Stories on the local tree canopy, Tennessee quarries, the endangered Nashville crayfish and more — plus, how to get free trees and recycle your electronics
The Taxman Still Cometh
Conversations — but not yet coordinated action — continue on high commercial property tax bills
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
Vanderbilt’s 40-Acre Vision Delayed, Deferred for Metro Vetting
University’s ‘Innovation District’ would turn parking lots into office buildings; nearby residents want specifics BY ELI MOTYCKA
Legislation Seeks to Further Crack Down on Mailed Abortion Pills
Though pregnant people are protected from litigation, Bulso’s bill could still open a path to a federal lawsuit BY HANNAH HERNER
COVER PACKAGE: THE GREEN ISSUE
The Endangered Nashville Crayfish
The crustacean plays a key role in its Mill Creek ecosystem, but threats remain BY JULIANNE AKERS
Return of the Quarries … or Maybe Not State Supreme Court guts the County Powers Act, leaving the topic of quarry bans an open question
BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR
City Leaders See Both Sides of Tree Canopy
Officials vow to restore canopy after winter storm devastation; Nashville Electric Service steps up tree-trimming
BY ELI MOTYCKA
How to Get Free Trees
Organizations like Root Nashville and the Nashville Tree Foundation want to keep the city’s tree canopy strong BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Only You Can Prevent Electronics Fires
Metro Nashville’s electronic recycling centers feel the effects of churning technology BY HANNAH HERNER
Metro to Launch Countywide Ecological Study
Metro Planning prepares to launch an 18-month study focusing on Davidson County’s environment BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
CRITICS’ PICKS
Nashville Comedy Festival, Justin and the Cosmics, Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival, Sister Act and more
BOOKS
Making Nashville Home
Sheri Lea Sellmeyer profiles a multicultural city, one immigrant at a time
BY CAROLINE SIEGRIST; CHAPTER16.ORG
THEATER
Cat Power
International cabaret sensation Meow Meow returns to OZ Arts BY AMY STUMPFL
MUSIC
Approaching the Bench
Taking a closer look at the Live Nation antitrust trial BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
On the Edge
Eve Maret embraces her inner self on Diamond Cutter BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out the Tammy Wynette tribute concert at the Ryman BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
FILM
Next Stop …
The liminal horror of Exit 8 will chill you BY JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD ( THIS MODERN WORLD WILL RETURN) MARKETPLACE ON THE COVER:
PRINT: nashvillesceneshop.com CONTACT TO ADVERTISE: msmith@nashvillescene.com
EDITOR: prodgers@nashvillescene.com
INTIMATE DINNER SERIES WITH MUSIC CITY FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL Reservations are now open at select restaurants for an intimate dinner series kicking off the Music City Food & Wine Festival. Enjoy exceptional cuisine at top venues. Secure your spot and purchase tickets today at musiccityfoodandwinefest.com before they sell out.
MUSIC CITY FOOD &WINE FESTIVAL Music City Food & Wine Festival will return April 24-26. Enjoy three days of tasting events, wine seminars, specialty dinners and brunches, vendor markets, live music and fun at Centennial Park. Visit musiccityfoodandwinefest.com for more information.
PASSES TO BONNAROO
The electric Bonnaroo 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.
VOXTROT AT THE BASEMENT EAST Voxtrot is set to take the stage at The Basement East on April 15, joined by See Night for a night of unforgettable live music. Don’t miss your chance to experience their critically acclaimed indie-pop and rock sound. Secure your tickets now at thebasementnashville.com.
THE POWER OF THE PURSE Step into a celebration of generosity at the Power of the Purse on April 16 at OZ Arts. Enjoy an evening benefiting the Women’s Fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, featuring auction items and an experience. Visit cfmt.org/calendar-events for tickets.
ENTER TO WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO CUT WORMS AT THE BASEMENT EAST Cut Worms will perform at The Basement East at 8 p.m. on April 21, joined by Liam Kazar. Experience the Brooklynbased singer-songwriter behind the single “Dream Most Wild” at an unforgettable live show. For details, visit nashvillescene.com/promo/freestuff.
WHO WE ARE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers
MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez
SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin
ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter
MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Logan Butts
AUDIENCE EDITOR Annie Parnell
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman
STAFF WRITERS Julianne Akers, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams
SENIOR FILM CRITIC Jason Shawhan
EDITORIAL INTERN Jasmin Enriquez
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cat Acree, Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Ben Arthur, Radley Balko, Bailey Brantingham, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Tina Dominguez, Stephen Elliott, Steve Erickson, Jayme Foltz, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, J.R. Lind, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Sean L. Maloney, Brittney McKenna, Addie Moore, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Katherine Oung, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Bobbie Jean Sawyer, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon Shamban, Amy Stumpfl, Cole Villena, Kay West, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Kelsey Young, Charlie Zaillian
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THE TAXMAN STILL COMETH
Conversations — but not yet coordinated action — continue on high commercial property tax bills
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
THE NEWLY FORMED Nashville Property Tax Coalition is continuing its efforts to find near-term solutions to the city’s ongoing commercial property tax affordability crisis. Several members of the coalition — including entrepreneur Christian Paro, CEO of Paro South — met with Assessor of Property Vivian Wilhoite and staff last month. That followed several meetings the group had with Mayor Freddie O’Connell and his staff.
The coalition is a nonpolitical alliance of more than 200 small business owners (it has doubled its membership since its inception in February) seeking solutions to property tax bill pressure. The coalition was founded when businesses were struggling with how to pay triple-digit increases in the amount of their property tax bills — which were due at the end of February.
“It does surprise me that there has not been any offer of assistance from the city,” says Bill Miller, founder and CEO of Icon Entertainment & Hospitality, owner of the Johnny Cash Museum, Skull’s Rainbow Room, Nudie’s Honky Tonk and other businesses. “There are many operators who are truly on the ropes, and for some it may be too late. I don’t care how successful a restaurant operator is, if you add $50,000 a month to their bills, that’s going to kill most operators.”
Property tax bill calculation is not particularly straightforward. Different parts of the process are governed by different Metro departments as well as by the state. The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Division of Property Assessments monitors assessments, and the state Board of Equalization hears appeals, sets
rules and approves the certified tax rate set by the mayor’s office and the Metro Council. The county assessor’s office analyzes sales data to establish market value.
The assessor’s office has given more than 300 presentations on the process since 2016, including to coalition representatives last month. Wilhoite’s goal in the meeting was to explain that the 2025 reappraisal is revenue-neutral by state law — meaning the county must collect the same amount of revenue from existing construction in total as collected in the prior year.
The increase in tax bills, she says, is due to the 26 percent tax rate increase set last year by the mayor and the Metro Council. Property values are assessed every four years, and Wilhoite encourages property owners to appeal their assessed valuation when appropriate. Property owners can appeal even in non-reassessment years.
Many business owners say last year’s assessments do not reflect current market conditions. Indeed, Wilhoite says assessments do reflect the value from the previous year. But development has slowed in the city. (It may not look like that’s the case, but many of today’s projects were negotiated years ago.) Paro says it would be impossible for him to sell his property on Main Street in East Nashville for the $12.7 million at which it was appraised. “Commercial Realtors in this city would just laugh,” Paro says. “We can’t pay our taxes and we can’t sell our buildings. What do they want us to do?”
The property tax bill increases affect business owners who rent their buildings as well. Many have triple-net leases, which call for annual
property taxes, maintenance and insurance to be paid for by the tenant.
Wilhoite says “an unprecedented number” of property owners are currently appealing their assessments, a process that can take nine months to a year. The mayor’s office is in the process of adding more volunteers to the independent Metro Board of Equalization so the board can hear more appeals. Board members — often real estate agents — are paid $100 per day for their work.
“We are appealing our assessments,” says Miller. “I would think that almost everybody is. But we haven’t had any word as to a hearing date. Typically, the hearings have come before the taxes are due. So this is a big whammy, because now you’ve got my money. And we don’t know how long the appeal process can go on.”
Miller has not been involved with the work of the coalition (although his sons, who are behind Schulman’s Neighborhood Bar in East Nashville, have been). But he is part of the Broadway Entertainment Association, an organization advocating for Broadway business owners. While the coalition is focused on near-term Metro changes, BEA is focusing its efforts on long-term state assistance. Miller supports efforts to introduce a property tax cap — Tennessee is one of just four states without such a cap. This year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly saw consideration of Senate Bill 2064/House Bill 1873, which would require a local governmental entity to hold a referendum to approve a property tax increase that exceeds specified thresholds — but that legislation stalled in a Senate committee last month. A cap would make life diffi-
cult for Tennessee cities, says a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, because property taxes are revenue-neutral by state law. It would be hard to afford to fill potholes or pick up the trash, particularly as inflation rises.
“What we heard from the business leaders is a desire to work with us to identify a variety of ways we can both support and promote our local businesses,” says a spokesperson for Mayor O’Connell’s office, recapping the coalition meetings. “We’re reviewing a number of options now, such as how we make our traditional programs responsive to current needs and create new programs to respond to current challenges. We also want to increase awareness of our existing offerings, like our Property Investment Incentive or the Fast-Growing Business Incentive, so that more companies are able to take advantage of these funds’ availability.”
Paro says he appreciates the transparency and the willingness of both the mayor’s office and the assessor’s office to meet. But he’s frustrated by what feels like finger-pointing.
“Where is the leadership saying, ‘We’ve heard you and we’re going to try the best we can to help’?” Paro asks. “Where’s that? Because that’s coming out of no office at all.”
Miller agrees that inaction could be bad for the city if it leads to Broadway businesses closing. “If you bleed the golden goose, the only answer is going to be to raise property taxes again and again and again, because all the tax revenue you’re getting from retail and food and beverage and hospitality is going to go away. There’s no happy ending unless somebody steps up and does the right thing.” ▼
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
VANDERBILT’S 40-ACRE VISION DELAYED, DEFERRED FOR METRO VETTING
University’s ‘Innovation District’ would turn parking lots into office buildings; nearby residents want specifics
BY ELI MOTYCKA
DISCUSSIONS ABOUT Vanderbilt University’s proposed 40-acre “Innovation District” between Natchez Trace and West End have suffered from a lack of details. Councilmember Tom Cash wants more answers, as do the residents around the Hillsboro-West End neighborhood — a cozy, historic enclave full of tenured homeowners and tenured professors who have so far delayed the project from advancing to the Metro Planning Commission. The university’s sought-after Specific Plan (SP) rezoning lacks specifics, though an emergent vision for what is today an expanse of parking lots has slowly come into focus via community meetings and glossy renderings.
Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s real estate ambition has so far led to splashy campus footprints in Manhattan, San Francisco and West Palm Beach, Fla. Exempt from property taxes, the university also has a voracious local land appetite. Custom rules that come with the university’s pending Specific Plan rezoning would give the school more flexibility to build higher — particularly along West End — and loosen regulation on buildings’ size and layout. The spectre of 30-story office buildings from 31st Avenue to West End bringing unknown traffic and construction to the area has neighbors wanting to hit pause. After delays and a two-meeting deferral, the plan was scheduled for Metro Planning Commission’s April 9 meeting. As of press time, according to a Metro source, it will again be deferred, to April 23.
“There’s a sense of wanting to get more than we have right now,” Cash tells the Scene. “To get
LEGISLATION SEEKS TO FURTHER CRACK DOWN ON MAILED ABORTION PILLS
Though pregnant people are protected from litigation, Bulso’s bill could still open a path to a federal lawsuit
BY HANNAH HERNER
SENDING ABORTION PILLS by mail is already illegal in Tennessee — the “Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act” of 2022 made it a class-E felony to mail or deliver abortion-inducing drugs. The problem, at least in the eyes of Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), is that no one has been prosecuted under that law.
Bulso, a self-described “culture warrior,” sponsored this session’s House Bill 5, which passed the House on March 26. The legislation aims to hold “out-of-state abortionists financially responsible” for sending pills into the state, Bulso said on the House floor. The legislation creates a $1 million civil liability for wrongful death for groups that
pen to paper, so we have somewhat of a better understanding of what it looks like more than it does right now.”
Now in his second term representing District 18 on the council, Cash may well be remembered for this term-defining project. Nashville’s large council roster dilutes political power across all 40 members, but endows the body’s 35 district representatives with strong influence over what gets built in their districts. Cash prefers to see more height and density on West End rather than 31st Avenue and Blakemore. Bus, bike and pedestrian accommodations also make the project more attractive, Cash says — particularly a greenway-like path connecting his district to Centennial Park.
All of that fits with urban planners’ longtime vision, laid out in Metro’s 2014 Midtown Study, which recommends buildings higher than 20 stories along the West End corridor and calls for bikeways, pedestrian paths, parks, green space and public transportation hubs. In a March 11 email, Cash told concerned residents that he too feels the project’s “anxiety and uncertainty.”
“I will do my best to ensure we take this opportunity to mitigate the impact of development to our neighborhood and enhance infrastructure so it’s an asset to our community,” Cash assured constituents in his email. “That requires digging into the details, both of the physical built changes to the area as well as continuing to build an authentic, good faith relationship with Vanderbilt as a community partner for the long term.”
Vanderbilt will need Cash’s sign-on for a
distribute abortion medication (mifepristone and misoprostol) to Tennessee patients.
“Our hope and expectation is that no one will ever need to bring a wrongful death action on behalf of an unborn child killed with out-of-state abortion pills, because our hope is that the passage of this bill will deter those out-of-state abortionists from sending abortion pills into Tennessee in the first place,” Bulso said on the House floor in late March. “That’s our major goal here.”
Tennesseans are still able to get abortion pills through the mail, as protected by the U.S. Constitution’s interstate commerce clause as well as shield laws — which protect people in 22 states from being extradited and tried in Tennessee for providing abortions or gender-affirming care. People seeking abortion pills can also legally travel across state lines to visit a clinic or take a telehealth appointment while in another state before traveling back to Tennessee to take the pills.
The bill’s Senate version is set to be heard on the Senate floor on April 9. If it passes, the legislation will not change much operationally, but it will open up a path for a federal lawsuit. The wrongful death charge can be brought in federal court, making shield laws moot. Physicians and mail carriers cannot be charged under the bill, making abortion advocacy organizations the target. There are already three pending federal lawsuits, filed by
smooth approval process in the council chamber, where the project will go through three readings — or they could risk finding an outsider to sponsor the SP, an unorthodox and uncouth option that would disparage Cash’s sovereignty over his district.
Cash answers to a highly educated, highly engaged neighborhood organized under the Hillsboro-West End Neighborhood Association (or HWEN, pronounced phonetically). The group helped punt Vanderbilt’s proposal off the Metro Planning Commission’s March 12 agenda with a strongly worded letter supporting a deferral; neighbors wanted more input from the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure, more public engagement and a more responsive Vanderbilt, particularly with respect to building height and where the development will go.
Individual neighbors have also added their critical comments to the record. Many bring up the land’s history — a controversial eminent domain case pursued by Vanderbilt in the 1960s and 1970s that razed residential homes. Those homes’ lasting legacy as a surface parking desert continues to grate on neighbors who remember the university’s dogged expansion over local opposition. An 800-word letter from Jim DeLanis, an attorney versed in Metro politics who served more than 10 years on the Davidson County Election Commission, casts the project in existential terms.
“Blakemore-31st is the physical and psycho-
Republican-led states, seeking to curb access to mifepristone at the federal level.
Because of legal concerns, abortion advocacy organizations Abortion Care Tennessee and Mountain Access Brigade cannot tell people directly where to access abortion pills. But according to Jules Edwards — the executive director of both organizations, which recently merged — they can instead display that information on their websites. Edwards says the orgs are not recommending self-managed abortion, but rather seeking to fight misinformation about the drugs.
“[The legislation] is intended to create a chilling effect for the person having the abortion by making them think that they don’t have options, or that they’re doing something criminal by ordering abortion pills online,” Edwards says.
Under both 2022’s “Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act” and this year’s HB 5 (should it pass), pregnant people who take the pills cannot not be prosecuted. However, there have been national cases in which people were met with criminal charges for taking abortion pills, though the charges were ultimately dropped. A bill that would have allowed pregnant people to be charged with fetal homicide if they got an abortion failed in the Tennessee General Assembly earlier this year.
Taking abortion pills is not a risk-free activity, Edwards says, but it’s effective and safe in most circumstances. Us-
logical barrier between Vanderbilt and the neighborhood,” DeLanis wrote to planning commissioners on March 13, soon after one of the project’s deferrals. “Instead of looking out over athletic fields, my Blakemore neighbors will be looking up at huge lighted towers that draw traffic at all hours. That will degrade the forward edge of our neighborhood and accelerate the commercialization/urbanization of our neighborhood. It will make our neighborhood the next target of Vanderbilt expansion. Truly, the Barbarians will be at the Gate.”
Vanderbilt has its own version of hyperbole. Its barbarians will look more like billion-dollar corporations — Anthropic, Eli Lilly, Anduril — who will engage in “future-facing” research partnerships with the university’s quest to anchor Nashville’s “innovation ecosystem.” Current language describing the project gives Vanderbilt maximum room to maneuver.
“For almost two years now we have held a series of community meetings with our surrounding neighbors to outline our vision for the Innovation Neighborhood, hear concerns and elicit feedback,” a Vanderbilt spokesperson tells the Scene, going on to highlight the plan’s building setbacks, walkability and restrictions on “noxious uses” like vape and liquor stores. “Many of our design plans reflect what we heard in these meetings, including our focus on things like open green space, better walkability, a bigger tree canopy, more pedestrian- and bike-friendly streets and increased pedestrian safety and more.” ▼
ing both mifepristone and misoprostol is up to 98 percent effective, while taking misoprostol alone has 85 percent efficacy because the regimen has to be followed exactly, Edwards explains. The drugs, which open the cervix, are also used in labor and delivery and in managing naturally occurring miscarriages.
“When the [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] decision came down, there was a pretty large narrative around, ‘People are going to have back-alley abortions, people are going to die from trying to have an abortion at home,’” Edwards says. “That’s not the case.”
Tennesseans are still getting abortions. In 2024, 10,020 residents traveled out of state to obtain an abortion, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. In addition, 5,840 patients terminated pregnancies with medication obtained through telehealth appointments.
Edwards says the number of people reaching out to Mountain Access Brigade, which operates a hotline, has grown threefold in the past year alone. Meanwhile, outof-state clinics that receive quarterly grant funds to cover procedures through Abortion Care Tennessee typically run out within the first month, they say.
“We are doing everything we can to do the bare minimum for the people who need us,” says Edwards, “and we’re not able to really scratch the surface of what people need from us. But we try our best.” ▼
Explore the legacy of Impressionism from its origins in 1874 through the early 20th century in The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art. Through nearly 50 paintings and sculptures, this exhibition reveals the rebellious origins of the independent artist collective known as the Impressionists, who redefined what constituted cutting-edge contemporary art. The Impressionist Revolution invites visitors to see the unique innovations of core members like Edgar Degas and Claude Monet who set the foundation for generations of avant-garde artists that followed, from Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh to Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse.
The Frist Art Museum is supported in
WITNESS HISTORY
This 1940 Gibson EH-125 was played by steel guitarist James Clell Summey, who called the instrument his “biscuit board” when appearing as his comedic persona, a toothless bumpkin named Cousin Jody, on the Opry.
From the exhibit Country’s Grandest Stage: The Opry at 100
Courtesy of Marie Hill Summey artifact photo: Bob Delevante
Stories on the local tree canopy,
Tennessee
quarries, the endangered Nashville crayfish and more — plus, how to get free trees and recycle your electronics
INSPIRED BY THE anti-war movement of the 1960s and that decade’s catastrophic Santa Barbara oil spill, Wisconsin’s U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson came up with a plan to hold a nationwide environmental “teach-in” in April 1970. With the help of environmental activist Denis Hayes and funding (and a visibility boost) from labor union United Auto Workers, the very first Earth Day was born. While our planet is still beset by environmental disasters — many of them caused or exacerbated by corporations that often co-opt the language of environmental activism, or throw sponsorship dollars at eco events — the world is full of folks who want to make a difference however they can. And that’s what Earth Day is about.
On Saturday, April 18, the Centennial Park Conservancy will host its annual Earth Day celebration at the Centennial Park Bandshell. As always, the free family-friendly event will include a tree giveaway along with dozens of vendors and exhibitors. This year’s lineup is a particularly good one,
The Endangered Nashville Crayfish
The crustacean plays a key role in its Mill Creek ecosystem, but threats remain
BY JULIANNE AKERS
IN NASHVILLE’S MILL CREEK, a small but mighty group of crustaceans makes for an unexpected cleanup crew.
These are the Nashville crayfish, a species whose entire population resides solely in Mill Creek — mostly Davidson County, but also part of Williamson — and nowhere else in the world. They spend much of their time eating dead and decaying organic matter like leaf litter, according to the Nashville Zoo’s ectotherm curator Dale McGinnity.
“The Nashville crayfish is really unique,” McGinnity tells the Scene. “They’re really important for sort of keeping the creek clean.”
The Nashville crayfish was first added to the federal endangered species list in 1986, making it the first species of crayfish to be classified as such. For more than a decade, the Nashville Zoo has conducted population monitoring of the
with performances slated from beloved indie-folk duo The Watson Twins, soul ace Phillip-Michael Scales and others, not to mention a midday yoga session led by Small World Yoga and planned presentations from experts on food waste, recycling, sustainability and a lot more.
In our annual Earth Day-inspired Green Issue, you’ll find details on how to safely recycle your old electronics and how to get free trees. We also have stories on how a state Supreme Court ruling could affect quarry-building across Tennessee and the Metro Planning Department launching an ecological study. Plus, the latest on Nashville’s tree canopy following Winter Storm Fern, and we meet the endangered Nashville crayfish.
Read on for more. Happy Earth Day. D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
NASHVILLE EARTH DAY
11 A.M.-5 P.M. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, AT THE CENTENNIAL PARK BANDSHELL NASHVILLEEARTHDAY.ORG
Nashville crayfish with the help of funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Through the data collection, McGinnity says researchers have seen crayfish numbers remain largely stable at Mill Creek in recent years.
But the small population isn’t the only characteristic that makes the Mill Creek resident stand out from other crayfish species. McGinnity says they’ve become known for having a rather gregarious personality.
“We found over 100 crayfish during our sampling efforts of Nashville crayfish under a single rock,” he says. “So they have a super high density within the watershed, and they seem to be sort of more social and communal than any other species of stream-dwelling crayfish that I’m aware of.”
And while many species of crayfish are nocturnal, the Nashville crayfish is often active during the daytime, when the creatures can be seen basking in the sun. McGinnity says that, along with sunbathing, socializing and helping to keep the creek clean, the Nashville crayfish plays a crucial role in the ecosystem, where they serve as prey for hundreds of species — including fish, birds and otters.
While population numbers suggest the Nashville crayfish appears to be thriving, there remain many questions about potential threats to the species. With the area surrounding Mill Creek having undergone rapid development, some advocates have raised concerns about the
Return of the Quarries … or Maybe Not
State Supreme Court guts the County Powers Act, leaving the topic of quarry bans an open question
BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR
A DECISION IN February by the Tennessee Supreme Court gutted a state law informally called the County Powers Act (CPA), which Grundy County used to shut down a sand quarry in 2022. The law, amended 25 years ago to let rural counties with no zoning ordinances control “nuisances,” had been used to go after not only quarries, but also adult entertainment superstores, opioid-dispensing pain centers and homeless encampments. In this case, the court held that Grundy County had created “in effect, a zoning ordinance enacted in violation of Tennessee’s County Zoning Act.”
Residents near the Clouse Hill Sand Quarry were upset about loud explosions and threats to well water. “I was sitting on the bed,” former Clouse Hill resident Michael Ford tells the Scene. “There was a small decorative pillow on a table beside me, and the explosion blew it a foot-and-a-half up in the air. We were so scared, and then we were so angry.” The community’s fight was against just the sort of nuisance the CPA was supposed to stop.
My dog in the fight: caves and waterways. The same ancient limestone that holds 11,959 caves (that’s the
impact of construction on the Nashville crayfish. But so far, the crayfish seem to have remained resilient.
“I think if it weren’t for the stormwater control measures required of builders, then it would have really had a negative impact on the Nashville crayfish population,” McGinnity says. “But that development [is] better now than it used
latest count, according to the Tennessee Cave Survey) is perfect for the asphalt and concrete to make more highways, housing developments, industrial parks and money. Cave country’s biggest quarry operator is Tinsley Asphalt, which pursued appeals through multiple courts, losing each time. Even the state attorney general sided with the county until the reversal by the state’s highest court.
A few months before the Clouse Hill operation was shut down, I wrote a Scene cover story on the hidden beauty and ecosystems it threatened, along with pristine streams and groundwater. As a child traveling through Tennessee, I was captivated by signs advertising Wonder Cave and Ruby Falls. In college I ventured beyond tour caves to pits, underground rivers and massive chambers few will see.
A 2022 dye trace — a method of water-flow tracking — proved that waste sand from Clouse Hill would have washed into the landmark Wonder Cave and more recent discoveries, threatening rare cave-adapted species that live nowhere else. The Grundy County resolution proclaimed, “No quarry, rock crusher or gravel pit may be located within 5,000 feet of a residence, school, licensed daycare facility, park, recreation center, church, retail, commercial, professional or industrial establishment.”
That’s the line that the high court ruled was an illegal zoning ordinance.
“Everybody has found that extremely odd,” Grundy County Mayor Mike Grady tells the Scene. “I think I know what happened, but it’s an opinion. I mean, it started involving big corporations being told, ‘You can’t pick on rural counties anymore,’ which is an economic downfall for the mining association.” Grady says the Tennessee
to be, because people understand the impacts of building without thinking about stormwater runoff.”
McGinnity says the introduction of an invasive species, which could include other crayfish, is one potential threat to the Nashville crayfish. He cites an example: when red swamp crayfish (the kind typically found in Louisiana-style
Department of Commerce and the state mining association helped the appeal. “I think money got involved with it.”
The CPA was originally co-authored by former state Rep. Charles Curtiss (D-Sparta), who is now executive director of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association. Although Curtiss was “disappointed” in the court’s decision, he adds, “I’ve got a lot of trust in the state Supreme Court.” He says he can see how many, perhaps all, resolutions under the act might be legally interpreted as zoning.
“The last thing rural people want is somebody to tell them how to build a barn,” Curtiss explains. “Zoning has nothing to do with farming, but you can’t explain that to the public. I’m 79 years old. I don’t think I’ll live to see rural counties adopt zoning. That’s one reason the legislature was trying to make another way for them to protect themselves.”
Curtiss offers some hope for Grundy County: “They could probably go in and rework the County Powers Act and say, ‘If you’re dealing with something that could be zoning, you have to have public hearings and reflect exactly what’s in the zoning laws.’ That might hold up in court.”
This could be what Mayor Grady plans. Before the next legislative session, he says he will reach out to counties adopting the CPA. He says he wants to “contact each one of those and get support for amended language” to be introduced next year.
Meanwhile, legislation that could offer counties a new tool is making its way through the state legislature. The legislation would empower local governments to “approve the location of any quarry or digital asset mining facility in a public meeting.” It could also require
crawfish boils) were introduced in Europe.
“[Red swamp crayfish] carry a fungal disease that the North American crayfish have evolved with, and it doesn’t hurt them, but it really wiped out the native crayfish in Europe once it got out,” says McGinnity.
Organizations like the Mill Creek Watershed Association and Cumberland River Compact work to restore water quality in the creek and ensure that it remains a clean and healthy environment for all of the species that inhabit the area. The Cumberland River Compact has conducted dam removals throughout Mill Creek, a practice that restores the flow of the stream and allows fish and macroinvertebrates, like crayfish, to travel freely throughout the creek.
Still, stormwater runoff remains a threat to the area and could have a negative impact on the ecosystem if not managed properly, says Gray Perry, watershed science and restoration program manager at the Cumberland River Compact.
“Tennessee has some of the highest biodiversity of freshwater species in North America, and it’s up there in the world,” says Perry. “We just have so many different types of fish species, tons of mussel species … lots of different macroinvertebrates and vegetation too. … We have a lot of awesome stuff, and it’s good to protect our habitat when we can.” ▼
professional reports on potential harm to residents or the environment. (Both the House and Senate versions of the bill are scheduled for votes after this issue goes to press.)
“We’re in this constant struggle between local control and state control,” says state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville), a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. “I think it’s best if these decisions are made by the people who are close to the development.”
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
CRAYFISH IN MILL CREEK
CLOUSE HILL SAND QUARRY
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
City Leaders See Both Sides of Tree Canopy
Officials vow to restore canopy after winter storm devastation; Nashville Electric Service steps up tree-trimming
BY ELI MOTYCKA
DENSELY WOODED NEIGHBORHOODS make up a corridor on the county’s western side running roughly from West Meade to Franklin Pike. The stretch, centered on Belle Meade and Forest Hills, also captures Nashville’s wealthiest ZIP codes, where stately single-family homes preside over large lots dotted with mature oak, hackberry and poplar.
People here love their trees, and they mourned the freezing days in January when treasured magnolias and pines split from the pressure of internal moisture, or survived long enough to turn from hero to villain, dropping limbs onto cars, homes or yards and triggering a still-ongoing process of brush clearance. The area’s sprawling lots and extensive canopy — an amenity for clean air and scenic beauty, and a boon to home prices — also put these neighborhoods at the end of NES’ already long power restoration list during Winter Storm Fern. In many cases, door-to-door brush removal companies were knocking on West Meade doors where homes still didn’t have power more than a week after loud cracks of splitting branches filled the early morning hours of Jan. 25.
Winter Storm Fern highlighted the city’s struggle to live within its tree canopy, where Nashville’s enormous urban forest can be both enemy and friend. Downed branches across the city made power restoration a time-intensive, tedious game of pickup sticks and immediately provoked an all-out tree-trimming effort from NES executive Teresa Broyles-Aplin.
“Our estimates now suggest more than 2,000 trees destroyed,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell told a roomful of tree sympathizers at an early Arbor Day event in East Nashville on March 26. “NDOT has already collected over 1.4 million cubic yards of storm debris.”
That number will approach 2 million, O’Connell said, in the coming weeks. Oversized brush removal trucks have become a regular obstacle for Nashville drivers, just like the debris piles that still dot many front yards.
“We’ve got some opportunity — the storm cleared older diseased trees, and it had an impact on deadwood,” O’Connell continued, pivoting his keynote address from eulogy to benediction. “In some places, the canopy is actually stronger. It also gives us a chance to begin renewal by planting back with stronger tree species in more appropriate locations and much greater diversity.”
Nashville’s tree efforts span multiple million-dollar nonprofits, advocacy groups and politically connected retirees. Former Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, now the global chair of The Nature Conservancy, has devoted his post-Senate career to environmentalism, specifically the air-cleaning and carbon-sequestering potential of tree coverage. Mike Jameson — attorney, former Metro councilmember and principal legislative liaison in former Mayor John Cooper’s office — has swapped his city hall suit for ranger gear as an active member of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council. Jameson greeted former colleagues as he distributed program flyers outside the mayor’s Arbor Day event.
The city’s Root Nashville campaign to plant 500,000 trees by 2050 draws the most civic attention as a proactive and ambitious effort, while canopy maintenance tends to get attention as a liability, as it’s seen now through NES’ aggressive and reactive tree-trimming plan that reads more as apology than preparation.
Tree workers have spoken out against “topping,” a clumsy but common practice of haphazardly lopping off limbs that creates unnaturally jagged branch patterns and ultimately weakens a tree’s ability to endure extreme weather. Other locals are trying to preserve the county’s
How to Get Free Trees
Organizations like Root Nashville and the Nashville Tree Foundation want to keep the city’s tree canopy strong BY
HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
TENNESSEANS CAN TAKE advantage of tree giveaways this month, and throughout the year. Here’s how.
On April 18, the Centennial Park Conservancy will host Nashville’s annual Earth Day Celebration, which will include the distribution of 1,500 free trees. Those will include native tulip poplars and multiple types of oaks, as well as varieties of midstory, flowering and fruiting trees, courtesy of the Nashville Tree Foundation with sponsorship from Amazon. Trees are limited to one per household.
The Nashville Tree Foundation reports having donated more than 3,000 trees since the nonprofit began its giveaways in 2021.
“It always warms our hearts to give away trees to the community and help the urban canopy of Nashville, but this year feels a little more special,” Nashville Tree Foundation field operations manager Madison Williams tells the Scene
contiguous urban canopy by codifying 100,000 acres into the Western Highland Rim Forest. John Overton High School assistant principal Kevin Aigbe accepted official recognition on March 26 from the city for a designated campus arboretum, one of dozens around Nashville functioning simultaneously as education, preservation and recreation. The city is still striving for a balance between the good and bad aspects of life in the forest.
“In the past several weeks, NDOT contractors have picked up the equivalent of over 125,000 standard dump trucks of trees, with limbs making up the majority of the debris,” added NDOT director Phillip Jones in his own remarks to the Arbor Day crowd. “It is a devastating event unlike anything I’ve seen in my 30-plus year career here at the city of Nashville. Trees make our city cool, the air cleaner, they mitigate stormwater challenges, they calm traffic, and they make our streets truly complete. I’m grateful that Nashville has leadership in Metro’s beautification commissioners, Metro Council, other agencies and partners, and our mayor’s office that understand the value of restoring our canopy.”▼
“After the catastrophic ice storm Fern, our canopy was heavily damaged,” says Williams. “It’s vital that we begin rebuilding our tree canopy. We must tackle it with the heightened importance of ‘right tree, right place,’ putting a large emphasis on continued tree maintenance, and acknowledging the tree-related trauma that has transpired from this storm. Slowly but surely, we will nurse Nashville’s canopy back to a healthy state. When people come to grab a tree, they’ll be consulted by our lovely staff on which tree they should get for their space, and reminded that continued love and maintenance is key to its survival.”
Beginning June 1, Davidson County residents can get free trees from Root Nashville (but Nashvillians can already sign up at rootnashville.org).
The Root Nashville campaign was launched in 2018 with the goal of planting 500,000 trees across Davidson County by 2050, through a public-private partnership between Metro Nashville and the Cumberland River Compact. As of April 1, Root reports having planted 62,975 trees.
Numerous other conservation organizations and municipalities across the state have already hosted tree giveaways, including the Tennessee Environmental Council — which reports having distributed more than 62,000 native trees during this year’s Tree Day, which was celebrated on March 21.
During the city of Brentwood’s March 28 Arbor Day celebration, 2,000 trees were handed out — 500 beech, 500 native sweet pecans, 500 bald cypresses and 500 shumard and bur oaks. ▼
PHOTO: ANGELINA
CASTILLO
TREES ON PORTER ROAD
Only You Can Prevent Electronics Fires
Metro Nashville’s electronic recycling centers feel the effects of churning technology
BY HANNAH HERNER
DARIUS COLEMAN AND ASHLEY GARCIA’s job
is to — quite literally — prevent dumpster fires. And recycling bin fires. And garbage truck fires.
They do this by sorting items at the Nashville Department of Waste Services’ electronic recycling centers, separating flammable batteries from the rest of the trash and preparing electronics for recycling. Coleman says many people don’t know about the fire risk when they throw away their electronics.
“The best thing is, overall, just trying to keep it safe for everybody — for the customer too — because sometimes they don’t know,” says Coleman, convenience center supervisor of operations. “Especially with the temperatures changing and it getting hot, it can accelerate.”
Davidson County residents can bring in up to 100 pounds of electronic waste per day to the centers, and the Nashville Department of Waste Services — which also handles trash in the county — will take it from there. Electronic waste is accepted at three of the department’s four convenience centers, Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.: East Convenience Center in East Nashville, Ezell Pike Convenience Center in southeast Davidson County and Omohundro Convenience Center near Lebanon Pike.
Coleman and Garcia also attempt to intercept electronics from other recycling loads brought to the centers. Commonly accepted items include TVs, computers, cellphones, scanners, cables, small household appliances and, of course, batteries.
“Some people, they just bring, like, two pairs of double-A’s,” says Garcia, a customer service field representative senior for waste services. “That’s good, because it’s better than to mix it with your household trash.”
They see the effects of rapid churn of the tech industry, which is creating an enormous amount of material that’s ending up in landfills. A new iPhone is released, and old ones make their way to the e-recycling centers. But Garcia and Coleman say no electronics are too old. They’ve received an old projector in a briefcase that displays in black-and-white, and an antique wooden camera that looks like something out of an old Western movie. The centers are a sort of purgatory for old stereo sets, electronic keyboards, digital cameras, iPods, VCRs and TVs with VCRs built in. Davidson County residents can drop off any of those things for free, at which point the items become Metro property. After electronics are received, Coleman and
AND
Garcia sort the items by size and nature — watch batteries here, microwaves there — in neat rows. Next, a series of organizations will pick up electronics, recycle the parts they can, and take the rest to a landfill, flammable-free.
Spring cleaning and, unfortunately, January’s winter storm have brought a recent influx of items to the county’s waste centers. But as Davidson County residents are doing their cleaning, they can also bring their hazardous chemicals to the East and Ezell Pike convenience centers: pest control, fertilizer, ammonium, bleach and flammable items. Sometimes it means Coleman and Garcia don safety suits.
“Especially household cleaning products,
there’s a lot of people that buy in bulk, and they have it so long, they automatically assume that they can just throw it away,” Coleman says. “That’s not a good thing, because you don’t want to mix chemicals in the trash, and it creates fumes and gases and you may not even know it.” ▼
ELECTRONIC WASTE IS ACCEPTED
TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, 8:30 A.M.-4:30 P.M., AT METRO’S EAST CONVENIENCE CENTER (943A DR. RICHARD G. ADAMS DRIVE), EZELL PIKE CONVENIENCE CENTER (3254 EZELL PIKE) AND OMOHUNDRO CONVENIENCE CENTER (1019 OMOHUNDRO PLACE)
BATTERIES AT EAST CONVENIENCE CENTER
PHOTOS:
DARIUS COLEMAN
ASHLEY GARCIA AT EAST CONVENIENCE CENTER
APRIL 12 LIVE AT THE OPRY HOUSE YO-YO MA
REFLECTIONS IN WORDS AND MUSIC
MAY 2
JOSH RITTER
MAY 6
DAVID LEE ROTH
MAY 7
SATCHVAI BAND
FEATURING JOE SATRIANI & STEVE VAI WITH ANIMALS AS LEADERS
JUNE 2
ROOMFUL TEETH of
STARS FOR SECOND HARVEST WITH ERNEST & FRIENDS FT. ELLA LANGLEY ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JULY 18
KURT VILE AND THE VIOLATORS WITH BEING DEAD ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
SEPTEMBER 11
PAUL CAUTHEN ON SALE NOW
Metro to Launch Countywide Ecological Study
Metro Planning prepares to launch an 18-month study focusing on Davidson County’s environment
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
THE METRO PLANNING DEPARTMENT is preparing to undertake an 18-month project to assess Davidson County’s environment and strategize ways to address the issues identified in the study.
In an exclusive to the Scene, Metro’s assistant director of long-range planning John Houghton and planning manager for ecological design Harriett Brooks share details about the upcoming study — called the Ecological Conservation Strategy, set to launch April 17 — and the process of growth with conservation in mind.
“Because it’s a unique, stand-alone ecological study, it does give us an opportunity to understand the county’s ecosystems in a much more specific and detailed way than we ever have, and then correspondingly develop those tools and strategies to address those different conditions,” Houghton says.
Brooks and Houghton both say Metro has not taken a close look at the county’s environmental resources since the Nashville Next plan, which was adopted in 2015 — and that the Ecological Conservation Strategy will be the first countywide environmental plan since Metro’s 2011 Open Space Plan. Houghton says the city has recently been primarily focused on housing and transportation, and the environment is the third leg of the stool for a comprehensive plan for Nashville’s future.
“I think it’s understanding that we can grow and we can have all three of these things, and we should be doing better with all three, but they’re not all necessarily going to happen in exactly the same place,” Brooks tells the Scene. “The first thing we need to know to get there is to really understand … what are our existing conditions today, and then start from there to think about how we create a sense of balance and sort of stability for people. Also, how do we prioritize where growth is appropriate and where conservation might be more appropriate?”
The project will be carried out in two phases,
with public engagement planned for each milestone. The first phase will examine existing conditions of the environment and trends of change over the past 10 or more years. Brooks says that phase will include geospatial analysis to get hard data of environmental conditions, which will then be paired with the community sentiments to analyze where Metro’s priorities should be.
“The team is really tasked with creating a toolbox and a suite of all of these different types of solutions,” Brooks says. “Specific to the needs … we have, based on the growth that we’ve been having, the specific natural resources that we have in Davidson County, and then how we’re projecting or thinking growth will continue to happen in the future, so that we can try to attack the problem from several different areas.”
The second phase will be to propose actions — which could range from land acquisition to easements to policy and regulations — to tackle the challenges that are found. Brooks says this is a time to determine best practices that could be legislative, but also to open a door for public-private partnerships with conservation groups. Then will come putting the findings into practice with pilot projects.
“With those draft tools in place, we want to then test them, in two different extremes,” Houghton says. “The Highland Rim in northwest Davidson County, one of our most valuable ecological areas, and then also the downtown riverfront, sort of the other end of the spectrum — really intense density and development.”
When it comes to implementation, part of the project will include precedent research to examine other cities of similar size and geography.
“What are some innovative things that designers or local governments have been able to implement to really help provide more public accessibility and vibrancy to their downtown riverfronts?” Brooks says. “There are some really great examples of different projects happening all over the country, but especially in terms of midsized cities like Nashville.”
The Ecological Conservation Strategy’s website and community survey will go live on April 17, and Metro Planning staff will be present to discuss the project at two Earth Day events on April 18: Nashville Earth Day in Centennial Park, and Earth Day in the Hood at Claiborne Family of Faith Worship Center (81 Claiborne St.). There will also be a community open house April 28 at the Cumberland River Compact (1320 Adams St., No. 1040). ▼
PHOTO:
ANGELINA CASTILLO
RADNOR LAKE
APRIL
9-19
COMEDY [HILARITY ENSUES]
NASHVILLE COMEDY FESTIVAL
The long-running Nashville Comedy Festival is less a conventional festival than it is a broad-ranging smorgasbord of comedy events across 11 days at venues of all sizes — and this year’s lineup is one of the most stacked yet. There are veritable comedy icons like Albert Brooks (appearing in conversation with fellow heavyweight Kevin Pollak April 19 at Belmont’s Fisher Center) and Kathy Griffin (April 12 at the Schermerhorn), superstars like Shane Gillis (April 17 at Bridgestone Arena), TV stars David Spade (April 17 at the Ryman) and Kevin James (April 9 at the Ryman), and crowd-work maestros Jeff Arcuri (April 10 at the Ryman) and Morgan Jay (April 11 at the Ryman). In some of the city’s smaller rooms, you can see stars-on-the-rise including Emily Catalano (bringing her top-tier deadpan to The Lab at Zanies April 10 and 11), Rayna Greenberg (April 9 at Zanies) and Aaron Weber (April 17 and 18 at Zanies), as well as a wide selection of podcast tapings, special events, bawdy late-night lineups and a roast battle or two. Best of Nashville-winning hometown boy Dusty Slay will once again host his Grand Ole Comedy Show (April 14 at Zanies), while power couple Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley will host Groceries With Dignity & Comedy Without (April 19 at Zanies) to benefit their very worthwhile charitable endeavor, The Store. And that’s just scratching the surface — I haven’t even mentioned Get Out star Lil Rel Howery (April 11 at Zanies) and Nashville’s own Hugh Howser (April 12 at Zanies)! See the full lineup at nashcomedyfest.com, where you can also find ticketing links for every show on the lineup.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
APRIL 9-19 AT VENUES ACROSS THE CITY
NASHVILLE REP: SISTER ACT PAGE 22 WEEKEND CLASSICS: SPIELBERG: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND PAGE 22
PINKIES OUT: A BRUNCH PARTY FOR DRKMTTR PAGE 24
THURSDAY / 4.9
FILM
[EAST NASHVILLE SKYLINE] OTIS GIBBS: A LOVE LETTER TO HANDSOME JOHN
Otis Gibbs is an East Nashville character, an indie singer-songwriter, a YouTuber and a podcaster. And now, with the local premiere of A Love Letter to Handsome John making its Nashville debut Thursday night at the Belcourt, he can also add filmmaker to his list of creative bona fides. Gibbs is a tireless DIY grinder, and renting our city’s beloved arthouse to screen a film about his neighbor is right on brand. Of course, when you live in East Nashville, your neighbors may be people like the late Todd Snider. A Love Letter to Handsome John began as Gibbs and Snider’s tribute to the great John Prine, who was one of Snider’s mentors and signed the alt-country troubadour to a slate of albums on his Oh Boy Records in the Aughts. Following Snider’s death from pneumonia in November, the finished film now plays like a portrait of the artist as not-soyoung man, capturing Snider in quiet moments at home during his last year. JOE NOLAN
6:30 & 8:15 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
MUSIC [THE HOUR OF THE COW DUST] GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Grant-Lee Phillips makes a stop at The 5 Spot Thursday
night for a solo acoustic show in support of his impressive 12th album In the Hour of Dust, which was released in September. Phillips, who played the town troubadour in the TV series Gilmore Girls, led the alternative rock band Grant Lee Buffalo in the 1990s before embarking on a solo career in 2000. In the Hour of Dust takes its name from a common theme in the poetry and art of India — the concept of “the hour of the cow dust,” which is the time of day when the cows are led back home. It’s a deep, contemplative record that searches for meaning amid “the blinding dust of unreality.” Phillips, who has called Nashville home since 2013, is looking forward to Thursday’s show. “The 5 Spot is one of those places where I instantly felt at home,” he tells the Scene. “Great sound, great sight lines and a friendly neighborhood atmosphere. … I popped in with my friend Josh Rouse at his recent residency and knew I had to get back here to play.” Grammy-winning songwriter Daniel Tashian will open the show. DARYL SANDERS
6 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT
1006 FOREST AVE.
ART [A MIGHTY WIND]
WOVEN WIND
Artist Vesna Pavlović has an incredibly far-reaching influence. She has exhibited internationally, but in Nashville her work is particularly wide-ranging — she’s been featured in ambitious gallery exhibitions (such
as MixTape at Zeitgeist) as well as museums (Projected Histories at the Frist), but she also works as the chair of the art department at Vanderbilt University. There are few artists in Nashville who can claim similar prestige in gallery, museum and academic settings. And Woven Wind adds another interdisciplinary element on top of all of that. The exhibition encapsulates a multimedia project that Pavlović has spearheaded in collaboration with artists Courtney Adair Johnson, Marlos E’van, Mélisande Short-Colomb, Rod McGaha, Jan Hillegas and Woody Register, and it explores the “complex harmonies between music, memory and the African American experience.” Central to the show — and of particular interest to Scene readers — is a soundscape composed by McGaha that “fills the galleries and invites listeners to connect with the resilience and artistry of the African American musical tradition.”
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
THROUGH JUNE 12 AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC
510 BROADWAY
FRIDAY / 4.10
MUSIC
[TALES FROM THE MEGAPLEX] THE SLEEVEENS ALBUM RELEASE
Nashville-based rock quartet The Sleeveens will officially release their second full-length album National Anthem on May 1 via Memphis label/record store Goner Records. The band — lead vocalist Stefan Murphy, guitarist Eli Steele, bassist James Mechan and drummer Ryan Sweeney — will kick off a short tour in support of the record with a local release show Friday night in The ’58 room at Eastside Bowl. Attendees will have the opportunity to score advance copies of the record. “We’re gonna go down to Memphis the day before, pick up the records and do an in-store at Goner,” Sweeney tells the Scene. “Then come home the next day, do The ’58 show, and then we’re doing two weeks through the East Coast.” National Anthem finds the group further refining their infectious, hooky blend of punk, garage and power pop. As the title suggests, there is a political element to some of the material. On the powerful title track, Murphy — who is Irish and the band’s principal songwriter — aims his pen at life under Trump, singing, “Burn your fucking country to the ground in the name of love / Burn your fucking country to the ground — enough is enough.” Nashville’s The Scurvies and Memphis garage rockers The Drip Edges are also on the bill.
DARYL SANDERS
7:30 P.M. AT THE ’58 AT EASTSIDE BOWL 1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
[TAKE ME TO HEAVEN]
THEATER
NASHVILLE REP: SISTER ACT
Looking for a little break from reality? A heartwarming show to lift your spirits? Nashville Rep has you covered with Sister Act — opening this weekend at TPAC’s Polk Theater. Based on the 1992 hit film starring Whoopi Goldberg, this heavenly musical comedy
follows the adventures of aspiring disco diva Deloris Van Cartier, who is placed in protective custody after witnessing her gangster boyfriend execute an informant. Forced to take shelter at a convent, she soon puts her unique musical talents to good use, shaking up the community’s struggling choir and discovering a renewed sense of purpose. It’s a fun, feel-good show, featuring a gospel, soul and disco score from Tony- and Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater. Directed by Jason Spelbring (with music direction by Sarah Michele Bailey), the show’s cast includes a host of Nashville favorites — starting with Meggan Utech as Deloris Van Cartier and Megan Murphy Chambers as Mother Superior, plus Shelby Talbert, Katie Bruno, Carolyn German, Jermaine L. Pearson, Justin Marriel Boyd, LaDarra Jackel, Anita Barone, Mia Jones, Joy Pointe, Samuel Whited and more. And audiences can look forward to a bit of divine intervention from choreographer Joi Ware. AMY STUMPFL
APRIL 10-19 AT TPAC’S POLK THEATER 505 DEADERICK ST.
SATURDAY / 4.11
FESTIVAL
[CHERRY BOMB] NASHVILLE CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL
One of Nashville’s coolest annual festivals is back on Saturday. The Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival began in 2009 with the now-achieved goal of planting more than 1,000 cherry trees across the city, as well as celebrating Japanese culture. This year’s edition takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Davidson County Courthouse, aka Public Square Park. Attendees can expect performances from choirs and dancers, martial arts demonstrations, a cosplay contest, cultural lectures and more. Entry is free, but you can purchase a Friends of the Festival wristband for discounts at the scores
Southern Festival of Books, so make sure to snag a ticket before they’re gone. LOGAN BUTTS 6:30 P.M. AT PARNASSUS BOOKS
3900 HILLSBORO PIKE
[HONKY-TONKIN’]
BOOKS
JIMMY MCDONOUGH AUTHOR EVENT
of local food, drink and craft vendors. LOGAN BUTTS
9:30 A.M. AT PUBLIC SQUARE PARK 10 PUBLIC SQUARE
BOOKS [LONDON CALLING]
PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE AUTHOR EVENT
Esteemed journalist and author Patrick Radden Keefe will be at Parnassus Books on Saturday in promotion of his latest nonfiction novel London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. The author behind exhaustive investigations into the pharmaceutical industry’s role in the opioid crisis (2021’s Empire of Pain) and the killing of Jean McConville during The Troubles in Northern Ireland (2018’s Say Nothing) will be talking to Nashvillians about his next book, which chronicles the sudden death of a 19-yearold in London in 2019. It’s been a while since PRK came to town: The longtime New Yorker staff writer last appeared in town during the 2022
With all due respect to Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson, Kentucky-born singer Gary Stewart changed country music from the inside 50 years ago, when there was no Americana music to provide an exit route from commercialism. Stewart’s 1975 album Out of Hand combined his post-Jerry Lee Lewis vocals with the aural savvy of producer Roy Dea, who employed a crew of Nashville session players including pedal-steel master Pete Drake and guitarist Dale Sellers on indelible performances like “Drinkin’ Thing” and the title track. With Dea, Stewart recorded another classic, 1977’s Your Place or Mine, on which he transformed Guy Clark’s “Broken Hearted People (Take Me to a Barroom)” into stone-cold country. Stewart’s career declined after his 1980 collaboration with producer Chips Moman, Cactus and a Rose, failed to raise his profile, but he continued to perform and record until his death in 2003. Saturday at the Ford Theater, writer Jimmy McDonough discusses his new biography Gary Stewart: I Am From the Honky-Tonks, which lays out Stewart’s life in unsparing and sympathetic fashion. McDonough, who has also written superb biographies of Al Green and Tammy Wynette, will be joined by Stewart’s daughter Shannon Ashburn and interviewer RJ Smith. EDD HURT 2:30 P.M. AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S FORD THEATER
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.
FILM [WE ARE NOT ALONE] WEEKEND CLASSICS: SPIELBERG: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
Film critic David Denby was right on the money when he called Close Encounters of the Third Kind “a post-Vietnam, pacifist science-fiction film.” After years of Hollywood dropping sci-fi disaster flicks/Cold War allegories in which people have to defend the world from unwelcome, destructive visitors, then-young buck Steven Spielberg followed up his revolutionary blockbuster Jaws with a kinder, gentler alieninvasion flick (which, of course, would not be his last), featuring Jaws co-star Richard Dreyfuss playing one of many people hoping to make contact with some curious extraterrestrials. Just like that other mega-successful space flick from 1977, Encounters provided a cinematic respite for those who wanted to escape the melancholy of the Me Decade and hang out with otherworldly life-forms. As we approach the film’s 50th anniversary, it’s safe to say ain’t a damn thing changed. I know I’d rather search for signs of intelligent life in the universe than deal with dumbass earthlings who are already doing a bang-up job fucking up the planet. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
APRIL 11 & 14 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE
NASHVILLE CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL
[FAMOUS TO ME]
MUSIC
JUSTIN AND THE COSMICS ALBUM RELEASE SHOW
You know things are all the way fucked when Justin Collins is real effin’ pissed. As chill and heady a homie as you are likely to meet, Collins is not the dude you would expect to record a protest record — but here we have it, folks. ENERGY, the latest LP from Justin and the Cosmics, finds the spaced-out rock ’n’ roller diving into the dread and joy of contemporary life, cannonballing earworms into the discourse like Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School. Collins conscripts former Diamond Rugs bandmate T. Hardy Morris and Scene advice columnist Chris Crofton, co-writing reverbtanked rockers that balance the horrors and the happiness that make this mess of an epoch a little tough to handle. Jams like “Gig Economy,” “No War” and “Really Scary, Man” make the malaise a little more manageable, which is really all we can ask for amid this parade of assclownery. T. Hardy Morris and poet Ben Burr open, along with a standup set from Crofton.
SEAN L. MALONEY
7 P.M. AT SOFT JUNK
919 GALLATIN AVE., NO. 14
SUNDAY / 4.12
FILM
[THEY’RE ALREADY HERE] WEEKEND CLASSICS: SPIELBERG: WAR OF THE WORLDS
The 2005 movie version of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was one of two Oscar-nominated thrillers Steven Spielberg directed that year — the other was fact-based Best Picture nominee Munich. Both were prime examples of how the War on Terror had hopeful auteurs like Ol’ Sunny Steve making cynical, complicated cinema that mirrored our collective struggle with war and peace. For this summer blockbuster, Spielberg reimagines Wells’ alien-invasion yarn as a nerve-rattling post9/11 allegory. He reteamed with his Minority Report star Tom Cruise, having him play a divorced working-class dad whose awkward weekend with the kids (Justin Chatwin and a grade-school-age Dakota Fanning) turns
into a nightmarish journey of survival as extraterrestrials climb out the gotdamn ground in huge-ass war machines, annihilating everybody and everything they come across. If you’ve never had the experience of witnessing the insane, intense set pieces Spielberg delivers in this bad boy on the big screen, the Belcourt will be serving up all that celluloid carnage — in glorious 35 mm! — this weekend. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
APRIL 12 & 16 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[BOTTOMLESS HEART]
COMMUNITY
PINKIES OUT: A BRUNCH PARTY FOR DRKMTTR
While a late-morning meal out has become a bit more of a decadent affair over the years, there’s no reason brunch can’t be a force for good. All-ages nonprofit DIY music venue Drkmttr has been hosting an online auction on the Givebutter platform, and to coincide with its conclusion on Sunday, organizers have put together a special benefit brunch at the venue. In addition to entry, your $30 ticket gets you
snacks prepped by chef Diana Lee Zadlo (whose shaved ice concoctions at her That’s It! pop-up we recognized in our Best of Nashville issue last year) and two drink tickets for mimosas and mocktails from Merry Co. Musician Bruce Ervin will provide a live ambient soundtrack, and the nonprofit’s directors and board members will share updates about the organization and how you can get involved. (It’s worth emphasizing that this event is tied to the auction’s end, but you don’t have to go to the brunch to bid, and you aren’t bidding by buying brunch tix — though you can bid during the event.)
As of this writing, the full list of auction items wasn’t available, but exciting offerings were already posted, including a miniature replica of Drkmttr’s super cool moon-and-stars stage backdrop, a Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar and posters from iconic print shop Hatch Show Print.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
11 A.M. AT DRKMTTR
1111 DICKERSON PIKE
MUSIC [POLISH UP THE GRAY] RADIO FREE NASHVILLE 21ST ANNIVERSARY
Many, MANY things have changed since 2005, but one that hasn’t is community radio station Radio Free Nashville’s commitment to broadcast programming by and for the people. From talk shows to local hip-hop and beyond, the station’s offerings represent artistic freedom and a progressive political slant. After clearing a heap of bureaucratic red tape and braving some last-minute bad weather, low-power FM radio station WRFN made its official sign-on 21 years ago this month. Its signal got a notable boost in 2014 and can now be heard across most of the Metro area. Something else that hasn’t changed is that volunteers and donations power the station. The federal government made enormous cuts to its support for public media last year. While that doesn’t directly affect a community station like WRFN, the fight is on
to keep information flowing, noting how the government has also been openly hostile to honest journalism critical of President Trump. Everything you can do to support public and community media is helpful — including making a donation to Radio Free Nashville, via the website or in person at Sunday’s birthday party. Details were limited as of this writing, but a release notes, you can expect “cheap beer, snacks, birthday cake and maybe even a dance contest!” STEPHEN TRAGESER
2-5 P.M. AT BLACKSTONE BREWING COMPANY
2312 CLINTON AVE., SUITE B
MONDAY / 4.13
[DOPE ON A ROPE]
MUSIC
THE GROWLERS
Sometimes it feels good to be in the presence of a fully confident dirtbag. The kind who functions through a perpetual beer o’clock, loping around in a pair of worn-in denim that’s the right level of distressed — kinda agitated, but not freaking out, man. The Growlers’ frontman, Brooks Nielsen, fits the bill. He’s far from perfect, yet perfectly at home in his body. Nielsen started The Growlers out of California in the Aughts, blending garage and psych rock to create “beach goth,” a genre that makes no sense if you sit with it for too long. It’s just so immediately itself. Certainly the sign of a dude with a vision. This tour marks The Growlers’ 20th anniversary and return after a six-year hiatus. Their sets are known for going over two hours, an impressive feat of endurance — unfussy, unpolished, unencumbered by gravity — with Nielsen’s gnomic lyrics rattling through a few inches of smoker’s cough phlegm. Bewildering and, yes, charming. TOBY ROSE
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL
925 THIRD AVE. N.
GROWLERS
JUSTIN AND THE COSMICS
APRIL LINE
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
MAKING NASHVILLE HOME
Sheri Lea Sellmeyer profiles a multicultural city, one immigrant at a time
BY CAROLINE SIEGRIST
IT’S EASY TO get stuck in a neighborhood rut, wearing deep grooves in the paths we take every day to work and school and back. That’s why I was so grateful to read Nashville’s New Americans: Tracing the Journeys of Our Immigrant Neighbors by Sheri Lea Sellmeyer. The book serves as a powerful reminder of the immense diversity the city contains — and why it’s worth venturing outside the familiar.
Sellmeyer profiles more than 30 first-generation immigrants from all over the world, describing the often long and sometimes harrowing roads they took to make Nashville home.
James Makuac, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, has made a home, a living and a name for himself as a visual artist since arriving in the city. He left Sudan when he was 11 and walked thousands of miles with 27,000 other young boys fleeing civil war. They traveled across Ethiopia to a refugee camp in Kenya. Only 12,000 boys from the original group survived the journey. Makuac spent nine years in the camp, where he was able to learn English and math, before receiving the news that he would be resettled in Nashville.
“When I saw my name on the board,” he tells Sellmeyer, “I told my whole group, ‘I’m going to America!’ I was so happy.” He now makes a living as a Swahili interpreter at Tyson Foods, and he depicts his long journey across Africa through his paintings, which have been exhibited at the Frist Art Museum and Belmont University.
Edgar Martinez immigrated to the United States from Mexico with his parents when he was 7. He faced the challenges of learning a new culture and language, translating for his Spanish-speaking parents and being undocumented: “That’s when I had to grow up pretty fast and try to understand what we were dealing with, whether we were paying a bill or signing up for soccer tryouts or ordering some food,” he explains.
Martinez started working as a brick mason with his dad when he was 15 years old, and he had laid brick for 20 homes by the time he graduated from high school. Though he enrolled at a community college, it quickly became too expensive because he was considered an out-ofstate student and forced to pay higher tuition. Despite these hurdles, he tells Sellmeyer that when the federal policy DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) went into effect, it was “the happiest day of my life.” He was able to get a Social Security number and a driver’s license and start expanding his business.
Some of Sellmeyer’s profiles are more lighthearted. One details the journey of the Dozzi sisters, three Australian siblings who moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. Though they’d reached the top of the Australian
country music charts, they knew Nashville held more opportunity.
Another follows German scientist and conservationist Hans-Willi Honegger, who has worked with a group called Radnor to River. Their organization helped save a waterfall and the adjacent land in West Meade from development and is now fighting to establish an “ecological corridor” between Radnor Lake and Beaman Park.
I was surprised to learn that Nontombi Naomi Tutu, daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, lived and worked in Nashville for 19 years. (She has since moved to Atlanta.) For most of her life, she resisted entering the priesthood because she wanted to be her own person, outside of the shadow of her formidable father. That changed after a varied career as an activist, consultant and educator.
“But as the decades passed,” Sellmeyer writes, “there was still something percolating in her spiritual life that led her to earn a master’s in divinity from Vanderbilt and complete her Anglican studies in Virginia.”
Sellmeyer notes that the topic of immigration has become highly polarized, but she stops short of delving explicitly into politics. Instead, she uses a “show not tell” method to illustrate how vital immigrants are to the city. They work in our hospitals, build our houses, make the food we eat, play the music we enjoy. One man she profiles works as a supervising engineer at
MEET TOPAZ! a shining little gem with a heart as warm as her golden name. This affectionate, playful girl loves being close to her people and is always ready to brighten your day with wiggly greetings, sweet kisses, and cozy lap time. She’s also a smart pup who already knows cues like sit, paw, wait, and come, and she enjoys puzzle games and learning new things with her favorite humans.
Nashville Electric Service, helping supply the power that runs our homes.
She also attributes much of Nashville’s economic growth over the past several decades to immigrants, noting that “foreign-born workers have helped change Nashville from a midsize city known for country music to an increasingly diverse, multicultural destination.”
Nashville’s New Americans serves as an introduction to Nashville’s many cultures, but it’s also a gentle call to engage with our immigrant neighbors, especially in the current political climate. That could mean learning Spanish, trying the Laotian restaurant in Columbia or finally going to see that folk artist from Canada. Sellmeyer makes it clear that these opportunities abound, and we are all the richer for seeking them out.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
Nashville’s New Americans: Tracing the Journeys of Our Immigrant Neighbors
By Sheri Lea Sellmeyer
Vanderbilt University Press 200 pages, $30
Sellmeyer will discuss Nashville’s New Americans 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at the Tennessee State Museum
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTS FOR TICKETS & UPDATES
FRIDAY, APRIL 10 12:00 PM PATHS TO PUBLISHING with THE PORCH & THE ARTS & BUSINESS COUNCIL at PARNASSUS 6:30 PM EVELYN CLARKE with J.T. ELLISON at PARNASSUS The Ending Writes Itself SATURDAY, APRIL 11 6:30 PM PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE at PARNASSUS London Falling SUNDAY, APRIL 12 6:30 PM
KATE LEWIS at PARNASSUS Quiet Moments
TUESDAY, APRIL 14 7:00 PM KATE BOWLER with HOLLY WILLIAMS at BELMONT Joyful, Anyway
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 4:30 PM MATTHEW CORDELL with JULIE DANIELSON at PARNASSUS 102 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooksnashville
SHE’S BEEN CALLED a “deliciously deranged postmodern diva” and “the queen of kamikaze cabaret.” But to her legion of devoted fans, she’s known simply as Meow Meow. And you can catch this Australian-born chanteuse this weekend, as OZ Arts welcomes Meow Meow for one night only with Diva and Disruptor
A true triple threat known for her powerhouse vocals and outrageous stage antics, Meow Meow has dazzled audiences from London to New York, Berlin, Shanghai and beyond. She’s taken on iconic roles — everything from Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Recent credits include a soldout run of her solo show It’s Come to This at London’s Soho Theatre, and Meow Meow’s the Red Shoes, which is an unexpected twist on the Hans Christian Andersen classic.
Diva and Disruptor promises even more glitz, glamour and laughs, as Meow Meow serves up a blend of “American jazz standards, signature musical theater numbers and niche selections from the Weimar Republic era.” She spoke with the Scene from her home in Australia, digging into her varied musical tastes and her deep love for all things cabaret.
For those who’ve never experienced one of your shows, how would you describe an evening with Meow Meow? I think it’s just a ridiculously good time. At least, that’s the hope. There’s a press quote that I rather like about my being able to “shake the rafters with laughter one moment and break your heart with a torch song the
CAT POWER
International cabaret sensation Meow Meow returns to OZ Arts
BY AMY STUMPFL
next.” I think it’s that juxtaposition of things that I most enjoy. I like being able to surprise people. I love that little gasp of, “Oh dear, is she really going there?” I love the idea of singing the most exquisitely beautiful song, and then having the audience say, “Oh but look — she’s got her dress stuck up in her knickers.’ But the main thing is to throw lots of love to the audience, and to connect so that we all feel somewhat edified and delighted afterwards.
What is it about the art of cabaret that speaks to you? I think it’s the freedom within it. It’s fresh every night because you’re not stuck to a specific narrative. Although I do love doing plays. There’s nothing better than Shakespeare, and I’m getting ready to do Sweeney Todd [at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England], which is exciting.
But what I love about cabaret is you have a whole play within a song. I think it can still be quite deep and layered, but there’s something very playful and urgent about it. To me, cabaret is the ultimate way to connect. It’s not about, “Oh, these are my songs — let’s all listen and enjoy my voice.” It’s about meeting the audience head on. It’s that complicated dance, because you’re speaking directly to them. There’s no fourth wall. Then there’s the heightened comedy of it all — and that really opens the portals to everything.
What is it about the music of the Weimar Era that continues to resonate with modern audiences?
That music is so thrilling to me because it grapples with politics and heartbreak and the human condition, so it always feels relevant. Plus, the music’s just so good. I love the juxtaposition of dissonance and deep sweetness, particularly with Kurt Weill. That mix of brutal lyrics and a sweet musicality always speaks to me.
There’s a song that I love called “Ballad of the Drowned Girl,” by Brecht and Kurt Weill. It brings this odd sense of nihilistic peace — she’s forgotten in the river, but there’s this sort of beautiful sky over her. I guess I’m always searching for the beauty in the darkness.
But then, there are also these wonderfully silly songs, done with more satire. Spoliansky’s songs are all about politicians — how “everyone swindles some, so vote for who will steal for you.” It’s ridiculously fun. How does it feel to be coming back to Nashville, and what do you hope audiences will take away from Saturday’s show? I’m so thrilled to be back! It’s a lovely thing to walk into a town that you know is built on music. When I was here last time, I had a moment where I did wonder how all these songs — this crazy mix — was going to land. But then I realized, “Ahh, Nashville gets it. They’re just music lovers.”
The last time we were here, it was our first tour since the pandemic, so there was a special magic to it — we were just reveling in how lucky we were to be alive and together in that space. Now I think there’s so much anxiety for very different reasons. But again, I feel it’s really urgent that we have these little moments where we can just breathe, and maybe laugh a bit together. Not to forget what’s happening in the world, but to get our receptors open, so we can feel more connected.
That’s our job as artists and performers — to bring people together through music and laughter and beauty. And to remind ourselves, as Patty Griffin says, to be careful with each other. I know I can’t change the world in 90 minutes, but I’m going to have a good crack at it. ▼
Meow Meow: Diva and Disruptor
MUSIC
APPROACHING THE BENCH
Taking a closer look at the Live Nation antitrust trial
BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
SINCE EARLY MARCH, a lawsuit that many musicians and fans feel has been a long time coming has been playing out in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. The U.S. Department of Justice started an investigation into ticketing and touring giant Live Nation in 2022, which became public knowledge in the wake of the company’s badly botched sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The agency found that the power concentrated when promoter Live Nation merged with ticketing company Ticketmaster in 2010 has been misused, resulting in an illegal monopoly that stifled competition and led to ever-higher prices for consumers. In 2024, the DOJ filed a suit whose recommendations include breaking out Ticketmaster from Live Nation. A majority of the states’ attorneys general, including Tennessee’s AG Jonathan Skrmetti, signed on as plaintiffs. The trial finally began Monday, March 2, presided over by Judge Arun Subramanian.
After one week of court proceedings, the DOJ and Live Nation announced a surprise settlement on March 9. Most of the state plaintiffs, including Tennessee, refused to sign on, claiming the settlement was inadequate to address their concerns. State AGs, including Tennessee’s Skrmetti, issued strongly worded statements, as did an array of other politicians. Judge Subramanian read the riot act to Live Nation and the DOJ for working on this deal behind his back, demanding that negotiations resume and noting that the trial would continue if no agreement was reached.
During the week, a release of trial documents revealed private Slack messages between Live Nation corporate employees calling ticket buyers “stupid” and bragging about “robbing them blind.” The trial resumed March 16 and continues as of this writing. What’s important to keep in mind when considering some possible outcomes?
The states are being represented by Jeffrey Kessler, known for leading college athletes’ antitrust case against the NCAA. They presented their case first, and Bloomberg has an excellent breakdown.
The behavior outlined includes LN allegedly withholding concerts from venues that are not using Ticketmaster as an exclusive ticket provider, evidenced in both communication directly with venues and internally. Also under scrutiny are the service fees that Ticketmaster charges — up to 20 percent of the face value of tickets priced higher than $116, which comes on top of the money Live Nation earns for promoting a show — and a lucrative 2022 deal between Live Nation and venue management company Oak View Group. OVG owns seven arenas and has service contracts with some 200 others. The terms require Oak View to use Ticketmaster in venues it owns — and incentivizes the company
to get its client venues to also use Ticketmaster. OVG CEO Chris Granger admitted under oath that the incentives were not disclosed properly to the client venues, though that has since been remedied. The initial contract was worth $20 million and has generated Oak View an additional $20 million in revenue.
Live Nation has invested heavily in amphitheater operations and ownership in recent years, with involvement in a wide array of top-performing outdoor venues across the country. In both emails entered as evidence and his testimony, LN’s head of U.S. concerts Robert Roux made the company’s position clear: Live Nation-contracted artists will play only Live Nation-controlled venues. Going a step further, the case alleges that the company’s control over the popular amphitheater market gives it the ability to pay artists less. In an email from Roux about a 2022 tour pairing Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, he writes, “There’s no reason to pay them more because they don’t have options to play other amps.” Roux testified that this comment was actually about how other venues were not options for these artists because they wanted to play only at the Live Nation venues in question.
Ticketmaster’s practices and fees rankled
suit in the 1990s). Even if consumers don’t care for how LN does business — and it’s no exaggeration to say that few do, considering how easily ire for the company seems to cross party lines — they’re working to portray their activities as standard business practice, and in some cases may be seen as such. But when a company enjoys a level of industry dominance like Live Nation has, does it have a different effect in the market than when competitors have comparable resources, and should it be treated differently? That’s the question ultimately before the jury.
The Verge’s Lauren Feiner, talking with Nilay Patel on a recent episode of the publication’s podcast Decoder, discussed the trial and its reflection of changes at federal level. The DOJ filed its suit under the Biden administration, and the second Trump administration had signaled that it shared with much of the public a general distrust of and distaste for monopolistic control by big companies. To the surprise of no one, given the administration’s tendency for unpredictability, the Trump team seems to have changed course; the president himself got involved in the
Regardless of the trial’s outcome, the evidence — backing up what fans, artists and industry folk alike have been concerned about for years — is now part of the public record, and it’ll be instructive to see how the company fares overall. Even before Live Nation’s amphitheater operations came under the microscope, local firm Opry Entertainment Group beat out LN in its bid to operate the downtown Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater, and the 6,800-capacity venue is about to start its first season under OEG. Meanwhile, Nashvillians gave Live Nation an earful about a recent gaffe. The company announced an impressive inaugural lineup for The Truth, a 4,400-capacity venue it co-owns with developer AJ Capital Partners and Nashville Songwriters Association International. A few days later, a third-party vendor spray-painted promotional messages for The Truth on the sidewalk outside two longtime independent venues, East Nashville’s The 5 Spot and Centennial Park-adjacent Springwater. The backlash was strong and immediate. Live Nation issued an apology and had the ads removed. ▼
artists and ticket buyers long before the Live Nation merger (see: Pearl Jam’s boycott and
DOJ’s settlement with Live Nation, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
ON THE EDGE
Eve Maret embraces her inner self on Diamond Cutter
BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
NASHVILLE EXPERIMENTAL MUSICIAN
Eve Maret’s next album emerged as fragments — a melody overheard in a dream, a sudden late-night impulse at the synthesizer, a quiet moment of surrender where judgment fell away and instinct took over. What began as a natural, almost meditative process ultimately crystallized into something urgent and fully formed:
Diamond Cutter
The St. Louis native arrived in Nashville in 2012 as an outsider, quickly discovering a community with an affinity for creative people who go against the grain. She basked in the idea of being a musical rebel, creating an array of intriguing electronic sounds — both compositions and improvisations — in a town whose diverse music industry is still dominated by mainstream country infrastructure. She immediately dug in, flexing her muscles and making the most of Nashville’s ever-evolving DIY scene.
“Because the electronic and experimental community isn’t as large,” says Maret, “I feel like there’s more room for people to come in and create that community, and find those really authentic connections and build it from the ground up.”
Maret describes the process of creating Diamond Cutter — whose name comes from an ancient Buddhist text as a passage of time rather than a concrete concept. Each song maps out a part of her life story. During the construction of most songs, she used her creative process to work through different ideas and beliefs circulating through her system at the time. However, some songs followed more of a far-out approach, in which Maret let whims and impulses guide her rather than clean-cut reason.
“I might have a dream where I hear certain words or a melody,” she explains, “and then I’ll sit down and be like, ‘Oh yeah … let me plug in my synthesizer and see if I could tap into that inspiration.’”
When creating from instinct, Maret initially treats ideas as urges. She lets them out, free of judgment, and then circles back around later to evaluate what she’s made. This process played a role in creating an album featuring myriad sounds and styles, from the acid-bass-driven, ’90s dance beat of “Hit U With a Banger,” to the ambiguous, spacious ballad “Gethsemani.”
Throughout Diamond Cutter, Maret creates lush dreamscapes and techno trips that flow directly from her subconscious.
“It’s kind of like a meditative practice for me,” says Maret, “where I just honor whatever impulse I have in the moment and do my best to not think about what’s happening. And in the most honest way possible, just create based on whatever feeling I have in the moment.”
Halfway through, Diamond Cutter’s track list
repeats. The first six tracks have vocals, while the final six are instrumental arrangements of the same pieces. The creative choice came in an attempt to appease Maret’s various artistic dimensions — in this case, her introverted, moody side.
The instrumental versions make a lot of sense upon closer inspection. On the surface, Diamond Cutter shares sonic qualities with the nebulous, experimental sounds of music by artists like Kraftwerk or Aphex Twin. However, at its core, the album captures nuances from classic compositions created in centuries past.
“I’ll listen to a lot of classical music — a lot of Bach, a lot of Debussy,” Maret explains. “I like taking inspiration from the textures and the atmosphere that come from those kinds of arrangements.”
Diamond Cutter is the type of album that settles in your gut, in a good way. In the same way that the songs poured from her soul, Maret hopes the album helps listeners soften into and embrace their own experience. Whether it’s through creating tenderness and vulnerability or offering a space for listeners to appreciate their lives a little bit more, she aims for her music to be felt.
“I hope that it [cultivates a] space where, whatever is going on inside [a listener], it can be seen and appreciated,” she says, “and even alchemized and transformed into something that is beautiful.”
Following the album’s release on April 17, Maret says she will be “surrendering to whatever.” She doesn’t have any local shows on the books, and as of this writing, she plans to sit back and take it all in — allowing herself to just enjoy what she’s created so far. ▼
MUSIC: THE SPIN LOVE HER ALL THE WAY
BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
IN THE CULT CLASSIC television series Sordid Lives, based on Del Shores’ beloved 1996 stage play of the same name, the late, great Leslie Jordan plays Brother Boy, a Tammy Wynette-obsessed drag performer reeling over the death of the country queen. When a family member suggests that perhaps Wynette will serve as Brother Boy’s guardian angel, he balks. “What about her legions and legions of fans?” he asks. “I’m just one. Why would she choose me?” A few scenes later, guardian angel Tammy, portrayed by Wynette’s daughter Georgette Jones, does visit Brother Boy, giving him the strength to go on.
Though she died in 1998, Wynette is still giving fans strength. She also still reigns as the patron saint — or guardian angel — of anyone in need of a devastatingly sad country song. When you hear a Tammy Wynette tune, her quivering, teardrop-in-every-note voice makes you feel like she’s singing to you alone. You feel chosen.
Devoted fans filled the Ryman on March 30 to see an all-star lineup honor Wynette in a tribute concert called Forever Yours: The First Lady of Country Music, recorded for broadcast and set to air on PBS Great Performances later this year.
Jason Coleman, Nashville pianist and grandson of country legend Floyd Cramer, kicked off the show with a piano medley of Wynette’s hits. Country singer-songwriter Kimberly Perry then took the stage to perform “I Don’t Wanna Play House,” Wynette’s first No. 1 hit as a solo artist.
Georgette Jones herself then appeared, sharing her family’s gratitude to the fans who’ve continued to keep Wynette’s memory alive. “You have supported her through decades of her passion for music, and she loved y’all so much,” said Jones, before performing 1970’s “He Loves Me All the Way.”
Throughout the evening, artists shared what Wynette has meant to them in their lives. After reflecting on childhood memories of her mom singing Tammy Wynette songs as lullabies, Terri Clark performed “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” acknowledging how the bold confidence Wynette displays in the song inspired her own career.
“I chose this one because it was sassy and it was strong,” Clark said. “Everything my own mom was, and everything I wanted to be as a singer if I was lucky enough to ever grace the same stage as [Wynette].”
New Zealand-raised artist Tami Neilson pulled double duty during the show. Lucinda Williams wasn’t able to join as planned, so Neilson performed the 1966 weeper “Apartment No. 9.” Later, she returned for “Cry,” a showstopper she aptly described as a “deep
cut for [the] die-hard fans.”
“I’m Temu Tammy,” Neilson joked, showing the audience the embroidered ‘Tami’ on the back of her Nudie Suit-inspired dress. “My parents couldn’t afford the fifth letter.”
Wynonna Judd shared memories of the downto-earth singer so many artists and fans came to know. “I met Tammy Wynette in 1984,” Judd recalled to the audience. “She handed [The Judds] our first award, the Horizon Award at the CMA [Awards]. We quickly became family. She used to cook for me on her bus.”
Though Judd brought the house down with her rendition of the soulful stunner “Woman to Woman,” the singer opted to do another take of the song for the broadcast taping. “I’m gonna do it one more time and do it sassier,” Wynonna told the crowd. As always, she delivered.
Nashville folk artist Katie Pruitt noted that it’s “tough to follow Wynonna.” But Pruitt had no need to worry. Their sensational performance of the Kris Kristofferson-penned “Help Me Make It Through the Night” was one of the most powerful in an evening filled with thrilling moments.
Wynette recorded more than a dozen songs with George Jones, to whom she was married for six years. Her legendary pairing with The Possum was well-represented by husband-andwife country duo The War and Treaty, who gave a rafter-raising performance of “Golden Ring.” Carter Faith, who delivered a stirring performance of ”Another Lonely Song” with her own tear-soaked voice, summed up Wynette’s mythic status among country women. “Everytime I go onstage, I pray to God and Tammy Wynette,” she told the crowd.
Performances from Valerie June (“Beneath a Painted Sky”), Troubadour Blue (“If It’s the Last Thing I Do”), Jaci Velasquez (“How Great Thou Art”) and Gretchen Wilson (“’Til I Get It Right”) rounded out the first half of the show. Following a brief intermission, Wynette’s status as the queen of heartbreak got a showcase via Patty Griffin’s take on “Talkin’ to Myself Again,” Debby Boone’s rendition of the torchy “’Til I Can Make It on My Own,” and KT Tunstall’s performance of the heartbreaking “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” Wynette’s long-standing reputation as Our Lady of Coun-
try Sorrows got a different kind of spotlight when Jamie O’Neal sang the Brandy Clarkpenned “Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain.”
But Wynette’s catalog is also filled with cheeky love songs and fiery anthems of independence. The lighter side of Tammy’s repertoire was celebrated in Brittney Spencer’s joyous cover of “My Man (Understands),” The Isaacs’ performance of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” and Kaitlin Butts’ delivery of Wynette’s 1982 kiss-off “Another Chance.” Meanwhile, Mandy Barnett’s powerhouse performance of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” represented the hope and encouragement Wynette gave her fans over the decades.
Following Lorrie Morgan’s rousing performance of “You & Me,” Wynette’s final No. 1 song as a solo artist, Georgette Jones returned to the stage to perform “I Hope You Knew.” Jones wrote the song for her mom on Mother’s Day about a year after she passed away.
“To all of you she was a singer and songwriter and maybe even a legend in country music,” Jones said. “But to my sisters and my family, she was a wonderful, loving mama, meemaw and friend.”
Wynonna Judd also made a return to the Mother Church stage to play Tammy Wynette to Randy Houser’s George Jones as the pair treated the audience to the classic country duet “We’re Gonna Hold On.”
As the evening waned, it was nearly impossible not to speculate about who would perform Wynette’s signature song “Stand by Your Man.”
By the time Heart’s Ann Wilson walked onstage to thunderous applause, it was clear that the answer should’ve been obvious from the start.
“It was an honor to be allowed to sing [this song],” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said. “It’s probably the most powerful song worldwide that any woman could sing.”
Wilson’s voice reached the heavens as she belted out the country standard that’s nearly holy in the hearts of Tammy Wynette fans. As the lights went up in the auditorium, I left the Mother Church feeling a little lighter, a little wiser and a lot stronger — almost as if I had a certain legend looking out for me. ▼
This
THURSDAY
4/9 BRAD STANK with DOGWOOD TALES, CHRYSALIS
FRIDAY
4/10 FIELD MEDIC with EUPHORIA AGAIN
SATURDAY
4/11 REDD KROSS with CONAN NEUTRON
TUESDAY
4/14
WEDNESDAY
THEY ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER
4/15 THE BELAIR LIP BOMBS & DUST. with LAVEDA with TOTAL WIFE
GOLDEN RING BEARERS: THE WAR AND TREATY
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NEXT STOP …
The liminal horror of Exit 8 will chill you
BY JASON SHAWHAN
“IT’S WHAT THE game ‘I Spy’ has been preparing you for,” my friend Kishan told me, talking about the indie video game The Exit 8. That game has, as unspeakable liminal horrors can do, revealed its next form with Genki Kawamura’s film Exit 8, a prizewinner at Cannes 2025 now making its way into international theaters. “I’ve never been more scared to turn a corner in a bright hallway in my life.”
The setting here is a subway station, an ongoing tunnel with a few 90-degree turns here and there. There are posters for upcoming events, public health messaging, safety notices. M.C. Escher’s art gets a shoutout. Nothing here looks all that different from any other metro station you might find in the world. But this isn’t a typical place at all. There are rules, compelling you (the participant as well as the viewer) to keep a sharp eye out for anomalies in the tunnels, and to immediately turn back if encountering any such variances. Your phone will not save you. You can take photos of the walls to your heart’s content, but what you retain in your phone is garbled yellow slop.
Liminal horror (see also Skinamarink or Noclip or the upcoming Backrooms) is about indistinct spaces, rooted in the fear that our own faculties are betraying us, and that the breakdowns of synapses are deforming the physical space around us. It is simultaneously giving husk, haunted house, futuristic yet outdated ennui and the ruins of What Came Before. It’s a genre devoted to the unspeakable things operating just below the threshold of panic-based response. At first. And we see these spaces evolve, as joints crack and elongate and new, ghoulish senses of
purpose arise.
There’s a subtle horror inherent in public transit, though it’s not rooted in the racism that defines the history of that kind of infrastructure — rather, this horror is about what happens when spaces designed for hundreds and thousands are wide-open and empty. It’s an internal unease that gathers strength the longer it is experienced, kicking the reptilian brain into lower gear. Exit 8 specifically demonstrates how blank spaces become sounding boards for whatever we bring into them. You can feel things coalescing, slowly and surely, like fingers slowly clenching into a fist. The way that we notice things — or don’t. It’s a constant war of attrition between your eyes and your fear, which is a great concept for unsettling art, and this film is remarkable in the way it wrecks your soul in its brisk run time. Exit 8 is a process-oriented creepypasta brought to life.
Visit nashvillescene.com to read our review of Hamlet, starring Riz Ahmed and opening Friday, April 10, at select Regal and AMC locations.
But there’s never a peek under the hood. The intelligence, or instinct, running this scenario is deeply and impenetrably alien, and will remain so. Something that just taps into our infrastructure and lets the mice loose in the maze of our own making. Whether you take it as allegory or challenge or nightmare, the cosmology operating here is fascinating and deeply upsetting.
If you’ve been waiting for there to be a new vision in horror that comes along and Cubes things up, this one is totally for you. (If you’re a fan of the podcast Magnus Archives, this is a collaboration between The Spiral, The Vast, The Buried and The Lonely.) And the time is right for this after the unprecedented success of Markiplier’s adaptation of the indie game Iron Lung back at the end of January.
Like that film, Exit 8 benefits from a strong lead performance (which is the essential ingredient in any high-concept, low-budget minimal approach). This is absolutely the moment for the indie-game-to-big-deal-film pipeline to dazzle a marketplace that wants new vistas.
As part of the current J-horror renaissance (see also Ryota Kondo’s Missing Child Videotape and Kôji Shiraishi’s About A Place in the Kinki Region, hopefully coming to domestic screens sometime soon), Exit 8 does a razor-sharp vivisection of what all is going on and how it’s affecting us, as well as pinning contemporary masculine unease to a surgical table and digging deep. No horror film this mean could ever truly be respectable. There’s no foul language and no graphic violence, but watch out for those adult themes, because they will get you every time. The closest thing I can compare it to is The Durutti Column’s “Otis,” with soothing and neutral loops and whirls of some of the starkest, most troubling extracts and sources. And the scars that this film leaves don’t heal. It’s not a film that watches you back, but it is a work of art that opens an outpost in the back of your skull — a Gerry, a Twin Peaks, a Shining, a Desert of the Tartars. It will remain there long after you’ve left the theater.
Or have you? ▼
Exit 8
NR, 95 minutes; in Japanese with English subtitles Opening Friday, April 10, at the Belcourt and Regal and AMC locations
Saturday, April 11
SONGWRITER SESSION Joybeth Taylor NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 11
BOOK TALK Jimmy McDonough
Gary Stewart: I Am from the Honky-Tonks 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 11
Sunday, April 12
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Jason Wilber 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 18
SONGWRITER SESSION Wyatt McCubbin NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, April 19
HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party
3:00 pm and 6:00 pm
HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Sunday, April 12
HATCH SHOW PRINT Family Block Party
10:00 am
HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Gena Britt 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, April 25
SONGWRITER SESSION Mark Irwin NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, May 3
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Sav Madigan 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
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.
ACROSS
1 Replay technique, informally
6 “Baby ___” (2008 comedy)
10 “Fiddlesticks!”
13 Woodworking machine
14 Burden
15 A big one might be challenging to work with
16 Sewing/cooking class, informally
17 User of the Force
18 Mrs. in Spain
19 Remove from power
20 Boarding pass info
21 Like cabernet sauvignon vis-à-vis white zinfandel
23 Restaurant booking, for short
24 “Shoulda listened to me!”
26 Rang out
27 Carrier based in Ben Gurion Airport
29 Milan’s La ___
32 Dole (out)
33 Gomez’s cousin on 1960s TV
35 Bring shame upon
37 “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; ___ for the arrow that flieth by day”: Psalms
38 Always there
39 Lead-in to determined or destined
40 Otolaryngologist, for short
42 Estrange
44 N.B.A. great ___ Archibald
46 Wrath
47 Cabernet sauvignon et zinfandel
49 Golf gimme
51 Center of a Scrabble board
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
55 Puma’s pad?
57 D.O.J. bigwigs, in brief
59 Bass, e.g.
60 CVS Health subsidiary
61 Law enforcer in Leicester
63 Decide to deal with at a later time
65 Labor Day follower: Abbr.
66 & 68 Long-shot candidates … or a hint to six squares in this puzzle
69 Prefix with -logue
70 “You just made that up!”
71 Feature of the Cyclops
72 You might be asked for your “last four” of this, in brief
73 With 58-Down, “Bugonia” actress
74 Dips a toe in, say
1 This might be groundbreaking
2 San Diego suburb
3 Person reached by dialing 0: Abbr.
4 Comes face to face with
5 Choreograph
6 Magic power
7 Freshly
8 Stuff that’s slung
9 Parenthetical remark
10 “That’s enough out of you!”
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.
11 Accept the terms of
12 Pack rat
13 Summer vacation locale
20 Letter in support, informally
22 “Blitzkrieg Bop” band
25 Approximate no.
26 Winning hit at Wimbledon, maybe
28 Endures
30 Media sales agent, in brief
31 Be on one’s back
34 Face card’s value, often
36 One-named artist who sang the U.S. national anthem at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony
38 Real genius
39 Org. often concerned with fund-raising
41 Super Mario Bros. platform
42 Performs at a Thunderbirds show
Lists of starters
Packed it in
Big Dutch bank 48 Leif, to Eric the Red 50 “Deadwood” actor McShane
52 Typewriter feature
Spots where pins are dropped?
Gumbo ingredient
Bocce player’s skill
Trendy
FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE
WHEREAS, Dowling Capital Investments LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company, executed a Deed of Trust dated May 1, 2024, of record at Instrument No. 202405030032429, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee (the Deed of Trust”) and conveyed to Smith.Sholar.Milliken.PLLC, as Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure the payment of certain indebtedness (“Indebtedness”) owed to Timothy W. Burrow (referred to as “Lender”); and WHEREAS, default in payment of the Indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust has occurred; and WHEREAS, David M. Anthony (“Trustee”) has been appointed Substitute Trustee by Lender by that Appointment of Substitute Trustee of record at Instrument 20260325-0023722, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, with authority to act alone or by a designated agent with the powers given the Trustee in the Deed of Trust and by applicable law; and WHEREAS, Lender, the owner and holder of said Indebtedness, has demanded that the real property be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said Indebtedness and the costs of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust. NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Friday, April 24, 2026, at 11:00 o’clock a.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Square, Courthouse, Nashville, 1 Public Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise, homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 202405030032429, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.
Being
in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 202405030032429, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.
Being Lot No. 11 of Black A, on the map of Crolywood Subdivision, Section I, as of record in Book 1130, page 65, Register's Office for said County, Beginning at a point in the Southerly margin of West Bend Road, the common comer of Lots Nos. 11 and 12; thence with the line between said lots, Southerly 153.5 feet to a point, the common corner of said lots and of lots Nos 3 and 4; thence with the line between Lots Nos, 11 and 4, Easterly 70 feet to a point, the common corner of Lots Nos. 4 and 5; thence with the line between Lots Nos. 11 and 5 and 6, Northeasterly 77 feet to the corner of Lot No. 10; thence with the line between Lots Nos. 10 and 11, Northwesterly 160.1 feet to the Southerly margin of West Bend Road; thence with the margin of said road, Southerly 30 feet to a point, and continuing with the same, Southwesterly around a slight curve, 30.24 feet to the point of beginning.
Being the same property conveyed to Dowling Capital Investments, LLC, from William M. Bentley and Ruby J. Bentley, by Warranty Deed filed of record on May 1, 2024, in Instrument No. 20240501-0031653, Registers Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.
Map/Parcel No: 091-13-0-197.00
Street Address: The street address of the property is believed to be 407 West Bend Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37209, but such address is not part of the legal description of the property. In the event of any discrepancy, the legal description herein shall control. Other interested parties: Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County – 413; BFS Group, LLC (20250714-0055233); Claudia P. Hile (20250904-0070573); Douglas Coomer; Hailee Long Coomer;
0
Maria Leon; Brigette Diaz; Francisco Diaz Ortegel; Daniel Ramirez Pina; Experienced Construction, LLC (20250909071956); Maximillian Potter Dowling.
THIS PROPERTY IS SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, AND SUBJECT TO ANY PRIOR LIENS OR ENCUMBRANCES, IF ANY. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE PROPERTY IS SOLD WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO TITLE, MARKETABILITY OF TITLE, POSSESSION, QUIET ENJOINMENT OR THE LIKE AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, CONDITION, QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A GENERAL OR PARTICULAR USE OR PURPOSE.
0
Maria Leon; Brigette Diaz; Francisco Diaz Ortegel; Daniel Ramirez Pina; Experienced Construction, LLC (20250909071956); Maximillian Potter Dowling.
THIS PROPERTY IS SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, AND SUBJECT TO ANY PRIOR LIENS OR ENCUMBRANCES, IF ANY. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE PROPERTY IS SOLD WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO TITLE, MARKETABILITY OF TITLE, POSSESSION, QUIET ENJOINMENT OR THE LIKE AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, CONDITION, QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A GENERAL OR PARTICULAR USE OR PURPOSE. As to all or any part of the Property, the right is reserved to (i) delay, continue or adjourn the sale to another time certain or to another day and time certain, without further publication and in accordance with law, upon announcement of said delay, continuance or adjournment on the day and time and place of sale set forth above or any subsequent delayed, continued or ad-
event of any discrepancy, the legal description herein shall control. Other interested parties: Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County – 413; BFS Group, LLC (20250714-0055233); Claudia P. Hile (20250904-0070573); Douglas Coomer; Hailee Long Coomer;
will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trustee only. This sale is subject to all matters shown on any
or
any
and assessments (plus penalties, interest, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable;
As to all or any part of the Property, the right is reserved to (i) delay, continue or adjourn the sale to another time certain or to another day and time certain, without further publication and in accordance with law, upon announcement of said delay, continuance or adjournment on the day and time and place of sale set forth above or any subsequent delayed, continued or adjourned day and time and place of sale; (ii) sell at the time fixed by this Notice or the date and time of the last delay, continuance or adjournment or to give new notice of sale; (iii) sell in such lots, parcels, segments, or separate estates as Trustee may choose; (iv) sell any part and delay, continue, adjourn, cancel, or postpone the sale of any part of the Property; (v) sell in whole and then sell in parts and consummate the sale in whichever manner produces the highest sale price; (vi) and/or to sell to the next highest bidder in the event any high bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale. Substitute Trustee will make no covenant of seisin, marketability of title or warranty of title, express or implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trustee only. This sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes and assessments (plus penalties, interest, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable; any rights of redemption, equity, statutory or otherwise, not otherwise waived in the Deed of Trust, including rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or federal; and any and all prior deeds of trust, liens, dues, assessments, encumbrances, defects, adverse claims and other matters that may take priority over the Deed of Trust upon which this foreclosure sale is conducted or are not extinguished by this Foreclosure Sale. This sale is also subject to any matter that an inspection and accurate survey of the property might disclose. As of July 1, 2025, notices pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 3 at 5-5-101 et seq. are posted online https://foreclosuretennesa third-party internet see.com by posting company. THIS 2nd day of April, 2026. David M. Anthony, Substitute Trustee EXO LEGAL PLLC P.O. Box 121616 Nashville, TN 37212 david@exolegal.com 615-869-0634
LOCAL
Opryland Opry
ENJOY
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implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trustee only. This sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes and assessments (plus penalties, interest, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable; any rights of redemption, equity, statutory or otherwise, not otherwise waived in the Deed of Trust, including rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or federal; and any and all prior deeds of trust, liens, dues, assessments, encumbrances, defects, adverse claims and other matters that may take priority over the Deed of Trust upon which this foreclosure sale is conducted or are not extinguished by this Foreclosure Sale. This sale is also subject to any matter that an inspection and accurate survey of the property might disclose. As of July 1, 2025, notices pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 3 at 5-5-101 et seq. are posted online https://foreclosuretennesa third-party internet see.com by posting company. THIS 2nd day of April, 2026.
title or warranty of title, express or implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trustee only. This sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes and assessments (plus penalties, interest, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable; any rights of redemption, equity, statutory or otherwise, not otherwise waived in the Deed of Trust, including rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or federal; and any and all prior deeds of trust, liens, dues, assessments, encumbrances, defects, adverse claims and other matters that may take priority over the Deed of Trust upon which this foreclosure sale is conducted or are not extinguished by this Foreclosure Sale. This sale is also subject to any matter that an inspection and accurate survey of the property might disclose. As of July 1, 2025, notices pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 3 at 5-5-101 et seq. are posted online https://foreclosuretennesa third-party internet see.com by posting company. THIS 2nd day of April, 2026.
David M. Anthony, Substitute Trustee EXO LEGAL PLLC P.O. Box 121616 Nashville, TN 37212 david@exolegal.com 615-869-0634
David M. Anthony, Substitute Trustee EXO LEGAL PLLC P.O. Box 121616 Nashville, TN 37212 david@exolegal.com 615-869-0634
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Please be advised that production on “9- 1-1: Nashville” Season 1 wrapped on 02/04/26. Any creditor claims must be made by 04/30/26 to the following: Chris Chan
500 S. Buena Vista St., MC 4242 Burbank, CA 91521
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