Nashville Scene 7-23-26 by FW Publishing

THE STATE OF FARMING

As Nashville’s traditional farming community shrinks, a new urban agriculture network expands

WITNESS HISTORY

This weathered wicker rocking chair inspired Kenny Chesney to write the song “Old Blue Chair,” which was featured on his 2004 album When the Sun Goes Down and on 2005’s Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair).

From the exhibit Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward

artifact: Courtesy of Kenny Chesney artifact photo: Bob

Delevante

Congressional Primaries Set Up Lopsided Races in New Districts

Five U.S. House seats include or border Davidson County after state Republicans drew out Memphis’ majority-Black district in May BY ELI MOTYCKA

Whistle Blows on Nashville Steam Engine for the First Time Since 1952 Preservationists continue work to bring Engine 576 out of retirement BY HANNAH

HERNER

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

COVER PACKAGE: THE STATE OF FARMING

Nashville’s Traditional Farming Community Grows Smaller and Smaller

Davidson County has lost 30,000 acres of farmland to development since 2010

BY EMILY R. WEST

Urban Farming Builds Community in a Changing Nashville

The Nashville Food Project is building a new kind of agriculture network across Davidson County BY JULIANNE

AKERS

Legacy of Love Orchard and Farm Keeps Land in the Family

The Black-owned Century Farm in Williamson County is planning a 2027 public opening

HANNAH HERNER

CRITICS’ PICKS

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Turnpike Troubadours, Colson Whitehead, The Handmaiden and more

FOOD AND DRINK

Cheap Eats: Bagelshop’s Weekday

Bagel + Schmear Special — $3

The Donelson-based spot offers a different bageland-cream-cheese combo each day

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

Burger Boys

Talking to two local men about how they conquered Burger Week BY LOGAN BUTTS

THEATER

Utopian Community

With Utopias, Kindling Arts Festival continues its celebration of bold performances BY AMY STUMPFL

ART

Twin Towers

Mary Sully and Kimowan Metchewais stand tall in the Frist’s An Indigenous Present BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

MUSIC

The Art of Confusion

Robyn Hitchcock gets existential on The Confuser, the successor to 2022’s brilliant Shufflemania BY DARYL SANDERS

Shadow Versions

Pavement continues to define ’90s rock BY EDD HURT

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Be Your Own Pet at The Blue Room BY THE SPIN

FILM

Hell, Bent

Her Private Hell is freaky, opulent and tres chic — but not coherent BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE

ON THE COVER:

Farmer Bob Strasser; photo by Hamilton Matthew Masters

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EVENTS WE’RE INTO

GAY FARMERS MARKET

The Gay Farmers Market is held twice a month on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in East Nashville, May through October. The next market is on July 26. Shop locally grown produce and more. View the full 2026 schedule at musiccityprep.org/gfm.

WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO BOB DYLAN AT ASCEND

Bob Dylan takes the stage at Ascend Amphitheater on Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. Don’t miss your chance to experience an unforgettable night of live music featuring special guests Lucinda Williams and Jimmie Vaughan. Enter at nashvillescene. com/freestuff.

The

KINDLING ARTS FESTIVAL 2026: UTOPIAS

Explore 22 unique performance experiences at Kindling Arts Festival 2026: UTOPIAS at venues around West Nashville July 23-26. Enter to win a pair of passes at nashvillescene.com/ promo/freestuff.

JOSH TATOFI AT THE BASEMENT EAST

Josh Tatofi is bringing his Looking for Love Tour to The Basement East on Aug. 13 at 8 p.m. Enter to win a pair of tickets at nashvillescene.com/freestuff.

LOOKING AHEAD

7-8 in East Nashville’s Five Points, celebrating its 23rd year with music, art, food and the Tomato Parade. Visit tomatoartsfest.com for details.

FASHION FOR A FRACTION MAKES A COMEBACK Fashion for a Fraction returns to The Factory at Franklin on Aug. 15. Enjoy discounts and sales from more than 20 local boutiques. Learn more at fwpublishingevents.com/ fashionforafraction.

Loving & Selling Nashville for 35+ Years

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TOMATO ART FEST RETURNS

Tomato Art Fest returns Aug.

WHO WE ARE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers

MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez

SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin

ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter

MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Logan Butts

AUDIENCE EDITOR Annie Parnell

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman

STAFF WRITERS Julianne Akers, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams

SENIOR FILM CRITIC Jason Shawhan

EDITORIAL INTERN Emma Pickett

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cat Acree, Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Ben Arthur, Radley Balko, Bailey Brantingham, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Tina Dominguez, Stephen Elliott, Steve Erickson, Jayme Foltz, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Sean L. Maloney, Brittney McKenna, Addie Moore, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Katherine Oung, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Bobbie Jean Sawyer, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon Shamban, Amy Stumpfl, Cole Villena, Kay West, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Kelsey Young, Charlie Zaillian

ART DIRECTOR Kayla Stark

PHOTOGRAPHERS Angelina Castillo, Eric England, Matt Masters

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Sandi Harrison, Tracey Starck, Mary Louise Meadors

GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Alex Levin

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IT DIRECTOR John Schaeffer

DIGITAL DIRECTOR Caroline Prater

CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Gary Minnis

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In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

THROUGH AUGUST 30

Renowned for her immersive installations that combine color, geometry, pattern, and light, Anila Quayyum Agha is one of today’s most highly sought-after artists. Interwoven traces the past two decades of her work, encompassing intimately scaled beaded and embroidered drawings as well as her better-known monumental light installations. With the Frist as its final venue, this nationally touring midcareer retrospective showcases the artist’s expansive creativity and the centrality of textiles to her practice.

Anila Quayyum Agha. All the Flowers Are for Me (Red) (installation view), 2016. Cincinnati Art Museum, Alice Rimel Endowment for Asian Art. © Anila Quayyum Agha

The

CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARIES SET UP LOPSIDED RACES IN NEW DISTRICTS

Five U.S. House seats include or border Davidson County after state Republicans drew out Memphis’ majority-Black district in May

BY ELI MOTYCKA

IN THE HOURS after Tennessee’s Republican supermajority redrew the state’s nine congressional districts — eliminating Memphis’ safe Democratic seat, previously protected by the Voting Rights Act — one spreadsheet laid out the likely path to complete GOP dominance.

“They really didn’t leave us anything,” state Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) said at the time, poring over the district-specific voter data freshly emailed from national Democratic analysts.

This year’s special session of the Tennessee General Assembly split pieces of the state’s 9th Congressional District off into the 5th and 8th Congressional Districts. The 8th absorbed some of the old 7th Congressional District, now redrawn into the old 6th Congressional District, which then sent lots of voters to the new 4th. Besides three East Tennessee seats belonging to three Republicans — U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett, Diane Harshbarger and Chuck Fleischmann — Tennessee’s map has become a planning nightmare for candidates and voters, some of whom have changed districts twice in three cycles. Confusion itself, and its predicted depressing effect on voter turnout, was one argument Democrats used unsuccessfully in court to stop implementation of new maps that debuted just six months before Election Day. Candidates scrambled to evaluate the new terrain. All nine seats now favor Republicans. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — the state’s only Democrat serving in Congress — took the off-ramp to retirement after two decades working in D.C. Some, optimistic about the uphill gamble, set up campaigns. State Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) and longtime consultant Darden Copeland, both Democrats, revived shuttered campaigns. Others, like state Rep. Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis) and Democratic Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder, bound over months of work and fundraising into a brand-new district.

Today Scene news territory covers roughly five congressional seats. At least two will have new leadership. Republicans Van Hilleary and state Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) are vying for the 6th Congressional District, soon to be vacated by U.S. Rep. John Rose, who is instead running for governor. East Nashville, Belmont-Hillsboro, Vanderbilt, Hermitage and Donelson are its population centers, and boundaries extend east to Cookeville and Crossville. Hilleary is an old hand in Tennessee politics. A Gulf War veteran, he represented the 4th Congressional District from 1995 to 2003, coming

planes. Garrett represents a younger, more pugilistic party constituency fixated on antifa and trans people. Garrett’s immense personal wealth helped kick-start his campaign with a $900,000 personal loan, giving him a cash advantage in the primary — $1.7 million to Hilleary’s $1.2 million. Hilleary’s campaign experience and political network, however, are priceless in politics. Chaney Mosley, an agriculture professor at MTSU, leads a weak field for Democrats.

into power as part of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America” Republican surge during the Clinton presidency. He’s spent the past eight years as Rose’s chief of staff and has aligned his campaign with Trump, opting for traditional GOP doctrine praising law enforcement, criticizing federal overreach and praising big oil and coal, rather than dabbling in cultural ragebait. Hilleary enjoys name recognition, especially among the GOP’s aging base — a key slice of primary voters. His opponent Garrett was in grade school when Hilleary was flying military

A crowded Democratic field for the new-look 9th Congressional District includes Pearson, a charismatic Memphis state representative who became a face of liberal resistance after being expelled from the Tennessee House in 2023, and state Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis), a savvy lawmaker also from Memphis who has served eight years in the Tennessee legislature, first as a state representative. Pearson initially designed a changing-of-the-guard primary campaign against Cohen for the safe Democratic seat, previously a majority-Black district drawn around Memphis. With Cohen out, Pearson continued his upstart momentum and has raised over $1 million, outpacing Lamar and setting himself up for the nomination. In the Republican primary, state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), who represents the Shelby County suburbs, faces affable state Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill), who is running on his rural bona fides. The district now stretches from Taylor’s Germantown outside of Memphis to Brentwood, and includes the fast-growing Murfreesboro suburbs. Incumbent U.S. Reps. Matt Van Epps, Scott DesJarlais and Andy Ogles are favored in the other three districts that include or touch Davidson County. In the 5th Congressional District, Ogles has a credible primary challenge from Charlie Hatcher, who served as Gov. Bill Lee’s longtime commissioner of agriculture. Whoever secures the nomination likely faces Columbia

Mayor Chaz Molder, a recruited candidate celebrated by the national Democratic apparatus, which sees his clean-cut local charm as a compelling antidote to Ogles’ many scandals. Political consultant Copeland and state Rep. Dixie both ran last fall in the 7th District’s surprise special election after Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green announced he would leave Congress for the private sector. Copeland and Dixie both revived their campaigns, but recent financial disclosures show campaigns — briefly the center of attention last year — that have lost energy and fundraising momentum. Copeland won a lot of rural votes, but Dixie’s track record in Davidson County carries thousands of votes — possibly enough to carry him to the general election. Behn, who declined to repeat her 7th District special election campaign, lost the seat to Van Epps by less than 10 percentage points, widely considered an overperformance for a Democrat in the district.

Metro Councilmember Mike Cortese filed a longshot Democratic bid for the 4th District — held for eight straight terms by Tea Party Republican DesJarlais. Pro-life DesJarlais is possibly better known for pressuring his mistress and ex-wife to get abortions than anything he has done during his 16 years in Congress. Other DesJarlais scandals include serial sexual encounters with co-workers and multiple patients, divulged in his divorce proceedings. ▼

The Democratic and Republican congressional primaries will be held on Aug. 6, with early voting taking place until Aug. 1

JUSTIN J. PEARSON

VINCENT DIXIE

LONDON LAMAR

JOHNNY GARRETT

PHOTO: KEITH

WHISTLE BLOWS ON NASHVILLE STEAM ENGINE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1952

Preservationists continue work to bring Engine 576 out of retirement

BY HANNAH HERNER

FOR SEVEN YEARS, the thought of once again hearing the whistle blow on Engine 576 has motivated the volunteers working to restore it. On July 15, they heard it for the first time — to a great ovation.

The sound of the train’s whistle reverberates through your chest. It’s something straight out of a classic Western — or from the steam train at Dollywood.

But Engine 576, which was created in 1942 and retired in 1952, is the only one of its exact kind still in existence, its 19 siblings having been scrapped in the intervening years. Nashville kept its model in Centennial Park for decades before the Nashville Steam Preservation Society set out to restore it in 2019.

Since then, the society has raised more than $3 million for restoration work, with a goal of raising $250,000 to $500,000 more to finish its rollout. When completed, the engine will operate on the same tracks as the Nashville-to-Lebanon WeGo Star and the excursion train run by the Tennessee Central Railway Museum. The group will partner with the museum to pull its fleet of 1950s passenger cars — hopefully by the end of 2027.

“This is a part of the city’s history that is really

brushed under the rug, and we really want to highlight and bring to the forefront,” says Joey Bryan, a spokesperson for the Nashville Steam Preservation Society. “People come here for the music, but what inspired that music back in the day was the sounds and rhythms of the steam locomotive that we’re bringing back to life here today.

“It really just goes hand in hand with the culture and the identity of the city to have this Nashville native brought back here,” Bryan continues, referencing Engine 576.

Stephen Hook, shop foreman for the society, has been working on the train full time for six years. He was also one of the people who stayed all night July 15 to periodically shovel coal into the engine’s boiler, which had not seen a fire in 74 years. Hook says while there are a few items to address, the engine has run exceptionally well, especially considering its long retirement.

“You do something for so long, you just get used to it being this static thing forever, and then all of a sudden, in the course of two

Early voting began Friday for the state and federal primary elections, as well as the Davidson County general and Oak Hill municipal elections Polls are open through Saturday, Aug. 1, with primary Election Day to follow on Aug. 6. Most notably, this is the primary election for Tennessee’s next governor, with Gov. Bill Lee reaching the end of his second term. Nashville’s voting bloc is now split between the 4th, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts, and the winner in each district’s Democratic primary will face a difficult general election after the recent redrawing of congressional maps by the state legislature to favor Republican candidates. Several positions in the Tennessee General Assembly are up for election, though many candidates are uncontested. Davidson County held its primary in April, and all of those positions are uncontested in the general election. Several surrounding counties are also holding primary elections, with Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson Sumner and Robertson county citizens voting for county mayors in this cycle.

The Tennessee Democratic Party held a Zoom call of about 100 Democrats across the state last week as party leadership defended itself against defamation claims brought by former TNDP treasurer Carol Abney. Rachel Campbell, who took over as party chair in 2025, was named in Abney’s suit alongside three executive committee members. Campbell organized last week’s call, telling members that “sunshine is the best disinfectant” days after the lawsuit dropped in Clay County Circuit Court. Abney claims she was ousted for prying too deeply into party finances, further alleging that Campbell and others misused party funds. Campbell and director of operations Arsenio Williams disputed Abney’s portrayal of the TNDP laid out in her lawsuit, which seeks $1 million in damages.

days, it’s gone from a piece of metal to an actual breathing machine,” he says. “It’s kind of hard to believe still.”

Most Tennesseans in their 20s, like Hook, don’t have memories of riding trains locally — and not many folks who worked on a steam engine in the 1950s are still around. Hook learned from other preservationists and from visits to steam engines that are in operation today. He started with the Nashville Steam Preservation Society as a tween, volunteering on the weekends there. Even before that, he played on Engine 576 in Centennial Park as a kid.

“I remember sitting up there in the window and saying, ‘I think it’d be pretty darn cool to run this thing,’” he says. “Looking back on it, I’m not sure how much I thought it was going to take, but it wasn’t this much. It’s been worth it. It’s been worth it the whole time.”

The Atlanta-based company looking to establish a data center near the Nashville Zoo — a move that has spurred significant citizen pushback — has finalized the $23 million purchase of the property. DC BLOX now owns the 23.49-acre site, which offers two structures and an address of 648 Grassmere Park. The seller was Nashville-based MarketStreet Enterprises, perhaps best known as the master developer of The Gulch. DC BLOX, a digital infrastructure company, has filed for a building permit with Metro proposing to construct a one-story, 10-megawatt, 69,220-square-foot data center at the site. Additional engineering reports indicate that the project could also include a three-story, 40-megawatt data center building, a substation, associated parking lots and a guard house. An attorney for the Nashville Zoo submitted a zoning appeal to “halt the approval of permits submitted by DC Blox,” which will have its first reading before Metro Council on Aug. 20. As this issue goes to press, several other pieces of local legislation related to data center regulation are being considered.

STEPHEN HOOK WITH ENGINE 576

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The State of Farming

As Nashville’s traditional farming community shrinks, a new urban agriculture network expands

Nashville’s Traditional Farming Community Grows

Smaller and Smaller

Davidson County has lost 30,000 acres of farmland to development since 2010

By Emily R. West

RAIN POURS FROM the sky as Bob Strasser stands under a small shed, his grandfather’s 1940s tractor parked nearby. A mama cow bellows in the barn lot behind him as Strasser takes a break from feeding the rest of the herd. Silos tower over the property.

This summer’s weather patterns haven’t necessarily made his job easy, with constant thunderstorms popping up over his patch of dirt on Pennington Bend Road. Strasser is a rare breed in Davidson County, still farming on the land that has been in his family for generations.

“I have been the only real farmer in Nashville still doing this for 25 to 30 years,” he says.

DUE TO CONDITIONS including high resource costs, tariffs, federal funding cuts, corporate dominance and inflation, American farms are in a state of crisis. According to Farm Aid, these ever-tightening factors “are bringing many farmers, and the rural communities they support, to a breaking point.”

And agriculture isn’t just a major industry in Tennessee at large — it’s an important piece of Nashville’s culture and history. (Speaking of

which, have you ever noticed the tobacco plant on Nashville’s official city flag?) Consumers are growing more aware of the importance of sourcing food locally thanks to issues like environmental impact and food safety, but our local growers are facing more challenges than ever. In this week’s cover package, we take a threepart look at the state of farming in the greater Nashville area. Reporter Emily R. West examines Nashville’s rapidly shrinking traditional farming

community, while reporter Julianne Akers looks at how The Nashville Food Project’s agriculture network is supporting urban farms. Meanwhile in Williamson County, reporter Hannah Herner talks to the family behind a Black-owned Century Farm that is pivoting to a new business model. Read on for more.

—D. PATRICK RODGERS,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

He represents the fourth generation of his family to farm in Davidson County, and hopes his daughter — who is heavily involved in the farm and 4-H — can keep it going in the fifth.

Strasser’s great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Germany through Ellis Island 141 years ago, winding up in Nashville near what is now the Nashville International Airport. Eminent domain for airport development took their farm in the 1950s, which is how they ended up with 200 acres further north in the county.

“My family ridiculed my grandfather for moving out to the sticks,” Strasser says — his land abuts the Cumberland River and is only a few miles from what is now the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and Opry Mills mall. “The only way here was to cross the river on a ferry. We’ve seen encroachment constantly. But we are not for sale.”

Nothing about farming is easy, and the grueling work it requires doesn’t appeal to everyone. Strasser rose before the sun for 30 years to milk his cows when his family was one of the few still dairy farming in the area. He now tends beef cattle, cuts horse hay and row-crops another 600 acres in Robertson County.

Strasser’s grandfather played a heavy influence on his life. Though he wanted Strasser to be a veterinarian, the younger Strasser came back to the family farm.

“I have become in the last 15 years the token farmer,” he says of his role in Davidson County. “I am the only one. I don’t know how you get pro-

grammed to want to be a farmer. I don’t know how it works that you want to do this the rest of your life, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

FARMING FALLS BY THE WAYSIDE IN NASHVILLE

Despite loving his job, Strasser doesn’t feel a community in Nashville.

“I have no peers,” he says. “We have people who are urban farmers, and they call themselves farmers. That’s fine. I am glad we live in a country where everyone can do that, and you can have a little niche market. But as far as traditional production agriculture, I have no peers here.”

And that’s not totally surprising. According to a study from the University of Tennessee, thousands of acres of farmland have left Nashville in recent years.

Economist Charley Martinez worked for years on a dataset that he released in 2024 showing farmland loss across the state. Middle Tennessee’s doughnut counties — the ones surrounding Davidson County — show a detrimental loss of farmland. Davidson County alone has lost nearly 30,000 acres since 2010.

Nashville has been losing farmland since the aftermath of the Civil War, when Reconstruction spurred change in a city transitioning to industrialization. One of the earliest known photographs of the city, taken in the 1850s, shows Nashville’s Market Square being a center of agricultural life — agriculture was the primary economic driver at the time.

“That’s because it was the capital city,” says Jim Hoobler, a member of the Metro Historical Commission. “Agriculture isn’t dominant at all in Davidson County anymore.”

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture Census data from 2022 — the latest year available — there are fewer than 100 family farms of any size or production in Davidson County. That’s left Strasser feeling like one of the last men standing.

And it’s why the Tennessee Farm Bureau’s Lee Maddox says his company looks out for the farmer as a group across the state.

“There’s no doubt we are constantly trying to lobby on behalf of preserving our agriculture heritage,” Maddox says. “It’s the most important industry in the state. In every county, it’s typically the number one industry. There are fewer farmers today than there were last year. We are continuing to see less farmland.

It’s

kind of scary to all of us. It should be a concern to all Tennesseans, because it’s the number one economic driver for our state. Not only that, but it’s part of national security that we continue to work to produce in a safe way for our food, fiber and fuel as opposed to being dependent on somewhere else. We don’t want to do that. That’s why it’s our mission: to protect and promote this industry.”

WHAT NASHVILLE SEES IN AGRICULTURE NOW

Despite the decline of traditional farms, Amy Dunlap still sees an interest in agriculture — just not in a traditional sense.

Dunlap is what’s known as an agricultural extension agent through the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee State University extension in Davidson County. She regularly helps people who are interested in farming, but on a small scale.

“We are unique,” Dunlap says of Nashville. “A lot of farmland has been purchased for commercial development. It’s being lost like [land] is in general. A lot of those old-school farmers aren’t in existence in Nashville. There’s an interest in new and beginning farmers who are producing for themselves and other people. We get a ton of questions for new and beginning farmers who don’t have that background as a livelihood.”

Dunlap teaches classes on horticulture to a younger generation interested in urban farming — which can be as small-scale as one person producing a garden in their backyard or having a coop full of chickens. Ag Census data shows that 225 people were in that category across the county in 2022.

Every day, residents and tourists can still engage with farmers at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, which was founded in the 19th century but moved from downtown to its current location near the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in the 20th century.

Nashville Farmers’ Market spokesperson Courtney Cotton says the market has 150 vendors in its peak season. Vendors in the market’s stalls have farms from all over Middle Tennessee.

“The Nashville Farmers’ Market is where our community comes together — where local farmers, artisans and food entrepreneurs connect with neighbors, families and visitors through fresh food, shared experiences and a commitment to supporting one another,” Cotton says. “More than a marketplace, it’s a gathering place that celebrates the people, cultures and traditions that make Nashville unique.” ▼

Urban Farming Builds Community in a Changing Nashville

The Nashville Food Project is building a new kind of agriculture network across Davidson County

By Julianne Akers

FIXED ON A small parcel of land located in North Nashville’s Hope Garden neighborhood, a thriving community garden is overflowing with fresh okra, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, asparagus, jalapeños, squash and more.

But it wasn’t always this way. While some of the garden plots have been growing for more than 15 years, much of the land was abandoned, overgrown and riddled with stubborn Bermuda grass. That’s according to Hope Garden resident Chris Ashton, who lives a block away from the community garden.

Several years ago, Ashton set a goal: to revive the garden.

“It was kind of like, there’s an opportunity in the space to do something that I love, which is grow flowers, and in turn food, and reclaim this space,” Ashton says. “And then bring people together doing it in the process. I’m also interested in neighborhood advocacy, community walkability — basically building dense, walkable mixeduse neighborhoods. This garden is a great opportunity to hit a lot of those things because we can reclaim an ugly space into something nice, bring people together, and help people grow food.”

This garden is just one space that’s recently joined The Nashville Food Project’s Community Agriculture Network, which provides support to urban farms, gardens and orchards across Davidson County. Each garden is locally controlled by residents of the neighborhood, and 15-year-old nonprofit The Nashville Food Project provides a backbone for the agricultural spaces.

“The idea became, how could we magnify the influence and impact these little gardens have by networking the different gardens and providing different levels of support for them,” says Nashville Food Project CEO C.J. Sentell. “Ranging from land access straight away to water access and access to infrastructure and tools, sometimes educational resources.”

Other farms and gardens in the network include the McGruder Community Garden, the Growing Together Farm, Community Farm at Mill Ridge Park, Our Hands Garden Ministry, South End United Methodist Church and Donelson Community Gardens.

Sentell says urban agriculture has myriad benefits: helping relieve food insecurity as well as providing both a third space for people and land access for those who might live in apartments or other areas where they can’t grow their own food. He says a part of The Nashville Food Project’s mission to support community agriculture is bringing people together with their neighbors.

“We often say we’re using food as a tool to build com-

munity, and I think these gardens are perfect examples of that,” he says.

The Growing Together Farm at Christ Lutheran Church in South Nashville maintains a weekly farmers market from May to November. Sentell refers to this area as the “most productive acre in Nashville.”

“These farmers have been there for over a decade now, and they now intercrop and do a lot of different, really cool techniques out there and grow a lot of interesting vegetables,” he adds.

This spring, The Nashville Food Project helped expand the Community Farm at Mill Ridge Park in Antioch with the addition of an orchard, which can provide long-term support for communities.

“To create these little pocket orchards that will be sources of food for generations to come for 20, 40 years — these are the long-term food systems that we need and that have been slowly disappearing,” Sentell says, noting that expanding agricultural spaces could be a creative approach to urban planning as Nashville continues to grow.

“I have a crazy idea,” he continues. “What if we landscape the East Bank with food like blueberries and nut

trees and fruit trees? Wouldn’t that be an interesting way to conceive of civic space? … I think Nashville is really at this cool moment where we’re rebuilding so much from [Winter Storm Fern] — the tree canopy, all the way to this redevelopment stuff — and foodscaping is such an interesting way to create place.”

According to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, released in 2022, Davidson County saw a 15 percent decrease in total number of farms from 2017. The Nashville Food Project’s Community Agriculture Network strives to prevent already existing gardens from disappearing.

“The agricultural traditions here and the agricultural spaces in this county actually go back some ways,” Sentell says. “I mean, Green Hills a generation ago — 30 years ago, there were cows in Green Hills. It’s an interesting thing to think about the future of a city, and the resilience. The bioregional resilience of Middle Tennessee really does rely on the agriculture right outside the city.” ▼

THE VIEW FROM BOB STRASSER’S FARM

A JULY EVENT AT NORTH NASHVILLE’S HOPE GARDEN

PHOTOS: ANGELINA

CASTILLO

Legacy of Love Orchard and Farm Keeps Land in the Family

The Black-owned Century Farm in Williamson County is planning a 2027 public opening

By Hannah Herner

WHEN ASKED ABOUT why he and his family wear overalls, 8-year-old Brandon Harvey Jr. answers simply: “Because we’re farmers.” Legacy of Love Orchard and Farm is in good hands with its seventh generation — which Brandon is a member of. But there was a time when his family was unsure who would take on the mantle.

Legacy of Love is one of just two Black-owned Century Farms in Williamson County — an official state designation for Tennessee farms that have been in the same family for 100 or more years. Jasper Hatcher Jr., also known as “Uncle Jackie,” is the eldest of eight siblings and part of the farm’s fifth generation. He still heads up the farm work at 77 years old, and he tells the Scene that a few years ago he didn’t know what would become of the 200-acre College Grove farm he grew up on.

Marquinta Harvey, part of the sixth generation of the farm’s owners, prepared a formal presentation along with her cousins in late 2024. She pitched the idea of making the site an orchard with more than 600 pear, plum, peach and cherry trees, with plans to allow the public to come pick their own produce in 2027. Her uncle was an easy sell.

“We want to keep the land in the family, and we want to preserve agriculture,” Hatcher says. “A lot of land, people are selling it when it comes down to certain generations. They’re in the technology age, and they don’t want to deal with it.”

Marquinta certainly didn’t think she would be the one to lead such a charge.

“I really think it was God,” she says. “It had to be God, because I am the nerd of our family. I didn’t even like being outside with bugs and things like that unless I was looking at them under a microscope. I did not envision this as a child. I’m sure my grandfather in heaven is laughing that I am out here in the dirt. … I’m really out here loving it, craving to come out here.”

Harvey created an organizational chart, assigning each of her cousins a different area of expertise — cattle, invasive species, flowers, gardening, human resources. Harvey, for her part, handles the finances.

The Hatcher Family Farm was purchased in 1903 by Jasper’s great-grandfather Meredith Hatcher, who had been enslaved until he was 12. Over the years, it gained a reputation as a place where the community could gather, reinforced

KAIDEN

by Jasper Hatcher Sr. (a Baptist minister) and his wife Thressa Hatcher, who often invited people over for meals. On any given Sunday, 70 percent of the family still gathers at the farmhouse for dinner, Marquinta says.

What was previously known as Hatcher Family Farm is now Legacy of Love Orchard and Farm.

“That’s one comment that we get a lot, [that] there’s so much love here,” Harvey says. “Near the end of my grandfather’s life, we started talking about a legacy of love, so we wanted to rebrand the farm in honor of them.”

The four “Legacy Kids” — 14-year-old Levia Harvey, 13-year-old Alonzo Perry, 8-year-old Kaiden Perry and 8-year-old Brandon — are learning the ways of the farm. They tell the Scene about the more unsavory parts: stepping in cow poop, caterpillars in the corn, a mouse on the loose in the field. They agree that the saddest part is realizing they’ll have to send the cows to market. But when it’s time to harvest, the kids squeal with delight. They share what they’ve learned about agriculture via their YouTube channel (@LegacyKidsLifeOnTheFarm) and even present lessons at area schools.

Currently, the kids are putting pressure on Uncle Jackie to get chickens. They already have names picked out: Lilly, Sally, Timmy Toughknuckles, Esther. They heard a fox got some of a neighbor’s chickens, so they’ve created a plan to make an extra-strong coop.

“That might set us back, but I hope it doesn’t,” says Levia Harvey, Marquinta’s daughter, who

ORCHARD AND FARM

hopes to join Future Farmers of America at her school this fall.

“My favorite part about farming is being able to come out here, spend time with our family, getting to go up to our brand-new orchard to pick different fruits, being able to plant seeds in our garden, being able to see our cows, of course, driving the golf cart,” Levia tells the Scene. “I do want to learn more about the business side of the farm too, because I mean, one day we’re gonna have to manage it ourselves.”

Williamson County’s only other Black-owned Century Farm in the county belongs to Marquinta’s mother’s side of the family.

“There’s a level of gravity there, and a level of pride there, that you know our ancestors were able to overcome so much, but also our generations have been able to sustain that,” Marquinta says.

Other area farms have given Legacy of Love advice and encouragement about opening up to the public — and about 50 area residents showed up to help the family plant their orchard earlier this year.

“One thing that I liked that most of them have said is that they don’t view us as future competition, but just as fellow farmers looking to sustain agriculture in the county,” Marquinta says. “So we’re all partners in that.”

“It brings a warm feeling not to be pushed away but to be accepted,” Hatcher adds. “Competition sometimes brings more people in, and I think that’s the way they look at it.” ▼

LEGACY OF LOVE

July 24th

8:00am - 5:00pm

July 25th

8:00am - 5:00pm

July 26th

2ND & BROADWAY NASHVILLE, TN

BROADWAY

Live Music at ON

7.22 Uncle B’s

Ole Opry

From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.

om pla hi f’ N h committe t om cha ons, t a s, eeple mmi

JULY LINEUP

7.2 Brinley Addington, Johnny Clawson, Neil Medley

7.4 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers — 4th of July Post-Fireworks Concert!

7.12 Dixieland Delight: Hotter than a Hoochie Coochie — Alan Jackson Tribute

7.14 Buddy's Place Writer's Round w/ Clark Beckham, Kayley Bishop, Fraser Churchill

7.15 Rebecca Lynn Howard, Carolyn Dawn Johnson

7.16 Buddy Jewell

7.18 CJ Field Full Band Show

7.21 Belles, Dan Harrison, Tyler Bank, Adam Sickler

7.22 Uncle B's Damned Ole Opry Presents: Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" Gets Grassed! w/ Taylor McCall, Everette, Matt Warren, Thad Cockrell, Collin Nash, Maura Streppa, more!

7.25 Take Me To Church Tribute — #1 Eric Church Tribute in Americaa

7.26 American Legend — A Tribute to Johnny Cash's Life in Song

7.29 Flat River Band

7.30 Fink, Special Guest: Maggie Koerner

JUN 16 TO JUL 31

DOLLY PARTON’S THREADS: MY SONGS IN SYMPHONY

AUG 14

SPIRITS OF SUMMER: MYTHOS & MELODIES

SEP 11 TO 13

OPENING WEEKEND: AN AMERICAN CELEBRATION

THURSDAY / 7.23

MONDAY, JULY 27

[HARDCORE PROG]

MUSIC

SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM

What’s notable about Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s latest album, 2024’s Of the Last Human Being, is how much the long-running avant-garde band sounds like they did when they released their first album in 2001. The band got together in Oakland, Calif., in 1999, and I’ve always heard their music as an update of the pioneering rock avant-garde moves of Frank Zappa and King Crimson, with elements of hardcore and unclassifiable improvised music thrown in for good measure. Of the Last Human Being runs for 65 minutes and encompasses Crimson-style riffage and Zappa-leaning bricolage. Most of the album was begun in 2010 and 2011, with additional recording done later. You could be forgiven for thinking you’re hearing a prog band from the early 1970s that has decided to incorporate hardcore into their sound, and Of the Last Human Being contains quite a bit of rock music that does elude classification — check out something titled “Old Grey Heron.” In many ways, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum actually improves upon those abrasive time-signature techniques you might recall from King Crimson’s Starless and Bible Black and Discipline. The result is an album you can groove to in your most existentially challenged moments. They’re releasing Triptych, which collects their first three studio albums, in October. EDD HURT

8 P.M. AT THE MIL AT CANNERY HALL

1 CANNERY ROW

MUSIC

[PRIME TIME] THE ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT

Back in its heyday in the ’70s and ’80s, British progressive-rock collective The Alan Parsons Project released a string of albums that yielded eight Top 40 singles, including their 1977 breakthrough “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” and 1982’s No. 3 smash “Eye in the Sky.” In spite of the group’s commercial success, they never performed live. That was because it would have been technically difficult to reproduce their studio work in a live setting, but also because Parsons, who got his start at EMI working as an engineer with legendary groups like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, considered himself primarily a producer and writer. By the 1990s, Parsons concluded that technical advances had made it possible to perform the group’s music live, so in 1994 he launched The Alan Parsons Live Project. He brings the current incarnation of the group — Parsons (acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals), P.J. Olsson (vocals), Manny Focarazzo (keyboards), Guy Erez (bass), Alastair Greene (guitar), Danny Thompson (drums) and Todd Cooper (sax, percussion, vocals) — to the Ryman Auditorium Thursday night for a performance that will in

part celebrate the 50th anniversary of their debut album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which they will perform in its entirety. DARYL SANDERS 7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

ART [FORMATION] RE:FORM

Ongoing through the end of the month at the Cë Gallery, Trans Aid Nashville’s RE:FORM takes an expansive view of identity and medium. In this exhibit, joy and grief hold hands: Arresting tributes to queer loved ones who have left Tennessee sit near potent homages to the transformative power of community, while playful zines and drawings line the walls. That duality is a common theme in queer art — and here it’s presented with a focus on the particular beauty and urgency of Southern transness today. To accompany the works, RE:FORM has set up a full slate of events in the space, ranging from live performances to a Spanish workshop on language and gender. It all culminates in the show’s closing reception on July 31, with light fare and snacks provided. RSVP to all the events for free online at linktr.ee/RE.FORM. ANNIE PARNELL THROUGH JULY 31 AT CË GALLERY 1015 W. KIRKLAND AVE., SUITE 105

FRIDAY / 7.24

FILM [BACK AND TO THE LEFT] WEEKEND CLASSICS: BEAT THE HEAT: JFK

Leave it to Oliver Stone to take a story based (at least somewhat) on historical fact and turn it into a dizzyingly madcap political thriller. Screening as part of the Belcourt’s Weekend Classics: Beat the Heat series — a syllabus focused on epics of all shapes and sizes — JFK is the work of a true madman. Stone’s investigation into the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy was controversial at the time of its release for its embrace of conspiracy theories, specifically New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison’s thesis that the president was killed as part of a planned coup to install Lyndon B. Johnson as president. If nearly three-and-a-half hours (the Belcourt is screening the director’s cut!) of crackpot chatter sounds like a nightmare, I get it. But Stone directs JFK with enough nuclear energy to melt any nearby tinfoil hats. The speed with which this epic moves is worth the price of admission alone. Get buzzed on some Bongo Java for the deep dive, as all three weekend screenings are at 11:30 a.m. LOGAN BUTTS

JULY 24-26 AT THE BELCOURT

2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MUSIC

[ON THE RED RIVER] TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS

There’s a line in Almost Famous that I always think about. In response to a group of new “fans” following around Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), Stillwater’s enigmatic guitarist, Fairuza Balk’s character Sapphire says, “They don’t even

avoided a midair collision with enemy aircraft. Fort was one of the first airborne witnesses to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1943, Fort died in a midair collision in Texas during a military ferrying mission, making her the first female American pilot in history to die while on active military duty. For those new to Fort’s story or just interested in learning more about this legendary daughter of Nashville, the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center is hosting a Cornelia Fort History Hike, focusing on the life and legacy of Fort as well as the history and conservation efforts of the airpark. Meet at the trailhead at Cornelia Fort Airpark for an evening stroll and a fascinating look into one of Nashville’s most iconic figures. BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER

6 P.M. AT CORNELIA FORT AIRPARK

1199 SHADOW LANE, NO. 1093

[RAMBLE

MUSIC

ON] WILL HOGE’S EASTSIDE RAMBLE

COMEDY

[SUMMER LAUGHIN’] BLUE MATERIAL COMEDY

know what it is to be a fan, you know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.” I always think of that quote when I think of Turnpike Troubadours, my favorite band since I was 25. I first saw them in a tiny college bar in San Marcos, Texas, shortly after their album Goodbye Normal Street was released. In the years since that night, the band has headlined historic venues, the Ryman and Red Rocks among them, and released a string of stellar country albums. But I always go back to standing shoulder to shoulder in a crowd of 300 people and that feeling of, as Sapphire said, loving a band’s music so much it hurts. I’ve always been more William Miller than Penny Lane, but Turnpike Troubadours are still my Stillwater, and that’s honestly the greatest praise I could ever give any band. The Oklahoma outfit will make a stop at Ascend Amphitheater as part of their extended Wild America Tour in support of their 2025 Shooter Jennings-produced album The Price of Admission. Whether you’re a certified Band Aid or a new fan, it’s sure to be magic. BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER

7 P.M. AT ASCEND AMPHITHEATER 310 FIRST AVE. S.

COMMUNITY [IN THE AIR]

CORNELIA FORT

HISTORY HIKE

I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I’d already been to Cornelia Fort Airpark, the former airport turned East Nashville park, a handful of times before I knew anything about the pioneering woman it’s named for. Cornelia Fort, the first Tennessee woman licensed as a commercial pilot, was working as a civilian flight instructor in Oahu on Dec. 7, 1941. She was in the sky with an apprentice when her quick instincts and skill as a pilot saved the life of her student when she grabbed the controls and narrowly

This week, longtime local noisemaker Will Hoge brings to Nashville a new type of music revue — the Eastside Ramble, a night billed by the venue as “two days of air-conditioned music, magic, and merriment. Pinball, pool, bowling, and rock and roll.” Music takes place across three stages; artists slated to perform include country duo The Kentucky Gentlemen, folk-punk troubadour Tim Barry, self-described “disco-diva” singer Sarah Potenza, Americana artist Amy Speace, solo artist (and former member of 1990s Nashville band the Bis-Quits) Tommy Womack and more. Hoge headlines each night, promising a pair of unique sets for each appearance. Promoters promise a family-friendly event for the Ramble, offering a free ticket for children under age 12 for each adult ticket purchased to the event. Entertainment takes place from noon until 9 p.m., with offstage activities including art, wellness and bowling, according to the Eastside Bowl website. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

NOON JULY 24-25 AT EASTSIDE BOWL

1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON

[DOUBLE TROUBLE]

FILM

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE & CLOVERFIELD

It’s shaping up to be a monstrous weekend at the Belcourt. Midnight Movies are in full swing, and this weekend is a one-two punch of monster movie all-timers. On Friday night, the Belcourt is bringing the 1989 cult monster masterpiece Godzilla vs. Biollante to the screen. Slowly becoming one of the most iconic entries in the long-running Godzilla franchise, Godzilla vs. Biollante takes the idea of biological warfare to imaginative new levels, and it remains unlike anything else we’ve seen from this bombastic world of kaiju. Following that, on Saturday night, we’ve got Matt Reeves’ found-footage epic Cloverfield, which completely changed the game upon its theatrical launch back in 2008. With a cast full of future breakouts and the impeccable artistic vision of Reeves buying all the way into the found-footage aesthetic, Cloverfield is a disaster thriller that leaves you breathless from start to finish. CHARLIE RIDGELY

MIDNIGHT JULY 24-25 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

Summer fun doesn’t have to mean summer heat and summer bugs. Nashville’s growing comedy scene offers plenty of opportunities for cool rooms and cold drinks, including a brandnew, one-night-only stand-up comedy show — Blue Material Comedy at Anzie Blue. Presented by local production group Cut-Up Comedy, this show offers an hour-and-a-half of laughs, featuring some of the best comedians in Nashville and a surprise headliner. Come see hilarious local comics like James Holiday, Katie Stewart, Will Gunderson, Lamon, David Friedlander and more. The surprise guest is a Nashville-based comedian who performs as a headliner all over the country, but you’ll have to get tickets to find out who. Nashville is known for great musicians, but it has also launched many comedic greats. As the city has grown, so has the need for more comedy venues. Anzie Blue is branching out creatively to turn its venue, in the heart of Hillsboro Village, into a comedy club for one summer night. KAYLA STARK 8 P.M. AT ANZIE BLUE

2111 BELCOURT AVE.

SATURDAY / 7.25

SPORTS [YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE] LIVERPOOL VS. SUNDERLAND

Got the post-World Cup blues? Head over to Geodis Park on Saturday for a showdown between two of last season’s top Premier League teams as Liverpool and Sunderland make the trip across the pond to Nashville. During the 2025-26 campaign, the Reds and the Black Cats each finished in the top seven of the Premier League to clinch spots in continentwide competition in the upcoming season — Liverpool earned a Champions League spot, while Sunderland will compete in the secondtier Europa League. After a grueling summer schedule thanks to the aforementioned World Cup, it’s not guaranteed that each of the club’s biggest stars will take the pitch. But I — along with many other local football fans — will be crossing my fingers that Egyptian soccer icon and Liverpool winger Mo Salah will follow up his impressive Cup performance with an appearance at Geodis on Saturday. LOGAN BUTTS

5 P.M. AT GEODIS PARK

501 BENTON AVE.

THEATER

[TAKE THE STAGE] THE THEATER BUG: SHOWMANCE

Showmance was one of the very first musicals I ever saw at The Theater Bug, and from the beginning I was hooked. Sweet and funny, this charming little show has been a favorite among both performers and audiences since its debut back in 2013. You can check it out this weekend, as Showmance returns to the Nashville School of the Arts’ Roxy Theater. Written by Bug founder Cori Anne Laemmel, with music by Laemmel, Eric Fritsch and Laura Matula, Showmance offers something of a love letter to the magic of theater. The story follows Charlotte

The Main Room

7/23 BIT BRIGADE PERFORMS “MEGA MAN X” LIVE

7/24 & 7/25 WILL HOGE’S EASTSIDE RAMBLE

7/31 MUSIC CITY STONES

8/1 THE VOID: ROCK & INDUSTRIAL NIGHT

8/6, 8/7, & 8/9 EAST NASHVILLE FACEBOOK PAGE: THE MUSICAL 8/8 PRO WRESTLING SYMPHONY: NO REMORSE

8/14 STATIC SURGE FEST 8/21 DEFY FILM FESTIVAL 8/29 KARROT: A TRIBUTE TO KORN

8/30 EMAROSA 9/9 VOLUMES

9/10 ATTA BOY

9/12 OVERTOW: A TRIBUTE TO TOOL

9/17 MILITARIE GUN

9/19 JUTES

9/20 WXNA FALL RECORD FAIR 2026

9/27 HOT FIX SIDESHOW

9/29 MESSER CHUPS

10/2 HAZLETT

10/3 DRIVIN N CRYIN 10/9 OMENBRINGER: A NIGHT ON BLACK MOUNTAIN

The ‘58

7/29 SOPHIE GAULT & LUELLA

7/31 BOBBY BARE JR. WITH DANNY MALONE

8/4 STEEL GUITAR SOCIAL CLUB

8/5 BREAKING SOUND

8/6 THE SOAPGIRLS

8/7 GREASY CHICKEN REVIEW: REVOLVER

8/8 LIP CRITIC

8/10 KATE COSENTINO

8/15 ELECTROLUST

8/28 BOOTSAROO: A “WINDOWS ON THE CUMBERLAND” CELEBRATION 9/4 THE WELL 9/12 SMOKIN’ PEAS

9/18 DEATH LENS

9/30 HOT ROD CIRCUIT 10/1 THE BLACK QUEEN 10/6 SOPHIE HUNTER 10/17 LAMP FT. RUSS LAWTON, SCOTT METZGER, RAY PACZKOWSKI

The Lounge

7/23 JJ NICELEY AT 7PM SYNTH CHURCH AT 9PM

7/28 JON BYRD AT 6PM

7/29 THE BIG SIPPERS AT 8PM

7/30 BRITT RONSTADT AT 7PM

and Henry — a pair of misfits who audition for a summer musical, but end up discovering “a community, a sense of purpose and a place where they can truly be themselves.” Directed by Laemmel, with music direction by Matula and choreography by Bakari J. King, the show’s cast features a super-talented group of young performers. And audiences can also look forward to set design by Diana DeGarmo and costumes by Melodie Madden Adams. Hilarious and heartwarming, Showmance reminds us that “the stage is where you fit in, because you stand out.” AMY STUMPFL

THROUGH AUG. 2 AT NASHVILLE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS’ ROXY THEATER

1250 FOSTER AVE.

[RETURN TO OZ]

COMMUNITY

FAMILY DAY

Each year, TPAC rolls out the red carpet for young theater lovers with its annual Family Day. And while January’s historic ice storm tried to put a damper on the festivities, this year’s event — which finally arrives on Saturday — promises to be especially magical with a Wizard of Oz-themed celebration that highlights creativity and imagination. Kids can look forward to a wide range of sensoryfriendly games and arts activities — all inspired by Dorothy and her friends, of course. Guests will also enjoy live performances from Nashville Ballet, Nashville Rep, Nashville Opera, Adventure Science Center, Nashville Theatre School and more. There will be plenty of treats available from Suga Bae Fluff Cotton Candy, face painting and balloon art from Mission Balloon, and even an appearance by Winston the therapy dog. It’s sure to be an entertaining afternoon for the whole family. And best of all, proceeds from Family Day will support TPAC’s nonprofit mission and outreach efforts.

AMY STUMPFL

1:30 P.M. AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL

505 DEADERICK ST.

[BOOK BASH]

COMMUNITY

NOVELETTE’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY

BLOCK PARTY

Novelette Booksellers, a favorite for East Nashville readers, is turning 4! Not only will they be celebrating in store — they’ll also throw an epic block party. Eastwood Village will join in on the party, including a live painting of a

new community mural and a jazz performance from Hannah Levy at the neighboring Yellow Table Cafe. From noon to 5 p.m., they’ll also have a market with local vendors, who will be popping up alongside other shops at Eastwood, including Desert + Vine Botanical and Refinery Fragrances. In case you need a bite, pop into Butterlamp Bread & Beverage for a snack (and a glass of wine) or grab a sweet treat at Cone.cept. And of course, make sure to stop by Novelette’s shelves to grab a copy of your next favorite title; maybe take a selfie by the “We <3 Books” mural while you’re at it. For the latest details on the event, or to peep some of their latest book recommendations, check @novelettebooksellers on Instagram. TINA DOMINGUEZ

10 A.M. AT NOVELETTE BOOKSELLERS 1101 CHAPEL AVE., SUITE 108

SUNDAY

/ 7.26

BOOKS [SUMMER READING] PAGES IN THE PARK

While summertime is usually seen as the season for beach reads, just about any book is more enjoyable outside. No fiddling with lamps or lights, an occasional breeze — hell, maybe you can get a little picnic going? Local book clubs La Biblioteca del Barrio and Beautiful Book Worms are inviting Nashvillians to grab their current read (or a new one) and head to Centennial Park for an afternoon. Get lost in a story or meet some fellow book lovers and enjoy some time in the sun. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

NOON AT CENTENNIAL PARK

2500 WEST END AVE.

MONDAY / 7.27

[I’M A PHOTOGRAPHER]

FILM

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: BLOW-UP

Every time I watch Blow-Up, I have the same response I had when I saw it in college: Yeah, it looks cool and sexy, but what the hell was that? Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 murder-mystery is less of a whodunit and more of a who-the-hell-cares? David Hemmings is full of hip, young arrogance as a self-centered London photographer named Thomas who gets wrapped up in a dangerous game after

taking pictures of a possible murder. While that sounds like all the ingredients for a proper thriller, Antonioni is more concerned with giving us something moody, ambiguous and existential — basically an Antonioni movie. It’s also the most swinging ’60s movie ever made, with its cameos by ”it” girls Jane Birkin and Veruschka and influential rock band The Yardbirds (featuring guitar heroes Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) jamming out in front of a lifeless crowd. Plus, jazz legend Herbie Hancock, in his film-composing debut, provides the score. I will say this about Blow-Up: Never has wasted youth looked so chic and fashionable. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

3:20 & 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

TUESDAY / 7.28

[HARLEM NIGHTS]

BOOKS

COLSON WHITEHEAD AUTHOR EVENT

One of my favorite artistic scenarios — whether in film, books, music or any medium of your choice — is when someone who is considered a high-brow master of their craft swims in the looked-down-upon waters of genre fare. Think Martin Scorsese directing the pulpy horror-thriller Shutter Island — it showcases the creator’s true love for the medium while knocking elitist snobs down a peg. One of the best recent examples has been Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy. The author behind masterpieces like The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys will be at Fisk University’s Jubilee Hall on July 28 to discuss his recently released trilogy capper Cool Machine. The series — including the first two installments, Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto — centers on Ray Carney, a family man who also dabbles in the criminal underworld during the Harlem of the 1960s through the 1980s. Tickets to the event (which is being hosted by Parnassus Books) include a presigned copy of Cool Machine LOGAN BUTTS

6:30 P.M. AT FISK UNIVERSITY’S JUBILEE HALL

1000 17TH AVE. N.

WEDNESDAY

/ 7.29

MUSIC

[KING OF SWORDS] THE DEAR HUNTER

Casey Crescenzo — the principal conductor of modern prog rock — has been weaving melodic tales into theatrical (and catchy-as-hell) tunes for two decades as the maestro of Rhode Island-born band The Dear Hunter. The band staked its claim as one of the most ambitious in art-rock music with the Act albums, a rock opera told in a five-release arc. A decade after wrapping the Act project, the band continues to release notable prog-rock efforts, including last year’s five-song North American EP and Sunya, a seven-song experimental collection released earlier this year. Diving into the Act series? Listen to “A Night on the Town,” a nine-minute song that captures big-riff rock sing-along and cinematic world-building in equal measure.

Those looking to spin something from the new releases should try “Marauders,” a delightful cut of earwormy rock released on Sunya. The run of dates is billed as the Road to Sunya Tour, and support at the Nashville show includes Motherfolk and K Será. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER 7 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.

FILM [MEN ARE DISGUSTING] QUEER QLASSICS: THE HANDMAIDEN

Is it weird to admit I saw The Handmaiden on the day Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election? In order to take my mind off what I now call the Beginning of the End, I went to see the new thriller from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook that all my (male) critic buddies were raving about. I can’t help but think Park saw Bound one night and decided to make the sumptuous, period-piece version of that. Park took the plot from Sarah Waters’ 2002 Victorian-era novel Fingersmith and dropped it in Japaneseoccupied Korea, where an heiress (Kim Min-hee) and her maid (Kim Tae-ri) work up a plan to escape the clutches of the despicable, twisted men in their lives. They also work up a sweat during a torrid, exquisitely shot love scene that puts the graphic sapphic sex in Blue Is the Warmest Color look tame. Sex stuff aside, The Handmaiden will satisfy you simply for its story of smart women breaking away from dick-swinging monsters — something I wished had happened for real the day I first saw it.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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

THE HANDMAIDEN

PHOTO: CHRIS CLOSE

COLSON WHITEHEAD

BAGELSHOP’S WEEKDAY BAGEL + SCHMEAR SPECIAL — $3

The Donelson-based spot offers a different bagel-and-cream-cheese combo each day

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

LOOK, YOU DON’T need me to tell you how good the offerings at Bagelshop are. Scene readers voted the Donelson spot Best Bagel in our 2025 Best of Nashville readers’ poll, so we’re all in agreement here about these doughy, crusty delights. But if you’re looking for an excuse to visit the stalwart bagel spot, a new work-week deal makes it the perfect place to start your morning (or grab lunch, no one’s judging).

From Monday through Friday, Bagelshop is offering a daily-special bagel and schmear at just $3. There’s a different combination each day, which also makes for a fun way to explore the menu without the analysis paralysis. Monday sees the plain bagel with scallion and dill cream cheese, for example, while Wednesday spotlights the chili garlic spread on an everything bagel. I like to pair my order with a cold brew ($5) or one of the seasonal beverages (which start at $6).

If you’re not feeling the daily special, the standard bagel-and-schmear order won’t strain the wallet much either — any bagel with cream cheese starts at $5. No one could blame you for checking out the clever new flavors Bagelshop introduces each month, often in collaboration with local chefs. ▼

BURGER BOYS

Talking to two local men about how they conquered Burger Week BY LOGAN BUTTS

EARLIER THIS MONTH Justin Harper and Zach Etengoff accomplished something previously thought impossible: They tried all 63 Burger Week specials. In the interest of disclosure: Burger Week is a promotional event put on by FW Publishing Events, the events department of the Scene’s parent company. This year’s lineup featured Burger Week’s widest variety of patties yet, from established classics to adventurous experiments, from across the greater Nashville area. What started as a playful suggestion during last year’s event — that the duo try every Burger Week burger — became a reality this year.

“There was a moment, probably three months ago, where we were like, ‘Are we going to actually commit to this?’” says Harper. “But it was so much fun.”

The pair created a ranked tier system and tracked their progress on their Instagram account (@the_nashville_cut). After Burger week, we spoke with the East Nashville residents, who both work in the local video production industry, about how they accomplished their feat. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What was your process like?

Etengoff: Luckily, with us both being freelancers, we just didn’t accept any work for the week. I knew that it was going to be a pain in the butt to figure out how and where we’re going to go. So I actually put [the locations]

into Claude, and it created almost a map for us on each day. It sectioned everything out. … The goal was nine burgers a day to put us on track.

Harper: The worst day was Thursday. We did 13 burgers. Were you eating the entire burgers?

Harper: We did half-burgers, and by half, [I mean] Zach would usually eat two or three bites. I would eat the half, and then maybe a little more, depending on if I liked it.

Etengoff: At Gray & Dudley on our first day, we both had our own burger right off the bat. We were like, “We cannot have our own burger.” It was going to be bad because we were both already full. It was a pretty hefty burger.

Did you eat any non-burger items?

Harper: The first day I had little Chobani yogurts, and then we had that full burger, and I was still like, “Dude, I’m so full.” So literally the only thing I had was burgers for the rest of the week.

Etengoff: Same here, just burgers and a few coffees. Did you ever consider giving up?

Harper: No, there was never a point. I think the only contingency was, “Do we try to hit all 63, or do we miss a couple?” But it was always a matter of, “We’re going to go all seven days and get as many as we possibly can.” … People would have come after us. They were like, “Where are those reviews, burger boys?”

How did your tier system for the burgers work?

Etengoff: Our biggest goal was [to reach] people like us from last year — when we only had time to do like three or four burgers, we couldn’t really find exactly what burgers were popping, so we guessed at it on which ones we thought would look good. We were just

thinking that we can help the people who just want to quickly get a burger. They can see the S-tier. They know that these are the top hitters. And then for some of the people who are trying a bunch of them, that A-tier can give them a map for their own little Burger Week quest. Was there a unique burger that stood out?

Harper: I think the one that really took us the most by surprise was Perfectly Fine’s burger because it had that

stuffed poblano on it.

Did you land on a shared favorite?

Harper: I think we [went] back and forth a little bit with what our favorites were until we had Stoke Haus on Thursday, and we were both like, “This is by far the best one we had.” It was nuts. ▼

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

BAGELSHOP BAGEL SPECIALS

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UTOPIAN COMMUNITY

With Utopias, Kindling Arts Festival continues its celebration of bold performances BY AMY

STUMPFL

ONE OF NASHVILLE’S most daring performing arts events is back this week, offering a four-day celebration of bold, boundary-pushing work.

The ninth annual Kindling Arts Festival features 22 unique projects, spanning theater, dance, comedy, burlesque, improv and even opera — all created in response to a central “Utopias” theme.

“For this year’s festival, we were interested in looking at how our artists might reenvision the world,” says producing artistic director Daniel Jones, who co-founded Kindling with Jessika Malone in 2018. “We’re living in such dark times, we wanted to really imagine what might be possible — ways we can work together to build a better, more just and beautiful world, and what that might look like.

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6:00PM TEEN WRITING WORKSHOP with MAGGIE STIEFVATER at PARNASSUS for teens ages 13 - 18

TUESDAY, JULY 28

6:30PM COLSON WHITEHEAD at FISK UNIVERSITY Cool Machine

6:30PM

D.W. GILLESPIE at PARNASSUS The Doll House

4:00PM

FIND WALDO PARTY at PARNASSUS

6:30PM

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

“Over the last several years,” he continues, “we’ve been so inspired by the power of theming the festival, offering a prompt and then seeing all the different ways that our artists might respond or interpret that theme. Of course, there’s no single ‘utopia’ — it’s varied and multiple, but that’s what makes it so exciting. It unites the festival’s program, but still allows for individual expression, creating a wonderful rainbow of wildly imaginative work.”

One of those works is Fairy Floss: A New Musical (July 24-25 at OZ Arts) from Kindling favorites Madeleine Hicks and Kara McLeland. Described as “a deliciously queer and wildly inaccurate new musical about the history of cotton candy,” Fairy Floss balances local history with Hicks’ and McLeland’s signature style, complete with fanciful puppets and a sweet, dreamy aesthetic.

FRIDAY, JULY 31

MONDAY, AUGUST 3

ZACHARY SLINGSBY with CAROLLYNN XAVIER at PARNASSUS Ballad of the Gangster's Daughter

4:30PM

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DORENA WILLIAMSON with KATIE DOW, LMSW at PARNASSUS Love Lives On

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“I had been looking for new ideas when I stumbled on this odd bit of local history — the electric cotton candy machine was patented right here in Nashville,” says Hicks, a prolific writer, director and performer known for her work in both theater and film. “I soon discovered that the inventors were actually friends — a dentist and a candy maker — which just felt so Romeo and Juliet. I mean, total star-crossed lovers vibes, right?

“They worked together for years,” she continues. “They went to Paris together — which really solidified the love story angle for me. They made it all the way to the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904, where there were all these kooky, crazy inventions and exhibits — the first wireless telephone, babies in incubators, a talking horse. So I was immediately transported into the magical realism of it all. It seemed like a perfect project for us, but I felt like it should be a musical, and that there needed to be puppets — think Heated Rivalry, but through a Muppets lens.”

going to be sort of like a work of fan fiction,” says McLeland, a multitalented writer, musician and performer. “Yes, there’s a lot of true history that is woven throughout, but as soon as we decided that we didn’t have to stick only with the facts, that gave us a lot of freedom. So the music doesn’t have to sound like it’s from 1904. We can have traditional musical theater songs, a more classical waltz, a club banger, an old Nashville-style country ballad. While we’re at it, maybe the people don’t have to be people — they can be puppets.

“And maybe our characters don’t have to experience period-accurate discrimination against a gay couple,” McLeland continues. “We can just let them live in this candy-coated, maximalist world. To have that kind of queer joy without so much of the weight of history on it just feels really important right now. And to be able to take that kind of big creative swing is pretty wonderful.”

lights edgy new performance-art pieces from Landry Butler, GrandmaFun, Chris Strauss and Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva. And Clay Steakley’s new play The Wreck of the Manifest Destiny (July 25-26 at The Barbershop Theater) follows mythological rule breakers like Medea, Sisyphus and Grendel, who “are caught between the end of one world and the beginning of another.”

“It’s such an incredible lineup,” Jones says. “And it’s been really exciting to see these brilliant artists pushing the envelope, constantly rethinking what’s possible. I think that’s one of the things that makes Fairy Floss so special. It’s sweet and fun. … It centers celebration, joy and community, plus it’s super interdisciplinary and collaborative, pulling together an amazing team of artists. But it also invites us to step beyond the limits of an imperfect world. It reimagines a piece of local history — reaching back in time to envision a better future.” ▼

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And while Hicks had never written or directed a musical before, she knew she could count on her friend and frequent collaborator McLeland, who has taken a decidedly playful approach to the show’s music.

“I think we quickly realized that this was

Big creative swings have always been central to Kindling’s identity, and this year’s festival features some of the city’s most innovative makers. Found Movement Group’s Tea (July 23-26 at the Curb Center at Vanderbilt University) offers a site-specific dance-theater experience that takes on Southern ideals and social norms. Off the Clock (July 25-26 at Darkhorse Theater) high-

Kindling Arts Festival: Utopias July 23-26 at various venues kindlingarts.com/2026-festival

FAIRY FLOSS: A NEW MUSICAL

PHOTO: TIFFANY BESSIRE

ONE OF THE defining characteristics of the Frist Art Museum is that it doesn’t have a permanent art collection — instead, it organizes and hosts a rotating slate of temporary exhibitions. One of the strengths of that model is that it allows exhibitions to develop conversations over time. An Indigenous Present, on view through Sept. 27 in the museum’s upstairs gallery, is a prime example. Organized by curator Jenelle Porter and artist Jeffrey Gibson, the exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous abstraction while deepening ideas introduced in earlier Frist exhibitions.

Gibson was the subject of the museum’s 2023 solo exhibition The Body Electric, which included works that reference Gibson’s Indigenous identity — he has Cherokee heritage and is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw. That exhibition drew on some of the themes of Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, which the Frist presented in 2019. That rich groundwork allows An Indigenous Present to strengthen and complicate ideas about what it means to make Indigenous art. Two strikingly different artists in the exhibition — Mary Sully and Kimowan Metchewais — are ideal entry points into the diversity of practices that fall under the Indigenous art umbrella.

Mary Sully’s triptychs are some of the first pieces you see in An Indigenous Present, and around 10 of the multipanel works-on-paper she called Personality Prints are installed at various points throughout the exhibition. That prevalence is for a good reason. Though Sully is now considered a foundational Indigenous artist — she was even the subject of a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2024 — her work was only recently viewable by the public. She was born on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota in 1896, and after her death in the mid-1960s, her drawings were kept unglamorously in a box under a family member’s bed until her great-nephew, the historian Philip Deloria, came across them in the early

TWIN TOWERS

Mary Sully and Kimowan Metchewais stand tall in the Frist’s An Indigenous Present

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

2000s. Sully’s life story is full of even more fascinating details — for example, her great-grandfather was a prominent 19th-century artist who painted the iconic portrait of Andrew Jackson that was used on the $20 bill.

But the works in the Frist are so unusual and special that biographical knowledge isn’t necessary to understand their appeal. “Edison” — made at some point between the late 1920s and early 1940s — is topped with a colored-pencil drawing of a carefully crafted abstract shape that might reference a Dakota star quilt, but also a rhythmic pinwheel pattern in brilliant primary colors, along with the word “Edison” printed so straightforwardly that it makes you wonder whether Sully realized her works would be considered abstract at all. “Amelia Earhart” includes a circle that seems to frame the silhouettes of a crowd of cheering figures, and pin marks at the corners show that these lauded works were not always treated with a museum’s care.

Works by Cree photographer Kimowan Metchewais are similarly installed at various points throughout the exhibition. Metchewais died at age 47 in 2011 from a rare brain tumor, and left behind a portfolio of multimedia works that feel both earthy and fragile. “Ghost Dancer” from 1998 is made from photo paper, watercolor, paint and chalk, and shows a figure draped in a black-and-white-striped cloth that covers him completely, with outlines of stars drawn, scratched out, redrawn and erased again around him. A 2002 work called “Chief’s Blanket” uses a similar bold stripe pattern, and sections are held together with tape.

In an interview between the curators, Gibson explains the selection process involved in this show: “We chose artists who have pushed traditional forms of cultural abstraction into realms that don’t directly reference specific cultural traditions. They are experimenting with it, pushing it into places where it’s still tethered to where the reference originates

from, but in a new format that can make it almost unrecognizable.”

An Indigenous Present is valuable because it showcases Indigenous artists, but it does so through examples — like Mary Sully and Kimowan Metchewais — that are untethered from any cultural tradition outside of their own art practices. It is a remarkably freeing framework that gives Indigenous artists space to be understood not as representatives of cultural identity, but as innovators expanding the possibilities of abstraction on their own terms. ▼

An Indigenous Present Through Sept. 27 at the Frist Art Museum 919 Broadway

LUTHER (STRIPED MAN) BY KIMOWAN METCHEWAIS

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THE ART OF CONFUSION

Robyn Hitchcock gets existential on The Confuser, the successor to 2022’s brilliant Shufflemania

BY DARYL SANDERS

FRIDAY, BRITISH ROCKER Robyn Hitchcock will release his 25th studio album The Confuser via Tiny Ghost Records. The album’s title was inspired by a nickname of sorts given to Hitchcock by his wife, singer-songwriter Emma Swift.

“Oh, yeah, she calls me ‘The Confuser,’” Hitchcock tells the Scene from their home in East Nashville, with a chuckle. “I think she sees me as someone who confuses people, especially her.”

“Robyn’s brain is one part mystical, one part nihilistic, one part surrealist,” Swift explains. “He doesn’t take drugs, unless you count cheese, but he has a very dreamy worldview. It’s confusing for people at times because he can’t really switch it off.”

Swift says that the album title is actually a nod to another British rocker.

“The album title is a riff on Nick Lowe’s brilliant 2001 album, The Convincer,” she says. “It’s become a running joke among fans of Robyn and Nick that they look alike — except to my mind, where Mr. Lowe is a dapper gent of a certain age whose songwriting style could be likened to the wonderful standards of the 1950s, Hitchcock is more like his psychedelic, trippy brother.”

Sonically, The Confuser does feature elements of 1960s psychedelic rock, and Hitchcock considers himself something of a standard-bearer for the music of the mid- to late ’60s.

“I grew up under the umbrellas of Bob Dylan and The Beatles, and that set me off on the course I’m still on,” he says. “I’m sort of here sweeping up after them, you know. I’m a traditionalist. I work in that vein. As I always say, I’m the last to hatch out from the 1960s.”

Musically, the record features superb performances by Hitchcock, who handles all the lead guitar on the record, and his hot new band: guitarist Jeremy Fetzer, bassist Todd Bolden and drummer Eric Slick. The dual electric guitar parts by Hitchcock and Fetzer are a highlight. Working at Alex the Great Studios in October with co-producer Brad Jones, who also contributed keys to the album, they recorded the basic tracks in a very short span.

“The whole thing was done in two-and-a-half days, basically,” Hitchcock recalls. “These guys make it easy for me to just go in there and kick it along. They’re really quick. Nashville cats are like that. You just walk in, and they chart the thing. It sounds like you’ve been playing together for six months, but you’ve actually only just met.”

Once the tracks were completed, Hitchcock played them for Swift, who served as executive producer on the album.

“Emma listened to it and said, ‘Well, this is great, but you could work more on the vocals and you need a bit more guitar,’” Hitchcock explains. “I said, ‘Really?’ She said, ‘A bit. Why don’t you send it to Kimberley?’”

Kimberley is Kimberley Rew, Hitchcock’s

former bandmate from The Soft Boys, whom he calls his “archetypal guitar foil.” Rew contributed guitar to half of the album’s 10 tracks.

“Kimberley very faithfully overdubbed on six or seven tracks and sent them back,” Hitchcock says. “We kept probably only 25 percent of what he played, but it really helped.”

Hitchcock also followed Swift’s suggestion that he do additional work on the vocals. With the exception of Gillian Welch, who contributed

album rich with Beatle-esque vocals.

“I sound better than I usually do, I think,” he says.

While the performances throughout the album’s 10 tracks are outstanding, Hitchcock’s songs are the stars of the record. He explores existential questions and life’s absurdities with humor, wonder and a touch of cynicism.

“It’s not a concept record, but it’s definitely a record where the lyrics reflect a guy who’s pon-

“I GREW UP UNDER THE UMBRELLAS OF BOB DYLAN AND THE BEATLES, AND THAT SET ME OFF ON THE COURSE I’M STILL ON.”

—ROBYN HITCHCOCK

vocals to the beautiful “Ghost in Sunlight,”

Hitchcock handles all the vocals on the record.

“Emma got me to go to her producer Jordan Lehning, and we redid a bunch of vocals,” Hitchcock says. “I’m the only vocalist [on the record other than Welch], but I was coached, you know.”

Swift and Lehning pushed Hitchcock to make the vocals something special. The result is an

dering how life begins, how it flows and how it ends,” says co-producer Jones. “The whole life cycle is in there — birth and death and everything in between.”

At this point in his career, Hitchcock is second to no one as a lyricist, as lines like “Yesterday’s rain falls on tomorrow’s parade” remind us.

“I don’t always know where lyrics come from,” he says. “I can account for quite a lot, but

sometimes they’re just there, you know. … The initial moment when it comes into my head or it leaves my mouth or whatever, those things happen on winds of their own.”

Although Hitchcock’s holy trinity of influences — Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Syd Barrett — can be heard throughout The Confuser, the spirit of John Lennon is especially present.

“I hope his spirit is present,” Hitchcock says. “We don’t know what happens when we die. We don’t know where we go — whether we fragment and go into the ether, whether we’re recycled or whether we are set on another karmic cycle. … I don’t suppose I’m communing with the actual John, but whatever John Lennon was or is on some level has gone into me. And I love that kind of thing.” ▼

The Confuser out Friday, July 24, via Tiny Ghost

PHOTO: JEREMY DYLAN

9pm

MUSIC

SHADOW VERSIONS

Pavement continues to define ’90s rock

BY EDD HURT

NEARLY 40 YEARS after Pavement began, it’s hard not to feel a sense of retrospection about the great 1990s rock band, which settles into the Ryman for a pair of shows on Monday and Tuesday. From the beginning, when guitarists and songwriters Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg formed the band in 1989 with drummer Gary Young in Stockton, Calif., Pavement’s music was a shadow version of classic rock. Pavement didn’t become indie-rock avatars in the way some critics and fans might have wished at the time. Their commitment to the rock aesthetic compelled them to create noisy songs that remained tuneful and inventive noise that was as welcoming as the tunes, and the words were like John Ashbery poems recast as jokes about rock history.

Pavement’s current tour comes 27 years after they released their final album, 1999’s Terror Twilight. Their history — and their increasing reputation as one of rock’s greatest bands — comes to light in director Jed I. Rosenberg’s 2023 film Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement and Alex Ross Perry’s experimental 2025 documentary-slash-biopic Pavements Louder Than You Think doubles as a primer on the band’s early days, when their cassettes were reviewed in fanzines, and as a character study of Young, who left the band in 1993. Pavements makes its case for the high quality of Pavement’s songwriting, which gets interpreted throughout the film by a group of singers younger than the band itself. By the time Terror Twilight hit the stores, I’d been a fan since 1992, when their debut album

Slanted and Enchanted was released. Recorded with Young, Slanted sounded like the work of pop adepts who had listened to Captain Beefheart, The Fall, Jim Croce and Can. “Trigger Cut” quoted Croce’s 1972 song “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” and the album’s melodicism cut through the lo-fi engineering. I liked the follow-up, 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which contained the fan-favorite single “Range Life.” The album’s popularity seemed to presage a career for Pavement as indie stars who looked good in music videos. Crooked Rain also features one of the most powerful songs in the Pavement canon, “Unfair,” which sports glassy guitars and a Malkmus lyric about loathing Southern California. As he sings: “Up to the top of the Shasta gulch / To the bottom of the Tahoe lake / Man-made deltas and concrete rivers / The south takes what the north delivers.”

For some observers, Crooked Rain remains the band’s high point. Drummer Steve West, who replaced Gary Young, edged the band toward a more conventional style than they’d favored with Young. West’s solid beats, which the band poked fun at in 1997’s “Westie Can Drum,” underpin 1995’s Wowee Zowee. I think it’s their most capacious, surprising album. However Malkmus managed to access the post-Gram Parsons country rock of the album’s “Father to a Sister of Thought” and “Black Out,” he revitalized the genre.

Wowee Zowee didn’t further their commercial aspirations, and it sold less than its predecessor. I saw them in Atlanta in summer 1995 when they were touring as part of the Lollapalooza music

festival. I don’t remember them being underpowered, but I wouldn’t say the festival atmosphere was ideal for contemplating such a cerebral band. Wowee Zowee was cut in Memphis at Easley McCain Recording, and I heard parts of it as homages to Alex Chilton, one of Malkmus’ avowed influences. The opener, “We Dance,” took off from Big Star’s Third, while “Rattled by the Rush” evoked Radio City As Pavement moved further from their lo-fi beginnings, the band’s songs took on an ominous, late-afternoon quality. “Starlings of the Slipstream,” from 1997’s Brighten the Corners, compresses emotion into the space usually reserved for pop composers like, say, Brian Wilson. Like many of Pavement’s best songs — 1996’s “Give It a Day,” about Puritan clergymen Increase and Cotton Mather, comes to mind — “Starlings” is about trying to find your place in history, which might prove difficult.

Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight have an end-of-era vibe that seems typical of albums and movies made in the late ’90s, from Tortoise’s 1998 TNT to 1999’s Being John Malkovich. Produced by Nigel Godrich, Terror divides Pavement fans. Some find his production obtrusive and the songs stitched together in a way that seems less organic than on previous albums. It contains the amazing “Speak, See, Remember,” which goes from a modified folk chord progression to electric guitars that evoke Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica

Terror Twilight is a fitting final installment in one of rock’s great catalogs. I’m aware that the band had issues with Godrich, and maybe the album turned out to be more of a tribute to Malkmus than it was to Pavement itself. Godrich’s high-definition sounds are an aural analog for transience. When the guitars wobble into the ether on “Ann Don’t Cry,” the effect has me crying, every single time. ▼

Playing 7:30 p.m. July 27 and 28 at the Ryman

SIX U’S WORTH OF FUN

BY THE SPIN

HOMETOWN CHAMPS Be Your Own Pet were just teenagers when they issued their nervy, self-titled debut album in 2006. Celebrating Be Your Own Pet’s 20th anniversary (!!!)

Saturday night at The Blue Room at Third Man Records at the tail end of a quick run of shows, the quartet was older and wiser, sure — but no less dedicated to ripping it up with a flurry of sweaty, rapid-fire garage-punk bangers.

Fellow Nashvillians Wesley & the Boys and Heavy Cream warmed up the crowd for Saturday night’s show. The Creamsters have established a local garage-punk legacy of their own since their reunion last year. They aren’t resting on their laurels, however, and offered some new tunes that slotted in well alongside longtime fan favorite jams like the infectious “Watusi.”

With frontwoman Jemina Pearl outfitted in a cheerleading uniform — and owning the stage as ever with her snarling, live-wire presence — BYOP frontloaded their set with all 15 songs from their first album. Standouts included “Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle” and the breakneck “Fuuuuuun” (we had to go back and refresh our memory, but there are indeed six u’s in that), which let drummer John Eatherly showcase his chops a bit.

Following the Be Your Own Pet tunes, the band threw in a mix-bag of other firecrackers from throughout their catalog, including “Teenage Heaven” from 2023’s Mommy and a set-closing rendition of The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” — a tune from a band whose influence is no doubt a major part of BYOP’s DNA. Pearl and company brought up some special guests for that cover, including the show’s openers, Be Your Own Pet producer (and Redd Kross co-founder) Steven McDonald and Pearl’s daughter Lula It was a wholesome, full-circle moment and a conclusion that left The Spin feeling optimistic about the future of local rock ’n’ roll. ▼

Saturday, July 25

SONGWRITER SESSION

JD Shelburne

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, July 25

INTERVIEW

Buddy Cannon 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, July 26

HATCH SHOW PRINT Let’s Go Bandanas!

BANDANA-MAKING WORKSHOP 10:00 am HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

Sunday, July 26

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Daniel Grindstaff 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 1

SONGWRITER SESSION

Dani Flowers NOON · FORD THEATER

WITNESS HISTORY

Locals Kids Always Visit Free

Sunday, August 2

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Guthrie Trapp 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 8

SONGWRITER SESSION Carter Faith NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 8

NASHVILLE CATS Salute to Musician John Jorgenson 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 8

HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party

3:00 pm and 6:00 pm

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

Sunday, August 9

HATCH SHOW PRINT Family Block Party

10:00 am

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

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.

HELL, BENT

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

hiatus from the big screen, Nicolas Wind Refn — the Danish filmmaker whose Drive inspired guys to buy a satin bomber jacket with a scorpion on the back — returns to theaters with Her Private Hell, a shinyass nightmare that seems to be fueled by MDMA and daddy issues.

The “hell” in question belongs to Elle (Companion killer-bot Sophie Thatcher), an actress who lives in a futuristic dreamscape with glowing skyscrapers and a fog (they call it “the mist”) that’s enveloping the city. She’s continually in a sulking state, still miffed that her bestie (Havana Rose Liu) is now married to her dad (Dougray Scott), a leather-wearing (and leather-faced) filmmaker/Svengali named Johnny Thunders — I guess Refn is a big New York Dolls fan.

Elle appears to have a very complicated relationship with her old man, who likes to regale his growing stable of ladies with tales of “The Leatherman,” a masked, predatory force who goes after young girls. She dreams of a much more suitable father figure, Private K (Charles Melton), a stoic but lethal soldier who walks through streets filled predominantly with Japanese people, looking for his daughter.

Refn is continuing down the same female-led horror-fantasy road he embarked on when he made 2016’s The Neon Demon, which starred Elle Fanning as a teen model who gets chewed up and spat out — figuratively and literally — by the industry. It’s hard not to think about Fanning while watching Hell. Not only do we have a protagonist named after her, but we also get a vapid blond actress (Norwegian actress Kristine Froseth), one of Thunders’ newest finds, whom Elle describes as “that attractive yet that unfuckable.” (Something tells me there were tense moments on the Demon set.)

Honestly, Hell seems like Refn’s hyperstylized take on Fanning’s previous film Sentimental Value — except here, the filmmaking dad who’d

rather spend time with a pretty blonde than his own clearly depressed daughter acts like an aging Jim Morrison. Refn appears to be picking from many international influences for Hell: giallos, Douglas Sirk dramas, Yakuza movies, French sci-fi films. In place of his longtime collaborator Cliff Martinez, he goes with Italian legend/Brian De Palma composer Pino Donaggio — since apparently Refn needed someone who could provide lush orchestrations even when violent, gory shit is happening on screen.

As with his literally gruesome spin on the male gaze in Demon, Hell sees Refn (working from a script he co-wrote with Esti Giordani) delving into baby-faced beauties getting used and abused by the patriarchy, turning into cynical husks who don’t know whether to keep the trauma going or break the cycle. (Just in case you don’t pick up on the whole women-as-pets motif, there’s a scene in which these girls start barking at each other.) But the balls are still fully to-the-wall for this one.

Even when you think he’s going somewhere intriguing — the scenes that feature Thatcher and Liu’s characters trying to repair their broken friendship are fascinating — Refn veers off into some fashionably ambiguous, damn-near-fetishistic nonsense.

Considering that a comic book is used as a passed-around MacGuffin, Her Private Hell is obviously Refn’s pulpy, visually striking take on our post-Epstein world. (The Private K scenes, complete with hard-boiled narration from Melton, does make me think Refn has Sin City — the graphic novel and the movie — on his shelves.) However, this freaky, opulent fantasia, with kitschy but immaculate production design, tres chic wardrobe, and a sense of vainglorious malaise, doesn’t feel like a challenging, coherent comeback for Refn. Most of the time, I felt like I was watching one long commercial for Balmain. ▼

AFTER A DECADE-LONG

minutes

BACK OF THE BOOK

58 Follower of “4” on a love note

59 Start of a selection process

60 They might be seeded

61 Some yellow-green sodas, informally

62 Bob with the Silver Bullet Band

1 Argon, krypton and xenon, informally

2 Moon of Jupiter that has a liquid ocean under its surface

3 Absolut alternatives

4 Hermana de la madre

5 “The ___ is wither’d from the lake”: Keats

6 Bona fide numbskull

7 Big name in archery equipment

8 Fuyumi ___, author of the “Twelve Kingdoms” fantasy novels

38 Alfred ___, co-creator of the original I.Q. test

39 Rents out again

40 Mix-___ (ice cream shop supply)

41 Like shipping that’s not quite overnight

43 Downfall of the boy in 2018’s “Beautiful Boy,” in

9 Colas in the “cola wars”

10 Former governor Schwarzenegger, informally

11 Occur at the same time

12 Skillful move

13 Lit. course

18 Improvise

19 Chemical agent used to make frosted glass

24 The terrible twos, for one

25 “Use at your own risk” and “Not professional advice,” for two

26 “Of the foot” prefix

29 Rose (up), in dialect

32 ___ Lion, Penn State mascot

34 Nonspecific response to “Who’s there?”

35 Like pickles and some potato salads

36 Chill way to take things

37 Kid-lit character who says “It’s not much of a tail, but I’m sort of attached to it”

38 Where many things get tossed

42 Follower of quick or dim

Checking out

$2 coin, eh?

Drive

Masters

Cellar stock

What time

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

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