Nashville Scene 12-17-20

WALK A MILE: EXPLORING A HISTORIC PATCH OF EAST NASHVILLE’S INGLEWOOD

VODKA YONIC: EMBRACING MY SEXUALITY IN THE FACE OF OPPRESSION

DECEMBER 17–23, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 44 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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YEAR IN MUSIC

2020

We talk with Kyshona Armstrong, Becca Mancari and Lilly Hiatt, count down the year’s top local albums and much more

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NEWSBOYS SKILLET MATTHEW WEST LECRAE SIDEWALK PROPHETS DANNY GOKEY COLTON DIXON LEDGER JAMIE KIMMETT LEANNA CRAWFORD

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

contents

CONTENTS

DECEMBER 17, 2020

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Those We Lost ......................................... 20

Walk a Mile: Inglewood’s Jackson Park ...6

The 2020 Rock ’n’ Roll Poll ................... 21

CITY LIMITS

In the 12th installment of his column, J.R. Lind heads to a historic piece of East Nashville’s Inglewood neighborhood

BY J.R. LIND

Pith in the Wind .........................................8

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

Hundreds Gather at Ramsey Solutions Christmas Soiree in Franklin .....................9 Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey threw a largely maskless indoor party Saturday night

BY STEVEN HALE AND DAVE JAMIESON

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COVER STORY Year in Music 2020

Finding the Center .................................. 10 Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari find hope for the future in a strange and challenging year

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Top Local Albums Critics’ Poll ................ 13 From Bully and Brian Brown to Jason Isbell and Kyshona, here are our favorite local LPs of the year

The Year in Hip-Hop ................................ 14 Brian Brown, Tim Gent and others made 2020 one of the most dynamic, vibrant years yet in local rap

Remembering John Prine, Little Richard, Charley Pride, Justin Townes Earle and more

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

The local music scene on the local music scene COMPILED BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

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CRITICS’ PICKS

Catch the Theater Bug Winter Concert: Live in Technicolor, build your own cookie plate, listen to new R&B holiday albums, catch up on season 2 of WPLN’s The Promise, tip the folks who deliver your packages, watch Tennessee Women’s Theater Project’s The Twelve Dates of Christmas and more

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BY RON WYNN

Variations ................................................. 17 Skin Tension, JayVe Montgomery and others used jazz and other improvisational music in fascinating ways

BY EDD HURT

Say It Loud ............................................... 18 Joy Oladokun, Adia Victoria and other Nashville musicians called eloquently for an end to systemic racism in 2020

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

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VODKA YONIC

I was taught to be ashamed of my sexuality — until my ancestors stepped in

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BOOKS

Suffering in Coal Country

Chris Hamby recounts miners’ fight for health benefits in Soul Full of Coal Dust

BY PEGGY BURCH AND CHAPTER 16

40 FILM

Primal Stream 35 ................................... 40 Romance, Christmas mystery, unsettling horror and more, now available to stream

BY MEGAN SELING

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Without in-person shows, musicians, venues and fans developed intriguing approaches to streaming concerts

To the Ends of the Earth is full of anxiety, tension and moments of beauty

Navigating Troubled Waters ................... 18

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

The Year in Ven-News.............................. 20 Music venues continue the uphill battle for survival — and keep contributing to our communities

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

ON THE COVER:

Kyshona Armstrong, Becca Mancari and Lilly Hiatt Photo by Eric England at The 5 Spot

Two local restaurants offer different takes on the Feast of the Seven Fishes

BY FISKE NYIRONGO

Artists and organizers across an array of scenes rolled with the many punches of 2020

Geist Bar + Restaurant Has Reopened With a Post-Tornado Rebuild

One Fish, Two Fish ...

Breland, Reyna Roberts and other Black country aces prove Lil Nas X isn’t an anomaly

2020 Music Timeline.............................. 16 The Year in Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul ...... 17

Health Director Caldwell Resigns After Report Detailing Sexist Treatment of Employees

FOOD AND DRINK

Sex and Ancestral Approval

BY MARCUS K. DOWLING

The Spin: Friendship Commanders Rock Exit/In to the Core

Watch Suspended Gravity’s In the Eye

GIFT GUIDE

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

The Year in Country................................. 16

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

In a Strange Land ................................... 41

BY NATHAN SMITH

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FROM BILL FREEMAN DOES THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE NEED TO DO SOME SELF-EXAMINATION? The past two months have been unusually turbulent for Gov. Bill Lee and his original cabinet members.

In October, two of the governor’s commissioners — Hodgen Mainda, commissioner of the Department of Commerce and Insurance, and Danielle Barnes, commissioner of the Department of Human Services — resigned. Mainda resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations, and Barnes left upon finding a new job in the private sector. Commissioner Courtney Rogers of the Department of Veterans Services resigned the week of Thanksgiving along with Tilman Goins, a deputy commissioner in the department. Both were accused of separate forms of misconduct, with most of the allegations proven true upon investigation. Rogers and Goins served as state legislators from 2012 to 2018.

According to a Dec. 7 story from The Tennessean, Rogers is a 28-year veteran in the U.S. Air Force and Tennessee National Guard — solid qualifications for the position, though her leadership skills were clearly lacking. WPLN reported that Rogers was investigated for abusive conduct, harassment and discrimination prior to her Nov. 25 resignation. Former and current employees alleged that her behavior included “frequent yelling and belittling employees, inappropriate comments made in public, and use of racial and homophobic stereotypes and slurs.”

The accusations recall past instances of Rogers making appalling and inappropriate remarks. According to a June 2020 Tennessean story, in 2016 Rogers made inappropriate comments while in the Tennessee House discussing a bill she had co-sponsored. In doing so she talked about her ideal version of “diversity offices that are recruiting the best, from light meat to dark meat across the entire spectrum,” referring to the students’ racial demographics. Perhaps this is why it’s not surprising that Rogers voted against ousting Jeremy Durham from the state House despite his being accused of inappropriate conduct with at least 22 women during his time in office.

Rogers’ deputy commissioner, Tilman Goins, also resigned in November. He was accused of having inappropriate romantic relationships with two subordinate employees in the department. Goins has admitted to one of these, but says he didn’t believe the employee was a subordinate at the time. Goins and the second employee in question have both denied an inappropriate relationship.

Even if consensual, as in the case of the first employee, the behavior violates the state’s code of conduct. Further, I’m sure these matters are of concern to Goins’ family.

Mainda resigned his post in October after being accused of inappropriate touching and unwelcome sexual advances toward another employee in the same department. Investigators could not substantiate those allegations.

Only one of the former commissioners,

Danielle Barnes of DHS, has reportedly resigned simply to pursue a job in the private sector. She left without scrutiny, though some may wonder if the workplace environment was too much for her to tolerate.

In a statement, the governor announced that Maj. Gen. Tommy H. Baker will take Rogers’ place on an interim basis. But the statement did not address the allegations against Rogers or Goins. There seem to be no statements from the governor on his thoughts about this horrific behavior.

An Associated Press report quotes Lee spokesperson Gillum Ferguson as saying, “The governor is aware of the investigations and he’s accepted their resignations.” Human resource departments are of course charged with handling these matters, but given the prominence of these commissioners, Tennesseans should hear from the governor about his commitment to strong and fair leadership from his appointees.

Yes, the governor’s calendar is — or should be — full of COVID-19 issues. But when three commissioners resign inside of two months, we should hear from him that this kind of behavior is not and will not be tolerated.

I tend to believe Tennessee’s newly elected Democratic caucus chair Vincent Dixie has the right idea when it comes to this situation. In a Fox 17 interview, Dixie said, “You have to take a step back and look at the culture, and at least do some kind of self-examination, which I don’t think the governor is doing.”

In 2016, the Harvard Business Review published a study showing “leadership behavior” is contagious — that managers follow the leader, so to speak. Of course, the governor has not been accused of the same types of behavior hanging over his former staff members, but if a “leadership example” is what is needed, then at the very least he needs to work much more closely with his high-level and mid-level managers. He needs to personally ensure that they know what types of behavior are definitively unacceptable. He needs to consider that “self-examination” Rep. Dixie mentioned.

Without good leadership to look to, those who do a poor job reflect badly on Tennessee and on all of us as a community.

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Marcus K. Dowling, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Aya Robinson, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Walk a

Mile

INGLEWOOD’S JACKSON PARK In the 12th installment of his column, J.R. Lind heads to a historic piece of East Nashville’s Inglewood neighborhood

BY J.R. LIND | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND

Gallatin Pike

Hedgewood Drive

with Richmond J.R. Lind Ave. THE ROUTE: From the Inglewood Branch Library, north on Gallatin Pike. Right on Richmond Drive, then right on Hedgewood, following the curve through its transition to Littonwood. Then right on Hedgewood and right on Winding Way, following it back to the library.

CRANES: 1 ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 0

Winding Way Road

Once a month, reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind will pick an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he’ll walk a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville. If you have a suggestion for a future Walk a Mile, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

T

he Inglewood Branch Library is hard to describe, architecturally.

Is it meant to evoke a Swiss chalet? Polynesia by way of Walt Disney? Whatever the designers had in mind, they nailed it. Its whitewashed walls and russet roof

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meet in sharp angles. Its numerous windows doubtless offer soothing natural light in copious amounts, no matter the sun angle.

The central fireplace, its smoke rising to a chimney from yet another vernacular architectural school — National Park Service rustic — surely crackles, offering warmth both metaphysical and actual physical.

The library, on Gallatin Pike and Winding Way, opened in 1969 on land donated

by Newman Cheek, son of Joel Cheek of Cheekwood and Maxwell House Coffee fame, and fronts a neighborhood, officially known as Jackson Park, that bears Cheek fils’ stamp throughout.

Across Winding Way, up a short hill, is the Ionic Lodge of the Masons. Formerly it was known as the Jere Baxter Lodge, though the name of the prominent railroad man was dropped for unknown reasons. The lodge

leaves no doubt to its purpose. Some Masonic lodges are simply quote-unquote normal buildings with Levantine hints subtly hidden. And some are like the Ionic Lodge, which looks like it was delivered intact from the Near East like the Holy House of Loreto.

Alternatively, it could have been purchased at a surplus sale after the wrap of a Cecil B. DeMille cast-of-thousands epic. Whatever the case, the Masons of the lodge, whichever name it used, have done their Masony things inside since 1958, when it purchased the land. The lodge’s then-trustees included future Metro Mayor Beverly Briley.

Completing the three-block troika of neighborhood institutions is the former home of Isaac Litton High School, which operated here from 1930 to 1971.

The side of campus that fronts Gallatin Road is now Isaac Litton School Park, and the backside of Isaac Litton Middle School, but there are vestiges of the old high school still — notably the old gym, which now serves as the headquarters of the high school’s alumni association. The association renovated the charming structure, which was in shambles by the early 1990s, and it now houses a museum and hosts community events, with a special focus on providing after-school programs for kids in the neighborhood. The alumni association also pro-

vides financial support to the middle school now bearing its alma mater’s name.

The current sign for the old high school is not the original, which is a bit of a disappointment. Driving through Inglewood in the ’80s and ’90s, one would pass the blue sign advertising Litton High School as home of the Lions and “The Marching 100+,” with a lion in drum-major livery, high-stepping for eternity. If one’s father happened to be an old Madison Ram, one’s father would vitriolically spit out the name “Litton” and recall athletic battles between the two now-shuttered rival schools, the polka-dot-wearing Rams looking to take a basketball victory from Litton in that old gym, or a football win in the stadium that also still remains.

Beyond the school, public-use and fraternal elbow-rubbing gives way to commerce.

There’s a mix of that which is typical for farther-flung stretches of Nashville’s pikes (discount tobacco stores), hints that the neighborhood is changing (neighboring vintage clothing stores, including trad-country revival badass Nikki Lane’s High Class Hillbilly) and hints that some things never will (in the distance, the genie-head logo of Mack Pest Control, which has been killing Inglewood’s bugs since roughly always).

Turning on Richmond Drive, the sound

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Generosity of space. Millions of twinkling lights and our soaring 48-foot Christmas tree.

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of tinkling wind chimes interplays with the whirring of mechanics’ tools, a hint that the bustle and grit of Gallatin Pike is soon to give way to residential bliss. But first, because this is still Nashville, there’s a storefront church.

In the spring, Richmond would surely provide an impressive canopy, and in the autumn, a quilt of yellows and oranges. But it is December — the relatively mild weather notwithstanding — so the mighty oaks are denuded, their bark gray even in the bright sun, their spindly branches narrowing into needly twigs. There are pops of green from some truly mighty and sky-scraping conifers that, if we continue to anthropomorphize these trees, seem like softhearted guardians to protect us from the fearsome malefactors that are the oaks.

While some of the houses on Richmond bear the neighborhood’s distinctive stone exteriors, there are plenty of brick ranches (one still has a “Bernie 2016” sign out front, head-scratchingly) and duplexes. Some of the duplexes have been converted into single-family homes, while some still serve their original purpose. Some of these homes would be Levittown-esque matchy-matchy, but the owners in many cases have chosen to paint their bricks. There’s white brick, olive-drab brick and pastel-blue brick, with accents dotted about that give each home

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individuality without diluting the character of the whole street.

The lot sizes are big here — bigger than most in town — and get bigger the farther away from Gallatin one gets. One such large lot, at the corner of Richmond and Hedgewood (a street that comes by its name honestly), includes metal yard art of two pugilists, boxing forever and ever at the corner of these quiet streets.

The brick ranches of Hedgewood sit on slight rises from the street, the elevation sloping ever downward into an expanse of green in front of the impressive facade of Litton Middle. The school has an air of a grand ceremonial entrance, as if the Fusiliers will pass in review at any minute.

Hedgewood curves slightly left beyond the schoolyard — a guardrail protects drivers from careening into a yard, though the bigger drop-off from the roadbed is opposite — and turns into Littonwood, which continues east. Hedgewood, however, returns, branching off to the right from Littonwood — which, again, itself sprouted from Hedgewood. And this isn’t even close to the most confusing road design in the neighborhood.

A large hawk, too big to be a Cooper’s but in too much of the morning glare to discern precisely, flies east. A large cat stalks in the underbrush. Tiny rodents are surely scrambling away from both.

Unusual for the neighborhood, a twostory house is on the corner of Hazelwood and Winding Way, but it too is bedecked in stone. And there’s a reason. When Newman Cheek opened up this land for a subdivision, he wrote in three particular covenants. Blessedly, none of them are racist.

First, all building plans had to be approved by him. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that, in the interest of practicality, the homebuilders in those years repeatedly submitted designs that were similar to ones Cheek had already granted his imprimatur, thus accounting for the stylistic consistency. Second, the homes could not have a wooden exterior; all had to be brick or stone. (The covenant doesn’t specifically prohibit corrugated metal, though that particular novelty in residential construction appears to be a modern one.) And finally, no outhouse could be constructed until the main home was near completion, and no outhouse could be within 150 feet of the street.

The final requirement is of course funny to modern eyes, and it’s possible the term refers more generally to any outbuilding.

Cheek, though, did have a general interest in plumbing, indoors and out, as one of the men behind the Madison utility district.

Was constraining the location of outhouses a clever way to encourage people to hook up to the water line? Maybe, or maybe he just wanted folks to keep their sheds in the backyard.

As honest as Hedgewood’s name is, Winding Way’s is a touch deceptive. From the hawk’s-eye view, it doesn’t wind so much as roll and billow gently between Gallatin and its terminus at Brush Hill along the river.

It does, however, climb steadily. Like the rest of the neighborhood, the homes along Winding Way date from the 1930s through the early 1950s. There is, however, one Georgian-style home from 1960, a popular architectural choice for the upwardly mobile of the time. New builds are starting to make inroads here, as they are along Gallatin, the tall-and-skinnies elbowing the oldbrick charm.

Winding Way runs alongside a park — it’s actually a private park, a rarity, owned by the Jackson Park Community Club — but not before passing signs explaining which road goes which way. While the pleasant open space surrounded by roads has an obvious Continental sensibility, the road design, which makes it frightfully easy to just drive in circles interminably, may well have been designed by the Cheshire Cat: If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which direction you go, so long as you get somewhere.

In the midwinter, evidence of an old roadbed can be seen bifurcating the park. It seems it may have been the front drive for the house now at the far east end of the park, built in 1930, its builder having purchased the land from Cheek himself, making it one of the oldest homes in the subdivision.

And those early sales contained the covenants as the ones that came later, but with the more infamous racist prohibitions as well. Given the near-ubiquity of Black Lives Matter signs in the neighborhood these days, the attitudes of the homeowners have changed, even if the houses haven’t.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: After less than nine months on the job, Metro Health Director Dr. Michael Caldwell resigned following an explosive HR report that substantiated allegations of sexism and gender harassment. The investigation was triggered by complaints from Metro Health bureau director Rachel Franklin and city epidemiologist Leslie Waller.

According to the report, Caldwell sought to terminate Franklin after an “animated” phone call in May regarding the distribution of free masks from the state. Franklin requested Caldwell’s presence at the health department to help, but he didn’t leave his post at the office of emergency management. Caldwell reportedly said: “You have offended me, you have offended me in what you’re saying.” The following day Caldwell spoke with the health department’s human resources director about firing Franklin and said, “You know she is pregnant, and I wonder if that isn’t impacting her emotional stability.” “Michael, I’m not your attorney, but if I were you, I would never utter those words again because that’s a violation of [federal discrimination laws],” replied the human resources director. Witnesses interviewed also said that Caldwell’s reorganizing of the department seemed designed to demote women, or at least punish those who challenged him. The release of the report drew quick and nearly universal condemnation from Metro councilmembers. Caldwell offered to take bias and discrimination training, but that response was deemed insufficient by the board, and Caldwell resigned before he could be terminated. … A staff attorney for the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, the ethics watchdog for the state’s lawyers, was removed from his position after revelations that he posted conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim rhetoric on his Twitter feed. “Where’s the evidence that ‘Islam is a religion of peace?’ ” Jerry Morgan wrote Dec. 8, 2015. “They’ve gone to war against every society they’ve encountered for 1000s of years.” A week later, in a tweet addressed to the Fox Business channel, Morgan wrote: “Muslims will take everything we give them and us [sic] it against us. Time to wake up!”

Morgan was serving as disciplinary counsel in the board’s civil action against Nashville attorney Brian Manookian. Attorney Daniel Horwitz, who is representing Manookian in the matter, filed a motion in the Davidson County Chancery Court on Nov. 24 to disqualify Morgan as counsel on the case “for being an anti-Muslim bigot.” Manookian is married to a Muslim woman. In addition to the Islamophobia, Morgan also espoused belief in conspiracies regarding the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and, more recently, repeated baseless claims regarding the 2020 presidential election. … John Rich is well on his way to losing a $10,000 bet with former Scene music editor Adam Gold. The former believes Donald Trump will be sworn in as president Jan. 20, 2021. (He won’t be.)

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

HUNDREDS GATHER AT RAMSEY SOLUTIONS CHRISTMAS SOIREE IN FRANKLIN

Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey threw a largely maskless indoor party Saturday night

BY STEVEN HALE AND DAVE JAMIESON

E

ven as Americans are being infected, hospitalized and killed by COVID-19 in record numbers, the scene Saturday night outside the headquarters of Christian financial personality Dave Ramsey’s Ramsey Solutions looked like a festival designed to flout public health guidelines. The talk-radio host who preaches debt-free living and business success threw a maskless indoor company Christmas party at the company’s Franklin, Tenn., headquarters with more than 1,500 people invited to attend.

Across different floors of one building, guests drank and line-danced together, gorged on barbecue, gambled in a fake casino and partied in a “silent disco,” according to a map meant to help revelers navigate the bash. Outside there were igloos, dessert food trucks and carriage rides to be had. Several open bars were scattered throughout the building.

One worker estimated there were at least 1,000 guests in the building — the vast majority of them without masks — as well as several dozen workers like himself. “There was absolutely no [social] distancing being practiced,” says the worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared losing his job.

Ramsey has become a hugely influential figure in personal finance, with an especially strong following among Christians. The “Boots & BBQ” event, at which vendors were allegedly urged to not wear masks, is consistent with how he has approached the pandemic since the beginning.

In March, Ramsey kept the company’s offices open, with staff coming to work on site even after employees had tested positive. He has railed against strict public health measures on his radio show, calling them “totalitarian” and framing guidance to wear masks — which are not required at the Ramsey Solutions offices — as a sign of irrational fear. In July, Ramsey opted to host a large business conference at his company’s headquarters rather than going along with the COVID-19 protocols required by the Florida hotel that was originally scheduled to host the gathering.

The company’s defiance of public health guidance has continued even as dozens of employees have been infected by the virus. Saturday night’s holiday soiree comes after around 50 staffers tested positive in November, according to Religion News Service, which first reported the plans for the Christmas party. At least 5,462 Tennesseans have died of COVID-19, and more than 2,600 are currently hospitalized with the illness.

On Saturday night, a line of cars stretched bumperto-bumper for nearly two miles from the company’s headquarters. A masked uniformed officer from the Franklin Police Department stopped each car at the entrance to the headquarters as a private security detail looked on. The company was apparently keen to block any prying eyes from observing the event. As the party’s 7 p.m. start time approached, a reporter taking

a video of the line of cars was tailed by what appeared to be a security vehicle and followed from company headquarters all the way back to the interstate.

Despite the health risks posed by such a crowd, many workers likely would have felt little choice but to be there. Caterers and other events companies are desperate for contracts due to the pandemic, with nearly all large-scale parties, concerts and other events ground to a halt. Any worker who bailed on the Ramsey party would have given up much-needed income just ahead of the holidays, and potentially jeopardized future gigs through their vendors.

The worker who spoke about the event said he was provided with little information ahead of the event, but was told by a superior that Ramsey Solutions preferred workers did not wear masks so as not to make guests uncomfortable. Ultimately, many workers chose to wear them. There was also a pile of masks provided near the entrance, but the worker said most partiers opted to pass them by.

If local and state officials were aware of the party, they were reluctant to step in and enforce any social distancing rules. Williamson County’s mask mandate applies to “publicly accessible” areas and businesses, which does not include a corporate office building.

When a reporter called the county health department Dec. 8 to see if any complaints had been filed ahead of the event, the call was steered to the state health department.

Shelley Walker, a spokesperson for the state health department, said the agency “would not have any jurisdiction over such an event,” though it encouraged Tennesseeans to wear masks and practice social distancing. She referred a reporter back to local elected officials. The Ramsey building is within Franklin city limits, but Milissa Reierson, a city spokesperson, said the city would not enforce any rules at a private event.

“It’s private property and a private company,” she said Dec. 8. “We don’t really have jurisdiction over that.”

Reierson recommended the reporter reach out to the county.

Ramsey Solutions has stonewalled reporters seeking comment on its conduct. In contrast to Ramsey’s declarations that his company will not be ruled by fear when it comes to the pandemic, staff inside the company describes a culture thick with fear and paranoia. The company’s leadership has become increasingly determined to prevent information from getting out, while concerned staffers fear retribution if they speak up.

Dan Voris, events producer at Ramsey Solutions, did not respond last week to questions about the size of the planned party and any safety precautions put in place. Neither did Megan McConnell, a company spokesperson. However, McConnell did respond internally once the scheduled party became public on Friday, after Religion News Service published its report.

She wrote a staff-wide email telling Ramsey employees to ignore the anger over its plans.

“If and when you see controversial or negative things about Dave or RS on social, please do not defend us or engage with it,” McConnell wrote. “That just boosts the post’s visibility (and we’re not concerned about those people anyway).”

The worker who spoke about the party said that most people who work events like himself have been scraping by on unemployment benefits and whatever jobs they can find. He said whatever pay he gets from the Ramsey gig is smaller than it appears: After sharing indoor air with so many people, he believes he should quarantine for several days, forgoing any jobs that might put him in contact with others.

He’d heard that Ramsey Christmas parties are always a huge blowout. This year’s bash will be hard to forget.

“It was the most people I’ve seen gathered in a year,” said the worker. “So yeah, it was kind of bizarre.”

This story was reported in conjunction with Huffington Post.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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YEAR IN MUSIC

2020

We talk with Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari, count down the year’s top local albums and much more

It’s been very easy to feel overwhelmed in 2020, when it seems like the rules get rewritten every day — by a global pandemic, a long-overdue public conversation about systemic racism and more. But faced with an industry and a society undergoing all kinds of turbulence, musicians and business folk across Nashville’s constellation of music scenes responded with ingenuity and compassion. Even though there’s still much work to be done, there’s a great deal to take away from this extraordinary year — and to be proud of. In our Year in Music issue, we get perspective from outstanding musicians Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari; our critics take stock of the year’s top local albums; we hand the mic to an array of singers, songwriters and others in our annual Rock ’n’ Roll poll; and much more.

Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari find hope for the future in a strange and challenging year

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

J

ust about nothing has gone according to plan in 2020. Though their industry — and the country — have stayed in a state of crisis, musicians of all stripes have still released extraordinary work and found ways to stay connected with their audiences, even if it couldn’t be in person.

Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari are among many Nashvillians who started this chaotic year with big ideas for sharing new songs. Armstrong, who performs as Kyshona, released the soulful and bluesy Listen in February, Hiatt’s rocking Walking Proof came out in March, and Mancari’s ’70s-pop-kissed The Greatest Part dropped in June. The three make very different music, but all make extraordinary records that tell us something important about living on Earth, and use both their work and their platforms to talk about serious social and political issues.

Following a photo shoot at East Nashville’s The 5 Spot on a chilly afternoon, they sat down with the Scene, at a safe distance, around a fire in the yard of nearby bar Rosemary.

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WE WERE JUST AT A MUSIC VENUE, A PLACE MOST OF US HAVEN’T BEEN IN ALMOST A YEAR. HAS BEING KEPT FROM THAT EXPERIENCE AFFECTED HOW YOU THINK ABOUT PLAYING LIVE? Kyshona Armstrong: I’ve realized that I need to put more value on when I go out and play.

If I’m going to stand onstage and be mad about something or uncomfortable, it’s not worth it anymore. I want to make sure that I am in a location that is safe for me as a Black artist, as a woman of color, as a supporter of so many communities. I want to make sure I’m safe. I want to make sure my people are safe. I want to make sure that the words that come out of my mouth will be accepted or at least heard, and that I won’t be questioned in any way or feel like I’m being threatened in any way.

I want to make sure that I walk away with joy, and that my audience walks away with joy.

I’m just really thinking about, “Where am I going to show up and how will I feel when I’m on that stage?” A lot of times we don’t know.

But I’m just realizing not to take the gigs that just pay well, but take the gigs where I know I can leave an imprint, and they can leave an

also enlightened me, like: “Wow, I’ve had a lot of chances to travel to these places. I’ve been to all 50 states, and that’s cool. Thank you.” I have all the faith that that will be available again at some point. Until then, it’s, like, realizing that that is the power of music, that people relate to one another through it. And that’s really important to me.

THE PANDEMIC HAS PROVIDED MANY REMINDERS OF HOW IMPORTANT THAT CONNECTION IS. THAT’S INTERESTING IN THE CONTEXT OF LIVING IN A TOWN WITH SO MANY MUSICIANS, WHERE IT CAN GET COMPETITIVE. Becca Mancari: Oh, you think? Honey, you think it’s competitive? [Laughs] Oh man.

Switching the table on that, I think the last time Lilly, Kyshona and I all saw each other at the same time was [last year at this recurring series] that I started a long time ago when I first moved to Nashville, which is a night to just bring women together and play music. Or nonbinary, you know, however you identify. But I noticed when I first moved here, I felt like women were really pitted against each other. And I felt that from the community, even — I felt it from other women, and I felt like we didn’t want to, though. We didn’t want to participate in that, but everything in the business was teaching us that that was the way to succeed.

So when we started breaking down those walls ourselves, artist to artist, friendship to friendship, that’s when I saw all of the women start rising up together. And I’m telling you, that is a scene that is true in Nashville and in every city, where women have banded together and said: “Oh no, you are not going to tear us apart anymore.

We’re in this together, we need each other,

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND LOCATION: THE 5 SPOT

FINDING THE CENTER

imprint on me in a positive way. …

In the last year or so, I’ve been doing more community arts council programs in theater spaces or in art galleries, and I walk away, like: “Man, that felt great. These people came ready to receive, and that made it an easier job for me.” Whereas if I’m playing at a club, opening for a band in a town I’ve never been in, and they don’t know who I am, which is fine. ... Then I just feel like I’m battling something else. I feel like I’m in the middle of it. I don’t like to bring “Kyshona Armstrong” into it. I’ll keep “Kyshona,” the artist, as the one who’s out here like, “How can we connect?” But I don’t want Kyshona Armstrong to show up — my ego shows up whenever I’m in clubs, where my ego does not show up when I’m playing with a purpose in a community that wants to connect with me.

Lilly Hiatt: I definitely in the last few months have reconnected with a profound gratitude for all of the experiences I’ve had and the people that I’ve been able to meet along the way. And I do love, like Kyshona’s saying, that sense of community that you’re able to cultivate in an evening — it’s really valuable to me. It’s such a symbiotic relationship with your audience, and I would love, at the core of that, for the evenings that are my shows to be inspirational and bold and inclusive. That’s something I really want to be part of the night, for everyone to be able to participate in feeling together.

And I think not having that right now has been really painful, because we can’t gather for an event of a shared love. And that’s something that’s so special — it’s something that we can all experience together, and it’s hard feeling estranged from that. But it’s

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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FROM LEFT: KYSHONA ARMSTRONG, BECCA MANCARI AND LILLY HIATT

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ence with this world. And if that can empower anyone to feel love or feel brave, then I am very honored, and that empowers me as well to want to continue expressing that sort of vulnerability. This summer, it was really exciting to get to see a lot of conversations starting to happen that needed to happen, and hopefully continue to happen and move beyond conversation into action. ...

Kyshona’s record Listen has really set a very special tone for me this year. That’s something I’ve thought a lot about too: LisWAS THIS A SHOW? OR IS IT A SERIES WITH A tening is important. If somebody wants to NAME? express something to you, you know, I would BM: Oh no, it’s definitely not. That’s kind like to be the kind of person that is there to of the point, is that we will not let it be infilhear it. And that’s honestly where I get fuel trated by the idea that this is like, “a thing.” for writing, is kind of observing and taking … The first one was, like, 2013, and it was in what people are and what they have to Brittany Howard, Margo [Price], Lillie Mae, say and what they think and believe. And Erin Rae, Jenny O — like all these singers not just filtering it into my own little life for and songwriters and guitar players. And a song, but absorbing a bit of that and conit was sacred. The next one was at Margo sidering those kinds of things. It enables me Price’s house, and then it was another songto feel just a bit more confidence in being writer that was in town. So it’s just a thing there for people. … that happens, usually once a year. I’ll just I’ve struggled with, “How much do I need get the gumption to start texting everyone to express on my platform versus what reand be like: “Do you want to hang out? Come ally needs to be done in my life, that is of to this house, bring your guitar, let’s hang service to this world?” We are all performout.” And you know, it’s just kind of caught ers, so there is an element of that in Twitter on. And a lot of people have become friends or Instagram or wherever — it’s meaningfrom this and are now working together on ful too, but those things only take us so projects. It’s definitely not about the busifar, right? It’s complex at the moment. It’s ness, it’s just about really being together. important to make statements and stuff, and express your beliefs if you feel so inclined, IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE GETTING AN OPPORTUNITY TO PUT IN SOME SIGNIFICANT WORK AND CHANGE but I think being good to the people around you and being willing to consider what they SOME OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS IN OUR SOCIhave to say is really important. And speakETY. WHAT ROLE DO YOU SEE MUSIC PLAYING IN ing out for what you think is wrong and right THAT? is a meaningful thing.

BM: Just this summer, what people are calling an awakening of racial justice in KA: In the last few years I’ve gotten really our country — people are waking up to into having a mission statement and talking something that’s always been happening, about having a mission statement as an artand … I felt a lot of fear about jumping on a ist. Because what I’ve found is it’s guided bandwagon. About participating in almost me on how to live my personal life, which like a mob mentality, or this idea of, “We are affects how I write. So if my mission stategood people, so let me show you how good ment is this thing, then I know that Kyshona I am.” Performative work. And it is going to go out there and be in the was interesting, because my community, working with this partner was like: “You know, population, or I’m going to be Becca, in your life, have you doing outreach or whatever. not always been fighting for And that is naturally going justice in some form? Even READ MORE OF THIS INTERVIEW AT to affect the words that I your living as a queer perwrite and the things that NASHVILLESCENE.COM/MUSIC son is an act of rebellion in I’m singing. I think it’s just a a lot of ways from like this natural occurrence of, “How structure of what has been you live your personal life is told to us.” We are just wanting what will affect your music.” a place at the table and to be acI’ve been seeing a lot of cepted as equals, and as people who friends’ music change. Like a lot of deserve to be there. And for a long time we friends, and not even friends but just arthaven’t had that. That’s changed a lot now, ists — I’m noticing that their messaging but it’s still something I’ve felt like I want to has changed. And I’m hoping it stays like fight for and talk about in my music. that. I’m hoping they stay aware. But I’m I’ve been realizing that I know how to also seeing artists that have now found speak to what I speak to, and that’s what what they want their mission to be, from I write about. I don’t write about being a this summer especially — and hell, this Black person, that’s not my experience. I year, just realizing like: “This is really imshould uplift other Black voices in using portant to me. I didn’t realize I needed to my platform. … I think that’s where I see use my platform in this way.” Now people us, again going back to that women’s night, are speaking out about what it is that is we shift the culture by what we do in our important to them, what it is that matters to day-to-day actions, in our day-to-day lives. them and how they are in their community.

And that’s how I want to live my life, not By doing that, it is naturally affecting our just performative, but in how I treat my music and how we use social media and neighbors, how I treat my friends, how I what we’re saying. I’ve found that I’m not treat people. People know the difference. saying anything on social media if it doesn’t They smell it out. And I think people decontribute to the greater good. If I’m not serve our stories, and that’s what I write lifting somebody up, then there’s no point about, my queer experience. in me hopping online to say anything.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM LH: I write what I know, and my experiwe respect each other, we like each other.”

LH: There’s room for more than one of us here.

BM: Yep. There’s room at the table for everyone. … I think a lot of wounds were healed when we were in that room together that night. Courtney Marie Andrews played a song [recorded for Old Flowers, an album that is] Grammy-nominated. It was just so amazing to see that.

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TOP LOCAL ALBUMS CRITICS’ POLL

From Bully and Brian Brown to Jason Isbell and Kyshona, here are our favorite local LPs of the year

U

sing a highly scientific formula (read: spreadsheet) concocted back in 2010, the Scene has once again tabulated ballots from our braintrust of ace music writers to compile our list of the 10 best local albums of the year. With another mighty crop of releases, many worthy albums landed just outside the Top 10, including Katie Pruitt’s Expectations, Joy Oladokun’s In Defense of My Own Happiness, Vol. 1, Virghost’s Ghost Tape, Nicole Atkins’ Italian Ice and Lou Turner’s Songs for John Venn. Without further ado, the Top 10:

unexpected. As she further explores the complicated, at times traumatic experience of growing up gay in a fundamentalist Christian family, Mancari has ditched much of what she was known for in the Americana and folk universe to delve into a new world of experimental, genre-shifting pop. The songs, produced by Paramore’s Zac Farro, are lush with layers of ethereal vocals, synthesizer, keyboards and textural percussion by way of both drums and drum machine. It’s not all unfamiliar: There’s some slide guitar in there, too. You can take the girl out of Americana, but you can’t — well, you know. MEGAN SELING

10.

7.

BRIAN BROWN, JOURNEY (IT’S YO WORLD)

As the profile of Nashville’s hip-hop scene rises, so does the star of one of the community’s biggest talents, rapper Brian Brown. Brown released his debut fulllength project Journey in January, proving that his toolkit contains much more than a knack for lending features and writing catchy loosies like 2018’s “Stoop Kid” or 2017’s “Ric Flair.” The excellent Journey track “A Cashville Story” takes stock of current-day Nashville and its gentrification-induced ills, a prime example of Brown’s aptitude for coupling clear-eyed critiques with his hook-laden flows. BRITTNEY

McKENNA

9.

LILLY HIATT, WALKING PROOF (NEW WEST)

Lilly Hiatt may be a longtime Nashvillian, but you could call the East Nashville-residing singer and songwriter a heartland rocker — it’s the iconic, anthemic songs of that vaguely defined genre that Hiatt’s Walking Proof owe the most to. There are traces of Tom Petty in album standout “Some Kind of Drug,” and of Bonnie Raitt in “Never Play Guitar.” You can hear the influence of Seger, Springsteen and all the rest throughout Walking Proof, but it’s nevertheless a record all Hiatt’s own. Full of crunchy guitars and anthemic choruses and bolstered by Hiatt’s assured voice, Walking Proof is sharp and confident. D. PATRICK

RODGERS

8.

BECCA MANCARI, THE GREATEST PART (CAPTURED TRACKS) It feels like everything changed in 2020, and mostly for the worse. But Becca Mancari’s The Greatest Part is an example of beauty found in the

KYSHONA, LISTEN (SELF-RELEASED)

When Kyshona released Listen in February, there was no way for her to know how relevant and resonant it would be. The album reflects on the state of our nation with both brutal honesty and stubborn optimism.

Kyshona acknowledges the hard realities of life as a Black woman in America and calls for greater understanding and empathy that starts with listening — an act that seems simple but has a profound effect. Kyshona’s powerful voice shines in the album’s unique blend of gospel, roots and blues styles, from the entrancing title track to the anthemic “We the People.”

BRONTE LEBO

6.

BLACK BRA, BLACK BRA (YK)

Black Bra’s self-titled debut starts with a punch to the gut.

Within the first 45 seconds of opening track “I Was a Young Girl,” vocalist Beth Cameron recalls witnessing her sister’s abuse, being abandoned by her mother and losing her brother. And the ride doesn’t get easier, as songs address uncomfortable topics including the lack of inclusivity in modern feminism and misogyny and oppression in our nation.

Songs shift between a flurry of guitardriven grunge à la Hole (“I Was a Young Girl”) and haunting, syrupy goth (“Sitting With a Corpse”). But the message remains clear: A woman’s life is often full of brutal truths and experiences, and pushing through it all should be considered nothing less than heroic. MEGAN SELING

5.

HAYLEY WILLIAMS, PETALS FOR ARMOR (ATLANTIC) On her debut solo album, Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams and producer/bandmate/ co-writer Taylor York

create an inventive, invigorating sound.

They build on a slew of distinctive and often danceable pop styles, from Janet Jacksonian R&B to reggaetón to house-schooled club music to Björk-esque experimentalism.

But what’s most important is what the music serves on Petals for Armor.

Williams continues the work she started on Paramore’s 2017 LP After Laughter of pulling apart and questioning social constructs that try to define her as a woman and a musician without her input. In a time when many of us have been learning how to function under entirely new circumstances, seeing someone take command of their space like Williams does is pretty damn inspiring. STEPHEN TRAGESER

4.

Few express themselves as articulately and consistently as Jason Isbell does, whether it’s in four-minute songs or 280-character bursts.

On Reunions, the exDrive-By Trucker, prolific tweeter and poet laureate of the Shoals is at the top of his game, backed by his longtime crackerjack band The 400 Unit. Fearlessly earnest material like the sad-eyed childhood paean “Dreamsicle,” spirited ode to sobriety “It Gets Easier” and soul-searching tensionand-release exercise “What’ve I Done to Help” makes Reunions heartland rock of the highest order. The 10-song collection produced by Dave Cobb is elevated by potent dual-guitar interplay between Isbell and lead axman Sadler Vaden, reminiscent of Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms and Television’s Marquee Moon. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

EVE MARET, STARS ALIGNED (WHITED SEPULCHRE/PRAH RECORDINGS)

With its mix of disco beats, processed vocals and electric guitar, Eve Maret’s Stars Aligned registers as a dance record that works on multiple levels.

Maret co-founded the Hyasynth House, a now-dissolved electronic music collective that helped female, trans and nonbinary performers find a space to explore this wide-ranging music. Stars Aligned has fierce forward motion — tracks like “Satisfaction” and “Freedom” will make you shake your groove thang. Meanwhile, Stars has its contemplative side: The 10-minute track “Impressions” features guitar from Music City ax man Sean Thompson and pedal steel courtesy of Luke Schneider, who has done great work as a solo artist and as a sideman for Nashvillians like Margo Price. It’s a remarkable effort from an artist who keeps her feet on the ground and her eyes turned to the cosmos.

EDD HURT

3.

2.

JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT, REUNIONS (SOUTHEASTERN)

RUSTON KELLY, SHAPE & DESTROY (ROUNDER)

On his second album, Nashville singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly tries to navigate what comes next after climbing out of the darkness. His debut LP Dying Star gave an artful, sometimes brutally honest look at addiction and its consequences. Shape & Destroy finds Kelly on a spiritual journey, examining who he wants to be (“Brave”), savoring the small things (“Alive”) and grappling with the challenges of moving forward (“Changes”).

Even in moments of doubt and fear, there’s a warm, undeniable feeling of hope woven through every song, building to the record’s stunning, choral-like final bow, “Hallelujah Anyway.” LORIE LIEBIG

1.

BULLY, SUGAREGG (SUB POP)

Rock bands that are most at home on indie labels aren’t known for their longevity, and the tiny fraction of those that make it to a third LP frequently do so by sticking to a formula — often satisfying, but seldom exciting. More than five years after I first saw them in an opening slot at their home court, nowdefunct Nations watering hole The Stone Fox, Bully keeps it exceptionally fresh on Sugaregg.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Alicia Bognanno also engineered and produced most of the band’s debut Feels Like and follow-up Losing, but this time she handed the reins to prolific Grammy-winning producer John Congleton. Having the confidence to take a step back is among the benefits Bognanno speaks of from getting treatment for bipolar disorder.

There’s still plenty of monstrous crunch, throbbing bass and thundering percussion among the sweet-and-sour hooks, but there’s experimentation with textures and studio techniques that give the record a distinctive feel. What sticks with you, though, is the way Bognanno takes command of each song’s sonic universe. She uses each to illustrate her unwillingness to accept bullshit and the courage it takes to let go of anger. P.J. KINZER EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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THE YEAR IN HIP-HOP

Brian Brown, Tim Gent and others made 2020 one of the most dynamic, vibrant years yet in local rap

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

PHOTO: JUSTIN CAUSEY

NAMIR BLADE

BRIAN BROWN

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espite the unprecedented difficulties that the music industry has faced in 2020, it’s been one of the best years Nashville hip-hop has seen yet. We’ve seen key releases from major players, impressive debuts by up-and-comers and increased attention from national fans and tastemakers, making for an exciting year when it could’ve been anything but.

One of the earliest key hip-hop releases this year was Journey, the highly anticipated debut full-length album from East Side native Brian Brown. Journey came in at No. 10 on Scene critics’ list of the best local albums, and it shows Brown to be as skilled over the long haul of an LP as he is on singles and features. He can tackle thorny topics (“A Cashville Story,” “Flava”), wax introspective (“The Release Pt. 2”) and serve up inspiration (“Journey”) in less than 40 minutes.

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Several local mainstays released new material this year, and notched some major accomplishments too. In the summer, Tim Gent dropped his In Every Fall EP, which came on the heels of his signing a publishing deal with pop powerhouse Prescription Songs. R&B singer and frequent Gent collaborator Bryant Taylorr, who dropped his new EP Rare in November, signed with Prescription too, and landed a track on the soundtrack for the Netflix film Uncorked.

Namir Blade blew minds with his sprawling concept album Aphelion’s Traveling Circus. He intersperses skits and short narratives about a future circus, inspired by our strange present, between atmospheric, spacey tracks and some masterful bars.

Chuck Indigo upped his game with No Moor Bad Days, a full-length that shows off the rapper’s virtuosic range and storytelling ability. Daisha McBride, who scored the Scene’s Best Hip-Hop Album honor in 2019

DAISHA McBRIDE for her debut album WILD, dropped a slew of new music this year, including the Hail of a Year EP in October, an EP called Yafeelme in the summer and standout singles like “See You in the Dark” — oh yeah, and topshelf features like her verse on Danny G’s “Run It.” It was a big year for breakouts too, with several new and emerging artists raising their profiles in the city’s growing scene.

Lul Lion followed her well-received 2019 release $tsla with two new tracks, the woozy ode to independence “Wonderful” and the spacey, braggadocious “Supersonic.” Quez Cantrell made his debut in January with 9, which earned him Best Hip-Hop Newcomer in the Scene’s Best of Nashville issue. Sweet Poison dropped her New Energy EP, across which she effortlessly glides between singing slow-jam vocals and delivering melodic flows.

Behind the boards, producer and hype man A.B. Eastwood left his mark on many of the year’s major projects, including Gent’s In Every Fall and Taylorr’s Rare. Eastwood also lent his hand and his turntables to

PHOTO: SEIJI INOUYE

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

several virtual shows. In our October interview, he told me that he and his circle of collaborators have taken advantage of pandemic downtime by brainstorming how to take shows — whenever they’re able to happen again — to the next level.

Nashville’s hip-hop community earned acclaim from far beyond Music City too, with prominent write-ups in outlets like Complex and NPR. While Complex’s overview included key players like Brown and Indigo, it neglected to feature any of Nashville’s many women artists. NPR’s longform take — put together by journalist, author and WNXP music director Jewly Hight — was much furtherreaching and offered loads of insight into how the scene grew into its current incarnation.

In October, rapper Gee Slab published Tenn Toes Down, a 16-track compilation created in collaboration with Vibe Magazine editor Datwon Thomas featuring a who’s-who of local artists. In a subsequent interview with the Scene, Slab explained that the compilation, which features heavy hitters and newcomers alike, is meant to be experienced as a Nashville primer, not a comprehensive roundup of local talent.

This look at the year gone by is by no means exhaustive — there’s always something new to be excited about in this community that’s bursting at the seams with talent. Nashville may be known globally for its country music, but both the quality and quantity of the city’s rap output are staggering, and both are sure to increase in the year ahead.

Gee Slab summed up Nashville rap’s strengths best when we spoke in November: “You can get any piece of what you like out of hip-hop or rap, and find all of it here. If I want to go listen to trap music, I can go find it. If I want to go find more alternative styles, I can go find it. If I want bars all day, I can go find it. If I want some bops, if I want to get a vibe — whatever I want, I can go find everything in one city. In other cities, they have a formula.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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THE YEAR IN COUNTRY Breland, Reyna Roberts and other Black country aces prove Lil Nas X isn’t an anomaly

BY MARCUS K. DOWLING

I

t’s possible you’ve heard cynics saying things like this in hushed tones throughout 2020: Lil Nas X was just country music’s rapping carpetbagger. He’s an interloping one-hit wonder in a Nudie suit who certainly can’t repeat the success of “Old Town Road.”

The double-diamond-selling Georgia MC did not follow up his smash hit with another honky-tonking revolution in 2020. But Black people who appreciate country music aren’t a monolithic block. And Lil Nas X can’t easily be written off as an aberration, a byproduct of the surprising growth of country’s appeal among music streamers and TikTok scrollers.

Ultimately, “Old Town Road” blew the doors off an industry that had been occasionally respectful of Black artists’ creativity. And even without Lil Nas X as a ubiquitous presence in 2020, Black country artists were responsible for some of the genre’s most dynamic and appealing moments.

A Black man having his soul kneeled out of his body on Minneapolis’ pavement didn’t make it happen, either. Yes, sensitivities to Black artists and Black art are high because of America learning, again, that Black lives matter. Black artists have always been essential to country music’s backbone and progress, but still have yet to be adequately compensated — via social justice, sufficient remuneration or both.

It was wild “not on our 2020 bingo card” kismet that best illustrated how blithely tone-deaf country music initially responded to the cause of African American equality.

In June, veteran superstar group Lady Antebellum, who had played down or ignored their name’s racist connotations since picking it in 2006, responded to Black Lives Matter protests by changing their name to Lady A. Soon, Seattle blues and gospel artist Anita White emerged. She’d been performing as Lady A for more than 30 years. When she refused to simply give up her claim on the name or share it with minimal compensa-

tion, the country trio stood their ground and filed a lawsuit, starting a legal battle that is ongoing.

In better news, during the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Big Night at the Museum fundraiser stream, Kane Brown soulfully crooned Randy Travis’ elegiac “Three Wooden Crosses.” In the presence of Travis’ 1991 Gibson J-185 guitar with a MICKEY GUYTON photo of George Jones taped to the back, a magical moment occurred. As Alex Anthony strummed the legendary acousBRELAND tic, Brown’s sonorous tenor washed over the moment. When you watch the clip on YouTube, it feels like Travis’ and Jones’ legacies are being transmuted into Brown’s present.

One Black star, or even a few, firmly entrenched in the mainstream and its traditions is not the same thing as equity.

But this year, the excellence of Black artistry was regularly recognized and supported in other areas, showing ways that the genre can open itself up to a Black artistic revolution.

Breland’s country-trap hit “My Truck” helped the Black singer-songwriter establish himself as a rising country force.

A remix with Sam Hunt — who became a star with a sophisticated blend of hickhop, pop soul and neo-trad country — made The New York Times’ Best Songs of 2020 list. The original was certified gold by the RIAA. Though there are many examples of well-intentioned actions that aren’t really allyship, there are also country artists who stand up for Black country musicians. Maren Morris shouting out Linda Martell, Yola, Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Brittney Spencer and Rhifrequently uses her platform to spotlight annon Giddens while accepting Female Black artists, representing a new, approachVocalist of the Year at the CMA Awards able level of brutally honest allyship. Reis a good thing, if not earth-shattering. leased in September, Bridges is the latest Retweeting Brittney Spencer’s cover of The EP from Mickey Guyton, one of the few Highwomen and inviting her to work with Black women country artists to have a deal the supergroup — which did come to pass with a major label. She has yet to release earlier this month — is better. a full-length album, despite having been Progressive-minded artist Cam also

2020 MUSIC TIMELINE JANUARY

FEBRUARY

1/18 David Olney dies at 71

2/6 Keith Blaydes, co-owner of Tribe and Play, dies at 56

1/31 Brian Brown releases Journey

2/8 Kent Osborne, Heaven Honey, many more play Spewfest V at The Cobra and The East Room

2/26 Jim Williamson, Nashville Jazz Orchestra music director, dies at 78 2/28 Kyshona releases Listen

MARCH 3/3 Deadly tornado hits Middle Tennessee, damaging buldings

including Five Points’ The Basement East and Jefferson Street’s J.U.M.P. office 3/9 Marathon Music Works hosts Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Yola, many more for To Nashville With Love tornado benefit

3/11 Knoxville’s Big Ears is first Tennessee festival to announce COVID-related cancellation 3/12 The 5 Spot is first Nashville venue to announce temporary closure, launch crowdfunding campaign 3/20 Kenny Rogers dies at 81

3/27 Lilly Hiatt releases Walking Proof 3/28 Jan Howard, Opry legend, dies at 91

APRIL 4/1 Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift gave money to and funded health insurance for Grimey’s staff 4/7 John Prine dies at 73

signed nearly a decade ago. When Guyton spoke with Steve Harvey in November about being the first Black woman to get to sing an original on the ACM Awards broadcast, Cam tweeted: “White men roll up with half baked music, horrible vocals and fake or no identity and get albums released. Mickey is a supreme vocalist and songwriting talent, grammy nominated, self actualized authentic being STILL waiting ~10yrs for a first album. WE DONT DO THIS TO ANYONE ELSE.” Guyton’s “Black Like Me” has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance. But Black women are in many other places across the industry as well. See folks like Lilli Lewis and Kamara Thomas, Black women who are country and roots musicians but also building paths for others on the business side. Tune in to Apple Music Radio, and there’s 2000s country-pop hitmaker Rissi Palmer’s weekly show Color Me Country, which highlights country’s Black past, present and future. Turn on Monday Night Football, and there’s Reyna Roberts’ hard-rocking stunner “Stompin’ Grounds.”

All this makes it clear that 2019 wasn’t an anomaly. On “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X raps that he has “horses in the back.” He wasn’t lying. In 2020, a cavalry of stellar Black country musicians bucked conventions like broncos while riding right into country music’s mainstream conversation.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

4/17 Nashville venues join National Independent Venue Association, lobby for federal aid 4/22 Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Nashville, formerly Monument Studios, listed for sale

MAY 5/8 Hayley Williams releases Petals for Armor

5/9 Little Richard dies at 87

and layoffs for around 170 staff members

5/15 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit release Reunions 5/25 Bucky Baxter dies at 65 5/28 Douglas Corner Cafe announces permanent closure 5/29 Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum announces furloughs

JUNE 6/2 Mickey Guyton, Shannon Sanders, more join panel on racism in Nashville music business

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THE YEAR IN JAZZ, BLUES, R&B AND SOUL The Year in Artists and organizers across an array of scenes rolled with the many punches of 2020

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

BY RON WYNN

JASON ESKRIDGE

T

he devastating global impact of COVID-19 dominated both news and cultural headlines throughout 2020, but Nashville’s jazz, blues and roots music communities responded by displaying a resolute spirit of perseverance and adaptation. Artists continued making vibrant music, and doing whatever they could to help offset a pandemic that shuttered music venues and ground tours and live shows to almost a total halt.

Before that happened in March, Music City enjoyed a pair of super blues concerts with the return of Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and the legendary Taj Mahal to area locales. Likewise, bop veterans Bobby Watson and Curtis Lundy rocked Rudy’s Jazz Room with a superb series of weekend concerts. In a hopeful sign, Louisiana bluesman Tab Benoit launched his national tour from

6/12 Nashville Symphony cancels 2020-21 season, furloughs all musicians, most staff 6/18 Far Out Nashville hosts Far Out Free Fest online 6/20 Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival moves online 6/26 Becca Mancari releases The Greatest Part

JULY 7/6 Charlie Daniels dies at 83 7/7 Metro Council votes to allow clients at homebased businesses like recording studios 7/8 Gary Walker, songwriter and Great Escape founder, dies at 87

the Ryman Auditorium in November.

The responses in the wake of the pandemic’s impact were inspiring and motivational.

These ranged from the Sustain the Swing fundraiser — one of many performances to stream live from Rudy’s — to Rahsaan Barber’s invigorating tribute to Sonny Rollins that concluded this year’s season of Nashville Jazz Workshop’s Jazz on the Move series.

There was also the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival reinventing itself in a stripped-down virtual setting, and Jason Eskridge retooling his vital Sunday Night Soul events at The 5 Spot for streaming. Audiences got a chance to catch up on some informative and enlightening area staples on the internet radio station Acme Radio Live, too: Greg Pogue’s Nashville Jazz and Barry Mazor’s Roots Now have both been airing programs from their extensive archives.

7/10 The Change Up, monthlong streaming series featuring local hip-hop and R&B, launches 7/17 Black Bra releases Black Bra Fanny’s House of Music announces expansion plan

AUGUST 8/10 Historic marker recognizing the Rock Block unveiled outside Exit/In 8/20 Robert’s Western World’s JesseLee Jones buys Ernest Tubb Record Shops building

Many local jazz and blues musicians produced outstanding albums as well. While there were far too many to cite them all, my personal highlights in jazz begin with The Beegie Adair Trio’s collaboration with Clifton Davis (Never Can Say Goodbye). There were also superb duet sessions pairing Fredrick Weathersby with Stefan Forbus (The Real Deal) and the latest from the vibes/ piano/vocals husband-and-wife team of Jerry and Marlene Tachoir, aka Duo Tachoir (Shades of Blue). There were also outstanding blues and soul efforts from Dianne Davison, Dan Penn and Coyote Motel, and a dashing blend of improvisational élan and verbal flamboyance from the team of jazz bassist and producer Greg Bryant and rapper and spoken-word artist Rashad tha Poet as The Watchman and tha Poet.

The departure of Bryant and his wife, exceptional vocalist Dara Tucker, for the East Coast was a big loss this year, though Bryant has emerged as a national star in the jazz world. Besides hosting Jazz After Hours on the country’s top jazz station WBGO-FM weeknights from 12 to 5 a.m., he also joins longtime top critic Nate Chinen as co-host of the station’s weekly podcast Jazz United.

Sadly, death took one of the forefathers of rock ’n’ roll with this year’s passing of Little Richard. Meanwhile, the Nashville jazz world mourned the death of Nashville Jazz Orchestra leader Jim Williamson, both a marvelous bandleader and an incredible personality.

2021 will hopefully be a year of resurgence. The opening of the National Museum of African American Music, set for Jan. 18, is one coming beacon. Another is the reopening of the Nashville Jazz Workshop in its new headquarters on Buchanan Street, returning regular jazz performance and instruction to the Black community. There’s also a planned release to look forward to from Autumn, a major group from the city’s R&B/soul/funk past.

I remain cautiously optimistic that major progress will be made against the deadly disease that’s killed far too many people around the world. I also hope some governmental assistance comes the way of the city’s many struggling music sites — it’s an understatement to call the permanent closure of New York’s legendary club The Jazz Standard “worrying.” In addition, I hope for more support for the city’s jazz, blues and roots music groups working behind the scenes to keep things going, and that everyone once again has an opportunity to witness the efforts of many of the world’s finest musicians.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

8/20 Justin Townes Earle dies at 38 8/21 Bully releases Sugaregg 8/28 Ruston Kelly releases Shape & Destroy 8/31 Jonathan Odine, muchloved drummer, dies at 32

VARIATIONS

Skin Tension, JayVe Montgomery and others used jazz and other improvisational music in fascinating ways

BY EDD HURT

I

n a year when the global community had to find new ways to live, Nashville musicians got busy integrating jazz and improvised music into a variety of contexts.

While our more mainstream jazz scene persevered, there was nothing monolithic about the jazz-adjacent records that Music City players released in 2020, and that’s a tribute to the city’s innovative spirit.

Some Nashville musicians pushed and pulled jazz into new territory. Skin Tension — the duo of drummer Josh Byrd and guitarist Edward Longo — harked back to Miles Davis’ electric period on their EP Observe/Mimic/Mutate, which starts with the superb track “Hidden Village.” Skin Tension got even weirder on the 15-track full-length Skin Vision, a sprawling collection that evokes artists like Four Tet and Autechre. Skin Tension isn’t afraid to get ugly, so their 2020 work often functions as soundscape as much as it updates, say, In a Silent Way and A Tribute to Jack Johnson.

Byrd and Longo have performed with saxophonist JayVe Montgomery, a prolific musician who sits on the free-jazz side of the fence. Montgomery’s Movements for Waiting offers up a series of leisurely drones that have little to do with bebop, reflecting on time that we typically consider wasted. The record’s “An Hour Spent Waiting to Be Seated” also displays his wit: The track runs for all of three minutes.

There are hints of jazz on pedal-steel ace Spencer Cullum’s excursion into 1970s English prog rock, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection. The jazz-inflected style of forebears like Robert Wyatt, Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera gets a makeover on the album, which deliberately includes very little of Cullum’s signature instrument. Guitarist Sean Thompson proves himself a fluid improviser who blurs the boundaries separating jazz and rock. Like the ’70s prog masters he references, Thompson plays licks that never settle into anything resembling a restrictive groove.

Blues is a major component of jazz, and one of the most interesting blues records of the year nods to jazz fusion, even as it incorporates elements of Mississippi juke-joint music. Guitarist, singer and bandleader Ted Drozdowski assembled a diverse cast of players on his band Coyote Motel’s Still Among the Living, which features turns from post-blues singer Luella and veteran Nashville jazzrock guitarist Stan Lassiter. Luella sings like a disciple of Mississippi-born blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill, while Lassiter shreds like jazz fusion never went away. There’s nothing particularly avant-garde about Still Among the Living, but it’s a raucous album that should satisfy both bluesniks and fans of fretboard audacity. As often happens in Nashville, conservatism tangles with the progressive impulse on the record, recorded live at The 5 Spot. For all that, it’s an often-surprising effort. If jazz is the sound of surprise, Drozdowski & Co. are doing their best to remain true to the music’s spirit.

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

9/1 Metro Council votes to offer CARES Act funds to independent venues

10/20 Daisha McBride, Margo Price, many more play Third Man Records’ Musicians for Marquita telethon

9/14 Music City Bandwidth, six-week streaming series supporting independent venues, starts 9/16 Thriving Roots streaming panel series launches in lieu of AmericanaFest

10/24 J.T. Corenflos, session guitarist, dies at 56

10/28 Marty Stuart, many more play Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Big Night fundraising stream

Radio launches music discovery station WNXP, moves 91Classical online only

NOVEMBER

12/4 Nashville Symphony and musicians reach stipend agreement

11/13 Eve Maret releases Stars Aligned Group of Elliston Place buildings, including site of The End, sell 11/30 Nashville Public

DECEMBER

12/6 David Soldi, much-loved punk, dies at 43 12/12 Charley Pride dies at 86

nashvillescene.com | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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SAY IT LOUD

Joy Oladokun, Adia Victoria and other Nashville musicians called eloquently for an end to systemic racism in 2020

BY MEGAN SELING

Without in-person shows, musicians, venues and fans developed intriguing approaches to streaming concerts

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

I

n this year of almost no in-person shows, musicians, venues and fans have done their level best to address both the economic hardship and the numbing boredom by staging streaming concerts. The experience hasn’t been without its growing pains, but several different approaches have developed in the nine months since lockdowns began, and each has shown its merits.

The most intimate, interactive streams have come live and direct from artists’ bedrooms and rehearsal spaces. Viewers interact directly in the chat panels — a throwback to chat rooms of the ’90s — and tip via Venmo or PayPal. Though sometimes compromised by spotty picture quality and intermittent buffering, these streams give artists a way to workshop new material and maintain a connection with their fans, while audiences get a unique window into where and how the

18

MIKE FLOSS He writes on Soundcloud that the initials have multiple meanings: “DTP stands for Disturbing The Peace, it stands for Defund The Police, and most directly it stands for Desensitized, Terrorized, and Processing.”

Over an understated beat, he addresses the toll that the year has taken on his mental health; rapping about his inner strength puts into context his admission that the endless stream of police brutality is too much to take. It’s a hell of a journey.

Other artists shined a light on the unique way racism has been ingrained in Southern

music gets created. Like a pass-the-hat situation at a house show, however, they’re not typically lucrative, especially if they’re streaming for free on social media, YouTube or Twitch.

A step up on the technical end are pro-shot shows like the ones East Nashville venue The 5 Spot offers on a regular basis. Some are free, and some are payper-view on streaming platform StageIt; some happen live while others are filmed ahead of time. Larger venues like Exit/In and Brooklyn Bowl Nashville have put on numerous streaming concerts of their own.

Both were among the participating venues in Billy Strings’ wildly successful Streaming Strings Tour in July. City Winery, 3rd and Lindsley and the Ryman have used their existing sit-down concert model to stream some performances with limited-capacity inperson audiences.

For the viewers at home, these are essentially instant concert movies. If you’re already a fan of the band, forking over the nominal fee (if there is one) to tune in is a no-brainer. Even when members are playing masked, bands’ excitement at returning to the stage after months at home is a beautiful thing to witness.

The most inspired streams have combined live and pretaped content in thoughtful and entertaining ways.

We recognized Far Out Nashville’s Far Out Free Fest as the Best Streaming Festival in this year’s Best of Nashville issue. Organizers Brianne O’Neill and Kari Leigh Ames turned their annual psych festival into a four-night online video extravaganza, combining more than 60 original submissions — live and prerecorded

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

ADIA VICTORIA past and present in order to build a future culture and called for it to be excised. that benefits all of its citizens.”

Contemporary blues singer Adia Victoria She doesn’t sugarcoat the message, released “South Gotta Change,” a but the song is still hopeful. When haunting display of the region’s Oladokun sings, “Violence and dichotomy. In the song, its rumors in a Southern town both accompanying video and the start with a whisper, but so Sept. 17 cover package she STREAM A PLAYLIST WITH does the difference,” we’re guest-edited for the Scene, THESE SONGS AND MORE AT reminded that the push for Victoria demands white NASHVILLESCENE.COM/MUSIC lasting change doesn’t have people finally acknowledge to start with bold, sweeping how they’ve benefited actions. It can start quietly. from a system that has been While some would say we’re oppressing Black communities well beyond the point of whispering for generations.

— and they’re not wrong — it’s also worth Damage done by unchecked racism is recognizing that others are finally paying also addressed in Joy Oladokun’s staggering attention for the first time. These songs are single “I See America.” On Twitter, the whisper Oladokun is talking about. It’s Oladokun described the song as being about up to the rest of us to keep listening and turn two Americas — the America that is “only their messages into action. actually great for the select few” and the EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM America that “reckons with the sins of its

PHOTO: LAUREN NAPIER

NAVIGATING TROUBLED WATERS

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

F

ew of the social and political issues at the forefront of public conversation in 2020 were new, but this year came with unprecedented opportunities to clearly see what has been developing. With even the most routine parts of life altered by COVID-19, Americans had fewer chances to bury their heads in the sand. When protesters took to the streets in response to the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, millions were forced to witness the anger, sadness and fear Black Americans have been living with for generations. A slew of Nashville musicians added their voices to the choir calling for change.

Two artists hit the ground running before the pandemic began disrupting everything.

In January, Jason Eskridge released his single “Stand,” a dirty, bluesy rock anthem that doubles as an urgent battle cry to stand up for what’s right. In February, Kyshona Armstrong, who performs simply as Kyshona, dropped her stellar full-length Listen. (Read more in our end-of-year conversation with Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari on p. 10.) Days after the November election, Armstrong impressed again with “Cleft of the Rock,” an organlaced march that recalls spirituals and other sacred music.

Rapper Mike Floss has never been afraid to say what needs to be said. In September, he released a powerful single called “DTP.”

MARGO PRICE AT BROOKLYN BOWL NASHVILLE

music, spoken word, animation and more — into a streamlined, user-friendly whole. Third Man Records began its Public Access series in March with a couple of live sets from the Blue Room. But once the stayat-home order came through, the TMR crew shifted to an edited variety-show format that maintained their trademark retro aesthetic — something like late-night public access TV viewed through 3D glasses. The label also put on a telethon in this style in October for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Marquita Bradshaw.

Some streamers who were enthusiastic about the format at the beginning have shifted their focus to making new recordings. It’s understandable: Zoom fatigue has set in for everybody. But those who’ve kept livestreaming with style and purpose have shown that while streams aren’t concerts, they’re not a bad way to experience something either. With more uncertain times ahead — and the livelihood of local music institutions hinging on our support — consider streaming not a replacement, but an alternative with its full potential waiting to be unlocked.

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Generosity of space. Millions of twinkling lights and our soaring 48-foot Christmas tree.

Hundreds of enhanced cleaning protocols. Boundless family-friendly holiday events, from tubing, ice skating and Breakfast with Charlie Brown™ & Friends to our brand-new I Love Christmas Movies™ immersive pop-up experience featuring ELF™, THE POLAR EXPRESS™, and more!

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nashvillescene.com | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THE YEAR IN VEN-NEWS Music venues continue the uphill battle for survival — and keep contributing to our communities

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

THOSE WE LOST

of the people who usually work at music venues — more than a few of whom are musicians themselves.

In April, the newly formed National Independent Venue Association, which counts more than 30 members in Nashville, launched its #SaveOurStages campaign to lobby Congress for federal aid. In July, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn proposed a bill that would give independent venues exactly what they’re asking for, one of several aid bills endorsed by the trade group. None has yet passed, and it seems likely the earliest we’ll see any more federal financial relief will be after Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.

A group of 15 local venues called Music Venue Alliance Nashville, most of which are NIVA members, made its case to the Metro Council and got access to $2 million in funds provided by the federal CARES Act. Also, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp helped MVAN organize a six-week streaming festival called Music City Bandwidth that helped raise awareness and some funds.

Meanwhile, real estate adjacent to and including venue sites continues to change hands — the property on Elliston Place that’s home to The End sold for $1.6 million in November.

One of the most heartwarming examples of how venues can adapt to our chaotic times came from East Side all-ages spot Drkmttr. The venue opened its space up for meetings of small grassroots organiza-

THE 5 SPOT

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

A

t the beginning of 2020, it looked like we were in for a very, very busy year for live music in Nashville.

But once COVID-19 arrived in March, followed by the rapid shuttering of nonessential businesses and public spaces, all bets were off. It’s been nine months since venues around town were last able to do regular business. Only one, venerable songwriter hangout Douglas Corner Cafe, has closed permanently. Others continue fighting to stay afloat.

Some have leaned into streaming concerts, with either a drastically reduced audience or none at all. The Station Inn established its own streaming channel in 2019, which has been vital to helping the intimate bluegrass mecca weather the storm. Over in Five Points, The 5 Spot built up a substantial streaming rig and has embraced functioning like a soundstage. Many other venues — including Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, whose March grand opening was postponed and which has yet to have a show for an audience — have hosted streams too.

Just as streaming isn’t a replacement for the show experience, it isn’t a replacement for show income either. Exit/In owner Chris Cobb said that his venue would have to produce an impossible five to seven streams each day of the year to match the income from a full concert calendar.

Streaming also only employs a handful

JOHN PRINE

Remembering John Prine, Little Richard, Charley Pride, Justin Townes Earle and more

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

20

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

E

ach year, Nashville copes with the loss of people who make our conglomeration of music scenes feel like a community and show us the greatness we can aspire to.

Perhaps no loss was felt more deeply in Music City in 2020 than that of someone who did both. Songwriter’s songwriter John Prine died in April at age 73 from complications of COVID-19. He was an unfailing mentor and friend, and his unassumingly brilliant songs have been an example for two generations.

In January, hours after he told a radio interviewer about how exciting he still found it to perform, David Olney died of an apparent heart attack onstage. He was 71. Kenny Rogers, one of the finest singers in the past half-century of country and pop music, died at 81 in March. Charley Pride, another astonishing

singer who was the first Black country superstar (with more than 50 top 10 singles), was 86 when he died this month of COVID complications. Little Richard, whose influentially flamboyant performances turned rock ’n’ roll into something transformative and boundary-breaking, split his last years between Nashville and Tullahoma. He died in May at 87.

Jan Howard began her country career singing on

tions and progressive political candidates.

Drkmttr also authorized a mutual aid group called the Nashville Free Store to use space in the building to collect and distribute

groceries and household items to people in need. Even when we can’t come together as a community at our venues, they can still make our communities stronger.

demo tapes. When she died in March at 91, she had been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for 49 years and had 20 hit singles. Gil Veda, a U.S. Air Force veteran who died at 86 in July, is remembered for his singing and songwriting — he was the first Latinx performer to appear on the Opry — as well as his visual artwork and community leadership. Charlie Daniels died in July at 83, leaving a complicated legacy that includes incredible songs and philanthropy as well as hateful and reactionary diatribes.

Though Justin Townes Earle mined territory between country and rock music in a similar way to his father Steve Earle, he quickly established his own phenomenal and distinctive voice and built a catalog any legend would be proud of. The younger Earle neither moralized nor downplayed his struggles with substance abuse. He was 38 when he died of an accidental overdose in August.

Icons rarely become icons without the support of phenomenal players like pedal-steel master Bucky Baxter. He played with Steve Earle, Bob Dylan and many more before his death in May at 65. Guitarist J.T. Corenflos, who died in October at 56, played on sessions for artists from Dobie Gray to Dolly Parton and beyond. Guitarist Jimmy Capps, who died at 81 in June, played on a slew of country hits and performed in the Opry house band for more than 50 years. You

heard drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland keeping time for Carl Perkins on “Blue Suede Shoes” and for Johnny Cash with The Tennessee Three; he died in September at 85.

Drummer Jonathan Odine was beloved by the campers he counseled at Barefoot Republic as well as by friends across the music community. He died in August at 32. David Soldi left Nashville’s punk scene in the early 2000s, but he was never forgotten: Friends and former bandmates mourned his death in December at 43. Jim Williamson, who died in February at 78, led the Nashville Jazz Orchestra for nearly 25 years, maintaining the often-overlooked traditions of large jazz ensembles. Bryant Douglas Harland, a respected voiceover artist better known as DJ Bryant D, was 52 when he died in November. Friends remember him for both his natural ability and generosity as a mentor.

If you’ve studied country music history, you might know of Gary Walker — who died in July at 87 — as a hit songwriter who laid the groundwork for the influential label Chart Records. Regardless, you’ve almost certainly done business with him, in a manner of speaking — that is, if you’ve bought used records from or sold to The Great Escape, which he opened in 1977.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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12/14/20 7:30 PM

THE 2020 ROCK ’N’ ROLL POLL The local music scene on the local music scene COMPILED BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

F

or our annual Rock ’n’ Roll Poll, we once again surveyed a select group of Nashville’s finest rockers, rollers, bookers, bloggers and more, and got their take on local music in 2020. For this most unusual year, we’ve changed up a few of the questions from years past.

WHAT LOCAL ARTIST/BAND RULED NASHVILLE IN 2020?

Everyone fucks with Becca Mancari now, and she deserves it all. She’s a real one, and she has focused on being her most authentic and visible self with this last release. —ALANNA ROYALE Becca Mancari —SAMANTHA ZARUBA, MICHAEL COMBS, TIFFANY MINTON, KATE MEEHAN, TAYLOR COLE Kyshona Armstrong —LILLY HIATT, JESSICA BREANNE, SARAH BANDY, LARISSA MAESTRO Lilly Hiatt —TIFFANY MINTON, MICHAEL COMBS, JESSICA BREANNE Devon Gilfillian —JERRY PENTECOST, DOUG HALL, TODD SHERWOOD, ELLEN ANGELICO Bully —MICHAEL COMBS, JESSE BOO, TAYLOR COLE Brittany Howard —TIFFANY MINTON, ARIEL BUI Heaven Honey —MEGAN LOVELESS, MICHAEL EADES Keeps —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER Brian Brown —QUEZ CANTRELL, RASHAD THA POET FU Stan —QUEZ CANTRELL, VIRGHOST, MICHAEL EADES Namir Blade —SEDDYMAC, MICHAEL EADES Ron Obasi —QUEZ CANTRELL, MICHAEL EADES Daisha McBride —CAROLINE BOWMAN, MICHAEL EADES Eve Maret —RODRIGO AVENDANO, MICHAEL EADES Belly Full of Stars —EVE MARET Luke Schneider —KYLE HAMLETT, MICHAEL EADES, RODRIGO AVENDANO Anyone who’s keeping their shit together and creating music. —LUKE SCHNEIDER A.B. Eastwood —RASHAD THA POET Tim Gent, Bryant Taylorr —SEDDYMAC Trapperman Dale —QUEZ CANTRELL John Tucker, TriplePlay Squeek, BeHoward, L Roy da Boy, Morgan Boseman —VIRGHOST Betcha —CHRIS MARTIGNAGO Black City, Funky Tenn collective —D’LLISHA DAVIS Quiet Entertainer —NATHAN CONRAD Quichenight —PATRICK ORR Chaz Cardigan —JARED CORDER B|_ank —R. STEVIE MOORE Emma Swift —PAUL BURCH Creature Comfort, Joy Oladokun —SAMANTHA ZARUBA Snooper —JACOB T. CORENFLOS Hayley Williams —LIZ MEADE Brainweight —TYLER WALKER Margo Price, Becky Warren —TIFFANY MINTON Kings of the Fucking Sea —KARI LEIGH AMES Megan Palmer, Aaron Lee Tasjan —TIM EASTON The Love-In —DILLON WATSON Nick Woods —JOE KENKEL Todd Snider’s Sunday morning livestreams are a force of nature. —JEFF MELTESEN Daniel Tashian. If you make an ambient album, a kids’ album and a masterpiece with Burt Bacharach in one year, you are “ruling.” —BRIAN SISKIND The resilience, the passion and the grit shown by our community this year has been extraordinary.

If you’re still here, and you’re making music and you’re reading this, you rule! —EMMA SWIFT

WHAT LOCAL ARTIST/BAND IS GOING TO RULE IN 2021?

Heaven Honey —MEGAN LOVELESS, DEEZY VIOLET, CAM SARRETT Kyshona Armstrong —JESSICA BREANNE, LARISSA MAESTRO All of Nashville hip-hop —RASHAD THA POET, QUEZ CANTRELL, MICHAEL EADES Katie Pruitt —LILLY HIATT, LIZA SATURDAY Thelma and the Sleaze —LILLY HIATT Adia Victoria —LILLY HIATT, JESSICA BREANNE Snooper —JESSE BOO, GHASTLY MIKE HACKENSLASH Ej, The Maker —SEDDYMAC The Shindellas —D’LLISHA DAVIS Volunteer Department —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER TheyNeedWeez, Ratchet2x —VIRGHOST The Love-In, Jessica Breanne, Abby Johnson —TIFFANY MINTON Ttotals —RYAN SWEENEY Sean Thompson —JESSICA BREANNE, ASHER HORTON Yautja, Thirdface —CHAPPY HULL Jung Youth —TYLER WALKER Sun Seeker, The Robe, Kyle Hamlett —RODRIGO AVENDANO Dream Chambers —EVE MARET, RODRIGO AVENDANO Billy Strings —BRITTAN ALLISON Robyn Harris —ALANNA ROYALE Alanna Royale —KATE MEEHAN Jaime Wyatt, Allison Russell —ELLEN ANGELICO *repeat repeat, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Eve Maret, Alanna Royale, Julien Baker, Not Your Nails, anything on YK Records. —MICHAEL COMBS Teddy at Night, Kate Lynn —LIZ MEADE Heaven Honey, Nü Mangos, The Minks, Harpooner, Katy Kirby, Bantug, Tayls —CAROLINE BOWMAN kidDEAD —NATHAN CONRAD Charlotte Sands —CHRIS MARTIGNAGO Sinai Vessel —RACHEL SCARBROUGH Every band on To-Go Records. —ALE DELGADO Rich Ruth —LUKE SCHNEIDER Crave On —JOE KENKEL Tristen —EMMA SWIFT, DILLON WATSON Zoe Sky Jordan. I don’t listen to a lot of music with words, but her songs are music, if that makes sense. —BRIAN SISKIND WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DISCOVERY THIS YEAR? Artist Rights Alliance. Erin McNally and Chelsea Crowell do a fantastic job of advocating for and educating musicians. —EMMA SWIFT Enzo from EngineIX’s solo project Scumcorpse. —JACOB T. CORENFLOS TheyNeedWeez —VIRGHOST Virghost’s Ghost Tape —JOE KENKEL Local: Abby Johnson; non-local: Advertisement, Peel Dream Magazine. —MEGAN LOVELESS Donors. Getting their cassette feels like pulling a 7-inch out of the bin on a whim, and BAM! — new favorite band. —MIKE SHEPHERD Seck! Local videographer who is a true visionary. —D’LLISHA DAVIS Primary Sound —RYAN SWEENEY, CAROLINE BOWMAN More drugs/medicines, beard masks —R. STEVIE MOORE @parkerallen YouTube playlists, @teens.4.equality and @bebetterbelmont on Instagram —CAM SARRETT Lydia Luce —KATE MEEHAN Abby Johnson —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER, DILLON WATSON, LUKE SCHNEIDER

Morgan Conners. Magic folk songs coming from her Omnichord. —RYAN DONOHO AC Noel, AyyWillé, B. Stokes —QUEZ CANTRELL Bandcamp. I always used it before, but now it feels like a more direct way to support locals. —JESSE BOO I hired Alicia Enstrom for a session and we only got to spend a couple hours together. But then I came across her record A Monster Roars, and it is so cool. —ALANNA ROYALE Devil’s Tower Records, Country Music Allies on Instagram —MICHAEL COMBS Lord Goldie —LILLY HIATT Meditation actually works. —LARISSA MAESTRO Peter McCarville is an expert writer, musician and recordist. Paradise Midi is designing some of the coolest tools for music making. —RODRIGO AVENDANO With very little prodding, our community comes together to support one another. —MICHAEL EADES

WHAT’S HELPED YOU THE MOST IN COPING WITH THE PANDEMIC? Anything and everything Dolly Parton has done. —MICHAEL COMBS Every time I was overwhelmed or depressed, I just started walking. It’s never a wrong decision. —ALANNA ROYALE Unplugging from social media. —D’LLISHA DAVIS The Hartland Hootenanny —JERRY PENTECOST The unemployment office —LUKE SCHNEIDER Watching Metro Council meetings. —ELLEN ANGELICO Working on music. My project Ghost Tape specifically, because the pandemic forced me to go outside my comfort zone. —VIRGHOST Stopped caring about trying to make money from music. —ALEX MOJAVERIAN Bandcamp Fridays, paired with an increased appetite for purchasing music. —JOE KENKEL Being able to create music, but not being rushed to release it. —QUEZ CANTRELL Family. Music. Hope. —RASHAD THA POET Playing music too loud. —ALE DELGADO WXNA —KARI LEIGH AMES Among other things, my resilient, thoughtful, challenging, loving friends. —SARAH BANDY Blacklock Fridays on IG —SEDDYMAC Does crying in the bath count? —EMMA SWIFT Upping my antidepressants by 100 percent and getting back into video games. —DEEZY VIOLET Picking up Duke’s sandwiches curbside to enjoy at a family picnic in a state park. —RYAN SWEENEY Making book-inspired playlists and watching Soul Train reruns. —CAROLINE BOWMAN Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, nature walks, Zoom —ARIEL BUI Converting The 5 Spot into a video production studio. —TODD SHERWOOD Getting some fishing gear and learning how to use it. —TIFFANY MINTON Oh, just the nearly maniacal audit of every aspect of my existence. Neurosis needs time to breathe, so it’s been good. Learned the Octatrack for beatmaking. —BRIAN SISKIND Making sure to safely keep in contact. I can physically feel a difference in my body when I’ve gone too long without the people I love. —LARISSA MAESTRO ONE THING YOU HOPE DOESN’T COME BACK ONCE THE PANDEMIC ENDS? The pandemic. —CHAPPY HULL, KARI LEIGH AMES, ARIEL BUI, JOSH BILLUE I have realized that my tolerance for BS was much higher, and I am not allowing that to come back. —LARISSA MAESTRO Big egos, nepotism —MICHAEL COMBS Donald Trump —VIRGHOST, EMMA SWIFT, TYLER WALKER Complacency with our government, even though Trump is leaving office. —LIZ MEADE

Symptoms are symptoms. Stop guilting people into working when they’re sick and risking their co-workers’ health so you’re not inconvenienced. —ALANNA ROYALE I hope that this terrifying year has taught us that we are all equally fragile. Instead of passing judgment for something as trivial as style, we can band together and make a wonderful community for everyone. —JACOB T. CORENFLOS Hipster snark should be a thing of the past.

Also, please stop auto-crossposting to Twitter from your Instagram. —MICHAEL EADES To-go liquor drink restrictions. —KASEY RAY Hold my beer. —R. STEVIE MOORE Unnecessary Zoom conferencing. I’m still totally down for drag queens performing from their living rooms, though. —TIFFANY MINTON Watching my face while singing into a computer screen. —LILLY HIATT Unwanted hugs from strange men. —JESSICA BREANNE $5 shows. — DEEZY VIOLET, ALEX MOJAVERIAN, SAMANTHA ZARUBA, LUKE SCHNEIDER That stupid gap between the audience and the stage. —TAYLOR COLE Bitter and jaded musicians. —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER Late rap shows. —RASHAD THA POET Five-band bills. —MEGAN LOVELESS Making excuses for not going. —KATE MEEHAN People not really listening at shows. —DOUG HALL Terry the Horror Clown —GHASTLY MIKE HACKENSLASH, JESSE BOO I’m pretty good with not wearing jeans ever again. —QUEZ CANTRELL

WHO DESERVES MORE COVERAGE THAN THEY GOT IN 2020?

Rock ’n’ roll designer/singer-songwriter Cybelle Elena. —SAMANTHA ZARUBA Delta Rae. They completely reinvented themselves, creating a beautiful online portal for fans. And they’re writing a musical. —ELLEN ANGELICO The Den Podcast —D’LLISHA DAVIS Immigrant artists and immigrant-owned businesses and restaurants. —ARIEL BUI Savoy Motel —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER The Lees of Memory —CHRIS COBB Diatom Deli —EVE MARET Luther Dickinson, Fats Kaplin, Tommy Womack, Jon Langford, Megan McCormick, Leyla McCalla —PAUL BURCH Nick Woods, Altered Statesman —KYLE HAMLETT Ron Obasi —RASHAD THA POET Teddy at Night, Robyn Harris, Vacay Nick —LIZ MEADE BeHoward, TheyNeedWeez —VIRGHOST The real Lady A: Anita White. The Nashville trio should choose another name. —DOUG HALL Ahmad, It’s Like That Records —SEDDYMAC All of our local queer musicians. —MICHAEL COMBS Lauren Gilbert’s podcast Queen of Shit Mountain.

Her interviews with women musicians are insightful and hilarious. —TIFFANY MINTON Joy Oladokun —CHRIS MARTIGNAGO Jason Goforth. Great musician, artist and hilarious IG follow. —BRIAN SISKIND ElonMusk —KARI LEIGH AMES FU Stan, BeHoward, Que Parks, Teddy Rose —QUEZ CANTRELL The young bands! EngineIX, Medusa’s Hairdresser, xBETAx and Ophelia, just to name a few. —CHAPPY HULL Nathan Kalish —LILLY HIATT The Minks, My Wall —TODD SHERWOOD Dillon Warnek —CAROLINE BOWMAN, LUKE SCHNEIDER VIDEO CREATORS, INDIE LABELS (REAL SWORD, WEST RIFF), metal and weirdo electronic music. Launch a concept album column for artists in our scene like Fable Cry and Negro Justice! —MICHAEL EADES The missing bass tracks from this year’s Boo Dudes album. >:-{ —JESSE BOO

nashvillescene.com | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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WHAT’S THE BEST MUSIC STORY OF THE YEAR? Drkmttr’s transformation into a community center.

—ELLEN ANGELICO, TYLER WALKER, EVE MARET, SARAH BANDY, DEEZY VIOLET, CAROLINE BOWMAN, RODRIGO AVENDANO, JESSE BOO, RYAN SWEENEY Somehow Drkmttr took the worst-case scenario and made it into something hugely beneficial for people way outside the music scene. —MICHAEL EADES That I was a match and able to give my husband one of my kidneys, after a year-and-a-half of him being on dialysis. —MICHAEL COMBS Taylor Swift donating to Grimey’s; Dolly Parton donating to the development of a vaccine. —JERRY PENTECOST The formation of the National Independent Venue Alliance, which now has more than 3,000 members and legislation with bipartisan sponsorship in Congress. —CHRIS COBB The city of Nashville helping out independent music venues with Music City Bandwidth. —TODD SHERWOOD Nashville venues forming an alliance to fight together through the pandemic. —ALANNA ROYALE Where our government has failed us in relief efforts, MusiCares has done their best to help pick up the slack, changing the stories of thousands of musicians. —LARISSA MAESTRO Fanny’s rising from the tornado rubble to begin building Fanny’s School of Music. —RODRIGO AVENDANO Metro making home studios legal. —JARED CORDER “Nashville Hip Hop is Making Its Own Way,” by Jewly Hight for NPR —D’LLISHA DAVIS, NATHAN CONRAD Almost everything nobigdyl. dropped went over 1 million streams. —RASHAD THA POET Ron Gallo called out Amazon for not paying artists while he was performing on their platform, and then they started paying. —GARY BRANIGAN Margo Price driving down Broadway yelling at people to put their masks on. —KASEY RAY The To Nashville, With Love benefit concert. —LIZA SATURDAY Avenue Beat’s “F2020” starting on TikTok and going on to earn 30 million streams on Spotify. —LIZ MEADE The outpouring of love and sadness for John Prine after his death from COVID. —LUKE SCHNEIDER Bob Dylan getting his first Billboard No. 1, a mere 58 years into his career. —EMMA SWIFT Taking musicians into a cave for Harmony on the Horizon, aspiring for deep listening and to create a more inclusive, wholesome world. —KATE MEEHAN

RESPONDENTS:

Brittan Allison: marketing manager, Marathon Music Works Ellen Angelico: musician at-large; whippersnapper at Fanny’s House of Music Kari Leigh Ames: DJ Karl Castle on WXNA; cofounder, Far Out Nashville Rodrigo Avendano: musician; human Sarah Bandy: cheese enthusiast; YEAH! pusher; harp looper Josh Billue: owner, Marathon Music Works Jesse Boo: bassmummy, Boo Dudes Caroline Bowman: co-founder/owner, Cold Lunch Recordings; graphic designer; your No. 1 fan Gary Branigan: spew enthusiast, Cold Lunch Recordings Jessica Breanne: musician; Belcourt staffer Ariel Bui: musician; activist; music educator and owner, Melodia Studio Paul Burch: musician; songwriter; engineer; filmmaker; radio host Quez Cantrell: artist; songwriter; web designer; dope-ass human Chris Cobb: owner, Exit/In Taylor Cole: musician, Tayls and Creature Comfort; talent buyer, The East Room Michael Combs: public relations coordinator and co-owner, The Groove Records

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New albums from the old guard — Mac Gayden, Buzz Cason, Marshall Chapman and Dan Penn. —DILLON WATSON Bandcamp Friday —MEGAN LOVELESS, CAM SARRETT Adia Victoria guest-editing an issue of the Scene. —ARIEL BUI

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL RECORD OF 2020?

Luke Schneider, Altar of Harmony —KARI LEIGH AMES, SARAH BANDY, SAMANTHA ZARUBA, CAM SARRETT, EVE MARET Becca Mancari, The Greatest Part —MICHAEL COMBS, TIFFANY MINTON, EMMA SWIFT, TODD SHERWOOD Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection —CAROLINE BOWMAN, LUKE SCHNEIDER, ASHER HORTON Kyshona, Listen — SARAH BANDY, JESSICA BREANNE, LARISSA MAESTRO Donors, Donors —MEGAN LOVELESS, RACHEL SCARBROUGH, MICHAEL EADES FU Stan, Lockdown —VIRGHOST, QUEZ CANTRELL, MICHAEL EADES Lilly Hiatt, Walking Proof —JESSICA BREANNE, MICHAEL COMBS Eve Maret, Stars Aligned —MICHAEL EADES, RYAN DONOHO Bully, Sugaregg —JARED CORDER, LILLY HIATT Lou Turner, Songs for John Venn — PATRICK ORR, KYLE HAMLETT Music Band, Celebration —JESSE BOO, CAROLINE BOWMAN Katie Pruitt, Expectations —TIM EASTON, LIZA SATURDAY Josh Halper, Alrightnik —JACOB T. CORENFLOS, CAROLINE BOWMAN Julian Powell’s unreleased record —RODRIGO AVENDANO Joy Oladokun, In Defense of My Own Happiness, Vol. 1 —ELLEN ANGELICO Mark Fredson, Going to the Movies — JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER Soccer Mommy, Color Theory —TYLER WALKER Ratchet2x, Ready; TheyNeedWeez, Nah Fr Tho —VIRGHOST Sweet Time’s Sweet Time comp — GHASTLY MIKE HACKENSLASH Schizos, Schizos —RYAN SWEENEY Nicole Atkins, Italian Ice —MICHAEL COMBS All Them Witches, Nothing as the Ideal —CHRIS COBB Chaz Cardigan, Holograma —CHRIS MARTIGNAGO Matt Lovell, Nobody Cries Today; Amanda Broadway Band, The Ache —ALANNA ROYALE Fever Blush, Fever Blush —ALE DELGADO

Brian Brown, Journey —RASHAD THA POET Rashad Sylvester, Let It Play —SEDDYMAC Jeremy Ivey, Waiting Out the Storm —ARIEL BUI Namir Blade, Aphelion’s Traveling Circus —NATHAN CONRAD Joe Pisapia, Imbolc; Zoe Sky Jordan, Scenes From Infinity —BRIAN SISKIND Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 —BRITTAN ALLISON

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL SONG OF 2020?

Peachy, “Waiting” —ARIEL BUI, CAROLINE BOWMAN, JESSE BOO, GHASTLY MIKE HACKENSLASH Becca Mancari, “Lonely Boy” —SAMANTHA ZARUBA, TAYLOR COLE The War and Treaty, “Five More Minutes” —JERRY PENTECOST Brian Brown feat. Reaux Marquez, “Runnin’ ” —D’LLISHA DAVIS Nick Woods, “The River That I Knew” —KYLE HAMLETT Lou Turner, “Flickering Protagonist” — KYLE HAMLETT, EVE MARET Bully, “Add It On” —CHAPPY HULL, RACHEL SCARBROUGH John Prine, “I Remember Everything” — JEFF MELTESEN, PAUL BURCH Jillette Johnson, “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere” —ELLEN ANGELICO Teddy at Night, “Blueberry Water” —LIZ MEADE TheyNeedWeez, “Dolo Thuggin”; BeHoward, “D.U.M.B.”; PM, “No More” —VIRGHOST Aaron Lee Tasjan, “Up All Night” —DOUG HALL William Tyler, “She Swims in Hidden Water” —EMMA SWIFT Diatom Deli, “Tranquilo”; Rainsticks, “Ancient Sundown”; Snooper, “Running”; Abby Johnson, “I Can’t Wait” —CAM SARRETT Juan Solorzano, “Pinpoint”; Rodeo Glow, “Hollywood” —CAROLINE BOWMAN Nicole Atkins, “Mind Eraser” —LILLY HIATT Hot Car, “Hot Car” —RYAN SWEENEY Josie Dunne, “Lost” —CHRIS MARTIGNAGO Caroline Culver “Honest” —SAMANTHA ZARUBA Adia Victoria, “South Gotta Change” —TAYLOR COLE Brittany Howard, “Goat Head — Earthgang Remix” —TIFFANY MINTON Caroline Spence, “The Choir” —JESSICA BREANNE Rig B, “Simple Samba” —JOE KENKEL Soccer Mommy, “Circle the Drain” —NATHAN CONRAD Namir Blade, “Space Ghost” —PAUL BURCH

FU Stan, “Keep My Head” and “Numb” —QUEZ CANTRELL Emily Nenni, “Long Game” —DILLON WATSON Savoy Motel, “Love Your Face” —JORDAN GOMES-KUEHNER Oginalii, “Veils” —KARI LEIGH AMES

BEST STREAMING PERFORMANCE YOU SAW THIS YEAR? L Roy da Boy’s Break the Cycle Virtual Show —D’LLISHA DAVIS, QUEZ CANTRELL The Change Up at Acme Feed & Seed —QUEZ CANTRELL, SEDDYMAC Spirit of Drkmttr —CHAPPY HULL, ALEX MOJAVERIAN, SARAH BANDY, MICHAEL EADES Fable Cry’s Festival of Ghouls —TAYLOR COLE, MICHAEL EADES Far Out Free Fest —LUKE SCHNEIDER, MICHAEL EADES Devon Gilfillian’s There’s an Election Going On —JERRY PENTECOST Jaime Wyatt at 3rd and Lindsley. The best escape, though, was Kylie Minogue’s Infinite Disco. —MICHAEL COMBS Tim Gent at Exit/In —RASHAD THA POET Belcourt’s 12 Hours of Terror —GHASTLY MIKE HACKENSLASH Spice J threw a party via the Marathon Music Works stream; my wife and I danced, and just for a little while forgot how miserable this all was. —JOSH BILLUE Sessy’s Live From the Void —ALANNA ROYALE Brendan Benson’s 420 shows —EMMA SWIFT Abstract Black/JayVe Montgomery’s set for Imaginary Network Topologies —EVE MARET Brittany Howard at the Ryman for #SOSFest —CHRIS COBB Fountains of Wayne performing “Hackensack” with Sharon Van Etten replacing the recently deceased Adam Schlesinger made me tear up. —ASHER HORTON Hilary Bell’s Mirror House reading/ performance series transitioned to the Zoom stage with grace. —JOE KENKEL Diarrhea Planet’s farewell, filmed at Exit/ In in 2018. —ALE DELGADO The Musicians for Marquita Telethon from Third Man Records felt surprisingly innovative for a concept that’s so nostalgic. —TIFFANY MINTON Saturday night Twitch sets by dj_jimmy: a regular ’80s dance party straight from the Canvas dancefloor. —MICHAEL EADES EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Nathan Conrad: rapper, Spoken Nerd; foodie; film reviewer at Ghettoblaster Magazine Jared Corder: songwriter and producer, *repeat repeat; nice dude Jacob T. Corenflos: co-founder, Nashville ShowTo-Go Menu and To-Go Records D’Llisha Davis: matriarch of Nashville; owner, 2 L’s on a Cloud; protector of the culture Ale Delgado: bass, Dim Salon (good band) Ryan “Domo” Donoho: producer, arranger and entertainer, Ornament and Savoy Motel Michael Eades: gear grinder, YK Records and We Own This Town Tim Easton: musician Jordan Gomes-Kuehner: musician, Heaven Honey Ghastly Mike Hackenslash: guitar/teeth/claws, Boo Dudes Doug Hall: music PR consultant, Big Feat PR Kyle Hamlett: musician; songwriter Lilly Hiatt: musician Asher Horton: musician, Rainsticks and Sun Seeker; co-host, Hot Fudge Tuesdays on WXNA Chappy Hull: guitarist, Shell of a Shell, Gnarwhal, Pile; booking and co-owner, Drkmttr Joe Kenkel: songwriter; Styrofoam Wino Megan Loveless: co-founder, To-Go Records; riot grrrl, Third Man Records Larissa Maestro: musician; composer; maybe she played cello on your record

Eve Maret: musician; producer; performer Chris Martignago: A&R, creative manager, student forever at Atlantic Records and LikeVines MGMT Liz Meade: music publicist; mom at Threebrand Media; your pal at Nashville Pøpsquad Kate Meehan: community organizer, BriteHeart; farm hand; native plants landscape practice Jeff Meltesen: marketing, The Caverns; country star every Friday the 13th, D. Striker Tiffany Minton: musician; writer; sociologist; future public historian Alex Mojaverian: one-half of Sad Baxter; all of Trash Man R. Stevie Moore: bassist, Author Unknowns; Self Do; Jason Falkner Walk; anti-Americana activist; Old White Man Yells at Cloud Patrick Orr: singer-songperson, Crave On Jerry Pentecost: drummer, Old Crow Medicine Show and Brent Cobb; your favorite DJ! Rashad tha Poet: artist; actor; author; speaker Kasey Ray: production manager, Marathon Music Works Alanna Royale: performer; songwriter; leopard-print enthusiast Cam Sarrett: distribution, Third Man Records; drums, Safety Net Liza Saturday: venue manager, Marathon Music Works

Rachel Scarbrough: booking and venue manager, Drkmttr Luke Schneider: pedal-steel guitarist; Third Man Records artist; Forestdale Incense founder SeddyMac: rapper Mike Shepherd: bassist, Tower Defense and The Prudish Few; sole proprietor, Pets Musical Park Records; cat dad Todd Sherwood: co-owner, The 5 Spot; father; skateboarding enthusiast Brian Siskind: beatmaker; composer; filmmaker; co-host, Art Fight Podcast Ryan Sweeney: most of the things at Sweet Time; pizza man; drummer, The Shitdels and The Rip Taylors Emma Swift: singer-songwriter Deezy Violet: musician, Sad Baxter Virghost: founder, Villematic Hip-Hop Showcase; co-founder, Capitol Minds Entertainment; rapper; poet; songwriter Tyler Walker: performer; producer; DJ and vibe coordinator, Sessy (fka Meth Dad) Dillon Watson: songwriter; lonesome guitar strangler, Savoy Motel Samantha Zaruba: painter of nudes, SirenMoonZone; music marketer, LunaSea Media

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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— Mother Maybelle Carter Journal of Country Music, Vol. 02, No. 1

When Maybelle Carter shared this sentiment in the Museum's Journal of Country Music in 1971, she'd navigated more than forty pioneering years in music, and revolutionized guitar playing with the Carter Family. She died in 1978, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Learn more about Carter in our core exhibit, Sing Me Back Home.

Home. At YouTube.com/CountryMusicHOF, see Carlene Carter play “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” on her grandmother Maybelle's 1928 Gibson L-5 guitar, filmed for our BIG NIGHT (At the Museum) program.

DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE Visit CountryMusicHallofFame.org to buy tickets.

Photo from the collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS

FILM

[BUFFALO GALS, CAN’T YOU COME OUT TONIGHT]

CHECK OUT THE BELCOURT’S HOLIDAY CLASSICS

[HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS]

WATCH STUDIO TENN’S A TENNESSEE CHRISTMAS

Studio Tenn is back and ready to kick The fine folks at the Belcourt Theatre off the holidays in style with A Tennessee weren’t going to let a pesky thing like a Christmas. Presented in much the same global pandemic deter a beloved tradition manner as the company’s Virtual Musical — their annual It’s a Wonderful Life Variety Show in August, this online screenings. As we reported in fundraiser will showcase a November, the Hillsboro Village EDITOR’S NOTE: wide range of talent. Hosted theater has reopened with very AS A RESPONSE TO THE by artistic director Patrick limited capacity and loads of ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, Cassidy and Studio Tenn other COVID-19 precautions WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF favorite Patrick Thomas, in place, and as of this writing, THE CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN the evening’s lineup will tickets remain for many of PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT include Broadway’s Will Blum their Dec. 18-24 screenings HOME. (Beetlejuice; School of Rock) of the aforementioned Frank along with Tennessee-based Capra classic. Also screening performers Erica Patterson, Jaimee as part of the Belcourt’s Holiday Paul and Curtis Reed. There’s a suggested Classics series, which kicked off last week, donation of $25, and you can also check is 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation out holiday-themed VIP packages, which (Dec. 17), the third film in the Vacation

NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION

T H I N G S

T O

D O

THE TWELVE DATES OF CHRISTMAS

PHOTO: ERIC VENTRESS

D. PATRICK RODGERS

CATCH THE THEATER BUG WINTER CONCERT: LIVE IN TECHNICOLOR

THEATER

AMY STUMPFL

THEATER

For a lot of local families, the holidays just wouldn’t be complete without The Theater Bug’s annual winter concert. And while this year’s edition — dubbed Winter Concert: Live in Technicolor — will certainly look a little different, it’s good to know that we can still look forward to a festive evening full of music, dance and fun. For 2020, the Bug actually filmed its program, and is screening it for one night only at The Field at Franklin Drive-In. Featuring 45 talented young performers, the lineup includes a “mix of pop, musical theater and original music, as well as comedy and dance.” Plus, the Buns on the Run food truck will be on hand with plenty of tasty treats. Tickets are $35 per vehicle, and are available at thetheaterbug.org and ticketsnashville.com. 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, at The Field at Franklin Drive-In Theater, 1810 Columbia Ave., Franklin

series — and the last one written by the inimitable John Hughes. Showing Dec. 18-19 is the iconic action romp Die Hard, forever the subject of that interminable “Is it a Christmas film?!” debate. (Let’s just say it is so we can stop arguing about it.

Either way, it’s a very fun flick.) Possibly even less definitively a Christmas film but nevertheless iconic is 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut (Dec. 19 and 22), Stanley Kubrick’s erotic mystery and the legendary auteur’s final film. Wrapping up the Belcourt’s Holiday Classics series Dec. 20-21 will be 1984’s delightful Gremlins. Keep your eyes peeled in that one for an extremely brief cameo from executive producer Steven Spielberg, who zips through the frame on a recumbent bike.

Visit belcourt.org for tickets, showtimes and all the details on the theater’s COVID-19 protocols. Still not comfortable heading into the theater? That’s OK! The Belcourt has a host of films available to rent for at-home viewing via its virtual cinema. Through Dec. 21 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

[A TECHNICOLOR TREAT]

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include wine, cider, Studio Tenn merch and a variety of seasonal treats. The fundraiser includes a silent auction — featuring everything from luxury vacation and gift packages to an acoustic guitar signed by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, via studiotenn.com AMY STUMPFL [A HOLIDAY FAVORITE RETURNS]

CHECK OUT TENNESSEE WOMEN’S THEATER PROJECT’S THE TWELVE DATES OF CHRISTMAS

I enjoy a light, feel-good movie as much as the next gal. But if you’ve reached your limit on sappy Hallmark holiday fare, Tennessee Women’s Theater Project has you covered with the return of Ginna Hoben’s one-woman comedy The Twelve Dates of Christmas. The story follows Mary, who tunes into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade only to spot her philandering fiancé kissing another woman on national television. From there, she takes us on a wild ride packed with goofy seasonal dating dilemmas. Nashville favorite Rebekah

Durham is back to play Mary — as well as a host of other colorful characters. The show streams for free on Friday, and will be available to watch on demand for another two weeks. Be sure to tune in for the postshow Zoom talkback with playwright Ginna Hoben. Visit twtp.org for complete details.

7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, via TWTP’s Facebook page AMY STUMPFL FOOD & DRINK

R O U N D U P

THEATER

W E E K L Y

[DID IT ALL FOR THE COOKIE]

BUILD YOUR OWN COOKIE PLATE

A cookie plate is a must for the holiday season, whether you leave it on your countertop for grazing or give it to a friend. Since this year has been exhausting enough, leave your oven off and build your own platter using treats from some of Nashville’s best bakeries.

For superior chocolate chip cookies, look no further than Dozen and Christie Cookies — both were favorites in a previous Scene taste test. To have more fun with your flavors, visit HiFi Cookies at Shops at Porter East, or order from Pink Door Cookies via

CITY HOUSE COOKIE PLATE

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MEGAN SELING [SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL]

CATCH UP ON SEASON 2 OF WPLN’S THE PROMISE

Season 1 of WPLN’s The Promise podcast was outstanding, earning mentions in The New Yorker and our pages. Host Meribah Knight took us inside the James A. Cayce Homes public housing development in East Nashville as residents prepared for the beginning of the Envision Cayce project — Metro Development and Housing Agency’s plan to bulldoze the homes and build a mixed-income development in its place.

The plan is complicated and potentially problematic, and Knight went deep below the surface to reveal the anxieties and hopes of Nashvillians who felt they were at the mercy of MDHA’s grand plan — as well as some of the wealthier folks who live within a mile of the homes. In the podcast’s

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second season, Knight gets to the gnarly root of economic and racial inequality in East Nashville: education. Focusing on two elementary schools in the same neighborhood, Lockeland and Warner, The Promise shows the vast disparities in public education and how the city has created a de facto system of racial segregation in our schools. Knight takes us back to the fight for integration that extended decades past Brown v. Board of Education, involving court battles, a school bombing and the straight-up terrorizing of the Black community by white segregationists. But the majority of the podcast covers today’s struggle, as Knight introduces parents, teachers, school administrators and children who are caught in the crosshairs of a problem they did not necessarily create. As always, Knight approaches her interviews with great empathy, and her sources are honest, vulnerable and worthy of your ear. The result is a reckoning with one of the city’s greatest challenges — providing equal opportunity for all of our children. Listen to Season 2 today, wherever you get your podcasts.. ERICA CICCARONE MUSIC

Instagram. Both bakeries get creative with breakfast cereal, gummy candy and other innovative ingredients. If you’re dreaming of sugar cookies expertly decorated with picture-perfect royal icing that you can order and customize however you’d like, check out Baked on 8th, Baked in Nashville, Butterfly Bakehouse and recent Food Network Christmas Cookie Challenge star Cookie in the Kitchen. Don’t feel like running around town? City House’s cookie plate has been a dessert-menu mainstay for good reason, and it’s available for curbside pickup.

And on Dec. 17-18 and 23-24, Little Mosko’s is delivering Christmas Cookie Boxes — packed with mint chocolate crinkles, linzer cookies, peanut butter blossoms and more.

Place your order at littlemoskos.com.

[CLASSIC COMFORT]

LISTEN TO NEW R&B HOLIDAY ALBUMS

Since we’re officially in the Christmas swing of things, you might want to get a bit soulful around the house and play some recently released R&B holiday albums.

There are releases from people who you would expect a holiday album from, like Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr.’s The Christmas Album. But we also have unexpected offerings from Tinashe (Comfort & Joy) and Sabrina Claudio (Christmas Blues). JoJo (not

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to be confused with JoJo Siwa, who also has a Christmas album out) recently dropped December Baby, which features a duet with PJ Morton, who just came out with a deluxe edition of the 2018 album Christmas With PJ Morton. As for compilations, Motown is back in the game with A Motown Holiday, while Still Home for the Holidays features artists like Trey Songz, Pink Sweat$ and Ty Dolla Sign putting their own seductive spin on Yuletide carols. But the most fun collection is Home for the Holidays, on which Atlanta collective Love Renaissance invites 6LACK, Summer Walker and others to adapt holiday classics — and come up with a few new ones as well. Check with your local record store of choice to see what they have in stock.

[MUG SHOT]

BUY YOURSELF OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE A REALLY GOOD MUG

You deserve a new mug. I’m talkin’ a handmade, heavy-duty piece of art that’ll make you feel like you’re living in a Land’s End catalog. There are several local artists who can make your holiday drink dreams come true. RV Pottery’s sleek 14-ounce mugs and tumblers ($34 and $30, respectively) come in a variety of lovely colors, and they’re dishwasher- and microwave-safe to boot. For a personal touch, snag one of Handmade Studio TN’s monogram mugs, which artist Morgan Williamson finishes off with a hand-painted gold letter. Other ceramicists and potters to check out include Chelsea Faith, Audry Deal-McEver and Jess Cheatham’s Salt Ceramics. If you’re feeling creative, The Clay Lady offers an at-home clay kit that comes with five pounds of clay, tools and instructions for the traditional sculpture method called Kurinuki, a Japanese term that means carving out. Your purchase also includes a glaze and firing in the kiln at Midsouth Ceramics. Get it at theclaylady.com. MEGAN SELING MUSIC

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[HAVE YOURSELF ...]

MAKE A PLAYLIST OF LOCAL HOLIDAY MUSIC

Everyone and their grandma knows Dolly Parton has a new Christmas album, but she’s not the only Tennessee music star to release festive material this season. R&B duo Louis York partnered up with Nashville’s modern girl group The Shindellas to re-record their spirited doo-wop-inspired jam “What Does Christmas Mean?” and this time they let local country star Jimmie Allen take over the vocals.

For something a little more somber, don’t miss Margo Price’s stunning take on Joni

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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TIP THE FOLKS WHO DELIVER YOUR PACKAGES

Folks, there’s no two ways about it.

Delivery drivers and mail carriers have been absolutely hammered since March. With the increase of online orders from around the world, including from the Evil Empire itself (Amazon, duh), the people who deliver our packages have been working harder than ever to get us our goods while putting themselves and their families at risk of contracting the virus — all so we can avoid in-person shopping to protect ourselves. At the same time, USPS workers have been spread thin by budget cuts courtesy of our federal government.

It’s time to dig into our pockets and show our gratitude. Buy or make a thank-you card, slip a $20 inside and tape it to your door. If they don’t take it, at least they’ll know you appreciate their hard work. ERICA CICCARONE BOOKS

JUST ANNOUNCED

[TIP IT GOOD]

[CHECK YOURSELF]

READ WHITE PRIVILEGE POP QUIZ

White privilege is a hot topic these days for obvious and unfortunate reasons, but it’s been on Molly Secours’ mind for many years. In 2006, she posted a story online titled “Here Comes the Neighborhood: Anytown USA,” recalling her experience at a crime meeting in her East Nashville neighborhood — where the consensus seemed to be, if you see young Black teens in hoodies, call the cops. In 2012, shortly after George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (who was wearing a hoodie), Secours devised the White Privilege Pop Quiz, a short multiple-choice quiz with questions such as “How often have you been given safety instructions about walking through a department store or public establishment so that you don’t foster suspicion or attract attention?” The quiz attracted plenty of attention, and it’s been taken by many thousands of people in the intervening years. With the renewed spotlight on racial justice issues following the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain and others at the hands of police, Secours decided it was time to expand the quiz into a book. Each of the 13 chapters in White Privilege Pop Quiz: Reflecting on Whiteness focuses on one question from the quiz, with Secours offering insightful food for thought, not to mention reflections on some of her own privileged experiences.

The book spent three weeks at the top of Parnassus Books’ bestseller list, recently ceding the top spot to one Barack Obama.

It’s a great and timely conversation starter, as summed up in a testimonial from Nontombi Naomi Tutu, the author, activist and daughter of renowned anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “This book is not something you should read if you just want to appear ‘woke’ as the young people say. … However, if you are really interested in learning how we got here, why we stay here and how we can all make it out of this system alive, this is the book for you.” Get your copy at Parnassus Books.

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TV

12/17

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Mitchell’s classic “River,” which Price released earlier this month. There’s plenty of music from Christmas past worth a spot on your playlist too, including Little Bandit’s 2017 Christmas Alone EP, with versions of “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “(Have Yourself) A Merry Christmas” that’ll put the sad in your seasonal affective disorder, and Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree,” an unapologetically jolly, jingle-bell-filled gem that rivals Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” And while you’re already riding the Queen Dolly train, don’t forget to throw her tender version of “Hard Candy Christmas” on there. Find a more complete list of merry local releases at nashvillescene.com. MEGAN SELING

[COZY TIME]

WATCH THE YULE LOG AND EMBRACE HYGGE

All right, fuckers. It’s Christmas, and I am going full hygge this year. What’s hygge?

It’s the Danish practice of embracing cold weather and staying indoors, getting cozy with nice blankets and pillows, warm socks, hot toddies if you imbibe, a nice selection of tea if you do not. Why, you ask? The answer is twofold. First, we need to care deeply about health care workers and their safety and show this care by staying home to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Second, this year has been murder. My nerves are shot. I’m out of serotonin. My only joy is in monitoring the feral cats who come to eat on my doorstep. Something’s got to give.

I’m throwing myself into tree trimming, cheesy movies, wool socks, baked goods, scented candles, handmade cards and — you betcha — the Yule log. Watching the Yule log is a sacred Ciccarone tradition. Our living room’s huge fireplace never worked properly and would fill the house with smoke, so we put the Yule log on the tube and watched the fire burn to the sound of Christmas carols. When we got sick of the carols, we turned down the set and put our favorites on the stereo: A Charlie Brown Christmas, John Denver and The Muppets, and Johnny Mathis (my mom’s choice).

These days, you can choose between many Yule logs on YouTube and Netflix. Want something a little more exciting than a burning log? There’s a 10-hour video loop of Nick Offerman sitting in a leather armchair drinking whiskey beside a roaring fire.

Rover.com’s YouTube channel has a video of a Boston Terrier sleeping in a red-flannel dog bed in front of a hearth. Get hygge, folks. Winter is here. ERICA CICCARONE

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Happy Holidays

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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BELLE MEADE PREMIUM CIGARS

BELLE MEADE PREMIUM CIGARS AND GIFTS | Beale Meade Plaza | 4518 Harding Rd, Nashville TN 37205 | bellemeadecigars.com

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Belle Meade Premium Cigars and Gifts is a locally owned store that sells the finest cigars, gifts, pipes and tobacco-related products. Stop by today to purchase the finest tobacco in town ... you don’t even have to leave the store to sample your purchase! Complete with a smoking lounge where cigar connoisseurs relax, smoke and enjoy themselves. Come to Belle Meade Premium Cigar and Gifts this holiday season.

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OLAVIE BODY SCRUB AND BODY WASH

ESCAPE DAY SPA + SALON | 6000 Highway 100, Ste 102, Nashville, TN 37205 | escapenashville.com Who doesn’t love a party for one every once in a while? The Olavie antioxidant sugar body scrub provides a luxurious exfoliation experience, while soothing the skin to a glowing finish. The scrub plus Olavie’s antioxidant grape seed body wash provide just that. Give that party for one to a loved one this year, you will be glad that you did! Scrub $39, Body Wash $22

BARNES AND NOBLE AT VANDERBILT

BARNES AND NOBLE AT VANDERBILT | 2501 West End Ave, Nashville, TN 37203 | vanderbilt.bncollege.com/ shop/vanderbilt/home

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Featuring a vintage-inspired graphic celebrating Vandy football, this is a versatile hoodie with a brushed fleece lining (100% cotton). We are open for safe holiday shopping. Parking is free in the 2525 garage. A great selection of general reading and children’s books, toys, games, and Vanderbilt-identified merchandise.

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FROTHY MONKEY TRAVEL TUMBLER

FROTHY MONKEY | frothymonkey.com/ product/traveltumbler Frothy Monkey Travel Tumbler with a sleek coffeeinspired illustration by @chrismonachino.

This white MiiR brand tumbler with gold graphic is insulated, leak-proof and will fit in most cupholders. It is sure to keep 12 ounces of your favorite hot or cold beverage at a tasty temp for hours. $30 at frothymonkey.com or at any Frothy Monkey location.

MAISON BONANGE CHOCOLATE BARS

LITTLE GOURMAND | Market & Cafe: 2209 Bandywood, Ste. D, Nashville, TN 37215 | Patisserie Française: 717 Craighead St., Nashville TN 37204 | littlegourmand.us

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14 different bars, all organic and made and packed with care in the heart of the Cité Royale of Versailles. Classic and adventurous flavors such as ginger, fennel, cardamom, geranium flower, bergamot or thyme. They are molded in the image of the Marble Court of the Château de Versailles and the emblem is a representation of a little angel affiliated with Marie-Antoinette.

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COCO BOW TIE AND MASK CLIFTON + LEOPOLD | cliftonandleopold.com

Clifton + Leopold was born from a love of classic men’s accessories and the desire to make them more reflective of the world today. A world that is more diverse, bold and inclusive. Our ties, bow ties, pocket squares and scarves are handcrafted in the U.S. for dapper humans everywhere.

OLIVE OIL W/BOURBON VANILLA FROM OLIVERAIE JEANJEAN

LITTLE GOURMAND | Market & Cafe: 2209 Bandywood, Ste. D, Nashville, TN 37215 | Patisserie Française: 717 Craighead St., Nashville TN 37204 | littlegourmand.us

It makes perfect sense on pan-fried scallops or a baked white fish. It will delight a fruit salad, a cake, a red fruit sorbet or a chocolate ice cream.

Oliveraie Jeanjean was established in 1994 south of Nimes. The Jeanjean family have passed their passion for their work from father to son. All olives are carefully selected and pressed directly in their own mill.

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GHD CURVE AND GHD AIR HAIR DRYER

ESCAPE DAY SPA + SALON | 6000 Highway 100, Ste 102, Nashville, TN 37205 | escapenashville.com The ghd curve and ghd air hair dryer are the perfect combo to start the day off for that in-salon, glossy finish. Our 1 ¼ inch soft-curve curling iron maintains heat constantly and evenly across the barrel, achieving gorgeous, shiny curls in five to eight seconds, saving both your hair and you time.

Automatic shut off after 30 seconds for peace of mind. Hair dryer $199 curling iron $199

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CANDLE - DEUX

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CLIFTON + LEOPOLD | cliftonandleopold.com The first snowfall always felt like magic. But it was the second one that made it real.The Deux canidé is hand-poured American-raised soy wax with holiday notes of vanilla, citrus peel, eucalyptus + balsam, pine and juniper needles.

They’re housed in a white glass container and enjoy a lifespan of 45 hours. The perfect gift for the ones you love.

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CHOCOLATE & CHAMPAGNE PAIRING GIFT BOX (24 PCS)

LITTLE GOURMAND | Market & Cafe: 2209 Bandywood, Ste. D, Nashville, TN 37215 | Patisserie Française: 717 Craighead St., Nashville TN 37204 | littlegourmand.us Champagne, like chocolate, is a celebration of true craftsmanship. It inspired Neuhaus to create exquisite multilayered pralines, each crafted to be savored with sparkling wine. Belgian Top Sommelier Yanick Dehandschutter collaborated with Maîtres Chocolatiers to provide a series of pairing recommendations to create the best possible flavor combinations.

OI HOLIDAY SET

GREEN PEA SALON | 1113 12th Ave South, Nashville, TN 37203 | 4105 Charlotte Ave, Nashville TN 37209 | greenpeasalon.com

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BUCHES DE NOEL (CHRISTMAS YULE LOGS)

LITTLE GOURMAND | Market & Cafe: 2209 Bandywood, Ste. D, Nashville, TN 37215 | Patisserie Française: 717 Craighead St., Nashville TN 37204 | littlegourmand.us SAINT GERMAIN: Three chocolate Bavaroise (dark, milk and white), chocolate genoise and chocolate frosting. PIGALLE: Mango Bavaroise, Passion fruit, Joconde biscuit, Yuzu cream. Each cake is $69.99 plus tax and has to be preordered before Dec. 12. Serve 8/10 Complimentary tastings in both stores on Saturday, Nov. 28.

PARNASSUS BOOKS | 3900 Hillsboro Pike, Ste. 14, Nashville TN 37215 | parnassusbooks.net/holiday2020

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The perfect gift for the book lover on your list! (Maybe that’s you.) Get a handselected book delivered to your door — or available for in-store pickup — every month.

Choose from First Editions Club (literary fiction), ParnassusNext (YA) or Spark Book Club (middle-grade). Available in 3-, 6-, or 12-month increments.

The perfect product combination for all hair types, this OI holiday set is designed to indulge those who desire beautiful, shiny and fragrant hair. These bestsellers are the perfect choice for nourishing and softening your hair. Includes OI Shampoo, OI Conditioner and OI Oil. Add a Green Pea Salon gift card and you’re gift-ready!

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FIRST EDITIONS CLUBS

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ULTRALUXE BB OIL

ESCAPE DAY SPA + SALON | 6000 Highway 100, Ste 102, Nashville, TN 37205 | escapenashville.com Give the gift of more youthful and radiant skin from the inside out. BB Oil by Ultraluxe is the perfect oil to repair any and all skin types.

A blend of six natural oils provides instant hydration to plump your skin, soften lines and wrinkles. With Vitamin E, soothing lavender and rosemary, this will be the gift that they keep asking for. BB Oil $50.50

BREAD CSA SUBSCRIPTION

BAKERY BY FROTHY MONKEY | 12South, Nations, East, Downtown, Franklin, Chattanooga | frothymonkey.com/bakery Give the gift of freshly baked artisan bread with a Frothy Monkey Bread CSA Subscription. The CSA program also offers loaves not typically available for retail such as challah, gluten-free and specialty seasonal sourdough. 12- and 26-week subscriptions are available with weekly pickup at the new Frothy Monkey in East Nashville. Visit frothymonkey.com/ csasubscriptions for more details.

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KERASTASE HOLIDAY KITS ESCAPE DAY SPA + SALON | 6000 Highway 100, Ste 102, Nashville, TN 37205 | escapenashville.com

Nothing says “happy holidays” more than a personalized at-home hair-care system. The variety of Kerastase gift sets contain our bestselling shampoos, conditioner, heat protectants and hair primers. Satisfying their hair with any of their hair needs or desires, leaving them with exceptional hair.

-Blonde Absolute $90 -Resistance $80 -Nutritive $80 -Extentioniste $90 -Discipline $90 -Reflection $80

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SIGNED JON MEACHAM BUNDLE

PARNASSUS BOOKS | 3900 Hillsboro Pike, Ste. 14, Nashville TN 37215 | parnassusbooks.net/holiday2020

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Need a gift idea? Book bundles to the rescue!

A trio of books signed by historian and bestselling author Jon Meacham is one of our most popular bundles. But there are lots to choose from — cookbooks, cocktails, Nashville, kids and more!

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PARNASSUS MERCH

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This year give that loved one the hand sanitizer that feels as fancy as it looks and smells. Marianella’s amazing hand sanitizer is something everyone needs on hand. With 70 percent alcohol and aloe gel that not only hydrates hands as you sanitize but also smells of spruce and lavender once it dries.

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NOURISH NASHVILLE COOKBOOK

NASHVILLE SCENE | nourishnashville.com It’s no secret, Nashville is delicious. Now you can make some of Music City’s best dishes from the comfort of your own home! The Scene’s new cookbook, Nourish Nashville, is available now. Inspired in part by the time we’ve all had to spend at home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — experimenting and honing our home-cooking skills while social distancing — this cookbook features 40-plus of the city’s most celebrated chefs sharing their most beloved recipes.

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This candle is joined by a series of new fragrances and scents that will please anyone on your list. Call ahead for multiple orders!

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MISS KITTY’S BOUTIQUE

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This season, give your favorite history lover the gift of membership to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. The home of the seventh president offers regular and seasonal tours and exhibits, special events and educational opportunities, plus tastings at the allnew Natchez Hills Winery located onsite. Members receive unlimited admission and great perks yearround. All funds directly support the mission to preserve, educate and inspire.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

FOOD AND DRINK

ONE FISH, TWO FISH ...

Two local restaurants offer different takes on the Feast of the Seven Fishes

MANGIA NASHVILLE’S GRILLED BABY OCTOPUS

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

I

n Catholic traditions, particularly in Italy, worshippers eschew eating meat on what are known as the vigil days preceding major religious festivals. Christmas Eve is regarded as one of those days, so what is a self-respecting Italian family supposed to do when everybody is over to the house but meat is off the menu? Why, load up the table with seafood dishes, of course.

That’s the idea behind the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, also known as La Vigilia (“The Vigil”). The concept was introduced to the United States in the late 19th century by Italian American immigrants who celebrated the coming of Christmas with huge family meals featuring at least seven seafood dishes. With the feast not limited to just Catholic families anymore, two Nashville restaurants are offering their own versions this year, each in a novel way.

Chef Nick Pellegrino will invite feasters into Mangia Nashville in Melrose on Dec. 23 for a re-creation of the Seven Fishes meals of his youth. It will be a convivial (and socially distanced) gathering of friends and family to enjoy five courses of dishes made from Pellegrino family recipes passed through the generations.

At Nicky’s Coal Fired, Caroline and Tony Galzin realize that not everyone is ready to dine in a restaurant yet. But they don’t want you to miss out on the Seven Fishes experience, so they’ve devised a mobile version of the feast with your choice of four or the full complement of seven fishes prepared to carry home on Christmas Eve and reheat with your family.

No matter which feast experience you might choose, you’ll be taking part in a tradition that means a lot to all the chefs involved. “I was the first one to do this thing in 2011,” Pellegrino says. “I remember saying, ‘I’m doing the Feast of Seven Fishes,’ and people were like, ‘What is that?’ And then all the Italians started coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘Wait a minute! You’re doing the Feast?’ I did it every Saturday for the month of December.”

In fact, it was Pellegrino’s childhood memories of the Feast of the Seven Fishes that inspired Mangia’s signature weekend feasts — a joyous multicourse dinner party served family-style to tables of friends and strangers who would soon become friends, accompanied by music and dancing between courses — earlier that year. “This meal, for me as an Italian American growing up in New York with a big family, was the pinnacle of your year,” Pellegrino says. “I wanted this more than I wanted G.I. Joes under the tree when I woke up. You’d get in my grandma’s basement apartment, and there were literally 40 of us around one big table, jammed in there. My grandmother and my aunts would prepare food for a week. I remember my grandmother had live eels in her bathtub! My Uncle Vinnie would go to the Fulton Fish Market and buy live eels, and they’d kill them and cook them. I was

like, ‘What the hell is this?!’ It was insanity!

I’m not doing that, but I always tell people that the biggest inspiration for my business was sharing this meal.”

Pellegrino loves that he can keep his family traditions alive and share them with Nashville. “I’m doing a lot of my grandma’s recipes,” he says. “She’d make baccalà four different ways, and people don’t think they’ll like salt cod. I make baccalà mantecato, and that’s the kind of dish that if you don’t prepare it properly, people are going to be turned off to that forever. But if you do it the right way, if you pull enough of the salt out of it, it’s just so good! We put it on grilled polenta, and it’s whipped up with heavy cream and a little bit of garlic. It’s crazy. I’ll eat that for three days after the Feast. Just sit there in my chair with a glass of Scotch and eat that stuff!”

Pellegrino’s take on the Feast of the Seven Fishes is unique to him, and there’s no set menu for the tradition. “Everybody has their own version,” he says. “It’s really a Southern Italian thing, and a lot of my Northern Italian friends never did it. On Christmas Eve, you’re not supposed to eat meat until after midnight, and the Southern Italians said, ‘We live right on the coast with all this beautiful seafood, so we’re gonna do that.’ Italian Americans evolved that into seven fish. I was brought up to understand that the seven fish represented each of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Now, we always had more than seven, but you can’t have less. No way can you have less!”

The Mangia Nashville menu features an antipasti course of roasted garlic and black carbon focaccia, plus the baccalà, grilled baby octopus and crab cakes. That course is followed by a cold seafood salad and then the primo — lobster risotto and a plate of penne served with the Pellegrino family pasta sauce. “It’s really kind of like a puttanesca sauce, and my grandmother would put golden raisins into that sauce,” says Pellegrino. “So it would have a little sweetness in there with all the saltiness and brininess of the puttanesca.”

The showstopper comes during the secondo course. There’s a shrimp scampi platter, but as Pellegrino explains: “The pinnacle of the meal is when you come out and everybody gets a whole red snapper. The cavity of the fish is stuffed with oranges and fennel and red onion, and it’s really nice to see people’s faces when the whole fish comes to the table. We’ll finish it off with a panettone that I make and some chocolate truffles.”

Pellegrino is very excited about this opportunity to share his traditions, especially after a tough year in the restaurant business that has seen him working the kitchen all by himself at times during his Saturday feasts.

“This is the menu that I love, and we’ve had people coming since 2011 who have made it part of their holiday tradition,” he says. “For me, that’s the greatest compliment that I could ever get. They love this thing so much

that they make it a point to be there for it.”

Tony Galzin also grew up eating the Feast with his Italian family in Chicago. “Tony’s family always does the Feast, and they are some of our best holiday memories with family,” recalls his wife Caroline. “There’s a huge fish wholesaler on the way out to Tony’s mom’s house, so we’d stop to pick up lobsters and various seafood items. I will say that if we celebrated the holidays with a little too much late-night pre-Christmas partying, waking up first thing in the morning and going to a fish wholesaler is not the ideal environment for a holiday hangover!”

Tony recalls cooking with his family and their rules, saying: “My family doesn’t always do exactly seven fishes, but if I’m around, we’ve got seven plus different fishes.

There are some traditional things, like the salt cod fritters and usually a pasta with clams or shrimp. We always do a lobster risotto, which isn’t super Italian-traditional, but it is for us. It’s always a big spread.”

Caroline explains what they’ve created for the Nicky’s Coal Fired offering: “We came up with a Four Fishes at Home package in case seven fishes sounds like, well, a lot of fishes to you. Tony designed the menu keeping in mind that seafood isn’t always the easiest to reheat, so we were mindful of

what we thought would hold and be really delicious as a to-go experience.”

Diners can order online at nickysnashville.com by Saturday, Dec. 19, to pick up either a Four Fishes at Home Package or a Seven Fishes meal for two or four diners, and schedule a pickup time on Christmas Eve. Each meal will come packed in containers with reheating instructions to create a restaurant-quality meal at home. The Four Fishes Feast includes lobster risotto, baked clams, fruta di mare and baccalà fritters plus chocolate/orange/ricotta cannoli for dessert.

“I’m suggesting that people order extra cannoli,” Caroline says, “and most of them are, because they’re so good!” Diners who opt for the full Feast of the Seven Fishes will also find stuffed squid, mussel bruschetta and house-made spaghetti with shrimp and bay scallops in a tomato-garlic sauce as additions to their package.

“We’ve had a great response, but we’ve still got room for more orders,” says Caroline. “A lot of people are rethinking Christmas gifts this year because it’s been such a challenging year, and this is a great way to support a local small business. Plus you can enjoy a great meal together virtually.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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12/11/20 4:12 PM

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SEX AND ANCESTRAL APPROVAL I was taught to be ashamed of my sexuality — until my ancestors stepped in

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I

was 12 years old on school holiday in Kasane, a tourist town in the northeastern corner of Botswana. I stood in a long aisle facing products labeled “feminine hygiene.” My father waited at the end of the aisle with the trolley. He tapped his foot. He looked anywhere but at me. He called down the aisle that he was going to KFC. I searched for the red-and-white box of Kotex pads my mother always bought and picked up the first pack that resembled it. I had been using pads exclusively since my first period a few months before. My father came back with the trolley, handed me a 100-pula note and told me to pay for my own “stuff” — like my totally normal bodily function was something I should be ashamed of. I only realized my mistake when I had the shopping bag on my lap in the car, the “TAMPONS” label on the box staring back at me.

When we got home, I told my mother about my mistake. I asked her if she could teach me how to use tampons since I wasted so much money on them anyway. My mother looked at me like I had just told her I had killed the neighbor’s cat.

“No,” she said. “I’ll get you pads tomorrow. You should never use tampons. You will spoil yourself.”

You will spoil yourself. The words have echoed in my mind for years. I am trying to get rid of that voice, the voice that tells me that my pleasure and comfort are sinful. There is lingering guilt each time I seek pleasure. In my late teens, I worried: Will I go to hell for feeling cared for, for feeling passion? For spoiling myself with more than tampons?

My awakening came when my body started getting noticed by boys and men.

These boys and men were not shy when they referred to my body parts. My butt got the most mention, but this wasn’t new to me; my family had gotten a head start. They had sexualized my body before I even knew what sex was. I have been told to change into “appropriate” attire when male relatives are in my parents’ house. I am still told to cover up as a grown woman. I can’t dance when I am happy in front of my male family members because “my whole body moves with me,” my relatives say, suggesting that I am asking for something.

While the comments of boys and men — strangers to me — were more explicit, they were not very different from those of my family. My body was and is the problem.

This is the message I get from every interaction. But how could something I feel safe in be so dangerous?

My sexual exploration has been tentative even as a woman in her late 20s. In trying to make sense of my existence, I have grown closer to finding out about those who lived before me. I have always been curious about where I come from. My immediate family members, though African themselves, are strictly against African spirituality. I come from a Reformed Baptist Church family; my parents have attended this church for almost 50 years. I decided to consult someone in touch with an element of African spirituality called ancestral reading. Taking this step went against everything I have been taught from birth.

I booked myself a session, wanting to hear especially from the women in my bloodline — women who had gone through life and had ascended to higher ground with knowledge.

On a quiet afternoon in September, I sat with a spiritual guide. In the middle of my consultation, she asked if I had any questions. I hesitated for a while, but she waited as though she knew I needed answers. I asked her about love, a pursuit that had ended in tears and anger for me in the past.

I asked her if I would meet “my person” in this lifetime. She laughed and said I had met some of “my persons” already. When I specified that I meant someone romantic, her answer intrigued and terrified me.

“Your ancestors say you should explore sexually. You need to know your likes and boundaries before this person is presented to you. When you do know yourself more, it will be that much sweeter when you meet this person.”

Through the drumming in my ears, I was entranced. Had she been spying on me my entire life? But I knew this was a message from someone special, someone who understands who I am because they are a part of me.

Exploring my sexuality has always seemed dangerous, like I was going against my nature. But what I didn’t know years ago was that the views I had about my body and sexual identity were not my own.

There were views I had internalized from my parents, my family, my church and my country. I regularly referred to other girls who freely embraced their sexualities as “sluts” — the label made me feel better about my confusion.

I have learned that trauma from growing up within strict structures takes a lot of personal and professional help to work through and overcome. Getting this green light from an ancestor has erased my lingering guilt.

My pleasure and what I want to wear are not wrong. I am searching for adult toys and ways to sexually explore. I have ancestors who approve of me going after my needs and wants — and that is enough.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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BOOKS

SUFFERING IN COAL COUNTRY

Chris Hamby recounts miners’ fight for health benefits in Soul Full of Coal Dust

BY PEGGY BURCH

I

n Soul Full of Coal Dust, journalist Chris Hamby revisits the stories that won him a 2014 Pulitzer Prize, exposing the treacherous tactics hired hands for the coal industry used to deprive Appalachian miners of health benefits for black lung disease.

Focusing on West Virginia communities where mines offered some of the few wellpaid jobs, Hamby describes the legal battles disease-stricken miners waged against their wealthy employers for modest monthly payments of $500 to $800. The weapons lawyers used when they worked for companies like Massey Coal were unconventional — X-ray readings, CT scans, unreported diagnoses.

And while company defense attorneys had limitless financial resources and time to appeal, the fragile plaintiffs might be investing the final months of their lives in the fight for justice.

The miners had a champion in John Cline, a carpenter and community activist turned lawyer late in life.

SOUL FULL OF COAL DUST: Like Erin BrockovA FIGHT FOR BREATH AND ich, the legal clerk JUSTICE IN APPALACHIA who forced Pacific

BY CHRIS HAMBY LITTLE, BROWN AND Gas and Electric COMPANY Company to reckon 364 PAGES, $30 with its role in contaminating a community’s water, and Rob Bilott, the lone lawyer willing to take on DuPont for dumping toxic chemicals in rural West Virginia, Cline was a scrappy outsider who confronted a behemoth.

Coldhearted coal barons are easy targets.

Comedian John Oliver devoted a segment on his HBO program Last Week Tonight to ridiculing one key figure in Hamby’s book, Massey Energy Company CEO Don Blankenship. The CEO spent a year in prison for conspiring to sabotage health regulations in his mines. But Hamby’s — and Cline’s — painstaking research bravely illuminates the dark cast of characters behind the legal steamroller Blankenship and other company owners used against miners’ health claims.

Bad actors in Soul Full of Coal Dust turn up in unexpected places, such as the radiology department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the highly regarded Charleston, W.V., law office Jackson Kelly, which Hamby describes in a chapter called “The Firm.” It’s not hard to imagine a John Grisham legal thriller based on the deception Cline discovered.

Hamby centers his story on the battle Cline waged on behalf of Vietnam veteran Gary Fox, who returned to West Virginia after his service and entered the mines to support what mattered to him most — a wife and child. Twenty-five years after he went underground, Fox filed a claim for benefits based on his diagnosis of black lung disease.

It was a rude awakening. He couldn’t find a lawyer who would take his case — there wasn’t enough money in it to pay a plaintiff’s

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attorney — so he represented himself.

Blankenship, on the other hand, once bragged that he spent a million dollars a month on lawyers, and his Jackson Kelly attorneys didn’t mind aiming their cannon at a flea. Fox lost, but eight years later, when he was much sicker, he met John Cline. He had found the right man for his case.

Midway through his book, Hamby, a Nashville native who now reports for The New York Times, describes an interlude in his research when he thought he had lost his way. “I was afraid it was a morass in which I would get stuck for months, then emerge with a story that shed little light on anything and was quickly forgotten.” He had met Cline but hadn’t talked to him in a year. His instincts told him to call.

“When we’d talked, he had mentioned a grave injustice he believed he’d uncovered: the leading law firm retained by coal companies to defend benefits claims, he said, was undermining the system by withholding critical evidence.” Cline’s court challenges would lead to a rule change by the U.S. Department of Labor — a Black Lung Benefits Act — that requires medical information disclosure and altered the playing field for coal company lawyers. Hamby’s stories made sure the victory got the attention it deserved. Gary Fox would not live to see the result of his struggle, but a detailed summary of his case was included in the department’s justification for the change.

In journalism, as in most crafts, instincts are essential.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAILS ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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nashvillescene.com | DECEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 23, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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12/14/20 7:35 PM

FILM

PRIMAL STREAM 35 Romance, Christmas mystery, unsettling horror and more, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

ANYTHING FOR JACKSON that go — she’s superb. (She also battles undersea monsters in the brisk creature feature Underwater, now on HBO Max, which is fun as well.)

KISS KISS BANG BANG ON HOOPLA AND AMAZON PRIME

LOVERS ROCK

W

ell, Christmas is careening toward us like one of those Wile E. Coyote trompe l’oeil paintings on the side of a cliff.

Please be careful. Make the gift that you give everyone, regardless of religious affiliation, the gift of not furthering the spread of COVID-19. Now is a very good time to give to food banks and other community food resources, because without any sort of food or housing aid, it is going to be a very dire holiday season for many folks even before we factor in the virus. Be generous with whatever you can. If you’ve got a place to be and a stable internet connection, there are all sorts of viewing options. I hope that you can find bits of joy wherever you can. As always, look back at past issues of the Scene for dozens more installments in our streaming recommendations series.

LOVERS ROCK VIA AMAZON PRIME The joy of human contact. The experience of a dance party where all the drama is in the streets outside, and in the yard. Where the scent of freshly made curry mixes with Proustian dub beats and the smiles and sweat of your friends, loved ones and strangers you’ve just met. This year’s Lovers Rock is part of Small Axe, a quintet that director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Widows) has made about the West Indian immigrant experience in late-20thcentury England. Each of the five films is exceptional, but Lovers Rock is a sensual riot that anyone who enjoys films, or parties, or just having a tactile experience, can enjoy. At only 70 minutes long, it’s exactly right, and it will stay with you in the part of the brain where liberation lives, scratching that itch until we can safely gather together again. You will want the soundtrack.

Cheerleader, The Faculty, 21 Grams) aptly demonstrates that holiday stress eats away at everyone. But more than that, Happiest Season gets into the pernicious way in which the closet eats away at the lives of everyone around it. Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and Abby (Kristen Stewart) have a life together, but one that is built completely apart from the former’s family. So in the way that Christmas is a crucible for every bit of stress that all family members are experiencing, the Pennsylvania home of Harper’s family is where everything will eventually get hashed out. It’s a great cast (shout-outs to periodic Nashvillian Mary Steenburgen, who is iconic and elegantly vicious, and Dan Levy and Aubrey Plaza as the gay superhero brigade — or as friend and colleague Alonso Duralde calls it, in the Eve Arden parts), and it’s a good film to spur potentially difficult conversations.

It’s not safe to travel home for the holidays, so let this family’s stress be the understudy for your own family drama, at least for this year. Also, as a Christmas pet sitter, I felt seen. And people who still bag on Stewart because of her Twilight time need to let

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ANYTHING FOR JACKSON ON SHUDDER A pair of grieving grandparents, having just lost their grandson and daughter, reach out to their church for support in a time of crisis. But the church is devoted to Satan worship, and when they take inspiration (and an ancient tome of unholy rites) and try to channel the soul of Anything for Jackson’s titular dead grandson into the unborn child of a woman they’ve kidnapped, the end result is ghosts, demons, recursive hauntings and shocking acts of yard violence. Director Justin Dyck got his start

THE BLACK CAT VIA THE CRITERION CHANNEL Pre-Hays Code cinema doesn’t get kinkier or more ghoulish than this masterpiece from Edgar Ulmer. Pairing Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff together for the first time, 1934’s The Black Cat packs a honeymoon on the Orient Express, a lethal car wreck, human taxidermy, a Black Mass, the legacy of WWI atrocities, a live flaying and battling psychological philosophies played out on amazing Art Deco sets — and it does it in just over an hour. This is the unheralded masterpiece of Universal Pictures’ indelible run in the ’30s, sitting alongside James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man as the truly great films that hold up even for modern audiences.

HARPER’S ISLAND ON PLUTO You’ll be shocked that something this gory originally aired on CBS. Harper’s Island is a perfectly contained one-season epic that blends the aesthetics of similar Aughts TV like Revenge or Pretty Little Liars with the orchestrated mayhem of a classic mystery/slasher. (There’s a lot of 1986’s April Fool’s Day in the narrative DNA.) At its best, this is perfect binge TV for genre enthusiasts or people who really miss crazy soap operas, though it does sometimes slip into a bit too much structural cruelty (particularly in the back half of its 13 episodes). But a destination wedding with a body count is a primo concept, and I burned through all 13 hours in two days. Jim Beaver is the MVP, as you would expect.

THE CAT’S MEOW VIA IMDB TV

HAPPIEST SEASON ON HULU A phenomenon both in terms of national attention and streaming records, this kind but stressful holiday epic from cowriter and director Clea DuVall (But I’m a

A modern Christmas classic built around a great central mystery (as well as a love of classic detective fiction), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang features Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer at their best since Black and White and Top Secret!, respectively, hoping to solve a mystery involving bad fathers, identity theft, corporate corruption and murder. This is writer-director Shane Black (The Nice Guys, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout) at the absolute peak of his skill, with a gift for structuring the film’s narration like an old mystery novel.

It includes all the fourth-wall breaking and timeslipping one could hope for. Funny, violent, smart and pitched perfectly to anyone who wants their own sun-blasted dirtbag Christmas mystery, this could be your It’s A Wonderful Life.

making Hallmark movies, which means the bloodlust is real. It’s rare to find this kind of tonal mastery in a film in which so much crazy shit happens, and the tiny swirl of deadpan humor is perfect for leavening such an ultimately unsettling story.

KISS KISS BANG BANG

With all the internet back-and-forth going on about David Fincher’s Mank on Netflix and its portrayal of the making of Citizen Kane and the real-life exploits of William Randolph Hearst (my short version: it’s Fincher’s Big Fish, sadly), might I direct you to this little-seen marvel. Peter Bogdanovich’s The Cat’s Meow portrays an incident drawn from a real-life boating trip involving a lot of the same characters you find in Mank. Only this one has a murder, and it’s got Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Tilly, Eddie Izzard and Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies, and it’s incredible. Funny, fun and also relentless in holding responsible those who would tap-dance over the corpses of the inconvenient, this is an absolute gem.

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IN A STRANGE LAND

To the Ends of the Earth is full of anxiety, tension and moments of beauty

BY NATHAN SMITH

F

ew experiences are as dreadful, as internally discomforting, as finding yourself lost and alone in an unfamiliar country where you only speak a crumb of the local tongue.

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH Though it’s not a NR, 120 MINUTES; IN horror film in the JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH slightest, To the SUBTITLES Ends of the Earth AVAILABLE FRIDAY, DEC. 18, is an immersion VIA BELCOURT.ORG in that specific experience of horror. It’s fitting, then, that director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) is mostly known outside of Japan for horror films like Cure and Pulse, some of the most existentially terrifying movies ever made.

Over the past decade or so, with movies like Tokyo Sonata and Journey to the Shore, Kurosawa’s films have softened, turning toward melodrama and romance. But even in his genre movies, there’s an underlying humanism. What scares Kurosawa is the uncanniness of our own reality, the incomprehensible strangeness of being alive.

The production of To the Ends of the Earth arose out of a unique opportunity — an offer to Kurosawa from the government of Uzbekistan to make a film in their country marking the 25th anniversary of Uzbek-Japanese political relations. To the Ends of the Earth also honors another historical exchange between the two states: the construction of the Navoi Theater, the gorgeous national opera theater located in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, which was built with the conscription of Japanese prisoners of war held by the Soviets during World War II. As it’s explained to us in the film, these Japanese prisoners of war became committed to their craftsmanship

and work because they had little else to live for. Their story imbues the theater with a kind of ghostly resonance.

Another filmmaker might have made a simple travelogue or unimaginative documentary, or treated the whole thing like a paid vacation. But Kurosawa takes a more reflexive approach. To the Ends of the Earth is, in some ways, very much about the experience of being tasked with writing a film about a place you hardly know, expressed through a story about being a stranger in a strange land. Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) is the only female member of a Japanese television crew shooting a travel show in Uzbekistan — though their work might seem exotic and enticing on the surface, it’s almost immediately clear that this kind of video production is nothing but pure tedium. Everyone’s tired, the material for the program is stretched incredibly thin, and tensions are simmering. The group has a local translator and host who is part Japanese, part Uzbek, and fluent in both languages, but their work is continually hampered by mistranslation and miscommunication. The pressure is especially tough on Yoko, who is expected to maintain an endlessly cheery and girlish disposition as the show’s host, but who is reserved, shy and isolated when the cameras aren’t recording.

On her off days, Yoko wanders the streets as a tourist, but almost nothing comes of her expeditions but more anxiety — as the title suggests, this is a place where tourists hardly venture, and Yoko is sometimes met with suspicion and hostility.

Kurosawa films throngs of bodies with a palpable claustrophobia, as fear begins to suffocate Yoko: fear of being a woman in such a visibly patriarchal world, of being a different race from everyone around you, of speaking out loud and not being understood. As those negative emotions begin to build, the tightly controlled veneer of Yoko’s persona begins to crack, and the movie slowly slides into a slight, almost imperceptible surrealism, that uncanny flavor Kurosawa is so known for.

Amid the anxiety, there’s a sense of complicated tenderness, and many a moment of true beauty — whether it’s existential dread, ennui or something softer, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of cinema’s finest conductors of emotional experience.

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Spiritual leader ___ of all It’s not C-worthy App image Parts of some circles, in France Say nothin’, say?

Shelley ode that begins “Hail to thee, blithe spirit!”

Scuttlebutt Like the Beatles lyric “The girl with colitis goes by” for “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes” “See ya!” “___ at Home” (one of three special TV shows of 2020) Forearm bones Genre for the group Sublime “Bye for now” ___ Alexander, historical mystery novelist “The wild man of the snows” Use hip boots, maybe Craftsperson Connective tissues along the outside of the leg, informally Certain snow construction Smartphone precursors, for short Vocalist Gorme Gently leaves shore Even so Ad infinitum Dog show org.

Unknown people, slangily Unmannerly Cancel, as a mission Famous question first asked around 1600 Vaudeville offering Jai ___ Stamp collector?

Serengeti sighting Eugene V. ___, early American Socialist leader Megan Rapinoe won one in 2018 DOWN Youngest of the Hemsworth brothers

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Fruit whose name is pronounced in three syllables Terrarium growth Key symbols Peace Nobelist Yousafzai Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan #1 Stevie Wonder hit that honors a music legend Sound of reproof Skinny?

Doesn’t give up on a hard task Wedding rental Thick soup noodle Exceedingly dry Busybodies Native of the Land of the Midnight Sun Many a troubadour Noted lines?

Pope John Paul II’s first name “The Jetsons” dog President between John and Richard Jessica who was the original Blanche DuBois on Broadway Comic Murphy Stopwatch button Baseball strategy that starts with a stolen base attempt

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Alcoves that may have shrines Call Last-second play change Honked Cropped trousers Dried flower bud used as a spice “Still mooing” The brother in “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

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COMPUTER/IT: Vanderbilt University Medical Center seeks a Senior Data Architect in Nashville, TN, responsible for all of VUMC’s Data Model, including computer software application systems that data is extracted, how each system interacts with other VUMC systems in the Data Model, and how to modify the Data Model to accommodate any new systems needed to meet operational business requests, among other duties. Bachelor’s degree in Comp.

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In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon TROY ELLIOTT BICE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after December 24, 2020 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, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on January 25, 2021. 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.

COMPUTER/IT: Vanderbilt University Medical Center seeks a Senior Data Architect in Nashville, TN, responsible for all of VUMC’s Data Model, including computer software application systems that data is extracted, how each system interacts with other VUMC systems in the Data Model, and how to modify the Data Model to accommodate any new systems needed to meet operational business requests, among other duties. Bachelor’s degree in Comp.

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