June 2022 Murfreesboro Pulse

INSIDE

THE BROTHERS COMATOSE / EVERYBODY DRUM SOME / COLLEGETOWN / FELIX CAVALIERE / ONE MORE DREAM JUNE 2022 | VOL. 17, ISSUE 6 | FREE

MUSIC Middle Tennessee’s Source for Art, Entertainment and Culture News

Jolly String Quartet From Russia to Puckett’s: Sibling String Band Brings Music and Ministry

Simply Smyrna Community Fest Returns to Depot District June 4

LIVING

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Contents

18

10 FEATURES

IN EVERY ISSUE

10

6 Events

JOLLY STRING QUARTET Gorsha Jolly shares sibling string band’s music and ministry.

14

FELIX CAVALIERE

Legendary musician promotes music education at schools like MTSU as a winning recipe for success.

18

THE WINDING STAIRS

PTSD AWARENESS

PTSD affects veterans and trauma victims from all walks of life.

24

ONE MORE DREAM

Murfreesboro filmmaker Ricky Burchell releases new film; more projects on the horizon.

12

MUSIC NOTES Everybody Drum Some Community Rhythm Event on June 22 Simply Smyrna Celebration The Brothers Comatose CONCERT CALENDAR The Pilots, Jessica Andrews, John Berry, JD Shelburne, Ty Herndon and more

Art Director: Sarah Mayo Copy Editor: Steve Morley Publisher/Editor in Chief: Bracken Mayo

Advertising: Nneka Sparks

ALBUMS Collegetown

MOVIE Top Gun: Maverick

19 Living NATURE NEWS Opossums GARDENING Master Gardeners

Sounds

Hike down Tennessee creek like a stair case at Lafayette park.

20

CALENDAR Movies Under the Stars, Friday Night Concert Series, Experience Worship Night, Family Cookout, Touch-a-Truck, Splash Out and more

17 Reviews

26 Art

EXHIBITS Collaborative Visual Storytelling

24 Big Bobby’s BBQ, Sunset Amphitheater, The Abbey Public House, Overkill Auto Garage and more BUSINESS MOMENTUM Cedar Glade Brews

34 Opinion

FREE YOUR CHILDREN Home schooling: Where every moment is a learning opportunity.

28 Food

THE MR. MURFREESBORO MINUTE Meredith's Minute: Dickie Thomas stands tall among top local athletes.

30 News

SPORTS TALK Titans Select Treylon Burks and QB Malik Willis in draft.

Boro Art Crawl

RESTAURANT The Fish House

BUSINESS BUZZ Wild Birds Unlimited,

Contributors: Tiffany Boyd, Melissa Coker, Jennifer Durand, Delores Elliott, Bryce Harmon, Tyler Larrabee, Laura Lindsay, Blaine Little, Zach Maxfield, Ashleigh Newnes, Edwina Shannon, Jay Spight, Andrea Stockard

LIVE . . . WELL Live in the moment.

Copyright © 2022, The Murfreesboro Pulse, 714 W. Main St., #208, Murfreesboro, TN 37129.

Proudly owned, operated and published the first Thursday of each month by the Mayo family; printed by Franklin Web Printing Co. The Pulse is a free publication funded by advertisers. Views expressed in the Pulse do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. ISSN: 1940-378X

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The Murfreesboro Pulse

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH to Bracken Jr.!

Our eldest son becomes a teenager this month.

You may know him from his role as a Pulse delivery agent, his representation of the Pulse at the recent Small Business Fair at the Walnut House, his attendance at various car shows in the area or his blazing down the Murfreesboro Greenway on his scooter.

Happy 13! We love you and are proud of you. And you have become a great big brother. I am excited to hang out with you this summer, my boy!

But remember: “I’m the weird one!”

It looks like we may have a new amphitheater coming to Murfreesboro.

Will there again be such a thing as a major touring rock band to perform there? You know, one with new, exciting material and with all of their members still in place.

The ’90s were great . . .

I have been concerned for a while that Foo Fighters might be the last global superstar rock group.

Be working on those doomsday survival skills and try and produce as much food on your own land as possible.

I have also been concerned over recent years that the few buckets of apples, some kale leaves, a couple of pots of black-eyed peas and the handful of berries the Mayos managed to produce on our land may not suffice as our only food source without relying on the grocery supply chain, or more productive local farmers.

I will trade a few buckets of apples for, say, 200 pounds of beef . . .

In seriousness, perhaps more and more businesses will look to bartering as a means to get things done and acquire what they need.

The Pulse is open to creative bartering deals. What do you have?

Otherwise, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a resolution this session recognizing the great Elon.

The Predators, without Mr. Saros, got swept in their playoff series, the only series in this year’s NHL playoffs to end in a sweep. On to next year for them.

The Mayos took a fun outing to the zoo in May. Come on out and drum some at the June 22 Everybody Drum Some event at Old Fort Park.

Enjoy this issue of the Pulse. But wait—there’s more!

If you complete this edition and want more information on places to go, where to eat, and what to do in the area, check boropulse.com for even more material and archives of all sorts of pieces on local entertainment.

We had a good response to our Kenny Chesney concert ticket giveaway. We still have some tickets to the June 25 Old Crow Medicine Show performance at the Caverns up for grabs. Visit boropulse.com/ocms to enter.

If you are going through frustrations, stress, hard times or heartaches, remember, the pendulum will swing.

Press on through the tough times. Put your head down and plow through with everything you have. Face them; deal with them the best you can. Get them behind you.

And a moment of peace and alignment will come.

Good times will return.

Take care of yourself, back up your work, get some sunshine, play music and create something beautiful.

Peace, BRACKEN MAYO Publisher/Editor in Chief

EVENTS CALENDAR  JUNE 2022  BY ANDREA STOCKARD JUNE 1

ness Awareness Workshop is required for attendees 6 and older. Space is limited, so pre-registration is required. The cost is $5 to $10. For more information and to register, call 615-217-3017 or email jfogel@murfreesborotn.gov.

THE BIG RUN Fleet Feet Murfreesboro and Mt. Juliet will celebrate Global Running Day on Wednesday, June 1. For the Murfreesboro community, a chip-timed 5K on a certified course at The Gateway Island (1875 W. College St.) kicks off at 6:30 p.m. in honor of Miles Tate. For the Mt. Juliet community, the free Fun Run 5K meets at the Corner Pub (4136 N. Mt. Juliet Rd.) at 6:30 p.m.

All Murfreesboro proceeds benefit the MTSU Melinda and Miles Tate Scholarship. Each 5K finisher receives a medal.

For more information on the June 1 events, visit fleetfeet.com and find Races & Events or email jordan@fleetfeetmtjuliet.com.

JUNE 2 PRENATAL YOGA CLASS Prenatal Yoga is designed to support mothers-to-be on their individual pregnancy journeys, from conception all the way to birth. This beginner-friendly class is taught by a certified yoga instructor at Royal Massage & Yoga (423 W. Lytle St.) from 7–8 p.m. on Thursday, June 2. Please bring your own mat, but there are some available in the studio. These classes are for prenatal and postnatal moms. Class sizes are limited to 10 people, and the cost is $15. For more information, visit royalmassageandyoga.com or reservations can be made at Eventbrite under Prenatal Yoga Class.

JUNE 2 NURTURE NOOK’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Help the Nurture Nook (624 N. Walnut St.) celebrate 20 years as Rutherford County’s premier upscale boutique day spa with tasty treats, cocktails, live music and creative entertainment on Thursday, June 2, from 4–7 p.m. The Ceremonial Opening is at 4 p.m. with mixing and mingling at 4:30 p.m. and music and dancing at 5:30 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling 615-896-7110.

JUNE 2 AMANDA HOPE HALEY BOOK SIGNING Linebaugh Public Library (105 W. Vine St.) welcomes local author Amanda Hope Haley for a book signing on Thursday, June 2, 6 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

JUNE 3 FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERT SERIES

THROUGHOUT JUNE MOVIES UNDER THE STARS Bring the family for a fun night of Movies Under the Stars throughout the summer at various Murfreesboro locations on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Concessions are available for purchase. Bring your blankets or lawn chairs.

Movies begin at 8:30 p.m. Admission to the event is free for all ages. For more information, find the Movies Under the Stars: Patterson Park event on Facebook, call 615-893-7439 or email lwright@murfreesborotn.gov.

Schedule: Week of June 6 – Encanto | Week of June 13 – Ghostbusters Week of June 20 – Sing 2 | Week of June 27 – Annie Locations: Mondays – Barfield Crescent Park (697 Veterans Pkwy.)

Thursdays – Richard Siegel Neighborhood Park (515 Cherry Ln.) Fridays – Patterson Park (521 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.)

Saturdays – Fountains at Gateway (1500 Medical Center Pkwy.) from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Haley will sign and sell copies of her books The Red-Haired Archaeologist Digs Israel, Mary Magdalene Never Wore Blue Eye Shadow and Copper Finds a Scroll. The Red-Haired Archaeologist Digs Israel investigates the historical and modern contexts we need to understand both the Bible and God’s people. Discover with Haley how Christians can use archaeological finds to better understand Israel’s history, shed a Western mindset and read the Bible in its original context, and comprehend today’s religious conflicts in the Holy Land. In Mary Magdalene Never Wore Blue Eye Shadow, Haley demonstrates how Scripture—when read in its original context—is more than a collection of fairy tales or a massive rule book. It’s God’s revelation of Himself to us.

In Copper Finds a Scroll, a children’s book, Copper the basset hound travels the world

with his friend Amanda while she digs on archaeological sites. Haley was born and raised in Murfreesboro, graduated from Smyrna High School, earned a master’s degree in Hebrew Scripture and Interpretation from Harvard, and has worked in Christian publishing for 15 years. For more information, call 615-893-4131 or visit rclstn.org.

JUNE 3 FAMILY COOKOUT AT BARFIELD BACKCOUNTRY Join the Wilderness Station staff for a night under the stars and a familyfriendly camping experience at Barfield Park Backcountry Campground (687 Veterans Pkwy.) on Friday, June 3, from 4 p.m.–8 a.m. the next day. Activities, a bonfire, dinner, an optional night hike and breakfast are provided. The Wilder-

First Friday nights in June, July, August and September are filled with music as Main Street Murfreesboro throws a musical party on the courthouse square from 6:30–9:30 p.m. The stage is big, the crowd is bigger, and it’s free. The featured band on Friday, June 3, is The Pilots.

Come early to have dinner at one of the locally owned downtown restaurants and do a little shopping around the square before the music begins. Admission to the event is free. For more information, visit mainstreetmurfreesboro.org and find Main Street Events.

JUNE 4 HANDMADE MARKET Quinn’s Mercantile’s (301 N. Spring St.) outdoor Handmade Marketplace has returned on Saturday, June 4, from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Stop by for a diverse collection of gifts, home goods, fashion, men’s, women’s, baby and pet items. For more information, visit quinnsmercantile.com.

JUNE 4 CULTURE FEST Come out to a family-friendly indoor event with over 40 vendors, entertainment, games, raffles, giveaways, a DJ, food trucks, a photo booth and caricature artists at the Lane Agri-Park Community Center (315 John Rice Blvd.) on Saturday, June 4, from noon–8 p.m. For more information, find The Culture Fest of Murfreesboro event on Facebook.

JUNE 4–5 SECRET GARDEN TOUR The Secret Garden Tour on Saturday and Sunday, June 4–5, is an inspiring collection of hidden gardens throughout the city, benefiting Discovery Center. Featured gardens include those of Margaret and CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 Jim Smith, Mardi Hull and the Master Gardener at Lane Agri-Park. For tickets and information on the featured gardens, visit explorethedc.org/events/sgt2022.

Sit for a story time and then explore the village by completing an “I Spy” activity at Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.) on Tuesday, June 7, from 10–11 a.m. Meet at the Visitor Center. There is no cost. For more information, call 615-801-2606 or email mbnevills@murfreesborotn.gov.

a television director and producer and now discipling men inside CCA-Harding Road prison in Nashville. Peterson has discovered what happens when one person intentionally shares their life and faith, no matter where they are. Tevin is the discipleship director at Men of Valor, which is committed to winning men in prison to Jesus. Ben Nolan is headmaster at Redeemer Christian Academy.

He has a unique perspective on what it means to Live Sent. He’ll share his God story. A complimentary lunch is provided

by Mat Koenig and Rock Star Designs.

Reservations can be made by emailing bob.williams@alhambrapartners.com.

JUNE 7

JUNE 9

STONES RIVER VFW ANNIVERSARY DINNER

OLD-FASHIONED TOYS: PLAY TIME AT CANNONSBURGH VILLAGE

JUNE 7 STORY TIME AND I SPY AT CANNONSBURGH VILLAGE

Help celebrate 365 days of the Stones River VFW Post 12206 on Tuesday, June 7, at 6 p.m. at Carriage Lane Inn (337 E. Burton St.). Please dress nicely. For tickets and more information, visit stonesrivervfw.org.

JUNE 8 LIVING SENT MURFREESBORO MEETING Living Sent Ministries presents its June 2022 Murfreesboro meeting on Wednesday, June 8, from 11:45 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Experience (521 Old Salem Rd.). Tevin Peterson has seen it all, from his time at MTSU to his career as

Enjoy a time of free-play with no batteries required for your toys on Thursday, June 9, at Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.) from 10–11 a.m. Old-fashioned toys are available under the shade trees in the village. Bring a friend or two and meet at the Visitor Center. Ages 12 and under are welcome. There is no cost. For more information, call 615-801-2606 or email mbnevills@murfreesborotn.gov.

JUNE 11 NIRVANA'S POP UP SHOP Vendors and food trucks are needed for the Small Business Pop-up Shop at Nir-

JUNE 11 MEMORIAL BUTTERFLY RELEASE Alive, Middle Tennessee’s only nonprofit hospice, hosts its annual Memorial Butterfly Release on Saturday, June 11, at Alive Hospice in Murfreesboro (1629 Williams Dr.), and Saturday, June 18, at Green Door Gourmet (7007 River Rd. Pk., Nashville). Remember loved ones with a live butterfly release, symbolizing our lasting love and the renewal of the seasons. The day will also include beautiful photo opps and refreshments as the community comes together to heal. All funds raised support services including grief counseling, community education and financial aid. For more information, visit alivehospice.org/butterfly. vana Bar & Lounge (1432 Memorial Blvd.) for Saturday, June 11, from noon–4 p.m.

Enjoy food trucks, clothing, cosmetics, natural products, home decor, beauty, accessories, gifts, fashion, decor, aromatherapy, food, beverage, wellness, infused treats, and crafts. Interested vendors can send business details to nirvanabarandlounge@ yahoo.com. Remember to bring business cards. Setup time is at 12:30 p.m. and breakdown is at 5:15 p.m. Reservations to set up at the popup shop can be made at Eventbrite under Nirvana’s Pop Up Shop.

JUNE 11 RED CARPET SELF STORAGE FAMILY FUNDAY

JUNE 4 SIMPLY SMYRNA CELEBRATION This Carpe Artista event is a celebration of the arts and a kickoff to summer. The Depot District (101 Front St., Smyrna) will be pedestrian-only for a perfect evening to celebrate the arts in the community with great music, food, cultural experiences and creativity on Saturday, June 4, from 6–10 p.m. The event takes place rain or shine. Admission to the event is free. For more information, call 615-984-4038 or visit carpeartista.com/simply-smyrna.

 Send community event information to CONTACT@BOROPULSE.COM

Enjoy a splashin’ firetruck, free snow cones, a foam machine and a fun food truck at Family Funday at Red Carpet Self Storage (124 John R. Rice Blvd.) on Saturday, June 11, from noon–4 p.m. Bring your bathing suit and a towel. For more information, find Red Carpet Self Storage of Murfreesboro on Facebook, email murfreesboro@redcarpetselfstorage.com or call 615-809-2311.

JUNE 11

(115 Floyd Mayfield Dr., La Vergne) from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. This event gives children of all ages an opportunity to explore different kinds of vehicles and equipment and to meet the people who operate them.

Vehicles on display include emergency, construction, military and public service.

The City provides free hot dogs, chips and bottled waters (while supplies last) in honor of its 50th anniversary. For more information, visit lavergnetn.gov.

JUNE 11 QUILT BLOCK WORKSHOP AT SAM DAVIS HOME Anne Marcellis instructs students on how to make a quilt block with sewing machines at the Historic Sam Davis Home (1399 Sam Davis Rd.) on Saturday, June 11, at 10 a.m. Participants need their own sewing machine for this workshop. A supply list is sent when the ticket is purchased, and tickets are required in advance. Admission is $40. For more information, call 615459-2341 or visit samdavishome.org and find Adult Workshops.

JUNE 11

TOUCH-A-TRUCK

GREEN THUMB PRODUCE CRAFT FAIR

The City of La Vergne is excited to announce the first Touch-A-Truck on Saturday, June 11, at Veteran’s Memorial Park

Shop at over 60 vendors offering jewelry, candles, bath bombs, woodwork, embroiCONTINUED ON PAGE 8 BOROPULSE.COM

* JUNE 2022 * 7

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JUNE 18

dery and food trucks at Green Thumb Produce (527 Rucker Rd.) on Saturday, June 11, from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. For vendor applications, email cagleb@comcast.net. For more information, find the Green Thumb Produce Craft Fair event on Facebook.

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION Wrap up the Juneteenth Celebration at Bradley Academy Museum (415 S. Academy St.) on Saturday, June 18, from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. with an outdoor festival featuring a Kids’ Zone, free games and activities, food vendors, artists, live reenactments, live music and dancing. All ages are welcome and there is no cost. For more information, find the Freedom Day event on Facebook.

JUNE 13 AND 27 NASP MURFREESBORO NETWORKING EVENT The Nashville Association of Sales Professionals hosts its Murfreesboro networking event the second and fourth Monday of each month (June 13 and 27) in the Burger Bar Restaurant in The Doubletree by Hilton (1850 Old Fort Pkwy.) with networking starting at 11 a.m. and the meeting at 11:30 a.m. NASP is a professional nonprofit organization that provides a positive forum for skill enhancement training and networking for career sales people. Learn how to become a more polished and successful sales professional by improving your presentation and enhancing your people skills. Everyone from new sales professionals to seasoned road warriors are invited to attend. For more information, visit nashville-nasp.org.

JUNE 14 STORY TIME AND COLORING AT CANNONSBURGH VILLAGE Sit for a story time and then spend some time under the shade trees coloring pictures of Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.) on Tuesday, June 14, from 10–11 a.m. All ages are welcome, and there is no cost. For more information, email mbnevills@murfreesborotn.gov or call 615-801-2606.

JUNE 14 RUTHERFORD CABLE Join Rutherford Cable’s June Breakfast Meeting at the Doubletree Murfreesboro (1850 Old Fort Pkwy.) on Tuesday, June 14, from 7:15–9 a.m. Awards will be presented to honor individuals and organizations that have positively impacted Rutherford Cable by giving of their time, energy and resources. A virtual option is also available. Members and guests are welcome. Admission for the in-person meeting is free for pre-paid members, $20 for members and $25 for guests, and the virtual meeting is $5 for members and $10 for guests. Remember to bring plenty of business cards and grab a card from the basket on the way out. For more information, email yourrutherfordcable@gmail.com.

JUNE 16 LOCAL BUSINESS CONNECTION AT CHAMPY’S 8 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

JUNE 19 FATHER’S DAY CLASSIC CAR MEET

JUNE 16

Got a classic car? Bring it out to show off, or show up to see the classic cars at the annual Car Meet on Father’s Day on Sunday, June 19, from 2–6 p.m. at Mayday Brewery (521 Old Salem Rd.). For more information, find the Father’s Day Classic Car Meet event on Facebook.

SPLASH OUT!

JUNE 21

Join the many happy children under the spray from the Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue Department on Thursdays, June 16 and July 7 and 21, from 1:30–3 p.m.

Wear clothes and shoes to get wet in, and don’t forget your sunscreen and towel.

Vigilant adult supervision is required. Ages 12 and under are welcome, and there is no cost. June 16’s event is at Richard Siegel Neighborhood Park (515 Cherry Ln.), with the July 7 Splash Out at Barfield Crescent Park (697 Veterans Pkwy.) and July 21 at Old Fort Park (1025 Old Fort Pkwy.). For more information, call 615-893-7439 (ext. 6129) or email shicks@murfreesborotn.gov.

Champy’s World Famous Fried Chicken will host the June 2022 installment of The Connection: An Evening of Professional Networking and Business Brainstorming from 5–7 p.m. on Thursday, June 16. All Middle Tennessee entrepreneurs and professionals are welcome to attend this casual, free, no-obligation event, where they can meet other small business owners and tap into one another’s experience and energy. Champy’s is located at 1290 NW Broad St.

JUNE 17 EXPERIENCE WORSHIP NIGHT Experience Community Church will host Worship Night on the Square—A Thousand Hallelujahs on Friday, June 17, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. All churches, denominations and backgrounds are welcome to join in worship, communion and strategic prayer to lift up the name of Jesus Christ.

This year’s event is in partnership with Feed America First with the goal of raising money to deliver 1 million meals to those in need. For more information contact Experience Community at 615-707-0384 or email info@experiencecc.com.

JUNE 18 TOWN OF SMYRNA BOAT DAY Join the Town of Smyrna on Saturday, June 18, from 9 a.m.–1 p.m., at Jefferson Springs Recreation Area (7660 Jefferson Pk., Smyrna). Free kayak and canoe rides are provided for all ages, along with a personal flotation devices for safety. Giveaways include boats, gift cards and more.

Admission to the event is free. For more information, email mike.kraft@townofsmyrna. org or visit townofsmyrna.org.

JUNE 18 ALOHA HANAI, A LEI’D BACK LUAU “Hanai” means to nourish, and in this community, that means nobody gets left behind or forgotten, according to Nourish Food Bank. Nourish Food Bank exists to feed families and fuel hope, providing compassionate services and collaborative partnerships that create a network of care. Come out for the annual luau celebration, a night filled with music, food, drinks and fun from 6:30–8:30 p.m. (746 E. Main St.). This event is 21 and up. For more information, visit nourishfoodbanks.org or find the Aloha Hanai, a Lei’d Back Luau event on Facebook.

STORY TIME AND SCAVENGER HUNT Sit for a story time and then explore by completing a scavenger hunt at Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.) on Tuesday, June 21, from 10–11 a.m. The hunt takes you to each of the buildings and around the village in search of answers to the questions. Grab a friend and see if you can find all the hidden gems in the collection. Meet at the Visitor Center. All ages are welcome.

For more information, email mbnevills@ murfreesborotn.gov or call 615-801-2606.

JUNE 23 FAMILY LAWN GAMES Bring your family and friends to play yard games under the shade trees of Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.) on Thursday, June 23, from 10–11 a.m. Play corn hole, checkers, giant Connect Four, stilts, yard dice, ringer darts, washer toss and giant dominoes. There is no cost. Reservations can be made by calling 615-801-2606 or emailing mbnevills@murfreesborotn.gov.

JUNE 25 BORO BEARDS AND BREWS Enjoy live music by IV & The Strange Band, No Loves, Dylan Walshe, Hellfire Revival, Night Talkers and Dirty Poors alongside a beard competition, food trucks, vendors, raffles, free giveaways, outdoor games and fun for the whole family at Panther Creek Brewery (714 W. Main St.) on Saturday, June 25. All ages are welcome.

For more information, find Panther Creek Brews on social media.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

 Send community event information to CONTACT@BOROPULSE.COM

MONDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

STORYTIME AT THE TEC

BLACKSMITHING DEMONSTRATIONS

The Technology Engagement Center offers a weekly story time at the Technology Engagement Center (TEC) (306 Minerva Dr.) each Monday. Come by from 4–4:30 p.m. to enjoy storybooks and to learn about nature, art, technology, science, space, time travel, and everything hiding beneath the ocean. For more information, visit rclstn. org/calendar or call 615-893-4131.

The Rutherford County Blacksmith Association demonstrates its members’ talents every Wednesday in June from 9 a.m.–noon at Cannonsburgh Village (312 S. Front St.). All ages are welcome.

Admission to the event is free. For more information, call 615-801-2606 or email mbnevills@murfreesborotn.gov.

MONDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

CONNECT MURFREESBORO

BORO 2 SQUARE RUNNING GROUP

Join Connect Murfreesboro each Monday from 9–10 a.m. at BoomBozz Craft Pizza & Taphouse (2839 Medical Center Pkwy.) for a casual networking event to connect professionals, drive referrals and help grow businesses. Prepare a 60-second pitch about who you are and what you do, as well as a specific referral request for attendees on what can be done to help promote your business. The approximately 20 minutes at the end of each meeting is reserved for members to set up one-on-ones and socialize. For more information or directions, visit connectnashvillenetworking.com/events.

TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS BUSY BEES CLASS FOR KIDS Patterson Park Community Center (521 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) offers a children’s class (ages 3–5) where they play physically active games and the instructor plays music and engages with them. Join the Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays in June in the Exercise Studio from noon– 12:45 p.m. The cost is $3 or a facility pass.

For more information, email chill@murfreesborotn.gov or call 615-893-7439.

TUESDAYS & FRIDAYS RUTHERFORD COUNTY FARMERS’ MARKET Rutherford County Agricultural Extension Cooperation presents a producer-only farmers’ market at the Lane Agri-Park (315 John R. Rice Blvd.). The RCFM is open Friday, May 13, through the last Friday of October from 7 a.m.–noon every Tuesday and Friday. Market vendors sell a wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, meats, eggs, baked and canned goods, flowers, plants and more. “Come & Go” informative sessions are open to the general public from 9–11 a.m. in the lobby. Master Gardeners are available from 9 a.m.–noon in the demonstration garden for questions and tours. For more, visit rutherford.tennessee.edu/farmers-market, call 615-8987710 or email hlambert@utk.edu.

The Boro 2 Square running group meets at Mayday Brewery (521 Old Salem Rd.) every Wednesday at 6 p.m. The group welcomes runners of all paces looking to get out and run and socialize with other runners. Normal run distances are between 3 and 5 miles. Participants are welcome to hang out and socialize at Mayday following the run. For more information, visit facebook.com/boro2square.

WEDNESDAYS WILD THINGS AT WILDERNESS STATION Let the smaller among us get in touch with their wild side at the Wilderness Station (401 Volunteer Rd.) on Wednesdays in June from 9:30–10:30 a.m. and 10:45–11:45 a.m. Sing songs, read a story, complete a craft and take a short walk. Focus on a different nature theme each week. Pre-registration is required by calling 615-217-3017 the day before. The cost is $3 per child. For more information, call 615-217-3017 or email outdoormurfreesboro@murfreesborotn.gov.

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Jolly String Quartet From Russia to Puckett’s, Gorsha Jolly shares sibling string band’s music and ministry

BY TYLER LARRABEE

I

f you happen to frequent Puckett’s Grocery on the Murfreesboro Public Square, you may have come across a string quartet playing unique versions of classic songs, top 40 hits, Christmas favorites and bluegrass standards. That would be the The Jolly String Quartet, a mini-tribe of four siblings all adopted from Russia by the same family.

The family came to the U.S. in pairs; first, Gorsha, at only 16 months, and his biological brother, Viktor, who was 2. Being so young, they were able to grow up in their new family in a fairly normal way, including starting violin lessons. Gorsha’s parents started him on violin when he was 4 years old because they knew playing music had learning development benefits and helped build community.

“My parents really encouraged the string instruments,” Gorsha Jolly recently told the Pulse, adding he actually wanted to play the trumpet. “They pushed us towards instruments that fit our individual temperaments.”

A little later, Kristina and Yara joined the family. They were older when they came to the country and faced more difficulty transitioning to their new home, including having to learn English. When they were 7, the girls started music lessons as well, adding cello and more to the mix.

10 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

Their parents definitely assisted in practice, especially since the kids were homeschooled.

“We grew up in Mt. Juliet in a house with like three acres of woods. We were always playing in tree forts or with airsoft guns, and just having adventures with my siblings,” Gorsha said. “But music definitely brought us together and made us operate as a family unit in a different way.”

Bloodline-linked bands aren’t uncommon; in fact, country music is commonly a family affair going all the way back to the Carter Family. An adopted-sibling affair, however, may be a singular rarity.

A recent Puckett’s set involved all man-

ner of stringed instruments, mainly violins, viola and cello, but also mandolin, distorted electric guitar and acoustic guitar. The Jollys, clearly proficient on their instruments, journeyed from straight, fast-and-furious bluegrass, to Toy Story’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” to Chuck Berry-type rock ’n’ roll and “Proud to Be an American.”

And if you’ve ever seen The Jolly String Quartet, or visited the group’s website, you know they keep God at the center of what they do.

“We unite under God because just focusing on music will ultimately fail. You have to submit your will to God, and when everyone does this, it puts us all on the same page,”

Gorsha said. “It reduces bickering and helps each player understand their roles.”

The Jollys will soon release a new album comprised of hymns. The band’s latest release before that—almost five years ago now—was a Christmas record.

“Some of my main influences are John Mayer, Mumford & Sons . . . Brent Mason, Brad Paisley,” he continued. He says the band has been picking up a lot more of that old country sound recently but is still influenced by mainstream acts such as Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Cory Wong and Avi Kaplan.

“When I listen to mainstream music, I listen to it from a producer’s perspective. I enjoy the mix or the sound of that particular snare drum over the message or celebrity artist,” Gorsha noted.

Over the course of the pandemic, the band moved into a house about an hour east of Nashville. In fact, the Jolly crew built the house themselves, a process you can watch unfold in their personality-filled house-building vlogs on YouTube. When designing the house, Gorsha knew he wanted a studio space. As a producer, having a home studio where his other siblings live and work together has opened a lot of doors for music and fellowship.

They produced their upcoming hymnal cover record together; “The masters just got back and I’m working on the cover art. It’s exciting to put our stamp on something again.”

Moving forward, Gorsha hopes the band will get to create more original music and explore more possibilities in storytelling.

“I want to be able to share our message and redemption story through our music and not just while we are talking in between songs,” Gorsha said. The band has a lot coming up, including some festivals and a new album coming out in June. The band had already gotten to play venues such as the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, and the Ryman, but Gorsha says that doesn’t matter as much as the change they’ve made in the lives of their fans.

“Those things lose their luster at some point. But when you talk to people that have been inspired to adopt a child because they heard our story, and then they bring their kid to the next show . . . it’s amazing.”

Be sure to look out for their new album coming out this June and check the Murfreesboro Puckett’s Grocery concert schedule for Jolly String Quartet performance dates. Find more on the band at thejollystringquartet.com.

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boropulse.com/category/music but the summer vibes and the upbeat rhythms should still be in full swing.

Lester specifically points out that rhythm event participants shouldn’t feel like they must be experienced or talented at drumming.

“It really is not at all about musical experience or talent or anything like that,” Lester said. “What’s fun about these kinds of community rhythm events is that people who have played drums a lot can really get in there and do their groove and jam, but people who are not as acquainted with it can just kind of tap along to the beat.”

The Everybody Drum Some events feature some of the widest age ranges of any musical ensemble; participants at the all-ages Murfreesboro events may very well be aged 2 or 80.

Lester said he really enjoys “introducing people to this wonderful vehicle of recreational music making” as a way of bringing the community together to communicate through music.

While Lester has plenty of rhythmic ideas prior to each community drumming session, each occurrence takes on a unique life and character of its own.

“What’s amazing is that from the beginning of the evening to the end of the evening is the whole group really grows together in their ability to communicate musically,” Lester said. “Sometimes folks come to these events not quite knowing what to expect,” Lester said. “They may think to themselves, ‘Everyone playing drums all at once?

How can that work?’ Then they are surprised and delighted to find that when all of the participants get on the beat together, we can make some truly amazing music!”

MUSIC NOTES DRUM ONE, DRUM ALL: EVERYBODY DRUM SOME HOSTS ANNUAL COMMUNITY RHYTHM EVENT AT OLD FORT PARK JUNE 22 EVERYBODY DRUM SOME will host its annual summer Community Rhythm Event at Old Fort Park on Wednesday, June 22. Everybody Drum Some leader Ross Lester has made it a tradition to invite the entire Rutherford County community to join forces and make music together to celebrate the coming of summer.

“Come on out, everybody drum some and enjoy the night,” Lester said.

He and his drum disciples have presented a Murfreesboro Community Rhythm Event each June over the past years in conjunction with the summer solstice—the longest day of the year—and Make Music Day. The June 22 event this year may be the day after the summer solstice and the official observation of Make Music Day,

The 2022 Everybody Drum Some Summer Community Rhythm Event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, at Old Fort Park in Murfreesboro between the playground and outdoor tennis courts. There is no cost to participate. Participants can bring drums, shakers, tambourines, wood blocks or percussive instruments of any type, or use one from the extensive Everybody Drum Some collection.

SIMPLY SMYRNA CELEBRATION HITS THE SMYRNA STREET JUNE 4 WITH COMMUNITY CONCERT SIMPLY SMYRNA KICKS OFF AT 6 P.M. ON SATURDAY, June 4, in the Smyrna Depot District.

Front Street will be pedestrian only for the evening celebrating the arts in the community. This kick-off to summer is packed with music on multiple stages, food and other vendors and cultural experiences.

Performers at the 2022 Simply Smyrna festival include Pontiac Alley, Chad Bruneau, the Jason Lee McKinney Band, Mark Thomas, Israel Naor, Elecoustic Soul, Alayna Renae, Clare Cunningham, Jaysen Gold, Turner Hamilton, Travis Ryan and Carpe Artista Students.

This Carpe Artista event is free to attend.

For more information on Simply Smyrna and other Carpe Artista lessons and projects, visit carpeartista.com/simply-smyrna.

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12 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

BROTHERS COMATOSE BRINGS BLUEGRASS, ROCKIN’ COVER TUNE TAKES, TALENTED TOMFOOLERY TO HOP SPRINGS IN JUNE OH, BROTHER! Hopefully there’s not a hole in your pocket where all your money goes. But even if there is, that will probably still fly with five-piece string band The Brothers Comatose.

With their raucous renderings of bluegrass, country and rock ’n’ roll, brothers Ben (guitar, vocals) and Alex Morrison (banjo, vocals), along with Steve Height (bass), Philip Brezina (violin) and Greg Fleischut (mandolin)—the complete Americana string set—are anything but a traditional acoustic outfit.

Brothers Comatose has even toured China, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as cultural ambassadors for nearly a decade with American Music Abroad, which is run by the U.S. State Department.

June finds the sleeper sensations sliding in a bit closer to home, with a Hop Springs stop planned for June 26.

“Good people . . . we are super-excited to announce that we are hopping into the Bro-Co bandwagon and coming atcha in June!” they declared.

The bro-co video “Working for Somebody Else” (the classic “I quit,” “Take This Job and Shove It” sentiment with a few twists) is a new favorite getting play on television network DittyTV. The song empties out alongside “Hole in My Pocket” as another on the tracklist of the much-anticipated new studio album When It All Falls Apart, scheduled for release soon.

Fans can hear other tracks-to-come “Soft and Blue,” “Too Many Places,” and harmonic trucker ode “Gone Gone Gone” on the band’s YouTube channel.

It seems naming their new tour also took a cue or two from truckers: when settling on where to take a load off, the frolicking, fun-loving fivesome dubbed these go-rounds the Eastbound and Up Tour.

The Brothers Comatose play Hop Springs Beer Park on Sunday, June 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. This is an indoor event. Hop Springs Beer Park is located at 6790 John Bragg Hwy. in Murfreesboro. Find tickets on Eventbrite.

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“In my time, you could not get an education in the music industry like you can in this area of Nashville, Murfreesboro . . . it’s unique.

I think it’s wonderful that this is available to the people who want to try this.”

boropulse.com/category/music

You Rascal,You

Legendary musician Felix Cavaliere: music education at schools like MTSU is a winning recipe for success

PHOTO BY LEON VOLSKIS

BY STEVE MORLEY WHO IS FELIX CAVALIERE? Depending on whom you’re asking, the question is either entirely legitimate or ridiculously unnecessary.

Any serious student or first-person observer of pop music made during the 1960s should readily know the answer: Cavaliere is an American musician, vocalist, songwriter and producer who co-founded Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Rascals. Initially billed as The Young Rascals, the quartet chalked up nine Top 20 singles—among them the evergreen chart-toppers “Good Lovin’,” “Groovin'” and “People Got to Be Free.” With Cavaliere’s still-vital musical contributions deservedly bearing the collective name of The Rascals, and his later work being overshadowed by his band’s looming ’60s legacy, a younger generation might understandably shrug at the mention of his name.

Cavaliere, a Middle Tennessee resident since 1989, has in fact made himself available to some among the younger generation, freely offering encouragement and wisdom gained from his decades in music.

Closer to home, he’s also a donor to Middle Tennessee State University, thanks to his longtime association with Ken Paulson, dean emeritus of MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment. Paulson, now director of the Free Speech Center at MTSU, presented Cavaliere with the Free Speech in Music Award in a presentation at MTSU’s 14 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

Tucker Theatre earlier this year.

“Felix Cavaliere has always been on our short list to receive this award,” Paulson told the Pulse via email. He has used his free speech in music to inspire and entertain, and has supported causes he believes in for more than five decades. The gear he has donated [to MTSU] shows up all over our college, and has benefited countless students seeking hands-on opportunities.”

In conversation with Cavaliere for this two-part Pulse feature, the respected musician expressed admiration for the music business courses offered at MTSU and nearby Belmont University. “In my time, you could not get an education in the music industry like you can in this area of Nashville, Murfreesboro . . . it’s unique,” Cavaliere said.

“I think it’s wonderful that this is available to the people who want to try this.”

Asked whether he thought today’s digital music-making technology-in-a-box is too convenient a substitute for a formal education or hours-long slogs in smoke-filled nightclubs, Cavaliere offered a generous, teacherly response. “If you want to study art,” he begins, “is it a good idea to go get some kind of an art education, so you know all the fundamentals of all the different media; for example, acrylic, or watercolor, oil? Or is it better just to go out and do a painting, sell a million copies of it? I always feel that the classical road, which is education and learning, is the best way,” said the

Felix with Micky Dolenz of the Monkees

musician, whose parents provided him with a comprehensive classical piano education.

“And in terms of the music business,” he continued, “when you go into the music world prepared for whatever—take for example, you’re a recording artist. So you have a hit record, and then you don’t have any more hit records. Okay. What if you have the ability or the talent to do arranging and producing? Now you can go make a whole new living, without having to worry about having a hit record.

“So I’m all for education,” Cavaliere concludes. “Yeah, it’s easy to make a song on a computer, you know. Just like it’s easy to spell. Like with spellcheck, you just write it down and [it’ll] fix it for you. But do you know how to spell? No, you don’t!”

Ironically, while performing in early 20th-century schoolboy garb and recording as The Young Rascals, the pseudo-

adolescent band was one of the most musically precocious to penetrate the then-erupting mid-’60s “beat group” scene. Cavaliere largely attributes the band’s early maturity to education—his own formal music and theory studies as well as his and his fellow Rascals’ intensive gigging experience in a variety of settings prior to joining forces in 1965.

Cavaliere confesses that not even extensive training and performing prepared him for his first stint overseas, playing organ for Joey Dee and the Starliters, who had scored big in the early ’60s with “The Peppermint Twist,” a No. 1 song that spawned a dance craze. Wide-eyed at seeing the sights across the Big Pond, as the musician recalled, “People would say to me ‘you’re gonna have to close your mouth’—because, I mean, I was like, ‘wow! Wow!’ Wow!’ I mean, first of all, come on, I’m going to Europe. We’re on those trains all the time. I’d read about this stuff, you know, and now I’m there.”

It was on that 1963 European tour that the Starliters played a well-attended concert in Stockholm, Sweden. The hitmaking American band had drawn a crowd, but so had the opening act, an English foursome that had risen to the cusp of widespread fame in England and beyond.

“They were not known in the United States yet. That was soon to happen, I believe in ’64,” he said. “When they took the stage in this club . . . the place went bonkers. I mean, just bananas. I’d never seen anything like that, and certainly I had never been in a room with anything like that.”

And that, ladies and gents, is the story of the night headlining attraction Joey Dee and the Starliters’ audience was warmed up—or, more accurately, brought to a rolling boil—by The Beatles.

Next month, in the conclusion to this two-part feature, read about Felix Cavaliere’s introduction to The Beatles, his career during and after The Rascals, his spiritual journey and more. And speaking of more, the unabridged version of part one can be viewed at boropulse.com.

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CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West HANK’S Delyn Christian; Lefty Ferguson HOP SPRINGS Backlit JACK’S PLACE AT MILANO II Tony Castellanos MAYDAY BREWERY Jackson Harrison MURFREESBORO PUBLIC SQUARE The Pilots PUCKETT’S Herrick SEASONS Past II Present (Toto Tribute) THE BORO BAR & GRILL Intent City; Like Daggers

SAT, 6/4 SAT

CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West DOWNTOWN SMYRNA Simply Smyrna with Pontiac Alley, Chad Bruneau, Jason Lee McKinney Band, Mark Thomas, Israel Naor, Elecoustic Soul, Alayna Renae, Clare Cunningham, Jaysen Gold, Turner Hamilton, Travis Ryan and Carpe Artista Students HANK’S American Pie; Phil Valdez PANTHER CREEK BREWS Inebriated Shakespeare PUCKETT’S Troy Kemp SEASONS World Turning (Fleetwood Mac Tribute) THE BORO BAR & GRILL Wüden Boi; Thunderfrog; The Dangerous Method

THE PUBLIC HOUSE Jacob Dillard; Kaleah Wooten

SUN, 6/5

HANK’S Crosstown HOP SPRINGS Americana Sunday Jam

MON, 6/6 HANK’S Open Mic Night

TUES, 6/7 HANK’S Jesse Morgan

WED, 6/8 HANK’S Robyn Taylor

THURS, 6/9

HANDLEBAR Blues Jam HANK’S Cary & Sherrie Watson THE PUBLIC HOUSE Jackson Buckner

FRI, 6/10

CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West HANK’S Taylor Hughes; Jack Finley Band JACK’S PLACE AT MILANO II Tony Castellanos MAYDAY BREWERY Andrew White PUCKETT’S The Deltaz

SAT, 6/11

BERT DRIVER’S BURLAP ROOM The Upper Cumberland All-Stars (Tom Petty tribute) CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West GALLAGHER UNPLUGGED The Fats Kaplin Gang HANK’S Kyle Elliott; Doc Flannel HOTSHOTZ BAR & GRILL Stoopid Kool & The Kiss My Brass Horns PANTHER CREEK BREWS Micah Armani and 100% Juice

16 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

LIVE MUSIC IN THE ’BORO!

PUCKETT’S Larysa THE PUBLIC HOUSE Sarah Somebody

SUN, 6/12

HANK’S The O’Donnells HOP SPRINGS Americana Sunday Jam

Smokin Peas PANTHER CREEK BREWS Music City Comedy PUCKETT’S Jordan Rainer THE PUBLIC HOUSE Tom Davison

SUN, 6/19

 ONLINE AT

BOROPULSE.COM/CALENDAR No Loves; Night Talkers; Dylan Walshe; Dirty Poors THE PUBLIC HOUSE Tony Clare HANK’S Luke Ledbetter; Whiskey Smoke

SUN, 6/26

HANK’S Open Mic Night

HANK’S Emily Miller HOP SPRINGS Americana Sunday Jam

HANK’S Jesse Black HOP SPRINGS The Brothers Comatose; Americana Sunday Jam

TUES, 6/14

MON, 6/20

MON, 6/27

WED, 6/15

TUES, 6/21

MON, 6/13

HANK’S Sir Anthony

HANK’S Will King THE PUBLIC HOUSE Erin Riley

THURS, 6/16 HANDLEBAR Blues Jam HANK’S Wes Loper

FRI, 6/17

CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West GALLAGHER UNPLUGGED The Mark Anthony Ensemble HANK’S Sara Simmons; The Jeff Caron Band JACK’S PLACE AT MILANO II Tony Castellanos MAYDAY BREWERY TopHouse MURFREESBORO PUBLIC SQUARE Experience Worship Night PUCKETT’S Aberdeen THE PUBLIC HOUSE Magic with Jason Michaels

SAT, 6/18

BUDDY’S PLACE AT CEDAR SPRINGS RANCH Jessica Andrews; Dave Pahanish; Paul Sikes CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West HANK’S The Hammonds; Cooter River Band HOP SPRINGS

HANK’S Open Mic Night HANK’S Wester

WED, 6/22

HANK’S Phil Valdez THE PUBLIC HOUSE Andrew and Jacqueline

THURS, 6/23 HANDLEBAR Blues Jam HANK’S Joe Hooper

FRI, 6/24

CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West GALLAGHER UNPLUGGED The Secret Commonwealth HANK’S Luke Vijay; Justin Dukes JACK’S PLACE AT MILANO II Tony Castellanos MAYDAY BREWERY Tony Hartman PUCKETT’S Tennessee Stills

SAT, 6/25

CARMEN’S TAQUERIA Joe West GALLAGHER UNPLUGGED Herrick HOP SPRINGS Twilight Train (A Neil Diamond tribute) PUCKETT’S Runaway Home PANTHER CREEK BREWS IV and The Strange Band; Hellfire Revival;

HANK’S Open Mic Night RIDENOUR REHEARSAL STUDIOS Jimmy Bowen & Friends with Keith Anderson; Darin & Brooke Aldridge; John Berry

If You Go BUDDY’S PLACE AT CEDAR SPRINGS RANCH 9638 Rocky Hill Rd., Lascassas, 615-719-3674 BURLAP ROOM 175 Hurricane Ridge Rd., Smithville, 615-597-9560 CARMEN’S TAQUERIA 206 W. Northfield Blvd.

615-848-9003 GALLAGHER UNPLUGGED 118 N. Walnut St. 615-624-4196 HANDLEBAR 2601 E. Main St. 615-890-5661

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HANK’S HONKY TONK 2341 Memorial Blvd.

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WED, 6/29

HOP SPRINGS 6670 John Bragg Hwy. 615-450-1907

HANK’S Delyn Christian

HANK’S Kyle Mercer RIDENOUR REHEARSAL STUDIOS Jimmy Bowen & Friends with Radney Foster; Steve Dorff; JD Shelburne THE PUBLIC HOUSE Jacob Dillard; Kaleah Wooten

THURS, 6/30

HANDLEBAR Blues Jam HANK’S Kristen Budde The Public House RIDENOUR REHEARSAL STUDIOS Jimmy Bowen & Friends with The Nashvillains; Jo-El Sonnier; Ty Herndon; THE PUBLIC HOUSE Andrew and Jacqueline

FRI, 7/1

HANK’S Delyn Christian; The Wentzel Brothers

SAT, 7/2 HANK’S Alexis Taylor; Phil Valdez

HOTSHOTZ 1208 S. Lowry St., Smyrna 629-255-8296 JACK’S PLACE 114 E. College St. 615-624-7390 MAYDAY BREWERY 521 Old Salen Rd. 615-603-7699 PANTHER CREEK BREWS 714 W. Main St. 615-203-5089 PUCKETT’S GROCERY 114 N. Church St. 629-201-6916 RIDENOUR REHEARSAL STUDIOS 1203 Park Ave. 615-956-7413 SEASONS OF MURFREESBORO 2227 Old Fort Pkwy.

615-895-5471 THE BORO BAR & GRILL 1211 Greenland Dr. 615-895-4800 THE PUBLIC HOUSE

215 N. Church St. 615-482-0543

 View the Concert Calendar online at BOROPULSE.COM/CALENDAR

Reviews

COLLEGETOWN

Love Like Stains on Shirts 2021 Demos

As MTSU’s latest batch of musicians reinvigorates Murfreesboro’s local production and house show scene, their live show lineups, somewhat segregated by genre between ’Boro venues The Laundry Room and Crossroads Punk House (cXr), will intermingle to create full lineups at venues elsewhere in the area, such as the KUC theater on campus or DRKMTTR in Nashville. Consequently, these mingles are forming an area artist collective between the niche punk/hardcore acts and the indie-pop bangers, whether they like it or not. Deep within this revamped, local and entropic scene resurgence is a neat little indie quintet called Juliet’s Apartment.

They’ll play with local glitch-punk trio Circuit Circuit from time to time. Juliet’s Apartment guitarist/co-lyricist Parker Milley, meanwhile, decided to go rogue for an even more independent project.

Milley has released an EP, Love Like Stains on Shirts – 2021 Demos, as well as other tracks, under the project name Collegetown, combining early Modest Mouse’s Northwest cellar disposition with an emphasis on Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s vocal stylings and Violent Femmes’ in-studio looseness of signature string-bangs and clunk; all recorded with Liam Lynch’s indiegarage production finesse.

This compilation of demo recordings was teased by a pair of singles released a few days prior to the EP, with “Bigfoot Warlock (Wanna Be Wizard),” released Dec. 10, 2021 as an improvised-sounding handheld garage-rock recording of a few buddies

ALBUM at the crib, high as hell and having a ball, while the more lyric-centered “A Lament (In a Sense)” was released Dec. 11; this one made it onto the EP. The collection kicks off with a loose, Violent Femmes-style acoustic clunker, “Universe 1: Parker 0,” delving into Collegetown’s “green-ness,” noticeable in the recycling of a verse from “A Lament (In a Sense)” for the first track’s introductory chorus. Lyrics for “Universe 1: Parker 0,” murmurs about humility encountered while navigating early adulthood, while The Lonesome Crowded West-era Modest Mouse-influenced “A Lament (In a Sense)” covers the fog of being stoned, thwarting plans with his girl and then not being able to pen the lyrically motivating guilt. It’s a solid shared line.

The droning “Rest Stop No. 35” stands as the album’s most “Modest,” as the lyrics ramble random thoughts.

The pop/skate punker “French Cinema” takes off like an anticipated drive to Cali, with even more alliterative wordplay apathetically advancing authoritative and astute advice about auteurs. The bridge gets choppy.

“Gen Z Indie Rock Anthem” taps into the Violent Femmes’ musicality, too, combining a Gordon Gano-like layering of several guitar tracks with enough effects to fuzzmuddle a lyric that, seemingly, tackles the butterflies and initial jealousies of crush love. Consistent melodic picking is the only thing that keeps “Gen Z . . .” together.

Ultimately, “Tony Hawk Flies South for the Winter” is the Collegetown EP’s masterpiece, utilizing the beautiful simplicity and discipline of a slow-strummed acoustic guitar, bowed cello and light tambourine, accompanying the most self-aware lyric yet—about the steps in life that most people took—while slyly morphing into a low-fi punker that could date back to Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks-period Mouse.

Collegetown’s Love Like Stains on Shirts – 2021 Demos is available at iheart.com, collegetown.bandcamp.com and amazon. com. Parker Milley wrote and performed all tracks solo at home. Further Collegetown and Juliet’s Apartment updates can be found on Instagram @parker.milley. “Bigfoot Warlock (Wanna Be Wizard)” is not on Love Like Stains on Shirts, but is currently available for purchase on Collegetown’s Bandcamp site for $420 (when free-streaming online just doesn’t do the trick).

— BRYCE HARMON

A CLASSIC

OUTSTANDING

MOVIE

TOP GUN: MAVERICK DIRECTOR Joseph Kosinski STARRING Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller RATED PG-13

Pardon the portmanteau, but the “legacyquel” Top Gun: Maverick has no business being as good as it is. The first film’s success made sense. Directed with kinetic vision by Tony Scott, Top Gun (1986) made Cruise a bona fide star as the Luke Skywalker fighter pilot of not-so-longago in a galaxy, well, here. It was a Cold War smash, and the Pentagon-sponsored hit saw Navy recruitment increase by 500 percent. Jump ahead 36 years and America is war-weary, and fighter pilots are quickly becoming relics of the past, but one thing that hasn’t changed is how exciting they still are on the big screen.

As the title suggests, Cruise is back as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a flyboy with jet fuel in his veins who refuses to rise up the ranks if it means taking him out of the cockpit and putting him behind a desk. When Maverick is called upon to return to Fighter Weapons School, a.k.a.

Top Gun, to prepare the 12 best Navy pilots for an impossible mission that is akin to a real-life version of the Death Star gauntlet, past issues resurface.

One of those issues involves Miles Teller’s character “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s wingman from the first film, Goose.

While the film never takes this dynamic AVERAGE

in any unexpected directions, it mines the tension and emotion between the two for all it’s worth. Likewise, there is a rekindled love interest. Not Kelly McGillis from the original, but a welcome Jennifer Connelly, the proprietor of a local pilot bar who had history with Maverick somewhere in the interim between the two films. Lastly, Val Kilmer returns, in what capacity his throat cancer allows, as Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in an emotional if brief reunion.

The film also tackles the theme of aging and obsolescence, a topic that feels ironic for Tom Cruise to convey so convincingly, seeing as how he’s managed to avoid both.

Nearly everything else about Top Gun: Maverick is a familiar throwback to the original, from the iconic theme music and “Highway to the Danger Zone” playing over the opening credits (opening credits themselves being a nod to a bygone era), to the topless beach sports montage; from the clichéd-in-all-the-right-ways plot, to the rip-roaring fighter jet sequences filmed, actually filmed, using real jets, real people, and real speed. If there is any green screen or CGI in this film (and no doubt there is) it is used to an absolute minimum.

And that’s kind of the main reason, maybe the only reason, to see Top Gun: Maverick. That the film works on multiple levels is a mere bonus on top of the takeyour-breath-away skyjinx (sorry, another portmanteau). Director Joseph Kosinski, the writers, Cruise, and the rest of the crew went above and beyond to make an emotional and exciting movie that for better or worse makes it feel like little has changed since the ’80s.

— JAY SPIGHT

BELOW AVERAGE

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

BOROPULSE.COM

* JUNE 2022 * 17

Living

 TRAVEL

The

Winding Stairs Hike down Tennessee creek like a staircase at Lafayette Park STORY BY BRACKEN MAYO PHOTOS BY SARAH MAYO

C

ontinuing to explore the natural beauty of the great state of Tennessee leads a group of hikers to Winding Stairs Park, in the town of Lafayette, about 60 miles north of Murfreesboro (and about 10 miles south of the Kentucky line).

This area, one of the Lafayette City Parks, offers enough hiking trail to take up a good chunk of a day, with the inclusion of an atypical waterfall.

Many waterfalls have a singular point where a river or creek plunges straight down into a pool.

Winding Stairs Park contains a water feature that takes a little more of a diagonal journey. The creek flows in a fashion that, with care, a walker can travel down (or up) as the creek slowly descends in elevation, one rock at a time.

Walking down these rocks, feeling the shallow water run by your feet as the creek curves around a bend, will give a visitor a perfect explanation of the feature’s name: It is winding around a curve. The rocks make a natural staircase and the water is gently falling downhill. It’s a cool spot to be.

This point is not incredibly far from the parking area. A paved, handicap- and stroller-accessible trail leads from the parking lot to an overlook where visitors can look down upon the creek and ravine below. From here, a trail descends down to the creek.

This visit could make a quick stop for those who just want to observe the Winding Stairs creek feature, but a walk along the Cascades Trail offers an additional hike that provides an impressive, expansive view of the ravine and surrounding hills continuing south for miles.

Many of the trees and plants have been marked with identifying signs, a plus for those wanting to gain some nature knowledge.

18 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

The loop also contains a section known as Jacob’s Ladder—as its name suggests, it’s a fairly steep part of the trail where using the hands to ascend will prove to be helpful.

The popular Jacob’s Ladder feature offers a particularly challenging route for hikers looking for that higher degree of difficulty. It climbs up the hillside to rejoin the Cascades Trail. Or hikers can opt to take the Cascades Trail in and back to avoid the more difficult Jacob’s Ladder passage.

Aside from this trail loop—the Cascades Trail and Jacob’s Ladder combine for exactly one mile of distance—the Red Oak trail, whose trailhead sits nearby the loop trailhead at the same parking area, presents another half-mile of hiking along the east side of the creek and leads to another trail, the 1.7-mile Milk Pail Loop.

In addition to these approximately three miles of total hiking opportunities and the stream, Winding Stairs Park also contains a catch-and-release fishing lake, picnic pavilions and an indoor event space for rent.

Consider this park and its unique waterfall for a Tennessee day trip. Work up some heat on the trails and then cool down in the creek, as its water flows into Goose Creek and then down to the Cumberland.

Find the park entrance on Nature Trail Way, Lafayette, off of Highway 52 about a mile west of downtown Lafayette. (Be sure to go to this park entrance; some report that certain online maps lead to a different point off of Highway 10, which can indeed lead into the park, but through private property without a designated public parking area.)

For more information on Winding Stairs Park, or to make a pavilion or event center reservation, call Lafayette City Hall at 615-666-2194.

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BY ASHLEIGH NEWNES causes the predator to drop its guard long enough for the opossum to find an opportunity to escape.

Opossums can get a bad rap, partly due to their rat-like features, but among the facts many people don’t know: – They eat an average of 5,000 ticks per season!

– They are not aggressive, though their hissing is an attempt to look vicious for self-protection – They rarely carry rabies – They eat almost anything, such as snails, slugs, spiders, cockroaches, rats, mice and snakes – They do not prey on cats or other mammals but will attack if cornered and scared.

Do remember that it is illegal to keep an opossum as a pet in Tennessee. Even if they are injured and in need of help, they should be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation facility. Once healthy, they can be released back into the wild.

If you are seeing more opossums around your property than you’d like to see, check entrances to garages and outbuildings, under porches, etc. They will be lured by pet food left outside, open compost piles, backyard chicken flocks (they do love the eggs), spillage from bird feeders and good water sources. They aren’t trying to move in but are opportunists who will take full advantage of any food, water and shelter sources you might, even unknowingly, be providing.

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Country’s only marsupial always looking for food and shelter, mothers keep tiny babies in pouches RECENTLY, I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH to see my first ever baby opossum. I was immediately shocked by how tiny it was.

Looking at its tiny face, I knew immediately what I would write about for this month’s Nature News: Opossums!

Although the baby I got the chance to see was much smaller than I expected, I did some research and learned that opossums are actually born the size of honey bees! Once born, they crawl into their mother’s pouch—opossums are North America’s only marsupial—where they stay for much of their early development.

Though they have up to 20 babies per litter, fewer than half of them make it as far as the pouch. The ones that do make it remain attached to the nipple inside the pouch for 55 days, by which time they are about the size of a house mouse. At this stage they will begin to explore outside of the pouch and enjoy riding on their mom’s back while she hunts for food. When the young are 100 days old they become weaned, leave their mother, and begin their solitary life. They grow to about the size of a large house cat.

One of my favorite things about opossums is their life-saving trick commonly known as “playing possum.” This refers to their incredible defense tactic in dangerous situations. When a predator attacks, the opossum will flop onto its side and lie on the ground with its eyes closed or staring ahead to appear to be dead. This

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Living

 Cara Countryman with Mission 22

JUNE IS PTSD AWARENESS MONTH.

PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, affects about 7 percent of people in the United States. Among the population, military veterans are most likely to suffer from PTSD. “Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that develops in response to experiencing or witnessing a distressing event involving the threat of death or extreme bodily harm,” according to Psychology Today.

The Murfreesboro Pulse spoke with Kristen Luchene, Psy.D, who is part of the PTSD clinical team with the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, which provides care to veterans.

“As providers, when we see someone who has experienced or may be dealing with PTSD, we first look at what is causing the post-traumatic stress symptoms,” Luchene said. “When it comes to trauma, a large portion of the U.S. population will experience at least one trauma in their lifetime.

However, not everyone ends up developing a diagnosis of PTSD. Some people can recover after experiencing the trauma, while others may not necessarily, and we don’t have a lot of explanation in research for why that is.

However, we know there is a significantly higher proportion of PTSD diagnosed in the veteran population and for folks that have experienced any kind of sexual trauma.”

The potential trauma could include experiences that happen to someone directly, an incident that they saw happen to someone else as it was happening, or even just learning about something that happened to a family member or close friend.

“Trauma can happen when someone witnesses an unnatural or violent death such as homicides, suicides or car accidents. Or it could be a part of a person’s job where they are repeatedly exposed to these adverse details, such as child protective services, social workers being routinely exposed to abuse cases, police officers arriving to murder crime scenes repeatedly. Things like that,” Luchene said. “We see there is a higher prevalence of trauma among our veteran population, due to that social combat.”

Luchene said her PTSD team looks at how symptoms or post-traumatic reactions revolve around that trauma.

“It can range a lot among people who are civilians, who are any kind of front-line healthcare worker or first responder, and veterans. It can really vary in terms of how they experience PTSD,” she said. As clinicians, we take a lot of steps to assess how these reactions may be revolved around that trauma 20 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

PTSD AWARENESS Seven percent of U.S. population may struggle with PTSD; illness affects veterans and trauma victims from all walks of life

BY LAURA LINDSAY that seems to be coming up in their dreams a lot. Their mind is having these memories about the trauma, but they are not intentionally trying to think about that trauma. Some people may feel as if their body is reacting to reminders in their day-to-day life.”

These reminders could be in the patient’s mind or in their environment, or they could be holding on to some blame, whether that’s toward themselves or someone else who was linked to the trauma.

“There’s a lot of factors that we take into account, because it can range broadly,” Luchene said.

Luchene says understanding of PTSD has really changed over the decades since World War I. According to Psychology Today, the colloquially named condition “shell shock” was first thought to affect only soldiers, but PTSD was officially recognized as a mental health disorder in 1980.

“The understanding of PTSD has been constantly changing and forming into what it is today,” Luchene said. “For quite a few years, we as a healthcare field in mental health believed that medications used to be the first line of recommended treatment. But we have come to realize there is research saying that therapy is the top-

recommended treatment for PTSD.” The top three therapies that seem to be consistently effective are: cognitive processing therapy (CPT)—or challenging your way of thinking about yourself or the world; prolonged exposure—or challenging yourself not to rely on avoidance as a way to continue coping; and, a third therapy that is also gaining popularity in the private sector—eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

“EMDR takes a very unique approach where you are doing eye movements or what we call bilateral simulations,” Luchene said.

“This is a different approach to trying to process that memory. It is not hypnosis. The person is fully awake, present and aware. We have seen some pretty significant benefits from EMDR on our population.”

Additionally, activities like music therapy, equine therapy and recreational therapy can help with PTSD recovery.

“We’re talking about finding a way of healing through the mind and body,” Luchene said.

Ross Lester, who coordinates community drum circles for the local Everybody Drum Some series, says he is not an authority about PTSD specifically but adds that “just in general, drumming and recreational music-

making can be a great help to people who are enduring all kinds of difficulties.” His group has worked with numerous local veterans.

Jay Fine, the owner and operator of Hypnosis for Health, is a veteran himself.

“I’m mostly retired, and just want to get as many people aware of PTSD as possible, particularly in our local community because we have a large number of veterans here,” Fine said. “For PTSD, traditional medications aren’t doing all the work they should be doing or can do.

“We see healing as a matter of changing your mind, and I can guide them through the process, and they leave knowing what steps to take.”

The group Mission 22 also aims to be a resource for veterans struggling with PTSD. “Mission 22 was founded by veterans and most of our staff are veterans, spouses of veterans, or have immediate family who have served in the U.S. military,” said Cara Countryman, Central Florida State Leader for Mission 22. “What we do is we provide extensive personalized support to help veterans and their families thrive. Our programs are for veterans and their spouses. We offer everything from biometric monitoring of stress, sleep and activity levels to coaching and some meditation.

We provide exercise programs and wellness support, a regiment for supplements and materials that veterans can read and learn from, to help them take the issues that they have and turn them into a positive mindset.

Many vets who have PTSD and brain injuries may carry with them different things they remember from their military service that can trigger post-traumatic episodes.

“We take all these things into account with a holistic approach to wellness and put their experiences into context,” Countryman said. Then they turn that into a positive outcome through wellness—as well as a mind, body and spirit kind of thing.”

Mission 22 operates nationwide. For more information on or assistance with PTSD, for veterans and civilians, visit mission22. com. The Department of Veterans Affairs has information on PTSD at ptsd.gov.

For more information about Hypnosis for Health for life coaching and hypnosis services, call 615-900-0284 or visit hypnosis-for-health.com. To find out more about the Everybody Drum Some group, visit everybodydrumsome.com. For general information about PTSD, psychology today.com is a good resource.

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Local Master Gardeners are here to help area gardeners improve skills IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TO

Gardener, tells the Pulse that this year “the Demonstration Gardens will be featured the Master Gardeners Demonstration on the Discovery Center’s annual Secret Garden at the Lane Agri-Park on John Rice Garden Tour on June 4th and 5th.”

Boulevard, it is well worth your time to walk Tickets to this event, which showcases through it. You can visit it anytime, and enother gardens throughout the county, are joy its lushness and ideas for your garden. available at the Discovery Center or at You could find a Master Gardener in it explorethedc.org/events/sgt2022. during the Farmers Market mornings on Master Gardeners share a love of gardenTuesdays and Fridays through the fall.

Nancy Nelson is an established ing, sharing information, studyRutherford County Master ing techniques and plants, sharing knowledge and Gardener. The “gardens volunteering. I received started in 2010 with a butterfly garden, my five-year Master Gardeners pin at then herb garden the last pre-COVID added, then a class Award Banquet. I project with veggie will personally tell garden,” Nelson anyone that it is a said. “The purpose great group and does of garden is as a demonstration and help contribute to gardening success. teaching garden for the “I have enjoyed being a community. The DemMaster Gardener with RCMG onstration Gardens won so much. Great people and the Search for Excellence Rainwater holding tank I learn something new award in 2014 for demo located at downspouts every time I’m with them. gardens across the state.” at the pavilion.

What a great adventure in That award is deterlearning,” Sherry Mosier said. mined by UT Extension Master Gardeners.

My class added the rain barrels. The shed within the garden area is named for Applications for the Master Gardener one of my classmates, who was always asclass usually open in October. sisting with the builds and the projects.

Follow Master Gardeners of Rutherford Reggie Reeves, another longtime Master County, TN on Facebook.

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 MOVIE

One More Dream Murfreesboro filmmaker Ricky Burchell releases new film, more projects on the horizon

ONE MORE DREAM DIRECTOR

Ricky Burchell STARRING

David Rand, Emma Duchesneau, Sam Brooks, Omar Gooding

BY BAILEY FINN

RATED PG-13

LOCAL INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER Ricky Burchell released his feature film One More Dream in May. After living in New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia, Burchell moved to Murfreesboro in 1996 to attend MTSU. He has called Murfreesboro home ever since.

Burchell graduated with a degree in science, but the recording industry is what initially drew him to the university.

Also a songwriter, Burchell wrote most of the songs on One More Dream.

Creating films had long been a dream that felt out of reach for Burchell, while music came naturally to him, he told the Pulse.

“I started doing music videos, and that was my first step in combining what I did and what I wanted to do: filmmaking,” says Burchell. “After that, I started doing commercials, live events, short films and documentaries until I worked my way up to making films.”

Burchell wrote One More Dream to be an inspiring coming-of-age story with a multiracial cast, and it blossomed into a work that tackles a variety of controversial elements including racism, sexuality, drug use and domestic violence.

“People are going to be able to look at this in so many different ways, and people of all ages, races, and backgrounds will be 24 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

able to relate to something in the film,” says Burchell’s colleague, Brenda Bailey.

Bailey and Burchell met on-set for another film project in 2018 and have worked together ever since.

“The thing I love most about working with Ricky is that he encourages young people who want to get in the industry to follow that desire, and he’s willing to give anyone a chance,” Bailey says.

Burchell took this film as an opportunity to explore heavy subjects in a lighthearted and casual way that was enjoyable and easy to watch.

“I didn’t want to push the dialogue too much; I wanted to make sure it was subtle, because that is the reality of racism today,” Burchell says.

Filming for One More Dream started shortly after COVID hit, so there were many adjustments that had to be made in response to the virus. Big group and party scenes had to be rewritten, and some had to be

completely cut.

Despite many challenges with the virus, casting, and budgeting, Burchell never slowed production.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is to just go for it,” says Burchell. “COVID was going on, we didn’t have all of the cast a week before filming, our budget didn’t come through, but we just kept going for it and it always worked out.”

Burchell did what he had to do to see the film through and, in May 2022, One More Dream played at Premiere 6 in Murfreesboro and the Malco in Smyrna.

The filmmaker doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon; he has multiple films in the works set to be released over the summer.

Find more on One More Dream and Ricky Burchell at b4entertainment.com.

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Art

Meagan Armes Art

 EXHIBIT

The Life of Sarah Perkins by Rance Perkins

Collaborative Visual Storytelling Exhibit Shows Work from Local Artists Through July 8 A COLLABORATIVE ART EXHIBITION OF LOCAL ARTISTS, entitled “Told and Untold Stories Through Visual Storytelling,” will remain on display through July 8 at the Washington Theatre Gallery at Patterson Park Community Center.

Curated by Dr. Barbara and Leroy Hodges, this juried exhibition of work from local and regional artists gives something of meaning to the audience through inspiring, engaging and edifying works of art. Through visual, written, or social-media storytelling, these artists aim to talk with, and not at, the audience, to interact and offer their perspective for untold stories, conversations from history, societal concerns and environmental issues.

Artists include Lenda Wade, Mary Wade, Mary R. Watkins, Carolyn Sneed Lester, Rance Perkins, Rosie Perkins, Beverly Dillard, Sylvia Buggs, Barbara Hodges and Leroy Hodges. Gallery hours are Monday–Friday, 2–4 p.m. For more information, call Leslie Wright at 615-893-7439, ext.

6130. Patterson Park Community Center is located at 521 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Turning Back A Moment in History by Mary R. Watkins

William “Daddy Gray” Mcknight

by Mary Wade

26 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

Boro Art Crawl Returns to Downtown Murfreesboro June 16 THE BORO ART CRAWL RETURNS to the Murfreesboro Public Square and nearby areas on Thursday, June 16.

Founded in 2015 by a group of local artists eager to help foster the artistic community across Murfreesboro, the Boro Art Crawl continues to unite local artists with local businesses to showcase some of the best visual arts that Murfreesboro offers, said Eric Snyder, current Art Crawl committee president.

This iteration of the Crawl offers some additional programming opportunities for the public and participating artists beyond the original event’s focus on visual artists, business venues, music and poetry. For example, CrawlTalks, a Q&A event featuring clay artist Timothy Weber and painter Justyna Kostkowska, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, June 2, at M&J Home at 124 N. College St. This free wine and cheese celebration is open to the public and features two outstanding artists demonstrating and discussing their artistic and philosophical processes. Also, on June 2, at 7:30 p.m, the Abbey Murfreesboro (215 N. Church St.) will feature the smooth jazz of trumpet player Eric Weathersby. This CrawlTunes event is also free to the public.

Then, on Thursday, June 16, in collaboration with Main Street Murfreesboro and downtown’s Sip, Shop and Stroll, The Boro Art Crawl returns at 5 p.m. Centered around and near the historic courthouse square, The Crawl hosts a group of artists including Cora Green, Meagan Armes, Ryan Frizzell and Kay Currie at 16 locations including The Abbey Public House, Burger Scott & McFarlin, The Center for the Arts, Church Street Gallery, Domenico’s Italian Deli, FunTiques, Jensen Quality Homes, KDGi Solutions, L & L Contractors, M&J Home, Music City Tea, Nurture Nook Day Spa and Gift Shoppe, Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant, Veda’s Flowers and Gifts, Vibe Nutrition and The Walnut House. Additional Boro Art Crawls will follow on Sept. 16 and Nov. 4.

In order to bring the event back to the public, the new Boro Art Crawl has partnered with several community entities, including Main Street Murfreesboro, the MTSU Department of Art and Design, Legacy Ink Design, Rutherford Arts Alliance, Church Street Gallery and M&J Home.

For more information on the Boro Art Crawl, call Eric Snyder at 615-542-6368 or visit theboroartcrawl.com.

SMYRNA DEPOT FARMERS MARKET RECIPE OF THE MONTH:

Orzo Pasta Salad SERVINGS: 6 • TOTAL TIME: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

PHOTO BY BUSYCREATINGMEMORIES.COM

3 Cups Broccoli Florets (chopped) 1 Cup Orzo Pasta 1 Cup Sweet Peppers (seeded and chopped) 1 Medium-Large Cucumber (chopped) 1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes (halved) 1 Cup Finely Red Onion (chopped) 1 (16-oz. can) Cannellini Beans 1 Cup Italian Dressing Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning and Garlic Powder (to taste)

DIRECTIONS: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the broccoli. Allow it to boil for two minutes.

Scoop the florets out and place them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain them and set them aside.

Prepare orzo according to package directions.

Drain the orzo and put in a large bowl.

Add the broccoli, sweet peppers,

cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, cannellini beans and seasonings. Toss before adding the dressing.

Pour the dressing over the top and toss until well combined.

You can serve the salad chilled or at room temperature. Enjoy!

NOTES: Substitute chickpeas for the cannellini beans and add any vegetables or dressing you like.

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Food T The Fish House  RESTAURANT

Murfreesboro restaurant fries many types of fish; come in for half-pound fish sandwich, peach tea or a bingo night

STORY BY BRACKEN MAYO

28 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

PHOTOS BY SARAH MAYO

here’s a lot going on at the Fish House, located at the corner of Middle Tennessee Boulevard and Bradyville Pike in what used to be the Kroger shopping center.

In addition to all sorts of fried foods— many different types of fish, chicken, pickles, shrimp, okra, fries and more—the restaurant serves a rotation of different food items each week on Sundays.

Mondays and Thursdays are bingo nights, beginning at 6 p.m.

And Tuesday, the Fish House hosts poker at 7 p.m.

The restaurant now has a full bar; check in periodically for all sorts of various drink specials at the Fish House. It offers bottomless mimosas for $14.99 on Sundays.

The Fish House hosts corn hole outside on occasion.

Kids eat free on Mondays from 2–8 p.m.

And the business now has a food truck, which will be hitting the streets soon.

In addition to the many menu items available every day, including half-pound fish sandwiches for $7.95, on Wednesday nights only the restaurant offers grilled and blackened fish and shrimp.

To accompany your fish, try some spicy cabbage and sweet peach tea.

“I had fried catfish with mac and cheese and spicy cabbage,” Caycee Blaise reported after a recent meal. “It was delicious, fresh and seasoned really well. I liked the vibe inside the restaurant and the fruit tea was out of this world!”

The environment is part greasy spoon/ Southern cafeteria, part sports lounge and dive bar.

“The catfish is awesome, [but this time] I decided to try the fried pork chop and was not disappointed. The spicy cabbage and potato salad are my absolute favorite,” Brittany Marie Todd said.

The establishment serves chicken under the Kick’n Chick’n brand, a separate identity from The Fish House—complete with a separate logo featuring a chicken sporting an afro and performing karate. Restaurant owner Jojo Herbert plans to franchise both restaurant concepts over the near future.

“Two brands will be extending from the Fish House in two to three years,” Herbert said.

Spice up your fish or chicken in various ways at the Fish House.

“We have 20 sauces and rubs,” Herbert said. Get your wings, fish fillets or pork chop tossed in hot sauce, Cajun ranch, Asian zing, BBQ and other flavors.

The Dish RESTAURANT The Fish House LOCATION 1626 Middle Tennessee Blvd.

PHONE 615-410-7688 HOURS 11 a.m.–11 p.m. every day PRICES Whiting or tilapia sandwich: $7.95; Catfish nugget basket with fries: $9.95; Half-pound burger: $8.95; Two fried pork chops with two sides: $13.95; 10 wings: $13.95; Salmon or grouper plate with two sides: $20.95 ONLINE fishhousemurfreesboro.com There’s a little spice in the hot honey gold. Herbert suggests trying wings tossed in this sauce and dusted in lemon pepper.

Near the Coca Cola fountain are three large beverage containers filled with KoolAid—former tea dispensers now labeled simply “purple,” “red” and “blue.”

Blue Kool-Aid, fried whiting, cabbage and beans make a wonderful lunch.

Also in the drink section, the Fish House offers a really, really good peach tea—free refills available on the tea and Kool-Aid as well as fountain sodas.

Sherrie Blakemore recommends the pork chop plate at Fish House.

And the burger is quite tasty, with kind of a meatloaf flavor going on, like some good spices and sauces were mixed into the beef before cooking.

Herbert aims for the restaurant to provide a “soulful sports bar experience,” he said.

The Fish House got its origins selling fish sandwiches to the hungry people of Murfreesboro on Bridge Avenue.

Gwen, who was an owner of the original location and still works at the new location, said her sister in-law moved the Fish House from its Bridge Avenue space to a bigger space, its current home on Middle Tennessee Boulevard.

Herbert later purchased the business in 2020.

The Fish House is a whole new place now—different owner, different concept, broader menu, full bar.

But it still offers those legendary large fried fish sandwiches. In addition to the original fried fish offerings of whiting,

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tilapia, new white and catfish, now find red snapper, perch, grouper and salmon as well. (Though some of these are higherend fish fillets; a half-pound red snapper, grouper or salmon sandwich goes for $17.95, compared to $9.95 for catfish or red fish, and $7.95 for new white, tilapia, perch or whiting.)

Although it currently shares a strip mall with a now-closed late-night hookah lounge that gained notoriety for a few shootings, a CSL plasma donation center and an abandoned Kroger, it’s still a step up from the former Fish House location, a place for local folks of various walks of life to come for a big fish sandwich, a drink, a game of bingo or plate of wings.

“The spaghetti, the honey gold wings and the catfish were the best!” Brittni Pitts said. “The seasonings were on point and the wings are big and juicy!”

At times the fried items are not the crispiest; some customers say the fried fish can be a little greasy or soggy.

But Scott Stockdale said he found the

catfish “crispy and flaky. We’ll order from here again.”

And plenty of other local diners agree.

“The catfish was fried perfectly,” Donna Valencino said. “It was about a 30-minute wait, but it was well worth it.”

Sean Chambers said the Fish House has made its way onto his regular local restaurant rotation.

“Holy cow this place is good! Catfish is thick and flavorful. The home-style potatoes are just outstanding, as is the okra,” Chambers said.

Others have had some issues with the place’s cleanliness, service and wait time, but plenty of Fish House fans will continue enjoying its fish sandwiches, wings, Kool-Aid, pork chops, drinks, and poker and bingo nights. It may not be the first dining choice for everyone, but if fried fish or wings in a sports-bar atmosphere sounds like your thing, give it a try.

“One of the best places Murfreesboro has to offer for soul food and fried fish,” Demond Slater said.

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AROUND TOWN

’BORO BUSINESS BUZZ

Wild Birds Unlimited, Big Bobby’s BBQ, Sunset Amphitheater, Marco’s Pizza, The Abbey Public House, Overkill Auto Garage

management, and construction administration services. Through a collaborative and holistic approach, every project is uniquely tailored to meet our client’s desired end-results.”

The new Murfreesboro Transit Center will serve as a local passenger transfer station and regional hub for commuters outside of city limits. The City of Murfreesboro’s public transportation operations will be located in the Administrative and Operations building, while the 5.43-acre site along Highway 231, which provides easy access to Highway 96, Highway 99 and Interstate 24, will consist of a passenger transfer pavilion with 12 canopy-covered bus berths and a bus maintenance building.

For more information, visit kdgi.solutions.

BY DELORES ELLIOTT WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED will open a new franchise at The Avenue at 2615 Medical Center Pkwy. This will be the brand’s fifth location in Tennessee, alongside its locations in Chattanooga, Franklin, Hixson and Nashville. Wild Birds Unlimited currently has more than 350 locations across North America and has been awarded first place in Franchise Update Media’s category for most innovative supply chain improvement.

Wild Birds Unlimited is advertised as a neighborhood resource, and the business’ website provides many resourceful links, including information on bird-feeding basics and solutions, activities, a bird-themed podcast and information on identifying bird types.

Some of the products offered in store include bird feeders, bird seed and bird baths.

The Murfreesboro store, owned by Jeff and Joann Royer, is expected to open in July. For more information, visit wbu.com.

BIG BOBBY’S BBQ is in the process of renovating and rebranding and will partner with HEROES DEN to provide a better experience and solution for the restaurant. It will still serve Big Bobby’s BBQ. Heroes Den is veteran-owned and is dedicated to offering a memorable experience to its customers.

“We want a place where adults can be adults. Great service and great food is our model and passion.”

Big Bobby’s explained in a recent Facebook page that the remodel is expected to be finished in June, and will offer some new meals as well as the old favorites and live music on weekends. For more information, visit facebook.com/bigbobbysbbq.

The building at 215 N. Church St. recently rebranded to THE ABBEY, which encompasses the restaurant space downstairs, The Abbey Public House, and The Abbey Collaborative Space upstairs. The restaurant (formerly known as Tasty Table) has changed its menu, brought on Austin Cagle as a business owner, added beer, and now hosts music.

It serves shepherd’s pie, beer-battered 30 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

JEREMIAH’S ITALIAN ICE recently announced plans for a soft opening at its new Murfreesboro location on June 7. The Murfreesboro franchise will be located at 3242 Memorial Blvd. For details, visit jeremiahsice.com/locations/murfreesboro-tn. mahi mahi, and sandwiches including a blackberry-bacon grilled cheese, seared salmon, and roast beef with caramelized onion.

The restaurant hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, and 2-10 p.m. Saturday.

The Abbey is home to a regional ministry training center that utilizes the training methodology of Veritas College, which works with small group leaders, lay leaders and pastors to better understand the beauty and truth of the Word of God. With recent changes, The Abbey Collaborative offers a physical space where members can work or unwind, as well as have a snack or lunch. The collaboration space is available to members from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Monday through Friday unless otherwise booked, and provides basic office resources including internet, printing services, video conferencing, complimentary coffee, refrigerator space and couches.

For more information on membership plans, the mission of the Abbey, the Public House restaurant and scheduled events, visit abbeymurfreesboro.org.

The new shopping center at 3266 Memorial Blvd., across from Aldi and beside Dunkin’ Donuts, will host five new business spaces

including a Marco’s Pizza, Gateway Urgent Care and another UPS Store.

THE ALLEY ON MAIN will take over the kitchen at 211 W. Main St., formerly THE EMPANADA SONATA. The Alley will continue operating its primary restaurant just down Main Street but will use the additional kitchen for catering and its food trucks.

The Alley will also provide food for Murfreesboro Axe, which shares the 211 W. Main St. building with the kitchen and bar.

The Empanada Sonata is taking a muchneeded vacation and will be experimenting with a new plan of action over the next three months, according to a statement from Empanada Sonata owner Marlyse Moran.

KINGDOM DEVELOPMENT GROUP INC. SOLUTIONS recently renovated the building at 102 S. Maple St., near Domenico’s Italian Deli, to work on the coming new Murfreesboro Transit Center in addition to other planned architectural and design projects.

“KDGi is proactive and skilled to keep pace with the rapid changes in technological, cultural, and socioeconomic trends, and address the need for sustainable and resilient design.

We are a collective of innovative professionals offering planning, conceptual design, project

OVERKILL AUTO GARAGE recently opened at its new location at 1509 Monte Hale Dr. in Murfreesboro. Overkill offers custom lighting, audio, body work, wheels, installation services and a lifetime warranty on their provided services. They offer rock lights, wheel lights, under-glow and interior lighting options. Overkill also offers other parts for Camaros, Corvettes, a handful of other muscle cars, and other vehicles.

“Overkill Auto Garage is different from every other automotive parts company. We were founded by a group of friends obsessed with cars that had a common dream. Our number one goal is to get more customized cars on the road. If you can dream it, we can build it.”

For more information on products, visit overkillautogarage.com.

WARRIOR WINE & SPIRITS recently celebrated its grand opening at 1433 Warrior Dr. The new business offers a variety of alcoholic beverages including wine, beer, hard seltzer including Bang Mixx hard seltzer, local brews, Chattanooga Whiskey, boxed wine and other spirits. The business is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit facebook.com/warrior-winespirits, or call 615-962-8789.

MAN OF WAR CREATIVE STUDIOS has opened at 105 N. Maple St., and shares the lower level of its building with local jewelry maker Ash from Nash, whose jewelry is handcrafted and hypoallergenic. Man of War is a one-stop shop dedicated to commercial art mediums, and offers creative services including branding and identity design, graphic design and illustration, website design, custom merch and apparel, book and album cover design, marketing strategies and more.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

Colorado-based NOTES LIVE and Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland recently unveiled plans to bring a 4,500-seat stateof-the-art open-air amphitheater to Murfreesboro, to be located in the Murfreesboro Gateway area on Medical Center Parkway.

Organizers plan to call the new multi-million-dollar amphitheater The Sunset Music Colosseum on the River, and will offer room for touring music acts. The Sunset Amphitheater will offer amenities including 32 firepit suites alongside stadium-style seating and casual lawn seating.

“We are excited to announce another high-quality entertainment venture to our city featuring live music in both indoor and outdoor settings,” said McFarland. “Providing final agreements are approved by Council, the amphitheater will be a publicprivate partnership adding a significant amenity to the area.”

The proposed $40 million entertainment and dining project also includes a Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse & Tavern, known as an upscale casual dining restaurant.

Local residents have expressed their concerns with the new amphitheater, most of which involve fears that traffic will worsen and that the country feel of green space and fields in Murfreesboro will diminish, given the amount of construction projects already in progress in the rapidly growing city. However, some are excited to see such a change and view it as a positive, and have noted that the city could use some more large-scale entertainment options. For more information, visit murfreesborotn.gov.

LIBERTY’S STATION recently launched its partnership with Nash Family Creamery.

This partnership pairs two organizations that share a desire to transform lives and work together to create and promote communities of strength, hope and resilience.

This partnership represents a step forward in supporting local farmers and the agriculture industry, with farms that cover about ten million acres. Around 97 percent of farms are family-owned, which means that farmers work to feed the world. Nearly 86 percent of all United States agricultural products are produced on a family farm.

Liberty’s Station is a food truck and coffee cafe that employs and trains adults with disabilities and employment barriers.

Their vision is a world where everyone’s God-given ability, dignity, and worth are recognized and celebrated.

NASH FAMILY CREAMERY will offer customers the opportunity to donate to Liberty’s Station’s cheese fund by purchasing their cheese, and will use these donations to supply Liberty’s Station with blocks of cheese that will be used for making signature grilled cheese sandwiches.

The partnership was made possible

by Stephanie Nash, who aims to support Liberty’s Station’s mission to better the lives of others. Nash is a fourth-generation dairy farmer located in Chapel Hill, where her family has operated its business since 2014. Prior to the family’s move to Tennessee, their farm started in 1929 in Central California.

For more information on Liberty’s Station, visit libertysstationtn.org.

DALAMAR HOMES recently celebrated its grand opening for the company’s new Magnolia Grove home community located at 3407 Darrell Dr. in Murfreesboro.

Dalamar Homes was founded by Dayla Martin in 2006. It offers affordable home solutions for customers across Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky. Dalamar Homes’ innovative custom-home-building process allows customers to choose from various products and finishes to create their own unique homes.

The homes at Dalamar Homes’ Magnolia Grove community start at $530,000. For more information, visit dalamarhomes.com.

THE LAW OFFICE OF W. SCOTT KIMBERLY, located at 111 N. Maple St., announced that Lauren Bowers has been hired on as an associate attorney. Bowers’ duties at the law office will include assisting the firm in litigation and trial advocacy while also focusing on criminal defense and family law.

Bowers graduated from Belmont University College of Law in 2021. She completed an internship with the Rutherford County District Attorney’s Office, and held the title of vice president of the Criminal Law Society. Bowers spent several years, prior to receiving her law license, working for the Rutherford County Circuit Court Clerk, Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk and HCA Corporate Legal Department.

The Law Office of W. Scott Kimberly PLLC offers services including criminal defense, divorce, child custody, personal injury and more. For more information, call 615890-1099 or visit murfreesborolawyer.com.

THE

“Our mission is to be your sole source for commercial arts, as well as to encourage and partner with local Nashville artists.

As our company grows, we want to feature artwork from more and more local artists who are striving to be in a similar place that we’ve fought so hard to be in. Art is our passion and we want to see it hold its place in the world.”

For more information on Man of War, visit manofwarcreative.com.

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BY BLAINE LITTLE

Glade, hours of operation and what’s on tap, or the lineup of food trucks they rotate from day to day, visit cedargladebrews.com.

appeal of craft beer.

But it need not be Cinco de Mayo or any other special day to visit Cedar Glade Brews. The venue is also available to host events.

To find out more about Cedar

Excellence in Small Batches Entrepreneurs open Cedar Glade Brews MICROBREWERIES may be chic, but they’re no longer only for a high-brow crowd. Among the few microbreweries now in Rutherford County is one affiliated with the MTSU fermentation science program.

Cedar Glade Brews is the latest addition to our growing community of local commercial brewhouses. A couple of years ago, I met a friend of mine and one of Cedar Glade’s owners, Jonathan Harmon, at the 2020 Taste of Rutherford.

He and his friends Jerremy Weaver and Elicia Fortner had a booth and invited me to try some of their product. The trio had started the business shortly before I ran into them, and this was one of their first promotions. Previously, they had met each other at a beer festival, where they discussed their fondness for a good home brew. But a few years later, the Cedar Glade Brews proprietors are now the self-proclaimed “Purveyors of Foamy Goodness.”

And foamy goodness it is!

Located at 906 Ridgely Rd. in Murfreesboro, the brewery is in a modest building which was at one time a Ford body shop. But if you could imagine an Englishstyle pub in America, this would be it. From the cedar décor to the shelf full of board games,

they have created a warm and welcoming family environment.

Though the company is primarily a brewery, the establishment also has plenty of tables and chairs where friends can meet up with one another over drinks.

Weaver is currently the chief Cedar Glade brewer. (In the beginning, Skip Webb was also involved in the process but has since stepped away from the business.) I asked him what makes a brewing operation “micro.”

“Technically, we are a picobrewery. So, we are very small, and make less than a thousand barrels a year,” Weaver said.

But being modest in size doesn’t prevent the brewers from crafting several variations.

“Currently we have 10 beers on tap. We also have four or five small-batch, or specialty brews, that are kegged and ready to tap,” he said.

Harmon added, “Our beers are familiar to what people expect.

Our stout tastes like a lot of other stouts, but it’s just a little bit better, in my opinion. We give a little tweak to the recipe, but it’s true to style. If you like Guinness, you are going to love our stout beer. If you like Budweiser, you are really going to love our lager.” The Cedar Glade brand offers a variety of libations and a wide range of flavor.

At the time of the interview, it was Cinco de Mayo, and the proprietors had just opened a Mexicanstyle beer for the occasion.

Excellence in small batches seems to be their business model.

Though they have no plans for large-scale distribution of cans and bottles, they would like to see a time when they are in some of the higher-end restaurants in Murfreesboro. So, they have a plan for growth while still maintaining their local flavor.

Creating the product is an interesting process. The large fermentation vessels and other equipment, along with the cooler, take up about a third of their space. As the location was a former body shop, each vat is named after a different model of Ford automobile.

It’s not just about the product, it is also about the people.

“The craft beer industry is a family in and of its own,” Weaver said. “There is no shortage of resources waiting to share information and give feedback. We have learned a lot from others.”

They try to remain community-focused but always enjoy making new friends. From time to time, the taproom will have people from other states drop in—travelers seeking out new beverages to try. That starts all sorts of conversations on the BOROPULSE.COM

* MAY 2022 * 33

Blaine Little is founder and CEO of Momentum Seminars Training and Coaching, a veteran owned business, helping companies remain profitable by investing in their people. He coaches the power skills of leadership, team building and communication. Learn more at momentumseminars.com. Find his book Managerial Mistakes, Missteps & Misunderstandings on Amazon.

Opinion Home Schooling: Where Every Waking Moment is a Learning Opportunity OUR FAMILY JUST FINISHED UP OUR cate, verb transitive [Latin educo, educare; e 18th year of home schooling. We still have 10 and duco, to lead.] To bring up, as a child; to more years left on our journey. Throughout instruct; to inform and enlighten the underthe years, I have had the opportunity to meet standing; to instill into the mind principles of many wonderful families and consult with arts, science, morals, religion and behavior. To countless others. educate children well is one of the most imporFor many parents who are contemplating tant duties of parents and guardians.” home schooling, some of the most frequent This definition is an excellent example questions I hear include, of the ideology of home “What does your homeschooling. Authentic home school schedule look like, schooling accomplishes all and how many hours a day the aforementioned with do you do school?” The the parents serving as the

BY TIFFANY BOYD reason for these quesprimary educators of their tions is that the majority children. of people have been conditioned to believe that Unfortunately for many, that responsibility learning only takes place via the public-school is abdicated to strangers in a setting where model. They are conditioned to believe that parents truly have no way of knowing, direct“school” is a set number of days and hours, ing or monitoring what their children are betypically being spent laboring over curriculum, ing taught. Do parents really want strangers textbooks, workbooks and testing. That is a nar- teaching their children morals, beliefs, habits row interpretation of what education should be. and personal development? The public outcry Every waking moment of every day is a against critical race theory and social and learning opportunity. For many, one of the emotional learning says no; however, a large most important aspects of home schooling is to number of parents still send their children completely unlearn everything you were taught to government institutions for the majority about education via institutionalized learnof their formative years. They are trusting a ing. That is one reason I strongly recommend system whose track record is less than stellar de-schooling, not only for the child but for to “educate” their children. the parent as well. Due to the conditioning of Only 24% of 12th graders in public schools government schools, most believe that learning scored at or above proficiency in math, only only occurs within the walls of a classroom.

12% in U.S. history and only 22% in science, Authentic home schooling is a completely difaccording to Our Nation’s Report Card. Comferent culture where learning has no boundaries pare that to home-schooled children. “Homeor time limits. Home schooling is an extension school student achievement test scores are of parenting, which doesn’t put a time limit or exceptionally high. The mean scores for parameters on the acquisition of knowledge. every student (which are at least in the 80th From Webster’s Dictionary 1928: “Edupercentile) are well above those of public

#FREE YOUR

CHILDREN

school students,” a study titled Academic Achievement and Demographic Traits of Homeschool Students said.

The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above publicschool students on standardized academic achievement tests. A 2015 study found black home-school students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above black public-school students. A review of homeschool research found that 78% of peerreviewed studies on academic achievement show home-schooled students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools.

Home-schooled students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income, the National Home Education Research Institute presents in its Research Facts on Homeschooling. Whether home-school parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement. Degree of state control and regulation of home schooling is not related to academic achievement. Homeeducated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.

It is time we stopped defining education by looking to a system that is churning out barely literate young adults.

“The child at school . . . has his initiative subordinated to a schedule which has been worked out according to pragmatic factors other than his creativity and needs. He has to try to become interested in hours of listening to talking. There may be no time for him to talk or to express himself. Worse, the books provided are often weak, watery and insipid,” Susan Schaeffer Macaulay wrote in For the Children’s Sake.

During my years as a public-school kindergarten teacher I tried to prevent the 34 * MAY 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

removal of Saxon Phonics from our county classrooms. We lost the battle and phonics was stripped from the curriculum. That decision was an epic failure, along with the Reading Recovery program that was instituted.

“At one point, Reading Recovery was in every state. But school districts have been dropping the program,” NPR reported.

“Critics of Reading Recovery have long contended that children in the program do not receive enough explicit and systematic instruction in how to decode words.”

This leads us to the scenario we have today. According to a study conducted in April 2015 by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy (literacyinc.com), 32 million adults in the United States can’t read above a fifth-grade level, and 19% of high school graduates can’t read.

Our Nation’s Report Card proves that our current method of educating our children is failing; a more in-depth look at national scores in various categories can be found at: nationsreportcard.gov.

I encourage parents to stop giving credence to a system that produces lessthan-stellar results. Embrace learning as an atmosphere and a lifelong goal. I encourage parents to give authentic home schooling a consideration.

In the words of Christopher Milne, “Young children are eager to learn, and when we send them to your schools, in two years, three years, four years, you have killed their enthusiasm. At 15 their only eagerness is to escape learning anything.”

Parents can foster a love of learning in their own homes with much better results than the government model of education.

You are equipped.

Tiffany Boyd is the founder of Free YOUR Children, a home school advocate, consultant, speaker and the founder of Middle Tennessee Christian Homeschool Connection. She and her husband have home educated for 18 years. She has appeared as a guest on Homeschool Loft podcast, on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast and on The Sentinel Report with Alex Newman. Tiffany will be hosting an upcoming seminar, “Creating an Authentic Homeschool Culture,” for parents that are considering home schooling or for new homeschool parents. To learn more about this event or to host one in your area, contact her at freeyourchildren@gmail.com.

The

Meredith's

Minute

by MEREDITH THOMAS

Dickie Thomas Player and coach stands tall among local top athletes WHEN I HAD THE BRILLIANT IDEA to hijack Mr. Murfreesboro’s Minute this month to draft a little something about my dad in honor of Father’s Day, I certainly had no idea that it would be such a struggle. It’s not like I don’t have a boatload of unique anecdotes, fun historical facts or whimsical little nuggets to share. It’s just that I had no idea how to do that in under 700 words and still accurately reflect my sense of awe and wonder and love and appreciation for the entirety of the life that has been led by such a beloved and revered man.

He always reminds me that “no good deed goes unpunished,” so I guess this week, this one’s mine.

Throughout my life I have always heard from family friends, acquaintances, and an impressive number of strangers that my dad was arguably one of the best athletes ever to come out of Murfreesboro. Growing up in my house, all evidence pointed to that being indisputable fact.

Rarely did you see a day on the calendar that wasn’t filled to the brim with some type of athletic competition, practice, or last-minute pick-up game in the backyard. Competing in organized sports was just something that my brother and I always did. Our summers were filled with swim-team meets, junior golf tournaments and tennis clinics, softball games and Little League baseball. Fall and winter months started on the football field and ended in a basketball gymnasium. My childhood was jam-packed full of organized sports and I loved it.

My dad was the main catalyst for this great love.

He not only instilled in us the basic fundamentals of every sport we played, he really helped us learn valuable life lessons through organized team and individual sports that still guide us to this day.

His athletic accomplishments and accolades came frequently and in abundance while genuine humility remained his default. His skills and talent always demanded the spotlight, but the man himself wants no part of it.

As a quarterback and starting point guard for Murfreesboro Central High School in the ’60s, Dickie Thomas cleaned house with awards and honors as a star high-school athlete—All-State, MVP, Player of the Year awards and 1965 State High School Basketball Champion, just to name a few.

And of course there was that time he was named to the 1964 Nashville Banner’s Banquet of Champions alongside All-American and #1 NFL Draft pick Tucker Frederickson and a little known hall-of-fame SEC football coach by the name of Paul “Bear” Bryant. I mean, come on, now—that’s just cool.

DID YOU KNOW: Prior to the Blackman boys’ basketball team win in 2014, it had been nearly 30 years since a boys’ basketball team from Rutherford County had even played in a state championship final (Oakland, 1984) and 50 years since a team from Rutherford County had won a State Championship final (Murfreesboro Central, 1965). Do you know what those two historic teams have in common? Dickie.

Thomas. He was the starting point guard for Central in ’65 and, as head coach, led Oakland to four state tournament appearances, with a record of 218–61 over 10 seasons.

Tune into WGNS at 100.5 FM or 1450 AM each Sunday at 9 p.m. for The Mr. Murfreesboro Show or on Apple Podcasts. Follow Mr. Murfreesboro on Facebook and Instagram.

BOROPULSE.COM

* MAY 2022 * 35

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WILLIS

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Titans Trade A.J., Select Treylon Burks and QB Malik Willis THE TRAIN DADDY IS BACK with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk.

All aboard!

Let’s start this off by talking about the Titans’ first-round draft pick Treylon Burks, a receiver out of Arkansas. Is it fair that Burks is being compared to A.J. Brown from the get?

Probably not, but that’s reality.

What a roller coaster of emotion for Tennessee fans on draft night. A.J. Brown, in a twist, gets traded to the Eagles and, immediately after, the Titans take the receiver Burks with the 18th pick overall. What makes the pick even more interesting is Treylon was being compared to the likes of A.J. and Deebo Samuel long before draft night. Treylon has all the tools at 6 feet and 2 inches tall, 225 pounds, a physical receiver in a league where yards after catch makes a lot of difference. A.J. Brown excelled in that category.

The media is toxic; between the way they treated Ryan Tannehill this past month to the headlines about Treylon exiting practice early, a lot of the Titans news hasn’t been pretty.

Video of Treylon hitting his inhaler brought up questions about his conditioning. Fact is, Tennessee allergies are no joke for newbies,

and I won’t read too much into it . . . yet!

The Titans have a history of missing at the WR position in previous drafts. So of course it hurt to let the best receiver ever drafted by Tennessee walk out like that. Time will tell if the Titans letting A.J. walk for 100 Milly was smart.

While A.J. Brown is a bona fide superstar, he had some injury concerns last season and I’m really not trying to punch low, but this is a player who recently was talking about his struggles with suicidal thoughts and then, shortly after, talking about how he would love to play professional baseball. A.J. wears his emotions on his sleeve, and between what I just said and his repeated tweet/deletes, maybe Tennessee made the right move? I think that’s fair to point out—this is a business.

Alright, next topic—quarterbacks! Let me be crystal clear with my thoughts on Ryan Tannehill and our newly drafted QB with exciting potential out of Liberty University. I saw some backlash from the media and some fans following the press conference, where Ryan talked about the ugly loss in the playoffs and stated it wasn’t his job to mentor Malik Willis.

The backlash to his words was ignorant

because Ryan was correct. I mean it’s not like we have QB coaches for no reason. And we have numerous and recent examples throughout league history of QBs saying similar things. Ryan’s words were unfairly twisted and portrayed as selfish, when at the end of the day they were human.

Tannehill has been stand-up on and off the field through the entirety of his long career. Anyone with sense knows Ryan wasn’t going to shun Malik Willis, because that’s what being a good person is about. And, lo and behold, guess what? Weeks later, Ryan has Malik over for dinner, and a few media events later both Ryan and Malik have acknowledged how well things are going as they work together while also competing to win the starting job.

Fact is, with the way Tannehill’s heavy salary cap hit is this year, he was always going to be QB1 in 2022. Releasing him wasn’t financially feasible. Tannehill needs to focus on one thing, and that’s being better this season, especially if he wants to play out the last year of his four-year deal, because the Titans will have the opportunity from a financial standpoint to cut ties in 2023. The bar is high.

Nothing short of making the playoffs and not being the reason they lose will save his job.

With that said, I am super-excited for the potential a player like Malik brings to the future of this team. Dude reminds me so much of my favorite player ever, Steve “Air” McNair. Malik is far from polished and it’s not like he was going up against SEC talent week after week playing for Liberty. But some analysts had Malik projected in round 1 of the draft due to his potential. The beautiful thing about grabbing Malik in the third round is it’s no sweat off J-Rob’s back if Malik doesn’t work out. The Titans didn’t reach for Malik, and it was exactly the joy needed for the fan base on Day 2 after Day 1, when Tennessee traded away one of its best players and then traded away the other first-round pick.

When it was all said and done, I loved this draft class! From A.J. Brown’s much cheaper replacement to a Round 2 cornerback in Roger McCreary out of Auburn that hopefully— with last year’s first-round disappointment in Caleb Farley—can bring some stability at CB. After seeing that 9-sack performance and loss in the playoffs, the Titans must get better in the secondary because, up front, the Titans have one of the best run stops and aggressive pass rushes in the NFL. The Titans waited until the third round to address my biggest concern, the offensive line. And this OT Nicholas Petit-Frere must produce, or I am afraid J-Rob will look like a fool and Tannehill once again will be one of the most sacked QBs of the season.

36 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

At least the Titans managed to keep center Ben Jones, a massive offensive line win!

I was a little surprised they grabbed a running back in the fourth round and not too happy about it, but Hassan Haskins out of Michigan is a similar downhill runner to Henry and it’s imperative they limit Henry’s touches this season. No way in hell can the King average over 30 touches per game to start the season again. Titans need a changeof-pace RB2 to handle 10 touches a game and then, as December and January creeps around, you unleash the King. With all that said, why in the hell didn’t they resign D’Onta Foreman? Foreman was fantastic and I am still of the belief that had the Titans sat Henry in the second half of that Bengals game and pounded Foreman away, the Titans would have won that game! Look at how cheaply the Panthers signed him for a backfield that already consists of CMC and Chuba Hubbard. What a stupid loss for the Titans, unless they know something we don’t?

One of my favorite picks is the tight end out of Maryland, my dude Chig—Chigoziem Okonkwo. He isn’t huge like Kelce or Kittle, the premium TEs, but he is comparable to Jonnu Smith, and Chig was the fastest TE in the draft. He is a physical specimen, built like a tank, and he moves like a sports car.

Watch out for this dude paired with Hooper, a major upgrade at the position after they tried and failed with Firk as TE1 in 2022.

Round 5 saw a slot WR out of UCLA; depth at the position is needed. Kyle Phillips is a phenomenal punt returner, a slippery receiver who managed to find the end zone often at UCLA. Not saying this dude is Cooper Kupp, but I believe Kyle could be the surprise fan favorite from this draft.

Rounding out the draft, a hometown kid out of Tennessee, Theo Jackson, will get the chance to learn behind arguably the best safety duo in the game in Byard and Hooker. The last pick for the Titans, an LB out of Ole Miss, Chance Campbell isn’t afraid to get dirty. I saw people I respect call Chance a hidden gem. Good luck!

I realize that my passion for this Titans team is at a level that would be considered extreme. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I have probably 40 more good seasons left in me if I don’t die tragically from whatever the next overblown virus is.

All I ask is that the Titans can win me one, just ONE, Super Bowl before I am put back to the mud! I don’t feel like that is asking much. Listen up, Titans! It’s imperative that you win a Lombardi before the year 2050. My luck, they will win it the year after I kick the can. Choo-choo!

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Stay in the Moment HOW DO YOU FEEL when you are in the middle of telling a story and your audience, whether an individual or group, looks away because something caught their attention? I have observed many such situations over time, and even more recently, thus prompting this article. Sometimes I have been the one talking, sometimes I’ve been the one who got distracted, and other times I’ve been one of the group witnessing the look on another’s face when, mid-story, they lose their audience.

For many years I have been a keen observer and student of body language, communication, and the human spirit. I have witnessed and experienced the effect of emotional highs and lows in these realms.

There are so many distractions clamoring for our attention and there is also the illusion of importance associated with allowing ourselves to be distracted.

Your phone may buzz, someone may come by and tap you on the shoulder, or you could simply have a thought in your head that you inadvertently blurt out because you “don’t want to forget to mention it.”

This false sense of importance interferes with what’s actually taking place in the moment and in fact you gain less importance when you break the connection with the one talking to you.

who is talking to you, there are a few things you could do or say to make up for the inconsideration: • Make eye contact • Acknowledge with an apology • Smile with sincerity • Ask them to please continue • Be attentive • Stay in the moment • Don’t do it again If you are unaware of doing this to others, there are other signs you could pick up on: Do people spend less time with you? Turn their back on you?

Make small talk rather than share anything significant? If more meaningful connections are not important to you then you won’t be concerned with this.

If you do want more significant relationships, then fine-tuning your observation skills will be helpful.

It doesn’t have to take long to give someone your undivided attention. Most people are good with just a moment or two. If you want others to listen to you, be sure you listen to them. One of the best compliments you can get is when someone who has been doing all the talking says “wow, you are so awesome” and you haven’t said five words. You are awesome because you were attentive and made them feel important.

“No matter how busy you are, you must take time to make the other person feel important.”

— Mary Kay Ash

“When you make people feel important, you’re going to be ahead of the game.” — Zig Ziglar

I’ve witnessed many people shrug off the offense or move on to the next person, but not before noting the look of dejection, annoyance or bewilderment at what just happened. It makes people feel like they are unimportant, boring, or simply not significant. I have felt all of those feelings personally at different times. I have seen this same effect on others, sometimes caused by me. As a body language expert I have been able to recognize this and correct the situation. There are many more people though, who do not pay attention to the signs and simply continue being rude or ignorant.

What if you don’t know you are doing this? What if the people you’re talking to don’t tell you straight up that you are being rude? True friends will tell you, but not all will. And how do you receive the information if someone tells you they feel insignificant when you interrupt them or become distracted? How do you feel when you tell someone else they’ve done this to you?

Do they acknowledge what you’re saying? Do they honor your feelings? Or do they make up excuses?

“The fastest way to improve your relationships is to make others feel important in every way possible.”

— Brian Tracy If you are aware that you’ve done this to someone 38 * JUNE 2022 * BOROPULSE.COM

What can you do if you are the one telling the story and you lose your audience?

1. Ask them “am I boring you?” This can bring their attention back to you.

2. Analyze your audience and the content of your story. Is it the right fit?

3. Try not to be hurt, but know they may not be the company for you. If they are someone whose attention you do seek, find another approach.

I never stopped and looked, I never paid attention to you / I didn’t think that you were worth my time / A passing glance my way caught me on a day like today / And all your brilliant colors light up my eyes / I’m falling in, I’m spinning now / I’m trapped in you, and I don’t want out — “Web of Roses” by Jen Foster If you put yourself in another’s shoes, you will become kinder, more attentive and well liked, perhaps even loved. Be mindful, and be engaged in the moments!

Jennifer Durand is the owner of The Nurture Nook, a certified qigong and breath empowerment instructor and is licensed in massage therapy, body work and somatic integration. For more on finding your personal “ahh . . .”, visit nurturenook.com or call 615-896-7110.

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Pro-Law Enforcement

Pro-Constitution

Pro-Business

Pro-Second Amendment

Pro-Legal Immigration

Pro-Fiscal Responsibility

Hello, my name is Royce Olen Johnson. I am your neighbor and lifelong Rutherford County resident. I am not a career politician.

I am a Constitutional Conservative running to be your next County Mayor and would treasure your vote on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.

As a child growing up here, my family was poor and received food stamps, government cheese and the free lunch program. I understand the challenges and impact of hard times and struggles.

As a product of the local public schools, I received my education attending Bradley Elementary, Central Middle School and graduated from Riverdale High School. After high school, I worked days and attended MTSU and Ashford University taking classes at night where I obtained: * A bachelor’s degree in business administration * A bachelor’s degree in public administration * A master’s degree in criminal justice As a lifelong learner, I have obtained the knowledge and experience to best serve our county. I am successful in the corporate world and have over 20 years of management experience. My wife and I are also small business owners.

I have a heart to serve our community and give back. I put God FIRST, then family, serving others and freedom.

I believe in the American Dream.

As a Republican Constitutional Conservative, I believe in putting America first!

Together, we can keep America first and keep Rutherford County FREE by voting our values and supporting like-minded neighbors to serve in public office.

If you support truth, transparency and access at all levels of county government, if you want to keep Rutherford free, if you’re tired of political bickering, career politicians and wasteful government, vote for me to be your next county mayor.

I am humbled by this opportunity and I look forward to serving you. You will have my ear, and my door will always be open to the taxpayers of our county.

Very truly yours, your neighbor —

Royce Johnson royceforrutherford.com | 615-605-9067

EARLY VOTING  JULY 15–30 ELECTION DAY  AUG. 4

 If you are 60 or older you can mail in your vote. Download the Mail Ballot Application at sos.tn.gov Royce Johnson for Rutherford County Mayor | Jeffrey Bandy, Treasurer