Nashville Scene 2-8-24

METROPOLITIK:

MAYOR O’CONNELL CHARTS A COURSE ON THE EAST BANK >> PAGE 7

FEBRUARY 8–14, 2024 I VOLUME 43 I NUMBER 2 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

NEWS:

MLK MAGNET COMMUNITY PUSHES BACK ON PROPOSED CHANGES >> PAGE 8

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2 NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS NEWS

7 Mayor Charts Course in East Bank Metropolitik: Mendes, councilmembers are reluctant pitchmen as bills come due

BY ELI MOTYCKA

7 Pith in the Wind This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

8 MLK Magnet High School Community Pushes Back on Proposed Changes According to one faculty member, dealing with Metro Nashville Public Schools is ‘like talking to a wall’

BY KELSEY BEYELER

9 Groundbreaking Gene-Editing Therapy Helps Local Sickle Cell Patients A doctor at Nashville’s TriStar Centennial led the national CRISPR clinical trial

Sunday Gravy at The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club • PHOTO BY LINDSAY RUSHTON

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BY HANNAH HERNER

COVER PACKAGE: THE DATING ISSUE

11 The Main Event

BY HANNAH HERNER

12 Back to the Basics How to survive a post-dating-app society

BY HANNAH HERNER

In the Danish historical epic The Promised Land, Mads Mikkelsen tends his garden

BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

43 Pushing Daisies

MUSIC

37 Time on Her Side Madi Diaz moves forward on Weird Faith

Students discuss juggling academic life with romantic life

BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

Sometimes I Think About Dying is a slow-burning tale of loneliness

Making Noise podcast explores Lovenoise’s key role in Black Nashville music

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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MARKETPLACE

Illustration: Haley Durham (@haleydurhamcreative)

Master songwriter Dan Penn still loves to sing

BY RON WYNN

BY KEN ARNOLD

ON THE COVER:

38 With Feeling

38 Modern Sounds

Reader-submitted valentines

FILM

42 It’s a Mads, Mads, Mads, Mads World

Love means sharing a slice between drinks and dinner on the East Side

BY SEAN KINCH; CHAPTER16.ORG

14 Dating Life on Nashville’s Christian College Campuses

18 Sweet Scene

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS AND H.N. JAMES

34 Jonathan Metzl wants to reframe the gun debate

BY MARY MALONE

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Elvis Costello at the Ryman and Morgxn at The East Room

FOOD AND DRINK

Trepidation Is Big Business

I have someone by my side who embraces my identity as a queer, liberal reverend

Our short list of places to dine without the din

40 The Spin

Brit Taylor, Chuck Indigo, Deap Vally, TPAC Family Day, Music City Puppy Bowl and more

BOOKS

14 The Reverend Falls in Love

16 Quiet Spots for a First Date

CRITICS’ PICKS

31 Date Night: The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club and Frankies 925 Spuntino

How Nashville’s singles embrace the wait

BY SOL AYALA, NASHVILLE SCENE EDITORIAL INTERN

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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FROM BILL FREEMAN

WHO WE ARE

A CALL FOR COMMON SENSE: WHY TENNESSEE NEEDS TO EMBRACE GUN REFORM AS A LONGTIME businessman and gun owner in Tennessee, I was intrigued to see House Bill 2193 introduced during this legislative session. Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) filed the legislation, which aims to impose a 15 percent tax on the retail sale of firearms in Tennessee. As reported by WKRN, “That revenue would then be put into a fund to be used by the Tennessee Department of Education exclusively for the purpose of staffing school counselors in elementary and secondary schools.” Redirecting funds toward mental health support is a cause many can agree is crucial. Mitchell acknowledged the difficulty in moving this kind of legislation due to the environment in our state, but he also realizes that lawmakers have to do something.

According to Everytown.org, our state is consistently ranked among the highest in gun deaths, with the 12th-highest rate in the United States. As Tennessee Lookout reported in August, our state’s rate of gun deaths in youth ages 17 and younger is 36 percent higher than the national average. Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the state. Further, notes Everytown, “Gun violence costs Tennessee $18.0 billion each year, of which $415.5 million is paid by taxpayers.”

Tennessee’s weak gun laws and high rates of gun violence should be a cause for concern for every resident, regardless of their stance on the Second Amendment.

In March of last year, the Covenant School shooting shook our community to its core, claiming the lives of three children and three adults. To many of us, it was a stark reminder that the time for action was long overdue. An Everytown projection shows that “if Tennessee had the gun death rate of … the eight states with the strongest gun safety laws, we could save 12,514 lives in the next decade.”

An extreme risk law similar to those implemented in 21 other states might have prevented the Covenant School tragedy. Such a law would empower authorities to intervene and temporarily restrict access to firearms for individuals deemed a risk to themselves or others. I recognize that the Second Amendment is important — I understand it, and I own guns myself. But I also understand the importance behind defining those who are not mentally capable of making good or safe decisions when they are allowed access to guns.

House Bill 2193 is a step in the right direction. According to Rep. Mitchell, the idea stemmed from a recent town hall meeting, where a Republican voter — and gun owner — acknowledged the urgency of addressing the gun problem in our state. It’s encouraging to see bipartisan discussions on potential solutions. But knowing there are many intricacies in legislation, we have to recognize

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that discussions and proposals do not always equate to tangible change. We can only do what we have the power to do — and Mitchell has taken just such an opportunity by filing HB 2193.

Of course, Mitchell says he does not want to tax anyone, and he points to “legislation filed by fellow Democrats, including safe storage and red-flag bills by Reps. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) and Bob Freeman (D-Nashville), as things that lawmakers could do to keep Tennesseans safer from gun violence.” Mitchell also explains that if either of those bills were to pass, he would “happily” withdraw his tax bill.

After a recent shooting near Belmont University in which a young student lost her life, Republicans are advocating for more mental health reform. House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) has emphasized the need to prevent individuals who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial from possessing firearms — a change that Democrats also support. It’s a step toward acknowledging the intersection of mental health and gun violence, yet the comprehensive reforms needed could remain elusive. Some still believe that arming teachers is a potential solution, but certainly, many parents do not want that for their children.

A report by Everytown shows advocates from Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action have been tirelessly pushing for common-sense reforms. Their efforts resulted in the rejection of legislation to arm teachers.

Sierra Barnett, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action, aptly points out, “While we are encouraged by proposals meant to promote the secure storage of firearms, [last year’s special legislative session] fell woefully short.” It’s a testament to the power of advocacy, but it also highlights the long road ahead.

When we sit down to discuss this, let’s remember this issue is not about politics — it’s about the safety of our children and our communities. I applaud Mitchell for working toward a solution and for filing HB 2193.

Further, I believe most of us value common sense over ideological divides. Embracing common-sense gun reform is not an attack on the Second Amendment; it’s a responsible step toward curbing the alarming rates of gun violence that continue to plague our beloved Tennessee.

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

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin CELEBRATING: ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter With sfincione at St. Vito MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser DIGITAL EDITOR Kim Baldwin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cole Villena CHECKED OUT: CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman Limo, a new STAFF WRITERS Kelsey Beyeler, Logan Butts, Peruvian restaurant in East Nashville Stephen Elliott, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Steve Erickson, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, Christine Kreyling, J.R. Lind, Craig D. Lindsey, Sean L. Maloney, Margaret Littman, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Jason Shawhan, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian EDITORIAL INTERN Sol Ayala ART DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones PHOTOGRAPHERS Angelina Castillo, Eric England, Matt Masters GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Sandi Harrison, Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Haley Durham PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Christie Passarello FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Olivia Britton MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER Robin Fomusa PUBLISHER Mike Smith ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Michael Jezewski SENIOR ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS MANAGERS Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS MANAGERS Teresa Birdsong, Maddy Fraiche, Kailey Idziak, Allie Muirhead, Niki Tyree, Alissa Wetzel SALES OPERATIONS MANAGER Chelon Hill Hasty ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATES Audry Houle, Jack Stejskal SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Susan Torregrossa PRESIDENT Mike Smith CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Todd Patton CORPORATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones IT DIRECTOR John Schaeffer CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Gary Minnis FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

NEWS: METROPOLITIK

MAYOR CHARTS COURSE IN EAST BANK Mendes, councilmembers are reluctant pitchmen as bills come due

RENDERING: PERKINS EASTMAN

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.

METRO OWES BONDHOLDERS a cool $31 million this summer, its first payment on $760 million borrowed to build a new Tennessee Titans stadium. Initial development for a chunk of prime city land will command another $227 million related to roads, bridges and demolition, according to the latest from the mayor’s office.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell budgeted $25 million for the East Bank in his recently released capital spending plan, a modest bite at a big apple that will likely take multiple mayors a few decades to polish off.

Anti-stadium sentiment animated O’Connell’s successful campaign for mayor. For opponents, a new $2.1 billion domed arena for a flagging football team symbolized backward city priorities and ill-guided decision-making from O’Connell’s predecessor, real estate developer John Cooper. Previously an at-large councilmember, Cooper rode similar populist waves from Fort Negley and felled cherry trees to his own 2019 election over incumbent David Briley.

Last year’s blessing has become this year’s burden. O’Connell put friend, ally, attorney and former At-Large Councilmember Bob Mendes in the East Bank driver’s seat as his office’s chief development officer. The bespoke role pays $250,000 (Metro’s seventh-highest salary) and puts Mendes in the crossfire between rival governments, billion-dollar corporations, lucrative contracts, opinionated neighbors, and the shifting concerns of past, present and future.

“The prior administration made a lot of comments about how the East Bank would pay for itself, or would be ‘free’ to the general taxpayer,” Mendes told the Ad Hoc East Bank Committee on Jan. 24. “This stuff may pay for itself over an extended period of time. But

somebody has to front a lot of money to pay for a lot of infrastructure.”

Few people, from the mayor to state legislators to the residents of East Nashville, seem excited about it. If anyone clearly benefits from the push, it’s the Titans and their lobbying team.

Mendes is left “banging his head against the wall,” in the words of one former mayor’s office employee, while electeds like O’Connell have to sell a bill of goods they didn’t ask for. On Monday, Axios reported that state and local lawmakers are preparing to create a dedicated East Bank Development Authority to oversee the area.

On Jan. 31, East Nashville Councilmembers Sean Parker and Clay Capp tag-teamed a town hall for their districts, which abut the East Bank to the north and east. They encouraged disgruntled residents to work within the confines of a stadium deal that had already been inked.

“That deal is pretty much signed, sealed, delivered,” Parker told the full room. “The important parts of it are all baked in and locked in. The bonds have gone to market and sold. There’s not really anything we can do about the stadium piece. A lot of important decisions remain for the Metro-owned portion — about 130 acres around the present stadium.”

In more than an hour of crowd questions, attendees reliably came back to two topics: transportation and housing, routine worries for Nashville residents and two of O’Connell’s top campaign fixes. Both districts regularly contend with parking spillover from East Nashville destinations like Five Points. Parker has been looking into residential parking permits, he says, a “trade-off” solution with its own set of headaches.

Mendes reported that 1,550 residential units were part of the city’s plan with The Fallon Company, the Boston-based developer hired in the waning days of the Cooper administration that

will build out a chunk of Metro land. Of those, 855 would be market-rate, and 695 would be affordable in some manner.

Construction has yet to begin. Mendes met with Indigenous leaders, including local writer and activist Albert Bender, on Jan. 12 about recognition and preservation of ancient Indigenous history on the East Bank. Attendees brought up Metro’s pattern of disregard for discoveries that are historically significant to Indigenous peoples, like when construction at First Horizon Park unearthed 800-year-old artifacts.

Bender maintains that Nashville is the modern site of a sprawling ancient city. In that meeting, Mendes shared that the mayor had ordered a phase I archaeological survey within the East Bank. The study will commence pending a final contract with Fallon. Any findings, particularly evidence of a burial site, could significantly alter the track of development.

In the short term, the city is choosing an engineer for East Bank Boulevard, the area’s north-south artery. Mendes has set a precedent for regular updates, even amid ongoing negotiations. The O’Connell administration has no way to directly contact billionaire landowner Carl Icahn, who owns a key East Bank tract, and has no plans to talk to him, according to a source familiar with the situation.

“We know we are obligated to make certain capital investments on infrastructure, but we also know we have a development partner who will share some of those costs,” O’Connell told reporters in January. “The Titans as a team are sharing some of those costs. Major stakeholders like TPAC are likely to share some of those costs.

Bob [Mendes] has been pretty transparent that we do expect to see capital needs emerge from the East Bank. But our commitment is going to be to make sure that we are investing in the entire city.” ▼

PITH IN THE WIND NASHVILLESCENE.COM/NEWS/PITHINTHEWIND State lawmakers have targeted Pride flags, library books and Tennessee State University with newly introduced bills a month into this year’s legislative session. Brentwood Rep. Gino Bulso, a first-term Republican quickly making a name for himself in Tennessee’s culture wars, backed the effort to ban Pride flags in public schools and defended legislation that allows parents to sue a school district for offering certain library books.

Conservatives introduced several bills aimed at TSU, including moves to vacate the university’s governing board and put the school under direct state control. Conservatives have scrutinized Tennessee’s biggest historically Black university for years, frequently accusing its leadership of financial mismanagement and poor decision-making.

Official reports in 2021 and 2023 found the school has suffered from underfunding for decades.

Gov. Bill Lee briefly took the spotlight on Monday for Tennessee’s State of the State address. The governor also released new budget details for the coming fiscal year. Lee recently returned from Texas, where he appeared alongside Gov. Greg Abbott in a GOP media stunt. Abbott has repeatedly challenged the federal government’s control of the southern border. Meanwhile, Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) infuriated state Republicans when he declined to lead the chamber’s Pledge of Allegiance. These are all signs that the party has its priorities all out of whack, writes Scene contributor Betsy Phillips.

SHAUNDELLE BROOKS Election chatter has ramped up with primary and general contests scheduled for the coming months. Locally, gun control advocate Shaundelle Brooks, who lost her son in the 2018 Waffle House shooting, could face financial planner Tim Jester in the Democratic primary for the seat currently held by outgoing Rep. Darren Jernigan. The post is one of Nashville’s more purple districts and spans an eastern swath of the county that includes Hermitage and Donelson. Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite, who previously ran for mayor, will face challenger Tomesia Day in a March primary. Knoxville Rep. Gloria Johnson raked in just over $1 million in the last quarter of 2023, bringing her fundraising total to $2.3 million in her bid to dethrone U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. The incumbent Republican reported a hefty $7.4 million end-of-year war chest. Former President Donald Trump has his own fundraising trip to Nashville planned for Feb. 22. Trump will appear with Kid Rock at an as-yet-undisclosed location ahead of Tennessee’s March 5 Republican primary.

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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NEWS

MLK MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY PUSHES BACK ON PROPOSED CHANGES According to one faculty member, dealing with Metro Nashville Public Schools is ‘like talking to a wall’

BY KELSEY BEYELER

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THE METRO NASHVILLE Public Schools district is ready to make some changes to Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School. Some members of the MLK community are not. Serving seventh through 12th grades, MLK is one of two academic magnet high schools in the district, along with Hume-Fogg Academic High School, and is listed among the top middle schools in Tennessee.

In December, MNPS leadership announced its plan to gradually phase out seventh and eighth grades at MLK. The plan aligns with MNPS’ long-standing ReimaginED initiative, meant to standardize district schools into three structures: pre-K/K-5; sixth through eighth grades; and ninth through 12th grades. MNPS is planning to remove seventh and eighth grades from MLK by the 2027-28 school year. As MLK would gradually become a ninth-through-12th school, seventh and eighth grades would be folded into nearby Head Magnet Middle School, which has served as an automatic pathway to MLK and will continue to do so (though it will be rebranded as MLK at Head Magnet Middle). Students don’t and won’t have to meet academic requirements to enroll at Head, but they do receive an automatic pathway to MLK if they meet its academic criteria. The district’s plan would not affect students who are currently enrolled at MLK or Head.

In September, before MNPS announced these changes, District 3 school board member Emily Masters introduced a policy to “eliminate automatic pathways into academic magnet high schools.” While any student who meets the academic criteria for academic magnet high schools can attend, students from certain middle schools currently get enrollment priority via automatic pathways. Masters introduced the policy hoping to “increase access to the applica-

tion process.” The board deferred voting on the policy until it could garner more community feedback.

Masters tells the Scene that, while she anticipated some kind of change at MLK, she was unaware of MNPS’ forthcoming plan when she introduced her policy. Between the new MLK changes and community feedback she’s received, Masters says she is rethinking the policy.

“I no longer feel it is appropriate to remove — or to try to remove — an automatic pathway from Head to MLK,” Masters tells the Scene. “It doesn’t change how I feel about the way that so many families who have children who qualify for academic magnet high schools are sort of disenfranchised by the fact that there is priority status given to children in certain middle schools. … It’s still an issue I want us to look at as a board.”

District leaders say the change will open seats for the schools. However, citing current open seats at the high school level (and not enough at the middle school level) and several empty classrooms in the building, members of the MLK community disagree with the district’s plan.

Some, like MLK staff member Sarah Laos, would prefer to see MLK add sixth grade so middle school teachers who work in the building could stay, and so the school’s academic programs and structures wouldn’t be disrupted.

“It’s disappointing that MNPS would want to eliminate two of the grades that feed into the high school, because it is a part of what makes them so successful as a whole,” says MLK parent Arica Rucker. Rucker has two children who have attended MLK, plus a fourth-grader she was planning to enroll there. Because these changes would affect her fourth-grader, Rucker says her family is considering other options.

MLK community members are also upset about how the district has handled related communication. No community meetings were held

by MNPS to specifically discuss these changes — though an MNPS representative says there will be future opportunities for that, and notes that the overall ReimaginED plan has been previously communicated at board meetings.

Laos says faculty members were told about the changes an hour before they were announced at the December school board meeting, and that questions from her colleagues and herself still haven’t been answered.

“It’s like talking to a wall,” Laos tells the Scene.

After the announcement was made, students and staff began organizing a before-school protest to take place across the street from MLK’s campus, but it was snuffed out by school administration.

“I felt very strongly about trying to do anything to raise awareness and try to stop what was happening,” says MLK senior and president of the student government association Trey Madison. Madison confirms that he was asked not to go forward with the demonstration that morning — though he talked with school leadership about the changes afterward.

In 2013, a similar plan was introduced to remove seventh and eighth grades from MLK, but the MLK community successfully fought it. An extension was added to the school instead.

Complicating the matter further is the fact that MLK isn’t currently represented by a school board member. Former District 5 representative Christiane Buggs resigned from her position in January to take over the education nonprofit PENCIL. Whether the city will appoint a temporary board member before this year’s election is unclear. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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news_2

GROUNDBREAKING GENEEDITING THERAPY HELPS LOCAL SICKLE CELL PATIENTS

A doctor at Nashville’s TriStar Centennial led the national CRISPR clinical trial

BY HANNAH HERNER HAVING SICKLE CELL DISEASE used to mean Alyssa Weddle missed out on normal teenage things — going out with friends, school work, extracurricular activities. Now, after gene editing therapy, it’s been more than two years since the 16-year-old has been hospitalized for pain caused by sickle cell disease.

Weddle took part in a clinical trial for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing therapy at TriStar Centennial beginning in 2021.

In early December, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of sickle cell in patients ages 12 and up. It’s the first FDA approval for the gene-editing therapy, whose creators won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2020.

The lead investigator for the clinical trial is Dr. Haydar Frangoul, director of pediatric hematology/oncology for the Sarah Cannon Pediatric Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at TriStar Centennial. He tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post that TriStar Centennial has hosted the largest number of patients as part of the national trial, including the first patient, who was treated mid-2019.

Sickle cell is an inherited blood disorder that mostly affects those who are of African ancestry. About one in every 365 Black or African American babies is born with sickle cell disease.

For those with the disease, hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in red blood cells, is rigid instead of liquid. Because of this, their blood cannot effectively transport oxygen to the organs, damaging them. That damage shortens the patient’s lifespan to around 50 years. It can also cause pain crises like those that would send Weddle to the hospital, where sometimes she would have to stay for a week just to have access to pain management.

“It’s all you can focus on, and sometimes if I had pain in my back I wouldn’t be able to walk,” she says. “It affects everything when I’m having a pain crisis.”

Frangoul explains there are some people who have sickle cell disease but do not experience any symptoms. Those people have what is called hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin, something that all infants have, though most people’s blood switches over to adult hemoglobin at around 6 months old.

Physicians collect stem cells, edit them back to the fetal hemoglobin, and infuse them into the patient intravenously, leaving them with around 40 percent fetal hemoglobin — like a 1-month-old, or like

those with hereditary persistence.

“After we have published our work and talked about it, people are doing more and more clinical trials for other diseases using the same technology,” Frangoul says. “It’s huge. Basically, you talk about astronomy landing on the moon — this is landing on the moon in human genetics.”

Gene-editing therapy is, however, an arduous process for the patient. Weddle underwent chemotherapy to suppress existing immune cells so the new cells could expand more effectively. She spent a month in the hospital and had her eggs frozen, as chemo can affect fertility.

“It was kind of scary to do those procedures and have to think about having kids and doing all that at such a young age, but I was excited because it felt really real, and it felt like I actually had a chance to not have sickle cell,” Weddle says.

Before the CRISPR technology, the only cure for sickle cell patients was a bone marrow transplant from a sibling who was a blood match but did not have the disease. Around 15 percent of patients have a sibling match, leaving 85 percent without a cure. That’s been the norm for more than 25 years, Frangoul says.

Not all patients will be able to take the treatment. Frangoul says patients whose organs are already too damaged would not benefit from the process. The hope is to treat patients as young as possible before organ damage.

Another hitch: Insurance companies have just started to cover the therapy, and patients who are uninsured will struggle to afford the expensive treatment.

“I’m hoping that insurance companies will look at this and say the benefit of this therapy way outweighs the cost for it because you’re changing patients’ lives,” Frangoul says.

In the next 10 years, Frangoul anticipates doctors will be able to edit cells without removing them from the body or using chemotherapy. But for now, Weddle and the other patients who took part in the clinical trial at TriStar can live a normal life.

“I’m going to get my [driver’s] license and focus on me and what I want to do for my future, not having to think about randomly going into a pain crisis or being in the hospital,” Weddle says. “I’m just excited that I kind of get to start my life over again and learn what it’s like to be a normal teenager and to go out with friends and go to a pool party and do all of that.”

This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post. ▼ NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

LoOKING Fo FoR LO LOVE IN NASHVILLE

FROM DATING AS A REVEREND TO SURVIVING IN A POST-DATING-APP SOCIETY AND PICKING THE RIGHT SPOT FOR A FIRST DATE restaurants for a first date, and in our food section, contributor Danny Bonvissuto has the latest entry in her ongoing “Date Night” series.

This week’s issue was guest edited by Nashville Post and Nashville Scene health care reporter Hannah Herner. Dig in.

ILLUSTRATION: HALEY DURHAM (@HALEYDURHAMCREATIVE)

In this week’s cover package, we look at the dating scene in Nashville, as well as how to survive a post-dating-app society.

We also hear from a queer, liberal reverend who’s recently fallen in love, and ask Christian college students what dating is like on their campuses. We round up some of the best (i.e., quietest)

Also in “Sweet S this issue, see cene readers ” on p. 18 — our ’ va the ones lentines to they lov e.

THE MAIN EVENT How Nashville’s singles embrace the wait

BY HANNAH HERNER I LEARNED AT a young age that it was much more fun to get ready for the school dance than to actually attend it. I loved shopping for an outfit, meticulously following a YouTube tutorial for a smoky eye, taking pictures on the staircase of my friend’s house, imagining what song I’d request (One Direction, of course), imagining scenarios in which my crush asked me to dance.

When he didn’t, I felt distraught. My throat felt tight and tears welled in my eyes. But afterward I took off my shoes and sprinted across the soccer field to a friend’s house, where her mom had made spicy pretzels for us. We were all a bit disappointed but didn’t feel the need to articulate it. We counted the bobby pins in each updo and played MASH and made prank

calls into the wee hours.

Dating can feel like that. It’s fun to have a crush, to make plans, to imagine how this date could be the last first date you ever go on. Often it’s disappointing. You just don’t click with a person, or you don’t find them attractive, or your values don’t align. Only now, as an adult, there’s not always someone there to soften the blow with a pretzel or a prank call — there aren’t always friends who just had the same experience.

I spoke with six Nashville singles and a few friends about what it means to date in Music City.

In Nashville, you have a good chance at dating a musician, if that’s what you fancy.

There’s also a decent chance you’ll run into that musician out and about. The saying that “Nashville is a small town” is especially true in the dating world. You’re sad they go on tour; later, you wish they would.

One young Jewish woman is contemplating opening up to long-distance relationships, concerned that the pool of fellow Jewish singles

is too small here.

Another young woman studied dating apps as part of her degree at Vanderbilt University.

She’s taking part in her own social experiment: posting a profile including only pictures of herself in a very specific Halloween costume.

(Old Gregg from the cult British comedy The Mighty Boosh. It is not a sexy costume.)

A nonbinary bisexual person is setting up dates for the first time since transitioning, finding comfort in the fact that those who swipe right on them know about their queerness and (hopefully) accept it. But they still worry about safety. They suggest not flirting with the barista — “don’t shit where you eat.”

A man new to the sober dating world figures out how to date what he calls “more intentionally” without need for liquid courage.

One recent divorcee is figuring out the rules of dating: how long until it’s official, and when to delete the apps that got them here to begin with?

One man with autism hopes to find someone understanding as he navigates his later-in-life

diagnosis. As a caretaker for his mother, he tries to balance caring for her and leaving time for a new connection. He met his previous wife while voting at a polling location, but now, apps allow him to communicate at his own pace and in his own way.

Another divorcee is trying the apps for the first time as an introvert, which requires taking some breaks. She’s moving away to Seattle.

That’s another thing — Nashville, for many, is a transient city.

A friend wants men to see her as human, to see her as a viable option as a plus-size person.

Another just wants a new crush to help bide the time.

We singles are doing our best to stay hopeful.

We get to look forward to the time when the date, like the dance, can feel better than the anticipation and debriefing.

This issue is about the liminal space, waiting for a big event to happen — LOVE. And if it’s already happened for you, I’d appreciate it if you could supply some snacks. ♥

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ILLUSTRATION: HALEY DURHAM (@HALEYDURHAMCREATIVE)

BACK TO THE BASICS How to survive a postdating-app society

BY HANNAH HERNER SEX IS COOL, but have you ever deleted all of your dating apps, taken a deep breath and stared out the window in a hopeful way?

I’ve rage-quit dating apps plenty of times, but these days, it really feels like they aren’t what they used to be. I know I’m not the only one to say this. Early on, they were a novelty that produced lots of endorphin hits. Then during lockdown, we needed them for any real chance of new connections. For a time, they worked.

I met people I liked dating and even loved on Hinge. Now it feels impossible to arrange a first date. I suspect I’m gate-kept from people who might be better options for me by an algorithm or a paid version.

To get back into the (now smaller) pool (OMG, you all got married and engaged in the past three years), I spent $100 total to go to several local dating events.

It wasn’t my first time trying to join the in-person dating revolution. Back in 2018, I went to a memorable Bumble dating event. The event photographer took a photo of me and my friend Morgan (who is now engaged!) laughing at

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each other, and split the photo in half to make it seem like we were talking to potential love interests. The truth is, we were two of roughly 20 women at the event. Three guys attended. I remember asking one of the men, “Do you feel like you’re on The Bachelor?”

A dating event at East Nashville bar Dino’s in August was a fun experience too, but it did not produce a love connection for me. It was great in that it welcomed all gender expressions and sexual orientations, but left me with about six options — one wearing a baseball cap. I’m sorry, you have to do your hair for these things.

Both the Dino’s event and last month’s Jigsaw dating event offered conversation prompts and encouraged note-taking. I unfortunately had to explain that I was neither a dog person nor a cat person to two lovely gentlemen who worked in graphic design. I still have my wristband (blue, because I’m interested in men) from the Nashville Soccer Club dating event, where a man showed me a picture of his Blu-ray collection.

I have yet to try Cheeky Date and Date Ready Nashville, but will you do it and get back to me?

I’m getting tired.

Dating events are a nice place to brush up on your skills in a room full of people who are definitely single. But I, for one, refuse to let anyone else profit off my loneliness anymore. We have to do what every generation before us did — go up to people and start talking to them. Here are

some of my tactics for meeting people in person.

➡ DECLARE THAT YOU ARE SINGLE AND YOU’D LIKE NOT TO BE: This is a tough one. It’s vulnera-

➡ THE BAR POLL: Think of something that’s a bellwether for you. For example: I like to ask, “Who is your favorite Kardashian?” If a person thinks reality TV and pop culture are dumb, they are not for me. I start with a couple of girls who seem nice and get some momentum going, and then move on to guys I think are cute. If they are entertained by you, keep talking. If not, say, “Have a good night!” And continue on with the poll. The poll gives you an in and an out. At the very least, you’ll have a couple of nice interactions — and connecting with each other is the very thing that separates us from reptiles.

ble, and I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, but I know I want to do marriage and a house and kids! I think it’s important to be upfront about that. I’ve been fixed up a couple of times. I went on a nice date to The Cheesecake Factory after the Scene published an essay I wrote last year about being single.

When I posted about singles events for this assignment, one guy slid into my DMs. He said he thought a lot of people were probably reaching out to me. (Hot.) He was on to something. The apps and social media totally killed any sense of urgency in dating. Why do I see someone I think is cute and immediately try and find them on the internet instead of just saying hello? Perhaps we could reintroduce “Are you seeing anyone?” back into the vernacular. I like it.

Makes me feel like I’m on Sex and the City or something.

As we singles approach dating out there in the world, perhaps the most important thing is trusting oneself. Take the advice that sits well with you, and remember that you’re in a dating climate that is different than it ever has been before.

Every one of us is truly here because someone simply went up to someone else. How romantic. ♥

➡ EYE CONTACT: Look at people, smile at them. It’s nice. Babies can do it. ➡ WING PEOPLE: Send your friend over to ask whether the object of your affection is single!

Oldest trick in the book. ➡ THIS IS FOR YOU TOO, BOYS: I find it endearing that men worry they’re going to creep me out. Stop that. If I say something like, “I’m trying to have quality time with my girls,” or any mention of a significant other, that’s where you say, “Have a good night!” It’s not creepy to try, just creepy to cling once I’ve said I’m not available.

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THE REVEREND FALLS IN LOVE I have someone by my side who embraces my identity as a queer, liberal reverend

BY MARY MALONE THE LAST TIME you heard from me, I was lamenting about being a queer, liberal reverend trying to date on the apps. “Can I be all three in one profile?” I wondered in the last line of that column in a November 2022 issue of the Scene. Let’s fast-forward to a few months after I wrote that story.

I paused my dating profile and had begun going on dates with a woman who slid into my DMs on Instagram. But I was falling for one of my close friends — let’s call him Alex. Alex is six years younger than me, doesn’t identify as Christian and is an … astrophysicist. I had written off the possibility of us getting together because of our age gap and the difference in our careers.

Science and religion usually don’t mix well.

Still, I found myself thinking more about him than the woman I was dating, and one morning in early September, we confronted our feelings. I was giddy but hesitant. “I’m a lot older than you, you know. I don’t want to risk our friendship.

And … I’m a minister. Which is weird.”

“I know all that,” he said, “but I think this thing could have legs, and I think what you do is neat.

You’re kind of like a community organizer.”

“Well,” I thought, “that’ll change once you see me preach and pray in front of hundreds of people.”

I didn’t believe someone with his leftist political beliefs and scientific interests would be able to accept all of me. To my surprise, he did.

I have always kept my romantic relationships separate from work. I do this to maintain strong boundaries between myself and my congregants.

After a few months, though, it became clear Alex was special and wasn’t going anywhere.

Alex began sneaking into worship services most

Sundays. He’d sit near the back, sporting his flannel shirts and long hair and leave after the service.

Gradually, I began to share with the rest of the staff and congregation that I had a boyfriend.

There is a lot of pressure on the partner of a minister to not only attend church but get involved, too. (That’s a whole other article.) I didn’t want Alex to feel pressured to do any of that, because historically, no one I’d dated did. Yet he was the one who offered to chaperone youth trips, play in the churchwide basketball fundraiser and attend weekly gatherings with the young adults. At Bible studies, he mostly listened and observed. He’d pick up my latest theological reading and skim a few chapters. He asked thoughtful questions. While I tried to wrap my head around quasars and supermassive black holes, he tried to make sense of my faith.

Despite the fact that his intellectual curiosity was comforting and his involvement in my work life reassuring, I still didn’t know how to share my more personal spiritual life with him.

Until one night.

I was particularly upset about the death of

a family member. “I want to pray out loud,” I whispered in bed, “but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Go for it,” he said. I prayed for a while, and when I opened my eyes and looked at him, I saw tears in his eyes too. This isn’t a “he came to Jesus” anecdote, but proof that I could open up to him without him turning away.

Six months into our relationship, I said goodbye to my congregation and began working at a new church. This time, I didn’t ease Alex into my church life: I threw him in head-first.

The congregation embraced him with open arms. We began sharing meals with my parishioners together. He started dropping into my weekly Sunday school class, attending youth events and doing homeless outreach with me. When he had knee surgery, people in the church wrote cards, brought soup and prayed for a swift recovery.

Alex does not identify as a Christian. He probably never will. It’s not necessarily because he studies black holes; it’s just not something to which he subscribes.

He finds my faith beautiful and enjoys my sermons. He sees the importance of intergenerational community, how touching it is when a church wraps its arms around someone in crisis, and how the life of Jesus is compelling, regardless of whether or not he is God. His acceptance of my calling? It means everything.

It means that I can pray in front of a group of people and it doesn’t scare him. I can wear a robe and a stole and he doesn’t panic. And it means that I have someone by my side who embraces my identity as a queer, liberal reverend.

I don’t think I would have swiped right on Alex. Yet here we are, two people who think deeply about existence and how to live, even if we ask these questions with seemingly opposite approaches. I realize now that my selection process on the apps was more limiting than freeing. Life and/or love does not always follow our perfect list. What’s more important than Alex and my similarities is our willingness to listen, to embrace each other’s differences and to show up for each other, whether at church or at the observatory. I mean it when I say, thank God. ♥

relationship — something studies show is becoming increasingly common with Generation Z. “I’m dating to marry; I don’t wanna mess around — I’ve never been one to apply to that idea,” Granados says.

“I think it’s my religion more than anything. I was raised Catholic. Some of my friends just go around and try to sleep with a lot of women. I don’t see the appeal.”

Granados says he can’t find the time to fit a person into his life because of his personal and academic responsibilities, but he is looking to marry.

“Not right now, but eventually yes — I want to get married and have kids,” Granados says. “That is the goal

always, but right now I’m not looking to marry because I feel like I’m young. I have a lot left to live for. I got goals.”

However time-consuming going on several dates might be while juggling classes and a social life, students are not giving up on meeting new people, as it will bring them closer to a serious relationship.

“To date or not to date, I would say to date just because I’m delulu [slang for delusional] like that, and I’m still wanting to find someone,” Izquierdo says. “At the moment I think it’s just casual dating. I think that helps out a lot because I get to see for myself what I want and what I don’t want from a person.” ♥

Students discuss juggling academic life with romantic life

BY SOL AYALA, NASHVILLE SCENE EDITORIAL INTERN

COLLEGE IS A PLACE where young adults have to perform well in all their classes, apply for internships, network and try to sustain an active social life. And usually, they also want to get a date. As Valentine’s Day comes around again, everything is turning pink and heart-shaped. For those navigating dating in college, and especially on Christian college campuses, the stages of coupling can be stressful.

Fashion major Ashley Izquierdo has not always been comfortable with her dating life at Lipscomb University.

“I haven’t tried to jump into the dating Lipscomb scene,” says Izquierdo. “On dating apps, I have seen people who are from Lipscomb, and to me, that’s just kinda

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side the campus bubble.

“With Christian dating and me as a Christian Catholic, it’s very hard to truly stay with all the norms that Christians believe in,” says Andret, who lives off campus.

If the dating scene isn’t active on their college campuses, then how and where do students at Nashville’s Christian universities date?

“On Instagram and in person,” Andret says. “Or when I go to church, a lot of people have been wanting to set me up with their sons, or just guys in general come up to me.”

Dating while in college can be challenging for a lot of reasons. Dating apps often perpetuate casual dating and “situationship” status — a romantic or sexual relationship in which the people involved haven’t made things official.

That’s why Atdhair Granados, a marketing major at Trevecca, says he’s no longer dating or seeking a

ILLUSTRATIONS: HALEY DURHAM (@HALEYDURHAMCREATIVE)

DATING LIFE ON NASHVILLE’S weird because what if you swipe right and you see that person the next day? I’d just rather not do all of that.”

CHRISTIAN COLLEGE Izquierdo isn’t alone. Just a 12-minute drive away at Trevecca Nazarene University, business major Daniela CAMPUSES Andret shares a similar story, as she prefers to date out-

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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WITNESS HISTORY This photograph of Willie Nelson was taken in 1945 when the future Country Music Hall of Fame member played high school football for the Abbott Panthers in his hometown of Abbott, Texas.

From the General Collection at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum RESERVE TODAY

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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ILLUSTRATION: HALEY DURHAM (@HALEYDURHAMCREATIVE)

Our short list of places to dine without the din

ier on the hibachi side of this classic Green Hills outpost, the sushi bar is significantly more chill.

Wow your date with the Old Nashville trifecta of a movie at nearby Regal Green Hills, a couple of rolls at Ginza, and dessert at Fox’s Donut Den.

however, so make this an earlier stop.

➡ LOU: According to a recent review from longtime Scene writer Kay West, owner Mailea Weger has “achieved a seamless synthesis of easy-breezy California contemporary and classic Parisian poise” with Lou, her excellent but lowkey Inglewood restaurant.

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS FIRST DATES COME with enough anxieties.

Does my hair look good? Is my breath all right? Is this shirt too casual — or not casual enough? Why add to the list of concerns: Will I need to shout to my date to be heard in a noisy restaurant?

As recently explored in an article by our sister publication the Nashville Post, some restaurants hire sound engineers to make sure this sort of thing isn’t a problem. One company, Music City Acoustics, has worked with restaurants and coffee shops including Noko, Jane’s Hideaway, Crema, Five Points Pizza, Hathorne and Roze Pony to keep noisy reverb at a minimum.

We’ve rounded up several more of the best quiet spots in the city. Here are some places you can take your date if you want to keep things low-key.

Hotel by world-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Drusie & Darr was named Nashville’s Best Restaurant by Scene writers in our most recent Best of Nashville issue. Impeccable food.

➡ GINZA: Though things can get slightly nois-

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LE LOUP ➡ LE LOUP: Wrote our own Margaret Littman in 2022, “The beauty of the velvet-clad Germantown oasis that is Le Loup is that it makes the mere act of sitting at the bar and sipping a cocktail feel like a special occasion.” Le Loup has been known to host DJs later in the evening,

➡ YOLAN: Yolan — which we named Best Upscale Italian in 2021 — fits the bill because it’s essentially a lobby with plenty of space between tables.

Other relatively easy, quiet places to dine: etc., Valentino’s, Caffé Nonna, The Standard, Farmhouse, Sinema, Midtown Cafe and Germantown Cafe.

Ashley Brantley contributed reporting to this article. ♥

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

➡ DRUSIE & DARR: Opened in the Hermitage

➡ ROZE PONY: This all-day cafe in Belle Meade — a recipient of multiple Best of Nashville awards — is quietest at night. Daytime can get busy.

➡ URBAN COWBOY: This Lockeland Springs spot is particularly good for a quiet date if you visit its indoor wine bar or back garden.

YOLAN

PHOTO: ERIC LAIGNEL

QUIET SPOTS FOR A FIRST DATE

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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DEAR TY - Best friend, you are the only person I want to play air hockey with the rest of my life! I can’t wait to marry you this year! -Rach (air hockey winner) MY PAL FOOT FOOT - I love your tail so much. Thanks for being our roof kitty.

MY SWEET FAMILY - Happy Valentine’s day to my beautiful family. Love you so much Mom, Dad, and Claire!

Wishing bright things for this year. Lovingly, Ellen.

LA LA - Happy Valentines to the most beautifully silly love bug in all of Nashville <3! -Love Sim PHIL WILLIAMS Gabrielle votes red, but she’s feeling blue.

Tennessee is blessed with THE best journalist (YOU!).

Sincerely, Angel KOTW, MY GOOSE - Proclaiming my love for you here & now, for always. You’re my love and you will always have my heart. Plus that heat ;) We’re FIRE babe - XX - Goose MATTHEW BUTCHER - You came to town for music and found love instead. Cheers to 12 years together and to whatever the future holds. Love, Tree ISABEL - Hello Diva you look so fierce today but I look even more fierce…. —Carolina BLAKE - Happy Valentine’s Day, muff! I love you to pieces. Love, Madison HALEY S <3 Roses are red, Violets are blue.

You’re my stink and I love you.

Will you be my valentine? —Michelle LS TO RAINE !!!!!!!!!!! - From Aubrey, I heard your favorite song today, “Dance With Me,” I wanted you near & every other time I hear that tune. We could dance in a daydream.

TO BUN! - My sweet bunny Valentine Ryan, I love you (so much)! Love, Your Bun (and RumTum & Kiwi) GATHRE AT HOTEL FRAY Rose are red Violets are blue Gathre brunch is the sweetest and Hotel Fraye is too!

DAN - HVD Pup! I’ll meet you at Dino’s for some champagne and animal fries. Can’t wait to marry you this summer. XOXO x infinity, Elena DEAR WILL, I love you more than California Tacos.

(Crazy, I know!) Thank you for making me smile everyday since that first Geography class. Yours always, Gracie.

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GOOSE - My sweet Goose, I love you so much. I know you can’t read, but I hope you know you are my fave Valentine ever. I love you, Jordan KAILEY - I love every day we spend together! I’m so proud of all your accomplishments and looking forward to an amazing future together! Love, Carson ANTHONY FAZIO - You are the light in my life that keeps glowing. Happy love day, my love. Xoxo, Ash

KELLY - You make me laugh, you show me support and care when I need it the most, seeking new adventures and experiences + you’re hot. I love you. —Mike J - I’ll never stop loving you. —L MELISSA - Do all lovers feel they’re inventing something? I know the gestures. I imagined it all, waiting for you. —Hannah WAX NASHVILLE - Nothing better than a local, womanowned business full of amazing aestheticians that lift up and support other women in the community. Love, Abbey.

CRABS - I love you to the moon and back. — ­ Jenks RUSSELL - I’m so glad to be calling you My Valentine for the fifth year. I am so proud of your continued accomplishments. I love you equally goober bear —MW XAY + MAKO - Loves of my life! Happy Valentine’s Day! HAPPY 1ST V DAY MF - Mike: Roses are red. Violets are blue. I’m crazy about you and Tofu. Yes this is corny, but so are we. BTW this was free. Happy 1st V day babe —JM ELIZABETH - I can’t believe I get to spend the REST OF MY LITERAL LIFE with the most beautiful, hilarious, sweet & loving woman in all of human history. <3 Nicole MARSHALL R - That warm summer day where we had our first date at Portland B., I immediately fell for you and still do everyday. I’ll love you forever. Love, Ethan FOR CHAP - Im excited for our 3rd Valentine’s day together and for a million more! Im so lucky to have you by my side. Always falling more in love with you.

MY FROG - Happy Valentines Day. From your loving Toad MI AMO THEO - To the person I call home, thank you for being who you are. I love you —Jace MY FIRST HUSBAND - Happy Valentine’s Day to my first husband (and second!!). Love you furever…

MORGAN M - Love is weird. —I JOE - Thanks for always bringing me the latest issue of Nashville Scene. It’s one of the many reasons I love you. I Happy Valentine’s Day! Love, Kelsey AM+AP+KB - Thank you for being the best! Love you guys!

ALISE A. - Happy valentines day! You are a dream!

ERIC - To the light in my life and the sugar in my sweet tea, Happy 10 years and Valentine’s day to you. Here’s to many, many more. I love you, Audrey FOR CARLOS, MY LOVE - Proud to be your wife. You’re my anchor and my home. I love you so much. —Morg L’AMOUR À DISTANCE - Joshua mon amour, Distance feels small with you. I know you are my meant-to-be.

As Shania Twain said “We beat the odds together”. Je t’aime. —Marie MATTHEW ’SNAKE’ BELL - To my number one hunk! We love you so much and are so grateful for your hard work and devotion! We love you! Love, Michelle, Oliver, Duck and Lucy BITE A BIT —Kevin MITCHELL - I love you so much and I’m so lucky that you’re my husband & best friend! Happy Valentine’s Day! — xoxo, Natalie SARAH - Love ya, bike girl. :) <3 Nate TODD & THALIA - I love you the mostest, bables and buggy! —Zannah//Mama ALEC - You are my whole heart and everyday I get to spend with you is the best. You are the greatest man, and I love you so dearly. Love, your snuggle bunny KRISTINA - Our love will always be my favorite to celebrate. I hope you know how incredible you are! I love you forever —Savannah MAVERICK THE SCHNOOD - Happy Valentines Day to our sweet 16-year-old Schnoodle, Maverick. Maverick loves cuddles, ham, walks in East Nashville, and us! xoxo, Meghan & Shane CARLIE - Carlie you are the light in every room. Never let anyone dull your shine. 2024 is your year! I love you and miss you! —your favorite roommate THE LOVE OF MY LIFE - Dearest Joshua, I love you tremendously and am proud to be your wife. Thank you for choosing me 6 years ago <3. Will you be my valentine? Love, Jada

CONNOR DARYANI - Happy Valentine’s Day to my favorite journalist in Nashville! Thank you for being the best person ever. I love you <3 —Indy (lol ur gonna hate this) HILLARY L. - Happy happy birthday, H! I love ya long time Valentine. Love, Carl NICK SAUMBY - Thank you for moving to Nashville with me this year after graduating college together! My Texas boy, my bae, my partner. I love you!

HOSEA - Yours: the smile I long for each dawn, the voice I cherish throughout the day, the touch that reaches my heart&soul. I love you always&forever. VWH TO MATSUI - You’re the best part of my day, every day. I can’t believe how lucky I am to live with you and our two small idiots. —Paji ALEX - “When there’s love present, it’s easier to deal with life.” — Brian Wilson Life is infinitely better with you by my side! Love you, Jess #SameTeam LEE & THEA - You’re the best lil family I could ask for and I love love love you (and Lando too). —Liz/Mom STEPHEN ELLIOTT - You big red hunk of literary magnificence - let’s drink one million beers and die.

—Mort PARKER & BEANIE Roses are red, Hot dogs are weenies, All my love in the world Goes to Parker and Beanie(s) —Emily JACKY - Jacky, I love you and can’t wait to start our life together. I am so proud of you. Te quiero, te adoro, te amo. Besitos. @ACORABULL VALENTINE - To my best girl Cora, You are always beside me when I need a friend & cuddle the most. So glad we rescued each other 13 years ago.

FURever Yours, Niki

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 4:27 PM

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS

1.27 ANDREW - Pick you and I’ll pick me so we can be happy and whole Valentine’s forever. XOXOXO —Renee JAMESON M - IF YOU’RE A DOG I’M A DOG I LOVE U —BIG AL MONSUHH - You’re beautiful, brilliant and bold! You’re the greatest monsuhh this monsuhh ever knew and I’m beyond lucky to have you in my life. Ti Amo, Monsuhh MY LOVE - It’s time I finally declare it so all the world may hear. I am irrevocably in love with you. Here is to many years of being your valentine. —Bianca BEAR - I am eternally lucky to call you mine. Thank you for spending your short life beside mine. I hope to make it worth your while. Your Fur Mom JIM AT LHHCS - Isn’t it grand to live a V-Day lifestyle of good fun, friends, music and foods? Thanks for being my Like-Hearted partner in everything we share. —Mar BR - You’ve made this past year so special. Life is better when I’m with you. Thank you my sweet Valentine Love, KB JILL KLEEBERG - You are my Forever Valentine. I Love You! Joli MY RYGUY - Just a little note of love and appreciation. I couldn’t ask for a better person to be by my side through all of life’s adventures. Love you! Tracey TURNIP TRUCK FAMILY -Thank you for the years of support! Your loyalty means the world to us! We are committed to being YOUR most trusted local grocer!

Love, Turnip Truck LADIES WHO LUNCH - To Betsy, Megan, Liz, Erica, Laura, Dana and to Thai Esane, where the Diet Coke never ran dry. I miss fitting months of news into one hour of lunch.

—Amanda JED - Nine years ago, we found love at The 5 Spot. Now, we welcome our child to the world. Grateful to be on this journey with you. Be mine?

A-ROI NASHVILLE - New favorite Thai and sushi spot!

Can’t stop thinking about the crab curry noodles.

Mhmm! —xoxo P MARY LOUISE - Happy 10 years of knowing THE coolest girl in Nashville. You are an icon, and I admire your style, friendship, and kindness. Love, Grace (and Yuki) ALEX <3 - Thank you for teaching me that I am easy to love. You’re easy to love too. <3 Yours, Chloe ROSS MY SWEETIE PIE - I love you to the moon and back. Thank you for being you and being the most

selfless, kind, and loving human bean. You are golden.

Love, Hunny Bunny HONEYTREE MEADERY - Thank you for being amazing humans and sharing a space full of love, support, and delicious tastes . You are so special to us. Love, ALL OF NASHVILLE TO MISTY AND MILLIE - Happy Valentine’s Day to my beautiful wife Misty and gorgeous daughter Millie. Love, Nathan

ELI RALLO

I DIDN’T KNOW I NEEDED THIS LIVE

1.31

RUMORS ATL

A TRIBUTE TO FLEETWOOD MAC

2.01 COMEDIAN

BRANDON T. JACKSON

2.07

LIV WARFIELD

2.11 2.12

CASEY P. - Happy Valentine’s Day, mi vida! Te amo hoy y para siempre. I’m so lucky to be in love with my best friend. Thank you for being mine. Con amor, Karina COLETTE D. - Happy V-Day to our Auntie C! We love you SO much & are grateful to have you in our lives. Thx for sharing your heart & love with us!! xoxo, Jazz & co.

MY LOVELY PORTIA - To the purest soul God has ever created in the history of time & the best fashionista this side of Rome - being your Valentine is a never ending dream.

TO CUZN ED - I love you to the sea and back. Just like in ‘92! Here’s to 32 more years! —Crackerjen ANTONIO B - To my wonderful, kind husband, Happy Valentine’s Day! I love you more and more everyday!

Love, Hannah JOEY, BLUE BARRACUDA - Happy Valentine’s Day. From Barnes and Noble dates to our nightly phone calls trying to understand life, you embrace true love and heart.

Love, Caleb JAMES TODD MARTIN - MWAH I love you xoxo Rachel PAUL REVERE - Missing you across the ocean and waiting for your kangaroo pouch of gold. All my love.

XXX R PATRICK - I read a short story and in it a couple believed that they were 100% right for each other but wanted to test fate and agreed to separate and if they were, they would find each other again.

Finally one day they cross each other in the street and they say to themselves “That’s the 100% perfect girl for me” “That’s the 100% perfect boy for me” In the story they keep walking and never meet again.

Anyway, maybe we crossed paths in a past life or something, but almost 8 years in and I’m sure I’ve found the 100% perfect boy for me.

2.13

CHANTÉ MOORE

POETRY VS. HIP HOP

1.25 AARON CRAWFORD 1.26 AN EVENING WITH CREED BRATTON 1.27 AN EVENING WITH TRACE BUNDY CHRISETTE MICHELE 1.27 EARLY AND LATE SHOWS NASHVILLE BEATLES BRUNCH 1.28 FEATURING FOREVER ABBEY ROAD AND FRIENDS 1.28 WAYLON HELLO FROM THE HILLS 1.28 (SOLD OUT-JOIN WAITLIST) 1.29 ADAM CONOVER 1.30 THE SIXTIES SHOW JOHN LOMAX 1.31 THE LOMAX ON LOMAX SHOW RAINY EYES WITH JOSHUA RILKO BLUEGRASS BAND FEAT GEOFF 2.1 SAUNDERS & OLIVER CRAVEN OF SIERRA FERRELL’S BAND

EVENING WITH AJ GHENT 2.2 AN & HIS SINGING GUITAR ELLISA SUN: ALBUM RELEASE SHOW 2.3 WITH JULIA CANNON THE PIANO MEN: TRIBUTE 2.3 TO BILLY JOEL & ELTON JOHN 2.4 ANNIE LEPPERT 2.6 DALEY 2.9 BRAWDY STORYTELLING SOUL FOOD POETRY CAFE PRESENTS: LETTERS VOL. II 2.9 LOVE FEATURINGDRE THE POET, ZACARRA HEATH, ELVIE WILLIAMS WONDERFUL WOMEN WHO WRITE FEAT. 2.14 SUZI RAGSDALE, ALISON PRESTWOOD, CLAUDIA NYGAARD, ANNIE MOSHER 2.14 VALENTINE’S WITH RAUL MALO 2.15 BARRACUDA - A TRIBUTE TO HEART IMPROV COMEDY 2.16 NASHVILLE PRESENTS: LOVE AND LAUGHTER

JANUARY 27 12:00 PM

PORTION OF PROCEEDS GOES TOWARDS

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION

Book your event at city winery! weddings • private dinners • galas corporate events • birthdays • and more!

12:00 PM to

5:00 PM Wednesday thru

Taste • Learn • Discover

Saturday

609 L AFAYET TE ST. NASHVILLE , TN 37203, NASHVILLE , TN 37203 @CIT Y WINERYNSH / CIT Y WINERY.COM / 615. 324.1033

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 4:27 PM

2023/24 SEASON

NASHVILLE SYMPHONY COME HEAR EXTRAORDINARY S !

THI KEND WEE

FEB 8 TO 10 | 7:30 PM

FEB 14 | 7:30 PM

FEB 22 TO 24 | 7:30 PM

ELGAR’S ENIGMA

ROMANCE AT THE SYMPHONY:

FirstBank Pops Series

PATTI LABELLE Nashville Symphony Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor

Cinema’s Iconic Love Themes

Nashville Symphony Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor Jennifer Koh, violin

Nashville Symphony Jimmie Herrod, vocals Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor Glory Crampton, vocals This concert will not feature any film elements.

COMING SOON TO THE SCHERMERHORN MAR 7 TO 9 | 7:30 PM Classical Series

MAR 14 | 7:30 PM Special Event

Presented without the Nashville Symphony.

WEST SIDE STORY AND HARLEM with the Nashville Symphony

THE IRISH TENORS with the Nashville Symphony

MAR 21 TO 23 | 7:30 PM FirstBank Pops Series

MAR 1 | 7:30 PM Jazz Series

MAR 10 | 7:30 PM Presentation

MAR 16 | 2 PM & 7:30 PM MAR 17 | 7:30 PM Amazon Movie Series

APR 5 & 6 | 7:30 PM Classical Series

FEB 25 | 7:30 PM Presentation

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

THE DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA

AIR SUPPLY

Presented without the Nashville Symphony.

Presented without the Nashville Symphony.

THANK YOU TO OUR CONCERT PARTNERS

MUSIC OF ELVIS WITH FRANKIE MORENO and the Nashville Symphony

BEETHOVEN AND SHOSTAKOVICH with the Nashville Symphony

ENCANTO IN CONCERT with the Nashville Symphony

The Ann & Monroe Carell Family Trust MOVIE SERIES PARTNER

FAMILY SERIES PARTNER

POPS SERIES PARTNER

BUY TICKETS: 615.687.6400

music director 20 Giancarlo NASHVILLEGuerrero, SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

NashvilleSymphony.org/Tickets

MUSIC LEGENDS PARTNER

WITH SUPPORT FROM

CRITICS’ PICKS: WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

DANCE

FRIDAY, FEB. 9 [THE ART OF COLLABORATION]

NASHVILLE BALLET: ATTITUDE

Nashville Ballet’s acclaimed Attitude series has a way of bringing people together, pairing exciting new dance works with live music from local musicians. This year’s presentation features three world premieres, offering an especially vibrant mix of contemporary ballet choreography and storytelling. The program opens with Weep by award-winning choreographer YushaMarie Sorzano, featuring original music composed by longtime Nashville Ballet collaborator Cristina Spinei. The ballet’s resident choreographer Mollie Sansone will present Speak, a new work with music by local composer and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Lehning. And finally, groundbreaking choreographer Jermaine Spivey will present the world premiere of In Many Ways, set to a unique soundscape created

by Spivey himself. Packed with gorgeous performances and thought-provoking themes, Attitude serves as a testament to the art of collaboration and the embodiment of Nashville’s thriving arts community.

AMY STUMPFL

FEB. 9-11 AT TPAC’S JAMES K. POLK THEATER 505 DEADERICK ST.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NASHVILLE BALLET BY MA2LA

FILM

THURSDAY / 2.8

SOUL FOOD POETRY CAFE: LOVE LETTERS PAGE 22

TPAC FAMILY DAY PAGE 24

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW PAGE 28

[BEHIND THE LENS]

INTERNATIONAL LENS: THE PICTURE TAKER

Phil Bertelsen’s 2022 documentary The Picture Taker looks at the life and legacy of African American Ernest C. Withers, a Memphis policeman turned prolific photojournalist.

Much like trailblazing photog Gordon Parks, the late Withers excelled at visually chronicling the Black community, particularly in the Deep South. He was right there when Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement showed up and started making racist white folk — from cops to the KKK to J. Edgar Hoover — ready to take out these uppity Negroes. If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of Withers until now, there’s a good reason for that: He was also a paid informant for the FBI. Bertelsen talks to family, friends, associates and historians (he also hollers at such Black-and-proud icons as Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young and Kathleen Cleaver) to see if you can still salute a man who NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 2:19 PM

BRIT TAYLOR

LIVE FROM $VILLE: CHUCK INDIGO

Chuck Indigo is one of many Nashville rappers who have a lot to say, and he established a reputation for being artfully intense on his third and fourth full-length records, 2019’s Indigo Café and 2020’s No Moor Bad Days. Amid deft bars, wisely chosen samples and rich beats, Indigo spends these albums confronting the long-standing effects of racist injustice and the anger and frustration that come from living with that legacy. Indigo’s 30th birthday is coming up in a couple of months, and his November EP If You Know, You Know … is a bit more reflective in tone. The MC even sings on a couple of the songs, including “Love Me Still,” one of the hardest hitters among the set. But it’s no less incisive or insightful than his earlier work. “Ye Shall Find” looks back on Indigo’s youth, touching on the ways his family used everything they had to set him up for an adulthood he’s enjoying, despite the state of our world meaning that too many of his peers died before they got to grow up. It’s been a little while since Indigo has performed around town; Thursday night, don’t miss your chance to see him work his magic as part of Cashville Etc.’s performance series Live From $VILLE. STEPHEN TRAGESER

8 P.M. AT 100 TAYLOR ARTS COLLECTIVE 100 TAYLOR ST.

22

FILM

BRIT TAYLOR

[ACADEMIC ANXIETY]

THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE

The Teachers’ Lounge is a nail-biting thriller that’s equal parts exciting and exhausting.

Screening in German with English subtitles this week at the Belcourt, the film stars Leonie Benesch as Carla Nowak, a German middle school teacher who’s caught in a stealing epidemic at her school. In an effort to catch the thief, she sets up a trap in the teachers’ lounge that leads to a faculty member being suspended over thin evidence. After the controversy, Carla struggles with the students in her class as the suspended faculty member’s son Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch) begins to turn the class against her in his search for answers. Writer-director İlker Çatak uses an archaic 1.37:1 “Academy” aspect ratio — most commonly used in the 35 mm films of the 1930s and 1940s — as well as closer

[HOW DO I LOVE THEE]

SOUL FOOD POETRY CAFE: LOVE LETTERS

The spoken-word stalwarts at the Soul Food Poetry Cafe are back at City Winery for a special Valentine’s Day showcase of musicians, poets and vocalists. The event was launched by Imani Rhema 16 years ago as a lively way to dive into the world of spoken word with some of the area’s most talented artists. At the second running of their Love Letters event, the cafe welcomes vocalists Elvie Williams and Zacarra Heath to perform with a house band led by Quentin Michael. The featured poet is Dre the Poet, whose local ties include degrees from Fisk University and Trevecca Nazarene University.

Rhema will host, and she promises a romantic night celebrating the art of love — with plenty of wine, of course. COLE VILLENA 8 P.M. AT CITY WINERY 609 LAFAYETTE ST.

MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

9 P.M. AT THE STATION INN 402 12TH AVE. S.

FRIDAY / 2.9 [GET GONE]

DEAP VALLY

Feminist indie rockers Deap Vally will play Nashville for the final time on Feb. 9 at The Basement East. The duo is closing out a decade of blistering rock ’n’ roll, playing their searing debut album SISTRIONIX cover to cover. In

DEAP VALLY

PHOTO: JAMES DIERX

[NOW YOU KNOW]

[GRASS-CUTTIN’]

Brit Taylor — the Kentucky-raised songwriter who turned heads last year with the debut of her country-as-all-hell Sturgill Simpsonand Dave Ferguson-produced LP Kentucky Blue — heads to the Station Inn this week to celebrate the release of a new project: Kentucky Bluegrassed. If you’re wondering why the name sounds a whole lot like her 2023 album, that’s because Taylor recorded bluegrass renditions of a handful of songs that originally appeared on Kentucky Blue. Along with revisiting previously released numbers (like the excellent “No Cowboys”), the new collection offers three freshly cut bluegrass songs, including Taylor’s twangy sing-along “Saint Anthony.” Kentucky Bluegrassed debuted via streaming services and on record store shelves Feb. 2, days before Taylor’s set at the Station Inn — a time-tested venue known to showgoers near and far as a chapel for rowdy bluegrass pickin’. The bill includes songwriter-musician Adam Wright.

MUSIC

MUSIC

both documented ’60s-era Black power and aided in its demise. CRAIG D. LINDSEY 7:30 P.M. AT VANDERBILT’S SARRATT CINEMA 2301 VANDERBILT PLACE

MUSIC

CHUCK INDIGO

shots in small rooms to give a claustrophobic feel to the scenes. Tight writing paired with standout child acting and a showstopping performance from Leonie Benesch rocketed the film to an Oscar nomination this year for Best International Feature. KEN ARNOLD OPENING FEB. 9 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

POETRY

the L.A.-based duo’s decade as a band, they’ve witnessed upheaval within the music industry and found that it’s time to trade in the relentless grind for motherhood. But before they close the chapter, they are here to melt our faces in what will undoubtedly be an electrifying show — a tour de force of creative joy. Brooklyn’s Sloppy Jane provides support. RACHEL CHOLST 8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND AVE.

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 2:19 PM

FEBRUARY 18

SUNDAY SERVICE

BLACK HERSTORY AGES 21+ ONLY

MARCH 2

JOHN MAILANDER’S FORECAST

MARCH 6

TINSLEY ELLIS

COMING SOON Ladycouch w/Potato Gun Canyon What It is? A Tribute to Aretha Franklin The Way Down Wanderers

A N A L O G

1808

WEST

END

20

AVENUE,

FEB

DOORS: 6 PM SHOW: 7 PM GA: $12 RES: $25

FEB

15

ANALOG SOUL

SUPER FELON

FEB

11 13 14 18 19 27

SOUTHERN ROUNDS

FEB

PRESENTS

ANALOG SOUL

FEB

HOTEL

SOUL VIBES DIANA ROSS: THE SOLO HITS

FEB

HUTTON

JASON CARTER BAND

FEB

AT

FEB

3/21 3/23 4/16

DOORS: 6 PM SHOW: 7 PM GA: $20

NASHVILLE,

TN

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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and best of all, proceeds from Family Day will go to support TPAC’s nonprofit mission. AMY STUMPFL FEB. 10 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL 505 DEADERICK ST. [CLOSER TO FINE]

KATE BOWLER

Kate Bowler specializes in writing bitesize reflections about massive topics. At 44, the podcast host and Duke professor has built a loyal fellowship of readers who appreciate her relatable personality. The three-time New York Times bestselling author will visit for a signing at Parnassus for her new book, Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!: Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens. Bowler’s collection of modern-day psalms and actions to help readers get through the day was written after recovering from colon cancer while also living with chronic pain, so she above all understands how every day can be a challenge. Her ability to tap into this very real side of human life in a witty way is what has gained her such a huge following. She’s inspired a lot of folks, so be prepared: There will be a line to enter. TOBY ROSE 2 P.M. AT PARNASSUS BOOKS 3900 HILLSBORO PIKE

SATURDAY / 2.10 [A WORLD OF PURE IMAGINATION]

TPAC FAMILY DAY

TPAC’s annual Family Day is always great fun, sparking creativity and offering a terrific lineup of activities and entertainment for all ages. But this year’s event promises to be especially fanciful, with a Willy Wonkathemed celebration that invites young people and their families to step into a world of pure imagination. Kids can look forward to a wide range of sensory-friendly games and activities, including everything from face painting to balloon art. Guests can also enjoy live performances from Nashville Ballet and Nashville Theatre School. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Wonka-themed party without plenty of tasty treats. There will be delightful candies, cookies and other goodies for the little ones, along with Chick-fil-A for lunch. It’s sure to be an entertaining afternoon for the whole family,

FILM

Shop the Scene!

GRACE POTTER W/BRITTNEY SPENCER

Vermont-born Grace Potter has kept her band on a relentless touring schedule following the release of her fifth solo album, Mother Road.

Recorded at the legendary RCA Studio A here in Music City, the collection of highway songs was inspired by an enlightening solo road trip Potter took in 2021. Mother Road finds Potter liberated from the confines of her previous work, as she called it “the most freeform, boundless, bumperless, guardrail-free experience of my life,” in a recent interview for Culture Beat. I can also vouch for at least one member of her backing band: I first met (and eventually lived with) Ricky Dover Jr. nearly a decade ago and immediately sensed his unquestionable passion for playing guitar. He’s been playing with Potter since September and reflects: “Stepping into this role has been such a tremendous honor and privilege. Grace keeps us all on our toes!”

Country singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer — an MTSU alumni who rose to fame with her viral cover of The Highwomen’s hit “Crowded Table” — opens the evening. JASON VERSTEGEN 8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

COMMUNITY

R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y R E P YO U R C I T Y

[ON THE ROAD AGAIN]

BOOKS

MUSIC

GRACE POTTER

[I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW]

SWOON: A LOVE SERIES: CITY LIGHTS

This weekend, the Belcourt will be making a lot of people get their hankie on by showing

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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fri 2/9

7PM Sean Martin West • Grace and The Bandits 9PM Natasha Blaine • Claire Maisto

sat 2/10

7PM Shane Weisman • Tabitha Meeks 9PM Marina Rocks • Emily Gabriele • Afton Wolfe

sun 2/11

7PM Pindrop Songwriter Series

mon 2/12

7PM Nick Harley • Matthew Welde 9PM Drew White • Gears • William Hall

tue 2/13

7PM Bonner Black “Hopeless RomAntics” Full Band Album Release Show 9PM Danny Himes • Catfish Seminar • Panda Forces

wed 2/14

7PM Wednesday Night Karaoke w/ Meg Gehman

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UPCOMING EVENTS PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT FOR TICKETS & UPDATES

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8

6:30PM

KAREN OUTEN

• DUSTIN SELLERS • QUINN O’DONNELL • CAMELOT

FRI 2.9

• JOYBOMB • V3RN • MASSIE99

SAT 2.10

• FASCINATION STREET

MON 2.12 • FIVE DOOR SEDAN • WIM TAPLEY & THE CANNONS • TOMMY EXLEY TUE 2.13

• ULTIMATE COMEDY

WED 2.14 • DTF (DOWN 2 FOLK) FEAT: SIERRA CARSON • EMMA OGIER / MCKAY

at PARNASSUS Dixon, Descending

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

THU 2.15 • DEMILLION • NATHAN. • ELENI FRI 2.16

GWENDA BOND

with LAUREN KUNG JESSEN at PARNASSUS The Frame-Up THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 6:30PM

• LANDON CONRATH • WHY BOTHER • MOONY

2412 GALLATIN AVE

@THEEASTROOM

KATHERINE ARDEN

with HANNAH WHITTEN at PARNASSUS The Warm Hands of Ghosts SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 10:30PM

SATURDAY STORYTIME

with BREE SUNSHINE SMITH at PARNASSUS Wally Takes a Weather Walk TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 6:30PM

MARY LIZA HARTONG

with KIM BALDWIN at PARNASSUS Love and Hot Chicken: A Delicious Southern Novel WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 6:30PM

DAVID FINKEL

with DAVID MARANISS at PARNASSUS An American Dreamer 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks1

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@parnassusbooks Parnassus Books

Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 classic City Lights. The film was released four years after The Jazz Singer set off the talkie revolution in Tinseltown, and its star, writer, director and — depending on who you talk to — composer Chaplin defiantly stuck to his silent-movie guns. He made a quiet but undoubtedly moving tearjerker in which Chaplin, once again assuming his Little Tramp persona, goes through hell and back in order to help a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) pay her rent and regain her sight. As expected, Chaplin puts himself in the middle of some slapstick-filled shenanigans (the movie’s chaotic centerpiece has him reluctantly competing in a boxing match) to show the extreme lengths men will go to when they’re head-over-heels in love — and the lengths people went to just to make money during the Great Depression. Like most of Chaplin’s peak-era films, City Lights is a satirical time capsule that will leave you mistyeyed AF. CRAIG D. LINDSEY NOON FEB. 10-11 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

donations. RYNE WALKER 10 A.M. AT THE NASHVILLE ZOO 3777 NOLENSVILLE PIKE

SUNDAY / 2.11

MONDAY / 2.12

ANIMALS

6:30PM

THU 2.8

BAD PRESS

BEEFY BYTES PRESENTS: DRONE THU THUR9pm 6PM WHITE ANIMALS FREE 2.1 COLLECTIVE, JOHNNY MACC, HESS $10 2.8 THINGFREE FRI 6PM BUSTER WHITEBLUES ANIMALS FRI 5-7pm 2.9 2.2 9-12pm AUDREY JANE,KHFOX, FOUNDATION MECCA $10 HUNTER & FRIENDS (FREE) SAT SAT 5-74pm PM K EVINWNASH OLF FREE 2.10 2.3 9PM CROCTOPUSS, PUMP ACTION SPRING WATER SITIN JAM SUN 4-7pm & POPLAR CREEK 2.11 SUPER BOWL PARTY SUN 9-12pm 4PM JAY PATTENMONSTER, BAND FREE MOTHERS AMONG THE 2.4 ENEMY, ABYA $10 WEDPRIVATE MON 5PM EVENT WRITERS @ THE WATER OPEN MIC 2.7 2.12 WED 5- 8pm WRITERS AT THE WATER 2.14 9-12pm ASHLEY, VIRGINIA, HELENA HALLBURG, 115 27TH AVE FRANCIS N. OPEN $10 WED - SUN 11AM - LATE NIGHT OLIVIA 115 27TH AVE. N OPEN WED.-SUN. 11AM-LATE NIGHT

[PREGAME WITH PUPPIES]

MUSIC CITY PUPPY BOWL

If you’re in search of some family-friendly fun on Super Bowl Sunday, look no further.

The super cute (and super adoptable!) canines of the Nashville Humane Association will bound down the field for the Nashville Zoo’s annual Music City Puppy Bowl. Alongside the game and everything that goes with a zoo admission ticket, the day will include lots of great music, pet-friendly local businesses and the chance to meet all of this year’s contenders. But why stop at meeting them? All performing pups will be available for adoption into their fur-ever homes following the event. Who will take home the 2024 trophy? Who will take home the winner of the 2024 trophy? There’s just one way to find out! Interested in adopting but can’t make the game? Maybe you’re more of a cat person?

The Nashville Humane Association has been protecting and advocating for homeless and atrisk pets since 1946, and they are always looking for responsible pet owners, foster homes and

FILM

4PM Open Mic Night w/ Jennifer Vazquez 9PM Sarah & Shannon Residency w/ Boys Club For Girls

[UNABRIDGED]

BAD PRESS

Imagine if Spotlight were a documentary about the fight for freedom of the press in the tribal nations, and you’ll have a good idea how Bad Press plays out. Directors Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler’s 2023 documentary is one of the best American films about journalism to come along in the past decade, a genuinely shocking study on how the First Amendment isn’t a guarantee for all U.S. citizens. If you care about journalism or government transparency even in the slightest, this is a must-see documentary. In English and Mvskoke with English subtitles, Bad Press screens for a short run at the Belcourt beginning this weekend. CORY WOODROOF FEB. 11-13 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MUSIC

thur 2/8

[GROOVIN’]

BOOKER T. AND THE M.G.’S TRIBUTE

As Memphis music writer Robert Gordon makes clear in his 2013 book Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, the 1965 replacement of bassist Lewie Steinberg with Donald “Duck” Dunn in the Stax house band Booker T. and the M.G.’s marked a change in the music itself. Steinberg, who had played on the group’s epochal 1962 instrumental hit “Green Onions,” preferred a jazzy, walkingbass approach, while Dunn brought funky syncopation to the band’s style. Although the M.G.’s cut a lot of stuff that seems peripheral today — I’m not a fan of their 1970 album of Beatles tunes, McLemore Avenue, simply because I don’t relish hearing Beatles songs without the words — the band’s originals, like 1965’s “Jellybread” and 1967’s “Slim Jenkins’ Place,” are the beau idéal of disciplined groove tunes with melodies you remember. The linchpin of Booker T. and the M.G.’s was drummer Al Jackson Jr., whose timekeeping is a wonder. Meanwhile,

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 2:20 PM

February in...

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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*Closed Tuesdays

EAST NASH V I LLE

THU 2.8

BUMMER NIGHT sad song party 7-9 PIANO KARAOKE 9-12 w/Katie Pederson

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PIANO KARAOKE 6-9 w/Anna Lee Palmer PIANO KARAOKE 9-1 w/Kira Small

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Saturday, February 10

Sunday, February 25

SONGWRITER SESSION

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Carter Faith

Luis Espaillat

NOON · FORD THEATER

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, February 11

Saturday, March 2

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

SONGWRITER SESSION

Lisa Horngren

Kelsey Waldon

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

NOON · FORD THEATER

Friday, February 16

Sunday, March 3

BOOK TALK

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Steve Fishell

C. J. Lewandowski

Discusses Buddy Emmons

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Terry Crisp 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER Saturday, February 24 SONGWRITER SESSION

Gabe Lee NOON · FORD THEATER

I’ll always blame Love Jones for setting off the seductive spoken-word revolution of the late ’90s. This Black-and-beautiful 1997 flick from first-time filmmaker Theodore Witcher has Larenz Tate (who played super-psycho O-Dog in Menace II Society) as a Chicago writer and spoken-word artist whose way with words charms Nia Long’s jaded photographer, roping her into a love affair filled with a lot of ups and downs. While it’s a darling, funky rom-com to check out this Valentine’s Day season (it also has one of the best movie soundtracks to come out of the ’90s, with baby-makers from Lauryn Hill, Dionne Farris and Maxwell), I’ll always equate it with dudes showing up at open-mic nights and trying to pick up chicks with poems. Thankfully, the Belcourt won’t be holding a poetry slam for horny, eloquent guys to do that. But since this is a Pizza and a Movie presentation (and a Music City Mondays presentation), expect Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria to come with the pies during this date-night dramedy. CRAIG D. LINDSEY 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

Saturday, March 9 SONGWRITER SESSION

Mark Miller and Mac McAnally

MUSIC

Sunday, February 18

PIZZA AND A MOVIE: LOVE JONES

WEDNESDAY / 2.14

11:00 am TAYLOR SWIFT EDUCATION CENTER

[START OVER]

[CHASING HAPPY DAYS]

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW The first Closure in Moscow song I heard

was “Happy Days” off 2014’s Pink Lemonade, a straightforward rocker about living in the moment, but that album’s “The Church of the Technochrist” would perhaps have been a better introduction to the band. Aside from its perplexing science-fantasy title and lyrics, the song showcases guitar parts that make you wonder if the band ever played Warped Tour (they did!), math-rock rhythms that make you lose track of the downbeat, and several groovy breaks that work better than you’d expect.

October’s Soft Hell keeps most of those elements but focuses on big emotions and angst rather than grand concept album ambitions. Tracks like “Better Way” and “Jaeger Bomb” wouldn’t be my first choice for a Valentine’s Day playlist, but it’s hard to complain about scheduling when you consider the Melbourne, Australia, rockers are playing their first stateside tour since 2018. Supporting act Golden Necklace features Kurt Travis, formerly of Dance Gavin Dance and A Lot Like Birds. COLE VILLENA 7 P.M. AT THE END 2219 ELLISTON PLACE

MUSIC

6 NIGHTS A WEEK!

FILM

Live Piano Karaoke

guitarist and longtime Nashville resident Steve Cropper played Telecaster solos that cut like a knife, and keyboardist Booker T. Jones himself glided along on top. Monday at Dee’s, a crack band led by former Old Crow Medicine Show drummer and current Bob Dylan drummer Jerry Pentecost cruises through songs Booker T. and the M.G.’s made famous as part of their February residency at the venue. Pentecost will be joined by keyboardist Kent Toalson, bassist David Guy and guitarist Jeremy Fetzer. Apart from the band’s instrumental hits, the Stax catalog itself is vast — maybe Pentecost & Co. will do Jones and Eddie Floyd’s 1968 rock song “Big Bird,” which sounds like Jones had been listening to Revolver and decided to compete. EDD HURT 8:30 P.M AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE 102 E. PALESTINE AVE., MADISON

[SPEND VALENTINE’S IN CHURCH]

BAND OF HORSES

In October 2010, I was 19. I had been to a few Nashville shows — energetic performances in small, dark venues where it was easy to rub off the under-21 stamps on your hand — but it’s a particular Live on the Green show that I look back on as my falling-in-love-with-Nashville moment, my first feeling of being home. Public Square Park was packed, the buildings glittering around us, and Ben Bridwell made a crack about how, since there was such a huge crowd on a Thursday night, he might as well play some songs. The guys of Band of Horses are lovely, emotional performers — the twang, the piano, the harmonies, all better felt in person. Perhaps I’ve accidentally written a love letter to Live on the Green, which wasn’t able to return in 2023 due to the skyrocketing costs of Music City. But we still have the Ryman, our Mother Church, and Band of Horses is coming back to town to play acoustic and electric sets to folks gathered in those historic pews. Do yourself a favor on Valentine’s Day and fall in love, or back in love, with the city — go see a good show. RYNE WALKER 8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

NOON · FORD THEATER Saturday, March 9 NASHVILLE CATS

Dan Dugmore 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

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The Ultimate Chef Throwdown!

Thursday April 4 | Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum Our 15th Annual Iron Fork returns with top chefs from Music City’s best restaurants battling it out to vie for the coveted Iron Fork Champions trophy. This year’s catch? All of our competitors have already won Iron Fork before... and now they’ll compete as the best of the best to be crowned the Ultimate Iron Fork Champion!

INTRODUCING OUR 2024 CHEF COMPETITORS!

tickets on sale now! use code EARLYBIRD15 for 15% off General Admission tickets. Code valid until February 15.

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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

FOOD & DRINK: DATE NIGHT

THE FOX BAR & COCKTAIL CLUB AND FRANKIES 925 SPUNTINO Love means sharing a slice between drinks and dinner on the East Side

THE FOX BAR AND COCKTAIL CLUB Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”

FOR YEARS MY husband Dom has said he doesn’t believe in Valentine’s Day. It’s a Hallmark holiday, blah blah blah. Fine. I’ve never been a fan of forced romance. Last year he started dropping hints that he bought me a Valentine’s Day gift. Couldn’t resist. Got served an ad and thought of me immediately. He just hoped it

PHOTOS: LINDSAY RUSHTON

BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

SUNDAY GRAVY AT THE FOX BAR AND COCKTAIL CLUB arrived from overseas in time. All I had for him was a box of his beloved Little Debbie Valentine snack cakes, and I worried they’d seem paltry in comparison.

It was toothpaste. Designer toothpaste from the Swedish brand Selahatin. Instead of “Crest” or “Colgate,” on the front it said “Of Course I Still Luv You.” “You bought me toothpaste?” I said, dumbfounded.

“Decorative toothpaste!” he said. “It can sit on our bathroom counter!”

I tried so hard to understand what would possess him to buy me such a thing. I even went online to look for clues in the product description, which was a paragraph-long eyeroll calling it a “tribute to hope and fidelity” and a “holy union between woody pine and aromatic juniper.”

This year we’ve given each other the gift of carbs, which never disappoints and is a 24/7 craving since we started watching The Sopranos, which we both somehow missed in the early 2000s. In every other scene someone is eating pasta — and I want that someone to be me.

STOP 1: THE FOX BAR AND COCKTAIL CLUB Naturally I ordered the Sunday Gravy ($16), which is not a pot of meat-filled marinara that’s been slowly bubbling on a stove all day but rather a smooth, quiet cocktail made of sun-dried-tomato amontillado sherry and lo-fi gentian that’s been steeped with Parmesan rind.

It’s served with a tiny bay leaf in a Nick and Nora glass — not a coupe, Georgian, flip, sling or any of the 11 other kinds of glassware The Fox stocks, which I only know because there’s a sketch of each (and all five shapes of ice) on a menu that

The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club 2905B Gallatin Pike thefoxnashville.com Frankies Pizzeria and Frankies 925 Spuntino 925 Cherokee Ave. frankiesnashville.com

could double as wall art.

Why you would sit anywhere other than the bar at The Fox is beyond me. I loved watching the bartender make Dom’s Fox Old Fashioned No. 10 ($22), especially when she stamped The Fox’s logo into the top of the glass-filling ice cube. There’s nothing dramatic or flashy about

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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2/5/24 4:01 PM

the bartenders; they work with great focus and precision while answering questions from people like me who have no clue what lo-fi gentian is. It’s fun to have a front-row seat for all the spoons, sprays, garnishes and random splashes from the shaken cocktails.

Learn from our mistake: The Fox takes reservations at 5 p.m. only, so when we arrived at 5:45 on a Friday night, there was a 45-minute wait because everyone who’d thought ahead was enjoying their Concord grape margaritas, Old Bay popcorn and hot chicken hummus (which contains no chicken). It’s a small space with no indoor waiting area, so if you have to wait, the tiny photo booth just outside the door is a fun way to kill time. Dom and I were too wide to sit side by side and too short to be in the frame, but we had a good chuckle taking the world’s worst pictures.

Parking is not what I’d call plentiful — more of a ditch-your-car-in-an-alley-and-hope-for-thebest situation. Instead of signage, there’s a fox mural along the side of East Hill Row, home to Gallatin Pike-facing Nicoletto’s Italian Kitchen.

Follow the foxes to the back, and the entrance is underneath the stairs that lead to The Bowery Vault. Don’t mistake the covert location as coy or pretentious. In a high-low town that’s silly with over-the-top douchebag bars and dives, The Fox is Goldilocks.

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PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

MEATBALLS (TOP) AND CAVATELLI AT FRANKIES 925 SPUNTINO

TIRAMISU AT FRANKIES 925 SPUNTINO STOP 2: FRANKIES PIZZERIA AND FRANKIES 925 SPUNTINO As soon as we got back in the car, I advised Dom that we’d be having a slice of pizza at Frankies Pizzeria before having dinner next door at Frankies Spuntino. I waited until the last second because I knew he’d say the pizza would ruin my appetite, and he did not disappoint.

He didn’t have long to try to change my mind, because Frankies is thankfully a three-minute drive from The Fox. “I’ll drop you off,” he said. “You order; I’ll park and come in and have one bite.”

One bite turned into half my classic Sicilian, a tall square slice covered in a mix of tomatoes and mozzarella and pecorino Romano so it all hits your mouth at the same time as the bread.

This is the play, folks. Frankies Pizzeria is a casual dine-in and to-go spot for slices or whole pies with paper plates, Parmesan and red chili flake shakers on the tables and beer in a stand-up cooler. Frankies 925 Spuntino is more of a sit-down, reservations kind of restaurant, and they don’t offer pizza on the menu. If you want a slice, and I believe you do, this is the way to make it work.

We weren’t the only ones having a slice before heading to the Spuntino: One of the guys who seemed like a casual diner at the pizzeria ran food to a nearby table during our dinner.

Internet sleuthing tells me it was John Burns

Paterson, wine director of the O.G. Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn and the reason its sole outpost came to Nashville with him.

“Spuntino” is Italian for light meal or snack, and most of the menu is meant to be shared.

There are seven selections in the salad section, one of which is a beautiful burrata covered in olive oil and large flakes of salt. If Frankies considers burrata a salad, they’re going to get along just fine here in the South. Dom inhaled the paper-thin prosciutto while I ate more than my half of the broccoli rabe and roasted cauliflower. I’d have the shaved Brussels sprouts and ricotta salata again, but not before I try the escarole with sliced red onion and walnuts.

Frankies isn’t much on décor — with the exception of a merch display at the door, there’s just a dried flower arrangement here and there — and I get the sense they haven’t quite settled into the space, which is large and has a few nooks that feel forgotten. A long table lined with bread, plates and utensils sits in the middle of the main dining area, giving the impression that bread is complimentary. This is not the case. We got an order with our appetizers, ate it immediately and wished we had more later to sop up the sauce of our entrées.

I suppose you could share entrées too, but I wasn’t inclined to give Dom more than a forkful of my tomato-braised short ribs and polenta, nor was he happy to part with more cavatelli

with hot sausage and browned sage butter than absolutely necessary. Eggplant Parm is my go-to order, and I loved Frankies’ version of eggplant marinara, but wanted it to come with a small side of pasta so I didn’t feel like I was missing out.

Earlier in the night, upon learning we were headed to Frankies for dinner, our bartender highly recommended the red wine prunes and mascarpone for dessert. We’d had the tiramisu on our first visit and loved every rum-soaked, cocoa powder-covered spoonful, but thought we’d give the prunes a shot. When the food runner set down the prunes on our table, he said, unsolicited, that it was his favorite dessert on the menu. Dom and I took a couple bites, shook our heads and ordered the tiramisu again.

At least twice in the weeks since our visit to Frankies, Dom has lamented the fact that he didn’t order the meatballs with pine nuts and raisins, and that the couple at the two-top next to us who had them “out-ordered us.”

So maybe on Valentine’s Day, Dom will come home for dinner and find Frankies meatballs on his plate. And maybe he’ll surprise me with more Scandinavian dental decorations for our bathroom counter. Every time I see that ridiculous tube of toothpaste it reminds me that, beyond all the clichés and candy hearts of Valentine’s Day, love is mostly about getting it horribly wrong with the best of intentions. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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Jonathan Metzl wants to reframe the gun debate

Vintage

BY SEAN KINCH

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Antiques

TREPIDATION IS BIG BUSINESS

FOR YEARS, Jonathan Metzl and other public health professionals have been on the losing side of America’s gun debate. Despite marshaling mountains of evidence linking permissive gun laws to increased gun-related deaths, advocates of gun violence prevention have failed to keep red states from diluting reforms or passing legislation that makes deadly weapons easier to purchase and carry.

Clearly, it’s time for a new strategy. In What We’ve Become, Metzl makes the case that gun reform advocates need to reframe the issue by envisioning a new social contract.

Gun violence is a local matter for Metzl, a Vanderbilt professor and director of the university’s Department of Medicine, Health and Society. He was horrified by the 2018 Waffle House shooting in Nashville’s Antioch neighborhood, when a man carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle entered the restaurant at 3:40 a.m. and opened fire, killing four people and wounding four others before being disarmed. The shooter, Travis Reinking, was captured the following day. Two troubling details about the shooting grabbed Metzl’s attention: Reinking, a tall, skinny white man, was naked during the shooting, and all of his victims were people of color.

Metzl’s book closely examines the Waffle House shooting as a way of illustrating the social context of Reinking’s actions, the devastation experienced by the victims and their families, and the callous reaction from Tennessee politicians. “A white man killed young adults of color using guns,” Metzl writes. “In turn, the state’s response would arm the next perpetrator, at the expense of the community at whom he shot.”

Metzl, who in 2019’s Dying of Whiteness explored the self-destructiveness of racist politics, illuminates the rhetoric that extreme gun rights supporters deploy in response to mass shootings. First, they announce that the tragedy is the result of a mental health issue; then, after the afflicted community (Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Uvalde, Nashville …) calls for commonsense gun control, they squawk that liberals are trying to turn a tyrannical government against law-abiding gun owners. So, they conclude, now is the time to protect the Second Amendment by expanding the rights of gun owners to acquire and wield lethal weapons.

The problems with such rhetorical sleightof-hand, as Metzl details, go beyond logical incoherence and brazen hypocrisy. By labeling mass shootings as “mental health” problems, they imply that mental health professionals should be able to supply the solution. They push “duty to warn” statutes that require mental health practitioners to report to police any patient who poses a threat of violence. In reality, though, Metzl notes that “only about 4 percent of violence in the United States is attributed to people diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.”

The sane are, statistically, “far more dangerous” than the mentally ill.

Metzl demonstrates that the “mental illness” explanation of shootings is a dodge to justify inaction. If politicians truly believed that the solution to gun violence is taking weapons out of violent hands, they would support red-flag laws, which allow citizens to report to police concerns about dangerous friends or family, leading to the confiscation of guns. But red-

state Republicans have repeatedly resisted such legislation, arguing that it would impinge on the rights of lawful gun owners, thereby reducing their ability to protect themselves from homicidal madmen — exactly the people that red-flag laws are meant to identify.

The case of Travis Reinking illustrates how redflag laws should work, but also how America’s legal inconsistency undermines our attempts to prevent gun violence. While living in Illinois, Reinking lost his gun permit and had his weapons taken by local police, who immediately turned them over to Travis’ father for safekeeping. When Travis decided to move to Tennessee, where the gun laws were “exponentially more permissive,” his father gave him back his guns, a decision Metzl describes as a “catastrophic personal choice” and, more importantly, as a “system failing, an American failing.”

In addition to analyzing the political “dialectic” surrounding guns, Metzl assesses the economics of the gun industry. When mass shootings occur, Americans buy guns for protection; when reformers announce campaigns to restrict gun sales, buyers stockpile them against possible future prohibitions. As Metzl puts it, “Trepidation is big business.”

Metzl’s book offers positive directions for America to pull out of this death spiral. To move forward, gun control advocates must find common ground with gun owners by “linking gun safety reform with housing, health care, education, voting rights, transit, crime reduction and economic betterment.” Among the “interventions” Metzl prescribes (expand the public health framework, improve the social safety network), the most important, and difficult, is to “develop a better Southern strategy” — that is, to be realistic about the stranglehold of “gunpower” in the South and how it might be challenged with an alternate long-term vision. What We’ve Become paints a dark picture of the hole we have dug for ourselves, but also offers a set of tools for how to climb out of it.

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

What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms

By Jonathan M. Metzl W.W. Norton & Company 384 pages, $29.99

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MUSIC

TIME ON HER SIDE Madi Diaz moves forward on Weird Faith

BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

TO MADI DIAZ, “Nothing is a waste of time.”

The Nashville-based songwriter chants this self-affirming phrase on “Kiss the Wall,” a song from her sixth record Weird Faith, which arrives Friday. In a culture obsessed with efficiency and outcomes, Diaz finds this sentiment a comforting thought.

“For me, ‘Nothing is a waste of time’ has been such a huge mantra,” she tells the Scene.

“Whether it’s in a relationship or whether it’s standing in an endless line at Walgreens, I just have to tell myself that this is part of a bigger story.”

Diaz, now 38, jump-started her career in Nashville in the Aughts, then zig-zagged between Music City and Los Angeles before settling down here in 2017. Despite her prolific output as an artist, songwriter and session musician, she flew under the radar for most of her early career. In 2021, her fifth LP History of a Feeling significantly grew the industry veteran’s fan base and landed her opening dates for Harry Styles in North America. The British pop star then asked Diaz to join his touring band, and she rocked out with Styles as a guitarist and vocalist on his stadium tour across Europe in 2023.

Diaz decamped to upstate New York to record Weird Faith with Sam Cohen, whom she knew

through his work as a producer for Kevin Morby.

She chose New York as a means to push herself outside her comfort zone in Nashville.

“I wanted to explore beyond the path between my house and Crema off Trinity and my friend Konrad’s house,” she says. Konrad Snyder co-produced the album with Cohen, and Diaz served as executive producer. Traversing the plains of indie rock, folk and pop, Diaz finds a taut sound for her deeply personal record. Her specialty as a songwriter is creating intimate moments of a grand scale through her cathartic, sing-along hooks. The songs would sound just as at home in a sold-out arena as they would alone in the car on a late-night drive.

“I wrote the whole record inside of my last relationship, and really thought I was writing a record of super syrupy love songs,” she says. “It’s funny to listen back and listen to what the songs are very blatantly saying.”

Diaz writes about the complex contours of intimacy, and her songs seem almost incapable of hiding any of the anxiety of falling in love.

Weird Faith doesn’t feel sugar-coated. Instead, the record conveys the beautiful messiness of sustaining a long-term relationship.

Diaz says Weird Faith was written during a time when she found herself stepping on a lot of

“personal landmines.” When the bomb goes off, she writes a song. That frantic energy is abundant on album opener “Same Risk,” in which she asks her partner, “Are we taking the same risk? / ’Cause I’m standing here naked / Saying you can have it all.” The song embodies the paranoia of being more invested in a relationship than your partner. Ideally the hurt would be distributed equally between the partners if things go south, but there’s no way of knowing what a future fallout might look like. Accordingly, images of domestic bliss feel hopeful but fraught on “Everything Almost,” co-written with Olivia Barton. Diaz sings: “I had a dream there was a baby inside me / One hand on my belly and the other one pointing / Ordering you around the house like a bitch / And you just laughing and taking it.”

Her duet with Kacey Musgraves, “Don’t Do Me Good,” is a country-tinged song about the all-too-familiar sense of hopelessness creeping up on a relationship. Both women take turns singing while the beat sways on: “I know lovin’ you / It don’t do me good.” The love is already at its end, yet the breakup drags on; for Diaz, even self-awareness can’t stave off the crush of heartbreak. “Those big relationships in your life when you’re introducing people to your parents,

and spending holidays with their families … it’s hard to walk out of stuff like that and remember how much you’ve been kind of gifted throughout that process, and have that be the headline,” she says.

For Diaz, the headline is that the relationship shone light on new places inside her and helped her discover the things she wants in life. She says she sees a future “being stationary,” one where she grows a garden and builds a family. It’s not easy to be hopeful at the end of a relationship, and Diaz gets that.

“It’s hard not to completely make that [future] specific to the relationship that you’re in, and have that part of yourself die with the relationship that dies.”

Yet Diaz knows that if “nothing is a waste of time,” then the past isn’t meant to be erased or resented. It should be held with love while moving onto what’s next. On the title track, she sings: “You’ve got to have a heart of gold / You’ve got to have a weird faith.” This is another mantra, born on the other side of healing and written from a place of wisdom. “‘Weird Faith’ for me is about finding the resilience and curiosity to keep walking forward,” she says of the song, “because I want to see what happens next.” ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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PHOTO: MURIEL MARGARET

Weird Faith out Friday, Feb. 9, via ANTIPlaying 8 p.m. March 8 at Brooklyn Bowl

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2/5/24 4:51 PM

WITH FEELING

Master songwriter Dan Penn still loves to sing

BY RON WYNN

MODERN SOUNDS

even secure a venue at first, but the weekly Sunday night party that Lovenoise held for years became a touchstone for many Black Nashvillians and inspired a shift in what it means to be part of “Music City” — broadening a cultural identity and brand so heavily tied to whiteness.

Making Noise, a four-part podcast about Lovenoise produced by Nashville Public Radio, launches Thursday.

Music journalist and author Jewly Hight led the production team and hosts Making Noise. On a phone call with the Scene, she explains it was crucial to expand the podcast’s historical scope beyond Lovenoise’s 20-year history. Making Noise also examines the long-term effects of the construction of I-40 through North Nashville in the 1960s, which devastated Black neighborhoods and businesses and the legendary entertainment district on Jefferson Street. During the same period, the city funded projects like building the original Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

“We couldn’t just start with Eric Holt saying, ‘It was really hard to book shows’ — you gotta take in the full weight of ‘Why was it really hard to book shows,’” Hight says. “Because that shows you the hostile environment [Lovenoise was] stepping into.”

The podcast is brimming with voices, including all five Lovenoise founders. In addition to telling their history, they helped Hight and her team make connections for interviews and provided a massive array of artifacts.

That includes a wealth of newly digitized audio and video, preserving a scene that didn’t yield a lot of widely distributed music.

Making Noise podcast explores Lovenoise’s key role in Black Nashville music

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

A STORY ABOUT Black Nashvillians making music will likely touch on the lack of available music-business infrastructure. It applies whether you’re talking with Black country players fighting to be treated fairly by the mainstream machine, or rappers, R&B artists and others in myriad genres trying to create a social and economic ecosystem for their art. One piece of this puzzle is live performance; it’s hard to be part of a scene if it’s always a struggle to play a show, or you seldom see people who look like you onstage.

While Nashville’s contemporary collection of music scenes isn’t perfect with respect to diversity, it has improved dramatically during the past 20 years. Many people have worked for this change, but a catalyst is easy to spot: Lovenoise. Today the organization helmed by Eric Holt and Bryce Page promotes some of the biggest shows in town, featuring international stars of hip-hop, neo soul and beyond. In late summer 2003, the duo was a group of five, rounded out by LaSalle Chapman, Chip Hockett and Antoine Nunn. They were looking to put on a night of music, welcoming to everyone — but by Black Nashville music-makers and for a Black audience. It was a struggle to

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Playing 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, with The HercuLeons at 3rd and Lindsley

Bobby Purify’s 2005 LP Better to Have It, which featured a dozen Penn-Whitsett co-writes.

“I’ve always wanted to have a good time in the studio and when I’m writing, which is one of the reasons why I’ve always enjoyed collaborations,” says Penn regarding his songwriting process. “I’ve never been one of those guys who can just get up at 8 and dash out a song by noon.

I enjoy the give-and-take, and the fun of seeing what someone else thinks about a lyric or the way the song is working. Of course, you’ve got to be around good people. If you’re working with a jerk, it destroys everything.”

While Penn hasn’t made many solo record-

PHOTO: CHARLIE TAYLOR

lead guitarist Tom Britt — as well as drummer Andy Peake, whom Penn credits with enlisting him for the show.

He notes that he’s planning to play a few favorites from his catalog. And when you have the Dan Penn songbook to draw from, that means bringing out such gems as “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (both of which were co-written with Chips Moman) as well as “I’m Your Puppet” (co-written with Oldham). Penn adds that “Puppet” has its own special history.

“The original idea was to call it ‘I’m the Puppet,’” he recalls. “Well, James and Bobby [Purify] came in and they immediately changed the lyric to ‘I’m Your Puppet.’ Then the band starts playing it, and it’s faster than what I thought it should be. I was engineering, and I wasn’t really happy about what was happening. But then it came out, and it was a big hit, and I really thought, ‘Man, that’s the way it should sound.’

Now that’s how I sing it as well.”

In addition to Moman and Oldham, Penn’s list of co-writers reads like the lineup for a hall of fame induction ceremony, including Donnie Fritts, Gary Nicholson, Norbert Putnam, Carson Whitsett, Jonnie Barnett and Hoy Lindsey to name a few. Among standout projects in the 21st century, Penn teamed with Whitsett and Lindsey for the title track of Solomon Burke’s 2002 album Don’t Give Up on Me, and he produced

ings, the trio of 1973’s Nobody’s Fool, 1994’s Do Right Man and 2020’s Living on Mercy reveals a powerful, dynamic vocalist capable of the same kind of energetic, instantly identifiable performances that others have brought to his compositions. Though he celebrated his 82nd birthday in November, Penn says he currently has no notion of retiring.

“A few years ago, a lot of my friends were retiring and going to Florida to play golf, so I did think about it. But right now I’m really enjoying everything that I’m doing. So I’m not really even considering it at this point.” ▼

PHOTO: JEWLY HIGHT

ONLY A FEW individuals excel in multiple musical fields, and the legendary Dan Penn is clearly among them. He’s written or co-written numerous stone-cold classic soul and country tunes. As a producer, his lengthy list of hits includes Memphis rock heroes The Box Tops’ 1967 anthem “The Letter”; he and longtime comrade Spooner Oldham penned another of that band’s top singles, “Cry Like a Baby.” He even has substantial engineering credits. But when he takes the stage at 3rd and Lindsley on Tuesday, Dan Penn will be doing what he says he enjoys most: singing.

“I always considered myself a singer first,” Penn tells the Scene. “That’s how I started, but then I was able to sell a few songs and I enjoyed that. Plus I got to work in the studio and started doing some engineering and producing, and that was fun as well. So all these things kind of came together. But singing is what I love more than anything, and while I don’t often get the chance to do it these days, when a good opportunity comes along, I’ll take it.”

Penn will be performing during the latest residency date for one of Music City’s hottest new supergroups, The HercuLeons. This all-star ensemble, whose list of credits and accomplishments is staggering, features bassist John Cowan and fiddler Andrea Zonn, pianist Jody Nardone, multi-instrumentalist John Mock (who handles acoustic guitar, bouzouki and mandolin) and

LOVENOISE FOUNDERS: ANTOINE NUNN, ERIC HOLT, LASALLE CHAPMAN, CHIP HOCKETT AND BRYCE PAGE Some folks you’ll hear from who were heavily inspired

by Lovenoise shows are musicians like Jason Eskridge, as well as Mimi McCarley of urban-music-boosting organization Nashville Is Not Just Country Music. You’ll also hear Brian Sexton, who is Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s liaison with the Metro Council and who’s very active in efforts to make the city more livable for creative people amid inflated real estate prices and other pressures.

Lovenoise shifted its focus as Nashville changed around it. Making Noise also explores how the foundation the organization laid and continues to build on has changed the game in important ways — though there’s still much more to be done — for rappers and singers making waves today, like Tim Gent, Jamiah, Brian Brown, Lo Naurel and Chuck Indigo.

“It became really clear to me that because there had been these other generations of people working to make space here,” Hight says, “this rising generation of artists in hip-hop and R&B came in thinking differently from the very beginning … saying: ‘Of course I can make my own music here. Of course I can go about trying to build a career in Nashville, and I don’t necessarily have to have to leave.’” ▼

New episodes of Making Noise available Thursdays, Feb. 8-29, via Nashville Public Radio; live event March 3 at Analog at Hutton Hotel

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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ONE THING I WANNA KNOW

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS “THIS IS THE PLACE where you can do everything you want to do,” said Elvis Costello near the end of his career-spanning three-hour set Jan. 29 at the Ryman.

Whether Elvis was talking about Nashville generally or the Ryman Auditorium specifically, he certainly did just that: everything he wanted to do. Over the course of the evening, the consummate showman — joined by his longtime backing band the Imposters, along with acclaimed Texas songster Charlie Sexton on guitar — played roughly 30 songs, offered myriad anecdotes, brought out a couple of special guests and a horn section (a first for Costello’s current tour), and wore several hats (literally).

The show featured no opener, and Costello and the Imposters’ A SPECTACLE OF set was frontloaded HIMSELF: with largely new ELVIS COSTELLO material. Hitting the stage promptly at 8 p.m., the band jangled through the shuffling rockabilly of latter-day tunes like “A Town Called Riddle,” “I Don’t Want Your Lyndon Johnson” and “Like Licorice on Your Tongue.” Early-days numbers including “Pills and Soap” and “Possession” made it into the top of the set as well, with Costello bringing out a three-piece horn section — trumpet player and arranger Michael Leonhart, saxophonist Donny McCaslin and trombonist and Nashville resident Raymond Mason — to augment many of his songs.

Along the way Costello told a number of his trademark meandering tales from the road, from anecdotes about record shopping in Texas to seeing the Predators play (“What the fuck is a team from Nashville doing on skates?”) and that time Carl Perkins bailed on joining Costello and his band onstage in Nashville back in the ’70s (he “fled the fucking scene” when he heard “our sorry, punk rock, New Wave asses”). After teasing that he’d eventually get to crowd favorites (songs “with girls’ names in the titles”), Costello called for a blackout of the house lights and launched into the slinky reggae of all-timer “Watching the Detectives.”

As the show went on, Costello bounced around the stage, taking longtime Imposter Steve Nieve’s spot at the piano for “Poisoned Rose” and the gospel rave-up “Blood and Hot Sauce” before swapping to a wide-brimmed hat and an acoustic guitar for renditions of “Everybody’s Crying Mercy” and a medley featuring Burt Bacharach’s “Mexican Divorce.” There was some riffing about the great Western philos-

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ophers — from Marx (Gummo, Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Karl and Richard) to Jimmy Durante — and a reference to Nashville’s whooping party buses during “Clubland.”

Costello brought out sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe to join him on “Blame It on Cain,” “That’s Not the Part of Him You’re Leaving” and a particularly moving rendition of “Burn the Paper Down to Ash.” By this point — roughly the two-hour mark — the 69-year-old London native was showcasing his world-class stamina. The audience, composed largely of salt-and-pepper Gen-Xers, stuck with him for the most part, though some began to peel off in groups of two or four. Their loss. Anyone who split before 10 p.m. missed gorgeous, low-key renderings of “Almost Blue” and “Someone Took the Words Away,” followed by a full-bore run of bangers “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down,” “High Fidelity” and “Pump It Up.” Because Costello, Sexton, Nieve, bassist Davey Faragher and drummer Pete Thomas never left the stage, there wasn’t exactly a clear line of demarcation between the main set and what you might call an encore. Whatever you call it, Costello and the Imposters closed out their roughly 30-song set with “Alison,” “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror,” “Shipbuilding” and a barn-burning “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace Love and Understanding” that brought the weary crowd to its feet.

Recent set lists show that while the Nashville gig was a particularly long one, sets during Costello’s current 7-0-7 Tour regularly land well north of two hours and around the 25-song mark. Even nearly a half-century into his career, Costello is proving he’s an indefatigable force of nature, and one of the greatest showmen in the history of rock ’n’ roll. We’re lucky to bear witness.

SEEN ENOUGH TO KNOW WHO I AM

BY H.N. JAMES THE FIRST FRIDAY night of February was warm, a kind of false spring — conveniently timed, since a line formed outside The East Room for Morgxn’s sold-out Beacon album release show.

Among the eager crowd waiting to celebrate with the pop songsmith, who recently returned to his hometown after several years in Los Angeles, were a music writer who flew in from Florida and several other fans who drove many hours to the gig.

After I heard the first singles from Beacon, I went back to listen to Sam Smith’s 2014 debut In the Lonely Hour, because Morgxn navigates some of the same emotional territory as Smith,

PHOTO: MATT WEST

MUSIC: THE SPIN

THOROUGHLY MODERN: MORGXN despite the differences in their sound. Morgxn and his openers Crystal Rose and Taylor Janzen share a common thread in their lyrics, being honest about mental health struggles, self-acceptance and renewal. It’s a refreshing message in pop music, which is frequently preoccupied with cheerful party anthems and woe-is-me breakup songs.

The luminous Rose opened the show with an intimate performance — her soaring voice backed by one colleague on reverb-drenched electric guitar. Rose sings with her whole body and masterfully timed dynamic shifts. I saw her at November’s Black Opry Records launch party accompanied by an acoustic guitarist, and this set was as good if not better. Standouts included the emotional “Any Other Way,” ode to her hometown “Goddamn You Kansas City,” a theme for reclaiming and reframing one’s life called “Failsafe” — and of course her anthemic “Mad Black Woman,” which was a runner-up in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest and led to her TedX talk about anger and despair. Rose is someone to keep both eyes on and a voice to hear as often as you can.

Recent Canadian transplant Janzen was next, taking the stage with just her Gretsch guitar and launching into “Push It Down” from her 2023 album I Live in Patterns. I started listening to this album days before the show and have been unable to stop — her voice is riveting.

Janzen is a top-notch songwriter whose songs and performance were just as powerful without the album production. This was Janzen’s first solo performance in Nashville, as well as her first at all in five years. The “person and a guitar” set may be an established Nashville cliché, but her version felt fresh. She charmed the audience with stories about how her car was stolen within three weeks of her move to Nashville and showed up two months later, non-operational and covered in rude graffiti; she also asked that the musicians in the crowd suspend the impulse to judge her capo placement. She sang about religious trauma, anger and friendship in songs that were sometimes sad, sometimes sweet, but always felt honest.

In addition to a drummer and keyboardist, Morgxn’s band included singer-songwriter-bass-

ist Carmen Dianne and singer-songwriter-guitarist Sarina-Joi. They were onstage to kick off the set with the titular tune from Beacon — but Morgxn was not. At the sound of his tenor voice, heads turned to the back of the room and eyes trailed him through the sea of faces. His T-shirt read “The World Is NOT Better Without You” on the front; after he shed his jacket, “We’re Glad You’re Here, Please Stay” was visible on the back.

The message complemented the hopeful tone of the new album, which Morgxn and his band played in its entirety for an effervescent crowd.

“I can’t believe you know the words — the album just came out today,” he said at one point to fans closest to the stage. “Oh, you learned them on the six-hour drive to get here?”

Throughout the set, Morgxn expressed awe and gratitude to the packed house that was singing along with gusto. His disco-infused banger “Modern Man” was a crowd-pleaser, with vocal solos by both Carmen Dianne and Sarina-Joi. “That’s how you do it, Nashville,” said Morgxn, “with the women leading.”

While the mood in the room was triumphant, the whole show wasn’t about ecstatic delight.

For “To Be Human” and “Getting Older in a Modern World,” Morgxn gave most of the band a break as he opened up about feeling behind in life and other highs and lows that are part of every creative journey. The power of his songs comes from his knack of making the listener feel heard and seen through his warm voice and direct lyrics.

For an encore, Morgxn & Co. played some of his best-known songs: “Home,” which he said was making its debut with a live band, and “Wonder.” They wrapped the night with an abbreviated a cappella edition of “Pretend Rainbow,” changing the last words to “Pretendin’ there’s a rainbow / That’s hangin’ over Tennessee.”

The Nashville I know is separated into genres and categories and cultures. But throughout Morgxn’s set I found myself thinking, “This is also Nashville” — danceable pop music, truth-telling, and believing it’s the entire rainbow that makes us great, not each separate color. Thanks for the reminder, Morgxn, and welcome home. ▼

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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FILM

IT’S A MADS, MADS, MADS, MADS WORLD In the Danish historical epic The Promised Land, Mads Mikkelsen tends his garden

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

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NOT SINCE Master and Commander’s “oceans are now battlefields” has a film’s scene-setting opening crawl brought me to attention as effectively as that of The Promised Land, the 2023 Danish historical epic opening at the Belcourt this week.

A lone settler tasked with taming a barren wasteland infested by violent outlaws? Count me in.

The 18th-century period piece unfolds slowly as protagonist Ludvig Kahlen — a poor retired military officer played by the always perfect Mads Mikkelsen — heads for the remote Jutland heath, which, as the opening crawl warns, “cannot be tamed.” Kahlen, low-born but accomplished in his career, is seeking to climb the social ladder by helping an obsessed king achieve his goal of bringing civilization to the uncultivated region.

By my count, Mikkelsen had the best 2020 of any working actor, between Another Round and Riders of Justice. This is slower-paced than either, though his face alone, gazing toward the horizon or distressed by another failure, is enough to keep your attention.

The Promised Land is as close to an American Western as can be expected of a Danish-Swedish-German co-production. You have the out-

laws, the damsels in distress, the unforgiving landscape and the quiet-but-deadly protagonist.

What really makes the film tick is the looming presence of the local magistrate (played menacingly and convincingly by Simon Bennebjerg).

No matter what progress Kahlen makes in his quest to tame the heath, he is stymied — by the elements, by the outlaws or, most often, by Bennebjerg’s villainous meddling.

Though much of the film is dark, quiet and slow, dashes of romance, humor, fear and heartbreak are speckled throughout. The long winter and quiet time on the homestead provide a chance to get to know Kahlen and the rest of the cast of characters. In addition to Bennebjerg, actresses Amanda Collin and Kristine Kujath Thorp give Mikkelsen capable screen partners as part of a love-triangle-on-the-prairie. Melina Hagberg plays a young child who escapes the band of outlaws and seeks safety with Kahlen.

Her performance should get whatever award is on offer to child actors: It’s funny, moving and nuanced beyond her years.

But Mikkelsen is the main event. His character is defined by stubbornness to the point of stupidity, occasional coldness and cruelty (the film is called Bastarden in Danish, a nod both to his origins and his surliness), awkwardness

around other people and childlike joy upon seeing his first green shoot in the spring. The diverse mix of traits feels like a natural place for Mikkelsen to have ended up, a summation of his ability to play both a dastardly Bond villain and a bumbling but lovable drunk.

Though Kahlen operates in a moral gray area, his main antagonist is such a cruel, stupid tyrant that our rooting interest is easy enough to determine. Still, Kahlen tries a couple times to lose that support. But Mikkelsen’s ability to walk that tightrope — plus an unparalleled screen presence that helps him make even watching potatoes grow interesting — and a winning supporting cast make Nikolaj Arcel’s latest feature worth the ticket price. ▼

The Promised Land NR, 127 minutes; in Danish with English subtitles Playing Feb. 9-15 at the Belcourt

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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PUSHING DAISIES

Sometimes I Think About Dying is a slow-burning tale of loneliness

BY KEN ARNOLD

IN THE MODERN AGE, it sometimes feels like we are floating through life — the stinging cold of our adult routines and shaking off the ambitions of youth. We get into the habit of working all day just to go home, then do it all again the next day. Throughout the routine of life, we can fall into boredom and loneliness. To escape these feelings, some people daydream about tropical vacations and luxuries they can’t afford.

Some of us just think about dying.

In the sleepy, dreary town of Astoria, Ore., lives Fran (Daisy Ridley), a social recluse who drifts through her work days and comes home to her cottage cheese. Throughout her day-in, day-out cycle, she begins to disconnect from the life she’s living, and she daydreams about her death. That’s not to say she’s suicidal — it’s more of an indifference toward living or dying. Then along comes a new hire at the office, Robert (Dave Merheje), who tries to break Fran out of her shell.

Character studies live and die by their lead performer. Most audiences know Daisy Ridley as Rey in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy. But there are no signs of the confident Jedi in Fran, who is quiet, timid and full of self-doubt. In an interview last year with the Associated Press, Ridley spoke about using the isolation of the pandemic and her own personal social anxieties as a basis for her performance in Dying. She’s able to capture not only Fran’s loneliness but also her desire to push past the barriers she finds within herself. It’s a bold new direction for the blockbuster star, and her performance makes me excited to see what’s next for her in the world of independent cinema.

Directed by Rachel Lambert, Dying is adapted in part from the 2013 play Killers, which was

itself later adapted into a 13-minute short of the same name. Lambert replaced the short film’s inner monologue sequences with visualized daydreams of Fran’s death that are eerily beautiful and tranquil — despite the fact that they feature Fran’s corpse. Ridley’s character is never violently murdered or depicted with any visible injuries, as if to show that in Fran’s mind, death is a peaceful exit rather than a gruesome end. That said, expanding the short to a 91-minute feature led to a few hiccups along the way. Painting the world as drab and lonely, as it’s seen by our protagonist, does dip into boring-by-design territory. The movie rides a fine line — it does Fran justice, but its slow pace and awkward dialogue might be too much for some audiences. By the same token, more introverted audience members or those close to introverts will feel seen.

Ultimately, Sometimes I Think About Dying is a somber, dreamy story of loneliness and breaking through the bubble of introversion. It takes its time in allowing scenes to develop, though it features a breakout performance from Ridley and solid direction from Lambert. Dying will reward patient viewers as a character study of an introvert who dreams of death and making a human connection. ▼

Sometimes I Think About Dying PG-13, 91 minutes Opening Friday, Feb. 9, at the Belcourt

NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2024 • nashvillescene.com

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