Nashville Scene 7-14-22

METROPOLITIK: MAYORAL HOPEFULS ARE FLIRTING WITH THE CITY

JULY 14–20, 2022 I VOLUME 41 I NUMBER 24 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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ART: DETAILS ON A LOCAL EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS

BY FUNK ICON GEORGE CLINTON

BOOKS: NOVELETTE BOOKSELLERS CREATES A SAFE PLACE FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY PAGE 28

PAGE 24

State and federal primaries and Davidson County general elections are on the Aug. 4 ballot

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CONTENTS

JULY 14, 2022

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Metropolitik: Mayoral Hopefuls Are Flirting With the City

Watch Out for the Big Tears

Primal Stream 78 ................................... 35

CITY LIMITS

Cato, Gingrich and O’Connell try to separate themselves from the pack, seizing on Cooper woes

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

8

VODKA YONIC

On the joy of Lizzo’s reality show Watch Out for the Big Grrrls

BY KIM BALDWIN

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State House Races ....................................8 The batch of largely uncontested primaries is headlined by a progressive showdown in District 52

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

State Senate Races ...................................9 An open race for state Senate pits well-known Democrats against one another

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Metro School Board Races........................9 Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 see the first partisan school board races in Nashville history

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Tennessee’s 5th U.S. Congressional District ..................................................... 10 Republicans are fighting on the right — Democrat Heidi Campbell looks for the purple

BY ELI MOTYCKA

The Governor’s Race ............................... 12 Three Democrats vie for the chance to take on Gov. Bill Lee

ART

Visualize Funkology ................................ 24

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BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

MARKETPLACE

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Lee Defends Education Adviser’s Dismissive Comments About Teachers Wine Pro Alex Burch Plans New East Nashville Restaurant Southern Festival of Books Announces 2022 Roster of Authors

THEATER

If These Walls Could Talk

The Hiding Place offers a remarkable story of courage

BY AMY STUMPFL

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BOOKS

Reading Rainbow .................................... 28 The new Novelette Booksellers creates a safe place for the LGBTQ community

Proposed amendments to the Metro Charter involve the health department, NDOT, MNPD requirements and the amendment process itself

Neema Avashia explores community and identity in the South and beyond

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BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

An exhibition of new paintings by the Nashville native is currently on view at Red Arrow Gallery

BY KATELYNN WHITE

BY J.R. LIND

Both Sides of the Blade is a simmering, sensual melodrama

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Artists Talk: Julian Rogers on His Painting ‘Wild Horses on Government Land’ ....... 25

Hear Margo Price, Adia Victoria and Mavis Staples Take a Stand

BY JASON SHAWHAN

BY JOE NOLAN

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Charter Amendments ............................. 12

Beavis and Butt-Head, eerie atmosphere and lots of stand-up, now available to stream

Blade Runner .......................................... 36

An exhibition of George Clinton’s paintings finds the Atomic Dog up to his same old funky tricks

COVER STORY Another Election Issue

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

FILM

A Different Appalachian Upbringing ...... 29

BY JANE MARCELLUS AND CHAPTER 16

31

MUSIC

Transmigration ........................................ 31

CRITICS’ PICKS

Arlo McKinley, Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour, Hot Poet Summer, Weekend Classics: Malcolm X, Showdown at the Southern Gates, The Murfreesboro Hot Chicken Festival, Queer Qlassics: Basic Instinct and more

Lera Lynn reflects on major changes of motherhood on Something More Than Love

BY LORIE LIEBIG

Free to Fly ................................................ 31 Focused on mental health, Nashville rapper Breion Dixon is stronger than ever

BY KATELYNN WHITE

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And I Will Write You a Song ................... 32

The Long Game

The Spin ................................................... 33

Considering the singular and wide-ranging talents of Norah Jones

FOOD AND DRINK

BY RON WYNN

Chef Hadley Long takes over the kitchen at Margot Café & Bar

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Brandi Carlile at Ascend Amphitheater

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

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FROM BILL FREEMAN DOES GOV. LEE AGREE THAT TENNESSEE TEACHERS COME FROM THE ‘DUMBEST PARTS OF THE DUMBEST COLLEGES’?

In January, Gov. Bill Lee used his State of the State Address to announce a “partnership” with Hillsdale College, which would use our state tax dollars to set up charter schools in communities across Tennessee. These new charter schools would use Hillsdale’s 1776 curriculum — a conservative-only program. When NewsChannel 5 recently revealed a discussion between Gov. Lee and Hillsdale’s president, Dr. Larry Arnn, Tennesseans were shocked and appalled. Not just by what Arnn said, but even more by what the governor did not say.

Arnn recently held a private reception and invited Gov. Lee as his surprise guest.

Apparently unaware that someone might record their onstage conversation — in this day and age, I can’t imagine how — Arnn freely issued a string of disrespectful and disconcerting comments that drew swift bipartisan frustration, to say the least.

Footage from the event showed Arnn repeatedly mocking the intelligence of public school teachers and calling into question their care for their students.

Arnn’s unfathomable comments included a claim that “teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” He said, “They are taught that they are going to go and do something to those kids,” and, “And the administrators you hire are all diversity people — and that helps you, by the way, with your federal requirements that you have a certain number by color.” He added that diversity officers have degrees in education because “it’s easy — you don’t have to know anything.” All this while our governor nodded along in agreement.

According to The Washington Post, Arnn’s reference to teachers being trained in the “dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges” came from data “released years ago saying that education majors go to schools that have lower SAT scores than more selective schools,” which has little to do with determining what kind of professional a student will ultimately be. “The majority of America’s highest-ranking schools have suspended or ended the use of SAT/ACT scores for admissions,” notes the Post.

There were additional insults, but to me and many others, the most appalling portion of this discussion between Arnn and Gov. Lee wasn’t just Arnn’s degrading comments — it was the fact that the governor didn’t utter a single word to defend Tennessee teachers or administrators. When watching the video, former public schoolteacher and current state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) said, “[Arnn] just called teachers the most ignorant people on a college campus, and they laughed.” Johnson further noted: “And the governor is sitting here while this is happening, saying nothing! This is horrific. This is horrific for Tennessee.” I wholeheartedly agree.

Even members of the governor’s own party were equally put off.

Republican state Sen. Frank Niceley correctly noted: “We’ve managed to build a state that is the envy of most in fiscal management, economic growth and taxpayer burden. The vast majority of our

GOV. BILL LEE SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE, APRIL 30, 2020 leaders have been educated in Tennessee public schools.” House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison commended the state’s teachers and added: “To argue that they are bottom of the barrel is wrong and ignorant. The guy from Hillsdale doesn’t speak for any Tennessean I know.” Paul Chapman, a member of the state GOP’s executive committee, is advocating against the state using Hillsdale, tweeting, “It’s time for Tennessee to end any association with Dr. Larry Arnn.”

The displeasure with the governor over his “mum’s the word” attitude is obviously being felt on both sides of the aisle. But perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised by the governor’s silence. This is yet another example of Lee remaining silent instead of defending Tennesseans.

In 2021, when Tennessee State Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) was allegedly unethically prescribing opioids and controlled substances, despite knowing how many Tennesseans die from opioid abuse and overdose, the governor said nothing.

After the Uvalde school shooting, the governor signed an executive order on school safety — which state Sen. Vincent Dixie deemed “an exercise in nothingness” — but stayed quiet on gun control.

Now the governor gives priority to his Hillsdale partnership over respect and consideration for Tennessee teachers or “diversity people.”

Further, the governor still declines to criticize Arnn. He is talking out of both sides of his mouth — trying to walk his political fine line while also trying to assure us that he cares about Tennesseans. He recently said he “fully supports our public schools … and the teachers as well,” then in the same breath defended Arnn. “It wasn’t about Tennessee teachers or Tennessee schools as much as it was about activism in education and this country,” said Lee. Even when directly asked if this was the type of group he wanted teaching Tennessee children, Lee only said that his “comments about teachers and about the future of public education have been very clear.”

About as clear as mud, governor. Frankly, Lee’s actions are speaking so loudly that I can’t hear a word he’s saying.

PHOTO: TIA DUFOUR

PET OF THE WEEK!

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, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, 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 Editorial Intern Claudia Villeda 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 | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS METROPOLITIK

MAYORAL HOPEFULS ARE FLIRTING WITH THE CITY

Cato, Gingrich and O’Connell try to separate themselves from the pack, seizing on Cooper woes

BY ELI MOTYCKA

H

al Cato, Freddie O’Connell and Jim Gingrich have all fired off pointed messaging in recent weeks, early attempts to build support among the city’s insider class. O’Connell announced his candidacy in April and has raised in the low six figures.

Cato and Gingrich have yet to make formal announcements, but have publicly and privately indicated their intentions to run.

Opponents see an opening as Mayor John Cooper navigates a couple sticky situations.

The city’s obligations to the Titans have been parlayed into plans for a new domed stadium with a $2.2 billion price tag. It’s a thorny topic, especially next to fresh memories of delayed trash pickup and framerattling potholes. A full explanation requires deep dives into complex funding mechanisms, costs of upkeep under the current Titans lease, tax redirects and municipal bonding capacity.

Jim Gingrich, former COO of AllianceBernstein, circulated his own analysis of Cooper’s handling — mishandling, according to Gingrich — of the Titans stadium deal last week. Gingrich is no stranger to billions (AB manages 10.5 of them) and has worked his way into the city’s social-political scene in the few short years since the company moved to Nashville from Manhattan.

On July 5, Gingrich issued an “Open Letter to Metro Council” urging city leaders to check-and-balance the mayor’s office. Concerned about the “apparent lack of stewardship in this important negotiation,” Gingrich warns that the Titans are fleecing the city and that a new stadium equates to a multibillion-dollar transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the professional football franchise. A new stadium would be a boon for one of the NFL’s least valuable franchises, owned by some of the league’s poorest billionaires, the Adams-

FREDDIE O’CONNELL

6

Strunk family. New avenues for revenue, like stadium naming rights and personal seat licenses, would quickly return and possibly exceed the Adams-Strunks’ $700 million investment. The city would be on the hook for an estimated $1.2 billion plus another $1 billion in East Bank upgrades — about $3,000 per resident, according to Gingrich.

Gingrich has a seat in many of the city’s top business circles. He co-signed a Tennessean opinion piece in April that pointed out all the benefits of a new stadium, leaving critics to characterize Gingrich’s pivot as an attempt to score political points.

“The two pieces are very consistent,” Gingrich tells the Scene. “I am not against a new stadium; I am opposed to a one-sided deal that shortchanges taxpayers and Titans fans.”

According to the Titans, speculation is premature. “We don’t even know the seating capacity of a new stadium,“ says Kate Guerra, the team’s VP of marketing and communications. “We don’t have a financial model yet.” New stadiums typically increase team values dramatically, even if the team hasn’t gamed the exact financial implications of a $700 million outlay.

Meanwhile, Cooper is trying to stay above the fray. Per TJ Ducklo, the mayor’s communications director: “Setting aside the transparent political theater by a recent Nashvillian, the muddled critique fails to consider the most important fact facing the city: The current lease signed in the late 1990s leaves taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of tax dollars for stadium maintenance.”

Cooper hasn’t officially announced a reelection bid, but on the campaign side he’s started taking money from lobbyists aligned with the Titans, big business and the East Bank. A $5,000-a-head fundraiser on June 28 attracted local figures like Sam Reed, Greg Hinote, James Weaver and Beecher

HAL CATO

Frasier. Cooper self-financed his 2019 mayoral bid; last month’s event raised more than $300,000, which may go toward paying down the $725,000 in loans owed by the Cooper campaign to Cooper the individual.

Councilmember Freddie O’Connell recently took aim at the mayor for legislation setting up Nashville to host the 2024 Republican National Convention. Ahead of the Metro Council’s planned vote — the legislation was pulled at the last minute, before official yeas and nays — O’Connell issued an under-the-radar press release on June 29, accusing Cooper of mixed messages.

O’Connell pointed out that the mayor’s fingerprints were all over the proposed RNC contract while Cooper’s office indicated to councilmembers that he hopes it wouldn’t survive. “Political games like this make our city and government look amateurish and chaotic, at best, and dishonest at worst,” O’Connell wrote. Opponents are still trying to keep RNC approval at bay and scored a victory last week when the bill was withdrawn before a council vote.

Thistle Farms executive Hal Cato teased his own bid in a tightly circulated memo marking his last day at the West Nashville nonprofit. “The soul of the city we both love seemed to be disappearing and I started asking myself what, if anything, I wanted to do about it,” Cato wrote in a crisp email sent at 5:40 a.m. “However, the bigger question was does Nashville think we have the right leader in place to do something about it and if not, could I be that person?” Cato shadowboxes with Cooper for a few hundred words, stepping right up to the edge of declaring a 2023 campaign — for which he’s already done polling.

Matt Wiltshire has been low-key since talking to Axios about exploring a mayoral bid a few months ago. He’s building his hype in person, sharing what he’s been up to since leaving the Metro Development and Housing Agency at a recent gathering of supporters. He also recently met with Leigh Walton, the kingmaker partner at Bass, Berry & Sims who served as treasurer for former Mayor Karl Dean.

Still a year out from voting, the mayoral election is in the air as hopefuls try to keep themselves top of mind. Titans and RNC conversations seem to have these five highachieving professionals using their six Ivy League degrees to jockey for position, taking advantage of news cycles to flank the incumbent. For now, most of it is just chatter.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

JIM GINGRICH

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: Gov. Bill Lee continued to defend — or at least downplay — comments made by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, who said, at an event with Lee, that teachers “are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country,” and that “you don’t have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”

Arnn also called public education “the plague.”

During a radio interview, Lee — who took an oath to defend the state constitution, which guarantees the maintenance and support of public schools and “recognizes the inherent value of education” — tried to reframe Arnn’s comments as a partisan attack on “left-wing” issues in education rather than a referendum on the general education system. Meanwhile, legislative leaders and, well, a whole raft of other people have condemned Arnn’s comments, and the only charter school in Tennessee using the Hillsdale curriculum announced it was ending the partnership.

Lee’s wife and sister both have degrees in education, and he is a graduate of Franklin High School, regularly ranked as one of the top public schools in the state. … Speaking of public education, Metro Nashville Public Schools announced that TCAP scores rebounded this year after a pandemic learning-loss drop. In some cases, scores surpassed scores from those heady days before COVID-19. (Remember those?) Up from last year, 27 percent of students met or exceeded English-language-arts expectations, and 19 percent of students met or exceeded expectations in math. The upward trend for ELA and math results is consistent through elementary, middle and high school. MNPS notes that significant progress still needs to be made to get more students on track with state standards, and this is particularly true for students of color, economically disadvantaged students, students with learning disabilities and English language learners. … The coolernamed but less-contagious latest global pandemic has come to Davidson County. On July 7, the Metro Public Health Department reported the first case of monkeypox in a Davidson County resident. The individual recently traveled to a country that has reported monkeypox cases and is isolating at home. Over the weekend, Metro reported an additional two cases — these three are the first cases in the state. … The sponsors of a Metro Council bill rather anticlimactically pulled the resolution paving the way for Nashville to host the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Mayor John Cooper’s footsy-playing with the RNC and state officials (who, in case you hadn’t noticed, are almost invariably Republican) caused much consternation and a teensy-weensy bit of political point scoring

by Cooper’s would-be challengers in the 2023 mayoral race. The council also deferred action on Cooper’s 10 nominees to the Metro Human Rights Commission.

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

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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State and federal primaries and Davidson County general elections are on the Aug. 4 ballot It’s time to vote. Again.

Early voting for Nashville’s Aug. 4 election begins Friday, July 15, at the Howard Office Building on Second Avenue South, and will expand to all early voting locations on Wednesday, July 20. The last day of early voting is set for Saturday, July 30, and the hours and addresses of all 11 early-voting spots can be found via nashville.gov.

So what’s on the ballot here in Davidson County? With the Metro primaries having taken place in May, the Aug. 4 ballot will feature the citywide general elections, many of which are uncontested. Elections for circuit court, chancery court, general sessions, juvenile court and criminal court judgeships as well as the offices of district attorney, public defender, county trustee, sheriff, register of deeds, circuit court clerk, criminal court clerk and juvenile court clerk are all uncontested, most of those races having been effectively decided by the spring’s Democratic primaries. (The one exception in that lot is General Sessions Division IX, as Republican Brian A. Horowitz is facing off against Democrat Lynda F. Jones in the general.) Also on the municipal ballot are four

proposed Metro Charter amendments (read more about those on p. 12) and the general matchups for Metro Nashville Public Schools board districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 (more on p.

9), the first partisan faceoffs in Metro school board history. Also on the ballot is the race for Oak Hill city commissioner.

Also on the slate for Aug. 4 are statewide primaries — and there’s a lot of action on that front. In this issue, find details on the state House (p. 8) and Senate (p. 9) primary races taking place in Nashville, as well as the Democratic gubernatorial primary (p. 12). And on the federal front, Aug. 4 will see primary elections for U.S. House of Representatives districts 5, 6 and 7. With the former Democratic stronghold 5th Congressional District having been carved up by redistricting at the hands of Tennessee Republicans earlier this year, that district’s Republican primary has become a massive free-for-all. Read more on that on p. 10.

Read on for more. And once again, we’ll see you at the polls.

—D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

STATE HOUSE RACES The batch of largely uncontested primaries is headlined by a progressive showdown in District 52

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ THE REPRESENTATIVES for Nashville’s 10 state House districts are on the ballot this year. Half of the races are uncontested, but there are primary matchups in districts 52 and 59, and in the November general election, an incumbent Democrat will face a Republican in districts 53, 59 and 60.

The marquee primary race on the Aug. 4 ballot is District 52’s contest between bona fide progressives Delishia Porterfield and Justin Jones.

Porterfield has experience as an elected official — she has served as the Metro councilmember for District 29 since 2019 and is the former vice chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. She also supported calls to redirect funding for law enforcement to other areas of the city’s budget. She worked as a special education coach for Metro Nashville Public Schools and has served on the Metro Council’s Education Committee.

Jones is a well-known activist and has been a frequent presence at the Tennessee State Capitol advocating for social justice and pushing back against the legislature’s

8

JUSTIN JONES various right-wing platforms. In 2019, he clashed with then-Speaker of the House Glen Casada, whose chief of staff submitted false evidence against the activist (unintentionally, he said) to the Davidson County District Attorney’s office. In summer 2020, Jones was also one of several founding members of the People’s Plaza, a 60-day protest initiative against police brutality held

DELISHIA PORTERFIELD across the street from the Capitol.

District 52 includes part of southeast Nashville around Antioch, as well as a small part of East Nashville. The seat currently belongs to Democrat Mike Stewart, who is not seeking reelection. There is no Republican candidate, so the primary winner will effectively win the seat.

In District 53, Democrat Jason Powell will

face off in the November general against Republican Dia Hart. Powell won his seat in 2012 and has represented the district that stretches from Berry Hill down Nolensville Pike to Cane Ridge.

In District 59, Democrat Jason Potts is stepping down. Michelle Foreman and Wyatt Rampy are racing for the Republican nomination, with the winner facing off in the November general election against Caleb Hemmer, the only Democrat on the ballot.

District 59 has been redrawn to contain parts of Bellevue, Belle Meade, Antioch and other southeastern neighborhoods in Davidson County.

In District 60, which includes parts of Old Hickory and Donelson, incumbent Democrat Darren Jernigan will see a Republican challenger in Christopher Huff this fall. For a while it looked like Jernigan might face off against Jim Gotto for a third time, but the Republican withdrew from his party’s primary. Gotto was the previous District 60 rep before Jernigan unseated him in 2012 — Jernigan trounced him to secure reelection in 2014 and has held his seat since then.

Incumbents Bo Mitchell (District 50), Bill Beck (District 51), Vincent Dixie (District 54), John Ray Clemmons (District 55), Bob Freeman (District 56) and Harold Love (District 58) do not have any primary challengers on the August ballot, and will not face Republican opponents in the November general. ■

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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STATE SENATE RACES An open race for state Senate pits well-known Democrats against one another

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT THE RACE FOR state Senate District 19 in Davidson County began with a vocabulary lesson.

Skulduggery (noun): underhanded or unscrupulous behavior, a devious device or trick.

State Sen. Brenda Gilmore, who has represented the district for one four-year term, announced she was retiring, but only as the qualifying deadline for the August primary was passing. She used her retirement announcement to announce she had picked Keeda Haynes as her successor.

And Haynes, conveniently, had just qualified to run.

Unfortunately for the duo of Democratic women, the state has a law banning such dastardly, anti-democratic moves. Gilmore’s surprise decision to withdraw so late in the cycle triggered an extension of the qualifying deadline, Haynes dropped out, and a handful of other Democrats took the opportunity to run for the now-open seat.

Voters in the district, which following 2022 redistricting includes a jigsawed selection of central and southeastern Davidson County, face a choice that has turned into something of a proxy war in Nashville politics. One Republican, Pime Hernandez, is running, plus Democrats Barry Barlow, Jerry Maynard, Charlane Oliver, Rossi Turner and Ludye (“On Duty”) Wallace.

Wallace and Maynard are both wellknown former Metro councilmembers.

Maynard has remained heavily involved in city politics as a lobbyist for the Tennessee Titans, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp and Nashville General Hospital.

Wallace, a past president of the Nashville NAACP, briefly ran for mayor in the 2018 special election, with his candidacy used as an instrument to fast-track the election that Metro officials sought to put off for months. Oliver has been a regular presence in Nashville’s progressive circles for years, especially since co-founding The Equity Alliance in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

While Wallace is a known quantity and has been active on the campaign trail, it’s Maynard and Oliver who have attracted the most attention and split some of the city’s most prominent public figures. One candidate’s polling found that more than half of district voters were still undecided in the primary.

Maynard is backed by former Mayor Karl Dean, a handful of Nashville state lawmakers, Metro Councilmember Sharon Hurt and Gilmore herself, while former Mayor Megan Barry (whose resignation led to Wallace’s last significant foray into politics), Metro Public Defender Martesha Johnson and Metro Nashville Public Schools board chair Christiane Buggs are backing Oliver.

For Oliver, it was in part the skulduggery that drew her to the race.

“That went directly against my values,” Oliver says. “I have been a staunch voting rights advocate. Everyone gets to have a voice. When that was literally taken away from us, I said ‘No, that’s not acceptable, and we should have options.’ When I looked around at who was looking to run, I didn’t like my options, and I felt like I was a better candidate.”

In the years since it was founded, The Equity Alliance has focused on engaging and registering Black voters around Tennessee, work that led to a high-profile fight with Secretary of State Tre Hargett.

Oliver is not shy about criticizing Maynard for his establishment connections and past work both in and near government.

“I would challenge anyone to look at this race and say, ‘Who has been the one speaking up?’ ” says Oliver. “ ‘Who has been the one showing up when people are being displaced in Nashville? Who has been the person that has been registering voters to get people to turn out? Who has been the person who has protested companies that are coming here asking for corporate incentives and not making it fair and equitable for people to live in Nashville?’

That person has been me. People want to tout that they [were] on the council, but you’re also responsible for the terrible situation that we’re in in Nashville where people can’t afford to live here. … It’s one thing to run for office and wave your hands and talk about what you’re doing, but where have you beat the pavement and talked to voters? Where have you registered a voter?

Where have you got out here and put your body on the line and protested? Those are real things I’ve sacrificed.”

In a release announcing his candidacy, Maynard touted work on voter registration efforts during his time as a Tennessee Democratic Party official in the 2000s.

For Gilmore, Maynard’s experience and connections are what make him the choice in the Democratic primary.

(The Democratic nominee, whoever it is, is heavily favored to win the largely progressive district’s general election in November.)

Though she thinks all of the Democratic candidates “are good people,” Gilmore is supporting Maynard because she thinks he would be most effective in the Republicandominated legislature, and thinks he will work to support abortion rights, gun control measures and equity in business.

“Jerry is a negotiator,” Gilmore says.

“With a supermajority in both the House and the Senate, I think he’ll be able to reach across the aisle without selling his soul and get things done. … He has a reputation for getting things done, and that’s what we need in the Tennessee General Assembly.”

Gilmore has held elected office since the late 1990s, first on the Metro Council, then in the state House and now in the Senate. As she did when she first backed Haynes, she says she is stepping down because she “wanted to give the next generation of leaders an opportunity to serve.” Though Maynard is older than Haynes, himself having worked in Nashville since the 1990s, Gilmore says she sees Maynard, too, as “part of the next generation.” ■

METRO SCHOOL BOARD RACES Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 see the first partisan school board races in Nashville history

BY KELSEY BEYELER

CHARLANE OLIVER

JERRY MAYNARD

LUDYE WALLACE

THE AUG. 4 SCHOOL BOARD elections will be the first partisan races in Metro Nashville Public Schools history.

They’re also the first school board elections since 2020. In the years since the start of the pandemic, there has been heightened attention on local school boards, as heated political discourse has crept into the education realm and students continue to recover academically from a year of COVIDinduced virtual learning. Some parents felt emboldened, taking on a greater role in their kids’ education — not to mention the education of the roughly 82,000 other students in MNPS. There are two main camps in this year’s elections — those who have experience with education policy and those who don’t. Incumbents Rachael Anne Elrod (District 2) and Fran Bush (District 6) are running to keep their seats. Cheryl Mayes (District 6) served on the board from 2012 to 2014, but was not reelected in 2014. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney (District 4) owns an education consulting firm and was appointed to temporarily represent District 4 after then-representative Anna Shepherd died in 2020. Though John Little was ultimately elected to carry out the remainder of Shepherd’s term in the district, he lost to NabaaMcKinney in this year’s Democratic primary election. Erin O’Hara Block (District 8) has held various educationrelated positions for the state and served as the executive director for the Tennessee Education Research Alliance. Aside from Bush, who is running as an independent, all of these candidates are running as Democrats, having won their party’s primaries in May. Other candidates are citing their passion as parents in hopes of winning votes. Edward Arnold (District 2) and Amy Pate (District 8) are running as independents, while Todd Pembroke (District 2) and Kelli Phillips (District 4) won the Republicans primaries.

Arnold has teaching experience, and Pate has been active within parentteacher organizations.

Last month, Conexión Américas, Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, CivicTN and Urban League of Middle Tennessee hosted a forum for the MNPS candidates, moderated by The Tenneseean’s David Plazas. Bush was the only candidate not in attendance, but she spoke through surrogate Bernadette Minyard.

Candidates’ opinions mostly stayed within party lines. Arnold, who unsuccessfully ran in 2014 and 2018, said he’s running independently >> P. 10

ROSSI TURNER

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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because neither Republicans nor Democrats supported his fiscal proposals. Pate, who was especially critical of the district for keeping schools closed in 2020, said she’s running independently because she doesn’t “want to be involved in culture wars.” Bush also pushed for schools to reopen that year and often defies, butts heads with and criticizes her fellow current board members.

Plazas asked every candidate if they believe teachers should be armed in case of active shooters.

Pembroke, a member of the U.S. Army National Guard, was the only candidate who supported the idea — so long as teachers receive training. Other candidates, including Phillips and Arnold, didn’t provide a definitive response about arming teachers.

Arnold, along with Pembroke, Phillips and Minyard (on behalf of Bush) stated support for school resource officers. Bush does not support arming teachers. O’Hara Block and Elrod, who don’t support arming teachers, also were critical of the presence of SROs in schools.

Neither Pate, Nabaa-McKinney nor Mayes mentioned SROs, but none supported arming teachers.

The Metropolitan Nashville Education Association Political Action Committee for Education — Nashville’s teachers’ union — endorsed Elrod, NabaaMcKinney, Mayes and O’Hara Block. SEIU Local 205, which represents some MNPS support staff, endorsed Elrod, NabaaMcKinney and O’Hara Block.

SEIU is not endorsing a candidate in District 6. Though SEIU declined to comment, both Bush and Mayes have been criticized by unions in the past. In 2021, the teachers’ union filed an ethics complaint against Bush for fighting with teachers about reopening schools. In 2014, SEIU accused Mayes of violating board policies regarding campaigning on MNPS property. An SEIU blog post from that year says Mayes was “ousted from elected office thanks to the strength of SEIU’s political program. … Mayes was also a staunch supporter of the director of schools, Jesse Register, who the union has had repeated conflicts with since he arrived in Nashville.”

The attention surrounding the school board has died down since the district removed its mask mandate, and most culture-warrelated issues have played out at the state level. The matters most likely to dominate the coming year include charter schools, safety and security, academic recovery, censorship and routine board responsibilities. ■

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TENNESSEE’S 5TH U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Republicans are fighting on the right — Democrat Heidi Campbell looks for the purple

BY ELI MOTYCKA NASHVILLE’S 5TH U.S. Congressional District is now splattered across Middle Tennessee, a jigsawed polygon conjured by creative Tennessee Republicans in a redistricting plan aimed at picking up a seat in this year’s midterms. The 5th won’t have an incumbent in the November general election — Jim Cooper, who held the seat for 20 years, bowed out almost immediately following redistricting — pitting gadflies against party insiders in a litmus test for Republican politics in Tennessee. Democrat Heidi Campbell, who is uncontested in her party’s primary, has a narrow lane to victory that requires her to capture purple middle ground vacated by Republicans racing to the right. But the district, which stretches from Mt. Juliet to Bellevue to Hohenwald, is more pink than violet.

Back in the winter, the 5th attracted national media attention as a prime example of partisan gerrymandering. The GOP used its supermajority in the state House and Senate to crack Nashville three ways, drawing sections of Davidson County into the 5th, 6th and 7th Congressional districts. The three meet up near the Krispy Kreme on Thompson Lane. (The 6th and 7th remain conservative strongholds, with incumbent Reps. John Rose and Mark Green, respectively, unopposed in their Republican primaries.)

Cooper, who presented alternative maps to state legislators in late 2021, used the subsequent media cycle to sling blame toward unspecified Nashville power brokers who could have “easily changed the minds of enough legislators to change the map.” Extremely well-connected politically, Cooper is the older brother of Nashville Mayor John Cooper. Their father, Prentice Cooper, was Tennessee’s segregationist governor during World War II. “I could not stop the General Assembly from dismembering Nashville,” Jim Cooper wrote in a retirement press release. “No one tried harder to keep this city whole.”

The longtime U.S. rep lamented the death of Nashville’s political representation via extended metaphor in The Tennessean on the same day that New York Times columnist (and former longtime Scene contributor) Margaret Renkl elegized Nashville and eulogized Cooper. Even before Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s Ad Hoc Committee on Redistricting inked its final boundaries, the writing was on the wall: Why would the modern GOP, eager for House seats, turn down a legally viable chance for an electoral advantage?

The seat has become a free-for-all. Morgan Ortagus, fresh off a stint in the Trump administration, came out of nowhere with the former president’s endorsement only to get kicked off the ballot by the Tennessee GOP in April. State Republicans also kicked off far-right media personality Robby Starbuck (né Newsom), who moved to Franklin in 2019. He raised a boatload of money this spring and has since launched a primary write-in campaign, one more wildcard for

HEIDI CAMPBELL

BETH HARWELL

Republicans to deal with in August.

On the Republican side, nine candidates remain. Three have the résumés and fundraising numbers to be considered frontrunners. Beth Harwell, former speaker of the state House, is a Belle Meade Republican attempting a key test of political dexterity for any legacy politician running in a Trump-era GOP primary: adopt enough fascist elements to protect the right flank without betraying suburban conservatives who may have other options. In June, Harwell said she didn’t want Trump’s endorsement. After being kicked out of the race in April, Ortagus came on as an adviser for retired National Guardsman Kurt Winstead, who bills himself as the trustworthy political outsider. He’s turned big fundraising into a flood of radio and TV ads, never missing a chance to remind voters that he was a (governor-appointed) brigadier general — he prefers to draw less attention to his wife’s role as a career lobbyist. Billionaire John Ingram, a Republican megadonor, maxed out to both top candidates while his family lined up behind Harwell.

On paper, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles is a step below Harwell on name recognition and a comma behind Winstead’s fundraising. But Maury County is big, and he may have an edge on the ground game.

The remaining six candidates have, by comparison, anemic campaigns with Little League budgets. Many, specifically Stewart Parks and Tim Lee, have taken to Tennessean debate stages to amplify less-hinged

GOP talking points, like support for last year’s failed attempt to overthrow the government and accusations that Democrats are engaged in acts of coordinated violence.

Oftentimes the top of the ticket drives turnout. Without a contested gubernatorial primary, smaller, energized constituencies can get relatively more power. This could split the race into several sizable chunks and hand the nomination to a cult favorite with 25 to 30 percent of the vote.

Democrat Heidi Campbell has no competition. The former mayor of Oak Hill (who also self-identifies as a Williamson County soccer mom) is watching the Republican fracas move further from the middle ground that she sees as the prevailing politics of the district: more Brentwood fiscal conservatism, less “Hang Mike Pence.”

“The Republican Party is beholden to a monolithic agenda,” Campbell tells the Scene a week before voting starts. “It doesn’t matter the nuances of the candidate — they have no ability to control the national conversation. Most people live in that central space. Not the crazy wings of the spectrum.”

With a big fundraising disclosure out this month, Campbell hopes her campaign can attract national party leaders scouring the country trying to hold onto a razor-thin margin in the House. She’s betting on the same moderate appeal that helped her win a state Senate seat from Republican Steve Dickerson in 2020. ■

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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THE GOVERNOR’S RACE Three Democrats vie for the chance to take on Gov. Bill Lee

CHARTER AMENDMENTS Proposed amendments to the Metro Charter involve the health department, NDOT, MNPD requirements and the amendment process itself

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT IT’S HARD TO disrupt Tennessee’s history of giving its governors a second term in office.

Since the state constitution was amended in 1978 to allow incumbents to run for a second consecutive four-year term, no governor has run for reelection and lost.

It’s also hard for Democrats to win statewide elections in Tennessee — something they haven’t done since 2006.

Still, three Democrats are trying to unseat Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who avoided a messy primary challenge and is on a fast track to reelection. In August, Tennessee Democrats will choose between Carnita Atwater, Jason Martin and JB Smiley Jr., who are vying for the right to take on Lee. None is very well known. Just one (Smiley, a Memphis city councilmember) has held public office. Just one (Martin, a Nashville-based physician) has proven capable of raising very much money, though his totals still pale in comparison to Lee’s. They’re trying to do something that well-known, wealthy and experienced former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean did not even come close to accomplishing in 2018, when he ran as the Democratic nominee for governor and the mostly unknown political novice Lee beat him by 21 points.

At a debate late last month at Tennessee State University’s Avon Williams Campus, the three sought to draw distinctions among one another while struggling to articulate a path forward against Lee and supermajority Republicans. On the issues, the three largely agreed: Lee has done a terrible job, and the Republicans in the legislature are holding the state back. Particularly, the three argued, Lee and his fellow Republicans have failed Tennessee on education, health care and gun control.

Martin said the governor’s race “can absolutely be won.” Pulling off a victory would require “having a vision” and developing a policy platform that demonstrates to reliably Republican voters in smaller counties that “our agenda is their agenda.”

The physician also said his trips to all 95 counties, and relationships made along the way, would help him engage a larger portion of the electorate and “chip away at the supermajority.”

Smiley argued that his charisma was necessary to win the race, saying that he was the only person among the three who could get voters excited and that the election needed “a different type of candidate to run a different type of campaign.”

He also took a shot at Martin, who is not from Tennessee, by arguing that he did not need a 95-county tour to understand the state.

If elected, Atwater — a community activist from Memphis — said she would repeal a GOP law eliminating handgun carry permits “on day one,” though she did not explain exactly how she would accomplish that unilaterally. Also on day one, Atwater said, she would attack political and judicial corruption. If elected governor, Martin said he would use “the bully pulpit” to fight back against Republicans in the legislature, despite the state’s weak gubernatorial veto powers. Smiley, for his part, would eliminate no-bid contracts, he said, among other priorities.

Atwater lamented that an action plan aimed at mobilizing Democrats should have been launched a year ago, but said questionnaires, flyers and ads would be necessary for a successful bid to beat Lee and his built-in advantages.

“We have missed the mark,” she said. ■

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BY J.R. LIND AS HAS BECOME fairly standard practice, Davidson County voters will be asked to vote on amending the Metro Charter in the August election. The four charter amendments come at the end of the extraordinarily long ballot, which includes primaries for state and federal office, the general election for certain county offices and state judicial retention questions.

But the first of the four may make it a touch more difficult to put future amendments on the ballot.

J.B. SMILEY

JASON MARTIN

AMENDMENT 1 changes the way the charter is amended and — to say the quiet part out loud — was almost certainly at least partially inspired by an ongoing Americans for Prosperity-backed effort to change the charter to radically overhaul the way Metro sets its property tax rate. In any case, Amendment 1’s supporters claim it will make certain requirements for putting an amendment to referendum via petition easier to understand. What it does in fact do is raise the threshold for the ballot. Under the current charter, a petition to add an amendment to the ballot says the petition must have signatures equal to or exceeding 10 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the preceding general election. The amendment changes that figure to 10 percent of all registered voters. This can drastically increase the requirement, given that Metro elections rarely draw more than 25 percent turnout, midterm state and federal elections hover around 50 percent, and presidential elections draw in the mid to low 60s.

The amendment also increases the role of the charter review committee in petition-driven charter changes by giving that board the power to approve language before it goes to the election commission. It does allow for appeals of those decisions to chancery court.

AMENDMENT 2 will potentially change the physical requirements for recruits to the Metro Nashville Police and Nashville Fire departments. For decades, those requirements have matched those of the United States Army or Navy. The amendment would instead allow the civil service commission to write those standards.

To match state law, the amendment would also add a requirement that police recruits be United States citizens.

AMENDMENT 3 makes a distinction between the board of health and the Metro Public Health Department and updates the requirements for Metro’s director of health. It also removes or replaces certain outdated language (substituting “mentally ill” for “insane,” for example).

CARNITA ATWATER

AMENDMENT 4 officially creates the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure. NDOT is already operational under a 2021 memorandum of understanding, which effectively replaced the Department of Public Works with the new department, and the charter change will allow Metro to pursue grants and federal funding via NDOT. That 2021 MOU also, rather confusingly, moved trash and recycling collection under the purview of Metro Water.

The charter amendment does not make that change permanent, meaning the Metro Council would have to do so through the standard legislative process. The mayor’s office has crafted legislation to do just that, but an alternative would be the creation of a separate waste services division.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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317 Seven Springs Way, Brentwood, TN 43027

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Nashville Scene tells you all about the

BEST

Nashville has to offer.

PRESENTED BY

Now, see it for yourself!

DOWNTOWN

Saturday, July 16

Sunday, July 24

SONGWRITER SESSION

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Ray Fulcher

Jason Coleman

NOON · FORD THEATER

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, July 16

Saturday, July 30

NASHVILLE CATS

SONGWRITER SESSION

Kenny Lovelace

Gavin DeGraw

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, July 17

Sunday, July 31

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Steve Hinson

Wanda Vick

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, July 23

Saturday, August 6

SONGWRITER SESSION

SONGWRITER SESSION

Kimberly Kelly, Brett Tyler, and Bobby Tomberlin

Ronnie Bowman

NOON · FORD THEATER

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

NOON · FORD THEATER Sunday, August 7

Justin Moses 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Check our calendar for a full schedule of upcoming programs and events.

Museum Membership Museum members receive unlimited Museum admission, concert ticket pre-sale opportunities, and much more.

JOIN TODAY: CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

Grab a spot on the Best of Nashville City Tour OFFICIAL TOUR PARTNER OF BEST OF NASHVILLE

Visit graylinetn.com/ BestofNashville to book your tour today

CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y

R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

T O

D O

MUSIC

THURSDAY / 7.14 [BLESS THIS MESS]

ARLO McKINLEY

On Die Midwestern, Arlo McKinley’s 2020 debut for John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, the Southern Ohioan songsmith set to music the dark cloud perpetually hanging over his naturally beautiful, chemically ravaged home turf. He had a vote of confidence from the late Prine, who, when his son Jody Whelan played him McKinley’s calling-card tune “Bag of Pills,” responded simply, “That’s a good song.” McKinley forges ahead with This Mess We’re In, which is set for a July 15 release date. His press materials note Social Distortion as a formative influence, and as someone who’ll defend Mike Ness & Co.’s eponymous 1990 LP to the death, I’m all for everything McKinley’s doing. A pair of seasoned Cincinnati acts are set to open: the wild-eyed Kentuckian songsmith Jeremy Pinnell, and party-starting Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

MEGAN COLEMAN

FRIDAY / 7.15

FRIDAY, JULY 15

Analog at Hutton Hotel

[THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE]

MEGAN COLEMAN

At this point, you probably know pretty well that marquee names depend on a panoply of incredible session and touring musicians to bring their songs to life. Hell, we have a museum dedicated to them and their work — that’d be the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, attached to the Municipal Auditorium. Appearing in a museum is great, but why wait to celebrate these folks? You’ve seen and heard expert drummer and percussionist Megan Coleman with Yola, Jenny Lewis, Brandi Carlile, Keith Urban and many more. (Coleman, born and raised in Detroit, even joined up with some pals to start a techno and house improv band called Wiggle Room, who played their first show at The 5 Spot a few months ago.) Friday night, she’ll take center stage at Analog for a set she’s worked up with a few of her many friends. Guitarist and singer Ping Rose, singer Kendra Chantelle, keyboardist Harrison Finks and bassist Carl Fields Jr. will join Coleman for a set she has described like so: “Come through if you like fun and dancing and (potential) sweaty hugs afterwards.” 8 p.m. at Analog at Hutton Hotel, 1808 West End Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER [EAT MY SHORTS]

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORT FILM TOUR

The Belcourt is having a rip-roaring

month. This week, amid all the promising new releases (Official Competition! Marcel the Shell With Shoes On! Both Sides of the Blade!) and scintillating repertory screenings (Lost Highway! Malcolm X! Willy Wonka! Basic Instinct!), the beloved local cinema is also hosting a vital annual offering — the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour. The 95-minute program, which kicks off Friday, will include seven outstanding short films from January’s installment of the iconic film fest. Among the sampling are three Sundance award winners: U.S. Fiction winner “If I Go Will They Miss Me,” about a boy from Watts, Calif., who’s obsessed with Greek mythology; Screenwriting winner “Stranger Than Rotterdam With Sara Driver,” about the distribution woes of Jim Jarmusch’s sophomore film Stranger Than Paradise; and International Fiction winner “Warsha,” about a Syrian crane operator working in Beirut. There’s plenty more strong fare in the mix, from comedy to coming-ofage. The Sundance Shorts program is a great opportunity to see the early work of tomorrow’s marquee filmmakers. Don’t miss it. July 15-21 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. D. PATRICK RODGERS [WET HOT]

HOT POET SUMMER

The Porch Writers’ Collective is trying something new with this three-day program to celebrate poetry. It kicks off at 6

p.m. Friday with a conversation with awardwinning poet (and native Nashvillian) Anna B. Sutton, who will discuss publishing her first collection, Savage Flower. It continues at 3 p.m. Saturday with a workshop with poet and fiction writer Ananda Lima called Take a Break: An Exploration of the Poetic Line — registration is required for that part.

Following the workshop at 5 p.m., Sutton and Lima will participate in a reading, along with fellow Black Lawrence Press poet Lisa Dordal. If you’d like to test out your lines in front of a supportive crowd, show up at 1 p.m. Sunday for a write-in, and participate in an open mic in the backyard of The Porch’s cute Berry Hill space — or just come for the vibes. July 15-17 at The Porch Writers’ Collective, 2811 Dogwood Place ERICA CICCARONE

MUSIC

MUSIC

[WATCH THE THRONE]

POETRY

“AIRBRUSH BACKDROP,” ALEX BLAU

Here’s a fun, lighthearted entry into the studios of some of Nashville’s best artists. The Leftovers Show: Collected Remnants From the Studio Floor, Elephant Gallery’s latest group show, has asked artists to contribute some of the scraps and ephemera that have collected on their studio floors. Works include Alex Blau’s neon-colored drop cloth, which catches all her excess airbrush paint; Kelly S. Williams’ jacquard fabric tablecloths covered with patterns that look like crop circles; Harry Underwood’s wooden palette with swatches of his signature midcentury paint colors; and lots more. The result is something like a deconstructed studio visit across the city.

Through Aug. 26 at Elephant Gallery, 1411 Buchanan St. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

FILM

ART

THE LEFTOVERS SHOW: COLLECTED REMNANTS FROM THE STUDIO FLOOR

[WHERE’S THE LOVE?]

HANSON

My brother and I always got along really well as kids — I can only think of a couple times when we fought for longer than a few minutes. But I do remember that our first real fight came when fraternal trio Hanson put out their debut record Middle of Nowhere in 1997. More specifically, our fight happened when I got the chart-topping single “MMMBop” on CD at Kmart and played it for hours on end one weekend in our trailer, where the walls were thin enough to hear every single “ba duba dop.” In the end, I believe I agreed to stop playing it in

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

FILM

STEPHEN TRAGESER

PHANGS ALBUM RELEASE FEAT. 90’S KIDS, ESSY & AMBER AIS

MUSIC

Among the vast numbers of things that the onset of COVID threw out of whack was the rising tide of Nashville contemporary pop music. The diverse array of local singersongwriters who draw on dance music, R&B, hip-hop and more depend so much on being able to connect with audiences in person. Following the long lockdown period when they couldn’t play live, more than a few folks who were building momentum in 2018 and 2019 have disappeared from local bills — some have changed priorities, some have changed hometowns, some are still regrouping. Born-and-raised Nashvillian Phangs, however, has kept pushing forward, releasing a fairly constant flow of new music and getting on the stage as often as possible.

Friday, he’ll celebrate a new LP called I Love Everything That You Hate About Yourself, a collection of maximalist bops that bring snarling guitars, chirping synths, club-ready beats and Phangs’ passionate croon to bear on sweet-and-sour hooks and heartfelt examinations of what makes human relationships tick. Ticket sales benefit Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, and 90’s Kids, Essy and Amber Ais will be there to support. 7:30 p.m. at Exit/ In, 2208 Elliston Place STEPHEN TRAGESER [ON THE PROWL]

SCREAMIN’ CHEETAH WHEELIES: THE LONG GOODBYE

Named after a Far Side cartoon, Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies were

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[TAKE MY WIFE!]

ILIZA SHLESINGER

Comedians love obsessing over the differences between men and women.

Even now, in 2022, when much of society has accepted that gender is more nuanced than originally thought, stand-ups often stomp around the stage saying, Men love beer and don’t hug each other! But Iliza Shlesinger has found a way to tweak the formula. While much of her material is

[HOMETOWN CROWD]

SLIM & HUSKY’S UNPLUGGED VOL. 5 FEAT. MELO ROZE, DAISHA MCBRIDE & DOMANI

It seems like outstanding pizzeria Slim & Husky’s, founded in Nashville by TSU alumni Clint Gray, Derrick Moore and E.J. Reed, is constantly expanding; the recently opened Chattanooga location makes 10 outposts total, with two of them in Atlanta and one in Sacramento. But they’re always thinking about their hometown. One way you can see that is through the Unplugged monthly series they’ve been putting on throughout 2022, which spotlights Black music talent mostly from Music City.

Saturday, the series returns to Midtown’s Analog at Hutton Hotel, with stellar rapper Daisha McBride anchoring the bill. Last year, McBride released her second fulllength Let Me Get This Off My Chest, an album that lets the MC be more vulnerable

ILIZA SHLESINGER

[NATURE’S SCARF]

SHOWDOWN AT THE SOUTHERN GATES

You don’t have to be as keen a sleuth — or as big a dandy — as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot to know how much facial hair means to those who wear it.

Like clothes, makeup, hairstyle or tattoos, beards and mustaches introduce you to the person wearing them from afar, and can be as avuncular, outlandish or elegant as you’d like to tell others that you are. Nashville’s own facial hair enthusiasts’ club, the Metropolitan Pogonotrophy Society, hosts its annual Showdown at the Southern Gates gathering this weekend, which kicks off with a meet-and-greet social Friday evening at Lakeside Lounge (time TBA) and wraps up with a farewell brunch at 11 a.m. Sunday at Shelby Bottoms. On Saturday, Exit/In hosts the main event, a stunning display of follicular fisticuffs featuring competitors from near and far in 12 categories, from magnificent mutton chops to bodacious beards (with and without styling aids) to the most realistic or most creative beards that non-male competitors can come up with.

Ticket sales benefit the Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s Hunters for the Hungry program, which helps manage the state’s deer population while putting meals on the tables of those who need them most. Check out the Facebook event page for all the details. Registration 5-7:15 p.m., competition begins 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place STEPHEN TRAGESER FOOD & DRINK

[TAKING A BITE]

among Nashville’s loudest and proudest contributions to the Southern rock revival of the 1990s. In a recent interview with the Scene, singer Mike Farris recalled how the band’s manager Rose McGathy helped keep a small, tight-knit collection of fans together as a kind of family after the band played its last show about two decades ago.

Around the time COVID-19 came swooping down, the family lost several members.

“I was in contact with them right up to their death,” Farris said. “And it started to really affect me, because these people had connected with our music. It meant so much to them. And one of the things that they really wanted was for us to get back together and play. And finally I just decided, ‘We got to do this. We got to get together, and we got to play some shows. To really have a proper end to this thing.’ ” So it was that Farris reached out to his old bandmates — guitarists Rick White and Bobby Watkins, bassist Steve Burgess and drummer Terry Thomas — and geared up for a run of dates this summer dubbed “The Long Goodbye.”

Tickets for all of the remaining shows, including Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 3rd and Lindsley, have sold out, but keep your fingers crossed and an eye on the secondary market. July 15-17 at 3rd and Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S. DARYL SANDERS

MUSIC

MUSIC

exchange for him not going out in the yard and snapping the CD in half. I also got the full-length about a month later, and because there were a few more songs to play in addition to that well-played single, it wasn’t as big of a deal. (I even caught him singing along to “Where’s the Love?” once.) Twentyfive years later, every word to every song on that album is well imprinted on my brain — and might just be on my brother’s too. In the ensuing years, Hanson has released an additional 10 studio albums, not to mention live albums, compilations and EPs. Recent set lists show that the Hanson brothers pull songs from all over their discography — but I bet I know a couple songs they’re guaranteed to play. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. AMANDA HAGGARD

WEEKEND CLASSICS: MALCOLM X

I’m surprised there hasn’t been a book detailing the decades-long journey it took to bring the Malcolm X story to the big screen. Spike Lee dropped a making-of companion book after the movie’s 1992 release, but that only told of Lee’s experiences with the film. We need a tome that takes it all the way back to when producer Marvin Worth acquired the rights to The Autobiography of Malcolm X in 1967. He spent two decades trying to make a biopic, hiring such scribes as James Baldwin and David Mamet to work on screenplay drafts and approaching directors like Norman Jewison and Sidney Lumet about helming it. Lee eventually got the job after publicly declaring that only a Black filmmaker should be the director — and even so, he received criticism from Malcolm devotees who thought he was gonna mess it up. Nevertheless, Lee crafted an epic, incendiary, damn-near-four-hour chronicle of the man’s life, with star Denzel Washington giving a riveting, uncanny performance that landed him another Oscar nomination. July 16-17 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY COMEDY

PHANGS

[BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY]

rooted in the difference between gender norms, she takes it a step further to — often hilariously — explain how modern human behavior is actually rooted in thousands of years of social evolution. Why do women talk? Because communication and sharing vital information with one another has benefited our survival since at least the Stone Age. Does Shlesinger’s material sometimes lean a little too far into the gender-norm binary? Sure, sometimes.

But even if the journey is a little bumpy, Shlesinger eventually gets to her point — all humans are inherently flawed, everyone should be treated equally, and the antiquated Men vs. Women formula is bullshit. Check her out at one of two performances Saturday at the Ryman. 7 & 9:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N. MEGAN SELING COMMUNITY

than ever while remaining exceedingly sharp and magnetic. Joining her will be R&B singer-songwriter and McBride’s fellow MTSU grad Melo Roze, who released her outstanding neo-soul-tinged single “Like Dat” in June. Also coming through is Domani, who you might recognize as the son of Atlanta rap king T.I.; one listen to his 2021 LP Skydive is all it takes to see that Domani is making his own path toward blurring the line between hip-hop and R&B. 8 p.m. at Analog at Hutton Hotel, 1808 West End Ave.

[MURFREESBORO HOT]

THE MURFREESBORO HOT CHICKEN FESTIVAL

On Saturday, the Murfreesboro Hot Chicken Fest kicks off for the very first time. Besides all the wings and drumsticks from vendors like Nashville Chicken & Waffles and Chicken Shack Express (known for its original Smack Ya Mama seasoning), there will also be shopping stalls, games and live music. The festival is held in Cannonsburg Village, a historic little reproduction pioneer village about 40 minutes from downtown Nashville in Murfreesboro.

The village is known for reflecting early Tennessee life with quaint elements like a gristmill, a schoolhouse and the World’s Largest Cedar Bucket. The fest is free for all, but if you want to get in on the judging you’ll have to register first via the fest’s Eventbrite page. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Cannonsburg Village, 312 South Front St., Murfreesboro FIONA BROADIE

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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CRITICS’ PICKS

TUNGSTEN RUBY RIDERS TOUR FEAT. PINK NAVEL, SB THE MOOR & VAST NESS

It’s not easy to capture the feeling of being inside the internet in your music, but Massachusetts-raised rapper Pink Navel, aka Dev Bailey, has it down pat. Nodding back to their days as a punk and emo singer, they’ve developed a high-pressure flow that conjures up the feeling of being Extremely Online, and across their catalog they showcase a knack for weaving disparate bits of information into a unified expression over homemade beats. The big-picture view of their work is that it takes hard work and intention to stay grounded and feeling as human as you can during a time in which there are so many ways to feel alien, but the joy is in working through the details with them; it’s a talent they share with fellow widely traveled MC and sometime collaborator R.A.P. Ferreira. Pink Navel comes to town in the wake of their 2021 LP Epic, and will be joined by Californiaraised music educator and rapper SB the Moor, who released their new album In Babylon! in June, and Nashville’s own forward-thinking beatcrafter Vast Ness.

8 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike

FILM

STEPHEN TRAGESER [BOOKSMART]

SUMMER AT THE MOVIES: MATILDA

MUSIC

So much of the 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation Matilda is about power. In her 2016 memoir Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, Mara Wilson, who played Matilda, writes that she never quite understands when folks think the story is just about a young girl who has magical abilities. The magic that young bookworm Matilda harnesses when faced with neglectful parents (played by Danny DeVito, who also directed the film, and his then-wife Rhea Perlman) and an abusive principal (Pam Ferris) is deeper than that. The books she reads help her develop coping mechanisms to deal with her crooked family. When Matilda shows off her extraordinary math skills at school, she doesn’t know she’s special until her teacher Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz) tells her she is. She finds her powers despite her circumstances. A quote from the Dahl book, which is repeated by DeVito as narrator of the film, gets to the theme of it all: “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” See it with a friend when the Belcourt screens it this Sunday and Tuesday as part of its Summer at the Movies series. July 17 & 19 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. AMANDA HAGGARD [SILVER TREAT]

JAZZ ON THE MOVE: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF HORACE SILVER

Pianist, composer and bandleader Horace Silver was among the key figures who helped popularize the hard bop style during the 1950s and early ’60s. Silver’s initial fame came during his stints with

NEAL JOHNSTON

STEVE AUSTIN

RON WYNN

FILM

[CLOUD SOLUTIONS]

Stan Getz and as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, but he’d enjoy even more fame heading several groups. In addition, such Silver tunes as “Peace,” “Song for My Father,” “The Cape Verdean Blues” and “Sister Sadie” became jazz standards, and remain part of many groups’ repertoires today. The latest edition of the Nashville Jazz Workshop’s Jazz on the Move series, which combines lecture and performance segments, spotlights Silver’s life and music.

Pianist Pat Coil will be the presenter, and he’ll be joined by bassist Roger Spencer, drummer Chester Thompson, tenor saxophonist Don Aliquo and trumpeter Emmanuel Echem. It’s an opportunity to hear some of jazz’s most popular and enjoyable pieces, and also learn more about an extremely gifted composer and artist. 3 p.m. at the Frist Art Museum, 919 Broadway

[WILLKOMMEN]

FATHOM EVENTS: CABARET 50TH ANNIVERSARY

One can only imagine the rampant pearl-clutching that went down in stateside movie houses when Bob Fosse brought Jay Masteroff’s hedonistic Broadway showstopper to the big screen back in 1972. Here we have a love story between Michael York’s bisexual writer and Liza Minnelli’s self-centered torch singer, set in 1930s Berlin, where a burgeoning hate group known as the Nazis are making their presence known around town. (The Kander and Ebb-composed numbers are performed at the nightclub where Minnelli’s singer works, a seedy joint where Joel Grey’s emcee basically serves as an oversexed Greek chorus.) It’s actually one freaky Frankenstein’s monster of a film. Fosse takes the more controversial parts from I Am a Camera (the 1951 Broadway play Cabaret is based on) and Goodbye to Berlin (the 1939 Christopher Isherwood novel Camera is based on) and comes up with a queer anti-musical that not only won a bunch of Oscars, but is still shockingly relevant today. To celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, Fathom Events will present Cabaret at select AMC and Regal locations.

Visit fathomevents.com for tickets and showtimes. July 17 & 20 at AMC and Regal locations CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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MUSIC

SUNDAY / 7.17

[MOOD BOMB]

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: KOYAANISQATSI

“There’s your mood bomb, right there.”

This line from Leo Hickman’s review of Koyaanisqatsi for The Guardian is the perfect one-sentence synopsis for the wordless, characterless, plotless film.

Hickman is referring to the emotional effect caused by the film’s combination of Philip Glass’ haunting, hypnotic original score and Ron Fricke’s epic, meditative cinematography. The 1982 masterpiece is the first in director Godfrey Reggio’s celebrated Qatsi trilogy (my favorite has always been the second installment, Powaqqatsi), and it remains the most influential. Everything from the Planet Earth series to Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death owes a

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Rep your

CITY Shop the CITY SCENE SCENE REP YOUR

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CRITICS’ PICKS CHEEKFACE

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

MUSIC

WEDNESDAY / 7.20 [POWER POP]

CHEEKFACE W/BAD MOVES

[BEFORE YOUR TIME, COWBOY]

QUEER QLASSICS: BASIC INSTINCT

The past 30 years of history have turned Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 erotic thriller magnum opus into the Tyler, the Creator of pre-internet blockbusters. Once protested as a collision between a heroic cop on the edge and a collection of several decades’ worth of queer stereotypes served up on a platter of bloody mayhem, Basic Instinct has now revealed itself to be an indictment of the structure of and power allotted to police departments, even as it depicts the patriarchal establishment routed by a nimble mind of pansexual power — Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell is basically Bugs Bunny with a luxury coke habit and a fearless need to destabilize everything considered “good” and “respectable.”

There’s only so much that can be done with a Joe Eszterhas script — Stone and Verhoeven do exactly that. Presented as part of the Belcourt’s Queer Qlassics series.

8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

14 15 16 17

DJ Nicki Ricci DJ Jez Spins the Savage Sounds DJ Burger Time Summer in the Swamp Mini Pop-Up Market PM Shoes Off Showcase 18 LIVE: Kat Hamilton & Friends 19 LIVE: The Spiral Groove 20 Ladies Only DJ Class: Spin Class w/ Leanne and DJ Shug

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Society is crumbling. The earth is getting hotter. The U.S. inflation rate hasn’t been this high since the Carter administration. There is an ever-growing list of reasons to be scared and angry, and while it may feel cathartic to blow your eardrums out by blasting “Killing in the Name” over and over again — “FUCK YOU, I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!” remains one of the greatest lyrics ever written — please allow me to make another suggestion.

Listen to Bad Moves, the Washington, D.C., power-pop band that makes protest music fun. On their latest full-length Untenable the band fights the power by calling out discrimination against the working class (“Working for Free”) and the pressure to commodify ourselves via social media (“Party With the Kids Who Wanna Party With You”). With buoyant beats and hookfilled choruses, Bad Moves’ music will also make room for your relentless anxiety (“Night Terrors”) and depression (“Fog Is

a Funny Thing”). Headliners Cheekface are also a good time, though their brand of protest music is more playful. Sounding a little bit like Jonathan Richman joined The Dismemberment Plan for a day, Greg Katz talk-sings his way through playful pop songs that mock the absurdities of our dayto-day lives. You’ll feel camaraderie in this wasteland of a world while getting to shake your ass a little bit too. 8 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike MEGAN SELING FILM

debt to Reggio’s non-narrative cinematic collage. And to the uninitiated who might bristle at the idea of a film with a difficultto-pronounce name, no characters, no plot and no dialogue — this film is also incredibly easy (and enjoyable!) to watch.

8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

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FOOD AND DRINK

THE LONG GAME

Chef Hadley Long takes over the kitchen at Margot Café & Bar

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

D

CHEF HADLEY LONG

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

uring her 21-plus years of running the kitchen at her influential restaurant Margot Café & Bar, chef Margot McCormack has set the bar for East Nashville dining, and really for the whole city. She’s been recognized nationally with James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Southeast, and locally in the Scene’s pages many times.

She’s also worked alongside MARGOT CAFÉ some exceptional & BAR culinary talents.

1017 WOODLAND ST. MARGOTCAFE.COM Among the Margot alumni who have gone on to helm other local kitchens are Tandy Wilson, Matt Davidson and Ryan Bernhardt. But none of them were ever in the right place at the right time to take over at Margot — until now.

Chef Hadley Long has been a hardworking right hand for Chef Margot for more than a decade, manning every station in the kitchen from pantry to grill to sauté. Recently he has been elevated from chef de cuisine to executive chef as McCormack transitions to a more handsoff role in the kitchen.

Like Charlie Bucket demonstrating that he’s the one to take over Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, Long has proved his worth over the course of time.

A native Middle Tennessean, Long attended Belmont, and his first foodservice experience was working at a Starbucks. After catching the culinary bug, he attended school at L’Academie de Cuisine near Washington, D.C. When the time came for a kitchen externship as part of his studies, Long looked toward home. “He found me, thank God,” recalls McCormack. It was a serendipitous development for both chefs.

“I started researching the best restaurants in Nashville on the internet, but I’d never even been to East Nashville — I had to look up where it was,” Long admits sheepishly. “I’d never worked a line, but I knew I was a quick learner.”

Their first contact is still a funny memory for McCormack and Long.

“He wrote me this beautiful email asking about the externship,” says McCormack. “I thought he was a girl named Hadley. I said to myself, ‘I like this already.’ Once I finally met him, he was so well-mannered and well-spoken and engaging with a great work ethic, we put him to work at Marché with Matt Davidson and Kat Britt.”

Marché was of course McCormack’s other longtime restaurant in East Nashville’s Five Points neighborhood. It closed its doors in 2020.

“He had a great foundation,” recalls McCormack, “and he was really proficient.

I decided, ‘I’m taking him!’ and brought him up to Margot.” Their decade working

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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together has convinced the chef that she can finally take a little step back in the kitchen.

“I’m not leaving,” says McCormack. “I still want to work, but Hadley offers me the freedom to come and go. I still cook lunch for the staff every day at 11, and I like to hang around a little later if there are people I want to visit with in the dining room, but Hadley deserves the attention and the chance to continue to grow.”

I ask McCormack about a comment she made to me during an interview a few years back when she said that maybe restaurants should have a lifespan. Is Margot anywhere close to that?

“Oh, I don’t think so,” she says. “If that were true, it would have already happened over the past two years. We put a lot of effort into not quitting! Closing Marché was quitting enough. We saw a real rebirth last spring. We’ve stayed ridiculously busy, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.”

Given the industry’s staffing issues, McCormack still had to make adjustments, even with the tailwind of increased business.

“I couldn’t take a vacation,” she says.

“Really, no one could. We would have had to shut down the restaurant, and I couldn’t do that to my employees who wanted the work.

We had to stop serving breakfast and lunch because we were taxing an already delicate infrastructure. I couldn’t do it without Hadley. I don’t want to do it without him.”

McCormack and Long have been building Margot’s nightly menu collaboratively for a long time. “We choose dishes by what’s here, what do we have a lot of, or sometimes by the weather,” she says. “Like, ‘It’s too damned hot. Everything’s a salad tonight!’

But Hadley does almost all the buying, talking with the farmers and visiting the market a couple times a week.”

Long is excited about the new opportunity, but he promises regular customers won’t experience any menu whiplash. “We’ll always stick with the standards — things people want to see,” he says. “It’ll always be Margot Café & Bar, so you can expect to see flounder meunière, interesting vegetables from new farmers, our tri-tip set, the seafood steam pot, green tomato curry. Oh, and beets. If Margot was a vegetable, she’d be a beet.

“Most importantly, we’ll keep catering to the clientele experience that is Margot,” Long continues. “Margot is the standard. Margot as a person and as the identity of the restaurant.”

Will diners be able to tell the difference between a Margot dish and a Hadley dish? “Presentation-wise, Hadley is prettier than I am,” Margot admits with a chuckle. “He likes to use a lot more flowers, but we don’t want to get precious with it.”

As for her legacy, McCormack is proud of what she’s accomplished and optimistic about the future. “With every person that has been at the helm of the kitchen, it’s always gotten better,” she says. “I’m so proud of everyone in the building, and it’s absolutely about the people. Hadley deserves the lion’s share of the credit.”

You’ll still see Margot in the dining room and kitchen. She’s happy to be able to concentrate on the food while Long takes on more management responsibilities and her spouse Heather McCormack takes on more of a role. “She’s more projectoriented,” says McCormack. “She’ll tackle things that need long-term attention and anything to do with money.”

McCormack is still all-in on the future.

“We’re definitely betting on ourselves!”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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VODKA YONIC

WATCH OUT FOR THE BIG TEARS On the joy of Lizzo’s reality show Watch Out for the Big Grrrls

c

BY KIM BALDWIN

R

Sometimes we need someone to look to for permission — permission to be ourselves, permission to be fat, permission to be loud. When the contestants on Watch Out for the Big Grrrls meet Lizzo for the first time, I get the sense that Lizzo represents some of this to these women. Throughout the season, no one apologizes for or makes disparaging remarks about their body. Sure, there are some clips where contestants talk about past struggles, but this is not a show about fat and plus-size women who are trying to be thin.

These are women with weight distributed in all kinds of different ways, wearing shorts and sports bras and dancing at a very high impact for long periods of time. I am well aware that weight is no indicator of health or physical endurance — despite living in a thin body and doing Crossfit, The Screaming Show’s trainer Bob Harper went on to have a near-fatal heart attack.

But I also rarely get to see fat women moving for joy, especially on a mainstream television show. The Screaming Show did more harm than I think our society can actually reckon with, but the greatest harm it did to me was to teach me that you can’t be fat and healthy. It taught me that you can only be in a fat body in public if you’re trying to lose weight. It taught me that fat people are a problem to be solved, and to be solved by thin white people at that. Thin white people who build brands and make money off of your fat body.

I wish we never talked about Lizzo’s body. I wish her success and immense talent were enough. I wish there were less disbelief that you can be in a larger body and be incredibly physically fit.

But unfortunately, we aren’t there yet. I don’t know what it feels like to be Lizzo.

How could I? But I know what it felt like to watch her put 13 plus-size women on a television show and dare us not to see their humanity. In the first episode, when the contestants walked into a tent and realized Lizzo would preside over their audition, I cried.

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with JAMIE GANGEL on ZOOM Portrait of an Unknown Woman SATURDAY, JULY 23

10:30AM er nn u Di en Day M l Al

ecently, I was at home sick with my first head cold since 2019 and had the energy to do exactly one thing: lie on the couch and watch television. I watched all of Lizzo’s new Amazon show, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, in two days.

I cry watching people dance, and sometimes I cry while I dance, though that is exceedingly rare these days. I cried watching Beyoncé during Homecoming. I cry during almost every Lip Sync for Your Life at the end of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

I’ve cried in a Zumba class twerking in a gymnasium full of women.

Some of you may not know this, but there was a time not that long ago when we all had to watch network television. There was nothing else. And a very popular reality television show that unfortunately many of us watched consisted of thin people screaming at fat people while they nearly exercised themselves to death. This show shan’t be named, but for our purposes, I’ll call it The Jillian Michaels Screaming Show.

Like so many things about my mid-40s, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls made me wish I had a time machine. I wish I could tell my younger self that nothing is wrong with her or her body. I wish I could tell her not to lose her creative spark, her love of dancing to pop songs and memorizing the choreography to all the popular music videos. I wish I could go back in time and never watch The Jillian Michaels Screaming Show. I wish I could go back in time and meet every single person who made money off of me hating my body and invoice them for all the therapy I’ve had to have. And that’s as a small-fat white woman with considerable privilege and fewer odds stacked against me.

During the pandemic, some people turned to sourdough. I turned to TikTok. I leaned into fat liberation. I started using “fat” as a neutral descriptor for myself. I learned that I don’t actually hate how it feels to be in my body. The thing I hate is society’s response to a person not pursuing thinness. I found community with so many fat and plus-size people just living their lives — wearing cool clothes, dancing, creating book reviews, eating great food, repotting house plants.

Turns out, you can just live a whole-ass life at whatever size your body turns out to be. And, spoiler alert, it’s genetically predetermined — but have fun trying to outwit your genes, I guess.

TURNS OUT, YOU CAN JUST LIVE A WHOLE-ASS LIFE AT WHATEVER SIZE YOUR BODY TURNS OUT TO BE.

Se B r r un ve unc ti d h l Da 3: il 00 y

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.

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

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ART

VISUALIZE FUNKOLOGY An exhibition of George Clinton’s paintings finds the Atomic Dog up to his same old funky tricks

F

and a smaller version of the exhibition was displayed at the George Washington Carver Museum in Miami in March. This version of Grooves From the Deep includes 31 stretched canvases that vary in size and mix figurative, representational and abstract elements with the same kind of stank and sexy gumbo recipe that informs P-Funk’s best arrangements and studio productions.

Clinton uses acrylic, marker and spray paint, and his art — like his music — can be thoughtful and detailed as well as chaotic and improvisational. “Easy Rider” is one of the strongest pieces in the show. It appears totally abstract from a distance, but upon closer examination, a central figure emerges along with messages written in text: “sequestered” and “black vibes matter.” The figure resembles a Kara Walkerstyle silhouette, but its face is outlined in delicate lyrical squiggles of sky blue. It’s one of my favorite discoveries in this show.

“Easy Rider” has a black, red and green palette that echoes the Pan-African flag, which symbolizes solidarity among the people of the African diaspora. ParliamentFunkadelic’s funkology is one of the cornerstones of Afrofuturism, alongside the science-fiction of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler, and comic book heroes like Marvel’s Black Panther. Parliament-Funkadelic’s myth-making echoes the cosmology of Sun Ra’s Arkestra, but warp-drives the interplanetary vibes with heroic doses of LSD. Grooves From the Deep features lots of UFO imagery and titles like “Watching Us.” “Straight Outta Dogon” connects the astrology of the indigenous Dogon people of Mali, West Africa, to 1980s gangsta rap. The painting features a drawing of a long-eared dog in a tuxedo and a bowtie that’s superimposed over a yellow UFO. The Dogon cosmology is focused on Sirius — it’s known as the “Dog Star” for its prominent place in the constellation Canis Major. “Straight Outta Dogon” finds Clinton introducing his Atomic Dog character,

which appears on canvases throughout the show. “Atomic Dog” is a hit from George Clinton’s 1982 solo album Computer Games, and sampled riffs, beats and vocals from the song can be heard in tracks from Snoop and Dre to Herbie Hancock and Prince. The painterly pooch is Clinton’s visual art signature — like Keith Haring’s dancing man, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s crowns, and even Degas’ ballerinas. The Atomic Dog reads like a logo, contextualizing Clinton’s exhibitions within the greater funkology, and translating that universe from black vinyl to white walls.

Before I realized its talismanic power, Clinton’s canine character struck me as a

minor player in Grooves From the Deep, which includes much more formally sophisticated paintings. “Observed Expansion” is a Rorschach blob of black paint floating in a desert of dappled rose and clay — the composition reads like a Clyfford Still painting.

“Hatshepsut” is a gorgeous arrangement of yellow, red and black forms all lashed together in looping gestures of ghostly white spray paint on a gray background. The canvas is named for a female Egyptian pharaoh, and Clinton counts the art of ancient Egypt among his influences. To quote Osiris from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, “If you ain’t gonna get it on, take your dead ass home.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

“STRAIGHT OUTTA DOGON,” GEORGE CLINTON

unkadelic planted its freak flag in the American music landscape with its eponymous debut album, which touched down on the dividing line between 1960s soul and 1970s funk. Funkadelic, released in 1970, GROOVES FROM THE DEEP AND THE SPACE married soul music MATH OF GEORGE arrangements with CLINTON fuzzed-out electric THROUGH JULY 31 AT guitars, nodding to CËCRET BY CË GALLERY 516 HOUSTON ST. Jimi Hendrix and VaBY APPOINTMENT: nilla Fudge as well as INFO@CEGALLERY.CO the Motown Sound.

Funkadelic founder George Clinton cut his teeth as a staff songwriter at the Detroit label in the 1960s, but his musical destiny drew him away from the Motor City — ultimately, very, very far out. Clinton’s music evolved into the Parliament-Funkadelic collective: a band of rotating musicians playing in two distinct styles and enmeshed in the cosmic mythology that’s folded into the band’s liner notes, album art, insider lingo, lyrical content, and fried-kaleidoscope costume and stage designs.

Clinton’s latest proclamations of funkology take the form of the painted canvases he’s been exhibiting since the late 1990s.

Lots of Clinton’s boomer musical peers also make paintings, but where Paul McCartney and Ron Wood’s visual art habits feel ancillary to their musical artistry, Clinton’s gallery displays are anchored in a larger multimedia universe that he’s been expanding for six decades. The artist’s exhibition at Cëcret by Cë Gallery in WedgewoodHouston is by turns familiar, fresh and very funky.

Cë Gallery’s Wedgewood-Houston outpost Cëcret has taken over one of the May Hosiery Mill building’s event spaces to accommodate the expansive Grooves From the Deep and the Space Math of George Clinton.

The work in Grooves From the Deep was made during the worst of the pandemic,

“EASY RIDER,” GEORGE CLINTON

BY JOE NOLAN

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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“STRAIGHT OUTTA DOGON,” GEORGE CLINTON

ART

ARTISTS TALK:

JULIAN ROGERS ON HIS PAINTING ‘WILD HORSES ON GOVERNMENT LAND’

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS

An exhibition of new paintings by the Nashville native is currently on view at Red Arrow Gallery

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

J

ulian Rogers’ exhibition of new paintings, Wave Upon Wave, showcases the artist’s ability to make hyperrealistic works that borrow elements from air travel, the American West and the Rococo era. The artist spoke JULIAN ROGERS: WAVE with the Scene about UPON WAVE the work and how it THROUGH AUG. 13 AT RED developed out of a ARROW GALLERY lifelong interest in clouds, which was sparked by the first time he flew in an airplane as a child.

“I remember looking out the window and just being astonished,” Rogers says.

“Being able to see the clouds from that altitude felt like pure magic. I mean, people will climb a mountain for weeks to get to a vista like that, and they’ll be enthralled by what they see. But when you’re in a plane and you get up there, people take it for granted a little bit. It’s just an insane view, and if you think about it, we’ve only been able to experience that view for something like 70 years. So when I was on this first flight, there was a lot of magic in that view. And in a way, I’ve been wanting to make these paintings ever since.

“From a painter’s perspective, clouds can function in the same way that still lifes do — the thing being depicted isn’t really the point. “ ‘Wild Horses on Government Land’ comes from an experience I had about 10 or 11 years ago, when I was working on a ranch in Washington near the Canadian border.

Bordering the ranch was just thousands and thousands of acres of government land.

I would keep an eye on this herd of wild horses on this land, but whenever I would approach them, they would run off. This went on for weeks. I started slowing down, and I would whistle when I approached. The horses started to associate the whistle with me. Then I started to bring them cherries, and bring them water. And they started to get used to me — they kind of accepted me and eventually befriended me. When that happened, it was a very magical moment, with these big thunderhead clouds all around.

“With the color, obviously there’s a kind of psychedelic element to that. You can dial

the colors in and out, and you can also dial the associations with the colors in and out.

Something sort of green and purple can look like it’s from another planet, or like it’s some crazy colored smoke. Trying to manage that in a way where it didn’t get away from me, you don’t want to associate with any one thing. I didn’t want it to look like a comic book either.

“I have a Polaroid camera in my studio, and if I got stuck halfway through a painting and I started to tighten up, I would just walk outside and take a picture of whatever was in the sky right then and there, just to force myself to loosen up and introduce an ele-

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7.30 “WILD HORSES ON GOVERNMENT LAND,” JULIAN ROGERS

Artists Talk is an ongoing series that gives artists a platform to describe a particular artwork.

ment of chance into the work.

“But then I put the photos away and let the painting swirl and change. There’s a weird thing with clouds — if you paint them exactly how they really look, they look fake. You have to find a balance. And it was almost like a live photo; they were always changing. When you look at clouds, they’ll kind of undulate, and they change without you even realizing it. You have to focus on one little part to notice the change. That’s exactly what the paintings would do — they would just shift underneath the paintbrush.

“It’s kind of funny because in grad school, I was kind of trained to claim cultural references and mark out my territory and have the work be a complement to that cultural territory. But I was trying to do the opposite this time, getting away from words completely and making something that was selfevident. Something that doesn’t need a lot of cultural armature in order to exist.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THEATER

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IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK The Hiding Place offers a remarkable story of courage

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t’s no secret that Broadway’s understudies and swings have kept theaters going as COVID continues to impact productions. And with the Nashville premiere of The Hiding Place on June 30, local audiences got to see firsthand what a crucial part these hardworking actors play, as seasoned stage veteran Rona Carter stepped effortlessly into the lead role after Nan Gurley fell ill.

And while I suspect that a few ticket holders were worried by the announcement, Carter proved to be more than up to the task, allowing the opening-night performance to go off without a hitch.

Based on the memoir of the same name

by Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place tells the incredible true story of the ten Boom family — Dutch watchmakers who opened their home to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis during World War II. Adapted for the stage by the Rabbit Room’s A. S. “Pete” Peterson, the play is directed and designed

by Matt Logan, marking the inaugural effort for both Matt Logan Productions and the Rabbit Room’s newly established theater program.

It’s an ambitious project to be sure, and one that certainly fits with the Rabbit Room’s faith-based mission. For those unfamiliar with the 1971 book, the overt religious themes and imagery may seem

PHOTOS: MA2LA

LEVI KREIS

excessive. But Peterson’s adaptation actually remains quite true to the original material, even when leaning heavily into well-worn metaphors and guideposts. Peterson clearly has a gift for lyrical language, as seen in past collaborations with Logan — including the world premiere of The Battle of Franklin (first produced by Studio Tenn in 2016) and a stellar adaptation of Frankenstein (produced by Studio Tenn in 2018). But as a piece of theater, The Hiding Place (which had its own world premiere at the George Theater in Houston in 2019) proves a bit trickier, occasionally getting bogged down in its own weighty narrative.

And with a run time of roughly two-anda-half hours with a 15-minute intermission, it seems that a few cuts might really strengthen the piece — distilling, rather than diffusing its powerful message.

Still, there’s no denying that The Hiding Place is beautifully conceived and staged.

As always, Logan displays a remarkable vision and an incredible knack for detail. His revolving set design is visually striking (kudos to technical director Mitchell B. White), but also ensures seamless scene changes — particularly in the first act, when the action quickly shifts between the ten Boom family’s watch shop and their private living quarters. Stephen Moss’ evocative lighting and Danny Northup’s crisp sound also help guide us, with Don Chaffer’s original music punctuating each scene — from gauzy childhood memories to moments of sheer terror. Interestingly, Logan depicts some of the most vicious examples of cruelty — including the horrors of the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp — through slow-motion sequences, which are perfectly executed by the cast.

And what a stunning ensemble of players

it is. As noted, understudy Rona Carter is excellent as Corrie ten Boom, infusing the pivotal role with quiet strength and dignity, even as she reveals her character’s doubts and fears. As the unshakably faithful Betsie, Carrie Tillis is given a much more narrow spectrum to play, but still manages to offer a tender portrayal of unconditional love and kindness. And Conrad John Schuck channels a wonderful sort of plainspoken wisdom as the sisters’ beloved Papa.

The supporting cast is just as impressive, made up of some of Nashville’s finest actors.

Ross Bolen offers a commanding presence as Lt. Richter (the officer who oversees Corrie’s interrogation), while Matthew Carlton captures the humble courage of Koornstra (who helps secure ration cards for the ten Boom’s secret operation). Nathaniel McIntyre also succeeds as Pickwick (a daring member of the underground movement), and Jenny Littleton channels pure flinty resolve as one of the prisoners who befriends Corrie and Betsie at Ravensbrück.

The Hiding Place may feel a bit heavyhanded at times, but at its core, it offers a remarkable story of hope, and a welcome reminder that heroes often come from the most unlikely of places.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BOOKS

READING RAINBOW

The new Novelette Booksellers creates a safe place for the LGBTQ community

BY KATELYNN WHITE

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PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

P

ride Month brought the opening of local LGBTQ-owned bookstore Novelette Booksellers. Owners Jordan Tromblee and Deezy Violet are delighted to set up their bright, colorful shop in NOVELETTE the East Nashville BOOKSELLERS community.

1101 CHAPEL AVE. “We are chilNOVELETTEBOOKSELLERS.COM dren at heart in adult bodies, and we want to expand and keep that,” Tromblee says. “There’s this misconception that you have to grow up and become serious, and you can’t read books

by YA authors. Or you have to read scholarly stuff, or there’s a pretense sometimes about books. We’re just like, ‘Books are fun!

The best part about them is that they are a hobby, and they should bring you joy.’ That’s kind of what we hope the shop does.”

The two owners met at the popular East Side restaurant Butcher & Bee, and during an in-depth conversation about author Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex, they realized they had a lot in common. As their friendship formed and they continued to talk, they gained more awareness that bookstores are not always a safe place for everyone.

Tromblee remembers questioning her sexuality as a child and feeling embarrassed to talk about it with anyone, ultimately resorting to a Google search — “How do you know you’re gay?” As she planned to launch the store with Violet, she knew she wanted to provide representation for youths still figuring out their sexuality.

“I felt like as a young queer person, I didn’t have many places where I could come in and get resources for myself,” Tromblee says. “We want to have a space where you can come in and find the tools that you need for self-exploration. We have a lot of books on gender and queer identity, a lot of books on typical thinking and bodies that are underrepresented — and we just want to be accessible and not somewhere where you walk in and you’re afraid to say, ‘Hey, is there a book about this?’ ” Informing the community that the bookstore is queer-owned was a decision made with purpose. Tromblee and Violet want to give children and young adults a haven if their mental health is at risk because of how society views their sexuality. Lawmakers in Tennessee have increasingly sought to pass anti-LGBTQ legislation, including banning LGBTQ-related instruction in schools, discouraging school staff from using gendernonconforming students’ pronouns, and limiting trans student-athletes’ ability to participate in school sports.

Violet, who is one-half of indie-rock duo Sad Baxter, says Novelette aims to provide “resources to people who may be confused and worried about their mental health be-

JORDAN TROMBLEE (LEFT) AND DEEZY VIOLET

cause there are still so many self-harm acts in the LGBT community. Suicide rates are higher. Hate crimes are high right now with trans care being debated [along] with [the reversal of] Roe v. Wade.”

The owners believe being open about their own sexuality will steer away closeminded people and let potential shoppers know that they won’t be selling books that discriminate against others. They won’t veer from their morals to sell books.

“We are in late-stage capitalism, and we don’t want to finance a bigot’s bank account [by selling their books],” Tromblee says. “If you’re queer, it is important that you don’t.

There’s an element of safety here, and there is power in numbers.”

The shelves of Novelette are stocked with fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, sci-fi and graphic novels for all ages. In addition to sexuality and gender, topics include body positivity and neutrality, history, music and

pop culture. The lineup of books is carefully curated with a diverse roster of authors.

When looking at what’s available already in Nashville bookstores and libraries, Violet and Tromblee saw a need for more books that tell stories with pictures. They’re passionate about placing graphic novels on their shelves as well.

“There are a lot of adults who still struggle with reading and struggle with reading English,” says Violet. “[And] there are a lot of heavy topics that are easily condensed into a graphic form for children to understand.”

Tromblee says of people learning to read: “Why shame someone? As long as they are looking at a story or hearing a story, their empathy is going to grow and they’re going to gain some perspective.”

The owners are committed to staying a safe place for the LGBTQ community and will operate the store according to their values. They say they won’t be surprised if some hateful comments come their way, but hope their journey will motivate other people who fear opening a business due to their sexuality.

“If we can walk so someone can run later, we have a social responsibility to do that,” Violet says. “I’m willing to do that. And if you know you have soft skin, expect to get your skin a little thicker.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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BOOKS

A DIFFERENT APPALACHIAN UPBRINGING Neema Avashia explores community and identity in the South and beyond

BY JANE MARCELLUS

O

ne of the early memories that Neema Avashia recounts in Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place happens just outside the South Charleston Junior Women’s ANOTHER APPALACHIA: COMING UP QUEER AND INDIAN Club, sometime IN A MOUNTAIN PLACE in the mid-1980s.

BY NEEMA AVASHIA Neema, about WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY 5 years old, is PRESS running around 168 PAGES, $19.99 with her friends, popping salted peanuts into cups of Coke to watch the brown foam bubble up over their small hands. It might seem like any other West Virginia childhood memory, with one exception: Neema and her friends will soon be called by their parents to join the aarti — the final stage of the Hindu worship service in which light is offered to the deities — taking place inside.

“First left, then right, then counterclockwise. As each of us finishes, we pass one hand over the flame, then over our heads, a motion ingrained in muscle memory,” writes Avashia, describing the monthly service in which participants take a thali — a plate filled with cotton balls dipped in ghee and lit — in their hands while elders sing the familiar words, “Om Jai Jagdish Hare.”

The scene is emblematic in this memoir about a most un-stereotypical Appalachian upbringing. By 1990, Avashia writes, Asians made up less than one-half of 1 percent of West Virginia residents, with fewer than 2,000 of them Hindus from India — fewer people than attend the single Christian megachurch in her hometown. In the place where she was born, she is never fully an insider.

Composed of 17 thematically tied essays, Another Appalachia interrogates what it means to belong. The daughter of parents who immigrated to West Virginia from India for her physician father’s job in a chemical plant, Avashia grew up on a suburban street called Pamela Circle, where her father’s generosity (free medical help to neighbors) helped them gain acceptance. “Our basement record player spun Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton on repeat, and those songs, those voices, combined with seventies Hindi film music and Gujarati folk garbas, are the soundtrack of my childhood,” she writes.

Unsurprisingly, her childhood was full of paradoxes. One chapter recounts her relationship with Mr. B, a white family friend who seemed like a beloved grandfather. Later, she felt hurt to discover he was posting anti-immigration memes on social media — as if he didn’t make the connection

between Avashia’s family and political rhetoric. In another, she describes watching her mother and other women gather in a basement to celebrate Navrati — a nine-night celebration honoring Durga, who is “queen among Hindu goddesses, warrior for good, vanquisher of evil.” It gives her a sense of connection to her own religion in a place where she is constantly asked if she has been saved, but more importantly, she feels a bond with each of these women. It’s one she can’t replicate later as an adult in Boston, where the community is more diverse but “ritual feels meaningless in the absence of relationships.”

Coming out as a gay woman presented a different challenge. Avashia wasn’t sure whether her West Virginia Indian community would accept her relationship with Laura, a fellow Boston educator who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., the child of a Catholic father and Jewish mother. “Even as I was going to introduce Laura to my extended family, I was still calculating risk,” she writes.

Happily, her Indian aunties and uncles “consistently proved me wrong and showed me how I’d underestimated them.” Meanwhile, drawn to help Mr. B when his wife is diagnosed with cancer, she still can’t bring herself to tell him she is gay — protecting them both in a way she later questions.

Another Appalachia asks us to consider the meaning of community and identity in the South and elsewhere. Avashia clearly loves the values she learned growing up in Appalachia, as she shows in a chapter recounting her dilemma with an alcoholic neighbor in Boston. Urged to simply call the authorities for someone who so clearly needed help, she remembers her neighbors on Pamela Circle and thinks their way would be better. But she also acknowledges that acceptance in Appalachia was always at best provisional, a point brought home on Sept.

11, 2001, when the “insider” status her parents had worked hard to achieve vanished.

Her father’s response was to buy a massive American flag decal that said “Proud to be an American” and smaller flags for the car and porch.

Avashia’s parents eventually left West Virginia for opportunities in another state, yet to her it is still home. “I, too, am a daughter of the mountains,” she writes. “Born and raised in West Virginia, I straddle the culture of my parents and the culture of my Appalachian birthplace.”

To read an extended version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Lera Lynn reflects on major changes of motherhood on Something More Than Love

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Focused on mental health, Nashville rapper Breion Dixon is stronger than ever

BY KATELYNN WHITE

I

n 2019, fans of Nashville rapper Breion Dixon, better known as 2’Live Bre, might have imagined he was on top of the world. He was on tour, building on national recognition for his appearance on Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow, an American IdolFOLLOW @2LIVEBRE ON INSTAGRAM FOR UPDATES style competition show for rising hip-hop talent.

But he wasn’t feeling fulfilled.

He posted a video on Instagram, which has since been deleted, in which he opened up about his struggle with depression.

He credits one of his professors at Tennessee State

the tools she needed to make Something More Than Love. The record lays bare the immense joy, paralyzing pain and dizzying uncertainty that we all might face in some form, but are often expected to keep hidden.

“It just baffles me,” Lynn says. “Motherhood and becoming a mother is the most significant experience of my life, and I would argue that it’s likely the most significant of any mother’s life. And yet there’s so little music or art depicting it. There’s a lot of shame that is projected onto women for going through depression. [Motherhood is] like whiplash for your whole identity. Your whole world changes. I don’t want to cast a negative light on the experience, because it’s obviously filled with joy and the deepest love you can ever feel, but there are aspects of it that aren’t discussed. And I think that should change.”

Lynn kept pushing forward, taking advantage of any rare free moments to map out lyrics and scenes she wanted to highlight from her own experiences.

“I was sort of sleep-deprived and delusional, but I felt like I needed to be very deliberate about this,” she explains. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to just wait for inspiration to strike. I have to carve it out.’ ” Over the course of six months, she cultivated a captivating soundscape that swells and grooves — organically incorporating synthesizers, string sections and more — without overpowering her insightful and impactful lyrics. Lynn produced the record with her partner and longtime creative collaborator Todd Lombardo, who helped channel those complicated feelings and moods she envisioned.

Through raw self-reflection, Lynn tries to untangle what it means to inhabit a new version of herself, putting her own needs aside for the better of another. From the driving indie-rock gem “Kamikaze” to the regrettably timely investigation of autonomy “What Is This Body,” she carries the audi-

ence along as she chases the right words to express her new sense of self.

“I think it’s difficult for your self-concept to evolve sometimes at the rate at which your body is changing,” says Lynn. “It feels so disconnected. It’s like, ‘Wait, this is who I am?’ This doesn’t feel like who I am when I look in the mirror. That was a big part of going through pregnancy. But there’s also such a societal emphasis on youth in the entertainment industry, and even more so for women in the industry.”

Thematic threads of femininity and motherhood run through Something More Than Love. They reinforce a central message about unity, human nature and our individual journeys toward self-acceptance.

“I think anyone can relate to it, regardless of their gender, but especially women who go through pregnancy,” she Lynn. “I think the bigger point is the societal pressure that is placed on all of us to look a certain way — and trying to reconcile our own identity as our body is changing.”

Lynn’s working title for the project was

The Birth of the Mother, but she scrapped that after realizing that the core theme reached much further than her own experience. The title track, which she says acts as the “thematic focus for the record,” highlights the invisible bonds that tie us all together. “ ‘Something More Than Love’ is a statement that summarizes the forces that are beyond love that push us to make sacrifices for each other,” she explains. “That’s something that’s embedded in our DNA. … These are things that are ancient and deep that we are all subjected to and all a part of.”

That sense of a unifying spirit seems harder and harder to find. For Lynn, the need to celebrate and strengthen those ties remains a driving force in her creative process.

“It’s always my goal that there’s something for everyone to connect to in there.

As a songwriter, I think that it’s sort of my charge to take my specific experience, find the deeper universal meaning and communicate that somehow.”

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University for encouraging him to seek therapy, while inspiring him to use his voice to shed light on an illness that people often don’t feel comfortable talking about. He has made it his mission to speak about his experiences through music, aiming to normalize mental illness and lead his listeners to find healthy ways to cope.

“A lot of people don’t like to claim depression, and instead they like to claim, ‘I’m going through something,’ ” Dixon says. “So many people are dealing with this in a secretive way. I’m like, ‘Let me be the voice and give them music they can relate to.’ It doesn’t matter if it’s a million people or 10 people.”

The road to addressing his mental health hasn’t been easy. Dixon began writing at age 13 while dealing with family issues and looking for an outlet.

“Being raised in two different environments — with my dad and my mom — journaling was the only thing that kept me sane,” he says. “I felt I couldn’t talk about the heavy stuff that was going on at home.

Honestly, I was afraid to put my family in a position where people felt we’re not a happy family compared

PHOTO: CRASH MEDIA

T

he early days of the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed career upheavals and periods of personal reflection for many Nashville musicians, but 2020 marked an especially transformative time for Lera Lynn. As SOMETHING MORE THAN LOVE OUT FRIDAY, JULY 15, global lockdowns VIA RUBY RANGE RECORDS and quarantines became new societal norms, the accomplished singer-songwriter found herself trying to navigate those strange times while adjusting to life as a new mother.

That wave of new experiences and unexpected challenges birthed plenty of lyrical inspiration for Lynn, who wanted to capture those moments while they were still fresh in her mind. The result is her sixth studio album Something More Than Love, out Friday; it’s a follow-up to On My Own, the self-produced album Lynn started in 2019 and released in 2020. On the new record, Lynn deconstructs her self-image and examines the evolution of her identity, ensconced in evocative arrangements that draw from power pop, R&B, post-New Wave rock ’n’ roll and even hints of trip-hop here and there.

“There’s a little fear around it for me, honestly, that people won’t listen to it because the topic is not sexy,” Lynn tells the Scene. “I was going through some pretty serious postpartum depression, which is something that is not really talked about. I was isolated in the pandemic, and I felt so alone. I honestly was afraid to tell even my therapist, because it was all new territory for me.”

Lynn’s journey into motherhood and the complicated emotions that come with such an immense life change became a major driver for her work. Rarely are these topics elevated or explored in-depth in the overwhelmingly male-dominated music industry. Lynn has built an audience through constantly evolving art that’s deeply personal and honest, along the way developing

PHOTO: ALYSSE GAFKJEN

BY LORIE LIEBIG

nashvillescene.com | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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MUSIC to all the other kids in the neighborhood. One of my friends stole my journal book — he called it a diary. But he read it and then told me, ‘You can rap.’ ” That spark lit a fire in Dixon. As he chased his dream of becoming an MC throughout high school and college, he worked at building an audience, releasing several independent records, using the name Lil Bre on his earliest releases.

Over time, he developed a charismatic presence and an articulate flow, which he used to his advantage in solo tracks and collaborations with standouts from the local hip-hop scene like Gee Slab, Petty and Kiya Lacey. On his 2015 single “Realest in Here,” he even got a feature from celebrated Nashville rapper Young Buck.

While he was still a student at TSU, Dixon launched a talent-search show called Shine with former American Idol competitor Brandon Stewart. The idea was to give independent artists the opportunity to be heard, and give them tools for navigating the twists and turns of the business.

“I know the trials and tribulations,” says Dixon.

“We teach [artists] to go after the smallest fish before the big fish, because a lot of these artists lose their identity … because they want to rush success. On the show, we give them insight on what we experience, so they won’t have to face that mental breakdown that a lot of artists do face in their journey of trying to pursue a music career.”

However, Dixon found he still had plenty of room for growth. Just like the up-and-comers showcasing their talent on Shine, he received constructive criticism of his own from judges Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and T.I. on Rhythm + Flow. Although he didn’t win the competition, he connected with Canadian actor and director Jesse Collins to learn more about the business.

Dixon describes how Collins introduced him to a different side of the industry from the part that thrives on hustle, which inspired him to create Butterfly Nation. The nonprofit aims to give youth in the community opportunities to learn about expressing themselves through music via a mentorship program.

“It’s bigger than a nonprofit — it’s a movement for a lot of artists to come together and make awareness towards mental health,” Dixon says.

“That’s the biggest purpose. We work with Rocketown, the juvenile [justice] system and children who want to do music.”

Dixon had plans to end his music career this year, but witnessing the effect his songs were having showed him how his personal experiences assist others in healing and searching for professional guidance. On Butterfly Nation’s recent visit to Cora Howe Exceptional School, a Metro school for children with significant learning differences, Dixon performed in part to uplift and entertain the students. But he also made it a point to show them he can relate to their journey. He knows firsthand how important it is for the younger generation to see someone who resembles them bringing something positive to the community. Looking back on his past and the mentorship roles he’s taken on through Butterfly Nation, Dixon finds lessons he plans to use as he raises his son, who was born in September.

“A lot of [the students] just needed a friend — a good friend to go on the right road with. I’m trying to raise my son to be that friend these guys may have met, and would push them on the right track. That’s something that I always think about. I want my son to be a great friend.

A great leader that can pour into people just by his presence.”

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32

AND I WILL WRITE YOU A SONG Considering the singular and wide-ranging talents of Norah Jones

BY RON WYNN

S

eldom does an artist emerge who’s able to equally satisfy purists and populists, critics and fans. But that’s always been the case with remarkable vocalist and pianist Norah Jones. Through PLAYING WEDNESDAY, seven studio LPs, JULY 20, AT ASCEND Jones has had huge AMPHITHEATER hits, while also earning repeated critical acclaim. Her latest tour, which comes to Ascend Amphitheater on Wednesday, celebrates the 20th anniversary of Come Away With Me, her stunning debut LP on Blue Note. It was a magical release, signaling the arrival of a performer whose approach and style couldn’t be neatly or easily categorized. That remains the case today.

Jones has a poignant, powerful way of phrasing lyrics, exceptional timing and an elegant, gorgeous, soulful sound that is equally suited to jazz standards, country covers, folk renditions and pop originals.

You might think she was accustomed to a celebrity lifestyle, being the daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankhar and concert promoter Sue Jones. But Jones’ parents split up when she was a youngster, and when Come Away With Me made her a global star in her early 20s, she chose to keep her personal life out of the spotlight, creating a relatively

low profile that she has enjoyed since. The album, however, was a major boost for Blue Note, putting the longtime favorite label of the hardcore jazz faithful into new commercial territory. The LP sold a million copies in the first six months after its release — reaching a total of 12 million in the U.S. alone, and reportedly almost 30 million copies worldwide. It landed in the top 10 on allgenre charts in 20 countries, and in the No. 1 spot on most of them. It also earned multiple Grammy Awards, among them Album of the Year, Record of the Year for the smash-hit single “Don’t Know Why,” and a Best New Artist nod for Jones.

For many performers, following or maintaining that success would be difficult at best. Jones’ work, however, has only gotten more impressive over the past two decades.

The idiomatic versatility evident throughout Come Away With Me has led to a dazzling array of memorable performances, including the emphatic and haunting political commentary of “My Dear Country,” the highlight of her third album Not Too Late from 2007. It’s continued in more recent releases, like the prickly, bluesy single “Carry On” from 2016’s Day Breaks and the brooding and yearning “Were You Watching?” from her 2020 album Pick Me Up Off the Floor.

Jones also found time for an alt-country project called The Little Willies and a country-leaning trio called Puss N Boots, and to star in Wong Kar-wai’s 2007 romantic drama My Blueberry Nights. Her list of collaboration credits runs long as well, including a marvelous (and Grammy-winning) duet with Ray Charles on “Here We Go Again” from his 2004 LP Genius Loves Company and singing on her half-sister Anoushka Shankhar’s 2013 album Traces of You. In 2010, the compilation … Featuring Norah Jones collected tracks she’d performed on with OutKast, Belle and Sebastian, Wil-

lie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Hunter and more; it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to revisit with another decade’s worth of collaborations to choose from.

It’s been observed that the easygoing presentation of Jones’ music has helped it slip into the background. During a recent interview with Jones for NPR Music, critic Nate Chinen joked that Come Away With Me is an album you’ve surely heard while “standing in line at Starbucks.” However, you’d be hardpressed to find on any of Jones’ albums a single tune that was rote, mundane or generic.

Indeed, she’s such a musical chameleon that while jazz is clearly an influence and a major part of her musical sensibility, she’s never confined herself strictly to it. Still, the power and authority of Come Away With Me — a record you might compare to John Coltrane’s Giant Steps or James Brown’s Live at the Apollo with respect to how it has defined Jones’ career — is heavily centered on jazz.

In recognition of that, Jones’ current tour highlights an amazing reissue released at the end of April, Come Away With Me: 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. The 44-track collection, available on three CDs or four vinyl LPs, both illustrates the broad spectrum of Jones’ capabilities and documents the blueprint Blue Note followed in making her such a star. Among other things, the set contains Jones’ own liner notes and memories of the sessions, plus demos and early takes on songs; in fact, there’s a complete first recording of the album, made with iconic vocalist Cassandra Wilson’s longtime producer Craig Street. This initial version of Come Away With Me was rejected — a decision with which Jones ultimately agreed — yet it helped producer Arif Mardin shape the final product. This epic set is a brilliant reminder that Jones’ singular magnificent talent always shines through.

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 14 – JULY 20, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

THE SPIN

RAIN OR SHINE

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

B

randi Carlile’s sold-out show at Ascend Amphitheater on Friday —

the first of a two-night stand at the downtown shed — started with a sudden summer storm that precipitated a delay of about two hours. Plenty of fans were already inside the venue and had to chug or ditch the drinks they’d bought when nearby lightning forced an evacuation. But for those who stuck around, Carlile & Co. made it worth the wait for the all-clear that eventually came.

Ascend seemed as packed as ever once the crowd filtered back into the venue through the lines, which had grown long from everyone trying to reenter at the same time. Opener Celisse’s set was cut; given the rocking singer-guitarist’s impressive appearances on lead guitar throughout Carlile’s show, that’s a true bummer. But while folks made their way through security, pop foursome Lucius played a rousing set focusing on

PHOTO: H.N. JAMES

SEEN HOW IT ENDS: BRANDI CARLILE

their latest LP Second Nature, which Carlile and Nashville’s own Dave Cobb co-produced.

While Carlile’s acolytes seemed a bit more hammered than usual — besides parking garages, bars and restaurants along First Avenue South and Lower Broad were the best places to wait out the rain — they appeared mostly ready to get on with the show.

Following a little introductory guitar duel by longtime collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth, Carlile opened with the one-two punch of “Broken Horses” and “The Things I Regret,” and then looked out on the crowd with a sparkle in her eye.

“This is the mothership,” she said, adding that she always wanted to make it in Nashville. After two decades of relentless touring and recording, the Pacific Northwesterner said she feels like Music City is “home” whenever she’s here.

Before “The Mother,” a song about how parenthood made her question everything she’d ever known, Carlile told the crowd that she knew times were hard right now, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. She pointed out that she made a conscious choice to be a mother, and that it was imperative that others have that choice as well. While she normally tells a crowd to forget their troubles, now is a time for collective action.

“Let’s not put feelings aside,” she said.

“Let’s have feelings.”

And feelings there were. “The Mother” brought fresh waves of tears to many in the crowd who were probably already crying following the ever-poignant “The Story.”

“Party of One,” a defiant love song that closes Carlile’s masterful 2018 album By the Way, I Forgive You, and which she dedicated to her wife on Friday, sent legions of queer couples across the venue into fits of cuddles and mini makeout seshes.

The biggest shock and delight of the night came as Wynonna Judd, sporting a fantastic pair of black lace gloves, strolled out to join Carlile in a duet on The Judds’ “Girls Night Out.” Judd told the crowd her sister, actor and activist Ashley Judd, was sitting near the stage, watching her perform for the first time in 12 years. Wynonna introduced herself as “the artist formerly known as The Judds,” and talked about the recent suicide of her mom and singing partner Naomi Judd. She encouraged folks to reach out and forgive someone in their lives, and to recognize their own part in whatever rift they might have had; then she launched into another Judds classic, “Love Is Alive.”

Meanwhile, Carlile wore an “I can’t believe this is happening” grin. As Wynonna took a seat on a riser to stage left, Carlile told the crowd that the first three concerts she saw were Judds shows. Shooter Jennings also joined on keys, and stellar songsmith Katie Pruitt took the lead vocal on anthemic punk tune “Mainstream Kid.” As these things go in Nashville, both appearances were awesome and felt totally natural, not so much of a celebrity cameo.

In addition to fan favorites like “The Eye” and “The Joke,” Carlile peppered the set with covers. She flexed a bit, introducing a visceral rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” by noting that she’d been on the phone with Mitchell earlier in the day.

Carlile didn’t mention ringing Elton John — though it’s been noted they are friends and have collaborated together — but she seemed to have a great time singing “Rocket Man.” And the fan-fave cover of the night, at least to one large section near this writer, was an absolutely phenomenal and energetic cover of Heart’s “Alone,” with an assist from Lucius.

As the encore began, Carlile made space to highlight the aforementioned Celisse.

With her own band, Celisse performed one of her songs, a heavy, bluesy slow burner called “Get There,” full of sick little riffs and near-metal drumming.

Shows at Ascend are subject to a curfew of 11 p.m., but Metro extended it by an hour due to the rain. Carlile ended the nearly 90-minute show backlit by a Pride rainbow.

She noted that during Pride Month in June, she had capped each show with the same two-song combo — a practice she decided to continue since it seemed especially important to keep celebrating Pride all year long. The first song was “Stay Gentle,” a ballad about rebuffing the world’s efforts to harden us. That segued into a solo rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” reminding us that while we’ve been through a lot, the storm won’t last forever.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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FILM

PRIMAL STREAM 78

Beavis and Butt-Head, eerie atmosphere and lots of standup, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

R

ather than dwell on the dire situation we are all currently in — and it is resolutely dire for everyone who isn’t already exploiting traditional power structures — I’m just going to open with two pieces of advice: There’s no shame in adjusting your psych meds, because they are helping synapses do a lot of heavy lifting; and more than that, pay attention to whoever seems to be just fine with what’s happened over the past few weeks, and adjust your trust accordingly. It’s a terrifying world right now.

Which, oddly, has enabled some degree of comfort to come from the most unexpected of places. Not quite the sci-fi epic you might hope for, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (currently on Paramount+) is a sharp and funny exercise in mapping the limits of the human desire for nachos and sex. Few things warm the heart like Beavis finding new facets to life in his unexpected relationship with Siri, and few things chill the soul like the wall of insistent stupidity Butt-Head has built around himself. “Way existential,” as the great cultural theorist Cher Horowitz said in Clueless.

Like its slightly older sibling One Cut of the Dead (essential viewing, streaming on Shudder), Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (on Amazon Prime Video) is a raucous Japanese experiment in the limits of “single-take” cinema and the skills of a small cast to take an inventive concept and make it work for outside viewers. For some reason, there’s a two-minute shift between a coffee shop’s TV monitor and the owner’s upstairs TV. Now, you don’t necessarily think that two minutes is a period of time that can make a difference in our modern, fast-paced lives, but don’t worry — the filmmakers have seen all the movies you have as well, and they’re way ahead of the rest of us. This is a sweet and smart sci-fi/comedy that feels like the nimblest of Doctor Who. If you’re feeling exhausted by people and overly subject to generational trauma, Mickey Keating’s new film Offseason (Shudder) delivers eerie atmosphere. (Naturally, the apocalypse is Florida-based.) It’s also got perfectly steeped unease and a great turn from horror stalwart Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil, Insidious: Chapter 2, Doctor Sleep) as a woman who has been drawn to the coastal island that figures into her strained and suspicious relationship with her late mother. The vibe is very Messiah of Evil with some Fulci feels mixed in, and it’s resonant in unexpected ways. It also gets at the very specific kinds of obstinacy that come from Floridian menace and the way the populace responds to it.

Similarly, Joshua Grannell’s directorial debut, 2010’s All About Evil, has finally gotten a full-on home video and streaming release, thanks to Shudder. Best known as San Fran-

BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES cisco’s preeminent drag icon and horror hostess Peaches Christ, Grannell has a great hook for this delightfully nasty film. When librarian Deborah (Natasha Lyonne, giving till it hurts) inherits her father’s rundown old theater, she learns firsthand how unpredictable and messy the exhibition game can be. But when security-camera footage of her slaughter of some rude-ass patrons is mistaken for a new style of slasher movie, all of a sudden she’s at ground zero for a new artistic movement built on the baroque murder of awful people. This is a horror comedy for every moviegoer who has ever wished that people would leave their phones alone, or at least recommit to the social contract. The cast is stuffed with camp icons, but what registers is how strong the idea and script are. Let’s hope for more films from Peaches Christ, because even if she is content to be the Charles Laughton of drag directors, society needs her more.

Speaking of folks who society needs desperately, Bo Burnham — in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of his exceptional Netflix special Inside — released The Inside Outtakes on his YouTube channel. It’s an hour-and-change of material that didn’t quite fit the form that evolved during the making of his magnum opus of pandemic art. There are some variations on some things we know from Inside, but the majority of these stunning outtakes are possibilities for different ways things could have gone. The songs are just as good (“The Chicken” and “Five Years” are both bangers), and I can’t help but get swept away all over again at how perceptive and wrenching the whole experience is.

Netflix has been in a bit of a pickle as of late (and that’s just with the queer community, to say nothing of its subscriber situation), and it’s tempting to view its Stand Out special as an attempt to try to make peace after the network’s insistence on supporting transphobic fossils Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais over its own employees. The special, which packs more than 25 performers, introducers and icons into a little more

OFFSEASON

than an hour-and-a-half, can’t help but feel rushed — and that’s not including the several notable comedians, including James Adomian and Fortune Feimster, who are depicted onstage at the beginning of the special but whose sets are nowhere to be found. There’s a lot of queer comedy gold here, and particular faves include Scott Thompson, Eddie Izzard, Gina Yashere, Joel Kim Booster and Patti Harrison’s staggering Stevie Nicks impression. Even so, it’s been surfacing on social media from audience members who attended the taping at L.A.’s Greek Theatre that vocal support of the trans community was edited out of the broadcast (barring MC Billy Eichner’s explicit calling out of Chappelle and Gervais and a couple of other instances). Booster’s solo special Psychosexual is the crown jewel of the beleaguered streaming platform’s Pride Month programming, building off his triumph as screenwriter and star of Fire Island earlier in the summer. Let’s hope that rather than invest in calcifying brainstems and antiquated attitudes, Netflix will invest

in voices that are actually at risk given the continually horrifying developments in this country.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000/RiffTrax crew is near and dear to my heart, and I’m loving the former’s new streaming Gizmoplex platform. But among their recent offerings is a film so bent on unmaking the world that I can’t even recommend it in a conventional fashion. This is a film so surreal, messy, confusing and cobbled together with the tendons of joggers in hell that to speak of it is to go mad. I speak of Munchie, and I daren’t say its name aloud for fear that a Dom DeLuise-dubbed puppet will coalesce into existence before me and drag me into tax-shelter insanity. Blessings to the families of Jonah Ray, Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn, because they are doubtlessly still recovering from the experience of riffing a tear in the very fabric of existence. To try to watch this film in its original form could break the already tenuous strands that hold reality itself together.

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FILM

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BLADE RUNNER

Both Sides of the Blade is a simmering, sensual melodrama

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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laire Denis’ Both Sides of the Blade is basically a story about two types of dick — good-bad dick and bad-good dick — and the woman who can’t decide which one to stick with.

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE Radio-show NR, 116 MINUTES host Sara (Juliette OPENING FRIDAY, JULY 15, Binoche) is having AT THE BELCOURT a fine time with the good-bad dick she’s got — represented here by her husband Jean (Vincent Lindon).

We see them in some sunny locale, holding hands, making out in the water, being lovey-dovey. But their affectionate, comfortable union is rocked when they return home and learn that Sara’s ex François (Grégoire Colin) is back in town. It turns out he’s opening a sports agency that he wants Jean, a former rugby player, to be part of. Both Jean and Sara act like François popping back up in their lives isn’t a big deal. But considering the history these three share (Jean did a decade-long prison stint for something, we don’t know what, that François was involved in), it certainly is. This is especially true for Sara. The mere mention that François is in the vicinity turns her into an emotional mess.

Blade is another torn-between-two-lovers tale, told this time in a pandemic universe.

Denis and co-writer Christine Angot developed and filmed it during France’s lockdowns, adapting Angot’s 2018 novel Un Tournant de la Vie for COVID-crazy times. People walk around figuratively and/ or literally wearing masks, keeping up appearances until they can take them off and finally be themselves. Chief among them is Binoche’s Sara. Once she reconnects with her former flame in the second half of the film, she becomes two people: a woman who loves her husband and a woman who desires her side piece.

The last time Denis and Binoche worked together — 2018’s Robert Pattinson-starring space flick High Life — the director had the

Oscar winner doing all sorts of twisted sexual things. (Remember that shape-shifting sex machine?) It almost seems like Denis made this film just so Binoche could go back to doing something in her wheelhouse — much like when Denis directed Binoche in the 2017 rom-dram Let the Sunshine In (another collaboration with Angot). After all, Binoche has made an art out of playing French ladies who clamor to break out of their bourgeois shackles and do something lustful and liberating.

As the man who foolishly thought his girl could keep her cool around a back-in-theday lover, Lindon is more reserved than stereotypically cuckolded — this situation is just one of many things he has to deal with.

Another of his responsibilities is his surly, mixed-race teenage son (Issa Perica), who stays with Jean’s mom (former Jacques Rivette regular Bulle Ogier) and wants to drop out of school. Jean tries to keep a cool head throughout — that is, until the inevitably volatile climax.

Both Sides of the Blade is a simmering, sensual melodrama played out in a blunt, bitterly neo-realistic fashion, complete with such Denis touches as vague storytelling (actress/Atlantics director Mati Diop shows up in a couple scenes as — I think — a family friend) and an ambiguous ending. Denis seems to relish showing how a tawdry story of passion, infidelity and betrayal would play out in the real world. (Denis’ longtime composers Tindersticks provide a foreboding score that snarkily suggests this is basically a suspenseful thriller.)

With so much out there ready to take us out — viruses, guns, the Supreme Court — let this movie serve as a cautionary tale for those who chase bad-good dick instead of sticking with the good-bad dick they have at home.

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