Issue 13 - June 4, 2015 by Knoxville Mercury

KNOXVILLE’S OWN LOST & FOUND MEDIA

JUNE 4, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM

1 / N.13

Lost Knoxville Harlan Hambright’s photographs of the 1970s document the last remnants of a prior era

JACK NEELY

Uncovering the Regas Building’s Hidden Hotel

MUSIC

Ancient River Explores the Psychedelic Frontier

GEORGE DODDS

Remembering Knoxville’s Red Summer of 1919

ED. NOTE

Join the Knoxville Mercury League of Supporters!

reconstructing self-confidence daily

What is a plastic surgeon and why did I choose this specialty? The word plastic is derived from the Greek word plastikos, which means to shape or mold. The origins of the specialty are based in the devastating battlefield injuries of World War I. Trench warfare produced many disfiguring injuries of the face and upper body. Innovative techniques were needed to close wounds, and to restore function and appearance as best could be. While many medical specialties have crossover to some degree with plastic surgery, plastic surgeons are the most extensively trained and organized to care for the spectrum of aesthetic and reconstructive needs of our society. Plastic surgeons typically undergo eight years of secondary education, six to seven years of residency training and a rigorous two-year board certification process after completion of residency. Plastic surgeons provide reconstruction of all types, including: breast reconstruction, hand surgery, microvascular surgery, burn care/surgery, skin oncologic surgery, and aesthetic medicine and surgery. From the first renal transplant to the first hand transplant, plastic surgeons have been and continue to be pioneers and innovators in medicine. Why did I choose plastic surgery? When reflecting on this question, my mind immediately goes back to my

Grandmother Hassell telling stories of my Great Grandfather Peyton Chambers. He was a general practitioner in Savannah, Tennessee, in the early nineteen hundreds. In those days, physicians typically treated everything, including performing surgery, as there was very little specialization outside of large population centers. She would tell stories of “Dr. Chambers” making or “compounding” medications, making rounds on horseback with his “mobile oﬃce” in his saddlebags and taking care of the whole community. I was about five when I made up my mind to become a doctor. Shortly thereafter, I was attacked by our family dog and sustained an extensive facial laceration. Because of this circumstance, my first significant encounter with a doctor was with a plastic surgeon and it was very impactful to say the least. That experience set me on my career path and I am truly thankful, as I am a member of one of the best professions in the world. We all come to our careers through life experience and many decisions at “forks in the road.” I think my path has uniquely equipped me to not only be an excellent technician in the performance of plastic surgery but also to be a compassionate and caring physician that always tries to put the needs of my patients first.

Call me to set up a time to talk about your needs and how I can help you. Tom Gallaher, M.D.

West Knoxville (Main Office) 9700 Westland Drive Suite 101 865-671-3888

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Bearden (Cherokee Plaza) 5508 Kingston Pike, Suite 110 865-671-3888

North Knoxville (Powell) 7560 Dannaher Drive, Suite 150 865-671-3888

Crossville 41 West Avenue 865-671-3888

June 4, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 13 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” —Dorothea Lange

Elmer Harvey’s Furniture Store, 200 10th St., closed before 1975.

12 Lost Knoxville COVER STORY

Harlan Hambright did not purposefully set out to document the stuff of Knoxville that was about to be vanquished— mostly, he was just attracted to the city’s weird scenes and odd occurrences. Little did he know, as a young man learning his trade in the 1970s, that the places he was photographing would soon be banished from a city that wanted to modernize itself and become more like anywhere else. Coury Turczyn surveys a small part of Hambright’s revealing collection, many of his photos unseen for the past 40 years.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 6

Editor’s Note Howdy Start Here: Ghost Signs by Bud Ries, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory. PLUS: Words With … Mckenzie Ayers ’Bye Finish There: Restless Native by Chris Wohlwend, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

The Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely recalls the forgotten hotel being uncovered by renovations at the Regas Building. Perspectives Joe Sullivan thinks Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett is a cheapskate when it comes to schools. Architecture Matters George Dodds believes we ought to remember even the monstrous, such as Knoxville’s Red Summer of 1919.

21 22 22 23 21

Join Us!

Our next Mercury Meetup will be at the Casual Pint in Fountain City (4842 Harvest Mill Way) on Wednesday, June 24, 5-8 p.m.

CALENDAR Program Notes: The International’s first anniversary. Shelf Life: Chris Barrett surveys new additions to the public library’s AV collection. Music: Matthew Everett wades into Ancient River. Books: Bryan Charles appreciates Margaret Lazarus Dean’s Leaving Orbit.

Spotlights: JEFF the Brotherhood, Fanboy Expo, Maggie Brannon’s Ducking Up My Life

FOOD & DRINK

Sips & Shots Rose Kennedy imbibes some artisanal whiskey at Downtown Grill and Brewery.

Movies: April Snellings finds herself ambivalent over the destruction of San Andreas. Video: Lee Gardner finds a few new tricks up the sleeve of Slow West. June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

EDITOR’S NOTE H

The Knoxville Mercury League of Supporters

ere’s the question I hear wherever I go: “So how’s it going at the Mercury?” I can understand the curiosity. This journalistic endeavor that we launched with your donations isn’t exactly orthodox. First, it’s printed on paper. That’s weird enough. Second, it’s locally owned. That’s considered somewhat unnatural these days. Third, it’s a not-for-profit corporation governed by a nonprofit educational foundation. And that sounds nearly communistic. Yes, we chose the more challenging path. But the short answer to this constant query is: We still have a long way to go, but we’re making progress. As a new business with a small staff, that progress can be slower than we’d like. However, we are connecting with more and more businesses that believe in what we’re doing and understand the value of connecting with you—our community of readers. (In this issue, we welcome our newest partner, Fulin’s Asian Restaurant.) In fact, we owe you a lot. By actively picking up the Knoxville Mercury—rather than, say, barely noticing just another uninspiring section in the daily paper—you are contributing to our success. You’re all smart, savvy, engaged consumers that any business in the area would be lucky to have. It’s our job to make sure potential

CLAY DUDA 4

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

advertisers understand that fact. In the meantime, we need to make more than just financial progress—we also need to advance our paper editorially. And that’s where you can help, too. This week, we are launching the Knoxville Mercury League of Supporters. Yes, not unlike those public radio fundraisers, we are offering our readers the opportunity to join us in keeping independent journalism alive in Knoxville—and earn some swanky perks in the process. The theme of our inaugural fundraising drive is to bring in-depth, investigative reporting back to Knoxville. And to do that, the Knoxville Mercury needs to hire its first full-time reporter to join our part-time staffer, Heather Duncan. (Heather’s been breaking stories in her few frantic days in the office each week, but I suspect we’re working her to death.) Fortunately, we have one on the way: Clay Duda, formerly of the Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif., Creative Loafing in Atlanta, and the Center for Sustainable Journalism. When we first started assembling this newsweekly back in January, we received over 100 applications from around the country for our potential reporting position. The person we were looking for had to meet an almost impossible set of criteria: a background in hard reporting, particularly with investigative techniques; the ability to write well in a magazine-feature style; a willingness to do whatever it takes to get a difficult story; strong abilities in digital and social media; and a youthful sense of adventure. Clay Duda fits the bill. “My focus is and has been on investigative and enterprise reporting,” he wrote in his initial email (subject line: “Please hire me”). “Over the past five years I’ve covered everything from the institu-

tionalization of the Atlanta housing market to homeless kids bumping around the country on train cars, and volumes in between. I have a strong background in digital journalism, along with photo and video skills. … I know what it takes to work in a startup newsroom, and I admire your tenacity and vision for accepting the challenge.” Now we’re ready to fulfill the promises we made to tackle the most difficult stories in town. By joining our League of Supporters, you will be helping pay the salary of an investigative journalist—which Knoxville most certainly needs. Clay and his wife, Melissa, have completed their 2,700-mile drive across America with all their belongings, their dog, and their cat. You can read and see all about their journey on his blog at travels.clayduda.com. Clay is scheduled to start working at the Knoxville Mercury in mid-July, after completing a long-planned tour of Europe with Melissa. Let’s welcome them to Knoxville, and help him report the stories we all want to see. For more information on our League of Supporters—and all the amazing perks you can earn—turn to page 9 or go to: knoxmercury.com/donate —Coury Turczyn, ed.

Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR

Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITER

S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Bryan Charles Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson

Rose Kennedy Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan William Warren Chris Wohlwend

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR

Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES

Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com

BUSINESS DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Jerry Collins jerry@knoxmercury.com

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 706 Walnut St., Suite 404, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES

editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS

calendar@knoxmercury.com

OUR NEXT MERCURY MEETUP We’re heading to Fountain City for our second Mercury Meetup! Each month, the staff visits a different neighborhood to socialize with readers and to learn more about the issues facing each of our communities. There won’t be any speeches or roundtables. We’ll just be hanging out, ready to chat about darn near anything with whomever stops by. NEXT STOP: The Casual Pint in Fountain City (4842 Harvest Mill Way, off N. Broadway) on Wednesday, June 24, 5-8 p.m.

SALES QUERIES

sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION

distribution@knoxmercury.com The Knoxville Mercury is an independent weekly news magazine devoted to informing and connecting Knoxville’s many different communities. It is a taxable, not-for-profit company governed by the Knoxville History Project, a non-profit organization devoted to exploring, disseminating, and celebrating Knoxville’s unique cultural heritage. It publishes 25,000 copies per week, available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. © 2015 The Knoxville Mercury

A Knox Heritage Summer Despite some disheartening recent losses, Knoxville preservation still has much to celebrate. Summer Suppers “Picnic in the Park,” on August 29, is the bargain of the group. The location is the under appreciated Rabbit and Poultry Barn, built in the 1930s and the oldest building at historic 1880s Chilhowee Park (except for the old Exposition-era bandstand), it’s considered a threatened structure, and listed on Knox Heritage’s Fragile 15. Unlike the semi-formal dinners oﬀered at previous Summer Suppers, “Picnic in the Park” will be a more casual party, catered by several local-favorite food trucks. ($50)

Knox Heritage puts the fun in fundraising each year with a temptation other nonprofits may wish they’d thought of first. Summer Suppers is a series of 13 place-centric dinners held in historic spots all over the area, from townhouses to warehouses, combining little-known stories with unusual and often place-inspired cuisine. This year, one dinner is at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, where they’re oﬀering Dead End Barbecue. (The prison that for a century housed Tennessee’s most desperate criminals, closed several years ago, and we’re assured all the convicts have left.) Believe it or not, that one’s already sold out. Summer Suppers 2015 launches this coming Saturday, with an event every week or two until the end of August. Although they aren’t necessarily cheap, ranging from $50 to $250, only six of the 13 still have space available.

Photo courtesy of Knox Heritage knoxheritage.org

One of the poshest on the list, a beef tenderloin dinner on June 13 (“Triple R -- Reclaim, Repurpose, Restore”), offers an opportunity to view a 1929 Sequoyah Hills renovation known for its innovative use of salvaged historic materials, including shutters from a 19th-century New England mill. ($175) “Moonlight and Fireflies” is the name of an outdoor-oriented event at the Red House Flower Farm, on the Knox County side of Grainger County. It’s the county famous for tomatoes, and tomato dishes will be part of a roast-beef dinner, as will be a signature cocktail called Firefly. It’s on June 27, an almost-full moon, we hope. ($75) “Cookout at the Concrete House” celebrates mid-century modernism with a very ’50s soirée on July 11 in a Bruce McCarty-designed architectural archetype that still seems cutting edge 60 years later. As, perhaps, does the whimsical menu for the evening, which includes, among other mid-century treats, “Corrugated Chips & Dip & Pork Rebar in a Blanket.” ($90) “City Safari: A Taste of Africa” is downtown, August 1, on South Central Street’s converted warehouse known as the Carson, and offers an African-themed buffet, with North African Bread, South African wine, and an intriguing course they’re calling, vaguely, “game skewers.” ($200) “Night at the Museum” is at UT’s McClung Museum, on August 15, comes with a mysterious-sounding theme and hints of an apparition of Teddy Roosevelt, who visited Knoxville on several occasions. The big meal appears to include several different entrées, including catfish, tuna, and buffalo chicken, and the price includes a full year membership in the museum. ($120)

Money raised through the fundraisers goes to support the programs of Knox Heritage, which is trying to build up its fund to buy and restore endangered properties.

Cripple Creek Crawl: the 2015 Art & Architecture Tour Every year, Knox Heritage offers its Art & Architecture Tour, to unveil the results of a recent photography context centered on a historic neighborhood. This Friday’s event is a little different from previous ones that have concentrated on more famously historic places. Although it will begin and end in the Old City, the bulk of this tour will cover the area known a century ago as Cripple Creek. A high-density slum area long-neglected and nearly erased during “urban renewal” in the 1950s and ’60s, Cripple Creek--it was better known by the mid-20th century as “the Bottom”--still has some interesting old architecture, including one big brick building that’s older than anything in the Old City, and more new signs of life than we’ve seen in half a century, with a brewpub, a jeans boutique, and plans that promise to make the neighborhood look visibly different within a year or two. Jack Neely, executive director of the Knoxville History Project, is at work on a book-length history of the area, and will guide the evening stroll through what was around 1900 Knoxville’s most colorful, lively, and dreaded neighborhood, visiting sites of old schools, forgotten factories, and the one street that served as Knoxville’s formal red-light district. Tickets are $45 and there may still be a few openings. It’s this Friday, June 5, at 5:30 p.m. and as veteran pilgrims know, the urban hike happens rain or shine. For more all the above, check with Knox Heritage, 865-523-8008, or knoxheritage.org.

The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city. Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

Illustration by Ben Adams

HOWDY

Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX

GHOST SIGNS BY BUD RIES

The Haynes-Henson Shoe Company still proudly touts its Million Dollar Shoe House on what is now the Jackson Ateliers in the Old City. The sign was actually repainted, about 2000, by Buzz Goss & Co. when they redid the building.

QUOTE FACTORY “ He is very remorseful that a life was taken, but he has accepted responsibility.” —Defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs, referring to his client Troy Whiteside in a WBIR story about Whiteside’s guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. About six years ago, the Republican insider shot Reginald S. Sudderth 13 times in the back and side. He was charged with first-degree murder; with the plea deal, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison and must serve 35 percent of it.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

6/4 SOUTH KNOXVILLE FORUM THURSDAY

6:30 p.m., Ijams Nature Center (2915 Island Home Ave.). So what’s going on in South Knoxville? Well, there’s that whole waterfront project, an urban wilderness, and an alliance. Get the update at this public forum hosted by 1st District City Councilman and Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis, Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown, and Knox County school board member Amber Rountree.

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Knoxville’s oldest graveyards, like the Presbyterian graveyard on State Street, have ALMOST NO CROSSES. Knoxville’s early Christians were strict Protestants who believed representations of the cross were technically “graven images,” and forbidden by the Ten Commandments. Knoxville had few if any public representations of the cross until after the arrival of Catholic immigrants, who had no such restrictions, in the mid-19th century. First Presbyterian’s Celtic cross, which memorializes Marguerite Dabney, a daughter of UT’s popular president Charles Dabney, was a later addition. Now 106 years old, the Bijou Theatre, which is often praised even in the national press for its near-perfect acoustics, IS THE OLDEST THEATER IN TENNESSEE. As a building, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is several years older, but when the Bijou was built, the Ryman was still a church. The thousands of stars who have performed on the Bijou’s stage include the Marx Brothers, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Will Rogers, and John Phillip Sousa. In 1803, botanist Francois-Andre Michaux noted that Knoxville was a city of 300 houses. Of those 300, ONLY ONE STILL EXISTS. Blount Mansion is Knoxville’s only National Landmark.

6/5 CRIPPLE CREEK CRAWL FRIDAY

5:30 p.m. (reception), Boyd’s Jig & Reel. $45. Knox Heritage is conducting its eighth annual Art & Architecture Tour, this time with the Cripple Creek Crawl, a walking tour of what was once a high-density urban neighborhood to the east of the Old City. Serving as tour guides for the event are some guy named Jack Neely (the executive director of the Knoxville History Project) and Knox Heritage executive director Kim Trent.

6/6 FREE FISHING DAY

SATURDAY

8 a.m.-noon, The Cove at Concord Park (11808 S. Northshore Dr.). Free. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency presents its annual free fishing day. (They normally require a fishing license for this sort of thing.) Fishing equipment will be provided, and there will be door-prizes for kids. The Tennessee Valley Sportsman Club will be cooking up free hot dogs.

6/10BUSINESS BREAKFAST WEDNESDAY

7:30-11:30 a.m., Knoxville Civic Coliseum (500 Howard Baker Jr. Ave.). Free. Want to learn how your business can get city contracts to provide services? City of Knoxville department directors, Purchasing Department managers, and other top staffers will be available to chat at this meet-andgreet breakfast.

HOWDY WORDS WITH ...

Mckenzie Ayers

pier busine!, With 45 years in the co

BY ROSE KENNEDY Mckenzie Ayers, a rising 11th grader, will participate in the Knoxville Area Transit Scavenger Hunt for middle- and high schoolers Friday, June 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Club Vibes, an organization that helps the visually impaired maintain independence, is co-presenter of the event and Ayers, who is vision-impaired, will be on a team that travels KAT routes by bus to complete tasks. Cost for the event is $10 and the top three teams earn prizes; all participants get T-shirts and goodie bags. Ayers is pictured with her Club Vibes “pilot,” Jim Wachter.

What’s your deal with Club Vibes?

I’ve been a member for five years and now I am also a mentor. VIBES stands for Visually Impaired Blind Enhanced Services. I’ve been riding tandem for five years with Vibes—biking members of the community volunteer their time each week or month to “pilot” a tandem bicycle for the “stoker” on the back. That is the person who may be blind or have a visual impairment. My visual impairment is called Optic Nerve Disc Drusen. I was not born with it, but it was degenerative and got worse when I got a concussion. It is permanent, but it has improved some in recent years. It affects my peripheral vision, so it is safer for me to ride tandem. I usually ride 20-25 miles weekly with my pilot Jim Wachter.

Do you get nervous on the bike?

I love riding and I totally trust my pilot. We even rode in the Cycling For Sight event in San Diego last summer with Club Vibes. It was a two-day, 150-mile ride and we had an awesome time.

Can people ordinarily tell you are vision-impaired?

Most people don’t know of my vision issues. I get around really well and love doing any kind of extreme sports. Club Vibes and the founder and president, Sue Buckley, helped me feel okay about my vision and taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to.

Do you have more bus experience than your opponents?

My team members for the KAT Scavenger Hunt are Ryan Portman and Drew Holbrook and we don’t have any experience on the bus line because we don’t have service near Farragut High School. I am looking forward to learning about the bus system and where it can take me.

Has your impairment ever made you feel isolated or picked on? My vision impairment is pretty minimal compared to most in Club Vibes. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been picked on because of it, but I also know that kids can be mean.

Do you have advice for fellow teens who are different in some way?

The best thing to do is stand up for yourself and show others how awesome and fun you are. Then the impairment doesn’t matter. As Sue Buckley says, “It’s not a disability, it’s a diff-ability!” Meaning you just do things differently than others sometimes, but you still do it!

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What’s your least and most favorite part of school? I just made Ensemble Choir for next year, and singing is my first love. I also really like geography and Spanish and learning about new places. My least favorite subjects is algebra. Just not what I enjoy.

What are your future plans?

I will graduate from Farragut High School and go on to college to get my degree in early childhood education and business and one day open up my own daycare center. I love young children and I have three nieces who are 4, 2, and 7 weeks. They are a huge part of my life and I love spending time with them whenever I can. The KAT Scavenger Hunt 2015 is free to the first 10 teams that enter and then $10 per participant. Middle school teams must have an adult member. To register: kash2015.org. For more information about Club Vibes: club-vibes.org.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Romanesque Revival Occasionally, a renovation uncovers a forgotten old hotel BY JACK NEELY

f you find yourself ambling on North Gay, as I do when I park free under the highway, you may be in for a start. The familiar building many of us grew up with known as Regas Restaurant suddenly sports, on its side, a Romanesque apparition in stone. Odd striated limestone pillars— from the street they could pass for old wood—stand on a base of rough-hewn stone, all topped by a marble arch. These aren’t droll additions; they’ve been there all along, and once framed the main entrance to a major building that in the 1890s was one of the most impressive structures on the north side of the railroad yards. This architectural fossil is catching the afternoon sun for the first time in almost half a century. Thanks to Knoxville Leadership Foundation, the nonprofit that is renovating the building as a hub for other nonprofits, we can now see the entrance to the old Watauga Hotel. Since the Nixon administration, Regas has looked like a modern building, an oblong two-story with “rustic” wooden stylings of a sort that were trendy in the early ’70s, with a big parking lot. Call it the Regas Building, and I won’t argue. Nobody was ever there longer. But when the Regases first moved their Astor Cafe there in 1924, they occupied a small part of a much-larger building that had been there for more than 30 years. Over the next few decades, Regas got much bigger and the building got much smaller. What we’ve known as the old Regas is just the first two floors of a five-story building known a century ago as the Watauga.

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Its history is complicated. Built in the early 1890s, the brick-and-stone edifice was first known as the Caswell & Harris Buildings, listed as if they were two structures with the same address. Caswell was surely William Caswell, the Confederate veteran and real-estate developer who later established a professional baseball field by his name. Harris was likely Dr. Madison Harris, who during the building’s early years kept his dental office on the building’s second floor. It also housed the McAllen Business College and, up on the fifth floor, an Odd Fellows lodge. Caswell apparently didn’t mind hosting a Union veterans’ fraternity, W.P. Sanders Camp No. 3, in his building. It was a mixed-purpose residential, commercial, and office building, with several medical professionals, but its balance seemed to shift with each year. The Cherokee name Watauga had first appeared in connection with that building in the late 1890s. The Watauga River is a tributary of the Holston, 100 miles to the northeast. The word is well-known in history for the Watauga Association of the 1770s, a proto-government that was a sort of great-uncle of the State of Tennessee. The state centennial celebrations of 1896-97 stirred up old heroic stories. It evolved into a hotel by degrees, with hotel amenities emerging almost independently. By 1905, the Watauga Dining Room was on the second floor. By 1908, it had a barber shop and pool room and a drugstore. Soon it even had a little post office. It was a block for amenities, anyway, to serve the hundreds of

railroad passengers who swarmed these sidewalks daily, looking for a shave or a meal or a clean shirt or a Coca-Cola or a game of pool. Also on the block was Patrick Harrigan’s Saloon and Rooney Confectioners. This was on the edge of the neighborhood then still known as Irish Town. The intersection of North Gay and Depot was one of our busiest places, with both locals and passengers who were afoot in Knoxville only for a frantic hour or two. It was a big-city part of town. By 1911, the building was advertising as the Watauga Hotel. It may have felt a prod in that direction by its enormous new neighbor, the Hotel Atkin, across the alley, on Depot Street. For a decade or two, the Atkin was Knoxville’s biggest and most luxurious hotel. A classical string quartet played nightly in the lobby. The Watauga was a more practical place, offering short and long-term deals for guests and residents. Former alderman Charlton Karns was the proprietor of the building. If that name rings a bell, he was later Knoxville city manager, a longtime resident of the recently embattled Howard House on Broadway. Karns tried to raise the profile of the Watauga Dining Room and its “25-cent meals.” (That was cheap, a century ago, but not dirt cheap.) It was one of four sizeable hotels near North Gay or on Depot, serving the Southern station. There was a lot of demand for hotels, as long as there were dozens of passenger trains stopping there daily, bound for New York or Birmingham or Washington or New Orleans.

Among the Watauga’s long-term residents was the severely eccentric attorney John R. Neal, who lived at the Watauga for almost 20 years in the 1930s and ’40s—when the estranged UT prof, and Scopes trial defense attorney, was establishing his own idiosyncratic School of Law, and working hard to promote an unprecedented legal entity called TVA. And then, when it didn’t turn out exactly as he pictured it, becoming one of its chief critics. His rare visitors reported the bachelor lived among piles of law and history books and magazines, scurrying through them like a very intelligent rat in a warren of wisdom. The railroad-station hotel business declined rapidly after World War II. One thing this neighborhood was famous for besides hotels was automobile dealerships. A lot of folks bought cars and stopped riding the train. The hotels were left beached. Three old hotels, including the grand Atkin, became flat parking lots. In 1963, the city condemned the Watauga. The Regases responded by razing the three upper floors. Nobody protested much. In 1963, there was more wonder in the engineering marvel of accomplishing that without even closing the restaurant than regret at the loss of a run-down building. The Knoxville Leadership Foundation is preserving what they can. A couple of interior arches on the second floor may frame the lobby of the old hotel. “In the history of this building, we’re just a blip,” says president Chris Martin. “It’s our time to hold the torch. It’s not going to be long, so let’s do it well.” ◆

and help pay for this reporter’s salary

a d u D y intrepid

ajournalist

Now’s your chance to tell us what you really think–in person!

By signing up with the Knoxville Mercury League of Supporters, you’ll help keep independent journalism alive in Knoxville with your donations—and earn some swanky perks. This year’s inaugural fundraising drive has a specific goal: to bring in-depth investigative reporting back to Knoxville. To do that, we’re going to hire our first full-time reporter. Learn more about Clay Duda, his family’s epic journey across the country to Knoxville, and how to donate at:

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Wednesday, June 24, 5-8 p.m. at The Casual Pint Fountain City 4842 Harvest Mill Way, Knoxville, TN 37918 (Next to Pet Supplies Plus)

There won’t be any speeches or roundtables. We’ll just be hanging out, ready to chat about darn near anything with whomever stops by. We hope for a crowd!

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All of the above plus a Knoxville Mercury art book featuring a year’s worth of covers.

$1,000 AND UP

All of the above plus invitations to our annual Founders’ Party in the spring, where you can meet some of Knoxville’s most interesting movers and shakers.

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

ARCHITECTURE MATTERS

Monuments, Memory, and City-Making Recalling Knoxville’s role in the Red Summer of 1919 BY GEORGE DODDS

onuments and memorials are the things around which great cities construct themselves and by which their builders and inhabitants remember who they are, why they are there, and the important events of their collective pasts. It’s easy to get confused, however, by the nomenclature that describes this type of artifact. While all memorials are monuments, not all monuments are memorials. Further, not all monuments are monumental, nor are all things monumental large. As for memorials, while all operate as memory prompts, not all are created to serve as memorials from the start. Rather, “unintentional monuments” become memorials over time, as meaning is accreted to them for any number of reasons—an event that may have happened there or simply because something is the last of its kind. At first, monuments were not added to a city, as we perceive them today; rather, they preceded the city. They were the primary elements to which a city’s tendons and muscles affix over time—the bony centers of constructed artifice. A simple fire became an altar for sacrifice to which a temple was added, and from there, a city was founded—several thousand

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

years ago, anyway. Knoxville has long had its fair share of important memory markers, but, like most places, perhaps not the best of memories. Few knew of or remembered the Sultana monument in Mount Olive Cemetery (1916) until Jack Neely covered it several weeks ago. There is the New York Highlanders monument (1918) at the intersection of Clinch Avenue and 16th Street, which many pass on a daily basis but few notice. Fewer still know its reason for being. Of late, however, memorials are increasingly populating the city’s public realm. Market Square and its

environs are home to a gaggle of monuments and representational sculptures in service of memorials, few of which rise to the occasion. And while one could argue that their “art value” is only a secondary concern, that would seem pretty thin gruel. No doubt opinions vary widely on the artistic success of either the bronze Women’s Suffrage Memorial (2006) located on the edge of Market Square, or the improbably seated Dr. William T. Sergeant (2005) in Krutch Park. Both seem to commemorate better than they elevate. That said, they speak to the improved health of the region as an increasingly broad spectrum of stakeholders stakes claim to part of the story of this place. On the University of Tennessee campus, the classically elegant Torchbearer bronze is undergoing restoration during the renovation of Circle Park. The bronze reproduction of Europa and the Bull by famed Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (19051955) was placed on campus the same year as the most recent version of the Torchbearer, 1968. The former, which commemorates nothing local but celebrates something global, is one of the finest pieces of public sculpture in the state. Yet it occupies a relatively incidental location on campus—a space that is more passageway than place. Were it switched with Alice Aycock’s A Startling Whirlwind of Opportunity, in the Johnson-Ward Pedestrian Mall, a major prospect would be greatly enhanced with a single stroke and Ms. Aycock’s whirlwind would be that much less startling. With a chronology of the university inscribed along its central datum, the mall is itself a long flat monument to self-memory, albeit a pedestrian one.

There are other histories, other stories, perhaps not so attractive, that nonetheless help us better understand this place and our place in it.

As for other UT memory markers—the well-intentioned memorial to the great Pat Summit located at the corner of Lake Loudoun Boulevard and Phillip Fulmer Way offers an object lesson in the many challenges of siting and designing a successful monument today, particularly when several levels of committees are involved. The public face Coach Summit projected courtside was animated, passionate, and intensely focused. Yet, the representational sculpture of the coach is too inert to be animated, the monument’s surface color and form too insipid to be passionate, the baffling geometry of the ascending perimeter wall too inconsistent to be intense or focused. If this is how the university honors the winningest coach in the history of all college sports, one worries about what Phil Fulmer has to look forward to. So what is missing from this picture? When cities build monuments to the great men and women who were born, relocate, or in some cases just pass through the place, understandably they celebrate the positive—those events that add luster to one’s home. There are, of course, other histories, other stories, perhaps not so attractive, that nonetheless help us better understand this place and our place in it. How does a city acknowledge those events that were both momentous and monstrous? Dealey Plaza, for example, is a national historic landmark not because the people of Dallas willed it so, but because the rest of the nation and the world did. An otherwise nondescript place, it is the epitome of unintentional monuments. During the final 48 hours of August 1919, Knoxville became part of a national tragedy, North and South, that was playing itself out on the world stage. Known collectively as the “Red Summer,” between May 10 and Oct. 1, in about three dozen U.S. cities, from as far north as Chicago and as far south as Texarkana, Texas, perhaps as many as 200 African Americans were lynched: hanged, shot, and burned at a stake. Chronicled by several historians during the past several decades, one of the most important documents was produced by Dr. George Haynes, commissioned by President Wilson to document the events, and summarized in a horrifying account published in a New York Times article on Oct. 5, 1919.

Knoxville’s part in the 1919 Red Summer was a great event, but monstrous. It is also worth remembering.

Here in Knoxville, the story is more complex, culminating not in a lynching but a riot and armed conflict at the end of which seven were killed and 20 wounded—two days of racially motivated violence that today would be rightly labeled hate crimes. The final and most violent acts happened at the intersection of Central and Vine, just around the corner from the home and business of Cal Johnson, a freed slave who was still very much alive at the time and an important member of what was then Knoxville’s black business district, the locus of the riot. Today one can find that intersection only on old maps. The insertion of the antithetically urban West Summit Hill Drive eviscerated this critical part of the city, erasing centuries of physical fabric and collective memories. In its wake it left odd fragments of dross space: a few businesses, far too much surface parking, and a triangular bit of cultivated land fronting Gay Street that has become an increasingly attractive urban park. Yet there is now an opportunity for Knoxville to participate in an important national event connected to the Red Summer that would at once rework this part of its urban fabric, memorialize an important part of the African-American story in the several histories that make up our city, and place Knoxville at the forefront of a national movement. Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has begun an ambitious program to erect memorials marking the 4,000 lynchings perpetrated in 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950. Knoxville’s Red Summer race riot

began with an attempted lynching, foiled when the accused, Maurice Mays, was shuttled to Chattanooga. This did not stop the escalation of violence by the police force and Tennessee National Guard, however, against a small band of black citizens, guilty of being the wrong color at the wrong time and place. Almost immediately, local and state news outlets in Knoxville and Nashville whitewashed the events of August 30 and 31, referring to it as a “disturbance,” claiming suggestions of a riot were exaggerated. This was soon followed by an out-migration of blacks from Knoxville; if this was only a disturbance, they clearly had no interest in waiting around to experience something worse. With the story soon sanitized, key black participants killed or having left the city, and two generations later, the very site of the riot erased from the face of the city, one quickly sees how ephemeral are our memories, collective or otherwise. This is yet another reason why we build monuments and memorials: to remind us of the great things we can accomplish. Dr. Sergeant, the bronze fellow sitting uncomfortably on a world globe in Krutch Park, led the way to eradicating polio; the New York Highlanders successfully defended Fort Sanders. These were great things. Great, however, does not mean good. Knoxville’s part in the 1919 Red Summer was a great event, but monstrous. It is also worth remembering. We need an archaeology of sorts to unearth the forgotten parts of this part of our story and the missing city in which it happened. This, too, would be a great thing. ◆ June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

PERSPECTIVES

Our Shortsighted County Mayor

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Is it enough for Knox County to measure success by how little it can do? BY JOE SULLIVAN

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

ounty Mayor Tim Burchett’s contention that Knox County Schools can’t afford the two new schools provided for in its budget is full of baloney. And even if it had any merit, Burchett has no authority to tell the school board how to use its money. At issue are school board-approved plans to build a $33 million Hardin Valley Middle School and a $22 million elementary school in what’s called the north central section of the county. The board also recommended construction of a Gibbs Middle School, but only if the county pay for it out of general funds and not funds allotted to the school system. So in trying to sweep away plans for all three schools with one brush, Burchett is making Gibbs a straw man for the others. Hardin Valley Middle is aimed at relieving overcrowding at the three existing West Knox middle schools that’s only going to get worse before the new school can be completed. I’m less clear about the need for a new elementary school but I am clear that the school board has the funding to pay for it. In his annual budget speech in May, our pinchpenny mayor allowed, “there’s been a lot of talk about building new schools in Knox County. Before that conversation can progress we must be realistic about our ability to fund operations for even a single new school. It is one thing to build a building today but quite another to pay for constantly increasing operating costs in perpetuity. Building a school that we can’t pay to operate is fiscally irresponsible.”

An analysis of the school system’s debt, which is kept separate from the rest of the county’s, shows that retirement of outstanding bonds over the next five years will free up enough money to cover not only the debt service on bonds to fund the two new schools, but also their incremental operating expenses. Projected debt service, including the two new schools, drops by over $3 million in the school year beginning in 2019 and by another $2 million in the following year. That’s a year later than the two schools are due to open, but that could be deferred for a year if need be. Burchett’s finance director, Chris Caldwell, whom I hold in high esteem, argues that Superintendent Jim Mcintyre’s five-year strategic plan calls for annual teacher pay raises of 4 percent at a cost of $10 million a year, and that these plus other endemic fixed-cost increases are likely to exceed the growth rate of the school system’s three sources of revenue: formulaic state BEP funds and a set portion of local property and sales taxes. But since when did Burchett give a hoot about the strategic plan of a superintendent whom he detests? And in any event, the county mayor is not entitled to say how the school board spends the funds that are allotted to it. State “maintenance of effort” requirements preclude reduction of these budgetary allotments. However, County Commission would have to approve the issuance of debt to fund construction. By the time the two new schools

are due to open, Burchett will thankfully have been term-limited out of office. And one can hope for the election of a more progressive county mayor who will redress Burchett’s regressiveness. Already, there are signs of pushback against a regime that seems to measure success in terms of how little it can do and how much it can reduce the county’s debt. County Commission Chairman Brad Anders, a West Knox Republican with staunch conservative credentials, has taken the lead in calling for a tax increase. “It’s inevitable,” Anders says. “And it’s not just for schools. We’ve got roads that aren’t getting paved, park lands that are sitting idle, all kinds of wants and needs.” Whether Anders has any followers at this point on that 11-member body, beyond center-city Democrats Sam McKenzie and Amy Broyles, remains to be seen. But I’m hopeful that his message will resonate with large segments of the public as the county budget debate plays out in the media. If there is a silver lining to Burchett’s myopic shroud, it’s that reductions in county debt are also lowering its debt service funds, which can be reallocated. In his budget for the fiscal year ahead, Burchett reduced the portion of the county’s $2.32 property tax rate that goes to debt service by a penny, but the reallocation went for street paving rather than an addition to the 88 cents that goes to schools. Over the next five years, further projected reductions of over $40 million in the county’s debt would beget nearly $3 million in annual savings, or another three cents of property tax that could go to schools if Burchett is sincere about wanting to help teachers get paid better. Meanwhile, McIntyre gets a demerit for lack of candor in his portrayal of how recommended teacher pay raises and performance bonuses during the fiscal year ahead would be paid for. He presented their $10.7 million cost in a way that implied the school budget included sufficient funds to cover them when, in fact, there was a $5.6 million shortfall. Since there is no reduction in school debt service in the year ahead, these ballyhooed compensation increases will have to be cut in half unless some other source of funding is identified. What this community really can’t afford is to fail to nurture its young people with first-rate public schools. ◆

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

Lost Knoxville Harlan Hambright’s photographs of the 1970s document the last remnants of a prior era

arlan Hambright did not purposefully set out to document the stuff of Knoxville that was about to be vanquished—mostly, he was just attracted to the city’s weird scenes and odd occurrences. Little did he know, as a young man learning his trade in the 1970s, that the places he was photographing would soon be banished from a city that wanted to modernize itself and become more like anywhere else. Armed with interstate exits, shopping-mall ideals, surface parking, glass siding for old buildings, and a World’s Fair, city planners proceeded to smooth over a lot of Knoxville’s rough edges in the 1980s. But Hambright managed to record them before the

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

times changed, creating a unique portfolio of a forgotten Knoxville— many of his photos have remained unseen for the past 40 years. The Young High School grad was a freshman in the University of Tennessee’s architecture program in 1969, but his primary obsession at the time was photography. He was most attracted to the street photos of masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith, and he aimed to capture similarly candid scenes of people in Knoxville’s streets. He signed on with UT’s Daily Beacon as a photographer and carried two Nikons with him wherever he went—one with a telephoto lens, one wide-angle, both loaded with Tri-X film and ready to shoot.

“I was hunting for pictures wherever I went,” Hambright recalls now from his home in St. Simons Island, Ga. “And if I saw something, I would just get it.” And he did—inspired by Cartier-Bresson’s philosophy of pursuing the “decisive moment” of any particular scene, Hambright was ever on the prowl to record the precise intersections of people, places, light, and action. You can see it in the shot he calls “Ethereal Pilaster,” of a ghostly column floating among downtown pedestrians, or “S&W Shadow,” with an older woman transfixed by a shadowy telephone pole rather than by the hip 1970s businessman striding by in a wide tie and platform boots. Later, the young Hambright

decided to integrate his field of study—architecture—into his photography. He purchased a large-format 4x5 camera—the sort that requires a tripod and a black cloth over your head to operate—and began shooting buildings. But rather than photograph Knoxville’s most auspicious structures, he set up his gear to painstakingly record its more unusual “vernacular” buildings: dry cleaners, diners, old-time general stores. He would shoot them as if they were St. Paul’s Cathedral, at the correct perspective, often in the “golden hour” at dusk—“Velda Rose” being a prime example. “I was just intrigued—it’s a stupid vernacular building, but it’s spectacular in its own way,” Hambright says. “I tried

Velda Rose Laundry 2906 Sanderson, near Western Avenue in the Pleasant Ridge area: “I had bought my first house not too far from there. And that’s one of those instances where I was practicing with my 4x5. It was still kind of new at the time, so I was experimenting with dusk lighting, which I now use all the time—the golden-hour shot that architectural photographers use all the time.” to capture its essence, the sort of thing that most people wouldn’t pay attention to. But somebody designs this stuff. Somebody comes up with all these things, these ideas—the way the building is and the way the sign is. Someone did that, and I’m sure it wasn’t a classically trained architect.” Hambright spent almost the entire decade shooting Knoxville’s dark corners. He graduated from UT in 1976 at age 25 but couldn’t find any local work in architecture. So he decided instead to become a full-time architectural photographer—“if that was such a thing”—but didn’t get very busy at it until some of his friends began working at Washington, D.C., architectural firms and started sending him assignments. Seeing greener pastures, he finally moved to D.C. in 1980 and launched a successful career fulfilling the imaging needs of architects that continues today. While he often returns to Knoxville (his culinarily inclined sisters are Margaret and Holly Hambright), he no longer photographs his hometown as he did in his youth. Last year, Hambright digitized his old negatives for a retrospective exhibit in Brunswick, Ga.—and he found that his favorite shots were still the ones he had made back in the ’70s. “The pictures that I really like, I just don’t shoot like that anymore,” he says with a certain amount of personal exasperation. “I don’t know if that’s because the novelty of photography is gone or if my outlook on life is changed or the way I see things has changed, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not seeing real life the same way as I did when I was in my early 20s.” Nevertheless, what he saw over 40 years ago was a vision of Knoxville that most others either ignored or wanted to be gone. His photographs are the last record of a time when Knoxville may have not been a tourist destination yet, but it was a town with a soul of its own. —Coury Turczyn

Ethereal Pilaster Shot from the old Fouche Building, looking toward the Farragut Building: “I was in a restaurant on Gay Street and that was one of those weird light kind of things. I looked out the window and thought I saw this pilaster, but it shouldn’t have been where it was, and I realized it was a reflection visible because of the way the sun was hitting it. So it had light and bizarreness in the same shot. I just thought it was neat that this significant architectural element seemed to be floating in space, and everyone was oblivious to it.”

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

Biscuits Gravy “I was driving my sisters down Western Avenue from somewhere, taking them home, and I looked over and happened to see that sign painter outside. And I thought, I bet that will be a really nice picture from inside. So I stopped and let my sisters out of the car and went inside. I had a Leica at the time and that was with a 35mm lens, and got that picture. I thought it was a bizarre collection of objects and occurrences— the guy’s eating a cracker, and the guy’s painting the window, and they’re totally oblivious to it. That’s one of my favorites.”

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Ben Hensley Grocery “A woman whose name I can’t remember right now was doing a book on old-timey fiddlers in East Tennessee, and she had gotten me to take the pictures. That was an old grocery store somewhere out in the country northeast of Knoxville where there was pickin’ n’ grinnin’ every Saturday afternoon, I think. So I was up there to photograph the guys playing inside that store, but I couldn’t pass up that shot there.”

Art Truck Kingston Pike, in the parking lot of a shopping center, probably not far from West Town Mall: “That’s just when I had gotten my new 4x5 camera. And that is very formal because you’ve got a big tripod, a cloth over your head, and you spend a lot of money for film. It just looks like a really weird thing. And the kid was there, so I just ceremoniously set up my camera and did it, mostly just to capture weirdness. And I think I did. One of those right place, right time kinds of things.”

Dixie Diner 551 Clinch Ave., corner of Locust, possibly where the Locust Parking Garage is now. Chicken City “I was doing a story for The Daily Beacon on pollution in Knoxville. That was downtown somewhere, not too far from the JFG Building. It was weird seeing chickens being processed. I remember my grandmother wringing necks out in the yard when I was little, but I had never seen that scale of carnage.”

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

Retrospect, S&W Shadow (top) Downtown streets: “All of those are just weird light conditions I wanted to capture. I love the one where a woman is standing in the shadow of a telephone pole.”

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Jukebox Location unknown: “Probably too many PBRs.” “That was a little bar down not too far from the [Lawson McGhee] library that I used to go to. I kinda got known there, had PBRs, and that old lady worked there. It just looked kind of sad.”

Shoe Repair United Shoe Repair was at 726 Market St., and Campbell Inc. was at 720 Market: “I was going to move into a little apartment near St. John’s—our photo club had a gallery there in the late ’70s called Tangent.”

Painting Fort Sanders: “That’s Michael O’Brien, who was a fellow [Daily Beacon] staff photographer and who has gone on to be a fairly successful photographer. He was carrying a painting by another friend of his who was an artist that made it for him and he was taking it home. I needed to document that because it’s not often you see paintings walking down the street.”

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

A&E

P rogram Notes

International Sensation A few years ago, Brian Coakley was a student at the University of Tennessee, the host of a weekly late-night electronic dance music show on WUTK, and a fledgling live-music promoter. One of the first big shows he worked on, in 2009, was an appearance by alt-hip-hop producer and DJ RJD2 at the Valarium, booked by AC Entertainment. Coakley is bringing RJD2 back to the same space this weekend. But the circumstances are a lot different now. The former Valarium space, part of a massive warehouse complex just north of downtown, near the junction of Interstates 275 and 40, is now known as the International and is run by Coakley and a small staff. They’ll be celebrating the venue’s first anniversary with RJD2’s return to Knoxville on Saturday, June 6. “We’re all really excited about it,”

21 20

Shelf Life: Oscar Nominees

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Coakley says. “We all love his music. And for Midnight Voyage, in particular, which is a big part of the backbone of this business, it was one of the first shows that we really started helping promote back when AC brought him to the Valarium in 2009. That was one of the first shows where we got our hands dirty with the promotion and spreading the word on the streets. A lot of us are really into his music, and he’s super-amazingly talented, so we’re really pumped about the show.” The International space has been an off-and-on nightclub and concert space since the late 1980s, first as the Orpheus, then in at least two different incarnations as the Electric Ballroom. From 2007 to 2012, it was the Valarium, with an adjacent building used as a smaller venue and bar space. For most of 2013, it was the Blackstock. Coakley, who had worked at the

Music: Ancient River

Photo by yBenny Mistak

RJD2

Valarium, and his team took over the lease after the Blackstock shut down and hosted their first show last June. An adjacent building operates as the Concourse for smaller shows. “It’s been a wild ride, for sure,” Coakley says. The rapid turnover of the Valarium to the Blackstock to the International has given the location a reputation as a kind of Bermuda Triangle for clubs. But Coakley and his team have managed to keep the venue booked on a regular basis with a mix of EDM acts, hip-hop, hard rock and metal, indie rock, cover bands, and occasional country performers. Coakley says the club has averaged at least three shows a week. “We haven’t been closed a lot,” he says. The club’s most productive run came in late April and early May, when three consecutive shows at the International—melodic metal act In This Moment, rapper Big Sean, and Marilyn Manson—all sold out. “That felt good,” Coakley says. “That was a huge morale booster. I’m glad that happened recently, because it helped give everybody a boost in confidence and it signaled that we were really starting to become known, not just an underground thing.” Gary Mitchell, the owner of the Valarium, frequently talked about his plans to expand the clubs into a stand-alone warehouse entertainment district. Those grandiose plans never materialized. Now that Coakley’s been running the 70,000-square-foot space on his own for a year, he’s started having the same vision. He has no immediate plans, but he sees the possibilities. “I’d love to see it expand into all the different space we have one day—just turn it into an entertainment megaplex,” he says. “I think it’s mostly a money thing—it would cost millions. But it would be amazing. It could be its own entertainment district, like the Old City.” —Matthew Everett

Books: Spaced Out

Movies: San Andreas

LOCAL MUSIC REVIEW

Johnny Astro and the Big Bang Monuments It’s taken Johnny Astro and the Big Bang four years to follow up its promising 2011 EP, Thick as Thieves, with a full-length album. Monuments is a significant move forward for the band—they’re more competent and confident than they were four years ago, and they’ve polished their straightforward alt-rock (think Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, the Raconteurs, and Black Keys) with bad-boy sneering and prog weirdness. But it isn’t quite the breakthrough statement that might have been expected after such a long wait. The group has plenty of personality—lead guitarist Patrick Tice offers fleet-fingered riffing and some memorable solos, singer/guitarist Bradley Wakefield injects a dose of snarling punk venom, and bassist Mike Carroll and drummer Nathan Gilleran provide an anchor for the alternately churning and propulsive songs. Monuments is, in fact, a pretty professional job all around (even if the production could be a bit cleaner). Its greatest weakness is that it operates in such well-worn territory—a step or two in either direction, toward pop accessibility or even more baroque instrumental oddity, would have made the album feel more distinctive. As it is, it feels like a very safe return—let’s hope it doesn’t take another four years for JABB to take its next steps forward. —M.E.

Video: Slow West

Shelf Life

A&E

The Envelope, Please

LOSE WEIGHT WITH A WINNING TEAM!

A round-up of recently added Oscar nominees at the Knox County Public Library BY CHRIS BARRETT BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)

Your columnist suspects that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences favors films about motion pictures and the people who make and profit from them. 2014’s Best Film winner, Birdman, is essentially a tedious procession of egos and the exaggerated trials of folks who might benefit from having a real job. Still, there is some grace to the arc of this story. And if you can’t name characters consistently worthy of sympathy, you can spot moments when they earn it. Post-prime film actor Riggan Thomson—played by the superbly cast Michael Keaton—attempts a last-ditch transition from screen to stage. If he was your friend, you’d advise him against it. Since he’s not, you root for him.

BOYHOOD

Probably the finest film released during 2014, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is one of the most unusual and atypically comfortable films ever made. Without intruding or interfering, this film observes 12 years in the life of young Mason Evans Jr. (played with ease and charm by Ellar Coltrane over that same time span). There are minor crises and conflicts and resolutions and compensating pleasures that arrive via the passing of time. And so goes a life, like so many others, important because we know the one doing the living and feel like stakeholders. According to interview comments from Linklater, production plans and the script evolved as the lives of the actors recommended changes. There’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

This nostalgic Euro-fantasy marks a return to form for director Wes Anderson. Not since The Life Aquatic has he so successfully invented and transported viewers to a world. Just as Anderson has created safe spaces in the past for Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe (both of whom have supporting roles here), with Hotel he gives F. Murray Abraham and Ralph Fiennes access to a zone of wit and warmth that they’ve never before had in front of the camera. It did not deserve the Best Film Oscar. But it certainly deserved to be nominated and it deserves to be seen.

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FINDING VIVIAN MAIER

The introverted and mysterious Vivian Maier, who died in 2009 at the age of 83, supported herself primarily as a nanny. She was also a masterful street photographer and thus made her child-minding perambulations interesting to herself. She took over 150,000 photos, none of which were published during her lifetime and many hundreds of which were undeveloped when she died. Filmmaker John Maloof happened upon a cache of Maier photos and negatives while researching another project. There are too few new reasons to talk about photography, and these photos—especially those in which she has captured her own reflected image— are stunning. Remember the name Vivian Maier for that delicious day, bound to come, when your young one asks you the difference between a selfie and a self-portrait.

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Koko FitClub Farragut 153 Brooklawn St. 865-671-4005

Koko FitClub Bearden 4614 Kingston Pike 865-558-1236

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

A&E

Music

Photo by Dennis Gonzales

Outer Space Ancient River explores the psychedelic frontier BY MATTHEW EVERETT

ainesville isn’t usually known as a destination for anybody except SEC sports fans. But Alex Cordova, a drummer from South Florida, landed in the north central Florida town in 2011 with the sole purpose of joining the city’s underground psychedelic-rock scene. One of the first bands he encountered was James Barreto’s Ancient River, a loose and sprawling collective of musicians who met and recorded at Barreto’s

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

home studio space and had just started performing live. “I moved there specifically to make music with another band in town, and then I met James,” Cordova says. “I had never joined a band that already existed. I can say this about Ancient River—when I found out about the band, if I hadn’t joined, they probably would have been my favorite band in Gainesville. I kind of feel like it was the right time, right place. Once

I met James we were both pretty serious about it and pretty motivated.” At the time Cordova first heard the band, Ancient River was still finding its way. The group’s earliest recordings were primitive heavy throwback rock laced with occasional flourishes of West Coast hippie stylings—harmonica, acoustic guitar interludes, and dreamy harmony choruses. By the time of 2011’s Songs From North America, the band’s scope and ambition had grown; the dinosaur guitar riffs had been replaced with the sun-baked desert twang of the Meat Puppets and Crazy Horse. (The band’s name comes from the lyrics to Neil Young’s “Thrasher”: “Where the eagle glides ascending/ There’s an ancient river bending/ Down the timeless gorge of changes/ Where sleeplessness awaits.”) Cordova brought the whole sound together. On 2012’s Let It Live, Ancient River no longer sounds like a band trying to discover itself. As the band’s lineup stripped down and solidified and Cordova and Barreto cemented their creative partnership, all of their identifiable influences—Buffalo Springfield, Saucerful of Secrets, Hawkwind, the Nuggets compilation, the 13th Floor Elevators, Ennio Morricone—were thrown together into a wild, propulsive mix of Americana, space rock, psychedelic pop, Italian horror soundtracks, and punk. For all the varied source material, though, Ancient River’s music is distinctly American—it’s the sound of the frontier and wide open spaces. That’s notable, since Barreto is the child of immigrants. His father is Colombian and his mother is from Cuba, and he was born in Yemen and spent part of his childhood in Africa. (Cordova’s family is originally from Puerto Rico.) “I’m pretty much a product of American pop culture,” Barreto says. “Once I came over here, that was really strong. I absorbed that stuff the strongest, especially in my teenage years and right before I started playing music.” As the group became more serious and started touring, though, the level of commitment necessarily

grew. By the time Keeper of the Dawn, Ancient River’s fifth album, was released this spring, the band was down to Barreto and Cordova. But Keeper is the band’s most fully realized recording to date, a gorgeous and harrowing journey through the history of head music. “We scaled back the amount of members and it seems like the sound got bigger,” Barreto says. “I don’t know how we did that, but we’re going with it and having fun. It’s a challenge, but some things have been easier, like touring and band democracy—it’s easier having a small unit.” Other changes have accompanied the new streamlined version of Ancient River. Barreto moved from Gainesville to London last year, and Cordova resettled in Austin, Texas. But they’ll spend half of 2015 together—they spent a month in Austin this winter practicing and recording and have just started an arduous national tour that will last through July. Then they’re headed to Europe for a fall tour. “It didn’t really affect things too much this time,” Cordova says of the geographic separation. “With all the touring, we spend a lot of time together. I think we’ll be able to pull it off.”

WHO

Ancient River with Burning Itch and the Pat Beasley Band

WHERE

Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.)

WHEN

Sunday, July 7, at 9 p.m.

HOW MUCH $5

MORE INFO

thepilotlight.com

Books

Spaced Out Margaret Lazarus Dean chronicles the end of the Space Age BY BRYAN CHARLES

t times as I read Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight (Gray Wolf Press), I was reminded of Frank Sobotka, the tragically compromised longshoreman and labor leader from season two of The Wire. The fictional Sobotka, in just a few bitter words, got to the heart of America’s post-industrial drift. To paraphrase slightly: We used to make stuff in this country, build stuff. As Margaret Lazarus Dean makes clear in her eminently perceptive, beautifully written new book, we used to dream stuff, too. And for a time, improbably, our outsize dreams came true, with an efficiency that is all but unthinkable today. Consider that President Kennedy, speaking to a joint session of Congress, issued his famous call to land a man on the moon in May of 1961, and eight years later, Apollo 11 sent astronauts into space to do exactly that. In a remarkable early passage, Dean, a novelist and associate professor of creative writing at the University of Tennessee, summarizes

all that NASA had to achieve in those eight years in order to meet Kennedy’s goal. It’s a list whose breadth is such that its primary purpose—the design and construction of actual moonfaring materials —seems in a way no less daunting than its billion other logistical and conceptual hurdles. This paragraph alone triggered in me a retroactive pride that we as a nation were ever able to get our act together on such a scale. Dean is of course aware of the epochal contrasts: “It’s difficult for those of us born in a later era to imagine the historical phenomenon of Apollo, a moment when Americans came together over an enormous science project funded entirely by the federal government.” It was the fi nal phase of NASA’s so-called heroic era, an 11-year period comprising the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The shuttle era followed, and though it spanned 30 years, and the various space shuttle orbiters flew a total of 133 successful missions, the program is largely remembered for

A&E

two high-profi le tragedies: the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. These disasters (in particular the latter) presaged the end of the space shuttle program, an eventuality that seemed barely to register in the public consciousness. This is the jumping-off point for the social and personal explorations that form the heart of the book. “I want to know,” Dean writes, “what it means that we went to space for fi fty years and that we won’t be going anymore.” To that end, she travels to Florida’s Space Coast to witness the fi nal three shuttle launches, getting a little closer to the action each time. Dean’s prose sparkles as she describes the drives to and from Knoxville, the intricacies of launch protocol, and the muggy, mosquito-ridden atmosphere—almost like something prehistoric—where these birds blast off. By the fi nal launch—Atlantis— she’s at the press site: “I look over to the right of the photographers. There it is, the small grove of pure jungle. The visible line between mowed field and jungle is a border between space center and wild preserve, space and Earth, home and an alien world.” Along the way we meet Omar Izquierdo, Dean’s friend and a second-generation space center worker whose story is shadowed somewhat by the largely unspoken fact that when the space shuttle program disappears, so, in all likelihood, will his job. In this way, the curtailing of the program’s ambitions in the wake of the Challenger disaster of the Reagan years and the decision, made during the George W. Bush years, to establish an end date are contemporaneous with the diminishment of other once-indomitable American enterprises. And as usual, pretty much the last thing you hear about is the human cost. As Dean is checking out of her motel the morning after the last launch, the clerk, who recognizes her from a previous visit, says he’ll see her for the next one. “‘I look back at him quizzically, but he doesn’t seem to be joking. ‘See you for the next one,’ I answer.’” ◆

UP NEXT!

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

A&E

Movies

Nobody’s Fault San Andreas lives up to the low standards of the disaster movie BY APRIL SNELLINGS

n the opening sequence of San Andreas, L.A. Fire Department search-and-rescue pilot Ray Gaines saves the life of a careless young driver whose car is about to plummet off a cliff. It’s notable because it’s the first and last time in the movie that Ray, played with considerable style and conviction by Dwayne Johnson’s right eyebrow, will spare more than a disinterested glance for anyone who doesn’t have an established relationship with his reproductive organs. That head-scratcher—a rescue worker who hardly ever bothers to rescue anyone—is one of many inanities strewn throughout the movie, which also piles on glaring coincidences, ridiculous dialogue, and a disregard for logic that’s almost kind of charming. San Andreas is, first and foremost, really dumb. But dumb isn’t the same thing as dull, and this latest, unabashedly silly entry in the disaster-film genre is fairly entertaining,

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

thanks to a solid cast and first-rate visual effects. That cast is headed up by Johnson, of course, whose 260-pound frame and million-watt smile seem specifically engineered to carry action movies like this one, especially when the script isn’t pulling its weight. In spite of his complete disregard for the well-being of anyone he isn’t related to, Ray is a likeable guy. He’s trying to navigate the choppy waters of an amicable divorce from his soon-to-be ex-wife Emma (Carla Gugino) while maintaining a relationship with their college-age daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario). When an earthquake in Nevada takes out the Hoover Dam and sets off a chain of “swarm events” that quickly works its way up the San Andreas Fault, Ray abandons his post and sets off to save Emma in Los Angeles. Once she’s safe, the estranged couple zips off to San Francisco to find Blake.

Blake, as it turns out, can hold her own. She teams up with a young British engineer named Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his precocious kid brother, Ollie (Art Parkinson). As Ray and Emma make their way to San Francisco by air and sea, Blake and her charges keep the action on the ground as they navigate chaotic streets and dodge crumbling skyscrapers. There’s also Caltech seismologist Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), whose job is to warn people about the impending quakes and reprimand them for not listening to him earlier. Director Brad Peyton deserves credit for keeping things moving in every possible direction—forward, backward, up, down, and sideways. He tries to find ways to let us experience the destruction from every imaginable vantage point, and he pulls off at least a couple of great scenes, the best of them a terrific tracking shot that follows Emma through a collapsing building as people and debris hurtle past her in all directions. It’s one of the few times I ever felt really invested in what was going on, and I wish there’d been more scenes like it. What San Andreas really lacks, then, is a sustained sense of peril. Yes, it’s relentlessly hokey—it ends with a giant American flag unfurling against a sunset while the Rock

intones, “Now we rebuild”—and it’s full of goofy dialogue and ridiculous coincidences. But the cast is good enough to transcend all that, and the narrative demands of the disaster genre are, if we’re being honest, historically pretty light. In those departments, San Andreas really isn’t that far behind the curve. But digital effects have proved to be a weird trap for disaster movies. On the one hand, it’s now possible to visualize devastation on a truly massive scale—an irresistible and, these days, indispensable tool for filmmakers telling stories about events that level entire cities. But it also encourages us to view the destruction from an ever-increasing distance, and San Andreas rarely finds ways to bridge that gap. Its CG effects are eye-popping and seamless, and it uses 3D well enough to justify the ticket premium. There are a few dizzying moments—the opening rescue is great, and a prolonged helicopter crash made me squirm— and the action sequences are polished and technically accomplished. But the spectacle almost never gives way to suspense, and there aren’t enough moments where we forget that we’re watching expertly rendered digital composites. San Andreas looks great, but it doesn’t feel like much. ◆

Video

A&E

Western Civ Slow West can’t escape the shadow of its classic predecessors BY LEE GARDNER

ne of the problems with Westerns at this point is that it’s hard to watch them without seeing other Westerns. You notice the plots and the characters you’ve seen before, and log the variations. You wait to see how much they depart from the canon and keep a running gauge of where they land on the spectrum between reverent and radical. And you watch with arms folded, hoping that they’ll fi nd some way to surprise you—ideally, in a good way. An arrow through the hand is a pretty good eye-opener. While it doesn’t thwok home until maybe 15 minutes into the run time of Slow West (available via VOD, Amazon, and iTunes), it solidifies the hints of droll absurdity rookie writer/director John McLean has sprinkled across the reels. The basics here are familiar: a young greenhorn (Kodi Smit-McPhee) meets a laconic gunslinger (Michael Fassbender). The former is searching the remote West for his true love; the latter’s motives are opaque. But as they ride along toward the inevitable violent complications, McLean throws a brief encounter with a trio of Congolese musicians across their path. As the duo’s long mosey continues, the seemingly kindly steal and the murderous stay their hands. When

gunmen hide in the nearest cover for miles, what do you do? If your fi rst answer is, “Burn it down,” then you are attuned to McLean’s extra-dry, inky-dark wit. Being so consistently wrong-footed by a movie is a rare pleasure, as is watching the indispensable Ben Mendelsohn parade around in a shaggy mountain of a fur coat that does half his work for him. But despite the efforts of the estimable Smit-McPhee and Fassbender, neither of their characters ever quite snap into focus—Fassbender’s performance could have benefitted from even one longish shot that rested on his face long enough to register an internal change. And another thing that also came up in another recent not-quite-all-theway-there Western, The Homesman: Who’s story is this? That’s Creative Writing 101, and you can fart around and tease all you want, but you have to decide. McLean punts. In the end, Slow West settles on that aforementioned spectrum in the same range as John Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean—an old-fashioned Western with a new-fashioned attitude that subverts Western myths as it celebrates them. Slow West is worth a watch, but it could have been a killer. ◆

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

CALENDAR MUSIC

Thursday, June 4 3 MILE SMILE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM THE COVERALLS • Market Square • 7PM • Part of the city of Knoxville’s spring series of free concerts on Market Square. • FREE THE DEAD 27S • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE RAE HERRING BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD • The Concourse • 7:30PM • Brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall have been playing together since they were little kids and formed the group when they were in high school. All ages. • $10-$12 • See Spotlight on page 33 DALE JETT AND HELLO STRANGER WITH IRA WOLF • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE DAVE KENNEDY • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM THE MANTRAS WITH SOUL MECHANIC • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band. Friday, June 5 CINDI ALPERT AND THE CORDUROY JAZZ TRIO • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM BRAD AUSTIN, ERIC GRIFFIN AND FRIENDS • Remedy Coffee • 6PM • FREE BAD IDOLS • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM NICK DITTMEIER AND THE SAWDUSTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE MATTHEW HICKEY • Jimmy’s Place • 6PM • Southern rock and country covers. All ages. • FREE J.C. AND THE DIRTY SMOKERS WITH THE BARSTOOL ROMEOS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • With a sound reminiscent of Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash, The Dirty Smokers are one of the few real honky-tonk bands around these days. DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE KITTY WAMPUS • Susan’s Happy Hour • 9PM • Classic rock and R&B. LEWIS, YAGER, MANEY AND BOYD • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE DAVIS MITCHELL WITH THE RED PAINTINGS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM HECTOR QIRKO, DANA PAUL, AND STEVE HORTON WITH FLATT LONESOME • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT • Pilot Light • 10PM • Ed Schrader is a natural, albeit unconventional, storyteller. The Baltimore-based musician, comedian, and sometimes pasta chef, who is best known for his sweaty performances as half of the postpunk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat , writes loosely autobiographical songs that are full of witty observations. 18 and up. • $6 THE SMOKING FLOWERS • Preservation Pub • 8PM THE STATE STREET RHYTHM SECTION • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • State Street Rhythm Section is a powerhouse funk band with horn section playing high-energy dance, funk and soul music. 26

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

TALL PAUL • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE IAN THOMAS AND THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Performing both solo and with a band, Thomas draws on a variety of American roots influences, delivering a captivating raw live performance and distinctive sound from his original compositions on guitar, harmonica and kazoo. WDVX BOB DYLAN BASH • Market Square • 5:30PM • WDVX Presents the 11th Annual Bob Dylan’s Birthday Bash on Friday, June 5, 2015 from Market Square featuring Maggie Longmire, Will Horton &amp; Friends, Four Leaf Peat, The Will Boyd Group, Exit 65, Dixieghost and Hector Qirko, with Dana Paul and Steve Horton. The music starts at 5:30pm with festival seating. • FREE • See Program Notes on page 18 Saturday, June 6 THE DEADBEAT SCOUNDRELS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 9PM JASON ELLIS • Jimmy’s Place • 6PM • FREE FREEQUENCY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • The local country/folk/pop trio Frequency celebrates the release of its new CD, Angels Wading. HYMN FOR HER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Hymn for Her inject juiced-up backwoods country blues with a dose of desert rock psychedelia. KNOXVILLE GAY MEN’S CHORUS • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Knoxville Gay Men’s Chorus will return to the Bijou stage once again this spring to perform American Choral Story: Imagine, a concert that explores the progress of equality throughout the history of our great nation. For more information please visit www.knoxgmc.org and find them on Facebook. • $18 THE LOOSE HINGES WITH RYE BABY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE MENDING WALL WITH BANDITOS • Preservation Pub • 10PM NEW CITY SAVAGES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM RJD2 • The International • 9PM • Underground hip-hop super-producer to some, virtuoso sample-based instrumental wizard to others: either way - no better way to celebrate the International’s one-year anniversary than with the Psychedelic, Electronica, Hip Hop &amp; Rock infused sounds of RJD2! • $10-$20 REALM • Scruffy City Hall • 11:30PM LEON RUSSELL • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • Leon Russell is a music legend and perhaps the most accomplished and versatile musician in the history of rock ‘n roll. In his distinguished and unique 50 year career, he has played on, arranged, written and/or produced some of the best records in popular music. • $25 RYE BABY • Preservation Pub • 8PM BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE UNSPOKEN TRADITION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE ALAN WYATT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE Sunday, June 7 ANCIENT RIVER WITH BURNING ITCH AND THE PAT BEASLEY BAND • Pilot Light • 9PM • $5 • See Music story on page 22. RIMS AND KEYS • Preservation Pub • 10PM ROBINELLA • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 7PM SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE JEFF SIPE TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Two-time Grammy nominee Jeff Sipe brings together the

MAGGIE BRANNON: DUCKING UP MY LIFE Striped Light (107 Bearden Place) • Friday, June 5 • 6-9 p.m. • Free

Artist Maggie Brannon was excited to find a box of Kodak photo paper for next to nothing at AMVETS. When she opened it up, she grew even more excited. Instead of photo paper, the box contained dozens of reproductions of a duck photograph, the kind of banally bucolic picture you might see in a hunting lodge or doctor’s office. She knew she would do something with these pictures at some point, and inspiration came weeks later when she was watching The Buddy Holly Story: She would paint the rock ’n’ roller over one of the ducks into a portrait. This soon turned into a series of paintings of actors and musicians she admires. “I hate biopics and celebrity worship, but I was raised by television and can’t help but have my heroes,” Brannon explains. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Willie Nelson, Harry Dean Stanton, Susan Tyrrell, and John Waters are some of the famous personalities represented. The only commoners Brannon included are herself, in the form of a self-portrait, and her White Gregg bandmate Eric Lee, whose likeness seemed to appear in a Clint Eastwood portrait gone awry. In the portraits, parts of the duck remain visible, so that Divine has a duck head for a neck, the Big Bopper makes a call on a duck phone, and a duck juts from the jaw of a Christ-like Willie Nelson. More often than not, though, duck heads spill forth from mouths, as if being swallowed or vomited. The effect can be as disturbing as it amusing. In the past Brannon has worked with text-based painting and fabric, and for this series her style ranges from minimalist charcoal line drawings with subdued coloring to broad washes of bright acrylics. A few of the celebrities are immediately recognizable, but most are abstracted to a degree that identifying them may require some guesswork. The portrait of Lily Tomlin, in particular, has a Cubist quality; the image barely registers as human. Repurposing thrift-store finds to create new works of art has been a thing for a while now, but Brannon takes a more colorful and quizzical approach than putting funny words or monsters in a landscape painting. It could be the smeary, almost violent representations of these individuals are a passive-aggressive manifestation of her admiration for people who are part of a celebrity culture she distrusts. But that’s just one interpretation. See the work and come up with your own. (Eric Dawson)

Spotlight: Fanboy Expo

Spotlight: Jeff the Brotherhood

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

incredible virtuosos Mike Seal on guitar and Taylor Lee on bass to form the Jeff Sipe Trio. An alumni of Berklee College of Music, Sipe has established himself as one of the greatest drummers in the United States. He has toured and/or recorded with highly renowned artists such as Bela Fleck, Phil Lesh, Jimmy Herring Band, Trey Anastasio Band, Derek Trucks, Col. Bruce Hampton &amp; the Aquarium Rescue Unit and many others. JESSICA WATSON • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM Monday, June 8 EMILY KATE BOYD WITH STEVE GILBERT • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JOHN DEE GRAHAM • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM OPEN CHORD BATTLE OF THE BANDS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Come out to support your favorite local band and hear some great live music. Winner & runner-up will advance to the next round of competition.Judging is based on stage presence, originality, and crowd size. This means the more fans there are to watch a band perform, the better their chances are of advancing to the next round. • $5 Tuesday, June 9 COALTOWN DIXIE WITH THIS WAY TO EGRESS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JAZZ ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 8PM • Featuring the Marble City 5. Every Tuesday from May 12-Aug. 25. • FREE SERYN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THIS WAY TO EGRESS • Preservation Pub • 10PM Wednesday, June 10 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE THE MATT NELSON SOUND • Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE PALEFACE WITH ROSEMARY KITCHEN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Prolific and influential cult-hero & indie-folk icon Paleface is a high-energy & charismatic duo featuring his girlfriend Monica “Mo” Samalot, on drum-kit & charming candied vocal harmonies. Guest poet Rosemary Kitchen will read her work in our Wordplay segment. • $10 VANESSE THOMAS WITH MOONLIGHT CO. • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE Thursday, June 11 THE BLACKFOOT GYPSIES WITH ROSS ADAM • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE BLACKFOOT GYPSIES • Preservation Pub • 10PM GRIND: AN ALICE IN CHAINS TRIBUTE • The Concourse • 7PM • All ages. • $7-$10 THE OLD CITY BUSKERS • Market Square • 7PM • Part of the city of Knoxville’s spring series of free concerts on Market Square. • FREE SIX MILE EXPRESS • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band. THREESOUND • Preservation Pub • 10PM CALE TYSON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Cale

CALENDAR

Tyson is a singer and songwriter from Nashville, TN. Born in a small town in Texas, he was raised in Fort Worth, the home of Townes Van Zandt and the place where he first heard the classic country sounds that have inspired and enriched his gentle, melancholy, and undeniably whiskey-soaked sound. WILD PONIES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM Friday, June 12 THE ART OF WITH MASS DRIVER, LINES TAKING SHAPE, ULAANBASTARDS, THE GENTLEMEN AND LIARS, AND DOC ISAAC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 6PM • Part of the Open Chord and Night Owl Music’s Gone-aroo, a two-night celebration of local music during that big summer festival in Manchester. THE BAND CONCORD • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Known for their love and playing of all things folk, The Band Concord shares a similar sound to that of The Head and the Heart and Fleet Foxes. Yet the group has expanded their musical palette even further with the release of their debut album, “Youth,” in April 2014 – introducing a twist to their traditional folk style with an emphasized pop sound in the single “Golden Road.” CHAMOMILE AND WHISKEY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM JERRY CONNATSER • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM CUMBERLAND STATION • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE KITTY WAMPUS • Whiskey River Wild • 9PM MIDNIGHT VOYAGE LIVE: AERO CHORD • The Concourse • 9PM • 18 and up. • $4-$7 MOONSVILLE COLLECTIVE WITH JOEY ENGLISH • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE MY BROTHER’S KEEPER WITH MOONSVILLE COLLECTIVE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE SUSAN PRINCE • Susan’s Happy Hour • 8PM • FREE MIKE SNODGRASS • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE SOULFINGER • Preservation Pub • 10PM SPACE BENDER • Jimmy’s Place • 6PM • Reggae, classic hits, and more. • FREE VANCE THOMPSON • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE TRISTEN • Preservation Pub • 8PM Saturday, June 13 ANCIENT CITIES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Formed by creative songster, DJ, and former actor Stephen Warwick, Ancient Cities melds well-crafted lyrics with synth-laden psychedelia and cinematic moodiness. CLINCH MOUNTAIN MOJO • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE DUNAVANT • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 9PM JAY ERIC • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 9PM FREEQUENCY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM BRANDON FULSON AND THE REALBILLYS • Jimmy’s Place • 6PM • Americana and classic country. • FREE KELSEY’S WOODS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE KITTY WAMPUS • Whiskey River Wild • 9PM

KVILLAINS WITH HALFDEAF, APPALACHIAN SURF TEAM, AMONG THE BEASTS, AND ABSENT FROM THE BODY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 6PM • Part of Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage and Night Owl Music’s Gone-aroo fest, a two-night celebration of local music during that other big summer festival in Manchester. THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE START ME UP: THE ROLLING STONES TRIBUTE WITH DIRTY POOL • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $15 TRAIL OF THE LONESOME WITH DOUG GIBSON AND JOE CAT • Preservation Pub • 8PM Sunday, June 14 QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT • Pilot Light • 9PM • Quintron and Miss Pussycat have been making genre-defying noise and hard rocking dance music in New Orleans for over fifteen years. The majority of their 14 full-length albums have the psychedelic soul of traditional New Orleans party music filtered through a tough distorted Hammond B-3 and a cache of self-made electronic instruments. 18 and up. • $10 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE ANNA VOGELZANG • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Anna Vogelzang has been making songs since 2000, playing them in public since 2003, and driving them around the country since 2007. Her melody-driven, multi-instrumental folk-pop ballads have been met with warm reviews (9/10, PopMatters) & landed her at festivals, conferences, and on bills with some of her heroes, including Sara Bareilles, Gillian Welch, Mirah, Anais Mitchell, Laura Gibson, Wye Oak, Steve Poltz, Amanda Palmer, & many more.

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Thursday, June 4 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM Tuesday, June 9 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM • A weekly open mic. OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE Wednesday, June 10 OPEN BLUES JAM • Susan’s Happy Hour • 8PM • FREE TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the Time Warp Tea Room. All instruments and skill levels welcome. Thursday, June 11 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM Friday, June 12 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Saturday, June 6 TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Celebrate the first anniversary of the International and Concourse with DJs Fallen, Darkness, and Revrin. • $5 Sunday, June 7 S.I.N. • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • A weekly dance night for service-industry workers—get in free with your ABC license or other proof of employment. ($5 for everybody else.) • 18 and up. Sunday, June 14 S.I.N. • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • A weekly dance night for service-industry workers—get in free with your ABC license or other proof of employment. ($5 for everybody else.) • 18 and up.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Thursday, June 4 MARBLE CITY OPERA: BLUE MONDAY • The Square Room • 8PM • Blue Monday is a “jazz opera” composed by George

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

Gershwin in 1922. This one-act opera incorporates elements of jazz and blues with a storyline that parallels plot devices used in Italian opera tragedies. Marble City Opera will be presenting this opera in collaboration with the Marble City 5, who will be playing sets on either side of the opera. • $15-$25 Friday, June 5 MARBLE CITY OPERA: BLUE MONDAY • The Square Room • 8PM • $15-$25

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Friday, June 5 FIRST FRIDAY COMEDY SHOW • Saw Works Brewing Company • 7PM • Starring Kenny DeForest and Clark Jones (from Brooklyn) along with Tyler Sonnichsen and Shane Rhyne (locals). • FREE Sunday, June 7 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic hosted by Matt Ward. Tuesday, June 9 OPEN MIC STANDUP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every Tuesday night. Doors open at 8, first comic at 8:30. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun email us at

longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Knoxville’s long-running improv comedy troupe. • Free Sunday, June 14 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic hosted by Matt Ward.

THEATER AND DANCE

Thursday, June 4 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • Concerned with a group of gossipy southern ladies in a small-town beauty parlor, the play is alternately hilarious and touching—and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength and purposefulness which underlies the antic banter of its characters. May 29-June 14. • $15 Friday, June 5 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • It’s unusual for a modern work to become a classic so quickly, but Tolkien’s “ring” stories, which began with The Hobbit, clearly are in this very special category. Bilbo, one of the most conservative of all Hobbits, is asked to leave his large, roomy and very dry home in the ground in order to set off as chief robber in an attempt to recover an important treasure. June 5-21. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence

Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • The Tennessee Valley Players proudly present the epic and uplifting tale about the survival of the human spirit; the story is set against a nation in the throes of revolution. The musical features such songs as: “On My Own,” “One Day More,” “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and “I Dreamed a Dream,” performed by a cast of over 50 multi-talented singers and actors. The show is presented “in the Round” at Carousel Theatre next to Clarence Brown Theatre on the UT Campus. Tennessee Valley Players is producing the show in collaboration with the University of Tennessee School of Music. • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • May 29-June 14. • $15 Saturday, June 6 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • June 5-21. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • May 29-June 14. • $15 Sunday, June 7 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence Brown Theatre • 3PM • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3PM • May 29-June 14. • $13 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • June 5-21. • $12 Thursday, June 11

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • May 29-June 14. • $15 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • June 5-21. • $12 Friday, June 12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • May 29-June 14. • $15 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • June 5-21. • $12 Saturday, June 13 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • May 29-June 14. • $15 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • June 5-21. • $12

CALENDAR

Sunday, June 14 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: LES MISÉRABLES • Clarence Brown Theatre • 3PM • June 5-21 • $21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: STEEL MAGNOLIAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3PM • May 29-June 14. • $13 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: THE HOBBIT • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • June 5-21. • $12

FESTIVALS

Friday, June 5 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 12PM • Knoxville’s biggest comics/sci-fi/celebrity convention returns, this time with scheduled appearances by Burt Ward, Roddy Piper, James Marsters, Tara Reid, Neal Adams, and many, many more. • $15-$50 • See Spotlight. Saturday, June 6

FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 10AM • Knoxville’s biggest comics/sci-fi/celebrity convention returns, this time with scheduled appearances by Burt Ward, Roddy Piper, James Marsters, Tara Reid, Neal Adams, and many, many more. • $15-$50 • See Spotlight. Sunday, June 7 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 11AM • Knoxville’s biggest comics/sci-fi/celebrity convention returns, this time with scheduled appearances by Burt Ward, Roddy Piper, James Marsters, Tara Reid, Neal Adams, and many, many more. • $15-$50 • See Spotlight. Saturday, June 13 21ST ANNUAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE TENNESSEE VALLEY BARK IN THE PARK • World’s Fair Park • 3PM • HSTV’s BARK IN THE PARK will take place on Saturday, June 13th from 3-8pm at the World’s Fair Park Festival Lawn. BARK is a family friendly event where pooches and their people may participate in a variety of activities throughout the day. Food and non-food vendors will be on site as well as a Kid’s Area and our first ever “Barkin’ Beer Garden.” A $5 for Fido suggested donation at the gate will enable people to participate in the various dog contests See you there!

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Food Craft Beer Wine Live Music Now serving lunch and light dinner! Good Beer Good Wine Good Friends AT THE RENAISSANCE | FARRAGUT 12744 Kingston Pike Suite 104 Knoxville TN 37934 • 865-288-7827 www.mindyerpsandqs.com

Saturday, June 6 FREE FISHING DAY • Concord Park • 8AM • The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is sponsoring Free Fishing Day on Saturday, June 6 from 8 a.m. to noon at The Cove at Concord Park. The Cove is located at 11808 S. Northshore Drive. TWRA will provide fishing equipment and have several door prize drawings for kids. The Tennessee Valley Sportsman Club will provide free hotdogs and snacks. • FREE

FANBOY EXPO Knoxville Convention Center (701 Henley St.) • Friday, June 5-Sunday, June 7 • $15-$50 • fanboyexpo.com

Fame is fleeting, and the convention circuit is the modern retirement plan for C-list sci-fi and horror celebrities. Every year, Fanboy Expo brings a bunch of celebrities, from varying points along the fame spectrum—from former stars and fan favorites to cult TV actors and people you might vaguely recognize—to downtown Knoxville. This year’s edition features some big names, like Burt Ward, from the ’60s Batman TV series; pro wrestler/They Live! star Roddy Piper; and American Pie’s Tara Reid. (On the comics side, the big name this year is legendary Batman artist Neal Adams.) There are also some people you might recognize, even if you don’t know their names: James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Scott Schwartz (Flick from A Christmas Story), Marc McClure (Jimmy Olsen from Superman: The Movie and its sequels); and James Hampton (Michael J. Fox’s dad in Teen Wolf). But it’s the rest of the list that really gets interesting—in addition to the Doctor Who-themed Ken Spivey Band, recently named “one of the better Time Lord rock bands,” this year’s guests include Felissa Rose, who starred in the low-budget 1983 slasher super-classic Sleepaway Camp. (Matthew Everett)

Saturday, June 13 RIDE FOR THE RIVER • Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 9AM • The motorcycle Ride for the River on Saturday, June 13, is a benefit tour for the conservation and education work of Little River Watershed Association. The event begins at 9:00am at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson. The route will go into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, tracing the course of the Little River and on up the mountains to Clingman’s Dome where retired Park Ranger and Smokies guide Butch McDade will present a program about the natural and cultural history of the river. Motorcyclists will ride back down and into Townsend for a fisheries demonstration by biologist Jon Michael Mollish, and the ride will conclude at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson, for the concert and BBQ. For more information and to register, call 865-980-2130. HARD KNOX ROLLER GIRLS BRAWLERS • Knoxville Civic Coliseum • 5PM • The HKRG Brawlers take on the Soul City Sirens. • $5-$10

FILM SCREENINGS

Wednesday, June 10 FEMINIST FILM SERIES: ‘OBVIOUS CHILD’ • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • In the Second Installment of our Feminist Film Series, The Scruffy City Community Action Team will be hosting a screening of Obvious Child (An aspiring comedian’s (Jenny Slate) drunken hookup - and epic

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR lapse in prophylactic judgment - turns out to be the beginning of an unplanned journey of self-discovery and empowerment). Snacks will be provided, as well as a cash bar. A suggested donation of $5.00 is requested. Friday, June 12 CRESTHILL CINEMA CLUB: MISS SADIE THOMPSON • Windover Apartments • 8PM • Since Miss Sadie Thompson will be marking the CCC’s big yearly celebration, we’re encouraging everyone to bring to its showing a favorite food dish or beverage. Also, if some of you are so motivated, it would very much be appreciated if you could help stock our supply cabinet with paper plates, napkins, plastic cups and utensils. Our location: The spacious clubhouse of the Windover Apartments. The journey there will take you to Cheshire Drive (off Kingston Pike, near the Olive Garden); going down Cheshire, turn right at the Windover Apartments sign, then go to the third parking lot on your right, next to the pool. There, the building that houses the clubhouse and offices of the Windover will be just a few steps away.

ART

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) MAY 18-AUG. 22 Arrowmont 2015 Instructor Exhibition (an opening reception will be held on Friday, June 5, from 7-9 p.m.); MAY 22-JULY 2: Festoon: A Solo Exhibition by Kim Winkle Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. JUNE 5-30: artwork by Marjorie Spalding Horne and Hugh Bailey. (An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 5, from 5:30-9 p.m.) Bliss Home 29 Market Square JUNE 5-30: artwork by Brian Murray. (An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 5, from 6-9 p.m.) Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. MAY 1-JUNE 27: Richard J. LeFevre’s Civil War series of mixed-media works East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 27-OCT. 18: Memories of the Blue and Gray: The Civil War in East Tennessee at 150 Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. JUNE 5-30: Origins, an exhibit of handmade masks by Stephen R. Hicks and photos by Nicole A. Perez-Camoirano. JUNE 5-27: Knox Photo Exhibition and exhibits by Ryan Blair and Robin Surber, Rachel Quammie, and Anna Rykaczewska. (An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 5, from 5-9 p.m.) Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd. MAY 1-JUNE 12: UT BFA Honors Exhibition Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive MAY 8-AUG. 2: Intellectual Property Donor, an exhibit of work by Evan Roth. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of 30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Thursday, June

the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass. Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike JUNE 1-JULY 4: 25 Years in the Making, a gallery exhibit of the foremost local and regional art, pottery, sculpture, art glass, wearable art, jewelry, and handcrafted gifts. (An artists’ reception will be held on Friday, June 26, from 5-8 p.m.) McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JUNE 5-AUG. 30: Through the Lens: The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier. Zach Searcy Projects 317 N. Gay St. JUNE 5: Knox u30 v1.0, an exhibit by Knoxville artists under the age of 30. 6-10PM. On display through June by appointment. Striped Light 107 Bearden Place JUNE 5: Ducking Up My Life by Maggie Brannon, 6-9PM. See Spotlight on page 26. Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 2931 Kingston Pike MAY 8-JUNE 30: Knoxville Watercolor Society Exhibit.

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Thursday, June 4 EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING • The Foundry • 5:30PM • “After They’ve Seen Paree: Tennesseans and the First World War” will be the topic of Dr. Michael E. Birdwell’s address at the annual meeting of the East Tennessee Historical Society. The event begins with a reception, 5:30-6:30 p.m., followed at 6:30 p.m. by a dinner, a lecture, and awards presentations. Both members and the general public are welcome. For reservations or for additional information call 865-215-8883 or visit our website at www.eastTNhistory. org. • $40 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GUILD • Laurel Theater • 7PM • Novelist and screenwriter Shannon Burke will read from his newest book, “Into the Savage Country,” at the June program of the Knoxville Writers’ Guild. A $2 donation is requested at the door. Friday, June 5 PAMELA SCHOENEWALDT: ‘UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY’ • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Knoxville novelist Pamela Schoenewaldt will read from and sign copies of her new historical novel. • FREE Saturday, June 6 DANIEL PAULIN: ‘LOST ELKMONT’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Daniel Paulin will sign and discuss his new book, Lost Elkmont. • FREE Friday, June 12 JEFFERSON BASS: ‘THE BREAKING POINT’ • Union Ave

unday, June 14

CALENDAR

Books • 6PM • Book signing and reception for the NYT bestselling author team, Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass, discussing and signing their newest Body Farm novel, The Breaking Point. • FREE Saturday, June 13 JODY SIMS: ‘SOUL PROVIDER: CONVERSATIONS WITH MY CAT’ • McKay Used Books • 12PM • Meet and greet Jody Sims, author, artist, survivor. Jody will sign books as well as display a few of her paintings showcased in Soul Provider. She will also have books, prints, and posters available for purchase. • FREE DAVID BURNSWORTH: ‘SOUTHERN HEAT’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • David Burnsworth became fascinated with the Deep South at a young age. After a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and fifteen years in the corporate world, he made the decision to write a novel. Southern Heat is his first mystery. Having lived in Charleston on Sullivan’s Island for five years, the setting was a foregone conclusion. He and his wife along with their dog call South Carolina home. • FREE Sunday, June 14 LINDSEY FREEMAN: ‘LONGING FOR THE BOMB’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing with Lindsey Freeman reading from her new book, Longing for the Bomb: Oak Ridge and Atomic Nostalgia • FREE KENDALL CHILES: “BEAUTY OF THE MACRO WORLD” • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 3PM • As part of programming related to our current special exhibition, Through the Lens: Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman, join local nature photographer Kendall Chiles to explore macro photography of the natural world at this illustrated presentation in the Museum Auditorium. Free and open to the public. • FREE

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Friday, June 5 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first come, first served basis. For grades K-5. • FREE Sunday, June 7 GIRLS OUTSIDE NATIONAL TRAIL DAY HIKE • Fort Dickerson Park Greenway • 2PM • In partnership with the Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians, Girls Outside is celebrating National Trails Day (a day late) with our first ever summer hike! The hike will be for girls in grades 1-3 on Sunday, June 7 from 2-4 pm, so register now! We will start at Fort Dickerson and hike downhill to the Fort Dickerson quarry through the woods and newly created trail system. • FREE Monday, June 8 STROLLER TOUR: DISCOVERING PLANTS IN THROUGH THE LENS • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 10AM • Join us for a morning out as our museum educator leads engaging gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their young ones. Crying and wiggly babies welcome! This month we explore plants in the special exhibit, Through the Lens: Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman. The event is free, but limited, and all attendees must register to attend online. Registration opens a month in advance and closes the day before the tour. • FREE

Tuesday, June 9 LEGO CLUB • BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY • 4PM • Kids will complete different themed and timed Lego Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the Legos, so all you have to bring is your imagination! Lego Club will be in the Children’s Library. • FREE Friday, June 12 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first come, first served basis. For grades K-5. • FREE

CLASSES

Thursday, June 4 KMA AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER WORKSHOPS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 9AM • To sign up for a workshop, or to receive additional information, please go to www.knoxart.org or contact the museum education department at education@knoxart.org. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: BEYOND BASIL • Humana Guidance Center • 3:15PM • Yes, we all seem to love basil, but there are so many more herbs you can enjoy. Join Extension Master Gardeners Tina Vaught and Marcia Griswold to learn how to grow beautiful easy-to-care-for herbs that come back every year. This free public event is scheduled for Thursday, June 4, from 3:15-4:30 at the Humana Guidance Center, 4438 Western Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37921. Phone 865-329-8892 for more information. • FREE Friday, June 5 KMA AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER WORKSHOPS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 9AM • To sign up for a workshop, or to receive additional information, please go to www.knoxart.org or contact the museum education department at education@knoxart.org. Saturday, June 6 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9AM • For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. Monday, June 8 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. Tuesday, June 9 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. Thursday, June 11 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Buckingham Retirement June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR Clubhouse • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822. Saturday, June 13 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9AM • For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: BUG ME • All Saints Catholic Church • 10:30AM • Join Extension Master Gardeners Amy Haun and Bill Menius for a class about bugs in your garden. Learn which are good and which are bad, and that the “good guys” significantly outnumber the “bad guys.” This free public event will be held on Saturday, June 13, from 10:30-noon at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at All Saints Catholic Church, 620 N. Cedar Bluff Rd, Knoxville, TN 37923. Enter the church property from N. Cedar Bluff Road. The rectory and a two-bay garage will be on your left. The presentation will be in the garage. For more information contact the UT Extension Office at 865-215-2340. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: BEYOND BASIL • Bearden Branch Public Library • 10:30AM • Yes, we all seem to love basil, but there are so many more herbs you can enjoy. Join Extension Master Gardener Marcia Griswold to learn how to grow beautiful easy-to-care-for herbs that come back every year. This free public event is scheduled for Saturday, June 13, from 10:30 to noon at the Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golfclub Rd, Knoxville, TN 37919. For more information phone 865-588-8813 or visit knoxlib.org. • FREE A1LABARTS ABANDONED ART WORKSHOP • The Center for

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

Creative Minds • 3PM • A1LabArts is hosting their second Abandoned Art Workshop on Saturday, June 13 from 3 – 7 p.m. at The Center for Creative Minds.For just $10 per person, participants can create a piece of art and then give it away! In this workshop, participants will get to experience the joy of the creative process and explore a variety of methods and materials to make a piece of art. The next step can be both difficult and fun. Participants will leave their art in a public place for others to discover, keep, and love.Workshop attendees will be provided with all of the supplies necessary to create their masterpiece. Participants can stop in or stay the whole time to make, take, and give away their art.Those who find abandoned art are encouraged to document their find on the Abandoned ART Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ abandonedART. For more information, visit the Abandoned ART Facebook page or www.a1labarts.org. • $10 Sunday, June 14 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Cheyenne Ambulatory Center • 1PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

MEETINGS

Thursday, June 4 OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury • 5:30PM • What you WON’T find at OA meetings are weigh-ins, packaged meals, dues, fees, “shoulds,” “musts” or judgment. What you WILL find at meetings is: Acceptance of you as you are now, as you were, as you will be. Understanding of the problems you now face —

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

problems almost certainly shared by others in the group. Communication that comes as the natural result of our mutual understanding and acceptance. Recovery from your illness. Power to enter a new way of life through the acceptance and understanding of yourself, the practice of the Twelve-Step recovery program, the belief in a power greater than yourself, and the support and companionship of the group. • FREE Saturday, June 6 SEEKERS OF SILENCE • Church of the Savior • 9AM • Seekers of Silence, an ecumenical and interfaith group, will host its annual SOS Bookshare with Round Table Discussion at its meeting starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 6, at Church of the Savior, 934 North Weisgarber Road, Knoxville, Tennessee. Participants are invited to bring and discuss a book —or a film, workshop or other significant event — that has nurtured their spirituality and prayer life. Participants are also welcome to come just to listen to others present. For more information visit sosknoxville. org. • Free Sunday, June 7 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE Monday, June 8

GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org. Tuesday, June 9 SCIENCE CAFE • Knoxville Zoo • 5:30PM • Dr. Riley Bernard of UT’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology returns as our guest presenter to once again share with us about her research with these beautiful creatures. Space is limited, so please RSVP by sending an e-mail message to rsvp@knoxsciencecafe.org. For more information, visit our web site at http://www. knoxsciencecafe.org/. • FREE KNOXVILLE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE • Bearden Banquet Hall • 7PM • The Knoxville Civil War Roundtable June Meeting will be held on Tuesday , June 9 , 2015 at Buddy’s Banquet Hall ,5806 Kingston Pike. The speaker will be Chris Hartley, Historian. His talk will be “Stoneman’s Raid into Virginia and North Carolina starting in Knoxville”. Dinner is at 7PM with a cost of $15 for members and $17 for non members. The lecture only cost is $3. Reservations MUST be made by Monday June8th by noon to 865-671-9001. • $3-$17 Thursday, June 11 OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury • 5:30PM • What you WON’T find at OA meetings are weigh-ins, packaged meals, dues, fees, “shoulds,” “musts” or judgment. What you WILL find at meetings is: Acceptance of you as you are now, as you were, as you

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Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 14

will be. Understanding of the problems you now face — problems almost certainly shared by others in the group. Communication that comes as the natural result of our mutual understanding and acceptance. Recovery from your illness. Power to enter a new way of life through the acceptance and understanding of yourself, the practice of the Twelve-Step recovery program, the belief in a power greater than yourself, and the support and companionship of the group. • FREE Sunday, June 14 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE

ETC.

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Thursday, June 4 NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • FREE BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS EAST TENNESSEE CELEBRATION • Bailey’s Sports Grille • 6PM • Bailey’s in Knoxville is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee to support youth mentoring relationships. For more information, call Bailey’s at (865) 531-2644 or visit us at www.BaileysSportsGrille.com. Friday, June 5 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE FIRST FRIDAY EXHIBIT AND RECEPTION • Artists Studios and Shoppes • 5PM • More than half a dozen artists will be hosting open studios with photography, leatherwork, quilting, textile art, graphic design, painting and more. • FREE NEXT 2 NOTHING SWIMWEAR/UNDERWEAR FASHION SHOW • The International • 7:30PM • Part of Knoxville PrideFest.

18 and up. • $10 KNOX HERITAGE ART AND ARCHITECTURE TOUR • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 5:30PM • Knox Heritage presents the eighth annual Art & Architecture Tour – The Cripple Creek Crawl, a guided walking tour of historic sites the Old City and Cripple Creek. For more information, visit www. knoxheritage.org • $45 FLOW FIRST FRIDAY • Flow: A Brew Parlor • 6PM • Featuring art by Ben Seamons and samples from Alliance Brewing Co. Saturday, June 6 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • FREE MS. WHEELCHAIR TENNESSEE FUNDRAISER • Volunteer Landing • 7PM • The purpose of this fundraising event is to send our MS WHEELCHAIR TENNESSEE 2015, Jenny Morton, from Columbia,Tennessee to the national program. Delegates to the National MS WHEELCHAIR AMERICA 2016 are expected to raise all their expenses, including $1800 entry fee, travel cost, and necessary clothing for 5 days. This is not a beauty pageant but a program to educate the public about 52,000,000 Americans with disabilities, about accessibility, and the civil rights of all. Judging is based on accomplishments, communication skills, and self-projection/ perception. • $10 Sunday, June 7 NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE CIRCLE • Ijams Nature Center • 4PM • Meets the first Sunday of the month. All levels welcome. Call Ijams to register 865-577-4717 ext.110. Tuesday, June 9 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer Road United Methodist Church • 3PM Wednesday, June 10 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • FREE

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD The Concourse (940 Blackstock Ave.) • Thursday, June 4 • 7:30 p.m. • $10/$12 at the door • internationalknox.com

You’ve got to hand it to Nashville garage-rock duo JEFF the Brotherhood—nothing has made them stray from their single-minded commitment to burned-out three-chord slacker anthems, not even a contract with Warner Bros. Most bands that sign with major labels at least get a chance to release an album before getting dropped; Warner unloaded JEFF’s Jake and Jamin Orrall in February, just weeks before they were set to release their big-league debut, Wasted on the Dream. Instead, the brothers returned to Infinity Cat, the label they created in 2002 with their father to release their own records as well as music by compatriots like Be Your Own Pet, Diarrhea Planet, and Heavy Cream (and has served as a locus for Nashville’s garage-punk scene over the last decade and a half). Wasted on the Dream is the band’s slickest record so far, but that’s not saying much—the heavier bottom end and boosted production just highlight the duo’s hooks and make you think there might be a lost radio hit in here somewhere, maybe in the Weezer/Cheap Trick mash-up “Karaoke, TN,” or the Guided by Voices-style anthem “Cosmic Visions.” (It’s almost certainly not the Sabbath-sludge dirge “Melting Place.”) (Matthew Everett)

Thursday, June 11 ART OUT IN THE CITY ART SHOW AND AUCTION • The Standard • 6:30PM • This annual Knoxville Pridefest event features the enormous creative talent of local artists and offers goods and services donated by area supporting businesses. All proceeds from these sales go to support the East Tennessee Equality Council whose longstanding mission is to keep Knoxville Pridefest free. Enjoy free food and drinks, great local talent, and a beautiful space while supporting a worthy cause. 18 to enter. 21 to drink. NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • FREE Friday, June 12 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, June 13 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • FREE

Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

CALENDAR

The Long View

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 BILLY JOE SHAVER • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $20-$25 SUNDAY, JUNE 21 CYMBALS EAT GUITARS • Pilot Light • 9 p.m. • $10 SATURDAY, JUNE 27 RAY WYLIE HUBBARD • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $15-$20 YELAWOLF WITH HILLBILLY CASINO • The International • 9 p.m. • $15-$40 FRIDAY, JULY 10 A.A. BONDY • Pilot Light • 9 p.m. • $12-$15 SATURDAY, JULY 11 UNKNOWN HINSON • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $20-$25 Monday, July 13 THEORY OF A DEADMAN • The International • 7 p.m. • $22-$45

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

DIANA KRALL

Photo by Bryan Adams

THEORY OF A DEADMAN

FRIDAY, JUNE 17 CHRIS STAPLETON WITH SAM LEWIS • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $19.50 SATURDAY, JULY 18 DRIVIN’ N CRYIN’ • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $15-$20 MONDAY, JULY 27

unday, June 14

CALENDAR

GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY! PRICE INCREASE AFTER JUNE 6TH! KNOXVILLEBREWFEST.COM

STURGILL SIMPSON

Featuring music by: Guy Marshall, Marble City Shooters, Bark

DIANA KRALL • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $64.50$84.50

THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $15-$20

Tuesday, July 28 THE CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $20 JAMES TAYLOR AND HIS ALL STAR BAND • Thompson-Boling Arena • 8 p.m. • $59.50-$85 WHITECHAPEL • The International • 7 p.m. • $17-$20

SATURDAY, SEPT. 12 STURGILL SIMPSON • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $20-$25

SATURDAY, AUG. 1 BLACKBERRY SMOKE • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $30-$35 FRIDAY, AUG. 7 10 YEARS WITH NONPOINT, THE FAMILY RUIN, AND AWAKEN THE EMPIRE • The International • 7 p.m. • $20-$50 THE STEELDRIVERS • Bijou Theatre • $25 “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $39.50-$59.50 SATURDAY, AUG. 15 SUMMER SLAUGHTER 2015 • The International • 2 p.m. • $25-$60 SATURDAY, AUG. 29 COREY SMITH • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $25

Photo by Lauren Dukoff

YOUNG THE GIANT

TUESDAY, SEPT. 15 THE MILK CARTON KIDS • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $27-$37 SATURDAY, SEPT. 19 CODY CANADA AND THE DEPARTED • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6 p.m. • $15-$20 THE DIRTY GUV’NAHS FAREWELL TOUR • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $27 FRIDAY, SEPT. 25 THE DIRTY GUV’NAHS FAREWELL TOUR • Tennessee Theatre • $27 THURSDAY, OCT. 22 SOULFLY WITH SOILWORK, DECAPITATED, AND SHATTERED SUN • The International • 6:45 p.m. • $25-$28 SUNDAY, NOV. 1 YOUNG THE GIANT WITH WILDLING • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $28

SATURDAY, SEPT. 5

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

FOOD & DRINK

Sips & Shot s

Beam Me Up, Danny! Dan Goss’ Downtown Grill and Brewery charts a course into the world of artisanal whiskey BY ROSE KENNEDY

nce again, Dan Goss is ahead of the curve. As managing partner of the Downtown Grill and Brewery, he’s been way out ahead on craft beer, food and beer pairings, peer-worker focused hiring, downtown sustainability, and what makes a cool little weekly Texas Hold ’Em freeroll tournament at his place into an institution that draws nearly 120 players a week. Now he’s on to whiskey. He says he saw the writing on the wall about two years ago, indicating that whiskey was going to catch on in a big way. But here’s the thing about whiskey, or bourbon as it’s known when distilled here in the South: You can’t just up and decide to jump on the wagon. It’s at its prime after eight to 10 years of aging; there’s almost no way to hurry it up. So Goss is in a sweet spot, because back then he started talking to the brewery’s alcohol reps, made himself known to some distilleries, bought some hot bottles much cheaper than you can get them now, and then “hoarded them pretty good.” It wasn’t until February that he started releasing a few bottles a week, on Wednesdays. Patrons were slowly drawn in, started requesting whiskey, wondered what all the fuss was about, found out. Meanwhile, demand for whiskey is soaring, many are out of stock, and Goss, well, he’s just quietly selling his precious stash, though at prices that are reasonable, not indicative of his seller’s market status. Goss, because this is just the way he does things, also executed a “whiskey bible,” from its lavish tasting notes and distiller histories right down to a wood veneer covering that makes it look like it came off a pirate

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

ship. Because, sure, he wants people to buy more whiskey at the brewpub, but he wants them to be educated, too. And here’s where I come in. Goss has selected a whiskey and an associated cocktail for me. I’ve drunk some whiskey in my time, and have a sort of fondness for Jack Daniels Honey in a shot format. But he’s got me pegged, because he strides right past the Booker’s and the Baker’s and the Knob Creek, with their stepped-up burn and oak finish—“not for those just getting into this”—to select a Jim Beam small-batch bourbon, 80-proof Basil Hayden’s produced by Beam Suntory, “for people who are trying to get a little more sophisticated with their bourbon,” he says. Just like it says in that whiskey bible, it has some sweet notes, further brought out with the citrus from the orange peel Goss uses in its transformation to an old-fashioned with this Woodford Reserve Spiced Cherry bitters, itself an artisan product. He coaches me offhandedly in the way to drink such a beverage. First breathe in the aroma, to wake up your olfactory sense, which will assist your taste buds in a deeper appreciation. Sipping, not gulping, you should get a little sweet up front, almost a butterscotch note. You’ll notice the burn as you swallow. At the tail end of the swallow, you’ll finish with a little oak on the back of your throat. When you’re done with the sip, all you should have is a little citrus sensation in your mouth. It is all as he says. I am not surprised. It’s a nice, warming sensation. Tasty. I don’t feel sophisticated, exactly, but maybe civilized— and this even in my long-sleeved T-shirt that says Starbury on the front,

sitting on the DGB’s front patio. This even after Goss tells me that a sip of bourbon will make you salivate, and the saliva will make you want another sip—even if you didn’t like the taste. You do this very thing, yes you do. Goss doesn’t find any contradiction in this path for the brewery, which after all is a bastion of craft beer. “I have an appreciation for anything that goes into a bottle that has time and effort put into it—and a recipe they’re following,” he says. “Vodka gets a better rating the closer it comes to being nothing. That’s kind of weird to me.” Goss came up in Northern California, drinking what he calls “Mexican whiskey, aka tequila,” which he appreciates because of its distillers, “people of a culture using a plant that is very common to them, with its sweet nectar, to make something more.” He personally is not overfond of sour mash whiskeys, but still has

plenty of them in the collection. He’s considering Jefferson’s Ocean as the “new fave” for the Brewery for 2015. This distillery, he tells me—rocking the quarter-full bottle back and forth to make his point—did something really cool. They knew they couldn’t meet the impending shortage of good stuff (eight- to 10-year aged whiskey), so they put their barrels on boats and set sail. The increased motion ages the whiskey faster, and they take on traits from the journey (which you can track online), with the barrel tightening in the cool of Maine, for example. “They end up with a two-year bourbon that tastes like it’s six or eight,” Goss says. “That’s really cool.” Forward thinkers. Takes one to know one. ◆

@KNOXMERCURY.COM

Get the recipe for Spicy Basil Hayden’s Old Fashioned at our website!

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June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

’BYE

Spir it of the Staircase

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 4, 2015

Restless Native

Roadhouse Blues Rock ‘n’ roll at the Indian Rock Grill BY CHRIS WOHLWEND

y brief stint as a rock ’n’ roll roadie began with a panic-induced call—and had a tenuous connection to Jerry Lee Lewis. It came about through Vance Walker, a high school classmate, and involved the Indian Rock Grill, a Rutledge Pike roadhouse that was frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons. The year was about 1967. Vance taught himself to play guitar by listening to Chet Atkins records. By the time he graduated from East High School in 1963, he had become quite accomplished. At a Talent Day gathering in the auditorium when he was a junior, he joined three senior musicians on stage; their music had most of the student body rocking in their seats as nervous teachers and administrators squirmed. Finally, at the performance climax—an extended riff on Jimmy Reed’s blues standard, “Baby, What You Want Me to Do?”—one of the teachers went backstage and turned off the power. A near riot was averted by stern looks from principal Buford Bible, who had taken over the microphone. But one unplugging didn’t deter Vance. He moved on to sitting in with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, playing lead for popular local singer Clifford Russell, and jamming with his older cousin, a keyboardist who was an in-demand fixture of the East Tennessee roadhouse scene, adept whether the occasion called for country, rock

’n’ roll, blues, or gospel. A couple of years after high school, Vance’s cousin came up with a headlining job at the Indian Rock, renowned for fights and arrests and violations of liquor laws. Jerry Lee Lewis, his career then in a tailspin due to backlash because of marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, had performed there a couple of times—that was as close as the place got to positive press. Vance’s cousin had received a Saturday-morning call from the Indian Rock’s owner—the regular band had canceled. A quartet was quickly assembled, with Vance on guitar and vocals. The group would play for the door. I got the nod because they needed someone to collect the cover charge. Of course, I saw the call as an opportunity to be associated with rising rock ’n’ rollers, with a famous venue, and, by a dubious stretch, with Jerry Lee Lewis. “What time do I show up for the gig?” I asked, employing a term that I was sure made me appear to be a seasoned veteran of the music scene. I helped the four unload their equipment (amplifiers, a drum set, and most notably because of its weight and awkwardness, a Hammond B3 organ with Leslie tone cabinet). After the stage was set up, I pulled a stool to the door and counted the bills I had brought along for

making change. The cover charge, it was decided, would be $2. There was time for the band to run through a couple of songs before the first customers—two women— showed up. They listened for a bit, asked me where the regular band was, and then wanted to know who the group on stage was. I told them they didn’t have a name yet. They listened for a couple more minutes, looked at each other, said something about checking out the Oak Grove, and left. The Oak Grove, which was on Asheville Highway, boasted the same kind of reputation as the Indian Rock. The pair’s reaction, unfortunately, was a harbinger of the evening. After a couple more departures, I began distancing myself from the band, telling would-be customers that I didn’t know who they were, only that they were a last-minute substitute. I would

’BYE

point out that the cover was only $2. A handful of revelers paid up and found tables. There was some dancing. Vance and the others began making their jams longer and longer as they ran out of tunes that all four were familiar with. I was adding “They don’t sound too bad on some songs” to my banter with would-be customers. At closing time, the take totaled $22. After we had managed to get the Hammond and other equipment loaded back up, we split the money. The band members got $5 each and I was given the remaining $2. Vance and I then took our money and went to the Oak Grove, where the crowd was enjoying a classic roadhouse mix of country and rock ’n’ roll by the regular house band. The woman on the door knew Vance and generously let us in without charge, leaving us with just enough money for a good time. ◆

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

I saw the call as an opportunity to be associated with rising rock ’n’ rollers, with a famous venue, and, by a dubious stretch, with Jerry Lee Lewis.

June 4, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

Knoxville, TN (865) 546 -1336 Ý Valle Crucis Ý Boone Ý Waynesville Ý Hendersonville Asheville Ý Winston-Salem, NC Ý Greenville Ý Columbia, SC Ý MastStore.com Ý Park on State St. & use our back entrance. Enjoy a free trolley ride to our front door.