“I DON’T NEED MY NAME IN THE MARQUEE LIGHTS”
An excerpt from Brian Fairbanks’ Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever
Vocalist and bandleader Jimmy Church performed in this pink three-piece suit created by Richard Johnson. A Nashville native, Church performed regularly on the R&B TV shows Night Train and The!!!!Beat
From the exhibit Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues Revisited
Porterfield Favors Salary Increases, Department Cuts in Alternative Council Budget
Councilmembers get behind bigger cost-of-living increases after a broad appeal from Metro employees BY ELI MOTYCKA
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Community Members Mourn the Death of Aayden Hayes
The 13-year-old was shot and killed in Bellevue by another teenager on May 29 BY KELSEY BEYELER
COVER STORY
“I Don’t Need My Name in the Marquee Lights”
An excerpt from Brian Fairbanks’ Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever INTRODUCTION BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
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Councilmembers get behind bigger cost-of-living increases after a broad appeal from Metro employees
BY ELI MOTYCKAMETRO COUNCILMEMBERS ARE preparing to cut city department funding to deliver bigger salary increases for Metro employees — a key difference between the chamber’s budget and the operating budget proposed in May by Mayor Freddie O’Connell. Officials met on June 5 for the last of three work sessions led by Budget and Finance Committee Chair Delishia Porterfield, the at-large councilmember who is authoring the council’s alternative budget.
For almost three hours, members drained their beverages of choice — Dr. Pepper for Porterfield, iced tea and Diet Coke for colleagues — while discussing the city’s spare change. Porterfield’s task involves cobbling together the spending priorities of the 40-member council while making sure her proposed budget ends up legally compliant, functional and balanced. If the council doesn’t pass its own budget by July 1, O’Connell’s will go into effect by default. At the work session, members repeatedly referenced the previous night’s contentious and emotional public hearing, at which Metro employees spoke about poor pay and the need for salary increases to match Nashville’s skyrocketing cost of living.
Flat tax revenues haven’t given lawmakers the room to say yes to everyone. At the June 5 meeting, Porterfield brought out consensus among the room to prioritize employee raises even if it means cutting funding allocations to departments. Shifting funding from departments to cityside salary bumps would be a significant break from the budget proposed by O’Connell.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell is jockeying to include his proposed $3.1 billion transportation improvement plan on the November ballot, with a Metro Council vote the next step toward that effort, his office announced Friday. Pending council approval, the Choose How You Move initiative — which O’Connell announced in April — includes bus rapid transit, 86 miles of new or improved sidewalks, high-tech intersections to improve traffic flow, expanded bus service times, additional community transit centers and added security. It would add an additional half-cent sales tax charge to give dedicated funding for the city’s transpor-
Budget officer Aaron Pratt, representing the Finance Department, began the meeting with a presentation methodically eliminating various pots of money that councilmembers thought they could access. Councilmembers’ spending “wish lists,’’ submitted earlier this month, included funding sources like the Barnes Housing Trust Fund, Metro’s Judgment and Losses Fund, and so-called contingency accounts that, Pratt said, can’t be touched for one reason or another. If members are ready to spend down all surplus in the city’s 4 percent fund — a legally required reserve — they have $4 million to work with.
“Our job is to maintain that we’re structurally balanced and that we’re fiscally compliant,” Pratt told legislators. “The one only available source seems to be — well, is — residuals in the 4 percent. My job is to just provide guardrails.”
A full salary package would include an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), a $20-perhour floor for wage workers, step increases along Metro’s predetermined pay schedule and merit increases for qualifying employees. O’Connell’s budget came in with a 3.5 percent COLA, short of the Metro Civil Service Commission’s recommended 4 percent. During the public comment portion of the June 4 council meeting, Metro employees petitioned for 5 percent.
“I’m asking for you not to forget about us after today,” Jessica Curry, who works as support staff in Metro schools, told councilmembers that night. “The cost of living is at an all-time high. We need a 5 percent COLA to go with our piece
tation system. The ordinance’s first reading is set for the June 18 Metro Council meeting.
Last week, Vanderbilt University released the findings of an independent review of the March arrest of Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka, who — despite being given no advance trespassing warning — was arrested by university police while reporting on student protests regarding campus speech and Israel’s military invasion of Gaza. He was released from custody a few hours later and ultimately not charged with a crime.
of the pie.”
Each half-percent takes $7 million, Porterfield told colleagues the following day. She said arguing over which types of increases to fund, like COLA or merit, was a false choice.
“I would love to do both,” said Porterfield. “The question is, is it the will of the body to touch departments so that we can do both? I want us to pay all of our employees, and I want us to pay them well.”
As she recognized members to speak during the budget work session, no one wanted to advocate against raising employee pay. Testimony from Curry and dozens of other Metro workers seemed to have made a lasting impression. Over the course of the meeting, discussion shifted to cuts. Rather than continue to balance the budget on the backs of teachers and Metro employees, Porterfield said at one point, it was time to look at well-funded departments that may have more money than they need. She used the Metro Nashville Police Department and the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office as specific examples. Historically, both have enjoyed strong pull within the mayor’s office and faced little resistance to requests during budget season. One by one, members got behind Porterfield with fervor. They specifically favored clawing back funding from departments with positions that have remained unfilled.
“I support trying to find the 5 percent COLA,” said District 16 Councilmember Ginny Welsch. “As you know, I have my scalpel in my bag for cutting any departments.”
Vanderbilt, at the time beset by ongoing student protests and criticism of Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, subsequently announced that the school had selected Nashville attorney Aubrey Harwell to lead an independent review of the university’s response to the arrest. Harwell recommends in his 27-page report a clearer external media policy, better communication between police and administrators and advance warning before campus police make a trespassing arrest. Despite criticism over Diermeier’s handling of student protests and arrests, the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust recently extended the chancellor’s contract to 2035.
Billionaire Elon Musk recently announced his plan to build “the world’s largest and most powerful supercomputer” in Memphis Asks contributor Betsy Phillips, is that really good for Tennessee? “Do we think he’s actually going to follow through on this?” she asks, noting issues with his Las Vegas Loop project, environmental concerns, Musk’s various business practices and more.
“I think we should also expand the scope and not just look at unfilled positions,” said District 30 Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda, also appearing to set sights on MNPD. “Some of these departments just received new equipment, and they’re potentially asking for more new equipment when they were just funded some.”
“We can pillage health and other departments and figure out where we can get money from — I think that’s fair,” said Joy Styles of District 32. “We need to make sure our workers are taken care of.”
Tasha Ellis, Joy Kimbrough, Thom Druffel and Kyonzté Toombs (vice chair of the Budget and Finance Committee) also got behind department cuts in concept. The specifics come down to Porterfield. Councilmember At-Large Zulfat Suara, a CPA by day, put the situation in the clearest terms.
“I wish we had the money,” Suara said, smiling. “It would make it a whole lot easier. But I am open to looking at departments. I’ll leave the calculations to Finance, and Madam Budget Chair.”
As of press time, Porterfield has not yet filed her alternative budget.▼
surrounding properties and restructure the financial terms of the loan. Janbakhsh contends he is not delinquent on his loan payments and operates in “positive cash-flow.”
The 13-year-old was shot and killed in Bellevue by another teenager on May 29
BY KELSEY BEYELERHOLDING CANDLES AND purple and blue balloons, hundreds of people gathered in Bellevue’s Red Caboose Park on June 5 to honor the life of 13-year-old Aayden Hayes, who was shot and killed at the park May 29 during a fight between two groups of teenagers. At the vigil, candles were laid out in the spot where he was killed.
“Aayden — if it wasn’t for him, I really wouldn’t be standing here right now,” said Aayden’s 16-year-old sister An’Raya, who was also shot and wounded that night. “I think about that day every day, every night before I go to sleep. It is hard. … And I’m trying to do this for him, because I know this is what he would want me to do. And I’m trying to live for him and keep his name, so everybody knows that he died for a purpose.”
An’Raya was one of several people who spoke during the June 5 memorial. Loved ones shared stories about Aayden, including a young boy who talked about how he and Aayden would play and tell stories together. Aayden’s mother Hope Leach talked about how sweet her young teenager was, and how he would always give her a hug and a kiss before and after school.
“He just brought so much joy to our lives, and he was his sisters’ keeper, he loved his sisters,” said Leach. “If you messed with his sisters, he’d be right there to defend them even though he was the baby. His brother told him, take care of his sisters, and that’s what he did.”
“I just want him to fly high,” said Leach’s partner Jonathon Shaw. “I just want parents to come together, us grown people, and we need to come together to stop gun violence for these kids. … [His mother] shouldn’t be going through this, no mother should be going through this, no mother should be burying their child, especially not their baby. Especially not Aayden.”
Fifteen-year-old De’Anthony Osasosifo is being charged with criminal homicide and attempted criminal homicide in connection with the shooting. The gun that was used was suspected to have been stolen from a vehicle in Murfreesboro last year. A Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson tells the Scene that of the seven homicide victims this year who were younger than 17 years old, six were gunshot victims. According to a 2023 report from the Tennessee Department of Health using data gathered from 2017 to 2021, firearms are the leading external cause of death for youth 17 and under in Tennessee. Tennessee outpaced the national average in child firearm deaths by 36 percent in 2021.
Local gun safety advocates attended the event, including Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick and Trina Anderson of Mothers Over Murder, a group created to support parents whose children have been killed. Covenant School
AN’RAYA
parent Sarah Shoop Neumann, who also spoke at the vigil, created a GoFundMe campaign for the family.
“The cost of gun violence, especially when you have a surviving victim in addition to one you lost, is astronomical,” said Neumann. “This family needs our support, physically and tangibly.”
Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), who represents the area where Aayden was shot, also attended the vigil. He said the situation made him feel “powerless.”
“Another parent is burying a child, and the Tennessee General Assembly just refuses to do
anything,” said Mitchell.
The state’s Republican supermajority has relaxed firearm regulations in recent years. Even Gov. Bill Lee’s calls for tighter regulations via a special session of the legislature went unanswered, as the General Assembly refused to take up his proposed red-flag law or pass any meaningful gun safety legislation in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in March 2023.
Muhammad-McCormick tells the Scene it’s “a damn shame” that one of the only pieces of legislation that came out of the special session merely encourages gun owners to store weap-
ons safely, rather than holding them accountable for not doing so. Meanwhile, she points out, juvenile justice laws have been tightened. While Muhammad-McCormick agrees that more legislation needs to be passed to address gun violence, she says community members cannot depend on that alone and must take other actions to address the epidemic.
Though many tears were shed at the vigil, there were also enthusiastic shouts as attendees celebrated Aayden’s life. People cheered, “Long live Aayden,” as they released balloons. Many shouted “Forever 13!” ▼
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“I HOPE YOUR damned bus freezes up again,” Buddy Holly told Waylon Jennings. “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes,” Jennings joked back.
This playful exchange took place between famed 22-year-old rock ’n’ roller Holly and his 21-year-old bass player Jennings shortly before what became known as the Day the Music Died: Feb. 3, 1959, when Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and pilot Roger Peterson were killed in a plane crash outside Clear Lake, Iowa.
Jennings originally had a spot on the singleengine Beechcraft Bonanza taking Holly and company to the next stop on their Winter Dance Party tour. But the Bopper had come down with flu-like symptoms, and thus the Texas-born Jennings gave up his seat, relegated once more to the cold and miserable conditions on the Winter Dance Party tour bus, chugging its way across the Midwest.
That fateful moment was one that would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life — and it’s a central thread in Willie, Waylon, and the Boys:
How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music
Forever, the brand-new book from New Orleans author Brian Fairbanks.
“Originally, I had the idea to do a book about Waylon Jennings,” Fairbanks tells the Scene
“You know, how does somebody go from basically making this morbid joke that becomes real and kills his best friend, and continue to make music for the rest of his life? What does that do to the person’s psyche? What does it do to their music?”
Ultimately, Fairbanks decided to broaden his pitch to include Jennings’ fellow members of country supergroup The Highwaymen — Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson — as well as modern-day country artists inspired by The Highwaymen’s legacy, like Jason Isbell and the all-women country supergroup The Highwomen.
Willie, Waylon, and the Boys, Fairbanks’ sophomore book, might seem like a major departure from his first. Wizards: David Duke, America’s Wildest Election, and the Rise of the Far Right, the
“You lose all identity when you put a bunch of labels on something.
It’s a great compliment when they drop the labels off of you.”
—Waylon Jennings
Honky-tonk patron: “Who the hell do you think you are? You’re just a kid. You don’t know nothin’.” Waylon: “Sir, I may be younger than you, but I’ve been awake a long, long time.”
“They’re not doing enough for Waylon. They just don’t know what to do with him!”
—A fan
The headliner at the Native American reservation bar couldn’t get up onstage. He sat hunched over near the stairs, head hung and dampened hair dangling over his forehead, angrily waving off the chanting.
“He resembled a biker chieftain,” wrote journalist Chet Flippo, “shiny black leather pants and vest, black needle-toed boots; beard, mustache and long dusty brown hair slicked straight back over his ears and flowing across the collar of his yellow shirt. His
author’s 2022 debut, was released by Nashville’s own Vanderbilt University Press and follows the bipartisan coalition that came together to defeat former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s early-1990s bid for the Louisiana governorship. Structurally, Fairbanks tells the Scene, the two books have a lot more in common than you might think.
“This scenario is the same as Wizards, [which is] about the various Republicans, Democrats, candidates and random voters who came together to defeat David Duke, literally forming a coalition of the most ragtag, random group of people across the political spectrum,” he says.
“And then [the book jumps] ahead several decades to Trump and Duke, but just tying it all together and showing how history repeats itself. … I find that fascinating. Despite whatever we do, and whatever warnings or things we change, American history does repeat.”
Willie, Waylon, and the Boys is bursting with fascinating stories from the annals of country music history — including the time several
face—all angles—looked hard but his eyes were almost vulnerably gentle. They were always moving, questioning, evaluating, measuring.” Other critics were not as impressed: “The long, greasy hair could use a shampoo,” one wrote. But most fans cared only about his voice, all “honey and molasses on a biscuit, topped off with a pack of Marlboro Reds.”
The crowd alternated between aggressively cheering or heckling the singer for being a “bum,” saying they had paid their four dollars and they’d damn well better get it. But Waylon Jennings, thirty-five, didn’t believe in canceling shows. THIS IS NO DRESS REHEARSAL read a sticker he slapped on his road case. WE ARE PROFESSIONALS, AND THIS IS THE BIG TIME. Nonetheless, “the Chief” told the Waylors, his band, he was “sick and battered,” and they, not knowing what else to do, snickered nervously.
Jessi Colter, his wife and fourth within a single decade, met him stage right and, peering up into his face to kiss him, found it had developed a yellowish hue. She hesitated, then laughed at herself, thinking it was just a trick of the light hitting the golden fabrics of Waylon’s button-down. But Jennings couldn’t stand up straight, almost as if he’d thrown his back out playing honky-tonk songs on guitar. Something else was bothering him. Along Route 491 in Colorado that afternoon, he stopped near the New Mexico state line to meet the priest who booked him on the Southern Ute Reservation. The priest warned him of a hepatitis outbreak on the rez, so Waylon stuck to what he thought were safe bets: milk and pie.
After “ten years on the road / making one-night stands / speeding my young life away,” as a song would later put it, his illness
BRIAN FAIRBANKS
decades back when Willie Nelson got into a shootout with his own son-in-law. (That tale, the inspiration for Nelson’s song “Shotgun Willie,” is among Fairbanks’ favorites.) We at the Scene could’ve pulled just about any chapter from the book and made it this week’s cover story. But perhaps none is more fitting than the book’s fifth chapter, “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?,” which centers largely on Jennings’ dark days in the shadow of the Day the Music Died — including the singer’s brief and harrowing time sharing a Madison apartment with Johnny Cash. Below, find the first two sections from Chapter 5 of Willie, Waylon, and the Boys —D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever By Brian Fairbanks Available now via Hachette Books 464 pages, $32.50
could have been brought on by any number of things. Jessi suspected botched dental surgery was to blame. It might have been the narcotics he’d been gobbling, or perhaps his touring regimen of three hundred shows per year for so little money; he often returned with less cash than he’d started with, and debts. Oh, the debts. The Waylors would have to be paid first, although he was doing them a favor at this point, using them as his touring band when Nashville wouldn’t even allow him to record with them. His choice would’ve been to flip the bird at Music City and use them in the studio, too, but RCA executives were emphatic. Like all Nashville label heads, they required seasoned studio pros to handle the delicate business of cranking out easily digestible singles, considering live bands too loose and untrained. It was another reason Waylon was thinking of getting out of the music business when his contract expired at the end of 1972. “How many years can I keep bangin’ around the honky-tonks?” Jennings asked rhetorically.
“Baby, you look real yellow,” said Jessi, touching his arm soothingly.
“Nah,” he said tersely. “It’s the reflection of this shirt.”
Jessi insisted he return to the hotel, and Waylon was on the verge of arguing—“Bullshit, I ain’t going”—when his six-foot frame toppled over. The nasty fall was cushioned by his wife, standing five foot four.
FROM THE DAY the music died to that night near Gallup, New Mexico, Waylon Jennings had been living three or four lives at once. The hardest of these was the one that had taken over in the mid-sixties, when he was only twenty-six. Jennings moved to Nashville and into the $150-a-month Madison Apartments, a bug-ridden hotel ten miles from Music City already inhabited by methamphetamine addict Johnny Cash. Together, they turned the place into a fulltime drug den.
Later, both men would marvel that they managed to last even a month in such conditions. There they were, blowing up balls of black gunpowder with sticks of dynamite for amusement, kicking down the door when one of them, home alone, latched it shut and passed out, and using amphetamine, an upper producing an effect equivalent to a half-dozen cups of coffee, all while trying to write songs and get some money in the bank. They alternately complained about their respective loves and claimed a reunion was just around the corner, with Cash later admitting: “The only woman who would talk to me is Betty Ford.” Their lovers—Barbara, Jennings’s third wife, and June Carter, Cash’s girlfriend— moved into separate apartments downstairs and tried to keep the men’s place tidy. They were essential. “Man, you’re the worst housekeeper I ever saw,” Jennings had told Cash on move-in day. “What have you been doing in the kitchen, fighting?”
“I cooked biscuits and gravy.”
“Do me a favor,” said Jennings, “and don’t
ever cook me any.”
Carter would show up periodically to do the dusting and mopping the place needed practically at the top of every hour. Mysteriously, Cash’s amphetamines always managed to spill into the toilet. Once, while enjoying a visit from Bob Dylan, Cash hid in a closet when June came to the door. But Johnny would neither return to his estranged wife nor give up on June Carter, who repeatedly declined to marry him, even once breaking things off for five minutes, just long enough to discover he had stolen her clothes and hidden them in his hotel room to keep her from leaving. Within weeks, Waylon’s drug intake skyrocketed. “Twenty amphetamines a day was normal, and thirty wasn’t unusual. I’d hit the ground running; I never had a hangover because I never gave myself a chance.” At true low points, John, down from 200 to 140 pounds, would become “Cash,” a Mr. Hyde to Johnny’s Dr. Jekyll, as when the Man in Black cut all the legs off the furniture for no reason or tore apart his roommate’s car looking for his hidden stash, and then lied about it. One time, Cash hallucinated he “was an Indian flyin’ through the woods,” only snapping out of it when he discovered he was barefoot in a murky puddle.
“That Waylon,” said the Man in Black, deflecting. “He’ll take a doorknob down if he thought it would taste good.”
“Too much was never enough,” Jennings admitted of the Desoxyn, Alka-Seltzer, white cross, and coffee regimen that kept him upright. He wouldn’t ever eat, either, which made getting obliterated easy. Jennings’s drummer frequently arrived to find him comatose and would rush to check his pulse. On the other side of the living room, guitarist Luther Perkins might be pawing Cash for a heartbeat—“he’ll sleep twenty-four hours,” Perkins said. “If he awakes, he’s alive. If
ervations, Jennings blew through his increased earnings at an increased rate. He admitted to forking over cash to anyone who asked and picking up every check. “I would joke about being a junkie and crazy,” he said. “All I was doing was saying, I’m not really crazy. I’m wrong.”
he doesn’t, he’s dead.”
But despite their seemingly parallel paths of self-destruction, the roommates didn’t discuss it. “While they knew that the other one was indulging,” recalled Waylon’s future wife, “they never shared their stash.” Later, they would regale fans with stories about those days, as if they had been just some goofy potheads.
“Hey, John, remember that time the cops pulled me over in Bucksnort, Tennessee, for writing a check for cocaine?”
“Yeah, and they didn’t even arrest you,” Cash said, “just took your stash and said, ‘Waylon, don’t write checks for that stuff,’ and sent you back to Nashville! Did you write ‘drugs’ on the memo line of the check?”
“Imagine being so strung out that they get me of all people to talk to John. Hell, I was doing as much speed or more than he was!”
“I had a few good hiding places in that old apartment that you never knew about,” said Cash, laughing, “but I always found your stash!”
As roommates, though, they were dead serious about their intake. Conversation consisted of debates regarding the effectiveness of the “overandunder,” slang for a combo of amphetamine pills and tranquilizer dose, which Jennings assured Cash would balance them out, whatever that meant. It never did. “With the pills, I was always chasing the high amphetamines gave me during the first six months. I lost it somewhere along the way, that feeling.”
Jennings blamed the mythic story of “Hank’s road to ruin,” which spurred his acolytes to burn out before they could live long enough to fade away, for leading him off the path set for him by Buddy Holly. “It was ironic,” said Jennings. “Rather than give me strength, the drugs made me vulnerable.”
As he began to cobble together cult fanbases in rural Maine and Ohio and on New Mexico res-
After a tour in which Jennings opened for Cash, Waylon politely suggested Johnny find his own house “so your kids can visit.” He was crushed when June Carter, as a condition of her marrying Cash, insisted Johnny cut Waylon and other “bad influences” out of his life. Other than June, though, Nashville didn’t seem to know about Jennings’s dependency or tumultuous personal life. In the spring of 1966, Music City welcomed him to town with overblown press releases trumpeting the hot new singer of “Stop the World (and Let Me Off)” and “Anita, You’re Dreaming.” But he wasn’t thrilled to be there. “Buddy Holly loved music better than anybody I ever saw,” Waylon said. “In his last few months, he talked to me about never compromising and staying away from Nashville.” Instead, Jennings cultivated what he called “Waylon’s music,” which melded his teenage rockabilly sound and the forlorn style of Roy Acuff’s “Wreck on the Highway,” which his mother had played at full volume until she burst into tears. RCA kept pushing him as the leading artist of their invented “Folk-Country” movement, and Waylon, intimidated by his producer and personal god, Carter Family guitarist Chet Atkins, kept mum about his ambitions.*
Atkins “handled” Jennings with an iron fist, requiring Jennings to adhere to the Nashville Sound. That meant singing compositions with hooky pop choruses, on which Atkins overlaid strings, a “sugar sweet” style, as Waylon’s wife called it.** (Jennings and others “felt that there was too much clutter—strings, backing vocalists, and extra instruments—between their music and the public,” one Nashville historian wrote. Musicians stared at their charts while playing instead of watching Waylon’s hands for changes, infuriating the singer.) At the time of Jennings’s arrival in town a few years later, “countrypolitan” songs from Atkins and other Music Row overlords “were generally easy listening with a vocal twang and conservative lyrical bent,” critics lamented. Atkins and others indulged in Beatles spoofs and saccharine, string-drenched “weepers” in the sixties, which bordered on self-parody. TV networks approved content that met its definition of “LOP,” Least Offensive Programming, to please sponsors rather than audiences, and Music Row followed suit in country music. “You couldn’t even cut a song Chet didn’t like,” said one songwriter, “and it produced a war of cultures. In Nashville everybody acquiesced to the class. They’d think, ‘We may be poor, but we don’t want to be destitute, so we won’t make waves.’” Jennings, as “an introvert in an extroverted business,” rarely mustered the courage to push Atkins harder on broadening the material.
“They don’t want to analyze lyrics,” Atkins explained. “Just hit ’em in the face with it.”
“But,” said Jennings, “what if we didn’t hit ’em there?”
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“Program directors say, ‘Well, that song’s too deep for our audience.’”
“Bullshit!” said Jennings.
Chet and his studio team insisted on selecting the material for recording and instruments to be used, “often eliminating fiddles and steel [guitars] in favor of backup vocal groups” and coaching local musicians through a maximum of two takes. That meant the Waylors, earning $1,500 a week in Scottsdale, were barred. Left alone with unfamiliar musicians, including Charlie McCoy, the Blonde on Blonde guitarist, Jennings made an immediate faux pas, trying to play a twelvestring guitar, a folkie’s instrument, and, worse, sing at the same time, which was frowned upon on Music Row. At least, as he later learned, Buddy Holly had made the same mistake.
At the end of the sixties, Chet Atkins received a promotion to vice president and delegated his oversight of Waylon Jennings to producer Danny Davis, a Tijuana brass trumpeter. The contrast couldn’t have been more dramatic. Jennings, “Singer of Sad Songs,” faced off against a classically trained A&R staffer whose music industry cred was originally borne of homogenized Latin jazz performed for the white upper-class sect. Everyone, including Davis, followed the model of Billy Sherrill, a producer at Epic, who turned everything into Southern-accented, commercial-minded pop. With the much older Owen Bradley, Patsy Cline’s producer and coiner of the term Music Row, Sherrill established the Nashville Sound—an often “full-throated wail [with an] orchestrated crescendo, while all the time [the singer held] onto that deep well of sadness.” Sherrill, a racist and a sexist, was nauseated by curse words, eye contact avoidant, and stubborn—he refused to let George Jones use the melody from “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” not due to plagiarism concerns but because he insisted it was garbage. Even after Tammy Wynette had a pop smash with “Stand by Your Man,” a tune they wrote together, Sherrill still wouldn’t let her have much say in the material. He told the Baptist and fellow small-town-Alabama-raised divorcee he couldn’t permit her to release songs about infidelity because “that isn’t what the public expects [from] me.”
After the Sherrill-penned “Almost Persuaded” topped the charts for a record-breaking nine weeks in 1966, Music City began copying everything he did, right down to the studio, background singers, and even the engineer. In Nashville, wrote Andrew Grant Jackson, singers “stuck to moon-and-June lyrics and didn’t” get much say in which of those songs they got to record, then had to sit back as “producers laid orchestra strings and a choir” over your precious track; singers were contractually obligated to keep mum about it.*** Jennings, despite being billed as “The Rebel” in press kits, was not immune. Davis set upon Waylon’s material with a red pen and warned Jennings that his booming voice needed to be more measured. His work with Atkins and Davis “were good, smooth records,” Waylon said publicly, “and there I was rougher than a goddamned cob. All the damn sand I swallowed is in my singing.”
Truthfully, Jennings and his producer clashed from the get-go. After their initial session, Jennings returned to listen to mixes, only to discover someone had waylaid his tape—surely, this wasn’t what he recorded the other day. He claimed he didn’t recognize Danny Davis’s work, a criticism not without some validity. “He’d overdub arrangements without asking me, and turn songs down without even playing them for me.” Jennings had been approached to record Dick Holley’s “Abraham, Martin and John” and agreed to do it; Davis went behind his back and told Holley to take his tune elsewhere. The topical yet uncontroversial lament to assassinated American icons became a million-seller in the hands of Dion, a fellow Winter Dance Party “survivor.” Aggravating Waylon further, one executive asked: “When are you going to cut a country record?”
“You don’t know what that is,” the singer deadpanned.
Worse, Davis’s recording philosophy couldn’t have been more antiquated. He used a patented system devised as a big band member in the ’50s that began with asking artists to have each part written out for the musicians ahead of time. Jennings crafted melodies on the fly, with players expected to wing it for a looser, more lively sound. Davis would make wisecracks, roll his eyes in boredom, or even leave the studio if Jennings didn’t start the first take immediately. During an overdub session, with Jennings laying a second guitar line on the original track, Davis, thinking he was alone in the booth, muttered under his breath about Waylon’s professionalism just as Jessi entered.
“If I told him what you said,” she seethed,
“he’d kill you.”
CHET ATKINS (LEFT) AND WAYLON JENNINGS DURING A 1965 RECORDING SESSION
“I FEEL SORRY FOR THE OLD MEN IN NASHVILLE,” WAYLON TOLD A REPORTER. “THEY CAN’T SEE THINGS ARE CHANGIN’ AND THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO CHANGE. THEY’RE THE SAME ONES WHO RUINED HANK WILLIAMS.”
Jennings returned for the next session armed with a .22 handgun on loan from felonious country phenom Merle Haggard. When Davis tried to get the musicians to carefully follow their charts, Jennings warned them: “Anybody still looking at his chart after the third take, your ass is dead.” He whirled toward the control room and glared through the glass. “And, Danny,” he said, “I don’t want to hear any shit out of you.”
Atkins finally admitted he had made a mistake in pairing an anti-authoritarian “rebel” and a studio hardliner. When Atkins told Waylon he would be changing producers, Jennings was ready. Why, he asked, don’t you let me produce my records? He had, after all, landed a few Top 10 country hits. “MacArthur Park” won him a Grammy, but that was the recording Atkins had panicked over, leading him to bring in Davis to wrangle it into a proper, clean, Music Row-ready tune. Recalled Waylon: “I knew exactly what I wanted the strings to do; I had to hum the parts. He probably had his own ideas.” When asked why he opposed Waylon’s independence, Atkins
claimed he feared RCA’s top guys would feel underused and defect to rival companies.
“I feel sorry for the old men in Nashville,” Waylon told a reporter. “They can’t see things are changin’ and they won’t be able to change. They’re the same ones who ruined Hank Williams.”
By the end of the sixties, country songs made up the majority of RCA’s 45s. Music Row, raking in $100,000,000 annually, gave unprecedented power to producers, just as pop labels had ceded authority to them in the ’50s. Jennings, like the hippies, called it “the System,” but while Music Row vocally supported Richard Nixon, Atkins endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968 and may have been more liberal about record making than he let on. Later, Atkins would say that he admired Jennings because he never backed down on his musical principles.
On his way out, Davis took one last potshot at Waylon: “This guy could be the biggest star in the world,” he said, “but he’s his own worst enemy.” ▼
Ahead of next week’s Nashville Pride festivities, we take a look at this year’s musical lineup and parade grand marshals, check in with members of Nashville’s diverse LGBTQ community and much more!
RELEASING JUNE 20
Nashville Symphony | Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor
Nashville Symphony | Sarah Hicks, conductor
Pleasenotethatthefirstpartoftheconcertwillpresentorchestrawithout SmokeyRobinson.Followingintermission,theprogramwillfeature SmokeyRobinsonwithorchestra.
Nashville Symphony | Jonathan Rush, conductor | DJ Jerry, opener Lawn seats start at $37
SATURDAY, JUNE 15
FESTIVAL [IN THE ZONE]
Buchanan Street in historically Black North Nashville is home to a wealth of businesses that keep enriching Music City’s cultural landscape, making it an ideal spot for a Juneteenth celebration. The fifth annual run of Tennessee Equity Alliance’s Black on Buchanan party takes over the street on Saturday with more than 75 food and small-business vendor stalls and community partner setups, as well as a kids’ area and a wealth of live performances. Topping the lineup is Atlanta rapper Fabo, who came to prominence with D4L; you’ve definitely heard him on the group’s indelible 2005 hit “Laffy Taffy.” But he’s also made so many more records and appeared on so many other tracks, like his verse on the heartbreaking “Something for Junkies” from Killer Mike’s Grammy-sweeping 2023 LP Michael; get down to the party and let Fabo tell you all about it himself. Nashville drum and dance ensemble Sankofa will perform, as will standout Music City performers Tim Gent, MiaReona and Sweet Poison.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
NOON TO 6 P.M.
BUCHANAN STREET BETWEEN NINTH AVENUE NORTH AND 11TH AVENUE NORTH
calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
[IT’S JUST THE NIGHT]
Is there another artist in Nashville as well-respected and underappreciated as Del McCoury? He’s bona fide bluegrass royalty, an 85-year-old picker who cut his teeth on stages with Bill Monroe before carving his own career as a Grand Ole Opry member and International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame member. He’s the namesake for Delfest, a tastemaking roots festival in Maryland, and has inspired generations of artists. (Jerry Garcia and members of jam staple Phish each namedropped McCoury as an influence.) All that to say, McCoury regularly gigs in Nashville, and this week he and the band will headline the Ryman to kick off Bluegrass Nights, an annual summer concert series inside the Mother Church. According to the Ryman website, tickets to see The Del McCoury Band start at $38 before fees — not a bad price to spend a night with a legend. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
[WE’RE ALWAYS DOWN]
The name Interpol may have never been as relevant as it was during the recording of the band’s most recent album, 2022’s The Other Side of Make-Believe. That album was written during the COVID pandemic while each of the three band members was hunkering down in a different country — vocalist Paul Banks was in Scotland, guitarist Daniel Kessler was in Spain, and drummer Sam Fogarino was in the U.S. The album is fantastic and pulls from all the usual inspirations, from Joy Division to Echo & the Bunnymen. (Side note: I’ve always hated how Interpol is disparaged for wearing those inspirations on its sleeve. Personally, I wish every band sounded at least a little like Joy Division.) They’ll play Thursday at The Blue Room, a moody and extremely intimate space for a band like Interpol, whose vibe is, for my money, among the most original of the Meet Me in the Bathroom scene of the early Aughts. At recent shows, set lists have included mostly tracks from those early albums, but maybe this time they’ll be more selective — new songs like “Toni” and “Gran Hotel” deserve the direct-toacetate treatment (the show will be recorded for later Third Man Records release) as much as “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down.”
LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
8 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
[GET WILD]
FESTIVAL
BREW AT THE ZOO
Beer! Food! Kangaroos! It’s time again for Brew at the Zoo, a night out featuring Music City’s slice of the animal kingdom — aka the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere — that pairs animals from around the world with local hops. A general-admission ticket to the one-night event costs $85, but don’t get sticker shock. Admission includes zoo access (of course), a handful of live music showcases throughout the grounds and — most notably — samples of 60-plus craft brews (or as many samples as you can responsibly muster). This year’s beer lineup features Blackstone, Jackalope, Mill Creek, Sweetwater, Black Abbey, Tennessee Brew Works … and the list goes on. Food-forpurchase truck options include Chivanada, The Grilled Cheeserie, Hoss’ Loaded Burgers, Loveless Cafe, Music City Brisket and a handful of others. Unlike most days at the Nashville Zoo, this night’s for adults only, so ticketholders must be 21 or older to enter. Find more information at nashvillezoo.org/brew. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7:30 P.M. AT THE NASHVILLE ZOO
3777 NOLENSVILLE PIKE
[IT MAKES SENSE]
MUSIC
KELSEY ABBOTT
Kelsey Abbott’s music is like having a deep convo with an old friend — whimsical, reflective and just so real. Her stripped-back acoustic style hits differently, blending familiar alt vibes with her experimental genre-blending soundscapes. Abbott’s latest EP, The Cabin, dropped in November, and it’s an absolute storytelling gem, exploring familiar yet complex emotions. The EP is a roller coaster of feels, each track a heartfelt chapter from a two-year ride through love and loss. Tracks like “Does It Make Sense” and “Night Vision Goggles” are pure slow-burn magic, radiating major nostalgia for past relationships. “Weekend Baby,” on the other hand, is a fiery snapshot of fleeting love that will have you reminiscing about your own whirlwind romances. Abbott’s previous album, Dreaming With My Eyes, is another must-listen. It demonstrates her natural flair for cross-genre production layered with intimate
lyrics. Her live shows leave a lasting impact similar to the warmth felt from a farewell hug between friends. Whether you’re a day-one fan or new to her scene, Abbott’s live performance is guaranteed to be a night of soul-stirring melodies that hit you right in the feels and leave you yearning for more. Abbott is set to bring her bewitching vocals to The 5 Spot, where she’ll be joined by fellow local musicians Meg and Eden Joel. JAYME FOLTZ
9 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT
1006 FORREST AVE.
MUSIC [GET DOWN]
The inaugural Blavity House Party Music Festival is coming to Music City this summer, and the lineup it’s bringing to Municipal Auditorium makes a strong first impression. Legendary rapper Lil Wayne headlines Friday night. I’m writing as a 31-year-old millennial man, and I feel they couldn’t have picked a more exciting headliner than Mr. Dwayne Carter himself. Hopefully he sneaks in a few mixtape tracks. Saturday night will see R&B hitmaker Monica lead the way. I hope we’ll see a show-stopping rendition of “The Boy Is Mine” from her. Other artists set to perform include ’90s boy group Dru Hill, New Orleans bounce pioneer Big Freedia, Philadelphia rapper Freeway and early-2000s party starters Travis Porter. The two-day event will also feature a marketplace of Black-owned business, local food trucks, pre- and post-show parties and more. LOGAN BUTTS
JUNE 14-15 AT MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM 417 FOURTH AVE. N.
SATURDAY
MUSIC
Guests are invited to pack a picnic supper (and perhaps a favorite bottle of bubbly!) and take in the views from one of Nashville’s highest peaks. This weekend’s program will feature performances by soprano Dee Donasco, mezzo-soprano Sarah Antell and baritenor Steven McCoy, accompanied by Nashville Opera’s director of engagement and chorus master Stephen Carey. As always, audiences can look forward to a delightful blend of opera and musical theater favorites — including everything from Bizet and Tchaikovsky to Pasek and Paul, Stephen Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstein. It’s a fun, family-friendly event, and you’ll want to be sure to stick around after the concert to gaze at the moon through the Dyer grand telescope. AMY STUMPFL
6 P.M. AT VANDERBILT DYER OBSERVATORY
1000 OMAN DRIVE, BRENTWOOD
Are you tired of “normal” Nashville outings? Are you seeking like-minded freaks and geeks? Maybe you’re in search of gothic decor
or that special piece of taxidermy? Well, look no further, my peculiar pal — the World Oddities Expo will descend upon Music City for a one-day spectacle of strange things, featuring artists, vendors, guest speakers, live music, burlesque, circus arts and much more. Freaky festivalgoers can explore macabre trinkets and bizarre treasures found in the Lost Curio Marketplace, and they’ll get opportunities to meet creators and curators alike. Now’s the time to get that tattoo at the Oddity Ink Parlour, presented by the traveling tattooists behind Villain Arts. Don’t forget to stop by the Twisted Kingdom Freakshow, which will feature a creepy collection of the animal world’s anatomical oddballs — what’s cuter than a two-headed goat? JASON VERSTEGEN
NOON AT THE FAIRGROUNDS NASHVILLE
625 SMITH AVE.
Do you like rock music, local artists and supporting women? If you prefer your live
[MUSIC UNDER THE STARS] OPERA ON THE MOUNTAIN
It may not be your typical concert experience, but an evening of songs and stargazing on the lush, green grounds of Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory offers its own unique rewards. With the return of Nashville Opera’s popular Opera on the Mountain, music lovers can enjoy some really fabulous performances in a refreshingly relaxed setting.
music experiences to be less dusty than Bonnaroo, The 5 Spot has a great lineup of local talent slated for Saturday. Grungy ’90s-style solo rocker Vera Bloom heads the bill with her L7approved headbangers. Both Bloom and opener LB Beistad are alumni of Lightning 100’s most recent Music City Mayhem, and though neither of them made it as far as they should have, they both put up a great fight. Tennessee native LB Beistad combines ethereal vocals with folk-rock melodies and a wide range of instrumentation. Bloom and Beistad will also be joined by Lips Speak Louder, the new duo of Music City rock veterans Angela Lese and Rachel Brandsness. All three acts have fantastic new music you won’t want to miss hearing live. Be there! It’s the feminist thing to do. HANNAH CRON
9 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT
1006 FOREST AVE.
FESTIVAL
[THE BLOCK IS HOT] BRIDGE TO BROADWAY JUNETEENTH BLOCK PARTY
The National Museum of African American Music is both a Nashville treasure and an international one, as Black music is fundamental to a huge array of cultural movements and touchstones. A few days before Juneteenth and right in the middle of Black Music Month, NMAAM continues its celebration by taking over a block of Broadway between the Fifth + Broad development (of which it is an anchor) and Bridgestone Arena for its fourth annual Bridge to Broadway party. The guests of honor are the hip-hop pride of Bowling Green, Ky., platinum-selling and Grammy-nominated rap crew Nappy Roots, who broke out in 2002 with Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz and still bring bars with the best of them on their most recent releases, last year’s LP Nappy4Life, Pt. 1 and May’s single “Play Clothes.” Superb Nashville MCs Daisha McBride (fresh off the release of an EP called People Like Me) and Tim Gent will be there, as well as songsmiths Denitia (who’ll have just appeared at several events during CMA Fest) and Shae Nycole — among many more.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
NOON-8 P.M.
BROADWAY BETWEEN REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY AND SIXTH AVENUE
cowpoke Woody (Tom Hanks) has to decide when he discovers his history as the star of an old children’s Western cartoon and meets his fellow tie-in merchandise (including Joan Cusack’s cowgirl Jesse and Kelsey Grammer’s prospector Stinky Pete). Does he roll with his long-lost brethren, who are en route to a toy museum in Japan, or does he stay with Buzz and them, counting the days until he’s inevitably discarded by his beloved Andy? Like all of Pixar’s best work, this sequel is an entertaining and exhilarating computer-animated ride that isn’t afraid to keep it real. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
CRAIG D. LINDSEYJUNE 14-16 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
THE CODE] 1999 AND MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: GHOST
When the Belcourt played Jean-Pierre Melville’s crime classic Le Samouraï a couple months ago, I wrote in these pages that the theater could start a film series with all the flicks about silent-but-deadly assassins. While a hitman film fest isn’t on the horizon, the Belcourt will be screening Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch’s predictably offbeat entry in the professional-murderer genre, during the theater’s ongoing 1999 series. (It was released theatrically in 2000, but it premiered at Cannes the year before.) Forest Whitaker is the titular hired gun, a cornrowed contract killer whose life of solitude, raising pigeons and following the samurai code gets interrupted when — just like Alain Delon’s cool-as-ice gunman in Samouraï — he gets double-crossed by gangsters. Basically, it’s Samouraï with a hip-hop soundtrack, provided here by Wu-Tang Clan icon The RZA. Jennifer Fay, who is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University, will introduce the Monday night showing. Visit belcourt.org for other showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
JUNE 17 & 21 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[GO ASK ALICE] MOSAIC MINDS AND MUSINGS: IN CONVERSATION
In April, acclaimed Nashville songwriter and author Alice Randall released My Black Country
— a new memoir, decades in the making, along with an accompanying collaborative album featuring Randall’s songs. “I am the only Black woman who’s made it 41 years in country music, as far as I know, who’s also seen some success,” Randall told Scene contributor Brittney McKenna ahead of the release. That sentiment speaks not only to the writer’s remarkable skill and determination, but also to the fact that the country music machine broadly and Nashville specifically — despite being home to many talented artists and songwriters of color — has a long way to go in terms of equity. Very involved in that conversation is Mosaic Changemakers, an organization founded and led by Renata Soto that seeks to “uplift, grow and connect leaders of color.” In the wake of the release of My Black Country, the group selected Randall as its inaugural “Mosaic Muse.” On Monday, the Belcourt will host Mosaic Minds and Musings, a Mosaic event that will feature in part a conversation with Randall about her rich body of work. Tickets, details and a full schedule are available at mosaicchangemakers.org.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
2:30 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
[STONED & DETHRONED] BARONESS
When Baroness emerged from the cypressgum swamplands of Savannah, Ga., their scene was known for the sludge metal and crust punk of artists like Damad, Black Tusk and Kylesa. While the band initially shared a lot — sonically and aesthetically — with their gloomier Georgia coastline brethren, Baroness grew their ambitions to incorporate a lot of qualities often shunned by the DIY metal community. Over the past 19 years, the band has reached further and further with each release, incorporating complex time signatures and instrumentation while simultaneously exploring new lyrical themes. Some moments of Baroness’ music could even be explained as soothing or meditative. The band’s unforgettable album covers are marked by the elegant paintings of frontman and founder John Dyer Baizley. He creates works to correspond with the colorthemed title of the band’s six albums: Red Album (2007), Blue Record (2009), Yellow & Green (2012)
FILM [MY FAVORITE DEPUTY]
1999: TOY STORY 2
While the studio was just a few years old and only a couple of full-lengths into the game, Pixar continued its winning streak with Toy Story 2, the 1999 sequel to its inaugural hit Toy Story that was just as successful (and just as brilliant and moving) as the first one. If the first installment was about toys coming to terms with their place in the world, the sequel has toys wondering if they should stay in their place or ascend to something greater. That’s what main
PRESENTS THE WHITEY JOHNSON BAND Number-one hit songwriter, twotime Grammy-winning record producer, and recording artist, Gary Nicholson, will open the show with a set of Americana/Country songs then perform a set as his persona, Whitey Johnson for a set of bluesy R&B featuring Colin Linden and Dana Robbins
Purple (2015), Gold & Grey (2019) and Stone (2023). With rich musical textures and high-concept records, Baroness claims a space in heavy music that is unique and thought-provoking. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
[SOUND DESIGNS]
MUSIC
DEREK VANDERHORST
6.19
MUSIC
[OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD] FROM WHERE I STAND: THE CONCERT CELEBRATION
6.22
6.23 HONKY TONK BRUNCH AND BUBBLES WITH MICHAEL SCOTT
6.24 ROBERT GLASPER (EARLY AND LATE SHOWS)
6.25 CMT SHOWCASE SERIES LISTEN UP CLASS EDITION
6.27 COMEDIAN J ANTHONY BROWN
6.29 MONICA RAMEY
6.29 MAMMA MIA! AN ABBAFABULOUS BRUNCH WITH THE NEON QUEEN
6.29
At our peril, we forget that music business people a century ago chose to capitalize on ingrained racism and market “hillbilly records” separately from “race records” — a decision that contributes to enormous disparity for BIPOC artists and biz folk in country to this day. Back in 1998, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum released a three-disc compilation called From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music, acknowledging and celebrating Black musicians’ fundamental contributions to the genre. The museum recently revisited its landmark 2004 exhibit Night Train to Nashville about R&B in Music City with an updated and expanded collection, and has similarly updated and expanded From Where I Stand. The new set’s fourth disc adds artists who became prominent before and during 2020, and it’s accompanied by a free online exhibit including essays, audio and more. On Tuesday, the museum hosts a free concert, co-produced by Rissi Palmer and Shannon Sanders, featuring some of the artists who appear on From Where I Stand. Palmer herself will perform, as will longtime star Darius Rucker. Multiple Americana Honors and Awards winners and CMA Awards nominees The War and Treaty will be there, as will Blanco Brown, Cowboy Troy, Wendy Moten and Miko Marks, among others. There’s no cost to attend, but you must reserve a seat ahead of time via the CMHOF website.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
6:30 P.M. AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.
WEDNESDAY / 6.19
MUSIC
[HEY BOY] OS MUTANTES
Os Mutantes make an amusement park of sound that’s perfect for summer. The Brazilian band is credited for leading the 1960s Tropicália movement and being among psychedelia’s foremost innovators. Their albums are joyously weird — aerosol bug spray was once used as percussion — and their live sets are known for bringing the same swirly energy into a full-on romp. Frontman Sérgio Dias is the only original member of Os Mutantes and well into his 70s, but he’s still touring with verve as he performs the group’s back catalog and complex guitar solos with ease. In fact, he probably won’t even break a sweat. TOBY ROSE
7 P.M. AT CANNERY HALL
1 CANNERY ROW
It makes sense that some contemporary singer-songwriters have grafted the usages of the Grateful Dead and jamgrass music onto the timeless forms that underlie the work of ambitious solo tunesmiths everywhere. Derek Vanderhorst is a movie sound designer who works in California, and he’s also a singersongwriter with a penchant for self-revealing — and winningly goofy — tunes he’s augmented with slick, post-bluegrass licks on his new album Be Kind. With production help from bassist Brook Sutton and fiddle and mandolin player John Mailander, Vanderhorst couches his quavery voice in progressive newgrass throughout, and the rippling licks help the tunes go down easy. Vanderhorst seems fond of jokey songs that you might compare to the work of Steve Goodman or John Prine, but comparing songwriters to Prine might not be fruitful — by now, who hasn’t been influenced by him? Still, Vanderhorst runs through the alphabet with style on something titled “The ABCs,” and the melodicism of my favorite track on Be Kind, “Misunderstood,” gives weight to a meditation on time and the nature of regret. In addition to Vanderhorst, Wednesday’s release show at Dee’s will feature Sutton, Mailander and Be Kind coproducer Frank Evans. EDD HURT 9:30 P.M. AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE
102 E. PALESTINE AVE., MADISON
While several of Nashville’s Juneteenth celebrations are scheduled for the weekend, you can celebrate on the day itself with Juneteenth 615. Hosted by Nashville’s African American Cultural Alliance, the event is set to provide fun for all ages. There will be free tours of the historic Fort Negley as well as a ceremony commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation — and it’s not a Nashville event without some live music. The lineup has not been announced, but last year’s performances from the African Nashville Symphony and The Shindellas drew in quite the crowd. The Taste of Freedom Restaurant Week will also have some food trucks in the park. More than 20 Black-owned restaurants are participating the week leading up to Juneteenth, showcasing some of the best food in Nashville with some major deals. Be prepared for some homestyle Louisiana classics and intense heat to challenge your taste buds. Don’t be surprised if you see city officials also in attendance, grooving to some African drummers. A grand fireworks show will cap off the celebration. JOANNA WALDEN
5 P.M. AT FORT NEGLEY PARK
1100 FORT NEGLEY BLVD.
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
WHEN MY HUSBAND Dom got home from work before our recent Date Night, I was in a hot shower enjoying the quiet and a new bar of soap that smells exactly like my Strawberry Shortcake doll circa 1983. Though he knows I don’t like to chat when I’m in a shower of solitude, he walked into the bathroom, backpack still slung over his shoulder, to relate the following tale: While Dom was walking to his truck with a courtesy umbrella he’d “borrowed” from a downtown hotel near his office, a woman stopped in the middle of the Germantown sidewalk as he approached. He thought she stopped because his luxury umbrella was taking up too much of the sidewalk, and apologized as he passed.
“That’s not why I stopped,” she told him. “I stopped because you look just like a painting.” Dom is a man who takes great care with his style: He felt uniquely seen and was giddy that something about his look stopped a passerby in her tracks. This inspired us to recount the time a woman in a Long Beach coffee shop remarked on his “strong Roman nose.” I felt a pang of … not quite jealousy, but longing. I’ve looked at this man for more than 20 years now; what I wouldn’t give to see and appreciate the cut of his jib for the first time.
STOP 1: MELROSE BILLIARD PARLOR
It’s unlikely that anyone is stopping on Eighth Avenue to take in a rare moment of beauty. Though the stretch between Thompson Lane and Wedgewood Avenue is home to more housing, goods and services than ever before, it’s disjointed, devoid of any sort of cohesive urban planning and embarrassingly unwalkable — as if the avenue itself is saying, Don’t linger here: Just get what you need and go on with your business. And if you listen — and don’t take the time to see something old through new eyes — you’ll miss out on an incredibly historic, wildly diverse, two-landmark Date Night.
Melrose Billiard Parlor opened in 1944 and has operated continuously in the same subterranean spot on Eighth Avenue ever since. When it opened, Nashvillians racked up balls on fresh pool felt while Allied troops hit the
Sinema
2600 Eighth Ave. S., Suite 102
beaches of Normandy on D-Day. My mother, who turned 80 in April, was a month-and-ahalf old. Ownership has changed hands a few times over the years, most recently in 2016 when Austin Ray of A.Ray Hospitality (M.L.Rose, Von Elrod’s) took over.
Nothing and everything is special about Melrose Billiards, which is grungy, dark and somehow both dirty and clean in all the best ways. I love the red door with its circular window and the way we left the blinding heat behind as soon as we got on the other side of it. I love the long staircase down, the graffiti-covered walls and the sticker-covered machine at the bottom offering free popcorn to scoop into plastic cups. I even love the perfectly greasy, previously frozen pizza available by the slice in a warmer at the end of the bar and the requisite Home Depot gallon bucket to catch the drops from leaky pipes in the ceiling, some of which are wrapped with Christmas lights.
I do not, however, love bar games — mostly because I’m terrible at them. I spent my college years serving fellow students chili cheese nachos in bars. Dom spent his college years in bars perfecting his foosball technique. I lost two straight games of shuffleboard because I don’t really understand how to keep score and don’t want Dom to explain it to me, and split a two-game set of tabletop Ms. Pac-Man before heading back up the stairs and very briefly into the sunshine.
Eighty years ago, when Date Night options weren’t quite as plentiful as they are now, we could’ve left Melrose Billiards, walked 20 feet and caught a movie at the Melrose Theatre, which opened in 1942. Though the timeline is fuzzy, it eventually shut down, sat empty for years and amazingly wasn’t destroyed to build a drugstore. Ten years ago this month, the theater became Sinema, which came in hot with Top Chef alum Dale Levitski behind it and has cycled through many executive chefs since.
As a former theater, Sinema is gorgeously preserved, though the transition from movie house to restaurant still doesn’t feel seamless. This starts with the movie-poster-size menu out front, which is a sure sign that the selections
don’t change often. (Though there are daily tweaks like the catch, vegetable and type of meat and cheese on the charcuterie board.)
Sinema is a vast, two-level space with the dining room downstairs and a lounge upstairs, connected by one of those sweeping staircases that always make me feel like I should be wearing a ball gown. Spaces this big and beautiful need lots of people inside to feel alive. When you enter, there’s a bar to the left and the host stand at the far end of a deep foyer. If there’s no one in the bar — which was the case both when we arrived for a (very easy to get) 6:30 Friday night reservation and when we left two-and-a-half hours later — it feels very empty and stilted. In my experience, once the vibe feels off, it usually stays that way. And it did.
We started by sharing the pierogi and the bold beets and carrots salad with whipped feta and root-top pesto, even if both read more fall/ winter than spring/summer. I doubt Dom would order the scallops again — a normally light dish in an oddly winter-ish presentation with cider-braised pork belly and butternut squash. My crab and corn cappelletti read spring, though in a heavy stuffed pasta.
We ordered the must-have mocha crumble at the table and asked for it to be delivered to the lounge so we could experience that space. If I had to do it over again, that’d be the play from
the get-go. The best view in the restaurant is from the bar with the movie screen to the left — Dirty Dancing on the night of our visit, with Patrick Swayze grinding out sweaty summers in the Catskills. In the dining room, the only signs you’re in a vintage movie theater are framed photos of actors on the walls.
Sinema’s storyline doesn’t feel strong to me. I hate to say this, because though I always want to be honest, I also want to celebrate a restaurant that’s reinvented an important piece of Nashville’s history, and has the balls to offer upscale dining in a part of town where the most recognizable restaurant is Fat Mo’s. If Sinema were a movie, I wouldn’t recommend you sit through the whole thing. Instead, have a drink and an appetizer or dessert and pause to appreciate a view you won’t see anywhere else in town, as you would a painting. ▼
The short answer: Not participating in democracy is not an option BY
CHRIS CROFTONIn 2014, comedian, musician, podcaster and Nashvillian Chris Crofton asked the Scene for an
HAVE YOU HEARD THE EXPRESSION “CUTTING OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE”? EVERY LEFT-LEANING PERSON SHOULD REFAMILIARIZE THEMSELVES WITH IT.
I AM NOT happy with Biden’s foreign policy, Theresa. That is a bit of an understatement, actually.
I will, however, be voting for him. It’s the only responsible thing to do.
loud — about dictators and revenge. They tried to overthrow the government. Their nominee is a convicted felon. If you ask me, now is not the time to burn it down — it’s already on fire! Let’s
Give me an example of an American president whose foreign policy you agree with. I’ll give you mine: none. We back the worst people to maintain our lifestyle of debit cards, gasoline and ice cream cones, until they are no longer useful. (Think Noriega, Gaddafi, Saddam, etc.) And if we’re not supporting the worst people, we are actively being the worst people. (Think Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras, etc.)
You know what else I’m not happy with, Theresa? I am not happy that the state of Tennessee is building an 800-acre police training facility complete with a “mock city” for training that is clearly meant to be an American city. Not a city full of terrorists — a city full of problem people, aka the people trying to stave off fascism. Problem cities full of people who need social services, not faux “fiscal responsibility.” People who need public schools, not private schools. Cities of people who do not want tax cuts for the wealthy, subsidized sports stadiums and sadistic, antidemocratic supermajorities. So … any city in America.
Atlanta is building a giant police training facility too — “Cop City.” Soon every city will have one. Will they be policing the powerful? Or protecting their capital? I’d argue they are there to control the weak and the kind. The people who want labor laws, unions and workers’ rights. The poor. The unhoused. The “left.”
I have friends who want to “burn it down.”
But that’s just their privilege talking. If you can afford to “burn it down,” you must not need it. Practically speaking, “burn it down” just means turning the country over to the people who function well in chaos — the guys in jackboots. Those guys are dying for things to burn so they can use their bulletproof Kevlar suits and night-vision goggles. So they can “secure the perimeter” and kettle the people who resist, use facial recognition software linked to internet search histories and “own the libs” with zip ties. Republicans are already fantasizing — out
And any American who has ever filled up a gas tank is complicit.
Obama (I voted for him) presided over multiple wars at once. He didn’t prosecute the bankers. He didn’t prosecute the war criminals. He prosecuted the whistleblowers. And he watched the police beat the shit out of Occupy Wall Street. And I’m still glad he got elected, because his predecessor George W. Bush was worse. Obama is the only reason I have health insurance.
Your friends may say there comes a time when we must take a stand, and that that time is now! And that stand will be … electing Donald Trump? Have you heard the expression “cutting off your nose to spite your face”? Every left-leaning person should refamiliarize themselves with it. Not participating is not an option. You will participate by choice now (voting), or you may be forced to “participate” at gunpoint. If monopolies continue to raise the rents, wages stay stagnant and AI replaces much of the workforce, many more Americans will end up homeless. And this country’s bought-and-paid-for politicians are in the process of criminalizing camping on public property. That’s the gunpoint I’m talking about — literal gunpoint.
We still have a system. It’s a flawed system, what’s left of a system — but it’s a system. Without it, we won’t have rights. We won’t have a justice system. No justice system, no recourse. Even libertarians will be begging — in vain — for government intervention.
Be careful what you wish for. ▼
Street
AS THE EXECUTIVE artistic director for Street Theatre Company, Randy Craft is always on the lookout for musicals that are a bit unconventional, whether in terms of form or content. And Fun Home — which opens Friday at the Barbershop Theater — certainly checks both boxes.
Based on Alison Bechdel’s hit graphic memoir, Fun Home follows Bechdel at three different ages as she explores her own coming out while grappling with the mysteries of her childhood — and the truth about her closeted gay father. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Fun Home premiered off Broadway in 2013 but moved to Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre in 2015, which made it one of the first mainstream musicals to feature a lesbian protagonist. With music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, Fun Home eventually won five Tony Awards, and was the first show written entirely by women to win the Tony for Best Musical. Perhaps that’s fitting, as Bechdel herself is credited with coining the Bechdel test — a set of criteria designed to measure women’s representation in fiction.
Beyond such well-earned accolades, what Craft finds most intriguing about Fun Home is its honest approach to storytelling.
“To me, Fun Home is a real truth story,” says Craft, who is serving as music director for the production. “I like that it portrays the LGBTQ+ community in such an honest way. It’s not caricaturing anybody. It’s not a depressing or overly dramatized coming-out story. It’s just an honest, truthful story that shows two people who basically reach the same conclusion about who they are, but make drastically different decisions on where to go from there.”
That’s not to say that the musical’s narrative is uncomplicated. Moving between past and
present, Fun Home takes us through fragmented memories and conversations that allow Alison to see her parents “through grown-up eyes.” It’s not your typical musical, but thanks to Tesori and Kron’s exquisite score, Fun Home offers a deeply rewarding journey.
“Orchestrally, it’s so well-written,” Craft says. “There’s so much nuance, and you’re getting a lot of thematic stuff for different characters. There’s a lot of symbolism in the lyrics, with Alison talking about wanting to fly — playing airplane with her father, wanting to fly higher. Then there’s a lyrical shift, with medium Alison talking about falling in love, and her father talking about falling into despair. It sounds weighty, but then Jeanine Tesori is somehow able to throw in the head-bopping humor of the kids singing ‘Come to the Fun Home.’ It’s just a great show. And even if you’re not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you’re going to find something to connect with. I mean, every family holds its secrets. Things are not always as perfect as they seem, and I think everyone can relate to that in some capacity.”
For longtime Street Theatre collaborator Leslie Marberry, who is directing the production, that sense of relatability is key.
“I have loved Fun Home for such a long time,” says Marberry, who most recently directed Ordinary Days for the company. “The music is gorgeous, the story is beautiful, and it means a lot to me to be able to tell this story with this cast. It’s been really cool to see the group come together with such amazing chemistry — both on- and offstage.”
That cast includes a terrific mix of fresh and familiar faces, including Delaney Amatrudo, Ryan Greenawalt, Katie Bruno, Jana Denning, Ayla Carlock, Maya Antoinette Riley, Grant
Weathington, Alex Hillaker and Ryman Stanton. When asked about directing her real-life partner Amatrudo in the lead role of Alison, Marberry calls it “pure joy.”
“Delaney and I first met when I directed her in Lizzie: The Musical for Street, and we quickly realized that we work really well together. I guess I was a little worried about what people would think about me casting her as Alison, but you just have to trust the audition process. And she has approached it all with such care, such love and respect for Alison’s story. She’s done a wonderful job. They all have.”
Of course, directing a cast of nine in the cozy Barbershop Theater is not without its challenges.
“I think this is the biggest cast we’ve ever had at the Barbershop,” Marberry says. “But I really love using the closeness of the space to our advantage. I wouldn’t want to do this show on a big stage. I want the audience to feel like they’re right there in the house with the characters. It’s definitely challenging, but it’s also really exciting.”
“Fun Home is such a roller coaster of emotions,” she adds. “It’s funny. It’s tender. There are moments of pain and sadness, but it’s also really hopeful. I think any director’s goal is for the audience to walk away thinking and talking, and maybe changed for the better. But as cliché as it might sound, I hope people walk away loving themselves — and each other — just a little bit more.” ▼
Historian
Doris KearnsGoodwin o ers an intimate perspective on a dramatic decade
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HISTORIAN DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN in-
troduces An Unfinished Love Story as the result of a chore she and her late husband, writer and political strategist Richard Goodwin, finally tackled after his 80th birthday: surveying 300 boxes of his papers and memorabilia from that vital and tragic American decade, the 1960s.
Dick Goodwin’s souvenirs are lofty artifacts — affectionate notes from Jacqueline Kennedy, photos of him hanging out in the White House with Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, drafts of such seminal speeches as the debut of Johnson’s “Great Society,” notes to Robert Kennedy about why he should run for president, a cigar box from Che Guevara. Subtitled A Personal History of the 1960s, the book surveys Richard Goodwin’s work with a decade-defining cast of characters known in the collective shorthand of a nation as JFK, LBJ, Jackie and Bobby.
But it’s also the author’s story. At a time in the late ’60s when Richard Goodwin was saying goodbye to all that, Doris Kearns, more than a decade younger, was coming into her own. While a graduate student at Harvard, she was chosen for a fellowship in Johnson’s White House. LBJ was drawn to her gift for providing frank opinions, and as his confidante, she became the avatar for the “Harvards” he wanted to win over.
The Goodwins were present for such crucial events as Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington and the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that erupted in violence, but they didn’t meet until they had offices in the same building at Harvard in 1972. Their public roles were complementary. He actively influenced his “great men” through advice and speechwriting; her behind-the-scenes role as an observer and trusted friend led to her blockbuster first book, Lyndon Johnson and the
American Dream. (In some editions, the book has a subtitle of nearly biblical praise: The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written.)
The author of such essential popular biographies as The Bully Pulpit, Team of Rivals and No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which won a Pulitzer Prize for history, Kearns Goodwin writes that the impetus for her new book was to address a “fault line” in the Goodwins’ union of more than four decades. Kennedy was his hero; Johnson was hers. “Tremors from this division ran through our marriage, at times provoking tension as I repeatedly insisted that the great majority of Kennedy’s domestic promises and pledges found realization only under Johnson, while Dick repeatedly countered that Kennedy’s inspirational leadership had set a tone and spirit that defined the decade,” she writes.
They agreed to abandon their prejudices and open his archives with a clean slate. “As we shook hands, we both burst out laughing.”
What emerges in Love Story is a sense of the balance of their personal relationship and, on the national level, the symbiosis of the two administrations they championed. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act to Congress, for instance, but after he was assassinated in 1963, it was Johnson who took it through Congress. Kennedy’s idealism was consummated by Johnson’s pragmatism. This is an accessible primer on the two great politicians of an era when the Peace Corps, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid and the Fair Housing Bill all came into being. Offbeat insider details give the book its singular charm. One of Dick Goodwin’s stories, filed in the index under “White House skinny dip,” recalls him and Bill Moyers trailing Lyndon Johnson in the pool, all three of them nude, as the
president “held forth about where he hoped to take the country.”
A colleague in the Johnson administration called Dick Goodwin, who died in 2018, “the most skilled living practitioner of an arcane and dying artform, the political speech.” Kearns Goodwin mourns the loss of a nation’s political innocence. “For unlike today, the Sixties were still a time when a candidate’s word represented a commitment to a prescribed course of action. What one said mattered. If one reneged on that word, a future time of reckoning would be waiting.”
As Che Guevara noticed, Dick Goodwin loved cigars, and his wife seems to have lived in a fog of cigar smoke up to the last year of his life. He memorized Lincoln’s “Farewell Address” and passages from Shakespeare and Emerson. “Whenever he saw fit, Dick would draw from his wide and eclectic repertoire and declaim in his sonorous voice — whether at the ballpark, on walks with me, at our favorite bar, or simply waking up in our bedroom to greet the day.” A union that survives that test is a true one.
To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s By Doris Kearns Goodwin Simon & Schuster 480 pages, $35
Goodwin will discuss An Unfinished Love Story with Jon Meacham 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at Montgomery Bell Academy
Six One Trïbe’s 615 Day party sets the tone for growth in Black Nashville musicBY P.J. KINZER
“I STUDY RAPPERS, I study artists, I study musicians,” explains Gee Slab in his unmistakable Middle Tennessee drawl. “And they always say to make your local story connect worldwide. So I always try to make people understand what Nashville is.”
Slab is as Nashville as it gets. Born at Baptist Hospital, the rapper and local hip-hop thought leader proudly shows off his hometown as a badge of honor anytime the opportunity arises. He talks about his years at Pearl-Cohn High School and childhood visits to Opryland with a hint of nostalgia. As a founding member of the Six One Trïbe collective, Slab has a big voice within the local rap world.
He is not the first to pair up the three digits of the city’s original area code, used as shorthand for “Nashville” for decades, with the 15th day of the sixth month. But he and the Trïbe crew have put together Saturday’s 615 Day event at The Basement East — planned as an annual happening, it comes right in the middle of Black Music Month and a few days shy of Juneteenth — as a way to showcase some of the vast wealth of talent that operates outside of the Music Row-sanctioned side of Nashville. It’s also an opportunity for Nashville’s network of hip-hop communities to celebrate the town they come from.
Trïbe headlines this inaugural event with support from two of Nashville’s most gifted MCs, Brian Brown and Sweet Poison. Emcee duties, meanwhile, will be handled by The Voice of Cashville herself: Averianna the Personality, who you can hear in many places including as host of The Voice of Cashville Radio from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday on YoCo 96.7 FM.
“Gee Slab had been mentioning [performing at 615 Day] to me in passing for almost about a year now,” says Brown. “I couldn’t refuse. Slab was one of the first people to give me or my music a chance around here when I first started out, so when he calls, I def answer.”
Even as an artist who has played stages across the nation, Brown sees rappers from Nashville rarely getting the attention and support they need to succeed. “I’m 10 years in, and folks are still surprised when I tell them I rap,” he says.
“For as talented as this place is regarding hiphop, there’s so few guys that have reached some sort of national spotlight.”
The city’s decision to build I-40 through North Nashville in the 1960s destroyed Black neighborhoods, including the vibrant Jefferson Street entertainment district. It has taken decades of hard work — by folks like Black-owned booking enterprise Lovenoise — to restore and grow
8 p.m. Saturday, June 15,
even a small portion of the industry infrastructure that builds careers and to make it accessible to Black musicians.
“I don’t even think rappers know how to get in the infrastructure,” says Slab. “I think our job is to try to change it. We have to be disrupters a little bit. You can’t just wait for an opportunity.”
He notes that white and Black people involved in music and the music business don’t face the same kinds of challenges in Nashville.
“For me, it is important that a Black man is starting this,” he says. “We’re just trying to get ourselves heard. Because we know that if it was up to the infrastructure, they would never let us downtown, period. They don’t want us on Broadway.”
Sweet Poison points out that it’s crucial to recognize the achievements of the greater Nashville hip-hop community.
“It’s just very important for the culture — for the city — just to let it be known,” Poison says. “We’ve put in the work over years. … For the ones coming after us, we’re setting a tone — like a blueprint. I feel like the city definitely needed it, and it’s gonna be great even in years to come.”
615 Day highlights Music City rappers and DJs, but also boasts local merchants, food trucks,
clothing lines and small businesses from around the city. Fans will even get to experience the live debut of The Beginning of 4EVR, a new eighttrack EP that Six One Trïbe will release as part of the festivities.
“I have a quote I live by that says, ‘The world is better when an old man plants a tree for shade he may not receive,’” says Slab, emphasizing that the goal is for the celebration to be a platform for future generations of Black creative folks.
“It’s a pathway to be on a stage and to get your art heard. I’m trying to create the change I want without complaining about it all the time. I get tired of the complaining about what Nashville doesn’t do so how about we just try to do?”
Noting how so many musicians are overlooked across a wide range of traditions and genres in his hometown, Slab already has plans to expand 615 Day.
“Beyond me being a rapper, I think it represents the culture of the underrepresented people of Nashville,” Slab says. “Because I’m a rapper — and I identify with hip-hop and R&B and Black popular music — I’m gonna start with hip-hop and rap. Next year, I would love to have a few bands, a couple of pop artists and some rappers and some R&B acts to make it a full-circle thing.” ▼
and guitarist Ryan
builds out stories that are humanistic and inquisitive, while maintaining a sense of the phantasmagorical that doesn’t cross into elves ’n’ shit territory. (See: “How to Talk to Ghosts,” a meditation on loneliness in which the emphasis is on emotional impact and not interactions with the supernatural.) Bassist Pat Lowry has a mycelial sense of timing and structure, keeping the groove anchored deep underground while his bandmates explore the surface and the firmament beyond.
in terms of guitar stuff, because I wanted what I was actually playing to shine through a little bit more. So I feel like production-wise the recording breathes a little bit more. … There’s a little bit more space for all the articulation, for everything that all of us are playing.”
PILLARS OF CREATION, the new album from long-running Nashville rockers Sound&Shape, is the sound of a band hitting its stride. On the 12-track set, the trio hones their progressively multihyphenate approach to propulsive rock ’n’ roll to a keen edge. They launch themselves headfirst through a wormhole of gorgeous hooks and meaty riffs, drifting between profound heaviness and cosmic ethereality. The album revels in the possibilities of “rock,” showing off the amorphous genre’s ability to bend in any direction that seasoned players desire. It’s the sound of artists enjoying the process and making something that is joyous and accessible, yet also uncompromising. They’ve been in excellent company, supporting multifaceted hard-rocking heroes King’s X on the road. I caught up with Sound&Shape before the tour pulls into Brooklyn Bowl on Sunday.
“There’s so many different styles that just come together,” says drummer Ben Proctor. “We’re not trying to be this prog-rock band or this ‘whatever’ band. It’s just like, ‘Here’s some music, what do you feel as a drummer when I play this?’ … We put these things together, and that becomes Sound&Shape.”
The result is a melange of big riffs and even bigger drum fills that taps into a punk-rock sense of urgency while delivering on the kind of instrumental excellence that you’d expect from a band that shares stages with alt-prog
“We kind of stretched out a little bit on this one,” says Lowry. “We felt very proud of the last one and wanted to continue that, but [the goal is] always trying to do something you think is really, really great — and then do it better.”
“The last one” was a landmark record for the group, 2022’s Disaster Medicine. For the follow-up, they called on producer-engineer “Greazy Wil” Anspach, a studio wizard who took home Grammys earlier this year for his work on Killer Mike’s Michael. Anspach helped the group pull off a plan to make the whole record sound bigger by streamlining what went into it. The approach seems counterintuitive, but the end product proves how effective it is.
“We wanted the longer songs to be longer,” Caudle says. “We wanted the riffs to be heavier. We wanted the atmospheric stuff to be more atmospheric. I cut down on the amount of layers
Sound&Shape handles that articulation like a child with an action figure: constrained only by the limits of their imagination. The strippedback moments of pop simplicity give the pummeling metal moments the feeling of, say, the swagger of Saxon welded to the smarts of Squeeze. Tunes like the winding, searing and poignant “Is a Wilted Rose Still Red” may be tailor-made for folks who say things like “I’ve been listening to a lot of Blodwyn Pig lately” with a straight face (like yours truly). But the mastery of storytelling and pop songcraft that goes into the tunes means they will engage someone whose response to hearing the name of the aforementioned English progressive blues outfit might be, “What the fuck are you talking about, nerd?”
“I think what really sets us apart, for better or worse, from being a complete progressive-rock band — or a total metal band, or a total ‘this’ band or ‘that’ band,” says Caudle, “[is] we take all those sort of the prog elements or whatever you want to call ’em, but The Beatles are my favorite band ever, and always will be.”
“USUALLY WHEN I write songs, I wait a year to record them and then wait another year to play them for anybody,” indie-rock sensation Soccer Mommy told a packed house at The Blue Room at Third Man Records Sunday night. “I’m so glad I can be here to do that for you tonight.”
Earlier in the evening, the intimate venue was abuzz with excitement and nearly filled to capacity long before the show began at 8 p.m. This homecoming gig for songsmith and project principal Sophie Allison, ahead of a summer tour in the U.K. and Europe, was the last of a short run of solo performances dubbed The Lost Shows. Fans were eager and energized to soak in the promised mix of nostalgic favorites, rarities and sneak peeks of new material. Recently, Allison hinted that her next album might return to a more intimate, stripped-down sound — what better way is there to give us a preview?
The night began with a bang — or rather, a sweet, melancholy strum — as Bats took the stage. The musical alter ego of Allison’s fellow Nashvillian Jess Awh (who also played solo) exuded a quiet confidence as she tuned her guitar with a shy smile. She introduced herself to the audience and opened with a combo of “Spinnerbait” and “Golden Spoon,” both from her second LP Blue Cabinet. It was like listening to a secret diary entry set to music — raw, intimate and relatable. She followed with “Life Is Amazing,” an anguished and as-yet-unreleased piece about struggling with alcoholism. The tune showed her lyrical depth and emotional transparency with a sound reminiscent of Angel Olsen or Phoebe Bridgers. It was the kind of soul-baring performance that made you want to hug your best friend and tell them, “It’s going to be OK.”
Awh invited her drummer James Goodwin to join her for “Going for Oysters,” which opens her latest release Good Game Baby. The song, like the rest of the album, expertly blends traditional country vibes with an indie twist. During “Are You Like Me?,” a tear rolled down her cheek midsong, as she sang, “I wish I was something / More understandable / Softer and safer to hold.”
“I’m really nervous right now if you couldn’t
tell,” she said with an anxious laugh. “I’m surprised I haven’t messed up more than that.”
Her candidness was refreshing, and made her performance all the more endearing. The whole set was powerful, but the undeniable highlight was “Blind Confusion,” the closer from 2020’s There’s a River Up High, which she whispered softly over a backing track of white noise. With an excited mention of post-show cheeseburgers with a friend, Awh departed the stage, leaving a lingering sense of bittersweet beauty and vulnerability.
After a quick intermission, the moment everyone was waiting for arrived, as Allison stepped onstage bathed in purple light — from her eyeshadow to her guitars, it’s clear she has a thing for the color. She took command of the crowd immediately with “Circle the Drain” from her 2020 album Color Theory. The song is a prime example of her masterful blend of New Wave and bedroom-pop elements and her knack for navigating intense emotional territory with sweet melodies. The recorded versions of her songs (and most live performances) are enhanced by atmospheric post-rock rhythm tracks and haunting synths; Sunday, she presented them in their rawest form with only her guitar and an occasional ambient loop accompanying her voice.
“We remember!” a fan shouted as Allison reminisced about her early days while introducing “Bloodstream.” Between songs, Allison shared her recent misadventures with a broken-down car in CMA Fest traffic and lost luggage — reminders that even indie stars who tour the globe have to schlep themselves and their stuff from place to place like the rest of us.
The set list was a perfect, seamless blend of old and new Soccer Mommy. Her latest single “Lost,” which hit streaming services June 6, looks wistfully from the long shadow of grief: “I’ve got a way / Of keeping her with me where I go / But how she feels / I’ll never know / It’s lost to me.” That song stood comfortably next to “3 a.m. at a Party” and “Henry” from 2016’s For Young Hearts and “Your Dog,” which appears on 2018’s Clean and was clearly a crowd favorite, with practically the entire audience singing along. When someone shouted for a song from her earliest release, her 2015 EP Songs From My Bedroom, Allison laughed and said: “I don’t actually remember any of those. They’re, like, a decade old!”
More highlights ensued: the moody “Royal Screw Up” and more unreleased songs like “Driver” (not to be confused with her cover of The Cars’ “Drive”), “Thinking of You” and the cheeky “Abigail,” a tribute to Allison’s “main wife” in Stardew Valley. “When I’m not touring, I’m either playing Stardew Valley or bingeing Pretty Little Liars,” she said.
After “Still Clean,” the crowd demanded more. For the encore, Allison busted out her cover of The Boss’ “I’m on Fire” — coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of Born in the U.S.A. just passed on June 4 — and invited us to sing along. As we filed out, that special electrical crackle seemed to linger in the air; a full-band Soccer Mommy show is a fantastic experience, but it’s rare that Allison has time for solo shows. This was something extra special that’s going to be with everyone in attendance for a long time to come. ▼
Saturday, June 15
CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE Alice Randall
NOON · FORD THEATER
Tuesday, June 18
CONCERT CELEBRATION
From Where I Stand
Presented by Amazon and Riverview Foundation 6:30 pm · CMA THEATER FREE
Saturday, June 22
HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Saturday, June 22
SONGWRITER SESSION Brice Long NOON
WITNESS HISTORY
Museum Membership Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and more.
Sunday, June 23
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Andy May 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Wednesday, June 26 – Saturday, June 29 FAMILY PROGRAM String City: Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry 10:00 am and 11:30 am · FORD THEATER FREE
Saturday, July 6 SONGWRITER SESSION Steve Dean and Bill Whyte NOON · FORD THEATER
THE BIG CITY can be a lonely place. Packing up and moving to a concrete jungle where you don’t know a soul can be a physically and emotionally draining endeavor. One thing that can cure that drowning feeling in the pit of your stomach? A good friend. As clichéd as it might sound, good friends are among the best parts of life. As far back as ancient Greece, Epicurus was teaching the public that close friends are one of the main keys to happiness. A city that appears intimidating when approached alone will turn into a big playground when you approach it with some quality friends.
To create his most recent animated feature, Spanish director Pablo Berger took the friendly love at the center of Sara Varon’s 2007 graphic novel Robot Dreams and married it with his own love for New York City during the 1980s. In New York, sometime in the 1980s, lives Dog. Dog is all alone in the big city, so he orders a robot through a television ad. Together, Dog and Robot enjoy their summer days in the sprawling city — until the last day of summer, when Robot’s battery runs low and he’s stranded on the beach. Dog desperately tries to get into the gated beach, now made inaccessible to the public, while Robot dreams of getting back to Dog. Robot Dreams is a type of love story we don’t usually see: Unlike countless movies highlighting romantic or familial love, this film focuses
Coma is about being deeply freaked out by the shape the world is in
BY JASON SHAWHANANYONE WHO SAW The Beast during its theatrical release this spring will recognize the roots of that film’s elegantly woven skeins of narrative. Made by the same writer-director the year before that film, but only now seeing a brief release at the Belcourt, Coma takes lowkey sci-fi and teenage chaos as its primary mode of storytelling, but there’s also a sincere attempt to process the impact of COVID-19 on the actual process of culture. This dazzling whatsit digs around in the liminal spaces that youth craft in isolation, but also in when they can get beta feedback as well. Coma is breezy as an experience, but it deals with the profound in a way that allows for the topography of limbo and what happens when Donald Trump starts seeping into the discourse even among dolls. (Sincere note: If a Barbie sequel has to happen, it needs to be a Bertrand Bonello/Julio Torres collaboration.)
Writer-director Bonello’s daughter Anna Mouchette Bonello turned 18 during the first year of the pandemic, and so — as one would hope — he listened. Following
solely on platonic love. The connection between friends can be as deep and as meaningful as any other type of love, and while some films feature close friendships, more often than not these relationships are relegated to a side plot. Here the spotlight is on these two pals and the longing they experience for one another — a longing that carries the same kind of emotional impact seen in great romances like Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Robot Dreams’ absence of spoken dialogue highlights the music in the film, which functions as a narrative device in itself. Featured in an early montage of Dog and Robot spend-
ing the days together, Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” is constantly whistled by Robot while he’s stuck on the beach, and included in many of his dream sequences — the song itself is of course about reflecting on the good times. The rest of the soundtrack remains in the foreground, selling the 1980s setting with instrumentals that echo street performances heard throughout the city. The music sells Berger’s and Varon’s nostalgia for vintage New York City and the wonderful memories that are locked away in the minds of those who experienced it. It’s bittersweet to see the World Trade Center looming over the city — a moment in history, washed
2014’s Saint Laurent, which led to 2016’s teenage terrorist masterpiece Nocturama, a defining characteristic of Bonello’s recent work as a director has emerged: Horrified by the legacy of climate collapse, he’s been exploring the way that fatalism has mutated today’s youth, diving into all manner of impulses as a means of engaging with the dark times in which we live as well as the way surveillance culture markets itself. Coma is a film about looking around at the world and being
deeply freaked out by the shape it’s in. (Though there’s some degree of a happy ending in father and daughter collaborating on film scores together, as they did on The Beast.)
You would probably not expect a film made in this timespace to be this funny and unconventionally terrifying. But our unnamed teenage protagonist (Louise Labèque, from Zombi Child) and her friends are all about defining their own circumstances — whether that
away by the march of time.
Robot Dreams is a bittersweet film about love and longing that, while family-friendly, is likely more impactful to those old enough to remember life before the Information Age — before smartphones and social media. It’s a nostalgic movie filled with charm, but also an emotional gut-punch that will bring smiles and tears to audiences. The emotional complexity and lack of spoken dialogue might not make it a hit among young audiences, but it’s a great choice for young adults and older audiences looking to relive old memories — and make new ones. ▼
means YouTube wormholes with postmodern icon Patricia Coma (Julia Faure, a deadpan Almodóvarian take on Max Headroom), techno-philosophy, gathering in amorphous Zoom chats or even reviving the classic Kids in the Hall sketch “Who’s the Cutest Boy on Death Row?” As with The Beast this is resolutely not a horror film, yet it features one of the scariest scenes of 2022 — something that retroactively plays on every early Zoom fear, and does so in a way that scratches at the one absolute bulwark that parents could take from the prescribed isolation. As oceans rise, safety itself becomes an unsettling variable, and this film — an apology, a benediction and a case study — bears witness. It’s truly essential viewing, trippy and searingly truthful. ▼
Coma NR, 82 minutes; in French with English subtitles Showing June 15, 16 & 20 at the Belcourt
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1 Like a mouse
6 Fire on all cylinders
9 Body part where a sock might go? 13 Elderly 15 Unrefined
16 Used extreme caution, in old Rome? 18 Remnants 19 Cross state 20 Lines (up) 21 ___ point 22 V.A. concern, for short
23 First thing typed in a new tab, perhaps
24 Comments section disclaimer
26 Where F comes before E?
27 Product identifier similar to a U.P.C.
30 “Everything will be fine,” in old Rome?
35 Common ingredient in cereal bars
36 Scottish form of John
37 Stage often filled with bugs
38 What we might escape by, in old Rome?
43 Big ___
44 What a piece of work!
45 Surname in the 1946 western “My Darling Clementine”
46 Result of failed field sobriety test, for short
47 Nashville landmark, familiarly
49 Minor prevarication
52 Features of overalls
55 Dunking obstacle
56 Poison ivy, e.g.
57 Do a judge’s job, in old Rome?
60 Luigi’s love
61 Rack up win after win
62 “American Idol” judge alongside Luke and Lionel
German direction
64 Always ready to order? DOWN
1 Removed from the road 2 Dumb 3 Bad news for a ski resort
4 Signs 5 Bloodroot produces an orange one
6 Splitting ___ 7 Pressed hard 8 N.Y. Rangers’ home 9 Fishing basket 10 Netflix competitor 11 Do squat
12 Mitchell & ___ (sports apparel company)
14 One who might bear the burden of proof?
15 Fried, sugar-covered pastry
17 Pigeon dish
22 Apt Greek letter for a University of Pennsylvania fraternity
25 Fail to notice
26 “Please, Dad, please?”
27 Higher-than-usual penalties
28 Singer Eartha
29 Where the U.S.’s first transcontinental railroad was completed (1869)
30 Pointillism marks
31 Home of the first Dole plantation
32 Cabal
33 N.B.A. All-Star Ming
34 ___ Eats
39 Collectible doll
40 Word before coffee or Catholic
41 Lice and the like
42 Scotland’s Firth of ___
46 No-no in a vegan diet
47 Dunkable treats
48 Not answer a question directly, as a politician might
50 South American pioneers of terrace farming
51 Like the smell of a pub
52 Love note acronym
53 Rating for “Robot Chicken” and “Archer”
54 Hoot and a half
56 Nixon nix?
58 Lead-in to mania
59 Artist’s touch-up
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.
date of the last publication of this no-tice to be held at the Metro-politan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on JULY 29, 2024. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be pub-lished for four (4) weeks suc-cession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper pub-lished in Nashville.
Joseph P. Day, Clerk
K. Bass, Deputy Clerk Date: May 23, 2024
ROBERT TURNER, ATTY
of-way
with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust.
Non-Resident Notice
Fourth Circuit
Docket No. 24D217
LISA R. SCRUGGS
vs. CHARLES E. SCRUGGS
In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Ten-nessee, therefore the ordi-nary process of law cannot be served upon CHARLES E. SCRUGGS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS ap-pearance herein with thirty (30) days after JUNE 27, 2024, same being the
and JMM
companies, executed a Deed of Trust, Assignment of Rents, and Security Agreement dated Septem-ber 29, 2015, of record at Instru-ment 20151002-0100643, Regis-ter’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee, which was later modi- ed by that Modi cation Agreement dated October 29, 2015, of record at Instrument 20151109-011375, said Register’s Of ce, that Second Modi cation Agreement by Plaza Mariachi, LLC, dated January 15, 2016, of record at Instrument 20160128-0008248, said Register’s Of ce (collectively, the “Deed of Trust”) and conveyed to Jonathan R. Vinson, Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure the payment of certain indebtedness (“Indebtedness”) owed to Her-itage Bank USA, Inc., which Indebt-edness is now held and owned by First Financial Bank, N.A. (referred to as “Lender” and sometimes as “Bene ciary”); and WHEREAS, default in payment of the Indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust has occurred; and WHEREAS, David M. Anthony (“Trustee”) has been appointed Substitute Trustee by Lender by that Appointment of Substitute Trustee of record at Instrument 202405230038624, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County, Tennes-see, with authority to act alone or by a designated agent with the powers given the Trustee in the Deed of Trust and by applicable law; and WHEREAS, Lender, the owner and holder of said Indebtedness, has demanded that the real property be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said Indebtedness and the costs of the foreclosure, in accordance
NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pur-suant to the power, duty and author-ity vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, at 11:00 o’clock a.m., prevailing time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Court-house, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of re-demption or otherwise, homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Da-vidson County, Tennessee, de-scribed as follows:
Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 20151002-0100643, Register’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee.
Tract I:
Land in Davidson County, Tennes-see, being Lot No. 5, on the Plan of Revised
Plat of the Elysian Plaza Lots 4 and 5, as shown on plat of record in Instrument No. 20030416-0050965, in the Register’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee, and being more particularly described as follows:
COMMENCING at an iron pin set in the southwest right-of-way line of Nolensville Pike, said iron pin set being the Northeast corner of Lot 4 of The Plan of Resubdivision of Tract 4, Elysian Plaza, of record as Instrument No. 20010316- 0025374, Registers Of ce for D Da-vidson County, also being 394.26 feet from the South right-ofway line of Elysian Fields Road; thence with said right-of-way line as follows:
South 40 degrees 53 minutes 23 seconds East a distance of 140.95 feet to a concrete right-of-way mon-ument found; thence on a curve turning to the right, said curve hav-ing an arc length of 82.65 feet, with a radius of 1977.14 feet, with a chord bearing of South 39 degrees 41 minutes 57 seconds East, for a chord distance of 82.65 feet to an iron pin set, said iron pin set being the True Point of Beginning; thence with said right-of-way line with a curve turning to the right, said curve having an arc length of 217.92 feet, with a radius of 1977.14 feet, with a chord bearing of South 35 degrees 21 minutes 37 seconds East, for a chord distance of 217.81 feet to an iron pin set; thence leaving said right-
Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee. Tract II: Land in Davidson County, Tennes-see, being Lot No. 4, on the Plan of Revised Plat of the Elysian Plaza Lots 4 and 5, as shown on plat of record in Instrument No. 20030416-0050965, in the Register’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee, to which plat reference is made for a more particular description. INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE LE-GAL DESCRIPTION BUT EX-PRESSLY EXCLUDED FROM the Deed of Trust is that property more particularly described in a convey-ance by Elysian Fields Shops, LLC, a Tennessee limited liability com-pany to Kroger Limited Partnership I, an Ohio limited partnership of rec-ord in 20030417-0051599, Register’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee. Being the same property conveyed to Plaza Mariachi, LLC by Quit Claim Deed dated January 27, 2016, from JMM III, LLC, in Instru-ment 20160128-0008247, Regis-ter’s Of ce for Davidson County, Tennessee.
Street Address: The street ad-dress of the property is believed to be 3955 Nolensville Road, Nash-ville, Tennessee 37211, but such address is not part of the legal de-scription of the property. In the event of any discrepancy, the legal description herein shall control. Other interested parties: Mid-City Community Sub-CDE XVIII, LLC; PM Realty Nashville, LLC; Internal Revenue Service; Liberty HVAC & Energy Services, Inc.; Equipment Finders, Inc. of Tennessee; Inter-state AC Service, LLC (Attorney: Brandt McMillan); Charles W. Cook, III; Capital One, National Associa-tion; State of Tennessee, Depart-ment of Revenue; JMM, LLC; JMM II, LLC; JMM III, LLC. THIS PROPERTY IS SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WAR-RANTIES OF ANY KIND WHAT-SOEVER, WHETHER EX-PRESSED OR IMPLIED, AND SUBJECT TO ANY PRIOR LIENS OR ENCUMBRANCES, IF ANY. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENER-ALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE PROPERTY IS SOLD WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO TITLE, MARKETABILITY OF TITLE, POS-SESSION, QUIET ENJOINMENT OR THE LIKE AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WAR-RANTIES OF MERCHANTABIL-ITY, CONDITION, QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A GENERAL OR PARTICULAR USE OR PURPOSE. As to all or any part of the Property, the
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
right is reserved to (i) delay, continue or adjourn the sale to an-other time certain or to another day and time certain, without further publication and in accordance with law, upon announcement of said delay, continuance or adjournment on the day and time and place of sale set forth above or any subse-quent delayed, continued or ad-journed day and time and place of sale; (ii) sell at the time xed by this Notice or the date and time of the last delay, continuance or adjourn-ment or to give new notice of sale; (iii) sell in such lots, parcels, seg-ments, or separate estates as Trus-tee may choose; (iv) sell any part and delay, continue, adjourn, can-cel, or postpone the sale of any part of the Property; (v) sell in whole and then sell in parts and consummate the sale in whichever manner pro-duces the highest sale price; (vi) and/ or to sell to the next highest bid-der in the event any high bidder does not comply with the terms of the sale. Several Notice of Federal Tax Liens have been led by the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, including: that instrument dated April 26, 2018, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20180504-0042557, Register’s Of ce for Davidson County; that instrument dated Au-gust 13, 2019, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instru-ment No. 20190822-0084435, Reg-ister’s Of ce for Davidson County; that instrument dated October 2, 2020, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20201013-0118534, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County; that in-strument dated December 23, 2020, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20210105-0001263, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County; that in-strument dated April 1, 2021, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20210409-0047680, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County; and that instrument dated May 5, 2021, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20210514-0065231, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County. Timely notice has been given by the Trustee to the Internal Revenue Service by certi ed mail, as required by 26 U.S.C. §7425(b). The sale of this property will be subject to the right of the United States to redeem said property pursuant to 26 U.S.C. §7425(d).
Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 6/6, 6/13, 6/20, 6/27/24 strument dated Au-gust 20, 2020, against JMM II, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20200901-0099044,
Several Notice of State Tax Liens have been led by the State of Ten-nessee Department of Revenue, in-cluding: that in-
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