Nashville Scene 11-17-22

CITY LIMITS

Exit Signs 7

Exit/In to close after Thanksgiving, reopen under new management

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Street View: Airbnbs Bring Safety Concerns and Raise Housing Costs 8 The majority of short-term rental properties are owned by investors who do little to enforce codes and standards

BY LENA MAZEL

Pith in the Wind 9

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

32

ART New Romantics

A two-woman painting show of sublime abstractions transcends at Red Arrow Gallery

BY JOE NOLAN

33

BOOKS

Power to Harm and to Heal

A veteran religion writer considers the changing church

BY DAVID DARK, CHAPTER16.ORG

COVER STORY

Holiday Happenings

The Truman Show ................................... 11

David Alford revives a beloved Nashville tradition with the Capote-inspired A Holiday to Remember

BY AMY STUMPFL

Hallelujah Junction 12

Nashville Symphony’s annual Messiah headlines a season of holiday favorites

BY JOHN PITCHER

Supe’s On 12 Michael ‘Supe’ Granda shares his experiences as an in-demand Santa in his book Fat & Funny

BY JACK SILVERMAN

Thanksgiving Bounty 14

Whether you want takeout or to dine out, Nashville restaurant workers are showing up so you can take it easy

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

Winter Wonderland 16

A roundup of holiday sights, sounds, plays, markets and more

COMPILED BY CONNOR DARYANI

CRITICS’ PICKS

Jessie Reyez, Patti Smith, Omar Apollo, Lilly Hiatt & Adia Victoria, Son Little, Conquest Requiem and more

MUSIC

Be Your Own Mirror 35

Caitlin Rose took her time making Cazimi, the record that sounds most like her

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA

Forever Is a Mighty Long Time 36 Soccer Mommy stretches boundaries on Sometimes, Forever

BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

The Tao of Nashville Record-Making 36 On his first solo album, jam-grass ace Vince Herman embraces ‘the Nashville Way’

BY DARYL SANDERS

The Spin ................................................... 37

The Scene’s live-review column checks out the Girls Write Nashville benefit at 3rd and Lindsley, featuring Annie DiRusso, Alanna Royale and more BY

STEPHEN TRAGESER

FILM

Wakanda Love A conversation about the impact of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

BY JASON SHAWHAN AND SHERONICA HAYES

FOOD AND DRINK

Western Bird

A wistful former Nashvillian surveys the Los Angeles hot chicken scene

BY J.R. LIND

Les Dames Nashville to Honor Phila Hach’s Legacy at Special Luncheon

Google Trenches Eroding in Nashville Roadways

PET OF THE WEEK!

MEET JINXX.

Oh, this affectionate 5-year-old Husky is the best of both worlds!

Indoors, she’s a snuggle bug who wants to be right by your side. Outdoors, she’s fun-loving, curious, and energetic. She’s also smart, house trained and eager to please. Jinxx is the type of dog who instantly falls in love with every human she meets plus she’s been introduced to many dogs and gets along with them all. Her forever home goal is to get adopted with a 4-legged sibling who enjoys playing her most favorite game: CHASE! She sounds like fun, right? Jinxx is currently in a foster home. Please email adoption@ nashvillehumane.org to meet!”

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209 Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

FROM BILL FREEMAN

Editor-in-Chief

Contributing Editors Erica Ciccarone, Jack Silverman

Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Hannah Herner, J.R. Lind, Eli Motycka, William Williams, KateLynn White

ELECTION RESULTS SHOW THAT MODERATION IS KEY: ‘RED WAVE HAS CRASHED AGAINST THE ROCKS OF REALITY’

While, as of this writing, votes are still being methodically counted across the country, it is already abundantly clear that the “red wave has crashed against the rocks of reality,” as retired CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather so concisely put it.

The contrast between President Biden’s calm and measured initiatives and Trump’s angry rhetoric has never been more stark.

ABC News described Trump as “fuming” on election night. One close Trump adviser was quoted as saying, “This is a sinking ship.” Speaking anonymously, another Trump adviser said, “Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions.” And this wasn’t a Democrat speaking — this was a top Trump adviser! Trump has imploded, taking the party with him, bringing about the GOP’s loss of both houses of Congress as well as the White House in just two years. As Republican former House Speaker Paul Ryan recently said, “We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot or in office, and I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he’s a drag on our ticket.” Outgoing Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks put it even more bluntly: “It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024.” And Brooks, a Republican, didn’t stop there. “Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans. Even a candidate who campaigns from his basement can beat him.”

Moderate voters in both parties have spoken: It’s time for logic and reason to rule the day. Examples abound of Trump’s meddlesome involvement and endorsements gone awry. In states across the country, moderate candidates and those who stood up to Trump beat their opponents. It happened in Pennsylvania, where voters chose to deny Trump-backed Mehmet Oz in a fierce Senate race, instead voting for Democrat John Fetterman — in a textbook example of a purple state, where election results often reflect the political diversity of its population. And Gov. Brian Kemp won reelection in Georgia — a Republican who famously stood up to Trump by refusing to cave on his baseless “election fraud” theories. Instead of the forecasted “red wave,” America is seeing a surging tide of purple. Americans are using the ballot box to say the far-right extreme

has had its day.

What does this mean for Tennessee? We have some of Trump’s loudest cheerleaders in our congressional delegation, after all — U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn being arguably the loudest. A glimmer of moderation is beginning to be visible, however. The desire for balance is growing in our state. We see it in the weak election of Andy Ogles, our newest member of Congress, who won 55 percent of the votes in a district gerrymandered to benefit Republicans. Ogles came pretty darn close to repeating what is happening in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. Walker failed to convince more than 50 percent of voters that an endorsement from Trump is enough to counter numerous scandals and extreme views. We even see it in Tennessee’s GOP leadership, who sidestepped quick as a jackrabbit to say “no thank you” to Trump’s attempt to shoehorn Morgan Ortagus into our delegation. (Ortagus infamously couldn’t even name the interstates that intersect our city.) Even in our solidly red state, we are seeing results that show that Tennesseans are growing tired of the far-right extreme and their intolerant ways.

So back to my question. What does this mean for Tennessee? Well, it means that our governor — who spent millions on his second campaign and who coasted to office handily — must have aspirations beyond the governor’s mansion. It speaks loudly that the juggernaut of his second campaign used the same slogan as his first: “Bill Lee for Tennessee.” But the fact that he blew through more than $3 million in ad buys during the final month of a campaign that was a pretty sure bet to begin with? That speaks louder. I think “Bill Lee for Washington” is more his thinking these days.

It also means that our far-right delegation should be wary of the balance in their home districts. It may be that Sen. Marsha Blackburn will feel the sting of a moderate Williamson County in 2024. It may be that Andy Ogles is unable to retain his weak majority of votes in the new gerrymandered 5th Congressional District. To be frank, I think all our extreme, far-right congressional representatives should be concerned. Time will tell.

Bill Freeman

Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and The News.

Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Nancy Floyd, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steven Hale, Steve Haruch, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian

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PRESIDENT BIDEN DONALD TRUMP

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EXIT SIGNS

Exit/In to close after Thanksgiving, reopen under new management

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Over the past 18 months, fans and followers of Nashville music have been waiting to find out what changes might be coming to historic midsize music venue Exit/In. Finally, there are at least some answers. Last year, the club celebrated its 50th an niversary as a sounding board and listening room for locals and a favorite of a dazzling array of touring artists; the names of many parties from both groups are painted on the venue’s walls. Also in 2021, the prop erty that houses the club and its sister bar Hurry Back was sold for $6.45 million to real estate development firm Adventurous Journeys Capital Partners. Chris and Telisha Cobb — who have been involved in running Exit/In since 2004, were part of a partner ship that operated the venue through most of the 2010s and became the proprietors when the partnership dissolved amicably in 2019 — reportedly made an equivalent offer for the site, backed by Grubb Properties’ Live Venue Recovery Fund. Though their bid to the previous owners was rejected, the Cobbs established a crowdfunding cam paign intended to sweeten an offer to AJ Capital. Meanwhile, AJ Capital made good on its promise to apply for a historic zoning overlay, which will cover only the Exit/In building but does place limits on the kinds of changes that can be made to the site.

However, a March 2022 concert an nouncement included a note that Exit/In was suspending booking after Thanksgiving, and show announcements in the summer included notes that several artists would be “saying farewell to Exit/In.” In a recent phone call with the Scene, Chris Cobb puts the speculation to rest, saying, “We exhausted all efforts to purchase the prop erty.” A statement shared with media and

published on the venue’s social media Nov. 14 explains that the Cobbs’ lease is up at the end of the year and that a banner run of November shows, capped by a streak of gigs headlined by Lilly Hiatt, JEFF the Brother hood and Diarrhea Planet in the days before Thanksgiving, will be the last at the venue under current management.

“It appears that 51 years of local, indepen dent ownership and operation have come to an end,” the statement reads in part. “We’re humbled to host this last run of concerts with friends from many eras gracing our stage again. There have been too many in credible moments to count over the 18 years we’ve stewarded Exit/In. It’s an incredibly special place that we are so fortunate to have been a part of. Thank you to everyone who’s been part of the extended Exit/In fam ily. … We love this city wholeheartedly but are not OK with many current trends here.

We know Nashville needs Exit/In and inde pendent venues like it to continue support ing our community of artists, musicians, and the entire ecosystem they center.”

The statement also notes that Hurry Back will remain open a few more weeks. As promised, the money raised in the Go FundMe campaign will be donated to the in die venue trade group National Independent Venue Alliance and its local analog Music Venue Alliance Nashville, of which Chris Cobb is president.

Earlier this year, Cobb filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trade mark Office for the name “Exit/In” and other associated intellectual property. His application was accepted, but attorneys representing AJ Capital filed opposition documents. Included is a schedule for re viewing and hearing evidence in the case that runs through May 2024. The schedule assumes there are no delays and no further legal action. A representative of AJ Capital provided the following comment, attributed to the firm generally, indicating that the venue will reopen as Exit/In at a time to be announced.

“The Exit/In will remain open, as it has under the stewardship of dozens of opera tors over the past 51 years, as its irreplace able self: an iconic Nashville venue and gathering place for music lovers from all over,” the statement reads. “We spent the last year securing historic protections for this special and sacred space, which we’re committed to preserving while providing some long overdue physical improvements. We look forward to the next half-century of moments and memories, and to announcing 2023 show dates very soon.”

Earlier this year, the Mercy Lounge com plex closed when the owners of the business and new owners of the property couldn’t agree on lease terms. The business owners

continue to look for another site, while the owners of the property have announced a plan to reopen the space as Cannery Hall in 2023. Meanwhile, details are now public of a proposal to redevelop the site where lis tening room 3rd and Lindsley has operated since 1991 as an apartment block.

Cobb notes that Nashville’s rapid growth in the past decade — coupled with increased interest in competing in the club business from players like multinational ticketing and touring giant Live Nation — means that upheaval in the business is no surprise. Still, the pace of change has been exceptionally difficult to cope with, especially after more than a year of pandemic lockdown.

Cobb points to Seattle’s Cultural Space Agency and the Music Venue Trust, a U.K. organization with a national focus, as public programs purposely designed to support venues that do important cultural work as they face ever-increasing real estate prices and other pressures. In April, the Metro Council approved funding for a study to determine what independent music venues need in order to thrive in Nashville and what Metro can do to help.

“As a city and as a community, we sure better figure out quickly how to do a bet ter job taking care of our creative working class,” Cobb says. “I don’t wanna see more musicians and artists and small business owner friends continue to move away, be cause there are still incredible aspects of this town. But without some brave decisionmaking, some strong leadership, some pub lic recognition of how we got here — both the good and the bad — and some intentional change in the direction in a major way, I think we’re gonna continue to watch a lot of our culture disappear. I hope we’re able to reverse that and start to do everything pos sible to protect and nurture that culture.”

DIARRHEA PLANET AT EXIT/IN IN 2018

CHRIS

PHOTO: LANCE CONZETT

BY LENA MAZEL

Blu Sanders’ house in East Nashville sits on a zoning boundary: His side of the street is single-family residential zoning, meaning one house per lot. Across the street, it’s RM20 zoning, which means four houses (usually condos) per lot. When the area grew, investors bought the condos across the street and immediately turned them into short-term rental properties — a phenomenon popularized by apps like Airbnb that needs little introduction around these parts.

When Sanders moved into his house after renting it out for five years, he didn’t expect to witness multiple shootings. But at an Airbnb across the street, which he says the host designed as a “party house,” he’s seen more than one.

“I’ve called in shots fired multiple times,” Sanders says. “One was just an absolutely

gigantic

shells; he pointed out the window of the Airbnb that had been shot out.”

Sean Parker, Metro Council

representative for East Nashville’s District 5 (where Sanders lives), says he’s seen “a few shootings” as a result of Airbnb parties. “Unfortunately, the enforcement is very difficult,” he says. “If the police show up, they focus on life-safety issues, not Airbnb code violations. They’re making sure that nobody is hurt, that nobody’s overdosed, things like that. They’re not really checking on your permit status.”

Sanders has reported the property across the street for code violations; he’s spoken to the police; he’s contacted Airbnb support multiple times. He says he hasn’t seen much action in response to his complaints — particularly from Airbnb.

“There are no real consequences,” says Sanders. He says when he attended Metro Council meetings about short-termrental safety issues, Airbnb didn’t send a representative. “They just don’t care,” he says. “And I know they don’t, because this keeps happening.”

According to insideairbnb.com, a site that compiles and analyzes data from Airbnb listings, Nashville currently has 7,733 short-term rentals. Investors own most of them, with the highest percentage owned by four companies with more than a hundred rentals each. Currently, Nashville accepts only owner-occupied short-termrental permits in residentially zoned areas, but loopholes can cause problems with those too.

Richard Espenant, another District 5 resident, has lived by a “party house” for a year. Espenant, a teacher, says the rental across the street often keeps him up until late at night. “All weekend there are parties, but also in the week — I could be awake at 1, 2, 3 o’clock in the morning with girls dressed with cowboy hats yelling and screaming, party buses picking them up, gigantic penis balloons.”

Espenant says the owner initially listed the property as an “adult playground.” The street is zoned residential, and the property is operated under an owner-occupied permit. But Espenant says the owner doesn’t live there, and Airbnb has done nothing about it.

Like Sanders, Espenant has contacted the

Street View is a monthly column in which we’ll take a close look at developmentrelated issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.

party. It looked like a concert just let out when everyone ran off screaming. And then the third time I had an officer in my yard, and he said he was looking for

Metro Nashville Codes Department, the police and Airbnb, initially over noise and disruption issues — and later when he found out the owner was voting in Florida, financed the house with a VA loan, and had listed every bedroom in the rental as available. Enlisting help from their neighborhood association, Espenant and five others banded together to make a case that the Airbnb owner was not a resident. Like Sanders, Espenant has seen little progress from his reporting: All Airbnb requires as proof of residency, he says, is for the owner to register the property as the address for their driver’s license. Still, the parties continue. “Sometimes they are so intoxicated they are in my front yard,” he says.

The city of Nashville has issued 1,940 short-term rental permits since January 2022. In District 5, 92.3 percent of listings are entire homes; 73.3 percent of short-term rentals come from hosts with multiple listings. Beyond safety issues, the proliferation of short-term rentals can also increase housing prices.

“The conversion of long-term housing into tourist accommodation has had a devastating effect on affordability in East Nashville,” says Parker. Because housing demand is inelastic, meaning it hardly changes as prices increase, “small fluctuations of supply can have massive impacts on pricing,” Parker says. “So pulling 5 percent of the units offline and converting them into tourist accommodation does not cause rents to go up 5 percent. … It causes rents to go up substantially.”

While Parker says “the industry has worked to make the face of short-term rental be the neighbor with the extra bedroom or the mother-in-law suite,” this isn’t the case for most Nashville Airbnbs. Citywide, owners with more than 10 listings own the highest proportion of short-term rentals; in District 5, four investors own more than 20 properties each.

The Metro Council has some permit regulations in place to combat the number of Airbnbs in residential areas, but in April, the state government attempted to pass legislation making owner-occupied permit requirements more lenient. “We’ve made some positive changes, but ultimately I think that for this issue to get much better we’re going to need some collaboration from the state,” Parker says.

For Espenant, the “party house” across the street had one positive outcome: causing him to connect with his neighbors. “At least we worked together — it’s really cool. I’m happy that I don’t feel like my other neighbors don’t care about what’s going on.”

Sanders says he’s happy with how he’s seen his neighborhood grow over the past few years; he perceives it as less dangerous overall. That’s why the Airbnb violence surprised him. “It’s like a total other world across the street.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Gov. Bill Lee won a second term, and voters elected Republicans in Davidson County’s recently gerrymandered 5th, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts — eight of the state’s nine seats are now held by Republicans. All four proposed constitutional amendments passed, and Democrat Caleb Hemmer won the county’s only open state House seat in District 59 Charlane Oliver, a founder of The Equity Alliance — which focuses on building Black political power — and Justin Jones, an organizer and activist, join Davidson County’s delegation as District 19 state senator and District 52 state representative. … Conservative state lawmakers introduced legislation targeting culture-war controversies, including a bill that would ban health care for transgender minors, a response to recent media attention on gender-affirming care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Another two-page bill filed last week attempts to outlaw “adult cabaret performance.” It’s all part of a pattern of stunt legislation from the Tennessee GOP, writes contributor Betsy Phillips. Metro Nashville Public Schools are expanding services for children 3 and younger, an attempt to reduce issues with attendance, behavior problems and reading level disparities observed in elementary school students. … The public got its first look at a long-awaited deal between the city and Speedway Motorsports Inc., a national racetrack operator that aims to bring NASCAR to The Fairgrounds Nashville, amid neighborhood pushback. Ben Eagles represented the mayor’s office, explaining the framework for a deal that would piece together funding for more than $100 million in track renovations and continue the city’s century-long racing history. Neighbors have raised substantial concerns about noise levels and arbitrary scheduling. … Google’s “microtrenches” have begun to erode in Nashville roadways, leaving narrow ruts on either side of many neighborhood streets. After a protracted legal battle kept Google off telephone poles, the company took to the streets in earnest over the past 12 months in an attempt to offer high-speed internet to potential customers. A spokesperson for the Nashville Department of Transportation puts liability for repairs on the tech giant, while NDOT continues to field repair requests. … Mobility advocates continued to lobby the Metro Council against mandatory parking minimums, part of a larger effort to move away from car-centric city planning. … Miscommunications between the council and the mayor’s office loom large as legislation for a new Titans stadium moves through the legislative body. Meanwhile, the team keeps winning.

Some hams hang in smokehouses. Others in

museums.

Through a process that embraces improvisation, Nashville-born artist Virginia Overton adds layers of meaning by dismantling, constructing, realigning and juxtaposing found objects. Her art repurposes everyday materials—including those from her family’s farm—creating a dynamic visual poetry of reclamation and renewal. Come experience an exhibition that will encourage you to see beauty and find value in humble materials.

Downtown Nashville, 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

FristArtMuseum.org @FristArtMuseum

#TheFrist #FristVirginiaOverton

Organized by the Frist Art Museum

Funded in part by the With additional support from

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by

3

14 x 7

Virginia Overton. Sister Ham, 2021. Bronze; edition 1 of

with A/P; 30 x

in. Courtesy of the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York. Photo: Guang Xu

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS

OUR SEASONAL RECOMMENDATIONS, FROM PERFORMING ARTS TO CLASSICAL PERFORMANCES AND THE BEST SPOTS TO GRAB THANKSGIVING DINNER

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS: PERFORMING ARTS THE

TRUMAN SHOW

David Alford revives a beloved Nashville tradition with the Capote-inspired A Holiday to Remember

BY AMY STUMPFL

Successful actor, director and playwright David Alford has racked up some pretty impressive credits over the years, from television and film to roles beneath the bright lights of Broadway. But Alford says there’s still something quite special about performing for a hometown crowd.

He’ll get his chance next week, as he presents A Holiday to Remember at the historic Belmont Mansion. A true Nashville tradition, the program brings back the ac tor’s popular recitation of two of Truman Capote’s most beloved short stories — “The Thanksgiving Visitor” and “A Christmas Memory” — both accompanied with live original music by Paul Carrol Binkley.

“I love this piece so much, and being away from it for a while makes me real ize how much I’ve missed it,” says Alford, who’s likely best known for his long-running role as Bucky Dawes on ABC’s hit show Nashville. “Just saying Capote’s words feels special. But it’s also wonderful to be in this space — to be in the room with people. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that sort of connection with an audience, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Local audiences may remem ber “A Christmas Memory,” which has served as the centerpiece of several holiday shows throughout the years, in cluding those at Alford’s own Mockingbird Theatre and later at Tennessee Repertory Theatre (now Nashville Rep), where he served as artistic director. “The Thanksgiv

ing Visitor” was added later, and included a four-piece band.

“I think I first worked with Paul on ‘A Christmas Memory’ back in 1995,” Alford says. “We’d worked together before, so I knew and trusted him. But as we started to put the piece together, there was an imme diate sense that we were on the same page aesthetically. It all came together so quickly and naturally. So it’s always felt very much like a duet — it just wouldn’t feel right to perform it without Paul. And after all this time, even after stepping away for a few years, I still feel so emotionally connected to it. Paul plays that first phrase, and I’m just right back in it. And I’m so excited to be bringing back ‘The Thanksgiving Visitor’ this year. This is basically the same version of the show we did with Tennessee Rep back in the early 2000s, and I think audiences still remember it fondly.”

Alford says that while the overall struc ture has remained pretty consistent, certain moments of the stories are landing a little differently these days, especially now that he has “a few more years under my belt.”

“It’s interesting to see how different things get lifted up, depending on where

you are in life,” says Alford, who recently moved back to his family farm in Adams, Tenn. He spent some time in New York City performing in the 2017 Broadway revival of The Little Foxes, and more recently served as a visiting artist-in-residence at Berry Col lege in Georgia.

“But that’s what’s so brilliant about Capote’s writing,” he continues. “It’s so lyri cal and poetic, and yet totally witty and fun. It’s all very specific to his own experience. But I think it’s that specificity that allows you to unlock your own memories. I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me after a performance to say, ‘Oh wow, that reminded me of my grandmother.’ Or, ‘That’s just like my dad. Or my aunt, or cousin.’ It’s different for everyone, and yet there’s such a deep response to these stories. There’s something quite powerful about that — and for me to be part of something that’s meant so much to so many people is just in credibly humbling and very moving.

“This piece has really shaped me. It’s in my bones — always with me, even when I’m not performing it. And in this changing world, that’s pretty amazing.” ■

OTHER UPCOMING HOLIDAY PERFORMANCES:

White Elephant, Nov. 17-26 at the Darkhorse Theater (whiteelephantnash.com)

A Drag Queen Christmas, Nov. 27 at TPAC’s Polk Theater (tpac.org)

A Charlie Brown Christmas, Dec. 9 at Belmont’s Fisher Center (thefishercenter.com)

Nashville’s Nutcracker, Dec. 9-24 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall (nashvilleballet.com)

Studio Tenn presents Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a solo performance by Mark Cabus, Dec. 10-11 at The Franklin Theatre (studiotenn.org)

Christmas With C.S. Lewis, Dec. 15-18 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater (tpac.org)

Nashville Rep presents Elf the Musical, Dec. 21-Jan. 1 at TPAC’s Polk Theater (nashvillerep.org)

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, Dec. 30 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall (tpac.org)

WHITE ELEPHANT

HALLELUJAH JUNCTION

BY JOHN PITCHER

Hey, didn’t the Nashville Symphony already perform Handel’s Messiah this year as an Easter piece? What’s up with them regifting it for Christmas?

Turns out Handel’s masterpiece is truly an oratorio for all seasons. This sprawling work for large mixed chorus, vocal soloists and orchestra draws on both the Old and New Testaments to relate the entire life of Christ, from birth to death to glorious resurrection celebrated with resounding hallelujahs.

“Handel’s Messiah is one-stop shopping for all of your liturgical needs, so it works for Christmas, Easter, pretty much anytime,” says Tucker Biddlecombe, who’s directing the symphony’s chorus in its Messiah perfor mances Dec. 8, 9 and 11 at the Schermerhorn. “There are not a lot of classical pieces that people associate with the holidays. Messiah is the exception. For me, it doesn’t feel like the Christmas season until I’ve heard the aria ‘Comfort ye my people.’ ”

Handel composed Messiah at lightning speed over the course of just three weeks in 1741. Although he drew his subject from the Bible, he never intended his oratorio to be part of any specific religious service. In stead, he clothed his texts in the trappings of opera to provide his audience with nothing short of spectacular entertainment.

“Messiah is less about worshipping than it is about reveling in the score’s musical bril liance,” Biddlecombe says. “The enduring popularity of the piece stems directly from

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS: BOOKS

SUPE’S ON

Michael ‘Supe’ Granda shares his experiences as an in-demand Santa in his book Fat & Funny

BY JACK SILVERMAN

the emotional power and universality of the music.”

Biddlecombe concedes that he has some mixed feelings about this oratorio. He loves its power to draw people into concert halls who might otherwise never attend a classical performance. “But I wish we didn’t have to rely so heavily on Messiah in our pro gramming,” he says. “There are so many other great choral works out there that deserve to be heard.”

There’s also more to Messiah than one wildly popular chorus. Surely anyone who hasn’t been living on one of Jupiter’s moons knows the “Hallelujah” chorus, with its buoyant processional of trumpets and drums in blazing D major. But other solos and choruses are equally worthy of our affection. One of Handel’s most evocative numbers is “O Thou That Tellest Good Tid

ings to Zion,” which is set to the lullabylike rhythm of a siciliana. There’s also the brilliantly scored “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” a jaunty march with exultant vocal roulades.

Although the NSO is no period-instrument group, the ensemble is nonetheless com fortable and familiar with the great English oratorio tradition, so expect to hear plenty of light textures and sprightly Baroque rhythms in its performance. Listeners should also an ticipate a splendiferous performance from the Nashville Symphony Chorus.

“Our choristers understand Handel’s mu sic and style so well that it takes them just three rehearsals to nail it,” Biddlecombe says. “People who come to our concert will hear Messiah in all its glory.” ■

OTHER UPCOMING HOLIDAY PERFORMANCES:

NOV. 17: An Evening With George Winston at The Franklin Theatre

OK, so maybe George Winston’s solo piano gig at The Franklin Theatre isn’t being billed as a holiday event. Nonetheless, many music lovers associate the Yuletide season with the late, great pianist Vince Guaraldi’s sweetly sentimental songs from the 1965 animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas Winston is Guaraldi’s foremost interpreter, and his concerts often feature such Guaraldi favorites as “Christmas Time Is Here,” “Skating” and “Linus and Lucy.” You can also expect him to play songs from his triple-platinum-selling album December, including the peaceful, introspective tune “Thanksgiving.”

DEC. 3-4: Christmas at Belmont

Most people know Belmont University’s annual holiday tradition Christmas at Belmont from broad casts on public television. This year, for the first time, Belmont is opening its concert to the general public and offering tickets. People who attend the perfor mances at Belmont’s terrific new Fisher Center for the Performing Arts will see one of the largest Christ mas extravaganzas in the city. More than 600 Bel mont music students will join members of the music faculty under the direction of Dr. Jeffery Ames to per form a program of familiar carols, classical works, theatrical pieces and seasonal standards. The large mixed chorus of 350 voices will give resplendent renditions of “We Three Kings” and “Do You Hear What I Hear.” Says Ames: “This performance is guar anteed to get you in the holiday spirit.”

DEC. 15-18: Nashville Symphony’s Music City Christmas

The Nashville Symphony saves its most elaborate performance of the year for the holiday season. Prin cipal pops conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez leads the full orchestra and large cast in a program that is part concert, part Broadway show. Country singer Mickey Guyton, who gave an unforgettable performance of “O Holy Night” at Rockefeller Center last year, is the program’s special guest. The program will also feature a new tune from singer-songwriter Marta Albarracin along with the obligatory chorus line of dancing Santas.

— has found a seasonal calling that is both lucrative and rewarding.

Though Granda started working on the book several years ago, it was a fortuitous experience that finally gave him the financial means to get it out in print — an appearance on Wheel of Fortune (fittingly, just before Christmas last year) during which he won $9,500. On YouTube, you can find a video of him explaining the roots of his nickname to Pat Sajak, a story that involves “a Superman suit and a bottle of tequila.” Sajak’s response: “We don’t need any more information. If Lois Lane is involved, forget it.”

In case you’ve ever lain awake pondering that eternal question, “What do the 1975 hit single ‘Jackie Blue,’ Billy Bob Thornton and Wheel of Fortune have in common,” we’re here to ease your restless mind. They are all part of the origin story of one of Middle Tennessee’s busiest Santas, Mi chael “Supe” Granda.

Granda has just released a new book, Fat & Funny: (So You Want to Be Santa Claus), in which he recounts his experiences — some delightful, some hilarious, some heartbreaking — portraying ol’ Saint Nick at shopping malls, kids’ parties, school cafeterias and cocktail soirees. Perhaps it was fate that led him to this calling — he was born on Christmas Eve 1950. Or perhaps it was the inevitable course of nature: As Granda tells it, it all started eight or nine years ago, “When I started to go white and stopped watching my waistline.” (He also notes that having a legit long white beard instead of a sad fake one automati cally gives you a leg up on the competition.)

Whatever the reason, the long-standing fixture in Nashville’s music scene — he’s a founding member and bass player in The Ozark Mountain Daredevils of “Jackie Blue” fame, who are still going strong after 50 years

“When you are sitting in that Santa suit, reality melts into myth,” Granda tells the Scene. “I disappear, and he emerges.” And even though he’s not much of a Christmas fan, he takes great plea sure and pride in bringing joy and laughs to kids of all ages. In chapters such as “Minty Breath,” “Santa Meter” and “Santa Goes to the Ballet,” Granda shares the wide vari ety of experiences and insights he’s accrued over nearly a decade in the big red suit. There’s no shortage of mirth and humor in Granda’s recollections, but there are sad moments too, some of them recounted in a chapter titled “Not Every Moment Is Golden.” For instance, the young girl who shared this Christmas wish with him: “I want Mommy and Daddy to stop fighting and not get divorced anymore.”

Appropriately enough, Fat & Funny features a foreword written by one of the most notorious Santas of all time, Ozarks native and Bad Santa star Billy Bob Thornton, whom Granda has known since his college days in Springfield, Mo.

“I can’t think of anything more appropriate than to get the world’s most despicable, disgusting Santa [to do the introduction],” Granda says. “And when he stopped laughing, he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ ” ■

FAT & FUNNY AT MICHAELSUPEGRANDA.COM

Nashville Symphony’s annual Messiah headlines a season of holiday favorites

MESSIAH DEC. 8, 9 & 11 AT THE SCHERMERHORN; GEORGE WINSTON NOV. 17 AT THE FRANKLIN THEATRE; CHRISTMAS AT BELMONT DEC. 3-4 AT THE FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS; MUSIC CITY CHRISTMAS DEC. 15-18 AT THE SCHERMERHORN

TUCKER BIDDLECOMBE

PHOTO: KURT HEINECKE

THANKSGIVING BOUNTY

Whether you want takeout or to dine out, Nashville restaurant workers are showing up so you can take it easy

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

Yes, the Thanksgiving holiday is rife with potential stress: problematic roots in colonialism, possible family strife, finding recipes that satisfy everyone’s nostalgia, and likely dining-table debates about, say, the $2.1 billion tab for the potential new Titans stadium. The local chefs who made your pandemic easier by feeding you when you were tired of cooking for yourself can do the same for Thanksgiving 2022. Here’s an annual, not-at-all-comprehensive list of places to eat on the fourth Thursday of November. Remember, almost everyone else is plotting their big meal for that day, so plan ahead: Make reservations for dining out and place your takeout orders in advance. There aren’t enough pages in the Scene to list all the options, so check our website for more holiday eating options, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s. (The digital version also has links to online ordering.)

GET READY

Want to serve family and friends at home but don’t have the skills or the space (or the inclination) to do it all yourself? Try these options for ordering a pie or some sides to supplement what you’re cooking up, or go whole-hog and get the entire dinner to go.

Audra Guidry’s baked goods are things of beauty. Order quiche, pies, breads and other treats from Slow Hand Coffee + Bakeshop in East Nashville to give your guests the gift of some of the best carbs around. Order by Nov. 19; pick up on Nov. 23. CaityPies’ incredible — and limited-time offering — CranRaspberry Gingersnap Pie is a scenestealer with its rich red color. Preorder it, the Frankenpie (that’s one slice of six different pies in one tin) or a classic variety online and pick it up at Hunters Station on Nov. 23.

Go classic Nashville with take-and-bake sides (your kitchen will smell great when you warm up this squash casserole and dressing and gravy), pies and puddings from Arnold’s Country Kitchen. Order no later than Nov. 21. The pickup date if you have banana pudding or chocolate pie in your order is Nov. 23; orders without those items should be picked up Nov. 22. Get it all — smoked turkey, cornbread dressing, yeast rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and, of course, pie — from Southernaire Market downtown. Order by Nov. 18, pick up Nov. 23.

If you have vegetarians and vegans coming to dinner, don’t force them to pick through sides like second-class guests. Order special plant-based dishes from AVO by Nov. 20 or BE-Hive Deli & Market by Nov. 18. Also, East Park Donuts and Coffee in East Nashville has vegan options, plus breakfast quiche, biscuits and dinner rolls, and orangespice apple cider.

Holiday takeout isn’t limited to food. Order Thanksgiving bundles of specialty cocktails from The Fox Bar and Cocktail Club. Pick up Nov. 23.

Tired of the traditional menu? Remember, it’s your call. Wedgewood-Houston’s The Hart will help you break the rules with a Tropical Thanksgiving meal that feeds four to six guests. Everyone will be talking about the Brussels sprouts glazed with kimchi BBQ and Hawaiian sweet cornbread stuffing with Portuguese sausage and Maui onion. Pick up Nov. 23.

Another option for a twist on the tradition is Sunda’s East Meets West Thanksgiving Dinner at Home. Order confit turkey legs, adobo pork belly, shishito mashed potatoes and street corn stuffing by Nov. 17; pick up Nov. 22 or 23.

Miss Linda is known as “the Pie Lady,” so of course you should consider ordering your holiday pies from her at Elliston Place Soda Shop. You can also order the whole dinner to go, with turkey and cornbread stuffing. Place orders by Nov. 19 for Nov. 23 pickup. Spice things up with a Cajun fried turkey from The Gumbo Bros. While placing your order, add on the turducken gumbo, a dark rouxbased gumbo with turkey, duck and chicken. Pick up in the Gulch Nov. 18, 19, 22 or 23.

Place your order by Nov. 18 for the Thanksgiving Meal Kit from Von Elrod’s. It includes a rosemary and sage turkey, cranberry relish, stuffing and your choice of three sides (or pay extra for more). Pick up Nov. 22 or 23.

GAME TIME

Want someone else to do the cooking and the cleanup? Consider these options for dining out on the big day.

Six different Tennessee State Parks are serving Thanksgiving meals on Nov. 24, and several of them are in easy driving distance from Nashville, meaning you get to eat out with a view and then have a lovely place for a post-feast stroll. Check out Henry Horton State Park in Chapel Hill (50 miles south) or Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns (35 miles west), both within an hour’s drive of downtown.

Thanksgiving at Merchant’s is a Nashville tradition, and you have two different options at the Broadway stalwart. The First Floor Bistro has a special Thanksgiving plate for $32 (in addition to the regular menu), which is a great option if you aren’t into overindulging. The Second Floor Steakhouse offers a full three-course menu, complete with traditional fixings. Kick it old-school — Sean Brock style — with a five-course prix fixe menu at The Continental. There are several menu items from which to choose, but the place is famous for prime rib, so that’s the smart play.

Puckett’s allows you to have the best of both worlds: eating out in a restaurant and eating all you possibly can. Make a reservation downtown or in Franklin, Columbia or Murfreesboro for their all-you-can-eat menu of turkey, meatloaf, sweet potato casserole and everything else you can imagine. Or let celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s team cook Thanksgiving for you in the historic veranda at the Hermitage Hotel. They’ll even pack up your leftovers for you so you can have that classic turkey sandwich over the weekend.

THE DAY AFTER

There’s a feeling among some folks that the downside of going out to eat for Thanksgiving (to a restaurant or to someone else’s house) is that you miss out on the best part: leftovers all weekend. If that’s you, book a reservation at 1 Kitchen in the 1 Hotel Nashville downtown. The menu all weekend features Thanksgiving Leftovers Brunch with turkey hash, sweet potato waffles and turkey frittata.

CAITYPIE’S FRANKENPIE

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS: EVENTS

NOV. 20 & DEC. 4: Thistle Farms Holiday Sip and Shop, 4-6 p.m., Thistle Farms, 5122 Charlotte Pike

NOV. 25-DEC. 31: Jingle Beat: An Immersive Holiday Experience, The Fairgrounds Nashville, 625 Smith Ave.

NOV. 25-DEC. 30: Enchant, First Horizon Park, 19 Jr. Gilliam Way

NOV. 26: Handmade Nashville Holiday Market, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Red Caboose Park, 684 Colice Jeanne Road

NOV. 27: A Drag Queen Christmas, 8 p.m., TPAC’s Polk Theater, 505 Deaderick St.

DEC. 1-3: East Nash Holiday Bash, 1106 Woodland St. #4

DEC. 2: Christmas Dinner From Belmont Mansion, 1900 Belmont Blvd.

DEC. 2: Holiday Spirits Cocktail Festival, 6-9 p.m., The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road, Franklin

DEC. 2: Christmas Tree Lighting on the Square, 6-8:30 p.m., Franklin Public Square, Franklin

DEC. 2-4: Home Alone in Concert with the Nashville Symphony, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 1 Symphony Plaza

DEC. 2-30: BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley, Donut Distillery, 331 Gallatin Ave.

DEC. 2-30: Nutcracker Tea, 2 p.m., the Hermitage Hotel, 231 Sixth Ave. N.

DEC. 3: Jingle Bell Run, 8:15-10:30 a.m., The Park at Harlinsdale Farm, 239 Franklin Road, Franklin

DEC. 3: Nashville SantaCon Crawl, 1-8 p.m., Kung Fu Saloon, 1921 Division St.

DEC. 4: Christmas Is Coming: Tribute to A Charlie Brown Christmas Feat. The Lori Mechem Quartet, 7 p.m., The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin

NASHVILLE NUTCRACKER

DEC. 6-8: Lauren Daigle: The Behold Christmas Tour, the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

DEC. 9-24: Nashville’s Nutcracker, TPAC’s Jackson Hall, 505 Deaderick St.

DEC. 10: Carols, Cookies and Crafts, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., the Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.

DEC. 10: Holiday Story Time With Heather and Shop Dog Marlee, 9 a.m., Parnassus Books, 3900 Hillsboro Pike # 14

DEC. 10: 12 Bars of Christmas Crawl, noon-8 p.m., Kung Fu Saloon, 1921 Division St.

DEC. 10: Holiday Beers and Cheers Market, noon-2 p.m., Bearded Iris Brewery, 101 Van Buren St.

DEC. 10-11: Dickens of a Christmas, Franklin’s Main Street, 106 Third Ave. N., Franklin

DEC. 11: Pentatonix: A Christmas Spectacular Tour, 7 p.m., Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway

DEC. 14: Trans-Siberian Orchestra Holiday Tour, 7 p.m., Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway

DEC. 15-18: Mickey Guyton in Music City Christmas with the Nashville Symphony, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 1 Symphony Plaza

DEC. 16-17: An Old Fashioned Christmas, Rudy’s Jazz Room, 809 Gleaves St.

DEC. 17: Christmas With the King: A Holiday Tribute to Elvis, 3 & 7:30 p.m. The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin

DEC. 12-21: Christmas at the Ryman Feat. Amy Grant and Vince Gill, the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

DEC. 21-JAN 1: Elf the Musical, TPAC’s Polk Theater, 505 Deaderick St.

DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS

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WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

Houston premiere. And the evening also includes Beethoven’s delightful Symphony No. 6 — also known as the “Pastoral” Symphony. Nov. 17-19 at the Schermerhorn, 1 Symphony Place AMY STUMPFL

[PRINT IS DEAD]

STORIES

POP-UP MAGAZINE

When Pop-Up Magazine launched in California in 2009, it basically invented a new genre: the live magazine. The multimedia storytelling event became very popular very quickly. In the decade-plus since its founding, Pop-Up Magazine has begun touring the country, and now it comes to Nashville for the first time. The lineup for the current “issue” — titled “Love Stories” — includes filmmakers, authors, a musician, a radio producer and more, all iterating on the idea of love stories and on the act of telling stories more generally. The stories about heartbreak, one-night stands and first love will be accompanied by a live score from Magik*Magik Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. at War Memorial Auditorium, 301 Sixth Ave. N. STEPHEN ELLIOTT

[WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE]

THEATER

WHITE ELEPHANT

NEW DIALECT AND AMERICAN MODERN OPERA COMPANY PRESENT BROKEN THEATER

We might not have recognized it at the time, but 2013 was actually quite an important year for Nashville’s contemporary arts scene. After all, that was the year Banning Bouldin established her celebrated dance collective, New Dialect. It’s also when the Ozgener family founded its expansive contemporary arts center, OZ Arts. Over the past decade, the two companies have frequently partnered together, often staging groundbreaking new dance works. Now, after stepping away to focus on her health following a diagnosis of MS, along with new motherhood, it seems only fitting that Bouldin would return to the OZ Arts stage with Broken Theater — an exciting new co-production with the acclaimed American Modern Opera Company. Featuring stunning choreography by former Batsheva Dance Company member Bobbi Jene Smith, this dynamic piece blends dance, music and theater together, exploring “a group of artists wrestling with identity and purpose after their audience disappears.” It’s a remarkable collection of talent all around.

Local dance lovers won’t want to miss the opportunity to cheer on Bouldin as she marks her triumphant return to the stage. Nov. 17-19 at OZ Arts, 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle AMY STUMPFL

MUSIC [GOING BOLDLY]

TO-GO PRESENTS: DISCOVERY NITE FEAT. SMUT, HEAVEN HONEY & VENUS & THE FLYTRAPS

Over the past year, the quantity of shows at Third Man Records’ long-running venue The Blue Room has increased dramatically, while the quality hasn’t dipped a smidgen. We recognized the TMR crew’s work as Best Venue Programming Upgrade in our annual Best of Nashville issue, noting that while it means more shows from top-notch internationally touring acts, it also means lots more bandwidth for local musicians, especially up-and-coming ones. One part of that achievement is thanks to the folks at outstanding indie label To-Go Records, whose many activities around town include booking TMR’s recurring Discovery Nite showcase. Thursday’s installment of the series brings Chicago’s Smut, whose spin on dreamy guitar-centric pop brings perspectives and techniques from electronic dance and hip-hop production to the table — they’ll be fresh from the Nov. 11 release of an LP called How the Light Felt via Bayonet Records. Two locals support:

rocking literary lyricists Heaven Honey and maestros of sweet-and-sour rock Venus & the Flytraps. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC

[A DARING DOUBLE BILL] CONQUEST REQUIEM

The Nashville Symphony has a marvelous program planned for this weekend — including the live recording of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Conquest Requiem Billed as a “poignant reflection on Spain’s conquest of the Aztec Empire,” Conquest Requiem was inspired by the true story of La Malinche — a young Nahua woman who was enslaved by the invading Spaniards and would eventually became the mistress of Hernán Cortés. It’s an unusual piece, telling the story from the perspective of the conquered rather than the victors, and balancing the traditional Roman Catholic Mass for the dead with themes of “imperialism, reconciliation and the lives affected throughout.” Music director Giancarlo Guerrero leads the full orchestra, and audiences can also look forward to hearing the Nashville Symphony Chorus, led by its director Tucker Biddlecombe, along with some incredible guest soloists — soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Andrew Garland. This marks the first time the work has been performed since its

As the new-works scene continues to thrive here in Nashville, it’s particularly exciting to see young writers stepping up to the plate with fresh ideas and voices. This weekend, you can check out the world premiere of Sofia Tosches’ White Elephant at the Darkhorse Theater. Touted as “a comedy until it’s not,” the story follows a group of eight millennials who gather for a white elephant holiday gift exchange. But as the evening unfolds, we find that these “friends” are unwrapping more than a few secrets and surprises along the way. Tosches directs a solid cast, including Kristen Fields, AJ Shoemaker, Mileah Milstead, Dustin LaFleur, Delaney Amatrudo, Leslie Marberry, Molly Brown and J.R. Knowles. And there’s even a Holiday Cocktail Crawl planned, featuring White Elephant-inspired drinks at The Fable Lounge, E3 Chophouse and Love & Exile — when you buy your ticket to the show, you’ll receive an email with the secret password. Nov. 17-19, 25-26 at the Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Ave. AMY STUMPFL

FRIDAY / 11.18

[BREATHE WITH ME]

FILM

ALL THAT BREATHES

There’s something miraculous about All That Breathes. It’s a graceful, sincere documentary about two brothers and their friend in Delhi who help rescue and nurse back to health birds known as black kites that are overtaken by the incessant pollution, restoring them to an ecosystem already thrown out of whack by human industry and the impetus to go for convenience over collective responsibility.

PHOTO: JOSH ROS

NEW DIALECT AND AMERICAN MODERN OPERA COMPANY PRESENT BROKEN THEATER

The black kite is a fascinating creature — it fulfills the function of a carrion bird, but is as omnipresent (and some would say a comparable nuisance) as a pigeon. (Also, they can strategically start fires!) But Salik, Mohamed and Nadim are taking care of these birds because it’s something that they can do to try to help. Even as anti-Muslim legislation fuels protests throughout India — and on their street — they’re putting their all into a system collapsing around them. Gentle of heart, gifted with elegant camerawork and periodically bitingly funny, this is inspirational filmmaking without saccharin gestures. It’s something everyone of conscience should take a gander at, and then leave out some meat for the turkey buzzards in solidarity. Nov. 18-22 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

JASON SHAWHAN

MUSIC [HOME COURT]

COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS

Courtney Marie Andrews is originally from Phoenix, but she’s Nashville’s most recent ridiculously talented transplant — and she’s come with new music to enjoy. Her sixth album, Loose Future, written on Cape Cod and recorded in the Catskills, sounds like the sun-drenched fantasy of a summer in love. Using her crystalline voice over delicate Americana and rootsy arrangements, Andrews tells us what she’s learned about loving and living on her own time, singing on “Older Now,” “Falling down in the sand / Life is better without plans.” The only plan you need to make this weekend is going to her gig at The Basement East — have fun vibing. 7 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St.

JACKIE ZEISLOFT

TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE

The jazz world could use more artists with the vision and insight of Troy Andrews — aka Trombone Shorty, playing the Ryman Friday with his Orleans Avenue. A brilliant multi-instrumentalist who not only is a superb soloist on trombone and trumpet but also a gifted organist, pianist and drummer, Shorty has embodied the idiomatic versatility and instrumental brilliance of a great jazz musician ever since making his debut at Jazz Fest playing with the legendary Bo Diddley as a 4-year-old. His ability to operate in multiple musical worlds is never more evident than on his latest Blue

Note release — his second for the venerable label. On the album, Lifted, Shorty joins forces with a cast that includes both his high school marching band and special guests Gary Clark Jr. and Lauren Daigle in a celebration of New Orleans precision and swagger. That’s a reflection of the same energy and mastery he displays in his live shows — he’ll bring that magic to the Ryman Friday night, where he’ll be joined by Devon Gilfillian. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. RON WYNN

FILM [I WANNA SPEAK

IN CHARGE] THE FABLEMANS +6: THE FATED FAMILY VISIONS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG

THE

Steven Spielberg may be the inventor of the summer blockbuster, but even his most ass-blasting thrill rides have really been about family. With the director’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans about to hit theaters, the Belcourt will take audiences down memory lane by

screening some of his most familial flicks. The series begins with his two biggest postJaws smashes: 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1982’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. After Fablemans makes its Belcourt debut on Nov. 23, the series will go to the past (with Spielberg’s 1974 theatrical debut The Sugarland Express) and the future (with his 2001 android-orphan adventure A.I. Artificial Intelligence — showing in glorious 35 mm!). Next up is his 1987 WWII flick Empire of the Sun, starring a very young Christian Bale. The series will wrap up with the 2002 con-man biopic Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Visit belcourt.org for dates and showtimes. Nov. 18-Dec. 11 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

MUSIC

SATURDAY / 11.19

[VICTORY LILY]

LILLY HIATT & ADIA VICTORIA

When local roots rocker Lilly Hiatt glorifies her hometown, it’s downright anthemic. Case in point: the title track of 2017’s Trinity Lane, which refers to a scruffy Nashville road near which Hiatt’s character resides and finds salvation by cracking open a window when it rains. It’s a rootsy and unadorned rock ’n’ roll song with a Jerry Lee Lewis piano riff. But when Music City gives Hiatt the blues, her music transcends. In the chorus to “Some Kind of Drug” from 2020’s Walking Proof, Hiatt bemoans Nashville’s apparent addiction to commercial development. Succeeding her sorrow, however, is the chorus’s stupendous, ringing guitar riff. Similarly, on the title

MUSIC [BIG SHORTY]

TO

MAN

TROMBONE SHORTY

LILLY HIATT

track of last year’s Lately, Hiatt sings, “The city’s got me beat / And I have nothing to give her.” Hiatt’s faith in the city may waver, but never her faith in music. Hiatt will share Exit/In’s storied 50-year-old stage with fellow acclaimed Nashvillian Adia Victoria, an iconoclastic blues singer. 8 p.m. at Exit/ In, 2208 Elliston Place WILLIAM HOOKER

MUSIC [INNER LIFE]

SON LITTLE

If the records in your collection by artists like Donny Hathaway, Shuggie Otis and Syl Johnson give you profound joy, you owe it to yourself not to sleep on the work of Son Little. Like the aforementioned legends, Little is a soul and R&B master who’s simultaneously of our time and not bound by time at all. His new LP Like Neptune is funky, psychedelic and communicates emotions in a range of subtle ways, and the spark of inspiration was a cache of journals he found during pandemic lockdown that date back to his childhood. They included reminders of trauma stemming from sexual assault, which he didn’t truly begin to process until he sought therapy in earnest following a serious car crash in 2017. In press materials,

he says the new record is the first one he’s made in his nearly two-decade career just for the joy of making music. And unlike with the late, great Hathaway and Johnson, you can step into a room with Little and go on the journey with him yourself. (Thankfully Shuggie Otis is still with us, though he seldom tours; his last visit to Nashville was in 2013.) Little’s tour stops at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Saturday, with support from Moorea Masa & the Mood, equally innovative groovers whose 2021 EPs, Heart In the Wild: Side A and Side B, reflect on the challenges of coping with a close family member suffering from mental illness. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC [LOVESICK]

JESSIE REYEZ

Listening to Jessie Reyez’s soulpummeling music makes me wish I was going through a breakup. Her songs — forged from heartbreak and hardship — would be an excellent soundtrack for

SON LITTLE

PHOTO: CYNTHIA PEREZ

JESSIE REYEZ

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shredding an ex’s picture. The ColombianCanadian songwriter has a voice that’s rich in texture and tone, along with a Grammy nomination and a slew of collaborations with Eminem, Dua Lipa and Normani, among others. But her biggest contribution to music is her ability to connect with an audience. Reyez is currently on tour promoting the release of her sophomore album Yessie, and her live set is full of dancing and makeshift percussion instruments like beer cans and hairbrushes. So even if you’re in the gutter or busy pushing through the darkness, Sunday’s show at Brooklyn Bowl is the perfect prescription for pain. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. TOBY LOWENFELS

MUSIC

[HEAVENLY SOUNDS] ANNE MALIN

Anne Malin’s 2022 full-length Summer Angel carries its fraught tone throughout a song cycle that puts her voice into folk-electronica settings. Summer Angel skirts pop on “Burdens,” which sports droll pedal steel and electric guitar, but

Malin dives into the kind of experimental post-folk that fellow Nashvillians Lauryn Peacock and Lou Turner favor. Because her vocals — apparently cut using first takes during the tracking sessions — are so pained, the effect of Summer Angel gets slightly diffused over nine sonically and thematically similar performances. Still, it’s a compelling record taken in pieces, with saxophone and electronics from JayVe Montgomery and organ and synth courtesy of Styrofoam Winos member Trevor Nikrant. “Mary (Dear God Please Help Me)” and “Redeemer” put across the album’s religious themes effectively, and the rockband dynamics that producer Andrija Tokic brings to the project flesh out Malin’s tunes. Also appearing at Sunday’s installment of Malin’s November residency at Vinyl Tap is Nashville singer-songwriter Bea Troxel, whose excellent 2021 album Gettin’ Where shows off the finely tuned approach of a very subtle singer-songwriter. 7 p.m. at Vinyl Tap, 2038 Greenwood Ave. EDD HURT

BOOKS [A BOOK OF DAYS]

PATTI SMITH

Patti Smith has a new book out and is coming back to Nashville to celebrate. Inspired by Smith’s very popular Instagram account, A Book of Days features more than 365 images and reflections that show us a miniature window into her world. Smith is of course best known as a punk-rock luminary, her 1975 debut album Horses

having landed on countless lists, but she’s also an accomplished author. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member’s memoir Just Kids won the National Book Award in 2010, and the French Ministry of Culture awarded her the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2007. Parnassus Books and OZ Arts have teamed up to host this event in celebration of Smith’s new book. Smith will perform songs, discuss images from her book, and answer audience questions. 7 p.m. at OZ Arts, 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle KIM BALDWIN

TUESDAY / 11.22

[PERIOD CORRECT]

COMEDY

NATASHA LEGGERO

Stand-up comic Natasha Leggero has spent the past decade-and-a-half building a wildly diverse body of work. The Illinois native and longtime Angeleno has been the show-stealer at several Comedy Central roasts, voiced numerous cartoon characters, acted in loads of sitcoms and several films, cohosted reality shows, and co-created and co-starred in the ribald three-season sitcom Another Period with her collaborator Riki Lindhome. Since 2019, she and her husband and fellow comic Moshe Kasher have also hosted The Endless Honeymoon Podcast, a laugh-a-minute chatcast in which the two comedians playfully bicker, interview other showbiz pros and riff about parenting, Hollywood, aging pets and more. Earlier this month, Leggero released her debut book, a collection of “razor-sharp essays on motherhood in our post-apocalyptic world”

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titled The World Deserves My Children. On Tuesday, the accomplished star will bring her The World Deserves My Children Tour to City Winery, where fans will get a dose of Leggero’s clever, acerbic and even hopeful takes. 8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St.

D. PATRICK RODGERS

MUSIC

[TE AMO] OMAR APOLLO

Omar Apollo keeps the passion high. The 25-year-old is known and worshiped for his unapologetic queerness, Spanglish lyrics and signature swagger. Hailing from Indiana, Omar is the son of Mexican immigrants who have influenced much of his creativity. His latest album, Ivory, traverses reggaeton fusion and bedroom soul, but it’s his live show that makes fans lose it. He hurls himself into each performance, delivering Prince-esque dance moves, usually ditching his shirt to his fans’ delight. His audience is so horny for the Pharrell-produced pop banger “Tamagotchi” that he often plays it twice in one night. Twitter was aflutter earlier this month when Angelina Jolie was spotted in the audience of his sold-out L.A. show. Let’s hope the Mother Church is ready for all this steam. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. TOBY LOWENFELS

WEDNESDAY / 11.23

MUSIC

[METAL CHURCH] W.A.S.P.

By now the “I can’t believe ____ is playing the Mother Church!” concept has grown a bit tired. Still, I wonder how Ernest Tubb and Skeeter Davis would have reacted when news broke that ’80s metal

shockers W.A.S.P. — a band once known for throwing D-grade meat into the audience at their concerts — would appear on that sacred stage. Though the L.A. rockers once offended parents, senators and animalrights advocates enough to earn their way onto Tipper Gore’s Filthy 15 list, W.A.S.P. long ago abandoned the vulgar buzz-sawed days of their first two albums. Though they’re now on their best behavior, Blackie Lawless & Co. still have the most merciless sound of all their hair-sprayed peers. 7:30 at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. P.J. KINZER

MUSIC [ROCK TEMPLATES] BLACK LIPS

Albums by contemporary garage bands usually come across as hit-or-miss propositions. It’s difficult to reproduce the mixture of crudity and tunefulness the best garage rockers of the ’60s presented in an equally hit-or-miss fashion. Black Lips formed in the metropolis of Dunwoody, Ga., in 1999, and they’ve soldiered on since the untimely death of guitarist Ben Eberbaugh in 2002. On their 10th studio album, this year’s Apocalypse Love, the group — now anchored by founding members Jared Swilley and Cole Alexander — sounds more accomplished than it did 15 years ago. They get into garage disco, sort of, on “Sharing My Cream,” while “Among the Dunes” sounds like a simplified version of something by ’70s glam rockers Wizzard, right down to the skronking saxophones. Meanwhile, “Lost Angel” works off the amalgam of surf music, Roy Orbison melodies and rock ’n’ roll itself that serves as a template for post-garage groups everywhere. File Apocalypse Love with Reigning Sound’s 2021 A Little More Time With Reigning Sound. Opening will be Canadian rockabilly singer Bloodshot Bill and Nashville’s Country Westerns, who pull off a country-rock version of Richard Thompson’s “Wall of Death” on their 2021 Country Westerns EP 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. EDD HURT

os Angeles, it’s no surprise, offers a startling variety of

It’s an international city that has drawn immigrants for decades and has a mindboggling variety of ethnic enclaves. A short stroll on Hollywood Boulevard carries a pedestrian from Little Armenia to Thai Town in rapid succession. Little Bangladesh is just north of Koreatown. The charmingly named Byzantine-Latino Quarter is just south of it. Of course, Southern California has been a destination for relocators coming from within the United States for a long time as well, drawn by dreams of gold strikes or silver-screen stardom or the charms of eternal sunshine and economic opportunity.

Southern food broadly — and soul food specifically — has a foothold, brought west by Black Southerners fleeing Jim Crow and heading toward a dizzying number of defense jobs during World War II. There’s both supply and demand for any cuisine imaginable. There’s a Cracker Barrel at Melrose and Western, and an elevated

imitation of Waffle House at Sunset and Vine, for lard’s sake.

In that environment and with increased cross-pollination between the City of Angels and the Music City, it was — maybe — just a matter of time before hot chicken landed on the plates of Angelenos.

There are dozens of restaurants specializing in the dish. There’s Dave’s and Harold’s and Lily Mae’s. There’s Angry Chickz and Hot Chicko’s. There is both a Bad Mutha Clucka and a Hot Motha Clucker — the latter is advertised as a “Nashville Bar & Grill” but specializes in tequila cocktails and blasts trap music. Given that California has a, let’s say, much more open attitude to cannabis, there’s Tennessee Hot Chicken (which takes pains to point out that its initials are THC). A wistful former Nashvillian has no problem finding the fiery fowl, or at least some interpretation thereof.

As might be expected with such quantity, some of the offerings are, let’s say, far from authentic. Many offer just tenders or serve only sandwiches. While many Nashville aficionados have come to accept tenders as admissible, putting hot chicken on a

hamburger bun instead of atop white bread is a bridge too far. Many jack up their heat using distilled pure capsaicin, a trick not unheard of even in hot chicken’s hometown. While such a move increases the heat, it does little to add flavor (and the price is an extra level of digestive discomfort).

Nashville’s famous bird first hit the streets of Los Angeles in 2015 with the opening of Howlin’ Ray’s food truck, but that was just the culmination of a journey that began the same way so many hot chicken love affairs do: the need for a latenight nosh.

Johnny Ray Zone was doing a stint at Husk and after a shift one night, at the invitation of a co-worker, headed down the hill to 400 Degrees. He was hooked. In short order, he tried Prince’s, he tried Bolton’s, he tried Hattie B’s. He flew back to L.A. and, joined by his wife Amanda, returned to Nashville for a hot chicken tour, eating the bird exclusively for days and days and days.

Zone comes from a fine-dining background — in addition to Husk, he worked at Nobu, at The London for Gordon Ramsey, at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Beverly Hills. So, he says, he was able “to gram out” the recipe, drawing from the restaurants in Nashville he reverently calls “the OGs.” There’s Prince’s richness, the front-end heat from Bolton’s, the slight sweetness of Hattie B’s. When he travels to Nashville, he listens to and learns from those who’ve come before and

PHOTO: JAKOB N. LAYMAN

gives back when he can. He financed the reconstruction of Bolton’s sign after the 2020 tornado, for example.

The result is quite good. The chicken itself is well-prepared — and available in traditional quarters as well as tenders — as are the sides. Ray’s offers seven levels of heat, including the ingenious mediumhot. A Nashvillian is likely to want to bump up a level from their usual order. (A Nashville “hot” is closer to Ray’s “Howlin’ ” level, for example.)

He doesn’t try to pretend he’s something he’s not, though.

“We took a dish and paid respect to where it comes from, and elevated it by paying respect and having a lot of integrity for it,” Zone says. “I’m not Southern. I’m from L.A. We aren’t saying we’re from Nashville.”

Eventually, Los Angeles fell in love with Howlin’ Ray’s, drawing long lines that persisted with a move to a brick-and-mortar in Chinatown. A new location is opening soon in Pasadena. The booths there are named for streets in Nashville, but the open kitchen and decor evoke the ubiquitous Los Angeles coffee shop (what nearly everyone else on earth would call a diner).

Ray’s success drew attention, not just from hungry spice-heads but from investors who begged him to franchise, to cut costs, to give up control.

“We launched a sandwich and those people were hounding us to do a franchise deal,” he says. “I said, ‘Have you been to Nashville?’ They saw hot chicken as dollar signs.”

But hot chicken is more than the money it can make. There’s not a soul in L.A. who knows that better than Kim Prince. Yes, of those Princes. Her aunt is Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack matriarch Andre PrinceJeffries. Her great-great-uncle is Thornton, the man who legend tells us brought the bird to the world after a suspicious girlfriend spiked his fried chicken with cayenne.

Prince operates Hotville just off Crenshaw Boulevard. No one needs to be convinced of her bona fides.

“I grew up around this bird,” says Prince. “It was not only prepared at the restaurant, but at home and other venues. It was the only way to eat fried chicken, and it had to have some kick in it. Not just on it. The good family nod was what I long for and finally got. A blessing of sorts to head west

and embark upon opening my own brickand-mortar store. Finance it and keep the family name and the legacy of Nashville hot chicken held high. Enlighten folk to respect the story and craft. Nashville hot chicken is not a trend. It’s a tradition. Something that’s been around since the 1930s doesn’t sound like a trendy train you just hop on. Earn the ticket and learn what the journey brings.”

Prince defends her family’s creation, as is to be expected, making sure to call what is served in Los Angeles “spicy fried chicken” rather than “Nashville hot chicken.”

“I have yet to find a business here preparing the bird in the manner of my Great-Great-Uncle Thornton and his brothers,” she says. “Again, the kick is in it. Not just on it. Frying hot chicken is a skilled art with attention on balancing flavors. Too much of the wrong thing, like this one irksome ingredient I see all too many use called brown sugar, just ruins it for me.”

It’s inarguable there’s a surfeit of L.A. joints claiming to serve hot chicken; whether it’s a bubble that bursts when the next food trend comes down the 405 remains to be seen. Prince says the “trendminded makers of hot chicken” are bound to get burnt.

Zone says he saw the boom coming when investors came with open wallets and specious ideas of how to scale the dish.

“The secret is hours and passion and joy,” he says. “I’m not in charge of hot chicken, and I don’t control it, but we have integrity.”

Prince, who has stared down the challenges the restaurant industry faced in the past two years, doesn’t seem daunted by the competition of imitators — or anything else, for that matter.

“I am drawn to the business of restaurants, customer service, community engagement, education and empowerment of a space where the minority was not entitled to ownership,” says Prince. “Women and people of color lack access, and the barriers are worth exposing and then kicking down. My ancestors were true entrepreneurs and conquered challenging times. It’s their faith and fortitude that fuels me. That spirit was passed down to my father, Martin Prince, Aunt Andre Prince-Jeffries, her daughters, and the next generation. They have a mandate to pick up the frying pan and keep frying this bird hot.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NEW ROMANTICS

A two-woman painting show of sublime abstractions transcends at Red Arrow Gallery

BY JOE NOLAN

Alternative Medicine at Red Arrow Gallery is a twowoman abstract painting exhibition full of big, colorful works that are organized next to each other along the spacious walls of the East Nashville gallery.

The layout ensures that viewers notice the similarities and the differences between the two artists’ paintings — the congruous palettes and compositions make the show feel almost collaborative at turns. But noticing those likenesses simultaneously highlights their dramatic textural differences and understandings of what a picture plane — or even a substrate — can be.

Both artists also emphasize the connections between the mystical and natural worlds, but they come to that conversation from opposite ends. This is an exceptional display of art-forart’s-sake that should have formalist art nerds making multiple visits — snapping pics, making notes and taking part in the painterly conversation at the core of the show.

Nashville-based artist Amelia Briggs’ signature artworks float in a sometimes unsettling space, occupying sculpture, textile art and painting simultaneously. Her sewn and stuffed pieces recall the inflatable rafts and pool toys we often associate with carefree summer days, but they take on visceral and even alienseeming forms, conjuring mortal and existential anxieties along with the sting of chlorine and the smell of coconut oil. If I had to name the best contemporary painter in Nashville, Briggs would automatically make the short list, and Alternative Medicine includes a predictably strong new selection from the artist.

“Prance” is 5-and-a-half feet tall by almost 4 feet wide, and it’s the most eyecatching work in the show. It’s made of reclaimed materials, latex, fiber, oil and acrylic, constructed in the familiar style that makes so many of Briggs’ works look like inflated vinyl in the summertime. The basic composition includes a rusty-orange rectangle balanced upright on a slab of yellow — it’s almost Rothko-esque, aside from the slimy squirming lines. The whole form feels gooey and undulating like a living system, and the reddish rectangle that makes up the larger part of the composition resembles a large intestine, while also acting as a picture frame for the puffy, striated, wrinkled and glossy forms that ooze inside it. “Prance” reflects the history of American abstract painting, questions the aesthetics of traditional gallery display, and probes at the slippery

fundamentals of existence — all in one painting that I want to take cliff diving at Percy Priest. This is why Briggs is one of our best.

Brooklyn-based artist Calli Moore’s “Flaming Jasper” hangs alongside “Prance” in a pairing that’s so dramatic it acts as the exhibition’s default introduction wall. The painterly duet engages a dialogue that expands throughout the rest of the display. “Flaming Jasper” is rendered in oil and acrylic on taut stretched linen. Moore applies her paint in thin, sometimes almost transparent layers. She doesn’t seem to use gesso or other primers, and the texture of the linen fabric is readily visible throughout the work. There are a few spots of heavy application of paint that leave gooey lines of opaque pigments above the surface of the image, but these are only occasional accents in a mostly very flat and very dry painting. Moore uses traditional substrates, and doubles down on flat picture planes with very spare applications of paint. Briggs’ substrates are contemporary and idiosyncratic, and her painted imagery actually occupies the 3-D spaces implied by Cubist deconstructions.

Briggs and Moore had never met until a week before the show opened, but the works in Alternative Medicine often play

together so nicely that the show sometimes feels like an active collaboration. The palettes of “Prance” and “Flaming Jasper” are so nearly identical that it’s a bit eerie, and the same can be said for the pair’s paintings on the opposite wall — Moore’s “Anthuria Aqua Blossom” and Briggs’ “Patricia” — which share gold, blue, green and chilly whites. Briggs’ sewn and stuffed pieces make up abstract compositions that sometimes recall natural biomorphic or even anatomical forms. Moore’s compositions aren’t so fully abstracted, but they’re highly stylized renderings of plant forms and crystal shapes, and their mostly symmetrical compositions bring a sense of design and artifice to her natural subjects. The painters wind up in roughly the same place, but one makes abstractions that flirt with naturalism while the other abstracts and stylizes natural subjects.

All these leaves and crystals, organisms and body parts pull the strikingly contemporary works into art historical conversations with Romantic ideas.

Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) named awe, terror and danger as earmarks of sublime experience, and proclaimed nature to be the most sublime subject, influencing generations

of Romantic artists who sought to capture the transcendent in the wild world. Moore and Briggs both touch on the sublime in their works, but each in their own unique manners. Briggs’ more visceral works (“Patricia”), the ones that look like bacteria (“Fiona”), the ones that look like off-world creatures (“Flourish”), all hit the terror note of the sublime — their float-toy forms and candy-shop colors only make them more clownishly freaky.

On the other hand, Moore uses an airbrush to blast flares of light off the edges of her crystals, and her foliage forms move with a deliberate grace, implicating the sentience surging through them. Moore’s works focus on the awesome aspects of the sublime, flirting with psychedelic art aesthetics and techniques (airbrush), and resulting in a series of works that could almost directly translate into divination-card designs.

Alternative Medicine features two new series by a pair of fantastic painters, but more importantly, it offers a conversation about what painting has been and what it can be. It’s a contemporary art show that speaks to art history, and an abstract display that puts viewers in touch with a transcendent experience of the natural world.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: AMELIA BRIGGS AND CALLI MOORE THROUGH DEC. 17 AT RED ARROW GALLERY

“FLAMING JASPER,” CALLI MOORE

BY DAVID DARK

hether he’s covering Dave Ramsey, Beth Moore, Southern Baptists or snake handlers, Bob Smietana knows how to narrate the cult in the word culture. This is to say he’s a religion reporter. Formerly the religion writer for The Tennessean and a senior editor of Christianity Today, he is currently a national reporter for Religion News Service.

With Reorganized Religion, described by Publishers Weekly as “a superb examination of the future of Christian institutions,” Smietana separates the wheat from the chaff, the healthy from the toxic, with enough depth and affection to give readers a dose of hopefulness.

With compassion and candor, Smietana traces the fallout when “disdain proves more powerful than love,” as well as the harbor found when “someone left the lights on and kept the door open.” He recently answered questions via email.

and power? Religion has power to harm and to heal, to rend and to repair — depending on the choices religious people make. Organized religion can be a channel for that power in the world, helping religious people put their ideals into practice. But people can also use that power to do great harm or to excuse the harm done by religious leaders.

In recounting scandals like the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse cover-up, your book reads like a report on the apocalypse, a breaking down of an untenable status quo, revealing the trauma and toxicity that were there all along. From your perspective as both a believer and a reporter, do you have faith that everything gets unmasked in the end? I do. Because nothing stays hidden forever. Sometimes the apocalypse takes a long time, but the truth catches up with us all. We see this right now in the United States, as the ills we have long refused to deal with have caught up to us — and the failing of the country’s founders, especially when it comes to slavery, are no longer overlooked or papered over.

BY BOB SMIETANA

Bob, you are something of a legend in telling difficult stories with dignity. What’s a little different here is you weave in your own experience of religion, as one whose life has been served and maybe even sometimes saved by it. I got to thinking that you’re someone who loves religion. Do you love religion? That’s a fantastic question. I love covering religion, for sure — how it affects every part of life and the endless variety of stories, practices and communities that help people find meaning in this world.

Do I love religion though? Yes, I think so. I am grateful for the life, which religion made possible. Not just religion, but organized religion, in my case, organized Protestant churches and institutions and the people who built and sustained them. I love the way religion commands us to be aware of our flaws and make amends for those flaws, creates habits and rituals that inspire us to be better people, and sends us out into the world to make it a place where everyone can thrive. But here’s the thing: I know that so many people have been harmed by religion. They have been told they are not wanted or betrayed by people who promised to care for them or who used the power of organized religion for great evil. That’s why I am hesitant to say I love religion. But perhaps I love religion enough to know it’s crucial to report on the failings of religious people and institutions. One theme that emerges among the stories you tell is what power does to communities. How would you characterize the relationship between religion

One thing I hope — as a reporter and as a believer — is that we will all be quicker to repent and make amends for our wrongs. One of the main points of many religious traditions is that we human beings are flawed. We are selfish. We love the darkness. And religion confronts those failings and offers us a way out — to admit our wrongdoing and work to make amends for them. But instead of doing that, institutions and leaders often choose self-preservation and self-deception, and as a result, what was a small problem festers into a catastrophic one — and leaves destruction and broken relationships in its wake.

“Religion,” you note, “is only as good as the people who practice it. … Faith harms and heals.” What do we lose when we lose religion? We lose institutions and communities that at their heart are supposed to be dedicated to healing the world — and that are focused on the welfare of all, not just people in their own group. And we lose the future. And the possibilities of a better world.

Right now, almost [all] the incentives in political and social settings drive polarizations. While writing the book, I learned of an idea called “affective polarization” — which in a nutshell means that we are divided not by policies or values but by group identity. Basically, the way to get things done is by telling people who to hate. And because of the big sort — where people now only spend time with people who look like them, vote like them, think like them — that kind of hate is more effective than ever. All we want to do is throw gasoline on the fire while our communities burn down around us. When religious groups buy into that polarization — rather than trying to put out the fires — then we are all the poorer.

To read an uncut version of this interview — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

BE YOUR OWN MIRROR

Caitlin Rose took her time making Cazimi , the record that sounds most like her

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA

While plotting her third album Cazimi, Caitlin Rose frequently found herself bumping up against an unanswer able question: What, exactly, should a new Caitlin Rose record sound like?

Should it hark

back to the prescient blend of roots rock and gently traditional country of her landmark 2010 full-length debut Own Side Now? After all, that album, recorded with Mark Nevers at his revered home studio Beech House, seems in retrospect like a note-perfect road map for the Americana music boom that would consume her hometown of Nashville in just a few years. Or how about 2013’s widely acclaimed The Stand-In, which expanded sonically on its predecessor?

For Rose, the goal was to abandon those frameworks altogether on the new album, out Friday — and in many ways, to start from scratch. Instead of writing and record ing in ways that gestured toward the public perception of “Caitlin Rose, capital-A Art ist,” she tapped into the myriad experiences that shaped her creatively during the nineplus years since The Stand-In. That journey into herself led to Rose crafting her most honest project yet, one that eschews the con straints of expectations in favor of intuition and vulnerability.

Rose produced Cazimi with Jordan Lehning, the widely loved Nashville pro ducer who has worked with scores of country artists and songwriters over the past decade and who also co-produced The Stand-In with Rose and Skylar Wilson. After combing through years of accumulated material that hadn’t been released, Rose whittled down the collection to a batch of songs that best repre sent her artistic perspective now — though she hasn’t released new music in a long time, she never stopped listening and writing. Lehning helped assemble the final sequence, and the pair spent a week tracking at Sound Emporium in February 2020.

“Some of these [songs] were written in 2014,” Rose says. “Of all the songs I’ve writ ten, these were the ones I just kind of kept. I kept shedding songs. So, you know, one that I was so positive would be on a record would actually end up not fitting. But this record always felt like a hypothetical thing, because I tracked something in 2017 that was abandoned.”

Like many artists, Rose found herself sitting on what she then believed to be a fin ished album when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Rather than release the record into an uncertain world, she revisited the mate rial and revised it for nearly a year, meeting with Lehning every month or so to record

new parts or change others. It was the first time she’d had the luxury of sitting with a record without pressure to release new mu sic. That freedom helped shape what Cazimi grew to become.

“The delay, really, more so made this re cord what it is, because Jordan and I ended up taking like a year to just mess with it,” Rose says. “Kind of like what we used to do just working on demos. I would take songs in and just see what we could do with them, just from a ‘play’ sense.”

There is a sense of sonic playfulness run ning through Cazimi, from the warm opening chords of opener “Carried Away,” weaving in and out all the way through closer “Only Lies.” Rose says co-producer Lehning was key both to keeping the process lighthearted as well as to her ability to realize her own vision — particularly given that false start in 2017. “I don’t think I was working on a project that I felt like I was truly in control of until I was working with Jordan,” she says.

While she already had songs under her belt, a chance conversation at the William Tyler Band and Friends show at Drkmttr in 2019, which doubled as a tribute to the late David Berman, gave her a chance to assem ble a band for the first time in several years. “It was William Tyler, Jack Lawrence, Luke Schneider, Brian Kotzur,” says Rose. “That was the day before I asked everyone if they would do [the album] with me and we booked the studio, Sound Emporium. I was talking to one of them and I said, ‘I just wish I could just make a record with you guys.’ And someone was like, ‘Well, why can’t you?’ ”

Being able to reconnect with the Nash ville community so present for the earlier phase of her career buoyed Rose during those initial sessions and well into the pan

demic uncertainty. She says that time spent touring — first all over the U.S., and later around the globe — in support of her first two albums left her feeling disconnected from her hometown and discouraged from making more music. Regrouping so easily with players she loved and respected helped temper those feelings.

“There’s been a lot of little moments where I realized, like, Nashville still has my back, you know?” she says. “For a long time, I felt very disjointed from Nashville. And now it’s an all-Nashville record. And it feels like I’m doing what worked for me to begin with and what I really enjoyed, and that’s being a part of this community and this scene.”

Among the highlights are the aforemen tioned opener “Carried Away,” a warm and layered song blanketed by a velvety, sub tly swelling rhythm section that seems to melt into Rose’s vocal harmonies, which on this track recall Jenny Lewis or Erin Rae. “Modern Dancing” is deceptively peppy, pairing an elastic beat and chirpy keys with cutting lyrics like, “You know this city was built for the wrecking ball,” and, “No mat ter which way you play, it’s all secrets and lies.” “Blameless,” another older song, charts the complexity of a fraying relationship. Of its origin, Rose says: “The only way I could explain that one is to go to a bar with you and talk to you about, like, the last 12 years. But it is sort of an anchor for the emotional journey of the record. And I love that it’s one of the country songs on the record.”

Cazimi takes its name from an astrological term describing the phenomenon of a planet being within one degree of the sun. When Rose was workshopping album titles, she ex plains, Cazimi was the only choice that “ev eryone hated.” Once again, Rose, who spoke

earlier in our conversation of the power of using mantras, chose her intuition over the opinions of others.

“It was a title that just really kept stick ing,” she says. “I had all these other ones. And I was like, ‘That’s cool. That’s fine.’ But like we were saying, with the idea of man tras or words to follow, ‘cazimi’ always felt like this really positive light for me to hold onto. We’ve had five huge cazimis in the eight months since this record really began taking shape, like the day we finished mix ing and the day we signed a deal. It just kept happening.”

Cazimi closes with a full-circle moment: a new take on “Only Lies,” which appeared as a bonus track on the 10th anniversary reissue of Own Side Now. This version trades the moody slow-burn of the original for urgent, poppy heartland rock, projecting a sense of momentum that one can only hope means Rose has more music to share down the road. It’s also one final reminder of the spirit of freedom and experimentation that drove Rose while making the LP.

“This record doesn’t have to be what I think I’ve worried about in the past,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be this holy, per fectly put-together, understandable thing. It hops all over the place. And it’s more like something I did make for me, because I’ve been kind of being pushed into making some thing for other people for a minute, and it just did not work. At some point I asked Jordan, ‘What are people going to think of it?’ And he said, ‘This is the most “you” thing you’ve ever made. It’s just that nobody knows who you are.’ Who we are is never perfect, but it’s nice to feel like you didn’t compromise who you are.”

CAZIMI OUT FRIDAY, NOV. 18, VIA MISSING PIECE RECORDS

PHOTO: LAURA E. PARTAIN

FOREVER IS A MIGHTY LONG TIME

BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

Over the past several years, Sophie Allison and her proj ect Soccer Mommy have ascended from outstanding Nashville DIY newcomer status to international indie renown. Circa 2015, the Nashville School of the Arts grad began releasing solo home recordings, followed by full-band tracks. The next summer, between semesters at New York University, Allison started book ing shows with her band around Nashville at houses and small clubs like The End and allages venue Drkmttr.

Her poignant, vulnerable and unflinch ing songs helped her lay the foundation for a fan base that’s kept on growing. In the wake of her 2018 debut full-length Clean, Allison opened tour dates for Kacey Mus graves — and Liz Phair, who is among the biggest influences on Soccer Mommy’s early work. Despite its release just weeks before the pandemic came crashing down, Soccer Mommy’s phenomenal and dark second al bum Color Theory earned wide acclaim. With its deeply personal narratives about coping with mental and physical illness and loss, Al lison graduated from “ones to watch” lists to an established artist in a cadre that includes Phoebe Bridgers, Snail Mail and Lucy Dacus.

Released in June, Soccer Mommy’s Some times, Forever is also introspective. Allison’s painstaking examination of emotional truth remains a constant. But she doesn’t see her evolution as totally finished.

“I like to think I’ve learned a lot,” Allison says when we connect by phone ahead of a

hometown tour stop at Brooklyn Bowl.

From the outset, she wanted to make something “different” with this album — something spacier and more ambient. To that end, she reached out to electronic artist and producer Daniel Lopatin, who records and performs as Oneohtrix Point Never, to produce. Allison felt herself drawn to the organic electronic soundscapes he’s created for projects like the Uncut Gems soundtrack and collaborations with FKA Twigs and The Weeknd. She wanted someone to “go with me on this journey of adding an otherworldly kind of sound,” and Lopatin ended up being the perfect traveling companion.

Their compatibility as collaborators is most obvious on the cosmic “With U.” It’s a stoned anthem with frantic synth arpeggios gliding up and down the stratosphere and a muscular rhythm section that carries the heavy beat gracefully. As the refrain comes around, she sings, “Being with you is all I can do / The stars and the moon can’t compare / To coming undone, staring straight at the sun / Till all I can see is you there.” In the song, being in love is a transcendent experience, captivating even as it is disorienting and numbing.

Imbued with the influence of artists like PJ Harvey, The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Cure, Sometimes, Forever melds canny pop songwriting, inventive electronic production techniques and gothic textures. The result feels fresh for Soccer Mommy. “I really like the idea of blending raw recordings of the band — that sounded live and like a band — overlaid with interesting, experimental, am bient type of sonics,” says Allison.

In “Shotgun,” an ode to domestic bliss, she builds an overwhelming wall of sound. As it explodes into the chorus, the melody of which has been circling in my brain for weeks, she sings, “Whenever you want me, I’ll be around / I’m a bullet in a shotgun wait ing to sound.” In Soccer Mommy’s lyrics, listeners rarely find rosy-tinted optimism, romanticism or certainty, even when she’s singing about the best parts of being in a rela tionship. Allison paints her feelings in shades of complications, making her work more hon est and relatable.

At its core, Sometimes, Forever is a medi tation on the impermanence of feelings. “It can be really hard for me to grasp some times that things can feel like everything in the moment, and actually be so minute,” she says. “Both of these are the reality.” The ex tremes give her music its appeal, especially for those who know the rhythms of depres sion. “I wanted to capture the push and pull, and to be able to exist at the same time,” she continues.” Things don’t have to exist on the same plain. Things can be intense, but also not everlasting or the other way around.”

Hearing Allison in dire straits on tracks like “Darkness Forever” and “Still” offers its own sort of catharsis. Just past the mid point of the album, “Don’t Ask Me” marks the shift where she surrenders what’s hold ing her back — she is “No longer vacant / No longer chasing / No longer searching.” Accepting the impermanence of negative thoughts and feelings is an acknowledge ment of her objective wholeness as a hu man. Despite the nagging sense of dread, she lets go and finds peace, if even for just a moment.

The second leg of the extensive tour that Soccer Mommy started not long after the release of Sometimes, Forever, dubbed “Touring, Forever,” runs right up to the holi days, and in February, Allison & Co. head to Australia. More and more opportunities outside the cycle of writing, recording and touring are presenting themselves. Allison was tapped to write original music for a podcast called We Were Three, a co-pro duction of The New York Times and Serial Productions; appropriately, the story covers exceptionally complex emotional territory. She also recently submitted Soccer Mommy for consideration to be nominated for the Best New Artist award at the upcoming Grammys. But her craft and the ways it empowers her remain her driving force. As the distorted beat of “Unholy Affliction” grinds to life, she sings: “I don’t want the money / That fake kind of happy / I’d sink in the river before I let it have me / But I want perfection.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE TAO OF NASHVILLE RECORDMAKING

On his first solo album, jamgrass ace Vince Herman embraces ‘the Nashville Way’

BY DARYL SANDERS

Vince Herman was introduced to what might be called “the tao of Nashville recordmaking” during the music business’s pandemic shutdown. The jam-grass legend’s unplanned journey down that path resulted in Enjoy the Ride, his first solo album in three decades of recording.

Herman tracked the album, which hits stores and streaming services on Friday, during three days of sessions in December 2021 at the Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa, the studio made famous by the late Cowboy Jack Clement.

“It’s been a real eye-opener to see how it’s done here in Nashville,” says Herman, who’s best known as co-founder and co-leader of Boulder, Colo.-based jam band Leftover Salmon. “I’m really pleased with the results.”

The first tenet of the tao of Nashville record-making is to get an album’s worth of good songs to record. That’s where the story of Enjoy the Ride begins.

“During the pandemic, I decided to get an RV and drive around the country,” Herman recalls. “I came to Nashville and ran into the Davisson brothers, old buddies from West Virginia.”

Chris and Donnie Davisson, who front the Davisson Brothers Band, became Herman’s guides into the Nashville music community. They introduced him to George Strait’s longtime manager Erv Woosley, who became his manager and publisher.

“The Davissons hooked me up with Erv, and I got a couple of big group co-writes going and ended up getting a publishing deal,” he explains. “Until I came to Nashville, I’d never done a co-write, so it was a brave new world.”

In addition to the Davisson brothers, Herman’s co-writers on the record include Levi Lowrey, Aaron Raitiere, Phillip Lammonds, Ronnie Bowman, Adam Hood, Rob Snyder, Benny “Burle” Galloway, Channing Wilson, Paul McDonald and Dave Pahanish. He also wrote a pair of songs with John Prine collaborator Pat McLaughlin and producer David R. Ferguson.

The material ranges from Prine-ish country-folk rock (“Lost Lover’s Eyes”) to funky swamp rock (“Rattlesnake”) and jazzy Dixieland polka (“Any Other Way”). There’s also straight-up bluegrass (“Enjoy the Ride”), classic Cajun country (“Coraleen”) and traditional country (“Drinking Alone”).

“I’ve written more in the last year-and-a-half than I probably have the rest of my life,” he says. “I ended up having this big pile of tunes, and I thought, ’Well, what am I going to do with these songs?’ ”

So Herman had a batch of good songs to record, which brought him to the second tenet of “the Nashville way” — get a good producer to record the songs. Again, the Davissons were the facilitators, introducing him to Ferguson, known simply as “Ferg” by myriad top-notch artists who’ve worked with him.

“The Davissons had worked with Ferg on their upcoming new record, and I met Ferg, and we got along great,” he says. “Ferg was kind enough to want to be involved, so I decided to put my eggs in that basket and make a record with all these songs I’ve been writing.”

ENJOY THE RIDE WILL BE SELF-RELEASED NOV. 18

PLAYING SATURDAY, NOV. 19, AT BROOKLYN BOWL

Speaking by phone a few days later, Ferguson recalls the first time he met Herman. “I was making a record on the Davisson Brothers, and Vince wrote a couple of songs on their record with ’em,” Ferguson

THE SPIN

THE WRITE IDEA

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Over and over again, outstand ing musicians of all stripes who took the mic at 3rd and Lindsley on Sunday night stressed the importance of a supportive community. The setting for this message was perfect: They were performing at the second annual ben efit concert for nonprofit Girls Write Nashville, whose programs offer girls in middle and high school opportunities to write, perform and record songs, with guidance from adult pro musician mentors. Last year’s superb show, whose guests included Margo Price and Brittany Howard, helped fund the or ganization’s programs in Nashville public schools, and the plan for this year is to double the number of schools they can serve.

If you were listening at home via radio sta tion Lightning 100, you missed the pre-broad cast portion of the show, in which Girls Write co-founder and artistic executive director Jen Starsinic gave a little benediction. It also featured a short writers’ round with Girls Write students Anya Booth and Magdalene trad ing tunes back and forth. Booth started the proceedings with “Accomplice,” a haunting piece that hit the hushed crowd like a truck — right off the bat, she displayed a knack for channeling the emotional impact of intense experiences into music. In addition to a per fectly eerie cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked

says. “He came over to play on ’em, and he just liked what we were doing. And he goes, ‘Man, how would you like to make a record on me?’ I said, ‘Hell, I’d love to. Let’s just do it.’ ”

Game,” Magdalene offered a reminder of how your perception changes as you grow in “Then,” an exceptional piece about finding common ground with her mother.

After a few more words from Starsinic, the singer-songwriters who would make up the round for the first hour of the broadcast took the stage. Starting the rotation was Girls Write alum Lindsey Lomis. In addition to her soulful and melismatic vocals, she also brought expert guitar chops, shredding hard in a skittery funk style that’d be hard enough to pull off if you weren’t singing. Among the standouts in her selections was “Save Your Breath,” about meeting someone new who turns out to not be all they’re cracked up to be, whose refrain she quickly taught the au dience as a sing-along. Next to her was Tiana Williams, who has quite literally grown up with Girls Write: She joined the program in its inaugural season in 2016, and she’ll gradu ate high school in the spring. Taking her mic in hand and standing next to guitarist pal Eli Weickenand, she sang passionately about resil ience in her originals and offered a searing take on Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” later in the set.

Just to stage right, songsmith, Girls Write mentor and in-demand side player Jess Nolan sat at her keyboard. She reflected on how much the folks who teach in the program get back from the students as she teed up “Change,” a staple from early in her catalog in which she unrolls a blanket of mellow chords as she considers the inevitability of things shifting as time passes. Julia Can non, who came to Nashville from Alaska, described the experience of this show as something akin to a church service, reinforc

As Ferguson remembers it, Herman sent him “a bunch of songs” to listen to, but ultimately he left song selection up to the artist. “When you have somebody like Vince, that’s a veteran, he knows his following a lot

better than I do,” the producer says. “He knows what his voice can do, and he knows his songs, and he has an idea of what he wants. It’s my job just to augment that a little bit.”

With Ferguson on board, Herman came to the third tenet of the tao of Nashville record-making: get some good studio musicians to play on your record.

“Ferg hooked me up with this great A-list of Nashville session cats, and boy, I’d never made a record like that before,” he says. “I’ve always had a band that was touring and developing the material. To go into the studio with a bunch of folks I didn’t know was a big leap of faith for me and a whole new way of making records.”

The album was tracked live with a backing band of McLaughlin on guitar, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, bassist Dave Roe, drummer Pete Abbott, keyboardist Mike Rojas, guitarist and pedal-steel player Russ Pahl, fiddlers Jason Carter and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and Herman’s son Silas on mandolin. Tim O’Brien, Mike Armistead (Tennessee Mafia Jug Band) and the aforementioned Ronnie Bowman (Lonesome River Band) contributed backing vocals.

Additional overdubbing and mixing for the album took place at The Butcher Shack, Ferguson’s postproduction facility in Goodlettsville. Clarinet and trumpet overdubs for “Any Other Way” were recorded in New Orleans at Rhythm Shack Studio, the facility owned and operated by onetime Dirty Dozen Brass Band guitarist Jake Eckert.

To say Herman is a convert to the Nashville way might be an understatement.

“It’s been a creative boon for me to be here in Nashville, so much that I bought a house here, and I’m living in Nashville now. I’ve got chickens, fruit trees and a garden in my yard. I’m in for the long haul.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

ety and economy make less room for people who aren’t mega stars to make a living at it.

ing the overall theme of the night. Her sum mertime single “These Dreams” is a sterling example of using your lyrics to subvert the expectation that your music sets — it’s a chill, bopping number about persistent dreams that your partner isn’t who they’ve been tell ing you they are.

Starting off the final hour was soul sen sation Alanna Royale, who shouted out Girls Write for recognizing her songwriting and not just her phenomenal pipes. Backed by longtime guitarist Jared Colby, she led off with two songs from her 2018 record So Bad You Can Taste It. First was “Cruel Cruel World,” which she introduced by noting that the world we live in is challenging enough on its own, so “we don’t have to make it harder on each other.” Then came “I Used to Dream,” a poignant look at the disconnect between how important creative work is and how much of a struggle it is to keep doing it when our soci

Closing out the show was Annie DiRusso, a New Yorker by birth and a Nashvillian since 2017, when she came to study at Belmont University. The masterful rocker just re turned from a lengthy headlining club tour with her band, on which most of the dates sold out. Here, she was joined only by deft guitarist Eden Joel, but the comparatively spare sound the pair created still offered a great showcase for her incisive songs about all kinds of complicated social situations. Their set rocketed by, including “Infinite Jest,” a song about a bad relationship that DiRusso noted she didn’t recognize was so awful until she started writing a song about it; during the performance, she oscillated her head violently in front of the mic as she sang to get an organic Doppler effect. Another highlight was an unreleased tune called “Em erson” about the dangers of nostalgia. “I don’t know what kind of twisted hold my childhood bedroom has on me,” she sang wryly.

It’s heartening to see more people talk more openly and more frequently today than in the past about how important it is to give young people access to arts experiences (through endeavors like all-ages venue Drk mttr) and arts education programs (through orgs like Girls Write and YEAH!). But it doesn’t happen without lots of volunteer hours and financial help. The packed house and listeners at home raised about $60,000 for Girls Write Nashville, which has proven its value time and again. Donations are still being accepted via girlswritenashville.org — if you can, lend a hand.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: MICHAEL WEINTROB

PHOTO: H.N. JAMES

DIVER DOWN: ANNIE DIRUSSO

A conversation about the impact of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

BY JASON SHAWHAN AND SHERONICA HAYES

Afilm dealing with unexpected circumstances demands an unexpected review. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would be a major cultural event even without the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman to cancer, inviting multiple perspectives to get at its many intersections. But after the loss of Boseman, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, frantic rewrites and the scattershot insanities of modern exhibition, there’s a lot to get at with this film. Following the unpublished back-andforth discussion following Lizzo’s show at Bridgestone, we — Scene film critic Jason Shawhan and artist (check her out on Instagram at @sheronicamars), cinephile and Belcourt front-of-house manager Sheronica Hayes — decided to start this dialogue in a public space.

Jason Shawhan: I can’t think of any previous instance of filmmakers having to deal with these kinds of circumstances before having to make something on this scale. It’s amazing how focused on the emotional processes of these characters the film is. There was some of this in last year’s Eternals, but nothing to the extent that BPWF makes the viewer feel. The global audience becomes the nation of Wakanda, working through this absence at the heart of this experience.

Sheronica Hayes: For sure. I think the closest thing would probably be Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight, but for so many reasons I’m sure continuing this story was tremendously more difficult without Chadwick. There’s no escaping the mourning in Wakanda Forever; it’s embedded in the story. It’s visible in the eyes of every returning character. I think it’s beautiful how straightforwardly they allow the characters and the audience to grieve the death of Chadwick and T’Challa collectively. It would have been a huge disservice all around if they had tried to take a softer way out.

JS: I love the way they use the opening Marvel logo to pay tribute to them, but they do it quietly. It’s such a sensory fake-out, and it sets you up for things not unfolding exactly as you might expect.

SH: Absolutely! And this definitely ties into what I was saying about how this movie handles grief. It doesn’t shy away from the heaviness. It places it right in the palm of your hand. It’s interesting that you use the word “quietly” here, because the scene is literally silent. Why do you think they made that creative choice?

JS: The usual Marvel logo music is

amped-up, and it’s meant to put you in the excited moviespace. This is something very different — Wakanda has its rituals of grief, but mainstream Hollywood blockbusters have never really done something like this, where they try to make an emotional locus work as something both in-universe and in the real world. Honestly, I wish Disney would have done something like this for Carrie Fisher, truthfully. I also wish they’d strike a nice 4K DCP of Waiting to Exhale, while we’re on the subject of things they need to be doing. And speaking of that game-changing moment in iconicity, there’s that moment, when after having to handle so much global business, we see Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda back in her own space in Wakanda, and she’s doffed her headdress/fascinator, and we see that she has this steely white Dionne Warwick/ Nichelle Nichols hair, and it’s such a disarming emotional touch.

SH: It’s such a powerful and confusing moment. We really see how vulnerable she is here. The “strong Black woman” trope often dismisses the emotional gradient that exists in Black women. Queen Ramonda has now buried a husband and a child. Time has a way of making us all gray, and yet it’s still very taboo to see women of any age with natural gray hair on screen.

JS: And she is Angela Bassett, the undying, the unbroken. On the ride home, I had my phone working to find the 1993 Remix of “I Might Have Been Queen” by Tina Turner, because that is such a touchstone for the sheer iconic space that she occupies. She really is everything.

SH: We’re allowed to see her as a woman who is aging, but also a woman who simultaneously has so much fight left in her. This duality is an important one to represent. Also, that gray fro just looks so badass. I’ve never seen a hairstyle that so visibly announces, “I am wise and loving, but I will put my foot up the ass of anybody who comes for my family or my home.”

JS: It’s not too much of a bold statement to say that Namor can get it, right? Tenoch Huerta Mejía has an “introducing” credit here, but he’s been in heaps of stuff. Discovering he was the crime boss in Issa Lopez’s Tigers Are Not Afraid kind of kicked my ass.

SH: He is so capital-F Fine. He talks the

way I imagine the serpent who seduced Eve in that garden talks. He could tell me to do just about anything, and I would gladly oblige. And of course, we see this happen in the movie. The mythology of the siren is evident in the development of the Tlalokan people. I’m genuinely enthused to visit some of Huerta’s prior works, and I’m looking forward to seeing him star in other things. Spending just a few moments exploring his world in BPWF, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a Namor full-length feature. Let’s be real though — the ankles aren’t the most convenient place to have wings.

JS: I love the way Namor bounds through the sky. It reminds me of Channing Tatum’s rocket-skates in Jupiter Ascending, or those battles across the sky in Immortals And also, I love that Shuri’s casualwear choices are equal parts ’80s Miles Davis and Lil Nas X.

SH: [Laughs] You can tell that they’re really trying to make Shuri gay without making Shuri gay, y’know? This isn’t to suggest that the actress, Letitia Wright, is queer, but it definitely feels like there’s room to interpret the character of Shuri as queer, and I’m here for it. It feels way more natural to her personality to see her look like she could be in an early-2000s Missy Elliott video versus the more feminine wardrobe she rocks in the first movie. We all know that Hollywood can often force masculine identities onto Black women, especially those with African features as opposed to European features, but in the case of Shuri, it honestly just feels organic to see some tomboy playfulness in her haircut and wardrobe in Wakanda Forever

JS: It absolutely could be that, by trying to make Shuri not come off as too girly, they’ve given her pansexy vibes. I guarantee you’re going to see her outfits at Click and Drag/ Cyberfetish nights — she consistently gives William Gibson jumpsuit realness.

SH: I have a feeling in 2023 we’re going to see hella cosplays and Halloween costumes inspired by this movie. Those Midnight Angel bodysuits?! Immaculate. Speaking of Shuri, let’s address the elephant in the ancestral plane — the figurative one. Is it just me or is the chemistry between Leticia Wright and anyone she’s on screen with just … off? Is this just the juju you get when you’re an alleged anti-vaxxer on the

set of the biggest movie of the year?

JS: [Laughs] You said it. But you’re also not incorrect. I really want to give a super shoutout to Michaela Coel. When I heard she was going to be in this film, I was all swirly with the possibilities, and her character Aneka is an interesting addition, giving us a little bit of a feel for how the Dora Milaje operates internally. I’ve said it before, but I really want to see Grace Jones pop up in some capacity when we’re talking about the Dora Milaje. But I’m in awe of Coel in this film, because there is so much talent, and so many kickass Black women, and she finds her own place and brings new facets to the story. Also, in a film with this many impeccable cheekbones, she wins.

SH: The category is cheeks when it comes to the Dora Milaje, and Michaela Coel snatches the trophy. Aneka really helps introduce the interpersonal dichotomy of the Dora Milaje, which we just really don’t get in the first movie. It’s so damn refreshing to see them as not only soldiers and sisters, but also friends.

JS: And occasionally lovers, in a scene that will doubtless be excised in several territories throughout the world.

SH: It reinforces their loyalty to one another. It adds humanity to their patriotism, which helps us distinguish those who do things for the sake of duty from those who do things for the sake of love. The latter being far more honorable.

JS: Truth.

SH: Coel has proven time and time again that she is capable of any and damn-near everything. There are few people on this planet who could rival the fierceness of Grace Jones, and I think Coel is up to the task. I’m not sure the ordinary person could handle the two of them on one screen honestly. Are we even worthy?

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

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Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D1208

MOHAMMAD ZAHIR NASHIR vs. MEENA MASOUD NASHIR

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon MEENA MASOUD NASHIR. It is or dered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public

Square, Room 302, Nashville, Ten nessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 19, 2022

Matt Maniatis

Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice

Third Circuit Docket No. 22D412

WILLIAM BRADLEY vs. ANTIONETTE BERRANGE BUKES BRADLEY

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANTIONETTE BERRANGE BUKES BRADLEY. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appear ance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Met ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 19, 2022

Robyn L. Ryan Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D1293

STEPHANIE E DIXON-BARBOSA vs. EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA

In this cause it appearing to the

satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA.

It is ordered that said Defendant en ter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at theMet ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 19, 2022

James L. Widrig Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22A36

MARCUS KENTON MARTIN, et al. vs. JOSHUA WILLIAMS

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon JOSHUA WILLIAMS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS ap pearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropoli tan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Ten nessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Brad H. Frakes Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D428

WENDY ROCHELLE BUFORD TATE vs. CURTIS NILRON TATE

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon CURTIS NILRON TATE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Met ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Paul A. Rutherford Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D965

NAVEEN AGRAWAL vs. SUSANA CASTRO CANGA

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon SUSANA CASTRO CANGA. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Met ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville

Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 20, 2022

Robert Todd Jackson Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident Notice

Third Circuit Docket No. 22D1309

LEAH TOUSSAINT vs. KERVENS TOUSSAINT

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon KERVENS TOUSSAINT. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 24, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Met ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 26, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 26, 2022

Roland T. Hairston II Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 11/3, 11/10, 11/17, 11/24/22

Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 22D1167

HARVEY STANLEY BURNS vs. ELIZABETH SHARONDA BURNS

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon HARVEY STANLEY BURNS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter

HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after DECEMBER 1, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Met ropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on JANUARY 2, 2022.

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: November 3, 2022

Ellis H. Marshall Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 11/10, 11/17, 11/24, 12/1/22

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UBS Business Solutions US LLC seeks Authorized Officer, IT Support Analyst in Nashville, TN. Responsible for the operation, administration and monitoring of critical Security Tools including security Information and Event Monitoring Solution and data Protection Solution. Manage Antivirus Environment and Vulnerability Scanning Tools including intrusion detection systems like FireEye and CISCO NIDS. Qualified Applicants apply through SH

Amazon.com Services LLC seeks candidates for the following (multiple positions available) in Nashville, TN: Program Manager II (Job ID: 2288490). Own inventory/supply risk mitigation strategies in collaboration with materials management, determining min/max thresholds, reorder points, reorder quantities at component level for all Rapid Asset Deployment (RAD) locations globally. Telecommuting benefits available.

Qualified applicants apply at https://www.amazon.jobs/en/ and reference Job ID.

UBS Business Solutions US LLC seeks Associate Director, Tech Engineer in Nashville, TN. Deliver integrated network solutions based on the Network hardware platform and client specific requirements. Liaise with the Client Facing Support, Global Network Architecture and Regional Operations teams to deliver service. Qualified Applicants apply through SH

ProfRecruitingcc@ubs.com. Please reference 000164.

NO CALLS PLEASE. EOE/M/F/D/V.

ProfRecruitingcc@ubs.com. Please reference 000993.

NO CALLS PLEASE.

EOE/M/F/D/V.