Nashville Scene 4-15-21

CITY LIMITS: METRO COUNCILMEMBERS WEIGH IN ON THE FUTURE OF EXIT/IN

APRIL 15–21, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 11 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

FILM: THE BELCOURT RETURNS! AGAIN! PAGE 32

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THE HISTORY THAT SHAPED LABOR ADVOCACY IN TENNESSEE — AND HOW ORGANIZERS FEEL ABOUT THE CURRENT MOMENT

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT AND ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

STATE OF THE

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NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

APRIL 15, 2021

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Walk a Mile: Donelson ...............................7

People of Nashville

CITY LIMITS

In the 16th installment of his column, J.R. Lind ventures east — among the bowling alleys, Baptist churches and train tracks

BY J.R. LIND

Pith in the Wind .........................................8 This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

Metro Councilmembers Speak Up on Behalf of Exit/In ...................................... 10 Community voices overwhelming support for preserving the 50-year-old music venue, whose property is under contract

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

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COVER STORY State of the Union

CULTURE

A newcomer’s illustrated observations

BY MALAKA GHARIB

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BOOKS

A Book for Book Nerds Ross King details the book industry of the Italian Renaissance

BY JIM PATTERSON AND CHAPTER 16

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MUSIC

A Song Nobody Can Sing ........................ 28 Revisiting the poignant punch of Bob Frank in Within a Few Degrees

The State of Labor in Tennessee ........... 12

BY RON WYNN

Speaking with workers’ rights advocates and union organizers about the ongoing fight for worker protections

Grace Period ............................................ 28 Zachary Thompson Grace explores ‘whitetrash psychedelia’ on Intelligent Design Flaw

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

Right-to-Work Policy Makes Its Way to the State Constitution ................................... 14

Gearing Up: Sounds About Perfect ........ 29

Though organized labor is ‘woven in the history of the South,’ Tennessee’s unions remain weakened

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

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CRITICS’ PICKS Attend “The Journey to a COVID Vaccine and Its Impact” discussion online, stream The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance via the Frist, buy stuff at Crafty Bastards, check out The Theater Bug’s Bug Birthday Bash, stream Natalie Standiford in conversation with Ann Powers, listen to new classic rock releases, build your own streaming Denis Villeneuve film fest and more

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FOOD AND DRINK Keep on Trucking

Local grocer Turnip Truck celebrates 20 years of healthy shopping

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Rod McGaha to Take Center Stage in Nashville Jazz Workshop Stream On George Jones, Exit/In, and Preserving Nashville’s History Nashville Wine and Food Festival and East Nashville Beer Festival Announce Details Teens Learn the Power of Monologues in the Rep’s Young Voices Competition

Hi Tech Service’s Tom Brucker leaves a hi-fi legacy behind

BY ABBY LEE HOOD

The Spin ................................................... 30 The Scene’s live-review column checks out livestreams by Altered Statesman via Queen Ave Collective and Alanna Royale via Sessions

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN AND MEGAN SELING

31 FILM

Golden Opportunity................................. 31 Local songwriter Sam Ashworth jumps from Grammys to Oscars with One Night in Miami …

BY CORY WOODROOF

Primal Stream 50 ................................... 31 Nightmarish sci-fi and Easter-inspired horror, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

’Court Is Back in Session........................ 32 The Belcourt to reopen April 23 for limitedcapacity screenings

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Eddie George can add the title of head coach to his stunning list of accomplishments. Tennessee State University will name the former Titans player and Heisman Trophy winner as the new coach of the Tigers’ football team.

George will replace Rod Reed, who was in his 11th season with the Tigers and coached his last game on Sunday. Reed had a 60-69 record with the team since 2010.

The news has fans, alumni and even members of the media excited. USA Today reporter Gentry Estes said the “beauty in this highly unorthodox hire” was that in many cases, hiring a head coach without experience would be “ludicrous” — but that is not the case here because, well, it’s Eddie George, and this is Nashville.

Though George is nationally famous, which is certainly a bonus, in Nashville he is a truly celebrated member of our community. He has a business here, his son goes to school here, and now he’ll be TSU’s head football coach.

He may be an unorthodox pick, but George seems to have anticipated criticism about his lack of coaching experience.

According to Football Scoop, George will be advised by former Tennessee Titans and L.A. Rams coach Jeff Fisher. Fisher’s son — who spent the past season as a defensive analyst on the Auburn staff under former head coach Gus Malzahn and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele — will act as defense coordinator. George and TSU are also reportedly working to secure Hue Jackson, former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns, to work as the offensive coordinator.

George had a great track record in his personal football career. He played for the Titans from 1996 to 2003 and helped the Titans make it to Super Bowl XXXIV back in 2000. By the time he retired, he owned 28 Titans franchise records. As George put it in 2019, “I understand what a winning product looks like, a championship team looks like.”

George has been a mentor to Titans

running back Derrick Henry, who has dominated in the past two seasons. As Henry put it: “People say ‘mentor.’ I see Eddie as a friend.” Others have said George is a “walking motivational speaker” — and though I’m fond of TSU, I’d say the Tigers could use some motivation right about now.

TSU isn’t taking as big a risk on an untested coach as it may seem — several former pro players have gone on to success after taking head-coaching positions. With minimal coaching experience under his belt, Deion Sanders took the top coaching position at Jackson State University and recently became, as noted by The Tennessean, “the first FCS head coach to bring in a top-100 recruiting class.” Former Bronco and Cowboy Steve Wilson “was hired as the head coach at Howard, where he went 78-67 in 13 seasons.” And former NBA star Penny Hardaway — who had no coaching background — took his first college head-coaching job at Memphis.

In three seasons, Hardaway has gone 63-32, with Memphis winning the NIT in the 2020-21 season. I believe George will be able to bring success to TSU’s football program as well.

I think hiring George was a superlative move on TSU’s part, and one that could really change things for the Tigers — as Estes notes, having George at the helm should prove “fascinating and undeniably appealing to a massive audience.” I can actually already see better recruitment, increased fundraising and higher ticket sales to the games adding up to increased success for TSU — and I’m excited for them.

PHOTO: CASEY GOWER

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

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CITY LIMITS

DONELSON

In the 16th installment of his column, J.R. Lind ventures east — among the bowling alleys, Baptist churches and train tracks

Mile

THE ROUTE: From Old Lebanon Road

with J.R. Lind

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

T

he parking lot at Donelson Station is an asphalt monument to unrealized ambition.

A multi-acre surface lot adjacent to the Music City Star stop, it was clearly planned

Leban

on Pik e

Donelson Station

Donelson Pik e

Walk a Lebanon Pike

BY J.R. LIND | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND

Donelson Station east to Donelson Pike, then north to Lebanon Pike.

Left on Lebanon Pike to J.B. Estille Drive, taking that north to Old Lebanon Road, turning right and continuing until Old Lebanon Road reconnects with Lebanon Pike, then heading west to McGavock Pike.

CRANES: 0 ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 0

for hundreds of cars left by commuters opting to take the train from the woody neighborhood east of downtown Nashville. Under a cloudless April morning sky, there are maybe a dozen vehicles in the lot.

When planning began for the Music City Star in 2004, transportation officials predicted an average daily ridership of 1,900 in its first year. In 2019, its peak year, the train averaged around 1,300. Still, in a region without many public transit options, the train — which operates on Nashville & Eastern Railroad’s line from Lebanon to the downtown riverfront — chugs along with two trips each way every weekday morning and afternoon.

It’s a pleasant place, insofar as parking lots go. The siding for the train is lit with fixtures similar to those made famous by the

Paris Metro, with their swooping curves and ornate Art Nouveau lanterns.

A one-way road connects Donelson Pike to the station, running by what is now the Donelson Hermitage Senior Center. For decades, starting in the 1920s, the building served as the elementary school for the area, which is obvious — it’s simple enough to pick out, say, the former cafeteria or the gym, or to look behind the building and see where the playground once was. These days — or at least in times when the world isn’t gripped by a once-a-century pandemic — the building still bustles. The center has a robust set of activities and even includes a barber shop.

Across Donelson Pike is one of the finest business signs in all of Metrodom: Donelson Bowl. Property records will tell you the bowling alley was built in 1960, but anyone with eyes and even a passing interest in American vernacular architecture could tell you the same thing. These days, we’d call the sign retro-futurist — it looks like something from The Jetsons. Form mostly fol-

lows function for the building itself, though one side features slightly offset bricks, their exposed ends painted in bright primary colors.

A train’s whistle activates the lights and bells on the crossbuck and sends the arms down to block traffic. It’s not the Star, but rather local freight traffic (two N&E locomotives hauling a container), so the wait isn’t long.

The intersection of Lebanon and Donelson pikes feels like it should be a bigger deal.

There’s a gas station, a Lowe’s, a bank, an auto parts store. In essence, this is the center of Donelson in 2021. Some of that “Hip Donelson” we hear so much about should be here. In fact, though Donelson is in its way embracing its new desirability (in 2016, Realtor.com declared 37214 the 15th-mostdesirable ZIP code in the country), there’s still a stubbornness for the old ways. While Lebanon Pike and Donelson Pike might be the sensible center of town, it’s a stretch of Old Lebanon Road to the northeast that’s still the heart of the area.

Intentional or not, planners seem dead-set on, in fact, making pedestrians walk on Old Lebanon Road rather than its adjective-free kin. The sidewalk on Lebanon Pike extends only as far as the bridge that carries the road over the tracks, and in fact, it only recently went that far. The construction of a new small strip mall, currently home to a jeweler and a loan provider, required the construction of a new stretch of sidewalk — obviously of a much more recent vintage than the others along Lebanon Pike.

The shoulder on the bridge is far too narrow to use for perambulation, except perhaps for the most harum-scarum of walkers.

And so the footborne must cross at J.B. Estille Drive — the Bluefields subdivision,

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CITY LIMITS

a charming clutch of 1930s homes that was the first housing development in Donelson, is just to the south and, sadly, unreachable by foot in any sensible way from here — and go along Old Lebanon Road.

McNamara’s Irish Pub, perhaps the finest Irish restaurant in a former funeral home in all of Christendom, looms at the corner of Old Lebanon Road and Lebanon Pike. Ace Hardware, which looks suspiciously like a paddock at Churchill Downs, shares space with beloved food-truck-into-brick-andmortar-do-it-all-restaurant Phat Bites.

Hearing air traffic is part and parcel of being outdoors — and probably indoors — in Donelson, with the airport just a few miles off. So regular is the coming and going of airliners that it doesn’t take long to simply get used to it, one’s attention refocused on the Boeings and Airbuses only when a glint of sun hits a silvery wing and bounces the light back to earth. With the high-shine glass facade of the The Salon Professional Academy catching one of the rays — sun to plane to window — it becomes a bit of a science experiment demonstrating light’s highly efficient method of travel.

Donelson bears the distinction of being the only place in Davidson County with two bowling alleys. In addition to Donelson Bowl (more properly, the Donelson Bowling Center), there’s the Strike & Spare in the

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: Nashville’s move to precedented times continues. The health department lifted the outdoor mask mandate, while still requiring masks be worn indoors and anywhere social distancing isn’t possible. At press time, nearly a third of Nashvillians have received at least one dose of vaccine, and nearly a fifth are fully vaccinated. Mayor John Cooper has set a goal of having 50 percent of the population vaccinated by May 1. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners and Vanderbilt University Medical Center teamed up to help reach that goal with a vaccination event at Valor Flagship Academy with a focus on the city’s large but undervaccinated Latinx and Kurdish communities. In addition, a coalition of 19 local organizations is pushing for 100 percent vaccination

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lower level of a strip on Old Lebanon Road, down some stairs lit by gleefully 1970s light fixtures and next to a bartending school, another outpost of Southern Thrift and Donelson Air. Across the street is Fletcher’s Pizza (no buffet at this time) and Uncle Bud’s Catfish.

Donelson Church of Christ is a looming structure at the intersection of Old Lebanon Road and Knobview. Crossing the train tracks here and looking back south, there’s evidence that this is where the train station once was, years ago when rail travel was in fashion. And thus, it’s fair speculation that this was the center of downtown Donelson, such as it was.

An insurance company nearby is decorated with a mural on each side of its building, one clearly intended as a selfie spot, though no bachelorettes seem to be taking advantage. Old Lebanon hooks back up with Lebanon Pike in a flatiron — home of a Party Fowl that, to its credit, does a good job of fitting in aesthetically with the neighborhood and has a great sign that nods at Donelson Bowl — and it would seem an obvious place for a crosswalk back across the main drag.

Alas, the sidewalks carry on farther along what remains of Old Lebanon Road, past some vintage stores, insurance agents and a compelling polyhedron that’s home to Two Rivers Veterinary Hospital. If you’ve ever

wondered where you can get into fencing in Nashville (who hasn’t?), the Music City Fencing Club is nearby on Lebanon Pike.

Once Old Lebanon really and truly juts back into actual Lebanon, the latter begins a climb. At the top of the climb is another rise, and at the top of that is the truly dominating brick behemoth that is Donelson First Baptist. (The church purchased the tract in 1923 under a different name, so officially it’s owned by Donelson Missionary Baptist Church.)

A large Baptist church in a Nashville neighborhood isn’t particularly newsworthy, but what’s next door is certainly interesting.

In a former bank building is a Romanian

Baptist Church — the congregants call it Biserica Baptistă Română. The Baptist denomination has a long history in Romania, particularly in the eastern part of the country near Germany. The fact that there are enough members of the Romanian diaspora to support a congregation in Donelson, however, is a pleasant surprise.

Lebanon Pike slides back downhill after the Baptist churches to McGavock Pike, home of the Donelson Kroger — truly a landmark here, famous for its confounding and always crowded parking lot.

Confounding though it may be, at least it gets used.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

among people experiencing homelessness. With the assistance of Neighborhood Health and St. Thomas Health, the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being offered at encampments and shelters. The goal is to have every person experiencing homelessness vaccinated by Memorial Day, a goal that’s within reach in part because during February’s ice storm, vaccine doses that would have expired and gone unused were offered to guests of the Nashville Rescue Mission. … Less than two weeks after being abruptly stripped of his committee assignments, Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) is back on his panels following reinstatement

by House Speaker Cameron Sexton. The dispute between Griffey and House leadership seemingly stemmed from Griffey’s unsuccessful effort to call a vote on an immigration bill that had previously failed in a subcommittee. “They’ve met, they had conversations, there was a caucus meeting, and they are moving forward,” says Doug Kufner, a spokesperson for Sexton. … A bipartisan effort to reform Tennessee’s harsh life sentencing law advanced out of a Senate committee.

As Republican state Sen. Janice Bowling explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee, a person in Tennessee who is convicted of first-degree murder faces

three possible sentences: life with the possibility of parole, life without the possibility of parole or death. But because of an extraordinarily harsh sentencing law, a person sentenced to life with the possibility of parole is not eligible to even be considered for release until they have served 51 years in prison. That’s double the national average, Bowling told the committee, and means most people facing the sentence will die before they ever get a chance at parole. The bill would lower parole eligibility to 25 years, where it was before the state changed its sentencing laws after Congress passed the 1994 crime bill. The bill is still awaiting action in the House. … Nashville’s latest new-versus-old, development-versus-preservation battle is, of course, centered on Exit/In (more on that on p. 10). Contributor Betsy Phillips notes that it’s just the latest skirmish in an eternal war. “A fundamental, basic trait of Nashville is the decades-long discussion of how we’re losing the ‘real’ Nashville and we need to figure out how to save it, and baked into the narrative of how we’re constantly losing the ‘real’ Nashville is losing,” she writes. “Preservationists in this city regularly fail.” Phillips explains that preservationists understand that listing a property on the National Register doesn’t protect it from the

wrecking ball, and that even the city’s most stringent preservation mechanism — a historic overlay — is easy enough to work around. “If preserving Nashville’s history is actually important to Nashville,” she writes, “we need some preservation designations with teeth. Something that will actually proactively designate a site as off-limits to developers. We need a way to actually do the thing we think we’re already doing.” … Local legend and former Tennessee Titan Eddie George will take over as Tennessee State University’s football coach next season. Reports Michael Gallagher, “The 47-year-old George will take over for Rod Reed, who has a 60-69 record with the Tigers since 2010. Although he has no previous head coaching experience, George instantly boosts TSU’s recruiting profile in the way Deion Sanders’ hire did at Jackson State.” Also of note: Former Titans coach Jeff Fisher is serving as an adviser to George while the rest of his coaching staff is assembled.

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CITY LIMITS

METRO COUNCILMEMBERS SPEAK UP ON BEHALF OF EXIT/IN Community voices overwhelming support for preserving the 50-year-old music venue, whose property is under contract

A

s a warm breeze blew down Elliston Place on the afternoon of April 7, the press conference in front of Exit/In became something of a latepandemic block party. Several dozen masked folks standing about six feet apart bobbed and swayed to roots-rock outfit Matt Daughtry and Friends, who soul singer A.J. Eason recruited to warm up the audience. Since March 2020, no one’s been able to see a show at either Exit/In or The End, the two venerable venues straddling the strip of Elliston that has for decades been known as the Rock Block, and which was recognized with a historical marker last summer. It’s a good bet that in the Before Times, more than a few in the crowd — well, probably not the youngsters helping their parents chalk messages of support on the sidewalk — spent many late-night hours processing a show in the glow of the Exit/In marquee. This time, though, the sign didn’t feature any of the up-and-coming or nationally beloved acts that usually adorn it. It read, “For Sale- Nashville’s Soul.”

On April 2, news broke that the property home to Exit/In and its sister bar Hurry Back had been put under contract to AJ Capital Partners, a developer known for luxury hotels. When the decision was made a few months prior to sell the property, Exit/ In owners Chris and Telisha Cobb put a plan in motion, backed by Grubb Properties’ Live Venue Recovery Fund, that if successful would eventually result in them owning the building themselves. But while their offer matched AJ’s, they were passed over — reportedly out of spite from the sellers, who were upset by the 2019 Save the Rock Block grassroots campaign that stopped a rezoning effort affecting a nearby property.

The Cobbs pivoted, launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise money in addition to that pledged by Grubb, aiming to make an offer that AJ would find appealing. The event was an opportunity for the Cobb family, Exit/In co-founder Brugh Reynolds and five members of Metro Council to thank the public for their support and speak up on behalf of the club.

The first councilmember to endorse the Cobbs’ effort was Brandon Taylor, whose District 21 includes Fisk University and Meharry Medical College in historically Black North Nashville along with the Rock Block.

He was elected to the post in 2019 in a race against incumbent Ed Kimball that went to a runoff. Others who spoke up on behalf of the venue were Brett Withers, who represents District 6 in East Nashville and is vice-chair of the Metro Historical Commission; Joy Styles, representing parts of Antioch in District 32, who is a musician as well as the former vice-chair of the Historical Commission; Tom Cash, a longtime Exit/In patron who represents Vanderbilt-area District

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18; and Jeff Syracuse, a longtime staffer at performing rights organization BMI who serves parts of Donelson near Opry Mills in District 15.

“Progress is defined as forward or onward movement towards a destination,” said Chris Cobb at the press conference.

“My question to Nashville is, ‘Where are we heading?’ As Music City continues to change, we must take inspired action to ensure it’s still a place we want to be. So many Nashville residents have to ask themselves, ‘Does Nashville want me to be here?’ Songwriters, artists — the entire creative working class who are the backbone of Music City. For decades they’ve done the heavy lifting that made Nashville a place where people want to be. We must not displace our creative working class. But if decisions continue to be made by corporations, out-oftowners and luxury hotel chain developers, our city cannot make progress. Nashville will head nowhere, driven by decisions that maximize profits but minimize people. And this must stop.”

On the afternoon of April 8, the Cobbs celebrated a milestone as their GoFundMe reached its $200,000 goal. Donations have continued to pour in: At press time, more than 4,000 donors have contributed more than $220,000. However, the developer remained silent about its plans for the property until after 6 p.m. on Friday, April 9, when a statement was issued to media.

A note attributed to AJ Capital Partners founder Ben Weprin says the company does not (and never did) plan to build a hotel on the property, and will be taking up the task of putting the venue on the National Register of Historic Places. “Our goal and company mission statement is to conserve and preserve while maintaining the health and vibrancy of the communities we invest in,” reads the statement. “The EXIT/IN is no exception. In fact, the artist community was first to put the need for iconic venue preservation and assistance on our radar.” The company made an offer to pay back anyone who donated to the GoFundMe. Telisha and Chris Cobb, however, did not back down from their bid. Chris Cobb has been booking shows at Exit/In since 2004, and became a part owner of the business a few years later with fellow Marathon Music Works co-founder Josh Billue. In 2019, the Cobbs and Billue amicably dissolved their partnership, leaving the Cobbs owners of Exit/In. In a response to Weprin’s note, the couple emphasizes the importance of keeping in place a team who understands the venue’s role in the community — preserving the culture of the business as well as the building that it’s housed in.

“The magic of the Exit/In cannot be bought or sold in a real estate transaction,” say the Cobbs in their response to AJ Capital’s statement. “It’s created by the people.

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Learning to own and operate a small independent venue is a monumental undertaking, especially for a company best known for building luxury developments. … We’re more committed than ever to protecting Nashville’s creative working class — it’s who we are!”

Councilmembers who spoke on April 7 have also continued to voice their support.

Councilmember Taylor says he would welcome any conversation with property owners about the potential for adding a historic overlay to the property, which is one of the better tools we have (if not a perfect one) for preventing alterations to a parcel of land. But he agrees that there’s more to maintaining history than just keeping the building intact.

“When we talk about preserving Exit/In, are we talking about preserving what that space truly means?” asks Taylor, speaking to the Scene via phone. “This is a great opportunity for an investor coming into Nashville to show the city that they care about the city that they want to invest in — the people, the music, everything that we have to offer.”

In emails, Syracuse and Withers echo the point that both the physical venue and the business’s role in the community under the Cobbs’ stewardship are vital to maintain.

Styles agrees with them that the best way to ensure that is to take the Cobb family up on their offer. She also points to the lack of communication between AJ Capital and the

Cobb family as a troubling sign.

“One would think that if you were going to maintain this revered institution, and you’ve seen the support, that you would reach out to the very people that are running it and have made it very clear that they want to own it,” says Styles. “So if your desire is to let it remain, why don’t you just sell it? Let it live with the people that are already emotionally vested in the community and in Nashville’s musical history.”

There are some notable echoes of the fight to save RCA Studio A from the wrecking ball in 2014. Amid much public outcry, developer Tim Reynolds bought the property at 30 Music Square West with the intent of razing the building. A few months later, philanthropist Aubrey Preston gave Reynolds the price he asked to let go of the property — $5.6 million, or about 27 percent more than the $4.1 million Reynolds paid.

With a whole lot of help, Preston preserved the site, now on the National Register of Historic Places, and it’s still making history.

There are myriad variables that cloud any direct comparisons between the Studio A sale and the Exit/In sale. But there’s half a century’s worth of evidence that, similar to Studio A, allowing Exit/In to remain in place would allow it to continue building the culture and economy of Music City one show at a time.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 22, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE HISTORY THAT SHAPED LABOR ADVOCACY IN TENNESSEE — AND HOW ORGANIZERS FEEL ABOUT THE CURRENT MOMENT

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT AND ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

STATE OF THE

THE STATE OF LABOR IN TENNESSEE

Speaking with workers’ rights advocates and union organizers about the ongoing fight for worker protections

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

V

onda McDaniel has seen a lot of changes in her nearly 30 years of labor organizing. McDaniel first joined a union in 1992, at the Firestone-Bridgestone tire factory in La Vergne where she worked.

In a matter of months, she was elected as the shop steward, and that kicked off a lifetime of workers’ rights advocacy.

In 2013, McDaniel was elected president of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, an affiliation of more than 40 unions and community organizations, and she holds the position to this day.

She says her job at the tire factory paid well and that it “helped me pay off my student loans in record time, and helped to get a good start.” But she doesn’t see that same kind of opportunity today — people can expect to work longer with less guarantee of a retirement and benefits.

“There was a time in this country where if you went to work for a company and remained loyal and im-

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proved your skills and helped them to improve their bottom line, that you could depend at the end of it on [receiving] retiree health care and a pension,” McDaniel says. “And that social contract has been turned on its head in favor of CEOs making enormous salaries and making sure that the shareholders are taken care of. And I just think that we have reached a point where that’s not sustainable.”

There’s a lot of debate about the impact unions have on the economy, but evidence suggests unions are good for employee wages. McDaniel points to a 2018 study out of Princeton University, which found that since the 1930s, having more unions has meant more income equality — for members and nonmembers alike.

Unions may have also helped some workers weather the economic impact of the pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union members lost fewer jobs than nonunion workers in 2020. They also received higher wages.

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

That said, the national percentage of workers in a union was just 10.8 percent in 2020. In Tennessee, only 4.4 percent of workers belonged to one in 2020 — a far cry from the membership rate of 22 percent back in 1964.

The South hasn’t been too hospitable to labor organizers in the past century. In the 1940s, Southern states began to enact varying versions of so-called “right to work” laws that hampered the abilities of unions to collect dues and recruit workers — and which set the field in favor of business owners. Here in Tennessee, lawmakers are ready to add the state’s 1947 right-to-work law into the state constitution — an act that might not immediately affect labor laws, but further ingrains the state’s unfriendly attitude toward unions into its DNA. Despite all this, McDaniel sees some hope for labor advocates. She believes the tide is turning when it comes to union support and worker mobilization — not just nationally, but here in Tennessee. And she’s not the only one.

“The feeling right now within labor organizers is one of renewal, particularly at the local level,” says Ethan Link, the assistant business manager of the Southeast Laborers’ District Council and treasurer of the Central Labor Council. Link says he’s seen a rejuvenated labor movement in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, particularly when it comes to collaborating across different trade and industry unions — a development he credits to McDaniel’s tenure. He also says he’s seen more interest in proactive organizing, not just unions “fighting defensive fights.”

Support for workers hasn’t come solely from union organizers either. Other activists have voiced support for the cause, and workers’ rights advocates have likewise shown support for local immigrant communities and movements like Black Lives Matter.

“The folks that are coming for workers are the folks that are coming for people of color and the folks that are coming for immigrants,” says Link.

“We cannot really separate economic justice from racial justice, from our genders, from our identities, because historically these have been the tools that the state has used to oppress people, and deprive them of capital, of land, of money,” says Cecilia Prado, co-director of Workers’ Dignity, a center that helps organize workers. “Yes, we are workers, but that’s not all we are.”

One of the most visible and effective collaborations of these various interests was the Nashville Justice League, a coalition of immigrant rights advocates, community activists and labor groups that rallied support for progressive Metro Council candidates.

The push was very successful in the 2019 election — 13 of the 15 candidates the NJL endorsed won seats, which led to one of the most diverse and progressive councils in city history.

Also successful were the 2018 negotiations that took place between community groups and the company behind the incoming Major League Soccer stadium. Stand Up Nashville, a coalition of community and labor advocacy groups, struck a deal with Nashville SC ownership to ensure the construction project includes community benefits like more affordable housing.

Prado also points to Armando Arzate, a concrete worker who, with Workers’ Dignity’s help, launched campaigns to reclaim

CECILIA PRADO (SECOND FROM LEFT) AND WORKERS’ DIGNITY HAND OUT FREE TAMALES AT A CONTRUCTION SITE stolen wages for jobs he and his company did at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Metro Nashville Public Schools for the Orion Building Co. Arzate won his case for the Vanderbilt worksite, recovering $66,000. He didn’t recoup his losses for the MNPS job, but the school board did introduce new policies to better protect subcontractors.

Other examples of high-profile wins for organized workers were the settlements of two different wage-theft cases in the restaurant industry. M Street and Strategic Hospitality agreed to pay a combined $1 million to dismiss claims made by employees. (It should be noted that both companies called the allegations “unfounded.”) The victory was also notable given how difficult the pandemic was for employees of the food-andbeverage industry.

“We felt forgotten as hospitality workers when the pandemic hit,” says Brenda Waybrant, a co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Center Music City and an organizer with SEIU Local 205.

Waybrant has been in the restaurant industry for years, both as a server and as a corporate office employee. When the pandemic hit, she was laid off from her job at Wildhorse Saloon, and says “there was no communication with servers or restaurant workers of any kind that I’m aware of.” She soon joined the effort to create ROC Music City, her first experience in organizing.

Like Workers’ Dignity, the organization is a worker center rather than a union, which allows the group to offer broad membership to restaurant employees regardless of workplace. That’s helpful, given how big the hospitality industry is in Nashville, as well as the fact that restaurant employees may juggle multiple hospitality gigs.

Waybrant says the pandemic put many workers in a situation where they had to choose between their safety and their income. In fact, Tennessee’s unemployment law says any worker who refuses an offer to return to work will lose unemployment benefits. Waybrant also points to state legislation passed last summer that protects businesses

and other entities from coronavirus-related liabilities. “How are you looking at restaurant workers that are around people without masks on for their eight- to 12-hour shifts, and [then telling] them you can’t file a claim against your company?” she asks.

Many issues regarding workplace safety and sick-time benefits were highlighted during the pandemic. But many workers and advocates noted that these issues existed long before COVID-19 hit the country.

For example, while Nashville isn’t the only Southern city going through a construction boom, it’s one of the more dangerous: From 2016 to 2017, the city saw more construction worker deaths than did similarly growing cities, according to a report from The Tennessean. A 2017 study, “Build a Better South,” also found a high rate of injuries at Nashville construction sites. The safety risks were highlighted in June with the case of 16-year-old Gustavo Ramirez, who was working at a hotel construction site near Nissan Stadium when he fell to his death.

Despite this, in April, the state pushed through legislation gutting a Metro Council bill that would have improved safety standards at Nashville construction projects and encouraged better record-keeping between contractors and subcontractors — entities that can be prone to underpaying workers and dodging fines.

“Workers are dying and getting injured, and there’s no accountability for developers

“

and general contractors that are profiting off their labor,” says Prado. She adds that local organizations mobilizing workers and building bases don’t have the same level of funding as the business owners and their representatives, which makes it a difficult fight. But she takes heart in the fact that the South still has a strong history of worker resistance.

In fact, Southern labor made national headlines this week, when Amazon warehouse employees in Bessemer, Ala., attempted to unionize. Organizers across the country visited to show support — including a delegation from the CLC. While most employees voted against unionization, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which would have represented Bessemer workers, plans to challenge the results, accusing the retail behemoth of interfering in the vote.

The organizers who spoke with Scene warned that weakening labor could affect everything from individual wages to income inequality to safety standards. And as pitched as the fights between labor and business can be, McDaniel says it’s a fight for equality, not dominance.

“It’s not about tilting the power scale all the way the other direction,” she says. “It’s about providing balance in our economy where everybody has a shot. ... That’s what we work on every day. And I hope that folks will join us in that effort.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

It’s about providing balance in our economy where everybody has a shot. ... That’s what we work on every day.” ­—Vonda McDaniel nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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RIGHT-TO-WORK POLICY MAKES ITS WAY TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION Though organized labor is ‘woven in the history of the South,’ Tennessee’s unions remain weakened

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

A

fter the frantic first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee set out to reopen Tennessee businesses — a task he entrusted to a new economic recovery group.

The group included lawmakers and members of Lee’s administration, plus the heads of several industry lobbies representing companies around the state — the Tennessee Retail Association, the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association, the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association and different chambers of commerce, among others.

Though it’s difficult to know for certain where people contracted COVID-19, Tennessee workers died from the disease after working in places experiencing extreme outbreaks of the coronavirus. Asked one year ago whether he’d thought to include any workers or worker representatives on the task force, Lee’s answer was, more or less, that employers represent workers.

“The economic recovery group is made up in vast part by industry folks who are employing tens of thousands of workers,” the governor said at the time.

This sidelining of the workers themselves is part of a long and often bipartisan tradition in Tennessee, wherein political leaders oscillate between completely ignoring organized labor and, when faced with a union drive at a Tennessee business, painting an apocalyptic picture of the dangers of labor unions.

“It is characteristic and historical that, particularly in the South, state governments have weighed in on the side of the companies,” says June Rostan, a retired labor organizer from East Tennessee who spent decades working with the AFL-CIO, the Southern Empowerment Project, the Highland Research and Education Center and a group of women coal miners. “It’s about power.”

The latest push to strengthen employers’ power over unions dates back to the 1940s, when Tennessee adopted a “right to work” law, giving workers the option of opting out of unions and their dues even if they benefit from the collective bargaining or other advocacy undertaken by the organization.

Though it’s been state law for more than 70 years, a multiyear push is now underway to enshrine right-to-work in the Tennessee Constitution.

Seven decades on, the move might seem symbolic, but supporters argue that it would make taking the law off the books more difficult for future iterations of the legislature that may be more supportive of organized labor — as now-majority Democrats in Virginia have sought to do in recent years.

Additionally, supporters say, adding rightto-work to the state constitution would put defenders of the law in a stronger position if Congress moves to undo right-to-work

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nationwide, as one piece of legislation currently under consideration in Washington proposes.

“We believe it’s been a very good law for Tennessee and for Tennesseans because it’s all about choice,” says Jim Brown, who leads the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. “For many workers, it’s just about choice, and for some it’s a value proposition. There are some unions out there doing work that’s worth it to some workers, and there are some that may not be. It’s about choice, and that’s really what right-to-work is.”

Tennessee’s labor history is long — and in some cases bloody. In the 1890s, violence broke out in what came to be known as the Coal Creek War when a mine operator broke a miners strike with inmates leased from the state. The violence, and the cost of keeping the Tennessee National Guard in the field, led the state government to end its convict-leasing program.

Shortly after Republicans took full control of Tennessee government, lawmakers in 2011 stripped teachers unions of their collective bargaining power. It was a move that neutered the public-sector union that Republican leaders — including then-Gov. Bill Haslam — said was impeding changes to the state’s schools.

A century after the Coal Creek War, labor tensions flared again as foreign auto manufacturers began moving to the state. Tennessee’s long-held right-to-work status was used in the pitch to companies. Wages are lower in right-to-work states (though that cannot exclusively be linked to the policy), and unions are of course weakened when fewer people join them.

Though the right-to-work push “isn’t getting into the actual organizing,” as Brown says, Tennessee state officials and industry groups have not been shy about wading into “the actual organizing” before. In 2019, Gov. Lee — who spent almost all of his professional career before entering politics in management at his family’s Lee Company — visited Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory to urge workers to vote against a proposed union at the factory. They did, by a slim margin, the latest in a series of unsuccessful organizing attempts at major manufacturers in the South. Tennessee lawmakers had also threatened to divert tax incentives away from companies with unions during the Volkswagen push.

“Our view is that the laws are generally neutral right now,” NFIB’s Brown says. “You can still organize, but if Volkswagen or any other company is doing a good job of protecting their workers, providing good wages and a good place to work, there shouldn’t be any need for a union. [NFIB companies] are doing everything they can to protect their workers. They look at their workers as family, and they believe if there was an attempt to organize it would disrupt that relationship with their workers.”

That’s certainly one point of view, but it’s one that prioritizes the interests of business owners, who oppose union organizing for reasons other than just their familial relationship with employees.

In some places, lawmakers are reconsidering right-to-work. West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice said earlier this year he is having second thoughts about the state’s policy, put into place in 2016. “We went out and passed the right-to-work law,” Justice said. “We built fields all over the place, in thinking that they will come. They didn’t come, did they?”

By some measures, they have come to Tennessee, as more and more companies decide to move to the state with lower wages and less regulation than most of the other 50. And Tennessee lawmakers are responding with their push to put right-to-work in the Constitution. The Tennessee General Assembly passed the proposed amendment resolution by a simple majority in both chambers during its most recent session.

Now it must pass by a two-thirds majority, which it already has in the Senate. As of press time, the House had not given the proposed constitutional amendment its second seal of approval, but assuming it does, Tennessee voters will have the choice to add right-to-work to the Tennessee Constitution in the 2022 general election.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Raumesh Akbari is one of the few lawmakers fighting the push. Her Shelby County district includes the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot while visiting the city on behalf of striking sanitation workers in 1968. Her legislative office is decorated with a photo of the workers brandishing their “I am a man” signs. That slogan and King’s death in Memphis loom large in Tennessee labor history.

“I think unions help make the workplace better,” Akbari says. “Traditionally, they’ve

been there to negotiate fair contracts, fair wages and safety concerns. When you take that away, it makes it more difficult for the position to be a profession, as opposed to just a job.

“I think we are at a low point, and I really hate that,” she continues. “I wish people would look back and see what unions have done to build up our country and particularly to build up our middle class. Unfortunately, it seems there’s too much of an eye toward corporate interest and less towards workers.”

It’s not just public pressure that has weakened unions in recent decades. Shifts in the economy — including shifts away from manufacturing jobs historically home to more organizing — have also contributed.

The tech industry, Rostan says, has proven particularly difficult to organize. After spending a lifetime working to advance the cause of organized labor, Rostan admits that unions have not always been perfect. But generally, she says, they’ve been a force for good in the lives of workers.

In the Rust Belt states where unions still wield major influence, Rostan says, “there’s not the fear of organizing that there is in the South. That’s what’s been used to keep people down. That’s not just about right-towork, but a whole culture of instilling fear in people of losing your job, or this factory will move if you organize a union.

“In spite of all of this fear and the laws that are baked into state governments in the South and some other places that impede union organizing, workers still are able to get a taste of being able to get together and form a union,” Rostan adds. “They see we can sit at the table with the company, we have a voice, and we can protect people who get treated unfairly. It can be a very powerful thing — that’s woven in the history of the South.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

This sidelining of the workers themselves is part of a long and often bipartisan tradition in Tennessee, wherein political leaders oscillate between completely ignoring organized labor and, when faced with a union drive at a Tennessee business, painting an apocalyptic picture of the dangers of labor unions.

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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Over the last two centuries, depictions of the people, landscapes, and wildlife of the West fostered a sense of American identity that was rooted in a pioneering spirit of adventure and opportunity. We invite you to see works of art that explore the nuances of this idea and location, from its often-challenging history—especially in relation to the forced displacement of Indigenous people—to its vibrant cultural and artistic diversity.

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SHOPPING

THEATER

D. PATRICK RODGERS

[GLORIOUS BASTARDS]

BUY STUFF AT CRAFTY BASTARDS

Two of the greatest things to come out of that long pandemic winter is that hanging around outside feels extra special, and spending money on locally produced goods feels like doing community service. If you want to exercise your freedom to hang and help, this weekend’s Scene-sponsored Crafty Bastards is the perfect thing. It’s an outdoor craft fair with more than 50 artisan vendors, plus food trucks, craft cocktails and beer. Among the vendors are n.b. goods, a company that makes hyperlocal minimal designs that feel at once insidery and inclusive — there’s a sweatshirt that spells out “NOPE” in the oldschool college font, a tote that says “FULL OF SHIT,” and lots of pennants that are specific to Nashville neighborhoods. There are also shops that sell specialty foods like cookies and hot sauces, textiles, candles, glass art, folk art, tons of tie-dye T-shirts, jewelry, stuffed animals, and so much more.

And it’s definitely recommended for animal lovers — Crafty Bastards is a pet-friendly event, and the list of dog-centric vendors is extensive. COVID-19 safety protocols will of course be enforced, so don’t forget your mask. Check out the diverse range of vendors at craftybastards.com. 10 a.m.4 p.m. April 17-18 at oneC1TY, 8 City Blvd.

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BOOKS

The Theater Bug is marking its 10th year in style. The much-anticipated Bug Birthday Bash fundraiser will include plenty of food and fun, with tasty treats and drinks provided by Daddy’s Dogs, Pied Piper Creamery and WillCo. The Loading Dock will be on hand with coffee and other snacks, and Frothy Monkey is even serving up some special birthday cupcakes. The allday festivities will take place outdoors, and will include a musical performance from this thriving youth arts program. Folks will also have the opportunity to tour the Bug’s brand-new space on Lindell Avenue. This is a COVID-conscious event, with temperature checks and screenings prior to arrival, enforced mask-wearing, a socially distanced seating plan and staggered-admission time slots. For complete details and the schedule, visit thetheaterbug.org. Noon-7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 17, at The Theater Bug, 2020 Lindell Ave. AMY STUMPFL [IT GIRLS]

STREAM NATALIE STANDIFORD IN CONVERSATION WITH ANN POWERS

dive into her dark side, essential for fans of Sweetbitter, Fleabag, and books by Patti Smith.” The event, hosted by Parnassus Books via Facebook Live, also reeled me in with its inclusion of Nashville-based music critic Ann Powers. The promise of cool girls having smart conversations will always win me over, but Standiford’s storytelling is appealing for an entirely different reason — she’s an accomplished YA and middle-grade author, so her writing style is more in the wheelhouse of the recently departed genius Beverly Cleary. Standiford’s subject matter, however, is nothing Beezus would have dreamed of: sex, drugs, self-destruction.

Powers is the perfect host for the event —

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[MAKE MY CLAY]

WATCH THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN

I hope the world’s ceramics teachers are ready, because pottery is about to become the next big thing. The Great Pottery Throw Down, available on HBO Max, is wholesome streamable content that you need in your life right now. Filmed in a historic 19thcentury ceramics factory in England’s Stoke-on-Trent, it’s similar to The Great British Bake Off in a few ways. The humble contestants, from around the U.K., are just barely competitive. They want to see one another succeed, and each is their own toughest critic. The competition consists of three challenges, only one of which the potters can prepare for, and a jesting host — Derry Girls’ hilarious Siobhán McSweeney in Season 4 — creates a narrative as the potters spin their wheels and coil their clay.

But one thing is quite different from GBBO. Large, rosy-cheeked judge Keith Brymer Jones is the antithesis of Paul Hollywood.

He has weird hair. Even his harshest criticisms are delivered with love. And he cries. The guy is moved to tears at least once an episode, and unlike the dreaded Hollywood handshake, Jones’ spectacle appears to be 100 percent sincere. The potters are at times masterful. They race against the clock, turning lumps of clay into dining sets and vases, as well as busts of Dolly Parton and Bruce Springsteen, garden sculptures and toilets. And once each season, they must throw a pot blindfolded.

You can’t help but cheer them on. And you may even find yourself welling up and exclaiming breathlessly, “It’s brilliant, mate.

Just fantastic.” ERICA CICCARONE BOOKS

The synopsis for Natalie Standiford’s novel Astrid Sees All hooked me with a single line: “New York’s last bohemia — the glittering, decadent downtown club scene of the 1980s — is the setting for this brilliantly winning novel about a smart, vulnerable young woman taking a deep

she cut her teeth as a writer and editor at both The Village Voice and The New York Times in the ’90s. You can tune in live on the Parnassus Books Facebook page, and the video will also be archived. Astrid Sees All is available to buy via Parnassus, The Bookshop, or wherever you like to buy your books. 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, via Parnassus Books LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

[FILM SCORE]

READ THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A MOVIE

You’d think that, when it comes to discussing movies (especially on social media), people would understand by now that if you want to be a good filmmaker — and film-watcher — perhaps you might wanna start by watching more gotdamn movies. That’s certainly the case film critic and writer Tim Grierson makes in his recently released book This Is How You Make a Movie. Grierson breaks down the five main components needed — acting, directing, lighting and camera, editing and writing — to make a film, and within each section, rounds up examples (from oh-so-many films) that a filmmaker could study and use in their work. Grierson highlights such classics as The Godfather and The Third Man, but he also finds worthwhile stuff in contemporary films like Wonder Woman and Paranormal Activity 3. But really, this book is just Grierson encouraging people to break out of their cinematic comfort zones and get more movies in their system. This is essential

THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN reading for anyone who doesn’t think they can pick something up from any motion picture, past or present. Buy it from a local bookstore like Parnassus or The Bookshop.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

MUSIC

CHECK OUT THE THEATER BUG’S BUG BIRTHDAY BASH

[GAS TREATMENT]

WATCH ELLEN’S FAVORITE THING AT FANNY’S OF THE WEEK

The goal of Fanny’s House of Music is to make the music-store experience comfortable and enjoyable for everybody.

During the pandemic, I’ve been soothing my latent GAS (that’s Gear Acquisition Syndrome) by enjoying the store’s YouTube series Ellen’s Favorite Thing at Fanny’s of the Week. In the program, longtime staffer and phenomenal guitarist Ellen Angelico showcases both her Carol Burnett-esque presence and her broad and deep player’s knowledge, demonstrating genially and succinctly what a given item — chosen from Fanny’s carefully curated collection of highly playable used and vintage equipment — does well and what it doesn’t. In March, the store opened back up for masked and socially distanced patrons, so if you see something you like on the show (provided it hasn’t sold yet) you can go on by and try it out for yourself. If, like me, you’re trying to avoid adding to an overflowing collection, Fanny’s has a new project that’s very worthy of your support. Last summer, founders Pamela Cole and Leigh Maples announced the formation of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under which they plan to build an expansion onto the store and open a full-fledged Fanny’s School of Music. The expanded operation will provide space for more classes and community programs. While everyone is welcome, the school will further the store’s mission of making space for women and girls to actively engage in this crucial social part of making music. Check out more details and learn how you can help at fannysschoolofmusic.org. STEPHEN TRAGESER MUSIC

[TOTALLY BUGGING]

TV

THEATER

CRITICS’ PICKS

David Crosby and Boz Scaggs have released excellent albums. The trend continues — it’s a great time to check out newly recorded classic rock and archival releases. Lynyrd Skynyrd may be the impetus for a million “Play ‘Free Bird’!” jokes, but the Southern rockers were a sophisticated band that skillfully modified British Invasion guitar tricks, with extra hot sauce. The group’s Live at Knebworth ’76 documents a 1976 show in England, and the band — including their frontman Ronnie Van Zant, who perished in the 1977 plane crash that also took the lives of two other band members — smokes throughout. On the more theatrical side of classic rock, Alice Cooper’s Detroit Stories nods to the famed shock rocker’s Motor City roots, complete with a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll” that stands with Detroit legend Mitch Ryder’s 1971 version of the song. Meanwhile, former Monkee Michael Nesmith cut a series of sprightly country-rock albums in the early ’70s that married the styles of Nashville and Los Angeles. His work gets the archival treatment on Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings, which collects alternate takes and unreleased tracks. Power-pop masters Cheap Trick continue in their post-Beatles vein on In Another World, the band’s 20th studio album. With three of the original members on board, they sound energized, if not eternally young. Cheap Trick recorded fellow power-pop band Big Star’s 1972 song “In the Street” as the theme song for the television series That ‘70s Show, which gave the song’s co-writer, Memphis singer

[BOOGIE SHOES]

LISTEN TO NEW CLASSIC ROCK RELEASES

Even as the generation of musicians that produced classic rock ages out, the ultimate boomer music continues to flourish. In recent years, ’60s and ’70s rockers like

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING DENIS VILLENEUVE FILM FEST

By now you’re likely aware that more and more movie theaters are reopening.

Regal Cinemas’ Opry Mills location opened its doors on April 2, with more Regal locations planned to reopen in May, and indie cinema the Belcourt Theatre has plans to return on April 23 (more on that on p. 32).

But if you’re not yet fully vaccinated and/ or just not quite ready to return to public settings, let’s do one more installment (our 35th) in our long-running build-your-ownstreaming-film-fest series. This week, let’s dive into the work of writer-director Denis Villeneuve, whose long-awaited Dune adaptation is set for release in the fall. Some of the French Canadian auteur’s earliest works are available to stream if you hunt around — the 1998 romantic drama August 32nd on Earth is available via Mubi, for instance, and 2010’s family drama Incendies is available to rent for just $1 via Amazon Prime Video. If you’re ready to ramp up the intensity right out of the gate, queue up one of Villeneuve’s two 2013 offerings, both of which feature strong turns from Jake Gyllenhaal: the extremely intense Hugh Jackman-fronted kidnapping thriller Prisoners ($3 via Amazon, YouTube and iTunes), or the neo-noir psychological thriller Enemy (free on Kanopy if you have a library card). After that, dive into 2015’s ensemble action flick Sicario ($4 on Amazon, YouTube and iTunes) — for my money, one of the best shoot-’emups this side of No Country for Old Men, and I’m not just saying that because Josh Brolin is in it. Bring your Villeneuve streaming fest home with a powerful double-header: 2016’s multiple-Oscar-nominated sci-fi drama Arrival (also $4 via the aforementioned platforms) and 2017’s high-stakes sequel Blade Runner 2049 (now streaming via HBO Max). The former takes some liberties with its source material — Ted Chiang’s fantastic 1998 short story “Story of Your

PODCAST

FILM

[YOU CAN’T HOLD THE TIDE WITH A BROOM]

Life” — but does so successfully, and features a powerful performance from the always-impressive Amy Adams. The latter expanded the universe created by its iconic 1982 predecessor to impressive effect, and features spectacular cinematography from industry legend Roger Deakins, who won his first Oscar (how did it take so long?!) for his work on the film. If you’re not psyched up for Villeneuve’s Dune now, then I’ve just got four words for you: The sleeper must awaken. D. PATRICK RODGERS [LEGEND HAS IT]

LISTEN TO WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS SEASON 2

In the first season of his podcast What Had Happened Was, indie-rap virtuoso Open Mike Eagle sat down with legendary producer Prince Paul and got a detailed oral history about his career — from his work with De La Soul to his solo efforts and his friendship with the late MF DOOM. For the new season, Mike brings in yet another legend: rapper-producer El-P. Currently one-half of critically acclaimed duo Run the Jewels (alongside Killer Mike),

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PRISONERS and guitarist Alex Chilton, a late-career boost.

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LIVESTREAM | VIDEO | AUDIO the Brooklynite also founded alt-rap trio Company Flow and co-founded the nowdefunct indie label Definitive Jux, once home to underground heroes like Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Murs and RJD2. The podcast starts with El-P discussing his early career and the formation of Company Flow. New episodes drop weekly every Wednesday, and are available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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FOOD AND DRINK

KEEP ON TRUCKING

Local grocer Turnip Truck celebrates 20 years of healthy shopping

PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

JOHN DYKE

T

wo decades ago, the local landscape for anyone searching for organic and local groceries was pretty bleak.

Kroger stocked more generic Cost Cutter beer than organic produce, and Whole Foods had yet to roll into town to separate desperate shoppers from a good portion of their paychecks.

John Dyke found himself frequently schlepping across the river from his home in East Nashville’s Edgefield neighborhood to shop at Sunshine Grocery on Belmont Boulevard, and he noticed something intriguing.

“I wasn’t that educated in natural foods at the time, but I did shop at Sunshine,” says Dyke. “Then I saw that there were so many of my neighbors shopping there that I thought, ‘East Nashville needs a store like this!’ ” That idea was the seed that would ultimately grow into Turnip Truck.

Stepping away from his career in surgical supply sales, Dyke reached back to his youth growing up on a farm in East Tennes-

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see for more inspiration. “I was in my 30s the first time I felt like I’d found my passion,” he says. Dyke spent his time attending organic food conferences and educational seminars to learn about the burgeoning industry. “I fell in love with local organic produce, and I felt like a kid in a candy store.”

He leaned on his East Side neighbors for advice as he put his business plan together.

“I reached out to see what they wanted,” says Dyke. “Turnip Truck has been a gift to me and a gift to the neighborhood. I happen to own it, but it’s the neighborhood’s store. I just kept slowly building it.”

The building on the edge of the Five Points neighborhood that would eventually house the original Turnip Truck also helped shape Dyke’s business model. “It was an H.G. Hill grocery store in the early 1900s, and I was fascinated by how the Hill family ran their stores,” explains Dyke. “They always located their stores on the right side of the road on the way home from work, often at the top of trolley lines. They sourced a lot of local stuff, buying seasonal products from farmers who

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 22, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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FOOD AND DRINK grew for these small local stores in the days before chemicals were used in produce. I felt like I was completing the full circle that was coming back around.”

In 2001, Turnip Truck hosted one of Nashville’s first neighborhood farmers markets in its parking lot to help create awareness and demand around locally sourced products. Dyke was also an active member of the Tennessee Organic Growers Association and was instrumental in developing what he calls a “clean list” of ingredients that drive the merchandising at his stores — now expanded to three locations in East Nashville, the Gulch and Sylvan Park. “I started out with organic and natural, plus no hormones or additives, and local whenever possible,” says Dyke.

Turnip Truck COO Kim Totzke explains why this list is so important to the store and to shoppers. “It’s a big part of our core mission,” she says. “Because of that unacceptable ingredients list, shoppers don’t have to look at the back of the box, since we can’t bring it into the store unless it’s a clean product. We take a lot of care in sourcing.”

Totzke has been instrumental in the Turnip Truck’s expansion efforts. Soon after opening his second store in the Gulch in 2010, Dyke realized that he needed some professional help. “I was running two stores, doing all the buying and concentrating on keeping excellent relationships with our employees,” he says. “But I had to start trusting other people to take on responsibility. It was a hard lesson.”

Dyke knew Totzke as an East Nashville neighbor and had worked with her and Adam Williams when the duo ran operations for Provence, whose main production bakery at the time was right across the street from Dyke’s new Gulch store. “I’ve seen visionaries/founders/CEOs build great businesses,” explains Totzke, “and eventually they reach the point where they’re wearing too many hats. John realized that he had grown the business to the point where he couldn’t teach everyone everything anymore, so he brought Adam and I on so that he could focus on innovation, and we could establish the operating procedures and structures to support his entrepreneurship.”

With Totzke handling operations and Williams managing finance and technology as CFO, the trio has developed into something of a dream team. “We’re a good three-legged stool,” jokes Totkze. “We let John dream and plan for innovation and expansion. Adam figures out how we can pay for it, and I figure out how to execute it all. It’s going really well, and it’s nice to see John make suggestions and see them happen.”

“I do miss the customer interaction on the floor and working directly with employees,” says Dyke, referencing Turnip Truck’s early days. “But I’m proud that we have built a business that can help people lead a healthier life.”

Another unheralded benefit that Turnip Truck has contributed to the city has been introducing shoppers to local purveyors and artisans who might have previously only been able to sell their products under a 10-by-10 tent in a field somewhere at a market or crafts fair. “People really want local,” says Totzke, “and we want to be Nashville’s grocery store. Our local program has an enormous number of vendors, even if

it complicates the buying process. Every item we buy from a small vendor means a separate purchase order, as opposed to a big vendor where we can order a whole pallet of products with a single P.O. But it’s really important to us and our customers, and we like to offer a choice in who you’re doing business with.”

Some local heroes Turnip Truck has been instrumental in bringing to the market include Professor Bailey’s Pimento Cheese, TN Homegrown CBD, Delvin Farms, Ousley Ouch salsas, The Honey Pot personal hygiene products, Blister Hot Sauce and many others.

Dyke notes that there’s an inherent difficulty involved with helping raise the visibility of these smaller purveyors. “Once they get discovered, there can be a huge demand to buy directly from them at farmers markets,” he says. “And sometimes we get left out and have to beg for more product for our stores.

Still, it feels good to know that as we grow, the community is growing around us.”

Dyke also demonstrates his commitment to the community through behind-thescenes initiatives in his business. The new Sylvan Park store retrofitted its power grid to generate 15 percent of the building’s electrical needs from solar panels that cover almost every square inch of the roof. The current East Nashville outpost — which relocated a few blocks from the original East Side spot in 2016 — has hosted a number of beehives on the roof, until last year’s tornado blew most of them away. “We had grown from one to 10 hives,” recalls Dyke, “but the storm took out all but three of them.

We’re installing new hives to regrow the colony and renovating the East Nashville store to include native plants as part of a biodiverse community with the bees.” Turnip Truck will sell honey inside the store and feature some of the bees’ products at their juice bar as well.

Having grown up on a cattle farm, Dyke has always been interested in beef, and he recently purchased a small operation named Richland Hills Farm where he will raise grass-fed beef to sell through the Southern Natural Farms brand. “I love the land,” he says. “It gives me peace. I didn’t intend to farm beef cattle; I thought I’d grow produce. But I’ve been reading about regenerative agriculture and want to concentrate on raising the beef and cultivating the grass underneath them as a CO2 filter that they graze on.”

To celebrate 20 years in business, Turnip Truck has a series called 20 Days of Giving planned for May. Follow them on social media to discover the daily schedule, including $100 gift card giveaways, surprise cart purchases, free soup and sandwich offers from the food bar, deals from their butcher selections and supplement specials.

“The sales will be crazy,” promises Totzke. “We want to give a reason every day for 20 days that you’ll want to come in for.”

They’ll also be donating products to local organizations like local outreach organization The Store and raising funds to donate to schools.

“We’re excited to be heading into our 21st year, so we’re giving away stuff and giving back to the community,” says Dyke.

“They’re the ones that have given me the gift to make it 20 years.”

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— George Jones From the Museum’s Journal of Country Music, vol. 16, no. 3

Without producer Billy Sherrill’s insistence, Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones might’ve passed on what’s broadly viewed as his career-defining hit.

“He Stopped Loving Her Today”—which made its country chart debut forty-one years ago this week—captured a man whose pining is only cured by death. Jones was skeptical, but with Sherrill’s prodding, delivered it with an uncanny depth of emotion. It became his first #1 in more than five years, earned a Grammy and multiple CMA Awards, and is now considered one of the greatest country songs of all time.

Learn more about artists who helped build and expand the foundation of country music by visiting the Museum’s core exhibition, Sing Me Back Home.

EXHIBIT NOW OPEN DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE Visit CountryMusicHallofFame.org to buy tickets. photo: from the collection of the country music hall of fame and museum

nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BOOKS

A BOOK FOR BOOK NERDS Ross King details the book industry of the Italian Renaissance

BY JIM PATTERSON

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pupsandpints.com

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read Ross King’s The Bookseller of Florence on an iPad using Kindle software. The irony was exquisite. This history book about books for book nerds details the transition from handwritten to printed books during the Italian Renaissance. Today, we’re living through the next transition — from print to digital.

Vespasiano da Bisticci, called “king of the world’s booksellers” and “prince of Florentine booksellers” by contemporaries in the 15th century, makes for a compelling central figure in The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance, but a lot of the fun comes when the author diverges from Vespasiano to share the origins of book-related minutiae.

Did you know that the first “bookworms” were actual worms that consumed papyrus, the plant used to make paper for books in the early 1400s? How about the beginnings of the phrase “It’s Greek to me,” which comes from frustrated scribes who came upon Greek words and phrases they couldn’t translate? Did you know that the emperor Charlemagne zealously promoted literary studies in the eighth century, despite being illiterate himself?

One more: The first freebie promotional copies of a book were sent out by Cardinal Basil Bessarion around 1469. The result: The collection of writings by the philosopher Plato was promoted with the first ever blurbs — promotional quotes to plug sales.

King effectively contrasts the drive to improve and learn THE BOOKSELLER OF with the frequently FLORENCE: THE STORY extreme violence OF THE MANUSCRIPTS THAT ILLUMINATED THE in society in the RENAISSANCE age of the Medici.

BY ROSS KING ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS The Bookseller of Florence has many 494 PAGES, $30 anecdotes involvKING WILL DISCUSS HIS ing severed heads BOOK ONLINE 6 P.M. on stakes and other MONDAY, APRIL 19, VIA bodily mutilations.

PARNASSUS BOOKS And there’s lots of gout. As it turns out, gout was a big problem during this tumultuous time.

As King illustrates, Vespasiano was an expert networker who sometimes sold his books to both sides of warring parties, somehow keeping his own head from going on one of those stakes. Vespasiano “was the most accomplished, prolific, and influential producer of manuscripts during the fifteenth century,” King writes. He took commissions to create books that were read by “popes, ecclesiastics, kings, and all learned men.”

He was the force behind the creation of at least 1,000 manuscripts during his career, commissioning translators, calligraphers and illustrators, and he was the intermedi-

ary in the sale of countless other books.

Johannes Gutenberg sealed the fate of handcrafted books in the 1450s with his invention of the printing press. But it took a while for handwritten books to fade away.

There was concern that the swiftness of the printing process would lead to errors.

One scholar thought it a negative thing that knowledge would be available to people who “in happier times” couldn’t get it. The Benedictine monk Filippo da Strada worried that printers would manufacture low-cost books “suggestive of sexuality,” anticipating the pornography industry.

By 1472, more books were printed than manuscripts copied for the first time, at least north of the Alps, according to King.

“Many readers agreed that this new method of producing books was wonderful, even miraculous,” he writes. “Over the next few years, various bishops, scholars, teachers, doctors, and friars would proclaim printing a ‘holy art,’ a ‘new and almost divine way of writing.’ ” Vespasiano closed his shop after almost 50 years in business and retired as printing outpaced his business model. But he began a new career — as a writer.

If King’s account of Vespasiano and his era shows a weakness, it is one of overzealousness. Some of his explanations, especially about the process of creating a book, give more detail than many readers will want. But Vespasiano’s story is remarkable, and King does a meritorious job of telling it, along with many interesting detours.

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

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

A SONG NOBODY CAN SING

Revisiting the poignant punch of Bob Frank in Within a Few Degrees

BY RON WYNN

E

ast Memphis singer-songwriter Bob Frank was a witty, often prophetic lyricist and engaging vocalist who never received the exposure or acclaim he deserved. No less a luminary than the great producer and WITHIN A FEW DEGREES OUT NOW VIA LIGHT IN multi-instrumentalTHE ATTIC ist Jim Dickinson called him “the greatest songwriter you never heard.” Frank, who died in 2019 at his home in El Sobrante, Calif., seemed destined for bigger things when his self-titled debut was released on the Vanguard label in 1972. A Vietnam vet who’d been signed as a contract writer for Tree Publishing in Nashville, Frank had little interest in the usual mandate to crank out hits for the top country acts of the era.

Unfortunately, what happened to him serves as an object lesson in music-business politics. Frank landed a deal as an artist with Vanguard, much-loved for groundbreaking folk, jazz and blues records. What ultimately resulted was definitely an unusual item — a 12-song set produced on Music Row. The album contained a host of distinctive, prickly and odd numbers Frank penned about subjects ranging from the vagaries of auto theft to the joys of drinking wine and getting high. The tunes aren’t exactly the kind of stuff that lands you on the Billboard Hot 100, but they featured a pleasing, striking baritone delivery, and had a punch and poignancy that made them worth hearing.

Sadly, if not unpredictably, Bob Frank didn’t do much to help Bob Frank professionally. Part of that was due to limited promotion, but a larger portion was the result of a rather ugly dispute that erupted during a New York City showcase intended to spotlight the artist. Instead, it ended up destroying his Vanguard career. Frank maintained he’d been told by label executives he had creative control over the album, something

GRACE PERIOD

Zachary Thompson Grace explores ‘whitetrash psychedelia’ on Intelligent Design Flaw

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

A

head of Friday’s release of Intelligent Design Flaw, the second solo album from longtime Mock Orange bass player Zachary Thompson Grace, I dropped by Grace’s South Nashville home studio Self-Help International to chat about the LP, a 10-year labor of love for the 39-year-old musician and engineer.

Asked if he thinks the record shares some musical DNA with Mock Orange — the Southwestern Indiana indie-rock long-haulers he’s played with since 2002 — Grace shoots a puzzled look from across the control room. “I think it couldn’t be further,” Grace says.

“But I guess it’s in the same world.”

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that didn’t prove to be the case. During the performance at the famed club Max’s Kansas City in Manhattan, Vanguard expected Frank to play songs from the record. He instead opted to play new songs he was writing. When a Vanguard exec intervened and implored Frank to play the songs on the album, his response was: “If they want to hear those songs, tell them to go buy the fucking album.” His time on Vanguard ended rather quickly after that fiasco.

This incident is part of a rainbow of colorful details from Frank’s life spotlighted in the comprehensive three-disc set Within a Few Degrees: A Little Gest of Bob Frank. In mid-December, archival label Light in the Attic released the collection, which includes two full CDs and a DVD of producer-director Isaac Pingree’s highly entertaining, alternately humorous and disconcerting 75-minute film Within a Few Degrees. The documentary covers Frank’s life, revealing how he was very well-respected in the business; the aforementioned Jim Dickinson cut his songs, as did Chris LeDoux, Gary McMahan and Jerry McGill. The film also covers the nearly three decades it took for Frank to make another record, during which time he struggled to make a living, doing jobs including working for the city of Oakland, Calif. But when the records came — beginning in 2001 with A Little Gest of Robin Hood, his 2001 reimagining of a 15thcentury narrative poem — they were very well-received. While Frank continued to collaborate with distinctive songwriters like John Murry and Chuck Prophet and release outstanding records like Keep on Burning and World Without End on his own Bowstring Records, Bob Frank was becoming a sought-after collector’s item. In 2014, Light in the Attic reissued Bob Frank as a co-release with Vanguard.

Frank was able to watch the documentary before his death. The sardonic perspective

To untangle the band and Grace’s solo work, we rewind to his upbringing in pancake-flat Evansville, Ind., in the early 1990s. Across the street from his family’s house was a cow pasture; across the cow pasture lived Mock Orange main man Ryan Grisham. “If the light in his garage was on,” he says, “I’d go over there.”

That short walk would change Grace’s life. He was 12 at the time. Grisham and his bandmates, bassist Brandon Chappell and drummer Heath Metzger, were teenagers.

“When they played me Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr., it was like ‘game over,’ ” remembers Grace. “I got a guitar and a distortion pedal, and suddenly there was possibility.” He and some of the Orange-men’s younger brothers formed a band called Polly Fitzpatrick, practicing on their gear and opening their gigs.

“We were too young to tour, but in Evansville there’s absolutely nothing to do, so we played. We didn’t see it as a gimmick — we felt like a legit band.”

While Mock Orange hit the road behind their 1998 emo-core classic Nines and Sixes and its 2000 follow-up The Record Play, Grace was earning his recording and touring stripes in The Dustin Change,

revealed by his personal commentary in the film also informs his take on the film. Frank liked it, according to Pingree & Co., and said: “I come off as just one more ordinary, fucked-up mind!”

The two CDs collect a host of his work.

One is called Nashville Demos, and per the title, it features recordings of songs Frank wrote while under contract to Tree. (The cover includes a photograph of Exit/In with Bob Frank as the star attraction on the marquee.) The other is called The Cassette Tape Years, and features home recordings from the ’70s to the ’90s, the period between Bob Frank and Robin Hood. Despite the sometimes poor audio quality of the source material, the songs are emblematic of Frank’s compositional personality. They don’t boast

overpowering melodies or flowery storylines, but offer clever insights and prickly observations, and are sung with verve and flair. It’s easy to understand how someone with his style and technique would have a tough time being shoehorned into a restrictive setting governed by someone else’s determination of what makes a hit.

Still, when you hear Bob Frank’s music, or his pithy comments, you better understand the special kind of talent he was, despite the poor treatment he received from the industry. The film and the recordings reaffirm that gifted performers don’t always attain the fame their skills merit, for reasons that are usually a lot more complicated than most folks will ever know.

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

INTELLIGENT DESIGN FLAW OUT FRIDAY, APRIL 16, VIA BEDFIRE

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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an indie-rock combo. For their 2001 album Soundtrack to a Chessmatch, The Dustin Change sought out an old friend and fellow Hoosier — Newburgh, Ind., native Jeremy Ferguson. The LP was an early project for Ferguson’s then-fledgling Nashville studio Battle Tapes Recording.

That year, Chappell bowed out of Mock Orange to focus on his family. Grisham, Metzger and guitarist Joe Asher didn’t have to look far for a replacement. With Grace in the fold, the foursome put out a trio of LPs over the next decade: 2004’s knotty, epic Mind Is Not Brain, 2006’s Ferguson-recorded Captain Love and 2011’s Disguised as Ghosts, which Grace produced. The bassist also made his first solo foray in 2010 with A Name and a Shape, and had started work on a second.

Even as Grace was thriving creatively, he was out in the weeds personally. After a “horribly dark” year living with his now-ex-wife in Carbondale, Ill., he relocated to Nashville at the urging of another transplanted Evansvillian: Aaron Distler, then drummer for poppy alt-rockers Heypenny. (He’d later go on to be comic Ralphie May’s personal assistant, and after May’s death, launched pasta and bakedgoods purveyor Mr. Aaron’s Goods.) Landing on his feet with a stint as Heypenny’s touring guitaristkeyboardist, Grace began building a résumé as an engineer. With Mock Orange slowing down, he filled the playing void by joining bands like the flannelflying Efforts and ’70s-rock-inspired Shut Up. Now an indie-rock legacy act, Mock Orange resurfaced in 2016 with its sixth LP Put the Kid on the Sleepy Horse, issued by San Diego’s Topshelf Records, and returned twice to Japan. They’ve enjoyed sustained popularity in Japan since their early years, not unlike how European tours have consistently helped Nashville collective Lambchop break even.

In between recording clients at Self-Help International — which spans the subterranean half of the split-level house where Grace lives with his wife L.E. (also Mock Orange’s manager) and ginger tabby cat Wallace — the musician-producer chipped away at the follow-up to A Name and a Shape he’d begun writing a decade earlier. Last year, under quarantine, he finally finished it.

“I was really grappling with what I was tying up here,” he explains. “When I started on [Intelligent Design Flaw] I lived in a different city. Had a different wife. Different jobs. Different lifestyle. And through all this change, my life was recorded.”

Revisiting the raw angst of Carbondale-era material like “Nothing at All” used to unnerve Grace, but now he leans into it. New songs like the LP’s first and last tracks “Canary Never Sang” and “Bathe in the Light of the Sun,” meanwhile, spilled right out. After four months of intensive mixing, the 11-song set developed its sonic identity.

“I wanted it to be a colorful guitar album,” Grace says. “Bright sound, bright artwork … psychedelic in a way that’s like … white-trash psychedelia.”

Intelligent Design Flaw satisfies those aims, swinging from cacophonous power pop (“Get Real,” which features soaring guitar-monies — and cowbell!) to nervy New Wave (“Never Had It So Good”) and lysergic alt-country (“Slapstick Tragedy”). A homespun collage of recorded and synthesized instruments, beats and textures, with Grace’s reedy vocals acting as the glue, it revels in being unburdened by deadlines. It communicates the familiarity of a home studio one can navigate blindfolded — and the relief in moving forward.

“I wrote a lot of this record while at odds with myself, so it felt freeing to complete it,” Grace says.

“In bands, I’m a journeyman. I got into producing because I’m a facilitator. But I had to make something personal … which I guess I do every 10 years.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

MUSIC

GEARING UP: SOUNDS ABOUT PERFECT Hi Tech Service’s Tom Brucker leaves a hi-fi legacy behind

BY ABBY LEE HOOD

T

om Brucker stands outside his time capsule of a hi-fi store and repair shop off Nolensville Pike helping a friend load an old DVD player into a van. Brucker says he’s trying to keep as much equipSTORE CLOSING SALE APRIL 17-18 AT ment as possible HI TECH SERVICE, from being tossed 2934 NOLENSVILLE PIKE when Hi Tech Service closes its doors at the end of May. “It’s like adopting puppies,” Brucker says of all the receivers, speakers and other home stereo gear he’s parting with.

“It’s part of finding a good home.”

Brucker moved to Nashville in 1978 and started working at Anderson Audio, where he repaired stereos, televisions and more. He eventually bought his own testing equipment, all of which went with him whenever he changed jobs and still sits on a crowded work table in his shop.

In late 1984, Brucker and business partner Tommy Harmon bought out a dealer they worked for and opened Hi Tech in Madison. Later, they moved the shop to its current location at 2934 Nolensville Pike, and Brucker took full ownership in 1987.

On a tour of the shop, Brucker points to amplifiers, receivers and turntables that still need repair — the shop ceases taking new repair orders May 1 as he winds down the operation. Without notes, he identifies each piece and its owner. He passes a giant turntable from the 1930s, capable of playing 14-inch discs, which he’s repairing for the Southern Baptist Convention. He notes that Jack White also has one, but it’s better. He knows this because he fixed it himself.

Helene Kreigh has been the officer manager at Hi Tech since 2014. She says the shop’s customers love to tell their stories.

“They talk about the good ol’ days, stereo pieces they bought using their allowance, and that one album on that one pair of speakers that changed their lives forever,” Kreigh says. “[Hi Tech] will be greatly missed by so many.”

To clear the store, Hi Tech will have a giant parking-lot sale on Saturday and Sunday, which will move indoors if there’s rain.

Brucker cautions that not everything in the

store is for the person wanting to buy their first stereo system — much of the gear is of the sort that, while it may be working now, it’ll need maintenance and probably more repairs over time. He also says he wanted to have a sale last year, but COVID changed more than a few plans. The pandemic also encouraged more audiophiles and vinyl lovers to invest in the equipment they use to listen to music. Brucker sees a new generation of stereo lovers geeking out over their setups, and he estimates that his sales increased 25 percent during the pandemic. He points to how listening to analog media on a quality stereo rewards the work that goes into it, in a way that streaming music from a phone — or even listening on CD — does not.

“When you sit there and listen, well, what does that do to your body?” he says. “In Europe, they play music for people in hospital — they recover faster. People listen to music to relax and calm down. There’s a physiological response. They call it ‘warm sound.’ When

nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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MUSIC

THE SPIN TO SOOTHE THE SOUL

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN AND MEGAN SELING

I

stereo equipment delivers that physical reaction, you’re gonna listen to it for hours. …

Four or five bars [in Nashville] play records for people; it’ll be back. If COVID had never happened, it would be all the rage.”

Patricia Billings of Atomic Art & Sound agrees that listening to vinyl is an experience you can’t get elsewhere. She loves holding a record, looking at the art and making a connection with the music. She says Brucker was a mentor with infinite patience whenever she had questions as she learned the art of turntable repair, and she hopes Hi Tech leaves a “legacy of sharing information.” Brucker says he has 10 filing cabinets full of service manuals to archive, preserving multiple manufacturers’ guides for future technicians. “I’ve had a mission for the last 12 years to bring new techs up to speed, so they can mentor,” he says.

During my visit to Hi Tech, regular

customer Jeff Moritz wanders in and sits in a chair behind the counter. When he introduces himself as a customer, Brucker corrects him, saying Moritz is a friend.

Moritz first dropped off an amplifier for repair about 10 years ago. Brucker quoted him three weeks but took only one to do the job, and he’s been coming back ever since.

As Moritz describes his love of old cassettes and discusses the current high price of tape, Brucker pulls out some old tapes, recorded in Tokyo in 1978, and offers them to him.

Though Hi Tech is soon to be no more, Brucker isn’t putting away his soldering iron for good.

“I’m gonna specialize in cassette decks.

There are online interested groups — tapeheads.net, professional technicians who help. That’s what it takes to keep those things ticking.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

n 2020, East Nashville’s Queen Ave Collective — which resides in the same spot that was once the DIY venue simply called Queen Ave — made its public debut.

The production crew contributed visually striking, excellent-sounding live-in-studio performances by area artists to local virtual festivals including Far Out Free Fest in June and Drkmttr’s Spirit of Drkmttr Halloween stream. It’s something the Queen Ave crew looks to do with more regularity.

April 7’s set from Altered Statesman, streamed via Twitch, served as a test run for a semiregular online show series called Queen Ave Collective Presents, sort of akin to the work Todd Sherwood has been doing at the nearby 5 Spot.

Dubbed “The Mayor of West Nashville” by a viewer in the chat box, Steve Poulton is a local treasure hiding in plain sight. When you see Altered Statesman on a bill, it’s a safe bet that it’ll be a great gig. The lanky, sandy-haired bandleader has one of the smoothest voices around, and at Queen Ave, he was part of a six-piece ensemble that included vibraphone and pedal steel in addition to conventional rock instruments. They played with a remarkable looseness for probably not having gotten to jam much in the past year.

With bass and drums firmly in the pocket throughout, the group provided a jazzy, gently psychedelic canvas for Poulton’s evocative and soulful short-story songs. Much of the material sounds like it comes from a previous Nashville, maybe a bit of a seedier one — a milieu Poulton, who came of age here in the 1980s and started Altered Statesman in the late ’90s, knows well.

“This song is a vibe,” commented one viewer during a tune labeled “Big Bounce” on the set list. They could’ve been referring to any one of the half-dozen numbers played.

Aside from an odd technical glitch where audio from a Mad Men-era Lucky Strike commercial popped up a few times midset, the broadcast was as tight as we’ve come to expect from the Queen Ave team. The moodily lit backdrop and subtle camerawork were well-suited for the latenight after-party atmosphere of the music. Like The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, Poulton is a guy one imagines came out of the womb with a pair of shades on. Knowing the band has the repertoire

to easily stretch out, the only thing about the halfhour performance that could’ve been better is if it had been longer.

Speaking of technical difficulties: They just suck, man. April 10’s Alanna Royale livestream on Sessions, her first stream with a full band, was one more example of why this godforsaken pandemic needs to end.

Royale and her band — guitarist Jared Colby, keyboardist Kent Toalson and bassist Gabe Golden — were performing live together for the first time in more than a year, and they were coming in hot from Royale’s guest room. While the vocals were on point (as Royale’s soulful pipes always are), the instruments were almost entirely lost in the mix.

“We’re gonna play a new song for you, but I want you to be able to hear the fucking instruments,” the singer said while attempting to fix the glitch after the first two songs. “Everything was good in sound check, I don’t know what the hell is going on!”

But after some knob twisting and plug checking, the show had to go on, and while the mix was less than ideal, there was still plenty of good to take away.

The band did play those new songs, giving us a peek into what their upcoming record holds. It’s a record that Royale worked on while getting lost in her own head during a mid-pandemic road trip.

“I took some time in the trash pandemic and drove from Nashville to San Francisco Bay to finish my record,” she said before debuting the new song, “Why Won’t You Let Me Love You?” Royale wrote the song “Imagination” — a tune she hopes “shakes Isaac Hayes out of his grave” — while “driving through the desert in Arizona and New Mexico just contemplating some shit.”

“If you’re out there right now and you’re dealing with some serious shit up here,” said Royale while pointing to her head, “it’s OK. It’s gonna be OK.” The band covered “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” (the Gerry and the Pacemakers song, not the Ray Charles song) and Millie Jackson’s “A Child of God (It’s Hard to Believe).” “I dedicate it to all you fucking racists out there,” said Royale. “It’s 2021, you need to get your mind right.” The band also threw in a less psychedelic and more R&B version of The Doors’ “Light My Fire.”

An hour later — with the instruments still just whispers in the room but Royale’s captivating presence keeping folks entertained — the show was over. The band deserved a better-sounding set; Royale fans deserved a better-sounding set. Knowing this, the singer left us all with parting words that would ensure the future is brighter: “Wash your hands, wear the mask, and get your fucking shot so we can all get on with our lives.” Hell yes.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE LIGHT THAT’S RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES: ALTERED STATESMAN

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FILM

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY Local songwriter Sam Ashworth jumps from Grammys to Oscars with One Night in Miami …

BY CORY WOODROOF

O

n Oscar-nomination morning, Nashville songwriter Sam Ashworth was up early to watch the announcement livestream. He needed to see if the roller-coaster ride he’d been on lately would take another loop.

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI …

Though he had IS AVAILABLE TO RENT VIA AMAZON PRIME VIDEO; to wait until the last THE 93RD ACADEMY nomination in the AWARDS AIR SUNDAY, category was anAPRIL 25, ON ABC nounced, Ashworth wound up one of this year’s nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards. He’s up for Best Original Song for co-writing “Speak Now” with actor and singer Leslie Odom Jr., from Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami …

“I just didn’t want all the fun to end,” Ashworth says about his ongoing experience with the film. “I’m still trying to get my head around it, really.”

As with most folks, Ashworth’s past year or so has been an unexpected doozy. He and his wife, recording artist Ruby Amanfu, returned to Nashville from Los Angeles in January 2020 from the Grammys. They’d both received nominations in some of the night’s top categories for their collaboration with singer and friend H.E.R. on her 2019 album I Used to Know Her. About a month later, the world stopped in its tracks with COVID-19 — leaving Ashworth, like many, quarantining and wondering what would come next. Unbeknownst to him, the opportunity to write a song for an Oscar-contending movie would come calling in the summer. Is this the pandemic direction he expected for his career?

“No, no, not at all,” Ashworth says, emphatically. “I mean, no, absolutely not.”

“It has been the most bizarre year,” he says. “I didn’t get called to write for this movie until August. I was just working on lots of different things from home.”

The songwriter had worked with Odom

PRIMAL STREAM 50

Nightmarish sci-fi and Easter-inspired horror, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

I

t’s been a tightrope as of late. On one side, we’ve got improving vaccination rates and a sense that some folks are trying. On the other, we’ve got more of the things that define Nashville being sold off for development. I don’t know what to tell you.

It’s all chaotic and sad and feels emotionally empty.

But there are still some great film options, thankfully.

See this week’s recommended titles below, and as always, look back at past issues of the Scene for more suggestions of what to watch.

in the past on the latter’s 2019 album Mr and earned the opportunity to work with him again on “Speak Now,” which ultimately ended up in the coveted end-credits spot of One Night in Miami ... — an adaptation of Kemp Powers’ stage play, a fictionalized account of a 1964 meeting between icons Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke (Odom plays the latter).

“Of course, I jumped at it immediately,” Ashworth says of the offer to work on the song — though he had to compete to land the gig. “When I got the call, I had two weeks to turn something around. … So I had decided that I wanted to get it turned around in a week. ‘I want to be one of the first ones they hear.’ … I got right on it. I just cleared the schedule and pretty much locked myself in the studio for a week.”

In the film, “Speak Now” plays as the end credits start rolling, right after Odom’s Cooke sings his career-defining song “A Change Is Gonna Come” live on The Tonight Show.

“It took a long time to find the starting point,” Ashworth says. “It took watching the movie a lot, and it took playing the end of the movie a lot and playing Leslie’s amazing performance of ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ at the end of the film and watching that a lot and playing around with tempos and chords. … It’s all just about getting to a point, as a creator, where you trust your gut.”

The song carries the urgency of the film’s spirit. The song and the film are about taking action in the moment, and how there’s no time to wait when it comes to listening to the oppressed, responding to injustice and making a difference. The chorus of the song repeats, “Can you hear the bells ring out?

Speak now.”

“I wanted people to turn off the movie in their living room … and feel a sense of urgency,” Ashworth says. “The movie had that sense of urgency, and the movie, to me, was timeless. … I knew the music needed to be

COME TRUE VIA VIDEO ON DEMAND I wasn’t ready for it. Sometimes, a film has to lure you in as a viewer, like one of those plants that patiently awaits a fly, or tiny mouse, or unexpecting tourist, and then all of a sudden you’re caught and already being digested. Come True is like that. A defiantly Canadian night swim into the depths of the human mind, this movie has elements of Beyond the Black Rainbow, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Altered States and The Beyond swirling about in the mix.

But writer-director Anthony Scott Burns has made something that doesn’t feel exactly like anything else.

Come True follows Sarah (Julia Stone), a teen on the streets but still going to school, timing occasional returns to her parents’ home so that they never quite speak, sleeping on playgrounds or at friends’ homes, and always moving forward. When Sarah finds herself in a university sleep study, it’s the perfect solution to all her problems — until something happens when she’s sleeping. And there’s a mystery just across the threshold of consciousness that threatens the very

SAM ASHWORTH (RIGHT) AND LESLIE ODOM JR. AT THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS timeless and also urgent.

“These troubles, these issues … this is not anything new,” he continues. “This has been going on since the dawn of time, and unfortunately, will continue to. I think that small changes are coming every day, but this is a message that people need to hear for a long time to come, and to feel that urgency, to speak up.”

The song has amassed plenty of critical love, including nabbing the Music City Film

Critics’ Association award for Best Original Song. It’s all been a whirlwind for Ashworth, who is now halfway to an EGOT’s worth of nominations on his awards bingo card.

“The trajectory of writing it in August to then, like, by … December, maybe … we started getting regional critics’ awards and stuff, and [the film] hadn’t even come out yet,” he says. “It’s just been one crazy, unexpected thing after another.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

COME TRUE

fabric of life itself.

This is a slow-burn film that is not afraid to get

weird, or to follow a questionable choice through to its very end. There are lots of different kinds of

nashvillescene.com | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Be SEEN in the UPCOMING SPECIAL ISSUES

FILM experiences that art can inspire, but it’s rare for something to be able to terrify you completely as easily as it slaps you across the face with something nearly ludicrous. If Come True had done nothing other than taking a sex scene of Munich-level ridiculousness and making it into something so conceptually terrifying that you have to change the angle of the laptop screen to reaffirm the boundaries of The Real, it would be one of the essential fantasy-terror films of the millennium.

But there’s more, including a whole visual philosophy to mapping dreamscapes that becomes reassuring and unspeakably terrifying with each journey through its beautifully rendered spaces. Also, points for its synth-gaze score, Landon Liboiron’s performance (he was the Romani werewolf on Hemlock Grove, which I watched all three seasons of so you don’t have to) and a unified theory of nightmares. As far as rewatch value, this is right up there with The Empty Man, lurking in the subconscious to wreak havoc.

CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE ON HBO MAX The recent holiday got me thinking. Every Easter, there’s a lot of dithering about the best horror film to watch. You can get metaphysical and go with Donnie

Darko or The Last Temptation of Christ, or chronoskim back to the pagan roots with The Wicker Man. There’s ’70s classic Night of the Lepus, in which giant rabbits go on a rampage. (Though I think some actual rabbits died in the making of that one, so that’s a totally legitimate reason to avoid it.) You can travel further with the egg motif with Alien, its Italian ripoff Contamination or the sadly hard-to-find The Kindred (a film that illustrates the necessity of checking every watermelon for tentacle monsters). There are even a few offerings of murderous Easter Bunnies (guy in suit variety).

But the best Easter horror film is Mick Garris’ Critters 2: The Main Course. Part of it is because it’s set on Easter weekend. Part of it is because it utilizes Easter egg hunts as a plot point. But it’s mostly because it actually engages with the concept of resurrection and rebirth by way of a Playboy centerfold who is somehow necessary to the plot. (It was the ’80s, and other than that I don’t know what to tell you.) You can use this information for Easter 2022, or on May 2 — which is Orthodox Easter and maybe a bit more conducive to you and your social circle’s vaccination schedule.

Featuring Broadway legend Terrence Mann!

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Our Annual Style Issue May 6 ’COURT IS BACK IN SESSION

The Belcourt to reopen April 23 for limited-capacity screenings

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Our Summer Guide Issue May 20 For information on advertising to the Scene’s audience of more than 400,000 people, email Mike Smith at msmsith@nashvillescene.com 32

O

n March 15 of last year, longtime local arthouse the Belcourt Theatre announced that it would be closing its doors in response to concerns regarding COVID-19.

The initial plan, the Belcourt team stated, was to reopen on April 7, 2020.

Well. We all know that the pesky novel coronavirus had other plans. While the Hillsboro Village theater did ultimately reopen for a brief stretch with a variety of safety precautions in place — not to mention opening its parking lot for drive-in screenings — for the most part, the independent cinema center has kept its doors closed over the past year. But with vaccinations on the rise, that changes this month.

Last week, the Belcourt announced that

it will reopen for indoor screenings beginning Friday, April 23. Theater reps note that seating capacity will be limited, masks will be required, and films will show only in the Belcourt’s 1966 and 1925 halls — “the second floor and its screening room will remain closed to the public,” says a release. You can read more about the safety precautions via belcourt.org.

“Just as we’ve always been committed to film exhibition,” notes Belcourt executive director Stephanie Silverman, “we’re committed to showing movies in a way that prioritizes the health and safety of both our audiences and staff.”

The Belcourt will kick off its reopening with screenings of two films: action-packed Japanese anime Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, and the brand-new Sesame Street documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street. The former — first released in Japan in October — is the highest-grossing feature in Japanese history. Tickets for both are now on sale.

Even with the theater reopening in limited capacity, the Belcourt will nevertheless keep its Red Carpet Evening Oscar celebration virtual on April 25. Tickets for that are still available.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | APRIL 15 – APRIL 21, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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Rental Scene

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