DATE NIGHT: HITTING A LEBANESE BISTRO AND SALTY + SWEET IN 12SOUTH >> PAGE 29 MUSIC: GRACE BOWERS SETS THE STAGE WITH WINE ON VENUS >> PAGE 35
Mission-driven, safety-focused, women-run venues keep the music playing in Music City
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
TOMATO ART FEST
Lee Alexander McQueen redefined contemporary fashion with his extraordinary ability to blend exquisite craftmanship with imaginative storytelling. This exhibition, featuring more than 60 dress objects and 65 photographs, offers a rare glimpse into the life and mind of McQueen and introduces French photographer Ann Ray, the only photographer granted unfettered access to McQueen’s world.
John Prine’s hangout has chugged along for 80 years and escaped the fate of its peers BY STEVE CAVENDISH, NASHVILLE BANNER
87-Year-Old Activist Arrested Protesting Anti-Camping Law
Karl Meyer camped overnight on the Capitol lawn, asked for an audience with Gov. Lee BY ALEJANDRO
RAMIREZ
COVER STORY
Venues of Their Own
Mission-driven, safety-focused, women-run venues keep the music playing in Music City BY MARGARET LITTMAN
CRITICS’ PICKS
Tomato Art Fest, Lily Unless and the If Onlys , Chris Stapleton, Sara Koffi, The Terminator and more
AND DRINK
Date Night: Epice and Fryce Cream
Hitting the 12th Avenue Lebanese bistro for dinner, then salty + sweet across the street BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
Growing Watermelon in Nashville Begonia Labs’ first locally curated show is a safe space for Palestinian solidarity BY CAT ACREE
On a String
Grace Bowers sets the stage with Wine on Venus BY KELSEY BEYELER
Secret’s in the Sauce
Talking about community building with Good Neighbor Festivals founder Jack Davis ahead of the 21st Tomato Art Fest BY HANNAH HERNER
Send It
Inspired by a skating legend, Mexico City’s Cardiel stirs up a heady punk concoction BY P.J.
KINZER
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out A Giant Dog at The Cobra BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
FILM
Jail Tale
Sing Sing is a raw, moving prison story BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
Growing Pains
Dídi shows adolescence in the 2000s — warts and all BY KEN ARNOLD
Clocking In Cuckoo is campy and stylish, but without a big payoff BY SADAF AHSAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
MARKETPLACE
ON THE COVER:
Venue owners (left to right, from top: Vero Sanchez, Amy Dee, Tanya Tucker; Emily Zimmer, Olive Scibelli, Kathryn Edwards; Kendall Morales, Lauren Morales; Jamie Amos, Marcie Allen Van Mol
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Arnabeet at Epice • PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND
AUGUST 23, 24, 25 | 7 PM
Songwriters Under the Stars
Wendell Mobley, Kelly Archer & Lee Thomas Miller
Experience top Nashville hitmakers and musicians in a one-of-kind setting. Nestled on gorgeous Swan Lawn, the concert features chart-toppers sharing songs and stories, accompanied by the renowned String Light Symphony.
Presented by Sponsored by
Through August 29 | 5:30 - 9 PM
WHO WE ARE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers
MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez
SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin
ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter
MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser
DIGITAL EDITOR Kim Baldwin
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cole Villena
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman
Kelsey Beyeler, Logan Butts, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams
SENIOR FILM CRITIC Jason Shawhan
Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Ben Arthur, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Stephen Elliott, Steve Erickson, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, Christine Kreyling, J.R. Lind, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Sean L. Maloney, Brittney McKenna, Addie Moore, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian
EDITORIAL INTERNS Aiden O’Neill, Joanna Walden
ART DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones
PHOTOGRAPHERS Angelina Castillo, Eric England, Matt Masters
Sandi Harrison, Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck
GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Jacob Lucas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Christie Passarello
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Olivia Britton
MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER Robin Fomusa
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS AND EVENTS MANAGER Alissa Wetzel
ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATES Audry Houle, Jack Stejskal
SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Susan Torregrossa
PRESIDENT Mike Smith
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Todd Patton
CORPORATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones
IT DIRECTOR John Schaeffer
CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Gary Minnis
FW PUBLISHING LLC
Owner Bill Freeman
Dogs are welcome at Cheekwood’s weekly concerts in August, where a howlin' good time awaits! Thomas Dambo’s blockbuster exhibition TROLLS: Save the Humans adds an extra dose of magic.
August 8 | Deep Fried Five August 15 | McKinley James August 22 | Big Shoes featuring
Spirits Sponsor Reserve tickets at cheekwood.org
In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016
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BROOKS, OGLES NOTCH WINS ON SLEEPY ELECTION DAY
Two races and voucher money define a low-turnout primary
BY ELI MOTYCKA
A CLOSE WIN by rising Democrat Shaundelle Brooks and the survival of Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles — despite an organized effort from inside his own party — headlined an otherwise sleepy Aug. 1 primary election in Davidson County. Abysmal voter turnout and unopposed races helped familiar faces cruise past the first hurdle of election season.
Brooks, a single mother who turned to gun control advocacy after her son was killed in a 2018 mass shooting at an Antioch Waffle House, eked past fellow political rookie Tyler Brasher by 365 votes in the Democratic primary for Tennessee House District 60. Darren Jernigan has held the seat since 2012, when he upset Republican Jim Gotto by just 95 votes, but declined re-election, taking a job last year with Mayor Freddie O’Connell as a city liaison to the state legislature. The district includes Donelson, Hermitage and Old Hickory, purple suburbs between Nashville and Mt. Juliet that resemble battlegrounds eyed by Democrats across the state.
Republican Ogles, a far-right provocateur loaded with scandals who regularly takes aim at his own party, fought off a formidable challenge from Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston for his seat in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. Johnston’s campaign had just a few months of runway, but she earned the financial and political support of several prominent Tennessee Republicans who soured on Ogles’ trail of financial and ethical breaches. Johnston cleaned up in Davidson County but lost ground in the district’s counties outside Nashville. Ogles faces Democrat Maryam Abolfazli in the general election.
Gloria Johnson won Democrats’ primary contest and will officially take on incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in the Nov. 5 general election. Blackburn has kept her name in the public view with a new ad targeting trans athletes. While national Senate fundraising efforts are focused elsewhere, Johnson has put up big numbers herself — more than $5 mil-
lion pre-primary with $2 million left to spend. Even so, Blackburn has nearly doubled her in fundraising and has the advantage of a national profile as a conservative pugilist built during her first term in the Senate. The seat will be an expensive uphill battle for Democrats but the first chance in several years to run a real statewide campaign.
Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry will remain on the campaign trail for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Barry faces U.S. Rep. Mark Green — a high-ranking Republican once considered for a position in former President Donald Trump’s cabinet — in November, another outside shot against a GOP incumbent. The district offsets a chunk of Nashville with a big swath of rural Tennessee that runs from the Alabama line to the Kentucky border near Clarksville.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose faces Democrat Lore Bergman, a political newcomer, in the general election for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, which includes parts of Davidson County. Bergman eked past Clay Faircloth and Cyril Focht in the Democratic primary.
With the exception of District 60, Davidson County’s Democratic delegation in the state House will likely stay intact. Nashville Reps. Aftyn Behn (House District 51), Justin Jones (House District 52), Harold Love Jr. (House District 58), Bo Mitchell (House District 50), Jason Powell (House District 53), Vincent Dixie (House District 54), John Ray Clemmons (House District 55) and Caleb Hemmer (House District 59) move on to November after unopposed primary races. Rep. Bob Freeman cruised past minimal opposition in House District 56, which he has represented since 2018.
State Sen. Heidi Campbell will also defend her seat in November after running an uncontested primary. She will face Republican Wyatt Rampy, a real estate agent, in the general election for Senate District 20.
Across the state, Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher
Kathy Morante, the longtime director of the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability, has been replaced less than two months after a former lieutenant came forward with allegations of improper and unfair conduct by top department officials. Metro has hired former U.S. attorney Ed Stanton to lead an investigation into those claims. Metro Police Chief John Drake “believes this change in leadership will improve and strengthen OPA operations.” Cmdr. Jason Starling is now overseeing operations at OPA, and Morante, who worked as an assistant district attorney in Nashville for 14 years before coming to the MNPD, will remain with the department. She has been assigned to assist cold case Detective Mike Roland with the recently reopened investigation into civil rights-era bombings in Nashville.
PODCAS T
proposal has become a central campaign issue this election cycle. In Kingsport, Trump-backed candidate Bobby Harshbarger, son of U.S. Rep. Diane Harshbarger, upset incumbent state Sen. Jon Lundberg, the governor’s key sponsor for voucher legislation in the state Senate. That race, for Senate District 4 in East Tennessee, drew Lee back to the campaign trail and earned him a shot from Trump, who called Lee a “RINO” (Republican in name only) in a victory-lap social media post on election night.
Outside Knoxville, pro-voucher ad spending helped Tom Hatcher seal his primary in an open state Senate race. The same group helped defeat Sen. Frank Niceley, a prominent Republican state senator in northeast Tennessee who has a track record of opposing voucher legislation. Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky, an anti-voucher voice in the lower chamber, survived his House primary challenge by just 656 votes.
Incumbent state Sen. Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican, easily beat back a challenge from Chris Spencer, a local conservative who has been at the center of Sumner County’s fracturing Republican Party. In Williamson County, first-time candidate Lee Reeves secured the Republican nomination for outgoing Rep. Sam Whitson’s House District 65 seat. Reeves beat Williamson County Commission Chair Brian Beathard — who had Whitson’s endorsement — and Michelle Foreman, who previously lost races for Nashville’s Metro Council in 2019 and state House District 59 in 2022.
Primary voters are a special breed. Voter numbers can double, triple, even quintuple a few months later during a November presidential election, whose candidates have already started flooding ad space online and on TV. Johnson’s outside shot at Blackburn may shape up to be Tennessee’s biggest race — the money is certainly there — while Democrats eye new ground in Clarksville and Murfreesboro in an attempt to shift the GOP’s stranglehold on state power. ▼
Speaking of those civil rights-era bombings, author and longtime Scene contributor Betsy Phillips joined us for Episode 9 of the Nashville Scene Podcast to talk about her new book on the topic. Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control focuses on three still-unsolved integration-era bombings. Those midcentury terrorist attacks are now once again being investigated by the Metro Nashville Police Department. Also, stay tuned for Episode 10 of the Nashville Scene Podcast, which will dig into this week’s cover story from contributor Margaret Littman
Last week, former President Donald Trump referred to Gov. Bill Lee as a “RINO” — a Republican in name only — after Trump’s candidate of choice (Bobby Harshbarger) defeated Lee’s candidate of choice (incumbent Sen. Jon Lundberg) in a Republican primary race in the Tennessee Senate. “If I were not allowed to die until after I stopped laughing about this, I would live forever,” writes Scene columnist Betsy Phillips. “Bill Lee, who tries so hard to be the most Republican Republican, just got booted from Trumpville. And why? That’s to me the funniest part. There is no good reason.”
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
CAMPAIGN SIGNS ON ELECTION DAY
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MELROSE BILLIARDS QUIETLY AVOIDS
NASHVILLE’S
RAPID CHANGE
John Prine’s hangout has chugged along for 80 years and escaped the fate of its peers BY STEVE CAVENDISH
This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Visit nashvillebanner.com for more information.
I DON’T THINK you can actually smell the 2010 flood in Melrose Billiards, but sometimes I think I think I can.
When the front door closes behind you from Eighth Avenue, it doesn’t matter how hot or bright it might be outside — you have stepped into a place that’s dark, cool and just a little dank. The walls of the curved steps heading downstairs are scrawled with graffiti; some of it is pristine, and some is just drunken scratching, but it sets the mood for where you’re headed.
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 24
SATURDAY STORYTIME with DAVID COVELL at PARNASSUS Gather Round
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28
Once you get downstairs, Melrose Billiards is as simple as a dive can be, with a long bar for hanging out on one side and a few booths for more intimate conversations on the other. On the wall across the way is an old Coca-Cola sign with a quote from a 1978 John Prine song: “It’s 1/2 an inch of water and you think you’re gonna drown / That’s the way that the world goes ’round.” Given the amount of water that’s closed this place over the years — that’s a risk you take when you build an underground lair — the lyric could be about Melrose Billiards.
Prine used to play snooker with friends regularly down here before he died in 2020. It was one of the joys of an earlier version of Nashville where you could find someone like Prine or, more recently, Jack White — in a bar like Billiards, just living their life. No entourage, no Instagram hits, no influencers to be found. It’s been like that for 80 years, since it first opened in 1944.
Former Nashville Banner photographer Ed Rode took a fantastic portrait of Prine next to the tables 31 years ago. It’s included in a book of music industry portraits he’s got coming out later this month. At the photo shoot, Rode thought he could keep up with Prine because he’d been playing snooker since he was a kid.
“Cigarette in hand, he methodically cleaned my clock,” says Rode. “Lesson learned.”
liards are dying off around Nashville, something he calls “the unstoppable change.”
When the new ownership took over in 2016, there was a fear that they would ruin Billiards and chase the same tourist dollars many others have. But Joe Parkes and Austin Ray — the latter of whom also owns M.L.Rose across the street — were faithful to the place and only put in new air handlers and some infrastructure. That dank smell is mostly in my head.
“Not every place is sacred, but I feel like a lot of the places that we’ve lost in the last few years should have been,” says Crouch. “I wish that more places like this could have stuck around, like Rotier’s and Gold Rush. It is the culture of the city. And we’ve lost a lot of that.”
Most of these were cheap hangouts to eat and drink that stuck around long enough to see a revitalized city explode with new wealth and soaring real estate prices. The land beneath them became too valuable to be a dive. Rotier’s has been bulldozed completely, its West End home destined for something tall and gleaming.
rare. The Nashville that Crouch moved to 17 years ago was still affordable to people working in the service industry. Now his staff can’t afford to live close to the job like he did. Some even commute from out of the county.
Crouch says that “if I was 20 years old moving here now,” his mother’s prediction that he’d move home in a few months would have been true. “You can’t afford it. You know, maybe if I found this place and hung out here, I might stick around because these are the kinds of places I like. But if I moved here now, I wouldn’t spend 17 years here, I don’t think.”
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Grayson Crouch has seen it all down here. When he came to Nashville in 2007, he shared a house within walking distance of Billiards. This was before the revitalized Berry Hill started trading auto shops for apartment complexes and old theaters for restaurants. He was a regular before he began working at Billiards more than a decade ago. These days he’s the manager. Crouch says they get a few tourists, but they blissfully avoid the bachelorette hordes who regularly invade some other places.
“Bachelorettes don’t like to shoot pool,” says Crouch with a chuckle.
Crouch is acutely aware that places like Bil-
Developer Tony Giarratana, who’s responsible for some of what the Banner’s Demetria Kalodimos called “the glassification of Nashville,” has been fighting the good fight on some of this, revitalizing Elliston Place Soda Shop and looking to bring back both Mosko’s and The Gold Rush on the old “Rock Block.”
“These beloved establishments were part of the urban fabric that made the Rock Block such a popular destination,” Giarratana tells the Banner. “While demolishing everything and starting over would be the easiest and most profitable solution, we believe making the extra effort to preserve/bring back as much of the old as possible … will bring Rock Block back to life and be worth the effort.”
But those victories are becoming increasingly
That’s one reason why Billiards feels like a dark, dank miracle these days. A place like this shouldn’t last 80 years in a city actively chasing everything that’s new and shiny. Of all the things Nashville needs to grapple with — and it’s a long list — one is the number of haunts disappearing that are a quiet part of the city’s culture. Once gone, they can’t be replicated.
Walking back upstairs, I notice a cartoon recently drawn below the “Pool & Cold Beer” sign painted on the wall. It’s a self-portrait from a former contractor who would chair the Tennessee Arts Commission. “Walter Knestrick played pool there in 1949,” he wrote beside his likeness. “Had a visit in 2024!!”
Who knows if it will still be there in 80 more years. Let’s hope so. ▼
PHOTOS: MARTIN CHERRY
87-YEAR-OLD ACTIVIST ARRESTED PROTESTING ANTI-CAMPING LAW
Karl Meyer camped overnight on the Capitol lawn, asked for an audience with Gov. Lee
BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
STATE TROOPERS ARRESTED Karl Meyer on Aug. 1 after he spent the night on the Capitol lawn in protest of a state law banning camping on public property. Speaking with the Scene after his arrest, Meyer says a recent Supreme Court ruling permitting cities and states to punish unhoused campers spurred him into action.
state property and that they “wanted to give me an opportunity to leave.” Meyer says he instead explained he wanted to speak to the governor and that he believed he had a constitutional right to be on state property. He calls the arresting state troopers “very professional and very cooperative.”
Tennessee legislators had already passed the controversial anti-camping bill in 2022, making it a class-E felony to camp on public property statewide, despite protests from homelessness service providers who warned penalties would not solve the issue — and despite bizarre comments about Hitler from Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) during discussion of the bill. The law was an expansion of a 2020 ordinance that made it a felony to camp on state property, which came in response to camping protests outside the Capitol.
Meyer, founder of the Catholic Workeraffiliated Nashville Greenlands, says he witnessed a bit of the difficulties of living outdoors that evening. It rained on him, and he spoke with unhoused people who occasionally camp nearby.
Ahead of his campout on the evening of July 31, Meyer sent Gov. Bill Lee a letter requesting a conversation about the constitutionality of not just the camping bill but also of gun laws passed in recent years. Meyer says he also tried to schedule a meeting through the governor’s online request form, but per an email he shared with the Scene, the request was denied due to a scheduling conflict.
Meyer says around 9 a.m., troopers came by
Meyer was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors for criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, but not the felony charge.
“I was not disorderly,” Meyer says. He questions how anyone can trespass at the state Capitol since “citizens also have a right to be there to petition their representatives.”
Photographer Ray Di Pietro was present to capture the moments leading up to Meyer being taken away by state troopers.
Meyer is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 23 for a settlement hearing in front of Judge John Aaron Holt. (Meyer says he first went before Judge Holt in 1998 on a similar trespassing charge.) Meyer isn’t done protesting and plans to return to the Capitol weekly until he’s able to meet with Gov. Lee. He hopes to show Tennesseans that “we own the government.”
“The governor works for us,” says Meyer. “We employ the governor. We pay the salaries of every government employee, even [those] in the prison-industrial complex. ... People like me and the poorest people in Nashville and the homeless people — we’re the raw material of that industry, and they grind us up sometimes.”
The Scene reached out to Lee’s office for comment, but has not heard back. ▼
PHOTO:
KARL MEYER WITH OFFICERS ON AUG. 1
WITNESS HISTORY
From the exhibit Luke Combs: The Man I Am
Luke Combs first played “Beautiful Crazy” for Nicole Hocking on this Crosley Dansette portable record player. Nicole and Luke later married, and the song, inspired by Hocking, spent over a year on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and eleven weeks at #1.
RESERVE TODAY
artifact: Courtesy of Luke Combs artifact photo: Bob Delevante
Mission-driven, safetyfocused, women-run venues keep the music playing in Music City
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
WHEN LAUREN MORALES started taking on more prominent roles at TomKats Hospitality, the company her father started, she found herself in male-dominated room after male-dominated room. So she looked to Layla Vartanian, owner of the eponymous Layla’s Honky Tonk, for guidance.
“Layla is my favorite person on the planet,” says Morales. “She’s been a good mentor to me for leadership roles on the Broadway Entertainment Association. She’s not afraid to speak up, even when there are big players in the room. When you’re sitting in a room with a lot of powerful men, it can sometimes feel like you’re not supposed to speak up. Watching her speak up gave me the confidence to speak up more in those rooms.”
For decades, Vartanian was one of the only women who owned an independent music venue in the city, and thus the only woman in rooms like those Morales describes. But that’s changing. After working with their father Tom Morales for years, Lauren and her sister Kendall Morales officially took over the TomKats business from him, and now they helm Acme Feed & Seed and the company’s other businesses. Women-owned music venues are increasing in number on Broadway and beyond. There are honky-tonks, concert halls, intimate bars and even a live-music karaoke joint. While they are still vastly outnumbered by male-owned venues, these venues are shaping the city’s music scene. Women ownership of music venues is not new to Nashville. One of the most famous venues in the city was once owned by a woman, and it was under her tenure that it cemented its spot in music history. Hattie Louise “Tootsie” Bess bought a bar on Broadway that was then called Mom’s and turned it into Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a venue that helped launch countless careers. Bess was known for her soft side — giving down-on-their-luck musicians $5 or a beer (or both). She was also known for her hard side, famously sticking ill-behaved patrons with a sharp hat pin given to her by Charley Pride. Tootsie’s is no longer woman-owned (Bess died in 1978, and Lower Broadway magnate Steve Smith purchased it in the early 1990s), but Bess’ legacy cannot be overstated.
Today’s venues vary in size, scope, purpose, genre and ownership structure, but there are common connective threads. All of these women entrepreneurs have clarity on their core values and how those values are present in their businesses. Across the board, the women who run these venues report having low employee turnover — many working with friends and family for decades, even in an industry and an economic environment of high turnover. They are committed to uplifting other women, as
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
KENDALL (LEFT) AND LAUREN MORALES AT ACME FEED & SEED
partners and employees, booking more female acts with female promoters, and otherwise offering opportunities where there historically have been limits. AB Hillsboro Village’s support of teenage guitar phenom Grace Bowers is one example. Drkmttr’s everyone-is-welcome-here ethos is another.
Legendary country singer Trisha Yearwood says, “It is 100 percent important to have women-owned and women-led music venues. Women should be ruling the world. We should be given a shot. You know, guys haven’t been doing that great of a job.”
Citing the management of Camille Tambunting — COO of Strategic Hospitality, Garth Brooks and Yearwood’s partner in their Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk — Yearwood sees the role of women in creating a venue that prioritizes being a good neighbor, whether that means increasing recycling and sustainability initiatives, building extra space to manage crowds in the room design or even funding a police substation next door.
THE OFFICIAL FEDERAL definition of a woman-owned business is a small business that is at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more women who are U.S. citizens. We’re defining “woman-owned” as a venue where at least one woman has an ownership stake and is involved in its operations. This excludes businesses where women are silent investors, or where female managers are in charge of operations but don’t have an ownership stake. (The previous woman ownership at The Bluebird Cafe — founded by Amy Kurland in 1982 — has been noted as a factor in Taylor Swift’s road to stardom. Today the iconic spot is owned by the Nashville Songwriters Association International and managed by a woman, Erika Wollam-Nichols.) We’ve excluded businesses that merely license a female performer’s name, such as Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up Restaurant & Bar. And we’re defining “music venue” loosely as any venue that hosts live musicians performing as a significant part of its operations. This excludes the occasional openmic night in a bookstore or coffee shop.
When Marcie Allen Van Mol and her husband Derek recast their former restaurant Anzie Blue
as AB Hillsboro Village, the Nashville natives wanted to create a live music and event venue by locals, for locals. Van Mol, who has worked in the music industry in different capacities for decades (she once owned the late, great downtown music festival Dancin’ in the District), saw an opportunity to provide a space for performers and events that had trouble booking elsewhere. Since March 2023, AB Hillsboro Village has hosted 250 events, including a prom for a nonbinary teen who was turned away from their senior prom at Nashville Christian School. The prom was an unexpected collaborative event, and it raised AB Hillsboro Village’s profile as a place that supports progressive causes. (Disclosure: Van Mol is the niece of Bill Freeman, who owns Scene parent company FW Publishing.)
Those kinds of causes also are behind Dickerson Pike all-ages venue Drkmttr. Olive Scibelli, co-owner of Drkmttr, describes the venue as a “third place” — where musicians, other artists and kids too young to get into other venues can experiment and perform in a safe place. Drkmttr has “zero tolerance” for harassment in its space, where community building is paramount. The
leftist political beliefs of those involved are “baked in our culture,” Scibelli says. That means they fly rainbow flags, and ACAB is graffitied in the bathrooms.
“Drkmttr exists because Lucy’s existed,” says Scibelli, referring to Lucy’s Record Shop. The now-legendary 1990s Nashville record shop and all-ages club morphed into a community center for people with shared values, promoting free speech and free expression.
“As more women started coming there, the level of feminist engagement increased because of the people who came there,” remembers Mary Mancini, who was one of the owners of Lucy’s. She’s also a longtime supporter of independent music and independent thought. “As the kids and the young women [who played at Lucy’s] got older and got out into the world, they took those experiences and they informed how they went out into Nashville. The bubble expanded eventually.”
Mancini and her husband Kurt Wagner of the band Lambchop learned about Drkmttr through Donnie and April Kendall, who had been partners in Lucy’s. Donnie was helping Drkmttr find
PHOTO:
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
MARCIE ALLEN VAN MOL AT AB HILLSBORO VILLAGE
OLIVE SCIBELLI AND KATHRYN EDWARDS AT DRKMTTR
UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER
AUGUST 20
DAVE MASON
DAVE MASON’S TRAFFIC JAM
SEPTEMBER 7
JULIAN LAGE
SPEAK TO ME TOUR
SEPTEMBER 19
THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND WITH SUPPORTING ARTIST CRIS JACOBS
OCTOBER 11
THE PRINE FAMILY PRESENTS
YOU GOT GOLD: CELEBRATING THE SONGS OF JOHN PRINE LIMITED AVAILABILITY
DECEMBER 1
OCIE ELLIOTT
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
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AUGUST 15
CONCERT FOR CUMBERLAND HEIGHTS WITH CHARLES KELLEY, BOB DIPIERO, VICTORIA SHAW, VINCE GILL, ERIC PASLAY, ERNEST AND MORE
AUGUST 16
THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS
AUGUST 22
HAPPY TOGETHER
WITH THE TURTLES, JAY & THE AMERICANS, THE ASSOCIATION, BADFINGER, THE VOGUES AND THE COWSILLS
AUGUST 28
STEVE EARLE WITH BUDDY MILLER
SEPTEMBER 7 ILIZA
OCTOBER 9
YOU GOT GOLD CELEBRATING THE LIFE & SONGS OF JOHN PRINE
MAY 16, 2025
CARLY PEARCE ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM
a new building and asked the couple if they were interested in buying a building to make sure Drkmttr thrives. “These places are not just doing the work of adding to the incredible culture of live music,” says Mancini, who now serves on the Drkmttr board. “They’re continuing to pave the way and move forward and make space for other people to feel comfortable.”
Scibelli and her business partner Kathryn Edwards are applying to make Drkmttr a 501(c) (3) nonprofit. They feel that designation will help secure the 10-year-old venue’s future. It’s tough, Scibelli says, to run a venue and make “a living wage in a city that is growing.” Vartanian bought her honky-tonk in 1997 for $5,000, which she put on a credit card. Owning a business is a lot more expensive these days, with small independent venues competing against corporations with deeper pockets for rent, advertising and to pay musicians.
“Corporations should not own small music venues,” says Chris Cobb, president of the Music Venue Alliance Nashville. “It is not mission-focused on that point.”
Like many venue owners (including AB Hillsboro Village’s Van Mol and The Bowery Vault’s Emily Zimmer), Scibelli has a day job — she’s a hairstylist, and Edwards is a tour manager. “I would not tell a kid to be a venue owner,” Scibelli laughs. Even so, she says she knows the work she and other women do matters to girls and young women.
“It is important [that] the representation ([which] everyone pats themselves on the backs for platforming, when it happens) is included in all aspects of the live music process for true diversity,” Edwards says via email while out on tour. “To me, it is silly to cheer on a woman being a musician and gatekeep access to roles outside of the performer. This is an important issue in my own life as a Black woman, the least-seen face within the music industry off the stage. Compare it to the question of how football leagues could be so largely Black but have such a low percentage of [Black] quarterbacks and coaches in their ranks?”
For his part, MVAN’s Cobb is optimistic that things are improving. When he owned and operated venues (including Exit/In), “it used to be all dudes backstage — maybe there was one woman on a crew. That has completely shifted for the better.” He cites the recent Greater Nashville Music Census, which found that 49 percent of respondents in the venue-presenter track were female and 55 percent of respondents in the industry track were female. Just 26 percent of those in the creative track were women, so there is room to grow on the performing and songwriting side.
The Nashville Independent Venues Study produced for Metro Nashville Planning earlier this year cited training and supporting a diverse group of next-generation independent venue owners as one priority for the city’s economic development.
EMILY ZIMMER AND VERO SANCHEZ, partners in life and owners at The Bowery Vault, focus on original music in their small bar and music venue in East Nashville, nestled above The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club. The couple met when Sanchez was working at East Side bar Mickey’s (where Amy Dee of Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge also worked before opening her own place).
In 2015, the couple opened a purposely intimate space that originally sold vintage clothing and coffee by day and hosted live music at night. Now the clothes have moved out, and the 49-person space has been rearranged and upgraded, with daytime available for video shoots. They have a few operating principles to which they adhere. Their stage is for original music. In the beginning, no covers were permitted at all — now they’ll let a musician play one cover to wrap up a set, but the focus remains on giving artists an opportunity to try out their own stuff. There are two shows a night, six days a week, and open-mic nights on Thursdays. Sanchez still books all artists herself by phone,
“just like CBGB booked me when I was trying to get in,” she says. The conversations allow her to get to know the artists — even as their 5-monthold son Lennox tries to knock the phone out of her hand. “There are no robots on the other end of the phone here. That’s very important for us.”
Sanchez, Cobb and many others see providing an opportunity for new artists to perform and test out their music as essential for Music City. “Otherwise we won’t have new music in 20 years,” Sanchez says.
Zimmer pays attention to detail, making sure vocalists don’t get drowned out by the band. There’s a full backline on stage. “This is a room for the song to be heard,” Zimmer says.
Like Sanchez, Zimmer and Van Mol, veteran music producer Jamie Amos saw an opportunity to offer a new musical experience. Amos is president and co-owner of Harken Hall, a new and long-awaited concert hall in Madison. The 700-seat venue is bedecked with original art, brightly upholstered furnishings and a sustainability promise. (Think bamboo toilet paper, bamboo cutlery and no plastic bottles.)
Where to Listen
Eighteen Nashville music venues owned, at least in part, by women:
AB HILLSBORO VILLAGE, 2111 Belcourt Ave.: Live music and event space focused on programming for locals.
ACME FEED & SEED, 101 Broadway: Honkytonk, event space, rooftop bar with a radio station to boot.
THE BOWERY VAULT, 2905 Gallatin Pike: Intimate East Side venue with a focus on original music.
CAROL ANN’S NASHVILLE 407 Murfreesboro Pike: Blues, R&B and soul food.
DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE, 102 E. Palestine Ave., Madison: Classic country venue with a 1970s vibe.
DRKMTTR, 1111 Dickerson Pike: All-ages musical hub and community gathering place.
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES BAR & HONKY TONK, 411 Broadway: Multistory honky-tonk with an Amazon Prime TV show about its backstory.
HARKEN HALL, 514 Madison Station Blvd., Madison: New 700-seat concert venue.
LAYLA’S HONKY TONK, 418 Broadway: Longtime woman-owned and woman-run honky-tonk.
LEGENDS CORNER, 428 Broadway: Classic honky-tonk with multiple live music stages.
MISS ZEKE’S JUKE JOINT, 3970 Bell Road, Hermitage: Blues, R&B and barbecue.
NUDIE’S HONKY TONK, 409 Broadway: Live music seven days a week amid memorabilia from tailor Nudie Cohn.
RANDOM SAMPLE, 407 48th Ave. N.: Performance space that routinely books music and hosts art exhibits and other events.
THE SECOND FIDDLE, 420 Broadway: Classic honky-tonk with multiple live music stages.
SID GOLD’S REQUEST ROOM, 3245 Gallatin Pike: Live piano accompaniment for karaoke.
SKULL’S RAINBOW ROOM, 222 Printers Alley: Live jazz seven days a week, plus burlesque to live jazz Thursday through Saturday.
THE STAGE ON BROADWAY, 412 Broadway: Classic honky-tonk with multiple live music stages.
TANYA TUCKER’S TEQUILA CANTINA 409 Broadway: Second-floor spot from the Grammy-winning “Delta Dawn” artist.
EMILY ZIMMER AND VERO SANCHEZ WITH THEIR SON LENNOX ATTHE BOWERY VAULT
At one point, the long-delayed venue was going to be The Roots Barn. Now that Amos and her husband Patrick Kennedy have taken over, they plan to be broad in their offerings, with a performance in the works with the Nashville Opera, plus a plan for a prom-type party for older residents. Bluegrass nights on the patio are being developed as well.
At Acme Feed & Seed, the Morales sisters are also committed to upholding the values their father instilled in them and the business. At Acme, the focus is also on original music. “It is a risk,” admits Lauren Morales. “It is less risky to have a cover band playing top 40 hits, but we don’t feel like in the long game that is what is true for Nashville.”
MANY FEMALE VENUE owners note that one of their priorities is the safety of their performers, staff and audience.
“I don’t know if women feel safe anywhere in Nashville right now,” Van Mol says. “I think it is important in today’s political and social landscape that women have a voice and a platform to spread love and inclusiveness as our rights are being attacked on a daily basis. It’s extremely important to me that when female artists come to AB, they know that they are going to be treated with respect and championed and protected.”
Todd Cassetty is the founder of Song Suffragettes, a collective of female singer-songwriters who perform Monday nights at The Listening Room. He sees a need for more venues that are aware of the challenges facing women performers — from experiencing misogyny and harassment to having to navigate unsafe late-night walks with their hands full of valuable gear. “It’s just another aspect of the business that makes it harder for women,” he says. “It is possible to make it feel welcoming and safe.”
Kira Small is trying to do just that. She owns Sid Gold’s Request Room with her husband Glen Pangle and business partner Cowboy Keith Thompson. There are three other Sid Gold’s locations in other parts of the country, but Nashville’s is the only one with female ownership.
The venue, which features live piano players accompanying karaoke, is expanding to offer an ongoing “writers-around-the-piano series,” without the sing-along.
Long before Small had even considered owning a music venue, she was at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, where she watched owner Amy Dee chase off a problematic patron — with a Louisville Slugger. “I wondered if I could do that,” Small says. She hasn’t had to chase anyone out with a baseball bat or stab them with a hat pin, but she has had to kick someone out who was making her staff uncomfortable. “I think I bring a softness to the bar,” she says. “And the bar has toughened me up in some ways.”
Women business owners don’t have to fight that fight (with or without a bat) alone. Several programs help train venues to recognize and reduce harassment, drugging and more, including the Sexual Assault Center’s Safe Bar initiative.
“When the Safe Bar was first getting started, we saw that women-owned establishments or bars/restaurants that had women in manager positions were much more likely to respond to us and participate in the Safe Bar program,” says Jack Ohmes, Safe Bar trainer. He cites Jackalope Brewing Co., Diskin Cider, SandBar and the nowclosed Cabana Taps as early adopters. Other programs nationwide, such as Calling All Crows, work to implement bystander intervention training in music venues and at music festivals, much like Safe Bar does in bars.
Shawna Potter, a former Nashville musician (known for the bands Fair Verona and War Against Women) played shows at Lucy’s when she was as young as 14. As you might expect from someone in a band called War Against Women, she has seen a lot of stuff. She created the Safer Space Program and wrote the book Making Spaces Safer: A Guide to Giving Harassment the Boot, Wherever You Work, Play and Gather to go beyond the useful bystander intervention programs and provide more solutions.
Potter believes these programs are preventative training, helping venue owners and knitting-group organizers (or really anyone with a group) recognize harassment, prevent it, and
address it when it happens, teaching a skill that can be honed. She cautions business owners not to assume the business doesn’t have issues with harassment just because they don’t know about it.
“If people are not telling you about it, they do not trust you to deal with it appropriately,” she says. Sometimes reported incidents of harassment increase after training because people feel more comfortable talking about it.
AMY DEE — THE BAT-WIELDING badass who inspired Small — is a majority owner of her eponymous classic country music spot in Madison. Her ex has a minority stake, though she says when her divorce is finalized she intends to sell that share to her female general manager. That said, it was her ex who originally pushed her to add live music to her vision of the bar, now known for its country sound, hosting shows during AmericanaFest and more. Dee bought an existing bar to open her spot in 2016 and immediately changed its vibe, opening at 5 p.m. instead of 11 a.m. and welcoming a different audience.
She doesn’t have a ton of rules for patrons, but the ones she has are clear: “You have to be 21, you have to pay your tab, and you can’t be an asshole,” she says. Recently Dee hung a Pride flag outside, thinking it would only wave during Pride Month. But a new customer came in and told her he hadn’t been sure whether Dee’s was LGBTQ-friendly until he saw the flag. Now that Dee knows it makes people safe, she’ll never take it down.
Over the years, people have told her they bought their houses in Madison to be close to Dee’s, which she takes as the highest compliment. (Lauren Morales says she spends a lot of her non-Acme music-listening time and money at Dee’s.)
These female entrepreneurs are aware of the power they have in supporting and lifting other women. They’re not interested in bashing male-owned venues or playing into stereotypes about what happens at male-owned venues. But they’re not totally letting their male counterparts off the hook either.
“Any time you let a dick get involved, it gets fucked,” Dee says. ▼
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
AMY DEE AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE
JAMIE AMOS AT HARKEN HALL
AUG 14 | 7:30 PM
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
AUGUST 9-10
FESTIVAL
[THE BESTIVAL FESTIVAL] TOMATO ART FEST
Last year, when I wrote that the 20th edition of Tomato Art Fest would provide “a perfect time to soak in the outfits, recipes, art pieces and decor that transform Five Points into a colorful, tomato-y paradise,” I did not realize I would literally be soaked there, due to a sudden downpour Saturday. But that hardly spoiled the beloved East Nashville festival for me or anyone else who attended — one kid in particular used the rain break to carve through the empty streets with his Heelys. I’m excited to return to my beloved late-summer tradition, which I consider the embodiment of East Nashville’s goofy, artsy, neighborhoody spirit. Many street fairs in Nashville tend to feature the same food trucks and craftspeople — which isn’t a knock, since Nashville has many great examples of each — but the folks who peddle their wares at TAF tend to go all-out with theming. Expect innovative tomato recipes, crimson art pieces and lots of quirky handmade costumes celebrating the tomato’s role as “a uniter, not a divider” of fruits and vegetables — and our community. You might want to check the forecast and bring an umbrella, but even if it rains, that just means more tomatoes will grow, right?
Sessions concert series curated by WNXP — free with RSVP — is fellow Windy City rock trio Friko, riding high on the release of their debut album Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here
STEPHEN TRAGESER
6 P.M. AT BOBBY HOTEL
230 FOURTH AVE. N.
MUSIC [ONLY HIGHWAY AHEAD] TWEN W/ENUMCLAW & PRESSURE HEAVEN
Several years back — indeed, prior to their fantastic 2022 record One Stop Shop — muchloved rock band Twen went mobile; these days, singer Jane Fitzsimmons and guitarist Ian Jones make their home anywhere they can park their combination conversion van and mobile recording studio. As of late, it seems they’ve been frequenting coastal Florida, which has influenced the slow and steady trickle of new songs they’ve been releasing this year. Thematically, “SeaStar,” “Stunts” and “Lucky Onze” are reminders that contemporary socioeconomic norms set you up to spend your life working yourself to death. Sonically, the group has massaged hallmarks of different ’80s and ’90s pop and R&B production styles into CHRIS STAPLETON
Sure, the elastic nature of memory can be misused. But in the right hands, it becomes something interesting. “Mood Ring,” a single from Chicago trio Dehd’s latest LP Poetry caught my ear. There’s no mistaking that it’s a contemporary rock recording with fuzzedout bass, glassy guitars and thick, rich drums. But the vocal arrangement and cadence immediately recall Billy Joel’s 1983 hit “Uptown Girl,” itself an intentional nostalgic nod to the vocal pop of the late ’50s and ’60s, particularly The Four Seasons. This is all a perfect setting for the narrative of “Mood Ring,” which is about the feeling of being totally blown away by being in love while still feeling a bit nervous about it — something people have been singing about for time out of mind. And that’s just one song on the band’s fifth LP; throughout Poetry, they show off their masterful use of stylistic cues from garage rock, post-punk and beyond to tell their stories. Joining them at this installment of the Backyard
their formula, a heady blend drawing heavily on ’80s alternative pop styles. They’ll roll into the Beast with Tacoma, Wash., rock ensemble Enumclaw, who’ll likely preview their new LP Home in Another Life, due Aug. 30. Nashville’s own Pressure Heaven will also support. The purveyors of heavy dream pop tinged with industrial sounds have been very busy this year, playing out all over town and releasing their debut EP Head Start in July. STEPHEN TRAGESER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST
917 WOODLAND ST.
[ALL MIXED UP]
FILM
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE
Screwball comedies are few and far between on the modern film landscape. Something about that specific combo of zany antics and earnest romance is difficult to replicate with people who have seen smartphones. But every so often a 21st-century movie comes along and recaptures a bit of that magic. 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love fills the void for me. It goes a tad too heavy on its titular “crazy” aspect late in its twisty plot, but the charm of the cast more than makes up for it. A big chunk of that charm comes from the irresistible combo of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in the first of three costarring roles for the pair. (Don’t tell my beloved Damien Chazelle, but this may be my favorite of the Stone-Gosling pairings.) Crazy, Stupid, Love is playing as part of NightLight 615’s outdoor summer movie slate. LOGAN BUTTS
SUNDOWN AT BICENTENNIAL CAPITOL MALL STATE PARK
600 JAMES ROBERTSON PARKWAY
FRIDAY / 8.9
[HIGHWAY HARMONIES]
MUSIC
AMERICA
I first met Dewey Bunnell — founding member of the iconic FM radio rock band America — through mutual friends in 2005 when I was a doe-eyed teen guitarist sorely unaware of the group’s legacy. After various encounters with Bunnell and his bandmates, I gained an appreciation for America’s indelible influence on popular music. Following one
show in Oshkosh, Wis., I recall Bunnell treating myself and others to an abundance of chili dogs at his favorite local dive bar while regaling us with stories about the band’s early days as Americans struggling to make music in London, then handling the breakout success of their multiplatinum single “A Horse With No Name” and collaborating with co-founder Gerry Beckley for decades. Now, for the first time in more than 50 years, Bunnell will hit the road as the lone original member following Beckley’s retirement from touring and the recent release of an especially fervent live version of their classic hit “Ventura Highway.” Performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 1975, the recording is a capsule of America’s timeless vitality at its peak — one that resonates to this day. JASON VERSTEGEN
8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY
[TRAVELLING ON]
MUSIC
CHRIS STAPLETON
Before hearing the song “Traveller” by Chris Stapleton, I don’t think I ever really listened to country music. All I knew about it was what I could glean from my local country radio stations in Williamsport, Pa., and the limited selection of tracks they cycled through seemingly every other hour. I had never heard country music used as a tool for storytelling or a conduit for emotion in the way the title track of Stapleton’s 2015 debut album did. It has since become one of the most important songs in my life and has accompanied many moments of confusion — and grief. It’s a soundtrack for the days and the moments in which I am looking for any anchor I can, and for when I want to remember that everyone feels just as confused as I do in those moments. Chris Stapleton is not only one of the most incredible voices in country music today, but also one of the great American songwriters of our time. When you hear a Chris Stapleton song, you know it — because it stops you in your tracks. At Bridgestone Arena, expect to hear tracks from last year’s Higher after supporting sets from Marty Stuart and Nikki Lane. ROB HINKAL
7 P.M. AT BRIDGESTONE ARENA
501 BROADWAY
FILM [BE BACK] THE TERMINATOR
The Terminator has given us sequels, video games, comic books, even a TV show. But let’s be honest here — the 1984 original will always be the down-and-dirty gold standard. Fresh off of kinda helming Piranha II: The Spawning, co-writer/director James Cameron delivered a fever-dream-inspired sci-fi thriller that still slaps after 40 gotdamn years, simply because it’s out to be nothing more than an effectively asskicking genre picture. It also helps that it stars a big-ass Austrian named Arnold Schwarzenegger as the title character. He’s programmed to do nothing except take out Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor — so she won’t procreate and give birth to a revolutionary who’ll be fighting artificial intelligence in the future. (With the way things are going these days, we need a John Connor to do something about this AI shit!) As the sequels became more elaborate and bloated — we’ll cut Terminator 2: Judgment Day some slack since Cameron returned to direct — The Terminator remains that badass B-movie you watched on cable and/or video a thousand times when you were a kid. Dinner-and-show tickets are also available at fullmooncineplex.com. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
7 P.M. AT FULL MOON CINEPLEX
3455 LEBANON PIKE
SATURDAY
/ 8.10
BOOKS
[A SIZZLING DEBUT] SARA KOFFI: WHILE WE WERE BURNING
First launched in 2022, the Tennessee State Museum’s popular TN Writers | TN Stories series has quickly become a local favorite by shining a light on some really talented authors. You can check out the latest installment this weekend as the museum welcomes Memphis-based writer Sara Koffi, who will discuss her debut novel, While We Were Burning. Described as “Parasite meets Such a Fun Age,” this striking new thriller explores everything from casual racism and classism to grief, mental health and vigilante justice. Jeremy Finley — reporter, author and host of Nashville Public Television’s A Word on
Words — will moderate the conversation. As always, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase the book through the museum gift shop and have it signed by the author. And be sure to keep an eye out for the September edition of TN Writers | TN Stories, which will feature the posthumous memoir of Nashville’s beloved priest and champion of the unhoused Charles Strobel. AMY STUMPFL
10:30 A.M. AT THE TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM’S DIGITAL LEARNING CENTER
1000 ROSA L. PARKS BLVD.
MUSIC [HE’S SITTIN’ HERE] POETS & PROPHETS: JOHN HIATT
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum presents another edition of its in-depth interview series Poets & Prophets Saturday afternoon with songwriter and recording artist John Hiatt as the honoree. During a career spanning half a century, Hiatt has established himself as one of his generation’s most important songwriters. In addition to his many acclaimed solo albums, he was a member of the supergroup Little Village and has had his songs recorded by giants of popular music, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson. “When it comes to being a subject of Poets & Prophets, John is the complete package,” museum writer-editor Dave Paulson, who will host the Hiatt interview, tells the Scene. “He’s a brilliant singer-songwriter with a wealth of classic recordings, and his songs have been reverently covered by Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton and B.B. King. Before all that, though, he got his start as a songwriter on Music Row, earning cuts with artists like Three Dog Night, and eventually a No. 1 country hit with Rosanne Cash’s ‘The Way We Make a Broken Heart.’ We’re looking forward to celebrating all sides of his songwriting journey, from his signature tunes to lesser-known gems, and the diverse array of artists who’ve interpreted his work.” DARYL SANDERS
2:30 P.M. AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S
SARA KOFFI
TWEN
PHOTO: CORBIN PEARCE
Illustration by: Dennis Harris
SUNDAY / 8.11
[COME TO A QUEERBARET!]
THEATER
BLAKE HOLLIDAY: QUEERBARET
Over the years, Blake Holliday has delivered some truly unforgettable moments onstage
— whether in the title role in Street Theatre Company’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as the diabolical King Baby in Kindling Arts Festival’s Bar Fight! or offering a dazzling interpretation of Charles Dickens in Woven Theatre’s Christmas Carol Circuit Party. You can catch this dynamic theater artist back at Street Theatre on Sunday with the company’s much-anticipated Queerbaret. Originally planned as part of Street’s Pride celebration, Queerbaret had to be rescheduled for this weekend but still promises a fabulous evening that “pays homage to those who have helped pave the way, while looking forward to what the future can hold.” Audiences can look forward to a great mix of classic show tunes, queer ballads and contemporary hits — we’re talking everything from “World Burn” from Mean Girls and “Sugar Daddy” from Hedwig
to Brandi Carlile’s “The Joke” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. Add in special guests like Dee Benn, Natalie Rankin and Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, and it’s sure to be a fun evening and a great way to support one of Nashville’s most unique talents. AMY STUMPFL
AUG. 11 AT THE BARBERSHOP THEATER 4003 INDIANA AVE.
MUSIC
[NEW HORIZONS] JEFF
COFFIN
Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Coffin has always pushed the envelope conceptually, whether it’s with his adventurous contributions to the Dave Matthews Band and The Flecktones, or during his individual concerts, sessions and recordings. On Only the Horizon, issued earlier this month, he sets an even higher standard in terms of experimentation and idiomatic convergence. Besides featuring his distinctive playing on a host of instruments (various saxophones, clarinets, flutes and more), the album features collaborations with two exciting bands. One is the West African group the Yeli Ensemble, whose assistance helps link the improvisational
sounds of America with the rhythmic edge of Africa. The other is a group of Charleston, S.C., musicians whose sound is steeped in the Gullah Geechee tradition. There are appearances on the release from more than 40 musicians, plus key contributions from longtime Coffin associates and bandmates Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, Buddy Strong and Rashawn Ross. Fans can hear selections from this outstanding new release this Sunday at a release event at 3rd and Lindsley that will be spiced by guest appearances from such prominent players as Felix Pastorius, Keith Carlock, Ty Bailie, Rod McGaha and Lindsey Miller, plus the Yeli Ensemble. It is also a prelude to Coffin being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October as part of the Dave Matthews Band. RON WYNN
7 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
FILM
[EPIC IN THE DESERT] 100 YEARS OF COLUMBIA PICTURES: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
As someone who took a personal pilgrimage to Los Angeles just to see Lawrence of Arabia in 70 mm, this film was made to be seen on the big screen. I keep waiting for IMAX to stop dicking around and give it the full IMAX experience treatment. (Even Cillian Murphy has said he wants to see it in that format.) I’ve heard people
say they’ve caught it on TV or — dare I say it! — a smartphone and didn’t find it all that engrossing. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently earned the scorn of cinephiles everywhere when he divulged that his son caught the classic on his iPhone. Perhaps David Lean’s factbased 1962 story of British author T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) serving as a leader to Arabian desert tribes during World War I may seem too triggering for audiences fed up with whitesavior movies. But Lean created a white-savior movie where every shot slaps. It’s not playing in 70 mm here, but Fathom Events will drop a few showings in multiplexes this week. Visit fathomevents.com for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY AUG. 11-12 AT AMC AND REGAL THEATERS
MONDAY / 8.12
MUSIC [TRAVELING MOOD] LILY UNLESS AND THE IF ONLYS
Modern rockabilly revisionism usually comes from a place that’s far away from the environs of Lake County, Tenn., where Carl Perkins spent his early years. Meanwhile, quasi-country bands like, say, The Handsome Family add an all-American gothic perspective to their bleakly funny narratives. Lily Unless and the If Onlys hail from New Orleans, a city
PHOTO: RODRIGO
JEFF COFFIN
LILY UNLESS
that’s boasted a robust country-rockabilly-blues scene for years. Their new album A Real Good Time is funny and down in the mouth in a way that’s pretty attractive. Unless, who sings in a Karen Dalton-meets-rockabilly style, sounds both game and like she’s ready to fade away on my favorite track on A Real Good Time, “My Undoing,” which also lays out the theme of a record that seems to be about the allure of travel. “If you want me / You know where I’ll be / On a stool / This side of Kentucky,” Unless sings. These neo-rockabillies also write about Minneapolis and “Gotdamn Tennessee” (a song title). Next stop: Dyersburg? EDD HURT
8:30 P.M. AT DEE’S COUNTRY COCKTAIL LOUNGE 102 E. PALESTINE AVE., MADISON
WEDNESDAY / 8.14
[SLITHER ON BY]
MUSIC
SLASH’S S.E.R.P.E.N.T. FESTIVAL
Instead of touring with his usual solo crew or as the top-hatted lead guitarist of rock behemoth Guns N’ Roses, Slash embarks this summer on S.E.R.P.E.N.T., a rolling festival in celebration of blues music. The tour comes in support of an ambitious new solo LP, Orgy of the Damned, where Slash puts his twist on time-tested blues songs. The 12-song release features covers like “Crossroads” (featuring Gary Clark Jr.), “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (featuring Demi Lovato) and “Killing Floor” (with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson), among others. The who’s-who list of collaborators continues with the likes of Billy Gibbons, Iggy Pop, Chris Robinson and Chris Stapleton. The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. lineup rotates throughout the tour, and for Nashville, Slash has recruited local sister duo Larkin Poe, singersongwriter ZZ Ward and celebrated pedal-steel player Robert Randolph. Plus, it’s Music City. Who knows what other guitar-slingers may show up?
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7 P.M. AT FIRSTBANK AMPHITHEATER
4525 GRAYSTONE QUARRY LANE, FRANKLIN
MUSIC
[ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS] THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
For a generation of punk rock fans (or the kids who shouted every word to Against Me! anthems like “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” and crowd-surfed at Frank Turner gigs), music doesn’t get much better than The Gaslight Anthem. In its initial run of success from the late 2000s into the early 2010s, the New Jersey band built a rock-solid following behind albums like 2012’s Handwritten (recorded in Nashville, for the nerds who keep track of that stuff) and 2008’s The ’59 Sound, an LP that defined Gaslight Anthem as a front-runner of a sound that walks a tightrope between earnest heartland-rock storytelling and a punk spirit. After an extended studio hiatus, the band returned in 2023 with History Books, The Gaslight Anthem’s first original album in nearly a decade. It features Bruce Springsteen on the title track; a deluxe version of the album dropped earlier this summer, including standout song “Little Fires,” a collaboration with Nashville’s own Bully. Pink
7 P.M. AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS
1402 CLINTON ST.
MUSIC [ALL OUT] DAISYCHAINS, SMOKESHOWS, VERA BLOOM
For those who revel in the raw, unfiltered energy of alt-rock and grunge, the screamable music of Daisychain, The Smokeshows and Vera Bloom promises an electrifying night of rock ’n’ roll that will leave you breathless and begging for more. Daisychain is a femalefronted powerhouse from Chicago, blending the raw emotionality of blues with the trippy vibes of psych rock. Their music channels icons like Fleetwood Mac and Patti Smith into a sound as dichotomous as their name — it’s brutal yet soothing, nostalgic yet cutting-edge. Nashville’s The Smokeshows bring an alluring mix of blues and melodramatic rock to the stage. Fronted by the wicked and tempestuous vocals of Ash Nolan, the band’s performances create sensory overload, combining heavy riffs, captivating melodies and an electric stage presence. Grunge-punk sensation Vera Bloom is a force to be reckoned with in Music City’s rock scene. I first encountered Bloom at the Eastside Bowl back in October and was blown away by her ferocious vocals that commanded the stage alongside femme Foo Fighter tribute band Fingernails Are Pretty. Known for her no-nonsense attitude and gritty, heartfelt lyrics, Bloom’s music is all about catharsis and connection, inviting audiences to scream along and lose themselves in her vocal contortion. This unfiltered, high-voltage lineup at The Basement will leave you buzzing. JAYME FOLTZ
9 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT
1604 EIGHTH AVE. S.
Shift opens the show; Joyce Manor plays main support. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
AUGUST
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
8.25
EPICE AND FRYCE CREAM
Hitting the 12th Avenue Lebanese bistro for dinner, then salty + sweet across the street
BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
I DON’T KNOW how to play chess, and I can’t seem to learn. My son has tried, with uncharacteristic patience, to teach me, but my brain refuses to retain even the most basic information. He explains the names of the pieces and how they move — rook, knight, up and back, L-shape — and the words fall irretrievably out of my head seconds later.
There’s no room for them, of course, because I’m always plotting my next 10 moves in real life
His Friday night chess tournament on Belmont Boulevard starts at 7 p.m., and he wants to be there 20 minutes early. I’ll start making
his dinner at 5:15 so it’s ready at 5:45, so we can walk out the door at 6:25 (which in reality will be 6:32). I’ll need four minutes to go in and pay the entry fee, then five minutes to drive down to 12th Avenue South and find a parking spot, plus another five or so to walk, depending on how crowded the side streets are. This means I need to make our dinner reservation for 7 p.m. at …
STOP 1: EPICE
What a dreamy place to land after a two-hour hustle, with its tree-lined walkway and partially glassed-in covered patio with red metal accents. After settling into our two-top, we locked down our drinks — the Mezcalita with pepper ash and
Epice 2902 12th Ave. S. epicenashville.com
Fryce Cream 2905 12th Ave. S. frycecreamnash.com
PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND
GRAPE LEAVES AT EPICE
SAYADEYA AT EPICE
LAHM AT EPICE
activated charcoal for my husband Dom and the Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-My Paloma for me (which is fun to read but a bit silly to say) — then played our favorite game: Who Are These People and Where Did They Come From?
Visitors to our fair city coming to the 12South neighborhood from downtown would have to resist the tourist kryptonite of not one, not two, but three scene-y taco bars on the same side of the street, plus Edley’s, before getting to Epice — a Lebanese bistro on the southern end of 12th Avenue South just before Sevier Park. My guess is our fellow diners were locals mixed with recent transplants — people who want to sit and share, not see and be seen. Whoever they are, everyone looks relaxed and happy.
“I feel trampled by the week,” I told Dom. “These people do not look trampled. Do we look trampled?”
“Yes,” he said. “Yes we do.”
No matter. Everyone looks a little lovelier against Epice’s simultaneously stark and warm backdrop of stacked stone, marble and concrete elements. The place has zero decor, save a few easy-to-miss plates piled high with spices atop the kitchen cabinets, as if the design plan was to let the patrons and plates add the color — like the hot-pink beet tahini drizzle on the arnabeet (aka fried cauliflower) and the deep green of Epice’s freshly made grape leaves, which made me sad for all the times I’ve settled for bloated premade versions that have languished in olive oil and lemon for months. Hummus always feels like a must-have — the calling card of any Mediterranean or Middle Eastern restaurant — but Epice’s serving size is slight for $10, and vegetables are a $2 upcharge. After a few medium-size swipes of pita, it was gone.
We forgot to order a salad to share, which was fine because we each unexpectedly received a side plate-size version with our entrees. This is not an obligatory salad. It’s a mix of greens with cherry tomatoes, red cabbage slices and radishes and a lemon vinaigrette dressing that, on first bite, makes you raise your eyebrows and wonder what on earth could make it taste so good. Don’t bother guessing: It’s pomegranate molasses, and it is the absolute shit. As was our server, Taylor, who was refreshingly decisive when helping us choose between two entrees. She steered Dom to the lahm, or lamb meatballs with tomato ragout, rice, olives and pine nuts; she pointed me to the sayadeya, which, despite its ho-hum description (aromatic grilled fish, vermicelli rice, grilled vegetables), is topped with an herb tahini that makes every bite 1,000 times more interesting. I could not stop eating it, and was sad when it was over. I’ve never said that about a fish dish in my life.
It pained me to pass on dessert — the pot de crème, olive oil cake and baklava, which my Syrian jiddu (grandfather) pronounced baCLOW-wa. By the time we visited the bathrooms in the back, got a quick update after our son’s first chess match of the night and walked back past our table, two people were settling in, looking decidedly untrampled.
STOP 2: FRYCE CREAM
Our next stop was directly across the street from Epice, but we walked a few blocks up 12th Avenue just to move our bodies a bit, windowshop the luxury retail and play our other favorite game: Who Can Afford to Shop Here and What Exactly Are They Buying?
During the day, the answer is designer luggage, pink clothing and high-end sportswear. At night, it’s fries and ice cream, or Fryce Cream.
Dom wanted to order at the walk-up window, because how often do you get to do that? But I went inside because that’s how you fully immerse yourself in the holy aroma of fried. You can just get french fries, or you can just get the soft serve, but if you like a little sweet with your salty — or if you’re the type who dips your fries in your cream — the namesake combo is the way to go. That’s the first of many fun decisions.
Soft-serve flavors include vanilla, chocolate, swirl, vegan and seasonal (peach on the night of our visit), plus a list of toppings. For the fries, you pick a dust and a dip. I went with vanilla soft
serve topped with crispy crumble crunch and fries with malt vinegar dust and green goddess dip. Dom got the chocolate with Butterfinger topping, plus Nash Hot fries and pickle dip. We sat outside at the bar seats that look across the street at Epice and watched the neighborhood pups and their people walk by.
Because of its branding — a surfer-guy French fry with a rad soft-serve hairdo — and the name, Fryce Cream Nashville, I assumed Fryce Cream was a chain, and I’m happy I was wrong. It’s the latest and greatest from local chef Jeremy Barlow, who’s played his own game of culinary chess in Nashville since he opened Tayst, Nashville’s first certified green restaurant, in the early 2000s — when chefowned spots were just becoming a thing. Barlow’s done everything from fine dining and sandwich shops to pop-ups, making aggressive moves when the market felt right, and retreating and rethinking when things changed. This is joyful, hot summer night food for those of us who want to feel like a kid and eat like a grownup. ▼
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
FRYCE CREAM
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Enjoy 3 hours (11am-2pm) of shopping from 25+ boutiques!
VIP Admission
• Early entry at 10am to beat the crowds
• Complimentary mimosa
• Tote bag full of goodies from Tanger Outlets, Browology Waxing Sutdio, True Blue Salon, Wonder Belly and Green Daisy
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GROWING WATERMELON IN NASHVILLE
Begonia Labs’ first locally curated show is a safe space for Palestinian solidarity
IT’S DIFFICULT TO MAKE art about violence. Often we see artists representing brutality and processing despair and paralysis by re-creating the catastrophe. But as historian Robin D.G. Kelley writes in his book Freedom Dreams, “The very existence of social movements [enables] participants to imagine something different, to realize that things need not always be this way.” This attempt to see the future for its potential beauty — that most daring vision — is what Kelley calls poetic knowledge
A poem appears on the wall of Begonia Labs for the current exhibition Watermelon Seeds “Think of Others” by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish can be read in Arabic or English, and the final two lines are as follows: “As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others / (those who have lost the right to speak). / As you think of others far away, think of yourself / (say: ‘If only I were a candle in the dark’).”
Watermelon Seeds is a group exhibition of poetic knowledge, and the most powerful show of Nashville’s summer art scene. It’s also the first time a local artist has curated an exhibition at Begonia Labs, the West End gallery for Vanderbilt University’s Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, founded by María Magdalena Campos-Pons. As Campos-Pons explains, Watermelon Seeds fulfills EADJ’s “commitment to making local art visible and parallel with international figures ... [and to creating] a space where we can have discussion, a space for a safe and respectful
BY CAT ACREE
presentation of different views.”
The Watermelon Seeds curator is David Onri Anderson, known for his recurring imagery — candles, fruit, winged beings — and harmonious flat style that feels timeless and spiritual. The exhibition features artworks by Anderson, as well as AB Bedran, Ali El-Chaer and Beizar Aradini. Each is a local artist with connections to a diaspora: Anderson has a Sephardic Jewish background, Aradini is Kurdish, and both Bedran and El-Chaer are Palestinian. All four have come together with Begonia Labs as their gathering place to display “shrines to commemorate lives of those who have passed and those who are suffering.”
“Artmaking should be a process of unraveling narratives and perspectives that have been fed to us over the years in mass media,” Anderson tells the Scene, “deconstructing dominant voices, opinions and judgments to find where the heart is, where the compassion lies, that [which] seems to be missing from the systematic powers of the world.”
One of the best parts about a group show is how differently each artist comes to the subject — in this case, the shrine. Anderson tells the Scene that, to him, a shrine “operates as a spiritual portal … a sacred space where memory, feeling and adoration can continue to live in a place apart from the person or lives that inspired its existence.” Eight of his candle paintings — with tapers in varying stages of burned, melted
and expired — encircle the image of a lotus-cut watermelon. They are meditative in their collective assembly.
For Bedran, a shrine is “a place inside us all where divine love and divine rage intersect.”
Bedran is the curator for the 11:11 Art Collective, a DIY venue committed to hosting marginalized artists. Of all the pieces here, their crocheted “Tonight, I Dream of the Sea” feels most like a shrine. It occupies a spot on the floor — if you fail to acknowledge it, you run the risk of falling on top of it — and looks like a pooled afghan blanket in oceanic colors. Bedran’s other works include mixed-media collage and joyful tatreez — traditional Palestinian embroidery often patterned with trees and ducks.
El-Chaer, founder of art community Nour Nashville, is adamant that their pieces do not constitute a shrine, but could be an addition to a shrine. El-Chaer is Palestinian Christian, and their large-scale acrylic paintings with gold leaf are the showstoppers here, looming like Byzantine icons or stained-glass windows. Their diptych “The Flour Massacre” is a stunning display of heavenly and earthly realms, with two martyrs standing above a field of wheat.
Aradini is known for her hand embroidery on tulle, with delicate thread transforming photographs into textile masterpieces, but here she is notably restrained. A single embroidered tapestry is surrounded by six linocut prints, two bearing the words “resistance is life.” Aradini
did not respond to my question about shrines — possibly because she’s busy preparing to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this fall, but this absence of explanation feels intentional. A shrine doesn’t need its creator; it can be built and left for someone else to find.
There is such melancholy in Watermelon Seeds, and violence is the backdrop. Still, there is an invitation to be present with the artists’ grief and hope. The literal invitation is an artists’ talk on Aug. 9. Aradini will not attend, but Anderson, El-Chaer and Bedran will be present.
“The voices of logic, of reason, of justice have a place to be here,” Campos-Pons says. “What I love about this exhibition is the place of encounter for the voices, for the individuals. Art is a place of negotiation … where we can understand each other better.” ▼
Watermelon Seeds Through Aug. 30 at Begonia Labs, 2805 West End Ave. Artists’ talk 6-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9
MARLA CANNON-GOODMAN, MATRACA BERG & DEANA CARTER with EMMA ZINCK + AVA
THE EAGLEMANIACS:
The Music of Don Henley and The Eagles Celebrating 10 Years!
Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring AIMEE MAYO, CHRIS LINDSEY, JEFF TROTT & SHELBY RAYE + GLORIA ANDERSON
STRUNG LIKE A HORSE with KEVIN DANIEL RESURRECTION: A Journey Tribute
JEFF COFFIN & DREAM HORIZON Album Release featuring FELIX PASTORIUS, KEITH CARLOCK, TY BAILIE, ROD MCGAHA, LINDSEY MILLER, YELI ENSEMBLE with special guests!
Damn Music Jam featuring LIL’ SKINNY, JUNA & JOEY, VAL STOREY, FLAT RIVER BAND, BROOKLYN SUMMER, THE FASTER HORSES
TUTTLE BAND with Special Guests LINDSAY LOU & DOMINIC LESLIE
huntergirl
jonny craig w/ call me karizma, birdsall & two lane rock for hope: treatment relief foundation charity show yep rewind: back to school black pistol fire w/ dan spencer the emo night tour
patty pershayla & the mayhaps w/ desmond jones (7pm)
entangled dreams w/ shakira chinchilla
& too hot for leather (9pm)
(7pm)
deep fried five w/ juke skywalker & ruminate
brit taylor & adam chaffins
sevy (6pm)
bckhnd (7pm) ken meyer & vinje (7pm)
ON A STRING
Grace Bowers sets the stage with Wine on Venus
BY KELSEY BEYELER
THUNDER, LIGHTNING AND torrential rain raged outside while Grace Bowers and the Hodge Podge made their debut performance on the Grand Ole Opry stage July 30. Matching the energy of the storm, they launched straight into an electric two-song set of soulful funkrock. Singer Esther Okai-Tetteh filled the room with goosebump-inducing vocals while Bowers shined on guitar, playing with Joshua Blaylock on the keys, Brandon Combs on drums, Eric Fortaleza on bass and Prince Parker on another guitar.
“This has been a dream stage of mine ever since I moved here,” Bowers said between songs, peeking out at the crowd from beneath her shaggy curls. “It’s a huge opportunity to play here, especially on my 18th birthday. If you’ll allow us to de-countrify your stage for a bit, this is a song called ‘Wine on Venus.’”
The titular song from Bowers’ debut album, “Wine on Venus” was inspired by the guitar wizard’s late nana, who passed away at the age of 100. She told Bowers that when she died, she’d be doing just that — drinking wine on the
planet that’s just a little closer to the sun than we are, the one that’s easily mistaken for a star in our night sky.
“She was in a nursing home and we could only talk to her through the window,” says Bowers, speaking with the Scene in an interview prior to her Opry performance. “The last time I saw her, I played guitar for her for the first time outside of her window.”
Bowers’ short music career is already stacked with major accomplishments, such as playing alongside Dolly Parton and Lainey Wilson, being nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year at the upcoming Americana Music Association Honors and Awards and raising tens of thousands of dollars through multiple benefit concerts, including the second edition of Grace Bowers & Friends at Brooklyn Bowl in July. While these achievements are particularly impressive for someone who’s been playing guitar for less than a decade, perhaps Bowers’ biggest strength lies in her focus on collaborating with other stellar musicians.
Wine on Venus is just as much about the band as it is about Bowers’ guitar. Throughout each song, juicy riffs ride along sophisticated, bluesy grooves and rich, booming vocals to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Bowers established The Hodge Podge after plucking the best musicians from a revolving lineup she’d
played with in Nashville (hence the name of the ensemble). She met Okai-Tetteh at a rock camp; they wrote most of the album together on Bowers’ bedroom floor.
Their collective sound points to influences like Funkadelic, Buddy Miles, and Sly and the Family Stone; they even cover Sly’s indelible 1976 tune “Dance to the Music” on the record. Yet the album brings in other genres as well, from the rootsy country vibe of “Lucy” to the keys-driven interlude “Mookie’s Blues.” Combs’ drums are the first instrument we hear, inviting us into the rest of the album, and they stand out throughout the record. Fortaleza’s rich bass hits heavy, while Blaylock’s keys add character, Parker’s guitar complements Bowers’ beautifully, and Okai-Tetteh’s vocals distinguish the music with impressive range and intensity.
Despite how large their sound is, the music reads tight and well-rehearsed. Producer John Osborne of the country powerhouse duo Brothers Osborne had a role in fostering that while recording the album from his studio in East Nashville.
“There’s been a lot — a lot — of people who have believed in me and just done anything that they could to help me, but John Osborne has really been just amazing,” says Bowers. “He produced our record, and I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else, because it was my first time
making a record, and that’s a really sacred process. And he understood that, and was just very patient. And he knew the sound I was going for, and he knew how to push everyone to their limits while playing.”
Bowers’ experience reflects some of the best parts of Nashville, namely the inclination for musicians to collaborate with and support one another. The momentum she’s gained since moving here from California with her family lays an exciting runway at the beginning of her music career.
In addition to their Opry debut and album release, Bowers and the Hodge Podge just opened for Guns N’ Roses guitar hero Slash, who was Bowers’ earliest musical inspiration, and they’re set to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Aug. 12. Bowers says she’s already thinking about her second record; somewhere along the way she has to finish high school too. She hopes that, maybe for her 19th birthday, she can play Red Rocks. At this rate, nothing seems out of reach for Bowers, especially with her bandmates behind her. In the meantime, the goal is to make Wine on Venus ubiquitous.
“I want it to annoy [people] that it’s stuck in their head so often. I just want to make people feel something — hopefully a good feeling.”
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
Wine on Venus will be self-released Aug. 9
REMEMBER WHEN RAIN poured down on Tomato Art Fest last year and sent hundreds of festivalgoers scurrying for shelter, but then the crowds came roaring back as soon as the skies cleared? That dogged determination to party is unique to Nashville, says Jack Davis, founder of Good Neighbor Festivals.
Davis and his eight staff members own and manage that festival, as well as Light the Nations, East Nash Holiday Bash and All Hallows East, among others around town. They are also hired to put on Nashville Pride, the Middle Tennessee Highland Games and Celtic Festival and other festivals owned by nonprofits. Davis took a break from preparing for an estimated 65,000 people to descend on Five Points for a weekend of live music, art and community hangs at this year’s Tomato Art Fest (see more on that in this week’s Critics’ Picks section) to talk with the Scene about what makes a festival great.
What are some of the best memories you have of Tomato Art Fest? I think for me, the highlight of the event every year is the parade. Thousands of people come out. They have spent time and energy and created something unique and “East Nashville.” It’s just cool to watch the community come together and be a part of that, instead of going to an event and watching it.
It does seem like the buy-in is special for that festival. Is that true across festivals you work on? For festivals like the Tomato Art Festival or Light the Nations, at the end of the day, they are community-driven. They start out community-driven, and as they grow it gets harder and harder to keep that organic piece. And we try as hard as possible to continue to have tons of opportunities for people to participate.
Can you describe the day of a festival? They are whirlwind weekends. There are always pieces that I can pull out, like just seeing people come out and enjoy, or put their phone down for a couple hours or show off a costume they’ve
SEND IT
Inspired by a skating legend, Mexico City’s Cardiel stirs up a heady punk concoction
BY P.J. KINZER
JOHN CARDIEL IS one of the most intense skateboarders to ever live. Known for his reckless abandon and seemingly limitless velocity, Cardiel was one of the most beloved — and often most bashed-up — faces of the Anti-Hero Skateboards team in the 1990s. In his prime, he was known for fearlessly attacking any surface a skateboard could roll, slide or sail over, be it concrete, metal or otherwise.
“In Venezuela, when we were skating and there’s a big gap or something, and you have to go fast, you say,
SECRET’S IN THE SAUCE
Talking about community building with Good Neighbor Festivals founder Jack Davis ahead of the 21st Tomato Art Fest
BY HANNAH HERNER
been thinking about or making for a month or two. It’s really a unique, cool experience to be a part of, but it’s hard for me to describe the day of. … Our crew does a really good job of making sure that it’s as smooth as possible.
What is the biggest misconception about your line of work? The general response is like, “Oh, that’s really cool.” Also, you can tell they feel like, “I don’t really understand what that is. I’ve been to an event, I have fun. It must be really fun.” And it is, but there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see, and if we’re doing our job right, they shouldn’t see. I actually
like: ‘Cardiel! I go Cardiel!’” guitarist and skateboarder Miguel Fraino tells me, grinning broadly on our video call. “This was way before I decided the name of the band.”
Fraino is half of the Mexico City duo Cardiel, a band he formed with his fellow Venezuelan native Samantha Ambrosio. Along with their musical project, Ambrosio and Fraino share a deep love of skate culture that overlaps with their band’s lyrics, aesthetics and attitude.
John Cardiel is a particular inspiration for the pair. Like many of his peers, the pro skater has an allegiance to the metal and punk underground. But John Cardiel is also a collector of rare reggae singles, playing his favorite Jamaican deep cuts under his alias DJ Juan Love.
“He has on the [skate] videos Barrington Levy and then Black Sabbath,” Fraino says of his band’s namesake. “He had both kinds of music on the same level.”
The skate-rock twosome developed their sound by
take pride when people don’t quite understand all of the things that go into that — because if they did, something wasn’t smooth. I think most people just don’t grasp the amount of coordination that it takes to work with and interact — not only with all the customers, but then there’s the Tomato Art Festival’s about 250 vendors and bars, and then you’ve got the neighborhood and the people you’re impacting, and the restaurants and the businesses. All of those folks are players in the event being successful.
What would you credit to Nashville’s — and especially East Nashville’s — community being so strong?
I think that communities are built by a number of things. I haven’t been around long enough, but in the history of East Nashville there have been a lot of moments where the neighborhood has needed to come together, whether that was COVID, whether that was multiple tornadoes over the years. A lot of the business owners live and work in the neighborhood. It’s walkable. Selfishly, I think that festivals help that significantly. You have something that you can bring anyone that doesn’t live in the neighborhood to, to show them what your neighborhood is about. ▼
Tomato Art Fest
Aug. 9-10 in Five Points
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
JACK DAVIS
drawing from a lot of the same music that drove John Cardiel in his heyday (and does to this day). On the duo’s records, you’ll find moments reminiscent of King Tubby’s smoldering dub reggae, the distorted dirge of Sleep and the barbaric thrash of Bl’ast all coexisting within the same songs, forming a musical concoction that is simultaneously abrasive and inviting.
“It’s kind of hard to explain sometimes when people ask you what kind of music you play,” Ambrosio tells me. “It’s kind of heavy. And then we kind of play some dub and reggae. And everybody’s like, ‘What? That’s a weird mix. I don’t know what’s going on.’” But like a skater connecting various tricks in one jaw-dropping line, Cardiel has a way of transitioning between all their ideas beautifully, as if these disjointed sounds were just waiting to be connected by players who give themselves permission to explore. “It’s really fun to us,” she continues, “but [it’s also] a way to say, ‘Yes, you can do that.’”
Both members of Cardiel are also audio engineers, offering the band plenty of recording time to develop their expansive sound.
“We have a recording studio in Mexico,” Ambrosio says. “All the albums we have made or recorded so far, it’s been between the two of us. When I’m recording the drums,” she says, gesturing toward Fraino, “he’s on the computer hitting ‘record.’”
“And when I was on the guitar, then she was recording,” Fraino explains. “We’re trying to get the elements that we use in a live show on the record.”
The weight of Cardiel’s records — not to mention their live sets — comes from carefully considered musical ideas. Much of the fullness comes from the collection of effects pedals at Fraino’s feet. The pedal board, which Ambrosio refers to as the band’s third member, is the secret piece that gives Cardiel so much texture. The guitarist notes that he’s spent years dialing in his effects settings.
“It changed the way I play guitar a little bit,” he continues. “More riffs right now than chords, because I use two amps and an octave pedal. It’s a bass amp and guitar amp.”
The worlds of skateboarding and underground music have been deeply connected since the ’70s. Yet nothing about skateboarding absolutely requires music, and fringe musical movements — punk, hip-hop, thrash metal — don’t especially need skateboarding to thrive. In spite of that, somehow music and skating can always be found in the same spaces, like binary stars orbiting each other, linked by an invisible gravitational pull. I asked Cardiel how that connection relates to their band.
“I think it’s that both are independent arts,” Fraino explains. “For me, it was maybe the connection between the videos of skateboarding and the music on the videos. And you connect those visuals with the music, and it’s something like a ‘click.’ It doesn’t matter if it’s punk rock or rock ’n’ roll or hip-hop. It’s something about that piece of wood with four wheels that makes you feel like, ‘OK, this is connected.’” ▼
MUSIC: THE SPIN
A NEW WORLD RECORD
BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
ATHLETES FROM ALL over the globe are pushing the peak of human ability to new heights at the Olympic Games in Paris, with years of dedicated practice culminating in jaw-dropping achievements. (Salute to Nashville’s own Gretchen Walsh, who’s coming home with two gold and two silver medals.) Austin, Texas, rockers A Giant Dog brought their version of Olympic fever to The Cobra Friday night with inspiring performances in such events as the High Note, Artistic Guitarmonizing and Boogie Relay. In a moment from the Freestyle Banter semifinals destined for the highlight reels, singer Sabrina Ellis quizzed the crowd on the proper use of a term the band learned that week: “Is it A: ‘We tried so hard but couldn’t catch the coxswain’; B: ‘Better make sure you get enough before the coxswain’; or C: ‘It was unclear whether Sabrina or Andrew was the coxswain tonight.’”
The group brought its signature blend of hardcore bombast, pop melody mastery, theatrical flair and indomitable heart back to Music City on a night when attendance was unfortunately bound to suffer some, since the seventh run of psych fest Far Out and Redd Kross’ show at The Blue Room at Third Man Records were happening at the same time. At The Cobra, openers Wesley & the Boys (pinch-hitting for The Shitdels, who had to drop out a few days earlier) had an audience of only about 20 for their three-chord garage rippers, but played like there was a line out the door. In the fall, Scene contributor Addie Moore called singer-guitarist Wesley Berryhill & Co. “one of the tightest and most road-ready punk bands in town,” and she’s not wrong.
Bassist Ashton Kjelde and drummer Joey Shrum drove the rhythm like they stole it, and guitarist Jonny Ullman lobbed snarling riffs and solos. Ullman kept his leather jacket on for the whole set, which AGD singer-guitarist Andrew Cashen later commended as “the peak of athleticism.” Meanwhile, Berryhill strummed frantically and barked into his mic, cranked high in the air so it forced him to stand on tiptoe for extra intensity.
The mic was Berryhill’s own, seemingly chosen for how it thinned out his voice like he was howling down an old telephone; my only note is that it didn’t cut through the mix well on Friday.
About a year ago, A Giant Dog released Bite, the quintet’s fifth LP of originals and first since 2017’s Toy Bite is a concept album about the complex relationships a group of characters have with a virtual reality world called Avalonia. Right now, touring is an especially daunting mental, physical and financial challenge for all kinds of musicians, not just indie folks. While I would snap up tickets in a heartbeat to see a full-blown Protomen-style production of the record with sets, costumes and probably pyro, that’s not what AGD is doing right now. But their hour-plus set of lovingly ferocious rock ’n’ roll thunder was the furthest thing from a disappointment.
It was heartening to see the room mostly fill up by the time they took the stage around 9:45. The show sailed by like someone lit a whole pack of bottle rockets, with flash after brilliant flash. While a couple of songs from Bite made an appearance, the set was heavy on tunes from fan faves Pile (released in 2016) and Toy. The band’s outstanding covers of Sparks’ “Angst in Your Pants” and Scandal’s “The Warrior” also came out, as did “Fake Plastic Trees,” one of several AGD originals that share titles with Radiohead cuts but otherwise have nothing to do with the English art-rockers.
Ellis’ antic magnetism as a frontperson is legendary, and they enraptured the crowd, even without wading into the audience this time. Getting to see them work with instrumentalists the caliber of the aforementioned Cashen, second guitarist Andy Bianculli, bassist Vince Delgado and drummer Jacob Cruz makes you want to pinch yourself. There are lots of great rock bands in the world, but does it get any better than the night ending with punk rallying cry “Sleep When Dead”? Only if it concludes like it did Friday, with Cashen hopping on the shoulders of a tall fan in the front row and riffing heroically while he and his steed braved the pit.
The way this band turns the sting of feeling broke, horny and powerless into a hopeful, life-giving force is nothing short of magic. These are songs I wish every young adult could hear. For now, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next record and the next show. ▼
p.m.
Playing 8
Saturday, Aug. 10, at Drkmttr
PHOTO: KRISTEN DRUM
CEREMONY: A GIANT DOG
JAIL TALE
Sing Sing is a raw, moving prison story
BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY
SING SING IS a movie that does a lot of amazing things, but perhaps the most amazing thing it does is make audiences wanna hang out with prisoners.
Set in New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility, the movie takes the viewer up close and personal with some talented inmates. These guys are members of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a real-life program in which hardened criminals become thespians and put on staged productions. Serving as the troupe’s glue is Divine G (Colman Domingo), a playwright and novelist who could put members of the Royal Shakespeare Company to shame with his classical acting.
After turning out a successful production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the boys put on an original, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink farce, penned by their resident director (Sound of Metal Oscar nominee Paul Raci), that features time traveling, Egyptians, cowboys and even Freddy Krueger. There’s also a Hamlet, played by new addition Divine Eye (Clarence Maclin), a hotheaded drug dealer who has trouble letting his thug guard down among these creative, vulnerable brothas.
Sing Sing seems almost like a prison movie for people who hate prison movies. There are even some dryly comedic moments, like the men putting on a violent scene for stone-faced backers.
Bereft of the brutal clichés and tropes usually found in any story about incarcerated men (re-
GROWING PAINS
Dídi shows adolescence in the 2000s — warts and all
BY KEN ARNOLD
THE COMING-OF-AGE story is a constant in cinema — after all, in one way or another, we all had to make the journey from childhood to adulthood. It’s a common tactic for up-and-coming writers and directors to make a feature capturing their own childhood — or a story inspired by it — to break into the industry. It’s a good way to create a personal, relatable story, but also in many cases a chance to pluck the nostalgia strings of those who grew up in a similar time. That’s exactly what documentarian Sean Wang is doing with his dramatic feature debut Dídi (弟弟) This time it’s for those who experienced their teenage years in the late 2000s.
In the summer of 2008, between finishing middle school and beginning high school, Bay Area teen Chris Wang (played by Izaac Wang) — or as his friends call him, “Wang Wang” — spends his summer vacation learning lessons the hard way. He fights with friends and family, tries to make new skater friends and gets up to no good, as you’d expect of a teenage boy.
Viewers in the so-called zillennials box (on the cusp between millennials and Gen Z) might find the
member all the twisted shit that happened on Oz?), the film instead focuses on these convicts using theater to not only kill their time (pardon the expression) but also keep themselves sane. As indignities quietly go on around them all the time — from guards ransacking their cells to helplessly witnessing murders — putting on a show is the closest they get to freedom. As one character tearfully says, “We’re here to become human again.”
Sing Sing wears its authenticity with pride. Co-writer/director Greg Kwedar took damn near a decade assembling the story with actual ex-cons Maclin and John Whitfield — the latter is the real Divine G. (The program was actually founded in the mid-’90s by Katherine Vockins, but I guess Kwedar didn’t wanna make another “nice white lady” movie.) Shooting in several correctional facilities, including the titular one, Kwedar and cinematographer Pat Scola create a visual atmosphere that can be intimate and claustrophobic. But there are spacious, sunny moments when the characters go outside, literally touch grass and briefly get a taste of that sweet open air. Somehow the filmmakers make the outdoors look more appealing than the ac-
experience of watching Dídi similar to opening a time capsule from 2008. Sean Wang makes the extra effort to truthfully capture teenage years in the late Aughts in an honest way. The film does not present the past via a rose-tinted lens, instead showing the negative aspects of the era — including casual racism and homophobia — alongside the tender moments of growing up, making mistakes and learning from life. At its best, Dídi is a crowd-pleasing story set in 2008 that will warm the hearts of audiences. At its worst, for some, it might feel like an unwelcome hour-and-a-half of digging through old skeletons in your closet — or when your parents show your friends old baby pictures. A consequence of Sean Wang’s dedication to accurately portraying the time period is that your enjoyment of his debut hinges on your feelings about the time — and your own early-teenage years. Do you see the awkward moments of growing up as reassuring or traumatizing?
Sean Wang stated during a Q&A after his Sundance premiere that Chris is not supposed to be representative of him. Dídi is not a memoir, he said, but rather a character study — inspired by his childhood, but still a work of fiction. Using advice from The Farewell director Lulu Wang during a Sundance screenwriting workshop, the director made his project very personal, then stepped back to disassociate himself from the work and view it as fiction. This approach helped make a film that is informed by the director’s lived experience, but less
tual outdoors.
The cast is also populated with former inmates who are RTA alumni, and Kwedar gives them the opportunity to show off their range during an amusing audition montage. Maclin does fascinating work transforming from cliché to creative, letting go of his inner badass and becoming himself when he becomes Hamlet. They all hold their own next to Domingo, who takes on his role as the movie’s beacon of hope with awe-inspiring tenderness. As his character works on both the play and his case for clemency, Domingo embodies quiet, defiant optimism, keeping his spirits up along with the spirits of his fellow jailbirds. You constantly want the homie to win, even though you know third-act hardships await.
Although Sing Sing is one of the more raw, moving, human stories you’ll see on the big screen this year, the movie also feels a little meta. It tells of a program that encourages prisoners to stop seeing themselves as caged animals, all while encouraging audiences to stop doing the same. Also, you should get some damn theater in your life. ▼
burdened by the truth of his own life; thus he was able to focus on the major theme of the narrative, which the director says is shame.
Dídi speaks to the time period, from references to early social media platforms like Myspace to the street fashion and the way kids talked — both the good and the bad. It’s also the type of coming-of-age story that can appeal to a large audience thanks to its themes of adolescent shame, a solid ensemble cast and an impressive performance from young Izaac Wang. ▼
Opening
Dídi (弟弟) R, 94 minutes
Thursday, Aug. 8, at the Belcourt and AMC Thoroughbred 20
Sing Sing R, 105 minutes
Opening Thursday, Aug. 8, at the Belcourt
Cuckoo
R, 130 minutes
Opening Friday, Aug. 9, at Regal and AMC locations
CLOCKING IN
Cuckoo is campy and stylish, but without a big payoff
BY SADAF AHSAN
IT’S HARD To describe Cuckoo, the new horror-thriller from German writer-director Tilman Singer. Singer’s last project — the bizzaro-fest that was 2018’s Luz — signaled the arrival of a new talent, soon to spawn something we haven’t quite seen before. In some ways, at least when it comes to sound and production design, Cuckoo is very much that. But in other ways — like plot — it isn’t at all. In fact, it’s hard to say exactly what Cuckoo is even about.
The film follows teenager Gretchen (Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer) as she moves in with her prickly father (Marton Csokas), stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and mute stepsister (Mila Lieu) at a chillingly sterile and Overlook-esque resort in the German Alps. She sorely misses her mother and feels like a black sheep as her sister Alma continuously steals the spotlight, making Gretchen appear relentlessly unhinged. Gretchen has no problem, for instance, repeatedly and loudly calling out just how weird the resort is. It’s run by the goofy and maniacal Mr. König (Dan Stevens, naturally), there’s always someone throwing up somewhere on the premises, and there’s a whole lot of bird imagery all over the place. Yet Gretchen seems to be the only one who notices any of this.
But Gretchen is being watched by an unusual figure: a blond woman in a chic floor-length trench coat, cat-eye sunglasses and a sharp bob. This figure pops up at the most inopportune times (e.g., in the middle of the road while Gretchen is biking, or lurking over the bathroom stall next to hers). Whoever she is, she’s a baddie or a spirit or some … entity. It’s hard to say, and we don’t get much clarity.
A few of the clues we can gather about this place: Something unethical is happening here at the hands of König. It involves impregnation, blond women and vomit, and the only things that can protect you are a pair of earbuds and music (there’s a great case for wired headphones to be made here) to block out the shrieking, birdlike screams these women or figures emit when
provoked. Oh, and König is keen to experiment with Alma — or maybe he already has?
One would do well to watch this film without expecting questions to be answered, symbolism to have clear meaning or a clear message to be presented.
While this might be a death knell for any other film, Cuckoo feels worth a watch just for the creative ways Singer plays with time and sound. In his hands, the camera moves like a stalker — hovering above Gretchen, spinning around her. It skids into dark corners and follows the teenager like an erratic shadow. At other times, scenes will suddenly replay, suggesting time is nonlinear here — wherever and whenever we are — inducing a sense of disorientation that feels like a record skipping. The mounting tension earned here doesn’t amount to much, sadly, but it’s also a delight watching Stevens and Schafer at odds.
A certified character actor already, Stevens is a clownish sight to behold. He’s made it clear he loves a niche horror film, having previously starred in the 2014’s memorable The Guest and 2020’s The Rental. Here he gets to wield an exaggerated German accent, frameless glasses, a few excellent suits and, of course, a wooden flute. At times, his eccentric König feels well-balanced by the suspicious Gretchen. At others, it feels as though they might be in two different films entirely — or perhaps two different timelines.
Either way, this time around, it’s Schafer who shows the most promise. Already a star thanks to Euphoria and her work as a model, with Cuckoo (and the recent Kinds of Kindness), she proves she’s got a lot more substance to her. She spends half the film with a bandage wrapped around her head after a run-in with the aforementioned figure, leaving only one eye exposed. That eye puts in work, emitting a tremendous level of suspicion toward her parents, terror caused by the figure, and endearment toward her little sister. At 24, the actress feels almost bashful onscreen, making her easy to believe as a lost, angsty teenager — but her tall frame and sharp eyes cast her easily as a hero. It’s a transfixing combo.
What she’s saving people from is unclear, but if a touch of madness and more camp than horror sounds appetizing to you, Cuckoo will certainly suffice. Just don’t count on a big payoff. ▼
Wednesday, August 7
LOUISE SCRUGGS MEMORIAL FORUM
Honoring
Sally Williams
6:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 10
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Saturday, August 10 SONGWRITER SESSION
Clay Mills NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 10 POETS AND PROPHETS
John Hiatt 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, August 11
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Eddy Dunlap 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 17 SONGWRITER SESSION
Kyle Clark NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 17 NASHVILLE CATS
Bobby Wood
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, August 18
CONCERT AND CONVERSATION
Mandy Barnett 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, August 24 HATCH SHOW PRINT
Block Party
9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED
WITNESS HISTORY
Local Kids Visit Free Plan a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum this summer! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Davidson and bordering counties are always free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.
1 Hit on, perhaps
7 *One of 32 in London
14 Like the architecture of the Alhambra
15 Name in an Oscars envelope, e.g.
16 Stuck waiting
17 Sustained oneself with
18 Restaurant add-on
19 *Teacher in a dojo
21 Journos report to them
22 Take to task
24 Start of a children’s rhyme with the line “Have you any wool?”
25 Lead-in to boarding
26 “Geez!”
27 Mind
29 Staple of Thursday night CBS programming during the 2000s
31 Six Flags coaster with a Spanish name
33 Played “Here comes the airplane!” with
38 Geographical locale whose name resembles a tractor when written in upper- and lowercase
39 *Home to Gonzaga University
40 Clandestine meetups
42 Like some skillets
43 ___ Speedwagon
44 Other: Sp.
46 Peeper that doesn’t make a sound
47 They’re older than seniors
49 Humanitarian support
51 Belgian town known for its restorative mineral springs
54 Be bold
55 *Environs
58 Get in a corpse pose
60 Let out a sigh
62 Superlative for a quiche or frittata
64 Register
65 Ladies who lunch, maybe
66 Did up
67 *Drawn-out story of travel woes? DOWN
1 Like megaphones
2 “Get ready!” ... or what to do upon hearing the ends of the answers to the starred clues?
3 Red-haired Disney princess
4 ___ Tam (“Australia’s favorite cookie”)
5 Some PC ports
6 Eastern flycatcher
7 Wood used in some surfboards
8 Boo-boo
9 Sitarist Shankar
10 Potential product of asteroid mining
11 What an inflated glove may serve as for a cow costume
12 Highlight of a rock collection
13 University of Delaware’s Fightin’ Blue
14 Question after an absence
20 Second group to vote
23 Snack brand whose Japanese flavors include tuna mayonnaise and clam chowder
25 Two out of 10
28 Give a leg up to
29 Grove
30 Like chimneys
32 Dawning sounds
34 Helpful FYI
35 A good way
36 Ambient musician whose name is found in “white noise”
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