Turning the Corner
BY HANNAH HERNER
From the exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, presented by City National Bank
artifact photo: Bob Delevante
NEWS
Marsha Blackburn’s Unsuccessful Campaign Against Judicial Nominations
Tennessee’s senior U.S. senator has used her influential committee post to throw mud at jurists BY ELI MOTYCKA
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
Nashville to Return Overdue Artifacts to Mexico
An exhibition at The Parthenon outlines how Nashville is returning these pieces to their rightful home BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
COVER STORY
Turning the Corner
More than three years since the Christmas Day bombing, Second Avenue reckons with its recent history and enters the home stretch of its rebuild BY HANNAH HERNER
CRITICS’ PICKS
A Celebration of Nicole Kidman, Third Eye Blind, Monica Ramey, Brianimations and more
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Michael Werrell takes his Michelin talents to gluten-free baking with Glootn BY ELI MOTYCKA
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Novelist Jill Ciment reconsiders her own story BY MARIA BROWNING; CHAPTER16.ORG
Setting the Record Straight
A new edition of From Where I Stand expands the story of Black country artists BY RON WYNN
Back From the Dread Nashville rock legends White Animals return with Star Time, their first new album since 2001 BY DARYL SANDERS
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Nashville Pride Festival performances by Tinashe, Brooke Eden, Billy Porter and more BY JAYME FOLTZ AND STEPHEN TRAGESER
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From Kinds of Kindness to A Quiet Place: Day One and a Nicole Kidman retrospective, here’s what’s happening at the movies BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
Uncertain Sunlight, Long Childhood Hours
Annie Baker’s Janet Planet has that summertime sadness BY CAT ACREE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD MARKETPLACE ON THE COVER: Second Avenue; photo by Hamilton Matthew Masters
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Repatriation and Its Impact at The Parthenon • PHOT0 BY VICTORIA METZGER
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MARSHA BLACKBURN’S UNSUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN AGAINST JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
Tennessee’s senior U.S. senator has used her influential committee post to throw mud at jurists
A LENGTHY NOMINATION process, the patchy U.S. Senate calendar and the powerful gravity of campaign season mean that Karla Campbell may just barely make it across the finish line. Campbell, a Nashville attorney with elite credentials and expertise in employment and labor law, will likely be Biden’s fifth addition to the powerful U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which takes federal cases from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan.
Nominated in late May — six months before November’s presidential contest and nine months before a new Congress could potentially boot Democrats out of power in the Senate — Campbell began the long, slow trudge to a federal judgeship with a June appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In brief spurts, senators from both parties question a nominee before a committee vote on whether to send them to the upper chamber for confirmation. It was here that Campbell, like many accomplished Tennesseans before her, drifted into Marsha Blackburn’s crosshairs.
“This one was particularly nasty,” Carl Tobias tells the Scene. Tobias is a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies the federal judicial process. “I felt for the nominees. It was all guilt by association. A lot of it is theater — some of it will be posted on YouTube.”
Tobias makes the point that, especially in an election year, these hearings become playgrounds for senators to take shots at the opposing party and the president. He expects the actual confirmations to pass easily with full support from Democrats.
Without the votes to block a nominee via the legislative process, Republican pugilists like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina lead personal attacks with whatever material their offices dig up. At Campbell’s hearing, that material included her work in the early 2010s with Nashville nonprofit Workers’ Dignity/Dignidad Obrera and tweets from Odessa Kelly, a congressional candidate who received a campaign donation from Campbell.
Blackburn, who rose to power as an anti-establishment Tennessee state senator in the late ’90s and early 2000s, fits comfortably among this Senate clique. It’s a stark contrast with colleagues like Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s 90-year-old senior senator, who appears to possess neither the vitriol nor the energy to cross-examine a reasonably polite fellow American in bad faith.
In early 2022, Blackburn led attacks on Andre Mathis, a Black attorney from Memphis nominated to the 6th Circuit, for unpaid traffic tickets that had led to a suspended license more than a
BY ELI MOTYCKA
decade earlier. In committee, Blackburn referred to the tickets as Mathis’ “rap sheet.”
“I simply forgot about it,” Mathis told senators, who pushed him to recount a timeline of citations, reminders, payment and the license reinstatement process. “I regret that I did those things. I can assure the committee that I’m a law-abiding citizen. I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been charged with a crime. I sincerely regret my actions there.”
Democrats, led by committee chair Dick Durbin of Illinois, dull Blackburn’s sting by redirecting discussion to nominees’ extensive résumés and professional experience. They follow attacks with apologies, casting Republican colleagues’ behavior as petty and embarrassing. Crucially, Democrats have the votes to approve nominees to the bench. They sometimes even pick up Republican support, as was the case for Mathis, who won favor from Louisiana’s Sen. John Kennedy.
“The criminal record that they talked about, that he forgot to face some traffic tickets, when they contacted him about it through a warrant, he just said, ‘It’s true, I forgot to pay them,’ and he paid up, but I just didn’t think that was disqualifying,” Kennedy told reporters at the time.
Blackburn’s other major fuel source has been accusing the Biden administration of shutting her and her fellow Tennessee Republican, Sen. Bill Hagerty, out of the nomination process.
“There was a backroom deal to appoint Mr. Ritz to this vacancy from the very start,” Blackburn told colleagues during the April 17 committee hearing for Kevin Ritz, a U.S. attorney nominated to the 6th Circuit. “The most glaring example of the White House outright refusal to consult is the fact that they have not even
Nashville’s Metro Council unanimously passed the city’s next budget May 18. The body favored a substitute crafted by Councilmember At-Large Delishia Porterfield over Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s budget, introduced in May. O’Connell accepted the body’s alternative plans, which closely tracked his initial submission, with a few consequential tweaks. Porterfield secured a 4 percent cost-of-living bump for Metro employees, improving on O’Connell’s 3.5 percent COLA. The budget also folds in community safety programs crafted via the Varsity Spending Plan, a restorative justice initiative crafted by Nashville community members. Porterfield made it work by redirecting administrative funds rather than slashing departments — a move she and colleagues seemed prepared to make a few weeks ago.
bothered to ask what our objections to Mr. Ritz might be.”
A year earlier, Blackburn and Hagerty had returned blue slips supporting Ritz’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, a post he currently holds. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination in May along party lines. Ritz’s confirmation awaits a full vote on the Senate floor.
Blackburn skewered Biden for ignoring the blue slip process — a century-old tradition in which presidents prize approval from judicial nominees’ home-state senators. Years ago, senators returned (or withheld) assessments of nominees via blue paper forms. Durbin responded that Hagerty and Blackburn had refused the opportunity extended by Biden to participate in nominee selection; he also pointed out that Republicans had scrapped blue slips for circuit court judges during the Trump administration. Blackburn renewed the accusations directed at the Biden administration for, she said, cutting her office out of the search that produced Campbell.
“I want to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to my home-state senators,” Campbell said in her introductory remarks. Campbell grew up in Knoxville and currently works at Nashville firm Stranch, Jennings & Garvey. “Sen. Blackburn, Sen. Hagerty — my mom’s death came in the middle of interviews with your staff for this position, and the folks in your office treated me with incredible empathy, sending condolences and kind notes. I have carried these notes with me the past few months, and they remind me how lucky I am to be a Tennessean.”
Requests for comment sent to Blackburn’s office were not returned by press time. ▼
Tennessee Titans executives laid out a stadium construction timeline last week as construction visibly dominates the lots around Nissan Stadium A draft of the new stadium’s guaranteed maximum price document should come in July — followed by a final assessment in August — adding crucial details to an overall picture that includes Metro’s East Bank development. The city and state have already initiated the bond sales to cover the nearly $1.3 billion in public money supporting the domed stadium. The team has also begun selling new personal seat licenses to current season ticketholders, who have the first right of refusal to repurchase their seats. In some cases, new PSLs have approached $100,000 in addition to annual costs required to purchase each season’s worth of tickets.
When the city and county consolidated, civic leaders bet on the Metro Nashville Police Department over the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office as Metro’s primary law enforcer. Now the MNPD is beset by misconduct allegations, but it’s also not going anywhere anytime soon, writes Scene contributor Betsy Phillips. Perhaps this balance of power can, or should, change, as the city seeks to resolve the ongoing allegations against police of systemic misconduct.
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
MAYOR
FREDDIE O’CONNELL
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN
NASHVILLE TO RETURN OVERDUE ARTIFACTS TO MEXICO
An exhibition at The Parthenon outlines how Nashville is returning these pieces to their rightful home
BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
IN THE LATE 1960S, Oregon doctor John L. Montgomery began corresponding with Malcolm Parker, who was then the director of Nashville’s Parthenon. As part of the current exhibition Repatriation and Its Impact, on the Parthenon’s gallery wall now hangs a 1968 photograph of Parker proudly holding an artifact that was, at the time, on loan from Montgomery. Next to the photograph is a handwritten letter from 1970, which is enlarged and affixed to the museum wall like a plaque. In the letter, Montgomery announces his donation of works to the Parthenon, details their appraised value and adds a postscript that he intends to make similar donations annually.
What the letters leave out is how Montgomery got the works in the first place. But after hearing about the exhibition in a recent episode of NPR’s All Things Considered, Montgomery’s son Rich made a call to the Parthenon’s assistant curator Bonnie Seymour with those details.
“He gave me the whole rundown,” Seymour says of her conversation with Rich Montgomery as she stands in front of one of the exhibition’s display vitrines. “It’s similar but different — very different — than what we thought originally. It turns out that he would have never done it by himself. He sent his sons, Rich and his brother, down to western Mexico, they got a car —” “— tricked out with a false bottom,” Parthenon director Lauren Bufferd interjects.
“Right, and that’s where they stored their gear,” Seymour continues. “That’s also where they stored the stuff that they got.” Seymour and Bufferd are clearly pleased to have the additional provenance for their items. It doesn’t hurt that these details sound like a flashback mon-
tage in a heist film.
Two-hundred-forty-eight items in the Parthenon’s collection came from the relationship between Montgomery and Parker, and 61 of them are currently on display. But what the Parthenon’s current exhibition is actually about is not the artifacts themselves, but rather the concept of repatriation.
Returning an object to its country of origin is hardly a new idea, but in recent years it has become more and more urgent. The British Museum — which, due to the British Museum Act of 1963, is prohibited from returning artifacts — is grappling with it. In a meeting with Pope Francis on June 14, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the pope to follow through on promises to return Indigenous artifacts from the Vatican to Canada. Just last year, the American Museum of Natural History began to review its repatriation process while removing human remains from public display.
“We have strong allies in other countries in this endeavor to recover pieces that have been taken away from their territory,” Javier Díaz de León, the consul general of Mexico in Atlanta, tells the Scene by phone from his office. “One of the largest efforts that we, Italy, Egypt of course, have done is to try to create a greater awareness of this issue.”
According to Montgomery’s son, he and his brother took several trips to Mexico to collect artifacts, and people would line up to bring them things — farmers who found items while tilling their fields, or people who had collected things while wandering the forests. The artifacts include arrowheads, mostly, but also ceremonial drinking vessels, ceramic pots, ocarinas shaped
like tiny songbirds. They sold them for cheap. “And they would pack up the Suburban with them, drive over the border, give it all to his dad, and his dad would have them appraised,” Seymour says, using air quotes when she says “appraised.” After that, Montgomery often sold them to friends, and those friends would donate the items to museums — “to get a tax break” Bufferd explains, acknowledging that there are almost certainly other museums whose collections were amassed through the same source.
All this adds a sensational element to the bilingual exhibition, which is multifaceted and includes extensive wall texts and contemporary work from Nashville-based artist José Véra González. The exhibition benefits from González’s inclusion for several reasons. He was originally from the same area of western Mexico as the artifacts — something Seymour says is a happy coincidence. But González is also a skilled muralist, and his painted dragon serves as the exhibition’s timeline. Running behind the photographs of Montgomery’s letter and Parker’s proud face, González’s fantastical dragon-serpent is a constant presence in the background. The takeaway is clear — this isn’t all ancient history. Relationships are still being formed, and they will continue.
Before the items are returned to Mexico, five of them will be scanned with 3D printing technology by local company Pr3nter. One of the biggest challenges, says Seymour, is choosing which of the 248 items will be scanned.
“If I had my way, we’d 3D-print them all,” she says. “But these will be the ones that we think would best help reflect our mission, and help us keep a piece of the spirit of the collec-
tion in Nashville.”
“Even though the collection is leaving here, it has to do with our history, the history of the museum,” says Bufferd. “The story of how they passed through — and why — and why we’re eager to have them be in a more appropriate institution.”
When the exhibition ends in July, the artifacts will be returned to Mexico.
“There is an elaborate procedure that we have constructed,” de León explains. “The materials are very fragile, so a lot of special care needs to be taken. Through the diplomatic connection with the headquarters in Mexico, they will be put in Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia — the Institute of Anthropology and History — in Mexico City.
“So far, several exhibitions of recovered materials have already happened in Mexico,” he continues. “I would expect that, hopefully sometime in the future, some of these pieces will be exhibited in Mexico.”
“We wish everybody was like The Parthenon,” de León adds. “They’re setting a great example, and maybe other museums should follow.” ▼
Repatriation and Its Impact Through July 14 at The Parthenon
PHOTO: VICTORIA METZGER
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Turning the Corner
More than three years since the Christmas Day bombing, Second Avenue reckons with its recent history and enters the home stretch of its rebuild
BY HANNAH HERNER
HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
THREE SINGED LASER QUEST passes are encased in cellophane envelopes in the archives at the Tennessee State Museum. The youth-group favorite — whose downtown location closed in September 2020, citing economic troubles during the pandemic — is part of many longtime Nashvillians’ personal history. It became part of the state’s history, too.
The passes are among the few artifacts collected to represent what took place on Second Avenue on a pivotal day: Dec. 25, 2020, when a 63-year-old Antioch man parked his RV on the street, sent out an eerie warning via a PA and detonated a bomb. He and his dog were the only fatalities due to the blast, but Second Avenue’s streetscape was left critically injured.
Out of 46 street-level storefronts on Second Avenue North, 25 closed their doors in the months after the bombing. Those still standing have survived a bomb, a pandemic and construction that severely impedes foot traffic, but they have one more hurdle to clear before seeing the new Second Avenue: the latest round of construction
THREE-AND-A-HALF YEARS after the Christmas Day bombing, the street is still in various levels of disarray. Earlier this year, the northernmost block in the three-block stretch between Commerce Street and Union Street opened to cars. The south block, closest to Broadway, is set to be completed at the end of the year, with the most visibly destroyed middle block slated for completion by the end of 2025.
Due to the pandemic, the bombing or construction — or possibly some combination of the three — Second Avenue lost B.B. King’s, one of the few places that centered Black artists downtown. Gone are some local special-occasion dinner favorites, like Rodizio Grill, The
small petition to bring back Hooters has circulated, and downtown employees say they miss Sbarro. The city’s only hostel hasn’t been able to get back on its feet yet either. Simply the Best $10 Boutique had to move across town, while Doc Holliday’s Saloon, Dick’s Last Resort and Coyote Ugly bounced back. Sweet shops Mike’s Ice Cream, Mattheessen’s and Leon’s Candy are holding strong. The giant shoes outside French’s Shoes and Boots were unscathed by the bombing and have since been joined by Freebird and a new, more upscale Boot Barn. Nashville Live! took the place of The George Jones, and after 25 years, Wildhorse Saloon will be replaced by Luke Combs’ Category 10.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell has a history with the area as the former Metro coucilmember representing the district.
“On Christmas Day 2020, part of the fabric of not just Second Avenue but the city was torn by a devastating bombing,” O’Connell tells the Scene. “Though there was no further loss of life, anyone visiting Second Avenue today still sees the scars, years later. Despite a tragic blow to a quirky, historic stretch of our downtown, we’re intent on building back better.”
When the bombing happened, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation surveyed the area as a crime scene. That means historic concerns had to be put aside, and artifacts were taken for evidence. It wasn’t until mid-2022 that the Tennessee State Museum received its first artifacts, given over by investigators via the Metro Historical Commission.
There’s a crumpled metal sign denoting a 5G area — 5G being one of the bomber’s conspiracy theory-powered motives. Another damaged paper sign shows masking instructions, firmly placing the event during the height of the pandemic. A decorative guitar with the back blown off is very Music City. A note scrawled with “fantastic birthday dessert!” which curators suspect is from The Old Spaghetti Factory or The Melting Pot, is a relatable human touch.
The artifacts may not look especially significant, head curator Richard White tells the Scene
— but there’s a way to interpret each one that tells a story of that day.
“We do look at events like this and think, ‘Is this significant enough to add to the collection — to be able to tell that story in 50, 100, 150 years?’” White says. “This, we thought, was enough because it rose to the level of national news, and it affected a large part of the historic district in Nashville for several years.”
Nashville is just beginning to explore how to remember the bombing. The Metro Historical Commission recently installed a small exhibit in its lobby: a couple of columns broken cleanly in half, demonstrating the power of the blast. The state museum may add a display about the bombing as part of a revamp of its modern history section in the next few years. But museum staff is dependent on what the public brings them, and White says curators are hesitant to ask anyone to donate their personal belongings to the museum.
The final result will be nuanced, and not focused on the bomber himself.
“It would be more reflective and contemplative on what it meant for Nashville, what it meant for the people that were in that neighborhood,” White says. “Part of the interpretation with this someday could be something as simple as, ‘This could have been so much worse.’”
Betsy Williams — a longtime Second Avenue resident who some folks refer to as “the mayor of Second Avenue” — says she was the first to call 911 on Christmas Day 2020. She was evacuated from the Rhea building, where she lived and owned short-term rental properties. (The
building was also home to Rodizio Grill and The Melting Pot.)
“People have forgotten a lot about the bomb, because we’ve had a lot of other issues that have come up,” Williams says. “Tornadoes and all of the weather stuff, and just the explosive growth of downtown, and the need for transit — there’s just been other things that have come up that have sort of removed this from the forefront of people’s thoughts. That’s understandable. We need to keep it to the front because it’s an expensive project, and it’s an important project culturally and historically for Nashville.”
The Rhea building, which Williams’ brother owns, is still undergoing mediation with its insurance company, so she declines to comment on future plans.
The most work is left to be done on that middle block — the one between Church and Commerce. That’s where the buildings, including the Rhea (164-168 Second Ave. N.), still look like a chunk was bitten out of them. So far the AT&T network equipment building has a fresh shell, decorated with a piece by Nashville artist Phil Ponder. A keen eye can still spot a depression in the ground near the building — that’s where the RV was parked.
The Callan family, which owns four buildings
VIEW OF SECOND AVENUE THE MORNING OF THE EXPLOSION
with addresses of 170 through 176 Second Ave. N., tells the Scene through a lawyer that the family is set to unveil a developer for the sites soon, with plans already approved by the Metro Historic Zoning Commission. The family put the buildings up for sale in November, and had collected all available insurance payments at the time. The lawyer says the family spent a mint to stabilize the buildings so they wouldn’t collapse completely following the bomb, and didn’t have enough remaining money to continue repairs.
THE METRO COUNCIL recently shot down an effort to revitalize the former Old Spaghetti Factory space at 160 Second Ave. N. A developer wanted to open it as mixed-use space again, with a restaurant on the ground floor and 62 short-term rental units on the upper floors. Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin — whose District 19 contains the area — is not necessarily pro-short-term rentals, but he tells the Scene it’s a challenge to find willing developers for the area. Affordable housing is hard to make profitable, and with the added layer of needing to abide by historic preservation guidelines, developers may choose a path of less resistance.
“It’s a tough building to make work financially,” Kupin says.
He believes the vote down was on a technicality — because short-term rentals within 100 feet of a park (in this case, Riverfront Park) need council approval. He argues that approving more short-term rentals in the downtown core could mean fewer in residential areas, with the added benefit of some money going back to the city from short-term-rental taxes.
“If there’s anywhere to draw an exception, I would think a building that was destroyed by a bomb on the street that was greatly negatively impacted by a pandemic that is currently desperately seeking redevelopment — to me seems like an area where we can safely do that,” Kupin says.
Bombing and pandemic aside, construction has been a challenge for Second Avenue businesses, as would-be patrons simply don’t think they’re open. Employees at French’s tell the Scene that sales were back up to pre-pandemic levels until the construction on the road in front of the store kicked in at the beginning of the year.
It’s one thing after another, says Crissy Cassetty, director of economic development with the Nashville Downtown Partnership. She points out that construction for Chief’s on Broadway, which began in 2022 and wrapped in April, blocked the sidewalk and added insult to injury for Second Avenue.
“[Patrons] would be coming down Broadway, they would see the big barricades right there [outside Chief’s], and they would turn around,” Cassetty says. “No one was turning down Second Avenue.”
Since the beginning of the year, Cassetty has heard from businesses that sales are down as much as 65 percent because of new construction on the road. That’s why the Downtown Partnership in April introduced the Turn the Corner Campaign, which is responsible for the hot-pink signage in the area. With the help of communications firm McNeely, Pigott and Fox, the organization also launched a website highlighting businesses on the avenue — 70 percent of which are locally owned, Cassetty says.
Until the bombing, Second Avenue saw an average of 27 percent of Broadway patrons turn the corner, according to numbers collected by Nashville Downtown Partnership. Post-bomb-
ing, that number dropped to 20 percent. After construction started and the barricades went up, it dropped to 12 percent. In most recent numbers, it’s back up to 16 percent of foot traffic spilling over to Second Avenue from Broadway.
Construction was completed between Church Street and Union Street, also known as the north block, on June 3. Breaking up the construction block by block speeds up the process and minimizes interruption to businesses, says Michelle Scopel, senior project manager for MDHA Urban Development.
The north block is mostly home to office buildings, but patrons can see a preview of what’s to come: wider sidewalks, ample crosswalks and street lights approved by nonprofit DarkSky (meaning they won’t affect birds’ migratory patterns) — but also planters that are specifically designed to deter unhoused Nashvillians from sitting or sleeping on them. Street parking will be eliminated, too.
The south block will leave room for street dining and permanent kiosks for food and shopping — think Bryant Park in New York City. When the crosswalks come back and they look like pianos, that will be thanks to Williams’ urging.
“We’re excited to finally have something to celebrate on Second Avenue,” says Scopel. “It’s been a long time coming.”
There are two main reasons that Second Avenue currently looks the way it does, according to stakeholders. Insurance is one reason — people like Williams and the Callans are still duking it out with insurance agencies, or finding it hard to secure enough funds after the insurance payouts run out. The second reason is that the bomb damaged underground utilities.
Scopel says the underground work has been surgical in nature. Working with antique pipes, her construction team carefully dug through 10 to 11 feet of bedrock, not knowing what they would uncover. They separated the combined sewer system, routing storm water to the Cumberland River and sewage to the sewer. That helps with odors too, so the outdoor dining vision can succeed.
“I think that they’ve moved at the speed of
light, when you think about the upper third of the street already being open, and another third in six more months, and the other third open by the end of 2025,” Williams says. “That’s significant movement for a project of this magnitude.”
WITH SECOND AVENUE being forced to start from scratch, longtime downtown-centric nonprofit The District is taking the opportunity to start a trash pilot program. MDHA and The District want to see First Avenue (now the back door of Second Avenue) cleared of trash so it can also host outdoor dining and more foot traffic as the land surrounding it is developed.
More upscale, less rowdy, more locals — that’s the repeated refrain from those involved with Second Avenue.
“The whole goal is to elevate the experience and give something different than Broadway,” Scopel says. “Because Broadway is awesome, and does a great service for our city, and I think it’s wonderful, but there’s no reprieve.”
“I appreciate Nashvillians’ patience as we work to open the last blocks of the street,” says Mayor O’Connell. “I fully expect that the wait will be worth it.”
In the meantime, businesses in the area need help to make it across the finish line.
“People need to go down there and support our businesses in order to help get them through this so that when the project is finished, they’ll still be there,” Williams says.
It wasn’t that long ago that The District’s fund, Second Avenue Strong, was hosting a telethon at Wildhorse Saloon. They showed a video of scenes from the bombing. It was still raw for Williams. And in some ways, what happened on Second Avenue is still raw for many Nashvillians.
“I surprised myself so much because I just sat there and burst into tears,” Williams says of the moment. “I had no idea that I was going to have that kind of reaction. It was significant for the people who lived on that street, for us that had businesses. It was so disruptive to everything down there, clearly. We were just going, ‘What are we going to do?’ We’re still doing that.”
SECOND AVENUE BETWEEN CHURCH AND COMMERCE
JUNE 27
SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS BLUEGRASS NIGHTS AT THE RYMAN THE EARLS OF
JUNE 29 TIM DILLON
JULY 5
SILVERADA (FORMERLY MIKE & THE MOONPIES) WITH UNCLE LUCIUS AND TOWN MOUNTAIN
JULY 24
YES EPICS, CLASSICS & MORE FEATURING JON ANDERSON AND THE BAND GEEKS WITH THE RETURN OF EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
AUGUST 25
JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS WITH KARLEY SCOTT COLLINS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
OCTOBER 8
QUINN XCII ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
JANUARY 19, 2025
RONNY CHIENG
ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
Jazz Under the Stars
JULY 19 | 7 PM
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band with Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra
THROUGH OCTOBER 24 | 5:30 - 9 PM
An adventure awaits at this weekly concert on Cheekwood’s Arboretum Lawn. Thomas Dambo’s blockbuster exhibition TROLLS: Save the Humans adds an extra dose of magic.
JULY 11 | END OF THE LINE: A TRIBUTE TO THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
JULY 18 | THE HI-JIVERS
JULY 25 | MARCEL RIESCO
Reserve tickets at cheekwood.org.
THIS WEEKEND
JUNE 29+30 ONE C1TY / 8 CITY BLVD / 10 AM - 4 PM BOTH DAYS
GET CRAFTY!
2024 VENDOR LINEUP
Addy & Olive | Andi Kur Art | Black Sheep Goods | Candle with a Handle
Carden Illustration | Cotton + Canvas | Crescent Simples | CW Woodworking
Dahlia Hollow Designs | Doap | Drum Art Nashville | Elle & Jo Tea Co. | Eloise + Co
Emory Lane Atelier | EVOrginals | Florit and Fauna | Grown Wild Foods
Hempin Shrooms | Hey J Design | hfb ceramics | Hornets! Hornets! | Jennie Okon
Kristi Pope Ceramics | Lily Smith Studio | Lola by Lauren | Looking Glass Craft
Lucky Stars Stitches | Lulu Links | Made in Glass | Marina Ibrahim Illustration
Mbabazi House of Style | Modern Bent Jewelry | Modern Bronze | Momper Romper
Music City Creative | Nashville Blanket Project | Nashville Pottery
Novilunio Jewelry | Oh Just Dandy | Pet Musings | PillowSak | Potomac Candle Quarter Spring Farm | Sacred Harvest | Smokin’ Buttz | SpaceBunzCo
Summit Sisters Coffee | Tasty Treats by TheepsTenn Prairie | The Crystal Campers
The Fleur Sauvage | The Good Company | The Happy Scribbles | The Rabbit Whole
Studio | The Self Care Clique | The Sleepy Fig | Two Spicy Mamas | Valerosa
Nashville Symphony | Nathan Aspinall, conductor
LITTLE RIVER BAND
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
COMING SOON
Nashville Symphony | James Bagwell, conductor
JUL 5 & 6 | 7:30 PM
Special Event
pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest in concert with the Nashville Symphony
JUL 28 | 2 PM
Presentation
Silent Movie Classics: THE RED BALLOON AND THE CAMERAMAN
Featuring Organist Peter Krasinski
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
JUL 12 | 7:30 PM
Presentation
THE SWEET CAROLINE TOUR: A NEIL DIAMOND CONCERT CELEBRATION
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
AUG 14 | 7:30 PM
HCA Healthcare and Tristar
Health Legends of Music
BUDDY GUY: DAMN RIGHT FAREWELL TOUR
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
JUL 21 | 2 PM
Presentation THE RESET: An Immersive Sound Healing Experience with Davin Youngs
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
AUG 18 | 7:30 PM
HCA Healthcare and Tristar
Health Legends of Music KEM
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
JUL 24 & 25 | 7:30 PM
Special Event
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE™ IN CONCERT with members of the Nashville Symphony
AUG 21 | 7:30 PM
Presentation THE CONCERT: A TRIBUTE TO ABBA
PresentedwithouttheNashvilleSymphony.
FRIDAY, JUNE
28
THEATER
[OF KINGS AND WIZARDS] BRIAN HULL: BRIANIMATIONS
If you’ve enjoyed a puppet show in Nashville in the past 40 years or so, you’re probably familiar with Brian Hull. This Emmy Award-winning artist has created a remarkable collection of work for the likes of Opryland USA and Dollywood, along with producing independent shows through his company Brianimations Puppetry Storytelling. Of course, he also spent 25 years building the renowned Wishing Chair Productions program at the Nashville Public Library. More recently, Hull and partner Mary Tanner have been touring a marvelous pair of multimedia puppet plays — King Matt the First and Kaytek the Wizard. (Both pieces are based on the works of Polish author and humanitarian Janusz Korczak, who famously refused to abandon the children of his Warsaw orphanage — even as they were deported to the Treblinka death camp in 1942.) Blending beautifully detailed puppetry, animation and original music, Hull and Tanner bring these magical stories to life with great spirit and artistry. They’ve just returned from a threeweek tour of New York and New Jersey and will be heading to Rome in September for a puppet festival hosted by the acclaimed Teatro San Carlino. But first, they’re back in town for a rare double feature performance that is sure to entertain and inspire. AMY STUMPFL
JUNE 28-29 AT THE DARKHORSE THEATER
4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.
THURSDAY / 6.27
MUSIC
[MIDNIGHT MEMORIES] UP ALL NIGHT: A ONE
DIRECTION PARTY
Directioners, I’d say it’s high time we go crazy, crazy, crazy till we see the sun, wouldn’t you? When I was a teen in 2011, I daydreamed about dancing at a club to “Stole My Heart,” but I think the One Direction Party at The Basement East is about as close as I will get. They even take club photos! When the “by fans, for fans” dance party tour hits Nashville, everyone from carrots — you know who you are — to stans can expect music from all five albums. Controversial opinion: Take Me Home is my favorite. The event will also feature the occasional song from a 1D member’s solo career, according to the event description. To that I say: Play “Strip That Down,” you cowards! I’ve always felt that if someone loves One Direction, it’s enough for them to be my friend. It has proved to be true, even more than a decade later. Come to do the “Best Song Ever” choreography, stay for the fangirl friendships. HANNAH HERNER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST
917 WOODLAND ST.
MUSIC
[WE’LL TAKE ALL OF THAT YA GOT!]
FUTURE ISLANDS
In March, Spin ran an article titled “‘I’ll Take All of That Ya Got!’: The Story Behind Future Islands’ Legendary Letterman Performance, 10 Years Later.” It might seem a little peculiar for a music publication to run an in-depth oral history digging into a Baltimore indiepop band’s decade-old television debut, but “legendary” really is right. Performing the song “Seasons (Waiting on You)” from the band’s album Singles on The Late Show, Future Islands went off like an explosion in the Ed Sullivan Theater. Growling and gasping over the song’s simple but effective synth-pop foundation, frontman Sam Herring prowled the stage, reaching toward the rafters and thumping his chest during the song’s peak. The performance — which prompted the response “I’ll take all of that ya got!” from David Letterman himself — was a hit, and gained Herring & Co. a bigger following. “It’s a huge part of our history and a turning point for the band,” the singer told Spin this year. “It completely changed everything.” (To date, it’s among the most viewed performance clips on Letterman’s YouTube page.) Future Islands have put out three albums
since Singles, including this year’s People Who Aren’t There Anymore, and they’re all full of compelling, catchy, left-of-center electronic pop music. People album opener “King of Sweden,” for instance, is as moody and triumphant and catchy as just about anything Future Islands has released since they got together 18 years ago, and it’ll be a treat to see them perform it live this week at the Brooklyn Bowl, where they’ll be supported by Ed Schrader’s Music Beat. I can promise you one thing: The place will go nuts when the opening notes of “Seasons” hit.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL
925 THIRD AVE. S.
FRIDAY / 6.28
[SYMPHONY UNDER THE STARS] THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS
Whether it’s the repeating two notes haunting your beach vacation, the epic explosion of sound at the start of a giant yellow text scroll or the swelling, emotional strings as the hero catches the falling damsel, the music of John Williams is so iconic that it has become enmeshed in our culture. It’s kind of a given that it’s good, like Shakespeare or The Beatles. I suppose that’s the thing about Williams being such a behemoth of film scoring — his music is so ubiquitous that we forget how legitimately smart and moving the art itself is. But, man, listen to some John Williams. Watch Dr. Ellie Sattler whip off her glasses and climb out of the Jeep, the orchestra booming as her unimaginable dreams come true. Or listen to the strings sing as Elliott and E.T. take off, biking across the night sky. Or better yet, lay out on your own picnic blanket, under your own stars and glittering skyline, and watch the Nashville Symphony perform Williams’ music live at Ascend Amphitheater. Led by Nathan Aspinall, the symphony will play pieces from Superman, Hook, Star Wars, Indiana Jones
and
event for film and music lovers alike. RYNE WALKER
8 P.M. AT ASCEND AMPHITHEATER 310 FIRST AVE. S.
DANCE [THE LOOK OF LOVE] THE MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP
Nearly 45 years after forming his eponymous company, Mark Morris remains a legendary force in the dance world, known for his incredibly eclectic and imaginative style. This weekend, you can check out one of his latest projects as the Mark Morris Dance Group brings The Look of Love to TPAC’s Polk Theater. Much like Morris’ free-spirited Beatles tribute Pepperland, The Look of Love is built around the chart-topping hits of Burt Bacharach, including nostalgic favorites like “What the World Needs Now,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and more. The new work, which premiered in 2022, features original choreography by Morris and jazzy new arrangements by frequent collaborator Ethan Iverson, performed live by a stellar ensemble with Broadway’s own Marcy Harriell (In the Heights, Rent) on lead vocals. Add Isaac Mizrahi’s colorful costumes and Nicole Pearce’s evocative lighting, and you have what promises to be a joyful celebration of both music and dance. AMY STUMPFL
JUNE 28-29 AT TPAC’S POLK THEATER 505 DEADERICK ST.
MUSIC
[COMPLETE THE CHANGE IN YOU] OF MONTREAL W/TELE NOVELLA
When you zoom out, Of Montreal’s 19-album catalog feels almost like a travelogue from the distant past — if, say, Ibn Battuta or Marco Polo was a psychedelic pop musician with a penchant for allusion and kaleidoscopically lysergic sound. The narrator is Kevin Barnes, the central figure and only constant member of the band, and his latest LP Lady on the Cusp has a decidedly darker cast than some of his older work. Released in
Stone called a “juke joint professor,” will be accompanied at the show by his longtime bassist Ron Eoff and drummer Aaron Mortenson of Los Colognes. While they will preview a few songs from The In Between including the new single, Gordon says their set will span his entire career. Although nothing was confirmed when he spoke with the Scene, there’s a good chance one or two of the other musicians and singers who worked on the record will sit in with Gordon and his band Friday night. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT THE EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S.
FILM [NO DREAM IS EVER JUST A DREAM] 1999/A CELEBRATION OF NICOLE KIDMAN: EYES WIDE SHUT
May, it begins with “Music Hurts the Head,” and further along there’s “PI$$ PI$$,” whose chorus goes: “I know you’ve been through hell / Because I went through yours as well.” This record, which in several places has a Prince-y funk flavor, marks the start of a new phase for Barnes, who recently left his home base of nearly 30 years in Athens, Ga., for Brattleboro, Vt. (referenced in the ’70s-soft-rock-kissed “Soporific Cell,” which name-checks the crystals in the earth beneath the town and their supposed powers). Joining Barnes and his crew on Friday’s visit to Nashville is Austin, Texas, duo Tele Novella, whose take on pop music has a bit in common with what Barnes was doing 20 years ago, when I first fell for Of Montreal. Asking anyone, especially Barnes, to try and remake Aughts gems like Aldhils Arboretum or Satanic Panic in the Attic would be unfair, and the result would suck, but Tele Novella takes some of those ideas and makes them their own.
STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT EXIT/IN
2219 ELLISTON PLACE
[JUKE JOINT PROFESSOR]
MUSIC
KEVIN GORDON
Acclaimed roots-rock singer-songwriterguitarist Kevin Gordon drops his latest single “Simple Things” on Friday, and he’s celebrating the release with a show at Eastside Bowl’s Low Volume Lounge. “Simple Things,” which was mixed by sonic savant Tchad Blake, is the first single from Gordon’s forthcoming album The In Between, scheduled for release Sept. 13. Produced by guitarist Joe V. McMahan, it will be Gordon’s seventh studio album and the first since 2018. There was a time when Gordon wondered if he would be able to finish the record. During sessions for the album in spring 2022, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and was unsure he’d be able to sing again. Thankfully, he is now cancer-free and jokes, “Unfortunately, nothing changed with my voice.” Gordon, whom Rolling
Stanley Kubrick’s controversial final film screens in 35 mm this weekend as both the grand finale of The Belcourt’s 1999 series and also part of the celebration of Nicole Kidman series. After his wife Alex (Nicole Kidman) admits she had a sexual fantasy about another man, Dr. Bill Hartford (Tom Cruise) sets out to have a sexual encounter of his own. The deeper he searches, the more he finds himself tangled up in an underground orgy masquerade — and realizes he might be in over his head. Based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, Kubrick’s 1999 adaptation told a story of sexual corruption among the wealthy elites nearly two decades before the #MeToo movement. This divisive swan song from a legendary director feels more relevant now than ever with its themes of heterosexual relationship dynamics and the abuse of power playgrounds of the rich and powerful. KEN ARNOLD JUNE 28 & 30 AT THE BELCOURT
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
COMMUNITY
[FAREWELL, MY FRIEDMAN] FRIEDMAN’S SEND-OFF PARTY
Join local DJ and apparel designer Case Bloom for a Friedman’s Army Navy Outdoor Store farewell party. Bloom, the music mind behind monthly hip-hop institution The Boom Bap, traces his career in bag design back to childhood days browsing the workwear and salvage at Friedman’s. He brings a proven lineup that includes Darrin Bradbury, Dante Ross, Bowls, Rate Wonder and Collin Fidler to Brown’s Diner for a lively evening that falls somewhere between celebration and memorial. A pop-up featuring his own line of cut-and-sew goods made from Friedman’s stock opens at 5 p.m. Music goes till midnight. ELI MOTYCKA
5 P.M. AT BROWN’S DINER
2102 BLAIR BLVD.
SATURDAY / 6.29
[PINK ON GOLD]
SPORTS
NASHVILLE SC VS. INTER MIAMI
Leo Messi, (in)arguably the soccer GOAT, has been with Inter Miami for less than a year but has somehow already faced off against the Boys in Gold five times across three different competitions and visited Geodis Park twice. The first of those five matches involved Inter Miami
many more films. It’s a can’t-miss
THE MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP
Thursday July 4th
Variety on Main in Franklin, Monica Ramey has been one of Nashville’s finest jazz and American songbook vocalists since moving here in 2000. Ramey joined the late Beegie Adair for critically praised performances at some of New York’s finest jazz clubs for years, and she’s recorded and performed alongside several of Music City’s finest improvisers. Her recording credit highlights include 2016’s Some Enchanted Evening and the 2020 release Clifton Davis and the Beegie Adair Trio: Never Can Say Goodbye. Ramey will no doubt be performing selections from both of these releases and others this weekend at City Winery. RON WYNN
7 P.M. AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
SUNDAY / 6.30
MUSIC [GET SIRIUS] ALAN PARSONS PROJECT
making the trek to Music City to take on Nashville SC in what was an instant-classic Leagues Cup final. NSC ultimately came up short in that battle, as they have in each of the five contests against the Argentinian legend. But Saturday, thanks to the 2024 Copa America, Miami is coming to town without Messi, who will be representing his nation at that international tournament. It won’t be quite as satisfying to knock off the current league leaders without their centerpiece, but a bit of revenge would be a nice jolt to an underwhelming NSC campaign. The local team will also be without a trio of important players — USMNT’s Shaq Moore, Panama’s Anibal Godoy and Canada’s Jacob Shaffelburg — representing their home countries at the Copa America. LOGAN BUTTS 7:30 P.M. AT GEODIS PARK 501 BENTON AVE.
[CARIBBEAN QUEEN]
MUSIC
CUMBIATRON: THE CUMBIA RAVE
For fans of captivating rhythms paired with dazzling lights and giant luminescent inflatable animals, Cumbiatron’s rave is a golden opportunity to peek into a world of music seldom seen in Nashville. Cumbia is far too amorphous a sound to easily define. Originating in the northern region of Colombia, the beats meld different folk musical traditions brought to the Caribbean coastline by Indigenous peoples and Africans stolen from their land by Spanish slave traders. The music spread across the continent to Peru, Argentina, Panama — even expanding north to Mexico — with each culture combining cumbia with their own musical DNA. Similar to the revivals of ska and Tropicália, cumbia’s new
generation pairs South American dance rhythms with diverse musical styles — rap, disco, EDM and psychedelia — to update the sound for the modern world. Cumbiatron, coming to Music City for one night only, carries an infectious torch for cumbia music and culture to DJ booths worldwide. Cumbia/hip-hop mix master DJ Gecko will open the celebration. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL
925 THIRD AVE. N.
FOOD & DRINK
[DRINK UP] THIRST TRAP
Have you missed Kate Cunningham’s By the Bottle? Of course you have. Cunningham’s natural wine pop-ups graced a number of local spots (and our lips), and now she’s “out here searching for that new temp-to-perm home.” She’s back for one night only with Thirst Trap, a wine party at The Blue Room at Third Man Records. The lineup includes Cunningham’s favorite Delinquente Wine Co choices, eats from Pizza Lolo and music from two female DJs. DJ Loveless and DJ Shug’s Disco Unusual will get you moving. That’s right: dancing, wine and pizza in one of the coolest spots in the city. Tickets are $12.95 and available online. This is a natural wine party; it is a 21-and-over event. MARGARET LITTMAN
7 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS
623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
[VOCALIST SPOTLIGHTED]
MUSIC
MONICA RAMEY
Though she’s currently spending much of her time collaborating with Mandy Barnett as the co-host and co-producer of the monthly show
Alan Parsons’ career outside the Alan Parsons Project is an impressive story on its own. From working on Beatles albums to producing some of the seminal rock hits of the ’70s, Parsons has a career that is just begging to be turned into a musical biopic. But perhaps his most important accomplishment was the founding of the Alan Parsons Project in 1975. The musical collective would create some of the most iconic songs of the 1980s, and their musical influence can be felt throughout popular culture. Ever heard the Chicago Bulls’ pregame theme, which provided the soundtrack to Michael Jordan’s NBA dominance in the ’90s? That’s “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project. And if you haven’t heard their greatest achievement, “Eye in the Sky,” you are missing out on one of the best songs of the 1980s. Don’t miss your chance to see the Alan Parsons Project live at the Ryman. ROB HINKAL 7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
SPORTS
[GOTTA
GO FAST]
NASCAR ALLY 400
Here’s a pair of fun facts you can use to annoy your friend who picked up a Dale Earnhardt shirt from a thrift store: Nashville Superspeedway isn’t technically in Nashville, but a few miles west in Lebanon. The 1.33-mile tri-oval technically isn’t a “superspeedway” either, as that designation is typically reserved for tracks more than two miles long, like Talladega or Daytona. Whatever you call it, the track has since 2021 hosted NASCAR’s top drivers for a weekend of racing culminating in the Cup Series’ Ally 400. No, it isn’t as flashy as the Music City Grand Prix, where cars sling up and down the same streets you might drive on to get to work downtown. But you could argue there’s less chaos at the Lebanon raceway, which is something you can’t take for granted in a sport where a driver could theoretically lead 399 laps and still finish last because another car crashed them out. The race’s three previous winners were all stars of the sport and include former Cup series champions Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson along with Ross Chastain, who by a quirk of NASCAR’s playoff format won last year’s series championship race but not the season
Name: AVOCADO
Age: 8 years
Weight: 43 lbs
Gender: Male
Meet Avocado! This handsome guy was recently in Foster, and we’ve learned so much about him. Avocado is a sweet, lower-energy, and curious pup. He walks well on a leash, loves being brushed, and enjoys sniffing the great outdoors! He loves to sunbathe, so would do best in a home with a backyard! Avocado also enjoys pets from his humans and spending quality time on the couch together. During his time in Foster, his family said he learned to enjoy his crate and also appeared house-trained. Avocado might be 8 years old, but he has a youthful spirit that he is ready to share with his future family! Are you looking for a sweet and calm dog to share your life with? Come meet Avocado today!
Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org
Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209
Adopt. Bark. Meow. Microchip. Neuter. Spay.
championship. Superspeedways that aren’t actually superspeedways, championship race winners that aren’t champions … OK, maybe NASCAR is a little chaotic. COLE VILLENA
2:30 P.M. AT THE NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY 4847-F MCCRARY ROAD, LEBANON
MUSIC
[I WANT SOMETHING ELSE] THIRD EYE BLIND
Does anything come closer to capturing the boring, dissociative pleasure of 1997 than “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind? The song is impressively penned in toto by Stephan Jenkins himself. Perfecto. The song is loaded with sex and drugs, but this wasn’t a time when people cared so much about messages in music that they’d listen to whole albums backward to try to catch “Paul is dead.” Instead, we were so willfully oblivious to lyrical content that no one even realized this wasn’t “Walking on Sunshine” until a good 10 or so years later. The performance is big, period. The lyrics? Rammed — seriously, rammed — into this insanely catchy, comically regimented pop structure. And, of course, the chorus. Every word is precise. If grunge was about a state close to despair, about addiction and other bald needs, the music of the late ’90s was about the desire for something supplementary. Just a little somethin’. An extra, a pick-me-up, to be a little less bored, to abide in a state you wouldn’t bother to call terrible, just, y’know, semi-charmed. Yellowcard, the pop-punk band best known for their 2003 hit “Ocean Avenue,” will open. TOBY ROSE
6:30 P.M. AT FIRSTBANK AMPHITHEATER 4525 GRAYSTONE QUARRY LANE, FRANKLIN
MONDAY / 7.1
FILM [THE WAY HOME] A CELEBRATION OF NICOLE KIDMAN: COLD MOUNTAIN
The 2003 Civil War epic Cold Mountain was Harvey Weinstein’s annual prestige film offering to Oscar voters that year. Back when the nowexposed Weinstein was still the bully-boy head of Miramax, he recruited writer-director Anthony Minghella (who rounded up many statuettes for Harvey with The English Patient) to helm an all-star, hella-middlebrow adaptation of Charles Frazier’s bestselling historical novel.
Nicole Kidman and Jude Law slap on Southern accents as a North Carolina lady and the Confederate soldier she truly, madly, deeply loves. Unfortunately, this damn war drives them apart. Kidman keeps the home fires burning with help from a scenery-devouring Renée Zellweger, who snagged her first Oscar by basically playing Calamity Jane here. Meanwhile, Law deserts the war and goes on a Homeric journey, which has him briefly teaming up with an amoral, constipated Philip Seymour Hoffman, spending the night with a lonely Natalie Portman, and even witnessing a few slaves creep toward freedom. This is a must for those who like their war-torn, period-piece love stories with heaping amounts of ham and cheese. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
JULY 1 & 5 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
TUESDAY / 7.2
FILM [THEIR TOWN] A CELEBRATION OF NICOLE KIDMAN: DOGVILLE
Yorgos Lanthimos isn’t the first European filmmaker to put a red-haired Oscar winner through the wringer in a baffling-ass, starstudded, three-hour art film. Back in 2003, Danish king of pain Lars Von Trier got Nicole Kidman to go through a whole lotta hell in his still-divisive opus Dogville. Kidman is Grace, a runaway gangster’s daughter who hides out in the titular Rocky Mountain town. Initially, the townsfolk (played by Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård and Ingmar Bergman regular Harriet Andersson) are folksy and welcoming. Eventually, they make Grace their own personal slave. This twisted version of Our Town (the movie takes place entirely on a mostly bare soundstage, with the actors getting their object-work on and miming their surroundings) has been called brilliant, audacious, exasperating, philosophical, cruel, vile, anti-American, anti-Christian and just a bad time at the movies. One critic even said it’s “one nonsensical, mind-numbing beatdown.” (OK, that was me.) In short, it’s just another Lars Von Trier picture. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
CRAIG D. LINDSEY
JULY 2 & 6 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
DOGVILLE
DOUGH UNTO OTHERS
Michael Werrell takes his Michelin talents to glutenfree baking with Glootn
BY ELI MOTYCKA
THE CULINARY WORLD judges pastries, bread and noodles on their stretch and bounce. The perfect hand-pulled noodle feels pliant, like it could survive a few bite marks and spring back into shape. Celebrated sourdough hides spongy crumb that can both hold a layer of ricotta and soak up olive oil. Croissants puff like they’re inflated.
Pastry chef Michael Werrell’s body turning against gluten — the structural protein that enables elasticity in wheat-based foods — was the universe’s sick joke. Starting out at a local Italian dessert spot in New Jersey, Werrell made his way into Michelin-studded Manhattan with stints at Eleven Madison Park, Betony and Dominique Ansel Bakery (of Cronut fame). During COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, he moved from New York to Nashville for a job in the Sean Brock restaurant family.
Werrell says that when he finally caught the virus, it changed his immune response to gluten. The basic building block of his career became off-limits.
“I could make cakes, pâte à choux and croissants, but I couldn’t eat them,” Werrell tells the Scene at his apartment complex near McFerrin Park. “That was a huge hardship for my career. But instead of taking it as a downfall, I saw it as a challenge to see how far I could manipulate starches and flours to create the food I know.”
With the precision of a scientist, Werrell explains that gluten is actually two proteins: gliadin and glutenin. Together they create the gluten network that traps air and helps dough rise. Replacing this aspect of flour often baffles hopeful bakers seeking a gluten-free substitute.
“Things like brownies, cupcakes and muffins don’t have a high gluten content, so they’re easier,” explains Werrell. “That’s why you can go to the store and find substitutes. It’s the baguettes, noodles and croissants that pose more of a struggle. It’s the processes, the combination of flours, that I would call trade secrets.”
Werrell launched Glootn, a gluten-free pop-up bakery, last summer. He started with bagels, another baked good rarely available without gluten. He has since tackled other baking prizes that often elude the gluten-free community. With diligent note-taking, Werrell perfects each recipe over multiple attempts from his home kitchen. His mixes draw from a pantry stocked with neatly labeled ingredients: almond flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, psyllium husk, white cornmeal and dozens more. He keeps his home entirely gluten-free, a high standard that makes his goods safe for even highly sensitive consumers, many
MICHAEL WERRELL
of whom identify as having celiac disease, the official diagnosis for a gluten-intolerant digestive system.
Glootn has pushed his home kitchen beyond capacity (usually between 16 and 18 dozen units). After weeks of experimenting and days of prep, Werrell wakes up at 2 a.m. to tackle trays of goods that he sells hours later at farmers markets and special events. The day we talk, he’s prepping a doughnut sale at Porter Flea. Werrell built all 12 flavors on a brioche base with flavor profiles reminiscent of nostalgic snacks of the late 1990s and 2000s, like Dunkaroos and Zebra Cakes. As at his first four pop-ups, which featured menus stuffed with specialty croissants and cinnamon rolls, the doughnuts sell like crazy. He typically sells out in less than an hour thanks to lines that stretch 30, 40 or even 50 people deep. The gratitude and loyalty of his customers make an impression.
“When you are gluten-free, you get told no a lot,” Werrell says. “I think it’s a special moment when you finally get told, ‘This is safe, you’re not going to get sick.’”
Nashville’s gluten-free offerings have quickly expanded to accommodate a growing consumer base. Other bakers have filled similar needs, often offering services via social media, pop-ups or custom ordering. Morsel — a GF and vegan bakery — delivers to many local coffee shops. Baked on Branch, which offered GF sourdough and starter cultures, recently announced it will cease baking on June 28. High demand
had apparently pushed business too big too quickly.
“We’ve reached a point in our business that in order to find sustainable baking rhythms, we either need to expand by investing in equipment to meet our demand, or pull back from baking at this scale,” reads a statement on Baked on Branch’s Instagram account, in part.
The shift from social media side hustle to brick-and-mortar bakery is daunting. Werrell, who has struggled to find a safe GF commercial kitchen, aspires to open a storefront but has too much restaurant experience to attempt such a risky jump prematurely. After the Wild Muffin suspended operations in 2022, and The Dotted Lime — a beloved Columbia restaurant and bakery that earned many fans in Nashville — closed in the fall, only The Gluten Free Goose near Lenox Village remains as Middle Tennessee’s dedicated gluten-free outpost.
Meanwhile, customers are waiting, swapping tips about the best places to go for good food and clearly labeled menus.
“Typically, I do my research in advance and look up menus to see my options,” Kara Tusch tells the Scene at Headquarters Coffee over a gluten-free madeleine from Morsel. She was diagnosed with celiac disease six years ago.
“We know the places we like and can go safely. I’ve learned to carry my own snacks. Finding a place that’s all gluten-free, it’s like heaven. You can blindly pick anything and don’t have to worry.” ▼
A MOMENT OF ETERNITY
Lee Alexander McQueen and Ann Ray make an emotional Rendez-Vous BY CAT ACREE
SINCE THE DEATH of designer Alexander McQueen, his public persona as British l’enfant terrible has occupied the central narrative of his legacy. McQueen, known as “Lee” to his friends, played the provocateur, and he was both loved and reviled for it. When he spoke publicly, he only added to the mythos: “If I make mistakes, they come from the heart,” he told Purple magazine in 2007. “I don’t care. This is what is going to make me happy. If people don’t like it, well, that’s the way it is.”
But to his friend and longtime photographer Ann Ray, McQueen was tender and sensitive. They both lived in Paris in late 1996 after he was named creative director for the House of Givenchy. At only 27, he was in the incredible position of creating his first couture collection while also working on his own brand. Ray was tasked with photographing behind the scenes, and for the next 13 years, he gave her unprecedented access to his studio.
In Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, showing at the Frist Art Museum’s Ingram Gallery through August, Ray shares the origin story of their love and all the creativity and connection she found in McQueen’s presence. When talking about their first meeting during a recent media preview at the Frist, Ray playfully describes them as two creatures circling at the edge of the woods. “We were sniffing each other,” she says. Ray has collaborated with Barrett Barrera Projects, the world’s largest
private collection of McQueen, to organize this retrospective of not only McQueen’s work, but also, more emphatically, their friendship.
Ray documented 43 of McQueen’s collections, taking more than 32,000 photos — including exclusive portraits, candid behind-the-scenes shots and stills of the catwalk. Rendez-Vous includes 65 photographs selected by Ray, organized thematically alongside 60 garments by McQueen. Thirteen of these garments are exclusive to the Frist’s presentation of Rendez-Vous Famously, when the two first began working together, McQueen claimed he couldn’t pay Ray, so he gave her clothes in exchange for her photographs. The show opens with 10 of the outfits she was given, many of which have never been worn because his designs were completely at odds with Ray’s “quintessentially French personal style.” Throughout the rest of the show, McQueen’s work is organized chronologically, from the sharpness of his earliest shows — including his controversial 1995 collection, Highland Rape — to the breathtaking softness of his posthumous collection, Angels and Demons, which was completed by his assistant Sarah Burton. McQueen was an immaculate tailor, and his garments are awesome in their construction. Of particular note is the one-of-a-kind dress from Highland Rape that looks like it’s made of peat moss and soil, but is actually a fragile construction of paint, plastic wrap and resin. We witness
his shifts among the natural and artificial, structural and liquid, romantic and horrifying. Paradoxes abound, such as in his final complete collection, Plato’s Atlantis, which was intended as a commentary about our destruction of the earth. Still, making such a statement through the environmental disaster that is the fashion industry feels a bit toothless, despite the collection’s otherworldly beauty and revolutionary digital prints.
If McQueen’s work is loud, larger-than-life and sometimes violent in presentation, then Ray’s photographs are the opposite. When viewed alongside the armor of his art, the fragility of hers is heightened. Her photographs are cinematic, containing tremendous emotion — pride, elation, tenderness and power — while also finding deeply human liminal moments.
One of the best examples is her immortalization of McQueen’s spring/summer 1999 collection, No. 13, whose astounding finale had model Shalom Harlow sprayed with paint by two looming robots. It is harrowing, but Ray’s photograph of Harlow’s face midscene is rapturous. Ray describes it as “a moment of eternity. … In front of the unspeakable, [there was] so much beauty.”
For those most interested in gaining some kind of insight or potential truth about McQueen, several portraits serve this purpose best — in particular two images displayed midway through the exhibition, both taken in 1999. “No Compromise” shows a confrontational
chin jutting at the camera, a joint in his mouth. In opposition to this is “Innocence,” which finds the artist in a rare natural smile during a brief portrait session at Givenchy. There’s nothing innocent about this grown man, but Ray calls upon us to see differently.
In a similar spirit, the wall text throughout the exhibition emphasizes the artist’s relationship with women — not only Ray, but also his mother, his friends Isabella Blow and Annabelle Neilson and others — in a clear attempt to counter the critiques of misogyny that have been directed at him. By acknowledging the controversies of his life and the sorrow of his death, Rendez-Vous asks us to keep turning the story in our hands, to see another side.
It is impossible to say that Rendez-Vous provides a more truthful version of the story of McQueen. Still, through Ray’s lens, we can know how she knew him, what she perceived in him, and how much of their time together must have been such fun.
For McQueen, fashion was an instrument, a performance that happened just once. In Ray’s photographs, they have been engraved for all time. ▼
McQueen,
Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous Through Aug. 25 at the Frist Art Museum
RENDEZ-VOUS INSTALLATION VIEW PHOTO
THE WHOLE TRUTH
Novelist Jill Ciment reconsiders her own story
BY MARIA BROWNING
IN 1970, when novelist Jill Ciment was a precocious 17-year-old living in Los Angeles with her three siblings and their struggling single mother, she began a relationship with her art teacher, a married man 30 years her senior. Improbably, their love affair became a marriage that lasted until her husband’s death in 2016. Ciment wrote about their early romance in her 1996 memoir, Half a Life. In a new book, Consent, Ciment reconsiders their story in the light of 21st-century sexual mores and her own altered perspective.
Although Consent depicts in detail the couple’s first sexual encounter and compares the 1996 account with a more bluntly honest one informed by the era of #MeToo, Ciment is not interested in labeling herself a victim. She’s more concerned with the larger question of how to make sense of a long partnership built from such a questionable beginning: “Was my marriage — the half century of intimacy, the shifting power, the artistic collaborations, the sex, the shared meals, the friends, the travels, the illnesses, the money worries, the houses, the dogs — fruit from the poisonous tree?”
As she describes him in Consent, the man who would become Ciment’s husband — the painter Arnold Mesches, referred to simply as “Arnold” throughout the book — is not so much predatory toward teenage Jill as he is selfish and vaguely desperate. He’s a man floundering in middle age, disappointed in his career and somewhat detached from his wife, children and age-appropriate girlfriend. When a headstrong, emotionally needy girl returns his sexual interest, he knows it’s wrong to act on his impulses, but denying himself the pleasure of her body requires more willpower than he’s got — and then he falls hard, abandoning home, family and mistress to be with her.
Arnold’s choices are so clearly out of bounds by today’s standards that it’s easy to forget how such behavior was seen 50 years ago. Ciment does a great job of conveying the sexual attitudes that prevailed in the ’70s and early ’80s, especially in the left-wing, arty, academic circles Arnold was part of and she longed to join. A few months after she begins the relationship with Arnold, she submits a portfolio to the California Institute of the Arts consisting of “charcoal drawings of explicit sexual acts from the vantage point of the woman,” meant to serve as the basis for an animated film. At her interview for a scholarship, the dean of the film school invites several faculty members — all men — to join in poring over the drawings, with some of them taking the opportunity to put a “fatherly” hand on Ciment’s shoulder or back. It’s a cringe-inducing scene, made more so by Ciment’s naive belief that the men respect her art: “I assumed their curiosity about me was an affirmation of my talent, not the fact that I had submitted the San Fernando Valley version of the Kama Sutra.”
Of course, actually sleeping with an underage girl, much less leaving your wife for one, was slightly scandalous even in the freewheeling ’70s, but not so much so that Arnold wasn’t invited to brunch with Ciment’s family. His only brush with the police comes when Ciment’s 7-year-old brother is abused by a scheming pedophile, and the detectives investigating the case give the side-eye to the older man who introduces himself as “a friend of the family” but appears to be attached to the victim’s teenage sister, not the mother. Ciment suppressed her own doubts about their relationship at the time and was even unfazed by Arnold’s prior infidelity, of which she was fully aware. “I accepted his Gordian sex life,” she writes, “as the birthright of
daphnehome.com | daphne_quirkyprettyhome
the male artist.”
Her questions seem to have arrived in full force later, after the marriage and especially through Arnold’s declining years and her widowhood. They are deeply personal questions she frames as a writerly dilemma. How can the narrative of this relationship be reconciled with itself? How did that beginning lead to this ending? She struggles to make the progression work even in fiction:
Lolita and Humbert Humbert marry and live happily ever after? Who would believe such a story? Who would believe a scene in which Lolita takes Humbert Humbert for cataract surgery? Or worries about his prostate? How would I compose the scene where Lolita arranges hospice care for the man who supposedly stole her childhood?
Consent is more exploration than confession, and though Ciment is a clear-eyed reporter committed to not softening the edges of her account, her memoir finally lands in a place of tenderness and love, questions unresolved but not unanswered: “I had intended to write the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but I could not find it, or else I found it everywhere.”
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
Consent: A Memoir By Jill Ciment Pantheon 160 pages, $27
Ciment will discuss Consent with Ann Patchett 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at Parnassus
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT FOR TICKETS & UPDATES
THURSDAY, JUNE 27
6:30PM JILL CIMENT with ANN PATCHETT at PARNASSUS Consent
SATURDAY, JUNE 29 10:30AM
SATURDAY STORYTIME with ALI GILKESON at PARNASSUS My Lighthouse: A Story of Finding Your Way Home
MONDAY, JULY 8 6:30PM
ALICIA THOMPSON & KT HOFFMAN at PARNASSUS The Art of Catching Feelings & The Prospects TUESDAY, JULY 9 6:30PM
TRICIA LEVENSELLER with JENNIFER LYNN ALVAREZ at PARNASSUS The Darkness Within Us
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 6:30PM
JULIA PHILLIPS with ANN PATCHETT at PARNASSUS Bear
3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net an independent bookstore for independent people
THURSDAY, JULY 11 6:30PM JEFF ZENTNER & BRITTANY CAVALLARO at PARNASSUS Sunrise Nights parnassusbooks parnassusbooksnashville parnassusbooks parnassusbooks1
& strange company nightrain: guns n' roses tribute experience pedro the lion w/ flock of dimes sarah sherman every avenue w/ makeout, rookie of the year & odd sweetheart allan rayman w/ michael lemmo the wilder blue w/ troubadour blue sparkle city disco ok go w/ winona forever & mirthquake cardinal black w/ connor clark & blue rhythym revival new medicine beast street band - springsteen tribute qdp dylan wheeler mates of state w/ al menne giocomo turra & the funky minutes w/ phoebe katis
earleiene w/ zg smith (7pm) esther rose w/ corey parsons & ross farbe (9pm) anna graves (7pm) calico mantra w/ the reveal & the deltas (9pm)
kiera loveless & cali wilson (7pm) the dreaded laramie w/ mel bryant & the mercy makers (9pm) kassi valazza w/ sequoia volcano brothers - Steve Dawson, Richard Bennett, Dave Jacques motherwind caroline spence (7pm)
ballerina dorris, cane + cancino & namir blade (9pm)
gatlen gunn w/ slickson revolver & under high street blue house band, daniel hansen, sam ferrara & cosmic jade mutilation barbecue, ignominious,
MUSIC
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
A new edition of From Where I Stand expands the story of Black country artists
BY RON WYNN
THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN Black participation, involvement and advocacy for country music since before it was called “country music,” for decades a perception lingered that country was almost exclusively a white idiom, both in terms of performers and audience. The Country Music Hall of Fame and the Country Music Foundation countered that notion back in 1998 with the initial edition of the landmark box set From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music. It combined impressive historical scope with meticulous contemporary overview, spotlighting both the greats and many previously ignored and/or unfairly obscure performers.
Subsequent developments that have seen more Black country artists come to prominence provided the impetus for a newly expanded version of From Where I Stand. This banner reissue, compiled by Michael Gray, adds a fourth disc with 22 selections showcasing the contemporary Black country perspective. There are also fresh essays from performers and advocates Rissi Palmer and Rhiannon Giddens that supplement the first set’s contributions from various critics and historians (including this author). That fourth disc, subtitled Reclaiming the Heritage, mixes selections from established hitmakers like Darius Rucker and Kane Brown with performances from superb artists better known outside country like Mavis Staples and Keb’ Mo’. There are also numbers from rising stars — both industry veterans and those newly ascendant — such as Valerie June, Wendy Moten, Mickey Guyton, Miko Marks, Brittney Spencer, Allison Russell, The War and Treaty
and Palmer herself.
One of the first edition’s featured artists was trailblazer Cleve Francis. He put a medical career on hold to pursue country, but later returned to it after struggling for years to get a foothold in the country industry. Francis was once signed to Liberty Records — also home to then-rising star Garth Brooks — and his single “Love Light” is a highlight of the compilation’s third disc. He’s thrilled to see the update.
“I think that this CD answers the question as to how far back one can go to hear Blacks singing country music,” Francis says. “Answer: all the way to the beginning of the genre. It is my hope that this will educate both Black and white fans. I also hope that this will be taken up as an academic topic in music departments around the country and the world as the history of country music is being taught.”
Palmer, who’s also the host of the Apple Radio program Color Me Country and a contributor to CMT’s weekend Hot 20 Countdown show, has her signature song “Country Girl” on the fourth disc.
“I think that for so long, Black artists in this genre felt like they needed to create heroes and idols, because they don’t feel represented,” Palmer says. “This album proves that for Patsy Cline, there is Esther Phillips; for Waylon Jennings, there is O.B. McClinton. We have heroes too. That’s the biggest benefit of this album.”
Both artists hope this set will prove a catalyst for continued success, exposure and recognition for Black country artists.
“This box set is a one-of-a-kind work of art brought about because of the Country Music
BACK FROM THE DREAD
Nashville rock legends White Animals return with Star Time, their first new album since 2001
BY DARYL SANDERS
WHEN ASKED WHAT inspired long-running Nashville rock band White Animals to record their first album of new material in more than two decades, colead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kevin Gray quips, “Retirement.”
It’s true: Gray retired just over a year ago from his day job in neuropsychiatry in the Veterans Affairs North Texas Healthcare System. But if their new album Star Time is any indication, he and his bandmates — co-lead vocalist and bassist Steve Boyd, lead guitarist Rich Parks and drummer Ray Crabtree — are a long way from retiring when it comes to making music. Arguably the best of their career, Star Time has all the ingredients that fueled the band in their 1980s heyday. There’s a unique blend of firstwave British Invasion power pop, rockabilly, Everly Brothers harmonies and dub reggae, all drenched in reverb to give it a psychedelic sheen.
Hall of Fame’s commitment to telling the true history of this music and all of the different people who made it,” says Francis. “My new project will be to propose that several people featured on the box set be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, just as the Baseball Hall of Fame recognized the Black baseball stars who were denied entry into the major leagues.”
Francis name-checks artists like Stoney Edwards, Big Al Downing, the aforementioned O.B. McClinton and Ruby Falls among those who should be honored this way. Palmer is enthusiastic about the progress that’s been made in terms of visibility for Black country musicians, but is emphatic that there’s much more work to be done.
“I see a lot of Black artists working, and that makes me happy,” Palmer says. “In terms of mainstream impact, we’ve still got a long way to go. Between country radio adding and supporting more Black acts, to providing opportunities behind the scenes for producers, writers, managers, agents, executives, et cetera, and the industry really figuring out how to attract and foster a loyal Black audience — we’ve only scratched the surface.” ▼
From Where
The importance of the White Animals in Nashville rock history cannot be overstated. In the late ’70s, they jump-started the rock scene at Phrank ’n’ Steins Rathskeller, which was ground zero for Nashville’s punks and indie rockers until it closed at the end of November 1980. They also were DIY pioneers, forming their own label — Dread Beat Records — to release their debut EP Nashville Babylon in 1981. The following year they released their first full-length album Lost Weekend; then came their breakthrough record Ecstasy in 1984. Music videos for two songs from that album — “Don’t Care” and “This Girl of Mine” — appeared on MTV, making the White Animals not only the first Nashville band to appear on the network, but also the first indie rockers to be in rotation.
They built a large following throughout the South and beyond — performing 300 shows a year, mostly on college campuses — but they also headlined 3,000-seat theaters and opened concerts for Talking Heads, The Kinks, Duran Duran and other stars. They got positive press in major outlets, including The Village Voice Creem the Los Angeles Times, Stereo Review and The Hollywood Reporter. But even with all they accomplished, the White Animals never scored a major label contract, although they came close a couple of times, especially after the success of Ecstasy, which sold 40,000 copies.
“We had so many nibbles, so many near misses,” Gray says.
When the White Animals called it quits in summer 1987, they left behind a larger recording legacy than most of their Nashville ’80s rock peers — one EP, four studio albums, one live album and numerous singles. And unlike so many, they owned their masters and their publishing.
The band reunited in 1999 and released a 17-song, career-spanning compilation called 3,000 Nights in Babylon. Two years later, they released a self-titled record which is sometimes called Monster Mash Message in reference to the liner notes printed on the back cover. That was their last album of new music prior to Star Time, which hits all the major digital
PHOTO: RENA SCHILD
CLEVE FRANCIS
platforms on Friday.
Since reuniting, the White Animals have played several dates a year. At a show near the end of 2022, they performed a new song Gray had brought to the band, “On the Shelf,” which opens Star Time Boyd recalls that song inspired him to write again, and within a few days “Back Around” was penned. The band had two new songs, but they didn’t start seriously thinking about making another record until fall 2023.
“By that time I had written ‘In a Post-Apocalyptic World,’ and I had written ‘Ready to Go,’” Boyd says. “So I had three and Kevin had a couple, but Kevin also had three or four in his head.”
The new album was mostly recorded earlier this year at Boyd’s home studio in Thomasville, Ga. Unlike with past albums, the band was able to take their time and make the record they wanted to make.
“We would always say, ‘We just want to make a record that sounds like us live,’ and we kind of felt like we never did that,” Boyd says. “That’s kind of what we were working for. ‘Let’s just make it raw, be direct with it, not try to go overdub crazy,’ which we didn’t.”
Star Time includes 11 Boyd-Gray originals and one cover they have been performing live for more than a
MUSIC: THE SPIN
THE RAINBOW CONNECTION
BY JAYME FOLTZ AND STEPHEN TRAGESER
NASHVILLE PRIDE FESTIVAL 2024 was a dazzling kaleidoscope of queer joy. Saturday’s lineup at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park served an eclectic mix of genres and vibes, with standout performances that turned up the heat (an impressive feat given the weather) and spread love as far as the eye could see.
In the wake of the morning’s parade, the afternoon’s Nashville Drag EXTRAvaganza and sets from artists like Denitia, queer country queen Brooke Eden kicked off her set at the Equality Main Stage with a bang. She dove headfirst into “Sunroof,” a song that perfectly encapsulates her ’90s-influenced sound. Eden’s journey to self-acceptance is the backbone of her music, and it radiated as she sang “Got No Choice” and “Left You for Me.”
The pièce de résistance was a one-two punch of covers: Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” performed with a country twist, and Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s in Love With the Boy” reimagined as a gay anthem. Eden closed with “Kids Like Us,” featuring a special appearance by fellow queer country ace Adam Mac — a modest reminder that country music belongs to everyone.
Next up, ’80s-schooled electropop diva Slayyyter stormed the main stage with energy that could light up Broadway. Fans were screaming before she even sang a note of set opener “Out of Time.” With her sunglasses on and sass turned up to 11, she declared, “I know it’s hot outside, but I hope you came to dance.” Slayyyter, who grew up near St. Louis, draws inspiration from pop icons like Lady Gaga and
decade. “Man of Constant Dread” is their take on the traditional “Man of Constant Sorrow.”
“Originally titled ‘Farewell Song,’ it is over 100 years old, and lent itself perfectly to our Dread Beat swirl of psychedelic swamp guts, pounding drums, angel harmonies and guitars, guitars, guitars,” Gray says of the song. “In my mind, it is the Rich Parks dream showcase, as he laid down multiple tracks that display his incredible virtuosity and taste.”
Lead guitarist Parks shines throughout the album.
Whether he’s supplying heavy riffage on a rocker like “Ready to Go” or tastier licks on the bluesy “Gone” or the rockabilly-inflected “Unlucky In Love,” Parks reminds us he is one of the best rock guitarists in Nashville history.
“Rich deserves a lot more credit than he gets,” Boyd says. ▼
Star Time out Friday, June 28, via Dread Beat
Madonna, and she needed no time to turn the field in front of the stage into a nonstop party.
“I’m so grateful to perform at so many Pride events this summer,” she gushed after “I Love Hollywood!” which opens her recent LP Starfucker. “I feel like my music is queer and lives in queer spaces.” She finished with “Daddy AF,” which soundtracks the opening scene in horror-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, and the crowd screamed every word.
Closing out the night was Tinashe, who brought her A game to a set that practically dared the crowd to match her freak. She is the very model of a modern multihyphenate, who sings, dances, produces tracks and directs her performances, ensuring every detail is — to quote her early hit and club staple — “2 On.”
Launching her set with “X,” Tinashe had the entire festival bouncing to a blend of old hits and newer tunes, in which woozy synths and seductive vocals become genre-busting rhythmic pop that is both innovative and captivating.
Her killer dance moves were on full display, and her recent viral hit “Nasty” kept the energy levels maxed out. As if things couldn’t get any more electrifying, she brought out performers from renowned ballroom crew Iconic House of Ebony for a surprise throw-down.
“You have no idea how amazing it is to see all of your beautiful faces in the crowd singing all the words,” Tinashe said. “It’s been such a crazy ride, especially these past few months.”
Clouds and a breeze mitigated the sticky heat just enough Sunday afternoon. Dragonflies zipped above the crowd at the Equality Main Stage while country songsmith Angie K sang her recent single “Red Dirt on Mars,” about lingering memories of what could’ve been. She followed it with her forthcoming single “Under,” whose twang and lilt are perfect for sweeping someone around the dance floor.
Down by the park’s carillon at the Rainbow
PHOTOS: JOANNA WALDEN
BROOKE EDEN
SLAYYYTER
Stage, instrumental trio Together Breakfast blasted their distinctive blend of queer math rock, focusing on gnarly and groovy instrumental pieces from their forthcoming Lunch With Your Friends, Dinner With Your Ancestors. Guitarist Marshall Biever took a moment to implore folks to practice and stand up for trans inclusivity. Next, pro baseball player turned country singer Bryan Ruby made his Nashville Pride debut. His band added rock muscle to “The Standouts,” Ruby’s 2023 duet with Ty Herndon about people who aren’t willing to tolerate discrimination, whether it’s aimed at them or not.
Back at the main stage, hard-rocking Aussie popster G Flip’s set began and ended dramatically. The first song was interrupted by a medical emergency, during which she displayed her absolute mastery of crowd control. Props are also due to the audience, who followed Flip’s instructions to stay chill while EMS personnel came to the person’s aid, and the singer bantered about falling in love with East Nashville and Busch Light. The clouds burst during closer “The Worst Person Alive,” and fans danced through the downpour.
Though the rain was short-lived, lightning in the area meant a 45-minute weather delay before Icona Pop made their entrance. Noting that they hadn’t played Nashville in 10 years, the Swedish duo gave the subs a workout with their bass-heavy dance pop, turning the field into a
club with a collection of fan-favorite bangers, remixes and their unbeatable hit “I Love It.”
It would be silly to expect anything other than a fabulous festival-closing set from Tonyand Emmy-winning icon of stage, screen and fashion Billy Porter, and he delivered in spite of the Crock-Pot-like conditions. He performed pieces from his heartfelt, disco-kissed recent LP
The Black Mona Lisa and the smash Broadway hit Kinky Boots with four dancers, whose moves he matched for much of the show.
He also ceded some of his time to local talent. A slew of Nashville drag stars took the spotlight, girl-group phenoms The Shindellas sang their inclusive bop “Reconsider,” and the great Wendy Moten — a friend of Porter’s for more than three decades — outdid herself on “You’re All I Need to Get By” and “Ain’t No Way.” Porter also called state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) to the stage, where he spoke briefly and passionately, calling out the state legislature’s agenda of restricting marginalized people’s rights. Walking around Bicentennial Mall with the sun glaring down, it feels reasonable to suggest moving Pride indoors somewhere. But celebrating in full view of the state Capitol — where so many decisions are being made lately that hurt LGBTQ communities across Tennessee for little discernible reason beyond riling up the base — is a form of protest we can’t do without. ▼
Friday, June 28 – Saturday, June 29
FAMILY PROGRAM String City
Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry
10:00 am and 11:30 am · FORD THEATER FREE
Sunday, June 30
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Kyle Frederick and Byron House
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, July 6
SONGWRITER SESSION Steve Dean and Bill Whyte NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, July 7
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Tammy Rogers King
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
WITNESS HISTORY
Thursday, July 11
SONGWRITER ROUND Luke Combs and Friends
2:30 pm · CMA THEATER SOLD OUT
Saturday, July 13
SONGWRITER SESSION Kim Richey NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, July 13 HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Sunday, July 14
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Brent Rader 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Local Kids Visit Free Plan a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum this summer! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Davidson and bordering counties are
LAST MONTH, much ado was made of the fact that George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (which is excellent, by the way) “underperformed” at the box office. Though, as of this writing, the film has almost recouped its $168 million budget, its surprisingly weak opening made for what box-office watchers deemed a “historically slow Memorial Day weekend for movie theaters.” Well, if folks aren’t heading to the movies quite as much this summer, it certainly isn’t due to a lack of quality options. In addition to Janet Planet, Yorgos Lanthimos’ black-comedy anthology Kinds of Kindness (starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe and Mar-
UNCERTAIN SUNLIGHT, LONG CHILDHOOD HOURS
Annie Baker’s Janet Planet has that summertime sadness BY CAT
ACREE
JANET PLANET is slow like summer should be — resting in the golden light of sunset at a cabin, with bugs and birds droning, a fan whirring in the corner. But before we can get to this idyll, the story opens with a clear manipulation, one that feels like it’s probably taken place many times before. From a pay phone at sleepaway camp, 11-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) calls her mother Janet (Julianne Nicholson in one of her finest performances) and threatens to kill herself if she’s not picked up. Upon leaving, Lacy is surprised to discover that some of the girls at camp are sorry to see her go — but Janet explains she’s already gotten back some of her deposit.
Janet and Lacy spend the summer of 1991 together at home in Western Massachusetts, with three other adults in their atmosphere. First is Janet’s boyfriend Wayne (Will Patton), who occupies space in ways that are initially respectful, but become imposing. Then comes Regina, played with great liveliness by Sophie Okonedo, who needs a place to stay after a breakup. By the time theater troupe leader Avi (Elias Koteas) enters for the
SPLICES
From Kinds of Kindness to A Quiet Place: Day One and a Nicole Kidman retrospective, here’s what’s happening at the movies
BY D. PATRICK RODGERS
garet Qualley, among others) will open at the Belcourt — as well as select Regal and AMC locations — this week. We weren’t able to screen Kindness ahead of our print deadline, but visit nashvillescene.com for our review. For what it’s worth, writing about the film following its Cannes premiere in May, Vanity Fair’s David Canfield called Lanthimos’ latest a “brazenly bizarre” effort “coming off of two Oscar-winning commercial successes in The Favourite and Poor Things.”
Still playing at the Belcourt this week is indie dramedy Ghostlight, which — according to our own Ken Arnold — “excels on many levels, from the way the story slowly peels back its many layers in a seamless fashion to its cast of fun and interesting supporting characters.”
Coming July 3 to both the Belcourt and select Regal locations is Maxxxine, the third and final installment in Ti West’s Mia Goth-starring X horror trilogy. We’ll have a review of that one next week, but if it’s half as good as the 2022 installment Pearl, it’ll be among the best horror releases of the year so far. The Belcourt’s 1999 retrospective winds down this week as its Celebration of Nicole Kidman series ramps up, with Eyes Wide Shut (showing June 28 and 30) bridging the divide as an installment in both
series. Also showing as part of the Kidman series are Birth, To Die For, The Others, Rabbit Hole, Cold Mountain, Dogville and Moulin Rouge! (Exclamation point the film’s, not ours.)
Meanwhile this week, A Quiet Place: Day One opens in cineplexes everywhere. The third installment in the Quiet Place series, and the first installment not directed by John Krasinski, it features Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn and Alex Wolff, and takes place at the outset of the series’ alien invasion. We’ll have a review of that one at nashvillescene.com as well. Opening at Regal Hollywood this week is Kalki 2898 AD (review of that one coming to you-know-where too), a
third act, we are weary of these outsiders and the way Janet shifts her orbit to them.
Janet Planet is the directorial debut from Annie Baker, whose play The Flick won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Heralded for its transfixing slow burn, The Flick was so glacially paced that it reportedly drove some audience members to walk out early. Janet Planet is very slow as well. (In one of the best depictions of girlhood in the film, Lacy and a new friend read The Valley of the Horses by Jean M. Auel in a mall bookstore. Together they sound out the word languorous, which feels like
Telugu-language Indian dystopian sci-fi flick directed by Nag Ashwin. The Dakota Johnson/Sean Penn two-hander Daddio comes to select Regal and AMC locations this week, while Kevin Costner’s 181-minute Western Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 lands in theaters everywhere. (Chapter 2, which clocks in at a measly 164 minutes, is set to open Aug. 16.) Bring your dad!
Still showing in the megaplexes are Furiosa, the Russell Crowe-starring The Exorcism, Thelma, Inside Out 2, Bad Boys: Ride or Die and Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, the last of which our own Logan Butts described in last week’s issue as “a familiar but immensely watchable adult drama that’s elevated by the presence of its likable stars.” Coming to theaters everywhere in early July are Despicable Me 4 (for those of us who don’t have kids, yes, there have been four of them), Hindi-language thriller Kill and the aforementioned Maxxxine. If you can’t manage to peel yourself off the couch, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F hits Netflix July 3. Or stand by until the late July sequel-splosion of Twisters (July 19) and Deadpool & Wolverine (July 26).
Better yet, head to Full Moon Cineplex in Hermitage for their June 28 repertory screening of American Psycho ▼
mower, Regina’s blasting of Laurie Anderson’s “My Eyes,” Avi’s pretentious lectures about God.
As the summer rolls on, surrealism bubbles at the edges of Lacy’s perception, giving the sense that she might have some power. The weakness of Janet Planet is that it’s both too much and not enough — its surrealism is a little too subtle, and its message is a little too obvious. (If you miss the point, there’s a section from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Fourth Elegy” — read aloud not once but twice — to spell it out for you.)
Baker saying, “Here’s the word to describe this movie, if you’re looking for one.”)
Godland cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff’s 16 mm celluloid shots shift between ordered spaciousness and extreme closeness. Everything feels precisely staged, even positions of rest. Scenes of mother and child are particularly subdued, even the late-night discussions that reveal how both characters are using each other as a mirror. (“Every moment of my life is hell,” Lacy says. “I’m actually really unhappy too,” replies Janet.) The outsiders bring the most noise: Wayne’s garbled lawn
Lacy’s coming of age is not a revelation. It’s more like a tenuous awareness of what her mother can’t show her about being a woman, in particular the importance of cultivating female community over male attention. And while Nicholson’s performance illustrates this divide beautifully — Janet is open to growth but gravitationally pulled toward old habits — Janet Planet feels a little unsure of how it wants to leave us, an attempt at ambiguity that falters. But perhaps that’s the realest part of Baker’s style of storytelling: that hollow bit of nothing at the end of childhood that sends us right back to where we started, dreaming of summer. ▼
Janet
minutes Opening Friday, June 28, at the Belcourt
Planet PG-13, 113
KINDS OF KINDNESS
EYES WIDE SHUT
1 Many a download
4 Rugby equivalent of a touchdown
7 Who said of himself, in 1912, “No one candidate was ever elected ex-president by such a large majority”
11 Quirky bit of running footwear
13 Get over a breakup, say
15 Be like-minded about
16 U.S. region with a weather pattern affectionately known as “Karl the Fog”
17 Highlands hillside
18 What a king might sit on?
20 ’80s celeb who aptly appeared on Letterman?
21 Asian capital on the Mediterranean coast
23 Colony member
24 Paul who directed “Bridesmaids”
25 Flattering verses
26 Dangerous thing to assume
28 British unit of mass
29 One hawing but not hemming?
30 Tiniest change
31 Release
32 Hairstyle worn by Janet Jackson in the 1993 film “Poetic Justice,” with a hint to entering four pairs of answers in this puzzle
34 Next
37 Concerning
38 Govt. agency with the motto “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”
41 This is the life!
42 Next
43 Name that’s an anagram of ORAL
44 Buffet dispensers
45 Texter’s “If you ask me ...”
46 “Please be our hero!”
48 Heart test inits.
49 Lay eggs, as fish
51 “Still I ___” (Maya Angelou poem)
52 What banana bread is often baked in
54 Ambassador’s aide
57 Food brand with a rabbit mascot
58 Ropes in
59 Cornerstone abbr.
60 “Doesn’t matter which”
61 Show that Cicely Tyson became the first Black woman to host in ’79 DOWN
1 Education grp.
2 Academic achievements
3 Doesn’t allow
4 Western bloc since ’93
5 Member of an Australian “mob,” colloquially
6 Strong desires
7 Section of a kid’s store, perhaps
8 Director DuVernay
9 Available, as an apartment
10 Brimming (with)
12 Gives a grilling
13 ___ James, ABC’s first Black “Bachelor”
14 Nature-centric channel, familiarly
16 Target of a heist
19 Light entertainment?
21 Amazon predator
22 Food brand with a rabbit mascot
24 Two in a row?
27 Iconic declaration from Bruce Wayne
28 Initialism before an online summary
30 ___ Maar, muse of Pablo Picasso
32 “Come” and “Don’t come,” at a craps table
33 What electrolytes contain
34 Spanish grandmother
35 Chosen to do without
36 Ends of a homemade walkietalkie
38 Swindles
39 Add evenly, as a marinade
40 Platform whose exploitation is called “jailbreaking,” for short
43 Some athletic sneakers
45 Popular brews
47 Chichi
49 Floored it
50 Disney lion voiced by Beyoncé
53 Fashionable look, in lingo
55 Color of coffee ice cream
56 Subj. for a nonnative speaker
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a newspaper pub-lished in Nashville. Joseph P. Day, Clerk K. Bass, Deputy Clerk Date: May 23, 2024
ROBERT TURNER, ATTY Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 6/6, 6/13, 6/20, 6/27/24
LEGAL NOTICE Howard C.
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 indebted-ness (“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 20240523-0038624, 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 with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust.
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. 200103160025374, Registers Of ce for D Da-vidson County, also being 394.26 feet from the South right-of-way 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 rightof-way mon-ument found; thence on
feet, or 4.90+/-
Being the same property conveyed to Plaza Mariachi, LLC by Quit Claim Deed dated January 27, 2016, from JMM II, LLC, in Instru-ment 20160128-0008246, Regis-ter’s
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, Regis-ter’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 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. 201908220084435, 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 Trus-tee 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).
Several Notice of State Tax Liens have been led by the State of Ten-nessee Department of Revenue, in-cluding: that instrument dated Au-gust 20, 2020, against JMM II, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20200901-0099044, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County; that in-strument dated August 31, 2020, against PM Realty Nashville, LLC, of record at Instrument No. 20200911-0103897, Register’s Of- ce for Davidson County; and that instrument dated October 13, 2020, against Plaza Mariachi, LLC, of rec-ord at Instrument No. 20201028-0124437, Register’s Of ce for
Da-vidson County. Timely notice has been given by the Substitute Trus-tee to the Department of Revenue, State of Tennessee, pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-1-1433(b)(1). The sale of this prop-erty will be subject to the right of the Department of Revenue, State of Tennessee, to redeem said prop-erty under the provisions of Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-1-1433(c). Substitute Trustee will make no covenant of seisin, marketability of title or warranty of title, express or implied, and will sell and convey the subject real property by Trustee’s Quitclaim Deed as Substitute Trus-tee only. This sale is subject to all matters shown on any applicable recorded Plat or Plan; any unpaid taxes and assessments (plus penalties, inter-est, and costs) which exist as a lien against said property; any restric-tive covenants, easements or set-back lines that may be applicable; any rights of redemption, equity, statutory or otherwise, not other-wise waived in the Deed of Trust, in-cluding rights of redemption of any governmental agency, state or fed-eral; and any and all prior deeds of trust, liens, dues, assessments, en-cumbrances, defects, adverse claims and other matters that may take priority over the Deed of Trust upon which this foreclosure sale is conducted or are not extinguished by this Foreclosure Sale. This sale is also subject to any matter that an inspection and accurate survey of the property might disclose.
THIS 5th day of June, 2024.
David M. Anthony, Substitute Trus-tee EXO LEGAL PLLC P.O. Box 121616 Nashville, TN 37212 david@exolegal.com
615-869-0634
NSC 6/6, 6/13, 6/20/24
SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE SALE
Default having been made in the payment of the debts and obliga-tions secured to be paid by a certain Commercial Deed of Trust, made as of January 6, 2023 by Phillip W. Bradley, a married individual (“Bor-rower”) in favor of Carl Haynes, as Trustee, for the bene t of Lineage Bank (“Original Lender”), and of record as Instrument Number 23000943, in Book 9178, Page 420 (“Deed of Trust”) in the Of ce of the Register of Deeds for Williamson County, Tennessee (the “Rec-ords”), which Deed of Trust subsequently was assigned by Original Lender to Brentwood Funding, LLC (“Bene ciary”) pursuant to that cer-tain Assignment of Deed of Trust, recorded on April 12, 2024, in Book R2366, Page 275 in the Records; and said Trustee having been re-placed by the appointment of Jo-seph R. Prochaska as Successor Trustee by Appointment of Succes-sor Trustee recorded on May 3, 2024 in Book 9470, page 97 in the Records (the “Trustee”), and the owner of the debt secured having requested the undersigned to ad-vertise and sell the property de-scribed
in and conveyed by said Deed of Trust, all of the said indebt-edness having become immediately due and payable by default in the payment of a part thereof, at the op-tion of the owner, this is to give no-tice that the undersigned will, com-mencing on July 12, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. at the main north door of the Williamson County Judicial Center, 135 4th Ave South, Franklin, Wil-liamson County, Tennessee 37064 proceed to sell at public outcry to the highest and best bidder for cash, by Trustee’s deed pursuant to the terms and conditions an-nounced at such sale, all of Trus-tee’s right, title and interest in the following described property situ-ated in Williamson County, State of Tennessee (“Real Estate”), to wit: A tract of land in the 15th Civil Dis-trict of Williamson County, Tennes-see, and described at Book 9178, page 427, in the Williamson County Register’s Of ce, and BEING the same property conveyed to Phillip W. Bradley by Trustee’s Deed from Jack F. Stringham II, of record on May 29, 2014, at Book 6192, page 879, in the Williamson County Reg-ister’s Of ce. together with any and all other property, real and personal, which constitutes the Property as that term is de ned in the Deed of Trust, but speci cally excluding any cash, accounts, deposits, escrows, re-funds reserves, impounds and other cash or cash equivalents.
Property Address: 124 Pewitt Drive, Brentwood, TN 37027 Map & Parcel No.: 11B-B-12.02 Interested Parties: B&C Hardware, Inc. Phillip Bradley Branch Banking and
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