>> PAGE 27
A two-part look at homeless outreach in Nashville
>> PAGE 29
BY ELI MOTYCKA AND ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
WITNESS HISTORY
Jeannie Seely wore this green dress, which she embellished with a sequined musical staff and note, during appearances on Porter Wagoner’s TV program and road show, c. 1966.
From the exhibit Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present
artifact: Courtesy of Jeannie Seely artifact photo: Bob Delevante
CoreCivic Is Facing Hundreds of Lawsuits
Legal complaints cite civil rights violations, understaffing and mismanagement at facilities run by the massive Brentwood-based operator BY JULIANNE AKERS
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Q&A With New Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Rachel Campbell
Hamilton County organizer calls for a bigger tent and simple messages BY ELI MOTYCKA
COVER PACKAGE: HOME BY NOW
Homelessness Count Stays Steady Despite Funding Boosts
The Office of Homeless Services is at the center of shaky citywide efforts as detractors call for director to be ousted BY ELI MOTYCKA
How Safe Haven Helps Unsheltered Families Find Homes
Nashville family shelter shows how rapid rehousing works BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
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Spike Lee’s Kurosawa remake Highest 2 Lowest is an energetic, entertaining blast BY
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Nashville Film Festival Announces 2025 Lineup
This year’s slate will include 140-plus films, a conversation with director Jay Duplass, You’ve Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine and more BY LOGAN BUTTS
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CORECIVIC IS FACING HUNDREDS OF LAWSUITS
Legal complaints cite civil rights violations, understaffing and mismanagement at facilities run by the massive Brentwood-based operator
BY JULIANNE AKERS
RIOTS. INMATE DEATHS. Understaffing. Inadequate medical care. In recent years, these issues have plagued facilities run by Brentwood-based CoreCivic, the country’s largest private prison operator.
Most recently, one inmate was killed and two others were hospitalized Aug. 7 following a fight at the CoreCivic-run South Central Correctional Facility in Wayne County. For the past year, the U.S. Department of Justice has been pursuing an investigation into conditions at the operator’s Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville — the facility that has reported some of the most harrowing claims of violence and death in CoreCivic prisons.
Amid these accounts, lawsuits against the corporation are piling up. Since the start of 2025, roughly 100 lawsuits and legal complaints have been filed against CoreCivic and its subsidiaries, wardens, medical staff, correctional officers and others working in the facilities. About a quarter of those complaints have been filed in Tennessee, where CoreCivic runs four prisons. Dozens of other suits have been filed elsewhere, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. In recent years the corporation has seen more than a hundred legal complaints annually — nearly 700 have accumulated since 2020.
Many of the legal filings allege civil rights violations and failure to protect inmates from harm.
A lawsuit filed in May by Trousdale Turner inmate Charles Anderson alleges that Anderson was a victim of repeated acts of gang violence, sexual assault and extortion. Anderson says no members of the prison staff intervened while he was assaulted in a dayroom. He claims he was denied a new housing assignment afterward despite previous and ongoing threats.
“There is a well-settled custom at CoreCivic facilities, and TTCC particularly, that inmate-on-inmate violence was and is tolerated and accepted, with no meaningful recourse for the victimized inmates or their families,” reads the lawsuit.
Derek Avery, another Trousdale Turner inmate, filed a lawsuit in June alleging similar acts of physical and sexual assault by gang members that resulted in him being stabbed four times in his abdomen, back and head with an improvised knife. The lawsuit claims Avery did not receive medical attention for more than an hour after the attack, and that the prison nurse falsified the time of his injuries in
her reporting and did not immediately request emergency medical services.
Among the hordes of lawsuits, a common claim is that CoreCivic is aware of its understaffing and mismanagement and fails to protect inmates who have been repeatedly threatened or assaulted by other inmates.
Forty-year-old inmate Clay Andrews was killed in CoreCivic’s Hardeman County Correctional Facility last year. According to an April 22 lawsuit filed on Andrews’ behalf, his death was a “preventable murder.” The suit describes the attack, in which Andrews was stabbed 60 times by other inmates with contraband weapons, and says no correctional officers attempted to stop the assault, which was caught on multiple surveillance cameras.
“To maintain its profit margin — and as a result of its chronic and profit-motivated deliberate indifference to inmate health and safety — CoreCivic serially underinvests in prison staff, security, and inmate healthcare at its prisons, leading to predictable and horrific results,” the lawsuit reads.
A name that continuously appears in lawsuits is Vince Vantell — the former warden of Trousdale Turner who was placed on administrative leave earlier this year before resigning in April. CoreCivic has said Vantell’s resignation was not related to the DOJ investigation. Inmates allege Vantell neglected to address violence among inmates within the facility and, in some cases, attempted to cover up reports of assault. A June 21 lawsuit filed by a former correctional officer cites civil and human rights violations and racist and homophobic actions by Vantell.
The Scene reached out to CoreCivic for com-
Current U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn will run for governor in 2026 to replace term-limited incumbent Bill Lee. Blackburn, a Brentwood conservative who initially made her name in Tennessee politics as a state representative fighting a proposed state income tax, has built a national profile as a Trump ally and frequent guest on Fox News. Though fellow Republican and U.S. Rep. John Rose was already in the race, Blackburn immediately stepped ahead of Rose as the frontrunner. She tapped Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, a retired pro wrestler known as Kane, as her campaign treasurer. Blackburn joins two other incumbent U.S. senators — Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Michael Bennet of Colorado — who have entered governors’ races rather than keeping their seats in D.C.
ment on recent lawsuits. Spokesperson Brian Todd responded with a written statement.
“For more than 40 years, CoreCivic has provided services to fulfill the needs of our government partners at the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC),” reads the statement. “Each of our facilities undergo multiple layers of oversight and are closely monitored by TDOC for compliance with established policies and procedures.
“The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care and our dedicated staff at all our facilities, including our Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC) is our top priority. We’re proud of our dedicated team at TTCC, as with all of our Tennessee facilities, who work hard every day to keep those in our care safe while providing for their needs. Staff at each of our facilities are trained and held to the highest ethical standards as part of our commitment to CoreCivic’s comprehensive Human Rights Policy.”
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed legislation that would require CoreCivic to reduce inmate populations if death rates in its facilities continue to increase. Meanwhile, the State Building Commission renewed a $168 million contract with CoreCivic to run the South Central Correctional Facility. The operator also signed a deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year to expand four of its prisons to hold more ICE detainees — something the publicly traded company has credited for a recent boost in revenue.
CoreCivic reported $538.2 million in earnings for the second quarter of this year, up by nearly 10 percent from this time last year. ▼
Details continue to emerge about a plan to build miles of tunnels underneath Davidson County led by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company The network, referred to as the Music City Loop was initially announced as a connector between the airport and downtown Nashville. Last week, The Boring Company unveiled the Loop route — a pair of parallel 9.5-mile tunnels — at a meeting of the Nashville Convention Center Authority. Critics have focused on the company’s scant track record and the tunnels’ rushed approval process by state legislators who control the land in question.
The state executed Byron Black by lethal injection last week over multiple medical and legal concerns related to his heart device and cognitive impairments. Black was the second of four executions planned by the Tennessee Department of Correction in 2025, following Oscar Smith’s execution in May. Black had been on death row since being convicted in 1988 for the homicides of Angela Clay and her two children Federal public defender Kelley Henry has since called the execution “100 percent botched” and has additional outstanding legal filings with the state of Tennessee — including an attempt to find out the source of the sedative pentobarbital used in the state’s lethal injection protocol.
The Metro Council advanced several major zoning changes that would make it easier to build more dense housing in The Nations. The contentious meeting heard from neighbors concerned about increasing density and the plan’s potential to affect other parts of the city. Supporters see the proposal as a key update to help address the city’s dire housing shortage and build more walkable urban communities. District 20 Councilmember Rollin Horton backs the legislation, which he calls The Nations Neighborhood Plan. It will face its third and final reading on Aug. 19.
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
CORECIVIC’S BRENTWOOD HEADQUARTERS
Q&A WITH NEW TENNESSEE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR RACHEL CAMPBELL
Hamilton County organizer calls for a bigger tent and simple messages
BY ELI MOTYCKA
THE SAME WEEK Donald Trump began his second term in office, Rachel Campbell started her first term leading the hapless Tennessee Democratic Party. Democrats claim just one statewide elected official — longtime U.S. Rep. Steven Cohen of Memphis — and suffer a superminority in both chambers of the state legislature. Even local governments and school boards have faced sudden takeover attempts from the far right in recent years, giving Democrats an uphill battle at every level of government. Ask Campbell, though, and every election is just another opportunity to gain ground. She spoke with the Scene while en route to Friday’s “Rally for Recognition” in Morristown, Tenn.
What are the big milestones for the TNDP since you took office six months ago? The most exciting thing that we’ve done is reorganizing for the first time since the 1990s. All 95 of our county parties are organized and ready to roll. That should happen every two years, but it hasn’t happened in a generation. It means that we host a convention in every county, and a new chair,
vice chair officers and executive committee [are] elected within the county. Now primaries can happen everywhere, candidates can run everywhere, the party is working everywhere. That was something I had committed to do, and with the help of my executive committee and county chairs everywhere, we were able to get it done.
What have been your takeaways from talking to Democrats across the state? What are you hearing? The party is in a place where we have an opportunity to do a bottom-up rebuild and reinvigorate what it means to be a Tennessee Democrat. What I’ve heard the most is, we have to get going. We don’t have time to sit around and hope that things turn around for us. There is a lot of energy to recruit candidates, build a bench and break the state supermajority in two, four or six years. Plus, Trump. He engages Democrats in a way that I don’t think any Republican has in a very long time. It just keeps happening with something new every day.
When you say “reinvigorate” and “rebuild,” what issues or messaging do Democrats need to leave behind to be successful? And what issues are you working toward? Everybody wants this giant overhaul of a message — and we do need that — but we also need to understand that the majority of Tennesseans, if not all Tennesseans, care about the same things. A roof over their head. Health care that takes care of their body. The ability to, if they have children, put them through school. If they have debt, take care of their student debt so that they can lead productive lives. We have to center our message around workers’ rights and people’s rights and stop being so careful
about hurting people’s feelings. I’m wiggling around that a little, but we have to get back to talking about what that means and what that looks like and stop pussy-footing around. We have to have a bigger tent that accepts everybody, even if they don’t all believe the exact same thing. We still can all fit. We’re gonna welcome everyone under our tent because, until we start winning again, we can’t govern again. This state is not gonna get better if we keep electing Marsha Blackburns and Andy Ogles.
What are the biggest issues coming out of this state legislative session? The voucher scam. We don’t even know where that money is going to go — into which private schools, which Christian schools. Defunding public education lock, stock and barrel is going to come back to bite them, because everyone who has kids or grandkids wants to see their kids get a good public education.
With the special election coming up, what’s Democrats’ message on the federal level? “Have you had enough yet?” That’s our message. If you’ve had enough, so have we, and we are ready to welcome you under our tent. My groceries are getting a lot more expensive. School supplies are more expensive. Republican candidates’ entire goal is to get up to D.C. to see how much boot-licking of Donald Trump’s boots they can do. There are Trump voters out there who cast their votes in good faith — I do not think that every Trump voter is a racist, raging lunatic — thinking they were doing what’s best for their family, what’s best for their community. But we are not in that place anymore. If you are looking
for a change, come. We will take you in.
What lessons from Democrats’ 2024 loss are you taking into the next election? We misread the general fatigue post-COVID, and we maybe misread crowd sizes as general-level support. We screwed it up. We messed it up. I was excited and exhilarated with Kamala Harris as a nominee, and I’m determined that — in this next cycle and in the cycle past that if I’m still lucky enough to be chair — we know what to do with all that energy if we get it again. Right now, we need to build a bench at every level to flip school board seats, county commissions, city councils, county mayor, district attorney and dog catcher, all the places in which an elected official might actively do good work in their community, so that we can lift those people up to the next level of government. ▼
“
“ WE’RE GONNA WELCOME EVERYONE UNDER OUR TENT BECAUSE, UNTIL WE START WINNING AGAIN, WE CAN’T GOVERN AGAIN. THIS STATE IS NOT GONNA GET BETTER IF WE KEEP ELECTING MARSHA BLACKBURNS AND ANDY OGLES.”
PHOTO:
RACHEL CAMPBELL SPEAKS AT THE TENNESSEE DEMOCRATIC PARTY THREE STAR DINNER IN JULY
Home by Now: A two-part look at homeless outreach in Nashville
Homelessness Count Stays Steady Despite Funding Boosts
The O ice of Homeless Services is at the center of shaky citywide e orts as detractors call for director to be ousted
BY ELI MOTYCKA
IN MAY, APRIL CALVIN sat in the Metro Council chambers for an annual budget hearing. Her presentation — on behalf of Metro’s Office of Homeless Services, which Calvin has led since 2023 — successfully secured more than $5 million in additional funding for the department, nearly doubling its budget for 2026. At the same time, the department has spent three years stewarding $50 million in American Rescue Plan dollars, struggling to allocate and spend chunks of the money dedicated to addressing homelessness by former Mayor John Cooper in 2022. Another $35 million has provided 90 permanent supportive housing units at Strobel House, a city-owned downtown residential center that just celebrated a year of operation.
Judged by its financial commitments, Nashville has made a serious effort in recent years to address homelessness. Mayor Freddie O’Connell himself sponsored the legislation to create the stand-alone Office of Homeless Services in 2022 as a downtown councilmember, expanding on OHS’ predecessor, the now-defunct Metro Homeless Impact Division. Former encampments at Brookmeade Park, Old Tent City and Nissan Stadium made headlines as the city cleared out residents and fortified the sites against resettlement. Many councilmembers say it’s the number one issue they hear about from constituents, who bring up visible homelessness in cities like Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., as cautionary tales about Nashville’s future.
But the city has not clearly returned results commensurate with all its effort, money and attention. Calls to replace Calvin and overhaul the Office of Homeless Services have grown louder, echoed by councilmembers like District 16’s Ginny Welsch.
“Metro has an obligation to provide for all of our citizens, and these people are our citizens,” Welsch tells the Scene. “We dedicated a massive amount of money for this, and OHS has shown again and again they are not up to this task. It is very obvious that the management at OHS is incompetent, and April Calvin has destroyed and undermined trust in the community.”
Relationships between Metro and the vast network of nonprofits and volunteers addressing homelessness in Nashville have deteriorated sharply over the past year. Scrutiny about OHS has even produced a citizen effort to publicly audit the city’s decision-making around homeless
services, led by former Metro employee Mike Lacy, with background help from some of the same service providers meant to work with OHS. The scant discussion forum on the “OHS Community Audit” webpage even drew a comment from Lisa Avrit — director of finance at Open Table, the nonprofit most at odds with Calvin.
Public records requests, some fulfilled after persistent correspondence with city attorneys, have given Lacy a window into OHS’ hectic year.
Lacy worked for the city’s former Office of Community Safety — a Cooper-era initiative — until November 2023, when it was shuffled to the Metro Department of Health. (Lacy says it was “eliminated” under O’Connell.)
“When it was announced that Old Tent City would be closed, people sent out a letter that this was against best practices for closing encampments,” says Lacy of the downtown-area encampment, which the city ultimately cleared in early June. Federal guidelines emphasize shared decision-making, thorough engagement and varied resources to address the needs of unhoused people before camp closures, a process that Metro attempted over 60 days between April and June.
Lacy published his analysis related to the impending closing in an acerbic Substack post on May 18.
“That began the most serious research I’ve ever done — probably a lot more work than my college thesis. OHS is working quite well, but its job is not what people think it is. From what I can tell, it’s achieving its goal of removing visible homelessness by any means necessary. They just want to get people out of places as quickly as possible so they can’t be seen.”
*Many PITs in 2021 did not occur or left out the unsheltered population due to complications and health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is a point-in-time count? Often referred to as the homeless census, it is considered a “snapshot” of the homeless population on a given night in January. While some note that unhoused poeple, especially those outside of shelters, may be left out of the annual count, it still helps give a sense of whether homelessness is increasing or decreasing.
OLD TENT CITY
Home by Now: A two-part look at homeless outreach in Nashville
Lacy’s research particularly scrutinizes Calvin for what he characterizes as mismanagement of the Strobel House operating contract, resulting in retroactive service payments that went $500,000 over budget. In a July 11 email to councilmembers, Calvin explained that OHS was still in the process of finalizing a Strobel House contract but did not deny the overrun. The extent of homelessness in Nashville is difficult to quantify but easy to see. Visible homelessness is the human cost of Nashville’s housing shortage and rising cost of living. “Housing first” refrains aim to remind anyone paying attention that creating more affordable places to live will be the city’s only route out of worsening homelessness. People on street corners asking for help, transporting belongings or selling Contributor newspapers is the extent of most housed residents’ daily contact with unhoused Nashvillians — an impression that has not noticeably been alleviated in recent years.
The city’s annual point-in-time count aims to capture the number of any unhoused people living sheltered or unsheltered on a given night in January. It’s an imprecise statistic for a complex problem (and doesn’t touch on its complex causes), but it serves as the basis for national statistics, which continue to show an increase in homelessness since 2020. Nashville’s 2025 PIT count, conducted on Jan. 23, showed 2,180 people experiencing homelessness. This is up from 2,094 last year and 2,129 in 2023.
Calvin opened the city’s first annual State of Homelessness Symposium with a generous round of thank-yous and acknowledgments before cryptically praising her colleagues for drowning out “the news and fake news” and “holding tension” from the city’s “fiery, passionate service providers.” She expertly navigates the Metro lexicon familiar to anyone who has spent time with city bureaucrats, filling her addresses with milestones and benchmarks, reporting countable metrics, recapping committees and subcommittees, accepting accolades and acknowledging historic firsts on behalf of her office.
With thousands of people currently facing dire conditions living outside in Nashville, providers tell the Scene that Calvin’s rosiness is its own kind of tone-deaf denial.
“Knowing that for every one person that’s housed, our data shows that three people are entering homelessness,” Calvin stated at the June symposium. “Having a point-in-time count that’s trending around the same, and not drastically increasing, I believe is a win. I do want to move on to offer hope, because the data is hopeful for me. The funding is even more hopeful.”
After several days of the Scene attempting to schedule a time to speak directly with OHS, the department’s public information officer, Demetris Chaney, told the Scene that she and Calvin were unable to do an interview. They instead offered a written statement.
“Over the past year, the Nashville Office of Homeless Services (OHS), in partnership with Metro Government and more than 47 community agencies, has made meaningful progress in addressing homelessness through coordinated housing efforts, outreach, and supportive services,” reads the statement, which goes on to tout the opening of the Strobel House and the city’s encampment strategy. “OHS remains committed to advocating for our unhoused Nashville neighbors and supporting the vital work of our community partners in building long-term, sustainable solutions to homelessness in Nashville.”
Mayor O’Connell closed the June symposium with a Q&A alongside Chaney. O’Connell helped draft the city’s original homelessness strategy and was a fixture in the city’s homelessness effort for years, including a stint chairing the Homelessness Planning Council, the 25-member governing board that oversees coordination between the city and providers. O’Connell has so far not heeded detractors’ cries to clear house at OHS, reaffirming his confidence in Calvin’s leadership to the Scene this summer. In June, he too drew the room’s focus to a city struggling for progress.
“This has to be an uncomfortable conversation and series of conversations, because we’re not at that point as a city and community,” O’Connell told the room. “Despite everything April said — all of which is true — it doesn’t make this work easier, the solutions easier, the landscape of state and federal interaction with the ability to solve these problems easier. We’re all challenged as we sit here today.” ▼
How Safe Haven Helps Unsheltered Families Find Homes
Nashville family shelter shows how rapid rehousing works
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
ROBERT THOUGHT HE had secured his family a Nashville apartment, but when he arrived in town from Oklahoma, someone else was already living there. He had been scammed, he says.
And so Robert, his adult son, his teenage daughter and the family dog spent nine weeks living in a Dodge Durango until Robert was able to find some help. About 24 hours after reaching out to Safe Haven Family Shelter, Robert and his family had moved into a motel room. A few months later, they got an apartment. “It’s a two-bedroom, but we make it work,” says Robert. (Save Haven asked that the Scene use only his first name.)
Safe Haven has been helping families like Robert’s since 2003 — even longer if you count the legacies of the two shelters that merged to form the nonprofit, Safe Haven Shelter and the Nashville Family Shelter.
Safe Haven uses a rapid rehousing program to move families as quickly as possible into housing and then provide support and guidance in the months following their move-in date. After a family arrives at Safe Haven, the nonprofit finds room for them at a partnering motel or hotel while a case manager and a housing specialist work with them. The only requirement for Safe Haven’s help, says CEO Drew Freeman, is that the family includes a child.
While the goal of rapid rehousing is to secure a new home within 30 days, case manager Tory Ross notes that every client is different. “I’ve had people where it’s taken two weeks from the day we put them in a hotel to six months to get in an actual apartment or house,” she says. “It all depends on their income or their background, if they have any criminal charges, or different things like that.”
Once housing is located, Safe Haven helps with rental assistance for the first few months, and the case manager continues to work with the family for up to nine months to figure out what they need to stay in their new home.
“It could be money management, they may need to start working on budgeting,” says Ross. “They may need to find a new job. Maybe it’s mental health services they need to be connected to — it could be anything.”
Ross says the nonprofit even helps parents with their children’s birthdays, providing a gift and a birthday cake. Freeman adds that the nonprofit does this discreetly, so
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A 2021 study from the University of Chicago found that 53 percent of the sheltered homeless population had jobs, as did 40 percent of those unsheltered.
parents can take ownership of the celebration.
“We don’t ever want to come in as saviors,” Freeman says, adding that it’s important children see their parents, and not Safe Haven staff, as the reason for conditions improving.
Increasing household income is also part of the goal, especially with Nashville rents so much higher than they were before the pandemic.
“If you’re not making at least 20 bucks an hour right now, it’s very hard to make it,” says Robert. (To get specific, MIT’s living wage calculator says a single adult in Nashville needs to make $25 per hour to maintain a comfortable standard of living.) Robert’s main line of work is setting up trade shows, but it’s a seasonal job. He works part-time gigs and cuts down trees in the off months, and notes that the latter is getting tougher now that he’s 64.
Robert isn’t the only Safe Haven client trying to hold down work while maintaining housing. He even knows people from work who are going through similar struggles with homelessness. A 2021 study from the University of Chicago found that 53 percent of the sheltered homeless population had jobs, as did 40 percent of those unsheltered.
“A lot of the people you interact with in your daily life, you just never know which one of them are actually experiencing homelessness,” says Freeman. Ross adds that people tend to think of family homelessness as just a single mother, but the nonprofit has seen
single fathers as well as grandparents raising children.
According to Metro’s Office of Homeless Services, there were 230 families, including 371 children, experiencing homelessness in March. A year prior, in March 2024, the OHS reported 359 unhoused families. Nationally, family homelessness saw a sharp rise from 2023 to 2024.
Last year Safe Haven served 262 families, including 603 children, and rehoused 100 families. About 40 percent of the households that come to Safe Haven are fleeing some form of domestic violence.
Federal funding cuts have hit the nonprofit — a story that’s echoed in industries including the arts and health care — and that’s reduced the number of families Safe Haven has been able to help in 2025. Freeman says Safe Haven also saw an influx of clients following the end of the national eviction moratorium in 2021, which had helped people remain in their homes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of that, the supply of affordable homes remains inadequate. But Freeman is undaunted, and says community partners, including landlords, the Metro government and private businesses, remain vital to work Safe Haven does.
“It’s going to take all of those, including the federal funds, to live out our mission,” he says, “which is to end family homelessness.”
Hannah Herner contributed reporting. ▼
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
AUGUST 14-23
FAIR
[FAIR NECESSITIES]
TENNESSEE STATE FAIR
There’s something about being at a fair in the muggy heat of a Tennessee August — it just feels right. If you are in need of a late-summer fair fix, the Tennessee State Fair is back once again in Lebanon. All the fair staples are on hand: a good mix of kid-friendly and thrillseeker rides (shoutout to my personal favorite, the Super Himalaya), several entertainment stages showcasing local musicians and, most importantly, an abundance of fried fair foods (including Southern delicacies like fried green tomatoes and tater cakes). Perhaps the most unique attraction at the state fair is Fiddlers Grove, a historic village featuring a number of hands-on stations for trades like blacksmithing and hat-making, a model train museum, a demonstration vegetable garden from the Wilson County Master Gardeners and a collection of antique tractors, among other offerings. It’s as if Fiddlers Grove were created in a lab to overwhelm the dads of Middle Tennessee with joy. LOGAN BUTTS
AUG. 14-23 AT THE JAMES E. WARD AGRICULTURE CENTER
945 E. BADDOUR PARKWAY, LEBANON
THURSDAY / 8.14
ART [HOLE ON THE WALL] NATALIE THEDFORD: A MELODIC MOTIF OF PERCEPTIVE PLAY
Local artist and educator Natalie Thedford brings a selection of her mischievous craft-based sculptures to this late-summer display at Open Gallery. Thedford adds a big splash of irony to her investigations of the built environment, delighting with unexpected uses of materials, including utilizing garden hose as sewing thread, and precisely pleating landscaping tarps. For A Melodic Motif of Perceptive Play, she’s created quilt designs that are made of clay and incorporate visual elements and textures from local manhole covers. Thedford’s formalist audacity is matched by her eye for detail and her sense of design, and her wall-mounted works speak to contemporary painting,
CHRIS ISAAK PAGE 18
ROBERT RANDOLPH PAGE 18
NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS PAGE 20
sculpture and textile art simultaneously. There’s a Japanese tradition in which artists create manhole cover designs that reflect the local customs, folklore, sports teams and industries of various districts and towns. Thedford’s show does the opposite, incorporating infrastructure into a gallery display. A Melodic Motif was a highlight of August’s WeHo Arts First Saturday Art Crawl, and it’s a show you should see before it closes. JOE NOLAN
THROUGH SEPT. 1 AT OPEN GALLERY AT THE PACKING PLANT
507 HAGAN ST.
MUSIC
[SPEAK OF THE DEVIL] CHRIS ISAAK
Some of my favorite films share one common denominator: Chris Isaak. Whether it’s the “Wicked Game” needle-drop during Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage’s night drive through the desert in Wild at Heart, Tom Cruise watching Nicole Kidman undressing and dancing to “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing” at the beginning of Eyes Wide Shut, or his acting role as the aloof and cool FBI special agent Chet Desmond who mysteriously disappears at the beginning of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me There’s something inherently cinematic about Isaak’s music and the combination of his sultry, dark, sensual crooning and his saccharine, stylized aesthetic — Isaak seems to have more in common with Roy Orbison than any of his ’90s contemporaries. Onstage, Isaak leans into the rockabilly showman persona, donning sequined suits and his signature coif. At the Ryman, audiences can expect to hear Isaak’s well-known torch songs and surfy twang, alongside covers of Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” and Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” For a night of pure smoldering, peculiar cool from another time and place, act soon before tickets sell out.
KATHLEEN HARRINGTON
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
[WORLD DOMINATION]
MUSIC
ATTICUS RONESS W/ROWEN & WILLIAM HINSON
Indie sleaze is making a comeback, and you’ll
hear shades of that in the guitar-stacked, freewheeling lineup of artists playing The Cobra on Thursday. William Hinson, a selfproclaimed Beatles historian, ought to give audiences a sense of nostalgia. Like Hinson, Atlanta-based musician Atticus Roness makes instrumentally complex music with early-’70s influences. Roness is electric onstage, and he’s been actively working to make the Atlanta DIY scene fun again. Nashville-based band ROWEN, meanwhile, showcases influence from ’90s indie rockers like Pavement and Built to Spill — frontman and namesake Dylan Rowen is a master of witty storytelling and killer guitar riffs. It won’t take you long to realize how dedicated Rowen is to his craft. The Cobra is sure to feel like a house party in 2008 on Thursday, and if you like to dance, you shouldn’t miss out on seeing this show. GRACE BRASWELL
7 P.M. AT THE COBRA 2511 GALLATIN AVE.
FRIDAY / 8.15
MUSIC
[GIRL FROM THE SOUTH COUNTRY] EMMA SWIFT
Friday afternoon at 3rd and Lindsley, Aussie singer-songwriter Emma Swift will perform songs from her beautiful forthcoming album The Resurrection Game. It’s Swift’s first record since 2020’s Blonde on the Tracks, her acclaimed collection of Bob Dylan cover songs. Produced by Jordan Lehning, The Resurrection Game is scheduled for release on Sept. 12 via Tiny Ghost Records, the label she co-owns with another Nashville international transplant, British rocker Robyn Hitchcock. Friday’s set will be her first with a band since the pandemic. “It’s gonna be great; I’m really looking forward to it,” says Swift, who moved to Nashville from Sydney in 2012. “I haven’t played a full band show in a very long time, and I’ve never had a band show for these songs, so it’s very special.” She’ll be backed by guitarists Jamie Davis and Junior Tutwiler, bassist Kevin Black, keyboardist Jo Schornikow and drummer Jordan McGee. Monte Warden and Levi Foster join Swift on the bill, which will be broadcast live on WMOT as part of its weekly
Finally Friday Americana series hosted by Whit Hubner. DARYL SANDERS
NOON AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
[YACHT DAYS]
MUSIC
TOTO, CHRISTOPHER CROSS & MEN AT WORK
Here’s a wholesome activity: Sit around in a circle with a few buddies and see how many hooks you can remember from Toto, Christopher Cross or Men at Work — the first-class soft-rock touring lineup coming to downtown Nashville this week. Not only is it a ton of fun to revisit these melodies — you’ll also likely realize how deep the collective catalog runs. Of course, you know “Africa” and “Down Under.” But what about “Who Could It Be Now?,” “Rosanna” or “I’ll Be Over You”? And then there’s the Cross collection — “Ride Like the Wind,” “Arthur’s Theme” and “Sailing,” among others. Thanks to endless radio rotation, these are familiar, comfortable songs for decades of listeners. Seeing this hit parade set sail on one stage? Not the worst way to spend a Friday night in Nashville. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
6:45 P.M. AT ASCEND AMPHITHEATER
310 FIRST AVE. S.
[TEA TIME]
FOOD & DRINK
YELLOW ROSE TEA
It’s been more than 100 years since The Hermitage Hotel was an essential campaigning and gathering spot for the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. (Though in practice, it was largely white women who benefited until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.) Because the hotel is across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol, it was a prime location for both sides of the suffrage debate to seek to convince legislators of their stance. In fact, the hotel was named a National Historic Landmark due to its role. Anti-ratification forces wore red roses, while pro-suffrage campaigners wore yellow roses. To celebrate the anniversary, The Hermitage has brought back its annual Yellow Rose Tea on weekends during August. You can sip on themed cocktails named after protagonists of the women’s suffrage movement
(or Champagne) and eat classic afternoon tea bites, including savory sandwiches and sweet pastries. A pianist will perform music from the 1920s as you raise your glasses and enjoy the timeless afternoon pastime. Guests will receive a commemorative keepsake menu plus a yellow rose upon departure. Reservations are available online at thehermitagehotel.com.
MARGARET LITTMAN WEEKENDS IN AUGUST AT THE HERMITAGE HOTEL 231 SIXTH AVE. N.
THEATER
[NO MATTER WHAT I DO] A VOTE OF HER OWN
Before the Tony-winning Broadway musical Suffs rolls into TPAC in the spring, Nashville audiences have a rare chance to witness a story of women’s suffrage right where it happened. A Vote of Her Own, a new musical written by Candace Corrigan and Janne Henshaw and directed by Jaclynn Jutting, dramatizes the hot, high-stakes summer of 1920, when Tennessee cast the decisive vote to ratify the 19th Amendment. The show pulls from real diaries, speeches and newspaper accounts, including lyrics lifted nearly verbatim from Black suffragist J. Frankie Pierce: “We’re only asking for a square deal.” Unlike Suffs, which focuses on national figures like Alice Paul, Vote zooms in on the battle in our backyard, with scenes set at the Tennessee State Capitol, Union Station and The Hermitage Hotel. The score blends original songs with suffrage-era music, bringing history to life and offering a reminder of how recent these struggles really were. As Henshaw puts it: “If you had the chance to be in the room where women won the vote, wouldn’t you want to be there?” Make sure you are. DOUGLAS CORZINE THROUGH AUG. 17 AT THE Z. ALEXANDER LOOBY THEATER 2301 ROSA PARKS BLVD.
[STEEL AWAY]
MUSIC
ROBERT RANDOLPH
It’s been nearly a quarter-century since the spotlight focused on Robert Randolph and reminded the general public that steel guitar is cool. Randolph and his aptly named group The Family Band (featuring several family members) came out of the Sacred Steel gospel tradition with a funky, expressive sound that they’ve been slowly evolving ever since. Earlier this year,
DEEP TROPICS AFTER PARTY FRI, 8/16 & SAT, 8/17
JAKE MINCH W/ HANA BRYANNE TUE, 8/19
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT DANCE PARTY FRI, 8/22
EMO NIGHT BROOKLYN SAT, 8/23
PSYCHOSTICK + POLKADOT CADAVER SAT, 8/23
8/28 RIOT SAT, 8/30
SABRINA CARPENTER DANCE
SAT, 8/30 JAMES THU, 9/4
HOUSE OF BEY THU, 9/4
NICKNAME JOS FRI, 9/5
BROADWAY RAVE SAT, 9/6
RIO DA YUNG OG SAT, 9/6 BUZZCOCKS TUE, 9/16 BLUPHORIA
Randolph announced his debut solo record Preacher Kids, which features a whole new band. In press materials, Randolph insists that it’s not about breaking away from The Family Band; indeed, the whole group appears on two tracks alongside guests like Margo Price. But the new configuration allows him to start fresh without all the familiar sounds in mind, and the end result rocks especially hard. Hear what it’s all about when his tour stops at the recently opened Fogg Street Lawn Club on Friday. Rocker and bourbon distiller Tyler Boone opens.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT FOGG STREET LAWN CLUB
648 FOGG ST.
tells the Scene. “So the second set will be really varied and surprising.” DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
[IMAGINATION STATION]
THEATER
NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS
SATURDAY / 8.16
MUSIC
[I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE] THE LONG PLAYERS PERFORMING CAROLE KING’S TAPESTRY
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground icons, household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.
From pla hif’N h t
8.1 Alex Williams Album Release Show
8.2 Josh Ward
8.5 Salute The Songbird With Maggie Rose, Special Guest: S.G. Goodman
8.6 Hell’s Belles - The World Famous All-Female AC/DC Tribute
8.9 Keith Anderson - The Pickin Wildflowers 20th Anniversary Tour
8.13 Aaron Raitiere
8.14 Stellar Unplugged w/ Adam Blackstone, Dana Soréy, Miles Minnick
8.15 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers - Chris Stapleton Tribute
8.16 William Michael Morgan
8.17 Pick Pick Pass w/ Kevin Mac, Marla Cannon-Goodman, Faith Schueler
8.19 Chief’s Outsiders Round Presents Country In Color: Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek w/ Guests Brei Carter, Daya Dorado, Travis McCready, Trae Taylor
8.20 Ashes & Arrows
8.21 Danny Burns - Southern Sky Album Release
8.23 Sammy Sadler & Dave Gibson - The Hits & History Tour
8.25 Buddy’s Place w/ Garrett Jacobs, Ryan Larkins, Lauren Mascitti
8.27 Thom Shepherd Presents The Songwriters w/ Special Guests Shawn Camp, Phil O’Donnell
8.28 The Warren Brothers
8.29 Uncle B’s Drunk with Power String Band feat. Bryan Simpson, Vince Herman, Wyatt Ellis, John Mailander, and Thad Cockrell
8.30 Love and Theft
The Long Players, the world’s greatest tribute band, return to 3rd and Lindsley Saturday night for a re-creation of Carole King’s revered album Tapestry. The 1971 album won four Grammys at the 1972 awards show (including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year) and spent 313 weeks on the Billboard 200. Although The Long Players — guitarists Bill Lloyd and Steve Allen, bassist Brad Jones and drummer Steve Ebe — previously performed Tapestry in 2012 and 2017, it had been on their list of albums to revisit for some time. On Saturday, the band will be joined by a trio of musicians who regularly sit in with them — keyboardist Seth Timbs, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke and percussionist Paul Snyder — to accompany the eight standout female guest vocalists on the bill: Beth Nielsen Chapman, Kim Richey, Andrea Zonn, Jonell Mosser, Georgia Middleman, Maia Sharp, Carmella Ramsey and Trisha Brantley. The Long Players will follow the performance of Tapestry with a second set of additional material written by King. “The bonus set will feature so many songs that Carole wrote for others,” Lloyd
It’s not always easy for parents to find engaging activities for little ones — especially once all the big kids are back in school. But Nashville Children’s Theatre has you covered with its popular Snuggery series. Designed specifically for children ages 5 and younger, the NCT Snuggery offers one of the nation’s few Theatre for the Very Young programs, with immersive and interactive performances that the whole family can enjoy. And the Snuggery is back this weekend, kicking off its 2025-26 series with Inside Out and Backwards. Created by playwrights Kathryn Chase Bryer and Natasha Holmes (with music by Timothy Guillot), the piece follows Sister and Brother — who are supposed to be getting ready for bedtime. But their imaginations soon take over, drawing us into a world where “gloves swim like fish, shirts growl like beasts and socks groove in a closet dance party.” Alicia Fuss directs a couple of NCT favorites — Erica Lee Haines and Joe Mobley — and the show runs roughly 45 minutes with no intermission. Packed with giggly, wiggly fun, Inside Out and Backwards offers a great sensory-based introduction to live performance.
AMY STUMPFL
AUG. 16-DEC. 7 AT NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE, 25 MIDDLETON STREET
MONDAY / 8.18
MUSIC
[GOLDEN RING] CLARE DOYLE
Singer and songwriter Clare Doyle’s debut single, 2023’s “Devices,” is a striking nod to the country-rock style perfected by The Byrds. Dan Lowinger’s guitar licks evoke Clarence White’s
CLARE DOYLE
PHOTO: CHELSEA
modal approach to country, and Doyle’s voice is both precise and self-amused. Meanwhile, “The Catch” — another 2023 single cut with Lowinger — equates trying to find true love with driving a car you wouldn’t want to take on the highway. Doyle was born in St. Paul, Minn., and got into theater there before turning to songwriting. After living in New Orleans for seven years, Doyle moved back to St. Paul in 2021 and began her music career in earnest the following year. She currently splits time between St. Paul and New Orleans, and her country-soul-Americana synthesis is relaxed and bluesy. It doesn’t hurt that her songwriting respects the standard Americana tropes without sounding imitative. As she sings in “The Catch”: “I thought I had ya when you took off your wedding ring.” Doyle continues in country-rock mode on her 2024 EP Stranger, which peaks with a song titled “On My Own.” Her upcoming show at Dee’s is part of a tour that features Doyle performing with a full band. EDD HURT
9 P.M. AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE 102 E. PALESTINE AVE., MADISON
FILM [A LONG TIME AGO …] THE HIDDEN FORTRESS & STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE
MUSIC [AND MANY MORE] JESSE BAKER’S 40TH BIRTHDAY SHOW
It’s hard to believe Jesse Baker is celebrating his 40th birthday and not one a few decades further on — considering how hard he’s worked to help local underground music break out since he was a teen. He is or has been a talent buyer, a show promoter, a bartender, a front-of-house sound engineer and even a performer. I’m vague because he likely still has to do several of those things at once, since making a show run frequently requires all involved to wear many different hats. No wonder back in ancient times I spied Evan Bird of now-defunct Nashville rock heroes Diarrhea Planet playing a show while sporting a T-shirt reading “Jesse Fuckin’ Baker.” A bunch of Baker’s musical friends will serenade him at The East Room as he hits this milestone, and you’re invited to the party. Progsters Look What I Did, rawk acts Voltagehawk and Mall Gag and DJ-producer Quiet Entertainer are all set to perform. STEPHEN TRAGESER 8 P.M. AT THE EAST ROOM 2412 GALLATIN AVE.
TUESDAY / 8.19
[WE’RE HAVING A GOOD TIME]
COMEDY
DUSTY SLAY
On Aug. 18 at the Belcourt, you’ll have the chance to experience one of the coolest arthouse doubleheaders the beloved local theater has ever programmed. As part of its latest repertory series Akira Kurosawa: A Retrospective, the acclaimed director’s samurai adventure film The Hidden Fortress is screening in the evening. The screening will be sandwiched in between a pair of showings of a movie that was greatly influenced by The Hidden Fortress — a little picture called Star Wars: A New Hope, also screening as part of the Belcourt’s Music City Mondays series thanks to its iconic John Williams score. Star Wars’ biggest takeaway from The Hidden Fortress was a pair of bumbling yet integral sidekicks. Sound familiar? Check out everyone’s favorite droid duo, and their direct influences, in a killer Monday evening double feature. LOGAN BUTTS 2:30 P.M., 5:05 P.M. & 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
“I like a wet heat,” says Dusty Slay in the titular bit from his stand-up special Wet Heat, which debuted late last month on Netflix. “I like to sweat in places I didn’t even know I could sweat in. I like to go, ‘Why is that wet?’” Slay’s gravelly drawl and clean, relatable Southerneveryman premises have steadily gained the native Alabaman and longtime Nashvillian notice over the past decade-plus. That means multiple late-night appearances, a co-hosting gig on Nate Bargatze’s The Nateland Podcast, dozens of sets on the Grand Ole Opry and quite a bit of love here in the pages of the Scene — including a Best of Nashville win or two. He’ll be popping up once a month between now and the end of the year at his hometown comedy club, Zanies, where crowds can expect to catch some of Dusty’s contagious, laid-back vibes. Catch the first of those appearances this week. D. PATRICK RODGERS 7 P.M. AT ZANIES COMEDY CLUB 2025 EIGHTH AVE. S.
DUSTY SLAY
IT’S NOT JUST the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon — the frequency illusion when you see something more often once you become aware of it. 8th & Roast coffee really is around more than it used to be. This year, the South Nashville-based coffee brand is projecting to roast more than three times the amount of coffee it did in 2023. The company’s number of wholesale partners has increased from 10 in 2017 to more than 350 today. Part of that growth comes from the 2024 acquisition of Nashville roasting company Good Citizen Coffee Co. and sister brand Common Voice.
ROAST OF THE TOWN
Partnerships with the Titans and several small businesses are helping 8th & Roast fill cups across Nashville
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
business, serves 8th & Roast and is part of the partnership.
“The Titans do a lot of amazing things really well,” says Cris Piper, owner and founder of The Roaming Bean. “But coffee wasn’t necessarily their strength. So when the 8th & Roast team told me they got that contract, I was so excited for them. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to have some great coffee at the stadium.’ But then they said, ‘Piper, that’s not the reason we’re calling. We’ve got a partnership opportunity for you.’”
And part of the increased visibility of 8th & Roast is due to high-profile partnerships and strategic growth that will soon make it a household name in the Nashville homes where it isn’t already.
Piper says The Roaming Bean is currently serving coffee outside the practice facility and will be on the main level of the stadium near Section 146 on game days.
Last week, the Tennessee Titans named the family-owned 8th & Roast Coffee Co. the football organization’s official coffee partner. The deal took about nine months to finalize, and included offering cupping events for the Titans and taking them to visit some of the farms 8th & Roast works with. Even then, 8th & Roast CEO Ed Reed says he was skeptical that a small company like 8th & Roast was going to land such a big deal.
“I can’t find anyone of our size who has partnered on something like this level, with the Titans or NFL franchises, whatever it may be, a company of our size,” says Reed, admitting he’s a little nervous. “It’s a lot of responsibility. They saw the value of partnering with someone based in Nashville because the Titans have become very entrenched in the community. It’s humbling. I’d never expected our coffee company to grow like this.”
On her frequent travels through Europe, Piper — who was born in Germany — became enamored of the mobile coffee businesses serving customers in picturesque piazzas and wanted to bring that experience to Nashville. She also became enamored of the Piaggio Ape, a three-wheeled electric vehicle built on a moped frame. Piper says The Roaming Bean is the first such three-wheeled espresso cart in Nashville. Because it is small and electric, it can fit in many elevators and can be operated inside at a convention or special event.
This multiyear deal means 8th & Roast will supply fans with coffee in the current Nissan Stadium and in the new stadium when it opens as well. The Roaming Bean, a new mobile coffee
Piper is passionate about coffee — she’s had Miele coffee machines built into two different houses. When she moved to Nashville seven years ago, she began searching for her new favorite local roaster. “I had my first cup of 8th & Roast coffee when I got here, and I fell in love immediately,” she says. In her previous career, which she quit to launch The Roaming Bean, she traveled frequently, and the 8th & Roast location at the Nashville International Airport was a regular stop — so she knew she liked to drink their coffee. But when she met their barista trainers and saw the process they use to help train their wholesale partners, she knew 8th &
PHOTOS: ERIC
THE ROAMING BEAN
8TH & ROAST’S ROASTING PROCESS
Roast was the business she wanted to work with. She founded The Roaming Bean earlier this year.
When Hannah Schneider decided to bring back her beloved Kettner Coffee company, it was 8th & Roast’s training program and the company’s understanding of the hospitality industry — in addition to the good coffee — that convinced Schneider and her partner Giselle Ruggeberg to use 8th & Roast in the relaunch. Ruggeberg owns Jade & Clover, a plant bar in the Gulch, where Kettner Coffee opened earlier this year as an ongoing residency. Kettner was once located in East Nashville next to The Bookshop, though that location was sold in 2022 and rebranded as Hanna Bee Coffee. In addition to a traditional cup of coffee, the new Kettner serves strawberry foam matcha and pistachio latte, plus vegan and gluten-free pastries.
“We really wanted to stay local, hyperlocal, for this,” says Schneider, who has worked in Nashville hospitality for years — including launching marketing firm BRND House, which she sold in 2023. “Originally, I opened Kettner, simply for the experience of a coffee shop that felt friendly, nice and focused on hospitality. When we met with 8th & Roast and their team, it felt like hospitality was the core of what they did.”
Reed owns 8th & Roast with his brother Sam and Q Taylor, who was a childhood friend of the Reeds. They acquired a majority stake in the company in 2016, and took complete ownership in 2017. The trio also owned Sinema, the beloved restaurant that closed last year after a decade in Melrose. When Sinema shuttered, the owners kept the closing culinary team — executive chef Shelby Briggs and pastry chef Caleigh Collins — on board to revamp and oversee the culinary program for the brand’s coffee shops and its
catering efforts. The result is a menu of signature items, including cheddar-bacon-and-chive scones, breakfast burritos and vegan brown sugar-streusel coffee cake. That menu has helped raise the profile of the brand’s coffee shops on Eighth Avenue, Charlotte Avenue and in Midtown. The brand also has a couple of shops it doesn’t manage, including at the airport and inside Canopy by Hilton Nashville Downtown.
8th & Roast’s services — in addition to selling coffee — include menu development, consulting on equipment selection and installation, staff training, full shop buildout, and ongoing maintenance and quality control. The company has also just launched a “white label” partnership. Jaime Bacalan wanted to open a coffee shop inside Rooted, his boutique clothing and shoe store, which expanded to a larger location in the Gulch this year. Everything in the shop is branded as Café Rooted, and 8th & Roast is the well-advertised coffee supplier.
“It’s not only a revenue vehicle, but it’s something comfortable and conversational, allowing guests to have something in hand while spending time in the shop,” Bacalan says.
8th & Roast co-owner Taylor was a customer of Rooted, and that relationship helped open the doors to the deal. “Their team was instrumental in helping us get started, and they’ve stayed closely connected and available,” Bacalan says. ”From wholesale to training to visibility, they make everything easier for us.”
For all the growth and new projects, Reed is staying focused.
“I just want to first become the best coffee in Nashville,” Reed says. “And be known as that, or at least be in the conversation for that, which I think we are.” ▼
CULTURE SHOCK
Wedgewood-Houston’s Zeitgeist has been an art-world institution for more than 30 years — and a new project might be coming in its place
BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
A GOOD GALLERY can open up a city. Art starts conversations, advances culture, brings otherwise disparate communities into proximity with each other. A good gallery gives all that a place to happen. It makes sense, then, that Nashville’s most influential gallery has been set inside an architectural firm — a space built for imagining how people might move through the world.
In December, that gallery will close its doors. In a press release sent out last week, Zeitgeist’s Janice Zeitlin wrote that the gallery would close its doors at the end of the year. “After three locations and 32 years in business it is time to move to our next chapter.”
The news came as a surprise to almost everyone in the local art community. Artists took to social media to pay respects and deliver artworld eulogies.
“The space challenged me and the staff said yes to almost any idea I brought to them,” artist Karen Seapker wrote in an Instagram post that included photographs of her children in the gallery at various ages. “I saw my kids grow up in this gallery. My work grew immensely because of it.”
“Zeitgeist has been a home to us from our earliest days,” wrote Banning Bouldin of contemporary dance organization New Dialect in an Instagram comment. “Thank you for all you’ve done to support visual and performance artists in our city.”
“Wedgewood-Houston won’t be the same,” read a comment from Coop Gallery.
But after the initial shock wore off, it became apparent that good news is on the horizon.
Anna Zeitlin, the daughter of Zeitgeist founders
Janice and Manuel, says this is just the end of a chapter, not the whole book.
“Manuel Zeitlin Architects is going to stay in the space,” she tells the Scene by phone, “and they are currently talking with Lain [York, Zeitgeist’s longtime director] about a new project there that would start next year.”
The new project has yet to be defined, but Anna says it will potentially feature a mix of art, music and other community-focused events. For longtime gallerygoers in Nashville, the history of Zeitgeist as a place for performances means this incarnation is not a stretch — the space has hosted concerts in conjunction with art exhibitions as well as an experimental music series called Indeterminacies. Dance performances from New Dialect and the Trisha Brown Company have taken place at the Wedgewood-Houston location. More recently, a crowded closing reception for the group photo exhibition To Gather: Together included a DJ set and people playing cards around tables that were arranged like mini installations.
“Lain and the Zeitlins provided me with an opportunity that I couldn’t even fathom,” To Gather: Together co-curator Alisa Jernigan tells the Scene. “Because of the opportunity they afforded me, I feel empowered to step outside my zone of comfort into a path I never considered was for me.”
That’s a sentiment shared by artists who have been with the gallery for years, including photographer Vesna Pavlović.
“It’s always sad when a contemporary art space closes its operation in any city, and especially here in Nashville,” Pavlović tells the Scene “I think we need good spaces, and I think Zeit-
“AS RENTS KEEP GOING UP, IF WE WANT TO KEEP NASHVILLE CREATIVE, IT’S GOING TO TAKE COMMUNITY BUY-IN AND STRONGER PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN THE ARTS.”
—ANNA ZEITLIN
$12.25 million by Tim Johnson of Material Ventures LLC. About the sale, Anna tells the Scene the Zeitlins are still on the lease.
“We are 12 years into our 20-year lease, and are fortunate to be able to go out on our own terms,” she says. “I think it would be much harder to start now. As rents keep going up, if we want to keep Nashville creative, it’s going to take community buy-in and stronger public investment in the arts.”
geist has for so long been a space for interdisciplinary collaboration, for experimentation, for forward-thinking practices, and I will miss that aspect of gallery life in town.”
It’s that interdisciplinary vision that Pavlović thinks will be Zeitgeist’s most enduring legacy. “I think that that ground was super fertile, and also, Zeitgeist has always been very receptive to new artists,” she continues. “It’s really a big scope. I mean, they lasted for 32 years, and I think that tells you that model of collaboration with the city has really worked.”
In June 2024, the Scene’s sister publication the Nashville Post reported that the property where Zeitgeist was housed had been purchased for
The community that Zeitgeist nurtured — which includes artists like Seapker and Pavlović, curators like Jernigan, performers like New Dialect and even writers like myself (several of the earliest pieces of art criticism I wrote for the Scene were about Zeitgeist exhibitions) — has big shoes to fill.
“When you think about what was here before — like the Frist wasn’t here, right?” Anna says. “It’s just been amazing to see the way Nashville has changed. And I think knowing all that has made this decision a lot easier. It feels like there’s so many other places to see art, and so many people that will carry it on.
“I’m very excited to be a spectator for a change, and to see what comes next.” ▼
ZEITGEIST
LAIN YORK AND JANICE ZEITLIN
GOOD CLEAN FUN
Deep Tropics brings environmental responsibility to the festival scene
BY SEAN L. MALONEY
ANYONE WHO HAS ever been around at the end of a club night, rave or festival knows this inherent truth: Humans are gross. When the sun comes out or the house lights go up, no ground score can minimize how trashed a location is once the party stops. Walking to the exit is an exercise in not tripping over water bottles, food wrappers and every variation on VapoRub you can imagine. Bodily fluids (and occasionally solids!) appear in places they should never be. When people gather to celebrate, things get grimy. And gooey. And, “God, what did I step in?”
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if we, as party people, could leave the world a little better after the last notes fade out? That’s the question electronic music festival Deep Tropics, returning this weekend to Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, is trying to answer. Billed
seven and [I’ve] got a great team that’s come together, and eight directors, and [standard operating procedures] and systems and admin — just treating this thing like a real business. So it’s more support than I’ve ever had, and I’m pretty pumped up. Think we’re going to sell this fucker out too.”
When I first met Atchison, his company Full Circle Presents was essentially him and whatever friends he could rope into handing out flyers as the clubs emptied out. Like Music City’s electronic scene itself, Full Circle was small and scrappy, fighting for respect in a town that was not ready to fully embrace its cosmopolitan nature. Despite Nashville’s long relationship with electronic music — from when Gil Trythall dropped Country Moog in 1972 to the ’90s legendary underground rave scene and beyond — Dubya-era clubs weren’t exactly champing at the bit to book a DJ and let the bass blast. The fact that Deep Tropics has made a massive public space in the heart of the city its home is evidence of just how far the whole scene has come.
“Recycling, that was a priority from the jump,” Atchison recalls. “Composting is where we started, but now there’s zero single use-plastics. We don’t have trash cans on-site. We have a partnership with TerraCycle where we’re recycling the impossible items like cigarette butts and microplastics. We are carbon neutral. We do tree planting to offset all of the energy use. We have eco surveys we send out to everyone — staff, vendors, artists — that track our carbon footprint and then offset it, and a lot of local initiatives.”
as “the greenest festival in North America” and promoted with a stack of sustainability initiatives as deep and exciting as its lineup, Deep Tropics makes environmental stewardship as much of a priority as partying hard.
For festival co-founder Blake Atchison, it is the summation of 18 years of promoting electronic music events in Nashville, carving out a niche for these sounds in a town where neither outside nor inside forces expect them to thrive. The first Deep Tropics took place in 2017 — a relatively recent development in that span, but still almost a decade ago. While Atchison has earned the right to be jaded, when I reach him ahead of the festival, he is bubbling over with excitement in a way that belies his professional experience.
“The show’s mental — it’s fucking sick,” says Atchison. “I’m pretty fired up, man. This is year
“Deep Tropics was born out of a desire to create something that’s more than just a party,” Atchison says. “The whole program is insane, and I think it just creates another level of meaning for attendees. The show has a life of its own at this point, and I think Nashville’s grown up throughout that time, and I think this scene is finally here to support it. It’s been beyond blood, sweat and tears. It’s been a journey. [We are] booking artists from six continents that are in the electronic realm. We’re trying to do something culturally in Nashville that is a bit different.”
One component is a Sustainability Summit on Aug. 14 at East Nashville’s Studio 615, which will include presentations on environmental topics as well as music, food and drink. But the core of the team’s efforts revolve around the main festival site.
Beyond the carbon credits, recycling and composting, cultural conversations and creative endeavors, there is in fact a big, huge party happening. From stage designs to security details, Deep Tropics aims to make the experience of environmental stewardship as much fun as getting your face melted while you ride the rail. The lineup slaps from top to bottom, and it’s a mix of big names and gonna-be-big names from across the globe. Saturday headliner Subtronics has one of the hottest tours of the summer, and recently announced an October appearance at Las Vegas’ King of Enormodomes, The Sphere. Meanwhile, the undercard is stacked with see-’em-now, brag-later acts like Amémé, LF System and Maddy O’Neal — not to mention local party starters like Afrosheen and the back-to-back combo of Prince Slender and Figman. There are after-hours shenanigans as well, at late-night parties scheduled for Cannery Hall and Studio 615.
“We believe that caring about the planet is also caring about oneself,” Atchison says, “and that’s kind of this vibe that we’re trying to just infuse into every aspect of the festival, whether it comes to art or the materials we’re using. When you’re at a festival, your hearts and minds are just more open, I feel like. So I think we inspire people in that moment. It seems to have a huge impact.” ▼
PHOTOS: KEITH GRINER
SELDOM IS HEARD A DISCOURAGING WORD
Jazz pianist Jon Cowherd and his new ensemble COW bring the funk
BY ADDIE MOORE
NASHVILLE’S AS GOOD a place as any to put together a stacked band of players with ears for their chosen musical style’s regional roots. For evidence, look no further than the new jazz ensemble COW.
“I kind of had envisioned the concept of this band to be a mix of those ’70s Dr. John records and ’70s Miles Davis, if you can combine those things,” says Jon Cowherd, the seasoned pianist who is the band’s namesake.
Cowherd chases those and other sounds in a four-piece that includes two longtime friends from his years in New York: guitarist Ryan Scott and drummer Keith Carlock. Scott is earning quite the positive reputation around town as a singer-songwriter, while Carlock has sat behind the kit for such legends as Toto, Steely Dan and Sting. Fourth member Mike Elizondo is a Dr. Dre protégé whose writing credits range from 50 Cent’s “In da Club” to Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova.” The renowned producer and multi-instrumentalist has won three Grammy Awards from seven nominations.
“I met [Elizondo] through the radio show that Chris Thile did that came after A Prairie Home Companion, called Live From Here,” Cowherd explains. “Mike Elizondo was the musical director of that, and I met him doing that gig. We ended up doing some Joni Mitchell tributes and things together.”
Cowherd is accomplished in his own right, namely for his Grammy-nominated work with drummer Brian Blade in the Brian Blade Fellowship. Cowherd’s discography dates back 30 years and includes two full-length albums as a band leader: Mercy (2013) and Pride & Joy (2023). Between Cowherd’s growing catalog of originals and his bandmates’ own distinct musical voices, there’s plenty of space in a live setting for jazz improvisation.
“I like to leave a bit of room for freedom,” Cowherd says. “There will be some sections of the songs that are meant to be open so we can take it somewhere new and somewhere exciting.”
COW’s Aug. 16 appearance at Analog at Hutton Hotel, a joint presentation with the Nashville Jazz Workshop, is the group’s second show. Their debut gig was earlier this year at Rudy’s Jazz Room.
“There are a number of instrumentals that I’ve written over the years, and I’m choosing things that have kind of a New Orleans flavor because I went to college there and I’m a big fan of that sort of brand of funk that they do — Dr. John, The Meters … kind of that style,” Cowherd says. “I have some originals in that style, and I’ve arranged some covers to be in that style. So it’s a mix.”
Cowherd sings in COW. That’s a role he’s rarely embraced outside of his past duties in Rosanne Cash’s band.
“They’ve all played with singers and produced singers, so I know they’re the right musicians to play with and to try this with,” Cowherd explains. “There’s definitely comfort with these guys to try things.”
A native of Paducah, Ky., whose wife has relatives in Nashville, Cowherd moved to town a year-and-a-half ago for more than just family
ties and regional familiarity.
“I’ve always wondered what kind of fun things musically I could get into here,” he says.
“I have a lot of friends that have moved here from New York, where I lived before here for about 30 years. I know there’s so many great musicians here, and hopefully I can get into the recording scene a little bit.”
Cowherd’s immersion into the local studio scene will likely net more than additional session work for the former Iggy Pop collaborator.
After all, he’d love to record with COW, as he’s constantly working on new arrangements and new originals for the quartet. ▼ Playing 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, at Analog at Hutton Hotel
OPENS FRI, AUGUST 15
MUSIC: THE SPIN
O KAPTEN! MY KAPTEN!
BY JAYME FOLTZ
“IT’S ALWAYS BEEN a dream to play Drkmttr,” singer-songwriter Dalima Kapten said while making her Nashville debut at the all-ages venue on Sunday. “I’ve seen so many up-and-coming bands from Kansas City make their way through here.”
Hailing from Kansas City herself, the upcoming singer fronts a jazz-infused rock outfit with dreamy textures and cabaret style. Grounded in her Midwestern roots, Kapten’s music weaves haunting poetry with hypnotic high notes, each song an opportunity for Kapten to radiate a stage presence that is impossible to ignore. Her Harvest Tour launched after a thrilling set at Kansas City’s KC Folk Fest in May.
revision of “Home on the Range” with grit. Kapten’s voice continued to move from soft tones into mesmeric shouts as she sang a lovehate letter to her hometown. The band followed her shifts with precision, most memorably when Smith unleashed a trumpet solo that turned the room electric. Lee ended the performance by theatrically collapsing to the floor at Kapten’s finger gun.
Wednesday, August 13
LOUISE SCRUGGS
MEMORIAL FORUM
Honoring Alison Brown
6:30 pm · FORD THEATER FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Saturday, August 16
SONGWRITER SESSION Jessi Alexander NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, August 17
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Natalie Murphy
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 23
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Saturday, August 23
INTERVIEW Chris Hillman and Dwight Yoakam
3:30 pm · FORD THEATER SOLD OUT
Sunday, August 24
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Chris Leuzinger
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 30
SONGWRITER SESSION Terri Jo Box
NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, August 31
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Brassfield
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Local Kids Always Visit Free Plan a trip to the Museum! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties always visit free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.
After an unexpected no-show from scheduled openers The Kitchen Counters, it took a moment for the show to get going. Lawrence, Kan., native Paul Jesse stepped up to the stage first to perform pieces from his soon-to-be-released sophomore album Cycles. Yearning vocals backed by moody synths set the tone for the evening as Jesse belted the lyrics to his Cycles single of the same name: “Cycling around / Lost but I’ll be found.” It was hard to deny his easygoing energy as he finished his set with “Your Sunshine,” a radiant song from his 2024 debut album Hello Paul Jesse — a song you can’t help but want to sing along to.
Kapten opened her set with “Scrappy Rose,” offering a bluesy, folk-rock snippet from her 2024 EP Field Fire Burn, Burn — her first official release beyond the occasional single and YouTube soundbite. While she stepped on the stage with quiet grace, Kapten’s first song made clear her performance would be anything but subdued thanks to her captivating energy. She was accompanied by Jade Harvey on drums, Daul Lee on piano, Spencer Reeve on bass and Caden Smith on trumpet, with each player adding their own color to Kapten’s ethereal sound.
“We usually do this one at our shows back home,” she said before leaning into a burning
Kapten then slid onto the keys for a hushed rendition of “Feel the Beat, Bud” with quiet tenderness. She lifted the mood later with “Summer at Lonestar,” a bright, rolling ode to long days and slow heat. “Ravine” came next, with Kapten dancing as she repeatedly sang “If I loved you” with yearning. The set closed with “Low Flag,” a finale as heavy-hitting as Kapten’s vocal prowess, with dynamic range and fiery precision in every sustained note. Her performance was a pleasingly unique genre fusion with captivating theatrics that deserves to be heard more in Nashville. While her tour will keep moving down the road, I hope Kapten will bring a bit of Kansas back to us in the future.
Closing out the evening was Candynavia, the brainchild of Sofie Pedersen. Though she’s usually accompanied by her band, Pedersen stepped out solo with a briskly made set list after agreeing to fill in for The Kitchen Counters. Kicking things off with “Perfect Wife,” the idiosyncratic singer played through pieces from her debut album LITTLE ROOM. Pedersen shared a charming anecdote about a song inspired by getting an iced latte and forgetting about it until it gets warm, confessing, “I’m not used to playing this one on bass,” before launching into “Coffee’s Getting Warm.”
Beyond the music, Drkmttr lives and breathes through the people who gather there night after night. Unfortunately, this show didn’t pull much of a crowd — just a few stragglers toward the end of the night. The performers still carried on with the show, and the host venue plans to do the same.
Drkmttr recently kicked off their 10th birthday fundraiser to help sustain the space for the future, with plans already in motion for their annual Drkmttr Fest in October. Donations are being accepted now through Sept. 9 to make sure it remains accessible to the community. ▼
SEPT. 6 | 5-9 PM
GREEN HILLS PARK
Get ready for the 9th annual Green Hills Park Festival, a beloved neighborhood tradition that's grown bigger and better every year! Join us for a fantastic day in the park, all while helping to raise essential funds for the Friends Of Green Hills Park ongoing park improvement efforts.
Spike
DOING THE RIGHT THING
Lee’s Kurosawa
remake Highest 2 Lowest is an energetic, entertaining blast
BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
OF ALL THE MOVIES in Akira Kurosawa’s classic-filled canon, it’s kinda wild that longtime Kurosawa admirer Spike Lee chose to remake the legendary Japanese auteur’s 1963 crime story High and Low, repackaging it as his latest Black comic thriller Highest 2 Lowest Like nearly every Kurosawa film, High and Low (which, as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing Kurosawa retrospective, will screen a couple more times this Sunday) is about honor among men. Kurosawa’s adaptation of pulp novelist Ed McBain’s 1959 page-turner King’s Ransom is basically two movies in one: a soul-searching morality play and a sweaty, relentless police procedural. The first half of High and Low is basically a chamber piece, with most of the action taking place in the living room of Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa’s longtime leading man), a wealthy footwear magnate. In a case of mistaken identity, a mysterious criminal kidnaps Gondo’s chauffeur’s son, and Gondo must decide if he should use money he’s finagled for a business move to rescue the child. This half shows why High is considered a master class in blocking, as Kurosawa cleverly positions characters in shots that look like paintings of pensive despair. The second half takes it to the streets, as a diligent police department (led by Tatsuya Nakadai’s swarthy inspector and Kenjiro Ishiyama’s bald-headed chief detective) works day and night to find the culprit and retrieve Gondo’s cash.
As much as High presents a postwar Japan where both the haves and have-nots are prisoners in a society fueled by class and capitalism
(the real villains are Gondo’s heartless creditors and higher-ups, who are more concerned with money than saving people), it is an ultimately optimistic tale. Considering the deeply corrupt times we’re currently living in, a story of a captain of industry and an entire police force selflessly working to (I’m sorry about this) do the right thing feels almost like a soothing fairy tale. Kurosawa even provides some sympathy for the kidnapper, whose nefarious plan was brought on by years of living in seedy squalor.
Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest is also about finding hope for humanity in a divisive world. Set in modern-day New York (Lee and frequent cinematographer Matthew Libatique go above and beyond presenting the Big Apple as the most amazing place on earth), the movie features Denzel Washington as David King, a veteran Black-music mogul. (Think Diddy without all of the … allegations.) King goes through the same situation as Gondo: He debates taking the $17.5 million he was going to use to buy back his record label to save the son of chauffeur/bestie Paul (Jeffrey Wright), who’s been kidnapped by a spiteful MC (rapper A$AP Rocky, really leaning into the brattiness). Since this is a New York story, the police (including Allstate pitchman/ Oz alum Dean Winters as the resident racist detective) are more of a nuisance than a vital component, treating King like royalty and his ex-con pal Paul like a possible suspect.
As expected, Lee (along with screenwriter Alan Fox) works in a lot of social commentary amid the melodrama. Highest touches on everything from the cultural and corporate appropri-
NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2025 LINEUP
This year’s slate will include 140-plus films, a conversation with director Jay Duplass, You’ve Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine and more
BY LOGAN BUTTS
THE NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL last week unveiled the programming slate for its 56th installment, which will take place Sept. 18 through 24 at Regal Green Hills, Soho House, the Belcourt and more.
Although the long-running fest has yet to announce its opening and closing night presentations as of this writing, the 140-plus-film lineup features several anticipated selections, including a few that should be of special interest to longtime locals.
ation of Black music (between this and Sinners, that’s a major topic for Black auteurs this year) to social media savagery and, of course, our scandal-obsessed celebrity culture. The Gen-Z crowd might find some of this too get-off-mylawny, as Washington’s old-school music man is constantly reminding his son and others that the internet isn’t real life. (Something Washington spent some of his Gladiator 2 press-tour time commenting on.) But Highest is still an energetic, entertaining blast, and perhaps the only movie you’ll ever see in which the most exciting set piece takes place smack dab in the middle of the Puerto Rican Day Parade — with Latin jazz legend Eddie Palmieri (who recently passed away at age 88) onstage providing the fiery soundtrack.
As an Inside Man stan, I love it when Lee gets into popcorn-movie auteur mode, making a rousing, damn-near-operatic actioner that takes place in the city he calls home and slyly touches on pressing issues. Once again, he works wonders with Washington (his resident Mifune). The man who was once Malcolm X continues to rule in his shits-and-giggles era, giving one of his most playful performances as a smoothtalking family man who keeps it cool and loose even when he has to step up and get serious. In his own smart-ass, socially relevant way, Lee does his boy Kurosawa proud by taking one of his most humane masterpieces and giving it a crafty, contemporary, visually breathtaking update. High and Low continues to be something special, but Highest 2 Lowest is something else ▼
One of the week’s most unique events will be an in-person conversation with director Jay Duplass on the art of indie filmmaking. Duplass — known for mumblecore dramedies like Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home — will give insights into successfully navigating the indie film landscape before a screening of his latest, the Christmas-set The Baltimorons. Other buzzy narrative features slated for the festival include the Juliette Lewis- and Melanie Griffith-starring body-swap satire By Design, acclaimed Marathi romantic drama Cactus Pears, and Rebuilding, featuring Josh O’Connor and Meghann Fahy.
The always-robust documentary category is highlighted by Come See Me in the Good Light, the Sundance Festival Favorite award winner centered on late poet and activist Andrea Gibson following their terminal ovarian cancer diagnosis.
A pair of documentary selections seems tailor-made for Nashvillians. You’ve Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine showcases performances from beloved singers like Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers and Kacey Musgraves in honor of the legendary songwriter, while Opryland USA: A Circle Broken chronicles the demise of Music City’s forever favorite amusement park.
The festival will also include music video, shorts and episodic programming.
“This year’s program is one of our most exciting yet, with a wave of important and original work from emerging filmmakers who are shaping the future of cinema,” Lauren Thelen, NaFF programming director, says in a release. “Our carefully curated selection of films is designed to resonate with audiences and leave a lasting impression long after the screenings end.”
Find trailers, ticketing information and a full list of film synopses at nashvillefilmfestival.org. ▼
Highest 2 Lowest R, 133 minutes
Opening Friday, Aug. 15, at the Belcourt
Become
1 Major-league team known as the “North Siders,” locally
5 I.R.S. fig.
8 Playbill bits
12 Heckelphone relative
13 Urban housing option
15 Marie Claire competitor
16 1970 Van Morrison title track
18 Barbershop choice
19 A
21 Part of the house in which Kevin is left behind in “Home Alone”
22 Fundamental precepts
23 How some points end up
26 Common fossil fuel
27 K 31 A/C meas.
34 Yaki ___ (Japanese stir-fry)
35 Photographer Goldin
36 Line of rulers ended by the 33-Down
38 Japanese lunch box
40 Canine command
42 Chile’s Nevado ___ Cruces National Park
43 Ending with lemon or cannon
44 Q
47 Bud
48 Vape, informally
49 Sparkling water additive
53 40-40, say
57 J
60 2025 Pixar film
61 Big race that’s no longer around?
62 “Aw, jeez, you can’t do that!”
63 December has two big ones
64 N.B.A. star Ginóbili
65 Sharp flavor
66 C.I.A. predecessor
67 It can follow anyone DOWN
1 Curve that gives one pause?
2 German war vessel
3 What a stepstool provides
4 Mood
5 Reminder of a past fight, maybe
6 Karaoke choice
7 For real, to Gen Z
8 Happened to
9 Glazer of “Broad City”
10 Like Stonehenge vis-àvis the Parthenon
11 Sibyls
14 “End of story!”
17 Part of a restaurant’s ambience
20 “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the ___” (Bravo show)
24 Possess
25 A best man may make one
27 Part of a brass band
28 Checked like a bouncer, for short
29 Blotto
30 Not straight up, in a way
31 Give orders loudly and curtly
32 Corner
33 See 36-Across
37 Nicki Minaj or Iggy Pop, e.g.
39 Neighbor of an Emirati 41 Active ingredient in some gummies 45 Submit 46 Certain skirts 47 River through six Asian countries 49 Throw out
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AFFORDABLE TV
&
INTERNET.
If you are overpaying for your service, call now for a free quote and see how much you can save! 1-833-423-2924
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YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Nashboro Golf Course BNA airport
ENJOY THE OUTDOORS
Percy Priest Lake Long Hunter’s State Park
Ascend Amphitheater
FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
Larry’s Karaoke lounge
COMMUNITY AMENITIES
Indoor swimming pool and hot tub
Outdoor swimming pool Ping pong table
