Nashville Scene 5-7-26

COMPETITION SISSI WANTS QUEENS TO BE VERSATILE >> PAGE 27

CONFERENCE >> PAGE 8 CULTURE:

GAVEL DOWN GAVEL DOWN

A Decade After the Passage of ‘Say

Dyslexia’ Bill, Confusion Still Persists

‘Once you enter the dyslexia space, there are so many acronyms and so much jargon, it can be overwhelming’ BY ZACK BARNES

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Al Gore Puts Focus on Broken Democracy at Nashville Climate Conference

Says hometown vice president: To address humanity’s environmental crisis, Americans must fix their country BY ELI

MOTYCKA

COVER PACKAGE: GAVEL DOWN

Divisive Bills That Got Much

Attention but Ultimately Flopped

The GOP ginned up outrage with a number of failed bills on religion, immigration and abortion BY ELI MOTYCKA

Republicans Made Immigration Crackdowns Their Top Priority

Democrat Aftyn Behn says the state is ‘under siege’ by the GOP supermajority BY HAMILTON

MATTHEW MASTERS

Republicans’ Education Agenda Narrowed to School Vouchers

Testing requirements, immigration tracking measures were tacked onto voucher bills this session

BY JULIANNNE AKERS

Republicans Claim Financial Success, Dems Decry Political Investments

Gov. Lee’s primary initiatives sailed through thanks to supermajority support as minority party fought for ‘people’s priorities’ BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO AND EMILY R. WEST

Reproductive Rights, Trans Care Tracking Dominate Health Care Legislation

Also: Tennessee General Assembly cracks down on roofies, kratom BY HANNAH HERNER

CRITICS’ PICKS

Earth, Wind & Fire, Rosanne Cash and Neko Case, Nashville Spring Festival, Herbie Hancock and more FOOD AND DRINK

Date Night: Upstairs at Audrey, Plus Grimey’s, Anaconda and Sho Pizza Bar

A double Sean Brock-themed night in East Nashville, with some vinyl and vintage in between BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

CULTURE

Nashville’s Next Biggest SiSSi

Local drag competition hosts eighth cycle, gives back to charity BY HANNAH HERNER

MUSIC

To Make the Moment Last Michaela Anne homes in on what’s really precious on These Are the Days BY SEAN L. MALONEY

Free Verse

Stacy Mitchhart does some of his best work yet on No Rhyme or Reason BY RON WYNN

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Hayley Williams at the Ryman BY HANNAH CRON

FILM

Medium Rare

‘Chime’ and Serpent’s Path show us how our fears have evolved BY KEN ARNOLD

They Don’t Know About Your Stress-Filled Day …

Joel Alfonso Vargas’ debut feature Mad Bills to Pay is relatable, frustrating and often beautiful BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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Bonnaroo returns to Manchester, Tenn., June 11 to 14 for a long weekend full of unforgettable live music.

Experience electrifying performances by Noah Kahan, Role Model, Teddy Swims, The Strokes and more. bonnaroo.com

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WHO WE ARE

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GISTER TODA

‘Once

A DECADE AFTER THE PASSAGE OF ‘SAY DYSLEXIA’ BILL, CONFUSION STILL PERSISTS

you enter the dyslexia space, there are so many acronyms and so much jargon, it can be overwhelming’

BY ZACK BARNES

IN 2016, the unanimous passage of the state’s “Say Dyslexia” legislation was met with enthusiasm from dyslexia advocates, who said the law brought awareness to a key literacy issue facing many Tennessee students. But in the decade since, advocates have grown concerned with the way the state has set out to identify and intervene with students with dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in which students show difficulties in accurately reading words or spelling. Those diagnosed with dyslexia will often qualify for special education services and receive what’s known as an individualized education program (IEP) for a special learning disability in reading. The “Say Dyslexia” bill highlighted the need to screen students for dyslexia in the already existing intervention framework known as response to intervention (RTI). RTI screens students using various reading assessments, identifies students for intervention and, if students are still struggling after multiple levels of intensive intervention, may refer them for evaluation for special education services.

In Tennessee, students who are identified as struggling with word-level reading are now labeled as showing “characteristics of dyslexia.” This is very different from when a student receives a formal diagnosis by a psychologist and most likely has an IEP. This is just the tip of the very confusing process facing educators, parents and students.

“The layers of literacy policy in Tennessee have created confusion that educators across the state have reached out to me about directly,” says Tim Odegard, Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. There is “frustration among families and advocacy groups who are deeply focused on literacy broadly and dyslexia specifically.”

Those who are identified as showing characteristics of dyslexia are now provided with an individualized learning plan for characteristics of dyslexia (ILP-D), which is shared with parents and shows a child’s reading scores and the interventions. Teachers have reported that these ILP-Ds have caused significant confusion among parents, many of whom wonder if their child has been diagnosed with a disability without their input. Teachers are left on the front lines to clear up the confusion. In fact, the state’s family information guidance about ILP-Ds lists in bolded letters: “Characteristics of dyslexia are not the same as saying your child has dyslexia. Being identified with characteristics of dyslexia does not mean that your child has a specific learning disability

“

“I HAVE HEARD FROM MULTIPLE EDUCATORS ACROSS THE STATE WHO SAY THEY DREAD IDENTIFYING A CHILD WITH DYSLEXIA. EITHER BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MEET THE STUDENT’S NEEDS, OR BECAUSE EVEN WHEN THEY DO, THEIR SCHEDULE AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT ALLOW THEM THE TIME TO PROVIDE IT.”

—TIM ODEGARD, MTSU

or needs special education.”

Once identified, those students are required to receive dyslexia-specific interventions from their teachers. Understanding and implementing dyslexia-specific intervention takes a lot of time and relies heavily on teacher knowledge.

“I have heard from multiple educators across the state who say they dread identifying a child with dyslexia,” says Odegard. “Either because they do not know how to meet the student’s needs, or because even when they do, their schedule and school administration will not allow them the time to provide it. Identification without capacity to respond is not progress for the child.”

Strengthening the literacy knowledge of teachers has been a recent focus in Tennessee. In 2021, the state passed the “Tennessee Literacy Success Act,” which requires educators to use phonics to teach foundational reading skills. Phonics is a skill in which students must combine sounds and letters, and is critical for learning to read — but many people with dyslexia struggle with it. The law requires Tennessee universities to teach about the characteristics of dyslexia and how to create an ILP-D, and to prioritize phonics instruction. Universities were required to update their reading courses to meet the state’s requirements, and must submit yearly proof that they are following these new policies. For educators already in the classroom, the Tennessee Department of Education has created training modules that many teachers across the state have already completed.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell filed his proposal for Metro’s fiscal year 2027 budget late last week, outlining a $3.8 billion spending plan focusing on affordability issues outlined in his State of Metro address days earlier. Many of the budget’s priorities focus on maintaining affordability for Nashvillians impacted by inflation, rising gas prices and federal funding cuts. O’Connell — who announced Monday that he will seek reelection — is proposing a half-cent reduction to the local grocery tax, lowering the local-option sales tax rate from 2.25 percent to 1.75 percent. The Metro Council will soon begin deliberating the mayor’s budget as well as crafting its own spending proposals. The council will take a final vote on the budget in June.

But it’s not just educators who are left with questions — parents are also confused by this process.

“It is not uncommon for parents to reach out to us at Roberts Academy with questions about dyslexia, especially after receiving an initial diagnosis or after learning their child is showing characteristics of dyslexia,” says Jared Clodfelter, the director of the Roberts Academy and Dyslexia Center at Vanderbilt University, which opened in 2024 as a private elementary school specifically for students with dyslexia. “Once you enter the dyslexia space, there are so many acronyms and so much jargon, it can be overwhelming. Parents may have heard the terms, but they are now trying to understand the ins and outs of IEPs, 504 plans, ILP-Ds, and the various accommodations and supports that may or may not now be available to them.”

These different terms come with different accommodations and protections for students. For Odegard, “The stacked policies and requirements have produced overlapping categories that parents and teachers struggle to navigate.” These overlapping categories mean that the students could show characteristics of dyslexia under state guidance and be given an ILP-D, but not qualify for an IEP for dyslexia. This leads to frustrations for all those involved.

“The real cost is borne by Tennessee students,” says Odegard.

Zack Barnes, Ph.D., is an associate professor of literacy at Austin Peay State University, where he researches executive function and reading development. Before APSU, he spent five years as a special education teacher in MNPS. ▼

On Friday, Opry Entertainment Group cut the ribbon on a newly upgraded Ascend Amphitheater, which was managed from 2015 to 2025 by Live Nation — the music industry mega-conglomerate beset by legal battles and recently ruled a monopoly. After a tense lease-bidding period, OEG won a contract with the city last year to operate the venue. Recent improvements to the riverfront shed include revamped concessions booths, newly painted restrooms and renovated artists’ and VIP areas, a full exterior power-washing, and upgrades to furniture, box office technology, and audio and communications equipment.

Scene opinion columnist Betsy Phillips weighed in on the Tennessee Republican supermajority’s plans to gerrymander Memphis out of Democratic representation in the U.S. House, just as it did with Nashville in 2022: “Once you represent a district, you represent a whole district, everyone in it. … Having a district set up so that a Republican wins doesn’t mean Democrats in that district cease to exist. And Nashville has some of the rowdiest, most troublesome Democrats in the state. And you know who we’re second to? Memphis. And now Republicans want to give some of their colleagues that headache?”

As this issue goes to press, the Tennessee General Assembly is gaveling in on its special session to redraw the state’s congressional maps. See our ongoing coverage at nashvillescene.com/ state-legislature.

AL GORE PUTS FOCUS ON BROKEN DEMOCRACY AT NASHVILLE CLIMATE CONFERENCE

Says

hometown vice president: To address humanity’s environmental crisis, Americans

must fix their country

BY ELI MOTYCKA

AFTER 50 YEARS in politics, Al Gore has no qualms facing the media — much less three young reporters peppering him with conversational questions sympathetic to his post-White House rallying cry against widespread environmental degradation. But backstage at The Pinnacle in Nashville, Gore still lost his cool, leaning forward in his chair and bracing his hand flat on the table.

“This president campaigned on no more ‘forever wars,’ no more wars in the Middle East, no more rising prices, ‘we’re gonna bring inflation down,’” said Gore on Friday, raising his voice as his face tightened into a grimace. “All the things he promised, he’s doing the exact opposite. I’m sorry, you triggered me there.”

His message on May 1 — as the Climate Reality Project’s weekend-long Nashville training ramped up with presentations and information sessions — shifted more to the current state of democracy than smokestacks or polar bears.

“Increasingly, we have situations emerging in the U.S. where those who are being governed do not give their consent to actions taken that affect them, and affect the places where they live,” Gore explained. “There’s a long list of issues where people feel strongly one way, but the decisions go the opposite way, partly because we have seen a capture of governmental processes in many areas with money playing way too big a role in the political process.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Gore’s watershed documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won numerous awards and pushed the climate crisis to the forefront of the American public. The movie — and its Democratic frontman — also coincided with the increased politicization of environmentalism that has stalled bipartisan action in America, home to the world’s highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions.

“

“ IN ORDER TO SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS, WE’RE GONNA HAVE TO ADDRESS THE DEMOCRACY CRISIS. THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM IS NOT JUST TRUMP — IT IS THE DETERIORATION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS AND THE DEGRADATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE.”

—AL GORE

forerunners to the Climate Reality Project soon after An Inconvenient Truth premiered and chairs the international NGO’s board of directors. Still a Middle Tennessee resident, he traveled downtown over the weekend to push forward the group’s message of climate change education and advocacy.

“In order to solve the climate crisis, we’re gonna have to address the democracy crisis,” said Gore. “The underlying problem is not just Trump — it is the deterioration in the democratic process and the degradation of the democratic discourse.”

The son of U.S. Sen. Albert Gore Sr. — also a Tennessee Democrat — Gore held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate before his two terms as vice president under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. Since leaving office, Gore has refashioned his life’s work toward raising awareness of and spurring action against humans’ destabilizing impact on the earth’s climate. He launched the nonprofit

After winning a second term in 2024, Trump began a rapid pivot away from carbon reduction goals set by the Biden administration. Trump has since remade the Tennessee Valley Authority board, which will likely reverse a planned phaseout of coal power and keep aging units online.

The president’s crusade toward oil, gas and coal — a move that has opened the fossil fuel industry’s political checkbook — has also damaged American credibility on the world

stage. China, both the world’s biggest polluter and a juggernaut of clean energy production, now steers the global climate change conversation as stronger storms, drought, flooding and temperature fluctuation become more apparent across the globe.

As humans’ best-case scenarios for avoiding climate disaster have diminished in recent decades, the worst-case climate outcomes seem less likely too. Gore’s focus remains reducing harmful emissions to net-zero via a clean energy transition.

“We have the ability right now to create a very bright, prosperous, egalitarian, clean future,” Gore said Friday, always working to leave his audience with an optimistic note. “If we get to net-zero, which we can do — it’s not pie-in-the-sky — temperature will stop going up immediately. If we stay at net-zero, half of the human-caused CO2 will have fallen out of the atmosphere in as little as 30 years. I would love to be able to tell that to my grandchildren.”

AL GORE

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.

Claude Monet. The Water Lily Pond (Clouds) (detail), 1903. Oil on canvas; 29 3/8 × 42 1/2 in. Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., bequest of Mrs. Eugene McDermott in honor of Nancy Hamon, 2019.67.13.McD. Image courtesy of Dallas Museum of Art

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by

The Sandra Schatten Foundation

Joanne Payson in memory of Joan Whitney Payson and John Whitney Payson

WITNESS HISTORY

This Gibson five-string banjo, with a custom white metallic finish, rhinestone embellishments, and butterfly motifs, was played by Dolly Parton at performances in 1992 and a decade later on her Halos & Horns Tour.

From the exhibit Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker

RESERVE TODAY

artifact: Courtesy of Dolly Parton artifact photo: Bob Delevante

Gavel down

As a special session of the state legislature considers redistricting Memphis, we recap all that the Tennessee General Assembly did — and didn’t do — this year at the Capitol

ON APRIL 23, the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned sine die — the Latin phrase meaning “without a day” used to mark the close of the legislative session. The state legislature’s business was concluded for the year. Or so we thought.

Less than a week later, the United States Supreme Court ruled along partisan lines in Louisiana v. Callais, issuing a blow to the 1965 Voting Rights Act and weakening the political power of minority communities nationwide. Before we knew it, both U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and President Donald Trump were urging their fellow Republican, Gov. Bill Lee, to reconvene the legislature and redraw Tennessee’s congressional map — to redistrict Memphis and gerrymander the state out of its sole remaining Democratic seat in Congress. On May 1, Lee did as he was told, calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to redraw Tennessee’s congressional lines in a special session taking place as this issue hits newsstands. Legislators have to finalize the new congressional districts by May 8 for election commissions to have time to prepare.

This is par for the course for the state’s Republican supermajority, which spent much of its three-and-a-half-month regular session reaching into the business of Democratic-led cities Nashville and Memphis. Republicans passed bills taking over local airport authorities (including in Nashville), launching an “intervention” of Memphis-Shelby County Schools and requiring sheriffs’ departments to work with ICE. Also during the session, Gov. Lee signed a symbolic resolution designating June as “Nuclear Family Month,” the state banned the name “West Bank” from its official docu-

ments (opting instead to call the region to “Judea and Samaria,” as it’s referred to in the Bible), and the legislature passed a bill allowing schools to display the Ten Commandments.

But it hasn’t all been culture-war issues and state takeovers at the Capitol this year, even if those are the things that gobbled up much of the attention and headlines. Certain tax revenue from vape, tobacco and hemp-derived cannabinoid products will fund a new childcare initiative, termed the “Promising Futures Act,” budgeted to bring in more than $128 million annually. The legislature also voted to ban sales of the substance kratom, and created a family advisory board designed to increase communication between families of incarcerated people and the Tennessee Department of Correction.

In this week’s cover package, Scene staffers break down the regular session of the Tennessee General Assembly in five parts, from the state budget and various bills related to healthcare to Republicans’ immigration crackdowns and school voucher expansion — plus a lineup of bills that got a lot of attention but ultimately failed. Read on for more, and follow along with our ongoing coverage of the special session at nashvillescene.com/state-legislature. —D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

VISIT NASHVILLESCENE.COM/STATE-LEGISLATURE FOR OUR ONGOING COVERAGE.

BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

PHOTOS

divisive bills that got Much attention but ultiMately Flopped

The GOP ginned up outrage with a number of failed bills on religion, immigration and abortion

BY ELI MOTYCKA

HAVING A REPUBLICAN supermajority means that a coordinated party can get anything passed through both chambers with a little foresight and responsible scheduling. Lawmakers’ failures, then, often illuminate the party’s divisions and disagreements. In other instances — there are plenty — individual politicians might go rogue on personal crusades or performative virtue-signaling that lacks support from GOP leadership or colleagues. This year had many such examples.

Throughout this year’s legislative session, bills were introduced with great fanfare from sponsors and attention from media. They range from textually incomprehensible to outright unconstitutional. Several were plain attempts to challenge established federal or local precedent — such as Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision protecting K-12 education for children regardless of immigration status — to provoke expensive ideological power struggles that might expand states’ rights. Sensitive to optics, the party saw many bills win party-line votes in committee before leadership rewrote or relegated divisive legislation to obscurity. As soon as the legislature gaveled out of session on

Republicans Made IMMigR ation cR ackdowns theiR top pRioRity

Democrat Aftyn Behn says the state is ‘under siege’ by the GOP supermajority BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

TWO DAYS AFTER the Tennessee General Assembly gaveled into session, Republican leadership rolled out a suite of immigration bills crafted with the help of the Trump administration. Most notably, the state’s GOP leaders received assistance from Stephen Miller, who works as President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser and has led Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) called the legislation a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” In March, Gov. Bill Lee and state House Speaker Cameron Sex-

April 23, anything left unpassed faced an uncertain future, left as dead bills, works in progress or so-called “zombie” bills that may see reintroduction later.

Conservative lawmakers took liberal cracks at immigrants’ rights this year. Last year’s fixation on Plyler v. Doe turned into multiple attempts this session to exclude and track students who are in the United States without full citizenship.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and state Sen. Bo Watson (R-Chattanooga) carried a short bill that openly flouted Plyler and required citizenship documentation for enrollment. Watson’s own constituents organized against the bill, with Chattanoo ga-area teachers and principals pointing out how expensive, time-consuming and destructive the law would be for Hamilton County schools. Watson quietly tabled the bill without a floor vote on March 26. A companion bill requiring every school to submit citizenship rolls to

ton (R-Crossville) praised Miller and Trump during an appearance in Memphis. At the event, Miller called Trump’s immigration actions — which have led to the deaths of protesting American citizens at the hands of federal agents — a “national miracle.”

the state did not make it through committee.

Targeting Tennesseans by immigration status showed up across legislation. Self-described culture warrior Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), a licensed attorney, carried a defective bill trying to compel banks to require citizenship for international money transfers. It also included a requirement for parents to pay tuition for students attending public school without United States citizenship. The House bill failed with opposition from Bulso’s own party; Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) nominally sponsored its Senate counterpart, which died after multiple deferrals. Titled the “TRUMP Act,” the failed legislation landed more like an attention-hungry stunt in view of its prohibitive financial and practical considerations.

Bulso and Hensley also pushed a convoluted attempt to erode the separation of church and state. The legislation’s meandering text empowers Tennesseans to sue the state if they feel a government officer impinges on religious beliefs. The pair went a step further in attempting to require that schools teach the “Bible as literature” rather than a religious text and designate a period of prayer and Bible study for

Some of the legislation passed by the state’s Republican supermajority this year imposes new criminal penalties or expands law enforcement powers. One bill requires sheriffs’ offices across the state to enter into agreements with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency’s 287(g) program — opening the door to housing more immigrant detainees in county jails or having local cops actually assist in arresting immigrants.

A bill that makes it “illegal to be illegal in the state of Tennessee” has already been signed into law by Lee and will go into effect July 1, imposing a class-A misdemeanor for any undocumented adult who intentionally enters or attempts to enter Tennessee, or is present in the state following a final order of removal.

One bill requires state and local governments to verify work authorization status of prospective employees under the threat of loss of state funds, with another requiring verification of legal status for public funds. Yet another piece of legislation makes certain immigration information confidential, including the names of immigration officials, with the threat of a felony and removal from office for public officials who “dox” immigration agents or officials. Another bill requires local judges to cooperate with immigration officials.

Commercial vehicle drivers could also have their li-

students. Judiciary committees in both chambers approved the bill, though it never reached a full floor vote. Party leadership watered down a similar headline-grabbing attempt to require schools to display the Ten Commandments from Rep. Michael Hale (R-Smithville) and Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon). The two chambers finally reconciled legislation that made the Christian doctrine a permitted but optional display in public schools.

Bulso also authored a bill that would have banned displaying Pride flags and other LGBTQ symbols in government buildings, but the “No Pride Flag or Month Act” died in a Senate committee.

Rep. Tim Hicks (R-Gray) briefly threatened to destabilize all local zoning control with a bill allowing property owners to sue municipalities for damages against future and past land use restrictions. Hicks cast the attempt as private property protections while, as written, it would essentially destroy governments’ most basic functions with narrow exceptions. He withdrew it on March 23.

A state attempt to shift municipal elections — including Nashville’s — stalled in the Senate, a gift to the political consultants who flock to the city for off-cycle work. Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) briefly pursued legislation that would have classified abortion as a homicide. National outlets picked up the story, which ended weakly in a crowded committee room when Barrett’s crusade couldn’t pick up support from his own party. ▼

censes suspended if law enforcement officials determine the driver is not able to “sufficiently” speak or understand English during a safety inspection. Another bill makes it a crime for an undocumented person to operate a commercial vehicle. Non-commercial drivers will also face new hurdles after lawmakers passed a bill that requires temporary driver’s licenses for people who don’t speak or read English, with additional requirements to take an English-only written examination after 18 months and prove legal status in the U.S. The latter bill received concern from Shinji Watanabe, the consul-general of Japan in Nashville, who noted that the legislation might negatively impact Japanese investment in the state.

Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) pledged to erect billboards and write op-eds in Japanese newspapers to shame those who voted for the bill, including bill sponsor Rep. Kip Capley (R-Summertown).

“The era of niceties is over,” Behn tells the Scene “We are under siege and occupied by a hostile government that thinks there are no economic consequences to their bigotry. We welcome opportunities like this fall’s [Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development] Japanese Summit and Super Bowl 2030 to draw international attention to the plight of Tennesseans.”

Democrats sponsored several of their own immigration bills this year, most of them crafted to ensure accountability for immigration officials and uphold the rights of the public. Those included the “Stop American Gestapo Act,” which would have prevented law en-

forcement agents from wearing masks, and a bill that would have prevented immigration officials from using schools, churches and public parking lots and garages. Both of those bills died.

“People want us to solve their problems,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) during a press conference at the end of the session. “We didn’t do any of that. … We limited rights, and that’s unfair. That’s a failure of state government.”

Despite sounding the alarm for weeks, Republican leadership didn’t even utter the word “immigration” during their end-of-session press conference — something that may signal their acknowledgement of the growing unpopularity of Trump’s immigration policies. But regardless of public sentiment, Tennessee is set to enter a new era of policing power and legal pressure targeting undocumented people. ▼

LOUISIANA PASTOR BRIAN GUNTER, WHO WORKS WITH END ABORTION NOW, DEMONSTRATES IN THE CORDELL HULL STATE OFFICE BUILDING, MARCH 10, 2026

REP. KIP CAPLEY APPEARS AT A HOUSE TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE, FEB. 17, 2026

Republicans’ eDucation agenDa naRRoweD to school voucheRs

Testing requirements, immigration tracking measures were tacked onto voucher bills this session

BY JULIANNNE AKERS

SCHOOL VOUCHERS, which essentially funnel public dollars toward private schools, were once again at the forefront of the Republican supermajority’s education agenda at the state Capitol. Tennessee’s statewide voucher program, dubbed Education Freedom Scholarships, was initially narrowly passed by state lawmakers during a special session in early 2025. The program launched in the 2025-26 school year offering 20,000 vouchers — split evenly between students with a financial need and universal vouchers (available to any student, regardless of income status). This initial legislation allowed for an additional 5,000 vouchers to be added every academic year if at least 75 percent of the previous year’s vouchers were utilized. More than 56,000 applications were submitted for the 2026-27 school year.

During this year’s session, Republicans were able to get an expansion of the program passed — but it was a tight vote, with many Republicans breaking from the pack to join Democrats in voting against the expansion. Under the new legislation, the EFS program will offer a total of 35,000 vouchers — valued at roughly $7,500

Republicans claim Financial success, Dems

DecRy political Investments

Gov. Lee’s primary initiatives sailed through thanks to supermajority support as minority party fought for ‘people’s priorities’

BY NICOLLE

S. PRAINO AND EMILY R. WEST

AT THE BEGINNING of this year’s legislative session, Republican and Democratic lawmakers couldn’t see eye to eye on whether Tennessee was in a positive financial shape. Even now, after passing the $58 billion budget, both parties still don’t agree on the financial outlook of the state.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) says he’s proud of the initiatives offered within this year’s budget, even though it’s $2 billion smaller than the one passed last year. The last of Gov. Bill Lee’s four budgets during his second and final term, it was roughly

each — for the 2026-27 school year. (The number fell short of Gov. Bill Lee’s initial proposal of 40,000.) The new legislation also reorders who gets top priority for receiving the vouchers.

This prioritization continues as:

• Students who received vouchers during the previous school year.

• Students whose household income falls below 100 percent of federal eligibility for free or reduced-priced lunch.

• Students whose annual household income is below 300 percent of that amount, and then students whose household income exceeds 300 percent of that amount and are currently enrolled in public school or entering kindergarten.

• Students whose annual household income exceeds 300 percent of the federal eligibility amount — meaning some vouchers could go to students who already attend private schools.

Also shoehorned into the voucher expansion bill is a provision that allows public schools

on par with his previous three budgets. The 2025 budget was the largest, standing around $60 billion, following $52 billion in 2024 and $56 billion in 2023.

“I thought it was a steady progression,” Lamberth says. “Our budget teams did a good job this year.”

Nearly 170 bills were placed “behind the budget,” meaning legislators supported the measures but couldn’t commit the money. Of those, at least 80 bills found funding.

Senate Finance, Ways and Means Chair Bo Watson (R-Hixson) says he considered the budget process smooth this year.

“As things were developing during the course of the session, we had a lot of negotiations,” Watson says. “We have a good working relationship with the executive branch. They didn’t surprise us with anything in the budget. We moved some things around there that we thought were some legislative priorities that outweighed the executive branch. The process went well overall.”

During Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee meetings, Watson and company sourced $137 million from the state’s general fund for TennCare hospital buybacks — a funding mechanism designed to reimburse hospitals for the tax revenue used by the state. The legislature had to pull funding from various sources since buybacks were not funded in the budget version submitted by the governor.

Both Lamberth and Watson point to $25 million in funds for nuclear and quantum energy as hallmark

to receive funding for students who disenroll because of EFS — but only if they provide Social Security numbers associated with said students. This measure comes as a revamped version of a previously proposed amendment attempting to require public school districts to provide proof of citizenship or legal immigration status of students who leave to attend private schools as a part of the EFS program.

While the state’s leading Republicans have maintained their argument that vouchers expand school choice across Tennessee, Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed budgetary concerns as well as worries over the lack of data on who exactly is benefiting from the EFS program. Every attempt at increasing transparency and accountability for the program died in committee this session.

And while most of the session focused on Republicans’ expansion of EFS, a last-minute effort to ease testing requirements related to Tennessee’s Education Savings Account program also passed. The program acts as the state’s pilot program for vouchers offered to low income students, which operates only in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga. The legislation now allows private schools to administer other national tests instead of TCAP. Opponents argue that the legislation makes it more difficult to know if students’ test scores are improving when they transfer to private schools under the voucher program. Meanwhile, Republicans also launched an “intervention” of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district following the release of a forensic audit detailing “systemic problems.”

As budgetary concerns and the EFS program’s

investments, hoping Tennessee could lead the nation in energy initiatives through Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Energy is going to become a valuable commodity around the world,” Watson says. “Looking for different energy sources like nuclear space will yield big dividends and companies coming here because we have shown a real interest in that space.”

Watson notes, however, that gas prices could affect revenues for tourism and agriculture — two of Tennessee’s biggest industries.

“As fuel prices are up, we would love to see a resolution of the Middle East situation so oil prices can come back down,” Watson says.

Lamberth says he’ll continue to push, if he’s reelected, for an end to the grocery tax — something both Democrats and Republicans want cut, though with vastly different approaches.

Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) says the political priorities of the Republican supermajority — such as vouchers for students to attend private schools and measures targeting immigration — dominated the budget items.

“It’s not the people’s priorities,” Clemmons says. “Healthcare is not more accessible. Our roads aren’t getting fixed. Traffic isn’t getting addressed. We asked for a gas tax holiday; we got none. Schools are less funded than they were before. The question for people out there: Where is my money going? The state spent more money on immigration than on quality of life. This

potential impact on the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship loom, Republicans appear interested in expanding the voucher programs even further. When asked whether a potential EFS expansion could be on the horizon next year, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) says that depends on the outcome of this year’s gubernatorial race and where the next governor’s priorities land when it comes to school vouchers.

“They’re going to have their agenda,” Sexton said at a press conference on April 23. “We’re going to stay here. … We’ll regroup and re-go.”

House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) was less shy about his desire to increase the amount of vouchers.

“I’m sure the next governor will do a fantastic job, and as she evaluates this, will truly consider whether or not those 56,000 families deserve a choice,” says Lamberth — using “she” as a nod to the Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the odds-on favorite to win the governor’s race in November. ▼

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY LOBBYISTS CELEBRATE IN THE HOUSE GALLERY FOLLOWING THE PASSAGE OF A BILL REVISING TESTING REQUIREMENTS, APRIL 23, 2026

is a budget of misplaced priorities.”

“I think Tennesseans got their initiatives funded,” Lamberth says. ”We focused on meeting Tennesseans’ priorities. Unfortunately, sometimes members of the minority caucus focus on national issues. Sometimes they are trying to throw rocks through the windows.”

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) says even some conservatives have noted that in the future they might have to cut spending or increase taxes.

“The next governor is inheriting the disaster of a broken budget,” Yarbro says. “Inflation is a real drag on this budget. It means this rainy-day fund is increasing in value but has less actual purchasing power for bad times. It means the money we spend on roads fills fewer potholes. The money for teachers doesn’t go as far as it used to. The state is dealing with inflation and broke the revenue, passing tax cuts for corporations. Then you add on top of that a multi-hundred-million-dollar entitlement program that just isn’t paid for. Before I can get into the liberal criticisms, the conservative criticisms are damning. This is going to put the state in a crisis.” ▼

Also: Tennessee General Assembly cracks down on roofies, kratom BY

HANNAH HERNER

WHEN IT CAME to healthcare, it was the usual suspects at the Tennessee General Assembly this year. Reproductive issues took center stage, and Republican leaders took another swing at transgender people, seeking to track their gender-affirming procedures. Even so, several pieces of legislation to protect Tennesseans passed this year.

The “Human Life Protection Act,” a bill that would have allowed a pregnant mother to be charged with homicide if she receives an abortion, spurred perhaps the most heated debate. The bill from sponsor Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) was quickly shot down by his Republican colleagues in committee, and a slew of out-of-state pastors and “abortion abolitionists” turned up at the Capitol to lead protests. Even Republican legislators who support the state’s strict abortion ban said they do not support punishing the mother, and instead have directed their ire at healthcare providers.

Despite protests from transgender advocates, House Bill 754/Senate Bill 676 passed, mandating an aggregate report on a public website listing the number and nature of gender-affirming treatments across the state. House sponsor Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) called gender-affirming care “as dumb as frontal lobotomies,” and Senate sponsor Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) called it a “fad.” Bill sponsors promise that patients’ identifying information will not be shared.

While many conservative Christians involved with in vitro fertilization may believe life begins at conception, they don’t want it codified in state law — that’s due to fear of legal repercussions if embryos are accidentally destroyed during the IVF process. Fetal personhood policies and limits on genetic testing for embryos were ultimately amended out of legislation this year; additional certification requirements for IVF clinics and a rule to follow national genetic testing standards remained.

The state of Tennessee already bans the use of abortion pills, but freedom of interstate commerce and shield laws in other states allow Tennesseans some access to the pills via mail.

Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) made an attempt to crack down on abortion advocacy groups for distributing the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, but his legislation ultimately failed.

Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis), who routinely focuses on maternal health issues, was successful in passing a resolution encouraging TennCare to cover doula care this year. She also shepherded legislation ensuring that pregnant women get care when they arrive at the emergency room in active labor. Lamar’s efforts to forgive medical debt were shot down, however, and a bill to establish a program providing funds to offset burial costs for women who experience a stillbirth petered out. But a successful bill from Rep. Harold Love Jr. (D-Nashville) and Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) will require the Tennessee Department of Health to test for the sickle cell trait in each newborn.

Akbari was also successful in passing legislation to allow people to get a 12-month refill on contraceptives. Nashville Democrats Sen. Charlane Oliver and Rep. Aftyn Behn introduced the “Maternal Health Care Protection Act,” a bill written by Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi that was ultimately shot down. The legislation sought to counteract the “Medical Ethics Defense Act,” which went into effect in 2025 and allows medical professionals to deny care that conflicts with their “conscience.” This follows reports from a Tennessee woman who says she was denied a sterilization procedure and another who was denied care from an OB-GYN because she was unmarried.

Kratom — an addictive chemical that can mimic the effects of opioids — is now banned in Tennessee. The ban was brought in honor of Matthew Davenport, a 20-year-old from Chattanooga who died from a kratom overdose.

It will be a class-D felony to drug someone’s drink under a bill passed this year. HB2302 also requires bars to provide drink-testing devices. Previously, it was not a crime to drug another person’s drink — people could only be tried for crimes following the drugging. ▼

HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS CHAIR

JEREMY FAISON

SPEAKS TO REPORTERS IN THE STATE CAPITOL, JAN. 13, 2026

Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

TUESDAY, MAY 12

[SHINING STARS]

MUSIC

EARTH, WIND & FIRE

R&B and funk legends Earth, Wind & Fire will appear Tuesday evening at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin. Founded in 1969 by the late Maurice White, who died in 2016, the group scored eight No. 1 hits and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, making them one of the bestselling artists of all time. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, EWF has released 23 albums, eight of which went double platinum, and has won nine Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Although the group’s lineup has changed considerably over the years, the current roster features three members from the group’s heyday in the 1970s — bassist Verdine White, vocalist-percussionist Philip Bailey and drummer Ralph Johnson. They are joined by lead guitarist Morris O’Connor, rhythm guitarist Serg Dimitrijevic, keyboardist Myron McKinley, drummer John Paris and vocalistspercussionists B. David Whitworth and Philip Doron Bailey, who is Philip Bailey’s son. As you might expect, their current shows are heavy on their hits, including “Shining Star,” “That’s the Way of the World,” “Sing a Song,” “Serpentine Fire,” “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “September,” “Let’s Groove” and “System of Survival.” DARYL SANDERS

7 P.M. AT FIRSTBANK AMPHITHEATER

4525 GRAYSTONE QUARRY LANE, FRANKLIN

NASHVILLE SPRING FESTIVAL PAGE 20

DAVID BYRNE PAGE 20 WATER FOR ELEPHANTS PAGE 22

THURSDAY / 5.7

ART

[SOUTHERN GOTHIC] JOHN ROBERTS: WHERE THE VEIL IS THIN

David Lusk Gallery was recently accepted into the prestigious Art Dealers Association of America, and it’s hard not to think of this phenomenal exhibition of paintings by John Roberts as a bit of a victory lap. Lusk, which has locations in Memphis and Nashville, is the only gallery in the Southeast in the ADAA. This is a big deal, and puts our friendly neighborhood gallery — and its artists — on the national map. As ADAA executive director Kinsey Robb said, the organization’s members “reflect both depth of expertise and a clear commitment to advancing artists and ideas.” All that is a huge boon to both Nashville’s art community and this particular exhibition. Roberts is an artist with a strong Southern pedigree, and his paintings work like a brilliant combination of Eric Fischl and Grant Wood — intimate and odd. He comes about his spooky perspective honestly — his artist statement says he’s a longtime tombstone etcher. Where the Veil Is Thin explores ideas

of death, family and the supernatural with a captivating, layered narrative style that feels strange and nostalgic all at once. If you’re in the mood to celebrate great art being made and exhibited in the South, there’s no better place to be right now than David Lusk Gallery.

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

THROUGH MAY 30 AT DAVID LUSK GALLERY

516 HAGAN ST.

THEATER [THE LAST SUPPER] STUDIO TENN: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

Jesus Christ Superstar created quite a stir when it first came out, even sparking protests at its Broadway premiere in 1971. More than 50 years later, this celebrated rock opera may seem a bit less controversial, but it still has the power to move an audience. Beginning Thursday, you can revisit this mega-hit musical as Studio Tenn closes out its season with an ambitious, star-studded production. Featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, the play reimagines the final days of Jesus Christ through the eyes of his betrayer, Judas Iscariot. Director Patrick Cassidy has assembled a fabulous cast, starting with Tony

Award nominee Adam Pascal (Rent; Aida) in the title role. Pascal is joined by Grammy nominee Mykal Kilgore (Broadway’s Motown: The Musical; Hair) as Judas and the versatile Olivia Valli (who played opposite Pascal in the first national tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical) as Mary Magdalene. Plus, there are plenty of local favorites, including Geoff Davin, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Scott Stewart, Parker Jenkins, Harrison Hall and more. AMY STUMPFL

MAY 7-31 AT TURNER THEATER AT THE FACTORY AT FRANKLIN

230 FRANKLIN ROAD, FRANKLIN

FRIDAY / 5.8

[MUSIC MUSINGS]

MUSIC

RHYTHM & RHAPSODY: AN EVENING WITH ROSANNE CASH AND NEKO CASE

The Porch, Nashville’s leading literary nonprofit, always pulls out all the stops for its annual Rhythm & Rhapsody fundraiser, an event that traditionally fuses musical talent and literary voices — and this year they’ve outdone themselves. For years, Susannah Felts, one of The Porch’s founders, wanted to reach out to music legend Rosanne Cash to participate. She was hesitant, thinking The Porch perhaps wasn’t (yet) in Cash’s league. Felts admires how Cash “speaks her mind eloquently in public forums — full stop.” And, well, has that ever been more important than it is at this point in time? So Felts asked, and Cash said yes. The two brainstormed about conversation partners, and Cash suggested musician Neko Case. “I almost dropped the phone,” Felts tells the Scene. “I’ve been a huge fan of Neko since graduate school, when I lived in Chicago and was starting to get into alt-country.” If you have a lineup like Cash and Case, you need a powerhouse moderator. Enter music journalist Ann Powers. Obviously, you need to buy tickets online ASAP to hear these women talk about words and the world from the serene surroundings of Old School Farm. Proceeds support the ongoing work of The Porch. MARGARET LITTMAN

7 P.M. AT THE OLD SCHOOL FARM

5022 OLD HYDES FERRY PIKE

[SPRING FORWARD]

MUSIC

SONUS CHOIR SPRING CONCERT: DUSK

TO DAWN

I like a lot of rock and R&B with one frontperson, as well as instrumental music created solo that makes weirdos scratch their beards. But a bunch of voices working together holds awesome power that stops me in my tracks. Nashville choral group SONUS Choir takes this a step further: Rather than being accompanied by an instrumental ensemble — or even a single instrument — they perform their repertoire a cappella, putting the members’ voices front and center. They’ve organized their annual spring concert for 2026 around the theme of the natural cycle of darkness and light. Dunno about you, but lots of current events have me feeling like we’re collectively in a dark night of

NASHVILLE

the soul. This show offers a message of hope, as the ensemble describes it, “tracing the emotional journey through twilight, sunset and the dark of night, while looking to the hope of a glorious sunrise.” The program includes works predominantly by 20th century and contemporary composers, including Rachel Grimes, Morten Lauridsen and minimalist innovator Arvo Pärt, as well as the premiere of a new piece by composer-in-residence Timbre Cierpke. STEPHEN TRAGESER

7:30 P.M. AT FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH

113 EIGHTH AVE. S.

SATURDAY / 5.9

FESTIVAL

[DREAMS OF SPRING] NASHVILLE SPRING

FESTIVAL

If you haven’t yet been by to check out Antioch’s new Tennessee Nashville Chinatown, Nashville Spring Festival is as good an excuse as any. Nashville’s first Chinatown opened in February, featuring traditional architecture and supermarkets and shops selling Asian wares. The two-day festival builds on the cultural roots of the area, with activities such as kite-flying, international food, tea ceremonies and photo ops complete with onsite photo printing so you can preserve your memories. Tickets are $12, and children 12 and under get in free when accompanied by a ticketed adult, making it truly family-friendly. Parking is free, and the No. 55 bus serves the area frequently. Purchase tickets online in advance. MARGARET LITTMAN

MAY 9-10 AT TENNESSEE NASHVILLE CHINATOWN

5255 HICKORY HOLLOW PARKWAY

FILM [A BOY’S BEST FRIEND IS HIS MOTHER] WEEKEND CLASSICS: PSYCHO

All you boy moms and mama’s boys can celebrate the ultimate mother-son movie for Mother’s Day weekend at the Belcourt. In a bit of wicked programming, the team at our local arthouse has lined up Alfred Hitchcock’s paradigm-shifting classic, Psycho. For those who (somehow!) haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the fun, but just know that all your favorite slashers owe this one a huge debt. Find out what makes the Bates Motel (which you can still check out a reconstructed version of on the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles) such an iconic film location, how Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates feels about taxidermy, which ’90s classics make overt references to Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane and how the iconic shower scene plays out in context. Without the Belcourt’s rep screenings, we’d all go a little mad sometimes. For showtimes, visit belcourt.org. LOGAN BUTTS

MAY 9-10 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE

MUSIC [THE AVANT-GARDE] DAVID BYRNE

From his effervescent 2025 album Who Is the Sky? to his investment in solutions journalism through the nonprofit mag Reasons to Be Cheerful, David Byrne has seemed committed lately to cultivating infectious joy. As always, though, his songs have layers hidden in the grooves — on Who Is the Sky?, “Moisturizing Thing” is part baby Metamorphosis, part rumination on belonging, and “My Apartment Is My Friend” starts off as a heartfelt ode to being seen at your worst before turning into another song about a building. “What Is the Reason for It?” meanwhile features Nashville’s own Hayley

Williams, deepening a creative relationship between the two that kicked off when Paramore released a cover of “Burning Down the House” in 2024. On Saturday, fresh off the release of a bonus single with Natalia Lafourcade and the Mexican Institute of Sound, Byrne will bring his current tour’s blue-suited choreography to Ascend Amphitheater. Rumor has it recent set lists have combined Talking Heads favorites with his solo work of late — either way, the show is sure to be a delight. ANNIE PARNELL

8 P.M. AT ASCEND AMPHITHEATER

301 FIRST AVE. S.

SUNDAY / 5.10

MUSIC

[NEON KNIGHTS] AMONKLOK CONQUEST TOUR FEAT. DETHKLOK, CASTLE RAT & MORE

The finest way to crown a day at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival is to revel in the music of Castle Rat. The Brooklyn-based medieval fantasy metal band is on a mission to expand and defend The Realm from those who seek to destroy it. Led by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) donning a chainmail bikini, the band faces the relentless wrath of their arch-nemesis, The Rat Reaperess. Part of the 2026 Amonklok Conquest Tour, Castle Rat will open for Swedish viking metal band Amon Amarth and death metal group Dethklok. The latter — whom you might know as the band from Adult Swim’s animated show Metalocalypse, created and helmed in real life by Brendon Small — will close out the night with a video-heavy 20th-anniversary set. If you cast your dice well, you can zip straight from the Williamson County Ren fair to this theatrical

SONUS CHOIR

Dickerson Pike gusfriedchicken

spectacle without a costume change. Godspeed.

FILM [STAUNCH CHARACTERS] WEEKEND CLASSICS: GREY GARDENS

There are a few reasons to watch Grey Gardens One of them is seeing the inspiration for the famous and incredible first episode of Bill Hader and Fred Armisen’s IFC show Documentary Now! (It’s much truer to the original 1976 documentary than you might think.) Another is to see a pioneering documentary that launched 1,000 references. Despite the ruinous family home setting, I stay tuned in to see, at the very least, what outfit Little Edie is going to put together next. Another reason to watch is to add context to the recent assertion that the film’s subjects — the eccentric, reclusive mother-daughter relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis — are the reason that Kennedy royal Jack Schlossberg is so quirked-up. While it seems like an odd pick for Mother’s Day, it is perhaps one of the best organic explorations of a motherdaughter relationship, if you watch closely. Little Edie is an icon, and I’ve been trying to work “staunch character” into my vocabulary for years. HANNAH HERNER

MAY 10 & 13 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MONDAY / 5.11

FILM

[GET LOUD] MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: LOUDER THAN GUNS

Following the deaths of seven people during the Covenant School shooting in March 2023, Nashville’s own Ketch Secor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about America’s obsession with guns. Then NPR journalist David Greene contacted his friend Secor with a plan to travel across the country to discuss gun rights and gun violence. The result is Louder Than Guns, which will be screening at the Belcourt on May 11. Secor, frontman for Old Crow Medicine Show and the new host of the long-running Nashville PBS program Tennessee Crossroads, will take part in a pre-screening panel discussion. He’ll be joined by Katy Dieckhaus, mother of Covenant victim Evelyn Dieckhaus and community engagement coordinator for nonprofit Safer Tennessee; Clay Stauffer, author and senior minister at Woodmont Christian Church; and moderator Blake Farmer, a Nashville Public Radio journalist and host of This Is Nashville

Greene and the film’s director Doug Pray will also be in attendance. LOGAN BUTTS

8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

TUESDAY

/ 5.12

MUSIC

[RANDOM SAMPLES] THE PHARCYDE

Hip-hop musicians embraced jazz around 1990, with groups as disparate as Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest and The Pharcyde sampling records by Ramsey Lewis, Roy Ayers, Ahmad Jamal and Thelonious Monk. As you might notice, my list includes some ringers: Ayers and Lewis were credible jazz players, but they specialized in music that merged pop and funk with straight jazz. The Los Angeles band The Pharcyde hit in 1992 with their debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, an album I loved so much I ordered the T-shirt from their label. That T-shirt is long gone, but Bizarre Ride holds up after three decades. In the same year that Eric B. & Rakim released Don’t Sweat the Technique, The Pharcyde made a funny album that addressed deep subjects — check out “Officer” — and used all those jazzy samples to good effect. The follow-up, 1995’s Labcabincalifornia, featured production by J Dilla. The current version of the group includes original members Imani, Slimkid3 and Fatlip, with Bootie Brown absent. Like Slick Rick’s 1991 The Ruler’s Back and De La Soul’s 1993 Buhloone Mindstate, the first two Pharcyde albums belong to a time when hiphop expanded its cultural reach — after all, Monk and Ayers had more in common than you might think. EDD HURT

7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY

609 LAFAYETTE ST.

THEATER

[CHOOSE THE RIDE] WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

I’ve always been a real sucker for the circus. And while a spacious proscenium theater doesn’t quite capture the rustic vibe of the big top, you can bet I’ll be at TPAC as the national tour of Water for Elephants arrives on May 12.

Based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling 2006 novel,

the story follows a young veterinary student during the Great Depression who hops a train and stumbles into an unexpected adventure with the ragtag traveling Benzini Brothers Circus. With music and lyrics by indie-rock theater collective PigPen Theatre Co. and a book by Rick Elice (Jersey Boys; The Addams Family), Water for Elephants’ simple memory-play approach is elevated by all manner of circus magic — including daring aerialists, acrobats, contortionists and more. Audiences can also look forward to some stunning design elements, from Bradley King’s evocative lighting to David I. Reynoso’s dazzling costumes. But I think I’m most excited to check out the life-size animal puppets — including dear Rosie, the elephant — courtesy of Ray Wetmore, J.R. Goodman and Camille Labarre. Be sure to keep an eye out for Belmont grad Bradley Parrish, who’s making his national tour debut with the company. AMY STUMPFL MAY 12-17 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL

505 DEADERICK ST.

WEDNESDAY / 5.13

MUSIC

[HALT! I AM MOCTAR] MDOU MOCTAR

Dating back to 2017, West African guitar virtuoso Mdou Moctar and his four-piece ensemble have crisscrossed North America again and again with their corker of a live performance, stopping only when it’s time to make another record. (2024’s Funeral for Justice is their most recent outing for Matador; special shoutout also to Takaat, the side band sans Moctar, who absolutely leveled Random Sample in West Nashville in the fall.) A lifelong Prince and Van Halen super-fan, the 42-year-old Moctar and his trusty left-handed Fender Strat have rocked Music City no less than half a dozen times, never playing the same show twice. This time it’s just him, supporting Funeral’s 2025 solo acoustic companion LP, the heavy-in-a-differentway Tears of Injustice. For those who love a fierce, screaming riff and appreciate electric guitar’s transporting powers in equal measure, a night of watching Moctar onstage, in any context, is

not to be passed up. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR

1111 DICKERSON PIKE

MUSIC [DAMN DARLIN’]

49 WINCHESTER ALBUM RELEASE

Though they formed nearly a decade prior, 49 Winchester’s long-overdue breakthrough came via 2022’s Fortune Favors the Bold, a stellar showcase of soulful Southern rock that earned the band praise from Luke Combs and an opening slot on the European leg of the country superstar’s 2023 world tour. The band, formed by childhood friends from the small Appalachian town of Castlewood, Va., is now gearing up to release their major label debut album Change of Plans (out May 15 via Lucille Records/MCA). The record, which features a stellar cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” is produced by Dave Cobb. “We started this thing from the smallest seed possible,” frontman Isaac Gibson says in a press statement. “And by staying true to that same mindset, it finally feels like now is our time to come up.” The group will celebrate the album release with an intimate show at The Blue Room on May 13 with opener Miles Miller.

BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER

8 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.

MUSIC

[TAKIN’

OFF]

HERBIE HANCOCK

Wednesday evening, keyboardistcomposer Herbie Hancock, one of the giants of modern jazz, will appear in concert at the Ryman Auditorium. Hancock is one of the most celebrated and influential figures in jazz history, with a career spanning six-plus decades. He rose to prominence in the late ’60s and early ’70s working with trumpeter Miles Davis. After leaving Davis’ band, he formed The Headhunters and released the group’s 1973 debut Head Hunters, which featured the crossover hit “Chameleon” and became the first jazz album to be certified platinum. In 1983, he collaborated with bassist-producer Bill Laswell on the platinum album Future Shock, which featured the dance and MTV hit “Rockit.”

A 14-time Grammy winner and recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Hancock also won an Oscar for his score for the 1986 film Round Midnight. In addition, Hancock has received multiple honorary degrees, including honorary doctorates from The Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music and Yale University. He was also the first-ever Bonnaroo artist-inresidence. Hancock, who last appeared in Nashville at the Schermerhorn in September 2024, will be accompanied at Wednesday’s show by an all-star lineup featuring bassist James Genus, guitarist Lionel Loueke, drummer Jaylen Petinaud and trumpeter Terence Blanchard. DARYL SANDERS

8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN

116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

UPSTAIRS AT AUDREY, PLUS GRIMEY’S, ANACONDA AND SHO PIZZA BAR

A double Sean Brock-themed night in East Nashville, with some vinyl and vintage in between

BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”

WHEN MY FAMILY moved from Pittsburgh to Franklin in the late ’70s, my grandparents wondered aloud if we’d have running water. All they knew of the South was the TV series Hee Haw, in which actors in overalls told jokes in a cornfield and used empty moonshine jugs as musical instruments.

When Grandma and Pap Pap Antrilli visited, the vast green spaces around town unnerved them thanks to a lifetime of city living. But they braved the wild to walk Music Row and have lunch in Franklin, where my mother took her mother to Miss Daisy’s Tearoom in a nook of shops called Carter’s Court.

Miss Daisy, who died at 80 in 2025, was known for her hot baked chicken salad (topped with potato chips) and the idea that every customer would leave as her friend. My Grandma — a full-blooded Italian who had never been outside of southwestern Pennsylvania or had a glass of tea punch in her life — took this literally. As the family story goes, Grandma met Miss Daisy on one visit, then returned years later, beckoning her from across the room, “Miss Daisy, it’s me! Julie Antrilli from McKeesport!”

In the same vein, this Double Sean Brock Date Night — a fun concept for which I cannot take credit (thanks to my friend Cara) — isn’t built on the idea that Chef Brock is on site, or even all that connected to the restaurants he started anymore. In this stage of his career, Brock creates restaurants, we flock to them, and he moves on to the next restaurant to which we’ll flock. Unlike Grandma Julie, I don’t need him to remember me from his James Beard practice dinner at the Hermitage Hotel’s Capitol Grille in 2005. Or the vegetable plates I loved at Husk. If I did, I would’ve mentioned it one of the many times I’ve seen him at the White Bridge Road Trader Joe’s, where he’s just another guy with a red basket, gathering the makings of a meal.

STOP 1: UPSTAIRS AT AUDREY

When I first visited Audrey a couple years ago — trusting Brock and his team with a one-nightonly dinner with well-traveled friends from California — I blew right past the foyer. This time I noticed the hanging quilt and dried bunches of

lavender, plus the soundtrack of chirping crickets — all meant to set the tone for a modern Appalachian experience based on the style of cooking he learned from his grandmother.

My Grandma — and Brock’s — would likely balk at $19 for strawberry pretzel salad, even if it was the most genius version ever made. But that’s what fine dining costs in our country these days, with all the rising costs of running a restaurant baked in. It’s also what makes Upstairs at Audrey, a 30-seat bar that shares the top floor of the building with the currently defunct June and a research and development lab, refreshing in more ways than one.

One flight up, surrounded by art, plants and dried flowers hanging from the lights, everything (except the $15 burger) is $5. My husband Dom and I paid $30 plus tip — the price of two cocktails in most Nashville bars — for a bourbon drink with mint and lime; a super-cold green chile tiny tini in a small glass bowl; a plate of perfectly salted tallow fries with ketchup; three meat-and-cheese-filled hushpuppies with comeback sauce; a silver ramekin of room-temp pimento cheese plus flatbread crackers; and four pickled egg halves, which we dipped in Audrey’s creamy hot sauce that should be bottled and available for sale.

How wonderfully rare to not overpay for wellmade, well-executed food. It wasn’t enough for dinner, nor was it supposed to be — but it was just enough to sustain us through Stop 2.

Upstairs at Audrey

809 Meridian St. audreynashville.com

Grimey’s New & Preloved Music and Books

1060 E. Trinity Lane grimeys.com

Anaconda Vintage 1062 E. Trinity Lane anacondavintage.com

Sho Pizza Bar

1309 McGavock Pike shopizzabar.com

STOP 2: GRIMEY’S AND ANACONDA VINTAGE

The nine-minute drive from Stop 1 to Stop 3 includes the stretch of East Trinity Lane home to Grimey’s New & Preloved Music. Brock has no stake in one of Nashville’s most beloved record shops, but he’s incorporated vinyl into many of his concepts, most notably the 5,000-album library at the defunct Bar Continental at Grand Hyatt Nashville and a hi-fi lounge at his L.A. spot, Darling.

Grimey’s, which moved from its Eighth Avenue South location in 2018, feels like walking into a church of vinyl for good reason. Formerly

the Point of Mercy Church, it’s 4,000 square feet of new and used records, CDs and books with a stage for live shows in the sanctuary, plus all the extras you want in a record store — T-shirts, postcards, magazines and free posters. I love a good record shop or bookstore in the middle of my Date Night, because Dom and I get to uncouple for a while and explore on our own. He can debate whether he needs Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? on vinyl while I stare at a Joan Osborne album cover, trying unsuccessfully to remember what her popular song was in the ’90s. Then we reunite by a basket of cassettes, where Dom opens Guns N’ Roses’ Lies to

TINY TINI AND PIMENTO CHEESE AND CRACKERS, UPSTAIRS AT AUDREY

UPSTAIRS AT AUDREY PHOTOS:

show me the naked people on the liner notes. We did the same thing at Anaconda Vintage, which sits directly behind Grimey’s, past the wall of album cover murals. Dom asked if I needed an Ice Cube “Today Was a Good Day” T-shirt. I shook my head no when he pulled out a men’s tank top with the bars of Key West drawn on the back. We tried on sunglasses that covered our whole faces. He said mine weren’t even touching the bridge of my nose but were being held up by my cheeks, which is such a Dom thing to notice.

STOP

3: SHO PIZZA BAR

If I had to bet on which of Brock’s current Nashville concepts will hang around the longest, I’d put my money where my mouth is, was and will be again in the near future — Sho Pizza Bar in Riverside Village. I say this not only because it’s difficult to get a reservation between 5 and 7:30 p.m. any day of the week, even weeks in advance, but also because, top to bottom, it just feels right.

Even if you don’t understand what Tokyo-inspired, neo-Neopolitan pizza is — or care that the dough is fermented for three days, or want

to bog down your brain with the origin story of the name (short for the Japanese shokunin, meaning “master of your craft”) — Sho is a solid, slightly elevated neighborhood pizza joint where anyone could feel comfortable having a solo Italian sausage pizza with Taleggio cream at the pizza bar on a Tuesday, or sharing bruschetta, olives and slices of a bianca, salumi and mushroom with a group on Saturday night. Sho pizzas are served whole, so you’ll cut those slices yourself with scissors from a utensil crock on the table, which isn’t as messy as it sounds.

The Japanese influence is subtle: katsuobushi (thin slices of dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna) in the Caesar; a raw bluefin tuna appetizer over puffed rice served with purple-tipped gem lettuces for wrapping; a few sakes on the wine list, including from Nashville’s own Proper Sake; and the unconventional addition of yuzu to an Arnold Palmer.

It’s hard to imagine Brock ever feeling like he’s mastered his craft. This is a good thing. I don’t want to see him stretching dough at Sho; I want him out in the world, tinkering and tweaking, dreaming about what to feed us next. ▼

CAESAR SALAD, SPICY MARINARA PIZZA AND MUSHROOM PIZZA AT SHO PIZZA BAR

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CULTURE

NASHVILLE’S NEXT BIGGEST SISSI

Local drag competition hosts eighth cycle, gives back to charity

WHAT DO A ballerina, a wrestler, a cheerleader, a comedian and a contortionist have in common? They’re all drag queens.

Cheered on by a roomful of the who’s-who of local drag at Eastside Bowl, 12 drag queen contestants were given 90 seconds to do anything but a lipsync performance. Cya Inhale and Vidalia Anne Gentry (VAG for short) — hosts and co-founders of local drag competition SiSSi — challenged queens to show their versatility as they kicked off the first round of the competition’s eighth cycle on April 26.

Versatility and uniqueness are important in the current climate, Gentry insists. Everyone knows what drag is, and everyone has an opinion on it — a fact that she argues was amplified not only by shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, but also Tennessee lawmakers’ aggressive attempts to restrict it. (Readers may recognize Gentry from her role as an advocate against Tennessee’s anti-drag legislation, which gained national attention in 2023.)

“Drag entertainers are gonna have to really start being ‘drag queens and,’” Gentry tells the Scene. “They’re really gonna have to find what’s their thing that they can do beyond just getting up in glam and lipsyncing somebody else’s music for three-and-a-half minutes.”

For the judges — Inhale, along with last year’s winner Lucy Skrews, musicians The Kentucky Gentlemen and choreographer Chaz Sanders — the contest’s criteria are simple: Did you like it? Were you entertained? Gentry and Inhale wanted something that is less rigid than typical drag pageants, so there is no rubric — just a combined point total derived from judges’ scores and audience votes.

The top-ranking contestant of the first night of competition was Acacia Mercury, who sewed her own pull-away piñata-themed look. Donna

BY HANNAH HERNER

Sivan, who performed as a WWE-style wrestler, took second place. Thanks to a twist from “Big Sis” — the competition’s omnipresent but invisible overseer, sort of SiSSi’s Wizard of Oz — one of the bottom four will lipsync against eighthplace contestant Dove Lillian during the second round of competitions on May 10. That night, the contestants will share a performance based on a theme — video games. The top four will proceed to the third and final round, which is scheduled to take place on May 24.

Inhale leads the Music City PrEP drag nurses program, and the HIV prevention organization — along with its neighbor, gay bar Canvas — is a sponsor this year. It’s the first time that SiSSi is donating to Oasis Center’s Just Us program for LGBTQ youth — the organization is matching a $1 donation from every ticket sold.

Contestants this year are both longtime performers and novices. One contestant, Nece Sexton, has been doing drag for more than 20 years and took runner-up last cycle, while Laura Ellington Dupree had been doing drag for about a month at the time of the show’s promotional shoot. However, with her art background, Dupree (who is the drag daughter of Play Dance Bar’s Nichole Ellington Dupree, making her Gentry’s sister in the drag family tree) has her makeup down pat.

“I found most people who are successful in drag, this is not the first artistic thing they’ve done in life,” Inhale tells the Scene. “They’ve typically done theater, music, art, painting or graphic design. It’s interesting seeing how those skills do translate. The physical-art people are great at makeup, and the people who did theater typically are more comfortable onstage.”

Gentry is savvy enough to clock the fact that the state’s attempts to ban drag in certain spaces wasn’t ever really about drag anyway.

“It was really all about manipulating the national opinion of Tennessee to say gay is not OK here,” she says. “I think they did manage to be successful in that, because I feel like we’ve seen a decrease in gay tourism — at least in Nashville.”

“I’m not saying that it’s perfect here,” Inhale adds, “but people will assume it’s significantly more hostile than it actually is.”

Over the past eight cycles of competitions, SiSSi has continued to prove that Nashville has a deep drag roster. It reflects what’s already here, while creating a new generation of queens. For Cycle 9, Gentry and Inhale are contemplating an “All-Stars and Legends” theme.

“I do think there is a lot of power in helping people come up, and helping people find their footing with things,” Inhale says. “I remember the people who helped me, and I am always thankful for them and have tried to give back when I can.”

Inhale and Gentry are examples of two queens who have formed an alliance to take each other further than either could manage alone. Besides, Inhale predicts some of the SiSSi competitors will one day be the head bitches in charge, and she wants to be in their good graces. ▼

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Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

SiSSi Cycle 8 May 10 and 24 at Eastside Bowl sissinashville.com

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UPCOMING EVENTS

PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTS FOR TICKETS & UPDATES

THURSDAY, MAY 7 6:30PM

LAURIE FRANKEL with ANNE BOGEL at PARNASSUS Enormous Wings

10:30 AM

SATURDAY STORYTIME with MEGAN PIPHUS at PARNASSUS Brave Like a Lion!

SATURDAY, MAY 9

TUESDAY, MAY 12 6:30 PM

SCOTT SIMON with BLAKE FARMER at PARNASSUS Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known

6:30 PM

TIA LEVINGS with JULIE BOGART at PARNASSUS I Belong to Me

6:30 PM

DIANE LES BECQUETS at PARNASSUS Where the Water Meets the Sky

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13

THURSDAY, MAY 14

at parnassusbooks.net

@parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooksnashville

NATALIA STYLLES P!NK!E THEE AL!EN EVA LADIVA

Release Party with OJB

Bluebird on 3rd featuring Griffen Palmer, Madison Kozak, Matt Roy with Sharayah Daves + Sam Blasko

The Time Jumpers

The Lucky Losers with Amanda Fish

ROONEY’s IRREGULARS featuring Pat Alger, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Shawn Camp, Pat McLaughlin, Richard Bailey, Bill Kenner, Kirk “Jellyroll” Johnson, Dan Dugmore, Pete Wasner, Dave Pomeroy, Larry Atamanuik & Pat McInerney with John Lomax

CJ Solar & The Old Souls featuring Rick Huckaby

MUSIC TO MAKE THE MOMENT LAST

Michaela Anne homes in on what’s really precious on These Are the Days

BY SEAN L. MALONEY

WHEN I CATCH up with Nashville singer-songwriter Michaela Anne, she is handling shit. There is a pallet of records with her name on it coming — her newest album These Are the Days, which she’ll self-release Friday on her Georgia June label — and she needs to find space for them in her house. It’s one of those logistical details that make her new life as an independent artist after a decade with a record deal a little more complicated but a lot more satisfying.

“[The shipping company] called and they’re like, ‘Can a semi truck fit at your property?’” says Michaela Anne. “And I’m like, ‘No.’ With the chaos of having a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old, it’s really hectic, but also really fun. The learning curve has just been, like, the managing of all of the things — just the workload, and some of the decisions.

“If you have a label, they’re handling the printing of the physical merch and the storage. They have an in-house designer, and they’re paying all the bills — which is going back on your account, but you’re not seeing all the numbers.”

Look at the cover of These Are the Days and you notice a moment of perfect stillness in the photo of Michaela Anne nursing her youngest baby, a kind of take on a Madonna and Child. The image captures mother and baby amid the blur of life, in a moment of peace ground from the friction between patience and the need to plan. It’s beautiful, but the longer you think about it the more you feel the pull of your own to-do list. That restlessness, that need to do the thing, runs through These Are the Days, even when Michaela Anne is trying to be in the moment. It makes the album feel warm and lived-in, confident and mature. The hooks have heft, the verses have depth, the songs feel as comfortable and supportive as an old couch after a long day of chasing rugrats.

“It had taken me a long time to get ready to record,” she says. “I didn’t write songs for two full years. Two years is the longest I’ve ever gone without writing. … It just upended my sense of self as a musician, as a writer. I wasn’t touring the way that I had been because of the pandemic, because I became a mother, because my mother had a stroke.

“I just had no solid ground. And I really questioned, like, ‘Wow, my life took a big turn and I don’t know how to grapple with this.’ And so I didn’t write for two years — I just couldn’t. These songs were what came when I finally started writing again. And almost all of them are co-writes because I really leaned on my community to help kind of like bring me back

to myself.”

Her community, it should be noted, is made up of absolutely bonkers-good musicians. With her husband Aaron Shafer-Haiss at the board (and behind the drum kit) in their backyard studio, she worked with guitarists including Seth Taylor, Ethan Ballinger and John McNally; bassist Owen Biddle; and keys player Jimmy Matt Rowland. They create a dynamic that fluctuates between beer-joint fuzz tones and cleaned-up post-collegiate folk-rock. On the title track and the single “If Your Body Fails You,” the band sits deep in the pocket along with the sticks and stones, flowers and bones that allow Michaela Anne to ask big questions and ponder serious answers.

“Nashville is such a co-writing town, but I didn’t become a songwriter here,” says Michaela Anne. She co-wrote many of the songs on the new LP with friend and fellow songsmith Zach Berkman. “So I kind of always still had in my head, like, ‘Oh, you prove yourself by writing alone.’ We knew that we were writing songs that were for my record or about my life, and it just kind of helped put the pieces all back together and regain my confidence.”

Her community extends well beyond the

studio door. That pallet of records wouldn’t be possible without the support of her fans and a successful Kickstarter. The gratitude and appreciation in her voice is audible through the whole conversation, but there’s an extra little bit of awe there when she talks about her fan support. Which makes sense: Being able to make the music you love with the people you love is a rare opportunity and not one to be taken lightly. The result is an album that finds an artist making music that is as joyful as it is deeply relatable.

“Aaron and I have been together 20 years. I started out wide-eyed: Anything’s possible, we can do all this stuff. And then life hit me in a really hard way, and I stopped believing in all of that, and it got pretty dark. Aaron was there to pick it up and be like, ‘No, I still see this. Let’s go. We’ve got a whole new story to keep writing.’” ▼

These Are the Days out Friday, May 8,

Live

BROADWAY

U ncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Plays and sings The Judds!

5.1 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

5.2 Casey Beathard & Tucker Beathard

5.3 Jason Eady, Abe Partridge

5.9 Chase WrightChasing Shadows Album Release Show

5.13 Chase RiceUnheard Songs, Unforgettable Hits SOLD OUT

5.14 Rebecca Lynn Howard, Bridgette Tatum

5.15 Aaron Nichols & Friends From The Voice w/ Craig Wayne Boyd, Aubrey Nicole, Austin Gilbert

5.16 Waymore’s OutlawsRunnin’ with Ol’ Waylon

MAY LINEUP

5.17 Danielle Nicole

5.21 History Of Country Music Presented by CJ Field

5.22 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

5.23 Mo Pitney

5.26 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Brett Sheroky, Tana Matz, Nate Fredrick

5.27 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Plays and Sings The Judds!

5.28 Annie Bosko, Rachel Thibodeau

5.29 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

FREE VERSE

Stacy Mitchhart does some of his best work yet on No Rhyme or Reason

BY

RON WYNN

NASHVILLE WAS VERY different three decades ago, when blues vocalist, instrumentalist, bandleader and songwriter Stacy Mitchhart first arrived.

“There weren’t a lot of places around where you could play blues, or for that matter anything other than country,” Mitchhart recalls. “There were a couple of country bars, a lot of places boarded up and some peep show locales. Today Nashville has really become a great city, with all types of options for food. You can hear every kind of music that’s being made, and it’s really a cosmopolitan environment. I know some of the old-timers aren’t happy about it, but I love it and am really glad to see what’s happened.”

In the years since, Mitchhart has won The Blues Foundation’s Albert King Award recognizing outstanding guitarists, and he is an established and popular fixture at Printers Alley staple Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar. His shows are highly energetic and exciting, spotlighting a guitarist capable of both explosive, powerful solos and very tender, soulful ballads. In April, he released arguably his finest LP No Rhyme or Reason, produced by multiple Grammy winner Tom Hambridge, with guest appearances from singer Gretchen Wilson, singer-guitarist Kenny Neal and harmonica maestro Charlie Musselwhite. Neal and Wilson are also scheduled to join Mitchhart at a gala release show Sunday night at 3rd and Lindsley.

“I’m really happy with how this one turned out,” says Mitchhart. “We cut all the rhythm tracks in a couple of days and then did the vocals at another studio, both of them on Music Row. All the songs were done specifically for this release, and things worked out well, especially the collaborations.”

Mitchhart matches sturdy licks and riffs with Neal on the Crescent City-inspired “Mean Bad Wrong,” while Wilson joins him on the fiery “Sure Looks Good to Me,” which he co-wrote with Hambridge and Richard Fleming. Musselwhite’s searing harp licks, meanwhile, skim the mud off the swampy groove of “Flip It to the Other Side.” Two other strong tracks, “Good One Time” and “Bad as You” provide the foundation on an outstanding effort.

Mitchhart began playing professionally at 13, and by 17 was working with four different bands in Cincinnati, his hometown. He initially visited Nashville in 1988, then relocated full time in 1996.

“Being identified so strongly with Nashville in many ways is a strength, because on any given night, three-quarters to four-fifths of my audience comes from out of town,” he says. “I remember years ago when I did my first show in Cleveland. At that time the Titans were playing Cleveland almost every season, and the place I was playing in, the guy who ran it was surprised that so many people knew me and were coming to the show. But that’s the thing I tell all the blues promoters — that being in Nashville gives me way more promotional appeal than they think, because I’m always performing before all kinds of audiences and lots of people from all over the country and the world.”

Mitchhart, now in his late 60s, dismisses any notions about potential retirement despite his many years on the circuit. He not only currently does three nights a week at Bourbon Street much of the year, but by his estimate at least 75 to 100 road dates each year, plus an additional load of solo acoustic concerts.

“With the exception of one brief period in Cincinnati way back when I worked at a toothpaste factory, I’ve never done anything except play the blues and perform live. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. Sure, every musician always wants a little more national attention, but I couldn’t be happier with how things have gone in my life. I still play every type of arena from small to large and in between, do band and solo gigs, and am always thrilled to be onstage.”

Playing 7 p.m. Sunday, May 10, at 3rd and Lindsley

PHOTO: DENNIS KELM

Danielle Nicole

GOING UP FROM HERE

BY HANNAH CRON

HAYLEY WILLIAMS was the biggest star on Broadway April 28 as she closed out a trio of shows at the Ryman for her Hayley Williams at a Bachelorette Party tour, supporting last year’s widely acclaimed Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

Joining Williams all three nights was experimental duo Water From Your Eyes, the project of guitarist Nate Amos and vocalist (and occasional Stereogum correspondent) Rachel Brown. The band played a tight 40-minute set, featuring selections from their 2025 release It’s a Beautiful Place. Brown told the crowd, “Let’s party rock, as they say.” And with a grungy, electronic groove as the soundtrack, everyone did.

These Ryman shows mark Williams’ first hometown shows as a solo artist. She had a headline tour booked around her first solo album Petals for Armor in 2020, but it was canceled because of COVID-19. For many fans, this experience was a long time coming, and the excitement in the room was palpable as Williams prepared to take the stage. While instructions were piped in over the P.A. to “Ask your doctor about ego death” in order to experience “joy for the first time since 2016,” Williams bounded into view. She was armed with a guitar to shred into EDAABP’s first single “Mirtazapine,” which she premiered on local NPR music discovery radio station WNXP last year. She would play the entire album over the course of the night.

music video for the song, it was the perfect start to a series of surprises for the evening. Before heading backstage, Jones rallied the crowd in support of joy and resistance, sharing a philosophy he learned from Williams that they’ve come to share: “We bury our friends in the morning, protest in the evening and dance all night.”

As Jones exited, Williams stepped up to the mic to welcome another guest, hugely popular singer-songwriter Noah Kahan. The duo met at the Grammys just months ago, and Kahan — perhaps in town ahead of a scheduled album signing event at Grimey’s — joined Williams to sing “Downfall.” It’s a tearjerker of a piece from his new album The Great Divide, released just last month.

REANIMATING THE BONES:

For her final show at home on this world tour, Williams pulled out all the stops. Beyond the top-notch production and touring band — guitarists Logan MacKenzie and Brian Robert Jones, bassist Joey Howard and drummer Joey Mullen, who are affectionately known as the ParaFour since they’ve spent lots of time on the road as touring members of Paramore — Williams brought her vocal best to the Mother Church (to no one’s surprise). Her voice is remarkably dexterous and clear, and she’s got more soul in her pinky finger than most of us will have in our lives. She’s both a once-in-a-generation talent and somehow wildly underrated. For as long as she has been playing the game, Hayley Williams has only gotten stronger with age.

As she sat down at the piano for the titular song from Ego Death, Williams remarked that her past few days in Nashville have included all the city’s signature experiences: debilitating allergies, a tornado watch and reconnecting with friends — including state Rep. Justin Jones, who joined her onstage to accompany the song on tambourine. Since Jones had appeared in the

After a brief detour into almost-happiness (“Whim,” which Williams introduced as “a love song”), the show continued in its emo glory for “Glum” and the brooding “Negative Self Talk.” Then, Williams went back to the piano for her scathing but hopeful reflection on Nashville, “True Believer,” followed by a stunning if brief rendition of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.”

The theme of the night, and to a degree the album as a whole, was catharsis. There seemed to be a shared understanding between the crowd and the artist, largely based on the shared experience of living in the South, hating Nashville for all its flaws but never failing to see its potential — despite the weight that comes from existing here some days. Before the breakdown of the self-appreciating “Love Me Different,” Williams led the crowd in a unified group sigh, and you could feel the weight lift off the room as the music restarted and everyone began to dance. Williams’ family was present for the show, and her mother Cristi Williams, who works to connect musicians with mental health support via her organization Shading the Limelight, cheered the loudest following this moment.

To wrap up the evening, Williams had even more guests to surprise the crowd with. First, producer and frequent collaborator Daniel James, who partnered with Williams for the live debut of “DMs” from their Power Snatch project, and later local rockers Total Wife, who crashed the stage to end the show with the cleansing thrash of “Parachute.” As Williams bounced off the stage, she shouted out to the crowd, “See you when I get home!” No one does it like she does, and we’ll sorely miss her until she gets back. I think the feeling is mutual. ▼

Saturday, May 9

SONGWRITER SESSION

Caroline Jones

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 9

BOOK TALK AND PERFORMANCE

Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America

with Erin Osmon and Stephen Wilson Jr. 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, May 10

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Mike Webb

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 16

SONGWRITER SESSION

Jack Schneider

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 16

NASHVILLE CATS

Salute to Musician

Wendy Moten

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, May 17

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Red Camel Collective 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 23

SONGWRITER SESSION

Ray Fulcher NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, May 24

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Chuck Mead

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 30

SONGWRITER SESSION

Chris Wallin

NOON · 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.

PHOTO: ZACHARY GRAY

HAYLEY WILLIAMS

MEDIUM RARE

‘Chime’

and Serpent’s Path

show us how our fears have evolved BY

KEN ARNOLD

WHEN I INTERVIEWED director Kiyoshi Kurosawa back in 2024, we discussed how his view on technology has changed since he released his film Pulse roughly 25 years ago. “I don’t think there’s anything evil in the internet anymore,” he told me, via a translator. “However, I feel people [online] are getting worse because they cannot see hope in the future, and they have a nervous negativity … that piles up. ”

Kurosawa has a true interest in the evils that lie beneath society’s surface, and the prolific director’s late ’90s work feels oddly connected to his recent work — both feature a sense of lurk-

THEY DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOUR STRESSFILLED DAY …

Joel Alfonso Vargas’ debut feature Mad Bills to Pay is relatable, frustrating and often beautiful

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

EVERY ONE OF us has known someone like Rico. Brash. Immature. Rudderless. Prone to bad decisions and constantly convinced they’re just one genius idea away from fame and immense wealth. What will it take to snap them out of their delusion? An inciting incident, or perhaps the passage of time? Maybe some of us are simply destined to remain, for all of our days, a little bit dumb and very immature.

Mad Bills to Pay — subtitled Destiny, Dile Que No Soy Malo — centers on the aforementioned shortsighted 19-year-old and his small Dominican American family. Rico (Juan Collado) lives with his mom and younger sister in a cramped Bronx apartment, barely contributing by selling homemade booze concoctions called “nutcrackers” (or “nutties”) on Orchard Beach. Very

the new short film “Chime” and the 1998 feature Serpent’s Path.

In “Chime,” Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka) is a cooking teacher with an odd student who starts to hear a chime. When Matsuoka is faced with the pressure of trying to break back into the restaurant industry, paired with an uninspired homelife, he starts to hear the chime too. “I was suggested to make ‘Chime’ [in 2023] — it is a medium-length film that was never intended for commercial release,” Kurosawa said of the film. “I made it on an instinct.”

Visit nashvillescene.com to read our review of Blue Heron, opening Friday in select theaters.

ing dread beneath everyday life. In 1995, doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo attacked Tokyo’s subway system with a nerve agent. To the people of Japan at the time, fear was manifested in the idea of what you don’t know about the person next to you, or the fear of becoming influenced by someone — as depicted in Kurosawa’s breakout film Cure in 1997. His recent return to this idea has evolved to reflect the modern world of latestage capitalism and radicalization, as shown in 2024’s Cloud. The new evil isn’t the hidden nihilist, but rather the pressure cooker of modern life. This distinction is very apparent when watching

In Serpent’s Path, two men kidnap a yakuza member and torture him in an abandoned warehouse over the killing of one man’s daughter. When they start to question whether they have the right person, they begin to dig for the killer and dive deeper into the horrors being committed by the yakuza.

Both films are products of their own time. Serpent’s Path was shot on video, giving it a staticky, grungy VHS vibe. It was a direct-to-video release in the age of Japanese anxiety over rising technology, which also birthed director Hideo Nakata’s 1998 horror classic Ring. “Chime” was shot digitally, giving it a clean and hyper-sterile aesthetic. It features a very modern industrial soundscape, and its sense of spreading madness is reflected by its experimental release as an NFT.

much still a child himself, Rico finds himself on the fast track to adulthood when he impregnates his 16-year-old girlfriend Destiny.

The debut feature from Bronx native Joel Alfonso Vargas, Mad Bills to Pay has shades of Sean Baker — intimately shot, slice-of-life slow cinema featuring little-known performers, some of them making their first on-screen appearances. Vargas’ entire cast delivers

Both films reflect the anxiety of the age. Serpent leans into the fear of the horrible acts taking place right under our noses in everyday life — the idea that the person next to you could do something terrible. “Chime” plays on the idea that anyone, even you, can reach a breaking point and commit evil. Both themes are delivered via the director’s control over space, motion and sound, creating an atmosphere of immersive dread. This approach has made both films timeless despite their being direct reflections of a specific time, place and culture. Kurosawa’s body of work is not just a great experience in a vacuum, but a series of unique time capsules. Neither film was really made for the big screen, but both are making a rare appearance at the Belcourt in a limited one-week theatrical run — before returning to their intended format, with no streaming release currently planned. ▼

“Chime” + Serpent’s Path NR, 45 minutes; NR, 85 minutes Both in Japanese with English subtitles May 8-14 at the Belcourt

managing to handle any situation with grace. But are all of Rico’s problems really his own fault? Plenty of them are, sure. But he’s also the product of his circumstances, beset with bad luck and a tough upbringing that — despite what some might think — isn’t the sort of background you simply bootstrap yourself out of. With support from his mother and patience from his partner, maybe he’ll rise to the occasion.

Mad Bills to Pay moves slowly and sometimes meanders through its story in the same frustrating manner that real life often does. But it’s frequently beautiful, and will hit home with anyone who’s ever found themselves steeped in family drama or close with someone who just can’t seem to get their shit together — which is to say, nearly all of us. ▼

relatable, authentic performances, particularly Yohanna Florentino as Rico’s mother Andrea. She’s 40 years old but moves with the world-weary physicality of someone much older, carrying the weight of single motherhood through a life that deals her little more than constant disappointment. Collado, meanwhile, vacillates between sympathetic and infuriating as his character navigates money troubles and run-ins with the law, never quite

Mad Bills to Pay NR, 101 minutes; in English and Spanish with English subtitles Showing May 8-12 at the Belcourt; post-screening discussion with Joel Alfonso Vargas 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 8

“CHIME”

BACK OF THE BOOK

ACROSS

1 Fanatical groups

6 Dish often topped with lime and cilantro

9 Sci-fi warrior

13 One of 22 works by Mozart, but just one work by Beethoven

14 Team behind the cameras

15 Actor Epps of “House”

16 Question after “Well, well, well ...”

18 Jerk

19 “Family Guy” character with a nasal voice

20 Exec who manages a company’s day-to-day affairs

21 Word with market or list

22 “Too late to do anything about it now”

26 One who has a lot to show?

28 Bungee jumping requirement

29 First name in beauty products

30 Egg carton?

31 Holders of hammers and anvils

35 One cause of deterioration

36 Marine creatures that can grow to the size of doubledecker buses

40 Genre for DMX or DMC

41 Coffee maker inserts

43 Actor Somerhalder of “Lost”

44 Gas company with a triangular logo

46 One side in a “Holy War” rivalry in college football

48 Player on the bench?

50 Sarcastic response to an unwanted offer

54 Oodles

55 Member of a Tolkien army

56 Object in Pixar’s logo

59 Demolish

60 Facial wrinkles ... or what’s present in 16-, 22-, 36- and 50-Across?

63 School with a largerthan-life bronze statue of Henry VI

64 Fun-size

65 Irritating “cloud”

66 Beech or birch

67 Ernie who has won the British Open twice

68 Shoelace protector

DOWN

1 Part of a Batman costume

2 Until

3 Had an uplifting experience?

4 Bridge framework

5 Shop item with teeth

6 Before surgery, in brief

7 “Let ___ Go” (2012 Passenger hit)

8 Be shy

9 Some kicks on Route 66, maybe

10 Bit of info on a résumé

11 Ball

12 Teed off

14 Group in a loft

17 Sound in a cave

21 Course standard

23 Gumbo, e.g.

24 Disney villain based on Shakespeare’s King Claudius

25 Punch in the face, say

26 Extend a tour of duty

27 The first letter in this gas brand’s logo resembles a backward 3

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

30 It’s often identified by its last four digits, in brief

32 Made in a nonmechanized way, as food products

33 Cloths for custodians

34 TV ad

37 Stead

38 Like Alabama vis-à-vis Mississippi

39 Create a PDF of, maybe

42 Hang

45 Slightest idea

47 Airer of the game show “Wipeout”

48 Bess’s beau on Broadway

49 Eczema symptom

50 Pitched

51 “Cool beans!”

52 Instrument once known as a “toy trumpet”

53 Followers of articles

57 Parcel (out)

58 Whisper that might accompany a tap

60 Broadband letters

61 Need a day off, say

62 Big Apple airport code

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BEST PLACES NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW

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