Nashville Scene 6-25-20 by FW Publishing

CITY LIMITS: COVID-19 IS HITTING HISPANIC NASHVILLIANS HARD

JUNE 25–JULY 1, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 21 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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MUSIC: BLUEGRASS PRIDE’S INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING LANDS ON THE WEB PAGE 22

INSIDE: An excerpt from The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging

CAFÉ RAKKA OWNER RIYAD ALKASEM (LEFT) WITH AUTHOR JORDAN RITTER CONN

HOME, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT THE FORTHCOMING BOOK THE ROAD FROM RAQQA TELLS A LOCAL IMMIGRANT’S STORY OF BROTHERHOOD AND BELONGING BY ERICA CICCARONE cover_6-25-20.indd 1

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

JUNE 25, 2020

Fresh Off Defeat, Budget Coalition Looks to Next Year ................................................7

Western Medicine ................................... 21

CITY LIMITS

Advocates for reallocating Metro police funds don’t plan to give up on their efforts BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

COVID-19 Is Hitting Hispanic Nashvillians Hard, but the Reopening Isn’t Slowing Down ...........................................................7

MUSIC

Nashville power trio Country Westerns’ selftitled first LP is worth the wait BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

Being the Vessel ...................................... 22 Becca Mancari carries a heavy weight gracefully on The Greatest Part BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

Around 30 percent of Nashvillians who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been Hispanic

The ’Grass Grows .................................... 22

BY STEVEN HALE

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

Nashville Byline: The Scorcher Turned Farmer ........................................................8

The Spin ................................................... 23

Porch Pride brings Bluegrass Pride’s inclusive programming to the web

Nashville rockabilly legend Jason Ringenberg and his evolution to Farmer Jason

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Far Out Fest and the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival

BY RADLEY BALKO

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN AND RON WYNN

Pith in the Wind .........................................9 This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Americana Music Association Announces Thriving Roots Virtual Conference Tennessean Apologizes for ‘Indefensible’Ad Featuring Islamophobic ‘Prophecy’ Stadium-Adjacent Restaurant Third and Home Opens This Week in Germantown Shop Hop: Six LGBTQsupporting retailers, artists and organizations to support

ON THE COVER:

Café Rakka owner Riyad Alkasem (left) with author Jordan Ritter Conn Photo by Eric England

FILM

Primal Stream XIV .................................. 24

COVER STORY

The latest from Spike Lee and lots of queer cinema, now available to stream

The forthcoming book The Road From Raqqa tells a local immigrant’s story of brotherhood and belonging

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Home, or Something Like It

BY ERICA CICCARONE

Too Marvelous for Words ........................ 25 Leslie Woodhead’s new documentary offers a powerful portrait of Ella Fitzgerald

BY RON WYNN

Celebrate Anthony Bourdain’s birthday, stream performances from London’s Globe Theatre, embrace the cringe that is 90 Day Fiancé, send someone Cupcake Collection cupcakes, watch some radical Black films on YouTube and Vimeo, and more

BY CORY WOODROOF

Swing Vote ............................................... 25 Irresistible cuts deep into problematic election culture

CRITICS’ PICKS

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

MARKETPLACE

FOOD AND DRINK

Sugar Shock: How Sweet It Is HiFi Cookies will finally celebrate the grand opening of its East Nashville retail space BY MEGAN SELING

BOOKS

A Sexy, Impressionistic Feast Leesa Cross-Smith’s story collection makes a joyful statement BY SUSANNAH FELTS AND CHAPTER 16

Walk a

With feet on the street, we discover Nashville’s own unique beat – one mile at a time

Mile

with J.R. Lind

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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FROM BILL FREEMAN NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS SPEEDWAY’S RACE THIS SATURDAY, AND ITS RICH HISTORY I was delighted to hear the recent news that racing is returning to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on Saturday! The last race, the All American 400, was held all the way back in November. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, races — like so many other fun activities — have been repeatedly postponed. But Metro officials have given the green flag for a race this weekend. The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is the second-oldest racetrack in operation today in the United States, and it has played host to many famous races and drivers. Established in 1904 as a dirt track, it hosted harness horse races, motorcycle races and “horseless carriage” races. The track was paved in 1958 and began to host NASCAR races, which continued through 1984. Later in the ’80s, late-model stock cars came along, bringing celebrity drivers like Bobby Allison, Jeff Green, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt to our track. The Speedway has hosted the ARCA racing series, the Craftsman Truck Series, the Busch Series and others — it is also one of the rare half-mile tracks left in the world of stock-car racing. Little wonder it’s been reported that the track is one of five in the nation that race fans want NASCAR to bring back. Many of us still have fond memories of attending the races at the Speedway with our families. In my case, you might even say it was a Freeman family tradition. The night air, the carnival-style food and the finely tuned engines enthralled us and made us fans. The early 2000s brought more change to the Speedway, with many of the bigger races moving to the Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon. A shifting race schedule left fans seeking their race entertainment elsewhere. The political fights over who would control the racetrack started to drive off the largername races, NASCAR included. In 2017, Major League Soccer began looking for a home in Nashville for an expansion team — and they were looking to The Fairgrounds Nashville. At the same time that MLS was looking to improve the fairgrounds and proposing the added soccer stadium, there were still many decisions that needed to be made pertaining to the Speedway. Should it remain? Historic or not, how could it remain if there were no races large enough to draw in spectators? Thankfully, we’ve had some very avid racing fans and advocates working with the city to try to preserve the Speedway. One of those advocates was former track promoter Tony Formosa, who in recent years met with Nashville city officials and NASCAR officials, even partnering with Speedway Motorsports with the common goal of bringing NASCAR-sanctioned events back to the track. Though Formosa is no longer at The Fairgrounds Nashville, his dream for the Speedway to come back to life may soon come true. Bob Sargent of Track Enterprises, who previously promoted ARCA races at the Nashville track, has been awarded a one-year contract

to promote races at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway — and thus this weekend’s race kicking things off. Sargent is also quite interested in improving the Speedway and seeing NASCAR return. He says he’s just waiting to see what will happen, as last spring Speedway Motorsports Inc. sent the mayor a $60 million proposal to renovate the Speedway, double the Speedway’s capacity to 30,000 and provide other upgrades. Nashville Soccer Club also presented plans for a 30,000-seat soccer stadium and development of the fairgrounds. Mayor Cooper wanted the two projects to work in parallel. To that end, Nashville SC developed plans to accommodate the soccer stadium while still allowing room for the Speedway proposal/plans to be successful. The Tennessean recorded Mayor Cooper saying he was “super interested” in getting NASCAR events back once again, and now that MLS has the ball rolling, the Speedway could soon be getting its due. Mayor Cooper has patiently waited for the right parties to come to the table, and for the right situation. He can obviously see the economic driver — pun intended — that racing will be for Nashville, especially if NASCAR does indeed return. To me, the June 27 race is a sign of good things to come. Though the environment may be slightly different this time as the new promoters work to implement the best health practices, they’ve also added a few upgrades — like new paint, a new sound system, lights, handrails and more — to ensure everyone has an enjoyable experience. Just seeing the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway recapturing a little of its former glory and holding these races, and knowing NASCAR still has an interest in Nashville, I can’t help but feel excited. I’m going to call my boys to see if they’re ready to go!

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Circulation Manager Casey Sanders Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Events Manager Ali Foley Publisher Mike Smith Advertising Director Daniel Williams Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Account Executive William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. Classified: 816-218-6732. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $99 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

6/22/20 6:53 PM

MUSIC IS RESILIENCE

Watch & Listen This week on our Watch & Listen page, we’re focused on the ways music can lift us back up, again and again, when we’re met with setbacks and struggles. Visit our website to explore videos that hinge on and recount resilience, including an interview with longstanding country quartet Little Big Town.

above:

Little Big Town

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS

FRESH OFF DEFEAT, BUDGET COALITION LOOKS TO NEXT YEAR

Advocates for reallocating Metro police funds don’t plan to give up on their efforts BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

or those newly engaged in local politics after a month of high-energy protests and organized actions, last week’s Metro Council budget debate was likely a disappointment. A group calling itself the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition, made up of several long-standing community organizations, marshaled that new energy to the Metro Council: phone calls, emails, public testimony and rallies outside the Metro Courthouse, all asking the body to spend drastically less on policing. Their most optimistic proposal, carried by Councilmember Ginny Welsch of District 16, would have redirected more than $100 million from policing to social services and other priorities, but it failed to gain traction. Smaller bites at the apple, including one from Councilmember Sean Parker, failed as well. The coalition and other like-minded people were left hoping for the next best option: Budget Committee chair Bob Mendes’ alternative to Mayor John Cooper’s budget. Mendes imagined keeping spending on Metro Police flat from the current year: no increase, but no reduction.

COVID-19 IS HITTING HISPANIC NASHVILLIANS HARD, BUT THE REOPENING ISN’T SLOWING DOWN Around 30 percent of Nashvillians who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been Hispanic BY STEVEN HALE

n June 16, the mayor’s office released a COVID-19 heatmap of active cases in Davidson County. It showed a collection of red hotspots in southeast Nashville — the heart of the city’s immigrant community. It was stark, but not new. A separate heatmap — which included all active cases as well as those of people who have recovered or died — featured the same red mass identifying southeast Nashville as the local epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of

But the mayor and police representatives warned that eliminating the $2.6 million increase for police would result in the loss of an incoming class of 48 recruits. Their warnings were enough to convince a majority of councilmembers to support an amendment restoring the added police funds, leaving the People’s Budget Coalition with little to show for their advocacy efforts. That doesn’t mean they’re demoralized, though: They started the conversation, and they have a group of councilmembers on their side. “Although they didn’t listen to us this time, it’s changed the political weather,” says Dawn Harrington of Free Hearts, one of the coalition organizations. “It’s changed what is politically viable.” She’s right: Increases to police funding in the past have been routine, and now a growing number of councilmembers agree, at least conceptually, that less could be spent on policing. Some of the councilmembers who back the coalition’s principles don’t think it’s feasible until there’s an infrastructure in place that can take on some current police responsibilities, like mental health emergencies and other calls that don’t necessitate weapons or force.

at least 87 people in Nashville. Metro’s figures, as of June 22, show that around 30 percent of Nashvillians who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been Hispanic. According to the latest census data, Hispanic people make up just more than 10 percent of the city’s population. “I think we’re all worried,” Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda, who represents the southeast’s District 30, tells the Scene. “We’re all a bit frustrated. We have not seen the numbers in southeast get any better, and that means that what we have been doing hasn’t been working. Hopefully, we take this moment as a wake-up call and figure out other tangible solutions and work with community leaders and councilmembers from southeast to try to find those solutions.” The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition released a letter last week signed by 18 Latino-serving organizations. The letter called on state and local leaders to address the disproportionate impact on the communities they serve. “Latino families are deeply rooted in the fabric of Tennessee communities and are doing essential work on the frontlines of this crisis,” reads the letter, “but deep structural and racial inequities in our health and economic systems are causing people of color to be infected with COVID-19 and die at higher rates.” The coalition urged leaders to take several steps, including investing in “Spanish-speaking community health workers and case management programs” and strengthening and publicizing “policies to reassure immigrants that accessing care and services won’t result in immigration consequences.” Councilmembers in the area have been urgently

“For me, it simply means limiting the scope of what an armed police officer will do and what handles which type of calls,” says District 29 Councilmember Delishia Porterfield. “If you relieve them of some of those duties that are not associated with their job, that frees them so you don’t have such a long wait when you do need an actual police officer to respond.” District 2 Councilmember Kyontzè Toombs, vice chair of the Budget Committee, says it is important to engage with the mayor’s office earlier, because the mayor has more time with the budget than the council does due to the process set forth by the Metro Charter. “That’s something you start working on now,” she says. “You can’t wait until after the mayor has proposed his budget. That’s something you start working on today and keep working on so when it’s budget season, there’s a plan in place.” But the mayor’s actions during this budget process — using his primary negotiating effort to advocate for added police spending — left some advocates and councilmembers skeptical of his willingness to engage in

the conversation. Harrington said she was “shocked and energized” by the move, and that new participants in the process who felt betrayed were also energized, not demoralized, by the move. “I don’t know what his intentions were, but for me specifically it felt like a slap in the face against the thousands of people that said they wanted to see their taxpayer dollars going into things like education and city services and social services,” says Councilmember Porterfield. “I understand why people are frustrated and why people feel as though we didn’t listen.” The newly formed coalition is planning ongoing events and calls to action in the coming months in an effort to keep people engaged in the budget process and Metro government more generally. One benefit of the effort the past few weeks, says Cecilia Prado of Workers’ Dignity, is a growing unity among the people represented by the coalition organizations: immigrant rights activists, Black Lives Matter and more. “We have the people on our side, and the people have spoken,” says Prado. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

“ALTHOUGH THEY DIDN’T LISTEN TO US THIS TIME, IT’S CHANGED THE POLITICAL WEATHER. IT’S CHANGED WHAT IS POLITICALLY VIABLE.”

— DAWN HARRINGTON, THE NASHVILLE PEOPLE’S BUDGET COALITION

seeking more data on how and where the virus is being transmitted, along with aiding the response in their own communities. “I heard from a community member the other day asking if we had more face masks because there was an outbreak in an apartment complex,” Sepulveda says. “I asked what apartment complex, and it turned out to be one in my district. I had no idea that was going on. So then I had to scramble to find more face masks.” Earlier this week, Mayor John Cooper and his COVID-19 task force decided to move into phase three of the city’s reopening plan, despite this and other alarming trends. Two of the six key metrics highlighted by the task force remain yellow, or less than satisfactory — transmission rate and the 14-day new case trend. Earlier this month, the Metro Public Health Department issued citations to 14 local businesses — including Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse — for failure to comply with public health emergency orders designed to slow the spread of the virus. Phase three — which Cooper said will remain in effect for four weeks — allows restaurants to open to 75 percent capacity and bars to open at 50 percent of capacity with six feet between customers. Small venues can also open for live music, with capacity capped at 250 people. Sepulveda says her constituents continue to report low face mask usage at grocery stores, and that she’s heard increasing reports of construction workers getting sick. She is one of a number of councilmembers who question the decision to move into phase three. “I feel like it is too soon,” she says. “It honestly

feels like it’s too soon. I know many of the southeast councilmembers, we were hoping to get our numbers under control quite a bit before we moved into another phase. We don’t want to feel ignored, and we shouldn’t feel rushed to do this.” At a briefing on June 22 marking the beginning of phase three — and including an announcement of 139 new cases in 24 hours — Cooper said the task force’s work so far leads it to believe increased activity can be safe if done with caution. “After over 7,000 contact-tracing investigations,” said Cooper, “we’ve learned that the disease is not necessarily spreading because of Nashvillians shopping or going to church or to grocery stores or to local retail establishments, outdoor activities, hair salons or to other businesses that are taking safe precautions. Limiting the spread of the disease is about maintaining a safe social distance from others and wearing a mask.” Dr. Alex Jahangir, who chairs the task force, encouraged Nashvillians to withhold their business from restaurants and stores where employees aren’t wearing masks or practicing social distancing. He told reporters there was no disagreement on the task force about moving forward with phase three. But there continues to be disagreement from other city leaders. Responding on Twitter to the mayor’s comment that while the 14-day new case average was trending upward, hospital capacity was still in “good shape,” Fairgrounds Nashvillearea Councilmember Colby Sledge wrote: “Your government doesn’t want you to be well. They just want you to know a bed is waiting when you get sick.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS NASHVILLE BYLINE

THE SCORCHER TURNED FARMER Nashville rockabilly legend Jason Ringenberg and his evolution to Farmer Jason BY RADLEY BALKO Radley Balko is a journalist who covers criminal justice and more for The Washington Post. He is author of the books The Rise of the Warrior Cop and The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. With his ongoing series Nashville Byline, he’ll profile fascinating characters, businesses and other parts of Nashville.

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

t’s hard to imagine what must have gone through a 1980s audience’s collective mind upon seeing Jason and the Scorchers for the first time. There are video recordings of some of those shows. Guitarist Warner Hodges was typically dressed as if he were filling in for Black Sabbath. Bassist Jeff Johnson looked decked out for a gig with The Buggles. Drummer Perry Baggs looked as if he’d just subbed in for a Sex Pistols show. And then there was frontman Jason Ringenberg. Clean-cut and skinny with trimmed sideburns, he was charming, with a farm-boy handsomeness, and would take the stage in a cowboy hat, bolo tie and a shiny shirt or jacket bedecked with Western flair. In a video of a 1985 show at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J., the band begins with a kinetic blast of sound as Baggs and Johnson lay down a driving, Ramones-like rhythm. Hodges, dressed all in black, spins, kicks and and spits out meaty riffs from his guitar, all with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Ringenberg squawks, preens and flops around the stage, filling the mic with a tinny but charismatic voice that lands somewhere between Mick Jagger, Joe Strummer and Brian Setzer. Just a few bars in, you can almost hear those in the crowd turn to one another. Are they playing … Hank Williams?! People who saw the Scorchers play at places like Cantrell’s or Exit/In in those days will still insist they’re Nashville’s best band who never made it big. Those frenetic ’80s shows built the band a loyal following, and their early albums won raves from far-fromNashville publications including The Village Voice. But the band never had a breakout hit. “We actually make more money from reunion shows than we ever made back then,” says Ringenberg. He’s speaking via phone from his farm west of Nashville in the unincorporated town of Bon Aqua. “I don’t think we ever made more than a hundred dollars a week.” If you’re into city folklore, you’ll know the reason they never made it — the “Nashville Curse.” Ringenberg’s outfit was originally

called Jason and the Nashville Scorchers. Upon the band’s first big record deal with EMI, the label’s marketing team persuaded the band to drop the “Nashville” so they wouldn’t be pigeonholed as a country act. Not only did the Scorchers never make it big, no rock band from Nashville would have a platinum album for more than two decades. Ringenberg says he does regret the name change. “You know, that was something we regretted all the way through,” he says. “Looking back, you’re changing your name because the record companies suggested it. I mean, that’s ridiculous. I wish we hadn’t done it.” But he offers a more practical reason why the band never broke through. “At the time, we thought we were going to be the next

Rolling Stones. It just wasn’t the right time for us. The Georgia Satellites had ‘Keep Your Hands to Yourself’ a couple years after us, and then the rockabilly thing took off. So I sometimes think we just missed our window. But looking back, I also think we were just too odd and strange and different for that particular time and place.” Ringenberg grew up on a farm in Illinois. He enrolled at Southern Illinois University to study history, but dropped out in 1981 to pursue his music career. After considering moves to London, New York and Los Angeles, he ultimately chose to relocate to Nashville. “I was into Dylan at the time, who had recorded here,” he says. “And guys like Bobby Bare, Roy Orbison, John Prine. Nashville just seemed like the right fit.”

Despite the city’s pop-culture moment in the late 1960s and early 1970s — Dylan recording Blonde on Blonde (1966) and Nashville Skyline (1969) in town, the nationally broadcast Johnny Cash Show, the 1975 Robert Altman movie — Ringenberg found the city a little sleepy. “The ’70s was a really exciting time here,” Ringenberg says. “But by the early ’80s it was dead, man. It was really dead. There were some sort of holdovers from the outlawcountry people, but there was almost no original rock ’n’ roll happening. It was so dead in that field. And that’s what I stepped into.” Ringenberg formed the band a few months later. They quickly made a name for themselves in town by belting out fast-paced punk covers of popular country songs. “I was also really into first-wave punk back

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

CITY LIMITS

then,” he says. “And we were having some success with that.” The band put out its first EP in 1982, Reckless Country Soul, which earned them more acclaim as well as shows opening for R.E.M. It also got them the contract with EMI. The band’s first big label release, an EP called Fervor, received critical acclaim. That was due in large part to their frenzied cover of Dylan’s “Absolutely Sweet Marie.” Ringenberg says he had to trick his band into playing it. “I was the only one in the band who really liked Dylan,” he says. “Warner didn’t like him at all. The other guys hadn’t really listened to him. I knew Warner’s guitar and Perry’s drums would be perfect for that melody. But I also knew they’d never play it if I told them it was a Dylan song. So I told them I wrote it. And it was instant. They just kicked right into it, and it blew up. I don’t even know when they figured out it wasn’t an original song.” Ringenberg and Hodges were the band’s primary creative forces, each of them pushing the Scorchers in opposing directions. Hodges was an AC/DC fan, and moved the band toward an ’80s metal sound. Ringenberg nudged them toward cow punk and rockabilly. At their best — their covers of “Sweet Marie” and “19th Nervous Breakdown” and originals like “White Lies,” “Broken Whiskey Glass,” “Blanket of Sorrow” and “Hot Nights in Georgia” — the two brought out the best in each other, and created something

truly unique for its time. They made punk with twang — and a touch of literacy. (A UPI article from 1985 notes that Hodges and Ringenberg were both news junkies, and often watched The MacNeil/Lehrer Report together while on the road.) “There was an interesting competitive edge between me and Warner, you know, whose vision was going to be predominant,” Ringenberg says. “And it wasn’t a negative thing. It was just kind of who we were. We both had strong creative visions. And it worked well for us.” The New York Times wrote in 1984 that Ringenberg’s lyrics offered “intelligent new twists on time-honored country subjects,” and found the live set the band played at Irving Plaza “gleefully, explosively danceable.” But Jason and the Scorchers’ continued critical success was never matched with commercial success. After a few more albums, the Scorchers disbanded in 1990 when Baggs was diagnosed with diabetes and could no longer tour. They toured again with him in the mid-’90s when his health improved, and then a couple more times without him as his health declined again. Baggs died in 2012 due to complications from the disease. “So much of the focus was on me and Warner, but without Jeff and Perry, there would have never been a Jason and the Scorchers,” Ringenberg says. “Perry was possibly the most broadly tal-

ented musician in the band. He was a great singer. A great songwriter who could play guitar better than me. He had great arrangement ideas. He had this great spark and sparkle to whatever he played and whatever he did. We played with some really talented drummers since he got sick. But you can’t replace Perry Baggs.” In 1997, Ringenberg married his second wife Suzie, at the time a manager at rock club 12th & Porter. The two eventually bought the farm in Bon Aqua where they live now. Five years later, Ringenberg created Farmer Jason — his second act. “We had two young kids at the time, and they would listen to the same songs over and over again, all day,” Ringenberg says. “It was just fascinating to me, you know? How a 3-year-old can hear the same song all day. And I thought, ‘I’d like to do this! I’d like to have kids listen to me all day.’ ” Ringenberg created the persona Farmer Jason and began writing songs for kids about animals, farming and nature. The act blew up. Within a few years, Ringenberg was playing 300 shows per year and producing an Emmy-winning children’s show on PBS. “I was around 40 or so when Farmer Jason started. It was so cool to be that age, with my experience, doing a brand-new character. It wasn’t like doing a solo record or a new band. This was a brand-new thing. It was so fascinating to learn how to do that.” Soon, the founder of the most underrated rock band ever to hail from Nashville was selling out theaters, including one on Broadway, singing about a moose on the run, a punk rock skunk, and a tractor that goes “chug, chug, chug.” “Every single show I did for the first seven or eight years as Farmer Jason, I learned something,” Ringenberg says. “It was always such a cool experience to figure out how to entertain children. At a rock ’n’ roll show, you can take a minute to tune your guitar or check your set list. When you’re playing for kids, I go back to the little harmonica table and get a drink of water or tune my guitar, they’re just going to walk away! They’ll immediately forget why they’re there and just quit. So I learned that you have to be on every single second when you’re in front of kids. Every second!” Ringenberg does fewer shows as Farmer Jason these days. He had drifted from music altogether until, out of the blue, he was offered an artist-in-residence position with the Sequoia National Forest just a few years ago. Ringenberg stayed in a cabin with no electricity or running water, hiked and produced Standing Tall, his most recent album. Today the Nashville Curse is long gone. Franklin natives Paramore went platinum more than a decade ago, and artists including Jack White, Jason Isbell, Kings of Leon and The Black Keys set up shop here many years ago. Rockabilly, cow punk and altcountry are far from fringe, and many of the artists dominant in those genres claim the Scorchers as an influence. In 2001, the band was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2008, they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement in Performance Award by the Americana Music Association. Not quite The Rolling Stones — but not a bad legacy for a farm kid from Illinois. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: After weeks of mounting pressure and a call from numerous Metro councilmembers for his resignation, Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson announced he will indeed end his tenure as Nashville’s top cop and retire after 45 years. Anderson has resisted changes to the department’s policing strategies in recent years, rejecting the conclusions of the 2017 Gideon’s Army “Driving While Black” report, opposing the creation of the Community Oversight Board and, according to the COB, failing to fully cooperate with it. Mayor John Cooper said there will be a “national search” for Anderson’s successor. … The Tennessee House and Senate struck a deal in the wee hours of June 19 to pass a revised state budget. The $39.43 billion budget plan cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget passed in March, itself a major reduction from the budget originally proposed by Gov. Bill Lee before the coronavirus reached Tennessee. Though Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and other Senate leaders vowed the upper chamber would not consider any legislation unrelated to the budget or the pandemic, under the deal struck with the House, the Senate did pass the controversial and litigation-inviting “heartbeat abortion bill” as well as a proposal from House Speaker Cameron Sexton that makes unauthorized camping on state property a felony punishable by 30 days in jail. The latter bill — a response to the ongoing so-called “autonomous zone” on Legislative Plaza organized by camped-out protesters — also applies to the homeless, Sexton conceded. … The Metro Council passed a budget of its own, built around the substitute spending plan proposed by Councilmember Bob Mendes. Under the plan, the property tax rate will increase by $1.066. Mendes’ proposal also tweaks some spending in the budget laid out by Cooper. Some proposed and ultimately defeated amendments would have adopted some of the proposals of the People’s Budget Coalition. Councilmember Ginny Welsch, for example, proposed a $110 million combined reduction in spending on the Metro Nashville Police Department and Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, with those funds allocated instead to affordable housing, transit, homelessness services and other priorities. … The Supreme Court of the United States ruled against an effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Local DACA recipients were universally elated and relieved. “I don’t even know what to do, how to express my happiness,” one told Pith’s Alejandro Ramirez. … State House Republicans refused to pass a resolution in memory of Ashanti Harris, a high school athlete shot and killed April 9. House Majority Leader William Lamberth blocked the legislation based on an unfounded allegation that Harris possessed a small amount of marijuana at the time of her death. … A full-page ad in Sunday’s edition of The Tennessean relayed a “prophecy” from early Seventh-Day Adventist Ellen White that Nashville would be attacked July 18. According to the ad-buyers, it will come via nuclear weapon delivered “by Islam.” Tennessean brass repudiated the ad, launched an “investigation” and announced Monday that an ad manager was fired, the money refunded and a donation made to a Muslim advocacy group. NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THE FORTHCOMING BOOK THE ROAD FROM RAQQA TELLS A LOCAL IMMIGRANTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STORY OF BROTHERHOOD AND BELONGING BY ERICA CICCARONE

CAFE RAKKA OWNER RIYAD ALKASEM (LEFT) WITH AUTHOR JORDAN RITTER CONN

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

HOW DID YOU MEET RIYAD AND FIND THIS STORY?

be able to help me. … I went up there and met with Riyad, and he helped me translate those interviews. And then we ended up just talking for hours and kept in touch for a while after that. I ended up writing about his experience of the 2016 election for The Ringer. … The more he told me about his family and about Bashar, the more I felt like there was really a book here.

AT WHAT POINT DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO WRITE? WAS RIYAD ENCOURAGING? I remember very early on, his wife Linda off-handedly, almost jokingly, made a comment about me writing a book about Riyad. And honestly, at that point, it had already been in my mind … for most of 2015, but I did not talk to him about it until after I wrote about him for The Ringer. I think after I wrote that story, he was able to see what it would be like to have some intimate pieces of his life portrayed in this way. And after that, I mentioned to him this idea of doing a book, and he was on board and excited right away.

I LOVE HOW THE PROLOGUE TELLS THE STORY OF THE FOUNDING OF RAQQA, LAYING OUT THE BROTHERS’ ANCESTRY AND THEIR DEEP-ROOTED CONNECTION TO THE CITY AND THE LAND. WHY DID YOU BEGIN THE BOOK WITH THIS?

Certainly as a storyteller, I also felt like it was really a valuable tool, but talking to him, his sense was always that any story about Raqqa needs to include this story of its founding, the story that he and his siblings heard growing up. And that any story of Raqqa is incomplete without that history. … The fact that they come from the founders of the city, it just felt that in telling their story, I needed to tell that history as well, because it was so critical to the way in which they told the story of the family themselves.

“I just hope that other people connect to the power of their story, connect to the resilience in them, both to the bonds that they have with one another and to the bond that they have with Raqqa.” —JORDAN RITTER CONN JORDAN RITTER CONN

AS THE BOOK PROGRESSES, WE LEARN ABOUT RIYAD’S OWN STRUGGLES, WHICH ARE COMMON TO MANY IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA — TO ASSIMILATE AND THEN ALSO TO HOLD ONTO ONE’S CULTURE AND ROOTS. CAN YOU SPEAK TO THAT?

I used to work for the site Grantland. It was part of ESPN. And in the very last months before that site was shut down, I’d I think immigrants come to this country begun reporting in Southern Turkey along for so many different reasons, but Riyad’s the border with Syria, on a story about a reasons had to do with being in a classroom group of soccer players who were basically at the University of Aleppo and learning trying to form an anti-Assad national about our system of government, learning team … to kind of represent the Syrian specifically about our system of checks revolution. It was my first time reporting on and balances. He had this deep belief that Syria in any capacity. this must be what makes America I was beginning that story in what it is, this system, and that late 2015, and then Grantland he desperately wanted to The Road From was shut down. I got kicked experience it himself, to learn over to ESPN The Magazine, about it. Potentially, his real Raqqa: A Story of and they wanted me to keep dream was to eventually Brotherhood, Borders, reporting and to go back [to move back to Syria and try and Belonging Syria]. In between those two to reform the government BY JORDAN RITTER CONN trips, I needed to do some in a way that made it feel BALLANTINE BOOKS phone interviews. … I was a closer to the system that we 272 PAGES, $45.99 little bit at a loss, because the have here. … He held onto people I’d been interviewing and has continued to hold onto mostly didn’t speak English. … My this deep kind of faith in a lot of our hope was to find someone local who would institutions. call with me to some of these sources and He quickly realized that a lot of basically translate some interviews for me. aspects of our culture can be corrosive My wife teaches religion at Belmont, and hostile toward a lot of people, but and she’s become good friends with Rashed toward immigrants specifically, and Fakhruddin from the Islamic Center of specifically toward Muslim immigrants Nashville. … He recommended that I go to and Arab immigrants. He encountered Café Rakka, and he said that Riyad would that through slurs both before and after

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

t Café Rakka in Hendersonville — a small restaurant just a short drive north of Nashville — Riyad Alkasem serves up bottles of homemade tea, hummus and muhammara in colorful bowls, lamb yakhni and shawarma on the sajj. It was here in January 2016 that journalist Jordan Ritter Conn met Alkasem for the first time. Over the next few years, Alkasem would tell Conn the remarkable story of his life, beginning in Raqqa, the Syrian city founded by his ancestors. As a journalist, Conn has spent his career finding stories in which sports are intertwined with international affairs. He’s reported from the Ivory Coast in the aftermath of that country’s civil war, and from South Sudan just before it declared independence. In The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging — available from Random House imprint Ballantine Books on July 21 — Conn tells the story of Riyad and his brother Bashar, and the story of Raqqa, which became the so-called capital of the Islamic State group from 2014 to 2017. The brothers were children during the devastating Hama massacre of 1982, when the Assad regime killed thousands of civilians less than 300 kilometers from their home. They took two different paths as the civil war continued. Riyad, with an idealistic spirit, opted to travel to America and “become an expert on its constitution, and then he would bring that knowledge back home.” Bashar, a pragmatist, stayed in Syria and pursued law, confident that he could “navigate his country’s corruption” to serve the common good. Both reckon with their choices throughout their lives as they seek to establish a sense of home. The Scene spoke with Conn about The Road From Raqqa. Find our conversation below, followed by a brief excerpt from the first chapter of the book.

9/11. He encountered it when Bashar actually spent some time living with him in Southern California. And in the wake of 9/11 during the special registration program, Bashar was detained for several days and eventually marked for deportation. [Riyad has] encountered it in California and again in Tennessee, with starting his restaurant in Hendersonville and dealing with a lot of welcome at first, but also some hostility and some suspicion. I think over time, his views of this country have been complicated quite a bit by his own experience.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THAT READERS WILL TAKE AWAY FROM THIS BOOK? I wrote this story because it was a story that’s grabbed me. It felt very powerful when it was told to me both the first time

I sat down with Riyad and heard it in its very broadest outlines … again and again over the years that I spent sitting with him, sitting with others who know and love his family, and going to Germany and spending the week with Bashar, [his wife] Aisha and their children. … I wrote this book only because the story grabbed me and moved me as they were telling it to me. I just hope that other people connect to the power of their story, connect to the resilience in them, both to the bonds that they have with one another and to the bond that they have with Raqqa, and to the ways in which they have worked to make other places — in Riyad’s case by choice and Bashar’s because he was forced to do so — to make other places feel like their home. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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What follows is an excerpt from the book The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging by Jordan Ritter Conn, set for release July 21. Copyright © 2020 by Jordan Ritter Conn. Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

he war zone spread out beneath him, a sheet of darkness pocked with light. Riyad Alkasem was tired. His black hair was matted, the curls greasy and flat. He’d been in transit for nearly twenty-four hours, unable to sleep for several days. Now he stared out the window, feeling the plane make its final descent, and he took comfort from the fact that up here all appeared calm. Just below the plane lay Gaziantep, Turkey, a city once known for its baklava, now known as the final stop on the way into Syria’s civil war. It was March 2013. Just south of Gaziantep there stretched a border, about five hundred miles long, running from the Mediterranean Sea and snaking across the Tigris and the Euphrates, following stretches of the Baghdad Railway and the Orontes River. On one side, Turkey. On the other, Syria. And somewhere south of that border, where the war had now been raging for two years, was Riyad’s destination. Raqqa. Home, or something like it. He didn’t know why he was going, not really. Sure, he had an answer when people asked. His family was in danger. They needed his help. It sounded simple when phrased in those terms, as if the pull across continents were no more than obligation, a dutiful son and brother looking out for his own. There was something else, though, some tug he’d felt ever since the war began. Sometimes he would lie awake in his quiet home in his quiet Tennessee town, next to his southernbelle wife and just rooms away from his two American sons, and he would wonder if it had been worth it to remain here, if America’s promise had delivered all he had hoped that it would. He couldn’t imagine life without his wife or his boys, but sometimes he imagined them all living out a different story, back in the city he still called “my soul.” For nearly a month, he’d heard that rebels were closing in on Raqqa. He called his brother Bashar multiple times each week. Every day at the restaurant Riyad owned in Tennessee, he took breaks from running the kitchen to scroll through Facebook, reading news from friends and family and from anonymous pages run by citizen-journalists. For Bashar and the rest of the Alkasems, the war lived at their doorstep. It lived in their streets and in their schools, in their children’s voices and their own bodies. Yet Riyad’s war raged in his mind and in his pocket, haunting him but eluding his grasp. It was a fight he experienced, mostly, by staring at his phone. But not anymore. Because eventually Bashar quit answering. And eventually the Facebook updates stopped. And one day Riyad found a video online from the main square in the center of the city, just footsteps from his family home. On his screen, he saw the familiar palm trees, the same vast sky, the drab government

RIYAD ALKASEM

He thought only of his family, of the order that had now been lost and the violence that would surely grow. Raqqa was free, yes, but now it was more dangerous than ever. buildings that had been the backdrop to so much of his childhood. And there in the middle, he saw the same statue that he’d walked by so many times in his life, the one of former president Hafez alAssad, wearing a suit and a flat smile. As a teenager, Riyad had hated that statue, hated that man. Now he hated the former president’s son and successor, Bashar alAssad, the architect of Syria’s war. So he held a mix of awe and terror as he stared at the video on his phone and watched thousands of revolutionaries filling the square, arms aloft and screaming. A few took axes to the statue’s foundation. They wore blue jeans and windbreakers, hair gel and gaping smiles. Some carried machine guns. All watched as Assad’s stone body came unmoored, as he toppled, dumbly, straight forward to the ground. They shouted Allahu Akbar (“God is great”) and Suriyah! Hurriye! (“Syria! Free!”). Some removed their shoes and used them to

slap Assad’s body. Others swung axes and chipped away at his head. A few celebrated by firing bullets into the sky. This was historic. For the first time since the Assad regime took power in 1971, it no longer ruled Raqqa. Rebels had taken the city. Riyad’s home had wrested free of the dictatorship he’d so long despised. But as he watched, sitting awake one night six thousand miles away, he found himself unable to revel in the regime’s failures, incapable of connecting to the tears of ecstasy he saw from men on the screen who looked like younger versions of himself. He thought only of his family, of the order that had now been lost and the violence that would surely grow. Raqqa was free, yes, but now it was more dangerous than ever. Riyad called. Still no answer. He checked Facebook. Still no updates. His portals into the life of his city had been closed. With the government ousted, Raqqa had gone dark. His wife, Linda, watched him plodding through the rhythms of daily life. At home and at the restaurant, he seemed vacant, a husk. Gone was the energy of the man who’d

built a life from nothing here in America. His eyes had gone red, his face pale. Often in conversation, his gaze drifted away. This was still the man she’d married, yes, but right now, she knew he belonged somewhere else. “Go,” she said. Three days later, Riyad boarded a plane.

THE FLIGHT FROM ISTANBUL carried diplomats and journalists, politicians and spies. Even here, ten thousand feet in the sky, the air crackled with a strange and hypnotic energy. Every passenger seemed stitched together by shared purpose. Some would stop in Gaziantep, while others would cross the border and head for their homes, and still others would make their way to the battlefield. Each had a destination with its own proximity to the awaiting violence. But for now, they traveled as one, all headed toward the fight. Riyad didn’t know what he’d find when he arrived. His family didn’t know he was coming. His phone calls had never gone through, and he hadn’t been able to find a way to deliver a message, so now he was on

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

his way to his childhood home, completely unannounced. He carried some sense that he could help, but the particulars remained unclear. Maybe he’d pay to smuggle his family out of Raqqa. Maybe he’d tend to any of them who had been wounded or, God forbid, make funeral arrangements if someone was killed. Or maybe, if they were in danger, he would fight. He was a Syrian, after all. In military camps as a kid, he’d learned his way around weapons. The plane approached the runway. Sometime before it touched down, Riyad wondered if he should buy himself a gun.

LATER THAT NIGHT, he settled into a motel room in the town of Karkamış, yards away from the border, surrounded by police and their dogs. Karkamış was a nothing town, a barely there place, home to three thousand residents and a refugee tent camp, little more than a way station on the path to the war. On a hard mattress under a thick blanket, he slept. The flags stood high the next morning, flapping at each other across an imaginary line. Just above Riyad, there was Turkey’s white star and crescent, bathed in red. Yards away, on the Syrian side, he saw the green and black flag of Syria’s rebels. Elsewhere he knew he’d find the flags of Kurdish nationalists and of hard-line Islamist brigades, along with the one he’d grown up under, that of the Assad regime. All these flags marked their own swaths of land, all across his country. Syria was a puzzle, its pieces melting into one another all the time. The sky was clear, the air cool. The land around Riyad was bathed in morning sunlight, giving the brown dirt a reddish tint. He walked toward the border, passed by Peugeots spewing exhaust and carrying foodstuffs. Near the gate, he saw a group of children, mostly boys. They were aged twelve or maybe fourteen, and they huddled together smoking cigarettes and laughing, teasing one another in Arabic. Syrians, he realized. Refugees. Riyad approached. He said hello, and the boys said nothing. He asked how they were, and they said nothing still. They wore T-shirts and jeans, flip-flops and vacant stares. They carried homemade shanks crafted from toothbrushes and blades and twine. He asked about their lives in the camp, and they shrugged. He asked if they went to school, and they laughed. One boy mentioned that sometimes a teacher came to give them lessons, but they usually chose not to attend. “We’re going to be men soon,” he said. “We don’t need school.” The boys felt familiar and foreign all at once. Their accents sounded much like his own. They were just a few years younger than his own sons, Kasem and Sammy, both in school back home in Tennessee. Kasem was eighteen, about to head off to college at East Tennessee State. Sammy was sixteen, a sophomore at the local Catholic school, already learning to work in the kitchen like his dad. They carried Syrian blood but lived American lives. They looked to Riyad so much like the boys who stood before him right now. But these boys held a detached anger that felt foreign to Riyad. When he first moved to America, during his years living in Los Angeles, he’d grown accustomed to the rage of the young and dispossessed, the stares from kids that made him lock

his windows and clutch his wallet or scan his surroundings for a way out. He’d never felt that in Syria, though. As a kid he’d seen violence, but it was always tribal, ordered. These boys carried the promise of something different, a rage that held no place in Riyad’s version of his country. Any one of them, he thought, looked like they would kill him for a dollar. “You shouldn’t smoke,” he told the oldest boy, and the boy laughed. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

THE LINE AT THE CROSSING was short. Riyad had both his American passport and his Syrian state ID in his bag, each to be used at its appropriate time. On this side of the border, it felt expedient to identify as American. The Turkish were tiring of the endless flood of refugees into their country. By showing himself as a citizen of the United States, Riyad proved he was different from most Syrians these guards encountered every day. The guard took Riyad’s passport and flipped through its pages, looking up here and there to inspect Riyad’s face. Seconds passed in silence. Finally, he placed it on the table before him, peered upward, and asked Riyad, “Where are you going?” “Raqqa.” “What is your business in Raqqa?” “I’m going to see my mother.” The guard exhaled and shook his head. He paused for a moment, not yet willing to stamp Riyad’s passport. “People are fleeing your country every day,” he said. “You know that?” His eyes narrowed. “They are leaving because if they don’t leave, they will die.” Riyad nodded. “I know,” he said. “I know. That is why I have to go see my mother.” “Don’t you think your mother wants you to be safe?” Riyad said nothing, and now the guard’s voice went soft. “Tell me the truth. Is someone pressuring you to go there? Are you in danger?” Riyad smiled and shook his head. In truth, Riyad was the only person on earth who believed this journey was a good idea. The guard stamped his passport, but then left his booth to follow Riyad all the way to the gate. He pointed southeast, through the craggy and flat desert, toward the place where the Euphrates grew fat and poured its way deeper into the Syrian plains. “There is a road,” the guard explained, “that runs along the river to the tomb of Suleyman Shah.” Shah was the grandfather of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, and though he was buried in Syria, his tomb remained Turkish property. The guard told Riyad that as long as he stayed on that road between the border and the tomb, Turkish police had authority to enter Syria on his behalf. The moment he went beyond the tomb, though, Riyad was on his own. The guard gave him a phone number to call if he needed help. “Why are you doing this for me?” Riyad asked. “Because,” the guard said, “you’re an American.” Riyad crossed the border. He reached into his bag for his Syrian government-issued ID and placed it in his wallet. Then he took his American passport and tucked it in a pouch that he hung around his neck, buried underneath his clothing, against his skin. On this side of the border, it could only bring him danger.

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nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BurgEr  Week J ulY 13-19 preSentEd bY

speCialT y burGers

Get youR buNs rEady! This year’s #SceneBurgerWeek20 will be even bigger, juicier and cheesier than ever!

parTiciPatiNg rEstaUranTs

We are beefing up the price of the burgers to $7 each, Make no bones about it — your participation supports beloved local businesses and is the reason why these amazing restaurants create master burgers year after year. Dine in or carry out, your orders of tasty $7 burgs now more than ever will help support some of Nashville’s best restaurants and their teams that work their buns off, during Burger Week and beyond!

And Many morE to comE!

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#SceneBurgerWeek20

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS D I S T A N C I N G

E D I T I O N

THEATER

the Romans do it. Bourdain always went for proletarian eats over nouvelle cuisine, so alternatively you could order in from any of the local institutions highlighted in his 2016 Parts Unknown Nashville episode: Bolton’s, Dino’s and Duke’s. While we’ll likely never fully understand why Bourdain left us, we’re better for what he left us with. So cheers, Tony. You are missed. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[UTAH, GET ME TWO!]

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING KATHRYN BIGELOW FILM FEST

Even with Regal Cinemas’ recent announcement that the cineplex giant plans to reopen all of its theaters with partial capacity by July 10, we’re going to keep chugging along with our build-your-ownstreaming-film-fest picks. So for this, our 15th installment, let’s dive into the work of the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow. Start out with Bigelow’s lesser-known debut — 1981’s Willem Dafoe-starring biker flick The Loveless, which is available for free via Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, 1987’s vampire romp Near Dark isn’t available to stream, so jump ahead to 1990’s Jamie Lee Curtis cop thriller Blue Steel, which is available for free via YouTube, Vudu or Tubi. If you just can’t wait, jump to 1991’s iconic Point Break, the Swayze-and-Reeves surfingand-crime epic that some might call the, ahem, high-water mark of Bigelow’s career — it’s available for $4 on Amazon Prime. The next decade’s worth of Bigelow efforts was somewhat hit-and-miss, from Strange Days (her 1995 collaboration with exhusband James Cameron) to 2002’s Harrison Ford-starring submarine picture K-19. So let’s just fast-forward to 2008’s Hurt Locker, the tense and thrilling war drama that earned Bigelow that aforementioned little gold man (it won five other Oscars as well, including for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay). That one’s available for $4 via Amazon Prime, YouTube and iTunes, and it shows just how compelling Jeremy Renner can be when he’s put in the right role. If you’re game for another bracing thriller, you have two more options to end on: 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty (free on Tubi dubbed in Spanish, or $3 via Prime), or 2017’s Detroit ($4 on YouTube and Prime). Both films are relatively well-received works based on true stories but conceived using quite a bit of poetic license, and both show what Bigelow is best at: building tension, and inspiring very solid performances from her actors. Even so, you really can’t top Point Break. D. PATRICK RODGERS

FOOD & DRINK

FILM

ZERO DARK THIRTY [PARTIES UNKNOWN]

CELEBRATE ANTHONY BOURDAIN’S BIRTHDAY

When asked which five people, living or dead, you’d invite to a dinner party, it’s advisable that you always save a seat for the late Anthony Bourdain. Revisiting the globetrotting food-andculture connoisseur’s groundbreaking No Reservations and Parts Unknown shows is bittersweet — we can’t know when international travel will again be safe and advisable, which only compounds the sadness of Bourdain’s 2018 suicide. But instead of dwelling on that, let’s pay tribute to the man on what would have been his 64th birthday (June 25) with some of his favorite food, drinks and tunes. Jam some Ramones, Television or Voidoids, knock back some bourbon or cheap beers, and cook a signature dish from one of his 13 books, like cacio e pepe pasta — mac-and-cheese as

[BRUSH UP YOUR SHAKESPEARE]

STREAM PERFORMANCES FROM LONDON’S GLOBE THEATRE

including some interesting short films and behind-the-scenes conversations. And you also can catch some filmed productions for free via the Globe’s YouTube channel. Visit shakespearesglobe.com to learn more, and discover how you can support this important arts organization. AMY STUMPFL TV

S O C I A L

[GONE, GIRL]

WATCH I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK PREMIERE ON HBO

Writer Michelle McNamara was a truecrime blogger long before true crime was the trendy cash cow it is today. Of all the For many theater lovers, summer crimes she wrote about, she was especially just isn’t the same without a bit of fixated on the Golden State Killer, whose Shakespeare in the Park. But even as case the rest of the world had all but COVID-19 continues to sideline live forgotten. McNamara spent years performances and in some cases poring over police reports, entire seasons — our own physically retracing the Nashville Shakespeare years-long crime spree and Festival just announced EDITOR’S NOTE: even interviewing victims that it won’t return until AS A RESPONSE TO THE ONGOING — she didn’t want to just summer 2021 — London’s COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WE’VE CHANGED write about this evasive, iconic Globe Theatre THE FOCUS OF THE CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN violent criminal, she has stepped up to share PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT HOME wanted to find justice for past performances, PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCE. his victims. McNamara plus a lot more, through was two-thirds of the way a streaming service. I done with a book about these recommend starting with crimes when she unexpectedly the wonderful 2012 production died in 2016. After McNamara’s of Twelfth Night, starring Mark death, her husband Patton Oswalt, crime Rylance and Stephen Fry. Or perhaps Jamie writer Paul Haynes and journalist Billy Parker’s excellent performance in Henry Jensen used McNamara’s copious research V. And be sure to check out the Globe to to finish her work. The result is I’ll Be Gone Globe Festival — a fascinating collection in the Dark, one of the best true-crime of foreign-language performances books published in recent years. It’s a that celebrates the universal heart of gripping obsession with a violent killer, but Shakespeare’s stories. Most performances also an examination of life in suburbia in are available for rent or purchase through the ’70s, as well as our society’s troubling the theater’s streaming service, Globe misunderstanding of sexual assault. Just Player. But there is some free content,

I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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A women’s column featuring a rotating cast of contributors

Vodka Yonic nashvillescene.com

[90 DAZE]

EMBRACE THE CRINGE THAT IS 90 DAY FIANCÉ

On TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé, lonely Americans take the plunge with non-Americans they met and romanced either online or while traveling, acquiring the K-1 marriage visa — which, for the uninitiated, grants them 90 days to tie the knot. If it doesn’t work out, the fiancé goes home — but even when it does work out, the journey is fraught. As cameras roll, the couples navigate a minefield of skeptical friends and relatives, cultural and language barriers, financial and housing hardships, and conflicting viewpoints on intimacy, religion and lifestyle choices. This basic premise has proven to be reality-TV gold. Since its debut in 2014, 90 Day’s viewership has grown exponentially, spawning endless offshoots and an obsessive, rapid-memegenerating online following. At this point, the spin-offs literally make themselves, like the recent Self-Quarantined — no crew needed, just cast members filming their lives under lockdown at home. At once brutally awkward and brutally hilarious, this is trash television of the highest order. Whatever your situation is personally, watching some 90 Day should make you feel better about it. Currently airing is The Other Way, which inverts the original concept and shadows Americans following their hearts to Colombia, Ethiopia, South

THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR Korea and other locales, with predictably messy results. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN [PIECE OF CAKE]

SEND SOMEONE CUPCAKE COLLECTION CUPCAKES

There is a lot cycling through our brains right now, so you may have missed the good news: Nashville’s best cupcake shop, The Cupcake Collection, has started offering nationwide shipping. The Cupcake Collection has won Best Cupcakes in the Scene’s annual Best of Nashville Readers’ Poll for the past three years, due in part to their unmatchable homemade style and taste, which so many of the larger bakeries sacrifice as they increase production. People are graduating, getting married, celebrating birthdays and having babies in the midst of the pandemic — and

hell, a lot of folks are just having really, really bad days — so ship your favorite far-away person a box of cupcakes that are as good as if you were there to bake them yourself, while supporting a vital local business to boot. The strawberry-lemonade and sweet potato flavors are my personal favorites, though the Blackout (filled with chocolate mousse!) is a close runner-up. Visit cupcakecollection.com to place your order — and if your favorite person just happens to be here in Nashville, The Cupcake Collection is also offering curbside pickup and local delivery. MEGAN SELING FILM

So Refreshing! Refreshing!

two months after the book’s 2018 release, authorities made an arrest in the Golden State Killer case. Former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo has been charged with 13 counts of murder, and weeks ago he reportedly agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, thus avoiding the death penalty. HBO’s six-part series based on McNamara’s book premieres on HBO June 28. MEGAN SELING

FOOD & DRINK

mmm...

CRITICS’ PICKS

[TALKIN’ ’BOUT A REVOLUTION]

WATCH SOME RADICAL BLACK FILMS ON YOUTUBE AND VIMEO

If you’ve found it a struggle to watch anything at home during the past few weeks

THE CUPCAKE COLLECTION

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 25 – JULY 1, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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6/22/20 4:11 PM

CRITICS’ PICKS

PODCAST

of uprisings and political actions, you’re not alone — it’s hard not to feel like anything on a screen is a waste of time right now. But if you do have moments of downtime, maybe try reorienting your viewing to reflect the social changes going on in our country, and construct your own political film festival from the many radical Black films available via YouTube and Vimeo. Some of my recommendations: Ivan Dixon’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a gripping thriller about the first Black CIA agent, who uses his government training to sow the seeds of revolution; The Murder of Fred Hampton, about the life and assassination of the prodigious Black Panther leader; John Akomfrah’s experimental Handsworth Songs, about uprisings in the U.K. against police violence; and finally Cinda Firestone’s Attica, a crucial documentary about the state violence inflicted upon the prisoners who dared to take a stand at the Attica prison in 1971. These films are as insightful, inspiring and energizing as any radical text or revolutionary tract. NATHAN SMITH [DISROBE]

LISTEN TO THE NEW SEASON OF SLOW BURN

The fourth and latest season of Slate’s podcast Slow Burn just kicked off, and it examines the political career of David Duke, the notorious white supremacist, Nazi sympathizer and Klansman. In the second episode of the season, host Josh Levin labels Duke succinctly: He’s a professional racist. Listening to the first season of Slow Burn, which tracked the downfall of President

music in a kaleidoscopic array, curated by volunteers who care deeply about it and about sharing it with you. The pandemic has forced some changes in the way they do things — some shows are pre-recorded, DJs wear masks in the studio, it’s not safe to interview guests in person — but they’re still able to offer more than 90 unique shows each week. You’ll find long-running classics like Pete Wilson’s pre-rock R&B block Nashville Jumps (8-10 a.m. Fridays) and Laura Powers’ punk-and-powerpop program Needles + Pins (7-9 a.m. Wednesdays), alongside newer additions like DJ Star’s Reggae University (9-11 p.m. Wednesdays) and DJ LT’s musical and literary The Crack in Everything (1-2 p.m. Sundays). You get a close look at hip-hop and the sounds that gave birth to it via DJ Blackcircle’s The Root (noon-1 p.m. Mondays), a wide range of soul, jazz, R&B and rap via DJ Erica’s Soul of the City (4-6 p.m. Thursdays). That’s only the tip of the iceberg — from cool jazz to Filipino disco to deep psychedelia, from industrial dance music to fiddle tunes to contemporary art music, you can likely find it here. You can listen anytime on the web at wxnafm.org and pick the station up at 101.5 on your FM dial when you hop in the car. If you miss the show you want to hear, most broadcasts dating back to June 2017 (including episodes of shows no longer on the air) are available to stream from the station’s archive. Pro tip for a treasure hunt: Prior to the pandemic (and hopefully again soon), former Scene staffer Jonathan Marx, aka DJ J-Mar, frequently had conversations with artists and community leaders on his show Transmission (8-10 p.m. Mondays). Among many more, check out Marx’s talks with Jamaal Sheets and Katie Delmez about multimedia artist Terry Adkins, and D’Lisha Davis of 2 Ls on a Cloud about local rap and R&B. And if you missed the station’s spring pledge drive, you can make a donation via the website any time. STEPHEN TRAGESER [FORTUNE FAVORS]

ART

CHECK OUT THE NEW FÉLIX GONZÁLEZ-TORRES FOUNDATION WEBSITE

Richard Nixon, was unexpectedly soothing during the early days of Trump’s presidency — it felt like a balm to remember stories about corruption being exposed and bad guys getting dethroned. This season arrives just in time for the national reckoning around racial inequity, and it follows Duke’s election to the Louisiana state legislature, and later his campaigns for the U.S. Senate and the governorship. It’s a chilling examination of American history, and it’s never been more relevant. Listen online or wherever you get your podcasts.

MUSIC

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER [DIAL IT IN]

LISTEN TO AND SUPPORT COMMUNITY RADIO ON WXNA-LPFM

On June 4, 2016, a citywide community radio juggernaut was launched when WXNA, a nonprofit project five years in the works, went on the air. In the four years since, it’s been a constant wellspring of

No other artist mixes the ordinary with the profound like Félix González-Torres. An installation of a piece by the late artist is currently being re-created across the globe, and images of it are available on the website of his foundation. The work, similar to the famous “Untitled (Portrait of Ross)” collection of hard candies, is formed from a pile of fortune cookies, which are free to take and will be replenished when they’re gone. “Untitled (Fortune Cookie Corner)” is a simple meditation about the sweetness of life and the inevitably of loss, and it’s being exhibited at just the right time. Visit the Félix González-Torres Foundation website, which just got an overhaul and details the locations of the exhibit, which is on view through July 5. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

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