Nashville Scene 2-29-24

VOUCHER DISCUSSIONS

FINALLY BEGIN IN STATE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES

>> PAGE 7

How much surveillance power will Nashville give its police?

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Voucher Discussions Finally Begin in Legislative Committees Republicans float drastically different proposals for Gov. Lee’s pet project

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Generational Division Within the Democratic Party Executive Committee Insiders spill this month’s Democrat drama

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Hagerty Rails Against Migrant ‘Invasion’ After Trip to Southern Border Tennessee’s junior U.S. senator refutes connection between GOP rhetoric and rise of white nationalist extremism

BY MATT MASTERS

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

COVER STORY

Technical Difficulties

How much surveillance power will Nashville give its police?

BY ELI MOTYCKA

CRITICS’ PICKS

Rave Lucid the Belcourt’s Best Picture Marathon, Dropkick Murphys, Tina Friml, Eric Gales and more

Sex on the Beach

Crawl Space: A New Gallery and a Trippy Group Show at March’s First Saturday Bid farewell to Unrequited Leisure and welcome Neue Welt this month BY

JOE NOLAN

MUSIC

Another Look

The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from Brittany Howard, R.A.P. Ferreira, Knoll and more

BY HANNAH CRON, P.J. KINZER, ADDI MOORE, KATHERINE OUNG, D. PATRICK RODGERS, DARYL SANDERS AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

They Want the Airwaves

Nashville rockers The Sleeveens move at a breakneck pace

First in

is a different kind of coffee

Let’s comfortably house Uber drivers, musicians and Waffle House staff. And fix the potholes that are destroying their vehicles.

BY CHRIS CROFTON

BY P.J. KINZER

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Rod McGaha, Mike Floss and Regeneration at The Blue Room

FILM

Fool Me Spice

Going deep on Denis Villenueve’s Dune: Part Two, which approaches masterpiece levels of achievement. Until its third act.

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Coming-of-age story How to Have Sex is a hazy, heady cocktail BY SADAF

AHSAN

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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FROM BILL FREEMAN

MAYOR FREDDIE O’CONNELL recently formally announced his administration’s push for a transit referendum on the November ballot.

As a lifelong Nashvillian and one who has seen our city — along with its traffic — grow exponentially, I commend Mayor O’Connell for his strategic vision and commitment to addressing the city’s transit challenges. The Nashville Scene reported back in November that “O’Connell emphasized that any plan must proceed deliberately and include community buy-in — his attempts to avoid repeating 2018.” As Mayor O’Connell said when launching the transit push: “We’re going to focus on the things we know work, that are cost-effective, that are useful, that are visible, that are popular.”

I remember all the befuddled comments in 2018 surrounding that year’s proposed mass transit plan. Many at that time were unable to get a clear vision of what then-Mayor Megan Barry was proposing. According to a recent opinion piece by The Tennessean’s David Plazas, that proposal’s light-rail plan, underground tunnel and multibillion-dollar price tag — which seemed to fluctuate from $5.4 billion to $9 billion — had many concerned. At that point in time, there was not a clearly defined plan that residents felt comfortable buying into. In the discussions I personally heard, some commented that underground tunnels and light rail made them uncomfortable because they feared Nashville would lose its small-town charm. But Nashville is no longer a small town. As Mayor O’Connell has said, “We’re a big city, and it’s time to act like one. This is, in many ways, our last best chance to take a huge step forward together as a city.”

Sadly, Forbes recently ranked Nashville’s commute “the worst in America.” So it’s time for a plan. And as Mayor O’Connell noted: “We’ve been on the move in so many ways over the past couple of decades, except with regard to this basic principle of how we move around our own city. We’ve been stuck in neutral, and we’ve got to move.”

The exact cost of the proposed transit plan is yet to be disclosed. I commend the mayor for waiting until the plan is solidified and ready for a legally required financial audit. It’s a responsible way to handle things, as opposed to getting everyone riled up over things yet unknown. Regarding the contentious issue of light rail, the mayor hasn’t ruled it out entirely, but he has made it clear that heavy investment in that direction may not be necessary to achieve the city’s transit goals. As for the underground tunnel, the mayor has explained that “this plan will not have a billion-dollar tunnel under downtown.”

From the beginning, I’ve appreciated Mayor O’Connell’s well-thought-out approach. I further appreciate his focus on the basics, like 24/7 bus service, more sidewalks and heightened public safety, upgrading traffic signals, access from the airport and more. His emphasis on addressing practical issues rather than pursuing grandiose projects is more appropriate for where we are as a city. Not only does it resonate with our city’s residents, as Plazas notes, even one of the most vocal opponents of the 2018 measure, Americans for Prosperity Tennessee, is taking a “wait and see” approach.

A well-executed mass transit plan is a cornerstone for the continued growth and prosperity of Nashville. Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s wise, discerning approach to this complex issue is commendable. By addressing the city’s transit challenges with urgency, transparency and practicality, he is steering Nashville toward a future where the benefits of a dependable transit system are accessible to all. Thanks, Mayor O’Connell.

Bill Freeman

Bill Freeman

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

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FREDDIE O’CONNELL ON A WEGO BUS PHOTO: NASHVILLE.GOV

Carving a New Tradition features recent woodblock prints and mixed-media portraits by Arkansas-born, Baltimore-based painter and printmaker LaToya M. Hobbs. In her practice, Hobbs explores Black womanhood, family, labor, and self-care, building on the rich tradition of printmaking while pushing the medium’s boundaries. Using her family, friends, and herself as subject in her work, she seeks to draw attention to the power of representation and legacy.

Organized by the Frist Art Museum with Dr. Rebecca VanDiver, associate professor of African American art at Vanderbilt University.

THROUGH APRIL 28

FristArtMuseum.org @FristArtMuseum #TheFrist

Downtown Nashville 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

LaToya Hobbs. Erin and Anyah with Hydrangeas, 2023. Acrylic and collage on carved wood panel; 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ariston Jacks

VOUCHER DISCUSSIONS FINALLY BEGIN IN LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES

Republicans float drastically different proposals for Gov. Lee’s pet project

BY KELSEY BEYELER

SEVEN WEEKS AFTER the Tennessee General Assembly gaveled in for the 2024 legislative session, we’re finally seeing proposed language related to Gov. Bill Lee’s statewide voucher plan. (That is, if you don’t count legislation that was filed and quickly withdrawn in late January.) While vouchers are already being used by students in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties via the state’s Education Savings Account Program, Lee’s new Education Freedom Scholarship Act would expand voucher eligibility across the state. Competing amendments recently filed this session by Republicans represent different strategies for how to usher the controversial legislation forward.

Gov. Lee’s version, filed via an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), is similar to what Lee proposed in November when announcing the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. Starting in the 2024-25 school year, the state would provide 20,000 students with public money to put toward private education before expanding the program in subsequent years. While these vouchers would be available to all students, those who are eligible for the state’s Education Savings Account Program, those with disabilities and those whose family household income does not exceed a certain threshold would be prioritized. The money can fund expenses related to attending private school, such as tuition, technology, textbooks, tutoring, transportation and uniforms.

Additional language filed by Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol), chair of the Senate Education Committee, is 10 pages longer than Lee’s filed language and includes a suite of extra require-

ments. Major additions include standardized testing requirements for students who use vouchers and the ability for students to use vouchers to attend out-of-district public schools. It also lays out a more thorough process for tracking funds and requires applicants to indicate whether students have valid Social Security numbers. While those without SSNs can still enroll in the program, the amendment notes this information could be reported to the Internal Revenue Service or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

On Monday, the House released a whopping 39-page amendment that addresses much more than vouchers — including public school standardized testing requirements and evaluations and health insurance for teachers. As filed, the amendment would also dissolve the state-run Achievement School District, among other measures. As far as vouchers are concerned, the proposed amendment would limit availability to students who are U.S. citizens and whose parents are U.S. citizens. Students would be prioritized in tiers, with those whose families make 500 percent of the federal poverty level the last tier before all other families are granted access. The legislation would allow the number of vouchers to expand by 20 percent each year if the previous year had a 90 percent or higher utilization rate. Additional provisions include an annual report on the program, and it would prevent lawmakers or those working in the governor’s Cabinet from utilizing the universal voucher system.

Voucher critics often point out that Lee hasn’t included accountability models in his

GENERATIONAL DIVISION WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Insiders spill this month’s Democrat drama

BY ELI MOTYCKA

A STUFFED ORANGE envelope showed up at Scene headquarters in mid-February. On it was a printed label with no return address and four American flag Forever Stamps — perhaps the sender is inclined toward tradition, stability and long-term thinking.

Inside, a stapled dossier details disorder inside the Tennessee Democratic Party, split along generational lines. A Jan. 27 meeting of the state executive committee, the 77-person body that governs the state party, had devolved into name-calling, profanity-laden attacks and political threats, according to emails shared with the Scene

At issue was whether to include the president of the Tennessee High School Democrats as an ex officio member of the committee, which includes positions for leaders of the Tennessee Young Democrats, Tennessee College Democrats,

framework despite the fact that public schools are beholden to rigid accountability standards.

(The Tennessean reported in November that the state’s ESA Program shows high parental satisfaction but lower standardized test scores from participating students compared to their public-school peers.) Gini Pupo-Walker, a former Metro school board member and current executive director of the Education Trust in Tennessee, says Lee’s plan reflects the national universal voucher movement, which “is really not interested in accountability or testing or public reporting — for good reason — because the research shows it doesn’t work.”

Pupo-Walker, who notes that the Education Trust’s opinion is that “public dollars should stay in public schools,” also points to states like Arizona and Ohio, which have seen costs exceed expectations after implementing a universal

Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women, and Tennessee Democratic County Chairs Association.

“What we heard was shouting and insults if [Executive Committee] members didn’t vote their way,” reads an email signed by Randall Rice, a committee member from West Tennessee, sent in the early morning of Jan. 29 to his fellow members. “It seems there is a serious division in the [Executive Committee] that pits one group against another. What we didn’t hear was any calm, reasoned debate about the issue posed. We also heard no consideration that persons may hold different opinions that are valid.”

When contacted, Rice tells the Scene he will not discuss internal party matters with the media.

Rice, state party chair Hendrell Remus and several other committee members swapped meeting interpretations in an email thread that CC’d the entire committee. Conversation quickly turned to the relative advantages of rulesbased order versus emotional appeals that stray from decorum.

“Maybe we should be bringing bullhorns. Worked for these 3,” reads an email signed by Jeff Clark dated Jan. 30. He embedded an image of Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones, Justin J. Pearson and Gloria Johnson. “I don’t think sacrificing yourself on the altar of decorum is going to win us anymore votes than it has for the last 20 years.”

Vocal and defiant resistance by Jones, Pearson and Johnson in the Republican-controlled state House has become a symbol in itself for Tennessee Dem-

voucher program. Gov. Lee recommended a recurring $144.2 million in his 2024-25 fiscal budget, but according to a memorandum from the Fiscal Review Committee, those costs could exceed $346 million by 2026-27. Both the House amendment and Lundberg’s amendment tie the voucher amount to the base number allocated to students through the state’s education funding formula.

“The amendment the House filed today is 39 pages long for a reason,” Pupo-Walker tells the Scene. “They needed many additional items in order to garner votes for passage. … Unfortunately, the debate will be muddied due to a wide range of other important education policy considerations that are now folded into this bill, making it harder for Tennesseans to truly understand the impact of the voucher bill on their schools and communities.” ▼

ocrats, whose lawmaking power has been severely diminished by the state’s Republican supermajority over the past decade. Members referenced the three frequently throughout their short-lived email debrief.

Chair Remus suspended listserv communications on Feb. 1. He encouraged members to communicate directly rather than in reply-all threads until the party identifies “a different method of mass communication for the Executive Committee.”

Farrah Renfroe, the committee’s recently added 78th member, came to the Democratic Party as a fifth-grader politicized by the 2016 presidential election. Now a high school senior in Memphis, Renfroe leads the Tennessee High School Democrats.

“We hear the older people out all the time — we try to be as respectful as possible because we want to learn as much as possible,” Renfroe tells the Scene about the meeting. “I personally was expecting them to hear us out a bit more. We are the ones who always show up to volunteer and work at these campaigns.”

Without a voting history, high school students can’t technically pass the party’s executive committee “bona fide” test, a stipulation enshrined in state law. Rice and others justified their “no” votes with this legal hitch. A statewide memo from Dekalb County Democratic Party Chair Jordan Wilkins confirmed that the party had sought a legal opinion. Wilkins also included a scanned roll call vote showing every member’s position on the issue, which passed 40-15 with 14 abstentions, allowing Renfroe to join the committee. ▼

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

GOV. BILL LEE DELIVERS THE STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

HAGERTY RAILS AGAINST MIGRANT ‘INVASION’ AFTER TRIP TO SOUTHERN BORDER

Tennessee’s junior U.S. senator refutes connection between GOP rhetoric and rise of white nationalist extremism

BY MATT MASTERS

REPUBLICAN U.S. SEN. BILL HAGERTY defended his decision to vote no on a bipartisan border bill in a press conference Feb. 21. The Nashville event followed Hagerty’s recent trip to the U.S.-Mexico border with several Tennessee law enforcement officials and mayors.

Among those joining Hagerty in Eagle Pass, Texas, and again Feb. 21 included Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan, Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy, Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, Carter County Mayor Patty Woodby and 12th Judicial District Attorney General Courtney Lynch. The trip came days after Hagerty joined fellow U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in voting against a bipartisan border bill that could have radically changed border security and immigration policy — a bill that former President Donald Trump pushed GOP lawmakers to vote against. Also in February, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee traveled to the border alongside several other GOP governors to call for “immediate action.”

When asked whether their opinions on the border crisis had been influenced by the trip, the local law enforcement and government officials said their views on the issue had in fact been reinforced.

“It’s definitely strengthened our opinion,” said Sullivan County Sheriff Cassidy. “We’ve already seen the funneling of fentanyl and drugs and cartels, gangs, and just to be on that border, feet on the ground, it strengthened what we already knew.”

“I’m tired of getting calls every day about somebody overdosing on fentanyl, and it’s sad,” Wilson County Sheriff Bryan added. “It’s

strengthened my concerns about what’s going on there, and this fentanyl is coming across into Tennessee and it’s killing our citizens, and I’m not good with that.”

Hagerty defended his vote against the border bill, telling reporters he “wanted to take action” but he and his fellow members of the Senate “were not allowed to amend that bill.” The majority of Senate Republicans argued that the legislation didn’t go far enough to secure the border.

“What we have is an administration that has demonstrated they are unwilling to basically follow the law,” said Hagerty. “You’re looking at the way they used executive orders, and they do not follow the law that’s on the books right now. What we needed to do was put in place a lock-tight, rock-solid requirement that the Biden administration enforced the wall — that was not present.”

ADDRESSING THE ‘INVASION’

On Feb. 17, members of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe marched through downtown Nashville in a display that caught the attention of local and national media. The group carried swastika flags and chanted statements including, “Deport all Mexicans.” The event drew condemnation from Tennessee officials including Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and Gov. Lee, as well as a resolution from the Metro Council condemning the rally.

This was not the first time Nazis or other extremist groups have made their presence known in Tennessee, the home state of the Ku Klux Klan. Extremists showed up in Franklin, Mur-

freesboro and Cookeville in 2023, with far-right hate group the Proud Boys playing security at a 2022 right-wing rally against transgender health care in Nashville. That event featured numerous Republican lawmakers and Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh.

When asked how concerned he was that his rhetoric — including his repeated use of the word “invasion” to describe the humanitarian crisis at the border — could inspire or encourage extremist movements, Hagerty grew combative.

“To correlate my language with some extremist group is wrong, it’s off-base, and I’m not going to further answer this,” Hagerty said.

Reporters continued to press Hagerty. After being asked four times if he denounced the neo-Nazi group, Tennessee’s junior U.S. senator eventually admitted he did, though he added, “I don’t even know who you’re talking about” in reference to Blood Tribe.

“I denounce any group that wants to promote violence in the United States,” said Hagerty. “I denounce the terrorists that are coming across our border right now — I have a feeling something very bad is gonna happen there. … What you’re trying to do with this correlation, I think, is absolutely ridiculous.”

While Hagerty may not publicly acknowledge the correlation of the decades-long border debate and the decades-long rise of right-wing extremism, he need look no further than Montgomery County. Earlier this month, the FBI arrested a Tennessee man who was found to have firearms and explosives and was allegedly planning to “travel to the border to target migrants entering the United States.” ▼

PITH IN THE WIND

Mayor Freddie O’Connell recently convened his Technical Advisory Committee to help produce a transit referendum, which O’Connell intends to put in front of voters in November. He recently told reporters to expect a plan by the end of March. Many advisers expressed frustration about working with an unknown budget. Erin Hafkenschiel, who led the 2018 transit push Let’s Move Nashville under then-Mayor Megan Barry, regularly steered the conversation back to light rail, a contentious topic that some colleagues cast as logistically desirable but politically toxic. Also last week, O’Connell’s office filed a final contract to the Metro Council between the city and The Fallon Company, a Boston-based real estate group that will develop 30 acres of city-owned land on the East Bank Filed documents also included a nonbinding agreement between Metro and TPAC for a 35-year lease on the site.

Republicans stopped a bill that would allow abortions for minors 13 and younger, the latest abortion exception legislation that has failed to overcome GOP opposition. Meanwhile, state lawmakers advanced a bill in committee that would charge adults with a felony for helping a minor who is not their child obtain an abortion. The bill resembles an Idaho law passed in 2023 that has been blocked by a federal judge. Gov. Bill Lee quietly signed another bill into law allowing religious leaders and certain public officials to refuse to preside over a marriage if it conflicts with their personal or religious beliefs. The bill would allow public officials to turn away individuals who have obtained a valid marriage license, opponents say.

Former President Donald Trump spoke at last week’s International Christian Media Convention in Nashville. After arriving 90 minutes late to his keynote slot, Trump railed against anti-Christian bias and communism and promised a “great revival” of America. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles — a Republican who represents Tennessee’s gerrymandered 5th Congressional District which includes parts of Nashville — briefly made national headlines for appearing to call for mass killings when he answered a question about the deaths of children and aid workers throughout the monthslong conflict in Gaza. “I think we should kill them all, if that makes you feel better,” says Ogles in the clip, before adding, “Everybody in Hamas.”

MARCH 8 & 9

GREENSKY BLUEGRASS WITH DANIEL DONATO

APRIL 22

WALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT:

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WITNESS HISTORY

This 2017 SteeltopCaster electric guitar with pine body, driftwood finish, and a recessed metal top—engraved with alligator-skin patterns—was custom built for Lucinda Williams by luthier James Trussart.

From the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music

artifact: Courtesy of Lucinda Williams artifact photo: Bob Delevante

RESERVE TODAY

How much surveillance power will Nashville give its police?

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Technical Difficulties

COUNCILMEMBER DELISHIA PORTERFIELD had not heard of Fusus when a request to extend the company’s contract came across her desk in January. Porterfield is chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and so official council requests from Metro’s various departments get filed under her name.

“MNPD bought this technology without coming to council — I do not believe they were trying to be nefarious, but I had concerns with it,” Porterfield tells the Scene, recounting a flurry of events that had transpired over the previous two weeks. “I did not have any real knowledge or information on it, but I heard from a couple people in the community who also had concerns.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department first signed a contract with the Atlanta-based company in 2022. Fusus was part of a growing department affinity for advanced technology capable of collecting and synthesizing vast amounts of data quickly. These tools allow law enforcement to see and hear across a city, advancing an illusion of instantly processing stolen license plates and rogue gunshots into quick and effective officer responses. Police killings of Black people across the country and waves of ensuing protests in 2020 left the department understaffed and newly committed to the idea of “precision policing,” the institutional response to public concern about officers’ indiscriminate use of police power. Vendors, hoping to land contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, pushed cutting-edge technology vowing to save lives and strengthen community trust.

In the past year, MNPD has expanded its surveillance network with automated license plate readers and Fusus, a combination of hardware and software that enables police to access registered camera feeds remotely. An $800,000 line

item for ShotSpotter, an expansive audio-collection gadget eyed for Metro Development and Housing Agency properties, has lingered on MNPD’s budget request since 2021.

All three of these technologies — Fusus-integrated video, license plate readers and ShotSpotter — are unsettled issues within Metro. Their continued use in Nashville is contingent on budget allocations, council votes, contract approvals, regulatory ordinances and executive action (or inaction). Many are poorly understood by voters and their elected officials. Businesses, neighborhoods and some Metro councilmembers have clamored for more technology, which they see as essential to deterring, identifying and prosecuting illegal activity across Nashville.

Reports by Nashville’s Community Review Board (formerly the Community Oversight Board) describe them as underregulated and ineffective tools expected to fuel the overpolicing of low-income communities and communities of color. Social justice groups warn of a “surveillance state” indiscriminately accumulating vulnerable data with little transparency or accountability. No technology has produced much working data or been subject to rigorous, unbiased study. Growing markets for consumer drones and facial-recognition technology ensure new vendors may soon come bearing new pitches that prompt old questions about police power, privacy and public safety.

LEADING ELECTED officials like Porterfield and Mayor Freddie O’Connell — an LPR opponent when he was a district councilmember — are proven skeptics of MNPD’s surveillance regime. On Feb. 5, Porterfield posted on social media that MNPD would drop Fusus pending a

new contract.

The Fusus episode exposes two things: widespread confusion about something very important, and conflicting views within the Metro government about the limits of police power. In the coming months, new contracts for LPRs and Fusus will force O’Connell, MNPD, councilmembers and the public to chart the city’s course on privacy, police public safety and civil rights.

“As of today, MNPD is no longer using Fusus technology,” Porterfield wrote on Feb 5. “A new contract will be negotiated prior to September and if it includes surveillance it will come back before the council with a public hearing. We will have a presentation to discuss the technology at that time, prior to council approval.”

When he found out about the Fusus contract in January, O’Connell sent technology lieutenant Dave Rosenberg to get a briefing at MNPD’s central command. Formerly a Bellevue councilmember, Rosenberg wrote the city ordinance requiring council approval and a public hearing before Metro installs new surveillance technology — regulations that Fusus slipped in 2022.

“In lieu of a briefing, we wanted to make sure we had some information about the program,” O’Connell tells the Scene. “We believe that MNPD can use the implementation that they are using right now, and that the approach we took to partially disable the technology means the lack of council approval has been cured.”

Fusus combines public and private video feeds into one dashboard, displayed to law enforcement as a digital map. It had been operating in Nashville unbeknownst to elected officials since 2022. The program enabled police to access camera feeds around the city based on agreements with owners aided by products including fususONE, fususCORE, fususREGISTRY,

fususVAULT, fususOPS, fususTIPS, fususAlert, and fususANALYTICS. All are aspects of integrating and expanding the various camera feeds directly and indirectly accessible by police, who — until earlier this month — could see registered cameras displayed on a map and notify owners to request a feed. Observant passersby can spot cameras on doorsteps or hanging in clusters on private trailers across Nashville.

Flashing blue lights give the impression of a police presence in the parking lot of an apartment complex or at the McDonald’s near Centennial Park; instead, these trailers are purchased directly from private companies like LiveView Technologies and SkyCop (which advertises its own gunshot recognition system). Fusus can link them all together. Such an expansion of power is raising privacy questions around the country. Amazon, which makes the popular doorbell camera Ring, announced on Jan. 24 that it would end a built-in option to share video with law enforcement. In recent years, police departments in Lexington, Ky., Minneapolis and Providence, R.I., have all adopted Fusus-specific policies and oversight.

“People have been giving us video for decades to help us build cases,” says Greg Blair, deputy chief of MNPD’s Crime Control Strategies Bureau. “The old way was driving to a location, getting a hold of an individual who can operate the system, obtaining the video — Fusus eliminates those steps. It pulls that all together and sends it to us quicker.”

While its future remains uncertain, the current $175,000 agreement signed by MNPD Chief John Drake and Fusus executive Mark Wood runs through Sept. 26. As of February, MNPD still counts more than 1,100 registered commercial and residential cameras in its Fusus network.

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

Police cannot tap into these video feeds directly. Earlier this month, scrutiny from the council and the mayor prompted a pause on MNPD’s use of Fusus integration.

“Metro legal had some discussions amongst six or seven attorneys and couldn’t agree on the ordinance and definitions, so they told us to deactivate the camera feeds,” Blair tells the Scene. “The camera part has been turned off until council votes, I think sometime in August. Right now, we can’t even see our own cameras through the system.”

Fusus was operating unknown to O’Connell when he took office in September. Nothing had come to the chamber when he was a councilmember. There was no floor debate or rousing public spectacle, as was the case with license plate readers. (O’Connell consistently opposed LPRs and joined 13 colleagues opposing full LPR implementation in one of his last council votes in August.) He hadn’t seen a Fusus budget request or a slide deck. There was no memo or transition briefing from MNPD or Mayor John Cooper’s outgoing administration.

“On Friday afternoon, the mayor called me into his office late,” Metro legal director Wally Dietz told a joint council committee on Feb. 5. “He had three asks: Can we delete the function that permits the police to have real-time access to private cameras? Can we keep the price under $250,000? Can we come up with a systemic fix so that we’re not in this place again?”

Dietz addressed both the council’s Budget and Finance Committee and the Public Health and Safety Committee, 23 total members. (Councilmembers Erin Evans, Jordan Huffman, Jeff Gregg, Joy Kimbrough and Porterfield serve on both.) A new Fusus agreement, along with any future contracts for surveillance-related technology, will likely pass through this same majority before a vote on the council floor.

“As of this morning, the police have — ‘unplugged’ is my word, I’m not a tech person,” Dietz told the group. “They unplugged Fusus. They have disconnected from the software program completely.”

Dietz further clarified his report. O’Connell had requested a “kill switch” to eliminate private video feeds from being remotely accessed by MNPD. Police may continue to use other aspects of Fusus, but will have to collect video the old-fashioned way — visiting business owners and neighborhoods, sometimes with portable storage devices, to review and request files. In the future, police will seek council approval for contracts like this, Dietz assured the body.

Curious councilmembers probed Dietz for basic information. On at least one contract question, Dietz deferred to Deputy Chief Chris Gilder, MNPD’s representative that day, who quickly emerged as the room’s subject matter expert. No one knew exactly what was going on. The mayor learned about Fusus in January, a few days before Porterfield dug into the contract renewal. Porterfield initially told the public that MNPD was “no longer using Fusus technology,” which wasn’t exactly right — Dietz clarified a few hours later that MNPD was disabling private camera feeds, but would soon reactivate other

aspects of the system.

When asked about his philosophical views on privacy and technology, O’Connell pauses.

“I’ve always been mindful that systems can wind up having adverse impacts for otherwise law-abiding systems or citizens,” O’Connell tells the Scene. “It’s not my personal preference to walk down the streets in my neighborhood and be on everybody’s Ring cameras, but I know that that’s what my neighbors have decided to help them feel safer in their own homes. We want to let police do police work, and we will make recommendations or raise concerns for them to consider.”

OVER THE PAST few years, MNPD has consistently led the public and elected officials in its enthusiasm and understanding of surveillance technologies. Encouraged by salespeople pursuing lucrative business opportunities, top-ranking law enforcement has also been the primary driver of adopting license plate readers and Fusus. ShotSpotter, sitting on the department’s backburner, provides instructive insight into police fidelity to exciting but unproven surveillance technology. Chiefs and deputies swap emails about what they want and how to get it, organizing campaigns like the effort that successfully marshaled LPR legislation through multiple readings, tense debates, accusations of systemic racism, public outcry, council opposition and an expensive pilot program that returned middling results.

The Scene — particularly Metro Council columnist Nicole Williams — has covered that effort extensively over the past three years. Officers attend trade conferences, where they learn about new products and see the gadgetry used by peer agencies around the country.

“Interesting (while we continue to push for LPR’s and Shotspotter)” reads the subject line of a 2021 email from MNPD Chief John Drake to top brass about San Diego police drones. A few emails later, the conversation shifted to LPRs. Assistant Chief Mike Hagar told colleagues, “Gilder or I will be providing a briefing sheet to executive and command staff so that informed calls can be made to council members.”

In an email sent a few months later, Chris Meyer, an executive at tech consultancy Slalom, recapped a meeting with Drake and MNPD’s information and technology director John Singleton about “storytelling and building business cases to push ideas like license plate readers and ShotSpotter to city council.” Meyer was selling MNPD on Virtual Command Post, a police workflow app that centralizes case information.

Such pushes for new police tech have produced mixed results. Police considered and adopted Fusus outside the public view, eventually triggering a backlash from elected officials 16 months into the program. Members of the Community Review Board did not know about the technology until August, nearly a year after it had been adopted. Councilmembers debated LPRs for nearly two years before a split council approved a pilot program in December 2022, then full LPR implementation in August 2023. An online interactive map shows the pilot pro-

gram’s 24 operational cameras around Davidson County. When the pilot ended on July 22, LPRs went offline. They’ll remain down until the city finalizes an agreement with vendors.

License plate reader debates briefly galvanized broad opposition for police surveillance anchored by prominent city groups like the NAACP, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the American Muslim Advisory Council, Conexión Américas, Open Table Nashville, Stand Up Nashville and SEIU Local 205, constituencies that comprised O’Connell’s political base. In regular floor speeches, Councilmembers Zulfat Suara (a Black Muslim woman) and Sandra Sepulveda (a Latina woman) appealed to their colleagues about how constant surveillance threatens people to whom society regularly denies the presumption of innocence.

“If it doesn’t happen to you, if you’re not part of that group, you really don’t know,” Suara said on the Metro Council floor in February 2022. “As a Black mother, as an immigrant, as someone invited here by the United States government, I am still under a microscope. That is what we are talking about. For one life that is lost or one family that is impacted by this, I would lose a million cars.”

She drew applause from the gallery.

Back in 2018, Nashville allocated money to pilot ShotSpotter in Cayce Homes, Napier and parts of North Nashville, including Buena Vista and Elizabeth Park. These majority-Black neighborhoods make up some of the city’s highest concentrations of poverty and gun violence. Crucially, they also include properties overseen by the Metro Development and Housing Authority. More government-owned real estate means greater control over the neighborhood — ideal for ShotSpotter, which relies on a series of acoustic sensors that need to be placed and secured across a few square miles. Together, these sensors form an audio dragnet that, in theory, immediately notifies police of gunshots without a 911 call.

ShotSpotter, which has since rebranded to SoundThinking Inc., required Nashville to sign for at least two years. The city wanted to sign for one. Over the next two years, as city finances got rocky and the public began to look at local law enforcement more closely, MNPD’s push fell apart. Hoping to address gun violence in North Nashville, Councilmember Brandon Taylor prompted MNPD to reexamine ShotSpotter in early 2021.

“I love this technology,” Chief Drake wrote

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

LIVEVIEW TECHNOLOGIES SURVEILLANCE TRAILER IN A MCDONALD’S PARKING LOT

to Hagar in January of that year. A week later, Deputy Chief Natalie Lokey summarized the department’s ShotSpotter history in an email with the subject line “RE: Spot Spotter.”

“At the time it was being considered, all the key players that would be needed to put this program in place were onboard and ready,” wrote Lokey. (Lokey retired from MNPD in April 2022 and now serves as president of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. She declined the Scene’s interview request.) “The program would cover a 3 square mile area, and the areas that were identified were generally around Cumberland View, Cheatham place, Andrew Jackson Courts, Casey [sic], Napier, and Sudekum.”

“We need to consider how we want to introduce this to the citizens of Davidson County,” she continued. “We will have to convey that this is not an intrusive tool and is a safety measure that is vital to all our citizens.”

Drake, Hagar, Lokey and other top MNPD officials reviewed the use of ShotSpotter in Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago. In June 2021, the city’s Capital Improvements Budget approved (but did not allocate) $800,000 for the system. ShotSpotter costs ticked up to $810,000 in the 2022 CIB but remained a single line in a 376page document. That same spring, the Nashville CRB (then the COB) released a memo questioning ShotSpotter’s efficacy.

“There is great excitement in the policing community regarding ShotSpotter, but there is also some significant trepidation surrounding the technology,” the report reads. “It is a fair characterization to say that evidence surrounding the technology is mixed at best, and that the majority of evidence in favor of ShotSpotter comes from the company itself.”

In 2023, ShotSpotter funding was approved again over two years — $380,000 in FY24 and $410,000 in FY25 — but tagged as a low-priority request without an official department recommendation. Deputy Chief Blair tells the Scene that MNPD is no longer pursuing ShotSpotter, part of a trend that includes Atlanta and Chicago.

“It’s not moving forward anytime soon,” Blair tells the Scene. “It’s sitting out there in la-la land.”

I ask Councilmember Taylor what happened.

“It doesn’t work,” he tells me in a text. He follows up a few minutes later.

“Inaccurate readings which can lead to inaccurate policing.”

METRO’S CRB, then operating as the Community Oversight Board, furnished reports on LPRs, ShotSpotter and Fusus that dug into Taylor’s same concern: What does it mean for police surveillance technologies to work?

First, there is the immediate question of whether the electronics literally function correctly. License plate readers require certain contrast, light and resolution to accurately pick up numbers, for example — a glitch that hit headlines when new Tennessee tags stumped highway cameras in 2022. They miss some plates and misread others. Wind, ambient sounds,

“We don’t have a great understanding of some of these tools, and they haven’t been rigorously studied. They need to be part of a strategy that’s developed with community and with community input.”

—John Buntin, the Council on Criminal Justice

tree canopy and structures can all cause faulty ShotSpotter readings; sensors misidentify loud noises and miss actual gunshots.

Police, councilmembers, businesses and neighbors often push for expanded surveillance under the impression that it reduces crime — the second capacity in which the public understands these technologies to work. Crime rates across the board are far below highs from the 1980s and 1990s according to the most recent statistics provided by MNPD.

“Safety is something that needs to be co-produced,” says John Buntin of policy group the Council on Criminal Justice. “It’s not just the job of the police or the courts. It’s something that healthy neighborhoods naturally produce. We don’t have a great understanding of some of these tools, and they haven’t been rigorously studied. They need to be part of a strategy that’s developed with community and with community input.”

From 2019 to 2023, Buntin served as the director of policing and community safety under Mayor John Cooper. He points to the work of Ron Johnson, now formally under the Metro Health Department, to secure grants for public art, library programs, community center upgrades, lighting repairs and traffic calming at Napier and Sudekum as an example of “co-producing safety.”

Surveillance tools, like other policing strategies, require vast amounts of money and time to have even a marginal effect on illegal activity. Over a 10-day stretch studied by the CRB, license plate readers scanned 3.5 million plates, of which they flagged 1,458 as “hits” — meaning they were possibly plates related to stolen cars or criminal activity. Of these, 119 were confirmed by a human officer as hits. Nine resulted in an apprehension, arrest or vehicle recovery. Over all six months, MNPD verified 1,316 hits, stopped 79 vehicles, recovered 80 stolen vehicles, and made 63 arrests.

A picture emerges with needle-in-the-haystack levels of tedium: Twenty-four cameras scan and store tens of millions of license plates, which prompt thousands of potential hits, which yield verified hits at less than 10 percent. Each verified hit is another massive gamble for an already understaffed force that results in no arrest or vehicle recovery about 90 percent of the time.

The same is true for ShotSpotter alerts. In 2022, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project published a third-party analysis of the product, concluding: “ShotSpotter surveillance increases police activity, but it wastes officers’ time. One major study of the technology showed that ShotSpotter fails as an investigative tool, providing no evidence of a gun-related crime more than 90% of the time and producing exceedingly few arrests (less than 1 per 200 stops) and recovered guns (less than 1 per 300 stops).”

As the city decides how to proceed with LPRs, Fusus or ShotSpotter, determining a worthwhile rate of arrests, rules for data retention, training for law enforcement, legal protections for citizens and subsequent questions about privacy and efficacy will fall to O’Connell and the Metro Council. As of August, MNPD had no “Fusus-specific policies, draft policies, or Standardized Operating Procedures” governing its video-collection nerve center. An active memorandum of understanding regarding Fusus between MNPD and Metro Nashville Public Schools prompts further concerns about surveilling people under 18. Cameras during the LPR pilot initially went up without signage required by ordinance, proving that regulation can be ignored even when it has been written into law.

During that same pilot, Bell Road and Trinity Lane had seven cameras between them. Green Hills had none. Across more than 130 cities, ShotSpotter was regularly deployed in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, the same racial demographics that disproportionately face police violence and incarceration. Nashville’s CRB flags all three technologies — ShotSpotter, Fusus and LPRs — as latent threats to equitable policing and citizens’ civil rights.

LPR boosters have dismissed concerns about video being used for immigration enforcement or hypothetical instances of state surveillance. Skeptics have brought up hypothetical situations, like a resentful cop tracking a former romantic partner or state law enforcement commandeering local technology to surveil individuals seeking out-of-state abortion care. In reality, data ownership between governments and private entities — like Fusus or the tech companies that sell LPRs — is new terrain.

“It’s not entirely clear the city can prevent a state or federal subpoena from being executed, if an agency wants to access the data,” Vanderbilt Law School professor Christopher Slobogin told the Scene back in August. Slobogin, a nationally renowned authority on police power and privacy, helped draft Nashville’s LPR legislation. “In the case of immigration, it’s possible immigration authorities could override any attempt by the city to stop access to the data. I think it’s a live issue. If I were the city, I’d be prepared to resist that, probably through litigation.”

Slobogin shares the Vanderbilt campus with Andrew Jackson Professor of History Sarah Igo, a prominent privacy researcher currently working on a book about the Social Security number.

Vandy’s 700 acres in the middle of Midtown are among the most surveilled places in Nashville. Cameras are everywhere. Building entrances are outfitted for swipe cards. Students use university digital infrastructure, from internet access to email accounts. Students involved in divestment activism and graduate student unionization have reported efforts by the administration to track their organizing — the potential consequences of a closely monitored world.

Proponents of mass surveillance commonly respond to concerns with some version of the following: “If I’m not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to fear.”

“That notion breaks down pretty quickly as you think about the freedom you want as a private citizen in a society,” Igo tells the Scene. “On LPRs or other types of capture, you may be fine with that until the moment that you’re not. Information is increasingly mobile, and it doesn’t always stay where you think it should stay.”

After studying centuries of data and privacy, Igo offers a few considerations as Nashville prepares its stance on privacy and public safety.

“Pretty much always, data gathering, maintenance, capture and collection are framed as public goods and offered as some kind of service, convenience, security, safety, protection or knowledge,” she says. “But we don’t have a lot of practice with anticipatory thinking. You think you would never do anything wrong, but you just don’t know what might happen to this data a month or a year down the line.” ▼

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

JOSHUA RADIN WITH MADDIE POPE

3.23

2.29 MATT ANDERSEN

2.29 MADDIE IN THE MORNING LIVE WITH TS MADISON

3.1 THE RAPTURE TOUR WITH JOHNNY MANCHILD & THE POOR BASTARDS AND SPECIAL GUESTS HOLDFAST

3.1 JOHN CAFFERTY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND

3.2 BUDDY MONDLOCK WITH MIKE LINDAUER & JIM MORAN

3.3 ROBERT JON & THE WRECK

3.5 SOFAINE PAMART

3.7 SEAN MCCONNELL WITH LIZ LONGLEY

3.8 CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO

3.9 CRYS MATTHEWS WITH SETH GLIER

3.9 RON POPE’S “A DROP IN THE OCEAN” 15TH ANNIVERSARY W/ TAYLOR BICKETT & ROBBY HECHT

3.10 MAURICE “MOBETTA” BROWN

3.12 GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS “UNCERTAIN COUNTRY” WINTER TOUR 2024

CITY OF LAUGHS PRESENTS JOSH PRAY FEATURING J.MCNUTT (2 SHOWS)

3.23

3.13 TANK AND THE BANGAS - THINK TANK 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW

3.15 ALYSSA JACEY

3.15 ANTHONY NUNZIATA SINGS ROMANTIC CLASSICS AND ORIGINALS

3.16 DRAG BRUNCH

3.16 NASHVILLE IMPROV COMEDY PRESENTS: MARCH MADNESS

3.16

HBCU -  PR EXPERIENCE PRESENTS: “HBCU & GREEK CELEBRATION” WITH SPECIAL GUEST MELVIN MILLER

3.18 GIVING GUITARS FOUNDATION BENEFIT CONCERT FT. STEVEN CADE

3.19

3.21

3.22

3.24

FEB. 29-MARCH 2

THURSDAY / 2.29

MUSIC [SUMMER NEVER DIES]

THE FOXIES

DANCE [LET’S DANCE!]

RAVE LUCID

Since opening its doors in 2014, OZ Arts has welcomed a wide range of innovative and internationally acclaimed artists. This weekend’s guests are no exception, as the French dance company Mazelfreten presents Rave Lucid. Mazelfreten is based in Paris and named for founding dancers/choreographers Brandon Masele and Laura Defretin, and they’re a fastrising company that blends elements of electro dance and hip-hop in a vibrant display that celebrates the Parisian rave culture of the 2000s. With 10 dancers pumping out moves at an incredible 120 beats per minute, Rave Lucid invites audiences into “a pulsing, euphoric world scored by house music” that feels absolutely spontaneous, despite the carefully synchronized choreography. But make no mistake about it: These fiercely physical sequences are balanced by slower, almost dreamlike moments that draw audiences into the thoughtful narrative. The three-night run is one dream you won’t want to wake from. AMY STUMPFL

FEB. 29-MARCH 2 AT OZ ARTS

6172 COCKRILL BEND CIRCLE

MUSIC [UNTIL THE NEXT ONE]

PALE LUNGS W/PONY & MORE

Pale Lungs’ next move as one of Nashville’s best indie-rock exports finds the group on an East Coast tour with Toronto’s grunge-pop champions PONY. The 11-city jaunt begins on Leap Day at The End. On the band’s self-titled 2023 album, Pale Lungs lean into their lyricism without overshadowing the band’s compelling blend of shoegaze and emo instrumentation. Pale Lungs’ first local gig of the year is worth the price of admission, but don’t sleep on a chance to bask in all of PONY’s guitar-slinging, hook-dispensing glory. Core PONY members Sam Bielanski and Matty Morand wrote elitelevel ’90s alt-rock homages — think Veruca Salt, The Breeders, Belly and Letters to Cleo — for their must-hear 2021 album TV Baby and its equally fantastic follow-up, 2023’s Velveteen Local songsmith Bogues and industrial dreampop duo Pressure Heaven round out the bill.

ADDIE MOORE

7 P.M. AT THE END

2219 ELLISTON PLACE

The Foxies are a beautiful reminder that Music City stands for much more than country music. The 2016-formed local DIY pop trio has a collection of bangers that really demands some jumping around. During Thursday’s Leap Day show, you’ll definitely hear new earworm single “Call Me Later,” as well as the brilliantly named and uber catchy “Timothée Chalamet.” The Foxies offer perhaps one of the most charismatic frontwomen I’ve ever seen live. Julia Lauren Bullock is an absolute delight to watch, and her energetic stage presence reminds me of some of my favorites: Hayley Williams, Lizzy Plapinger of MS MR and Gwen Stefani back in her No Doubt days. I first saw The Foxies open for ’80s New Wave mainstays Berlin with legendary frontwoman Terri Nunn, and they really fit in seamlessly. Thursday’s show kicks off with local indie rockers Flight Attendant, so it’s a great chance to invest in Nashville’s poppier offerings and check out the newly reopened Cannery Row venues. I have a hunch The Foxies will be playing larger and larger stages.

HANNAH HERNER

8 P.M. AT ROW ONE STAGE

1 CANNERY ROW

PHOTO: JONATHAN LUTUMBA

JAGGED LITTLE PILL PAGE 18 DAÐI FREYR PAGE 20

THE KILLS PAGE 22

DROPKICK MURPHYS

With Saint Patrick’s Day looming, could anything be better for Nashville’s Celtic rock music lovers than a Dropkick Murphys concert at Marathon Music Works? Indeed, the boys are back, and they’re looking for trouble (the positive kind of trouble, to be clear). Now 28 years into providing their fans a raucous blend of old-school Scottish/Irish folk music fused with hard-driving Celtic rock, DKM has become an institution of sorts, consistently creating strong music and undertaking various charitable work. Even folks who know very little about the band find the Murphys oddly appealing. For proof, check the YouTube videos of non-DKM fans reacting to some of the group’s classics, including “Shipping Up to Boston,” “The Season’s Upon Us,” “Rose Tattoo” and “Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced.” Sadly, DKM remains without co-lead vocalist Al Barr (still on hiatus while caring for an ailing relative). But founder and fellow frontman Ken Casey leads the charge with energy and skill. And how about newish Highland bagpipe, fiddle and tin whistle player Campbell Webster? The lads made a strong choice by adding the New Hampshire native in 2022 to replace the beloved Lee Forshner. So for all you workers who toil night and day, if you want blood … straight from the heart till the job is done. Pennywise and The Scratch provide support. WILLIAM WILLIAMS

7 P.M. AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS

1402 CLINTON ST.

MARCH / 3.1

THEATER [YOU LIVE, YOU LEARN]

JAGGED LITTLE PILL

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of Alanis Morissette’s 1995 chart-topping album Jagged Little Pill. Beyond its many accolades and awards — including a Grammy for Album of the Year — it’s also credited with opening doors for a generation of female singer-songwriters. Of course, Jagged Little Pill also inspired an exciting new stage musical, which arrives Friday at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Unlike a lot of recent jukebox musicals, Jagged Little Pill features an original Tony Award-winning book by Diablo Cody (Juno) that follows a seemingly perfect American family struggling to navigate a world of complicated issues. Directed by Tony winner Diane Paulus (Waitress, Pippin, 1776) and featuring orchestrations by Tony and Grammy winner Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), the show features unforgettable songs like “All I Really Want,” “Hand in My Pocket,” “Ironic,” “Head Over Feet,” “You Oughta Know,” “You Learn” and more. AMY STUMPFL

MAR. 1-2 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL

505 DEADERICK ST.

MUSIC [INPUT!]

PARTICIPATE IN THE GREATER NASHVILLE MUSIC CENSUS

In late January, a coalition of local organizations including Music Venue Alliance Nashville,

Belmont University and the Nashville Musicians Association announced its plan for the Greater Nashville Music Census, which is set to go live Friday. The goal is to gather data to support policy recommendations about the challenges facing our music ecosystem, from economic hardships faced by musicians to the challenges of running an independent venue and beyond.

The organizers are seeking information from local professionals and students over age 18 who are part of the music industry — you’re eligible if you live in one of 14 counties including Davidson and “if you contribute any type of music-related work, with or without compensation, and you believe your skills and commitment are worthy of acknowledgment and support,” per the frequently asked questions page on the GNMC website. Responses will be logged via the website. They’re looking for thorough and thoughtful responses, but don’t wait too long: The census will be open for only one month. The program runs parallel to PennPraxis’ Nashville Independent Venues Study, which is expected to issue a report in early spring; the census findings are expected to be made public in early summer. STEPHEN TRAGESER MARCH 1-31 AT GREATERNASHVILLEMUSICCENSUS.COM

SATURDAY / 3.2

MUSIC [WIZARD RETURNS]

ERIC GALES

It seems it was only yesterday (rather than more than three decades ago) that Carlos Santana was answering a question on Arsenio Hall’s late-night show about emerging guitar heroes and he raved about “a young blood, a young brother down there in Memphis, 16 years old, Eric Gales.” Since then Gales has enjoyed the rush and riches of sudden fame and also made some personal missteps. Thankfully, his technical wizardry — which includes remarkable speed and facility and an almost visionary ability to craft memorable solos with ease — wasn’t destroyed or eroded by the time away from playing caused by his misfortunes. Gales has recorded nearly 20 LPs since his fabulous 1991 Elektra debut The Eric Gales Band. It was two years ago that he released arguably the finest work of his stellar career, The Crown. The album, co-produced mainly here in town with fellow blues-rock royalty Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, showcased not only Gales’ stylistic flexibility as he easily and frequently shifted from jazzy riffs to bluesy fills or rock-oriented statements — it also displayed a stronger, more seasoned and capable vocal style. It also demonstrated a willingness as a songwriter to explore and discuss controversial subjects, most notably relations between police and the Black community in the tense days after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Eric Gales has grown into and embraced the role of powerhouse performer and contemporary spokesman/advocate for a 21st-century blues many envisioned him fulfilling since they first heard and saw him dazzle crowds as a teenager. He’s among the very best in a group of modern-

day players comfortable in all blues styles, but is also influenced by everything else in the sonic universe, from jazz to hip-hop and rock. Southern Avenue opens. RON WYNN

8 P.M. AT 3RD & LINDSLEY

818 THIRD AVE.

SUNDAY / 3.3

COMEDY [DIVINE COMEDY]

TINA FRIML

While a lot of comedy tries to ride the line between bleakness and optimism, Vermont comic Tina Friml invites the two emotions to overlap and coexist in the same space. Much of her work centers on the social experiences she has as a woman with cerebral palsy. But her jokes never rely on cop-outs of “dark comedy.” Friml, who somehow has a two-syllable last name in spite of the 4:1 consonant-vowel ratio, finds punch lines in hopefulness as often as she does sadness, while subtly reminding us all of the importance of empathy. Her innovative way of playing with timing gives us the chance to sit

with our uncomfortableness before laughing. After making her Tonight Show debut last year and getting a big push from Comedy Central on all the social media formats, Friml is catching the ears of new fans. P.J. KINZER

7 P.M. AT ZANIES

2025 EIGHTH AVE. S.

[TURN IT UP]

MUSIC

ANALOG SOUL: A CELEBRATION OF MAKING NOISE

Throughout February, local public radio stations WPLN and WNXP jointly published weekly episodes of a limited-series podcast called Making Noise. Hosted by the organization’s senior music writer, longtime Nashville music journalist Jewly Hight, the program tells the story of Lovenoise, Nashville’s biggest Black-owned concert promotions group. The organization began in 2003 as a group looking to put on a show welcoming to all — but by Black Nashville musicians and for a Black audience. At first Lovenoise struggled to find a venue willing to host the event, but the weekly party quickly became a significant cultural touchstone, which has now impacted two generations of Black musicians and music-biz folk. Hight and her team connect the history of the havoc wreaked upon North Nashville and

its legendary Jefferson Street entertainment district by the construction of I-40 — which occurred in the 1960s, around the same time the city funded projects like building the original Country Music Hall of Fame — to Lovenoise’s key role in broadening the cultural identity and brand of “Music City,” so heavily defined by whiteness. While there’s still major work to be done in order for Nashville to have a truly thriving social and economic ecosystem around Black art, Lovenoise was the catalyst for notable progress over the past 20 years, which has changed the calculus for a rising generation of musicians. To further the conversation, Hight will present some selections from the podcast Saturday evening at Analog and lead a panel discussion with some voices you’ll know from the episodes, including musician Mike Hicks, producer A.B. Eastwood and Brian Sexton, who’s Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s liaison with the Metro Council. The five founders of Lovenoise will be on hand for a toast, and multifaceted MC, author, speaker and spoken-word artist Rashad tha Poet will perform. A regular installment of the Analog Soul showcase series, hosted by Kenny Smoov, will follow; more festivities are set to be announced, so keep an eye on the Eventbrite ticket page and the Instagram profiles of WPLN and WNXP for updates.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

6 P.M. AT ANALOG AT HUTTON HOTEL 1808 WEST END AVE.

MUSIC [BAND IN D.C.]

DARKEST HOUR W/MOUTH FOR WAR, SOMNURI

Very few terms in the underground are met with more dismissiveness (if not outright disgust) than “metalcore.” The fusion subgenre conjures imagery of comically overproduced guitars, embarrassing graphic design, regrettable haircuts and dudes wearing eyeliner and women’s pants while screaming outright misogyny. But Washington, D.C.’s Darkest Hour has always been one of the bands that can rise above their peers to create really interesting music. DH quickly set themselves apart from their mid-’90s contemporaries by bringing a sense of musicality to their ultra-heavy ballistic approach, an idea that was often shunned within their scene. Their hooks, sometimes compared to the Swedish ragers At the Gates or even Iron Maiden, have the kind of melodic magnetism that makes Darkest Hour more approachable to new listeners without ever dumbing down the music or making records that only guitar store employees can enjoy. Just a year shy of their 30th anniversary, the band released their 10th album together, Perpetual Terminal, on Feb. 23 via the MNRK label. For their tour stop in Nashville, Darkest Hour is bringing Colorado’s Mouth for War (who borrowed their name from a Vulgar Display-era Pantera song) and Brooklyn’s Somnuri, a band for folks who love the spacious, down-tuned art-metal of artists like Isis and Tombs. P.J. KINZER

7 P.M. AT EXIT IN 2208 ELLISTON PLACE

PHOTO: JIM MCCAMBRIDGE

ALEX

artist Alex Slay blends rootsy, classic melodies with fresh songs to match his freespirited disposition. He will be

and

[BEST IN SHOW]

MONDAY / 3.4

MUSIC [I’LL LISTEN] DAÐI FREYR

One of the biggest bummers of the coronavirus pandemic was the fact that the song “Think About Things” by Icelandic tunesmith Daði Freyr didn’t get to win the canceled Eurovision 2020 finals. (I’m using the word “bummer” to mean “a thing that kind of blows” rather than “a genuine tragedy” — there were enough of the latter in 2020.) Check out the pre-finals performance video to see what I mean. Not only is the tune extremely catchy, but it’s performed by an infectiously bouncy group of musicians playing goofy fake instruments and belting out simple, singable lyrics about wanting to know what a newborn baby is thinking. Cute! The musicians are led by Freyr himself, who acts as if it’s his solemn duty to swing his lanky frame between multiple microphone stands set up along the stage to sing this obviously silly song. It’s the standout track by the Reykjavík native, but his other songs ride the same feel-good vibe — check out “10 Years,” which placed a respectable fourth in Eurovision 2021. Freyr is bringing his winning songs to the U.S. this spring with a stop in Nashville supported by local DJ Ken Sable, known for his work with Sparkle City Disco. Given Freyr’s history, I have barely a guess as to what the actual show will look like, but I can’t wait to know. COLE VILLENA

9 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL

1508 GALLATIN PIKE

TUESDAY / 3.5

[BABY BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN]

MUSIC

GNARWHAL AND EDHOCHULI W/DAY JOB, HUMAN SHIELD & YAMMER JAW

It might be going too far to suggest Tuesday’s show at Drkmttr is a straight-up reunion, but if you’ve been a fan of the noise-rock, grindviolence, epic-as-shit music scene in Nashville in the past 13 years, you could be surprised by all the familiar faces. (Fans of defunct DIY space The Other Basement, assemble!) Starting with the big boys: Pittsburgh’s post-hardcore outfit Edhochuli are back on tour promoting their new LP Higherlander. The five-piece features two drummers and a set dripping in heavy riffs and a rawness that is sure to cement their spot as a live show powerhouse. Quenching the local thirst is our second headliner: Gnarwhal. The duo was separated at opposite ends of the country, but they’re coming together to play their first hometown show in five years. Tyler Coburn’s athletic drumming meshes with Chappy Hull’s riffs and vocals to create a good old high-energy ruckus that is a must-see all on its own. But wait — there’s more! Day Job (featuring members of Birmingham, Ala., favorites Null) are in town to join in with their noisy rock. Human Shield from Memphis will get in on the fun with a violent and gnarly set. Sheep Shifter and members of Watcher and Ryoki Center are repackaged as

BEST PICTURE NOMINEES SHOWING AT THE BELCOURT

THE HOLDOVERS

Full disclosure: I’ve always found Alexander Payne and his critically lauded films to be a bit overrated. Then again, the man makes movies mostly about self-deluded middle-aged failures, which didn’t seem all that appealing during my hopeful younger years. Now that I’m a middleaged failure myself, I can honestly say his latest Oscar-nominated film The Holdovers is currently my favorite Alexander Payne film. Payne reunited with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti, who finally got a Best Actor nomination for playing yet another pretentious man of letters. This time, he’s a cranky prep-school English teacher who spends a snowy 1970s winter looking after a troubled — and troublesome — teen (Dominic Sessa). Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name) is poised to win Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the heartbroken school cook who completes this makeshift misfit family. Along with being a big-ass tribute to ’70s filmmaker Hal Ashby, The Holdovers is my favorite Payne for its warm, witty portrait of lonesome souls looking out for each other during the holidays. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

5:30 P.M. MARCH 1 & 4:45 P.M. MARCH 8

BARBIE

After releasing as the kind of remarkable work that Hollywood never learns the right lessons from, this philosophically complex and deeply enjoyable modern classic hit the first speed bump of this year’s Oscars the day after the nominations were announced, with lots of bad takes and some trenchant thoughts battling it out like a fireworks display. That doesn’t diminish director/co-writer Greta Gerwig’s achievement — a triumph of taking an artistic no-win situation and delivering not just the most successful film of 2023 and a nominee for eight Oscars, but also a Whitman’s Sampler of ideas that can fuel multilevel discussion. The only serious mark against it is that if it hadn’t been successful, Warner Bros. CEO and criminal against cinema David Zaslav would absolutely have been fired. JASON SHAWHAN

6:45 P.M. MARCH 1, 5:45 P.M. MARCH 5 & 5:45 P.M. MARCH 5

OPPENHEIMER

Christopher Nolan achieved something truly special with this one, turning a history lesson about unspeakable violence into a massive success that managed to be an educational spectacle (especially in 70 mm). When the film is firing on all cylinders (its first half), this feels like Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein, a formalist dive into the life of a mind working on a level

far beyond the rest of humanity, with the added bonus of touches of cosmic horror peeking in occasionally. Cillian Murphy gives an Anthony Perkins performance that grounds the viewer in the horrors of the 20th century (and beyond), and likewise when Emily Blunt goes all Stockard Channing, it’s glorious. But there’s some clangy crime against dialogue throughout, and the judicial mystery of the second half only really works the first time through. Still, this is the big frontrunner for March 10’s ceremony, and no one is more dedicated to format awareness and the theatrical experience than Nolan.

JASON SHAWHAN

9:10 P.M. MARCH 1, 8:10 P.M. MARCH 5 & 8:10 P.M. MARCH 9

MAESTRO

Once again proving that the Academy as a whole can tolerate queer stories involving men who, as an ongoing plot point, waste women’s time (see also: Brokeback Mountain, American Fiction, Call Me by Your Name), this madefor-Netflix biopic of the late, great Leonard Bernstein is a testament to director/star Bradley Cooper’s talent, but also his voracious need for some awards love. There’s nothing wrong with being Oscar-thirsty, and truthfully, he directs the hell out of this thing, with thoughtful and incisive compositions that are effective, creative and haunting. It also has Snoopy’s best nonPeanuts-related big-screen appearance since Josie and the Pussycats JASON SHAWHAN

12:10 P.M. MARCH 2 & 8 P.M. MARCH 7

PAST LIVES

Fifteen years ago, the Academy began nominating roughly 10 films in the Best Picture category rather than roughly five. Since then, a handful of broad archetypes have emerged as perennial nominees in the category: a critically acclaimed international film or two; a box-office smash; a dour biopic; whatever masterwork Martin Scorsese has put out most recently. Often, a quiet, relatively low-budget independent feature makes the cut as well. Ticking that box this year is Celine Song’s excellent directorial debut Past Lives. The romantic drama follows a Korean American immigrant (a subtle and brilliant Greta Lee) who lives in New York City and — despite being in a happy if relatively mundane marriage — reconnects with a childhood crush. In just 106 minutes, Song manages to take an incredibly specific scenario and make it feel almost universally relatable. Past Lives is soft, and simple, and beautiful, making it a dark horse in the Best Picture category. But if you missed its theatrical run back in the summer, it’s worth catching on the big screen this time around. D. PATRICK RODGERS

6:45 P.M. MARCH 2 & 5:45 P.M. MARCH 7

POOR THINGS

My mom saw this. When it comes to unexpected victories, no amount of shiny Oscar loot can compare to the fact that this gloriously kinky,

righteous, socially conscious, incredibly funny body horror sci-fi phantasy got my mom and her friends to go see it, and dig what it had on its mind. I’ve been on the Yorgos Lanthimos train for years (he’s yet to make a bad film), and this adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel is both fluffy-fanciful and razor-sharp; the closest anyone has come (up to and including Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem) to making a real-deal Ken Russell movie. Emma Stone could very well get another Best Actress statue for this one, and everybody rightfully loves Mark Ruffalo as Matt Berry. But since first seeing it in September, I’ve been saying Searchlight could wrangle this a Best Picture Oscar. (They managed it with The Shape of Water, though they couldn’t manage to do anything for All of Us Strangers, least of all a physical release — for shame.) Also, the duckdog. JASON SHAWHAN

9 P.M. MARCH 2 & 4:10 P.M. MARCH 6

AMERICAN FICTION

I gotta admit I was surprised by the love Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut American Fiction received from the Oscar-voting Academy. It has five nominations, including Best Picture. Then again, it is a movie that practically dares white people to dismiss it. This story of a frustrated Black writer (Jeffrey Wright) who becomes a sensation writing a ghetto-AF book that the pale-faced crowd overpraises to hell is really a deadpan satire about, as I said in my full review, “how goofy-ass white folks will eat up stories about Black folks scratching and surviving.” Although I wish the film went balls-to-the-wall with the skewering, I am glad Wright, one of the most underappreciated Black actors working today, received his first Best Actor nomination for his performance. I’m also pleased with the Best Supporting Actor nod Sterling K. Brown received for his turn as his newly out-and-proud brother. Will they win? Most likely, no. But at least the Oscars got their game-recognize-game on and gave these brothas their long-overdue props.

D. LINDSEY

CRAIG

3 P.M. MARCH 3 & 3:15 P.M. MARCH 9

ALSO SCREENING AS PART OF THE BELCOURT’S BEST PICTURE MARATHON:

Anatomy of a Fall (March 3 & 9), The Zone of Interest (March 3 & 8) and Killers of the Flower Moon (March 2 & 8)

oct

917

Upcoming shows

mar 1 mar 2 mar 3 mar 4 mar 5 mar 8 mar 9 mar 10 mar 11 mar 12 mar 14 mar 16 mar 18 mar 19 mar 21

mar 22 mar 23 mar 25 mar 26 mar 27 mar 28

Kolton Moore & The Clever Few w/ Jordan Nix Evan Honer w/ theo kandel taela

eric bellinger w/ zae france chelsea wolfe w/ divide & dissolve flyana boss w/ Honey Bxby lucero w/ Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals Starvation League enjoy w/ cowgirl clue beach weather w/ Phoneboy & Rec Hall matt maltese w/ The Army, The Navy Tanner Usrey w/ Kat Hasty jonathan richman ft. tommy larkins on drums mclusky w/ ganser

Em Beihold w/ Will Linley bendigo fletcher w/ free range

nikki lane w/ kaitlin butts

sierra hull w/ gabe lee donna missal between the buried and me w/ the acacia strain between the buried and me w/ the acacia strain jervis campbell w/ Nathan Colberg

mar 29 mar 30 Mar 31 apr 1 apr 3 apr 4 apr 5 apr 6 apr 7 apr 8 apr 9 apr 10 apr 12 apr 13 apr 14 apr 15 apr 17 apr 18 apr 20

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 |

Upcoming shows

feb 29 feb 29 mar 1 mar 2 mar 2 mar 3

mar 4 mar 4 mar 5 mar 6 mar 6

kate yeager w/ Jordan Lindley (7pm)

judy blank w/ Patrick Damphier (9pm) bag men

Zachary Scott Kline w/ zoe cummins (7pm)

electric python (9pm)

a tribute to huey lewis and the news ft. the blockbusters wesley dean (7pm)

Palomina w/ Shannon Lee Hayden (9pm)

pug johnson (7pm)

bones owens (7pm)

Hunnybear, Maxxwellhouse, Mr Mayo (9pm)

BACKSTAGE AT 3RD: SIX ONE FIVE COLLECTIVE

MONKEYS ON A STRING - A Tribute to DAVE MATTHEWS and TIM REYNOLDS

THE TIME JUMPERS

WMOT Roots Radio Presents Finally Fridays featuring AMELIA WHITE, LANCE COWAN & WILA FRANK

SMOKING SECTION

a plea for purging w/ Orthodox, Alert the Sky, Alcina & Get Your Guns

a plea for purging w/ Orthodox, Alert the Sky, Alcina & No Cure

69 eyes w/ The Bites & Budderside tiny habits w/ Beane

maoli w/ Andrew Duhon & Lindsay James

stop light observations w/ Easy Honey

caleb hearon & annie dirusso

guided by voices w/ John P. Strohm

smallpools x grayscale w/ Moody Joody and The Romance the crane wives w/ Rachel Bobbitt

payton smith

the strumbellas w/ certainly so nolan taylor

Willi Carlisle w/ Nat Myers

taylor acorn

mannequin pussy w/ Soul Glo alice phoebe lou w/ sam burton

Darren Kiely giant rooks

mar 7 mar 7 mar 8 mar 8 mar 9 mar 9 mar 10 mar 10 mar 11 mar 11 mar 12 mar 13

ZDAN and Terra Lightfoot (7pm)

Josh Morningstar (9pm)

Tow'rs w/ A Boy And His Kite (7pm)

no control: a bad religion tribute (9pm)

the Vices w/ Matt Sahadi (7pm)

the wolves of glendale (9pm)

wheatus w/ Gabrielle Sterbenz (6:30pm)

Future Crib, Psymon Psine (9pm)

THUS LOVE + Native Sun (7pm)

Danielle Durack w/ Laura Berens & Purser (9pm)

lylak

Bo Staloch w/ Joy Hotchkiss

Backstage Nashville Daytime Hit Songwriters Show feat. ANTHONY SMITH, BRICE LONG, D VINCENT WILLIAMS & COLE HALLMAN + RAYNES

STICK MEN feat. TONY LEVIN, PAT MASTELOTTO & MARCUS REUTER ERIC GALES with SOUTHERN AVENUE

3/12 JULIA COLE, GRACE LEER, CATIE OFFERMAN, ALEX KLINE & AVA PAIGE

3/14 MILES CONNOR, CONNOR FIEHLER, CLAIRE ERNST

3/15 SIXWIRE & FRIENDS

3/16 WORLD TURNING BAND

3/17 MUSIC CITY IRISH FESTIVAL

3/17 PHOSPHORESCENT

3/18 BLUEBIRD ON 3RD

3/19 THE FRENCH CONNEXION

BACKSTAGE AT 3RD: Writers for Racehorses - A Benefit for SAFE HARBOR SANCTUARY with CHLOE LITTON, LEXI LEW, ANTHONY MOSSBURG with Special Guests SEAN PATRICK MCGRAW with members of THE IMPERFECT FEW!

EMILY WEST with MAIA SHARP

TEDDY THOMPSON Presents My Love of Country with Special Guests BUDDY MILLER & NICOLE ATKINS

3/21 BETH ORTON WITH SAM AMIDON

3/22 RESURRECTION: A JOURNEY TRIBUTE

3/23 FAB NASHVILLE A BEATLES TRIBUTE

3/23 HOGSLOP STRING BAND

3/24 THE MINKS WITH THE LOVE-IN

3/25 BLUEBIRD ON 3RD

3/26 MUSIC ON THE MOVE

3/27 JEDD HUGHES WITH THE DANBERRYS

3/28 FIGHTER FEST

3/29 EAST NASH GRASS

3/30 GUILTY PLEASURES

3/31 SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS WITH MALI VELASQUEZ

4/6 PAT MCLAUGHLIN BAND

4/28

JOHNNYSWIM

7/12

4/10 EMILY WEST

4/11 BACKSTAGE AT 3RD: RHETT MCDANIEL

4/11 GRADY SPENCER & THE WORK

4/12 THE FLOATING MEN SOLD OUT!

4/13 THE FLOATING MEN SOLD OUT!

4/14 THE FLOATING MEN SOLD OUT!

4/16 FASTBALL CELEBRATING 30 YEARS WITH HEFFNER

4/17 AUGUST CHRISTOPHER 25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

4/18 SANDRA MCCRACKEN

4/21 ROBBY HECHT

4/7 LOCKELAND STRINGS FEAT. NATALIE PRASS, CAITLIN ROSE, JOHANNA SAMUELS & LYDIA LUCE

ROB BAIRD

lucero w/ Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals Starvation League

zachary scott kline w/ zoe cummins

3/2

3/7

3/10

3/3 3/4

flyana boss w/ Honey Bxby enjoy w/ Cowgirl Clue

3/5

ZDAN and Terra Lightfoot

3/9

3/8

taela eric bellinger w/ zae france

Yammer Jaw (another noise-rock rage machine), who will finish out the night. M.L. MEADORS

7 P.M. AT DRKMTTR

1111 DICKERSON PIKE

MUSIC [BLUES PRESCRIPTION] PETER CASE

Power pop had fused with New Wave music by the early 1980s, and you can hear the fusion on Los Angeles band The Plimsouls’ 1983 album Everywhere at Once. On tunes like the record’s “Shaky City,” the band revved up those reliable British Invasion chord changes into something that approximated what you might call a hit. The Plimsouls’ 1982 “A Million Miles Away” remains their best-known song via its use in director Martha Coolidge’s film Valley Girl. “A Million Miles Away” was co-written by Plimsoul founder Peter Case, who had already served time in another power-pop band, The Nerves. Case’s subsequent solo career has seen him delve into the history of rock, with his 2010 full-length Wig! a convincing re-creation of various old-school styles. I can’t make much sense out of Case’s 2021 The Midnight Broadcast, which features two Bob Dylan covers and several folk tunes that Case and producer Ron Franklin bend out of shape with synthesizers. The Midnight Broadcast also sports spoken-word sections by noted Memphis drummer and humorist Ross Johnson that don’t add much context to the proceedings. Case’s 2023 release Doctor Moan finds the snazzy power-pop guitarist playing mostly piano on a set of songs that combine Dylan-esque turns with sections that sound like Case set out to rewrite various blues tunes. When it works — check out something titled “Wandering Days,” on which Case plays guitar — Doctor Moan comes across as a humanist take on bedrock North American music, and Case’s imprecise, impressionistic piano work has its charms. EDD HURT 9 P.M. AT THE BLUEBIRD CAFE 4104 HILLSBORO PIKE

MUSIC [KINGDOM COME]

THE KILLS

Glory to rock ’n’ roll, and praise to The Kills. The tenured rock duo — featuring Nashville musician (and Dead Weather member) Alison Mosshart on vocals and Jamie Hince on guitar — returns to Music City this week. The band’s Brooklyn Bowl show is part of a headlining tour in support of world-bending rock epic God Games, the 2023 album released via tastemaking label Domino. On the band’s website, Hince describes

God Games as a “record of godless spirituals.” He continues: “In real life, I’m an atheist. Creatively, I play with God a lot though. I liked occupying the space between those opposites.” It was recorded with Adele collaborator Paul Epworth in — you guessed it — a church, and listeners can hear the result on songs such as the howling “Love and Tenderness,” the slick-riffy opening number “New York,” standout ballad “Blank” and the sonically enveloping title track. British post-punk act Heartworms opens the show. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL

925 THIRD AVE. N.

WEDNESDAY / 3.6

MUSIC [BLUES IS KING] TINSLEY ELLIS W/SHANNON McNALLY

If I had to choose from among the four great blues guitarists with the last name of King, I guess I’d go with Freddie King, whose instrumentals remain models of economy. B.B. King is not always a first-rate singer, and Albert King got his best backing from the Stax Records house band Booker T. and the MGs. Meanwhile, the unjustly forgotten 1940s blues player Saunders King has his moments, but he’s a bit old-fashioned. For Atlanta-born and Florida-raised guitarist and singer Tinsley Ellis, the era of electric blues — which encompasses far more than the celebrated Kings of guitar — serves as the backdrop to his work. Like a lot of players who came up in the 1970s and ’80s, Ellis sometimes veers into R&B territory, as on his 1992 tune “The Hulk,” which sounds like, say, a cover band in a suburban Atlanta club playing a Meters pastiche that includes touches of Jeff Beck-style lead guitar. Ellis switches to acoustic guitar on his new full-length Naked Truth, released this month. Ellis writes in the timehonored blues-rock vein on “Tallahassee Blues,” and he tackles Leo Kottke’s 1969 solo guitar piece “The Sailor’s Grave on the Prairie” for good measure. The veteran Freddie King acolyte will be joined by all-purpose country-blues-rock singer Shannon McNally, who brings R&B-style phrasing to her material. Her latest album is 2023’s Live at Dee’s, which documents a series of superb shows she performed at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in 2022. EDD HURT

7 P.M. AT RIVERSIDE REVIVAL

1600 RIVERSIDE DRIVE

PETER CASE

PHOTO: EKEVARA KITPOWSONG

Tuesday, March 5, 2024 | 6 – 8 p.m. tnfl avors.org

Nashville State Community College Southeast Campus 5248 Hickory Hollow Parkway, Antioch, TN 37013

Presenting Sponsor:

thur 2/29

4PM Open Mic Night w/ Dave Nooe 9PM Sarah & Shannon Residency w/ Skout

fri 3/1

sat 3/2

tue 3/5

7PM Sara Syms • Kat Jones • Faith Kelley

9PM Ronny Criss and The New Town Sound • Damn Lonesomes w/ Special Guest Hope Cassity

7PM SOLD OUT!

EG Vines • Stephanie Lambring

TexPats

THU 2.29

FRI 3.1

SAT 3.2

SUN 3.3

MON 3.4

TUE 3.5

WED 3.6

THU 3.7

• FREE BEER (NOT A JOKE) FEAT:

• AMERICAN SNAP

• TONY SALOMONE • ANGE

• YEARB4 • LOMBARDY • ROSETTA

• STRAY ARCADE SINGLE RELEASE W/

• THE WELTERS • JONNY LUCAS

• MCKAY • KENDEL LEGORE

• LANEY JONES

• KNOTTS • TOGETHER BREAKFAST

• GRACE CHRISTIAN X • LB LEISTAD

• ULTIMATE COMEDY FREE LOCAL STAND UP!

• CHARLIE HILL • GREG FREEMAN

• MERCE LEMON • LILY SEABIRD

• MOL SULLIVAN

• ETHAN SAMUEL BROWN • NICK FAIR

2412 GALLATIN AVE @THEEASTROOM

Tennessee Flavors is an annual tasting event that brings together Nashville’s top restaurants and food and beverage artisans for a delicious evening in support of the Nashville State Community College Foundation. Our focus is on Tennessee-sourced products and the culinary talents and local flavors that help make our growing community so special.

Saturday, March 2

SONGWRITER SESSION Kelsey Waldon

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, March 3

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT C. J. Lewandowski

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 9

SONGWRITER SESSION

Mark Miller and Mac McAnally

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 9

NASHVILLE CATS

Dan Dugmore

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, March 10

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT John McEuen

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 16

HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party

9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

Sunday, March 17

PANEL DISCUSSION

Celtic and Country Music Connections

With Altan and Jerry Douglas

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 23

SONGWRITER SESSION Ashley Cooke

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, March 24

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Striking Matches

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

WITNESS HISTORY

Museum Membership

Receive

FULL CALENDAR

7PM

Songwriters Bringing Texas To Nashville hosted by Rachel Laven + Grace Pettis

FIRST IN GLASS

Glasshaüs in Berry Hill is a different kind of coffee shop

BY KELSEY BEYELER

LIKE MOLTEN GLASS, Glasshaüs takes more than one shape. It’s challenging to quickly sum up the new Berry Hill business. At its core, Glasshaüs is a glass-art gallery and studio. Its 10,000 square feet provide ample space to host all kinds of events — food events, casual drinks, glass-blowing demonstrations resulting in a piece of art you can take home. Casual visitors can stroll in to peruse the gallery and enjoy Glasshaüs’ gorgeous coffee shop, restaurant and bar.

We have Wyatt Maxwell to thank for this new gem. A local with a keen business sense, lots of creativity and all the right connections, Maxwell studied at Centre College in Danville, Ky., before ultimately receiving a degree from Belmont University. Centre College happened to have a glass studio next to the clay studio that Maxwell frequented, which ignited his love for the craft. After working a few jobs post-college, he wanted to pivot to work he felt more passionate about. Enter Glasshaüs. Maxwell says the idea was born when he realized there weren’t other glass studios in Nashville, though he knew he’d need to find different ways to bring people in.

“A glass studio would not be an easy business to operate — just glass,” says Maxwell. “That’s

limiting because people aren’t used to glass. … But if [it’s] able to be put on top of another business like an event space or a bar or a coffee shop or a restaurant, it can work really well.”

And so that’s what Maxwell did. When you walk into Glasshaüs, which opened in November, you’ll quickly notice the beautiful glass that’s incorporated into every detail of the shop, from pieces decorating the dining room to those for sale in the gallery and even the vessels that coffee and cocktails are served in. All of it is for sale. People can also work with resident artisans to develop custom orders like barware or glass light installations (which they’ll also install).

“We want people to start stocking their houses with local, handmade glass,” says Maxwell.

You can also find pieces that aren’t made locally in the Maxwell Gallery, which is curated by Maxwell’s mother Juliana. The gallery features an eclectic mix of pieces that might challenge your idea of how glass can be used as an art form. Vibrant bowls throw colorful light onto the gallery’s surfaces, surrounded by beautiful, gravity-defying sculptures, gigantic goblets, uniquely shaped vases, realistic-looking antlers and so much more — all of which

Glasshaüs

483

features striking colors. The gallery is currently featuring works by Asher Holman, Paul Nelson, Robert Burch, Hayden Wilson, Grant Garmezy and Sam Spees — plus the particularly special work of Stephen Rolfe Powell. An acclaimed glass artist whose work has been shown across the word, Powell taught Maxwell at Centre College. Because of a connection with Powell’s family, the folks at Glasshaüs were able to bring in art that they likely wouldn’t be able to feature otherwise.

You can also expect to see artists creating in real time. On March 15, Glasshaüs will host John Miller, whose works are already featured in the space. Miller is the artist behind the playful sets of giant keys currently hanging around the building, and the glass hamburger-and-fries sculptures. He’ll stop by to give a live presentation while creating a pint glass, alongside other St. Patrick’s Day-themed activities, including a performance from an Irish folk band. Past events have included pop-up dinners with live glass-making, DJ sets and a Nashville Soccer Club game-day party done in collaboration with Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. Folks can also sign up for one-on-one glass-making classes to create a range of different items throughout the year.

Maxwell says they’re planning to add more advanced classes for those who are interested in learning the skill more seriously.

But there’s more here than glass art. Glasshaüs’ creative takes on food and coffee include a limited but fresh lineup of breakfast and lunch-centric options, such as a requisite avocado toast that consists of locally made sourdough, a spicy, nutty salsa and pumpkin seeds. With beans roasted in-house, Glasshaüs features your typical coffee-shop items, plus seasonal options you can discuss with the barista. One special cold brew is made from coffee beans that were aged in a whiskey barrel before being roasted. And that’s not to mention the cocktails.

For those looking to add a new spot to their repertoire of local coffee shops, Glasshaüs is it. The laid-back open dining room is a perfect place to get some work done, take a meeting, gather with friends or sit alone and relax. A stroll through the gallery can spark conversation and inspiration, and you can count on a friendly staff to guide you through it all.

“We want to know your name, we want to know your order,” says Maxwell. “We want to meet you and actually have a real community.” ▼

Craighead St. nashvilleglasshaus.com

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PET OF THE WEEK!

Name: LANCELOT

Age: 4 yrs

Gender: Male

Weight: 38.8 lbs

Introducing Lancelot! He is named after the fact that he is a LOT of fun, has a LOT of love, and brings a LOT of joy to all those lucky enough to meet him! Sir Lancelot is a spirited individual with a zest for life that is contagious. He’s been described as super well-behaved and a kind soul! Come meet this sweet boy at NHA today!

Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org

Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209

Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT POTHOLES?

Let’s comfortably house Uber drivers, musicians and Waffle House staff. And fix the potholes that are destroying their vehicles.

BY CHRIS CROFTON

UPCOMING EVENTS

PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT FOR TICKETS & UPDATES

10:30AM

SATURDAY, MARCH 2

SATURDAY STORYTIME

with TYLER FEDER & CODY FEDER at PARNASSUS

Are You Mad At Me?

6:30PM

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

CRISTINA HENRÍQUEZ

with LINDSAY LYNCH at PARNASSUS

The Great Divide

10:30AM

SATURDAY, MARCH 9

SATURDAY STORYTIME with ELIZABETH SHREEVE at PARNASSUS

The Upside-Down Book of Sloths

TUESDAY, MARCH 12

6:30PM

CHARLIE PEACOCK & ANDI ASHWORTH with NATHAN TASKER at PARNASSUS

Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13

In 2014, comedian, musician, podcaster and Nashvillian Chris Crofton asked the Scene for an advice column, so we gave him one. Crowning himself the “Advice King,” Crofton shares his hard-won wisdom with whoever seeks it. Follow Crofton on Twitter and Instagram (@thecroftonshow), and check out his The Advice King Anthology and Cold Brew Got Me Like podcast. To submit a question for the Advice King, email bestofbread@gmail.com.

Dear Advice King,

When you spoke at the public hearing about the new Titans stadium, you called Ellington Parkway a “wagon track.” Well, it’s even worse than it was a year ago. In general, the roads in Nashville are a mess. What should we do about the potholes? Should we start fixing them ourselves?

— Mandy in Madison

world used to make.

Read that again. It’s a slight exaggeration — but only slight.

Billionaires are made of the middle class, Mandy. They are made of all the money that the middle class used to be made of. And the middle class were the ones who bought all the copies of “Smoky Mountain Rain.”

Um, what was the question?

Oh yeah, potholes. Potholes made me think about tax avoidance. Which made me think about monopolies, which made me think about Spotify. Potholes made me think about “YIMBYs” too.

rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Or in this case, putting so many deck chairs on the Titanic that you can’t park anywhere near the Titanic (your house).

We need big, subsidized apartment complexes where the rent is $700. Because that’s all a service industry worker (aka a musician, aka me) can afford. And billionaires like Daniel Ek have made sure that that won’t ever change.

You’re not gonna believe this, but we have finally arrived at potholes.

6:30PM

ADAM SILVERA with JEFF ZENTNER at PARNASSUS

Infinity Kings

6:30PM

MICAIAH JOHNSON

FRIDAY, MARCH 15

with MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL at PARNASSUS

3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243

Shop online at parnassusbooks.net

Those Beyond the Wall parnassusbooks parnassusbooksnashville parnassusbooks parnassusbooks1

HI MANDY! I’m listening to “Smoky Mountain Rain” by Ronnie Milsap. It was a big hit in 1980. 1980 was a good year to live in Nashville. The music industry hadn’t been taken over by billionaires yet, and neither had the legislature. There just weren’t many billionaires around back then. Millionaires, sure — but that’s much different. And don’t tell me that “a million back then was the same as a billion now,” because that’s not true. Millionaires had yachts, and big stone lions at the end of their driveways — billionaires have the Supreme Court. One particular billionaire — Spotify CEO Daniel Ek — owns the music industry. He makes all the money that all the musical artists in the

“YIMBY” means “Yes In My Backyard.” YIMBYs have been on my mind, because they are pushing to make significant changes to the zoning laws in Nashville. Politicians I voted for are proposing these changes. Basically, the idea is that if more housing is built, housing prices will have to come down. Supply and demand, right? Same with rents, ostensibly. (“Yes In My Backyard” is meant as a retort to the NIMBYs’ slogan, “Not In My Backyard.”) This sounds fine, but in an economy dominated by monopolies, supply and demand doesn’t really function. My concern is that, at this point, the rich are so rich, and the poor are so poor, that there isn’t enough sheet rock in the world to get the cost of a house in Nashville down to a point where a low-wage worker could buy one. Or even rent one. And there are A LOT of low-wage workers in Nashville (*cough* musicians *cough*).

My concern is that, without drastic action on truly affordable housing — as in, affordable for a server or a barista — rezoning will amount to

Before we turn developers even more loose in this town in the hopes that someday home prices will come down to, oh, let’s say $400,000 — which still isn’t even close to affordable for working-class Nashvillians — let’s tend to those Nashvillians. Let’s comfortably house the Uber drivers, the musicians and the Waffle House staff. And fix the potholes that are destroying their vehicles. Then we’ll worry about all the arriving tech people (who often work remotely, and could live anywhere) who are having trouble finding a house in East Nashville.

I understand that many of the worst roads in Nashville are the responsibility of the state, not the city. So sure, advocate for zoning changes if you genuinely think it will help — but bring up these horrible roads every day. Humiliate the Republicans who are trashing Tennessee cities and then blaming the Democrats for it. Talk about how the Barnes Fund is woefully inadequate — every day! I want some fire from my elected officials — fire and pragmatism.

P.S. To fix a pothole yourself, I would suggest filling it with marzipan. ▼

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

A NEW GALLERY AND A TRIPPY GROUP SHOW AT MARCH’S FIRST SATURDAY

Bid farewell to Unrequited Leisure and welcome Neue Welt this month

BY JOE NOLAN

THE MARCH ART happenings always seem to arrive much too quickly, even after a leap year’s extra-large serving of February. Weren’t the holidays just a few weeks ago?

Nashville’s creative community is gearing up for a rambunctious spring season, but let’s not rush past the winter-weather offerings just yet. March’s First Saturday events include impressive holdovers from February along with a slate of new shows — and even a gallery shake-up to keep crawlers emotionally engaged this Pisces season.

WEDGEWOOD-HOUSTON

The big news in Wedgewood-Houston this month is that Unrequited Leisure will be giving up its headquarters at The Packing Plant.

Curators Chalet Comellas and Clint Sleeper are taking their shows on the road with a slate of new curatorial projects in the works. These two have always been big thinkers. And even though they’ve done wonders with their new media and installation art presentations in their small space at The Packing Plant, I’m looking forward to seeing how their ideas will evolve at a much larger scale. Unrequited Leisure has been a local treasure from the moment this duo opened their original space in the living room of a house next to Third Man Records. The gallery’s presence in Wedgewood-Houston filled a specific niche in Nashville’s contemporary art landscape, but it feels like an especially big empty chasm now that Comellas and Sleeper are no longer there to plug in the art and press the power buttons every month.

I’m anxious to see how Nashville’s digital art/ video/blockchain/experimental filmmakers might step up and step into the very big shoes Unrequited Leisure is leaving behind. That said, the gallery’s space in the southwest corner of The Packing Plant has already been snatched up by local photographer and curator Mauro Antonio Barreto. Local gallerygoers have seen Barreto’s portrait-based photography at Open Gallery and in various Nashville university galleries — he’s taught photography at Belmont, Lipscomb and MTSU. The Packing Plant gallery is now the home of Barreto’s Neue Welt curatorial project, and he’s launching the space with a sculpture installation by former Nashvillian Brian Jobe Pax is a thoroughly Jobe-ian sculpture installation featuring arrangements of found manufactured materials. Jobe doesn’t construct or build anything with his cinder blocks and foam, steel, marble and paper. Instead, he thoughtfully stacks them together. He leans them against one another and stuffs them inside of each other. Jobe’s heavy-duty manufactured materials come

together in organic displays that are subtle and sometimes fragile. And it’s that tension between permanence and precarity that charges Jobe’s gifted eye for composition and his hand for gravitas. Here’s hoping that Barreto will also be bringing more contemporary photography to a scene that’s extremely thirsty for gallery walls with camera art.

➨DETAILS: Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Neue Welt, 507 Hagan St.

It’s no surprise that Caroline Allison’s Waiting Between the Trees opened to a packed gallery at Zeitgeist last month. The exhibition finds the local photographer showing a variety of light-based works in displays that emphasize materials, forms and surfaces over imagery.

Waiting Between the Trees is a photography show that reads like a sculpture exhibit, and the artist’s formalist preoccupations are as smart and engaging as they are timely and novel.

The show offers up an exciting new evolution in Allison’s recent explorations of natural spaces, and of the boundaries of landscape photography itself. This show is yet another giant leap forward for this artist, whom I can barely recall as a former expert documenter of quirky interiors.

➨DETAILS: Reception noon-8 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Zeitgeist, 516 Hagan St.

DOWNTOWN

I first saw Nick Fagan’s work at Coop’s previous space at The Packing Plant back in 2021. Fagan’s Labor and Its Large Souls practically swallowed the gallery with a display of his packing blanket quilts. Fagan sourced his raw supplies through his work as an art handler, and when I wrote about the show I invoked everything from sympathetic magic to quantum entanglement to describe how Fagan’s formalist textile sculptures convey so much emotion through his use of found materials. The artist’s new Sheet Ghost display at Tinney Contemporary features plenty of Fagan’s familiar moving blankets and found quilts, but here the artist wraps his fabric constructions around panels of various shapes, simultaneously making the exhibition read as more painterly as well as more object-based. It’s a cool way for the artist to evolve a winning aesthetic while continuing to mine his penchant for color and texture. Sheet Ghost is paired with a show by Nashville artist Lori Anne ParkerDanley — a contemporary art scene veteran who is leveling up with a wild display of textile paintings at one of Nashville’s best galleries. Parker-Danley deploys a number of techniques to create these works, but her Instagram hashtag #improvquilting is my favorite descriptor.

Uncanny Visions & Tangled Terrain highlights ParkerDanley’s penchant for applying fabric cutouts of biomorphic and natural forms to send surreal landscapes creeping across her soft surfaces. Parker-Danley came to visual art through dance, and her boldly colored scenes vibrate with spontaneous gestures and tireless movement.

➨DETAILS: Opening reception 2-8 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Tinney Contemporary, 237 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

EAST NASHVILLE

Last but not least, Red Arrow will open up a

trippy new group show on the East Side this Saturday night. Dance in the Waterfall is loosely organized around themes of psychedelic experiences, spiritual sightings, dream narratives and visionary phenomena of all kinds. It’s the kind of curating that’s open to wide interpretation, and it looks intriguing, given its winning roster of artists: Ashanté Kindle, Benji Anderson, Brianna Bass, Jeremy Shockley, Kelly Williams and Wansoo Kim

➨DETAILS: Opening reception 6-9 p.m.

Saturday, March 2, at Red Arrow, 919 Gallatin Ave. ▼

SHEET GHOST AT TINNEY CONTEMPORARY

MUSIC

THE DAYS ARE getting longer and the spring touring season looms, but don’t forget about records — Nashvillians just don’t stop making ones you’ll want to know better. The Scene’s music writers have eight new recommendations for you, including a few intriguing singles. Add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite record store. Several of our picks are also available to buy directly from the artists on Bandcamp. However, at press time, an installment of the Bandcamp Friday promotion — in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — had not been announced for March.

R.A.P. FERREIRA AND FUMITAKE TAMURA, THE FIRST FIST TO MAKE CONTACT WHEN WE DAP (RUBY YACHT/ALPHA PUP)

R.A.P. Ferreira travels often, but he went more than 6,000 miles to Tokyo to meet producer Fumitake Tamura. That journey lit the spark for a collaborative album in which the pair get introspective about the artistic process and its political implications. “I like when the beat sound like God laughing,” Ferreira intones in “Hereing Color, Green” — one of the project’s many shoutouts to the magic of a kindred rapper-producer rapport. The First Fist also meditates on both the struggles and rich heritage inherent in creating music as a Black person. Spiritual and witty, though sometimes meandering, Ferreira shines brightest when his idiosyncratic imagery is anchored in the tangible. Take the standout song “47 Rockets Taped to My Chair,” dedicated to Palestinian poet and author Refaat Alareer, who was killed in December by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. “My vocabulary’s my most powerful weaponry,” Ferreira raps, a bittersweet proclamation he and Alareer would likely agree on. KATHERINE OUNG

THE WARNER E. HODGES BAND, SOUL SHAKER (JERKIN’ CROCUS)

On “That Rock and Roll,” the ripping opening track of The Warner E. Hodges Band’s new album, Nashville rock guitar legend Hodges sings the band’s raison d’être: “All I’m really trying to do is that rock and roll.” Hodges and his mates do “that rock and roll” at an inspired level on what is their best album to date. A few of the record’s 10 tracks lean cow-punk, but it’s mostly bluesy rock with combustible guitars dueling over pounding bass and drums. Hodges was backed on the sessions by his U.K.-based

ANOTHER LOOK

The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from Brittany Howard, R.A.P. Ferreira, Knoll and more

bandmates, guitarist Ben Marsden and bassist Jason Knight, and Nashville drummer Brad Pemberton, who filled in for the band’s recently departed drummer. Hodges wrote most of the riff- and hook-rich material with Joe Blanton, who also recorded, mixed and mastered the album. Soul Shaker was made to be played loud. Turn it up. DARYL SANDERS

SORORITY SISTERS, “READY TO GO STEADY?” B/W “YOUNG TONGUE” (SELF-RELEASED)

Fans of the sort of fast-and-loose, lo-fi rock issued over the past two-plus decades by the likes of Goner, Castle Face and In the Red can rest easy knowing that garage punk will never die. On Valentine’s Day, frontwoman Ariel Dornbush (Thelma and the Sleaze, Beat Creeps, more) debuted a new project, Sorority Sisters, with the single “Ready to Go Steady” backed with “Young Tongue.” Powered by the credo “I’m done with punk, I’ve joined a sorority,” the trio is doing devil-may-care garage rock in the vein of The Slits with tongues planted firmly in cheek. It’s fast, it’s silly, it’s imperfect, and it’s fun. D. PATRICK

RODGERS

BRITTANY HOWARD, WHAT NOW (ISLAND)

How lucky are we to live at the same time as once-in-a-generation-type talent Brittany Howard? The hours it would take to listen to everything the Alabama Shakes leader has ever made are well worth it, including her second solo album What Now. The record explores a wide sonic landscape with Howard’s signature soulful mastery, with support from her Shakes

collaborators Shawn Everett and Zac Cockrell. Highlights include the searing, driving title track and the club-ready “Prove It to You.” Howard’s propensity for incorporating any genre she chooses into her sound with grace and creativity keeps shining through. HANNAH CRON

CASE ARNOLD, “SOLO,” “RAT RACE” AND “TEQUILA DIARIES” (IZZETTA)

It’s been nearly five years since we’ve had a fulllength from Clarksville-born MC and singer Case Arnold, who has nonetheless been a consistent source of thoughtful, distinctive hip-hop with a strong R&B flavor. The singles he’s been dropping over the past few months are a prelude to a new album — for which he’s joined forces with ace producer Ron Gilmore Jr., who returned to Nashville after a decade working with superstars like Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill and J. Cole — and they’re some of his finest work yet. “Tequila Diaries” came first; featuring great singer Bryant Taylorr and a fine vocal turn from Gilmore, it’s a mellow jam about not letting anything shake your belief in yourself. “Rat Race” came next, a supremely groovy piece about putting the daily grind in perspective. And then came “Solo,” a song about someone pulling away that features singer April Rucker and inventive rapper and producer Namir Blade. At press time, it was streaming only on Arnold’s YouTube channel — worth a visit since all of these tracks have great music videos. STEPHEN TRAGESER

THE UNEVEN, FLIGHT OUT OF THE HOLLOW (SELFRELEASED)

The usual influences of riff-driven blues-rock bands — from Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age — inform Flight Out of the Hollow, the debut album by The Uneven. Jarring riffs abound via lead vocalist and guitarist Andrew Hooker on such homages to the heavy-metal mythos as “Punching Bag,” “My Time” and “No More Violations.” Hooker, bassist Michael Meadows and drummer

Simona Bressi shine even more brightly on the more psychedelic-leaning selections “The Mask” and “Red Door.” Overall, The Uneven deliver 10 searing tracks of unadulterated rock ’n’ roll on their first full-length. ADDIE MOORE

KNOLL, AS SPOKEN (SELF-RELEASED)

As Spoken is the third album in just over four years from Murfreesboro-by-way-of-Memphis audio terrorists Knoll. And just like 2021’s Interstice and 2022’s Metempiric, Knoll’s latest LP is murky and menacing. With ultra-raw recordings, tormented howls and drums that sound like an automatic weapon, the 12-inch slab of putrid noise gets the band a lot of comparisons to black-metal ghouls and destructive deathgrinders. But reducing Knoll to a genre is a disservice. The band uses their unbelievable velocity and heaviness as tools to make really creative music, rather than relying on them as a formulaic crutch. Much of the dissonant chaos of As Spoken has a spiritual connection to the high art of Sun Ra or Sonic Youth, with existential gloom woven into the riffing and noise. P.J. KINZER

HR LEXY, EVERY SCAR IS AN OPEN DOOR (UNFINISHED ANIMAL)

The electronically enhanced project headed by Arlene Sparacia has been doing a lot of behindthe-scenes work over the past couple of years, which came to fruition in January with this LP. It’s a meditative song cycle about navigating different kinds of personal struggle and growth; the titular song ends the record with a kind of blessing for reckoning with yourself and moving forward. It’s a fascinating listen, weaving together elements of dreamy pop and folk music in spiritually attuned ways that remind me of Sally Oldfield or forever favorite Kate Bush. An HR Lexy show is always memorable, frequently involving elaborate costumes and movement — Sparacia’s description of the project as “emotive electronic performance art” is apt — so watch Instagram (@hr_lexy) for updates. STEPHEN TRAGESER ▼

THEY WANT THE AIRWAVES

Nashville rockers The Sleeveens move at a breakneck pace

BY P.J. KINZER

“YOU HAVE TO include all this when you write your piece,” James Mechan tells me, gesturing at his unexpected surroundings.

On a chilly February night, the bassist for Nashville rock outfit The Sleeveens is standing next to drummer Ryan Sweeney in a rain-misted clear plastic tent where patrons of Memphis dive bar DKDC can sit outside in the winter. It’s a bubble of relative calm — “relative” doing some heavy lifting here — where we can record a short interview before the first show of the band’s tour for their self-titled album. The Sleeveens are playing the late show at DKDC, and the evening’s drag bingo night is still going on while we wait for the rest of the band. Occasionally, we can hear the bass line of a Robyn song, the screaming tires of street racers or a woman with pink hair yelling: “G-28! G — 28!” Soon guitarist Eli Steele shuffles through the tent flaps. Frontman and songwriter Stefan Murphy follows; with his stature more akin to an NFL tight end than a punk poet, he has to crouch a bit.

“One thing I realized today is that we played our last show in September,” Sweeney tells me. Murphy, who is Irish, was back in his home country during the autumn. “The photo that’s on the cover of the album was taken that night. And the first time we’re going to have it on the merch table is our first show back.”

Around The Sleeveens, things happen rapidly. Only four months before the release, Steele and Mechan were at Memphis garage-rock celebration Gonerfest to meet with Dirtnap Records

MUSIC: THE SPIN

BUILDING A BRIDGE

BY RON WYNN

founder Ken Cheppaikode. He had reached out upon hearing their first single, released in July via Sweeney’s Sweet Time Records; the band responded by sending Dirtnap a copy of the fully finished album. Said 7-inch, “Give My Regards to the Dancing Girls” backed with “Small Talk With Jonathan,” had already drawn the attention of New Orleans underground icon Quintron, who booked The Sleeveens to play his annual Mardi Gras party. Murphy, who was in Dublin at the time, had already planned on returning to the States for a tour booked around the New Orleans show, so plans fell into place for Dirtnap to release The Sleeveens by that time. One might assume a band that moves so fast was intentional from their inception.

“No, no — it was just supposed to be recording some songs that Stefan wrote,” Sweeney explains. “And that was kind of it — the two songs for the single.”

Murphy had released music under the monikers The Mighty Stef and Count Vaseline, but he hadn’t made a record since 2019. “I came to Nashville to go to Cumberland Heights to solve my problems with drug addiction,” he tells me. The Dubliner lived in Atlanta when he found his way to the venerable treatment center. Once he got out, he wanted to stick around to make new music in Nashville. He reached out to an acquaintance, James Mechan, a guitar tech for Northern Irish punk originators Stiff Little Fingers. Known as Jamie to his friends, Mechan had spent his down time building 302 Sound, his Mt. Juliet studio. “Within a few days of that,” Murphy says,

IMPROVISATION IS AT the core of both great jazz and vibrant hip-hop. It’s a union that’s been explored many times by a host of musicians, from Olu Dara and his son Nas, to A Tribe Called Quest teaming with Ron Carter, to Guru mining vintage Blue Note tracks. But despite local rappers often working with live bands, jazz hasn’t been a major ingredient in many area artists’ sounds. That’s what makes the evolving Nashville group Regeneration, featuring the father-son duo of jazz trumpet great Rod McGaha and outstanding rapper Mike Floss, so creatively intriguing.

The word had already begun circulating about this group, as both McGaha and Floss have hefty credibility from their respective efforts in the jazz and rap worlds. Folks were lining up outside The Blue Room at Third Man Records at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and the place was packed by the time Regeneration hit the stage roughly an hour later. When the doors opened, the crowd was greeted by a superb drummer and dancer who drew on traditional African styles. Brief individual sets from McGaha and Floss followed, leading up to Regeneration’s live debut.

“This is a work in progress,” said McGaha during the Regeneration set. The ensemble left no doubt that they’ll be even sharper in a couple of months. They are still clearly working out the right mix between funk-infused instrumental support and Floss’ dynamic raps, many of which touched on such topics as relations between Black communities and police, unemployment, gun violence, unrest and uneasiness among youth — and the general

“he’d recruited Sweeney and Eli to come along.” Mechan had been the Dee Dee in Remones, a Ramones tribute band, with Steele and Sweeney playing the roles of Johnny and Tommy, respectively.

“For the single,” Steele says, “when we went in to record, we were like, ‘How are we going to treat these songs that we’re helping Stef record?’” But with hours and hours of practice together as the Remones, the group adapted easily to Murphy’s songs and had little trouble recording the pair of revved-up rockers for the 7-inch. It was clear they were onto something special. Mechan hardly had time to get out of the producer’s chair before he was back in it for the band’s eponymous 11-track album. The Sleeveens is a truly classic-sounding record — with reverberations of the New York Dolls, Australia’s The Saints and early Stiff Records singles — that’s not just another throwback. It showcases Mechan’s knack for simple but effective sound and

feeling of restlessness and dismay many in the generations that have followed the baby boomers are encountering.

Labels being what they are, Regeneration is definitely stretching (some might say detonating) the boundaries of jazz. What this group is doing is more about sonic textures, rhythms and fluidity. Other than one nice rendition of the Gene McDaniels classic “Compared to What” — as immortalized by Les McCann, another instrumentalist who often pushed the envelope in jazz — there weren’t any standards or covers of show tunes as you might be accustomed to hearing in a jazz presentation.

Rather than putting an emphasis on crafting solos or intricate harmonic and rhythmic exposition, the group is focused on propelling Floss’ continually vivid, pointed political and social commentary. He is a forceful, exciting verbal performer who remains animated while he fires off exhortations, calls to unity, questions regarding commitment and even the occasional romantic interlude.

The social protest element is vital. McGaha addressed the crowd, lamenting the senseless deaths of young people and imploring folks to get involved

via Dirtnap Playing 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at Eastside Bowl

Murphy’s penchant for matching imaginative storytelling to superb melodies that feel like a favorite old shirt. “Metallica Font” is one standout tale of camaraderie, all the more charming because it rings true.

“I think one of the advantages that we have going for us, and why people fucking buy into it, is because the songs are decent,” says Murphy, his booming Irish accent just a bit weary from a trans-Atlantic flight and a three-hour van ride from Nashville to Memphis. March 9, they’ll be back in Nashville, celebrating on home turf while opening for Northern Irish punks Protex. With the LP freshly pressed, Murphy sounds hopeful about the band’s next steps.

“I moved back [to Dublin] — the long and the short of it — for family reasons,” Murphy says. “And I don’t think we even really had to have a discussion about whether or not we were going to keep the band going. If we want to keep it going, it’ll work out as long as we’re all into it.” ▼

in doing something about it. (Floss, for his part, has been active with racial justice-oriented organizations like the Southern Movement Committee and the Black Nashville Assembly.) The set incorporated photos and footage highlighting the continuing importance of family, as well as the ongoing tragedy of misconduct by police that led to the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that came after.

It was also wonderful to see the closeness between father and son, even as the differences in approach occasionally popped up onstage. At one point McGaha asked Floss to say what the next song would be; “I just want to get into it,” Floss responded. “Can you imagine what it was like raising him?” was McGaha’s rejoinder, to lots of laughter.

McGaha’s trumpet playing remains impressive, and those few moments throughout the set when he got a chance to demonstrate his melodic skills displayed the range, tone and striking sound that has enabled him to thrive working under the likes of Max Roach. However, this new setting lets him showcase different aspects of his personality — flashy showmanship via inventive use of mutes and wah-wah to imitate a guitar, similar to Miles Davis’ playing on albums like Agharta and On the Corner. Even though the set ran nearly 90 minutes, it didn’t drag or ever lose steam.

In spirit and sensibility, what McGaha and Floss are doing with Regeneration resembles the directions taken by others in the improvisational world, like Robert Glasper. The structure comes from jazz and its improvisational modes, but the pacing and power come from hip-hop. There will be, no doubt, those in the jazz world unhappy at the lack of time given for straight musical exposition, while some hip-hop fans might prefer even less melody and more rhythmic push. But Saturday’s crowd at The Blue Room saw a group whose potential is unlimited. ▼

The Sleeveens out now

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PHOTO: MICAH PARRIGA

PATHS OF RHYTHM: MIKE FLOSS

FOOL ME SPICE

Going deep on Denis Villenueve’s Dune: Part Two, which approaches masterpiece levels of achievement. Until its third act.

BY JASON SHAWHAN

are dangerous, bloodsoaked endeavors. (This aspect of The Discourse is going to be insane once this film opens. Politically, this movie isn’t pulling any punches at all, and the messy takes are going to be inescapable. But it’s still skittish of its own path into the cosmic and surreal.) If the later Frank Herbert books (we’re talking God-Emperor, Heretics and Chapterhouse) are about anything, it’s freeing oneself from the boundaries of single lives, of canon, of manmade walls, and zooming out to a big picture so big that we don’t have any kind of modern history to compare it to. Herbert’s ambition eclipses so much, and to continually kneecap it to make things accessible to the malnourished appetites of the modern multiplex feels especially shameful. And it’s begrudgingly to Dune: Part Two’s credit that this schism doesn’t become completely insurmountable until the very end.

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WHEN LAST WE left Denis Villenueve’s take on Frank Herbert’s enduring 1965 sci-fi classic Dune, things were in the pre-popping-off stage on the desert world of Arrakis (also called Dune, because Herbert knew history and the way that no besieged place ever bears only one name). The last survivors of the great House Atreides — Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Paul (Timothée Chalamet), driven from their new home by an invading force of the fetish-clad despoilers House Harkonnen — decamp for the desert to learn the ways of the Fremen people.

As for Dune: Part Two, the first two-and-aquarter hours are close to masterpiece levels of achievement. Especially, presumably, if you can see it on 70 mm film (the press screening was supposed to allow us to do just that), because this film has scope and height and a sense of scale that is truly awesome, in both senses of the word. Befitting what at times can feel like a sci-fi Lawrence of Arabia (though defiantly not in the sly way that co-writer Jon Spaihts’ Prometheus explored that idea), this is a film about expanse, horizon and paths of travel. And when it’s good, it’s very good.

There’s a sequence of the most elegant beauty, in which the Fedaykin Chani (Zendaya) teaches Paul how to walk the sands of the desert without summoning Shai-Hulud (the giant butthole-mouthed sandworms that figure in the key art as well as AMC’s souvenir popcorn bucket campaign). Villeneuve and his cinematographer Greig Fraser photographed it like a dance sequence, the duo’s arrhythmic steps leaving tracks like suras in the sands. It’s breathtaking. There are sequences within the Sietch Tabr that are so dizzy with ideas that you can’t even process it. The film whirls through imagined history as well as the history of imagination, and you want that to keep going on, letting the explosions and the succession take a breather in the background for a bit.

This is a film that luxuriates in the tiny details of a book that lays everything out. You might pick up on how the water-pump systems of the Fremen and the thumpers that they use for calling worms share a common mechanical ancestor. You live in this vibe and it’s exquisite, because in this way it really taps into what the books do so

well. I went into this screening — to paraphrase the late, great ODB — ready to bring down the Armageddon if we didn’t get a spice agony and a Guild Navigator. And that’s part of the problem. We get two spice agonies (which are in no way as overwhelming as they really should be) and even a baliset interlude, but no Guild Navigators; it just illustrates that the same fundamental problem that plagued Part One is even more apparent here.

Villeneuve fearlessly tackled a Blade Runner sequel (that’s honestly just as good, if not better, than the original), and time and again he has been adapting this work by sanding off the rough edges and punting the weirdness down the road to the next film. When talking to colleagues after this screening, I discovered that quite a few people still don’t understand what the simultaneous petrochemical/LSD allegory spice melange is and what it does. That is a colossal failure of storytelling, and it’s done out of fear (you know, the mind-killer). Fans of the book (I’ve read all 23 books, and when the board game comes off the shelf, I play as the Tleilaxu) understand how deeply, utterly strange the Dune-iverse can be. This approach to a film series is battling against its own foundations.

Florence Pugh is one of the newcomers to Part Two, playing the chronicler Princess Irulan Corrino — but you wouldn’t know that from anything in this film. We know she’s the daughter of the emperor (Christopher Walken), but their respective characters are so pared down that if you haven’t read the books, you would be lost. And that is the $180 million question. A film of this scale can’t just be made for people who’ve read the books — you also have to give viewers the information to fully experience what they’re undertaking. So how do you adapt a work where you seem to be afraid of so much of it, gathering and depicting moments but slashing away context and detail in direct refutation of what made some of those exquisite moments among the Fremen so moving?

But the filmmakers aren’t afraid of exploring Herbert’s long-term narrative about how messianic movements and religious fundamentalism

Villeneuve is a director of great skill and scope, and judging by the last 20 or so minutes of Dune: Part Two, he and Spaihts have no business going any further with this series. (Though Spaihts’ shelved script for a remake of The Black Hole is still No. 1 on my most-want-to-read list.) You do not make great adaptations by making things “easier.” That’s the tragedy of this often very good pair of films. For so much of Part Two, I was convinced I was seeing something truly special. And then to watch as such a film spectacularly shits the bed? Just brutal.

Zendaya gets short shrift by this film — Chani is made into a character of titanic will who is left to stare, hurt and pissed-off, in giant IMAX-sized closeups of lessening effect as they happen again and again. The surprise presence of an unbilled big star in a perfectly expected role to anyone who’s read any of the books is acceptable, even intriguing in the way they are slowly woven into the story in a differing capacity. That is, until yet another choice is made in the last reel that does so much damage — not just to the characters, but to the very structure of the Dune-iverse — that it’s like crashing into a brick wall.

Maybe someone can try and pick up the reins and make something that continues along, but it’s not going to be Children of Dune or Dune: Messiah, at least not in the way the books work. You can’t do a direct literal adaptation of any book, really (aside from Rosemary’s Baby), but the overarching focus that Villeneuve/Spaihts/Eric Roth (from Part One) have chosen is incapable of going where this ride takes you. (Someone definitely needs to give Panos Cosmatos millions of dollars to make God-Emperor of Dune, though, because that is someone who understands both the assignment and how reality-shakingly weird any attempt at these films must be.)

That’s the thing about the Dune-iverse: It covers over 15,000 years of history, and the ending of Dune: Part Two threatens to wall it off in the smallest possible space. For all the talk among the Bene Gesserit characters (who are given significantly less to do this time around, much like the non-Elvis Harkonnens) about plans within plans and playing the long game, this film feels like shortterm thinking. And that’s as deadly as any name made a killing word. ▼

Dune: Part Two PG-13, 167 minutes Opening wide Friday, March 1

SEX ON THE BEACH

Coming-of-age story How to Have Sex is a hazy, heady cocktail

BY SADAF AHSAN

THERE ARE FEW genres as well-trodden as the coming-of-age tale — stories that chronicle an amiable entry into man- or womanhood over a life-changing period of years or months. The best ones feel cringingly, sometimes painfully familiar, while the worst tend to only skim the surface of true experiences. How to Have Sex — written by Molly Manning Walker, who also makes her directorial debut here — is a striking example of the very best, even as it logs just a few heady days of girlhood.

A bittersweet slice of life, the film follows three British teens — Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis) — as they vacation on the Greek island of Crete. After the summer trip, Em will head to college, while Tara and Skye are less certain of what awaits them. It makes for a simple, intoxicating routine: Day after day they drink, dance, party, repeat. Somewhere in there, they squeeze in a burger and a nap.

For Tara, however, there is a key objective: to “finally” lose her virginity. The goal seems very attainable once the girls meet a group of cute boys and girls staying at the hotel room across from theirs. A match is lit; the two groups pingpong between the two hotel rooms, the pool and the club. Time is a non-concept. It’s an alcohol- and crush-fueled roller coaster, neon-bright and directed with a light and trusting hand; it’s enough to make you feel hungover as you follow the cast from scene to scene.

In fact, How to Have Sex plays as if Walker stumbled onto a very real teenage summer, and happened to bring her camera along. Dialogue feels effortlessly improvised, from silly flirtations to tense moments. The three leads are remarkably natural with each other. While Skye has a tendency to be a bit of a bitch and lets her envy get the best of her, Em is all heart and curiosity. Tara is diminutive, sweet and naive. It’s a tender chemistry.

But it’s McKenna-Bruce who owns this film. Relentlessly charming and an emotional force, she gives the kind of early-career performance

we so rarely get these days. Earlier this month, the actress won the BAFTA Rising Star Award, beating out A-listers including Jacob Elordi and Ayo Edebiri and demanding a well-deserved spotlight of her own. And How to Have Sex is the type of film that relies almost entirely on its star. Although a fair portion of the film is spent settling into vacay mode, it does take a sharp tonal turn. The fact is, it’s rare to spend time with a group of teenagers without jealousy, insecurity and social pressure muddling it all.

As the film’s tone shifts, the endless clubbing and drinking suddenly feel like one long migraine, and no amount of sleep is enough to wash away the shame and unease from the night before. That’s particularly true for Tara, who in an unexpected encounter finds herself at the sometimes-blurry intersection of desire and consent. Just like that, loneliness enters the island, along with stark confusion, a sense of regret and fear.

It’s a stomach-churning recipe, and one that’s familiar to many young women exploring sex at a young age. It had me revisiting some troubling memories of my own, achingly bringing me back to my own coming of age. It also reminded me how this sort of experience, unfortunately, is practically a common experience for so many young women, when all they may want to do is have a good time with their girls while on vacation in a beautiful place.

Despite what the title suggests, How to Have Sex is far from a guide. It is, however, very much a mirror, subtly reflecting the all-too-familiar experiences of many girls and young women. Still, the camera carries no judgment of these young women. And in a way, it feels like a salve I wish I’d had when I was in Tara’s shoes; all these years later, I felt seen.

Horny, raw and hazy, How to Have Sex is ultimately a tricky cocktail: Spring Breakers meets Skins meets … The Blair Witch Project. Like its lead, the film is a firecracker, screaming and demanding your attention. Don’t ignore it. ▼

ACROSS

1 Three-point letter you won’t find in Scrabble?

4 One of the Pointer Sisters

9 Chips, cookies, etc.

13 Response to “Who’s ready?”

14 Not free

16 Word with square or air

17 Mercury is in this

20 “I’ve got it!”

21 Dangers in the Amazon

22 What subs may sub for

23 Afterword

25 One with many stuffy clients, for short?

26 Mercury might be in this

28 ___ Polo

30 Christmas party?

31 Party in the U.K.

32 Light touches

36 Is insufficient

39 Hipsteresque, say

40 Something posted from an online account

42 ___ nationalism, movement associated with the Baath Party

44 Here we are!

45 The Mercury might be in this

51 Rio or Sorento

52 Have no more in stock

54 Unit of radioactivity

55 Lab report component

57 Doesn’t bother

58 Mercury was in this

61 English poet Wilfred ___

62 Ice cream brand in West Coast supermarkets

63 Prefix with -phyte

64 One’s parents, slangily, with “the”

65 Square

66 Sch. in Texas

DOWN

1 Chewy, meaty dog treat

2 Show of hands?

3 Turkish inn

4 “___ way!” (“Nice job!”)

5 Reply found backward in “No thanks”

6 Clinch, as a victory

7 Lethargic

8 Answer to the riddle “What can someone wear that never goes out of style?”

9 Some Feds

10 Choice words

11 Having a neat appearance

12 The 19th Amendment is part of this

14 Reply in which one parent says to go talk to the other parent

15 Bullfight bull

18 Burn the surface of

19 Heated pool?

23 “And so ...”

24 Total hassle

27 Goggle

29 Org. for lawyers

31 Sliceable food purchase

32 Game for a toddler

33 Smoothie bar order served with a spoon

34 Defeated soundly

35 Good to go

37 Brand once promoted as the “forbidden fragrance”

38 “Phooey!”

41 Allure

43 Curling targets

45 Cautionary store sign from an alcohol retailer

46 Used

47 “Phooey!”

48 Light charges?

49 Centrist in British politics, informally

50 “Bye!”

53 Fridge visit for a midnight snack, say

56 Bowling pins on the back right

57 ___ gai (Thai dish)

59 Main ingredient in a Longshoreman

60 “Tee” follower

PUZZLE BY SAM EZERSKY

UBS Business Solutions US

LLC has the following positions in Nashville, TN. Associate Director, Application Support Analyst to support and resolve all end user issues and technical problems. Create scripts and programs to automate and monitor system tasks using shell scripts, Perl and python. (ref. code(s) 001468). Qualified Applicants apply through SHProfRecruitingcc@ubs.com. Please reference 001468. NO CALLS PLEASE.

EOE/M/F/D/V. #LI-DNP

has been committed and which is triable or indictable in Davidson County. In addition to cases presented to the grand jury by your District Attorney, any citizen may petition the foreperson (foreman) of the grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County This is subject to provi- sions set forth in Tennessee Code

Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application Your grand jury foreperson is Parker Toler Their address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punisha ble as perjury. For a request for accommodation please contact 862-4260.

NSC 2/29/24

The Futurist film recently held production in your area. If you need to file a creditor claim, please do so at the address below by March 15, 2024: The Futurist LLC, c/o Jen Lewis, 277 Mallory Station Road, Ste. 106, Franklin, TN 37067. Phone: 615-2000937 || Fax: n/a

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IN THE FOURTH CIRCUIT COURT OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEEE AT NASHVILLE

NON-RESIDENT NOTICE

CASE NUMBER: 23D-821

TO: NADER ALHASSAN

YOU ARE ORDERED TO APPEAR AND DEFEND A CIVIL ACTION FILED AGAINST YOU ENTITLED

MAHA F. ALHASSAN

grand jury for permission to testify concerning any offense in Davidson County This is subject to provi- sions set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12-105. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-12104 and 40-12-105, the application to testify by any citizen must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit stating the facts or summarizing the proof which forms the basis of allegations contained in that application Your grand jury foreperson is Parker Toler Their address is 222 Second Avenue North, Washington Square Building, Suite 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. The grand jury will meet at 8:00 A.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays for three (3) months. Submission of an affidavit which the applicant knows to be false in material regard shall be punishable as perjury. Any citizen testifying before the grand jury as to any material fact known to that citizen to be false shall be punisha ble as perjury. For a request for accommodation please contact 862-4260.

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VS. NADER ALHASSAN

Which has been filed in Fourth Circuit Court, Davidson County, Tennessee, And your defense must be made within thirty (30) days from the date of the last Publication of this notice, which shall be published for four consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene newspaper. You are further directed to file your defense with the Clerk of the Court and send a copy to the Plaintiff’s attorney at the address listed below. In case of your failure to defend this action by the above date, a judgment by default may be ren dered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

Issued 01/31/24

Plaintiff: Maha Alhassan

WELTY LAW OFFICE

Nicole Giometti-Black 4525 Charlotte Ave.

Nashville, TN 37209 NSC 2/22 2/29, 3/7, 3/14/24

YOU ARE ORDERED TO APPEAR

AND DEFEND A CIVIL ACTION FILED AGAINST YOU ENTITLED

MAHA F. ALHASSAN

VS. NADER ALHASSAN

Which has been filed in Fourth Circuit Court, Davidson County, Tennessee, And your defense must be made within thirty (30) days from the date of the last Publication of this notice, which shall be published for four consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene newspaper. You are further directed to file your defense with the Clerk of the Court and send a copy to the Plaintiff’s attorney at the address listed below. In case of your failure to defend this action by the above date, a judgment by default may be ren dered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

Issued 01/31/24

Plaintiff: Maha Alhassan

WELTY LAW OFFICE

Nicole Giometti-Black 4525 Charlotte Ave. Nashville, TN 37209 NSC 2/22, 2/29, 3/7, 3/14/24

Public Notice Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Water Resources Notice Requesting Public Comments on Draft Permit Actions FILE # NRS23.242

The purpose of this notice is to advise the public of the following proposed permit action and solicit comments and information necessary to evaluate the potential impact of the proposed activities on the aquatic environment.

Pursuant to The Tennessee Water Quality Control Act of 1977, T.C.A. §69-3-108 and Tennessee Rules, Chapter 0400-40-07, the proposed activity described below has been submitted for approval under an Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit and Section 401 Water Quality Certification. Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires that an applicant obtain a water quality certification from the state when a federal permit is required. This notice is intended to inform interested parties of this permit application and draft permit and rationale, and to ask for comments and information necessary to determine possible impacts to water quality. At the conclusion of the public notice period a final determination will be made whether to issue or deny the permit.

PERMIT COORDINATOR

Ross Rogers

Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation Division of Water Resources, Natural Resources Unit William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 11th Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37243 615-840-4263

Ross.Rogers@tn.gov

APPLICANT Overhill Apartment

LOCATION Tennis Courts at

36.085156, Longitude86.642204

To

PROJECT DESCRIPTION / PURPOSE This project proposes the removal of a corrugated

from the state when a federal permit is required. This notice is intended to inform interested parties of this permit application and draft permit and rationale, and to ask for comments and information necessary to determine possible impacts to water quality. At the conclusion of the public notice period a final determination will be made whether to issue or deny the permit.

PERMIT COORDINATOR

Ross Rogers Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation Division of Water Resources, Natural Resources Unit

William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 11th Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37243 615-840-4263

Ross.Rogers@tn.gov

APPLICANT Overhill Apartment

Partners

c/o Sully Lemmons 500 Brooksboro Terrace Nashville, TN 37217

LOCATION Tennis Courts at Brighton Valley Apartments 500 Brooksboro Terrace Nashville, Davidson County Latitude 36.085156, Longitude86.642204

To view the proposed location of these impacts and the watershed condition, visit the Division’s map viewer at http://tdeconline.tn.gov/dwr/ and search on the permit number or coordinates listed in this Public Notice.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION / PUR-

POSE

This project proposes the removal of a corrugated metal pipe underneath the amenity space at a multifamily development. The amenity space is rarely used, and the owner has decided not to replace the tennis court and culvert. Instead, they have elected to r eturn the channel to a natural condition by replacing the culvert with a trapezoidal channel.

ANTIDEGRADATION

In regard to stream impacts, and in accordance with the Tennessee Antidegradation Statement (Rule 0400-40-03-.06), the Division has made the preliminary determination that the permitted activities will result in no more than de minimis degradation of waters with available parameters without mitigation and will not result in an appreciable permanent loss of resource value.

FACTORS CONSIDERED

In deciding whether to issue or deny this permit, the Division will consider all comments of record and the requirements of applicable federal and state laws. The division will consider the nature, scale and effects of proposed impacts. The Division will consider practicable alternatives to the alteration, loss of waters or habitat, diminishment in biological diversity, cumulative or secondary impacts to the water resource, and adverse impacts to unique, high quality, or impaired waters.

HOW TO COMMENT

TDEC is requesting public comment on this proposed permit action. Obtaining a broad range of facts and opinions on Agency actions is one of the best ways to ensure appropriate decisions. Persons wishing to comment on the proposal are invited to submit writ ten comments to the Division. Written comments must be received within thirty days following distribution of the ap-

In regard to stream impacts, and in accordance with the Tennessee Antidegradation Statement (Rule 0400-40-03-.06), the Division has made the preliminary determination that the permitted activities will result in no more than de minimis degradation of waters with available parameters without mitigation and will not result in an appreciable permanent loss of resource value.

FACTORS CONSIDERED

In deciding whether to issue or deny this permit, the Division will consider all comments of record and the requirements of applicable federal and state laws. The division will consider the nature, scale and effects of proposed impacts. The Division will consider practicable alternatives to the alteration, loss of waters or habitat, diminishment in biological diversity, cumulative or secondary impacts to the water resource, and adverse impacts to unique, high quality, or impaired waters.

HOW TO COMMENT

TDEC is requesting public comment on this proposed permit action. Obtaining a broad range of facts and opinions on Agency actions is one of the best ways to ensure appropriate decisions. Persons wishing to comment on the proposal are invited to submit writ ten comments to the Division. Written comments must be received within thirty days following distribution of the approved public notice materials (including signage and newspaper ad). Comments will become part of the record and will be considered in the final decision. The applicant’s name and permit number should be referenced. Send all written comments to the Division’s address listed below to the attention of the permit coordinator. You may also comment via email to water.permits@tn.gov.

After the Division makes a final permit determination, a permit appeal may be filed by the applicant or by any person who participated in the public comment period whose appeal is based on comments given to the Division in writing during the public comment period or in testimony at a formal public hearing. If it is hard for you to read, speak, or understand English, TDEC may be able to provide translation or interpretation services free of charge. Please contact Alisha Looper at 615-571-4470 or alisha.looper@tn.gov.

Si le resulta difícil leer, hablar o comprender inglés, TDEC puede proporcionarle servicios de traducción o interpretación sin cargo comunicándose con Alisha Looper al 615-571-4470 o alisha.looper@tn.gov.

PUBLIC HEARING

Interested persons may request in writing that the Division hold a public hearing on this application. The request must be received by the Division within the comment period, indicate the interest of the party requesting it, the reason(s) a hearing is warranted, and the water quality issues being raised. When there is sufficient public interest in water quality issues, the Division will hold a public hearing in accordance with 0400-40-07-.04(4) (f). Send all public hearing requests to the attention of the permit coordinator at the address listed below or via email to water.permits@tn.gov. Any scheduled public hearings will be advertised through a similar public notice process.

FILE REVIEW

The permit application, supporting documentation, including detailed plans and maps, draft permit and rationale, and related comments are available for review on the internet at the Division’s data viewer at Report on Permits (tn.gov)::::: by entering the permit file number listed in the title of this Public Notice. The file may be viewed and copied at the address listed below.

Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation Division of Water Resources, Natural Resources Unit

William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 11th Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37243 NSC 2/29/24

public comment period or in testimony at a formal public hearing. If it is hard for you to read, speak, or understand English, TDEC may be able to provide translation or interpretation services free of charge. Please contact Alisha Looper at 615-571-4470 or alisha.looper@tn.gov.

Si le resulta difícil leer, hablar o comprender inglés, TDEC puede proporcionarle servicios de traducción o interpretación sin cargo comunicándose con Alisha Looper al 615-571-4470 o alisha.looper@tn.gov.

PUBLIC HEARING

Interested persons may request in writing that the Division hold a public hearing on this application. The request must be received by the Division within the comment period, indicate the interest of the party requesting it, the reason(s) a hearing is warranted, and the water quality issues being raised. When there is sufficient public interest in water quality issues, the Division will hold a public hearing in accordance with 0400-40-07-.04(4) (f). Send all public hearing requests to the attention of the permit coordinator at the address listed below or via email to water.permits@tn.gov. Any scheduled public hearings will be advertised through a similar public notice process.

FILE REVIEW

The permit application, supporting documentation, including detailed plans and maps, draft permit and rationale, and related comments are available for review on the internet at the Division’s data viewer at Report on Permits (tn.gov)::::: by entering the permit file number listed in the title of this Public Notice. The file may be viewed and copied at the address listed below.

Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation

Division of Water Resources, Natural Resources Unit

William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower

312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 11th Floor

Nashville, Tennessee 37243

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in no more than de minimis degradation of waters with available parameters without mitigation and will not result in an appreciable permanent loss of resource value.

FACTORS CONSIDERED

In deciding whether to issue or deny