This fiddle was played at countless dances by Country Music Hall of Fame member Bob Wills. Raised in Texas in a fiddling family, Wills played his first ranch dance at age ten and grew up to become the King of Western Swing.
From the exhibit Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present
Thunder on the Mountain, Part 2 Old mines beneath a massive development open a can of worms
BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLORPith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Nashville’s Conviction Review Unit Seeks to Exonerate Couple in Death of Infant Son New science debunks shaken baby syndrome conviction more than two decades later
BY STEVE HARUCH, NASHVILLE BANNERMetropolitik: Nashville Tussles
With Party Vehicles — Again Tourism transportation still out of harmony three years into regulation attempt
BY ELI MOTYCKACOVER STORY
“What We Do With Guilty People”
An excerpt from Steven Hale’s new book, Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber
BY STEVEN HALE, INTRODUCTION BY D. PATRICK RODGERSBob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Nashville Ballet Family Day, Nikki Lane, Pictures of Ghosts and more
(Not a) Bad Idea
New East Nashville spot Bad Idea invites everyone in with wine offerings and Lao cuisine
BY KELSEY BEYELERThe Depth of Sisterhood
Vanderbilt alum Claire Jiménez’s novel explores the impact of a family tragedy
BY SARA BETH WEST; CHAPTER16.ORG
Another Look
The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from Dante Williamson, Bats, The Robe and more
BY BEN ARTHUR, EDD HURT, ADDIE MOORE, DARYL SANDERS, CLAIRE STEELE, STEPHEN TRAGESER AND RON WYNNDanger and Romance
Marshall Crenshaw’s early albums sound futuristic 40 years later BY
EDD HURTFrom the Wreckage
Jake Blount’s The New Faith is both brilliant parable and brutally honest document BY
SEAN L. MALONEYThe Scene’s live-review column checks out Jenny Lewis at the Ryman BY
KIM BALDWIN
Sweet Janine
Talking to Annie Potts about the Ghostbusters franchise, John Candy and her charity work BY ADAM DAVIDSON
Wherever You Are
Bas Devos’ Here is all about connections BY JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE
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3/21 Intro to TIG Welding
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TENNESSEE TITANS running back Derrick
Henry, a cornerstone player for the Titans, is set to depart for the Baltimore Ravens, marking the end of an era for both player and team. Henry’s imminent move to join the Ravens’ backfield underscores a significant strategic shift for both franchises and signals a new era for our Titans.
But Henry is leaving on a high note. As noted by Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, “Henry is coming off his fourth Pro Bowl season with the Titans after rushing for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2023. The 30-year-old topped the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his eight seasons in Nashville.” The comments section of a recent Facebook post by Titans Nation shows an outpouring of support — Henry will be missed by both fans and his Titans family.
Henry’s tenure with the Titans has been nothing short of legendary. As the heart and soul of the team’s offense, Henry’s bruising running style and unparalleled offensive results have been instrumental in the Titans’ success in recent years. As reported by ESPN: “In 2020, Henry was named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, an Associated Press first-team All-Pro and, for the second consecutive season, FedEx Ground Player of the Year after leading the NFL with a franchise-record 2,027 rushing yards. He became the eighth player in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a season. His 2,027 rushing yards gave him the fifth-highest total in NFL history.”
But despite his remarkable contributions, Henry is now seeking new opportunities with the Ravens. Henry landed a reported two-year, $16 million deal with $9 million guaranteed, plus $4 million more available in incentives.
Henry’s departure will create a significant change in the Titans’ offensive identity. Without Henry anchoring the backfield, the Titans will need to adapt their offensive approach. But don’t be too sad for the team, because they just signed the Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Pollard to
a three-year, $24 million contract. Pollard also amassed 1,000-plus yards rushing each of the past two seasons.
On the upside of this situation, the door is always open for Henry to return to the Titans.
As Sports Illustrated reports, Titans coach Brian Callahan says of Henry: “He’s been a remarkable player. He’s been the face of the franchise here for a long time. When you think of the Tennessee Titans, you think of Derrick Henry. ... If he’s open to a return, that fits for us. I’m never going to say no to good players.”
As Henry embarks on a new chapter with the Baltimore Ravens, Titans fans everywhere are left to reflect on the impact he made on the franchise. From his electrifying runs to his unwavering dedication to the team, Henry’s legacy will endure long after his departure. While it may be difficult to imagine the Titans without Henry in the backfield, fans can take solace in knowing the team remains committed to building a competitive roster and contending for championships in the years to come.
As Titans fans, we all wish Derrick Henry the best in his new venture. Further, it’s nice to know we can still see him play — albeit for the Ravens and not our Titans. He’ll miss Tennessee also. “Titans fans, I want to say thank you for the greatest eight years of my life,” Henry said in January. “The ups and the downs. Y’all have been there through everything,”
As the Titans turn the page on the Derrick Henry era, the future is uncertain — even with the addition of Pollard. But one thing is clear: The spirit of Titans football lives on.
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
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In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016
TYPHON, THE FIERCEST of Greek monsters, nearly beat Zeus in an epic battle for control of the cosmos. One-hundred dragon heads sprouted from Typhon’s arms; his legs were a tangle of snakes; fire flew from his eyes. The exhausted Zeus prevailed only by flinging Mount Aetna on top of Typhon, which explains why fire erupts from its rocky surface today.
The Sicilian volcano is now spelled “Etna,” but its namesake peak west of Chattanooga kept the Latin “Aetna.” Its flames spring not from a volcano or the eyes of a defeated god, but from another kind of myth: a buried coal fire that may have smoldered underground for decades. Or maybe not. Roughly a half-dozen hunters, hikers and forestry officials have reported feeling unexplained heat, smelling fumes and even seeing flames shoot from the ground at various times in the past decade. One claimed the soles of his tennis shoes melted as he crossed a hot zone.
But none of these witnesses will go on the record with what they’ve seen. They fear the wrath of John “Thunder” Thornton, a Zeus-like figure in the world of mountain real estate. Thornton’s ambitious River Gorge Ranch (RGR) is scheduled to hold 2,500 homesites — with more than 300 on the 7,400-acre development already sold. The higher-priced lots offer spectacular bluff views from the top of Aetna, with the Tennessee River winding around three of its sides.
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That last item is the Newton Sandstone, which sits above the coal seams and underlying sedimentary deposits like icing on a layer cake. Within the limited search area, the report estimated that the Newton formation averaged 120 feet thick. Even though one of the eight measurements indicated large voids within the rock, the report concluded that the “highest elevation residential lots” would generally sit over such a thick sandstone layer that they did not see “any increased risk of subsidence.” The report added that mining spoils — overlying material removed during mine operations — in three lots of the test area would need extensive remediation or to be “abandoned” for residential development.
A cautionary note ended the generally development-friendly report: “However, mass grading and/ or extensive blasting in the sandstone formations would likely increase the risk of future distress related to any underlying mines.” This could be a problem, as many mountain homes in Tennessee, including those planned for RGR, lie too far away and at too great an elevation to connect to municipal sewage, meaning they need septic systems.
SANDSTONE IS RELATIVELY impermeable, which is why the soft limestone around it erodes into picturesque bluffs.
AS WAS REVEALED at the Marion County Commission meeting Feb. 26, much of the development sits above abandoned coal mines, some of which date back 150 years. Alongside the bluffs lie abandoned strip mines marked on a 1950 topographic map. In October 2022, an engineering firm called UES Professional Solutions performed a “limited geophysical exploration” of the site for Phase 1 of RGR — about 370 lots. The test was performed at the northeast corner of the development to “assess whether any potential subsidence risk is present due to previous strip-mining operations.”
Subsidence is the settling of soil from collapses below. While historical maps showed about 30 “adits,” or horizontal mine entrances, within the proposed development, these appeared to have been mostly buried or otherwise obscured when the engineering team searched for them. They focused on the strip mines. Using electrical resistance to build an underground model at eight spots in the test zone (a ninth location failed to provide useful information), the firm determined that soils in the strip-mined area consist of clays, mining spoils and “cap rock.”
“If soils are thick enough, which is questionable on sandstone, and if septic drainfields are appropriately spaced with appropriate soils, then the impacts could be minimal,” says Wil Orndorff, a nationally known soil scientist who tells the Scene via email that he believes the geophysics report of the site “is solid.”
But when soils are thin, heavy rain can make a septic drainage field bubble unpleasantly to the surface. While each lot will need its own percolation test, as a whole, RGR sought initial approval for 3,000 septic systems in the development.
Twenty years ago, persistent septic system failure in Spencer — a town built on similar sandstone just outside Fall Creek Falls State Park — led to an expensive new sewage system that nearly destroyed a delicate hidden ecosystem.
While the sandstone cap has proved to be a solid roof for millennia, the flanks tend to slip and slide. As elsewhere in the region, the area around Aetna is known for occasional rockfall and landslides, including one that shut down Highway 41 in 2019. Old mines are known to help precipitate such events.
Even more important than septic systems for homes at the top is water, which can be difficult to haul up a mountain. Thornton’s company Thornton Air was sued by the state in
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Assuming all goes well with the building of the tower, the running of pipe from a smaller water tower on the mountain’s flank, and a final deal over the cost of that water, the taps in River Gorge Ranch might begin to run within a period of a few years, rather than the months eager homebuilders might prefer.
AT THE FEB. 26 Marion County Commission meeting, Commissioner Paul Schafer introduced the discussion of Aetna mines. He also brought up sandstone and the difficulty of installing septic tanks in it — especially above mine shafts and tunnels.
“When septic systems are installed, both the pounding to remove rock … and overflow from these systems could make this mountain unstable,” Schafer said in the meeting. “Why weren’t these issues brought up before the planning commission?”
Mayor David Jackson and Commissioner Gene Hargis (who is also a detective with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department) both sit on the planning commission as well as the county commission, but they offered no answer. Shortly after the next planning commission meeting March 12, Thornton attorney Harold North served Schafer with a Tennessee Freedom of Information Act request. The letter asked for all communications between Schafer and Ronnie Kennedy, who had introduced the mine maps at the Feb. 26 meeting, and Joey Blevins, a local four-wheel-drive enthusiast who created a Facebook group called Aetna Nation, generally in favor of recreation over development on Aetna.
The next day (also the day Part 1 of this Scene series was published online), RGR sent out emails and social media posts to lot owners, citing the engineering report as reason not to worry. Their social posts generally blamed the mine talk on two disgruntled people with no connection to RGR, one of whom is against the development because he missed trespassing for his off-road adventures there. As the FOIA request made clear, the designated scapegoats are Kennedy and Blevins.
“Luckily, I’m dyslexic,” Schafer said on March 14. “I don’t have any texts or emails. I just talk to people and listen to what they say. From that you can learn an awful lot.”
The next day, North cast a wider net, sending the same FOIA request to two more commissioners, the county mayor, the county attorney and the county road superintendent. While some RGR lot owners appeared satisfied by Thornton’s response, others worry about the safety of their investment. Several have scheduled a group meeting with an attorney to discuss possible legal options. At least two potential buyers said they had reconsidered after reading the Scene article. One source asked this reporter, “Have you got your bulletproof vest yet?”
He might not have been joking. Much is at stake on Mount Aetna, and as at the mountain of ancient myth, mighty battles may remain. ▼
District 19 Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston is considering challenging U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in the GOP primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. “The people of Middle Tennessee deserve better than Andy Ogles,” Johnston tells our colleagues at the Nashville Banner — who officially launched their publication this week. Meanwhile, Tom Guarente a Nashville-area cybersecurity company executive, has filed paperwork to run as a Republican, and The Tennessean reports that advocate and Metro Human Relations Commission Chair Maryam Abolfazli is considering a run for the Democratic nomination. Multiple Democratic sources say state Rep. Justin Jones has considered a bid in the 5th as well.
State Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) sparred with constituents during a Friday evening town hall in his district, highlighting the ongoing frustration among some voters in an election year that has seen a continued focus on culturewar issues. Bulso took heat for a number of his sponsored House bills, with his legislation aiming to ban Pride flags from schools seeing the most feedback from constituents. As of press time, he’s also pushing a piece of legislation that would require public school students to watch anti-abortion videos. “Gino Bulso is out here trying to force public schools to show kids propaganda endorsed by a hate group?” writes Scene columnist Betsy Phillips. “Get off the side of the extremists and get on the side of decency.”
Metro has selected engineering and landplanning firm Kimley-Horn and Associates to lead the city’s North Nashville community engagement and Jefferson Street study. The city requested bids from consultants in October 2023 — after the former Jefferson Street Cap project stalled in late 2021. In its proposal, the local office of Raleigh-based Kimley-Horn said: “Correcting a wrong from nearly 70 years ago and addressing the distrust in government that still pervades the North Nashville community will take time. Correcting the missteps and assumptions that led to community confusion and pushback and ultimately led to Metro pausing the project in November 2021 also will take time.”
Visit nashvillescene.com/state-legislature for our continued coverage of this year’s ongoing state legislative session.
This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene
The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Read the full story — including detailed conversations with detectives — and watch a short film by Banner executive producer Demetria Kalodimos at nashvillebanner.com.
RUSSELL MAZE HAS SPENT the past 25 years behind bars. He was twice convicted of abusing and ultimately killing his infant son. But since the day in 1999 when little Alex stopped breathing and was rushed to the emergency room, Russell has maintained his innocence. A quarter-century later, Nashville prosecutors finally agree with him.
In a letter of intent filed in late December 2023, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk wrote, “This Office knows of clear and convincing evidence establishing Ms. Maze and Mr. Maze were both convicted of crimes they did not commit.”
Along with that letter, Nashville’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) submitted a 69-page report detailing flaws in the conviction process — including a detective’s own admission they prompted a false confession — and analysis from five medical experts who debunk the diagnosis of “shaken baby syndrome,” also known as abusive head trauma, that formed the foundation of Russell’s conviction.
Around 3 p.m. on May 3, 1999, Kaye Maze went out to buy some formula and pick up some food for herself and her husband Russell. Their son Alex, who had been born premature and was less than 2 months old at the time, had been fussy all day, had thrown up more than once, and was running a fever. Russell stayed with him at their apartment on Welch Road in South Nashville while Kaye ran her errands. She returned about 40 minutes later to find an ambulance outside.
Alex had stopped breathing.
Both parents had taken infant CPR training, including a class for preemies, so Russell immediately started trying to revive Alex. When his initial attempts failed, he called 911. Paramedics arrived within minutes and were able to resuscitate Alex in the ambulance. By the time Kaye arrived they were preparing to transport him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Distraught, Russell and Kaye rode to the hospital with Metro Nashville Police Department Detective Robert Anderson. This was the first time the new parents, anxious and separated from their ailing son, would find themselves in contact with law enforcement instead of health care professionals or other supports. But it
would not be the last.
Soon after Alex was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at VUMC, he was examined by Dr. Suzanne Starling, director of the hospital’s Child Abuse and Neglect Program. In her notes, she wrote that Alex had “multiple injuries” including: bruising on his face and abdomen; bleeding around the brain; severe cerebral swelling; areas of the brain that showed evidence of restricted blood flow consistent with stroke; and extensive bleeding behind both eyes.
“This constellation of injuries,” Dr. Starling wrote, “is seen in abusive head trauma.”
The Mazes did not know Dr. Starling was a child abuse specialist. And although they had already spoken with doctors, police and Department of Children’s Services officials by the time MNPD detectives Ron Carter and Kristen Vanderkooi questioned them each separately, they remained cooperative.
After establishing some basic facts — Alex’s birth date, Russell’s place of employment — Detective Carter tried to get Russell to explain how Alex had sustained his injuries, which Dr. Starling said could only come from violent shaking.
“I have never intentionally shaken my child to a physical, hurtful degree,” Russell insisted at one point. “If I have … shaken my child at all, it was an accident in picking him up.”
“That’s not how it happened,” Carter responded. “The injuries that your child has does not, did not come from picking up your child that way.”
Over the course of this interview, more than 10 times, Russell denied shaking Alex. But Carter kept pressing. During one stretch of questioning, most of Russell’s responses were recorded
in the transcript as “[crying]” or “[inaudible, crying].” Detective Carter seemed to sense an opening. “Well it had to have happened some way, you know, shaking the baby like that,” he said. “That’s the only explanation.”
At one point Russell said, “I guess I could. I just freaked. It’s possible.”
For Detective Carter, this amounted to a confession and a confirmation of Dr. Starling’s diagnosis.
Over the next year-and-a-half, Kaye Maze would lose custody of her only child. She and her husband would be arrested and charged with child abuse. Six months after that harrowing night in the emergency department, Alex would be found unresponsive at day care and end up in the hospital again. Then, in spite of her and Russell’s strong opposition, Alex would be taken off life support, and would die in her arms. Russell, who was not allowed to be with his son in those final moments, would stand trial and be convicted again, this time for first-degree murder. He would be sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years, which he is still serving.
Shortly after Alex’s death, Kaye would write, “What the state of Tennessee has taken from us can never be replaced or forgiven.”
Even before his short life began, Alex Maze faced significant health challenges.
“I had an exceedingly difficult time carrying Alex from the very beginning,” Kaye wrote in 2000, in a detailed chronology of her son’s life. Her maternal age, 35, presented some potential risks. While pregnant, Kaye was hospitalized for two days for cramping and bleeding, and she remained on bed rest for most of the duration, un-
able to work. When she developed gestational diabetes, hypertension and low amniotic fluid, doctors decided to induce labor at 34 weeks — six weeks before Alex’s due date.
When he was born, Alex weighed a mere 3 pounds, 12 ounces. He spent nearly two weeks in the Special Care Nursery at Baptist Hospital, where at one point his heart rate jumped to 220 beats per minute as he slept. Alex was referred to Dr. Frank Fish, a VUMC cardiologist who gave the Mazes a heart monitor. A few days later, Alex received a possible but unconfirmed diagnosis of supraventricular tachycardia — irregularly fast or erratic heartbeat. After a subsequent visit, Dr. Fish recommended a heart monitor study if symptoms persisted. Meanwhile, Alex continued to contend with a host of other health problems as well, including unusual head growth, coughing and hard bowel movements.
In the three weeks after Alex left Baptist Hospital, Kaye and Russell took him to see health care providers seven times, and got at least two phone consultations. Once, Kaye took Alex to a pediatric urgent care clinic because she felt he “wasn’t breathing right.”
None of this history was taken into consideration on the afternoon of May 3 — when Alex stopped breathing, was revived by paramedics and rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Recalling the events of that day, Kaye would later write that any time she or Russell tried to offer information about Alex’s previous medical problems, or had questions, Dr. Starling would repeat that “she was 100 percent sure that nothing could have happened to Alex except that someone had hurt him.”
That absolute certainty has had profound, life-altering consequences for the Mazes. But in the ’90s it was commonplace. Katherine H. Judson, executive director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, tells the Nashville Banner, “The conventional wisdom at the time was, if you saw a child with a particular set of medical findings, the cause had to be shaking and could not have been anything else.”
But according to the CRU’s new investigation, Alex’s history of health problems suggests a number of possible explanations — including metabolic disorders, blood disease and stroke — all of which were either not properly investigated at the time or disregarded altogether because the presumption of abuse made it the only focus.
“What every single expert … agrees upon is that Alex Maze did not die from abuse,” the CRU report reads.
In her examination notes on May 3, Dr. Starling, the child abuse specialist, pointed to a “constellation of injuries” that, as she noted, is “seen in abusive head trauma.” Sometimes referred to as the “triad,” those injuries are: bleeding around the brain; bleeding behind the
Tourism transportation still out of harmony three years into regulation attempt
BY ELI MOTYCKAMetropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.
THE ENTERTAINMENT TRANSPORTATION vehicle industry — a provisional legal term for the buses and barges that move tourists through downtown, also sometimes known as “transpotainment” — is ensnared in a tangle of money and politics three years into the city’s attempt to bring order to Lower Broadway’s chaos.
Metro permits 27 ETV operators, from the Honky Tonk Party Express (17 permits) to the Music City Party Fire Engine, a single-permit outfit registered to a residential street off Eighth Avenue. A few major players dominate an industry that many view as a symbol of downtown debauchery, responsible for terrorizing office tenants and harassing pedestrians. Others see it as a cash cow (one operator estimates ETVs bring in $50 million in annual revenue) essential to Nashville’s tourism allure, spoiled by a few bad actors.
The ETV permit renewal deadline is March 25. Permits will be reviewed in May at a hearing in front of the Transportation Licensing Commission, the Metro body tasked with ETV oversight in 2021. Meanwhile, Diana Alarcon, director of the Nashville Department of Trans-
eyes; and swelling of the brain. Even though Alex died more than a year later, that diagnosis carried over to the autopsy, in which Dr. Bruce Levy cited complications from shaken baby syndrome as the ultimate cause of death.
Based on present-day analysis from Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, chief medical examiner for the Knox County Regional Forensics Center, the CRU investigation calls this postmortem diagnosis “a copy-and-paste exercise based on the initial clinical and imaging reports and not a thorough workup at the time of autopsy.” In other words, shaken baby syndrome appeared to be such a clear-cut reason that Dr. Levy did not bother to fully investigate — ignoring what the CRU report describes as “a constellation of intervening medical problems throughout that year.”
Dr. Mileusnic-Polchan is one of five medical experts, whose specialities range from pediatric medicine to forensic pathology, formally consulted by the CRU. Another of those experts, neuroradiologist Dr. Lawrence Hutchins, concluded that “trauma is so unlikely it should not be a consideration.”
In addition to addressing the medical diagnosis of abuse, the CRU analyzed the investigation itself, and found it deeply flawed. Because detectives had been told that abuse was the only pos-
portation, has led a not-so-subtle campaign against the party vehicle industry, culminating in a tense December 2023 meeting in which Alarcon dismissed its tourists as rude, obnoxious and loud. Last spring, Alarcon pulled up for a director’s report at a Transportation Licensing Commission meeting; she’s participated in discussion as an informal member ever since, often irking sitting commissioners.
Owners have pleaded with the city for a fair chance to do business. They criticize the city’s rules, which they say unfairly privilege sightseeing tours, change often and dictate strict pickup and dropoff locations, operation hours, behavior standards and route options. In particular, they blame Alarcon for a personal crusade against party vehicles. Fed up with the city, big ETV (led by The Nashville Tractor owner Michael Winters) enlisted power-player lobbying firm McMahan, Winstead & Richardson to push a total rewrite of ETV rules at the state level early this year. The effort died in March.
Around the same time, a tweak about permit renewals pushed by Alarcon out of the Transportation Licensing Commission and carried by East Nashville Councilmember Sean Parker was suddenly pulled from Metro Council on first reading, a procedural fumble that indicates confusion and disagreement between Parker, Alarcon and the mayor’s office.
Alarcon’s presence at board meetings has heightened pressure for commissioners, whom NDOT has pushed to limit permits despite little or no concrete information about the industry.
“Do we know how many are operating at any given time?” Commissioner Carey Rogers asked Alarcon in March.
“That is one of the things we are actually going to be doing in April,” Alarcon responded. “We’ve been having meetings with ETV and sightseeing companies, and it was raised by one of the ETV companies. This is later on in your agenda —”
sible cause of Alex’s injuries, they questioned the parents as if there were scientifically no doubt about what had happened. This tactic is known as “the false forensic ploy.” As Judson with the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences explains, “When someone is told all the scientific evidence shows that you did it, what the studies show is that you’re more likely to get a false confession under those circumstances.”
Now even one of the officers involved in the investigation is saying that’s what happened.
In an extraordinary move, former MNPD Detective Kristen Vanderkooi submitted a sworn affidavit to the court on Jan. 30. “Dr. Starling’s diagnosis framed our investigation and left no other possibilities,” the affidavit reads. Taking those possibilities into consideration now, Vanderkooi says, “It is clear Russell Maze’s statements were not a confession to any action causing injury to his son.”
But at trial, Russell literally had no defense against the medical claims being lodged against him. His legal counsel did not consult with a qualified medical expert.
In the years since Russell Maze’s conviction, new scientific understandings like the ones described in the CRU report have cast doubt on many shaken baby syndrome cases. Nationally, there have been at least 34 exonerations. Judson
says this is an undercount because not only do many people elect not to undergo a new trial, others plead guilty, or have their cases dismissed for reasons that do not fit the strict criteria of the national registry.
Russell has always maintained his innocence. He appealed his conviction in 2006 and was denied. He then filed for post-conviction relief in 2007, arguing that his legal representation had been ineffective, in large part due to failure to consult medical experts. Finally, on June 9, 2008, Dr. Patrick Barnes and Dr. Edward Yazbak testified that, in their opinion, Alex Maze’s death was not caused by an injurious act. But the court was not moved, and upheld Russell’s conviction. His legal options exhausted, Russell has remained in prison. Kaye and Russell Maze have remained married.
“Nothing will ever give us back our son,” Kaye wrote shortly after Alex’s death in 2000, “but getting Russell out of prison for something he did not do would help the healing process begin.”
On March 26, a judge will hear the appeal that could determine whether Russell Maze, who was 33 when he went to prison, will walk free after more than two decades behind bars. ▼
“So the answer is no,” Rogers cut in.
“We do know how many permits are issued,” Alarcon told the commission. “We have some ideas, but we don’t have some hard data.” She then shared NDOT’s plan to count ETVs by drone in April.
Boosters and politicians have struggled with the limits of downtown debauchery since before the party started. Nashville tourism is a money fountain, international ambassador, cultural emblem, citywide punching bag and magnet for investment dollars, high-profile events and new residents all at once. It teems with people and intoxicants, and those who venture into the industry’s depths risk real danger — recent lawsuits over violent bar bouncers and the widely publicized disappearance of college student Riley Strain add harrowing detail to the underside of a good time.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell (then a councilmember representing District 19, which contains Lower Broadway) led the city’s first pass at regulating entertainment transportation in 2021. At the time, Bob Mendes — who joined O’Connell’s mayoral administration last year after
two terms as an at-large councilmember — added a prescient note of caution before O’Connell’s bill passed.
“Regulation is needed,” Mendes said at the time. “On the downside, I am a little disappointed at what feels like the opaqueness of the negotiations so far. This feels like it’s essentially been one or two council people, every lobbyist in town, the major downtown organizations, and the rest of us are along for the ride — due to public pressure, we have to vote for it. We’re putting enormous new responsibilities on the TLC.”
Nashville’s Transportation Licensing Commission had previously been a sleepy regulator over wreckers, taxis, limos and horse-drawn carriages. Codifying the party vehicle industry has added accountability for the Transpotainment Wild West of pre-2021, ridiculed by operators and politicians alike as a time when anyone could hook anything to a trailer hitch and charge unwitting patrons for a ride. It has also plunged the volunteer TLC into a regulation whirlpool to referee the bureaucrats, pissed-off business owners and feuding politicians watching a party that just won’t stop. ▼
Southern/Modern is the first comprehensive survey of paintings and works on paper created in the American South between 1913 and 1955. Featuring over one hundred works from various artists, the exhibition reflects a period of change and upheaval across the region. Thematic groupings weave together the region’s rich cultures, telling stories of agriculture and industry, class division and racial injustice, natural beauty, and stylistic innovation.
the death penalty for the Nashville Scene a decade ago.
Convicted murderer and rapist Billy Ray Irick was set to be executed on Oct. 7, 2014, but the Tennessee Supreme Court delayed the execution due to a lawsuit related to secrecy surrounding the state’s lethal-injection protocol. Hale — who at the time reported on myriad issues for our publication, including criminal justice — watched the case closely. As closely as anyone could.
Ultimately, Irick was executed by lethal injection on Aug. 9, 2018, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. It was the first in a spate of executions carried out at the prison — seven over the course of about a year-and-a-half — and the first in Tennessee since 2009. Hale was among the few media witnesses selected via a Tennessee Department of Correction lottery to watch the killing in person. That was the first of three executions he would observe during his time as a reporter for the Scene, and part of a process he describes in his new book, Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber, as “barbarism dressed as bureaucracy and armed with legal jargon.”
“After Billy Ray Irick’s execution, which is one of the ones I witnessed, I got an email from a man who’s in the book quite a bit,
Al Andrews, who is one of the members of this community that I write about,” Hale tells me on a recent afternoon at the Scene offices. “He reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be having kind of a memorial service for Billy Ray Irick, and I read your coverage of the execution and of his life.’ And just for whatever reason, he was moved to invite me to this.”
That invitation blossomed into a network of relationships that inspired Death Row Welcomes You, out March 26 via Melville House. As much as the book centers on Hale’s experiences covering the death penalty in Tennessee, it focuses just as much on the community surrounding the state’s condemned men — the people who refuse to look away.
“The folks on death row are often kept at a distance from society,” Hale says. “Not just physically at a distance, but their stories and their humanity are kept behind a wall there in a way that does make it easier for it to remain abstract. And we don’t have to confront what we’re doing.”
“I feel much more passionate about the question of what we do with guilty people,” he says when asked if the process of writing the book changed his own personal outlook on the death penalty. “Early on, I was — and I still am — very interested in innocence cases. And I think obviously,
those are incredibly important … and the work that the Innocence Project and other organizations do around people who are wrongly convicted is hugely important. But almost everyone that I write about in the book is guilty, admittedly. [Writing the book has] made me much more interested in that question: ‘OK, well, what does it mean that someone could commit this horrible crime, and then later be this person? And how do we handle that as a society? How do I look at them as an individual?’”
Hale left the Scene in 2022 to pursue investigative work, but he’s back in journalism once again — he recently joined the team at the newly launched Nashville Banner, where he’ll continue his work covering criminal justice.
Here you’ll find a short excerpt from Chapter 5 of Death Row Welcomes You. The excerpt centers on Hale’s October 2018 visit to Riverbend’s Unit 2, home to all of Tennessee’s male death row prisoners. There he meets others who have formed relationships with death row inmates — “people associating themselves in ink with men the state was determined to kill.” These are advocates who believe, as Hale writes, that “the best way to expose the inhumanity of the death penalty was to expose people to the humanity of the men condemned to it.”
D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ON A MONDAY NIGHT in early October, around two months after Billy’s execution and a few days before another, I made my first visit to Unit 2 at Riverbend. I had seen the death, but not the row — the dying, but not the living.
Shortly before 5 p.m., I met [death row activist David Bass] and [his therapist and fellow activist Al Andrews] in a parking lot on the west side of town and climbed into the back seat of David’s car. They were buzzing with the energy of people going to see friends. The return of executions had brought a weight to their evenings on death row and forced the reality of the place into clear, distressing view. But to David and Al, these visits were still life-giving. And they seized opportunities to bring new visitors into their peculiar community.
The men on Tennessee’s death row who have visiting privileges are allowed to designate eight people, in addition to their immediate family members, who can visit them once a week. But they can also invite others to come as guests for special visits, subject to the warden’s approval. So, by meeting David or Al, a person was suddenly just one degree removed from the men on death row. With permission [from death row inmate Terry King], they had invited a number of people out to the prison — friends, family, professional acquaintances, well-connected businessmen, and me.
By Steven Hale
Available Tuesday, March 26, via Melville House 288 pages, $28.99
Author event feat. Hale and Demetria Kalodimos 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 22, at Parnassus Books
Hear more: Listen to our interview with Steven Hale on Episode 3 of the Nashville Scene Podcast. Find it via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
But their drive to introduce people to Terry and the other men on death row wasn’t just an outgrowth of their sociable personalities. It was a conscious and, to some, subversive act. David and Al, along with many of the other regular visitors, had come to believe that support for executions, or indifference to them, could not survive a Monday night with the men facing them; that the best way to expose the inhumanity of the death penalty was to expose people to the humanity of the men condemned to it.
We started driving out toward the prison, winding through industrial areas and working-class neighborhoods that were rapidly gentrifying. We passed the Walls [Tennessee State Prison, which closed in 1992 but still stands not far from Riverbend], where many of the men we were going to see had started their time on death row.
It had been around four years since David drove out to Riverbend for the first time. After [an invitation from Joe Ingle, an advocate and spiritual adviser for death row inmates], he’d eagerly told everyone in his life about his plans, which seemed to them to be a sign of an ongoing crack-up.
“We’ve got the kind of family with the picket fence,” he said when he first told me the story. “And all of a sudden dad and husband comes home going, ‘guys, I got this great idea, I’m gonna go to death row’ and everybody looked at me like I was crazy. And some of ’em still feel that way. But most of the family has come around on it.”
Four years later, David’s wife, Michelle, had still never met Terry and he didn’t think she ever would. He attributed this, at least in part, to her past experiences with murder and the trauma that emanates from it. She’d worked for the
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“ These men had not been wheeled out on a dolly to speak to him from behind a leather muzzle. They were sitting unshackled before him, looking into his eyes. They even seemed to care about him. He felt destabilized in their presence, not because they were menacing but because they were not.”
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and taken part in the autopsies of victims, including children. David was open about the fact that his relationship with Terry and the other men he’d come to know on death row had complicated his marriage. But he did not expect his wife, or anyone else in his life, to share the passion he’d fallen into. One of their two sons had visited Terry, though. And to their two daughters, Katie Ann and Caroline, he’d become like an uncle. They corresponded with Terry regularly and often visited him with David when they could.
But the man who later felt comfortable bringing his then teenage daughters along for visiting hours at the prison would be unrecognizable to the one who showed up to Riverbend on his first Monday night. Sitting in his car in the prison parking lot that evening, before leaving his phone and heading inside, David sent a final text to his family and loved ones, as if he might not make it out.
“I’m going in ...”
His friends on death row would tease him about this for years.
But the man who went into Riverbend that night didn’t really make it out after all. That first Monday night visit upended David’s life. He met men he previously would have simply called murderers. And they were murderers, of course. But as he sat with them, he realized that was a lie by omission. These men had not been wheeled out on a dolly to speak to him from behind a leather muzzle. They were sitting unshackled before him, looking into his eyes. They even seemed to care about him. He felt destabilized in their presence, not because they were menacing but because they were not.
The first man David met that night was AbuAli Abdur’Rahman, a slight, Black man known among the community of people close to death row simply as Abu. He’d been sentenced to death for his role in the 1986 killing of a small-time drug dealer named Patrick Daniels and the stabbing of Daniels’ girlfriend, Norma Jean Norman, in Nashville. His case had become well known for its myriad problems, not the least of which was an overwhelmed defense attorney who later admitted he’d hardly given Abu a defense.
But it wasn’t the injustices of Abu’s case that left David feeling, as he put it to me, like his whole world was breaking down. It was the fact of the man himself, whose peaceful presence seemed to contradict the very premise of the
place where he was confined. In more than thirty years on death row, Abu had maintained a deep interest in spirituality. He’d adopted his name after converting to Islam. Later, he converted again and was confirmed as an Episcopalian in a service on death row where he sang “Amazing Grace.” Among the several degrees he’d earned during his incarceration was one as a mediator, and he was an active part of a conflict resolution program in the unit.
After Abu, David met Terry, who told him a story of murder, yes, but also a curious story of redemption, one deemed impossible by the sentence handed down before Terry turned twenty-three years old. David would recall how uniquely present Terry seemed, and how aware he was of the overwhelming effect that the setting could have on a first-time visitor from the free world. Occasionally during their conversation, he would reach over and gently touch David’s shoulder, asking “Are you OK?”
Toward the end of their visit, Terry asked David a question that he regularly asks new visitors. For David, who had already lost his sense of equilibrium, it was the blow that knocked him over.
“How do you feel about the death penalty?”
David didn’t really answer. He stammered through a response, finding that he was unable to look this man in the face and tell him, “As it happens, I think people like you should be exterminated.” He left the prison in an existential fog. A couple years later, though, after spending many Monday nights at the prison, he went to death row and told Terry about that old line he used to repeat about the condemned, that “we need to fry ’em until their eyes pop out.” That was how he felt, he said, and he asked for Terry’s forgiveness.
WE ARRIVED AT RIVERBEND around 5 p.m., about the same time I’d arrived for Billy’s execution, only now it was quiet and still. There were no armed guards at the top of the driveway, no white tent prepared for a press conference. We got out of the car and walked toward the entrance, assured that everyone we saw in the prison that night would be alive when we left.
A small group of men and women sat on benches outside the prison’s front doors. They greeted us like regulars at a neighborhood bar, and David introduced me around.
Like us, they were waiting for visiting hours to begin. Some were going to death row, others had family members in the prison’s general popula-
tion. One of the women was the mother of a man whose crime and trial had made national headlines. David had gotten to know her well and soon they were laughing, but she looked to me like a person smiling from behind a veil of grief.
Sitting there on the benches, as afternoon turned to evening, the group seemed a lonely few. But they are not, of course. Around two million people are incarcerated somewhere inside America’s sprawling system of prisons and jails. On that day, more than 2,700 people were languishing on death rows around the country. For so many of those locked-away men and women there are people like these, people who have not forgotten them.
Soon, the small group started jokingly bickering about who would go first through the door, risking the ire of the corporal who was perched at a desk behind the security checkpoint. She was short in stature and in temperament and particularly intimidating to uneasy newcomers. This tension did at times give way to some levity, though. Alvaro [Alvaro Manrique Barrenechea, a friend of Billy Ray Irick] had told me how his long last name used to peeve the corporal when he first started visiting Billy but eventually became a sort of running joke between the two of them. David, who seemed to view tough personalities as a kind of challenge, worked to win her over. Still, the visitors found her whims somewhat difficult to predict. Visitation began
tions also seemed to put the guards on edge. On the Monday night before Billy’s execution, the visitors had seen an unusual number of people turned away for minor violations.
On this night, though, we made it through security without any problems. After passing through the metal detector and the body scanner and retrieving my belt and shoes on the other side, I approached the desk where the corporal oversaw the proceedings. With David’s direction, and the corporal’s prodding, I leaned over a large black binder and wrote Terry’s name and the Department of Correction ID number assigned to him—103308—followed by my own name. We repeated the same process in another binder designated for Unit 2 visitors. Its pages were a picture of radical solidarity, a catalog of people associating themselves in ink with men the state was determined to kill.
We waited quietly for a moment before the corporal waved us out the door and down the same path I’d taken to the execution a couple months before. We walked through the first of the two tall barbed-wire gates, waiting for it to close behind us before the next one would open in front of us. From there, we entered the central building that houses a large visitation gallery for men from the general population. Some of the visitors left us there to find a seat with their loved ones. Soon, an officer arrived to escort the rest of us to death row.
“Several of the regular visitors had told me about how the men on death row often spoke about how long it had been since they’d stepped foot on grass. I later learned that these cages — surrounded by grass the men couldn’t quite touch — were as close as they got.”
at 5:30 and the group was typically allowed to come inside around 5:15 to start going through security. But on the wrong day, for reasons that were not always obvious, they might be bluntly told to go back outside and wait longer.
An even bigger hassle, though, was the prison’s dress code for visitors, the enforcement of which seemed to ebb and flow on an arbitrary basis. This trouble mostly affected the women, whose outfits were scrutinized according to the visitation handbook’s various dictates. A visitor’s attire could not be “provocative or offensive to others”; clothing was to “fit in an appropriate manner,” neither too tight or too loose; underwear was required, but underwire bras and thongs were banned, as were pieces of clothing with rips in them, such as a pair of jeans with a hole in the knee. After a while, most of the women who visited the prison regularly had cordoned off a collection of approved clothes in their closets. But they found that even an outfit they’d worn multiple times without incident could get them sent back to their cars or their homes for a wardrobe change. Looming execu-
As we made our way down a long sidewalk, I saw what looked like large rectangular cages with concrete floors outside the unit buildings. A tiger pacing back and forth in one of them would not have looked out of place. Several of the regular visitors had told me about how the men on death row often spoke about how long it had been since they’d stepped foot on grass. I later learned that these cages — surrounded by grass the men couldn’t quite touch — were as close as they got. Small red signs beside the sidewalk urged us to stay off the grass; they felt almost like taunts.
When we arrived at Unit 2, we stood outside a heavy metal door, waiting for the guard seated at a desk inside to unlock it. We stepped inside, crowding into a small space between the first door and a second, waiting again for a door to close behind us before another could open in front of us. We each handed the guard a slip of paper we’d been given at the security checkpoint, to prove, I suppose, that we hadn’t gotten to death row’s door by some other means. With that, we were in.
▼
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Nashville
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo
Nashville
[A CARNIVAL OF DANCE]
DANCE
NASHVILLE BALLET FAMILY DAY
Every spring, Nashville Ballet opens its doors to the littlest dance fans with its annual Family Day. This year’s event promises a full afternoon of dance-inspired activities designed especially for little ones and their families. Kids can look forward to a lively performance of Carnival of the Animals, a whimsical children’s ballet that explores the value of diversity through the eyes of the “King of the Jungle.” They can also enjoy an engaging story time featuring the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Of course, there will be ample opportunity for youngsters to get their wiggles out with a circus-themed obstacle course and various movement games and classes. Budding musicians can check out the musical petting zoo, presented in partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And there will be plenty of arts-and-crafts activities, a fun photo booth and more. AMY STUMPFL
12:30 TO 4:30 P.M. AT THE MARTIN CENTER
FOR NASHVILLE BALLET
3630 REDMON ST.
MUSIC [MADE OF LOVE] TRASH PANDA
Two notable things happened on the camping trip I took my senior year of college. First off, I met Patrick Taylor, an almost guru-like figure who said he used to be in a rock band called Trash Panda. Second off: I never went back to school. The camping trip was in March 2020, and my college canceled in-person classes the day after I got home. I spent my newfound (and unwelcome) free time diving into Trash Panda’s music and found a group capable of both riffy rock (“Atlanta Girls”) and psychedelic weirdness (“Upside Down Beach”). The band took a break from around 2018 to 2022, leaving Taylor to dive even further into far-out ethereal concepts with solo project Lazuli Vane, but the band struck its best balance between the heady and the heavy when they reunited for 2023’s PANDAMONIUM! Tracks like “Things Will Never Change” and “STARHEART” also showcase an undeniable groove, and I’m looking forward to hearing every aspect of this peculiar Peach State act live for the first time here at The Basement East, with additional sets from Hotel Fiction and
Big camping music festivals can be a great getaway, but Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival is a different beast entirely. Since its inaugural run in 2009, Big Ears has been programmed with an ear to performances that work better in the clubs, theaters and auditoriums clustered around downtown Knoxville, opening up a wide range of innovative work that might not translate well in a big field under the broiling sun. Some highlights of this year’s event, running Thursday through Sunday, include jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Charles Lloyd, wide-ranging artist and composer Laurie Anderson, prolific polymath Jon Batiste, string-band scholar Rhiannon Giddens, NYC singer-songwriter Joanna Sternberg and Middle Tennessee guitarist Joseph Allred. Among dozens of others, be on the lookout for two performers who’ve recently taken a deep dive into the world of flute — that’d be British composer and instrumental wizard Shabaka
Hutchings, who set aside his saxophone and performs under only his first name now, and Outkast’s own André 3000, who’s bringing the live performance of his spiritual jazz LP New Blue Sun to a separately ticketed portion of the fest. Inspiring cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib will speak, and there’s a film program that includes performance films and documentaries like Sisters With Transistors (about pioneering women in electronic music) and God Said Give ’Em Drum Machines (about the birth and evolution of techno in Detroit). At press time, full weekend passes and individual day passes were still available via bigearsfestival.org.
STEPHEN TRAGESERMARCH 21-24 AT VENUES ALL OVER KNOXVILLE
FILM
For at least a little while longer, film and video allow us to bolster memory with something definite — a “yes, this was here” to fly in the face of overdevelopment and the grabbing hands of capitalism bent on continuous growth. Well, any biologist will tell you that continuous growth is what cancer does, and there’s no mistaking the spell director-documentarian Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius) is casting — a journey into the past of northeastern Brazil’s city of Recife, told through excerpts from his own films and through primary-source footage of the city (and more importantly, its cinemas) and its evolution throughout the 20th (and early 21st) century. It’s hallucinatory, moody and a gift to anyone who fights to keep from screaming at the destruction of the past. Certainly, you’ll add seeing a film at the São Luiz to your bucket list. With a poster designed by Nashville’s own Sam Smith and an exceptional use of Herb Alpert’s “Rise” on the soundtrack. JASON SHAWHAN THROUGH MARCH 24 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
A Cë Gallery show isn’t your run-of-the-mill art exhibition. It is an event, a community rallying cry, a place to see and be seen. In Murmuration, gallery director Clarence Edward has assembled a flock of art that touches on the idea of black and lets the artists decide how to interpret it. More than 30 artists have contributed work to the show — some lauded and others still up-and-coming — including XPayne, Omari Booker, Michael Santoro, Carlton Wilkinson, Bill Nickels, Kendall Marie Allard, Chase Williamson and Ezell Franklin. The three-day exhibit will be hosted at The Forge, which gives attendees the opportunity to scope out the nonprofit’s makerspace and studios, as well as the rest of the State Gallery digs. Visit cegallery.co for tickets — it’s donation-based but worth every penny. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER MARCH 22-24 AT THE FORGE
217 WILLOW ST.
In the post-Jaws blockbusterification of American movies, every generation of moviegoers has had its foundation-shaking sci-fi/fantasy trilogy. The boomers saw Star Wars slam the door shut on the American New Wave, Gen X was able to put its cynical guard down for The Lord of the Rings, and Gen Z seems to be in the midst of its trilogy now with the Dune films. For us millennials, that trilogy was Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight series. Sure, other films had taken superheroes seriously or given them a bit of grit, but not with the level of craft or scope that Nolan infused into his Gotham. The Dark Knight, with its iconic Heath Ledger performance and Oscar-rules-changing Best Picture snub, is the iconic film of the trio, and Batman Begins is the one hipsters like to claim. But The Dark Knight Rises deserves its flowers
too. Somewhat lukewarmly received upon release, Rises is overstuffed, undercooked and a little silly, but I challenge you to watch that opening plane heist scene on an IMAX screen and not feel something stirring in your movieloving soul. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes for each film. LOGAN BUTTS
MARCH 22-24 AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Here’s a double shot of bona fide Nashville noisemaking for your Friday night: Badass country singer Nikki Lane headlines The Basement East with support from cool-as-ever honky-tonker Kaitlin Butts. Lane — a South Carolina-born, Nashville-based artist who boasts a résumé including collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Dropkick Murphys — steps onstage with a deep catalog of songs that weave vintage country with touches of rock ’n’ roll spirit. Newcomers need listen no further than her latest studio LP, the standout 2022 release Denim & Diamonds, for a taste of the rollicking fun that ensues when Lane hits the stage. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma-raised Kaitlin Butts takes to The Basement East in support of “Hunt You Down,” a clever country earworm that finds the singer backed by layers of twangy guitar, a well-placed shuffle beat and slick fiddle playing, singing: “I ain’t never hurt nobody, never buried a body, never killed no one. … Just know that if you fuck around, boy, I’ll hunt you down.” Here’s to hoping that it’s only the first page of a can’t-miss new chapter from this storyteller.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
MUSIC
[FRET FRIENDS AND PICKIN’ PALS] AMIGO GUITAR SHOW NASHVILLE
Attention guitar geeks! The Amigo Guitar Show Nashville is heading to Franklin for its 15th year, marking the return of one the nation’s most popular and fastest-growing shows in recent years. The two-day buy-selltrade exhibition sponsored by Vintage Guitar Magazine features new, used and rare guitars, amplifiers, effects pedals, audio gear and more. Attendees have the opportunity to shop their favorite vendors, chat with custom builders and gain insight from a plethora of artists.
Prominent industry leaders such as Martin, Gibson and Fender will also be on hand in promotion of their most current product lines. Insider tip: Six-string-slinger extraordinaire and East Nashville resident Guthrie Trapp is hosting an afterparty Saturday dubbed the East Side Guitar Hang at The Underdog starting at 10 p.m. An official list of special guests has yet to be announced at press time, but the lineup will surely be sensational, knowing Trapp’s network of talented friends.
JASON VERSTEGEN
10 A.M. AT WILLIAMSON COUNTY AG EXPO PARK
4215 LONG LANE, FRANKLIN
MARCH 21
SIERRA FERRELL WITH VADEN LANDERS
MARCH 31
BLUE OCTOBER
APRIL 26
LEFTOVER SALMON AND THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS WITH KITCHEN DWELLERS
APRIL 29
JUNE 4
NISSAN PRESENTS STARS FOR SECOND HARVEST ERNEST & FRIENDS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JUNE 13-JULY 25
SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS BLUEGRASS NIGHTS AT THE RYMAN
OCTOBER 27
BARENAKED LADIES WITH TOAD THE WET SPROCKET ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
If you’ve never experienced a performance from Intersection, you’re missing out on one of Nashville’s most unique contemporary music ensembles. Established by conductor Kelly Corcoran in 2014, Intersection is dedicated to challenging “the traditional concert experience” and often showcases exciting new works and performs in unusual venues. This Saturday is no exception, as the group presents Thin Spaces, a concert featuring three new works written especially for Intersection in honor of its 10th season. According to Celtic lore, thin places indicate where the space between heaven and earth narrows, allowing us to “connect with things beyond ourselves.” The program opens with Gary Powell Nash’s “Look for the Helpers,” which was inspired by the recent shootings at the Covenant School in Nashville and Michigan State University. Robbie Lynn Hunsinger’s “Pavane for Palestine” offers a musical response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. And Sungji Hong’s “Igerthi for Piano and Sinfonietta” (which takes its title from the Greek text for “He has risen”) was written specifically for pianist Jihye Chang with funds from Hong’s Guggenheim Fellowship. Presented at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Thin Places promises a meaningful celebration of new works — and our shared humanity. AMY STUMPFL
7:30 P.M. AT TRINITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 3201 HILLSBORO PIKE
FILM [EXIT SCREEN RIGHT]
PASSPORTS: AN INTERNATIONAL FILM SERIES: ABOUT DRY GRASSES
If you don’t feel like sitting through a lengthy saga about a pompous, toxic asshole, you might wanna steer clear of About Dry Grasses. Clocking in at a butt-numbing 3 hours and 17 minutes, the latest from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (The Wild Pear Tree) is about a teacher (Deniz Celiloğlu) who longs to leave the snowy, oppressive, Eastern Anatolia village where he works and resides to return to Istanbul, his former home. Along the way, he gets rightfully accused of behaving inappropriately with a student, passive-aggressively duels with his roommate over the affection of a prosthetic-leg-wearing teacher, and — in one
WTF moment — briefly dips out of the movie, walking past soundstage sets and crew just to use the bathroom. Basically, Ceylan has made a film about a guy who’s so self-centered, he can literally break the fourth wall and still be completely oblivious to it. But he also gives us a messy, maddening portrait of a man who has no idea how much of a product of his environment he truly is.
CRAIG D. LINDSEY
1:15 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Sheryl Crow — in case you missed it, that’s now Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sheryl Crow, thank you very much — celebrates the release of her new studio album Evolution with a one-night shindig in downtown Franklin. Crow enlisted Gallatin-based studio ace Mike Elizondo (known of late for producing Turnstile’s masterful hardcore album Glow On and the soundtrack to Disney mega-hit Encanto) to produce much of Evolution, due out March 29. The 10-track album features guitarist Tom Morello lending riffage for the title track and famed British frontman Peter Gabriel joining for a cover of his 1992 single “Digging in the Dirt.” The album marks Crow’s first since joining the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 as part of a class including Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine, Kate Bush and others. PBS plans to tape the Franklin Theatre performance for an upcoming special.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
8 P.M. AT THE FRANKLIN THEATRE
419 MAIN ST., FRANKLIN
SUNDAY / 3.24
MUSIC [FEAST FOR THE EARS]
OPERA ON TAP: SPRING FEVER
The next Opera on Tap event promises to bring “beating hearts, romantic frenzy, springtime madness.” Sounds ideal. If it feels out of place for an opera performance to be taking place at an Indian restaurant, well, that’s the whole point. The Nashville arm of this national organization seeks to introduce the art form to new listeners in a more casual way. It’s also a
Opening
HERBIE
LESLIE
BEETHOVEN’S
THE
LYLE
2024/25
CIGARS FROM A. Fuente
CIGARS FROM A. Fuente
Ashton CAO
Ashton CAO
Cohiba
Davidoff
Cohiba
Montecristo
Davidoff
Padron
Montecristo
Tatuaje
Padron
Tatuaje
Zino & Many More
BELLE MEADE PREMIUM CIGARS & GIFTS
Belle Meade Plaza
Zino & Many More Belle Meade Plaza
BELLE MEADE PREMIUM CIGARS & GIFTS
4518 Harding Road, Nashville, TN 615-297-7963
4518 Harding Road, Nashville, TN 615-297-7963
place for artists to collaborate. The fun they have together is palpable! While you probably won’t understand what they’re saying, the group does a great job of explaining the premise of the song, and of course the singer conveys the message with their performance. I was absolutely delighted by the group’s Crazy in Love event at Sid Gold’s Request Room and astounded by the physical feat that is operatic singing. They don’t even use microphones! This event is worth the trip to Bellevue (seriously, it’s not that far), and you can eat some great Indian food served by 615Chutney’s famous robot server while
HANNAH HERNERIt wouldn’t be right to say Tucker Riggleman and the Cheap Dates are taking Nashville by storm this weekend. The West Virginia altcountry band will burn The Cobra down, of course, but that’s just not the energy they bring. Riggleman has perfected the art of disaffected twangy punk through his solo work and his project Prison Book Club (whose illustrious alumni include John R. Miller and William Matheney). With their new album Restless Spirit, the Cheap Dates unleash their most confident work yet, featuring tales of heartbreak and a renewed dedication to the life of DIY musicians committed to their ideals. Openers include Big Jed’s Big Rigs and The Dangerous Method.
South America, Australia and more. Led by the renowned ballet couple Oleksandr Stoianov and Kateryna Kukhar — both premier dancers with the National Opera of Ukraine — the company has been based at the International Ballet Academy in Bellevue, Wash., since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On its current U.S. tour, the company will be at the Grand Ole Opry House this Sunday afternoon, presenting the beloved classic Giselle. Based on the legend by Heinrich Heine, Giselle tells the tragic tale of a poor peasant girl who falls in love with a handsome prince who’s disguised as a commoner and already engaged to be married. Technically demanding and emotionally rich, the celebrated work features the music of French composer Adolphe Adam and choreography by Marius Petipa, Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. What better way to experience a true classic of the ballet world while supporting the dedicated and resilient artists of Ukraine.
AMY STUMPFL
4 P.M. AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY HOUSE
600 OPRY MILLS DRIVE
MONDAY / 3.25
FILM [SIGHTS AND SOUNDS] MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: DAYS OF HEAVEN
The Grand Kyiv Ballet has been dazzling audiences for the past decade, performing throughout Europe, the United States, China,
Not only is Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven an enchanting, moving portrait of tenderness and unrequited love, but it is also one of the most visually beautiful films ever made. The film is lensed by cinematographer Néstor Almendros (who won an Oscar for his work on this film) and features additional photography from a young Haskell Wexler (a two-time Oscarwinning cinematographer himself). On top of that, it boasts not only unmatched visuals but a blockbuster cast led by Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and the incomparable Sam Shepard, not
WOOFSTOCK
3.15 AN EVENING WITH ALYSSA JACEY
3.16 DRAG BRUNCH
3.16 HBCU - PR EXPERIENCE PRESENTS: “HBCU & GREEK CELEBRATION” WITH SPECIAL GUEST MELVIN MILLER
3.16 NASHVILLE IMPROV COMEDY PRESENTS: MARCH MADNESS
3.17
LAURA JANE GRACE
BACKED BY MATT PATTON & MIKEY ERG WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THELMA AND THE SLEAZE AND DIKEMBE
GIVING GUITARS FOUNDATION
3.21 AN EVENING WITH INDIGENOUS
3.22 AN EVENING WITH PETER MULVEY
to mention an acclaimed soundtrack by Ennio Morricone . Much like the majority of Malick’s later features, Heaven relies primarily on its visuals and sparsely on dialogue, creating a transformative, totally immersive experience for the audience. It’s the type of film that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and the kind of film that once it is seen, is never forgotten. ROB HINKAL
3:40 P.M. AND 8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
TO THE METAL]
ARTS [COMMENCING COUNTDOWN, ENGINES ON] THE DISCO BALL
3.18
BENEFIT CONCERT FEATURING STEVEN CADE, BEN CALHOUN, SANDRA LEE & DANNY FALLIO
WOMEN WITH SOUL: CELEBRATING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH WITH SARAH
The Disco Ball is my kind of benefit. Pardon the dated SNL reference, but The Disco Ball really does have everything: drag, burlesque, a DJ set from Afrosheen, a request that guests dress in “Metallic Space Odyssey” attire, pop-up performances, booze — even bowling. And it’s all to benefit Kindling Arts, which has a track record of putting together some of Nashville’s most innovative productions — from The Naughty Tree to GENDERBEND: Poetry Into Film Collaborations to SEVEN: A Performance Film by Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva. And if all this wasn’t reason enough to attend and donate, The Disco Ball is on a Wednesday. Come on over — you know you don’t have anything else planned. Visit kindlingarts.com for more details. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
7-10 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508 GALLATIN PIKE
MUSIC [COUNTRY LIFE]
3.23 CITY OF LAUGHS PRESENTS JOSH PRAY (FEAT. J.MCNUTT) (2 SHOWS)
3.24 NASHVILLE BEATLES BRUNCH FT. FOREVER ABBEY ROAD AND FRIENDS
3.24 ERIC HAGEN WITH CLAIRE KELLY
3.24 WEBB WILDER
3.26
NINTH HOUR THE MUSICAL: A ROCK NOIR REIMAGINING OF THE EPIC POEM BEOWULF
3.27 JAKE BLOUNT
3.28 COMEDIAN DISCOVERY PRESENTS BRENDAN SAGALOW
3.28
3.29 AN EVENING OF NEW STANDUP WITH AL FRANKEN
3.29 AN EVENING WITH PIERRE BENSUSAN
Lower Broadway may have embraced pop-rock bands and rooftop DJs in recent years, but the key to Music City’s iconic country sound will forever lie in the lap of Nashville’s finest steel-guitar players. What’s “Hey, Good Lookin’” by Hank Williams without the signature steel stylings of Don Helms? And who would remember Alan Jackson’s “Remember When” without Lloyd Green’s performance? In celebration of the timeless slide instrument, the Nashville Steel Guitar Social Club — formed last year by local ace Neil Jones — convenes quarterly to circle up the steels and to host an open jam session backed by a top-notch band. Dancers, enthusiasts and players of all skill levels are welcome to join in on the fun. Surprise guest stars are also expected. One never knows who’s in town and looking for a good ol’ picking party. JASON VERSTEGEN
5 P.M. AT RAWHIDES
333 SWINGING BRIDGE ROAD, OLD HICKORY
MUSIC [THE RETURN OF THE NEVER ENDING TOUR] BOB DYLAN
APR 14 STARTS AT 2:00 PM
BOOK NOW! MAR 17 MAR 31
Wednesday through Sunday
Make a reservation now!
Bob Dylan brings the 2024 edition of his Never Ending Tour to Brooklyn Bowl Nashville for a pair of sold-out shows. Those fortunate enough to have scored a ticket can expect to see the living legend perform essentially the same career-spanning set he’s played for the past couple of years, with one or two exceptions. At the start of the 2024 tour, Dylan replaced “That Old Black Magic,” which he covered on 2016’s Fallen Angels, with Jimmy Rogers’ “Walking by Myself.” While he opens the current show with an early ’70s gem “Watching the River Flow,” it won’t be a night of greatest hits — more than half the material comes from his brilliant 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways The set also will include a song apiece from the three celebrated albums he recorded in Nashville in the mid- to late ’60s — Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. That’s not the tour’s only connection to Music City: Dylan’s current band features three Nashville cats — multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron and guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio. As one might expect, there will be no bowling either night at the venue. DARYL SANDERS
MARCH 26-27 AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.
In case you were wondering, I definitely listen to a fair bit of mainstream country these days. I try to hear it clearly — my ideological leanings are way over on the left, but there’s a strain of modern country that tempers its love of country life with the kind of hard-won wisdom that you can only get by living in the big, bad city. The March 27 installment of singer Ben Chapman’s multi-artist show Peach Jam features a crew of what you might call exponents of quasimainstream country. I’m a fan of the Kentuckyborn singer and songwriter Elvie Shane, whose new album Damascus is an immaculately produced and performed look at how living in the pressure cooker of the New New South can, well, screw you up. Producer Oscar Charles gives Shane a deep, ominous sound that’s as innovative as anything I hear in mainstream country, and the songwriting — check out something titled “215634” — matches the sonics. Meanwhile, Chapman channels the Grateful Dead and the eternal verities of hippie country on his 2022 release Make the Night Better. The shadow of novelty country hangs over Corey Smith’s 2023 album Suburban Drawl, which includes two songs about the allure of football. You can hear traces of 1970s soul on Dee White’s 2019 full-length Southern Gentleman, and Dan Auerbach and David Ferguson’s production gives tunes like “Rose of Alabam” a pop-country sheen. Rounding out the bill is South Carolinaborn singer Ashland Craft, whose 2021 album Travelin’ Kind combines Southern rock and soul.
EDD HURT
8 P.M. AT
1604
BMI AND SLIM & HUSKY’S PRESENT
Six One Trïbe is pioneering the new sound of modern hip-hop and rap, bringing together classic emcee flows and modern pop-trap crooning over soulful, lush production, creating something wholly original The Trïbe showcases dozens of rappers, singers, musicians, and visual artists who embody the Nashville culture.
M A R 23 DOORS: 7 PM SHOW: 8 PM
GA: $20 RESERVED: $35
Thursday April 4 | Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum | 5:30 VIP / 6:00 General Admission
We’re turning up the heat on this year’s Iron Fork event — we’re adding in TWO NEW chefs to the all-star lineup!
3 Past Champions + 2 New Recruits + 1 Secret Ingredient = The ULTIMATE #IronFork Chef Competition .
Island Fin Poke
Jasper’s
JWB Grille
Las Palmas Lyra
Marsh House
O-Ku Sushi
Ricey & Co Sushi
Slide Hustle
Tee Line
TENN
Tennessee Cobbler Co
Thai Esane
The Overlook Oak Steakhouse
The Restaurant
THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE Bad Idea in East Nashville. The church sanctuary turned wine-focused bar and restaurant serves Lao cuisine and is open until 1 a.m. seven nights a week. Whether you’re visiting the bar for a quick drink and bite, sitting down for a full meal or swinging by for a nightcap, Bad Idea is proving to be an exciting stop to any kind of evening.
The space itself is gorgeous. Dining areas flank a horseshoe-shaped bar in the center of the room. There’s a sofa-strewn lounge for light snacking and sipping, and a balcony level with dining tables overlooks the space. The earthy wooden tones are complemented by lush plants and an occasional pop of color. The playfulness of the design represents the overall tone of the
restaurant — refined but approachable.
“We want to execute certain things at a high level, but then also know where to relax and have a good time, not take anything too seriously,” says founder Alex Burch, who opened the restaurant in October
Burch has garnered a stellar reputation in Nashville as an advanced sommelier. He helped develop the wine programs for Strategic Hospitality restaurants including Bastion and Henrietta Red. Wanting to channel that expertise into his own venture, Burch decided to open Bad Idea — it was a long process, which Scene contributor Chris Chamberlain chronicled for us in 2022. The restaurant’s wine menu is (unsurprisingly) extensive, with an impressive array of
by-the-glass options.
“[We] try to put a lot of focus into the wine list and how it’s formatted to be easy to understand,” says Burch.
Should you need assistance navigating the options, you can lean on Bad Idea’s knowledgeable staff to provide recommendations — but don’t expect a strong emphasis on pairings.
“It’s not something we really offer,” says executive chef Colby Rasavong, a StarChefs Rising Stars Award winner who has worked in renowned kitchens including Audrey, Husk and Tailor. “That’s the part of fine dining that we kinda want to leave behind. This style of eating and drinking is, grab a bottle of wine over some food and just enjoy the space, enjoy the people
you’re with.”
The same philosophy applies to Rasavong’s food, which is inspired by his Lao heritage and family recipes. “I want familiarity of the dishes,” says Rasavong. “They may not be words on the menu you understand, but if you eat it, you can kind of think back to something that you’ve had before.”
Featuring small plates and shareable main courses, the menu provides opportunities to try several dishes each meal. Those dining at the bar or sitting in the lounge will see a different, lighter menu (though the bar also serves the full menu), and there’s also a late-night menu on offer from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Throughout March, the kitchen has hosted Sunday night pop-ups
Because Nashville is so much more than honky-tonks and bachelorettes...
featuring chefs like Tailor’s Vivek Surti, Fox Den Izakaya’s Tillman Gressitt and Iggy’s Ryan Poli. On March 24, the restaurant will host St. Vito Focacceria’s Michael Hanna
The Scene sat down for a truly memorable meal at Bad Idea on a recent Wednesday night. We ordered the nam khao croquettes, a crunchy bite featuring flavors like coconut, seaweed, apples and a Lao tomato sauce called jeow mak len. The croquettes are sweet, savory and punctuated with spices. The scallop-stuffed crêpe is served with a beautifully creamy nam prik blanquette and topped with a lace tuile that adds a striking visual element and a crunchy texture to the soft dish.
noodle soup unlike any I’ve ever tasted. The broth was incredibly rich and savory, with an almost gravy-like consistency that thoroughly coats each noodle.
For dessert, try the durian and caramelized milk mille-feuille. Durian, known in some Asian cultures as the king of fruits, is also known for its pungent, not-so-pleasant odor, which can be hard for many to overcome. But chef Rasavong uses fat from cream to neutralize the aroma so you’re left with nothing but the delicious, tropical-flavored filling nestled between layers of flaky pastry.
The poulet rouge, a course featuring chicken three ways, is the main event. First comes the sai oua, an aromatic, Lao-style chicken sausage served with chili oil and a garlic and ginger condiment that tastes great with anything. Then there’s the thom khem, a soy-caramel-braised chicken breast served with rice and an egg. While the chicken breast has a sweetness to it, it’s not a sweet dish — it’s salty and tender with a hint of warming spices. Finally, there’s the khao piak, a Lao-style chicken noodle soup featuring Proper Sake kasu noodles — a chicken
“This restaurant has been just finding myself,” says Rasavong. “Growing up as a first-generation [immigrant], you’re so lost in the world. You don’t really meld in the American diasporic culture, because that’s not who you are. But then you’re also growing up in America, so you don’t really fit into the traditional version of where your family’s from either. And it’s been so exciting to see — like in theater and writing — all these Asian American people really thriving in this moment. And people are loving it and enjoying it and being accepting of it. Which gave me the confidence to even want to cook this food.” ▼
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TURN TO THE BACK of any novel, and you will find the acknowledgments page. Here is the author’s gratitude to those who have shaped the book — writing groups, first readers, agents, editors. Here too are the author’s thanks to friends and loved ones, with the last words usually considered the place of highest honor. Consider then how Vanderbilt master’s alum Claire Jiménez closes the acknowledgments of her debut novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez: “And to my sisters for kicking my ass and keeping me honest. Thank you for making me laugh. This book is for you.”
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez opens with a similar sort of acknowledgment: a brief sketch of the Ramirez family, Puerto Rican and proud of their Staten Island home. The youngest, Nina, describes them. She starts with teenage Eddie and Dolores getting married in 1981, with eldest Jessica already on the way. “Two years later draw Ruthy in pencil, lightly, because you’re going to need to erase her in a couple of minutes,” Nina quips, a jarringly light comment in the face of “the hole in the middle of the timeline” — the day 13-year-old Ruthy never comes home after track practice.
This introduction provides some of the consequences of that tragedy: the death of Eddie, the health crisis of Dolores. But it glosses over the impact on the sisters, leaving that story to unfold over the course of the book. The chapters are mostly given to Nina and Jessica, weaving the present day with their memories of the events surrounding Ruthy’s disappearance. The use of multiple narrators proves a clever choice by Jiménez, giving the narrative the same fire and pace as a heated exchange between siblings. Interrupting their banter are occasional chapters from Ruthy herself, written in third
person and gradually meting out the details of the day she went missing. Also present is Dolores, with her sections written as an extended conversation with God, albeit one laced with profanity and snark.
For years, Jessica has been taking care of Dolores while Nina pursues a degree in biology and keeps her distance. After graduating with no medical school prospects, Nina returns home to face her family with all its drama and obligations. When the two sisters think they see Ruthy on a trashy reality TV program (called Catfight), Nina is skeptical. Jessica’s certainty eventually wears her down, and before long they are making plans to go find Ruthy.
On one level, this book is a fast-paced, engrossing mystery. Readers will be pulled along, anxious to find out if the woman on the TV is, in fact, the long-lost sister. But the title doesn’t have a question mark. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is less of a question and more of an answer to a different kind of question — one about the complexities of sisterhood and identity.
Spurred by their desire to find their sister, Nina and Jessica get sucked in by Catfight, an exploitative program in which young women move into a shared house with the expectation that they will fight. When they do, the loser is sent packing. Though these women choose to be on the show, the limitations of their agency are clear as their bodies are objectified, their identities flattened, and their anger rendered nothing more than spectacle. Nina knows all this and asks, “Whose design was it to choreograph such violence between these women, who was really in charge, and why could I not stop watching?”
Under the snappy dialogue and ferocity of the Ramirez women’s search lie all the things that haunt them and women like them: discrimina-
tion, lack of opportunity, societal expectations, abuse. Nina and Jessica, like women everywhere, have no real place to put their rage, so they often direct it at each other, just like the girls on Catfight. It’s the reason the sisters cheer at the girl on the screen getting dragged across the floor by her extensions. “Because,” Nina explains, “we were angry, angry that Ruthy’d been gone, angry for what might have or might not have happened to her, or to our mother, or to our father or to us — if in reality Ruthy had decided to stay or if she had not been taken.”
When the characters finally confront the cast of Catfight, readers will understand the depth of sisterhood — the way it can embolden and break us, build us up, or tear us down. It is our sisters who make us who we are. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez has happened to all of us, in different ways across every generation, and the magic of Jiménez’s tremendous debut is that it never stands on a righteous soapbox, yet the message is clear, down to the last word of the acknowledgments.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
By Claire JiménezGrand Central Publishing
256 pages, $17.99
Jiménez will appear as part of Vanderbilt’s Visiting Writers Series 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at 101 Buttrick Hall
BETH ORTON with SAM AMIDON
WMOT Roots Radio Presents Finally Fridays feat. THE EMPTY POCKETS, MEG GEHMAN & DARRIN BRADBURY
RESURRECTION: A Journey Tribute
Backstage Nashville Daytime Hit Songwriters Show feat. DAVID MALLOY, MARK IRWIN, RAY STEPHENSON & THE DRYES + JULIA HUTCHINSON & SCOTT SOUTHWORTH
FAB NASHVILLE A Beatles Tribute
HOGSLOP STRING BAND
”With A Little Help From His Friends” feat. JOHN COWAN, BILL LLOYD, JACK SUNDRUD, MICHAEL KELASH, ANDY PEAKE, DAVE POMEROY, REGINA MCCRARY & Special Guests. A FUNDRAISER FOR BILL HALVERSON
THE MINKS WITH THE LOVE-IN + REALITY SOMETHING (Solo)
Bluebird on 3rd feat. DYLAN ALTMAN, BRICE LONG & MARSHALL ALTMAN with BECCA RAE & ZACH MEADOWS
THE TIME JUMPERS
Music On The Move feat. THUNDER & RAIN BAND, AMANDA MCCARTHY, BARIE & SARAH LAKE Hosted by ERIN MCLENDON & THE HELLCATS
JEDD HUGHES w/ THE DANBERRYS with Surprise Guests
3/28 FIGHTER FEST
3/29 EAST NASH GRASS WITH BRENNEN LEIGH
3/30 GUILTY PLEASURES
3/31 SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS WITH MALI VELASQUEZ
4/1 BLUEBIRD ON 3RD 4/1 THE TIME JUMPERS
4/2-4/5 TIN PAN SOUTH SONGWRITER FESTIVAL
4/6 PAT MCLAUGHLIN BAND
4/7 LOCKELAND STRINGS FEAT. NATALIE PRASS, CAITLIN ROSE, JOHANNA SAMUELS & LYDIA LUCE
4/9 HEADCOUNT 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH DEEOHGEE, PIPER & THE HARD TIMES & MORE!
4/10 EMILY WEST 4/11 BACKSTAGE AT 3RD: RHETT MCDANIEL 4/11 GRADY SPENCER & THE WORK WITH VINNIE PAOLIZZI
4/12 THE FLOATING MEN SOLD OUT!
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4/14 THE FLOATING MEN SOLD OUT!
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917 Woodland Street Nashville, TN 37206 | thebasementnashville.com basementeast thebasementeast thebasementeast
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taylor acorn w/ World's First Cinema mannequin pussy w/ Soul Glo rare hare 19: the history of heavy metal alice phoebe lou w/ sam burton
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soft kill w/ Gumm and Liberty & Justice dylan leblanc w/ airpark
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birdtalker w/ Michael Logen
the secret sisters
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rock & roll playhouse: The music of dolly parton for kids (12PM)
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Liana Vine & Overlook (7pm)
lenox hills w/ Wim Tapley & The Cannons (9pm) leah burns w/ peaceful (7pm) scott collins w/ retrograde (9pm)
david devaul (7pm)
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The Collection ft. kristian Bush, Anastasia Elliot, and AJ Smith (9pm) candi carpenter (7pm)
SPRING IS IN THE AIR, and recent releases from Nashville musicians are filling up the inbox and the racks at record shops near and far. The Scene’s music writers have seven new recommendations for you. Add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite record store. Many of our picks are also available to buy directly from the artists on Bandcamp, whose Bandcamp Friday promotion — in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — comes back on April 5
Dante Williamson’s latest nicely mixes elements from different idioms — running the gamut from hip-hop to R&B to emo rock — into an entertaining, often very engaging and delightful presentation. His lyrical focus is as broad as his musical menu, with songs like “Shelby Park 2” offering a wistful, evocative stroll down memory lane as opposed to “Old Friends?” about evaluating relationships with the benefit of hindsight, or the emotionally intense opener “Anxiety!” Williamson can be equally compelling as a crafty rapper, a reflective observer and a suggestive romanticist, and Away proves both an ambitious and an accomplished EP. RON WYNN
Jess Awh, the belletristic engine of Bats, has leveled up quite a bit since 2022’s Blue Cabinet The result is Good Game, Baby, in which Awh
The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from Dante Williamson, Bats, The Robe and more
further sharpens her bootgazey introspections against the whetstone of Nashville and its environs. “Tell me the truth, tell me that you’ve grown,” Awh sings in “Oh My God” — it’s like a measured retort to the snarling chorus of “Like a Rolling Stone” nearly 60 years later, the acrimony of that time displaced by contemporary dissociations. The song has a Woolfian denouement that I don’t want to spoil for you here. Go crank this album in your beat-up car and drive west on Charlotte toward the sunset, and you’ll hear it soon enough.
CLAIRE STEELE
Don McGreevy’s Insouciance is a lively bit of postmodernist program music that references Celtic rock and folk along with the dark expressionism of European prog. McGreevy grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and spent two decades in Seattle, where he played bass with doom-prog-folk band Earth for a couple of albums. Insouciance documents McGreevy’s work between 2017 and 2020; the multi-instrumentalist and composer moved to Nashville in fall 2022. Insouciance tracks like “The Equity of Knowing and Sharing” and “Amidst a Jejune Bloom” register as art rock that bears traces of Popul Vuh’s hushed pastoralism and John Fahey-Robbie Basho-style guitar moves, combining New Age tropes with touches of soundtracks by masters such as John Barry and Ennio Morricone. EDD HURT
The FBR take their name from the Leonard Cohen song “Famous Blue Raincoat,” and while the group led by Malarie McConaha and Tim Hunter began as an acoustic project, their debut is not in any sense a singer-songwriter record. A half-century ago, Ghost probably would have been considered Southern rock, and there is a retro vibe to the album, but that speaks mostly to its timeless sound and the authenticity of the performances. Lead vocalist and lead guitarist McConaha has a powerful, soulful and alluring voice, and her inspired singing on the material mostly written by
On the title track of their debut album Raidho, Nashville trio Dead Runes blends elements of stoner, doom and prog metal across a nearly nine-minute musical odyssey. Even at its most ferocious, the song’s general vibe remains enchanting. Album closer “Sea Tripper” navigates similar waters, but with more progrock riffs and added psychedelic undercurrents. Those are but two of several warlocks’ brews of metal subgenres on the eight-song offering. When the band cranks up the tempo, as they do on the lightning-propelled “Allfathers Path” and “Different Stars,” they follow a brutal yet catchy path in step with The Sword and Mastodon. “Iron Song” strikes a balance between doom dirge and heavy-metal thunder when singer-guitarist Hunter East’s best work in both roles slices through the hotboxed haze. ADDIE MOORE
Some musicians first fall in love with music when they pick up an old guitar wasting away in a closet; for others, piano lessons become more than an obligation to appease eager parents. For Patrick Sansone, it was hours of experimenting on his own time with secondhand synthesizers he got his hands on as a teenager in the 1980s.
From there, he’s had decades of music-making, including writing and performing with Wilco, composing and performing Mellotron Variations with John Medeski, Jonathan Kirkscey and Robby Grant, and producing for a slew of artists. March 1, he released his first solo record Infinity Mirrors — a collection of six meditative synthesizer pieces that bring his long and rich musical journey full-circle. BEN ARTHUR
In the two years since Soccer Mommy released Sometimes, Forever, the musicians involved in Sophie Allison’s project have been on the road for long stretches. But now that touring has slowed down, side projects are emerging; guitarist Julian Powell dropped the first LP from his project mg in the fall, and every month this year, there’s been a new pair of tracks from The Robe, aka drummer Rollum Haas (aided and abetted onstage by his wife Katie Haas). He emphasizes rhythm, with a lot of electronic percussion, synth melodies and treated guitar; the compositions have a lot of space in them but don’t feel severe or bleak, even when the narratives aren’t happy. Strong synth-pop and disco influences shine through on the latest digital single, “I Could Stay” backed with “The Last Dancer.” Both songs are thoughtful (and danceable) looks at relationships the narrator is loath to leave, despite recognizing how unhealthy they are. STEPHEN TRAGESER ▼
For fans of one of rock ’n’ roll’s greatest songwriters, guitarists and all-purpose appreciators of everything cool in the world of pop, Crenshaw’s recollections of the heady days of four decades ago ring true. Upon the release of his 1982 self-titled debut album, Crenshaw was recognized as a master of guitar pop whose work uncannily evoked the verities of the mid-’60s in an era when rock was being scrutinized under the lens of New Wave and punk.
Crenshaw’s first album and the follow-up, 1983’s Field Day, are the Detroit-born singer’s reworking of ’60s songcraft and rhythm-guitar finesse in a form that fans of experimental pop can appreciate — which means the albums share a sonic palette that gets more ominous on Field Day. For Crenshaw, who had already scored via Robert Gordon’s 1981 version of his song “Someday, Someway” and his own rendering of tunes like “Mary Anne” on the debut album, Field Day was his shot at making a futuristic album with the most basic of setups.
“The whole album is really just one guitar, bass and drums and then a few overdubs,” he says of the LP, which was produced by Steve Lillywhite. “I shouldn’t even say a few — it’s just a spare number of overdubs, but yet it sounds
kinda monumental.”
Indeed, Marshall Crenshaw and Field Day now sound like slightly different aspects of the same approach, with Field Day an exemplary sampling of Crenshaw’s artistry as a brilliant guitarist and innovative songwriter. Crenshaw recently regained control of the rights to the
Jake Blount’s The New Faith is both brilliant parable and brutally honest document
BY SEAN L. MALONEYPLEASE FORGIVE ME for being so late in the record cycle on Jake Blount’s The New Faith, but I was in a fugue state. It wrapped up *checks watch* just about now and started around the time the Providence, R.I.-based string-band wizard and musicologist dropped this intense work of multimodal storytelling. Released in September 2022, The New Faith was recorded during the early days of COVID lockdown. On the album, Blount grafts spirituals and other historic musical forms (including hip-hop, the musical language of our era in history) to a futuristic narrative, capturing the close-miked claustrophobia of the times in the process.
Not that I am champing at the bit to revisit the “shaking in the corner” years, but if I have to confront that trauma, Blount’s sparse, elegant arrangements are the way to do it. The New Faith is equal parts intense, uncomfortable and beautiful. It’s acoustic and electric, spoken and sung, intimate despite its story being told from a perspective outside the subjects of its narrative. Listening to the record in spring 2024, four years after the shit hit the fan, I think we need to start preserving and curating the music created during society’s shutdown. That includes but isn’t limited to collecting records from labels like Smithsonian Folkways, home to The New Faith.
If bedroom records are the new music of the people — the culture that underpins commercial culture, the “anybody can do it, everybody is doing
two albums, as well as to other work he did in the ’80s, and he curated the 2023 Yep Roc reissues of both records.
I think Field Day sounds better than ever in the remastered version on the reissue — the guitars move even more hypnotically than before. Crenshaw was often characterized in the ’80s as
it” form of music for the 21st century — then we have a moral imperative to collect songs before they are shoved down our collective memory hole. And while I understand the impulse to just, ahem, wash our hands of the whole COVID experience — I get it, I’m over it too — The New Faith and its brethren represent a really important moment in how we create and consume art.
The arc of recorded music has always bent toward greater isolation — think cylinders to cassettes to earbuds — and the era when we achieved absolute isolation should be poked, prodded and studied while the psychic wounds are still fresh. I worry that our reliance on the tech industry means the entire global COVID experience will be reduced to a TikTok of some hack comic doing crowd work about horse pills. Someone needs to preserve our collective freakout, and it won’t be Meta or the finance bros who are buying up media companies and stripping them for parts like some sort of Silicon Valley Jawas.
On The New Faith, Blount delivers dramatic narratives about humanity’s tendency toward self-destruction — the track “Parable” would make a great elevator pitch for a miniseries — with a steady hand and calm voice, counterbalanced by the tension in his string drones and broken-up guitar tones. Blount’s speculative visions of dystopia and his steadfast interpretation of songs forged in America’s most horrific epochs capture and countermand the horrors happening beyond his four walls, without ever mentioning the infernal, interminable COVID pandemic even once.
People who create music will be processing the pandemic for years to come. But from here on out, we’re likely to see a spiral of revisions and sanitations, with each retelling getting further from the truth and closer to myth. That makes albums like The New Faith, created in the moment and brutally honest, all the more impressive and important as the years roll on.
a retro rocker, but Field Day puts the lie to that notion. It’s a masterpiece of concision, as you can hear on “Monday Morning Rock.” Crenshaw toys with the usual notions of songwriting in the tune; its bridge is an instrumental key change, anchored by the sparest of guitar licks, that Crenshaw announces by singing, “Key change!”
Elsewhere on Field Day, the chorus of “Our Town” dovetails into a bridge that seems preordained, while Crenshaw simply lays out to play part of the chorus of “Whenever You’re on My Mind” on guitar. The album integrates Crenshaw’s structural — and never overstated — guitar playing into the songwriting itself. Field Day is a classic that combines elements of the British Invasion with the techniques of Jim Webb, Carole King and many others into a style that’s immediately recognizable.
Crenshaw turned 70 last year, and he tells me he’s staying busy. He’s putting together a documentary film about famed ’50s and ’60s record producer Tom Wilson, who worked with Cecil Taylor, The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention. His recent music — check out his 2022 cover of “A Big Hunk o’ Love,” which Elvis Presley released in 1959, and his great 2015 version of The Easybeats’ sinister “Made My Bed, Gonna Lie in It” — might make a case for some kind of eternal youth only he can tell you about. ▼
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JENNY LEWIS took the stage March 13 at the Ryman for the homecoming stop on her Joy’All Ball Tour wearing a black leather catsuit against a bold red backdrop. The scene was reminiscent of Elvis’ famous 1968 comeback special. But unlike Presley, who was coming back from a seven-year break from live performance, Lewis never left.
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Lewis has been on tour for her fifth solo album Joy’All since the summer. Some of us were lucky enough to catch her at Eastside Bowl in June for the release party, or at Bonnaroo the day after. And some of us were even luckier to have caught her at the Ryman in 2016 during the 10year anniversary show for her beloved Watson Twins collaboration Rabbit Fur Coat Nashville singer-songwriter Logan Ledger kicked the show off. As he noted on Instagram, it was his first time playing the Ryman. Sporting a Marty Robbins mustache and an all-white getup, Ledger played a 30-minute set with a six-person band that included drummer Jamie Dick, whom you’ll remember from early 2010s Nashville band Tommy and the Whale, as well as a second bassist playing tic-tac style along with the guitar. Appropriately enough, considering his recent album is called Golden State, the sound was Bakersfield by way of Laurel Canyon.
“Thanks to Jenny Lewis for changing my life,” said the next performer Hayden Pedigo as he explained his journey overcoming stage fright and Lewis taking a chance on him. A solo instrumental guitarist from Amarillo, Texas, Pedigo made up for his lack of vocals with banter. At the top of his 40-minute set, Pedigo explained that his songs are long and have lots of pauses, so to avoid confusion, he’d say “It’s over” when it was time to clap. He wrapped up with a cover of the theme from Brokeback Mountain and a sincere plea to not let stage fright keep you from following your dreams.
After a short break, the lights went down and the curtains opened to the telltale guitar strumming of “The Big Guns.” I was expecting Lewis to begin with Joy’All opener “Psychos” like she did at Eastside Bowl. I was not emotionally or spiritually prepared for the wave of nostalgia that hit me when I realized she was starting the show flanked by The Watson Twins, belting out a song from Rabbit Fur Coat
“Psychos” came next, and the Watsons stayed to sing along before heading backstage for a while. “Welcome to the Joy’All Ball,” Lewis said as she launched into “Do Si Do” from 2019’s On the Line, followed by “She’s Not Me” from 2014’s The Voyager
Lewis was backed by an all-female band made up of bassist Ryan Madora, guitarist and steel player Nicole Lawrence, keyboardist Jess Nolan and drummer Megan Coleman. The camaraderie between them radiated off the stage, escalating further when Lewis brought Nolan to the front of the stage, where they sang Girls’
“Lust for Life” (not to be confused with the Iggy Pop song of the same name).
Later, after Joy’All standout “Cherry Baby,” Lewis talked about how special it was to make that album with producer Dave Cobb in historic RCA Studio A on Music Row. She also spoke about how, back in 2005, she didn’t think she had what it took to be a solo artist. Starting to cry, she told us how everything turned around when she met The Watson Twins.
“Old enough to vote, but not old enough to drink,” said Lewis, referring to Rabbit Fur Coat, which was released 18 years ago in January. The Watsons returned to the stage for three more songs from that landmark album: “Rise Up With Fists!!,” “You Are What You Love” and “Melt Your Heart.” As the twins made their way back to the wings, Lewis said, “This is going great, I just have to say, to be honest.” Then someone from the crowd shouted “Modelo!” and Lewis held up the can resting on her Wurlitzer side tray and blessed the crowd to uproarious applause.
I was 30 years old when Rabbit Fur Coat came out, and I felt untethered as I watched everyone around me get engaged, get married and start families. I couldn’t even hold a job, and I definitely couldn’t convince my 25-year-old boyfriend that he was old enough to propose. And then came Jenny Lewis with songs about love, heartbreak and not having all of the answers. She became my blueprint for getting out there and being who I am.
As the show wound down, the focus shifted, deservedly, to Lewis’ famed pup Bobby Rhubarb, who is the subject of crowd favorite “Puppy and a Truck.” I’ve never seen such a massive group of people give an enthusiastic thumbs-up in unison. Lewis segued into “See Fernando” and we knew we had reached the end of the show because crew members clad in all black came out from backstage and tossed enormous helium balloons emblazoned with Bobby Rhubarb’s face into the crowd. Joy’All, indeed.
After a brief pause, Lewis returned to begin the encore without her band, but with assists from Pedigo and Ledger on “Silver Lining.” The band came back onstage for “Just One of the Guys” and “Love Feel,” and then The Watson Twins joined in on “Acid Tongue,” the final song of the night. Before the curtains closed, the whole ensemble came to the front of the stage to sing us out, taking their final bow as the curtains closed. ▼
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THE GHOSTBUSTERS ARE BACK in business, and Annie Potts is taking calls.
The Nashville-born performer made her mainstream breakthrough as the Ghostbusters’ unforgettable secretary in the era-defining franchise of the same name. Janine Melnitz was an instant fan favorite thanks to her dry wit and no-nonsense attitude — a perfect role for Potts. She’ll reprise her role in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, hitting theaters everywhere this week, as the originals and a new generation of Ghostbusters unite to save the world from a second ice age.
“You need the next gen to pass the baton to,” Potts tells the Scene. “What the new film does so deftly is marry the new Ghostbusters to the OGs. It is one more step to not having the OGs, but I’m sure they want to make this an ongoing franchise, and it’s what they have to do. It’s in really good hands.”
Part of the appeal for bringing back the surviving original Ghostbusters — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, all of whom appeared in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife as well — was to pass the torch to the new cast in a meaningful way. The 2021 film was directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, son of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman.
Though Gil Kenan directed this year’s film, the younger Reitman did return as co-writer.
Potts has had the privilege of being part of another franchise that has now spanned generations and appeals to fans of all ages, as the voice of Bo Peep in the Toy Story films.
“In both cases, they reinvented in such a way that it keeps the audience coming,” she says. “People love to take their children because it was also their generation. That’s kind of unusual — there are only a handful of products out there that would continue to give that.”
The original Ghostbusters movies were a huge phenomenon that took the world by storm.
Potts compares the cultural impact of 1984’s Ghostbusters and 1989’s Ghostbusters II to that of Taylor Swift today, and recalls a moment shooting the first film’s iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scene in New York City.
“We had to stop traffic, and it was 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon,” she says. “They put us in an apartment building there [in Central Park West], as they couldn’t get actors’ trailers, and you could see all the way down. … Manhattan became gridlocked.
“Most of the time that would make Manhattaners really mad,” Potts continues. “But because it was Ghostbusters they were like, ‘Dude, it’s Ghostbusters, come on!’ To be forgiven for such a traffic snarl on a Friday in Manhattan gives you an idea of our popularity.”
Potts recalls feelings of “serious déjà vu” when stepping through the doors of the firehouse on the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire set.
“You remember all the bric-a-brac on the staircase and the tiles, it was done to perfection,” she says. “Even the notes on the desk — I had stationery that had my name on it. It was crazy but beautiful, that kind of detail is such a marvel and so welcome to actors.”
“We have been doing the same film for 40 years,” Potts says of working again with Aykroyd, Murray and Hudson. “We all fall back into each other’s company as if it was 1984.”
Potts is known for her theater background — a contrast from SNL alumni Aykroyd and Murray.
“I don’t like improvisation, especially when the script is good!” she says. “They liked to play, and sometimes I was invited in on that. It’s fun to play in their world. Danny and Bill were always working and improving it. If an idea could be better, they would come up with something. It’s a very live way to work.
“Sometimes it was a little hard to keep up,” she continues. “It’d be like, ‘If you change that and say that, what am I supposed to say?’ It’s a little funny, but I come to play too!”
The topic of Potts’ friend and collaborator John Candy comes up. March marked the 30th anniversary of the death of the celebrated comedian, who was initially approached for the role of Louis Tully. The part ultimately went to Candy’s fellow SCTV alum Rick Moranis.
“John Candy was the sweetest man on the planet,” says Potts, who appeared in 1989’s
ARTHOUSE FILMS focused on the ties that connect humanity are a dime a dozen. But there’s nothing out there with the aim or methodology of Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos, whose new film Here takes the approach from an earthy perspective, allowing the viewer the chance to observe, as a scientist would, the recursive
Who’s Harry Crumb? with the late actor. “Just absolutely lovely. He was funny, sweet and always concerned about everybody else. On the set he would be like, ‘Are you having fun? Did you eat? Did you like the script?’”
In 2022, on her 70th birthday, Potts launched The Heart Channels — a charity organization that identifies ways to offer aid directly to those in need. She helps fund the charity in part by donating all the proceeds from her Cameo account — where she takes requests and can even deliver personalized lines as Janine or Bo Peep.
“There is so much need,” says Potts. “My best friend and I said that we needed to set something up so we could continue to help people
connections that kindness and curiosity fuel among weird little organisms like us.
Perhaps you’re not intrigued by flirtation from the moss’s point of view, but in this delicate dance between two people — doctoral student/restaurant part-timer Shuxiu (Liyo Gong) and construction worker Stefan (Stefan Gota) — we’re granted perspectives not usually offered in human interaction. Long the site of “through” or “across” for the European continent, Belgium here is the space where we see the rituals of life in a way that is somehow both earthily trippy and dizzyingly romantic, cultures meshing and what could be romance flourishing with the eye we use for looking through microscopes. The chaos engine of soaked shoes; the network
in a formal way. We are helping some Afghani families, and we are helping put a young woman through college who is academically gifted but wouldn’t be able to go otherwise.
“I love it. We make it very personal and we are very small. A couple of weeks ago, my friend, who I oversee the charity with, was in the ER with one of our family members who needed our help and didn’t speak English. We are there when they need us, quite literally.” ▼
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire PG-13, 115 minutes
Opening wide Friday, March 22
created by homemade soup and a generous spirit. This is a remarkable film to be discussed in austere labs and on the softest of sheets, a gift that maps the world and tickles the fancy from the subatomic on up. ▼
Here
NR, 82 minutes; in French, Romanian, Chinese and Dutch with English subtitles Showing March 22-26 at the Belcourt
Across
1 Throw in
4 Not fixable, as an error
9 Group whose full name translates as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”
12 Hit or miss, perhaps
14 It makes you “dance down the street with a cloud at your feet,” in a 1953 hit
15 Red ___ (serving at a Carolina barbecue)
16 People also known as the Cat Nation
17 Powered down, in a way
18 “The pause that refreshes” sloganeer, once
19 Disturb, in a way
21 Bill supporting public television
22 Told where to go, say
23 Use X-ray vision on
25 Graceful
27 Make love?
28 So-called “missing links”
29 Chignon, for one
31 In the past
32 Risky wager ... with a hint to the letters in this puzzle’s circled squares
41 State in debate
42 Phenomenon nicknamed “Karl” in San Francisco
43 Biblical site of a burning bush
44 Soft rock
45 Doctor for kids
47 Cleans (up)
48 Olympic champion who said he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River
49 Garden party annoyance, colloquially
51 Spider web, effectively
52 Part of a pen name?
53 Philanthropy
55 Characteristic of video poker, lottos and casinos
59 Results of some dating app matches
63 Hoodwink
64 Fat substitute
65 Second of five?
66 Totally pumped Down
1 Disinclined
2 Response to “Merci”
3 Sat on a clothesline, say 4 This too shall pass 5 Kind of acid
6 ___ gun
7 Dizzy
8 Was up 9 Flower
10 “I want to go with you!”
11 Nation with a four-century “Viking Age”
13 Controvert
15 Italian apology
20 Permit
22 Hundos
24 Approved on PolitiFact, say
26 Speaker of the line “I follow him to serve my turn upon him”
30 Landlord-pays-broker, in rental lingo
31 Existential unease
32 Word with bank or base
33 Not written
34 Jamaican tangelo
35 N.F.C. South pro
36 Degenerate
37 Meaning of the Italian “lui” or German “ihn”
38 Aware of
39 Part of yourself that you can’t see without two mirrors
40 Essence
45 Careened across snow, maybe
46 Sleek ocean swimmers
49 Broke one’s silence
50 Life of ___
52 Impressive showbiz quartet
54 CD component
55 “Windowpane”
56 Plastic ___ Band
57 “I meant that sarcastically”
58 Title of respect
59 Stylish dresser
60 Degree in math?
61 Test for a future Ph.D.
62 Blue
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).
Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.
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