VIEW: WHAT’S DELAYING WEDGEWOODHOUSTON’S NEW APARTMENT-HOTEL COMPLEX?
>> PAGE 8
For 29 years, Fido has given Nashvillians somewhere to sit and stay. Here’s a look at the Hillsboro Village cafe’s long legacy.
BY MARGARETT LITTMAN AND HANNAH HERNER
FOOD: PHILIP KRAJECK’S JUNIOR MAKES FOR A TRIFECTA PERFECTA
>> PAGE 22
CULTURE: LEE C. CAMP’S NO SMALL ENDEAVOR TACKLES LIFE AND HAPPINESS
>> PAGE 25
This Tony Chase–designed dress, embellished with rhinestones, sequins, and pearl beads, was worn by Dolly Parton at the 1993 CMA Awards, where she accepted the association’s inaugural Country Music Honors Award.
From the exhibit Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker
RESERVE TODAY
Affordable Care Act Fallout
Hits Tennesseans
More than 200,000 people could lose coverage as pandemic-era enhanced tax credits expire BY
HANNAH HERNER
What Is Lower Broadway Worth?
Some bar owners appeal their reappraisals while others seek ninefigure sales, telling two different stories about Nashville’s party center BY ELI
MOTYCKA
Street View: What’s Delaying WeHo’s New Apartment-Hotel Complex?
Councilmember Terry Vo says developer needs to address community concerns before moving forward
BY LENA MAZEL
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Fido’s Final Fetch
For 29 years, Fido has given Nashvillians somewhere to sit and stay. Here’s a look at the Hillsboro Village cafe’s long legacy. BY
MARGARET LITTMAN
Patrons Reflect on Fido’s Heyday
Looking back at three decades’ worth of love connections, food and post-movie hangouts at the Hillsboro Village cafe BY
HANNAH HERNER
Tristen, Maanta Raay, The Ethos Market, Angel’s Egg, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and more
Keeping the Faith Lee C. Camp’s No Small Endeavor podcast tackles life and happiness BY
ELI MOTYCKA
Welcome to the Party, Pal All Puppet Players say ‘yippie-ki-yay, Music City’ with Die Hard: A Christmas Carol BY AMY STUMPFL
MUSIC
They Ain’t Got the Backbone Margo Price swings back to old-school country on Hard Headed Woman BY HANNAH CRON
Thoroughly Weill
Trifecta Perfecta
Philip Krajeck opens Junior, his third restaurant, with chef Brian Mejia and a team of Folk and Rolf and Daughters veterans BY KAY WEST
Rufus Wainwright discusses his forthcoming Kurt Weill tribute I’m a Stranger Here Myself BY JASON SHAWHAN
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Joelton Mayfield at Soft Junk BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
Very, Very, Very
Familial comedy-drama Sentimental Value never makes a
BY JASON SHAWHAN
YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE ON THE COVER: Fido; photo by Eric England
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WEDGEWOOD-HOUSTON
More than 200,000 people could lose coverage as pandemic-era enhanced tax credits expire
BY HANNAH HERNER
A DEAL TO EXTEND enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) was one of the things holding up a resolution to the federal government shutdown. Ultimately, the record-breaking shutdown ended with congressional Republicans and Democrats’ agreement to vote on the matter in January, following the December expiration of the credits. Senate Democrats want to extend the credits, while Republicans do not.
The costs were already locked in for those who use the Affordable Care Act marketplace at healthcare.gov, a service for those who don’t receive workplace insurance and don’t qualify for TennCare, Tennessee’s form of Medicaid. The open enrollment period lasts from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15 each year.
The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee estimates that as many as 225,802 people will lose ACA coverage in Tennessee due to the expiration of enhanced tax credits. In addition, the committee predicts 69,765 will lose Medicaid coverage in Tennessee by 2034 due to cuts to Medicaid under the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
All of the ACA plans, which were instituted in 2010, are subsidized by the federal government based on the user’s income. Enhanced tax cred-
its were introduced in 2021 in the thick of the pandemic to make insurance more affordable for a larger group of people than otherwise. The insurance companies anticipated the expiration of these credits this year, so they upped the premiums, explains Michele Johnson, CEO of local health advocacy organization Tennessee Justice Center.
“The insurance companies made the judgment based on the fact that the premium subsidies had not been extended that the only people who will make sacrifices to stay on health insurance will be those people who know they have really expensive health care needs,” Johnson tells the Scene
Aida Whitfield, program director of the Healthcare Access Program at Family & Children’s Service in Nashville says she’s seen clients’ monthly premiums as much as double or triple. But there’s another wrinkle: Due to federal funding cuts, the health care navigation staff at her organization was slashed from 37 people to just four. That means fewer people to help those in need access ACA coverage.
“It definitely impacted a lot of people,” Whitfield says of the enhanced tax credits. “It definitely supported a lot of people to be able to have insurance and have regular checkups done
Some bar owners appeal their reappraisals while others seek nine-figure sales, telling two different stories about Nashville’s party center
BY ELI MOTYCKA
WHILE LOWER BROADWAY bar owners seek lower property value assessments via a slow-moving appeals process, two properties — Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville and Jon Bon Jovi’s five-story club JBJ’s — could vastly beat their appraisals, setting up a billion-dollar contradiction downtown. Both properties list for well above their most recent valuations from Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite, who became the subject of a formal review by the Tennessee comptroller of the treasury specifically for Broadway property values in recent weeks.
Downtown bar owners are seeking appeals after a 2025 reappraisal in at least 18 cases, according to information shared with the Scene These bars include Honky Tonk Central, Chief’s, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ‘n’ Roll Steakhouse, The Twelve Thirty Club and Garth Brooks’ Friends in Low Places, among others. In many cases, this year’s reappraisal raised values three or four times their 2021 estimates, resulting in six-figure tax bills — Kid Rock’s, for example, might owe an annual $880,000 in property taxes according to the assessor’s online calculator. Knocking property values down even 10 percent could save owners cash, a prudent business move for those willing to wade through real estate bureaucracy at the local and state level.
But current commercial listings price Lower Broad bars far higher than Davidson County’s reappraisal. JBJ’s, for example, lists for $130 mil-
on top of their health care needs. This time, it’s very discouraging. People are opting out to not having insurance or opting out to just having a bare minimum of insurance in case of emergency but are not able to use it as much as they want or they need.”
Tennessee saw an uptick in ACA enrollees during the 2024-25 open enrollment period (627,797) compared to the 2023-24 open enrollment period (521,347). During the 2023-2024 enrollment period, Tennessee saw a 49.8 percent jump from the previous enrollment period. At the time, this change was attributed to a loss of coverage due to TennCare’s unwinding process, improved outreach and cheaper costs than in years prior due to the additional tax credits. Tennessee has a larger uninsured population than many other states, as one of just nine that has not expanded Medicaid. This means adults younger than 65 who don’t have a child or a disability do not qualify for TennCare.
Next year, we’ll know how many people didn’t come back to the ACA marketplace because of the higher costs, Whitfield points out. But it’s harder to measure whether people will forgo treatment and preventative care because they may no longer have insurance or are on a high-deductible plan.
TENNESSEE HAS A LARGER UNINSURED POPULATION THAN MANY OTHER STATES, AS ONE OF JUST NINE THAT HAS NOT EXPANDED MEDICAID.
One of the most common questions Whitfield gets: Will there be a refund later on in 2026 if the premium tax credits are reinstated? Whitfield can’t answer that one — it remains to be seen. It is also unclear how President Trump’s idea to give money in a Health Savings Account-style manner would impact the ACA or work in practice.
“If, in fact, the subsidies pass, and we have a lot of healthy people signing on and signing up, it’s possible they’ll get rebates and get some of that money back,” says Tennessee Justice Center’s Johnson. “But it’s not possible — and I wish it were — that the insurer would come back and say, ‘Actually, the premiums are going to be less.’ It’s too late.” ▼
lion — exactly double its total appraised value of $65 million. Jelly Roll’s 31,000-square-foot Goodnight Nashville is on the market for around $100 million against its $67.2 million appraisal.
Two recent blockbuster sales, Jack’s Bar-B-Que ($4,206 per square foot in August 2025) and Margaritaville Nashville ($2,870 per square foot in December 2024) shaped the high-end commercial market with massive sticker prices that each pushed the upper bound for Lower Broadway real estate. Some bar owners believe these are outliers that unfairly apply astronomical per-square-foot prices to their property, while others list their
assets with this price as a benchmark.
Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower will specifically look into Lower Broadway real estate with a formal review, as reported by multiple outlets earlier this month. Some in the business believe it’s a precursor for more direct legislative action from the state to regulate Davidson County property assessments (and the associated tax revenue). For now, appeals pending in 2026 could send substantial city tax revenue back to bar owners, who appear to want it both ways — low values from the city and high values from the market. ▼
Councilmember Terry Vo says developer needs to address community concerns before moving forward
BY LENA MAZEL
Street View is a monthly column in which we’ll take a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.
munity members, and the SomeraRoad team to contact your office, we have received no response. No explanation. No communication. No path forward.”
Representatives from SomeraRoad tell the Scene they have no affiliation with WeHo Social, South Nashville Action People (another Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood group) or the open letter. They do say, however, that they have “built relationships with SNAP and WeHo Social through years of community engagement on this project, partnered with SNAP to complete a missing section of sidewalk in front of their building in 2023, and have attended SNAP and WeHo Social meetings when invited to provide project updates.”
MARTIN & MERRITT IS a residential and hotel development planned for the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood in the near future. The project from developer SomeraRoad is marketed as “the living room of Wedgewood-Houston” and a “future gateway to the heart” of the neighborhood.
But Vo says this isn’t the whole story. She tells the Scene that she has been in contact with SomeraRoad, but the resident who wrote the open letter didn’t contact her before claiming the developers received no response. She also says she has checked directly with SomeraRoad on the “1,000 modifications” figure, which representatives have not substantiated. Vo says she won’t move forward until other concerns are resolved. Vo also says claims of her causing a “delay” in the process are mischaracterizations.
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6:30PM JENNIFER MOORMAN with AMI MCCONNELL at PARNASSUS The Charmed Library
The development went through several revisions before ultimately receiving Metro Planning Commission approval in July. SomeraRoad is currently proposing “up to 175 housing units” and a 150-key hotel from Hamilton Avenue to Merritt Avenue, according to the Martin & Merritt website.
But since Planning’s approval, the site has been a source of tension, spirited blog posts and significant neighborhood involvement. Some neighbors have requested the project be brought before the Metro Council so it can receive approval to be built. Recently, those requests have gotten more public and more pointed.
Last month, Earnest Morgan, a member of the Wedgewood-Houston community, published an open letter on the WeHo Social community blog. His “Open Letter to Council Member Terry Vo” says SomeraRoad made more than 1,000 modifications to its original plan in order to address community concerns. Then Morgan’s letter addresses Councilmember Vo directly.
“After the Planning Commission it’s a recommendation,” Vo tells the Scene. “That’s it — the council process is a separate process, and they are not tied to each other. The councilmember has the jurisdiction and the decision to sponsor [legislation] or not. I think portraying it as holding or delaying is not accurate. There is no law being broken. … It’s a completely separate process.” Vo says she’s worked with SomeraRoad to resolve many of the community’s issues, including some revisions to the design. But their relationship with the wider community still concerns her. One major sticking point? Consistent noise complaints about a SomeraRoad-owned property next to a residence. For one resident who regularly hears loud music at 5 a.m. nearly every morning, the noise has become a quality-of-life issue.
“If my constituents have a reduced quality of life … that is important for me to address,” says Vo. She tells the Scene that issues like the noise complaint not being resolved make her concerned about approving a larger project.
“It has now been over two months since [Planning] approval,” the post reads. “Despite numerous attempts by the developer, com-
“With a massive project in this [specific plan], if we have a construction problem, I am very concerned that my constituents will not get their problem resolved.”
Vo tells the Scene that the resident has brought their noise complaint to the police, but so far the issue has not been resolved. Vo says she has been in contact with the developer to see if they can address it.
Representatives from SomeraRoad have said they are currently working to solve the noise complaint.
“SomeraRoad and their representatives are in regular direct contact with this neighbor,” reads a statement to the Scene from SomeraRoad. “To resolve the issue raised by the neighbor, we have engaged with Metro’s Office of Nightlife, MNPD, the Councilwoman, and the tenant. We are taking every action available but believe that any alleged noise violations are best addressed by Metro and to our knowledge no citation or violation has been issued. We will continue to work with all parties and hope that the Martin & Merritt SP can be moved forward while we work in good faith to solve this problem that is unrelated to the proposed zoning change.”
Other Wedgewood-Houston locals are hopeful about the project. Christina Hayes lives on Merritt Avenue and says she’s excited about the changes Martin & Merritt will bring. She says her family moved to the area because they wanted a walkable, dense neighborhood and the feeling of community fostered by thoughtful neighborhood design. She sees development as part of that picture — even if it sometimes comes with some inconvenience.
“For sure there are frustrations,” Hayes says. “But for our family, it’s all a growing pain that we’re excited to be a part of.”
Hayes says she appreciates SomeraRoad’s level of community involvement, and she likes some of the proposed improvements the development could bring — like better-connected sidewalks and a public park.
Hayes says these improvements made some of the initial criticisms of the development feel frustrating. “This project is talking about giving us some green space: major infrastructure improvements above and beyond what’s being required,” she says. “And they were being nitpicked over five feet of height.”
She tells the Scene she hopes the project will move forward. Hayes says she’s sympathetic to concerns like the noise violation, but she also feels some people will oppose development no matter what, and expecting Nashville to never change isn’t reasonable.
But Vo says she will continue to work until neighborhood concerns are addressed, even beyond the design modifications SomeraRoad has already made. In a constituent newsletter from Oct. 10 titled “Setting the Record Straight: Martin and Merritt Project Update,” Vo writes: “Accountability, responsiveness and follow through are the foundation of trust, and that’s what I expect from any partner seeking to invest in her district.”
Vo tells the Scene it’s important that her constituents see she will fight for their causes. To put it more simply, she says, “I want people to see that no, developers do not tell me what to do.” ▼
The city approved a $300,000 settlement last week for the family of Josselin Corea Escalante the 16-year-old killed in the Jan. 22 shooting at Antioch High School The family sued Metro Nashville Public Schools for negligence in its failure to prevent Escalante’s death, as the shooter, a fellow student, had a documented history of violent behavior. Escalante’s family also noted in the lawsuit that the school’s AI-powered weapon detection system, Omnilert, failed to detect the firearm used by the shooter. MNPS Board Chair Freda Player expressed sympathy for the family and highlighted steps by the district to better ensure student safety.
Harold “Wayne” Nichols has petitioned Gov. Bill Lee for clemency ahead of Nichols’ scheduled Dec. 11 execution by lethal injection. Nichols has been on death row for more than 30 years following his conviction for the 1988 rape and murder of 21-year-old Karen Pulley Nichols’ petition leans on his Christian faith, shared by Gov. Lee, and highlights his repaired relationship with Pulley’s mother and his long record as an “exemplary” inmate. Despite legal battles for more information about Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, which state employees violated in 2022, the process remains shrouded in secrecy and protected from public records requests. Nichols declined to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection as his method of execution, which defaulted to the latter per state policy.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett ordered a broad review of state libraries to determine “age appropriateness” of material in juvenile reading sections. Library directors are expected to provide a final report to Hargett, alongside Tennessee state librarian and archivist James Ritter by Jan. 19. Writes Scene opinion columnist Betsy Phillips, the move responds to a widespread moral panic in conservative politics over gender and sexuality and comes as more details emerge about party leader Donald Trump’s possible involvement with a child sex trafficking operation run by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Early voting in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election is open until Nov. 26, with Election Day to follow on Dec. 2. The district was redrawn in 2022 as part of state Republicans’ efforts to gerrymander Nashville out of Democratic representation. Democrat Aftyn Behn is facing off against heavily favored Republican Matt Van Epps. The latter has been endorsed by both previous U.S. Rep. Mark Green and President Donald Trump.
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THESE DAYS, WHEN you walk into Fido from the 21st Avenue South entrance, you’ll see a Doomsday Clock-looking device hanging on the south wall, counting down to June 1, 2028. That’s the date Fido will be closing, at the end of its current lease extension. It’s more advance notice than restaurants typically give customers, staff or landlords.
“That clock is such a Bernstein sense of humor,” says architect Manuel Zeitlin, who worked on the Fido building design and is a longtime friend and supporter of Fido owner Bob Bernstein and his company, Bongo Roasting Co.
As Zeitlin notes, Bernstein is known for his offbeat sense of humor and pranks. He’s also known as a guy who cares about coffee. In fact, Bernstein works from a table at Fido many days, “not as a needed person,” Bernstein tells the Scene, “but as a guy who wants coffee in the morning.”
That’s really how his whole business started. Bernstein was a guy who wanted coffee, or more specifically, coffeehouse culture, and in 1990s Nashville, there weren’t many options. He left a career in journalism and decided to open the kind of coffee shop he had studied at and hung out in while growing up in suburban Chicago. He originally dreamt of a Hillsboro Village location — the area was then a quirky collection of shops and small businesses with a neighborhood feel. He couldn’t find the right space, so in 1993, he instead opened Bongo Java on Belmont Boulevard, where it still welcomes coffee-seekers today.
It was Bruce Dobie, former Scene editor-in-chief, who introduced Bernstein to his first investor in the early 1990s.
For 29 years, Fido has given Nashvillians somewhere to sit and stay. Here’s a look at the Hillsboro Village cafe’s long legacy.
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
Dobie and Bernstein met while both were young reporters in town (Dobie at the Nashville Banner, Bernstein at the Nashville Business Journal). Bernstein says it was always easier for him to find investors than to find physical space. (In that regard, maybe things haven’t changed all that much.)
Three years after opening Bongo Java, Bernstein was ready to expand and found a storefront available on 21st Avenue South in Hillsboro Village. He was planning to lease 1,200 square feet, but when the owners of Jones Pet Shop decided to retire, 3,600 square feet became available. Bernstein signed a 10-year lease. People told him he was crazy, he remembers, to sign such a long lease in that neighborhood. Now, 29 years later, people might question some of Bernstein’s decisions — but likely not the real estate ones. He renewed the Fido lease several times, and as it ends in 2028, Bernstein would have to pay the market rate to stay. He doesn’t know exactly what that number is, but knows it likely isn’t viable.
Over the years, Fido has expanded into other adjacent storefronts, totaling more than 5,000 square feet. The building is a century old, and in need of repair. (When Zeitlin and Bernstein originally designed Fido, they textured the walls to make them look old. No distressing would be necessary today.)
“I always call Bob a local hero,” says Zeitlin. “He stuck his neck out and took risks.”
The team named Fido as an homage to Jones Pet Shop,
whose sign still hangs proudly over Hillsboro Village — and also in tribute (possibly tongue-in-cheek, given Bernstein’s sense of humor) to a mythical tale about the dog of the goatherder who is said to have discovered the magical properties of coffee beans.
Today the company also owns Bongo East (which has its own vibe and houses the Game Point Cafe), the original Bongo Java on Belmont and the Bongo roasting facility; the company owns the real estate for all those properties. They license the Bongo Java name inside the Omni Nashville Hotel downtown and at Nashville International Airport. Bongo operates Grins Vegetarian Cafe on the Vanderbilt University campus, but does not own that real estate.
None of the Bongo Java properties are exactly alike.
“I always kind of pictured [Fido] as Bongo Sr.,” Bernstein says. “It was like it was the little-more-grown-up Bongo, because I was a little older.” As a result, Fido won’t live on in any of the other locations. The Game Point retail store next to Fido is part of the same lease, so it will also close in three years. Bernstein hopes that retail outpost can be relocated elsewhere.
For Nashville, Fido is more than just another beloved coffee shop that people are sorry to see go — it’s more than just another sign of Old Nashville giving way to New Nashville. It’s the end of an institution that helped shape the city’s neighborhoods and culinary scene. In the 1990s — first with Sunset Grill and then Fido — Hillsboro Village experienced a resurgence. It was the place to
“I always call Bob a local hero.
He stuck his neck out and took risks.” —ARCHITECT MANUEL ZEITLIN.
find independent restaurants; institutions like the Villager Tavern, the Belcourt Theatre and Pancake Pantry; and retailers like Bookman/ Bookwoman, Davis Cookware and Pangaea. Hunter Claire Rogers, a Nashville native and head of membership and communications at Soho House Nashville, remembers those days. When she worked at since-shuttered retail shop Fire Finch, she stopped at Fido for a bagel and coffee each morning — Fido offered a discount to employees of other businesses in Hillsboro Village. She remembers hanging out at Fido, both as a University School of Nashville student and later when it served as a reunion spot for friends returning home for the holidays. Bernstein looks back fondly on those days. With lots of other locally owned businesses, the neighborhood would sponsor Halloween events for kids to trick-or-treat from storefront to storefront. Those sorts of things are harder to do, he says, when many of his neighboring businesses are corporate-owned.
Bongo and Fido launched the careers of
many folks who have shaped Nashville’s culinary scene, including John Stephenson of the now-shuttered Hathorne and Andy Mumma of Barista Parlor (which now has a location in Hillsboro Village too). The coffeehouse has been seminal to Hillsboro Village and to the city. Musicians and songwriters tell stories of writing songs at Fido’s tables. Many people have stories about Fido being the first place they ate when they moved to town — more than a few tell the Scene it was initially because Fido was open seven days a week in a town that used to have few restaurant options on Sundays. Countless couples met there, had first dates there. One such couple still plans to have their wedding at Fido in 2026 before the lights are turned off, Bernstein says.
FOR ALL OF Fido’s and Bongo’s strengths, there have of course been missteps.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Fido was open until 10 p.m., and it was the place to
hang out and grab a bite after a movie at the Belcourt. When businesses reopened post-pandemic, Fido just couldn’t sustain night hours, Bernstein says. At first, that was partly due to staffing, but more so, the restaurant could not generate the revenue to stay open late. (Current hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.)
“It just doesn’t work anymore,” Bernstein says. “We would need to get more alcohol. We would need to change the whole menu. We need to maybe do some other things, and it’s like, how do you teach the old dog new tricks?”
In 2015, Hot & Cold — the Bernstein-owned ice cream and paletas shop in the space now home to the Game Point retail store — announced it would no longer carry Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams because Jeni’s was planning a scoop shop across the street. Hot & Cold was the brainchild of Bernstein and his wife Irma Paz Bernstein, owner of the beloved Las Paletas. While some small business owners might make that decision behind the scenes, Bernstein posted a sign on the door, and customers still
have opinions today about whether that concern about competition was warranted. (Jeni’s has a number of locations in the city, including that one on 21st Avenue South.)
In 2018, Bernstein opened a coffee shop on Jefferson Street first called The Sit-In, and later called Jefferson Street Cafe. There was backlash about using the sit-in name, which Bernstein considered an honor to those who fought in Nashville’s civil rights movement. “That was lessons learned and an expensive story to tell,” Bernstein says of the restaurant, which is now closed. “The most disappointing part is that people that totally backed me and thought it was a great idea and were so supportive and happy and excited about doing it, as soon as there was a controversy, they walked away and left me out to dry.”
THE DECISION NOT to extend the Fido lease past 2028 comes as Bernstein looks at his own future. He’s 63 years old, and while he doesn’t run the day-to-day businesses at the cafes, he’s not sure how long he wants to keep up the long hours of a restaurateur. He has a succession plan for each of the other restaurants, should he decide to step back.
“I got married late in life at 43,” he says. “My business was established and all that. Most entrepreneurs talk about how their family life
suffers because of their business. Mine was the opposite. My business kind of stopped growing because I realized I’d rather stay home with my kids, and I was fortunate enough to be in a financial position and have the stores operating and have people in place that I could do that.”
Bernstein knows it’s unusual to give three years’ notice for a restaurant closing. He wanted to give customers a chance to come back and patronize an old favorite, and he has already seen former employees — and their grown children — come through. He also wanted to give employees notice, plenty of time to know they have a job, and time to think about what’s next. He knows this might make staffing tricky as they pursue other opportunities.
Since the announcement, Bernstein says he’s been creatively reenergized in a way he hasn’t been in years. That means he’s looking to resurrect fundraising dinners for causes that matter to him (largely education and the arts) and to focus on community building. When Bernstein and his brother Kenny (who was also essential in the building of Bongo, Fido and other projects around town) were kids, their mom used to create a “stuffed animal hospital” where she would stitch and repair their favorite stuffies. For about five years, Fido offered a similar event, and Bernstein hopes to revive that.
“I had so much excitement and fun opening this place,” he says, “I want to do the same thing closing.” ▼
Bernstein knows it’s unusual to give three years’ notice for a restaurant closing. He wanted to give customers a chance to come back and patronize an old favorite, and he has already seen former employees — and their grown children — come through.
Looking back at three decades’ worth of love connections, food and post-movie hangouts at the Hillsboro Village cafe
BY HANNAH HERNER
AS THE CLOCK TICKS down on Fido’s planned shuttering in 2028, a blank book stationed in the cafe’s lobby invites patrons to share memories of the Nashville stalwart. Its pages are filled not only with phrases like “Thanks for the memories,” but also more specific and personal reflections. One entry is from a patron who chose Fido as their last dining-out destination before brain surgery; others include a memory of reading the final Harry Potter book from start to finish in the cafe and a former Taylor Swift employee’s memories of snagging breakfast there.
One entry reads, “This building took years off my life that I can never hope to regain and yet still I come back … like Stockholm Syndrome.” And another: “Big life moments happen here for young adults.” People certainly like Fido, but they also like the memories they made there.
Smyrna native Janvier Christine first came to Fido as a 13-year old and looked forward to making it her own personal Central Perk (à la Friends) when she got older. Earlier this year, working out of Fido, she created her brand Woogirling, a page meant for Nashville women to build community and support local businesses outside of downtown.
Christine will host her Woogirling co-working space in Fido’s side room until they close, she says. She also notes that Fido is the antithesis of new coffee shops like La La Land in 12South, an Instagrammable local outpost of a California-based chain with white minimalist interiors. Christine likes that Fido is different, noting that Hillsboro Village is her main hangout — between throwing darts at the Villager Tavern, eating meals at
Dumpling House and seeing movies at the Belcourt.
“In the past, it had been this mecca of nightlife for college students, and it’s definitely slowed down in the past few years,” Christine says of Hillsboro Village. “I kind of wanted to take advantage of that pace.”
Jessie Weiss met her now-husband for a first date at Fido in 2005, during what was arguably the heyday of the business. He chose the spot because he wanted to show Weiss where he had been chatting with her every day for weeks — from Fido’s public computer. It’s also where they shared their first kiss.
“We were stepping up the curb across from Fido, and he took my hand to help me up the curb, and then kissed it, and I laughed at him, really, really, really hard,” Weiss tells the Scene. “That was the most ridiculous gesture ever. But it worked, because then we were kissing on the back patio.”
Bill Cornelius describes Fido as “frozen in time.”
“There’s a nostalgia about going there now, because it’s one of the few things that has not changed, despite the entire city growing so significantly since the early 2000s,” Cornelius tells the Scene “If you want to know what a coffee shop in Nashville was like 20 years ago, just walk in Fido now.”
Fido is where Cornelius, a filmmaker and former Watkins College student, filmed one of his first school projects circa 2003. It was also an obvious hotspot for film students because of its proximity to the Belcourt.
If saving Fido is on the table, Brandon Styll — director of operations at Green Hills Grille and Maribol and president of the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance — would like to jump into action. He worries that the spot will be taken over by a chain restaurant, something the alliance seeks to band against.
“If I bring all these restaurants together now, we actually do have leverage,” Styll says. “My goal is really just to keep local restaurants around longer, because they’re such fixtures in the community.”
Styll has personal experience — he closed Chagos Belmont Cantina this year. He also has a personal stake in Fido. He estimates that from 2009 to 2012, he ate the cafe’s Eggs McFido and drank a Local Latte (a latte
with local honey and cinnamon) around four times per week.
But Trish Crist has him beat. Crist estimates that she’s been to Fido 1,780 times or more. That’s a conservative estimate based on the 11 years she lived within walking distance of the cafe. She estimates she ate 5,500 pieces of bacon made crispy by beloved longtime chef John Stephenson.
It’s also where Crist met her now-husband for the first time in 2014 after chatting on OkCupid. She picked the venue.
“I was thinking about, ‘Why did I pick Fido?’” Crist says. “I think it’s because it was my natural, easy choice. I felt safe there. I knew the staff. It was a friendly place. I felt it reflected me as a person.”
The two met up again a few days later and saw Birdman at the Belcourt. They didn’t want the night to be over, so they went to Fido again.
Fido’s long goodbye gives patrons time to revisit, but Crist doesn’t know that she will. In recent years, the food and service weren’t the same as she remembered.
“I think I would rather be sad that my dream place is closing than to discover that my dream place is not my dream place anymore,” Crist says.
Crist credits former barista Khalil Davis for making Fido homey. Davis says working at Fido from 2003 to 2007 was his favorite job to date. He went on to start two coffee shops of his own (Coffee, Lunch and The Terminal Cafe, the latter of which closed in 2018) and worked a stint at Frothy Monkey in East Nashville. These days, he works as a personal trainer and as general manager of MRKT in Midtown.
Davis estimates that he made thousands of Roll Overs (chocolate, caramel, espresso and milk, topped with whipped cream and chocolate) during his tenure. He also has Fido to thank for meeting his wife, who worked across the street at Posh.
“When I found Fido, I was like, ‘This is the cool side and the noncorporate coffee house,’” says Davis, who previously worked for Starbucks. “That made me want to open my own coffee shop and be in hospitality and keep that going. Because of Fido, I am where I am.”
SATURDAY, NOV. 22
MUSIC [PUTTIN’ TROUBLE ON THE RUN]
TRISTEN THE NIGHT AWAY 3
I wholeheartedly believe we as a society need to invest in the cultural value of music and give musicians the stability to make music full time. But especially right now, there are a lot of great part-time musicians, for reasons ranging from the daunting economics of the business to family commitments, and they’re making awesome music. Case in point: Singer-songwriter-rocker Tristen has just released Unpopular Music, a record she worked on with husband and musical partner Buddy Hughen and lots of friends mostly in the “golden hours” of 8 to 10 p.m. after their kids were in bed. The sonic mode is its own thing, but to get you in the ballpark, think ’60s psychedelic pop heard through the filter of New Wave. The songs are rich and incisive in the ways that have always been her calling card, like “Mona Lisa,” in which she explores the appeal of the famous painting that may be wildly overrated but still has “her own two-dimensional way.” Saturday, Tristen will play the third installment of what’s become her traditional album release celebration: Tristen the Night Away, a guest-filled show hosted by the one and only Chris Crofton and featuring performances from Justin Collins, Cortney Tidwell, Michaela Anne and many more. STEPHEN TRAGESER
7:30 P.M. AT SOFT JUNK
919 GALLATIN AVE. NO. 14
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
THURSDAY / 11.20
ART [TANGERINE DREAM]
GALERIE TANGERINE HOLIDAY SALON SHOW
Galerie Tangerine, located south of The Gulch, is named for the “brightness of a delectable surprise,” the kind you get when you unpeel a perfectly ripe piece of citrus. The gallery is bringing that ethos to its fourth annual Holiday Salon Show and exhibition. Sixty artists — including Nashvillians Jilah Kalil, Emily Passino and Nadine Shillingford — will show pieces that are 12 inches by 12 inches. This is a perfect giftgiving size, and a perfect “I have no room in my house for more art” size. The opening reception on Nov. 20 promises to kick off the holiday party season with hors d’oeuvres, drinks and A Charlie Brown Christmas-style jazz. The opening party is a good place to shop small and local for holiday gifts. The exhibition runs through Jan. 5, so you can come later to buy or just admire.
MARGARET LITTMAN
OPENING RECEPTION 6-8 P.M.; THROUGH JAN. 5 AT GALERIE TANGERINE
900 SOUTH ST., SUITE 104
ART [WHITE WALLS]
WAYNE WHITE: LIKE YOU KNOW
During a career that spans from Saturday morning television to coastal boutique galleries to art museum exhibitions, Tennessee’s own Wayne White and his Southern-inspired art and design have blazed a trail through the funkiest and fanciest outlets and venues in American culture. White helped design Peewee’s Playhouse, but his text paintings recall Ed Ruscha. He’s the only MTSU graduate with a 400-page coffee-table photo book documenting his creative path, which ranges from the grimy edges of punk culture to the red carpet at the Emmy Awards. White’s latest show includes 14 of his new word paintings — block-letter phrases painted over the verdant scenes in vintage landscape reproductions — along with renderings from the artist’s sketchbook that give viewers an inside peek at the artist’s creative process. JOE NOLAN
OPENING RECEPTION 5-8 P.M.; THROUGH JAN. 9 AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S HALEY GALLERY
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.
FILM [MELANCHOLY ODYSSEY]
RESTORATION ROUNDUP & STAFF PICKS: ANGEL’S EGG
If you’ve heard the name Mamoru Oshii, then you’re probably aware of his most famous work, 1995’s Ghost in the Shell. However, you may not be familiar with this animated cult
classic from before his rise to fame, 1985’s Angel’s Egg. The film follows the unnamed characters Girl and Boy as they traverse a desolate, dreamlike landscape. All the while, Girl is protecting a large egg, believing it may hatch into an angel. At just 71 minutes, the film is dense with symbolism. Biomechanical war machines, Christian mythology, existential thought, surrealism and environmentalism are just a few concepts and aesthetics the film explores while building to an unforgettable journey that will pull you in close. Yoshihiro Kanno’s score is enthralling, lending the film a transcendental quality that many other animated projects lack. There’s so much more to Oshii’s early masterpiece that simply must be experienced, and you can do so at the Belcourt on Thursday, with a subtitled showtime at 7 p.m. and a dubbed showing at 9 p.m. It’s showing as part of both the Belcourt’s Restoration series, and its Staff Picks series, courtesy of staffer Nathan. IAN MATTHEWS
7 & 9 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Nashville’s film-frenzied cinema junkies can regularly get their fixes on foreign films, genre classics and the newest offerings hot off the festival circuit at the Belcourt. But the little arthouse that could can’t be everything to every movie fan all the time, and it’s exciting to see alternative creative spaces like Random Sample filling in around the fringes by offering movie-centric get-togethers in between their art gallery openings and experimental music performances. This month, the Random Sample Cinema Club is screening 2017’s November — a horror-fantasy from Estonian director Rainer Sarnet. November tells a dark folk tale including werewolves, devils and farm robots made of junk and powered by stolen human souls. Come for the post-Halloween folk-horror vibes. Stay for cinematographer Mart Taniel’s luscious blackand-white frames. JOE NOLAN
7:30 P.M. AT RANDOM SAMPLE
407 48TH AVE. N.
FRIDAY / 11.21
MUSIC
[YELLOW SUNSHINE RAAYS] MAANTA RAAY ALBUM RELEASE
If you haven’t heard Maanta Raay’s selftitled debut, released in the summer, now is as good a time as any. Their acid-rock tour de force folds spacetime, sending voyagers through the postmodern escapism of Stooges and Blue Öyster Cult albums, into the psychedelic blues of a post-apocalyptic Tor paperback. The trio is fronted by Third Man Books honcho and Immortal Lee County Killers guitar-slinger Chet “Cheetah” Weise. The Cheetah is a veteran of barroom stages shared with The Hellacopters, New Bomb Turks and Black Diamond Heavies over the past three decades. The thunderous Maanta Raay boogie is held down by bassist
Mason Hadley and drummer Carlos OrtizMartinez, who released this rock odyssey on his own No Sabes imprint. To celebrate this 12-inch slab of stoner bliss, they’re hosting a better-latethan-never release party. Joining the guests of honor will be dissonant rockers Yammer Jaw as well as Eve Maret, a brilliant local composer known for her spacious, futuristic music and multimedia performances. DJ Hate Life — notorious crate digger and Third Man co-founder — will be manning the decks, and Chivanada will be there slinging empanadas. Tickets are a mere $10, but for 20 bucks, you can get into the show and receive the new Maanta Ray LP. P.J. KINZER
7 P.M. AT SOFT JUNK 919 GALLATIN AVE.
[NO GUTS, NO GLORY] MAUVETAPE PRESENTS GUTS
Local dance lovers are no doubt familiar with Phylicia Roybal and Spencer Grady. These two versatile artists have worked extensively around town, appearing with companies such as New Dialect, PYDANCE and more. Since 2022, however, they’ve also been performing together as MauveTape, developing intriguing new works like A meeting place…, TECTONIC and Another duet. This weekend, you can check out their first evening-length work, titled GUTS. Billed as “an otherworldly dance theater work,” this multimedia performance promises to “oscillate between meditative movement phrase work and explosive physical partnering that demonstrates the rigid dichotomy of the peace and war that exists in our bodies and our world.” Digging into themes of grief, heartbreak and identity, GUTS features an edgy underground soundtrack and an evocative set, designed by Kristen Carrara, in collaboration with MauveTape. Developed through a creative residency at Centennial Performing Arts Studios through Metro Parks Dance Division, GUTS offers a prime example of the exciting work happening in Nashville’s burgeoning dance community. AMY STUMPFL NOV. 21-22 AT THE DARKHORSE THEATER
4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.
Federico Fellini pulled off the ultimate selfcentered hat trick when he made 8½ in 1963. He crafted a semi-autobiographical opus — in which he cast frequent leading man Marcello Mastroianni as a frustrated filmmaker going through a wild case of writer’s block — that’s self-reflexive, self-indulgent and self-flagellating. Yes, the movie is an absurd fever dream; from Fellini’s POV, filmmaking is a surreal, neverending circus where the director is the wily ringmaster. But Fellini also wasn’t afraid to rake himself over the coals, presenting Mastroianni’s maestro as a bratty cad stringing along a bevy of ladies (including legendary Euro starlets Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimée) when he’s not figuring out what to say with his latest picture. These days, whenever a filmmaker goes the Fellini route and turns their life story into an extravagant movie, they usually get two out of the three right. (Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths — I’m looking in your direction.) The Belcourt will unspool a newly struck film print this weekend, which means you can catch all the Fellininess in glorious 35 mm! Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY NOV. 21-23 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[SPITZ AND VINEGAR]
Probably everyone who cares about watching live performances from contemporary bands is familiar with independent Seattlebased radio station KEXP and the station’s “Live on KEXP” videos. Last month, the station’s YouTube channel dropped one of its most memorable studio sessions in ages with an appearance from Austin, Texas, quartet Die Spitz. Featuring Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Ellie Livingston and Kate Halter, Die Spitz makes an amalgam of hardcore punk, doom metal and grunge that went off like a goddamn bomb in front of iconic Seattle DJ Cheryl Waters
— who can be seen dancing along during the band’s Motörhead-esque scorcher “Riding With My Girls.” In September, Nashville’s own Third Man Records issued Die Spitz’s debut LP Something to Consume (helmed by prolific rock producer Will Yip), and this weekend, these four young women will bring their outsized pyrotechnics (figuratively speaking) to Third Man’s show space for a two-night stand. Both shows are sold out, but if you’re one of those people who cares about watching live performances from contemporary bands — especially heavy, sludgy, intoxicating rock bands that inspire much body-moving — it’s worth your time to join the waiting list, find someone with a spare ticket or otherwise sweet-talk your way into one of these shows. D. PATRICK RODGERS NOV. 22-23 AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
Holiday shopping season can bring with it many anxieties: Will I get all of my shopping done in time? If I’m going to engage in capitalism this hard, is there a way to do it ethically? And locally? The folks behind The Ethos Market (formerly known as The Good Makers Market) can help answer those anxiety-induced questions in the affirmative. As Ethos Market manager Lily Stockwell tells the Scene, “This market is designed to highlight businesses that are transforming our local community for the better. These small businesses use ethically sourced materials, create products that support social initiatives like fighting human trafficking and homelessness, provide employment opportunities for the underemployed, teach financial literacy, protect the environment and more.” This weekend, the social enterprise market will pop up for two days at the Center for Contemplative Justice at Thistle Farms in The Nations. Vendors will include Nashville Blanket Project (which, for every blanket sold, donates another to a neighbor in need), jewelry makers Strings for Hope (who employ survivors of addiction and domestic violence), home goods providers Thistle Farms and many others. The market will also be a donation site for canned goods and shoes. Visit theethosmarket.com for more details and a full list of vendors. D. PATRICK RODGERS NOV. 22-23 AT THE CENTER FOR CONTEMPLATIVE JUSTICE AT THISTLE FARMS 5201 ALABAMA AVE.
On Thanksgiving night in 1975, The Band (a group of mostly Canadians, no less) got together and threw one of the most memorable rock shows of all time. Billed as a farewell show for the formative roots-rock group that crafted Music From Big Pink, the concert featured a supporting cast including Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, The Staple Singers, Ringo Starr … and the list goes on. Called The Last Waltz, the show later became a concert film directed by Martin Scorsese. Today it
isn’t uncommon for musicians to gather in late November for a tribute to that night and The Band behind it. This year, Nashville’s Last Waltz tribute takes place at The Basement East, with Them Vibes, The Funky Broadways, The Nashville Horns and more. Proceeds from the gig benefit the Ben Eyestone Fund, a collaborative effort between Music Health Alliance and Saint Thomas Health to aid underinsured musicians. And for an extra helping of Thanksgiving delight, head over to the Belcourt on Nov. 24 for its annual screening of The Last Waltz at 8 p.m. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
[WICKED FUN]
THEATER
OFF BROADWAY AT THE HUTTON PRESENTS BEST OF
If the highly anticipated premiere of Wicked: For Good has you longing to spend just a little more time in Emerald City, you’ll want to check out this weekend’s final edition of Off Broadway at the Hutton. Wrapping up a monthlong Wizard of Oz-inspired immersive experience at the intimate Analog at Hutton Hotel, this “Best Of” edition invites audiences to revisit “The Merry Old Land of Oz” for one last showstopping performance. The evening will be hosted by Nashville’s own Rachel Potter — a former Glinda from the national tour of Wicked, plus the Broadway production of The Addams Family and the Broadway revival of Evita. While organizers have been a bit hush-hush about the specific lineup, if the past few weeks are any indication, we can look forward to a great mix of Broadway and local talent, tons of behind-the-scenes stories and maybe even a few surprises. Be sure to arrive early to enjoy the full immersive experience — from themed cocktails to interactive elements and fun, curated spaces. AMY STUMPFL
7 P.M. AT ANALOG AT HUTTON HOTEL 1808 WEST END AVE.
MUSIC [SIDE ROADS] BOZ SCAGGS
I’m honoring singer and songwriter Boz Scaggs when I say he’s one of the great yacht rockers. Much like Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Scaggs comes from a place where sophistication and R&B coexist naturally, which means yacht rock explains only part of Scaggs’ mastery. His 1976 breakthrough album Silk Degrees is as slick as the title implies, but it’s also tough — doing the real lido shuffle can get kind of low down, to reference two of the record’s big hits. The yacht-rock moment began to pass in the early ’80s, but Scaggs tunes like 1980’s “Jojo” and “Breakdown Dead Ahead” are brilliant slices of pop R&B. Scaggs, who is 81, is in fine form on his new release Detour, on which he takes a side road to essay standards from the Great American Songbook. The route includes walking in the voiceprints of singers as varied as Frank Sinatra, Cleo Laine and João Gilberto,
all of whom have recorded versions of the songs Scaggs covers on Detour. He nails Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Once I Loved” — his singing exudes cool, bittersweet regret. He also nails his own “I’ll Be Long Gone,” which he first recorded way back in 1969. EDD HURT
7 P.M. AT THE PINNACLE 910 EXCHANGE LANE
TUESDAY / 11.25
MUSIC
[SPOTLIGHT KID] LAUR
Neo-country star Sturgill Simpson’s 2014 album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music sounds world-historic to me now, and I can be skeptical about Americana and neo-country itself. Apart from the good songs, Metamodern moves like postmodernist country thanks to guitarist Laur Joamets, whose agility with sharp Telecaster licks makes him, say, the Mick Taylor of Simpson’s band. His guitar on “It Ain’t All Flowers” helps turn the track into an outlaw-psych-country classic that even Waylon Jennings never dreamed of. Joamets cut his teeth playing rock in his native Estonia and moved to town in 2014, and he’s also a big part of the rocked-out sound of Drivin N Cryin’s excellent 2019 release Live the Love Beautiful, which was produced by fellow Nashville ax master Aaron Lee Tasjan. Nov. 25 at Dee’s, Joamets brings a quartet that includes drummer Matty Alger, bassist Ted Pecchio and keyboardist Rob Crowell. Joamets says he’s been working on new tracks like “Acid Caveman” and “In the Dark,” which sound great — advanced bluesrock guitar music with precision licks and melodic hooks. I hear hints of Jeff Beck circa Wired and Captain Beefheart around the time of The Spotlight Kid, but Joamets’ biting lyricism is his own.
EDD HURT
7 P.M. AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE 102 E. PALESTINE AVE., MADISON
[PARTY AT PAT’S]
MUSIC
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.
pl hi f’ N h t om cha ons, t om a s, eeple committed
11.1 Take Me To ChurchCelebrates the 10th Anniversary of “Mr. Misunderstood”
11.5 Eric Paslay’s Song in a Hat w/ Charles Kelley
11.6 Jamie O’Neal, Emily West, Sarah Buxton
11.12 The Kentucky Gentlemen –Rhinestone Revolution Tour
11.13 Anthony Gomes
11.17 Quartz Hill Records / Stone Country Records Take Over - 2 Lane Summer, Annie Bosko, Dusty Black, Matt Cooper, Ben Gallaher, Spencer Hatcher, Lakelin Lemmings
11.18 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
1.21 Jamie O’Neal Gypsum Album Release Show
It’s a tradition of sorts for Grammy-winning songwriter and guitarist Pat McLaughlin to play a show at 3rd and Lindsley around Thanksgiving. He usually plays on Black Friday, but this year McLaughlin is performing on Nov. 26, the eve of the holiday. As always, he and his crack band — guitarist Kenny Greenberg, bassist Steve Mackey and drummer Greg Morrow — will take the audience on a two-hour tour of his deep catalog of songs. McLaughlin never repeats a set from one show to the next, and when asked what he has in store for the audience for the Nov. 26 performance, he quips, “I’m just gonna try to remember the words for the songs this time.” It’s a lot of words to remember. McLaughlin was a frequent collaborator with John Prine and co-wrote Prine’s Grammy-winning single “I Remember Everything.” Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Trisha Yearwood, Nanci Griffith and many others have also recorded his songs. In addition to “a couple of new ones,” McLaughlin tells the Scene he plans to perform one of his two co-writes on The Black Keys’ latest release No Rain, No Flowers — the bluesy “Down to Nothing.” “It’s kind of humbling to be on there,” he says of the co-writes with the Keys. DARYL SANDERS
7:30 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
[CHRISTMAS PICKIN’]
Before I try to sell you on this gig, let’s get one thing clear: Yes, there are way too many holiday shows. I don’t need six weeks of Christmas cheer filling up my concert calendar. But! If there’s one festive gig worth catching, it’s Béla Fleck and his band the Flecktones (featuring members Howard Levy, Victor Wooten and Roy “Future Man” Wooten) at the Ryman Auditorium. This group of prodigious players blended jazz, bluegrass, the blues and classical influence on 2008 holiday album Jingle All the Way,
which includes songs like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” performed with a dozen time signature changes and “Jingle Bells” dusted in banjo and wind instruments. For those who want to get in the spirit without enlisting a night of chestnut-roasted crooning, this may be the show for you. Come early to check opening performances from saxophonist Jeff Coffin and Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
[TAKE IT FROM THE
This show requires a good bit of background info, but we’ll try to keep it tight: Beginning in 2009, live broadcast program Music City Roots was something akin to a Grand Ole Opry for roots music and Americana artists. After moving the show to a series of bigger homes to accommodate a growing in-person audience, organizers announced in late 2017 their plan to settle into a permanent home by the end of the following year. However, a succession of partnerships ultimately didn’t come to fruition, and the show has since remained dormant. The night before Thanksgiving, Harken Hall — the Madison venue that in a previous iteration was going to be the show’s own The Roots Barn — hosts a special reunion event to reintroduce the program. Veteran singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale hosts alongside Barclay Randall (seasoned writer and host, as well as a beloved educator) and “Ranger Doug” Green (of Riders in the Sky and The Time Jumpers). And they’ve got one heck of a guest lineup, including Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Darrell Scott, Rob Ickes and The McCrary Sisters. STEPHEN TRAGESER
7 P.M. AT HARKEN HALL
514 MADISON STATION BLVD., MADISON
Philip
Krajeck opens Junior, his third restaurant, with chef Brian Mejia and a team of Folk and Rolf and Daughters veterans
BY KAY WEST
THREE WEEKS AFTER dinner at Junior — Philip Krajek’s thoughtful new restaurant in one section of a former Piggly Wiggly on the rapidly evolving Dickerson Road — I was still thinking of even the smallest elements of the meal. The crunch of the shell of the barbajuan giving way to a whipped puree of nutty futsu squash inside, the sliver of melted tomme brûlée cheese on top and a little pile of halved silky olives. What are those, and where can I get more?
The whisper of floral notes in the blossom butter, strewn with fresh flower petals and creamed with dried specks of the same, to spread on a thick slice of warm, crusty porridge bread (by baker Wesley Barrington), served by the half-loaf.
The discipline and precision of the sliced, minced chives — each teeny hollow circle the same size and no bigger than a pin head — that remained in the pool of sauce under the seared and charred plank of wild cobia. Kudos to whoever stood that day in the kitchen, bent over a cutting board, knife in hand, laser-focused to execute that task.
Those luscious olives again, peeking from the bowl of spaghetti, so irresistible that after we all had a twirl or two, I unabashedly poked the tines of my fork through the remaining thick strands of pasta to find each salty delectable orb,
happily spearing an anchovy as well. (The petite Taggiasca olives are grown in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy.)
No job is too insignificant a contribution or unworthy of 100 percent effort, to the achievement of the whole — that’s the message I observed from all of that.
Which leads to what I believe is the most memorable and impressive dish on the Junior menu — the pâté en croûte. A French classic, its simplest description is a loaf of pâté, bottom and sides wrapped in pastry dough, baked, topped with a layer of gelée, chilled, sliced and served room temperature with some type of condiment.
“The pâté en croûte is a lot of work and takes multiple days,” Krajek says. “It is all Brian.” (The slice that I … er, we devoured — Iberico pork, chestnuts and mushroom — is also Will Lovell, who cooked at Rolf before leaving to raise 100 percent Iberico hogs at Lovell Farm.)
Brian Mejia is the chef, and like everyone at Junior — front- and back-of-house, except for two dishwashers — he was mined from either Folk or Rolf and Daughters, Krajek’s two other stellar restaurants. Explaining his decision to open a third, Krajek says he wanted to give veteran staff opportunities for growth, or simply a new point of view.
Mejia started at Rolf and Daughters in Germantown as a young, curious and hardworking cook whose talent caught Krajek’s attention. He was there six years before spending time cooking in Mexico City, Paris and, most recently, at Café Frieda in Berlin as chef. He returned to Nashville to open Junior, which leans far more toward France than Italy, though diners will also find touches of Mejia’s Mexican culture in things like the small-bite tostada made with Farm & Sparrow polenta.
Mejia worked closely with Mark Bolton — former chef at Rolf and now culinary director of the trifecta — to develop the Junior menu. Krajek notes that it is still, and likely will always be, a work in progress.
The basic structure will remain stable, leading with a trio of individual one- or two-bite items — a pristine oyster in mignonette, the barbajuan and tostada, plus the pâté en croute. A quartet of small plates; this is where the pasta, or possibly rice, resides. A green salad of local lettuces and some type of vegetable casserole served in its cooking vessel. On our night, it was fioretto (flowering) cauliflower with a truffle gratin.
We had two of the three entrée-sized protein plates — recommended for sharing — that claim a section of the menu, and will likely rep-
“
“YOU CAN’T MAKE GOOD FOOD OR HAVE A GOOD RESTAURANT WITHOUT GOOD FARMS. SMALL FARMS GO HANDIN-HAND WITH SMALL, INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS. THEY’RE SYMBIOTIC, THEY SUPPORT EACH OTHER AND PUSH EACH OTHER.”
—JUNIOR OWNER PHILIP KRAJECK
resent fish, fowl and beef. Pork might make an occasional cameo. The fish is likely to change nightly; on our visit, it was that cobia, with a crackly cap, the flesh of the white fish slightly sweet, firm enough to swirl slices through the porcini cream.
The Amish chicken, sometimes listed as golden chicken, is leading the charge to elevate members of the bird family to the vaunted position Krajek thinks they deserve. “In America, poultry is undervalued,” he says. “But in other countries, the appreciation for great heritage breeds of guinea hens, pullet breast, pigeons and pheasant is very high.”
Prior to opening, Mejia took road trips through Kentucky seeking heritage golden chickens, whose happy, free-range lives account in part for their very high fat content. Before the half-chicken arrives at your table — the breast sliced and dark meat on the bone, glistening with the rich albufera sauce made from rendered fat and broth, piled with whole chanterelle mushrooms — it has also spent several days being prepped.
Though the menu will be malleable, the foundational ethos the food at Junior is built upon does not waver from its reliance and alliance with local agriculture. “You can’t make good food or have a good restaurant without good farms,” Krajeck says. “Small farms go handin-hand with small, independent restaurants. They’re symbiotic, they support each other and
Junior 907 Dickerson Pike juniornashville.com
push each other.”
That devotion to agriculture extends to the wine list, chosen by Billy Smith. The former assistant wine director at The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn was coaxed to relocate to Nashville and take on the lead role for Krajek’s restaurants, adhering to the same values as the food.
The wine even claims its own station against a far wall, a red lacquered platform set with a bright-green lamp on one corner and gleaming silver bottle bowl on the other; Junior’s elegant stemware is displayed on recessed built-in shelves. That defined space is one of many eye-catching designs and elements that seamlessly form Junior’s refined, sophisticated yet playful interior, by Third Man Records creative director Jordan Williams.
Most compelling is the sculptural ceiling; one side carved inward, the other outward so that if folded together, they would lock into a flat box. The goal — there and throughout the small room — was to avoid direct overhead light.
The space’s 50 seats are distributed at the sexy, come-hither main bar, a leather upholstered banquette along one wall and four round tables, placed with a view of the open kitchen. All tables are draped in quality white linen, centered by green glass votives; cutlery and china are weighty and classic. Splashes of brilliant color and arresting graphics pop up in the hall and restrooms. Service was impeccable the night we dined — graceful, assured, informative and respectful of our space.
The room’s aesthetic forms the dazzling first impression of Junior, but the overall feeling that lingers after the experience is one of simple, pure pleasure, derived from all the people — from farm to kitchen to table — who take enormous pride in what they do, and great joy in sharing it. ▼
June 26, 1960 – October 24, 2025
With profound sadness, we share the passing of Patricia “Trish” Porter Thomas. A beloved wife of Al Thomas and a cherished part of the Sperry’s family for over five decades.
Trish’s warmth, laughter, and gracious spirit helped shape Sperry’s into the welcoming place it is today. A devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, she brought joy and kindness to everyone she met. Our hearts are with Al, Mary Allison, Cate, Jetton, and their family. Her love, strength, and light will forever be part of the Sperry’s story.
BOW TIES & BUBBLES WHERE SOUTHERN CHARM MEETS
Join us from 5:30–9:00 PM at the LaurelBrooke Clubhouse 1180 Waterstone Blvd | Franklin, TN
Step into a night of sparkle and sophistication at Fumana Wine’s Annual Holiday Charity Gala in the heart of Music City. This year, we’re blending black-tie glamour with Nashville flair—think tuxedos and gowns paired with cowboy boots and hats. Guests will enjoy an evening of fine wines, live entertainment, and holiday cheer, all in support of a worthy cause. fumanawines.com
Lee C. Camp’s No Small Endeavor podcast tackles life and happiness
BY ELI MOTYCKA
LEE C. CAMP IS no stranger to the microphone, though usually he’s the one asking questions rather than answering them. Sitting in the back of The Well, a mission-driven cafe on the Lipscomb University campus, he talks entirely on the record — aside from a few stray tangents into politics (both church and partisan). Camp quickly shows off a tendency toward vulnerable and sincere connection, which has helped him become a radio juggernaut.
“I kind of lived in anxiety for much of my life, and I can still kind of fall into that,” he says. “I’m thankful that that’s not where my day-to-day life is much these days.”
Camp talks for nearly an hour about the gradual — then suddenly sharp — rise of his podcast No Small Endeavor. Its nuanced, good-faith conversations about life’s biggest questions produce a kind of salve for today’s high-stress media environment; taken together, episodes offer notable guests’ credible responses to the existential anxiety shared by all humans.
Camp first started converting lengthy interviews into a regular podcast more than 20 years ago from his perch at Lipscomb, the school that brought Camp from Alabama to Nashville as an undergraduate in the 1980s. Camp earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Lipscomb in 1989, then returned as a faculty member in 1999. His academic work
and kitchens across the country, and helped land guests like bestselling social science writer Malcolm Gladwell, former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and The Office’s Rainn Wilson.
Camp explains that whether his guests are authors, CEOs, advocates or theologians, they often return to three common themes. The first is an eye toward intention.
“A sort of self-interrogation asking, ‘To what degree, for example, do my daily habits, routines, dispositions fit with the kind of life that I’m trying to live?’” he explains.
The second theme, Camp says, is vulnerability — allowing others to see one’s mistakes and asking for help when it’s needed. The third is strong social relationships — specifically friendships.
The show’s philosophical wanderings make it a spiritual successor to Krista Tippett’s On Being; its hospitable warmth, inflected with American regionalism, sounds more like Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, which Camp cites as initial inspiration. All have won dedicated audiences by combining universal appeal with a distinct character, often built around an inoffensive principal voice like Camp who can shrink the room enough to make a listener feel like they’re part of the conversation.
builds theological arguments that compel Christians to adopt a more empathetic and peace-seeking faith against divisive, sometimes violent alternative loyalties like nationalism, racism, Islamophobia and greed.
That kind of theology shoots through his podcast, constantly informing questions of human existence and ethics. Yet he keeps Christianity specifically at bay, treating it as more of a reference library than a recommendation.
“A lot of the conversation you have in ethics is asking the big perennial questions about, ‘What does it mean to live a good life? What kind of life is life worth living?’”
Camp explains. “Everybody cares about those questions, and unfortunately not all of us allow ourselves sufficient time to think about those questions. We talk to Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus. We talk to agnostics and atheists. We’re looking for people who have something compelling to say about taking life seriously, because a lot of people don’t take their own lives seriously.”
Hundreds of guests have sat opposite Camp for interviews that quickly plunge into big questions and honest reflections about human existence. The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) picked up No Small Endeavor in 2023 for national distribution after initial syndication by WPLN, Nashville’s NPR member station. The platform has put Camp in thousands of cars
Southern influence, specifically from Nashville, shows up throughout. His episode list features local celebrities like Mayor Freddie O’Connell, author and advocate Cyntoia BrownLong and Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones, also a trained Christian theologian. When asked about particularly notable guests, Camp immediately recalls the Rev. James Lawson, a key leader in the civil rights movement who was expelled by Vanderbilt for his activism in 1960.
“We all have these huge questions about how to contribute something true or good to the world,” says Camp. “I asked him, ‘What did it do to you as a young person, getting arrested and sent to prison?’”
Camp’s face lights up, quoting from memory.
“He said, ‘It liberated me for the rest of my life.’ I love hearing stories like that, because we all want to try to find a place of courage in ourselves.”
On Sunday, Nov. 23, No Small Endeavor will host its annual live show at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center with musical guests Ruby Amanfu and Allison Russell — both fellow Nashvillians. Camp will speak with Sharon McMahon, who has become a prominent public figure applying a similar reconciliatory approach to electoral politics.
Camp’s conversations recently have returned more to politics, which he regards as a public expression of moral values. Such topics “deeply distress” him right now, though Camp has written and studied and spoken against Christian nationalism for his entire career.
His show both transcends bare partisan debate and avoids it — a tension Camp clearly struggles with as a prominent American voice and white Southern Christian. For now, he lets others do that talking. ▼
Name: SANDY
Age: 7 mo.
All Puppet Players say ‘yippie-ki-yay, Music City’ with Die Hard: A Christmas Carol BY
AMY STUMPFL
SANDY lis a happy, playful pup who’s full of puppy energy and curiosity.
She’s still figuring out the world, but she’s gaining confidence every day and showing what a sweet, loving dog she is. A gentle, slow approach helps her feel comfortable, and once she does, you’ll see her tail wag nonstop.
Sandy is looking for a patient, caring family who will cheer her on as she continues to grow and discover just how wonderful life can be. If you’re ready for a loyal friend and lots of love, Sandy would love to meet you!would love to meet you!
Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org
Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209
Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.
IT STARTED WITH the noblest of intentions. Actor Shaun Michael McNamara had been in Los Angeles for a few years, working primarily at Disneyland and Universal Studios, when he decided to create an original puppet show designed to make Shakespeare more accessible for young audiences.
“I’d been doing a lot of puppetry work — everything from Donkey from Shrek to Chucky from Child’s Play,” says McNamara, a self-described ’80s kid, who grew up in the Phoenix area. “Amongst my other jobs, I also worked at a children’s theater. So I started thinking about merging the two together — using puppets to get kids more interested in Shakespeare.”
McNamara convinced his wife to use their savings to build puppets and rent a small theater. The show was called Hamlet Has No Legs and featured an all-puppet cast and what McNamara describes as “improvised madness.”
Weight: 21 lbs. Because Nashville is so much
“Opening night arrives, and remember, I’m thinking this is going to be really serious and dramatic,” he says. “We were going to revolutionize Hamlet and puppetry, and people were going to take puppets seriously. So I get out there in front of a sold-out crowd, and I do the first line of the show, and all of a sudden I hear this crash. Someone backstage had accidentally knocked over the one expensive prop that we had, and I heard it just shatter on the floor. Of course, I’d been working nonstop with no sleep for days, and so with a character on my hand, I just looked straight out to the audience and said: ‘Son of a bitch.’ And that was it — they just lost it. I basically did 20 minutes on the absurdity of the situation, how ridiculous we must look, and it was lightning in a bottle. They went crazy, and I thought: ‘Oh wow, they don’t want serious puppets — they want anarchy.’”
which is pretty cool. That’s the show where we leaned into the adults-only format. Turns out, if you put a puppet on your hand, you can get away with almost anything.”
Beyond all the R-rated escapades, however, McNamara also leans into his love of nostalgia and pop culture.
that same time, I saw an article that was debating whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and that’s how it all started. It’s crazy fun, it’s outrageous, and it sells out every year.”
McNamara says audiences can expect all their favorite movie highlights in puppet form — from John McClane saving the hostages (while being visited by three ghosts) to Hans Gruber falling off a cardboard Nakatomi Plaza in slow motion.
“I’m a total nostalgia nerd, and also really fascinated by the whole Marvel multiverse thing,” he says. “So I started thinking about ways to smash things together, just to mess with audience expectations and score some good nostalgia highs. With I Know What You Did Last Breakfast Club, we basically took the John Hughes canon and smashed it with some ’90s slasher films — like Scream meets The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. It’s been such fun, and has opened the door to a lot of creative possibilities.”
Over the past 15 years, All Puppet Players has maintained that energy. Now based in Phoenix, the company produces adults-only puppet shows that blend “pop culture, profanity and pure theatrical chaos.” Past seasons have included titles like Jurassic Puppets, Waiting for Henson, A Fistful of Puppets and A Parody Puppet Princess Bride. But it was 2015’s Fifty Shades of Felt that really helped secure the company’s brand.
“The serious actor in me was still trying to figure things out,” McNamara says. “After Hamlet, we did this really heartfelt and moving Frankenstein. Then we took a hard right turn into Fifty Shades of Felt, and that’s when the core audience reveals itself. This was before Fifty Shades of Grey had taken off, with the movie and everything. It was just some silly online book that we were reading as a lark. Someone suggested we do it as a play, and I’m thinking, ‘This is so bad, so poorly written, nobody will even know what this is.’
Then [author E.L. James] sells the book, and we were literally the first adaptation of Fifty Shades,
One of those is Die Hard: A Christmas Carol, which arrives at TPAC’s Johnson Theater Nov. 18. Premiering in 2017, the show started as a one-off parody but went on to become All Puppet Players’ longest-running hit and a true fan favorite. McNamara describes the piece as “pure felt frenzy,” complete with “Dickensian ghosts, trigger-happy terrorists and curse-filled carols.”
“Early on, I realized that every theater needs a Christmas show in order to keep the doors open,” he says. “But I also knew that I didn’t want to do A Christmas Carol — it’s just been done so much, in so many ways. And everyone is like: ‘Come on, you have to do it! That’s the show!’ And I thought: ‘Fine, I’m going to do a Christmas Carol that’s so completely twisted, they’ll never ask me to do it again.’ Right about
“It’s a rabid fan base anyway, but the holidays definitely amp things up,” he says. “We get a lot of office parties, ugly Christmas sweaters, and we even have a white elephant gift exchange. But the real magic that keeps me going is watching the audience kick back and have fun. These adults come in looking all tired and stressed. And suddenly they’re watching these puppets doing all these ridiculous things, and there’s a shift. It’s like turning the clock back a little bit. They’re like kids again, just laughing and enjoying.
“It’s just a wild, raucous party where adults watch puppets scream the F-word. And to me, there’s nothing better in the world.” ▼
Die Hard: A
noah guthrie & nathan graham (7PM) imogen clark (9PM)
The gripsweats w/ funkonauts sun seeker w/ heinous orca and fealty genevieve heyward w/ tedious & brief (7pm) jacoozy w/ the wholesome boys (9pm)
outside dog w/ friendstore (7PM)
the phototonics w/ lighthouse logic (9pm)
and more!
emma swift w/ dillon warneck (7pm) the damn shames w/ willie pearl (9Pm)
Däs Grizzlies (7pm)
Margo Price swings back to old-school country on Hard Headed Woman
BY HANNAH CRON
MARGO PRICE IS a hard-headed woman, and she won’t apologize for it.
The Nashville singer-songwriter holds the banner of classic country up high on her latest record, the aptly titled Hard Headed Woman, while issuing a rallying cry to the downtrodden, the underdog and any woman who has ever been called “too much.” Hard Headed Woman is something of a return to form for Price. After releasing her memoir Maybe We’ll Make It in 2022 and receiving massive critical acclaim for her 2023 album Strays, she’s returning to her roots with a new band, an old producer and a time-honored sound.
Hard Headed Woman reunites Price with Matt Ross-Spang, who produced her debut record Midwest Farmer’s Daughter nearly a decade ago. Their shared language is as easy to love as it is to understand, with toe-tapping rhythms, slow-burning storytelling and melodies to be savored rather than binged. It’s a record meant to be spun in full again and again, a countercultural move in a world of streaming singles and TikTok virality. Every note rings with heart and the inimitable imperfection of humanity, which Price says was the intention behind the record. This desire shaped the sound and production, and the decision to record and play with a new band.
“I really wanted to shine in this project with
lyrical songwriting,” says Price. “My last band and I, we had grown together — we had grown musically. We had also grown apart musically. … We’d also been using a click track, sometimes even in our ears during live performances. And that was something that Matt Ross-Spang, my producer, really brought me back down to earth. He’s like, ‘You guys all have impeccable tempo and great time, we’re not going to use any click track.’ [And we] actually didn’t. There was no AutoTune. There was no click tracks. There was no smoke and mirrors. It was just like [making records decades ago when] people had to just be great. There was no cheating — some kind of shortcuts make something sound great on this app.”
The sonic blueprint and lyrical style of Hard Headed Woman are heavily inspired by the country songwriting titans of the 1960s and ’70s. Price cites Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan’s work of the era and Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears as specific inspirations. Each reference speaks to the ethos that drives Price’s best work — a push for change, speaking truth to power, a reckoning with what makes us human, all while appealing to a salt-of-the-earth working-class audience. Price recorded the album at Nashville’s cornerstone RCA Studio A, her words echoing in the hallowed halls once inhabited by many of her classic country idols.
“Being in that space is just — it’s at the height of audio technology, truly,” says Price. “Nashville was at the forefront of where the best-sounding records were made. So it was really special to be able to spend the time and the money and do things the way that I wanted, and not have to rush anything because we were on a budget or a time crunch.”
The time and effort poured into the record shows up in the footprints it leaves behind. It’s already proven timely in ways no one imagined.
On Sept. 16, Price performed the standout single “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! That was the last episode to air before Disney-owned network ABC suspended the show briefly amid backlash over Kimmel’s criticism of conservative politicians’ responses to the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
The record includes collaborations with modern folk protest singer Jesse Welles (the dreamer’s anthem “Don’t Wake Me Up”) and genre stalwart and surprise viral sensation Tyler Childers (the crooning “Love Me Like You Used To”). With the album’s mix of ballads and barnburners and a piercingly stunning vocal performance, Price offers something to every country fan on Hard Headed Woman
“I still wanted everything to feel really timeless, and hopefully, we can bridge some gener-
ational divides and and even political divides through this album,” she says. “Hopefully you could play it for your grandparents, but you could also play it for your kids and your friends. Country music is definitely something that a lot of people are listening to these days. And there should be all different sides of the spectrum and all different kinds of voices in country music.” Country die-hards and new fans alike will have a chance to see Price live in action at the venerable Ryman on Thursday, Nov. 20. Country champ Logan Ledger, whom Price calls “my favorite singer in Nashville,” will open the show alongside Texas outfit Rattlesnake Milk. Ledger also plays guitar in Price’s band, which also includes guitarist Sean Thompson, fiddler Libby Weitnauer, bassist Alec Newnam and drummer Chris Gelb. Special guests have been teased, and to top it all off, Price plans to give away one of her signature Gibson J-45 guitars to a songwriter in the audience. Come hell or high water, Price makes sure any night with her music is one to remember. ▼
Playing 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Ryman
Rufus Wainwright discusses his forthcoming Kurt Weill tribute I’m a Stranger
BY JASON SHAWHAN
THERE SIMPLY AREN’T very many artists or voices like Rufus Wainwright. One of those polymath talents who build upon multigenerational musicianship and a voracious mind for knowledge, art and the historical sense of the swoon, he’s been making unconventional work that surprises, seduces and shakes up listeners the world over since his 1998 debut. A gifted composer and performer who nimbly shifts genre and idiom, Wainwright is gearing up to release I’m a Stranger Here Myself, which pays tribute to the songs of legendary stage composer Kurt Weill. And so, on a pleasant autumn evening a few weeks before his two shows at City Winery (which happen to be on release day), Wainwright spoke with the Scene via a delightful Zoom conversation, edited here for length and clarity.
What’s it like to sing the national anthem at the World Series? It was very meaningful for me to be part of the zeitgeist. It was very captivating — you see all the people and the players, and you’re in Los Angeles and it’s sunny, and then all of a sudden you’re at the center of the universe. It was intoxicating.
When you performed at Big Ears Music Festival back in March, you mentioned bringing your duet partner Amber Martin to Nashville to do some writing. Inquiring minds would love to know how that went. She had never been to Nashville before, so for her it was like a pilgrimage for the Holy Grail.
I’m bound by civic pride to ask, what does Nashville mean to you? It’s a place I’ve known about all my life, mainly because of Emmylou Harris, who is a dear, dear family friend who always used to come up and visit us in Montreal to write with [my mom Kate McGarrigle and my aunt Anna McGarrigle], or they would go to Nashville to write as well, so there were these songs that tied my family’s life to Nashville. And it was mythic, the stories that came from it. And the other thing that my mother loved about Nashville — she and Anna were successful songwriters to a point, but they never quite broke through to the big time like their friends Bonnie Raitt or Bette Midler. But whenever they went to Nashville, everybody knew who they were. People knew their material and their abilities, and for my mom, that was very heartening — to go there and find themselves respected by that crowd.
Nashville does still have some degree of respect for songwriters. And Emmylou Harris is like Moses: You see that steely hair and crowds just part and make way. Who’s at the top of your dream duet partner list these days? Well, I’ve been texting quite a bit with Annie Lennox, who I grew up listening
Album signing event 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at Grimey’s Playing 6 p.m.
to, and we’ve been texting back and forth about a little something lately. The way that’s come full circle is really quite astounding to me.
As a Canadian-American artist, how are you feeling these days about all this — the profound social and political mess? I was born in the U.S., in upstate New York, and then moved to Canada when I was 6 with my mother, who was Canadian, and that’s where I grew up. I’m a dual citizen, and I feel very fortunate to have — I’m not going to say “that exit plan,” but that state of being in case things head south. But also, and maybe it’s my American side or maybe it’s my Canadian side — we’re fighters, and we don’t really like to simmer down. So there is a lot to be said for staying here and trying to combat the forces that be, because that is important. But also the fact that I can run away if need be, that makes it important that I stay while I can and advocate for those who have no voice or access to power and can just be carted off, which is horrifying.
What made you want to focus an entire album on Kurt Weill’s music? Like many interesting projects, it was totally unplanned and came out of nowhere. I was finishing producing a musical in London [Opening Night], and finishing a composition of the Dream Requiem, and it was taking up all of my time. But Christopher Walden of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra asked me if I wanted to do a concert with them, and for some weird reason, likely exhaustion, I said sure. And I knew a lot of Kurt Weill songs, so I said, “Let’s do a
Kurt Weill evening.” And lo and behold, in the midst of all of this I flew to L.A. and rehearsed with the orchestra for a day — the day of the show, did the show that night and recorded it, and the next day headed back to England. We thought it might be nice to save and preserve some of the madness. But there was something in the frantic nature of the whole thing, and how Weill sounds better when you’re a little tired. … You can’t be perky with his work. And this dark texture to the material, when we listened back to it, we thought this could make a captivating record. I think the songs speak to the time we’re in. You find Weill resurgences every 30 or so years, and I remember in the ’90s there was the show that Hal Willner put on with Marianne Faithfull.
I got to see that! The 1995 Weimar Cabaret afternoon at BAM where she performed most of Seven Deadly Sins. It was transformative. I just like to think that we’re part of this latest cycle, as it happens in history.
I was told to ask what your beard regimen is these days, because it’s an inspirational look. I’m actually searching for a barber that I had years ago. I was staying in this town in France where they did coronations back in the day, and this barber gave me a perfect beard cut, and then the next time I found myself there I couldn’t find him. It was like the barber shop had just disappeared into the air. This ghost of a barber. You found a barber shop like Brigadoon. [Laughs] ▼
BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
LOOKING AT IT one way, songsmith Joelton Mayfield’s debut full-length Crowd Pleaser only took about three weeks to make. But he spent the better part of a decade wrestling with the project, which finally began inching toward the light of day in 2021 and arrived in record stores and on streaming services in October. It’s safe to say Mayfield and the album have earned a proper celebration. That’s exactly what he got Saturday night when friends, family and fans strolled up the red carpet that was rolled out for them at East Nashville DIY staple Soft Junk for the release party, a triple bill featuring some of Mayfield’s close friends.
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
Sunday, November 30
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Adam Shoenfeld
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, December 6
SONGWRITER SESSION HARDY
NOON · CMA THEATER
Saturday, December 6
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
3:00 pm · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Sunday, December 7
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Family Block Party
9:30 am · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Saturday, December 13
SONGWRITER SESSION
Ryan Hurd
NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, December 14
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
The McCrary Sisters
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
WITNESS
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
The crowd moved from the parking lot to flit inside near the stage or linger around the massive garage door as singer-songwriter Emma Ogier approached the mic. She and her band opened with the unreleased “Hands Tied,” a slice of tranquil indie rock that was a complete counter to the ominous vibes provided by the red-tinted fog flowing around the packed space. Between most songs, she thanked the audience for turning up early and praised Mayfield, whom she credits as one of her idols. Ogier’s set featured several unreleased tunes, and she accompanied her strumming with her buttery-smooth Adrienne Lenker lilt, dipped in a Southern accent. She finished with “Believing,” one more as-yet-unreleased song, before melting into the audience.
Future Crib, on the other hand, played into the eerie red fog, taking their positions to the sound of air raid sirens, which faded into the bongos that formed the rhythmic backbone of their opening number. The feeling of their show quickly evolved into charming DIY performance art. The self-described “nonfiction rock band” performed in front of an eclectic selection of projected video clips, ranging from a spinning pottery wheel to a time-lapse of the life cycle of marijuana plants; they had an assistant who aimed his computer keyboard like a giant remote to switch clips between songs. Frontman Bryce DuBray was absent because the show coincided with his sister’s wedding, so the remaining trio — bassist Julia Anderson, synth maestro Johnny Hopson and drummer George Rezek — split his vocal duties among themselves on a run of songs that heavily featured their latest LP Impossible Songs. They concluded their portion of the evening with congratulations to Mayfield and their cover of cult icon Bill Fay’s “I Hear You Calling.”
Just before 10 p.m., Mayfield strolled casually to the mic, sporting a button-down shirt, jeans and Birkenstocks. He arranged his table of handheld sound makers, including a harmonica and kazoo, and got to work on the albumopening reverb-heavy ballad “Red Beam.” The
final strum blended straight into the analog keys of “The Shore,” sounding momentarily as if the speakers were playing straight from the record. Mayfield and company continued nonstop, skipping a few songs down Crowd Pleaser’s running order to “Blame.” Only then did Mayfield finally take a break to voice his gratitude.
“Thank y’all so much for being here,” Mayfield said. “I feel like this is everyone I’ve ever met in my whole life.”
Mayfield effortlessly worked through his complex storytelling techniques, which are always backed by clever riffs. Almost like a handsewn quilt, the project stitches together various stories and lessons he has learned. He connected the intricate details of a young woman’s mysterious and solemn tale in “Pretty Linda,” and examined his disillusion with his former beliefs in the tender lyrics of “Jacob Dreamed a Staircase.”
A giveaway had been promised in the show promotion, and took place in due course. Winners eagerly accepted their gifts from Mayfield, which ranged from merch bundles to Crocs with Mayfield-themed Jibbitz charms.
During the witty, upbeat “Turpentine (You Know the One),” Mayfield pulled out his harmonica for some bluesy riffs, and his kazoo made an appearance later. Returning to the album’s running order, Mayfield ended his performance with “Mouth Breather,” the album’s final song that also contains its namesake within the lyrics. Instead of restricting the song to its original studio-recorded acoustic guitar version, Mayfield chose to showcase it in a different light. He transformed the track into a drawn-out pedal steel creation that hits Americana, rock and folk in all the right places. Before he took his last bow of the night, Mayfield reflected on the hurdles he encountered making the album and repeated his thanks for the support.
“I didn’t know if this album was gonna come out,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was gonna make it through a very dark period. I’m really grateful to be on the other side of it.” ▼
BY JASON SHAWHAN
Sentimental Value
R, 133 minutes; in English and Norwegian with English subtitles Opening Friday, Nov. 21, at
SENTIMENTAL VALUE KICKS off with a scene that feels both Bergmanic and like a fairy tale — the kind of film Woody Allen spent at least a decade or so trying to make and falling short every time. It’s an art film that plays like a mainstream crowd-pleaser, a drama that knows how to find laughs, and a movie about the movies that has a comfy seat ready for people who don’t really give a shit about the highways and byways of filmmaking. It’s a story that anyone can relate to, featuring a house that’s so much a central character that you just know Wes Anderson will be sick with envy.
Director/co-writer Joachim Trier (along with co-writer Eskil Vogt) makes a specific choice to frame things with this specific house; an anchor for generations of experiences and emotions that incarnate how perspectives on families always extend both into the past and into the future — and that’s true from Brontë to V.C. Andrews to today.
So as we get to know the Borg family, it’s with a slightly expanded sense of perspective; we grow to know them as they occur within this specific space, and how their lives refract against those who came before them. And the Borgs — actress Nora (Renate Reinsve), her little sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), now a wife and mother, and their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) — all bring things to the table that every adult can find resonance in. More often than not, when a filmmaker decides to make a movie about forgiving (or not) one’s parents, that’s a giant clanging alarm. But forgiveness is not an act pivot in a screenplay or a simple knot to tie; it’s a process. And whatever one thinks of filmmaker Gustav Borg and his long-ago fame, his current obscurity, and how and why he left his two daughters behind, rest assured that this film is going to get into it.
You’ve got to love a movie that finds soundtrack space for both Roxy Music and Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir. There’s an intertextual dialogue happening
between most of the arts in this narrative and in this family, and it builds a fascinating space — it really is the house in your neighborhood that always has something artsy happening, and a ticket to this film is like an invite over for the day. There’s going to be some amazing things and some heartwrenching things, some laughs and some betrayals, and you’re there for all of it: the joys that grow in strength from being shared and the moments that leave you feeling like a trespasser who just wants to fade away. It’s an incredible film, this one.
If you saw Trier and Reinsve’s previous collaboration, 2021’s The Worst Person in the World, you know they’ve got a gift for balancing contradictory emotional states and tones with ease, punching through expectations and delivering stylized moments that hit as real as documentary and feel somehow fanciful and expansive. It’s a fascinating tightrope walk, and Sentimental Value never makes a false step.
It’s also a great sibling movie. Reinsve and Lilleaas both deliver incredible performances, but they also feel completely believable as sisters. Elle Fanning as Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp represents a lot in this film; she’s exceptional as an outsider who has an eye for clarity and sincerity that helps expand our means of observing the Borgs. Just as she is in the recently released Predator: Badlands, she’s very good as a point-of-entry character for audience members looking to find a way into the material. All three of these women are delivering award-worthy work. And Skarsgård is at the top of his game in a remarkable slow-burn realization that maybe he is too old for this. Maybe it’s not worth Netflix compromises. Maybe the game is — not suited to the young, per se, but designed for those who aren’t so set in their ways? Isn’t that always the question in the collaborative arts? Finding that balance point between vision and execution?
When you put your emotions into your work, whether screen or stage, how does that color your
interactions with other artists? It’s not a zero-sum equation, where there’s only so much energy you can put into art, but there is a sort of second array of emotional interaction that happens between artists, and that’s fascinating. It may be something that normies don’t even think about — in which case, this film is a peek behind the emotional curtain. But it’s absolutely a hook that I think resonates in a lot of cities and arts-based communities, and it’s certainly something that hits a little differently here in Nashville.
Trier and Vogt are very good at revelation — not in the grand biblical sense, but in the way that each of the characters is granted a moment or two when things clamber into place for them, changing them just a little bit. And we’re given this gracious, omniscient third-person perspective that lets us observe the long-term effects of how little shifts in behavior, when spread around, are cumulative. Never has a film’s choice of birthday gifts for a child delivered such a moment of inappropriate recognition and uproarious laughter.
There’s also something going on in the polyglot nature of these characters, where what gets said and in what language gives us insight into how they work and process moments — it may not be of concrete use to anyone who isn’t a linguist or who can’t leap between languages, but it’s still telling us a lot. Because of that, we understand how intimate our observations are allowed to be, and we have to assemble these lives that radiate from this remarkable house as we’re going.
There’s a very fine line between feeling seen and feeling like a work of art is telling you about yourself. Those aren’t the same feeling, and it’s hard to imagine another film this year being able to thread that needle, and also doing so in a way that isn’t devastating, but rather invigorating. Sentimental Value makes you want to do better in your own circumstances; and more than that, it makes you want to watch it again. ▼
December 6
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SCAN TO REGISTER
ACROSS
1 “___ Talkin’ ’bout Love” (Van Halen song)
5 *Treat with kindness
10 Noted works of the Roman poet Horace
14 Brute
15 Statuette modeled after a knight holding a crusader’s sword
16 Feeling associated with skipping a party, perhaps
17 Unchangeable
19 Horned creature in “Pan’s Labyrinth”
20 Hungers for
21 Early Germanic people
23 Move around the world
24 *Expensive
26 Lift
29 Mardi Gras locale, informally
30 Ovarian sac contents
31 Fuddy-duddies
32 “Still ___” (2022 rap hit)
33 Meander
34 High lights?
35 Practice chiromancy
37 Disappear, as a trail
40 “Central Park in the Dark” composer
41 Music box?
44 Diviner
45 Jerry’s uncle on “Seinfeld”
46 Box a bit
47 Tonkatsu coating
48 *Deli device
49 Bug expert, for short
50 Invite at the door
52 Extreme pressure
53 El ___
55 Felt tired during the day, say
58 Words to a betrayer
59 “The Philosophy of Right” author
60 Like a computer with a running screensaver
61 How whiskey might be served … with a hint to the answers to the seven starred clues
62 *Risky endeavor, idiomatically
63 Onetime resident of the Winter Palace DOWN
1 Bolt
2 Certain Windows hard drive malfunction
3 *Conspicuous
4 Stupid stuff it’s fun to know
5 Level-ending foe
6 Educated guess: Abbr.
7 Sgt., e.g.
8 Like lemon curd
9 Preceder of “Bites” and “Bars” in commercial names
10 *Chance to meet one-on-one with a professor
11 “Copy me”
12 Runner Down Under
13 Certain heir
18 Make in the end
22 Steady humming sounds
24 Locale for catfish or carp
25 What allows Neo to disconnect from the Matrix
27 Spanish 101 verb
28 Whom you might greet with open arms, for short?
30 Novelist Charles who wrote “The Cloister and the Hearth”
31 Prefix with botanist
33 “Sure … if you say so”
35 Enjoys oneself uninhibitedly … or a punny title for this puzzle
36 Profess
37 Something Lincoln once led, for short
38 Italian time unit
39 Card game with a winning score of 5,000 points
41 *Book addenda
42 Chicken ___
43 Thrive
46 Narrow channel
48 Derisive look
49 OB/GYN offering
51 Crisply shown, as on TV
52 Wooded valley
53 Coop
54 Performed amazingly, in slang
56 Id’s counterpart
57 The First State: Abbr.
Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.
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