Nashville Scene 8-13-20 by FW Publishing

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NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

AUGUST 13, 2020

A Favorite vs. an Underdog in U.S. Senate Race ............................................................6

The Art of Losing

CITY LIMITS

Primary elections send Hagerty and Bradshaw to the general BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Pervis Payne Fights for DNA Testing After Maintaining Innocence for 33 Years ........6 His case is shot through with racial dynamics that are intrinsic to the death penalty

CULTURE

Through poetry, Danielle Bigsby memorializes victims of gun violence BY HANNAH HERNER

BOOKS

Faithful to the Fantastical

BY STEVEN HALE

Matthew Baker toys with storytelling conventions in Why Visit America

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

BY BROOKS EGERTON AND CHAPTER 16

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

COVER STORY The Road Trip Issue: Social-Distancing Edition

Red River Gorge, Kentucky..................... 10 Choose your own adventure in Daniel Boone National Forest’s gorgeous and expansive Red River Gorge

MUSIC

Through Lines: And They Drove Around a Lot ............................................ 24 Looking back at local records that marked the experience of growing up in the 1980s

Tips for camping beginners from MTSU’s outdoor pursuits coordinator

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Emma Swift salutes many sides of Bob Dylan on Blonde on the Tracks

This slow-moving town in Northern Alabama offers quirky, classy Southern charm

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

The Scene’s live-review column checks out livestreams by Kevin Gordon and Marcela Pinilla

Oxford, Mississippi .................................. 14 History complicates and enriches a visit to the northern Mississippi college town BY STEVEN HALE

Great Smoky Mountains National Park .... 15 The most-visited national park in the country still has plenty of open space to explore BY J.R. LIND

Sexual Assault, Harassment Alleged Inside MNPD Cafe Coco Will Return Under New Ownership Special Session to Include Bills That Would Increase Punishment for Protesters

ON THE COVER:

Photo by Eric England

Defiance, Ohio ......................................... 25 For Cincinnati troubadour Arlo McKinley, life begins at 40

Florence, Alabama .................................. 12

Infinity Cat Launches Final Rarities Auction

BY JONATHAN MARX

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Pitching Camp ......................................... 11

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

To Know and Feel Too Much Within....... 25

The Spin ................................................... 26

BY EDD HURT AND RON WYNN

28 FILM

Primal Stream XXI .................................. 28

Muppets, Dolls and Go-Go’s, now available to stream

Movies in the Park-ing Lot: Little Women, celebrate Hitchcock’s birthday, celebrate Harlem Week, listen to Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect, stream Nashville Ballet’s 72 Steps, follow Bluenjy on Instagram and more

Boys State is compelling from its start to its heart-wrenching finish

BY JASON SHAWHAN

CRITICS’ PICKS

State of Play ............................................ 29 BY J.R. LIND

Snare Force ............................................. 29 A new documentary about a teen drumline program keeps things positive and wholesome BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

FOOD AND DRINK Community Eats

The Nashville Free Store and Hot Poppy grocery delivery service are changing how Nashvillians get their food BY MEGAN SELING

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FROM BILL FREEMAN LOOKING AHEAD TO NOVEMBER: THE PUBLIC IS UNHAPPY WITH TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Tennessee’s primary elections are behind us, and all the results are in. Nationally, most primaries have been held, some of them with surprising results. What have we gleaned from those results, and what might we see in November? One possibility is a historic election year for Democrats across the country. As Market Watch reports, overall U.S. satisfaction — per Gallup — is at 13 percent, the lowest in nearly a decade. This is even among Republicans, with dissatisfaction attributed to “the coronavirus and its effect on economic activity, [and] the focus on matters of race.” Additional data from seven polls — including ones conducted by HarvardHarris, CNBC and The Hill — all shows former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump. The HarvardHarris poll shows Biden with a 10-point lead, and CNBC shows Trump down by 9 points. Polls projecting the electoral college vote also illuminate Biden’s edge, with MSNBC showing President Trump to have 125 electoral votes to his challenger’s 334. Even solidly Republican states like Texas, Georgia, Ohio and Iowa are up for grabs, and the president could face a landslide. But CBS News reminds voters that Trump flipped Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2016. Biden is now leading in both states by six points, with voters feeling the former vice president would manage the coronavirus situation better. Also, 66 percent of those voters told pollsters they dislike how the president “handles himself personally.” Trump supporters there think public campaign rallies would flip their states back to the president. But with COVID-19 restrictions in place, Trump will have to find another way to rally his voters. According to the CBS News poll, Republicans generally oppose voting by mail — whether or not that system will affect outcomes in November remains to be seen. Those states aren’t the only places where Trump has lost ground. The Hill reports that, due to coronavirus, “more than 30 percent of U.S. respondents … have struggled economically and were unable to pay for basic necessities.” Though needed, federal aid is not being handled well. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has slammed congressional Republicans, reminding them that the national deficit is out of control. “We were already running a trillion dollars short just from our normal budgetary expenditures for the year,” Paul said earlier this month. “We added $3 trillion, now they’re talking about another $1 to 2 trillion. ... [Republicans should] apologize now to President Obama for complaining that he was spending and borrowing too much.” While Republicans are reeling in confusion, the Democratic Party is continually working to flip key states. Those include Maine, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas — with Texas particularly vulnerable, since the state has seen six Republican

congressional lawmakers recently announce their retirement. The Hill reports, “Republicans are favorites in their deep-red states, but the tight polls are likely to give Democrats more optimism about their chances of taking the Senate, while increasing the nervousness in GOP circles.” GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell is one of the nervous ones. McConnell is facing a tough challenge from Amy McGrath. Stats show McConnell with a 5-point lead, when in past races he’s been much further ahead. Another tight race is that of Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is trailing her opponent Sara Gideon by 4 points. Jaime Harrison, former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, has raised $14 million — compared to current Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s $5.6 million. A look at results from around Tennessee also reflects well on Democrats. The victory by Memphian Marquita Bradshaw in Tennessee’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary was a real surprise. She defeated a much better-funded and seemingly better-known fellow Democrat, James Mackler, who raised $2.1 million, spent $1.5 million and had support from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart prevailed in a tough primary race with pastor James Turner. Stewart’s winning strategy capitalized on his work to champion super-minority Democrats against Republicans dominant in both chambers. Oak Hill Mayor Heidi Campbell will face incumbent Republican state Sen. Steve Dickerson in November. Vincent Dixie and Darren Jernigan, two other Nashville Democratic state representatives facing primary challenges, also won. Many Tennessee House or Senate incumbents are not facing opponents in November, leaving the status quo in favor of the Democrats. A few will face Republican challengers but are still favored in their districts, including Jason Powell, Bob Freeman (full disclosure: he’s my son) and John Ray Clemmons, to name a few. Market Watch reports that low satisfaction could spell trouble for Trump in November. Add the national deficit, a tanking economy under the management of the president and Republicans, and record unemployment, and all these things together could spell a change of leadership in the U.S. Senate as well as the White House.

Bill Freeman

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Emma Benjamin, Price Waltman 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

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

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

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

A FAVORITE VS. AN UNDERDOG IN U.S. SENATE RACE

Primary elections send Hagerty and Bradshaw to the general BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

n many ways, last week’s Tennessee primary elections went about as expected. Bill Hagerty — backed by President Trump, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and former Gov. Bill Haslam — could not have been more of a favorite. He won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate by more than 11 points. Jim Cooper — the brother of Mayor John Cooper — was another hard-to-beat favorite. Rep. Cooper, who has served in Congress for three decades, will almost definitely return to Congress after dispensing with a Democratic primary challenge. But one race in particular did not turn out the way many observers expected it to. In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, two Black women — Marquita Bradshaw and Robin Kimbrough Hayes — spent a combined total of just north of $10,000 on their campaigns, and they both beat James Mackler, the Nashville attorney chosen as the favored candidate by national Democrats. He spent more than $1.5 million on the race — more than 150 times Bradshaw’s and Hayes’ combined expenditures. In some parts of the state, like Democrat-rich Memphis, Mackler did not even come close to Bradshaw’s vote totals as she cruised to the nomination. The outcome was confusing to some but a sign of the times to others, as Bradshaw, an environmentalist and former labor organizer from Memphis, becomes the first Black woman nominated by a major party in a statewide Tennessee race. “We keep putting up our moderate white men, and we keep getting the same results,” says Tequila Johnson, co-executive director of The Equity Alliance and a Bradshaw sup-

porter in her personal capacity. “It’s time that we invest in and bet on a Black woman, we bet on someone who is outside what our status quo Democrat looks like, and we see how much that increases turnout.” It will be an uphill battle for Bradshaw, as it would have been for any Democrat nominated to take on Hagerty in the November general election. Democrats have not won a statewide race in Tennessee in more than a decade, and Hagerty has the full force of the Tennessee Republican juggernaut behind him — not to mention a personal fortune that he’s already tapped for his campaign. It’s not scaring Johnson off, though. She says Bradshaw should begin soliciting funds from Democrats nationwide in order to build out a mostly nonexistent campaign

BILL HAGERTY

MARQUITA BRADSHAW

BY STEVEN HALE

he only person still scheduled to be executed in Tennessee this year is a Black man with intellectual disabilities who has maintained his innocence for more than 30 years. His name is Pervis Payne. The coronavirus pandemic has caused three

PHOTO COURTESY OF PERVISPAYNE.ORG

PERVIS PAYNE FIGHTS FOR DNA TESTING AFTER MAINTAINING INNOCENCE FOR 33 YEARS His case is shot through with racial dynamics that are intrinsic to the death penalty

PERVIS PAYNE

planned executions in the state to be called off this year — the Tennessee Supreme Court rescheduled those of Oscar Smith and Byron Black to 2021, while Gov. Bill Lee granted Harold Nichols a reprieve through the end of this year. For now, though, Payne’s remains set for Dec. 3. Payne would be the first Black man executed in Tennessee since 2009 and just the second since

son County’s delegation to the Tennessee General Assembly won their primary. That includes House Democratic Caucus Chair Mike Stewart, who faced a primary challenge from local pastor James Turner in his first competitive primary since being elected to the House more than a decade ago. Stewart won by more than 24 points. But not all House incumbents were safe. Three Republicans in the state House — including allies Micah Van Huss and Matthew Hill — lost to primary challengers, as did Knoxville Democratic Rep. Rick Staples. In Nashville, Democrats see a pickup opportunity in Senate District 20, represented by the lone Nashville Republican in the legislature, Steve Dickerson. Oak Hill Mayor Heidi Campbell won a close Democratic primary contest against educational consultant Kimi Abernathy for the chance to take him on. The Campbell-Abernathy race was one of the few whose results were undetermined late on election night. As victors in the U.S. Senate and congressional races were called within hours of polls closing, some fears of pandemic-fueled electoral nightmares were assuaged. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

infrastructure, and that the path to another upset victory runs through nonvoters, especially Black ones. Neither Hagerty’s nor Cooper’s victories were as straightforward as their built-in advantages might have indicated. Despite the Trump endorsement, Hagerty was forced to fend off an energetic bid by Nashville surgeon Manny Sethi, with a barrage of negative ads defining the late stages of the primary. Sethi secured the support of nearly 40 percent of Tennessee Republican voters, many of whom found the attacks on their candidate unseemly, and it will be up to Hagerty to soothe the tension between now and November. Cooper, meanwhile, faced former public defender Keeda Haynes in the Democratic primary, his first serious challenge in years. He won by 17 percentage points, but some progressive allies saw Haynes’ nearly 40 percent share of the vote as a promising sign of possible change to the status quo. They may not have toppled the Cooper dynasty last week, but Haynes’ supporters pointed to their candidate’s effort as proof that an upstart candidate can attract support in races previously deemed unwinnable. At the state level, each member of David-

1960, and his case is shot through with racial dynamics that are intrinsic to the death penalty in the United States. He is a Black man who was convicted of murdering a white woman named Charisse Christopher and her 2-year-old daughter Lacie Jo. The case against him — brought by prosecutors in Shelby County, the county that has the most known lynchings in the state’s history and which is responsible

for nearly 50 percent of the people on its death row — relied heavily on old racist stereotypes about Black men. Payne had no prior criminal history, but was portrayed as a drugged-up, hypersexual predator who stabbed Christopher to death after she rejected his advances. Payne has always maintained that he came upon the bloody crime scene at a Shelby County apartment complex while checking to see if his girlfriend — who lived across the hall — was home. He testified in court that he was overwhelmed and horrified by what he saw and fumbled around trying to help before running off for fear that the police would think he was the killer. His story has never changed, and last year his attorney — the supervising assistant federal public defender based in Nashville, Kelley Henry — found what appeared to be long-withheld evidence that could exonerate him. During a trip to the Shelby County Criminal Court to review the evidence in Payne’s case, Henry and her colleagues discovered bloody bed sheets that had never been shared with Payne’s defense team. Last month, the Innocence Project took up Payne’s case and joined with Henry and her team in filing a petition asking a Shelby County

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

PANDEMIC. PROTESTS. MURDER HORNETS. THIS IS NOT THE YEAR TO LEAVE THINGS TO CHANCE.

judge to order DNA testing on the newly uncovered evidence, as well as a list of other items that had never been tested. But on July 30, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich made a stunning announcement at a press conference in Memphis without giving any notice to Payne’s attorneys. Her office had filed a motion with the court opposing DNA testing, and as for the seemingly new evidence? She said Payne’s attorneys had been given that evidence by mistake and that it was in fact from a different case. She rejected the need for DNA testing on other evidence from Payne’s case, saying the results “would make no difference.” Weirich noted that Payne had unsuccessfully sought DNA testing years ago, and she accused his attorneys of playing legal games. “DNA testing would not exonerate the defendant, yet the defense has waited 14 years to pursue a second request for testing,” Weirich said in a written statement. “Delaying the filing of a second petition for this long shows the true defense motive is to delay the execution.” In an interview following Weirich’s press conference, Henry said she wasn’t willing to take Weirich’s explanation about the bloody bed sheets at face value. But even setting that aside, she emphasized, there is other evidence from the case that has never been tested — including the alleged murder weapon, fingernail scrapings, a tampon that was a key piece of evidence for the prosecution and other bloodstained items from the apartment. “One of the things that is really shocking to me is that in 2020, an elected district attorney general of a major metropolitan city would say that DNA evidence is irrelevant in a murder case, particularly one that

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

FIND VOTING INFO AT NASHVILLE.GOV/ELECTION-COMMISSION 8

The Metro Nashville Police Department started citing non-mask-wearers, though the first arrest — that of a 61-year-old Black man who has experienced homelessness — drew ire from activists and elected officials, given that throngs of tourists and partiers roamed Lower Broadway willy-nilly, nary a mask in site. The man’s citation was eventually recalled by the district attorney’s office, and the charges were dropped. MNPD did continue handing out citations as the week wore on, to people of all races, genders, housing status and socioeconomic background. By the weekend, though, maskwearing was a far more popular undertaking in the Neon Canyon. Relatedly, Mayor John Cooper issued another public health order, restricting alcohol sales in downtown and Midtown in an effort to clear the streets of to-go-cocktail toters. … In a virtual press conference, the sexual assault survivors’ organization Silent No Longer Tennessee alleged that MNPD leadership turned a blind eye to at least one allegation of sexual assault and other misconduct within the department. Silent No Longer founder Greta McClain said she was approached in April by “a Metro Nashville Police Department employee who stated she had been sexually assaulted by another officer.” According to McClain, the woman also said the officer harassed her and discriminated against her because of her gender, and that other members of the department retaliated against her when she complained about the treatment. After the initial complaint, McClain said 19 others have claimed they were sexually assaulted, sexually harassed or otherwise mistreated within the department. Earlier this year, the organization conducted an online survey

they said was sexually motivated at the time of trial,” Henry said. “That boggles my mind.” Henry also rejected Weirich’s assertion that Payne and his attorneys were simply trying to force his execution to be delayed. “The allegation that we were seeking a delay is also just disingenuous because we made it very clear that we can do the testing within 60 days,” Henry said. “Our expert is ready, it will be no cost to the taxpayers, and we can get an answer one way or another. So how is the state hurt? What do they have to hide, to not do testing?” In a motion filed Aug. 7, Henry replies to Weirich’s motion opposing the testing and writes, “There is simply no legitimate reason for the State to stand in the way of DNA testing.” Payne’s sister Rolanda Holman — who lives in Murfreesboro and took her sons to visit her brother regularly before the pandemic — was already skeptical about authorities in Memphis. She says her brother told her that officers told him after his arrest, “You think you Black now, wait until we fry you.” More than three decades later, she says she wasn’t all that surprised to see Shelby County prosecutors resisting DNA testing she believes would exonerate the brother she calls “Bubba.” But speaking by phone days after Weirich’s announcement, Holman sounds undeterred. “In order to bring the truth, you have to fight,” Holman says. “You have to continue to fight. You cannot give up. You have to stay focused. Because there are gonna be some blows like we’ve experienced with Bubba’s case with her declining [to test] the DNA. That was a blow. But we have to get back up and say, ‘What are we fighting for?’ We are fighting for justice.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

asking current and former MNPD employees to report issues within the department. McClain said a number of names came up repeatedly, including many of the department’s top brass, among them Chief Steve Anderson. … Anderson, speaking of which, moved up his retirement and ended his tenure with MNPD far earlier than anyone expected. In an announcement the day after Silent No More’s press conference, Cooper said Aug. 6 would be Anderson’s last day, with Deputy Chief John Drake taking over in the interim while Metro conducts a “national search for a reformminded Chief of Police who will make Nashville a model of community engagement and policing innovation.” … After a video went viral of a crowded, largely mask-free party (that included at least one public sex act caught on camera) at an East Nashville venue called, rather presumptuously, “The Fashion House,” Cooper announced that the city posted a stop-use order, essentially shutting it down. The images that spread across local social media showed attendees engaging in a number of activities that Dr. Anthony Fauci would advise against: public tattooing, smoking hookah, bumping and also grinding. The party was thrown by a man named Shi Eubank, who is the “singer” for a “band” called Savage After Midnight. In a video following the party, a man who appears to be Eubank said he’s “not gonna apologize for being legendary.” … This week, the Tennessee House and Senate returned to the Capitol for a special session to discuss bills related to the pandemic — COVID-related liability protections as well as insurance reimbursement for telehealth services. At press time, legislators are also set to consider a pair of bills that seek to enhance penalties for camping and property damage related to ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. Over the weekend, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro criticized one of the protest-related bills as “unconstitutional garbage” on Twitter. NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM: @PITHINTHEWIND

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nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

The

e u s s i p i r T Roaocdial Distancing Edition S

FOUR DESTINATIONS FOR A SAFE ROAD-TRIP GETAWAY, PLUS CAMPING TIPS FOR AMATEURS

ummer 2020 is a time we won’t soon forget, but not for the reasons we’d surely all prefer. With cases of COVID-19 still on the rise — particularly here in the Southeast — typical summer-fun activities just aren’t a safe option. No concerts, no summer blockbusters at the megaplex, no public swimming pools or big backyard barbecues. But that doesn’t mean rest and relaxation are off the table. In this year’s Road Trip Issue — our second installment, and first of the COVID era — we point you toward some safe and fun activities all within a day’s drive. Below, find our tips for a trip to Kentucky’s beautiful Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest. On p. 12 we lay out pointers for a getaway to the charming Northern Alabama town of Florence, and

Red River Gorge, Kentucky Choose your own adventure in Daniel Boone National Forest’s gorgeous and expansive Red River Gorge BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

our hours northeast of Nashville and an hour ahead of us in the Eastern Time Zone, Kentucky’s Red River Gorge Geological Area spans roughly 45 square miles within the state’s immense Daniel Boone National Forest. Dotted with remarkable geological formations and interwoven with dozens of miles of hiking trails, the destination is absolutely worth the drive, with plenty of opportunities to take in the majesty of the gorge while also staying fully socially distant from strangers. On my recent fact-finding mission to the gorge, my traveling companions and I happened across an isolated local swimming hole. There we met Trenton — an area seventh-grader and self-professed “bad child” with a thick Kentucky accent and a pet raccoon named Tito — who, from a safe distance, told us about a mysterious, ghostly waterfall that sometimes appears like a mirage to lost hikers in the area. His park-ranger grandpa told him all about it. Despite a bit of research, I never managed to find any evidence of a disappearing ghost waterfall in the area. Elusive mountain lore aside, Red River Gorge is a beautiful, spacious and geographically diverse part of the country that makes up just a sliver of the sprawling national forest’s domain at the northern edge of the Cumberland Plateau. One day, when this infernal pandemic is in the rearview, I might encourage you to seek out colorful locals in the area

— something tells me Trenton is just the tip of the iceberg in that department. But for now, read below for our tips on how to take a safe and pleasant road trip to Kentucky’s Red River Gorge with minimal interaction with strangers.

STAY There is of course no shortage of cabin-rental companies peppered throughout and near Red River Gorge. To the south, near Deer Water Lake in Rogers, Ky., is Scenic Cabin Rentals, a company that boasts a few dozen placid-looking cabins with names like Valley View, City Slicker Hideaway and Wuthering Heights. Further west near Slade, Ky., are the properties of Red River Gorge Cabin Co., some of which — like the Butterfly Suite near the Powell-Wolfe county line — have amenities like cable and hot tubs. My small party and I opted for Red River Gor-

on p. 14 we sneak away to The Square in Mississippi’s historic Oxford. On p. 15 we journey to the gorgeous and expansive Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and on p. 11 we provide some camping pointers for amateurs courtesy of MTSU’s outdoor pursuits coordinator. There are of course many more Southern road-trip destinations that offer socially distant getaways, from fishing and mountain-biking in the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas to the hikes and scenic drives of Western North Carolina. Before you decide to road-trip anywhere over the coming weeks and months, however, be sure to research ahead of time, and follow all of the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines: Maintain at least six feet of distance from others, wash your hands regularly, and for the good of yourself and others, wear a mask.

geous, whose cabins — further north than the aforementioned companies, much closer to the Red River itself — offer an experience that’s less cushy by design. Up a steep incline, hidden away amid the beech, maple and eastern white pines, is Moss Rock Cabin. It has a small stove and a solar-powered generator that provides about enough juice to charge a couple of cellphones and run the ceiling fan on high for two or three hours. But like most of Red River Gorgeous’ cabins, Moss Rock is less about amenities and more about location and design — cabins like this one, the Observatory Treehouse, and the two mirrored Looking Glass Treehouses are feats of engineering. Moss Rock Cabin even features a photo album documenting how workers managed to lug the building materials — including a large stone countertop — up the steep hillside during the cabin’s construction process. Aside from a trip up the road to the rental office for clean linens (you’ll need to bring your own or pay $10 to use the company’s), our visit was entirely

contact-free. Red River Gorgeous’ properties offer quiet beauty and isolation, and an experience that falls somewhere in the middle of “glamping” and full-on roughing it. If you want a bed and a porch but don’t mind using a composting outhouse (a rather nice one, all things considered), spots like Moss Rock and the company’s domed Treehouse Village are the way to go. (A note: Pets and kids aren’t permitted at the treehouses with suspended walkways.) Given the expanse and the beauty of Daniel Boone National Forest, you might prefer to bring along your camping equipment and pitch a tent. (See our tips for amateur campers on p. 11.) A permit is required for overnight camping in the Red River Gorge Geological Area, and those can be obtained via the U.S. Forest Service at $3 for a day pass and $5 for a three-day pass. Koomer Ridge Campground in Pine Ridge, Ky., has areas reserved for both tent camping and RVs — ideal for families who want to camp but might need access to a washroom here and there.

RED RIVER GORGEOUS’ MOSS ROCK CABIN

My party’s decision to stay in one of Red River Gorgeous’ properties put us just east of the Nada Tunnel, a single-lane former railroad tunnel on Kentucky Route 77 that is 12 feet wide, 13 feet tall and totally unlit. As my road-trip passengers can tell you, the 109-year-old tunnel is a hell of a thing to roll through in the dark when entering the gorge area at 10 p.m. — especially if you enter to find headlights coming toward you from the far end. It’s worth seeing if only for its spooky vibes, but be warned: Head through at a snail’s pace, because you might find yourself playing slow-motion chicken with another motorist, meaning one of you will have to throw it in reverse and back out slowly. Natural Bridge State Park, which is immediately adjacent to Red River Gorge, has cabins, lodges and campsites, but the main draw is its namesake geological formation — a natural sandstone arch, 65 feet tall and 78 feet across. Though it requires some

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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NADA TUNNEL

interaction with employees, the Natural Bridge Sky Lift is a fun, touristy way to gaze across the majesty of the gorge. (The operators wore masks on our visit, and disinfected the sky-lift chairs after each use.) The lift is $10 one way if you’d like to make the moderate-difficulty hike back down from Natural Bridge, or $15 for a round trip — and this is the spot where you’ll want to get all your selfies and landscape shots. It’s also the best way to see what the Red River Geological Area has to offer if you’re looking for vistas but are unable to or uninterested in doing much hiking. Those who are after a scenic hike, however, INDIAN CREEK are spoiled for choice in Red River Gorge. There are scores of sandstone arches in the area, and our own inflatable kayaks on the trip, but thanks to an one guaranteed to see less foot traffic and smaller especially hot and dry July, the river was too low for crowds than Natural Bridge is Gray’s Arch. As a friend our liking. For the most part, the restaurant scene in Red of the Scene who is familiar with the area tells us: River Gorge comes down to one establishment: “The trail is technically an out-and-back, but you can make it a loop by adding a portion of Rough Trail Miguels. A rock-solid pizza restaurant that is currently and a portion of Rush Ridge Trail, the combination of closed to dine-in, Miguels is still open for carryout which gives you an excellent snapshot of the geologiand features a 50-topping menu to quell the hunger cal diversity of the area.” Our friend also recommends you worked up after a day of hiking (or, you know, the popular Auxier Ridge Trail and the lesser-known floating). Daniel Boone Coffee Shop has great coffee, good pastries and some savory breakfast Copperas Falls, the latter of which she describes as sandwiches. The strawberry oat bar was delicious, as “a secret hideout/obstacle course/enchanted forest dreamland.” More than 70 miles of trails wind through was an absurd peanut-butter doughnut construction topped with chocolate-covered pretzels. Red River Gorge, some more challenging than others. Truth be told, you could spend two weeks in Red But if you’re willing to do a bit of advance research River Gorge and never experience the same day and prepare accordingly, there’s a Choose Your Own twice. More adventurous travelers can try out Red Adventure waiting for you. Kind of a wimp on the hiking front? That’s OK too. River Gorge Zipline or seek out one of the area’s My crew and I decided to drive north on Indian Creek many rock-climbing destinations — the Red River Road until we happened across a secluded Indian Gorge Climbers’ Coalition’s website (rrgcc.com) is Creek swimming hole (that’s where we met the lega great resource if you’re interested in the latter. Or endary raccoon-owning tween I mentioned in my insimply find a cabin or a camping spot that meets your tro). There are popular swimming spots tucked along needs, head there, and spend your days doing absothe Red River — like the so-called Jump Rock — but I lutely nothing. Whatever you do, take a moment while have to recommend sneaking off to find hidden gems. you’re there to gaze up at the night sky. Completely untouched by urban light pollution, Red River Gorge The extra time is worth it for guaranteed seclusion. offers the most breathtaking opportunity for stargazIf you want to paddle your way down the Red, the nearby Red River Adventure Campground & Canoe ing I’ve had in many years. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM Rentals can make that happen. My party brought NATURAL BRIDGE SKY LIFT

Pitching Camp

Tips for camping beginners from MTSU’s outdoor pursuits coordinator BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

lake Osborn is the outdoor pursuits coordinator at Middle Tennessee State University, where he runs equipment rentals, a climbing wall, a challenge course and dozens of annual outdoor recreation trips, including camping, backpacking, caving, kayaking and more. His office, which mostly caters to students and opens Aug. 21, also offers equipment rentals to the general public. Given the restrictions that come along with COVID-19, we asked Osborn for tips for people who are newly interested in camping as an alternative, appropriately socially distanced form of travel.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY PEOPLE NEW TO CAMPING? There are a lot of common mistakes people make, but I would say the ones I see the most are bringing the wrong kind of clothes, not waterproofing your tent correctly and relying on a fire for cooking. This can make for a rough time camping, and even dangerous if temperatures are low and you end up wet. Take the time to research the weather, and if there is any chance of rain, pack a rain jacket and warm layers, learn how to set up your tent before you go and always take a ground tarp. Tents come with the rainfly for the top of the tent, but rarely come with the bottom piece. It’s great to stay dry from the rain, but if you don’t protect the bottom, you may end up sleeping in a lake of water. When it comes to cooking, over-the-fire cooking is fine, but you always need a backup plan if it rains and you aren’t able to build a fire. Bring a camp cook set. WHAT IS ESSENTIAL GEAR FOR A BEGINNER, AND DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR WHERE PEOPLE SHOULD LOOK FOR IT? Camping can be expensive if you try to go buy everything at once. I always recommend renting gear first to see what you like, and then try to find quality used gear either on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. Essential gear would be: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad and cooking equipment. You can find some of the gear at big-box stores, but for things like a sleeping bag and tent, I recommend paying a little more for quality gear. REI is great, and you can usually find deals at backcountry.com. I have had my tent and sleeping bag for over 16 years because it’s quality and I have taken care of it.

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

WHAT ARE SOME PARKS OR CAMPING AREAS WITHIN A FEW HOURS’ DRIVE OF NASHVILLE THAT YOU RECOMMEND? There are so many amazing state parks within two hours of Murfreesboro or Nashville. I personally love Foster Falls State Park, Rock Island State Park, Fall Creek Falls State Park and South Cumberland State Park. WHY DO YOU THINK CAMPING IS A GOOD ALTERNATIVE FORM OF TRAVEL DURING THE PANDEMIC? Camping is a great alternative, because it gets you outside, and the benefits of nature are scientifically proven to help with anxiety, depression, other mental health issues, and of course you get the physical benefits of being active while you hike or kayak while you are outside. It’s also safe with COVID to be outside, as the chances of spreading it are significantly lower outside, according to many studies. And it’s cheaper than paying for a hotel! nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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This slow-moving town in Northern Alabama offers quirky, classy Southern charm BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

hanks to the combined influence of powerhouse designers Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid, Florence, Ala., has become an unlikely hub of American fashion. The quaint Southern town is just a little more than two hours south of Nashville, but if you’re looking for a quick, laid-back getaway that has a few of the perks of a fashionindustry destination, this is your spot. Even with the high temperatures and social distance ordinances that marked our summer 2020 trip, Florence was an easy, breezy time.

STAY The GunRunner Hotel strikes a unique balance between quirky and luxe. The boutique space is tucked amid the town square. Inside there are thick, creaky floorboards and a jumble of ornate chandeliers hanging from high ceilings — and the nine guestrooms open directly into an airy lounge that has multiple fireplaces, oversized velvet sofas and an expansive bar. During normal, non-pandemic times, I imagine the close quarters within a cozy hangout like the GunRunner would be a positive. But despite the heightened anxiety caused by unmasked patrons and overheard conversations about COVID-19 being “a fad,” the management did their best to make us comfortable. Checking in and out was keyless and contactless — we let ourselves in and out without ever having to exchange in-person information or keycards. We stayed in the Smithsonia room, which served as a post office from 1886 until 1927. A colorful antique Persian rug covers the rustic wooden floors, and thick velvet curtains ensure that no uninvited light will enter your space. Behind that curtain,

a small balcony overlooks the quaint square — the balcony itself looks a bit like something you’d find in New Orleans’ French Quarter, though its views are of gas stations and vacant alleyways rather than Mardi Gras revelers and street performers. In the morning, I took a long shower in the blackon-black tile bathroom and made a quick cup of coffee from the in-room Keurig while wrapped up in a plush red bathrobe the hotel provided. Sitting out on the balcony, coffee mug in hand, was almost enough to make me forget about the pandemic. At night, I took the stairs from behind the bar to the rooftop, which was vacant and provided a clear view of the small downtown district. The familiar hum of crickets and cicadas and the intermittent flicker of traffic lights made the peaceful perch feel especially smalltown and Southern. The downside of staying at the GunRunner is that there’s no room service. The upside is that the excellent restaurant Odette is just a walk down the block. The restaurant’s COVID precautions include taking patrons’ temperature with a touch-free thermometer upon entry, using disposable paper menus and closing off half the tables so there’s at least six feet of space between parties — and of course the entire staff wears masks. It was weird, in a way, but as someone who hadn’t been to an actual restaurant in months and was pretty hesitant about it, I was appreciative of the efforts. Odette chef Josh Quick specializes in elevated American food with international flourishes. I highly recommend the whole fried okra and the steak frites, and the salted caramel ice cream sandwich was big enough to split, but delicious enough not to.

THE ROSENBAUM HOUSE

DO During a global pandemic, almost everything in a public space has the potential to cause many of us anxiety, and tourist attractions can look downright sinister. You must choose your activities carefully, and sometimes just driving through unknown country roads can be enough for a mental reset. But when there’s a Frank Lloyd Wright house less than five minutes from your hotel, you make it a priority. The Rosenbaum House is a pristine example of Wright’s Usonian style — that is, a home designed for middle-class families during and soon after the Great Depression. The architecture and furniture — all original, aside

THE GUNRUNNER HOTEL

PHOTO: PATRICK HOOD

Florence, Alabama

FRIED OKRA AT ODETTE

from some updated kitchen appliances — seem both extremely American and otherworldly, antique and fu-

turistic. The house was built in 1939, and the Rosenbaums — Stanley (a professor) and his wife Mildred (a former model) — moved in a year later. One of the four boys who grew up in the glass-and-cypress residence was Jonathan Rosenbaum, a renowned film critic who worked at the Chicago Reader for decades and was championed by Jean-Luc Godard. The low ceilings, detailed woodwork and built-in features of the home are all exemplary of Wright’s style — the boys’ room had bunk beds affixed to each other and the wall behind them in a sort of summer-campmeets-Space Camp, sardine-can aesthetic. A tour of The Rosenbaum House is a casual offering of architectural and historical insights, and masks were encouraged. It’s relatively easy to be socially distant in a Frank Lloyd Wright home — his houses are designed like mini-compounds that seem to encourage order. I most enjoyed looking through the shelves of antique books and a room that functioned as a Mildred’s weaving studio, filled with tidily arranged spools of colorful thread and a large functional loom. And you can’t visit Florence without stopping by the Billy Reid flagship store. Fans of classic, wellcrafted menswear with quality fabric and attention to detail should not miss it. The Alabama Chanin Factory is another unique, unmissable attraction — founder and slow-fashion pioneer Natalie Chanin is a Florence native who returned home after years working in New York and abroad. Her zero-waste, sustainable mission is reminiscent of Florence itself: quietly luxurious. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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As I said before, if you go to Oxford, just about everything you need to do is in or around The Square. On our first night in town we did a lap to get our bearings before heading to City Grocery for dinner. John Currence’s award-winning fine-dining destination is located right on The Square and was part of the town center’s revival in the early ’90s. We ate outside on a second-story balcony, seeking refuge from possible virus exposure in the sweltering but fresh air. Inside, however, is a nice bar and a comfortable setting, and several people told us it was their favorite happy-hour spot. The menu is not short on tempting options, but when I asked our server to help me decide between the pan-roasted chicken and the pan-roasted scallops, he said “scallops” without letting me finish the question. He wasn’t wrong. Currence also owns several other restaurants that came highly recommended, including Big Bad Breakfast and Snackbar, whose chef Vishwesh Bhatt won a James Beard Award in 2019. On Saturday, with a full day to work with, we made the rounds for real. Oxford has a rich literary culture that stretches back a century and continues to this day — and if you’re a reader, there are a couple stops you have to make. First is the home of William Faulkner, known as Rowen Oak, which the Nobel Prize laureate purchased with his wife Estelle in 1930. It is little more than a block off of The Square and also closed for the time being due to COVID-19. But a walk around the property was still a lovely way to spend a morning, imagining what it must have been like to write so well and drink so much. Faulkner is also buried in Oxford and referenced in various places around town. From there we went to the famous Square Books, a monument to the unique charm and importance of the independent bookstore. Here I should note that the business owners and residents of Oxford seemed to be taking this pandemic situation much more seriously than many people elsewhere. Masks were required everywhere we went, and compliance was high. Square Books was allowing only four people inside at a time, to allow for safe browsing. The bookstore has four locations on The Square: its main shop, where author events are regularly held; a lifestyle store; a children’s store; and a store dedicated to rare books. Beside the main shop, only the last was open, and it’s an absolute treat for a book collector. As you can imagine, there is a lot of Faulkner. Elsewhere on and around The Square is a mix of options for shopping, eating and drinking. If you’ve ever spent time in an SEC town, you know the type of shops I’m talking about. The ones that outfit frat brothers and sorority sisters and provide all types of merchandise branded with school colors. But it’s not just that. There’s the independent record store End of All Music and the reportedly grimy but cleverly named Library Sports Bar. Of course, it’s also worth a visit to the Ole Miss campus, if only to catch a glimpse of The Grove, the university’s famous tailgating destination, where well-heeled fans of the regrettably named Rebels — there’s that history again — are known to set up camp with fine china and chandeliers.

Oxford, Mississippi History complicates and enriches a visit to the northern Mississippi college town BY STEVEN HALE

The idea of staying in a hotel right now feels a little dicey, and getting to stay the weekend in a house or a nice condo near the action is more fun anyway. We opted for a townhome a mile or two from The Square because it had a pool. But a search on your preferred short-term rental platform will yield plenty of options. Depending on what you’re willing to spend, there are beautiful older homes available within walking distance of the campus and The Square, or condos and apartments right in the center of town. There’s not an ocean here, and you’re not looking for a resort. What you want is easy access to the restaurants, bars, shops and bookstores. Those are in and around The Square. Timing is a significant factor, of course. Our trip was in July, before students had returned to campus. Who knows what the next few months will look like, but in a normal year, a college town in the fall — particularly if it’s a school with a major football program — is a frequently busy, loud and drunken place. This might be just what you’re looking for — just remember it means higher prices for the aforementioned rentals. If you want a quieter visit, students are mostly gone in the summer, but the weather is usually something like “boiling swamp.” Maybe think about the spring.

DO Before you even get to Oxford, there are a couple of en-route destinations that can add to your trip. If you’re coming from Nashville and don’t mind adding a bit of time to the drive, you can take a slightly longer route that brings you through Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. From there you could go straight on to Oxford, but you shouldn’t. The small town of Holly

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

ROWEN OAK

Springs, just 30 minutes to the north, is the birthplace of journalistic and civil rights icon Ida B. Wells. We stopped by her childhood home, which has been turned into a small museum. The Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum at the Spires Bolling House wasn’t open due to the pandemic, but it was still worth the visit. We grabbed hamburgers in Holly Springs’ own little town square before hitting the road again. Did I mention how hot it is in Mississippi in July?

PHOTO: STEVEN HALE

STAY

SCALLOPS AT CITY GROCERY

PHOTO: VISIT OXFORD MISSISSIPPI

his would be a fraught time to visit Oxford, Miss., even if the world wasn’t currently in the grips of a deadly pandemic. Mississippi is one of the country’s poorest states amid a historic economic crisis. At the same time, the United States is in the middle of a turbulent reckoning with its white-supremacist roots and the legacy of slavery. But while Mississippi has more Black residents per capita than any other state in the union, its white leaders have long been hostile to the idea that it should denounce and turn away from a past pocked by slavery, secession, segregation and lynchings. At the very least, the state has been reluctant to let go of the symbols of that time. These fights — over the past and the present and the complicated entanglement between the two — are not new, not in the country or in the Magnolia State. But lately, things have been a bit different. In June, after a pressure campaign that included college football players threatening not to play in the state, legislators voted to take down the state flag — the last one in the U.S. that still contained the Confederate battle emblem — and replace it with a new one. Then, last month, the University of Mississippi removed a Confederate monument from the center of its Oxford campus. It had been the target of student activists for years. But a dark history still looms over the town. In the center of The Square — the heart of Oxford’s food scene and cultural life — stands a tall Confederate statue. Erected in 1907, it honors “the patriotism of the Confederate soldiers of Lafayette County” and says, “They gave their lives in a just and holy cause.” A county board voted unanimously in July to keep the statue in place.

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park The most-visited national park in the country still has plenty of open space to explore BY J.R. LIND

he Department of the Interior has done a bangup job promoting public lands during the pandemic, emphasizing that there’s no better way to get out of the house and stay safely away from people than exploring some of the 640 million acres that belong to every American. Recreation, after all, is essential activity. But with so many options — 62 national parks, 128 national monuments and umpteen other designations — why pick the one that draws the most people? Great Smoky Mountains National Park is far and away the most visited national park, with 12.5 million people stopping by in 2019 — more than twice as many as the runner-up Grand Canyon. It’s easy to see why. The stunning and verdant vistas are awe-inspiring. The park is riddled with creeks and streams tumbling over dozens of waterfalls. Bears and, now, elk are a frequent site. Unlike most of the 61 other parks, it’s free. But it’s also wildly convenient. It’s a breezy four hours from Nashville to the Sugarlands Visitors Center on the west side of the park, and it’s just as accessible from other cities in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. That’s a far less daunting haul than, say, 20 hours to Petrified Forest National Park (trust me, I know). And with a little planning and ingenuity, crowds are avoidable. You just have to go to the other side of the mountain to see what you can see. Most visitors spend the vast majority of their time on the western, Tennessee side of the park, accessible through either Townsend or Gatlinburg. The park’s superstar attractions — Cades Cove, Laurel Falls and Clingmans Dome — are all on that end of the park, and even with a pandemic on, they stay plenty packed. And with good reason: All are worth seeing. The more rugged eastern side of the park in North Carolina is no less beautiful and has plenty to see on its own — and being less dense with tourists, it has certain advantages in these times.

There are also plenty of other places to explore and experience outside the park boundary for those willing to drive on past the Rockefeller Monument.

STAY Cherokee, N.C., is just outside the park boundary, a short drive to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and a center point of sorts in the cluster of charming mountain towns near the park — Maggie Valley, Sylva, Bryson City and Waynesville — thus making it a great base camp. Like many towns forced to survive crowded against the Appalachians, its geography is a bit disjointed. There are, as one might expect, lots of lodging options at various price points, levels of corporatism and age near the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. But the middle of town, split by the Oconaluftee River, is less beset by national chains, catering to those looking for a more charming (or kitschy) experience. The River’s Edge Motel offers riverside balconies with every room, complete with rocking chairs for resting weary feet after exploring some of the more than 800 miles of hiking trails in the national park. After the sun sets over the Smokies, the stars shine bright, and it’s mighty relaxing to lean back in the rocker, gaze up at the sky and listen to the bubbling river below while sipping on a cold one from one of North Carolina’s myriad craft breweries. (One caveat: almost no retail stores inside the Qualla Boundary, the lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, sell booze; grab a sixer in Tennessee or in one of the

RIVER’S EDGE MOTEL

towns outside tribal lands.) Similar to its western neighbor, the North Carolina side offers lots of cabin rentals as well, though they are often remote. With population centers, such as they are, already farflung, the more rustic option puts the traveler even farther away from things to do and places to eat — though of course social distancing is much easier. Cherokee is a walkable town, and opting for a hotel within its city limits allows visiting its destinations to be a blessed respite from being behind the wheel. Note that the sidewalks are a bit narrow and up against the main highway, so maintaining six feet from other pedestrians requires a little effort.

MUSEUM OF THE CHEROKEE INDIAN

DO Sometimes, the best activity is the easiest: admiring the grandeur that surrounds you in the wilderness … but those with less transcendental desires will find plenty of things to do as well. For hiking on the western edge of the park, a good jumping-off point is the Deep Creek entrance near Bryson City. Hikes of any difficulty or length can be put together with an official trail map, though letting intuition be one’s guide once on the trail is also an option. A simple two- to three-mile loop (depending on side trails and one’s propensity to get lost) from Deep Creek offers views of three waterfalls — Juney Whank, Indian Creek and Toms Branch. Overlooks — some with surprisingly comfortable benches — are good places to take a load off and watch the tubers float past (tubing is an extremely popular pastime on the North Carolina side and can be enjoyed while maintaining that critical distance) or admire the work of artists who use the relative quiet as inspiration for their painting or chalkwork. Mingo Falls, though not actually within the park, is easily accessible from Cherokee. It’s 120 feet tall, making it one of the highest waterfalls in Southern Appalachia. The trails at Deep Creek are rarely crowded and extraordinarily wide as well, a welcome sight after dodging the maskless throng at Clingmans Dome. After a morning’s hike, absorb some local culture. Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual in Cherokee’s Cultural District offers traditional crafts from prize-winning Cherokee artisans (and modern takes on those crafts). There are handmade blankets and clothing, intricate basketry, highly detailed woodwork and stonework, and pottery of all shapes, sizes and uses. Bows, arrows and equipment for the Cherokee sport of stickball, all made the traditional way, are also available. The shop also includes a small museum

featuring the work of the most renowned craftsmen. Qualla is the oldest Native American artists’ co-op in the United States, founded in 1946 to preserve traditional Cherokee artistry against the rise of massproduced goods and ensuring Cherokee craftsmen are paid fairly for their work. Across the street is the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, a look at 11,000 years of history of the tribe, with a particular focus on the Eastern Band, who remained in this corner of North Carolina even after removal sent 15,000 of their people west on the Trail of Tears. The museum showcases how the tribe was able to adapt, survive and thrive when faced with repeated challenges. Coincidentally (or serendipitously), the museum is currently hosting Many Faces, an exhibit featuring more than 150 masks from more than 50 Cherokee artists. Ceremonial mask-making is a centuries-old tradition among the Cherokee, though it nearly died in the mid-20th century. It was revived by a small clutch of artists and is thriving once again, with today’s carvers putting a modern spin on the old tradition. Need to cool down and unwind after a long day? Oconaluftee Islands Park stretches along the banks of the eponymous river running through town. The shallow waters stay chilly even in the height of summer, and while there are stretches that are a bit rapid, the river is safe enough for toddlers to splash around. Note that the river bottom and much of the shore is quite rocky. Barefootedness isn’t the best idea.

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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PHOTOS: OLIVIA LIND

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

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

Walk a

Mile

with J.R. Lind

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y

R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

LIL AMANDA IS A POTTY MOUTH

T O

D O

Madeleine Hicks, the film — presented in partnership with the Barbershop Theater — serves up a great blend of storytelling, stagecraft and puppetry. But it’s also a cool theatrical mash-up, merging two shows that fans may remember from previous Kindling Arts Festivals — Hicks’ offbeat “lavatorycentric” Potty Mouth and Card’s tender, wildly imaginative The Lil Amanda Show. In this new piece, Lil Amanda — who has been grounded for having a potty mouth — teams up with her fanciful new friend Maddie to discover the wonders of creativity and the power of finding your own authentic voice. Stream it through the Kindling Arts YouTube channel or Facebook page. 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13 AMY STUMPFL

MOVIES IN THE PARK-ING LOT: LITTLE WOMEN

Last week, we at the Scene kicked off our inaugural Movies in the Park-ing Lot series — a pandemic-friendly spin on our popular long-running Movies in the Park series — with a screening of 2018’s phenomenal Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse. This week we’re queuing up another excellent (if markedly different) film for our second of four MIPL installments: Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed 2019 adaptation of Little Women. Featuring outstanding performances from Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep — not to mention a refreshing approach to telling a long-familiar story — writer-director Gerwig’s Little Women is a treat for fans of the Louisa May Alcott novel and newcomers alike. It’s also family-friendly, and features one of the best titular-linedelivery moments in the history of cinema, thanks to a certain modern-day comedic legend. (If you’re a fan of alternative sketch comedy and are not familiar with the cameo I’m referencing, it’s absolutely worth preserving the surprise.) In order to attend, enter our lottery for parking passes. We’ll select 50 winners for each screening, with up to six guests allowed per car. Visit nashvillemoviesinthepark.com for more information and to enter the parking-pass lottery. Up next: Star Wars: A New Hope (!) on Aug. 20, and 9 to 5 (!!) on Aug. 27. 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, at OneC1TY, 8 City Blvd.

of admission charge. Some suggestions for where to start: Jordan Casteel’s virtual tour of her recent exhibition of paintings, Within Reach. Casteel is one of the most significant artists of her generation, and hearing her in-depth analysis of her process and the stories behind individual works is almost as good as being there in person. Another recurring feature is called Bedtime Stories, a brainchild of artist Maurizio Cattelan that features audio recordings of various artworld figures — from Casteel and Marilyn Minter to David Byrne and Iggy Pop — telling original stories and reciting personal favorites. It’s nice. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

FILM

[MY LITTLE WOMEN!]

[GET HITCHED]

CELEBRATE HITCHCOCK’S BIRTHDAY

Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday is Aug. 13, and that’s the perfect excuse for novices and/or die-hards to dip [A MAGICAL MASH-UP] into the Master of Suspense’s WATCH LIL AMANDA IS A iconic filmography. If you’re POTTY MOUTH EDITOR’S NOTE: looking to check out his Hot on the heels of the AS A RESPONSE TO THE classic work, the recently successful Sweet Relief: ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF THE launched NBCUniversalDances for the Wash Room, CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE owned Peacock streaming the Kindling Arts Festival ACTIVITIES YOU CAN PARTAKE IN service has all the films he continues its new Kindling WHILE YOU’RE AT HOME. made for Universal Studios. Flares series with the online His most famous pictures — premiere of Lil Amanda Is a Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho Potty Mouth. Created, written and The Birds — are available for and performed by multidisciplinary free. (Incidentally, this quartet makes theater artists Amanda Card and THEATER

FILM

LITTLE WOMEN

[NOW MUSEUM]

SPEND SOME TIME WITH NEW MUSEUM NOW

The internet can be a scary place. From local news stories about public analingus (yes, that was a real local story this month) and Nashville’s transpotainment scourge, to videos of Trump talking, it seems like there’s no escape from the horrors of pandemic existence. But there’s an oasis of higher culture on the New Museum’s website — it’s called New Museum Now. Set aside some time to explore what the site is offering, free

STREAM 72 STEPS TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 Nashville Ballet

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ART

D. PATRICK RODGERS

8/10/20 5:30 PM

CRITICS’ PICKS

[HEADING UP TO HARLEM]

Social distancing has increased my usually mild social paranoia. I overthink the briefest text message, read into the most random memes and imagine that

every Instagram story is targeting my insecurities (which have blossomed into quite the garden over the past five months). If you too are balancing on that precipice of self-doubt — and if the affirmations are

ERICA CICCARONE

PODCAST

[POD FUTURE]

LISTEN TO LAND OF THE GIANTS: THE NETFLIX EFFECT

Peter Kafka has established himself as one of the best podcasters on media over the past few years, often looking at the ways in which the business of news and tech collide. In the new season of Land of the Giants, Vox Media’s series on tech giants, Kafka and Vox data reporter Rani Molla explain the rise of Netflix, from a DVD mail company to one of the largest entertainment entities in the world. Complete with interviews from all of Netflix’s major players, this season is a fascinating look inside the biggest streaming company in the world, covering everything from how Blockbuster nearly bankrupted them to their big bet on House of Cards. If you’ve got a Netflix subscription, you’ll definitely be interested. It’s available via Spotify, Apple podcasts and most other podcast platforms. STEVE CAVENDISH [BUZZFEED]

VISIT BEE AWARE: AN EXHIBIT ABOUT BEES AT THE CENTENNIAL ART CENTER

A new art exhibition aims to raise awareness about the insects that pollinate 75 percent of fruit, vegetable and nut plants in the U.S. Yep, that’s right: I’m talking about bees. It’s no surprise that the honeybee is Tennessee’s

[HONORING THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT]

STREAM NASHVILLE BALLET’S 72 STEPS

The story of the women’s suffrage movement has been told many times and in many different ways. But on Aug. 18, Nashville Ballet will present a digital performance of Gina Patterson’s 72 Steps — honoring Tennessee’s unique role in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women nationwide the right to vote on Aug. 18, 1920. Originally commissioned by the League of Women Voters of Nashville, the ballet “explores themes of basic human rights, civic responsibility and the ongoing battle for a more equitable society through the lens of the suffrage movement.” The title refers not only to the 72 steps leading up to the Tennessee State Capitol, but also to the number of years women fought for the right to vote. The piece is performed by Nashville Ballet’s second company, NB2, and features an original score by Nashville composer Jordan Hamlin and costumes by local designer Jocelyn Melechinsky. The free digital performance will be available to stream Tuesday, Aug. 18, but you must first sign up to receive access. Visit nashvilleballet.com to do that. AMY STUMPFL MUSIC

PLAY SOCIAL-DEDUCTION GAMES ON ZOOM

no longer working — I have some advice. Embrace it through game play. There’s a host of social-deduction party games that can easily be adopted to a friendly Zoom sesh with your buds. Adopt a secret identity, drum up suspicion by throwing out red herrings, accuse your pals of coldblooded murder, or get smart with some wordplay. The classic choice is Werewolf, in which one player is cast as the titular lupine shapeshifter, intent on tearing a teammate to ribbons each night. Each morning, the villagers awake to carnage and must decide who will be hanged for the crime. For a more brainy iteration, check out Werewords, in which players hunt for a secret word as the werewolf attempts to throw them off the scent. Feeling revolutionary? Indulge in espionage and subversive activity with The Resistance. (I like to rename the enemy after my most hated elected officials.) You’ll need one game per group and a leader to direct game play. Be sure to do some research ahead of time, and use Zoom’s features to make the game seamless. The best part? Most social-deduction games allow for many players — the expanded Ultimate Werewolf has the capacity for 68 — so you can grow your group as you become more confident.

ART

GAMING

[MIND GAMES]

DANCE

CELEBRATE HARLEM WEEK

Last summer, nearly 2 million visitors headed uptown for Harlem Week — a huge festival showcasing one of New York City’s most dynamic and culturally significant neighborhoods. And while this year’s celebration will take place online, it still promises a great lineup of activities and entertainment — and from Aug. 16-23, you can access it all from your living room. You might take a virtual class through Dance, Move & Groove (presented in partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center), shop at the Virtual Exhibitor Vendor Village or participate in the virtual 5K run. Try streaming one of the films featured as part of the ImageNation Film Festival, and be sure to check out the panel discussion on cinema and social change. There’s a Children’s Corner with daily activities, along with online conference events covering business, youth and technology, systemic racism and economic justice, and even senior health issues. And there will be plenty of performances throughout the week — including Alvin Ailey Dance Company’s Revelations, the Lincoln Center’s salute to the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance, Doug E. Fresh, the Hip Hop Hall of Fame and Museum, Harlem Music Festival’s All Star Band featuring Ray Chew, and more. Visit harlemweek.com for complete details and schedule. AMY STUMPFL

state agricultural insect. The hives of Tennessee apiarists produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of honey every year. The most recent data available, from 2017, shows that year’s state honey production value to be more than $1.3 million. That’s a lot of honey! But the sweetness can be deceiving, because honeybees face many serious threats — among them colony collapse disorder, the hated Varroa mite, pesticide pollution and habitat degradation. Still, there’s a lot you can do to help bees in Tennessee. You can add native plants to your landscape, decrease your use of pesticides, buy local honey and support climate change legislation. Bee Aware: An Exhibit About Bees — which is on view at the Centennial Art Center through Sept. 23 — features artwork that celebrates the beauty and importance of these insects. The exhibition includes paintings by Kim Barrick, Elizabeth Foster and Trevor Mikula; ceramics by Becca Floyd; sculpture by Keri Ann Lawrence and Charlie Hunt; and ink transfers on beeswax by Randy Purcell. At the exhibition, you can pick up information about beekeeping from the Nashville Area Beekeepers Association. The Centennial Art Center is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. MondayThursday. Through Sept. 23 at Centennial Art Center, 301 25th Ave. N. ERICA CICCARONE

BEE AWARE

“HARVEST MOON,” ELIZABETH FOSTER

COMMUNITY

up the upcoming 4K Blu-ray set The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection, to be released in September.) As for his other films — Marnie, Torn Curtain, his last film, Family Plot — you’re gonna have to subscribe to Peacock Premium for those. Also, if you want to delve into the auteur’s early made-in-England work, The Criterion Channel (of course) has a sevenfilm collection called British Hitchcock. It includes The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes and the original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which he remade in 1956. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

[GRAY AREA]

STREAM R.LUM.R’S TRACK-BY-TRACK BREAKDOWN OF SURFACING

Sometimes the magic of experiencing art is in the mystery — examining your own reactions to what’s been left open to interpretation. In that light, a recent series of YouTube videos by songsmith R.LUM.R (born Reggie Williams) that examines each track of his debut LP Surfacing isn’t going to be for everyone. But Williams is a deft writer, and there’s a lot going on in his R&B-schooled, electronically enhanced pop songs, which focus on navigating the complex and sometimes impenetrable emotional terrain of relationships. In

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CRITICS’ PICKS

the video for the opening track “Making a Choice,” he explains how a clever storytelling device from a video game showed him a way to tackle internal conflicts and dramatize the toll taken by anxiety and depression. There are two videos on “Boys Should Never Cry” — one on the production and how it dovetails with the writing, and another on the music video. Together they offer a succinct and insightful primer on questioning restrictive social mores and celebrating the sometimes painful process of growth that helps you get beyond them. Williams began posting the videos in March, but the schedule has been sporadic — visit his channel to find them all.

FILM

STEPHEN TRAGESER [GRAF ARTIST]

WATCH THE INVINCIBLES ON MUBI

German filmmaker Dominik Graf doesn’t have much of a reputation in the United States; then again, he’s not exactly a celebrity in the world of German cinema either. But as the recently uncovered and restored director’s cut of his 1994 film The Invincibles reveals, Graf is a master of thrills and genre spectacle. On a routine mission, a German SWAT officer is ambushed by a man he recognizes from his past: a former partner who murdered

his own baby and allegedly committed suicide years ago. Now a whole intricate thread of knots has come undone, one that goes to the highest levels of the state and cuts through the deepest intimacies of male comradeship. Though a cop movie might be a hard sell in times like these, The Invincibles is so much more than pure procedural: It’s a thorny political drama, a master class in Hitchcockian suspense and mistaken identities, and an intensely lurid erotic thriller. Think Michael Mann, but more surreal and somehow even sexier. Unsurprisingly, Graf did quite a bit of time in television, and The Invincibles plays like something that would today be a sixpart prestige miniseries — the fact that it attempts so much and does it so boldly in only 90 minutes is even more impressive. The Invincibles is now streaming exclusively on MUBI. NATHAN SMITH PETS

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

R.LUM.R

[GOOD BOY]

FOLLOW BLUENJY ON INSTAGRAM

Not all dog Instagram accounts are created equal. Sure, they’re all good dog accounts! But Instagram’s @bluenjy is special. You see, Bluenjy is a French bulldog who eats people food like people. He sits back on his butt, clutches a burrito, carrot, popsicle or slice of watermelon in his front paws, and takes dainty bites like the distinguished gentleman he is. Occasionally, he munches while wearing an outfit that matches his human owner! Other times he allows a chattering of chicks to dance upon his fuzzy belly while he enjoys a peanut butter sandwich. He’s used chopsticks to chomp down sushi and a straw to sip from a freshly cracked coconut. And no, you’re not just imagining things when you get flush with happiness while watching one of his videos. In 2017, CBC News reported, “Staring at cute things can boost mood and concentration by tapping into the same chemical reward system in the brain that makes cocaine addictive.” Which is to say, our brains get a tiny blast of dopamine when we look at something cute, including animal videos. Bluenjy is a gift for the world, a shining light in dark days. Follow Bluenjy. MEGAN SELING

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FOOD AND DRINK

BASSAM HABIB AND MOLLY McCARTHY

COMMUNITY EATS

The Nashville Free Store and Hot Poppy grocery delivery service are changing how Nashvillians get their food BY MEGAN SELING

t has been a long, hard year. In the early hours of March 3, an EF3 twister tore through Nashville, killing two people, injuring dozens more and destroying millions of dollars in property. Not even a week later, on March 8, a Nashville resident tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the global pandemic to our doorstep. Since then, Davidson County has racked up more than 22,000 confirmed cases and more than 200 deaths from the THE NASHVILLE FREE STORE IS OPEN TO THE disease. PUBLIC EVERY SATURDAY But glimmers of NOON-6 P.M. THEY ACCEPT good can be found DONATIONS EVERY FRIDAY in the (sometimes 3-6 P.M. FOLLOW THEM ON INSTAGRAM AT literal) rubble. @NASHVILLEFREESTORE This summer, two FOR UPDATES. new communitydriven foodSHOP HOT POPPY AT HOTPOPPYGO.COM. THEY focused operations ANNOUNCE NEW ITEMS AND have started up UPDATES ON INSTAGRAM AT in hopes of filling @HOTPOPPYGO. the gaps that have begun to show in the city’s traditional operating systems. The first, Hot Poppy, is a grocerydelivery service that offers produce, pantry items and home goods exclusively from Tennessee-based farms and

businesses. You place an order on their website (hotpoppygo.com), and the next day they bring everything to your door, like a more ethical and locally sourced Amazon Fresh or Instacart. The other, the Nashville Free Store, is a completely free market run by volunteers and stocked by donations. It’s open every Saturday noon-6 p.m. in the currently quiet independent East Nashville music venue Drkmttr, and it gives Nashvillians the opportunity to stock up on food, cleaning supplies, toiletries and more, no questions asked.

street, the capitalist system sees that person as, ‘This is your fault that this has happened to you.’ But mutual aid says, ‘It’s not your fault, you’re just in a system that is not working for you.’ ” In the few weeks it has existed, the Nashville Free Store has used social media, flyers and word of mouth to pack the shelves with canned goods, snacks, school supplies, toiletries and even COVID-19 relief supplies. Much of the inventory is name-brand. There’s a fridge and freezer

filled with perishables, too — milk, meat, cheese and fresh fruit and vegetables, some of which has been donated by local farms. The selection of goods feels almost as plentiful as that of a small New York bodega (though there’s no lackadaisical cat wandering around Drkmttr). That abundance, McCarthy says, is an important part of what separates the Nashville Free Store from the usual food banks and charity drives. It’s all about letting the person in need decide what and how much they get, instead of the other way around. “We’re not gonna ask you, ‘Why do you need five boxes of diapers?’ ” says McCarthy. “Because you can’t assume anything. “That’s why we’re doing the once-a-week thing, so we can get enough [supplies] to give out,” she adds. “We want people to feel that abundance, to feel this isn’t scarce and that we’re here for each other. That’s how — I guess, again, bringing it to capitalism — [capitalism] wants you to feel like there’s scarcity, it’s stressful and there’s not enough for everyone. But the reality is —” “We’re not running out of anything,” Habib breaks in. “No one is running out of anything.”

NASHVILLE FREE STORE

Various models of free stores have existed for decades — you can find both nonprofit and for-profit versions in Portland, Baltimore and Birmingham, Ala. Nashville Free Store co-founders Molly McCarthy and Bassam Habib say the movement is less about slapping a temporary Band-Aid on a problem and more about creating a lasting foundation that can actually lead to change. Their unofficial motto is “Solidarity, not charity.” “Charity is part of a capitalist system,” says Habib. “When you see somebody who has no money, has no home, is living on the

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FOOD AND DRINK

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

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“We’re here every weekend, says McCarthy. “And even if we ran out of donations today, we have funds donated so we can go to the store and buy stuff. There’s no stress about it.”

HOT POPPY

The co-founders of Hot Poppy — Stuart Landis, Storm Sheler and Vinny Maniscalco — first started thinking about getting into the grocery-delivery game in early April. “For a couple of us, it was our first time using options like Instacart and Amazon,” Landis tells the Scene. “We were going on local businesses’ sites to support them as we could, but it was becoming more and more difficult to avoid using the large online options. The combination of a tornado and then a worldwide pandemic has been extremely daunting to this community, small businesses in particular. We wanted to help.” Hot Poppy’s online “shelves” are stocked with goods from more than 40 local vendors. The dairy section features JD Country Milk, Wise Butter, Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese and Hen-iscity Farm’s eggs; the pantry’s packed with Hummus Chick dips, Bae’s Butters nut butters, BE-Hive’s meat alternatives and a variety of honey, jams and sauces. There’s fresh pasta from Alfresco Pasta, breads and pastries from Bobby John Henry and Bonjour bakeries and even some bath, body and home products like Roux Maison laundry detergent, Little Seed soap and Paddywax candles. The best part is the produce section. It’s an ever-changing selection based on

what local farms — Bloomsbury, Shiloh and Servant Farms — have available, and while you can often get familiar staples like potatoes, tomatoes, onions and greens, Hot Poppy also sometimes carries more niche produce you won’t see at Kroger or Publix. Recently they’ve stocked colorful Mardis Gras beans, puffy lion’s mane mushrooms and pints of cucamelons, a tiny fruit that looks like a grape-size watermelon but crunches like the most refreshing, tangy cucumber you’ve ever had. Landis says there’s lots more to come. “We are just getting started,” he says. “Shopping local is not going anywhere. Amazon and Instacart are not going anywhere, and we plan to grow the local alternative even after [the pandemic] passes. People are waking up to the idea that they have the option to know where their food comes from. If you are in a position where you have to order online, you can still have a say where your dollar goes.” Nashville Free Store’s McCarthy and Habib are optimistic about their future, too. In just three weekends, they’ve already served hundreds of people, and donations keep coming in as word continues to grow. They hope the Free Store can become a permanent fixture. “This is the birth of what we would hope to see 100 years from now, which would be toppling a capitalist system, and mutual aid would be the system in place,” says Habib. “This is not a charity organization. We’re not volunteering to help the community. This is how we want the world to be.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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CULTURE

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

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THE ART OF LOSING Through poetry, Danielle Bigsby memorializes victims of gun violence BY HANNAH HERNER

ocques Clemmons “always had a smile,” Danielle Bigsby says. She remembers his well-trained pitbull, who the neighborhood kids loved to visit, and how he loved the Dallas Cowboys. He lived in an apartment behind HOOD LOVE, VOLS. 1-6 Bigsby’s in James BY DANIELLE BIGSBY A. Cayce Homes. In AVAILABLE ON AMAZON 2017, Clemmons was shot and killed by a Metro police officer on the property, spurring citywide protests and a movement to establish a board of community members to oversee MNPD. Bigsby wrote about Clemmons in the third volume of her anti-gun-violence poetry series, Hood Love: An unfortunate tragedy is what they called it, Murder is what I say; And as usual, White cop, Black male victim, Not guilty at the end of the day. “When that touched home, I needed to emphasize that just because you have a badge doesn’t give you permission to kill,” Bigsby says in regard to Clemmons. “I wasn’t fearful when I decided to write about that one. I thought I would be, but now I understand that whether you have a badge or whether you’re a criminal pulling the trigger of a gun, it’s gun violence either way, and it needs to be spoken about.” Bigsby, a self-published author, is now working on her seventh volume of poetry, which will include a poem about Daniel Hambrick. Hambrick was shot and killed by Metro police Officer Andrew Delke 2018, and Delke is now awaiting trial on firstdegree murder charges. The names of Hambrick and Clemmons may sound familiar to many Nashvillians, but Bigsby also remem-

bers victims of gun violence who weren’t shot by officers and those whose deaths were not met with public outcry. She’s known many of these victims since childhood. Her first volume of poetry featured six victims, and she’s added six more with each new volume. Hood Love 7 will bring the total number of gun violence victims Bigsby has commemorated to 42. Bigsby says there’s a lot of distrust of the police in her neighborhood. She wants to put the reader in the shoes of the people who carry guns there. She sees neighbors afraid to call police for help. She sees people get out of prison and have few job options, so they go back to crime to provide for their families. Bigsby was inspired to write poetry about this topic by her nephew Ronquez Bigsby. He was killed 10 years ago this month in Cayce Homes. A star athlete and the comedian of the family, Ronquez was just 14 years old — about to start high school the next day. No one was convicted for his murder, and the case has since gone cold. After Ronquez died, Bigsby says he came to her in a dream and said, “What are you doing with my story?” Bigsby writes: I’ve been reduced to nothing more than a conversation piece, And judging by the unsolved status of my case, Many are talking, Just not to the detective’s face; Leaving my family to hope and pray, That someone gains a conscience, Leading them to finally speak up someday. This personal connection to gun violence can make it challenging for Bigsby to talk to families who have experienced the same

thing, but she interviews each loved one before getting the poem on paper. Sometimes she has to put down the pen for days or weeks at a time. “This is not the story of triumph,” Bigsby says. “This is not the story of happy endings. I’m having to write about someone losing their life. I’m having to write about a mother crying over the loss of their child, or a child crying over the loss of their parent. It is heartbreaking. But I feel like I didn’t choose this mission. There’s a million other topics I could write about. Unfortunately, I personally know what it’s like to lose a loved one to gun violence.” Bigsby most wants to see young people reading her books, so she offers them for $5 each to people under 18. “It is clear as day that the youth are our future and the future leaders,” she says. “[Six] females led the peaceful [June 4 Black Lives Matter] protest here, and they were teens from Nashville schools. It’s clear as day that our youth are our treasure. So if I could save one, then I’ve done my job.” Hood Love 7: Burying Treasure, is slated for release early next year. The book focuses on what connections could possibly prevent a person from being an eventual victim of gun violence, from a relationship with a parent to an after-school program. “We’ve got to find out how to bridge the gap,” Bigsby says. “Because if not, we’ll continue to bury our treasure.” Bigsby tires of people telling her, “It’s going to be OK,” as she mourns the loss of her nephew and others killed by guns. For Bigsby and the families she writes for, these are wounds that will never heal, she says. She’s also tired of the mentality that some people killed by guns have it coming. “I’ve had some people say, ‘They was out there creating this havoc, they deserved it,’ ” says Bigsby. “And there were a couple people that I wrote about that I knew were in constant trouble. But nobody deserves to die at the hands of a bullet. … They weren’t given the chance to redeem themselves.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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BOOKS

FAITHFUL TO THE FANTASTICAL Matthew Baker toys with storytelling conventions in Why Visit America BY BROOKS EGERTON

atthew Baker’s new story collection, Why Visit America, gets in your face, announcing itself immediately. The first complete sentence in the first story, “Fighting Words,” recounts the lewd rants of a ninth-grade boy who, with impunity, is terrorizing the narrator’s niece. Soon we learn that the girl and her brother have lost their mom to a new heartthrob, and they’re being raised by the narrator and WHY VISIT AMERICA his brother, BY MATTHEW BAKER HENRY HOLT AND CO. sad-sack 368 PAGES, $27.99 products of a prior broken home. One man is a “professor of dead languages,” twice divorced; the other, who defines fake words for a dictionary publisher, lusts only for “some nameless, indescribable thing” and has “never loved another human.” They resolve not so much to protect the girl as to avenge her. This story sets the tone for the dozen that follow: profoundly alienated characters, fierce conflicts and settings that are at least slightly surreal or futuristic. The alienation doesn’t necessarily drive the action, but it’s always there, looming. And it’s often sexual in some way. In the second story, for example, a friendless, loverless old man balks at familyplanning guidelines that call on him to kill himself. The third story centers on a young man preparing to shed his body and put his digitized mind online. Sex, he says, is “more trouble than it’s worth.” In the fourth story, an ex-convict whose memories have been erased copulates with a wife he no longer knows. And in the fifth, the last men on Earth live in captivity — “menageries” — but remain available to women like the unnamed protagonist: Her straight friends preferred to have sex with robots because having sex with men was so much more expensive, but she didn’t mind paying extra. Technically the money was a donation. All of the proceeds went toward buying the men special treats, like sorbet and pastries. She liked feeling generous. While ever faithful to the fantastical in Why Visit America, Baker nonetheless tries out several genres and sometimes crossbreeds them. After a coming-of-age yarn takes a fairly conventional path, a satire of corporate capitalism sports a satanic twist. Then come tales of horror and erotica with mystical overtones. Near the back of the book, the title story is a hybrid unlike any I’ve seen before. It reads like a mash-up of a tour guide’s spiel, a libertarian manifesto

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and a Wild West movie script, with a bit of comic-book sensibility sprinkled on top. Baker dares to play with other conventions too. Most startling, perhaps, are the two times he kills off central characters. In one case, this leaves us with no individual frame of reference for the conclusion; in the other, we begin seeing through brand-new eyes four pages before the end of a 44-page piece. Literary journals previously published many of these stories, helping put Baker on Hollywood’s radar before Holt rolled out the book. Big-name producers have now bought rights to nine of Why Visit America’s component parts, and Baker is writing the film adaptations for two of them. Variety magazine has Baker on its inaugural “10 Storytellers to Watch” list. Not bad for a young man who earned his creative writing M.F.A. from Vanderbilt in 2012. Fame and fortune may well lie ahead for him, given the tremendous growth of scripted TV. That growth has involved numerous nonrealistic shows — which have contributed to the rising popularity of speculative fiction in print, says Baker’s editor, Kerry Cullen, in an email. Holt’s bid to capitalize on this with a short-story collection is unusual since that form rarely sells well. But Cullen sees inspiration in the Emmy-winning hit TV series Black Mirror. Its characters and futuristic settings change from one episode to the next in what Cullen calls “speculative storytelling in the form of separate vignettes.” For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THROUGH LINES: AND THEY DROVE AROUND A LOT Looking back at local records that marked the experience of growing up in the 1980s BY JONATHAN MARX *EDITOR’S NOTE: While the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we’re taking a look back at records that help tell the story of the evolving music scene in Music City, one decade at a time. It’s an occasional series that we call Through Lines.

y now, Nashville’s local music scene of the 1980s has fairly been well-documented — in the pages of this very publication and on the website Nashville80sRock.net, to name just two outlets. If you were around back then and you are still here now, persevering in New Nashville, it’s hard not to feel pangs of nostalgia for a simpler time, even if this city was not all great back then. Far from it. And yet there’s something particularly poignant about revisiting those days right now. Maybe it’s the state of partial shutdown that we SEEK OUT THESE find ourselves in RECORDS FROM YOUR (assuming you’re not FAVORITE RECORD STORE on Lower Broad). But every so often, I experience moments of openness and eerie quiet that bring back echoes of that now largely vanished Nashville, a place that wasn’t so busy and so full of itself. I remember long-demolished buildings, funky businesses like Goody’s Warehouse and Roxy that used to line a sleepy Second Avenue, and the swarm of kids who’d descend on Elliston Place every Friday night to hang out in front of Mosko’s, a deli and magazine shop that was unlike any other place in town. Nashville felt a lot more local back then. Maybe it felt too local — provincial even. But if I pick through the best of the music that came out during that time, a singular and striking portrait emerges. What follows are five of my favorite local recordings from this era, though I need to acknowledge that this selection reflects my own teenage experience in the early to mid-’80s. Listening to these records some 35 years later, they still sound pretty great to my ears. But what I hear in them now, and could not have fully understood back then, is just how much they had to say about the community and the world we lived in.

RAGING FIRE, A FAMILY THING (PRISTINE RECORDS, 1985)

Abdul-Aleem’s flute and percussion adding depth, dimension and texture. Himons’ Appalachian roots, his expansive spirit and his kind demeanor flow throughout his music, and his lyrics dial in on the worries about nuclear proliferation that so defined the decade. They also directly address the entrenched problems of systemic racism that continue to define our country today. And so this music, which finds our collective liberation in both joy and protest, sounds relevant to contemporary ears as well. If you want to listen to this now hard-tofind album, you can thank YouTube user Uncommon Archives, who has posted the entire record on their account.

We all know how important Jason & the Scorchers were to the local music scene in the 1980s. But back then, Raging Fire was the group that mattered to me. It’s not just because they played tons of all-ages shows for kids who generally couldn’t get into Cantrell’s or Exit/In — it’s also because vocalist Melora Zaner took us kids seriously, and she’d always hang out after shows and engage in deep conversation. She was only a few years older, but she seemed so wise. Reflecting on her keenly observed lyrics now, I realize she was working through the same messy questions of family, identity and relationships that we were just starting to grapple with. To a picked and strummed acoustic guitar, the title track opens like a short story: “I brushed my hair and / Tripped down the stairs / Into another Monday / What would my mother say?” From there,

AUTUMN, ARRIVAL (COMPLEAT RECORDS, 1984) In a city with a rich R&B history going back the better part of a century, it’s fair to say that Autumn was Nashville’s preeminent R&B group in the ’80s, and Arrival is one of the great (if unheralded) records of the era. It was released on a Nashville-based label whose roster included the late, great Bohannon, country artist Vern Gosdin, and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (!). Across nine tracks, these four Fisk University graduates survey ballads, electro-funk, slow jams and more, with “Culture Shock” giving voice to the anxieties of contemporary life; “Creepin’

AFRIKAN DREAMLAND, DANCE AND SURVIVE! (AYO, 1982) Something to appreciate about Nashville in the 1980s is that one of the most popular local groups in the country music capital of the world was a reggae band. What I didn’t appreciate at the time was the distinctiveness of Afrikan Dreamland’s sound, which leader Aashid Himons called “blu-reggae.” Dance and Survive! builds on the offbeat rhythms of reggae, fueled by Himons’ muscular bass and keyboards, with Darrell Rose’s percussion and Mustafa

(Ah, Ah, There You Go)” and “Hopscotch” exploring themes of broken trust; and “Living Free” perfectly encapsulating what it meant to express oneself freely in the ’80s. Keyboardist Geo Cooper provides a tight musical foundation with his Yamaha, Prophet, Juno and Moog synths, with guitarist Vanduz Norman-Bradshaw offering note-perfect flourishes throughout. Vocalists Darryl Jones and Randy Smith deliver the songs with verve and feeling, culminating in the soaring “Come Walk My Way.” Fun fact: Autumn also recorded the instrumental theme for the 1985 film Krush Groove.

the band unleashes its full fury, diving into a blazing country-punk hybrid that, to my ears, always sounded just a little more vital and crackling than the Scorchers’ own celebrated sound.

Family Thing, this four-song collection also reminds me what a great medium the EP can be — compact enough to contain a band’s best ideas, but just expansive enough to show some of their depth.

THE YOUNG NASHVILLIANS, METROPOLITAN SUMMER (DREAD BEAT RECORDS, 1982) If any recording captures memories of a long-gone Nashville for me, this is it. For one thing, nostalgia is written into this record, as the songwriting and the general feel owe a huge debt to the heyday of ’60s AM radio — The Young Nashvillians even include a cover of Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs’ 1963 hit “Sugar Shack.” But instead of that record’s signature Hammond organ, it’s the very ’80s sound of the Casiotone MT-40 that dominates here. Metropolitan Summer was recorded in band member Jon Shayne’s basement, which you can plainly hear in the audio quality, but therein lies its charm. Given that I went to high school with some of these guys, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Nashville they capture in their songs reflects some of my own youthful and sheltered experience — as a backup chorus sings at one point: “Well, they went to McDonald’s / And they went to the pool / And they drove around a lot.” Within this time capsule are snapshots of a Green Hills that was less posh and affluent than the one we know today, and a lament about the quality of the ice at Shoney’s (“Kinda gooey / Kinda chewy / Kind of in one clump”). My personal favorite might be “Jumper Cables,” arguably the best song ever written about car trouble, which contains this indelible couplet: “I have a tow truck, and I call it ‘asshole’ / I buy a lot of gasoline and put it in the gas hole.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SHADOW 15, FAR AWAY (BIG MONKEY RECORDS, 1985) This record encapsulates everything I love about rock music from this era. Within it, I hear the sonic and emotional starkness of British post-punk — the agitated drumsand-bass intro of the opening track “Time Dies” puts me in the mind of Joy Division’s “Disorder.” But I also hear the angst and raw energy of the American underground, circa 1984-85, in the tempos, wiry guitar leads, power chords and the yearning rasp of Scott Feinstein’s vocals. As with Raging Fire’s A

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

TO KNOW AND FEEL TOO MUCH WITHIN Emma Swift salutes many sides of Bob Dylan on Blonde on the Tracks BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

PHOTO: DAVID McCLISTER

DIE MIDWESTERN OUT FRIDAY, AUG. 14, VIA OH BOY RECORDS

DEFIANCE, OHIO

For Cincinnati troubadour Arlo McKinley, life begins at 40 BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

“I

’ve been thinking that I should go / Because if I don’t leave now / Then I’m never gonna leave Ohio,” sings Arlo McKinley on the title track to Die Midwestern. The album, out Friday, is his debut for John Prine’s Oh Boy Records. “And that’s a chance that I just can’t take / Now that I’m getting older.” A love-hate relationship with the Buckeye State is part and parcel of growing up there, McKinley says. The 40-year-old singersongwriter-guitarist has lived in Cincinnati his entire life. “It’ll always be home, but you get burnt out on a lot of what you see in the Midwest,” he tells the Scene. “There’s some people who’d want to fight me for even saying that, but they’re delusional.” Southern Ohio’s status as a geographic and cultural crossroads between Appalachia and the Midwest meant an eclectic musical upbringing for McKinley. He had older brothers in the local punk scene and a country- and bluegrass-loving dad. Years ago, many of his relatives sought better lives by migrating to the Cincinnati metro area from Eastern Kentucky. They came to work at GM’s Norwood plant, which the auto manufacturing giant shuttered in 1987. “We were raised in the city with country values,” McKinley explains. “When my brothers weren’t around I’d go through all their punk, metal and hardcore records, and when they were home I’d listen to my dad’s records — classic country like Merle Haggard, George Jones and bluegrass stuff like J.D. Crowe that was obscure at the time.” This was pre-O Brother, Where Art Thou,

McKinley notes. He points to the 2000 Coen brothers dramedy as a force that brought mainstream attention to music that, if you’ve got Appalachian roots, is just in your blood. “Before that movie, bluegrass was as much of a punk movement as punk was,” McKinley says. “Doing it yourself, renting out VFW halls, raising as much money as you could, making it work.” It makes sense, then, that Die Midwestern has a trad sound but a punk heart, landing it in the same neighborhood as Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell and John Moreland in the modern folk-country-bluegrass canon. Since McKinley and his band The Lonesome Sound got together in 2014, they’ve shared stages with all three. The 10-song collection was tracked at Memphis’ Sam Phillips Recording Service, the studio that the late Sun Records founder opened after he outgrew the space where he recorded Elvis. It’s hallowed ground too, having hosted musicians including Prine, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. McKinley was nervous at first, but producer Matt Ross-Spang guided the proceedings with a steady hand. They hadn’t met in person until the sessions began. “We hit it off right away,” McKinley remembers. “He really just set the tone for it and made me feel at home.” Ross-Spang’s recent engineering credits include The Mountain Goats’ In League With Dragons and Prine’s The Tree of Forgiveness, and he produced Margo Price’s Midwest Farmer’s Daughter and All American Made. Like Price, McKinley is a Midwesterner who began a solo career later in life than many, but with the experience to tell con-

vincing stories and an understanding that the classics are classics for a reason. Asked what he’s been listening to during quarantine, McKinley cites Bob Dylan’s latest, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Bruce Springsteen’s stripped-down early-’80s masterwork Nebraska, and newer LPs from Deer Tick and The Marcus King Band. “And The Band,” McKinley adds, “who are my go-to for everything.” Die Midwestern’s standouts include the heart-on-sleeve country laments “She’s Always Been Around” and “Gone for Good.” “Suicidal Saturday Night” is a youthful ode to life on the lam with Memphis players Jessie Munson and Rick Steff lending wistful, Last Waltz-style fiddle and warm analog keys to the proceedings, respectively. But the song that started it all is also the very first McKinley ever wrote from start to finish — “Bag of Pills.” A staple of his live repertoire since he was in his mid-20s, “Pills” is a candid first-person account of the prescription-drug scourge that began to impact his hometown and region in the early 2000s and has snowballed into a national crisis in the decade-and-a-half since he penned it. As the story goes, Oh Boy director of operations Jody Whelan, a friend of McKinley’s from the road, played “Bag of Pills” for his dad, the late John Prine. His response: “That’s a good song.” At McKinley’s next Nashville show, which was at The High Watt in Nashville, he had a surprise guest in the crowd — and eventually a contract, making him the final signee to Prine’s label before the legendary songwriter’s death in April. “I don’t think John was able to stay the whole time, but for him to come out on a Thursday night to a club where there’s no place to get privacy, and listen … that’s success to me,” McKinley says. “I wish I’d had more time to sit and talk music with him. But to know I was even on his radar meant the world to me.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

n the months following the 2016 presidential election, Emma Swift found herself feeling depressed. The Australia-born and Nashvilleresiding singer-songwriter knew from past experience that her depression prevented her from writing songs, an artistic block that only exacerbated what was already a difficult time. So she did what she often does when she experiences difficult feelings: She turned to her record collection. BLONDE ON THE TRACKS “I’m not depressed OUT FRIDAY, AUG. 14, VIA right now, but I go TINY GHOST RECORDS through phases in my life when I have depression and it’s hard for me to get things done,” Swift tells the Scene. “It’s particularly hard to write songs when I’m in a blue period. I can sing other people’s material, though, while I wait for the dark cloud to disappear.” To find her way back into her creativity, Swift began singing her favorite Bob Dylan songs, recording a handful of tracks before shelving the project when she found herself able to write original music again. But the project came full circle this spring, when Swift found herself quarantining at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to finish what would become Blonde on the Tracks. She’s releasing the album through her label Tiny Ghost Records — digitally on Friday and in record stores on Aug. 28. “We recorded six songs, and I started going to therapy and my depression kind of lifted,” Swift explains. “And I just put the project away. ‘Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. Dylan, I’m going to go write my own songs now.’ So I kind of forgot about it. Then the pandemic happened. I realized that life was too short for things to just live in my Dropbox and not see the light of day.” The eight tracks that make up Blonde on the Tracks span many Dylan eras. There’s “Queen Jane Approximately” from his first electric record, 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited, plus two from its 1966 follow-up Blonde on Blonde — “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” — and “Simple Twist of Fate” from 1975’s Blood on the Tracks. Blonde on the Tracks also includes a cover of “I Contain Multitudes,” which appeared on Dylan’s most recent album Rough and Rowdy Ways, released in June. “I love Bob Dylan,” Swift says. “He’s made a couple records in Nashville. He’s also an artist who struck me as being supremely confident. I think what I was really suffering from was this very acute case of low self-esteem. So, in a way, by doing his songs it was a chance to try on his jacket. ‘If I wear Bob Dylan’s clothes, will I have a little more confidence?’ ” Swift recorded Blonde on the Tracks with East Nashville-based producer (and Wilco musician) Pat Sansone. The pair tapped a Murderers’ Row of local players to perform on the album, including Thayer Sarrano (pedal steel), Jon Radford (drums), Jon Estes (bass) and Swift’s partner Robyn Hitchcock on guitar. The group split recording sessions between East Nashville’s Magnetic Sound Studio in 2017 and home setups earlier this year.

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Swift is known as a gifted vocalist, and the folk-rock-leaning recordings on Blonde on the Tracks firmly situate her versatile, emotive voice front and center. The album opens with “Queen Jane Approximately,” on which Swift delivers a vocal performance that is at once delicate and tough, recalling the sturdy sultriness of Cat Power or Jenny Lewis far more than Dylan’s own folky rasp. The album’s emotional centerpiece is “I Contain Multitudes,” which played a large role in inspiring Swift to finish the collection and shows off her preternatural talent for interpreting the songs of others. A longtime vocal opponent of the compensation practices of streaming services like Spotify, Swift will release Blonde on the Tracks digitally via Bandcamp and on cassette, CD and vinyl, choosing to withhold the album from streamingonly platforms of any kind. It was important to Swift to put her money where her mouth is with regard to streaming, despite an increasingly important need for multiple revenue streams. As it has with so many other musicians, the pandemic has dealt Swift a difficult hand, halting her touring and forcing her to reimagine how to be a working musician in such a drastically different economic landscape. Even so, she proclaims herself fortunate, calling her situation “easy compared to health care workers … teachers … and other frontline workers.” The remainder of 2020 is still something of a question mark for Swift, though in September she plans to release an original protest song. The tune in question draws direct inspiration from the pandemic, recent protests for racial justice and Nashville’s March tornado. Like Dylan, Swift wants not only to document these challenging times, but to use her music to try to effect change.

PHOTO: AUTUMN DOZIER

MUSIC

EMMA SWIFT

“It’s been a wild and strange and utterly devastating time to be a human in the world, let alone a human in East Nashville,” she says of the past several

THE SPIN

months. “There’s a part of me that is just so hopeful that what is going to come out of this year is radical change. And I don’t think that radical change can

THREE’S COMPANY: MARCELA PINILLA

WHAT STREAMS MAY COME BY EDD HURT AND RON WYNN

hough the music has roots that extend much further back, Americana started kicking up dust about 20 years ago, when albums like Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Territory, Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Kevin Gordon’s Down to the Well helped define the nascent genre. Thursday night via StageIt, Gordon — a longtime Nashvillian whose music exemplifies a strain of Americana that tilts toward blues — marked the 20th anniversary of Down to the Well with a 50-minute set of songs from that remarkable album. Gordon slipped easily into the intimate ambience of livestream culture, playing blues-folk guitar and singing with passion and wit. Produced by Bo Ramsey and Nashville guitarist Joe V. McMahan, Down to the Well got attention from then-powerful outlets like No Depression. In 2000, the magazine was in its most expansionist, ideology-defining phase, and the Louisiana-born Gordon made music whose contours matched the magazine’s sensibility. As with all of Gordon’s records, the production comes close to presenting a great musician in the most appropriate context. Call me a skeptic, but Gordon’s albums, including his fine 2018 Tilt and Shine, don’t always ring true sonically.

Gordon needs production that’s slick as a sharkskin suit, with horns, backup singers and, just maybe, a disco beat — like, say, Clarence Carter. That said, Gordon was magnificent Thursday night. His guitar style combines the drive of Delta blues, the metrical daring of Louisiana guitarist Robert Pete Williams and the flow of folk-blues master Bert Jansch. He nailed his “Jimmy Reed Is the King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” which appears on his new 17-track full-length Down to the Well: Solo Demos Unearthed, complete with a bridge that he said didn’t make the cut on the studio record. Gordon didn’t need any kind of production to get his message across, which makes

him one of the finest performers working anywhere right now. During her hourlong set streamed Friday night from an empty Rudy’s Jazz Room, electrifying vocalist Marcela Pinilla reaffirmed over and over the universality of jazz and the magic of Afro-Latin music. Pinilla, born in Colombia, moved to Nashville from Memphis in 2017, and she’s built a reputation for blending idiomatic elements and references. Pinilla’s current trio features Isaac Eicher on mandolin and Dan Eubanks on bass. Both players (who also have extensive bluegrass credentials) seemed to shift roles from accompaniment to solo contributions effortlessly, and ably handled the

come about without a kind of mass recognition that the system is broken.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

fluid blend of styles, sounds, tempos and influences. The set included Cuban and Brazilian material, as well as one or two more traditional jazz numbers. As a vocalist, Pinilla is compelling and charismatic, and her approach doesn’t copy one that has become familiar in contemporary jazz — she and her group don’t lean heavily on show tunes and/or bop numbers. The rhythmic mix goes from bossa nova, bolero and samba to the swirling beat of “Chan Chan,” a song popularized by Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club, which the trio did with flair and swagger as their second number. Pinilla sings in five languages, and was equally dynamic no matter which one a song called for. She also added percussive colors from various instruments as a catchy extra texture. Her dance background added another flamboyant edge, as she demonstrated during interludes when Eicher or Eubanks took solos. She also shouted out viewers commenting on the Facebook stream from around the world, a testament to the audience she’s cultivated in the many countries where she’s performed. Hearing the trio go from bossa nova to blues and back again was a rousing and memorable experience. A lone quibble: Not enough of the song titles were referenced, so it was difficult for those who were seeing the trio for the first time to know what they were performing. But there were so many positives from the set. In a city that has its fair share of high-quality jazz and jazz-influenced vocalists, Pinilla is a most worthy and welcome addition. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2016 | nashvillescene.com

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ANNOUNCING OUR 2020 LINEUP!

PRESENTED BY

IT’S BACK!

AUGUST 6

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

AUGUST 13

LITTLE WOMEN

AUGUST 20

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

AUGUST 27

9 TO 5

FRE E FUN FILM S

The Nashville Scene is excited to announce our new drive-in movie series, Movies in the Park-ing Lot!

This August, join us at oneC1ty, where — instead of bringing a blanket or a chair — you can pull up your car and enjoy four movies under the stars!

Each week we’ll be screening a fan-favorite film FOR FREE, and guests can order a delicious picnic dinner and sweet treats.

V I S I T W W W. N A S H V I L L E M O V I E S I N T H E PA R K . C O M F O R D E TA I L S O N H O W T O W I N PA S S E S A N D T O L E A R N M O R E ! PRESENTED BY

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H