to tell a sappy tale about a hipster with a heart of gold.

A little window into Ben’s soul comes from the movies he watches at home. One is François Truffaut’s monumental The 400 Blows (1959), a coming-of-age story about a teen beaten down by France’s educational and juvenile justice systems. The other is Ohayo, also called Good Morning (1959), a comedy by the great Yasujirō Ozu, a coming-of-age story about two boys who are angry that adults are too busy with work and gossip to buy the kids a TV.

Maybe Shortcomings could be seen as a coming-of-age tale about a grumpy 30-year-old film buff who doesn’t love life but wants to understand it. If that — along with novel humor, appealing actors and some interesting conversations about Asian American identity — appeals to you, then Shortcomings may check the box of watchability for you. If not, there’s always Crazy Rich Asians.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SHORTCOMINGS R, 92 MINUTES

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is oozing style

BY KEN ARNOLD

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have a history of being reinvented ever since the original comic book writers, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, handed over the rights to have the 1987 TV show made. That cartoon took characters from the violent indie comic and turned them into something designed for children. The divide between the source material and new media only continued to grow as more comics, cartoons, movies, toys and video games took on various renditions of the turtles. The latest iteration of the iconic reptiles comes from The Mitchells vs. the Machines co-director Jeff Rowe, who makes his solo directorial debut with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

If you’re familiar with the Cowabunga Crew, you probably know how this goes. An ooze falls into the sewers of New York City, transforming four baby turtles and one rat into anthropomorphic mutants. Growing up in the sewers and outcast by humans on the surface, our heroes — Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Raphael (Brady Noon) and Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) — want to be a part of the society that shuns them, despite the wishes of their father Splinter (Jackie Chan). They team up with April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) to win the love of the public by stopping the crime lord wreaking

havoc in NYC, Superfly (Ice Cube).

Rowe’s take on the Half-Shell Heroes is less a reinvention than a culmination of decades of turtle-mania. The band of brothers here will feel familiar to fans of previous iterations, but now they’re rendered as goofy Generation Alpha teenagers — and performed by a teenage voice cast that was free to adjust dialogue in a way not often seen when filmmakers write younger characters. Rowe & Co. succeeded in making a heartfelt story about outcasts trying to change the negative image society has unjustly given them, while also filling it with pop-culture references that both older fans and firsttime viewers can enjoy.

Also noticeable from the very first frame: The animation style is like none other. The 3D animation is complemented with 2D texturing similar to Netflix’s Arcane and Rowe’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines, but also distinct with its rough sketchbook style and exaggerated character design — something more akin to 2D-animated movies. The style and music — largely ’90s East Coast hip-hop — both play into the aesthetic of the lost teens trying to find their place in society.

This project was brought together by TMNT super-fans who teamed up with some of the best animators in the industry to make one of the best appearances of the turtles on the big screen. It will satisfy the die-hard fans of the Tubular Terrapins with Easter eggs and references, while also being approachable enough for first-time viewers.

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TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM PG, 99 MINUTES NOW PLAYING WIDE

4 Members of the genus Apis

5 First name in pilsners

6 Demi ___ (Victoria’s Secret offering)

7 Old-time poker

8 Crossbreeds smaller than ligers

9 Garment providing lower back support during pregnancy

10 Feature of the flags of Lebanon and Belize

11 One-sixth of the world’s ground surface until 1991, in brief

12 Catch, in a way

14 Captain’s emergency quarters

15 “Notorious” initials

19 Reacted purposefully when handed “the ball”

35 Big baddie

38 “You don’t say!”

39 Was clear as a bell?

44 Explicit

46 Facilitate

48 Birthplace of Zeus, in Greek myth

50 ___ Productions (media company)

51 Pigment made from iron ore

52 Fail to articulate, in a way

53 Port tower

54 Mexican beach resort, informally

55 Poet whose Latin name relates to sheep

57 Equipment

60 ID since the Great Depression

62 Letters of interest

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

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3 Director Lee

BY SIMEON SEIGEL

NORDBY vs. DARRELL REED

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon DARRELL REED It is ordered that said Defendant enter his appearance here in with thirty (30) days after AUGUST 3, 2023 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 31st 2023. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

Keisha Bass Deputy Clerk

Date: July 5, 2023

BRIDGID CALDWELL

Attorneys for Plaintiff

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nessee, therefore the ordi-

nary process of law cannot be served upon DARRELL

It is ordered that said

REED

Defendant enter his appearance here in with thirty (30) days after AUGUST 3, 2023 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 31st 2023. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

Keisha Bass Deputy Clerk

Date: July 5, 2023

BRIDGID CALDWELL

Attorneys for Plaintiff

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MARY LISA HARPER, et al. vs.

ANGELA LEE HARPER

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANGELA

LEE HARPER It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 24th 2023, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken o n SEPTEMBER 25th 2023.

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashvil le Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day Clerk Logan Chapel, Deputy Clerk

Date: July 26 2023

Joseph Zanger Attorney for Plaintiff

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Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit

Docket No. 21A10

MARY LISA HARPER, et al. vs. ANGELA LEE HARPER

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANGELA LEE HARPER It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 24th 2023 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken o n SEPTEMBER 25th , 2023.

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashvil le Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk Logan Chapel, Deputy Clerk

Date: July 26 2023

Joseph Zanger Attorney for Plaintiff

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UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGESHIP MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE. Bankruptcy Judgeship: Appointment for 14-year term. Full public notice with application and qualification standards are available at www.ca6.uscourts.gov. For further information, contact Marc Theriault, Circuit Executive, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Phone (513) 564-7200. Application deadline: Applications must be received by August 30, 2023.

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