NEWS: METRO SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR $14 MILLION AFTER BEING “GHOSTED” >> PAGE 7 FOOD & DRINK: IMMIGRANT-LED RESTAURANTS
NAVIGATE THE ICE AGE >> PAGE 32
Talking to six of the city’s most interesting designers and checking out some of Nashville’s best street style
Metro Sues Trump Administration for $14 Million After Being ‘Ghosted’
Unpaid federal grants leave the city scrambling to figure out the extent of Nashville’s growing budget hole
BY ELI MOTYCKA
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Agriculture Legislation
Advances at the Capitol
Pesticide, farmland preservation and tariffs are among farmers’ concerns
BY JULIANNE AKERS
By Design
Talking to six designers who are keeping Nashville fresh
Style
Ray di Pietro, our man on the street, once again checks out some Nashville looks PHOTOS BY RAY
Cassandra Jenkins, Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Blues Brothers, Woofstock and more
Office Space
Human Resources embeds its audience in a surreal corporate landscape BY DOUGLAS CORZINE
A Thing of Beauty, a Joy Forever
Restaurants Navigate the ICE Age
Immigrant-led restaurants in Nashville continue to thrive despite fear over deportations and anti-immigrant backlash
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
How Can I Improve My Golf Swing?
This is the first question I’ve gotten in months that isn’t about the end of the world!
BY CHRIS CROFTON
Ahead of Lucy Dacus’ Forever Is a Feeling, we catch up with her co-producers and longtime collaborators Collin Pastore and Jake Finch BY HANNAH CRON
Merit Badges
Ca.mp3 creates community in the music business through collaboration BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Jason Isbell at The Pinnacle BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM FILM
Jérémie Spoke
Misericordia is a sly, smart peek into the messiness of reality BY JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
MARKETPLACE ON THE COVER:
Savannah Yarborough, founder of Savas
Photo by Angelina Castillo
NEWSLETTER: nashvillescene.com/site/forms/subscription_services
PRINT: nashvillesceneshop.com
CONTACT TO ADVERTISE: msmith@nashvillescene.com
EDITOR: prodgers@nashvillescene.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers
MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez
SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin
ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter
MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cole Villena
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman
STAFF WRITERS Julianne Akers, Logan Butts, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams
SENIOR FILM CRITIC Jason Shawhan
EDITORIAL INTERN Bailey Brantingham
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Ben Arthur, Radley Balko, Bailey Brantingham, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Tina Dominguez, Stephen Elliott, Steve Erickson, Jayme Foltz, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, J.R. Lind, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Sean L. Maloney, Brittney McKenna, Addie Moore, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Katherine Oung, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon Shamban, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Kelsey Young, Charlie Zaillian
ART DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones
PHOTOGRAPHERS Angelina Castillo, Eric England, Matt Masters
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Sandi Harrison, Tracey Starck, Mary Louise Meadors
GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Anna Creviston
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Christie Passarello
MARKETING AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Robin Fomusa
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS AND EVENTS MANAGER Alissa Wetzel
DIGITAL & MARKETING STRATEGY LEAD Isaac Norris
PUBLISHER Mike Smith
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Michael Jezewski
SENIOR ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS CONSULTANTS
Teresa Birdsong, Olivia Britton, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Niki Tyree
ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS CONSULTANTS
Kailey Idziak, Rena Ivanov, Allie Muirhead, Andrea Vasquez
SALES OPERATIONS MANAGER Chelon Hill Hasty
ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATES Audry Houle, Jack Stejskal
SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Susan Torregrossa
PRESIDENT Mike Smith
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Todd Patton
CORPORATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones
IT DIRECTOR John Schaeffer
CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Gary Minnis
FW PUBLISHING LLC
High View Cottages is a thoughtfully designed community of 3- and 4- bedroom homes featuring mid-century modern inspired architecture and several inviting outdoor spaces. Perched on a hillside loop road, Phase 3 is the final section of the neighborhood and will offer some of the best locations and views in the neighborhood and features some significant upgrades that are now included in the standard pricing.
STARTING AT $614,900
The Haysboro’s flexible zoning accommodates diverse condo needs, appealing to primary homeowners, second-home buyers, and investors alike. Setting a new standard for condos in East Nashville’s vibrant Inglewood neighborhood, The Haysboro features a timeless midcentury-inspired exterior by Pfeffer-Torode Architecture. A stunning lobby connects to E+Rose Cafe, which will occupy the corner retail space. Seller concessions offered – inquire for more information.
STARTING AT $300,000 INGLEWOOD
Unpaid federal grants leave the city scrambling to figure out the extent of Nashville’s growing budget hole
BY ELI MOTYCKA
NASHVILLE ATTORNEYS SUED President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the heads of several federal agencies last week to recover $14 million for two grants awarded, but never paid, by the federal government. Nashville joins five major cities and 11 nonprofit groups as plaintiffs in the suit.
City attorneys tell the Scene that unpaid federal funding may expand well beyond these two grants. Metro lawyers and city department heads are in the midst of an effort to identify grants potentially stalled or eliminated by the Trump administration, some of which have already been counted as income in the budgeting process.
Nashville is suing for a $4.7 million “Electrify Music City” grant, awarded in August, to expand public vehicle charging stations, as well as a $9.3 million “East Nashville Spokes” grant awarded in January to build bike lanes and pedestrian improvements near the East Bank. Both came from infrastructure programs introduced under the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“We were awarded the grants, then the actual agreement has not been sent to us,” says Metro attorney Lora Barkenbus Fox. “I guess we’ve been ghosted. None of the terms of the grant are contingent on the president signing off on it. The funding was approved by Congress, and Metro Nashville was told we were awarded
Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District Rep. John Rose officially declared his 2026 bid for governor at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. He is the first to formally enter the field for what will be an open seat, as Gov. Bill Lee is term-limited. Rose, a Republican, focused his announcement on expanding Tennessee’s interstate system and vowed to appoint a Tennessee commissioner of education who has “Tennessee teaching experience.” The latter is a
the grant. There’s no authority for slow-walking or stopping the award of that grant just because the executive wishes to.”
Fox and Metro legal director Wally Dietz say they are monitoring all of Metro’s grants closely and are in regular communication with city department heads. Nashville, like many municipalities, relies heavily on federal funding — especially for spending related to infrastructure.
Nashville has already undergone a procurement process, selected a vendor and signed a contract with a vendor for electric charging stations, leaving the city with significant financial liability, according to the suit. The city also “incorporated the awarded funds in its Transportation Improvement Program budget,” throwing an early wrench in Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s multibillion-dollar transit plan, which was approved by voters in November. After more than four months’ search, O’Connell has yet to hire an executive chief program officer to directly manage the city’s ambitious transit push. The mayor recently announced 11 initial transportation projects totaling $60 million.
Dietz suspects that Nashville’s grant money was wrapped up in an effort by Trump’s office to specifically target funding related to the environment that was approved under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“The common themes we share as plaintiffs
are environmental grants coming out of the Inflation Reduction Act,” Dietz tells the Scene “We’re not seeing interruptions in all of our grants, but just the fact that these grants deal with walkability and bikeability means they fell under the rubric of an environmental award. It is very distressing, and every city across the country is facing this type of uncertainty.”
Joining Nashville in the suit are Baltimore; Madison, Wis.; San Diego; Columbus, Ohio; and New Haven, Conn. Together, they claim more than $80 million in awarded but unpaid federal grant funding. The full lawsuit details poor communication and confusing information — or lack thereof — from federal agencies after Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025.
The suit also names former Nashville health care executive Amy Gleason, now the formal head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, as a defendant, and refers to Musk as a “Senior Advisor to the President and the de facto head of DOGE.” The dates presented in the complaint line up with highly publicized efforts by Musk and DOGE to halt previously allocated federal funding.
Two federal judges recently ruled against the White House in similar cases, stating that such interference violates the constitutionally protected separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
NASHVILLESCENE.COM/NEWS/PITHINTHEWIND
swipe at Lee, who has endured significant criticism for his 2023 appointment of Lizzette Reynolds, a career politician and bureaucrat recruited from Texas. Rose may face fellow GOP names like Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett or Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has reportedly been exploring a bid and would immediately become the race’s most formidable force at the ballot box.
The Tennessee General Assembly advanced a controversial bill that would require any educational institutions housing minors overnight to segregate restrooms, changing areas and showers “by immutable biological sex” — an effort by legislators to further target transgender people in the state.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) put the bill to an immediate vote, which passed along party lines in the House. Protesters showed up to the chamber and Capitol grounds to oppose the bill, which they say could increase the threat of violence toward trans people. At least one
PROTESTER AIDEN PRATT IS CARRIED OUT OF THE STATE CAPITOL BY TENNESSEE STATE TROOPERS, MARCH 17, 2025.
protester, Aiden Pratt, was forcibly removed from the Capitol, arrested and charged with disrupting a meeting. The legislation, sponsored in the House by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), passed both the House and Senate and is set to become state law.
A bill from Republican lawmakers aiming to criminalize “harboring or hiding” undocumented immigrants is also advancing in the state legislature. But, writes columnist Betsy Phillips, the right thing
“ “IT IS VERY DISTRESSING, AND EVERY CITY ACROSS THE COUNTRY IS FACING THIS TYPE OF UNCERTAINTY.”
—WALLY DIETZ, METRO LEGAL DIRECTOR
Nashville’s suit was filed in federal court in South Carolina by attorneys for the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy group and the suit’s lead plaintiff.
“When there are inconsistent rulings at the Court of Appeals level, that’s when the U.S. Supreme Court typically gets involved,” Fox tells the Scene. “We’re not there yet. But these are super important issues for every entity across the country that receives grants. I would not be surprised to see an issue like this come before the U.S. Supreme Court.” ▼
and the legal thing aren’t always the same. “Hide people if they need hiding,” she writes. “Harbor people who need refuge. Pay no attention to the people troubling no one in the bathroom.”
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Doug Collins, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs traveled to Nashville last week amid local layoffs and organizational changes. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Reps. Diana Harshbarger and Tim Burchett joined Collins for a visit to the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville’s local VA hospital near Vanderbilt. President Trump recently announced he would cut more than 80,000 VA jobs. Days before the visit, veterans and supporters protested Trump’s cuts at the Tennessee State Capitol. Collins has spun the layoffs as a positive move toward government efficiency.
GOV.
BY JULIANNE AKERS
LAWMAKERS GATHERED FOR the annual Ag Day on the Hill on March 18 to celebrate the state’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry. As always, the festivities included appearances from livestock and events like a corn-shelling competition. Meanwhile, several agriculture bills advance through the state legislature, as Tennessee farmers worry about imposed tariffs and loss of farmland.
“From the minute [the Lee administration] came in here, recognizing, supporting and encouraging the ag industry all across the state has been a priority,” said Gov. Bill Lee during Ag Day. “From 4-H and FFA, from ag enhancement investments in the extension program, we have been committed to farmers and producers and stakeholders.
“We want to continue to lead the country in ag, in ag tech and in ag production and in ag education.”
One bill that has sparked debate is House Bill 809/Senate Bill 527, which would expand legal protections for pesticide companies. The legislation would prevent pesticide manufacturers and sellers from being sued for their labeling if the pesticide had a label approved by the Environmental Protection Agency when it was sold.
Several people testified against the bill during the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, saying the legislation would limit
Visit nashvillescene.com/state-legislature for more coverage of this year’s ongoing session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
legal action from being taken by people who develop serious illnesses like cancer as a result of pesticides. Others advocated for the bill, including some farmers, who said the pesticides are necessary for their work and for keeping a robust agriculture industry in the U.S.
Rep. Monty Fritts (R-Kingston) said he battled with his position on the bill, but ultimately decided to support it.
“I’m concerned if we don’t protect this tool in the toolbox of farmers, we’re going to impact the capability and strike its capacity to not just feed that 9 billion in the world, but the 330 million that live in the United States,” Fritts said.
Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) voted against the bill, saying it favors pesticide corporations.
“This is in my perspective a blatant corporate giveaway to Bayer and Monsanto,” Behn said of the companies that make pesticides like Roundup. “If you vote for it, you are prioritizing the rights of a multinational corporation over the rights of Tennesseans to seek justice for cancer and childhood ailments.”
As of this writing, the legislation is set to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee this week, and is headed to the Senate floor.
Another bill pushed by the Lee administration would establish a $25 million fund for programs working to preserve farmland and forestland and provide grants for conservation easements.
The bill (SB 207/HB 1325) aiming to curb the development of farmland passed the Senate on
March 13 and, as of this writing, is set to be heard in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on March 26 — after this issue went to press. A similar bill was pushed by Lee in 2024 but failed in committee.
Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher addressed some of these challenges at Ag Day.
“Farm profitability is not good now,” Hatcher said. “We’re losing 10 acres of farmland per hour. There’s a lot of things we need to do to address that, a lot of tools in the toolbox, but we look forward to doing that so that we can keep the look and feel of Tennessee.”
At the federal level, some Tennessee farmers are concerned about the potential implications of recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
A recent report by Farmers for Free Trade and Trade Partnership Worldwide shows that $111 billion of Tennessee’s total imports came from Canada, Mexico and China in 2024. The report notes that tariffs could cost Tennessee more than $8 billion annually, while the state paid just $2.6 billion in tariffs in 2024. Tennessee would be the U.S. state paying the eighth-highest amount in tariffs, according to the report.
Farmers for Free Trade hosted a Tariff Town Hall on March 6, where members said the tariffs could take a negative toll on farmers who look to export their goods overseas.
Additional reporting by Hamilton Matthew Masters. ▼
ETHAN KIYOSHI SUMMERS is always testing his products. Good workwear, he figures, should be able to survive work.
“Different types of my work get inspired by each other,” he tells the Scene from his former studio. (He recently relocated his design and production space near his home in Kingston Springs.) “The other side of the business is furniture, and I’m on jobsites all the time, so I wear my stuff. It has to be comfortable, functional and high-quality. When someone buys our stuff, I want it to be in their closet for the majority of their life.”
His brand, Oil/Lumber, found a pair of bestselling items that strike that balance. Both — the Haori Coat and Noragi Jacket — combine Japanese kimono design elements, specifically a drawstring tie, with recognizable workwear touches, like ample pockets and earth tones, and echo the popular resurgence of Carhartt and Dickies. Outside of Nashville, Oil/Lumber ships the most apparel to Brooklyn buyers and even counts a few loyal customers in Northern Europe.
Kiyoshi Summers started selling as Oil/Lumber in 2014. He quit bartending and went full time in 2017, eventually earning national attention from outlets like GQ and Forbes while preserving the boutique feel of original handmade garments.
“I would take stuff I liked, cut it up and sew it back together to learn how to pattern my favorite stuff, like Carhartt and Japanese coats,” he recalls. “About a year in, I started altering stuff I got from Goodwill. I wanted to make it different, patchwork it up, and then I had these old kimonos — I modified things and incorporated what I liked.”
Kiyoshi Summers, who is half-Japanese, credits Japanese culture’s focus on quality and technical skill as a continuing design influence. He also sees growing up in Park City, Utah, as key for introducing him to skating, snowboarding and outdoor brands. A pair of Oil/Lumber pants combines durable and flexible rip-stop fabric — a popular choice for outdoor garments — with kimono-like drawstrings all in a flat garden green. Recently, he re-created the same pants for his 5-year-old, a testament to their durability and versatility. Light linen Oil/Lumber work coats have also become standard uniform in Sean Brock’s open kitchens.
Between furniture and clothing, the business is successful. But stitchers tend to leave, and Oil/ Lumber recently lost a few longtime employees who moved on to other things. Kiyoshi Summers sees it as a natural feature of creative work. For the first time in a decade, he took a pause from apparel design in the fall and has just begun to consider the label’s next move.
“The clothing industry as a whole is not great right now — a lot of bankruptcies,” he says. “It was a good time to pause and think. I’m trying to figure out the next phase. Do we go bigger and try to become a real player and scale up a little bit more? Or go the other route, do a couple special drops a year and make every piece an art piece?” ELI MOTYCKA
IF YOU THINK there’s nothing new in Western wear, that all cowboy boots look the same, you should look at things through Jaylin Ramer’s eye.
“Cowboy boots are a canvas,” explains Ramer, founder of Planet Cowboy. She started her brand in New York in 2013 (having sold other boots before that), and moved it to Nashville in 2020. She now has a store in 12South, plus a warehouse shop (with great deals) on Lindell Avenue. She designs and collaborates with other designers to create boots, scarves, T-shirts, hats, bolos, belts and buckles, often with bright colors and graphics that are fun and sexy but never twee. Hats, like the Teardrop Twist Flat Brim, offer a literal twist on the classic felt hat shape. The Western Twilly, a long scarf made from Italian silk, features Western outer space graphics and is designed to work as a headband, a neck scarf, a belt or a hatband. All around, the result is a line of Western goods that locals are proud to wear — and that appeals to tourists who want a piece of Nashville to take home too.
Ramer is of course aware of larger fashion trends — shortie boots are less popular right now, and tall boots are back — but she tends to draw inspiration from the world around her. “One time, I was looking out the window of a plane,” she says. “I looked at the wing and the design on the wing and I thought, ‘That would look really cool on a boot.’ Inspiration comes to me randomly. I’ll look at a leaf, and I think, ‘That would look really cool on a boot.’” She also leans on 1950s, 1960s and 1970s aesthetics and classic Western looks to develop her modern take.
MARGARET LITTMAN
Because Ramer is a designer and an entrepreneur, her collections don’t feel random, even if her muses do. She works with factories in Mexico to handcraft the boots she designs, collaborating on the use of high-quality leather, colors and structure so that the boots are both comfortable to wear (“like a slipper with arch support,” she says) and long-lasting. “Future vintage,” she likes to call them. While she prefers to sport “fresh” boots every year, she’s also proud that her customers can wear a pair of Planet Cowboys for 20 or 30 years. Because a canary-yellow boot with rainbow stitching will never go out of style.
SAVAS HAS A LOT to celebrate. The menswear label, now in its 10th year, has evolved to become a globally recognized powerhouse, all centered on a singular product that’s edging toward iconic: a simple, immaculately produced leather jacket.
Savannah Yarborough, who started the company out of her apartment in East Nashville, credits a dedication to quality for the unique position Savas has in the luxury menswear market.
“I trained as a tailor in London at Central Saint Martins, which is where Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Stella McCartney went to school,” she says. “It’s where the Sex Pistols were formed.”
In London, she learned true British tailoring, which is renowned for its structural durability and attention to detail.
“When I first started Savas, I was like, ‘How can I cut leather the way a British tailor on Savile Row cuts cloth?’”
Since those early days, the brand has shifted from custom to ready-to-wear, and launched footwear in 2020. But the jackets are what Savas is known for — and for good reason. There is an effortless, timeless quality to them that recalls the well-worn denim chambray shirt Ralph Lauren donned in a Bruce Weber photo from 1981, or the high-collar jacket George Harrison wore on the cover of All Things Must Pass. That lived-in accessibility translates into luxury materials surprisingly easily, and these days you’ll see Savas on everyone from Jack White to Brian Cox, the latter of whom wore a brick-red Savas jacket and matching boots on The Late Show after a particularly memorable episode of Succession — and to much fanfare.
“Really, the reason we’ve grown is because I’ve taken 10 years of experience and pattern-making and fitting clients and applied all of those foundational elements and research into our fit,” says Yarborough. “When you buy a Savas jacket, you’re getting all of that knowledge that goes into it.”
Savas is the only American brand in a specific section at the high-end New York department store Bergdorf Goodman, where its items hang alongside luxury brands like Brioni and Brunello Cucinelli. But they’re still happily a Nashville-based company, through and through.
“We have doubled down in Nashville,” Yarborough says. “I am proud to be here. We couldn’t have done this anywhere else.”
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
Emmylou Harris & the Hot Band opened for Elton John at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on October 25, 1975—the same year she released Pieces of the Sky, her major label solo debut.
From the exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, presented by City National Bank
ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO, a young Christian Brewer picked up an acorn somewhere in East Nashville. He took the pointy end to the side of a car in his grandmother’s driveway.
”I was probably 9 years old, maybe younger, and I just picked it up and started carving — just some little people into the side of the car,” Brewer says, grinning. “I can remember I had a little work desk in my grandma’s house that I always drew at.”
It’s an early snapshot of how his idle hands prefer to draw or sketch. In middle school, Brewer spent computer classes browsing websites like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Givenchy. He rattles off early pieces still lodged in his memory.
“I liked the unorthodox stuff — twoheaded monkeys, a pink dolphin shirt,” he says. “I remember this raver shirt of a pig in a bikini by Yohji Yamamoto. Eventually, I wanted to see my drawings on clothes.”
He printed his first item at 17 — a T-shirt reading, “Fuck College.” That first run started an ongoing cycle of drawing, printing and selling apparel under his brand, PlentyFuckFaces. Today, at 25, Brewer spends his daytime hours filling orders at Grand Palace, a small screenprinting outfit off Nolensville Pike that likely produces your favorite local merch. The job provides Brewer more than a steady paycheck. At Grand Palace, he has access to industry insights and, critically, a multi-armed lime-green automatic press that enables PlentyFuckFaces to print in two colors.
Non-human characters dominate his designs, which often depict two main subjects: a masked cat and a feminized intestinal worm, both always surrounded by disorder. Brewer unspools each dramatic scene on sneakers, T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts in a seemingly infinite drama; slime and syringes dot the nightmarish chaos as if Nickelodeon hired Hieronymus Bosch. He sets them on warm backgrounds that lean toward earth and pastel. Brewer reassures me that everything he draws is grounded in optimism.
“My pointy-ears guy, I refer to him as a cat, he comes from a bad place,” Brewer explains. “He saw a lot of evil growing up, but a good guy, you know, he tries to do the best he can. My brand — PlentyFuckFaces — it stems from a lot of people that seem unhappy and don’t wanna do the right thing. The needles hold a serum for helping people to do the right thing, to focus up and be more human.”
Find his work on Instagram (@plentyffaces) and at pop-ups around the city. ELI MOTYCKA
WALK IN TO Ellie Lahey’s studio in East Nashville and you’ll likely see her working on her latest commission. When the Scene visits, she’s attaching bright-yellow fuzz to some leather chaps.
“It’s more of a ‘rhinestone cowboy’ than a ‘real cowboy’ thing,” Lahey says of her designs.
A bright and zany twist on classic Western styles has become the signature of her brand, Ellie Monster. And artists have taken notice. Jeremy Ivey and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys wore her pieces to award shows, and members of Old Crow Medicine Show wore Ellie Monster on the Grand Ole Opry stage. One of her shirts appears in the Showtime miniseries George & Tammy, and Orville Peck wore one in a Billboard spread. She’s also created pieces for artists Molly Tuttle and Les Greene.
While the average person may not be able to shell out for a custom piece, Lahey strives to have more attainable pieces in her store. Vintage shirts with her drawn embroidery designs run about $50 (and are also available on an Etsy shop).
An Indiana native, Lahey first learned to sew from her grandmother when she was “itty bitty.” She picked it up again as an adult, using YouTube to refresh her knowledge. She started to make her own clothes, and got so many compliments that she began making them for others. She says sewing is a skill that anyone can pick up, especially with the help of the internet.
“It’s difficult and frustrating for a while, but then it starts to click,” Lahey says. “Once you start knowing what you don’t know and how to look things up, then you’re good to go. You can do it with a $40 sewing machine from Walmart.”
Lahey opened her first shop in Louisiana in 2009, and migrated to Nashville in 2012. She had horses when she was a kid, so she wore some Western designs while she was in that world. But as a regular music-biography reader, her real inspirations are artists and their stage wear. A former history major, she’s excited to use a 1930s Irish Singer sewing machine for satin stitching, and employing some historical beadwork techniques.
The unifying point of Lahey’s designs is that they spark conversation. If someone wears a shirt with pink fringe or with racoons embroidered on it, they can expect comments.
“They’re gonna have fun with it, and want to go out and have conversations with people about it, because they want something that’s over-the-top and stands out,” Lahey says of her customers. “It’s clothing that you can’t just be indifferent to.”
HANNAH HERNER
DARIN WYLY AND ADRIAN
WINSTON started Live Above in 2013, when both men were students at Tennessee State University.
“That’s when we learned that we had similar stories,” Wyly says. Both had played basketball at different universities before transferring to TSU, and both had lost a parent to cancer.
“We were kind of going through the same emotions,” Wyly says. “We understood that if we can make ourselves feel good, we can do it for other people too. We can try to inspire people to, you know, live above what they’re going through.”
Since founding the streetwear company, Winston has relocated to Atlanta, while Wyly, originally from Cincinnati, decided to stay in Nashville with his young family. The two remain business partners, overseeing operations out of their space at 100 Taylor St. in Germantown, as well as a robust online business. But the heart of the company will always be in Nashville.
“We started at a time where Nashville was actually growing as well,” Wyly says. “It was at the cusp of where Nashville was going.” It’s telling that the company started the same year that The New York Times dubbed Nashville “It City.”
But more than being just a Nashville brand, Live Above has deep roots at TSU.
“TSU was a big audience for us,” says Wyly. “That’s where we came from, and because we were walking around campus with our products, it was our test market as well. So seeing what they liked and being able to put that interest into everybody else was what pretty much propelled us to a different level.”
The team makes chunky knit flannel shirts and sporty basketball shorts with unexpected designs like florals or tiger stripes. They even make ball caps and backpacks, all with the tagline “Live Above” emblazoned on them in some way.
“We call them feel-good fabrics,” Wyly says. “Whenever you put on a piece of our clothing, we want to make sure that you feel good, and to inspire you to not go through what you went through. Whenever you put on our clothes, it’s to make you say, ‘Hey, I’m living above today. I can get through it, and I can get to that next pinnacle.’” LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
When asked if he has a style philosophy: “No. Just show up.”
Attorney David Bate Parsons, 39, captured at Fourth Avenue North and Church Street. March 14, 9:19 a.m.
“I like to mix vintage into my style, and I love whimsical pieces. It should be fun! And I love a ’90s element, like the bob and things like that.”
Photographer Emily Heinkel, 32, captured at D’Andrews Bakery & Cafe on Church Street. March 14, 10:49 a.m. Instagram: @milywildandwell
“Lady Gaga is a big influence on my style. I like a bold stage style and streetwear. Self-expressionism is an act of defiance.”
Metal vocalist Monte Mader 34, captured at Drug Store Coffee on Fourth Avenue North. March 11, 5:50 p.m. Instagram: @montemader
“I love color and texture. I love pieces that transcend gender, so I’ll bring in feminine pieces along with masculine pieces and really explore that way.”
Imogene + Willie Nashville store director Paige DePetris, 29, captured at work in 12South. March 18, 11:20 a.m. Instagram: @piapatra_
“My biggest style influence is probably my dad. He’s the one who kind of introduced me to fashion and streetwear at a very young age. Fashion is my favorite medium of self-expression, so it’s kind of, ‘Dress how you want to dress, not how other people dress.’”
Hume-Fogg senior Knight Pineda, 17, captured on Seventh Avenue North. March 18, 3:15 p.m.
Instagram: @knightpineda
Ray di Pietro, our man on the street, once again checks out some Nashville looks
PHOTOS BY RAY DI PIETRO
“I love the ’70s and ’80s and anything that has meaning or soul to it that really connects with me.”
Hume-Fogg freshman Vivienne Hall, 15, captured on Seventh Avenue North. March 18, 3:10 p.m.
In the heart of Broadway, Betty Boots is a must-visit for women who love Western style. Founded by Ed and Karen Smith in 2009, it remains the only all-ladies Western boutique in the country, o ering boots, clothing, and accessories that blend country charm with a modern edge.
In the heart of Broadway, Betty Boots is a must-visit for women who love Western style. Founded by Ed and Karen Smith in 2009, it remains the only all-ladies Western boutique in the country, o ering boots, clothing, and accessories that country charm with a modern edge.
BETTY BOOTS
Nashville’s Ultimate Women’s Western Wear Boutique
Nashville’s Ultimate Women’s Western Wear Boutique
Known for top-tier service and an unbeatable selection, Betty Boots carries high-end brands like Old Gringo, Double D Ranch, Corral, Lane, Tecovas, Tony Lama, Dan Post, and its exclusive Just Nashville line.
Whether you’re after statement boots, a sleek leather jacket, or the perfect jeans, this boutique delivers.
And don’t forget the iconic neon sign—one of Broadway’s most famous photo ops! For women looking to embrace Western fashion with confidence, Betty Boots isn’t just a store—it’s a destination.
Known for top-tier service and an unbeatable selection, Betty Boots carries high-end brands like Old Gringo, Double D Ranch, Corral, Lane, Tecovas, Tony Lama, Dan Post, and its exclusive Just Nashville line. Whether you’re after statement boots, a sleek leather jacket, or the perfect jeans, this boutique delivers. And don’t forget the iconic neon sign—one of Broadway’s most famous photo ops! For women looking to embrace Western fashion with confidence, Betty Boots isn’t just a store—it’s a destination.
BIG TIME BOOTS : Where the Big Time Begins
BIG TIME BOOTS : Where the Big Time Begins
Family-owned and operated since 2010, Big Time Boots isn’t just another Western wear store—it’s a piece of Nashville’s history. Since its original rear entry once served as the green room for the legendary Ryman Auditorium, for owner Ed Smith, that connection meant one thing: the boots had to be nothing short of extraordinary. After all, if you made it to the green room, you’d made it to the Big Time!
Family-owned and operated since 2010, Big Time Boots isn’t just another Western wear store—it’s a piece of Nashville’s history. Since its original rear entry once served as the green room for the legendary Ryman Auditorium, for owner Ed Smith, that connection meant one thing: the boots had to be nothing short of extraordinary. After all, if you made it to the green room, you’d made it to the Big Time!
Today, Big Time Boots spans three floors with retail frontage on lower Broad, o ering an extensive selection of boots, hats, and apparel for the whole family with the most knowledgeable and experienced sta in Nashville.
Today, Big Time Boots spans three floors with retail frontage on lower Broad, o ering an extensive selection of boots, hats, and apparel for the whole family with the most knowledgeable and experienced sta in Nashville.
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
MUSIC [DELPHINIUM BLUE]
CASSANDRA JENKINS
Have you been thinking of seeing a psychic? Did this month’s Worm Moon nudge your heart ever so slightly off kilter? Come see Cassandra Jenkins sing of the moon and stars, of delphiniums and doves — songs that are at turns desperately lonely and generously tender and peculiarly funny. Expect music from 2024’s My Light, My Destroyer and (hopefully) her breakout record An Overview on Phenomenal Nature from 2021. Jenkins’ arrangements are as rich and expansive as her writing; prepare in equal measures for lush, billowing tones and ripping, bona fide rock. If we’re lucky, Adam Brisbin (a frequent collaborator with Buck Meek, Jolie Holland and Sam Evian) will be on lead guitar, supplying kaleidoscopic riffs. You may not leave with clear answers for your future, but I promise you’ll have a new set of questions.
MALCOLM MOUTENOT
7 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
THURSDAY
[PRIME SAXOPHONIST]
MUSIC
NASHVILLE SYMPHONY: JOHN WILLIAMS AND RACHMANINOFF’S ‘SECOND SYMPHONY’
The impressive array of Branford Marsalis’ accomplishments as a soloist and bandleader date back to when he and his brother Wynton initially exploded onto the jazz scene, both as a performing/recording duo and featured members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the early ’80s. Since then, Branford’s made numerous outstanding recordings heading various combos, presided over The Tonight Show Band, played with such rockers as Sting and various iterations of the Grateful Dead, founded a label and done his fair share of collaborations on film and stage projects. But one area that is often overlooked is his facility in classical music, though he’s frequently performed with various orchestras. He’ll be displaying that side of his musical personality this week during a three-night stand in
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
conjunction with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of guest conductor Rune Bergmann. It will be a diverse set of programs, featuring everything from a John Williams saxophone concerto to the sweeping Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony and Tambor with Joan Tower. It’s a chance to hear Branford Marsalis in a different, but no less compelling, setting. RON WYNN
MARCH 27-29 AT THE SCHERMERHORN SYMPHONY CENTER 1 SYMPHONY PLACE
[MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE]
MUSIC
RIKI W/DONZII & GENERAL TRUST
For a sound that gets characterized as cold, there’s a lot of warmth in synth-pop and the related scenes and traditions that people have been discovering and expanding on for decades. After all, it’s easier to resist the numb embrace of nihilism when you can express yourself with art and share it with others. For some prime examples, get to Thursday’s show at Drkmttr, where longtime fans and the darkwave-curious will both find lots to sink their teeth into. Los Angeles musician and artist Niff Nawor, who
performs and records as Riki, recently dropped “Pulser” backed with “Devil Games,” her first new release since 2021’s excellent LP Gold. The new tracks scan as grittier than her previous work, which makes tourmates Donzii perfect companions. For a thousand-foot view, think of Donzii singer Jenna Balfe as the child Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush haven’t had, whose band blends ’80s future-funk and proto-industrial sounds with skill, creativity and grace. The perfect local support is courtesy of General Trust, a solo project from too-seldom-seen musical polymath Jay Leo Phillips. GT’s new single “Apologia” is a showcase for both Phillips’ mastery of the techniques that give this music its unique sound and his deep understanding of their use as storytelling tools. STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR
1111 DICKERSON PIKE
Can penguins stop fascism? Technically, no. But the new movie The Penguin Lessons, based on Tom Michell’s 2015 memoir, posits that hanging out with one will make you more courageous during oppressive times. In the book, Michell is a 20-something English teacher who saves and cleans up an oil-drenched penguin, which becomes a welcome distraction at his school, located in 1970s Dirty War-era Argentina. However, the movie has Michell (British cringe-comedy icon Steve Coogan) as a middle-aged, grief-stricken curmudgeon who’s stuck with a penguin after bathing it with a beautiful woman one night. Eventually, the bird inspires Michell to teach his pupils fiery poetry and speak up when a young cleaning lady gets arrested and detained for her left-wing views. You can tell director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) and screenwriter Jeff Pope (Philomena) wanted to hit audiences with an adorable but idealistic story of hope and resistance — a period piece that’s very aware of how increasingly fascist things are getting out there. But there’s only one thing this thematically overstuffed mash-up of Dead Poets Society and Mr. Popper’s Penguins teaches you: Once you wash a penguin’s ass, you have a friend for life. Visit penguinlessons.com for showtimes.
CRAIG D. LINDSEY
OPENING MARCH 27 AT SELECT REGAL AND AMC LOCATIONS
ART [TENNESSEE PRIDE]
ARTIST TALK: STACY KRANITZ
If Nashville’s art ecosystem were a pond, Stacy Kranitz would be one of its biggest fish. The Guggenheim Award-winning photographer is based east of Nashville in DeKalb County, and she received this year’s Tennessee Artist Fellowship from Austin Peay’s Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, which financed this not-to-be-missed artist talk in the Frist’s intimate Rechter Room on Thursday. Her career braids several disciplines, all of which she’ll touch on — her social justice photojournalism (like The Year After a Denied Abortion, a masterful series she produced in Tennessee for ProPublica)
and her more purely artistic pursuits, like what was featured in her 2022 monograph As It Was Give(n) Me, which was shortlisted for Aperture’s First Photobook Award at Paris Photo. The reason Kranitz is such an essential artist not only for Nashville but for Tennessee, the South and all of America? She doggedly pursues ideas that other artists avoid. As CECA says, “She is not just a Tennessee artist but an artist whose work speaks about Tennessee.” Because her work often deals with difficult topics, it’s suggested that guests use their own discretion when attending the event — a clarion call for an amazing night if there ever was one. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER 6:30 P.M. AT THE FRIST ART MUSEUM’S RECHTER ROOM 919 BROADWAY
FRIDAY
MUSIC [SHAPE SHIFTING] POM POM SQUAD
The collision of riot grrrl dynamics, indie guitar moves and echoes of 1960s girl groups made Pom Pom Squad’s 2021 debut full-length Death of a Cheerleader a brisk, consistently surprising pop record. Led by singer and songwriter Mia Berrin, Pom Pom Squad showed off their mastery of hard-rocking post-punk throughout Death of a Cheerleader, and the Brooklyn band also has a deft way with hooks. You can hear the songwriting coming through on the Death track “Second That,” which sports
a hook that goes, “I second that emotion”— complete with a nod to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ 1967 Tamla/Motown hit single. Meanwhile, the band’s 2024 album Mirror Starts Moving Without Me sounds less brisk and more conflicted than their previous music, with an emphasis on songs about being famous and not liking it as much as you might have thought. In “Street Fighter,” Berrin jabs at a world that won’t leave her alone: “You’ve got a bone to pick / Come join the wait list / ’Cause every time I toss my hair back / I shapeshift.” The music on Mirror also changes shape to suit Berrin’s lyrics, with plenty of keyboards and as many big hooks as on Death of a Cheerleader. You could describe Berrin’s latest music as intersectional pop about the struggle to find identity, which is something we need more of right now.
EDD HURT
8 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS
623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
Think back to that sweet spot of radio earworms in the early 2010s. Back before the steady decline of the traditional “roll your car windows down and belt at the top of your lungs” anthem, artists were churning out hit after hit — and that’s where pop-rock champions Neon Trees thrived. After breaking through with their 2010 hit “Animal,” the band briefly faded away — until they returned to the charts two years later, even bigger and even
better. With 2012’s Picture Show came their biggest hit to date, “Everybody Talks,” which, 13 years later, continues to earn spots in most “2010s bangers” playlists. Though they haven’t achieved the same commercial success since, they’ve kept their skills sharp with a steady string of gems. 2014’s Pop Psychology introduced a collection of casually genius alt-pop tracks to local alternative radio stations, and their most recent release, Sink Your Teeth, marks the band’s first album post-COVID. Fans can relive the glory days of 2010 at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday when Neon Trees perform their first Nashville show in nearly five years. BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.
Bestselling author Cheryl Strayed (Wild) was still largely unknown when she first started writing an anonymous advice column called “Dear Sugar.” She soon found herself corresponding with thousands of readers, often drawing on her own life experiences as she helped them navigate complicated issues of love, loss, grief and healing. In 2012, Strayed published Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar — a thoughtful collection of those columns, which quickly proved to be an international sensation. Four years later, Nia Vardalos (of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame)
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground icons, household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.12
Eric Paslay’s Song in a Hatw/ Cam, Lindsay Rimes
Billy Montana, Jet Harvey, Ben Wagner, Ryan Jacobs
Dalton & The Sheriffs: Dalton Presents The Zac(h)s
Mark Irwin, Clay Mills, Jen Schott
3.13 Wade Hayes
3.14 William Michael Morgan
3.15 Keith Sykes
3.16 Pick Pick Pass w/ Kevin Mac, Thom Shepherd, David Tolliver
3.19 Salute the Songbird with Maggie Rose, Special Guest: Molly Tuttle
3.21 Julie Roberts
3.22 Josh Ward
3.24 Buddy’s Place Writers’ Round w/ Adam Hambrick, Brett Sherocky, Twinnie
3.26 Uncle B’s Drunk with Power String Band feat Bryan Simpson w/ Madeline Edwards, Brenna Macmillan, Elvie Shane
3.27 Terry McBride
3.28 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers - Chris Stapleton Tribute
3.29 Kaitlyn Croker - “Trouble I Chase” Release Party Free Show GET TICKETS AT CHIEFSONBROADWAY.COM
At Chief’s we understand that great music is born from the heart and soul of it’s creators, which is why our writers’ rounds are dedicated to celebrating the brilliant minds behind some of today’s most iconic songs.
Cigarettes & Pizza
would adapt Strayed’s book to the stage (in a project co-conceived by Vardalos, Thomas Kail and Marshall Heyman), and Tiny Beautiful Things premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2016 with Vardalos playing the role of Sugar. Now you can experience all the humor and heartbreak of this lovely play, as Women in Theatre (WIT) Nashville presents Tiny Beautiful Things at the Darkhorse Theater. Erin Grace Bailey directs a terrific cast, including Kyla Ledes, J.J. Lee, Fiona Barrett and Robert Coles. It’s a tender, compelling and surprisingly hopeful piece of theater. But keep in mind that Tiny Beautiful Things is recommended for ages 15 and up, due to mature themes and language.
AMY STUMPFL
MARCH 28-29 AT DARKHORSE THEATER 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.
SATURDAY
FILM [A MISSION FROM GOD] SNL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: THE BLUES
Jake and Elwood Blues were brought to life on Saturday Night Live by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd before their actual debut album for Atlantic, Briefcase Full of Blues, hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts and went platinum. The story of two musical blood brothers on a mission from God to save the Chicago orphanage where they grew up wailed out of Aykroyd’s harmonica in the form of a 324-page screenplay that he delivered wrapped in the cover of the Los Angeles telephone book. It fell to director John Landis to carve out a shooting script featuring the unique characters, bizarre sequences and infectious dialogue that define this hero’s journey for the unlikely do-gooders. The movie features musical performances by the Blues Brothers along with career-reviving standout numbers from stars like Aretha Franklin and James Brown. The Blues Brothers screens as part of the Belcourt’s SNL Cinematic Universe series. I love The Waterboy as much as the next guy, but this is the great SNL big-screen masterpiece, delivered by a pair who starred on the show when it was crazy and dangerous. Drink three orange whips at The Villager before you buckle up for one of moviedom’s greatest chase scenes.
JOE NOLAN
MARCH 29 & 31 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[DRUMMER SUPREME]
MUSIC
THE SOFIA GOODMAN TRIO: A TRIBUTE TO WOMEN COMPOSERS IN
Drummer/bandleader Sofia Goodman has become a mainstay in Music City and Middle Tennessee jazz and blues circles since relocating from Boston in 2012. She’s not only collaborated with blues great Bobby Rush and soul man extraordinaire Benny Latimore, but has also led groups doing both standards and original material since 2016. Goodman also has impeccable academic credentials, most recently earning a master’s degree from
Belmont’s School of Music. She’s issued several well-received LPs, most recently July’s critically praised Receptive. With Women’s History Month coming to a close, it’s the ideal time to showcase the Sofia Goodman Trio, who will perform A Tribute to Women Composers in Jazz. Goodman, pianist Matt Twaddle and bassist Leland Nelson will explore works penned by such composers as Alice Coltrane, Emily Remler and Esperanza Spalding, among others, in a Nashville Jazz Workshop spotlight event. RON WYNN 7:30 P.M. AT THE NASHVILLE JAZZ WORKSHOP
1012 BUCHANAN ST.
Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood makes a stop at Eastside Bowl Friday night in support of his majestic new album Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams. The record, which was produced by Chris Funk and thematically encompasses the first 29 years of his life, is his fourth solo album and first in 13 years. Hood, who plays guitar and keyboards, will be accompanied at the show by Lydia Loveless (bass, vocals), Ben Hackett (woodwinds, synths) and two of his DBT bandmates, Jay Gonzalez (keys, guitar) and Brad Morgan (drums). While the Truckers are known for not using set lists, Hood’s current solo tour is more structured. “It’s definitely built around this record,” he tells the Scene. “We put together this particular band to perform this record and then kind of see what else works with it too.” Hood says he and the band also will play material from his earlier solo albums, as well some Trucker songs “that don’t get played a lot.” In addition to accompanying Hood, Loveless will play a solo acoustic set of her own music to open the show. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508 GALLATIN PIKE S.
[PICTURE PERFECT]
ASHLEY N. ROTH: WE NEVER TOOK A BAD PICTURE
book’s release, with readings from The Porch’s Susannah Felts, BookPage’s Erica Ciccarone (a former Scene staffer) and lots more. Food will be available from clown-themed vegan pop-up Clownsums Diner, and admission is free. For more information about the book and event, visit aprilgloaming.com. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
5 P.M. AT RANDOM SAMPLE
407 48TH AVE. N
[I’M ALRIGHT]
FILM
Next to its spiritual horndog cousin National Lampoon’s Animal House, Caddyshack officially declared Saturday Night Live’s invasion of Hollywood and the big screen. Former castmates Chevy Chase and Bill Murray squashed the beef they had back in 30 Rock to star in co-writer/director Harold Ramis’ debut — a 1980 country-club raunchfest. While Chase’s eccentric, playboy golfer drops Zen-like nuggets to his young caddy (Michael O’Keefe), Murray spouts one quote-worthy line after another as a groundskeeper hellbent on capturing a mischievous gopher. Elsewhere, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight’s wealthy old men are butting heads all over the damn golf course. Add to the mix a soundtrack featuring rockin’ Kenny Loggins tunes (his ’80s reign as “Mr. Soundtrack” started here) and you have one of the most beloved, chaotic comedies ever made. For further reading, you should pick up Chris Nashawaty’s 2018 book Caddyshack: The Making of a Cinderella Story, which confirms that the production was an endless coke orgy, occasionally interrupted by the pressing matter that they had to make a movie. Showing as part of the Belcourt’s SNL Cinematic Universe series. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY MARCH 30 AND APRIL 2 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
We Never Took a Bad Picture, the debut novel from Nashville-based artist, writer and educator Ashley N. Roth, has all the makings of a great family epic. It follows the Joyce family’s story, opening with the 30th anniversary of the death of their teenage son, exploring the complexities of intergenerational trauma. From the book’s press release: “Told through alternating timelines, the novel masterfully examines family dynamics, the aftershocks of unresolved trauma and the complexities of memory.” April Gloaming Press, the independent publishers behind the book, are throwing a party to celebrate the
For the unenlightened, the Fisk Jubilee Singers are a central part of why Nashville is Music City. In fact, according to one long-held story, the reason Nashville is called Music City is that Queen Victoria herself coined the term after hearing them sing roughly 150 years ago. The upcoming performance is a special chance to see some of Nashville’s iconic performers in one of the city’s most iconic settings, The Parthenon. To close out the season of the ECHO chamber music series, the a cappella ensemble is set to perform their signature Negro spirituals, which were originally sung by enslaved people prior to the Civil War. The grand main room of the building, complete with stately pillars and the giant Athena statue, is a gorgeous setting to complement what is certain to be a moving performance. It’s not every day that The Parthenon hosts such an event. In their inaugural performance at The Parthenon, the Fisk Jubilee Singers round out the series that has
hosted several choirs and string players over the past few months. HANNAH HERNER
7:30 P.M. AT THE PARTHENON
2500 WEST END AVE.
MONDAY
MUSIC [SUBWOOFERS] WOOFSTOCK FEAT. EMMYLOU HARRIS & LARKIN POE
Celebrated singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris returns to City Winery for the latest installment of her fundraising concert series, Woofstock, which launched in 2012. Harris and a rotating cast of musician friends regularly play Woofstock gigs to raise money for her nonprofit Bonaparte’s Retreat — a dog adoption initiative named after the singer’s longtime touring canine companion. For this edition of the event, the 14-time (!!!) Grammy-winning Harris enlists help from Larkin Poe, a sisterly rock duo known for head-turning shows with fiery riffs and familial harmonies. Larkin Poe takes the Woofstock stage weeks after releasing Bloom, the seventh LP in a growing discography. And it won’t be the first time in recent memory that the duo has collaborated with a celebrated artist. The sisters contributed to Ringo Starr’s new country album Look Up, which dropped in January. Consider this show a one-of-a-kind treat for Nashville music fans, as both artists typically play much larger rooms. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
MUSIC
[WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE] BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA
for a night of spirit-raising songs at City Winery. And while the original members have passed the torch to a new cohort of Blind Boys (93-yearold Jimmy Carter is the oldest living Blind Boys alum, but he retired from singing two years ago), the group continues to spread its brand of foot-stomping music on the road and in the studio. Today’s Blind Boys tour in support of Echoes of the South, a 2023 LP that earned a Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album. If you’ve never seen the Boys, now’s your chance. Already been to a show? Maybe it’s time to go again. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
FILM [I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE!] SNL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: BILLY
Folks who watched the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards show learned at least one thing: The Blind Boys of Alabama still know how to steal a show. A gospel music institution that formed eight decades ago, the Blind Boys received a lifetime achievement honor at the show, a recognition they celebrated with a rafter-shaking performance inside the Ryman Auditorium. Now the group returns to Nashville
Adam Sandler’s filmography is loaded with eminently quotable characters, from Bobby Boucher to Howard Ratner. But perhaps no Sandler joint features more enduring lines than 1995’s Billy Madison, in which the Sandman stars as the titular fail-son — a 27-year-old hotel heir tasked with repeating his K-12 education in order to earn his father’s respect. With a script by Sandler and his frequent collaborator and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Tim Herlihy, Billy Madison features such gems as, “Stop looking at me, swan,” “Chlorophyll? More like BORE-ophyll” and “If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.” As far as arthouse fare is concerned … fine, no, it isn’t The Seventh Seal or Koyaanisqatsi. But Billy Madison — critically underappreciated as it might have been upon its release — proved that Sandler could be a leading man. Without Billy Madison, would we have The Wedding Singer? Punch-Drunk Love? Uncut Gems? Possibly not! Billy Madison is showing as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing SNL Cinematic Universe series, which runs through April 14 and is loaded with classics. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. D. PATRICK RODGERS
APRIL 2 & 6 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Immigrant-led restaurants in Nashville continue to thrive despite fear over deportations and anti-immigrant backlash
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
Because Nashville is so much more than honky-tonks and bachelorettes...
THINGS ARE PRETTY good for Edgar Victoria.
is eaten on the street.
small businesses that already face additional challenges.
The lauded chef, known for his Mexico City-style street food, opened a brick-and-mortar location of Alebrije in East Nashville in January after several years of pop-ups around town (at the Drift Hotel, Bar Sovereign, NVR NVR, Bastion and Geodis Park, to name a few).
“People just stand on the corner and eat, so when I saw a line of 30 people, I thought, ‘This is becoming Mexico,’” he says, laughing. In fact, he was interviewed for this article on the phone from Mexico City, where he was visiting family and finding inspiration for some new dishes he’s bringing back to Alebrije. (Hot tip: Dishes cooked over an open fire are coming soon.)
The new restaurant, on the second floor of a multi-use building at Gallatin Pike and Eastland Avenue, doesn’t have prominent outdoor signage. Even Victoria jokes that it kind of looks closed from the outside. That is, until you notice a line out the door, with people waiting to sit in one of the bright-yellow chairs and order Victoria’s tacos, which are served on tortillas made in house with nixtamal masa.
Daniel Yarzagaray is a second-generation American, and he sees the fear his entrepreneurial peers are experiencing. He grew up in Nashville and learned about his Colombian heritage from his grandparents, who were from Cartagena. Yarzagaray learned to speak Spanish before he learned to speak English. He opened his Colombian food truck Chivanada in 2016, wanting to share delicious empanadas with the Nashville community. The trucks are on a regular schedule around town, and Yarzagaray’s team educates people about Colombian food and culture while serving the gluten-free, handmade pockets of goodness.
Victoria immigrated to the U.S. when he was 10 years old. He built Alebrije on his childhood experiences; even the restaurant name comes from a Mexican folk figure. Victoria’s heritage, recipes and techniques are wholly part of the food he serves in Nashville. As he’s trying not to stress out about those aforementioned lines, he notes that in Mexico City, much of the best food
That’s part of the reason people are willing to wait for a table at Alebrije. Victoria is bringing specific food to the city and infusing it with his own experience — the immigrant experience. But some immigrants and first- and second-generation restaurant owners in Nashville are concerned about sharing their personal stories given the current backlash against immigrants. They’re worried about harassment and the policies of the second Trump administration, including increased deportations and initiatives aiming to eliminate birthright citizenship and restrict access to school for undocumented children. Being unable to fully tell your story and promote your business handcuffs
In 2018, Yarzagaray started playing around with a pizza oven, eventually launching Pizza Assurda, a Neapolitan pizza truck. (“Assurda” means “absurd” in Italian and reflects his penchant for nontraditional pies.) Like Victoria, he’s expanding his international food offerings despite the political climate. He sees some of his fellow business owners being reluctant to
post on social media and otherwise share their stories, which is crucial to a small business’s success. Some are focusing on Spanish-language rather than English-language press, he says.
Immigrant-owned and immigrant-run restaurants and food trucks are a significant part of Nashville’s culinary scene. According to a 2023 American Immigration Council report, immigrants make up 6.1 percent of Tennessee’s population (more than 430,000 in the state). Of those, 30,000 immigrants are entrepreneurs — and of those business owners, a reported 11,300 are undocumented immigrants.
“In other words,” says Julio Colby, worker rights attorney and Skadden Fellow at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, “immigrants make up a disproportionate percentage of entrepreneurs in the state, founding business at higher rates than the state population overall.”
A 2019 report found that in the Nashville metropolitan area, immigrants were 29.8 percent more likely to be entrepreneurs than U.S.-born residents. Martha T. Silva, co-executive director for Conexión Américas, says 1 out of every 5 new entrepreneurs in the country is Latino, and the jobs they create are invaluable to the country.
Hospitality and food service are some of the top industries for immigrant entrepreneurs. Since 2013, more than 100 entrepreneurs have worked with Conexión Américas’ Mesa Komal culinary incubator to launch and build their food businesses. About 50 percent of those businesses are owned by immigrants, Silva says. Silva says there is a general feeling of uncertainty among Mesa Komal clients. While only a portion of that relates to deportation crackdowns, uncertainty is not good for the bottom line. Small food businesses are struggling with higher ingredient costs (and not just eggs), and margins were already narrow. Customers may be cutting back on dining out due to their concerns about disposable income. If the workforce is concerned about deportations, it can be harder to hire. Also, current employees may be concerned about leaving their homes and may not come to work.
In February, an immigration raid by plainclothes federal agents of a taco truck in Memphis made national headlines. There have not been similar reported incidents in Nashville yet, although most people interviewed for this article think it could happen. In 2018, nearly 100 people — many Latinos — who worked at a Bean Station meat-processing facility in East Tennessee were detained during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid. In 2023, the government paid more than $1 million to settle allegations of civil rights violations related to that raid.
According to a recent article by the Nashville Banner, ICE made 117 immigration detainer requests in Nashville between Jan. 20 (Inauguration Day) and March 13, 2025. Many immigrant-owned restaurants employ family members, meaning their workforce is made up largely of immigrants. Restaurant owners interviewed for this article estimated that as much as 95 percent of their kitchen
workforce is immigrants. Even if those folks are citizens or permanent legal residents (meaning they have a green card), they may be concerned about their family members who have different statuses. And, says TIRRC’s Colby, in the current climate, it is somewhat irrelevant, as immigrants are afraid of being swept up in a raid. Stories are swirling nationally about citizens and permanent legal residents being detained with out agents checking their status.
While no one is immune from these concerns, white European immigrants tell the Scene they know they have privilege that immigrants of color do not. They see increasingly brazen an ti-immigrant attitudes among some customers, particularly toward employees of color. They report hearing people say they won’t eat at Mex ican restaurants anymore and being belligerent to staff they perceive to be immigrants. Some of these immigrant entrepreneurs — as well as first- and second-generation entrepreneurs, in cluding Yarzagaray — feel they can speak out on behalf of those who don’t feel safe.
“There is a general fear right now,” says Yar zagaray. “We’re trying to do something about it, helping with entrepreneurial training and giving time and money to those organizations helping people.” Yarzagaray works with nonprofit The Aloe Family to help immigrants from Central and South America find job opportuni ties in Nashville.
Many local organizations, including TIRRC, have ”know your rights” information on their websites and are leading workshops to help small business owners know what to do if ICE agents show up. Many restaurant owners interviewed by the Scene with the promise of anonymity say they have told their staff not to let agents in without evidence of an arrest warrant. Silva encourages business owners to learn more about their rights and responsibilities and to get information from reputable organizations that have a history of working with immigrant communities, such as Conexión Américas, TIRRC and Catholic Charities.
When asked how concerned he is about immigrant backlash and potential deportations as he expands his business, Victoria says, “The answer is a little complex. In one way, no. We come in, we make great food, and we serve great food to all our friends. You can’t really live your life in fear. You can’t really let fear stop you from doing what you love to do.”
But he doesn’t live in a vacuum. Since he was a child, he’s been aware of the issues facing immigrants, and as he hears about proposals to prevent undocumented children from accessing education, he’s disheartened.
“Maybe immigration is like 20 or 30 percent of that concern,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of things happening in the country, and some of them feel unhuman.”
Like Yarzagaray, Victoria tries to help where he can, buying pens and paper for school kids and blankets for those experiencing homelessness.
Saturday, March 29
SONGWRITER SESSION
James House
NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, March 30
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Jaelee Roberts 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 5
SONGWRITER SESSION Tommy Karlas
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 5
FILM SCREENING AND CONVERSATION
Stepping into the Unknown
Films from the Bob Dylan Archive 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
WITNESS HISTORY
Museum Membership Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and more.
“Instead of complaining about it or thinking about how unfair it really is, it is not going to change anything. So I’d rather think about what can I do to help instead.” ▼ LUNCH
Sunday, April 6
HATCH SHOW PRINT Family Block Party 9:30 am · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Sunday, April 6
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Jaime Hanna 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 12
WRITERS ROUND The Songs of Bobby Bare 11:30 am · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 12
NASHVILLE CATS
JayDee Maness 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, April 13
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Todd Lombardo 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
This is the first question I’ve gotten in months that isn’t about the end of the world!
BY CHRIS CROFTON
In 2014, comedian, musician, podcaster and Nashvillian Chris Crofton asked the Scene for an advice column, so we gave him one. Crowning himself the “Advice King,” Crofton shares his hardwon wisdom with whoever seeks it. Follow Crofton on Bluesky and Instagram (@thecroftonshow), and check out his The Advice King Anthology and Cold Brew Got Me Like podcast. To submit a question for the Advice King, email bestofbread@gmail.com.
Dear Advice King, How can I improve my golf swing? Fred in Franklin
HI FRED! This is the first question I’ve gotten in months that isn’t about the end of the world! Hmmm.
Do you get the news out there in Franklin? Probably not. Out there in Franklin, they like to pretend it’s the “old days.” It’s like rockabilly — except their “Bill Haley and the Comets” is President Andrew Jackson ignoring court orders. Not at all coincidentally, Tennessee’s, ahem, esteemed Gov. Bill Lee is from Franklin.
In 2023, the median household income in Franklin was $115,000 a year. That’s about how much I’ve made in my whole life. Lol. But I digress
Golf was invented in 1962 by William F. Buckley Jr. It was originally called “18 Reasons to Send Your Kids to Boarding School,” and was a scavenger hunt for 18 bottles of schnapps. But the “PGA” (People Getting drunk off their Ass) decided that was too obvious, and settled on “Golf” (Grandpa Oils his Libido with Fuzzy navels*). They also realized that a scavenger hunt for schnapps wasn’t a socially acceptable justification to avoid raising your children, so they decided to “dignify” it by making participants hit balls into holes with sticks. Republican men love big, uninterrupted stretches of grass, because it makes them
think they are farmers instead of people who skim money from the stock market. And when a Republican man is drunk and on a big, uninterrupted stretch of grass, he feels like Daniel Fucking Boone. So golf really caught on. Golf takes place on “golf courses.” They are huge. And they’re not only big to make Republicans feel like farmers — they are big for safety reasons too. Daniel-Boone-in-shorts requires lots of space when he’s drunk-driving his little cart and trying to find his little ball at the same time.
I don’t call them golf courses, by the way. I call them “The Places Affordable Housing Is Supposed to Be.” I would love to tell you how much water is needed to maintain these “Places Affordable Housing is Supposed to Be,” but I just remembered that I’m supposed to be giving Fred from Franklin advice on his swing. OK, Fred. Keep your head down. Don’t force it. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t look to see where the ball went before it’s even left the tee. TAKE THE CIGAR OUTTA YOUR MOUTH. Remember, you’re not that drunk. And so what if you’re getting divorced again? You’re still young! And rehab is out of the question. You’re still having fun! Sowing your oats. Sixty-one is not old. Anyway, keep your fucking head down. Yes, your adult son Conrad isn’t exactly crazy about you, but that’s because he has “the woke mind virus” — not because you put him in a military academy when he was 8.
What a backswing. OK, that’s enough practice. Step up to the ball. Address it. THE BALL. Not your friend Rick. I take back what I said before. You are drunk. Stop talking about Ayn Rand! You haven’t read a single one of her books!
THE SWING … He shanked it.
*A “Fuzzy Navel” is a cocktail consisting of peach schnapps and orange juice. ▼
Human Resources embeds its audience in a surreal corporate landscape
BY DOUGLAS CORZINE
A TWO-WAY MIRROR is reflective on one side and transparent on the other. Human Resources, a new play from Nashville Story Garden and local favorite Nate Eppler, works the same way: flipping between perspectives and forcing audiences to question what they see.
The play embeds its audience in a surreal corporate landscape. When audiences arrive at OZ Arts, they’ll split into two groups and watch two intersecting narratives from opposite sides of the performance space. When the stories overlap, so will the audience — but when the protagonists part, each group is left with only half the story.
The show is the most ambitious production in Nashville Story Garden’s 10-year history, thanks to a producing partnership with OZ Arts. It’s also fully homegrown, having germinated from ideas that Story Garden’s co-artistic director Lauren Berst began exploring with director Lauren Shouse during a movement workshop at Nashville Rep in the summer of 2023.
When they recruited Eppler to join the project as a writer, Berst and Shouse used the image of a two-way mirror to anchor their pitch. Together, they have crafted a rollicking satire that places its audience in the morally ambiguous world of a fictional pharmaceutical giant called Liminal.
One section of the play follows a low-level employee just beginning to question the company’s cult-like ideals; the other focuses on a midlevel human resources officer caught between protecting workers and protecting herself. Whenever these characters interact, the action shifts to a central room. As they go on their separate journeys, the scenes shift to smaller cubicles on the sides. That may sound
overwhelming, but Eppler says each path offers a complete experience, building toward the same absurd climax.
“I have had that experience in immersive theater, where I feel like I only saw part of it,” admits Eppler. “It’s this feeling of wandering through a guideless museum. I think that’s OK, but I’ve definitely come out of that feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I miss?’ In Human Resources, the audience is more designed and held in this structure.”
The structure may be complex, but first and foremost, Eppler believes the play is fun. “It’s like David Lynch made an episode of The Office where they all join a cult,” he says. Berst echoes that sentiment, saying Human Resources is a comedic take on “the cult of work” — a familiar theme to anyone watching Severance
But the show also taps into sophisticated theatrical traditions. Eppler sees modern corporate culture as quasi-religious, and his script was partly inspired by medieval carnival plays that used satire to critique the church.
“Instead of a fool who becomes the pope, a low-level employee is over-promoted,” he says. “Instead of a big sermon at the end that sets it all back together, there is a TED Talk-style PowerPoint presentation in an all-hands meeting to set the world back right.”
The play’s other theatrical antecedents include avant-garde plays like Fefu and Her Friends, which experimented with multiple perspectives. As they developed the project, Berst and Shouse also put together movement workshops inspired by the one that first sparked their interest: a weeklong intensive on the physical theater work of Frantic Assembly, a British
Human Resources
March 27-April 6 at OZ Arts
Name: STELLA GRACE
Age: 11 months
group that uses workshops to create a physical language for their productions before setting a script.
“It is hard to be a theater company in Music City,” says Berst. But she believes Nashville has room for innovative, boundary-pushing theater. Longtime fans of Nashville Story Garden have followed the company to venues across town, and OZ Arts subscribers have embraced experimental performances.
Still, Human Resources marks a new challenge for OZ Arts — funding and producing local theater. The organization has long supported local dance and music projects, but most of its past theater offerings have been short engagements from visiting artists. Now OZ is throwing its weight behind a local company. Lauren Berst says that kind of support “changes everything” for Nashville Story Garden.
“Part of being a producer is sitting there trying to figure out how to fund a show and make it happen,” says Berst. “Now we have an opportunity to let that rest for a minute because we have funding for the artists involved in the show. It’s hard to describe the relief and the freedom that provides. We are always going to be budget-minded, but now we have this wonderful cushion under us. I am so grateful for that, and that as producers, OZ sat back and believed in us — they just have said yes, in a way that is so incredible.”
Human Resources is a perfect example of what happens when artists get the support they need to push boundaries. This show is a testament to the power of collaboration and the unexpected places Nashville’s arts scene can go when the right people come together. ▼
MEET STELLA GRACE, the radiant, joyful girl who lights up every room she enters! At first, Stella might take a moment to get to know you, but once she does, she’ll be your ultimate best friend.
When Stella Grace trusts you, her love is deep, her loyalty unmatched, and her joy contagious. Not to mention, she’s a quick learner, eager to please and soak up every bit of love and training you have to offer.
Call 615.352.1010
Weight: 51 lbs. Sex: Female an independent bookstore for independent people UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTFOR TICKETS & UPDATES
FRIDAY, MARCH 28 6:30PM ALLIE MILLINGTON with KRISTIN O'DONNELL TUBB at PARNASSUS Once For Yes SATURDAY, MARCH 29 10:30AM SATURDAY STORYTIME with ANDEN WILDER at PARNASSUS Scamp
TUESDAY, APRIL 1 6:30PM MEREDITH R. LYONS with ALISHA KLAPHEKE at PARNASSUS A Dagger of Lightning
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2 6:30PM
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY with ARIEL LAWHON at PARNASSUS The Story She Left Behind
THURSDAY, APRIL 3 6:30PM RICK GLAZE with ASHLEY HAGAN at PARNASSUS Eight Pieces of Eight
SATURDAY, APRIL 5 6:30PM TIANA CLARK with MAJOR JACKSON & CIONA ROUSE at PARNASSUS Scorched Earth 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net
@parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooksnashville
Ahead of Lucy Dacus’ Forever Is a Feeling, we catch up with her co-producers and longtime collaborators Collin Pastore and Jake Finch
BY HANNAH CRON
WHEN WAS THE last time you read through the credits of a record you love? With the rise of streaming’s on-demand take on listening, most listeners probably know the names of only the artists they listen to. Some artists create entire albums with no outside input; that’s increasingly feasible with advances in music-making technology. But in many cases, it takes session players and/or band members, background vocalists, engineers and producers to make an artist’s signature sound come to life. When lauded singer-songwriter and boygenius member Lucy Dacus’ new album Forever Is a Feeling comes out on Friday, detailoriented listeners might notice a couple of familiar names in the liner notes. Dacus’ longtime friends and collaborators Collin Pastore and Jake Finch, based in Nashville, continued a storied creative partnership by producing several songs on the album.
Pastore met Dacus in high school in their home state of Virginia, and they’ve kept making music together. Pastore has produced each of Dacus’ full-length records and EPs, starting with her 2016 debut No Burden. They created a lush, spacious and gentle indie-rock sound that expertly
complements her lyrics. During the recording of 2018’s Historian, the last-minute need for a drummer led the duo to bring in Finch, and he’s been a part of the team ever since.
Dacus and company tread new territory with Forever Is a Feeling. Dacus expanded her production circle beyond Finch and Pastore, reaching out to the likes of Blake Mills and Bartees Strange. Finch and Pastore remain the sole producers on “Big Deal” and “Lost Time,” which bookend the album, and provide additional production on several other songs. Finch jokingly refers to this record as their “musical Oreo.”
Beyond a rare single, this is the first time Dacus has tried her hand at love songs. And be warned — they have just as much seismic impact as her ruminations on heartbreak and aging. Dacus keeps her private life mostly … well, private, but some experiences are so powerful they seep into everything you do. That’s the case here: In a recent profile in The New Yorker, Dacus confirmed her long-rumored relationship with boygenius bandmate Julien Baker. Even if she hadn’t said anything, most listeners would surely have guessed. Beyond the
clear references — including a rollicking love song addressed to “the most wanted man in West Tennessee” — Dacus’ infectious joy shines through much of the record.
While the subject matter and sound are a departure from her previous work, Forever Is a Feeling maintains a through line with its predecessors. Beyond Dacus’ signature poetry and devastating vocals, Pastore describes the new record as having the same “heart memory.”
“We went to L.A. to hang out with her — she played a show at The Wiltern and we went to dinner afterwards,” Pastore recalls. “And she was like, ‘Guys, I think I’m writing a love album. … I want it to be full of strings and romantic feeling.’ So that was sort of the mindset coming in for that. We knew that she wanted it to be grand and, you know, all that stuff. So we pulled out a cello, and — I think the strings are mostly Jake, actually.”
Forever is not a straightforward take on romance though. Like real love, it’s messy and complicated. On “Big Deal,” Dacus sings of confessing feelings with someone in a committed relationship and the trepidation of knowing that starting something new would mean breaking
Forever Is a Feeling out Friday, March 28 Playing April 29-30 at the Ryman
something else. There are really two threads woven in the record, one of an old relationship ending and another of a new one blossoming. It’s awkward at times, outwardly horny at others, but overall beautifully heart-wrenching.
“Leave it to Lucy to write the most challenging love song,” Finch says.
When they aren’t in the studio with Dacus, Finch and Pastore work with hosts of other talented artists; some locals include Katie Pruitt (whose Mantras was one of Scene critics’ top records of 2024), Molly Martin and Ashe. They hope to keep working with their friends while getting on board with artists who are just starting out too.
The basis of the Dacus-Finch-Pastore working relationship is pure friendship. They don’t find it hard to balance the two, because at the end of the day, they are one another’s proudest supporters.
“For me, it all comes down to just respect,” says Finch. “Everyone is just a person making something, but when you’re friends with creatives, everyone’s making something. And it’s like, just mad appreciation for people who continue to make great shit.” ▼
BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
IN FEBRUARY 2022, roughly 50 talented Nashville musicians packed into one house. Over one weekend, they managed to foster a brand-new collective space for creating local music — one with no gatekeeping, no hostility and just a little bit of friendly competition.
The house party, now known as ca.mp3 (pronounced “camp three”), is still going strong. The musical congregation was cultivated by local artist and producer Jack Vinoy. After the crowd outgrew his living room, the Belmont University alum moved the event to a recording studio.
“It’s just like this project that has kind of, in the best way possible, gotten out of hand,” Vinoy says.
After the dust of the COVID-19 pandemic began to settle, the notoriously fickle Nashville music industry emerged more complex than ever, and Vinoy wanted to help others navigate it confidently. He aimed to create an environment for local artists to break out of isolation and immerse themselves in a space that encourages asking questions and creating relationships.
“The music industry is really competitive and really cutthroat, and I’m trying to make a space where it doesn’t feel that way,” says Vinoy. “And when you leave that room, you feel better educated on how things work, and you feel like you’ve got people to lean on when you need help.”
Since 2023, ca.mp3 has taken place at Top Track Studios. Vinoy is continuing ca.mp3’s partnership with nonprofit The Nashville Food Project, encouraging every attendee to bring in nonperishables to the upcoming session for
a community food drive. The schedule for each ca.mp3 event is different, but the next one, scheduled for April 4 through 6, will feature a publishing panel, hours of open studio time and, of course, the beat battle and playback session that has become a tradition.
Open studio time fills the majority of the weekend, and when you break down the ca.mp3 registration fee, the studio costs participants around $1 per hour. The creative synergy of artists is palpable throughout the building during this time, Vinoy says. Nearly every space in the studio fills up with groups of collaborators, many of whom didn’t know each other before the weekend began.
“People will walk in and hear an in-progress track and will go, ‘Oh, hey, I know we just met, but I have this idea — could I try it?’” he explains. “And everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ And that’s the really cool part. … There’s no bad ideas in that moment, and people are so open to collaborating.”
During the beat battle, participants are challenged to start with one provided sample and turn it into a beat within an hour. The camp also includes a song competition. Any project created during the three days of the event is eligible, and attendees listen to each submission during the playback session on Sunday night. Enticing prizes from the audio equipment companies that sponsor the camp are awarded to the winners of each contest, but impressing your fellow campers may be a bigger reward. During the previous ca.mp3 session in November, listeners broke out in dance as the winning piece played over the speakers.
“This kind of impromptu dance party broke out, where it felt like this little club scene of just everybody jumping and dancing and having a nice time,” Vinoy recalls. “Little moments like that … they’re things that I can never really plan for. But just feeling that much creativity and excitement and joy about music and art in the room — something always happens.”
The memorable moments aren’t confined to the studio. Also during the November session, a producer and close friend of Vinoy’s (whom he met at a previous camp) began beatboxing on the front porch of the studio. When a small group exited the building to take a break, someone started freestyling on the beat, and before long, a spontaneous cipher broke out.
“It felt to me like there was so much cool music being made that it was literally spilling out of the studio into the street,” Vinoy says.
To continue fostering these kinds of organic collaborations and cultivate a much-needed sense of community in the local music business, Vinoy plans to keep organizing ca.mp3 for years to come.
“It’s been a really cool process to see people find each other. There’s people in town that are really working hard to make it a different industry going forward. I really appreciate that, and I just want to be a part of that in any capacity that I can.”
BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
THERE’S SOMETHING SOOTHING about watching Jason Isbell alone onstage, adjusting his water glass restlessly between songs.
Though the North Alabama native is no stranger to performing in Nashville, it’s rare to catch him performing sans his formidable backing band The 400 Unit, or in a venue that’s not the Ryman, long the home of his multinight residencies. But the songsmith has been trying something a little different to celebrate an album that’s a little different. Following the release of his solo acoustic album Foxes in the Snow, he set up shop for a four-night solo engagement at The Pinnacle, the recently opened venue in the Nashville Yards development.
Saturday, during the third night of the An Intimate Evening With Jason Isbell run — the fourth and final performance is March 28 — the master storyteller took center stage on a wooden chair. Using just his voice and acoustic guitar, he regaled a hushed crowd of roughly 4,500 with tales of love, failure and lessons learned. After briefly quipping about the novelty of a show in Nashville on Saturday night, Isbell strummed the opening of “King of Oklahoma,” a standout from his most recent record with The 400 Unit, 2023’s Weathervanes. This band-free version put Isbell’s dexterous picking and piercing vocals at the forefront, making the song’s narrative all the more heartbreaking. Rather than careening from one song to the next, Isbell filled many of the short pauses with witty anecdotes about each song. “King of Oklahoma,” for instance, was written on the set of Killers of the Flower Moon
“You don’t have to watch the whole thing,” joked Isbell. “Sturgill blows me up somewhere in the second hour, and you can just cut it off.”
Then came the first songs of the night from the new album, “Bury Me” and “Foxes in the Snow.” The audience remained silent, saving brief cheers for the split second of recognition at each song’s opening line. You could see the crowd mouthing along silently, seemingly so as not to interrupt.
The set combined new songs with catalog classics as well as some mementos of Isbell’s tenure with Drive-By Truckers. Each night, a new selection of deep cuts — “the ‘bust-outs,’ as they call them in the community,” said Isbell following the The Nashville Sound song “Tupelo” — made their way into the rotation.
He painted pictures of bittersweet Southern summers in Reunions song “Dreamsicle,” recalling an intimate tidbit about the song’s namesake sweet treat after the final chord.
“My grandmother always had those Dreamsicle popsicles, but she never had the ones that had sugar in them,” Isbell said. “They were always sugar-free. ... And me, as a small child, had to deal with sugar-free popsicles. And I didn’t have diabetes or nothing.”
As the set went on, Isbell swung the pendu-
lum back and forth between the present and the past. The audience erupted as he belted the opening lines of Weathervanes’ “Middle of the Morning.” The gentle new ballad “Gravelweed” came next, which he segued into a cover of Bon Iver’s “Beth/Rest.” He then leaned into longtime fan favorite “Alabama Pines,” recounting the good, the bad and the ugly of his hometown.
“I start out writing a love song for the place that I grew up in Alabama,” Isbell said. “Sometimes I’ll make it, like, halfway through, sometimes it’s the last verse. But eventually all that shit that’s not so lovely just finds its way in the song.”
Isbell finished the set with Foxes’ “True Believer.” It’s a raw and sometimes jolting look at moving on after a relationship, and he earned a howl from the crowd as he sang, “But I heard God in the Ryman / I crawled out of the grave.”
After Isbell made a quick exit and the crowd delivered a standing ovation, stagehands brought out a second chair and microphone. The audience stayed standing as Isbell returned, breaking the reverent silence to cheer as he introduced his friend, folk champion David Rawlings.
The guitarist, singer and record producer joined Isbell for a three-song encore that kicked off with “Ride to Robert’s,” a song about trying to nurture love that features the venerable Lower Broadway watering hole in a supporting role. Rawlings plucked his trusty 1935 Epiphone Olympic, nodding along as he elevated Isbell’s strumming.
Rawlings remarked on their performance, whispering “hot stuff, hot stuff,” into the mic before they swayed their way into a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country.” Then a few seconds of jamming resolved into Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires.” There was a roar as the audience recognized the opening notes, but it died away quickly to let the Grammy-winning ballad unfold.
When the song was over, the crowd stood again and released the full force of the appreciation they had been holding in throughout the show with thunderous applause. Isbell and Rawlings exited as silently as they came. ▼
Misericordia
BY
JASON SHAWHAN
JÉRÉMIE (FÉLIX KYSYL) is an interesting fellow. He’s got one of those faces that seems reminiscent of several different people at the same time (in this case, young Edward Furlong, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Snakeman), and he has the very relatable condition of not being able to access or express exactly what it is he wants from life and others. He responds to kindness and loss, and he has some degree of moral study or experience that has stuck with him throughout his life. But to be fair, he’s also just squirrelly enough that you never really know exactly where you stand with him.
French writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake, Staying Vertical) has a gift for films that understand how complicated it is just being alive and trying to interact with other people. And Misericordia digs deep into that milieu, dropping us into the village of Saint-Martial, where Jérémie has returned for the first time in years to attend the funeral of his former employer and mentor, Jean-Pierre. And the situation gets … heightened. Because it feels like no drama ever truly gets settled. And as we are all very familiar with, men really love to destroy. There’s rejection, a mystery and a killing, all amid that bucolic French vibe where lovers and incredible meals abound.
Is it boredom that keeps men from ever leaving behind schoolyard-style violence? In some instances, it’s absolutely a form of sublimation of emotions that go against The Self they perceive themselves as, but that’s not even what Guiraudie is exploring here. There’s something about the modes of survival that imprint upon us at an early age and how they ripple throughout adult life, about how we process everything that made a deep and profound impression in the early stages of figuring out who we are. And that’s what makes Misericordia such a captivating film — it’s a steel cage match between playground and church, and how the reaction instilled by each philosophy unfolds in a world
where everyone is just a bit adrift.
This village is a Jenga of horniness where a couple of deaths manage to throw everyone into disarray. Unrequited desire is one of those things that can be a load-bearing wall in enduring construction, but it also can never be relied upon to stay exactly the same: To be very foundational with a metaphor, Misericordia is a game of Musical Chairs of Longing, where removing one chair is the process by which life has always worked, but the removal of an extra chair has pushed the interpersonal relationships of the entire village of Saint-Martial to the breaking point. On the whole, most people do not support murder. But we reserve a little space for crimes of passion — not even so much to make excuses, but to allow for context, which adjusts our perception of circumstances.
When I saw the film the first time back in September, it felt of a piece with the slyer oeuvre of Éric Rohmer, or Crimes and Misdemeanors-era Woody Allen — a perceptive and rigorous collection of character studies buoyed by exceptional performances that work as both archetype and incarnation. And now, half a year later, it’s shaken out into something even more impressive. The plot — the central mystery and the “who wants what from who” of all involved parties — is smart, expertly constructed and very effective. But once you know the points on the graph where all that unfolds, Guiraudie and his cast are able to do something nearly alchemical.
As Martine, the recent widow around whose house much of the film’s goings-on originate, Catherine Frot gets the most challenging (and rewarding) role in the film. The rest of the cast gets to play with ambiguities (both the concept and the Melvillian sort), letting the viewer assemble their lives in a pointillist fashion. But Martine is a rock, a pragmatic foundation for the community — she’s always listening, she’s always observing, and she adapts to whatever
the world throws her way with elegance and the kind of quick thinking that sketches in the story of a woman who has led a most extraordinary life.
Rough-hewn subtlety is not the kind of thing that makes for dynamic pull quotes. It can be difficult to pull in an audience with a statement like, “David Ayala confounds traditional hierarchies of desire as well as the police with a genial earthiness that none of the other characters know how to process.” But that’s exactly what this film excels at. As soon as the opening credits are done, we think we know what’s going on in Saint-Martial, and yet we never fully get there when traversing that path. It’s not even accurate to say the film is an example of delayed gratification, because it’s got a lot more on its mind. (And it also seems to be having a bit of a laugh at the expense of how often “global art cinema” is just shorthand for “being honest about sex.”)
Aesthetics are not universal. But you have to summon a very specific kind of respect for a film that understands that a fresh mushroom omelette can be a refreshing treat and a taste of the grave at the same time, and a film that gets that perspective across without anyone at the kitchen table saying a word. And Misericordia is a sly, smart peek into the messy realities lurking just behind every half-swallowed sigh and resentful recollection — mercilessly funny and deeply profound. ▼
Misericordia NR, 104 minutes; in French with English subtitles Opening Friday, March 28, at the Belcourt
1 Past its glory
6 Say yes, say 10 [Bada bing bada boom!]
14 Round windows
15 List trimmer
16 Move after a touchdown
17 Network connections
18 Lynchian or Felliniesque, say
20 This clue
22 Digital work fueled by machine learning, in brief
23 Stayed put
___-relief
27 Go-ahead
28 Shelter on a tropical island, maybe
29 With 43-Across, something never to be repeated ... or a hint to the answers to the italicized clues
32 Ancient Mexican civilization
34 Who said “A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture”
36 High pair
37 This answer
40 Subreddits, for example
41 Alternative to a spicy Dorito
42 Throw with great effort
43 See 29-Across
44 Broadband connection inits.
45 Slated to be delivered (on)
47 Battletoads console, for short
48 Singer Winehouse
49 “___ mia!”
51 This crossword
58 ___ Roy, Booker Prize-winning author, 1997
59 Ending with home or bed
60 Use as a source
61 Hot spot
62 Like an H.P. Lovecraft work
63 Black gemstone
64 Lowly worker
31 Two of spades?
33 Queen Elizabeth I has one named for her
35 Tats
1 Character profile? 2 “Don’t have ___, man!”
3 Man
4 ___ Ferrante, author of the “Neapolitan Novels”
5 Clear-cut
6 What a budding musical artist hopes to land
7 Stretch
8 Rooftop spinner
9 Friendly response, after “My”
10 0:00
11 Alliance of 32 nations
12 Enemy alliance of W.W. II
13 Many social posts, informally
19 Exam with a max. score of 528
21 Ex-N.B.A. star ___ Ming
24 Sensational, on Broadway
25 Icy
26 Blue man group member?
28 Home to many kings and queens
29 Setting for several Herman Melville works
30 Pluck
36 Cleared one’s plate, say
38 Virtual storefront in an online marketplace
39 Nine daughters of Greek myth
44 Chatted on the Gram, say
46 Strike caller
48 Architectural expansion
49 San ___, Calif.
50 Follower of the 32-Across
51 Texas city once known as “SixShooter Junction”
52 Shamrock land
53 Certain tax
54 Only character shown in the final 30 minutes of “2001: A Space Odyssey”
55 Zip
56 Hideaway
57 Locale depicted in Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, DAVIDSON COUNTY No. 24-1273-II
IN RE: THE MATTER OF NAME CHANGE OF KALIYHA FINLEY-GRAY BY NEXT FRIEND: PATRICIA GRAY Petitioner, vs. TARVISO FINLEY Whereabouts Unknown Respondent. ORDER
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that the Motion for Service by Publication filed by Petitioner, Patricia Gray, as Next Friend of her granddaughter, Kaliyha Finley-Gray, is hereby granted and it is hereby ordered that Respondent, Tarviso Finley, will be served by publication notice in The Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Davidson County, Tennessee for a period of four (4) consecutive weeks. IT IS ORDERED.
ANNE C. MARTIN CHANCELLOR, PART II
APPROVED FOR ENTRY:
Marykate E. Williams #041708
CAMPBELL PERKY JOHNSON, PLLC 329 S. Royal Oaks Blvd., Suite 205 Franklin, Tennessee 37064 (615)914-3038 marykate@cpj.law
NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25
IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNES-
SEE Docket No. 24-1495-III
COTTAGES AT WILLIAMS BEND TOWNHOUSE CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. ELTON D. FIELDER, Defendant.
PUBLICATION NOTICE PURSUANT ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION ON DEFENDANT
By the Order Granting Motion for Service by Publication on Defendant of the Davidson County Chancery Court and signed on March 6, 2025, it appears that the Defendant Elton D. Fielder, owner of real property at 1621 Lincoya Bay Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214, cannot be located upon diligent search and inquiry and that ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. Service of process by publication pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 21-1-203 and 204 has been ordered, and Elton D. Fielder is hereby required to appear and answer or otherwise defend against the Complaint for Monetary Damages and for Judicial Foreclosure filed on December 10, 2024 by the Plaintiff Cottages at Williams Bend Townhouse Corporation, whose attorney is David M. Anthony, Exo Lega PLLC, 901 Woodland Street, Nashville, TN 37206, within 30 days after the date of the last publication of this notice; otherwise, a default judgment shall be entered against said defendant in open court for the relief demanded in the petition.
This notice shall be published in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper of general circulation serving Davidson County, once weekly for four consecutive weeks.
By: David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC - david@exolegal.com - (615)
869-0634 Attorneys for Plaintiff
NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25
By: David M. Anthony, Exo Legal
PLLC - david@exolegal.com - (615)
869-0634 Attorneys for Plaintiff
NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25
LEGAL NOTICE
Howard C. Gentry, Jr., Criminal Court Clerk
It is my privilege as your elected Criminal Court Clerk to notify all citizens of Davidson County, that relative to grand jury proceedings, it is the duty of your grand jurors to investigate any public offense which they know or have reason to believe has been committed and which is triable or indictable in Davidson County. In addition to cases presented to the grand jury by your District Attorney, any citizen may petition the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County This is subject to provi- sions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application Your grand jury foreperson is Warner Hassell. Their address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punishable as perjury. For a request for accommodation, please contact 862-4260.
NSC 3/27/25
UBS Bank USA has the following positions in Nashville, TN. Director, Product Owner, Deposit Products and Platforms to functionally own product vision, strategy and roadmap for deposit product platforms. Requires M+5yrs. exp. or B+7yrs. exp. as an equivalent alternative. Can work remotely. (ref. code(s) 001697). Qualified Applicants apply through SHProfRecruitingcc@ubs.com. Please reference 001697. NO CALLS PLEASE. EOE/M/F/D/V. #LI-DNP.
following positions in Nashville, TN. Director, Product Owner, Deposit Products and Platforms to functionally own product vision, strategy and roadmap for deposit product platforms. Requires M+5yrs. exp. or B+7yrs. exp. as an equivalent alternative. Can work remotely. (ref. code(s) 001697). Qualified Applicants apply through SHProfRecruitingcc@ubs.com. Please reference 001697. NO CALLS PLEASE. EOE/M/F/D/V. #LI-DNP.
Senior Application Engineer (HCA Management Services LP, Nashville, TN) Req: Bach (US/frgn eqv) in CS or rel + 4 yrs app engr exp. Alt will accept Mast (U.S./frgn eqv) in CS or rel + 2 yrs app engr exp. Also Req: strong exp w/GCP Svcs & Hadoop app dsgn & impl; exp in GKE, BQ, Dataflow, Spark Streaming, Java, Python, Scala, SQL, JSON, Avro, Parquet & Kafka; exp w/Bigtable, Cloud SQL, NoSQL/RDBMS db; exp in CI/CD, Git & deployment process; exp in AI/ML & modeling to inc domain exp in ML Techniques, AI, Proc Auto, Robotic Process Auto & NLP; exp deploying Big Data Tech to Prod; und of fund cloud comp concepts, inc hands-on exp w/GCP platform; und of Lambda Dsgn Archs & Real-Time Streaming; strong practical exp in agile app dvlpmt, file sys mgmt & DevOps discipline & practice using short-cycle iterations to deliver cont bus value. Email resume to Elaine.Healy@hcahealthcar e.com.
DO YOU OWE OVER $10,000 TO THE IRS OR STATE IN BACK TAXES?
Get tax relief now! We’ll fight for you!
1-877-703-6117 (CAN AAN)
NEED NEW WINDOWS?
Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction? New, energy efficient windows may be the answer!
Call for a consultation & FREE quote today. 1-877-248-9944 (CAN AAN)
CASH PAID FOR HIGH-END MEN’S SPORT WATCHES.
Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Heuer, Daytona, GMT, Submariner and Speedmaster. These brands only!
Call for a quote: 1-855-402-7109 (CAN AAN)
AGING ROOF? NEW HOMEOWNER?
STORM DAMAGE?
You need a local expert provider that proudly stands behind their work. Fast, free estimate. Financing available. Call 1-888-292-8225 (CAN AAN)
PEST CONTROL: PROTECT YOUR HOME from pests safely and affordably. Roaches, Bed Bugs, Rodent, Termite, Spiders and other pests. Locally owned and affordable. Call for service or an inspection today!
1-833-237-1199 (CAN AAN)
NEED NEW WINDOWS?
Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction? New, energy efficient windows may be the answer!
Call for a consultation & FREE quote today. 1-877-248-9944. (CAN AAN)
ENJOY
Moss-Wright Park
Centennial Park
BEST PLACES NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW
Zanies Comedy
FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
Southside Kitchen and Pub
BEST LOCAL FAMILY OUTING
The Nashville Zoo
of Lush Green Space
Southside Kitchen & Pub
Eastern Peak
Radnor Lake State Park
Rockland Recreation Center
Social Events & Instructor Led Fitness Classes
Off Leash Pet Park & Pet Spa Tennis Courts Gated Community
