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WITNESS HISTORY
This straw hat, decorated with cloth flowers and dangling $1.98 price tag, was worn by Minnie Pearl for her Grand Ole Opry debut, November 30, 1940— and for ten years of Saturday night performances on the show with Rod Brasfield.
From the exhibit Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100 RESERVE TODAY
artifact photo: Bob Delevante
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CONFLICTING VACCINE RECOMMENDATIONS MUDDY THE WATERS
Latest federal recommendations encourage physician conversations about shots, but do not require prescription
BY HANNAH HERNER
AS INFECTIOUS DISEASE expert Dr. William Schaffner puts it, this year’s flu and COVID-19 vaccination conversation has been “turbulent.”
First, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed the COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 65 and older, as well as those younger than 65 with a chronic medical condition — creating a more specific target for the shot than in past years.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opted to continue the previous recommendation that all pregnant women should get the vaccine. The American Academy of Pediatrics chimed in that COVID-19 vaccination in children ages 6 months to 2 years should be routine.
Then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week endorsed scrapping the recommendation that those age 65 and older should get a COVID-19 vaccine, putting emphasis on individual decision and consultation with a physician. But the committee stopped short of saying people need a prescription for the shot. That last statement is the most impactful — there is not a prescription required to get the latest COVID-19 vaccination.
Most people get their vaccines at pharmacies. While CVS’ and Walgreens’ websites cite FDA recommendations, the Nashville Banner’s Rachel Wells reported in mid-September that simply claiming she had an underlying condition was enough to get past the red tape.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (which Schaffner was formerly part of) was completely fired and replaced under Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Schaffner points out that when he was involved, the committee worked together with professional societies and the FDA to make
sure they were presenting a united front.
“When you had a set of recommendations, a sheet of music about vaccines that everybody used, then you got beautiful music,” says Schaffner, a physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “When everybody’s playing their own song, you get noise dissonance, and that’s what we’re having now.
“It’s tumultuous, it’s uncertain,” he continues. “We’re concerned about the scientific basis that the current committee is using to make its recommendations. Confidence in this wonderful committee that has worked for 60 years in the United States developing vaccine policy — confidence in that committee is just plummeting. That’s very sad. It was so highly regarded.”
It’s correct that there should be special emphasis on the high-risk individuals being vaccinated this fall, Schaffner says, but that shouldn’t be confused with the sentiment that they’re the only ones who should be vaccinated.
Dr. Dontal Johnson, a pediatrician at Meharry Clinic, says parents he consults with don’t typically have a specific reason why they’re refusing vaccines for their children — just a general unease about what they’re hearing. He’s also taking care of a lot of young COVID patients in his clinic. Very young children and the elderly are most likely to get ICU-level ill, and the vaccine can prevent that. He recommends the American Academy of Pediatrics as a source for those who don’t see a pediatrician regularly.
“Especially in the past few years or so, we’re seeing a lot more hesitancy from people that we usually didn’t even expect to see hesitancy from,” Johnson says. “They’ve had other kids that have been vaccinated. They themselves have been vaccinated. Now they’re coming with more anxiety around getting their kids shots.”
The flu vaccine, on the other hand, is much
A federal judge sentenced former state House Speaker Glen Casada to three years in jail for his role in a fraud and bribery scheme that implicated several top Republican officials. The court also levied a $30,000 fine against Casada, a Williamson County conservative who was first elected to the House in 2002 and ascended to the speaker’s office in 2019. The sentencing follows a similar punishment for Casada’s former chief of staff Cade Cothren, who, along with Casada and former Rep. Robin Smith (R-Hixson), orchestrated financial kickbacks through a political consultancy called Phoenix Solutions
more status quo. Everyone 6 months of age and older is recommended to receive the vaccine. The strains of flu currently circling are pretty much the same as they were last year, Schaffner tells the Scene. He doesn’t anticipate this year will match the severity of the flu epidemic of last year, but that doesn’t mean people should blow it off.
“If you’re young and strong, you are apt to get a milder infection,” Schaffner tells the Scene “But every once in a while, a young, strong, completely healthy person gets hit with flu and finds themself in the emergency room and admitted to the hospital because they get that seriously ill. We can’t pick those people out in advance, so that’s why the recommendation is universal.”
The Metro Public Health Department is hosting a flu shot event on Oct. 21, after which all of the flu shots will be free. Otherwise, it’s $40 for the shot, and $85 for the high-dose shot.
While some pharmacies and doctors have the latest edition of the COVID-19 vaccine for 2025-26, the MPHD must await guidance from the state before it orders them. It’s still unclear how much it will cost, but the latest Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decisions open the door to insurance coverage of the COVID-19 jab, and some states are requiring such coverage.
“I am encouraged by the fact that the ACIP made the decision that it’s individual decision-making, and having that conversation with your provider is so important,” says Dr. Laura Varnier, director of clinical services at the Metro Public Health Department. “I do think it has been, I guess you could say, more confusing this year, just with the different conversations that have been had. But I think having the individual choice is really empowering.” ▼
Parents allege that country star John Rich is behind a move to oust Lipscomb Academy principal Jesse Savage over a dress code controversy related to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Parents went to The Tennessee Star a conservative site, after students who wore red ties to the Christian private school in tribute to Kirk were asked to remove the ties by administrators. Savage abruptly announced a job change — from head of the upper school to director of academics — that other parents, students and alumni viewed as politicized retribution for the dress code enforcement. Many blame Rich, a Lipscomb parent, for provoking the media against Savage. More than 700 people have signed a petition demanding Lipscomb reinstate Savage to his previous position.
Political drama continues to unfold in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, where the GOP and Democrats are running parallel primaries ahead of a Dec. 2 special election. Outgoing U.S. Rep. Mark Green, a Republican who abandoned the seat just six months into his term, was undermined this week by his ex-wife’s public endorsement of Jody Barrett, a state representative competing against Green’s hand-selected successor Matt Van Epps. Green’s alleged affair came to light last year and precipitated his divorce from Camie Guenther-Green, his wife of 35 years. Meanwhile, writes Scene columnist Betsy Phillips, the largely rural district is poised for financial devastation as farmers struggle with a shrinking market for American soybeans, driven by sharp Trump tariffs As crops lay unharvested, GOP candidates continue to rail on “wokeness,” indicating an issues gap growing wider between voters and officials.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
APSU ADMINISTRATORS SCRAMBLE AFTER FIRING TENURED PROFESSOR FOR KIRK COMMENTS
Facing pressure from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, university leaders fired Darren Michael over legal and policy concerns
BY ELI MOTYCKA
taught theater and dance at Austin Peay State University since 2007, rising from associate professor to tenured professor. On Friday, Sept. 12, he was terminated via email over a social media post. Days later, administrators walked back his termination, instead suspending Michael after a testy faculty senate meeting, as first reported by Clarksville Now Outraged faculty have focused on the administration’s apparent disregard for clearly stated employment policy, including tenure protections. The university could also face a lawsuit from Michael, who has retained Nashville attorney David L. King. In the hours following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Michael shared a 2023
DESPITE LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL CHALLENGES, BOROPRIDE CARRIES ON
The festivities, hosted by the Tennessee Equality Project, take place this weekend in Murfreesboro
BY NOAH MCLANE
EVEN THOUGH PRIDE Month ended many weeks ago, more and more rainbow flags have been popping up around Murfreesboro homes and businesses.
BoroPride, a locally produced Pride festival held in Murfreesboro since 2016, returns to Middle Tennessee State University’s Tennessee Miller Coliseum this Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. — despite past efforts from right-wing groups and conservative politicians to ban the festival. BoroPride has also gained notice for taking place in the fall, rather than the summertime, when most big Pride events are held.
“Originally, it was supposed to be in early September, and that was honestly just because the very first committee meeting was in June,” says William Langston, a member of the festival’s planning committee since 2016. “It was around the time MTSU opened up [for the fall semester],
article in which Kirk justified firearm deaths as the cost of the Second Amendment freedoms. The post drew notice from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn — also a current gubernatorial hopeful — who fired off an ominous social media post reading, “What do you say, Austin Peay State University?” As a public university, APSU relies on state funding; members of its governing board, the APSU Board of Trustees, are appointed by Tennessee’s governor. Faculty immediately raised concerns that Michael’s sudden email firing late on a Friday evening — hours after an otherwise mild disciplinary discussion with APSU Provost Mitch Cordova — violated APSU policy, which requires “adequate cause” for termination and the “assurance of continued employment during the academic year.”
APSU President Mike Licari faced contentious questions from his colleagues at a crowded faculty senate meeting on Sept. 18. Michael’s attorney King also attended, according to multiple sources. A motion to formally express no confidence in Licari’s leadership failed to meet a required two-thirds majority by a single vote at a second, special-called faculty senate meeting on Sept. 25.
After firing — then suspending — Michael over his social media post, the university is building its case to terminate Michael once again.
“Professor Darren Michael has been placed on suspension,” APSU spokesperson Ginna Holleman tells the Scene. “Austin Peay is initiating proceedings to terminate his tenure for adequate cause.”
The faculty handbook lists seven reasons that might
constitute adequate cause for firing. Five are relatively explicit: incompetence or dishonesty in teaching and research; a felony conviction; drug or alcohol abuse on the job; willful failure to perform one’s professional duties; and falsifying qualifications or employment information. Two others — “capricious disregard of accepted standards of professional conduct” and “failure to maintain the level of professional excellence” — could open the door for administrators to apply personal discretion.
A lawsuit from Michael could shed more light on
Blackburn’s role in the firing. The senator could be drawn into the suit personally if accused of contract interference. Additional communication could come out as well, if Blackburn made any relevant statements to APSU administrators or trustees, among whom are conservative politicians state Rep. Curtis Johnson and former U.S. Rep. Phil Roe.
Faculty at Middle Tennessee State University, Cumberland University and the University of Tennessee also faced termination or administrative discipline for comments related to Kirk’s death. ▼
and so it was a good time to have an event and welcome everybody to town.”
BoroPride’s past is almost as colorful as its flags. The festival has faced several challenges in recent years, including fallout from the state legislature’s ban on adult drag performances in public — legislation that was met with legal challenges, but that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to rule on. Corporate sponsors have also pulled funding from Pride celebrations nationwide after the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity initiatives. Though the lack of corporate sponsorship has indeed impacted BoroPride, the organization still received funds from the Tennessee Equality Project, a nonprofit that advocates for the state’s LGBTQ community through lobbying.
“It’s no secret that corporate support has dried up,” says Langston. “Most of the corporate sponsors that we’ve had for years did not come back.”
Langston is nevertheless adamant that BoroPride is here to stay.
“We may not be able to do everything we want to do in future years, but we should be able to keep doing Pride,” he says.
MT Lambda, MTSU’s all-inclusive LGBTQ and ally student organization, has been involved with BoroPride for years. The club’s current president, Rio Martinez, looks forward to carrying that tradition into 2025.
“BoroPride is a reminder that although things are especially tough right now, we do have community,” Martinez says. “It’s a reminder that queer people are still here and will continue to
exist in public spaces as they always have.”
Attendees can find the MT Lambda booth at BoroPride if they’d like to learn about resources for young adult members of the queer community.
“It’s an incredible way to convey to those struggling from societal oppression as a result of being queer that they’re not alone,” Martinez says. “Our community mourns and shares that pain, but we also won’t stop fighting for a better future.”
In 2023, BoroPride came under threat when state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) introduced Senate Bill 3 to the Tennessee General Assembly — legislation that drew national headlines and came to be known informally as a “drag ban.” At the time, Johnson argued that the legislation, which ultimately passed, protects children from “overtly sexual entertainment.”
That same year, Murfreesboro City Manager Craig Tindall said in a letter to the Tennessee Equality Project — which hosts Pride events across Tennessee — that he would deny any future special event permits to TEP for being “misleading” on a 2022 permit application. Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union proceeded to sue the city of Murfreesboro for violating BoroPride’s First Amendment right to free expression.
As argued in the ACLU’s suit: “Although the City initially acknowledged TEP’s First Amendment rights to engage in political and expressive speech in the public square, the City, including Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFar-
land and City Manager Craig Tindall, quickly began a campaign to retaliate against TEP and prevent TEP and others [from] advancing similar messages from using the City’s public spaces.”
Ultimately, the ACLU and TEP won a $500,000 settlement, which Murfreesboro agreed to pay to the event organizers.
This year, BoroPride attendees can expect food trucks, a picnic area, a concert, lots of vendors and, of course, a karaoke room. People who want to sing but maybe don’t want to be heard can enjoy music at the outdoor stage. Jayme Graves, a queer Nashville-based pop-punk artist, returns to BoroPride this year as a headliner. Love for the LGBTQ community is what keeps organizers like Langston going, especially in stressful times.
“It’s just such an affirming experience to be able to be a part of putting [BoroPride] on and to see how many people come and how much it means to them,” says Langston. “It’s so worth it in the end.”
Historically, the queer community is accustomed to struggle, Martinez points out. But despite all the efforts to silence them over the years, they remain loud and proud.
“We know there are so many amazing individuals willing to put in the work as we always have,” he says. “Nothing can stop us.” ▼
BOROPRIDE
TAKING PLACE SATURDAY, OCT. 4, FROM NOON TO 6 P.M. AT MTSU’S MILLER COLISEUM IN MURFREESBORO TNEP.ORG/BORO_PRIDE
DARREN MICHAEL HAD
HAUNTING LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
SAT OCT SCAN FOR TICKETS
25
A century in, the Grand Ole Opry is Nashville’s most enduring icon — and faces the challenge of remaining relevant into its next century
ONE DAY LAST FALL, an empty Mason jar sat on Dan Rogers’ otherwise clean and orderly desk in his office at the Grand Ole Opry House. Turns out it wasn’t just any Mason jar. This one had recently been filled with pickled okra from Carrie Underwood. The megastar had grown the okra, canned it and given the jar to Rogers, who promptly ate it all. There were also blueberry and blackberry jams, also made by Underwood, sealed and awaiting a biscuit.
“This is the Opry for you,” Rogers says, attempting to explain the family feel of the internationally known live country music broadcast, which turns 100 years old this season.
Rogers would know. He’s been on the Opry staff for more than a quarter of its history, and for his entire professional career. In 1998, he started as an intern in the PR department. Now, as senior vice president and executive producer of the Grand Ole Opry, Rogers oversees everything that happens onstage and behind the scenes for the radio show. He sees the friendships that are fostered as part of what insiders say is a familial connection among Opry members and staff. Even so, some say the Opry needs to do more to reach out to marginalized communities — artists and audiences — if it is going to remain an icon in its next century.
What started as the modest WSM Barn Dance with fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson’s performance on Nov. 28, 1925, has become an international force, a long-running live radio show and a shaper of country music. Those three little words — Grand Ole Opry — have become synonymous with those other words most associated with Nashville: Music City U.S.A. History was written in 1927 when announcer George Hay followed a harmonica performance from DeFord Bailey by ad-libbing a line: “For the past hour, we have been listening to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present the Grand Ole Opry.”
Neither the National Life & Accident Insurance Company (WSM Barn Dance’s original owner) nor the Opry invented country music. But after a century, the Opry has become integral to the genre. “It’s kind of like when something happens in your life, you call home to Mom,” Rogers says. “When something happens in your career, artists call home or come home to the Opry.”
Today, Ryman Hospitality Properties is the majority owner in the Opry, with NBCUniversal and investment company Atairos holding minority stakes. The group planned to celebrate the Opry’s 100 years with yearlong fanfare, but without changing its proven formula. A Grand
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
Ole Opry show is structured in four 30-minute segments, with one artist acting as host, introducing the other artists. Typically, each artist plays just a few songs, and throughout the segments, the show hits many subgenres and relatives of country, from bluegrass to gospel, Western swing to Americana and contemporary hits. Today commercials are read live by announcers Bill Cody, Mike Terry and Kelly Sutton.
One recent Friday, Rogers wore a shirt that looked similar to the one he’d worn two days earlier and was called out by his staff.
“I was asked in a meeting, ‘You have gone home since Wednesday, right?’” he recalls. “I let it be known, I had gone home both nights. The shirts were both Imogene + Willie collabs, so they looked similar, but were not the same.”
It’s understandable that the Opry staff would be concerned that Rogers spent a night or more at the Opry House. Starting late last year, the Opry kicked off its centenary celebration with more frequent shows, more artist debuts on its stage and the publication of two books: 100 Years of Grand Ole Opry by Craig Shelburne — the first to list every Opry member and their contributions — and children’s book Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry
The celebrations amp up even more as the
actual anniversary nears. The Opry broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall in London last month, and there will be seven shows per week (at minimum) every week in October. A goal of the centennial celebration was to have more shows than have ever taken place in one year — Rogers estimates the total number for this year will be 240. That includes more than 60 artists having their Opry debut, among them pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who is scheduled to appear next week, and onetime Beatle Ringo Starr, who played earlier this year.
Even as he has helped orchestrate the festivities, Rogers seems amazed at how the pace has changed from hayseed and hillbilly to livestream and Lainey Wilson.
“Nov. 28 is going to be just a banner night in the history of the Opry,” he says. “That is 100 years to the day that Uncle Jimmy Thompson sat down on WSM radio and played a fiddle tune that he could have never, ever dreamed would become the Grand Ole Opry, and that 100 years later, people from around the world would gather in Nashville to celebrate, and people from around the world would be able to tune in and watch. Think about trying to tell him: ‘One-hundred years from now, someone’s going to be sitting in Australia, and they’re going to
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
watch this same show from wherever they are, and they’ll still be playing some of this music that you’re playing tonight.’ It’s pretty crazy.”
That has been the Opry’s role, to both preserve the music of the past, like that of Uncle Jimmy, and to promote new music. But the Opry’s trajectory has not been a straight line. There have been periods when ticket sales were slow and periods where the environment didn’t seem familial, such as a 2007 age-discrimination lawsuit filed by Stonewall Jackson. There were some periods when the Opry seemed more like a historical artifact than a hitmaker.
PART OF WHAT makes the Opry different from other music broadcasts is that members are inducted into the Opry. With that membership comes a commitment not just to play on the show’s stage — which famously features a circle of wood cut from the stage at the Ryman in 1974, when the show moved to the thennew Opry House — but to support its aims.
Singer-songwriter Ernest, a rising country star known by his mononym, says playing the Opry is not like playing other stages. First of all, he says, the Opry runs like clockwork: “You check into the green room, and you know exactly the time, down to the minute, that you are expected onstage.” But it’s different too, in that it feels like a responsibility to have a good show there. “It is not what the Opry can do for you, but what you can do for the Opry.”
Not all artists who play the stage are members of the show, but there is indeed some obligation that comes with Opry membership. Current members must nominate prospective inductees. The criteria for final selection into membership aren’t public; a group of Opry managers chooses successful country acts who can make a commitment to play the show, who have rapport with other Opry members and who demonstrate talent that will bring in audiences. Members are added throughout the year, unlike a Hall of Fame class, and there’s no publicly set number of members to be added annually.
Neither George Strait nor Willie Nelson is a member, because they didn’t want to commit to playing the hallowed stage with regularity. Hank Williams became a member of the Opry in 1949, but in 1952 he was fired due to repeated missed appearances. The hope was this action might serve as a wake-up call, but Williams died just five months later. There have been various “reinstate Hank” campaigns over the years, including one led by his grandson, musician Hank Williams III. But Opry membership is only for living artists who can participate in putting on the live show, so Williams was not reinstated posthumously.
Emmylou Harris, who has been a member since 1992, inducted
Steve Earle last month.
“When I was growing up, [the Opry] was the biggest thing that you could do in country music, without a doubt,” says Earle. Seventy years old at the time of his induction, he sees his membership at this stage of his career as part of his legacy, and he lists it alongside other highlights of his life and career — including his “Copperhead Road” being named the 11th official state song of Tennessee.
“There was no difference to me between that and The Beatles,”
Grand Ole Opry Through the Ages
November 1925
The WSM Barn Dance airs for the first time
September 1947
The Opry takes the show on the road, led by Ernest Tubb, traveling to New York City for a show at Carnegie Hall
February 2015
The Grand Ole Opry House is added to the National Register of Historic Places
December 1927
The WSM Barn Dance becomes the Grand Ole Opry
May 1966
Jeannie Seely performs on the Opry for the first time; Seely would become the first woman to regularly host segments on the show
March 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forces live-audience shows to cease, but Opry continues to livestream
October 1934
The Opry moves from the National Life building to the Hillsboro Theater (now the Belcourt Theatre)
March 1974
The Opry moves to the Grand Ole Opry House
says Earle. “I heard The Beatles in 1964 when everybody else did, and I went to the Opry for the first time in 1962, and I saw Bill Monroe for the first time. I’m never going to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I’m never going to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame. I’ve got three Grammys, and that’s probably all I’ll ever win.”
To remain relevant, the Opry must continue to attract new audiences. The number of people who grew up like Earle, listening to the Opry around a radio with their parents, is dwindling as the ways people listen to music becomes more fragmented and
October 2021
The Opry’s 5,000th live Saturday night broadcast
June 1936
The Opry moves to the Dixie Tabernacle
March 1978
July 1939
The Opry moves to the War Memorial Auditorium and begins charging admission for the first time
July 1983
First televised Opry broadcast, as part of a PBS fundraising special
October 1939
The Opry goes national on NBC Radio
Opry sells to Gaylord Broadcasting Co.
March 2023 Opry Entertainment buys a share of conservative country music website Whiskey Riff
June 1943
The Opry moves to the Ryman Auditorium 1943
The Opry is broadcast overseas on the Armed Forces Radio Service
June 1994
The Ryman Auditorium reopens
February 2023
The Opry offers an apology for its historic treatment of DeFord Bailey; Bailey’s grandson plays
December 1997
Opryland USA theme park closes
July 2024
A NASA flight crew sings “Rocky Top” live for the Opry audience from the International Space Station
May 2010
Nashville flood temporarily shutters the Grand Ole Opry House
September 2025
The Opry broadcasts from the Royal Albert Hall in London
JOHNNY CASH MAKES HIS OPRY DEBUT AT RYMAN AUDITORIUM ON JULY 7, 1956
PATSY CLINE ON THE OPRY STAGE IN MAY 1962
MINNIE PEARL AT THE OPRY IN THE 1970S
CHARLEY PRIDE MAKES HIS OPRY DEBUT ON JAN. 7, 1967
“When I was growing up, [the Opry] was the biggest thing that you could do in country music, without a doubt. There was no difference to me between that and The Beatles.”
—Steve Earle
on-demand. While the Opry has made efforts to reach out to new and diverse artists to play its stage, those efforts are not without critics.
DeFord Bailey, the Black harmonica player who helped launch the Opry’s popularity, played for decades but wasn’t paid copyright fees owed to him. Darius Rucker and the late Charley Pride are among the few performers of color who are members of the Opry. Other frequent performers include women of color such as Mickey Guyton, but they have not yet been invited to become members.
“I think the Opry needs to untether itself from country radio when it comes to its younger inductees — even though it might think those strings aren’t there,” says Marissa Moss, journalist and author of Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Become the Success Story They Were Never Supposed to Be. “Why [does] the idea of Sierra Ferrell or Elizabeth Cook, who has played the Opry so many times I truly have lost count, being inducted seem far-fetched?”
Other shows, like the Black Opry Revue and Music City Roots — which soon heads to Harken Hall — were established to fill the voids left by the Opry
“It’s really complicated,” says Holly G, who created the Black Opry collective in 2021 to give Black country and Americana artists a platform for their music. “It’s hard not to think of it as a very revered institution if you are a fan of country music at all. But you look at it from a more objective lens, it’s hard to support [the Opry] given the fact that they have not had a good track record with being inclusive.”
The Opry’s efforts to have more diverse artists onstage — diverse in terms of race, gender and sexuality — have been successful, Holly G notes, and those 60 new debuts in this centennial year may have helped with that. And Amber Anderson, who is a Black woman, recently nabbed an on-air role at WSM-AM. But when it comes to members of the Opry, Holly G notes, the institution is lagging. The secrecy of the membership criteria, she adds, makes it hard for people to work toward achieving it.
“When you will not outline what a benchmark is, how can people meet it and how can you be held accountable for something if you’re not being clear on what the requirements are?” she asks.
WHILE THE 4,372-SEAT Opry House regularly sells out, the audience is often made up of more visitors than locals. The Opry is one of the state’s
leading tourist attractions, but many Nashvillians feel the music and experience aren’t geared toward them.
The Opry, Holly G notes, is not the only Nashville institution with a largely homogenous audience. If the Opry wants to be more diverse — as individuals who work there have told her, and as the past year’s efforts toward more debuts have demonstrated — then the organization needs to take action to make audience members of all kinds feel safe and welcome. “We don’t have Black executives working in country music,” says Holly G, “and so until that happens, nobody’s really going to be able to do better.”
In 2023, the Opry acquired an ownership share in Whiskey Riff, a country-music website with a conservative bent. “Them buying Whiskey Riff very much undermines efforts that they claim to be making to make things safer and more inclusive,” Holly G says. Despite the challenges, the Opry continues to resonate for many, even across oceans.
Irish bluegrass band JigJam has played the Opry three times; the first time, they got a standing ovation, remembers Jamie McKeogh, the band’s lead singer. JigJam is recording a new album at the Southern Ground studio in Nashville, and the Nashville Predators’ Ryan O’Reilly even sings on the album.
“When we do go back to Ireland, people are very wowed by the idea that a couple of Irish lads actually ended up playing there,” McKeogh says.
When Dan Rogers was flying back from London earlier this year, he overheard a couple at the airport say they were headed to Nashville for a week, and they planned to see the Grand Ole Opry three times. “I just thought, ‘My gosh, you’re coming to Nashville for a week, and the Opry means so much to you, you’re coming to this show three times.’ It just made my day.”
As the couple boarded the plane, Rogers handed them his card. He was able to give them some special experiences while they were in town and also invited them to attend the Opry broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall. That London show sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale in May. Rogers hopes it will be the first of many international shows, not just a onetime centennial celebration.
Rogers himself doesn’t attend every single Opry show, but it’s pretty close — and not because he has to. He trusts his team members,
Home Sweet Home
Officially, the Opry has had six homes: 1925-1934: National Life building
1934-1936: Hillsboro Theater (now the Belcourt Theatre)
1936-1939: Dixie Tabernacle
1939-1943: War Memorial Auditorium
1943-1974: Ryman Auditorium
1974-present: Grand Ole Opry House
The Grand Ole Opry prides itself on never missing a show, lo these many decades. When the 2010 flood shuttered the Grand Opry House in Music Valley for months, the show went on, including at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena, Municipal Auditorium and Two Rivers Baptist Church. When the COVID-19 pandemic made it unsafe to gather in crowds, the show went on without a live audience.
Those homes are as important to the Opry’s history as the songs sung in the circle. Like Dan Rogers, Emily Frans started working at the Opry as an intern out of college. Today she oversees all of the Opry archives, and through that position she came to be the author of Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry, a new children’s book. With illustrations by Susanna Chapman, the book depicts the Opry House itself as a smiling character.
“So often people connect with their favorite artists — and that’s great, the Opry would not be the Opry without the artists,” Frans says. “But thinking about it from the perspective of a child, who has never heard of the Opry before, we wanted to make it clear that the Opry is its own main character.”
who love the Opry as much as he does, but he wants to be there. Sometimes, he’ll listen to the show from his back deck at home, but then he thinks, “My God, why didn’t I just stay at the show?”
“I don’t want to miss something,” Rogers says. “I hate to miss an artist debut. If we feel strongly enough about them to have them on this stage, I’d love to be here for their first time here. So many staffers can be here and do that, but I don’t want to be the guy who missed Dan Wilson’s debut, or Post Malone’s debut. If we’re doing our job the best we possibly can, then you want to be here for all those moments and all the unexpected things that could happen.”
TROPIDELIC
THU, 10/2
THE LOWDOWN DRIFTERS THU, 10/2
PANCHIKO
THU, 10/2
JUAN WAUTERS FRI, 10/3
MADISON RYANN WARD SAT, 10/4
THE FRIGHTS
TUE, 10/7
CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM THU, 10/9
ATLUS THU, 10/9
THE ROCKET SUMMER
KURSA + SHAKES
FRANZ FERDINAND
EMO NIGHT BROOKLYN
KOLTON MOORE & THE CLEVER FEW
JAKE & SHELBY
TORS
GET OUT GET LOUD
Sunday October 5 Marathon Music Works 7:30 PM
Brooke Eden ∙ Shelly Fairchild ∙ Chris Housman Angie K ∙ Meghan Linsey ∙ Adam Mac ∙ Autumn Nicholas The Kentucky Gentlemen ∙ Katie Pruitt ∙ Sam Williams
Blush ∙ Bianca Fuego ∙ Delta Granta ∙ Kennedy Ann Scott ∙ Perplexity ∙ Neve Secton ∙ Jaxson Stone ∙ Vanity
SATURDAY, OCT. 4
FESTIVAL
[MELTING POT] CELEBRATE NASHVILLE CULTURAL FESTIVAL
Music City’s annual cultural festival, Celebrate Nashville, returns to Centennial Park on Saturday. In its 30th year, the festival — presented by Metro Parks — features performances, food, exhibitions, a marketplace and more, all celebrating the diverse mix of cultural backgrounds that help make Nashville special. Highlights include a “global village” featuring presentations of various cultural customs and traditions; a series of main-stage performances (Irish stepdancers and Native American Eagle Spirit Dancers being just two examples); Metro Parks Performs, in which Nashville’s community and nature centers showcase interactive stations; a “world bazaar” made up of booths selling handcrafted international goods; and a food area with more than 40 vendors. The event is free, as is parking, which is available in the HCA lots adjacent to Park Plaza. LOGAN BUTTS
10 A.M. AT CENTENNIAL PARK
2500
THURSDAY / 10.2
MUSIC [STATE OF THE HEART] MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER & BRANDY CLARK
When I think of my earliest feminist icons, none is more influential than Mary Chapin Carpenter. Before Shania, before The Chicks, even before all the women of Lilith Fair, I had Mary. When “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” came on the radio, I was singing along like I was a 30-something divorcee driving my three kids to soccer practice. Carpenter’s folk-country gems like “I Feel Lucky” and “I Take My Chances” made her a hero to a generation of singer-songwriters. Among those songwriters is Brandy Clark, another artist known for her keen eye for the human experience. Carpenter and Clark have been on a U.S. tour since June, and the pair will make a stop at the Mother Church on Thursday.
“There is no venue quite like the Ryman for me,” Clark shared in a recent Instagram post.
“It’s a pinch-myself moment every time I get to stand on that stage. The first Mary Chapin Carpenter show I ever saw was at the Ryman. So to be sharing the stage with her on Oct. 2 is a full
circle
7 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
MUSIC [ROCK BLOCK] TRIPLE THREAT THURSDAY: ROYAL COURT OF CHINA, THE BLUEFIELDS & MILLION DOLLAR EMPERORS
For at least one night, rock singer-songwriterguitarist Joe Blanton will be the hardestworking man in show business. Blanton will be fronting all three bands performing at Eastside Bowl’s Triple Threat Thursday — Royal Court of China, The Bluefields and Million Dollar Emperors. Blanton’s Nashville rock roots run deep — all the way back to the late ’70s and indie-punk outfit The Ratz. He made the leap to a major label in the late ’80s with Royal Court of China, which will close Thursday night’s show with a revamped lineup that includes cofounder Robert Logue on bass and newcomers Chark Kinsolving on lead guitar and Jonathan Bright on drums. Logue and Bright will pull double duty in the Million Dollar Emperors, which includes lead guitarist Tim Carroll and keyboardist Seth Timbs. MDE will open the show, followed by The Bluefields, whose lineup,
experience for me.” BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
in addition to Blanton, includes Warner Hodges on lead guitar, Dan Baird on bass and Brad Pemberton on drums. When asked about being the hardest-working man in show business for a night, Blanton quips, “Or the craziest.” He then adds, “It’s just kind of showcasing three eras of music I’ve been involved with, and it’s really interesting to be able to do that.”
DARYL SANDERS
6:30 P.M. AT THE ’58 AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
[STRANGER SINGS]
MUSIC
DJO
Stranger Things star Joe Keery — who goes by the musical moniker Djo — skyrocketed to musical fame last year with his TikTok-viral song “End of Beginning.” But he’s been releasing solo music since 2019, and even before that as a member of Chicago psych-rock band Post Animal. His debut indie-pop album Twenty Twenty was slow and slightly psychedelic thanks to songs like “Roddy” and “Chateau (Feel Alright).” Meanwhile, his more recent releases Decide and this year’s The Crux and The Crux Deluxe showcase an increasingly energetic and experimental side of the musician’s growing discography that continues to pull from electronic, funk and retro influences. New tracks like “Basic Being Basic” and “Delete Ya” have already seen success among fans this year. Up next, Keery is headed to The Pinnacle, a venue that has featured a star-studded lineup in the six months since its opening, for what is sure to be a memorable performance from the actor-slashsongsmith. JULIANNE AKERS
8 P.M. AT THE PINNACLE 910 EXCHANGE LANE
FRIDAY / 10.3
MUSIC
[I TRY TO DISCOVER] ANDY BELL
It’s nearly impossible not to tap your foot or nod your head while listening to the 1988 hit “A Little Respect” by Erasure. The synthpop duo, which formed in London in 1985, has more where that came from in “Sometimes,” “Chains of Love,” “Oh l’Amour” and other bangers. Lead
singer and LGBTQ icon Andy Bell never really stopped making music, having released solo albums in 2005, 2010 and 2025. Bell will kick off the North American leg of his Ten Crowns Tour in support of his latest, Ten Crowns, in Nashville. Erasure fans shouldn’t fret — of the 20 songs he played on the European leg of the tour, 11 were Erasure songs, one was a cover and the rest were from his solo albums. That said, his latest work carries the dance-pop mantle he’s well-known for. Bell’s energy — combined with opening act Savannah Pope’s “dark pop” and evocative visuals — means dancing will be mandatory.
HANNAH HERNER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
MUSIC
[NASHVILLE TO NORWAY, BONAIRE TO ZIMBABWE] SNOOPER ALBUM
RELEASE SHOW
There are few things I can imagine more fitting than Snooper calling their second studio LP Worldwide, out Friday via Third Man. It seems like every time I turn around, the fast-paced Nashville art punks are playing a dozen nights up the West Coast, making a fortnight’s run through Europe and the U.K. or spending a month or two in Australia. (When will they add the theme song from Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? to their repertoire?) Somehow, they found time to get into the studio with producer-engineer John Congleton — whose mile-long CV includes artists as different as Angel Olsen and Mogwai — to make Worldwide. The fidelity of the recording is noticeably higher than that of their 2023 debut Super Snooper, and the result is that the gritty, glitchy, propulsive sounds the group is known for just hit harder. Thematically, Blair Tramel, Connor Cummins and company touch on the frantic pace of living today and what it’s doing to us. Excellent local support comes courtesy of industrially inclined shoegazers Pressure Heaven and massie99, who whipsaw between furious metal blasts and gorgeous harmonies on their 2024 debut Alpha Beta Omegle
STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
SATURDAY / 10.4
FILM [CREEPY CINEMA]
NASHVILLE HORROR FILM FESTIVAL
As a horror movie freak, I have a duty to celebrate scary films all month long. Theaters across town — independents and megaplexes alike — will be showcasing bloody stories on the big screen in October, and the Nashville Horror Film Festival is one of the unique ways you can partake in the spooky action. In its second year, the free festival takes place over the weekend at New Heights Brewing Company downtown as well as at Regal Green Hills. The lineup will feature independent short and feature films (for the first time), a costume contest, local vendors and an awards ceremony honoring more than 35 winners.
LOGAN BUTTS
OCT. 4-5 AT NEW HEIGHTS BREWING COMPANY AND REGAL GREEN HILLS
928 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S. AND 3815 GREEN HILLS
VILLAGE DRIVE
[SALUTE]
MUSIC
A BIG NIGHT FOR BIG JOE
Saturday night at The Donelson Pub, former bandmates and friends will honor the memory of Joe Gleaves Jr., who died on June 11. Gleaves was a drummer, lighting specialist and stage tech who was a mainstay in the Nashville metal and hard rock scenes since the late ’70s. He was a member of Ruckus in the early ’90s and Suckerpunch in the late Aughts. He also spent time on the road with major rock bands, including Metallica and Foo Fighters. “He was just the best and most loyal friend you could ever have,” Mike Simmonz tells the Scene At Saturday’s show, the organizers will open the stage at 6 p.m. for people to share their memories of Gleaves. After that, Light in the Black — Nashville metal legends Simmonz (guitar) and his brother Paulie Simmonz (drums), along with Charlie Kavanagh (lead vocals) and Tony Nagy (bass) — will take the stage for a full set. They’ll be followed by Speedlimit, a band active in the late ’70s and early ’80s that included Jimmy Griffith, Todd Albert and Brian Pugh. The night will close with a jam featuring members of Ruckus, Suckerpunch, Toxic Rockers, Speedlimit and Light in the Black performing some of Gleaves’ favorite songs. DARYL SANDERS
6 P.M. AT THE DONELSON PUB
945 ALLEN ROAD
MUSIC [SHOCK ROCK]
DR. GANGRENE’S HORROR HOOTENANNY 19
Nashville horror-heads should all be familiar with local legend Dr. Gangrene, the longtime horror host portrayed by actor and producer Larry Underwood. Those of us who grew up in Sumner County in the ’90s and 2000s, as a matter of fact, have had the master of the macabre on our radar since Chiller Cinema, the public access show he kicked off on Hendersonville’s public access channel in
1999. For nearly two decades, the dastardly doc has hosted his Horror Hootenanny, a costume contest and rock ’n’ roll party in the heart of spooky season. This year’s festivities, taking place at The ’58 at Eastside Bowl, will feature performances from appropriately sinister outfits including The Lurking Corpses, The Creeping Cruds, Nightmare Beach and The Serpenteens, with DJ Kuhmeleon on the wheels of steel. Hosted by Gangrene himself, the show will feature a costume contest with prizes from show sponsors including Full Moon Cineplex, Slaughterhouse, Lone Wolf Body Art and more. Be there and be scared. D. PATRICK RODGERS 7 P.M. AT THE ’58 AT EASTSIDE BOWL 1508A GALLATIN PIKE S.
[DRAWN TOGETHER]
COMICS
NASHVILLE COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
It shouldn’t surprise you to read this, coming from the editor-in-chief of a medium-circulation alternative-weekly newspaper: Print media rules. In addition to news and arts publications like ours, there are independently produced zines, graphic novels, comic books and more still being printed and distributed across the globe. But as journalist and cartoonist Malaka Gharib tells the Scene, at least in Nashville, “There are not many opportunities to meet real-life comics artists, graphic novelists and cartoonists.” That’s where the second annual Nashville Comic Arts Festival comes in. Featuring more than 60 local and regional artists and publishers, the free fest will take place all day Saturday at Vanderbilt University’s Central Library. Among the special guests participating in the day’s conversations: Kayla E., the creative director of Fantagraphics and author behind Precious Rubbish, a graphic novel “told in the style of postwar children’s comics”; Kay Davault, the graphic novelist behind Star Knights; and Ben Sears, a cartoonist whose work can be seen in programs including The Midnight Gospel and Battle Kitty. Whether you’re a graphic novel fan, an experienced cartoonist or an amateur doodler looking to make your way into a new community, here’s an opportunity to meet some like-minded creative folks. Visit nashcomicsfest.org for more details, and if you show up on Saturday, tell ’em the Scene sent you. D. PATRICK RODGERS
11 A.M. AT VANDERBILT CENTRAL LIBRARY 419 21ST AVE. S.
ART [GO WITH THE FLOW] LEAVES IN THE RIVER
Scene contributor Joe Nolan named Nashville-based artist Ellie Caudill’s show at Julia Martin Gallery as one of his top gallery picks in our Fall Guide issue, but after press time, news came that the exhibition was changing a bit. No longer a solo show, Leaves in the River has expanded to include works by two Alabama-based artists — Natasha Sud and Merrilee Challiss. Challiss is no stranger to Nashville — her exhibitions at Julia Martin Gallery date back to 2015’s Source Energy, and her work has been included in most of the gallery’s big group shows. When I interviewed her in advance of that show, she told me that
an interest in shamanism and ayahuasca rituals informed her style, describing it as “Southern Gothic Psychedelic Pennsylvania Dutch.” That seems to be a perfect match for Caudill’s playful, loose painting style. The wild card here is Sud, a Louisville-based artist who emigrated from Ukraine when she was 3, and whose work incorporates collage elements and photography. Julia Martin described her feelings about the show in a recent Instagram post: “I don’t know about you, but I can feel the need to be immersed in the work of powerful women right now, in my bones.” LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
OPENING RECEPTION 6-9 P.M.; THROUGH OCT. 25 AT JULIA
MARTIN GALLERY
444 HUMPHREYS ST.
SUNDAY / 10.5
CH [ALMUERZO]
BRUN
MEZCLA:
A MEXICO CITY STYLE INTERACTIVE BRUNCH EXPERIENCE
If you like to get your hands dirty on the weekend, roll up your sleeves and buy your tickets for this event ASAP. Chefs Mikey Corona (of Buchanan Street’s Tio Fun) and Jesse Valenciana (of Secret Bodega, now at Pearl Diver and elsewhere) are coming together at Casa Azafrán’s Mesa Komal culinary incubator for a unique Sunday brunch. And while they will be cooking, they won’t be doing it alone. Brunchgoers will participate with them to co-create Mexico City-style dishes and then, of course, enjoy that shared meal and drinks with the group. Corona is known for his enthusiasm for Tex-Mex; Valenciana for his street and comfort food, often relying on his Mexican heritage. Tickets to the interactive brunch are available online. Proceeds support Conexión Américas’ work with the local Latino community.
MARGARET LITTMAN
11 A.M AT CASA AZAFRÁN 2195 NOLENSVILLE PIKE
ART [BOOK IT]
UNBANNABLE
LIBRARY PROJECT
The first time I saw one of Paul Collins’ giant books was when I took my daughter to his solo show at Red Arrow on her sixth birthday in 2022. I dissuaded her from touching the books — we were in an art gallery, after all — but I remember being told that Collins didn’t really mind, that he never intended the works, which were around 6 feet tall, to be overly precious. It made sense, then, that the next time we saw his books was during the 2023 edition of Southern Festival of Books, displayed near the children’s activity tent — and it was clear that flipping through them was encouraged. Since then, the books have evolved into a full-on community art project, with Collins enlisting help from other artists and educators to collaborate on their own books, which include spins on personal stories and odes to their favorite banned books. The Unbannable Library Project, as it is now known, is going to be all over the city during this year’s Banned Books Week, which runs from Oct. 5 through 11. Among the locations are Vanderbilt
Divinity School, the Belcourt, The Bookshop in East Nashville and the libraries at Vanderbilt, USN and Nashville School of the Arts. Outside of Nashville, you can visit the books everywhere from Clarksville’s Austin Peay State University — where Collins is also a professor — to New York’s Queens Public Library Branch in Rockaway Beach. Visit the Unbannable Library website (unbannablelibrary.com) and follow along on Instagram (instagram.com/unbannablelibrary) for details. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER OCT. 5-11 AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS
MUSIC
[RADICAL NATURE]
PORTARA ENSEMBLE
—
CANTICLES:
SONGS OF BROTHER SUN AND SISTER MOON
If your understanding of St. Francis of Assisi is limited to the annual Blessing of the Animals, you’re missing out on a truly radical message of humility, compassion and reverence for all creation. His Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, written in 1225, was an extraordinary testament to the interconnectedness of all things, and a call to care for one another — as well as the world around us. Now, 800 years later, Portara Ensemble honors St. Francis’ enduring vision with Canticles: Songs of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, featuring an updated text and a fresh, lyrical setting. The program opens with a pre-concert talk titled More Than Birds and Puppies: Reclaiming the Radical Francis, featuring text collaborators Jason Shelton (Portara’s longtime artistic director) and Rabbi Rami Shapiro. Audiences can look forward to the world premiere of Shelton’s new setting of the Canticle — a vibrant multi-movement work for chorus, piano and strings. As always, Portara has committed to giving 100 percent of its concert proceeds directly to its community partners, shining a much-needed light on the important work happening within Nashville’s nonprofit scene. And for this concert that partner is, quite fittingly, the Cumberland River Compact — an organization dedicated to water stewardship and conservation across the
Cumberland River Basin. AMY STUMPFL 4:30 P.M. AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S
MUSIC
[THE STARS COME OUT] GET OUT, GET LOUD
Nashville Pride put on an enormous and heartfelt celebration of LGBTQ solidarity and queer joy at this year’s Nashville Pride Fest in June. What makes this different from other years is that they pulled it off with about 40 percent less sponsor funding than planned amid the unease the federal government has cultivated around anything that could be construed as “DEI.” The nonprofit has launched a range of efforts to bridge the gap, with the goal of raising $250,000 by National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. Sunday night, Nashville does one of the things it does best when an impressive array of talent gathers at Marathon Music Works for a benefit show. In addition to a gaggle of topnotch drag queens, the roster presents great singers and songwriters who also happen to be queer, generally in the country and Americana realm. Prepare yourself to be bowled over by artists like Brooke Eden, Shelly Fairchild, Angie K, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Autumn Nicholas, Chris Housman and Katie Pruitt. They’re going to dazzle in any context, but supporting a vital organization that’s been working for nearly 40 years to make Nashville more welcoming is going to be extra special. STEPHEN TRAGESER 7:30 P.M. AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS
1402 CLINTON ST.
TUESDAY / 10.7
BOOKS [BOO-K] SPOOKY BOOK FAIR
Remember the high of picking out your favorite books from the book fair as a kid? It’s back — and just in time for spooky season. Bewitching stories and eerie tales await at the Spooky Book Fair for grown-ups on Oct. 7. Pick up your next chilling read, thoughtfully curated by The Bookshop, at this pop-up event. The fair will feature titles spanning the entire horror genre, merch, stickers and other creepy accoutrements. Adding to the spooky vibes will be a special Halloween pop-up at East Nashville Beer Works, Stranger Brews. Experience the Upside Down with Stranger Things-themed cocktails, peak ’80s vibes and a limited-edition food menu. Apart from the specialty cocktails, the usual pizza and beer menu will be available. Spooky reads plus beer plus other bookish friends? A truly perfect October evening. Pro-tip: Parking is usually tough, so consider using ridesharing for this event. TINA DOMINGUEZ
6 P.M. AT EAST NASHVILLE BEER WORKS
320 E. TRINITY LANE
WEDNESDAY / 10.8
MUSIC
[BROKE, NOT BROKEN] MIKE MAIMONE
Mercurial and muppety, singer/songwriter/
sideman Mike Maimone has a musical legacy defined by a set of chops unbound by genre and vibe. His jazzy trio Mutts made the local scene back in the day (their album Object Permanence XI is now remastered and expanded with some extra goodies), and wherever it was that you needed some keys and an aptitude for groove, that’s where you’d find him. After a crosscountry move that led to romantic triumph and unimaginable tragedy, time has found the piano man exploring several different musical milieux, with triple-threat jams like “Unfollow” expanding the fan base throughout the world and a dedicated use of social media not just as a means of promotion but as a way to get people to think about what it is they really love about music. And now, several years down the road and with a book ready to hit the shelves, he’s doing a show at Dee’s — a trio set that pulls from all manner of moods and musics. It’s nice when former Nashvillians have a leisurely swing back through, catching up and cutting rugs.
JASON SHAWHAN
9 P.M. DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE
102 E. PALESTINE AVE.
[THAT MOTOWN SOUND]
MUSIC
THE TEMPTATIONS & THE FOUR TOPS
The first big question a show like this proposes is: Are there any original members? The second big question would be: Does it fucking matter? The Temptations and the Four Tops created such important, archetypal music that these are more than just bands, they are ideas. The idea of The Temptations — progenitors of soul, funk and psychedelia — is bigger than just one vocalist, and the songs represent more than just one group of musicians. Like the Temps, the Four Tops are an organization — a concept, really — about how performances can and should be. The musicians who have stepped in to continue this legacy are filling some of the biggest shoes in the history of recorded music; you could cut them some slack, but they don’t need it. Expect a little extra of the ol’ Ryman magic Wednesday night, because we know that building loves a good vocal group.
SEAN L. MALONEY
7:30 PM AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
UNBANNABLE LIBRARY PROJECT
MIKE MAIMONE
PHOTO: SCOTT E. SCHWIMER
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is c bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.
t om cha t om a s, eeple committed to mmi
OCTOBER LINE UP
10.3 Lewis Brice
10.4 Waymore’s Outlaws
10.5 Shinyribs
10.7 Suzy Bogguss
10.8 Thom Shepherd Presents The Songwriters w/ Special Guests Kat Higgins, James Slater
10.11 King For A Day: A Tribute to George Strait w/ Shelby Lee Lowe, Skyelor Anderson, Cody Atkins, Jeff Holdbrook
10.14 Ashley McBryde: The Redemption Residency SOLD OUT
10.15 Ashley McBryde: The Redemption Residency SOLD OUT
10.18 Dalton & The Sheriffs 10.19 Dalton & The Sheriffs
WRITERS’ ROUNDS AT CHIEF’S
10.20 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Nick Fabian, Mallory Johnson, Dakota Striplin
10.21 Uncle B’s Drunk with Power String Band Show Sings the Songs of John Prine featuring Ashley Monroe, Everette, Jason Carter, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Audrey Spillman, Neilson Hubbard, Parker Millsap
10.22 Young Gun Silver Fox –Pleasure USA Tour
10.23 Jon Wolfe
10.24 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers – Chris Stapleton Tribute
10.26 Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek w/ Taylor Graves, Trent Cowie, Erlend, Riley Anderson
10.30 Jammy Buffet
At Chief’s we understand that great music is born from the heart and soul of it’s creators, which is why our writers’ rounds are dedicated to celebrating the brilliant minds behind some of today’s most iconic songs.
FIND REDEMPTION ON THE 5TH FLOOR OF CHIEF’S BROADWAY’S FIRST NA-FORWARD BAR
IN MYINT CONDITION
Local chef and Nashville son Arnold Myint publishes his first book, o ering insight into his mother’s legacy and recipes
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
FAMILY THAI
BRINGING THE FLAVORS OF THAILAND HOME
local ingredients but making something still feel very authentic.”
ARNOLD MYINT HAS been a celebrity chef (Season 7 of Top Chef and Season 11 of Food Network Star), a professional ice skater, an internet influencer, a restaurant owner, a drag queen (Suzy Wong) and a James Beard Award semifinalist (2024 Best Chef: Southeast). Surprisingly, he hasn’t been an author. Until now.
His first book, Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home, publishes Oct. 7 and is full of the thoughtfulness, the attention to detail and the complexity that Nashvillians have come to expect from Myint and family.
With his sister Anna, Myint owns and runs International Market, a Thai restaurant across the street from where their parents, Patti and Win Myint, opened a restaurant by the same name 50 years ago. (As it happens, they’ll host a 50th anniversary dinner at International Market on Nov. 9.) At the new International Market, the lunch menu is reminiscent of dishes old-time Nashvillians may remember from Patti Myint; at night, there are more modern interpretations of Thai cuisine.
Family Thai walks a similar line, including family recipes and lore, as well as new takes on traditional flavors. In the book, Myint — with co-author Kat Thompson — explores what it means to be “authentic,” offering an end product that is part riotously colorful coffee table book (thanks to photos by Linda Xiao), part memoir (both his own and that of his late mother) and part cookbook. While the book will be extra special for Nashvillians who have a soft spot for International Market and Patti’s recipes,
with Thompson, Myint has written a book that reaches further than Belmont Boulevard; it’s both personal and universal in its appeal.
“My mother is the true star of this book,” Myint tells the Scene. “She just couldn’t do [a book like this] because of the language barrier. She just didn’t have the language and the opportunity that I have been given to express it and to celebrate it.”
Many celebrity chefs use ghostwriters, keeping the writing assistance under wraps. But Myint thought of working with a co-author the same way he thinks of his performances: “You’re only as strong as your cast; the chorus is only as strong as the headliner.” When Myint was introduced to Thompson, he was thrilled with her culinary writing skills, and also thrilled that she spoke Thai and that they had similar cultural experiences growing up in the United States with Thai parents.
Thompson, who lives in Los Angeles, will attend some of the book tour events with Myint, including in Nashville. This is an unusual move for a celebrity chef, demonstrating how Myint views Thompson as a co-author rather than a ghostwriter.
Thompson notes that Myint, like many chefs, is a high-energy person. “[Chefs are] so creative,” she says. “Kitchens are such fast-paced places, and working on a book, we were talking about many things at once.” While the book is all Myint’s stories and his mother’s stories, Thompson says she helped him “channel everything he was thinking and get the words on the page.”
The memoir and personal essays are interspersed throughout the recipes, from Myint remembering his mother calculating the cost of anything he asked for as a child in the number of egg rolls she would have to sell, to stories of Nashvillians being supported by Patti in myriad ways. She is woven into the book, even in ways that are not obvious to the naked eye: The cover features a Thai picnic — Myint thought a picnic with fried chicken and watermelon chili crumble with cucumber salad was a way to demonstrate that Thai-Nashville connection — and the dishes sit atop a quilt that was made from many of Patti’s silk clothes after she died.
“I always felt pretty special in Nashville, both good and bad,” Myint says of being a gay Asian man growing up in the South. “My visibility was unique in the landscape of Nashville. What I want from this book is for people to see my upbringing in Tennessee and my family as [evidence of] people like us in small towns too, not just New York or San Francisco. I hope that this is a nice little beacon for those who are still trying to find their way.”
Both Myint and Thompson went through big life changes while working on the book. Myint became a first-time father. Thompson’s father passed away, and she evacuated from her home in Altadena, Calif., during the Eaton Fire in early 2025.
“We fell into this relationship of cheering each other and holding each other up,” Myint says. “What really bonded us was the connection through food and being able to write something that was so close to our heritage and our heart in the same breath.”
Together they created a book with an extensive Thai pantry section, which includes suggestions on what to keep in your house, what to substitute when you can’t find what you need, and what brand of instant ramen to buy. (Spoiler alert: it’s Mama.) They provide recipes for basics, with easy pointers (e.g., never refrigerate sticky rice, and cut limes lengthwise rather than horizontally), and even teach you how to make your own sriracha. There’s a Pad Brussels Sprouts Fai Dang recipe that shows you how to substitute Brussels for harder-to-find morning glory greens.
“The dishes that I feel really embody the book are the dishes that are like the perfect combination of Nashville and Thai food, like the Bacon Pad Krapao, for example,” says Thompson. “Pad Krapao is a Thai dish that is the dish that you order when you don’t know what you want to eat. It’s an undisputed Thai favorite because it’s always going to be good. It’s spicy, garlicky, and there’s basil. Arnold’s just really clever in using
Knowing what it’s like to run a small business, Myint is encouraging readers to shop local when they buy the book, with a link to independent bookstores on his website. In Nashville, signed copies are available from Parnassus Books. “I really wanted to make this a community-supported celebration of my mother,” he says. “When I do a chef collaboration in certain cities, the audience will also get a book with their reservation from that local bookstore.”
In Nashville on Oct. 12, Myint will host a big book launch potluck at Curry Boys BBQ in Inglewood, with Thai music and food from Sarabha’s Creamery, S.S. Gai and others.
“I never had a bar mitzvah — I never had a quinceañera,” Myint laughs. “So let’s make this one my party. This is it. This is my coming-out.”
The potluck, he says, will celebrate Nashville’s varied and growing Asian community.
“Finally, I have some friends to play with Asian food in Nashville, and I want to celebrate all of that. It’ll also be nice to show what Nashville is outside of hot chicken and white boots on Broadway.” ▼
Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home
By Arnold Myint and Kat Thompson Abrams Books, 497 pages, $40
Meet-and-greet 5 p.m. Oct. 11 at International Market; Family Potluck 4 p.m. Oct. 12 at Curry Boys BBQ
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ART FROM THE SAME SOURCE
How the Tennessee State Museum’s new exhibition of historic photography can feel prophetic BY
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
ONE OF THE FIRST photographs on display in Photography in Tennessee, on view through Nov. 9 at the Tennessee State Museum, is a portrait of a little girl named Lucy. She’s about 9 in the ambrotype, which was made sometime between 1854 and 1860. She has big Christina Ricci eyes, her tidy hair is parted down the middle and pinned back. Her expression is disarmingly contemporary and inquisitive, closer to Rudy Huxtable than the stiff Victorian archetype we might expect. But the details matter — installed next to Lucy’s ambrotype is her bill of sale. In 1859 she was sold for $647 to Thomas J. Waggoner of Davidson County.
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The exhibition of early photography is brimming with examples from the medium’s first 100 years. They remind us that representation is never neutral, and that the lives of those behind and in front of the camera continue to reverberate — shaping not only how we read these pictures now, but how they once worked in the world.
Tranae Chatman is the museum’s curator of social history, and she explains how valuable Lucy is to the museum’s collection.
“It’s rare to have photos of enslaved people, period — but to have the photo and the bill of sale together is so rare, and it just sticks with people.”
The Tennessee State Museum holds more than 100,000 artifacts, and Photography in Tennessee includes only a fraction of that collection. Even so, the exhibition feels expansive, its range rewarding both repeat visits and extended contemplation. Alongside photographs, ambrotypes, tintypes and cartes de visite (CDVs), the galleries display antique cameras, clothing, stereoscopes, letters and other ephemera. Together they form a layered education — in history and photography, representation and politics, religion and cultural memory.
The exhibition began as an examination of Tennessee’s earliest photography studios. “We really wanted to tell the story of the photographers who were taking these pictures,” Chatman explains, “but also the stories of the people who were being depicted.”
A section called “Shifting Focus” includes photos of servants and enslaved women who are supporting the white babies they care for. One photograph is mounted in a case that, when closed, puts a filigreed frame around the face of the child — the servants in the background disappear as if they were removed by an early Photoshop eraser tool.
There are dozens of photographs and other objects to look at, and each has well-sourced information — the show is complex but goes
down easy. A CDV from around 1870 shows a formally dressed couple outdoors, sitting atop the striking vista of Lookout Mountain. A view camera built by McMinnville-based photographer W.S. Lively is about the size of a washing machine and yields similarly massive glass plates. A cabinet card from around 1880-1910 shows two young women in Japanese kimonos, posing with paper fans splayed out behind their heads. A staged photograph of two in-uniform policemen from around the 1890s demonstrates how important a person’s occupation can be to their identity.
“There’s a preemptive nature to photography,” says Chatman. “Because this thing is going to exist, and you’re going to have to share it with people, and you want people to perceive you in a very specific way. … What’s the difference between how you’re being depicted and how you really are? It’s complex. Like, yes, it’s who they are, but it’s also how they want to be perceived.”
Chatman has been at the Tennessee State Museum for three years. A Nashville native, she went to Hume-Fogg high school downtown, and has an undergraduate degree from MTSU in history, as well as a master’s in business. This is her first museum job, and although she’s worked on multiple exhibitions, Photography in Tennessee is the first she’s led. It’s an overwhelmingly positive start to her curatorial career.
“When I look at history,” she says, “especially through photographs, I think of how much people have endured, how much this country has
endured, and how much we’ve already gotten through.”
Toward the end of the exhibit is Betty, a photograph on a postcard from around 1940 that has a handwritten note addressed to Aunt Lizzie. Betty looks a little younger than Lucy, the enslaved girl from the museum’s opening vitrine, and she wears a knit hat and sweater paired with matching pants that are already frayed at the knee. The picture was made at Horace Brazelton Studios — Brazelton was a Black photographer working in Chattanooga — and entered the museum’s collection just last year. After its acquisition, curators sifted through the scant evidence on the front and back of the card, following the clues like breadcrumbs. Eventually, a census from West Chattanooga in the 1950s provided a match, a small window back into the life of the girl in the frame.
Betty works like Lucy’s counterpoint, and the two images offer a kind of keyhole view into the show’s larger argument. They are two little girls at opposite ends of the exhibition, each staring into the lens of a camera that fixes them in place and carries their stories forward. ▼
Photography in Tennessee: Early Studios and the Medium’s First Century Through Nov. 9 at the Tennessee State Museum
LUCY
Bluegrass on 3rd Presents Sentimental Gentlemen MIKE RYAN
THE BROTHERS COMATOSE with TWO RUNNER
Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring KENT BLAZY, DON SAMPSON, DYLAND ALTMAN + TBD
JEFFREY STEELE with SILENCE X NOISE
Bluebird on 3rd featuring BRINLEY ADDINGTON, JOHNNY CLAWSON, MATT MCKINNEY with MICHELLE PEREIRA and CLAIRE LAROSE
A Tribute to Sting performing “Ten Summoner’s Tales” featuring Latifah Alattas, Jack Botts, Court Clement, Caleb Crosby, Gabe Dixon, Andrew Golden, De Marco Johnson, Brandon Newsome, Abbie Parker, Alexis Saski, Jeff Seitz, Jonathan Trebing & Kristin Weber
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JAMES MAIA SHARP with MATTHEW PERRYMAN JONES
S.G.
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(9pm) Soupless w/ Gilda & Tripp Todd and The Slightly Odd Jasmin.4.t w/ chrysalis (7pm) big richard (9PM) wheelwright w/ scott levi jones garrison starr w/ gina veneir (7PM) dallas wax w/ perfect friend & orphy (9PM)
scoot teasly & trae taylor
ryan jacobs (7PM)
slug rug w/ max langlinais & doom folk starter kit (9PM)
lily seabird & thomas dollbaum
hayden everett aaron
MUSIC
THE SWING OF THE HAMMER
The U.S. trade war punches down on Music City’s indie music economy
BY JP OLSEN
WASHINGTON’S TRADE WAR has sent Nashville’s small-batch gear makers and working musicians scrambling. Costs are climbing, indie shops are reeling, and the little guys are left holding the bill.
For Jesse Rude, founder of boutique guitar effects company Rude Tech, the breaking point came earlier this year.
“I make pedals and wholesale them to stores and sell them directly to customers on my website,” says Rude. “I was doing that full time for over a decade. But in March I took a job. It’s all because of the tariffs. …
“Back in February, I made an order for prototype circuit boards. It was about 40 boards — much smaller than a typical production run — and the product itself was supposed to cost about $76. The delivery guy came and I had to pay [an additional] $125 just to get them. He was trying not to say the word ‘tariff’ — probably because he’d had that conversation with a lot of people that day and they were getting mad. But he kept stressing it was money owed to the government, and he couldn’t drop the package off until I paid online.”
What stings most, says Rude, is the seeming randomness of it all. “My order got hit hard,” he notes. “But my friend’s far bigger order that landed two days later — he didn’t even get charged at all. It felt so arbitrary.”
Economists will tell you his story reflects a wider problem. In 2018, a University of Chicago survey of 43 leading economists found that 93 percent disagreed that Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs would raise Americans’ welfare, and none agreed. New analysis from Yale’s Budget Lab shows the 2025 tariffs are raising consumer prices — particularly on lower-income households — while providing only narrow, sector-specific benefits and no net job or income gains overall.
Meanwhile, inequality remains elevated. In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that the top 10 percent of earners account for nearly half of all U.S. consumer spending — the largest share since records began in 1989, according to Moody’s Analytics. On the shop floor, Rude found that even “buying American” paradoxically often involves overseas manufacturing.
“People ask me, ‘Can’t you just get this stuff made in the U.S.?’” Rude says. “I order from Norman, Okla., and Cincinnati, Ohio — and the aluminum is mined and cast in China. So a guy in Oklahoma sells it to me, but his product is coming from China.”
For Rude, there was no easy work-around. The result was a punishing cost-to-price multiplier. He says he has to charge four times his construction costs to cover his pay, taxes and expenses. While Rude stepped away from building pedals full time, he still makes them on the side.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments
on the tariffs Nov. 5, with a decision expected in early 2026. Until then, unpredictability rules. “That’s the hardest part,” Rude says.
At Eastside Music Supply, co-owner Blair White has watched the burden shift onto musical instrument shops like his. “We’re the ones paying the tariffs — not China, not Mexico,” says White.
The Trump administration argued that tariffs raise the price of foreign goods, encouraging companies to manufacture in the U.S., which it says will create jobs and lower costs for Americans. But when it comes to small electronics, White doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. “To build the factories, hire the people, get the know-how — it would take years,” says White. “And it would still cost more.”
For him, the stakes go beyond gear. “I have 10 full-time employees here that spend their money in the community because they live here, so all that cycles back,” says White. “Those dollars stay in the neighborhood.”
One of Eastside’s employees, manager Taylor Wafford — also the Nashville musician behind Blood Root — has watched the basics get pricier.
“Good [amplifier] tubes are almost impossible to find for a reasonable amount,” Wafford says. “And the quality has plummeted. The only time I’ve ever seen strings increase has been in the last year — about $2 a pack.”
Angela Lese, drummer and social media manager at Fork’s Drum Closet, sees the same trend.
“At Fork’s we’ve seen prices jump across the board — cymbals, snares, hardware, even foam for drum cases,” says Lese. “And shipping has gone up too.”
The shop is owned by Steve Maxwell, who also has stores in Manhattan and Chicago. For Lese’s band Lips Speak Louder, merch costs have ballooned.
“If we had to ship a T-shirt and a vinyl record, instead of costing 6 or 7 bucks, sometimes it’s $15 or $16 nationally,” she explains. “Overseas it has probably tripled.”
The economics of shipping as an indie can be brutal. Recently announced FedEx and USPS hikes average 6 to 7 percent. Indie artists don’t get bulk discounts or negotiated rates; they can’t spread costs across vast economies of scale like Amazon — whose in-house logistics network includes a cargo airline that is big enough to carry other retailers’ shipments — or the big-box chains. Boxes and packing materials cost more too when you’re not buying by the pallet. A modest bump on paper can balloon into twice the price.
And then came the death of de minimis, the trade rule that once let imports under $800 slip in duty-free. That exemption vanished on Aug. 29. Now every overseas package is treated like
a standard import, subject to tariffs, fees and customs paperwork.
The White House insists the change will close loopholes, curb fentanyl shipments, raise revenue and give U.S. manufacturers a fairer shot. But in Nashville’s indie scene, it has meant slower deliveries, shortages and higher costs.
“We used to order from Canada and keep it under the limit,” says Eastside Music Supply’s Blair White. “But that’s changed. One of the manufacturers we work with — they make the patch cables we like — had to raise prices because they’re getting hit with the fees too.”
Musicians are improvising. Some repair old gear instead of buying new. Others sell instruments to make rent or gas. Bands talk about shortening tours, skipping markets or doubling up on bills to keep ticket prices low. “The fallout from it is affecting musicians, especially in Nashville,” says Lese. Aaron Lee Tasjan, a Grammy-nominated Nashville artist who proudly calls himself a working-class independent musician, says tariffs are reshaping access to music itself.
“A lot of those instruments are manufactured with parts made in Mexico or China,” he says. “What used to be the most affordable instruments are no longer as affordable.”
He points to the market for students. “A trumpet that used to cost $600 is now almost a thousand bucks,” says Tasjan. “For a family trying to help their kid pick up a decent instrument, that can shut the door before it opens. What if that kid falls in love with music? If families can’t afford it, kids lose the chance before they even start.”
The same arithmetic is crushing touring musicians. “Costs are so much higher now that I’ve had to rethink things,” Tasjan says. He’s referring to dates he has planned throughout the fall in his ongoing 10th anniversary celebration for his debut solo LP In the Blazes. “Instead of doing another band tour, I’m doing a solo run.”
The decision wasn’t about preference, but survival. “A side musician I would have hired for $300 a show is telling me they need $400 to make it work. And I get it — they’re dealing with higher costs of living. But if I pay everyone that rate, I am losing money. So, you either scale
down or you don’t go out at all.”
Tasjan isn’t the only one working the abacus. Nashville songwriter Tim Easton, who spends about a third of the year on the road, is absorbing the blow too.
“Where I run into trouble is people getting hit by higher grocery bills, things that keep them from going to a show or buying merch,” says Easton, speaking from a tour stop in Alaska. “Music is basically free already. But now fans are counting pennies before they even think about buying merch.”
Independent shops know they can’t roll back prices. “Independent music shops aren’t in control of price hikes — it’s coming from the companies,” Angela Lese of Fork’s points out. “We’ll always try to help musicians, but I don’t see prices ever going down. Why would they drop prices when they’re selling what they can now?”
The winners and losers of tariffs aren’t hard to spot. Corporations and big players can absorb the shocks — or deploy a phalanx of K Street lawyers to carve out exemptions. Indie builders, musicians and mom-and-pop shops don’t have that option. They scale down, or they walk away. And in Nashville, where music is the city’s lifeblood, the indies are bleeding.▼
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Carter Faith creates a country music dreamworld in Cherry Valley BY
BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
A DRIVE THROUGH the unincorporated community of Cherry Valley, Tenn., inspired the title of rising country singer-songwriter Carter Faith’s debut full-length. She fell in love with the name and began imagining a creative utopia with crystal sunrises at the foot of a mystical mountain, where true love always returns and “the wild things grow.”
“It just became a place in my brain that I would go to if I was done with the bullshit of reality,” Carter Faith tells the Scene. “I just wanted to create a space for people, when they listen to my music, that feels like that.”
Inspired by Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
JESSE RUDE
and some of her favorite Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey records, the 25-year-old sought to make “a subtle concept record” and succeeded every step of the way. Even the album cover is cinematic, with Carter Faith posed in a lace gown with dramatic bell sleeves as red theater curtains part behind her. The text reads Carter Faith in… “Cherry Valley,” evoking the title sequence of an early-1950s Hollywood film. The artwork throughout the liner notes — in which Carter Faith appears in a different vintage outfit to evoke the characters in each song — is also a meticulous labor of love for her and two of her longtime friends, stylist Kennady Tracy and photographer Lily Nelson. The whole package is an invitation to Carter Faith’s Technicolor dreamworld, where Nancy Sinatra, Tammy Wynette torch songs and “Sex, Drugs, & Country Music” reign.
“As an artist, I think it’s really just an extension of your art — your clothes and your visuals,” she says.
Produced by Carter Faith’s longtime collaborator Tofer Brown, Cherry Valley is a triumph. The album is filled with razor-sharp songwriting, from the humor of “Grudge,” in which she calls out a petty Music City loudmouth (“I’m pretty sure that even Jesus thinks that you’re a bitch”), to
THE HARDESTWORKING MAN IN MUSIC CITY
Talking with music-scene
Renaissance man Charly OrtizMartínez — Latin dance DJ, metal drummer, indie label head and more
BY P.J. KINZER
IN A TOWN like Nashville, where music is a core tenet of our identity, there are always unsung heroes who do the heavy lifting. These Atlases of the scene have always been there to hold up the community of musicians, venues and fans in ways that are often overlooked. And if we were to give them the respect they’re due, Charly Ortiz-Martínez would be a gold-medal Olympian. Ortiz has quietly been one of the hardest-working figures in the Nashville fringe over the past decade. As a drummer, he holds down the beat for the avant-garde Hessians of My Wall and heavy-psych power trio Maanta Raay. His indie label No Sabes has amassed a catalog of some 30 releases since 2018, including recent full-length albums by both bands he’s in as well as sounds from distant places — including two other continents.
In 2024, My Wall toured Japan, inspired by Ortiz’s collaborations with Shizuoka hip-hop producer Boogie Mason for No Sabes. Later that year, Ortiz and fellow local crate-digger Stephany Medina took a trip to Colombia to perform as a DJ duo with No Sabes acts Animaleja and Rudio Selecto (both of whom have new music coming soon). No Sabes keeps Nashville close to its heart with a recent 12-inch from Bursting, a dissonant Chicago band made up of Nashville expats who were in metal outfit Yautja. No Sabes isn’t shackled to one specific sound, the way
the Beatles-inspired “Six String” (“You play me like a six string and wonder why I gently weep”).
Even if you set aside the release of Carter Faith’s debut album, 2025 has been a whirlwind for the North Carolina native. She was featured on Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable track “Awards Season,” an appearance that came about after the project’s frontman and central member Justin Vernon and his producer Jim-E Stack heard her 2022 song “Greener Pasture.” This summer, she became the first artist signed to songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon’s Gatsby Records, an imprint under MCA. Along the way, she befriended Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor, filmmaker and musician Billy Bob Thornton, who stars in the video for another Cherry Valley standout, the trad-country gem “Bar Star.”
“I found out [Thornton] liked my music and he wanted to write some songs with me, which is actually insane,” says Carter Faith. “Because he’s Billy Bob Thornton, and growing up in the South, it’s like, ‘That’s our God.’”
The day she connected with Thornton via text message, she penned the song “Billy Bob Thornton,” an ode to a man who’s “tough as nails, but his head’s a wreck.” The actor was an instant fan of the tune. “He was like, ‘If you
many indie imprints are. Instead it’s an expression of Ortiz’s love of exploring new music.
As his alter ego DJ Los, Ortiz brings the flavors of salsa and cumbia music to Tennessee turntables. Following a monthly residency at Inglewood Lounge last year, Ortiz and Medina established Esencial as a quasi-monthly night of dance music from Latin and Caribbean countries. The next Esencial will be at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Friday. In the run-up to the event, Ortiz was kind enough to take the time to talk about his incredibly dense schedule as a musician, record label founder and DJ.
“I started doing [Esencial] because I’ve been DJing around town,” Ortiz says. He met Medina through manning the decks at bars and parties. The pair established that they had a lot in common musically, and they began providing a soundtrack for local events, including a Latin dance party at Bearded Iris’ taproom and the recent 15th anniversary party for labor advocacy group Workers’ Dignity. “And then we had the idea of doing our own parties,” he explains, “spinning a lot of classic salsa, cumbia, Caribbean and Latin music, because we collect a lot of vinyl.” Ortiz, who grew up in South Nashville, says
ever put that song out, I have to be in the video,’” Carter Faith says. “I was like, ‘Well, I’ll put the song out if you’ll be in my video for a different song,’ and he agreed,” she explains, laughing.
A worktape version of the song has been released as a single, but it isn’t slated to appear on Cherry Valley However, Carter Faith says Thornton also gave her some valuable acting advice. That’s something she’ll make use of when she makes her acting debut in the Netflix thriller Heartland, co-starring Jessica Chastain and John Hawkes. It’s a courageous step for someone who grew up penning songs alone in her bedroom, often too nervous to perform them in public. But if there’s one thing the past few years have taught Carter Faith, it’s that she’s braver than she realized.
“I grew up shy and introverted and scared and cautious — and small-town-minded, for lack of a better phrase. I had this dream and I came [to Nashville], but I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to do it — not even [because of] the work or the talent. But I was scared that I would be too scared. What I’ve learned about myself is I’m a lot more fearless than I give myself credit for.” ▼
cumbia is the heartbeat of his entire musical literacy, established at his family parties when he was just a kid.
“It was probably the first kind of music I listened to,” he says. “My dad’s from Mexico. My mom’s from El Salvador. So I have both of those different types of Latin American culture coming together and sharing the different types of music — the different types of cumbia.”
Cumbia isn’t a specifically defined sound. The dance music is said to have been the result of the melding of the Indigenous music of Colombia meeting the sounds Africans brought over as slaves kidnapped by Spanish colonizers. “But I think the connector is that it’s the rhythm,” says Ortiz.
The beautifully infectious rhythms spread across the continent and into North America, with each new region establishing a fresh take. Contemporary cumbia touches on hiphop, house music and even punk, as each new community of Latin artists melds their musical heritages. Since establishing Esencial, Medina and Ortiz have shared their love for salsa, funk and cumbia from all over the Spanish-language world in ever-evolving ways.
“We kind of wanted to do something a little extra,” Ortiz says. “So we incorporated these percussion players that also are familiar with the background — are familiar with the types of music and the rhythms and different kinds of beats and melodies that it makes.”
Along with Medina and Ortiz, Esencial features Jimmy Lopez and Euge Sosa Barboza on live instruments, with a rotating cast of guests on the turntables. This month’s guest DJ is Rafaela Racines, who’s also part of a duo called The Children of House. “That makes it kind of cool because they all have their own flavor, their own style, their own flair,” says Ortiz, “bringing it to the experience.”
When asked how folks new to Latin dance music should approach Esencial, Ortiz is very inviting.
“Don’t be scared to dance. It’s a good time either way. Don’t overthink it. Maybe it’s a little intimidating because there’s a lot of people that are really good at dancing, but it doesn’t matter. [Laughs] If you do come to one of the shows, don’t be scared to ask to play a hand percussion instrument or something. Join the party, you know?” ▼
Esencial 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at The Blue Room at Third Man Records
CHARLY ORTIZ-MARTÍNEZ ESENCIAL
Cherry Valley out Friday, Oct. 3, via Gatsby/UMG
COME ON PILGRIM(AGE)
BY KERSTIE WOLAVER, GRACE BRASWELL, BAILEY BRANTINGHAM AND LIV RAPIER
BIG OUTDOOR MUSIC festivals in Middle Tennessee haven’t had the best luck with weather recently — see June’s Bonnaroo rain-out and the cold and damp that marked Pilgrimage 2024 for prime examples. But past weather woes were a distant memory for fans who came out over the weekend for the 10th anniversary run of Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival at Franklin’s The Park at Harlinsdale Farm
A breeze wound its way through the crowd gathered Saturday afternoon at the fest’s main Midnight Sun stage, cooling off the sweat brought on by the lingering summer heat. Leather pants and sequined jacket glimmering in the sun, Nashville’s own Maggie Rose took the stage, shaking her tambourine and flipping her blond mane while smoke and bubbles wafted above the front rows. She brought rich and soulful vocals to the funky grooves of songs like “Underestimate Me,” a standout from her 2024 LP No One Gets Out of Here Alive. She also brought out rocking songsmith Grace Potter, her collaborator on “Poison in My Well.” The pair duetted on the blues-kissed song from Rose’s new EP Cocoon, a set of songs about growth that drops Oct. 10. American Aquarium packed a punch at the Gold Record Road stage. Opening the set with “Katherine Belle,” an anthemic song from 2009’s Dances for the Loney, the North Carolina rockers delivered a high-energy performance from the start. Lead vocalist BJ Barham’s raspy voice and raw, honest lyricism intertwined with the band’s gritty twang to create a Southern heartland-rock sound that had a sea of cowboy hats bobbing. “I would like to personally thank you for supporting live, original, independent music right here in the great state of Tennessee,” Barham said during one pause. The set covered a broad swath of the group’s catalog, including fan favorites like “Losing Side of Twenty-Five,” a relatable tune about keeping your balance when you realize you’re on a very different path from the friends you grew up with.
Fans shielded their faces as the sun set behind the main stage and Joshua Tillman, better known as Father John Misty, waltzed up to his mic, suave as ever in spite of the lingering summer heat. Saxophone blared through the speakers as the band broke into “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,” a funky number from the most recent FJM LP Mahashmashana, which they’d already celebrated with a Valentine’s Day show at the Ryman. Tillman’s trademark sass was on display as he traversed the stage, breezing through catalog classics like “Nancy From Now On” and newer songs like “Mental Health.” “If your aunt has taken pottery lessons over the last year or so and did a supercut for progress, you’ve probably heard this song before,” he quipped before strumming the instantly recognizable opening
notes of “Real Love Baby.”
Despite the chill that came on after dark, a cross-generational crowd stayed put for Saturday headliners and longtime Nashville-residing rock stars Kings of Leon. They were rewarded with a powerhouse set brimming with emotion. “This song … reminds us we have some place to come home to,” said frontman Caleb Followill, introducing “Back Down South” from the band’s 2010 LP Come Around Sundown. He noted that they’d flown back from the West Coast, where they played California’s Ohana Festival on Friday, to be at Pilgrimage. Graphics lit the screens behind the band with the lyrics of “Pyro,” another Sundown song, helping the audience scream along. Lyrics were not necessary to keep the sing-along going through the grand finale, the Kings’ indelible 2008 hit “Sex on Fire.”
The bright, hot sun was back Sunday afternoon when Nashville’s Cristina Vane took the stage at the Americana Music Triangle. Vane entered alongside her two-piece band, decked out in a black lace-skirted dress that contrasted with the cream-colored resonator guitar slung around her neck. Weaving her way through songs old and new, Vane showcased her deep mastery of country and blues. Couples square-danced beside the stage to a twangy performance of “Hard Times,” and the thumping electric blues tune “Little Black Cloud” drowned out the noise leaking from the main stage. She also swapped from guitar to banjo for “Hear My Call,” the titular song from her latest album, and she ended with “Small Town Nashville Blues,” a nod to her adopted hometown. “You guys know Nashville’s not a small town,” Vane joked, “but it feels really small when you date the wrong guitar player.”
Grace Potter returned to Midnight Sun for a full performance following her Saturday guest appearance. Her band showed off old-school style with shaggy hair and flowy sleeves, while Potter herself opted for silver and sparkles. Potter’s catalog includes 10 full albums going back more than 20 years, including her May release Medicine, but she’s still best-known to some audiences for “Something That I Want,” which appeared in Disney’s 2010 animated feature Tangled. That song made an appearance in the wide-ranging set — as did “Little Hitchhiker,” a country song from her 2023 album Mother Road, which was enhanced by a guest appearance from country singer-songwriter extraordinaire Brittney Spencer
As the sky turned orange behind Gold Record Road, fans put on an enthusiastic welcome for heartfelt British indie rocker Sam Fender and his massive band, who were playing their first show in Tennessee. The energy at Fender’s set was fierce and passionate, feeding off the audience to make a strong connection. He talked to us as if addressing an old friend. Many in the crowd participated in a beautiful moment of togetherness, singing in unison the repeated hook of “Arms Length”: “Do you have to know me / Inside out?” At the tail end of the set, the entire band was jumping along with the crowd as they played faves like “Hypersonic Missiles.” That song searches for compassion in our chaotic world, and snippets of it could be overheard as the audience sang it summer-camp-style on the way to the final set of the weekend.
Just two songs into John Mayer’s set, fans of the contemporary blues guitar wiz knew they were in for a treat: He had already switched guitars three times during opener “Last Train Home” and follow-up “Queen of California.” Sporting a casual denim button-down and baggy green cargo pants, Mayer bounced around to the beat as the smooth sound of the band rolled effortlessly over the crowd. With Dead & Company’s residency run of nearly 50 shows at Las Vegas’ massive venue The Sphere (and an appearance
at a record-breaking Zach Bryan concert in Michigan) in the rearview, he seemed eager to give his solo catalog some attention.
“When I wrote this song, I really thought I had a song that I could go everywhere and people would wanna sing along with me,” Mayer said, introducing “Who Says,” a song from 2009’s Battle Studies. “And then I put it out and people said, ‘No thank you.’” He laughed as festivalgoers, faces glowing in the stage lights, cheerfully sang it back at him. The set included plenty of longtime fan faves that caught on much faster, like “I Don’t Trust Myself” and “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.”
Mayer and his ensemble know the material inside and out, and segued songs together seemingly at will; he closed his eyes during his lengthy, winding solos, seeming not to need them to get where he wanted to go. He stopped between songs to chat with fans holding up homemade signs, including a group whose signs collectively spelled out a request for “Covered in Rain.” He made good on his promise to work it into the set later if they’d put the signs down to let the people behind them see better. Before we knew it, he was walking back onstage to encore with the modern slow-dance classic “Gravity,” bringing another year of Pilgrimage to an end. ▼
PHOTOS: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
JOHN MAYER
GRACE POTTER
MAGGIE ROSE
Saturday, October 4
SONGWRITER SESSION Adam Hambrick
NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, October 5
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Catherine Marx 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, October 11
SONGWRITER SESSION
Max T. Barnes NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, October 11
BOOK TALK
Saturday, October 18
SONGWRITER SESSION
Alex Miller NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, October 25
SONGWRITER SESSION Billy Montana NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, October 25 HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party
3:00 pm · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Sunday, October 26 HATCH SHOW PRINT Family Block Party
Author Tom Piazza with Fiona Prine
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
9:30 am · HATCH
Sunday, October 26
Sunday, October 12
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT C. J. Lewandowski
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Maddie Denton 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
SEEING JOHN WOO’S legendary Hong Kong films again in 4K is a jarring experience.
Back in the good ol’ days of VCRs and video-store rentals, signature Woo movies such as The Killer and Hard Boiled came to these parts bruised and beaten. The victims of shoddy filmto-video transfers (this was back when mob-controlled video piracy was running wild in Hong Kong), Woo’s films, like so many Asian action films of that era, came to the States already looking like they’d been bootlegged to hell. Even when Killer and Boiled were picked up by The Criterion Collection for LaserDisc and, later, DVD release, the visual murkiness remained.
Now that we live in a world of digital restorations, these films and others from the Golden Princess Film Production catalog — dubbed Hong Kong Cinema Classics — have finally received glossy, gleaming makeovers thanks to Shout! Studios. These films are now making the rounds at repertory theaters (like the Belcourt, which will screen these films Oct. 3 through 16) and streaming platforms (The Criterion Channel will play those films and other Hong Kong imports this month).
Golden Princess (not to be confused with Golden Harvest, the studio that distributed most of Jackie Chan’s films) specialized in films with action sequences that are bloody, bombastic and — believe it or not — quite balletic. Woo’s 1986 hit A Better Tomorrow, with Ti Lung and the late Leslie Cheung as brothers on opposite sides of the law, set the tone, indulging in the same slow-motion carnage that made Sam Peck-
A BITE TO MATCH THE BARK
Good Boy shows how far a dog’s love will go
BY KEN ARNOLD
THE BOND BETWEEN Human and dog is a special one. Anyone who has made that connection understands it is one of the few unconditional loves this life has to offer. Dog lovers memorize every quirk of their furry friend, and our dogs — according to one study — can learn an average of 89 words from us. Canines are often smart and curious creatures who have finely tuned senses of hearing and smell, to a degree that we can’t even comprehend. This is most apparent when you see a dog staring into space, or at a wall. “What is it that you are looking at?” we wonder. With his new film Good Boy, Ben Leonberg asks, “What if dogs can perceive a supernatural presence beyond our senses?”
When Indy (starring as himself) and his human Todd (Shane Jenson) move to a rural family home, Indy starts to notice an otherworldly presence in the house. As the presence closes in, Indy will do anything to protect his
EAST GOES WEST
Glorious digital restorations of Golden Princess Hong Kong Cinema Classics arrive at the Belcourt this month
BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
BETTER TOMORROW
inpah’s bloodiest Westerns look artfully violent and launching the heroic bloodshed/gun-fu era of Hong Kong films. Woo would return to the hero/antihero team-up formula again with Killer and Boiled, this time making Tomorrow co-star Chow Yun-fat the charismatic lead badass. For all the bullets, explosions and general mayhem that flowed out of these films, the best Golden Princess films are about brotherhood. Whether the protagonists are cops or criminals, they usually live by a code of honor, being there for their fellow man when things get really messy. When they’re betrayed by someone they trust, it’s more heartbreaking than being left by a girl. (With the exception of the woman-led comedy Peking Opera Blues, women are basically supporting characters in these stories.) While some
may view this form of storytelling as homoerotic, this type of naked male vulnerability is something you still don’t get in stateside action films. For old, washed cinephiles like myself, these films take us back to that wonderful, alltoo-brief time in the mid- to late ’90s when it seemed like Hong Kong filmmakers and movie stars were going to inject some much-needed new blood into American action cinema. As brolic blockbusters starring Hollywood heavyweights (Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, et al.) were becoming tiresome for audiences, Hollywood looked to the East, re-releasing Jackie Chan’s physically dazzling work, getting photogenic warriors like Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh to breathe new life into stale franchises and, of course, hiring Golden Princess directors to helm
projects. (Woo, along with directors Tsui Hark and the late Ringo Lam, were the company’s resident agents of chaos.) Perhaps the smartest thing fellow muscle man Jean-Claude Van Damme ever did: He was the first American star to enlist Woo, Hark and Lam to direct several of his ’90s movies.
Sadly, it didn’t last long. Even though Woo gave us one of the best action films of the Clinton era with the amazingly batshit John Travolta/Nicolas Cage flick Face/Off, Tinseltown never gave him the freedom to be that gonzo again. Chow, who could blow baddies away while still looking dapper and charismatic as hell, seemed poised for movie stardom in America. Unfortunately, some of the vehicles he was saddled with — anybody remember The Replacement Killers? — were hollow retreads of the exemplary work he did with Woo.
Although it closed its doors in 1995, Golden Princess not only made icons out of its stars and filmmakers, but also influenced a lot of movies in the States. Quentin Tarantino, the world’s most famous former video store employee, basically took Lam’s 1987 crime story City on Fire (also starring Chow) and remade it as his 1992 feature debut Reservoir Dogs
Echoes of the vivid video violence of the Golden Princess films can be found in everything from the Matrix movies to recent Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now action geeks young and old will finally get the chance to see these Blockbuster Video faves in a new, less-downgraded light. ▼
Good Boy PG-13, 73 minutes
Opening Friday, Oct. 3, at select Regal locations
best friend.
The entire film is told from Indy’s perspective. Unlike the 2003 family comedy Good Boy! and animated horror-comedy Courage the Cowardly Dog, this Good Boy never features any dog dialogue — internal or otherwise. But Indy nevertheless carries the film with an expressive performance that earned him the “Howl of Fame Award” at this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival. It’s what elevates the film from high-concept horror movie to a heartbreaking love story between human and canine. Every bark, whimper and growl demonstrates emotional range — especially impressive when you consider the fact that Indy has no concept of what a movie is.
Leonberg doesn’t let his star’s performance go to waste, creating a stressful and bone-chilling narrative. He takes a naturalistic approach, keeping the camera at Indy’s eye level and letting us see things from roughly
his perspective, even if we aren’t seeing the action directly from his point of view. The dog’s instinctive duty to protect his person builds tension, while our natural love for dogs constantly keeps us invested. This tension is rewarded thanks to artfully employed jump-scares. Not the sort of unearned and abundant jump-scares we see so frequently these days — these are the payoff to a long build-up, and they earned the film Scariest Feature Film Award runner-up honors at the spring’s Overlook
Horror Film Festival, where organizers had to triple the screening size to meet audience demand. Leonberg takes a high-concept idea with an emotional core and executes it using a phenomenal lead performance from his best friend. It’s one of the year’s unique horror experiences and has rocked a series of genre festivals along the way — the type of experience that will have dog lovers racing home to hold their favorite little guys tight. ▼
Golden Princess Hong Kong Cinema Classics Oct. 3-16 at the Belcourt
ACROSS
1 “Table” for one’s TV dinner, perhaps
4 Messy abode
10 Texting format, in brief
13 Period that begins with a day of pranks: Abbr.
14 Weakness
15 ___ Highway (Maui tourist attraction)
17 Recently dated
19 Many a citizen of Abu Dhabi
20 It’s used for wrapping up a film
21 Gained a wider following
22 Riddled (with)
23 Top up
25 No guts
27 Where someone might ask for a screwdriver
29 Early tech giant
31 Fair Deal prez
32 Like Frodo at the end of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy
34 Chaps
37 Poem that’s typically unrhymed
41 Battle carriers
44 Mythological beast able to regenerate its heads
45 Commuter option
46 Non-fruit ingredient in a green smoothie
47 One of three in the Domino’s logo
49 Syllable akin to “Tsk!”
51 Audiophile’s collection, for short
52 Packed lunch
57 Wail
59 Shade in a picturesque island scene, maybe
60 Follower of Joel
62 Here’s the scoop!
65 Colossally bad consequence, as with finances
66 Feature of the clues for 17-, 25-, 41- and 52-Across
68 Wizard
69 Some underground networks
70 “Kapow!”
71 Fleur-de-___
72 Follow, with “to”
73 “Come ___?” (Italian for “How are you?”)
DOWN
1 Problems with a livestream, maybe
2 For one
3 Mark one’s words?
4 Rice dish seasoned with saffron
5 Stop for the night, say
6 Social studies subj.
7 Resident of a hidden mushroom village
8 Go-getter
9 Hebrew name for God
10 Reality show whose contestants give pitches
11 Red-clad brother of 54-Down
12 Major mess
16 Provide support for something crooked?
18 “___ ever!”
24 Take it easy
26 First Black male tennis player to be ranked #1 globally
27 ___ party (pre-wedding activity, informally)
28 Ghostly in appearance
30 The Batcave, for one
33 They might have their noses turned up
35 Basis for how you’re wired, so to speak
36 Bit of camp entertainment
38 “That one’s mine!”
39 Member of a marine “forest”
40 Functions
42 Innocent sort
43 Mess up
48 Kind of TV
50 Gay ___, author of “Honor Thy Father”
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
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52 Stable environment?
53 Like 4! and 24
54 Green-clad brother of 11-Down
55 Psyched
56 John Lennon had one that sold for more than $31,000 at a 2011 auction (fittingly, to a dentist!)
58 Word with price or proxy
61 Ticked off
63 It’s partly an assessment of logical reasoning, for short
64 ___ D’Arcy, co-star of HBO’s “House of the Dragon”
25¢ each: thousands of LPs, 45s, CDs, VHS, 78s, Mags, Comic Books, Toys & more!
67 Conjunction used in logic
PUBLICATION NOTICE IN THE CHANCERY COURT OF HARDEMAN COUNTY, TENNESSEE DOCKET NO. 20232
TOMEKA COLEMAN, PLAINTIFF, VS. HOWARD EUGENE COLEMAN, DEFENDANT, TO: HOWARD EUGENE COLEMAN
In this Cause, it appearing from the Complaint which is sworn to, that the whereabouts of the Defendant, HOWARD EUGENE COLEMAN, is unknown and cannot be ascertained by the diligent search and inquiry made to that end. HOWARD EU-GENE COLEMAN is there-fore, hereby, required to appear and Answer the Complaint filed in this Cause against him/her in the CHAN-CERY Court of HARDEMAN County, Tennessee, within thirty days of the last publica-tion of this Notice and served a copy of Answer on Howard F. Douglass, P.O. Box 39, Lexington, Tn., 38351, Attorney for Plaintiff, within said time. If you fail to do so judgement by default will be taken against you for relief demanded in the Complaint at hearing of the cause without further notice. It is further Ordered that this Notice be published for four consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene. This the 17th day of September, 2025.
Kimberly P. Paras, CLERK & MASTER
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