TENNESSEE SECRETARY OF STATE ORDERS
“AGE-APPROPRIATENESS
REVIEW” OF LIBRARY BOOKS
>> PAGE 9
FOOD & DRINK: MARGOT CAFÉ & BAR PREPARES TO SAY AU REVOIR IN 2026
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Wilson Pickett with The Swampers at FAME Recording Studios, ca. 1966.
O N T H E B A C K S I DE O F TH E B E AT
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s new exhibit puts a spotlight on Muscle Shoals’ rise as a hitmaking recording center BY DARYL SANDERS
Singer Candi Staton wore this custom-made buckskin jacket with matching pants, embellished with feathers and leather fringe, in the 1970s.
From the exhibit Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, opening November 14.
Uncle Mandible’s Low-Calorie Leadership Opinion: When Tennessee families go hungry, Gov. Bill Lee serves excuses instead of action — and calls it governing BY LIZ GARRIGAN
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Metropolitik: The Escalating Standoff Between Homeowners, Rollin Horton and Democracy
Recall effort, ethics threat, packed council meeting reflect a divide in local politics BY ELI MOTYCKA
Tennessee Secretary of State Orders ‘AgeAppropriateness Review’ of Library Books
Librarians ‘horrified’ as hundreds of books are at risk of removal during temporary library closures BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
COVER STORY
On the Backside of the Beat
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s new exhibit puts a spotlight on Muscle Shoals’ rise as a hitmaking recording center BY DARYL SANDERS
Zoolumination Festival of Lights, Mama Stories
They Might Be Giants, Lissie and more
Native Tongue
Blake Pickens brings biting Indigenous humor to IndigeNash BY NOAH MCLANE
International Alliances
Montreal’s Béton Armé makes high-energy punk with influences that range far and wide BY P.J. KINZER
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Hello, Goodbye
Margot Café & Bar prepares to say au revoir BY
Work
A public display of personal mythology at Neue Welt BY JOE NOLAN
A sampling of recent (and recent-ish) Nashville music for the holiday season BY STEPHEN TRAGESER The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Paul McCartney at The Pinnacle BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
Digging Up the Past
Jafar Panahi reflects on imprisonment, justice and trauma in It Was Just an Accident BY KEN ARNOLD
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
MARKETPLACE
ON THE COVER:
Wilson Pickett with the Swampers at FAME Recording Studios, c. 1966.
Photo by Rick Hall, courtesy of FAME Recording Studios
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When Tennessee families go hungry, Gov. Bill Lee serves excuses instead of action — and calls it governing BY
LIZ GARRIGAN
Liz Garrigan lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and served as editor-in-chief of the Scene well before Nashville was a bachelorette destination.
TALK ABOUT HYPOCRISY in full regalia. Gov. Bill Lee magnanimously posted on X last week that the state would issue a $5 million grant for food banks to offset expiring SNAP benefits. That represents just 3.5 percent of the estimated $145 million in federal food aid that 690,629 Tennesseans received in September. It’s the political equivalent of tossing crumbs from the banquet table and calling it generosity. He’s dressing up malpractice as magnanimity.
Lee’s symphony of shrugs in the face of this crisis for Tennessee families is a middle finger to common decency. This is a man who would force a 12-year-old rape victim to give birth. But damned if he’d feed her. It’s so perverse it would make even Andrew Jackson blush.
History will interpret Lee’s moral vacancy in declining to access Tennessee’s flush $2.1 billion rainy day fund as a cruel abdication of leadership — and humanity.
Lee’s stunningly unpersuasive justification for inaction? He admits incompetence, saying the state can’t figure out how to load benefits onto recipients’ SNAP cards. Sort your circus, Uncle Mandible — the kids are hungry. If that’s the case, then perhaps ante up more than table scraps to the food banks doing the moral labor for you.
At 77 years old, Jaynee Day, the retired former president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, is doing more than the state’s top officeholder to plug the gaps. “I am deeply disappointed by the governor’s decision not to extend SNAP benefits or utilize Tennessee’s reserve funds to support families in need,” she tells the Scene. “At a time when so many Tennesseans are struggling
to afford basic necessities, I believe it is both prudent and compassionate to use available resources to ensure no one goes hungry.”
The governor’s office could, of course, gather stakeholders, review the data, try to develop consensus around a solution. In other words, work with the legislature to demonstrate that compassion and conservatism are not necessarily at odds. Instead, Tennesseans get indolence and lifeless press releases as courage takes another personal day. Uncle Mandible: strong chin, soft conscience.
Lee’s defenders would say he’s just being fiscally responsible, demonstrating fealty to a core red-state principle. But fiscal responsibility is not a synonym for studied indifference. The budget is healthy, the rainy-day fund is full — on the backs, by the way, of the poorest Tennesseans who suffer the most from the state’s regressive tax structure. And yet when it rains on Tennesseans’ dinner tables, we’re told the umbrella costs too much.
Lee’s political brand is essentially “steady hands, calm leadership,” which would be reassuring if it ever translated into action. He smiles through crisis, prays through policy and punts on decision-making.
The governor’s communication strategy appears to lean on the assumption that if he doesn’t say much, he won’t say anything wrong. And maybe that’s true. Silence is bulletproof — and just as empty as many Tennessee stomachs. The state’s social safety net is already threadbare, and all Lee had to do was not pull the last few strings.
There is a special irony in a governor who touts “Tennessee values” while ignoring the most basic one: taking care of our neighbors. And we’ve been here before. A little more than a decade ago, Tennessee declined to expand Medicaid, leaving
President Donald Trump pardoned Republican former Tennessee Speaker of the House Glen Casada and Cade Cothren, Casada’s former chief of staff, on Friday. Both were sentenced in federal court in September for felonies related to a kickback scheme in which Casada helped funnel business to a fake political consultancy run by Cothren. Trump’s actions show a blatant disregard for the law, and demonstrate a two-tiered justice system — one for well-connected conservatives, and one for everyone else — writes Scene columnist Betsy Phillips
The two follow Republican state Sen. Brian Kelsey, who was pardoned by Trump in March shortly into his federal sentence for campaign finance violations.
WHEN IT RAINS ON TENNESSEANS’ DINNER TABLES, WE’RE TOLD THE UMBRELLA COSTS TOO MUCH.
billions in federal funds on the table because accepting them might look too blue for our redstate sensibilities. The SNAP debacle is déjà vu. Once again, ideology overrides pragmatism, and the people pay the price.
Southern politeness often cloaks cruelty in civility — preaching Christian values it won’t practice. Lee has perfected it. He is the embodiment of contradiction. He won’t shout, grandstand or appear actively unkind. He will simply let policies expire and programs atrophy, and allow people to fend for themselves — all with the serene composure of Uncle Mandible, convinced he’s done nothing wrong.
History won’t remember a scandal here, just a pattern: quiet neglect and garden-variety heartlessness dressed up as fiscal restraint. No drama, no noise, just the slow erosion of a government’s obligation to its people.
Leadership isn’t about doing nothing well. It’s about showing up when it costs you something. That’s a price Uncle Mandible never seems willing to pay.
Kentucky novelist James Allen Lane once wrote that “adversity does not build character; it reveals it.” By that measure, Bill Lee has exposed himself as someone who is thin on empathy, short on courage, and dangerously light on leadership. But credit where it’s due: grinning through this much hypocrisy takes a mighty jaw. ▼
Students and faculty rallied against Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier last week, pushing to disavow the campus leader’s response to a sweetheart funding deal, called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” extended by the Trump administration. Diermeier neither accepted or rejected the offer, which came in exchange for broad federal control over university life, instead issuing a noncommittal response that left the door open for “ongoing dialogue” between the university and Trump. Professors stood alongside students on the campus green and sounded the alarm about what they consider a substantial threat to the university’s academic freedom. Diermeier joined Vanderbilt as chancellor in 2019 and recently received a contract extension through 2035.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is soliciting bids for a call center in the greater Nashville area to serve Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility would use state and local police information to locate and potentially deport migrant children. The call center comes alongside the Trump administration’s aggressive push to expand the adoption of 287(g) agreements, which allow state and local agencies to coordinate with ICE. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office ended its 287(g) agreement in 2012.
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Recall effort, ethics threat, packed council meeting reflect a divide in local politics
BY ELI MOTYCKA
Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.
equal parts frustrated and embarrassed.
Citing the city’s dire housing need, supporters see zoning flexibility as a crucial step toward increasing Nashville’s housing supply. Shut out of home ownership by the city’s unaffordable housing market, supporters embrace zoning reform as an overdue response to population growth.
“BL2025-1005 establishes two new zoning codes for building types that we currently don’t have building standards for in our code,” explained District 3 Councilmember Jennifer Gamble, a co-sponsor, later in the meeting. “We’re talking about townhomes, we’re talking about house courts and three- and four-unit plex houses. A diversity of housing types that provide opportunities for our middle-income working people. Our teachers, firefighters, nurses.”
Throughout the hearing, supporters and opponents agreed on many major topics. They agree that the housing market is expensive. They agree that the city has grown rapidly, straining public resources. They agree that currently expensive single-family neighborhoods like Sylvan Park and West Meade are great for those who live there. They disagree on whether these areas are ready to absorb more people.
bonuses like walkability, bike lanes and thriving neighborhood commercial life centered on public meeting places like bars, restaurants and Ohio Avenue’s Urban Dog Bar.
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6:30PM ERICA IVY RODGERS with KRISTIN O-DONNELL TUBB at PARNASSUS Lord of Blade and Bone
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2025 NPLF LITERARY AWARD PUBLIC LECTURE at MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. HIGH SCHOOL
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BILLY COLLINS with ANN PATCHETT at MONTGOMERY BELL ACADEMY Dog Show: Poems
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24 at 6:30PM on ZOOM
Gift recommendations from ANN PATCHETT & STAFF
WHEN SCORNED HOMEOWNERS lined up behind the podium in the Metro Council chambers last week in coordinated red outfits, every seasoned Metro-watcher got comfortable. Some councilmembers’ effort to add two new zoning categories — residential neighborhood and residential limited — to the city’s code has become an animating force in Nashville politics in recent weeks, and the gallery was packed with organized opposition. The rewrite would not change a single parcel — yet. The bill (BL2025-1004) is largely seen as a preliminary step toward loosening city property laws that have locked up thousands of homes in the city’s most desirable neighborhoods as exclusively single-family.
Matching clothing means business during any city public comment period — the openmic time for residents to address elected officials about legislation in two-minute intervals. At a time when her predecessor Jim Shulman was known for taking Red Bull inventory in his seat on the dais, current Vice Mayor Angie Henderson last week got her buzzer ready. Speakers on both sides came and went. Some quoted the Constitution. Some came with personal attacks. For almost two hours, democracy in action vacillated between reasoned argument, grassroots passion and adult tantrums.
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Less than 24 hours later, Henderson, who presides over the chamber flow as council parliamentarian, became opponents’ new object of fury.
“Watch these videos!!” reads a Nextdoor post about the meeting whose comments drew pledges to vanquish Henderson, the mayor and the entire council. “Metro Vice Mayor is condescending and rude! Vote her out and never re-elect her.”
The meeting’s tensest moment occurred early, when Green Hills resident Tom Gormley mistakenly tried to speak during supporters’ comments.
“Sir, this is the time for people speaking in support,” explained Henderson.
Gormley threw up his hands.
Gormley was back up a half-hour later with his comrades. Tracing its ideological roots to anti-NEST factions that emerged in early 2024, Nashville’s zoning preservationist movement is, ironically, a big tent. (NEST — an acronym for Nashville’s Essential Structures for Togetherness — was an attempt at zoning reform that was proposed but ultimately put on hold last year.)
This coalition seems to believe any move toward zoning density anywhere existentially threatens single-family homes everywhere. (One speaker derided upzoning as “anti-American.”) Developers have destroyed Nashville, they argue, condemning associations with the real estate industry as public corruption.
With the scant biographical information speakers share publicly, it’s easy to confirm that many preservationists own million-dollar homes. Some bought in decades ago when West Meade had “fixer-uppers,” one opponent proudly told the council. Nowhere do opponents acknowledge their overall disdain for the free market exchange of goods or the simple fact that single-family plots have sellers as well as buyers. Some outright deny that the city has a housing shortage. While their appeals indicate that preservationists desperately miss the Nashville of the past, its growth has also brought them life-changing financial stability.
Most of the single-family hand-wringing comes from outside his district via single-family havens like West Meade, Belle Meade, Green Hills and Bellevue. Realtor Lauren Magli — who identifies as a Franklin local on her website — led an unsuccessful October charge to recall Horton, accusing him of ignoring constituents and shunning public feedback. (He has disputed both in lengthy public statements.) The same group later shifted its focus to a planned ethics complaint against Horton and has organized under “Voices for District 20.” Its treasurer, Douglas Jahner, spoke at last week’s meeting and lives in District 35. Magli has help from Chris Remke, an obsessive zoning reform opponent who stood up “Save Our Nashville Neighborhoods,” a fear-baiting website that casts upzoning as a developer conspiracy. Remke’s accompanying Substack puts the same circular arguments next to cartoons that appear to be AI-generated. At last week’s meeting, an opponent called Horton a “carpetbagger.”
“The tone has gotten coarser and more extreme, and it’s not symmetrical,” Horton tells the Scene. “It’s surprising and discouraging. We spent almost two years speaking as a community about this and engaging everyone that we could speak to, from neighborhood associations to businesses to church groups to HOAs and achieved a high degree of consensus — only afterwards to be subject to a deluge of misinformation largely led by people who do not live in the neighborhood or the district.”
The Horton camp has made its own rookie mistakes. He attacked Magli for her generous financial support of Donald Trump, importing fierce federal partisanship into local politics. When Magli was collecting signatures at the Richland Park Farmers Market without the proper permit, sympathetic Horton constituents notified Metro Parks police, further escalating the situation.
“Do we get a chance?” he said, seemingly
They have brought scorched-earth energy to the political arena. Most of it has been directed at District 20 Councilmember Rollin Horton, a banking attorney and lifelong political wonk who won his first Metro Council term in 2023. Horton backed the NEST legislation in 2024 and has envisioned his district, dominated by The Nations, as a proving ground for the benefits of higher-density housing. (Horton’s new Urban Design Overlay for the neighborhood passed in August.) With it, he has sought quality-of-life
A few dozen citizen reactionaries can drum up websites and line up for public hearings. For now, the failed recall effort suggests that maybe upzoning opposition is just a facade. ▼
Librarians ‘horrified’ as hundreds of books are at risk of removal during temporary library closures
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
TENNESSEE PUBLIC LIBRARIES are launching an “immediate age-appropriateness review” of children’s and teens’ books following a state government directive, with some calling the plan “anti-public-library.”
The plan came to light after three letters were sent to the Stones River Regional Library system by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. The Stones River system includes multiple public libraries in Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Moore, Rutherford, Trousdale, Warren and Wilson counties.
An Oct. 31 letter from Hargett requested that each library “undertake an immediate age-appropriateness review (over the next 60 days) of all materials in your juvenile children’s section.” The review aims to “identify any materials that may be inconsistent with Tennessee age-appropriateness laws, in violation of any federal law, including President Trump’s Executive Order, or otherwise contrary to any other applicable state or federal laws.”
Library directors are then to provide a final report to the Tennessee secretary of state and the Tennessee state librarian and archivist — a division of the secretary of state’s office tasked with answering questions about the review — by Jan. 19.
The secretary of state’s letters note that libraries could lose state and federal funding, including grants. “Library decisions should be shaped by the values of the library’s community as well as the fiscal limitations that require tough decisions about how to spend finite dollars over an almost infinite number of books,” reads one of Hargett’s letters. That same letter, dated Oct. 27, mentions “legitimate concerns” about one specific book, Fred Gets Dressed, which features a boy who tries on his mother’s clothes. The book, written by Peter Brown, was the target of a 2022 book ban attempt in Kansas.
A letter sent by Hargett’s office in September specifically cites President Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The letters, obtained by the Scene, are thin on details of the review process, from what books are to be reviewed to review guidelines. The secretary of state’s office and the state librarian
and archivist’s office did not return requests for comment from the Scene. The Stones River Regional Library system director also did not return a request for comment. Several people familiar with the matter have confirmed to the Scene that letters have also been sent to other libraries in other state library systems.
On Nov. 6, the Rutherford County Library System announced an “emergency closure notice” of varying dates for multiple libraries, and later publicly posted a series of letters from the secretary of state’s office regarding the review. The Scene spoke with a yearslong RCLS employee on the condition of anonymity, due to the employee’s fear of retaliation for speaking publicly.
“We’ve had no language [about how to choose books],” the employee tells the Scene “There’s been no transparency. We don’t know how they’re going about this yet. It’s not been communicated to us, and I don’t know if it will be communicated to us.”
The employee says library employees are “collectively devastated,” and that most “feel like they can’t refuse to participate in this.”
“It’s anti-intellectual freedom and anti-public-library,” they say. “It feels like an attack on public libraries at large. We’re horrified that this is happening.”
The source notes that “at least hundreds” of titles throughout the RCLS could be impacted by the review and potentially removed from shelves.
“It feels like an attack on the profession and on the community, because we have the obligation to represent everyone in our community, regardless of race, age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation,” says the library employee. “We are supposed to be a public space for everyone, and we feel like we can’t do our jobs ethically at this time when we get directives like this. … I can’t think of a time in history where public libraries have been asked to remove materials in this way. It feels completely unprecedented to have us close, lock the doors and remove a mass amount of books in secret — that’s scary.”
In 2023, Rutherford County resident Keri Lambert founded and now serves as vice president of the Rutherford County Library Alliance, a nonprofit that supports county libraries and librarians and is “vehemently opposing any form of censorship within our community.” Lambert says the RCLA has a list of more than 200 books that they see as under threat, many of which have LGBTQ characters or themes.
Lambert tells the Scene that the RCLA believes the review is “absolutely government overreach,” and part of a larger assault on libraries and books, citing the removal of more than 100 books from Rutherford County Schools libraries last year. In 2022, the Tennessee legislature passed the Age-Appropriate Materials Act (which was updated in 2024). The legislation regulates books in schools.
“This is definitely an infringement on everyone’s rights, and they should be very concerned,” Lambert says. “Things have been escalating for years.” ▼
3rd Annual November 15, 2024 | 11:00 - 3:00 PM
Enjoy art activities, face painting, delicious trea ts, food, and our friendly Pie Baking Competition— plus free parking and more.
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GildasClubMiddleTN.org/fall-festival 1707 Division Street, Nashville, TN 37203 615-329-1124
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s new exhibit puts a spotlight on Muscle Shoals’ rise as a hitmaking recording center
BY DARYL SANDERS
ON THE WALL of Michael Gray’s office at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, there’s a framed Hatch Show Print poster for a 2011 panel discussion at the museum titled Land of 1000 Dances: The Groundbreaking Sounds of Muscle Shoals. According to Gray, who is vice president of museum services, that panel was the inspiration for the museum’s new featured exhibit, Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, which begins a run of more than two years Friday.
“After that panel, I just remember thinking, ‘Oh boy, we gotta do an exhibit on this,’” recalls Gray, the exhibit’s co-curator. “So it’s something that we’ve been building toward for a long time, but I would say it was about three
years ago when it got the green light.”
That 2011 panel included Rick Hall, David Briggs, Dan Penn, Norbert Putnam, Spooner Oldham, Candi Staton and Donnie Fritts, all of whom are featured prominently in the new exhibit occupying the museum’s 5,000-squarefoot second-floor gallery used for featured exhibits.
Muscle Shoals is best known for R&B and rock recordings, so anyone not familiar with the museum’s history might wonder why it’s spotlighting a recording center with tenuous ties to country music. But as the museum has shown with three of its previous exhibits over the past quarter-century — Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970; Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville
Cats: a New Music City; and Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock — the institution is not strictly confined to country music.
“I think the hall’s mission in some ways is about American music, period,” says museum writer-editor and exhibit co-curator RJ Smith. “American music that’s been influenced by all sorts of things.”
MUSCLE SHOALS’ RISE to become an important recording center is an especially American story — an unlikely rags-to-riches tale that in many ways is the embodiment of the American Dream. The exhibit covers this story from “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy, who was born in Flor-
ence, Ala., in 1873, to Arthur Alexander, who in 1962 brought the Shoals its first national recognition as a recording center when he hit the Top 40 with “You Better Move On,” and on to the present, where it remains a nearly mythical recording destination for the likes of Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell, The Black Keys, John Paul White of The Civil Wars, The Mekons’ Jon Langford and others.
What is popularly thought of as “Muscle Shoals” is actually the Quad Cities of northwest Alabama located along the Tennessee River — Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia. There had been recording in Florence since the mid-’50s and some locally successful sides recorded for the Tune label — most notably Junior Thompson’s “Who’s Knocking?,” described by co-curator Smith as a “rockabilly hallucination,” and “A Fallen Star” by future Alabama state Sen. Bobby Denton. But there had been no professional studios until 1960, when Rick Hall opened the now-legendary FAME Recording Studios.
“There was a guy who built a studio in his garage and another guy would record in the waiting room at the bus station on Sundays when the buses didn’t run, but I don’t consider those real studios,” says Putnam, who was the bassist in the original Muscle Shoals rhythm section. “Rick Hall built the first real studio here.”
“I always tell everybody, ‘Hey, if it wasn’t for Rick Hall, none of us would be out here,” says hit producer-songwriter Dan Penn, who got his start at Tom Stafford’s publishing company Spar Music, located above the City Drug Store in Florence.
While Hall was the man of action who almost single-handedly willed Muscle Shoals to national prominence, it was Stafford who first saw the potential for making hit records there.
“The first guy that said ‘We can have hits out of here’ was Tom Stafford,” Penn says, “He was like that. He talked a lot, and he said a lot, but he also envisioned a lot. And this was back in ’58, ’59 and ’60.”
Along with Billy Sherrill — Hall’s former bandmate in a late-’50s rock ’n’ roll group called The Fairlanes — Stafford and Hall launched a new publishing company in 1959 called Florence Alabama Music Enterprises. After Sherrill quit the following year and moved to Nashville, where he would eventually become a Country Music Hall of Famer for his work as an engineer and producer, Hall took over sole ownership of the business and shortened the name to the acronym FAME.
Hall opened FAME Recording Studios in a former tobacco and candy warehouse outside Florence near the Wilson Dam. Working with the first Muscle Shoals rhythm section — guitarist Terry Thompson, keyboardist Briggs, bassist Putnam and drummer Jerry Carrigan — Hall produced the area’s first hit, Alexander’s aforementioned “You Better Move On,” which was released by Dot Records in December 1961. The record hit the Billboard Top 40 at the end of March 1962 and climbed to No. 24 during a sixweek stay on the chart.
With the money he earned from “You Better Move On,” Hall moved FAME studios to its current location in Muscle Shoals. Over the next three years, a number of pop and R&B hits came
Jerry
out of FAME — including “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes, “I’m Your Puppet” by James and Bobby Purify, “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” by The Tams, “Everybody” by Tommy Roe and “Hold What You’ve Got” by Joe Tex — all featuring FAME’s hot young rhythm section.
Barely in their 20s, Briggs, Putnam and Carrigan moved to Nashville at the end of 1964 upon the promise of significantly more session work. Understandably, the loss of his rhythm section came as a blow to Hall. After all, it was the rhythm that was attracting artists to Muscle Shoals — that swampy, swingin’ rhythm.
“I was one sad boy,” says Penn of learning his
The more-than-two-year run of Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising kicks off this weekend with a series of events celebrating — and in many cases, featuring — musicians and music businesspeople presented in the exhibit.
7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, NOV. 14, AT CMA THEATER: OPENING CONCERT CELEBRATION
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will kick off the exhibit’s opening weekend with an all-star concert featuring Bettye LaVette, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, John Paul White and others backed by a house band of Muscle Shoals session aces.
NOON SATURDAY, NOV. 15, AT FORD THEATER: SONGWRITER SESSION WITH DAN PENN AND SPOONER OLDHAM
Penn and Oldham first met in Muscle Shoals in the late 1950s. Together and individually, they have written a slew of hit songs including Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet,” James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street” and The Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby.”
2:30 P.M. SATURDAY, NOV. 15, AT FORD THEATER: PANEL DISCUSSION: MAKING MUSIC IN MUSCLE SHOALS WITH LINDA HALL, CLAYTON IVEY AND CANDI STATON Hall, Ivey and Staton will discuss making records in Muscle Shoals. Hall was married to FAME Studio founder Rick Hall and still coowns the studio. Ivey played keyboards on sessions at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound before founding Wishbone Recording Studio. Staton cut a string of classic country-soul records in Muscles Shoals, which earned her the title “The First Lady of Southern Soul.”
former bandmates in Dan Penn and the Pallbearers were leaving. “It was a surprise to Rick, and it was a surprise to me. But just to show you what kind of man Rick was, he could not be stopped. He just went and got him some more cats.”
Those cats — guitarist Jimmy Johnson, keyboardist Barry Beckett, bassist David Hood and drummer Roger Hawkins — would become the second Muscle Shoals rhythm section, which was known as The Swampers. Over the next five years, The Swampers played on a slew of Top 40 hits at FAME, including Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Etta James’ “Tell
1 P.M. SUNDAY, NOV. 16, AT FORD THEATER: MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT WITH MAC MCANALLY
A longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, producer, musician and songwriter McAnally went to Muscle Shoals as a teenager in the 1970s, made his first recording as a studio musician at Wishbone, and also played on sessions at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound. His songs have been recorded by an array of artists, including Sawyer Brown, Kenny Chesney, Alabama, David Allan Coe and Charley Pride. ▼
Mama,” Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally,” and Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away.”
After a financial dispute in 1969, The Swampers left FAME to form their own studio, Muscle Shoals Sound, where they would continue to back a string of hitmakers. They accompanied The Staple Singers on “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself,” Paul Simon on “Kodachrome,” Leon Russell on “Tight Rope” and R.B. Greaves on “Take a Letter Maria.”
With the departure of The Swampers, Hall once again got “some more cats.” The third incarnation of the FAME rhythm section was called The Fame Gang, and the hits kept coming. The lineup featured guitarist Junior Lowe, keyboardist Clayton Ivey, bassist Jesse Boyce, drummer Freeman Brown, multi-instrumentalist Mickey Buckins and the Muscle Shoals Horns — trumpeter Harrison Calloway Jr. and saxophonists Ronnie Eades, Harvey Thompson and Aaron Varnell.
The success of FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound inspired the opening of a number of other studios in the area in the 1970s. There were noteworthy recordings made at several of them, including The NuttHouse (which hosted sessions for Jason Isbell, The Blind Boys of Alabama and The SteelDrivers, among others), Music Mill (Hank Williams Jr., Narvel Felts), Wishbone (Hank Williams Jr., LeBlanc & Carr) and East Avalon (The Forester Sisters, Clarence Carter).
By the end of the ’70s, Tom Stafford’s vision of making hit records in the Shoals had come to full fruition. Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising tells the story of the men and women who made its fulfillment possible.
“To me it’s all about the area, the environment, the land, the soul that’s so obvious down there in the people and the players, and we were tapping into that,” says the museum’s vice presi-
dent of creative Warren Denney, who had a lead role in the creation of the exhibit and its catalog, and in producing all the original videos featured in the gallery.
WHEN YOU ENTER the Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising exhibit, you see a video screen featuring a photo montage that gives visitors a preview of the exhibit set to the song “Land of 1000 Dances,” Wilson Pickett’s 1966 pop and R&B hit cut at FAME. Then, when you enter the exhibit’s main gallery, there’s a mini theater with benches where you can watch a film narrated by Isbell that sets the stage for the entire story.
There are three other video screens. Two of those screens mix vintage audio and video clips with film interviews featuring Putnam, Penn, Oldham, Staton, Isbell, White, Rick Hall’s wife Linda and son Rodney, recording artists Jimmy Hughes and Bettye LaVette, Swampers bassist David Hood and his son Patterson (a founding member of Drive-By Truckers) and others. The third screen shows clips from the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals
The exhibit also includes two digital interactive stations where visitors can access five sections: a jukebox with more than 60 classic Muscle Shoals sides; a section for behind-thescenes songwriters like Penn, Fritts and George Jackson; a section for the legendary session musicians; info on 13 Muscle Shoals-area studios; and a section featuring the oral history interviews for the project.
Among the hundreds of historic items showcased in the exhibit, here are a few highlights:
The Apollo baby grand piano played by Aretha Franklin and others in recording sessions at FAME Recording Studios from 1961 through 1970. Franklin used the piano on her Top 10 hit “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).”
Wilson Pickett’s black long-sleeve polyester jumpsuit with flared legs and clear gems on the sides, black belt with gems, and black leather ankle boots with side zippers, which he wore on the cover of The Best of Wilson Pickett Vol. II
A 1964 Fender Stratocaster guitar formerly owned and played by Duane Allman when he worked as a session player at FAME Studios in 1968. Allman traded it to Mickey Buckins for a Fender Telecaster, and since then, Buckins has used the Strat on sessions and live performances.
A 1957 Fender Telecaster owned and played by Duane Allman and Pete Carr, Allman’s bandmate in Hour Glass. Allman wanted to play with a fuzz effect, so he drilled holes in the guitar to attach a fuzz unit he could control while playing.
A 1970 Telecaster once owned by Roebuck “Pops” Staples of The Staple Singers, which you can briefly see him play in The Band’s concert film The Last Waltz. The stunning dark grain of the rosewood body is accented by a simple black pickguard.
Three identical tie-dye floor-length jumpsuits with gold corded bows accented with red, orange and green gemstones, which were worn by Cleotha, Yvonne and Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers.
A 7-inch of Alexander’s first release, a single for Judd Records featuring “Sally Sue Brown” backed with “The Girl That Radiates That Charm.” Because he was Arthur Alexander Jr., his friends called him “June,” and he was billed as June Alexander on the label.
Dan Penn’s small custom acoustic guitar, which he called the “Car Guitar” because he could easily play it while riding in a car. His name is inlaid on the headstock with the letter “N” above that and a red heart
engraved into the guitar’s heel.
The framed original 1966 manuscript for “Out of Left Field,” written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and later recorded by Percy Sledge. The lyrics were handwritten on a paper bag.
Candi Staton’s leather buckskin jacket with double-button front closure and buckskin fringe and feathers made by Garma’s Exclusive Leathercraft and worn in the 1970s.
A Wurlitzer electric piano used by Barry Beckett on sessions at Muscle Shoals Sound.
David Hood’s Fender Precision Bass guitar with a multicolor woven strap that he’s used on sessions from the 1960s to the present.
LOW RHYTHM RISING What does the exhibit’s subtitle mean?
“We wanted to get ‘rhythm’ in the title because so much is made of the rhythm sections there,” says co-curator Gray. “The Muscle Shoals sound tends to be simple and earthy — they let things simmer a bit before bringing a song to a boil.”
“The dynamic down there was why people were coming to get that thing, that low powerful rhythm,” adds Denney.
Beckett, who moved to Nashville in 1982 to become country A&R director for Warner Bros., explained the secret of the Muscle Shoals rhythm to author Barney Hoskyns in a 1985 interview.
“The Muscle Shoals feel came from layin’ back behind the beat a little bit,” Beckett said. “Nashville would play right on the beat, but if you divide your beat up into increments, say a hundred increments to a beat, and you lay back the bass drum, say two increments, and the backbeat, say, four increments, it doesn’t mean you’re playing out of time, it means you’re playin’ on the backside of the beat.” ▼
NOV. 19-FEB. 8
LIGHTS
[LIGHT IT UP]
As the nights grow longer and the holiday season approaches, people are looking for fun and festive ways to spend their evenings, and what better way than looking at beautiful lanterns at the Zoolumination Festival of Lights. The country’s largest Chinese lantern festival opens this week at the Nashville Zoo. With more than 1,000 handcrafted silk lanterns on display, Zoolumination is the perfect holiday event for the whole family. Families can walk through zoo pathways illuminated with stories-high lanterns depicting fantastical creatures, zoo animals and scenes from Chinese folklore, making for a magical evening. The lanterns are handmade by artisans, and some are more than four stories tall. There will also be live shows from acrobatic performers and entertainers. From Nov. 28 through Christmas Eve, the festival will feature a holiday village with an ice skating rink, Christmas trees and visits from Santa each night. The festival is a unique chance to celebrate the holidays and experience the magic of these exquisite lanterns. LILLY LUSE
THROUGH FEB. 8 AT THE NASHVILLE ZOO
3777 NOLENSVILLE PIKE
Writing about Pennsylvania-born and Nashville-residing singer and songwriter Langhorne Slim a decade ago in the Scene, I dubbed him “the Wreckless Eric of Americana, if there can be such a thing.” Obviously, there can be — modern Americana is as much about rock ’n’ roll as it is whatever folk-country amalgam you might associate with the genre. Thursday at Skinny Dennis, you’ll get a chance to preview Langhorne Slim’s forthcoming album The Dreamin’ Kind, which is set for release in January via the Americana and indie-rock label Dualtone Records. The Dreamin’ Kind gets a sonic boost from Greta Van Fleet bassist and keyboardist Sam F. Kiszka, who adds backing vocals, keys and Led Zeppelin-style guitars to Slim’s latest batch of songs. Kiszka’s production doesn’t get in the way of the opening track, “Rock N Roll,” a tribute to the music’s allure that might put you in mind of The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed’s somewhat more ironic 1970 classic “Rock & Roll.” I’m also partial to the Dreamin’ tracks
“Loyalty” and “Strange Companion,” which rock out quite effectively. Thursday’s show will feature Kiszka and Greta Van Fleet drummer Danny Wagner, both of whom played on the album, along with a crack band. EDD HURT
8 P.M. AT SKINNY DENNIS 2635 GALLATIN AVE.
FILM
[THE RAIN THAT WASHES THE EARTH] LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN
Born into a Belgian family living in Japan, Amélie (voiced by Loïse Charpentier) is a highly intelligent and curious toddler who develops a close bond with the family housekeeper Nishio-san (Victoria Grosbois). As the world starts to unfold around her for the first time, Amélie is forced to face things she doesn’t quite understand, like culture, mortality and the passage of time. This is an animated film that might seem simply child-friendly at first, and to a certain extent it is, with its bright color palette and PG rating. But Little Amélie is the type of film that will touch hearts of all ages with its universal themes of the innocence of youth colliding with the cruel realities of the world. Don’t worry — despite its darker themes,
it is a very hopeful film that shows the joys in life can be just as loud as the sorrows. Just as time takes the joys from us, it also washes away the sorrows, leaving only memories. See Little Amélie now before it leaves theaters! Check your closest theater for showtimes. KEN ARNOLD
THURSDAY AT REGAL HOLLYWOOD & REGAL OPRY MILLS
719 THOMPSON LANE & 570 OPRY MILLS DRIVE
[ARE YOU READY FOR IT?]
NIGHT FEAT. SWIFT NATION
Do you lie awake at night wondering whether Jake Gyllenhaal still has Taylor Swift’s scarf? Have you created a PowerPoint presentation dedicated to decoding Swiftian Easter eggs? Are you still living The Life of a Showgirl? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re a certified Swiftie and owe it to yourself to celebrate Ms. Taylor Alison Swift at Category 10’s Swiftie Night. Hosted by Swift Nation, the “No. 1 unofficial Taylor Swift tribute band,” the event promises nonstop dancing, specialty cocktails and a light show to help you relive the Eras Tour right inside Hurricane Hall. There will also be photo ops, so you’ll have plenty of chances to get pics of your crew’s best Swiftie style, from ethereal Folklore ’fits to Showgirl-worthy sequined bodysuits. Category 10 won Best Place to Dance in the 2025 Best of Nashville readers’ poll, and there’s no better way to enjoy the spacious dance floor than by dancing to “Cruel Summer” or holding hands and crying to “All Too Well” (the 10-minute version, of course). BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
7:30 P.M. AT CATEGORY 10
120 SECOND AVE. N.
[HEALING WATERS]
As a longtime collaborator and artist-inresidence at Actors Bridge Ensemble, Cynthia C. Harris is well-known as an actor, director and playwright, staging powerful original works such as How to Catch a Flying Woman and The Calling Is in the Body. But Harris is also a committed public health care professional, often using her art “as a catalyst for community healing and radical health equity.” You can check out Harris’ latest work this weekend, as Actors Bridge and Meharry Medical College’s Maternal Health Excellence Research Center present the world premiere of Harris’ new choreopoem, Mama Stories. Based on nearly 90 oral history interviews, the piece offers a tender collection of stories touching on pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Harris directs and stars in Mama Stories, with the cast rounded out by Raven Buntyn, Briana Celeste and Chan Murrell. Following each performance, audience members are invited to continue the conversation with an intimate salon gathering in the Actors Bridge Studio, featuring wine and light hors d’oeuvres. AMY STUMPFL NOV. 13-15 AT THE DARKHORSE THEATER 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.
[DOWN THE LINE]
Swedish indie-folk singer-songwriter José González will take to the hallowed Ryman stage Thursday night to perform songs from his latest album Local Valley, which highlights González’s rich cultural background and influences and contains songs in each language he speaks (English, Spanish and Swedish). González is known for his sincere, psalmic odes to the natural world, which often gesture toward the metaphysical world. He poses questions to the universe while remaining at peace not knowing the answers. His latest album is inspired by classic folk songs — simple, short and earnest, but with stylistic nods to the sounds of Latin America and Africa. A night spent under the spell cast by González’s quiet, warm fingerpicking and heartfelt songwriting will surely comfort any audience member — and his topflight guitar skills and the talents of his backing band will surely be a treat to hear in the hallowed Ryman Auditorium. LILLY LUSE
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
BLUES]
We’re big fans of photographer LeXander Bryant, whose work recalls everyone from Walker Evans to RaMell Ross. Bryant’s 36-by24-inch photo was a highlight of Red Arrow Gallery’s Nashville Hot Summer pop-up in the downtown Arcade in 2024, and more recently, his work appeared in To Gather Together at Zeitgeist Gallery — both shows earned writers’ choice awards in the Scene’s recent Best of Nashville issue. His solo exhibition Forget Me Nots at the Frist Art Museum in 2022 was even a Scene cover story. But Dirt Road Baby, Bryant’s first solo show at the East Nashville gallery Red Arrow, is still worth all the fanfare it’s getting. The still-young photographer is pushing himself in different directions, and has included a selection of cyanotypes that add a layer of
gritty Sally Mann realism to the show. “At its core,” Bryant writes in his exhibition statement, “Dirt Road Baby is about finding oneself in the landscape of the South, understanding cultural value beyond what the mainstream offers and channeling the energy of those who came before us.” Bryant’s Southern landscape works as both subject and muse, and it shows that he still has plenty of places to explore. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER THROUGH DEC. 20 AT RED ARROW 919 GALLATIN AVE.
MUSIC
[DON’T LET’S START] THEY MIGHT BE
Friday and Saturday night, alt-rock legends They Might Be Giants bring The Big Show Tour 2025 to Brooklyn Bowl. According to co-founder John Flansburgh, fans can expect different sets each night. “We’re opening for ourselves, so there’s a 45-minute opening set that will be
an album spotlight, and it changes from night to night,” Flansburgh tells the Scene. “We’ve got four different albums in rotation, and we’ll do eight or nine or 10 songs from any of those given albums. Then we’ll do the main show. If you come to both shows, you’ll see a half-dozen of the same songs, but then the rest is going to be quite different.” In addition to founders and frontmen Flansburgh (lead vocals, guitar) and John Linnell (lead vocals, keys), the band’s current lineup includes Danny Weinkauf (bass), Dan Miller (guitar), Marty Beller (drums), Stan Harrison (saxophone), Dan Levine (trombone) and Mark Pender (trumpet). The band released a horn-oriented live album in 2024 called Beast of Horns, which features performances selected from earlier legs of the The Big Show Tour. “I really like the way it came out,” Flansburgh says. “We’ve always had horn moments on albums, but we never toured with horns.”
DARYL SANDERS NOV. 14-15 AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.
Hollywood has long had a fascination with films about itself. From the first of many A Star Is Born iterations to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, these films are at their best when foregrounding the dark, seedy underbelly and keeping the glitz and glamour to a minimum. None before or since has done so better than Billy Wilder’s masterfully sardonic 1950 noir Sunset Boulevard. Screening in a brandnew 4K update for its 75th anniversary as part of the Belcourt’s latest Restoration Roundup series, Sunset Boulevard stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, an out-of-work screenwriter who finds himself intertwined with past-her-prime silent movie star Norma Desmond (a fire-breathing Gloria Swanson). The film begins with a flash-forward of Gillis’ dead body floating face-down in Desmond’s
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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.
Take Me To ChurchCelebrates the 10th Anniversary of “Mr. Misunderstood”
Eric Paslay’s Song in a Hat w/ Charles Kelley
Jamie O’Neal, Emily West, Sarah Buxton
Quartz Hill Records / Stone Country Records Take Over - Spencer Hatcher, Matt Cooper, Lakelin Lemmings
The Kentucky Gentlemen –Rhinestone Revolution Tour
Anthony Gomes
Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek with Guests Chris Andreucci, Cody Atkins, Chris Hatfield, Jeff Holbrook
11.20 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Presents: A Tribute to the Eagles w/ Dan Tyminski, Sierra Hull, Trey Hensley, Shaun Richardson, Thad Cockrell, Bryan Simpson
11.24 Buddy’s Place w/ The Heels, Preston James, Jack McKeon
11.29 Casey Chesnutt
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
swimming pool, and only gets more sinister from there. Sunset is more than ready for its 4K closeup. For showtimes, visit belcourt.org. LOGAN BUTTS NOV. 15-16 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Hayao Miyazaki has one of the most storied careers in animation — hell, in all of cinema — and the older he gets, the more wistful he seems about his legacy. The Boy and the Heron is full of this tension, and feels “darker” than some of his previous works in the way regret, anger and petulant escapism course through its narrative. Protagonist Mahito, a young boy living in World War II Japan, is unhappy at home, grieving his mother’s death and bothered by his father’s decision to marry her younger sister. A strange, tricksome heron appears and lures him into a dreamlike world full of anthropomorphic parakeets, strange insects and bubble-like creatures. He befriends a hardy sailor and a girl who controls flames, and seeks out his mysterious relative who crafted this world. It’s hard not to consider the fact that Miyazaki is a notorious workaholic, and The Boy and the Heron seems to hope younger generations don’t seek refuge in the lifestyle that strained his relationship with his son. But more universal is the bittersweet message that it’s better to embrace a flawed life with loved ones than to pursue perfection in cold isolation. Both the dubbed and subbed versions will be revisiting Regal and AMC theaters as part of the Studio Ghibli Fest 2025. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ NOV. 15-19 AT LOCAL REGAL AND AMC THEATERS
[WHEN I’M ALONE] LISSIE
If you’ve never heard of Lissie, do yourself a favor and get acquainted with one of the most distinct and spirited voices in indie folkrock music. Dig in first with her collection of fan-favorite covers — like the stripped-back rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” that
tops her Spotify profile, or the head-turning take on The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You” that debuted on a new EP earlier this year — but stay for the deep catalog of original songs that span a decade-and-a-half of thoughtful songwriting. (My go-to is the 2016 album My Wild West, especially the fist-pumping number “Daughters” and always-catchy single “Don’t You Give Up on Me.”) As mentioned above, Lissie released a handful of covers earlier this year as part of her new Promises EP; the release follows Carving Canyons, a 2022 full-length effort that features Bre Kennedy, Kate York and more. Diana DeMuth opens the show. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
I’d venture a guess that a common mix-up is confusing armored combat and LARP, or liveaction role-play. While they may be similar in vibes, make no mistake: Unlike LARP-ing, armored combat is very much a high-contact sport. Fighters wear real metal armor and helmets, some of it very expensive and custom-made. And they need it, because they are being hit with real weapons, medieval style. The Armored Medieval Cage Fighting Championship in Nashville promises 20 knights battling for “glory and honor” in an iron cage. During three rounds of metal-on-metal clashes, all ages are welcome, but there may be blood involved. It’s a real physical feat, but it also isn’t short on the pageantry and pandemonium. Nashville has a robust community of armored combat fighters, including one of the rare women’s armored combat teams. When this national tour kicks off in Nashville, there may be a hometown favorite to root for. HANNAH HERNER
7 P.M. AT MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM
417 FOURTH AVE. N.
[YOU KNOW THE ONE]
MUSIC
Followers of Nashville music have been seeing and hearing Joelton Mayfield’s name for quite a few years, since he was playing in the middle of singer-songwriter bills. As heard on his debut full-length Crowd Pleaser, released via Bloodshot in October, taking the long road was the right call. It sways, lilts, rocks and stings in equal measure as Mayfield carefully examines various kinds of relationships — between lovers, between parents and children, between faith and religion and more. Many young people write valid, compelling songs about not being able to find answers to their questions just yet. Mayfield doesn’t sound like he thinks he knows it all, but he writes in such a way that it feels like he’s lived with what he’s writing about for a long, long time. My favorite expression of this is “Turpentine (You Know the One),” in which Mayfield turns a kinda-deep-cut Wilco reference into a look at longing, memory and the precarious nature of life as an artist. Hear Mayfield and his band tell you all about it on Saturday, with help from Future Crib and Emma
Ogier. STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT SOFT JUNK
919 GALLATIN AVE. NO. 14
Bringing an artistry and demanding a new level of respect to the genre of skate video, Jacob Harrison is debuting his first full-length video project at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Saturday night. Originally from Rhode Island, Harrison has been heavily involved in Nashville’s arts and music scene for many years and is now utilizing his creative eye for another passion — skateboarding. Created alongside Riley Yarnall and Edgar Hernandez (who also stars), It’s Subjective We’re Interacting chronicles skate sessions from mid-2024 to the present, through snow and sun. It’s more than worth the price of admission to see what some of the coolest people in the local skate scene have been up to for the past year-and-a-half — plus, it features live performances from thrash quintet Waxed, hardcore outfit Dogpile and local DJ Turbo. Seeing as how Harrison is also a talented designer, I have no doubt you’re going to want to scope out the merch table at this one.
ML MEADORS
7 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
[SING ME ALIVE]
MUSIC
WITH HER
Few sounds in folk music capture a room like when Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan sing together. Three artists with established individual careers (Jarosz and O’Donovan as solo artists; Watkins as a founding member of Nickel Creek in addition to a solo career), the trio occasionally unites as I’m With Her, a Grammy Award-winning group that plays the Mother Church this weekend. I’m With Her returns to the Ryman weeks after winning Song of the Year at the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards, a recognition received for the bold and empowering number “Ancient Light.” The song is from sophomore album Wild and Clear and Blue, which debuted earlier this year via Rounder Records. The LP comes seven years after 2018 debut See You Around — and with songs like “Ancient Light,” the enchanting “Strawberry Moonrise” or the wholesome title track, it’s clear that new music from I’m With Her was worth the wait. Ye Vagabonds will provide main support on the bill. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
MONDAY / 11.17
FILM
[PHANTOMS OF THE OPRY] THE HISTORY OF THE OPRY AT THE BELCOURT + NASHVILLE REBEL
For both the Belcourt Theatre and the Grand
Ole Opry, two of Nashville’s most beloved institutions, 2025 has been a landmark year. The Hillsboro Village arthouse and the iconic country music radio program both reached their 100th anniversaries this year, and both have been celebrating their centennials with programming that highlights their rich histories — histories that, as it happens, intersect. For a brief time in 1935 and 1936, the Belcourt — then known as the Hillsboro Theatre — was home to the Opry. On Monday, Belcourt historian and archivist Teddy Minton will lead a seminar “correcting long-standing misconceptions about the Opry’s time at the Belcourt, expanding our historical understanding of its meaning and presence at the theatre, and exploring its lasting impact on our past, on Nashville, and beyond.” Minton, whose job is to pore over historical records and artifacts about the theater and its impact, is a fount of fascinating information, and the seminar is sure to be an enlightening one. After Minton’s talk, as part of the ongoing Nashville: A City on Film series, the Belcourt will show 1966’s Nashville Rebel, which stars Waylon Jennings as a rising country star faced with the pitfalls of fame and industry manipulation. Alongside Minton’s seminar, this artifact of a film — which features performances from Porter Wagoner, Tex Ritter, Loretta Lynn, Chet Atkins and other country luminaries — makes for a perfect pairing. D. PATRICK RODGERS
SEMINAR 7 P.M., FILM 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
HISTORY
[LOVE THY NEIGHBOR] SOME WERE NEIGHBORS: CHOICE, HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND THE HOLOCAUST
There’s a high chance you’ll have the Some Were Neighbors collection to yourself when you visit, allowing you to digest the exhibit at your own pace. Created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the exhibit focuses on the ways friends and neighbors showed courage and complicity in the face of the unimaginable. The display is straightforward in its presentation: a collection of mounted posters shows black-and-white photos and firsthand accounts documenting how the Holocaust unfolded. Tall and looming, the posters are simple enough for an eighth-grader to understand, yet still too horrific for any of us to ever fully comprehend. As part of Belmont University’s continuing work in interfaith engagement, Some Were Neighbors goes beyond history and timelines, teaching us how to become the kind of neighbors the world so desperately needs. The exhibition is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until Dec. 8. TOBY ROSE THROUGH DEC. 8 AT BELMONT UNIVERSITY’S LILA D. BUNCH LIBRARY
1907 BELMONT BLVD.
$2 beers | 1/2 off sushi 3p - 6p every day
NOVEMBER 11
DECEMBER
JANUARY
EDDIE AND THE GETAWAY THU, 11/13
RYAN HURD THU, 11/13
NEW CONSTELLATIONS SAT, 11/15
CHRIS WILLIAMSON SOLD OUT SAT, 11/15
BENJAMIN WILLIAM HASTINGS SUN, 11/16
ELIJAH TUE, 11/18
NIGHT CAP WED, 11/19
THE ACES FRI, 11/21
THE WONDERLANDS FRI, 11/21
EFFIN FRI, 11/28
NOAH GUNDERSEN SAT, 11/29
ARIEL POSEN THU, 12/4
MINI TREES FRI, 12/5
CHOKECHERRY SAT, 12/6
SAM GREENFIELD MON, 12/8
Margot Café & Bar prepares to say au revoir
BY KAY WEST
ON TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2001 , Margot Café & Bar welcomed its first diners into a restaurant created in the shell of a 70-year-old building at the corner of 10th and Woodland in the wilds of East Nashville. The original exposed-brick walls were dressed up with copper cookware and vintage pottery, the tall windows hung with drapes pulled back to the wooden frames, and gleaming tables set with fresh flowers or herbs placed against banquettes on either side of the polished concrete floor. That night, chef-owner Margot McCormack and her staff — visible through the pass into the tiny kitchen — cooked for 120 people, each of whom reserved one of 75 seats in the main dining room, at the petite comma of a bar or on the mezzanine.
That figure will undoubtedly be eclipsed on Friday, June 5, 2026, when — after 25 years and multitudes of cheese plates, bottles of bubbles, buckets of Provençal olives, acres and acres of locally grown produce, and untold multitudes of roast chickens and seasonal fruit tarts — the final service will take place.
The momentous decision to close Margot and list the property for sale came in the wake of what McCormack describes as her hardest five years in business. Margot’s Five Points neighborhood was hit by a deadly tornado just past midnight on March 3, 2020, almost immediately followed by COVID chaos — a double whammy that delivered a knockout blow to Margot’s sister
restaurant Marché. Then there were personal health issues, head-spinning changes in the Nashville restaurant industry, and the evolution of a quirky, artsy, creative, fiercely independent neighborhood that both nurtured and benefited from Margot.
McCormack ruefully observes that opening Margot would be impossible in today’s Nashville, but she delights in telling the tale of its scrappy start.
A West Nashville native, McCormack landed her first kitchen job at the legendary — and deservedly infamous — Faison’s in Hillsboro Village, where she was paid $4 an hour. Naturally, that inspired her to make a career of cooking, which led her to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. She then built her résumé in Manhattan and upstate New York restaurants, where she met her future wife Heather Parsons. In 1995, McCormack returned to Nashville, intent on opening her own restaurant. Step one was reestablishing Nashville connections, starting with taking the chef job at F. Scott’s restaurant. Noting the emergence of independent, chef-owned restaurants in underserved urban neighborhoods (Sasso in East Nashville in 1998, Caffé Nonna in Sylvan Park in 1999, Mirror on pre-12South 12th Avenue in 2000), she moved to step two. Over coffee one morning at nearby Bongo Java Roasting Company with Fred Grgich — who had helped open Nonna — McCormack
spied the available building in Five Points; landlord March Egerton gave them a look.
“It was a mess,” McCormack recalls. “The roof had a really big hole in it, and the space was so raw. But I could see it. The first time we walked in, I said, ‘There’s the kitchen, here’s the dining room, there’s the bar, there’s the bathrooms.’ If I can see it, I can do it. I saw Margot.”
McCormack and Grgich persuaded Egerton to renovate the second floor so they could have enough seats to serve alcohol. They brought in Jay Frein, and each of the three put $25,000 in the pot and gave their credit cards a workout. “It cost us about $150,000 to open Margot,” McCormack says. “No one could do that today.”
They did a lot of physical labor themselves. Parsons dove into demo and built the bar. As it became clear that something was happening in the former service station, which had been vacant for 10 years, neighborhood residents began poking their heads in, saying hello and bringing welcome gifts.
McCormack sought out local farmers to support her intent to change the menu daily. Margot has neither a freezer nor a walk-in, so everything has an extremely short shelf life — what comes in must all go out. Tana Comer of Eaton’s Creek Organics was first. “She came in one day with a basket of her beautiful vegetables that she had picked and washed that morning,” says McCormack. “Everything she brought
me through all the years was perfect, and she set the bar for everyone else.”
In the days before social media, the Margot team had to get the word out old-school style, calling contacts on the phone. Once opening night was set, they began taking reservations — also by phone, written down by hand. McCormack had to tell her mother to stop telling her friends, because they were full.
Margot quickly established itself as a culinary destination, neighborhood landmark and growth catalyst. The kitchen was an academy for young cooks, and the front-of-house set the standard for warm and professional service. The bar became known for its unpretentious approach to wine. The restaurant was the site for countless birthdays, first dates, engagements, baby showers and anniversaries, conventional holidays, East Nashville-centric events, Bastille Day and the annual release of Beaujolais nouveau. Plus celebrations of Julia Child’s birthday. McCormack and Parsons had a commitment ceremony in 2006 — the same year they opened Marché Artisan Foods — had a son, Jacob, in January 2011, and legally married in Cape Cod in 2013.
Key to Margot’s sustainability and McCormack’s physical and emotional health was the arrival in 2011 of young Hadley Long, then a student at a Washington, D.C., culinary school who applied for an externship with Margot. She put him at Marché with chefs Matt Davidson and
Kat Britt for a year, before “poaching him” for herself. “He had a burning desire to learn and was just a breath of fresh air,” she says. “He and Kat were just the best, and we had so much fun.”
The 2020 tornado destroyed homes and buildings in the neighborhood and damaged Margot; one of the most enduring images of the days following was the outdoor cookout the restaurant threw for 500 of its closest friends — a beacon of light in the dark. COVID was even more debilitating, prompting layoffs, service pivots, severe financial strain and exhaustion. It was also when McCormack’s wife delivered an observation that broke through. “One day she said, ‘You spend all your good energy at the restaurant, and when you get home, you don’t have anything left for Jacob and me.’ That cut right to my heart.”
McCormack went in that night and told Long it was her last night shift — that she would work lunch, but he was the guy. In July, 2022, he took over the Margot kitchen as executive chef.
As the restaurant approached another milestone, she again took personal and professional stock. “I’ve spent 24 years in the restaurant looking out the kitchen window at that corner, and I love it, but I’m done,” she tells the Scene. “It’s time. Time for something new, for the building and for us.”
The announcement of Margot’s final service nearly seven months before it actually happens was influenced by the abrupt closure of Marché.
“I’VE SPENT 24 YEARS IN THE RESTAURANT LOOKING OUT THE KITCHEN WINDOW AT THAT CORNER, AND I LOVE IT, BUT I’M DONE.
“It didn’t get the fanfare it deserved — people didn’t get their last order of French toast or say goodbye to their favorite server. Margot and all our people deserve that.”
So consider the next seven months the Margot Farewell Tour — a last glorious hurrah of one of the best, most meaningful, most generous, impactful and beloved restaurants to ever take residence in Nashville, and act accordingly.
“We’re going to have plenty of celebrations,” McCormack promises. “It’s going to be fun.” ▼
A public display of personal mythology at Neue Welt
BY JOE NOLAN
NEW ORLEANS-BASED artist Erica Westenberger’s Our Shadows, Spilling Together, currently on view at Wedgewood-Houston gallery Neue Welt, is a sculptural installation that examines the challenges contemporary women face balancing family, career and beauty standards. What makes it stand out from ubiquitous identity-focused shows is its innovative deployment of unique materials, its preference for poetic imagery over polemics, and the way it connects 21st-century anxieties and conflicts to timeless myths and mystical stories that redirect human failings back toward the reassuring patterns of the natural order.
Westenberger’s installation delineates a liminal space. In ancient magical traditions, treelines, foothills and the edges of rivers and streams were in-between places — locations where a person might pass through a portal to another reality, or perhaps some otherworldly creature might pass into ours. Dawn and dusk — and the days that mark the transitions between the seasons — might offer the same opportunities. Westenberger embraces these neither-nor mix-ups by casting artificial materials into natural forms and deploying natural outdoor materials in her interior spaces. The artist decorates the gallery with coal-black sand, as well as generous deposits of powdery rose-petal dust that fill the display with the flower’s scent.
Westenberger’s rose-colored palette and dainty furnishings read traditionally feminine, but for every lilting gesture and voluptuous form, there are edges and spiky points. The show is centered on two mostly identical portrait sculptures — “Soft Echos I” and “Soft Echos II” — that face each other from walls on either side of the gallery. Each includes a woman’s face, various hands and feet, forms that allude to internal organs, strings of pearls and seashells. The composition is lashed together with textured elements that look like woven ropes, but also morph into thorny vines and the tentacles of some unseen marine menace. Both pieces are cast in resin, decorated with silver leaf and hung on walls where they resemble ornate mirror frames.
I attended the show’s opening on Nov. 1, and realized afterward that I’d misremembered this particular piece — I could have sworn that the sculptures had reflective centers, but the pair only offers symbolic windows into each other’s psychophysical interiority. The pearls are nautical images that speak to watery emotional states, but they’re also symbols of status and generational wealth. The ropes, vines and tentacles are attention tangled, pulled and split between thoughts and feelings, dreams and worldly physical being.
“The Lull of Sharp Sugar” is a silvery birdbath form that’s been filled with rose-petal dust in the middle of the gallery. It’s surrounded by a
beach of rose-petal dust that creates a teardrop shape on the floor around the sculpture. The fountain-like form has pointed edges that throw crown-shaped shadows on the purple dust beneath the gallery lights.
The ceremonial font, regal-colored powders and ornate wall decorations give Our Shadows, Spilling Together the feel of a ritualized space. The scent of rose petals fills the air, and mirrors face each other over a reflecting pool. The installation feels more ancient Greek than witchy, and I’d argue the work serves an oracular function in its capacity for generating multilayered narratives through the poetic use of symbolic imagery.
The best thing about Our Shadows, Spilling Together is the myriad perspectives it invites. The work speaks to personal psychology as well as cultural folklore, and Westenberger weighs her thematic and narrative compositions as delicately as she considers her surfaces and materials. Something frilly and floral becomes
armored and weaponized. A material connects to a constellation that inspired a myth.
Our Shadows, Spilling Together is a multifaceted activation with rigorous integrity across its concepts and forms. It’s an immersive, multimedia story space that spans everything from personal perspectives to universal themes. ▼
Erica Westenberger: Our Shadows, Spilling Together Through Nov. 30 at Neue Welt
Blake Pickens brings biting Indigenous humor to IndigeNash BY
NOAH MCLANE
WHEN CONSIDERING INDIGENOUS art, one may be forgiven for not immediately thinking of stand-up comedy, says IndigeNash organizer Shayna Hobbs. IndigeNash — the Nashville festival celebrating Indigenous art and culture — is returning for its second year on Nov. 19, and one way it’s expanding, says Hobbs, is through comedy, with scheduled performances from comics Eagle Blackbird and Blake Pickens.
“There’s something that I think a lot of people don’t understand,” Hobbs, a founding member of IndigeNash, tells the Scene by phone. “Natives are fucking hilarious. We have great, great senses of humor, and we’re very funny and goofy, and I think that it’s such an important part that people see that about us.”
Pickens, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in an often-not-so-funny environment. He describes a difficult upbringing characterized by gun violence and mental illness.
“I can talk to anybody, because my uncles had schizophrenia — so I had to [be prepared to] talk to everybody and anybody at all times,” says Pickens. “I had to be ready on a dime … and so a lot of my comedy is very much inspired by that sort of thing.”
Pickens says he was drawn to comedy because of how his family dealt with hardships.
“You know, you can really only laugh or cry about what’s going on, and they always chose to laugh, which informed how I looked at life,” says Pickens. “If something was going wrong, the first thing my parents would do is make a joke about it.”
Another influence was Nickelodeon’s All That, which inspired Pickens and his brothers to perform sketches in their grandmother’s house at a young age.
“Ours was a bit darker than the Nickelodeon show, because we were doing sketches about stuff going on in our world,” he says. “But comedy very early just became the way I expressed myself and looked at the world.”
Pickens grew up to craft a subversive style of comedy that has proven successful. He’s also bagged himself an Emmy for a Procter & Gamble commercial, an MTV Video Music Award for his work on John Legend’s “Surefire,” and writer and producer credits on shows including Paw , Spirit Rangers and a Nickelodeon’s Rugrats reboot. When producing, Pickens says he tries to hire Native talent whenever possible.
He’s currently working on a PBS documentary about prison reform, which will focus on a group of Indigenous prisoners who were able to connect to their culture and community while incarcerated.
Although Pickens has performed at events around the country where Indigenous stories are important, IndigeNash will be the first time he’s participated in an event that focuses specifi-
cally on Indigenous communities.
“It’s different when it’s a festival that’s purely about Indigenous art, which is gonna be awesome,” says Pickens, smiling.
“It’s an honor, and I feel very thankful to be able to be a part of our Indigenous community,” says Pickens. “Time that I get to be with community is special, especially doing it in a way where I’m just making people laugh. I’m not there for anything else, which feels nice.”
He emphasizes that Indigenous communities need safe spaces in which to celebrate their culture — something the United States government eliminated via forced assimilation practices for decades.
“We should always be lifting each other up,” says Pickens of his Native brothers and sisters. “That was the way our communities were for a long time, but then obviously, colonization changed some of that and our structures.”
Nov. 19-23 at various locations
Pickens will appear during IndigeNash Innovators, 1-5 p.m. Nov. 21 at The Forge indigenash.org
His advice for young people who are serious about a career in the arts: Keep doing it, even when it’s tough. He compares the entertainment industry to a personal war of attrition.
“The people who stick around the longest stay the longest,” says Pickens.
In addition to Pickens’ stand-up performance, IndigeNash has dozens of other events planned for the weeklong fest, including health and wellness sessions, a film screening from Nashville Predators legend Jordan Tutu and an artisan market presented in partnership with the Frist Art Museum.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to dine on meals prepared by award-winning chef Sean Sherman, catch music showcases at The Basement East, and be dazzled by Indigenous fashion during a fashion showcase.
Visit indigenash.org for tickets and a full schedule of events. ▼
The Motet with Sam Fribush Organ Trio
Music’s Finest Comes Together For Friends of The Atwoods: A Night of Giving featuring Darin & Brooke Aldrige, Mandy Barnett, John Berry, T. Graham Brown, Linda Davis, Jimmy Fortune, Ty Herndon, The Isaacs, The Kody Norris Show, Makenzie Phipps, The Whites & More!
Big Damn Music Jam featuring The Bennet Hall Band, Sandee June, The Bandana Brothers, Lucie Tiger, Tasman Sharp & The Ripsnorter and Robert Bacon
@ sunset w/ high june (9pm)
sunday roast
beau burnette
alex williams w/ one for the road
abby jeanne & the shadowband w/ John Condit and Cha Cha Heels noah guthrie & nathan graham
sun seeker w/
Montreal’s Béton Armé makes high-energy punk with influences that range far and wide
BY P.J. KINZER
IT’S NEVER BEEN easy for artists who sing in languages other than English to get noticed in the United States. So I asked Oli Sasseville why his Canadian band sings in French. He plays bass in Montreal, Quebec’s Béton Armé (whose name translates to “reinforced concrete”), who will be stopping by Nashville on Saturday for their second visit this year. They’re one of three Francophone punk troupes — along with eerie Lyon/Paris trio Bleakness in April and Paris’ brilliantly saccharine power poppers Alvilda in July — to play Nashville so far in 2025.
“It’s our first language,” says Sasseville. “And also the bands that inspired us were, for the most part, the French ones from the ’80s who all sang in French. I think it’s between five and six years, over the past 20 maybe, that I’ve spent in France.”
Béton Armé’s album Renaissance, released in August, is one of the catchiest punk records of 2025. “Guitar is always with the rhythm section, and the bass and the vocals are the melody, so we try also to use a ton of gang vocals and ‘whoas,’” Sasseville says. A fan recently noted that the LP has a “whoa” count of 545, averaging out to 23.7 WPMs (Whoas Per Minute). “So it creates its own melody on top of the guitar.”
During his time in France, Sasseville became integrated into Paris’ well-known oi! community. For those unaware, oi! is a subsect
of punk that emerged from the British pubs in the late ’70s as the other side of the coin from the scene born in art schools. Oi! was the sound of disaffected working-class youth who were too busy trying to make ends meet to go around sticking safety pins through their septums.
The sound reverberated across the English Channel: In 1983 and 1984, the two volumes of the compilation albums Chaos en France showcased the sounds of the streets across l’hexagone, introducing the world to Komintern Sect and Camera Silens. Oi! spread to Italy, where leading bands were anti-fascist group Klasse Kriminale and Nabat, who dedicated their 1986 LP Un Altro Giorno Di Gloria to South African activists Benjamin Moloise and Nelson Mandela.
These French and Italian scenes served as inspiration for Béton Armé’s style more than the U.K. or U.S. bands. “If you look at [French and Italian] bands and you draw your influences from them, I think it’s a much better sound, and it’s a lot more interesting,” says Sasseville.
Despite the European flavor, Béton Armé’s home is still Montreal. The cover of their 2018 self-titled demo tape features a drawing of their hometown landmark: the Farine Five Roses marquee, a well-known flour mill sign that has illuminated the city skyline since 1948.
“When you cross the bridge to get into the city, it’s right in your face,” Sasseville explains.
“That’s kind of a wink to the working-class history of Montreal, but as well as a landmark that everyone from that city recognizes.”
The working class, a common theme in the oi! realm, is important to Béton Armé. When asked about his band’s day jobs, Sasseville gives an unexpected answer. “One electrician and two others work in renovation,” he says. “I have a Ph.D. in history, so it’s a different path that I took.”
Sasseville got his doctorate in France, where he studied the rise of far-right political movements. He researched the neofascist movement Ordre Nouveau, which merged with the French National Front, which today exists as a political party called National Rally.
“And it’s within that movement that the National Front was created in the early ’70s,” he explains. “So I was studying this sort of transition from a more openly fascist, very, very fringe movement to a sort of political party that could present candidates at every election and then be kind of within the mainstream political arena.”
How mainstream, you ask? While you might not be familiar with NF founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, a long-running political figure known for Nazi sympathies and hateful statements about immigrants, you might be aware of his daughter, Marine Le Pen, a National Rally candidate who got 41.5 percent of the vote in France’s 2022
presidential election. Growing up on the left side, Sasseville saw importance in studying how the other side worked, especially after seeing the rise of the far right in Western Europe.
“I just thought it’s important to document and understand how and why they’re able to achieve what they’re achieving right now, which hasn’t been seen since the Second World War.” ▼
A sampling of recent (and recent-ish) Nashville music for the holiday season BY
STEPHEN TRAGESER
WE ALL KNOW someone — or maybe you are someone — who’s eager to bust out the Christmas music as soon as possible. I like to give Thanksgiving its due first, but the Yuletide has a ton of all-time jams, and quite a few Nashville musicians have made delightful contributions to the canon. With the season rapidly approaching, we’ve collected some recent and recent-ish locally sourced holiday music to add to your Bandcamp cart and your playlists.
Before we get started, there are some notable holiday shows that don’t have releases attached.
William Tyler and Friends’ Nov. 29 gig at The Blue Room at Third Man Records isn’t Christmas-y per se — the annual-ish event is typically a mix of “cosmic pastoral” originals and fun covers with a rotating cast of great singers — but it always feels like a seasonal homecoming. Similarly, the 20thanniversary run of Get Behind the Mule, a tribute to Tom Waits that benefits Second Harvest Food Bank, comes to The 5 Spot on Dec. 5.
Also on Dec. 5, JD McPherson’s Socks: A Rock ’n’ Roll Christmas tour makes an adoptedhometown stop at The Basement East. The 5 Spot hosts The Fats Kaplin Gang Christmas Extravaganza on Dec. 9, and the 13th annual Mike Farris Sings the Soul of Christmas revue hits 3rd and Lindsley on Dec. 13. Meanwhile, band of aces The Ornaments, in their 20th year of performing Vince Guaraldi’s beloved music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, settle into their residency at Eastside Bowl starting Dec. 17, and the sixth annual run of rock ’n’ soul party Super Jolly is at The 5 Spot on Dec. 20.
VARIOUS ARTISTS, YK RECORDS HOLIDAY SAMPLER 2024
Last year, Michael Eades’ stellar indie label YK set a very high bar with this compilation of older tunes and new tracks.
Musician and eminent producer Roger Moutenot’s “Letter to Santa” sets it up with an extended nod to the end of “Christmas All Over Again.” You’ve got Birdcloud’s bratty-by-design “Cool Christmas” and Tower Defense’s ripper “What Do You Want for Christmas?” as well as Stone Jack Jones’ contemplative take on “Away in a Manger” and Little Bandit’s heartstringtugging version of “(Have Yourself) A Merry Little Christmas.” Matt and the Watt Gives’ rollicking and brutally honest “No Child (Wants Their Picture Made With Santa)” gets my vote for “best new Christmas song” across the board.
UNCLE ELLEN, CHRISTMAS AT THE FIREHOUSE
TIMBRE, SILENT NIGHT
Phenomenal musician (and podcaster) Ellen Angelico is a go-to side player for lots of great marquee artists, but she steps into the spotlight as Uncle Ellen. Her 2023 instrumental holiday release puts the fun back into some classics that you might have heard a time too many to think you can still enjoy. Her swinging take on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” reed-enhanced (via pump organ or maybe melodica?) “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and rocking “O Holy Night” lift my spirits at this (literally) dark time of year.
KYLE HAMLETT UNO, 3 SHIPS
Kyle Hamlett is a master of mining fundamental folk sounds for deep meaning. His 2024 EP features two classics (“I Saw 3 Ships” and “Silent Night”) and one original (“It’s New Year’s Eve”) arranged for acoustic guitar. If you’ve found yourself singing along with the instrumental LP The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album, go to 3 Ships next.
ALANNA ROYALE, “LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE”
Soul queen Alanna Royale’s 2024 single takes us back to 1973’s A Motown Christmas in lush period style with this cover of The Jackson 5’s heartbreaker about feeling left out of the seasonal cheer after a breakup. The likelihood is high you’ll get to hear this in person if you get tickets to her annual A Royale Holiday show, coming to City Winery on Dec. 8.
TRISTEN, DECK THE HALLS
One of the things singer, composer and harpist Timbre Cierpke is best known for is her annual Christmas concert, and this year’s is set for Dec. 5 at First Lutheran Church — with hot cocoa for everyone, how much better can you get? Back in 2011, she also released a full album of Christmas music, featuring her reverent and thoughtful takes on carols familiar to most (“Carol of the Bells,” “What Child Is This?”) as well as some you might not know unless you’re familiar with liturgical music (“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” a somewhat more recent setting of an ancient devotional chant). ▼
FIND LINKS TO STREAM AND BUY THESE RELEASES
The former Beatle and his longtime band brought the Got Back tour to downtown Nashville Thursday night
BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
The big news at present about topnotch songwriter and rocker Tristen is her first new LP since 2021: Unpopular Music dropped Nov. 7 and will be celebrated Nov. 22 at Soft Junk with Tristen the Night Away 3, her third guestfilled album release party. The Deck the Halls EP was released in 2011 as a three-song 7-inch and reissued digitally with three more tracks in 2019. Both its originals and its covers generally explore how the season isn’t universally joyful all the time — “Frosty the Snowman” being one notable exception — and it’s a nice antidote to an overabundance of jolliness.
On Thursday morning, the Scene was treated to a media tour of the Frist Art Museum’s brand-new exhibit Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-’64: Eyes of the Storm. Amid a treasure trove of photos, taken by Paul McCartney early in The Beatles’ career and recently unearthed, is a simple quote from the man himself, painted onto the gallery wall: “When I look back and think, wow, we did that, and we’re just kids from Liverpool. And here it is in these photographs. Boy, how great does John look? How handsome is George and how cool is Ringo, wearing his funny French hat?” This is perhaps the quintessential McCartney quote. Cheeky. Informal. In the midst of a historical catalog of iconic imagery, impossibly understated.
A high-tech midsize venue in downtown Nashville named for a bank is a far cry from the grimy Hamburg and Liverpool clubs where The Beatles got their start 65 years ago. Even so, at a capacity of 4,500, The Pinnacle is a significant
for
current Got Back tour, which most commonly hits arenas and will come to a close — after three-and-a-half years and roughly 80 dates — with a two-night stand at Chicago’s 20,000-plus-capacity United Center later this month. Thursday’s show in Nashville was a nearly instant sellout, with most ticket prices in the four-figure range. As the scrum of attendees — many of them well-heeled boomers in quarter-zip fleeces — crowded toward the entrance just before 8 p.m., we overheard a few tales of folks being ripped off by bogus tickets on the resale market.
With no new records from McCartney since 2020, Got Back is a hit parade by design. Thursday’s show was a 150-minute marathon of nearly three dozen songs pulled from all over the McCartney, Wings and Beatles catalogs, backed by a band of stellar musicians Macca has played alongside for nearly three times as long as The Beatles were even a band. With no opener, McCartney took the stage unceremoniously at 8:30 p.m., iconic Hofner bass in hand and accompanied by his longtime sidemen — guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and keyboard player and multi-instrumentalist Wix Wickens. The top of the set was Fab Four-heavy, with “Help!,” “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “Drive My Car” all taking spots in the rapid-fire five-song opening run.
“We’ve got some stuff for you tonight,” McCartney told the crowd in that understated manner of his. “And no phones!”
Indeed, attendees were required to stuff our phones into locked pouches at the top of the show, and the vibe certainly didn’t suffer for it. The first half of the set was relatively light on banter, with Macca occasionally riffing lightly between tunes, telling us “too bad” if we don’t know latter-day single “Come On to Me” and reading messages from fans’ signs. (After spotting one reading “I’m gay, help me come out,” McCartney told the fan to repeat after him: “‘I’m gay! I’m gay! I’m gay!’ There. You’re out.”)
As McCartney bounced from bass to guitar to piano, vaguely progressive footage flashed on screen behind him — Pride flags, Greta Thunberg, psychedelic flowers springing up amid the ruins of a postapocalyptic wasteland — as well as archival footage and photos of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. There are certain tricks Sir Paul has been pulling from his bag for
quite some time, including a touching, ukulele-centric version of “Something,” a “superb” song written by his friend George. There was also his solo, spotlit rendition of “Blackbird” (though Paul didn’t rise above the crowd on a platform, as he often does when playing the song at larger venues), which he followed with a brief but oftcited anecdote about a 1964 Beatles gig in Jacksonville, Fla.: The band refused to play to a segregated audience, leading the promoter to simply integrate Beatles fans — unheard of in the South at the time. As McCartney tells it in his understated manner, the group wasn’t trying to make a political statement. They simply thought separating fans by race was a “stupid” thing to do.
Other set highlights included a snippet of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” at the tail end of “Let Me Roll It,” a speed-run of Beatles lore after a rendition of The Quarrymen’s “In Spite of All the Danger” and pillars of smoke punctuating the percussive moments of “Live and Let Die.” (Probably for the best that Macca & Co. skipped the meme-worthy pyrotechnics that accompany that one during outdoor performances.)
The Hot City Horns-bolstered tunes like “Coming Up,” and “Letting Go” from Wings’ Venus and Mars proved McCartney still has his falsetto.
As the show stretched past the two-hour mark, I realized this was probably an endurance test for many of the old-timers in the audience. It’s a blessing for anyone to be alive and upright at age 83 — it’s a downright miracle for someone of that age to deliver a cavalcade of hits while hitting cues and remembering lyrics written, in some cases, six-plus decades ago. As McCartney did some vocal vamping during the main-set-closing “Hey Jude,” it began to seem like he could have gone on for another two hours.
Throughout a time-tested encore run that included “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Helter Skelter” and “Golden Slumbers” (among others), a single word began echoing through my mind. I found it scrawled in my notebook the morning after: “How?” How is this man able to do this? How are we so lucky that we get to see him play two-and-a-half hours of banger after banger in this, the Year of our Lord 2025? How does he have the stamina of a performer less than half his age?
Sometimes there are no answers. Sometimes all you can say, to paraphrase the man himself, is: Wow. He did that. ▼
Friday, November 14
MUSCLE SHOALS
Opening Concert Celebration * 7:30 pm · CMA THEATER
Saturday, November 15
SONGWRITER SESSION
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham * NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, November 15 PANEL DISCUSSION Making Music in Muscle Shoals * with Marlin Greene, Linda Hall, Clayton Ivey, and Candi Staton 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, November 16 MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Mac McAnally * 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
* PROGRAM MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY PEDIGREE® AND PEDIGREE FOUNDATION
WITNESS HISTORY
Saturday, November 22 SONGWRITER SESSION
Adam Wright NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, November 22 NASHVILLE CATS
Alison Prestwood 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, November 23 MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Randy Hart 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, November 29 SONGWRITER SESSION
Sandy Knox NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, December 6 SONGWRITER SESSION HARDY NOON · CMA THEATER
Local Kids Always Visit Free Plan a trip to the Museum! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties always visit free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.
Jafar Panahi reflects on imprisonment, justice and trauma in It Was Just an Accident
BY KEN ARNOLD
EARLIER THIS YEAR we discussed The Seed of the Sacred Fig director Mohammad Rasoulof’s daring escape through the mountains to avoid arrest at the hands of the Iranian government. While Rasoulof’s journey is still a remarkable story, there is something even more defiant about the account of his close friend Jafar Panahi, who decided to stay.
Panahi is no stranger to arrest, having made several films under house arrest, including This Is Not a Film, Closed Curtain and Taxi, the last of which won the Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear prize in 2015. His most recent arrest came in July 2022, when Panahi visited the prosecutor’s office to inquire about Rasoulof’s arrest; he was released in February of the following year after enacting a hunger strike. During this most recent incarceration, Panahi developed the idea for a film — as soon as he was released, he got to work on his latest masterpiece, It Was Just an Accident, which won the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
the complicated, nuanced emotions that follow a traumatic experience — there are no simple answers here, and each of these people experiences these emotions differently. The characters are all elevated by Accident’s stellar ensemble cast, with a standout performance from Mariam Afshari as Shiva.
At the thematic core of this film is the Shia Islamic tradition of martyrdom, something that — like many religious concepts — has been weaponized for political means. As seen in films like Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, the politicized concept of martyrdom is one that brings glory to extremists. This background is the key to understanding the true nuance of not just this film, but all Iranian New Wave Cinema. Panahi shows that the culture has warped so much that even the concept of taarof — customs of politeness, hospitality and gift giving — has started to contort into cultural bribery and extortion.
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Mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) kidnaps a man who he believes tortured him (Ebrahim Azizi). As Vahid takes the man to the desert and digs his grave, he experiences a moment of doubt: Does he have the right guy? Vahid decides he needs to be sure. He locks the man in a trunk and takes him to other victims of the notorious Eghbal “The Peg Leg” to verify his identity. As Vahid does so, Eghbal’s survivors are brought face to face with the emotional toll of their imprisonment.
The scars of Panahi’s own imprisonment are all over this film. What on the surface reads as a political thriller also functions as a look inside the director’s mind, with a cast of characters who serve as avatars for an internal debate — like a more complex version of 2015’s Inside Out The characters all feel inspired by
The career of Jafar Panahi has been nothing short of incredible. Despite his arrests and punishment, he has still become one of global cinema’s most celebrated directors, winning top prize at some of the biggest festivals in the world and being only the fourth filmmaker to join the elusive “Triple Crown Club”: Along with Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman, Panahi has won the Golden Bear, the Palme d’Or and the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion. He has proven to the world that nothing will silence him — nothing will prevent him from creating powerful films. ▼
It Was Just an Accident NR, 102 minutes; in Persian with English subtitles Opening Friday, Nov. 14, at the Belcourt
ACROSS
1 “Yeeesh!”
4 Snippet of greenery
9 Prized horses
14 Hominidae member
15 Like sci-fi’s Jabba the Hutt
16 Infantry arm
17 Two down
19 Storage device that has fallen out of fashion
20 Mega
21 Weapon seen in “RoboCop”
23 Word after fire or before farm
24 Hydrating gel ingredient
25 One out
29 Staunchly supporting
31 Storage device that has fallen out of fashion
32 One of 300 at the National Mall
34 Variable in Newton’s second law
35 Two moving around each other
39 Marvel series focused on Thor’s brother
40 “Aw, shucks” response, maybe
41 Like some chicken before cooking
44 “What happened next …?”
49 Two up
51 Perfect
52 ___ de Armas, “Blade Runner 2049” actress
53 What Zuckerberg dropped from before “Facebook” in 2005
54 Section of the beverage aisle
55 “The Burghers of Calais” sculptor
58 Klutzy … and a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across
61 Set up
62 Poker action
63 Ivy League nickname
64 Authorization, informally
65 Space blanket material
66 Spot DOWN
1 Auto’s opposite
TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
2 ___ Theater, where Ella Fitzgerald debuted on an Amateur Night in 1934
3 Many an item on a child’s Christmas list
4 High-protein bean
5 Common lunchbox item, informally
6 Classic car based in Lansing, Mich.
7 Send out
8 Fogy
9 Hail Mary’s path
10 Clear (of)
11 “True, unfortunately”
12 Dolly Parton and others
13 Plastic explosive used in many demolitions
18 Discipline
22 Statement from a witness
25 Tiny torment
26 Opposite of “Me too”
27 Source of some nondairy milk
28 Way to go
30 Some ancient Italians
33 O.E.D. part: Abbr.
35 Annual breast cancer awareness observance
36 “All right, already!”
37 Equivalent of five carats
38 Straight poker?
39 Heroine of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”
41 Overshadows
42 Direct deposit, in brief
43 Break the Hippocratic oath, say
45 The old you?
48 Cutesy name for a certain leviathan
50 Circuit switcher
54 ___ hair (iconic 1970s style)
56 PC discourse?
57 Prefix with cortex
59 Rapper ___ Baby
60 Grp. whose activities produce long lines
nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.
46 Fictional character who says “I am a brain …. The rest of me is a mere appendix”
47 Allow, as cookies
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