Fall | 2021
Issue 1.1
Putting Down Roots Parker Millsap & Meg Morgan are growing a home in Madison
Big Plans for Memorial Hospital
| Eastside Bowl Comes Alive
THE ROOTS BARN
MADISON, TN Americana & Roots Concert Venue A campus for music based in the historic heart of Madison, TN. The Barn serves as a platform to emotionally connect performers with the audience. As a music and events venue, our team hosts everything from stand alone concerts, to residencies, Sunday Soul Brunch, Music City Roots Wednesday night shows, WMOT Roots Radio, PBS televised events and Private Events. Your new home to roots music, no matter what your roots are.
OPENING SPRING 2022 THE THE NEW HOME OF
BARN therootsbarn.com
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Far from from the the Far MADDING CROWD. CROWD. MADDING Yazoo Brewing Company - A Nashville Original 900 River Bluff Drive · Madison, TN 37115 YazooBrew.com
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Founder & Publisher
Lisa McCauley
Editor-in-Chief
Chuck Allen
Managing Editor
Randy Fox
Copy Editor
Layout & Design
Benjamin Rumble
Photo Editor
Distribution Manager
Illustrations
Contributing Writers
Advertising
Contributing Photographers
Travis Commeau Benjamin Rumble
Jack Evan Johnson
sales@theeastnashvillian.com
Creative Director
Marketing Consultant
Chuck Allen
Ad Design
Benjamin Rumble
Will Mandell
Whit Hubner
Andrew Leahey
Jeff Fasano Michael Weintrob
The Madisonian is a quarterly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. All editorial content and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media, LLC unless otherwise noted. This publication is offered freely, limited to one per reader. The removal of more than one copy by an individual from any of our distribution points constitutes theft and will be subject to prosecution. Reprints or any other usage without the express written permission of the publisher is a violation of copyright. ©2021 Kitchen Table Media P.O. Box 60157, Nashville, TN 37206
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Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (the musical) Oct 1 - 17, 2021
Nunsense & Nunsense A-Men 2 musicals in rep Jan 21 - 30, 2022
A Raisin in the Sun Mar 25 - Apr 10, 2022
Bye Bye Birdie May 13 - 29, 2022
Season Tickets Starting at $45! Tickets and Info at www.CirclePlayers.net
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Contents
Fall | 2021 | Issue 1.1 commentary features
cover story
Putting Down Roots Parker Millsap & Meg Morgan grow a home in Madison
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Publisher’s Letter 9 BY LISA MCCAULEY
The “MAD” Frontier 11 Madison, Not So Square … BY RANDY FOX
BY ANDREW LEAHEY
in the know
Eyesore No More 34 Big plans in the works for Memorial Hospital BY RANDY FOX
on the cover
Strikes, Spares & Vision
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Eastside Bowl brings creativity, collaboration, and community to Madison
Parker Millsap & Meg Morgan PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF FASANO
BY RANDY FOX Fall 2021 |
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& s t c Fa s e r u g Fi n Preschool Starting at 12 Months n Camera Access for Preschool n PE every day from Kindergarten to 6th Grade n Winning Athletics starting in 5th Grade n 65 Hours of College Credit n 13.1 Million offered in College Scholarships n 20+ Fine Arts Performances Each Year starting in Preschool n World Languages beginning in Preschool n Local Community Outreach and Service Opportunities n Annual International Trips for High School Students n Reading Specialist and Speech Therapist Available for All Students
goodpasture.org
GOODPASTURE C H R I S T I A N S C H O O L
m a dWE i s onST i a nAVE 8 | tWh eDUE | Fall 2021 619 . | MADISON | TN 37 115
Building Confidence, Intellectual Growth, and Spiritual Strength
Publisher’s Letter BY LISA MCCAULE Y
W
hen I was 4 or 5 years old, I got lost in the Kmart on Gallatin Pike. Based on what my family tells me, I conned the store’s management into letting me share my brief life story over the intercom in hopes of finding my way back home: “My name is Lisa Ann McCauley; my birthday is November xx, 19xx; I’m adopted; I live on Jones Street in Old Hickory; my parents are Bob & Betty; my brother’s name is Roby, Pierre is our chocolate French Poodle; and our phone number is 847-xxxx.” The biography worked. I was reunited with my family (and I still remember the telephone number). Madison was known as a retail & dining destination from the 50s through the 70s, and that certainly was the case as far as my family was concerned: Shoney’s after my brother’s Old Hickory (the Pups) and DuPont JR High (the Bulldogs) football games; Port O’ Call Records (my first time to time to stand/sleep in line for concert
tickets); Madison Music (my first guitar lessons); Woolworth, Three Sisters, Sir Pizza, and The Cave on Webster; Sears and its candy bay; the Deli Junction; and so much more. My mom and I moved to Madison several years after the Kmart experience and those years transformed me. From living with a single parent for the first time and graduating high school, to starting college and really discovering the world around me as a young adult — it’s where and when I became a “grown up.” I’m so grateful to call Madison home again these many years later. It’s somewhat surreal to have a feature on Eastside Bowl, which occupies part of the Kmart where this story begins, in the inaugural issue of The Madisonian. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to shine a light on the past, present, and future of our community. I promise not to get lost this time around.
Build long-lasting relationships, Not just contact lists. Apply Today at madisonrivergatechamber.com/apply
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Join the movement Nashville is losing trees. Yet, trees provide us with amazing benefits: clean air, stormwater and flooding protection, cooler temperatures, climate change mitigation, and so much more. Root Nashville is a citywide campaign to plant 500,000 trees by 2050 -- and we need your help. Yes we canopy! VOLUNTEER as a Neighborhood Planting Captain to bring free trees to your area
REGISTER your newly planted trees towards the citywide goal (all trees can count!)
PLANT A TREE in your own yard and encourage your neighbors to do the same
FOLLOW AND SHARE our social media and newsletter for campaign news and tree opportunities
The Root Nashville campaign is led by the Cumberland River Compact and Metro Nashville. Visit rootnashville.org to learn more.
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The Mad Frontier: I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y B E N J A M I N R U M B L E
B Y R A N DY F OX
Madison, Not So Square
I
didn’t grow up in Nashville, but spending my childhood and teenage years just 75 miles north of Music City in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky meant Nashville was a huge part of my life. Most of the local TV I watched (and I watched a LOT of TV growing up) came from Nashville. When it came time for shopping or other trips to a “Big City,” Nashville was one of our primary destinations. A trip to Nashville usually meant visiting an old friend of my Dad’s on the south side of town, but shopping meant a drive down Gallatin Pike, from Two Mile Pike to Briley Parkway. My impression of Nashville as a real place was pretty much limited to what I could see from the Interstate, a small portion of the suburbs around Harding Place and Nolensville Road, and most importantly, Madison. After leaving the Rivergate area we drove south on Gallatin Pike. Passing the giant fiberglass fish at Trade Winds Camping Center and topping the rise of bridge over the railroad tracks was exciting as we hit the Madison commercial strip with its mix of Atomic Age neon and 70s back-lit plastic. For a kid stuck in really rural Kentucky with big city dreams, it was excitement written in steel, concrete, and asphalt. Our journeys through Madison included several stops along the way: a hamburger at the Shoney’s Big Boy, the annual Christmas displays at Harvey’s Department Store in Madison Square, the excitement of cruising the toy department at the Sears store. A particularly thrilling memory is buying several Star Trek paperbacks at Zibart’s Bookstore in Madison Square in December 1976, much more exciting than anything I received for Christmas that year. Service Merchandise supplied my first electric typewriter on which I wrote horrible science fiction stories as well as my first writing success — a weekly movie review column for The Muhlenberg County Sun at the age of 16. Trips to Nashville became more frequent when I started college in the fall of 1981 at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. The hip Vandy/Elliston Place area was always the primary destination, but driving in from the North also meant a stop in
Madison. One time I ran into Bowling Green ex-pat Bill Lloyd working at a Rivergate record store, still a few years away from hitting it big with Foster & Lloyd’s fusion of country and power pop. At the same store, I grabbed a UK import of The Clash’s Sandinista out of the bargain bin. (Just $5.99 — SCORE!) When The Great Escape opened their Madison location, it was added to the “must stop” list, especially after I snagged a copy of the hard-to-find Elvis Costello Live at the el Mocambo album on my first visit. In 1983, the Opry House opened its doors to rock concerts, and over the next few years my friends and I made the trip south regularly for a string of great shows — Tom Petty, The Stray Cats, Neil Young, The Kinks, John Fogerty, R.E.M., and more. After leaving the Opry House late at night, we’d always duck off Briley at the Gallatin Pike exit, and because we were young and had cast iron stomachs, we’d hit the Taco Bell in Madison, devouring tortillas and grease before the drive back to Bowling Green. After I moved to Nashville in 1986, my special affection for Madison persisted. It was sad to the see empty storefronts along Gallatin Pike but Madison’s funky mid-century strip still held appeal despite years of decline and neglect. As I became fascinated with Nashville’s music legacy, I quickly became aware of the very significant place that Madison held in that history. The subdivisions of Madison are littered with untold stories from the 50s and 60s when country music success meant a deluxe ranch house and big yard in Nashville’s most musical suburb. All of this is a roundabout way of saying how excited I am about this first official issue of The Madisonian. Despite years of getting snubbed by the hip crowd, Madison is on the move again — new businesses, renovating landmarks, and a sense of community, topped with its very own magazine. There’s plenty of excitement in Madison’s future that I’m looking forward to, but time will tell if it can surpass the thrill of laying my hands on a copy of The Trouble With Tribbles at Madison Square on that chilly December evening.
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Putting Down Roots Parker Millsap & Meg Morgan grow a home in Madison Story by Andrew Leahey | Photography by Jeff Fasano
M
eg Morgan and Parker Millsap are pumped. During a recent hike in Ashland City, the two nature buffs — an award-winning environmentalist and her chart-topping singer/songwriter husband — identified more than 30 species of birds in a matter of hours. For a pair of Oklahoma natives who grew up in the monocultural flatlands and moved east in 2014, it’s still hard not to geek out over displays of Tennessee’s wildlife. >>>
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Parker Millsap and Meg Morgan framed by the skeletal-steel spire of The Roots Barn, which is slated to open February 2022.
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Meg and Parker hanging out at Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge — a favorite neighborhood watering hole located just across Gallatin Pike from their home.
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S
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everal days later, over cups of morning coffee at a café close to their Madison home, they continue to talk excitedly about the natural world around them. Appreciating the oft-ignored things — like the birdlife thriving several feet above our tunnel-visioned view of day-to-day life — is one of the countless lessons they picked up during the past 18 months. “Once quarantine hit, one of the few things you could still safely do was go on a hike, go kayaking, or just get out in the sun,” explains Parker, who talks about cherry trees, regenerative agriculture, and other greenthumbed topics with the enthusiasm his folk-singing contemporaries might reserve for, say, Levon Helm. “I learned that the little things, like learning how to identify a few birds, can make it so much more exciting to go on a hike. It’s like when you name a pet, and you immediately grow attached to it. The same thing happens when you see a bird and are able to say, ‘That’s a mockingbird,’ or, ‘That’s the mockingbird that comes to this power line every day at noon and sings.’ You start to become connected and attached to the living world around you. To me, that’s been one of the most powerful, unexpected things about quarantine: just becoming aware of that relationship and learning to nurture it.” Lately, Parker and Meg have been spending a lot of time outdoors. As the campaign manager of Root Nashville — an initiative led by the Cumberland River Company, with the goal of planting 500,000 trees in Davidson County by 2050 — Meg has turned her own interest in environmentalism into a thriving career, often bringing her husband along for the ride. It’s a “small but mighty” operation, she says, and its success relies on a small army of volunteers, partners, and neighborhood captains. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Nashville hard in March 2020, though, it threw the last month of Root Nashville’s annual planting season into upheaval. Amassing a group of volunteers just didn’t make sense anymore. Instead, Meg took matters into her own hands, recruiting Parker for a 36-hour whirlwind of DIY planting across the city. “There are tangible things we can all do to combat climate change, and that’s what drew me to this job in the first place,” she says. “Root Nashville is partnership-driven, and I think that’s the only way we can actually make progress on big issues. We need to work together. It’s very much a ‘we’re all in this together’ mentality. That said, when Nashville started to go into lockdown last spring, it didn’t make sense to try and get volunteers out.”
Scooting the brush around the page is worth more than the finished painting ... —Parker Millsap
Parker, who happened to be home during a break in his touring schedule, remembers that week. “It was less than a month after the tornado, and Root Nashville had planned a big planting,” he recalls. “Then the lockdown was announced, and there were all these trees in people’s yards, waiting to be planted. People were starting to work from home, and no one knew how long it was going to last. So Meg said, ‘Let’s go plant some trees,’ and we just did it ourselves. We planted 60 trees in a day and a half.” Parker didn’t mind the work. As a songwriter, he had grown used to dealing with the ephemeral. Trees, on the other hand, represented something tangible. They were an opportunity to improve the climate and leave a permanent record. “If it’s properly taken care of, a tree can last hundreds of years, depending on what kind it is,” he says. “Planting a tree is a similar feeling as walking offstage after a really good show. You plant it and think, ‘I did something good today. I added something to the universe.’ With a self-deprecating smile, he adds, “As a guitar player, it also makes you feel better about owning multiple wooden instruments.”
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“
We’re getting ready to start another season of planting in mid-October, and Madison is one of three impact areas that we’re targeting. As the year progressed, many afternoons were spent in a similar way: working outside, their hands in the dirt, expanding the city’s tree canopy one trunk at a time. All across town, volunteers masked up and joined the effort. Nashville’s planting season typically runs from mid-October through late-March, but people worked year-round this time, paying special attention to neighborhoods that had been hit hard by the tornado. By the time New Year’s Eve arrived, 2020 had become the most successful year of tree-planting in the city’s history. “I think people were spending a lot of time at home, looking out the window at their immediate surroundings and truly noticing the environment,” says Meg, who won a Nashville Emerging Leader Award earlier this summer for her work with Root Nashville. “We noticed a big surge in people reaching out, wanting to help. Because of that, we were able to plant 8,000 trees last year.”
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ew saplings weren’t the only thing taking root in 2020. Performing live has been Parker’s bread and butter since his teenage years in Oklahoma, where he sang hymns at a Pentecostal church in Purcell before moving to Norman and landing a Tuesday night residency at one of the city’s longest-running musical institutions, The Deli. But faced with the grim reality that live shows weren’t coming back anytime 16 |
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—Meg Morgan
soon, the songwriter began working on his piano chops, learning to use Garageband, and bulking up on music theory. An album’s worth of new material had already started taking shape before the pandemic, and it truly came to fruition during this new housebound period. The goal, he says, was “to break my own songwriting rules.” Not that there was anything wrong with his writing. Since making his national debut with 2014’s self-titled Parker Millsap, he’d become one of the most acclaimed names in American roots music, topping the Americana Albums chart two times and regularly crisscrossing the country on tour. His early releases — eclectic exercises in folk, mid-century rock & roll, and gospel-blues, all wrapped around the old-time flutter of his vibrato — had earned him a spot at the same table occupied by Old Crow Medicine Show, JD McPherson, and other vintage-minded modern acts. Things began to shift with 2018’s Other Arrangements, a modern album that traded his acoustic roots for amplified, guitar-driven grit. And things shifted again in 2020, with Parker maintaining regular work hours in the basement, rehearsing his new songs — most of which now fill his fifth album, Be Here Instead — with help from a four-piece backing band. “It’s a two-level house, so we each have our own floors,” Meg says of the pair’s Madison home, which they share with one dog, two
cats, a bearded dragon, nearly a dozen newly planted trees, and a football field’s worth of acreage. “There’s the noisy floor with loud music,” she clarifies, “and then there’s the office floor with Zoom calls and email. I always go to as many of Parker’s shows as I can, but usually, our professional lives are kept pretty separate. That changed when we were both at home throughout 2020.” “This is the most time we’ve ever spent within 100 yards of each other!” Parker adds with a laugh. “When we moved to Nashville, I was spending more than a third of every year on tour. It took a long time before I even felt like a Nashvillian. We got married in June 2019, so we were six months into it when COVID happened. Then it was like, ‘Ok, now we’re really married,’ but in the best way possible. We got to share a life in a way we haven’t before, even though we’ve been sharing our lives for eight or nine years at this point. We were able to be together 24/7. For some couples, it wasn’t easy to make that jump. But for us, we just got along — and we had the room to make it work.” While Meg worked upstairs, Parker’s music drifted through the floorboards and filled the house. The songs sounded different than his earlier material. He’d taken up painting when the couple first moved to Nashville, inspired by the watercolor artwork of Meg’s grandfather, and he took a similar approach to the creation of Be Here Instead. He wasn’t afraid to get messy
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ˇˇ ˇˇ ˇ Past, present & future: The Madison area has thus far maintained an old-school neighborhood vibe, even as the economy shifts into the digital age. Meg & Parker on the stage at Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge.
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— to roll up his sleeves, mix sounds together, and let creativity lead the way. The sole focus wasn’t on the product; it was on the process, too. “Scooting the brush around the page is worth more than the finished painting,” he says, “and the feeling of the guitar resonating in the belly is worth more than the recording of the same performance.” That said, Be Here Instead is one hell of a finished painting. If albums like 2016’s The Very Last Day seemed to evoke the earthtoned color palette that’s become so common in Americana music, then Be Here Instead traffics in more vivid, kaleidoscopic shades. “Vulnerable” is a woozy soul standout with psychedelic overtones, while “If It Was You” blends the stained-glass shimmer of gospel music — a sound that remains near and dear to Parker’s heart, even if his Pentecostal days are behind him — with the hip hues of R&B. Produced by John Agnello and recorded in a series of live takes, the album is primal one minute and polished the next, often blending seemingly disparate sounds — say, the gauzy synthesizers, folksy violin, and U2-sized uplift that reverberate throughout “In Your Eyes” — into the same track. For Meg, witnessing the creation of another Parker Millsap album wasn’t necessarily a new thing. She was around when he created The Very Last Day, whose songs — including “Heaven Sent,” a stunning piece of fiction involving a gay man, his strait-laced, God-fearing father, and a heartbreaking request for acceptance — earned Millsap a nomination for “Album of the Year” at the 2016 Americana Music Honors & Awards. Likewise, she was there in 2018, when her partner went electric with Other Arrangements. Never before had she witnessed the process from a front-row seat, however. “He’d spent 10 hours on one thing,” she remembers. “I heard the same parts over and over, with a layer of floors and stairs between us. I already knew a little bit about what it took to write a song, but this past year showed me how much more goes into it.” “Being in the same space allowed us to experience each other’s work in a detailed way that we hadn’t seen before,” Parker adds. “And luckily, we’re both into what the other one does. Meg apparently likes my music, and I love planting trees! I’m so down with the mission of Root Nashville and giving back to the natural world.” Back at the coffeehouse in Madison, the morning rush has given way to a pre-lunch lull. For Parker and Meg, it’s places like this — locally-owned destinations that deliver good value without the overcrowded hustle-and-bustle of their Nashville counterparts — that help make the area feel like home. Garden Fresh Food Market, Green Chili Indian Restaurant, and Thai Phooket are also on the couple’s list of Madison go-to’s, along with outdoors areas like Peeler Park on Neely’s Bend. As they finish their cups of coffee, the conversation ends the same way it began: with enthusiasm for the local environment and dedication to its improvement. Maybe it’s the caffeine’s doing, but they start to finish each other’s sentences, unconsciously demonstrating the simpatico lockstep they’ve developed after 18 months in the same home.
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Pickin' some peppers at Garden Fresh. As the campaign manager of the tree planting initiative Root Nashville, Meg Morgan's day job is all about keeping it local.
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What could we do if we did it
TOGETHER?
Breakle yc the C verty of Po
Meet Our Neighbors’ Basic Needs
s Give Kid l an Equa Chance
Buil Stro d Heal ng, Comm thy unitie s
Together, we can be the hand raisers. The game changers. The moment makers. We can be the everyday heroes who stand united to make sure every child, every family, every person in our community thrives.
Get involved at unitedwaygreaternashville.org/together. 20 |
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“We’re getting ready to start another season of planting in mid-October,” Meg says, “and Madison is one of three impact areas that we’re targeting. The way we get trees onto private property is by working with neighborhood leaders, whom we call ‘neighborhood planting captains.’ You can apply to become a captain, and if you’re admitted into the program, you get a certain number of free trees, which you can take around to your neighbors. We’re moving toward more of a grassroots, hyper-local, neighbor-to-neighbor feel with the campaign, and we are always looking for more captains in impact areas. We’d love to have more in Madison, specifically.” “Places like Madison, North Nashville, and parts of South Nashville are impact areas because they either suffered from a lack of codes, or they were built by developers who weren’t held to the codes,” Parker chimes in. “When you cut down trees and build properties, you’re supposed to plant new trees. It’s written into the law. With a lot of places, that just didn’t happen — especially in places that are impoverished, places where people of color live, and places that were formerly redlined.” “There are public health consequences to that,” adds Meg. “Those areas have fewer trees, so they’re hotter. Heat kills more people than all other natural disasters combined. When neighborhoods are hotter, people’s health
suffers, and you’ll see things like much higher rates of asthma.” “One of the challenges with this campaign,” Parker says, “is that 94 percent of the land in Davidson County is privately owned. In order to plant a lot of trees, you have to talk to a lot of individual property owners. It’s a very involved process ...” “... so we need more people to get involved,” Meg says. “Because the more people who get involved,” Parker continues, “the better it goes. People are like, ‘Free trees?! What’s the catch?’ And there’s no catch.” “We’re just making sure that everyone has access to green space and shade,” explains Meg. “This work has made us even more attached to Nashville. There are parts of Madison where we’ve personally planted a lot, like Madison Park. I now feel like that’s the best park in the world. We’ve become bonded to it.” “Remember what I was saying about birds, and being able to identify them?” Parker asks. “The same thing applies to trees. Like, did you know there’s a tree that puts a chemical into the ground, to keep other trees of different kinds from growing near it?” “That’s a walnut tree,” Meg points out. “Knowing some things about the natural world around you — it not only makes you feel more interested in the natural world, but
it makes you feel part of it, too,” says Parker. “It’s not, ‘They’re doing their thing, and I’m doing my thing.’ We’re part of the same system. They make the oxygen that we breathe. I only recently started to see those connections — the circle of life, essentially — and it’s changed the way I view the world. Now, when I see a new strip mall being built somewhere, I think, ‘Ok, do we need another vape shop? That could be something else. That could be wildflowers.’” For Meg Morgan and Parker Millsap, it’s been a busy year and a half. But there’s always time to smell the wildflowers.
Parker Millsap's latest offering, Be Here Instead, is available now on his website, parkermillsap.com.
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&
STRIKES, SPARES VISION EASTSIDE BOWL BRINGS CREATIVITY,
C OLLABORATION, AND COMMUNITY TO MADISON
STORY BY RANDY FOX PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL WEINTROB
Left to right, facing page: Tommy Pierce, investor; Chark Kinsolving, cofounder of MercyLounge/The HiWatt; Jamie Rubin, founder of The Family Wash.
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W
alking through the entrance of Eastside Bowl on Gallatin Pike is a doorway to wowsville. Atomic Age stars, triangles, and swoops surround you like a cloud of buzzing electrons. Groovy hang out space beckons, whether it’s the classic chrome and vinyl of the diner seating; the sleek, mod barstools of the cocktail lounge; or the comfy lane-side divans. The iconic images of bowling pins are ubiquitous, incorporated into room dividers, emblazoned on wallpaper, and kaiju-sized in the six-footer that welcomes you when you arrive. The funky warm orange, yellow, black, and white design of the carpet provides a walkway to fun, while the reassuring rumble of rolling 12-pounders crashing into 10-pins provides the ambient soundtrack. The combination bowling alley, diner, music venue, and more is a masterpiece of design. It also delivers fun: providing both traditional bowling and the high-tech variant, HyperBowling (which adds an extra level of challenge while eliminating the bane of the inexperienced bowler — the gutter ball). Also on tap are food, drinks, live music, and best of all, a fun place to hang with friends and family, delivered with a uniquely Nashville flair. That sense of homegrown cool should come as no surprise considering Eastside Bowl is the brainchild of three local musicians/ venue owners/really cool dudes — Chark Kinsolving, Jamie Rubin, and Tommy Pierce — whose fingerprints are all over past and present Music City landmarks such as the Mercy Lounge, The Family Wash, The Basement East, and more. The road to this singular collaboration began almost three years ago, when Kinsolving was busy working as a general contractor specializing in bars and venues — his primary focus after selling out his share of the Mercy Lounge/ Cannery Ballroom/High Watt in 2013. Although Kinsolving thought owning and operating music venues was in his past, his resistance began crumbling when he learned that the old Madison Bowl building — a landmark of Atomic Age design operating from 1960 to 2008 on Gallatin Pike in Madison
Chark Kinsolving, Jamie Rubin, and Tommy Pierce share a laugh in the doorway of Chark's Lane Side Diner. The theme for the diner is based on Kinsolving's Gibson Les Paul Gold Top. The walls are painted using the actual Gold Top paint formula sourced from Gibson Guitars. The colors of the guitar's cream pickguard and mahogany back and sides are also integrated as design elements.
— was available. “I wanted to do something completely different because I had run a music venue for 12 years,” says Kinsolving. “I also wanted to get out of downtown because I could see where it was going. Moving out here was just a logical choice because my friends and so many local folks had moved from East proper to Inglewood and then from Inglewood to Madison.” After looking the property over and corralling his ideas for a few weeks, Kinsolving called Jamie Rubin, who had just left his position at the Family Wash — the bar and venue he had founded in 2003. “Chark’s line to me was, ‘Remember how I told you I’m never getting into the bar business again?’” Rubin recalls. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, dig this ...’” Kinsolving also approached former musician and real estate investor Tommy Pierce, a financial partner in The Basement East. “I met Chark when he was doing the build out for The Basement East and he and I hit it off,” says Pierce. “Chark had some brilliant ideas [for the bowling alley] and he came to me because I could help him with securing investors and a loan and negotiating the lease, but also asked me to be a creative partner.” News of the Madison Bowl project soon leaked and excitement ran high on local social media channels, but by July 2018, what seemed to be a sure-fire strike, turned into a gutter ball. “We spent nine months in there, had a great plan for it, but we didn’t get to see the lease until the end of getting our plan together,” says Kinsolving. “We tried to negotiate, but there wasn’t enough movement in our direction. We made the choice to walk away because it was an unworkable situation. I wandered around a couple of months trying to figure life out and then made a call to the guy that owned the old Kmart building.” The massive retail complex at the northwest corner of Gallatin Pike and Briley Parkway was home to discount retailer Kmart for over 50 years. Built in 1965, the 102,000 plus square-foot building was purchased by Anchor Investments in 2017, just months before Kmart closed the Madison store permanently as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
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Custom Bowl: It's All By Design While the owners of Eastside Bowl had an overall vision for the interior design, Lyon Porter and Frank Favia proved invaluable in refining the details and making that vision a reality, as Chark Kinsolving acknowledges. “Initially I had the wall between the bowling alley and the diner area framed for large square windows,” says Kinsolving. “The first thing Lyon said when he walked in here was ‘You should slant them down. It shows movement down the lanes.’ It made sense so we re-framed them, and it inspired the exterior design with the same style [a triangular row of slanting windows].” Porter brought a specific focus to the project. “I took a lot of inspiration from one of my favorite movies, The Big Lebowski,” says Porter. “I wanted to have acrylic stars everywhere but that’s not easy to do. There was a lot of custom work — different designs for stars and medallions.” Faced with several custom design challenges, Porter turned to design engineer Frank Favia for assistance. “Lyon and I first worked together in a contractor relationship on The Dive Motel,” says Favia. “We developed a lot of ideas that went on to drive the aesthetic [of Eastside Bowl]. When Eastside Bowl came to us, they wanted astonishment, and that’s a powerful emotion. The style we brought to the project was maximalist. We thought about every square inch of surface and then we maximized the effect of that surface.” Favia’s experience with the project made a lasting impression on him. “The professionals that worked on that project are what made me decide to move to Nashville. Chark, Lyon, Jamie, Tommy — that team was really inspiring. I’ve done some really big projects in New York, but the level of passion that they brought to the project is what made it successful. Chark structured it all like a really great recording, with him as the producer, and it turned out to be a really remarkable project.” Porter echoes Favia’s enthusiasm. “Bowling is such a fun thing to have a romantic nostalgia for,” Porter says. “Different eras had different bowling experiences, like the 80s had a wildly different color palette and design from the 70s, 60s, and 50s. It was fun to play in between all of that and come up with a unique space that is really special and one that I’m honored to be a part of.”
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Above: The “Post-Modern Atomic” theme carries into the bowling lanes, as represented by the custom LED lighting designed by Frank Favia. Left: The house drum kit on the neighborhood stage in The Wash at Eastside Bowl. Incorporated as an homage to the OG Family Wash, Rubin sees this stage lending itself to the communal vibe of his storied gathering place, replete with the return of “Pint & Pie” nights. The venue can easily be reconfigured to accomodate the 750-attendee capacity for full-production shows on the much larger main stage.
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“We were hopeful that we could find something that would generate traffic to the shopping center but we didn’t have a specific thing in mind,” Micah Anderson, president of Anchor Investments says. “I met Chark and Jamie and, based on their past records with venues, I knew they would bring something great.” After putting together a tentative agreement for 32,000 square feet of the building, Chark went to work on the conceptual layout for the space with Rubin and Pierce. As the process progressed, Kinsolving picked up some help from outside players. “Eric Fritsch is a friend of mine who is a local studio owner who happened to be taking a [Computer-Aided Design] course and needed a class project right when we walked into here [in late 2019],” says Kinsolving. “He and I sat here for six months, just building it in a CAD program. He would print it, and I would go home and study it, walk around in here, and make notes. Then we would move walls around based on my notes. It was a matter of having the time and someone with the skill set to fit the pieces together.” By February 2020, the lease for the space and the basic plan was locked down. Eastside Bowl would include a large entrance way designed to “wow” patrons from the get go; a 10,000 square foot bowling alley with 16 lanes; a large adjacent lounge area with both bar and booth
”
I wanted to do something completely different because I had run a music venue for 12 years. seating; “Chark’s Lane Side Diner,” a full-service, traditional diner opening early for breakfast and serving a full menu of diner-fare food into the late-night hours; and an arcade room with classic pinball and video games. In addition, the back portion of the building would accommodate “The Wash at Eastside Bowl,” a 750 capacity music venue with two curtained stages — one for smaller intimate shows and opening acts and a full-size stage filling one end of the room — along with a balcony area, a private VIP room, a patio area,
Chark Kinsolving
two backstage green rooms, and an outside entrance and box office for large, ticketed shows. With plans ready and the lease signed, the partners closed on their loan in early March 2020 and began construction. Just days later, the world effectively shut down with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. “If we hadn’t already closed the loan it may not have even happened,” says Kinsolving. “It worked out OK for us though. We had this giant building and were in a bubble. We
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NEW YEAR, NEW DIRECTION. RESERVE YOUR SPACE FOR SPRING 2022 CULINARY CLASSES.
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nossi.edu/culinary
“
Chark’s line to me was, 'Remember how I told you I’m never getting into the bar business again?... Well, dig this.'
only had about six people in here initially, spread out, doing demo, so it was a safe place to work. All through COVID everybody was able to work, keep their distance, and not one person got sick working here, so that’s pretty cool.” One of the advantages of Kinsolving’s years of experience with building venues was having a loyal and experienced crew of workers and subcontractors. A factor that became increasingly important as the project progressed and moved into highly customized design features. “I’ve worked with these guys for years,” says Kinsolving. “They’re not afraid to try anything. I’d show them a drawing of something completely bizarre like the ceiling soffits and our guys did an amazing job.”
As the job progressed, the three partners expanded their team to bring focus to the interior design. “We had four environments,” says Rubin. “We wanted to make each place feel different but somehow tied together. Which turned out to be a tall order for design.” In search of a unifying vision, they turned to Lyon Porter, who Kinsolving had worked for as a general contractor on the Urban Cowboy boutique hotel in East Nashville. Porter, whose eye for postmodern design has produced such local fountains of wow-factor as Urban Cowboy and The Dive Motel, was particularly excited about working on such a large canvas. “They had big goals and they had differing ideas. Everyone does,” says Porter. “I was able to work with them, ask a lot of questions, add a few ideas of my own, and pull the
Jamie Rubin
ideas together into a singular design vision.” Although a large portion of the custom work could be done in-house, Porter brought in design engineer Frank Favia, who’d partnered with him on The Dive Motel. “Lyon is very much a postmodernist visionary, so he works very well paired with somebody like me who figures out how to realize his vision,” says Favia. “The best way to describe what we did is Post-Modern Atomic. It has a 50s-60s kind of vibe, but the postmodernism comes in in that it’s not like time travelling back to that time, it’s more like a dream of that era.” That dream doesn’t just include the Atomic Age of the 50s and early 60s. Using that era as a launchpad, Eastside Bowl’s design evokes the sense of American optimism that existed in the 50s and 60s and spilled over into the
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“
I really hope it’s going to become an iconic landmark
early 70s — a time when bridging the divides that existed in America still seemed possible and “going to the bowling center, or skating rink, or the mall” was something both kids and adults enjoyed. It’s powerful stuff, whether you’re old enough to remember that era, or just fascinated by pop-cultural representations of it like Mad Men or Dazed and Confused. While aesthetically, Eastside Bowl resuscitates a vision of American’s lost optimism, it also reflects the quirky localism that once existed in suburbia. Look around and you’ll find familiar neighborhood artifacts from the East Side — bits of decor from the original Family Wash location on Greenwood Avenue (2003-2015), the Gothic sign that once heralded the beloved speakeasy/cult movie theater/curio shop Logue’s Black Raven Emporium on Gallatin Pike (2012-2014), and even the familiar neon coffee cup that once
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Tommy Pierce
lit the window of the original Radio Cafe on Woodland Street (1995-2007). “The best thing is we haven’t sought that stuff out,” says Rubin. “Robert Logue reached out to Chark and asked him if he would like to have the Black Raven sign. My former partner from Garage Coffee brought us the old Mac truck mirror that hung in the men’s room in the original Family Wash location. Charlie Crawford had the neon coffee cup from the Radio Cafe, which is in the diner. People have come out of the woodwork to say, ‘Hey, would you guys be interested in this?’ They know who we are and that they can trust us with cultural treasures.” The sense of creativity and collaboration that gave birth to Eastside Bowl as a concept has always been centered around a sense of community. It seems like an almost antiquated idea in 21st century America, but the idea of building a successful business that gives back something to the community is a model all three of
Eastside Bowl’s owners are committed to. “I really hope it’s going to become an iconic landmark,” says Pierce. “It’s built to accommodate the young families that live in the area. It’s built for all ages, and it’s by and for locals.” Kinsolving agrees with the idea that multiuse means multi-appeal. “I hope we’ll see that here,” he says. “We’ll have families with kids during the day and early evening and then have that changeover where it becomes a really cool late-night hang for adults. My goal has always been to bring back a sense of what I wanted Mercy Lounge to be at first — just a place where friends could come and hang out. It never became what I wanted it to be, but I hope we’ll see that here.” Eastside Bowl is slated to open this Fall. Stay tuned in to their socials for the latest info @eastsidebowl or visit them online at eastsidebowl.com
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Eyesore No More Big Plans in the works for Memorial Hospital
A
fter languishing for years in real estate limbo, the former Memorial Hospital site at 612 Due West Boulevard appears to have a bright future. A rezoning request for the 18-acre property was passed unanimously by the Metro Planning Commission at their Sept. 23 meeting and has been forwarded to the Metro Council. Memorial Hospital opened in 1965 and was heralded as a state-ofthe-art non-profit public health facility serving all Nashvillians. The hospital and adjacent medical offices served the community for 35 years. After the hospital closed in 2000, portions of the property were used for a variety of short-term purposes, but the bulk of the site has remained dormant. According to District 8 Councilmember Nancy VanReece, the property is now under contract to a group that includes local developers Forbes/Plunkett and Core Development who have submitted a plan for a dramatic makeover utilizing many of the existing buildings. “Core Development is a Mark Deutschmann company, and Mark is well known for adaptive reuses and making walkable communities out of them,” VanReece says. “Currently, about 14 of the 18 acres on this site are asphalt. This development would change that, renovating the existing buildings and adding new buildings on the site.” Forbes/Plunkett and Core Development described their plans in documents filed for the rezoning request: “The purpose of the project is to create an 18-acre urban-meets-suburban district that includes a diverse mix of uses with an emphasis on arts, music, food, commerce, social enterprise, and mixed-income housing. The investment I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y B E N J A M I N R U M B L E
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strategy hinges on a collaborative, comprehensive, and creative master plan to achieve our vision. This plan will serve as a template for a longer-term, multi-phased buildout of the parcel. “WeGo Transit has approved a new transit line that will run on Due West Avenue and connect with both Dickerson Pike and Gallatin Pike. We are excited about the opportunity to provide a vibrant and interesting transit stop.” The plans specifically call for residential and office space, restaurant and retail space, a community events plaza, community green spaces, a fitness trail, a nature area, and a pedestrian walkway winding throughout the entire property. VanReece says that over six years of community feedback regarding possible uses for the site were incorporated into the plan, and the feedback from multiple community stakeholders has been positive. The request for rezoning was personally filed by VanReece as one of three rezoning requests each council member may submit annually. The rezoning request is now in the hands of the Metro Council with the public comment period opening on Nov. 1. According to VanReece, if all goes well, the request could receive final approval by Thanksgiving of this year. For updates on this and other development projects in the Madison area, follow Councilperson Nancy VanReece on Twitter @NVR4District8.
By Randy Fox
marketplace
pagination
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