NASHVILLE PRIDE LOOKS TO COVER $250,000 FUNDING SHORTFALL BROUGHT ON BY LOST SPONSORSHIPS
NASHVILLE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OFFERS FAST-PACED FUN WITH THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Under the Big Tent
Ahead of AMERICANAFEST, we talk with multiple awards nominee MJ Lenderman, run down our favorite shows and much more
Nashville Pride Sponsors Drop Support
Nonprofit looks to cover $250,000 shortfall brought on by lost sponsorships from VUMC, Cracker Barrel and others BY HANNAH HERNER
Wooden Benches Confiscated by City After Seating Changeup
Nashville Department of Transportation faces off with citizens who want to reinstall seating on Korean Veterans Boulevard BY ELI MOTYCKA
How Prison Newspapers Like The Interim Helped Instigate Change
Printed by people incarcerated in the now-closed Tennessee State Prison, The Interim set the stage for prison newspapers of today BY ANNE RAY
COVER PACKAGE: AMERICANAFEST 2025
Honest When No One’s Looking
Multiple Americana Awards nominee MJ Lenderman discusses influences on his work, including the late, great David Berman BY ANNIE PARNELL
Extra Innings: Americana Artist or Baseball Player?
Test your knowledge of Americana and pro baseball with our quiz COMPILED BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
Folk Heroes
Talking with Gillian Welch about Woodland — her lauded LP with longtime partner David Rawlings — and their Americana nominations BY HANNAH CRON
Against the Wind
Getting perspective on diversity and inclusion in Americana with Buddy Red, Kyshona, Buffalo Nichols and Becky Parsons BY RON WYNN
On the Town
Our picks for performances, parties and panels you won’t want to miss at AmericanaFest BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
CRITICS’ PICKS
The Nashville Fair, Nine Inch Nails, Hailey Whitters, Opera on the Mountain and more
FOOD AND DRINK
Day and Night
Tantísimo revives neighborhood life in Sylvan Park with all-day service, coffee and dancing BY
ELI MOTYCKA
THEATER
Merry Mayhem
Nashville Shakes offers fast-paced fun with The Merry Wives of Windsor BY AMY STUMPFL
MUSIC
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Kyshona and Joy Clark at 3rd and Lindsley BY H.N. JAMES
The Fan Lurker is an ick-inducing new entry in a familiar old genre BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE ON THE COVER: MJ Lenderman; photo by Megan Lloyd
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Wooden bench currently relocated to Dickerson Pike • PHOTO BY ELI MOTYCKA
WHO WE ARE
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NASHVILLE PRIDE SPONSORS DROP SUPPORT
Nonprofit looks to cover $250,000 shortfall brought on by lost sponsorships from VUMC, Cracker Barrel and others BY
HANNAH HERNER
NASHVILLE PRIDE LOST about 40 percent of its sponsorship dollars this year.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nissan, Cracker Barrel, Dollar General and Jack Daniel’s all sponsored June’s Nashville Pride Festival in previous years, but pulled out of the 2025 iteration.
Most of the sponsors dropped out during the 30 days leading up to the festival, Nashville Pride president Tina Tousignant tells the Scene By National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, the organization hopes to raise back at least $250,000 of the $270,000 lost in sponsorships. Nashville Pride called the loss an “unprecedented financial crisis” in its 35 years of operation.
While the businesses that sat out Pride this year have said it was due to a lack of funding or change in direction, Tousignant says she can read between the lines.
“They didn’t want to confirm that it was DEI,” she tells the Scene. “Most of them were saying they were restructuring, and it was money that was the issue.”
In addition to the lost sponsorships, security costs more than doubled this June compared to past festivals, and attendance was down by about 15,000 — likely in large part due to severe weather. But Tousignant says the sponsorships were the largest part of the deficit.
VUMC withdrew standby emergency support one week before the festival — a move that cost Nashville Pride $30,000, the nonprofit confirms, though VUMC declined to comment on the matter. The hospital system also gutted its LGBTQ health programming this year following pressure from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who echoed an executive order from President Donald Trump demanding that entities receiving federal funding end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“I’m just generally upset that companies won’t stand up and do the right thing,” Tousignant says. “They cower down and bend the knee to politics and politicians, especially in our state. That’s sad. Vanderbilt is the worst, because they’re here [in Nashville] and they’re a large corporation to help people … and they can’t even stand up for one organization that they’ve been with for years. That’s the disheartening part.”
Nonprofit HIV prevention agency Nashville CARES stepped up, and other locally based corporations stayed on board, including Bridgestone — though the company dropped from the presenting sponsor level for the first time in 11 years — and Journeys. (The Nashville Scene is a media sponsor of Nashville Pride.)
Lebanon-based Cracker Barrel recently saw its stock drop (and later rebound) following the announcement of a new logo and branding. The temporary branding change garnered backlash from right-wing media figures like Robby Starbuck, who accused the company of being “infested with left-wing activists who are more interested in safe spaces, pronouns and virtue signaling than they are in their customers.” Meanwhile, the company quietly withdrew from sponsoring Nashville Pride earlier in the summer.
In 2023, Lynchburg’s Jack Daniel’s faced similar backlash and boycotting when some of its customers discovered a Pride campaign that the company had been participating in since 2021. Goodlettsville-based Dollar General, which had been involved for at least seven years, and Nissan, a presenting sponsor for four years, forwent communicating about Pride this year altogether. Nissan has faced financial troubles in the past year.
While it operates on a significantly smaller
“
“I’M JUST GENERALLY UPSET THAT COMPANIES WON’T STAND UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING. THEY COWER DOWN AND BEND THE KNEE TO POLITICS AND POLITICIANS, ESPECIALLY IN OUR STATE. THAT’S SAD.” —TINA TOUSIGNANT, NASHVILLE PRIDE
budget than Nashville Pride, Franklin Pride faced a shortfall this year as well. President Clayton Klutts tells the Scene that the organization reached out to some of its sponsors ahead of time to confirm their donation this year, only to find they wouldn’t be returning. Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene reported that Franklin Pride lost 70 percent of funding in 2025, including its largest sponsor.
“It wasn’t a complete surprise,” Klutts says. “Based on the political climate, we proactively reached out to our sponsors just to see how things stood. They were very forthcoming with us.”
Franklin Pride knew about the few organizations that said they’d be dropping sponsorship in fall 2024, but didn’t know if others would pull out before the June celebration. They held a successful fundraising concert in February and asked the community to donate.
“Every little bit helps, and it just proves to us that the business community and our community of members, allies, family and friends are very interested in Franklin Pride and want it to happen and continue to be a success,” Klutts says.
In the first 24 hours of its fundraiser, Nashville Pride raised $30,000. The organization is especially crucial in Tennessee, where bills targeting LGBTQ rights are introduced by state legislators on a yearly basis.
“It’s not just the festival, it’s year-round support for our community,” Tousignant says. “We love standing up and fighting for our community and creating safe spaces for people, and that’s why we decided we have to reach out to the community and tell them what’s going on and let them help us fight to keep our rights and our safety.”
WOODEN BENCHES CONFISCATED
BY CITY AFTER SEATING CHANGEUP
Nashville Department of Transportation faces off with citizens who want to reinstall seating on Korean Veterans Boulevard
BY ELI MOTYCKA
DAYS AFTER THE city methodically replaced popular metal seating along Korean Veterans Boulevard with large concrete spheres, new wooden benches appeared in their place. Soon after, the new benches were also taken by the Nashville Department of Transportation, relocated to a city warehouse. Concerned citizens — who identify their efforts as “guerrilla urbanism” — recovered the simple wooden furniture Thursday evening with the help of downtown Councilmember Jacob Kupin.
The streetscape struggle has become a proxy fight for citizens against what they characterize as city hostilities toward people living outdoors. Many relied on the centrally located benches as a place to rest, sleep or congregate, often toting belongings and survival gear. The Nashville Department of Transportation abruptly began uprooting the makeshift plaza in August, citing unspecified beautification efforts in collaboration with nonprofit business organization the Nashville Downtown Partnership.
City efforts to disrupt and hide visible homelessness downtown have ramped up in recent months. Many service providers also report a strained relationship with Metro’s Office of Homeless Services, particularly Director April Calvin, which was further tested by disorganized city efforts to relocate residents out of the densely populated downtown encampment known as Old Tent City in June. Homelessness remains a widespread problem in Nashville, where a housing shortage has led to out-of-reach rental and home prices, despite big-dollar allocations in the Metro budget.
Against this tense backdrop comes NDOT’s bench removal, a perceived act of aggression toward those who rely on public infrastructure to live. While the city taped off KVB, local advocate Manaen Hall asked Mayor Freddie O’Connell about the benches during a recent This Is Nashville call-in segment. The mayor said he would check on the situation, but has not yet offered further details.
Meanwhile, Lutheran pastor Robin Owen got busy. The benches were already made, Owen explains on her Substack, Jesus Urbanist — she had built them with friends intending to furnish under-resourced bus stops. They’d already put a few up on Clarksville, Dickerson and Nolensville pikes.
“When the benches were taken away on KVB, I still had one and went down and installed it,” Owen tells the Scene. “I did it anonymously, as a form of nonviolent protest for taking away the benches in the first place. You know, people need places to sit.”
Spray paint emblazoned on the benches sends simple messages: “To Nashville with love” on one, “have a seat Nashville” on another. Materials cost about $35 a
bench, Owen says, and builders plan to gather at Memorial Lutheran Church on Sept. 20 to build more. Within 48 hours, all of the wooden benches had been removed from KVB at the direction of NDOT Director Diana Alarcon. Kupin — caught between the passionate community effort and explicit orders of a city adminis-
trator — tracked them to a downtown Metro storehouse. He negotiated their release to Hall and Kelly Chieng. Alarcon was worried about the bench wood causing splinters, Kupin explained. Alarcon and NDOT did not respond to the Scene’s request for comment.
“I was part of rescuing the benches that NDOT re-
moved, mainly because I have a truck — I am not the one making the benches,” Chieng tells the Scene. “A lot of the people involved are pro-bike and transit people [and others are homelessness advocates]. It’s bringing us together to actively help people, and it’s a middle finger to the city, who should be doing this. It’s really taking off and spreading farther than Korean Vets. In the next couple weeks we’re going to see a lot more.”
The four rescued benches will likely be redeployed soon around the city. Chieng says volunteers have built out a citywide bench map to bring public seating to city corridors where they think it’s most needed. ▼
HOW PRISON NEWSPAPERS LIKE THE INTERIM HELPED INSTIGATE CHANGE
Printed by people incarcerated in the now-closed Tennessee State Prison, The Interim set the stage for prison newspapers of today
FOR NASHVILLE’S THE INTERIM, 1981 was an extraordinary year for news. The October edition broke a big story, issued with a dramatic, all-caps headline: “THREE ESCAPE FROM MAIN PRISON.”
For The Interim’s staff, the escape itself wasn’t the only drama. One of the escapees, Lloyd McPherson, was the paper’s own editor. The Interim was published inside the Tennessee State Prison.
Newspapers like The Interim — written, edited and printed by incarcerated people— existed all over the country by 1981. A look at the paper’s news coverage in that eventful year — filled with fires, more escapes and litigation over the inhumane conditions that would lead to the prison’s closing — shows the prominent role The Interim played in this nearly forgotten part of the fourth estate.
Today prison newspapers are growing once more.
From 1965 to 1991, the Penal Press Contest honored top achievements in prison journalism. In 1981, The Interim won three top prizes in the contest, including the Clayton Award for extraordinary journalistic achievement. This contest has relaunched, and on Sept. 19, the Penal Press Contest will announce new winners for the first time in more than 30 years. (For the category of Best Debut, for publications established between 2023 and 2025, the contest received 12 entries — further evidence of new prison newspapers emerging.)
As editor, McPherson frequently leveled strong criticism about the state of corrections in Tennessee. In a 1979 editorial, he derided Gov. Lamar Alexander’s inability to find “credible responses” to problems like overlong sentences, canceling of programs and crime inside the prison itself. McPherson wrote: “I would challenge Governor Alexander to set down face to face and discuss the challenges of Corrections with one who sees it from the inside out.”
McPherson also used The Interim’s reach to help the prison’s community agitate for group action. In July 1981, he introduced the Coalition for Prison Change. This organization, he wrote, “will aid your loved ones as they strive to deal with the problems your incarceration brings to your lives.” The group would meet in space donated by West Nashville Methodist Church. Besides helping families navigate the complexities of visits and communications, it would aid families with jobs, housing and legal trouble. But McPherson was on his way out.
BY ANNE RAY
STATE PRISON, 1971
Acting associate editor Melvin Cole reported the story of the escape. On Sept. 28, 1981, McPherson and two others scaled a wall with a purloined ladder. They cut through an electric fence and fled, aided by the “dense fog” that shrouded the guard towers.
Even with a nationwide all-points bulletin in place, the three managed to evade capture and dashed north on a route that would take them more than 600 miles. In Pennsylvania, a local newspaper reported that three suspects resembling the escapees held up a restaurant. On Oct. 6, “after eight days of helter-skelter freedom,” the three men were apprehended by authorities, and McPherson returned to prison.
The Interim’s staff issued this story with a headline that reads as a hat tip to their former newsroom leader: “FLAWLESS FLIGHT ENDS IN WISCONSIN.”
Unsurprisingly, a new editor — Interim staffer John A. Brown — took over for McPherson. Throughout 1981, Brown had reported on many other major news events at the prison. In July, maintenance crews started a fire with acetylene torches. (Brown reported that no supervisor was on duty that day.) That was a big story, but not compared to the one that ran right next to it, issued in a font reminiscent of a Wild West “wanted” poster: “Visitor Shot at Main Prison.” Prison guards went on strike in September.
And escape attempts appeared to be catching on. In October, reporter Bobby Tyler wrote about Ray Gammon’s escape: “Gammon jumped a train in Nashville, but was left behind in Gallatin when the box-car in which he was riding was side-tracked.”
Throughout that year, Brown, McPherson, Tyler and the rest of the staff reported on poor conditions and challenged the Department of Correction culture that led to them. (The week of the visitor shooting, an editorial ran under the headline “A Senseless Murder.”)
But those conditions had begun long before 1981. In 1976, after a riot at the prison in which one incarcerated person died and more than 30 others were wounded, William Trigg, a resident at the prison, filed a complaint that challenged the constitutionality of the prison. The complaint set the stage for the issues to finally be tried under a different suit, Grubbs v. Bradley. In the year’s final issue, the top headline on The Interim’s front page read: “PRISON SUIT BEGINS IN FEDERAL COURT.”
“And thus the adversaries are joined in a legal battle,” Tyler wrote. Tyler ends with a plaintive point: “Tennessee subjects prisoners to conditions which cause them to come out of the state prison … less able after release to live within the law and in a free society.” He likely couldn’t have predicted that it would be a decade before the prison closed. In 1981, the state still packed people inside. The illustration accompanying the article: A little cartoon castle, men flooding inside.
Today, on a quiet sliver of land between Briley Parkway and the Cumberland River, the Tennessee State Prison stands empty — a reminder of the suffering and blight that the prison brought to Nashville. But inside, a handful of incarcerated journalists used the press to sound the alarm about what they faced. They won accolades in the process, and advocated for change.
If The Interim of 1981 is any indication, it’s not a stretch to say Tennessee’s prison press could emerge once more.
Anne Ray is the former managing editor of Reveal Digital, where she helped spearhead the creation of a digital archive of American Prison Newspapers. She’s now the American Penal Press Contest coordinator at the Pollen Initiative. Her debut novel-in-stories, Scenic Overlook, was published in 2023. ▼
show Town Hall Party. The “King of the Strings” was also an in-demand studio picker for West Coast sessions, and his twangy guitar sound influenced the surf music of the 1960s.
From the exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, presented by City National Bank
artifact photo: Bob Delevante
REGISTER
Under the Big Tent
Ahead of AMERICANAFEST, we talk with multiple awards nominee MJ Lenderman, run down our favorite shows and much more
MUSIC FANS AROUND the globe, and Nashvillians in particular, know the Americana Music Association Festival and Conference as “AmericanaFest” for short. And they’ve been flocking to Music City since the inaugural fest in 2000 to see dozens upon dozens of performers showcasing their not-always-easy-toclassify work, which might draw on country, blues, rock or one of a heap of other traditions.
AmericanaFest is back at venues all over town Sept. 9 through 13, with panels and performances in abundance. Our preview starts with a conversation with North Carolina indie-rock phenom MJ Lenderman, who’s nominated for three awards at the keystone Honors and Awards ceremony. He talks about his creative process and inspirations like late, great Nashville-residing songsmith and poet David Berman.
We also catch up with songsmith extraordinaire Gillian Welch regarding her and David Rawlings’ nomination for Duo/Group of the Year, and get some perspective on the genre’s relationship with artists — especially artists of color — whose work draws on Black music traditions like blues, soul and R&B. We also share our top picks from among the hundreds of sets to see during the week, and bring back our annual Americana Artist or Baseball Player quiz, playing on the folksy nomenclature common to the two disciplines. ▼
Honest When No One’s Looking
Multiple Americana Awards nominee MJ Lenderman discusses influences on his work, including the late, great David Berman
BY ANNIE PARNELL
THERE’S A MOMENT ON the closing track of MJ Lenderman’s 2024 album Manning Fireworks when things get a little weird. “Bark at the Moon” starts off as a normal indie-rock ode to heartbreak, dejected and jealous about being left behind. “I took off on a bender, you took off on a jet,” Lenderman quips, complaining about
someone else’s success between Black Sabbath and Warren Zevon nods, pleading for things to stop changing around him.
This lasts for about three-and-a-half minutes, the rough runtime of most of the other tracks on the record. Then, just as he’s done howling out a “Werewolves of London” reference, when it seems by all accounts like the outro is about to hit and the album will be over, the whole thing instead drops into nearly seven minutes of dissociative fuzz and drone. The bio for Lenderman’s upcoming Ryman show in October describes this moment like an act of God: “He and his friends then disappear.” It’s as if the song’s narrator is so much of a bummer, he literally dissolves.
“Bark at the Moon” is classic MJ Lenderman, a loser ballad with something bizarre at its core. It’s also a little ironic these days, considering Lenderman got on a video call with the Scene recently to discuss his nominations for this year’s Americana Honors and Awards while on a bus ride from Norway to Sweden — after our first video call was delayed by bad reception on a Nordic ferry.
Lenderman is introspective and reserved, and he seems a little bemused about all of this. Though his tour prevents him from being at the festival, he’s up for several Americana Awards this year: Emerging Act of the Year, Album of the Year for Manning Fireworks, and Song of the Year for “Wristwatch.” That Ryman show is in October, with his backing band The Wind, plus David Nance and Mowed Sound opening. It’s Lenderman’s first headlining set at the Mother Church after a couple of “insane” recent features there with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, whose 2024 album Tigers Blood he appears on, and who’s compared his low, twangy voice to Jason Molina’s. He thinks “Americana” is a “funny word,” but when he’s asked about how it shows up in his own work, he points to The Band’s influence.
“Before Manning Fireworks, and even the album before that [2022’s Boat Songs],” says Lenderman, “I was listening to them maybe exclusively for, like, two years.”
Most Americana albums put forth a kind of rootsy timelessness — nostalgic, folkloric. Instead, more in the Don DeLillo sense of
the word, media and electronics punctuate Manning Fireworks, and trying to connect or escape through them leaves Lenderman’s characters empty. On “Wristwatch,” an Apple Watch is taken to Batman-level heights. It’s a pocketknife, a megaphone, a distress signal. It’s a sendup of an anxious, manly notion that having the right gadget on you means you can always be a hero — even if, in Lenderman’s words, the tech is “really not all that impressive.” In the music video, he drives too-tall trucks under the “Can Opener Bridge” in Durham, N.C., creating a run of traffic hazards and sending basketballs and pool floats flying.
Lenderman is fascinated by this type of guy: dirtbag laughingstocks who might be played by Danny McBride or Tim Robinson.
PHOTO: LANCE BANGS
Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Wednesday, Sept. 10, at the Ryman Playing Oct. 14 at the Ryman
MJ LENDERMAN
“Jerk” is one of the most frequently used words on Manning Fireworks, and Karly Hartzman, his bandmate in the shoegazey Southern rock band Wednesday and former partner, has called the record “divorcé music.” Lenderman loves Conner O’Malley and Dan Licata’s comedy, and he just started watching Eastbound & Down, which he says has “way more of an emotional depth to it than I was expecting.”
His own narrators often go through the wild mood swings of O’Malley’s screaming zealots or McBride’s failsons, careening between confessional and ridiculous. It’s not hard to imagine one of them throwing out a line from O’Malley’s special Stand Up Solutions like “I have to become The Punisher” or a Kenny Powersism such as “I’m not gonna stop yelling, because that’ll mean I lost the fight.”
“It all stems from things I find funny,” Lenderman says. “Usually, the songs start with a line that makes me laugh.” Written on the phone with a friend, “Wristwatch” takes a cue from comedic structure, raising the stakes of its own surreal geography from the first verse’s Buffalo beach house to a “Himbo Dome” houseboat in the second.
Sometimes, instead of embodying these dudes, Lenderman talks directly to them — in “Rip Torn,” he admonishes, “You need to learn how to behave in groups.” There’s a frustrated kind of empathy there, a putting-up-with that you might extend to a self-destructive friend. “Maybe I can recognize it in myself,” the singer muses from the bus.
For his wry lyrical observations — and maybe also for his self-effacing streak — he’s often compared to longtime Nashvillian and Silver Jews frontman David Berman. “The comparison thing is dangerous,” Lenderman says. “I don’t think it’s a great look for me, because no one’s ever going to touch how good and valuable his work was.”
He emphasizes how important Berman’s music was to him personally, noting, “The lyrics are so up-front, and the delivery is so specific that it made me think about words in a new way.” In a 2019 Reddit AMA, posted a few weeks before he died, Berman laid out a writing
exercise that helped shape Lenderman’s 2021 record Ghost of Your Guitar Solo: “Write 20 lines a day, five days a week. Good or bad. 20 lines. After a couple weeks go thru and remove the good stuff.” Manning Fireworks took inspiration from the same exercise, but Lenderman’s writing process felt the strain of a career that was taking off.
“I was on tour with Wednesday a lot, so I didn’t feel I was being very productive, and I wasn’t able to bring myself to do all that,” he explains. “I basically just did the same thing, but over a way longer amount of time — maybe just one line at a time.”
The record marked his first attempt at laying down instrumentals, whenever he could eke out studio time, before writing lyrics. That process was unsettling. “I didn’t know what anything was, and eventually it worked out,” he says. “I don’t want to do that again.”
Ghost of Your Guitar Solo, like Boat Songs, dwells on what in one of his songs Lenderman calls “subtle misfortunes”: a hurricane sharing your name, leaving a grill outside, accidentally walking in on a friend’s mom while she’s sleeping. Manning Fireworks zooms out to consider total failures, a shift that Lenderman attributes to his ongoing wrestling with fame.
“I had this new level of visibility, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it,” he says. “If I didn’t like how people were reading into something, maybe I was trying to sharpen up.”
For instance, he never intended to be the sports guy. He picked up that reputation on the internet after Boat Songs’ “Hangover Game” — which takes inspiration from Game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals — took off. Sports, with all their highstakes glory and failure, were an interesting “vehicle for storytelling” for a while, but he certainly doesn’t want his work to be defined by them. “There’s literally only one song about basketball,” he points out, cracking a smile.
Manning Fireworks was the biggest press cycle he’s ever done, and the online reaction — “there’s a lot of memes” — was unreal. “There was a lot of attention, which is a little weird when it’s all online,” Lenderman says. “It doesn’t really register in my head what it is.” He’s
Extra Innings: Americana Artist or Baseball Player?
Test your knowledge of Americana and pro baseball with our quiz
COMPILED BY STEPHEN
TRAGESER
AS AMERICANAFEST TAKES over venues all across Nashville from Sept. 9 through 13, you’ll see bills listing artists whose names or monikers bear striking similarities to the folksy nomenclature prevalent in pro baseball. Among our list of 30 names, 15 belong to artists performing at this year’s AmericanaFest, and the other 15 belong to ball players (some currently on an MLB roster, some from the annals of history). Can you separate the catchers, pitchers and fielders from the string-slingin’ troubadours without searching? Good luck!
Special thanks, as ever, to Nashville record store staffer Tyler Glaser — a lifelong baseball fan who also runs the appropriately named Instagram account @baseballplayerswithgreatnames — for his help rounding up the primo player handles.
ManningFireworks
zooms out to consider total failures, a shift that Lenderman attributes to his ongoing wrestling with fame.
stopped running his own socials to “get that distraction out of the way.”
Instead, he’s filling his time with music, including a recent watch of Ken Burns’ Country Music. “I feel like forever, I’ve been looking back, musically. Researching, I guess.” Lately, though, he’s been getting especially inspired by his friends. The Asheville, N.C.-based singersongwriter released his own take on Brooklyn experimental pop project This Is Lorelei’s “Dancing in the Club” in March. It’s part of the deluxe edition of their album Box for Buddy, Box for Star. He’s been spinning the new albums from Friendship, Walker Rider and Florry, as well as recents from Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, who toured with him last year.
This month, he’s got more of his own music coming. He’s featured on Run for Cover Records’ I Will Swim to You: A Tribute to Jason Molina, out Friday, alongside homages from Hand Habits, Horse Jumper of Love and Advance Base. Proceeds benefit MusiCares, a nonprofit that provides financial support to musicians in times of crisis, including the late Molina. On the tribute compilation, Lenderman covers a tune from Molina’s Songs:Ohia album The Magnolia Electric Co. — the devastating “Just Be Simple,” which deals in some of the same desires as “Bark at the Moon.” Then, Wednesday’s new album Bleeds will be out on Sept. 19.
“It’s been a pretty exciting year,” he says, as the boreal forests roll out beyond his window. ▼
Colby T. Helms
Trey Cabbage
Sunny Sweeney
Judy Blank
Cupid Childs
Chone Figgins
Felicity Dowd
Bubbles Hargrave
Sam Stoane
Ugly Johnny Dickshot
Cheslor Cuthbert
ANSWER KEY: Americana artists: Zandi Holup, Mon Rovîa, Ken Pomeroy, Dom Flemons, Merce Lemon, Pitney Meyer, -Thunder storm Artis, Joelton Mayfield, Colby T. Helms, Sunny Sweeney, Judy Blank, Felicity Dowd, Sam Stoane, Tift Merritt, Ally Free Baseball players: Spottswood Poles, Boss Schmidt, Buster Posey, Scooter Gennett, Boog Powell, Enos -“Coun
try” Slaughter, DiDi Gregorius, Shag Shaughnessy, Trey Cabbage, Cupid
Childs, Chone Figgins, Bubbles -Har grave, Ugly Johnny Dickshot, Cheslor
Cuthbert, Stubby Clapp
Folk Heroes
Talking with Gillian Welch about Woodland — her lauded LP with longtime partner David Rawlings — and their Americana nominations
BY HANNAH CRON
IT’S BEEN A YEAR since Grammy-winning folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings released their acclaimed album Woodland. The record is named after the historic East Nashville recording studio the pair owns, with which they have an extensive history.
“[We’ve] resurrected that landmark twice with our own four hands,” says Welch, almost with a laugh.
Before the purchase, they had a temporary recording setup in their home, but like many other musicians, their goal was to have a dedicated studio space where equipment could be ready to go when inspiration struck. Welch remembers it was Rawlings’ idea back in 2002 to look into buying Woodland, since they’d been driving by its big “For Sale” sign for two years at that point. It took two loans and a considerable amount of elbow grease deployed over a couple of months to get it up and running.
“We worked around the clock,” she recalls. “Dave and I rebuilt it with our own hands. We installed the studio glass, we did the upholstery work and the control room. We did all the wiring ourselves, crawling around on our hands and knees and pulling cables down into the basement. I’ll get out the pictures and prove it. … It was really hard work. But if you do it right, the hope is you only have to do it once, you know?”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Woodland. The studio sits in the middle of Five Points, and it was in the direct path of the tornadoes that tore across Middle Tennessee right before COVID lockdown started in March 2020, suffering serious damage as a result.
“If we hadn’t been in town, I shudder to think — I just can’t even barely talk about it,” says Welch. “We would have lost everything. All of our master tapes, all of our guitars — everything, our entire life. I know other people go through catastrophic loss like that. We have friends out in Los Angeles who pretty much lost everything like that in that last fire. And there they are, they’re still kicking and making music. We were just so grateful with all the help we had, and the community really rallied around us.”
Equipment for cleanup and helping hands to operate it kept rolling in through the week after the storm. Even Jack White appeared and, in Welch’s recollection, spent hours with Rawlings running a ShopVac. Chef and restaurateur Sean Brock sent a different kind of support.
“After, like, 36 hours of hell, the first food that showed up on our doorstep was this enormous pan of biscuit sandwiches from Sean,” Welch says. “Oh my goodness — showed up on the steps! This is Nashville, people.”
She knows Nashville well, having moved to Music City in the early 1990s before striking up
the partnership with Rawlings that precipitated their career taking off. They’ve worked together all along — the long-running gag was that they were members of “a two-person band called Gillian Welch,” and Rawlings also has a few solo records under his name. But they began releasing music under both their names only recently. According to Welch, the decision was primarily a matter of convenience.
“It just seemed easier and it seemed truer to how things really are with us,” says Welch. “It’s always been collaborative, right from the very beginning. And I think we just got tired of trying to decide whose name would go on what. It seemed kind of like an artificial distinction. Then we put out All the Good Times under both of our names, and nobody seemed to bat an eye. So we said, ‘Well, that’s that.’”
Released in August 2024, Woodland is the duo’s first album of original material released under both names, following All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone), a collection of covers and classic traditional tunes released in 2020. After all the work done to restore the studio, the name was a natural fit. During the 2020 renovations,
the studio was restored to its original 1960s floorplan and styling. Welch and Rawlings are constantly writing, but felt a record coming on while the world slowed down during the pandemic shutdown. Despite the change of pace and setting, the physical world isn’t where their inspiration comes from. That starts in a different place, internal but no less real.
“I sometimes think of it as that we go deep into this kind of internal landscape that very often looks like Tennessee,” Welch says. “There’s mules, there’s whiskey, there’s dirt, there’s the devil, you know — there’s redemption. I think we were just ready to move on to the new songs. And again, there was this feeling of, ‘We may not always have this opportunity.’ So I think we felt like we had to seize it. We had rebuilt the studio, we were alive and well, and we could make another record, so we thought we’d bloody well better.”
By all measures available, it’s a good thing they did. Woodland is classic Welch-Rawlings fare, full of the heart and harmonies the duo is known for with a minimal acoustic-instrumentdriven sound that’s somehow timeless and
completely refreshing. All the Good Times won Best Folk Album at the Grammys in 2021, and Woodland followed suit this year, making the duo the first to win the award more than once. The LP keeps making an impact with listeners, and Welch and Rawlings are up for two awards — Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year, a third of the member-voted categories — at this year’s Americana Honors and Awards, happening Sept. 10 at the Ryman. Welch says she and Rawlings find themselves in good company on the slate of nominees, and while they don’t expect to win in either category, they’re glad to be off the road and able to attend the ceremony this year. Most of all, they are grateful that after all this time, people are still listening.
“David and I have just been so overwhelmingly thankful that people have heard the record and like the record. I guess I’m surprised and heartened that we just keep going around. We’ve been touring the record for a year, and I’m really glad that it’s still sitting really well with people. I keep hearing from folks that it’s meaningful to them and they like spinning it. So that’s all you can ask for.”
DAVID RAWLINGS AND GILLIAN WELCH
Against the Wind
Getting perspective on diversity and inclusion in Americana with Buddy Red, Kyshona, Buffalo Nichols and Becky Parsons
BY RON WYNN
DURING MUCH OF its tenure, the Americana musical community has faced questions regarding idiomatic diversity and artistic inclusion. For a genre whose purpose from its inception has been highlighting sounds and styles deemed at best noncommercial and at worst unwelcome in the mainstream music world, it would seem there would be no question that blues, soul, gospel and traditional R&B artists would be welcome alongside folkies, bluegrassers and trad-country types. Whether that’s the reality hasn’t always been completely clear. One can certainly cite the honors and recognition given to such luminaries as Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal, Rhiannon Giddens, William Bell and the Fisk Jubilee Singers as ample evidence of the Americana Music Association’s sincerity and desire to truly be a big tent for everyone in the vicinity of roots music.
But the current anti-diversity rhetoric coming out of Washington (and various statehouses, including our own) has raised fears that Americana might join others in the academic and business worlds in retreating from its efforts to broaden participation and membership. The lineup for this year’s AmericanaFest certainly has ample artistic and idiomatic variety. The Scene reached out to artists Buddy Red, Kyshona and Buffalo Nichols, as well as artist manager Becky Parsons, for their perspective. Red and Kyshona are more upbeat in their views on the benefits of Americana than Nichols, but they are unanimous in being grateful for the opportunity to perform during the festival. Meanwhile, Parsons has organized a panel to put this discussion front and center.
Buddy Red is performing Sept. 11 during Cellotree Arts’ Cellovision, the third annual iteration of an unofficial showcase series during AmericanaFest held at an East Nashville home. The Atlanta musician cites Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Muddy Waters as prime influences, and feels his mix of rock and blues fits more easily into the Americana universe.
“I’m not doing a pure blues thing,” Red says, “so I think being seen as an Americana artist will help greatly in terms of growing an audience.” A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Red recently released a grooving single called “Sold His Soul,” which previews a forthcoming EP.
“I embrace any community that welcomes me and my music, and I’ve found Americana to be that place,” says Nashvillian Kyshona,
The Business of Belonging: Breaking Barriers in Americana, 1 p.m. Sept. 10 at Embassy Suites Riverbed C&D
Buffalo Nichols 9 p.m. Sept. 11 at The Basement
Buddy Red Sept. 11 during Cellovision
Kyshona 8 p.m. Sept. 12 at Analog at Hutton Hotel
who’s set to perform during the festival at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, at Analog at Hutton Hotel. “In terms of the ‘diversity within the movement’ question, I feel one of the greatest things about AmericanaFest is it’s a place where those issues are regularly discussed and addressed. I’ve participated in the past on panels where we wrestled with these questions, and at times the dialogue got intense and heated. But I certainly feel that the issue is one of concern within the Americana community, and I also do think there are those within it who are doing their best to be voices for change and for inclusion.”
She also credits the participation of major names like Keb’ Mo,’ Ruthie Foster, Odessa Settles and others on her 2024 LP Legacy with providing her a big push. “It’s part of the reason why we’re going to put out a live album version of a lot of those songs,” she says, “because there was such a great reception to it.”
However, Buffalo Nichols, a student of oldschool blues who lives in Austin, Texas, sees a slowing of efforts to attract more diverse artists to the genre. “For a while yes, I saw a greater push, especially around the time of the George Floyd incident,” Nichols tells the Scene “But now, I think there’s much less of an effort in that direction. I do think there are goodintentioned people in the Americana camp, but from my end I don’t see the progress that I thought was happening a couple of years ago.”
Nichols, who’ll be playing The Basement during the festival at 9 p.m. on Sept. 11, released his most recent full-length The Fatalist in 2023. This year, he’s released a string of dynamic, rousing singles featuring themes of dissent, starting with June’s folk-schooled “Belly of the Beast” and including July’s brooding, electronically enhanced “Moses.”
One person determined to see that things keep moving forward is Becky Parsons, an artist manager, publicist and founder of Found Sound Media. Her company is geared particularly to support artists of color, women and LGBTQ performers. Parsons has organized and is moderating a panel discussion called The Business of Belonging: Breaking Barriers in Americana. Panelists include journalist Jewly Hight, musician Ruby Amanfu, Black Opry co-director Tanner Davenport and Rounder Records project manager Ashley Moyer. The event is part of the conference portion of the festival, open to anyone who has a Silver or Gold Circle Pass, and is happening in Embassy
Suites Riverbed C&D at 1 p.m. on Sept. 10.
“One thing that I see now is a lot of folks are discouraged, but this effort is something that we can’t stop now,” says Parsons. “If any music should be open and welcoming to those artists whose voices often aren’t heard or taken seriously, it’s Americana. I do think that we’ve made progress, but we’ve still got a long way to go in this regard. This is a time when we as a community must get recharged.”
Still, the overall positive impact of Americana music and AmericanaFest specifically is one Kyshona thinks cannot be
overstated — especially in terms of building community.
“For me the greatest thing about AmericanaFest is the chance for artists to get together,” Kyshona says. “Especially for people of color doing the music that we do, there aren’t that many places and spaces for us. The chance to come together, to get off the road and meet other artists, have interactions and exchanges — it’s such a blessing. And the chance to have your music heard and appreciated by audiences who really like and respect it.” ▼
KYSHONA
BUFFALO NICHOLS
BUDDY RED
Nan Adams
The Feemster Family
Debby & Norm Miede
Kellie & Will Robinson
On the Town
Our picks for performances, parties and panels you won’t want to miss at AmericanaFest
BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
WITH SO MUCH to see during AmericanaFest, you need a game plan to get the most out of your pass. With that in mind, we humbly offer our picks for the sets and parties you don’t want to miss this year.
Two of the biggest shows on Tuesday, Sept. 9, are separately ticketed events: The Secret Sisters and Maggie Rose perform with the Nashville Symphony (7:30 p.m. at the Schermerhorn) while Dwight Yoakam plays Ascend Amphitheater with support from Shooter Jennings (8 p.m.). You won’t need a festival credential to get into either of those, but you will to catch events like the Stella Prince and Friends writers’ round (4 p.m. at AB Hillsboro Village), led by rising folk star Stella Prince and presented by gender equality organization Change the Conversation, and Other Voices: Songs for Nanci Griffith, a tribute show featuring Amythyst Kiah Caroline Spence and more (7:30 p.m. at City Winery), country great Cam (7 p.m. at Antalog at Hutton Hotel) or ace songsmith Jesse Welles (10 p.m. at Exit/In). Pass pickup is at City Winery from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, and it will move to Embassy Suites (on the second floor at the top of the escalator) from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. The major event on Wednesday is the keystone 24th Americana Honors and Awards ceremony and concert (6:30 p.m. at the Ryman). As usual, the show has its own ticketing process, but there’s tons more to check out all day. For those with Silver Passes, that includes notable panel discussions like a Fireside Chat With Brandi Carlile and Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. (10 a.m., Embassy Suites Meadow A&B) and The Business of Belonging: Breaking Barriers in Americana (read our conversation with panel moderator Becky Parsons and others; 1 p.m., Embassy Suites Riv-
erbed C&D). The Thirty Tigers Day Party takes over new East Side honky-tonk Skinny Dennis for daytime fun with Hayes Carll, Eric Slick and others starting at noon. At night, Exit/In hosts a stellar run including country singer-songwriter Kristina Murray (8 p.m.) coming behind her stunner Little Blue, exceptional singers The Watson Twins (9 p.m.), Athens, Ga., country-rockers The Pink Stones (10 p.m.) and wide-ranging songsmith extraordinaire Aaron Lee Tasjan (11 p.m.). Meanwhile, up-and-coming singer-songwriters Adam Chaffins (9 p.m.) and Emily Hines (10 p.m.) play
The Basement, master storyteller Willi Carlisle heads to The Basement East (9 p.m.), and country ace Jett Holden (9 p.m.) hits The 5 Spot along with songsmith Nicki Bluhm (10 p.m.), who might showcase her LP Rancho Deluxe, due in October. The schedule kicks into yet a higher gear on Thursday, Sept. 11. At noon, John C. Reilly and Jack White will give a keynote speech that you can attend if you have a Silver Pass (Embassy Suites Meadow A&B). At the same time, choose between Jillith Fair (a tribute to revered songwriter Jill Sobule, who died in May) at The 5 Spot; day one of the OUTlaw Queer Country Roots party (featuring Melody Walker, Lizzy No and more) at The Lipstick Lounge; and There Will Be Dogs: New West Records & Oh Boy Records Day Party (with rocking singer-songwriter Tré Burt and others) at Skinny Dennis.
Around sundown, songsmith Amanda Shires returns to Exit/In a few weeks ahead of Nobody’s Girl (7 p.m.). Country champs Joshua Ray Walker (whose new LP Stuff is coming in October; 7 p.m.), Kashus Culpepper (8 p.m.) and Kaitlin Butts (9 p.m.) play Brooklyn Bowl as part of Relix’s party, while Texas bluesman Buffalo Nichols heads to The Basement (read our talk with him; 9 p.m.) along with Virginia folksters Palmyra (10 p.m.). The Blue Room at Third Man Records is hosting a knockout lineup of songwriters that kicks off at 7 p.m. and includes Joy Oladokun, Dawes, Medium Build and S.G. Goodman. Demand will be high, so there are special entry procedures: Silver and Gold Passes will get priority in the line at the door, but if you’d rather not take
chances, a handful of physical tickets will go on sale — $40 each, cash only, limit of two per person — at 11 a.m. Thursday morning in the Third Man storefront.
Friday evening, Sept. 12, AmericanaFest does its annual takeover of beloved free show series Musicians Corner in Centennial Park. You don’t need a credential for entry. The show begins at 5 p.m., and the crown jewel in its stout lineup is a performance from Lockeland Strings with guest vocalists including Amanda Shires, Esther Rose and Joy Clark. Then The Hold Steady main man Craig Finn (8 p.m.) will be at The Basement East, teeing up Pittsburgh folk-rocker Merce Lemon (9 p.m.) and widely loved North Carolina rock outfit Wednesday (10 p.m.), whose latest LP Bleeds drops the following week.
Analog at Hutton Hotel has a lineup to keep you planted all night, including subtle and powerful songsmith Kyshona (read more in our talk with her; 8 p.m.), roots-rocking power-popping songster Webb Wilder (9 p.m.) and the heady rhythms of Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes (10 p.m.). If none of this strikes your fancy, set your GPS for Jim Lauderdale, a veritable head on the Mount Rushmore of Americana, playing with his group The Game Changers at 3rd and Lindsley (7 p.m., with country greats The War and Treaty on at 10), rising songsmith Ken Pomeroy at The Blue Room at Third Man Records (9 p.m.), onetime Eagles instrumentalist Bernie Leadon at City Winery (10 p.m.) or Nick Hexum — check the color of your energy, because he is indeed the guy from 311 — backed by folk-punks Water Tower at the Station Inn (11 p.m.).
All good things must come to an end, and the shows on Saturday, Sept. 13, set up AmericanaFest to go out on a high note. On the early side, you have annual events like The Aussie BBQ at The 5 Spot and Thirty Tigers Gospel Brunch at City Winery (both start at 11 a.m.) and day two of the OUTlaw Queer Country Roots party. OUTlaw picks up after a one-day hiatus and moves over to Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge at noon, with Secret Emchy Society, Mya Byrne, Julie Effin’ Nolen and others on deck.
As night falls, The Blue Room at Third Man Records readies one more heater including takes on indie-folk songwriting from Nigerian American Uwade (7 p.m.), Brit Jade Bird (fresh off her Who Wants to Talk About Love? album; 9 p.m.) and Liberian American and Chattanooga resident Mon Rovîa (10 p.m.). Fresh off his latest record In the Hour of Dust, Grant-Lee Phillips heads to The Basement (8 p.m.) alongside fellow rocking singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt (10 p.m.) and others. Joelton Mayfield, whose eagerly anticipated full-length debut Crowd Pleaser is set to land in October, plays at 8 p.m. at The Basement East, on a bill including fellow locals Will Hoge (7 p.m.) and Jack Van Cleaf (10 p.m.). Songsmith Liz Longley plays 3rd and Lindsley at 7 p.m., warming up the crowd for some Americana royalty: Rodney Crowell and Friends play at 8, and the Rockabilly Filly herself, Rosie Flores, is on at 9:30. Rounding out that bill is a fine way to wrap up the fest: a Guitar Party at 10:30 p.m., featuring local pickers Tom Bukovac, Jedd Hughes and Guthrie Trapp, who just put a pretty dang fancy feather in his cap when the call came to record all the guitars for the soundtrack to the reboot of King of the Hill ▼
DOWNLOAD THE AMERICANAFEST APP FOR MORE SCHEDULING INFORMATION
AMANDA SHIRES
JOY CLARK
MAGGIE ROSE
PHOTO: BRETT WARREN
OCTOBER
icon guide
Amerigo Italian Restaurant
The Vespucci
Pepperoni, goat cheese and pepperoncini peppers, drizzled with hot honey.
BoomBozz Craft Pizza & Taproom
Green Chile Chicken
Carry out available
Vegetarian available upon request
Garlic cream sauce, smoked bacon, red onions, peppadew peppers, mozzarella and goat cheese finished with a green chili jam drizzl e.
Café Between
Meat & Three
A bold twist on a classic combo, loaded with savory pepperoni and balanced by the perfect trio of fresh mushrooms, crisp onions and vibrant bell peppers. It’s the best of both worlds: meaty, hearty, and veggie-packed in every delicious slice.
Common Ground
Common Pizza
A twist on a classic margherita style with hand tossed dough, house-made garlic tomato sauce, a blend of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and finished off with crispy basil.
Countrypolitan Hotel & Bar
Southern BBQ Brisket Pizza
Smoked beef brisket, pimento cheese spread, Mozzarella, peppadew, tangy BBQ and white BBQ sauce.
Desano
Visit scenepizzaweek.com for Pizza Week special details.
Dicey’s Pizza & Tavern
Sausage & Giardiniera
Harth Restaurant & Bar
The Khachapuri
Gluten-free available upon request
Outdoor seating available
Pet-friendly
Available via Uber Eats
The Khachapuri is baked on house pizza dough and covered in fresh mozzarella and whipped feta with layers of Benton’s country ham prosciutto and then topped with a baked egg yolk, soft herbs, olive oil and sea salt.
IL Forno
The Loren Smoked mozzarella, fennel sausage, radicchio, Gorgonzola and roasted walnuts.
Jolly Ollie’s Pizza & Pub
Visit scenepizzaweek.com for Pizza Week special details.
Lockeland Table
Visit scenepizzaweek.com for Pizza Week special details.
Lucky’s 3 Star Bar
Lucky’s Tavern Pizza
Thin crispy Tavern-style crust, house-made tavern red sauce, pepperoni and hot giardiniera. Finished with Romano Cheese.
Mellow Mushroom
Loaded Potato Pie
Our Sausage & Giardiniera tavern-style pizza pays homage to our Chicago roots. This pizza is made with a thin, crispy 9” tavern-style crust and topped with spicy Italian sausage, giardiniera, mozzarella, Parmesan and tomato sauce.
Dukos
Oxtail Pizza
Red sauce, mozzarella, pecorino Romano, braised oxtail, crispy fried collard greens, finished with Mike’s Hot Honey and fresh lemon zest.
F.A.B. Pizza
The One with the Tribbiani F.A.B. Red sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, cup and crisp pepperoni, red onion, Thai chili hot honey and freshly grated 18 month Parmesan.
Goodfellas Pizzaeria
Moe “Truffle” Greene
Mozzarella, sautéed mushrooms, sausage, truffle cream,truffle oil and shaved Parmesan.
Sauced Pizza Kitchen at Brewhouse South
White Devil
Ricotta base, house mozzarella blend, roasted garlic, parsley, salami, black pepper, and Calabrian chili.
Scoreboard Bar & Grill
Smoke Shack Supreme
Smoky, spicy, and a little sweet — this pizza layers house BBQ sauce with juicy brisket, crispy pepperoni, caramelized onions and roasted red peppers for a true Southern feast.
St. Vito Focacceria
Pepperoni VITO
GIANT slice of our unique and one of a kind “sfincione” Sicilian focaccia pizza. Loaded with ezzo pepperoni cups, saffron honey, Sicilian oregano, pecorino and seasoned breadcrumbs.
Taco Bamba
Olive oil and garlic base pizza loaded with red potato, applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, sprinkled with chives and finished with a swirl of spicy ranch and sour cream.
Nicky’s Coal Fired
Pasta Pizzas
Your choice of one of two pizzas inspired by classic pasta dishes. Visit scenepizzaweek.com for details.
NY Pie
NY Special
Authentic New York style pizza (thin, crispy, hand-tossed, and baked in a brick-oven) with pepperoni, sausage, black olives, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, white onions and Mozzarella cheese on a pizza sauce base.
Pizza Perfect
Pizza Elote
A flavorful twist on the classic Mexican Street Corn served on our homemade pizza crust. Fire-roasted corn, Pickled Onion, Jalapeños, creamy lime crema, and melty mozzarella on a golden crust. Finished with chili spice, fresh cilantro, and feta cheese for an irresistibly bold flavor.
Roy’s Tavern
Roy’s Tavern Pizza
Crispy thin crust, Italian sausage, tavern style red sauce and hot giardiniera finished with Parmesan cheese.
Papi Juan Quesadilla
Sausage, pepperoni, peppers, onion, Mozzorella, salsa roja and red chile ranch.
Tutti da Gio
Pizza Fiocco
Heavy cream base, Prosciutto cotto, fresh mozzarella, smashed potatoes, Parmesan cheese and black pepper.
Yogi’s Pizzeria & Ice Cream Emporium
Lasagna Pizza
The best of both worlds: savory Italian sausage, creamy ricotta and layers of mozzarella and parmesan, all atop a golden crust. The heart of lasagna, reimagined as a pizza.
HIPPIES & COWBOYS with IVAN PULLEY and special opener PYLETRIBE featuring ARTIMUS PYLE of LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Songwriters Show featuring AIMEE MAYO, CHRIS LINDSEY, AARON BARKER & ABBIE CALLAHAN
2025 featuring TROUBADOUR BLUE, HAYES CARLL, SOUTHERN AVENUE, TIFT MERRITT & DEE WHITE AMERICANAFEST 2025 featuring THE ISAACS, DARRELL SCOTT & CHARLES WESLEY GODWIN
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
Maya Manuela w/ Eliza Harrison Smith
Josie Edwards w/ Walker Burroughs (7pm)
ry Jennings w/ Allison Young (9PM)
Katelyn Myers w/ Henry COnlon & This2
Blake Ruby w/ Croozer (7pm) Belles (9pm)
AMERICANAFEST: ft. Abbie Callahan (6pm)
Americanafest: ft. anna graves (7pm)
Americanafest: Feat. Moose Miller, Adam Chaffins, Emily Hines, Matt Koziol
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)
Annual Commonwealth Of Kentucky Party (12PM)
Americanafest: Feat. Low Gap, Grant-Lee Phillips, Nicholas Jamerson, Lilly Hiatt, DeeOhGee (7PM)
CRITICS’ PICKS:
SEPT. 5-14
FAIR [DEEP-FRIED FAMILY FUN]
THE NASHVILLE FAIR
For the next week, there’s only one place in town that hosts pig races, comedy shows, bluegrass jams, a local beer festival, pro wrestling, a Ferris wheel with a skyline view and a pumpkin-growing contest. (Or anyway, only one place that we know about.) It’s all happening at The Nashville Fair, a fast-growing tradition in Music City held at the local fairgrounds for 10 nights this September. Along with the aforementioned activities, highlights this year include a performance from the Nashville Opera, an ice-cream-eating competition, a fortune teller, a cosplay contest, a milk bar and a “pollinator” exhibit highlighting the buzzworthy local roles of bees and butterflies. Family attractions include a Lego play area, bounce houses, toddlerfriendly rides, a rabbit exhibit and much more. Plus it’s a fair, so you can do all these things while eating a corn dog or between head-spinning rides on the midway. Find a full slate of activities at nashfair.fun. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
SEPT. 5-14 AT THE FAIRGROUNDS NASHVILLE
320 WEDGEWOOD AVE. Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
THURSDAY / 9.4
[MADCHESTER, RAVE-ON]
MUSIC
JAMES
TEENAGE WASTELAND/ MIDNIGHT MOVIES: SPONTANEOUS PAGE 24
COWBOY KITCHEN WITH JONNY FRITZ AND FRIENDS PAGE 26
JARED BEASLEY
AUTHOR EVENT FEAT. LAZARUS LAKE PAGE 26
One needs only to look at the recent sales of Oasis tickets and Adidas Gazelles to know that Britpop is back. If local anglophiles need a Nashville gig to sport their fresh bucket hat and tape-sleeve Kappa track jacket — zipped all the way up, of course — the band James will be appearing at Cannery Hall on Thursday night. James may not have enjoyed the stardom that many of their Manchester neighbors had on this side of the Atlantic, but they were always around the British indie world with their rattling guitars and bouncy, psychedelic dance pop. Formed in 1982, James built a following playing club shows with The Fall and New Order, releasing early records on Tony Wilson’s famed Factory Records and even opening for The Smiths on a run of dates not long after the release of Meat Is Murder. But while James were already NME coverboys by the release of their second EP, James II, the band didn’t score big in the U.S. until their Eno-produced 1993 track “Laid” became a staple of alternative radio,
earning the band a No. 3 slot on Billboard’s Modern Rock Chart and finding its way into the American Pie film franchise. The evergreen tune had another surge last year, after being heard in an episode of FX’s hit show The Bear. Far from a one-hit wonder, James still releases new music, dropping the acid-house-tinged pop album Yummy in 2024 and a new live album this year.
P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT CANNERY HALL
ONE CANNERY ROW
FILM [SELL ME THIS PEN]
NIGHTLIGHT 615: THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
The summer slate for NightLight 615 — the annual outdoor film series that takes place at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park’s amphitheater — is coming to an end on Thursday, and it’s going out with one hell of a final entry. This summer’s previous screenings were mostly innocuous audience favorites, comedies and action movies like Mean Girls, Wedding Crashers, Top Gun: Maverick and Pirates of the Caribbean. I love these movies; I mean them no harm when I say that Thursday’s screening of The Wolf of Wall Street is on a
different level. Martin Scorsese’s three-hour drugged-out, depraved, deeply cynical masterpiece is a wild choice for an outdoor movie showcase. I applaud the NightLight 615 programmers for their decision. Star Leonardo DiCaprio is a force of nature in Wolf. It’s as much a feat of physical acting (think of the hilarious Quaaludes scene or his iconic “I’m not leavin’” speech) as it is a comedic and dramatic feat. Leo is my favorite actor, so I do not say lightly that this is his best performance. All of his talents are on display. The movie will begin at sunset, but arrive early to sample some of the local food and drink vendors on site. LOGAN BUTTS SUNSET AT BICENTENNIAL CAPITOL MALL STATE PARK
600 JAMES ROBERTSON PARKWAY
[AW SHUCKS]
MUSIC
HAILEY WHITTERS
Take a trip to Music Valley this week to catch a must-see country singer on an old-school honky-tonk stage. Thursday, Hailey Whitters — a small-town Iowa native who has made a name for herself as one of the sharpest storytellers on Music Row — brings her headlining Corn Queen Tour to The Nashville Palace. The tour stop comes in support of Whitters’ new album of the same name (which includes a butter bust of her on the cover, because Iowa). Released in June, Corn Queen features a handful of crowd-pleasing collaborations, including “Prodigal Daughter,” a foot-stomping duet with Molly Tuttle, and “I Don’t Want You,” a heartfelt number featuring Charles Wesley Godwin. With 16 songs, Whitters describes the album as a project she hopes “can be an homage to the blue-collar people who raised me and taught me how to work for what you want.” What better place in town to celebrate a “Corn Queen” than The Nashville Palace?
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
6:45 P.M. AT THE NASHVILLE PALACE
2611 MCGAVOCK PIKE
[TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE]
BOOKS
TAMARA YAJIA AUTHOR EVENT
Tamara Yajia is my favorite kind of storyteller — filthy and hilarious. The L.A.based Argentine American writer (and failed child star, although that’s far from the most
interesting thing about her) was set up to be a comedian. Her family includes a borderlinepersonality mother with an OnlyFans account (where she shows bunions, bare ass and tits, according to Yajia) and a grandpa who sold poppers for a living. Still, she considered writing a memoir only when it came time for her to start thinking about having children of her own. But parenthood is definitely not what her book, Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star, is about — “Enough of this having kids shit,” she writes in the book’s introduction. Instead, it’s about moving from Argentina to the United States, then back to Argentina and, once again, back to the United States, all in the span of eight years. It’s also about early brushes with fame as a child Madonna impersonator. Her chapter titles are practically one-liners — “My First Love (A Smear of Feces on a White Down Comforter)” and “The President Is a Ball Sack With Sideburns” are two of my favorites. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in absurdity, juicy family drama and fantasizing about Backstreet Boy Nick Carter’s “short and fat chode” while listening to Sixpence None the Richer on a Discman. Relatable. She’ll
appear in conversation with her friend Meg Perry. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
7 P.M. AT THE GREEN RAY
3237 GALLATIN PIKE
FRIDAY / 9.5
FILM [ALL OVER YOU] TEENAGE WASTELAND/MIDNIGHT MOVIES: SPONTANEOUS
The time is right for Brian Duffield’s underseen 2020 masterpiece Spontaneous to receive its flowers from the folks who might not even have known it was there. Waylaid during the early days of COVID-19 and slipping out to a few drive-ins here and there, Spontaneous is about loss, tragedy, the atrophy of a dying society, the student loan industrial complex, school shootings and the rage-fueled helplessness that America thrives on. That’s certainly ambitious, but the movie is also deeply funny and more than capable of holding its own among the modern (meaning post-Rebel Without a Cause) teen movie pantheon. Think Rock ’n’ Roll High School with several slashers’ worth of body count. Or Clueless as adapted by J.G Ballard. Or Heathers set to Love Island pacing. Because what’s happening at Covington High is an outbreak of exploding teens. Duffield’s film is more charitable than real life, in that school shootings and gun violence are concrete and actually could be stopped if legislators had any guts at all, but the film masterfully taps into the grand drama of high school, where every pop lyric is grand opera and every ache of love is a tale to endure as long as the stars. This film digs deep into the heightened emotions that any adult can relate to as well, but it’s not trying to impress any of us. It’s about The Now first and foremost, and it’s an essential work. JASON SHAWHAN MIDNIGHT AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
MUSIC
[COME THIS FAR] CASUAL DRIFTER ALBUM RELEASE
Casual Drifter will unleash his album Goin’ for Broke on Friday at Skinny Dennis. Hailing
from Indiana, Casual Drifter makes music that lives comfortably in the spaces between Tom Petty-esque heartland rock and ‘70s grooves. Casually drifting across the country in a 2000 Chevy Astro, Casual Drifter’s songs are about lessons learned the hard way — and taking them in stride. Casual Drifter is self-releasing Goin’ for Broke on limited-edition gold vinyl — maybe pick up a copy after the show. RACHEL CHOLST
9 P.M. AT SKINNY DENNIS
2635 GALLATIN PIKE
MUSIC [TIME FLIES] THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
In an alternate reality, The Brian Jonestown Massacre would be playing arenas — the legendary psych-rock band’s sound is big and loud, and would fit in perfectly on a Nuggets compilation. But thank God they’re not, so we get to experience the outsized swagger of lead singer Anton Newcombe in a more down-to-earth setting like The Basement East. Newcombe, who has been living in Berlin since around 2010, rose to relative infamy through the not-to-be-missed 2004 documentary Dig!, which chronicles his love-hate relationship with The Dandy Warhols’ frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor as well as his distaste for selling out. Recent set lists have included songs from 2023 album The Future Is Your Past, including standout track “Fudge,” which closes with the line “Feels like time flies” and puts me in the same mood that Big Star does. Minneapolisbased psych-rock band Flavor Crystals opens. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
SATURDAY / 9.6
MUSIC
[THIS GUY FUCKS] NINE INCH NAILS
At 28, Trent Reznor achieved cultural-icon status for a bold decree of a singular goal: He wanted to fuck you like an animal. And for the millions who bought Nine Inch Nails’ GOATed breakout LP The Downward Spiral, buoyed by its
NINE INCH NAILS
HAILEY WHITTERS
JAMES THU, 9/4
HOUSE OF BEY THU, 9/4
NICKNAME JOS W/ MULT & SUPERHERO FRI, 9/5 BROADWAY RAVE SAT, 9/6
BUZZCOCKS TUE, 9/16
BLUPHORIA
SAT, 9/20 FLY
precoital simile for beastiality banger “Closer,” fuck the Overton window view of mainstream rock music he did. Now 60, Reznor has long surpassed his fucking goal. He’s fucked us like a once Emmy-, thrice Golden Globe-, twice Oscar-winning film composer. He fucked us like a composer of Johnny Cash’s death requiem (for his definitive take on NIN’s “Hurt”). He’s fucked us as a 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Perhaps most heroically, he fucked Music Row, sharing a 2019 CMA win with strange bedfellows Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, for “Old Town Road,” which samples NIN’s Ghosts I-IV While Reznor wasn’t at Bridgestone to accept that award, he’ll hit the arena with his band Saturday night to fuck Music City with an artrock onslaught of sonically iconic alt-industrial anthems and left-field deep cuts and a stunning 3D-cinematic smoke-mirrors-and-strobe-lights production — the stuff that’s kept Reznor & Co. on the vanguard of multimedia aesthetics for generations. ADAM GOLD
7:30 P.M. AT BRIDGESTONE ARENA
501 BROADWAY
[HIGH NOTES]
OPERA
OPERA ON THE MOUNTAIN
Middle Tennessee’s notoriously unpredictable weather put a damper on quite a few events and activities this summer. But fortunately, Nashville Opera was able to reschedule its popular Opera on the Mountain concert for Saturday. Presented on the beautiful grounds of Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory, the event offers a relaxing evening of music under the stars. Guests are invited to pack a picnic supper, snacks or maybe even a favorite bottle of wine, and enjoy the views from one of the city’s highest peaks. This weekend’s program will feature performances by soprano Claire Paschal, mezzo-soprano Sarah Antell and tenor Steven McCoy, accompanied by Nashville Opera’s director of education and engagement and chorus master Stephen Carey. The evening’s lineup promises an entertaining mix of opera and musical theater favorites — including familiar tunes from beloved shows like Carmen Funny Girl, The Sound of Music and more. Be sure to stick around after the concert to check out the moon through Dyer’s grand telescope. AMY STUMPFL
7:30 P.M. AT DYER OBSERVATORY
1000 OMAN DRIVE, BRENTWOOD
COWBOY KITCHEN WITH JONNY FRITZ AND FRIENDS
Julia Martin Gallery continues its series of excellent group shows organized by guest curators with Cowboy Kitchen With Jonny Fritz and Friends, curated by Ash Atterberry. This exhibit is the result of some creative thinking from Martin, who had planned a solo show of Fritz’s leather works that was waylaid by the Eaton Canyon fires in Altadena, Calif., which forced Fritz and his family from their home. It’s lucky, then, that Fritz has deep and loving roots here in Nashville — he lived in Nashville for a time, back when he played under the moniker Jonny Corndawg and roomed with the Scene’s now-editor-in-chief D. Patrick Rodgers. The community that has rallied around Fritz includes some of the most interesting artists in Nashville, including ace ceramicists Cesar Pita, Rebecca Blevins and Atterberry herself. On Sept. 11, the gallery will host a porch concert featuring Fritz alongside Joshua Hedley, Andrew Combs and Corey Parsons. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
THROUGH SEPT. 27 AT JULIA MARTIN GALLERY
444 HUMPHRIES ST.
MUSIC [PLEASUREDOME] GUILTY PLEASURES
In a way, Guilty Pleasures’ show at 3rd and Lindsley Saturday is the beginning of the end for the popular ’80s tribute band. It is one of only seven more planned shows before the 16-person ensemble calls it quits. After Saturday, they will have one more performance this year and five dates in 2026. To celebrate a quarter-century of crowd-pleasing performances, Penumbra Entertainment is producing a feature-length documentary on the band and will be filming fans’ stories Saturday in a small room backstage dubbed the “Guilty Pleasures Confessional.”
“Spending 25 years as one of Nashville’s most popular party bands means a lot to us, and we plan to honor that legacy,” vocalist/saxophonist/ percussionist Tommy Keenum tells the Scene
“Every chapter eventually closes, and we feel grateful for the chance to show love and appreciation to our fans, to each other and to everyone in the Guilty family.” In addition to four founding members — vocalist Mike Grimes, vocalist Trisha Brantley, keyboardist John Deaderick and Keenum — the current lineup includes drummer Steve Ebe, lead guitarist/
vocalist Randy Flowers, rhythm guitarist/ vocalist David Mead, acoustic guitarist/vocalist Jeff Boswell, bassist Steve Arnold, percussionist Chris Finen and vocalists Kat Martin, Scotty Douglas, Sara Beck, Andra Moran, Cissy Crutcher and Yvonne Smith. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
MONDAY / 9.8
[WATCH LOCAL]
COMMUNITY
WNPT 63RD BIRTHDAY EVENT
WNPT — Nashville’s community-founded nonprofit PBS station — is celebrating its 63rd birthday this month, beginning with a birthday party on Sept. 8. The community is invited to a free event at the Nashville Public Television building where partygoers can eat cake, meet the crew of the beloved local travel show Tennessee Crossroads and check out the new Crossroads set. Though longtime Crossroads host Joe Elmore died in 2024, Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor was recently named the program’s new host, and he plans to carry the torch into a new era. Other events on WNPT’s birthday week slate include live coverage of AmericanaFest and a screening of a documentary from the station’s ongoing Aging Matters initiative. At a time when publicly funded media is undergoing massive federal budget cuts, WNPT deserves to be celebrated even more than usual. Although the event is free, registration is required. LOGAN BUTTS
5:30 P.M. AT NASHVILLE PUBLIC TELEVISION 161 RAINS AVE.
TUESDAY / 9.9
MUSIC
[SOUND OF EVERYTHING] GEORDIE GREEP W/MARY
LATTIMORE
Although post-rock is a term that’s useful enough, I prefer the designation “non-rock” for music that draws from sources as diverse as Ennio Morricone’s film scores, Scott Walker’s late-1960s albums and the comedy music and instrumental pieces of noted rock skeptic Frank Zappa. The English rock band Black Midi, which broke up in 2024, played rock as non-rock, which means their Zappa-meets-Captain Beefheart rhythms were part of a sound that ranged over just about everything. What’s notable about former Black Midi singer Geordie Greep’s 2024 solo debut The New Sound is how effortlessly Greep delivers his self-amused lyrics over a variety of settings that he uses to construct first-rate pastiches of the many styles he’s mastered. In his case, calling New Sound tunes like “Terra” and “Motorbike” pastiches uses the term in its strictest definition, as work that pays homage to a style while being satirical, since there’s an easily detectable satirical edge to Greep’s lyrics. “Terra” recalls the expansive pop of 1970s and ’80s Brazilian singers like Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, but it also incorporates salsa rhythms. The New Sound is referential and virtuosic, and I hear hints of
King Crimson, Steely Dan and Brazilian rock-soul singer Tim Maia throughout. Sometimes it’s fun to pick and choose the rock you want to use. Harpist Mary Lattimore, whose latest album is this year’s Live in Santa Cruz 2024, opens. EDD HURT 8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
WEDNESDAY / 9.10
MUSIC [LEGENDARY
PINK GOTHS]
PINK TURNS BLUE
For the first time in their four-decade history, Berlin’s Pink Turns Blue will be taking the stage in Music City. Their sound and aesthetic were a little too obtuse to cross over with MTV hits like their contemporaries The Cure or The Sisters of Mercy. However, the brilliance of their 1987 debut LP, If Two Worlds Kiss, found the right ears through late-night college radio shows and mixtape trading. The post-punk veterans have always bubbled just beneath the surface of the underground with their moody bass lines, bleak guitar jangle and the unsettling baritone croon of Mic Jogwer. Even though PTB largely appealed to the black trenchcoat/clove cigarettes crowd, their sound has a certain similarity to the ringing melodies of Hüsker Dü, whose track “Pink Turns to Blue” inspired the Berliners’ band name. This one-time opportunity was brought to Nashville by the good/evil folks who run Fascination Street, a pair of hardworking DJs and promoters who aren’t afraid of getting a little dirt under their blackpolished fingernails. Don’t show up late, or else you’ll miss the oscillator bleeps of Knoxville’s The New Romantics and the morose synthpop of New York City act Some Days Are Darker. P.J. KINZER 8 P.M. AT THE EAST ROOM 2412 GALLATIN AVE.
[THE ART OF RUNNING]
BOOKS
JARED BEASLEY AUTHOR EVENT FEAT. LAZARUS LAKE
Green Hills running outfit Fleet Feet has its ideal frontman in Lazarus Lake, the infamous course designer who lays claim to outright outrageous custom-made footraces like the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard Ultra. Netflix immortalized the former race as a modern wonder of Tennessee — an orienteering and ultramarathon hybrid pushing participants over 100 miles in 60 hours, annually held in Wartburg — with a 2014 documentary, launching quirky Lake into folk-figure status. While his name evokes a Hogwarts gym teacher, Lake captured audiences with a distinctly Southern brand of wry humor and pithy observation. Jared Beasley, a New York-based journalist and UltraRunning Magazine columnist, will talk with Lake this week at Clementine Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to launch his book, The Endurance Artist, which aims to capture Lake’s substantial impact on American running. Because anyone interested likely buys a lot of shoes, Fleet Feet and Hoka are sponsoring the event, alongside Parnassus Books. ELI MOTYCKA
6 P.M. AT CLEMENTINE HALL
4710 CHARLOTTE AVE.
Live Music at ON BROADWAY
TICKETS
THURSDAY, OCT 2ND, 5PM – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCT 3RD, 11AM – 10PM
SATURDAY, OCT 4TH, 11AM – 10PM
SUNDAY, OCT 5TH, 11AM – 5PM
THURSDAY FREE FRIDAY FREE ‘TILL 4
SINGLE DAY
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
WRITERS’ ROUNDS AT CHIEF’S
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
At Chief’s we understand that great music is born from the heart and soul of it’s creators, which is why our writers’ rounds are dedicated to celebrating the brilliant minds behind some of today’s most iconic songs.
Kendell Marvel
Kat Hasty
Dirty Grass Players
WEST SIDERS REGULARLY hear tales of a different kind of city. Street life bustles, and patios teem just across the river, where bars and restaurants dot East Nashville neighborhoods and patrons walk from porch to table.
One precious storefront, full of possibilities, taunted Sylvan Park passersby since it lost bakery Vegan Vee in 2021. The small commercial outpost on 46th Avenue North breaks up the gridded blocks between Murphy Road and Charlotte Pike, where constant construction has gradually triple-sized the area’s stock of 20th-century cottages. While streets have been transformed, commercial development — somewhat constrained by zoning regulations and limited lots — has lagged behind 15 years of house-flipping. Tantísimo opened in the former Vegan Vee building in the spring, and its all-day hours can take you from espresso to margarita — a model that has already started bringing the neighborhood together.
Ana Aguilar and Josh Cook are fixtures in the space, their first brick-and-mortar endeavor after a shared résumé that includes Husk, Maiz de la Vida and bar Henry James, as well as shared pop-up El Leon Dorado. Tidy circular business cards spell out their domains: founder and CEO Aguilar, executive chef Cook. Aguilar often oversees the busy dining area while Cook peeks out from the kitchen working on a line of
DAY AND NIGHT
Tantísimo revives neighborhood life in Sylvan Park with all-day service, coffee and dancing
BY ELI MOTYCKA
finished plates. Years of restaurant experience and keen eyes for food and design have made the space feel seamless.
Tantísimo bills itself as Latin American, stitching together stars from around South and Central America. Tender churrasco laced with salty-citrus leek chimichurri stars as a simple centerpiece on a warm evening; typically a way to celebrate fine local beef, this one slices Angus from Bear Creek Farm of Thompson Station. Ripe tomato chunks and creamy queso fresco come together naturally over a smoky red chile sauce, one of the seasonal choices rotating on for the weeks of high summer. Crusty bolillo bread is an easy opening order, especially for a group looking to savor each dish to the end. Corn, mole, garlic and peppers feature heavily on the constantly changing menu, blending favorites from the region’s vast cuisines. Drink pairings, an option added to each dish a few months after opening, make good use of Tantísimo’s deep well, highlighted by tropical rum drinks and a diversity of Central and South American beers. Sylvan Park buzzed with hopes and dreams about the buildout as soon as work crews appeared on site in the spring. Beyond residents’ first debt to Aguilar and Cook, who took the significant risk of breathing new life into an otherwise shuttered lot, Tantísimo has proven its own appetite to maximize potential. A
Tantísimo
306 46th Ave. N. tantisimo.com
BREAKFAST TACOS
handsome bar anchors the airy main dining room, big enough to clear tables for weekly Teteo Tuesday dance nights. An adjoining back room offers more private tables suitable for the area’s many young families, while a patio and recently added streetside seating offer outdoor options for prime weather. Finished concrete, wooden furniture, ceramic dishes and adobe tones lend a calm and comfortable elegance that can span cafe and date night.
From its 7 a.m. open to 10 p.m. last call, Tantísimo is still finding its exact sweet spots. A midafternoon break separates the daytime cafe from happy hour, which leads into dinner service — meaning the painted metal shop door is nearly always open. There’s substantial carryover between menus anchored by recurring staples, like textured masa. Expect attentive service (and a built-in service charge) any hour of the day, partly due to an unpredictable dining room.
The early crowd hasn’t quite figured out Tantísimo (and vice versa). Blocks away, Star Bagel’s breakfast sandwiches and unremarkable coffee draw lines all morning. Just try fighting
the parking lot for breakfast at Dose, where pastries meet a superb beverage selection. All of that is to say, the market exists, though it’s biased against menus and table service.
Smoky chilaquiles and a hefty breakfast burrito headline Tantísimo’s morning options, which come alongside Pit Stop coffee, a fellow alum of the popular Richland Park Farmers Market. Breakfast tacos repackage the burrito into more efficient bites full of rich house-made chorizo.
When Tantísimo does find its cafe-side footing, it will be because of creative and delicious options like the creamy orange tonic that is the morir soñando and flaky empanadas de pollo. If it doesn’t, it will perhaps reflect a limited American tolerance for the leisurely cafe life that defines so many of the world’s great cities.
Root for Tantísimo with your wallet. Walk, or bike, if you have friends nearby. The neighborhood kids sometimes leave their scooters out front. Just down Charlotte Pike, at the corner of White Bridge Road, prime real estate emerged from its weeks-long construction cocoon as a retail Wells Fargo. ▼
BEAR CREEK FARM CHURRASCO
MERRY MAYHEM
Nashville Shakes offers fast-paced fun with The Merry Wives of Windsor
BY AMY STUMPFL
I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT of The Merry Wives of Windsor as a sort of Shakespearean “beach read.” And I mean that in the best possible way. Is this offbeat comedy the Bard’s finest work? Perhaps not. But it’s light, accessible and wholly entertaining — everything you could want from a Summer Shakespeare production. And Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s current staging, which continues through Sept. 21 at OneC1ty, is packed with great performances, ensuring plenty of fast-paced fun.
As the show opens, we meet the bumbling Falstaff — a once-prosperous knight who has fallen on hard times. Certain of his irresistible charms, he launches a plan to solve his financial woes by seducing the wives of two wealthy merchants. Alas, poor Falstaff is no match for these good ladies. They soon discover his unsavory scheme and set out for revenge, subjecting the unfortunate fellow to all manner of mischief, mayhem and misery.
Director Beki Baker has elected to maintain the work’s traditional Elizabethan setting, but there’s certainly nothing staid or stuffy about this production. In fact, she leans heavily into the freewheeling humor, allowing the action — and laughs — to flow with almost giddy glee. Baker also makes excellent use of the performance space, creating unexpected opportunities for the actors to interact with audience members without it ever feeling forced.
Galen Fott leads a fabulous ensemble as Sir John Falstaff, a blustering yet oddly lovable scoundrel who’s absolutely convinced of his ability to woo the ladies. Fott throws himself
into the role, strutting about the stage like a declining peacock, stroking his whiskers and punctuating each line with a pompous smirk or swagger. In one particularly goofy bit, he is forced to take cover in a smelly laundry basket and is subsequently dumped into the River Thames. “I have a kind of alacrity in sinking,” he solemnly admits, before bursting into a hilarious fit of sneezes.
It’s wonderful to see Evelyn O’Neal back onstage as the formidable Mistress Alice Ford, executing the part with boundless energy and crackerjack timing. Newcomer Ana Harvey makes a marvelous NSF debut as the good-natured Mistress Margaret Page. Perfectly paired for even the most absurd conspiratorial escapades, these accomplished actors work each frenzied scene to maximum effect. When a helicopter threatened to disrupt the opening-night revelry, they simply paused to watch it pass overhead, before sharing a knowing glance with the audience and blaming the “fairies” of Windsor Forest.
Eric D. Pasto-Crosby also deserves mention for his portrayal of the not-so-merry Mister Ford, balancing an easy command of the language with ridiculous fits of jealousy. In a piece swimming with kooky characters, he nearly steals the show — especially when making an appearance as the foppish Mister Brook (a thinly veiled alter ego, designed to ascertain his wife’s true intentions). Nick Govindan is outstanding as Mister Page, providing a nice contrast to the more volatile Ford.
These players receive solid support from a
terrific mix of new and familiar faces, including several members of NSF’s Summer Conservatory program. Local favorite Brian Webb Russell is clearly having a ball as the self-righteous Robert Shallow, and Christy Berryessa is appropriately cheeky as the chatty Mistress Quickly. Young Sh’Ahr Blackburn gives us a delightfully dim-witted Slender, while newcomer Joshua Diolosa delivers a wildly eccentric Frenchman in Dr. Caius. Payton Justice embraces Sir Hugh Evans (a comically wordy Welsh parson) with gusto, offering one of the most outrageous accents on record.
Scenic designer Andy Bleiler provides a simple but efficient backdrop for the action. I enjoyed June Kingsbury’s relaxed, colorful Elizabethan costumes, which easily capture the tale’s breezy summer spirit. When the characters finally make their way to the woods (as they often do in Shakespeare’s plays), they are rewarded by Anne L. Willingham’s ethereal lighting. My only complaint is that I sorely missed the live musical elements that we’ve come to expect from Nashville Shakes. But it’s a minor concern in an otherwise polished production. Besides, Baker and sound designer Nivedhan Singh have sourced a rather jaunty soundscape that fits the story’s time period and tone — especially in the final celebratory moments. Add a bit of Kari Cherie Smith’s lively choreography, and you have a merry scene indeed.
And isn’t that what Summer Shakespeare is all about? A joyful gathering of friends and family sharing an evening under the stars, savoring the last delicious bit of summer.
SUSIE has queen energy and the sharpest side-eye in town. She’s bossy, a little judgmental, and perfectly happy ruling her one-queen household. Her favorite hobbies include sunbathing to recharge her diva energy and insisting on head scratches and belly rubs as part of her daily royal treatment. Soft beds and cozy blankets? Not optional—they’re required.
If you’re ready to serve this tiny monarch and give her the royal treatment she deserves, Susie is waiting for her forever throne. Name: SUSIE 9 yrs.
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTS FOR TICKETS & UPDATES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 6:30PM JAMES PONTI with CHRISTINA SOONTORNVAT at PARNASSUS Hurricane Heist SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 10:30AM SATURDAY STORYTIME with PARNASSUS STAFF at PARNASSUS 6:30PM
TESS HOLLIDAY with KIM BALDWIN at PARNASSUS Take Up Space, Y'all: Your Bold & Bright Guide to Self-Love MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 6:30PM ADIB KHORRAM at PARNASSUS It Had to Be Him
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 4:00PM ANDREW MARANISS at PARNASSUS Hut! Hut! Hike!: A Branches Book 6:30PM MARY REAVES UHLES at PARNASSUS The Flock We Found.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 6:30 PM TOM PIAZZA with BARRY MAZOR at PARNASSUS Living In The Present with John Prine 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243
Shop online at parnassusbooks.net
@parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooksnashville
The Merry Wives of Windsor Through Sept. 21 at OneC1ty, 8 City Blvd.
MUSIC: THE SPIN
WORD AND DEED
BY H.N. JAMES
IT REALLY DOESN’T get more uplifting or joyous than a Thursday night show that features two masterful Southern women singer-songwriters playing together. Nashville’s Kyshona and New Orleans’ Joy Clark brought glorious harmonies with their bands, fantastic guitar playing and powerfully poignant words to a rapt 3rd and Lindsley audience on Aug. 28. Both artists combine elements of gospel, blues, roots, rock, R&B and folk music in their compositions and are at home on folk or Americana music circuits.
Kyshona treated the audience to several selections from 2024’s first-rate album Legacy, an album inspired by a deep dive into her family history and genealogy. She brought the songs to life with the help of singers Jannelle Means and Craig Robinson on the harmonies and backup vocals (and occasional solos!), and drummer and producer Megan Coleman anchoring the flow of music. Songs like “The Echo,” “Carolina” and “Whispers in the Walls” explore generational trauma and place — the effects of houses and families haunted by love, grief and joy. “Heaven Is a Beautiful Place” was written by Kyshona’s grandfather and highlights the unbroken chain of music in successive generations.
Kyshona began her career as a music therapist, and this background still arises when she asks the audience to participate by naming out loud things they carry that have been handed down by family, such as shame, expectations, abandonment and regret. Singer-songwriters know the innate power of words and naming situations, emotions and desires. Kyshona is no exception, and that’s part of what makes her an exquisite writer. Legacy is about reckoning and acknowledgement — she worked with genealogists at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to learn more about her family history and enslaved ancestors — but with the aim of making space for healing and growth.
Kyshona’s powerful and rich voice can soulfully evoke both sorrow and relief in equal measures, creating a beautiful tapestry of wholeness in song. After taking the crowd on the journey she’d laid out for them, she provided a “palate cleanser” of having Clark join her onstage for a gorgeous cover of “See-Line Woman” in the style of Nina Simone to end her set.
All of that would have been worth the price of entry alone, but then Clark took the stage with bassist Tiffany Morris and Megan Coleman returning to do a double shift on percussion with her. Both Coleman and Clark are alums of Allison Russell’s Rainbow Coalition band. In a town overflowing with guitar music of all stripes, it can be easy to forget the power of a masterfully played acoustic guitar, which
Clark reminded us with her picking style. Clark’s 2024 debut album Tell It to the Wind released on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, established her place in the Americana space as a queer Black woman and has been exuberantly reviewed and recommended by Americana Highways and other publications. Clark played several songs from the album, beginning with the opener “One Step in the Right Direction.” Clearly enjoying herself, she called on her smooth vocals to take us through “Shine,” “Tell It to the Wind” and the sweet love song “Watching You Sleep.” Comparisons with Tracy Chapman may be inevitable, and the music inhabits a similar space while not sounding at all the same.
In a brief break from the flow of album songs, Clark covered legend Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights,” a song popularized by Glen Campbell. A high point of her set was a gorgeously meandering version of the song “Shimmering,” including a crowd sing-along and a shredding acoustic guitar solo. Clark is an emotive performer, inspiring joy in the au -
dience as she explores her own in playing her music. Whether through the empowerment of her breakup song “All Behind” — in which she sings, “I’m taking my lamp, I’m takin’ my bike / I’m taking my plant, gonna raise it right” — or finding the courage to stop hiding and live authentically in the song “Guest,” Clark encourages the listeners with her beautiful voice and soulful delivery. At the end of Clark’s set, Kyshona joined in on backup vocals on standout blues song “Lesson,” prompting a standing ovation.
Kyshona and Clark reminded music-saturated Nashville about the beauty and joy in simple, authentic sounds delivered with heart, and restored hope in the power of music. It was a respite for an audience worn out by this hot and turbulent summer. Both of these artists are worth seeing anytime, and have official showcases during AmericanaFest 2025. Making room in your schedule to see them qualifies as both self- and community care, as well as a refreshing deep breath and cleansing
the musical palate.
GRACE AND POWER: KYSHONA
PHOTO: ANGELINA
CASTILLO
Saturday, September 6
SONGWRITER SESSION
Preston Cooper and the Warren Brothers
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, September 6
PANEL DISCUSSION
Lainey Wilson, CeCe Dawson, and Raina Gir
2:30 pm · CMA THEATER
Saturday, September 6
BOOK TALK
Paul Burch
Meridian Rising: A Novel
3:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, September 7
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Charlie Worsham
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
WITNESS HISTORY
Nashville’s Best Thai Street Food
Thursday, September 11
MUSIC AND CONVERSATION
The Art of the Storyteller
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
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.
THE FAN
Lurker
is an ick-inducing new entry in a familiar old genre
BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
LURKER IS ONE hour and 40 minutes of — as young folk would say these days — the ick.
We get that ick the moment we meet Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), a retail employee who couldn’t look any creepier. He gets the attention of Oliver (Archie Madekwe), a rising young singer who visits his shop. Matthew earns Oliver’s attention by immediately playing a Nile Rodgers song that Oliver likes, which impresses Oliver enough to invite him backstage to his show later that night. Even though Matthew says he doesn’t know much about Oliver’s music, we immediately know that this is part of a big-ass master plan to be this star’s BFF.
The first half of Lurker is wall-to-wall cringe, as Matthew slowly but surely works his way into Oliver’s predictably suspicious inner circle, pulling out an old camcorder and shooting documentary footage. Jealousy eventually erupts when Matthew’s clothes-making co-worker (Mid90s’ Sunny Suljic) tags along and wins over Ollie and the crew with his homemade fashion sense. It isn’t long before Matthew reveals to everyone the insane lengths he’ll go to just to be part of the gang.
The latest stalker psycho thriller that’s really a jet-black comedy, Lurker is basically an elevated-horror version of Entourage. TV writer turned filmmaker Alex Russell (The Bear, Beef) gives us a cautionary tale for all those celebs who think an engorged posse means they’ve officially made it. Amid all the leeches, yes men and stray hangers-on performers collect on their way to stardom, they might accidentally pick up someone like Matthew.
Even though he doesn’t pull any gross, Saltburn-esque shit, Pellerin still plays Matthew with a lanky, deranged creepiness. Right from the jump, you know this guy lost touch with the real world a long time ago. Apart from a grandmother the dude forgets about in the film’s ludicrous second half, we don’t know anything about Matthew other than his goal of getting close to a shining star. As Oliver, London actor/ producer Madekwe (who also appeared in Saltburn) is petulant but vulnerable. He plays up the role of an attention-craving emo boy, and also
brings that persona to the songs he performs for the soundtrack. He wants to be a new kind of pop star, but he’s surrounded by bummy-ass pals (like rapper/comic Zack Fox’s ball-busting crony) and titillating distractions. Whether he likes it or not, Oliver has found a lunatic life coach in Matthew. Even with Russell giving us moody zoom shots that scream, “Hey A24, holla at ya boy,” we’ve seen this quasi-satirical story of extreme celebrity idolatry many times before. Maybe you saw it way back when Robert De Niro’s wannabe comic kidnapped Jerry Lewis’ talk-show host in The King of Comedy. Maybe you caught it more recently in Ingrid Goes West, wherein Aubrey Plaza’s single white female clings to Elizabeth Olsen’s L.A. influencer. Your grandparents definitely saw it when star Bette Davis and Anne Baxter famously went at it in All About Eve. Even the oh-so-obvious homoerotic subtext is nothing new. I saw it done (with far more heartbreak) when John Hurt’s lonely British writer falls for Jason Priestley’s matinee idol in the forgotten ’90s indie Love and Death on Long Island. I get the feeling Russell knows he’s not bringing anything new to the table: During a photo-shoot scene, Matthew repeatedly tells Oliver, “We’ve seen this so many times.”
Ultimately, Lurker practically makes the hella-problematic argument that artists need fewer yes men and more psychos with punchable faces in their lives. This is clearly Russell’s twisted, cynical way of showing the bat-shit depths people will go to for fame. It reminds me of when Lauren Bacall is stalked by Michael Biehn in The Fan — not to be confused with The Fan in which Wesley Snipes is stalked by Robert De Niro (again!), who gave a star-making turn as a stalker in Taxi Dri — oh never mind. ▼
Lurker R, 100 minutes
Opening Friday, Sept. 5, at the Belcourt
ACROSS
1 The X-Men, e.g.
6 Way off
10 Blowout victory
14 Home of the White Cloud Mountains
15 Excellent sort of person to be a copy editor
16 Dr. ___ (repeated Mike Myers film role)
17 :
18 One with a vision
19 Transfer from one bottle to another
20 Ring
22 Empty spaces
24 Rita ___, “Anywhere” singer
25 Scout’s work, informally
26 Testing the limits, say
30 Little guys
34 Bloom in several Monet paintings
35 Best Picture of 1958
37 Bit of Chinese New Year décor
38 Filled up with
39 Ones paying flat rates ... or, when read as two words, a hint to this puzzle’s theme
41 Agcy. watching the skies
42 ___ Gras
44 Cut deeply
45 Use to the fullest
46 “Full House” pair
48 “There’s no way!”
50 Award-winning Donald Glover TV series, or where it was filmed
52 Avalanche group, for short
53 Manage
56 Bore importance
60 Ingredients in many potpies
61 Baby
63 Greek goddess of peace
64 Out-of-bounds
65 Shred the ___ (conquer a mountain, in skiing slang)
66 Start of a counting rhyme
67 Launch party?
68 Tennis champ Mandlikova
69 Little brats
1 Laptop accessories
2 Thick Japanese noodle
3 Main component of steatite
4 Collection of literary works
5 State bordering Arizona
6 Only part of Italy’s 900-year-old Basilica di Santa Giulia that remains
7 Cost
8 “River Lea” singer, 2015
9 Did laps, say
10 Not adding any new information
11 Where things might get heated
a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
12 Flaky rock
13 Some spies
21 Certain military leader, informally
23 Orderly arrangements of wiring
25 Something you might sail right through?
26 Thrifty competitor
27 Critical
28 Some hunting lodge décor
29 Have a nice meal, say
31 Untamable
32 Big name in dental care
33 Animal with sea and coral varieties
36 Move like a sloth
39 Shades
40 Your, of yore
43 Start of a wish-list letter
45 Ferrari’s Formula 1 rival
47 Seasonal carrier
49 Huts
51 Part of a bug
53 Like some questions or doors
54 ___ Farmiga, Best Supporting Actress nominee for 2009’s “Up in the Air”
55 Corn units
56 “Location, location, location,” to many real estate agents
57 Jay in the Television Hall of Fame
58 Doing the job
59 Some shirts
62 Item for which “This thing blows” would be a positive review
PUZZLE BY ALEXANDER LIEBESKIND
triable or indictable in Davidson County. In addition to cases presented to the grand jury by your District Attorney, any citizen may petition the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County This is subject to provi- sions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application Your grand jury foreperson is Warner Hassell. Their address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Tues., Wed., and Thursday starting Oct. 7th for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punisha- ble as perjury. For a request for accommodation, please contact 862-4260. NSC 9/4/25
NOTICE OF SALE UNDER MECHANIC’S AND ARTISAN’S LIEN Cumberland International Trucks, Inc. (“Secured Party”), pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 66-14-103, 66-19-101, and pursuant to a Notice of Claim of Mechanic’s/Artisan’s Lien dated July 2, 2025, as amended hereby, holds a lien for repairs against a certain 2019 International LT625 6x4 VIN:
LEGAL NOTICE
Howard C. Gentry, Jr., Criminal Court Clerk
It is my privilege as your elected Criminal Court Clerk to notify all citizens of Davidson County, that relative to grand jury proceedings, it is the
tion the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County This is subject to provi- sions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application Your grand jury foreperson is Warner Hassell. Their address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Tues., Wed., and Thursday starting Oct. 7th for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punisha- ble as perjury. For a request for accommodation please contact 862-4260. NSC 9/4/25
3HSDZTZR2KN374377 owned by AWL Transport LLC, which Secured Party improved by providing various service, labor, and parts. Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-14-104, notice is hereby given that Secured Party, pursuant to applicable law, will sell the Vehicle described above by Public Sale to be conducted as follows:
Date of Sale: September 12, 2025
Time of Sale: 1:00 p.m. CST Place of Sale: Exo Legal PLLC 901 Woodland St. Nashville, TN 37206
Agent for Creditor: Exo Legal PLLC
The Public Sale will be conducted by Exo Legal PLLC. For information, contact David Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC, at (615) 8690634.
As to all or any part of the Vehicle, the right is reserved to: (i) sell part or all of the Vehicle and/or delay, continue, adjourn, cancel or postpone the sale of any part of the Vehicle; and/or (ii) to sell to the next highest bidder in the event any high bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale.
The Public Sale will be conducted by Exo Legal PLLC. For information, contact David Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC, at (615) 8690634.
As to all or any part of the Vehicle, the right is reserved to: (i) sell part or all of the Vehicle and/or delay, continue, adjourn, cancel or postpone the sale of any part of the Vehicle; and/or (ii) to sell to the next highest bidder in the event any high bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale. Secured Party shall sell, grant, convey, transfer, and deliver unto any successful purchaser all of the right, title, and interest in and to the Vehicle which Secured Party has a right to sell as a Secured Party and no further or otherwise. The Vehicle will be sold “as is”, “where is”, and “with all faults”, without any representations or warranties, expressed or implied and subject to any prior liens or encumbrances, if any. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Secured Party has not made an d will not make any representations or warranties regarding the Vehicle, the condition of the Vehicle, warranty of title or marketability of title and the conveyance shall be with all defects and without any warranties, expressed or implied, including warr anties of merchantability, condition, or of fitness for a general or particular purpose.
David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC 901 Woodland Street; Nashville, Tennessee 37206
Telephone: (615) 869 -0634
Publication Dates: August 28, 2025; September 4, 2025
NOTICE OF SHERIFF’S SALE OF REAL PROPERTY By virtue of an execution and Levy issued by the Chancery Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, in Sims|Funk, PLC, Plainti 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 Sheri to Conduct Execution Sale of Real Property entered on July 1, 2025 (the “Sale Order”), the Davidson County Sheri ’s Department will o er 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 O ice 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 O ice 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 O ice 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 O ice 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, Plainti 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, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, the Sheri 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 Plainti 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; Plainti is allowed to credit bid; redemption
Secured Party shall sell, grant, convey, transfer, and deliver unto any successful purchaser all of the right, title, and interest in and to the Vehicle which Secured Party has a right to sell as a Secured Party and no further or otherwise. The Vehicle will be sold “as is”, “where is”, and “with all faults”, without any representations or warranties, expressed or implied and subject to any prior liens or encumbrances, if any. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Secured Party has not made an d will not make any representations or warranties regarding the Vehicle, the condition of the Vehicle, warranty of title or marketability of title and the conveyance shall be with all defects and without any warranties, expressed or implied, including warr anties of merchantability, condition, or of fitness for a general or particular purpose.
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 Sheri shall provide the deed described at Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-8111 after entry of the order of confirmation of the sale and after confirmation of payment to Plainti
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 Sheri 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 O ice 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 O ice 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, Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, o er 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
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Opry Mills Mall
follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 202405290039897, Register’s O ice 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 O ice 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,
in the U.S. Multiple openings. To
mail resume to J. Yokley, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027. Ref. job code 24-0298. Sr. Analysts, IT Security Threat Vulnerability. Responsible for designing and supporting a major retailer’s threat and vulnerability management program. Employer: Tractor Supply Company. Location: HQ in Brentwood, TN. May telecommute from any location in the U.S. Multiple openings. To apply, mail resume to J. Yokley, 5401 Virginia Way, Brentwood, TN 37027. Ref. job code 240318.
Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center
Grand Ole Opry
TOP 2 BARS
Twin Peaks
Chili’s Grill & Bar
LongHorn Steakhouse
ENJOY THE OUTDOORS
Cedar Hill Park
Centennial Park
Treetop Adventure Park at Nashville Shores
BEST PLACE NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW
Bridgestone Arena
David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC 901 Woodland Street; Nashville, Tennessee 37206
Telephone: (615) 869 -0634
Publication Dates: August 28, 2025; September 4, 2025
FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
Fox & Hound
BEST LOCAL FAMILY OUTING
Dave & Buster’s Nashville
COMMUNITY AMENITIES
Swimming Pool
Fitness Center
Clubroom
