THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2025
ANDI MARIE TILLMAN
Congrats To Nashville’s Ho est
The hottest thing in Nashville isn’t the chicken. It’s the creative thinking. This year, at the 60th Annual American Advertising Federation Awards Show, AAF Nashville proudly celebrated the hottest and freshest creative minds that are working right here in town. Want to see their work?
The Specials
‘Pain Into Purpose’
Nashville women push for reform to help victims of unlawful photography
JULIANNE AKERS
BY
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Property Values Reappraised as Mayor Plans Next Budget
Vivian Wilhoite tours county as the tax assessor’s office prepares new appraisals
BY
ELI MOTYCKA
Talking to Pinkalicious Author Victoria Kann
About Book Bans
Kann’s book was on Wilson County Schools’ list of banned books in the fall
MADELEINE BRADFORD
BY
COVER PACKAGE: THE PEOPLE
ISSUE
Vanderbilt Football Star Diego Pavia Pavia has made national headlines on the field and off during his time as a Commodore BY LOGAN BUTTS
Singer-Songwriter Karina Daza
The Musicana collective founder wants to build a platform for Latin musicians
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
Actor Tony James
The Stomp! and Out of the Box
star continues his creative work in Nashville
BY HANNAH HERNER
WNBA Coach Stephanie White
The Brentwood resident will lead the league’s most exciting team — and she’ll do it much closer to home
BY ELI MOTYCKA
Chef Frank Pullara
The Franklin restaurateur is bringing Culaccino’s Italian comfort food to Nashville Yards
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
Diver Ken Stewart
Stewart mentors young people in diving, marine archaeology and leadership skills — with a focus on preserving Black history BY LENA MAZEL
Actor and Comedian Andi Marie Tillman
The East Tennessee native has earned hundreds of thousands of followers with characters like Papaw and Nashveratu BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
Survivor Star Sam Phalen
The Nashvillian sports reporter earned the runner-up spot on last year’s Survivor 47 BY HANNAH CRON
Tennessean Photo Archivist Ricky Rogers
The Nashville Then photo archive tracks history and beautiful mundanity BY COLE VILLENA
CRITICS’ PICKS
DancEast Collective, Jason Isbell, Hadestown, Gay Ole Opry and more
What the Long Poem Says About Me
Tiana Clark takes emotional and formal risks in Scorched Earth BY EMILY CHOATE; CHAPTER16.ORG
MUSIC
Walking the Walk
Annie DiRusso steps into the spotlight on her debut full-length Super Pedestrian BY DARYL SANDERS
Royal Blues
Gary Clark Jr. unifies all sectors of the blues world on JPEG RAW BY RON WYNN
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Tristen at The Blue Room BY AMANDA HAGGARD
Now It’s Dark
Revisiting David Lynch’s filmography ahead of his Belcourt retrospective BY D. PATRICK RODGERS AND JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE
ON THE COVER:
Andi Marie Tillman; photo by Eric England
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ADVERTISE: msmith@nashvillescene.com EDITOR: prodgers@nashvillescene.com
Andi Marie Tillman in character as both Papaw (left) and Pam • PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND
WHO WE ARE
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
DIGITAL EDITOR Kim Baldwin
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
Robert Indiana, The American LOVE (White Blue Red), 1966–1999, Conceived: 1966; Fabricated: 1999, polychrome aluminum, 96×96×48 in., Edition of 5 + 2 APs. Courtesy of Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative and Pace Gallery © 2025 Morgan Art Foundation LLC / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
CHEEKWOOD IN BLOOM
| MARCH 8 - APRIL 13
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‘PAIN INTO PURPOSE’
Nashville women push for reform to help victims of unlawful photography
BY JULIANNE AKERS
A GROUP OF NASHVILLE women is in search of justice, and their journey has taken them to the Tennessee State Capitol.
It started in June, when one of those women, Christiana Werner, logged onto her then-boyfriend Matthew Vollmer’s laptop. There she found a folder labeled with her name containing videos of her and Vollmer engaging in sexual acts — all recorded without her consent. That led to a police investigation and the discovery of thousands of other videos of at least 11 other women who had been secretly recorded with a camera hidden inside an alarm clock in Vollmer’s room.
Vollmer, 31, was charged with eight counts of unlawful photography in November. Just four of the women were able to press charges due to the state’s 12-month statute of limitations — the 12-month period begins at the time of recording, not discovery. Vollmer posted bond after being arrested and is currently free.
Erika Thomas, one of the victims who cannot press charges, is a former lobbyist and has been vital in helping push legislation through the Tennessee General Assembly to help victims of unlawful photography. “I kind of just looked at the statute and saw a lot of holes in the statute as it was written,” Thomas tells the Scene. “So that just motivated me to pass a law.”
“In our case, the man who did this to us is probably not going to get jail time and is just going to get a slap on the wrist,” she says. “And that’s just not accountability in our eyes.”
Now two bills aiming to expand legal protections for victims of unlawful photography and increase penalties for perpetrators are making
their way through the legislature. House Bill 602, also known as the Voyeurism Victims Act, would alter some language in the legal statute and change the statute of limitations from 12 months after an incident occurred to 12 months after the criminal activity was discovered. It would also allow a victim to pursue an order of protection. The bill brought by Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Nashville) unanimously passed the House Criminal Justice Committee on Feb. 26. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and also unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. (Disclosure: Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, which publishes the Nashville Scene, the Nashville Post, the Williamson Scene and Nfocus.)
Another bill — HB 99/SB 685, sponsored by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) — would increase penalties for certain unlawful photography cases and require those convicted of the crime to be placed on the state’s sex offender registry. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Dawn White (R-Rutherford County). (Bulso did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
One of the victims in the Vollmer case, Emily Benavides, gave emotional testimony before the House Criminal Justice Committee last week. She described her involvement in the case and the terror she felt after learning she was one of several victims who could not press charges due to the statute of limitations.
“While the law had failed us, we turned our pain into purpose to ensure protection for future victims,” Benavides said. “I urge you to recognize the gravity of this issue. The bill is not just legal reform. It’s about restoring dignity, pro-
Nashville executive Amy Gleason is leading President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to the White House Gleason previously built a career in private health care and medical data before joining DOGE’s predecessor, the United States Digital Service, which functioned as an in-house IT consultant for federal agencies. As acting DOGE administrator, Gleason has overseen the bungled rollout of indiscriminate cost-cutting measures directed by tech billionaire Elon Musk that include mass layoffs and contract cancellations. Gleason graduated from Brentwood High School and attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
viding a pathway for healing for victims. … By supporting this bill, you’re closing a significant gap in our legal system, protecting families from trauma and ensuring victims receive the justice that we were denied. By voting yes, you give power back to those who were left powerless.”
Benavides tells the Scene that giving her testimony before state lawmakers took an emotional toll, but she’s beginning to feel like the efforts she and the other women spearheading reform are making are being recognized.
“It feels like we’re finally getting justice,” she says. “We didn’t really have a path for that. Coming here today is very rewarding and cathartic, and I feel like we’re finally coming full circle, and it’s very surreal to even think that we could make real change in this. … It’s very rewarding, also very taxing, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.”
“The bravery that these women have shown, to talk about this publicly, to take action, knowing that it’s not going to change their situation, but to do all this effort for other women that may go through this, is definitely to be commended,” said Freeman during the House Criminal Justice Committee hearing. “This gives them a little bit of power back that someone attempted to take from them.”
The Voyeurism Victims Act passed in the Senate on Monday and was set to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday — after the Scene’s press time. Bulso’s bill to increase criminal penalties was set to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Hamilton Matthew Masters. ▼
Metro councilmembers are debating a bill to put Metro’s Historic Zoning Commission and its Historical Commission under the authority of the Planning Department. The proposed bureaucratic shuffle follows an audit commissioned by Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office. Historic Zoning has earned its fair share of critics, including homeowners flustered by navigating its complicated process of applications, proposals and hearings. The bill, backed by District 7 Councilmember Emily Benedict, comes as proposed state legislation to restrict the power of historic preservation bodies works its way through the Tennessee legislature.
More details continue to leak from the FBI’s investigation of former state House Speaker Glen Casada, his alleged fixer-aide Cade Cothren and a kickback scheme involving Cothren’s political consulting group Phoenix Solutions. Columnist Betsy Phillips likens the whole drama to a soap opera, complete with surveillance wires and blackmail. Her main question, backed up by the apparent paper trail, centers on why politicians continued to pay the otherwise irrelevant Cothren for shady business. The only thing we know for sure is that the full picture has still not quite materialized.
PHOTO: RAY DI PIETRO
NASHVILLE WOMEN TESTIFY ON BEHALF OF A BILL THAT WOULD EXPAND LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR VICTIMS OF UNLAWFUL PHOTOGRAPHY, FEB. 26, 2025
GLEN CASADA IN 2019
PROPERTY VALUES REAPPRAISED AS MAYOR PLANS NEXT BUDGET
Vivian Wilhoite tours county as the tax assessor’s office prepares new appraisals
BY ELI MOTYCKA
PROPERTY ASSESSOR VIVIAN WILHOITE will answer questions and explain Davidson County’s reappraisal process in a series of public briefings around Nashville. The tour follows a familiar four-year cycle that determines reappraisals for every property in Nashville based on inspections, market research and sales data. Taken together, residential and commercial property taxes provide the backbone of the city’s revenue.
The convoluted process of assessing, adjusting and possibly appealing property values determines an owner’s actual property tax bill. For residential owners, these bills worked out to around $800 per $100,000 of assessed value in 2024.
This is where Wilhoite, the Davidson County assessor of property, comes in. Every four years, her office is tasked with updating these property assessments, which form the base of the property tax calculation. Residents have a chance to ask Wilhoite about the process
at 10 meetings around the county. Wilhoite started the tour at the Metro Nashville Police Department’s East Precinct on East Trinity Lane on Monday, March 3. Other dates include March 6 in Hermitage, March 12 in Madison and March 18 at MNPD’s West Precinct. A full list can be found via nashville.gov.
“It is our goal for property owners to leave our presentation fully informed about the reappraisal process,” says Wilhoite in a press release. “It is critically important that property owners be well aware of their rights to file an appeal.”
The Metro Council sets the second major variable in the tax equation: the tax rate. This has held steady for the past few years after a dramatic decrease in 2017 under then-Mayor Megan Barry and a bump in 2020 under then-Mayor John Cooper. Metro insiders may remember the ensuing “No Tax 4 Nash” campaign against Cooper and subsequent legal settlement against its cantankerous organizers.
Elected officials must adjust this tax rate if they hope to convert the city’s real estate boom into increased tax revenue. State law requires aggregate property tax revenue to remain neutral — neither rising nor falling — between years unless the city changes its tax rate. This means individual property tax bills are assessed based on their proportion of the property tax total, rising or falling relative to each other rather than their value change year to year. Mansions in Belle Meade, for example, may see property tax decreases after a reappraisal as their relative value is offset by dramatic property value increases in gentrifying areas like Woodbine, Madison or Charlotte Park.
Individual councilmembers tell the Scene they are unaware of plans to increase the tax rate this year, a decision that would pass with
this year’s budget in June. The median Nashville home price has increased about 35 percent since the last reappraisal in 2021 according to Zillow data — even a minor tax rate increase would substantially juice city income.
“We evaluate the tax rate each year, so it’s too early to determine,” Councilmember At-Large Delishia Porterfield, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, tells the Scene
In late February, Mayor Freddie O’Connell acknowledged that the city was still early in the reappraisal process. He did not discuss a tax rate change. The mayor typically proposes his version of the city budget in late April or early May.
“Right now we know the assessor’s office has announced a series of community meetings across the city and county — this is standard for them as we are in an appraisal year,” O’Connell
TALKING TO PINKALICIOUS AUTHOR VICTORIA KANN ABOUT BOOK BANS
Kann’s book was on Wilson County Schools’ list of banned books in the fall
BY MADELEINE BRADFORD
IN OCTOBER, ROUGHLY 400 books were removed from Wilson County Schools’ libraries in response to the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022. The state law, passed by Tennessee’s Republican supermajority, requires schools to remove books containing “sexual” and “patently offensive” content and includes a process
recently told media. “They go out, come back with the data and share it with our Metro Finance Department so we know what our property values are. We combine that with our revenue forecast and understanding of departmental priorities, community priorities, and our priorities to forge a budget around that.”
Commercial real estate is taxed a bit higher than residential property, just as properties in the Urban Services District are taxed higher than those in the General Services District. Certain nonprofits, like private schools and churches, enjoy property tax exemptions. This is a major public subsidy for urban landowners like Vanderbilt University, for example, whose theoretical annual tax bill would cost tens of millions of dollars. ▼
for parents, students or school staff to challenge books included in schools’ public library catalogs.
A representative for Wilson County Schools told the Scene at the time that the district’s librarians created the list in order to comply with the law — and when seeking clarification from the Tennessee Department of Education, they were directed to consult with their own legal personnel. Among the removed materials were books addressing injustices and exploring dystopian societies, including Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
To the confusion of many, several childhood favorites were also cleared from shelves, including Dr. Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday and Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious Kann posted about the ban on social media, attracting online attention and causing many readers to question why a book about a little girl who loves cupcakes and the color pink was deemed controversial. (A request for further comment from Wilson County Schools was
SOUTH STREET
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
not returned. After our interview, Kann informed the Scene that a source says the book was banned due to an illustration in which the Pinkalicious character is in her underwear.)
Kann recently spoke to the Scene by phone. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your reaction when first finding out about this ban? Sadness. It’s a very sad day when 400 books are banned from a school system. That means that education is being limited.
What did you do after discovering that Wilson County Schools banned Pinkalicious? I called the library in Wilson County today for a variety of reasons. First of all, I wanted to know that they had enough books, because if there aren’t books in the schools, there needs to be books in the public library. Second of all, I wanted to know if they knew about it and what the reason was. I guess there are some very loud parents that are making this occur.
Many people showed their support after you posted about the ban on social media. Most readers are wondering why a school district would ban a book about a girl who loves pink. What has this support meant to you? The support is absolutely incredible. People have left messages about how they grew up reading Pinkalicious, that they were Pinkalicious, that Pinkalicious was a role model for them. The book has touched the lives of so many people. I’ve done over 80 books, and Pinkalicious is about loving yourself for who you are. Every message that I write is to help educate children. These are messages that kids need to hear, and it needs to be told in a funny way. The other thing that’s really interesting is that a lot of people don’t understand what a book ban is. There were comments in which people said that it’s not actually banned because you can still buy the book, but that’s not the point. The point is that, if it’s taken off a shelf in a school system, then it is banned. The point is free access. Children need to have free access to books in school libraries and public libraries.
Why is it important for children’s reading in schools to not be restricted by book bans? Where do I even begin? First of all, when you take 400 books out of the school system, what is left? Are there books there that will connect with children? By taking away books, you’re limiting diverse perspectives, and you are limiting the ability for children to develop critical thinking. I think every parent should monitor what their child is reading at home, but they should not say, “This book doesn’t belong here.” It’s really not up to them. It undermines professional judgment. My goal is to empower children to be problem solvers. They’re the future leaders of our culture and society. They need to solve their own problems. So removing books reduces the ability for children to understand different ways to solve problems. Another reason is it politicizes education. This goes beyond being Democrat or Republican. Books should not be influenced by political ideology. We should have all different kinds of books available.
This is happening across the country. In January, the U.S. Department of Education ended investigations into book bans, and it no longer has a bookban coordinator to investigate parents and school districts. In response to nationwide bans, many authors have advocated for their books to still be available in schools. How will you proceed from here, and do you plan to take action? That’s a really good question. First of all, I’m speaking out about how there needs to be free access to books in schools and libraries. Today I immediately called the [Wilson County Public Library], and I said, “Go on my website, choose whatever books you want, and I’ll send them to you,” so that they have those books available. There are so many households where children don’t have books. Literacy is a huge problem in this country. It’s really important to make sure children have books that they can read and that they love to read. ▼
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VICTORIA KANN
WITNESS HISTORY
This Fables by Barrie-designed lamé western outfit—embellished with fringe and embroidered flowers—was worn by Molly Tuttle when she and her band, Golden Highway, first headlined at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on September 13, 2024.
From the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music artifact: Courtesy of Molly Tuttle artifact photo: Bob Delevante
THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2025
Our profiles of some of Nashville’s most interesting people, from a queen of Appalachian character comedy to a Vanderbilt football star, a Survivor runner-up and more
VANDERBILT FOOTBALL STAR DIEGO PAVIA
Pavia has made national headlines on the field and off during his time as a Commodore
BY LOGAN BUTTS
In the fall of 2021, Diego Pavia was the quarterback at New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college in Roswell, N.M. Less than four years later, the self-proclaimed “small-town kid from Albuquerque, New Mexico” has led the Vanderbilt Commodores to unforeseen heights and become one of college football’s most talked-about figures.
After leading NMMI to a National Junior College Athletic Association championship in 2021, Pavia transferred to New Mexico State, the premier football program in his home state. He once again produced unprecedented on-field results, leading the Aggies to back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time since 1960.
Following two successful seasons, New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill, a longtime college football guru known for turning programs around, accepted a job at Vanderbilt as chief consultant to head coach Clark Lea and senior offensive adviser. Pavia followed his coach to Nashville, bringing his roommate and favorite target, tight end Eli Stowers, along with him. The Aggie invasion immediately infused a jolt of excitement into what had been a dormant program. The ’Dores achieved their first winning season in more than a decade, with the crown jewel being an upset of No. 1-ranked Alabama — the biggest win in program history.
Pavia’s 308-yard, two-touchdown performance, somehow both swashbuckling and gritty, thrust one of the sport’s cult favorites directly into the national spotlight. The natural showman had no hesitation taking center stage.
“That’s just been my personality since [I was] a young kid,” Pavia tells the Scene, his program-altering charisma evident even over the phone.
“As a kid, I dreamed about just being on the big stage. But I can’t do it without the people around me.”
Pavia quickly found himself being profiled by The New York Times and going viral for his unfil-
tered post-upset interview. Even his flamboyant brothers became a small sensation in the college football world. He was the toast of Nashville.
“Nashville’s a one-of-one city,” Pavia says.
“The people here too are just awesome.
“Everyone I run into is super welcoming.
… When I first got here, when I was watching some spring practices, there would be a lot of Tennessee orange [and] Alabama gear. And now you don’t see it as much. … You see a lot more V’s on people’s chests.”
But alongside the skyrocketing fame came an unexpected role as the voice of fellow former junior college (JUCO) athletes. The NCAA’s landmark name, image, likeness (NIL) decision, which allows college athletes to be compensated with non-scholarship income, dramati-
cally changed the landscape of college sports. However, the ruling applies only to schools that fall under the NCAA’s jurisdiction — which does not include junior colleges.
In the fall, Pavia sued the NCAA, arguing that having his JUCO seasons count toward his overall college eligibility is an antitrust violation, robbing him of at least one, and potentially two, seasons of compensation. A federal judge in Nashville granted Pavia a preliminary injunction, allowing him another season of eligibility and creating a path for other athletes in similar situations. A Kansas State baseball player has already followed in Pavia’s footsteps, and more lawsuits are expected.
“My mom always taught me, if things ain’t going right, speak up,” Pavia says.
It’s situations like this — not just suing the mighty NCAA, but winning — that make you want to side with Pavia when his confidence comes out. He says “anything short of the College Football Playoff would be a loss” for Vanderbilt next season. Considering the ’Dores have never had a 10-win season in program history, that’s a huge statement. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Pavia — who went from the “undersized” kid with no Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship offers to starting for an SEC school and taking down a dynastic Alabama squad.
“God gave me one more chance to complete my goal of winning a national championship, so I’ve got to take full advantage. It’s the last dance.” ▼
KARINA DAZA
The Musicana collective founder wants to build a platform for Latin musicians BY
ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
SOMETIMES GREAT IDEAS are born from a desire to prove someone else wrong. That’s a cheeky and reductive — but not not accurate — way to describe how Karina Daza formed Musicana, a collective of Latin American musicians in Nashville.
Daza says she was inspired to form Musicana in 2023 after struggling to book gigs with venues in town, even places she had already played at as an opener, and was told each time that Latin music just doesn’t sell.
“It lit a fire in me,” says Daza. “I was like, ‘You know what? This is bullshit.’” The pushback coincided with Daza defining herself as a Latin musician and embracing more of her roots in her art — she’s a New York City Latina of Colombian and Puerto Rican heritage. More specifically, she calls herself a “tropi-folk” artist who blends Latin music, jazz, pop, soul and R&B.
Daza moved to Nashville from New York in 2018 after falling in love with the city during a single 24-hour trip. She was a graduate student in Temple University’s music therapy program at the time, singing jazz for fun with a school group, and the university invited her to perform at a conference in Nashville. After the gig, Daza explored the city and was surprised to see so many working singer-songwriters at one time.
Daza assumed she would be a music therapist by day and occasional performer by night, but Nashville showed her she could make a real attempt at being a professional musician. In what is likely a common experience for many Northeast expats, Daza found that her friends and family expressed a lot of confusion at her move, especially since she wasn’t a country musician.
Daza eventually linked up with some Nashville artists who wrote songs in Spanish, and it spurred a new direction for her sound.
“Something just clicked,” she says. “This is what was missing. I feel like my music should sound like I speak, which is Spanglish. It’s not only Spanish, it’s not only English, it’s just a mix — that bicultural identity, which is so much of what defines me.”
She found a niche for herself in Nashville, which brought in more opportunities. Among the highlights are her collaborations with genre-hopping, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno. Moreno produced Daza’s 2021 single “Mujeres Will Riot,” a response to the killing of U.S. Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen, as well as her 2024 EP Viajera, where Moreno also features on “No Pasa Na.”
Doors were opening, but she struggled to book stages. Daza had already talked with fellow Latino musicians and songwriters about creating an “emotional support group,” but as she grew more frustrated, the idea evolved into the Musicana collective. The first event was an all-Latina writers’ round at City Winery in September 2023 to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month. The inaugural show, featuring Daza and Nashville-based musicians like pop artist Elia Esparza and country singer Alyssia Dominguez, sold out.
Daza wasn’t sure what was going to happen after that first show, but she says more and more people — including folks from outside Nashville — have expressed interest in getting involved.
Musicana also parallels Daza’s musical journey in a way. Similar to the way she embraced her roots as a songwriter, she tried to rebuild a version of the community she had in New York. “I didn’t have a music community there, but I did have a Latino community there,” she says.
Daza is vocal about social justice issues and immigrant rights in her music, and hopes Musicana can rally more support of Nashville’s Hispanic community. She says one of her key collaborators in Musicana is a DACA recipient who, concerned about the threat of harsh immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, decided to leave Republican-dominated Tennessee for New England.
The early weeks of the new Trump regime have been exhausting and disheartening for many progressives and habitual news consumers, but Daza says she’s at her best when there’s “a challenge to rise to.”
“I know we’re all tired right now, and I feel like that’s by design,” she says. “That’s a whole other conversation, but I hope more people are encouraged to use that as fire and to just make art in whatever, even if they’re not professional artists. … Making something beautiful, making art in general, is an assertion of human dignity.” ▼
TONY JAME S
The Stomp! and Out of the Box star continues his creative work in Nashville
BY HANNAH HERNER
THE “NASHVILLE WAY” is to grant celebrities their anonymity. But lots of people make an exception for Tony James.
James holds a different type of celebrity as a beloved former host of the Disney kids’ show Out of the Box. The original viewers of the show, which ran from 1998 to 2004, are in their late 20s and 30s now, and may have been refreshed on James when he went viral on TikTok a few years ago. In 2019, the show debuted on Disney+, introducing children of the show’s original viewers to Out of the Box as well.
James tells the Scene the recognition is constant, but he feels sincerity from each “Box kid” he meets, and is conscious of the fact that they feel a connection with him.
“I take that very seriously,” he says. “I get it. Genuinely, I care, because even as we were doing it — I didn’t know it would extend all these years — but I took very seriously that I was speaking to children and I was making a direct connection with them through the lens.”
In the late ’90s, Disney was looking for a musician who was primarily a percussionist — even better, a junk percussionist — who had experience working with children. This musician would star (along with Vivian Bayubay, whom James calls “magical”) on a new show aimed at preschool-age children. They would make crafts, sing songs and act out skits.
Sitting in front of Disney executives to discuss the gig, James had to laugh.
“I was like — this is not arrogance — I’m laughing because what you just described is what I do,” he says.
James was uniquely qualified for the role as a trained musician, starting at LaGuardia High School in New York City. (He attended while Fame, which was based on LaGuardia, was being filmed.) He later attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he focused on percussion. He had a successful career as a session and touring musician after college. Then James was part of the original Broadway cast of Stomp!, where he performed percussion (using brooms, trash cans and other found objects) combined with acrobatics, dance and pantomiming. He gained experience working with children at New York City’s Urban Youth Theater.
James says Stomp! expanded his mind and foreshadowed his experience in children’s television. He got to know Fred Rogers when the iconic children’s television figure visited the set of Stomp! for his show, and later when the Stomp! tour visited Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Rogers had reached out about collaborating with James on a project, but it never came to fruition. So when James booked Out of the Box, he called Rogers to share the news.
Like Rogers, James is similar in real life to his on-screen persona. He’s attentive when he meets a fan, seeing it as a two-way interaction — not just someone meeting a childhood hero.
“If we’re going to speak, I want to really be present,” James says. “That is just natural. It’s not forced. It doesn’t drain me, because it’s not forced.”
He’s honored that people hold the show so dearly, and he knows now the impact of being a Black lead on the network — both for kids of
color to see someone who looked like them, and for white children who didn’t see a lot of people of color in media.
“People will say to me, ‘I grew up in a town [where] we didn’t see anyone that looked like you, and if we did, it was portrayed in a certain way, so you were my first exposure to something outside of my typical culture,’” he says. “How much love they have, and how much affinity they have is — goodness gracious — what a gift to me.”
James has lived in the Nashville area since
2010, when he relocated from Los Angeles. These days, he applies his love for combining music with visual elements on tour manning a live-feed handheld camera — which requires a “dance” with the artist onstage, as he describes it. He has worked with Beyoncé, Keith Urban and, more recently, another “Box kid” — Maggie Rogers, whom he calls a “dynamo.”
“I’ve been showered with so much love, so many things that you wouldn’t expect from a kid coming from the projects in New York,” he says.
would. I feel like, for women’s basketball and women’s sports, it’s been self-sabotage by the [TV] networks because of preconceived notions that people don’t care about it. It’s not true that people don’t care about it, and you can see that in the viewership.”
A recent WNBA bid anchored by big Tennessee names like former Gov. Bill Haslam, WNBA legend Candace Parker and country stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw made headlines recently. (The league passed on Nashville in favor of Cleveland — for the time being.) Athletes Unlimited, a WNBA-alternative women’s basketball pro league, chose the city for its four-week run, which ended March 2.
Like many pro athletes, White began building experience as a coach as her playing days wound down. Job security can often boil down to wins and losses. Phone calls, offers and contracts fly around as soon as, or even before, a team reaches the off-season, as owners and athletic directors angle for next year’s success. After a few years with the Fever, White came to Vanderbilt in 2016 to lead the women’s basketball program. She sees Tennessee firmly as basketball country.
“You think about Pat Summitt’s legacy and how much the Lady Vols generated interest in this area,” says White, “what Shea [Ralph] is doing at Vanderbilt, where there’s a renewed interest around the program. You have Louisville not too far away with Jeff Walz — just great basketball communities. Way back in the day, there was an [American Basketball League] team here in Nashville. Fan support for women’s basketball in this area is tremendous.”
Her reasons for making a home here reflect the geographic and cultural equation calculated by many residents. She has lots of family within a few hours’ drive, including an aunt in Nashville. Nashville’s size and popularity bring amenities like trendy restaurants and live entertainment — including lots of music and sports — while maintaining the feeling of a familiar community.
“Our kids are 13, 12 and 11-year-old twins,” says White. “The biggest thing for us is having that stability for them. We like it here, we like our community, and we know the city. I grew up in a small town, so you get that community feel, with access to all of the things that major cities can give you. We love going to new restaurants, going to see the Preds and Nashville SC. My son plays club soccer here — we’re pretty ingrained in the sports and culture community.”
STEPHANIE WHITE
The Brentwood resident will lead the league’s most exciting team — and she’ll do it much closer to home
BY ELI MOTYCKA
STEPHANIE WHITE HAD been waiting for the moment when women’s basketball would change.
She’s spent three decades at the top of the sport — first as an All-American at Seeger High School in rural Indiana, and then, less than an hour away, as the best player on the championship-winning 1999 Purdue Boilermakers. She was drafted to the Women’s National Basketball Association team the Charlotte Sting (now defunct), and soon returned to the Hoosier State
to join the Indiana Fever for its inaugural pro season in 2000. The “W,” as she calls it, has come a long way since then.
“The league has blown up,” White tells the Scene from Nashville. “For a long time in the WNBA, we had not had the college fan follow their player to the WNBA and be as invested in their team as they were in college. The momentum has all come together in a way that those of us who have been here since the beginning felt like it should and knew that it eventually
White surprised the WNBA when she left the Connecticut Sun in October, a year before her contract was set to expire. She helped lead the team to the WNBA semifinals in 2024 and took home the league’s Coach of the Year award in 2023. Within weeks, the Indiana Fever announced that White would return to the program for a third time, steering an exciting roster of young stars led by standout shooting guard Caitlin Clark.
At least in part, the decision rested on being a weekly drive, rather than a flight, from her Brentwood home. ▼
WNBA COACH
FRANK PULLARA
The Franklin restaurateur is bringing Culaccino’s Italian comfort food to Nashville Yards
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
WITH THE OPENING of a new outpost of his Franklin restaurant Culaccino in Nashville Yards, Frank Pullara is establishing himself as a restaurateur — but his passion is still in the kitchen.
“Ever since I was 8 years old, I was already cooking with my mom and my great-grandma and my nonna,” Pullara says. “I remember like on Easter, my great-grandma was peeling potatoes, and [I was] getting up and watching or helping. So I’ve always been interested in food.”
He opened the original Culaccino in Franklin in 2021, and last year he opened Culamar just across the street, unveiling the city’s first downtown rooftop bar and restaurant.
“I remember growing up, though, on New Year’s Eve and Christmas and stuff like that, my aunts and my nonna would make a bunch of seafood,” Pullara says. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring something new and exciting to this corner and try and help grow downtown Franklin and Main Street.”
Pullara says people often think seafood is for special occasions, but he likes to say Culamar is just “elevated casual,” and providing high-quality food and service while still being like “an everyday restaurant for everybody” is what he aims for at both concepts. He picked up many of his recipes from his family, though he has made them his own. As for his personal favorites from each restaurant, he’s got a few.
“Pizza-wise, the Il Re Di Bologna — I love mortadella — has mortadella, ricotta, pistachios on it,” he says. “Pasta-wise, our ravioli. You don’t see too many double-stuffed raviolis with robiola cheese and veal shoulder, and butter sauce, and bone marrow. So that one I love, too. Culamar, our cioppino or our trout are my two favorite entrées. It’s just that broth alone. … They are so soulful. There’s so many flavor profiles.”
Pullara started out in the restaurant business at around 15 years old and has been working in the industry ever since. He studied culinary arts in an apprenticeship at the American Culinary Federation in Milwaukee. After honing his craft at a family-run Italian restaurant in Wisconsin, he moved to Naples, Fla., and worked with his cousin Vincenzo Betulia, chef and partner at Campagna Hospitality Group.
“I helped him open up three restaurants, and we were on our fourth when I was over there with him,” Pullara says. “One of my main business partners here, he actually gave me my first opportunity in Wisconsin as an executive chef. … Him and I were always talking and still getting together after all those years, and he started talking about wanting to open a restaurant.”
That’s when Pullara and his family decided to move to Franklin. In creating that first place of his own, he wanted to make sure the love for the craft and family-oriented feeling came through — not only in each dish, but in the whole experience for a customer.
“I really want my staff to embrace what we’re doing in the food and the wine program and the cocktails,” Pullara says. “So when they do go to a table, they are standing behind what we’re trying to build and grow here. I just want them to have that passion and that energy of what we’re trying to do. … Anyone can put salt and pepper in a dish, but if you don’t put your all into it, it’s not going to show and taste that good.”
While Pullara has gotten good at the business, he’s quick to point out what it’s all about for him.
“I’m one that still likes to cook and get dirty and grab a chef knife and get behind the cutting board,” he says. “That’s who I am. That’s what I am. I’m a cook. Yes, I am an owner and I own restaurants now and have a lot of employees and stuff like that. But my first passion and love is cooking.” ▼
This People Issue profile is in partnership with our sister publication the Williamson Scene. Visit williamsonscene.com.
DIVER KEN STEWART
Stewart mentors young people in diving, marine archaeology and leadership skills — with a focus on preserving Black history
BY LENA MAZEL
IN 2004, KEN STEWART took a 35-mile boat journey to visit and clean the Henrietta Marie monument. The underwater monument, which
lies close to the wreck of the slave ship Henrietta Marie off the coast of Florida, is dedicated to the memory of African victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The GPS device used to navigate gave the divers only a rough approximation of the ship’s location. “They finally found the monument,” says Stewart. “But the current was so strong that they had to put ropes down.” Stewart first learned to scuba dive in 1989, and he’d done countless dives before his 2004 journey. But the long dive and strong current made him nervous.
Luckily he wasn’t alone. He’d been mentoring young people in diving, marine archaeology
2003 after meeting maritime archaeologist
Brenda Lanzendorf through a documentary about the search for the slave ship Guerrero Scuba divers always dive with an underwater “buddy” to ensure their safety; Lanzendorf couldn’t dive alone. Stewart sent out an email to some members of the National Association of Black Divers. “Tired of the same old dives?” he asked. “Let’s dive with a purpose.”
Since then, Diving With a Purpose has helped record and preserve countless underwater sites, with a particular emphasis on African slave trade shipwrecks. They’ve trained more than 500 individuals in marine archaeology skills using a five-day intensive course aimed at experienced divers. DWP also has a marine conservation training program and a youth program called Youth Diving With a Purpose.
Stewart helps people closer to home too. Since 1999, he’s run a life skills and leadership program for young people in Nashville called the Tennessee Aquatic Project. TAP is open to anyone ages 8 to 18 and particularly attracts young Black students, who make up around 90 percent of the program. The program offers everything from beginner swim lessons to Master Scuba Diver credentials, the highest level of scuba diving certification. Outside the pool, students must complete 20 hours of community service every year, maintain at least a C average in school, and complete TAP’s wilderness survival course. But most significantly, the program helps students grow. “Character is the most important thing to me,” Stewart says. TAP funds activities for students who need financial assistance, with help from grants and a partnership with Metro Parks. Many teenagers in the program receive lifeguard certification, and every year Stewart takes students on a scuba trip.
Stewart is constantly setting new initiatives in motion. He’s set up YDWP chapters in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Honduras. He recently met with the descendants of victims of a wreck he helped catalog, and he’s currently teaching some slightly reluctant TAP students a photography class to give them a record of their lives as young people.
and leadership skills for years, and some of his students were on the boat with him. “I kind of turned my back, and the next thing I know, they’re in the water.” As soon as they hit the water, Stewart says he thought, “Don’t stop.”
The dive to the Henrietta Marie is just one part of Stewart’s legacy cataloging the wrecks of slave ships and connecting traditionally disenfranchised groups to scuba diving and marine archaeology. Through two flagship programs — Diving With a Purpose and the Tennessee Aquatics Project — he’s helped keep Black history alive for countless people.
Stewart founded Diving With a Purpose in
His work recording wrecks is always urgent, facing the pressure of seawater degradation and a federal government currently bent on erasing African American history. But Stewart remains determined. He puts it simply when speaking about each initiative: “I had an idea, and then I made it happen.”
His legacy has taken on a life of its own, with former students becoming conservationists, marine archaeologists, researchers and more. It was these students who led Stewart into the water at the Henrietta Marie in 2004, down to a monument to the 12 million enslaved Africans who crossed the Atlantic. As his young protégés led him down into the water and cleaned the monument, Stewart could feel the weight of history and the importance of their work.
Seeing the monument, he says, “It felt like the ancestors were with me.” ▼
PHOTO:
ACTOR AND COMEDIAN
ANDI MARIE TILLMAN
The East Tennessee native has earned hundreds of thousands of followers with characters like Papaw and Nashveratu
BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
“I’M ONE OF those mentally ill people that performs for their family, you know what I’m saying?” Andi Marie Tillman tells the Scene from her home in East Nashville on a recent Friday afternoon. “At 4 years old, I put on an entire onewoman Passion Play for my family. I did. I was Mary, the Roman soldier, Jesus, Pontius Pilate, the angel that announced the resurrection — I was all the characters. So I always had ‘big dreams’ for myself, ever since I was little.”
Tillman’s East Tennessee drawl gives her away as a daughter of Appalachia. She’s a native of Scott County — one of those rural Tennessee communities so small that “you’ve got to pick the closest city, and then, like, say how far it is from there” — who moved to Nashville not long
after graduating college. Tillman in large part moved to Music City to pursue her goal of being a songwriter, but it isn’t her music that’s gained her so much recent public notice.
Roughly two-and-a-half years ago, the actor and comedian began posting clips to social media in the guise of various original characters — and they quickly became a hit.
Tillman has amassed roughly 573,000 followers on TikTok and 469,000 on Instagram thanks to characters like Papaw (an ornery, overalls-clad Appalachian), Pam (your Southern aunt who’s prone to oversharing) and my personal favorite, Nashveratu — a count-ry musician and vampire “trying to fit into the Nashville music scene but having a rough go.” Much of Tillman’s comedy is inspired by her Southern upbringing. And as it turns out, her kinfolk see the resemblance.
“My family takes bets on who’s who,” Tillman says of her characters. “So all of them think they’re everybody, and I think they like the down-home kind of stuff. … [Nashveratu is] just too weird for them. They’re like, ‘Now, I don’t get the vampire stuff. And you’d probably do better if you did more Papaw. That’d probably launch you somewhere else.’ I’m like, ‘OK, don’t need the notes, but I’m gonna get them.’ You
know, I’m loitering over a turkey here, and I’m getting, ‘Cut the goth shit,’ is basically what they’re saying.”
Like many comedy fans, Tillman grew up watching Saturday Night Live on the “boobtube,” thinking of a sketch comedy show as “the paramount place to get to.” It was of course impossible in those days to envision a path to success via then-nonexistent social media. “But now I feel like I’m producing my own sketch comedy show,” she says. And when the Scene points out that she’s kind of like her own Lorne Michaels? “I am! Just a different accent, and also I’m much more cruel to my cast members. I’m cutting sketches left and right, sweetie.”
Tillman notes that she manages to cobble together a living from income generated by social streams as well as various acting gigs. But she knows, particularly given recent developments with TikTok, social media is in a precarious state.
“But I’m a little cockroach,” she says of the possibility of TikTok being permanently banned in the U.S., “and I’ll just crawl into some other corner and multiply there. You know, I will keep germinating, or whatever I have to do. … I was frustrated when TikTok was going to shut
down, because you get substantial pay from that. You get a good little supplemental income from that, from just streams on there. So that was frustrating to me. But I thought, ‘Hell, those people got to go somewhere,’ you know, and I’ll just — I gotta be versatile.”
For now, Tillman is keeping plenty of irons in the fire. She acted in a feature that will likely be released this year, and she has plans to produce a feature-length special with some “Dada, Andy Kaufman moments in there.”
She’s also doing more live performances, like a recent appearance on the podcast Devalued at Vinyl Tap and a musical performance at East Nashville’s Bowery Vault. But even with all the successes, and all the followers, she still has a hard time convincing herself it’s all really happening.
“I think when checks started coming in and I was able to quit cleaning houses the 30 hours a week that I was having to do that to make ends meet, then I thought, ‘All right, well, maybe this social media thing isn’t so bad,’” she says. “There’s something about getting a check, honest to God, that just makes everything — you’ll put your soul on the line for that money.” ▼
PHOTO:
ANDI MARIE TILLMAN IN CHARACTER AS BOTH PAPAW (LEFT) AND PAM
SAM PHALEN
The Nashvillian sports reporter earned the runner-up spot on last year’s Survivor 47
BY HANNAH CRON
MOST OF THE subjects of this week’s People Issue have achieved recognition from work they’ve done here in Nashville — but this one made waves last year some 7,000 miles away on a remote island in Fiji.
Sam Phalen spends most of his days working as a Tennessee Titans reporter for A to Z Sports. He moved to Nashville for school in 2019, graduating from Lipscomb University in 2022. As a lifelong fan of Survivor, Phalen started applying for the show as soon as he turned 18. But it wasn’t something he took seriously until a few years later.
“In fall of 2023, I was watching Survivor 45, and there was actually a lady from Brentwood named Julie Alley who I actually now have a very good, close friendship with, which is awesome,” Phalen tells the Scene. “But I was watching it, and I think there was something about seeing somebody on Survivor that lived 10 minutes from me, paired with Jeff Probst doing his little ‘apply to be on Survivor!’ outro moments that forced me to sort of be like, ‘Let’s just do it. You have a lot going on in your life right now that could be pretty interesting for a video. Give it a shot.’” Phalen took advantage of the moment and filmed his audition tape on the field at Nissan Stadium after working a home game. Days later he got the call, and after a few interviews, it was official: Sam Phalen would be a competitor on Survivor 47 Phalen started the game as a part of the Gata tribe, leading his team to some early victories and forming alliances with tribemates Sierra and Andy, the latter of whom proved to be a real wildcard in the game. Phalen’s strategy involved playing up the bubblier parts of his personality, hoping other players would underestimate him as a result.
“I have this version of me that is this very boyish energy,” he says. “It’s very excited and goofy and happy to be there, kind of an entertainer. The golden retriever energy for sure. I know I can go there at times, and that is the version of me that I wanted to present to the people out there. I knew that if I was the very serious, intense thinker that was inside, and I was also the biggest guy on my tribe, and I at a certain point had an idol in my pocket, this threat level would just grow so large that it would make me a very juicy kill early in the game. I wanted to show people, ‘Hey, I’m here, I’m funny and goofy, and I’m not thinking all that much, you tell me what to do and let’s ride.’”
That strategy ended up serving him well, although it came with some surprising results. A small choice made to enhance his goofy persona ended up being a major plot line after the footage left the editing bay — Phalen’s supposed inexperience with fruit. In the show, he appears to try fruits like pineapple and melons for the first time, but in the months since his season has aired, Phalen has said his fruit virginity was merely a ruse meant to enhance his naivete in the eyes of the other castaways.
“It wasn’t really a premeditated thing that I was going to go out there and lie about what fruits I had or hadn’t had,” he says. “They found it so entertaining and fascinating and interesting that I immediately saw this as an opportunity for a social connection in a way of just making people laugh.”
This underlines one of his biggest tips for other players — don’t underestimate the importance of your reputation in the game. He took notes from former champion Michele Fitzgerald, who used her station on what was then known as the “Beauty tribe” to play into others’ expectations of her while plotting big moves behind the scenes.
“I tried to lean into that first impression of me that people might have and have a lot more cooking under the surface, and then always just stay resilient and gritty,” Phalen says.
Just like his idol, Phalen had a big plan cooking. In the biggest game move of the season, he was a vital part of Operation Italy, a split-vote blindside that took the quiet but cunning Caroline to the jury by surprise. He schemed the plan with ally Genevieve and brought on the unpredictable Andy — who had the same great idea — to orchestrate the plan hatched over a rewarded Italian dinner.
Phalen outlasted all his allies and made it to the final Tribal Council, where he ended the game as runner-up to the undeniable schemer Rachel LaMont. He might not have earned the title of Sole Survivor, but his torch never burned out, and he now holds the title of longest surviving Tennessean. ▼
TENNESSEAN PHOTO ARCHIVIST
RICKY ROGERS
The Nashville Then photo archive tracks history and beautiful mundanity
BY COLE VILLENA
NO ONE IS BETTER equipped to illustrate Nashville’s recent history than Ricky Rogers. As the photo archivist at The Tennessean, Rogers combs the paper’s century-old library of photos to create galleries of “Nashville Then.” The galleries are available on the paper’s website and on criminally under-followed social media pages like the @nashville_then Instagram page. The city’s history since the Tennessean edition in 1907 is represented, from photos from the civil rights movement to the 2010 flood and early shots of country music royalty. But a daily newspaper by nature covers the day-to-day issues of a city, and some of the most affecting images Rogers republishes capture beautiful, nostalgic mundanity. By seeing candid shots of shoppers at long-defunct stores, the construction of Nashville’s skyline, worshippers dressed in their 1960s
Sunday best or kids goofing around at a playground 25 years ago, you can see the evolution of a city.
“Basically, we just cover it as it goes along, right?” Rogers says. “Photographers are shooting as things develop, and then somebody else goes back 60 years and says, ‘Oh, here’s what happened.’”
Rogers is speaking from experience. He started as an employee in The Tennessean’s photo lab in 1978 and cut his teeth as a news photographer. His own photos pop up in the galleries from time to time, with standouts including a 1984 photo of “the world’s most controversial band,” The Clash, in front of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and an iconic 1985 shot of John Prine at a Big Boy restaurant.
“It’s funny, I really wasn’t big into country music when I first came here,” Rogers says. “And some of the people were just incredibly nice. Most of the country music people were, back then. They’d talk to you, and you just kind of talk back and forth. With some of the artists now, it’s like, ‘Let’s get this done.’”
A disclosure: I worked with Rogers as a reporter at The Tennessean from 2020 to 2022. By that point, he’d already been doing his archival work for around 30 years. It started in earnest
when the paper launched its website in 1994. Very quickly, Rogers saw the internet as an exciting way to show off a treasure trove of forgotten or unseen photos that he knew from his time in the paper’s photo lab.
“When you shot an assignment, you got one or two pictures in the paper, but you’ve got all this other great stuff that never saw the light of day,” he says. “Right off the bat, I saw that [the internet] could be great for photography.”
Rogers’ workspace is a deceptively large storeroom located at The Tennessean’s office in Midtown. It contains not only copies of the photos that made it into the paper, but also outtakes, daily work logs from photographers and microfilm copies of old papers. He’s part historian, part librarian, part detective — he doesn’t just have to find pictures but also sift through records and old papers to figure out who took them, who’s in them and other information.
“It was awful when I first started doing it,” Rogers says. “We had a microfilm viewer that was in bad, bad shape. ... The printout didn’t work half the time. Sometimes I had to actually write down the [photo captions] in my notebook.”
Rogers holds an obvious respect for old photojournalists — even putting aside the fact he
worked with some of them. To a photojournalist, he says, the job isn’t usually about taking an iconic, enduring photograph. It’s just about helping folks see what’s going on in a city each day.
“Now that I do Nashville Then, I wish my old self would have been more aware of covering everything more completely for future generations,” he says. “I didn’t think much about the history of what I was doing.”
“Even the photographers that covered the civil rights movement, they were just basically, this was going on, so they assigned photographers to shoot it,” Rogers says. “Nobody really thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be the pivotal moment.’”
Whether the photos show “pivotal moments” or everyday nostalgia, Rogers says they provide an important link to the past. Commenters on his galleries agree.
“When you get an old picture, [the comments are] amazing,” Rogers says. “‘That’s the old Nashville that I love.’ You get a lot of that. I think that’s what’s so good about it, you remember how things used to be. I think that’s kind of important. People always say, ‘You’ve got to remember where you came from.’” ▼
PHOTO:
Live
t
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is c bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.
MARCH LINE UP
3.6
3.7
3.8
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 3.12
Mark Irwin, Clay Mills, Jen Schott
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
& Pizza
Songbird with Maggie Rose
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
THURSDAY, MARCH 6
DANCE [OF TIME AND MEMORY]
DANCEAST COLLECTIVE
The more I learn about DancEast Collective, the more I find to admire. Established in 2008, this burgeoning nonprofit has become a key player in Nashville’s contemporary dance community by offering a great mix of educational and community programming along with creative and performance opportunities for local pros. Thursday evening you can check out the premiere of Running Out, a new work from DanceEast’s first artist-in-residence, Becca Hoback. Local audiences are certainly familiar with Hoback, an internationally recognized movement artist, performer, collaborator and choreographer, and founder of Nashville’s Enactor Productions. As with many of Hoback’s works, Running Out touches on themes of growth and transformation. Described as “an exploration of the tension between time, change and memory,” the piece will showcase the talents of company dancers Marcela de la Vega Luna, Delaine Dobbs, Kaylee Lane, Lily Sekeres and Miranda Reed, along with artistic director Elizabeth Wilkinson and company apprentice Olive White. Audiences also can look forward to checking out Emma Morrison’s duet I See You. Do You See Me? AMY STUMPFL
7 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
THURSDAY / 3.6
[HABITUAL BLUES]
MUSIC
GARY CLARK JR.
Gary Clark Jr. has been hailed as a savior of the blues, a title that suits a Texas-born guitarist who cut his teeth in Austin clubs. Like his predecessor Robert Cray, Clark has a commercial touch that’s made him a Grammy-winning star. I’ve always heard Clark as a rock musician who plays blues, and his 2024 album JPEG Raw gets over as a modern R&B record that pays tribute to Prince, George Clinton and progressive funk in general. Clark created JPEG out of a series of demos he engineered at his Texas home. With additional recording by Nashville producer Mike Elizondo, the album features guest spots by the aforementioned Clinton and Memphis neo-blues singer Valerie June. JPEG peaks with a pair of tracks that illustrate Clark’s range and ambition. “Hyperwave” sounds like Prince channeling Funkadelic circa One Nation Under a Groove Meanwhile, the nine-minute “Habits” extends one of Clark’s best-written songs into a suite that gives him a chance to show off his chops. Clark honors the experimental throughout JPEG, which
means he might be a blues savior after all. Singer Danielle Ponder opens for Clark at the Ryman on Thursday, while Nashville-based blues guitarist Grace Bowers does the honors Friday. Read more on Clark in this week’s music section.
EDD HURT
MARCH 6-7 AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
FRIDAY
/ 3.7
[LIVIN’ IT UP ON TOP!]
THEATER
HADESTOWN
What started as a small indie song cycle and theater project from American singersongwriter Anaïs Mitchell has become something of a Broadway sensation. Blending the mythical tales of Orpheus and Eurydice along with that of King Hades and Persephone, Hadestown first premiered on Broadway in 2019 and went on to win eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. While this unusual musical is still going strong at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre, the nonEquity touring production stops in Nashville this weekend for a short run at TPAC’s Jackson Hall. Marked by imaginative design and timely
themes, the show offers an engaging mix of modern folk and New Orleans-inspired jazz, with memorable songs like “Road to Hell,” “Livin’ It Up on Top,” “Wedding Song,” “All I’ve Ever Known,” “Hey, Little Songbird” and more. Billed as “a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back,” this Hadestown promises a dynamic ensemble of young performers and a wholly unique theatrical experience. AMY STUMPFL
MARCH 7-9 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL
505 DEADERICK ST.
MUSIC
[TRAVELING
ALONE]
JASON ISBELL
Add this to your list of only-in-Nashville events: On Friday, Jason Isbell will play a lunchtime gig at Grimey’s to celebrate the release of his new solo album Foxes in the Snow. Isbell, the guitar-picking bard who often captures life’s complexities with a few wellchosen words, stepped away from his longtime band The 400 Unit for Foxes in the Snow, an album of acoustic songs cut on a 1940 Martin 0-17 guitar at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Nashville album maker and longtime Isbell collaborator Gena Johnson co-produced the album, which is the first solo acoustic release of Isbell’s career. Those wanting to catch the Grimey’s in-store performance must preorder Foxes in the Snow from Grimey’s ahead of the event; Isbell also plans to sign albums for attendees. Those who don’t score a slot to this intimate gig can catch Isbell later this month at new Nashville venue The Pinnacle, where he’s booked for four solo gigs. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER NOON AT GRIMEY’S 1060 E. TRINITY LANE
FILM [SILENCIO]
DAVID LYNCH: A RETROSPECTIVE: MULHOLLAND DRIVE
When beloved director David Lynch died in January, the outpouring of appreciation online showed the outsized impact the arthouse auteur had on film. Lynch had perhaps more influence on the medium than any director in the past 50 years, save Steven Spielberg himself. You knew the Belcourt would be there with a killer retrospective to celebrate the weirdo icon, and they delivered. Mulholland Drive might be the crown jewel of Lynch’s filmography (filmwise at least, as Twin Peaks remains the overall champion). The twisty, dreamlike, Vertigoon-drugs neo-noir is led by Naomi Watts in a
breakthrough dual role as a Hitchcock-style blonde making her way through the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. It’s still hard to believe that a director whose work is as surreal and sometimes inscrutable as Lynch’s is, made its way to the mainstream. When Mulholland Drive was first released on DVD, it came with a set of 10 clues to “unlock the movie.” I can’t imagine any other surrealist director’s work being engaged with at a mainstream level like that, especially now. Lynch was truly one of a kind. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. LOGAN BUTTS
MARCH 7 & 11 AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
SATURDAY / 3.8
FAMILY
[LENDING A PAW] NASHVILLE ZOO’S TEDDY BEAR CLINIC
At this annual fundraiser for the Nashville Zoo, your child can bring in their favorite stuffie, get a checkup — complete with wraps for broken bones and bandages for shots — from one of the zoo’s veterinarians. While there, families can get a behind-the-scenes tour inside the HCA Healthcare Veterinary Center. After your brave stuffie has finished their checkup, they’ll receive a certificate of “Beary Good Health.” There are also activities, coloring and photo
opportunities to complete the experience. Book your appointment online at nashvillezoo.org. Just like at most doctor’s offices, appointments fill up fast.
ELIZABETH JONES
MARCH 8-9 AT THE NASHVILLE ZOO AT GRASSMERE 3777 NOLENSVILLE PIKE
BOOKS [THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE] JESSICA VALENTI: ABORTION:
OUR BODIES, THEIR LIES, AND THE TRUTHS WE USE TO WIN
As advocates nationwide fight for reproductive health care access, award-winning writer and feminist activist Jessica Valenti will share her resilient message about the right to choose here in Nashville. A conversation and book signing at the Junior League of Nashville — presented by Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi — will highlight the author’s latest release, Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win. The book examines post-Roe America and emphasizes the harmful effects of the Dobbs ruling, which Valenti details in her newsletter Abortion, Every Day. Most importantly, Abortion provides context and facts readers need to slice through misinformation and advocate for their bodies. For more than two decades, Valenti’s empowering and pragmatic writing style has invited readers nationwide into the feminist discussion. And now Valenti will directly address Tennesseans. Copies of Valenti’s book will be sold at the local, woman-owned bookstore Parnassus Books and made available for pickup at the event.
MADELEINE BRADFORD
9:30 A.M. AT THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF NASHVILLE 2202 CRESTMOOR ROAD
ART [ONE PIECE AT A TIME] AMBER LELLI: REST IN PIECES
Nashville artist Amber Lelli’s Celestial Falls sculpture installation at the Donelson Public Library celebrates the biodiversity of the Volunteer State. It features a menagerie of animal figures and a collection of floral forms
that constitute a kind of “I spy” game for kids, informing young readers about the natural world around them. My favorite Lelli-ism is the artist’s penchant for rendering pop-cultural ephemera using ancient techniques like bronze casting. Celestial Falls plays a similar trick, representing delicate leaves, pointed petals and swaying stems in metal gilded with aluminum. Lelli’s Rest in Pieces exhibition at LeQuire Gallery features large-scale floral sculptures similar to those in Celestial Falls, immersing viewers in a delicate garden rendered in metal with hammers, tongs and fire. Lelli and some of the artists who assisted her on Celestial Falls will appear at a gallery talk on International Women’s Day, this Saturday, to talk about the design and installation of the celebrated public work. JOE NOLAN
THROUGH MARCH 20 AT LEQUIRE GALLERY 4304 CHARLOTTE AVE.
[QUEER
MUSIC
TO STAY] GAY OLE OPRY
They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re poised to party. After selling out in September, Nashville’s Gay Ole Opry is back. This time, the shindig will be hosted at the OG Basement, culminating in the once-every-few-months night of music, art and photo ops that Nashville’s queer community has come to celebrate and embrace. Gay Ole Opry is essentially a collective queer talent show — and everyone’s a winner. The third live installment of Gay Ole Opry will feature performances by Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers, Benedict, Purser and, of course, three-time Gay Ole Opry veteran and Nashville’s friendliest “neighborhood lesbian comedy band,” Again (& Again). Fellow three-time Opry veteran and Lipstick Lounge emcee Kennedy Ann Scott will host the event, and a portion of proceeds will be donated to the Tennessee Equality Project. Before the festivities begin, guests can ditch the event’s usual disposable cameras to line up for a different type of Opry photo-op: the brand-new “gay ole photobooth.” BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
9 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT
1604 EIGHTH AVE. S.
FILM [GO SPEED RACER GO] MIDNIGHT MOVIES: SPEED RACER
I logged many hours watching classic Speed Racer anime reruns as a budding young motorsports enthusiast, with the zany chimpanzee sidekick character Chim Chim serving as a particular hero throughout my childhood. Having been so enthralled by the adventures of Speed and his incredible race car the Mach 5 in my youth, I was elated when the live-action film premiered in 2008. Despite a lackluster response upon its debut, the film has garnered well-deserved praise and a quasi-cult following in the years since. The top-notch cast features Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer, Christina Ricci as his crush/cohort Trixie, Matthew Fox as the mysterious Racer X, Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer and a heavily mustachioed John Goodman as Pops Racer, the hot-headed mastermind behind the Mach 5. What makes
HADESTOWN
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TEDDY BEAR CLINIC
Saturday, March 8
SONGWRITER SESSION
Ryan Larkins
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 8
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Block Party
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Sunday, March 9
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Family
Block Party
9:30 am · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
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Sunday, March 9
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Jen Gunderman
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 15
SONGWRITER SESSION
Canaan Smith
NOON · FORD THEATER
WITNESS HISTORY
Museum Membership
Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and more.
Saturday, March 15
POETS AND PROPHETS
Natalie Hemby
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 22
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm
HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Saturday, March 22
MUSIC AND CONVERSATION
Meet Luke Combs’s Band
The Wild Cards 11:00 am · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 22
INTERVIEW AND CONVERSATION
Chris Kappy
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
the film a sleeper masterpiece, however, are the stunning visual effects, which far overshadow any lapses in dialogue or storyline quality. A rush of thrilling Aughties CGI optics push the neon race scenery into sci-fi territory while harkening back to the trademark cartoonish stylings of the movie’s Japanese predecessor. For Speed Racer fans — as well as anyone who loves spectacular visual effects — the ’08 feature film is a must-see on the big screen. JASON VERSTEGEN MIDNIGHT AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
MUSIC
[HARDLY HUMANS IN HUMANITY] JESSE WELLES
You may not know Jesse Welles by name, but you’ll likely recognize his voice. Welles is a tenured songwriter who cut his teeth in Nashville’s rock scene before catching fire online for his gut-punching collection of folk protest songs. He has released music at a prolific clip in recent months, often catching the attention of TikTok scrollers for his unfiltered words on the Israel-Hamas war (“War Isn’t Murder”), the health care industrial complex (“United Health”), capitalism (“Walmart”) and disease (“Cancer”). Some of his most popular songs come delivered in a timetested cadence that isn’t quite spoken-word, but feels nonetheless intimate. For example, on “United Health,” he croons: “There ain’t no ‘you’ in United Health / There ain’t no ‘me’ in the company / There ain’t no ‘us’ in the private trust / There’s hardly humans in humanity.” And there’s plenty more to dig through. He has released three albums since July — the 21-song Hells Welles, its follow-up Patchwork and early-2025 effort Middle — and will take to The Basement East’s stage this weekend.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
FAMILY
[STAGES FOR ALL AGES] ARTS ADVENTURE
It’s one thing for children to build creative skills by following the same old routine every day. But combining skill-building with passion is a whole other ball game — and the Tennessee
Performing Arts Center is a place to do just that. This Saturday, TPAC is offering a day of equal parts work and play with three Arts Adventure workshops for children. Kids will learn stage skills like choreography and character development, all while being immersed in the imagination of one of their favorite Broadway musicals. The “Tale as Old as Time” workshop caters to aspiring actors ages 8 to 12, bringing the elements behind Beauty and the Beast to life on the TPAC stage. The age range moves up a little for both the “Changed for Good” and “Not Throwing Away My Shot” workshops, which work with aspiring Nashville stars ages 10 to 16. “Changed for Good” explores the magic of Wicked, while “Not Throwing Away My Shot” travels into the world of Hamilton. Attendees are encouraged to pick their favorite musical and start from there — and a familiar face won’t be far, as caregivers are welcome to attend and observe, free of charge. Visit tpac.org for details on individual courses. BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
VARIOUS TIMES AT THE TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
505 DEADERICK ST.
SUNDAY / 3.9
FILM [FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER] DAVID LYNCH: A RETROSPECTIVE: DUNE
Cinephiles the world over cried out in anguish in January when visionary filmmaker David Lynch died at age 78 due to complications from emphysema. The Belcourt is celebrating the beloved auteur’s legacy with David Lynch: A Retrospective from March 7 to 19, and among the repertory series’ upcoming screenings is 1984’s Dune, possibly the director’s most divisive film. After the commercial and critical success of Lynch’s second feature, 1980’s Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man (eight nominations, no wins), famed Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis handed Lynch the keys to Dune — his adaptation of novelist Frank Herbert’s influential 1965 sci-fi epic of the same name. Though the film was a commercial failure and was panned by many Dune fans (including Lynch himself, who lost
creative control of the project and later referred to the movie as a “gigantic sadness” in his life), it is not without its defenders. And indeed, while it didn’t turn out the way Lynch probably envisioned it — and while it doesn’t carry the same impressive weight as Denis Villeneuve’s recent adaptations — 1984’s Dune has lots for viewers to sink their teeth into, from Kenneth McMillan’s unsettling performance as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to the inventive sets and a Toto-produced soundtrack. And that’s not to mention Sting’s performance as the Baron’s scantily clad nephew Feyd-Rautha. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. D. PATRICK RODGERS MARCH 9 & 13 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
MONDAY / 3.10
MUSIC
[STUFF THAT WORKS] RUSTON KELLY
If you can imagine Guy Clark and Steve Young as devotees of the rock genre known as emo, you have a handle on Ruston Kelly’s new EP Dirt Emo, Vol. 2. Like its 2019 predecessor, Dirt Emo, Vol. 1, Kelly’s latest music provides a glimpse into a pop sensibility that’s pretty interesting — and maybe not country, though Kelly definitely betrays the influence of Clark, Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt, all of whom are subjected to various emo-friendly filters. I like his Dirt Emo, Vol. 2 cover of Avril
Lavigne’s “Complicated,” but the real keeper is his conversion of American Hi-Fi’s 2000 poppunk tune “Flavor of the Weak” into gauzy, emo-esque pop. Kelly is a fine songwriter who’s written for the likes of Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. Still, his best work strikes me as a bit too oddball — which means good — to work as mainstream country. The rather minimalist production Nate Mercereau applies to Kelly’s 2023 full-length The Weakness gives heft to songs about being a struggling Nashville songwriter and the complexities of actor Michael Keaton. Kelly settles in for a two-night run at The Basement East that should focus on his emo side, but he’s got plenty of tricks in his song bag. Monday’s show was sold out at press time. EDD HURT
MARCH 10-11 AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
WEDNESDAY
/ 3.12
SHOPPING
[GIMME GIMME GIMME A DEAL FROM THE MARKET]
GIMME GIMME MORE! MARKET
Lace-covered tables displaying vintage jewelry and eccentric tchotchkes accompany neatly hung garments from decades past. Row upon row of booths full of timeless pieces decorate the retro-inspired lounge at Eastside Bowl. This is what it’s like at Gimme Gimme More! Market, a (shopping) trip through time. For the monthly market’s one-year celebration, stylish and friendly merchants will once again curate booths with a passion for environmentalism, fashion, art, analog media and more. Whether they’re selling clothes that seem like a Pinterest pipe dream or charming crafts with a modern twist, these offbeat Tennessee businesses eagerly await your discovery. But there’s more to do than just rummaging through booths — you can grab a game of pool or a round of bowling, enjoy a drink from the bar, visit a speciality service booth for a flash tattoo or tooth gem, get a tarot card reading or even take a tintype photo with friends old and new. Full details for the vintage and art market are available online and on Instagram at @gimmemoremkt. AIDEN O’NEILL
4-10 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508 GALLATIN PIKE N., MADISON
JESSE WELLES
DUNE
RUSTON KELLY PHOTO: JOHN CHONG
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WHAT THE LONG POEM SAYS ABOUT ME
Tiana Clark takes emotional and formal risks in Scorched Earth BY EMILY
CHOATE
A MYSTERIOUS POEM appears midway through Tiana Clark’s new collection, Scorched Earth, that details an ambiguous imagined encounter in a Nashville bar. A father lurks over a steak he can’t eat while a daughter he’s never met works her shift. But then, abruptly, the scene collapses, dissolving into the poet’s ongoing confusion over how to end her poem.
Without warning, the uneasy, noirish tone of the poem’s apparent storyline opens a trapdoor into the writer’s process: “until I could / see the scaffolding, until I could see the secret of my poem, love, which / is — father, daughter, reader, lover — I don’t have to tell you everything.”
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6:30PM
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THURSDAY, MARCH 6
with JOYCE SEARCY at NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY Spell Freedom
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with LINDSAY LYNCH at PARNASSUS 33 Place Brugmann
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MONDAY, MARCH 17
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6:30PM
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Through smoldering honesty and formal inventiveness, the poems of Scorched Earth insist on foregrounding the rough truths that shake loose during times of upheaval. From collisions of art, desire, religion, racism and moments of “transgressive joy, queer joy, and Black joy,” Clark locates the searing heart of her work.
Clark, who grew up in Nashville and later graduated from Vanderbilt’s MFA program, first established her grasp on these approaches in her memorable debut, 2018’s I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood. That collection brought blistering candor to bear on the continued violence wrought by systemic racism, the fight for authentic self-love and desire after a chafing religious upbringing, and the restless necessity that drives artists to discover forms for their experience.
Now, in Scorched Earth, Clark furthers her explorations of these subjects. These poems spring from a potent inciting incident — the immediate aftermath of divorce. The resulting works deepen and enrich Clark’s voice, fueling the poems with greater emotional risk and more anarchic encounters with formal experiment.
Scorched Earth is about a divorce and also about finding the language to write about a divorce. To survive such times is to negotiate the mundane and the earthshaking, simultaneously. Clark captures this surreal experience with arresting detail and insight.
The opening poem, “Proof,” recalls a small but sharp moment of conflict. The speaker acknowledges her role in the emotional fallout: “I think it’s important to implicate / the self. The knife shouldn’t exit the cake clean. // There is still some residue, some proof of puncture, // some scars you graze to remember the risk.”
Clark never backs away from this sharpened edge of emotional exposure. “My Therapist Wants to Know About My Relationship to Work” evokes the relentless tumult of a hustle-culture work identity alongside the internal cries for relief. “First Date During Social Distance” recalls
the hunger driving an unrepeatable moment in time: “Everything wanted to be touched.”
At many points, Clark pulls back the curtain to show us glimpses of her poems’ backstage lives. Often these choices illuminate the influences of works by other writers and artists. A powerful example is the titular poem, an ekphrastic work exploring the Kara Walker lithograph Buzzard’s Roost Pass, 2005. Walker’s piece also appears on the front cover of Scorched Earth
Clark finds particular inspiration in the Old English long poem “The Seafarer” to craft her own exploration of the body as a vessel for desire in “Indeed Hotter for Me Are the Joys of the Lord”: “If my body be a long poem / then I want it to go wherever it needs. / I lick dirty verbs in my teeth and feast. / I go back to the buffet with my dirty plate, / because I want my body to say all it has to say / and not be sorry for the saying. Of. It.”
Here and elsewhere, Clark mingles personal and formal joys, to ecstatic effect: “I am what the long poem says about me.”
“Maybe in Another Life” closes the collection in a reflective epilogue. Here, the speaker stands at the ocean’s edge. She considers the ambiguous losses that we inevitably grieve after tough choices that send our lives down one path while relinquishing all other possible paths. Caught up in this fraught process, she laments: “The bargaining — ain’t it a bitch? The bargaining
aspect / of grief, to constantly release that which I’ve already // let go of.”
The ocean setting provides a graceful note of exhalation after so many poems that prize fiery, unsparing self-inquiry. The waves soothe, even as they insist upon surrender to life’s implacable rhythms of change, including the kinds of change that elude our attempts to describe them: “I keep looking at the gentle waves // for answers without trying to make another metaphor.”
Scorched Earth imbues this liminal moment with a poignant sense of wonder. Standing between fixed metaphors and self-images, Clark seems to tell us, we do well to respect the mystery of such moments — and our insufficient words — as they drift away from us.
To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
Scorched Earth By Tiana Clark Washington Square Press 112 pages, $17.99
Clark will discuss Scorched Earth 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Parnassus Books
WALKING THE WALK
Annie DiRusso steps into the spotlight on her debut fulllength Super Pedestrian
BY DARYL SANDERS
DON’T BE MISLED by the title of Annie DiRusso’s new album Super Pedestrian. There is nothing pedestrian about the rising indie rocker’s exciting full-length debut, which hits stores and streaming platforms Friday. The title comes from DiRusso’s primary mode of transportation — her feet.
“I knew the name pretty soon into creating the album,” DiRusso tells the Scene by phone from her home in East Nashville. “I don’t have a license, so I walk everywhere. I was without a license in Nashville, a drivable city, for so many years, so I was, like, walking to the grocery store and kind of making it a walkable city for me.”
DiRusso also considered the album finale, “It’s Good to Be Hot in the Summer,” for the title of the record.
“I think Super Pedestrian is a little bit more descriptive of me, and ‘It’s Good to Be Hot in the Summer’ is a bit more descriptive of the songs,” she says. “And for a debut record, I think I wanted to introduce myself a little bit.”
Super Pedestrian features 11 songs that build on the blend of distortion and melody DiRusso has explored on the dozen singles she released between 2017 and 2022 and her acclaimed 2023 EP God, I Hate This Place. All of those recordings were made with producer Jason Cummings, while the new release was helmed by Caleb Wright (Hippo Campus, Raffaella, Samia), whom DiRusso met
after a show in Minneapolis in 2023.
“I loved working with Jason so much, and we had such a long-standing relationship and way of working, but I knew I wanted to try something different for this full-length record, just to see how I could expand my sound,” DiRusso explains. “I was talking to all these different producers, and I kept coming back to the idea of Caleb … that he was who I wanted to bring the songs to.”
The album was recorded in February and March 2024 at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, N.C., where DiRusso had previously done some sessions. On the Super Pedestrian dates, she sang and played guitars, while multi-instrumentalist Eden Joel played all the other instruments, including bass, keyboards, drums and additional guitars. The album also features guest backing vocals by co-writers Samia (“Back in Town”) and Ruston Kelly (“Wearing Pants Again”).
On God, I Hate This Place, DiRusso addressed the pain she experienced from unfulfilling, sometimes even psychologically abusive relationships, which left her doubting herself. While she continues to explore those themes on Super Pedestrian, she does so from a more positive and settled place.
“I was 23 at the time the last tour ended,” she recalls. “I loved that tour, but I was playing songs every night that I wrote when I was 18 or 19 or 20, and I was wearing the outfit I would have been wearing at that age. I think being off the road made me have to face myself, like, ‘OK, who am I at 23,’ which was really, really beautiful. So I do think the album comes from a bit of a more grounded place and a little bit more inside my body looking out, where maybe the EP was a little bit more outside my body looking in.”
Sonically, God, I Hate This Place was darker
ROYAL BLUES
Gary Clark Jr. unifies all sectors of the blues world on JPEG RAW
BY RON WYNN
THOUGH HE WOULD most likely embrace this notion reluctantly, if at all, Gary Clark Jr. stands tall among the few contemporary artists with the creative imagination and technical ability to reach every segment of the blues community. Clark, who’s coming to Nashville for a two-night engagement this week at the Ryman, has the vocal range and authority to thrill those who come to the idiom mainly or solely for songcraft and verbal expressiveness.
He’s a brilliant guitarist, inventive enough to deliver those intricate, note-filled solos the bluesrock crowd savors, while also providing the less complicated licks and rhythmic patterns favored by hardcore blues listeners. Plus, while he’s a champion of the art form, he refuses to let narrow definitions or notions about authenticity limit his approach or interests. A multiple Grammy winner, Clark envisions a future where it’s no big deal for a blues artist to utilize electronic, hip-hop or dance music influences within their work.
and more dissonant than her new record, which shows DiRusso integrating some of her pop influences. Those influences are most apparent on cuts like “Back in Town,” “Legs,” “Wet” and “Good Ass Movie.”
“I love pop music, and I feel like my melodies are very inspired by my love of pop,” she says. While her pop influences inform Super Pedestrian, make no mistake, it’s a rock record. The most raucous track on the album is also the shortest — “Derek Jeter,” a dense, noisy tribute to the legendary New York Yankees shortstop complete with hooky power chords and vocal chants of his name by DiRusso, Joel and Samia. It clocks in at 1:46 and includes a brief spoken-word bit about Jeter written and voiced by DiRusso’s father, a lifelong Yankees fan.
The song first came together during a demo session at Joel’s Nashville studio. He and DiRusso had hit a wall on another song they were recording and needed to take a break with something less serious.
“We kind of just made the song as a joke,” she says. “It was a palate-cleanser and ended up being one of my favorite things.”
“Derek Jeter” provides a lighthearted break in a record that is largely about heavier concerns. No track is heavier either lyrically or musically than “I Am the Deer,” whose chorus features the repeating couplet, “I am the deer / I am the driver.” It’s a song in which DiRusso confronts the enemy within, and in doing so demonstrates her growth as a person and an artist.
“It’s about self-sabotage,” she says. “I am the deer, I’m also the driver. I’m constantly hitting myself with a car. I’m not letting myself get to where I want to be or do the things I want to do. But now that I’ve said this, and I know that, I can move forward.” ▼
“Blues will always be my foundation,” Clark says on his website. “But that’s just scratching the surface. I’m also a beat-maker and an impressionist who likes to do different voices. I’ve always loved theater and being able to tell a story. At home when I play the trumpet, I think Lee Morgan, or John Coltrane when I play the sax. I’ve even got bagpipes just in case I need them.”
Clark’s backstory has been told in numerous articles, as he’s equally revered by the Rolling Stone crowd and fans of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Memphis Minnie. An Austin, Texas, native, he was a teen sensation — in part due to stories that leaked out about a self-taught prodigy singing with his sisters at family events. After a critically praised starring role in John Sayles’ 2007 film Honeydripper — coupled with the advocacy of promoter and Austin music-scene guru Clifford Antone, also the proprietor of the Austin music club Antone’s — Clark’s profile and exposure steadily expanded. His appearances at Antone’s with other artists like Jimmie Vaughan attracted widespread attention. They would eventually lead to a host of all-star collaborations with such artists as Alicia Keys, The Foo Fighters, ZZ Ward, B.B. King and The Dave Matthews Band, among others. He also raised his profile with numerous festival appearances including Bonnaroo, the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Beale Street Festival.
Clark made his major label debut with the Warner Bros. EP The Bright Lights in 2011, and the same year he was named Best Young Gun by Rolling Stone. After Clark cut a pair of songs with Keys — who publicly lauded his full-length debut Blak and Blu — there was
Playing March 6 (with opener Danielle Ponder) and March 7 (with opener Grace Bowers) at the Ryman
Playing Thursday, March 6, at The Blue Room at Third Man Records
Super Pedestrian out Friday, March 7
no longer any question about Gary Clark Jr.’s popularity. Over the past 12 years he’s joined Robert Cray as blues figures whose appeal extends beyond the confines of specialty radio shows and festivals.
Clark’s brilliance has been routinely displayed on such LPs as The Story of Sonny Boy Slim (2015), a pair of live releases and his masterpiece, 2019’s This Land Clark has consistently dazzled and satisfied in his live performances with energetic guitar work, while his songwriting and singing have also matured. The title track of This Land with its powerhouse tale of racist disbelief at Black success, is as great a protest song as anyone’s recently written in or out of blues, and it rightfully earned him three of his four Grammys — although surprisingly it didn’t win one for a masterful accompanying video.
He’s also maintained a steady film and television schedule, appearing on everything from guest shots on Friday Night Lights, NCIS: New Orleans and Luke Cage to appearances in such films as Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead and a key role in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis portraying mighty country bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. His most recent cinematic role was as T-Bone in Martin Guigui’s 2023 film Sweetwater, which celebrates the life of Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the NBA’s first Black player to sign a league contract.
Clark’s latest LP, last year’s JPEG Raw, surpasses “This Land” in scope and ambition, ranking as his crowning achievement. Its 12 songs tackle a host of
MUSIC: THE SPIN
TRISTEN THE NIGHT AWAY
BY AMANDA HAGGARD
AS TRISTEN PERFORMED At The Blue Room at Third Man Records on the first Saturday in March — filling her set with nostalgia as well as notes on generational emotional intelligence, parenting and class conflict — I couldn’t help but remember the list of reasons why babies cry that a doctor rattled off to me before I brought my child home for the first time. They could be tired. They could be hungry. They could be uncomfortable. They could be lonely.
Tristen called the audience a “real OG Nashville crowd,” a nod to a group of folks who probably didn’t feel as much like they were up past their bedtime in 2017 when Tristen released “Partyin’ Is Such Sweet Sorrow,” a danceable crowd favorite. She and Hughen — her husband and longtime musical partner — also shared the mic for “Baby Drugs,” which is even more fun to sing along to at a live show than in your car. Tristen lives to create a sing-along moment, and her performance of “No One’s Gonna Know” made it feel downright fun to bemoan the sickness of capitalism.
subjects, and the album manages the tough task of being topical and political without becoming strident or preachy. His subjects include the havoc smartphone overuse has wreaked on society (“JPEG Raw”) and the fate of the next generation on “What About the Children,” a piercing duet with Stevie Wonder.
Clark’s collaborators include the delightful Valerie June, funk icon George Clinton, electronic R&B/alt-pop artist Naala and contemporary gospel’s Shanan, Shawn and Savannah (Clark’s own sisters). Crackling jazz session trumpeter Keyon Harrold brings additional instrumental spice and muscle to “Alone Together,” while “Maktub” (which takes its title from an Arabic word for fate or destiny) offers some of his finest guitar playing as well as intense vocals. Both he and Naala are vocally potent throughout “This Is Who We Are,” another stirring declaration of identity and triumph.
Still, the LP’s standout song, the one that most epitomizes how special a talent Clark has become, is the nine-minute opus “Habits.” Its lyrics outline and illuminate personal flaws and weaknesses with a directness that’s memorable and searing, while the accompaniment is edgy and sharp, but never excessive. “Habits” is the perfect example of the way Gary Clark Jr. brings a 21st-century flavor to the blues, yet never strays so far afield it becomes tedious. Though he’s always avoided being labeled the next great bluesman, whether he wants that crown or not, it nicely fits on the head of Gary Clark Jr. ▼
Folks traveled from Brooklyn, Dallas, Chicago, England and Antioch to enjoy an evening together and a celebration of Tristen’s new EP Zenith, the January release that revisits 2013’s CAVES. A scan of the room revealed a mix of stylish aging indie kids and bleeding hearts out for a night of some dancing, no more than a couple of drinks and a de parture by midnight, latest. A few conversations could be heard in the room about who had tucked their young’uns in, and I myself found a pair of my child’s socks nestled in my pocket as I reached for my phone to take notes. It brought a pang of guilt but was also a quick reminder of something that Tristen herself relayed to the Scene recently: the importance of finding joy to bring back home, and of doing the things you love.
Songwriter Cortney Tidwell joined Tristen to sing “Lovin’ You,” a song they wrote together, as Tristen took turns looking lovingly at the crowd and then back to her friend onstage. Tristen thanked Tidwell for teaching her “to jam” years ago — Tidwell has long been entrenched in Music City’s indie music scene, and is known as a supporter of her fellow local musicians, particularly women trying to make their way.
The band also played raucous new song “Skin of Our Teeth” — which Tristen said she’d “just release” herself this summer — as well as “Catalyst,” a synth-heavy track CAVES. There was a flurry of well-loved songs about our hopes, dreams, feelings and disappointments:
Opener Ziona Riley made the room sound a bit like we were walking through a torch-lit castle entry — in a good way. The Nashville-based, Indiana-born folk performer delivered an enchanting solo set of songs played on fingerpicked acoustic guitar. The set included a playful tune called “Folly of Tomato” (that I wrote down to share with my red-fruit-obsessed 7-yearold), a sweet remembrance of John Prine and a cover of NRBQ’s “Imaginary Radio.”
Tristen and team — guitarist Buddy Hughen, bassist Linwood Regensburg, keyboardist Ryan Brewer and drummer Andy Spore — followed shortly after 9 p.m. They played through a packed list of tunes from Tristen’s 2011 album Charlatans at the Garden Gate, 2013’s synthpop record CAVES, 2017’s Sneaker Waves, 2021’s earworm-heavy Aquatic Flowers and a few new songs, including a cut from Zenith written back during the recording of CAVES called “Stimulation (I Can’t Get No)” whose opening line rolls off the tongue so well it’s hard not to repeat over and over.
About midway through her performance,
“Cool Blue,” “Story of Our Love,” “Athena,” “Glass Jar,” “Complex” and more.
After thanking folks for being human beings who still come out to see live music, Tristen closed the show with “Say Goodnight,” which she called half lullaby written for a child, half song for the “great sleep.” She ends the song with: “Let me fly away, a grain of sand into the sea / Mouth of darkness, clear my way / Until you eat, until you say goodnight.”
Discomfort, fatigue, hunger and loneliness can bring tears to adult eyes as well, but this evening with the other OG bleeding hearts and oldsters of Nashville felt right as a balm against it all. ▼
PEAK PERFORMANCE: TRISTEN
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
GARY CLARK JR.
IN 2017, AHEAD of the Showtime premiere of Twin Peaks Season 3, Scene editor-in-chief (then managing editor) D. Patrick Rodgers and senior film critic (then regular film critic) Jason Shawhan revisited the catalog of legendary auteur David Lynch. We compiled our thoughts on each of Lynch’s 10 films, along with a weirdness rating system devised via unscientific social media polling and our own opinions.
Sadly, we have occasion to republish our thoughts, as Lynch died in January due to complications from emphysema. Happily, the Belcourt is celebrating the beloved filmmaker’s career with David Lynch: A Retrospective from March 7 through 19. (Find showtimes and further information via belcourt.org.) While the Belcourt is unable to screen The Elephant Man as part of the series, the theater will host a Q&A with Nashville-based Dune star Alicia Witt on March 9, and a Shawhan-led seminar (“What the Magician Sees: A Seminar Through the Eyes of David Lynch”) on March 15. The Belcourt will also screen The Wizard of Oz (one of Lynch’s personal favorites) and documentary David Lynch: The Art of Life as part of the series.
ERASERHEAD (1977)
Screening: March 9 & 14
Synopsis: Lynch’s surreal, nightmarish blackand-white debut — called “unwatchable” by Variety at the time of its release — posits that fatherhood is not a blessing so much as a grotesque curse.
How Weird Is It? 10/10 aesthetically; 3/10 thematically
DPR: Jason, I think you’re right that — while Eraserhead aesthetically seems very art-schooly and avant-garde — conceptually it really is pretty basic. “Bro-y,” to borrow your term. It’s about fear of commitment after all, right? Pretty straight-ahead stuff thematically, even if it does feature a repugnant creature as a stand-in for a newborn.
JS: Yes. And Lynch is also on record about it
NOW IT’S DARK
Revisiting David Lynch’s filmography ahead of his Belcourt retrospective
BY D. PATRICK RODGERS AND JASON SHAWHAN
being related to the horror of being a parent. His daughter seems to have let that slide.
THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)
Screening: N/A
Synopsis: Based on the true story of famously disfigured Englishman Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man — also in black-and-white — was Lynch’s breakthrough film. How Weird Is It? 4/10
DPR: Since this was Lynch’s big break, it was sort of him trying to tell a story conventionally. It’s pretty sentimental and moralistic, wouldn’t you say?
JS: It’s conventional in that it’s a true story. But it does a phenomenal job of capturing the values of that time in European history. It’s an indictment of so-called High Culture for acting as if it’s transcended its freakshow impulses. Though it’s also worth contrasting
John Merrick — which he is named in the film, rather than Joseph Merrick — with Saartje Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus.”
DUNE (1984)
Screening: March 9 & 13
Synopsis: Based on Frank Herbert’s beloved 1965 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, Dune features an ensemble cast including longtime Lynch collaborator Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, Patrick Stewart and, yes, Sting. How Weird Is It? 5/10
DPR: I mean … an advanced, complex, incredibly unwieldy sci-fi story that Lynch did his best to interpret, and most people saw as a failure. But the scope alone is impressive and intoxicating, if perhaps too much to take in.
JS: Cinematically, Dune is the Kobayashi Maru of sci-fi. It’s one of, if not the, most acclaimed sci-fi novels ever, and it’s far too dense to make a two-hours-and-change adaptation of. But Lynch gets so much of it magnificently right. I’ve read all of the books in the Dune-iverse, and Lynch’s film is the visual template for inside my brain. The textures and architecture are spot-on.
BLUE VELVET (1986)
Screening: March 8 & 12
Synopsis: MacLachlan is back, this time as a nice young kid who discovers a severed ear, which eventually leads him to Dennis Hopper’s gas-huffing, dry-humping Frank Booth.
How Weird Is It? 9/10
DPR: Finally, Lynch debuts as a noir director, a postmodern storyteller. While the characters are pretty fucking singular, it really isn’t
all that unconventional from a storytelling perspective. Right? A challenging watch, sure, undoubtedly — it’s disquieting. But it’s set up like an old mystery flick.
JS: Blue Velvet is deeply challenging in its depiction of sadomasochism, as well as the behind-the-scenes drama between Lynch and Rossellini. It’s also one of Dennis Hopper’s greatest performances.
WILD AT HEART (1990)
Screening: March 15 & 17
Synopsis: Ironically enough, despite it being Lynch’s only collaboration with noted weirdo Nicolas Cage, Wild at Heart is remarkably straightforward. A conventional pulpy road romance, as straight as Lynch can tell it. How Weird Is It? 2/10
JS: It’s a “good bad boy gets out of prison to reclaim his lady, but her family just can’t approve, so they have to go on the run” movie. Mixed in with assassins, mysterious syndicates and The Wizard of Oz. Nicolas Cage even sings “Love Me Tender” in it. Along with Mad Max Fury Road, Wild at Heart is the best Elvis movie ever made. Once you look at it that way, it just can’t be unseen.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992)
Screening: March 8 & 12
Synopsis: A prequel to the Twin Peaks television
March 7-19
David Lynch: A Retrospective
at the Belcourt
BLUE VELVET
series, Fire Walk With Me is a true horror film, following the last days of Laura Palmer. How Weird Is It? 6/10
DPR: So different tonally from the series. I wasn’t old enough to (be permitted to) see it when it came out, and don’t really know what the reaction was like, but I personally find it to be Lynch’s most unsettling, and so much more conventionally presented than the series.
JS: People were so psyched. And it was devastating to see the film grind that audience down. That R rating allowed people to realize what ABC was terrified of: Twin Peaks, the series, the phenomenon, was built on the abuse and murder of Laura Palmer. It and Alien 3 that same summer were the films that kick-started my having taste in film. And while I have always loved FWWM for its operatic passions, openhearted sympathies and supernatural expansiveness, it’s been interesting to talk to viewers who interpret the film outside of the show’s universe. Where it depicts the dissociative means by which the Palmer family metabolizes years of sexual and emotional abuse, and BOB is just the face put on a horror that countless families have had to deal with. People have always responded to Laura Palmer.
LOST HIGHWAY (1997)
Screening: March 14 & 18
Synopsis: Fred (Bill Pullman) is put on death row for the murder of his wife Renée (Patricia Arquette). In his cell, Fred shape-shifts into a young mechanic. Hijinks (read: very unsettling events) ensue.
How Weird Is It? 8/10
DPR: I kind of see this as the Lynch first glimpsed in Blue Velvet, but now fully realized. You called this “Lynch’s O.J. movie”? Talk to me about Robert Blake’s role.
JS: Lost Highway is the first of Lynch’s psychogenic fugue movies. Here it’s about how you can love someone and also kill them; how the most visceral emotions feed into one another, and how everyone has dissociative tendencies — some to survive, some to kill. Robert Blake’s character, the Mystery Man, carries a camera (the only objective viewpoint in the film) even as he incarnates sexual jealousy and doubt. He is everywhere, unbound by time or space, but he also goes only where he is invited. But Blake’s subsequent murder trial has added a whole other element of horror to the film and its thesis.
THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999)
Screening: March 16 & 19
Synopsis: Co-written by Lynch’s longtime collaborator and romantic partner Mary Sweeney, The Straight Story depicts the reallife events of Alvin Straight, who drove his lawnmower for six weeks and 240 miles to visit his ailing and estranged brother. How Weird Is It? 1/10
JS: Though rated G, The Straight Story is just as emotionally devastating as any of Lynch’s other films. It’s accessible, if a little deliberate in its
pacing. But it’s one of the few films I’ve ever seen that honestly reckons with what it means to be old — to have accumulated so much time, and so many decisions. Regret is a big theme in Lynch’s films, but it’s often tied to murder, or trespass, or something irrevocable. And The Straight Story, especially when you read about how star Richard Farnsworth was suffering in secret during its making, is a rejection of macho foolishness. It believes in forgiveness, and atonement, and it does so with the deepest sincerity. Sincerity is not a quality one finds in conventional movies.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)
Screening: March 7 & 11
Synopsis: Initially conceived as a television pilot — TV executives wouldn’t touch it — Mulholland Drive was labeled a “poisonous valentine to Hollywood” by The Village Voice’s J. Hoberman. Long and convoluted, Lynch’s “love story in the city of dreams” came with a note card with 10 clues geared at helping explain the film when it was released on DVD. How Weird Is It? 8/10
DPR: I see this as Lynch’s most superficially avant-garde film. It’s a riddle with no answer, seemingly designed to piss off squares. And Hollywood. Hollywood squares? Anyway, I enjoyed it — particularly our old pal Billy Ray Cyrus’ performance.
JS: The first time I watched MD, I didn’t care for it. It seemed like a less successful take on Lost Highway’s caesura cinema. It was a salvage job with a few good scenes, but its uncertainty as to what it was was deeply limiting. Now, after many more viewings, I think it’s a damn masterpiece. It is its own subgenre of film, one that I often refer to in my reviews, whenever a film makes the viewer come to terms with the absolute moral truth of themself. Mulholland Drive is a dangerous film in that it refuses to let anyone who engages with it escape — despite intentions, despite kindnesses past, despite all the conditional and subjunctive you can throw at a situation — we can’t lie to ourselves.
INLAND
EMPIRE (2006)
Screening: March 13 & 16
Synopsis: Lynch’s first feature shot using standard-definition digital video, Inland Empire — which Peter Travers once called “hallucinatory brilliance” — is yet another collaboration with frequent leading woman Laura Dern. This time, she’s an actress who begins to take on the personality of one of her characters.
How Weird Is It? 10/10
JS: Lynch’s weirdest. There was never a specific script encompassing the project. It’s whatever he felt like doing at the time, written the day of (or just before). There’s bits of his web series Rabbits mixed in, and several mini-stories that recur. It’s the multiple characters and interlocking narratives with Laura Dern that give it any structure at all, and even then, they are exploring their own spaces. The main unifying aspect of it is the camera he used to make it. ▼
1 First U.S. prez to be born outside the original 13 Colonies
4 Airport transports
8 The film “Airplane!,” e.g.
13 Cry in a horror film
14 Challenge for an interpreter, perhaps
16 Result of a leadoff walk
17 “Sic vita ___” (“Such is life”)
18 Mercenary
20 DEF, on a phone
22 Bemoan
23 Groundbreaking medical procedure first accomplished in 1967
27 Region bordering India and China in Risk
29 Nestlé Purina PetCare brand
30 Level
31 Only about 10% of Americans have one
32 Tiny bit
34 Shakers in the woods
35 Suffix with social
38 Focus of a product development test
40 Govt. agency for retirees
41 They might sound the alarm
43 In-the-works software versions
45 Score endings
46 El ___
47 Caresses
51 “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” police captain
52 Has a clouded mind
54 Append
56 Turn left or right, say
57 Uncertainties of life ... or a feature of four answers in this puzzle?
61 Supermodel Carangi
62 Personal style
63 Throat lozenge additive
64 This is “plagiarism or revolution,” per Gauguin
65 Emerged
66 Walks, for one
1 Singer with the 1972 album “Young, Gifted and Black,” informally
2 Quantity on a farm
3 Catch
4 Clamps in a shop
5 Big fuss
6 Zip
7 Cover some ground?
8 1040, e.g.
9 Pays for a hand
11 Holds within
67 Anti-vaping ad, e.g. DOWN
10 Connects with an ex, e.g.
12 Suffix with methyl
15 Children’s author who wrote “And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey”
19 Work on a sub?
21 Grandson of Eve
24 Newspapers, collectively
25 Delicate fabric
26 Fictional prison guarded by Dementors
28 Canyonlands National Park feature
31 Division of the Dept. of Labor
33 Plunks (down)
34 Pidgeon, Hawke or Crowe
35 Rash reaction?
36 Play a bogey-free round, maybe
37 TV character who said “Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing”
39 Chillax
42 Deep-pocketed types
44 Stick at a roast
46 Zoo Atlanta’s Lun Lun or Yang Yang
48 Separation in some relationships?
49 Possible answer to “Whose?”
50 Rock layers
52 Cousin of a haddock
53 One can be fixed or liquid
55 Base for a proposal?
57 Hagen in the American Theater Hall of Fame
58 Switch positions
59 Cleverness
60 U.S. org. that operates a cryptology museum in Maryland
NOTICE
Cyndey Gordan:
A Petition For Termination Of Parental Rights And Petition For Adoption has been filed against you seeking to terminate your parental rights to Kamilla Stone. You are hereby ORDERED to appear for hearing on that Petition on March 28, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. at Williamson County Chancery Court, 135 4th Avenue South, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 or to otherwise enter an appearance in this matter. If you fail to do so, an order may be entered against you for the relief requested in the Petition. You may view and obtain a copy of the Petition and any other subsequently filed legal documents in the Chancery Court Clerk’s Office at the address shown above.
NSC
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