WHY THE MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX MOVED TO AN OVAL TRACK IN LEBANON
>> PAGE 8
NEWS: FEDERAL PROSECUTORS SAY TENET MEDIA MAKES ‘COVERT’ RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA
>> PAGE 9
FOOD & DRINK: MOFONGO CAFE SERVES HEARTY CARIBBEAN COMFORT FOOD IN BERRY HILL
>> PAGE 32
Ahead of AMERICANAFEST, we talk with Emerging Act of the Year nominee Wyatt Flores, run down our favorite shows and more
Richie Furay wore this fringed Nudie suit, inspired by Native American art, onstage with Poco at the Newport Pop Festival at Devonshire Downs racetrack on June 22, 1969.
From the exhibit Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, presented by City National Bank
RESERVE TODAY
Adult-Size Changing Tables Are Finally Happening
Talking with advocate Chrissy Hood about getting Tennessee ahead of the curve
BY HANNAH HERNER
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Thrown for a Loop
Why IndyCar moved from downtown Nashville to an oval track in Lebanon
CRAIG HAVIGHURST
BY
Federal Prosecutors: Tenet Media Makes ‘Covert’ Russian Propaganda
The Nashville media company has reached hundreds of thousands with its pool of right-wing influencers BY HAMILTON
MATTHEW MASTERS
COVER PACKAGE: AMERICANAFEST 2024
The New Natural
Rising songsmith Wyatt Flores tells powerful personal stories on his own terms
BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA
The Persistence of Memory
Catching up with Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra about The Past Is Still Alive
BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT
Show of Strength
Talking with Cindy Emch and Julie Nolen about their OUTlaw Queer Country event and support for LGBTQ Americana artists BY RACHEL CHOLST
Tuesday and Wednesday Shows
Get in the swing of AmericanaFest with a celebration of Mary Gauthier, the keystone Honors & Awards ceremony and much more BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
Thursday Shows
Waxahatchee tops a massive ANTI- Records anniversary party, T Bone Burnett steps out and much more BY HANNAH CRON
Friday Shows
From Swamp Dogg’s rocking soul to Theo Lawrence’s FrenchTexan croon and beyond, the Americana party doesn’t stop BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
Saturday Shows
From day parties to nighttime jams with The Kentucky Gentlemen, Rissi Palmer and more, this year’s fest is primed to end on a high note BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Americana Artist or Baseball Player?
Test your knowledge of Americana and pro baseball with our quiz COMPILED BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
CRITICS’ PICKS
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Cookbook Binding Workshop, Ts Madison, Musicians Corner and more FOOD AND DRINK
Plátano Power
Mofongo Cafe serves hearty Caribbean comfort food in Berry Hill BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
ADVICE KING
Who Should My Fantasy Football Draft Pick Be?
The fact that I don’t follow football could be related to the fact that I could never throw a spiral properly. It’s either that or all the wedgies. BY CHRIS CROFTON
BOOKS
Finding the Divine
Charles Strobel’s memoir reflects his legacy of communing with others BY AMANDA HAGGARD; CHAPTER16.ORG
FILM
Seeing Red Red Rooms is a gutsy, visceral, emotionally conflicted journey BY JASON SHAWHAN
Perfectly Quiet
A new restoration of The Conversation comes through loud and clear at Belcourt’s Essential Coppola series BY JOE NOLAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
MARKETPLACE
ON THE COVER:
Wyatt Flores; photo by Eric England
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September 14 - October 27
Embrace fall at Cheekwood. Three pumpkin houses, an explosion of 75,000 pumpkins, a community scarecrow trail, and thousands of chrysanthemums create a festive experience. With something fun for everyone, Cheekwood Harvest brings joy with the changing of the leaves.
Presented by
Through October 24 | 5:30 - 9 PM
An adventure through food, drink and song awaits at this weekly concert amid Cheekwood’s beautiful gardens. Sample seasonal libations and irresistible bites from the city’s favorite food trucks and Café 29. Upcoming performers include:
September 12 | Hannah Juanita & The Hardliners
September 19 | Shaun Murphy
September 26 | Cristina Vane
Spirits Sponsor
Guided Tours: Hermitage Mansion, Garden, Lives of The Hermitage Enslaved, VIP Tour • Grounds Passes & Audio Tour • Award-Winning Exhibit & Documentary Film • Seasonal Events • Local Wine Tastings
Plan your Fa visit !
BY HANNAH HERNER
CHRISSY HOOD’S 21-year-old daughter Alaina, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities, outgrew a baby changing table a long time ago. Hood and her husband have resorted to changing her on the bathroom floor or in the family’s van, or even skipping outings because there was no accessible changing table.
Hood had never even seen an adult changing table in person when she started her advocacy work in 2020. Slowly, a few places — including the Nashville International Airport, the Adventure Science Center and the rec center in her town, Pulaski — started adding them of their own volition. The Walmart in Franklin became the first Walmart in the country to have an adult changing table too.
“To see every table, every time I walk in, it’s like Christmas Day,” she tells the Scene “Someone cared enough about my child … about her needs and about her quality of life to do something.”
Now, thanks to Hood’s work at the Tennessee General Assembly, adult changing tables will be popping up in all of the state’s travel stops and state parks. She and Alaina are on a quest to visit them all.
It started with 2020 Disability Day on the Hill, where Hood talked with her representative, state Rep. Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski), about the need for adult changing tables in Tennessee. Hood says she found her voice with help from the Council on Developmental Disabilities, a Partners in Policymaking leadership course, and Changing Spaces, a national campaign for height-adjustable adult-size changing tables.
The focus of her advocacy is specific: powered, height-adjustable, adult-size changing tables in single-occupancy restrooms. Fixedheight tables aren’t as helpful — Alaina can’t climb up, and Hood can’t lift her. Wheelchair users would struggle to use it. Of course, these changing tables work for babies, too.
“When I walk into a stall, there’s typically a hook on the back of that stall door for me to hang my purse,” Hood says. “Why do I need to hang my purse? Because I don’t want it on the dirty floor. Yet we’re having to change our loved ones. We’re having to change our veterans, our dads, our aunts, our uncles, our clients on the floor, and no one wants to lay down on a bathroom floor, a public restroom floor. Or we’re taking them to our vehicles and changing them in all types of weather elements.
“It’s just not hygienic, it’s not safe, and you think about their dignity,” she continues. “Using the restroom is a basic human right.”
Something rare happened in Hood’s fight for more changing tables: unanimous, bipartisan support, and more money than she asked for.
“Most people, when you talk to them about
this, the light bulb goes off,” she says. “They’re just not aware that that is a need, because we don’t talk about going to the bathroom. That’s just a taboo subject.”
In the 2021 legislative session, Hood worked with Doggett and co-sponsor Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) on a mandate requiring adult-size changing tables in new buildings or those doing renovations over a certain dollar amount. It passed every committee unanimously but had a high fiscal note, which ultimately killed it. She worked with Doggett again in 2022 to introduce a grant program, offering a $5,000 incentive to get businesses to install the tables in places open to the public. It passed, and the fund was granted $1 million — double the $500,000 they asked for.
Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation offered to begin installing tables in state parks and rest stops, which was codified in a joint resolution. It became part of the Tennessee State Parks’ Access 2030 program, which also includes allterrain wheelchairs, among other available modifications.
This year, the grant amount was bumped to
Last week, union representatives and AT&T executives met at the negotiating table in Atlanta, where both parties have struggled to finalize a new contract. More than 17,000 AT&T employees across the Southeast are currently on strike, including several hundred Communications Workers of America members in the Middle Tennessee area. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint in August alleging that the AT&T representatives bargaining with them did not actually have authorization from the company to approve a new contract. Union members have conducted pickets at locations around the country, including outside the AT&T building in downtown Nashville.
$10,000 because businesses may have to build a single-occupancy restroom, which is not a requirement in all new builds in Tennessee. There’s still money to be spent, and Hood hopes more businesses will take advantage of the grant program.
Back in 2020, Doggett said he’d like to one day see Alaina cut the ribbon on a new adult changing table in the Cordell Hull State Office Building, where the state legislature does much of its business. Earlier this year, that vision came to fruition.
“Tennessee is definitely leading the way in this,” Hood says. “We have had other states reach out and say, ‘Tell me how you did it. What did you do? What is your language? Tell me what your bill said.’ We have had extreme success and buy-in from the General Assembly and from our state and from our leaders within our state. And that’s been a huge blessing to many, many families and to families that travel through our state.” ▼
A state board unanimously dismissed Nashville Democratic Rep. Caleb Hemmer’s ethics complaint against Lizzette Reynolds, Tennessee’s Department of Education commissioner since June of last year. Hemmer alleged that Reynolds violated state policy when she took two out-of-state trips paid for by ExcelinEd, an influential education nonprofit based in Florida (and Reynolds’ former employer). The Tennessee Ethics Commission did not rule on whether Reynolds violated state code, which prohibits certain gifts from an employer of a lobbyist, choosing instead to dismiss the complaint because Reynolds had repaid the related expenses.
Charles Kelley a former Davidson County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer, was among six individuals charged last week for bringing drugs into Nashville’s jail system. The Metro Nashville Police Department opened the investigation last year following the fentanylrelated death of 18-year-old inmate Daniel Prisco in September 2023. Kelley, along with four inmates and a civilian, face several charges related to delivering and distributing contraband within a penal facility. Kelley, 23, was employed as a correctional officer by the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office in February. According to the RCSO, Kelley was “terminated immediately” following his arrest Thursday night.
BY CRAIG HAVIGHURST
A LITTLE MORE than a year ago, the group running the Music City Grand Prix released a jaw-dropping plan for its fourth race in downtown Nashville in 2024. With a new Tennessee Titans stadium in the works, the race had lost most of its circuit, so the new vision was to send the cars blazing down five blocks of Lower Broadway between the honky-tonks before turning left onto Fifth Avenue and making a loop that was to include the telegenic out-and-back over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles promised “an unbridled celebration of the most fierce and competitive motorsport on the planet, set against the backdrop of an innovative and breathtaking stage that includes one of the premier global entertainment districts in the world.”
It sounded far-fetched, and Scott Borchetta knew it. The founding CEO of the race’s title sponsor, Big Machine Label Group, and a key player in bringing IndyCar to Nashville in 2021, Borchetta spent last winter and spring executing a quiet takeover of the Music City Grand Prix and probably saving its life by moving it — temporarily, Borchetta hopes — to the Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, 35 miles out of downtown. Even without the disruption of the Titans stadium construction, the much-hyped event had underperformed in its third year. The vast, expensive vision was on life support.
“Prior management were fiscally irresponsible, and it got to a point where we were either going to have to take it over or shut it down,” Borchetta tells the Scene. “And there’s way too much at stake for IndyCar, for Nashville, for Big Machine, for this great event to not continue. So we identified a way to restructure and rebuild the operation into something that’s very robust. Ultimately, it’s got to be a business. And now it’s a business.”
But for fans, it’s a motor race, and not the one they’ve grown to expect. As chaotic as they can be, street courses like Nashville’s — defined by barriers and catch fences — remind people of the driving they do on city streets, only a lot faster. Now the drivers will race on a 1.3-mile loop, promising what the uninitiated sometimes deride as driving in circles. The city skyline and the dramatic sight of cars going 175 mph on Korean Veterans Bridge won’t light up TVs all over the country this year. Yet there are upsides. A few years ago, IndyCar — the sanctioning body for America’s top open-wheel racing league — embraced Nashville, moving our race to the end of the season calendar. That meant the champion (determined by points scored across the season) could be determined and will be crowned at the MCGP. Borchetta calls it landing the “Super Bowl of IndyCar.” The league
2023
even moved its champions banquet to Nashville, further affirming its bullishness on the city.
For fans, there are other wins. The September dates should be cooler than the early-August races of 2021, 2022 and 2023. Grandstand seats are significantly less expensive, while parking and entry are easier. And whereas fans get to see only a portion of a city street track from their seats, patrons in Lebanon will be able to see the entire sweep of the track and the pit lane from almost every seat. And seats are selling fast.
Oval track racing, by the way, is how IndyCar started in the early 20th century on the famous bricks of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. Ovals make up about a third of the 17-race IndyCar season, and they deliver the highest speeds and closestquarter battles among the drivers in their 750-horsepower machines.
IndyCar has history at the Nashville Superspeedway, and everyone involved in this dramatic reconfiguring of the MCGP feels fortunate that there was a backup option nearby when the downtown race fell apart. The venue opened in 2001 thanks to a $125 million investment by Dover Motorsports, a huge player in NASCAR headquartered in Concord, N.C. IndyCar ran there from 2001 to 2008, with the last three races won by Australian Scott Dixon, a six-time IndyCar champion who arrives in
Nashville this season in fifth place with two wins on the year.
Race track economics can be brutal, as league-wide rule changes and market vicissitudes can sometimes leave owners and promoters hung out to dry. Ten years ago, such shifts left the Superspeedway in debt and without any major races. An arcane business soap opera played out, and eventually NASCAR returned; the track was sold to Speedway Motorsports, owner of famous tracks at Bristol, Atlanta, Charlotte and Fort Worth. This is the same company vying for a long-term lease to bring NASCAR racing back to the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, says area racing insider Ricky Haynes.
Haynes, a friend of Borchetta’s since the 1990s and a fellow board member of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame, says many of the Middle Tennessee race fans he speaks with are disappointed about the loss of a downtown street course (until 2028, at the earliest) and skeptical about the amenities in Lebanon. But he’s personally optimistic.
“Scott’s a visionary,” says Haynes. “He surrounds himself with good, qualified people, and he’s trustworthy. I can’t think of a better person to make this a success. And I hope that people will support the move out to the Superspeedway, knowing that this was not their
vision for this [race].”
Meanwhile, there’s a championship to decide this weekend. Local hero and twotime champion Josef Newgarden, despite becoming the sixth driver in history to win a second consecutive Indy 500 this year, is out of contention. The points leader and favorite to close out 2024 with the big trophy is defending champ Alex Palou of Spain. Australian Will Power, the 2022 winner, has been nipping at his heels of late and needs a win with a rather poor showing by Palou to upset him. But it’s possible: Palou severely underperformed in Milwaukee last week — on an oval.
Haynes says track improvements since the 2010s should make passing easier, which is what fans and drivers both want. There’s no longer a middling country music festival built into the ticket price (though there is some live music planned). Fans can buy round-trip shuttle tickets from downtown. It’ll be an adjustment for everyone, but given how close the MCGP came to an embarrassing extinction, we’ll take it.
MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX
SEPT. 14-15 AT THE NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY IN LEBANON, TENN.
The Nashville media company has reached hundreds of thousands with its pool of right-wing influencers
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
ACCORDING TO A federal indictment, a Green Hills-based “online content creation company” is at the center of a covert Russian propaganda effort that aims to “illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division.”
While not specifically named in the indictment, the company referred to by prosecutors as “U.S. Company-1” is Nashville’s Tenet Media, which has a Burton Hills Boulevard address on file, with the state of Tennessee listed as its principal office. Tenet Media registered as a business with the state in January 2022. Those state documents show that Tenet is a part of Roaming USA Corp., which has a Brentwood address on file with the state.
Prosecutors allege that the company was created by Russian state-controlled media outlet RT — and by extension the Russian government — as a “covert project” that ramped up operations in the U.S. following February 2022 sanctions banning the outlet from operating in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and much of Europe after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tenet Media describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” — the same description of U.S. Company-1 detailed in the indictment.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, two Russian nationals — 31-year-old Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva — have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today. Both remain at large. According to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the duo were involved in a “$10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” The money was allegedly paid to Tenet Media from seven “foreign shell entities.”
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” Garland says in a release issued last week.
The Washington Post reports that Tenet Media was founded by right-wing commentator Lauren Chen, who uses the online handle “Roaming Millennial,” and her husband Liam Donovan. The indictment doesn’t specifically name Chen and Donovan, and instead refers to them as “Founder-1” and “Founder-2.”
Prosecutors allege that Kalashnikov, Afanas-
yeva, Chen and Donovan all knew the source of the funds and worked to “deceive two online commentators” and spread Russian propaganda by “leveraging their existing audiences.” While not named in the indictment, based on the listed number of YouTube followers, the two commentators who were specifically “deceived” are likely Dave Rubin and Tim Pool. According to Tenet Media’s website, its “talent” includes right-wing podcasters and media influencers Rubin, Pool, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen and Benny Johnson.
In 2022, Johnson encouraged Williamson County students to fight the “culture war” with memes and ridicule at a Turning Point USA event in Franklin. Tennessee Republican leaders including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles have regularly amplified talking points from Tenet’s talking heads. Blackburn also appeared on several podcast episodes with Chen in 2021 and 2022.
Many of the content creators have made public statements about the indictment, including Johnson.
“A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor,” reads the statement that Johnson posted to X (formerly Twitter). “Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”
“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical,” Pool says in his own social media statement, adding, “Putin is a scumbag, Russia sucks donkey balls.”
Tenet Media has hundreds of thousands of followers across various social media platforms, where they feature videos that sensationalize social issues like diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and LGBTQ rights, and stoke fears of immigrant crime, among other topics. The company’s “talent” sports millions of followers across their personal social media pages.
The Scene visited Tenet’s address on file with the state of Tennessee but instead found the offices of Regus, IWG. The Scene was told that Tenet does have a “virtual office” at the suite, but no representative was on site for comment. The building also houses Tenet Health in a separate suite, but a representative said it was unaffiliated with Tenet Media.
According to the Department of Justice, Tenet, its founders, and Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva never registered as a foreign agents as required by law.
“Covert attempts to sow division and trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda represents attacks on our democracy,” says FBI director Christopher Wray in the DOJ statement. “Today’s actions show that as long as foreign adversaries like Russia keep engaging in hostile influence campaigns, they are going to keep running into the FBI.”
Following news of the federal indictment, YouTube removed Tenet Media’s channel from its platform. ▼
Ahead of AMERICANAFEST, we talk with Emerging Act of the Year nominee Wyatt Flores, run down our favorite shows and more
BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA
WYATT FLORES IS all smiles on a sunny August afternoon in Nashville. After a photo shoot on the East Side, the widely loved 23-year-old singer-songwriter will head to rehearsals for what’s becoming a regular thing: an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, his third since his debut on the venerable program in January. His second Opry appearance, which took place in July, was marked by the live debut of “Oh Susannah,” a poignant song about suicide dedicated to a young fan who took her life last year. Frank discussions of mental health haven’t historically been part of the stereotypical perception of a “rising star.” But Flores and other artists, especially young ones, are making mental health a priority and erasing the stigma around it in the process. Amid extensive touring and recording early this year, Flores forced himself to take a lengthy break to care for himself, something he discussed at length with The New York Times
The Oklahoma native moved to Nashville and began playing around town in 2022. One milestone in his development as a seasoned touring musician was his 2022 debut performance at The Basement; two of his last gigs in a long run of 2024 dates will be back-to-back headline shows at the Ryman on Dec. 13 and 14. On Oct. 18, Flores will release his first album Welcome to the Plains, a follow-up to April’s acclaimed Half Life EP. Produced by Beau Bedford, Welcome to the Plains is a vivid, emotional portrait of life in flyover country, with musical flourishes that nod to the songsmith’s Mexican American heritage and lyrics that dig into the painful history of the region. It’s hard to imagine an artist who better fits the definition of an Emerging Artist of the Year nominee. Flores stands among a strong slate of nominees for that award at this year’s Americana Music Association Honors & Awards, whose Sept. 18 ceremony at the Ryman is the keystone event of AmericanaFest. Ahead of the festival, the Scene caught up with Flores about his new LP, Americana in general and more.
The past few months alone have surely been a whirlwind for you. You released Half Life, were profiled by The New York Times and found out you were nominated for an Americana award. Have you been able to take a moment to process any of it? It’s been hard to keep track of everything. It definitely gets overwhelming, because I want to be present for everything that I possibly can be. And honestly, there’s so much happening that it’s hard for me to keep my head screwed on straight — and it’s all a great feeling. Could you feel things building as you prepared to release Half Life? How did the experience square with your expectations for the project? Honestly, for a little while I thought that it was going to be a really big struggle to get back up and moving, especially
since I took a break. And then, about the time that the EP was coming out, we were having a hard time with Universal, not being able to really promote our stuff on TikTok. I don’t like to claim myself as a TikTok artist, but at the same time, I’ll use any tool, and that was one of our big ones. So it was definitely a weird feeling — not having that as a tool, and also trying to come back into music while also recording an album, while the EP is also dropping. It probably isn’t how most people would do it, but I enjoyed it. I learned more than I ever have, putting out the Half Life project and then going into this album. I never really understood what it took to make an entire album, and finally getting to do so, I’ve learned more than I ever possibly thought I could.
The EP seemed to connect with fans really deeply. What do you think resonated with so many listeners?
A lot of people, when they sit down and try and write music — especially here in this town — they’re like, “What can I sit down and write that’s sellable?” That’s just the hard, cold truth. A lot of it is melodies, or earworms. But a lot of the messages that I got — and just from people that I’ve talked to, as far as fans go — [Half Life] has just helped them. Because the one thing that’s always happening in this world is someone is being born and someone is dying. And I’m glad that resonated with people, whenever they lost someone, and that it was helpful for them to be able to listen to that music and not be alone while they go through their grieving. I just hope that people see me as their friend, even though we’re not friends. I hope that my music is able to talk to them like I am a friend.
You’re up for Emerging Act of the Year at this year’s Americana Honors and Awards. What does being recognized within the Americana community mean to you? It’s hard for me to stop and take a look around — like what we first talked about, just with how fast everything’s going on. And it’s weird, because I still feel like I’m fighting every step of the way to just try and keep this thing moving. To see people actually give us recognition and say that we’re doing a good job is kind of a tough one for me, because I hardly ever give myself a pat on the back or let myself be proud of my work and the things that we’ve accomplished. It’s a huge deal to be a part of it too, because I’ve always been an outcast wherever I went. So to be accepted in this scene means the absolute world. There’s not a whole lot of times
“Because the one thing that’s always happening in this world is someone is being born and someone is dying. And I’m glad that resonated with people, whenever they lost someone, and that it was helpful for them to be able to listen to that music and not be alone while they go through their grieving.”
—Wyatt Flores
where I’ve been told I’m allowed to sit at the same table.
Every year the festival works toward representing a greater diversity of artists, and you’re one of a handful of Mexican American artists to be part of the awards over the years. How does your identity factor into your music? It’s a weird feeling, because my mother is embracing the paste — she is white. I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish, just because all my Mexican family lived in South Texas, for the most part, so I didn’t grow up around them a whole bunch.
But what I loved was the stories. I’d ask anyone in my family on that side [about] all the stories. So I carry the heritage and where we come from, all the struggling that went on generation after generation. And I’m proud of my last name, more than anything. But I won’t ever try and tell people, like, “Oh yeah, I speak Spanish.” My music, on the other hand — I really don’t know where that comes from. I don’t know why, when I take a lead solo on acoustic, I play a Spanish lick. When I go to California or Texas and I do meet Hispanic fans, they’re like, “You’re the one.” They’re rooting for me on a different level. And that’s a weird feeling for me, because I never put that pressure on myself. I don’t think about race too much. But I’m proud of where I come from, and if I’m one of the first to do it, hopefully that’ll give the next kid the opportunity.
The record opens with “Welcome to the Plains,” which feels like a great snapshot of your backstory. You manage to fit so many details into just one track, and it really sets up the listener to have a better understanding of the rest of the record. How did that particular track fit into the making of the album? I’d been heavily influenced by Killers of the Flower Moon, after reading the book and then watching the movie. … You always hear “cowboys and Indians” tales and stuff like that. But for me, I’ve always wanted to talk about things like that. I’ve been saying it ever since I got here to Nashville, and this is my first step in talking about it. I want to do more talking about it, but I feel like I’m not educated enough. So I’m doing the best that I can, just trying to learn as much as I possibly can.
But that song — you don’t have to scratch the surface of Oklahoma to know that the history is just downright awful. And that state and the character of people that come from it, you would think that we’d be some harsh people, but we’re some of the nicest people. We’re all in a
struggle, for the most part, and it’s hard to make it out, so everyone is hardworking as all get out. With “Welcome to the Plains,” it’s trying to find the beauty in a place that seems to have none.
Earlier you mentioned that recording this album was a major learning experience for you. What was your time in the studio like? I was just sitting there scared because I’d never done an album. And I felt the pressures of the EP already coming up, and then being like: “Oh, now we’re recording an album. That’s a lot. Oh my gosh.” And so that time period was really hard for me, because while we were recording, I was mostly just going through all these lyrics of old songs and trying to make them better, and I just kept on beating myself to shit.
I was happy with the things that we made there. But what really turned the page on this album was going to L.A. for two weeks at EastWest Studios. Before we recorded Half Life, I’d never really been inside a real studio with real producers. And I’m like, “Oh, this is the big leagues.” When we went out there, I had three extra songs. And then I had one with Aaron Raitiere, a damn good friend, and we wrote it there in the studio. At that point, that was when I started to ease off on stressing over the lyrics and to just be like, “Whatever I said then, I must have been feeling it.” So I’d keep it the way that it is, instead of just trying to rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I’m a perfectionist, at the end of the day, is what I found out.
Has your overall songwriting process changed since that experience? I don’t know if it’s changed. It’s just helped me stay out of my way. One of the things is something that I learned from Aaron Raitiere. He’s writing a book and it’s called How to Write a Song in 30 Minutes — and then it says, “Disclaimer: This book will not teach you how to write a song.” He really changed my way of thinking about writing. And it’s not that you want to write as many songs as you can in 30 minutes, but more so of just finding a different practice. You know, everyone says that you just keep writing and keep writing, just to keep your head in the game. But with that, it’s like, “Say what needs to be said.” That taught me how to be simple. Stay out of your way because you set up a timer, and you make sure that that clock is right in your face. It allows you not to get in your editor’s mindset.▼
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up with Hurray
BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT
SONGWRITER AND FOLK-ROCK artist Alynda Segarra does the brave work of looking back in time on The Past Is Still Alive, their sixth LP as Hurray for the Riff Raff and an Album of the Year nominee at the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards on Sept. 18. They’ll perform during the awards ceremony at the Ryman and appear on a panel to discuss the album earlier that day. Ahead of the show, Segarra spoke with the Scene about how memory and grief shaped the creation of their tremendous contribution to the Americana canon. They made The Past Is Still Alive at a juncture in their prolific 17-year career when they felt “depleted and very unsure” about their future.
“[I was] feeling very much like I don’t know how to navigate the business side of this anymore, or the extroverted side,” says Segarra. “Just feeling like I was too sensitive for it.”
Born in the Bronx to a working-class Puerto Rican family, they came up in the mid-2000s folk revival and punk scenes of the East Village before moving to New Orleans, where they’ve been based since. After a slew of independent
releases, Segarra found acclaim in 2014 with their label debut Small Town Heroes
Segarra, who is nonbinary, became increasingly aware of painful instances in those early years when they dissociated from the pressures of performing palatable industry tropes and girlhood. “The aspect of presenting myself felt very confusing and anxiety-ridden,” they say. Years of mental gymnastics and looking for affirmation left them exhausted and questioning their place in music. Instead of bending to anxiety, they rooted deeper into their vision for the next record.
“I was thinking a lot about memory and how I felt like different memories or different times of my life were still living in parts of my body,” they say. Segarra was searching for a “clean vessel” for stories from previous eras of their life — like the period of their teens they spent crossing the U.S. by hitchhiking and hopping trains — that they once felt too protective over to share. Ultimately, they were ready to release them from “the memory box” of their body and put them into songs on The Past Is Still Alive
The record is a feat of lyrical genius, characterized by quick wit, specificity and vulnerability. Verses recount sparkling images of old friends and wide-open landscapes as Segarra and the listener zig and zag across the country, riding from the East Side of Manhattan to San
Francisco’s Castro district with unforgettable stops in between. Every middle-of-nowhere town and new lover is transformative. There are no detours. Or maybe it’s all a detour. The songs of the journey flow together like Midwestern cornfields as you cross state lines.
The album’s centerpiece is the epic “Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive).” Segarra revels in the guts and glory of the scrappy lifestyle their revolving cohort of misfits willfully embraces — shoplifting dinner, peeing in bushes, fucking in the moonlight. In spite of general aimlessness and immediate dangers, young Segarra finds freedom and invincibility like nothing they’ve ever known. They sing, “Nothing can stop me now,” over and over until the track ends, like a train that zips by but still rattles in your ear long after it’s gone.
Traveling back to those moments inspires gratitude and serves as a tribute to the people who touched Segarra’s life, regardless of how quickly or for how long. The idea of “queer time” deeply resonates with them. “Changing my concept of what is valuable — like, ‘If a relationship is longer, it’s more valuable,’” they say. “Thinking about people I knew for a month and how potent that was, how life-changing that was.”
In early 2023, right before Segarra headed into the studio to record The Past Is Still Alive, their father died of a heart attack. He was a huge
inspiration musically and artistically, and the out-of-body sensation of grief flooded Segarra. It also helped crystallize what was important.
“When I was recording this record and my dad had just passed, the scariest thing already happened, the worst thing happened — now it’s just a trust fall into making this record,” Segarra says. A nomination for Album of the Year feels special to them for that reason. “The record came at a time in my life when I was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m just going to make the truest, rawest thing I can.’ So for that to get love or critical acclaim at first is disorienting, and then it’s like, ‘Wow.’”
They are excited to see how the genre has changed since their first go-round at the Americana awards as an Emerging Artist of the Year nominee in 2014. “There are so many artists that are really brilliant and really outspoken,” they say, “and I just feel like it’s such a more welcoming place for someone like me.”
Segarra describes the genre of Americana as “a place where storytellers can go.” The Past Is Still Alive sets them apart as an exceptional songwriter and memoirist.
“Let’s say my idea of success is going to be different than what an industry is telling me. Then I want to remember these moments, and I want to remember these people, because that is success to me — to have lived a beautiful life.” ▼
ANOHNI and the Johnsons • Anoushka Shankar • Arooj Aftab
Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda, Antonio Sánchez Trio • Bill Frisell • DakhaBrakha
Esperanza Spalding • Explosions In The Sky • Jessica Pratt • Joe Lovano Paramount Quartet
King Britt • Lankum • Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz • Meshell Ndegeocello • múm
Nels Cline • Rufus Wainwright • Steve Roach • Sun Ra Arkestra & Yo La Tengo • Taj Mahal
Tessa Lark, Joshua Roman & Edgar Meyer • Tindersticks • Tortoise • Tyshawn Sorey
Wadada Leo Smith: CREATE
RedKoral Quartet • Orange Wave Electric Revolutionary Love & More
Tyshawn Sorey
Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)
Philip Glass: Music in 12 Parts (50th Anniversary )
Performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble
Michael Rother
The Music of NEU! & Harmonia
Jonny Greenwood’s 133 Years of Reverb (N. American Premiere)
Vijay Iyer • Waxahatchee • Zakir Hussain & Masters of Percussion
Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit
Performed by Wet Ink Ensemble
• Antipop Consortium
Performed by James McVinnie & Eliza McCarthy
Across the Horizon Ambient Americana Soundscapes
Curated by Bob Holmes and SUSS
• Asha Puthli • Astrid Sonne
Brìghde Chaimbeul • Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
Clarice Jensen • clipping. • Cowboy Sadness
• Eucademix (Yuka Honda)
Blacktronika
Afrofuturism in Electronic Music
Curated by King Britt
Adam Rudolph • [Ahmed] • Alabaster DePlume • Alan Sparhawk • Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves • Amaro Freitas Trio Ambrose Akinmusire
• Carlos Niño & Friends
• Dan Weiss Even Odds Trio
• Fay Victor • Flore Laurentienne
• Jeff Parker ETA IVtet
• Axiom 5 • Barry Altschul’s 3 Dom Factor • Beak>
• Cassandra Jenkins
• Chanel Beads
• David Grubbs
• Free Form Funky Freqs
• Bia Ferreira
• Chuck Johnson
• Claire Chase
• Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn • Dedicated Men of Zion EMEL
• Helado Negro • Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly Immanuel Wilkins
• Jenny Scheinman
• Joan as Police Woman
• Joel Harrison
• Joseph Keckler
• Josh Johnson Joy Guidry
• Jules Reidy
• Julia Holter
• June McDoom
Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir
• Kokayi
• Kris Davis Trio
Maria Chàvez / Victoria Shen / Mariam Rezaei
Mike Reed’s Separatist Party
• ML Buch
• Lara Somogyi
• Marisa Anderson
• Modney
• Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
• Luke Stewart Silt Trio
• Mabe Fratti
• Marissa Nadler
• Mark Guiliana
• Nanocluster (Immersion | SUSS)
• Kalia Vandever
• Kelly Moran
• Macie Stewart
• Maruja
• Magic Tuber Stringband
• Mary Lattimore
• Michael Hurley
• Peni Candra Rini • Phantom Orchard • Phil Cook
Rachika Nayar • R.B. Morris & William Wright • Rich Ruth • Sam Bush Band • Shelley Hirsch • SML • Squanderers • Steve Coleman and Five Elements
Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner • Steven Schick • Still House Plants • Sunny War • Susan Alcorn • Sylvie Courvoisier
With more to come!
Tara Clerkin Trio • Tarta Relena • Tigran Hamasyan • Tilt • Water Damage • William Basinski • Yaya Bey • Zeena Parkins
Nearly 200 performances, 12+ venues PLUS films, conversations, & more Passes and more info at
Talking with Cindy Emch and Julie Nolen about their OUTlaw Queer Country event and support for LGBTQ Americana artists
BY RACHEL CHOLST
LGBTQ ARTISTS HAVE long fought for recognition, both inside and outside the mainstream country world, and AmericanaFest prides itself on highlighting left-of-center artists in the roots music scene. Following in a lengthy tradition of spotlighting queer musicians, Cindy Emch and Julie Nolen present some of the best queer country in the hemisphere with their OUTlaw Queer Country event, happening Sept. 19 at Lipstick Lounge. The show will feature Nashville queer country veterans Mercy Bell, Jaimee Harris and Melody Walker, as well as out-of-towners like Paisley Fields (New York), Joy Clark (New Orleans) and Shawna Virago (San Francisco). Manitoba’s Bobby Dove and Nashville’s own Madeline Finn, two talented up-and-comers, will join in too. There will also be a screening of Damon Beirne’s short documentary “Lavender Outlaws.” Filmed at 2022’s Queer Roots Party at The Groove, the doc offers a look at queer country community and solidarity in the run-up to
Get in the swing of AmericanaFest with a celebration of Mary Gauthier, the keystone Honors & Awards ceremony and much more BY
STEPHEN TRAGESER
WHEN AmericanaFest (styled AMERICANAFEST) rolls back into Music City Sept. 17-21, you’ll have a chance to see performances from more than 200 artists with your Festival Pass, and we’ve got a stack of recommendations to help you plot your course. It’s worth noting that a few events are separately ticketed or exclusive for holders of a Silver Pass (formerly “a conference registration”); a Silver Pass also grants access to a slew of insightful panel discussions. Check out the AmericanaFest website or app for the full schedule, additional details and updates, and watch social media for an array of pop-up events around the fest.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 17
Before you dive into the happenings, you’ll need to pick up your credential. Passes will be available at City Winery beginning at noon on Tuesday. Pickup moves to Embassy Suites Wednesday through Friday (hours vary) and back to City Winery on Saturday.
the Tennessee state legislature’s 2023 slate of anti-LGBTQ legislation (a trend that didn’t diminish in 2024).
Emch, who lives in the Bay Area, describes her work as a “combination of rowdy outlaw and tender-hearted Leonard Cohen.” Nolen, who’s in Austin, Texas, calls her music a cross section of “bar ballads.” The Scene talked with Emch and Nolen about their work, why it’s still important to showcase queer country artists, and how they have felt supported by AmericanaFest in the wake of transphobic incidents during the festival in 2023. They curated this year’s event as a nod to the work done across the country, and a continuation of the work launched by Karen Pittelman’s Queer Country Monthly series in Brooklyn.
How did you pull this lineup together?
Cindy Emch: I’ve been keeping a list since [Queer Cowpoke Roundup] last year — and have already started the list for 2025! I based it on podcast research, Americana charts, names I’ve
seen opening for other artists, artists who have reached out to me, self-identified folks in the online queer country community, and names passed to me by other musicians. I also wanted to make sure that we included local talent as well — Nashville is such an amazing musical community. I wanted to make sure that our show reflects not just the North American queer country community, but Nashville as well. Why is it important to feature queer artists at AmericanaFest?
Julie Nolen: I started OUTlaw Pride in Austin in 2021. I and some of my other queer musician friends were kept out of the sandbox, so I wanted to build our own. I’m tired of these bearded dudes with cowboy hats singing about whiskey and women. Why don’t we have somebody who is a nonbinary pansexual person of color talking about that kind of stuff? OUTlaw Pride was also a way for me to bring this music to ears that wouldn’t normally seek it out. I want to create empathy. I believe that homophobia and transphobia is all based on fear — fearing
You won’t have to go far to kick off the fest in style: Change the Conversation — an organization that fights gender inequality in the music business — presents this year’s Stella Prince and Friends event at 5 p.m. in the City Winery Lounge. Rising folkster Prince will be joined by Gina Venier, Bonner Black and others. At 7 p.m., the main room at City Winery will host a tribute to songwriter’s songwriter Mary Gauthier, studded with such stars as Emmylou Harris, Odessa Settles and Aaron Lee Tasjan; at 8, Gauthier and Jaimee Harris will take the stage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Gauthier’s landmark album Drag Queens and Limousines by playing it in full.
At New Heights Brewing Company, check out a special AmericanaFest edition of Shoes Off Writer’s Night, a weekly event supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander songwriters. Starting at 6 p.m., see
what you don’t know. Maybe our songs can help bridge the gap.
CE: I feel like I exist on this earth to help people find art that matters to them, as well as making my own art. Creating a community just strengthens all of our ability to create a safe space for musicians and fans to find music that is going to make their lives better.
Have you received any assurances that this year’s festival will be a safer space?
JN: It’s important for AmericanaFest to wake up and realize, “Oh, maybe we need to be a little bit more careful [with LGBTQ artists]. Maybe we need to include these people. Maybe we need to respect these people and show them the respect they deserve.” Artists like Orville Peck and Brandi Carlile are hugely successful. “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” right? It’s important to highlight queer country artists at AmericanaFest specifically to show the legitimacy of queer country itself.
CE: This is our second year in a row as an official event, listed in the app. … They’ve given us a lot of resources and a lot of support to make this year even bigger than last year. There are also more artists featured in official showcases: Paisley [Fields] has one, and there will be a tribute to Mary Gauthier’s album Drag Queens and Limousines. Their support gives the event legitimacy. It matters for people’s professional reputations. ▼
PLAYING THURSDAY, SEPT. 19, NOON-5 P.M. AT LIPSTICK LOUNGE
Wednesday, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Ryman. But there’s much more to sink your teeth into throughout the day.
talents the likes of Ariel Bui, Old Town Troubadours and more. A jam-packed gathering starts at 7 p.m. at 3rd and Lindsley, opened up by string-band aces Hawktail. Then the group will be joined by songsmith Aoife O’Donovan for tunes from her recent 19th Amendment-inspired LP All My Friends Someone’s got to follow that, so it’s a good thing Oliver Wood + Band Shemekia Copeland and Paul Thorn are on deck.
Among other great choices, you can also catch Iron & Wine topping a bill at Mainstage at Cannery Hall at 8 p.m. Also, The Lone Bellow is performing a special separately ticketed set with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn, kicking off at 7:30.
As ever, the festival’s keystone Honors & Awards show (a separately ticketed event) is the highlight of
From noon to 5 p.m., Secretly Distribution and Oh Boy Records celebrate Independents’ Day at Vinyl Tap, with a must-see lineup including Swamp Dogg, Dan Reeder, Styrofoam Winos, Loose Cattle and lots more. The Peach Jam sets up shop at The Basement from 2 to 6 p.m. with country- and folk-leaning folks like Chris Canterbury, Emily Nenni and Kristina Murray Come back to The Basement at 8 p.m. for aforementioned country champion Gina Venier, blues-schooled singer-songwriter Kashus Culpepper at 11 and more.
If you’re not headed to the awards ceremony but are still down for a big event, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats will be at Ascend Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. for the first of their two-night doubleheader with My Morning Jacket. (That one is separately ticketed.) Prefer cozier environs? The 5 Spot hosts recently arrived Nashvillian Lizzie No at 8 p.m., with fiddle wizard Bronwyn Keith-Hynes closing it down at 11 and much more in between. ▼
Waxahatchee tops a massive ANTIRecords anniversary party, T Bone Burnett steps out and much more
BY HANNAH CRON
You might describe Thursday at AmericanaFest as “party up front and party in the back” this year. While there are heaps of panels during the day, there are also events like the New West Day Party (featuring Lilly Hiatt, Emily Nenni and others) starting at noon at The 5 Spot, the OUTlaw Queer Country show at Lipstick Lounge, also kicking off at noon (read more in our interview with organizers and performers Cindy Emch and Julie Nolen) and A Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, beginning at 4 p.m. in the City Winery Lounge and featuring Rachel Rodriguez Rico Del Oro and Veronique Medrano. As evening comes on, The Bluebird Cafe’s 6 p.m. show (which requires a separate reservation via the venue’s website) will feature Matt Joe Gow, Robert Vincent and Sydney Quiseng, whom fans will recognize as singer-keyboardist of all-sibling indie-rock outfit Echosmith. (Sydney, in case you were wondering, this gig does make you one of the — ahem — “Cool Kids.”)
One of the hottest tickets all week is the ANTI- Re-
From Swamp Dogg’s rocking soul to Theo Lawrence’s FrenchTexan croon and beyond, the Americana party doesn’t stop
BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM
FRIDAY, SEPT. 20
On its penultimate day, AmericanaFest offers gems and jewels you can enjoy without getting caught in the neon bustle of Broadway. Get a start on your treasure hunt at noon with the No Depression Sessions at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge Ruthie Foster, Gaby Moreno, Christian Lee Hutson and “beer for errbody” are on the bill, and the event will be filmed and released in series format; hooting and hollering are encouraged for atmospheric purposes. Stop by Drifters at 4 p.m. for It’s All Gravy and catch Cajun and Americana acts like Runner of the Woods, Yarn and The Farmer & Adele If you’re anything like me, it might help to mention that free poutine will be provided.
Bordeaux, France-raised and Austin, Texas-based Theo Lawrence is much more of a pearl-snaps-andboots guy than a beret-and-shades type. The self-styled “countré crooner” brings his old-school twang to kick off a special AmericanaFest edition of Musicians Corner in Centennial Park with his 5 p.m. set. Malena Cadiz, Tommy Prine, The Dead Tongues and country champ Kaitlin Butts — stopping in amid a whirlwind of dates around her Oklahoma!-inspired album Roadrunner! — will also play before the family-friendly, no-passes-re-
cords 25th Anniversary show, starting 7 p.m. at The Basement East and featuring the knockout lineup of Waxahatchee, Neko Case, Madi Diaz, MJ Lenderman, Christian Lee Hutson and Leyla McCalla. Important note: Priority for entry goes to those with Gold and Silver Passes and anyone who picks up a physical ticket from the handful that will be made available on the morning of Sept. 19 at Grimey’s (two-ticket limit, $40 each).
Don’t fret if you can’t squeeze in. At the same time but across the Cumberland at Brooklyn Bowl, Relix hosts Hiss Golden Messenger, Donavon Frankenreiter and Greensky Bluegrass, and country up-and-comer Kiely Connell warms up the crowd for Highwoman Natalie Hemby at Chief’s on Broadway Meanwhile, famed producer and songsmith T Bone Burnett — who recently released The
Other Side, his first solo LP since 2008, and returned to live performance after a nearly 20-year absence — hits the stage at 7 p.m. at Analog at Hutton Hotel, followed at 8 by rising Nashville singer-songwriter Jobi Riccio. When 9 p.m. rolls around, it’s time to choose your own adventure for the rest of the night. Lydia Loveless caps off a bill at the appropriately named and intimate The Purple Building while She Returns From War shares her talents amid a lineup at The Basement that also includes Mary Bragg and Humbird Back at The 5 Spot, folk-inspired Dutch songwriter Judy Blank shares tunes from her Nashville-recorded LP Morning Sun, followed by Music City’s own India Ramey (fresh off the release of Baptized by the Blaze) and indie-rock-mericana favorites The Wild Feathers
quired event wraps at 9.
The Bluebird Cafe’s writer’s round, starting at 6 p.m. (and requiring a separate reservation via the venue’s website), boasts a triple threat of seasoned tunesmiths Adam Wright, Robert Earl Keen and Suzy Bogguss
Over at The Basement, find tons of rising talent you’ll want to know, from ethereal “bootgaze” up-and-comer
Clover County at 7 p.m. to Fancy Hagood — who you’ve likely heard lots of places but almost certainly on Orville Peck’s Stampede — at 11.
Longtime East Side favorite The 5 Spot hosts longtime favorite Nashville players like Teddy and the Rough Riders at 7 p.m. and Jess Nolan at 11, plus Pacific Northwestern great Margo Cilker at 9 and recently
Elsewhere, AB Hillsboro Village hosts standout pickers and singer-songwriters like Lindi Ortega (8 p.m.) and Kaia Kater (9 p.m). Shows are spread all across the Cannery Hall complex, including groove-centric Texans Uncle Lucius (9:30 p.m. at Mainstage), high-octane Colorado string-band ensemble Big Richard (8 p.m. at The Mil) and Guatemala-born Grammy-winning songsmith (and Parks and Rec theme co-writer) Gaby Moreno (9 p.m. at Row One Stage). And you’ll find heavy hitters all night at 3rd and Lindsley, starting with New Zealand great Tami Neilson at 7 p.m. and going all the way through the 11 p.m. set with Americana Lifetime Achievement honoree and cowpunk champion Dave Alvin, his running partner Jimmie Dale Gilmore and their band The Guilty Ones ▼
arrived Nashvillian Max McNown at 10. (Emily Nenni, just back from a U.K. tour with the aforementioned Teddy backing her, plays Exit/In at 11 p.m.) Just steps away from The 5 Spot, Aaron Lee Tasjan’s 10 p.m. set tops a lineup at The Purple Building that also includes Drivin N Cryin’s Kevn Kinney at 8.
Nashville gospel heroines The McCrary Sisters will take Mainstage at Cannery Hall to Friday evening church at 7:30 p.m. Easy-rolling Uganda-born and Texas-residing singer Jon Muq follows at 8:30, and banjo-picking powerhouse songsmith Amythyst Kiah takes over at 9:30.
Local fans of “the original D-O-double-G” — aka funk-rock-soul hero Swamp Dogg, aka Jerry Williams
Jr. — got to witness his showmanship at Grimey’s and on the Grand Ole Opry in July on the tour for Blackgrass. He returns with a stop at Station Inn at 8 p.m. Friday, with fringe-jacket-wearin’ country-Western quartet Jenny Don’t and the Spurs hot on his heels at 9.
Mexican folk songsmith Silvana Estrada and Nashville folky alt-rockers Sixpence None the Richer bookend Friday’s lineup at City Winery with sets at 7 and 10 p.m. respectively. You know the long-dormant Sixpence for their wispy, wistful late-’90s megahit “Kiss Me,” aka “that one song in every rom-com.” But they’ve recently reunited and are making new music for a new decade; it’s hard to beat a mix of new discovery and nostalgia for ending your night. ▼
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From day parties to nighttime jams with The Kentucky Gentlemen, Rissi Palmer and more, this year’s fest is primed to end on a high note BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
SATURDAY, SEPT. 21
The homestretch of this year’s AmericanaFest has just as much to offer as the previous four days. If you can make it to a show by noon, you’re already spoiled for choice. Acme’s Fam Jam at Acme Feed & Seed features sterling country talent including Crystal Rose and Melissa Carper; Kelsey Waldon, Nat Myers and others stop in at The Basement for the Commonwealth of Kentucky Party; and Jordie Lane, The Pleasures and many more grace The 5 Spot for the annual Aussie BBQ At 2 p.m., the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hosts the local premiere of Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story a new documentary film about the late, great soul singer and pioneering out transgender artist who grew
up in Nashville. (You must have at least a Silver Pass to attend; special instructions should already have come via email about how to reserve a seat.)
There’s no wrong reason to go to Brown’s Diner but the Fluff & Gravy Records Party from 4 to 7 p.m. is a very good one, with performances lined up from storytelling luminaries like Anna Tivel and Kassi Valazza. Fuel up with burgers and beer while you’re there, and plan your next move.
Country pro Ashley Monroe, who’s been trickling out cool singles all year, warms up the stage at Analog at Hutton Hotel at 7 p.m., followed at 8 by bluegrass power couple Darin and Brooke Aldridge. Veteran country great Rissi Palmer plays The Mil at Cannery Hall at 9 p.m., while rising country ace Hannah Juanita and her band The Hardliners play the venue complex’s Row One Stage at 10.
Back on the East Side, The 5 Spot has you covered with one of the most enticing bills of the whole festival. It’s packed with stellar artists whose work you’ll want to know if you don’t already, and who happen to be queer and/or BIPOC. Settle in at 7 p.m. with Nashville fraternal duo The Kentucky Gentlemen, and make yourself at home all evening for Lawrence Rothman, Paisley Fields Crys Matthews and Secret Emchy Society. Ending your festival here is very likely to leave you excited for next year’s — there’s little that could be better. ▼
Test your knowledge of Americana and pro baseball with our quiz COMPILED BY STEPHEN TRAGESER
AS AMERICANAFEST spreads out across Nashville next week, you’ll see lineups all over town featuring artists whose names or monikers bear striking similarities to the folksy nomenclature prevalent in pro baseball. Among our list of 30 names, 15 belong to artists performing at this year’s AmericanaFest, and the other 15 belong to ball players (some living, some not). Can you separate the sluggers from the songsmiths without searching? Good luck!
Special thanks, as ever, to Nashville record store staffer Tyler Glaser — a lifelong baseball fan who also runs the appropriately named Instagram account @baseballplayerswithgreatnames — for his help rounding up the primo player handles.
1. Creekbed Carter Hogan
2. Pi Jacobs
3. Floyd Youmans
4. Coco Montes
5. Kimmi Bitter
6. Boob Fowler
7. Kashus Culpepper
8. Coleman Jennings
9. MJ Lenderman
10. Slippery Ellam
11. Malin Petterson
12. Topsy Hartsel
13. Peter Crow-Armstrong
14. Bendigo Fletcher
15. Piano Legs Hickman
16. Tray Wellington
17. Ivy Olsen
18. Bubba Chandler
19. Holby Milner
20. Big Richard
21. Dell Darling
22. Soup Campbell
23. Uncle Lucius
24. Kade Hoffman
25. Mackey Sasser
26. Grayson Jenkins
27. Paisley Fields
28. Jewel Ens
29. Kiely Connell
30. Steele Walker
Jules! As seen on Ms Rachel (12pm) sarah kinsley w/ alix
WENDY MOTEN Celebrate STEVIE WONDERS “SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE” with Special Guest Saxophonist ROSLYN (ROZ) MALONE 8:00
DON SAMPSON, JILL COLUCCI & ALYSSA FLAHERTY
americanafest: A tribute to the songs of 1974 americanafest: Jonah kagen, jade jackson, the bones of j.r. jones, & daniel nunnelee jp cooper w/ sam fischer nÜmb - nu metal night
mason ramsey w/ halle kearns
dorian electra w/ vanilla sugar & manrelic jordy searcy w/ theo kandel danielle bradbery the warning w/ holy wars
MATTHEW CAWS (OF NADA SURF) with JANA
Bluebird on 3rd featuring LESLIE SATCHER, TONY ARATA & PHIL BARTON with MADELEINE KELSON & JESSE FELDER
AMERICANAFEST 2024 featuring PAUL THORN, SHEMEKIA COPELAND, OLIVER WOOD + BAND, AOFIE O’DONOVAN & HAWKTAIL
AMERICANAFEST 2024 featuring GREENWOOD RYE, THE KODY NORRIS SHOW, THE PO’RAMBLIN BOYS and RHONDA VINCENT and THE RAGE
dogpark w/ Winyah (7pm) flagman w/ debra (9pm)
colton sturtz (7pm)
taylor mccall (9pm)
jordan smart (7pm)
Timothy Myles, Gracie Carol and VINJE (9pm)
eley w/ grey zeigler & sierra annie
Jane & The Killer Queens, abby k, jillian eliza, lauren freebird, & shawn mayer
peyton aldridge
Ben chapman's peach jam ft. emily Nenni, Chris Canterbury, Thomas Csorba, Kristina Murray, Sam Morrow,
americanafest: kashus culpepper, mae estes, everette, & gina venier
Americanafest: sugadaisy, humbird, she returns from war, mary bragg, & chloe kimes
americanafest: fancyhagood, mckinley james, caleb lee hutchinson, the woods, & clover county
americanafest: kelsey waldon, ben sollee, wayne graham, nat myers, hunter flynn, scott t. smith, & the creekers (12pm)
americanafest: john hollier, dale hollow, rett madison, tba, & julie williams (7pm) the way home w/ juniper (7pm)
SEPT. 13-22
THEATER [A SWEET TREAT] WAITRESS
Nashville Repertory Theatre has cooked up a particularly sweet treat this weekend, as the company opens its 40th anniversary season with Waitress. Based on the 2007 hit film by the late Adrienne Shelly, the story follows Jenna, a small-town waitress who dreams of escaping her abusive husband and opening her own pie shop, even as she faces an unexpected pregnancy. It’s an offbeat story of friendship, empowerment and motherhood. But what really sets this show apart is Sara Bareilles’ tender music and lyrics, including songs like “You Matter to Me,” “What Baking Can Do” and “She Used to Be Mine.” Waitress first premiered on Broadway in 2016 with Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller taking on the coveted role of Jenna. Nashville Rep favorite Lauren Shouse (POTUS, The Cake) directs an excellent cast here, including Sarah Aili as Jenna, along with Annabelle Fox, Piper Jones, Christopher Bailey, Dustin Davis, Douglas Waterbury-Tieman and more. Audiences can also look forward to music direction by Sarah Michele Bailey and choreography by Joi Ware. Sweet, sometimes silly and full of heart, Waitress offers a hefty slice of entertainment — and a perfect start to the Rep’s new season. AMY STUMPFL
SEPT. 13-22 AT TPAC’S POLK THEATER
505 DEADERICK ST.
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
Drunk History episode, an episode about August Spies and The Haymarket Riot, is one of the smartest in the series. But his stage act is the true gold that makes him a comic you shouldn’t miss. P.J. KINZER
SEPT. 12-14 AT ZANIES
2025 EIGHTH AVE. S.
CONVENTION
[BOLDLY GO]
COMEDY
[KINANE IN THE MEMBRANE] KYLE KINANE
The thing about a lot of us born in the late ’70s is that we never expected to be middleaged. It wasn’t that we romanticized dying young, but it seemed like our 40s were a lifetime away, until they snuck up in the shadows like a ninja assassin. Living through Reaganomics, melting ice caps, 9/11, two economic crashes and COVID-19, a lot of us feel a little cheated out of the adulthood promised to us in the suburban ’80s. If you’re still confused — like me — look to comedian Kyle Kinane. The 47-year-old comic’s sardonic wit lets us laugh at the crumbling, confusing world around us. Never dogmatic and refusing to punch down, his comedy shows that you can be funny, edgy and critical from an egalitarian approach. Even with his roaddog tour schedule, Kinane still squeezes in TV specials and acting work, even voicing drug dog Bullet on Netflix series Paradise PD. Kinane’s
More than 50 years ago, two teenage trekkies got Gene Roddenberry to do an interview for their fan zine. At 15, these same kids ran their first convention. What began, in the ’70s, as localized comic-book gatherings became a string of traveling, star-studded conventions. I am so incredibly excited for Trek to Nashville, a convention focused on honoring the philosophies of Roddenberry and Star Trek — a safe, diverse environment where adventure, discovery and inclusion are celebrated. The weekend in Murfreesboro will feature vendors, cosplay contests, karaoke, jazz performances, live D&D, panels on astrophysics, trivia games and photo ops with an incredible list of actors, including Gates McFadden, Ethan Peck, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Celia Rose Gooding and Tawny Newsome. But as I’ve written about before, the best part about going to a convention is the good-natured camaraderie of it. It’s being in a hotel packed with other Trekkies and having an entire weekend devoted to celebrating the incredible legacy of Star Trek, looking to the future of it … and maybe getting a little drunk on Klingon bloodwine with a stranger dressed as an Andorian. RYNE WALKER
SEPT. 13-15 AT EMBASSY SUITES
1200 CONFERENCE CENTER BLVD., MURFREESBORO
MUSIC
[SEASONAL JAMS]
MUSICIANS CORNER FEAT. SOCCER MOMMY, ZG SMITH, ABIGAIL ROSE, TAYLOR NOELLE, LOVE MONTAGE
Soccer Mommy has a knack for writing indie-rock songs that sound like the hottest parts of summer melting into a cooler autumn. The
A CELEBRATION OF JACKIE SHANE PAGE 24
WOOFSTOCK W/EMMYLOU HARRIS PAGE 26
MISS LONELY W/TAXIWAY & DYLAN TAYLOR PAGE 30
latest examples are “Lost” and “M,” the two already-released tracks from forthcoming LP Evergreen. Soccer Mommy, aka Nashville’s Sophia Allison, says the album embraces “organic textures,” which means its songs should play quite nicely in the Centennial Park air this September weekend. She’ll be joined by a rock-solid lineup of other Music City talent with songs that can keep the vibe going. Really, you could make a great beginning-of-autumn playlist with songs like ZG Smith’s “Nighttime Animal,” Abigail Rose’s “Edges,” Taylor Noelle’s “Be Around” and Love Montage’s “Inglewood Shandy.” That last track admittedly skews more “late summer” than “early fall,” but how can you resist a song that uses the puzzlingly retro Inglewood Motel sign on Gallatin Pike as cover art? As always, Musicians Corner is free. Bring a blanket and enjoy the changing sounds of the season. COLE VILLENA
5 P.M. AT CENTENNIAL PARK
2500 WEST END AVE.
BOOKS [END OF THE ROAD]
ATTICA LOCKE: GUIDE ME HOME
As someone who reads news stories all day for work, I usually don’t like delving into a nonfiction book when I read for pleasure. When I’m at home, I like to disappear into a novel, specifically dark and atmospheric crime stories. Over the past decade, one of the best new voices to emerge in this field has been Attica Locke. Locke’s Highway 59 series, which began with the Edgar Award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird, is coming to a close with Guide Me Home. The trilogy revolves around Texas Ranger Darren Matthews and the cases he solves along Highway 59 in East Texas. Locke is going to be discussing the final entry in Matthews’ story at Parnassus.
LOGAN BUTTS
6:30 P.M. AT PARNASSUS BOOKS
3900 HILLSBORO PIKE
[SOLID GOLD]
MUSIC
MOLLY TUTTLE & GOLDEN HIGHWAY
Some artists just need to be experienced inside the halls of the Ryman Auditorium. Undoubtedly, Molly Tuttle is one of those artists. A California native who has spent nearly a decade making a name for herself in Nashville, this sought-after singer-songwriter and bluegrass picker headlines the Mother Church this weekend alongside her ace band Golden Highway. Last year, Tuttle released City of Gold, her second album with Golden Highway and follow-up to 2022’s Grammy Award-winning effort Crooked Tree. Co-produced by dobro wizard Jerry Douglas and cut at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, City of Gold features some of Tuttle’s sharpest songs to date — like the cinematic album opener “El Dorado” (cowritten by Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor), the tenderhearted, self-actualizing waltz “The First Time I Fell in Love” and “Yosemite,” a duet with Dave Matthews. Support on the Ryman show comes from folk band Tophouse. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
Jackie Shane was a transgender pioneer in the music world as well as an incredible soul singer with a gift for conveying a complex array of emotions with extraordinary depth and flair. Her catalog is a bittersweet thing: It’s overflowing with gems but quite brief. Shane was born in Nashville in 1940 and established herself playing in bands amid the world-famous R&B scene on Jefferson Street in the 1950s. Her best-known recordings as a singer were made while she lived in Canada in the 1960s. In 1971, she withdrew from public life entirely, and her talent became the stuff of legend among soul aficionados. Shane’s long-distance friendship with Douglas Mcgowan of lauded archival label Numero Group led to her approving Any Other Way, a comprehensive retrospective released in 2017. She gave a select few interviews in its wake — including one with Brittney McKenna for the Scene — that revealed her warm and wise presence and suggested she might return to the stage. Sadly, before that could happen, Shane died in 2019, leaving behind a rich legacy. A new documentary called Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is on the festival circuit — there will be screenings Sept. 21 and 22 during AmericanaFest and the Nashville Film Festival — and a historical marker in Shane’s honor will be unveiled Sept. 20 at 2601 Jefferson St. On Saturday, Jefferson Street Sound Museum — the small but mighty institution curated by Lorenzo Washington dedicated to preserving Nashville’s Black music heritage — will host a block party in Shane’s honor. The lineup wasn’t announced at press time, but expect food, live music and more into the evening. STEPHEN TRAGESER
3 P.M. AT JEFFERSON STREET SOUND MUSEUM
2004 JEFFERSON ST.
[NOT
MUSIC
You could argue there are two sides to British singer-songwriter Frank Turner. There’s the
recording artist who for decades has kicked out gut-punching prose and cathartic folkpunk sing-alongs (you know, the type of songs that make you feel just a little less alone in this gnarly, sometimes screwed-up world). Then … there’s the tenured showman and bandleader of longtime group The Sleeping Souls. When he’s not in the studio or putting pen to paper, Turner’s perfecting his rollicking rock ’n’ roll show. With nearly 3,000 gigs under his belt, he’s a statesman of stage diving, call-andresponse sing-alongs and barricade hugs. Yes, he’s played a lot of gigs, but each time Turner comes to town, it still feels like a night of can’tmiss entertainment. This fall, Turner returns to Nashville — the namesake of one of his early solo songs and recording site of his standout 2015 album Positive Songs for Negative People – on a tour supporting Undefeated, his 10th studio album. Bridge City Sinners play main support; Bedouin Soundclash opens the show.
MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
7 P.M. AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS 1402 CLINTON ST.
In 2022, the Preservation Society of Nashville was founded to help highlight and protect the city’s neighborhoods and architecture through education, advocacy and historic preservation. Now comes Paint the Town, the organization’s first fundraiser. Head to Neuhoff District in your “creative cocktail attire” to meet preservationists and other creatively dressed Nashvillians who are curious about the best ways to protect the city’s past as it continues to evolve in the future. Neuhoff District is a mixeduse project that is revitalizing Nashville’s 1900s meatpacking district along the Cumberland River in Germantown. In addition to a groovy setting with groovy guests, the event will include live music from Lockeland Strings, catering by Juniper Green, plein-air painters from Chestnut Group, a documentary screening and a live auction. Ticket prices start at $250 and can be purchased online. MARGARET LITTMAN
6 P.M. AT NEUHOFF DISTRICT 1316 ADAMS ST.
One of the many virtues of Tyler Mahan Coe’s country music podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones is how intelligently he applies deep research and acute psychological analysis to country’s tangled history. Coe began Cocaine & Rhinestones in 2017 with episodes on Ernest Tubb, Bobbie Gentry and Spade Cooley. He returned in 2021 with the podcast’s second season, which covers the careers of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Since Jones and Wynette are often regarded as the greatest singers in country history — I can’t really disagree — there tends to be a certain unthinking canonization in some of the writing about them. Coe breaks down the intricacies of classics like Jones’ 1974 “The Grand Tour” and Wynette’s 1968 anti-feminist song “Stand by Your Man.” Coe’s episode on producer Billy Sherrill, who worked with Wynette, Jones, Charlie Rich and many others, is essential myth-busting. He’s taken the Jones and Wynette material and turned it into a book, Cocaine & Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, which also features the work of Chattanooga-born artist Wayne White. Coe appears at the Ford Theater to talk about his book with moderator Allison Moorer. Coe has a way with details — if you’ve ever wondered how Sherrill and composer Johann Strauss II’s 1869 waltz “Wine, Women and Song” are connected, this is for you. EDD HURT 2:30 P.M. AT THE FORD THEATER, COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
222 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY S.
As has happened with so many other industries, online shopping has made it tougher and tougher for brick-and-mortar music-instrument retail businesses to survive. This is a shame, since the physical interaction between a musician and their gear is crucial — it’s very hard to know if you’re going to have a good relationship with an instrument or related accessory until you try it out in person. Thankfully, Nashville’s diverse array of musicians have a wide range of great independent shops to serve their needs. On Saturday, the crew at Eastside Music Supply celebrates 10 years in business with a big party that’s also a kind of housewarming for the new, larger digs on Dickerson Pike they moved into a couple months back. While the shop offers tons of new, used and vintage equipment for guitarists, you probably know it as the source for a massive variety of effects pedals; appropriately, a big part of the event is a pop-up effector market featuring such heavy hitters in the contemporary effects world as Chase Bliss, Earthquaker Devices and Old Blood Noise Endeavors (among many more). Expect door prizes, special merch and some limitedrun pedal releases. There’ll also be food and drink from the likes of Bad Luck Burger Club, The BE-Hive and East Nashville Beer Works. And
to top it all off, don’t miss the inaugural show in the space featuring Jr. Parks (that’ll be a solo performance from All Them Witches frontman Charles Michael Parks Jr.) and rock champions
Gloom Girl MFG. STEPHEN TRAGESER
NOON AT EASTSIDE MUSIC SUPPLY
2809 DICKERSON PIKE
[SONGS FOR YOU]
Like her onetime associate Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris came to country music as a folkie. This may be why Harris has been such an astute interpreter of other people’s material. During a career that stretches back more than 50 years, she’s covered songwriters on the level of Dolly Parton, Chuck Berry, Susanna Clark and Parsons himself. Harris brought producer Daniel Lanois on board to add texture to 1995’s Wrecking Ball and 2000’s Red Dirt Girl, but her most enduring testament might be 2021’s Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert. The album — recorded in 1990 at Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center — features her readings of songs by tunesmiths as diverse as Jesse Winchester, Junior Parker and Dallas Frazier. Harris’ sympathetic vocals elevate Parsons’ celebrated 1974 country-rock album Grievous Angel to world-historic status, and I also recommend her 1987 collaboration with Parton and Linda Ronstadt, Trio. Harris has been helping the Nashville community for years via her ongoing concert series Woofstock, which benefits her nonprofit dog adoption initiative Bonaparte’s Retreat. Sunday and Monday, Harris joins a crew of equally accomplished musicians for the latest edition of Woofstock. Super-folkie Aoife O’Donovan, whose credits include the great 2022 album Age of Apathy, joins Harris on Sunday. Bluegrass giant Ricky Skaggs and country vocal group The Whites will appear Monday. EDD HURT
SEPT. 15-16 AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
ART [SEW COOL]
COOKBOOK BINDING WORKSHOP
Turnip Green Creative Reuse regularly
offers cool events. Browse the organization website and you’ll find opportunities to try out screen-printing, sewing lessons, craft nights — even an origami workshop. It is truly the perfect place to reignite your love of crafts (on the cheap! While keeping things out of landfills!). One such opportunity is the upcoming Cookbook Binding workshop with bookbinder Mina Parkison. Bookbinding is a transferable skill that I’d also like to apply to my old love of zines and my newfound junk journaling obsession. There are so many directions to go with this. The event is in conjunction with Turnip Green’s upcoming art show featuring artwork about food, which also benefits local food access advocacy organization FeedBack Nashville. Participants will take home their own handmade cookbook at the end. I’ll be making my own cookbook in an effort to break the curse of a non-cooking family and cut through the endless online cookbook noise. HANNAH HERNER
1 P.M. AT TURNIP GREEN CREATIVE REUSE 1014 THIRD AVE. S.
[CONCRETE TO LEATHER]
While frontman Joe Talbot and his British band of rock ’n’ rollers Idles have eschewed the title “punk” on more than one occasion, the group has absolutely embraced the progressive ethos of punk rock — and even referred to themselves as “a protest band.” At last year’s Re:SET festival in Centennial Park, the all-male members of Idles donned dresses and spoke out against the absurdity of Tennessee’s anti-drag legislation, the Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act. Talbot also frequently notes his support of socialism and his disdain for British nationalism and toxic masculinity. But the band does more than talk the talk. Their five full-length albums — from 2017’s Brutalism to this year’s Tangk — are full of thumping, high-power anthems with titles like “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” and “King Snake.” They’ll come to Marathon Music Works on Monday in support of Tangk, a record full of undeniable choruses and raw low-end
SEPTEMBER 27
TINDER LIVE WITH LANE MOORE
SEPTEMBER 28
CARRIE WELLING RECORD RELEASE SHOW
OCTOBER 4
RANDALL BRAMBLETT BAND WITH TOM BUKOVAC
9.1 Joanna Cotten - The Gospel of Cotten
9.6 Ashley McBryde Fan Club Party for Members sold out
9.7 The Arcadian Wild
9.8 Pick, Pick, Pass "The Voice Takeover" w/ Kevin MaC, Craig Wayne Boyd, Jake Hoot
9.9 Kelly Willis
9.10 Guitar Town Hall w/ Driver Williams Special Guest Erik Dylan
9.15 Dale Watson & His Lone Stars w/ The Cowpokes
9.17 Buddy's Place Writers' Round w/ Alyssa Bonagura, Ben Danaher, Michael Logen
9.19 Americana Fest Showcase: Natalie Hemby w/ Kiely Connell
9.20 Americana Fest Showcase: Parker Millsap, Bryan Simpson, Caitlyn Smith w/ Laci Kaye Booth
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground icons, household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway. i
9.21 Nashville Hall of Fame Round w/ Gary Nicholson, Beth Neilson Chapman, Rafe Van Hoy
9.22 Pick, Pick, Pass w/ Kevin MaC, Keith Stegall, Michael White
9.23 Kassi Ashton - "Made From Dirt" Album Release Party free show
9.24 Cigarettes & Pizza w/ Aaron Raitiere, Ashley Monroe
9.25 Casey Beathard w/ Special Guest Tucker Beathard
9.27 Waymore's OutlawsRunnin' w/ Ol' Waylon
9.28 Luke Dick, Jeff Hyde
9.29 Chuck Mead & The Stalwarts, Dash Rip Rock, Laid Back Country Picker GET TICKETS AT CHIEFSONBROADWAY.COM FOLLOW US @ChiefSBROADWAY
At Chief’s we understand that great music is born from the heart and soul of it’s creators, which is why our writers’ rounds are dedicated to celebrating the brilliant minds behind some of today’s most iconic songs.
& Pizza
fuzz — not to mention an LCD Soundsystem collaboration called “Dancer,” which has indeed been showing up in Idles’ set lists lately. Call it punk or call it something else. Whatever you call it, it’s hard as hell live. Idles’ fellow Brits English Teacher will open. D. PATRICK RODGERS
8 P.M. AT MARATHON MUSIC WORKS
1402 CLINTON ST.
[STRANGER DANGER] FOLX TABLE: SIT WITH A STRANGER
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTFOR TICKETS & UPDATES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
6:30PM ATTICA LOCKE at PARNASSUS Guide Me Home
6:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
SATURDAY STORYTIME
with CHRISTINA SOONTORNVAT at PARNASSUS Leo's First Vote!
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
6:30PM JENNA LEVINE with LAUREN KUNG JESSEN at PARNASSUS My Vampire Plus-One
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
6:30PM JOE POSNANSKI with ANDREW MARANISS at PARNASSUS Why We Love Football
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
6:30PM KYLE PRUE with CAROLYN GERMAN at PARNASSUS How to Piss Off Men
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
6:30PM SATURDAY STORYTIME with ANN PATCHETT
As a journalist, I get a lot of practice talking to strangers. It’s a lot more fun and a lot less scary than one might think, and I truly believe it’s one of those things that get better with practice. Nashvillians will be able to play reporter during Folx Table’s celebration of National Sit With a Stranger Day. I’ve typically steered away from Folx Table events, despite how fun they looked, because they were too expensive for me. This event is free and also has free drinks! Folx is clear that this is not a speeddating or networking event, but a chance to meet new friends, make connections and put oneself out there. It can be intimidating to talk to strangers — hey, I’m an introvert at heart — but rest in this truth: People love to talk about themselves and their interests. I know I’ll be there trying to recruit more members for the Twilight Society of Middle Tennessee. Come out, be nosy with me. HANNAH HERNER
6 P.M. AT RIVERSIDE REVIVAL
1600 RIVERSIDE DRIVE
FILM
[THESE GUYS ARE FROM OAKLAND] NEGATIVLAND AND SUE-C: STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NEGATIVLAND
Who owns culture? It’s a simple question we struggle with as debates play out about fair-use copyright doctrine, open-source technology and intellectual property. In an era of commodified information, these questions can dictate our future. And the debates aren’t new. One might not call Oakland’s Negativland a “musical
NEGATIVLAND AND SUE-C: STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NEGATIVLAND
act” in any conventional sense. Since 1979, the collective’s often absurdist multimedia work confronts conventions of technology, power dynamics and propaganda. As art pioneers, Negativland explores the subjective nature of perception and messages in the global village. Best known for being sued by Island Records and Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, Negativland found themselves at the center of the fair use argument in 1991 over their U2 release on Ginn’s SST Records, which looped the guitars of pop icons U2 over a furious rant by radio personality Casey Kasem. U2’s label sued, claiming the cover art violated trademark protection and that the “unauthorized use of a sound recording” violated copyright law. Stand by for Failure, a film by Canadian musician Ryan Worsley, explores Negativland’s history, philosophy and impact. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Worsley and the band members, as well as a rare live performance by Negativland and experimental multimedia artist Sue-C. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT THEATRE
2102 BELCOURT AVE.
Montell Fish is the Sufjan Stevens of Frank Oceans. He reflects on heartbreak and contends with religion in soulful, shoegazy R&B tracks that often sound like he’s spent so much energy pouring out his heart that his voice has gone hoarse and comes out as more of a whimper. It’s gorgeous. His stellar 2022 release, Jamie (not to be confused with Brittany Howard’s 2019 Jaime), is full of lyrics that blur the lines between romantic love and Christian faith, as in the standout track “Destroy Myself Just for You.” The way he mumbles, “Maybe it’ll last this time,” is both heartbreaking and thrilling. His latest release, Aeon, dropped in August, and the lead track “We Are Still in Love” shows how deep in it he still is: “Please don’t leave me alone / Tell me where should I go / Don’t leave me here alone.” He plays an all-ages show at Brooklyn Bowl with opener Kacy Hill on Tuesday — see him now before he really breaks out. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.
Saturday, September 14
SONGWRITER SESSION
Lydia Vaughan
NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, September 14
BOOK TALK
Tyler Mahan Coe
Discusses George Jones and Tammy Wynette
2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, September 15
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
John Shaw
1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Wednesday, September 18
INTERVIEW
David McClister
10:00 am · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Thursday, September 19
PANEL DISCUSSION
Fifty Years of Austin City Limits
10:30 am · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
WITNESS HISTORY
Museum Membership
Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and more.
Thursday, September 19 CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE
Swamp Dogg
2:00 pm · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Saturday, September 21 CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE
Shelby Lynne
11:00 am · FORD THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST
Saturday, September 21 FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION
Any Other Way
The Jackie Shane Story 2:00 pm · CMA THEATER AS PART OF AMERICANAFEST presented in partnership with the nashville film festival and the national museum of african
Saturday, September 21
PODCAST
[ON THE RECORD] TS MADISON LIVE RECORDING
The world moves fast, exponentially so in the age of social media. As a culture, we were able to steep in Charli XCX’s electric-limegreen brat summer for a surprising amount of time before dovetailing nicely into Jools Lebron’s demure and mindful moment during that period where it didn’t feel like the sun was trying to burn us off the planet. But it took the realest of the real, Ts Madison, to steer us into “Not the bore worms” fall, finding the throughline between Flash Gordon’s Princess Aura and the “what now” sense that just being alive at this moment brings us. When Ts Madison brings a live recording of her podcast Maddie in the Morning to the City Winery downtown, it’s a chance for local audiences to get in on the ground level with someone who has been reshaping narratives and effortlessly defining eras for quite a bit. Her talk show Turnt Out With Ts Madison was essential viewing for anyone wanting to know what time it is, as well as the primary reason for the Fox Soul Network to exist. And if you saw the movie Bros, her “I hate storytelling” defined a whole social malaise that mainstream discourse didn’t even try to articulate yet. Like I said, the realest of the real. JASON SHAWHAN
7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY 609 LAFAYETTE ST.
Nashville’s Miss Lonely is all about building and supporting a community through music. Lonely and her cohorts — Miss Amy on fiddle and Miss Emily on drums — bring to life what the trio calls “spooky indie garage rock” that takes inspiration from simple guitar riffs and classic monster flicks. Throughout September, Lonely has held residency on Wednesday evenings at East Nashville’s hipster haunt the Bowery Vault. The inclusive upstairs nook was recently included in the Scene’s cover story on local women-owned music venues. Each installment of the residency spotlights special guests, with Steven Bowman and the Pocket Knife String Band performing as this week’s invitees. Not one to rest on her laurels, Lonely also organizes a monthly showcase of female musicians she’s dubbed Doll Parts. All proceeds from the events benefit various nonprofit organizations in the area. Her song “Frankenstein Valentine” featured on the No Dogs in Space music history podcast last month as well — look out for it on an upcoming full-length record set for debut in the spring. JASON VERSTEGEN
8 P.M. AT THE BOWERY VAULT
2905 GALLATIN PIKE
Mofongo Cafe serves hearty Caribbean comfort food in Berry Hill BY ALEJANDRO
RAMIREZ
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WHEN I TALK about food that brings me back to New England, you probably imagine succulent lobster, fresh-caught haddock or fish and chips. Or maybe a medium iced regular from Dunkin’. You’re probably not thinking about cuisine from the Caribbean. But I grew up in a community north of Boston with a strong Dominican and Puerto Rican population, and so something about a hearty serving of generously seasoned shredded chicken or fried plantains or a nice crispy beef empanada brings me back north. I admit that’s strange since it’s the sort of food that probably brought a lot of first-generation migrants back to much warmer climates.
But I found nostalgia in Berry Hill. The area tucked between Wedgewood-Houston and Thompson Lane is packed with good food, eclectic businesses and colorful murals, and in that mix is a small teal building on a hill home to Mofongo Cafe, a family-run restaurant serving up hearty comfort food from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Those three Caribbean cuisines share a lot of similarities, says owner Dee Castillo. But the menu also reflects her family’s history of travel and immigration. Castillo and her family moved from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico when she was young, and her uncle — a chef at the restaurant for many years — is Dominican and Cuban.
Castillo moved to Nashville in 2007 and says there wasn’t much of a Dominican, Cuban or Puerto Rican population. She had to cook at home or drive to Atlanta if she wanted any familiar fare.
“I used to grab my son on Sunday really early and just drive four hours to go eat in a restaurant,” says Castillo. “That was our Sunday trip.”
But she was getting tired of the lack of options. And while she was skeptical about how Nashville would receive a Caribbean restaurant like hers, she took the chance.
In 2017 she opened Mofongo Cafe — Merengue Cafe before a 2022 name change — and was surprised to have dozens of customers the first day. The restaurant served 60 people, to be exact. “I’m gonna remember that number until I die,” she says. It’s even more impressive given that this is Castillo’s second attempt at a restaurant — a previous endeavor circa 2013, called 809 Sports Bar and Restaurant, lasted about two years.
Like many restaurants, Mofongo Cafe is facing a staffing issue, worsened by a family emergency. So Castillo herself has been in the kitchen hours before the doors open at 11 a.m. She says it’s tricky to find chefs who can cook her food, particularly the Dominican portion of the menu.
That’s because there’s a comforting homemade quality to the food at Mofongo Cafe, and Dominican home cooking varies a lot. Castillo references a Dominican saying — “the flavor is on a person’s hands” — in explaining that difficult-to-describe X factor of cooking.
And of course it can be hard to find the right ingredients in Tennessee. Castillo is sure to bring back massive containers of dried Dominican oregano whenever she visits family abroad. (The Dominican variety has a very sharp scent that translates to richer flavors.)
When discussing Mofongo, we can’t ignore the eponymous dish, which is associated with Puerto Rico. Fried plantains are mashed with pork and garlic, assembled into a stately mound of flavor and topped with meat or seafood. I also enjoy the sancocho — a type of meatand-root-vegetable stew that can be found in a few Latin American countries under different names. The tender chicken falls apart easily, letting you pair it up with a chunk of soft yuca or carrot that absorbs a savory, fatty and herby broth.
While the cultures represented by Mofongo
share many staple dishes, there are of course small variations (like the raisins in Cuba’s version of ropa vieja, a shredded beef dish). That translates to a large menu that mixes and matches from across the Caribbean.
The menu also changes a little bit every day, says Castillo, who features specials like oxtail on Fridays and goat on Saturdays. There’s always a selection of hearty meat mains and plenty of fried sides like maduros (extra-ripe plantains) that have just the slightest crisp at the edges and give way to a soft, sweet center.
Nashville still doesn’t have a big Dominican, Cuban or Puerto Rican population, but Castillo says Mofongo Cafe’s customer base has proven to be very diverse.
She’s also still looking for ways to keep sharing her culture. In March, Mofongo unveiled a new, giant-size chair — the kind you can find around Puerto Rico — outside the restaurant. The chair was built by a member of the Amish community from Harstville, Tenn., and painted by Castillo and her family in the backyard.
The colorful chair — a Taíno chair, as Castillo calls it, after the Indigenous people of the Caribbean and ancestors of many Dominicans and Puerto Ricans — greets new customers and stands as a meeting point of the Caribbean and Tennessee.
But before you can ponder all of that, the smell of braised beef and fried plantains will probably lure you in Mofongo’s doors. ▼
September 18th
Nashville Live on 2nd Ave., Chief’s on Broadway, & JBJ’s with Live Music & Silent Auction. Contributions for this fundraiser will help fund community projects along 2nd Avenue. One Price. 3 stops.
6pm to 10pm | Tickets $75 | Open Bar & Lite Bites.
The fact that I don’t follow football could be related to the fact that I could never throw a spiral properly. It’s either that or all the wedgies. BY
CHRIS CROFTON
In 2014, comedian, musician, podcaster and Nashvillian Chris Crofton asked the Scene for an advice column, so we gave him one. Crowning himself the “Advice King,” Crofton shares his hardwon wisdom with whoever seeks it. Follow Crofton on Twitter and Instagram (@thecroftonshow), and check out his The Advice King Anthology and Cold Brew Got Me Like podcast. To submit a question for the Advice King, email bestofbread@gmail.com.
Dear Advice King,
My fantasy football draft is later today, and I would like to know who I should draft in the first round. I have the fourth pick in a PPR (point per reception) league.
Thanks, —Phil in Monrovia, Calif.
OH NO! It’s finally happened. Someone sent me a question about sports! But it’s not even about normal, real sports! It’s about [shudder] FANTASY SPORTS.
Football — man oh man. People love football. I live in Nashville, and in Nashville people love football so much that in 2023 the Metro Council voted to spend more than $700 million of the city’s tax dollars to help the Titans (a massively profitable private corporation) build themselves a new stadium. People love football so much in Nashville that in 2019 the city uprooted a bunch of perfectly healthy cherry trees from a park so the NFL could have its draft there. Nashville loves football more than trees — and its own citizens! We fucking love football!
But does football love us? Just kidding. I’m not going to write a real paragraph starting with, “But does football love us?” That’s best left to, ahem, professional writers, like The New York Times’ opinion guys. David Brooks would write an entire column called “But Does Football Love Us?” and he’d probably win a Pulitzer for it. Here’s what I think the first sentence of that David Brooks column would be: “We had opera tickets, but our butler tested positive for COVID, so we decided to stay home and watch the Super Bowl.”
What if David Brooks was the “Brooks” in “Brooks and Dunn”? All their songs would be about consommé. No Grammys. One Pulitzer. OK, down to business: advice. Oh no! I just remembered that this is a question about sports! Fantasy football, huh? Is that a sex thing? Drunk men home alone surfing the internet wearing shoulder pads and cleats, hanging around internet “locker rooms,” looking for a “touchdown”? Or at least a “field goal”? When I hear the word fantasy, I think sex.
PEOPLE LOVE FOOTBALL SO MUCH IN NASHVILLE THAT IN 2019 THE CITY UPROOTED A BUNCH OF PERFECTLY HEALTHY CHERRY TREES FROM A PARK SO THE NFL COULD HAVE ITS DRAFT THERE. NASHVILLE LOVES FOOTBALL MORE THAN TREES — AND ITS OWN CITIZENS!
Hold on, I’m Googling …
What I just read made me wish it was a sex thing. “Fantasy football” is where you pretend to be the general manager of a fake football team. The fake football team is made up of actual NFL players you chose, at home on your couch, in your shoulder pads and cleats. Then you watch all the real football games on TV, to see what the players on your “team” did, in real life. Then you add up the points your fake team “scored.” Meanwhile, your real children are out committing crimes, and your actual wife files for divorce. Is that the general idea?
Good God! Well, I guess we’re never going to cure cancer. We’re certainly not going to Mars. Not with everyone sitting around “playing,” um, “football.”
I don’t know who you should draft, Phil. I stopped watching football in 1978, when I was 9. So I’d say … Roger Staubach, Lynn Swann, “Mean” Joe Greene, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, Bucky Dent and Spiro Agnew. Was Charo a football player?
I can help you name your team. That seems like the most fun to me anyway. How about “WE’RE NEVER CURING CANCER”? Or “I LIKE STADIUMS BETTER THAN AFFORDABLE HOUSING”?
The fact that I don’t follow football could be related to the fact that I could never throw a spiral properly. It’s either that or all the wedgies. My fantasy football team: Lucy, Charlie Brown, Prince, PJ Harvey, Charles Bukowski, Mad Magazine, John Denver, Kurt Cobain, Flannery O’Connor, Public Enemy, John Cassavetes, Sylvia Plath, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Vonnegut, Fugazi and Charo.
In conclusion, “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s all right, it’s all right.” —John Lennon. ▼
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Charles Strobel’s memoir reflects his legacy of communing with others
BY AMANDA HAGGARD
EACH YEAR, SEVERAL organizations pull together and host a Homeless Memorial on the riverfront in downtown Nashville. This event, which honors all the folks who’ve died living on the streets in the previous year, is held in the cold of December on a Saturday, and it’s often a morning of somber reflection on all that has been lost.
One time, as folks bowed their heads for prayer after a particularly brutal year, I started to look around and noticed that a dog was watching, almost like it was wondering what in the world these weird humans were up to. I locked eyes with another friend who had seen the same thing, and we started to chuckle a bit, losing most of what was said in the prayer and focusing largely on just how odd this dog found the entire ordeal.
As the prayer came to a close, my friend and I saw Father Charles Strobel head our way. I didn’t know Strobel very well, and started to feel slightly embarrassed that he might have noticed us not engaged in the very important remembrance happening that morning. As he approached, he leaned in close, smiled conspiratorially and said: “You know, dog is just God spelled backward.”
Strobel, who passed away in August 2023, is best known for his work creating Room In The Inn, an organization that connects congregations across Nashville with people who need emergency shelter. But he was also an engaging storyteller and a person who loved to provide even a moment of respite for others.
Near the end of his life, Strobel worked on a memoir, The Kingdom of the Poor: My Journey Home. With the help of two editors (Amy Frogge and his niece Katie Seigenthaler), the book will be released this month by Vanderbilt University Press. Reading this posthumous memoir is a lot like experiencing Strobel in person. His stories welcome you into his life. He’s always a little bit mischievous in his delivery. He is calm about his faults and mistakes in a way that is reassuring.
In a section of the book called “The Miracle of Forgiveness,” he writes about a conflict he had with a childhood friend named Billy Denton at around 7 or 8 years old, and how shocked he was by the rage and resentment he experienced. His friend had gotten the better of him, and his anger built up such that the next time they were rolling in the grass, Strobel felt like he had it within him to end the other boy’s life. He stopped before it became a life-altering event, but the moment gave him a grounding point throughout his life to understand how others might commit violent acts, hold grudges or let things fester to unhealthy points. He relates this to his work advocating against the death
penalty, which became a large part of his life after his mother, Mary Catherine Strobel, was murdered in 1986.
He writes: “Jesus invites us into a world without condemnation. ... The choice now becomes ours. We can hold each other in our mistakes, or we can let each other go. We can be a prison to one another or the source of release. Both are choices. One leads us to separation; the other leads us to communion.”
It’s this level of honesty and wisdom that tells us Strobel is talking through forgiving the great sin of murder as much as he is forgiving himself for having the thought. He ends each chapter of The Kingdom of the Poor with one of the sayings of Jesus known as the Beatitudes, and he writes early on that the book will be full of stories and memories he calls “Beatitude Moments,” which he describes as “totally unexpected, grace-filled experiences when one is filled with love. We remember them as divine gifts from above — not simply memories.”
What’s most beautiful about this book is that it’s not just about Charles Strobel. It’s about all the people who crossed his path as well. From the characters who challenged him to the folks
who guided him in his daily thoughts and actions, the book sees Strobel through his lifelong experience of connecting with others.
Strobel’s stories show us how to genuinely commune with the people who enter our lives. His life and his memoir call us all to seek Beatitude Moments — unexpected, grace-filled experiences that remind us to see the divine in the everyday, even in a dog’s curious gaze during a prayer.
To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
The Kingdom of the Poor: My Journey Home By Charles Strobel Vanderbilt University Press 150 pages, $29.95
TN Writers | TN Stories will host a discussion of The Kingdom of the Poor 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14 at the Tennessee State Museum
IF WHAT THEY say about Ludovic Chevalier is true, then he’s one of the worst people alive. If this man — the accused criminal at the center of Red Rooms — is the person responsible for the torture, assault and murder of three teenage girls for the highest bidder in the nastiest corners of the internet, how do you even conceive of such actions as something a human being could do?
If you wanted to, you could describe the invention of photography as a way for humanity to claim some dominion over death. Shortly after its inception came the first images of death and atrocity, and that darkness has only become more present as technology and the ability to share has grown easier. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to see it, because there’s so much being tossed around in the collective data stream that it keeps popping up. Somehow, we ended up living in a Faces of Death culture, and it never seems to get any better.
While it’s not fair to say that everyone involved in cryptocurrency or NFTs is evil, everyone involved in this kind of snuff-on-demand has adapted to these new and unregulated forms of commerce, to the surprise of no one. Pascal Plante’s new film Red Rooms is very interested in this aspect of modern life. There’s a little bit of 8mm here, and Emanuelle in America, and Benny’s Video — but Plante isn’t interested in pushing the envelope of fake snuff. All the evidence of these horrors is kept in the audio realm, leaving the mind to dig into the depraved. Here’s a question for fans of true crime, not just as regards the specifics of this film, but the genre in general: Are you drawn to it because you want to solve a mystery, because you want
A new restoration of The Conversation comes through loud and clear at Belcourt’s Essential Coppola series
BY JOE NOLAN
THE GREAT IRONY of Francis Ford Coppola’s career is that he once envisioned a creative life of personal filmmaking, telling intimate stories in small scale. That was before he created one of the most acclaimed and beloved film franchises of all time with the Godfather trilogy And between the sweeping generational drama of the Corleone family, the psychedelic antihero’s journey of Apocalypse Now and the epic scale of his new film — literally titled Megalopolis and opening wide later this month — it’s easy to overlook the quiet perfection of the auteur’s 1974 picture, The Conversation.
The Conversation is a neo-noir thriller centered on Harry Caul — a surveillance expert in San Francisco. Harry’s hired to eavesdrop on the titular talk between a man and a woman taking a chilly morning stroll through
Red Rooms is a gutsy, visceral, emotionally conflicted journey
BY JASON SHAWHAN
to learn from the tragedies of the past in order to recognize the present, or because you want to learn how to get away with it? That’s not to suggest that there’s something malicious in being a fan of true crime. But it’s always good to understand why something appeals to you. And our protagonist Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) is her own kind of mystery. She’s not proclaiming Chevalier innocent due to procedural errors or because of conspiracy theories, and she’s not in the courtroom to show support to the families of the victims. “I was curious,” she tells a reporter when asked why she’s attending the proceedings — though curiosity doesn’t explain why she’s finding holes-in-the-wall near the courthouse to sleep in to ensure she can get in for the next day’s testimony.
Clementine (Laurie Babin) is an archetype we recognize; she’s fired up at the system, at what she perceives is the obvious scapegoating of a man who couldn’t possibly be what the government claims. She has no resources except boundless passion, and she has a charm that works even on Kelly-Anne, with the two becoming colleagues of a sort. And if Kelly-Anne is the elegant and inscrutable screen, Clementine is an unfiltered and immediate response to whatever she experiences. She’s alive, in the moment and all messy edges.
Kelly-Anne, professionally, is built on physical presence. Modeling is still as concrete a job as one can have, and this grounds her in the tactile, even as her virtual poker winnings seem just as much a part of who she is — or at least how she’s living. She’s not an easy personality to understand, and she keeps her cards, literally and figuratively, close at hand. She’s like a Paul
Schrader protagonist, going through a private trial of her own even as she is drawn further and further into the circumstances of the Chevalier trial. Gariépy delivers one of the greatest performances of the decade. Kelly-Anne is handy with tech, enough to where she’s cultivated and built her own AI personal assistant (after an abortive first go when the system, left to its own devices, became racist with no value for human life).
She knows how to use the [Stewart and Roald voice] “dark web” to find the things she needs, and she’s drawn to what is unfolding in this Montreal courtroom, and we see from the very beginning that the future holds a collision.
There’s not a specific Québecois French phrase for “dark web” or the titular Red Rooms, and it feels like a subtle indictment hanging in the air that these concepts are so rooted in mercenary economics that only the English language could define. Red Rooms is an emotionally
The Conversation PG, 113 minutes
Showing Sept. 16 and 20 as part of the Belcourt’s Essential Coppola series
Union Square. But as Caul begins to assemble his audio tracks, he uncovers the mention of a murder and finds himself pulled into a deeper mystery that threatens his own perfectly private world.
The Conversation gives us infidelity, corporate hubris and little secrets at every turn. These make for a classic
mystery movie, but the film endures as a contradictory character study of Caul, who’s portrayed by Gene Hackman in one of the great actor’s most indelible roles. Caul is a revered surveillance wizard who makes a living uncovering the things people hide. But his personal life is intensely private: He has three locks and an alarm on
conflicted journey that will take up space in the back of your skull long after the film is over, as classy as one can get with a dip into this unspeakable kind of horror. Though the movie isn’t exploring material all that different from a prime-time police procedural, it is engaging with the horror — and the rot that it represents — to an extent that TV simply wouldn’t bother. Not for everyone, to be sure, but gutsy and visceral in unexpected ways. ▼
Red Rooms NR, 118 minutes; in French with English subtitles Showing through Sept. 15 at the Belcourt
his apartment door; he’s a workaholic who lives alone but keeps a separate apartment for his girlfriend, who doesn’t know his profession or even his birthday; he lies about not having a phone to avoid giving out his personal number. The Conversation’s plotting is tightrope-taut, but it’s the movie’s explorations of the border between privacy and paranoia that threaten to push Harry — and the picture’s viewers — off balance. Hackman is pitch-perfect as Caul, but The Conversation also features an all-star cast of Coppola regulars including John Cazale, Teri Garr, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest and Robert Duvall, plus an unforgettable cameo from a young Harrison Ford. Pioneering sound designer Walter Murch puts on a master class here, and he gets a lot of credit for The Conversation’s Palme d’Or win at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.
This new DCP restoration of The Conversation screens at the Belcourt on Monday, Sept. 16, and Friday, Sept. 20. It’s part of the arthouse’s new Essential Coppola series, which includes all-timers like all three Godfather installments as well as the weird and wonderful time-travel gem Peggy Sue Got Married. The series plays all month in anticipation of the Sept. 26 premiere of Megalopolis ▼
SEPTEMBER 19-25
FILM | MUSIC | CULTURE
1 Catherine ___, last wife of King Henry VIII
5 Basic level of a popular ridesharing app
10 Part of a routine
14 Orchestra tuner
15 “You can’t make me!” 16 Dry
17 Mixed drink with an alliterative name
19 Fuse by heat
20 Bad weather forecast, informally
21 Preceder of the Three Kingdoms in Chinese history
23 Slightest idea
24 “The Lucy-___ Comedy Hour” (classic TV release)
25 Tons
27 Kind of school
28 Sudden inspirations?
33 He asked Bud “Who’s on first?”
34 Cry of terrier?
35 Response to an anticlimactic reveal
36 “It’s not as simple as it sounds”
40 Forever, poetically
41 A carved one hangs in the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
42 Itty-bitty
43 Galileo, by birth
44 Name spelled out in “The Alphabet Song”
45 Immune system agent
47 Golden rule preposition
49 Arctic food fish
50 Ornate lighting fixture
54 Sours
57 Setting for the FIFA World Cups of 2002 and 2022
58 Part of a clock depicted four times in this puzzle?
60 Darkness
61 It happens
62 Jazz singer Jones
63 Weapon that shares an etymology with “spade” and “spatula”
64 Company with a purple heart in its logo
65 Ricotta ingredient DOWN
1 Thread component
2 Fundamentals
3 Fundamental issues
4 Like old chestnuts
5 “Let go, you brute!”
6 Porgy’s partner
7 ___ Morales, former president of Bolivia
8 Bad way to get caught
9 Revealing images
10 First nonhuman species encountered in the “Star Wars” franchise
11 Valuable deposits
12 Bagpiper’s garb
13 Circular current
18 French vineyards
22 Ill-advised time for an ocean swim
24 Actual
25 “Don’t give up on your dreams. ___ longer” (quip)
26 Raccoon relative
27 ___ Butterworth’s
29 Within reach
30 Hybrid fixture with a tub and nozzle
31 Group of experts
32 What many tins are made of, despite their name
34 Equal
35 Like most primes
37 ___ Aldridge, early Black American playwright
38 The blahs
39 The vowels not seen in “bad debt,” ironically
44 Try hard
45 Proverbs pronoun
46 Vegan cheese ingredient, often
48 Site of a Herculean labor
49 Terra ___
50 Turned out
51 Robber’s order
52 Where drinks are toasted with “Sláinte!”
53 The Dead Sea is one, technically
54 Tim of “Project Runway”
55 Dealer’s request
56 Its 80-year anniversary was observed in June of 2024
59 Zero preceder
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.
NANDEZ, HENRY TOL ALVIZUREZ, RAFAEL MENDOZA MARTINEZ, and GILMER PACHECO
EK v. Defendants RAYMOND CLARANCE PARADISE, GREYHOUND LINES, INC., a Foreign Corporation, AMERICANOS U.S.A, LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company, FLIX NORTH AMERICA, INC., a Texas corporation, ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, MZ CARGO, INC., an Ohio Corporation, EVERETT SHARP, RICHARD, INC., an Ohio Corporation, RICHARD WOLFE TRUCKING, INC., an Ohio Corporation, DAVID CHERNO, and ROBERT BRANUM TRUCKING, LP, a Texas Limited Partnership. PERSONAL INJURY/MOTOR VEHCILE ACCIDENT. NOTICE BY PUBLICATION. The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN YOU, ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, the Defendant that a Complaint at Law has been filed in the CIRCUIT COURT OF THE THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS by Plaintiff against you for: PERSONAL INJURY/MOTOR VEHCILE ACCIDENT and for other relief; that summons duly issued against you as provided by law, and such Complaint is still pending. NOW THEREFORE, unless you ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, the Defendant, file your answer or otherwise file your appearance in this case with the Office of the Clerk of Madison County Circuit Court, 155 N. Main Street., Edwardsville, IL 62025 on or before October 10th, 2024. A JUDGEMENT OR ORDER FOR DEFAULT MAY BE TAKEN AGAINST YOU FOR THE RELIEF ASKED FOR WITHIN THE COMPLAINT.
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PUBLIC NOTICE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Plaintiffs, INDIRA VASQUEZ, guardian of the Person and Estate of FIORELLA CAJAN CUEVA, a disabled person, INDIRA VASQUEZ, independent administrator of the Estate of JUAN ERNESTO VASQUEZ RODRIGUEZ, deceased, DIANA HUAMAN VERLADE, ERICARDO MENDOZA MARTINEZ, ANGEL DAVID HERNANDEZ, HENRY TOL ALVIZUREZ, RAFAEL MENDOZA MARTINEZ, and GILMER PACHECO EK v. Defendants RAYMOND CLARANCE PARADISE, GREYHOUND LINES, INC., a Foreign Corporation, AMERICANOS U.S.A, LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company, FLIX NORTH AMERICA, INC., a Texas corporation, ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, MZ CARGO, INC., an Ohio Corporation, EVERETT SHARP, RICHARD, INC., an Ohio Corporation, RICHARD WOLFE TRUCKING, INC., an Ohio Corporation, DAVID CHERNO, and ROBERT BRANUM TRUCKING, LP, a Texas Limited Partnership. PERSONAL INJURY/MOTOR VEHCILE ACCIDENT. NOTICE BY PUBLICATION. The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN YOU, ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, the Defendant that a Complaint at Law has been filed in the CIRCUIT COURT OF THE THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS by Plaintiff against you for: PERSONAL INJURY/MOTOR VEHCILE ACCIDENT and for other relief; that summons duly issued against you as provided by law, and such Complaint is still pending. NOW THEREFORE, unless you ABDIKADIR A. IBRAHIM, the Defendant, file your answer or otherwise file your appearance in this case with the Office of the Clerk of Madison County Circuit Court, 155 N. Main Street., Edwardsville, IL 62025 on or before October 10th, 2024. A JUDGEMENT OR ORDER FOR DEFAULT MAY BE TAKEN AGAINST YOU FOR THE RELIEF ASKED FOR WITHIN THE COMPLAINT.
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YOU MAY QUALIFY for disability benefits if you are between 52-63 years old and under a doctor’s care for a health condition that prevents you from working for a year or more. Call now!
1-877-247-6750 (CAN AAN)
TOP CA$H PAID FOR OLD GUITARS!
1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico, Stromberg. And Gibson Mandolins / Banjos.
1-855-402-7208 (CAN AAN)
