Issue 4 - April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE’S VERY OWN PHILANTHROPIC ENDEAVOR

APRIL 2, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM

1 / N.4

V.

He’s Knoxvville’s animal-loving multi-millionaire business magnate philanthropist sports-team owner and state economic development czar.

And future politician? Maybe.

BY MIKE GIBSON

NEWS

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

MUSIC

THEATER

Downtown Sign Project Includes a Few Wrong Turns

Surveying Fifth Avenue’s Greek Classicism

White Stag’s Full-On (and Evolving) Prog Rock

The Sisterly Drama of Clarence Brown’s A Shayna Maidel

Historic April April’s a historic month. The Following are a few upcoming events that prove it.

They all sound fascinating, and they’re all free.

Knox Heritage Art & Salvage Shop Opening April 3 is First Friday, and Knox Heritage opens its one-of-a-kind Art & Salvage Shop, which will feature new and old stuff for home rehabs and art projects. Plus, unlike your dad’s salvage shop, it offers membership-based studios and gallery space, and a woodworker to help with custom projects.

It’s the brainchild of artist Beth Meadows (profiled in the Mercury’s first issue). Until April 8, you can help their cause by way of a Kickstarter push (donations are tax-deductible). It’s at 619 Broadway, on the north side of downtown, near Old Gray Cemetery, and they plan to be a regular attraction on First Fridays. For more information, dial up knoxheritage.org/salvage.

Carawan Tribute You can’t call Guy and Candie Carawan unsung heroes, because the folk-music duo associated with the Highlander Center, which was intensely involved in the national Civil Rights effort is pretty thoroughly sung. Now located in New Market, Highlander was based near downtown Knoxville in the 1960s. In 1959, Guy Carawan, who still lives here at age 87, introduced and soon popularized the anthem, “We Shall Overcome.” On April 10 the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound is sponsoring a first-of-itskind tribute to the Carawans and their extraordinary work, at the East Tennessee History Center. A photographic exhibit opens at 6, an appropriate live-music tribute starts at 7, and at 8 TAMIS will show some rarely seen Carawan films, including a screening of daughter Heather Carawan’s documentary about her parents, followed by some rare clips of the Carawans and Highlander, some of it never before seen in public. Actual Carawans will be present.

amazingly) renovated 1890 headquarters known as Westwood, 3425 Kingston Pike. It’s Saturday morning, April 11, at 10, and it’s free. Later the same place, same day, at 2:00, KH is hosting its unusual Poets for Preservation event, this time featuring recently published poet--and local attorney--Dawn Coppock.

Knoxville Holstons Season Opener Saturday, April 11, will witness the season opener of the Base Ball (not to be confused with baseball) season. When you spell Base Ball with two words, it’s the vintage barehanded game played by 1867 rules, attracting both intrepid scholars and extreme-sports enthusiasts. A faster-moving game than modern baseball (even if the runners aren’t), Base Ball is eminently watchable. It’s a double header, with the Knoxville Holstons--who finished their debut season last year in a respectable six-way tie for third place statewide--playing the Highland Rim Distillers, at noon. Then Knoxville’s new second team, the Emmett Machinists (heirs of the legacy of the Harriman Dry Town Boys, and named for a real local 1867 team), playing the Lightfoot Club of Chattanooga, at 2:30. All are members of the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball, and it all happens in the capacious and suitably historic backyard of an unusual stone house that’s much older than baseball, or even base ball, Ramsey House, on Thorngrove Pike. It’s free.

Photo by David Lu ttrell Cour tes y of Ea st Tennessee Histo ry Center.

Historic Church Tour Saturday, April 11, at 2, under the auspices of the American Institute of

Knox Heritage Preservation Network Knox Heritage’s regular series Preservation Network is hosting a free seminar on the perhaps esoteric but, depending on where you are with

Architects, Knoxville History Project’s Jack Neely leads an architectural and historical walking tour of half a dozen north-side churches, all of them a century old or older. Beginning at the Public House at 212 West Magnolia, the three-hour urban hike will take in about half a dozen houses of worship in what’s now considered the Downtown North area, hitting Happy Holler in time for happy hour. Few Knoxvillians have seen the interiors of all these churches, some of which are gorgeous. This is your

your renovation, sometimes crucial subject, “Historic Electric Systems,” with Allen Edmondson Electrical, at Knox Heritage’s recently (and pretty

chance to distinguish yourself. The size of the group is limited, so RSVP at compexec@aiaetn.org.

ch of Tennessee Ar Photo cou rtesy d.

Image and Soun

ive of Moving

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 2

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

April 2, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 04 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” —Dr. Seuss

12 Who Is Randy Boyd?

COVER STORY

Consider the life of Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd. But do so carefully, because there’s an awful lot to assimilate. Boyd is an animal-loving multi-millionaire business magnate philanthropist who, by the way, owns a minor league baseball team, climbs mountains, runs marathons, and works for the governor. In discussing Boyd’s multi-faceted career, it’s easy to start off on one track, switch back onto another, only to wind up smack dab in the middle of some-place-else. Mike Gibson tracks the life of Knoxville’s least-known mover and shaker.

NEWS

10 Lost in

Transportation

If you like what you’ve seen so far in our weekly paper, be sure to tell our advertisers as you patronize their businesses!

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 5

Letters

6

18

Howdy Start Here: Ghost Signs, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory

8

38

’Bye Finish There: Sacred & Profane

by Donna Johnson, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

9

Possum City Eleanor Scott ventures into the Williams Creek Urban Forest.

Perspectives Joe Sullivan finds funds to be lacking for Knox County Schools’ proposed budget.

Frussie’s, one of SoKno’s finest, leaves Moody Avenue after 19 years and crosses the river to downtown.

Plus: more restaurant news,

by Dennis Perkins.

Downtown’s $1.2 million “wayfinding” sign project includes a few wrong turns, as S. Heather Duncan discovers.

Tell ’em You Saw Their Ad in the Mercury!

The Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely surveys the unexpected Greek classicism of Fifth Avenue.

36 On the Menu

20 21 22 23 24

CALENDAR Program Notes We recap last weekend’s big Big Ears festival. Plus: Big Ears photos on page 19.

Music Interview Local prog with White Stag.

Inside the Vault Eric Dawson goes fishing for the origins of a well-known kids’ song.

26

Spotlights: Lewis Nash, Wussy

FOOD & DRINK

36

On the Menu Dennis Perkins launches our new column reporting restaurant news. This week: Frussie’s makes its move north.

Theater Clarence Brown’s A Shayna Maidel Art Karla Wozniak Movie Review Home by April Snellings April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS NO, THANK YOU

Thank you! Thank you!

I read the first issue cover to cover and wanted to hug it. Actually, I guess I wanted to hug each of you for working so hard to give this wonderful gift to us.

My sister in Atlanta nearly worried me to death, saying, “You have to get me a copy of the first edition!” I called her and said, “You can sleep well tonight. I got you a copy. Picked it up in Food City.”

It’s a beautiful day!

Nancy Ewell Knoxville

SCOTT MILLER IS OLD NEWS AND NOT WORTH WRITING ABOUT ANY MORE

Congratulations on your first issue. It is no doubt the result of hard work and commitment. I was very hopeful when I opened the pages of your inaugural issue, but disappointed to see the format and coverage mimicking the Metro Pulse so closely.

Your first Music Interview section is with Scott Miller [“Virginia Way” by Matthew Everett, March 12, 2015].

Really? Looks like the same old same old. Why not take this opportunity to be the weekly alternative that you’ve always dreamed of being? Or were you truly fulfilled, before you got your wings?

Summer Shelton Knoxville

ED. NOTE: Yep, we’ve been writing about Scott Miller for a long time. He was the cover boy for Metro Pulse’s eighth issue, on Nov. 25, 1991. So, we thought it would be fitting to interview him one more time for our first issue of the Mercury since he had a show that week, bringing us full circle.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

THE POWER OF GRAVITY

The rainwater system at Halls High School featured in “Watershed Ideas” [Small Planet by Patrice Cole, March 19, 2015] is ours. In the last three years we have become a national participant in large-scale rainwater harvesting systems. Educational demonstrations like Halls are a niche market in which we enjoy great acceptance. Other educational systems designed and built by Rainwater Resources to date are: • Charleston County School District Career and Technology Academy, Mt. Pleasant, S.C. • Ijams Nature Center • Mead Montessori School • McFee Park, Farragut • Pope-Holbrook Elementary School, Ft. Bragg, N.C. (In Bid) It must be said we are not about rain barrels. We are organized to team on large scale projects. Through rooftop capture we make storm water mitigation numbers attractive to regulators. For this reason, soon toilets will flush, laundry will be done, and irrigation conducted on a major university campus with our catchment system. This involves nine new dorms, a dining hall, and cooling tower makeup water.

We are especially interested in hotels or multi-unit construction where water savings from rooftops substantially impact operational costs. We focus on rainwater, a much less costly and higher-quality product than that which hits the pavement or is recycled to gray. Our system maintains stored rainwater in an odor-free, slime-free state without use of chemicals. Naturally soft, it cuts hotel laundry detergent use in half.

Our engineering associate is Performance Development Corporation of Oak Ridge, a company with 32 years’ experience relevant to our business and contributor to federal energy and security projects. We are members of the Knoxville Water Quality Forum, the Tennessee Stormwater Association, and hold directorships in the standards body for our industry, the American Rainwater Catchment Association.

We think ours is a good story,

especially in that our technology, “gravity,” is not as sexy as high tech but is making us something of a hidden entrepreneurial success in Knoxville.

Vince Guarino Rainwater Resources Knoxville

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

CORRECTION

On last week’s letters page, we accidentally reversed the colors on reader Kevin Farr’s helpful pie charts that revealed we had not yet published any letters. Sorry, Kevin.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GUIDELINES • Letter submissions should include a verifiable name, address, and phone number.

We do not print anonymous letters.

• We much prefer letters that address issues that pertain specifically to Knoxville or to stories we’ve published.

• We don’t publish letters about personal disputes or how you didn’t like your waiter at that restaurant.

• Letters are usually published in the order that we receive them.

CONTRIBUTORS

Victor Agreda Jr. Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Matthew Foltz-Gray 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 Joe Tarr 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 ILLUSTRATOR

Ben Adams

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES

Send your letters to:

Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com

Our Dear Editor Knoxville Mercury 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37920

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

editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury

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BUSINESS DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

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

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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

HOWDY Illustration by Ben Adams

Believe It or Knox!

BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX Grainger County, the only Tennessee county named for a woman, got its name from Mary Grainger Blount (1761-1802), wife of territorial governor William Blount. Living in Blount Mansion, she is remembered as a civilizing presence in the frontier town, who, according to an early historian, “did much to soften and refine the manners of the first inhabitants of Knoxville.” She is buried in the First Presbyterian graveyard on State Street.

GHOST SIGNS BY BUD RIES

Reed’s Warehouse, E. Depot Ave. and Humes Street. According to the writing on the wall (before it was painted over), Jesus visited this spot in 10 A.D.

QUOTE FACTORY “ There’s nothing inherently evil about bingo.”

Fort Loudoun Lake, along with the differently spelled Loudon County and the city of Loudon, gets its name from Englishman John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun—WHO NEVER VISITED TENNESSEE! Unpopular with Americans, Loudoun (1705-1792) was an unsuccessful British commander in the French and Indian War, sent back to London after a major loss to the French.

THE KNOXVILLE CURSE? Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, iconic Ozzy Osborne guitarist Randy Rhoads, George Jones, and guitar legend Chet Atkins ALL GAVE THE LAST PUBLIC PERFORMANCES OF THEIR CAREERS IN DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE!

4/2 CUMBERLAND AVENUE CONSTRUCTION FORUM THURSDAY

5:30 p.m., University of Tennessee Visitors Center (2712 Neyland Dr.) Are you prepared for two years’ worth of construction along the Strip? Are you pensive and afraid of the potential of a longer commute? You can talk about it (as well as the timeline and traffic control plans) with the city’s contractors, KUB, and engineering consultants Vaughn & Melton. Hopefully, it’ll all result in a more attractive, vibrant Strip. Info: cumberlandconnect.com.

—Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, quoted in Tom Humphrey’s Humphrey on the Hill blog. Niceley was talking with the Senate State and Local Government Committee considering his Senate Bill 349, which would authorize 501(c)3 “nonpublic schools” to raise funds with an annual bingo gambling event. In the 1970s, bingo was legalized for charity fundraising in Tennessee—until the FBI found that many of the charities were fronts that bribed state enforcement officials.

The committee passed the bill 6-1.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

4/3 KNOX HERITAGE ART & SALVAGE SHOP 4/7 THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY STUMP GRAND RE-OPENING

4/8 KNOXVILLE BICYCLE FACILITIES PLAN MEETING

6-9 p.m., Art & Salvage Shop (619 Broadway). Free.

Preservationist group Knox Heritage comes across a lot of historic building materials, and some of it’s for sale at their new, improved salvage shop. But that’s not all! Now there’s art available at the shop, too, with a woodworking studio and artist studios. And did we mention there’s a current Kickstarter campaign to complete this makeover?

Info: knoxheritage.org/salvage.

6 p.m., East Tennessee History Center (601 S. Gay St.) Last year, the city talked with bicyclists about how to create better connections for bicycle transportation. Now the city will present the plan devised by its planning committee and professional design consultants after studying 220 potential projects in an 80-mile network.

The presentation will be followed by questions and discussion. Info: cityofknoxville.org/bicycleplan.

FRIDAY

TUESDAY

6:30-8 p.m., Southern Railway Station, (300 W. Depot Ave.). Free.

The Historic Southern Railway Station (home to owner Blue Slip Winery) is offering a monthly series of community speakers, highlighting the history and politics of Knoxville. Well, we know just the right person for that job—none other than the director of the Knoxville History Project, Jack Neely. Maybe he’s got some stories to tell.

WEDNESDAY

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Fifth Columns A north-side church’s unique architectural heritage

BY JACK NEELY

Y

ou don’t notice the Greek classicism of Fifth Avenue from the ground. It comes as a surprise when you look to the north from the top of Vine Street. You might think you’ve just sighted Knoxville’s forgotten Acropolis.

Seeing it from that lofty distance, people always ask: What is that?

Collectively, it’s the old Knoxville High School, with its four towering Doric columns; the columns of the stacked porches of Sterchi Oaks; and, most impressively, the six Ionic columns of First Christian Church.

Beginning slightly more than a century ago, that building served the local congregation of this politely rebellious denomination, also known as Disciples of Christ, that avoided divisive creeds and hair-splitting schisms, and welcomed all Christians to its communion table. The goal was to unify the Christian church. That hasn’t happened yet, but they’re still working at it.

After a century, its congregation is moving to a newer building that’s easier to maintain, a former Baptist church on Basswood Road in Norwood. They’re selling this old landmark to a group led by preservationist developers David Dewhirst and Mark Heinz. Lately Knoxville’s busiest preservationist architect, Heinz has a personal connection to the church; he and his wife Laura were married there.

An announcement about an interesting future use seems to be near.

In 1915, Fifth Avenue was the newest and grandest part of Knoxville.

Its name is a remnant of a puzzling

6

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

numerical scheme tried just before the Civil War. First and Second Avenues lasted only a year or two, and the other avenues were too bent to make much sense, in the Manhattan pattern.

Although its existence in Knoxville may have been the accidental remnant of some poor thinking, everybody knew that any Fifth Avenue was bound to be special, and by 1915, it was indeed a fashionable street that attracted affluent couples and singles. It also

first designs by architect Charles Barber, who was just about 25 when he started working on the project, apparently with some assistance from his father George Barber, famous for his house designs, and associate Dean Parmelee. It was completed the year he formed the firm known today as BarberMcMurry, and just days before the death of George Barber.

First Christian stood out for its architecture. Its portico was similar to, and inspired by, New York’s Madison Square Presbyterian Church, a recent and famous design

by Stanford White. Designer of neighboring Madison Square Garden (the grandest of the four buildings that have had that name), White was America’s best-known architect of his time and his Manhattan church was notable for its use of mixed colors and materials in the style known to architects as “polychrome.” Barber employed that approach, as well as White’s arrangement of doors, even if he didn’t copy the whole Manhattan church and its unusual domed roof.

White was famously murdered at the Garden’s rooftop ballroom in 1906, a few months before his Presbyterian church was finished. It was called, perhaps prematurely, “the Crime of the Century.” Harry Thaw reportedly killed the architect because of White’s

In 1915, Fifth Avenue was the newest and grandest part of Knoxville. Its name is a remnant of a puzzling numerical scheme tried just before the Civil War.

attracted churches, and in 1915, First Christian joined several other churches in the immediate vicinity: Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, the German English Evangelical Church, the Church of the Epiphany, Broad Street Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian.

That was probably East Tennessee’s highest concentration of churches, a century ago. Now only First Christian and St. John’s Lutheran remain.

First Christian was one of the

previous relationship with Thaw’s 21-year-old wife, the beautiful actress Evelyn Nesbit. Americans who knew nothing about architecture followed closely the trial and conviction.

The name Thaw was well known here. The Pittsburgh Thaw family—the killer’s parents—were prominent Maryville College benefactors. There’s a Thaw Hall on MC’s campus, designed by Knoxville architect R.F. Graf.

He also designed St. John’s Lutheran,

First Christian’s neighbor. I don’t know what to do with that coincidence.

White’s briefly famous Presbyterian church at 24th Street at Madison Avenue was torn down to make way for a skyscraper in 1919, when it was only 13 years old. During the brief time it stood, part of it was copied in brick and stone and terra cotta in Knoxville.

First Christian grew over the years and when they added an educational wing in the late 1920s, they brought back Charlie Barber to do the honors and he did so with Mediterranean flair, in brick and tile, with a lovely courtyard. In 1934, a journalist compared it to a “California estate.”

In the 1950s, the elevated highway rose a block to the south, and got bigger and higher with the years and shadowed Fifth Avenue, which never seemed as special after that.

Most of the churches clustered around Fifth were torn down. By the early ’70s, there was talk of First Christian leaving its old building for the suburbs, but the congregation hung on to the building and took care of it.

To some it might seem a sign of the times, with some message about downtown or religion or both. In fact churches have always been in flux, as congregations combine and recombine. What seems the perfect site and structure for a church can strike a later generation differently. Dozens of downtown churches have closed or moved away in the last 150 years. Most were just torn down and forgotten.

Consider that the oldest existing church building downtown is Immaculate Conception, the Catholic church up on the hill. By the time it was built in 1886, Knoxville had almost a century of church history behind it, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, and Lutheran, plus Jewish congregations who were each once proud of their meeting houses, some of them really grand edifices of stone that appeared built to survive the centuries. Today there’s not a trace of any of them, not two stones stacked together.

Many of those built after that, like most of those clustered around Fifth and Broadway, are gone, too.

We used to erase old churches, pretend they were never there. Maybe some prefer it that way.

But when they’re extraordinary buildings, as old churches often are, saving and reusing them honors the efforts that created them.

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April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

POSSUM CITY

Goat Power Williams Creek on the mend in East Knoxville’s urban forest

BY ELEANOR SCOTT

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

D

aily Street is a narrow, unstriped road running north and south through East Knoxville. As I turn off Brooks Avenue onto Daily, a neighborhood of unassuming ranchstyle houses lies to the left. On the other side of the road, a dense wilderness of invasive privet and bush honeysuckle hides Williams Creek from sight.

In 2003, the Tennessee Clean Water Network, a non-profit corporation that advocates for clean-water issues, sued KUB for overflowing sewers contaminating Williams Creek. To avoid going to court and paying heavy fines, KUB agreed to fix leaky sewer lines in the area, and help with TCWN’s project to buy and restore the forest in the Williams Creek watershed. The wooded corridor surrounding Williams Creek had been an illegal dump site for years, invasive shrubs ran riot, and the creek was the most polluted creek in Knox County.

Through grants and donations, TCWN was able to buy 21 lots and deed them to the city, creating 5 acres of new parkland. In 2013, TCWN hired the Whistlepig Farms herd of goats to enact a program of invasive plant removal. Voracious and persistent foragers, goats will eat almost any plant down to the ground.

Last year TCWN closed on several more wooded lots, increasing the area of the Williams Creek Urban Forest to 10 acres. The goats, which run the property during the warm months, will be returning this spring. TCWN Executive Director Renee Hoyos hopes to negotiate an unprecedented deal with neighbors to allow the goats into privately-owned yards to feast on kudzu that jumps the city property line.

From the highest part of Daily Street, the view across the valley is vast and inspires a sense of awe that all this green lies so close to the heart of downtown. A pair of crows chase a giant bird of prey through the tree branches of the newest addition to the urban forest, saved from future development.

Down the hill toward the creek, the grazing goats have cleared the understory growth enough to ease walking through the woods. Near the water, a lush carpet of grass spreads out beneath the bare branches of large hardwoods. A clump of daffodils blooms near an old shoe sticking out of the ground. The water sparkles in

the sunshine, but Williams Creek remains on Tennessee’s list of impaired waterways for habitat alteration and E. coli contamination.

Removing Williams Creek from the bad list will be fraught with challenges. West of Daily Street, a troubling new invasive has been found. Japanese knotweed, a nearly unkillable shrub with a massive root system, is the Xenomorph of invasive species. Dense mats destroy ecosystems by crowding out native plants and choking waterways, leading to flooding. Incredibly tough, knotweed is resilient to grazing: the goats can’t take it out.

Despite the concrete barriers closing part of Daily Street to vehicles, people still use the place as a dump site. Tires are piled defiantly at the base of a “No Dumping” sign.

There are no indications that this land is now a public city park. The “No Dumping” signs aren’t enough of a deterrent because there is no story to replace the long-held idea of the dump. I had the thought that just a sign reading “Williams Creek Urban Forest” may be more effective.

Community discussions about building the Williams Creek Greenway will begin this spring. This project is essential as East Knoxville has a low percentage of parks and greenways compared to the rest of the city. The area has improved, but the park is a work in progress.

Recently, Hoyos met a man on the creek bank teaching his boys to catch crawdads.

“Have you found any yet?” she asked. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation assesses stream health partly though surveys of aquatic life.

He said he hadn’t caught any crawdads yet, but he had seen their holes in the bank.

The urban forest was never intended to be a recreational park with swings and slides; it’s a so-called passive park. To Hoyos, this man and his boys were using the park in exactly the right way.

“That’s the point of making these places accessible,” says Hoyos, “It is not my park, even though I raised $300,000 to support it—it belongs to the city.”

As public land, it belongs to all of us. On April 20 at 11 a.m., TCWN is hosting a creek cleanup, with volunteers meeting at Daily Street.

PERSPECTIVES

Where’s the Money?

The Knox County Schools budget is lamentable

BY JOE SULLIVAN

M

uch of the deliberation at the school board’s initial meeting on a budget for the year ahead revolved around allocation of a presumed $10 million in additional funding for teacher compensation.

Superintendent Jim McIntyre recommended applying all of the money to a 4 percent pay raise for all teachers while dispensing with a continuation of the $3.2 million in performance bonuses that have been paid in each of the past two years to teachers with superior evaluations.

But several board members protested that it would be unfair to deny the bonuses to teachers who’ve been counting on them and worked hard to earn them. Board member Terry Hill termed the denial “totally unacceptable” and went on to assert that the roughly half of the school system’s 8,000 employees who aren’t certified teachers also deserve a pay raise.

What was strangely missing from the discussion was any mention of the fact that the budget as presented didn’t provide a source of funding for anything like $10 million for any combination of the above. Indeed, the only funding identified in the budget for raises was the $4.4 million from the state that represents its share of the 4 percent average teacher salary increase that Gov. Bill Haslam has recommended.

But the only mention of this shortfall in McIntyre’s proposed budget was an obscure footnote stating. “Amount of $5,639,000 reflects the remainder needed to grant a 4% average salary increase to certified employees.”

Former board chair Lynne Fugate offered a way out of the dilemma when she opined that, “We do a budget based on expenses we believe are needed. It’s up to our funding body {County Commission} to decide on revenues. If we want to do APEX (the performance bonuses} and a 4 percent pay raise then we as a board can do that. It’s our budget.”

Last year, when weak state revenues caused Haslam to drop a proposed 2 percent teacher pay raise, the school board persisted in recommending it and got absolutely nowhere with County Mayor Tim Burchett and County Commission. And that was just déjà vu all over again in relation to the board’s repeated attempts to get anything more than the revenue growth derived from the school system’s dedicated portion of local property and sales taxes plus state funding under the BEP. This year both state and local sales tax growth has been strong, exceeding 6 percent. That robust growth, in turn, has provided a higher base for next fiscal year’s revenue projections. That’s where Haslam found the $100 million to cover the state’s share of a 4 percent raise statewide. And in the school board’s case, an $8.5 million increase in assumed local tax revenues is by far the largest in many years.

Under these circumstances, it’s downright shameful if the local share of the pay raise doesn’t get funded. A stumbling block is that the revenue increase is being offset in large part

by reductions in funding that can no longer be derived from budgetary artifices that the school system has employed for the past two years.

The biggest of these is the use of fund balance reserves to cover operating expenses.

A severe hailstorm in 2011 produced a temporary spike in sales taxes on repairs that boosted these funds, but they’ve now been drawn down to near the minimum that the state requires.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but I can’t conceive of our pinchpenny county mayor coming up with any more money for schools. I can virtually hear him now proclaiming that an $8.5 million revenue increase is surely enough to meet their needs.

The school board’s one other recourse is to seek more money from the state. Several board members have joined forces with counterparts in Davidson, Hamilton, and Shelby counties in forming a Coalition of Large School Districts (CLASS) that’s got lawyers looking at filing suit to prove their state funding is inadequate. But unlike the successful suit in the 1990s by small school systems to redress inequities in their funding, inadequacy is much harder to prove, at least in court. So any such CLASS action is likely to be a windmill-tilting exercise. (Actually, Hamilton and surrounding counties have already brought such a suit—a move that McIntyre has termed “unfortunate.”)

The one real hope I see for getting our schools more adequately funded over time is to elect local officials, starting with a county mayor, who will champion public education.

When Burchett blessedly gets term-limited in 2018, Knox County will have gone 19 years without a property tax increase. By contrast, there were two under Tommy Schumpert in the late 1990s and both a property and a sales increase under his predecessor, Dwight Kessel.

The Knoxville Mercury, as a not-for-profit, is precluded from endorsing candidates for public office.

So what I’m about to say should not be construed as one. But what this community most needs is for respected leaders with a passion for education, such as a Randy Boyd or a Jamie Woodson, to step forward as candidates for the office that has more to do than any other with how our schools get funded.

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

signs are being covered.

“A variety of issues have come up, and we address them as people tell us,” Wallace says. “The quality of the (sign) fabrication and installation is very good, in my assessment. Will it be perfect? Probably not.”

LOST IN

WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN

TRANSPORTATION Downtown’s $1.2 million “wayfinding” sign project includes a few wrong turns

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

I

n some cases, Knoxville’s new “wayfinding” sign project downtown seems to have lost its way.

A sign for the John Duncan Federal Building tells drivers to turn in the opposite direction and go the wrong way down a one-way street. Signs on Henley Street indicate that eight different attractions, including Gay Street and the University of Tennessee, are in the opposite direction from their actual locations. A sign on Walnut Street says the state Supreme Court and federal courthouse are in the direction of Union Avenue.

The new sign project was supposed to clear up confusion rather than create it, and many of the signs receive high marks from downtown boosters.

But, as installed, some of the signs could drive drivers crazy.

Knoxville’s downtown is woven out of one-way streets and bridges crossing highways, parks and rivers. These threads mesh into a tapestry of theaters, galleries, and restaurants that can make visitors feel enfolded in a blanket of rich experience—or trapped

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

in a web like a bug.

One of the main goals of the city’s $1.2 million “wayfinding project” was untangling for the uninitiated Knoxville’s snarl of streets. The effort, which was seven years in the making, involves putting up 250 new street signs and taking down about 400 to eliminate “visual clutter.” (Those will come down at the end.)

Anne Wallace, project manager for the City of Knoxville’s office of redevelopment, said last week that 50 to 75 percent of the wayfinding signs had been installed. Because of February’s dramatic winter weather, contractors probably won’t be finished for another month or so. Wallace emphasizes that the project is a work in progress. She says the city wants residents to report any incorrect signs so contractor Jarvis Sign Company of Madison, Tenn. can make the changes while still on the job.

“We are finding some of the folks doing the installation work don’t know downtown Knoxville and are working from a plan sheet,” Wallace says.

She estimated “less than 10

percent” of the signs are wrong. The city won’t have to pay to correct errors that are the contractor’s fault, but about half the errors so far were in the city’s plan sheet, Wallace says.

For example, the city chose to have one pedestrian sign placed on a lamp post on Walnut Street—but the sign is mostly visible only from the porch of the Walnut Building. Perhaps that’s fortunate, since part of its directions are incorrect.

Replacements aren’t cheap. The blue pedestrian signs, which list attractions in small type with arrows, cost $600, Wallace says. The directional signs for drivers cost $670 to $1,500, depending on their size.

The type of errors vary. Some signs are correct but oriented in the wrong direction (north/south instead of east/west, for example). In other cases, the signs may be incorrect or installed in the wrong location, like the one that indicated the theater district is on Summit Hill.

In an email, Wallace writes: “Typically the contractor is addressing incorrect signs as they are noted (especially when they are vehicular signs).” But some sign corrections will wait until the end of the contract.

Foam was duct-taped over all the arrows on one Henley Street pedestrian sign last week, but not all incorrect

The city has been attempting to unify its signs for years to create a clearer downtown identity and to better market downtown’s assets. The process began in 2008. The next year, Knoxville chose Philadelphia-based MERJE Design to work with local stakeholders on sign location, design and maintenance.

Downtown business owners, the Arts & Culture Alliance, and historic preservation advocates were among the stakeholders, Wallace says. The project was discussed at three public meetings as well as at City Council, Downtown Design Review, or Transportation Planning Organization meetings, she says.

The city first considered funding the project over a period of years, but instead it asked for the signs to be included in the regional Transportation Improvement Program. This allowed the city to receive a Federal Highway Administration grant to cover 80 percent of the cost, with the city’s capital improvement program covering the rest. But federal money always comes with bonus red tape. Environmental permitting and construction review put the effort in the slow lane, and the city had to switch gears from MERJE to an engineering firm pre-approved by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Gresham, Smith and Partners are handling the engineering construction and inspection using MERJE’s designs.

There are a variety of sign types: large, red “gateway signs” at the entry points to downtown; small blue pedestrian wayfinding signs, many of which are attached to light poles; larger blue directional signs for drivers; green and yellow parking signs; and large, two-sided kiosks.

The first kiosk is set to be installed in the Old City late this week, Wallace says. Kiosks will feature a pedestrian map as well as a map to help drivers find resources outside downtown.

According to the City of Knoxville’s web site, the general boundaries for the sign project are the Norfolk Southern Tracks to the north, the Tennessee River to the south, Hall of Fame Drive

on the east and 11th Street on the west.

Some signs are very specific (directing someone to the zoo via the interstate, complete with exit number), while others are so vague that they might not be meaningful (“East Knoxville”).

Wallace says MERJE decided how much detail to include on these “trailblazer” signs for attractions outside downtown based on how many visitors they receive and how important they are in the community. In some cases, they are intended simply to help visitors find the right exit point from downtown (i.e., head toward East Knoxville if you’re trying to reach Austin East High School).

RCH CHU

AVE.

E STARTEME SUPCOURT

Chyna Brackeen, producer of the Rhythm ’n’ Blooms Fest and a member of the Market Square Association board, says she welcomes the directional signs, especially for parking lots.

“It’s definitely something that’s been needed for a long time, and great that it’s a consistent design,” says Brackeen, who owns Attack Monkey Productions. But she found the delay, while understandable, still frustrating.

When downtown business owners wanted to post signs to help drivers navigate from the often-full Market Street parking garage to other garages, they were told no new signs were allowed until the wayfinding signs were installed.

“My concern is that because it did take so long to get this done, there are things that are just outdated,” Brackeen says.

For example, the Three Rivers Rambler has moved its station from Volunteer Landing to a commercial area closer to Cumberland Avenue, but the new street signs still point visitors to the riverfront for the train.

Michele Hummel with the Central Business Improvement District served on the steering committee for the wayfinding project. She says she thinks the signs look good and are meeting the needs and goals of the program.

A team meeting weekly during the installation phase knows a few signs needs correcting, she says. “The city and team was very mindful this would happen and developed an on-going maintenance budget to update signage when necessary,” Hummel writes in an email.

Completely incorrect signs are not the norm. Most of the new signs around the Old City, World’s Fair Park and Hall

CAN DUNDERAL FE BLDG

CONFUSION: WHAT ARE YOU DRIVING AT?

of Fame Drive appear correct.

But some are nevertheless unclear.

For example, many signs intended for drivers correctly point straight ahead for various landmarks. But when the time comes to make a turn onto another street to find the destination, no sign indicates that.

That may change, since Wallace emphasizes that many of the driving signs have not been installed yet.

Other issues, however, may be intrinsic to the design. For example, the pedestrian signs are ST. LEY CAN HEN posted at the edge of the DUNDERAL E F .

ST BLDG street, and they include no UST LOC design element that makes WAY ONE it clear they are intended for walkers. (We should E STARTEME know from the small print, SUPCOURT Wallace says.) People on the street who were asked ST. their opinion for this story NUT WAL generally said they thought the signs were for drivers.

If drivers think so too, that could pose a problem. Brackeen expresses concern that these signs could set up a slightly dangerous situation for drivers who are slowing down and squinting to try to read the small fonts on the pedestrian signs. And in some cases, the signs direct people on foot to take a route that isn’t legal (or safe) for cars.

For example, a sign directing pedestrians to Volunteer Landing from Main Avenue points down a one-way street that cars can’t enter. (There are currently no larger signs on the street TOP: This sign not only directs drivers on Church Avenue to turn the opposite way to get to the John Duncan showing drivers the correct way to Federal Building, but to also drive the wrong way on a one-way street. The arrow is now taped over.

Volunteer Landing.)

“Once we get it all in, people will BOTTOM: This pedestrian sign next to the Walnut Building indicates that the federal courthouse and state be able to understand which signs are supreme court are in the opposite direction from their actual location. Fortunately, the sign was hung on for who,” Wallace says, although she a light pole at an angle that allows only diners on the porch of the building to see it. adds that it might be worth considering So far, visitors to the Knoxville felt driven to complain to the city about adding some sort of pedestrian symbol.

Visitors’ Center on Gay Street have the signs.

The pedestrian signs are someexpressed nothing but enthusiasm for Wallace says wayfinding is times confusing in other ways as well. intended to help people reach the On Main Avenue, a pedestrian sign the signs, says Kim Bumpas, president of general vicinity of their destination, directs walkers straight ahead to get to Visit Knoxville. “Visitors like the design then depends on the attraction’s signs the post office—half a block after a left of the signs and their open, welcome to take over. turn should have been made. The sign feeling,” she says, adding that most new Brackeen says the parking signs directly next to the Tennessee Supreme initiatives need some tweaking. are not as easy to see as she had hoped, Court Building and the sign next the But it would have been better if and both she and Butler find some of Knoxville Convention Center both signs had not been outdated from the the routes odd. direct a walker to continue straight for first day, Brackeen says.

“I kind of feel like some of these those destinations.

“The bottom line is that it still has directions were chosen by people who “The biggest flaw seems to me to to be correct, and it still has to work for know downtown well enough that they be placing a sign on the opposite side of people,” she says. “Especially if it’s are not going to be confused, but they the street of a destination and showing taken (more than) six years, at this aren’t always the most direct or easiest the destination straight ahead,” says point I would have waited six more way,” she says.

Knoxville resident Bruce Butler, who months to make it perfect.”

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

He’s Knoxvville’s animal-loving multi-millionaire business magnate philanthropist sports-team owner and state economic development czar.

And future politician? Maybe.

BY MIKE GIBSON • PHOTOS BY DAVID LUTTRELL

C

onsider the life of Knoxville business man Randy Boyd. But do so carefully, because there’s an awful lot to assimilate.

Boyd is an animal-loving multi-millionaire business magnate philanthropist who, by the way, owns a minor league baseball team, climbs mountains, runs marathons, and works for the governor. In discussing Boyd’s multi-faceted career, it’s easy to start off on one track, switch back onto another, only to wind up smack dab in the middle of some-place-else.

So maybe it’s best to start by sharing a Day in the Life of Randy Boyd. If for no other reason than his daily schedule offers a fair glimpse into most everything that is important to the former Radio Systems CEO and current Commissioner of Economic and Community Development for the state of Tennessee.

For Boyd, the day begins at 4:20 a.m.—that’s central time, as he’s been stationed in Nashville since the beginning of 2015, in his new role as state economic development czar.

After taking Oscar—his year-old dachshund puppy, adopted from Young-Williams Animal Center—for a potty walk, it’s time for coffee and 45 minutes of email. Probably a communiqué, or three, from wife Jenny, back home in Knoxville (with three other pets), and Willie Watson, the man who took over as CEO of Boyd’s Radio Systems in December of 2014.

By 5:30 a.m., Boyd’s morning workout has begun—he has home gym equipment set up in his Nashville apartment. It culminates with a 5-mile run, which keeps him in fighting trim for the 10 or so half- or full marathons he takes part in throughout the year.

Then he’s in the office before 8, where April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

he oversees a staff of 111, spread across the state. Most days, he leaves around 6 p.m., probably bound for “some kind of charitable or business event,” maybe an education fundraiser, or a Boy Scout function. Then it’s home again, hopefully in time for a 10:30 p.m. lights-out.

Boyd’s weekends are equally hyper-scheduled. He and Jenny trade off, meeting in either Knoxville or Nashville on alternate weeks. Sometimes there’s an out-of-state trip, maybe to one of the aforementioned distance races. And in-season, there’s usually a Tennessee Smokies baseball game, Boyd having bought the team from the Haslam family in 2013.

Randy Boyd rejects the notion that he has any larger political aspirations. Mostly.

“First, I’d need one vote, and I would not be able to get it,” he says, chuckling.

“My wife would not support me.”

seems to hold that there is always one more new project on the horizon, another mountain left to climb.

asking someone who plays golf, ‘Oh, have you won the Masters?’ No, I haven’t won the Masters. I just play golf.”

here are a few more things one should know about Randy Boyd—other than his schedule— all of which become evident over a few hours’ time, during a couple of audiences at the Jig & Reel, the Scots-themed Old City nightclub he and Jenny opened a few years ago at the corner of Jackson and Central.

Here is what you should know:

BOYD DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE DICTUM “NICE GUYS FINISH LAST.”

BOYD SPEAKS IN COLOR.

BOYD IS A REPUBLICAN, BUT NOT MUCH OF AN IDEOLOGUE.

T

He loves metaphors, catchphrases, buzzwords, pithy quotes. He talks about “B-HAGs” (Big Hairy Audacious Goals); “the power of empowerment”; “win-win-win solutions.” He’s full of illuminating little stories and anecdotes, all of which have that certain well-oiled quality that tells they’ve been shared a time or two before. Somehow, though, it never comes off as scripted.

BOYD IS A CHEAPSKATE. EXCEPT WHEN HE IS GIVING AWAY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

And that’s it, in a nutshell; or at least, as close to a nutshell as one can get in describing something as voluminous and unwieldy as Randy Boyd’s life—the life of a family man, pet parent, amateur athlete, team owner, business mogul, and burgeoning politico.

Did someone say politics? That discussion is unavoidable, given what is now his second role in the Bill Haslam gubernatorial administration.

It’s led to speculation that Boyd might harbor political aspirations of his own, that maybe he has an eye on running for governor himself one day.

Local Republican pundit George Korda observes that Boyd is ideally situated, between his local renown and his recent appointments: “The best place to be is to have other people talking about you, without you having to talk about you.”

Boyd rejects the notion that he has any larger political aspirations. Mostly.

“First, I’d need one vote, and I would not be able to get it,” he says, chuckling.

“My wife would not support me.”

Yet somehow, that door still seems open, if only by a crack. Perhaps because the narrative of Boyd’s life 14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

As a college student at the University of Tennessee, back in the late 1970s (Boyd is now in his mid-50s), he took a full 22 hours most semesters, because, “like any cheap person would, I said, ‘You mean I can get 22 hours for the same price as 14? Well give me 22 hours then.” He also spent his first years of self-employment—with a sales and distribution operation in the mid-1980s that later morphed into Radio Systems—driving cross-country in an old van with no air conditioning, to save on gas expenditures.

Now a noted philanthropist, Boyd estimates his annual expenditures in helping disadvantaged students at Pond Gap Elementary School alone at roughly $200,000 per year. That includes air conditioning.

BOYD IS NEITHER AN EAGLE SCOUT, NOR HAS HE CLIMBED MOUNT EVEREST.

“Those are the two most annoying questions that I always get,” he laughs.

“And when I tell people ‘no,’ on both counts, and they look at me like, I’m sorry you’re such a failure.”

For the record, Boyd is a “Life for life,” Life being the rank just below Eagle in the Boy Scouts of America, an organization for which he has been a tireless advocate and volunteer.

As to the Everest question, Boyd explains that, “That’s kind of like

Nor, by extension, does he believe that a treacherous heart is a prerequisite for success.

“I think the SOBs make the headlines because they are what they are,” he says. “But my feeling is that 95 percent of people who are successful do give back, and they are good people.”

“I’m probably the most hated, disrespected, untolerated political entity in existence,” he says. “I’m a moderate.”

He supported Mitt Romney in 2012 (as a state co-campaign chair), but he refuses to take Barack Obama’s name in vain. For the record, he rates himself as “a fiscal conservative who believes that freedom should carry forward to social issues, too.” He is a staunch supporter of Common Core.

BOYD WAS THERE, FINISHING THE RACE WHEN THE BOMBS WENT OFF AT THE END OF THE 2013 BOSTON MARATHON.

He tears up twice during the course of two recent interviews—the first being a flickering moment of misty-eyed sadness over the memory of his first dog, Alex, a beloved childhood pet who went outside one morning and never came home.

The second and more intense episode comes on with his recall of the explosion, and the gut-wrenching agony of not knowing whether Jenny, waiting in the stands near the finish line, had been caught up in the blast radius.

“There’s a rush of people around you, screaming, and everyone’s going away from the finish line,” he remembers.

“But the biggest concern was my wife.

She was supposed to be in the stands …

“And then you start rationalizing things. And you can’t make phone calls, because all the phones are jammed. So I went back to the hotel, hopeful that she’s there, and she’s not.

And I still can’t call her.”

Jenny appeared back at the room 10 minutes later. “It was the scariest half hour of my life,” Boyd says. “Life is fragile.”

A

s for the rest of Boyd’s life, the gory specifics of his ascent to benevolent moguldom, perhaps it’s best to begin as Boyd himself might

begin—with a story. This one comes courtesy of Randy’s father, Tom Boyd, a successful businessman in his own right as founder of Fi-Shock industries, a long-running local electric fence outfit.

Tom Boyd set Randy to work at the Fi-Shock factory in his early teens—labor laws be damned—whereupon the enterprising youngster put his hand to nearly every job in the company at one time or another.

Through college, he paid the rent working long weekend hours on the Fi-Shock assembly line.

“We had these molding machines in the warehouse,” Tom Boyd remembers. “Fifty-foot long machine, and your job was to pull a door open, replace the part that was inside, then shut it back. After that, the machine took about a minute to do its work.

Meaning that if you were willing, you had time to do something else.”

Randy would study his college texts, Tom Boyd says, finishing homework as he manned the molding assembly line, studying for more than 45 seconds of every minute he stood at the press. “The way he saw it, why would you want stand still for nearly a minute,” Tom Boyd says. “He didn’t like to waste time.”

A South Knoxville native, Boyd was an overachiever from the start, a studious kid who made honor roll and played three or four sports in high school and carried on with multiple extra-curricular activities.

He graduated from Doyle High School a year early, at age 16, paid his way through UT—where he majored in industrial management—by working first on the Fi-Shock assembly line and then as a salesman for the company.

He finished college early, too, at 19, a result of the heavy course loads, plus a few spring break correspondence classes tossed in for good measure.

His first job out of college was with dad—doing first international, and then stateside sales for Fi-Shock.

Until 1983, when Tom gave him leave to go off on his own, try his hand with

a product called Storm Alert, a tornado detection unit ventured by one of Fi-Shock’s customers.

With Storm Alert, Boyd learned an important business lesson. “It’s really difficult to create demand when there’s not any,” he laughs. “And nobody was demanding that product.”

But he learned something else, too—adaptability. With the tornado detection business foundering, Boyd decided to make a little money during down time by taking some Fi-Shock product on the road, selling on consignment to a handful of regional farm stores in search of a regular distributor.

Distribution proved a profitable venture—unlike the Storm Alert—and Boyd soon had purchased the aforementioned A.C.-free Dodge Maxivan for delivering product, and an old condemned tractor-trailer bed he converted into an office.

In the interest of thrift, he kept the company name—sort of—in order to avoid having to purchase new business cards or stationery. “We had been called the Storm Alert Company, but all the paperwork just said SACO,” Boyd says.

“So I changed the name to Southern Agricultural Cooperative, Inc., and all the paperwork stayed the same.”

Boyd remembers his SACO sales pitch.

“We didn’t have any catalogs or brochures, but we sold these 18-quart plastic buckets,” he says. “So I’d fill a bucket full of product samples and go into the stores, and my schtick was I’d set my bucket down and say, I know my competition has fancy catalogs, but with me you don’t have to pay for fancy catalogs. All I’ve got is this bucket. And all the stuff is out in the van, so you don’t have to wait for freight. Then I’d quote a couple of prices that were exceptional.”

When he really wanted to impress: “I’d say we sold to 2,200 stores in 40 states. But the truth is that our revenue was only about $1.5 million. We were all just getting by.”

“The way he saw it, why would you want to stand still for nearly a minute,” Tom Boyd says.

“He didn’t like to waste time.”

THE BOYDS’ JIG & REEL There seems to be an opposites-attract synergy at work where Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny are concerned. Though he doesn’t necessarily seek out publicity, Boyd is eminently comfortable when the spotlight shines in his direction. He amiably recounts the story of how he and his wife first met, in a cheesy ’80-era West Knoxville disco warehouse called Tony’s VIP, which neither of them were prone to frequent with any regularity.

“That was probably the only time she ever saw me dance, and it was the only time I think I’ve seen her drink a beer,” he says. “So we sort of connected under false pretenses.”

Jenny Boyd, when asked, replies politely that the story of their first meeting should not be offered up for public consideration. “We’re very different people,” she says. “I’m a very private person. I don’t like the limelight.”

She does allow that on first blush, she thought her future spouse “was very smart, and a good-looking guy, with a lot on the ball.”

Despite their differences when it comes to publicity, the couple have been married 30 years, having celebrated their anniversary in March of this year. Together, they share a life that includes two dogs (Spanky and Oscar); two cats (Sebastian and Wolfgang, named after German composers); and two humans, in sons Harrison (21) and Thomas (26). Thomas Boyd is a musician, and has been a fixture on the local scene since graduating high school, with his most recent project being the indie rock outfit Oh No Fiasco.

The couple also own a club together, Boyd’s Jig & Reel in the Old City, a nod to both Boyd’s Scottish roots and Jenny’s love of music. As Boyd tells it, son Thomas wanted violin lessons at age 7. He chucked the violin within two weeks, in favor of electric bass, but mom stuck with it.

Years later, on a trip to Scotland (Randy says there’s a Boyd family castle back in the mother country, which they’ve visited on a handful of occasions), Jenny met a small-town fiddle teacher in a local pub.

She came back that same summer for fiddle lessons, held upstairs at the pub, followed by evenings spent in the pub itself, with the students playing traditional songs in-the-round for the local tavern regulars.

“People from the community would come in, sit around the table and call out songs,” Randy Boyd says.

“And people like me, with no talent, could just sit on the side, drink beer and eat pie of some sort. We came back home thinking, wow, wouldn’t it be great if Knoxville had a place like that?”

Not too much later, during a stroll through the Old City, Boyd noted that the Old Manhattan’s space at the corner of Jackson and Central was vacant. “We thought it would be a great place for Jenny to play, that maybe we could rent it one night a week,” he says.

But the building was for sale, and not for rent. Having decided to take the plunge and purchase it outright, Boyd says he was hit with another unhappy surprise. “The $60,000 to renovate the building turned out to be about 20 times that,” he says. “I ended up winning a historic preservation award, but it was definitely never part of the plan to do that.”

Nonetheless, Boyd says having the club has been worth the expense and effort. “There are a number of ways of measuring success, and number one is the wife happiness measure,” he laughs. “And she loves it.”

Jenny oversees the Jig & Reel, and plays there a couple nights a week at the Tuesday “hillbilly jam” and again on Thursday, which alternates between Scottish or Irish music sessions. “We love the place, and our customers seem to love the place,” Randy says. “It’s so comfortable, almost like your living room.”

There may be a more extensive Boyd presence in the Old City soon enough. Boyd now owns the building that formerly housed Patrick Sullivan’s, catty-corner to Jig & Reel in the heart of the Old City, and he says plans are afoot for a new restaurant or night spot there. Son Thomas, meanwhile, has aspirations of opening a wine bar and cellar in the old John H. Daniels building on Jackson Avenue.

—M.G.

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

Then in 1989, one of his customers asked for something called the Invisible Fence, a sort of wireless pet fence.

So Boyd called up the Invisible Fence assistant sales VP, gave her the “2,200 stores in 40 states coast to coast” spiel. “She was very unimpressed,” he says. “She finally said, ‘Well, this is very interesting. Why don’t you write a letter explaining why you’d like to buy it from us. And maybe in six months, or maybe a year, we might call you back.’

“I still remembers thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be able to be that arrogant to potential customers?’”

So rather than sell the Invisible Fence, he did the next best thing. The company’s patent was set to expire in one year. So Boyd says he purchased one of the systems, enlisted some friends, and sank his life savings ($26,000) into having the Invisible Fence reverse-engineered.

“I told him I needed help in making Knoxville the nation’s most pet-friendly city, and like any good politician, he said yes to everything I asked for,” Randy Boyd says. “Then when I was finished, like any good politician, he said, ‘Now I have a quid pro quo.’”

The Radio Systems fencing unit hit the market in 1991, and the rest is Knoxville business history. “Our goal was to sell 100 units a month at $250 each,” Boyd says. “The first month, we sold 3,000. In the first six months, we sold one million. We did five million the next year, and then nine, and 15.”

When Radio Systems hit $100 million in 2004—10 times the company’s 1994 sales level—Boyd set a goal to reach one billion in sales in 2015. It was one of those B-HAGs he loves to talk about, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Barring a freakishly successful year, the company will fall about $700-some-odd-million short. But Boyd says that’s okay.

“One of my favorite quotes is from Teddy Roosevelt: ‘Dare mighty things,’” he says. “It’s on a poster at my office at economic development. I 16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

believe it’s important to set high goals.

You can’t set goals you know how to get to. You set goals that make you have to think in new ways.”

I

f Radio Systems, Inc. was to fall into wretched financial ruin next week, Randy Boyd would still be well-remembered as a philanthropist. “I don’t know where it comes from,” says Tom Boyd of his son’s numerous charitable endeavors. “He certainly didn’t get it from me. But he feels that if the community treats him well, he should give back. He’s always said that.”

But perhaps the best way to consider Randy Boyd, the philanthropist, is by looking at the effort which he now touts as his favorite, the Pond Gap Elementary community school program. “If you said you can only pick one thing in the community to support, at this point it would be Pond Gap Elementary School,” Boyd says.

His involvement came about, circuitously, from several other endeavors, beginning with his effort in 2006 to make Knoxville “the most pet-friendly city in America.” That happened at a charity tournament in Phoenix, when a speaker at the evening banquet noted that while animal welfare is improving in the U.S., “there are still backwaters in the world, like Arkansas and Mississippi and Tennessee.”

“I don’t know if this is true or not, but I felt like every eye in the room just turned and looked at me,” Boyd says.

His response was to kick-start a culture change in Knoxville, a multipronged animal welfare effort that included building dog parks and promoting spay-and-neuter programs and pet-friendly legislation.

Along the way, he sought help from then-Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, who was also Boyd’s neighbor at the time. “I told him I needed help in making Knoxville the nation’s most pet-friendly city, and like any good politician, he said yes to everything I asked for,” Boyd says.

“Then when I was finished, like any good politician, he said, ‘Now I have a quid pro quo.’”

Ragsdale’s request involved his vision that everyone who finished high school in Knox County would be able to attend, at the least, a community college or technical school. The result was the creation—with Boyd, Krissy DeAlejandro, Tim Williams, Chris Woodhull, and Rich Ray—of Knox Achieves, a

scholarship program that targets under-served high school students looking to extend their education, funded by a mix of public and private dollars. A principal donor, Boyd also serves as board chairman of Knox Achieves.

The program has been widely touted for successfully sending thousands of Tennessee high school seniors on for further education since its inception in 2008. It was the spark for the Tennessee Promise—now-Gov. Bill Haslam having served as an early Knox Achieves board member—and the state’s Drive to 55 program.

But Boyd says he wasn’t satisfied with aspects of the Tennessee Achieves model. “After a year of the program, I realized we had a problem,” he says. “We’re going to these kids their senior year and saying, great news, you’re going to college.

And they’re saying, if only I had known, I would have prepared myself.”

Boyd is armed with a battery of statistics—about how kids who are two grade levels behind before they’ve reached their final year of elementary school will probably never catch up; about how those same kids have a much higher chance of being dependent on government programs, and of being incarcerated, by the time they reach adulthood.

The key to beating the odds, he says, is, “We have to do something early, in grade school.” His first idea toward that end was raising money for a new charter school. That changed when he met Bob Kronick, of the University of Tennessee’s community school program.

“Bob told me, in not so many words, ‘Randy, that’s a really stupid idea,’” Boyd remembers. “We don’t need anymore buildings—we’ve got plenty of those. What we need is more seat time.

Pick a school, extend the hours, and make that school a hub for everyone who wants to serve these kids.”

Using the “community schools” model promoted by Kronick’s office, Boyd chose Pond Gap Elementary School in West Knoxville—a school with 340 “at-risk” children, and a 94 percent free or reduced-lunch student population. The Pond Gap community school took 90 kids—rated “most at-risk”—and provided them with an extra 3.5 five hours of school time, with dinner included.

A key element of the program was drawing other community resources—

“We’re going to these kids their senior year and saying, great news, you’re going to college. And they’re saying, if only I had known, I would have prepared myself.”

—Randy Boyd

church groups, the Boys’ and Girls’ clubs, Friends of Literacy—to come in and provide additional services, many of which are geared toward the parents of children taking part in the school— GED instruction and healthy cooking seminars and fitness classes.

Mark Benson, director of UT’s University-Assisted Community Schools program, says that Pond Gap has “created an identity for the community. There are lots of struggling families there … Now we’re filling in gaps not just in education, but for other community needs as well.”

Benson says that Boyd dove into the program full throttle, coming to the school often to serve as a tutor, or to play pick-up basketball games with students after-hours in the gym. One student—12-year-old Joseph Tyler— called him out for a game of one-onone on a particular afternoon. Boyd ended up volunteering as Joseph’s Big Brother, through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee.

B

oyd has a line he’s delivered more than once before, concerning his taking a position as a consultant on higher education in the Haslam gubernatorial administration in early 2013. “I tell people that the governor had two very important and unique attributes he was looking for. The first was that you had to be willing to work for free. And the second was you had to be totally unencumbered by knowledge of the subject matter.

“It wasn’t a very competitive job,” he continues. “No one was trying to elbow me out of the way to get it.”

Together, the two men created the aforementioned Drive to 55—a mission to take the state of Tennessee from 32 percent post-secondary attainment among all adults to 55 percent by 2025.

The education job was a year-long commitment. Boyd says much was accomplished, and much was left undone. Most notably, the rest of the country took notice, as President

Barack Obama came to Tennessee to announce the creation of the nationwide program America’s College Promise, which seemed to nick a page or two from the Tennessee Achieves/ Drive to 55 playbook.

Boyd says his new role—as commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development—is in many ways a continuation of the work he began as Haslam’s education consultant. “We’re revising our mission [in economic development] to something that more closely aligns with the Drive to 55 and higher education,” he says.

He talks about the need to “stop graduating kids with certificates and degrees for which there are no jobs,”; for supporting rural communities in their efforts to become more industry-friendly; to “make sure the people on the economic development side are aligned with higher education …

“When I talk to prospective businesses now, at least 50 percent of the conversation is about workforce, which goes back to education. Incentive money is nice, but workforce is the most important thing for a company that’s going to be here for 20 years. We’re never going to be able to outspend everybody with incentive money, but we can be the state that plays best as a team, the state where we’re most aligned with education and workforce.”

But his humble demeanor and self-deprecating humor notwithstanding, it’s clear that Boyd is a quick study now that he’s taken to the bigger stage of statewide political affairs. He has an obvious talent for getting over, politically, with his engaging chattiness, his stories and buzzwords and easy, knowledgeable patter.

It’s the same approach, perhaps, that made him an effective salesman, walking into small-town Feed & Seeds, still sweaty from riding with no A.C., with a bucket full of samples and a smooth line about business on-the-cheap.

That he might have political aspirations of his own some day seems to be a notion that everyone close to him acknowledges, yet dismisses in the same breath. “My wife [Boyd’s stepmother—Tom and Dale Boyd divorced in 1979] always says he’s the kind of person who should be running this country,” says Tom Boyd. “But I don’t know that he’d ever want to run for office. There are just too many bosses.”

George Korda, however, notes that Boyd’s role as economic development commissioner “has been sort of a ticket-puncher on the resume for people running for office in the past.

“When someone is in that orbit, has those connections, and has those kinds of resources, it’s a natural thing for people to start talking about them,” Korda continues. “And it’s natural for them to not stifle the conversation. Until they get to the point where they say, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.’ Or, ‘Yeah, that’s something I’d really like to do.’”

Wife Jenny Boyd anticipates the question concerning her husband’s political intentions, and answers without hesitating: “He won’t do it. I’m not for it.”

“When someone is in that orbit, has those connections, and has those kinds of resources, it’s a natural thing for people to start talking about them.”

—George Korda

But then she adds that, “If he wanted to do it, that would be great.

But I don’t think he will. I don’t know if I would like it at all … But I wouldn’t tell him ‘no.’ I want the best for him.”

Boyd, for his part, says that, though he likes public service, “I don’t like selling myself. It would be weird for me, telling people why I’m better than the next guy.

“I’ve been a little selfish in that I pick the things I’m most passionate about and go for those things. If you’re governor, you have to deal with all kinds of things. I like to pick my battles.”

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

P rogram Notes

SQURL

RYLEY WALKER

MAX RICHTER

Big Ears 2015 Adventures in New Music

HILDUR GUÐNADÓTTIR

PHOTOS BY DAVID LUTTRELL

W

e’ve learned that it’s impossible to see and hear everything at Big Ears—you can’t even get to all the events you want to attend. Every personal account of the festival is a small, refracted perspective. But if you add up enough of those, a clear picture starts to emerge. Here’s a recap of weekend accounts by our team of contributors, demonstrating that Big Ears is indeed one of the most unusual—and unusually gratifying—weekends in Knoxville.

tacos and most other times over beers. But while Knoxville definitely ups its cool factor over the festival, the thought that it takes on some sort of mystical new vibe is a little lost on me. There are a bunch of folks in town who otherwise wouldn’t be here, but I’d like to think that the city is just a better version of itself—one whose population boasts a few more folks from up north and way more world-class artists than should be humanly possible per capita. (Carey Hodges)

fitting way to kick off the kickoff party at KMA. (Matthew Everett)

Saw the beginning of a set from Ryan Schaefer of Royal Bangs at Hello City at Pilot Light, where he debuted some keyboard material and a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Rocks Off” that exists as far across the spectrum from the original as is perhaps possible. (Nick Huinker)

People like to say that Knoxville’s a different town during Big Ears. I think I heard the phrase uttered no fewer five times over the course of Friday—once over

It’s appropriate that Ashley Capps got Kronos Quartet, the weekend’s workhorse headliners, to perform, along with Chinese pipa player Wu Man, a short piece by Kronos associate Philip Glass at the Knoxville Museum of Art as the first official event of the festival. It was a lustrous, shimmering, gorgeous performance, a small but pleasant surprise, and a

Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir is one of the artists I was most looking forward to—I’m partial to strings anyway and find the deep, rich tones of the cello in particular seductive. It took a few minutes for Guðnadóttir, who sings and loops her playing through a laptop, to build momentum, but once she

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Music: White Stag

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

Inside the Vault: “Three Little Fishies”

Theater: A Shayna Maidel

did, playing thrumming low-end melodies to looped accompaniment, it was entrancing. (I noticed a boy in front of me, about 10 or 11 years old, who refused to leave when his mother wanted to go.) (M.E.)

The Standard was the perfect setting for Nosaj Thing and all of the first evening’s electronic acts. It was kind of a head trip to walk into the dark, neon light-tinged space at 7 p.m., but it definitely set the mood. Nosaj’s set started off with a long, droney into before blossoming into a full-blown dance party with rich, purple-hued lighting and a crowd that was clearly eating up anything the L.A.-based artist had to offer. (C.H.)

Made up for a 2014 oversight with the last-minute Rachel Grimes set and couldn’t be more glad—her

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Art: Karla Wozniak

P rogram Notes

PERFUME GENIUS piano/violin/saxophone trio conjures the sound of a much larger ensemble, and never more so than in the final piece, starting with a Reich-style piano drone and building with the sax man wailing on two saxophones at the same time. Tremendous. (N.H.)

Big Ears ringleader Ashley Capps talked a lot about “connections” in the weeks leading up to this weekend’s festival—and that was exactly what happened at the end of the Kronos Quartet (with Wu Man) journey into the music of Terry Riley on Friday evening at the Tennessee. After a first half of music from their CD The Cusp of Magic, Kronos was joined

by Riley himself, with a song he had written for the occasion. The connections continued to happen as Laurie Anderson then joined Riley and Kronos for a jam piece, “Jam in D,” which contained some quintessential Riley and Anderson spoken narratives. Connections indeed. (Alan Sherrod)

I joined about 30 other people in the KMA’s auditorium for a screening of Bill Morrison‘s renowned art film Decasia, introduced by Morrison himself. Made up of images of decaying film stock—commercial features, travel documentaries, instructional films—it’s a dizzying spectacle. I’m especially curious about how it was made—did Morrison film the film (and were we watching a video projection of that)? Almost endlessly bewildering and beautiful, and perfectly accompanied by a full-throated orchestral score by Michael

WU MAN Gordon. (I did find, however, that while the film’s formal qualities remained beguiling throughout, the central metaphor of decay, erasure, and finitude wore thin after about 45 minutes.) (M.E.)

On my colleague Eric Dawson’s recommendation, I skipped over to Ryley Walker at the Square Room for my first wonderful surprise. Walker’s late-’60s Anglo folk-psych is fully formed, to say the least, and a joy to happen upon unawares. (N.H.)

Demdike Stare‘s live electronic accompaniment to Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages at the Bijou Theatre was another surprise—a full house, 700 people, listening to a spooky, dubby soundtrack to a 1922 silent movie about the occult. It’s a great movie, funny and strange, and Demdike Stare provided an apt score—I sensed that some of the duo’s most darkly dramatic moments were just as self-aware and witty as the movie. (M.E.)

After a late night of dancing and more dancing at Jamie xx, I got off to a bit of a slow start on day two of Big Ears. But once I made it downtown, the mix of exhaustion and anxiety over whether I’d be able to catch most of the day’s events gave way to a giddy wave of anticipation. This was partially due to the large quantities of coffee that I consumed en route to the festival, but it was mostly due to the crowds of smiling folks walking around downtown. From the

LAURIE ANDERSON camera crews running out into the middle of Gay Street to score a shot of the Tennessee Theatre to the groups of out-of-town attendees lunching on patios with a total disregard for the 40-degree temperatures, seeing people enjoy Knoxville from a fresh perspective always inspires a little jolt of pride. (C.H.)

Jozef Van Wissem was a lovely fit for the Square Room. (More propers: The venue/artist curation is unassailable.) But what I saw of his solo lute performance was heavy on affecting composition and light on the virtuoso fireworks this festival conditions one to expect, so on to exactly that at Tanya Tagaq, whose Inuit throat singing is an otherworldly mix of extreme metal growl, incongruous pop flashes, and a weird sensuality, set to improv noise rock and was viscerally unlike anything I’ve ever seen. (N.H.)

Max Richter’s first performance was absolutely stunning and one that I kept reliving as the night went on. As Richter and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble played through The Blue Notebooks and Infra, there were audible gasps with each crescendo and I’m pretty sure that the couple next to me started crying. (C.H.)

The highlight of the second afternoon was Holly Herndon, whose glitchy assault on a packed

Standard gave me everything I felt I was missing out on with last year’s head-scratcher from Oneohtrix Point Never. Herndon is obviously working in a more party-friendly (or at least not-party-unfriendly) mode here than Daniel Lopatin, but there’s also just more humanity here, which makes the sonic fracture more engaging. May just be me. But no one was scratching their heads. (N.H.)

I ended the night with Syrian electronic artist Omar Souleyman at the Standard. More than any other act at the festival so far, this is the one that folks said was a can’t-miss and it didn’t disappoint. After a slow, tension-building intro, Souleyman strolled onto the set clapping and grinning as audience members screamed out. His set quickly exploded into a dance party, with some audience members looking a little shell-shocked at the sheer energy behind the performance. (C.H.)

Then, of course, Swans, with a paint-peeling two-hour endurance test at the Bijou Theatre. I’m not sure if Michael Gira’s reformed band is a refutation of mainstream rock or the culmination of it—for all the descriptions that position them as an apocalyptic, quasi-religious phenomenon, they still rely on condensed versions of the basic gestures of classic rock, like volume, double-time drums, and doubled power chords, for impact. Nevertheless, it was a powerful, incantatory coda to the weekend. (M.E.)

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

Music

Stag Party The young Knoxville band White Stag is committed to prog

BY RYAN REED

B

lack-metal screams, post-rock guitars, pastoral prog flutes—White Stag packs a lot of disparate ideas into a fluid, dynamic sound. But they’ve barely scratched the surface of their collective vision. The group’s Bandcamp page features six recorded tracks—a five-song EP from last April and a new single, the 12-minute behemoth “The Rhythm of Clockwork”—and their current quartet lineup has been playing local shows for roughly a year.

“We’re in a blooming time of inspiration,” says drummer Eric Sublett.

And the music proves him right.

White Stag formed in 2013 after Sublett, then a recent high-school graduate, moved to Knoxville from Boston to pursue a career as a full-time musician. He connected with vocalist/ guitarist/flutist Richi Worboys and

guitarist Damon Ownby, both from the Sevierville area, and the trio landed a handful of shows as a three-piece, playing mainly covers, before recruiting bassist Allen Finger last year.

The King of the Forest EP showcased White Stag’s experimental, mind-altering approach to metal, weaving ambient interludes and psychedelic textures with detuned riffs, with Worboys alternating between full-throated bellow and meditative melody. But the epic “The Rhythm of Clockwork,” recorded by Paul Seguna, drummer of local prog outfit Lines Taking Shape, indicates the band’s growth in the past year, achieved partly

by Sublett exposing his bandmates to bands like Between the Buried and Me, Haken, and Cynic.

“It’s definitely evolved,” says the 21-year-old drummer, a self-taught

player. “It’s actually kind of crazy. The other guys grew up listening to Opeth and Tool, which might be our two biggest influences. But I’ve been listening to more progressive, dynamic music since I was a kid. At first, we sounded more like a more dynamic casual metal band, nothing too fancy.

And then I turned them on to a bunch of stuff, and they fell in love with it. I’m actually really shocked at the stuff we’re writing and playing now, how quickly it came to be.”

Every real prog band has to write a concept album at some point, and White Stag is venturing into those divisive waters with their next project, an ambitious five- or six-song album that they’re hoping to record in August and fund through a pledge campaign.

“I would honestly say ‘The Rhythm of Clockwork’ is the halfway point, the in-between what we’re writing now and what we originally had,” Sublett says.

“This time around, especially with a more conceptual album, we’re just trying to get all those ideas out. The change from the first EP to what we’re writing now is ridiculously drastic.”

Knoxville isn’t historically known for fostering a lot of prog bands, but the genre’s local appeal is expanding. Bands

like Lines Taking Shape, Mobility Chief, and Yak Strangler are fixtures of ProgKNOXis, a recurring prog-themed showcase held most recently at the International. Still, Sublett feels like somewhat of an underdog.

“I wish prog was more prominent,” he says. “But progressive music has always been a patient man’s and a listening man’s music.”

White Stag is a young, young band, ranging in age from 19 to 22. But Sublett has never lacked for ambition.

Forgoing college and a 9-to-5 job for music—especially such an unconventional style of music—is a bold life choice. And the quartet is fully committed to White Stag, wherever that unique path takes them.

“We’ve all really dedicated ourselves to this,” Sublett says. “I’m kind of taking a break from school, personally. I’m sure the other guys are the same way, but I won’t speak for them. When I first got here, it was a big change in my life. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on school and graduate with a degree I’m not inspired by. Ever since I picked up the drums, I’ve wanted to do that with my life, so I’m going for it. I’m ignoring society’s standards.”

WHO The Atlas Moth with Generation of Vipers, Wampus Cat, and White Stag WHERE The International (940 Blackstock Ave.)

Photo by Lewis Robards Photography

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

WHEN Saturday, April 4, at 7 p.m.

HOW MUCH $8/$12 day of the show MORE INFO internationalknox.com

Inside the Vault

Photo courtesy of TAMIS

Slippery Fish The story of a well-known children’s song begins in Knoxville

BY ERIC DAWSON

I

f you’re a parent, kindergarten teacher, children’s librarian, or golden-oldies fan, you might know the song “Three Little Fishies.” You might not know— few people do—that it was written by three sorority sisters from Knoxville.

The novelty song was a smash hit in 1939, with no fewer than eight versions recorded that year, including one by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Despite its nonsense baby-talk lyrics, it has remained an oddly enduring classic, with versions popping up every few years from acts as diverse as the Andrews Sisters, Homer and Jethro, the Three Stooges, Spike Jones, Dr. Hook, Ray Stevens, Maria Maldaur, and the Muppets. The song bears a copyright crediting Horace Kirby “Saxie” Dowell as composer, but he took the song from University of Tennessee Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sisters Mary Elizabeth Bomar, Josephine “Jo” Carringer, and Bernice Idins.

Dowell was a saxophone player and singer in Hal Kemp’s band when they played Knoxville in February 1939. He somehow ended up riding in a car to a breakfast with the three sorority sisters, where they taught him their song “Fish Talk.” In late March, Kemp’s orchestra recorded “Three Little Fishies,” with vocals by the aptly named Smoothies.

Kay Kyser’s version soon followed, spending nine weeks at number one on the Billboard charts. Dowell was so emboldened by the song’s success that he soon struck out on his own as a bandleader, but not before he was contacted by the UT trio’s lawyer.

“We sang the song all last summer, but we sang it once too often when we sang it to Saxie Dowell when he was here in February,” Carringer told a reporter at the time. Dowell, or at least his lawyers, didn’t contest the issue, and sent a check to buy the rights to the song. The amount isn’t known; Carringer said only that it was “much more than $100.” The women did not earn any royalties for what went on to become quite a moneymaker.

The sisters did a little borrowing themselves, taking many of the lyrics for their tune from the English nursery rhyme “Over in the Meadow,” which also has uncertain authorship.

After cashing Dowell’s check, Carringer and her new songwriting partner, Betty Lynn, took an extended vacation to New York, where they made contact with a publishing firm. Not long after returning to Knoxville, they sold “I Want a Hat With Cherries” to popular bandleader Larry Clinton. A contract was drawn up on a soup-

stained napkin in an off-campus dining hall, which allowed Carringer and Lynn to retain copyright and receive royalties. The duo wrote three sets of lyrics, and Clinton found the one they preferred so naughty that he borrowed from each to assemble his version.

Carringer reportedly “took a duck fit” when she heard Clinton’s version, thinking him far too prudish.

Carringer and Lynn also worked up a few songs for Ted Lewis’s December 1940 appearance at the Bijou Theatre, but it’s not known if they actually performed the songs. At any rate, they don’t appear to have been published or recorded. Mel Foree bought “Entertain Me” from them in 1941, and that seems to have been the last song the duo sold.

(Foree was friends with WNOX’s Lowell Blanchard and songwriter Arthur Q. Smith. He became Nashville’s first full-time song-plugger.)

Also in 1941, Carringer married UT quarterback Buist “Buzz” Warren, who has the distinction of being one of the 11 Vols who played in the Orange, Rose, and Sugar bowls. (You can see footage of this 1941 Sugar Bowl at the TAMIS Vimeo channel.)

Newspaper and first-hand accounts suggest Jo Carringer was a lively character. She entered UT at the age of 16 and was an outgoing member of ZTA. One of her good friends was Jim Thompson’s daughter Margaret, and they can be seen in a film clip Thompson shot on their graduation day. In the film, Carringer is barely able to stand still as her portrait is taken, smirking and sticking out her tongue. Her son Robert Warren, who today lives in Winston-Salem, N.C., says he remembers her singing “Three Little Fishies” to him and his sister, but she didn’t talk much about her brief career as a songwriter. But his mom and dad did speak positively about their good old college days.

“They had a lot of fun, and the years they were in college were a great time to be at UT,” Warren says. “Then the war came along and dampened everyone’s spirits.”

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Inside the Vault features discoveries from the Knox County Public Library’s Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, a collection of film, video, music, and other media from around East Tennessee.

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

Theater

Past Imperfect Two sisters try to overcome a tragic separation in Clarence Brown’s A Shayna Maidel

BY ALAN SHERROD

T

ime heals all wounds, the popular saying goes. But is that really true?

The reality of living with the scars and confronting the memories in one’s past is often anything but a pleasant healing process. That is certainly the case in Barbara Lebow’s 1985 play, A Shayna Maidel, a student/faculty production currently running at the Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre space.

Two sisters—one a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, the other raised in New York City from age 4— are essentially strangers to each other when they are reunited in New York in 1946. Rose Weiss left Poland for

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

America with her father, Mordechai Weiss, while her mother and older sister, Lusia, remained behind because of sickness, only to be trapped later by the ensuing Nazi occupation. Rose remembers nothing of her early years in Poland and has become a modern woman living a modern American life.

In contrast, Lusia’s life has been a struggle to survive the physical deprivations, Nazi atrocities, and separation from her husband—now memories burned into her soul like the concentration-camp tattoo on her arm.

For the sake of continued existence, Lusia has chosen to submerge her memories, erecting an adjustment

barrier between the sisters. Each sister, too, feels the friction with their stubborn patriarchal father in a different way—assimilated Rose has rebelled against her father’s Jewish orthodoxy, while Lusia must confront the anger she feels for the circumstances of her abandonment.

Lebow slowly, methodically, and with a certain icy objectivity peels away the layers of the family relationships, revealing, piece by piece, the details of their histories and the psychological underpinnings. Director Terry Silver-Alford and his creative team succeed wonderfully in showing us the uppermost layers—the physical contrast of Rose’s comfortable American life with Lusia’s conflicts and the sisters’ interactions with their stubborn patriarchal father. Unfortunately, the innermost layers of the emotional journey—where the deepest aspects of character revelation and resolution should surface—remained out of reach in this production. As a result, we walk away sympathetic and moved, but only superficially, and with many questions about the family left unanswered.

In a bit of remarkable casting, Rachel Finney and Sophia Shefner, as Rose and Lusia, respectively offer enticing takes on the physical and vocal essence of their characters—Rose’s charming and perky New York-ese and Lusia’s struggles with English played for some mild comic relief.

University of Tennessee Theatre faculty actor Jed Diamond takes the role of Mordechai Weiss, looking every inch the rigid, autocratic father, a man who has perfected bullying and religious acceptance to justify the tragic circumstances and his failed family responsibility. While Diamond’s physical stage presence and engaging Brooklyn Yiddish dialect sold the role, he offered little obvious evidence of Weiss’ struggle with guilt—certainly not enough for the possibility of real reconciliation that the finale suggests.

Lebow uses flashbacks to reveal Lusia’s past in Poland with the supporting characters of her mother (Sarah Compton), her friend Hanna (Gracie Belt), and the man she would marry, Duvid Pechenik (Andrew Price Carlile).

While the shifts in time and place are

intended to take one by surprise as extensions of the action, the startling effect is brisk and dramatic, as characters from the past appear without dialect—all quite credible in this production’s nicely compact, one-unit set.

Two emotional landmarks serve as dramatic peaks in the narrative and are indeed high points in this production. In the first act, Lusia and Mordechai compare their lists of people in the family circle who are still missing or whose fate is unknown. It is this reading of the missing and murdered, including Mordechai’s wife and other family members, that draws the characters away from their petty differences and sets the agenda for the second act.

The play works its way to the finale by way of a newly discovered letter from Rose’s mother to the daughter in America she will never see again. With the reading, Rose learns, perhaps for the first time, the compelling importance of family bonds and why one’s survival, and hope for the future, ultimately depends on them. Has time healed this family’s wounds and broken down the barriers toward their psychological survival? This production of A Shayna Maidel would like you to believe it with all your heart.

WHAT Clarence Brown Theatre: A Shayna Maidel WHERE Clarence Brown Lab Theatre (1714 Andy Holt Ave.) WHEN Through April 12 HOW MUCH $15 MORE INFO clarencebrown theatre.com

Ar t

Reading the Landscape Karla Wozniak considers the politics and language of the land around us

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

G

aze out your car window from the passenger seat and you will see the landscape that inspires Knoxville painter Karla Wozniak.

You’ll see it. But you probably won’t notice it. That’s because it isn’t a broad landscape of pastoral farms or majestic mountain views. It’s Weigel’s, Arby’s, and cheap motels. And lately, the kudzu.

“I’ve always been interested in painting boring things,” says Wozniak, a University of Tennessee assistant professor. “It’s such a challenge.”

But you might not recognize these mundane landmarks in her paintings, which over the last five years have become more abstract. Most are painted on canvases four to six feet across, layered in hectic swirls of aggressive, psychedelic color. They are featured in the Contemporary Focus exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art through April 19.

A native of Berkeley, Calif., Wozniak says her broad travels have reinforced her interest in landscapes.

(Her degrees are from Yale and the Rhode Island School of Design; she held an art fellowship in Italy and taught at the Pratt Institute in New York.)

“Living in New York got me thinking about American patterns of development,” she says. “I became interested in the politics of landscape and why cities look the way they do.”

She also enjoys “reading the landscape”—literally. She began painting signs as a way to consider language when it’s surrounded by objects: trees, power lines, roads. Do you read the words first, or see them as color and texture? Wozniak’s paintings reflect the “build it cheap and tear it down” aspect of our culture, but she adds, “Part of it is just the magic of the road.”

In the last year, Wozniak has been driving in a different direction, partly because she now lives so close to the sprawl that she’s less inspired by suburban roadside clutter. The world outside her car window these days is a hillside draped with kudzu or the synchronous fireflies of Elkmont. These paintings are a contradictory jungle— raw and untamed, yet wearing the pastel colors of artificial plants or echoing textile patterns. Her “Kudzu Hillside” painting at KMA is full of busy, bouncy lines, bright in the middle but surrounded by darker, foreboding shapes.

“I’ve always been interested in painting boring things,” says Wozniak, a University of Tennessee assistant professor. “It’s such a challenge.”

Wozniak often begins by taking photos of the same subject from many angles before merging and re-imagining them. She may develop the idea using watercolor on paper before moving to oil on canvas, but the two pictures often diverge considerably.

The KMA show includes 10 small watercolors such as “Zig Zag Underground,” a painting bisected by a dark, jagged line, like a seismograph, dividing the snowy surface from underground rock layers. Nearby is the large, brighter oil painting that followed, “Under the Mountain.” Its more abstract, rounded forms hint at the life waiting to emerge from beneath the snow in spring.

Wozniak starts with a thin wash of color, then works over it repeatedly with other paints. The wash shows through in some areas, while in others the paint is thick and goopy. Sometimes she picks up an oilbar, like a

giant crayon, and draws on the canvas.

“It’s a chain reaction where I end up making a painting that I never thought I would make,” she says. “I like to be surprised.”

She spends a lot of time sitting across her long studio from a painting, just gazing at it. She’s digesting how the colors affect each other. She’s mulling how to organize the chaos to give the viewer’s eye a place to rest. But don’t misunderstand. Wozniak is not cutting anyone a break. These landscapes have bite.

“Color is so powerful,” she says.

“It’s really beautiful, but also kind of hard to look at, aggressive and fierce.”

If you’ve ever wandered off-road into the kudzu during the summer, when you can practically hear it growing seven feet a night, you know what she means.

Check out her work and find her shows at Karlawozniak.com.

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

Movie R e view

Phoned-In Home Lackluster kids’ movie offers some charm but not much else

BY APRIL SNELLINGS

I

think I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating in the face of DreamWorks’ newest feature, Home: I’m really pretty bad at this film-critic thing.

I think movies should be evaluated, to a considerable extent, on the basis of how well they achieve whatever it is they’ve set out to do. Consequently, I’ve got this weird sliding scale in my head that somehow puts Citizen Kane on pretty much equal footing with, say, Rock ’n’ Roll Nightmare, at least in terms of delivering the goods.

First things first, then: Home, based on Adam Rex’s critically praised 2007 book The True Meaning of Smekday, is a movie aimed at kids and kids will love it, so I guess that’s worth a lot. The pacing is zippy, the characters are nice, and it speaks to the challenges of making your way in a world that always seems to be chang-

24

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

ing the rules just when you think you’ve got them figured out.

I just wish it could be, well, better.

Surely we’re long past the notion that kids’ movies can’t be just as satisfying for adults as they are for their target demographic, so it’s disappointing that Home is content to rely on a flimsy story and worn-out clichés.

The plot centers on Oh, a member of a race of planet-hopping aliens called the Boov. The Boov have some admirable qualities—they’ve quite handy, and their technology is based on a cool knack for manipulating gravity— but bravery isn’t among them. They are “the best species ever at running away,” and that’s what they’re doing when they invade Earth and relocate all the people to a carnival-themed prison camp called Happy Humanstown.

Oh (voice of Jim Parsons) is already

disliked by his fellow Boov, mainly for his relentless and very unBoovian determination to make friends and socialize, but he becomes public enemy number one when he accidentally sends a party evite to everyone in the universe—including the Gorg, a race that seems determined to eradicate the Boov. Parsons essentially plays his Big Bang Theory character and keeps the Sheldon-osity dialed up to 11 throughout the film, so his performance will either keep you laughing or eventually make you wish you were dead. Either way, it does have its moments.

Far more appealing than Oh, though, is his eventual human foil: a middle-school girl named Gratuity “Tip” Tucci (voice of Rihanna), who was separated from her mother when the latter was sucked up by a Boovian vacuum ship and plopped into Happy Humanstown. Oh wants to make his way to the Boovian headquarters to correct his mistake before the Boovs’ new address is beamed to the Gorg, and Tip wants to find her mom. The two reluctantly team up and embark on a road trip, during which many lessons are learned.

Home is pleasant enough, and it certainly means well. Oh is a forgettable rehash of all the cuddly, extraterrestrial misfits that have come before him,

but the movie is on to something with the smart, capable, and very charming Tip. Not only is she a person of color, she’s a girl who’s good at math, and the daughter of a single mom who has immigrated to the U.S. from Barbados.

Rihanna turns in a solid voice performance, and Tip earns Home quite a lot of good will.

She really deserves a better movie.

Home never gels into anything approaching an immersive experience for its grownup viewers, either from a narrative perspective or a visual one.

No complaints about the animation itself—these days, is there any group in Hollywood that’s more reliably capable than working animators?—but Home doesn’t stake out any territory of its own and relies on recycled elements from better movies. (Lilo & Stitch seems particularly influential.) From plot to character design, it all just seems too familiar and obvious.

Maybe I’m expecting too much (or maybe Pixar has just ruined it for everybody), but I don’t think so. Home gets a pass for the tykes; it’s sweet and harmless, and kids will appreciate the remarkable amount of screen time dedicated to toilet jokes. But, from an adult perspective, the bar is high for animated features, and Home falls short.

( AT THESE AND OTHER FINE LOCATIONS ) MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

Calhoun’s Community Paper Boxes Downtown EarthFare Food City Food Lion Knox County Public Library branches Kroger Pellissippi State Community College campuses Publix The Casual Pint University of Tennessee campus buildings YMCA

DOWNTOWN / FORT SANDERS 17th Street Deli Arnstein Building (box) Bank of America (box) Barley’s Taproom Bistro at the Bijou Blue Coast Grille Boyd’s Jig & Reel Café 4 Coffee and Chocolate Copper Cellar Crown and Goose Cru Bistro Downtown Grill & Brewery Downtown Wine & Liquor/Suttree’s Earth To Old City East Tennessee History Center Empire Deli Emporium Center First Choice Community Credit Union GameDay Hooka Lounge Hampton Inn Holly’s 135 Jack n’ Diane’s Piano Bar Java Old City Just Ripe Grocery Knoxville Museum of Art Knoxville Uncorked Lenny’s Nama Sushi Nothing Too Fancy

Oliver Hotel Pete’s Cafe Preservation Pub Public House Regions Bank Salon Barnes & Barnes Sapphire Scruffy City Music Hall Soccer Taco Sterchi Lofts (box) SunSpot Tennessee Supreme Court (box) The Hill Tomato Head Union Ave Books Urban Bar Visit Knoxville/Visitor’s Center/WDVX

EAST

Asheville Highway Animal Clinic Chandler’s Deli Marc Nelson Denim Puleo’s John T. O’Connor Center Nostalgia Saw Works Brewing Scott’s Place

NORTH

Amber Restaurant Central Taps and Flats Club XYZ Harby’s Pizza & Deli Holly’s Corner Hops and Hollers K-Brew KCDC Lenny’s Mid Mod Collective National Fitness Center North Corner Sandwich Shop Raven Records Rita’s Bakery Retrospect Three Rivers Market Time Warp Tea Room

WEST

640 Liquor Agave Azul Ashe’s Package Store Asia Café Bearden Beer Market Big Fatty’s Bike and Trail Black Horse Pub & Brewery Bob’s Package Store Brixx Pizza Copper Cellar Dead End BBQ Doc’s All American Grille El Mez Cal Gourmet’s Market Grayson Hyundai/Subaru Hard Knox Pizza Holly’s Homberg Long’s Drugs Luttrell Eyeware McKay’s Middlebrook Liquors Nama Sushi Naples Italian Restaurant Nostalgia Open Chord Brewhouse The Orangery Panera Bread (Bearden) Pelancho’s Pet Safe Village Planet Xchange Prestige Cleaners Rik’s Music Savelli’s Italian Restaurant Shrimp Dock Stir Fry Cafe Subway Ted Russell Ford Ted Russell Kia Ted Russell Nissan Toddy’s Liquor Store Tomato Head USI Motors Whiskey River Wild Wright’s Cafeteria

WAY WEST

Bad Daddies Burger Bar (box) Blue Ridge Mountain Sports Brixx Pizza Carmike Movies Seven Cedar Bluff Discount Wine Dixie Lee Wine and Liquor I Love NY Pizza Farragut Wine and Spirits First Tennesee Bank Plaza Fuddrucker’s Hush Puppies K-9 Center Lincoln Memorial College Mellow Mushroom Pet Safe Village Puleo’s Sam’s Café Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza Shrimp Dock (box) Smoky Mountain Brewery Town of Farragut Municipal Center

SOUTH + ALCOA/MARYVILLE

All Locations Subject To Change • Call us at 865-313-2059 to add your location.

Barley’s Taproom Disc Exchange Salsaritas Shoney’s Smoky Mountain Brewery Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson Southland Books and Cafe Southland Spirits and Wine Vienna Coffee House

OAK RIDGE

Billy’s Time Out Deli Doubletree Hotel Hot Bagel Company Mr. K’s Used Books Oak Ridge Public Library The Other One Deli Razzberries

MUSIC

Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

Wednesday, April 1

Thursday, April 2

BARK WITH SIX STRING DRAG • Preservation

KEVIN ABERNATHY • Barley’s Taproom and

Pub • 10 p.m. • Tim and Susan Lee’s experimental rock side project, with reunited ’90s alt-country vets Six String Drag.

BRADFORD LEE FOLK AND THE BLUEGRASS PLAYBOYS WITH JACK RENTFRO • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7 p.m. • The former frontman for Open Road plays Americana rooted in the bluegrass tradition from his latest CD, Somewhere Far Away. Jack Rentfro reads prose and verse with modern Appalachian wit. Part of WDVX’s weekly Tennessee Shines series. • $10

FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown

and Goose • 6:30 p.m. • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • Free

KJO JAZZ LUNCH • The Square Room •

Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8 p.m. • Kevin Abernathy’s voice comes through loud and clear on his new album, Ain’t Learned Yet, a vision of straight-ahead guitar rock that nevertheless manages to nod at styles as varied as crisp ’80s hard rock, ’90s indie and alt-country, and classic-rock radio. Ain’t Learned Yet is—enthusiastically, emphatically, and without qualification—bar-band music, in the best way. The album’s live-sounding production suggests that these songs, as sturdy as they are, sound best right in front of you, with the distortion cranked and the guitar solos extended for a few extra bars. • Free

THE BEARDED • Barley’s Taproom and

Pizzeria • 10 p.m. • Local old-time music and bluegrass.

Noon • Vocalist Kayley Farmer celebrates music from the Great American Songbook in this encore Jazz Lunch performance. Join her as she and her band recreate many of your favorite hits from films like Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, An American in Paris, Swing Time, and White Christmas. Featured composers include Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields, and Irving Berlin. • $15

THE FREEWAY REVIVAL • Scruffy City Hall •

BILL ORCUTT WITH ERIC LEE • Pilot Light • 10

ONE EYED DOLL WITH SHALLOWPOINT AND DECONBRIO •

p.m. • Bill Orcutt spent a good part of the ’90s playing mind-warping guitar in frenetic noise rock band Harry Pussy. Returning from a decade-plus music-making hiatus, in 2009 Orcutt traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic and unleashed A New Way to Pay Old Debts. Since his return, Orcutt’s work has been heralded as one of the most original approaches to guitar music since British improviser Derek Bailey. • $10 • 18 and up

STEPHEN LEE RICH • WDVX • Noon • Part of

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national 26

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

7 p.m.

MOTION THEATRE WITH FAR FROM ROYAL AND SADIE • Longbranch Saloon • 8 p.m.

STEVEN MULLAN WITH CASEY JAMES PRESTWOOD AND THE BURNING ANGELS • WDVX • Noon • 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 Concourse • 7 p.m. • $8-$10

PARADISO AND RASAMAYI • Shanti Yoga

Haven • 7 p.m. • Carnegie Hall didjeridoo artist Paradiso and singing bowl master alchemist Rasamayi bring concerts that are doorways to multidimensional journeys and experience regular reports of transformative experiences. • $25-$30

Photo by Brian Neisz

CALENDAR

Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12

WUSSY Wussy with the Tim Lee 3 • Scruffy City Hall (32 Market Square) • Saturday, April 4 • 10 p.m. • $5 • preservationpub.com Hailed as “the best band in America” by rock critic Robert Christgau, Wussy has been working out of Cincinnati, Ohio, for more than a decade. Thanks to writers like Christgau, their profile has grown steadily over that time—the band was featured on CBS This Morning in November 2014 and on Slate a month later. The band’s two main vocalists, Chuck Cleaver, formerly of the Ass Ponys, and Lisa Walker, spin tales of personal pain, triumph, and everything in between. Walker joined Cleaver as a result of Cleaver’s stage fright in 2001, and the band has picked up members as they’ve gone on, adding Mark Messerly on bass in 2002 and Joe Klug on drums in 2009. John Erhardt, a guitarist for the Ass Ponys, returned to play pedal steel on 2014’s Attica!

The band has now released six full-length albums since 2005, and it’s a very democratic group, with each member taking an equal hand in songwriting. Cleaver and Walker alternate vocals throughout Wussy’s discography, and they were a couple until they weren’t; they broke up in 2005, a bit before the release of their first album, Funeral Dress. That relationship still defines their lyrics, even those as seemingly simple as Cleaver’s “This is not a home/This is an apartment” on “Acetylene,” from Attica! You could accuse them of holding a defeatist philosophy, but this is a hard-working, blue-collar group built on the idea of word of mouth and honest, open songwriting—fitting for a band that’s loved by critics and a small, yet devoted fan base. (Will Warren)

SCOTT ROBBINS ACOUSTIC VARIETY SHOW • Preservation Pub • 8 p.m.

TAOTSS • Pilot Light • 10 p.m. • $5 UT JAZZ BIG BAND • University of Tennessee

32

Spotlight: Lewis Nash

CALENDAR Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 8 p.m. • Free

THE CHARLES WALKER BAND • Preservation

JARED WEEKS • Wild Wing Cafe • 10 p.m.

Sunday, April 5

ZULU WELSH • Preservation Pub • 8 p.m.

Pizzeria (Maryville) • 7 p.m.

Pub • 10 p.m.

Saturday, April 4

Friday, April 3 BIG BAD OVEN WITH NERVOUS REX AND NERVOUS TICKS • Pilot Light • 10 p.m. • $5

tion Pub • 10 p.m.

AGORI TRIBE WITH OPPOSITE BOX • PreservaTHE ATLAS MOTH WITH GENERATION OF VIPERS, WAMPUS CAT, AND WHITE STAG • The Interna-

COYOTES IN BOXES WITH YAK STRANGLER • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.

tional • 7 p.m. • 18 and up. • $8-$12 • See Music story on page 22.

THE DEAD RINGERS • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m.

BIG GUN • The Shed at Smoky Mountain

EOTO WITH ILL.GATES • The International • 9

Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8 p.m. • An AC/DC tribute. • 6 p.m. • $15

EARTH BY TRAIN • Longbranch Saloon •

ERICA BLINN AND THE HANDSOME MACHINE WITH BROOKS DIXON • WDVX • Noon • Part of

p.m. • $10-$20

ROBINELLA • Barley’s Taproom and THE JEFF SIPE TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8 p.m.

YOUNG RAPIDS • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m.

Monday, April 6 CICADA RHYTHM • WDVX • Noon • Part of

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

CICADA RHYTHM • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10 p.m.

FREEQUENCY • Cru Bistro and Wine Bar • 8 p.m. • Folk-pop and covers with three-part harmony.

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

THE FREEWAY REVIVAL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10 p.m.

ERICA BLINN AND THE HANDSOME MACHINE •

Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10 p.m. • Free

THE SWILL SIPPERS • Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern • 9 p.m. • Free

TIM HALPERIN • The Square Room • 8 p.m.

FREEQUENCY • Doc’s All American Grille •

Tuesday, April 7 MATT A. FOSTER • Barley’s Taproom and

HUDSON K WITH STEPHANIESID, LITTLE WAR TWINS, DANIMAL PLANET, AND THE SNIFF • Scruff y City

HANDSOME AND THE HUMBLES • Barley’s

7:30 p.m.

• $10

Hall • 9 p.m.

KELLE JOLLY WITH DUSTIN SELLERS • WDVX •

Noon • 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

DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10 p.m. • Free

PAMELA KLICKA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9 p.m.• Live jazz. • Free

SCENT OF REMAINS WITH WARCLOWN, TEARS TO EMBERS, AMONG THE BEASTS, AND THE CREATURES IN SECRET • The Concourse • 6 p.m. • Local heavy metal. All ages. • $5

SHIFFTY AND THE HEADMASTERS • Barley’s

Taproom and Pizzeria • 10 p.m. • Covering the gamut of classic mid ‘70s to ‘80s rock.

9 p.m. • Folk-pop and covers with three-part harmony.

Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10 p.m.

LIARS DICE WITH LANDFALL AND ANTLERS HOPKINS • Longbranch Saloon • 6 p.m.

SUNSHINE STATION • Bluetick Brewery

(Maryville) • 9 p.m. • Local folk band Sunshine Station celebrates the release of its debut album. • Free

THE ALLEN THOMPSON BAND • Preservation

Pub • 8 p.m.

THE TURKEY TIME VARIETY SHOW • Pilot Light • 10 p.m. • $5

WUSSY WITH THE TIM LEE 3 • Scruff y City

Hall • 10 p.m. • Wussy is a four-piece rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio fronted by ex-Ass Ponys frontman Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker. • See Spotlight on page 26.

QUILT • Pilot Light • 10 p.m. • “Beautiful,

gnarled and mirage-like” indie guitar rock. • $8

Pizzeria • 10P p.m. • Foster plays a mountain banjo, harmonica, and the sole of his boot. It’s live, simple, and earnest.

THE LIVING DEADS WITH CHELSEA SADDLER •

WDVX • Noon • 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

LEWIS NASH • The Square Room • 8 p.m. • $20 • See Spotlight on page 32

Wednesday, April 8 THE JOSH DANIEL/MARK SCHIMICK PROJECT WITH DAWN COPPOCK • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7

p.m. • Formed in early 2014, The Josh Daniel/Mark Schimick Project is a fiery string band blending bluegrass, soul, reggae and rock n’ roll into a style uniquely their own. Josh and Mark have been fi xtures on the Americana circuit for years—Josh with The New Familiars and Mark with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge. Poet Dawn Coppock will read poems from her new collection, “”As Sweet as It’s

UP NEXT!

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA

“ONE SIZE FITS ALL” 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

wednesday, april 15 • 8pm

THE BLACK CADILLACS w/ Sol Cat and Johnny Astro & The Big Bang friday, april 17 • 8pm

AER

w/ Jez Dior and Packy monday, april 20 • 8pm

JASON BONHAM LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE tuesday, may 5 • 8pm

WIMZ PRESENTS

THE BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY PERFORMS EAGLES’ HOTEL CALIFORNIA saturday, may 9 • 8pm

JENNY LEWIS w/ Nikki Lane tuesday, may 12 • 8pm ALSO UPCOMING!

Erick Baker • 4/18 - SOLD OUT! Home Free • 4/23 Jeff Daniels & The Ben Daniels Band • 5/19

KNOXBIJOU.COM TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE TENNESSEE

THEATRE BOX OFFICE, TICKETMASTER.COM, AND BY PHONE AT 800-745-3000

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR Going to Get.”” Part of WDVX’s weekly Tennessee Shines live-broadcast concert series. • $10

FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown

and Goose • 6:30 p.m. • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • Free

BEN GAINES MONTHLY IMPROV NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m. •

WARD MCCANN HARRISON WITH MISSISSIPPI BENDS • WDVX • Noon • 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

MATT NELSON SOUND • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7 p.m. • Live jazz. • Free

Thursday, April 9 DAIKAIJU WITH THE MUTATIONS • Pilot Light • 10 p.m. • $5

28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12

JIMMY DAVIS • WDVX • Noon • Part of

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

JIMMY DAVIS • Barley’s Taproom and

SILVER SCREEN ORCHESTRA WITH MILKTOOTH • Scruff y City Hall • 8 p.m.

TURBO SUIT • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • 18

and up. • $5

Friday, April 10 CAPTAIN IVORY • Barley’s Taproom and

Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8 p.m.

Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10 p.m.

DANIKA HOLMES • Blue Slip Winery • 8 p.m.

BRIAN CLAY • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9

MISTY MOUNTAIN STRING BAND • Preservation

EXMAG WITH M!NT • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • By honing in on the 1970’s progressive rock, 1990’s hip-hop, and early 2000’s neo-soul Exmag was capable of making an impact in the 2010’s with an idiosyncratic blend of the three. Presented by Midnight Voyage. 18 and up. • $10-$15

• $15

Pub • 10 p.m.

PELLISSIPPI STATE INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT •

Pellissippi State Community College • 7p.m. • This concert will feature more than 40 students in four of our student instrumental groups: the Brass Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Studio Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble. • Free

SAM QUINN AND TAIWAN TWIN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10 p.m.

p.m. • Live jazz. • Free

HOT CLUB OF SAN FRANCISCO • Clayton Center

for the Arts (Maryville) • 8 p.m. • Hot Club of San Francisco will present Cinema Vivant, an evening of vintage

silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing music. To hear the ensemble live, or on any of their 13 albums, is to be carried back to the 1930’s and the small, smoky jazz clubs of Paris and the refined lounges of the famous Hotel Ritz.

LABRON LAZENBY AND LA3 • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m. • Knoxville blues.

MADRE WITH HARRISON ANVIL AND BIG COUNTRY’S EMPTY BOTTLE • Scruff y City Hall • 8 p.m.

RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS MUSIC FESTIVAL • The Old

City • Spring comes to downtown Knoxville with the city’s biggest music festival, part of the Dogwood Arts Festival, featuring performances by dozens of rock, country, folk, and Americana bands, like headliners the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, the Dirty Guv’nahs, and Delta Spirit, plus Cruz Contreras’ tribute to Knoxville music history and seven venues. • $60

CALENDAR THE STREAMLINERS SWING ORCHESTRA •

Knoxville Museum of Art • 6 p.m. • Spring is here, and it’s time to jump, jive and wail with Knoxville’s favorite swing band. • $15

TUATHA DEA • Preservation Pub • 8 p.m. •

Sevier County world music/rock band Tuatha Dea’s eclectic sound blends the tribal vibe of primitive drums with conventional and non-conventional instruments. From the beginning the band has embraced its Celtic heritage and meshed the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain with the pulse-pounding heartbeat of the drums to produce unique versions of traditional favorites like “Aillien Duinn”, “Danny Boy”, “Whiskey In A Jar”, “Loch Lomond” “Skye Boat” and others.

WHISKEY BENT VALLEY BOYS WITH DANIKA HOLMES AND JEB HART • WDVX • Noon • Part of

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

Saturday, April 11 ANYONE’S GUESS WITH ANNANDALE AND AUTUMN REFLECTION • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7 p.m. • All ages. • $8

MARY BRAGG • WDVX • Noon • Part of

and national smooth-jazz recording artists. Visit www.jazzspirationsLIVE. com. • $20-$30

DAVIS MITCHELL AND DM3 • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m.

R.B. MORRIS WITH GREG HORNE AND DANIEL KIMBRO • Laurel Theater • 8 p.m. • Just

back from a recent special invitation show at the Country Music Hall of Fame honoring the beginnings of Americana Music and Revival of the Lower Broadway scene in Nashville, as well as a recent Push Cart nomination for his book, The Mockingbird Poems, RB returns to his stage and pulpit at the Laurel Theater with some of Knoxville’s finest musicians, Greg Horne and Daniel Kimbro, to play songs new and old. Lucinda Williams called him “the greatest unknown songwriter in the country.” • $12

NED VAN GO • Preservation Pub • 8 p.m.

RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS MUSIC FESTIVAL • The Old

City • Spring comes to downtown Knoxville with the city’s biggest music festival, part of the Dogwood Arts Festival, featuring performances by dozens of rock, country, folk, and Americana bands, like headliners the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, the Dirty Guv’nahs, and Delta Spirit, plus Cruz Contreras’ tribute to Knoxville music history and seven venues. • $60

WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-daysa-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • Free

Scruffy City Hall • 8 p.m.

DIXIEGHOST WITH KRIPPLE KREEK • The Shed at

THE WILL YAGER TRIO • The Bistro at the

TIM AND JODI HARBIN • Barley’s Taproom

Sunday, April 12 LIVINGSTONE • Preservation Pub • 10 p.m.

Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8 p.m. • Free and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10 p.m.

HIP-HOP FOR HUNGER • The Concourse • 7:30 p.m. • Featuring Young Gunz, Good Boy Collective, Plunderphonics, and The Exception.

JAZZSPIRATIONS LIVE CONCERT SERIES • Holiday

Inn (World’s Fair Park) • 7 p.m. • Radio air-personality and jazz artist Brian Clay hosts and performs with regional

SIDECAR SYMPOSIUM WITH WHISKEY BENT VALLEY BOYS, PLANKEYE PEGGY, AND SKUNK RUCKUS •

Bijou • 9 p.m. • Live jazz. • Free

RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS MUSIC FESTIVAL • The Old

City • Spring comes to downtown Knoxville with the city’s biggest music festival, part of the Dogwood Arts Festival, featuring performances by dozens of rock, country, folk, and Americana bands, like headliners the Decemberists, Drive-By Truckers, the Dirty Guv’nahs, and Delta Spirit, plus Cruz Contreras’ tribute to Knoxville

music history and seven venues. • $60

SWINGBOOTY WITH THE JAZZPHONICS • Ijams

Nature Center • 5:30 p.m. • Live local jazz. • Free

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS Wednesday, April 1 OPEN CHORD OPEN MIC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.

Thursday, April 2 BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord

Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.• Free

Monday, April 6 BLUEGRASS AND BREWS OPEN JAM • Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern • 7 p.m.-9 p.m. • Free Tuesday, April 7 BARLEY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT • Barley’s

Taproom and Pizzeria • 8 p.m.

OLD-TIME JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15

p.m. • Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. • Free

Wednesday, April 8 OPEN CHORD OPEN MIC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.

Thursday, April 9 BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord

Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.• Free

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS Friday, April 3 THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY •

Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

Saturday, April 4 THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY •

Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

Sunday, April 5 S.I.N. • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • A April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR

Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12

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

Friday, April 10

Theatre • 8 p.m. • UT Opera Theatre presents Mozart’s beloved masterpiece, The Magic Flute: a magical love story filled with fantasy, action, and adventure. Prince Tamino is in love with Pamina, but they must undergo trials in a world where the Queen of the Night and Sarostro struggle for power over darkness and light.

Otherworldly characters, such as the beloved Papageno, present themselves in a journey that will lead Tamino to triumph, love, and light. • $20

THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY •

Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

Saturday, April 11 THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY •

Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

Sunday, April 12 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

Friday, April 10 UT OPERA THEATRE: THE MAGIC FLUTE • Bijou

Saturday, April 11 UT OPERA THEATRE: THE MAGIC FLUTE • Bijou

Theatre • 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. • UT Opera Theatre presents Mozart’s beloved masterpiece, The Magic Flute: a magical love story filled with fantasy,

action, and adventure. Prince Tamino is in love with Pamina, but they must undergo trials in a world where the Queen of the Night and Sarostro struggle for power over darkness and light. Otherworldly characters, such as the beloved Papageno, present themselves in a journey that will lead Tamino to triumph, love, and light. • $20

KSO POPS SERIES: THE MUSIC OF QUEEN •

Knoxville Civic Auditorium • 8 p.m. • Celebrate the immortal music of Queen as Brody Dolyniuk and his rock band join the KSO for solid platinum hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The KSO will perform Windborne’s Music of Queen featuring Guest Conductor Brent Havens and vocalist Brody Dolyniuk. • $22-$60

Sunday, April 12 UT OPERA THEATRE: THE MAGIC FLUTE • Bijou

Theatre • 2:30 p.m. • UT Opera Theatre presents Mozart’s beloved masterpiece,

The Magic Flute: a magical love story filled with fantasy, action, and adventure. Prince Tamino is in love with Pamina, but they must undergo trials in a world where the Queen of the Night and Sarostro struggle for power over darkness and light. Otherworldly characters, such as the beloved Papageno, present themselves in a journey that will lead Tamino to triumph, love, and light. • $20

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD Monday, April 6 QED COMEDY LABORATORY • Pilot Light • 7:30 p.m. • QED ComedyLaboratory is a weekly show with different theme every week that combines stand-up, improv, sketch, music and other types of performance and features some of the funniest people in Knoxville and

Christ is Risen!

We invite you to join us on Easter Sunday - April 5 Sunrise Service - 6:30 a.m.

Worship - 8:30 & 11 a.m.

Musical Prelude begins at 8:15 & 10:45

Church Street United Methodist Church 900 Henley at Main www.churchstreetumc.org 30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

CALENDAR parts unknown. It’s weird and experimental. Pay what you want. Cost: Free - But Donations Gladly Accepted • Free

THEATER AND DANCE Wednesday, April 1 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • A powerful and deeply affecting portrait of a family in the aftermath of the Holocaust: two sisters, one a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, the other brought up as an American, meet in 1946 after a separation of almost 20 years. Directed by Terry Silver-Alford.

March 26-April 12. • $15

Thursday, April 2 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s

Theatre • 7 p.m. • Based on Disney’s blockbuster animation franchise.

March 27-April 12. • $12

Friday, April 3 BROADWAY AT THE TENNESSEE: GUYS AND DOLLS •

Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • Set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City, this oddball romantic comedy considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy - soars with the spirit of Broadway. • $37-$77

CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7 p.m.

• March 27-April 12. • $12

Saturday, April 4 BROADWAY AT THE TENNESSEE: GUYS AND DOLLS •

Tennessee Theatre • 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

• $37-$77

CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s

Theatre • 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. • March 27-April 12. • $12

Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

readings from the script will also be included. Bring a recent headshot or photo, a resume (if available), and a list of schedule conflicts that may exist between April 19 through August 10, 2015. Rehearsals will begin in May and availability will be taken into account when scheduling rehearsals.

Performances will be August 7 – 9, 2015 at the Clayton Center for the Arts, in Maryville, TN. Libby Pemberton will direct the production. • Free

Thursday, April 9

Sunday, April 12

CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Sunday, April 5 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 2 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

Wednesday, April 8 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

Clarence Brown Theatre • 2 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7 p.m.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s

• March 27-April 12. • $12

Friday, April 10 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7 p.m.

• March 27-April 12. • $12

MOMENTUM DANCE LAB: ART MOVES • Empori-

um Center for Arts and Culture • 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. • Choreographers collaborate with local musicians and artists whose work has been selected to be a part of the Dogwood Arts Festival’s Regional Fine Art Exhibition. • $15

Saturday, April 11 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘A SHAYNA MAIDEL’ •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • March 26-April 12. • $15

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SHREK: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s

Theatre • 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. • March 27-April 12. • $12

FOOTHILLS COMMUNITY PLAYERS: AUDITIONS FOR THE SOUND OF MUSIC • Chilhowee Club

(Maryville) • 2 p.m. •Auditionees are asked to prepare a song to sing a cappella, unrelated to the show, no longer than 32 bars or 1 ½ minutes, and to prepare to sing a pre-arranged portion of a song from the show, which can be found on FCP’s website. Cold

Theatre • 3 p.m. • March 27-April 12. • $12

MOMENTUM DANCE LAB: ART MOVES • Empori-

um Center for Arts and Culture • 2 p.m.

• Choreographers collaborate with local musicians and artists whose work has been selected to be a part of the Dogwood Arts Festival’s Regional Fine Art Exhibition. • $15

FESTIVALS

Thursday, April 9th at 6 pm Book signing with Amy Greene, Bestselling author of Bloodroot, reading from her novel, Long Man, now out in paperback

Union Ave Books 517 Union Ave Knoxville, TN 37902 865.951.2180 www.unionavebooks.com

As Sweet As It’s Going To Get Poems By Dawn Coppock As Sweet As It’s

Going To Get

AS HEARD ON

Friday, April 10 PELLISSIPPI STATE FESTIVAL OF CULTURES •

Pellissippi State Community College • 4 p.m. • Food, music and festivities will fill the evening as Pellissippi State Community College celebrates diversity at its eighth annual Festival of Cultures Friday, April 10. The event features performances by the Carib Sounds Steel Band, Caribbean Dancers of Atlanta, Chinese Dancers of Atlanta and Hardin Valley Thunder, Pellissippi State’s student bluegrass ensemble. Additionally, the Festival of Cultures offers children’s activities such as balloon art, glitter tattoos and face painting, a magic show, exhibits from Pellissippi State’s own international students, and international food.

• Free

poems k Dawn Coppoc

Available now at www.saplinggrovepress.com April Readings and Events April 3, 5pm First Friday Book Signing •Mast General Store April 8, 7pm WDVX Tennessee Shines •Boyd’s Jig and Reel April 11, 2pm Book Launch Party Poets in Preservation Series Knox Heritage-Westwood April 19, 2pm Literary Reading •Union Avenue Books

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR SPORTS AND RECREATION Saturday, April 11 WAR AT WINDROCK • Windrock Park • 7:30

a.m. • Runners will have the option of tackling a grueling 50K course through the wind farm or an abbreviated, yet punishing, 11 mile trail run.

Nestled in Windrock Park runners will conquer a wild journey of ATV trails that consist of steep climbs, rugged terrain, and breathtaking mountain views. Athletes will all start at the same time and run together for the first few miles before separating on their own respective courses. For more information, visit www.dirtybirdevents. com. • $35-$70

Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12

amazing feature film called Mondo Sexxxx: The Terry Kobrah Story. We will be giving you a sample of Logan’s work as well as premiering a documentary of his. For this month’s secret feature, we’ll be screening an all time classic. William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick and Stan Brakhage have all hailed this film as one of the greatest horror films ever made. You would be a fool if you missed out on this one. This event is free, but we ask that you please leave a donation. The donations will be split between KHFF and the filmmaker. • Free

FILM SCREENINGS Wednesday, April 1 THE PUBLIC CINEMA: LISTEN UP PHILLIP AND MELVILLE • Knoxville Museum of Art •

Thursday, April 9 EAST TENNESSEE PBS COMMUNITY CINEMA: THE HOMESTRETCH • Scruffy City Hall • 6 p.m. •

tional • 6 p.m. • Live MMA. 18 and up. • $35-$65

6:30 p.m. • In this sly, very funny portrait of artistic egomania, Jason Schwartzman stars as Philip Lewis Friedman, a precocious literary star anticipating the publication of his second novel. A film about callow ambition, Listen Up Philip is itself remarkably poised, a knowing, rueful account of how pain and insecurity transfigure themselves as anger but also as art. • Free

KNOXVILLE HORROR FILM FESTIVAL • Scruffy City

Hall • 7:30 p.m. • Join us for our monthly event series at Scruffy City Hall. Every first Wednesday of the month, KHFF will highlight a local filmmaker and show some of their films along with a surprise feature chosen by us to go along with it. We will also do an interview and q & a with the filmmaker before and after we screen their work. April’s filmmaker is Logan Myers. Logan has produced several short films, music videos and an 32

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

will be held on Friday, April 3, from 5-9 p.m. APRIL 3-30: I WIsh I Could Fly, paintings by Angel Blanco.

Synergy Student and East Tennessee Educator Art Exhibition. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 2, from 5-9 p.m., with an awards ceremony at 7 p.m.

Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd.

MARCH 27-APRIL 7: MFA Thesis Exhibition: Raluca Iancu, Kevin Kao, Alexandra Kirtley, and Thomas Wharton

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. APRIL 3-25: Dogwood Arts Regional Fine

Knox Heritage Art & Salvage Shop 619 Broadway APRIL 3: Artwork by Beth Meadows and

Arts Exhibition. An opening reception

Austin Ferber will be on display during

Thursday, April 2 TCWN WILD AND SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL • Relix

Variety Theatre • 7 p.m. • The Wild and Scenic Film Festival is the premier collection of environmental films that showcase gorgeous nature cinematography, hair-raising outdoor adventures, and the critical environmental issues of our time. TCWN’s staff curated over 90 minutes of films from this year’s 18-hour collection to engage, inspire, and entertain the Knoxville community. • $10

VALOR FIGHTS 22 PRO/AM MMA • The Interna-

Clayton Center for the Arts 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway (Maryville) APRIL 2-30: Dogwood Arts Festival

The Homestretch follows three homeless teens in Chicago as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future.

LEWIS NASH

ART

Lewis Nash • The Square Room (4 Market Square) • Tuesday, April 7 • 8 p.m. • $20 • knoxjazzfest.org

A1 Lab Arts 23 Emory Place APRIL 3: Fifth annual Identity Exhibition. APRIL 9-10: Loopy, a BFA capstone

Both Lewis Nash and Steve Wilson are exemplary sidemen. Nash has played drums with everyone from Betty Carter and Dizzy Gillespie to Diana Krall; Wilson’s resume includes reed performances with Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, Christian McBride, and dozens of other band leaders. So last year’s Duologue, the pair’s first recording together, is something of a musician’s album—there’s a lot of technique on display in the album’s 11 tracks, though the fireworks tend toward unfussy proficiency instead of showing off. The fireworks are there, but they’re subtle and tasteful.

exhibition by Allan Namiotkiewicz.

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. APRIL 3-30: Artwork by Marilyn Avery

Turner and Gray Bearden. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 3, at 5:30 p.m.

Central Flats and Taps 1204 N. Central St. APRIL 3-29: New artwork by Beth

Meadows and Matthew Higginbotham.

Nash will get a chance to show off his musical intelligence and instrumental mastery next week as the headliner at the first of several 2015 concerts leading up to the next Knoxville Jazz Festival in August. He’ll be behind the kit but leading the show at the Square Room with local jazz stars Vance Thompson (trumpet), Greg Tardy (saxophone), Keith L. Brown (piano), and Taylor Coker (bass). (Matthew Everett)

CALENDAR the Knox Heritage Art and Salvage Shop’s Grand Re-Opening First Friday reception from 6-9 p.m.

Knoxville Convention Center 701 Henley St. APRIL 3-19: The Art of Recycling, a sculpture exhibition celebrating National Recycling Month.

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive JAN. 30-APRIL 19: • LIFT: Contemporary

Printmaking in the Third Dimension and Contemporary Focus 2015.

Ongoing: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JAN. 22-MAY 24: • Drawn From the

McClung Museum, an exhibition of

work by 27 artists inspired by the McClung Museum collection. Ongoing: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

Urban Bar 109 N. Central St. APRIL 3-MAY 30: Paintings and drawings

by Charlie Pogue.

Westminster Presbyterian Church Schilling Gallery 6500 Northshore Drive THROUGH APRIL 26: Monoprints by Marilyn Avery Turner and needlepoint pillows

by Coral Grace Turner.

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS Thursday, April 2

DARYL GREGORY: HARRISON SQUARED • Union

Ave Books • 6 p.m. • Award-winning novelist Daryl Gregory will read from his new book. • Free

Tuesday, April 7 THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY STUMP • Blue Slip

Winery • 6:30 p.m. • A monthly series featuring speakers from the community discussing different topics, highlighting the history and politics of Knoxville. The Tuesday, April 7, edition features Jack Neely of the Knoxville History Project. • Free

DAVID MADDEN • McClung Museum • 5:30

p.m. • Madden, author of the quintessential Knoxville novel Bijou, whose papers have recently been acquired by the University of Tennessee, will sign copies of his books and discuss his work. • Free

Wednesday, April 8 KNOX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY BROWN BAG LECTURE SERIES • East Tennessee History Center • Noon • Glimpse life in the

Gilded Age as Laura Overbey leads us through the exhibition Dressing Downton, currently on display at Biltmore Estates through May 5, 2015.

The exhibit features more than 45 costumes from the popular PBS Masterpiece series, Downton Abbey showcased in America’s largest home.

Overbey is a Knoxville native and University of Tennessee graduate, and a former staff member of the East Tennessee Historical Society before accepting the position at Biltmore. For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www.EastTNHistory.org. • Free

JOHN YAU • University of Tennessee John C. Hodges Library • 7 p.m. • Yau, a visiting critic and poet, will read his poetry. • Free

Thursday, April 9 AMY GREENE: THE LONG MAN • Union Ave Books • 6 p.m. • New York Times

BILL BURR THE BILLY BIBLE BELT TOUR

SUNDAY, APRIL 19 • 8PM 5*$,&54 "7"*-"#-& "5 5)& 5&//&44&& 5)&"53& #09 0''*$& 5*$,&5."45&3 $0. "/% #: 1)0/& "5

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

CALENDAR

Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12

bestselling author Amy Greene will read from her most recent novel, Long Man, which has just been released in paperback. • Free

take” arts and crafts, demonstrations, exhibits of art work, and performances by individuals with disabilities are all elements of the festival. • Free

Saturday, April 11

JOHN YAU • University of Tennessee Art

Thursday, April 2

MEETINGS

and Architecture Building • 7:30 p.m. • Yau, a visiting critic and poet, will discuss his work. • Free

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS Wednesday, April 1 DOGWOOD ARTS FESTIVAL VERY SPECIAL ARTS FESTIVAL • West High School • 9 a.m.-

12:30 p.m. • A Very Special Arts Festival is a one of a kind event that celebrates Knox County Students with diverse abilities and the various artistic skills they are learning in the classroom. The event includes a wide variety of activities in music, dance, drama, and visual arts. Workshops of “make and

FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION • Knoxville

Convention Center • 8 a.m.-5 p.m. • High schoolers from all over the east coast converge onto the Knoxville Convention Center to compete in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition at the Smoky Mountains Regional. • Free

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Oak Ridge

Senior Center • 8:30 a.m. • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822. •

Thursday, April 2 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GUILD • Laurel Theater •

CLASSES

7 p.m. • In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Knoxville Writers’ Guild will feature award-winning poets Connie Jordan Green and Art Stewart during its April program. A $2 donation is requested at the door.

Tuesday, April 7

Saturday, April 4

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • American Red

SEEKERS OF SILENCE • Church of the Savior

Cross • 9 a.m. • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

Wednesday, April 8 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • American Red

Cross • 9 a.m. • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

United Church of Christ • 9 a.m. • An ecumenical and interfaith group dedicate to silent prayer and meditation. More information at sosknoxville. org • Free

Sunday, April 5

VEGETARIAN SOCIETY OF EAST TENNESSEE • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 6 p.m. • Egg-cellent No Egg Dishes is the topic of the next meeting of the Vegetarian Society of East Tennessee. A potluck supper follows. Information: bobgrimac@ gmail.com or (865) 546-5643.

Monday, April 6 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee

Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org.

Tuesday, April 7 TUESDAYS WITH TOLSTOY • Lawson McGee

Public Library • 6 p.m. • Knox County Public Library is pleased to partner with the University of Tennessee’s Department of Modern Languages to present Tuesdays with Tolstoy throughout April to encourage readers to try Tolstoy’s

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THANK YOU, KNOXVILLE! IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING IN KNOXVILLE MERCURY CONTACT: SALES@KNOXMERCURY.COM OR CALL 865.313.2048

CALENDAR classic story of passion. Russian literature student Erika Knowles, under the guidance of her major professor, Dr. Stephen Blackwell, will facilitate a four-part study of Anna Karenina at Lawson McGhee Library from 6:00-7:30 p.m. starting on Tuesday, April 7 and continuing on April 14, 21, and 28. • Free

Wednesday, April 8 KNOXVILLE BICYCLE FACILITIES PLAN PUBLIC MEETING • East Tennessee History

Center • 6 p.m. • A 20-25 min presentation, followed by questions and open house style discussion with consultants and staff. • Free

VETERANS FOR PEACE BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP •

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 6p.m. • Jerry Bone and Doug Cox, member of Veterans For Peace Chapter 166, will lead a discussion of the book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges. Interested participants should read the book before coming to the first session. It would be helpful to let Jerry know that you are coming by emailing him at geraldwbone@gmail. com. • Free

ETC. Saturday, April 4 MADAM CHLOE’S RED HOT CABARET • The

Concourse • 10 p.m. • Madam Chloe brings her gang of neo-vaudeville style performers to the stage for comedy, burlesque, belly dance, clowns, and lots of down home sex appeal. 18 and up. • $10

A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF GIDEON FRYER •

Laurel Theater • 2 p.m. • A remembrance of longtime Fort Sanders resident and ambassador Gideon Fryer, who died in December at the age of 93.

The afternoon will include music, fellowship, and the dedication of Gideon Fryer Square outside the theater.

and statecraft will be the focus of the 12th annual Marco Symposium at the University of Tennessee from April 9 to 11. The symposium will feature scholars from various disciplines and will explore these issues and assess their relevance to contemporary times.

The Marco Institute will hold the symposium in conjunction with the UT Center for the Study of War and Society. All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information on the symposium and to see a full list of speakers, visit http://marco.utk.edu/ symposium.php. • Free

Friday, April 10 ‘CRY HAVOC!’: WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND CONSPIRACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE • University of Tennessee • 8a.m. • For more information on the symposium and to see a full list of speakers, visit http:// marco.utk.edu/symposium.php. • Free

Saturday, April 11 ‘CRY HAVOC!’: WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND CONSPIRACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE • University of Tennessee • 8a.m. • For more information on the symposium and to see a full list of speakers, visit http:// marco.utk.edu/symposium.php. • Free

THE GREAT LLAMA RACE • World’s Fair Park •

11 a.m. • The Great Llama Race is a foot race in which local celebrities are paired with a Knoxville school and a llama provided by Southeast Llama Rescue. The race will be run in heats, with the final heat determining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. The winning schools will win a percentage of funds raised to go to a project of their choice. Southeast Llama Rescue will also receive a percentage of the funds raised, with the remainder of the money going to Casa de Sara, a non-profit that provides education, healthcare, and nutrition to children in the Americas. All proceeds will go to sponsor their elementary school in La Guardia, Bolivia.

Congratulations To

Thursday, April 9 ‘CRY HAVOC!’: WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND CONSPIRACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE • University of Tennessee • 8a.m. • The dangers, intrigue and violence of medieval and early modern warfare

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

FOOD

On the Menu

Frussie’s Makes Its Move And other restaurant news from around town

BY DENNIS PERKINS FRUSSIE’S DELI

I

t’s a bit sad to see one of SoKno’s finest leave Moody Avenue after 19 years and cross the river to downtown, but if that’s what it takes to keep Frussie’s Deli and Sandwich Shop alive then we’ll live with it. Owner Jay Brandon is packing up shop and heading to 722 S. Gay Street.

“I’m in a strip mall where almost everything’s been closed for the three and a half years I’ve been in here—Big Lots shut down a few months ago, the bank over here on the corner went out of business, the Phillips [gas station] over there closed down. It’s just time to make a move,” Brandon says.

The relocation isn’t something he’s particularly happy about, though: “I tell people it’s either I close it up for good or I go somewhere where there’s more business and try to make it there.” He’s looked for new digs “as far as Farragut and back to town.” He picked the Gay Street location, in part, because it’s as close to South Knoxville as he can stay and still take advantage of the downtown vibe. “I think a New York-style delicatessen, like this is, just needs an urban environment like downtown to thrive.”

May 1 is the last day in the old space, so hurry up if you want lunch with a side of nostalgia.

Before Knoxville reclaimed its own flour power, Frussie’s carved a special place in the hearts of deli devotees with delicious home-baked bread; French bread, pita, Kaiser rolls, and eight other varieties all rise in-house and contribute a whole new

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

level of tactile and tasteful pleasure to the sandwich experience. Add housecured and roasted deli meats and you’ve got all the makings for fantastic sandwich eating—the kind that has made Frussie’s a Knoxville institution.

Brandon respects that and says he won’t try to fix what ain’t broke—that’s been his mantra since taking over the place from the late founder James Dicks in 2011. But you will see a couple new things at lunch, and he’s adding breakfast.

Brandon says you can look for two new sandwich options, including the Downtown Havana. “It’s gonna be like a Cuban on our homemade bread,” he says. “And I’m going to add a sandwich … that we’ve been eating here, but it’s one I don’t share with the public generally. It’s called the Le Big Fruss.

It’s a roast beef sandwich on a Kaiser roll with the same things you’d find on a Big Mac—lettuce, pickles, Thousand Island—but it’s really good when you make it with real bread and roast beef.”

Breakfast is inspired by a spot Brandon knew in New York that offered stuffed croissants—“It was just grab and go.” He wants to recreate that experience with homemade muffins, croissants, cinnamon rolls, and other bakery goods that he’ll serve with Three Bears Coffee. On Saturdays, breakfast will slow down a little and the menu will include egg sandwiches and pancakes from Brandon’s MeeMaw: “She has this awesome recipe that I’ve been eating since I was a kid,” he promises.

CAPPUCCINO’S CAPPUCINO’S REVAMPS

The folks at the Copper Cellar Family are resurrecting and revamping an old West Knoxville favorite, Cappuccino’s (7316 Kingston Pike, 865-673-3422, coppercellar.com). As in the past, the restaurant occupies half of the building where Copper Cellar West also lives, but the interior has been given a nice facelift with a modern sensibility that combines rustic wood accents and exposed brick with attractive contemporary lighting. The menu offers a mix of traditional Italian favorites with a few gluten-free options. Many items look appetizing, including a charcuterie plate that features duck liver pate, arancini, house-made ricotta pasta, and entrees such as Scallopine’ di Vitello Cappuccino (veal scallopine with Proscuitto, cheese, and spinach).

SWEET P’S DOWNTOWN DIVE OPENS

There’s a brand new aroma wafting over the 100 block of Gay Street as one

of Knoxville’s favorite BBQ joints swung open its doors last week just around the corner on West Jackson Avenue. Knox Mason’s Matt Gallaher posted on his Facebook page, “My block smells amazing!” The first weekend was a doozy, but it “went about as well as it could have,” says owner Chris Ford, “And it’s really nice to be down here in a community of people I know.” Sweet P’s brings mastery of all things smoked and soulful in a bold move to become the first eatery on the reborn section of Jackson Avenue west of the viaduct.

Ford does a fine job with all that smoky food, but don’t miss out on the exceptional fried pickles and some pretty amazing steamed green beans.

GUS’S WORLD FAMOUS FRIED CHICKEN

Nashville’s hot chicken may be the national media darling, but it’s Memphis-based Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken that has Knoxville foodies in

FOOD

SWEET P’S gluttonous titter. Social and traditional media lit up when the franchise announced plans to set up shop in town. The recipe for the chicken is a closely guarded secret, but whatever it is includes a dose of heat that varies a little from day to day. Sometimes, according to their website, “it’ll be so spicy the tears come.” Though, “Usually, the heat is more gentle, like the touch of an old friend.” More news as it becomes available.

FOOD-TRUCK PARK ASSEMBLES

On Friday, April 3, the stars will align and so will the food trucks at the first-ever food-truck park at the Historic Southern Railway Station.

Blue Slip Winery (306 W. Depot Ave. blueslip.com), which makes its home at the railway station, organized the confab of seven of the 11 food trucks licensed to do business in the city. It’s like a Buzzfeed quiz that might actually matter: Which Food Truck Groupie Are You? Choose from the following: Breezy Weenie, Farm to Griddle Crepes, Forks on the Road, Gonzo Gourmet, Poutine Mobile, Savory and Sweet, and Tootsie Truck. You can munch your way to instant expertise while listening to live music, tasting a little wine, and perhaps enriching your mind, too, with a tour of the Historic Southern Railway Station and Old Smokey Railway Museum. It’s like a food court but better!

Small Bites CAFÉ DU SOLEIL, downtown’s French outpost, has a new chef, Dino Nicolou, a new menu, and they’re serving lunch again. Check them and their Croque-Madame out at cafedusoleilknoxville.com or visit in person at 416 W. Clinch Ave. K BREW, the excellent coffee shop at Glenwood and Broadway, is now offering a limited variety of nice nosh in addition to their excellent biscotti and brew. Bagel sandwiches are on the menu, and they’re made for the interested eater; try the Glenwood, a bagel with pear, goat cheese, and arugula.

THE ORANGERY’S ATRIUM is home to the newly minted BOURBON STREET CAFÉ, which features live music and a $10 whiskey sampler. The small plates include a prime Angus burger, oyster gratinée, and duck confit bruschetta.

Sure and beggorah, we were sad to hear that the IRISH TIMES in Turkey Creek has closed. We’ll miss the boxty, the banter, and the lovely pints—not to mention the all-day party on St. Paddy’s Day.

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

’BYE

Sacred & P rofane

The Misplaced Man A gentle soul caught in the wrong place at the wrong time

BY DONNA JOHNSON

T

here are those who walk the planet with spirits so gentle and minds so fine that the atmosphere of the Earth is too dense for them. So rather than flourish, they trudge along, barely able to lift their head against a world they perceive as hostile. It is almost as though they have come from the future to teach other, less evolved souls than themselves, but in the process of doing so they often get trampled by the ignorance of those very beings they are trying to help.

It is often a question of time and place. In one place, a person of genius and exquisite gifts might be esteemed and honored; in another, more culturally deprived area, this same person might be ridiculed.

And so it was with Ronnie Thatcher, whose misfortune it was to be born in a rural county just outside of Knoxville, where religion (as opposed to true spirituality) is the main occupation, and judgments are fierce and often cruel toward anyone who is different.

Ronnie Thatcher was unquestion-

ably different. He was said to be a genius in mathematics and had won a full scholarship to an Ivy League college. It was also rumored that his mother was practically illiterate and that Ronnie’s father had abandoned the family when Ronnie was a baby. As it happened, Ronnie didn’t get to stay in college long enough to graduate, for his mother constantly telephoned him, telling him that she had this or that ailment and could simply not do without him. And so Ronnie Thatcher, who was enjoying great respect from teachers and students alike in Boston, returned to the tiny, run-down home he was born in to take care of his allegedly ailing mother. It was an environment that must have felt to him like a battlefield in a war he had not chosen to fight in and one that he could have no hope of winning.

It was not as if the townspeople were against him. It was more that they were not evolved enough to have any comprehension of what he was about.

Ronnie was simply tolerated as more of

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 2, 2015

an oddity than a human being, like some sort of freak of nature. This must have been an unbearably lonely place for Ronnie Thatcher to dwell in.

In the first place, Ronnie was quite homely, with cheeks puffed out as though he were a squirrel storing nuts for the winter; he had a red face, his weak and watery eyes emphasized by Coke-bottle glasses. He was rotund with short legs and a large belly. And he was agonizingly shy, avoiding eye contact with anyone. But he eventually found a place for himself in the elementary school, teaching children with hearing and sight disabilities.

Before he even arrived at the school, he was doomed, his fate sealed.

Preceding this gentle man was a rumor that Ronnie Thatcher wore magical eyeglasses that allowed him to see through clothing to the naked body beneath. As he entered the cafeteria on his first day, all the little girls (including myself) wrapped their arms around themselves.

“Here he comes,” said Rose Smith, “cover yourself.”

All down the line, children were twisting and turning and holding their arms around themselves to prevent Ronnie Thatcher’s thick, magical glasses from allowing his vision to penetrate our clothes.

Surely this was a humiliating state of affairs for Ronnie, for we made no effort to spare his feelings. As always, he was courteous and immaculate, wearing his brown pin-striped suit,

white shirt, and red bow-tie. He always walked to the farthest table in the cafeteria and ate his lunch alone, a book propped in front of him.

At Christmas our church, First Baptist, sent us around to poor neighborhoods to sing Christmas carols, and that was how I happened to see how Ronnie lived at home. The house was small, with linoleum floors and a plastic tablecloth on a round table. The wallpaper was old and peeling and had roses on it. Ronnie’s mother, Delores, sat slumped in a rocking chair asleep and never woke up during the time we were there. The only relief from dreariness was the wonderful smell of cookies baking in the oven. After we had sung “Joy to the World,” Ronnie took the cookies out and passed them around.

“I knew you were coming so I baked these for you,” said Ronnie, beaming, as though Christmas had been created just for the people in that room. I glanced around his house.

There was a morose-looking blue parakeet sitting in a cage. A vase of plastic flowers. Through the open door of a room off to the side, I could see many, many books. Large, heavy books: dictionaries, math books, books by Einstein, Freud, and Dickens. Thin, beautiful books of poetry by Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Dylan Thomas. When Ronnie saw me looking eagerly at his books, our eyes met, for lovers of books are kindred spirits.

After that night, I began to take my

Crooked Street Crossword

lunch tray over to where Ronnie sat alone and he began teaching me. About books, about the world beyond the perimeter of our small town and its fundamentalist Christianity and its harsh judgments. He had been to Paris.

He had studied the religions of the world. Though our friendship sustained me and nourished my small 10-year old soul, it wasn’t sufficient to succor Ronnie, for he needed acceptance and companionship from his peers—and he would have to leave his mother in order to find that.

A few days before Easter, Ronnie failed to show up for his classes. They went to look for him but his mother said he had simply vanished. “How could he do this to me,” she asked.

Rumors were flying. Maybe Ronnie had a secret, glamorous side we hadn’t suspected.

’BYE

Some said he had eloped with an eighth grader; others said he had been seen getting into a spaceship down in Glenobey Hollow; still others said he had been kidnapped by Communists.

It was weeks before they dug his old Pontiac out of the lake.

Rather than grieve for my friend, I felt a strange elation, as though he were telling me that he was free. Free of his body, free of his tormentors, free to choose another life in another time and place where he was truly welcomed, among equals. He had shed his skin and escaped. On the day they discovered his body, I imagined him soaring in the sky, looking down on fabulous cities, or even other planets, where he could live and explore and learn and teach.

A comforting place he could truly call his own.

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

April 2, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39