Reviews

BARNUM BROWN

Polly

Making a drop from the area’s underground, Murfreesboro’s folk/bluegrass/ roots cabin crooner Alex Tumbleson released a self-produced, solo debut EP, Polly, under the stage name Barnum Brown. The release captures the darkly swooning discipline of a local multi-instrumentalist, a haybale/brewery-circuit picker proud to remain subterranean. But the music will probably earn some attention, because Barnum Brown throws around Dostoyevsky quotes like a true, traditional-style Middle Tennessee circuit picker.

Polly was recorded as a simple, no-BS production of triple talent—picking skills, lyric stylings and vocal discipline—arranged for a bluegrass-steeped, cabin-lit mood in each of its six tracks.

Polly opens with “Change Is Coming Soon,” featuring a strummed acoustic guitar accompanying vocals sounding like a late-middle-aged but still throaty Ralph Stanley singing a Dan Tyminski-penned song, one about a confl icted man awake at night, at the train station, thinking about his woman. Brown’s picking stumbles onto deft pinkie-ing of high-string 7th, 9th and 11th notes for the melody while the chorded down-strum of the lower three or four strings of the instrument act as the bass line. It’s a backwards, melodic claw-hammering technique borrowed from banjo masters like ’Boro-area legacy and early Opry star Uncle Dave Macon.

A possibly area-telling “Vine Street Girls” livens up Polly as a Jewish-folk-sounding

minstrel tune, properly layering the high-register, mandolin-style strummed banjo over a waltz-ish acoustic guitar, accompanying lyrics of a drunkard’s nightcap about three doors down on Vine Street. All three of Brown’s triple talents play an equal part in this banger and EP highlight.

Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor likely infl uenced the vocal style on the homely, solo acoustic homage to the area, “Tennessee.”

Brown’s vocals then closely resemble those of Trampled by Turtles’ Dave Simonett on the title track, as traditionalist clawhammer banjo picking plays, while lyrically the song explores a dark combination of time and failure, truly giving up, and having only Polly to say goodbye to.

“Undertow” follows as another soloacoustic number, with noticeable impressive breath control as a sub-talent of Brown’s vocal discipline, all over some Neko Caseesque minor-chord rise-and-fall. Brown string-smacks and mutes for a percussive effect, and the resulting crescendo keeps feet tapping while sounding as if the artist was raised by wild, roving open-mic musicians.

Brown goes to town with a vocal style reminiscent of Andrew Bird on “The Bitter End” for an ultimate track utilizing guitar parlor tricks, acoustic mute strumming and chiming intonations while keeping a solid picking fl ow and running a bass line that fi lls in a wonderful, dark jazz/folk vehicle for a bluegrass-accompanied apocalypse (or acquiescing to an opioid death and succumbing to a true underground . . . “if you do not deign to give me your attention,” as Dostoyevsky would say). Find Polly by Barnum Brown/Alex Tumbleson on Spotify or at alextumbleson.bandcamp.com. — BRYCE HARMON

THE BLACK PHONE

DIRECTOR Scott Derrickson STARRING Mason Thames, Mad-

eleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke

RATED R The Black Phone is one of those movies where if you’ve seen the trailer you basically know what is going to happen. But, it’s like reading the CliffsNotes for a classic novel; you might know all the plot points, but you don’t get the true experience.

Based on a short story of the same name by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King), The Black Phone is about a masked serial killer the kids call “the grabber” in a sleepy north Denver suburb in 1978. When the grabber abducts Finney (Mason Thames), it’s up to his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), whose dreams sometimes come true, to help fi nd Finney. Meanwhile, Finney receives help from the ghosts of the grabber’s victims via a disconnected black phone attached to the wall of the grimy basement in which he’s being held.

Coming from the son of Stephen, it’s all very King-esque: the dreary neighborhood, kids cussing and riding bikes, bullies, alcoholic fathers, a creepy child predator, and just a touch of the supernatural in Gwen’s visions and Finney’s phone. And it all comes together on the strength and simplicity of the source material, the direction, and the performances.

Scott Derrickson, whose early horror fi lms landed him the fi rst Doctor Strange standalone, nails the late ’70s aesthetic of oppressive browns, and he allows the fi lm to breathe and the characters to grow between plot beats. His writing too, along with co-writer C. Robert Cargill, is sharp yet natural, being scary and tense when it tries, and funny when it means to be (the reactions of the sparse audience were more pronounced than most movies with a fuller crowd).

The performances, from a mostly teenage cast of unfamiliar faces, stand out. In our current Stranger Things world, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw, as well as the other young actors in smaller roles, play on that nerdy nostalgia, albeit in a more grounded and realistic manner. McGraw is the real highlight as Gwen, stealing every scene she’s in with her impeccable delivery as a kid who knows the cuss words but hasn’t quite grasped the context of how to use them. Ethan Hawke is one of only two familiar faces in the entire fi lm (the other being Jeremy Davies as Finney and Gwen’s abusive alcoholic father). Hawke keeps his face covered throughout with a series of grotesque devil masks with interchangeable smiles and frowns, à la the comedy and tragedy theater masks. Hawke’s performance behind the mask is troubling and disturbed, a deliciously scary turn.

Initially, the trailer for The Black Phone turned me off. I thought it revealed too much, that there would be no surprises or subtleties left. I’m glad I was wrong, because The Black Phone is a taut horror/ thriller that does a lot of things right and earns its thrills, making me a new fan of all involved.

— JAY SPIGHT

Living

Riddick Bowe

Wayne Buckingham

WAB SPORTS is organizing an upcoming charity celebrity golf tournament to raise funds to sponsor a youth day for the children of Murfreesboro.

This tournament will actually be a weekend-long community event taking place July 29–31 and hosted by WAB Sports, an organization designed to help nonprofi ts and individuals raise funds through hosting charity sports events.

Wayne A. Buckingham, a former professional basketball player hailing from Bell Buckle, Tennessee, created WAB Sports. As a young athlete, Buckingham was given the opportunity to attend prep school in Atlanta on a full-ride scholarship, and this led to his basketball career at Clemson University, in the NBA, and later in Europe.

Buckingham has hosted youth camps and charity events to give back to the Middle Tennessee community since his retirement from basketball in 2005.

“My whole life has been charity since I retired,” says Buckingham. “As of last year we’ve impacted around 25,000 kids in the Middle Tennessee area.”

This will be the 11th year this annual golf event is taking place, but it will be the event’s fi rst occurrence in Murfreesboro.

Participating in the event will be legendary boxers Riddick Bowe and Buster Douglas, and former NFL and NBA players such as Dale Davis alongside members of the Murfreesboro community, including MTSU athletes, small business owners and doctors.

The youth day will take place on Saturday, July 30, from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. on the MTSU football fi eld.

This is free to attend for children grades K–6 and is fi rst come, fi rst serve. The organization has prepared for about 500 attendees.

Participating youth will be given the opportunity to hang out with the players while playing fi eld games and other outdoor activities.

The children will learn about nutrition, concussion protocol, and how to be a good teammate from former professional sports players and esteemed members of the community.

Throughout his career, Buckingham has been able to build a network of professional athletes who want to do good work.

“I’m just trying to bring these guys back to give back to the kids in our communities, because you never know who you’re going to touch,” says Buckingham. “We’ve found out that kids really open up to athletes, so we’ve had a lot of great conversations with these kids.”

At the end of the day the youth will also be treated to a T-shirt, a free meal and a goodie bag fi lled with school supplies.

The contents of the goodie bag are donated by the community or funded by the proceeds from the golf tournament. For information on how to donate, call 331-472-9828.

Following the youth day, from 2:30–5 p.m. there will be an autograph signing at the Fish House, located at 1626 Middle Tennessee Blvd. Those who would like can purchase autographed Riddick Bowe boxing gloves for $250, among other memorabilia.

Finishing off Saturday’s activities will be a draft party from 5–11 p.m. for the golf tournament’s participants to mix and mingle before they play the following day.

The golf tournament will take place Sunday, July 31, at the Old Fort Golf Course.

Teams for the tournament will consist of four players each and will cost $150 per person; all of the money raised will go directly to the youth day.

There are still openings for advertising and sponsorships at the tournament.

WAB Sports Benefits Youth

Professional athletes join forces with community members, WAB Sports for Golf Tournament to raise money for local youth

STORY BY BAILEY FINN

For more information about how you or your business can get involved and on WAB Sports, call 331-472-9828 or visit wabsports.com. Register for the W.A.B Sports 11th Annual Golf Tournament on Eventbrite.

Living  TRAVEL

Stillhouse Hollow Falls

Chill out on a hot summer day under a magnifi cent waterfall in a cool Tennessee hollow

STORY BY BRACKEN MAYO PHOTOS BY SARAH MAYO

For a very enjoyable hike that leads to a beautiful waterfall with a small swimming hole, check out Stillhouse Hollow Falls, located near Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, between the towns of Columbia and Lawrenceburg.

The trail to the falls, a .7-mile journey in, making a 1.4-mile round trip walk, starts out on a decline on the fi rst section. Though a few loose rocks and roots require some awareness, the whole trip is not incredibly strenuous for those accustomed to a bit of movement.

The majority of the trail is quite shady, a welcome feature on a hot summer day.

Once hikers get down the fi rst big hill and arrive at the creek, they may decide to go ahead and cool off here in the stream, which presents a neat little 5-foot-tall waterfall.

After enjoying this smaller water feature, continue walking down the shallow creek, or get back on the trail, to get to the top of the larger falls, not far away.

The trip to Stillhouse Hollow Falls goes quickly and includes a couple of bridges over the creek, some steps and sections of boardwalk.

Once at the top of the primary waterfalls, enjoy the view from above and then descend down the hollow to the pool at the bottom.

Lots of stairs lead down the hillside, simplifying the descent. Once arriving down to the level ground near the stream below the falls—which soon feeds Big Bigby Creek— a brick chimney still stands with only a square dirt patch around it, likely the site of a structure years ago.

Was this the stillhouse?

No, according to Mike Cothran, whose family used to own the property and who still visits the falls frequently to help pick up trash and take young family members to visit this portion of the Tennessee forest he enjoyed as a boy.

Cothran says his uncle, Russell Cothran, built a small building in the 1960s that served as a hunting cabin, located in a spot where only the chimney still stands.

He and Mike’s father would coon hunt, deer hunt and fi sh on the land, but, while they may have drunk some moonshine on the property, never produced it, as far as Cothran knows. The family never referred to the falls as Stillhouse Hollow, a name that would come later; they sometimes called it Cothran Falls.

The Cothrans sold the land to a nature conservancy in 1989 and the conservancy has since sold it to the state of Tennessee for all to enjoy.

Now, many visitors get the opportunity to come to Stillhouse Hollow Falls and splash beneath this fantastic 75-foot-tall Tennessee waterfall, where mothers tell their sons “be careful!” as they climb on the slick rocks surrounding the plunge pool.

The pool holds just enough water for an adult to fully submerge themselves, offering a shady and cool refreshment, even on a blisteringly hot summer day.

And this area below the waterfalls contains plenty of rocks on which to sit, and shallow, level places for young children and dogs to just get their feet wet.

Pay it a visit sometime and get a little wet in the woods at this beautiful and secluded spot.

If You Go

Stillhouse Hollow Falls

Find the parking area for Stillhouse Hollow Falls on Highway 43 in southern Middle Tennessee, 21 miles from the intersection of Highways 31 and 43 in Columbia. For more information on this and other Tennessee State Natural Areas, call 931-375-6101 or visit tn.gov/environment.

Living

MOMS IN RUTHERFORD COUNTY and across the state are donating their milk to Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee. After the milk is pasteurized, it is delivered to preemie babies in neonatal units across the state.

Mothers’ Milk Bank is a member milk bank of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA). This milk bank, located in Murfreesboro, opened in November 2021, picking Murfreesboro as its location because it is the center of the state of Tennessee.

Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee Director Dr. Susan Campbell, IBCLB, is a neonatologist and a lactation specialist.

“I was working full-time as a doctor up until 2021 at hospitals in the Middle Tennessee region,” Campbell said. “I took care of sick babies in the NICU and saw the need for and benefi t of pasteurized donor human milk.

“The milk bank’s whole reason for being is that we want babies to thrive, and we want every baby in the state who needs breast milk to have it, starting with the most vulnerable babies in the NICUs. We can’t serve all the babies who need it yet, but that is our hope for the future. We are hoping next year to put together an outpatient program. We need to make sure we will have suffi cient milk to do so.”

Campbell said milk banks have been around since the early 1900s. The fi rst milk bank was in Vienna in 1909, and the second one was in Boston in 1910.

“When milk banks were fi rst starting, the main focus of all milk banks was to save vulnerable babies’ lives fi rst and foremost. Today if milk banks have extra milk or milk that is a little low in calories for hospitalized babies, that milk may be released for outpatients,” the local milk bank director said. “We have not started our outpatient program yet, which breaks my heart because I would love to be able to help all of the moms who need milk for their babies. A lot of the more established milk banks are able to support outpatient programs.”

Campbell said the recent formula shortage has been absolutely devastating.

“It’s been devastating for us because we are not ready yet to help supply milk for parents at home,” Campbell said.

But the milk bank’s secondary mission is to promote and support breastfeeding across the state.

“One of the main health issues in Tennessee is that we have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country,” she said.

“We have moms who call us and say they really need some milk because their milk supply is dropping. So we try to connect them with some support. This may be linking them up with the breastfeeding hotline, which we are very fortunate to have in Tennessee, where any mother any time of the day can call, and they can talk to a board certifi ed lactation consultant, who can talk the mother through some things with suggestions to improve their supply, which moms can do,” Campbell continued.

Campbell says one thing that concerns her is moms who want to share their breast milk.

“Because breast milk, if it is not pasteurized, can have bacteria and viruses in it that can be detrimental to a baby. Even though you may have a very dear friend and you trust them implicitly, there still could be something that gets transmitted. We tell the mothers whom we approved as donors that just because we have approved them as donor doesn’t mean it is safe for them to give their raw milk to somebody else. If we pasteurized the milk, we still culture it afterwards to be certain it is absolutely safe.”

Right now, even while Mothers’ Milk Bank is only supplying milk to the hospitals, growth has resulted in an increasing size of orders.

“We have gone from 30 bottles on our fi rst delivery to 660 bottles in a recent shipment,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the milk bank is serving hospitals as far away as Regional One in Memphis and Erlanger in Chattanooga, plus a lot of Middle Tennessee hospitals. On the day in June when she spoke with

Murfreesboro’s Mothers’ Milk Bank

Collecting and distributing milk to vulnerable babies, encouraging mothers to breastfeed

STORY AND PHOTOS BY LAURA LINDSAY

Susan Campbell, executive director of Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee.

Mothers’ Milk Bank Pasteurization Technician Ashley Jones and Pasteurization Lab Supervisor Christina Vargo prepare milk to be distributed.

the Murfreesboro Pulse, the milk bank had just shipped out 610 bottles of milk that went to four different hospitals.

“Here at our location, the moms can drive up and bring their donated bags of milk. They have to be screened and approved as a donor before they donate milk,” she said. “The mothers can be on certain types of medications temporarily, and that may trigger what we call a deferral. For example, we can’t take a mother’s milk when she is on antibiotics because our end users are the babies in the NICUs. Giving them those strong antibiotics could be detrimental. So we would assign her a deferral date until it is out of her system.”

After the Mothers’ Milk Bank team checks for deferrals, the milk goes into the milk bank to begin the pasteurization.

The bank mixes five different mothers’ milks together and then pours it into bottles.

“We mix five mothers’ milks together because mothers get exposed to different things, and their milk has antibodies specific to their experience in it. So if we mix five together, it makes it more robust. The tiny baby is getting more exposure to antibodies to protect against infections,” Campbell said. “A lot of people are worried about COVID and some other viral and bacterial illnesses. The bacteria and viruses are destroyed by the pasteurization process. But the antibodies are not, which is wonderful because they can protect the baby.”

Once the milk has been cleared as safe to use, it is moved to the shipping freezer where it is kept under rigid temperature control until it is shipped.

That is when Susan’s husband, Bruce Campbell, steps in.

“My husband is our milkman,” she said. “He takes the milk to the hospitals and picks up any donated milk mothers have dropped off there.”

For more information on Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee, visit milkbanktn.org or email susan.campbell@milk banktn.org. For help with breastfeeding questions, call the Breastfeeding Hotline at 855-423-6667.

THE MISSION OF GOOD HEALTH ASSOCIATES

is to promote the health and well-being of the local population by providing accessible, high-quality primary medical care for Rutherford and surrounding counties.

We Are Committed to Providing Excellent Services

WE OFFER:

✓ PRIMARY AND URGENT CARE ✓ PHYSICALS AND WORKER’S COMP ✓ IMMUNIZATIONS ✓ COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE - Diabetes - Kidney Disease - Hypertension - Heart Disease ✓ WOMEN’S HEALTH - Pap Smear - Birth Control ✓ ON-SITE LAB ✓ IMMIGRATION PHYSICAL EXAMS ✓ PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE