Reviews

GLEN WAGNER

Perfect Piece of Time

Floating around Middle Tennessee for a few years now, singer-songwriter-guitarist and “laid back” enthusiast Glen Wagner plays happily soul-baring, transition-into-lakelife-inspired originals that musically blend the likes of Jimmy Buffett and John Fogerty with other popular easy listens in Wagner’s 10-track, independently produced debut, Perfect Piece of Time, released March 2021.

Docked in a Wednesday night residency gig that began in June 2018, at La Vergne’s Memories Bar and Grill, the Wag landed concentric shows, drifting out to spots in Mt. Juliet and Lebanon, into the DoubleTree’s Burger Bar in Murfreesboro and, eventually, playing the perfect atmospheres for Wagner’s live shows: Hoppy’s Harbor Grill at Fate Sanders Marina and Percy Priest Lake’s 4 Corners Marina. All the while, Wagner was fi ne-tuning the album’s form into the Perfect Piece of Time we can hear today.

Perfect Piece of Time’s concept seems a bucket list accomplishment of a New Jerseygrown, family-owned-dairy farmer retired to Tennessee for a relaxing next chapter of peaceful living fl ooded with nostalgia, a lake life and a sunny future. The feelgood proclamation and ostensibly autobiographical title track, “Perfect Piece of Time,” with accents of The Beach Boys’ group harmony, captures the jist of the album. And there’s an amiable kind of Australian, mid-career Paul Simon bongo groove in “Favorite Smile,” one of three tracks harmonized with lady friend Emma Ohm.

There are calmer, more somber waters fl oated in Perfect Piece of Time as well. Musically, a sad, Chris Isaac-toned “A Place Called Home,” which uses the Wagner Dairy Farm in New Jersey (1917–2001) to emote an aging neighborhood patriarch’s attempt to pass down area memories and history passed to a young bicycler pedaling by, which gives the geezer a realization of how time has passed and the earth he knew is moving on. Also on a somber note, Wagner’s voice resembles an American Records-period Johnny Cash vocal styling in the Guns N’ Roses’-style outro piano-ed, soldier-coming-home march, “Out and About,” melodiously accented by Garth Hudson-style saxophone runs. Though small rocky waves are made trying to reel in and tie down some of the notes and harmonies attempted in the album’s softer tracks.

The run of tracks six through nine is great enough to put on a high school best friend’s lake mixtape to blast out of Dad’s pontoon boat’s stereo system.

Beginning at track six, “Let’s Lake It” is simply title-explanatory (just in case an explanation is needed, though: Sunshine. Baking. Tubin’. Moonlight. Bed.) and followed by “Quiet Little Cove,” a naptime Buffett groove about honeysuckle, eagles silently soaring and feet up on the seat. “Something About the Sea” fl ows into Faces territory with the layered 12- and 6-string acoustics, and, written in 1983, “Something About the Sea” very well could be the 38-year-old single that stayed in the back of Wagner’s youthful mind for a lifetime, eventually the catalyst to fi nish the lifelong goal of making a record one day. Much respect to that, but next at the end of this four-song fun run is a Huey Lewis-ish, blues-rock piano-fi lled, mind-clutter murdering “Overthinkin’,” which is the goofi est and has the best pound-for-pound lyrics of all.

Actually, all of these songs are lyrical gold mines, surpassing an ironic listen to genuinely fi nd a well put together, very wholesome album. Wagner throws in little comedy bits at the end of songs, uses some wacky sound effects in others, and seems genuinely happy with every chord and line. It’s wholesome to the point of suspicion, having a life nice enough to work a country/beach album about it.

Keep an eye out for Glen Wagner’s Perfect Piece of Time on Bandcamp and CD Baby. Singles “Perfect Piece of Time,” “Let’s Lake It” and “One” can be found on Spotify, Amazon and YouTube. CD copies are available wherever Wagner is found. Find more on the artist and upcoming shows on the Wag’s Facebook page under Glen Wagner Singer/Songwriter. — BRYCE HARMON

THE KID DETECTIVE

DIRECTOR Evan Morgan STARRING Adam Brody,

Sophie Nélisse, Sarah Sutherland

RATED R

Writer/director Evan Morgan’s debut feature-length fi lm feels like a rarity these days: a true hidden gem. It might never have blipped my radar were it not for a niche (though not unpopular) YouTube channel and the lone recommendation of a good friend. Couple good word-of-mouths, along with a rental price on Amazon as cheap as a trip to Redbox minus gas, and you almost can’t afford not to watch it.

Morgan’s The Kid Detective is reminiscent of another suburban-noir debut, Rian Johnson’s Brick. Though, where the latter creates a “cool,” “grown-up” world within a high school setting, the former focuses on what it actually means to grow up and be a grown-up.

Adam Brody (The O.C., Ready or Not) stars as Abe Applebaum, a once-beloved kid detective who practiced out of his treehouse until success solving such high-profi le cases as The Case of the Missing Fundraiser Money and The Mystery of the Water Tower Vandals landed him an offi ce funded by the town and a lifetime of free ice cream. But when his assistant, the mayor’s daughter, goes missing, Abe’s inability to solve the case slowly sours the promising wunderkind, turning him into a washed up alcoholic in his 30s solving such low-stakes mysteries as Widow Gulliver’s Missing Cat. That is, until a high school girl hires Abe to solve the mystery of her murdered boyfriend.

Though not entirely new (Mystery Team with Donald Glover shares a similar idea), the conceit of a 32-year-old burnout employing the same teenage tactics he used to solve cases of candy theft to a real case of murder carries the fi lm a long way. Brody is pathetic and self-pitying as adult Abe, but also overly confi dent in his sleuthing skills. Morgan’s direction and darkly comic script make every interview with every colorful suspect both an homage and a sendup of the hard-boiled detective genre, though never veering into irreverence. And maybe most importantly, every setup has a satisfying pay-off, from the most insignifi cant running jokes to the main mystery of the movie; the attention to detail is impeccable.

As well as being technically taut, the darn fi lm manages to sneak in a rather poignant theme to boot. Morgan and Brody delight in the absurdity of their “adult kid detective,” but they also treat it seriously enough to explore the very real and relatable causes behind Abe’s arrested development, culminating in an ending that at fi rst feels out of left fi eld but is both earned and effective. Like any good mystery, there’s more than meets the eye to The Kid Detective. — JAY SPIGHT

Living

 DAY TRIP

Find Hiking, Camping, Golfi ng, Swimming and Shooting at Henry Horton State Park

STORY BY BRACKEN MAYO PHOTOS BY SARAH MAYO

About 18 miles south of Interstate 840 in between Murfreesboro and Franklin, near Chapel Hill, Tennessee, Henry Horton State Park offers a wealth of outdoor activities.

A visitor can really choose their own adventure based on their recreational preferences at this Tennessee State Park.

Visitors can stay in the air-conditioned inn and have a few days of golfi ng at the Buford Ellington Golf Course and swimming in the pool. For a more primitive experience, tent campers can spend their days fi shing and hiking. Or, for those prepared to stay a few days, do it all.

The park, on the Duck River, contains eight different hiking trails, totaling 11 miles.

Coming from 840, Highway 31 leads hikers, golfers, swimmers, fi shers and campers right through the park. Park in a small parking lot on the north side of the river for access to most of the hiking trails.

This includes the Wilhoite Mill Trail, commemorating the area where a mill stood a century and a half ago, a trail along Spring Creek, and the Adeline Wilhoite River Trail, a narrow walkway that follows the north side of the Duck.

Park offi cials rate the River Trail as easy, but it can be muddy, rooty, narrow and rocky with some slight hills in some places—not exactly a simple walk in the park for those attempting to push a stroller, but no big problem for the able-bodied, offering views of the Duck River and affi liated fl ora and fauna. The broad river was moving quickly in April.

About a half mile into the river trail, hikers can access the tent and RV camping area. At the center of this area sits a camp store, a shady playground, an area of sand with some toy dump trucks and bulldozers available, and a Birds of Prey display where park visitors can view an owl and a hawk in cages and take in some information about other birds of prey in the area.

Continuing farther from the highway, the Hickory Ridge, River Trail Loop and the Wetland Trail offer many more miles of walking and wildlife viewing, and access to back-country camping areas.

Across the Duck River, Henry Horton State Park contains even more amenities and activities, a park visitors center, inn, swimming pool, grasslands, more playgrounds and even a skeet, trap and archery range. The park contains a full golf course, a disc golf course and beehives. The parking lot near the visitor’s center hosted some food trucks on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Those with young children still unable to complete long miles of hiking trails in the woods may want to check out the Storybook Trail, a very easy paved quarter-mile path. Panels lining the path illustrate a simple children’s story with woodland animals, with some discussion questions that encourage counting, color recognition, making animal sounds and other childish fun, presented in part by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

This same trail contains numerous tree identifi cation panels also, describing some of the accompanying native trees, and how to recognize their leaves.

Henry Horton contains a variety of playgrounds scattered throughout the park, all different. One, near the Storybook Trail, makes more of an obstacle course challenge with ninja training-type devices, climbing rings and walls, balance beams, shaky stones and such. Find another, more of an accessible, inclusive play area, not far away.

Lots of picnic tables line the south bank of the river, near the grasslands and visitor’s center. And the park’s multiple overnight options—an RV lot, tent camping, cabins for rent, hammock camping areas, back-country camping and the inn—make an impressive variety of choices for staying onsite.

If You Go

Henry Horton State Park

4209 Nashville Hwy. Chapel Hill, Tennessee 931-364-2222 More information: tnstateparks.com.