Nashville Scene 1-8-26

JANUARY 8–14, 2026 I VOLUME 44 I NUMBER 48 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

NEWS:

ROADWAY DEATHS, MIXED PROGRESS TOP TRANSIT REPORT >> PAGE 7

FOOD & DRINK:

JOY KITCHEN WANTS TO CHANGE STANDARDS IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY >> PAGE 22

STORIES TO WATCH

20 26 FROM MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND THE MUSIC CITY LOOP TO ZONING REFORM AND AI, HERE ARE EIGHT STORIES TO WATCH IN THE COMING YEAR cover_1-8-26.indd 1

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WITNESS HISTORY This 1966 Fender Mustang bass was played by Shelby Lynne at recording sessions for her 2024 album, Consequences of the Crown, her first new album after returning to Nashville after twenty-five years.

From the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music artifact: Courtesy of Shelby Lynne artifact photo: Bob Delevante

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RESERVE TODAY

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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CONTENTS NEWS

7 Roadway Deaths, Mixed Progress Top Transit Report Commission finds limited progress on greenways, bike lanes and sidewalks in annual transportation report to mayor

BY ELI MOTYCKA

7 A Breakdown of Tennessee Departments’ $4.72 Billion Budget Requests Among the requests for fiscal year 2026-27 are additional staff for state troopers and the Department of Children’s Services

BY HANNAH HERNER

9 COVER PACKAGE: STORIES TO WATCH IN 2026 9 Looming Midterm Elections 2026 will see races for Tennessee governor, a U.S. Senate seat and every U.S. House seat

BY ELI MOTYCKA

10 AI Creeps Into Education Spaces At the primary, secondary and university levels, artificial intelligence is making its way into the classroom From: “The Scene’s Favorite Photos of 2025,” nashvillescene.com Protesters rally at DHS’ Nashville field office, Sept. 1, 2025 • PHOTO BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

BY JULIANNE AKERS

10 All the Ven-News That’s Fit to Print Five venues whose openings or renovations will offer Nashville audiences even more live music

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BY MARGARET LITTMAN

11 Nashville SC’s Changing of the Guard The Boys in Gold will enter unfamiliar territory this season

BOOKS

28 Mic Check

The Crossroads

Despite good performances, Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? is a weird, bitter trip through middle age

The middle-aged hero of Ben Markovits’ The Rest of Our Lives roams America looking for answers

BY LOGAN BUTTS

11 Health Insurance Woes

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

BY SEAN KINCH; CHAPTER16.ORG

Rollbacks on Affordable Care Act and Medicaid coverage leave Tennesseans in the lurch

FOOD AND DRINK

22 Joy to the World

BY HANNAH HERNER

11 Rezoning Battles Continue

Nonprofit Joy Kitchen wants to change standards in the restaurant industry

With battle lines drawn in the ongoing zoning debate, the city will likely take more steps toward reform this year

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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MARKETPLACE

BY HANNAH URBAN

BY ELI MOTYCKA

12 Development Developments

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Luxury hotels, East Bank and Wedgewood-Houston will all see continued building in 2026

MUSIC

A Nashville Black Music Roundtable

ON THE COVER:

Erica Hayes Schultz and Justin Causey share their perspective in our fourth annual survey

BY HANNAH HERNER

12 The Music City Loop

Designed by Tracey Starck; image via Getty Images

BY RON WYNN

26 The Year of the Band

Additional permits and approvals likely to be requested for The Boring Company’s airport-to-downtown Tesla tunnel

SUBSCRIBE

Looking ahead at 2026 in Music City’s rock scenes with Jared Corder, Mike Grimes, Angela Lese and Will Shepherd

BY JULIANNE AKERS

15 CRITICS’ PICKS

Sheryl Crow, All the President’s Men, Hayes Carll Birthday Bash, Fingernails Are Pretty and more

NEWSLETTER: nashvillescene.com/site/forms/subscription_services PRINT: nashvillesceneshop.com

BY DARYL SANDERS

CONTACT

FILM

TO ADVERTISE: msmith@nashvillescene.com EDITOR: prodgers@nashvillescene.com

27 The Short List Our senior film critic weighs in on his favorite films of 2025

FOLLOW US @NASHVILLESCENE

BY JASON SHAWHAN

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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HELP ING YOU FIN D VAL UE I N NAS HVI L L E REAL E S TAT E 6 1 5 38 3 69 6 4 | NA SHVIL L ECITYLIVIN G .CO M 6 NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

NEWS

ROADWAY DEATHS, MIXED PROGRESS TOP TRANSIT REPORT Commission finds limited progress on greenways, bike lanes and sidewalks in annual transportation report to mayor

county in 2025, mostly on state routes like Dickerson Pike and Murfreesboro Pike. Greenway construction stalled at about one mile per year, while the city built just 2.6 miles of bikeways last year — a sharp drop from 21.4 miles in 2024. The commission, chaired by Katherine McDonell, also recommended the city “significantly accelerate” sidewalk construction. McDonell tells

the Scene that the commission sent the report to O’Connell’s office on Dec. 31.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell, elected on promises to improve Nashville’s non-car transportation infrastructure, revived the citizen commission in 2024 during his successful transit referendum campaign. The mayor and other transit progressives have promoted the city’s greenway system

as an alternative map within Nashville for those who prefer pedestrian and bike connections throughout the city. Beyond functional connectivity, its exercise and recreation offerings have made the greenway a popular city feature, especially in places like Shelby Park and Richland Creek. A push for increased bike safety and access helped get O’Connell to the mayor’s office in 2023, though the city stopped prioritizing actual bike lane construction last year, according to the BPAC report. The report also highlights a slight increase in new sidewalk construction, which increased from 3.8 miles in 2024 to 5.9 in 2025.

The mayor’s high-profile transit projects last year focused instead on smoother bus and car efficiency with signal upgrades and service expansion.

Controversy over East Bank Boulevard designs has also become a proxy for O’Connell’s commitment to bike infrastructure in the eyes of transit advocates. A final choice for the new neighborhood’s key artery has gotten lost in pages of designs, plans and reports. The BPAC report calls on the city to keep multimodal access at the center of any planning decisions.

“We again call on Metro leadership and [the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure] to formally reject the 6-lane designs for East Bank Boulevard that are opposed by 80% of the public and work together with BPAC, VZAC, advocacy organizations, and the community to design a people-centered street that provides dedicated space for walking, bicycling, and transit, in alignment with our modal hierarchy and the Imagine East Bank vision plan,” reads BPAC’s strongest recommendation.

Commissioners also clamored for a bigger role in the city’s decision-making process around pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, including having an explicit liaison in the mayor’s office and direct consultation before changes to sidewalks and bikeways. ▼

DCS NEEDS STAFF, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION LEAVES DOLLARS OUT

HEALTH DEPARTMENT, HUMAN SERVICES ABSORB FEDERAL CUTS

LAW ENFORCEMENT LOOKS TO ADD HIGHWAY PATROL, INVESTIGATION STAFF

The Tennessee Department of Education has requested $37.92 million in recurring and $1.5 million in nonrecurring funds for summer learning camps, paid parental leave and teacher salary increases, as well as its school turnaround program. However, the department declined to include any funding requests for its K-12 student funding formula or the state’s universal school voucher program in its presentation. Gov. Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which allows the use of public dollars to go toward private school tuition, was one of the biggest stories of 2025’s legislative session. That program is facing a lawsuit arguing that it violates the Tennessee Constitution.

The Department of Children’s Services requested a total of $151.6 million, which includes an additional 153 staff positions in an effort to mitigate high caseloads.

A team of national child welfare attorneys in May filed a lawsuit against the DCS on behalf of 13 children they allege are being denied education, health care and stable homes. As recently as October, at least 10 Tennessee foster children were sleeping in DCS offices.

For the Tennessee Department of Health, the largest line item is for dental care — including $27.6 million out of the total $56.59 million request to continue expanded dental classes at Meharry Medical College and make a pilot program at Lincoln Memorial University permanent. Of note, Tennessee is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, leaving a gap that is set to widen due to federal cuts to Medicaid and an increase in pricing for the Affordable Care Act. Because of this, the health department is asking for $9 million more for county health departments to assist a growing uninsured population. The state already spends $31 million annually on care for people without insurance.

The Department of Human Services is also absorbing federal cuts, budgeting $97.1 million to offset cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding, which amounts to $77.7 million in new recurring money and $19.4 million in one-time funding to keep the program running this year.

The Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security, which manages Tennessee Highway Patrol and driver services centers, is seeking the highest number of additional staff out of all the departments: 212. Sixty-eight of those will serve in driver services centers, and the rest will work in trooper, supervisor and support staff positions.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is also seeking to add 74 staff members. Of those, 20 are set to work on crime scene response, 13 in the drug investigation division focusing on drugs delivered by mail, and 10 in elder financial abuse prevention. The department is also asking for $13 million to purchase a second single-engine aircraft.

As part of the Tennessee Department of Correction’s $84.19 million budget request — which includes the highest line item of $14.2 million for facility maintenance — CoreCivic would receive a $13 million pay bump. The state renewed its $168 million three-year contract with the private prison company last year, despite a growing number of deaths in their facilities. ▼

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

BY ELI MOTYCKA

CYCLIST IN 12SOUTH

AN ANNUAL REPORT to the mayor from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission points out limited progress on bike lanes and greenways in 2025, calling on the city to accelerate projects and better engage the public. Nashville has been among the deadliest American cities for pedestrians in recent years. Twenty-five pedestrians and four bicyclists were killed in the

A BREAKDOWN OF TENNESSEE DEPARTMENTS’ $4.72 BILLION BUDGET REQUESTS Among the requests for fiscal year 2026-27 are additional staff for state troopers and the Department of Children’s Services

BY HANNAH HERNER TO CLOSE OUT 2025, Tennessee’s various state departments put in their budget requests to Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, totalling $4.72 billion for fiscal year 202627. Lee is set to propose a budget taking all of the requests into account on Feb. 1.

Requests include more staff for the Department of Children’s Services and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, as well as money to give private prison company CoreCivic a raise and absorb federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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JANUARY 9 & 10

OPRY 100 AT THE RYMAN

UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER

JANUARY 22

BRETT YOUNG WITH JENNA DAVIS

FEBRUARY 14

CRAIG FERGUSON PANTS ON FIRE

JANUARY 23

PETER ROWAN WITH SAM GRISMAN PROJECT

WITH SAM BUSH, JERRY DOUGLAS, GILLIAN WELCH, DAVID RAWLINGS & MORE

JANUARY 24

MAVIS STAPLES

FEBRUARY 20

THE ROBERT CRAY BAND 2025 OUT DRIVING AROUND TOUR

WITH MJ LENDERMAN JANUARY 25

NASHVILLE

THE ENCORE TOUR JANUARY 28

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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224 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S • NASHVILLE, TN CMATHEATER.COM • @CMATHEATER

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STORIES TO WATCH IN

2026

FROM MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND THE MUSIC CITY LOOP TO ZONING REFORM AND AI, HERE ARE EIGHT STORIES TO WATCH IN THE COMING YEAR

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LOOMING MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2026 will see races for Tennessee governor, a U.S. Senate seat and every U.S. House seat

BY ELI MOTYCKA

REPUBLICANS AVOIDED A national-stage upset in December when money, attention and hopes flooded into a special-election showdown between progressive Democrat Aftyn Behn and former state official Matt Van Epps, a relatively unknown Republican tasked with succeeding Rep. Mark Green in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Midterms this year could be three times the sweat for the party that redrew Nashville’s historically Democratic 5th Congressional District seat, carving and separating Nashville into three GOP-favored districts back in 2022.

With every U.S. congressional seat up for a vote this year, it’s unlikely Tennessee — which holds nine congressional districts in total — will be spoiled with the same outside spending or outsized hype. But Republicans’ grip on national politics could slip much further over the next 11 months with an increasingly unpopular president and internal divisions tearing at party seams. Behn’s 9-point loss — a significant Dem overperformance compared to prior elections — is a high-water mark for the state’s opposition party.

Next door in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional

District, Democrats’ D.C. machine has sized up scandal-ridden incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles for an upset, helping get Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder off to a handsome start.

Ogles has struggled to raise money and carries a short record in office pocked by ethics and campaign finance blunders.

Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose has already announced an ambitious bid for governor, leaving his seat in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District open. Van Hilleary, a four-term congressman in the 1990s and Rose’s chief of staff, quickly jumped into the race. Democrats have yet to field a serious challenger for the seat, which draws together Antioch, East Nashville, Cookeville and Crossville. Behn, a spirited campaigner who technically lives in Rose’s district, could capitalize on her previous campaign with another run at Van Epps — or a run in her home district. Democrat Justin Jones, a fellow East Nashville state representative, has teased his own big announcement on social media.

U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty is up for reelection this year, though no established Democrats have stepped up to challenge the first-term

senator. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s race to replace term-limited Gov. Bill Lee looms in the background. Her decade-long reign over Tennessee politics gives the second-term senator considerable campaign advantages, and she’s expected to cakewalk to the governor’s mansion. Whoever lines up to fill her open seat, though, will immediately climb into the highest echelon of state political power. A special election won’t be called until Blackburn vacates her seat, making 2026 a year for GOP hopefuls to jockey for her blessing. Expect serious schmoozing from wannabes under 60, a group led by state House Speaker Cameron Sexton, state House Majority Leader William Lamberth and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson. This background dynamic could also create internal divisions between Sexton, Lamberth, Johnson and other Republicans during this year’s state legislative session as each tries to prove their mettle as a potential U.S. senator. ▼ PRIMARY ELECTIONS FOR GOVERNOR, U.S. SENATE AND THE U.S. HOUSE WILL TAKE PLACE AUG. 6; GENERAL ELECTIONS WILL TAKE PLACE NOV. 3

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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AI CREEPS INTO EDUCATION SPACES At the primary, secondary and university levels, artificial intelligence is making its way into the classroom

BY JULIANNE AKERS

AMID THE RECENT AI boom, proponents of the technology have compared its speedy expansion — and concerns that it could take jobs from humans — to the rise of the internet in the 1990s. But as the capability of artificial intelligence evolves and ethical and environmental concerns surrounding the tech stew, it’s clear these discussions won’t be going away anytime soon.

Leaders in Tennessee are beginning to embrace AI in the education space. At the college level, local universities continue to amend and adopt AI-usage policies for students, faculty and staff. Local professors have initiated use of generative AI software like ChatGPT in the classroom — a way of introducing students to the technology, they say, so students can understand its advantages and disadvantages. Many other educators and university administrators have pushed for students and faculty to become AI-literate, warning that those who refuse to learn the technology will be left behind.

When it comes to younger students, Vanderbilt University researchers are examining how children interact with AI at school. Some of those researchers are pushing for more AI-related curriculum, starting as early as elementary school. During last year’s state legislative session, the Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act passed with bipartisan support, requiring the Tennessee Department of Education to create middle and high school curriculum on a range of online activities, including the evaluation of AI-generated content. Ahead of this year’s session, state Rep. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville) has introduced a bill that would require schools to provide instruction on the access, utilization and evaluation of AI tools. The bill will likely spark discussion among the Tennessee General Assembly, which gavels in this month.

The use of AI at the administrative level is also on the table as lawmakers gear up to debate legislation. During an October

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ALL THE VEN-NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT Five venues whose openings or renovations will offer Nashville audiences even more live music

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

meeting of the state’s Advisory Committee on Innovations in K-12 Education, state Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) suggested that AI be used to speed up the grading process for the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, the end-of-year assessment administered to the state’s public school students. Seemingly aware of the potential for error by AI, Cepicky also suggested a state audit of the proposed system.

The Tennessee Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council released an action plan in November, which contends that policy changes welcoming AI need to come swiftly.

“AI is no longer theoretical; it is already transforming how government delivers services, how businesses operate, and how Tennesseans work and learn,” the plan reads.

“Delay risks ceding competitive advantage and missing opportunities to increase efficiency and improve lives. Strategic investment today in the areas of data readiness, pilot projects, and AI literacy will pay dividends in productivity, cost savings, and citizen satisfaction for decades.”

The plan’s recommendations put the state’s higher-education institutions at the forefront.

It recommends AI-related scholarships, apprenticeships and training through the state’s community colleges and Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology. It also pushes for the enablement of federal funds to support AI use in education. Additionally, the plan encourages research projects on AI through the current partnership between the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In line with legislation already proposed by lawmakers, the state’s AI advisory council also recommends that school districts adopt ageappropriate AI curriculum in the classroom that is subject to parental oversight. It also outlines increased AI literacy for students, teachers and administrators as a priority and advocates for a statewide AI literacy framework. ▼

WITH ALL OF Nashville’s dizzying pace of change, one thing seems to remain constant in Music City: People want to listen to live music. The new year promises more of that, with a handful of new music venues, as well as some established venues making upgrades and changes. Here are five venue stories to keep an eye on.

Late last year, the Metro Council approved Opry Entertainment Group taking over what is now called Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater under a 10-year agreement. As part of the deal, OEG will dedicate $12 million for facility improvements. The plan is to host 35 concerts, plus community events during the year. OEG owns the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry and won the contract over current operator and ticketing and touring giant Live Nation.

But Live Nation will be busy just a mileand-a-half away. Fall 2026 is the target opening for The Truth, its 4,400-seat venue currently under construction (like seemingly everything else) in Wedgewood-Houston.

The three-story venue will feature a number of different spaces, including a whiskey bar, a vinyl room and a listening bar. Some local venue owners are concerned that the latter will compete with small, independent venues already operating at tight margins.

The Truth — yes, named in honor of Harlan Howard’s famous quote, “Country music ain’t nothin’ but three chords and the truth” — has partnerships with the Nashville Songwriters Association International and the W.O. Smith Music School.

Hillsboro Village’s Anzie Blue continues to evolve and expand, offering a cross-section of types of events and genres of music. In 2026, the independent venue is adding a recording

RENDERING OF THE TRUTH

studio to its space as part of its efforts to offer more services to the local music community.

In the summer, the owners of Broadway staple Robert’s Western World purchased the former home of Jack’s Bar-B-Que next door. Renovations are currently underway to rejoin the historic buildings, which were once connected by archways. The $15 million project includes a bigger dance floor, a bigger bar and more behind-the-scenes work space. A second stage is coming upstairs, but Robert’s iconic first-floor stage and current entrance will not move. Construction is expected to be completed by February.

For several years, there’s been talk about a 110-seat venue coming to the historic renovated Arcade downtown. Well, it looks like 2026 will be the year: Show Stop Nashville is set to open on a date TBA and offer an immersive audio and visual experience with multiple shows per day. Singer-songwriter Daniel Walker’s vision for Show Stop is original music — no cover bands — in a variety of genres. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SC’S CHANGING OF THE GUARD The Boys in Gold will enter unfamiliar territory this season

BY LOGAN BUTTS

FOR THE FIRST TIME in the franchise’s MaFor a brief period, it was looking like the jor League Soccer history, Nashville SC will be two-time MLS Defender of the Year and former without longtime captain Walker Zimmerman United States Men’s National Team captain in 2026. wasn’t going to be the only fixture The franchise cornerstone and headed out the door — the club’s backline stalwart, who had longtime starting goalkeeper been with NSC since 2020, Joe Willis was also not rewas not re-signed followsigned. However, the team ing the 2025 campaign, decided to bring back the a season that saw the 15-year veteran on a oneBoys in Gold win the first year deal, presumably to trophy in club history with back up 24-year-old Brian a 2-1 victory over Austin FC Schwake. Despite not apin the U.S. Open Cup final. pearing in an MLS contest in COACH B.J. CALLAGHAN Nashville also advanced to the 2025, Schwake won all five of MLS Cup playoffs thanks to a torrid his U.S. Open Cup starts. start — fueled in part by smart offseason Former league MVP Hany Mukhtar is additions like surprise all-star Andy Najar and still here, giving opposing defenses nightmares Norwegian Energizer Bunny Edvard Tagseth — alongside goal fiend Sam Surridge. (Only Messi but stalled in the first round following a loss to himself scored more times than Surridge in familiar foe Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.

2025.) But with a full year under head coach B.J.

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Callaghan — whose style has proven to be much different than previous manager Gary Smith’s clenched-teeth, low-scoring “Gary Ball” — now in the books and an influx of exciting young players, Nashville is going through its first true changing of the guard in the MLS era. Considering the franchise won its first cup and advanced to the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons, this isn’t a Titans-style, full-on rebuild — but it’s at least a soft reboot.

With the aforementioned Tennessee Titans currently operating as one of the NFL’s sad-sackiest franchises and the Nashville Predators struggling to maintain any semblance of consistency, it’s up to Nashville SC to carry the torch for Music City pro sports. (Sorry, but the city’s everlasting pursuit of both MLB and WNBA teams is looking more dire than ever.) NSC has proven to be a steady franchise with regular postseason appearances and deep cup runs, and that consistency has helped build a strong fan base. But

REZONING BATTLES CONTINUE

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Rollbacks on Affordable Care Act and Medicaid coverage leave Tennesseans in the lurch

BY HANNAH HERNER

of the pandemic, to make insurance more affordable for a larger group of people than otherwise. Before the enhanced tax credits, ACA was limited to people who made 100 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, creating an “income cliff.” Enhanced subsidies removed the income cap.

The debate over the enhanced tax credits is one of the issues that kept the government shutdown at a stalemate in the fall. And despite efforts from some moderate Republicans in the U.S. House to extend the credits for at least a year, before Christmas the House passed a bill that did not extend the credits. The U.S. Senate is set to deliberate on the matter this month.

The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee estimates that as many as 225,802 people will lose ACA coverage in Tennessee due to the expiration of enhanced tax credits. In addition, the committee predicts 69,765 will lose Medicaid coverage in Tennessee by 2034 due to cuts to

6 With battle lines drawn in the ongoing zoning debate, the city will likely take more steps toward reform this year

HEALTH INSURANCE WOES

FOR THOSE WHO don’t have access to workplace medical insurance, there are two options for coverage: Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act — unless a person ultimately isn’t able to obtain either. This year, both ACA and Medicaid are seeing changes that will leave more Tennesseans in the coverage gap.

ACA (commonly known as Obamacare) saw enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of 2025. This fact already caused premiums for 2026 to increase by an average of 26 percent nationally. In some cases, premiums doubled or tripled — including in Nashville. That’s because only the people who need it most will apply for coverage, and some will forgo applying altogether, leaving those who do enroll with a larger portion to pay. The open enrollment period lasts from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15 each year.

While all of the ACA plans are subsidized based on the user’s income, enhanced premium tax credits were introduced in 2021, in the thick

an actual MLS Cup, or at least a run to the championship match, might be needed for the team to take the next step toward embedding its roots deep in the local sports scene. It’s a challenge Callaghan and company just might be up for. ▼

Medicaid under the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

People often turn to ACA coverage if they don’t qualify for Medicaid for one reason or another. Tennessee has a 9.3 percent uninsured rate, putting us among the 10 least-covered states in the country. At the state level, legislators have continually shot down federal funding to expand Medicaid coverage to people who do not get insurance through their jobs. Tennessee is one of just 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid coverage, meaning adults without children and those younger than 65 are not covered under the program.

The coming change will also impact rural hospitals, which get the majority of their funding from Medicaid. (Because of this, the federal government added a $50 billion stabilization fund for rural hospitals over five years.) ▼

PLUCKY METRO COUNCILMEMBERS have already spent a few years chipping away at Nashville’s knotted zoning code. Each simplification brings more twists, turns and speed bumps, both in the legislative rewriting of arcane requirements or restrictions, and in the political ramifications that follow.

Reformers promise that their mission will unleash more creative, dense, modern and efficient uses of Nashville’s limited real estate stock, allowing the city to respond to a dire housing shortage that’s kept prime neighborhoods unaffordable and pushed many homebuyers to sprawling subdivisions on the county’s outskirts. Opponents, fashioning themselves as the guardians of Nashville’s soul, see the reckless acceleration of out-of-town developers disrupting neighborhoods to construct overpriced, low-quality housing in an endless quest for profit. Mostly representing wealthy enclaves like Forest Hills and West Meade, organized opposition has already vowed to polarize voters against upzoning in Metro’s 2027 elections. The

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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most intensely obsessed individuals have spun off formal groups like Save Our Nashville Neighborhoods and Voices of District 20, where they command a small volunteer army.

Certain wonky councilmembers have taken on zoning reform as a primary issue — none more visibly than first-term Councilmember Rollin Horton, a corporate finance attorney who represents The Nations. Horton’s battle with zoning purists already spilled plenty of headline ink in 2025 — and the stage is set for more drama in 2026. After twice failing to take out Horton, first with a failed recall petition and then with an ultimately toothless ethics complaint, the anti-reform crowd has reportedly taken interest in challenging Horton via board elections for The Nations Neighborhood Association.

The city will likely take more legislative steps toward zoning reform this year. One of those steps, an incentive program for developers, may move through the council with little fanfare. Others, like an approved city map for implementing higher-density housing, could inflame opponents’ fears as the Metro Planning Department circles specific neighborhoods for development.

Watch too for the pro-housing-reform reinforcements. A popular movement behind zoning reform could swiftly counter the small, vocal, cranky minority who hold a personal vendetta against Horton and other progress-minded councilmembers. Plenty pay lip service to housing costs and unit shortages, but for now, direct organizing for zoning reform is a side hustle for many activists otherwise focused on transit, economic inequality and homelessness. ▼

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Luxury hotels, East Bank and Wedgewood-Houston will all see continued building in 2026

BY HANNAH HERNER

WHILE MANY SCENE readers would likely love to see some action in Midtown’s beloved Rock Block neighborhood — please, at least put the shell of what was once The Gold Rush out of its misery — that area will likely sit idle in 2026. The bulk of Nashville’s development activity this year will be in luxury hotels and in the East Bank area, with Wedgewood-Houston projects already under construction.

Nashville is slated for six new luxury hotels, which will see construction activity in 2026. Perhaps most notably, a Ritz-Carlton hotel and residential building is planned for The Gulch near Kayne Prime, previously home to advertising firm Bohan. Also, there’s a 46-story, 651-foot-tall St. Regis hotel planned — that will dwarf its next-door neighbor the J.W. Marriott, which stands at 386 feet tall and 34 stories. When completed, the St. Regis will take the cake for the tallest hotel in the city.

Across the street from J.W. Marriott, a Marriott Autograph Collection Hotel is planned. That will stand at 35 stories. At 319 Peabody St., developers are planning a 53-story hotel and residential building, reportedly an Intercontinental — a chain based in the U.K. and owned by IHG. A Pendry Hotel is planned for the Paseo South Gulch development, as well as a five-star New York-based Equinox Hotel as part of a mixed-use development, Peabody & 2nd in SoBro. (Unrelated: We’re getting an Equinox gym, too.)

That list includes just the luxury offerings. In all, there are dozens more hotels pitched for the city, as the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp seeks to accommodate

the roughly 17 million people who visit on a yearly basis.

The new Tennessee Titans stadium is set to be finished in early 2027, with the old Nissan Stadium to subsequently be demolished. However, Nashvillians will begin to see action in the areas surrounding the stadium this year. Flanking the stadium will be an area that includes outdoor seating, green space and a connection to bike pathways, as well as a hotel and residential areas. Affordable housing known as East Bank Flats will likely see action first, as it is set to be built in a current parking area roughly a block from the stadium. The surrounding area will also eventually include the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s new home.

Tech giant Oracle is preparing to start construction on its future headquarters at Nashville’s River North development. When finished, the development is set to include up to 13 buildings and a pedestrian bridge connecting to Germantown.

Wedgewood-Houston dwellers know that some development is happening in their neighborhood — as evidenced by the neighborhood’s constant traffic cones and construction vehicles. AJ Capital Partners, the developer behind Graduate Hotels, is set to open a mixed-use residential and retail building across from the former May Hosiery Mills site in 2026. AJ is planning a huge nearby development called Wedgewood Village, which will cover a collective 18 acres and include Live Nation’s forthcoming music venue The Truth. ▼ William Williams contributed reporting.

THE MUSIC CITY LOOP Additional permits and approvals likely to be requested for The Boring Company’s airport-to-downtown Tesla tunnel

BY JULIANNE AKERS

WHEN BILLIONAIRE ELON MUSK’S The Boring Company announced in July the idea for a parallel pair of 9.5-mile-long underground tunnels stretching from the Nashville airport to downtown Nashville, fiery backlash immediately ensued. But despite protests from Nashvillians and safety and environmental concerns raised by the Metro Council, the project — known as the Music City Loop — is already underway and sure to draw even more discourse and criticism as it carries forward this year.

The tunnel will be privately funded and will transport travelers via Tesla vehicles to and from the airport and downtown, though the company has said it hopes to construct stations throughout the city to expand the system in coming years. Officials with The Boring Company have said a single ride is expected to cost approximately $4, with round-trip and daypass options to be available as well. The company also says the loop will be able to transport between 20,000 and 30,000 people per hour.

Much of the loop’s operations are expected to be modeled after the Las Vegas Loop, a similar tunnel

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DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENTS

project also spearheaded by The Boring Company, which has faced serious scrutiny due to work safety violations. Concerns over the safety of the Music City Loop have underscored much of the opposition to the project. During a virtual town hall on Nov. 24, Boring Company president Steve Davis described the tunnels as “amazingly safe” and said they are “by far the safest public transport system out there.” That same day, construction crews walked off the project site due to safety and pay concerns.

Other grievances come from disability advocates who have raised doubts that the tunnel will be accessible. Critics of the loop have also posed environmental concerns, especially given the abundance of underground limestone and its potential susceptibility for sinkholes. This led to The Boring Company commissioning an environmental study, which found the project would not cause a threat to the geology or local resources.

Still, lack of transparency from The Boring Company continues to leave many Nashvillians skeptical of the project, including members of the Metro

Council. The city’s legislative body will consider a nonbinding resolution opposing the tunnel at its first meeting of the year on Jan. 20. Councilmember AtLarge Delishia Porterfield is the lead sponsor for the resolution, which condemns the project as a whole, citing a lack of transparency, inadequate community engagement and communication with the council, and potential unsafe conditions for both workers on the project and users of the tunnel.

Notably, Mayor Freddie O’Connell has not come forth with a firm public stance on the project.

Gov. Bill Lee has publicly backed the plan since its announcement, and alongside many business leaders in Nashville, he has touted it as a win for economic development and the city’s booming tourism industry.

Nevertheless, drilling has begun, and the company filed a lease application with the Tennessee Department of Transportation in December. This marks one of more than 45 permits and approvals needed from the state and Metro in order to complete the initial phase of the project by the first quarter of 2027. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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COMING SOON 12.27 02.07 02.21 02.24 03.21 03.27 03.28

MAU P NIKO MOON INZO EXCISION SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL PUSCIFER COLONY HOUSE

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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ON BROADWAY

1.10 William Michael Morgan

1.17 Mitch Rossell

1.22/23 Ashley McBryde

1/22/26 Intro to Counted Cross Stitch 1/22/26 Intro to TIG Welding 1/24/26 Fused Glass Wind Chime 1//24/26 Mosaic Glass Mini Vase 1/25/26 Intro to Wood Turning: French Rolling Pin 1/31/25 Intermediate Silversmithing

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JANUARY LINE UP 1.10

William Michael Morgan

1.15

Britnee Kellogg

1.17

Mitch Rossell

1.18

Dixieland Delight

1.19

Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek and Guests Craig Campbell, Mason Maddocks, Brendan Stevens, Mike Sweep

1.21

Jamie O’Neal Gypsum Album Release Show

1.22

Ashley McBryde: Just Me and My Shadow

1.23

Ashley McBryde: Just Me and My Shadow

1.24

Buddy’s Place 15th Anniversary Show w/ Kayley Bishop, Fraser Churchill, Abbey Cone, Sean Kennedy, Paul Sikes, Striking Matches, Cyndi Thomson

1.26

Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Play The Chicks “Wide Open Spaces” w/ Bryan Simpson, Caitlyn Smith, Moose Miller, Abbie Callahan, Aniston Pate

1.29

The Sadies

1.31

Aaron Nichols

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ENDLESS MUSIC & EVENT OPPORTUNITIES

BUILT TO HOST IT ALL 14

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS: WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

PHOTO: ERICK ANDERSON

Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

FINGERNAILS ARE PRETTY

Femme Foo Fighters tribute band Fingernails Are Pretty will play their final show Friday evening at The Basement East. They will headline a bill that includes two other tribute bands — Take the Power Back, an all-female tribute to Rage Against the Machine, and Business of Misery, a Paramore tribute act. Fingernails Are Pretty is calling it quits in part because drummer Angie Lese and lead guitarist Rachel Brandsness of indie-rock duo Lips Speak Louder plan to relocate to Minneapolis in the spring. Lese founded the group — whose name is taken from a line in Foos song “This Is a Call” — not long after the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022. “I had always wanted to do a female Foo Fighters tribute band,” Lese tells the Scene. “And Taylor Hawkins was always my favorite drummer, so when he died, I knew it was time to finally do that band.” They made their debut at the 2022 Tomato Art Festival and have played one or two shows every year since then. In addition to Lese and Brandsness, the group’s lineup includes rhythm guitarist Mo Schneider, bassist Aly Dellinger and lead vocalist Vera Bloom. A few other singers will sit in with the band on Friday, including Molly Martin, Leilani Kilgore and Monte Mader. DARYL SANDERS 7:30 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.

DUMPSTER FYRE FEST PAGE 16

TINNEY/20 PAGE 18

SHERYL CROW PAGE 19

[FOLLOW THE MONEY]

WEEKEND CLASSICS: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

As a journalist, I’m legally obligated to recommend this week’s 35 mm screenings of All the President’s Men, which are scheduled as part of the Belcourt’s Weekend Classics: Robert Redford series. But it’s not just a meticulous depiction of the work Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (and executive editor Ben Bradlee, and all the writers and editors at The Washington Post) did to uncover the Watergate scandal — it’s also a paean to the late Redford’s movie-star powers in front of and behind the camera. It was Redford’s idea to adapt Woodward and Bernstein’s book, so he bought the rights and hired his friend William Goldman, arguably the greatest screenwriter of all time, to draft the firecracker (and eventually, Academy Award-winning) script. As Woodward, Redford — known for his otherworldly on-screen chemistry with his co-stars — perfectly plays off Dustin Hoffman’s frantic energy, using side glances and small gestures to counter-balance Hoffman’s oxygen-sucking as Bernstein. The

final entry in director Alan J. Pakula’s thematic “paranoia trilogy” of acclaimed ’70s politicalconspiracy thrillers, All the President’s Men is the greatest journalism movie ever made and eerily prescient. To quote Jason Robards’ Oscar-winning performance as Bradlee, “Nothing’s riding on this except the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.” Sounds relevant. LOGAN BUTTS 2:15 & 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

CRAFTS

THURSDAY / 1.8

[GRAND FINALE]

FILM

MUSIC

FRIDAY, JAN. 9

[CROCHET DAYS]

BEGINNER’S INTRODUCTION TO CROCHET

A lot of us have intentions and goals we want to meet in the new year. I’ve set the tone for my 2026 with two broad goals: to create more as a way of enriching my sense of creativity and combating endless scrolling, and to participate more in my community. The perfect way to combine both these goals is by joining an arts tutorial at The Forge. This week, The Forge is hosting a beginner-friendly crochet lesson and providing all the materials needed, including a pattern book, yarn, hooks and needles. Everyone will leave with a completed crochet dishcloth

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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[BE LEGENDS]

DUMPSTER FYRE FEST

ANNIE PARNELL

THROUGH JAN. 11 AT LOCAL REGAL CINEMAS

FRIDAY / 1.9 [CHECKMATE]

BLUE ROOM CHESS CLUB TOURNAMENT

If you’re a student of tactics like forks, undermining and discovered attacks, The Blue Room’s first Chess Club Tournament just might be for you. The great game of tactics and strategy includes the methods I listed above, and I’m not the first person to observe that chess offers a great opportunity to learn how to think in multiple dimensions and create a winning plan of attack. The great chess masters — Bobby Fischer, Judit Polgár and Garry Kasparov come

[IT’S ONLY FOREVER, NOT LONG AT ALL]

LABYRINTH 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Sometime in the past few years, the worm from Labyrinth became a meme. Dispensing cockney aphorisms and unforgettable lines like “Who, me? Nah, I’m just a worm,” his two-minute cameo has been fodder for DIYs, unhinged makeup looks and even fancams. It might seem unusual for a minor character to ascend to fan-favorite status more than four decades on — but that’s par for the course in Jim Henson’s cult-classic puppetry canon.

Expertly crafted and lovably performed, even Henson’s bit characters take on lives of their own, and alongside The Worm (or “William,” to friends) Labyrinth is full of them. Of course, there’s also the leading humans: Jennifer Connelly, who plays the stubborn, imaginative teen Sarah Williams, and David Bowie, who

to mind — have something to teach us about how to go through life as competitors and learners who can visualize the big picture while attending to the most precise details. The games kick off Friday at 7 p.m. with free play until 8, followed by the tournament, which begins at 8:30. It’s $10 at the door to participate in the competition, which should test your ability to implement those double attacks and wily moves that mark you as a true adept of the game. Why be a pawn in someone else’s game when you can play your own? The prizes include a trophy, merchandise and tickets to future shows at The Blue Room. EDD HURT 7 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.

MUSIC

as the Goblin King Jareth is a walking queer awakening in tights. Now through Jan. 11, Labyrinth celebrates its 40th anniversary at Regal Cinemas across the country. Come to sing along to classics like “Magic Dance” and “As the World Falls Down.” Stay for a nice cup of tea.

Visit fathomentertainment.com for showtimes.

[SPACE ARRANGEMENT]

NASHVILLE SYMPHONY: MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY

The Nashville Symphony is ringing in the new year — and honoring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 270th birthday — with an evening of “grandeur, invention and musical fireworks.”

The program opens with Beethoven’s powerful Egmont Overture, a piece marked by themes

MUSIC

LABYRINTH

[VISIT ME IN MUSIC CITY]

BOBBY BARE JR.

It’s been more than five years since Bobby Bare Jr. played his own show in Nashville, but that will change Friday night when he headlines a bill at The Basement. Bare’s long absence was a byproduct of his decision a decade ago to put his own career on hold and accept an invitation to become the rhythm guitarist for his “favorite rock band” Guided by Voices, a position he still holds. GBV is currently on a break, which gives Bare a chance to perform his own music. “Now I get to do my new job, which is my old job,” he jokes by phone before a gig in New York. “I’m really having fun doing my own music again.”

Although he hasn’t released an album of his own since 2014’s Undefeated, he’s been writing regularly and has a lot of new songs that have never been released. “I’ll be playing some new stuff for sure,” he tells the Scene. “I’m sitting here in Brooklyn practicing new songs for tonight at Lucinda’s.” Bare will be accompanied Friday by guitarist Matthew Paige, drummer Richie Townsend and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Crowell, who will play keyboards, bass and sax.

Danny Malone, who recently moved to Nashville from Austin, will open the show with a solo acoustic set. DARYL SANDERS 8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT 1604 EIGHTH AVE. S.

SATURDAY / 1.10 PHOTOGRAPHY

FILM

The image of a big metal bin full of malodorous garbage in flames has been useful shorthand for general world events for too long, and too many urgent social needs get treated with as much care as 2017’s not-evenhalf-assed, doomed-before-it-started Fyre Festival (which inspired two documentaries and countless memes). The folks behind Dumpster Fyre Fest are putting on three nights of shows at The Cobra featuring massively creative Nashville music with proceeds going to local organizations that make our city feel like less of a trash fire. Thursday’s kickoff benefits Nashville Launch Pad, which aids young people experiencing homelessness, and the bill includes wide-ranging reed-centric music from Abstract Black as well as alt-rock from Shakira Chinchilla. Friday’s show supports Thistle Farms, the long-running org supporting women survivors of trafficking and addiction, and the lineup includes rockers like Cha Cha Heels and Gross Motor. Saturday’s gig is raising funds for youth arts organization YEAH!, with performances from experimental rock outfit Vladopus9, soulfully rocking ensemble Altered Statesman and more. Eight artists are scheduled to play each night, and individual day tickets as well as a discounted pass to all three nights are available. STEPHEN TRAGESER 8 P.M. JAN. 8-10 AT THE COBRA 2511 GALLATIN AVE.

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so bold and heroic that it actually served as an unofficial anthem for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Audiences also can look forward to the return of acclaimed pianist Conrad Tao, who will perform John Adams’ Century Rolls, promising “a genre-bending tribute to the golden age of piano music.” And finally, New Zealand’s rising conductor Gemma New will lead the Nashville Symphony in the dramatic Symphony No. 41 (aka Jupiter). Completed in 1788, the Jupiter Symphony was Mozart’s final symphony — and deemed by many to be one of his crowning achievements. The name certainly reflects all the wonder and majesty of the piece, which is significant in its use of counterpoints — particularly in the stunning finale, which brilliantly weaves together five melodies simultaneously. AMY STUMPFL JAN. 9-10 AT THE SCHERMERHORN 1 SYMPHONY PLACE

CHESS

MUSIC

after some practice stitches and instruction from a pro. The Forge provides space for artists of all experience levels working in mediums ranging from welding and woodworking to fiber arts, painting and printmaking, encouraging collaboration, offering studio and gallery spaces, and hosting classes and workshops for the greater community to learn a new skill or art practice. If you want to learn a new skill but crochet isn’t your medium, check out theforgenashville.org for other upcoming workshops and take steps toward your creative goals. LILLY LUSE 5:30 P.M. AT THE FORGE 217 WILLOW ST.

CONDUCTOR GEMMA NEW

[A PICTURE OF YOU]

THROUGH THE LENS AND INTO THE MUSIC

Back in November — on the very same day that Paul McCartney played a phenomenal, career-spanning show at The Pinnacle in downtown Nashville — the nearby Frist Art Museum opened its exhibit Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm. The show features a slew of photos taken by McCartney early in The Beatles’ career and recently unearthed — an absolute trove of candid images that make you feel as though you’re right there alongside the Fab Four,

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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STAFF PICKS JAN 11

BLUEBIRD AT THE SYMPHONY

with Jessi Alexander, the Warren Brothers, and members of the Nashville Symphony JAN 15 & 16

COLTRANE 100: LEGACY

Make Your Pick.

NashvilleSymphony.org

JAN 21

LEONARD SLATKIN’S HOLLYWOOD

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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9pm MOUTHHOLE PRESENTS

PSYCHO’S QUIZ SHOW” SHUR AT PM“THE KEVIN FREE T 64PM W HITEW AOLF NIMALS FREE 2.3 2.1 9PM CROCTOPUSS, PUMP ACTION WOLFE SAT 5pm KEVIN & POPLAR CREEK 1.10 6PM WHITE ANIMALS FREE FRI 7pm PARTYBAND FREE 2.2 SUN 4PMPRIVATE JAY PATTEN 2.4 SIT-IN JAM SUN SAT 4pm 4PMSPRINGWATER KEVINWOLF FREE 2.3 1.11 WED 95PMPMCW RITERS @ ,THE WATER OPEN MIC ROCTOPUSS PUMP ACTION 2.7 & POPLAR CREEK TUE 6pm KARAOKE! 1.13 SUN 4PM JAY PATTEN BAND FREE 2.4 WED THE WATER 115 27TH5pm AVEWRITERS N. OPEN AT WED - SUN 11AMFREE! - LATE NIGHT 1.14 WED 5PM WRITERS @ THE WATER OPEN MIC 2.7 27TH AVE. N OPEN WED.-SUN. 11AM-LATE NIGHT 115

1:30 P.M. AT THE FRIST 919 BROADWAY

MUSIC

115 27TH AVE N. OPEN WED - SUN 11AM - LATE NIGHT

D. PATRICK RODGERS

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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with ANN PATCHETT at PARNASSUS The Rest of Our Lives WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14 6:30 PM

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with LINDSAY LYNCH at PARNASSUS Is This a Cry for Help?

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KATIE SHEPARD

with JENNA LEVINE at PARNASSUS The Younger Gods

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 16 6:30 PM

JO SEGURA

with HANNAH BROWN at PARNASSUS The Lust Crusade 10:30 AM

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SATURDAY STORYTIME

with WINSTON THE THERAPY DOG at PARNASSUS

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HAYES CARLL BIRTHDAY BASH

From the studio rock of James McMurtry’s recent albums The Horses and the Hounds and The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy to the post-Guy Clark narratives of Noel McKay’s 2024 collection You Only Live Always, the Texasmeets-Tennessee singer-songwriter tradition is thriving these days. For Texas-born and Nashville-residing songwriter Hayes Carll, the personal lyrics and folk-based music pioneered

by Clark and Townes Van Zandt are stepping stones to understanding a world that seems like it’s gone awry. Carll’s superb 2025 album We’re Only Human stands tall with the work of McMurtry and Clark, and what might be most notable about the record is Carll’s mastery of tone. He recorded We’re Only Human in Austin with producer Gordy Quist, himself a member of the Americana ensemble The Band of Heathens. If We’re Only Human makes art out of the confessional tone that singer-songwriters often employ — check out the self-revealing “I Got Away With It” — Carll’s work with The Band of Heathens on their 2024 release Hayes & The Heathens reveals his rock ’n’ roll side. Saturday at Brooklyn Bowl, Carll marks his birthday, and the proceedings will include the alt-country duo Chaparelle along with some special guests.

@parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooksnashville

8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.

ART

6:30 PM

[STEPPING STONES]

[20 FOR TINNEY]

TINNEY/20

The biggest local show of the 2026 art calendar will be the In Her Place exhibition opening at the Frist Art Museum at the end of January. Before that sprawling display of notable Nashville women artists takes over, Tinney Contemporary — a gallery with its own notable artists in the Frist show — has organized an epic exhibition of its own to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Tinney is the last of the flagship commercial art galleries that established

PHOTO: JOSHUA BLACK WILKINS

6PM SUGAR WHITEPILLS ANIMALS FREE 5pm

HAYES CARLL Nashville’s Fifth Avenue arts district. Founder Susan Tinney’s showroom was a highlight of the original downtown art crawl, and the gallery has consistently appealed to collectors while also offering experimental installations and challenging content to keep gallerygoers guessing. TINNEY/20 is a varied multimedia group show featuring painting, photography and sculpture from 50 artists who’ve exhibited with Tinney over the past two decades. JOE NOLAN OPENING RECEPTION 2 P.M.; THROUGH FEB. 14 AT TINNEY CONTEMPORARY 237 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N. [I’M ALL RIGHT WITH A SLOW BURN]

SLOW BURN GRAND OPENING

Slow Burn opened its doors back in 2024 as one of the first romance-only mobile bookstores in the greater Nashville area. Since then, the book trailer has traveled all over town, from festivals to breweries, coffeehouses to trivia nights and everywhere in between. Now Slow Burn is opening its first brick-and-mortar location, right in the heart of East Nashville.

The grand opening celebration will take place over two days, with each day featuring author signings and giveaways. Some of the authors you’ll be able to meet: Fallon English, Karmen Lee, Katie Steele, Grace Elena, Allison Paige, Crystal J. Johnson, Felicity Vaughn and Allie Shante. Of course, there will also be a number of romance books available for purchase.

Interested in a more permanent memento?

Birdie’s Tattoo will have a special flash sheet

just for the event. Make sure to follow Slow Burn on Instagram (@slowburntn) for more author signing announcements and other upcoming events. TINA DOMINGUEZ JAN. 10-11 AT SLOW BURN BOOKSHOP 604 GALLATIN AVE., NO. 208

MUSIC

FRI FRI 2.2 1.9

BOOKS

THUR 9pm 6PM LEIJENAAR, WHITE ANIMALS FREE MITCHELL GONZALEZ, THU 2.1 BRAD SUNFLOWER ANDERSON $10 1.8

experiencing an unprecedented explosion of fame just as they do. The show remains on display until Jan. 26, and this week, the Frist has planned a gallery talk in conjunction with Paul McCartney Photographs. On Saturday afternoon, photographer Lynn Goldsmith and music journalist Ann Powers will conduct Through the Lens and Into the Music, a conversation “exploring the dynamic intersections of music and photography.” Goldsmith’s work has been featured in the pages of Rolling Stone, Time, Vanity Fair and countless others, and NPR Music’s Powers — a Nashville resident — has written for The New York Times and The Village Voice, among many other publications. All that is to say, the two really know their stuff, and this weekend it will be a delight to hear what they have to say about the intersection of music and photography. The event is free, but registration via fristartmuseum.org is required.

[TALKIN’ ’BOUT MY GENERATION]

GENERATION OF VIPERS

Knoxville’s Josh Holt has been a part of the subterranean Tennessee music community for more than a quarter-century, playing various instruments in multiple projects, both short-lived and long-running. He’s outlasted most of his peers, who long ago abandoned DIY basement shows for the suburban lives of adulthood. But Holt never suffered the adult crash. Since 2004, the singer/guitarist has been fronting Generation of Vipers. The mega power trio’s 2024 LP Guilt Shrine, mixed by Converge’s Kurt Ballou and mastered by From Ashes Rise’s Brad Boatright, is the fifth full-length by the East Tennesseans. GoV recalls a lot of the darker, heavier music that drove the underground in Holt’s formative years — acts like His Hero Is Gone, Neurosis and Isis — who crafted music full of downtuned, glacial riffs and bleak melodies that balance their heaviness with high-minded songcraft. With amplifier knobs cranked all the way up and quasi-spiritual lyrics bursting from the singer’s gut, GoV lives up to the high standards set by their metal-punk forefathers.

These Vipers don’t tour much, so don’t squander the rare opportunity to catch them live. Local

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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After you’ve checked out The Candidate, you might want to make it a two-fer and also go see Downhill Racer — the other Robert Redford-Michael Ritchie joint. This 1970 sports drama (scripted by novelist James Salter) has Redford gliding through the slopes as a cocky, competitive skier working his way up the U.S. Ski Team (led by Gene Hackman’s business-

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For a couple years there, Robert Redford got together with director Michael Ritchie (The Bad News Bears, Fletch) for some cynical, mediaskewering, cinema vérité-heavy pictures about ambitious, naive young guns who discover how lonely and unrewarding reaching for the stars can get. They went on a savage spree with their first collab, 1972’s Oscar-winning political satire The Candidate. As an activist who gets roped into becoming the Democratic nominee during a California senatorial race (a bearded Peter Boyle leads his spin-spewing campaign team), Redford stays affable and charming even when his character is clearly disgusted by the political machine. It’s basically All the King’s Men with a protagonist who already knows that you may have to hang up your soul once you become a politician. Another great reminder from the ’70s that politics has always been a performative shitshow, The Candidate will screen at the Belcourt this weekend — in glorious 35 mm!

On Saturday, retired actress Karen Carlson, who played Redford’s on-screen wife, will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY JAN. 10-11 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

with WNXP NASHVILLE & BANNED BOOKS HAPPY HOUR

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minded coach). Prepare to get altitude sickness as Ritchie and his crew capture breathtaking racing sequences done in the chilliest (and chillest) global locales. Out of all the movies Redford has done, this one will very likely have you hoping it gets an IMAX re-release one day. It would also play great on a double bill with the Chalamet-Safdie pingpong crash-out Marty Supreme, since they’re both about selfcentered athletes from small-time surroundings, desperate and determined to become romancing, jet-setting, superstar champions.

Downhill Racer is just quieter and less Jewish.

THURSDAY

hessians Mogil and Vaelravyn open the show, so get there on time. P.J. KINZER 8 P.M. AT THE ’58 AT EASTSIDE BOWL 1508 GALLATIN PIKE S.

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[WINDING ROADS]

SHERYL CROW

Longtime Nashville resident Sheryl Crow returns to Woolworth Theatre on Jan. 13 for the fourth installment of her ongoing series of shows benefiting her Love Now foundation, which works with Nashville schools to provide food and other support for students in need.

The Missouri native hit the charts in 1994 with her song “All I Wanna Do,” and she released her latest studio album Evolution in 2024. As an exponent of all-American rock, Crow has always drawn from the best, which means “All I Wanna Do” and the Evolution track “Do It Again” sound like, say, Stealers Wheel recast in a way that might be even more commercial than that band’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.” Evolution works as a move toward the modernization of her sound, and you’ll likely relate to the album’s opener “Alarm Clock” as a fellow participant in our current frazzled era. This month at Woolworth Theatre, Crow will be joined by guitarist and bassist Tim Smith, who has worked with her for decades. It’s a great opportunity to support a worthy cause and hear Crow classics performed with acoustic instruments.

She returns to Woolworth Theatre for two final shows in February and March. EDD HURT 7:30 P.M. AT WOOLWORTH THEATRE 223 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N. NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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The middle-aged hero of Ben Markovits’ The Rest of Our Lives roams America looking for answers

BY SEAN KINCH

TOM LAYWARD, the hero of Ben Markovits’ novel The Rest of Our Lives, is at a crossroads.

The younger of his two children is leaving for college at Carnegie Mellon, a seven-hour drive from their home in New York, so the time has come for Tom to make good on a pledge he made 12 years earlier when he learned that his wife Amy had an affair: “When Miriam goes to college, you can leave, too.” But does Tom have the gumption to go through with it?

When Amy decides not to make the trip to Pittsburgh to drop off their daughter, Tom recognizes an opportunity: Rather than return home and confront his wife about their marriage, he can keep driving west. With this brilliantly simple conceit, Markovits launches his hero on a midlife odyssey, a cross-country road trip that enables Tom to reckon with his life’s emotional balance sheet and chart a path for the future.

Narrating his own journey, Tom makes for an entertaining travel companion, reflective but never maudlin. A veteran of domestic squabbles, he knows his crisis is neither unique nor particularly poignant; he knows equally that no one else can solve his problems for him. His complaints ring with a tone of the universal.

“Nobody tells you what an intense experience loneliness is, how it has a lot of variations,” he says.

The Rest of Our Lives, short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, is a novel of earned wisdom, with a self-aware protagonist who shares observations on a wide range of topics, from family politics — on mediating between wife and daughter, “At some level everything you feel or think is a kind of taking sides” — to the deterioration of Friends over its 10 seasons (“People turning into caricatures, but maybe this is what happens to people”).

Most often, Tom finds himself wondering how his life has reached this cul-de-sac, when what he really wants is to roam freely. He fantasizes about writing a book about pickup basketball in America, but it sounds like a pipe dream. Tom has a tendency to suffer in silence, surrendering to inertia. It’s a propensity that becomes troubling when he fails to find a medical solution for the face bloating and eye excretions he suffers every morning. At work as a law professor, he has been asked to take a sabbatical after students complained about his class on hate crimes. He doesn’t know if he’ll be asked to return, or if he wants to go back.

The material may sound downbeat, but in Markovits’ hands it remains lively and engaging.

Tom’s route, Midwest to the Rocky Mountains and finally to his son Michael in Los Angeles, takes him on a This Is Your Life tour of friends and family that offers clues regarding the forces

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that shaped his personality and fate. His first stop is with a colleague from his grad school years — a scholar who has carved out a university career, whereas Tom remained a dilettante.

“I didn’t want to write about other people’s experiences or ideas of the world,” he confesses. “I just wanted to sit around and read books for the rest of my life.”

Tom finds spiritual company among his middle-aged brethren, his own ennui a specific version of a widespread malaise. His brother Eric in South Bend, Ind., is separated from his wife and lives in a two-bedroom apartment, seeing his children only on Wednesday nights and weekends. Tom thinks Eric is a “momma’s boy” whose problems originate in his being “someone who didn’t understand what it takes to get by in a world that isn’t filled with people who love you.”

The novel’s humor is pitch-perfect throughout, starting with the protagonist’s surname — Layward, a neologism that makes him sound like an amateur wanderer. Self-deprecating to a fault, Tom never takes himself too seriously.

He declares early that any “illusions” you have about a spouse after two decades of marriage are entirely “your fault,” because staying married means “you’ve accepted that this is what they’re like, and what your life with them is like,

and you stop expecting them to do or give you things you know perfectly well they’re unlikely ever to give you. It’s like being a Knicks fan.”

As Tom drifts farther from home, he summons remembrance of his early years with Amy, who he initially felt was too beautiful and refined to be in his league but has become “this person with such complicated resentments and dependencies directed at me. I don’t think I was worth it.” Tom’s problem is not, as some claim, his lack of passion — “You don’t really care about anything,” an old girlfriend says — but the mystery of how to rebuild a life. To find a way forward, he may have to reassemble pieces of his past.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼

The Rest of Our Lives

By Ben Markovits S&S / Summit Books 240 pages $28 Markovits will appear at Parnassus Books 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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FOOD & DRINK

JOY TO THE WORLD

Nonprofit Joy Kitchen wants to change standards in the restaurant industry ON A SATURDAY night in mid-December, Nashville families gathered at Glasshaüs on Craighead Street for an unusual dinner — one with 10- to 18-year-old residents of J.C. Napier Homes cooking, hosting and serving the food.

“Everybody’s always telling kids how to be successful, but who shows them what it looks like?” That was the question posed to guests by chef Sterling Wright — also known as “Mr. 100” — after he playfully berated a customer for eating fried chicken with a fork.

Trey’Anna, a 17-year-old, made that fried chicken all on her own. She’s part of Joy Kitchen, the nonprofit hosting these pop-up dinners throughout the city.

“I really appreciated when [Wright] taught me how to make the chicken and the sauce for the chicken, because people started telling me they like the chicken, and it really made me feel good about myself,” says Trey’Anna.

CEO Bryan Bennett says Joy Kitchen wants to embrace difference in the culinary scene.

“One thing that I think is different here is the ability to authentically introduce a community that has the same humanity, but also these beautiful differences, to Nashville,” Bennett says of Joy Kitchen’s mission.

Wright and Bennett are working to raise enough money to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant — to be called Joy — this year. For now, Wright runs Cooking the Wright Way, a nine-month training program in which he teaches kids how to become chefs, line cooks, servers and hosts.

“One time in cooking class, we had a whole oxtail,” says 16-year-old Xavier, who enjoys learning new skills through CWW. “We had to learn to trim the fat off of it and cut it down. It was really hard.”

Xavier was one of the first students to join CWW. He met Wright five years ago and enrolled with his cousins, who later dropped out. But he stayed, and he’s now Joy Kitchen’s executive chef.

“You get connections [that] will lead to a lot of opportunities,” Xavier says. “You can network and build relationships with the right type of people.” “[People who] want you to do good for yourself,” Trey’Anna adds.

Wright himself also grew up in the J.C. Napier Homes, and says he was told he’d never make these kinds of connections.

“Imagine growing up [and hearing], ‘You ain’t gonna be nothing,’” says Wright. “‘You’re gonna be dead by 25. You ain’t gonna graduate.’ All that sticks in your head, and I refuse to be a [product] of my environment.”

Wright is the first and only person from J.C. Napier to appear on Hell’s Kitchen, where he was a Season 13 contestant. He was later offered a job with Hell’s Kitchen host and head

22

FROM LEFT: BRYAN BENNETT, XAVIER, TREY’ANNA, STERLING WRIGHT

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

BY HANNAH URBAN

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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chef Gordon Ramsay, but he turned it down to come back and serve the community he came from. “We gotta show our children a better life,” says Wright. “And who’s better to show them than somebody who’s lived that life?”

Wherever Wright goes near J.C. Napier, people stop to talk to him. Walking across the street, a car honks, and someone inside greets him.

In the early 1940s, the Nashville Housing Authority (now the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency) built the Napier homes in an area often referred to as Black Bottom.

There was a good outcome: People who never had four walls were provided with a housing option. But it was segregated, and poor Black Nashvillians were concentrated in an area with access to fewer opportunities. Now, Napier exists in a food desert — an area with few options for affordable, quality food.

“The formal structures don’t really support or service,” Bennett says of infrastructure in the area.

But Joy Kitchen is working against this narrative, and Wright is their original success story.

“We already knew Sterling,” says Trey’Anna.

“We look at Sterling as our hero, basically.

He leads a good example for us. We take that home with us and show others.”

“Learn more about different communities that you’re not used to,” Xavier suggests.

“Get out there and experience stuff that you wouldn’t see yourself experiencing. … It’ll open your eyes more.”

Joy Kitchen served more than 1,200 plates to the Napier-area community on Thanksgiving.

Xavier’s parents came to the Glasshaüs pop-up last month, and he got to show them how successful he’s been in the program. Cole, another Joy student, connected with his parents as they ate the food he helped prepare.

“That word ‘impossible’ is spelled right, but pronounced wrong,” says Wright. “It’s actually ‘I’m possible.’ And thanks to Joy Kitchen and Cooking the Wright Way, look what we made possible from the impossible.” ▼

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Upcoming shows JAN 7 Herly Berly w/ Wallace, Tonight! & Shuteye JAN 8 THE BAND SOLSTICE w/ LENOX HILLS jan 9 BOBBY BARE JR. w/ Danny Malone Jan 10 Eric Cannata & Airpark Jan 14 Abbdavv w/ Norah Jean and Andy Wazz & Ya Motha jan 15 Taylor Noelle and abby johnson JAN 21 JESS WOODLAND Jan 24 Taylor Mccall w/ olivia wolf JAN 31 LOW GAP w/ JULIA DIGRAZIA

feb 1 jon auer w/ the posies & big star feb 6 el dorodo w/ of the dell FEB 25 MIKE VIOLA w/ DRUMMING BIRD MAR 6 GAVIN MARENGI (7PM) MAR 6 PONY AND STAR 99 w/ TRASH MAN (9PM) MAR 11 THE RAMONA FLOWERS mar 23 Moondoggy mar 25 hudson freeman w/ ruby plume mar 26 truly

MUSIC [There has been a] changing of the guard.

We have a lot of people in high positions who could truly show light on the up-and-coming executives and creators within this space, but instead they like to use them for their own gain and notoriety.

You can’t do it by yourself. You need a team of people who believe in you and your art.

ARE VARIOUS COMMUNITIES IN LOCAL BLACK MUSIC — BE THEY R&B, SOUL, HIP-HOP, COUNTRY, GOSPEL OR BEYOND — ABLE TO WORK TOGETHER? OR ARE THEIR AUDIENCES AND INTERESTS TOO DIFFERENT? EHS: Yes, they are able to work together and

ERICA HAYES SCHULTZ

JUSTIN CAUSEY

A NASHVILLE BLACK MUSIC ROUNDTABLE Erica Hayes Schultz and Justin Causey share their perspective in our fourth annual survey

BY RON WYNN THIS YEAR’S ROUNDTABLE on Black popular music in Nashville takes a different approach from previous years, in that the focus is more on the future than the past, and it’s as much predictive as it is reflective. Our two participants are ideal for providing an informed examination of Black music in Nashville, in terms of both its status within the city and within a nationwide view of music.

Erica Hayes Schultz has an extensive background in radio, which includes long-running program Soul of the City on Nashville’s WXNA — though she recently announced that she’s retiring this show, it will continue to air Thursdays 5 to 7 p.m. until a final broadcast on a date TBA — and The Brunch on WNXP, airing Sundays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. She is also an educator, and her shows not only spotlight emerging artists in contemporary soul and R&B but also celebrate those enjoying consistent success. Justin Causey hosts WXNA’s The Corner (Mondays from 5 to 7 p.m.) and co-hosts WNXP’s Cashville Radio (Thursdays from 6 to 7 p.m.) with Carlos Partee. Causey’s work also includes collaborating with numerous brands in content production and design, and he’s worked with a variety of Nashville musicians in different capacities. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PROSPECTS FOR BLACK POPULAR MUSIC IN NASHVILLE IN 2026 AND BEYOND? Erica Hayes Schultz: I’m very optimistic. I’m seeing way more creativity in the music that has been released in 2025. New sounds not previously used before, and an honoring of classic sounds in new music. For example, I’ve just been introduced to Shelldhn, a musician who is throwing back to early-2000s R&B with a fresh take and a beautiful voice. I see a great future for him. [I think this year we’ll see even more] new and diverse sounds with the artists that are coming up.

Justin Causey: I’m overly optimistic for what

the future holds for Black music within Nashville. We have so many talented acts that are building their own communities and are finally getting recognition from the industry as a whole, as well as cementing themselves as serious recording artists and not just hobbyists.

WHO ARE THE LOCAL BLACK MUSICIANS YOU ANTICIPATE WILL MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT IN THE YEARS TO COME? EHS: Summer Joy, Shelldhn, Vibeout, Tim Gent, Ron Gilmore, Brian Brown, Lord Goldie, Foundation Mecca. Most of these artists have been working the Nashville scene and helping musicians along the way. Their impact will last for sure.

JC: The artists I’ve seen really laying the groundwork in 2025 and will reap the benefits are ones like Tim Gent, Daisha McBride, 2’Live Bre, Sweet Poison, Summer Joy, Shelldhn, Ashley Emj, Jack Vinoy, Jyou, K.O.N, Blvck Wizzle and Chuck Indigo. There are incredible artists making their presence known as well as some amazing songwriters, producers and instrumentalists that are really making Nashville’s hip-hop and R&B scenes thrive.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A NASHVILLE SOUND OR STYLE IN BLACK POPULAR MUSIC? EHS: Yes, it’s getting there. I think some artists previously were trying to re-create sounds that had worked in the past, like Memphis vibes and such. Now that idea has been pushed aside and I’m seeing artists that are creating sounds that show their influences and lyricism that is representing their personal stories. Because of these new sounds, there are more artists getting attention from bigger artists [and other entertainment spheres like] television.

JC: There is no definitive answer, but I always say that you can hear the soul and true musicality within Nashville Black music because everyone has a background in church or choir singing that they are able to translate over into this space. So artists take a little more time with the cooking in the kitchen, and you can hear

that when you listen to projects. The notes, rhythm, melodies and performance come from the heart. They aren’t forced.

WHAT IS MISSING THAT’S NEEDED TO IMPROVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL BLACK MUSICIANS? EHS: Black artists of all genres having proper PR/management teams. Some PR teams have a stronger focus on the country scene and don’t have as much experience with Black music.

Some PR teams are just inexperienced. The effort of all PR teams in Nashville to support Black artists is an amazing thing, but in this town you have to get creative to get more attention for artists outside of country music.

Part of that issue is with venues! There are venues in this city that will have Black artists perform. Teams for these artists are working really hard to get the artist in a decent venue, but [two issues affect the outcomes]. First, venues are not strongly advertising shows as they could.

Advertising is completely reliant on the artists, and sometimes the artist needs help from the venue — especially newer artists. Also the costs involved in hosting a show at some venues deter an artist.

In my opinion, these two things slow the growth of Black music in Nashville. Having more quality Black-owned venues could help, but ultimately the artistic community has to create a demand for better.

JC: Educational support. A lot of artists don’t truly know how the business works, and they believe recording and releasing music is the only part of the game.

We need more labels in Nashville to actually support the talent that is here, instead of signing the transplant that just moved here and has a following on TikTok. The homegrown talent will be able to tell stories that truly connect to the heart, not the like button.

Lose the crab-in-the-barrel mentality. So many people are collectively making amazing things happen. Either aid in it or completely remove yourself from the space.

have been for years now. There are tons of artists in R&B, soul or hip-hop who are working with country and gospel artists, either as backing musicians, in production or in songwriting.

Many Nashville R&B artists that I have on my radio shows have day jobs in the background for country and gospel artists. And within those spaces, they are creating new music with the help of those artists. I think the reality of music and creation in this city [and] what is portrayed in the media are not the same.

Collective spaces where artists have been meeting and collaborating — like HOME in East Nashville or noncountry writers’ rounds — have been helping connect a diverse set of musicians as well. The projects that have come out of these collaborations have changed perceptions and sounds here in Nashville.

JC: We’ve clearly seen that various communities can coexist and collaborate. We saw that firsthand with how BigXThaPlug was welcomed into the country scene here in Nashville, and they paraded him around as a success. Meanwhile, we have our own homegrown artist 2’Live Bre making amazing strides within the space, and companies like Origins Music Group that are leading the conversation for Black artists in country. (Black artists created country music, by the way.)

IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS, SHOULD LOCAL ASPIRING MUSICIANS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF BLACK MUSIC STAY IN NASHVILLE OR GO ELSEWHERE? EHS: Start in Nashville. Whether you are a native or you’ve moved here to start out, the creativity in Nashville is unparalleled, and Nashville is a good starting point. It’s not too overwhelming compared to bigger cities like Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta. Then create an initial sound. Work with musicians (who may have a different sound than you) who are touring or create a tour — and as you are going to different cities, listen to and link with musicians there. Be receptive to musical ideas, bring them back to Nashville, and see how it works musically for you.

JC: They should absolutely stay here in Nashville. If you can’t build the dream here, why would you leave the town where every label writes checks? You just have to show them that the proof is in the pudding. I always said Nashville is a jumping pad [to the rest of] the world.

You show them that your talent is unmatched and they’ll tell the world. Nashville has this!!! ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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THE YEAR OF THE BAND Looking ahead at 2026 in Music City’s rock scenes with Jared Corder, Mike Grimes, Angela Lese and Will Shepherd

BY DARYL SANDERS

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OVER THE PAST quarter-century, high-profile rock acts — both homegrown artists such as Kings of Leon and Paramore and transplants like Jack White and The Black Keys — have helped Nashville shed the long-standing image of being just a country town. As a byproduct, the local rock scene has grown progressively bigger and better, and 2026 promises to be another banner year.

Looking ahead, a number of Nashville rock artists have already announced plans to release new music in the coming year. Kings of Leon have confirmed a new album for early 2026, as has new local rock supergroup Million Dollar Emperors. The Chefs, another rock supergroup primarily based in Nashville, will release their third album this year. Robyn Hitchcock will release the follow-up to his brilliant 2022 album Shufflemania!, which he recorded at Alex the Great Studios with producer Brad Jones. Hitchcock’s wife Emma Swift has a new EP coming in the spring, as does RobinAugust. In addition, The Black Crowes will release their second album recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce.

But what about lesser-known artists who are poised to break out in 2026? To get some perspective, the Scene talked with four members of the local rock community who are in the trenches: Jared Corder, Mike Grimes, Angela Lese and Will Shepherd. Interestingly, they all touched on one theme in particular: There are currently a lot of cool and interesting rock bands in Nashville.

“I feel like Nashville has changed so much over the last couple of years, and I feel like it’s evolved,” says producer-artist Corder, a member of the indie-rock outfit *repeat repeat and owner of Polychrome Ranch studio. “One thing that’s really struck me as interesting going into 2026 is I see a lot more bands.”

Grimes, who is founder and co-owner of The Basement, The Basement East and Grimey’s New & Preloved Music, agrees. “The rock scene in Nashville is amazingly healthy, band-wise,” Grimes says. “I’ve never seen the depth of talent like we have right now.”

“There are so many great bands here, and I think the greatest bands are always flying under the radar,” says Lese, a drummer and former member of The Dead Deads who is one-half of the rock duo Lips Speak Louder.

According to Lese, not only are there a lot of great bands, but also there is more diversity among them.

“I think the tides are changing in the sense there’s a bigger stage for people to say what they want to say in this town and sing about

CHERRY VANCE

what they want to sing about — and more and more people are allowed to come to that stage,” she says. “I see a lot more female musicians, trans musicians, nonbinary musicians taking the front. And it’s great because that’s what music is about. It’s about community and accepting all of us weirdos as we are.”

Shepherd, who is a booker for Drkmttr and bassist for Human Shield, likes what he sees for the city’s indie rockers.

“I feel like rock is in a really good place in Nashville, especially in DIY,” Shepherd says.

“With the rise of TikTok and smaller DIY interests [becoming influential] in a more accessible way … some more fringe windows of rock — punk and hardcore, noise rock, shoegaze — have all kind of come to head in a really cool way.”

We got an array of recommendations for groups to keep an eye on. Grimes mentions four: punk outfit Gremlins; Iguanahead, a three-piece that combines elements of alternative rock, psychedelic rock and doom metal; Power Clinic, which features heavy riffs and driving rhythms; and alternative rockers Abbdavv, fronted by singer-songwriter Abby Davis.

Three acts have especially caught Lese’s ear.

Winona Fighter, which is led by multi-instrumentalist Coco Kinnon, released their debut album on Rise Records in February. Lese says they’re “punk as fuck” and “make you want to jump up and down and party with the stranger next to you.” She also mentions power-pop quintet Flight Attendant, fronted by Karalyne Winegarner, and singer-songwriter Molly Martin, who Lese says would blow up in another city, “but it’s so saturated here.”

Shepherd points to four groups on the DIY scene he expects more from in 2026: self-described twangle popsters Impediment, experimental trio Baby Wave, metal-tinged hardcore band Gorge and a younger punk outfit called Catacomb. He also singles out shoegaze duo Total Wife, known for their artful and melodic use of noise, as leaders in the DIY community.

“They have a small label called Ivy Eat Home [releasing cassettes] out of their house,” he says. “They are giving a home to a lot of the slowcore, shoegaze … and they’re really doing a good job nurturing that.”

Corder thinks a few of the artists he’s worked with recently are poised to ascend, including all-girl punk band massie99, pop rockers Cherry Vance and shoegaze-schooled group The Sewing Club. He also mentions Shanny & The East Men, Bluphoria and Really Regular as bands “on the come-up.” ▼

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FILM

THE SHORT LIST

Our senior film critic weighs in on his favorite films of 2025

BY JASON SHAWHAN IT’S THAT TIME of year again. Since as a critic I am bound to my assorted guilds but have not been invited to any of the big-money reindeer games, I use the idea of the 10 Best list as a form, and not a limitation. It’s more fun to find thematic connections, and hopefully this will draw attention to some films that either got away in the big end-of-year battle royale or that have yet to take their turn locally. (An asterisk denotes a film that has not yet played in Nashville.)

Also, keep an eye out later this month for our annual Jim Ridley Memorial Film Poll, wherein a bunch of interesting critical voices gather thought and opinion into a provocative and rewarding discussion.

Hind Rajab uses actual voice recordings as a means of intensified engagement (and it works, devastatingly). Videoheaven gathers the physical evidence of something that existed, but is now endangered to the point of extinction. And Zodiac Killer Project (a film that evinced crazy amounts of hatred from audiences) is about a film that was never even made. We as viewers are the essential part of these circuits, the central node of impermanent spaces.

8. MAA / REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND* (STREAMING ON SHUDDER) / SISTER MIDNIGHT (STREAMING ON HULU AND HOOPLA)

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

One of the other pleasures of genre is a good switcheroo, where the filmmakers are skilled enough artists and sleight-of-hand tricksters that you get so much more than you might have initially expected. What Maleficent did for Sleeping Beauty, Maa does for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on several different levels.

Reflection in a Dead Diamond is somehow a delightfully cruel espionage thriller that is also the grad-school course about its own theoretical legacy (and the most inspired Bond pastiche you could hope for). And Sister Midnight pulls off a say what now pivot that makes me shake with joy even now.

1. THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE* / WAKE UP DEAD MAN (STREAMING ON NETFLIX) There’s a dialogue happening here, about how the ideal of religious liberty and expression very often becomes weaponized against those who hew to a more kind and nurturing faith; where religion becomes conflated with the exertion and retention of power. Mother Ann, Father Jud, how you reconcile within me against empty faith and unchecked power. Also, Testament does a Suspiria.

2. SINNERS (STREAMING ON HBO MAX) The Story of America — like Spencer Williams’ Go Down, Death!, like Robert Altman’s Nashville, like Avery Crounse’s Crying Blue Sky, like Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, like Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, like James Gray’s The Immigrant.

9. EEPHUS (STREAMING ON MUBI) / ONE OF THEM DAYS (STREAMING ON NETFLIX)

SINNERS

The passage of time is part of all experiences, but I’m grateful for when it’s funny rather than tragic.

10. TWINLESS / WEAPONS (STREAMING ON HBO MAX)

3. MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I — LAST AIR IN MOSCOW* When this premiered a month or so before the 2024 election, it felt like the most visceral of cautionary tales and a testament to what journalism can accomplish. Now that it’s finally made it out into the world, it’s as close to an essential roadmap as one could imagine for the disassembling of an entire culture.

4. *CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY PART I: THE FEAR OF HAVING NO ONE TO HOLD AT THE END OF THE WORLD / *CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY PART II: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS / *RESURRECTION The cultivated garden of maximalism. Bi Gan’s Resurrection is a sextet of sensory allegories and genre-hopping situations. It shares with Louise Weard’s lengthy vivisections (10-plus hours and counting) of modern trans life a noble willingness not to skimp on detail and emotion.

Like Douglas Sirk. Like Jim Steinman. More. Everything. Maybe too much. But alive and aware and absolutely essential viewing.

5. SENTIMENTAL VALUE / SORRY, BABY (STREAMING ON HBO MAX) That sense of comfort that a novel brings, like an easy chair and a cup of tea on an overcast day. Characterizations you derive joy from, even in moments of sorrow. Lives lived in a way you

RESURRECTION return to again and again.

6. BUGONIA / THE HOUSEMAID / KPOP DEMON HUNTERS / THE MONKEY / TINSMAN ROAD* The pleasure of genre is that the foundation is solid enough that no matter what twists and turns it takes, there are itches that you know up front will get scratched. But there’s so much more to be had than just that simple fulfillment of expectations: You watch something like Tinsman Road for the relentless creep of found footage, but Robbie Banfitch is also one of the great family dramatists of this moment, and the emotional trap is sprung. Sprung from a Stephen King short story, The Monkey gives good guignol, but in Osgood Perkins’ hands becomes a profound meditation on death. The Housemaid

dives into mass-market bestseller tropes that are in the American DNA, but it’s as mean as a Jack Ketchum novel and it does a Dogville! Thanks to KPop Demon Hunters, an entire generation is going to be cautious about branding. And Bugonia, for a remake of a film I’d already seen, broke my heart in a way that sci-fi rarely gets the chance to do.

7. PETER HUJAR’S DAY / VIDEOHEAVEN / THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB* / ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT There’s a square, and in the center of it is reality. And this quartet of films is engaging with reality, trying to re-create a different facet of this central, ineffable concept. Peter Hujar’s Day is built from the transcript of an interview that happened in December 1974. The Voice of

There’s something about the structure of mass-market paperbacks from the ’70s and ’80s that lends itself to the modern film moment. Sex and violence and tragedy, but incorporated into a narrative that hits like one of those suburban roads with just enough wild turns and elevations that people spoke of them like homegrown roller coasters. Every community has one or two of them, and there’s something in the blend of the trashy and truthful in these films that pays proper tribute to this style of experience. Twinless could even be a Bari Wood adaptation, and Weapons has the feel of a Zebra paperback with the holographic cover.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Architecton, Black Bag, Bring Her Back, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Story, Dead Talents’ Society, Die My Love, Radu Jude’s Dracula, the first six minutes of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (when it does the opening of Scream 2 but for kids), It Was Just an Accident, Kill the Jockey, L2: Empuraan, Materialists, A Nice Indian Boy, Peewee as Himself, Pillion, Rabbit Trap, The Secret Agent, Sholay: The Final Cut (still the most amazing theatrical experience of 2025), The Shrouds, Superman, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, Thunderbolts, Jr. NTR’s scenes in War 2, The Wedding Banquet. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

Despite good performances, Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? is a weird, bitter trip through middle age

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY I’D SAY THE moment Is This Thing On? goes off the rails is when Peyton Manning shows up as a character who’s not Peyton Manning.

For reasons I’m still trying to figure out, the jovial football icon does the acting thing in Bradley Cooper’s latest directorial effort, playing a dude named Laird. While he does an OK job in the small role, I still spent most of his screen time uttering What is going on? over and over in my head. Don’t be surprised if you feel the same while watching this dramedy downer, another awkward marriage story co-starring Laura Dern.

Dern and Will Arnett are Tess and Alex Novak, a New York couple who have drifted apart over the course of their 20-year marriage. While Tess keeps the two boys and the dogs at their house, Alex is now living in some dumpy bachelor pad in the city. During a weed-cookie-induced haze (it’s a long story), Alex slips into a comedy club and tries his hand at stand-up, using his marital woes as comic fodder. (He mainly does it to avoid paying the $15 cover.)

The marvelous Mr. Novak turns out to be a natural at getting laughs, even though he looks like he’s on the verge of a full-on meltdown whenever he gets too personal. Cooper and cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s lensing often gets too in-your-face during the anxiety-inducing stand-up scenes, shot at famed workout room the Comedy Cellar. They often place the camera right in the mug of whoever’s onstage, catching every bead of sweat that falls even while the comic is killing. (I blame Joker for this.) Novak turns his dirty little secret into a therapeutic hobby, coming up with material and slowly becoming a regular among his fellow comics. Meanwhile, his former better half tries to move on — the onetime volleyball prodigy gets into coaching and even goes to dinner with Manning’s Laird. And that’s when shit goes south.

Is This Thing On? is yet another emotional journey through art and love for Cooper, who

previously covered tortured musical geniuses and their long-suffering muses with A Star Is Born and Maestro. Using the story of sharpdressed British comic John Bishop as his blueprint, Cooper (who wrote the script with Arnett and Mark Chappell) gets his Punch Line on and takes us inside the shit-talking world of New York stand-up in the film’s appealing first half.

Arnett convincingly makes himself at home with his comic compatriots, including Amy Sedaris as a veteran booker and actual comedians Chloe Radcliffe, Reggie Conquest and onetime Nashvillian Jordan Jensen in bit roles.

At some point, Cooper remembered he was still doing a relationship film, refocusing on its main characters. Their clique is an oddly cast collective; along with Arnett’s Smartless co-host/ pal Sean Hayes as one-half of a gay couple, we also have Cooper and soul singer Andra Day playing a mismatched pair. Cooper lays on the dopiness as Alex’s scatterbrained actor buddy (who’s named Balls, for some reason), while Day steps in as Alex’s petty archnemesis and the group’s resident center of attention.

In the film’s dysfunctional second half, Cooper and company bring home the oh-so-problematic message that the only way a marriage can survive is if a couple is miserable as fuck together — or something like that. It’s an odd hill to die on, especially when Arnett and Dern give off so much intimate chemistry (Cooper often places them in insanely close face-to-face shots, making us feel like we’re invading their personal space) that you never completely buy them as a couple on the outs. There isn’t even one couples-therapy scene here!

What should’ve been a film about two people rediscovering what brought them together by rediscovering themselves becomes a weird, bitter trip through middle-aged matrimonial hell.

It also proves that loud-ass, ball-busting comedians are better hangs than married couples. ▼

Is This Thing On? R, 121 minutes Opening Friday, Jan. 9, at select Regal and AMC locations

BACK OF THE BOOK 1

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Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

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NO CALLS PLEASE. EOE/M/F/D/V. #LI-DNP. The expected salary range(s) for this role as of the date of this posting is/are based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, qualifications, education, location and skill level. This role may also be eligible for discretionary incentive compensation. For benefits information, please visit ubs.com/usbenefits Public Auction to satisfy owner’s lien for unpaid storage rent. Fox Moving and Storage of Nashville, LLC on Tuesday January 28th at 10 am. The auction will be held at 616 Space Park South Drive Nashville 37211. The following units will be sold to the highest bidder: Aniel Morey, Elia Group Mark Lawrence, Darrell Marmon, Larita Clay, Mari Logan, Richard Waters, Valency Horton.

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Develop high-quality data pipeline solutions using Python, Spark, and SQL. Employer: Tractor Supply Company. Location: Brentwood, TN. May telecommute periodically from within normal commuting distance of Brentwood, TN. Multiple openings. To apply, mail resume to J. Yokley, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027. Ref. job code 240376.

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Rental Scene

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

· Opryland

· Nashville Shores Lakeside Resort

· Opry Mills Mall NEIGHBORHOOD DINING & DRINKS

· El Fuego Mexican Restaurant

· Roma Pizza & Pasta

· Flamie’s The Hot Chicken Factory ENJOY THE OUTDOORS

· Shelby Bottoms Nature Center

· Centennial Park

· Bicentennial Capital Mall State Park BEST PLACES NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW

· Opryland

FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

· Inglewood Lounge

· Sid Gold’s Request Room

· Henry James

· The Underdog

BEST LOCAL FAMILY OUTING

· Adventure Science Center

· Tennessee Central Railway Museum

COMMUNITY AMENITIES

Studio 79

3810 Gallatin Pike, Nashville TN 37216 studio79apartments.com | 855.997.1526

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NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

· Fitness Center

· Doggie Stations

· Valet Services

· Elevator

· Bike Storage

· Cable/Internet ready

· Package Room

· Washer/Dryer in each unit

· SmartLock technology

Call the Rental Scene property you’re interested in and mention this ad to find out about a special promotion for Scene Readers

141 Neese Dr, Nashville, TN 37211 gazeboapts.com | 844.718.2420

5 floor plans

330 Sq ft $900-$1000 600 Sq ft $950-1150

2999 Smith Springs Road, Nashville, TN 37217

730 Sq ft $930+ 1050-1184 Sq ft $959+ 1225-1315 Sq ft $1482+

chasecoveapartments.com | 844.861.5645

5 floor plans

Studio 79

Studios available

3810 Gallatin Pike, Nashville, TN 37216

492 - 610 sq ft starting at $1409

630 Sq ft $999-1200

sunrisenashville.com | 615.333.7733

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studio79apartments.com | 855.997.1526

4 floor plans

Brighton Valley

800 - 1350 sq ft

The Arcadia

585 Sq ft $1310

500 Brooksboro Terrace, Nashville, TN 37217 brightonvalley.net | 615.366.5552

starting at $1360 3 floor plans

87 Shepherd Hills Dr, Madison, TN 37115

To advertise your property available for lease, contact

189 Wallace Rd, Nashville, TN 37211

starting at $1119

Chase Cove Apartments

Michael Jezewski at 615-557-4788 or mjewzski@fwpublishing.com

Sunrise Apartments

756 - 1201 sq ft

Rental Scene

Gazebo

675 Sq ft $1460-$1480 914 Sq ft $1645-$1680

thearcadianashville.com | 833-983-0956

3 floor plans

NASHVILLE SCENE • JANUARY 8 – JANUARY 14, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

31

MAKING YOUR TRIP TO NASHVILLE A COSMIC EXPERIENCE SINCE 2002

MUSIC CITY

PSYCHIC

Crystals & Jewelry Magical Gifts Intuitive Readings Transformative Energy work 5 minutes from Downtown Nashville 2117 8th Avenue South 615.463.7677 | yourcosmicconnections.com

NOT JUST A STORE. A PORTAL

Palm & Tarot Card Readings 615.915.0515 • 107 White Bridge Rd • MusicCityPsychic.com

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