WITNESS HISTORY
This Manuel Cuevas–designed, two-piece suit, covered in astrological-themed embroidery and hundreds of rhinestones, also features lion heads to represent the sun sign of the famous country musician for whom it was designed—Porter Wagoner.
From the online exhibit Suiting the Sound: The Rodeo Tailors Who Made Country Stars Shine Brighter
RESERVE TODAY
artifact: Courtesy of Debra Jean Loy artifact photo: Bob Delevante
Metropolitik: The Critical Greenways Caught Somewhere in Metro Purgatory
For more than 20 years, the greenway system has struggled to evolve from recreational to functional in a car-focused city BY ELI MOTYCKA
Preliminary Review Highlights NES
Shortfalls During Storm Response
Report details issues with operations, communication during Winter Storm Fern restoration; full review to be released in June BY JULIANNE AKERS
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Children With Disabilities at Center of Bill Calling for DCS Collaboration
Advocates raise concern about juvenile detention changes, oversight of DCS facilities BY HANNAH HERNER
COVER PACKAGE: FOR LOVE OF THE GAME
Nashville Women’s Ice Hockey League Is Growing Camaraderie, competition and ‘a perfect storm’ of cultural events are powering the flourishing league BY ANNIE PARNELL
Nashville Sports Clubs Offer Community and High-Level Competition
Despite struggling for space and resources, local clubs are thriving BY LOGAN BUTTS
Recreational Sports Thrive in Nashville
Local organizations Nashville Sports Leagues, Mid State Sports and HotMess Sports are expanding their reach BY HANNAH HERNER
You Too Can Discover a Whole New Sport as an Adult
Finding volleyball in my 30s has been more rewarding than I ever expected BY EMILY R. WEST
CRITICS’ PICKS
Hayley Williams, Robyn Hitchcock, Angelo Colina, Raye, Seussical: The Musical and more
FOOD AND DRINK
Lettuce, Camera, Action
The new documentary short ‘How to Heal the Planet’ tells the story of Nashville’s sustainable food scene BY MARGARET LITTMAN
Be Our Guest Music City Food & Wine Festival returns to Centennial Park this weekend BY CHRIS
CHAMBERLAIN
BOOKS
The Lonely Men
Nashville-based author Jordan Ritter Conn’s American Men examines modern masculinity BY LOGAN BUTTS
MUSIC
Bittersweet
Speaking to Cheryl ‘The Pearl’ Cook and Gwendolyn ‘Blondy’ Chisolm of pioneering rap trio The Sequence ahead of NMAAM recognition — in Chisolm’s last interview BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Record Store Day performances at The Blue Room and Vinyl Tap BY ANNIE PARNELL AND CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
FILM
Broad Strokes
Steven Soderbergh’s brisk, thoughtful The Christophers is a different kind of art-heist film BY JASON SHAWHAN
Dacoit Rock City
Legendary 1975 Indian film Sholay returns to the big screen this week at the Belcourt BY JASON SHAWHAN
Grave Danger
Grace Glowicki’s triumphant Dead Lover is relentlessly madcap BY JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE
Tracey Starck; photos by Eric England and Angelina Castillo
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Music & Arts Festival returns to Manchester, Tenn., June 11-14, with performers including Skrillex, Noah Kahan, The Strokes, Rüfüs Du Sol and many more. Enter to win two free four-day VIP passes at nashvillescene.com/promo/freestuff.
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LEFT: Lester Jones (Best of Show, Spring 2025)
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THE CRITICAL GREENWAYS CAUGHT SOMEWHERE IN METRO PURGATORY
For more than 20 years, the greenway system has struggled to evolve from recreational to functional in a car-focused city
BY ELI MOTYCKA
Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.
THE OTHER NASHVILLE looks pretty good. It’s payback for I-440 ramp traffic, revenge on I-24’s 18-wheelers and a karmic antidote to every irresponsible SoBro merge on I-40 East, taunting the city’s hellish highway commutes with a smile. The grand vision — a vast, interconnected greenway path system tightly hewn to the existing interstate ring — is not hard to find. That’s because for decades it has been obvious to urban planners and residents that Nashville will suffer if it fails to evolve from a car-obsessed past. Ghost greenways currently haunt the patchwork of paved shared-use trails that physically liberate but functionally trap the typical Nashville walker or biker. Completed portions spatter across the map in lonely wiggles, inviting optimistic urbanists while often supplying disparate pieces of frequented routes cut short by major arterial roads. Besides a few stunted segments near Elmington Park and The Fairgrounds Nashville, several miles along the Cumberland River are all that exist of the ringed 23-mile “necklace” envisioned by boosters as the greenway’s primary citywide mover. Like the bus system, greenways aren’t necessarily an efficient means of getting across town. A few contiguous networks in places like Sylvan Park and Donelson have enabled elegant connections between friends’
homes, access to green space and even errands and commutes. Ditching cars for a walkable city rife with green space and dense housing has become a vibrant political force unto itself in recent years, springing from turn-of-the-century New Urbanism. Dusty plans promise such possibilities, though their fading mayoral signatures — from Karl Dean, and Bill Purcell before him — suggest a very reasonable question that would fluster most Metro bureaucrats: Why is this taking so long?
In their shared lofty office space on Main Street, Meg Morgan and J.T. Neal both come back to the same word: “block,” an appropriately vague and discouraging catch-all for so many projects dying on the vine. Both work at the nonprofit Greenways for Nashville, a non-government booster group trying desperately to find this other Nashville.
“You would think the greenway process starts with wanting it, then planning it, getting the money, then building it, and that would certainly be the easiest,” says Neal, a newly hired communications and outreach coordinator.
“Blocks to any plans, any greenway or any expansion are truly individual to that one — there is no one way to make a greenway. Part of our existence is dealing with these blocks, because they show up in so many different places for so many different things.”
Along with executive director Morgan and a
few others, the small Greenways for Nashville team functions like a mediating party between the city and private stakeholders while publicly promoting citywide greenway use. Neal and Morgan cite the same plans that show how far Nashville has fallen short of its potential.
“Plan to Play is Metro Parks’ master plan,” explains Morgan. “The city did a lot of community outreach last year and is working on an update that should be released in the next few months — we’re excited that it will have updates to priorities and vision for what’s moving forward.”
Planning documents see the “Charlotte Corridor Rail-With-Greenway” as central to the planned downtown greenway loop. Railways’ convenient vectors through urban centers are well-positioned for pedestrian reclamation, with no better proof than New York’s High Line — an elevated park and “rail trail” that runs above Manhattan from Midtown to the West Village. Charlotte corridor rail-trail chatter started about a decade ago, envisioning a crucial 4-mile link between Centennial Park and the Nashville Farmers Market via the Cheatham County Rail Line. The narrow vector from 28th Avenue would move people, rather than scrap coal and perlite, through North Nashville. Presentations throughout 2022 and 2023 convincingly made the point. Negotiations with the Cheatham County Rail Authority came with a hefty price tag and suffered with the departure of Metro
Parks’ greenways director Cindy Harrison, according to one city source. The discussions remain on ice, and the city has not yet replaced Harrison.
“We are still actively working with the [Cheatham County] Rail Authority to finalize the terms of that agreement,” explained Metro’s Amrita Chatterjee in front of the city’s Greenways and Open Space Commission on April 9.
In a statement to the Scene, Metro Parks’ Jackie Jones further specifies that private property easements, including a contract with the rail authority, have held up progress. Government entities frequently pursue such easements — long-term land use deals with a specific purpose — for public use of private property, sometimes resorting to controversial eminent domain claims. (Metro has not used eminent domain for greenway acquisition.)
Three more greenways reside in similar purgatory between design and procurement, with various holdups — “blocks” — often involving third parties like city consultants or private land owners.
After intensive community engagement, a connection between Sevier Park and Gale Lane Park that primarily relies on city-owned Nashville Electric Service land has gone quiet for several years in what had appeared to be a straightforward design-and-build. Jones says lighting design is underway, and the project will open bidding for contractors later this year. The elusive Richland Park Spur could bring The Nations into the fashionable and functional 4-mile greenway web between McCabe recreation, Sylvan Park restaurants and White Bridge retail. Eight years ago, it was vaunted in multimodal visions; today it’s an overgrown floodplain along Richland Creek between two greenway dead ends — and there’s “no information” to share per Metro. Oracle Corp.’s $175 million incentive deal from the city has yet to produce anything more than glossy renderings of a walk-bike bridge between Germantown and River North. Oracle’s mass layoffs amid an uncertain tech economy could threaten the entire campus inked by then-Mayor John Cooper almost five years ago.
The hundred miles of shared-use trails still might be Nashville’s best urban asset. Though the pieces don’t always fit together, greenways are growing slowly, mostly in places where the city can influence new development — like the Ascend Amphitheater. In 2024, transit-obsessed Mayor Freddie O’Connell won a mandate to pursue a better connected Nashville — a functional greenway system could become Nashville’s truly modern highway. ▼
A GREENWAY ABRUPTLY ENDING AT CHARLOTTE AVENUE
PRELIMINARY REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS NES SHORTFALLS DURING STORM RESPONSE
Report details issues with operations, communication during Winter Storm Fern restoration; full review to be released in June
BY JULIANNE AKERS
IN THE IMMEDIATE aftermath of Winter Storm Fern, Nashville Electric Service fell short when it came to its emergency response plan, estimated restoration timelines for power outages and communication methods, and lacked a damage prediction model. That’s according to an independent preliminary review released on April 17.
The report comes after the NES board gave approval for an independent review in February. In the months since, law firms Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison and Adams & Reese selected PA Consulting Group to complete the investigation. A full review will be released in mid-June.
“During the initial days of the storm, customers were unable to report outages due to issues with the outage reporting system and call center operations,” the report’s executive summary reads.
“In addition, restoration information was at times inaccurate, inconsistent, and delayed. Collectively, the weather conditions, extensive damage, and the busy signals that some customers faced when they called to report outages contributed to a negative customer experience.”
The initial review found that NES faced issues with operations and communication during storm restoration.
“The [emergency response plan] was aligned at a high level with industry practices but lacked the detail, scalability, and procedural guidance needed to support a large-scale event, resulting in reliance on institutional knowledge
rather than structured execution,” the report reads, noting that the emergency response was prepared to align with outages to only 50,000 customers. Winter Storm Fern impacted approximately 230,000 customers.
The report also highlights issues within NES’ incident command structure, which “lacked continuity due to simultaneous role rotations, unstaffed critical positions, and the absence of defined transition protocols.” This resulted in a “less than clear view of the chain of command” and inconsistent messaging.
The report also notes NES’ lack of a damage-prediction model that would have aided in estimating resource needs before the storm. The report says this limited the service’s ability to secure outside assistance and resulted in a delayed request for resources and a slower overall response.
in a reactive approach to communications. It resulted in delayed, inconsistent, and at times inaccurate messaging, as well as duplicated customer inquiries across multiple channels into NES which further added to the workloads of operators who had to address public inquiries in addition to active restoration activities.”
The report outlines five initial recommendations for NES, which include:
Expand NES’ emergency response plan and training and exercise programs to help better prepare and respond to large-scale events.
Update the incident command structure with clear roles, responsibilities and accountability to ensure clear delineation of focus areas and coordination.
Develop a damage prediction model to support earlier decisions and action when it comes to resources activation, communication and planning response.
Develop an estimated time-of-restoration strategy to develop customer-specific restoration timelines for unplanned outages on bluesky days and during weather events, as well as global restoration timelines for major events.
Establish a storm-specific communications structure with a designated communications lead and supporting communication pathways across the response.
The report notes areas that it says NES succeeded in during storm response. These include the service provider’s restoration efforts resulting in “only” 17 minor injuries, such as slips and trips, and no serious injuries. The report commends NES for utilizing outside resources for assistance.
As this year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly comes to a close, visit nashvillescene.com/state-legislature for all of our coverage.
“As restoration efforts through (Wednesday) Day 4 were clearly not meeting customer expectations ... NES sought help from utility experts (albeit a little delayed) to provide assistance in developing mechanics to calculate ETRs,” the report reads. “NES recognized there was a need for technical expertise and brought in seasoned help to close gaps and create new processes.”
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder — who leads Democrats in the race to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District — brought in $615,000 in the first few months of 2026, leaving his campaign with nearly $1.3 million to spend ahead of the Aug. 6 primary and Nov. 3 general elections. Molder’s campaign finance machine has benefited equally from small-dollar online ActBlue fundraising and big checks cut by Nashville supporters since announcing his campaign in September.
National Democratic operatives have stepped in to advise and promote Molder as polls show Republican support slipping, particularly after war mobilization against Iran by the White House. Even so, projections still consider the district Ogles’ to lose. Meanwhile, law firms were Ogles’ main expenses in January, February and March, costing the congressman around $35,000. According to Federal Election Commission documents, he owes another $50,000 to D.C.-area firm Holtzman Vogel
On Monday, Dan Patrick — who hosts Fox Sports’ daily Dan Patrick Show — said he has been told by a source that the 2030 Super Bowl is headed to Music City. A Tennessee Titans spokesperson said Monday the team had no updates on the possibility of the Super Bowl being played in Nashville and had no further comment — and that’s where things stand as this issue goes to press.
As this year’s legislative session winds toward its close, lawmakers have passed school voucher expansion, approved the $58 billion state budget and limited campus protests under the so-called “Charlie Kirk Act.” Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Lee signed a declaration proclaiming June to be “Nuclear Family Month.” Writes opinion columnist Betsy Phillips: “People are rightly seeing this as a metaphorical middle finger to Tennessee’s LGBTQ residents. But y’all, if you just read the headlines and the new name of the month, you are missing some of the most hilariously unhinged stuff I have ever seen someone willing to put their signature on.”
NES was also delayed in providing an accurate estimated time of restoration for customers who lost power, the report says, also noting communication shortfalls.
“Communications operated in parallel with operations rather than as an integrated function, with limited access to operational data and inconsistent execution of defined roles and workflows,” reads the report. “This resulted
The review also commends NES for taking “aggressive action” when it comes to tree trimming post-storm.
Additionally, it says “there was little to no evidence of crews (NES or non-NES) having to wait around for work assignments or materials.”
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post ▼
NES CREW WORKING DURING WINTER STORM FERN
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES AT CENTER OF BILL CALLING FOR DCS COLLABORATION
Advocates raise concern about juvenile detention changes, oversight of DCS facilities
BY HANNAH HERNER
A TREND HAS EMERGED in recent years: families of children with severe disabilities surrendering their children’s care to the Department of Children’s Services.
Alice Rolli, president and executive director of the Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee, tells the Scene her organization has noted a trend of foster kids with disabilities landing in the hospital — this is because of a lack of care they receive in homes they’re placed in by DCS. Through Senate Bill 2362/House Bill 2188 — which passed unanimously on the Senate floor earlier this session and saw bipartisan support to pass the House last week — the alliance looks to prevent hospitalization through additional collaboration between DCS and the Department of Disability and Aging.
“It’s sad,” Rolli says. “There are families who believe that their child would be better off in state custody because that parent or that caregiver, they feel like they don’t have an expertise to help a child with really complex needs. … They have done everything that they know to do.”
Rolli says the two organizations worked well together for the state’s Strong Families program, which allowed DDA to offer shortterm placement for kids with disabilities and provided incentive to expand the network of places those children could live after they were found to be staying in the hospital for months at a time. The new legislation includes additional training for DCS staff from DDA and a report on the collaboration between the two agencies.
Hospitals have seen an increase in broken bones and eating struggles from children in DCS custody, especially those who have severe autism and are nonverbal. One child had not eaten in days due to sensory issues, Rolli says.
“That means you have to shift the awareness and the training that it’s not a kid being obstinate,” she says. “This is a kid that has a significant disability, and the people around that child need to have a different training and a different mindset.”
Another bill, one aimed at children who are in DCS custody because of juvenile justice violations, has raised concerns for advocates who fear it could disproportionately affect children with disabilities. SB 1868/HB 2526 passed the Senate last week and is awaiting action in the House as of this writing. What started as a bill that would incarcerate foster youth in juvenile detention centers and other carceral settings has been amended, but still allows for a court to extend a youth sentence for six months for
assault. It would also create a task force for foster youth in need of “heightened supervision.”
According to Zoë Jamail, policy and advocacy director for restorative justice nonprofit Raphah Institute, the problem here is twofold: The children don’t have to be adjudicated for the assault for their sentence to be extended, and assault is broadly defined in the state’s code — including verbal threats.
“How do we protect against young people’s sentences being extended by six months for an incident where perhaps it was a lack of training in either de-escalation or behavior intervention that contributed to the assault?” says Jamail. “Arguably, in that situation, it’s not that a young person needs additional time in DCS custody. They need a more appropriate placement.”
On the Senate floor, Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) also pushed back, following a failed attempt from Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) to add guardrails for the length of custody and legal representation for the child.
“You’re telling a child who doesn’t have access to an attorney … that [if] a staff member of a privately owned facility who makes money from keeping children at that facility every single day accuses a child of something, that facility gets to make six months more money at the expense of taxpayers of Tennessee, and there’s not a single thing the child can do about it,” said Roberts, who crossed party lines to vote against the Republican-sponsored bill.
Issues with DCS are nothing new, but they have reached a fever pitch this year. Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) called for a federal investigation of the department, and three separate recent reports called for more oversight of facilities in which the children are being held: a state comptroller’s audit from 2025, a Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations report from earlier this year calling for more beds, and a report from the state’s Second Look Commission, which found children using meth and being victimized by sex trafficking while in DCS custody.
Those three reports are what Roberts cites as the inspiration for legislation that would require DCS to create a public website with information about licensing and list agencies’ license status, information concerning any adverse licensing action and information showing inspections. That legislation, SB 2647/ HB 2349, is making its way through the legislature as of this publication. ▼
JUNE 19 ANDREW PETERSON
JULY 23
ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT ON SALE FRIDAY AT 9 AM
SEPTEMBER 10
LITTLE FEAT WITH MAGGIE ROSE ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
NOVEMBER 14
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FOR LOVE OF THE GAME
From recreational leagues to high-level clubs, here’s an in-depth look at Nashville’s booming community sports leagues
NASHVILLE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE IS GROWING
Camaraderie, competition and ‘a perfect storm’ of cultural events are powering the flourishing league
BY ANNIE PARNELL
“IF YOU LIVE in Nashville, Tenn., and you’re feeling like you want to support women’s hockey this week, I’m going to give you three free ways you can do it,” Haley Schattschneider says in a February video for the Nashville Women’s Ice Hockey League.
Schattschneider is part of a group of Nashville Women’s Ice Hockey players — alongside Bree Landry, Melissa Raber, Kerry Morris and Hannah Garfinkle — who run the rec league’s social media. They shared calls to support women’s hockey in the wake of the Winter Olympics, after legendary gold-medal victories for the men’s and women’s hockey teams were soured by a sexist joke from President Donald Trump at the women’s expense. The local league’s advocacy has seen viral success: At their spring/summer social at Ford Ice Bellevue, the group described a flood of support and interest, even being recognized “from the internet” by strangers at the NWIHL’s Professional Women’s Hockey League watch parties at East Nashville sports bar Chapstick. The Team USA controversy is part of a recent confluence of events in hockey fan
culture that Morris calls “a perfect storm.”
Women’s sports have generally been on the rise lately, and the PWHL has seen a particular boom. Originally founded in 2023, the PWHL now sees its teams sell out “takeover games” at Madison Square Garden and TD Garden, the typical homes of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. As Schattschneider points out, there’s also an influx of new fans from the romance series Heated Rivalry, which depicts a queer love story between two closeted professional men’s players. All of it has unleashed a wave of interest not just in the game, but in finding affirming spaces within hockey — challenging the misogynistic and homophobic culture that often dominates the sport.
The NWIHL’s expansion has been a long time coming. The league began as a small but dedicated group in the early Aughts, originally forming a single team and eking out one hour of allotted time a week to play at Centennial Sportsplex. In another of the league’s videos, veteran player Teresa “TSpy” Spychalski recalls early efforts to recruit by cold-approaching women skaters at Centennial’s public ice hours. These days, though, NWIHL runs seasons at both Centennial and Bellevue, the latter through a collaboration with the Nashville Predators.
“We went from one team to two different leagues,” marvels Landry, who started playing rec at Centennial after playing roller hockey growing up. The current season at Bellevue has six teams, and almost 90 players — the most the league has seen to date.
“We’ve been trying to build women’s hockey for 26 years,” says Kristen “Parksy” Parks, a founding member of the league who now plays goalie for the team Parksy’s Angels.
Parks, a lesbian and decorated Army veteran, was recently celebrated as the Preds’ Pride Night Hero of the Game after a fellow NWIHL player nominated her. After serving during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era and leaving the military due to mistreatment by “good old boy” colleagues, she “bawled [her] eyes out” at the recognition.
“That night, I was seen,” she says. Feeling seen by one another is a common sentiment in this group. Beer league hockey, with its late games famous for creeping into the wee hours of the morning, is thankless enough on its own. On top of that, many of the NWIHL’s longtime players were used to being the only girls on the ice before joining. Morris and Garfinkle recall isolating memories of changing alone before childhood games, and Parks remembers women getting bullied during games by male rec players.
The women’s league has given them a much-needed sense of community, and you can feel it on the ice. Women laugh as they wave at friends and family and pass the puck, their sticks and socks bedecked in hot-pink or the colors of LGBTQ Pride flags. Off-duty players exchange pointers and root from the stands, pounding the boards and calling out nicknames and inside jokes.
Raber says joining the league is “the first time [she’s] made friends as an adult.” She and Schattschneider didn’t grow up with hockey; instead, they found the sport through Ford Ice Centers’ Learn to Play program. Learn to Play offers 10 weeks of lessons and discounted hockey equipment, which is notoriously expensive. The program began three years ago after the Predators applied for a grant through the NHL’s Industry Growth Fund — a result of
the most recent collective-bargaining agreement between the NHL and its players, with a mission of drawing new fans.
“Growing the game of hockey isn’t just for kids,” says Jennifer Boniecki, director of amateur hockey and fan development for the Nashville Predators and Ford Ice Centers. “It’s growing adult hockey, [and] it’s growing girls’ and women’s hockey.”
In that first year, with support from the grant, the Learn to Play program cost $350 per person. Since then, the program has continued, but with a higher price tag of $1,150 — a barrier for entry that the women’s league is trying to bring down.
“I would say our entire mission is to make [hockey] more accessible,” says Garfinkle.
In the wake of its online success, the league has gotten the ball rolling toward attaining nonprofit status, a suggestion from Raber that would potentially create a path to sponsor new players. There’s also been discussions of hosting tournaments and adult hockey camps.
As the league expands, it’s too early to tell how the Preds’ recent takeover of Centennial’s operations will affect women’s hockey there, though Boniecki and some of the players are hopeful that the Centennial league will continue to grow. But Boniecki emphasizes that, ultimately, the heart of the league isn’t the Preds, but the players’ drive — a sentiment that Parks echoes.
“The ones who made this league are the women,” Parks says. “Because they’re the ones who wanted it.” ▼
NASHVILLEWOMENSHOCKEY.ORG
NASHVILLE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
NASHVILLE SPORTS CLUBS OFFER COMMUNITY AND HIGH-LEVEL COMPETITION
Despite struggling for space and resources, local clubs are thriving
BY LOGAN BUTTS
IF YOU’RE DRIVING down Lebanon Pike on a Thursday night, right before you reach the “Welcome to Donelson” sign, make a right turn into a gravel parking lot. A couple hundred feet past the tree nursery is an open field, peppered with generator-powered light towers and a lone goalpost.
There you’ll find dozens of men from across the globe — France, South Africa, England, even Brentwood. Some are tall, some are short. Some have a lean build from years of running up and down soccer pitches, while others look like they stepped right out of a boxing ring. Some played high school baseball or football, others wrestled or ran track. A handful never played organized sports. At least one grew up playing Australian rules football in Melbourne. But for two hours on Thursday nights, their differences are nonexistent. Their singular goal is to move an elongated ball up and down a former dairy farm field. Afterward, they make the trek to The Lost Paddy for the weekly family dinner.
Nashville Rugby Football Club is one of several organizations in the area that exist in a nebulous world somewhere between a professional sports team and a hobby. This isn’t your local kickball team that gathers at the park once a month to down a few beers and have a few laughs. (Though you can read about some of those elsewhere in this issue.) These athletes pay club dues, travel to other states for competitions, have professional-looking uniforms and practice at least twice a week. They also have full-time day jobs; some have families.
“The core guys … they spend their lives dedicated to this, making sure the club’s afloat, making sure we have nice gear, transportation to games,” says NRFC’s John Sutton. “A lot of these guys put their heart and soul into this.”
Sutton, who suited up for Iowa Central’s rugby program in college, has been playing rugby since he was 6 years old, then living in London. Players like Sutton — those who have a deep familiarity with the game — are integral in a setting where most of the athletes are converts from other sports. He says the most difficult part of teaching someone how to play rugby is breaking habits learned from other sports.
NRFC’s Keenan Kayser, who picked up rugby as an eighth-grader in Murfreesboro, says it’s “an anomaly” that he started playing as a kid in Middle Tennessee.
“The game is growing,” says Kayser, also president of the True South Rugby Union. “There’s a lot of good youth programs around. We’re excited for the influx.”
Rugby is on the rise in Nashville. There are several dedicated clubs, including NRFC, Nashville Women’s Rugby Football Club and
rugby — I think a lot in part due to the U.S. Women’s success at the past Summer Olympics,” says NWRFC board president Sara Bowman. “We had a lot more players coming out every new season to try it out just because they had seen it on TV.”
Even so, it can be hard to convince people to put in the hours — and the dollars — necessary to fully commit to a club team environment, especially in a leadership role.
“It takes a lot of time, but I think the love of the sport drives us to do that,” says Bowman.
Other sports aren’t as lucky. Without a national wave of excitement to ride, it can be tough to keep the club afloat. The Nashville Kangaroos were among the founding members of the United States Australian Football League, the top level of Australian rules football (or “footy,” as it’s known down under) in America. The club finished as the runner-up in the first men’s Division I USAFL Grand Final.
the Nashville Grizzlies, a queer-focused men’s club. Major League Rugby recently sent two of its best teams to Geodis Park for the inaugural Music City Rugby Showdown, the venue’s first non-soccer sporting event. Nashville is on the short list to be among the host cities for the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup. And the annual Nash Bash tournament features clubs from across the country. But even with a budding scene, there is no rugby-specific pitch in town. In fact, there’s only one rugby-specific field in Middle Tennessee, the nationally recognized Hendersonville Rugby Complex.
Clubs like these are always recruiting new players, whether through meet-and-greets, on social media or by forming relationships with local college programs. Sometimes interest spikes following heightened national exposure of the sport, like when U.S. Women’s Rugby star Ilona Maher became internet-famous during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
“We’ve definitely seen a huge growth in
Despite the on-field success, the Kangaroos often have trouble finding a practice space. Australian rules football fields are gigantic, roughly twice the size of an American football field. They’re also oval-shaped, making it hard to find a surface that accommodates their needs. There are apparently no Australian-rules-football-specific fields in America. In Nashville alone, there are more than 20 Metro-owned soccer fields, plus several “multipurpose fields,” essentially soccer fields where other teams are allowed to practice.
“I remember my first practice — after about an hour, I about fell in love with the sport right then and there,” says Kangaroos captain James Duty. “Even though it was unique and strange, it still oddly felt familiar.”
At the time, Duty — who’d previously been recruited to play college basketball at Lipscomb — was looking to replace the sense of community he lost when his journey with organized sports came to an end.
“There’s not enough options out there, from an American standpoint, for guys to get reintegrated into high-level competition, and for that individual to feel like they belong,” says Duty, who was inducted into the Kangaroos Hall of Fame after more than 100 career matches with the club.
“Sports and athletics are one of the best gifts a community has,” he says. “It’s incredible the type of connections [that form] and the barriers that get broken down when you involve athletics.”
Compared to other countries — think of the
“SPORTS AND ATHLETICS ARE ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS A COMMUNITY HAS. IT’S INCREDIBLE THE TYPE OF CONNECTIONS [THAT FORM] AND THE BARRIERS THAT GET BROKEN DOWN WHEN YOU INVOLVE ATHLETICS.”
—JAMES DUTY, NASHVILLE KANGAROOS CAPTAIN
infamous Sunday football leagues in England — there is a lack of infrastructure and funding for competitive, community-based adult sports leagues in America.
“The benefits aren’t just for the team, it’s individually as well,” says Daryel O’Brien, a member of the Nashville Gaelic Athletic Club, who grew up in Ireland. “You’re running around, you’re being active, you’re socializing. One thing I’ve noticed about America is, after you leave college or high school, there’s very few adult leagues for the amount of people that are here in the country.”
Under the NGAC umbrella are men’s and women’s Gaelic football teams, as well as an integrated hurling team (think lacrosse crossed with field hockey). But the organization also functions as a sort of Irish community ambassador in Nashville. In November, the club hosted the United States Gaelic Athletic Association’s annual convention.
O’Brien is both a player and a manager for the NGAC’s men’s club, which features players from a half-dozen countries and has an unofficial headquarters at The Lost Paddy — apparently a thriving hotspot for Nashville sports clubs.
“We have lads who are from Ireland who have played all their lives,” says O’Brien. “We have lads from Ireland who never played at home. But once you come out here, a GAA club is the closest thing to an Irish community that you’re going to get out here. … Our club is very inclusive. It doesn’t matter about race, religion, gender, sexual preference, we don’t care. We accept everyone; we train everyone.”
Other than a fight for space and a lack of resources, these clubs all have something else in common: They operate in the enormous shadow of American football, especially in the South. But the Tennessee Trojans have almost the opposite problem. They are a football team in the football-crazed South, playing at the highest level of competition for their sport — the Women’s National Football Conference.
But because women’s football has historically been wildly underfunded compared to its male counterpart, these athletes are often paying out of pocket just to compete.
“When I found women’s tackle football, I had never experienced the teamwork, the sisterhood anywhere else,” says Tessa Ortiz-Marsh, Trojans quarterback and co-owner. And that’s saying a lot — she played college softball and was in the military for nearly 20 years, including two tours as a combat medic.
Women’s football is on the rise thanks to an explosion in popularity for flag football, which is being rapidly added to college athletics departments across the country and has been added to the docket for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. But women’s tackle football is still fighting for its place.
“It’s the first time ever that girls are playing the sport in high school and then knowing that they can go play at a higher level,” says Ortiz-Marsh, whose wife Rachel is also a Trojans co-owner.
“We do have some athletes who have never played a sport in their entire lives,” she continues. “It’s a lot of our linewomen, because women who [have] the body stature of offensive linemen or defensive linemen, growing up, they’ve been told they’re not athletes because of their size. And then they find football, and they’re celebrated for their size.”
At the Trojans’ home opener at Hendersonville’s Beech High School in April, the Scene spoke to the father of three young girls in the stands. They had traveled all the way from Alabama just to watch the game. With a lack of women’s tackle football options, this is the closest professional-level team within driving distance.
“Representation matters,” Ortiz-Marsh tells the Scene after the game. “That’s what we do every single day. We put our cleats on, we put our shoulder pads on, and we give the next generation the representation, so that they can see it and be it.” ▼
NASHVILLE GAELIC ATHLETIC CLUB
TENNESSEE TROJANS / WOMEN’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE
PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO
RECREATIONAL SPORTS THRIVE IN NASHVILLE
Local organizations Nashville Sports Leagues, Mid State Sports and HotMess Sports are expanding their reach
BY HANNAH HERNER
HUMANS ARE NATURALLY competitive, says Denise Downs, the new owner of Nashville Sports Leagues. That’s what she learned from 14 years heading youth organization East Nashville Athletics before adding the adultsonly Nashville Sports Leagues to her docket last year.
Kids play for fun, which is only complicated by adult interference, she says. It’s a fact that she hopes adults remember as they join recreational leagues.
“Who doesn’t want to win?” Downs says. “Even a dog chasing another dog. But you don’t have to be complicated about it. You don’t have to have meetings. You don’t have to get upset. You’re just playing to stay active, to do something you enjoy.”
Ben Young, COO of Mid State Sports, says if you’d told him as a child that sports would one day be his full-time job, he would have been ecstatic. The organization offers seven adult-league sports year-round — softball, volleyball, kickball, soccer, basketball, flag football and pickleball. About 30,000 Davidson County adults participate in Mid State Sports, and at least 20,000 take part in Nashville Sports Leagues (though it’s unclear how many people are members of both). Nashville Sports Leagues offers 11 sports, with dodgeball, bowling, cornhole and ultimate Frisbee among its offerings — and with several competition levels. Softball and volleyball are the most popular NSL sports, with ultimate Frisbee the organization’s fastest-growing.
What sets Mid State Sports apart today is that the organization owns its own indoor facility — a former YMCA tennis center at 207 Shady Grove Road in Donelson, which recently opened and houses volleyball and basketball courts. Mid State’s leagues were built on handshake agreements with churches and schools, which for a time meant games took a backseat to those organizations’ prior engagements.
Mid State started as a workplace league in 2012 — and now Young sees former college and high school athletes on teams.
“Not everyone likes to just go to the gym and run on the treadmill,” he says. “They grew up playing a sport, and they’re like, ‘If I’m gonna run, let me run for a reason.’”
For Young, who started as a player, the recreational league is a way to transition from work to leisure time, especially in the work-from-home era. Often two people simply bonding over basketball, for example, is enough to form a friendship — or at least enough of an excuse to go out after the game
BEN YOUNG, COO OF MID STATE SPORTS
and get a drink.
At Mid State, the sports director audits the teams on a weekly basis, moving them to higher or lower levels of competition if necessary based on their records. In some sports, there’s an A-E ranking range of competitiveness at signup. In kickball, there’s an easier “friendly roll” option. If a team beats everyone in their bracket by a mile, they will be moved up — if they lose every game, they may be moved down.
“No one wants to show up and be like, ‘I’ve never played volleyball,’ and then you’re playing against people who played college volleyball,” Young says. “That’s not going to be fun for anyone.”
For HotMess Sports especially, the social aspect is the whole point. The LGBTQ organization — whose leagues include kickball and several other sports — was founded in Nashville in 2014 and has since spread to 18 cities.
HotMess seasons kick off with a T-shirt mixer, where players receive their team uniform and meet their new teammates. At the end of the season there’s another party, complete with superlatives. The latest kickball team names — Jurass-thicc Park and Heated Thighvalry, for example — set the tone.
“It’s not even really about the sports,” says Grant Cobb, HotMess’ national commissioner and CEO. “It’s more about the people, and
YOU TOO CAN DISCOVER A WHOLE NEW SPORT AS AN ADULT
Finding volleyball in my 30s has been more rewarding than I ever expected
BY EMILY R. WEST
HOW HARD COULD IT
BE?
As it turns out, that’s a dangerous question to pose in more ways than one — something I realized after a rolled ankle and a concussion. Back in 2024, I wanted to get more active again. In an email from my local parks and recreation center, I saw a signup sheet for sand volleyball.
“OK,” I said to myself. “Let’s do it.”
There was just one glaring problem here: I hadn’t played volleyball since fifth-grade gym class. When I was growing up in rural Coffee County in the ’90s and early Aughts, volleyball wasn’t quite the powerhouse sport it is for young women today. I now see my friends’ children playing volleyball with a vengeance, traveling throughout the country year-round with club teams and competing on the high school level. I didn’t have those kinds of opportunities. There wasn’t a league available, much less a team. It wasn’t until 2008 that my high school decided to start a program. Clocking in at a whopping 5-foot-nothing at the time, I didn’t think I had what it takes.
getting everyone together to have fun and create a community.”
Kickball is the most popular HotMess sport, Cobb says, but HotMess also offers several volleyball leagues, dodgeball, bowling, flag football and tennis. There are divisions by skill level, but no gender requirements.
“Starting here in Nashville and being the very first one, it very much created the framework and laid the foundation for what an inclusive sports league should look like,” Cobb says. “The biggest thing that all leagues and all HotMess leagues should take away from Nashville is making sure that every single person that wants to participate can come and do so and not have to worry about any judgment.”
Midstate Sports and Nashville Sports Leagues agree on the mindset. Both groups now offer kids’ leagues, and the grown-ups have an example to set.
“I think if we can all help with sportsmanship and give a good example to the kids about what it looks like to be competitive but also maintain a level of sportsmanship and respect, it’s massive,” Young says. “As adults, we need to be able to demonstrate to kids that are watching that it’s not cutthroat.”
Downs also hopes kids can see the adult leagues and know there’s a path for them to keep playing into adulthood — all genders, sizes and ages, no tryouts required. ▼
Flash-forward 16 years. As it turns out, participating in a sport I’d never played seriously — for the first time, at age 30 — was a bit more challenging than I’d expected. On a rainy morning, I found myself at Dick’s Sporting Goods, hunting for a volleyball I could use for practice with my makeshift team. Turns out my teammates hadn’t played volleyball in years. I wasn’t necessarily optimistic about our chances. We set out on the wet sand for our first match. I tossed the volleyball up to serve. My shoulder soon reminded me of my age — despite me thinking I have great upper-body strength from playing fastpitch softball. I served. The ball hit the sand with a sad thud. I didn’t even make it to the net.
It would have been easy to quit right there — deem this a failed experiment. But two years later, I’m glad I stuck with it. I have learned to love volleyball, and have improved a great deal since that first serve. I now play both indoor volleyball and sand volleyball in the summer. It’s a reprieve from the ever-buzzing phone and list of daily responsibilities. A way to reset.
One day a week, for just one hour on the court, I get the chance to feel like a kid again. I jump, I run, I sprint, I slide — not always gracefully, admittedly — all over the hardwood. And along the way I sustained the aforementioned injuries. But I recovered, and I pressed on.
So to answer that question I asked myself a couple of years ago, it’s much more difficult than I thought. But I’ve found a sense of self in trying something new in my 30s, and regaining my footing as an athlete. And that alone has proven more worthwhile than I ever could have calculated. ▼
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
APRIL 24
SOUTHERN FRIED HOOTENANNY TASTING EVENT
APRIL 25 GRAND TASTING EVENT
Savor unlimited bites and sips from Nashville’s best restaurants, enjoy chef demonstrations, unlimited libations, live music and fun all weekend long!
APRIL 26 FOOD FAIRE MARKET AND GOSPEL BRUNCH LIMITED TICKETS REMAINING - GET THEM BEFORE THEY ARE GONE!
FRIDAY, APRIL 24 SATURDAY, APRIL 25
CENTENNIAL PARK • 6 TO 9PM
CENTENNIAL PARK • 5:30 TO 9:30PM
SOUTHERN FRIED HOOTENANNY
Kick up your heels, loosen your belt and get ready for a celebration of bold Southern fl avor, live music, and good times. Sample downhome dishes from 25+ top local restaurants, sip craft cocktails made with local spirits, and explore a whiskey & beer garden.
SIP SAMPLES FROM Balcones Whiskey • Avia and Krasno • Bearded Iris Brewing • Beiler Wines • Bravium Wines • Delicato • Francis Coppola • Freixenet • G4 Tequila and Palomo Mezcal • George Dickel • Heaven Hill • Hedges • Joel Gott • Justin Wines • La Vieille Ferme • Lewis Cellars • Libby Wines • Lumin Wines • Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery • Neyers Wines • Row 94 Bourbon • Superlyte • Surfside • Tito’s Handmade Vodka • Vineyard Brands • Vital Hard Seltzer • XXI Martinis • Zamora
TRY BITES FROM
Bar Mar • Cafe Between • Champy’s Fried Chicken • Daddy’s Dogs
• Decker & Dyer at The Westin • Street Injira • GATHRE at Hotel Fraye • Gus’s Fried Chicken • Hall’s Catch • Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
• Limo Peruvian Eatery • Mere Bulles • NADC Burgers • Pie Town Tacos • Puckett’s Restaurant • Ruby Sunshine • SaapSaap BBQ • Shotgun Willie’s • Stompin’Grounds • Streetbelly • Taco Bamba • TN Cobbler Co • Uncle Bud’s Catfish • Waldo’s Chicken & Chefs
SIP SAMPLES FROM
Avaline • Avia and Krasno • Banfi Vineyard • Bearded Iris Brewing • Cave Springs Vineyard • Chandon • Choya • Constellation Brands
• Copper Cane Wines by Joe Wagner • Crossbarn by Paul Hobbs • Delicato • Do Epic Sh*t • Dry Creek Vineyard • Duckhorn Vineyards
• Famille Perrin • Fess Parker Winery and Vineyards • Frederick Wildman & Sons • G4 Tequila and Palomo Mezcal • Georges Duboeuf
• Hedges Family Estates • Italian Lipman Wines • J Vineyards • J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines • Josh Cellars • Kobrand Corporation • Lewis Cellars & Justin Winery • LUX • Master Wines • Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery • Palm Bay International • Peyrassol • Piattelli Vineyards • Piccini • Rombauer • San Simeon • Santa Julia · Spire Collection • Tito’s Handmade Vodka • Tri Vin • Trinchero Family Esates • Vital Hard Seltzer • XXI Martinis • Zamora • Zuccardi
TRY BITES FROM
888 • ABA • Acme Feed & Seed • A-Roi • Blue Aster at Conrad Hotel • Chauhan Ale and Masala House • Cledis Burgers • COA at Canopy Hotel • Coley’s Juke Joint • Commons Club at Virgin Hotel • Daddy’s Dogs • Deacon’s New South • Decker & Dyer at The Westin • etch/etc. Restaurants • Five Points Pizza • GATHRE at Hotel Fraye • Germantown Cafe • HEARTS Nashville • Henley • Hattie B’s Hot Chicken • Indaco • Joyland • Karringtown Rowe • Kase x Noko/Noko • Kosho by Tabu • Las Palmas • Limo Peruvian Eatery • Little Rey • Maiz de la Vida • Mesero • Oak Steakhouse • O-Ku • Park Cafe • Postino Wine Bar • Prime + Proper • Ricey & Co • Saffire Restaurant • Soho House Nashville • Sushi | Bar • Sushi San • Superica • Taco Bamba • The Mockingbird • The Optimist • The Sicilian Butcher • The Southern Steak & Oyster • Tio Fun • Villa Castrioti • Waldo’s Chicken & Chefs • Zaytinya W Hotel Yeehaw!
SUNDAY, APRIL 26
CENTENNIAL PARK • 11AM TO 3PM
M A I N
S T A G E
FOOD FAIRE
GOSPEL BRUNCH GARDEN • 11AM TO 3PM • TICKETED EVENT
Enjoy a bottomless buffet during the Gospel Brunch! Indulge in a full breakfast spread from Big Bad Breakfast, plus gourmet pastries from D’Andrews Bakery and East Park Donuts. Sip your way through cocktails and mocktails with a menu including a build-your-own Bloody Mary and mimosa bar, espresso martinis, tequila sunrise, and more. Enjoy food & fellowship as you listen to performances from our Main Stage and start your Sunday sunny side up. Limited walk-up tickets available.
SHOP FROM OUR VENDOR MARKET AND FOOD TRUCKS
Amora Drink Company • BingBox • Blister Hot Sauce • Blue Hound
Cold Brew
• Chef Mike’s Jerky
• Cia Belma • City Juicery • Coyote Kitchen
• Daily Bagel
• Eat Bubbles • Edible Creations • Elk River Waygu • Feral Ferments • Gelatano • GreenDreams Matcha • GREYS Fine Cheese • Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
• Home Food Services
• Honky Tonk Heat • Humphrey Street Coffee
• Joyland Burgers
• Lange Sea Salt
• Ivory Cotton Bar
• Light Hill Meats
• Mesero • Nashville Jam Co.
• Nosh Desserts • Oat Straw Tea Company • Olive and Sinclare Chocolates • Ousley Ouch Salsa • Perfect Tenn
• Perfectly Cordial
• Pie Town Tacos
• Pizza Assurda
• Quentin’s Sauce • s.e. Ceramics • Smith’s Lemonade
• Pops Krazy Kettle Korn
• Snapper Creek Jerky
• Somm in the Grove
• Soul of the City
• Streetbelly
• Sweet Marilyn’s • the char bar
• The Cupcake Collection
• The Tennessee Cobbler Co.
• Tipsy Scoop • Two Spicy Mamas • Volta Cafe
• Waldo’s Chicken & Beer
SCAN QR CODE FOR UP TO DATE FESTIVAL KEY TO FIND YOUR FAVORITE BUSINESS!
SATURDAY, APRIL 25
MUSIC [ICE IN MY OJ]
HAYLEY WILLIAMS
Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams launched her first solo tour at the end of March in support of her third solo album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. The tour will make an extended stop in her home area with three dates at the Ryman this week. Williams initially released the material from the album as stand-alone tracks in the summer before releasing the full album at the end of August to critical acclaim. Musically, the record leans more pop than her work with Paramore. Lyrically, she pulls no punches, taking aim at a variety of targets, including herself. On the title track, she takes a shot at Lower Broadway, declaring, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar.” Attendees at the Ryman shows will hear Williams perform all 20 songs from Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, plus an abbreviated interpretation of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Thus far, she has been joined by special guests at a majority of the shows — including Annie DiRusso at the second of her three performances in New York and Jason Isbell at the third — so chances are high there will be some special guests at her Nashville dates. Brooklyn-based experimental indie-pop duo Water From Your Eyes will open each show.
DARYL SANDERS
APRIL 25, 27 & 28 AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
THURSDAY / 4.23
MUSIC
[THE SHUFFLE MAN] ROBYN HITCHCOCK
and Why I Never Left. Hitchcock says his set at the Beast will include “two or three” songs from the new album, including the first single “I Am This Thing,” which was released on March 27. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
[THE POWER OF THINKS!]
THEATER
NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: SEUSSICAL: THE MUSICAL
Oh, the thinks you can think this weekend, as Seussical the Musical continues at Nashville Children’s Theatre. Based on the whimsical works of Dr. Seuss, this delightful musical brings a host of beloved characters to life, from the charming Cat in the Hat to dear Horton the Elephant and even Gertrude McFuzz. There’s a fun, jazzy score courtesy of Broadway’s Tony Award-winning writing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime; Once on This Island). Directed and choreographed by NCT’s executive artistic director Jenilee Houghton, the cast features a nice mix of new and familiar talent, including Mallory Mundy, Takiah Ledo, Aaron Arsenault, Natalie Rankin, Téa Doherty, Ella Claybrooks, James Rudolph II, Erica Lee I
British rocker Robyn Hitchcock will perform in his adopted hometown Thursday evening at The Basement East as part of his tour to celebrate the upcoming release of his 25th studio album, The Confuser. The show, which is billed as “Live and Electric,” will feature Hitchcock’s new backing band — guitarist Jeremy Fetzer, bassist Todd Bolden and drummer Eric Slick. “It’s great to play a hometown gig in Nashville,” Hitchcock tells the Scene. “I’m proud to be considered part of the musical community here, an honorary Nashville Cat. It makes me feel like I’ve done something with my life, something unusual.” Hitchcock will be releasing The Confuser on July 24, and it essentially will be the follow-up to his brilliant 2022 full-length Shufflemania, although not literally — he released an album of instrumentals in 2023 (Life After Infinity) and an album of covers in 2024 (1967: Vacations in the Past). The latter was a companion to his memoir published the same year, 1967: How I Got There
Haines and more. I can’t wait to check out Billy Ditty’s always imaginative costumes. Touching on themes of friendship, loyalty and the power of being true to yourself, Seussical the Musical offers a perfect way to close NCT’s Season for Storytellers. AMY STUMPFL
THROUGH MAY 24 AT NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE
25 MIDDLETON ST.
COMEDY
[YO TE VOY A DECIR ALGO] ANGELO COLINA
Venezuela-born comedian Angelo Colina has been making waves on social media with his Spanish-language stand-up sets, full of playful and familiar observations on the immigrant experience and how different Latin American groups navigate life together in the U.S. and abroad. Like any good storyteller, he draws in the audience as though they already know they’re in on the joke, whether he’s talking about getting his dog from Venezuela to Colombia to the U.S. or his various odes to his Dominican barber. The New York-based comedian’s sets have also taken on a bigger symbolism than riffs on assimilation. As he told the Los Angeles Times, there’s something punk about performing in his native language while ICE runs amok, but there’s also a sadness as audience members miss shows over safety concerns. As Nashville’s Spanish-speaking population grows and contends with increased numbers of la migra prowling the streets and stalking courtrooms, let’s hope the comedian gets the warm welcome he deserves and his fans get some much-needed laughter.
ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
9:15 P.M. AT ZANIES 2025 EIGHTH AVE. S.
FILM [CURSES]
I SWEAR
If you wanna know who the person was who yelled the N-word at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo at this year’s British Academy Film Awards, a film based on his life will be hitting movie screens this weekend. I Swear takes you to Scotland to meet John Davidson (Game of Thrones alum Robert Aramayo in a BAFTAwinning performance), whose lifelong struggle with Tourette’s made him an advocate for Scots with uncontrollable tics. Writer-director Kirk
Jones (Nanny McPhee) sends you on a grueling but sympathetic tour through Davidson’s early years, when it seems like he was the only person in the country to have the nervous system disorder. When he’s not yelling slurs or giving quick punches to people (and animals), he gets into scuffles that land him in either jail or the hospital. A friend’s mom (Maxine Peake), a mental health nurse, thankfully provides love and support when John’s mom (Shirley Henderson) and family give up hope. I Swear gives you a better understanding of Davidson and his journey! Visit iswearmovie.com for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
OPENING THURSDAY AT REGAL OPRY MILLS
570 OPRY MILLS DRIVE
ART [WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?]
CHRISTOPH NIEMANN: IDEA DIARY
In the 2020 Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design, artist Christoph Niemann says he gets suspicious whenever he’s having too good of a time while working. “It doesn’t bode well for the outcome,” he explains. But you’d never know it from his playful, witty drawings and prints. Take “The Secret,” which shows René Magritte’s famous “The Son of Man” from another angle — the green apple is actually biting down on the man’s nose. Niemann is perhaps best known for his New Yorker covers, and his Instagram account @abstractsunday has more than a million followers. For his second solo exhibition at ZieherSmith — and his first in Nashville, having previously shown at ZieherSmith’s New York location — the Berlin-based artist has taken over the Edgehill space with an immersive exhibition that includes custom wallpaper produced in collaboration with Minneapolis-based company Area Environments. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER THROUGH MAY 30 AT ZIEHERSMITH 1207 KING HOLLANDS AVE.
SATURDAY
/ 4.25
[BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITIES]
MUSIC
JEFF EVANS
As the music critic and list maker Tom Hull pointed out in his favorable 2024 review
of the Atlanta band Jeff Evans Porkestra’s EP Willow Pillow, there’s no Discogs entry for Evans’ previous group, Chickens and Pigs. Evans was born in Macon, Ga., in 1961 and moved to Atlanta in 1986. Evans and company recorded eight full-lengths under that moniker, including 2015’s Free Range, before morphing into the Porkestra. Evans strikes me as an interesting songwriter who has been hiding in plain sight, or just in Atlanta — check out the Free Range track “What Would Lynyrd Skynyrd Do.” He sounds like a catchy amalgam of Lou Reed and your favorite sloppy indie-country rocker on the Willow Pillow track “I’m Going to Town,” about moving to the big city to get away from it all. I’m also impressed by the dynamics and lyrics of “Happy Earthquake” and “Mirror, Absorbent,” both of which mention air travel. Meanwhile, Evans reworks songs from the Chickens and Pigs era on his 2025 EP When Pigs Dance. He says he has a full-length, Telling the Bees, set for release in August. Saturday at Brown’s Diner, Evans shares the bill with Ned Hill Band and The Phoenix Lights. EDD HURT
7 P.M. AT BROWN’S DINER 2102 BLAIR BLVD.
PARTY [DISCO FEVER] THE DISCO BALL: WILDEST DREAMS
The annual Kindling Arts Festival may be a couple of months off yet, but fans of edgy, experimental work still have much to celebrate this weekend as the organization hosts its annual benefit, The Disco Ball: Wildest Dreams. Far from your standard, stuffy fundraiser, this much-anticipated event promises to unleash the power of disco, transforming the Eastside Bowl into “a phantasmagoric dreamscape.” Guests are invited to don their most outrageous and imaginative outfits (sequins and sparkles are always appropriate!), and attendees can look forward to a fabulous lineup of performances from Found Movement Group, GrandmaFun, Asia Pyron and PYDANCE, Savoya Foxx, Anne Veal and Kelsie Craig, plus Seth Nathan Green and Andrew Newton (from an intriguing new musical by Madeleine Hicks and Kara McLeland). DJ Raiden will be on hand to keep the disco party vibes going strong, and there will be otherworldly projections from Anna Horzen. Kindling will also honor this year’s Queen of the Disco Ball — prolific writer, actor, director and activist Shawn Whitsell. It’s sure to be a memorable evening, and all proceeds go to support Kindling Arts Festival 2026: Utopias, which runs July 23 through 26. AMY STUMPFL
8 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
FILM [HEADED WEST] THE PALOMINO
Armadillos, tumbleweeds and roadside diners line the long, lonely stretch of Interstate 40 that connects Nashville to Southern California. It’s no coincidence that the east-west route is the stuff of country songs, so many of which have been written between the two tightly bonded music regions spanned by genre-defining artists like Johnny Cash, Lucinda
Williams and Emmylou Harris. Mule Kick Records captures the synergy in The Palomino, a new documentary centered on the iconic North Hollywood honky-tonk of the same name. Equal parts love letter and music history lesson, the film underscores how independent music venues can nurture and bind communities over decades. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum welcomes California to the table this week with an exclusive screening and panel, featuring musicians Rosie Flores, Tony Booth and James Intveld. ELI MOTYCKA
2:30 P.M. AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S FORD THEATER
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.
BOOKS [SHOP LOCAL] INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY
Celebrating its 13th anniversary, Independent Bookstore Day falls on the last Saturday of April, and showcases the best in independent bookstores across the country. Nashville gets a special treat this year with the launch of the Middle Tennessee Indie Bookstore Crawl, which will highlight the best of the area’s independent bookstores, including crawl spots in Nashville, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, Hendersonville and Franklin. To participate, stop by as many participating locations as you can, fill out the passport they’ve created and submit it for a chance to win a grand prize. In East Nashville, you can check out The Bookshop, Novelette Booksellers, East Nashville Books, Fairytales Bookstore, Shook About Books, Slow Burn and Shadowed Pages Bookshop, the last of which will pop up at Surefire Coffee. Mobile bookstore Sugar and Spice Book Co. will be in The Gulch at Killebrew Coffee. Parnassus Books, Duckbill Bookshop, and Taylor Street Art and Books are also participating. Each of the bookstores on the crawl will have its own special-edition releases, giveaways and author signings. To build your itinerary and snag a passport, follow on Instagram at @midtnbookstorecrawl. TINA DOMINGUEZ AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS
SHOPPING
[ON THE ROAD] PRESS PLAY VIDEO OPENING TOUR
With streaming services becoming more costly and less enjoyable by the day, physical media is arguably more important now than ever before. Luckily for us, there’s a great movie community in Nashville that is about to get even stronger with the opening of Press Play Video. The mobile walk-in video store is focusing not just on bringing the movies to you, but also on creating the kind of vibe and relationships that made shops like Blockbuster essential for so long. The goal, in addition to buying copies of your favorite movies, is to make connections and discover new films.
“Enjoy the browse,” as owner-founder Joe Bass puts it. “Come in, take your time, check things out and chat with the guy behind the counter.” The Blu-ray- and 4K-focused shop (with a wide selection from specialty labels like Criterion and Arrow) will kick off its opening tour on Saturday
SEUSSICAL: THE MUSICAL
SPECIAL ACTIVITY AREAS
SPRING STREET CORNER Presented by LEVEL WELLNESS
Visit Spring Street Corner to see live art demonstrations by local muralists, painters, and other artists from the Williamson County Arts Council.
MAIN STAGE Presented by NISSAN USA
You can’t have Main Street without a MAIN STAGE! Rock on over to the Square to see a variety of bands, acts, and performances take center stage.
ACOUSTIC STAGE Presented by CORCORAN REVERIE
There’s plenty of great music awaiting you at Main Street Festival’s Acoustic Stage! You won’t want to miss out on this year’s incredibly talented lineup.
PETONE Presented by VEG - ER FOR PETS
Main Street Festival is for everyone, including the pups! If your furry family members are accompanying you on Main Street, be sure to stop by the PetZone featuring giveaways, puppy pools, Meet the Doctors, VEG Pet Lounge, and plenty of fun for pets big and small. Plus, the Williamson County Animal Shelter’s Adoption Trailer will be in PetZone!
KIDONE Presented by HOPE UC NASHVILLE
Looking for endless fun at Main Street? Look no further than KidZone! With exciting, creative crafts, and engaging activities, KidZone is the ultimate destination for your little adventurers.
Atlanta
at The Franklin
Get ready for a big-league takeover as the Atlanta Braves head to the historic Franklin Theatre! Step inside to catch the game on the big screen or swing by the outdoor activation for exclusive giveaways, fan
and a station to mail letters to your favorite players.
CATERPILLAR CRAWL
Enjoy Discounts & Win a Movie Ticket to The Franklin Theatre! Grab a passport and follow the Caterpillar Crawl to find the unique Caterpillar at each destination and write its code on your passport to claim your prize!
Elle Park
Landmark Booksellers
Sweethaven Shuff's Music (closed Sunday)
• Twine Graphics
• Mellow Mushroom
• Hester & Cook
• Vinnie Louise
• Visit Franklin Visitor’s Center
• Puckett's Restaurant Kilwins Franklin The Heirloom Shop Walton’s Antique & Estate Jewelry
• Finnleys
• Frothy Monkey
Passports available at the Heritage Foundation headquarters tent on the square or at each shuttle stop entrance.
FOOD VENDORS
BOOTH & PARTNER DIRECTORY
215 The Tapestree by Elk Meadow Designs
327 Rebecca McKenzie Designs
AREA SPONSORS
with a stop at Crazy Gnome Brewery from 2 to 7 p.m. Upcoming stops include the Belcourt, East Nashville Beer Works, Mott Cha Market and Bearded Iris Brewing. CHARLIE RIDGELY
2 P.M. AT CRAZY GNOME BREWERY
1005 W. KIRKLAND AVE.
SUNDAY / 4.26
ART [LAND OF PLENTY]
TOGETHER WE: ABUNDANCE
Molly Barth’s collaborative Together We series will raise funds for The Store, a free, nonprofit grocery store in 12South. In addition to Barth — an associate flute professor at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music — the exhibit will also feature creatives like poet Ciona Rouse, photographer and visual artist LeXander Bryant, and cellist Kaitlyn Raitz. Rounding out the exhibit are plenty of names recognizable to Nashvillians: Dashon Burton, Keshia Hay, Rod McGaha, Phillip Patti, Minton Sparks and Lain York. According to a press release, the theme of the event explores “the tension between scarcity and abundance in food, culture, community, housing, resources and creativity,” asking “what becomes possible when every neighbor gives and lives abundantly in a way that assures everyone has enough.” If you have thoughts on what abundance means to you, visit Bryant’s website (orgnzdvisuals.com/abundance) and record your own thoughts for the archive. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
5 P.M. AT RADAR615
516 HAGAN ST.
DRAG [SISSI THAT WALK]
SISSI CYCLE 8: ROUND 1
It’s fun to follow drag queens on one of the largest national stages, RuPaul’s Drag Race — but it’s perhaps more important and rewarding to support queens in your own backyard. Hosted by local talent Cya Inhale and Vidalia Anne Gentry and presented by Music City PrEP Clinic, SiSSi | A Queer Competition gives us a chance to do just that. In the eighth cycle of the threenight, elimination-style live competition, 12 local drag queens will battle to become this season’s winner. The audience even gets a say in who moves on to the second round. The dozen competitors represent a diverse mix of drag styles, and SiSSi serves as a great intro to the art form for those less familiar, too. Like any competition show, it’s also a chance to catch some talented artists before they become nationally known. Despite the Tennessee General Assembly’s seeming obsession with tamping it down, drag is alive and well in Nashville. More than alive, it’s chock-full of talent and joy. HANNAH HERNER
8 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
MUSIC
[THE COMPANY YOU KEEP]
DAVE POMEROY BIRTHDAY BASH
For every great marquee musician in Nashville, there are a dozen more whose tremendous talents play a big role in the
headliners getting to shine in the spotlight. You might not know Dave Pomeroy’s name if you aren’t involved in the Music City music biz, but he’s been an integral part of it for decades. A couple of his roles are as the long-serving president of the Nashville Musicians Association (aka American Federation of Musicians Local 257, our city’s musicians’ union) and the organizer of the annual star-studded Nashville Unlimited Christmas Concert, a benefit for homelessness advocacy group Room In The Inn that’s been going for more than a quartercentury. There’s also a good chance Pomeroy has played bass on a record you love or in a touring band with one of your favorites, and quite a few legends of our area and beyond are coming to 3rd and Lindsley on Sunday to celebrate his birthday. Just a few of the many names on the bill: soul-stirring frontman Charles “Wigg” Walker, vocal heroines The McCrary Sisters, sideman-frontman-producer extraordinaire Buddy Miller and queen songsmith Emmylou Harris. If someone is to be judged by the friends they make, Pomeroy has earned high esteem, indeed. STEPHEN TRAGESER
7 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
MONDAY / 4.27
[WAITED A LIGHT YEAR]
MUSIC
TRIPPING DAISY
Led by Tim DeLaughter, the Dallas-based Tripping Daisy took up residence in my musical consciousness as the mythological precursor to the symphonic/choral collective The Polyphonic Spree. They’re often branded “neopsychedelic,” but the designation doesn’t do justice to Tripping Daisy’s diversity. Relentlessly positive and notably unpretentious, the band is psychedelic in their textured effects, unconventional production and sincere yet quirky lyrical attack. Crunchy without the angst, humorous without malice, surreal yet grounded and more dreamy than outright psychedelic, they have an impact that arose from their ability to twist the alt/grunge/electronic status quo of the 1990s. Their evolution from grunge-pop weirdness into the more trancelike journeys of their later albums reflects their
understated eccentricity. The video for their cheeky “I Got a Girl” became an MTV darling during the channel’s last gasp as a musical gatekeeper. Though the original Tripping Daisy lineup disbanded in 1999, I discovered that the band isn’t nearly as enigmatic and elusive as I presumed, having fully reunited in 2024 after numerous brief reunions and mini tours. Dallas expat Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, has named Tripping Daisy as an early influence, particularly the album I Am an Elastic Firecracker, which they will be playing in its entirety on this tour. Houston-based Jumprope opens. KEVIN BROWN (KEVBRO)
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST
719 WOODLAND ST.
ART [GOD LOVES UGLY] ASHLEIGH DARNELL: UGLY WOMEN
Ashleigh Darnell is a photography senior at Belmont University’s Watkins College of Art. The title of her debut exhibition, Ugly Women, may find veteran gallerygoers expecting a feminist deconstruction of contemporary beauty standards, but Darnell isn’t so predictable. This collection of candid portraits and down-home exteriors is focused on Stuart’s Smokehouse and Seafood — a dive bar nestled in the woods near the Greenbrier River, just outside of the small town of Alderson, W.V. Darnell’s title refers to a sign in front of the establishment that reads: “Warm Beer. Cold Food. Ugly Women.” Stuart’s is the local hang for a community of boomer barflies with irreverent senses of humor and the Southern hospitality to let a newbie photobug lens them in their natural environment. Darnell grew up in the area, and this exhibition is a celebration of her roots that documents an Appalachian subculture of colorful characters bonding over pool tables and barbecue, and not particularly concerned with passersby who lack a sense of humor. I’ve taken Southern art seriously enough to write about it for a few decades, and I know its sense of humor is as essential as its sense of place. I can assure you, dear reader, the most serious art is the art that doesn’t take itself so seriously. Ugly Women is gritty and greasy, smoky and sweet. JOE NOLAN THROUGH
WATKINS
TRIPPING DAISY
WEDNESDAY / 4.29
MUSIC
[THE WHATSAPP SHAKESPEARE] RAYE
[FEELS LIKE SUMMER IN SWEDEN]
MUSIC
MELANIE MACLAREN & NIC FAIR
In support of her upcoming album THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE, British singersongwriter Raye brings her This Tour May Contain New Music to the Ryman on April 29. After her 2023 breakthrough album My 21st Century Blues, Raye was recognized on a global scale as a bright talent in music. With songs such as “Escapism,” “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” and “Prada,” it’s easy to see why Raye has been co-signed by the likes of Taylor Swift, SZA, Al Green, Blackpink’s Lisa and Bruno Mars. Raye’s artistry can be seen in her latest releases as she blends genres such as pop, R&B and soul with lyrics that are both vulnerable and pertinent. However, her true talent is encapsulated by her live performances. She doesn’t rely on stage effects, but instead almost takes on the role of
There’s magic in Melanie MacLaren’s stories; her songwriting is full of tales of endless feelings, the inevitability of death and her idea of the heaven that might follow. MacLaren’s writing is precise and fierce, with lyrics like “’Cause every time I write a song / It lives, but it don’t live long / Just hangs around forever / Even though the life I gave it is all gone” painting a feeling that sticks with listeners long after the song is over. The songsmith is a hidden gem in the songwriting scene in Nashville, and dare I say one of my favorite writers out there. MacLaren’s sharp word choices and lived-in storytelling intertwine almost cosmically with her soft yet commanding vocals. Co-headlining the night is Nic Fair, an artist whose hushed voice delivers narratives of gardens, groceries and growing as life gets tough and harder to navigate. He uses imaginative imagery to his advantage, like in his newly released track “Rearview” that breathes moments of first-love nostalgia. Lyrics like “Friday night in the GA pit / With your Liquid Death / And your neon wrist in the spotlight” offer a sentimental feeling of distinct memories that fade alongside old love. Both artists are phenomenal lyricists, writing songs full of emotional truth. GRACE BRASWELL 7 P.M. AT THE UNDERDOG 3208 GALLATIN PIKE
RAYE
BIG GAY BRUNCH
SATURDAY, APRIL 25 AT RESTAURANTS ACROSS THE CITY
Big Gay Brunch is one of the most anticipated moments of the weekend—high energy, all heart, and packed with incredible food, music, and people. Take your pick from five restaurants and bars across Nashville, each putting their own spin on the Saturday morning celebration. It’s the perfect way to kick off your day before heading back to Centennial Park for the Grand Tasting that night.
Big Gay Brunch is proudly in partnership with Nashville CARES — keep the fun going after MCFW Festival and participate on April 30 for Dining Out For Life®!
ZAYTINYA 10AM-2PM
LETTUCE, CAMERA, ACTION
The new documentary short ‘How to Heal the Planet’ tells the story of Nashville’s sustainable food scene
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
THERE’S A SCENE in the new documentary short “How to Heal the Planet,” which premieres Monday night, when one of urban farmer Jeffrey Orkin’s children is playing in the dirt. When asked what she’s doing, she replies, “I’m making the world better.”
It’s a poignant and personal moment, and one that makes Orkin teary. It also demonstrates the real essence of the film from Nashville director Davis Watson — that the climate story is not all doom and gloom. There are behavioral changes we can make, processes we can embrace that can make a difference. There is hope to heal the planet.
The 25-minute film tells the story of how our city’s local food scene is part of a larger movement through Orkin’s experience. He
started growing food on a windowsill in his Bennie Dillon condo on Church Street, and then moved to a storage area, focusing on hydroponic gardening methods. Hydroponic plants are soilless, growing in nutrient-enriched water. Because the crops are grown in small spaces in what are referred to as vertical farms, they can be raised in cities without a lot of land, reducing the miles food has to be transported from farm to table. They use less water than traditional farming and are counted as one of the possible solutions to the myriad threats to the American food system.
Director/farmer/Renaissance man Watson — he’s even written for the Scene on a couple of occasions, and is also the brother of The Yellow Table Café’s Anna Watson Carl — returned to
filmmaking during the pandemic. He wanted to make a film to combat the perception, as Conan O’Brien later joked during the 2026 Academy Awards, that all short documentaries are “little sads.” Watson and Orkin are cousins, sharing interests in farming and bettering the world, so Watson thought Orkin should be his first subject. Watson hopes “How to Heal the Planet” becomes a pilot of sorts, the first of many short films depicting climate work through a more optimistic lens. The project is under the umbrella of Paradocsical, Watson’s documentary website and project.
“We have a pitch deck of other stories from Maine to Puerto Rico to California,” Watson says. “Of different people doing really interesting, resilient things.” He started with Orkin’s story in part because it was personal and also because it was set in Nashville, where Watson grew up, and was easier to do on a budget.
The film follows Orkin’s path to founding Nashville’s Greener Roots Farm and becoming an essential supplier of truly local, urban-grown produce to Nashville’s best chefs. Those chefs include Margot Café & Bar’s Margot McCormack — people who initially were skeptical about whether hydroponic lettuces and microgreens
could taste good. Watson admits that he too was doubtful in the beginning.
“I was in California, where water is very precious, and I see people growing in this coconut coir,” Watson says, referencing the soil alternative utilized in sustainable hydroponic farming using processed coconut husks. “I’m a soil guy; I didn’t know what this medium was. But I really had a shift in my consciousness. We could grow, like, three times as much food, three times as fast.”
The short film features a who’s-who of the early Nashville food scene, including McCormack, Tyler Brown (formerly of Capitol Grille and Southall) and Jeremy Barlow (now known for Fryce Cream and previously the owner of Tayst, an innovative fine-dining spot).
“How to Heal the Planet” 7 p.m. Monday, April 27, at Riverside Commons (1211 Riverside Drive) $20 suggested donation to benefit Paradocsical and The Nashville Food Project
DAVIS WATSON
STILLS FROM “HOW TO HEAL THE PLANET”
Since “How to Heal the Planet” was filmed, Orkin sold Greener Roots, which continues to supply chefs with nutrientdense produce grown within 50 miles of their restaurants, including in a greenhouse at Franklin’s Southall. Now growing produce in his new home in Atlanta (although not lettuces, because he says he could never get them better than the ones from Greener Roots), Orkin is reflective on the film and its possible power.
“I’ve been an entrepreneur for many, many, many years, and it’s hard to really understand and see the impact, because you’re there every single day,” he says. “When somebody takes the time to document what that meant. … Truthfully, I have cried every time I’ve watched it, because I just kind of forget what I accomplished with that business.”
In the film, Vanderbilt University professor Amanda Little, author of The Fate of Food, discusses how hydroponics can be not just better than traditional farming methods but also part of the solution.
Solutions are what Paradocsical seeks. To launch the film, Watson is hosting a screening night/fundraiser on Monday, April 27. The lineup includes a screening of the film, a silent auction and a postshow panel with Orkin, Watson, William Crenshaw (Greener Roots’ new owner), McCormack and several others from the film. (Watson says the night is a stop on McCormack’s farewell tour as she prepares to close Margot in June.)
Suggested donation is $20, with proceeds benefiting Paradocsical and The Nashville Food Project, but space is available at a pay-what-you-can level.
The screening will take place at Riverside Commons, a new venue in an old stone church that is now the home of Paradocsical. Watson plans to host movie nights and conversations at the East Side venue over the next year.
“Davis is a much better storyteller than I am,” Orkin says. “In the current political climate and the current world we live in, where there’s a lot of disappointing, frustrating, negative energy, I think to highlight that there are really cool, beautiful things happening out there is really impactful.” ▼
BE OUR GUEST
Music City Food & Wine Festival returns to Centennial Park this weekend
BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN
FOLLOWING LAST YEAR’S successful relaunch, the Music City Food & Wine Festival will return to Centennial Park April 24 to 26, brought to you by FW Publishing Events — the events team at Scene parent company FW Publishing. The festival itself follows a series of special Intimate Dinners at local restaurants, but the events in the park will serve as the main attraction.
One notable change for this year’s festival: the decision to move the Nashville Scene’s annual Iron Fork competition to the fall, allowing that chef showdown to command its own spotlight later this year.
This weekend’s festivities in the park begin with a raucous new kickoff on Friday night, April 24: the Southern Fried Hootenanny. Presented by Waldo’s Chicken & Beer, the evening will feature unlimited tastings from more than 45 local restaurants, plus the return of the popular Waldo’s Chicken & Chefs Experience, where founder Mark Waldo will join several of his chef friends in dishing out Southern snacks for all to enjoy.
The Whiskey & Beer Garden will pour local and regional favorites, while Corkdorks Nashville hosts wine tastings and seminars in their tent. Thanks to Carter Vintage Guitars, attendees will enjoy live music all night, with performers straight from the stage of beloved honky-tonk Robert’s Western World — honky-tonk stalwarts Jesselee Jones and Brazilbilly will take to the stage at 6:30 p.m. followed by headliner Hannah Dasher.
The Grand Tasting will take place in the park from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday night, April 25. More than 100 local restaurants and beverage brands will sample their wares under the tasting tents, and guests will vote to select the Best Bite of the Night at the end of the tasting. There will be more wine seminars plus chef demos and the return of the Mixology Competition to crown the best behind the bar.
Sunday kicks off with the Big Gay Brunch, where some of Nashville’s most entertaining brunch spots will show their pride with special food and drink menus and over-the-top entertainment. On the festival grounds, Big Bad Breakfast will serve up a bottomless buffet of Southern-fried goodness as part of a Gospel Brunch from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. This is the only ticketed event on Sunday, because everyone is invited to attend the family-friendly Food Faire where more than 50 local artisan food vendors will sample and sell their products from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. The day will also feature chef demos and live music on the Main Stage. ▼
A “Toast to Mom” Celebration
Enter to win a $250 Deacon’s gift card to treat your mother for Mother’s Day!
Scan the QR code to enter.
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THE LONELY MEN
Nashville-based author Jordan Ritter Conn’s American Men examines modern masculinity BY LOGAN BUTTS
JORDAN RITTER CONN fills an increasingly rare role in the world of journalism — he’s a fulltime reporter focused on longform storytelling. Unless you work for The New Yorker or one of the other vanishingly few literary magazines still in existence, it’s tough to find a job in this vein, especially if you’re someone not living in a coastal media-hub city.
The Nashville-based author released his second book, American Men, on April 21. It’s a starkly intimate and in-depth portrait of four men living in the United States. Ritter Conn’s first book, the acclaimed The Road From Raqqa, focused on beloved local Syrian restaurant Café Rakka. This time he’s telling a broader — but just as effective — story.
Ahead of his appearance at Parnassus Thursday night, we spoke with Ritter Conn about his years-long process of writing the book. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
an independent bookstore for independent people
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTS FOR TICKETS & UPDATES
6:30 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 23
JORDAN RITTER CONN
with BETH RITTER CONN at PARNASSUS American Men
6:30 PM
RANDI SMITH
with SHARON CAMERON at PARNASSUS Ada Holloway's Had Enough
FRIDAY, APRIL 24
6:30 PM
REA FREY
CLIFFORD STORYTIME
ANN PATCHETT SIGNINGS EXCLUSIVE MERCH & MORE!
VIEW SCHEDULE:
TUESDAY, APRIL 28
with LAUREN NOSSETT at PARNASSUS Dear Mother
6:30 PM
ERIN OSMON
with JEWLY HIGHT at PARNASSUS Won't Back Down
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29
How did you first get the idea for this book? It’s both a timeless and a really timely subject. In a lot of ways, it feels like the thing that I’ve been working my way toward through my whole career. I’ve been doing longform narrative, human-interest stories, mostly in the sports world. And when you write a lot about sports, that usually means you end up writing a lot about men. So I’ve done a lot of stories that involve talking to men about really intimate pieces of their lives. … Back in the late 2010s, during the first rumblings of a lot of the conversations we’re hearing now, I was paying really close attention to it. You would hear online about men being lonely and not having friends and not being in touch with their emotions.
On the one hand, I bristled at it because I felt like I made my career talking to men about their emotions and things that they were going through in their lives. But on the other hand, I recognized that there was a lot of truth to it. I started working on the proposal for this book in 2020 during the lockdown, and I was thinking that I could really intimately tell the story of several men’s lives, built around their relationship to masculinity. And I did not know the conversation that had begun bubbling up back then would get louder and louder.
How did you land on these four men? I don’t have the exact number [of men I interviewed], but it was north of 50. And those conversations, they looked different. Some of them were very formal interviews, and we interviewed multiple times.
everyone was willing to have it, and almost everyone was willing to be pretty open.
I wanted four stories that really complemented each other. There were a few things that I wanted to make sure that I had. I wanted someone who had engaged with physical violence in a really head-on way. … I wanted someone who played sports at a high level, because that’s a lot of how we kind of think about masculinity in this country. Also, I wanted someone who had a military background, because that’s a lot of how we think about masculinity. I wanted people from different parts of the country with different socioeconomic backgrounds. It was really important to me to have a trans person. I just thought a trans man’s experience would add a perspective to this book that I thought would be really important and worthwhile.
I do have this belief — it sounds kind of trite, but I really think it’s true — that everyone’s story really is interesting enough to hold up to this kind of treatment.
I feel really close to these guys. I have a close relationship with them. I have been to see a couple of them since the book was finished. I felt like those things were necessary in order to get to the level of intimacy that I wanted to get to. I wanted to write it in a way that makes it feel like you’re almost inside their heads. Standard journalistic practices don’t really allow for that … so I felt like it was worth it to be able to fully inhabit their experiences in the way that I tried to do. How did you decide to structure the book in the way you did? Any time you write anything, you just want the reader to keep reading. You want them to turn the next page. And I thought what better way to do that than to kind of pull the rug out from under them a little bit, get right up to this moment of tension, and then stop and say, “We’re going to go over here now.” … If I just sequenced them [consecutively], it would feel like a very different book. It would feel like four character studies rather than one coherent thing. ▼
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… But then there were others who I just casually talked with. I would bring it up to everyone I met. I travel a lot for my job at The Ringer, and when I was on the road, I was just constantly bringing this up. The thing I found is that, in the initial conversation of “I want to talk to you about your relationship to masculinity,” almost
You spent years talking to these guys, and they’re being really vulnerable with you. I’m sure you got close with them; how did that affect how you wrote the book? I went to [journalism] school. I work as a journalist. Frankly, there are rules that we are taught as journalists that I abide by in most of my work, that I didn’t abide by in this book — the biggest one being letting them read their own stories. … I felt like I had to mention it [in the foreword], just because I felt like I owed that to the old-school journalist reader.
WMOT Roots Radio Presents Finally Friday featuring Amanda Shaw, The Youngers & Ruby James
Jonell Mosser & Friends featuring Kentucky Thunder & Special Guests
Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring Jim Collins, Don Sampson, Johnny Clawson & Ray Stephenson + Maura Streppa Guilty Pleasures: The Final Countdown!
Dave Pomeroy Birthday Bash featuring Charles "Wigg" Walker, The McCrary Sisters, Buddy Miller, Emmyloy Harris, Pat Bergeson, Annie Sellick, Will Barrow, & more!
Bluebird on 3rd featuring Marv Green, Terry McBride, Brice Long + Jordan Allen & Brittany Moore
The Time Jumpers
An Evening with Mary Gauthier & Stephen Kellogg
The French Connexion featuring French Family Band, Jimmy Fortune, Mike Rogers, Jenee Fleenor, Ben Isaacs & Jeff Taylor SOLD OUT!
Nicholas Jamerson [7pm]
Electric Python, Video Vixen and Savage Attack [9pm]
Tom Hamilton Band (from Joe Russo's Almost Dead) [7pm]
Ryan Cooper - Album Release Show [9pm]
Jacob Augustine w/ Lawndry [7pm]
Reptilian w/ Voltage Hawk & Silicon Death Ray [9pm]
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BITTERSWEET
Speaking to Cheryl ‘The Pearl’ Cook and Gwendolyn ‘Blondy’ Chisolm of pioneering rap trio The Sequence ahead of NMAAM recognition — in Chisolm’s last interview
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
THE MEMBERS OF all-female rap trio The Sequence spent decades fighting for the royalties and recognition they were owed as a breakthrough act in early hip-hop. The South Carolina crew had a star-making debut with 1979’s “Funk You Up.” Not only was it the first commercial rap single performed by women, it was also the first hit recorded by Southern MCs — 16 years before a defiant André 3000 told the antagonistic Source Awards audience “the South got something to say.”
The Sequence was set for a moment of historical recognition on Saturday, April 25, when Gwendolyn “Blondy” Chisolm was scheduled to speak at an event celebrating the addition of a crop of items from the band’s recording and touring days to Nashville’s National Museum of African American Music. The memorabilia includes onstage outfits like black jackets and sequined shoes as well as photos. Some of the items belonged to fellow member Angie Stone, who died in 2025.
But in a sad turn of events, Blondy died on April 6 in Atlanta after a brief illness-induced septic shock. She was 66. Speaking to Scene just three days before her death, she said it was exciting that the group was about to be honored by an institution based in the South.
“We deserve it,” said Chisolm, “and we are the first.”
Originally the Scene was slated to speak only
to Chisolm, but in a pleasant surprise she added bandmate Cheryl “The Pearl” Cook to the phone call. The two still shared a sisterly chemistry, volleying stories of their time in music back and forth.
As detailed in a 2017 Rolling Stone profile on The Sequence, the three high school friends had heard some early rap recordings throughout the ’70s and decided to pen a song themselves after the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” blew up. They adapted their cheerleading routine and injected it with hip-hop swagger. When Sugarhill Gang performed in The Sequence’s hometown of Columbia, S.C., Chisolm, Cook and Stone (rapping as Angie B. at the time) hustled their way backstage. They met Sugar Hill Records CEO Sylvia Robinson and impressed her with a performance of “Funk You Up.” She promised to make them stars.
Robinson signed them to the label, and “Funk You Up” became another hit for Sugar Hill. Robinson and her husband Joe set the girls up in New Jersey and acted as mentors and guardians, offering plenty of advice about safety during visits to New York City.
The Sequence was billed on tours alongside acts like Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the Funky Four + 1 (which included fellow female MC Sha Rock). The New Yorkers were like older siblings to the Southerners, and The Sequence members said they were
very humble offstage.
“Each group had their own aura,” said Chisholm, but none of them had “big heads,” signing autographs for kids at each stop. (Although she recalled Flash and his crew had a built-in-the-Bronx roughness to them.)
The Sequence was also active behind the scenes, its members writing rhymes for other Sugar Hill acts. Cook was also working in A&R and production.
In 1985, the group declined to renew their contract. They admired the Robinsons, but they weren’t receiving a fair cut of the royalties. It would be another 30 years before the rights to their breakout single returned to The Sequence. They weren’t the only acts dissatisfied by Sylvia Robinson’s penchant for offering predatory contracts, which remains a large blemish on her legacy.
“We respected her, we loved her, and we thought that she would watch out for our best interest, but it didn’t turn out that way,” said Cook. The three pursued different careers, and would reunite for a few performances in the 2000s. Angie Stone continued to make music, scoring a commercial and critical hit with 2001’s Mahogany Soul — the gold record issued with the certification from the RIAA is being added to NMAAM alongside the Sequence items.
All the while, “Funk You Up” continued to live on in hip-hop and R&B. The trio’s iconic harmonizing of “ring, ding, dong” was the hook to Dr. Dre’s G-funk hit “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” and a more straightforward lift featured in the remix of En Vogue’s “Whatever” with Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Erykah Badu sampled “Funk You Up” for the jubilant “Love of My Life Worldwide” and brought aboard Angie Stone (along with Queen Latifah). The group also sued Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson, whose “Uptown Funk” bears noticeable similarities to parts of The Sequence single.
“We’ve been through a lot,” said Chisolm. “But God built us strong,” added Cook. “We’re strong Black women. And when I look back over it, I thank God that we had that opportunity to show our talent at an early age, to be able to step out there among the many men who were out there during the time,” and still get top billing next to them.
Chisolm, who was writing a memoir, told the Scene she had regrets. “I just think I would have been more financially stable if I could have been in the service,” she said. She was in ROTC and planned on becoming a drill sergeant before hip-hop whisked her away. But don’t mistake that for a lack of pride.
“I’ve always believed that I was ahead of my time,” said Chisolm. “I was the sassy one. I was the — excuse me — the shit-talker.”
Blondy had a reputation for bawdy rhymes like “You can ring my bell all through the night / You could rock my body till the early light” and “I get more sex than a cat chase mice” on “Funk You Up.” While they’re tame by today’s standards, Blondy noted she predated raunchy rappers like Lil’ Kim. She probably would have sworn more on the record if Robinson had let her. “I used to come to Sylvia Robinson and say, ‘Sylvia, can I say I’m the baddest bitch?’ ‘Oh no, you can’t say that!’”
“I think we did a great job, Gwen,” said Cook, reflecting on the group’s legacy.
The National Museum of African American Music is continuing with its scheduled inclusion of The Sequence’s items on Saturday. The event starts at noon and will feature a discussion with Cook as well as remarks from friends and family of The Sequence members: Angie Stone’s children Michael Archer Jr. and Diamond Stone; Chisholm’s sister Monica Scott; and The Sequence’s longtime DJ Deltonia Cannon.
“The Sequence made history in 1979, and NMAAM’s responsibility is to make sure that history is felt, not just filed,” says William Jeffries III, the executive director of NMAAM, in a statement. “These three women from Columbia, South Carolina, walked into Sugar Hill Records and built the foundation that generations of artists have stood on. We are honored that Cheryl, Deltonia, Monica, Michael, and Diamond are bringing this story into our walls. This is exactly what this museum was built to do.” ▼
Funk You Up: Honoring The Sequence Opening celebration noon-2 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the National Museum of African American Music
MAKING RECORD TIME
BY ANNIE PARNELL AND CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
THIRD MAN RECORDS and The Blue Room offered a choose-your-own-adventure model on Record Store Day, with a mellow vibe inside the shop and four ferocious sets starting at 11 a.m. in the venue space. Pop-ups from Danger Zone Video, East Nashville Books and more offered retail options, while Clownsums Diner and Secret Bodega provided sustenance in the courtyard. The crowd was packed and varied, the best kind of daytime show: Two-steppers thrashed in the mosh pit while families stood a safe distance away, their kids wearing ear-protecting headphones and tiny X’s on the backs of their hands.
Bria McCollum, who performs as Ergo, Bria, led her opening set with baroque, Kate Bush-style keys. McCollum’s voice is dynamic and ethereal — one moment she’s whispering over discordant guitar riffs, and in the next she’s pushing her impressive vocal power to its breaking point. Her singing shone in original compositions like “Fairweather” and “Never Had a Chance” as well as an intoxicating cover of Nirvana’s “HeartShaped Box.”
Most Improved followed after, a lo-fi rock band with a Britpop-meets-Southeast vibe and shades of Chicago’s Twin Peaks. Their set was kinetic: Jomby Graziano, who’s credited with “guitar, singing and fuzz” on the duo’s September single M.I., jumped and kicked in the air, while drummer Bram Fairhead held the line with a steady, driving beat.
Herly Berly came next, ripping into high-impact grunge to the tune of Veruca Salt and Kim Deal. “I love how blue it is in here,” quipped lead vocalist and guitarist Willow Selander after a powerhouse performance of the group’s 2023 single “Shove It.” Herly Berly has been teasing new music, and they announced onstage they’d just finished recording it. As the band tore into another song, Selander unleashed a scream and a pit of femmes grew in the front, laughing and thrashing together.
Nashville fixtures Soot finished off the day with driving experimental post-hardcore. Frontman Micah Mathewson took the stage wearing a Richard Dawson shirt, and imbued the brain-melting set with a subtle sense of humor. At one point, he handed a retro-style video game controller into the crowd, allowing the audience to control the distortion; at another, he jumped off the stage and walked out the door before finding his way back, singing the whole time. Soot also has a new release coming. To round out their performance, they played some as-yet-unreleased music with a slower core and a gloomy feel — the perfect cool-down to send the audience blinking back out into what sunlight there was on Saturday.
The day came and went in Music City with few if any notable hitches. Spirits seemed dampened by neither a chilly breeze nor some weirdness from the camp of rap star Kanye West, who
has recently been denied entry to the U.K. and had other concerts canceled in Europe due to his odious antisemitic comments. In case you missed it, West’s team shipped unsolicited copies of his latest album to a bunch of indie shops under the guise of an unofficial RSD surprise. Management at Grimey’s confirms they were among the recipients of an unwanted shipment, which did not go on store shelves and, as far as they know, no customers expressed interest in.
Meanwhile at Vinyl Tap, the record store, bar and East Nashville hangout space at the southwest corner of Porter Road and Greenwood Avenue, live sets got underway around noon, staggered between the indoor stage and an adhoc tented area behind the building. There were also booths where local labels hawked records, plus vintage clothiers who — with the threat of rain touch-and-go all day — no doubt sold out of windbreakers. Unbilled but stealing the show was Gizzard, an uncannily laid-back, people-friendly raccoon. The photogenic 20-pound trash panda is the educational ambassador raccoon for the Vermin Sanctuary — a local nonprofit “dedicated to the rescue, care and release of injured and orphaned native wildlife” — and kept the crew busy all day.
Jeremy Fetzer’s high-energy, high-atmosphere instrumentals were also a huge hit. The 38-year-old Buckeye State native is a longtime local instrumentalist and producer. He was one-half of Steelism — a 2010s Nashville secret too well-kept — and recently released a new solo LP called An Evening at the Fetzicon Lounge Fetzer and his five-piece ensemble didn’t waste a second, throwing psych-punk, surf rock and spy-thriller music together in ecstatic fashion. Things reached a fever pitch with the closer, “Mr. Lou.” A cover of a technically new (2008) but old-school-sounding surf number from a fellow gang of land-locked would-be surfers, Germany’s Space Rangers, it’s a nod to “Misirlou,” as made a hard-charging surf classic by Dick Dale. “Such a workout,” Fetzer told the Scene with a laugh afterward. “Playing [“Mr. Lou”], you never know you’ll make it to the end, but just have to rely on that reverb.”
That performance surely ought to have moved a few copies of Fetzicon Lounge Nicole Atkins has a new LP on the way — though details are scarce as yet, it’s her first in six years, sixth in total and first for Memphis’ Sun Records (!) — and it would have been flying off the shelves too, if you could buy it yet. As it was, her outdoor performance was a ray of light on this gloomy day. The set was irrepressibly funky and communal-feeling, with the crowd huddling close under the tent to stay dry, and its musicality was matched only by its sense of fun. Her vulnerable yet authoritative voice translated even in the days of COVID lockdown livestreams, but in person it was electric. Bet on this record to be a fixture on year-end lists by the time 2026 is up. Country songsmith Emily Nenni stood out even when she was lending vocal assists at Teddy and the Rough Riders’ release show for their eponymous LP almost four years ago. Returning the favor, Rough Rider six-stringer Jack Quiggins headed up Nenni’s backing band. The NorCal native’s
third solo LP Movin’ Shoes hits shelves May 1, and the band was raring to go Saturday, with a slate of self-assured, timeless-sounding tunes that seek and find levity amid life’s heaviness.
There was much more on the bill throughout the day and into the evening. Just a taste of what else was on deck: Bleary (shoegaze staples whose
debut LP Little Brain is out May 15), Ultrafrog (an intriguing new electronic project from Country Westerns’ Brian Kotzur and Blank Range’s Jonathon Childers), a suite of protest songs from Alanna Royale and a DJ set from beleaguered but unbowed mayor Freddie O’Connell (apparently a big Magnetic Fields fan). ▼
PHOTO: CLAIRE STEELE
PHOTO: ERIN FOLK
POST HOC: ERGO, BRIA
GOOD AFTERNOON
RHONDA LEE: NICOLE ATKINS
APRIL LINE UP
4.19 Dixieland Delight: Hotter Than a Hoochie Coochie 90s Country Tribute
4.21 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Preston James, Meg McRee, Patrick Murphy
4.22 Adam Hood, John Baumann
4.23 Flat River Band
4.24 Melodies For Miracles: A Benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital w/ George James, Chloe Lawson, Shelby Lee Lowe, John Pate, Dan Minogue, Sofia Nargentino, Tae Wright
4.25 Jeff Hyde
4.30 Bryan White
BROAD STROKES
Steven Soderbergh’s brisk, thoughtful The Christophers is a different kind of art-heist film
BY JASON SHAWHAN
THERE WAS A time when Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) was one of the most important voices in British art. The Christophers places his period of maximum influence as the ’90s, tying his legacy to the wave in British art that also included Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst and the artists featured in the Sensation exhibit — the Young British Artists being riffed on in both The Cell and the episode of Absolutely Fabulous in which Eddie’s father dies. But the work of Julian isn’t about form, but rather the emotional engine driving it; two series of portraiture (the titular Christophers) that define a relationship, from beginning to end.
And now, after Julian’s many attempts to figure out his relationship to the art world in all its shenanigans (having sidewalk sales of his work, being elusively canceled, getting involved with reality TV, making grand controversial statements to whoever will listen), the only thing that anyone seems to care about is an unfinished series of nine portraits of that same Christopher. This series is a Schrödinger’s Exhibition — the capstone on a career run aground, but also a means to relaunch said career with a dip back into the time of maximum impact.
When Julian’s two 40-something children (Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and James Corden, naturally) show up, it’s like a WCW tag-team match of mercenary unpleasantness. They want to cash in, even to the point of hiring accomplished art forger Lori (the majestic Michaela Coel, with a coat as iconic as Demi Moore’s in The Substance) to finish these works so everyone can get paid. That said, their plans pale in unpleasantness to Art Fight, the reality show competition that found Julian playing Simon Cowell to the U.K.’s best and brightest new young artists. We get maybe 90 seconds of it, and that is enough to make you want to slap McKellen in the face for fulfilling the expectations
DACOIT ROCK CITY
Legendary 1975 Indian film
Sholay returns to the big screen this week at the Belcourt
BY JASON SHAWHAN
THERE’S A REASON why Sholay was the most popular Indian film in the world for decades. If Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch The Man With No Name Trilogy, Oklahoma!, Enter the Dragon and The Magnificent Seven were all in the same movie, you’d have a sense for the maximalist majesty of Sholay
of those who want snide stereotypes and bitchy bruisecraft.
This is a different kind of art-heist film. It has elements of that genre, but it’s deeply rooted in the world of art forgery as well. These are very different kinds of operations, yoked together by the means and the method of how it’s all going down. This would make for a great double feature with Orson Welles’ triumphant ’70s nonfiction whatsit F for Fake, and some of the discussions that Lori and Julian have as she tries to infiltrate his studio as an assistant are among the more fascinating passages of cinema this year. This is a film that understands and loves artists’ spaces. Cluttered museums for an audience of one, these are the places we usually get to see only idealized versions of.
When it’s the Ian-and-Michaela show, there’s nothing that even comes close. It’s like a fencing match in which the foils have been replaced by those cinematic samurai swords that have been hammered to the thickness of an atom, capable of cleaving through near anything.
It’s just a damn shame that, as publicity for this film was ramping up, director/cinematographer/editor Steven Soderbergh decided to
make a big to-do about experimenting with AI for his next two films. It’s entirely possible that this is meant as some grand conflagration about artistic creation — and honestly, I could see him hemming to the line like a Cenobite in the first two Hellraiser films (in which there is extensive debate over whether it is hands or desire that determine the authorship of an event). But it’s also exhausting and deeply disheartening that a director who has been positively freewheeling about finding new ways to be creative would make such an enervating choice. Or maybe he’s using this AI pivot to bring the conflict between Julian and Lori in The Christophers off the big screen and into the real world? I hope that it’s that kind of a grand concept, because otherwise it is just very disappointing, especially for a film this brisk and thoughtful. ▼
The Christophers NR, 100 minutes Opening Friday, April 24, at the Belcourt and AMC Thoroughbred 20
Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 dacoit Western epic is a stone classic, now released into the world in a 4K restoration that also reinstates its original ending, censored for five decades. This is a film of many feelings and many genres — all of them, in fact — and its U.S. premiere at the 2025 New York Film Festival was the best experience
The malevolent bandit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and his gang are on the loose, murdering and pillaging their way in and around the village of Ramgarh. So what other choice does Inspector Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) have but to bring in the most dynamic of duos to handle business? The inspector encountered criminal antiheroes (and absolute legends) Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) a few years back, and he knows them to have honor and purpose. So we have a triangle of drama, with an imminent collision that’s going to shake things up for everyone.
At no point in making this film was director Ramesh Sippy content to coast. Every scene is perfectly rooted in the story, and is freed to flourish with the cast and crew. Sholay is not content to rest on its laurels. Even the moments that radiate hangout vibes and some joking around are part of the construction of this epic story, and it’s built with care, gathering strength as it barrels
along. There’s a sequence in this film that starts like Jacques Demy and ends like Sam Peckinpah, with the colors of the Holi festival becoming the colors of a massacre among the earth tones, and it delivers everything you could want from the movies.
No stranger to the wildest of Westerns, the late, great H.G. Webb — the recently departed cinephile and Belcourt booster — would have loved this film. ▼
Sholay NR, 204 minutes; in Hindi with English subtitles Showing April 25 & 29 at the Belcourt
GRAVE DANGER
Grace Glowicki’s triumphant Dead Lover is relentlessly madcap BY
JASON SHAWHAN
THE ETHOS WITH which to approach polymath Grace Glowicki’s triumphant Dead Lover is to think about what Violet says about fairy tales in 9 to 5: “gruesome and horrible and real gory. But also kinda cute.” That absolutely applies here, as a lonely gravedigger (Glowicki) spends her days shoveling the dead around, working with the earth to keep our most putrescent of secrets. She just wants to be loved, but her work has marked her as a nasal memento mori, and people don’t know how to handle that. Desire can stink. That’s just how bodies can be.
And when the gravedigger does find someone who is absolutely game to match her freak, it’s kind of lovely in a most disgusting way. Glowicki may be the only person whose way of saying the word “lover” could succeed the late, great Christina Amphlett. If there were any justice, distributors Cartuna x Dweck would find a way to get us a gravedigger voice option for Waze, because I would absolutely download that.
Glowicki and her supporting cast have got moxie to spare, with each of the cast of four playing multiple roles, using astonishing costume and design work in a very theatrical staging. There’s Kate Bush, Derek Jarman, Monty
Python and Ken Russell vibes all over the place, and absolute tonal perfection. There are definite Shakespearean play-within-a-play vibes, both in its Pirandellian sense of narrative and in its shambly sense of playfulness. And you’ve never seen anything like it, especially when magic and mad science come into play. You have to go back to 2017’s Dave Made a Maze to find this kind of relentless madcap creativity.
But even putting all of this aside, Dead Lover works because you want the gravedigger to be happy. She’s spiky and defines her own glam, and you can’t really blame her for wanting to be loved in spite of being a literal reminder of the looming grave that awaits us all. Take that journey, won’t you?
Dead Lover will screen Monday, April 27, with an opening set from U.S. Girls, who composed the film’s score. ▼
Dead Lover NR, 95 minutes
Showing at 8 p.m. Monday, April 27, at the Belcourt; preceded by a set from U.S. Girls
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Saturday, April 25
SONGWRITER SESSION
Mark Irwin
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 25
FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION
The Palomino with Tony Booth, Rosie Flores, James Intveld, and Scott B. Bomar 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
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NOON · FORD THEATER
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WITNESS HISTORY
Locals Kids Always Visit Free
Plan a trip to the Museum! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties always visit free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.
41 Peeve
1 Exploiting an I.R.S. loophole, e.g.
9 Forensic analyst’s workspace
15 Like the national dish tavë kosi (baked lamb with yogurt sauce)
16 Moon that’s a neighbor of Ganymede and Io
17 A boatload
18 How Jean Valjean repeatedly breaks out in “Les Misérables”
19 Where to find the towns Bigfoot and Tarzan
20 The o’s in xoxo, symbolically
22 Scratches (out)
23 Cards in a wallet or purse, informally
25 Resident of Muscat
27 Clothes that are ready to be thrown away
30 Mimicked
32 Online gamer’s bane
33 Like some flaws
35 Rump
39 “Decidedly not”
40 Homophone of 39-Across
42 ___ Lasso, fictional A.F.C.
Richmond coach
43 Big Bad Wolf’s disguise
45 ___ badge
47 Opposite of paleo-
48 Voice of the modern age
50 Site for indie designers
51 Crooner Mel
53 Beginning of the spelling of “Hera”
55 U-___ (German subway)
56 It has Earth’s highest and lowest points
58 N.C.A.A.’s ___ Eight
62 Certain fatty acids, informally
64 Certain hockey and soccer infractions … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled and shaded squares
66 Country singer Lee Ann
67 At peak pique
68 Gaelic gals
69 Locations for some posers
1 First president to sit in the Oval Office
2 It’s vera soothing!
3 Halo console
4 Jean Arp, e.g.
5 Tripping, in a way
6 German “the”
7 Deep cut
8 Lock in, so to speak
9 Thomas Jefferson’s belief
10 Part of an order
11 Ordnance depot
12 “Hey, no argument here”
13 Nighttime woe
14 Luggage
21 Master class?
24 Setting for Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”
26 Analogous
27 Word with napkin or nose
28 Miles away
29 Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out,” to name two
31 Tickles
34 Choice words
36 Actor Hammer
37 Lepidopterists’ needs
38 Operation Neptune, familiarly
44 Electric sign filler
46 Showing things as they are
49 Utter foolishness
51 Nation whose name sounds like a plea for seconds
55 Word after finger or poke
57 Do for Jimi Hendrix
59 “Here’s an ___ …”
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.
52 Catchers’ wear
54 ___ Virtue, three-time gold medalist ice dancer
60 Final, e.g.
61 Contractors’ figs.
63 Of first rank
65 Noted San Francisco weather phenomenon
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Broadway
The Nashville Zoo
NEIGHBORHOOD DINING & DRINKS
Big Machine Distillery
12-South Tap Room
Tin Roof
ENJOY THE OUTDOORS
Moss-Wright Park
Centennial Park
Fair Park Dog Park
BEST PLACES NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW
Zanies Comedy
FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
Southside Kitchen and Pub
BEST LOCAL FAMILY OUTING
The Nashville Zoo
COMMUNITY AMENITIES
Brand New Wellness Center & Outdoor Turf Space
3 Sparkling Salt Water
Swimming Pools
35-Acres of Lush Green Space
The Escape Game
Over 50 guided tours available. Affordable, social and stress-free travel designed for mature travelers. Our tours include accommodations, transportation, baggage handling, sightseeing, entrance fees, a professional Tour Director and select meals. For a limited time SAVE $250 on all tours. Call YMT today 1-866-314-6821
(CAN AAN)
Brother’s Burgers
Southside Kitchen & Pub
Eastern Peak
Radnor Lake State Park
Rockland Recreation Center
Social Events & Instructor Led
Fitness Classes
Off Leash Pet Park & Pet Spa
Tennis Courts
Gated Community
