april 9–april 15, 2020 I volume 39 I number 10 I Nashvillescene.com I free
Covid-19 Coverage Inside Hands On Nashville continues tornado relief efforts amid a global pandemic Page 7
Officials promise property taxes will ‘sharply increase’ as other revenues dry up Page 7
How area farmers are adapting to COVID-19’s challenges Page 22
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MUSIC IS COURAGE
ABOVE: LUKE COMBS AMERICAN CURRENTS: STATE OF THE MUSIC
PHOTO: DAVID BERGMAN
nashvillescene.com | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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Contents
apriL 9, 2020
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23
Once More Unto the Breach ......................7
Kid Connections
City Limits
CuLture
How Hands On Nashville continues its tornado relief efforts in the midst of a global pandemic
Local artists and organizations provide online resources for families
By J.R. Lind
By amy StumpfL
City Government Feels the Money Crunch Too ...............................................................7 Officials promise property taxes will ‘sharply increase’ as other revenues dry up By Stephen eLLiott
That Time Doc Antle Tried to Open a Zoo in Cheatham County ..................................8
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Books
My Mountains, My Home Talking with poet Meg Wade about her ‘horny book of sad country songs’
The eccentric Tiger King character once feuded in Tennessee too
By eRica ciccaRone
By Stephen eLLiott
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Nashville Byline: Soul Revivalist Jason Eskridge ......................................................9 With his Sunday Night Soul series, the talented vocalist has built a scene — and thanks to COVID-19, now it’s adapting
musiC
They Called It Rock ................................. 26
By RadLey BaLko
Veteran Nashville roots rocker Webb Wilder keeps it fresh on Night Without Love
Pith in the Wind ...................................... 10
By edd huRt
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Take Your Pick ......................................... 26
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Guitarists, use your stay-at-home time to shake up your practice routines
Un Movimiento
Brushing up on recent releases that flew under our radar
this week on the web: Country Music Association Cancels CMA Fest 2020 Governor Issues Stay-at-Home Order After Urging From Health Experts Crazy Gnome Brewery Still on Tap After Tornado Southern Word Provides Enhanced Online Offerings to Give Young People a Space to Be Heard
By Jack SiLveRman
Cover story
A Second Look ........................................ 27
How Latin musicians are building new scenes in Nashville By aLeJandRo RamiRez
By edd huRt, p.J. kinzeR, oLivia Ladd, Sean L. maLoney, Stephen tRageSeR, Ron Wynn, chaRLie zaiLLian and JacqueLine zeiSLoft
The Spin ................................................... 28
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The Scene’s live-review column checks out livestreams by Joshua Hedley, Soccer Mommy, Nicole Atkins and more
CritiCs’ piCks Revive the art of letter writing, work out with Tisha Wilson, play Stardew Valley, design your own Premium Goo Goo, meditate, watch a Genesis P-Orridge documentary on Satanic Temple TV, enroll in online classes with Actors Bridge Ensemble and more
By LoRie LieBig, megan SeLing and Stephen tRageSeR
29 fiLm
Primal Stream ......................................... 29 More horror and action — and kids’ stuff! — now available to stream
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By JaSon ShaWhan
Multiple Choice ....................................... 30
food and drink
The urgent Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a hero’s journey with the power to save lives
A Call to Farms
How area farmers are adapting to COVID-19’s challenges By JennifeR JuStuS
By eRica ciccaRone
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NEW YORK TIMES CrossWord
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marketpLaCe
Walk a
With feet on the street, we discover Nashville’s own unique beat – one mile at a time
Mile
with J.R. Lind
nashvillescene.com | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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FROM BILL FREEMAN ROCKS AND HARD PLACES: NASHVILLE FACES WEATHER, DISEASE — AND NOW TAXES
(615) 255-2527 mortonplumbing.net Voted Best in Nashville 6x!
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The timing couldn’t be worse for Mayor John Cooper to tell us of his proposed property tax increase — an increase that he vowed would happen only if there were no other options. I think we can reach some sort of consensus that these are times of few options. Cooper inherited a fiscal mess that he’s been working steadily to clean up, and I am sure the decision to increase taxes weighs heavily on him. We don’t yet know much about the proposed increase, but we know that many Nashvillians struggle to keep their homes and small businesses even during good times. It is far worse now, and too many Nashvillians’ income has been severely strained or eliminated altogether, with no real relief in their pockets. We know all too well the mess that Cooper inherited from his predecessors, and the mayor and his team did a very good job bridging the $41 million-plus shortfall in our current budget. They closed the gap without selling Metro-owned assets, which was a measure that many criticized Mayor David Briley for choosing. Cooper’s team trimmed every bit of fat remaining after a number of lean budget years. He made the difficult decisions to reduce investment into affordable housing and capital spending. He’d put these cost-savings measures in place well before disaster struck with last month’s tornado — and then disaster struck again in the form of a global pandemic. With the cuts already made, Cooper will be faced with the even more difficult decision of eliminating Metro positions if our economy continues to slide downhill. For Nashville’s future, that is arguably a worse alternative than a property tax increase. Estimates of our economic downhill slide are worrisome and considerable. The calculations can only be truly figured once we return to our friendly and engaged way of life, but our revenue loss is estimated to be at least $300 million, with some estimates reaching $600 million. It certainly makes last year’s budget shortfall look measly by comparison. Our fiscal year 2020 budget includes $2.33 billion in revenue, with local option sales tax contributing 20.6 percent and property taxes 45.7 percent. It’s regrettable — but not surprising — that Cooper would consider a property tax increase the only viable option to ensure that our government can continue providing essential services. We can’t bank on the hope that revenue from our sales tax will rebound in time to fill Metro’s coffers for the upcoming fiscal year. Our certain rebound simply won’t come soon enough, with our fiscal year ending in June. This shutdown has devastated all other sources of Nashville’s income. Our entire tourism industry and virtually all retail businesses have been completely shut down. Businesses are folding left and right. People are losing jobs every day. FOX17 recently reported that new unemployment claims in the state jumped from 2,700 to 94,400 in two weeks. That’s an increase by a factor of 35! Unfortunately, Nashville’s at-risk residents who always get the short end
MAYOR COOPER of the stick will again feel the effects the most. People who already struggle with Nashville’s soaring property values will be burdened with higher property taxes. And small businesses, both well-established and fledgling ones, will be at risk too. But Nashvillians have gotten good at dealing with crises. We are showing our heart during the shutdown, as we do everything in our power to help each other. Our beloved Dolly Parton has again put her money where it matters most: She’s helped our youngest learn to love reading for decades through her Imagination Library, and last week she decided to help our most vulnerable citizens with the promise of substantial progress in scientific and medical breakthroughs by making a significant donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. We are all helping in every way we can. A single can of donated food means as much as a major donation, when it is given from the heart. We can do it, Nashville. We will bail each other out with our own pocketbooks. It’s not fair, but this property tax increase may be our only option. So can we blame Cooper? No. Must we be happy with his decision? No, not a bit. But we need to keep practicing these new neighborly lessons we’re learning together and continue them into the coming months and years. Make sure everyone has enough food, tighten our belts, and help our neighbors. We won’t be protecting each other from the virus a year from now, but we will still need to protect each other as we manage a difficult recovery.
Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.
Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Bronte Lebo Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Circulation Manager Casey Sanders Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Events Manager Ali Foley Publisher Mike Smith Advertising Director Daniel Williams Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Account Executive William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com
Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. Classified: 816-218-6732. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $99 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.
In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016
NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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city limits
Once More Unto the Breach How Hands On Nashville continues its tornado relief efforts in the midst of a global pandemic By J.R. Lind
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s February gave way to March, the team at Hands On Nashville — the city’s volunteerism clearinghouse — was brainstorming ways to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Middle Tennessee’s devastating 2010 flood. It was, if you’ll forgive the choice of words, a watershed event for HON. In the decade since that flood, Nashville has grown by leaps and bounds, and the nonprofit wanted to find ways to recapture the overwhelming community spirit that swept across the city even before the Cumberland River retreated back to its banks. For April of this year, HON hoped to engage 10,000 volunteers for projects across the city, in the run-up to the flood anniversary in early May. Needless to say, HON needn’t have worried about its ability to revive the volunteer
Photos: Daniel Meigs
volunteers sort donations at the community resource center
spirit of 2010. The March 3 tornado cut a trail of devastation from John C. Tune Airport in the west, across North Nashville, Buena Vista, Germantown, East Nashville, Donelson and Hermitage, clear to the Wilson County line, wreaking havoc, taking lives, and destroying homes and livelihoods. But when the sun rose that morning, the fearsome clouds dissipated, giving way to a sparkling cerulean sky. And Nashville got to work. So many people wanted to sign up to volunteer that Hands On Nashville’s website crashed under the weight of the city’s giving spirit. While web developers and other IT types scrambled to get things back up and running, social media connected the helpers with those in need. Ad hoc groups scurried across town to clean up, or to just offer a cup of coffee or a shoulder to cry on. In the week following the tornado, more
In the week following the tornado, more than 26,000 people registered as volunteers with HON. In the six months after the flood, that number was 21,000. than 26,000 people registered as volunteers with HON. In the six months after the flood, that number was 21,000. “The impressive and beautiful thing about our city is that we are now up to 30,000 registrants,” HON chief operating officer Tara Tenorio says. “And of those 30,000, 21,000 are already signed up for specific projects.” Tenorio emphasizes that disaster recovery doesn’t happen in just the first week or the first month — it’s a long process. The final case from the flood, after all, wasn’t closed until 2013. But of course, the city — and the world — changed dramatically just five days after the tornado. On March 8, Mayor John Cooper and Director of Health Michael Caldwell announced the first case of COVID-19 in Davidson County. “Now, this obviously comes at a time when Nashville wants and needs to give each other a big hug — deserves to give each other a big hug,” Cooper said at the time. “And we still need to do that. Public Health will be talking about how we do that safely, with the best practices to keep our community safe.” In the short term, Tenorio says, the announcement didn’t deter the metaphorical big hugs Nashvillians were handing out. “Until Nashvillians were told explicitly to stay home, Nashvillains didn’t stay home,” she says. “It’s a small miracle the order of events was what it was. If [COVID-19] had been a known threat [in Nashville] before the tornado, I can’t imagine what the response would have been.” The virus’ arrival did, of course, require HON and others to alter their volunteer procedures. First, on March 12, HON asked its partners to limit projects to 50 people or fewer. That number was reduced to 10 — per Metro, state and federal instruction — five days later. Hand sanitizer was stocked at project locations. Those feeling unwell were asked to stay at home. Inevitably, though, the disease struck. On March 23, HON reported that a volunteer who worked numerous times at Greater Heights Missionary Baptist Church from March 5 through March 14 had tested positive for COVID-19. Operations at the church ceased for two weeks. Tenorio says HON’s priority in this case — and any future ones — is to be as transparent as possible. Nevertheless, it has hardly deterred anyone. Hands On Nashville is now asking its
partner groups to focus projects on urgent needs, specifically those related to food and shelter. It’s also urgent that the surfeit of donated items that came in during the initial tornado response continue to be sorted. So many items came in that at one point in the immediate aftermath, the Community Resource Center had to ask Nashvillians to pause their donations — the CRC ran out of room in its Omohundro Drive warehouse and exhausted its supply of pallets. Eventually the stock of pallets was replenished with the help of, among others, Nashville’s brewers. It’s so urgent that the donated items get into storage that the CRC secured a second warehouse, and HON is coordinating four shifts of 10 people each per day. “Right now, we are thinking about things that pertain to hunger and materials people need to survive,” Tenorio says. “If you still have debris that you can’t get to, it’s not that that’s any less urgent, but we are trying to time those out to when people can be out in the world. There will be needs on the other side of the COVID response. A disaster is always defined by its long-term recovery efforts. What will be so important is that Nashvillians hold on to that momentum.” For now, there are still plenty of ways to chip in. HON is helping staff temporary housing for the city’s homeless at The Fairgrounds Nashville. There are opportunities to make masks, both remotely and in person. Volunteers are needed at drive-up COVID-19 testing sites. Occasionally, there are at-home projects, like writing letters to residents of senior-care facilities, where visitation has been curtailed. “People are so eager to help, and that has shifted since we headed into COVID territory,” Tenorio says. “We want to create structures so people can be out and be safe and still serving. The willingness of our community has shifted, but it’s still there.” Email editor@nashvillescene.com
City Government Feels the Money Crunch Too Officials promise property taxes will ‘sharply increase’ as other revenues dry up By Stephen Elliott
N
ashville Mayor John Cooper, finance director Kevin Krumbo and Metro Council budget chair Bob Mendes were prepared for a tough budget cycle. Mendes has for the past few years been pushing for a property tax increase to boost recurring city revenues. Cooper was at least open to the idea, despite his opposition in the past. The group was working with state overseers concerned about the city’s finances. Cooper secured promises of additional money from the Music City Center and sought other avenues of plugging a budget gap in the tens of millions of dollars. But all that was before a tornado hit the county
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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last month — and before the city’s economic engines ground to a halt in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. Cooper was originally scheduled to deliver his budget proposal for the next fiscal year alongside his first State of Metro address late last month. He went ahead with the address, delivered to a nearly empty Metro Council chamber, but the budget won’t be delivered until later in April. The mayor and his budget team are using the additional time to try to nail down better estimates of what the economic impact of the virus will be on Nashville. But early projections are grim: Mendes cited projections that the state could miss out on between $300 and $600 million in revenue in the coming months, but those estimates are constantly changing. Hotel occupancy has plummeted (along with corresponding occupancy taxes), so the tourists who typically fill the hotels are not spending money that could be collected as sales taxes. With a drastic drop in revenue staring the city down, Cooper decided to freeze all Metro salaries and leave unfilled positions empty, except those needed for public safety. Even so, it won’t be nearly enough, as he noted during his State of Metro address. That’s why Cooper will be proposing a spending plan in which property taxes — the city’s most reliable
revenue source — will “sharply increase.” (He also encouraged more vulnerable Nashvillians to apply for various tax-freeze programs.) “Metro’s finances are in a place where there is no option,” Cooper said. “We can’t print money or borrow to cover our operating expenses. We must raise property taxes.” Cooper is also waiting to see how much federal relief money the city can secure before deciding on spending for next year. After Congress passed three packages comprising trillions of dollars in funding for nationwide relief, Nashville leaders do not yet know how much will come to the city. Gov. Bill Lee estimated that the state could receive between $2 billion and $3 billion. “We don’t have enough information right now,” Cooper said Friday. When the Brookings Institute studied when and how cities around the country will feel the economic impact of coronavirus, researchers pointed out that cities like Nashville that rely on property tax revenue face a more favorable situation in the short term than those that rely more on income or sales taxes — meaning the local impact could hit a little further down the line. But that analysis does not consider the tourism- and conference-related downtown spending that has nearly evaporated in a few weeks, which could send a jolt through Metro’s short-term situation.
That Time Doc Antle Tried to Open a Zoo in Cheatham County The eccentric Tiger King character once feuded in Tennessee too By Stephen Elliott
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n a docuseries full of villains, Kevin Antle — sometimes known as Doc or Bhagavan — somehow rose to the top. The cameras of Tiger King mostly follow colorful Oklahoma roadside zoo owner Joe Exotic and his ongoing feud with Carol Baskin, who runs a tiger sanctuary in Florida. But Antle and his Myrtle Beach, S.C., operation nearly steal the show. As Tiger King depicts it, Antle has surrounded himself with a harem of young, exploitable women, and has been accused of euthanizing tigers to make room for more
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lucrative cubs. As it turns out, Middle Tennessee could have been home to Antle’s antics if the zookeeper had gotten his way three decades ago. Antle’s efforts to build the “Nashville Zoological Park” in Cheatham County were the subject of multiple front-page Tennessean stories in 1989 and 1990, though Antle himself quickly disappeared. The stories started in December 1989, when The Tennessean reported (above the fold, complete with a photo of Antle and an African lion) that the future TV star and a man named Mike Stuart were planning to open their park a few
photo:Metro Nashville
city limits
Mayor Cooper delivering last month’s state of metro address
Mendes, like Cooper, is worried that the city’s relatively low cash reserves leave Nashville in a worse position than its peers facing similar revenue drop-offs. “It’s the worst-case scenario to stroll into a dramatic, fast, deep revenue cut with no savings,”
Mendes said last month. “Any city who would ever be faced with this, you would either start selling off everything that’s not nailed down, start firing people or raise revenue.”
months later. At the time, there were multiple groups trying to build a zoo in the Nashville area; a rival group was not impressed by Antle and Stuart’s operation. It did not devolve to murder-for-hire, but it did get nasty. Connie Cloak, executive director of the Zoological Society of Middle Tennessee, described Antle’s planned park as a “secondrate, chain-link menagerie,” to which Stuart cried “jealousy.” Cloak moved to the Bay Area shortly after her organization fell apart. She watched a couple episodes of Tiger King, but she didn’t connect the Doc Antle in the show to the man with whom she’d feuded three decades ago. “I remember thinking vaguely, ‘Yeah, I’ve known a few creepy animal people over the years,’ ” Cloak tells the Scene. “I did a pretty good job of blocking out a lot of that memory.” Her memory freshly jogged (though she admits the years have dulled her recollection), Cloak recalls meeting Antle at least twice. Once, Antle and Stuart came to her office unannounced to offer to combine their efforts. “That may be when they told me they met at Cape Girardeau, which immediately alerted me,” says Cloak. “Because no self-respecting zoo person would ever admit they’d been to the Cape Girardeau animal auction.” The second time Cloak met the duo, she recalls, was when Antle’s group invited her organization’s board to a meeting at a local consulting firm’s office in a downtown high-rise. Unannounced, Antle’s group said they were taking the board on a field trip to the zoo site in Cheatham County. Cloak and the others piled into two limos, as she remembers it. At the site, they saw little but a man on a bulldozer (she recalls it being Antle), but her board was impressed enough to throw their hands up and give in to the further-along effort. After her organization dissolved, Cloak had a mental breakdown and was institu-
tionalized for a short time. She remembers getting an anonymous phone call late one night after that from a woman who said she thought Cloak ought to know something: “Kevin Antle was bragging to everybody that he’d driven me crazy.” In March 1990, Antle drew even more attention. He was displaying his white tiger cubs Sheba and Akbar at the Great Lakes of the South Outdoor Show at the Nashville Convention Center, for which he and the cubs received a glowing feature, complete with photo, from The Tennessean’s outdoors writer. Just a week later, a reporter writing on the front page of the daily revealed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had investigated Antle due to allegations that a tiger mauled a visitor to one of his parks in Virginia. (The story also questioned whether Antle actually had a doctorate from a British university, which didn’t seem to exist.) The next week, the editorial board would question Antle’s zoo. Though Antle’s time in the Nashville area was short, he made the most of it. In addition to his star turn at the outdoor show, he was featured on an episode of NewsChannel 5’s Talk of the Town that also included current Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who at the time had yet to embark on her career in elected office. According to TV listings, she took a “look at shoe fashions” on the episode in question. By May 1990, less than six months after the newspaper introduced Antle to readers on its front page, the same writer reported that Antle had left the zoo over “differences of opinion, differences of philosophy” — not, the zoo’s Ingram Group publicist promised, because of “a series of incidents on the property.” (One neighbor reported that zoo employees killed her dog and her father-inlaw’s dog with a high-powered rifle; another report had an African antelope escaping the property.) Antle, the newspaper said, had moved on, “reported to be in Knoxville or somewhere in Florida.” Email editor@nashvillescene.com
Email editor@nashvillescene.com
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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city limits Nashville Byline
Soul Revivalist Jason Eskridge
With his Sunday Night Soul series, the talented vocalist has built a scene — and thanks to COVID-19, now it’s adapting By Radley Balko Radley Balko is a journalist who covers criminal justice and more for The Washington Post. He is author of the books The Rise of the Warrior Cop and The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. With his ongoing series Nashville Byline, he’ll profile fascinating characters, businesses and other parts of Nashville.
T
here was a time when Nashville was a Moveable Feast of soul. In the 1950s and 1960s, up and down Jefferson Street, venues like Club Baron, Club Stealaway and the Del Morocco hosted talent like Little Richard, Otis Redding and Jimmy Church and the King Kasuals — the latter a band
that also featured a virtuoso young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. Well before Soul Train, Music City’s WLAC-TV station broadcast Night Train, one of the first all-black musical television shows. But that all changed in the late 1960s, when the newly constructed Interstate 40 cut through the city’s black business and culture district. The behemoth highway suffocated the black neighborhoods thriving on the north side of the city. It shuttered clubs and restaurants, pulling the plug on the primary incubators for Nashville’s soul and R&B talent. Music City would remain a country town. More than a half-century later, a chiffonvoiced ex-mechanical engineer for NASA is trying to re-create the legacy of Jefferson Street. In 1999, Jason Eskridge — a native
of Rockwood, Tenn., who grew up singing in church choirs and played football at Tennessee Tech — left his well-paying job with the space agency in Huntsville, Ala., to pursue a music career in Nashville. He became a staple of the Nashville music scene, singing backup for Lyle Lovett, Marc Broussard, Randy Travis and the Zac Brown Band. He opened for artists like Jonny Lang and Aaron Neville, and sang with the bluegrass ensemble The Cumberland Collective. He and his group have also been the house band at Tennessee Titans games. (Disclosure: He also sang at my wedding.) About six years ago, Eskridge approached the owners of East Nashville’s bar and venue The 5 Spot with an idea to showcase the city’s soul scene. “It was never about a lack of talent in this city,” Eskridge told me in the venue’s courtyard back in late January. “It’s never been about supply, or even about demand. There just haven’t been many venues willing to take a chance on soul music.” In the early 2000s, the promotional collective Lovenoise featured black musicians, poets and other artists on Sunday nights at the old Bar Car venue in Cummins Station. Lovenoise has since grown to become a major promoter of urban music in the city. But the Sunday shows at Bar Car stopped around 2010, starving an important ecosystem for
nurturing black music in Nashville. Eskridge knew that The 5 Spot had been hosting an increasingly popular weekly dance party called Motown Mondays, where the DJs of local duo Electric Western spun artists like Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. Eskridge thought the success of the Motown Mondays might make The 5 Spot amenable to something more ambitious. “The idea was to create an infrastructure for soul in Nashville,” Eskridge says. “The music industry has changed so much. No one does auditions anymore. It used to be you would cold-call producers and try to get them to listen to you. Now it’s about seeing people perform. It’s networking. We’re trying to create a community.” The 5 Spot’s owners jumped at the idea. “They got it from the start,” he says. “They understood the concept and took a chance on this, and I’ll always be loyal to them for that.” Thus was born Sunday Night Soul, which has grown to become not just a spotlight for Nashville’s soul and R&B artists, but a place for nationally renowned artists to stop in and jam when they’re in town. My wife and I attended one of the first Sunday Night Soul shows. Over the course of a few hours, not more than 20 people showed up to listen. But on the night of Sunday Night Soul’s fifth anniversary show last year, the bar was packed, shoulder to undu-
Photo: Eric England
jason eskridge
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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lating shoulder. “You know they say you never really see your kids grow,” Eskridge says. “Other people do, because they’ll see them every few months. But you see them every day. That’s kind of how I feel about Sunday Night Soul. I didn’t really notice it growing along the way. But now we have something special. It never seemed like a huge risk to me. With the talent we have in this city, I always knew that if we stuck with it, this thing would work.” Eskridge says one moment he started to realize the experiment was a success was when Jonny Lang and his band stopped by to play after a show at the Schermerhorn. The same night, gospel singer Doobie Powell stopped by as well. “When I toured with Jonny, we used to listen to Doobie on the tour
THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: Gov. Bill Lee finally issued a statewide stayat-home order April 2, acquiescing to the pleadings of health care professionals. The order, which requires Tennesseans to shelter in place unless conducting essential activities, runs through April 14. The governor said data showed that his previous “strong urgings” were not having the intended effect and that the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s traffic counts indicated citizens weren’t restricting their movements. “While safer at home measures and further restrictions on businesses showed a steep drop-off in vehicle movement from March 13-29, data beginning on March 30 indicates travel is trending upwards, again,” a press release said. … The late arrival of travel restrictions notwithstanding, there was glimmer of hope
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bus,” says Eskridge. “Now here they were together, neither knowing the other was in town, and both fans of the other’s music. That’s when I started to realize we were really building this network I was hoping for.” A typical Sunday Night Soul show features a wide array of soul, funk and R&B. Eskridge keeps his own definitions of both terms loose enough to accommodate a huge swath of artists. Bands intermingle, inviting one another onstage to jam, often inviting stray friends and musicians they spot in the audience to jump onstage as well. On some nights, you’ll see 10 or more artists onstage. There might be a brass section. Or a trombone soloist. Or a fiddler. The listed artists are just the main ingredients — anything can happen from there.
as updated projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington indicated that the social distancing measures are working in the Volunteer State, with Tennessee increasingly unlikely to exceed its hospital capacity during the outbreak, predicted to peak April 15. … As Sheriff Daron Hall predicted, an inmate at one of Nashville’s jails has tested positive for COVID-19. The sheriff said the male inmate is between 31 and 40 years old and jailed on a felony drug charge. His symptoms are “mild,” and he is in isolation. An additional 53 inmates who were housed in the same unit are now quarantined. Along with prosecutors, public defenders and the police, Hall has been working to reduce Nashville’s jail population to mitigate the effects of a potential outbreak, which officials have said would be “devastating.” Last week, Metro Public Defender Martesha Johnson asked Nashville judges to grant the immediate release of large categories of inmates from local jails to prevent “serious medical emergencies and needless death.” … Nora Rodriguez, a housekeeper who worked a shift at Vanderbilt’s Legends Club as an employee of A&A Cleaning, told the Scene’s Alejandro Ramirez that she con-
On the nights Eskridge himself plays, expect seamless transitions from Donny Hathaway to Blackstreet, Michael Jackson to Bill Withers, Sly and the Family Stone to Mark Ronson — it’s a bacchanal of soul-funk revelry. The end-of-the-night jams can go on for 10 minutes or more, with smoldering grooves undergirding spiraling solos and improvisation, all spiked with familiar riffs and melodies from Motown, Stax and Muscle Shoals. The shows generate material for new songs, forge friendships and partnerships, join producers to talent, and help established artists find up-and-comers for backup gigs, recording sessions and opening acts. In the audience, there’s as much networking and making of introductions as bopping and grooving. Being at a Sunday Night Soul show feels special, like you’re witnessing the birth of a scene. It’s also one the more interesting crowds in Nashville. The 5 Spot sits in Five Points, the crossroads of East Nashville, where talland-skinnies bought by a cadre of whiter, younger newcomers jut up over the city’s older, blacker, working-class neighborhoods. Despite proximity, the two tend to shop at different stores, eat at different restaurants and drink at different bars. But Sunday Night Soul is an exception. On these nights, The 5 Spot is among the most diverse places in the city. That too is by design. Eskridge’s extraordinary vocal range has allowed him to perform across a wide array of musical genres, and consequently, he’s forged friendships and professional relationships that transcend racial, cultural and political lines. “Community can mean a lot of different things,” he says. “Music is so healing and universal. So I’m deliberate and meticulous about who we book. I think it’s important to sing alongside people who don’t look like you. Even people who don’t vote like you.” My first interview with Eskridge took place before the COVID-19 outbreak. I checked in with him again after the city’s music venues shut down. Like a lot of artists, he’s worried.
tracted COVID-19 and that A&A refused her paid sick leave, saying instead she should use her vacation. Advocacy group Workers’ Dignity, along with a group of Vanderbilt students and employees, are organizing on Rodriguez’s behalf. The manager at the Legends Club said it is terminating its contract with A&A. … A guest of the temporary homeless shelter at The Fairgrounds Nashville tested positive for COVID-19. As of this writing, five others are awaiting test results. Joseph Pleasant of the Nashville Fire Department tells the Scene that the person who tested positive is “isolated away from the general population in one building, and the five waiting for test results are in another separate building.” Those utilizing the shelter are being pre-screened for the virus at Room In The Inn before being bused to the fairgrounds. … Though Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said there hadn’t been a significant increase in crime — including domestic violence — during the quarantine, local YWCA president and CEO Sharon Roberson said her organization saw a 55 percent jump in domestic calls during the first two weeks of March as compared to the same time a year ago. Calls to the state’s child abuse hotline are down signficantly,
“In this business, you’re just hanging in there through December, January and February, trying to get by,” he says. “You’re waiting to get to March. That’s when it starts to open up. Then this happened. A lot of people are struggling. I had $10,000 worth of work over the next two months that just went away.” Still, Eskridge says, he’s better situated than some other artists. He makes part of his living as a background singer in recording sessions, and he has equipment to record from home. “I have a lot of relationships with people who trust me enough to let me do that,” he says. “But I can’t hold out forever. And the people who make their living touring are going to get hit really hard.” As of now, the future of Sunday Night Soul is uncertain. Like other businesses in Five Points, The 5 Spot was already hurting after the tornados. They were only reopened for a day before the virus shut them back down. The owners have since set up a GoFundMe page to help the venue continue to pay staff and musicians. As with every other business shut down in the wake of the virus, it’s unclear if they’ll ever open again. But Eskridge remains entrepreneurial. He’s taken Sunday Night Soul online, and has streamed three sessions since the shutdown. “It’s obviously not ideal, but one thing it has done is brought the show to people who have followed us over the years, but could never make it to Nashville,” he says. “I’ve heard from people all over the country. We had a guy watching from India.” But long-term, for artists like Eskridge to remain vital, music consumers will need to step up. “I think people are accustomed to thinking of online music as free,” Eskridge says. “And before all of this, that made sense. But people need to understand that we musicians — well, we all just got fired. So if you’re enjoying a streaming show, throw out a tip. If everybody who watches us gives even just $5 or $10, I can pay my band and take a little money home to pay my bills. It’s still commerce. It’s just a new model. We’re all going to need to adapt.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
but that’s likely because many of the reports come from teachers and others outside the home who have not been in contact with victims during the lockdown. … Meanwhile, Mayor John Cooper, in an unusual State of Metro address attended only by Vice Mayor Jim Shulman and Vice Mayor Pro Tempore Jeff Syracuse, announced that he will be asking for a sharp property tax increase when he submits his budget proposal later this spring. “Metro’s finances are in a place where there is no option,” Cooper said. “We can’t print money or borrow to cover our operating expenses. We must raise property taxes.” Cooper has long fought against a tax increase, but conceded that the back-to-back cataclysms of the tornado and the pandemic forced his hand. … Meanwhile, David Byrd — a Wayne County Republican accused multiple times of sexual abuse while he was a high school basketball coach in the 1980s — announced in his hometown paper he will indeed seek re-election in the state House, despite earlier saying he wouldn’t, and despite public pleas by GOP leadership. NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND
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On a Monday night
not too long ago, the sounds of salsa, bachata and percussion-driven rhythms filled Rudy’s Jazz Room as 12 Manos tore through their weekly set of Latin music. A set of congas (or depending on the song, maybe timbales) built the foundation, a bass setting the pace as keyboards layered chords and melody. Giovanni Rodriguez leads the band, usually a six-person outfit — hence the name, Spanish for “12 Hands.” The multiinstrumentalist can usually be found working percussion or the bass, or even sometimes the trumpet. There was “a little void” of Latin music in Nashville when Rudy’s opened in 2017, Rodriguez tells the Scene, and so he was invited to start a weekly Latin night. Mondays aren’t always great nights for live music in terms of turnout. But he accepted the invitation, and the band soon began drawing respectable crowds. Rodriguez was born in Italy to Dominican parents, who relocated the family to Huntsville, Ala., when he was 11. He says he hated moving to Alabama, but at just 12 years old, he found himself playing gigs with a local band. He attended community college for a bit, and later received a scholarship to Middle Tennessee State University. As a working musician, Rodriguez performed in different genres — rap, gospel, funk. He remembers that in his early days in Nashville, the Latin music scene was a bit stagnant. “There wasn’t an organized version of a salsa group that did different songs,” he says. “They were all doing similar songs. … So I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to do something a little more advanced.’ ”
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Rodriguez is drawn to the layered sounds of orchestral arrangements, and he likes applying that style to all types of songs — from Latin standards to various covers. He’ll turn a Thelonious Monk song into a Puerto Rican bomba, arrange Drake’s “Hotline Bling” as a bachata or flip a Bruno Mars song into a salsa. He also leads an expanded version of 12 Manos called the Music City Latin Orchestra, which features a horn section and singers, akin to the big-band Latin orchestras that thrived between the 1930s and the 1970s in New York City. And in the same way those New York bands attracted diverse crowds, Latin music today still seems to have that wide pull on people. “People of all ages would come out to our gigs,” says Rodriguez, pointing out that even before 12 Manos packed out Rudy’s, he saw Latin bands around town attracting similar crowds. “It wasn’t just white folks or black folks or Hispanics, it was everybody ... from teenagers to 70-year-olds.” It also helps that there’s a lot more talent to recruit when it comes to Latin music. Rodriguez says he plays with many people who didn’t live in town when he was just starting out — many of his regular bandmates are Latin American immigrants. Nashville’s changing demographics have led to tough discussions, as many neighborhoods shift under the weight of gentrification and a housing crisis. But the city’s increasing diversity is a good thing for performers like Rodriguez. He also points to the emergence of a new venue that has become a boon to local Latin acts: Plaza Mariachi.
NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Down on Nolensville Pike,
GIOVANNI RODRIGUEZ
south of the Nashville Zoo and blocks of immigrant-owned businesses, sits Plaza Mariachi. The Latin American-themed mall and venue opened in 2017, and its design incorporates an array of architecture and influences from across Latin America, and its vendors and performers come from a variety of backgrounds. About a year after opening, Plaza Mariachi established itself as a home for so-called world or international music. Latin music has certainly played a big role in that: Entertainment director Eric Wormsbaker says the venue is obligated to host mariachi, given its name, but other traditional and not-so-traditional Latin performance groups have also played the venue. “This is kind of the place where it’s all showcased,” says Wormsbaker. Plaza Mariachi co-founder Diane Janbakhsh, who grew up in Nashville, says that for a long time, Latin music performances were often limited to certain cultural events in this city. “Maybe if there was a certain fundraiser for an organization or maybe someone
thinking about Cinco de Mayo or Mexican Independence [Day] or things that were specifically more Latin-centric, you would find those types of performances,” says Janbakhsh. But now, she says, “It’s become a little bit more mainstream. All of a sudden there’s salsa all over the place.” Before the COVID-19 pandemic put public gatherings on hold, you could find salsa nights at venues like the Hard Rock Cafe, Acme Feed & Seed and The Cowan, which might reflect a bigger musical movement. Latin music, to use the term broadly, has spawned some of the biggest stars today. This year’s Super Bowl halftime show was headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, two established pop icons, and they brought out two of today’s hottest acts: musica urbana stars Bad Bunny and J Balvin. Bad Bunny himself made history with 2020’s YLHQMDLG, which became the highestcharting Spanish-language album ever, debuting at the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200. Rappers and pop artists continue to tap Latinx performers for remixes, and Latinx musicians are making plenty of noise in
nashvillescene.com | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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raul and paola oyarce
On the last night of February, a crowd filtered in to watch Zupernova, a band out of Athens, Ga., playing a tribute show to two rock en español bands: Hombres G from Spain, and Caifanes from Mexico. Groups of friends — mostly Latinos, a mix of young and not-so-young adults — began to get cozy in lounge booths near the stage, while others filled out the bar seating. Some stood on the two balconies, some mingled with drinks in hand. The DJ played a mix of reggae, rock, rap and reggaeton before the opening act took the stage. Raul Oyarce, part of the alt-rock band Aprendiz, and his wife Paola founded Íntimo Nashville three years ago. Raul is still very hands-on: Before the start of this late-February show, he could be found running around the venue, helping out bartenders or greeting friends and guests, a bar towel hanging from his back pocket. Oyarce is originally from Chile and has lived in Nashville for 15 years. When he and his band started to get serious about performing, they had trouble finding places to play — and Oyarce knew they weren’t alone. “I didn’t see much going on in [terms of] opportunities for the Latin community, more than playing in restaurants and things like that,” Oyarce says. So he got to work, knock-
“I believe that once you see a need or you feel a need, you are responsible at least, for doing something about it.” —Raul Oyarce
Hosted at Analog, located
photo: Alejandro Menéndez
sweet lizzy project
inside the Hutton Hotel, Íntimo Nashville offers a diverse array of music — often Spanish-language — across a variety of genres. Until the recent closure of venues, it usually took place twice a month.
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Photo: Eric England
indie circles as well. Even legacy acts are setting new milestones: In 2019, longtime group Los Tigres Del Norte became the first norteño act to perform at Coachella. But this isn’t a new trend — Latin music has been influencing American music for a long time. Legendary pianist Jelly Roll Morton first described the “Spanish tinge” that made New Orleans jazz special way back in 1910 — “Spanish” in that case being a reference to Cuban music. In the late 1940s, Dizzy Gillepsie combined bebop and Afro-Cuban music to form “cu-bop.” In the ’60s, claves and congas drove funk and soul, while Carlos Santana, the son of a mariachi musician, blended together Latin styles, blues, jazz and psych rock. Early country music, especially in the Southwest, borrowed elements of mariachi, ranchera and Mexican guitar work. Latin music itself is formed by several different cultural fusions, exchanges and appropriations. The claves — handheld wooden rods that establish the 3-2 backbone of most Carribean music — come from Africa. Polka set the stage for Northern Mexico’s norteño, and indigenous folklore and traditions make their own marks throughout Latin America. Jazz shaped New York’s Latin music scene in the mid-20th century, influencing mambo and informing offshoots like salsa. Commercialization played a role, too: The cha-cha-cha, a simple Cuban style of song and dance, became a novelty marketed to white Americans thanks to palatable big-band covers and easy dance moves. But despite all this history, hurdles still remain. The Grammys offer few Latin categories, including the ridiculously broad award for “Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album.” Even the Latin Grammys fail to recognize the genre reggaeton, and the Recording Academy falters when it comes to paying tribute to the black musicians who founded and influenced popular musical styles throughout the Americas, as well as the black artists who carry on the popular musical styles. But when it comes to charts and streams, it’s clear that barriers and biases are weakening, and Nashville is starting to meet the demand for Latin music. Grupo and banda acts can find dates at Bucanas on Nolensville Pike, while Ibiza Night Club on Old Hickory Boulevard has booked artists practicing everything from reggaeton to punta. Some big names have come to town, too. Ivy Queen, one of the premier women in reggaeton, performed at Plaza Mariachi in February. Gilberto Santa Rosa, known as “El Caballero del Salsa,” was at TPAC in March. Bachata star Prince Royce — who scored a crossover hit with “Corazon sin Cara” in 2010 — was scheduled to hit town in May, before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled his tour. Still, the local scene clearly needs advocates and ambitious hustlers to keep growing, which is likely why so many Latinos are carving out new homes for local entertainers. In 2017 — around the same time Plaza Mariachi and Rudy’s Jazz Room were opening — one local rockero decided it was time to build a space.
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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Photo: Eric England
Manuel Delgado ing on doors and trying to set up a night for Latin musicians. “I believe that once you see a need or you feel a need, you are responsible at least, for doing something about it.” Íntimo started in East Nashville’s nowclosed 60-person space Radio Cafe. After less than a year, it moved into Analog, a swanky venue that mixes speakeasy decor with club vibes. The showcase has brought a wide range of local and out-of-town talent in genres ranging from rock to pop and reggaeton. Tribute bands are common headliners, and they tend to draw a crowd. Oyarce says the difference between the Latin music scene in Nashville today and the one 15 years ago is comparable to the distance from “earth to heaven”: “It’s still not much compared with big cities, but enough to realize that there is a future.” One local band that could often be found playing the Íntimo series in recent months was Sweet Lizzy Project, performing original material at showcases and headlining one installment with a Shakira tribute. The band members all met in Cuba six years ago, and were featured in a PBS documentary called Havana Time Machine — singer Lisset Díaz says the producers were impressed to find a Cuban rock band that performed in English. They made their way to Nashville after being recruited by Raul Malo, longtime local and the lead singer of Latin-influenced country band The Mavericks, and his label
Mono Mundo. Coming to the States was a tough transition for Sweet Lizzy Project: For the first year, they couldn’t work because they had tourist visas. Even once they got work visas, finding gigs was difficult. Not only was there a lot of competition to find room in a show’s lineup, but venues and bookers didn’t know what to do with a Cuban rock outfit — sometimes due to misconceptions about their style of music. The band endured — they’re used to being misfits, they say. “We were weirdos in Cuba,” says Díaz, noting that her band didn’t play traditional music and didn’t sing in Spanish, which concerned government officials who couldn’t understand them. Still, they had a following in Cuba. Their biggest hit was “Turn Up the Radio,” an English cover of Enrique Iglesias’ “Súbeme la Radio.” The band’s latest album, February’s Technicolor, shows off their range of influences — from ambient psych tracks to crunchy rock jams and Latin-pop-influenced songs. They even have a couple of Spanishlanguage tracks. While there’s been an influx of talent from other states and other countries, there are also folks dedicated to nurturing the next generation of local talent, especially within the public school system. And the next generation of Latin music in Nashville might sound a lot like mariachi.
Guitar-maker and musician
Manuel Delgado says that when he first came to Nashville in 2005, most groups billing themselves as mariachis didn’t quite fit the description — they would be four-artist outfits, rather than the fuller ensembles that numbered closer to a dozen performers. “As far as what a traditional, true mariachi is, we didn’t have anything like that at the time,” Delgado says. “They’re playing, you know, rancheras or sones” or other Mexican genres, he says, but not the true orchestra that makes a mariachi. Delgado loves all types of music, but mariachi is close to his heart — it’s an appreciation passed down from his father and grandfather, just like his guitar-making business. In 2018, he launched the Music City Mariachi Festival, an annual showcase of top-notch mariachis at the Schermerhorn. He and his team worked hard to get out the word and find their audience. “We’re not just posting it on social media or doing some of the local radio,” he says. “We’re going to the taquerias and we’re putting up posters, and we’re going to the very community that we know would want this event.” Delgado has been a big proponent of school mariachi programs both locally and across the country. He got involved for a while in the Music City Music Makes Us Program in 2013, which set up school mariachis
at Glencliff High School and Wright Middle School. Gabriela Fuentes currently runs the program at Glencliff, as well as Mariachi Los Potrillos, an offshoot made up of students and alumni that gigs around town regularly. Fuentes came to Nashville five years ago, after running Texas’ largest middle school mariachi program in San Antonio. What impressed her most about Nashville was the diversity — her program at Glencliff has kids with roots from Laos, Korea and a host of Latin American countries. These aren’t kids who are third- or sixth-generation mariachis that you can find in California or Mexico — but neither is Fuentes. She’s the first mariachi in her family, and she’s spent 25 years performing, teaching and navigating an often male-dominated artform. She credits her success to being a “stubborn Mexican woman.” One of the biggest misconceptions about mariachi, says Fuentes, is that people see these groups as “background music, or they see them as accompanying artists as opposed to the frontline artists. And they really are fantastic artists, with a high caliber of musicianship.” Fuentes still plays occasionally. She sat in once with Mariachi Sol Azteca, regulars at Plaza Mariachi, and calls that experience “the most intense workout of my life.” She has also played harp for Stephani Urbina Jones and her honky-tonk mariachi.
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But right now she’s focused on education more than performing, and adds that for the scene to grow in Nashville, students and adults alike need to learn more about what mariachi is and isn’t. Of course, it isn’t easy for any arts or music program in public schools, and Glencliff’s mariachi is no exception. But Fuentes is heartened to know there are a lot of people working to educate and support
young artists and Latin musicians in the community. Her students, like other Latin musicians throughout Nashville, need support, venues and resources. “It’s so important, because we do have a generation coming up,” Fuentes says. “I want to give them those resources, those weapons to be mariachi heroes or mariachi warriors.” Email Editor@nashvillEscEnE.com
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Critics’ Picks
[GO POSTAL]
Revive the Art of Letter Writing
Nearly two decades ago, my older brother sent me a letter. “Dear Sibling,” it read. “I would like to propose a social experiment ... a study in non-traditional communication, if you will. What would you say to a series of letters written to one another, entitled ‘Dear Sibling’?” So began a years-long series of correspondence among me and my siblings, who were spread out in Brooklyn, N.Y., New Orleans, Chicago and Arizona. Though our campaign tapered off after several years, these letters are my prized possessions. They gave me the sense of security, belonging and acceptance that I sorely needed in my early 20s. Few things beat the delight of opening your mailbox to find a letter from someone you love. If you’ve got the blues right now, a pen pal might help you feel a sense of solace. (It can’t hurt to spend some time off the internet either.) What’s more, some unconventional resources are available to help you get started. A platform called Postcrossing allows users to send and receive postcards to and from strangers
Mystery science theater 3000
all over the world. I was a member back in the Aughts, when I sent and received 225 (!) postcards, and I’ve recently reactivated my account. I’ll be sending a handmade card to a man named Klaus in Dorsten, Germany. If you’d like to keep your letters local, a Nashvillian named Jason Brown has launched a mail-art project called “my view from home.” Send Brown a mailable piece of artwork — large or small — and he’ll include it in a collection that will be posted on his website and later donated to the Special Collections at the Vanderbilt University Library. Brown has spearheaded many international mail-art projects in the past, and this one is sure to bring in art from around the globe. Learn more at myviewfromhomemailart.wordpress.com. ERICA CICCARONE
FILM
writing
revive the art of letter writing
[A NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE … IS HERE]
Riff Along With Mystery Science Theater 3000
When I’ve found myself in times of trouble, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has been there — helping me laugh, even when it didn’t seem like there was much
E D I T I O N
to laugh about. If you’re not familiar with the beloved TV show, here’s the gist: A hapless proletarian is held captive by an evil scientist who forces him to watch C-grade sci-fi flicks, knockoff fantasy films and more. With no way to escape, our hero takes the edge off the tedium by riffing on the (miserable excuses for) movies with help from two wisecracking robots. The best of the gags and bits are superb, and waiting for them to land is kind of like fishing, a balm for the overstimulated brain. Maybe most importantly in our time of responsible self-quarantine: The show pretty quickly makes you feel like you’re part of the club. More than 100 episodes from the original 1988-1999 run — including classic drive-in fodder like Bride of the Monster and the baffling cult feature Manos: The Hands of Fate — are available to stream via Shout! Factory TV (direct from shoutfactorytv.com or through dedicated channels on Roku and elsewhere). The two outstanding seasons produced for Netflix in the 2017-2018 reboot remain available there. (The reboot was not renewed; here’s hoping it finds a new home after COVID-19 is under control.) And there’s an official Twitch channel (twitch.tv/mst3k) streaming episodes 24/7, with the added bonus of the comment pane to riff along with your fellow social distancers. STEPHEN TRAGESER [TELL THEM DAISY SENT YOU]
Build Your Own Streaming Jennifer Jason Leigh Film Fest
Over the past month we’ve brought you a handful of different premises for building your own streaming film festivals right from your couch — the films of Martin Scorsese, the films of Bong Joon-ho, the essential performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman. This week we’re taking a brisk stroll through the wildly diverse work of one of cinema’s most talented and underappreciated actresses, the peerless Jennifer Jason Leigh. With more than 60 film credits to her name, JJL has a rich enough catalog that you could probably keep yourself entertained solely by watching
her titles from now until this godforsaken pandemic is through. But for the sake of brevity we’ll skip around a bit, starting with Amy Heckerling’s 1982 teen romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which is available for rental via Amazon Prime starting at $4 and features an incredible ensemble of stars-to-be. Jump ahead a decade from there to Leigh’s career-defining role in 1992’s absolutely killer Single White Female, which is free to stream on Crackle — I know, I know, that means skipping Last Exit to Brooklyn and Heart of Midnight, among others, but only so much is available to stream. Lighten the mood a bit with Leigh’s wise-crackin’, fast-talkin’ reporter Amy Archer in 1994’s Coen Brothers flick The Hudsucker Proxy (on HBO Now). If you’re up for another thriller, consider 1995’s Dolores Claiborne (available via Amazon Prime for $4), which also features a top-shelf turn from Kathy Bates. Bring it home with Tarantino’s 2015 Western The Hateful Eight (JJL shines as the rotten scoundrel Daisy Domergue) and the Safdie brothers’ cripplingly tense 2017 effort Good Time, both of which are on Netflix. If you’re still fiending for more Leigh and aren’t afraid to explore some of her weirder and darker films, consider hunting down DVD copies of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Brad Anderson’s The Machinist, or return to Synecdoche, New York (also one of our recommendations in last week’s Build-YourOwn Hoffman Fest). Jennifer Jason Leigh simply doesn’t offer bad or boring work — dive in. D. PATRICK RODGERS fitness
D I S T A N C I N G
FILM
S O C I A L
[GET UP]
Work Out With Tisha Wilson
I first learned about Tisha Wilson from a 2018 episode of the local podcast Neighbors. The fitness instructor has a loyal — some might say fanatical — local following thanks to her energizing, hyperpositive workouts, which sometimes draw 60 people. Wilson’s message is one of resilience, and she’s open about her journey: She dropped out of high school, and she and her three children were homeless for a time. But Wilson rose from the ashes
Single White Female
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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design your own preMium goo goo
Play Stardew Valley
I used to have a full spectrum of emotions, but these days it feels like all of my feelings are wrapped up in either wanting to engage or wanting to check out. The perfect match for both moods is the comforting, addicting video game Stardew Valley, which is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android. Its old-school graphics and satisfying sound effects nudge you into its world — you develop a character, get some farmland, develop relationships and build/plant/mine/fish your way through the seasons. There’s something for everyone — a wizard you can befriend, a mouse who sells weird hats, and even an interior-design element that keeps me busy for hours at a time. But it all feels grounded in the modern era — you can choose a same-sex partner and nobody makes a deal about it, there’s an undercurrent of anticorporate mentality, and some of the characters have dark, intense backstories that unfold over time. Something about the close community interaction and repetitive structure make it
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Get Into Tarot
[Just Eat It]
Design Your Own Premium Goo Goo
What junk foods are you craving right now? Oreos? Potato chips? A big bowl of sugary breakfast cereal? Me too. All of it. But these days we can’t just go to the store willy-nilly to grab whatever it is we’re craving on a day-to-day basis. Thankfully, the good folks at Goo Goo Cluster are here to help satiate your sweet tooth. They’ve made their Design Your Own Premium Goo Goo available online for the first time ever. You start by choosing a milk- or dark-chocolate shell, and then you fill it with two “sweets” (softer, spreadable fillings like nougat, nutella, peanut butter, caramel and more) and up to three “add-ins” (including Oreos, chocolate-chip cookies, potato chips, Nilla wafers, toffee, a variety of chopped nuts and even breakfast cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Fruity Pebbles). Then the Goo Goo pros build your creation and ship it to you via USPS or, if you’re local, deliver it
via Postmates. No need to talk to anyone, no need to leave the couch, all for just under 10 bucks. You can even have them shipped to friends or family who might need their own chocolate-coated pick-me-up! (Some advice: Snag one of the Cheerwine Goo Goos, too — it’s filled with peanuts and Cheerwine nougat and caramel, and it’s fantastic.) Visit googoo.com to order. MEGAN SELING [Heart’s Filthy Lesson]
The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart
Look. The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart isn’t gonna be great. It’s probably not even gonna be good. But I’m still going to embrace this opportunity to be distracted by a heavily produced “reality” train wreck on my TV if only to temporarily escape the very real and dangerous train wreck happening outside my window. Here’s the deal: Twenty single musicians are moving into the Bachelor mansion to collaborate musically and … biblically. They’ll perform popular songs together, they’ll date each other, there will be hundreds of terrible music-related puns, and in the end, several of them will no doubt walk away heartbroken. And of course there are several Nashville-based musicians on the cast list. This is Music City, baby! So be on the lookout for Brandon Mills, Jamie Gabrielle, Josh Hester and Savannah McKinley. And according to America’s favorite spoiler Reality Steve, the finale was filmed right here in Nashville, at the Country Music Hall of Fame. If you don’t want to commit to tuning in, you can
still bathe in all the glorious drama every Tuesday morning when Nfocus editor and brave Bachelor/Bachelorette recapper Nancy Floyd will bless us with her hilarious and on-point summaries. 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, on ABC MEGAN SELING FILM
tarot
[WHEEL OF FORTUNE]
Two years ago, I received a Rider-Waite tarot deck as a Christmas stockingstuffer. About two weeks ago, I actually started to play around with it, and try my idle hand at some amateur clairvoyance. Before really diving in, all I had ever done was admire the illustrations — mystical medieval renderings of the two groups of tarot: the Minor Arcana (cups, wands, pentacles and swords) and the Major Arcana (The Fool, The Lovers, Death and 19 more). The Rider-Waite deck was illustrated in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith, and her symbols are colorful, bold and arguably the most recognizable tarot cards in the English-speaking world. Even better, they’re metaphorically clear enough that beginners can discern the difference between ill fortune and fair. There are countless books and websites going into finer — and likely contradictory — detail on the proper ways to play the prophet, so I’m just using the 35page instruction booklet handily provided by the good diviners at U.S. Games Systems Inc. — and my own vibes. ASHLEY SPURGEON FOOD & DRINK
Gaming
[PURPLE MUSHROOMS MAJESTY]
the perfect antidote to feeling isolated and anxious. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
TV
work out with tisha wilson and transformed her physical lifestyle, and she’s now on track to earn a doctoral degree in health care administration. She uses the lessons she learned to inspire her fans. The workouts are like Zumba, but with strengthening exercises like push-ups and squats — and twerking! — and are peppered with calls to respect yourself, love each other and hold your head up. I’m not sure I can think of a more suitable message right now. Wilson says on Neighbors: “My role is to give others hope when you feel like there’s no hope. They see someone who won’t stop, no matter what.” Physical exercise will do you good, and in the privacy of your living room, you will only look silly to your cat, who disdains you and all humans anyway. While Wilson is sheltering in place, she is offering four classes per week on Zoom for $3 per class. Classes will take place at 6:50 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at 10:20 a.m. on Saturdays. Learn more at facebook.com/ KatherineTishaWilson and Instagram at @tishawilson0826. ERICA CICCARONE
PHOTO: Phillip Fryman
critics’ picks
[FESTIVE]
SXSW Film Fest Shorts Streaming
During quarantine life we’ve seen concert events, literary readings, art exhibitions and more attempt to embrace digital technology in hopes of pivoting from live audience happenings to virtual experiences. Many of these have been hitand-miss affairs where the informality of virtual presentations is sort of refreshing, but the experience pales in comparison to the real thing. Movies have more easily jumped from screening calendars to streaming platforms in the wake of the pandemic because lots of folks already prefer their homes to theatergoing. I personally love going to the theater — as do plenty of other cinephiles — but now that we’re all watching from couches, we’ve come into a golden age of movie streaming. The virus outbreak precipitated the canceling of South by Southwest last month, but thankfully the massive, longrunning Austin-based arts festival has made 70 of its short films free to stream. It’s a wildly diverse lineup of shorts, from documentaries like Olivia Loomis Merrion’s “Quilt Fever” and Nicole Bazuin’s “Modern Whore” to animated pieces like Miu Nakata’s “Wish Upon a Snowman” and Emma Nebeker’s “Tattwo.” Find all
The Bachelor Presents: listen to your heart
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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critics’ picks
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[YOU THINK TOO MUCH]
Meditate
If you’re the kind of person who is inclined to believe that meditation is New Age hokum designed to help you achieve some mystical enlightenment, I’ll share a story with you. It’s a story I heard when, during a period of crisis in my life in the mid-1990s, I began attending a weekly Zen meditation group at the Cleveland Buddhist Temple. Before we began our meditation one evening, one of the group’s senior leaders, Dennis, shared an experience he had several years earlier. He was getting deep into Eastern mysticism, and he decided to track down a legendary guru in India whom Dennis had heard could teach him how to levitate. Dennis made the journey to a remote locale in India, which began with a long bus ride, then a cab ride and an arduous hike, before he finally encountered the guru (in a cave, if I remember correctly). When Dennis asked him to teach him to levitate, the guru responded, “I could do that, but you’d still be the same asshole three feet off the ground that you are sitting right there.” Zen (along with many other forms of meditation) isn’t so much about achieving some elusive and magical enlightenment as it is about simply learning to be fully present in the moment (and that in itself can be pretty elusive). For several years during that period I had a daily practice of sitting cross-legged on a cushion, setting a timer, focusing on my breathing, and gradually letting go of the thought-clutter in my mind, so as to be more present. Though the sessions could sometimes feel frustrating or futile, over time I noticed a profound change, as the self-defeating thought patterns and selfdestructive behavior I had been living with for years began to slip away. Eventually my daily practice slipped away too, though its positive impact on my life was still with me. About two weeks ago — spurred on by both the increased anxiety level we are all feeling and the abundance of free time that the stayat-home pandemic life has provided — I once again started sitting cross-legged on a cushion each morning. I’m still a relative novice in the Zen world, but one thing I know: It’s like watching grass grow — each day it may seem like nothing is happening, but check back in a couple months and the lawn is 2 feet high. There are countless resources online to get you started if you search “Zen” or “meditation.” There is
FIlM
VOTED BEST FOR 15 YEARS!
one book that I found incredibly helpful in my practice in the ’90s, and that I recently began reading again: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki. And if you think there’s no way you could try meditation because you think too much … well, that’s exactly why you should try it. JACK SILVERMAN [PAINT IT GREY]
Watch a Genesis P-OrridGe dOcuMentary On satanic teMPle tV
When English multimedia artist Genesis P-Orridge died from leukemia on March 14, it sent tremors through subcultures in music, art and the occult. P-Orridge was the founder of the COUM Transmissions art collective and a member of the occult group Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, and they’re perhaps best known as lead vocalist in the pioneering industrial group Throbbing Gristle. P-Orridge also embraced body modification, and had extreme views on gender and the nature of the self. All of these combined into The Pandrogeny Project, which found the artist and their wife Lady Jaye collaborating to create a single, mutual identity. P-Orridge made a career out of provocation, and it’s no surprise that the 2016 biographical documentary Change Itself: An Art Apart is illuminating viewing for fans and newbies alike. It’s a great introduction to The Satanic Temple TV, a streaming service that launched last year and features original series, livestreams of rituals and ceremonies, and video footage of lectures and interviews. Check it out at thesatanictemple.tv, where you can preview tons of content for free, or sign up for a monthly fee of $9.99. JOE NOLAN THeATeR
: Winners’ Reader poll
wellness
of the films, presented by Oscilloscope Laboratories and Mailchimp, at mailchimp. com/presents/sxsw. Enjoy! JOE NOLAN
[BRIDGING THE GAP]
enrOll in Online classes With actOrs BridGe enseMBle
For nearly 25 years, Actors Bridge Ensemble has been telling “the stories that Nashville needs to hear.” And that mission continues — even in these uncertain times. Beginning April 15, Actors Bridge will offer a series of online courses, including a class in storytelling and an introduction to the Meisner technique. Storytelling students will take part in five virtual group sessions, plus a one-on-one coaching session with Actors Bridge artistic director Vali Forrister, before debuting a personal, polished story in a virtual format modeled after the ensemble’s popular First Time Story events. Actors Bridge is also offering a five-session introduction to the Meisner technique. Developed by Sanford Meisner (of New York’s influential Group Theatre and the Neighborhood Playhouse), the technique is all about getting out of your head and into the moment — a skill that we could all use right now. Interestingly enough, Meisner created many of his famous acting exercises while convalescing in the hospital, unable to engage with the outside world. Visit actorsbridge.org for complete details. AMY STUMPFL
Each day we’ll give you a critic’s pick for a restaurant and a dish, as well as a running list of restaurants still open that you can support.
NashvilleScene.com/food-drink 20
NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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Photo: Eric England
food and drink
LeeAnn Cherry and her son Grant McKenzie sort meat orders at Bear Creek Farm
A Call to Farms
How area farmers are adapting to COVID-19’s challenges By Jennifer Justus
J
ulie Vaughn’s phone started to ping while she stood in the fields at her Rocky Glade Farm harvesting crops for restaurant clients. That’s when she knew something was up. “ ‘Don’t harvest that order,’ ” she recalls reading in texts, “or, ‘Let’s cut that order.’ ” The effects of the coronavirus had started to hit restaurants, with owners contemplating changing models or shutting doors. “We took one order to Nashville,” Vaughn says, “and on the way, my husband saw that [the restaurant] was closing.” (Vaughn tells the Scene that the restaurant bought the order anyway and dispersed it to employees.) As with so many of us in Middle Tennessee, that was the second time last month that Vaughn and her husband Jim had been blindsided — a tornado followed by a crippling pandemic. On March 3, Jim came upon traffic while he was heading into Nashville to deliver produce. “We didn’t know the tornado had hit,” Julie says. “He left at 4 a.m. to
deliver and couldn’t get downtown.” LeeAnn Cherry of Bear Creek Farm, who grows beef for many restaurant clients in Nashville and throughout the Southeast, tells a similar story. She pulled into Atlanta on a delivery only to discover via Instagram that the restaurant client had closed. Both Cherry and Vaughn have dedicated a large portion of their business to restaurants, as does Dustin Noble of Noble Spring Dairy. “About half our business is restaurant customers,” Noble says. “That is nonexistent right now.” Farmers — like their restaurant friends — have had to pivot and scramble for creative ways to get their food in the hands of consumers. Animals still need to be fed and grass still needs to be planted, which of course involves expenses and labor. Vegetables must be harvested, rerouted or preserved to keep them from going to waste. Meanwhile, other farmers with larger wholesale grocery clients scramble to keep up with increased demand.
Bells bend farms produce box in collaboration with Nicky’s Coal Fired
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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food and drink the new system by remembering visits to the old market — which had a drive-thru — with her grandmother. And while farmers markets are considered essential services under Metro’s “Safer at Home” COVID-19 response, and technically the sheds could stay open, Kennard says the downtown market also had to weigh all safety concerns — especially at a location that can draw 2,000 people a day. Kennard says she sees farmers who are struggling with decreased foot traffic and missed restaurant sales, but she also sees farmers who are thriving through wholesale grocery accounts. Regardless of the market, she “hopes it results in more local product in our grocery stores.” And as the growing season picks up in May, Kennard hopes food won’t be wasted, with institutional buyers like hospitals and schools perhaps stepping into the equation. “Farmers and small businesses need as much support as you can give them right now,” Kennard says. “We’ve all just got to have hope and faith that however this looks on the other side, we’ll be stronger and better.” Indeed, farmers like Vaughn, Cherry and Noble — despite all the pivots — sound resolved and committed, even though change won’t come easily or quickly. In a true display of community, there’s a give-and-take at play, too — the farmers offer support for the restaurants, and the restaurant owners offer support for the farms. Catering service The Party Line and Gulch restaurant Biscuit Love sell pantry boxes through their websites, which include Bear Creek meats and other local products. “They have fed my family for 15 years,” Cherry says of local restaurants. And she’s doing her best to support them too. She recently picked up a to-go pizza from East Nashville’s Folk and drove it back to Thompson Station. Her only complaint? Not being able to eat it in the car until she could wash
her hands. Likewise, Vaughn mentions the curbside service at Folk too, as well as its sister restaurant Rolf and Daughters in Germantown. “We’ve been doing business with [Folk and Rolf chef-owner] Philip Krajeck for over seven years,” Vaughn says. “Through this virus thing they are very committed to their core farmers, and we appreciate that very much.” Perhaps it should come as no surprise
that farmers — long toughened by hard work and the whims of weather and other unforeseen circumstances — pass along the resilience and hope they find in the rhythms of nature. So even as they work to keep their businesses afloat, the farmers can often be heard giving their customers a pep talk too. “To be a farmer, you have to have faith,” says Vaughn. “We have a lot of faith here. It’s all gonna be OK.” Email arts@nashvillescene.com
Photo: Eric England
“Anybody that’s in business — when you look at strengths and weaknesses, whether you’re a nail salon or dry cleaner — you could not prepare for this,” Cherry says. And still, they figure out how to carry on in new ways. Rocky Glade has teamed up with Hatcher Family Dairy to sell at the dairy’s farm store. Cherry continues to sell at markets where safety precautions have been put in place, and she launched a farm store at her property. Customers can preorder or just show up there on Wednesdays between 3 and 6 p.m. for meat boxes or à la carte orders from Bear Creek as well as other farms. Additional online platforms are forthcoming. Noble, who sold to restaurants as well as large hotels and the Music City Center, will continue to make cheese — because “it has to be made” — and sell at markets as well as a farm stand on his property. He’s also looking at making cheeses that need to be aged longer or have a longer shelf life. Other farms — like Growing Together, a program of The Nashville Food Project — have expanded the number of CSA shares they are offering to help offset restaurant revenue. In a smart farm-restaurant collaboration, Eric Wooldridge of Bells Bend Farms and chef Tony Galzin of Nicky’s Coal Fired teamed up for cooking classes that involve farm produce. Wooldridge tells Galzin on Sundays what he’ll be harvesting for the week. Galzin gives it some thought as the farm bags go up for sale to customers ($20 for two people), and then Galzin hosts his demo with recipes on Fridays. Guests can cook along with him at home if they’d like. “We’re just doing it for free and asking people to donate,” Galzin says. Anything — five, 10 bucks, or buy a gift card.” Even the Nashville Farmers’ Market launched a drive-thru service with farmers vending from the parking lot instead of beneath the farm sheds. Executive director Tasha Kennard found inspiration to create
tailgate brewery offers a make-and-bake home pizza kit
Visit Bites! As much of the restaurant industry has had to change its business model due to COVID-19, we’re highlighting the Nashville businesses that are attempting to stay open via a takeout/delivery option. Each day we’ll give you a critic’s pick for a restaurant and a dish, as well as a running list of restaurants still open that you can support. Morning Star Farms at the Nashville Farmers’ market drive-thru
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Visit nashvillescene.com/food-drink.
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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culture
Kid Connections
Local artists and organizations provide online resources for families
A
s families continue to adjust to last month’s “Safer at Home” order from Metro government, parents may be struggling to find ways to keep kids engaged and entertained. Fortunately, the Nashville arts community has stepped up in a big way, adapting existing programs and developing new content for online use. “One of the things I love most about theater artists is that they’re creative problem solvers,” says Ernie Nolan, executive artistic director at Nashville Children’s Theatre. “We’re used to responding to changes and limitations in a positive manner, and I’m so proud of what our education team has been able to put together. It won’t ever replace the magic that happens in our own building, but we’re embracing the possibilities and redefining the ways in which we can serve our community.” One of those ways is through online classes. The NCT Drama School is now offering several interactive classes for children ages 3 to 18, and it will continue to add new options as long as schools remain closed. Online classes include drama activities designed to spark the imagination and develop “actor’s toolbox” skills, such as movement and voice. Following each session, students also learn a couple of athome activities, which they can do at their own pace. “We’ve also created a series of two-minute ‘drama breaks,’ which we’re posting online,” Nolan says. “They’re just quick games and activities that incorporate movement and imagination. It’s a great way to take a break from schoolwork or screen time, and kids can enjoy them once or repeat throughout the day.” Individual artists are also responding with creative ideas. Ginny Shockley has developed a four-week “Digital Drama” supplement for homeschoolers that covers everything from musical theater to comedy and improv. Each week, families receive five lessons, which include a video introduction and corresponding materials and activities. Lessons can be adapted to meet different schedules and age groups, with classes lasting 30 to 90 minutes. “I wanted to make this as easy as possible for parents,” says Shockley, an independent teaching artist who works with Metro Parks and Recreation, the Franklin School of Performing Arts and Scales Elementary School. “Lessons can be broken down by age group, and tuition is $20 per household. So for families with kids at different levels, they’re able to organize accordingly.” For families looking for more informal options, David Wilkerson has introduced a free YouTube series titled Corona Combat: Rapier Edition. The classes, which generally run about 15 minutes, cover the basics of rapier fighting and offer a great way for older kids — or even adults — to stay active. “With so much uncertainty out there, I wanted to put something together that would be fun and just get people moving,”
says Wilkerson, a respected actor/director/ fight choreographer and lecturer at MTSU. “It’s really straightforward — you don’t need any stage experience, and you don’t actually need a rapier. You can just grab a yardstick or even a regular stick from the yard and you’re set. I’ve heard from a lot of parents and teachers, and response has been really positive. It’s a fun way to stay busy, pick up a new skill and blow off some steam — and that’s something we can all use right now.” Of course, younger kids need a break too. Jenna Pryor has been booking personalized, in-character princess videos for little ones. (Check her out on Instagram at @thenashvilleprincess.) The actor — who regularly performs at Chaffin’s Barn and has been doing children’s princess parties for six years — can customize videos to include birthday greetings, story times, songs and more. “It’s a confusing time for little ones, with so much of their routine disrupted,” says Pryor. “And it’s especially disappointing for those forced to cancel birthday parties or Disney trips. So I’m happy to bring a little magic into their day. I talk with parents first, so I can customize my message. And because it’s on video, the kids are able to watch over and over again. It’s a nice way for families to connect.” And connection is what it’s all about for Cori Anne Laemmel, artistic director of The
photo: Reed Hummell
By Amy Stumpfl
Nashville Children’s theatre Drama School Theater Bug — a youth arts program known for tackling important social issues. The Bug is currently putting together Quaranteened, an original virtual musical for writers and actors ages 13 to 19. “I think social distancing is particularly tough for teens — so much of their world is wrapped up in school activities and friends,” Laemmel says. “So we wanted to provide an outlet for them.” At the end of March, The Theater Bug invited teens to submit scenes, songs and monologues that center on “the teen ex-
perience of the current social distancing/ quarantine culture.” Script development and casting will be directed remotely, with actors self-taping scenes and songs. Those pieces will then be edited together to create the final product, which should be available for download later this month. “Art has the power to bring people together — even if just remotely,” Laemmel adds. “Kids have big, important things to say, and I’m thrilled that we can make sure those voices are heard.” Email arts@nashvillescene.com
Jenna Pryor
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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Slick Like Dark By Meg Wade Tupelo Press $12.95 Meg Wade
My Mountains, My Home Talking with poet Meg Wade about her ‘horny book of sad country songs’ By Erica Ciccarone
W
hen Meg Wade was in graduate school at the University of Arizona, someone in her poetry workshop called her a “bad woman” — not because of how she conducted herself, but because of the poems she submitted to the class. Wade, an East Tennessee native, writes about faith, desire, violence and the Southern landscape. Her new chapbook Slick Like Dark implores us not to look away from darkness, but to explore what we find in the darkness, and use it for survival. The book begins with the “banjo clawhammer horror” of a young woman being raped in a restaurant basement, her skull bashed into a shelf full of peach cans. “A lady carries around this darkness until she gets tired,” the poem reads. “I am so tired.” In the next 15 poems, the woman tries to take her sexuality back, to feel that her body is hers again. In the process, she finds that grief and desire are twin sisters, and she de-
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mands to know where God is in all of it. Slick Like Dark can be read in one sitting — and re-read later on — because the speaker’s journey out of the dark has a narrative arc that reads more like fiction. The chapbook is dark, but not bleak. It’s grisly, but not morbid. Wade writes: “If something is beautiful / it’s frightening.” Wade is the co-founder of the poetryevents engine Be Witched, and she teaches poetry at The Porch Writers’ Collective. She also runs the Poetry Prescription Service. For $10 per month, Wade will send you a poem by a contemporary poet each morning, along with a prescription for getting through the day. One reads: “If you can visit horses, go see your horses. If not, call your neighbor, drink your coffee, butter your bread.” You can subscribe by emailing rxpoetry@gmail.com. The Scene talked to Wade about Slick Like Dark, sex, Dolly Parton and what poets can offer during challenging times.
How did you go about putting Slick Like Dark together? I grew up watching the Grand Ole Opry at my Mimi’s house, watching Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, all these women who would take the stage and tell these incredibly vulnerable stories. You know, Dolly Parton is 4-foot-8, and when she sings on that stage, you can’t take your eyes off of her, right? I went to grad school writing like old, dead white dudes. Finally, I had a professor who said, “Why don’t you write like you talk?” I started going back through all these old influences. I started talking to my mom more. I started talking to my grandmother more — these women that are poets but not writers. The way that they use idioms in their everyday [lives] was super inspiring, like that line [in the chapbook] “even a blind hog finds an acre every now and then.” My mom says that all the time ’cause she gets lost when she drives.
Setting is a big part of your book, both regionally and in a smaller sense, on a single-bladeof-grass level. Where did you grow up, and has it made its way into your poetry? I grew up in East Tennessee in this little town called Maryville, in Blount County. It’s right at the foothills of the Smokies, maybe 10 miles from the Smoky Mountains National Park. I spent a lot of time in the park and in those
Photo: Daniel Meigs
books
woods and those creeks and those rivers and in that sort of dark space. I never wrote about the South until I left the South. ... And then all of a sudden, I would look at the mountains in Arizona and … see every little nook and cranny. And I would think back to the mountains that raised me and how secretive they were and how dark and how things were hidden. You could see them, but they were always covered by trees. You would walk through these rhododendron tunnels and you could barely even see the sky. That had a huge effect on the way that I was going to tell the story, because the landscape was such a character. I needed to be able to create this place that did feel dangerous. … There was always some sort of a threat.
Lately it seems like the only stories to tell are ones of struggle and resilience — or maybe those have always been the stories we tell. But Slick Like Dark definitely shows a narrator living through hell and eventually coming back to herself. Was writing these poems healing for you? Writing the book definitely changed me, the same way that violence changes people. I didn’t mean to write this book. … The whole chapbook was born out of the line “Desire is a miracle. Here, let me show you.” That was like, All right. This is the meat. This is what I’m trying to get
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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books
Vital. Relevant. Local. 1.1 MILLION PEOPLE REACHED A MONTH MARCH 12–18, 2020 I voluMe 39 I nuMbeR 6 I nAsHvIlles Cene.CoM
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Photo: DaniEl mEigs
at. I knew if I had a responsibility to show somebody this darkness and this grief and this loss, I had the same responsibility to show them the light and to show them how to come out of that in one way or another, even if it’s only momentarily. Desire and the body was how I could get there.
Your poems are extraordinarily embodied. Women’s bodies are sites of struggle because of violence against women, because cultural and political wars are waged on our bodies and whether we have control over them. Can you speak on how this has become such a part of your work? For so long I sort of ignored that part of me that could be open about my sexuality because it had encountered violence, and it could be such a source of shame. … I grew up in a very small town in the South, and you couldn’t be open about these things. Once I started writing this book and really took a look at the things that made me feel empowered in my body and in my sexuality, I felt more and more comfortable making those ties between landscape and the body — especially between female bodies and the Southern landscape and how both of them
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are sites that have been romanticized, but they’ve also seen so much violence. I wanted to be able to lace them together in a way that I and maybe other people could understand, so it didn’t feel so lonely. I’m a person who really enjoys sex. I’m a person who has found my way back to myself through sex. There’s a reason we say Oh God when we have sex. There’s a divine presence that lives very physically, and I wanted the poems to be shaped through that river.
What role can poets play in the world right now? I think reading a poem is an act of belief, and therefore writing a poem is an act of faith. … I wrote this horny book of sad country songs. I thought to myself, “Well, shit. Why would anyone want to read a horny book of sad country songs right now?” But maybe if the book makes them feel anything, then that’s something. I know for me there are days that I just want to numb out, but I also know that I’m not built for that. I’m built to step up and say, “Let’s feel some things. Let me give you the words to feel some things.” Email arts@nashvillEsCEnE.Com
Home Page provieds a hyper-local daily online news media for the communities of Bellevue, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville and Spring Hill
nashvillescene.com | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE
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music
They Called It Rock Veteran Nashville roots rocker Webb Wilder keeps it fresh on Night Without Love By Edd Hurt
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f you’ve ever stopped for a minute and pondered the history of rock ’n’ roll, you might have tried to solve a problem that has bedeviled generations of musicians. In its original form, rock wasn’t inclined to look at its roots, and nobody cared. Chuck Berry might have imitated the licks of a now-forgotten figure like R&B guitarist Carl Hogan, and Elvis Presley certainly referenced bluegrass and blues tunes. But Berry wrote about Night Without Love out the world he knew, April 10 via Landslide which was populated Records by teenagers who liked to drink Coca-Cola and drive around in shiny automobiles with radios that were tuned to stations playing Chuck Berry records at maximum volume. Worrying about their musical roots was the last thing Presley, Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe likely had on their minds. On his superb new album Night Without Love, veteran Nashville roots rocker Webb Wilder doesn’t answer the questions some musicians raise about the relationship between modernity and history. This is because Wilder doesn’t acknowledge the problem — and sure enough, there might not be one, at least as far as the sound and feel of the music is concerned. Among his many other accomplishments over a four-decade career, Wilder helped invent modern rock in Nashville, a town full of singers, songwriters and pickers who walk the thin tightrope that connects the old with the new. Wilder remains nimble, which makes him a local legend and a national treasure. Wilder, who has lived in Nashville since 1982, cut Night Without Love over the past four years at producer and multi-instrumentalist George Bradfute’s Madison studio, Tone Chapparal. In every way, Wilder’s latest music builds upon the virtues of his groundbreaking 1986 release It Came From Nashville. That collection found the Mississippi-born singer covering songs by Steve Earle, Hank Williams Sr. and Roy Orbison, and playing tunes written by his longtime collaborator and fellow Mississippian, producer and musician R.S. Field. Night Without Love’s first-rate production values mark it as a modern album. But Wilder’s devotion to the verities of country, pub rock and British Invasion pop launches it into the timeless space occupied by greats like Dave Edmunds, NRBQ and Alex Chilton. “I liked The Beatles and The Porter Wagoner Show, and The Beatles kind of gave me the directive that what you did to be a cool artist was to include variety,” says Wilder about his childhood in Hattiesburg, where he was born John Webb McMurry in 1954. Like other Nashville musicians whose tour plans have been interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, he’s taking a break at home. Wilder tells me he listened to Ricky Nel-
son and Presley as a young rock fan in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Furthering his education as a future rocker, Field — another music-obsessed Hattiesburg native — fueled his enthusiasm for British Invasion bands like The Kinks and The Who. In fact, Field, who wrote Night Without Love’s title track, moved to Nashville around the same time Wilder did. He looms large in Wilder’s legend: Field helped invent the Webb Wilder persona in 1981, while the aspiring rockers were still living in Mississippi. Working with a young filmmaker named Steve Mims, who was finishing his senior thesis in Hattiesburg at The University of Southern Mississippi, Field wrote the outline for a short movie titled “Webb Wilder, Private Eye,” which starred McMurry. The sobriquet combined McMurry’s middle name with the last name of his aunt, Montressa Wilder. “I based my then-shitty plot on an article in Rolling Stone, ‘Claw Men From the Outer Space,’ ” Field says from his home near Nashville. “That had happened in the early ’70s, where these guys who were out fishing in Pascagoula were supposedly taken up in a flying saucer.” In Nashville in the ’80s, McMurry adopted the character as his rock ’n’ roll alter ego, and he’s never looked back. With drummers Jimmy Lester and Rick Schell keeping the groove clean and simple, Wilder turns Night into a roots-rock master class that revives semi-obscurities like The Inmates’ 1980 pub-rock tune “Tell Me What’s Wrong,” written by that group’s guitarist, Peter Staines. Meanwhile, Wilder makes like the super-Nashvillian he is by covering the late Russell Smith’s “Hit the Nail on the Head,” which he says he learned from The Amazing Rhythm Aces’ 1975 debut album Stacked Deck. Night goes down easy, like Edmunds’
1979 Repeat When Necessary and Chilton’s High Priest, the latter of which was released around the same time as It Came From Nashville. Like the work of Wilder’s forebears, Night modernizes pre-punk rock without succumbing to the pull of nostalgia.
Take Your Pick
Guitarists, use your stayat-home time to shake up your practice routines By Jack Silverman Editor’s note: Plenty of excellent musicians have worked at the Scene through the years, though few have studied guitar as closely as Jack Silverman. Though he still serves as a contributing editor, he ended a 17-year tenure as a staffer in 2014 to play full time in The Stolen Faces, a Grateful Dead tribute band we’d call pretty damn great whether he was in it or not. When he offered to share some tips on practicing, we jumped at the opportunity.
“Way back when, if an artist was young and had long hair and the kids were buying it, the suits didn’t care what they were doing on that record,” he says. “They just called it rock.” Email music@nashvillescene.com
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or all the guitarists in the audience who suddenly have a lot more time on your hands during the pandemic, here are some suggestions for improving your musical skills. I’m not a seasoned guitar teacher, but over the past 40 years of playing professionally, I’ve discovered a few things that hone my chops and musical instincts — but more importantly, keep it interesting. And if you play an instrument other than guitar, most of these concepts can still apply.
Practice with a metronome or drum loops. If you don’t already do this, your sense of time probably isn’t as good as you think. And while playing with a drum loop is great, here’s a reason to use a metronome at least part of the time: While a drum loop is typically full of eighth-note and 16th-note hits, a metronome playing quarter notes has a lot more space between the clicks. That space will reveal your vulnera-
Nashville Scene | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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bilities for speeding up or slowing down. If you simply search “metronome” in your web browser, you’ll find tons of free options — there’s even one built into most browsers that just appears when you search. Get out of your comfort zone. I have some appreciation for bluegrass, but I wouldn’t call myself a serious fan. However, as someone who is primarily a flatpicker, I envy bluegrass technique, so I downloaded some instructional materials (some audio, some video, all with downloadable written notation and explanations) from homespun.com. I made it a part of my practice routine for several years and it really upped my picking skills. Homespun is a great resource for a lot of instruments and styles, and there are many other great sites (and countless free YouTube lessons) if you start snooping around. If you’re mainly a flatpicker, start experimenting with fingerpicking and vice versa. You get the idea. Slow and steady wins the race. If there’s some passage or lick you wish you could learn but you find yourself thinking, “I’m just not good enough,” you’re probably wrong. Challenging songs, chord shapes and solo passages are much easier if you practice them very slowly at first, repeat them many times, and then gradually speed up. That’s another reason to use a metronome — otherwise, most people tend to play whatever they’re working on as fast as they can. Also, try to digest new material in small bites, working on just a measure or two at a time until your fingers are familiar with it. I’ll often repeat a short passage 50 or more times, and gradually increase the tempo along the way. Which brings me to my next point. Get some sort of tempo-changing app. For many years, I’ve been using an app called Amazing Slow Downer (sold by Roni Music), which allows me to slow down any passage of music and loop it. It changes the tempo without changing the pitch, but if it makes sense to change the key, you can do that with this program too. I’ve learned many difficult passages by looping just a one- or two-measure segment, slowing it down (sometimes by as much as 50 percent) and playing it over and over and over, very gradually increasing the tempo. There are a slew of options out there if you just Google “slow down apps,” and most are available for both laptops and smartphones. Learn melodies up and down the neck. One practice that’s been hugely beneficial to my sense of musicality uses two steps: First, I find a popular melody and figure out how to play it somewhere on the neck of my guitar. Then, I try to learn it in one or two other areas on the fretboard — maybe in another octave, but also perhaps with fewer strings, so the notes make a different shape. One melody I used was “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz (my theme song!). Learning catchy melodies will improve your ability to think melodically, which will make your solos a lot more interesting than just a collection of scales and licks. Stay relaxed. One of the Homespun lessons I have enjoyed is by Nashville treasure Bryan Sutton, one of the giants of bluegrass. In it, he talks at length about the importance of staying relaxed when trying to play technically challenging material. While you are practicing, pay attention to your wrists, forearms and, particularly, your shoulders. When flatpicking, for instance, try to keep your picking hand loose, almost like you are shaking water off it. If you feel the shoulder on your picking-hand side starting to tense up, slow down and work on playing whatever passage you are working on as fast as you can comfortably, without tension developing in that shoulder. Forget all this stuff and have fun! If you have two hours on a particular day to practice, for example, maybe spend an hour on some of this stuff. But then, just play! Write! Improvise! Ride the wave! Email music@nashvillescene.com
A Second Look
Brushing up on recent releases that flew under our radar By Edd Hurt, P.J. Kinzer, Olivia Ladd, Sean L. Maloney, Stephen Trageser, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian and Jacqueline Zeisloft
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he frustrating reality of covering a music scene as rich and diverse as Nashville’s is that there’s simply too much good work being done to give every release the attention it deserves. Most musicians have lost income Find links to buy these albums at from tours, gigs and nashvillescene.com day jobs as public spaces have closed down to stop the spread of COVID-19. With that in mind, we’re catching up on some recent work from locals that we just hadn’t gotten to yet. Below, find our notes on nine records you’ll want to add to your collection — and you can purchase them online right now.
Virghost and KingPin Da’ Composer, Summer in September III (self-released) Summer in September III — the third album in the collaborative series from Memphis-born, Nashville-residing MC Virghost and Memphis producer KingPin Da’ Composer — discusses growing up. In tracks like “Raleigh-Millington,” the rapper looks back on his formative experiences and the way they inform the man he is now; elsewhere, as in “Disrespectful,” he’s taking other MCs to task for acting like kids. In “Nefertiti,” he’s considering what makes long-term relationships with others work; in “Find Your Own Peace,” he’s rapping about ways to make a long-term relationship with yourself work. The beats create a timeless groove for rhymes about topics that always feel relevant. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Fever Blush, Fever Blush (self-released) Done right, shoegaze-inspired pop-rock never gets old — and Nashville’s Fever Blush nails it on their self-titled debut LP. The quartet, which features members of well-liked DIYers Daddy Issues and Beer Head, knows its way around a hook and colors in the sonic landscapes dutifully, staking out a comfortable spot between the earnest jangle of ’90s greats like The Sundays and current heavy popsters Torche or Nothing. Whether letting it rip or dialing it back, Fever Blush does so with a sense of purpose and vigor. Take a break from home-bound purgatory, bring a speaker out into the yard, lie in the grass and blast this record. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Joelton Mayfield, I Hope You Make It (Banana Tapes [cassette]/self-released) Though local folk-rocker Joelton Mayfield’s EP I Hope You Make It was released in December (before any of us could have known about the disruptions the tornado or the coronavirus would cause), the title resonates profoundly. “Making it” seems to be what we are all trying to do in our day-
Mary bragg to-day, and it’s easier to stay sane when you have great music to soundtrack your solo walks and experimental canned-food dinners. This batch of five rootsy, Jeff Tweedyinfluenced rock songs from the 22-year-old, Texas-raised, gentle-voiced songsmith is perfect for any occasion in which thinking, feeling or singing at the top of your lungs is involved. JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT
Quichenight, Quiche Night (self-released) The music of Quichenight, the wry and savvy rock ’n’ pop project of Brett Rosenberg, is inspiring any time, but especially right now. Though he plays live with a band, and sometimes records in a pro studio, he makes most of his albums at home by himself on a TASCAM Portastudio, and his skill at making them sound like ensemble performances is phenomenal. Rosenberg’s latest album Quiche Night isn’t his most cohesive — it seems like he’s clearing the cobwebs. But cuts like opener “Sweet Heet” and the Jasmin Kaset-written “Onion Cottage Queen” are tunes you’ll be whistling for days, and the whole package radiates that priceless feeling of the last day of school before summer. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Buffalo Gals, Where the Heart Wants to Go (self-released) Buffalo Gals’ 2020 full-length Where the Heart Wants to Go doesn’t waste time getting to where this Nashville Western swing-meets-country duo is heading. Bassist and guitarist Melissa Carper joins musical partner Rebecca Patek, who plays fiddle and pitches in on the songwriting, and the results are stunning. Where the Heart is queer country performed in a pellucid style — check out “Pray the Gay Away,” which Carper wrote with Nashville alt-folk singer Brennen Leigh. You might get teary-eyed listening to Carper and Patek’s “I’d Just as Soon Stay Home,” a paean to the simple life that takes on added meaning during this difficult time. I know I did. EDD HURT
Schizos, Schizos (Sweet Time) On their eponymous full-length, Schizos channel a lot of the primal, gruff intensity of the U.S. punk style that was established 40 years ago. The raw spirit of the Germs, Reagan Youth and The Untouchables can all be felt on the band’s full-length debut. The muddy, growling bass lines and choppy, machine-gun drums provide a loose spine for vocalist Dale Schizo’s shouts of contempt and a guitar that sounds like a band saw cutting through a lead pipe. It’s one of the most exciting punk LPs Music City has ever produced, and it’s the first 12-inch vinyl release from local imprint Sweet Time Records. P.J. KINZER
Marcus Finnie, Live From Layman Studios (self-released) Drummer, percussionist and bandleader Marcus Finnie exemplifies the idiomatic flexibility of many current jazz artists. His newest release Live From Layman Studios combines the energetic give-and-take of a live date (with an audience) with the sonic enhancement of a studio session. The seven cuts reflect the ease with which Finnie and his band handle various tempos, moods and arrangements, and Finnie wrote or co-wrote every number. The compositions borrow from blues, funk, gospel and pop, and the performance emphasizes a cohesive ensemble sound while providing plenty of room for soloists to assert themselves. It’s the ideal meeting ground for jazz fans seeking distinctive individual performance and those who savor the groove and feel lost if they don’t hear it often enough. RON WYNN
Mary Bragg, Think About It (Tone Tree Music) Mary Bragg is best known as the eloquent singer-songwriter behind albums like 2019’s Violets as Camouflage, but she puts her own spin on songs by her heroes on her new EPThink About It. The covers, which include “Our Lady of the Well” by Jackson Browne and others by Roy Orbison and Stevie Nicks, share a strong thematic focus on standing by one’s personal value systems and love as a way to overcome adversity. The standout track is the closer, a driving version of “Don’t Walk Away” by Bragg’s contemporary Aaron Lee Tasjan. It showcases Bragg’s grittier side and features excellent harmonies from members of Drivin N Cryin. By reworking these songs with a specific tenderness and kiss of sparse, Western instrumentation, Bragg made a testament to both her musical ability and production chops in a cathartic package that leaves the listener with a sense of muchneeded hopefulness. OLIVIA LADD
Friendship Commanders, Hold Onto Yourself (self-released) Y’all ever seen a toddler open up this motherfucking pit? It’s happening in my home office right now. Having reached the physical limits of cartoon consumption, my son has decided to make like Anthrax and get caught in a mosh to the blistering new 10-inch EP by Friendship Commanders. Singer-guitarist Buick Audra’s vocals are as beautiful as her riffs are bludgeoning, and her lyrics capture all the centrifugal force of a world spinning out of control. Audra’s sidekick drummer Jerry Roe pounds with a precision and intensity that would be frightening if I still had the capacity for fear of anything that isn’t related to the coronavirus. SEAN L. MALONEY Email music@nashvillescene.com
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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MUSIC
THE SPIN
FROM THE HEART OF THE QUARANTINE BY LORIE LIEBIG, MEGAN SELING AND STEPHEN TRAGESER
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f you’ve walked down Lower Broadway and through the doors of Robert’s Western World on a Monday night, you’ve probably heard Joshua Hedley and his band The Hedliners cranking out some of the best traditional country music in town. Now that the coronavirus pandemic has forced Nashville’s honky-tonks to temporarily close their doors, Hedley is among the hundreds of artists in town without a steady income. To help fill the financial gap, Hedley has joined the ranks of musicians streaming from wherever they’re self-quarantining. On Thursday, fans from near and far tuned into his third stream from home via YouTube. As he does at Robert’s, Hedley played requests for tips and showed off his encyclopedic knowledge of country music. Sitting in front of a bookshelf adorned with the reserved parking sign from his Grand Ole Opry debut and a WWE championship belt, Hedley kicked off his twohour set with Lefty Frizzell’s “I Never Go Around Mirrors.” Between songs, he chatted with viewers who dropped comments into the chat panel, and shared his frustrations about those who are ignoring the state’s stay-at-home order. Although the setting might have changed, Hedley still impressed with his takes on songs made famous by George Jones, Keith Whitley, Guy Clark and Faron Young. He even satisfied a fan’s request for yodeling with a rendition of Jimmie Rodgers’ 1929 hit “Waiting for a Train.” The singer says all of the donations to his Venmo or his PayPal will be split six ways between Hedley and his bandmates, who are also currently out of work. “They are the best band I’ve ever heard in my life,” Hedley said. “And I’ve heard a lot of bands.” In this extremely stressful time, musicians are taking time out of their day — during which they’re probably also just trying to get by — to sing songs that
comfort and calm our hearts. On Friday, via the Instagram account of the French music video site La Blogothèque, Soccer Mommy chief Sophie Allison took her turn. Her new album Color Theory (released what feels like a lifetime ago on Feb. 28 via Loma Vista) is unintentionally the perfect record for a pandemic. Much of it is about the reality of struggling with mental illness, and anyone who’s dealt with anxiety or depression knows that both of those monsters can feel just as isolating and ground-shaking as life in quarantine. Allison started her four-song acoustic set with Color Theory’s opener, “Bloodstream.” The fluid, midtempo number drips with nostalgic haze as Allison looks back on the warm and happy summer days of her childhood. As the song progresses, she reveals that she calls up these memories to hide from the depression she’s been living with since she was very young — something she can see clearly in hindsight as an adult. Allison also played the Color Theory songs “Circle the Drain” and “Royal Screwup,” plus a slow, haunting version of The Cars’ “Drive” that brought to mind the treatment she gave The Boss’ “I’m on Fire.” Between songs, she answered fans’ questions from the live chat about everything from her Color Theory songwriting process (“I played guitar, and I liked some chords, and then I just started singing — can’t make it a science for me”) to her favorite Nintendo Switch games (Stardew Valley is a favorite, though she also likes the new Animal Crossing). Honestly, it was nice to be reminded that we can still like stuff and not feel guilty about it. A few other things we learned include the fact that her purple Novo electric guitar, engraved with the phrase “Gemini Bitch,” is her favorite, and that she’s recording demos, which are her favorite material she’s written so far. We won’t hear the new songs anytime soon, Allison says, since she just released Color Theory. But knowing there’s new music coming helps put a little hope in days that largely feel hopeless otherwise. Nicole Atkins’ career was well-established before she and husband Ryan McHugh moved to Nashville about five years ago. You might not be familiar with the New Jersey native’s work in the same way you’d be if she’d grown up on the local house-show or dive-bar scene.
HED’S UP: JOSHUA HEDLEY
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NOT FOLDING: NICOLE ATKINS
That makes her weekly livestream series Alone We’re All Together (streaming on YouTube, with funds for Atkins and her band collected via Venmo and Patreon), a golden opportunity to get up to speed with her phenomenal songs and singing ahead of her album Italian Ice, due for release May 29.
LET ME THANK: SOCCER MOMMY
Playing a white Fender Jazzmaster and singing through a P.A. with vocal effects pedals, Atkins started Saturday’s 10-song set with “A Night of Serious Drinking” and “Goodnight Rhonda Lee.” Both are from her 2017 album Goodnight Rhonda Lee, an organic and visceral record that explores dramatic emotional landscapes in detail. You could compare her gift for operatic rock ’n’ roll storytelling and singing to someone like Roy Orbison, but rather than imitating, she uses that skill set to explore a huge range of territory. As with the vast majority of streams from artists’ homes, there were some technical difficulties. Internet connectivity issues delayed the start by about 40 minutes, and there were a few spots in which there was a lag in the video or distorted audio. Setting all that aside, Atkins and McHugh have developed a solid program, including pre-recorded segments from special guests. Saturday’s guests were Marissa Nadler, purveyor of dark experimental folk and a recent transplant from Boston, who did Danzig’s “Blood and Tears,” and California’s Vera Sola, who made good-natured jokes about her downcast vibe before playing a new tune whose working title is “Daughter.” One other minor disappointment was that Atkins didn’t play any material from Italian Ice — “Captain” and “Domino,” the singles released so far from the LP, are great. But if all goes well, we’ll have plenty more chances to hear them in the future. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM
NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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film
Primal Stream
More horror and action — and kids’ stuff! — now available to stream By Jason Shawhan
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t has come to my attention that I haven’t exactly skewed as familyfriendly as might be prudent for these Maltin-esque viewer guides I’ve been doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. (See my previous installments in the March 26 and April 2 issues of the Scene.) So let’s start with a few titles for parents who might be looking for something to share with their impressionable young folk. The closer you get to the end of this week’s column, though, the edgier things get — you’ve been warned.
The Peanut Butter Solution on Amazon Prime One of the enduring weirdo kids classics of Canadian cinema, this 1985 film about bullying, body horror and the exploitative nature of the free market is also spry, adventurous and fun. The Peanut Butter Solution also features the first two Englishlanguage songs by Céline Dion. This is a great and bizarre film, finally in print in a proper HD version thanks to the freaks at Severin Films. For kids (and adults) who’ve seen the Mel Stuart Willy Wonka and want something like that.
livened with incredible special effects, dei ex machinis (whether squid or meteorite), cutesy sidekicks and genuine unease at their creepy heart. The Black Hole (Disney’s first PG movie) is hallucinatory and visionary and will spark the imagination — and, in fairness, possibly fuel some nightmares.
Bébé’s Kids on Netflix Bébé’s Kids is an animated adaptation of the sorely missed Robin Harris’ late1980s recurrent comedy routine. The film — mostly infamous for a terrible Super Nintendo adaptation — finds a single man set loose at a corporate theme park with the single mom he’s trying to impress as well as a phalanx of “bad kids” out to destabilize some institutions. Packed to the gills with black comedic talent (legends like Myra J., Nell Carter, John Witherspoon, George Wallace, Reynaldo Rey and Chino Williams) and capable of inspiring political action (the Fun World anthem “Fools and All Their Money” is one of the most subversive songs ever written for a kids’ movie), Bébé’s Kids will yield resounding belly laughs. Tone Lōc steals the movie as toddler Pee-Wee, and how else can you introduce the youngsters to ZZ Hill’s “Down Home Blues”?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Black Hole on Disney+
Crip Camp on Netflix
This pair of Disney classics plays like variations on a theme, with explorers encountering a mad-genius captain who has abandoned the demands and moralities of traditional society and found a place in the hostile unknown. What both do — the former with the sea, the latter with the frontiers of space — is serve classic moral drama
OK, now that as a culture we’ve devoured and metabolized Tiger King, let’s move on to something that’s not going to make you weep for humanity. This documentary focuses on the legacy of Camp Jened, a Catskills space where disabled kids could spend a summer and develop skills beyond the roles traditional society wants to cast them in. The kids
who went there learned and developed the skills that enabled them to craft the disabled rights movement in America, and we witness the battles for accessibility in the early ’70s through their eyes (a battle the Trump administration has been consistently undermining). Do not miss this.
Flesh + Blood on Amazon Prime Paul Verhoeven’s first English-language film is a tale of the Crusades and the plague, riffing on The Wild Bunch and filtered through the lens of the early 16th century. This film is violent, upsetting, pitiless and utterly remarkable. Rutger Hauer is the leader of a band of mercenaries. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a princess held hostage (more on JJL in this week’s Critics’ Picks). Susan Tyrrell is there as well. Given that it’s Verhoeven, Flesh + Blood is smart and very much immersed in the mindset of that time period. This one comes with all the trigger warnings, and rightfully so. But it is a stunning work from one of the greatest filmmakers of the modern era, and well worth your time.
Butt Boy, coming to VOD April 14 Before you look at the trailer, or even read anything specifically about this film (a new release!), just know that it approaches its procedural and stylistic elements like a Michael Mann film — with laser-like focus on what doing your job means, and using that as the foundation your worldview is built on. Now, I say that because Butt Boy is about a guy who discovers something unexpected about his body — namely that his ass could conceivably devour the world. Imagine the most powerful power bottom the world has ever known, but born into the dead-end expectations of corporate heterosexuality and without the imagination to move past that limitation. If M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable is
one of the best low-key superhero/supervillain origin-story tales, then Butt Boy is that as well — a character-based drama about something unbelievable. But because it grounds itself in the daily process of living, that one unbelievable thing is able to somehow distort reality itself, and nothing we hold as absolute can remain so. Director/co-star Tyler Cornack took a Troma Entertainment-like concept and plays it out in a much more disciplined and stylized approach than you might expect. Will folks looking for gross-out humor be satisfied? To a certain extent, sure — this film rivals The Lighthouse in terms of perfectly timed fart jokes. But Butt Boy features so much more accessible and (dare I say) smart an approach to the material that I think it could find traction with more adventurous mainstream audiences. And honestly, at this point, what even are mainstream audiences? We’re all on the couch or on the computer, and our digital selves don’t lie about interests. This is a police-procedural deadpan horror-comedy that aims to scratch every itch that it can. This is an imaginative and surreal dive into the subconscious, and you can handle it.
Daniel Isn’t Real on Shudder My No. 1 film of 2019, Daniel Isn’t Real, is now streaming on Shudder, and you should see it if you haven’t. And while Amazon Prime has a great selection (along with its shameful union-busting CEO), it should be noted that the platform’s versions of Earth Girls Are Easy (a delightful musical mental margarita) and Star Trek: Insurrection (a messy installment in the Trek cinematic universe) have been cropped from their cinemascope proportions to fit a 16:9 TV screen. That’s a battle that should have stopped being a thing back in the ’90s. Stop modifying films from their original aspect ratio. (HBO/ Cinemax, this means you as well.) Email arts@nashvillescene.com
BUTT BOY
nashvillescene.com | April 9 – april 15, 2020 | Nashville Scene
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By Erica ciccaronE
I
first learned about abortion from the iconic 1987 drama Dirty Dancing. Screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein sneaked a political statement into her sexy summer romance. Set in 1963, Dirty Dancing showed us that the illegality of abortions Never rarely put women’s lives in SometimeS alwayS PG-13, 101 minutes danger. Years later, now streaminG on in 2017, Bergstein amazon Prime, aPPle tV told Vice why she and more included the abortion plotline: “I don’t know that we will always have Roe vs. Wade.” As conservative legislators attempt to chip away at the landmark Supreme Court decision at the state level, I think a lot about how girls will learn about abortion now. A Sundance favorite, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an intimate look at a teenager’s desperate attempt to end an unwanted pregnancy. Written and directed by Eliza Hittman — whose previous films include Beach Rats and It Felt Like Love — the film is far more than an “abortion drama.” It’s an odyssey. Our hero is Autumn, a recalcitrant 17-year-old living in a small Pennsylvania town, played by newcomer Sidney Flanigan. Unlike the traditional hero’s journey, Autumn’s arc does not include atonement. Instead, the film features an unforgettable moment of vulnerability that announces Flanigan as a brilliant new talent, and gives the movie its name. Originally scheduled to open at the Belcourt on March 22, Never Rarely has been released early to rent via Prime, Apple TV and several other services. Flanigan is matched by Talia Ryder — also making her feature debut — who plays Autumn’s devoted cousin Skylar. Skylar shares Autumn’s burden without reservation, finding the means for the girls to catch a bus to New York City, where Autumn can get an abortion without parental consent. Skylar understands what’s at stake, but she maintains a sense of optimism and adventure that buoys Autumn through her journey. In the absence of parental support, Skylar must become caretaker to her cousin. Hittman shot Never Rarely on film, lending it a textured, enhanced realism. Her script is sparse, and the film relies heavily on the actors’ abilities to convey their emotions and thoughts through body language and facial expressions — Hittman is known for summoning powerful performances from inexperienced actors. Cinematographer Hélène Louvart employs closeups that search the girls’ faces and communicate their interior worlds with urgency. The result is a taut, unsentimental account of the trials girls face in retaining control of their lives. Hittman leaves the sexually charged nature of Beach Rats and It Felt Like Love
on the shore as her characters forge ahead into a threatening sea of men. In the striking opening scene, Autumn appears in a school talent show with an acoustic guitar, singing an ethereal version of girl group The Exciters’ 1963 hit “He’s Got the Power.” That group’s original performance of the song feels optimistic, exciting — it’s about romantic infatuation and sexual liberation. But Autumn’s version is ominous. The lyrics — “He makes me do things I don’t want to do / He makes me say things I don’t want to say” — are foreboding. When a boy in the audience heckles her, calling her a slut, she bravely continues singing. The men who surround Autumn are filled with menace. To her credit, Hittman conveys this through Autumn’s everyday interactions — not in a brutal sexual assault scene, the kind of tactic many of Hittman’s male contemporaries employ, often with abandon. At the grocery store where Autumn and Skylar work, an unseen manager kisses their hands when they pass him the contents of their registers at the end of their shifts. At home, Autumn’s stepfather (a sinister Ryan Eggold), has an abhorrent way of petting the family dog. (“She’s so easy,” he says.) On the bus ride to New York, an entitled young man (a convincing Théodore Pellerin) repeatedly invites them to meet up when they get to the city, despite Skylar’s many rejections. As the girls traipse through the city and sleep on the subway, men prowl around, conveying their dominance sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. Their attention is always unwelcome. Never Rarely has much in common with director Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Set in communist Romania, 4 Months follows a young woman who seeks an illegal abortion, and the friend who helps her. Mungui’s exceptional film — which is available to rent on Prime — is as much about totalitarianism as it is about reproductive rights and access. Here in the U.S., lawmakers in conservative states like Texas and Oklahoma are trying to suspend abortions under the guise of flattening the curve of COVID-19’s spread. By deeming abortions “nonessential procedures,” lawmakers threaten to force women to give birth — or attempt to self-abort — during a global pandemic. These lawmakers frame women’s access to health care as a privilege, rather than a right. Never Rarely shows us how women and girls in our own country struggle against a government that often attempts to exert control over their bodies and therefore their lives. But Autumn, like the film itself, is unapologetic. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a work of art that’s powerful enough to save lives. Email arts@nashvillEscEnE.com
NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 9 – APRIL 15, 2020 | nashvillescene.com
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INDU ROSE NALINI WARD AND BINDHU ABRAHAM vs. ABRAHAM SCHARIA
crossword EditEd by Will Shortz Across 1 8 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 26 29 31 35 37 39 40 41 43 44 46 47 49 51 53 57
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Mugged for the camera, maybe site administrator Preceder of many N.H.L. games “oh, did you start already?” 0% some male escorts org. that sticks to its guns List ender, maybe oscar-nominated actor clive Exceptional grade Will matter Time in court one-up, say red choice Gambler’s hangout, in brief Noteworthy time period Large guard dogs Aches and pains Jump shot’s path Down in the dumps ___ Meyer, principal role on “Veep” sign on a staff “I agree with both of you!” 2009 biopic starring Hilary swank Apply, as sunscreen Grocery chain with more than 1,900 U.s. stores chicago airport code That, in Tabasco Like some reputations and kitchen towels sentence containing all 26 letters Many a limo Major retail outlets Feigns sickness to avoid work Much-traveled thoroughfares DoWN Much-painted religious figure Villainous conglomerate on “Mr. robot” Deadly santa ___ Waiter in an airport queue Actress Falco
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BRETT ALEXANDER WARD, INDU ROSE NALINI WARD AND BINDHU ABRAHAM vs.
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Non-Resident Notice Chancery Court Docket No. 2326A
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In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant ABRAHAM SCHARIA is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, so that the ordinary process of this court cannot be served upon ABRAHAM SCHARIA is, therefore, herby required to appear before the Clerk of the Chancery Court of Williamson County, at her office in Franklin, Tennessee on or before the 31st day of May, 2020 and make defense to the bill filed against ABRAHAM SCHARIA by BRETT ALEXANDER WARD, INDU ROSE NALINI WARD AND BINDHU ABRAHAM or otherwise the allegations of said bill will be taken for confessed, and the cause set for hearing ex parte as to April 30, 2020. It is further ordered that a copy of this notice be published for four consecutive weeks beginning on April 9, 2020 in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Franklin, Tennessee.
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant ABRAHAM SCHARIA is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, so that the ordinary process of this court cannot be served upon ABRAHAM SCHARIA is, therefore, herby required to appear before the Clerk of the Chancery Court of Williamson County, at her office in Franklin, Tennessee on or before the 31st day of May, 2020 and make defense to the bill filed against ABRAHAM SCHARIA by BRETT ALEXANDER WARD, INDU ROSE NALINI WARD AND BINDHU ABRAHAM or otherwise the allegations of said bill will be taken for confessed, and the cause set for hearing ex parte as to April 30, 2020. It is further ordered that a copy of this notice be published for four consecutive weeks beginning on April 9, 2020 in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Franklin, Tennessee. Elaine Beeler, Clerk Deputy Clerk Date: April 2, 2020 VANEZZA SAENZ Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30/20
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Elaine Beeler, Clerk Deputy Clerk Date: April 2, 2020 VANEZZA SAENZ Attorney for Plaintiff
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE B A S W O R T H O M E M O MS A N D W E R L A O T OP L A S I K
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Note: In each shaded space, the middle letter can alternatively go in the first square — creating 16 possible combinations of solutions to the puzzle.
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.
Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.
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