DISTRICT 7
NEWS: NASHVILLE IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES STILL KNOW THEIR RIGHTS
>> PAGE 7
NEWS: ALTERNATIVE USES FOR THE MUSIC CITY LOOP
>> PAGE 7
MUSIC: SIERRA FERRELL TOPS THE SLATE AGAIN AT AMERICANA HONORS AND AWARDS
>> PAGE 35
DISTRICT 6
GERRYMANDERING WORKS
In 2022, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority carved Nashville into three new congressional districts. Here’s how that has played out since.
DISTRICT 5
WITNESS HISTORY
These boots—decorated with rhinestones and embroidered stars and stripes— were designed for the Monkees’ Michael Nesmith by Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors in 1967.
From the exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, presented by City National Bank, closing September 16.
artifact: Courtesy of Michael Nesmith artifact photo: Bob Delevante
Nashville Immigration Advocates Still Know Their Rights
The city is reeling from ICE’s May operation, but with another surge expected, education and advocacy campaigns soldier on BY
ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
Alternative Uses for the Music City Loop
The Boring Company’s Tesla tunnel is coming our way, like it or not. Here are our thoughts on what it can actually be used for. BY
JULIA BENSFIELD LUCE
Bill
Frist Looks to Science
Following his four years as a national conservative leader, physician Bill Frist of the billionaire Frist family has focused on the health and education of future generations BY
ELI MOTYCKA
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
COVER PACKAGE: GERRYMANDERING WORKS
How We Got Here — and Where Is ‘Here’?
Taking a tour of the area where Nashville’s three gerrymandered congressional districts meet BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Nashville’s Diluted Political Power
History and data show that gerrymandering has worked, delivering easy victories for Republicans BY ELI
MOTYCKA
A Close Look at the 7th Congressional District Race
The race to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green is crowded — and early voting in the primary begins Sept. 17 BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
CRITICS’ PICKS
Grassroots and Nudie Suits Festival , Stereolab, Omari Booker, Jillith Fair: Loving Jill Sobule, and more
FOOD AND DRINK
Date Night: Sauced Nashville, Fishmonger and River Steps
Experience the best of Germantown, from a historic house to a modernized meatpacking plant on the banks of the Cumberland BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
THEATER
Resilience and Rage
Street Theatre’s compelling presentation of cullud wattah confronts the 2016 Flint water crisis BY AMY STUMPFL
MUSIC
Make It Last
Dara Starr Tucker examines the power of the present on her latest LP BY RON WYNN
The Envelope, Please
Sierra Ferrell tops the slate again at Americana Honors and Awards BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
Out of the Crucible
Emma Swift responds to a personal crisis with an empowering album of all-original material BY DARYL SANDERS
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Nine Inch Nails at Bridgestone Arena BY ADAM GOLD
FILM
Let’s Get Physical
From baseball epic Eephus to the works of Russ Meyer, here are some of the best recent physical-media releases and re-releases BY JASON SHAWHAN
A Walk on the Wild Side
Dystopian horror-thriller The Long Walk is gruesome, disgusting, bleak — and effective BY LOGAN BUTTS
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THROUGH OCTOBER 30
• New! Harvest NIGHTS special events on Thursdays
• Three pumpkin houses in Pumpkin Village
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NASHVILLE IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES STILL KNOW THEIR RIGHTS
The city is reeling from ICE’s May operation, but with another surge expected, education and advocacy campaigns soldier on
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
MAY’S JOINT OPERATION between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state troopers was unlike anything seen before in Nashville. Tennessee Highway Patrol officers helped immigration enforcement agents arrest 196 people driving in South Nashville — home to many Latin American immigrants — and sent many of them off to a detention facility in Louisiana. Immigration advocates knew Trump would ramp up enforcement, especially in Democratic cities, but the volume of people taken away from the streets, and the surrounding confusion, created difficulties in the wake of the operation. And ICE and THP haven’t shared many details about the 196 detainees — most of whom had no criminal history.
“One of the things that really caught us off guard in May was just the complete lack of transparency from ICE,” says Allen Shao King, legal director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “We’re four months out from the May operation, and ICE still hasn’t released that list of the people that they’ve detained.”
TIRRC has been stressing the need for preparation with clients — what information to have ready, who to call if they get arrested, what to expect if a loved one is taken.
Shao King says TIRRC learned that ICE was pushing detainees to sign documents waiving
their right to an immigration hearing, fasttracking their deportation. If they didn’t sign they could stay in detention for months and fight the case. Some detainees, with limited English, might not have fully understood what they were signing. Others — like those with medical needs — had to choose between leaving their new homes or languishing in a cell.
Shao King says there are cases in which people may need to make the decision that’s safest for themselves. However, TIRRC’s “know your rights” training will continue to reinforce that “you shouldn’t sign things just because someone hands it to you.”
More advice highlighted in TIRRC literature: Stay silent, document everything, and don’t open the door without seeing a signed warrant from a judge — beware of warrants written by the ICE agency itself.
Shao King says that while TIRRC hasn’t seen an uptick in further ICE activity yet, the nonprofit is bracing for it. The Scene previously reported that the Tennessee National Guard would be activated in September to assist ICE with administrative work.
And with the federal government ballooning ICE’s budget by $30 billion, “it’s pretty inevitable that some of that money will get used to increase enforcement effort,” says Shao King.
This year ICE’s aggression has threatened
ALTERNATIVE USES FOR THE MUSIC CITY LOOP
The Boring Company’s Tesla tunnel is coming our way, like it or not. Here are our thoughts on what it can actually be used for.
BY JULIA BENSFIELD LUCE
THE MUSIC CITY LOOP — a two-way, 9.5-mile airport-to-downtown underground tunnel for Teslas — is happening whether we like it or not. Digging has already started on the controversial project, which was the brainchild of Elon Musk’s Boring Company, a handful of Tennessee GOP leaders, four
the public lives of immigrants. It’s less safe to go to work, and the agency no longer observes a policy preventing enforcement in sensitive locations like schools and churches.
In response, North Carolina advocacy group Siembra launched the Fourth Amendment Workplace campaign, training business owners about how to defend their and their employees’ rights when ICE agents visit. The campaign has reached 200 business and workplaces — including city employees of Durham — and is beginning to expand to Nashville through the efforts of labor advocacy organization Workers’ Dignity.
“It empowers people, and it reminds especially immigrants that regardless of their status, they have these rights because they’re workers,” says Daisy Ruiz Pérez, who is organizing the Fourth Amendment Workplace campaign in Nashville. Canvassers have reached out to roughly 16 businesses so far, with plans to continue outreach efforts. Ruiz Pérez says many managers and owners seem interested.
Brenda Pérez is the interim director of Workers’ Dignity, which celebrates its 15th anniversary on Sept. 20. She adds that the organization’s other campaigns against workplace mistreatment are still underway — and grabbing attention. “We’ve won a series of cases in the last few months that have been pretty visible,” she says.
groundhogs and zero geologists.
Critics of the tunnel say the privately funded project is rife with corruption, citing lack of transparency and a complete disregard for its environmental impact. Supporters of the tunnel — people who, historically, have always known what it means to be cool — say the project is “very cool!”
Details are scarce. Long-term effects are unknown. Benefits to Nashvillians? Nonexistent. The best we can do is dream up future uses for the tunnel when the dazzle (i.e., money) wears off. Here are some ideas.
1. An underground speakeasy that’s actually underground. It serves Prohibition-era cocktails and hosts exclusive vinyl listening parties. Patrons enter by lifting a “secret” manhole cover and plummeting 30 feet into the “vibey” space.
2. Much-needed public transportation solution for the people* of Nashville. (*People who live inside BNA.)
3. Lazy river!
4. The Tunnel: An immersive entertainment venue. It’s like The Sphere in Las Vegas but with more moonshine-related dinner theater and less oxygen.
5. Much-needed public transportation solution for the people** of Nashville. (**Cave crickets, crayfish, Tennessee woodrats and tricolor cave bats.)
6. Residential real estate concept: 1,000 tall-and-skinny houses built high, laid flat and shoved into the tunnel like loaves of bread. Starting at $1.5 million.
7. World’s longest two-lane bowling alley!
Shortly after ICE’s May traffic sweeps, Workers’ Dignity helped construction workers fight wage theft at the downtown YMCA and at the Pinnacle development. (The latter case has been resolved, per Workers’ Dignity’s social media posts.) Many of the workers helped by Workers’ Dignity are Latino immigrants, and the organization stresses that working-class people are being most harmed by ICE’s policies.
“This isn’t a time to lower your head,” says Brenda Pérez, “to bow down. This is a time to stand up and demand that our rights be respected.”
The sentiment is echoed at TIRRC headquarters. Shao King was speaking to the Scene ahead of the organization’s InterNASHional Night Market, a food festival highlighting a diverse array of immigrantowned businesses. And while TIRRC always has emergency plans in place — whether it’s a Democratic or Republican presidency — the coalition was eager to host the event and celebrate the community.
“One thing that the organization is trying to maintain is just that immigrants belong in Nashville, and they deserve a place to thrive, to show their food, their culture,” says Shao King. “We’re going to hold this event as best as we can, and we can’t let the threat of enforcement push everyone into hiding.” ▼
8. Commercial real estate concept: “Sub-Gulch.” Not to be confused with North Gulch, South Gulch or the Gulch. It’s Sub-Gulch. It’s different. It’s a way of life. It has a Party Fowl. And bats.
9. Much-needed public transportation solution for the Fraggles of Fraggle Rock.
10. Filming location for 9-1-1: Nashville (Season 3, Episode 1): Kane Brown’s rowdy performance at The Tunnel triggers a rare earthquake-fire-tornado across the city.
11. Subterranean gerrymandering.
12. Venue for Swan Ball 2027, benefiting the Cave Cricket Foundation (litigation pending).
13. A private space for Proud Boys to march as much as they’d like without anyone ever knowing or caring or showing them the exit.
14. A private space for Tennessee’s GOP to hold private meetings about “very cool” tunnel projects. No Justin Joneses allowed.
15. Filming location for 9-1-1: Nashville (Season 10, Episode 1): The children of Sub-Gulch have developed rickets from lack of sunlight. The only person who can save them is Nashville’s newest, most handsome 911 operator … Kane Brown.
16. Lazy river! Did I already say that?
Julia Bensfield Luce is a regular contributor to McSweeney’s and author of her own humor Substack, The Dummiss. Julia, her husband, and her friends are the self-proclaimed geniuses behind SkyMall Product Review, one of the stupidest blogs of the mid-Aughts (according to NPR’s Marketplace).▼
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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KATHERINE APPLEGATE at PARNASSUS Pocket Bear
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BILL FRIST LOOKS TO SCIENCE
Following his four years as a national conservative leader, physician Bill Frist of the billionaire Frist family has focused on the health and education of future generations
TWENTY YEARS AGO, Bill Frist shuttled back and forth between Nashville and Washington, D.C., where he set the national GOP agenda as Senate majority leader. First winning his U.S. Senate seat in 1994 over incumbent Democrat Jim Sasser, Frist — a physician and the son of Hospital Corporation of America founder Thomas Frist — led the chamber from 2003 to 2007. Under President George W. Bush, Frist helped bring the United States into the Middle East, opposed abortion access and helped modernize Medicare and Medicaid. He left elected office in 2007.
Though Frist consolidated power as a Republican, his politics buck today’s Trumprun party. Among his major legacy policies is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a comprehensive global health initiative to treat and reduce HIV/AIDS that was intentionally disrupted by President Trump this summer. Frist’s incredulous defenses of the climate and vaccines sound like the stuff of #resist liberal Facebook posts. He spoke with the Scene just after delivering opening remarks at Connecting the Dots: The Environment’s Impact on Student Success, a conference hosted by the Frist-funded State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) at the Noah Liff Opera Center in Sylvan Park.
The event brought in speakers and experts to discuss how environmental factors can positively affect student success and education outcomes, combining Frist’s interest in health,
BY ELI MOTYCKA
the natural environment and education.
Thanks for taking the time to sit down with the Scene. What’s your goal for this event, and what are you excited for? To stand before a room of 75 people who come together aligned around exploring the intersection between the environment and K-to-12 education for the first time is inspiring to me. That’s the purpose — to get conversation kicked off that would not otherwise occur if we hadn’t brought in groups who intersect from the K-through-12 world with the environment in which K-to-12 education is taking place.
It seems like that intersection is where your head has been since leaving elected office. SCORE started 15 years ago to focus on kids and the success of kids in education and in life at a time where Tennessee had an F — failing — in everything. So we created SCORE. It has not been perfect, but it’s exceeded my expectations, taking us from the bottom to around halfway to where we need to be. Other states use Tennessee as a model now. We want to be thinking about that, combined with the environment. The environment, to me, means safety. It means climate. It means how hot it is, it means wildfires, it means asthma in the classroom and pollution in the classroom. It makes sense to look at all that together as a physician thinking about long-term health and well-being. What do you hope people take away when thinking about those things together? We want
to set the foundation around goals, processes, action items that can take us to higher likelihoods of success in K-to-12 success. Success we define as being prepared for your life and career and the workplace. To maximize that, you have to pay attention and maximize the environment to make it safe and healthy.
Both are critical issues. I know you’ve been out of D.C. for a while, but we’re seeing changes at the federal and state level around vaccine policy and vaccine requirements that might jeopardize student health. Do you think that’s a move in the right or wrong direction? We won’t be addressing that at this event, but I do think that every American needs to be sensitive to what’s going on in Washington. Every American needs to see a cautionary flag if there is a destruction and mistrust built around what we know is scientific evidence.
Like vaccines? Yes, like vaccines. If you’re looking at any policy through a lens of health and well-being, you’d have to say that the current administration’s approach to vaccines is wrong. It will hurt people, and thousands of people will die if it’s fulfilled.
What other trends are you looking at in the intersection of health and education? Ten or 11 schools in Memphis had to close down this year because they weren’t prepared for [heat] — they didn’t have air conditioning, and so they didn’t have adaptability. Same thing in Oak Ridge. We need to sensitize people to think about that. Right now, the general accounting
BILL FRIST AT CONNECTING THE DOTS: THE ENVIRONMENT’S IMPACT ON STUDENT SUCCESS
“
COMING SOON
office looking at HVAC and cooling says that 36,000 schools have inferior systems that will be destructive to kids’ health and learning.
It’s not just heat. It’s pollution and asthma in the classroom. Hotter days aggravate asthma. That gets translated into less cognitive development and less learning. We’re getting more sophisticated with heat maps and urban heat maps to see that these impacts are disproportionate on communities that don’t have the resources to adapt.
Why haven’t you chosen to orient your work more on the cause of pollution, like industrial polluters or corporations? Much of the failure of the environmental movement has been beating down on the emissions part of it. It’s been a total failure. I look at pulling more people together to look at issues like adaptability and awareness and bringing people to the table. Not just beat down just oil companies, but if we as parents, as grandparents, do these things, then our kids are gonna learn more. They’re gonna be healthier, and they’re gonna be more successful in life. As a scientist, I know we’ve got data today that will improve the K-to-12 success of our kids. We want to sensitize people, and we have hopeful messages. What kind of future are you imagining for your grandchildren, and what do you think we should be preparing for in the next 10 or 20 years? I am optimistic. There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there, but the science pretty much tells us what we need to do. I see technology coming that we just didn’t have in the past, like pulling carbon out of the air. Nature-based solutions, like how 50 percent of the carbon is pulled out of the air by these trees. As we move toward conservation and appreciation of conservation, all of a sudden we have these nature-based solutions out there. Solar is one engine, but we’re gonna need all the energy that we can get. We just wanna make sure that it’s clean and sustainable. If we do that, things like asthma and heart disease will not be going on. ▼
Democrat Chaz Molder packed Hattie Jane’s Creamery on Sept. 4 in Columbia to officially launch his campaign for Congress . Molder, who grew up blocks from the Columbia town square, emphasized his small-town bona fides and took swipes at incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles . Molder was first elected Columbia mayor in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. He launched his campaign with help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which sees Ogles as a vulnerable Republican incumbent in 2026 largely due to ongoing campaign finance issues , campaign debt and Ogles’ suffering reputation in Middle Tennessee
Speaking of Andy Ogles , the 7th Congressional District representative said on social media last week that he thinks the National Guard should be sent to Nashville, writing: “Comrade O’Connell” — that’s Mayor Freddie O’Connell — “is using the city as an outpost for international gangs to set up shop in our neighborhoods. Punish criminals and the Mayors who work for them.” Scene opinion columnist Betsy Phillips responds: “I thought the mayor did a good job of responding. At his weekly media roundtable on Friday, he said Ogles seems ‘invested in the city he neither has an office in nor lives in,’ and that it seems like he’s angling for favor from Trump in order to secure a pardon. But this has been the truth about Ogles for a long time, and saying it out loud doesn’t seem to rattle him.”
Trousdale Turner Correctional Center has a new warden — the eighth to lead the state’s largest notoriously dangerous prison in the nine years since it opened, and the third this year. Private prison operator CoreCivic announced Sept. 6 the appointment of Allen Beard Jr as senior warden. Beard replaces Guy Bosch , who was named warden in April after then-warden Vince Vantell was placed on administrative leave and soon resigned. Though no reason was given for Vantell’s resignation, he has faced numerous lawsuits alleging a failure to address violence in the prison and homophobia and racism toward his coworkers.
GERRYMANDERING WORKS
In 2022, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority carved Nashville into three new congressional districts. Here’s how that has played out since.
AS FAR AS ANYONE KNOWS, the term “gerrymander” was first printed by the Boston Gazette in 1812. Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry had recently signed a bill redrawing the state’s Senate maps to help his own party, the DemocraticRepublicans. One of the redrawn districts, as depicted by a political cartoonist, looked an awful lot like a salamander. Thus the amphibious portmanteau gerrymander was born. The term, and the practice, stuck.
Following the 2020 U.S. census, Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature redrew the state’s congressional map. In the process, they carved Nashville — a longtime Democratic stronghold surrounded by a sea of rural red counties — into three new districts. Once wholly represented by Tennessee’s Democrat-safe 5th Congressional District, Davidson County is now split between the 5th, 6th and 7th. Republicans have been handily elected, and reelected, in each.
In this week’s three-part cover package, less than three months out from a special election to fill the 7th District seat, reporters Eli Motycka and Hamilton Matthew Masters look at how gerrymandering has played out in Nashville.
D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
HOW WE GOT HERE — AND WHERE IS ‘HERE’?
Taking a tour of the area where Nashville’s three gerrymandered congressional districts meet
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
NASHVILLE’S THREE CONGRESSIONAL districts — Tennessee’s 5th, 6th and 7th — intersect in South Nashville.
The train tracks that run above the Hicks-Ellis Tunnel on Thompson Lane mark the border between the 5th and 6th, and a northern portion of the 5th butts up against the 7th, which stretches to the northeast before curving back toward the center of Davidson County. The districts, to put it mildly, are not laid out simply. The 6th runs along the east side of those train tracks before stopping at the south side of I-440; the 7th runs along the west side of those tracks and north of I-440.
This description of where the three districts meet — convoluted as the intersection is — does little to explain their scale and where they really begin and end. The 7th Congressional District
alone encompasses 11 entire counties — Stewart, Montgomery, Robertson, Houston, Dickson, Cheatham, Humphreys, Hickman, Decatur, Perry and Wayne — in addition to portions of Davidson, Williamson and Benton.
Confused yet? Don’t worry, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has a map you can reference. (For those who recall Microsoft Paint, it should bring back fond memories.)
When you travel from the intersection of those districts into the 7th, you move from industrial and commercial areas, past the (delicious) El Mariachi Mexican Restaurant, Electronic Express Outlet Store, Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home and Woodlawn Memorial Park (the resting place of George Jones). The district moves into Berry Hill, encompassing The Fairgrounds Nashville and Geodis Park and established residential neighborhoods dotted with churches and newer tall-and-skinny homes.
From there, the 7th expands into and throughout West Nashville and further into the western portions of Middle Tennessee, much of which is rural. At times, these portions of the district seem like they’re a world away from Davidson County.
Given the fact that the overwhelming majority of the 7th Congressional District lies
outside of Davidson County, that’s where most of the campaigning to replace retired U.S. Rep. Mark Green has occurred — largely in the form of partisan forums and meet-and-greets. Most of those events have been to the benefit of Republicans, whose county party presence and power are far more robust than those of the Democrats throughout the district.
Nashville’s gerrymandering issue dates back to 2022, when Tennessee’s Republican supermajority approved the revised congressional district maps, along with redrawn state Senate and House district maps. The map was later challenged in federal court, but that challenge was eventually dismissed — meaning the districts will likely retain their serpentine shapes until after the next federal census in 2030. District maps are typically reevaluated or redrawn every decade.
Before 2022’s redistricting, Nashville was home to a Democratic-safe seat in Congress for decades. Since then, the state’s most populous city has been represented by Republicans, all of whom have handily won reelection: Rep. Andy Ogles in the 5th, Rep. John Rose in the 6th and, until his resignation in July, Rep. Mark Green in the 7th.
None of them actually resides in Nashville.
NASHVILLE’S DILUTED POLITICAL POWER
History and data show that gerrymandering has worked, delivering easy victories for Republicans
BY ELI MOTYCKA
THERE IS NO SINGLE origin point, or person, solely responsible for the electoral maps that today determine the balance of political power in Tennessee. Technically, the state’s nine U.S. reps determine which party has a governing advantage in the House of Representatives. Maps are power in democracy, and three years after GOP-controlled committees approved new state House, Senate and congressional districts, many are still unwilling to say who exactly controlled the process or who first suggested the new boundaries. Tennessee’s redrawn congressional districts are particularly shrouded — “Above my pay grade,” one Republican lawmaker tells the Scene, the issue still sensitive enough that he asks for anonymity.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) carried the maps in the state Senate, while Rep. Pat Marsh (R-Shelbyville) sponsored the legislation in the state House. The legislation itself directly amended state law, piecing together population quotas with counties, voting districts and 10-digit census block numbers. Tennessee’s population grew almost 9 percent between 2010 and 2020, unevenly across the state’s many counties, giving redistricting committees in the House and Senate a decade’s worth of new data to work with. Doug Himes likes to call it a giant jigsaw puzzle.
“It’s a fun puzzle, and it’s not an easy thing to do,” Himes, the Tennessee House’s ethics counsel, explains by phone. “I’ve never felt political pressure to draw a map any particular way, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not — there’s some element of a political process. That’s just part of it. The party with the majority typically tends to control the process.”
Himes produced new boundaries for the chamber’s 99 districts throughout fall 2021. The effort included meetings with all 99 incumbent state representatives. It was Himes’ fourth redistricting process. Today’s state House and Senate districts are still subject to a lawsuit pending in the Tennessee Supreme Court and closely followed by Himes, as it calls into question his work. The court heard arguments 11 months ago and has not yet ruled.
“Congressional ones, there’s a little bit more ability to be — well, creative,” says Himes when asked about drawing districts toward specific electoral ends — political gerrymandering. “The House and Senate plans, there’s more guidelines built into our state constitution about how those districts are drawn.”
Himes doesn’t know when he first saw Tennessee’s redrawn congressional districts, but he traces them to Memphis attorney John Ryder.
DISTRICT 7 DISTRICT 6
Formerly counsel to the Republican National Committee, Ryder was well-versed in election law and well-regarded by the national party. He died of cancer in May 2022.
When Republican leadership in each chamber’s redistricting committee brought the maps in, the new lines were immediately controversial. While state lawmakers hemmed and hawed about losing important constituents or gaining certain geographic areas, Davidson County’s longtime congressional seat disappeared altogether.
For decades, the county’s population had neatly matched a single U.S. House district, giving Nashville its own representative in D.C. Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat, held the seat for 10 consecutive terms. Cooper had hustled at hearings and public events to protest what he saw as a crime against democracy. On Jan. 12, 2022, he provided his diagnosis: “As I’ve been warning for almost a year, the General Assembly has formally begun gerrymandering Nashville and Davidson County into political oblivion.”
Even U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a prominent Trumpaligned Clarksville Republican, blasted the new districts as “inherently unfair” and “drawn for politicians” instead of people. Green went on to win his new seat comfortably in 2022 and 2024.
State Democrats did not have the votes to put up any resistance.
“When we talk about ensuring ‘free and safe elections,’ many people think that’s about China stealing our votes or the Russians hacking our systems,” says state Rep. Bob Freeman, a Nashville Democrat who served on the House Redistricting Committee. “The reality is, these districts are guaranteed to be D or an R, and at the end of the day, they’re 80-20 seats. Either they can’t beat us, or we can’t beat them. The system’s broken.”
Freeman points out that the committee, led by Republican Reps. Marsh and Curtis Johnson (R-Clarksville), didn’t even vote on the alternative maps Democrats proposed.
“The whole thing was just a show,” Freeman recalls. “I even looked at Pat because I was so mad, like, ‘Why are we even here?’ We’re supposed to be vetting these maps as a committee, but we haven’t seen them before, and we don’t consider anything else. It was just a rubber stamp.”
The Cook Political Report estimates just 18 of
the country’s 435 House races will be toss-ups in 2026. Democrats in Texas ran into the same quandary in August, choosing to flee to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum in the unilaterally controlled state capital. Newly proposed GOP maps in Texas will likely shift five more of the state’s 38 seats to Republicans. The highly publicized partisan battle has spun off counter-efforts by Democrat-held states like California and New York in retaliation. Seen as territory to manipulate, the country begins to look more like a puzzle or board game than a robust nation where elections test competing ideas and philosophies.
Before becoming a Democratic state senator, Charlane Oliver — at the time the executive director at Black voting rights nonprofit the Equity Alliance — underscored Nashvillians’ frustrations at a January 2022 hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“With no notice, little debate and no explanation for why these plans were drawn in such a manner, mapmakers have carved up Nashville-Davidson County into three congressional seats, creating an unprecedented extreme gerrymander that splits the Black voting age population down to 11.8 percent, 8.6 percent and 15.5 percent,” Oliver told her future colleagues. “I’m concerned that long-term Nashville residents like me are being forced to compete for our interests with rural residents in our district rather than share common interests.”
The Voting Rights Act, landmark civil rights legislation passed in 1965, offers some federal protections for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. It’s the state’s only majority-minority district and the only seat currently held by a Democrat, Memphis’ Steve Cohen. While the Supreme Court struck down the act’s powerful pre-clearance requirement in 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder — a provision that required redrawn majority-minority districts to first get approved by the federal Department of Justice — slicing Memphis like Nashville would have provoked strong legal challenges for diluting the Black vote.
Instead, Republicans distributed Middle Tennessee’s Black voters across the 5th, 6th and 7th districts. Nashville’s heavily Democratic vote is now diluted, mixed in among the rural voters of three districts. Outside of Memphis, the only counties meaningfully split by congressional
U.S. REP. MARK GREEN OF TENNESSEE’S 7TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, A PROMINENT TRUMP-ALIGNED CLARKSVILLE REPUBLICAN,
EVEN BLASTED THE NEW DISTRICTS AS “INHERENTLY UNFAIR” AND “DRAWN FOR POLITICIANS” INSTEAD OF PEOPLE. GREEN WENT ON TO WIN HIS NEW SEAT COMFORTABLY IN 2022 AND 2024.
lines are Davidson, Williamson and Wilson, the engines of Tennessee’s population growth in the past 10 years. All three of Nashville’s districts avoid Murfreesboro, another population center with a burgeoning Democratic vote.
Oliver’s point goes beyond the lines’ deadening impact on Black political power: Gerrymandering produces districts that simply don’t make sense beyond having the required number of voters. Different economies, different demographics, different cultures, different education hubs, different ways of life all reflect different people with separate interests. Tasking one member of Congress with any one of these districts sets up an impossible balancing and advocacy act, making each member less effective at the job.
Democrats have little left to lose heading into the Dec. 2 special election for Tennessee’s 7th District. Green’s abrupt resignation in July put a national spotlight on the race and has already made the primary, set for Oct. 7, a proving ground for each party’s competing elements in an uncertain political environment dominated by Trump’s shadow. As Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee’s 5th sinks further into debt and scandal, a credible Democratic challenger has emerged in Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder. Both races have caught the eye of the D.C.based Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s powerful funding and operations control center, which scours the country for the six seats necessary to win back the House of Representatives. Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose’s campaign for governor leaves open Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District in 2026. Rose has not faced a serious Democratic challenger in any of his four campaigns for Congress.
History and data show that gerrymandering has worked, delivering easy victories for Republicans in two straight cycles. The future is less certain.
Disclosure: Rep. Bob Freeman is also president of Scene parent company Freeman Webb. ▼
PHOTO: MARTIN
OCTOBER 11 & 12, 2025 buy tickets
A CLOSE LOOK AT THE 7TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RACE
The race to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green is crowded — and early voting in the primary begins Sept. 17
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
IN JULY, JUST EIGHT months after winning reelection, Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green resigned from his seat representing Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District — a district that, since 2022’s redistricting, has included a large swath of Davidson County. In the race to take Green’s seat, the crowded Republican slate features four clear frontrunners: state Reps. Jody Barrett, Lee Reeves and Gino Bulso, alongside former commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of General Services and U.S. Army Ranger Matt Van Epps.
Other GOP candidates include now-pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionist Stewart Parks; Metro Nashville Police Department Detective Joe Leurs; businessman Stuart Cooper; former Tennessee state Senate staffer Tres Wittum, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican
nomination in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District race in 2022; Montgomery County Commissioner Jason Knight; 28-year-old political newcomer Mason Foley; and businessman Adolph Agbéko Dagan.
Democratic candidates include state Reps. Bo Mitchell, Vincent Dixie and Aftyn Behn — all of whom represent Nashville districts — as well as political strategist Darden Copeland.
Independent candidates include Teresa “Terri” Christie, Bobby Dodge, Robert James Sutherby and Jon Thorp.
The 7th District primary will take place Oct. 7 (early voting Sept. 17-Oct. 2), with the general election to follow on Dec. 2 (early voting Nov. 12-26).
TOP ISSUES, FIRST BILLS
Each Republican candidate has been working to convince voters that he (all 11 are men) stands above the others as the “true conservative” and the most MAGA candidate — or at least the one who could push President Donald Trump’s agenda the furthest in the House of Representatives. All the Republican frontrunners support the potential deployment of the National Guard in Memphis — something considered by Trump as he continues to deploy soldiers in Democratic-leaning cities, allegedly to combat crime.
Reeves was elected to the state House in 2024
following a flood of out-of-state PAC money and an endorsement from Gov. Bill Lee. His short tenure before launching yet another campaign has been a source of criticism from his opponents. Reeves has said that if elected, his first bill would end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants — despite the fact that a bill with that aim was already filed by Republicans months ago. Reeves argues that the current bill hasn’t been passed, and pitches himself as an effective legislator who can actually get bills moved through the House. He has promised to “demagnetize” Tennessee in regard to illegal immigration.
Bulso, a self-described “culture warrior” in the state House, says he’s running to “give the people the type of government that their founders pledged their lives, their honors and their sacred fortunes for.” The Brentwood Republican says his first piece of sponsored legislation would require the federal government to pass a balanced budget.
“Our opposition is our own federal government that has grown in scope way beyond the powers that were properly delegated to it by our Constitution,” Bulso says.
Barrett says his top issue is ensuring federal “election integrity,” but that his first sponsored bill would aim to replicate Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth at the national level. Barrett claims trans people “have
“OUR OPPOSITION IS OUR OWN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THAT HAS GROWN IN SCOPE WAY BEYOND THE POWERS THAT WERE PROPERLY DELEGATED TO IT BY OUR CONSTITUTION.”
—REP. GINO BULSO
been sold a bill of goods and been damaged,” and that “the rage that comes out is what manifests itself in these school shootings and the violence.” He has also touted his anti-schoolvoucher stance: During this year’s special session, Barrett stood apart from Gov. Bill Lee and Republican leadership in opposition to the largely GOP-backed voucher legislation.
Van Epps has said the first bill he intends to sponsor will be “to support veterans,” citing issues such as investing in child care and health care for vets. He has also pitched a “12-month tax-free [period] for veterans” who are transitioning out of the military.
While the Democratic candidates will of course publicly state that they intend to win the race, privately, many Democrats acknowledge that the uphill battle is more akin to scaling a political mountain.
“Davidson County only represents about 20 percent of this district,” Mitchell told the Scene in July. “This race is going to be won or lost — in the primary and the general — once you cross the Davidson County line.”
That doesn’t mean Democrats aren’t putting up a fight. Behn — a longtime community organizer, one of the youngest candidates on either side and the only woman in the race — has made several national television appearances in recent weeks. Some Democrats have privately criticized Behn’s presence in the
race as a means of elevating her national profile, pointing out that she doesn’t actually live in the 7th.
“In the most MAGA-gerrymandered congressional district in the country, I live walking distance from the line,” Behn told the Scene in late July, adding that she’ll move to the district if she wins and arguing that “this moment requires people like me who offer fearless leadership and meet the moment.”
All four Democratic candidates list expanding access to health care, education and child care among their top priorities, as well as addressing affordability in housing and groceries. During a Sept. 7 forum in Fairview, all four criticized the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard in blue cities and signaled support for comprehensive immigration reform. They all pledged to hold regular town halls, if elected.
“I am the candidate that’s going to inspire a lot of young people to get involved in Tennessee politics,” Behn said during the forum. “I’m the candidate that’s going to bring a national political apparatus with us to mobilize the votes and money necessary to defeat the Republicans.”
Mitchell says his strategy includes leaning on his existing relationships with community
leaders in the 7th District. “I’m not having to introduce myself or convince anybody,” he says, “and in a short timespan like this, that kind of gives me an advantage.”
“This is a real opportunity like we’ve never had in a long time in Tennessee,” Mitchell says.
“People have to understand that their lives are literally at stake right now,” says Dixie. “And getting them to understand the severity of what this vote means — we have to get people out to vote for people who represent their interests.”
“This is an opportunity to get someone in that seat that’s not going to just be a rubber-stamp just because of whoever the president is,” Dixie says.
In taking on three elected state representatives with more name recognition, Copeland says he’s “not afraid of a challenge” and pitches himself as a “coalition builder.” He says the passage of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and the defunding of public media are both important issues and examples of opportunities to stop Republican efforts to chip away at public institutions and initiatives.
“We need to pick up this seat, and we can’t give [Republicans] another year of winning votes and cutting working-class and bread-andbutter issues and funding out of what’s been approved by Congress,” Copeland says. “They’re
winning by one and two and three votes, so this election really matters.”
“We’re at a point where politicians are picking their voters and not letting voters pick their politicians,” Copeland told the Scene at the Fairview forum. “But I think that’s the reason that I’m going to every corner of the district.”
Dixie says he can mobilize Black voters in Nashville.
“I think that for all of the Democrats, the strategy lies within the top three populous counties, which are Montgomery, Williamson and Davidson,” Behn said at the forum. “So I think a lot of the organizing has to happen in these three counties to mobilize voters.
For the most part, these are highly engaged, highly educated voters who just need the right information, and a lot of them don’t even know there’s a special election going on.”
ENDORSEMENTS
Barrett has earned endorsements from conservative nonprofit Tennessee Stands, country musician John Rich (his childhood friend) and the House Freedom Fund, a wing of the Freedom Caucus. Reeves has been endorsed by every Williamson County mayor, state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and the Newt Gingrich-founded GOPAC
organization. Bulso touts an endorsement from NASCAR Hall of Fame member and Franklin businessman Darrell Waltrip. Van Epps, the first Republican to enter the race, was endorsed by Green, with whom he served in a special operations regiment.
In recent weeks, some Republicans have become more comfortable publicly criticizing Green, from his abandonment of the seat for a private-sector job to his contentious and highprofile divorce. Some Republican candidates have made a point to distance themselves from Green. Van Epps says, despite any criticism some of his fellow candidates may have of Green, he’s “honored to have his endorsement and excited that he’s behind our campaign.”
Mitchell has been endorsed by a slew of unions, including the Nashville Ironworkers 492, Teamsters Local 480, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the Plumbers, Fitters, Welders and Service Technicians Local Union. He has also earned the support of former 5th District U.S. Rep. Bob Clement.
Dixie has been endorsed by his fellow Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis, while Behn has been endorsed by Her Bold Move, an organization that supports women candidates. ▼
“WE’RE AT A POINT WHERE POLITICIANS ARE PICKING THEIR VOTERS AND NOT LETTING VOTERS PICK THEIR POLITICIANS.”
—DARDEN COPELAND
SEPTEMBER 24
TOAD THE WET SPROCKET WITH KT TUNSTALL AND VERTICAL HORIZON
OCTOBER 1
BIGXTHAPLUG & FRIENDS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JANUARY 6
RICHARD THOMAS IN MARK TWAIN TONIGHT ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JANUARY 29
HANNAH BERNER ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JANUARY 30
SHENG WANG ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
FEBRUARY
MARCH 23
STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN ON SALE
EXHIBIT OPENS NOVEMBER 14
OPENING WEEKEND EVENTS
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14 • 7:30 pm • CMA THEATER
MUSCLE SHOALS: OPENING CONCERT CELEBRATION
Tiera Kennedy • Bettye LaVette • Wendy Moten • Spooner Oldham • Dan Penn • Shenandoah Maggie Rose • John Paul White • With house band led by Will McFarlane
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 12
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15
SONGWRITER SESSION
DAN PENN & SPOONER OLDHAM
NOON • FORD THEATER
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15 PANEL DISCUSSION
MAKING MUSIC IN MUSCLE SHOALS WITH LINDA HALL, CLAYTON IVEY, and CANDI STATON
2:30 pm • FORD THEATER
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT MAC M c ANALLY 1:00 pm • FORD THEATER
PRESENTED IN SUPPORT OF THE EXHIBITION MUSCLE SHOALS: LOW RHYTHM RISING . EXHIBIT SUPPORTED BY ONELOUDER. PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY PEDIGREE.
THURSDAY / 9.11
[THINGS HERE ARE DIFFERENT]
MUSIC
JILLITH
FAIR: LOVING
JILL SOBULE
Thursday afternoon at The 5 Spot, AmericanaFest attendees and others will have the opportunity to help celebrate the life and music of singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, who tragically died in a house fire in May. A beloved artist probably best known for her mid-’90s hit “I Kissed a Girl,” Sobule had deep connections to Nashville, having lived here off and on in the late ’80s and early ’90s. She worked extensively
throughout her career with Nashville-based producers Brad Jones and Robin Eaton, the latter of whom was also her frequent co-writer.
Dubbed Jillith Fair: Loving Jill Sobule, the fourhour event will feature friends and admirers paying tribute to Sobule, a genuine troubadour.
The lineup includes both Eaton and Jones (Jones will serve as emcee) as well as Robyn Hitchcock, Bill Lloyd, David Mead, Swan Dive, Amy Speace, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Brad Talbott, Ben Goldsmith, Marina Rocks, Katie Boeck and others.
“Everyone will get 10 minutes,” Jones tells the Scene. “They’ll tell a little story about what Jill means to them, then do two songs. I think half
the people will do a pair of Jill’s songs, and the other half are gonna do one of Jill’s and one of their own.”
DARYL SANDERS
NOON AT THE 5 SPOT
1006 FOREST AVE.
FRIDAY / 9.12
MUSIC
[GONE LIKE A COOL BREEZE] RICK VITO
Award-winning songwriter-guitarist
Rick Vito has etched his name in rock history with the kind of career most musicians can
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
SEPT. 12 - OCT. 25
ART [BE HIMSELF]
OMARI BOOKER: BE In 2023, Omari Booker’s exhibition at Elephant Gallery, Fifteen, took me by surprise. The massive self-portraits told Booker’s story — which includes serving time for a nonviolent drug offense — in a way that was both vulnerable and unflinching. For his second show in the gallery, Booker has focused his attention elsewhere, but in a way that makes perfect sense. Be is a character study of Booker’s friend B, who has for the past 10 years lived under a church-owned pavilion in Bordeaux. “While B lives with very limited resources, he is a man at peace who is thriving in his environment,” says the gallery’s exhibition statement. An 80-by-65-inch canvas called “God” is the show’s centerpiece, and captures B in front of a setting sun. But because this is portrait painting, the sun immediately brings to mind religious iconography, making B a modern-day saint. It’s satisfying to see Booker return to the same subject over and over again in an almost obsessive fashion — there are more than a dozen painted portraits of B in this exhibition, and almost as many drawn portraits. It’s evident that Booker is a careful and persistent artist. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER THROUGH OCT. 25 AT ELEPHANT GALLERY 1411 BUCHANAN ST.
NASHVILLE REPERTORY THEATRE: COME FROM AWAY PAGE 22
GRASSROOTS AND NUDIE SUITS FESTIVAL PAGE 24
MARSHALL CRENSHAW PAGE 26
only dream about. Best known as a bluesrock guitarist and master of slide guitar, he’s recorded and toured with many legends of rock history, including Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Todd Rundgren, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall, Jackson Browne and Roy Orbison. He was a member of Fleetwood Mac between 1987 and 1991, replacing guitarist Lindsey Buckingham when he left the group. Between 2008 and 2017, Vito worked with Mick Fleetwood again in The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band. He’s also released a dozen albums of his own, most recently 2024’s fabulous Cadillac Man. “I really like Cadillac Man; I like the way it
came out,” Vito tells the Scene from his home in Franklin. “I took my time with it … and finally got a collection of songs that I thought worked together.” With backing from the other longtime members of his trio — bassist Mike Joyce and drummer Lynn Williams — Vito will be performing songs from Cadillac Man, as well as a cross section of material from his earlier records, when he takes the stage Friday night at Fox & Locke.
DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT FOX & LOCKE
4142 OLD HILLSBORO ROAD, FRANKLIN
MUSIC
[GIVE UP THE GHOST] RUSTON KELLY SUPER SONGJAM
Singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly broke through with 2018’s Dying Star, an alt-country masterpiece that found the artist exorcising personal demons with trademark wit, selfdeprecation and honesty. Since then, the king of “dirt emo” has emerged as one of the most revered lyricists in the Americana genre. His new album, Pale, Through the Window, is Kelly’s most hopeful work, exploring new love and the joy of finding something stable in an uncertain world (“Wayside,” “Half Past Three”). “This album feels like a return to the truest, purest, most complete version of who I am as an artist and a human being,” Kelly says in a press release. “I wanted to write about joy in a way that was still honest and complicated, because that’s what real joy is — it carries everything that came before it.” Just in time for AmericanaFest, Kelly will celebrate the release of Pale, Through the Window with his Super Songjam at The Bluebird Cafe. BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
6 P.M. AT THE BLUEBIRD CAFE
4101 HILLSBORO PIKE
[WE CAN BE HEROES]
FILM
TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
If I had to pick the definitive coming-of-age story for my generation, it’d be The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I remember picking up the novel in eighth grade, deciding I was ready for
“deeper literature.” What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was how both the book and film adaptation, which has the unique privilege of being written and directed by the book’s author Stephen Chbosky, would become incredibly important in navigating the major changes, loneliness and vulnerability of adolescence. There was something special about logging onto Tumblr in middle school and reblogging images of Logan Lerman and Emma Watson with text overlay reading, “In this moment we are infinite,” and, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” But The Perks of Being a Wallflower has a lasting power beyond other films of the early-2010s YA era, beyond rosy nostalgia. It’s not just that the teenagers in it all love The Smiths, and there’s a Rocky Horror Picture Show dance number. It’s watching Charlie, the film’s sweet and painfully shy protagonist, as he navigates his freshman year of high school while grappling with trauma, loss and the pangs of first love. The film’s enduring message — allowing yourself to ask for and receive help, whether it comes from a good teacher, a song or a night with friends — remains deeply moving. And who can forget the master class use of “Heroes” by David Bowie to showcase the pure exhilaration of finding your people for the first time? It is infinite. The film is showing as part of the Belcourt’s Teenage Wasteland series — find showtimes at belcourt.org. KATHLEEN HARRINGTON
SEPT. 12 & 15 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[WELCOME TO THE ROCK]
THEATER
NASHVILLE REPERTORY THEATRE: COME FROM AWAY
Come From Away is a rather unconventional musical — not only because of its unlikely subject matter, but also thanks to its intimate approach to storytelling. Set in the dark days following the horrific attacks of 9/11, this 2017 Tony winner tells the true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the tiny town in Newfoundland that welcomed them when U.S. airspace was forced to close. Featuring book, music and
lyrics by Canadian writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away takes on deep themes of compassion and community with great honesty and surprising humor. You can experience the inspiring story this weekend as Nashville Rep opens its 41st season at TPAC’s Polk Theater. Leah Lowe directs a solid ensemble, including Annika Burley, James Crawford, Travis Darghali, Ben Teal Davis, Tyler Evick, Jennifer Jackson, James Rudolph II, Brenda Sparks, Melissa Steadman, Carrie Tillis, Jordan Tudor and Garris Wimmer. Audiences also can look forward to music direction by Sarah Michele Bailey and choreography by Joi Ware. And while the piece is known for its sleek design and character-driven storytelling, I’m eager to check out Gary C. Hoff’s scenery, along with Dalton Hamilton’s lighting and Melissa Durmon’s costumes. AMY STUMPFL
SEPT. 12-21 AT TPAC’S POLK THEATER
505 DEADERICK ST.
SATURDAY / 9.13
ART [WORKING CLASS HERO] JOEY SLAUGHTER: HATCHBACK TETRIS
The title of the latest exhibition from
Louisiana-based artist Joey Slaughter at Tinney Contemporary — Hatchback Tetris — has all the makings of a great art movement. It correlates to a very distinct image that the exhibition statement says will be familiar to “all crosscountry road-trippers, art handlers, minivantouring-bands, and a slew of other various road dogs with a habit of packing too much cargo into their eminently practical, affordableyet-stylish, midsize SUVs.” That’s also a great description of Slaughter’s art, which is both mindfully pieced together and playful as hell. The wall-mounted sculptural works are made from brightly painted CNC-cut MDF components (that is, medium-density fiberboard cut by a computer-controlled machine), as well as found materials like car mats, and the resulting creations look a little like anime renderings of children’s drawings — which is to say, familiar and strange and mostly indescribable. The show opened last month, but this weekend the artist will be on site to help celebrate the show’s success during the Second Saturday Art Crawl.
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
ARTIST’S RECEPTION 2-9 P.M.; THROUGH SEPT. 27 AT TINNEY CONTEMPORARY
237 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
RUSTON KELLY
HATCHBACK TETRISCUTLINE
WORLD
IBMA
IBMA
5
[MADISON BLUES]
GRASSROOTS AND NUDIE SUITS FESTIVAL
Downtown Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry House may get all the glory when it comes to tourists searching for country music history, but locals know that country lore runs just as deep in Madison. Kitty Wells, who was born and raised in Nashville, made her home with husband Johnny Wright in Madison, as did Patsy Cline and Mother Maybelle Carter. With the royalties from his hit “I’m Movin’ On,” Hank Snow purchased his famous Madison abode Rainbow Ranch, which hosted several music icons over the years, including Elvis Presley. The inaugural Grassroots and Nudie Suits Festival, held at Madison’s historic Amqui Station, is a celebration of the area’s grassroots spirit and rich music history. The free fest will feature food, art vendors and live music from Harper O’Neill, Hannah Juanita, Josh Riley, and Mark Thornton and the Sidekicks. Follow up a day of free fun with a ticketed concert at Harken Hall, featuring opening act The Farmer & Adele, followed by legendary Western swing super group The Time Jumpers. BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
11 A.M. AT AMQUI STATION & 7 P.M. AT HARKEN HALL
303 MADISON ST. & 514 MADISON STATION BLVD., MADISON
MOTORCYCLES
[GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNIN’] TON UP
VINTAGE BIKE SHOW
eyeball some sharp-looking machines. LOGAN BUTTS
11 A.M. AT YAZOO BREWERY
Calling all easy riders and wild ones: Ton Up Motorcycle Club is set to host its 23rd annual Vintage Bike Show Saturday at Yazoo Brewery in Madison. The club is one of the Southeast’s oldest British motorcycle clubs. And according to the group’s website, there’s only one rule for club membership: One must own and ride a British bike. Local rock musician Suzie Chism has curated a live music lineup for Saturday’s show that includes Nicky Diamonds, Raelyn Nelson, Kiely Connell, Rico Del Oro and Chism herself. This year’s event will feature 12 show classes, which — if it’s modeled after last year’s iteration — will include 11 classes for pre1984 vintage motorcycles as well as a broader modern class for contemporary bikes styled after classic makes and models. Even if you don’t own a bike yourself, it’ll be a fun opportunity to enjoy some live music and good vibes — and to
900 RIVER BLUFF DRIVE, MADISON
MUSIC
[LAB TECHNICIANS] STEREOLAB
In May, Stereolab issued Instant Holograms on Metal Film, the European experimentalists’ first album of new material in 15 years. Despite the wait — and despite a decade-long hiatus the band took from 2009 to 2019 — the songs of Instant Holograms could slot right in alongside any of the influential post-rockers’ previous releases on a timeline that stretches back to 1990. With gurgling synthesizers, krautrock beats, lush arrangements and deceptively poppy melodies, Stereolab is back to show listeners that central members Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier are still capable of whipping up an intoxicating combination of influences. Jazz, yé-yé, psych rock, art rock, indie pop — it’s all in the mix on songs like “Transmuted Matter” and “Aerial Troubles.” Recent set lists show that fans can likely expect to hear a handful of selections from past releases like 1997’s Dots and Loops at Saturday’s show as well. Experimental pop duo Memorials will open.
D.
PATRICK
RODGERS
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL
925 THIRD AVE. N.
ART [HIDDEN WORLDS] TERRA INCOGNITA
Scene readers are undoubtedly familiar with Joe Nolan’s engaging, deeply thoughtful art and film criticism — he’s one of the paper’s longest-serving contributors. What might be less familiar is his own visual art, and even less than that, his curation. Now’s your chance to see both those skills in action. Terra Incognita, which
hosts an opening reception as part of the Second Saturday Art Crawl, is Nolan’s own curatorial effort. “Terra Incognita is a cartography term for labeling uncharted regions on a map,” Nolan explains in the exhibition statement. “The ‘unknown lands’ in this case are an archipelago of contemporary, nonrepresentational paintings by Benji Anderson, Shahnaz Lighari, Devon Eloise and myself.” This assortment of paintings all coalesce around Nolan’s fascination with contemporary abstract landscape painting and his familiarity with Nashville artists with a dreamy formalist edge. Nolan explains the timeliness of the show, as well as the urgency of its message: “In this historic moment, the rumbles of global conflict, economic instability, and the pandemic have also given the 2020s the eerie sense that we’re repeating the history of a century ago. That’s where American painting is heading as well.” We’ll see you there.
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
OPENING RECEPTION 6-9 P.M.; THROUGH OCT. 26 AT GALLERY 56 IN THE ARCADE
223 FOURTH AVE. N.
SUNDAY
/ 9.14
MUSIC [PICKIN’ PARTY] BILLY STRINGS & BRYAN SUTTON WITH ROYAL MASAT
In April of last year, bluegrass trailblazer Billy Strings and go-to flatpicker Bryan Sutton played a one-night set of cover songs at Nashville’s beloved American Legion Post 82. Didn’t make that gig? You’re not alone — for those who didn’t score a spot inside the intimate venue, Strings and Sutton surprised fans a year later by releasing Live at The Legion, a 20-song album cut
BILLY STRINGS
BUZZCOCKS TUE, 9/16
BLUPHORIA X THE REVEL TUE, 9/16
NOVEMBER
BOOKER
7
SUNDAY (1994) WED, 9/17
G FLIP WED, 9/17
NOVEMBER
7
MARIS X CAROLINE KINGSBURY FRI, 9/19
VALENTINO KHAN FRI, 9/19
NASHVILLE MINIFEST SAT, 9/20
THE PRAYER CHAIN W/ POOR OLD LU SAT, 9/20
FLY BY MIDNIGHT W/ LAUR ELLE SUN, 9/21 MORTAL SUN, 9/21
THESAURUS REX W/ POOR OLD LU THU, 9/25 BROOKS NIELSEN OF THE GROWLERS THU, 9/25 GARETH FRI, 9/26
LABUBU RAVE FRI, 9/26
Live Music at ON BROADWAY
during the performance. The album includes must-hear takes on Bob Dylan (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”), Doc Watson (“Way Downtown”), The Carter Family (“Little Darling Pal of Mine”) and more. Strings and Sutton reprise the collaboration this week with a twonight run inside the Ryman Auditorium, where their collection of reenvisioned folk, country and bluegrass songs will undoubtedly feel right at home. The show comes billed as Strings and Sutton alongside Royal Masat, Strings’ trusted upright bassist. Strings, Sutton and Masat stop at the Ryman on a run of intimate shows that include sold-out nights in North Carolina, Kentucky and nearby Chattanooga.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
to celebrate, and the trio’s doing not one but two shows at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
RON WYNN
7 & 9 P.M. AT THE NASHVILLE JAZZ WORKSHOP
1012 BUCHANAN ST.
WEDNESDAY / 9.17
MUSIC [... GONE TO HEAVEN]
PIXIES W/SPOON
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
FILM [DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME] MUSIC CITY MONDAYS/TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE BREAKFAST CLUB
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
SEPTEMBER LINE UP
9.1 Nashville Hall of Fame Writers Round w/ Tony Arata, Matraca Berg, Gary Nicholson
9.3 Eric Paslay’s Song in a Hat
9.5 Kat Hasty
9.9 Dallas Moore, Scott Southworth, Daryl Wayne Dasher
9.11 “Afternoon Delight” Day Party w/ Will Hoge, Robert Ellis, Adrian & Meredith, Abe Partridge, Justin Wells
9.14 The Dirty Grass Players
9.16 Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek w/Guests Antwan Wilmont,Dustin De La Garza, Chris Hatfield, Chad Michael Jervis
9.18 Payton Smith & Friends: The Bridge Album Release Show
9.19 Kendell Marvel
9.20 Seals & Crofts 2
9.21 Cody Parks & The Dirty South, Austin Martin & The Herd, Charlie Farley
9.27 Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys
9.29 Buddy’s Place w/ Janelle Arthur, Mike Kinnebrew, Dan Smalley
9.30 Dan Harrison, Jeff Middleton, Mark Irwin, Mark Taylor
GET TICKETS AT CHIEFSONBROADWAY.COM FOLLOW US @ChiefSBROADWAY
For what it’s worth, I did once briefly meet Molly Ringwald at a record signing for one of her jazz albums, and she did say The Breakfast Club is her favorite John Hughes movie. I was heavy in my Hughes phase at the time, as I think many of us have experienced. I think lots of teens latch onto his movies and never let go because Hughes captures the high school experience so well. On the 40th anniversary of the film, its message of looking beyond cliques and categories to focus on what unites us is still relevant, and can be applied more expansively. It’s the perfect addition to the Belcourt’s Teenage Wasteland series, which reminds us that we’re all still coming of age, but the teenage perspective is a valuable one. It’s also a perfect addition to the Belcourt’s Music City Mondays if only for the “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” needle-drop. Find showtimes at belcourt.org. HANNAH HERNER
SEPT. 14-15 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
MUSIC [TRIAD]
JON COWHERD, BRIAN BLADE & TONY SCHERR
There’s absolutely no genre that provides any difficulty to the members of this exceptional trio headlining a super-show this weekend. Between pianist/composer Jon Cowherd, bassist Tony Scherr and marvelous drummer Brian Blade, you have three majestic musicians. Cowherd’s originals and incisive piano work have made him a favorite of artists ranging from Joni Mitchell and Iggy Pop to Rosanne Cash. Jazz fans know him best as the co-founder of the Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band. While Blade’s credentials in the improvisational community are exemplary through his stints with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joshua Redman, among numerous others, he’s also backed Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. Scherr has provided bass support for contemporary jazz types John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Norah Jones as well as country icon Willie Nelson. This will be a night
Lotsa babysitters are gonna get paid on Sept. 17! When the legendary Pixies come to town, every aging rocker in Nashville is going to make the proper arrangements so they can be there. Formed in 1986 in Boston, the band is fronted by Black Francis with a yelpy profundity that’s still influencing musicians to this day — last week’s Scene cover boy MJ Lenderman being the latest. Austin, Texas’ indie luminaries Spoon, who are opening for the Pixies, can be considered rock royalty in their own right. But what sets the Pixies apart from other touring nostalgia acts is that they leave no space between their songs, reminding fans they have a million good ones by banging them out in quick succession. It’s as if they know the meter is running, and we’re not getting any younger.
TOBY ROSE
6:30 AT THE PINNACLE
910 EXCHANGE LANE
[MOVIN’ ON]
MUSIC
MARSHALL CRENSHAW
The covers Marshall Crenshaw includes on his new album From the Hellhole show off the great taste of the longtime exponent of North American guitar pop. His take on The Bobby Fuller Four’s 1965 tune “Never to Be Forgotten” reminds you that some tastemakers regarded the Detroit-born guitarist, singer and songwriter as a throwback to the late 1950s and early ’60s when Crenshaw first hit in the early ’80s. He wasn’t — the rich music on 1983’s Field Day proved that beyond a doubt — and the originals on From the Hellhole feature his harmonically advanced version of rock ’n’ roll guitar on tracks like the contemplative “Driving and Dreaming.” From the Hellhole mixes tracks from a series of EPs he released between 2012 and 2016 with a few odds and ends, like his version of Todd Rundgren’s classic 1972 power-pop song “Couldn’t I Just Tell You.” He also covers The Move’s 1971 “No Time,” one of the English rock band’s strangest, most twee songs. Still, it’s Crenshaw’s dreamy side — his willingness to travel far to retrieve a memory, if only in his own mind — that comes through on ace originals like “Stranger and Stranger” and “Grab the Next Train.” James Mastro opens.
EDD HURT
7:30 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY 818
SAUCED NASHVILLE, FISHMONGER AND RIVER STEPS
Experience the best of Germantown, from a historic house to a modernized meatpacking plant on the banks of the Cumberland
BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
SAUCED NASHVILLE
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
I DIDN’T KNOW anyone at my niece’s volleyball game besides my sister and brotherin-law, and I don’t understand how volleyball works, but I was content to watch and cheer at what seemed like the right time. Then my second-grade crush walked in the door.
That’s Nashville in a nutshell. It’d been at least three decades since we saw each other, but I knew him immediately. When I tapped his shoulder, he turned around, said my name and
opened his arms for a hug. During our halftime catch-up, he said he lives one subdivision away from his childhood home, has worked for the same company for 27 years, goes to the same church he was brought up in and sends his daughters to the school he attended.
“It’s almost as if,” he said with a laugh, “I’ve accomplished nothing.”
We both know that’s not true. In every class, there are people who can’t imagine leaving and those who can’t imagine staying. I planned to stay, but the comfort I once found in knowing everyone, every street and shortcut started to feel stifling. So Nashville and I broke up. And as exes sometimes do, Nashville grew, matured and got hot while I dated other cities. Years later, we got back together, both of us essentially the same but also completely changed. Now I don’t have to leave Nashville when I need new experiences — I just walk through different doors.
FISHMONGER
STOP 1: SAUCED NASHVILLE
Were it not for the small red neon sign in the front window, and a sidewalk sandwich board that reads “relax babe … it’s just wine,” I wouldn’t have guessed that the 1850s Germantown house with overgrown landscaping was a wine bar. It’s not trying to be secret — just refreshingly subtle and respectful to the neighborhood.
Inside, the bar occupies most of the length of the main room, which includes a communal table and a few high-tops along the far wall. The bartender quickly assessed my husband Dom and me as first-timers and beckoned us to where he stood behind a well of wine bottles. Sauced, he explained, is menu-free and bar-service-only, offering wines by the glass or bottle.
“So what would you like to try?” he asked. Bubbles and red for me and a couple different whites for Dom. I loved the interactive-ness of the experience and marvel that they stick to the process of sampling wines for every patron
every time, even when it gets busy. We each selected one and settled awkwardly into two nearby seats at the bar — awkward because the bar is built so that you can’t put your legs underneath the bar top and either have to sit sideways or too far back to be comfortable.
It was a minor annoyance quickly forgotten once our butter service arrived: one thick slice of sourdough cut into four pieces on a plate with good butter that had been whipped in house and served in a state that was neither solid nor melted. It was like a salty butter queso. Fantastic. It took me a minute, but at some point I noticed that the stemmed glasses at Sauced, which has sister locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, have the logo on the front and the words “I swallow” etched faintly on the back.
In this wine bar focused on vinyl, this was a bit of a record-scratch. At first I thought it was a reference to blow jobs. Then I thought, no, it’s about swallowing the wine, not spitting it out. Now I think it’s a cheeky way to do both. After
Morton Plumbing
we drained our glasses and sadly said goodbye to the butter, Dom and I debated the swallow situation as we walked east on Monroe Street toward the Cumberland River. At press time, we were still debating it.
STOP 2: FISHMONGER
We’ve visited the Neuhoff District every six months or so for the past two years, and it’s a vastly different place every time. At first it was a shell of a space with the well-preserved bones of a meatpacking plant. Back in the fall there were a few goods and services around the apartments, but the area still largely felt deserted.
Now there’s a noticeable energy, even though it’s not yet at full tilt, thanks to Sid Mashburn, Babychan, Sensa Padel, a Mas Tacos food truck and Fishmonger.
Like Sauced, Fishmonger was born elsewhere: There are three locations in Atlanta. Unlike Sauced, it’s not a stand-alone space but occupies a pocket in a larger building.
There are a few courtyard tables. Inside, day or night, Fishmonger feels like a small club with a restaurant in it: It’s dark, the music is loud-ish, and the lighting casts a red glow on everything. If you’re going out afterward, maybe to Close Company — the subterranean bar one flight of stairs away — it’s the perfect place to fuel up without weighing yourself down. If you’re headed home after dinner, you’ll still feel like you went club hopping, even if it was just one hop.
We started with the chef’s set oysters: six oysters of unknown origin with extra virgin olive oil, kiwi, citrus foam and tarragon. That sounds like a lot, but it was a light and interesting treatment that didn’t bother this oyster purist one bit. They paired nicely with the creamy smoked fish dip and accompanying bits and pieces of everything bagels — some thin and chewy, others thick and tough enough to crack a tooth.
Our hot fish and blackened grouper sandwiches came out shortly after the apps. I’ve been Insta-stalking Fishmonger’s hot fish sandwich since the restaurant opened in March, and it was the better of the two, arriving open-faced and staying that way until we ate one fillet with a fork so we could make an actual top-and-bottom sandwich out of it. The key to any fish sandwich is to eat it quickly before everything starts to slide around and fall apart, and the toasted Martin’s seeded buns held up well. I had slight logistical issues, however, with the hot brown butter potatoes, which are full fingerlings served in a bowl — easy to contain, hard to eat and cut. Conversely, Dom enjoyed his cucumber salad so much he ate it with his fingers. When I mentioned it was more of a fork food, he said, with all the bravado of a man who’s had two glasses of wine and a cocktail in a two-hour period: “If I thought you could do something about it, I’d stop.”
STOP 3: RIVER STEPS
From Fishmonger, if you head toward the back of the building and out the door, you’ll be above the River Steps, an outdoor area facing the Cumberland with tables for sitting and ledges for lounging. It looks bombed-out in the
best possible way, with brick and stone, rusted metal and concrete, plus landscaping that doesn’t look over-manicured. Watch the river boats pass by. Check out the new builds on the other side of the river. Neuhoff is full of unfin-
ished nooks and crannies, plus steps, elevators and signage that may or may not lead where you want to go. That’s OK. It’s a lovely place to get lost. ▼
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
HOT FISH SANDWICH AT FISHMONGER
SMOKED FISH DIP AT FISHMONGER
RESILIENCE AND RAGE
Street Theatre’s compelling presentation of cullud wattah confronts the 2016 Flint water crisis BY
AMY STUMPFL
WE OFTEN THINK of environmental disasters in terms of stark government statistics and financial impact. But with Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s potent drama cullud wattah, we are forced to reckon with the very real human cost of such tragedies.
Premiering off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2021, cullud wattah follows three generations of Black women as they struggle to navigate the horrors of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., in 2016. Exploring heavy themes of environmental racism, generational trauma, Black sacrifice and survival, it’s just the sort of meaty work on which Street Theatre Company has built its reputation.
“Programming cullud wattah this season was not just a curatorial decision, it was a moral imperative,” says Street’s executive artistic director Randy Craft. “Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s searing and poetic work confronts the Flint water crisis with unflinching honesty, while centering the voices of Black women — whose resilience and rage deserve to be witnessed. This play challenges us to look at the systems we live under, and the cost of their failures on real families. As a theater committed to truth-telling, cullud wattah speaks directly to our mission and the times we live in.”
Of course, such a hard-hitting piece requires a keen eye and an urgent approach to storytelling. It’s no surprise then that Craft would ask Alicia Haymer to direct the play, which opens Sept. 12 at The Barbershop Theater.
“I can’t think of a more perfect human in Nashville than Alicia Haymer to direct this piece,” Craft says. “Alicia has a rich history as an artist for her honesty and poignancy, which
is exactly what this piece calls for. Erika has written five strong women, navigating an impossible situation, and Alicia’s strength shines through every inch of this piece. I’m so excited for Nashville audiences to once again see a challenging work that otherwise would not have made it to this city.”
Like Craft, Haymer says she immediately connected with cullud wattah’s powerful subject matter and deep, intergenerational story.
“I love stories that have a social justice skew to them, so when I first read the synopsis, I was immediately intrigued,” says Haymer, a frequent Street collaborator who most recently directed last season’s excellent Next to Normal. “I also have siblings who live in Flint. So to have loved ones who’ve experienced this crisis firsthand, I knew this was a story I really wanted to tell.”
Haymer also was struck by the play’s lyrical language — including the colloquial twist of its title — and the use of magical realism to highlight key themes.
“I always enjoy exploring these kinds of magical elements,” she says. “As a director, I feel like it just gives us so much more opportunity for creativity. I mean, everything doesn’t have to be so literal. This is such a beautiful, well-written script, and I love that the playwright gives us permission to really lean into Afro-surrealism. There are moments where time sort of shifts, and we’re clearly in a different realm — really haunting moments that represent grief or transition or otherworldly energy.”
To capture such stage magic, Haymer has enlisted the help of designer Garner Harsh — who created the evocative scenery for last
season’s Alice by Heart. She has pulled together an ensemble of new and familiar talent, including Jamya Conner, CJ de Solonel, Cherie Hall, Prichan Murrell and Jordan Nixon.
Haymer says it’s been “an incredible honor to watch this cast work.” But one scene that she’s especially excited about involves the family’s matriarch Big Ma and her granddaughter Reesee.
“Big Ma’s character is so interesting,” Haymer says. “She presents as this rigid woman, who doesn’t tolerate anything that isn’t rooted in Christianity. So I’m very excited for the audience to get to see another side of her, as she attempts to relate to her granddaughter. It’s such a beautiful moment that reminds us that we can have different beliefs and ideas, but still show compassion to each other.”
Though cullud wattah offers no easy answers, Haymer is eager for the conversation.
“Sometimes, as artists, it’s like, ‘Well, what can I do?’ I don’t have a lot of money. I don’t have any pull in the government to get bills passed. But I do have a voice. And honestly, I think we have a real obligation to reflect the times that we live in. So while it’s an honor to bring joy during tough times, I think it’s also our job to tell the truth about the world. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to tell this story, and I can’t wait to take audiences on this journey.” ▼
wattah Sept. 12-27 at The
Theater, 4003 Indiana Ave.
cullud
Barbershop
CULLUD WATTAH
Thursday, September 11
MUSIC AND CONVERSATION
The Art of the Storyteller
Saturday, September 13
MUSIC AND CONVERSATION
Radical Joy
Shop the Scene!
Hosted by Brandy Clark with Special Guest Shane McAnally 10:30 am · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Friday, September 12
BOOK TALK
Peter Guralnick
The Colonel and the King 10:30 am · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Saturday, September 13
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Saturday, September 13
SONGWRITER SESSION
Donovan Woods
NOON · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
WITNESS HISTORY
Reflecting on Two Decades of Making Music and Making Space with Rissi Palmer 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Sunday, September 14
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Bill Wence 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Thursday, September 18
PANEL DISCUSSION
The Opry at 100
Featuring Vince Gill, Carly Pearce, and Dan Rogers 2:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, September 20
SONGWRITER SESSION
Steve Dean and Bill Whyte
NOON · 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.
AMERICANAFEST 2025 feat. TROUBADOUR BLUE, HAYES CARLL, SOUTHERN AVENUE, TIFT MERRITT & DEE WHITE
CHANDLER HENRY & BOY ORBISON
Bluebird on 3rd featuring MARK IRWIN, ADAM HAMBRICK, JENN SCHOTT with BILLY DUTCH & KIERSTEN RAE
Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring ROB WILLIFORD, GARY BAKER, LESLIE SATCHER & JULIA KATE SNOW with SCOTT SOUTHWORTH
AMERICANAFEST 2025 feat. LIZ LONGLEY, RODNEY CROWELL FRIENDS, ROSIE FLORES & GUITAR PARTY featuring TOM BUKOVAC, GUTHRIE TRAPP, JEDD HUGHES, NICK GOVRIK, TIM MARKS, JORDAN PERLSON and JIMMY WALLACE
7:00 THE WOMEN OF COUNTRY presents the 10th Anniversary featuring ALLI WALKER, KAYLEE ROSE, JENNA DAVIS, SOPHIA SCOTT, HAILEY VERHAALEN, JACQUIE ROAR, SARAH MOREY + TEZZA BIG DAMN MUSIC JAM featuring MIKKI ZIP, SARAH BETH TERRY, ERLEND GUNSTVEIT, PAYTON RILEY, JUSTIN WALDEN & JURANA
AMERICANAFEST: A tribute to Luke Bell, Evan BArtels, the wood brothers, & the wildmans
AMericanafest: Wednesday, Merce Lemon, Craig Finn, Sarah Klang
A tribute to brian wilson + sly stone (2pm)
Americana fest: Kirby Brown, jack Van Cleaf, Kacy Hill, Joelton Mayfield, Will Hoge (7PM)
Bonny Light Horseman W/ Angela Autumn & Sarah Klang
The Waterboys W/ Anna Tivel Plush w/ ilianna & virtue furnace
ATTACK ATTACK! w/ Savage hands, Versus me, & fossil creek
La Dispute w/ Glitterer & Tummyache
Ethan Regan w/ the man the myth the meatslab
CMAT w/ Tele Novella
Slow Pulp w/ She's green Waylon Wyatt w/ Elizabeth Nichols the bouncing souls w/ H2O, Smoking Popes and JER Waylon wyatt w/ Elizabeth Nichols
Destin COnrad w/ Mack Keane
TWRP w/ Los angeles Power disco
Noga Erez w/ v1v1d
Noga Erez w/ v1v1d
Americanafest: Feat. Paul Muldoon & Rogue Oliphant, Hannah White, Buffalo Nichols, Palmyra, Kassi Valazza
Gay Ole Opry Feat: Layna, Kasah, Mercy Bell, Chaelle, Eleni Inglesias, Kenny Dove, Riley Parker, Chloe Beth, Gentry Blue, Again (& Again) (1pm)
americanafest: Feat. The Deltaz, Miss Tess, slimdan, Zandi Holup, Dylan Earl (7pm)
5th Annual Commonwealth Of Kentucky Party (12PM)
Americanafest: Feat. Low Gap, Grant-Lee Phillips, Nicholas Jamerson, Lilly Hiatt, DeeOhGee (7PM)
Brad redlich w/ Michael Pritchett and Bryson Cooper
Wade forster w/ kade hoffman travis bolt (7PM)
bywater call w/ zachary scott kline (9PM)
Getdown Band 15th Anniversary (6PM)
Slow Shiv,
MUSIC
MAKE IT LAST
Dara
Starr Tucker examines the power of the present on her latest LP
BY RON WYNN
AS A LIFELONG obsessive fan of film, television and theater, vocalist and songwriter Dara Starr Tucker has been waiting for the right time to cut an LP that includes her stirring takes on favorite tunes from scores and soundtracks.
A quartet of songs from those sources is a key element of the former longtime Nashvillian’s new LP Time Wouldn’t Wait, her third release on Green Hill. But the jazz, R&B and soul ace also took the opportunity to collect original songs that she never recorded despite performing them live for years — and recorded a new version of the titular song, which appeared on a previous release. The album marks the first time she didn’t concentrate specifically on writing new material for a record.
“The whole emphasis and theme is about the importance of time, taking advantage of possibilities, making the most of every day,” Tucker tells the Scene. We’re speaking ahead of a Sept. 13 performance at Nashville Jazz Workshop, part of a suite of release celebrations that includes shows near her current home in Los Angeles. “That was what we wanted to emphasize in these songs, and to do them in a manner where we really got the audience to feel and experience them. But the key theme that I kept returning to is about finding joy and happiness in the present — being able to enjoy the good that’s happening, even though you clearly don’t ignore other things happening that aren’t so good. Still, so many things happen so quickly in life, and this album’s about enjoying and experiencing them in the moment.”
Recorded mostly in Brooklyn, but with a couple of numbers cut in L.A., Time Wouldn’t Wait superbly presents Tucker’s distinctive blend of influences. There’s the precise timing and rhythmic flexibility of jazz, the storytelling acumen of folk and the emotional energy of soul. The film-centric covers run the gamut from “I Have Dreamed,” a Rodgers and Hammerstein gem from The King and I, to a dynamic take on Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” from Barbie Besides “Time Wouldn’t Wait,” there are plenty of standouts among the originals, including the evocative and soulful “Tall Georgia Pines” and the emotionally affecting “Brick Wall.” The sessions were produced by bassist and radio host Greg Bryant, who’s also Tucker’s husband, and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Mike Marciano. Featured musicians include keyboardist Gary Versace, pianist Larry Goldings, drummer Christian Euman, bassist Vicente Archer and vibraphonist Simon Moullier. A couple of familiar stellar musicians from Music City, trumpeter Rod McGaha and drummer Marcus Finnie, also lend a hand.
Over the past decade, Tucker’s accomplishments have included co-writing the titular song on Keb’ Mo’s Grammy-winning 2019 album Oklahoma, earning a variety of track placements
in film and TV and receiving multiple medals in the prestigious American Traditions Vocal Competition over multiple years. In January, Tucker took on yet another role. She’d already established an online presence as a social commentator with her podcast All Over the Place. When she and Bryant — whom you can hear hosting Real Jazz weekdays on SiriusXM — relocated to the West Coast, she became the weekday host of The Front Page on Radio Free KJLH, a station owned by Stevie Wonder. Tucker explains that Wonder’s son shared some of her All Over the Place commentary with the legendary musician, who was impressed with her work. She describes The Front Page as a kind of pre-morning show, airing from 4:30 to 6 a.m. Pacific time.
“When that alarm goes off at 2:30 a.m., that can be a challenge,” she says. “But I’m really
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE
Sierra Ferrell tops the slate again at Americana Honors and Awards
BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
WEDNESDAY EVENING, the Ryman once again played host to a phenomenal assembly of talent as fans flocked in for the 24th Americana Honors and Awards. The happening — each year it feels like a star-studded concert during which an awards ceremony happens to break out — is the keystone event of AmericanaFest, which continues through Saturday.
The event recognized the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement honorees, who this year included legendary Nashville gospel ensemble and frequent AmericanaFest performers The McCrary Sisters The group received the Legacy Award, co-presented with the National Museum of African American Music. Rising singer-songwriter Jesse Welles received the Spirit of Americana Award, co-presented with the First Amendment Center, and alt-country aces Old 97’s and outstanding seasoned songwriters Joe Henry and Darrell Scott were recognized as well.
In the member-voted categories, world-traveling and multifaceted Nashville singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell repeated her 2024 win for Artist of the Year, while North Carolina rocking songsmith MJ Lenderman (who appeared on the cover of our AmericanaFest preview issue last week) was crowned Emerging Artist of the Year. Despite folk living legend Gillian Welch’s modest appraisal of her and David Rawlings chances of winning any of the three awards they were nominated for during our recent interview, the pair took home a well-deserved trophy for Duo of the Year
enjoying it, and it’s given me exposure and visibility as well as an expanded audience for my music. It also lets me express myself on a variety of topics, and has led to some wonderful opportunities — the chance to meet people like Dick Van Dyke. We’re really enjoying being out here, but certainly look forward to saying hello to everyone when we come back to Nashville.” ▼
7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and producer Brad Cook made Album of the Year with South of Here, and I’m With Her — that’s the harmonizing, songwriting, multi-instrumentalist trio of Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins — earned Song of the Year with “Ancient Light.” Rounding out the slate of winners is New York-residing fiddler Alex Hargreaves, whom you’ve seen onstage with Billy Strings and who is this year’s Instrumentalist of the Year. ▼
Playing
Saturday, Sept. 13, at Nashville Jazz Workshop
SIERRA FERRELL PHOTO: BOBBI RICH
TALKING ABOUT SINGER-SONGWRITER
Emma Swift’s brilliant new album The Resurrection Game — her first full-length record of all-original material — Swift’s publicist says, “This is an adult record written by an adult artist about some adult shit.” Swift is candid about the “adult shit” that led to the album, which hits stores and streaming services Friday. She had what she describes as “a nervous breakdown” in late spring 2023.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that for a tremendously scary few weeks, I completely lost my mind,” says Swift. “I did not anticipate my life becoming a little too close to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for comfort, but it did.”
Swift was in England at the time of the breakdown, but was unable to secure care there. So she traveled to her native Australia, where she spent two-and-a-half weeks in a public hospital followed by three-and-a-half weeks in a private facility.
“I feel tremendously lucky to have made it out the other side of that particular experience,” she says, “and with my heart and my mind and my life more or less intact.”
Swift reflects that she couldn’t have done it without the support of her husband, British rocker Robyn Hitchcock. As Swift recovered, Hitchcock encouraged her to funnel the pain and despair she experienced into her art.
OUT OF THE CRUCIBLE
Emma Swift responds to a personal crisis with an empowering album of all-original material
BY DARYL SANDERS
“I’m married to someone who is extraordinarily patient and wise,” she says. “He was like, ‘Yeah, babe, channel it into the songs — make the record.’
“I believe in the redemptive power of art. You don’t have to have had a nervous breakdown — we all experience grief and sadness and love and loss at one point or another in our lives. For me, music has always been a life raft.”
The album’s titular song speaks for itself. Swift lost herself for a moment, then found herself again. The titles of other songs — “Nothing and Forever,” “No Happy Endings,” “Beautiful Ruins,” “For You and Oblivion” — further reflect her dark night of the soul. “There’s a lot of post-therapy songs on this record,” says Swift.
THE ONLY THING THAT’S REAL
BY ADAM GOLD
THERE ARE SHOWS and then THERE. ARE. SHOWS. Nine Inch Nails’ return to Bridgestone Arena Saturday night was the latter, in all caps. An airtight expression of tension and release in cinematic proportions, it started minimal on one stage and bloomed maximal on another, introducing new elements both sonic and visual with seamless fluidity. Every detail was a decisive artistic choice, eliciting a range of emotions and giving fans everything they could want and nothing they didn’t need.
That was clear from the first note of the opening “Right Where It Belongs,” which came as a surprise not just because it landed literal seconds after the last throb of German-Iraqi DJ and NIN collaborator Boys Noize’s opening set reverberated through the arena, forgoing the logistical formality of an intermission. It was jarring because it came not from a buzzing guitar, harsh synthesizer or screaming voice, but from a piano. Indeed, kicking things off more like a Nashville writers’ round than an industrial arena-rock spectacle, Trent Reznor performed the tense With Teeth ballad sitting behind a keyboard, alone,
Once she had a collection of songs prepared, she approached producer Jordan Lehning about helming the production. “Jordan is a really sensitive, lovely man who brings just a wealth of skill and taste to the recording studio,” she explains. Lehning suggested they record the album in early January at Chale Abbey Studios on the Isle of Wight, where he would be producing sessions for another artist later that same month.
“He said, ‘I’ve got this great group of players together — do you want to make the record on the Isle of Wight?’” Swift recalls. “I jumped at the chance because it was a really cool and ex-
simply lit on a B stage smaller than a boxing ring on the arena floor.
This was the fourth time in 20 years that fearless — and at 60, seemingly ageless — Nine Inch Nails master planner Reznor and his rotating murderers’ row of musical NINjas have haunted the home of the Nashville Predators. The first three (in 2005, 2008 and 2013) were embarrassingly underattended. But if Saturday night’s show wasn’t sold out, it was damn near close. Perhaps that was on Reznor’s mind when “Right Where It Belongs” ended with a tacked-on final verse from The Fragile favorite “Somewhat Damaged,” closing with: “Everything you swore would never change is different now / Like you said, you and me make it through / Didn’t quite / Fell apart / Where the fuck were you?”
Reznor crooned the lines with a whisper, in Bluebird Cafeworthy nearly pin-drop silence, punctuated of course by the scattered hollers of some overexcited fan boys and girls. They were taking the opportunity they’ve been waiting decades for to declare their love for the man who became the Elvis of gothindustrial when he popularized the genre 30-plus years ago. But instead of unceremoniously keeling over on the crapper in his 40s and becoming a tacky memory, Reznor has carried on with dedicated, relentless artistic ambition that would’ve made his sonic and visionary Jedi Master David Bowie proud. In keeping with the status he’s now long held as a
travagant thing to do, and the Isle of Wight is a really beautiful but quiet, remote place.”
Prior to the sessions, Swift sent Lehning guitar-and-vocal demos of the songs she was considering for the album.
“I was elated at how beautiful these songs were and just the lyric writing and the melodies — they were just so beautiful,” Lehning says. “It was thrilling.”
Over five days at Chale Abbey at the beginning of January, keyboardist Lehning and the other players who backed Swift on all but one of the album’s 10 tracks — guitarist Juan Solorzano, bassist Eli Beaird and drummer Dom Billet — created a sweeping, dramatic pop-rock soundscape that gave Swift’s weighty material a sort of David Lynchian quality. Strings were added back in Nashville at Lehning’s studio to complete Swift’s redemptive and inspiring statement.
“Getting the songs out into the world is obviously really important for me to do,” Swift says. “But if the songs can find other people, and they can feel maybe less alone in their own experiences and challenges, then that’s a wonderful thing.” ▼
The Resurrection Game out Friday, Sept. 12, via Tiny Ghost
torchbearer of art rock, Reznor took a similar approach to introducing the show as Talking Heads’ David Byrne in 1984’s bar-setting concert film Stop Making Sense. He appeared on a minimal stage as bandmates Atticus Ross (keyboards) and Alessandro Cortini (keyboards, bass) strolled like humble prizefighters to the ring one at a time. Meanwhile, Reznor, still in piano-man form, sang a stripped-back “Ruiner” before closing the first of two sets on the smaller of two stages with a reworked, raved-out “Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now).”
The ensemble could’ve kept the crowd rapt with club-ready remixes from the B stage all night. Instead they made their way through the crowd to the still-curtained main stage, upon which appeared a projection of Josh Freese, a legend with a place on the Mount Rushmore of rock stage and session drummers. Just last month — and with only one day of rehearsal — he made a triumphant return to NIN after a 17-year absence. In an alt-rock Days of Our Lives moment, Freese took over for Ilan Rubin, who replaced Freese in 2009 but left the band a week before this tour to take Freese’s former gig in Foo Fighters.
As the rising curtain revealed Reznor and company in their full glory — now joined by longtime guitarist Robin Finck — for the heavy-artillery act of the show, one couldn’t help but wonder how stoked Freese must’ve been to be playing the adrenochrome-propelled industrial-metal bangers like “Wish”
MUSIC: THE SPIN
and the “March of the Pigs” than tired dadrock torch ballads like “Times Like These” and “Best of You.”
At this point, the lighting directors and production managers — clearly the swingin’ dick Josh Freeses of their jobs — got to flex their chops, pairing sinister show-stoppers like “Reptile” and “Copy of A” with a 4-D production of projections on translucent sheets surrounding the band, embedding them in electric imagery.
In a post on his official Instagram account, an inspired Jack White, who attended Saturday’s show, cited “Copy of A” and praised the entire production. “I was enthralled to attend the NIN show in Nashville yesterday with family and friends, not only for the intense and beautiful music but the best lighting that I’ve ever seen in a show,” he wrote. “Very inspiring.”
Yeah, hard agree on that.
The band saved its NIN hit (and anthem for animal lovers everywhere) “Closer” for the smaller B stage, where Boys Noize joined the trio of Reznor, Ross and Cortini, chopping and screwing the Downward Spiral classic with a remix that still satisfied where it could’ve confused less adventure-ready audiences. “Closer” has more hooks than a jugline fisherman, and this wrecking crew found new ways to milk all of them in a presentation that, on brand with NIN’s evolution, found an infectious groove between sleaze and grace.
The hits kept coming following another seamless stage-to-stage transition. During “Perfect Drug,” Freese went full-on biomechanical, turning out a drum ’n’ bass solo that sounded like a drum machine losing a fight with a Gatling gun. “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole” grooved with the grind of a warehouse dance party.
The idea that any NIN fan (casual or die-hard) with eyes, ears and a pulse could find any flaw with this show is about as inconceivable as a second Trump presidency once seemed. But Americans can be stupid, scary monsters. On that note, perhaps the
one minor miss was that the band didn’t treat Nashville to a timely take on the increasingly timeless Bowie-Reznor collab “I’m Afraid of Americans,” a song that’s popped up at most of the shows on this tour. But it’s worth noting that in its place they played the 1994 Natural Born Killers soundtrack standout “Burn,” a song about what becomes of nihilistic, narcissistic, sociopathic reactionaries when they feel rejected — they want to watch the world burn.
And, well, a nihilistic, narcissistic, reactionary sociopath is currently ruling the world, and it is very much on fire. Perhaps that explains why, for an arena filled with mostly Gen-Xers and aging millennials, it still felt oddly age-appropriate and just as (if not more) cathartic shouting out the hopeless, godforsaken choruses to ’90s teen-angst mixtape staples like “Gave Up” and “Heresy” in 2025 as it did in 1995, when things were still kind of good. Nothing kicks a hole in the head of nostalgia quite like songs about fucked-up people fucking up a fucked-up world resonating with greater frequency 30 years on. Reznor chose telepathy over stage banter for communicating with the crowd, breaking the fourth wall only one time over the course of 90 minutes, when he paused to introduce the band. But the music, and his presentation of it, still spoke volumes to his people. He was in literal tears belting out “I would find a way,” the closing line of “Hurt,” which of course closed the show, no encore break. This audience felt that shit, perhaps more in an aging Johnny Cash way than an angsty teenage nostalgia way — but just as raw, just as primal. This is how a legacy artist fights complacency and forges new frontiers, not just by retaining their power from the past, but also by finding new powers and giving new meaning. When there was one set of footprints, that’s when the music carried you. Thousands of fans filled Bridgestone Saturday night, but only one set of footprints trailed out into the nightmare hellscape of Lower Broad. ▼
LET’S GET PHYSICAL
From baseball epic Eephus to the works of Russ Meyer, here are some of the best recent physical-media releases and re-releases
BY JASON SHAWHAN
Given the fact that ’80s nostalgia has never really seemed to die, the numerous film classics (and class-sicks) celebrating their 40th (or more) anniversaries are flexing all over the high-resolution formats lately. Re-Animator (Ignite Films Ultra HD/Blu-ray Disc) and Vice Squad (Kino Lorber UHD/BD) are leaps and bounds beyond some of their previous incarnations. The former, which includes both the standard unrated version (on 4K and Blu-ray) and the extended European version (Blu-ray only) and an impressive array of extras, serves its imaginative grue with the kind of textural resolution and visual oomph you want from the late, great Stuart Gordon’s classic take on H.P. Lovecraft. The latter, one of the great (if not the best) killer-pimp movies, serves the scuzzy streets of Reagan-era L.A. with tremendous care. Stanley Kubrick’s cinematographer John Alcott makes the neon slime scintillate in this stellar restoration, and stars Wings Hauser and Season Hubley give it everything.
Just as rough (an impressive feat for 1965) but looking gorgeous in a new restoration is Russ Meyer’s Motorpsycho (Severin UHD/BD), a remarkable turn for Barbarella “Haji” Catton as a bad-time girl stuck with a wronged man out for vengeance — and the trio of damaged dudes
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
they’re gunning for have no idea what’s coming for them. This is essential grindhouse cinema, and absolutely my favorite Haji performance.
One of this year’s best films, Carson Lund’s homegrown baseball epic Eephus (Music Box BD), surfaces in a lovingly packed edition that befits the film’s singular charms. The best baseball hangout flick since 2016’s Everybody Wants Some!!, it’s a subtle and sincere film about the passage of time (as well as one that benefits from multiple viewings), weird friends and the ways that traditions have to keep evolving to
keep from dissipating into the dust. One of the benefits of some of the indie studios recommitting to physical media is that you sometimes get something magical and unexpected — like the new edition of Alex Ross Perry’s 2015 psychodrama Queen of Earth (IFC Films/OCN BD). Equal parts Joseph Losey and Frank Perry (with just a splash of Cassavetes), this is one of those films where dynamic women (Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston) have an actress kumite, and the audience wins every time. With a new commentary including actress/cultural theorist Hari Nef (as well as an interview with local legend Keegan DeWitt) and an impressive gathering of perspectives, this is perfect for anyone who wants to understand
Dystopian horror-thriller The Long Walk is gruesome, disgusting, bleak — and effective BY LOGAN BUTTS
A WAVE OF NOSTALGIA carrying the young-adult franchise boom of the late Aughts and early 2010s has crested onto our social media feeds as of late. Twilight and The Hunger Games entries are being reread and rewatched at a feverish pace by Gen Z-ers and millennials alike.
At first glance, The Long Walk — adapted from the 1979 novel of the same name, which was written by horror maestro Stephen King under his Richard Bachman pseudonym — fits in snugly alongside these films with its dystopian thriller plot. It even features future movie stars (the excellent Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson) atop its cast list and is directed by Francis Lawrence, the shepherd of the Hunger Games film franchise. The Long Walk has a similar visual palette as those YA adaptations, which were hugely popular in the last decade. But once characters start getting their brains blown out at point-blank range, you’ll realize you’re in for a slightly different type of ride. Set in a totalitarian nation, The Long Walk centers on a group of young
hard-hitting melodrama from the inside out. When the list is made of the things that unbridled tariffs have killed for Americans, pour one out for the Turbine 3D series. The German company Turbine Media has been one of the few companies doing proper 3D discs for recent offerings from studios like Universal and Paramount, and they’ve made them region-free discs that can play anywhere. Their most recent releases (Scream VI, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Meltdown and a remastered Friday the 13th Part III with additional work done to fix some vertex issues) were essential for anyone who still enjoys 3D. Thanks to the punishing tariffs completely demolishing international commerce, they’ll be unavailable for domestic viewing.
READING
Informative, incisive, as dishy as need be and socially complex, this is perfect for a vacation read or a grad school thesis.
John Malahy’s Rewinding the ’80s (Running Press), a coffee table compendium that covers a heroic amount of ’80s cinema. It’s equal parts guidebook and catalog, with attention to exploring something beyond the blockbusters and Brat Pack epics that make up so much of our cultural-visual shorthand for the Reagan Era.
BEHIND THE BEADED CURTAIN
New for your film-associated bookshelf are the following. A new, expanded edition of Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali’s staggering history of kung fu cinema, These Fists Break Bricks (Running Press). This tome does all the work and puts you there in the complex international history of the cinema of kicking people in the face. It is deeply educational and an utter delight, and you’ll want to make a list of all the treasures Hendrix and Poggiali put forth in these pages.
Criss-Cross (Hachette). The man who literally wrote the books on the making of Psycho, Valley of the Dolls and On the Waterfront, Stephen Rebello, has done it again with this incredible dive into the making of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train
men who compete in an annual walking contest in which they must maintain a constant speed (at least 3 mph). If they slow, they are executed on the spot. The contest ends when only one of the contestants remains alive. Screenwriter JT Mollner (director of last year’s electric crime thriller Strange Darling) carves King’s nearly 400-page novel down to the bone. The story starts with Hoffman’s Raymond Garraty on the way to the competition and ends at the finish line, with just a couple of flashbacks in between.
The aforementioned Hoffman and Jonsson star as Garraty and Peter McVries, who — despite the cutthroat circumstances — quickly form a strong
The Russ Meyer retrospectacle continues with 1976’s Up! (Severin UHD/BD), a madcap mesh of intrigue, conspiracies, bonkers body parts and the kind of mayhem nobody has ever been able to pull off quite like Russ did. It’s somehow more progressive and more shocking than it was at its late ’70s debut, and there’s nothing to compare it to. Similarly, Altered Innocence’s historical sublabel pushes several envelopes and serves up two classics of ’80s gentleman cinema with their Arthur Bressan Jr. double-feature disc of Juice and Daddy Dearest (Anus Films BD), both with commentaries from the Cruising the Movies Purchell/Shepherd crew and careful restorations. Sadly, the history of naughty cinema is illserved by whatever the hell is going on with StudioCanal, because the 4K restoration they did of Paul Verhoeven’s filth classic Basic Instinct (Lionsgate Limited UHD/BD) is hamstrung by the problem that’s plagued every extant 4K version of the film: The sound mix has no bass whatsoever, which, considering how the film defined the decadent nightclub sequence for cinema for decades to come, is simply criminal. The fact that no one has bothered to fix this for years is staggering, and it hurts to have to hate on a film so dear to my heart (especially with such a sleek package and abundance of extras, including the old Camille Paglia commentary from the DVD days). Basic Instinct needs bass like a coked-out heart, driving the heart of this perverse masterpiece. ▼
bond. Following their attention-grabbing performances in Licorice Pizza and Alien: Romulus respectively, Hoffman and Jonsson were both primed for a true breakout performance — that moment has arrived. They are equal parts affable and chilling as they lead a strong cast, which also includes Tut Nyuot and the hilarious Ben Wang, who join the duo to round out the “Four Horsemen.” Garrett Wareing, Joshua Odjick and Charlie Plummer play a trio of varyingly combative antagonists.
The endearing performances are a consistent bright spot — but they make the inevitable eliminations that much harder. In classic King fashion, and despite its YA-esque trappings, The Long Walk is not for the faint of heart. Contestants bleed out, commit suicide-by-soldier and have destructive bouts of diarrhea. Bones break and teeth fall out. A spork is used as a shiv. It is gruesome, disgusting and bleak.
But thanks to a pitch-perfect pace and some truly strong performances up and down the call sheet, The Long Walk is a well-constructed horror blockbuster that (most) audience members will enjoy. Wear your most comfortable walking shoes. ▼
THE LONG WALK R, 108 MINUTES OPENING FRIDAY, SEPT. 12, AT REGAL AND AMC THEATERS
RE-ANIMATOR
EEPHUS
THE LONG WALK
1 Speeding check
5 Vocally
10 Source for some bubbly
14 Where the the Magi journeyed from
15 “Over my dead body!”
16 One may be in default
17 Mixtures in copier cartridges
19 Target of an exfoliator
20 Birthplace of Madeleine Albright and Vaclav Havel
21 Drink made with an artisanal flourish, maybe
22 Begins dealing with
25 Chatted online, in brief
27 Risk-___
29 Sporting great who said “Tennis uses the language of life”
30 School that’s a rival of 37-Down
31 P.R. piece?
35 Stat used to calculate a QB’s passer rating
36 In vain ... or how to read the answers to 17-, 25-, 49- and 58-Across
39 Org. that monitors on-air obscenity
41 Matter in a neon sign
42 Subjects of some European fishing bans
45 Start of a lovelorn soliloquy
47 Bridges in Baghdad cross it
49 Some fishing gear
53 Level in a social hierarchy
54 Street urchin
55 Less merry
57 Abbr. standing in for co-authors
58 Investigate in detail
62 Pitchfork point
63 Rivian competitor
64 Gemstone found in hot springs
65 Org. promoting sober motoring
66 Half-___ (desultory)
67 Winter sports venue DOWN
1 Be up
2 What arrives in the film “Arrival”
3 Dash display in some cars
4 Tax ___
5 Tourist destination outside of Delhi
6 Nighttime sound?
7 Classical performance space
8 One with diplomatic plates in N.Y.C.
9 “Mesa para ___” (request at a Spanish restaurant)
10 Wool source
11 Futures experts?
12 Most pucker-inducing
13 “Gimme!”
18 Culture vulture’s concerns
21 Financial center of West Africa
22 Kind of “fever” that’s not actually a fever, and is typically caused by pollen
23 Director DuVernay
24 It’s needed to stay calm
26 Rankles no end
28 Prose postscript
32 ___ Hagen, Tony-winning actress and theater practitioner
33 Trains for the Chicago White Sox?
34 Dreamily named rock group?
37 School that’s a rival of 30-Across, informally
38 Part of a jouster’s protection
39 Thinks nothing of
40 European land where much of “Game of Thrones” was filmed
43 On fire
44 Seattle-to-Mount Rainier dir.
46 On its way, in a way
48 Drink that might turn your tongue blue
50 Fiends of folklore
51 Useless leftovers
52 Fur once favored by Russian royalty
56 Baseball Hall-of-Famer Guerrero, to fans
58 Org. that might sponsor a read-athon, in brief
59 Mani-pedi brand
60 Grammy, in the U.K.
61 Creature on the state flags of Michigan and Idaho
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By
Sims|Funk, PLC, Plaintiff vs. Echelon Properties, LLC, Leon H. Schrader Family Trust, and Blake Schrader, Defendants, Davidson County Chancery Court Docket No. 24-1490-II, as well as that Order Directing the Davidson County Sheriff to Conduct Execution Sale of Real Property entered on July 1, 2025 (the “Sale Order”), the Davidson County Sheriff’s Department will offer to sale to the highest bidder, for cash, the interest of The Leon H. Schrader Family Trust, in the following real property located at 444 Summit Ridge Place, Nashville, Tennessee 37215, Map/Parcel 131-05-0-B-444.00
CO (the “Property”) and described as follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in a Warranty Deed dated December 28, 2005 of record at Instrument No. 20060104-0000954, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee. Street Address: The street address of the property is believed to be 444 Summit Ridge Place, Nashville, Tennessee 37215, but such address is not part of the legal description of the property. In the event of any discrepancy, the legal description herein shall control. LAND in Davidson County, Tennessee being Apartment Unit No. 444 of Four Seasons Condominium, created under Title 66, Chapter 27, Sections 101, et seq, as amended, Tennessee Code Annotated, and as established by a Master Deed of record in Book 6841, Page 349, and amended in Book 6847, Page 122, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, together with the undivided percentage interest in the Common Elements appurtenant to said Units as set forth in said Master Deed. Reference is hereby made to the Plat of Four Seasons Condominium shown as Exhibit “D” to said Master Deed, for a more complete identification and description of said Unit. Being the same property conveyed to Echelon Properties, LLC by Warranty Deed dated December 28, 2005 of record at Instrument No. 20060104-0000954, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, and later conveyed to The Leon H. Schrader Family Trust pursuant to a Decree of Redemption of record at Instrument No. 20230605-0042457, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee. This sale is made pursuant to Tenn. R. Civ. P. 69.07(4) and Tenn. Code Ann. § 26-5-101, et. seq. and is in satisfaction (whole or in part depending on amount of sale) of the third-party judgment in favor of Sims|Funk PLC, pursuant to that Order Granting Motion for Default Judgment issued in the case of Sims|Funk PLC, Plaintiff vs. Echelon Properties, LLC, Leon H. Schrader Family Trust, and Blake Schrader, Defendants, Davidson County Chancery Court Docket No. 24-1490-II, on February 24, 2025 (the “Judgment”), in the original base amount of $49,968.00, plus all post-judgment interest since the entry of the Judgment and plus court costs and all sale expenses and costs. All property is sold “as is.” No warranties or guarantees are made, expressed or implied. Other interested parties receiving notice: Four Seasons Homeowner’s Association, Inc.; State of Tennessee Department of Revenue; Leon H. Schrader Family Trust; Echelon Properties, LLC; Roman “Blake” Schrader At 11:00 o’clock A.M., on Thursday, September 25, 2025, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, the Sheriff will sell the above property for payment toward said judgment together with all expenses and legal costs accruing. TERMS OF SALE: Cash, Certified Check, Receipt on Judgment from Plaintiff, or credit of not less than 6 months. Pursuant to Sale Order: bidding will start at $179,400.00, pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 265-115; high bidder will be required to execute a written sale agreement at conclusion of bidding; Plaintiff is allowed to credit bid; redemption rights and equity of redemption are waived, pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-8-101(2); the
sale shall be approved and confirmed by the Davidson County Chancery Court, the Court which issued the process directing this Sale; and the Sheriff shall provide the deed described at Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-8-111 after entry of the order of confirmation of the sale and after confirmation of payment to Plaintiff. As of July 1, 2025, notices pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 35-5-101 et seq. are posted online at https://foreclosuretennessee.com by a third-party internet posting company. Questions related to the sale or the underlying debt can be addressed to: David Anthony, attorney for judgment creditor, at: Exo Legal PLLC; P.O. Box 121616, Nashville, Tennessee 37212; 615-869-0634; david@exolegal.com. THIS 21st day of August, 2025. By: Davidson County Sheriff For Publication in and on: The Nashville Scene: August 21, 2025; September 4, 11, 2025
FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE WHEREAS, Stephanie Sargent, executed a Deed of Trust dated May 24, 2024, of record at Instrument No. 20240529-0039897, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, (the “Deed of Trust”) and conveyed to Samuel N. Wantland, as Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure the payment of certain indebtedness (“Indebtedness”) owed to First Farmers and Merchants Bank (referred to as “Lender”); and WHEREAS, default in payment of the Indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust has occurred; and WHEREAS, David M. Anthony (“Trustee”) has been appointed Substitute Trustee by Lender by that Appointment of Substitute Trustee of record at Instrument 20250731-0060870, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, with authority to act alone or by a designated agent with the powers given the Trustee in the Deed of Trust and by applicable law; and WHEREAS, Lender, the owner and holder of said Indebtedness, has demanded that the real property be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said Indebtedness and the costs of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust. NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 11:00 o’clock a.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise, homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as
follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 202405290039897, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee. A certain unit located in Davidson County, Tennessee, being known and designated as Unit No. 17308 of SEVENTEEN-TWENTYEIGHT SEVENTEENTH AVENUE NORTH, A HORIZONTAL PROPERTY REGIME WITH PRIVATE ELEMENTS, established pursuant to the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions establishing Seventeen-Twentyeight Seventeenth Avenue North a Horizontal Property Regime, with Private Elements of record in Instrument No. 20210809-0106734, in the Register’s Office of Davidson County, Tennessee, and with said Unit being depicted on Exhibit “B” to said Declaration; together with a percentage interest in the common elements as set forth in said Declaration. Being the same property conveyed to Stephanie Sargent by Warranty Deed recorded at Instrument No. 20240529-0039896, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee. Map/Parcel No: 081-11-0I-005.00 Street Address: The street address of the property is believed to be 1730B 17th Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee 37208, but such address is not part of the legal description of the property. In the event of any discrepancy, the legal description herein shall control. Other interested parties: None THIS PROPERTY IS SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, AND SUBJECT TO ANY PRIOR LIENS OR ENCUMBRANCES, IF ANY. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE PROPERTY IS SOLD WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO TITLE, MARKETABILITY OF TITLE, POSSESSION, QUIET ENJOINMENT OR THE LIKE AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, CONDITION, QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A GENERAL OR PARTICULAR USE OR PURPOSE.
As to all or any part of the Property, the right is reserved to (i) delay, continue or adjourn the sale to another time certain or to another day and time certain, without further publication and in accordance with law, upon announcement of said delay, continuance or adjournment on the day and time and place of sale set forth above or any subsequent delayed, continued or adjourned day and time and place of sale; (ii) sell at the time fixed by this Notice or the date and time of the last delay, continuance or adjournment or to give new notice of sale; (iii) sell in such lots, parcels, segments, or separate estates as Trustee may choose; (iv) sell any part and delay, continue, adjourn, cancel, or postpone the sale of any part of the Property; (v) sell in whole and then sell in parts and consummate the sale in whichever manner produces the highest sale price; (vi) and/or to sell to the next highest bidder in the event any high bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale. Substitute Trustee will make no covenant of seisin, marketability of title or warranty of title, express or implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trustee only.
This sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes and assessments (plus penalties, interest, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restrictive covenants, easements or setback lines that may be applicable; any rights of redemption, equity, statutory or otherwise, not otherwise waived in the Deed of Trust, including rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or federal; and any and all prior deeds of trust, liens, dues, assessments, encumbrances, defects, adverse claims and other matters that may take priority over the Deed of Trust upon which this foreclosure sale is conducted or are not extinguished by this Foreclosure Sale. This sale is also subject to any matter that an inspection and accurate survey of the property might disclose. As of July 1, 2025, notices pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 35-5-101 et seq. are posted online at https://foreclosuretennessee.com by a third-party internet posting company. THIS 4th day of September, 2025. David M. Anthony, Substitute Trustee EXO LEGAL PLLC P.O. Box 121616 Nashville, TN 37212 david@exolegal.com - 615-8690634 Publication Dates: September 4, 2025, September 11, 2025
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