Nashville Scene 6-9-22

JUNE 9–15, 2022 I VOLUME 41 I NUMBER 19 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

CITY LIMITS: NASHVILLE’S GROWTH PUTS PRESSURE ON COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICS PAGE 8

FOOD & DRINK: AN EXTENSIVE GUIDE TO NASHVILLE’S BEST TASTING MENUS PAGE 31

The who, what, where, when and why of Bonnaroo and CMA Fest 2022 cover_6-9-22.indd 1

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

JUNE 9, 2022

7

CITY LIMITS

Metro HR Employee Opens Personal Investigation Into Colleagues ...................7 Les Bowron filed two requests for hundreds of emails exchanged between his co-workers

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Off the Mat .................................................7 Impact Wrestling highlights a summer of wrestling’s return to The Fairgrounds Nashville

BY J.R. LIND

Nashville’s Growth Puts Pressure on Community Health Clinics .........................8 Proximity, insurance access not a given for primary care clinics at affordable housing

BY HANNAH HERNER

Pith in the Wind .........................................8

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

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the Park: The Princess Diaries, Cut Worms, Porter Flea, ‘Art of Protest’ screening and show, Juneteenth at the Tennessee State Museum, Belle and Sebastian and more

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FOOD AND DRINK A Matter of Tasting

From The Catbird Seat to The Continental, use our Nashville tasting menu chart to find the ideal option for you

BY ASHLEY BRANTLEY

35

VODKA YONIC Say It Loud

A North Nashvillian reflects on the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated — and on the cost of freedom

BY JACQUELYN COVINGTON

37

COVER STORY Festival Frenzy

In the Limelight ....................................... 10 Gryffin, J. Cole, Tool and Stevie Nicks are your Bonnaroo headliners

39

Minimal protocols at music festivals mean it’s up to fans to reduce spread

Painting the Smokies shows a complex picture of the beloved national park

Catch a kaleidoscopic array of local artists at Bonnaroo

41

Bonnaroo Bingo ...................................... 16 When you spot any of the these items, take a photo and tell us on social media ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE O’BYRNE

Smaller Stages, Major Talent ................. 19 10 CMA Fest artists you don’t want to miss outside the stadium

BY RACHEL CHOLST AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

Have You Ever Seen the Rain? ............... 21 Looking ahead at festival season’s weather trends and how to prepare for them

MUSIC

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Superchunk and Reigning Sound at Brooklyn Bowl

43 FILM

Sign of the Crimes

Crimes of the Future serves body on multiple levels

BY KELSEY BEYELER

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Considering the work done to make CMA Fest more welcoming to nonwhite and LGBTQ musicians and fans — and how much more there is to do

In After Blue, the pleasures are tactile even as the psychological dissociation is eternal

Work in Progress..................................... 23

BY LORIE LIEBIG

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ON THE COVER:

Illustration by Stephanie O’Byrne (stephanieobyrne.com)

Good Ol’ Rocky Top

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Advice King: How Do I Protect My Kids From Guns?

CULTURE

BY HANNAH HERNER

Nashville Sounds .................................... 15

The Latest Cascade Moon Release Turns the Concept of ‘Barrel Proof’ on Its Head

Spirited women light out on their own in How Strange a Season

Choose your own adventure as Bonnaroo rolls on

At Summer Festivals, COVID Comes With ...11

Clay Travis Goes Crazy During Children’s Sporting Event, Isn’t Ashamed of Himself

Save Yourself

BY SEAN KINCH AND CHAPTER 16

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER AND CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

Still-Problematic Morgan Wallen Is Among ACM’s Special Achievement Honorees

BOOKS

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Daily Breakdowns ..............................11-12

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

Tangled Up in Blue

BY JASON SHAWHAN

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RENDERING OF PROPOSED TITANS STADIUM

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THE TITANS GETTING A NEW STADIUM COULD BE A WIN In the late 1990s, under then-Mayor Phil Bredesen, the city of Nashville signed a lease with the Tennessee Titans that offered to maintain a “first-class stadium.” Fastforward to 2022, and as you can imagine, the Nissan Stadium building is showing considerable deterioration. With that understanding, the Metro Sports Authority requested an estimate for necessary upgrades from the Titans, and the team began looking at the costs of a renovation.

Under the current agreement, Nashville owns the stadium and leases it to the Titans.

The city also agrees to keep the stadium in “first-class” condition. That term is based on what peer stadiums around the country have done. In other words, you could say we’re required to keep up with the Joneses.

And then those renovation estimates came in — and ouch! Based on the Titans’ estimates, Nashville’s potential cost for renovations would be an approximate $1.8 billion through 2038. According to the report, the city would need to spend $945 million in repairs and improvements through 2026. And from 2027 through 2039, another $894 million would be necessary just to maintain the stadium. According to Titans CEO Burke Nihill, “It’s about maintaining relevance to similar facilities, not just keeping the lights on.”

Seeing the renovation numbers, it became obvious that additional options needed to be examined. To me, logic says that if we’re going to spend this kind of money, why throw it at an old stadium? It would be more financially feasible to build a whole new stadium — one that is enclosed, so we can attract larger events like the Super Bowl, maybe NCAA Final Fours, the World Cup and more.

Some estimates set the cost for a new stadium — with a dome — between $1.9 billion and $2.2 billion. And renovations to Nissan Stadium are at $1.8 billion? Incredible.

Understandably, discussions began regarding the possibility of building a new stadium, one that would have the team and not Metro paying for future maintenance and upgrades.

In a recent op-ed written for The Tennessean by Mayor John Cooper, the mayor said the city is “working on plans for a new stadium because doing nothing is not an option, and renovating the current stadium would be financially irresponsible.” He wrote that the current lease puts taxpayers “on the hook for tens of millions of dollars per year for stadium maintenance and improve-

ments.” Of course, if we did nothing, and the Titans simply ended their lease without exercising their 10-year extension to stay through 2039, then we could find ourselves without an NFL team — which would not be good for business.

According to a May edition of the Nashville Power Poll, 70 percent of respondents say they are in support of a new stadium. If it transpires, the state has committed $500 million and passed legislation allowing an increase in the hotel-motel tax. The state will also put its share of the sales tax from in-stadium purchases toward the project.

The Titans owners will throw in $700 million, leaving the city’s portion between $700 million and $1 billion.

Still, if this stadium becomes a reality, Cooper has promised us things that I believe he will stand by: that “tourists and spending around the stadium will pay for the project, not Nashville families”; that “under no circumstances will property tax or sales tax increases pay for stadium construction or future stadium maintenance or renovations”; that “the primary funding source for stadium construction will be the Titans and visitors to Nashville and the stadium campus”; that “taxpayers will be protected in the event of construction overruns.”

He is asking the team to take the financial responsibility of maintaining the stadium, taking Metro off that “hook” we mentioned earlier. He, along with the Tennessee Titans, is exploring “all stadium options that make financial sense, provide benefits to our community, and keep the Titans in Tennessee for generations to come.”

I don’t know what every person in Nashville thinks about building a new stadium, but I do know that most of us enjoy having an NFL team and the reputation of being a progressive city with music and sports that knows how to take care of its people and its visitors. If we don’t make wise decisions now, we may not always have that reputation. Nothing is decided yet, but I praise the mayor and the Titans for trying to work something out that will benefit both Nashvillians and our beloved team. Because in doing so, the final result could be that both the city and the Titans score a win.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Managing Editor Alejandro Ramirez Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Hannah Herner, J.R. Lind, Eli Motycka, William Williams, KateLynn White Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Nancy Floyd, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steven Hale, Steve Haruch, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Festival Director Olivia Britton Marketing and Promotions Manager Robin Fomusa Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Managers Richard Jacques, Deborah Laufer, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Jada Goggins, Audry Houle, Alissa Wetzel Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

CITY LIMITS

METRO HR EMPLOYEE OPENS PERSONAL INVESTIGATION INTO COLLEAGUES Les Bowron filed two requests for hundreds of

Vice Chair Calvin Smith III, a primary care doctor at Meharry Medical College — are unclear on Bowron’s motives.

“I was asked to submit my emails, and I’m happy to do so,” Smith tells the Scene.

“If everyone concentrates on their roles and does their roles in a way that helps the citizens of Nashville, and not serve their own interests, then we will all be better served.”

Initially, Bowron directed the Scene to Matt Peters, who handles communications for the Metro Public Health Department, for comment. Peters declined to comment, considering Bowron’s requests a personal matter outside the scope of Bowron’s

taking the hot tag from Ricky Morton, there was a lastminute save.

Of course, much like the metaphorical Rock ’n’ Roll Express match, we shouldn’t have been surprised. It’d take a lot to drive pro wrestling from its Nashville home.

Plenty of headlines — and plenty of speculation and concern, to boot — have been dedicated to 16-time world champion Ric Flair’s return to the squared circle as part of the Starrcast fan convention July 31. There’s plenty to question in the wisdom of the 73-year-old Flair — who has almost died more than almost anyone in wrestling — going back at it one more time after a well-remembered retirement match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXIV 14 years ago, and doing it in the town that played host to one of his greatest matches.

But of all the great art forms, professional wrestling has always been one of the most overtly capitalist. It is, after all, the most complicated method yet devised by humanity to sell T-shirts to children. And nostalgia is a force powerful enough to shake loose several extra dol-

Impact World Championship between title-holder Josh lars from those now-grown T-shirt-wearing children.

Alexander and challenger Eric Young. Young, But before Starrcast rings the bell on July who has won 14 titles in Impact/TNA, in31 at 6:05 p.m. (the five-after start time cluding two world championships (and a is nod to the old Jim Crockett PromoIMPACT women’s tag-team title for reasons that tion shows, which grew into World WRESTLING’S SLAMMIVERSARY are better left unexplained), returned to Championship Wrestling, and now you 5:30 P.M. SUNDAY, JUNE 19, Impact at Slammiversary in 2020. The know why TBS started everything at five AT THE FAIRGROUNDS return followed a stint working for Vince past in the old days), the promotion NASHVILLE McMahon in WWE, primarily on the NXT that kept the flame of wrestling alive at brand, before COVID-related cost-cutting the old Gulas barn will come back for its ended his run. premier show. Impact Wrestling (née TNA) Coincidentally, Slammiversary was exactly 90 days is bringing Slammiversary back to the building that after Young’s departure from the WWE, which came with hosted 111 of its shows in the early 21st century. The a 90-day non-compete clause. Nobody seemed to be crowds at the venue were so hot that it took just nine counting the minutes. shows before Ron “R-Truth” Killings dubbed it “The AsyYoung tells the Scene over some afternoon brews lum.” The name stuck. at TailGate’s Charlotte Pike headquarters (he’s also a The main event for June 19’s Slammiversary (more one-time TNA World Beer Drinking Championship titlenostalgia: Impact has been running its pay-per-view holder) that it’s special to come back to The Asylum. events on Saturdays for a few years but is moving to “That building is iconic in wrestling,” he says.

Sunday like the old days for this one, held 20 years to Young may have a reputation as an off-kilter, slightly the day after the first TNA show) will be a battle for the

emails exchanged between his co-workers

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

BY ELI MOTYCKA

M

etro Public Health Department human resources manager Les Bowron escalated eight months of conflict within the senior leadership of the department with two broad information requests in April and May. Bowron’s requests set up a dragnet of information: “emails, text messages, and written material” from both work and personal accounts for 10 colleagues and three members of Metro’s Board of Health.

It could take Metro months to determine and furnish hundreds of emails as requested.

Those named — including Board of Health

SPORTS

OFF THE MAT Impact Wrestling highlights a summer of wrestling’s return to The Fairgrounds Nashville

BY J.R. LIND

R

emember back in 2019 when hardcorelegend-turned-promoter Tommy Dreamer and some local talent staged what was billed as the last professional wrestling show at the Nick Gulas Sports Arena at The Fairgrounds Nashville?

We got worked.

OK, so it wasn’t entirely your fault, mark. The original plan for what is now Geodis Park put the old Breeko building in danger of demolition, but like Robert Gibson

incident. The department declined to comment on specific personnel matters, referring to Todd as “out of the office.”

As HR manager, Bowron was positioned to adjudicate the growing conflict between Kang and Todd. Bowron issued a report on Dec. 21, criticizing Kang’s comment as “inappropriate, presumptuous, and rude” and Todd’s subsequent outrage as “unbecoming.” He dismissed Todd’s civil rights claim and recommended disciplinary steps for both, including coaching for Kang to “narrow rather than expand the divisions that exist in our Department and community.”

Kang raised concerns with the report in January — specifically, she claims, its omissions and reframing of key details.

“The inadequate treatment of employee concerns is symptomatic of a greater systemic and pervasive issue,” Kang wrote to the board in February. Her letter, dated Feb. 9, chronicles instances of gender-based bullying, sexism and intimidation that were invalidated or dismissed by department HR. Bowron’s records request appears to be his response, focusing on the time period from when he issued the Kang-Todd report through the board’s April 14 meeting. All of this comes a year after former Public Health Director Michael Caldwell’s very public resignation during some of the darkest days of COVID. An internal investigation substantiated allegations of bullying and gender-based discrimination

by Caldwell.

As the department tasked with healing the city struggles to have a conversation about significant social determinants of health, Tene Hamilton Franklin hopes to chart a path forward. Franklin became the first Black woman to chair the board in September, and has explicitly included equity in the scope of the Metro Public Health Department.

“I envision the department focusing on eliminating health disparities in Davidson County by developing local public health equity strategies to help create opportunities for optimal health,” Franklin tells the Scene. “This includes understanding how race, place and socioeconomic status contribute to root causes of health inequities.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

professional duties.

“You’re free to reach out to him,” Peters told the Scene. “We don’t really have any kind of comment on the matter. This doesn’t have to do with what the health department is doing.”

In a subsequent text message, Bowron offered the Scene no comment.

An initial request in April named 15 individuals including Metro health director Gill Wright, deputy director Melva Black and director of health equity Stephanie Kang. A follow-up request on May 24 narrowed Bowron’s search to communications between Kang, Black and three members of the Board of Health — board Chair Tene Hamilton Franklin, David Frederick and Smith. In both requests, Bowron asked for communications between Black, Kang and board members between Dec. 21, 2021, and April 15, 2022, including anything “destroyed or deleted” to and from both work and personal email accounts.

Bowron’s request is the latest development in an intradepartmental drama that’s played out since the fall. After a jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse — who fatally shot two people and wounded a third during 2020 protests over the police killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. — public information officer Brian Todd took issue with a department-wide memo drafted by Kang and approved by Wright calling the verdict an injustice. Rittenhouse remains a rightwing emblem of vigilantism and pro-police sentiments. The memo became a flashpoint about the departmental mission and the scope of public health, prompting debate as to whether white employees could handle explicit conversations about race — one of the leading social determinants of health.

Subsequent actions, reactions, complaints and statements embroiled much of the department’s senior leadership and board members through the winter and spring.

Behind closed doors, Todd blew up at Kang when she referred to him as either a “white man in power” or a “white man in leadership,” according to sources.

Todd claimed protection under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and filed a complaint with Wright in late November. Todd was unavailable for comment for this story — colleagues mentioned that he is on leave from his position for a separate behavioral

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS demented figure between the ropes. That is, in the parlance, kayfabe, because Jeremy Fritz (that would be his shoot name) is a thoughtful student of the history of his profession. These days, he says, most of the wrestling he watches is “Mid-Atlantic Wrestling from 1982,” as the Jim Crockett-run promotion also televised and ran shows in Fritz’s native Ontario during his preteen years.

That isn’t to say he doesn’t have appreciation for his fellow workers in the modern game, many of whom made their bones in The Asylum. A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe, both of whom have at times had claims as being the best wrestler in the world, had plenty of legendary matches at The Asylum in the early 2000s. All-time legends Kurt Angle, Sting, and Matt and Jeff Hardy, along with Flair, all had turns at TNA. Wrestlers like Christopher Daniels, Moose, James Storm and Young himself became legends in the promotion, though — for whatever Vince McMahon-conjured reason — never grabbing the bigger attention that WWE would generate.

Young made his name in those early days by being willing to take crazy bumps. Having experience putting together ladder matches led to that gimmick being a common go-to for him in his 20s. He remembers a four-way ladder match involving Jerry Lynn, Mr. Aguila and Taichi Ishikari as particularly well done. He may not remember how significant that match was: It was his first singles win in TNA. Young, along with fellow Canadians Bobby Roode and Petey Williams, had signed a four-show deal with TNA while at the same time working tryout matches for McMahon. TNA made the trio an offer, and within weeks they had coalesced into a stable called Team Canada, complete with red-maple-leaf-adorned gear and sneering antipathy for their American fans.

The gimmick, as they say, got over, and Team Canada as a group and its individual members became TNA and Impact mainstays. In 2016, Roode left for the WWE, where he remains. Williams left TNA to work independent promotions in 2009, returned to Impact in 2017 and is now a producer for WWE. Young, like Roode, left Impact in 2016 and, as the leader of the villainous Sanity, won an NXT Tag Title, but could never get momentum on the main roster. (Longtime observers will note that Vince McMahon has never figured out how to handle tag teams appropriately, much to the chagrin of fans from the South, where tag matches were historically main events.)

The pandemic brought him back to Impact, where he — like the rest of the wrestling world (and the world in general, really) — had to figure out how to navigate a locked-down world.

“It’s weird,” Young says, “wrestling in front of nobody.”

Indeed. For as much work as the performers put in and as much as television has changed wrestling in the past 60 years, there is a certain role in the storytelling the live crowd plays. There have been iconic empty-arena matches, to be sure (Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk at Memphis’ Mid-South Coliseum in 1981, for example), but those should be the (very rare) exception, instead of how the business had to operate for a year.

But crowds are back now. Impact, in general, films its weekly shows at a Florida studio, in front of an audience.

Those old crowds from The Asylum are what Young misses. Of all the places he’s wrestled — and he’s wrestled at plenty, including some of the world’s most famous arenas during his WWE stint — he says the old Nick Gulas Sports Arena in Nashville is his favorite. As an Impact longtimer, he knows the crowds will be as heated and as knowledgeable as they were the first time he stepped into the ring there in 2003.

And if this summer proves to be the extended swan song of wrestling at the fairgrounds, it’s a good way to go out. But as the Nature Boy is proving, retirements in wrestling are rarely permanent.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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NASHVILLE’S GROWTH PUTS PRESSURE ON COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICS Proximity, insurance access not a given for primary care clinics at affordable housing facilities

BY HANNAH HERNER

N

eighborhood health clinics serving the neediest Nashvillians are struggling to remain in place as the neighborhoods they serve grow and change.

In September 2020, the clinic at Mercury Court quietly closed after eight years open. The building, constructed in the 1960s, was beyond repair, according to April Kapu. Kapu is associate dean for clinical and community partnerships for Vanderbilt School of Nursing, which managed and staffed the clinic. Urban Housing Solutions, which owns the attached complex, also broke ground to start redevelopment in March.

One-hundred-sixty units will soon become nearly 400 units of different income levels, from residents making 40 percent of area median income to those making 80 percent. A new clinic wouldn’t be in the cards until the second phase of development, slated to begin mid-2025, says Kelsey Oesmann, director of design and development at Urban Housing Solutions.

Vanderbilt’s solution to the clinic’s closure was to get patients acclimated to using telehealth instead, or to instead visit its West End location across town, Kapu says.

More recently, Vanderbilt School of Nursing partnered with Urban Housing again on a new primary care clinic, connected to the 26th and Clarksville development. But the new North Nashville Primary Care Clinic does not accept adults on TennCare or those who are uninsured — which is the case with many of the people who live nearby, says Oesmann.

“A lot of our folks across the board are either uninsured or underinsured,” Oesmann says. “A lot of folks rely on Medicare, Medicaid and TennCare. We do have a fair number of tenants employed full time and may be getting health care through their employer. But it’s definitely not the majority of our folks.”

Kapu says the clinic has started the process to become TennCare certified at that location, but the organization would have to raise money to accept any indigent population. According to its website, Vanderbilt requires preauthorization for patients on TennCare seeking primary care.

“Our hope is that we will very soon be able to see all patients, whether they’re insured on TennCare, or any type of patient we can see there at that clinic,” Kapu says.

“In terms of access to care of people who hadn’t seen a health care provider in years, maybe that’s because they didn’t have time to take off work, they didn’t have transportation, they couldn’t afford it, maybe it was something like they just didn’t trust that the health care system would work for them or their needs,” she continues. “That’s why it’s so important to make sure that you’re putting health care in the community where the patient is.”

Growing pains displaced another community clinic that has yet to reopen.

The Neighborhood Health clinic at the Nashville Rescue Mission on Lafayette Street closed in April 2020 so the space could be used as a quarantine facility.

According to Neighborhood Health CEO Brian Haile, the organization opted to keep the clinic closed due to staffing concerns and additional COVID-19 regulations around dental care. Now it cannot reopen, because since September 2021 the Nashville Rescue Mission has been using it as dorm space, while women’s campus guests stay on the main campus. The Nashville Rescue Mission’s new women’s campus started construction in the fall and is slated to finish in late 2023.

Community overhaul could also disturb Neighborhood Health’s clinic at Cayce Place, which has been in operation there since 1976. The Envision Cayce redevelopment plans for the neighborhood, led by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, show a park in the clinic’s current location, though Haile says they’re working with MDHA to find a nearby location to rebuild. Funding for a new Neighborhood Health location in Cayce is in flux as well.

MDHA has confirmed that they’re working with Neighborhood Health to find a new location, though did not share a timeline for such a move.

As a federally qualified health center, Neighborhood Health has to present a plan to maintain access to the clinic without an interruption in service. The organization accepts commercial insurance as well as adult TennCare, and has a sliding scale for those without insurance. Only about 1 in 5 patients is on commercial insurance at Neighborhood Health, Haile says.

“Proximity is everything,” says Haile.

“Proximity equals access. What you find is that we’re trying to locate and situate our clinics in spaces in the middle of or adjacent to areas where underserved populations are going to be concentrated.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Monday saying he will enhance school safety.

The action follows last month’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, as well as a shooting at a graduation ceremony in Murfreesboro that left one dead and another injured. The order directs coordination between schools and the police and fire departments, but doesn’t address gun laws. Last year, the governor worked to pass a law eliminating handgun permit requirements. …

Texas-based real estate developer Cypress Real Estate Advisors and local nonprofit organizations including The Equity Alliance, Stand Up Nashville and Nashville Organized for Action and Hope have reached an “impasse” in negotiations over a proposed community benefits agreement related to CREA’s planned redevelopment of the RiverChase Apartments site in East Nashville. SUN representatives say in a release that the sticking point was qualifications for the affordable housing units to be included in the new project. Despite CREA and the nonprofit organizations failing to reach an agreement, the firm is still committing to build 220 units of affordable housing within the proposed 1,150unit community and agreeing to various other community benefits, including green space. …

Following Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey’s departure at the end of May, Gov. Lee has appointed Morgan McDonald to serve as interim leader of the department until a permanent commissioner is named. McDonald joined the Department of Health in 2015 after working as an assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina. … Davidson County Chancellor Russell Perkins ruled late last week that the Tennessee Republican Party violated open meetings laws when it voted to remove candidate Robby Starbuck from the GOP primary in the 5th Congressional District, and that Starbuck’s name should be added back to the primary ballot. Starbuck was one of three Republican candidates removed from the primary because GOP leaders determined they were not “bona fide” Republicans. Previous legal efforts to reverse the decision have been unsuccessful. … Church leaders who stand by while children are harmed aren’t Christians but frauds and con artists, writes contributor Betsy Phillips. “If Southern Baptist leaders, and Catholic leaders before them, and all the rest of you who are coming next, believe that Jesus speaks the truth, then you would know that you are fundamentally betraying your followers and God, and you would — at the least — step down.

If you’re standing by while you know children are being harmed, either start taking your Christian beliefs as seriously as you claim you do, or stop bemoaning the fact that people are fleeing from the church.” … A couple weeks back, the worst person you know’s favorite radio host, Clay Travis, got the old heave-ho at his kid’s baseball game. Then he went on the radio and doubled down over it.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

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T I S VAL E F NA

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W H Y O F B O N N A RO O A N D C M A F E ST 2

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Back in 2020, the two major music festivals that have marked the arrival of summer in Tennessee for decades — five decades in the case of CMA Fest (née Fan Fair), and two decades for Bonnaroo — were canceled, thanks to the pandemic. Rising COVID case numbers led to the cancellation of CMA Fest again in 2021, and torrential rains from Hurricane Ida canceled Bonnaroo that year as well.

Finally, with any luck, the jam-packed events are back on for 2022: CMA Fest takes over downtown Nashville from June 9 through 12, and Bonnaroo pops up at The Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester June 16 through 19.

In our cover package, we look at how the CMA has responded to the long-standing issues of systemic racism that became a major part of the national conversation in 2020, and what more the organization needs to do. We also talk with experts about how weather can affect festival season, as well as about how to protect yourself in a postlockdown world in which the pandemic remains ongoing. And, of course, we’ve got lots of recommendations for artists to see at both fests. Dig in.

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PHOTO: BRITTON STRICKLAND

BONNAROO

O, WHAT, WHERE, W H W E HE TH

FRENZ Y

IN THE LIMELIGHT

League and the Canadian Elite Basketball League to his 2021 solo album The OffSeason (which includes feature appearances from 21 Savage among others) and the recent D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, which features tons of Dreamville friends and family. Whether or not any of them join him for his headline slot on Friday (11 p.m. on What Stage), he’s got plenty of strengths to draw on.

Gryffin, J. Cole, Tool and Stevie Nicks are your Bonnaroo headliners

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

GRYFFIN

You could argue that there’s technically not a Thursday headliner at Bonnaroo, since the big stages never open until Night 2 anyhow. But California-raised and Las Vegasresiding electronic producer Gryffin fits that headliner role nicely. He’s bringing his upbeat, melodic, house-inspired tracks to dance-centric stage The Other at peak party time, from 11:45 p.m. to 1 a.m.

J. COLE

North Carolina-raised rapper and Dreamville collective founder J. Cole is renowned for his natural storytelling skill and will-

J. COLE

ingness to open up about his feelings in his bars. As heard on records like 2014 Forest Hills Drive and during his 2016 appearance at Bonnaroo, he’s masterful. Occasionally, he’s been known to get a little self-serious; take for example bruised-ego tracks like “Snow on tha Bluff.” But in the past couple of years, the mayor of Dreamville has been working on many team-oriented projects, from going pro in the Basketball Africa

TOOL

Aural heft and brute force are important parts of what draws you into metal, but rarely are they the only things that make it good. Thus, Tool — a group of brainy dudes from L.A. who seem to appreciate goofy humor as much as they love weird time signatures, low tunings, modal melodies and the existential musings of late comic Bill Hicks — has remained one of heavy music’s artistic touchstones for three decades. And that’s in spite of releasing just five albums in that time. Tool is the only headliner who’s remained on the Bonnaroo bill through cancellations in both 2020 and 2021. Their set,

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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11 p.m. at What Stage on Saturday, will be a second Midstate appearance after the 2019 release of their LP Fear Inoculum, their first album since 2006’s 10,000 Days. If fan-shot videos of their current tour are anything to go on, expect the show to be loud as hell and feature state-of-the-art visuals.

STEVIE NICKS

THURSDAY

On its first day back in action, Bonnaroo promises stellar rock, soul, jazz and much more

PHOTO: BRITTON STRICKLAND

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN Three full years and two false starts since Bonnaroo’s last installment — thanks, COVID and Hurricane Ida — the ’Roo faithful are, at last, set to descend upon the farm this weekend. How it all plays out remains to be seen, but promises to be interesting. This’ll be my fifth trip to Manchester, so while I may not yet be a seasoned vet, I’m no novice either — and can say with confidence that Thursday and Friday are ideal days for discovering new acts in comfortable environs before everything speeds up and gets wild.

On Thursday, the main stages (What and Which) have yet to open. The grounds are pristine, lines are short, and everyone is wide-eyed and excited. Neo-soul lovers can beat the heat with party-starting Seattle septet The Dip (4:30 p.m., This Tent), supporting the band’s Dualtone debut Sticking With It. For early-arriving rock types, Nothing (4:30 p.m., That Tent) is essential. Led by the charismatic, outspoken Dominic Palermo, the Philadelphians provide a tuneful spin on grungy, shoegazey ’90s traditions that consistently hits the mark. In 2020, Nothing leveled up with its fourth LP The Great Dismal. Thoughtfully heavy and crazily catchy, it was among that lost year’s finest records of its kind.

Asheville, N.C.’s Indigo de Souza (9:15 p.m., That Tent) made a major impression with her passionate 2021 Saddle Creek album Any Shape You Take — an apt title for the sonically varied, ultra-dynamic 12-song collection. Over in Centeroo, near the craft beer and coffee tents, Garcia Peoples (10:15 p.m., Who Stage) will attempt to lure in

THE DIP

INDIGO DE SOUZA

passers-by with kaleidoscopic psych-rock heroics inspired by, but not indebted to, the Grateful Dead. Originals from the New Jersey sextet’s latest, the stellar Dodging Dues, promise to electrify.

Sons of Kemet (11 p.m., That Tent) are the main jam of 38-year-old sax guru Shabaka Hutchings — also one-third of 2018 ’Roo alums The Comet Is Coming, and leader of his own ensemble The Ancestors. A meeting of the minds between Hutchings, tuba virtuoso Theon Cross and a pair of drummers, Sons express righteous anger in stirring, powerful fashion on their recordings — 2021’s Black to the Future, on Impulse!, is their latest — but the quartet’s scorching live sets are the stuff of legend.

AT SUMMER FESTIVALS, COVID COMES WITH Minimal protocols at music festivals mean it’s up to fans to reduce spread

BY HANNAH HERNER

BONNAROO

Though there have been deviations in recent years, it’s common for a so-called legacy artist to finish out Bonnaroo in the Sunday night headlining slot. This year, that tradition comes back with Stevie Nicks (9:30 p.m. on What Stage), who has one hell of a legacy to celebrate. She played a major

role in cementing Fleetwood Mac’s place in the rock ’n’ roll pantheon, which is a life’s work on its own. Nicks’ solo records have only furthered her reputation as one of the most influential musicians of the past halfcentury, in terms of singing, songwriting and — not inconsequentially — fashion. You might know a guitarist in a cover band who learned to palm mute so they could play “Edge of Seventeen,” from Nicks’ 1981 solo debut Bella Donna; you’ve heard the Nickspenned Mac tracks “Dreams” and “Rhiannon” on classic-rock radio a hundred times if you’ve heard them once. Come to her set for the obvious hits, stay for the multitude of gems in her catalog that have yet to attain the same popularity. ■

PHOTO: BRITTON STRICKLAND

Y

We’re not out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID-19, and while venues are open and tours and festivals are happening, the pandemic is still affecting the music world. Throughout the spring, artists — including Mitski, Haim and Lucinda Williams — have had to postpone or cancel shows, or change lineups because of coronavirus outbreaks among their touring parties.

Experts say that when fans attend festivals this summer, even if they’re outside, COVID-19 comes with.

Regarding the two area festivals coming up, CMA Fest (June 9-12) has forgone any COVID-19 protocols or suggestions. Its event policy says, “Entry into the Event is voluntary and may involve certain risks, such as personal injury, damage to physical or intellectual property, data loss, and exposure to communicable diseases such as COVID-19.” Bonnaroo (June 16-19) does not have any health-related entry requirements either, yet encourages attendees to test before arriving and wear a mask if unvaccinated. The fest also offers a ticket refund for those who test positive within five days before the festival. “By attending Bonnaroo, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19,” the festival’s website reads.

In Davidson County, both reported cases and percentage of positive tests have been on a steady incline again after a spike in January and a low in early March, and hospitalizations have risen slightly in recent weeks.

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, says being outside does reduce the risk of infection substantially. But at festivals, when fans crowd together toward the stage and sing along, the risk ticks up again. Schaffner is also leery of the spaces that often accompany a festival, such as shuttles, hotels, restaurants and bars.

He recommends thinking of COVID-19 vaccines as three-dose vaccines — in other words, you need at least your initial two doses and booster to consider it effective. However, Omicron and its subvariants are very contagious, and can even infect people who are up to date on their vaccinations.

“The vaccines are keeping you out of the hospital, but [COVID variants] can still spread,” Schaffner explains. “And if they can spread to you and give you a bad cold, you can spread it to others.”

And if Omicron makes it to people who are immunocompromised, some will be hospitalized. Compared to last year, more people are now vaccinated and more have experience with natural infection of Omicron. But Omicron itself accounts for more than 90 percent of COVID cases, and is much more contagious than Delta at this time last year, Schaffner adds.

“Wearing a mask — particularly one of the N95 or KN95 masks — will somewhat reduce your risk,” says Schaffner. “Although, if you’re in a large group and everybody’s singing and shouting and having a good time, those activities can overwhelm your mask, because masks are not perfect.”

Whether or not to attend big gatherings is something those who are in a high-risk group should be thinking hard about, he continues. Festivalgoers should exercise caution regarding who they are around in the days following the event to thwart possibly spreading the virus to someone who is immunocompromised.

“When you attend these events, you can be sure that Omicron is attending with you. It will be there. People will bring it, and there will be some transmission in these circumstances. … I hope people have fun and keep their risk to a minimum, but there will be some spread, I’m afraid.” ■

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FRIDAY

his understated and powerful flow (6:45 p.m., What Stage). Based on reviews of Savage’s show at Coachella, he’ll be a major contender for the most memorable rap set of the weekend. You can say the same for high-energy Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe (8:30 p.m., That Tent), who recently released a massive and enveloping live album and concert film from his MonuMINTal tour.

Once Tool’s headlining set is over, you can wade into the barrage of gleeful costumed party people for the field rave that’s likely to sprout organically around Australian DJ Flume (12:30 a.m., Which Stage). If you prefer it when things get a little weirder, you’ve got the chaos of hyperpop duo 100 gecs (12:30 a.m., That Tent) — for my fellow elder millennials, think of Girl Talk mashups played back at twice the normal speed and you’re getting in the ballpark — or internet-famous absurdist improviser and crooner Marc Rebillet (1 a.m., This Tent). And if something tried-and-true is more your speed, swing by Plaza 7: ROOm of Rhythm on your way back to camp for Austin, Texas, ’60s-schooled soul band Tomar and the FCs; they play both Friday and Saturday night starting at 12:30 a.m.

As Bonnaroo rolls on, choose your own adventure among R&B, forward-looking pop, triumphant country and more

BONNAROO

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN Acts to watch on Day 2 of Bonnaroo include a triad of groups who are each touring behind their third LPs. Fronted

by Israeli-born six-stringer Ori Naftaly, Memphis R&B ensemble Southern Avenue (1:15 p.m., That Tent) performs songs from last year’s Be the Love You Want, released via the revived Stax Records. Four years back, The Regrettes (5:30 p.m., This Tent) thoroughly rocked the tiny Who Stage. The jury’s out on frontwoman Lydia Night and her cohorts’ big-budget, dance-pop-kissed Further Joy, but the band’s supercharged live shows — high-energy expressions of teenage joy and heartbreak — remain its bedrock. Fellow 2018 ’Roo alums Japanese Breakfast (6:30 p.m., That Tent) easily cleared the third-album hurdle with 2021’s Jubilee, which gracefully bridged bandleader-composer Michelle Zauner’s indie roots and future pop ambitions.

As folks on the come-up go, it’s hard to beat Massachusetts-based songsmith Izzy Heltai (Who Stage, 5:15 p.m.) and his lucid, introspective, heartfelt rock. Regular WNXP listeners are certain to recognize the introspective “Hope” from Collapsed in Sunbeams by English soul-pop phenom Arlo Parks (7:30 p.m., This Tent) — from its simple yet profound refrain: “You’re not alone / Like you think you are.” Back in September, the 21-year-old Parks joined Portishead, Dizzee Rascal and Badly Drawn Boy on the list of artists to take home the prestigious Mercury Prize with their debut albums.

Not much about The War on Drugs (7:45 p.m., Which Stage) has changed since the band graced the same stage in 2015 — and for fans of the Philly indie-dad-rockers’ soft-focus-Springsteen sound, that’s A-OK. They’ll play opposite The Chicks (8:45 p.m., What Stage), influential country-pop survivors. Dropping the “Dixie” from their moniker, the trio made a bold return with 2020’s Jack Antonoff-helmed Gaslighter, a resounding affirmation of The Chicks’ gift for balancing the personal and political. It’s a pity Antonoff’s own group Bleachers will be playing simultaneously at That Tent. The possibility of Sunday night headliner Stevie Nicks stopping by to sing Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” remains in play, however — here’s hoping.

Beyond Friday headliner J. Cole, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure free-for-all.

Want off-kilter, Gen-Z indie confessionals?

Check out Still Woozy (9:30 p.m., This Tent).

Looking for edgy Americana? Try Lord Huron (10 p.m., Which Stage). Hectic psych freakouts more your speed? King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard can help you with that (11:30 p.m., That Tent). Ready for some reverie-inducing deep house? Disclosure is your move (11:40 p.m., The Other). Up late, and looking to stay up later? Sunshine State hip-hop sensation and Bonnaroo secondtimer Denzel Curry has you covered (1:45 a.m., That Tent).

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JAPANESE BREAKFAST

BLEACHERS

SUNDAY

Bonnaroo heads toward the finish with superlative dance music, outstanding rap and more

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

CHVRCHES

SATURDAY

On the third day of Bonnaroo, check out top-notch hiphop, stellar pop and more

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER If you’re on the farm for the whole ’Roo weekend, you’re going to want to pace yourself on Day 3. The good news is that while there’s a set worth seeing just about any time of day, most of our top picks don’t start until midafternoon. Nashville’s own Joy Oladokun has been headlining clubs across the country this spring behind her outstanding, heartfelt folk-pop opus In Defense of My Own Happiness, and her set is a great way to start your day (3:15 p.m., That Tent). If that’s your move, Femi Kuti and

the Positive Force — the politically outspoken Afrobeat ensemble led by the eldest son of the late, great Fela Kuti — will be a great follow-up (4 p.m., Which Stage).

If you’ve missed out on past guest-laden Superjams because they conflicted with your late-night plans (either partying or sleeping), you’re in luck this year, as Superjam: Jack Antonoff’s 1984 is happening during prime time (6:30 p.m., This Tent).

For a little more electronically enhanced pop: Last summer, Scottish band CHVRCHES returned with their fourth album Screen Violence, and they’ll also be back at Bonnaroo on Saturday (8 p.m., Which Stage).

One of the biggest hip-hop stars of the weekend who is not J. Cole also visits Bonnaroo on Saturday: U.K.-born and Atlanta-raised 21 Savage will be here with

Once you’re rested up and hydrated, it’s time for the homestretch of Bonnaroo 2022.

DJs and electronic producers of various stripes will keep the beat moving from the stage at The Other throughout the weekend, but there’s a handful of notable acts snuck into the Sunday lineup. A Hundred Drums (2 p.m.) brings instrumentals that lean toward the cerebral, atmospheric and even a little ominous, while Dombresky (5:45 p.m.) offers up extremely kinetic and danceable tracks that draw a lot from house, while Canadian champion Rezz (8:30 p.m.) has a knack for contemporary EDM styles and immersive visuals.

Spiky-haired and sleeve-tatted Machine Gun Kelly (7:15 p.m., What Stage) blends emo, rap, pop punk and dance pop in ways that not everyone is going to be into; Kelly does at least have one big fan in Sir Mick Jagger.

Philly-born master of multiple media Tierra Whack (5:45 p.m. This Tent) heads to the ’Roo in the wake of a trio of fantastic EPs that point to the multitudes she contains — Rap?, Pop? and R&B? — while Compton-born MC Roddy Ricch (8:30 p.m., Which Stage) rolls in following his nuanced, many-layered new record called Live Life Fast.

You’ve got opportunities to see various flavors of funk and R&B. Respectively, note Lettuce (4 p.m., This Tent) and Tinashe (5 p.m., That Tent). For a dose of multifaceted, ever-evolving weirdness, there’s a rare-inour-area set from Tool side project Puscifer (6:30 p.m., Which Stage). Absolute legend Stevie Nicks closes the whole fest out on the main stage, of course, but before we get there, there’s one more GOAT among GOATs to catch: Jazz keyboardist and continual pusher of boundaries Herbie Hancock will hold court at This Tent at 7:45 p.m. ■

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SEE ART IN A NEW LIGHT. Through fifty objects ranging from small sculptures to experiential environments, this visually alluring exhibition explores how the proper ties of light and space as well as highly polished surfaces can themselves be mediums for art. We invite you to be absorbed by this captivating experience and rethink what art can be.

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Doug Wheeler. Untitled (Light Encasement), 1968. Adapted neon and sheet acrylic, 96 × 96 in., installation: 20 × 20 ft. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds

15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Council in honor of the museum’s 40th anniversary, © Doug Wheeler. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

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NASHVILLE SOUNDS

Catch a kaleidoscopic array of local artists at Bonnaroo

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

BONNAROO

After my very first Bonnaroo, back in the dark ages of 2004, I came away thinking there were two things I would change: I would not practice trying to hold my liquor in 90-degree heat, and I would add more locals to the lineup. The first was easy enough to manage on my own; the second the organizers of the fest did for me. Over the years, a kaleidoscopic array of local musicians have played every stage at Bonnaroo, and the tradition continues this year.

On the main What Stage, see Robert BILLY STRINGS Plant and Alison Krauss, who play at 6:45 p.m. on Friday in celebration of Raise the Roof, the 2021 follow-up to their rich 2007 pan-Americana collaboration Raising Sand. Masterful bluegrass and jam-rock songwriter and guitarist Billy Strings takes his own turn on the What Stage Saturday at 8:45 p.m., while dance-pop-schooled rockers COIN strut their stuff there on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Masterful Chattanooga-born rapper Isaiah Rashad moved out to Los Angeles back when he signed with Top Dawg Entertainment, but he spent some formative time in Music City. He released his long-awaited The House Is Burning last year, and he’ll SIERRA FERRELL play Which Stage at 5:45 p.m. on Friday.

Also taking Which Stage that day: country and rock songsmith and podcaster Maggie Rose, who is on at 2:15 p.m.

Across the tent stages, there’s a broad variety of Nashville-based Americana, country and pop ’n’ rock. Look out for The Brook and the Bluff (9:45 p.m. Thursday, This Tent), Briston Maroney (3 p.m. Friday, That Tent), Patrick Droney (1:30 p.m. Saturday, That Tent) and Judah & the Lion (9 p.m.

Saturday This Tent). Songsmith Sierra Ferrell (1:30 p.m. Sunday, That Tent) draws on a huge variety of styles, from calypso to BREN JOY Eastern European jazz to string-band music and beyond, while Bonnaroo veterans All Them Witches (3:15 p.m. Sunday, That Tent) have an overflowing cornucopia of heavy psychedelia.

Catch many of the folks on the smaller stages, and you’ll expect to see them on a much bigger platform next time. On the Who stage, don’t miss out on R&B crooner Bren Joy (9 p.m. Thursday), singersongwriter extraordinaire Michaela Anne (2:45 p.m. Friday), pop rockers Frances Cone (2:15 p.m. Saturday), guitarist and purveyor of cosmic American tunes Daniel Donato (4:45 p.m. Saturday), songsmith MAGGIE ROSE and Joy Oladokun tourmate Bre Kennedy (7:15 p.m. Saturday), rising pop-country picker Robyn Ottolini (3:15 p.m. Sunday) and popster corook (5:45 p.m. Sunday).

There are many more locals sprinkled around, especially if you venture out to the stages dotting the campgrounds. Dámelo, which is a “womxn, femme identifying, non-binary, queer, BIPOC DJ collective,” has two sets on the docket (8 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Sunday at The Beyond), as do the vinyl-centric disco heads at Sparkle City Disco (10:15 p.m. Friday at Who Stage, 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Where In the Woods).

Meanwhile, Plaza 5: Galactic Giddy Up has the country-centric offerings you might expect from the name. The lineup includes learning sessions with Urban Cowboy Line Dancing (latenight and afternoon sessions daily) and performances from swingin’ country cover outfit Mark Thornton and the Sidekicks on the back of their flatbed Nashville Show Truck (midday sessions daily). There are also sets from performers you might expect to see at CMA Fest, like local Tenille Townes (5 p.m. Saturday) and Nashville-frequenting out-of-town aces Paul Cauthen (9:30 p.m. Thursday) and Vincent Neil Emerson (5:30 p.m. Sunday). ■

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7:30 pm · CMA THEATER

Friday, June 10

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CONCERT AND CONVERSATION

LIVE IN CONCERT

Colbie Caillat

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8:00 pm · CMA THEATER Friday, June 17 HATCH SHOW PRINT

Featuring Priscilla Block, Ashland Craft, Miko Marks, Lily Rose, and Hailey Whitters

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Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18

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Caitlyn Smith NOON · FORD THEATER

LIVE ON STAGE

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Sunday, June 12 MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

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PLAY ALONG! When you spot any of the items below, take a photo and tell us on social media. Don’t forget to tag it with the hashtag #BonnarooBingo and our handle, @NashvilleScene.

Illustration by Stephanie O’Byrne

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JUNE 10

JULY 25

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B E M I D N I G H T. B E C R A Z Y.

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6/3/22 10:49 AM

SMALLER STAGES, MAJOR TALENT Ten CMA Fest artists you don’t want to miss outside the stadium

Shane’s voice makes them even more resonant. STEPHEN TRAGESER

KIDD G

FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 11:45 A.M., DR. PEPPER AMP STAGE Like so many of his peers, 19-year-old Jonathan Gabriel Horne — raised in rural Georgia and known to his fans on TikTok and elsewhere as Kidd G — has both country music and hip-hop embedded in his musical DNA. Producer and songwriter Bonnie Dymond has likened the delivery he’s capable of to late emo rapper Juice WRLD with a country twang. After Kidd G’s summer headlining tour, which will begin with his appearance at CMA Fest, he could narrow his focus to one of those styles, in order to build his career in a more traditional way. But now that artists like Lil Nas X, Breland and Blanco Brown have laid a foundation, he doesn’t necessarily have to.

MIKO MARKS

BY RACHEL CHOLST AND STEPHEN TRAGESER While the massive shows at Nissan Stadium are what bring many fans to CMA Fest, a panoply of smaller stages dots the cordoned-off area around Lower Broadway.

There are a couple more inside the Music City Center as well, among the booths you can visit if you buy a pass for Fan Fair X, and there will also be shows at Ascend Amphitheater. You can see dozens upon dozens of rising artists on these stages — a noticeably more diverse crop than in years past — and plenty who are worth your time to check out. Read on to learn about 10 who caught our ear and when you can see them.

Be sure to check the CMA Fest website and CMA Connect app for the most up-to-date information.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

RANDALL KING

Texas lifer Randall King gives Nashville a taste of the Old West. King, who opened for Garth Brooks’ early-pandemic virtual drive-in performance, shares Brooks’ ear for big country sounds. King’s songs are simultaneously contemplative and anthemic, focusing on the complexities of life on the range — no glorifying backroads and red Solo cups here, just treating them as a fact of life. King’s country-forward approach to country music earns him a listen from discerning ears. RACHEL CHOLST

TRISTON MAREZ

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 11:25 A.M., MAUI JIM REVERB STAGE Sometimes, when an artist catapults to success like Triston Marez, it’s hard to argue with the fans. Marez was a hit with the crowd when he won the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’s talent contest in 2014, and his profile has continued to rise. Last year’s acclaimed self-titled debut boasts a co-write with Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn — not to mention Marez’s own clever wordplay and honky-tonk-perfect pipes. Marez’s bourbonsoaked voice and honest lyrics will endear him to fans of classic country and modern Americana alike. RACHEL CHOLST

REYNA ROBERTS

ELVIE SHANE

SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 3:30 P.M., CHEVY VIBES STAGE Reyna Roberts has dedicated everything to country music, and it’s past time for country music to love her back. Roberts is the daughter of two veterans who, when faced with homelessness, paid for a storage unit for her to keep her piano and practice in.

With her trademark red hair, Roberts made a splash when Mickey Guyton retweeted her cover of Carrie Underwood’s “Drinking Alone.” Later, her single “Stompin’ Grounds” was picked up by Monday Night Football. Roberts was named one of CMT’s 2021 Next Women of Country class members, and once you see her charisma onstage, it won’t be hard to see why. RACHEL

MIKO MARKS

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 11:30 A.M., SPOTLIGHT STAGE INSIDE FAN FAIR X Miko Marks began her country career in the early 2000s, only to have it hamstrung by the racism that’s been ingrained in the industry from the very beginning — when executives decided to market country music performed by white people as “hillbilly music” and music (including country) by anyone Black as “race music.” However, Marks began to reappear on the national radar in 2021 with two phenomenal projects. First was Our Country, an album that examines the condition of the American spirit, and then came an EP called Race Records, featuring classic country and rock songs originally recorded by white artists and rendered in Marks’ supremely engaging style. STEPHEN

TRAGESER

LILY ROSE

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2 P.M., CHEVY VIBES STAGE With the viral success of her song “Villain” in 2020 on TikTok, Lily Rose represents a

CHOLST possible future for the commercial country world — one that relies less on radio and embraces diversity. Now signed jointly to Big Loud Records/Black Blocks Music and Republic Records, Rose was also a member of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2021. Her music leans toward popcountry influences, yet there’s a grit to her voice that makes the songs a bit heftier than you might expect. Rose is one of the few openly LGBTQ artists rising through the commercial country ranks, and here’s hoping that many follow. RACHEL CHOLST

ELVIE SHANE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 3 P.M., CHEVY RIVERFRONT STAGE On his 2021 debut LP Backslider, Kentuckyraised Elvie Shane doesn’t get mired in the gloss that seems to get applied to even the best songs coming from mainstream country. “County Roads” and “Sundays in the South” are uptempo tunes that reflect on growing up in the country in ways that feel honest, not focus-grouped. “My Boy,” about being a stepfather, and “Miles,” which developed from processing his relationship with his father who was a trucker, are tender in the utmost, and the growl in

JENNY TOLMAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 1 P.M., SPOTLIGHT STAGE INSIDE FAN FAIR X We’ve told you before to keep an eye out for Jenny Tolman; we recognized her album There Goes the Neighborhood as Best Country Debut in our 2019 Best of Nashville issue. And we’ll keep telling you to seek her out as long as she’s making records as insightful, witty and rocking as her follow-up LP Married in a Honky Tonk, released in March. Among the standout songs is the groovy R&B-influenced “Working Woman’s Blues,” which discusses pay inequality and other sexist social norms that encourage

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CMA FEST

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COLLIN RAYE AND THE RIFF RAFF (A SALUTE TO CLASSIC ROCK)

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6/12

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN?

Looking ahead at festival season’s weather trends and how to prepare for them

BY KELSEY BEYELER

BRITTNEY SPENCER

needs to be systemic and long-term.

women to go to great lengths and expense to impress people. STEPHEN TRAGESER

STEPHEN TRAGESER

BRITTNEY SPENCER

TY HERNDON

There are many places you might have seen or heard Brittney Spencer in the past year — opening for Jason Isbell at the Ryman, headlining her own club tour, singing with Mickey Guyton on the CMA Awards broadcast, singing the national anthem at the Kentucky Derby, appearing in For Love & Country (director Joshua Kissi’s documentary about Black country musicians), or within the Scene’s pages. If so, you know exactly why you do not want to miss her set. But if you need a reason to catch her on Sunday, take your pick: her rich, expressive voice; her incisive lyrics about the hard work of living; or her perspective on how change in the industry

Ty Herndon may be known for his offstage activism as much as he is for his music. In a 2014 interview with People, he became one of the first male country singers with an established mainstream career to come out as gay. His Concert for Love and Acceptance has become a staple of Pride Month in Nashville, though an iteration for this year hasn’t been announced yet. Herndon’s forthcoming album Jacob promises to confront the 60-year-old’s struggles with addiction and coming out in a hostile work environment. Here’s to his CMA Fest show as a triumphant assertion that Herndon and other LGBTQ artists belong in country music. RACHEL CHOLST ■

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 1:15 P.M., DR. PEPPER AMP STAGE

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2:45 P.M., CHEVY VIBES STAGE

CMA FEST

TY HERNDON

The potential for bad weather is an age-old plight for outdoor festivals. No matter how epic the lineup, how many people are going or how much they’re looking forward to it, Mother Nature doesn’t care about our plans, and she can be powerful enough to shut down the show.

Last year’s post-lockdown festival season in Middle Tennessee was an unfortunate testament to the power of extreme weather. Thanks to Hurricane Ida, Bonnaroo’s Labor Day Weekend comeback got rained out before it even started. Less than a month later, Nashville’s Pride festival experienced heavy rains that pushed back the festival schedule and prevented some musicians from playing altogether. Responding to the weather that plagued both events, Nashville’s incredible roster of music venues stepped up quickly to provide stages for artists like Leon Bridges, Brittany Howard and Salt-N-Pepa after their festival appearances were canceled because of weather. That wasn’t the first time a fest in our area has struggled with precipitation — see the 2018 rainout of Pilgrimage — but hopefully we’re not in for a repeat this year.

To learn more about how weather affects festivals and how to prepare for it, the Scene reached out to Sam Herron, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Nashville. As far as weather forecasts and predictions go, meteorologists can get a sense of general seasonal trends, says Herron, but they can’t usually predict specific weather events more than a week out.

Herron says this summer will trend “hotter than normal and maybe a little bit drier than normal, but not radically so.” Hurricane season officially began June 1, though Hurricane Agatha made landfall in Mexico on May 30 — only the third time on record that an Eastern Pacific hurricane has made landfall that early. As the season continues, Tennessee could see some tropical storms move inland again. Herron notes that tropical storms can cause strong winds and rains in Tennessee; they can also spawn tornadoes.

“Although a lot of places may have a very hot, dry summer,” he says, “it only takes one tropical type of storm to come in and really wreck some plans, like it did with Bonnaroo.”

Even though you can’t control the weather, you can prepare for it. Check the forecast in the week leading up to outdoor events and pack accordingly. If it’s going to be hot, bring layers and make sure you have plenty of sunscreen and water. If it’s going to rain, bring ponchos (or umbrellas if they’re allowed) and consider an exit strategy if necessary.

Part of preparing is being mindful of the problems that different settings can present. Most of the places where you’ll camp and see shows at The Bonnaroo Farm are in fields where there isn’t much natural protection from storms. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for shelter, and it wouldn’t be easy to leave the grounds if a storm arose. According to its website, the festival is making “improovements” to mitigate the issues that led to the cancellation last year, like planning for stormwater management and adding paved roads.

Requests for further comment didn’t receive a response by press time.

For downtown shindigs like Pride or the CMA Fest, shelter isn’t as much of a problem, but the temperature can climb more easily where there’s a lot of concrete. Whether you’re downtown or in the country, the sheer amount of people is something to consider — the bigger the event, the more difficult it can be to evacuate a crowd or reach people who need medical assistance.

“Even just normal summer heat can become extra dangerous when people aren’t maybe paying attention, they aren’t taking care of themselves, they aren’t staying hydrated,” says Herron. “Or [if] they’re just kind of pushing themselves physically and not really getting the rest and the amount of water that they need to deal with the conditions.” He also notes that other health conditions can be made worse when someone is dehydrated.

If you head out to any festival, make sure to check in with yourself and your friends throughout the day, especially if alcohol or other substances are involved. Maybe it seems like common sense, but it’s true: Wear sunscreen, hydrate, get plenty of rest and avoid being outside during the hottest points of the day if you can. Taking care of yourself not only prevents you from overdoing it and potentially missing a set you’ve been waiting to see, but it also prevents medical services from being overwhelmed and overstretched.

“Have fun,” says Herron. “But do it in a way that you’re not putting yourself at risk and not taxing the emergency services more than they need to be for those big events.” ■

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Considering the work done to make CMA Fest more welcoming to nonwhite and LGBTQ musicians and fans — and how much more there is to do

BY LORIE LIEBIG

DARIUS RUCKER PERFORMING AT CMA FEST 2017 spotlighting Black country artists working to claim their deserved space in the genre, will be the focus of a special panel featuring Breland, Blanco Brown, Shy Carter and Frankie Staton. (That’s also on the CMA Close Up Stage, at noon on Friday.) Miko Marks, Reyna Roberts, Tiera Kennedy and Willie Jones are also among the notable acts set to appear, rounding out a schedule that features more Black artists than any of the festival’s lineups from the past decade.

Although there have been improvements, there’s still a long road ahead. Rising duo Kat + Alex is one of the very few Latino acts on the bill, underlining the longstanding absence of Latino artists on country radio and festival rosters. The additions of Ty Herndon — who broke down barriers in the genre by coming out as a gay man in 2014 — and rising talent Lily Rose on this year’s schedule show that needed space is being made for members of the LGBTQ community. TJ Osborne, one-half of duo Brothers Osborne, made headlines when he came out publicly in 2021; the band was a late addition to the lineup.

If you’ve never taken a dive into the sweaty chaos of CMA Fest, it might be hard to truly understand its reach and impact.

Each day of the festival wraps with a massive concert event at Nissan Stadium, which features performances from some of the genre’s biggest acts. Portions of many of those performances this year will be included in CMA Fest, a TV special set to air on ABC affiliates in prime time on Aug. 3. The nightly showcases have given acts like Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini the opportunity to play for more than 50,000 fans, just as their careers are beginning to take off. Darius Rucker and Kane Brown were the first two Black or brown artists on the stadium lineup.

Brittney Spencer — who closed out the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards with a mind-blowing rendition of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” with Brothers Osborne, one of the most talked-about performances of the night — will sing the national anthem on Thursday. A smaller Platform Stage has been added to the center of the stadium setup, where Madeline Edwards, Frank Ray, and

the aforementioned Lily Rose and Kat + Alex (among others) will perform.

A surprising absence from the evening lineups is Mickey Guyton, whose powerful songs “Black Like Me” and “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” are prime examples of authentic country storytelling. Her choice to speak out about the racism and sexism she’s experienced throughout her career has given a face and a voice to an issue that many within the industry have tried to suppress. Her performance of “The StarSpangled Banner” at this year’s Super Bowl showcased her incredible vocal talents, while giving millions of viewers a new vision of what country music is — and what it can be.

Guyton is scheduled to appear at the Universal Music Group booth on Saturday to meet and greet fans, but currently has no performances scheduled at the festival. Although it is possible that she could be tapped as a surprise guest, choosing to intentionally keep her name off of the lineup feels like a massive missed opportunity to showcase one of the genre’s best talents.

The overwhelming whiteness of the Nissan Stadium lineup feels especially blinding now, just days after the ACM announced that Morgan Wallen will receive their Milestone Award for his achievements in ticket and album sales and radio airplay. In 2021, he was banned from both the ACM and CMA Awards ceremonies after being caught on video yelling a racial slur. In March, Wallen returned to the ACM Awards, where he won one of the top honors of the night — Album of the Year. Voting for the 2022 CMA Awards will begin next month and will give an important signal of where the organization truly stands in terms of creating a welcoming and inclusive space.

At press time, Wallen’s tour schedule is empty on three of the four festival dates, meaning it is entirely possible that he could also be scheduled as a surprise act at CMA Fest. Although unlikely, it would be a move in line with the strategy that he and his team have used often in recent months; Wallen appeared as an unannounced guest at Luke

Bryan’s Bridgestone Arena stop in July and again during Ernest’s Grand Ole Opry debut in January. These surprise appearances helped Wallen test the waters after disappearing from the public eye for a few months before scheduling three headlining dates at Bridgestone Arena earlier this year. All three concerts sold out, proving that there are still many country fans willing and eager to see Wallen onstage, no matter what that may signal for the genre as a whole.

An argument I often hear as a response to criticisms of the country music industry is that progress can take time, and to remember that even the smallest of steps toward equality should be celebrated. Yes, this year’s roster of talent does show an improvement and a wider span of representation from the Country Music Association. But there is still much more work to be done.

On June 1, news broke that 2022 is the first year that Confederate flags and imagery will be prohibited from the CMA Fest grounds. The organization’s choice to finally — albeit quietly, and following a couple of years behind NASCAR — ban a racist symbol that has been used by country artists over the decades should be celebrated. By removing an image that evokes so much pain for so many, the CMA has shown an intention to create a space that is comfortable and accessible for country fans of all kinds.

Still, the issues that often keep so many country artists from a fair shot at success have existed for decades, and continue to permeate the country music industry. Representation on the stage is meaningful, but without a lot more people of color behind the scenes, the framework for the whole industry remains warped. In 2022, the choice to create a welcoming space for all country fans — and the choice to include country acts who happen to be Black, who happen to identify as nonbinary, who happen to be Latino, who happen to be gay, who happen to be trans — should not be unique or noteworthy.

It should simply be what is expected.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CMA FEST

On Thursday, thousands of eager country fans will descend on downtown Nashville for the kickoff of CMA Fest 2022. After a two-year pause due to COVID-19, the massive four-day event returns with a packed schedule of live performances, meet-andgreets and other fan-focused events. The long-running fest, which began as Fan Fair in 1972, is marketed as a place where country listeners from all walks of life can enjoy live music and even get the chance to interact with their favorite artists, all within a unique and welcoming atmosphere. But has the Country Music Association’s vision of an inclusive, fun escape for country fans truly caught up with the times?

Over the past three years, the country music industry has been forced to face its own systemic issues with racism, sexism and inequality, though many artists and industry leaders have chosen to stay silent and stick with the status quo. Prior to 2020, the dialogue around the lack of women played on country radio, which had grown steadily since the so-called Tomatogate controversy of 2015 (in which a prominent radio consultant referred to women as the “tomatoes” to be used sparingly in the country music “salad”), was often centered on the experiences of white women. The social uprising and protests against police brutality and racism in summer 2020 — following the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and the shooting of Breonna Taylor by police, which isn’t technically a murder only because no one has been convicted — brought a long-overdue focus on the barriers Black country artists, especially Black women, have faced for decades.

As more Americans began to speak out, country music’s cultural tendency toward silence on major social issues was louder than ever. Even though the critical discussion around these issues has been more in-depth and more public than at any time in recent memory, the overall progress made within the industry has been minimal.

You might be asking, “What does all of this have to do with a country music festival?” Simply put, CMA Fest provides one of the largest, most lucrative and widestreaching platforms for country artists. A performance on one of the festival’s curated stages provides a built-in crowd that’s ready and willing to listen. If you’re an artist who isn’t white and/or heterosexual, resources and opportunities like these are still incredibly difficult to gain access to.

If you look at this year’s roster of performers, it’s clear the Country Music Association has made an effort to have a more diverse and inclusive lineup. The Black Opry will bring rising talents Roberta Lea, Tylar Bryant, The Kentucky Gentlemen and Julie Williams to the CMA Close Up Stage at 2 p.m. on Sunday. For Love & Country, the recent Amazon Music documentary

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ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL • BLACK OPRY REVUE • HAYES CARLL • JAIME WYATT • JAMES MCMURTRY THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND • JOHN FULLBRIGHT • JOSHUA RAY WALKER • KELLY WILLIS LEYLA MCCALLA • MIKO MARKS • MOLLY TUTTLE & GOLDEN HIGHWAY • NORTH MISSISSIPPI ACOUSTIC OLIVER WOOD • PO' RAMBLIN' BOYS • SHEMEKIA COPELAND • SIERRA FERRELL TOWN MOUNTAIN • WATKINS FAMILY HOUR • WILLIAM PRINCE • WILLIE WATSON

AARON RAITIERE • ALEX WILLIAMS • ALISA AMADOR • AMY SPEACE • ANDY MCKEE • BETTE SMITH BOWEN YOUNG • BRENNEN LEIGH • BRIT TAYLOR • BRUCE MOLSKY • BUFFALO NICHOLS CAROLINE SPENCE • CHARLES WESLEY GODWIN • CHUCK MEAD • CORDOVAS • CORY BRANAN DEAD HORSES • THE DESLONDES • JESSE DANIEL • JESSICA WILLIS FISHER • JIM LAUDERDALE JOE PURDY • LINDSAY LOU • MADELINE EDWARDS • MARGO CILKER • THE MCCRARY SISTERS MICHAELA ANNE • MICHIGAN RATTLERS • MINDY SMITH • NICKI BLUHM • RISSI PALMER • RIVER WHYLESS ROB ICKES AND TREY HENSLEY • SISTER SADIE • SUNNY SWEENEY • SUNNY WAR • TALL HEIGHTS TIM BAKER • TIM KELLY WITH RUSTON KELLY • TROUSDALE • THE WILD FEATHERS • WILL HOGE ABBY HAMILTON • ABRAHAM ALEXANDER • THE ABRAMS • THE ACCIDENTALS • ALI MCGUIRK ALLISON DE GROOT & TATIANA HARGREAVES • AUTUMN NICHOLAS • THE BALLROOM THIEVES • BANDITS ON THE RUN BELLA WHITE • BEN CHAPMAN • BLUE DOGS • THE BONES OF J.R. JONES • CHRISTIE LENÉE • COLIN LILLIE • CORDOVAS DAN BETTRIDGE • DAN RODRIGUEZ • DIGGING ROOTS • DRAYTON FARLEY • EARLY JAMES • EMILY KINNEY FANNY LUMSDEN • FERRIS & SYLVESTER • GABY MORENO • HANNAH JUANITA • THE HEAVY HEAVY • HENRY WAGONS JAKE BLOUNT • JAMIE LIN WILSON • JD CLAYTON • JEDD HUGHES • JONNY MORGAN • KAIA KATER • KAITLIN BUTTS KAYLA RAY • KIELY CONNELL • KINGSWOOD • KYSHONA • LADY NADE • LANEY LOU AND THE BIRD DOGS • LARRY MCCRAY LAUREN HOUSLEY • LILLI LEWIS • LISA MORALES • LULLANAS • MARK WILKINSON • MEGAN NASH • MELISSA CARPER MELODY MOKO • MEMORIAL • MICHELLE MALONE • MIKE COMPTON • MY POLITIC • MYRON ELKINS • NAT MYERS NATHAN GRAHAM • ORDINARY ELEPHANT • OSHIMA BROTHERS • PEDAL STEEL SHOWCASE WITH LUKE SCHNEIDER AND FRIENDS PETE MULLER AND THE KINDRED SOULS • RACHEL BROOKE • RAINBOW GIRLS • RASCAL MARTINEZ • RYLAND MORANZ TAMI NEILSON • TAMMY ROGERS & THOMM JUTZ • THE PINE HEARTS • THE SWEET LILLIES • THEM COULEE BOYS • THEO LAWRENCE TOMMY MCLAIN • TOMMY PRINE • TRAY WELLINGTON BAND • TROUBADOUR BLUE • THE WEEPING WILLOWS • THE WILDER BLUE

Plus Special In-the-Round Performances By:

ASHLEY RAY, GARRISON STARR, LEAH BLEVINS, ROBBY HECHT, SEAN MCCONNELL, TRISTAN BUSHMAN, WEBB WILDER & MORE

+ MORE STILL TO BE ANNOUNCED!

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

T O

D O

UNTITLED, NORMAN ZAMMITT. LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, GIFT OF WILLIAM J. AND MARILYN LASAROW, ©ESTATE OF NORMAN ZAMMITT. PHOTO ©MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/LACMA

W E E K L Y

ART

LIGHT, SPACE, SURFACE: WORKS FROM THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART

This weekend, Gallatin Avenue establishment The East Room celebrates a decade of serving as a gathering place and a sounding board for all kinds of artistic folks.

The venue has played a big role in the rise of local comedy, which will be marked on Thursday night with sets from Chad Riden, Brad Sativa, Chloë Stillwell and tons more.

Friday, it’s all about local music, featuring a full night of rappers (the trio Heru Heru, stellar MC Lord Goldie), rockers (H.A.R.D., Oginalii), popsters (Okey Dokey, Full Mood) and more. And Saturday, a special edition of much-loved goth dance party Fascination Street takes over. “Having been with them for nine of their 10 years so far, Fascination Street is one of the longest running events in the venue’s history,” writes the party’s co-founder DJ Ichabod in a note to the Scene. “So we are proud to celebrate the growth we’ve experienced together, and the role that The East Room has played in cultivating the many faces of Nashville’s true culture and thriving nightlife.” Find your way around CMA Fest traffic and get on over. 6 p.m. June 9-11 at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER BOOKS

One of the best things about making art in California is that you don’t have to worry about what people are doing, or have done, in New York. That’s one of the unspoken truisms of the Light and Space movement that came out of Southern California in the 1960s, and continues today. Light, Space, Surface, a monumental show of works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has been highly anticipated, and includes art from heavyweights Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Doug Wheeler, Judy Chicago, Bruce Nauman and Helen Pashgian, to name just a few. The works LACMA has sent to Nashville utilize industrial materials — cast resins, fiberglass, neon, spray paint — to minimize the touch of the artist’s hand. As the curatorial statement says, “they link art and technology in a cool aesthetic that echoes the emotional detachment of pop art and minimalism of the 1960s and 1970s.”

Can’t wait to get completely obsessed with this show. Through Sept. 4 at the Frist Art Museum, 919 Broadway LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

THE EAST ROOM’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

[MOSS HEART]

TN WRITERS FEAT. MARISSA R. MOSS If you haven’t already, now would be

as excellent a time as ever to pick up Her Country, the excellent debut book by local journalist, author and sometime Scene contributor Marissa R. Moss. Her Country chronicles the plight of women and POC artists trying to make it in a blatantly homogenous genre. Moss will discuss her book on Thursday at the Tennessee State Museum’s inaugural TN Writers | TN Stories event, a new series the museum plotted alongside Chapter 16 and Vanderbilt University Press. To sweeten the deal, ace fellow journalist and WNXP-FM editorial director Jewly Hight will moderate — it’s a pairing that is sure to produce a farreaching, thought-provoking conversation.

Tickets are free, though an advance reservation is recommended. 6 p.m. at the Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. BRITTNEY MCKENNA [A PRINCESS NEVER CHASES A CHICKEN]

MOVIES IN THE PARK: THE PRINCESS DIARIES

Now in its 28th year, the family-friendly Scene-sponsored Movies in the Park series takes place every Thursday in June. On June 9, for our second installment, MIP will present 2001’s Garry Marshall-directed coming-of-age flick The Princess Diaries.

The Pygmalion-esque comedy features a breakout performance from then-18-yearold Anne Hathaway as Mia, a nerdy outsider who discovers she’s heir to the throne of

Genovia, a fictional European kingdom.

Julie Andrews co-stars as Genovia’s reigning queen and Mia’s grandmother. It’s a charming one, a good film for us millennials to revisit and share with first-time viewers.

Show up early: As always, the Movies in the Park festivities will include vendors, giveaways and games, with the film beginning at sundown — usually around 8 p.m. 5 p.m. at Elmington Park, 3531 West End Ave. D. PATRICK RODGERS MUSIC

[FAR OUT]

[EAST OR WEST, HOME IS BEST]

FILM

THURSDAY / 6.09

MUSIC

LIGHT, SPACE, SURFACE: WORKS FROM THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART

[PARKLIFE]

MUSICIANS CORNER FEAT. THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY, JEREMY IVEY, JOHN PAUL WHITE & MORE

There are a ton of reasons to spend an evening out in Centennial Park for this latespring run of the annual weekly music fest Musicians Corner. There are heaps of food trucks and other vendors, and there’s no admission so you’ll have plenty of scratch to spend if you like; depending on the time of day, you can shelter from the sun under the giant oaks or watch the stars peek through their leaves; on a recent visit, several well-behaved and leashed dogs were going about their doggy lives while kids played games in the deepening twilight. But the music isn’t just a pleasant background.

You’ve got three chances to check it out this weekend, starting with a special Thursday night performance headlined by the Nashville Symphony, which just wrapped

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

Nashville’s ONLY vinyl record store with full bar and 24 seasonal craft beers on tap.

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600 9th 9th Ave Ave SS #100, #100, Nashville, Nashville, TN TN 37203 37203 600

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NIGHT VISIONS its 75th anniversary season. Friday, superb songsmith Jeremy Ivey tops the bill, with some other highlights including soulful singer-songwriter Larysa Jaye and countryleaning boundary-pusher The Kernal.

Saturday, singer-songwriter and Single Lock Records co-founder John Paul White wraps it up, but not before sets from Chile-born pop songsmith Catalina and country-rocking singer-songwriter Lacy Blevins. (You might know Lacy’s twin sister Leah Blevins, also a great songwriter, who has already played this series.) Check musicianscorner.com for the full lineup and schedule. 5-9 p.m.

June 9-10, noon-6 p.m. June 11 at Centennial Park, 2500 West End Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER [WILDIN’ OUT]

NIGHT VISIONS

Whether you’re looking for a fun family night out or just a unique way to cool off after the sun goes down, there’s plenty to keep you engaged and entertained with Night Visions at the Nashville Zoo. Billed as “an immersive celebration of art and nature,” Night Visions invites guests to explore the property while enjoying a host of colorful light displays synced to music.

Beyond the cool projections — which feature “psychedelic frogs, neon beasts and groovy axolotls” — you can take a ride on the Wild Animal Carousel or check out the Soaring Eagle Zip Line. Also included with admission is the DinoTrek After Dark experience — which brings you more than 20 life-size animatronic dinosaurs.

Concession stands will be open throughout the evening, offering an assortment of food, soft drinks and adult beverages.

Thursday-Sunday nights through July 17 at the Nashville Zoo, 3777 Nolensville Pike

folk that’s as dreamlike as the rest of the album. “I Won’t Get It Right” is another Beach Boys-style tune, but Clarke doesn’t indulge in pastiche on Nobody Lives Here.

The album peaks with “Veteran’s Day,” which is both evenhanded and a little selfdeprecating. John Andrews and the Yawn open. 8 p.m. in The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. EDD HURT

FRIDAY / 6.10 SHOPPING

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Residency: Paul Burch & WPA Ballclub DJ DeFrost A Good Ol’ Time with DJ Poboy Residency: ZG Smith’s Weekend Warblers NOW OPEN MONDAYS Adam Meisterhans Trio O’KEEFE, Kat Brock, Vaughn Walters, & Tony Hannah

COMMUNITY

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[FLEA CIRCUS]

PORTER FLEA

Craft fairs often lean too hard on ceramics. And even though I am currently and once again obsessed with pottery thanks to the British TV series The Great Pottery Throwdown, I grow weary of shuffling from stall to stall only to find pots and mugs. The beauty of Porter Flea is its variety. More than 100 vendors will be selling everything from undies to house plants, hot sauce, CBD, stickers, clothing, art and much, much more. Pick up an accessory that will look good on both you and your dog at Bandana of the Month Club, or stock up on quirky ceramics from Blanket Fort Studio for last-minute gifts.

And/or, show off your Tennessee pride by snagging a Friendly Arctic T-shirt emblazoned with an illustration of one of our beautiful parks. They set up the market under two big pavilions in the shade, and

[POP DREAMS]

CUT WORMS

With hints of country blues and ’60s folk rock, Cut Worms’ 2020 album Nobody Lives Here Anymore is a likable, unpretentious collection of songs. The recording project of Max Clarke, Cut Worms fits into the grand narrative of quasi-pop — Clarke sounds a little like Arlo Guthrie, and Nobody Lives Here shows off his relaxed approach to songwriting. “Looks Like Rain” is a ricky-tick folk tune that veers off into Beach Boys territory, while “Sold My Soul” finds Clarke singing, “I was drinking gasoline / In a half-price limousine / Watching TV in the back.” Meanwhile, “Walk With Me” is a gentle foray into pop-

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PHOTO: EMILY DORIO

MUSIC

AMY STUMPFL

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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CRITICS’ PICKS

Free

Community Concerts CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY Lebanon

SATURDAY, JUNE 11 AT 7 PM

CROCKETT PARK

NICHOLAS PAYTON

FILM

[BALLS OUT]

‘ART OF PROTEST’ SCREENING AND SHOW

MUSIC

Back in the anxiety-laden days of October 2020, just weeks ahead of Trump’s historic loss, artist-activist collective Indecline released the short documentary “The Art of Protest.” The group is best known for its Trump-skewering guerrilla installation The Emperor Has No Balls, and the 45-minute doc, co-produced by Dave Navarro, features Shepard Fairey and Pussy Riot, among others. As described by Rolling Stone, the film “traces the history of protest art, from the civil rights movement through the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.” The doc will screen Friday at The Dive Motel in East Nashville, preceded by performances from local rock ’n’ roller Jack Evan Johnson, hip-hop artist Qualls and legendary NYC folk-punk artist Hamell on Trial — a strong and diverse lineup of artists that will set the tone for the evening. 7 p.m. performance, 9 p.m. screening at The Dive Motel, 1414 Dickerson Pike D. PATRICK RODGERS [OUTDOOR SEATING]

JAZZ UNDER THE STARS FEAT. NICHOLAS PAYTON

The Grammy-winning trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton has been dazzling audiences since he first began performing professionally at the ripe old age of 10. But this New Orleans native — known for his ability to play the trumpet and keyboard at the same time — is more than just an amazing musician.

He’s also a celebrated composer, producer and arranger, as well as a prolific writer and social activist known for pushing boundaries and defying both musical and artistic styles and categories. This weekend, Payton brings a bit of the Big Easy to Nashville as he takes the stage with his band for Cheekwood’s Jazz Under the Stars.

Guests can enjoy New Orleans-inspired treats, plus a special opening performance

MUSIC

ERICA CICCARONE

by the Nashville Youth Jazz Ensemble.

Meanwhile, you can check out Payton’s most recent albums — Quarantined With Nick and Maestro Rhythm King, both released in 2020. 7 p.m. at Cheekwood, 1200 Forrest Park Drive AMY STUMPFL

Brentwood

SUNDAY, JUNE 12 AT 7 PM Enjoy classical and popular favorites, along with prize giveaways and more.

Pack a picnic and come celebrate the summer with us!

[TRAP ROYALTY]

LEGENDZ OF THE STREETZ TOUR FEAT. JEEZY, GUCCI MANE, T.I., 2 CHAINZ & TRINA

The Legendz of the Streetz Tour features not only some of the biggest names to emerge from the South, but also rappers whose sound dominated the Aughts and early 2010s. Trina set a standard for raunchy raps, furthering a tradition carried by SaltN-Pepa and Lil’ Kim and setting the stage for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. Gucci Mane boasts a heralded mixtape run, and along with Jeezy was a huge pioneer of trap rap. That’s also true for T.I., the selfproclaimed King of the South. And 2 Chainz has some of the most absurd bars to ever grace a microphone, delivering larger-thanlife boasts with humor and an easygoing flow. 7 p.m. at the Bridgestone Arena, 501 Broadway ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ FILM

you can grab snacks from food trucks on site. Saturday’s event is free — but bring $5 cash to park. If you’d like to beat the lines (and the heat), grab a $30 ticket to the preview market Friday night. 6-9 p.m.

Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at The Fairgrounds Nashville, 500 Wedgewood Ave.

[RABID FIRE]

MIDNIGHT MOVIE: RABID

David Cronenberg’s latest body-horror freakout Crimes of the Future is currently playing at the Belcourt. (Read our review on p. 43.) I like to imagine a bunch of Nashvillians leaving the theater wondering either: A) What the fuck was that all about?, or B) What Cronenberg movie should I check out next? This weekend, the Belcourt will help people in the latter camp by doing a midnight screening of the director’s 1977 indie bloodbath. Rabid is basically a companion piece to his 1975 parasite thriller Shivers. But instead of parasites slithering around and infecting people, Rabid features a woman (the late porn icon Marilyn Chambers) who becomes bloodthirsty after a surgical operation, eventually turning unsuspecting victims into foaming-at-themouth zombies. Just like Shivers, Rabid is an extreme commentary on the swinging ’70s, smuggled inside a nasty exploitation flick. Hell, just the fact that Cronenberg had Miss Behind the Green Door herself play Patient Zero should tell you exactly what that twisted Canadian sumabitch

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June in...

6/01 – wednesday

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ANIKA with LOUIS PRINCE

COMEDY NIGHT with CHLOE STILLWELL

SG GOODMAN 21+

DJ NIGHT: Dark Wave with OLIVIA JEAN MAGIC NIGHT

6/25 – saturday

Powers/Rolin Duo with JAYVE MONTGOMERY

The Serpenteens CUT WORMS JOHN ANDREWS & THE YAWNS with HANS CONDOR

Album Release Show

6/18 – saturday

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6/04 – saturday

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21+

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THE NUDE PARTY with CERAMIC ANIMAL

6/16 – thursday

MUSIC TRIVIA with BEN BLACKWELL

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6/23 – thursday

FLASHER with FAUX FEROCIOUS

6/29 – wednesday

creature feature Film Night

6/17 – friday

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21+

playing punk, hip hop & more

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DJs JOHN STAMPS & AFROSHEEN

6/30 – thursday

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The World Famous Bar & Venue at Third Man Records OPEN WEEKLY Thursday through Saturday 623 7TH AVE S. NASHVILLE, TENN. nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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On Sale fri. 6/10

with the Nashville Symphony Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor

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June 17 to 19 November 7*

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with the

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TOY STORY IN CONCERT July 8 to 10

June 26 at Ascend Amphitheater

SING-A-LONG-A SOUND OF MUSIC July 17*

BEN FOLDS

THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS July 29*

WITH THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY

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GRAND FUNK RAILROAD August 5*

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June 27

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The Tennessee State Museum’s daylong Juneteenth festival will be held a week before other festivities in the city, giving you a chance to stretch the celebration. The day will feature music, dance, poetry, art, crafts and historic games for the whole family to enjoy. Continuing the museum’s TN Writers | TN Stories series, Leigh Ann Gardner will discuss her book To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee. Gardner’s book explains the importance of lodges that provided aid to Black Tennesseans when they didn’t have a government safety net.

The lodges also created and maintained cemeteries, many of which are fading with little trace into our landscapes. Gardner makes a compelling case for why these must be preserved. The museum will host a screening and discussion about the Fort Negley Descendants Project, which works to reconnect the historic fort’s past with our present. The project’s scholars use digital archives to help people trace their family trees back to those who built and served at the fort, and they record interviews with the descendants. To dive deeper into the history of Fort Negley, you can meet and interact with reenactors of the 13th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops Living History Association. If we’re lucky, Bill Radcliffe will be on hand in his period uniform, to tell the story of — as the Scene’s J.R. Lind wrote in a recent cover story — “how Fort Negley came to represent the promise of freedom, the promise of full citizenship” for Black Southerners, and Black Nashvillians in particular. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.

FOOD

ERICA CICCARONE [TEACHES OF PEACHES]

PEACH JAM

The Peach Truck has really made peaches happen in Nashville. Owner Stephen Rose, originally from Georgia, started dealing from a ’64 Jeep back in 2012.

Now the brand has multiple 18-wheeler semis, 142,000 followers on Instagram, and a firm grip on the city’s peach market. This year’s Peach Jam, sponsored by The Peach Truck, will bring together music, food and the iconic stone fruit for an all-day peach bash at the Nashville Farmers’ Market. It’s the latest in a Nashville Farmers’ Market weekend series: Strawberries got their moment last month, Tomatoes will in July, and Turnip Greens in November. Consider this a sweeter spherical warmup for East Nashville’s Tomato Art Fest in August.

9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. ELI MOTYCKA

CHARLIE ZAILLIAN [MOUNTAIN RANGE]

OPERA ON THE MOUNTAIN

Opera on the Mountain is back this weekend, and if you’ve never enjoyed a concert at Vanderbilt’s scenic Dyer Observatory, you’re truly missing out on a local treasure. Guests can pack a picnic for a casual family-friendly evening of music atop one of Nashville’s highest peaks. Soprano Sangeetha Ekambaram, mezzo-soprano Clementina Moreira and tenor Gregory Sliskovich will present a fun program of opera and musical theater favorites — including everything from Puccini and Offenbach to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Gilbert and Sullivan. After the performance, guests can do a bit of stargazing and check out the (nearly) full moon through Dyer’s grand telescope. And as an added bonus, Nashville Opera will be announcing its much-anticipated 2022-23 season as part of the festivities. 6 p.m. at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory, 1000 Oman Drive, Brentwood

MONDAY / 6.13 [TARTAN UP]

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN

In the quarter-century since Belle and Sebastian’s against-the-grain If You’re Feeling Sinister rocketed the hyperliterate Glasgow, Scotland, act from obscurity to indie royalty, there’s been little motivation for Stuart Murdoch & Co. to fix what’s not broken. Sinister’s 1998 follow-up The Boy With the Arab Strap was basically

Philipp Reichenheim , shows how, even when the group started getting some buzz in the 1990s (Spike Jonze directed one of their videos!), these continually clashing, socially awkward boys were always headed toward an eventual breakup. In fact, they didn’t start having a good time as a band until they re-formed in the mid-Aughts — they’ve become older and wiser, but can still get a crowd moshing. 7 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[SISTER SISTER]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Has there ever been a greater film that immediately brings the batshit craziness — and stays in that lane for the rest of its running time — than 1962 psychothriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? I mean, Robert Aldrich’s adaptation of Henry Farrell’s 1960 novel starts off fuckin’ nuts and just gets wilder. Plus, anybody who’s seen the Ryan Murphy show Feud knows that the making of the movie was just as wild as the movie itself. Screen greats/ archenemies Bette Davis (who scored a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance) and Joan Crawford got to play rival sisters, tormenting each other on screen and off. For nearly two-and-a-half hours, Davis’ deranged former child star Jane makes life a living hell for Crawford’s paraplegic former screen siren Blanche, pulling such sadistic shit as serving up Crawford’s pet bird for dinner. While some might find this, you know, awful, the movie has become a camp classic for those who love seeing two legendary divas locked in mortal, overacting combat. 1 p.m. June 12, 7 p.m. June 15 at AMC and Regal locations

FILM

MUSIC

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

SUNDAY / 6.12

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Toronto punk-pop foursome PUP offsets its epically self-deprecating, millennialmalaise lyrical slant with Guitar Worldworthy axemanship and modern-rock radio

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: FREAKSCENE: THE STORY OF DINOSAUR JR.

AMY STUMPFL

[THE GREAT UNRAVELING]

PUP

[WHERE THEY BEEN]

Dinosaur Jr. was grunge before grunge showed up. Formed in the mid-’80s, the shaggy-haired, Western Massachusetts trio — guitarist J Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Emmett Jefferson Murphy III (better known as Murph) — performed hard-driving indie rock that occasionally alienated audiences and club owners, but made lifelong fans out of fellow alt-rockers like Sonic Youth, Henry Rollins and, yes, Nirvana. The new documentary Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr., from German filmmaker (and Mascis’ brother-in-law)

[DADDY ISSUES]

A CHIARA

Italian American filmmaker Jonas Carpignano wraps up his trilogy of connected Southern Italy stories with A

its sequel, while 2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress doubled down on both albums’ poppiest aspects with winning results.

Though B&S never lacked consistency or class, any veteran band forging onward can tell you how hard it is to break your own mold. For its 10th LP, A Bit of Previous, the band recorded in their hometown for the first time in two decades. Punchy, driving material like the harmonica-laden “Unnecessary Drama” and synth-accented “Talk to Me, Talk to Me” finds the Fountain of Youth, while the gospel-tinged “If They’re Shooting at You” and its music video — which sources photography and recorded footage from Ukrainian artists to signal-boost ways to send aid to the war-torn country — walks the walk in a big way. Show up early for Los Bitchos, an instrumental London ensemble that draws, curiously, on Argentine cumbia, Peruvian psych, Turkish folk rock and other sonic traditions more characteristic of warmer climes.

7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N.

MUSIC

JUNETEENTH AT THE TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM

Chiara, a 2021 coming-of-age tale that won Best European Film in the Directors’ Fortnight section at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Much as with his 2017 sophomore feature A Ciambra, Carpignano follows a teen who is forced to grow up fast when a family member disappears. This time around, it’s a 15-year-old Calabrian girl (Swamy Rotolo) who wants to know what’s going on with her fugitive dad. Even though family members try to keep her in the dark, refusing to divulge not only his whereabouts but why he’s on the lam in the first place, the stubborn girl eventually discovers some hidden incriminating secrets. If you want to take in all this adolescent Italian neorealism (complete with a score co-composed by Beasts of the Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin), remember that it will be playing for only a few days at the Belcourt. June 12-14 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

MUSIC

[PRESENT HISTORY]

MUSIC

COMMUNITY

SATURDAY / 6.11

hooks, becoming one of the most popular bands of its ilk in the process. PUP’s fourth LP The Unraveling of ... — and its first to be bankrolled by Universal Music Canada — is a maximalist, hi-fi affair that pokes fun at its own indulgences while leaning sincerely into previously unexplored musical-theaterkid inclinations. File openers Angel Du$t and Oceanator among the legions of artists born in the ’90s sharing interpretations of what they imagine the ’90s felt like. 7 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N.

FILM

was looking to accomplish. Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

FILM

CRITICS’ PICKS

[CRAZY ON YOU]

ANN WILSON

On her new album Fierce Bliss, former Heart singer Ann Wilson explores the post-Led Zeppelin world of hard rock she and her bandmates made their own in the 1970s and ’80s. A powerful singer who has always been comfortable expressing big emotions, Wilson covers Eurythmics, Jeff Buckley and Robin Trower on Fierce Bliss, and her band includes Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who plays on Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs.” In addition, Wilson duets with Vince Gill on “Love of My Life” — they sound great together. More than four decades after Heart released their debut album Dreamboat Annie, Wilson continues to be one of rock’s iconic singers, and she projects the kind of authority that comes from vast experience. Wilson says she’s looking at doing a 50th-anniversary Heart tour next year, but now’s your chance to see her perform at a relatively intimate space.

8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. EDD HURT

CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

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FOOD AND DRINK

A MATTER OF TASTING

From The Catbird Seat to The Continental, use our Nashville tasting menu chart to find the ideal option for you

BY ASHLEY BRANTLEY

I

f you’ve ever done a tasting menu for a Big Night Out, the following scenario may sound familiar. You do your research, find a sweet deal — $125 per person — and snag the last two seats. You get a sitter. You get an Uber. And you have a blast. The only downside? That blast shows up on your bill.

Once you add the tax, tip and wine-soaked upgrades (plus that round of shots you bought the staff on your way out) you’ve tripled your costs. Of course, restaurants deserve every damn dime — especially right now, and especially when they’re putting every cook at risk for carpal tunnel making 300 agnolotti.

But having one of these seismic shifts in your bank account can leave you feeling hesitant when it comes to booking “an experience” instead of a meal again.

Well, fear not. Today, we blast-proof your next Big Night Out by breaking down Nashville’s best tasting menus. Search by your pain point — price, length, day — until you find a tasting menu that’s just right for you.

We even found a couple where black stretch pants are welcome.

Note: We originally included a dietary

restrictions column, but after speaking with several chefs, most agreed they’ll do their best to work around any allergies or restrictions (even if their website says they can’t or won’t). Our advice: Make your reservation as far in advance as possible, and follow it up with a phone call, email or DM to ensure your message was received.

AUDREY

Sean Brock’s newest restaurant is named for his grandmother Audrey, whom he credits for teaching him to love local ingredients and regional cuisine. He calls it his “most personal project to date,” and that feels true. The space is warm, welcoming, chicly appointed with Appalachian art and flooded with light. In short, it’s a vibe — a calm, approachable yet edifying one that’s distinctly different from everything else on this list.

Best bit: The $60 wine pairing is accessible for all palates. Sommeliers enthusiastically explain what you’re tasting without making you feel like a moron for not already knowing about the biodynamic process used to make La Collina’s Lunaris Secco (which is, in non-oenophile terms, a totally dope upgrade from prosecco).

•

ber: It comes with six other plates.)

The otorro (fatty tuna) with sorghum glaze was rich, savory bliss. It was also an add-on, so pad your budget and plan for a couple à la carte items.

BASTION

If someone is looking for an inventive, impeccable meal, I send them one of three places: Locust, Peninsula or Bastion.

Bastion has long been the standard when it comes to being laid-back yet forward-thinking. Steve Cavendish said it best in the Scene’s 2016 review, which is still accurate: “Bastion feels like [chef Josh] Habiger’s most self-assured work yet. There’s the technique and ideas of his Catbird Seat years without the formality, and the comfortable vibe of Pinewood Social without the need to hew to Americana influences.”

To paraphrase Cavendish: Bastion is not just good or great — it is essential.

Bottom line: If you’re stepping into tasting menus for the first time, start at Bastion.

Hot tips:

Best bites: • The Border Springs lamb trio with Bordeaux-Blanc sauce is worth every penny of its $97 price tag. (And remem-

• If you know your party’s too precious for tasting-menu portions, book The Feast. It’s part tasting menu, part greatest hits, all served family-style for four to six people. Habiger also tells me it’s about to come with a new choose-your-own-adventure grid (like

the one they launched the food menu with), but for wine instead of food.

• You can also BYOB for a reasonable $25 corkage fee per bottle. As far as I know, Bastion is the only tasting menu in town where you can brown-bag booze.

THE CATBIRD SEAT

The Catbird Seat is to tasting menus what Prince’s is to hot chicken. They were the first to offer a worldclass tasting menu in Nashville back in 2011, and in many ways, they’ll always be the best. The sleek, avant-garde restaurant/lab changes chefs every few years, but it’s always helmed by someone who’s cooked in the best restaurants in the world. (See: the aforementioned Habiger as well as Trevor Moran, now of Locust.)

Like those who came before him, chef Brian Baxter serves a 10- to 18-course menu that is highly technique-driven. Think mind-bending stuff like salty and smoky swordfish sushi — the fish is cured and shaved like country ham — as well as the hay-smoked mussels in sauce poulette with cured egg yolk. If you’ve ever done a tasting menu in Chicago, New York or Paris — or if you’ve ever wanted to — The Catbird Seat is that, but right here at home.

Seat yourself: One of the best things about The Catbird Seat — the square bar and open

Restaurant

No. of courses

Price Price + tax & 20% tip (rounded up)

Pairing options Total includes tax + tip on pairing (min to max)

Length

Maximum party size

Days & start times (all times p.m.)

Can you order extras à la carte?

Audrey

7 plates (4 courses)

$77-$97 (based on entrée price) TOTAL: $100-$125

$60 wine / $100 elevated TOTAL: $178-$250

1.5 to 2 hours

6

Daily; 5 to 9:30

Yes

Bastion

6 courses / The Feast

$100 / $130 TOTAL: $125 / $162

$85 wine TOTAL: $210 / $225

1.5 to 2 hours 3 hours

6

Wed.-Sat.; 5:30 to 8:45

N/A

The Catbird Seat

10 to 12 courses (early) / 15-18 courses (late)

$185 / $245 TOTAL: $239 / $317

$85 / $105 TOTAL: $349 / $453

2.5 to 3 hours

4

Wed.-Sat.; early: 5:30 or 6; late: 8:15 or 8:45

N/A

The Chef & I

5 courses / 7 courses

$89 / $115 TOTAL: $119 / $154

$45 / $60 TOTAL: $177 / 232

2 to 3 hours

8+ (contact for larger parties)

Daily; 5:30 to 7:30

Yes, full menu

The Continental at Grand Hyatt

9 plates (7 courses)

$125 TOTAL: $162

$100 TOTAL: $291

3+ hours

6

Daily; 5 to 9:30

Yes, full menu + caviar add-ons

Drusie & Darr at Hermitage Hotel

5 courses

$138 TOTAL: $174

Custom

2 hours

8

Daily; 5 to 10

Yes, full menu

Nightscape at former 12th & Porter space

6 courses

$129 TOTAL: $167

$69 (3-ounce pours of wine) TOTAL: $257

2.5 to 3 hours

6+ (Contact for larger parties)

Days TBD by event; 5:15 and 8:15

N/A

The Rabbit Hole at Henley

14 courses

$165 TOTAL: $217

$85 (cocktails, wines, afterdinner drinks) TOTAL: $326

2.5 to 3 hours

2 to 4; 1 seating per night

Thurs.-Sat.; 3 weekends per month; 6:30 or 7

No

Sinema

5 courses

$75 TOTAL: $97

$105 / $125 (premium) TOTAL: $233 / $259

1.5 to 2 hours

8

Daily; 5 to 9 (weekdays), 5 to 9:30 (weekends)

Yes, full menu

Tailor

8 to 10 courses

$85-$125 TOTAL: $110-$162

$60-$85 TOTAL: $188-$272

2 hours

10

Thurs.-Sun. 6 and 8:30 seatings

N/A

Yolan at The Joseph

5 courses/vegetarian option 8 courses/vegetarian option

$110 / $85 TOTAL: $143 / $110 $145 / $115 TOTAL: $188 / $149

$75 / $120 (elevated) TOTAL: $207-$343

2.5 hours

8

Daily except Tuesday; 5 to 9

Yes, full menu

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FOOD AND DRINK kitchen let you interact with the chefs and sommeliers in rare, fascinating ways. If you’re going for the first time, go as a party of two or ask to be seated at the bar. Fourperson parties are sometimes seated at the chef’s table on the side, which sounds like an upgrade, but isn’t as much fun.

THE CHEF & I

Chris and Erica Rains bill their restaurant as “a little bit gourmet and a little bit rock ’n’ roll,” so if foie gras and fish eggs aren’t for you, try The Chef & I. My Scene colleague Chris Chamberlain has eaten there since back when they were serving people out of their Lenox Village catering kitchen. Chris says: “The chef’s bar was where they dreamed up dishes every night from their leftover ingredients from catering gigs. … It’s a lot more interactive than most chef’s tables where the chefs are more focused on the dishes than the customers (not that there’s anything wrong with that in some places). It can get a little boisterous, and even downright rowdy — not that there’s anything wrong with that either! It’s best for a visitor seeking out a novel Nashville experience, or a local looking for a fun night out more than a revelatory culinary experience.”

Moving on up(town): After several years in the Gulch, The Chef & I recently moved to the space in the bottom of the Adelicia in Midtown (formerly Le Sel, Music City Tippler, etc.). Their soft opening was June 1-2.

THE CONTINENTAL

If you have to go to Lower Broadway these days, The Continental is the only place where swanky still beats out sloppy. As Sean Brock’s tribute to the grand hotel dining of yesteryear, the Grand Hyatt restaurant is a sumptuous escape to another time — green velvet sofas, gilded fixtures, smartly dressed servers pushing carts of prime rib to carve tableside.

Choose wisely: The Continental recently shifted to include both tasting and à la carte menus.

• If you’re there mostly for the vibe, opt for the tasting menu.

• If you want to taste the best dishes, build your own. See: The paragon of prime rib ($54) and pâté en croûte ($18).

Then look back at the Scene’s full review from November for a cheat sheet.

• If you play your courses right, a build-your-own tasting menu can be cheaper — if you steel yourself against upgrades like imperial golden Russian osetra caviar, which is a cool $175 per ounce.

Hot tip: If you only have an hour, hit The Vesper Club. While it’s physically just part of the restaurant, it actually also has a little tasting menu, pairing five small martinis with caviar bites. It’ll run you $129 with tax and tip, after which you should try to score a seat at the other bar and order the bonkers burger, made from prime-rib trimmings and topped with foie gras mayonnaise.

DRUSIE & DARR

Speaking of downtown havens of civility, there’s also Drusie & Darr inside the Hermitage Hotel.

Conceived by renowned French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, D&D is the only place on this list where the menu was created by a chef with two Michelin stars. (Yolan’s chef has one.) Those stars mean you’re going to get flawless food and flawless service, every time. The food is elevated yet still easily engaging. The same is true of the redesigned Capitol Grille space: It’s immaculate but still inviting, and the staff is a big part of that.

Best bites: • Since Vongerichten works equally well with French, American and Asian flavors, you get the best of all worlds.

(See: Crispy Sushi, made with sea trout, chipotle emulsion, soy glaze, mint.)

• The tasting menu is reasonable at $138 for five courses. One course, however, is Vongerichten’s signature egg toast.

It comes covered in caviar and costs $62 à la carte, so you’re actually getting a deal.

Best bits: • D&D is one of two places on this list where the executive chef is female.

(So, hooray! But also, WTF, Nashville?)

Kelsi Armijo runs their kitchen.

• Half the table can do the tasting menu while half orders à la carte.

NIGHTSCAPE

Nightscape bills itself as a “multisensory immersive experience,” not a tasting menu, and that’s apt. While the current Italian Villa concept (it’ll change every few months) includes a six-course meal from James Beard nominee Zane Dearien of Pastaria, the food is solid but secondary.

Housed in the former home of music venue 12th & Porter, the main event is a video-projection journey through a big old Italian house that gave me big Beauty and the Beast/The Gilded Age vibes at its high points. At its low, well, the system crashed for a few courses, so we ate agnolotti in the dark. But the staff dealt with it well, offering everyone a complimentary round of drinks.

Bottom lines: • Glitch aside, the projection was cool.

Overall, the feel was Dinner Lab meets networking event meets Your Mom’s Book Club: Night on the Town edition. If you like the meet-your-neighbors aspect of Mangia Nashville, you’ll like this.

• Price-wise, $167 feels steep compared to other menus on this list, but again, that price is for the experience. But skip the $67 wine pairing — anyone who considers La Marca prosecco anything more than a mimosa ingredient is out of their depth.

• Do not drive. I repeat: Do not drive. All the parking options nearby are infuriatingly expensive.

THE RABBIT HOLE

Kristin Beringson is one of those chefs who consistently makes fun, tasty food but somehow flies under the radar.

She shouldn’t. At The Rabbit Hole at Henley, she gets to use all her experience (Ellington’s Midway Bar & Grill, the gone-too-soon Green Pheasant) to turn out a 14-course tasting menu that’s whimsical and modern but made with local Tennessee ingredients.

Best bits: • The Rabbit Hole puts diners inside the kitchen (literally), serving just two to four people per night at their kitchen table. Since they’re open just nine nights per month, if you’re looking for that exclusive VIP feel, The Rabbit Hole has it.

• This is one place where you absolutely opt in on the pairing. For just $85, you get a mix of cocktails, wines, sherries and after-dinner drinks — and not one glass of La Marca.

SINEMA

Last summer, the Scene’s Margaret Littman included Sinema on her list of places where locals don’t eat but should.

She was right — I haven’t been to Sinema in years. But her description reminded me why I should go back: “Housed in an old movie theater, projecting old movies on the wall, offering bathrooms that are Instagram catnip, boasting a healthy cocktail selection (more than 150 options) and having a setup that serves big groups well, Sinema has a reputation for being a party place. Maybe even a bachelorette-party place. The Bottomless Brunch — with free-flowing mimosas and a bloody mary bar — has cemented that reputation. But locals are allowed to have fun too, and Sinema is a place to do it. Menu items include fresh seasonal salads, meats from Porter Road Butcher and of course, cocktails with names that nod to the Golden Age of Cinema.”

Bottom lines: • At $97 with tax and tip, Sinema’s tasting menu — which includes their signature scallops and agnolotti — would make for an above-average work dinner.

• The next time you’re in the doghouse, sell your partner on keeping you around with Sinema’s Make It Special Package. For just $25, they’ll supply a small bouquet, extra candles, sparkling wine toast and a handwritten note.

(Yes, you have to give them the copy for the note. Don’t be lazy.)

TAILOR

There are two kinds of diners in Nashville: people who are obsessed with Tailor and people who haven’t been yet. Vivek Surti makes self-described South Asian American cuisine, and last year, the Scene named Tailor’s Indian-spice-driven, high-end yet homey food the Best Decision-Free Dining Experience in town. This year, I plan to ride hard for its pav bhaji: a spicy vegetable gravy served with soft dinner rolls that’s my favorite bite of the year so far.

If you don’t know Tailor, our own Dana Kopp Franklin explains: “[Surti] was born in Manchester, Tenn., but his parents are from the state of Gujarat in India. Surti explains that authentic Indian cuisine is found in private homes, not restaurants, and can’t easily be found in the U.S. market. … Indian food — which is multifarious, hailing from 29 states and many more cities, villages and family traditions — is one of the world’s great cuisines, but sorely underappreciated.”

On the move: Tailor is currently readying its first permanent location on Taylor Street in Germantown. Follow them on Instagram (@tailornashville) to find out when they’re back in business. I look forward to seeing how quickly Tailor on Taylor, which is a restaurant and not a tailor, breaks Google.

YOLAN

The second Michelinstarred chef on this list is Tony Mantuano, who’s as gregarious as he is talented.

I first had a tasting menu by him at the tragically now-shuttered Spiaggia in Chicago (he left in 2019, before it closed, to move here), and it was revelatory.

While the Yolan version falls just shy of Spiaggia perfection for me, dishes like his signature cacio e pepe are more than worth the price of admission. Plus, Yolan is the only place in town offering a full vegetarian tasting menu.

Nitpicking: • For me, eating at Yolan feels like eating in a hotel lobby. An exquisite hotel lobby! But a lobby nonetheless.

Request a table in a side room for a more intimate experience.

• I still think about their silly, overwrought chocolate dessert. If you’ve ever seen Top Chef and heard them yell at someone for cramming every technique onto one plate, you get the gist.

Bottom line: The fact that Nashville diners can now get two tasting menus from Michelin-starred chefs — each for less than $175 with tax and tip — is an embarrassment of riches. Cash in.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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VODKA YONIC

SAY IT LOUD

A North Nashvillian reflects on the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated — and on the cost of freedom

c

BY JACQUELYN COVINGTON

Vodka Yonic features a rotating cast of women and nonbinary writers from around the world sharing stories that are alternately humorous, sobering, intellectual, erotic, religious or painfully personal. You never know what you’ll find in this column, but we hope this potent mix of stories encourages conversation.

I

t’s 6:05 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, 1968. I am 10 years old — a skinny little Black girl. Breaking news bursts onto the television screen in our living room. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been shot! Major outbreaks of racial violence and unrest have begun across America. We live at 1724 17th Ave. N., Apt. B, in North Nashville. Less than a block away from our front door is the prestigious Fisk University. What’s about to happen will change my life forever.

Social injustice was sticking its neck way out in America, and 1968 became the Year That Changed America. Everything was going haywire — cultural values, race, the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.

Our motto for African American citizens was: “SAY IT LOUD! I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD!” We had taken all we could stand. Dr. King had been assassinated. The heat was on in every Black community in America, and ours was no exception. And it seemed none of the issues would be resolved anytime soon.

As a skinny little Black girl in the third grade, I walked a half-block to Wharton Elementary School each day. This was my community, and I was so proud to be part of it.

But my school was in the path of destruction.

That night, April 4, my parents barricaded themselves, my little brother and me inside our tiny two-bedroom apartment. It was as if time had stopped. Front door blocked by furniture. Back door blocked by the refrigerator. Our furnishings up against all the windows. All the lights were out — the electricity in our community has been shut off. We were prisoners in our own home, not knowing if we would survive the night.

I just lay down in my mama’s lap, not understanding any of this madness. I asked if I would go to school the next day. My mama said, “We will see, baby. Go to sleep.”

All night and all day, all I could hear were fire trucks, ambulances, police cars. Bottles breaking windows, babies crying, horns blowing and sirens. And the chanting: “SAY IT LOUD! I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD!” As a 10-year-old, I knew when to stay silent, to not ask questions. Besides, there were no answers.

This is what we did for two days and nights. My dad never slept. He stayed on guard. I don’t remember him saying a word.

His eyes told it all — he had to protect his family, his dignity, his home.

We knew only one thing: We had each other. I knew nothing about injustice, crime

GET READY TO LAUGH, FUME, ARGUE AND DEBATE THE WINNERS AS WE ASK YOU TO COMPLETE

IF CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH TO ASK, PLEASE ANSWER. TELL THEM WHAT IS HAPPENING. TELL THEM WHY IT’S HAPPENING. EXPLAIN WHAT IGNITED THE SITUATION AND WHAT WAS COOKING LONG BEFORE SOMEONE LIT THE MATCH. or violence. I cried silently, afraid that my family would be hurt. Everybody had to remain still and quiet — even my baby brother, who was only 6 months old. We never left the apartment the entire time. When the unrest calmed down, our electricity was restored. My dad began to unbarricade our living quarters, television blaring as loud as the volume would permit.

It looked like a bomb had gone off in our North Nashville neighborhood. For the first time, we witnessed the devastation of our community. Jefferson Street and 18th Avenue, just one block away, was unrecognizable — trash, debris and broken glass dotted the sidewalks. Businesses were closed, mostly wrecked by violence. Schools were closed until further notice. African Americans — my people — did this to their own community.

I didn’t understand the despair — the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Dr. King had made America angry. Political advisers and directors of government call ’68 a watershed year. Indeed. But we made it out, and I, the skinny little Black girl, was enlightened to the world of politics. From that day and forever, that world had mountains to be moved and hills to climb. “SAY IT LOUD! I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD!” Parents, teachers, grandparents and leaders should always talk with their children and loved ones about the politics of their time. If children are old enough to ask, please answer. Tell them what is happening.

Tell them why it’s happening. Explain what ignited the situation and what was cooking long before someone lit the match.

My dad explained the entire civil rights movement to me. The why, the who, the what — and the change in our country. That made me less afraid of the injustice and the indifference in America. My community became safe again. And yes, I, the skinny little Black girl, was able to understand why America went through it all. These people who tore apart our community weren’t bad people. Not at all. They were angry, tired African Americans who wanted EQUAL RIGHTS! And yes, the change was here! The change was now!

But it came at a high price.

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GUITAR LESSONS

with former Musicians Institute and Austin Guitar School instructor

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BOOKS

SAVE YOURSELF

Spirited women light out on their own in How Strange a Season

BY SEAN KINCH

I

n “Peaches, 1979,” an emblematic story from Megan Mayhew Bergman’s new collection How Strange a Season, a college-educated woman, Darcy, returns home to save her family’s failing orchard, despite the fact that she doesn’t particularly like them.

“It was hard to spend time with people she loved but didn’t enjoy when she was tired from work and short on cash,” Bergman writes. After her mother, brother and sister find fresh ways to disappoint Darcy, she considers simply leaving them to their fates.

“Just how wrong would it be to save myself?”

Darcy thinks. “And only myself.”

Based on the pattern of Bergman’s narratives, the chances are good that Darcy will soon pack up and leave her family behind.

Time and again, HOW STRANGE A SEASON Bergman’s proBY MEGAN MAYHEW tagonists, frustrated BERGMAN with compromise SCRIBNER and betrayal and 304 PAGES, $26.99 convention, decide to scrap their lives and build them anew elsewhere. Often these crossroads moments occur when lovers have let them down. As the narrator of the first story, “Workhorse,” puts it, “The man who’d once been the center of my existence had selfdestructed and left me wondering who I was and how I would live my life.”

The subtitle of the collection, “Fiction,” is apt: One of the pieces, “Indigo Run,” is a 137-page novella. Set on a South Carolina plantation, it depicts a mother struggling with postpartum depression who cannot breastfeed her newborn. The family hires a wet nurse, Marie, an immigrant from Norway fleeing an unnamed scandal. Marie settles into the estate and, as the mother withdraws into darkness, finds herself pulled into an affair with the husband. Marie knows that it’s a mistake (“Here was a man that she could not love — he was not made of the right ingredients”), but she also knows that reason can’t save her. Marie’s “loneliness was big enough to eclipse wisdom; it woke her in the night. It had teeth.”

What comes next for Marie is a twist that distinguishes Bergman’s work. Rather than wallowing in self-castigation, Marie acknowledges her transgression and proceeds headlong into her mistake. “I came to this country to escape shame,” she tells her lover. “I won’t give into it now. We should enjoy pleasure where we find it.”

Other characters have more prolonged battles with conscience. In “Workhorse,” an aging businessman retires to Sardinia and adopts an ailing mule as a household pet. His brother interprets the gesture as “a strange way to atone for his life of greed.” In an-

other story, the scion of a family of former North Carolina plantation owners lashes himself to a pier when a tropical storm rolls in, a form of self-flagellation to counterbalance the suffering his family inflicted on the people they enslaved.

How Strange a Season is enjoyable despite the tortures that Bergman’s characters undergo. The loss and heartache come to fruition when they reach hard-won epiphanies. The realizations may be actionable — as when the narrator of “Heirloom” suddenly accepts that she’s going to leave her boyfriend — or simply sad. In “Inheritance,” a woman who has been bequeathed her grandmother’s Northern California estate learns that her grandmother, whom she views as glamorous and independent, was actually lonely and tawdry. Such insight isn’t comforting, but it enables authentic lives.

Bergman’s stories make clear that tribulations don’t result from bad decisions, but from any decision. Leave your husband or stay in an unfulfilling marriage, pursue a safe career or leap for your dreams, live in the South or in Maine — whatever you choose, disaster will ensue.

But as long as you choose for yourself, you will enjoy the satisfaction of selfdetermination. The narrator of “A Taste for Lionfish” articulates this point. “The trick was to believe in your choices,” she says. “Once you let the doubt in, it ate you alive.”

Though Bergman’s stories generally trend toward optimism, they reveal that the dark side of independence is vulnerability.

Women who seek autonomy become targets, sometimes resulting in trauma that cannot be erased. The narrator of “Wife Days” tells her husband that she’s willing to play the domestic role four days a week “if you leave me alone the other three. … I need some days to myself. I need days without rules.” As the story builds, we learn that her depression started when she was assaulted as a teenager. Maintaining an identity separate from her marriage feels like an assertion of her essential self, one that she won’t allow to be stolen.

Bergman, who grew up in North Carolina and teaches environmental writing at Middlebury College, has a deft touch with natural scenes. “Fog blanketed the ocean,” she writes in “Inheritance.” “There were small pools of rainwater in the sandy soil, as if the ground had been too dry to drink in the storm all at once.” Such scenes remind us that, no matter how bereft we feel, nature offers sufficient solace to tempt us into hope.

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

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CULTURE

GOOD OL’ ROCKY TOP Painting the Smokies shows a complex picture of the beloved national park

S

ometimes when we learn about something, whether it be a problem or a place or anything else, we think it started with our discovery.

During the PAINTING THE SMOKIES: pandemic, ART, COMMUNITY, AND THE we heard MAKING OF A NATIONAL about how the PARK ON VIEW AT THE TENNESSEE National Park STATE MUSEUM THROUGH Service saw JAN. 15 more visitors than ever before, and some of that increased interest was burdening resources, leading to more traffic, more trash and risk to the ecosystem.

When Candice Candeto, museum curator at the Tennessee State Museum, began researching all things related to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she learned that the demand to visit the mountain range in East Tennessee was not new at all.

Rather, interest had been there since before the park was even created.

In fact, more than 1 million visitors headed to the park within its first year of being established, she says.

“I was surprised by how wide-reaching the love of the Smokies is, and how quickly it took hold,” Candeto says. “That was early in automobile tourism, and it is amazing that people were coming from all over the country to see the Smokies.”

These are some of the things Candeto and her team learned while creating Painting the Smokies: Art, Community, and the Making of a National Park, a two-gallery show on exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum through Jan. 15. The show focuses on the years in which the park was created, between 1900 and 1940. While the exhibit includes many beautiful landscapes in all four seasons, as you would expect from a show with that title, it also goes in depth,

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from the park itself. The next lunch-andlearn event in this series will be held at noon on June 23.

The majority of the objects in the exhibition come from the museum’s permanent collection, including paintings by five artists who spent much of their careers documenting the dramatic landscape. All five of the artists happened to be white men — Charles C. Krutch, Thomas C. Campbell, Rudolph F. Ingerle, Will Henry Stevens and Louis E. Jones — so Candeto and her team sought out works to balance the collection and present a full story of the Smokies, she says. These include weavings, baskets, photography and other period objects by Black artisans, women, and artisans from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. A bench from a church in Cades Cove — the valley and popular tourist destination — and a few other items are on loan from the park itself.

The exhibit is designed to appeal to museumgoers of various backgrounds and to make art accessible even to those for whom wandering a museum is an infrequent pastime. Color-your-own postcards, available at the end of the exhibit, help connect visitors to the ways people shared their trips to the Smokies before the age of Instagram. The paintings show the park in various settings. If you look closely, you can see the communities that were displaced when the park was established.

The story of the national park’s creation was complicated and complex, Candeto says. People lived and worked in those mountains and were forced from their land through eminent domain. Some of their homes and communities can be seen today in the Cades Cove area of the park.

This displacement took place during the Great Depression, a particularly difficult time to uproot families and send them off to find new jobs and new homes. The exhibit doesn’t include exact numbers, but Candeto estimates approximately 5,000 people faced this fate.

“An important part of telling the story for us is that we wanted to leave people with this idea of how we are shaped by the places that we love, but also [how] we shape those places and … impact the places that we love,” she says. “The people who lived in the Smokies were one of the great allures.

People from outside the Smokies were interested in the culture, and creating the park impacted that culture.”

At the end of the exhibit hangs a panoramic photograph of the dedication of the national park. Candeto describes it as a happy photo, as it is of a time of celebration. A crowd listens to President Franklin D. Roosevelt speak, the mountains in the background. And in the foreground, there are piles of litter. “Even from the very beginning, when the park was being dedicated, you have this real consequence on the landscape,” Candeto says. “I hope this exhibit encourages people to be aware of the ways we impact a place. We want to think about how we love a place, not just why we love it.”

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demonstrating how the public’s love of a place can be both a blessing and curse. The exhibit tackles issues of eminent domain, racism, sexism and more through the lens of social shifts during those decades. It also offers insight for those living in places, like Nashville, that are going through a period of significant growth and change.

“We all have ideas of what the Smokies are, and this exhibition helps show that there is a lot more to the story,” says Jeff Sellers, director of education and community engagement for the museum.

Sellers’ team developed programming to complement the exhibit and help shape discussions, partnering with the Cumberland River Compact and rangers

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MUSIC

THE SPIN SCRAPES TO PROVE

BY P.J. KINZER

I

have good news for you: Superchunk is still a ballistic force of rock in 2022.

The frenetic foursome, now more than 30 years out from their first 7-inch, could have long ago taken to casually phoning in their appearances as an indie-darling legacy act. But where other elder statesmen of punk show their age — resting on their DIY laurels or toning down their snarl — Superchunk remains Superchunk. The band is constantly in motion, both in an artistic sense and a literal one. And the group’s Saturday night gig at Brooklyn Bowl was concrete proof.

Openers Reigning Sound are built around the songcraft of Greg Cartwright. The music that the once-thunderous rocker is writing these days isn’t rowdy enough to drown out people bowling in an adjacent room, but he still has the folksy humor to get a laugh out

balls of my feet, just like every other time I’ve ever seen The Chunk.

Just a few songs into the set, McCaughan began to supplement the playbook with deep cuts called out from the audience. They even pulled out “Mower” from their 1992 EP of the same name. It was clear that Superhcunk is very much attuned to what the people want and glad to give it to them.

The man most know simply as Mac was all over the stage, buoyantly slinging his guitar around and diving into the sort of solos that can only sound right coming from him or Dino Jr.’s J Mascis. McCaughan still overflows with energy onstage — he’s earnest and compelling with a feral look in his eye. No other singer can really pull off his distinctive combination of urgency and adenoidal tone.

Throughout an hour-and-a-half of lunging and screaming, he never slammed into guitarist Jim Wilbur or touring bassist Jason Narducy, and his Oxford shirt never seemed sweaty or disheveled.

While watching the group tear through song after song of college-radio classics on the fly, I couldn’t help but think to myself that there’s no excuse for anyone being as talented as Jon Wurster. He’s the compelling guest

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ALOK SCATTERED, SMOTHERED, CHUNKED: SUPERCHUNK of the circumstance. Cartwright started making music with Memphis blues-punkers Compulsive Gamblers about the same time Mac McCaughan & Co. were forming Superchunk in Chapel Hill, N.C. Though Cartwright still brings the raw fury when he’s out with groups like The Oblivians (the band that came after the Gamblers), he long ago shifted his writing style away from the kind of garage-schooled rock ’n’ roll he was known for in the ’90s. As heard on Saturday, Reigning Sound had more in common with, say, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers than Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers — both good, but different beasts.

From the back of the room, it seemed that the few hundred people in attendance skewed heavily toward Gen-Xers raised on 120 Minutes and dubbed VHS skate videos.

Some were perhaps even there as parents of the few younger folks in the room. Going into the evening, I was a bit concerned that I was not going to get the Superchunk set I was used to. Wild Loneliness, the band’s recent album, has such a rootsy feel and an acoustic foundation — the kinds of songs someone might play while seated on a stool. But the band hit the runway ready to fly, uptempo hooks in full effect. I caught myself immediately bobbing my head and bouncing on the

star of Tom Sharpling’s The Best Show, he’s one of relatively few musicians who’s great at social media, he’s a sharp-dressed man — and he’s always spot-on whenever someone, like Superchunk or The Mountain Goats, lets him beat on a drum kit.

Superchunk squeezed a few new ones into the set list, but it never felt like a scripted “here’s a new song” moment. They brought out one of my favorites from the new LP, “Endless Summer,” and the titular ripper from 2018’s What a Time to Be Alive.

The band briefly disappeared behind the curtain, only to emerge a minute later for an encore including the ultra-catchy “Hyper Enough” as well as another audible. It was their cover of the Sebadoh/Sentridoh song “Brand New Love” — one of a trio of Lou Barlow tunes that Superchunk recorded for a 1991 EP called The Freed Seed — dedicated to all of Superchunk’s friends here in Music City, with warmest regards to longtime Merge Records staples Lambchop. When the lights came up, the band had left everything on the field. It was a master class in honoring and expanding a three-decade indie-rock legacy — the sort of show that dedicated followers would hope for, but not one that feels like it would be for them and them alone.

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SIGN OF THE CRIMES Crimes of the Future serves body on multiple levels

BY JASON SHAWHAN

I

t’s never made precisely clear how far in the future the titular crimes are occurring, but a lot of signs in Crimes of the Future point toward a gloriously achievable next phase of human existence. “Inspirational” and “encouraging” are not words one CRIMES OF THE FUTURE usually associates R, 107 MINUTES NOW PLAYING AT THE with Canada’s own BELCOURT AND REGAL prophet of the flesh, AND AMC LOCATIONS David Cronenberg, but the surprises he has in store for adventurous viewers and shell-shocked earthlings alike are unprecedented. Climate crisis is apparent but not explicitly addressed, the dominance of microplastics in the human biome is very present, and technology doesn’t seem to be actively leading to any sort of development, but rather human ingenuity is finding new purposes in abandoned methods and models.

As a species, human beings have evolved beyond pain. That one narrative point lets the mind run wild with the delirious possibilities of pharmaceutical conglomerates brought to heel (as well as corrupt politicians hung out to dry after profiting off of human misery for so very long), the grinding burr of fear robbed of much of its power, and antiquated views on bodily morality (and those who traffic in them) having died out. In 2012’s Cosmopolis, Cronenberg directs Samantha Morton in an exceptional sequence in which, as Vija Kinsky, the “head of theory” in the employ of Robert Pattinson’s renegade billionaire, she addresses the unspoken hinge of all futurism — the mass deaths that must occur between the now and

TANGLED UP IN BLUE

In After Blue, the pleasures are tactile even as the psychological dissociation is eternal

BY JASON SHAWHAN

T

he kind of late-night soak that imprints itself directly into the kaleidoscopic surface of memory rather than as a direct experience, After Blue (Dirty Paradise) is a sensual wallow. It represents a perfectly cohesive world AFTER BLUE (DIRTY that is nonetheless so PARADISE) NR, 129 MINUTES; IN alien to our own that FRENCH, ENGLISH AND the friendly disconnect POLISH WITH ENGLISH it creates in the brain SUBTITLES threatens to destabilize SHOWING JUNE 15-16 AT THE BELCOURT the entire experience.

You can think of this film as a grenade of the most velvety cushions, as pitiless a sci-fi realm as Żulawski’s On the Silver Globe but simultaneously a bad-girl manifesto on par

the future. But what Crimes of the Future supposes — and this is in keeping with a current in Cronenberg’s films for almost 50 years now — is that innovation and evolution are happening on the streets all around us, with perceived elites being left behind to drown in their own status quo.

Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) is an artist, undercover agent and the very site of evolutionary derangement, and he’s finding a way to channel his own mutation into a variant of fame quite unlike anything we would recognize as such. The art gatherings we witness seem like kinky fun (surely this is what a party at Orlan’s house is like) as well as genuinely transgressive — if they were happening in Old Nashville, they would doubtlessly have gone down at the old Shirley Street Station.

Saul and his partner/lover Caprice (Léa Seydoux) are a new Christo and JeanneClaude or Pierre et Gilles; his body grows new organs, she removes them in an act that blends surgery, performance, and grade-

school grossout. At the center of their work is the Sark Control System, an antiquated device for performing autopsies repurposed into something unexpected. Its name is a tribute to Tron, but its function is of a piece with the legendary space-bortion medpod from Prometheus. And it even comes with a repair duo wielding power drills and healthy sexuality, Rotter and Berst, steeped in “Wendy? Yes, Lisa” energy and Breekon and Hope focus. These women have expertise and menace, and are top-notch technicians and murderers. They are Pride Month icons with spinoff potential.

Nobody does the factional (and counterfactional) nature of social movements and secret organizations quite like David Cronenberg. There are heaps of different organizations in play around Tenser’s newest performance piece, and as always it wouldn’t hurt to have some graphing paper handy to keep track of where allegiances lie and who’s working for what ideological

with Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! It even comes with its own built-in drinking game, one that could lay waste to viewers as easily as the weaponry wielded by the women who populate the world (literally and figuratively) of After Blue. Just know that no matter how many times you’ve encountered the pride of Bexleyheath in articles about Stranger Things, you will encounter Kate Bush many, many more times herein.

But this Kate Bush, full name Katarzyna Buszowska (played by Agata Buzek), is a Polish assassin and force of mystic power who threatens to destabilize the post-apocalyptic community that Earth’s surviving population has established on the planet After Blue. After the death of all men, the vibe has become something equal parts nurturing and chaotic.

And though Zora (the legendary Elina Löwensohn) has kept the peace as community hairdresser, her daughter Roxy (occasionally called Toxic) has a kind nature that has freed the renegade Kate Bush and set the community into a firestorm of rage. So Roxy/Toxic and Zora must head into the sensual wilds of After Blue in pursuit of Kate Bush, reshaping archetypes even as they explore the frontier tropes of the past century of cinema.

Sprung from Jodorowsky’s weirdo Westerns, the

hermetic fantasias of James Bidgood and the sensually violent charge of Metal Hurlant magazine, After Blue is a slippery and elusive experience that refuses to allow deep or analytical engagement, keeping the viewer adrift in a swamp of vibrant decadence. This can be a problem if you’re looking for a reinforced nucleus to dig into and engage. But After Blue (Dirty

purpose. Timlin is the civil servant/art groupie embodied by Kristen Stewart in a performance so exciting it is best spoken of in the company of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Allegra Geller in eXistenZ and Deborah Kara Unger as Catherine Ballard in Crash. Timlin is a cipher for the modern world’s abandonment of specialization. She must be all things because no one gets enough time to just focus on being or doing one thing. Similarly, Crimes of the Future isn’t just an innovative sci-fi allegory or plausible next step — it also has to be scandalous, inventive and an unexpected comeback for Cronenberg.

Though it has been eight years since his last feature film, it is deeply unfair to call Crimes of the Future a comeback; David Cronenberg never left modern society. As a culture, we may thank the “Flesh and Blood” season of Slasher and Star Trek: Discovery for reminding executives at various media companies that we have one of the greatest minds in sci-fi and horror ready to go at a moment’s notice — in this case shooting in an Athens, Greece, that seems timeless, set aside from the tangles of what we persist in claiming as The Usual, both in terms of the chaos imagery already there and the effects of long-term austerity on public spaces. This is a shockingly optimistic film, one that implies that the Luddite reticence that reactionary religious types hold will condemn them to extinction, and that only those willing to embrace transformation can hope to survive. Its final image is a breathtaking promise, both benediction and psychosexual cliffhanger, and Crimes of the Future is a masterpiece of infiltration on both the micro (as in cellular) and macro (as in factional) levels. And as an idea, it has already infected the viewer before the digital projector cycles down.

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Paradise) — like writer-director Bertrand Mandico’s previous film, the gender-blending pirate fantasy The Wild Boys — is so much that it requires at least two viewings before one can even attempt to experience it like a regular kind of movie. That’s not mescaline on your popcorn, but it may very well feel like it.

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Common recipe step What psychotherapy can treat, in brief Someone well versed in this puzzle’s theme Many people do this about their height Opining opening James of “Carpool Karaoke” fame Turn on the stove?

“The wait’s almost over” Hammer part Sugar When preceded by [the circled letters], natural shape said to be seen in 61-Across and 27-Down First word of Poe’s “The Raven” “Cat” King of ancient Rome Pupil of a cat’s eye, often ___ jacket (formal men’s wear) Duke’s grp.

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When doubled, notso-subtle nudge Judgment days?

They seem to believe otherwise

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Classic van Gogh subject “What’d I tell you?!”

A bygone age DOWN Starve “You gave me no choice” Brings home Perry who used to have the world’s most-followed Twitter account Written honor Nutritional fig.

Where second gentleman Doug Emhoff got his J.D. “Pass” “Smart” name Razor sharpener Numerical constant associated with [the circled letters] Summer learning opportunity for students Mideast’s Gulf of ___ When doubled, sarcastic laugh ___ Speedwagon Dilemma Word with snake or salad Diner cry after a bell is rung Certain cephalopods Some shindigs Parkinson’s treatment

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Many security guards ___ Colvin, civil rights pioneer who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus nine months before Rosa Parks Nav. rank When preceded by [the circled letters], progression starting with 0 and 1 Warehouse store equipment An alternative?

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Computer pros Like some horse bedding Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth Crafts site Fanning of film Regret They might help you get a job Sternward Propper noun?

Bygone ___ Kazakhstan, e.g., formerly: Abbr.

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ABS ABS ABS ABS ABS ABS EXPERTS EXPERTS EXPERTS EXPERTS EXPERTS EXPERTS

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

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Columbia 1006 Carmack Blvd Columbia, TN 931-398-3350

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 – JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

crossword_6-9-22.indd 45

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Marketplace

Rocky McElhaney Law Firm InjuRy Auto ACCIdEnts

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: May 19, 2022

WRongFul dEAth

Robyn L. Ryan Robert J. Turner Attorneys for Plaintiff

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NSC 5/26, 6/2, 6/9 & 6/16/2022

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LEGAL Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No 22D164 LATREROS J GADDY vs.

LATONYA C GADDY

Rental Scene

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon LATONYA C GADDY. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 16, 2022 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 18, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon LATONYA C GADDY. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 16, 2022 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 18, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

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HealthStream Inc., in Nashville, TN seeks an Advanced Product Solutions Developer to design, develop, and maintain the software products offered.

Reqs. *BS + 5 yrs exp. *3 or 4 year Bachelor’s degree is acceptable. To apply: mail resume to HealthStream, Inc., 500 11th Avenue North, Ste 1000, Nashville, TN 37203; ATTN: Whitney Drucker, Must reference job title: Job ID: 000080

HealthStream Inc., in Nashville, TN seeks an Advanced Product Solutions Developer to design, develop, and maintain the software products offered.

Reqs. *BS + 5 yrs exp. *3 or 4 year Bachelor’s degree is acceptable. To apply: mail resume to HealthStream, Inc., 500 11th Avenue North, Ste 1000, Nashville, TN 37203; ATTN: Whitney Drucker, Must reference job title: Job ID: 000080 HealthStream Inc., in Nashville, TN seeks an Advanced Product Solutions Developer to design, develop, and maintain the software products offered.

Reqs. *BS + 5 yrs exp. *3 or 4 year Bachelor’s degree is acceptable. To apply: mail resume to HealthStream, Inc., 500 11th Avenue North, Ste 1000, Nashville, TN 37203; ATTN: Whitney Drucker, Must reference job title: Job ID: 000080

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Richard R. Rooker, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: May 19, 2022 Robyn L. Ryan Robert J. Turner Attorneys for Plaintiff NSC 5/26, 6/2, 6/9 & 6/16/2022

Your Neighborhood Local attractions nearby: · Rippavilla Mansion · The Crossings of Spring Hill Mall · Kings Creek Golf Club Top 3 bars and restaurants nearby: · Izzy’s Feel Good Food · Nelly’s Italian Café · The Fainting Goat

3 nearby places you can enjoy the outdoors: · Creekside Riding Academy and Stables · Erwin Park · Self-guided battlefield tour Best place nearby to see a show: · First Bank Amphitheater · Whiskey Room Live · Kimbro’s Pickin Parlor Favorite local neighborhood bar: · Froggy and Jeffro’s

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100 John Green Place, Spring Hill, TN 37174 | southavenatcommonwealth.com | 629.777.8333 46

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 - JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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brightonvalley.net | 615.366.5552 nashvillescene.com | JUNE 9 - JUNE 15, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

47

S U H P I TC

Nashville is a diverse city, and we want a pool of freelance contributors who reflect that diversity. We’re looking for new freelancers, and we particularly want to encourage writers of color & LGBTQ writers to pitch us.

Read more at our new pitch guide: nashvillescene.com/pitchguide

MUSIC CITY WE’RE HIRING FULL-TIME BOOKSELLERS! learn more at parnassusbooks.net/jobs

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48

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 9 - JUNE 15, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

Flat.

Studio.

Apartment.

Home.

Whatever you call it, find yours in the Rental Scene.

Nashville Scene’s Marketplace on pages 46 - 47.