WE DO REMEMBER HULLABALOO, UPBEAT, SHINDIG, AND ED SULLIVAN, TOO
NOV. 19, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM
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NEWS
Knoxville’s One and Only Ferry Service Decides to Drop Anchor
JACK NEELY
Paris, and Knoxville’s History of Comparable Horrors
MUSIC
Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch Divine a Future for Homespun Music
ART
Visiting the New North Knox Artists’ Collective, Broadway Studios
Hon. Gary R. Wade | Dean
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
Nov. 19, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 37 knoxmercury.com
CONTENTS
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” —Voltaire
14 Rock ’n’ Roll Radio COVER STORY
Do you remember rock ’n’ roll radio? More specifically, rock radio in 1960s Knoxville? It was a much different media landscape back then, with stations that held the attention of teenagers, free-form playlists, and outsized on-air personalities. We gathered a round table of some of those legendary disc jockeys and asked them to share their stories of a radio era that’s long behind us. Chris Wohlwend listens in.
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DEPARTMENTS
OPINION
A&E
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Letters Howdy Start Here: Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory ’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
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The Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely gets some help in tracking down Nina Simone’s game day performance at UT. Perspectives Joe Sullivan warns of the consequences for hospitals if the state does not expand Medicaid soon. Architecture Matters George Dodds asks what can we reasonably expect of companies rooted elsewhere to be local caretakers.
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NEWS
12 Dropping Anchor John Farmer says the city wants to regulate his ferry service like a landlubber taxi. The city says not entirely. Either way, Farmer says it is easier for him to close his operation rather than be licensed. His last day is Nov. 28, the UT-Vanderbilt game. McCord Pagan takes a tour.
CALENDAR Art: S. Heather Duncan visits the new artists’ collective, Broadway Studios. Inside the Vault: Eric Dawson traces the story of Knoxville jazz great Fayte Rutherford. Music: Chris Barrett discusses the origins of Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s homespun music.
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Spotlights: Shakey Graves, KSO Masterworks Series
FOOD & DRINK
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Sips & Shots Rose Kennedy gets holiday food pairing tips from some of East Tennessee’s wineries.
Movies: April Snellings holds her vote for Suffragette.
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3
LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015
REGAL’S FINANCIAL BONANZA
Who knows how much hugging and kissing in the last row of the balcony it took for Regal Entertainment to push its deposit slip this far. [“City’s ‘Project Hollywood’ Sweetens Deal for Regal’s Move to South Knoxville,” news feature by Clay Duda, Nov. 12, 2015] Recently, corporate welfare in Knoxville has benefitted Urban Outfitters and Publix and Walmart. Now Regal is leaving their take in the dust. At a time (which is most of the time) when money for goods and services that help ordinary citizens cannot be found, millions fall from the heavens into Regal’s corporate lap. The good-old-boy network in most other less than transparent small cities and poor states offering such a bundle to an elite would probably face a taxpayer revolt. As with the aforementioned big-name companies that took taxpayer money and offered low-wage jobs in return, Regal Entertainment does not create or manufacture anything either. In all likelihood, this cobbling of a financial bonanza is its greatest endeavor. Taking taxpayer money to set Regal up on the river is government theft. In economic terms it can be described as a redistribution of income from the have-nots to the haves, and with the blessing of our billionaire political pilot in Nashville. This movie’s soundtrack crackles. The frames are dark along the edges. The plot is convoluted, the film flashes and breaks. There are no credits scrolling by: We don’t know who the actors are or how much the producers and directors are taking us for. All in all, it’s a bad movie. Walk out on it. Better yet, don’t go. York Quillen Knoxville
WE HAVE OUR GOOD DAYS
This paper is wonderful. In a world of language, good writing is as important as good food. I settle for the online version of the Mercury as I no longer live in Knoxville, but it’s just an affirmation that one can read things— great things—online! Have you had the experience of 4
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
seeing a local singer-songwriter or band that just blew you away and it felt like a brain puzzle to consider that the rest of the world doesn’t know about this? That’s how I feel when I read Scruffy Citizen or Possum City. Or consider the relevance of S. Heather Duncan’s reporting. Great work. I sincerely hope that you’re all proud of yourselves for pulling this thing together and know that you’re doing something good and important that is appreciated. Thank you. Jill Christmas Castletown, Scotland
THE SPIRITS OF RADIO
It’s one of those requests for information that’s off the reservation, but here goes… A couple of weeks ago, I’m driving back home from the bookstore and flip my radio on to my favorite (preset) FM station, 94.3 Knox Talk Radio, to listen to the afternoon sports show The Drive, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.—and this alternative rock/metal music is on. No sports, no news, no talk, and this is a deal where no DJ was introducing anything—like a “robo station.” The real concern is a loss of the late-night program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, from 1 to 5 a.m., seven nights a week. The paranormal UFO-Big Foot-ancient-alternative-history-and-ghost-stories-in-the-dark show. A lot of radio listeners, like myself, can’t afford some cellphone app fee or satellite service to hear our show. There are a lot of shut-ins, low-income elderly people, and night-shift workers who depend on our favorite show to keep us awake and informed on the weirdness of our planet. The network for Coast to Coast says they have over 600-plus affiliates, but I haven’t found it in the Knox/East Tennessee area in the interim. Could you find out for us what happened? And maybe when or where it might be coming back to our listening area? A lot of our night owls would appreciate whatever you could do. Bob Williamson Knoxville
ED. NOTE:
Following all the format changes for 94.3 WNFZ can be a challenge. Two years ago, station owner John Pirkle (Oak Ridge FM) sold Talk 100.3 WNOX to Journal Broadcasting and transferred some of its programming to what was then alt-rock 94Z, re-dubbing it Knox Talk Radio. Later, Midwest Communication suddenly transformed hard-rocking 95.7 The X into classic country Duke-FM—leaving the Knoxville market without a youthful rock station. So, in late October, 94Z returned to its previous format, shedding the talk radio syndicated programming but keeping the Rude Awakening morning show hosted by Mike Howard and Terry West. Alas, Coast to Coast AM appears to be a casualty of the transfer—but as you can tell, Knoxville radio is ever-changing, so someone might eventually pick it up. Meanwhile, if you have a home computer, you can join the Coast to Coast website and listen to its streaming broadcast: coasttocoastam.com.
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. Send your letters to: Our Dear Editor, Knoxville Mercury 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37920 Send an email to: editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury
EDITORIAL EDITOR Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com Clay Duda clay@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson
Rose Kennedy Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan Chris Wohlwend
INTERNS
Jordan Achs Marina Waters
DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS
Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray
ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com
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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 editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS calendar@knoxmercury.com SALES QUERIES sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION distribution@knoxmercury.com
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terry Hummel Joe Sullivan Jack Neely Coury Turczyn Charlie Vogel 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
Frances Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett is often considered a British writer. However, she began her professional writing career when she lived in Knoxville. Her name is known around the world. Her books, several of them still in print, have inspired more than 50 movies and TV series. Earlier generations remembered her for an internationally popular novel called Little Lord Fauntleroy. However, today her best-known novel is The Secret Garden, which has been made into several motion pictures. Another of her novels, A Little Princess (also known as Sarah Crewe) became a popular movie, too, nominated for two Academy Awards in 1996.
Street, in 1868, and lived in a larger house they called Vagabondia Castle. When she was 20, her mother died, leaving Frances and her brothers and sisters alone. They had several friends who came to the house and often played music together. Her older brother Herbert worked as a watchmaker and started a band, Hodgson’s Orchestra, which was popular at Knoxville balls and political events. Her brother John worked as a bartender at the Lamar House, in the same space now occupied by the Bistro at the Bijou.
Originally known as Fannie Hodgson, she spent her childhood in Manchester, England. After her father’s death, the family was poor. As soon as the Civil War ended, her mother’s brother, William Boond, who had a successful dry-goods store on Gay Street, invited them to Tennessee.
In 1873, Frances married Dr. Swan Burnett, who was from New Market. They lived in a house on Temperance Hill, near where Green Magnet Academy is today, and started a family. One of her first novels, called Vagabondia, was set in London but based on people she knew at Vagabondia Castle.
For a year the family lived in New Market, about 25 miles east of Knoxville, in a log cabin that reminded young Fannie of the novels of James Fenimore Cooper.
The Burnetts settled in Washington, D.C., and by the 1880s, she was famous. In 1885, she finished Little Lord Fauntleroy, based on her own precocious son Vivian Burnett. He later returned the favor by writing a book about his mother, The Romantick Lady (1927), which details their life in Tennessee.
In 1866, they moved closer to Knoxville. Author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924), They lived in a rural area on what was then early in her career as a novelist. called Clinton Pike, in a little house in the woods on top of a steep hill. They thought the Set around the time of the Civil War, her house looked like Noah’s Ark, stranded on top now-obscure novel In Connection With the De of Mount Ararat, and that’s what they called it. Willoughby Claim (1899) is a lightly satirical Young Fannie loved the place, and explored the woods. With the help of her story about American morals and manners, and includes a brief descripbrothers, she cleared an area in the woods behind Noah’s Ark that she tion of Knoxville, which she called “Delisleville.” It’s one of several novels called the Bower, where she spent many hours alone, reading, writing, and she wrote that were aimed at an adult market. learning about nature. Her home in England, the industrial city of Manchester, had very little wildlife that she could see. Here she found out about bluebirds and rabbits. She didn’t know that some leaves changed A dreamlike memoir called The One I Knew the Best of All (1893), describes colors in the fall until she moved to Tennessee. her youth in Manchester, New Market, and Knoxville. Even though she doesn’t use actual place names for the Tennessee locations, they’re vividly described. Long hard to find, the book is newly available in a reprint edition. She gathered wild grapes to sell on Market Square, to make money to buy foolscap, a kind of writing paper, and postage stamps to send her first stories to magazine publishers. In 1868, when she was just 18, she sold her first short This week, Knoxville, New Market, and Jefferson City hosted a visit story to Godey’s Lady’s Book. from the author’s great-granddaughter, Penny Deupree, and several other family members. Ms. Deupree is speaking at the East Tennessee The hilltop site of the “Noah’s Ark” house later became Knoxville College, History Center’s Brown Bag Lecture at noon this Thursday, the 19th. The founded in 1875 to train freed slaves to become teachers. event commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Hodgson family’s arrival in East Tennessee, but it almost coincides with Burnett’s 166th The Hodgsons moved downtown, near the river, near what’s now Henley birthday, Nov. 24, which is next Tuesday. Source: The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.
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 November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5
Illustration by Ben Adams
HOWDY
Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX When Knoxville voted itself “dry” in 1907, the referendum closed 106 saloons, almost all of them in downtown Knoxville! The highest concentration of saloons was on the 100 block of South Central Street, where 11 saloons closed.
Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham (agreshamphoto.com)
QUOTE FACTORY “ These terrible events have once again shown us that the threat of Islamic terrorism knows no boundaries and recognizes no borders.” —Gov. Bill Haslam, in a press release Monday announcing his request to the federal government to stop allowing Syrian refugees into Tennessee—who are trying to escape the very same terrorist groups that attacked Paris—“until states can become more of a partner in the vetting process.”
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
11/19 WORKSHOP: INSPIRING THURSDAY
NEIGHBORHOODS
6-7:30 p.m., Cansler YMCA (616 Jessamine St.). Free. Want to improve your neighborhood? This workshop by the city’s Office of Neighborhoods and the Knox County Health Department aims to inspire you to greatness. Learn how to “work with available resources to create places of beauty and pride.” Sound good? RSVP with Susan Shin, sshin@knoxvilletn.gov.
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11/20 WDVX-TRAVAGANZA FRIDAY
6-9:30 p.m., The Standard (416 W. Jackson Ave.) $65, Celebrate the power of community radio at this fundraising concert by Jenna and Her Cool Friends— which is also one of frontwoman Jenna Jefferson’s last shows. WDVX has been broadcasting American roots music for 18 years, helping establish a global reputation for Knoxville as a progenitor of early folk and country music. Let’s help them stay on the air! Plus: food by Holly’s Eventful Catering, Sweet P’s Barbecue, and Magpie’s Bakery.
11/21 I-275 BEAUTIFICATION MOB DAY SATURDAY
9 a.m.-5 p.m., Helen Ross McNabb Center (201 W. Springdale Ave.). Free. Keep Knoxville Beautiful is planning on doing just that by planting over 60,000 daffodil bulbs at the Baxter, Woodland, and Heiskell I-275 exits. Meet at the parking lot of the Helen Ross McNabb Center to check in and then grab a shuttle to one of the three exits. Warning: “Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty!” Register: patience@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org.
Mettwurst is a particular variety of German pork sausage only occasionally encountered in other cities, but it’s been common in Knoxville for more than a century, especially by way of a dish known locally, and perhaps nowhere else, as METTS & BEANS! Typically, a generous link of mettwurst appears with a mound of white beans, often with onions. Although not as common as it was 40 years ago, several older restaurants feature it as a weekly special. Though it was long associated with Brownie’s lunch counter on Cumberland Avenue, which opened in 1939, its origin is unknown. When prolific MGM director Clarence Brown came out with a movie called The Human Comedy, one of his harshest critics was Nation critic James Agee, who wrote of Brown, “he has become a dope.” Agee and Brown both spent much of their childhoods in Knoxville and may have known each other, because THEY WERE BOTH MEMBERS OF ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH!
11/22 HUMANA KNOXVILLE 5K SUNDAY
2 p.m., World’s Fair Park. Free. This tune-up run for the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon Series is not only free but also offers post-run entertainment from country trio Post Monroe. It starts and finishes at World’s Fair Park. Download the free app Charity Miles and $.25 for every mile will be donated to the veterans’ nonprofit aid group Team Red, White and Blue, with Humana matching up to $5,000. Info: runrocknroll.com/humana/knoxville.
November 19, 2015
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SCRUFFY CITIZEN
Paris, Tennessee Some disorganized thoughts about Friday BY JACK NEELY
T
he Bataclan is an unusual building. It stood out sharply even in Napoleon III’s Second Empire Paris. Built in 1864, it was eight years older than Knoxville’s first theater, the Staub’s Opera House, which was badly run down for years before, 60 years ago, it was torn down. Paris keeps things. The Bataclan was built in the exotic chinoiserie style, brightly colored, with a pagoda-style roof. That flourish was eventually simplified away, leaving a colorful, but very odd-looking building, the sort that caught my attention when I was wandering around Boulevard Voltaire, 35 years ago this week. It’s not far from the Pere Lachaise, the fascinating old cemetery up the long hill from the Champs Elysee. I walked up there on a Sunday, amazed that after a week in Paris along the Left and Right banks, I’d discovered this whole other Paris so far from the famous museums and monuments along the river. The Bataclan is about the size of the Tennessee Theatre. Buffalo Bill, who brought his Wild West Show to Knoxville at least three times, performed at the Bataclan. Edith Piaf performed there more often, and it was where singer Maurice Chevalier got his start, a century ago. Jeff Buckley, the unusual singer who had a cult following even before he drowned in Memphis, made a record there. John Cale and Lou Reed, who both later performed at the Tennessee, also made a record at the
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Bataclan. Now it will be remembered, forever, for something else. I don’t bore my well-traveled friends with stories of my one Europe trip. It was half a lifetime ago, after all, and less relevant every day. So I write about it for publication. I loved Paris more than I expected to, stayed twice as long as I expected to. Most of the crepe vendors on the street in 1980 were Arabs. I lived mostly off street food, so most of the Parisians I encountered were Arabs. The Parisians who were friendly and spoke English tended to be Arabs. The only unpleasant moment in the whole eight days I was there was one Friday evening at the Place St. Michel on the Left Bank. Suddenly, in the swirling crowd, a dark-haired young man jabbed a finger right at me and shouted, his eyes on fire with an anger he couldn’t contain: “American! I hate you! Zeeonist! Zeeonist pig!” I stood there dumb and slackjawed. Zionism was something that had been in the news a lot when I was a kid, but I’d never studied the doctrine, and didn’t have strong feelings about it either way. Why did he pick me out of an international crowd? It puzzled me for weeks, until I got to Rome, and asked my Italian cousins. “It is your clothing,” they said. “We do not wear that—” and they weren’t sure what to call the peculiar thing on my chest. I was wearing a blue down vest. The same one I was wearing in Paris. It
was such a common thing in America, it hadn’t occurred to me that it seemed conspicuous in Europe. Three days after that angry challenge at the Place St. Michel, while I was still in Paris, a stranger walked into a travel agency, shot two people to death, and left, presumably rejoining the same swirl of Everybody that is Paris. The two victims were Jewish and the attack was ascribed to terrorism. It was long before the era of cell phones, and I couldn’t read French newspapers; I didn’t hear about it until weeks later. It was not the first incident of that nature. Things seemed bad then, and if you’d asked me in 1980, I would have assumed we’d be on to other problems by now.
Friday’s news from Paris can make us despair, wonder who the hell are these people. What kind of a civilization breeds cold-blooded killers. But the most comparable horrors in Knoxville’s history involve more familiar figures. From 1956 to 1958, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and Clinton experienced a series of racist bombings that interrupted a Louis Armstrong show at Chilhowee Park and later destroyed Clinton High School. The chief suspect was a group called the White Citizens Council. Although led by out-of-state insurgents, all the known members were U.S. citizens, united by their opposition to the desegregation of Clinton High School, one of the South’s first high schools to be desegregated. No one was killed or seriously injured in the bombings. It wasn’t thanks to any special care on the part of the bombers. The worst random killing in Knoxville history was when, in broad
daylight, a man with a rifle shot five people on a Gay Street in 1976. Three died. The individual behind it was a lonely man, a troubled Korean War veteran. He had no coherent agenda. But just as in Paris, innocent people died without knowing who shot them or why. The Unitarian-Universalist Church shootings of seven years ago left two dead and several wounded. That guy did have an agenda; he didn’t like liberals. As another guy found out in Charleston more recently, there’s no softer target than innocent people sitting in a church. Throw in a few lynch mobs over the years, and it would appear that a disproportional majority of the terrorist attacks in Knoxville-area history, and in Southeastern history, have been perpetrated by people who look sort of like me: white native-born American males. More than a few times in my life I’ve found myself in a situation of arguing with people who have concluded, citing evidence, that white Southern males are by nature violent, crazy, and dangerous. Maybe you’ve had that conversation, too. I don’t much like it. All I can ever think to say is let’s not jump to conclusions based on some news stories. There are a certain number of folks in every culture who can never get comfortable with the idea that there are other people who are different from them. Osama bin Laden’s final career began when he got upset about the presence of foreigners of other faiths contaminating his homeland. He took his discomfort to extremes. But there are people like that in every country. ◆
The most comparable horrors in Knoxville’s history involve more familiar figures.
PERSPECTIVES
On Waivers Tennessee should expand Medicaid—or pay dearly BY JOE SULLIVAN
U
nless recalcitrant legislators stop obstructing Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan for getting a billion dollars a year in federal Medicaid expansion funds, the Obama administration should start playing hardball with the state. What ought to get the legislators’ attention is notice from Washington of a halt to what amounts to a $500 million-a-year federal dole that’s going to Tennessee hospitals for what’s called uncompensated care reimbursement. The dole takes the form of a special Medicaid dispensation, known as a waiver, that’s due to expire next June 30. And officials at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already served notice that the waiver isn’t likely to be extended in anything like its present form. If the estimated 280,000 low-income Tennesseans whom the Affordable Care Act made eligible for Medicaid were being covered, it would pay their medical bills, and the hospitals wouldn’t be incurring anything as much as the uncompensated care cost. So there’s no good reason for CMS to keep reimbursing them for it when having Medicaid cover the cost of care is a far preferable way for the hospitals to get paid. Granted, the federal share of Medicaid expansion payments is due to drop from 100 percent in 2016 to 90 percent by 2020. But the Tennessee Hospital
Association has committed to legislated assessments on its members to cover the difference. So there would be no cost to the state. Loss of the uncompensated care funds in the absence of Medicaid expansion would be a crippling blow to many hospitals. But maybe it’s the wake-up call that’s needed to get the attention of legislators who’ve been blocking Haslam’s expansion plan. Some of them may claim that a CMS cutoff would be coercive and violate the terms of the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision voiding the provision of the ACA requiring states to adhere to its Medicaid expansion or forfeit much of their existing Medicaid funding. When CMS threatened Florida with a cutoff of uncompensated care funds upon expiration of its waiver earlier this year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott sued to prevent it on just these grounds. But he soon backed down and agreed to a settlement under which the funding will be reduced from $2 billion to $600 million over the next two years. (Florida has also spurned Medicaid expansion but has vastly more non-citizen residents who aren’t eligible for Medicaid than Tennessee. So more of an extension there seems justified.) Tennessee is one of eight other states that have uncompensated care waivers. (Don’t ask me how or why.) And while the exact terms of CMS’
conveyances to the state haven’t been made public, they are believed to be similar to those contained in a published letter that went to Florida where the funding is known as the Low Income Pool. To wit: “When the Affordable Care Act was enacted, it established a more comprehensive approach to providing health care coverage, including Medicaid, while supporting hospitals that serve communities with the greatest needs. Medicaid expansion would reduce uncompensated care in the state and therefore have an impact on the LIP, which is why the state’s expansion status is an important consideration in our approach to extending the LIP beyond June.” This is a much more nuanced expression than Congress’ punitive approach that the Supreme Court struck down. While lawyers disagree on just about anything, the prevalent view is that cutting or terminating uncompensated care waivers would hold up in court. It will be hard for Haslam to get his way with true red legislators in an election year, especially a presidential election year in which they can hope for a Republican victory that will lead to the repeal of Obamacare. On the other hand, public opinion polls continue to show that a clear majority of Tennesseans favor Medicaid expansion, which would primarily reach childless adults with incomes below 100 percent of the poverty line. Perversely, they aren’t eligible for subsidized coverage on the government health care exchange either. This “coverage gap” is an outrage. And if Haslam can’t get Medicaid expanded, then he should take the “private option” approach of a waiver to get these unfortunates enrolled on the exchange that both
Democrat and Republican governors of Arkansas have supported with CMS approval. Notably, the Arkansas Hospital Association has reported a 65 percent drop in uncompensated care in that state last year to about $125 million. (Arkansas is not one of the nine states with a waiver that begets federal funding.) The association attributes the decline to the extension of coverage to some 250,000 previously uninsured people via the private option, producing a 60 percent in the uninsured rate, the largest of any state. An association release adds that, “The private option has given many of our rural hospitals a better chance to remain open for their communities. Arkansas has not seen rural hospital closures like other states and this can be directly attributed to insurance coverage for a previously uninsured population.” When will Tennessee catch on?
RE: JERRY BURGESS
In a previous column, I said that the president of Community Health Alliance, Jerry Burgess, misled me with assurances on Oct. 9 that the firm was geared up for 2016 enrollments on the government health care exchange. That was five days before he announced that CHA was shutting down. In his announcement, Burgess ascribed the firm’s demise to an adverse determination by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that “led to an unavoidable outcome.” While this determination occurred on Oct. 1, Burgess insists that he was engaged in discussions with state and federal officials that he was hopeful would save the firm until two days before his Oct. 14 announcement. I will take his word for this. ◆
Loss of the uncompensated care funds in the absence of Medicaid expansion would be a crippling blow to many hospitals.
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9
The question worth dwelling on now is what can we learn from this episode, beyond the limits of being more mindful of the gaps between those buildings that are recently out of date and not yet historic? Moreover, what can we reasonably expect from the institutions that are the warp and weft of any city’s social and physical fabric? After all, a community’s institutions are the reasons we have the great buildings we cherish, be they from distant epochs, or from the recent past, as was the Hamilton Bank. More difficult still, what can we reasonably expect from an institution rooted elsewhere, that is seemingly bivouacked wherever it alights owing to the constraints of quarterly reports and shareholder expectations? Although its Knoxville headquarters occupies the tallest building in downtown (designed by the same firm that designed Hamilton National), on axis with Cumberland Avenue, and crowned with its corporate logo, First Tennessee Bank’s corporate headquarters is several hundred miles west of here. When it opened its doors in 1864, First Tennessee Bank was the first “national” bank in what was then the state’s center of commerce: downtown Memphis. It is the 14th oldest bank of this sort in the country. Originally known by another name, today it is one of several subsidiaries of the First Horizon National Corporation, also
ARCHITECTURE MATTERS
Architecture’s Institutions What can we reasonably expect of companies rooted elsewhere to be local caretakers?
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
It is worth asking, therefore, what happens when our institutions begin to fail us, when they no longer seem to act like “quasi-meeting groups” nor “uphold some aspect of our democracy.” What bearing does this have on the character of our cities and the nature of our architecture? What happens when many major public universities draw less than 10 percent of their annual funding from the state, when public transit serves only a fraction of a republic, when the physical and financial development of a modest-sized city are increasingly left in the hands of those who are not its residents? These are broad and thorny questions—far too expansive for this venue. That said, the implications on the role of architecture in Knoxville and its environs is too important to leave unexamined, albeit briefly. In my preceding column, “Mind the Gap,” First Tennessee Bank was taken to task for relinquishing responsibility for an architectural touchstone of our community, and the state: the former Hamilton National Bank building at Western Plaza, which they occupied since they acquired United American Bank through an FDIC restructuring on Feb. 15, 1983. Their regional manager rightly responded in a letter to the Mercury’s editor that they were leasing the building when they vacated it; ostensibly, they are not culpable in transforming what was once an attractive modern building into what now seems an attractive nuisance.
Photo by L. David Fox
I
n April, 1972, the great American architect Louis I. Kahn delivered a lecture in Aspen, Colo., in which he explained a key principle of both his practice and his belief system. For Kahn, the roots of architecture, (and the larger story of humankind) are grounded in that greatest of all human constructs—the institution. “‘Institution’ is … an excellent word. It tells you … here is an agreement in back of the making [of architecture]. … Agreement is not equal [everywhere], but there is a sense of unanimity without example. It is what made the school a school, or what inspired the first room. … So it is with…buildings that present themselves as belonging to the original inspirations…. Institutions are quasi-meeting groups that want to uphold some aspect of our democracy.” Kahn’s comments came on the cusp of a sea change in American culture. For several decades now, academics and political pundits have lamented the demise of the institution in contemporary society; the erosion of its gravitas signals its loss of authority and shared meaning. Kahn died two years after the Aspen lecture, shortly following his last public lecture, which was delivered here in Knoxville in memory of Robert B. Church III, his former student and the architect of the recently razed modernist icon at Western Plaza. Consequently, neither lived to see the very foundation of their architectural belief system begin to subside.
Photo courtesy of McCarty Holsapple McCarty
BY GEORGE DODDS
headquartered in Memphis with banking operations in a number of Southern states. One may ask why any of this matters. The Oct. 15 edition of the Memphis Business Journal reported that earlier that month, “the Memphis-based [First Tennessee Bank] had put its Downtown headquarters on the market. …David Popwell, president and chief operating officer for [the bank], explained that while they may well sell the building, ‘…no one is going to buy this building without us entering into a long term lease for the floors we are occupying. [The potential sale] should not be interpreted as a lack of commitment to Downtown, because … we would [make] a long-term commitment at that point.’” At virtually the same moment Popwell was redoubling his bank’s commitment to downtown Memphis, the former Hamilton National Bank building 400 miles east was being reduced to rubble: never underestimate the importance of proximity to power, and the power of being local. Presumably few but its owners, Biltmore Properties Group of Asheville, N.C., knew that Hamilton National was slated for demolition. BPG’s portfolio seems largely limited to quaint historical or historicalish building complexes, clad in red brick. Western Plaza and Melrose Place, in Knoxville, are among its most recent acquisitions. Perhaps because of the
Photo courtesy of McCarty Holsapple McCarty Photo by L. David Fox
nature of their holdings, one could imagine that BPG literally could not appreciate the value of the Hamilton building; its brick was painted and its form was decidedly non-19th-century. Absent informed guidance, developers run the risk of being blunt instruments; the marks their instruments leave on a city, however, often endure for generations. But what of First Tennessee, which is presumably operating on a higher plane than BPG? What can our community reasonably expect from this Memphis-based subsidiary in this situation? While some developers may be obtuse tools, banks are institutions, the latter of which we depend on for our society’s existence and sustenance. Yet, is it fair to hold a bank to the same standards as we would a college, athenaeum, place of worship, library, or museum? After all, not all institutions are the same. By statutory definition, a bank (which is a very broad term) can be one or all of several institutions: Financial, Depository, Lending, etc. (exclusive of Investment Banks). One thing they are not, however, is a Public Institution, whose charter is to leaven the world, or some portion thereof. Many large banks, however, establish within their corporate structure a Charitable Institution (aka, a foundation), and First Tennessee has one of these, which is a Public Institution, that acts for the good of
the community (in the locales where it does business) supporting works from cultural to social to environmental. The First Tennessee Foundation notwithstanding, if institutions are not everywhere the same, then neither are businesses. If a banking institution is not equal to a museum or a library, it’s also not the same as, for example, an Ace Hardware or Whole Foods. We do not deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars for safe keeping at the local Ace. And while its nickname has long been “whole paycheck” owning to its museum-quality produce, we do not electronically deposit our paychecks to either Whole Foods or The Fresh Market (its longstanding Western Plaza competitor); it just seems that way. Despite the massive banking deregulation of the 1980s and ’90s and the 2008 implosion of Lehman Brothers, we still trust banks with our money, with our futures. Of course, much of that trust is owed to the FDIC, and that is really the rub in all of this. In the end, a bank can only operate because the federal government is the ultimate insurance policy. According to the FDIC, every deposit up to $250,000 is “…backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. This means that the resources of the… government stand behind FDIC-insured depositors.” Hence, a bank only operates because, as Kahn observed: “there is an agreement in back of the making.”
“We the people,” are literally the guarantors of every Financial, Depository, and Lending Institution in the country, rendering our banks a hybrid Public Institution of sorts. How then did we get to this place, with these hybrid Public Institutions that are too big to fail and too complex to succeed absent our assistance? How, in a few generations, did our society move from banks that build and own long-term great monuments at the core of our cities (some of which can still be found in Knoxville), to leasing and vacating those monuments based on short-term profit margins? In the end, one can’t simply chalk up the demise of Western Plaza’s Hamilton Bank building to out-of-state developers and out-of-town lease-holders. When First Tennessee decides to sell its downtown building in Memphis, for example, it may indeed insist on a long-term lease as its president promised. The next day, however, the new owner, perhaps an organization similar to the Biltmore Group, may decide to raze the building in favor of something in red brick, with arches and polystyrene columns. A nice new building, but one that looks old, but not too old: just oldish with new bathrooms, faster elevators, and valet parking. Perhaps because of globalization and new forms of high-speed communication, it sometimes seems we live in an age of “ish,” in which the distinction between “similar” and “same,” is moot—wherein the image of a thing is equal to and often valued over and above the thing represented. The loss, on Oct. 14, 2015, of what was for many in Knoxville and beyond, not simply real estate but a real work of architecture, continues to unnerve us. More unnerving still, our commonly held sense of the past seems increasingly distant from a common sense—a generally held disposition about the present state of things. Absent a sense that is common to its citizenry, it is increasingly difficult for a city’s institutions to be “quasi-meeting groups that want to uphold some aspect of our democracy.” As such, they run the risk of becoming little more than a ship of fools, with we as its cargo, and our great buildings, its ballast. ◆ George Dodds is the Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Architecture at the University of Tennessee. Architecture Matters explores issues concerning the human-made environment in Knoxville and its environs.
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November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11
CAPTAIN JOHN FARMER
Photos by Tricia Bateman
Dropping Anchor Knoxville’s one and only ferry service prepares to end its run BY MCCORD PAGAN
T
he forward section of the small passenger boat floats idly away from the dock, its engine off while the captain waits for passengers to return from the big game. After more than half an hour, a handful of customers arrive at the docks near Calhoun’s On the River. They had purchased their round-trip tickets from Capt. John Farmer before kickoff and now, with the University of Tennessee-South Carolina game over, they are going back home for the night. Farmer’s water ferry, the Trace 1, makes this journey several times a day on football game days. Last year, when Farmer was still operating his boat as a water taxi, he would be on call to pick up passengers from their docks to take them from one end of the city to the other—much like any regular taxi on land. But now he abides by a set schedule to qualify as a ferry instead, only traveling between City View, the South Knoxville bridge, and Rivertowne docks. Last year, Farmer ran into some
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
difficulties when city authorities learned he did not have a “vehicle for hire” license, despite running NavCal Marine Services, LLC, since 2008. Upset over the rules required for such a license, Farmer changed his boat to a ferry rather than a taxi. But he’s found the ferry business not as profitable as the water-taxi business, so Farmer says it is easier for him to close his operation rather than be licensed by the city of Knoxville. His last day is Nov. 28, the UT-Vanderbilt game. The regulations concerning water taxis are unclear as the “vehicles for hire” ordinance focuses on cars rather than boats, and the city does not specify which rules—such as those for seat belts and odometers—will or will not apply to vessels such as his, Farmer says. While the ordinance has a catch-all provision requiring vehicles for hire to comply with all relevant rules, Farmer says as the regulation was not written with water service in mind, he should not have to obtain a
license or be inspected by the city. He first learned about the discrepencies last year when he had a miscommunication with some police officers over a docking issue. They asked for his taxi license, and of course he didn’t have one—so he was told to go by the police station to settle things. “I went up to the police station and I said, ‘I don’t see that we should fall under this, everything there relates to streets. Absolutely nothing
relates to the waterway,’” Farmer says. “I can see the need for taxi regulations, because they’re not regulated in other ways. But since we’re so heavily regulated by the Coast Guard, I really don’t see a need for water taxi regulations.” While the ordinance was mainly written for cars, all vehicles for hire in the city must still obtain a license, show proof of insurance, and be inspected by the city, says city of Knoxville attorney Crista Cuccaro. But she adds that the ordinance’s requirements are not considered one-size-fits-all. “If there’s something that is very clearly applicable to an automobile, we’re not going to try and fit a square peg into a round hole as far as making it all still apply to a boat,” Cuccaro says. City of Knoxville spokesman Eric Vreeland says the city welcomes new businesses and even has a designated official to guide them through local ordinances. “I don’t think in general that we want to be a barrier to any business operating here,” he says. Nevertheless, Farmer and his wife and business partner, Jeanette, have chosen to close the business rather than work with the city—and it was not an easy decision, they say. Jeanette Farmer says it helped their marriage and brought them closer together through their love for the water. “My husband was a workaholic in his younger days,” she says, “And I’ve got a chance to be with him and work with him and enjoy his interests.” Their boat has been chartered for days-long trips to Chattanooga and throughout the Tennessee River system, giving customers a unique way to experience the state. Even when navigating bad weather or avoiding dangerous boaters, Farmer says his priority is always for the customer to leave blissful.
“I went up to the police station and I said, ‘I don’t see that we should fall under this, everything there relates to streets.’ ” —CAPTAIN JOHN FARMER, NavCal Marine Services
“We’re not going to CLASSICAL TICKETS start at just $15
try and fit a square peg into a round hole as far as making it all still apply to a boat.” —CRISTA CUCCARO, City of Knoxville Attorney
“There’s a large feeling of accomplishment when you come to the end of a cruise and everybody’s happy,” Farmer says, “And they don’t have any idea what you may have had to go through to make it a successful cruise.” The Farmers’ unique business covers a lot of territory on the river, from distributing funeral ashes to organizing history cruises and hosting dances for college groups. John Farmer even sees wedding proposals, and as an ordained minister, has offered to perform the services immediately. But since the boat became a ferry, their average ridership on game days dropped from 150 passengers to 20-25. With the decrease, Farmer says he cannot afford to keep his business open. Although NavCal is ending, that doesn’t mean the Farmers are leaving the water anytime soon. They are building a towboat and half-barge, with the goal of taking customers throughout the region. He is still deciding if the boats will take either tourists or cargo, but he will be traveling throughout the Mississippi and Tennessee river systems. While the South Knoxville Waterfront Development Plan calls for water taxis, it is unclear if any company will replace NavCal and take regular passengers across the river. However, that leaves NavCal customers like Christopher Cook, a resident at City View at Riverwalk, to fight through congested street traffic just to eat after a football game. “Imagine taking a hundred rats and telling them to run to get a piece of cheese,” Cook says. “There’s not much room for anybody to go, and [Henley Street bridge] is only so wide. Put some people on this [boat].” ◆
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13
THE STRIP
—Cumberland Avenue around the University of Tennessee—has long been party central for college students, site of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.
It has been an unruly area, morphing over the decades from a mix of four-plex apartment buildings and small businesses to single-residence houses turned into bars to today’s dominating chain fast-food establishments. In the early 1960s, the grandmother of one of my high school friends ran a boarding house in the block now occupied by the Goalpost tavern. Next door was a bar that changed into a music venue on weekend nights, much to her consternation. She made sure that we never ventured in that direction. But by the time I started attending UT in 1963, the Strip was changing—not surprising as UT enrollment jumped from 13,000 to 25,000 in less than five years. And, of course, the national mood was changing as the war in Vietnam accelerated. Protest against the war was led by the young, with music providing the soundtrack. On the Strip, that meant nightclubs that had been featuring beach music were now following what was being played on the radio, what was being recorded.
And that was quite a mix, from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones to drug anthems. Those freewheeling years, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, became the Strip’s defi ning decade. A walk down the street meant the heady aroma of incense, encounters with hippies seeking spare change, dealers offering weed or hash or acid. Music by Cream or Traffic or Mott the Hoople blared from stores and record shops. Or a radio station might be running a “remote” from one of the head shops. For the most part, radio disc jockeys played what they wanted, the music that they liked, the music that they knew their listeners wanted to hear. The patter, too, was open, sometimes pushing against the boundaries of “good taste,” whatever that meant. And of course there were alcohol and drugs aplenty, sometimes on the station premises. Through the mid ’60s, the dominant Top 40 station in the Knoxville area was WNOX, which had studios in North Knoxville. The airwave changes that were coming began there. John Pirkle was part of the WNOX lineup at that time, as was Bill Johnson, who says he started as a sports announcer with directions to “be as caustic as you can be.” The idea was that WNOX wanted to balance J. Bernard Quayle, aka “Sir Bernard,” its
Our Disc Jockey Crew Photos by Clay Duda
We recently asked some of Knoxville’s radio players of the 1960s and ‘70s to share their memories at a round-table discussion at Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria in the Old City:
EDDIE BEACON, “Your Swingin’ Deacon” a fixture at WNOX and later at W149 and 15Q.
CHIP EMERSON, who worked at WKGN and WKVQ (later dubbed 15Q) and who was for a period part owner of The Place, a Cumberland Avenue club.
GARY ADKINS, half of the BILL JOHNSON, a veteran W149 and 15Q broadcast on-air personality of team (with Alan Sneed) WNOX, W149 and 15Q. known as “The Brothers.”
And we also talked to John Pirkle, who, in 40-plus years in the business went from DJ to station manager to owner. He also managed bands and promoted shows and concerts. 14
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
Photos by Clay Duda
British import who played up his use of the Queen’s English as part of his DJ persona and could be seen on the Strip driving an English sports car. His audience was primarily female, and management decided to add a sports announcer to attract the male audience. The overnight DJ was Eddie Beacon, who became known as the Swingin’ Deacon. As the music changed, and radio began experimenting with formats, WNOX began playing album cuts during the overnight segment, midnight to 6 a.m. Beacon worked that shift from the transmission tower in north Knoxville—“babysitting the transmitter,” as he says. “Beacon started as our all-night guy,” Pirkle recalls, adding with a laugh that, “the dregs of society would be out doing a night run and they’d fi nd Beacon.” I don’t know if I fit that description, but I didn’t get off work until 2 a.m., and Beacon provided my soundtrack for a couple of hours just about every night. The WNOX transmitter building, in a field, was “a party waiting to happen,” according to Beacon. And one night it did. “A couple of other DJs showed up, hammered,” Beacon says. “They’d been to a concert. They wanted me to go get some more beer, and they took over the broadcast. When I came back they were doing a parody of a golf commentary, using local names from another station. After they heard about it, they were ready to sue for slander. Part of the settlement was that all three of us were fi red.” In 1969, Beacon started at WKGN, which had studios in part of the space on the Strip now occupied by the Sunspot restaurant. “I was on 10 p.m. to midnight, playing pretty much what I wanted to, album cuts,” he says. “A lot of the Allman Brothers, Wet Willie, Procol Harum, Cream. The switchboard would light up with calls from UT students. “I had all my albums stacked on the floor. Then one day I came in at 7 p.m. and they were all gone. I asked where they were and I was told that [the station owner] didn’t like that music and didn’t want it played anymore. That was it. So I went back to my car and drove off.” Beacon then went to work for WJBE, owned by soul singer James Brown. The station’s studio was in the
KNIGHTS OF THE RADIO ROUND TABLE: Knoxville’s rock ’n’ roll disc jockeys of the 1960s and ’70s recall a different era in radio. From left, Bill Johnson, Chip Emerson, Eddie Beacon, and Gary Adkins.
“When you’re doing a remote, you talk with the owner, or the salesmen about the business. What could I talk about at a strip club? That was a long shift.” — THE SWINGIN’ DEACON, EDDIE BEACON
Five Points area of East Knoxville and featured a big window facing the sidewalk so that passers-by could watch the DJs in action. Often, Brown would visit, drawing crowds of neighborhood kids to the window. “Brown required that we all dress up and would fi ne us if he caught us out of uniform,” Beacon says. “So we had someone at the airport who would tip us off if he flew in and we would scramble to make sure we were dressed properly.” The album-cut format of these stations meant longer cuts, with the DJs frequently playing songs that might push 10 minutes in length. “You would keep the longer cuts like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ handy for when you needed a bathroom break,” remembers Gary Adkins, who DJed at W149 and later at Q15. “I became conditioned,” he says, claiming with a laugh that even today when he hears Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” he has
to go to the bathroom. As Beacon’s story demonstrates, what was being played and what management favored wasn’t always the same. But that changed, at least for one station, when Pirkle took over as station manager of WROL. “The owner wanted to build up the station and sell it,” Pirkle says. “I had gotten a license to start my own station and was in the process of building it when he came to me and asked if I could do what he wanted with his station. “Dick Sterchi and I had worked together before and we agreed to take it over. Dick took care of the business side and I took care of the on-air part.” Pirkle moved the tower to a hill in northwest Knoxville so he could target his signal to the UT campus. Though the station was officially still WROL, he changed the on-air handle to W149 (the station was on the dial at 1490), and the DJs began playing
album cuts. What had been a latenight-only format was now standard. The phone lines lit up and the station “outkicked its signal” in the ratings, Pirkle says. Knoxville’s counter-culture, me included, now had a radio station playing the music we wanted to hear—with like-minded DJs adding kick-ass commentary. W149’s signal was one of the weaker ones in the market. When new out-of-town owners took it over in the mid-1970s, Johnson got fi red for pointing that out. “In a meeting when they fi rst came in someone said something about the weak signal and they asked what our reach was,” he says. “I said ‘about a driver and a wedge’. I was gone the next day.” Another of Pirkle’s early moves was calling Beacon, who had moved to Los Angeles after his departure from WKGN. The Swingin’ Deacon November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15
Photo courtesy of TAMIS Photo courtesty of Knoxville Radio History 101
Photo courtesy of TAMIS
returned to Knoxville and again became the late-night DJ that everybody on the Strip was listening to. Soon, there were other radio personalities being heard and talked about. Besides Beacon, Pirkle’s lineup included Rob “Monkey Monkey” Galbraith, known for sly hillbilly-tinged humor, and the always irreverent Bill Johnson. 16
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
And there were Gary Adkins and Alan Sneed, tagged The Brothers. “We were always “pushing the envelop,” Adkins says—forerunners of shock radio, you might say. Adkins adds that there was a late-night DJ on for a period called Motorhead. “He played nothing but Frank Zappa. He’d come in with a ball of hash and play Zappa and smoke all
RADIO STARS: Godfather of Soul James Brown often visited his Knoxville radio station, WJBE, for surprise inspections of the staff (top). WNOX imported British DJ J. Bernard Quayle (left), dubbed him “Sir Bernard,” and reaped the publicity benefits among its female listeners. Disc jockey Eddie Beacon (above), better known as the Swingin’ Deacon, started at WKGN, went to WJBE, and gained fame as the overnight DJ at WNOX.
night. The morning news guy would come in and complain about the studio smelling like pot.” There was another overnight DJ who liked to play music by an English space-rock group called Hawkwind. “He’d play both sides of the album straight through,” Adkins says. Management, obviously, wasn’t around for the overnight shift.
Live remotes, still a fi xture of radio, were also popular with businesses on the Strip. Johnson recalls one at a head shop that featured Miss Nude USA. “She was sitting in a papasan chair in the front window, buck naked with all these college boys outside. She was there for four hours.” Somehow, I missed that one, only hearing about it after the fact. Beacon once did a remote from an Alcoa Highway strip joint. “When you’re doing a remote, you talk with the owner, or the salesmen about the business. What could I talk about at a strip club? That was a long shift.” There were also appearances by artists promoting concerts or new records. Adkins remembers one in particular. “Greg Allman came into the studio with Sweet William [Bill Sauls, a local singer who fronted the Stereos and sometimes went on the road with the Allman Brothers]. People were calling, and Greg announces that he’s going to sit in with Sauls that night at the Casual Lounge on Central,” he says. “There was a huge traffic jam and the place was packed. They played until 3 a.m.” Studio interviews with name acts were common. “We interviewed a who’s who of rock ‘n’ roll,” says Johnson. “Alice Cooper, Manfred Mann, Nazareth, Lynyrd Skynyrd.” Those acts were in town playing the clubs. Manfred Mann did a gig at Bradley’s Station, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, with Rufus Thomas, headlined at The Place. “One of the fans invited Frankie and the band to her house in South Knoxville after the show and they all went, Rufus included,” says Emerson. The party went on all night. The Place was also the site of an early Jimmy Buffett show, set up by Pirkle, who with partner Kenneth Kelly operated Concept 90, a concert-promotion, band-management company. My roommate at the time was working for Pirkle and we ended up hanging out with Buffett and his crew after the show. The Strip’s proximity to campus also meant that live remote appearances on Cumberland attracted crowds, especially the ones involving record stores (there were two in the Strip area). The culture changes were also reflected in the off-campus club scene. Then, as now, venues came and went,
As the ’60s sputtered out and disco took over pop culture’s soundtrack, there was a move toward corporate consolidation of radio and rigid playlists for DJs to follow. Nowadays, radio is known for its talk formats more than for music. victims of liquor-license revocations, ownership changes, and fickle tastes. There was Foxy Lady, Friday’s Child, the Twin Light, the Pump Room, the Orange Peel, Sound Showcase. Popular local bands included the Loved Ones, the Plebeians, Southern Cross, Cowcatcher, and Fatback, which later became one of Knoxville’s music success stories as the Amazing Rhythm Aces. After touring with Canadian Jesse Winchester, with lead singer and songwriter Russell Smith fronting, the Aces produced several hit albums. Their singles “Third Rate Romance,” “Amazing Grace (Used to Be Her Favorite Song)” and “The End Is Not in Sight” were major hits, with the latter winning a Grammy in 1976. The footloose atmosphere helped fuel the always fierce air-waves competition, and promotions and remote stunts accelerated. The owners of W149 bought an old fire truck and frequently used it, bell clanging. “I had to drive that thing,” Beacon remembers. “And it wasn’t easy to drive.” Later, when he was at 15Q, management came up with the idea of a “15Q Millionaire,” and Beacon again got the call. “They put me in a tuxedo and a top hat and I was supposed to be giving all this money away,” Beacon says. “And they’re driving me around in a Gremlin [a small car produced by the now-defunct American Motors Company]. I’d go into a grocery store and pick out someone with a cart full of groceries and pay for it all.” The stunt culminated in a turn on the Ferris wheel at the Tennessee Valley fair in Chilhowee Park. “I had a garbage bag full of dollar bills and dumped them out from my
seat up in the air and they floated everywhere,” he says. “All these people were grabbing and pushing and of course some kid got hurt and there was a lawsuit.” Eventually, as the music changed, as the ’60s sputtered out and disco took over pop culture’s soundtrack, there was a move toward corporate consolidation of radio and rigid playlists for DJs to follow. Nowadays, radio is known for its talk formats more than for music. The free-wheeling days came to an end. But the kids who were part of the Strip’s ’60s scene, who return to for football game days or to give their families a tour of the old stomping grounds, recall that era with fondness. “It was music, mirth, and merriment,” Johnson says. “Wild-west time,” Emerson adds with a chuckle. “An awful lot of people remember, and it’s primarily because of the music,” Beacon says. One of the songs that I was introduced to by Beacon’s show was from a legendary English rocker named Long John Baldry. It’s called “Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”—and with its spoken introduction, it clocks in at almost 7 minutes. It’s on my iPod and gets played at least once a week, more than 50 years after I first heard it. Music’s ability to conjure up the past, the years of adolescence before real jobs and family and the attendant responsibility, is well-documented. For those of us who survived the turmoil of the ’60s, all it takes is the opening riff of the Rolling Stones’ “Shattered” or Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla” to put us back on the Strip of our youth. ◆
JOHN PIRKLE
Music Scene Godfather
Early in his career in radio, John Pirkle saw the advantages of a tie-in to the music that he was playing and the music being featured in the clubs that were catering to the college crowd. The result was Concepts 90, a firm formed in 1968 with Kenneth Kelly, who ran a popular Maryville teen club called Kelly’s Record Hop. “Beginning in the mid-‘60s, the music scene began to morph into something else,” he says. “At that time, people found out that young people who were talented didn’t have to have an orchestra. They could go into a studio and record a song. I wanted to promote my radio show, [Kelly] was booking these bands into his club. That gave impetus to these kids to form bands. We decided to form a company, manage these bands, market them, do a little financing, like signing notes for instruments. “We were working for them. They got paid and paid us a commission. We booked them for frat parties and proms, clubs, then the rest of the time we’d put them into [radio] promotion situations. That way they kept busy.” Pirkle says at the start their core groups were the Sierras, Little Joe and the Apollos, Sweet William and the Stereos, and Julian and the Epics. “We centralized the booking, gave them rules about personal conduct—these were high school kids, notoriously undisciplined— made sure they showed up on time. Word got out that our bands were reliable. Pretty soon we had about 25 bands.” One of the more popular cover bands in Knoxville today is Boys Night Out, an oldies group whose members on any given night come from a pool of the musicians that were active in the ’60s and ’70s. “All those guys were in my bands,” Pirkle says. Pirkle now owns WNFZ (94Z) with his son Jonathan. They recently changed the station’s format from talk to alternative rock, returning to the music that brought Pirkle to Knoxville in the early 1960s. “I’ve been involved in it all,” he says. “Rock ‘n’ roll, album rock, psychedelic rock, Southern rock—it’s all the same three chords.” —C.W.
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17
A&E
Ar t
Open Studio Watch art being made at a new North Knox gallery/artists’ collective BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN
W
hen you walk into the Broadway Studios and Gallery to check out an exhibit, you might encounter something unpredictable, something more than paintings hanging on a wall—like a person slathered in glue paste making paper-mâché. Or painting. Or sorting through corn husks. The brainchild of artist Jessica Gregory, the collective of 10 artists launched in September in the Wright Place on North Broadway. It is a group that likes to demystify art by allowing visitors to wander through the studios four days of every week while the creativity is flowing. And on First Fridays, the individual studios all serve as exhibit space for the photographers, printmakers, sculptors, painters, and fine crafters who make up the group. An additional hallway gallery features work by outside artists—this month, selectively colored still-life photos by Sharon Popek. On a recent Thursday, photographer Morris Brady hunched at his computer, with his infrared-mirror photos of trees shot in Old Gray Cemetery and the Maple Grove Cemetery on Westland Drive hanging
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Inside the Vault: Fayte Rutherford
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
above his work station. He says many people see images among the crossed branches in the photos—like a Rorschach test—and immediately I do, too: a dragon or praying mantis staring out head-on from beneath cathedral spires. Out in the hall, BeBe the whitegold English lab gently thumps her tail on the floor in welcome. “She’s the only pedigree in here,” says her owner, Anne Freels, who makes dancing corn-shuck dolls and natural soaps. Her studio is a hodgepodge of tactile supplies, with plastic grocery bags full of brightly colored shucks, baskets of tiny dried gourds, and a fancy trash can full of peacock feathers. Brady’s friend and studio partner, Cynthia Tipton, a painter and printmaker, says she enjoys having visitors while she works. “I like people to ask me questions,” she says. “I think it goes back to the dialogue—there’s a dialogue amongst artists that I think is important, but I think dialogue with the public is important. People don’t get the chance to ask, or feel intimidated. The best thing that could come out of
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that for me is that people would feel less intimidated. I think people should bring their kids.” Continuing its theme of accessibility, the gallery will hold an open-call show four times a year, with an entry fee of just $5. These will feature both established artists and those brand new to the scene, Gregory says. The first show, held in September, was themed around “gaudy gold frames.” (One of Gregory’s favorite pieces was a frame covered with spangled plastic dinosaurs.) The gallery has issued its second open call, for a show with a food theme that will debut on First Friday in December. “Feast Your Eyes on This” will incorporate a food drive for the Love Kitchen, Freels says, and Gregory hopes to have food trucks and local food touches like displays by a North Knoxville jelly maker. The collective evolved after Gregory decided she wanted to have a studio for the first time instead of working out of her home. She fell in love with the Wright building but didn’t need the whole space, so she started looking for other artists to rent individual studios. They all chipped in to overhaul their own spaces, mostly through their own sweat over the summer and with funding from a group rummage sale. Hunkering down to build the studios and gallery together built a camaraderie. While their artistic visions and preferred media are eclectic, the artists at Broadway Studios support each other creatively and hold weekly brainstorm-
Music: Dave Rawlings Machine
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ing and planning sessions together. Like Gregory, many chose art as a second career and have never had their own studio outside their home. Gregory used to paint houses and drum in the band Stump Tucker until a shoulder injury drove her to switch gears. Tipton was a graphic designer at a TV station. The second to join the collective, Patricia Muncey is a retired Central High School English teacher who now makes quilts and jewelry and paints in her studio. “I like having my own space and interacting with other artists,” she says. “Everybody has ideas they contribute and different experience.” Gregory’s studio pops with bright swirls of color. The last few of her series of drummer portraits stenciled on drum heads hang near a statue of a woman mosaicked with shells. Recycling is a major element of Gregory’s art, with cereal boxes and bottles incorporated into the forms of her paper-mâché animal sculptures. Because the Knoxville Arts and Fine Crafts Center is next door in the same building, the new gallery helps provide two art destinations in one spot. “It’s great because we don’t have kilns, for example, but they do, and artists go right there for classes,” Gregory says. In fact, the director at the center approached the Broadway Studios artists about teaching, and Gregory recently held her first class on making papier-mâché animals. Tipton plans to offer drawing classes with critiques “because we don’t have a dialogue about arts in this town.” In addition, she and Brady are almost ready to offer archival giclée printing services geared toward fine artists who want to print greeting cards and other products. Gregory and Tipton are both enthusiastic about the North Knoxville location. “I feel like more artists are up and coming from that area, more energy is being put into that area, so I wanted to be a part of that, too,” Tipton says. ◆ Visit broadwaystudiosandgallery.com for more information.
Movie: Suffragette
Inside the Vault
Twist of Fayte Uncovering the story of Knoxville jazz great Fayte Rutherford BY ERIC DAWSON
W
hen talking to veteran local jazz musicians like Jack Haynes and Lance Owens, Fayte Rutherford’s name kept popping up. Rutherford was a highly regarded pianist, but details about his life were sparse, just a few anecdotes and comments about his playing. We couldn’t even find a photo of him. The only hit for a Google search led to a French website devoted to blues and Southern rock. (It’s surely one of the few websites that display the French, American, and Confederate flags on its home page.) A lengthy interview with drummer Stevie Hawkins includes a mention of Rutherford among a long list of musicians who mentored or influenced Hawkins in his hometown of Knoxville. Now based in Atlanta, Hawkins has played with an impressive number of blues and rock legends, including Gregg Allman, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, and Rufus Thomas. The son of local big band singer Peggy Hawkins and stepson of jazz pianist Doug Rupe, Stevie Hawkins, like practically every kid who saw their Ed Sullivan appearance, fell under the spell of the Beatles at an early age. But he was also exposed to a lot of jazz, including rehearsals of the University of Tennessee’s Giants of Jazz big band, in which his father played piano. This proximity to some of Knoxville’s great jazz artists, as well as DJs at WKGN and WNOX, allowed him to study jazz while feeding his voracious appetite for music with the diverse sounds of ’60s radio and pop, rock, and soul albums. I sent Hawkins an email asking about Rutherford, and he replied with a detailed reminiscence about the pianist, along with photos, newspaper articles, a program from the 1980 Knoxville Entertainment Awards, and even a video clip from a performance
at Deane Hill Country Club. He went on to post an expanded tribute to Rutherford on his Facebook page and has since taken to posting about other East Tennessee musicians he thinks should be remembered. For a glimpse of Knoxville’s jazz scene of the 1960s and 1970s and insight into the more technical aspects of Rutherford’s style, the post is worth a read, but a few highlights are recounted below. Rutherford apparently first learned to play piano in the 1940s by slowing Art Tatum 78s down to 33 rpm, a not-uncommon practice for burgeoning musicians at the time. During the big band era, Rutherford toured with Tommy Dorsey, Vaughn Monroe, Artie Shaw, and Harry James, and in Knoxville he seemed to play with just about every jazz musician in just about every club. Performing solo was his most frequent gig, though, including a stint playing piano in the Sunsphere during the 1982 World’s Fair. His style combined bop and swing, and he had a great love for American pop standards. He wrote and self-published a songbook of his favorite jazz and pop standards, for sale from him directly and at music stores such as Rush’s Music on Alcoa Highway and the Hewgley’s Music Shop on Gay Street. Rutherford was also quite a hand with a pool cue, often holding court at the table in the Eagles Club atop the hill on Walnut Street. Hawkins says any local jazz player would tell you that Rutherford was “the only pianist in Knoxville during the ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s that could play on the level of Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson.” Such was the respect of his peers that he was named Best Single Performer and Instrumentalist of the Year during the Knoxville Musical Entertainment Awards in 1980.
A&E
After receiving Hawkins’ email, I found a profile on Rutherford in a 1976 issue of the Knoxville Journal that filled in a little more of his background. He was the son of musicians Lafayette and Bessie Rutherford. His father ran a minstrel show in which he played violin and sang, and his mother provided piano accompaniment to films screening at the Queen Theater, which was across the street from the Riviera. After serving in the Air Force during World War II, including a stint in England, Rutherford moved to New York City to study piano with 1920s hot-jazz veteran Mable Horsey. He subbed for Tommy Dorsey’s ailing pianist at a 1953 Deane Hill engagement, then accompanied the band on the road for a while. Billed as Dean Fayte, he made his living as a touring musician for many years before settling in Knoxville in the mid-’70s. Rutherford died on Aug. 2, 1996, at the age of 76. Hawkins has spent a good deal of time in Knoxville of late, visiting with his mother. He says they’ve been talking about Knoxville’s old jazz days, jogging each other’s memories. Peggy Hawkins remembers Fayte Rutherford fondly. She suspects he had a bit of a crush on her, and recalls that her husband, Doug Rupe, was Rutherford’s favorite piano player, something he would frequently voice to many musicians in town. Her son is working on an overview of her life and career, which he’ll be posting online soon. ◆
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19
A&E
Music
Photo by Henry Diltz
Ringing in the Rafters Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch divine a future for homespun music BY CHRIS BARRETT
S
inger, guitarist, and composer Dave Rawlings is often associated with his esteemed creative partner Gillian Welch. Welch has a gift for writing and presenting songs that are basic yet potent; Rawlings has a gift, possibly more rare, for harmony vocals and ornamental guitar playing, which has helped to make Welch’s music distinctive and memorable. Rawlings associates Knoxville with a career benchmark event for the duo that took place some decades ago. “One of our very first times in Nashville we came over to a little church in Knoxville to play a show,” Rawlings recalls, describing the Laurel Theater as most visitors would years ago. “It was before we had a record or before we had anything going on. But I think Tim and Mollie O’Brien had cut ‘Orphan Girl.’ We had gone up into the balcony and were taking a nap, and we heard these young girls, maybe 13 or 14, come into the church and they started singing
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
‘Orphan Girl’ on the stage. “We’d never heard anyone else sing a song that Gillian had written before.” Since that day here, when Welch and Rawlings first realized that they were reaching people through their music in ways they might never fully understand, they have released seven albums together. They share credit for the original compositions. Two of those albums—including Nashville Obsolete, fresh out in September— have been released under the band name Dave Rawlings Machine. “The Machine tours are interesting for us,” Rawlings says. “We like to sing group harmony. We like to sing three- and four-part harmony, which is something we don’t have the opportunity to do as a duet. That’s all a function of when I’m singing, we both hear the need for a little more bass and a little more color around the edges.” When performing or recording as
Gillian Welch with David Rawlings, Rawlings deftly maneuvers his voice so that it nearly nests with Welch’s, and the two become almost indistinguishable. In that role, he has been compared to both Phil and Don Everly and to Art Garfunkel. Rawlings’ explanation of his approach to harmony is similar to Albert Einstein’s memories of his first notion of relativity, which supposedly arrived as he arranged imaginary shapes in imaginary space. “There’s a visual component to it for me,” Rawlings says. “As soon as we get our guitars sounding right in a song, I sort of see stuff. I see a landscape.” When fronting the Machine as lead vocalist, Rawlings projects confidently, in a relaxed and robust musical gait reminiscent of mid-20th-century country music. Harmonizing around Rawlings are Welch, bassist Paul Kowert, and guitarist Willie Watson. (Fiddler Brittany Haas will also be onstage in Knoxville and is present on Nashville Obsolete.) “The first instrument I tried when I was a kid was a saxophone, and I didn’t take to it,” Rawlings says, further explicating his fondness for layered human voices. “And I realized much later that it was because I don’t really take to instruments that only make one note at a time. “I remember this day, when I was young and just early in Nashville, I thought I’d made this breakthrough. I was just singing all day and thought, ‘My voice sounds great!’ I’d just sing for hours and loved the sound of it. I was refinishing a floor in this tiny little one-room place I had, and I had this exhaust fan going. And the fan was making a note. And it took me about eight hours to realize that I was just singing along with this note. I realized I was having so much fun because I was making harmony, which is what I love to do.” Asked to differentiate between the processes that generate Gillian Welch material and Dave Rawlings Machine material, Rawlings answers with an example. “The songs are always different,” he says. “Gillian starts more songs
than I do, and I guess I’d say that I finish more songs than she does. The truest thing is to say that the songs get written every which way and by every conceivable arrangement. There are some songs, like ‘Pilgrim,’ on the new record, that get taken apart and put back together so many times until we finally decided the form that it belonged in. And then there was this whole long period of writing that lyric, getting it to do what we wanted it to do. “We could talk about that song’s journey for hours. There’s even a clue to it on the record, because the song that leads into it, ‘Candy,’ ends with this melodic phrase—a plagal cadence, they call it. ‘Can-dy.’” He sings to demonstrate, shifting, he says, from the IV chord to the I chord. “And that was the genesis of the song ‘Pilgrim.’ I liked the way our voices sounded doing that little cadence. It just seemed funny that years later, when we were able to put it on a record, that we were able to lap them together. And they’re in the same key so you can hear it. “One starts where the other one left off.” ◆
WHO
Dave Rawlings Machine
WHERE
Tennessee Theatre (604 S. Gay St.)
WHEN
Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH
$31.50-$36.50
INFO
tennesseetheatre.com daverawlingsmachine.com
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November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21
A&E
Movies
Open Chord®®
music Live store
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22
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
Low Voter Turnout A restrained Suffragette treads carefully on its way to Oscar BY APRIL SNELLINGS
S
uffragette, the new film that dramatizes the struggle for women’s voting rights in early 20th-century England, finds an unconventional window into its depiction of a civil-rights movement: Rather than training its narrative on the iconic and controversial figure who led the charge, it finds its heroine in a nearly anonymous foot soldier who stumbles into the fight by accident. The leader in question is Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union and one of the best-known women’s-rights activists of her time (or any other). Eighty-seven years after her death, she’s still a towering, divisive figure, so it’s appropriate (though disappointing for Meryl Streep fans) that she exists in Suffragette as more of a force than a person, spoken of constantly but only appearing in two brief scenes before being ushered out of the frame—and completely out of the movie—by her bodyguards. The weight of carrying this stately, somber movie, then, falls to Carey Mulligan as Maud Watts, a 24-year-old laundress who has as much of a voice
in her home and work lives as in the political arena—which is to say, none at all. Maud has resigned herself to a life of suffering in silence. She spends long, arduous hours at the laundry, endures constant sexual harassment from her weaselly boss, and is barely more than a shadow at home with her husband, Sonny (Ben Whishaw), and their young son, George (Adam Michael Dodd). Maud doesn’t exactly lament her lot in life, because it has never occurred to her that working-class British women could have any other. That changes when she stumbles across a woman hurling bricks through a shop window; Maud has accidentally discovered the Women’s Social and Political Union, a group that has begun to advocate militant tactics in their effort to secure voting rights for women. At fi rst Maud is reluctant to join the struggle, but she gradually realizes that Pankhurst and her followers are striving for something even more important than the vote: They’re fighting to win women the voices they’ve been denied in every aspect of life.
Directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan, Suffragette picks up in 1912 and centers on the uniquely fascinating pivot from peaceful protest to civil disobedience and militantism. The story it depicts is a stirring one, to say the least, and one that’s no less important or relevant today, more than a century after the moving newsreel footage that carries Suffragette into its closing credits. So it’s curious and disappointing, then, that Suffragette keeps its subject at arm’s length and doesn’t delve into some of the more interesting aspects of its story. It hints at unsettling ideas, such as the beginnings of a surveillance state and connections between domestic violence and political oppression, but mostly tosses them aside in favor of safer ground and inevitable Oscar-baiting. Its characters often feel thinly drawn—there’s an entire movie’s worth of missed opportunities in Brendan Gleeson’s Inspector Steed, a surly policeman who’s torn between sympathy for Maud and his obligation to fulfill his duties. Technically, though, Suffragette is a powerhouse. Eduard Grau’s moody, murky cinematography casts everything in a pall of morning mist and coal dust, and Alexandre Desplat’s score is suitably tense and melancholy. The performances are mostly excellent, though its most memorable character isn’t its most famous one, or even its main one; Suffragette is owned by Anne-Marie Duff, who gives an electric performance as Violet, one of Maud’s coworkers and fellow suff ragists. Helena Bonham Carter has one of her best turns in years as Edith Ellyn, a pharmacist-turned-bomb-maker who acts as something of a general in Pankhurst’s unofficial army. Ultimately, Suffragette is too restrained and calculated for its own good. It’s well-made and certainly worth watching, but it’s also polemical when it should be rousing and pulls back when it really needs to charge ahead. It feels like the important history lesson it is but leaves the most emotionally and politically charged aspects of the suff rage movement relatively untouched. ◆
THE SANTALAND DIARIES DAVE RAWLINGS
MACHINE
WEDNESDAY
TICKET GIVEAWAY
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NOVEMBER 25 8PM
12.15 - 12.20 ON SALE FRIDAY, 11/20 AT 10AM!
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November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23
CALENDAR Thursday, Nov. 19 THE BEARDED • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Bearded is an old-time style band with new songs, based in Knoxville. BEN COSGROVE • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM DIGG WITH RED MONEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. THE TIM LEE 3 • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM • The new Tim Lee 3 album, 33 1/3, is, like its predecessors, full of inventive, melodic guitar rock with pop instincts and bar-band muscle. DAVID MAYFIELD AND SEAN MCCONNELL • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE PAT REEDY AND THE LONGTIME GONERS WITH CLYDE’S ON FIRE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE REGIONS • Longbranch Saloon • 7PM THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band. Friday, Nov. 20 BETTER DAZE • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM T. MICHAEL BRANNER CONCEPTET • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE BREAKFAST CLUB WITH EVAN STONE • The International • 9PM • 18 and up. • $10-$20 BRIAN CLAY • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM THE COTERIES • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. DEROBERT AND THE HALF TRUTHS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • DeRobert & The Half-Truths are the house band for Nashville, TN raw funk label G.E.D. Soul Records. The Half-Truths got their start in 2007 as a collection of studio musicians lending their talent to the fledgling G.E.D. Soul recording operation. It was with the addition of DeRobert Adams and his impressive broad range of vocal skills that the band began to solidify into the soul powerhouse it is today. After releasing a string of heavy duty raw funk 45’s and a strong full length album, the band has caught the ear of funk and soul heads world wide. THE JAY ERIC BAND • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE LINEAR DOWNFALL WITH DAY AND AGE • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 MIDNIGHT VOYAGE LIVE ANNIVERSARY: ROB GARZA • The Concourse • 8AM • Rob Garza (of Thievery Corporation) is performing a DJ set for the 5 Year Midnight Voyage LIVE Anniversary. With Marley Carroll. 18+. • 15-20 THE NEW SCHEMATICS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM THE POP ROX • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE PAT REEDY AND THE LONGTIME GONERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 5PM • FREE SCULL SOUP WITH LEGBONE AND THE HARAKIRIS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $5 SHAKEY GRAVES • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • While his remarkable success story continues to unfold, Alejandro Rose-Garcia sees And the War Came as a pivotal step in the evolution of Shakey Graves. “This is a doorframe album, as we’re going into a new building,” he says. “It’s taste of everything—what might come in future, which might include just guitar or the one-man band thing, but 24
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. SECRET COMMONWEALTH • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE DANIEL SHEARIN AND FRIENDS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE
not pigeonholed to any one sound. I wanted to open some stuff up and get people ready for wherever it’s going.” • $19.50 • See Spotlight on page 24. DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. THE SOUTH CAROLINA BROADCASTERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Now based in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the South Carolina Broadcasters are an award winning old-time trio featuring Ivy Sheppard on fiddle, banjo, guitar and vocals; Andy Edmunds on fiddle, guitar and vocals; and David Sheppard on guitar and vocals. Tight harmonies and exceptional instrumentation give the group a powerful old-time sound. They’ve played with some of the great string bands of the past-Ivy with the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers and Andy with Benton Flippen’s Smokey Valley Boys. David is a renowned luthier. They draw their inspiration from the Carter Family and early country duos. • $14 THE WAY DOWN WANDERERS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE WAY DOWN WANDERERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM THE WILD THINGS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM WRANGLER SPACE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. Saturday, Nov. 21 CINDI ALPERT AND THE CORDUROY JAZZ TRIO • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM THE BROCKEFELLERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 BROOMESTIX • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM BEN COSGROVE WITH NEO TUNDRA COWBOY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE EMPERORS AND ELEPHANTS WITH INWARD OF EDEN, BELFAST SIX PACK, AND TRANSPARENT SOUL • The Bowery • 8PM • 18 and up. • $5-$9 THE JOE HILL ROADSHOW • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 5PM • Part of a series of national events honoring the legacy of the labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill on the centennial year anniversary of his execution. Performers include Jack Herranen & The Little Red Band, Black Atticus, Matt Kinman & Friends, and The Shelby Bottom Duo. All ages. • FREE WILL HOGE WITH SUNDY BEST • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • “Took a whole lot of miles to know what I know now,” sings Will Hoge on “Growing Up Around Here,” the opening track off of his tenth studio album, Small Town Dreams. “I’m kinda proud of growing up around here.” It’s been a whole lot of miles, indeed: miles on the road, driving the bus himself from venue to venue since the nineties; miles to and from Nashville writing rooms, where he’s spent countless hours penning songs ‘ some for him, some for others; miles exploring lands outside of his native Franklin, Tennessee, chasing the spirits of his musical heroes. • $19.50-$21.50 LEIGH NASH WITH GABE DIXON • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Leigh Nash is perhaps best known as the pixie-like singer with the heavenly voice from Sixpence None the Richer, a CCM group that enjoyed considerable fame in 1999 with the single “Kiss Me.” All ages. • $12-$15 RADIO BIRDS WITH CUMBERLAND STATION • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s
RYAN SHELEY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE SOUTHBOUND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM SUNSHINE STATION • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • Trippy-hippy folk band.
Photo by Josh Verduzco
MUSIC
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
SHAKEY GRAVES Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Friday, Nov. 20 • 8 p.m. • $19.50
Alejandro Rose-Garcia is on a roll this fall. The Austin, Texas, singer/songwriter, who performs under the name Shakey Graves, was named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Awards in September, and he’s filling big clubs and small theaters across the country on the latest leg of his tour in support of his 2014 album, And the War Came. After generating up-and-coming buzz as a raggedy but heartfelt one-man indie/roots band, he’s now establishing himself by working as the leader of a full band—And the War Came features strings, electric guitar, drums, and some ethereal electronic backgrounds. Hype aside, the album really does come off as a statement of purpose; Rose-Garcia mixes up folk and country with contemporary indie pop in ways that nobody else does. It’s an engaging work of imagination and heart. This is also probably the best time you’ll ever have to catch him live, if you’re at all interested— he and his band are, by all accounts, firing on all cylinders, and Rose-Garcia’s performing like he has something to prove. This is his moment. With fellow Austinites Wild Child. (Matthew Everett)
27
Spotlight: KSO Masterworks Series: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
CALENDAR PATRICK SWEANY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • On a given night (or on a given album) he’ll swing through blues, folk, soul, bluegrass, maybe some classic 50s rock, or a punk speedball. He’s a musical omnivore, devouring every popular music sound of the last 70 years, and mixing ’em all together seamlessly into his own stew. Yet, the one thing that most people notice about Patrick isn’t his ability to copy – it’s his authenticity. Like his heroes, artists like Bobby “Blue” Bland, Doug Sahm, Joe Tex, Patrick somehow manages to blend all of these influences into something all his own. GREG TARDY • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM WOODY PINES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM WILL YAGER TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 BIG DADDY WEAVE • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 6:30PM • Through more than a decade of hits like “In Christ,” “Audience of One,” “You’re Worthy Of My Praise,” “Every Time I Breathe,” “What Life Would Be Like,” and “You Found Me,” Big Daddy Weave has shared the journey in a way that has won the ongoing respect of fans, press, and industry alike. • $20-$45 DONNA THE BUFFALO AND PETER ROWAN • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Donna the Buffalo’s feel-good, groove-oriented, danceable and often socially conscious music all began over twenty years ago with roots in old time fiddle music that evolved into a soulful electric Americana mix infused with elements of cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country. • $25 KITES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz. SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE THE JON WHITLOCK TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Jon Whitlock, Meade Armstrong and Jessica Watson make music that is loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow by picking, bowing, strumming and plucking strings together and apart and each with their own voice they sing words that sometimes rhyme… and sometimes do not. Monday, Nov. 23 CLYDE’S ON FIRE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE JASON HEATH AND THE GREEDY SOULS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JASON HEATH AND THE GREEDY SOULS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. DEVAN JONES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM Tuesday, Nov. 24 JAY CLARK AND THE TENNESSEE TREE BEAVERS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE RENSHAW DAVIES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE MCGILL AND THE REFILLS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Knoxville hero Mike McGill and his refills play some bluegrass the way it is supposed to be.
Wednesday, Nov. 25 KEITH BROWN AND KB3 • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM BONEHART FLANIGAN WITH THE DARREN ZANCAN BAND • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE GRITS AND SOUL • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE JAYSTORM • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM THE ALEX LEACH BAND • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • WDVX listeners know Alex Leach as the host of The Bluegrass Special on Tuesday nights who began his on-air career with the station at age 9. Now in his 20s, this Campbell County native is an accomplished bluegrass musician who spends much of the year on the road with Ralph Stanley II. For this special Thanksgiving Eve show, Alex brings his own band to Boyd’s for a musical feast fit for the whole family. • $10 DAPHNE LEE MARTIN AND FRANK LOMBARDI • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Acony Records proudly presents Nashville Obsolete, . Recorded on analog tape at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, Nashville Obsolete, the highly anticipated second album from Dave Rawlings Machine, features seven original compositions written by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Produced by Rawlings, Nashville Obsolete highlights the brilliant musicianship of Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch on lead vocals and guitar, Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers) on bass, Willie Watson on vocals and guitar and guest appearances from Brittany Haas (fiddle) and Jordan Tice (mandolin). • $31.50-$36.50 • See story on page 22. HUNTER SMITH TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE Thursday, Nov. 26 NO LISTINGS! ENJOY THANKSGIVING! Friday, Nov. 27 THE BARSTOOL ROMEOS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM BIG COUNTRY’S EMPTY BOTTLE WITH MENDING WALL • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. BIG SMO • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • The big bald-headed nadir of bro country. 18 and up. • $10 CRAWDADDY WITH EXIT GLACIERS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE DANKSGIVING VI: THE CRYSTAL METHOD • The International • 10PM • With twenty years under their belts, the iconic platinum-selling debut 1997’s Vegas, a 2009 Grammy Award nomination in the category of “Best Dance/Electronic Album” for Divided By Night, as well as compositions for film and television including Bones and Real Steel, among other accolades, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland decided to up the ante yet again. That’s one reason why they named their fifth offering The Crystal Method. “It’s been two decades since this started, and electronic music has enjoyed a huge resurgence,” says Ken.” We wanted to reintroduce ourselves to the world here.” The Crystal Method headlines Danksgiving VI, an annual EDM Thanksgiving party hosted by Midnight Voyage Productions. Le Castle Vania, DubLoadz, and
A Christmas Carol Adapted for the stage by Dennis Elkins Directed by
Micah-Shane Brewer
clarencebrowntheatre.com
865.974.5161
#CBTChristmas Carol
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25
CALENDAR Liquid Metal are also on the bill. 18 and up. • $20-$25 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE HARMONICA HOWL • Relix Variety Theatre • 7PM • Featuring Michael “Crawdaddy” Crawley, “Blue” Barry Faust, Henry Perry, Doug Harris, Paul McQuade, “Catfish” Vessar, and more in a showcase of Knoxville’s harmonica aces. • $10 JACK’D UP • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM J. LUKE • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM MATT NELSON TRIO • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM SEASON’S BEATINGS: THE CREATURES IN SECRET WITH VIA VERA, A MARCH THROUGH MAY, MY CRIMSON WISH, AND REIGN LIKE RAIN • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • Holiday hard rock and metal. All ages. • $10 DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. SPECTRUM • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE WOODY PINES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Ragtime, Boogie, Viper Jazz, Lighting Speed Folk. Full of stomp and swing, and jump and jive. It’s old-time feel-good music done by a young master who clearly understands that this kind of music was always about having a great time. Saturday, Nov. 28 ANNANDALE WITH KILLING ABRAHAM, INWARD OF EDEN, AND FALLING AWAKE • The Bowery • 9PM • 18 and up. •
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
$5-$9 BLUE MOTHER TUPELO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE ENIGMATIC FOE WITH YAK STRANGLER AND STRYPLEPOP • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Knoxville’s The Enigmatic Foe will be playing their entire set with a string quartet. Yak Strangler and StryplePop to open. All ages. THE TEMPER EVANS BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM GRAVEL ROAD WITH KATIE LOTT • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE INDIGHOST • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. STONE JACK JONES WITH IDLE BLOOM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE LONESOME COYOTES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM THE JASON LEE MCKINNEY BAND • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM JAMEL MITCHELL • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM HAROLD NAGGE AND ALAN WYATT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE BAND WITH THE WHAM BAM BOWIE BAND • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE VAL AND YO MAMA • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
Sunday, Nov. 29 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM KEYBOARDS FOR CHRISTMAS • Tennessee Theatre • 6:30PM • Nine accomplished musicians will present music for the whole family and there will also be a time for the audience to sing along. This event is a benefit for “Mission of Hope”. The goal for Christmas is to provide food, hygiene, new clothing and new toys for over 17,000 children and their families. All Keyboards ticket sales will go to Mission of Hope and your support of this event will not only be enjoyable, you will be a part of helping thousands of people have a wonderful Christmas. • $15 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz. STUDEBAKER JOHN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 6PM SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE THE ANDREW TUFANO BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM
OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS
Thursday, Nov. 19 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE
SECRET CITY CYPHERS HIP-HOP OPEN MIC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Secret City Cyphers as MCs, poets, singers, musicians and dancers all come together to perform and preserve real hip-hop. All ages. • $3-$5 Saturday, Nov. 21 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Saturday of each month. • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 24 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM • A weekly open mic. OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 25 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday. All instruments and skill levels welcome. BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE LONGBRANCH ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM Friday, Nov. 27 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 28 MUMBILLY OLD TIME SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • Bring an instrument, but definitely watch out in case there’s some Mumbillies there. • FREE
DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS Friday, Nov. 20
CALENDAR
RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. Saturday, Nov. 21 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative dance night. 18 and up. Friday, Nov. 27 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and
KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES:
TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 Knoxville Symphony Orchestra continues its search for a new conductor and music director to replace Lucas Richman, who left the position at the end of the 2013-14 season. Each of KSO’s pair of Masterworks concerts will feature one of the finalists for the job as guest conductor, leading a program he created. This week, Shizuo “Z” Kuwahara leads the orchestra through Rodion Shchedrin’s Concerto for Orchestra No. 1, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring guest pianist Stewart Goodyear, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. NAME: Shizuo “Z” Kuwahara AGE: 39 CURRENT POSITION: Music director for the Symphony Orchestra Augusta PREVIOUS POSITIONS: League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow with the Philadelphia Orchestra, associate conductor with Virginia Symphony, assistant conductor with Pacific Music Festival, assistant conductor with Saito Kinen Orchestra EDUCATION: Yale University, Eastman School of Music, Aspen National Conducting Institute, Pierre Monteux School BIRTHPLACE: Tokyo, Japan CURRENT RESIDENCE: Detroit, Mich. HONORS: Winner of first prize in the prestigious Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Germany, 2014 Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans “KSO is ready to bump up its profile to the international level. We will be building trust and ownership from the community and actively engaging in more performances with exciting and profound music, inside and outside of the community. While I can help guide the direction of the organization with the vision, it is vital to work together as a team with the administration, musicians, and the board. I will be looking for ways to nurture the talent of the musicians to achieve the next big dream for KSO and the citizens of the Knoxville.” —Alan Sherrod
Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. Saturday, Nov. 28 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. Sunday, Nov. 29 LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Brunch food by Localmotive. Music on the patio. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. All ages. • FREE
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Thursday, Nov. 19 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • November’s concert opens with a satirical folk song, Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, known as “Naughty Limericks”. Guest conductor Shizuo Kuwaharawill conduct the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear. Concluding the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. • See Spotlight on page 27. Friday, Nov. 20 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • November’s concert opens with a satirical folk song, Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, known as “Naughty Limericks”. Guest conductor Shizuo Kuwaharawill conduct the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear. Concluding the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. • See Spotlight on page 27. Saturday, Nov. 21 ADAM LEVIN • Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan • 7PM • Adam Levin has been praised by renowned American guitarist, Eliot Fisk, as a “virtuoso guitarist and a true 21st century renaissance man with the élan, intelligence, charm, tenacity and conviction to change the world.” Visit www.knoxvilleguitar.org. • $20 OAK RIDGE ORCHESTRA: BAROQUE TO MODERN • First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge • 7:30PM • Enjoy an intimate evening with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra for ‘Baroque to Modern’, featuring music by Telemann, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. Sunday, Nov. 22 DENNY MULLINS: PIPES, BELLS, AND SAX • First United Methodist Church • 4PM • An organ recital by Denny Mullins with interludes and accompaniments by FUMC Adult Handbell Choir and saxophonist Jason Law. Candlelight tour and reception following in historic Sanford House on church property. Program will include selections from composers Gabriel Pierné, Gerald Near, Marcel Dupré, J. S. Bach, and others. Free admission. For more information, call Lauren Robinson at 525-0435. • FREE UT CHAMBER SINGERS OUTREACH CONCERT • Farragut Presbyterian Church • 3PM • Handel’s Messiah, Part the First. • FREE KEVIN CLASS • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 4PM • Faculty piano recital, featuring works by Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel. • FREE Monday, Nov. 23 GERHARD SIEGEL • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 8PM • Siegel is a regular at the November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27
CALENDAR Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and all the major opera houses in Europe. He will be performing works of Strauss, Wolf, Schoenberg and Schubert, accompanied by international pianist Gabriel Dobner. There will also be a Master Class with UT Graduate students singing, on Tuesday, the 24th, from 12:40-2pm in Powell Recital Hall. • FREE Sunday, Nov. 29 KSO CHAMBER CLASSICS: CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS • Bijou Theatre • 2:30PM • This festive Chamber concert includes holiday highlights such as Mozart’s arrangement of Sleigh Ride, Greensleeves, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring and many recognizable carols. This concert will feature the Chamber Orchestra and Knoxville Chamber Chorale, conducted by KSO Resident conductor James Fellenbaum.
THEATER AND DANCE
Thursday, Nov. 19 MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL: THE SURVIVOR TOUR • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Four women at a lingerie sale have nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more. This hilarious musical parody set to classic tunes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s will have you cheering and dancing in the aisles. Menopause The Musical: The Survivor Tour Benefiting Susan G. Komen is the first of its kind, donating a portion of every ticket sale directly to the ongoing effort
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
to save lives and end breast cancer forever. • $31-$51 Friday, Nov. 20 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • Enter into the fantasy realm of role-playing games in “She Kills Monsters,” a dramatic comedy by playwright Qui Nguyen. Nov. 13-22. Purchase tickets at www.pstcc.edu/tickets. • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Based on the movie classic, the musical follows 9-year-old Ralphie and his quest for the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts—an Official Red Ryder carbine-action air rifle. Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www. orplayhouse.com. MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 8PM • A sensation in London and on Broadway, The Blue Room depicts a daisy chain of ten sexual encounters between five women and five men all played by one actor and actress portraying the hypocrisy, the folly and the loneliness of this roundelay. Nov. 20-22. Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10 Saturday, Nov. 21 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www.orplayhouse. com. MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 8PM • Nov. 20-22. Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10
Exam JAM xI WUTK Benefit Concert
FRiday, December 4
8 p.m. The Concourse Handsome and the Humbles a Senryu a Hellaphant a Enigmatic Foe a Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 28
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
Sunday, Nov. 22 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 2PM • $12 MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 2PM • Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10 Tuesday, Nov. 24 THE NATIONAL CIRCUS AND ACROBATS OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Founded in 1951, this has been one of the most acclaimed acrobatic troupes in China. “Peking Dreams” is a brand new production. • 7:30PM Wednesday, Nov. 25 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Whether you are continuing your annual family tradition or beginning a new one…join us as we tell the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly businessman who needs the intervention of a few spectral guides to show him the true meaning of Christmas. Featuring beautiful live music, wonderful costumes, and exciting stage effects, Dickens’ tale of hope and redemption reminds us all what’s really worth celebrating. Nov. 25-Dec. 20. • 7:30PM Thursday, Nov. 26 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Nov. 25-Dec. 20. OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www.orplayhouse. com.
Friday, Nov. 27 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Nov. 25-Dec. 20. OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www.orplayhouse. com. THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: A TUNA CHRISTMAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • In this hilarious sequel to Greater Tuna, it’s Christmas in the third smallest town in Texas. Radio station OKKK news personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report on various Yuletide activities, including hot competition in the annual lawn display contest. In other news, voracious Joe Bob Lipsey’s production of “A Christmas Carol” is jeopardized by unpaid electric bills. Nov. 27-Dec. 13. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $15 Saturday, Nov. 28 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Nov. 25-Dec. 20. OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www.orplayhouse. com. THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: A TUNA CHRISTMAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • Nov. 27-Dec. 13. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $15 Sunday, Nov. 29 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www.orplayhouse. com.
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Nov. 25-Dec. 20. THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: A TUNA CHRISTMAS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3PM • Nov. 27-Dec. 13. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $13
COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD
Thursday, Nov. 19 THIRD THURSDAY COMEDY OPEN MIC • Big Fatty’s Catering Kitchen • 7:30PM • We will showcase local and touring talent in a curated open mic of 6 to 8 comics. The event starts at 7:30, and there is no charge for admission. The kitchen will be open as well as their full bar. • FREE Friday, Nov. 20 THE FIFTH WOMAN POETRY SLAM • The Birdhouse • 6:30PM • The 5th Woman Poetry slam is place where all poets can come and share their words of love, respect, passion, and expression. It is not dedicated solely women but is a place where women poets are celebrated and honored. Check out our facebook pages for the challenge of the month and focus for our poetry every month. MAG JACKSON • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM Saturday, Nov. 21 JAMES GREGORY • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • For over two decades, the unforgettable caricature of veteran comedian James
Gregory has stood grinning; his shirt un-tucked, his arms outstretched, a carefree welcome to a downhome, hilarious comedy experience. The James Gregory show turns the clock back to a time when life was simpler; to a better time, before the death of common sense; a time when people sat on the front porch and actually talked to each other without a cell phone in their ear. • $15-$25 THE TRUTV IMPRACTICAL JOKERS’ ‘WHERE’S LARRY?’ TOUR STARRING THE TENDERLOINS • Knoxville Civic Auditorium • 8PM • The Tenderloins are the creators, executive producers, writers and stars of truTV’s hit show, Impractical Jokers. They are currently touring nationwide with “truTV Presents The Impractical Jokers Tour Featuring The Tenderloins”, a mix of stand-up, never-before-seen hidden camera videos, stories and insight into the making of Impractical Jokers. • $50.50-$201 Sunday, Nov. 22 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Monday, Nov. 23 QED COMEDY LABORATORY • Pilot Light • 7:30PM • 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 parts unknown. It’s weird and experimental. There is no comedy experience in town that is anything like this and it’s also a ton of fun. Pay what you want. Free, but donations are accepted. • FREE
CALENDAR
Tuesday, Nov. 24 OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every Tuesday night. Doors open at 8, first comic at 8:30. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Einstein Simplified Comedy performs live comedy improv at Scruffy City Hall. It’s just like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but you get to make the suggestions. Show starts at 8:15, get there early for the best seats. No cover. • FREE Sunday, Nov. 29 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.
FESTIVALS
Thursday, Nov. 19 KNOX HERITAGE PRESERVATION AWARDS CELEBRATION • The Standard • 6PM • The historic Bijou Theatre will be the perfect setting as Knox Heritage honors the best preservation projects and leaders in Knoxville and Knox County. Guests will celebrate the accomplishments of the last year and welcome the nationally acclaimed guest for the evening: Thompson M. Mayes, winner of the 2013 Rome Prize in Historic Preservation awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Vice President and
Senior Counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more information, visit www. knoxheritage.org. • FREE Friday, Nov. 20 ROCK THE RED KETTLE • The Square Room • 6PM • The Rock the Red Kettle Concert is an event that will officially kickoff The Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle campaign and will feature live music by the Rhett Walker Band. The Rhett Walker Band is a Grammy-nominated southern rock group from Nashville with roots in Christian and country music. VIP tickets include admission to a special, pre-concert reception in the Square Room. The reception will feature a meet and greet with the band, heavy hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, a swag bag and early admittance to the concert. The VIP reception begins at 6 p.m. and will last approximately one hour. 100% of ticket sales from Rock the Red Kettle Concert will be used to fund the various Salvation Army programs that address the needs of the Knoxville community and surrounding areas. FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8 Saturday, Nov. 21 DAFFODIL MOB DAY • Helen Ross McNabb Center • 9AM • We’re planting over 60,000 daffodil bulbs at the Baxter, Woodland, and Heiskell exits on Interstate 275 and we need your help. Come volunteer and help make our community more beautiful. Register at 865-521-6957 or
Now’s your chance to tell us what you really think–in person!
MEETUPS Join us for the next Mercury Meetup.
Wednesday, December 9, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. at
Holly’s Corner 842 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37917 (Some refreshments provided) DOWNTOWN’S CRAFT COCKTAIL DESTINATION
Bring a new unwrapped toy for a chance to win a gift certificate for lunch or dinner at one of Holly’s restaurants. 865 – 240 – 4962 ARMADABAR.COM
November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29
CALENDAR by emailing alanna@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. Meet at the parking lot of the Helen Ross McNabb Center off of North Central to check in and hop on a shuttle to one of the three exits. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty. Volunteers are able to work during the times they are available the day of the event. Food will be provided to all volunteers. Please register at http://goo.gl/ forms/UCFBa0gVWO. • FREE FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8 THE JOE HILL ROADSHOW • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 5PM • Part of a series of national events honoring the legacy of the labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill on the centennial year anniversary of his execution. Food and fellowship beginning at 5pm. Show starts at 7pm. Performers include Jack Herranen & The Little Red Band, Black Atticus, Matt Kinman & Friends, and The Shelby Bottom Duo. All ages. Free event (suggested $5 donation appreciated). • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 DAFFODIL MOB DAY • Helen Ross McNabb Center • 12PM • We’re planting over 60,000 daffodil bulbs at the Baxter, Woodland, and Heiskell exits on Interstate 275 and we need your help. Come volunteer and help make our community more beautiful. Register at 865-521-6957 or by emailing alanna@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. • FREE FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW •
Business
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
Chilhowee Park • 11AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8 Wednesday, Nov. 25 THE FANTASY OF TREES • Knoxville Convention Center • 9AM • The Fantasy of Trees is an annual fundraising event that takes place at the Knoxville Convention Center. The proceeds from Fantasy of Trees benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville’s only not-for-profit Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. In 30 years, the Fantasy of Trees has raised more than $7 million to provide much-needed medical equipment for children served by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Since the first Fantasy of Trees in 1985 that welcomed 13,125 visitors, the Fantasy of Trees has hosted well over one million people. The Fantasy of Trees is designed, created and staffed by thousands of volunteers who give more than 180,000 hours annually to make the Fantasy of Trees the premier holiday event in East Tennessee. • $8 Thursday, Nov. 26 THE FANTASY OF TREES • Knoxville Convention Center • 3PM • The Fantasy of Trees is an annual fundraising event that takes place at the Knoxville Convention Center. The proceeds from Fantasy of Trees benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville’s only not-for-profit Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. In 30 years, the Fantasy of Trees has raised more than $7 million to provide much-needed medical equipment for children served by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Since the
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
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first Fantasy of Trees in 1985 that welcomed 13,125 visitors, the Fantasy of Trees has hosted well over one million people. The Fantasy of Trees is designed, created and staffed by thousands of volunteers who give more than 180,000 hours annually to make the Fantasy of Trees the premier holiday event in East Tennessee. • $8 Friday, Nov. 27 THE FANTASY OF TREES • Knoxville Convention Center • 9AM • The Fantasy of Trees is an annual fundraising event that takes place at the Knoxville Convention Center. The proceeds from Fantasy of Trees benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville’s only not-for-profit Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. In 30 years, the Fantasy of Trees has raised more than $7 million to provide much-needed medical equipment for children served by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Since the first Fantasy of Trees in 1985 that welcomed 13,125 visitors, the Fantasy of Trees has hosted well over one million people. The Fantasy of Trees is designed, created and staffed by thousands of volunteers who give more than 180,000 hours annually to make the Fantasy of Trees the premier holiday event in East Tennessee. • $8 REGAL CELEBRATION OF LIGHTS • Krutch Park • 6PM • Join us for the lighting of our new 38’ tree in Krutch Park Ext. Enjoy live music, carolers, train rides, pictures with Santa, face painting, marshmallow roasting and more. WDVX Holiday Ho Ho Ho Down will be on Bill Lyons Pavilion from 6:30pm – 9:00pm. Market Street will have local businesses doing crafts with children, stop by Home Depot’s Little Elves Workshop, and make a card to be sent
to our soldiers with American Red Cross ‘Cards for Heroes’. And don’t forget to stop by and see the miniature train set! The lighting of the tree ceremony begins at 6pm, other activities will begin after. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 28 THE FANTASY OF TREES • Knoxville Convention Center • 9AM • The Fantasy of Trees is an annual fundraising event that takes place at the Knoxville Convention Center. The proceeds from Fantasy of Trees benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville’s only not-for-profit Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. In 30 years, the Fantasy of Trees has raised more than $7 million to provide much-needed medical equipment for children served by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Since the first Fantasy of Trees in 1985 that welcomed 13,125 visitors, the Fantasy of Trees has hosted well over one million people. The Fantasy of Trees is designed, created and staffed by thousands of volunteers who give more than 180,000 hours annually to make the Fantasy of Trees the premier holiday event in East Tennessee. • $8 Sunday, Nov. 29 DANCING SPIDER YOGA HOEDOWN AND HOOTENANNY FAMILY FUNDRAISER AND YOGA CLASS • Ijams Nature Center • 3:30PM • Dancing Spider Yoga will be at Ijams for a family-friendly yoga class with live music, featuring Cornelia Overton on fiddle and James Bassinger III on percussion. Join us for a fun time and bid in our silent auction with items from Nicole Fey Wellness, Organ Tech, Fountain City Animal Hospital, and more.. Help us to get us on our way in raising funds to create a Yoga for the
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
Family CD. Admission is free, and at the door, we’ll ask each family to donate whatever they can to our Dancing Spider Yoga for Family Album. • FREE THE FANTASY OF TREES • Knoxville Convention Center • 12PM • The Fantasy of Trees is an annual fundraising event that takes place at the Knoxville Convention Center. The proceeds from Fantasy of Trees benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville’s only not-for-profit Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center. In 30 years, the Fantasy of Trees has raised more than $7 million to provide much-needed medical equipment for children served by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Since the first Fantasy of Trees in 1985 that welcomed 13,125 visitors, the Fantasy of Trees has hosted well over one million people. The Fantasy of Trees is designed, created and staffed by thousands of volunteers who give more than 180,000 hours annually to make the Fantasy of Trees the premier holiday event in East Tennessee. • $8
FILM SCREENINGS
Thursday, Nov. 19 INDEPENDENT LENS: “AUTISM IN LOVE” • University of Tennessee Alumni Memorial Building • 7:30PM • In Autism in Love, director Matt Fuller examines the everyday realities of autistic adulthood, showing how the members of this often-misunderstood community cope with the challenge of keeping romance alive over the years. Lenny searches for the perfect woman, Lindsey and David consider the next step in their relationship, and Stephen faces the end of his
marriage as best as he can. Capturing both the joys and heartbreak of love, the film emphasizes struggles that are only too familiar.” Screening is free and open to the public, followed by a town-hall discussion. • FREE Monday, Nov. 23 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 24 TWIN PEAKS VIEWING PARTY • The Birdhouse • 7PM • Bi-weekly viewing parties for every single episode of the cult TV series. Attendees encouraged to dress as their favorite characters. Trivia, Twin Peaks-themed giveaways, donuts and coffee, plus some surprises. Trivia begins at 7:00pm with viewing to follow at 8:00pm. • FREE
SPORTS AND RECREATION
Thursday, Nov. 19 WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 21 BIGFOOT BLAST 5K TRAIL RACE • Windrock Park • Try to make it through the trails at Windrock Park without encountering Bigfoot and then have your photo made with him at the end of the race. Proceeds from this 5K
IT’S HARD FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET AHEAD.
CALENDAR
will benefit the Boy and Girls Club of North Anderson County. For more information, call 865-435-3492 or visit www.windrockpark.com. SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: CADES COVE BY MOONLIGHT • 5:15PM • With an almost full moon, we will start our hike at the Cades Cove entrance parking area at 5:15 PM (sunset is 5:25 PM). We will look for shooting stars and wildlife on this popular hike. Shoes compatible with walking on pavement plus a headlamp or flashlight are recommended. Hike: 8 miles (via Hyatt Lane), rated moderate. If there is enough interest, a second group could be organized to hike the complete 11-mile loop. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 4:15 PM or at Cades Cove entrance at 5:15 PM. (If the weather is questionable, contact the hike leader for confirmation that the hike will occur; we will not hike if it’s raining.) Leaders: Cindy Spangler, spangler@utk.edu and Rebekah Young, rebekahy27@aol.com . • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TUNE-UP SERIES 5K • World’s Fair Park • 2PM • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 24 WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE Friday, Nov. 27 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB 10TH ANNIVERSARY JIM/ BOB HIKE • 8AM • The tenth and final Jim/Bob hike will begin at the Greenbrier Ranger Station. There will be
several small creek crossings. Hike: 7 miles, rated moderate. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 8:00 AM or the Greenbrier Ranger Station 9:15 AM. Leaders: Jim Quick, jqhiker37@aol.com and Bobby Trotter, whiteblazing@yahoo.com. • FREE
ART
Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. NOV. 3-29: Artwork by Nelson Ziegler and jewelers of the Art Market Gallery. Bennett Galleries 5308 Kingston Pike THROUGH NOVEMBER: Artwork by Scott Duce, Charles Kieger, Ann Mallory, Robine Surber, and John Taylor. Bliss Home 24 Market Square NOV. 6-30: Local Nostalgia, mixed-media artwork by Christi Shields. Clayton Center for the Arts 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway (Maryville) NOV. 2-20: Real Drawings of Imaginary People, mixed-media portraits and paintings by Steve Foster. The District Gallery 5113 Kingston Pike NOV. 6-28: Paintings by Brad Robertson.
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See full schedule at www.churchstreetumc.org Call 521-0266 for more information. November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31
CALENDAR
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass.
Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. NOV. 6-28: Mixed-media art by John Messinger. Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. NOV. 6-25: Ribnica Handicraft Centre: Traditional Woodenware From Slovenia; artwork by Luna Lewis; Recessive, photographs by Abby Malone; and Natural Woman, mixed-media artwork by Jackie Holloway. Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. NOV. 20-DEC. 19: Art for the Holidays, featuring work by Derrick Freeman, Inna Nasonova, and Kay List. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 20, from 5-8 p.m. Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd. NOV. 11-DEC. 13: Distilled: The Narrative Transformed, a 30-year survey of the art of Pinkney Herbert. Fountain City Art Center 213 Hotel Road OCT. 30-NOV. 30: Fountain City Art Guild Annual Holiday Show and Sale. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 30, from 6:30-8 p.m. Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive NOV. 27-JAN. 10: East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the
Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike NOV. 2-21: Legendary Ladies of Art, a gallery exhibit and sale of new paintings by Jeanne Leemon, Cynthia Markert, and Ursula Brenner. Marc Nelson Denim 700 Depot Ave. THROUGH NOVEMBER: Photographs by Lindsey Teague. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive SEPT. 11-JAN. 3: Embodying Enlightenment: Buddhist Art of the Himalayas. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier. Pioneer House 413 S. Gay St. THROUGH DECEMBER: Knox County Warriors, portraits of UT football legends by Will Johnson. Zach Searcy Projects 317 N. Gay St. THROUGH NOVEMBER : Merciful Heavens, new paintings by Zach Searcy. Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
2931 Kingston Pike SEPT. 11-DEC. 3: An exhibit of artwork by TVUUC members. University of Tennessee John C. Hodges Library 1015 Volunteer Blvd. THROUGH DEC. 11: Marginalia in Rare Books, a display of centuries-old books with notes, ownership marks, and inscriptions.
LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS
Thursday, Nov. 19 PENNY DEUPRESS: “CELEBRATING FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT” • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Penny Deupree, the great-granddaughter of the author, will be at the East Tennessee History Center for a Brown Bag lecture based on family memories, photos, mementos, and life of the famous author. Jack Neely will open the program with remarks on the life of Frances Hodgson Burnett in Knoxville and her writing career. • FREE Friday, Nov. 20 UT SCIENCE FORUM • Thompson-Boling Arena • 12PM • The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation. Free and open to the public, each Science
Forum consists of a 40-minute presentation followed by a Q-and-A session. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunch or purchase it at the cafe in Thompson-Boling Arena. For more information about the UT Science Forum, visit http://scienceforum.utk.edu. • FREE
FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS
Thursday, Nov. 19 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • Middle and high school students (or any age) are invited to play chess. Tom Jobe coaches most Saturdays in the Teen Central area of the library. On one Saturday of every month, there will be a rated tournament at the Blount County Public Library. • FREE Friday, Nov. 20 SMART TOYS AND BOOKS ART CLASS • Smart Toys and Books • 10AM • Mommy, Daddy & Me Art Classes are every Friday at 10:00am & 11:00am. Reservations and payment are required in advance. Class fees are non-refundable. Ages 2+. • $10 Saturday, Nov. 21 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • Middle and high school students (or any age) are
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
invited to play chess. Tom Jobe coaches most Saturdays in the Teen Central area of the library. On one Saturday of every month, there will be a rated tournament at the Blount County Public Library. • FREE SATURDAY STORIES AND SONGS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • A weekly music and storytelling session for kids. • FREE MCCLUNG MUSEUM FAMILY FUN DAY: ART AND BUDDHISM • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Join us for free a free Family Fun Day featuring activities, crafts, tours, and more. We’ll explore our special exhibit, Embodying Enlightenment: Buddhist Art of the Himalayas. All materials will be provided. The program is free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary. • FREE Monday, Nov. 23 MUSICAL MORNINGS • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge • 10AM • This activity is designed for toddlers and their caregivers. Children can explore tone, melody, and rhythm in an age-appropriate environment. Singing and dancing are encouraged. Musical Mornings also are free with paid admission or museum membership. http:// childrensmuseumofoakridge.org/musical-mornings/ SMART TOYS AND BOOKS STORYTIME • Smart Toys and Books • 11AM • Storytime with Miss Helen is every Monday at 11:00am. No charge. No reservations required. • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 24 TODDLERS’ PLAYTIME • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge • 10AM • Toddlers’ Playtime is designed for children aged 4 and younger, accompanied by their parents, grandparents, or caregivers. Little ones have an opportunity to
play with blocks, toy trains, and puppets; they can “cook” in the pretend kitchen, dig for dinosaurs, and look at books. The adults can socialize while the children play. Free with paid admission or museum membership. http:// childrensmuseumofoakridge.org/toddlers-playtime/ PRE-K READ AND PLAY • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • Pre-K Read and Play is a pilot program specifically designed to prepare children to enter kindergarten. While the format of the program will still feel like a traditional storytime with books, music, and other educational activities, each weekly session will focus on a different standard from the Tennessee Department of Education’s Early Childhood/Early Learning Developmental Standards. • FREE EVENING STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 6:30PM • An evening storytime at Lawson McGhee Children’s Room to include stories, music, and crafts. For toddlers and up. • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 25 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 10:20AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE PRESCHOOL STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For ages 3 to 5, must be accompanied by an adult. • FREE
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS Thursday, Nov. 19
CALENDAR
KNOX COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE LANDLORD SUMMIT • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 8AM • Learn about resources for landlords in Knoxville including weatherization, lead testing, veteran services, legal issues, and more. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822. CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: KNIT YOUR WAY TO WELLNESS • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Whether you are a novice knitter or an old pro, you are invited to bring your own project or join others in learning a new one. Supplies provided. 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 PLANET MOTION WORLD DANCE FITNESS • Champion Ballroom Center • 10AM • All levels fun dance workout incorporating dance and music styles from around the world. Friday, Nov. 20 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: “FRANKLY SPEAKING ABOUT LUNG CANCER” • University of Tennessee Medical Center • 12PM • Learn about the latest treatments for lung cancer. Side effects, side-effect management and tools to overcome the social and emotional challenges of the diagnosis will be discussed. Bring your questions and
learn ways to manage your disease more successfully. Lunch will be provided. RSVP. This is an offsite program located in the Health Information Center Conference Room at the University of Tennessee Medical Center’s Heart Hospital main entrance. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. Saturday, Nov. 21 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: MINDFULNESS IN EVERYDAY LIFE • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • Call (865) 546-4611. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE BOUNTIFIUL BULBS FALL WORKSHOP • Stanley’s Greenhouse • 10:30AM • Lisa Stanley will teach you all about planting your fall and winter bulbs for complimentary color as your Pansies and early blooming Trees, Shrubs, and Perennials are waking up this Spring. Lisa will go over planting and design tips and then move onto forcing Paperwhite Narcissus and Amaryllis just in time for the holidays! Bring in your own containers, bowls, and vases, and she will also give out information on the transition from the holidays to forcing Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinth, and Muscari for a late winter display in your home, office. Monday, Nov. 23 KMA WINTER ADULT WORKSHOPS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 10AM • All classes are held at the KMA with easy access and plenty of • FREE parking. Registration is on a
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November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33
CALENDAR Tuesday, Nov. 24 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. YOGA WITH SUBAGHJI • The Birdhouse • 5:15PM Wednesday, Nov. 25 FLOW AND GO YOGA • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 12:15PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $10 BELLY DANCING CLASS • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 7PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $15 Saturday, Nov. 28 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE
MEETINGS
Thursday, Nov. 19 OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury •
5:30PM • This is an OA Literature Meeting. After a short reading from a book, members may share their experience, strength and hope. Listening will help you find others who have what you want, whether it be weight loss, clarity, joy in achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight, or freedom from the obsession of self-destructive eating behaviors. • FREE ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation. Everyone welcome. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • CSC is committed to providing bereavement services to those who have lost a loved one to cancer. Please contact our clinical staff before attending. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. THE SOUTHERN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly discussion group about Southern books and writers. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 21 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth
Kabobs Shawarma Hummus Falafels ––––––– N EW! ––––––– MEDITERRA LUNCH BUFNFEEATN
11A-2P MON-SAT
Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE SUNDAY ASSEMBLY • The Concourse • 10:30AM • Sunday Assembly is a secular congregation without deity, dogma, or doctrine. Our motto: Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More. To find out more, visit our web page (http:// knoxville-tn.sundayassembly.com), like our public Facebook page or join our Meetup group or email saknoxville.info@gmail.com. • FREE Monday, Nov. 23 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org. APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN BIKE CLUB • Central Flats and Taps • 7PM • Interested in getting involved with the mountain biking community here in Knoxville? The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, meet the fourth Monday of each month. • FREE ASPERGER’S SUPPORT GROUP • Remedy Coffee • 6PM • Are you an adult with asperger’s and looking for others who have the same strengths and challenges in life? Come join us for a casual meetup every other Monday. Contact Saskia at (865) 247-0065 ext. 23. • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 25
Shoney’s of Knoxville is a locally owned and operated franchise.
first-come, first-served basis. Classes and workshops are taught by professional artists, living and working in the East Tennessee area. For a full description of classes and registration information, visit www.knoxart.org. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.
Thursday, Nov. 19 - Sunday, Nov. 29
COMITE POPULAR DE KNOXVILLE • The Birdhouse • 7PM • A weekly meeting of the local immigrant advocacy organization.
ETC.
Thursday, Nov. 19 NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • The New Harvest Park Farmers Market will be open every Thursday through November from 3 to 6 p.m. The market features locally-grown produce, meats, artisan food products, plants, herbs, flowers, crafts and much more. • FREE KNOXVILLE STARTUP DAY • Bijou Theatre • 2PM • Knoxville’s third annual Startup Day, an event to celebrate Knoxville’s entrepreneurial spirit, will be held Thursday, November 19 at the U.S. Cellular Stage at The Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville. Startup Day includes fireside chats with Knoxville’s most outstanding entrepreneurs and investors and new this year, a pitch competition between seven startups, competing for a $5,000 cash prize. The first Traction Award will be presented to a Startup Day alum that’s made the most progress over the past three years. More than 400 attendees participate in the event including: business leaders, entrepreneurs and startups, investors, young professionals and community leaders. Friday, Nov. 20 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE
THANKSGIVING DAY BUFFET Tender, slow roasted breast of turkey and dressing, baked ham with cinnamon apple topping, shrimp, country fried steak, fried chicken, hand-breaded catfish, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, pinto beans, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, cranberry sauce, rolls, and our Soup, Salad, & Fruit Bar.
Free slice of pumpkin pie with each adult buffet purchased SERVED THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV. 26 STARTING AT 11 A.M.
DINE-IN | TAKE OUT | DELIVERY
9115-C Executive Park Drive | Knoxville
865-691-9100
www.mamamiacuisine.com 34
KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 19, 2015
shoneysknox
BREAKFAST BAR SERVED UNTIL 11 A.M.
CALENDAR Saturday, Nov. 21 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville and is celebrating its 12th season this year. • FREE THE RETROPOLITAN CRAFT FAIR • Historic Southern Railway Station • 9AM • An indie craft marketplace featuring food trucks, makers, artisans, and vintage dealers from around the south east. Free admission. • FREE
offer the freshest produce possible, including just-picked strawberries, peaches, sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes. • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 25 KNOXVILLE SWING DANCE ASSOCIATION • Laurel Theater • 7PM • Call 224-6830. Dedicated to the purpose of promoting swing dance. Lessons at 7 p.m., open dance at 8 p.m.
Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com
Sunday, Nov. 22 LARK IN THE MORN ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Call 546-8442. 17th-18th Century Social Dancing with live music. Beginners welcome, no partner is required. Also Rapper Sword dance group meets most Sundays at 7:00. Free.
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Monday, Nov. 23 KNOXVILLE CONTRA DANCERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Call 599-9621. Contra dancing to live acoustic music. No experience or partner required. • $7 Tuesday, Nov. 24 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FARM vendors will offer a wide variety of spring bedding plants, fresh produce, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, artisan bread and cheese, local honey and fresh eggs. As the season goes on, they
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Note: This production as staggered start times. Please check the time for your performance so you don’t miss any of the show!
20 ■ 2:30pm ■ 7:00pm ■ 8:00pm ■ 10:00pm Talkback after matinee
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CAL L TOD AY T O R E S E R VE YOU R S P A C E (86 5) 5 2 1- 18 7 9 | B A R R E B E L LE YOG A . C OM
David Brian Alley as “Crumpet the Elf” • Photo by Elizabeth Aaron November 19, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35
DRINK
Sips & Shot s
Holiday Wine Cheer Tips, picks, and pairings from the Thunder Road Trail BY ROSE KENNEDY
I
t’s kind of an “over the river and through the woods” concept. The Thunder Road Wine Trail, founded by Rick Riddle and launched in September, represents six wineries in East Tennessee, promoting agritourism from Blue Slip Winery in the Old City all the way to Watauga Lake Winery on the border of North Carolina. Not only are these small-vineyard enterprises, but the wines also start with Tennessee native grapes that include Chancellor, Chambourcine, and Seyval, to name a few. The drives and accompanying tastings make fine fun for the holidays—but more than that, what better time to show solidarity with regional, family-owned wine producers than when loved ones are gathered near? (Not that I am insisting that only holiday traditions be observed with these local wine purchases. I do believe a few sips will taste just as good paired with a loner’s turkey sub or consumed as part of a living room picnic celebrating the avoidance of traditions like, say, Black Friday. The taste buds are not concerned with your holiday participation.) And, though it may be a bit like asking the cat to describe the canary,
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I gave folks from four of the six wineries a shot at suggesting which of their wines would go best at which holiday juncture. Here’s what we have:
WATAUGA LAKE WINERY
6952 Big Dry Run Rd., Butler, Tenn. Linda Gay, vineyard consultant and co-owner
For turkey dinners: • Watauga River White. “This is a French hybrid wine, very crisp and fruity.” • Fox Hollow Red: “A double gold medal winner at the 2015 Asheville Food and Wine Festival, this is a light, semi-sweet red.” For apres dessert: • Laurel Creek Surprise. “This is a way-after-dinner sweet wine flavored with raspberry and chocolate, something you would drink from a cordials glass.” • Duncan Hollow port. “This is 18 percent alcohol, very traditional, and a gold winner at both Wines of the South and the Asheville festival.”
EAGLE SPRINGS WINERY
119 W. Dumplin Valley Rd., Kodak, Tenn. Chasity Grogan, general manager
For all holiday gatherings: • Wohali Legend dry red wine
combined with Crown mulling spices. “The wine just earned a bronze at the Wines of the South competition. To mull it, mix one bottle with six cups apple juice and the spices in a Crock-Pot. The dry red wine balances out the sugar in the apple juice. It makes three quarts, and it tastes like Christmas in a glass. It goes great with any holiday meal and if you make it in a removable insert, it will last up to two weeks, in and out of the fridge.” With chocolate cookies or desserts: • Wildfire strawberry kiwi dessert wine. “It is one of our ‘sticky’ wines made with a touch of Tennessee honey, and the combination will taste like chocolate-dipped strawberries.”
THE WINERY AT SEVEN SPRINGS FARM
1474 Highway 61 East, Maynardville, Tenn. Nikki Riddle, degreed enologist and winemaker/owner
For any wintry holiday gathering: • Blueberry mulled wine made with Royal Blue wine. “Mix a bottle with a quart of grape juice and heat it on low in a Crock-Pot.” For vegetarian fare: Seven Springs Farm Riesling or Vineyard White. “You want to choose a lighter, more citrusy white for salads or vegetarian entrees, so the tastes come through. The Riesling, for example, is semi-dry and very ‘fruit forward,’ with pleasing aromas of green apple, honeysuckle flowers and tropical fruit.”
BLUE SLIP WINERY
300 West Depot Ave., Knoxville Linn Slocum, owner
With pork tenderloin or pork roast: • Blue Slip apple wine: “We use apple juice from local growers. It is sweeter than a typical dinner wine, so you can expect people to drink a little less. For a turkey dinner: • Chardonel: “It is made from a hybrid grape—a sister grape to Chardonnay that is not so buttery— that comes from McMinnville, and the wine is crisp and dry. It goes well with turkey and all the fixings, and can segue from the appetizer course through the rest of the meal.” With pumpkin pie: • Dogwood White: “This is not a dry white; it’s made with a Niagara
grape and is quite fruity and floral. We start with good, fresh fruit and it enhances the pumpkin spices, like ginger and cinnamon, whether they are in pie or sweet potato casserole or some other dish.” Tip: “I like to serve the Chardonel with a slice of Gala apple seasoned with just a little black pepper and wrapped in capicola. It is divine.” Slocum and niece Addie Atchley, who works at the tasting room, will both attend a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for a battalion of family members. “It’s usually 60 people, but this year it’s 80,” says Atchley. “My dad makes seven deep-fried turkeys, just to start with.” Slocum will be heavily involved in the hubbub, and says it is the high point of her year. She makes a sweeping gesture to include the high-ceiling rooms and counters that include timbers salvaged from the basement when Blue Slip moved to this Depot Avenue site a year ago. “We just like to entertain—that’s where all this comes from,” she says. “That’s just in our blood.” ◆
ABOUT THE WINE TRAIL
The Thunder Road Wine Trail runs along the historic road traveled by moonshiners through prohibition in East Tennessee. It includes six wineries: • Blue Slip Winery, Knoxville’s first urban winery • Watauga Lake Winery on Copperhead Road in the historic Big Dry Run School of Butler, Tenn. • The Winery at Seven Springs Farm, a 370 acre farm-to-table complex on the original site of the historic Andrew Jacker (AJ) Woods Distillery in Maynardville. • Spout Spring Estates Winery and Vineyard on a ridgetop estate with sweeping views of Mount LeConte in the Smokies in Grainger County • Eagle Springs Winery, which makes wine with honey in Kodak, Tenn. • Goodwater Vineyards, at 30 acres the largest of the six, in production only since July 2014 in Mosheim, Tenn. In October, four member wineries took home a total of 30 awards in the 2015 Wines of the South Regional Wine Competition, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s Food Science Technology Department. More info: thunderroadwinetrail.com.
and
Present
RESTAURANT • BAR
Thanksgiving Day • 11am until 4pm EVERYONE
430 South Gay Street
(865) 219-1676
IS WELCOME RESTAURANT • BAR
While there is absolutely no charge, donations are welcomed from those wishing to make one. All proceeds will be given to the Love Kitchen.
November 19, 2015
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’BYE
Sacred & P rofane
Chance Encounter Memories of Anastasia, real or imagined BY DONNA JOHNSON
A
s I boarded the bus going west, a woman of about my own age, early 60s, smiled up at me from where she sat, curled up in the seat like a teenager, and gave me the peace sign. Surprised, I returned the gesture, and the woman winked as if we were old friends. She offered me her hand to shake and said in a gravelly voice, “I’m Lois.” I shook her hand and sat down in the seat across from her. She began talking immediately, as though we had just taken a bathroom break and were resuming our conversation. “You’re an old hippie, too, so you understand how wonderful it was being young in those days,” she said. “How free we were. How many changes were taking place, and the fact that we were the ones making those changes. You know, the whole Woodstock thing, going braless, wearing our hair unfettered to our waist, free love.” Lois had a slow Southern drawl and the lilt of her voice, along with the expectant way she looked at me, made me feel as though I had been hypnotized. Something like how a wounded animal in a trap must feel—he knows with a certainty that the bearer of his doom will soon arrive, yet his knowledge can lend nothing to his escape. But I did remember the late ’60s—my hair in long pigtails, waiting expectantly on a twin bed in my parents’ house for the lottery of names to come on the television set, wondering whether a family member or acquaintance was going to be called against their will to fight in a war they did not believe in. “It was a grand time,” said this small woman in her nondescript plaid blouse, jeans, and rain-hat—but I saw the nobility and grace beneath her unassuming appearance. She stared out the window at the brilliant colors of fall and began to speak again. “She always wore a flower in her hair,” she said softly, smiling to herself in tender
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remembrance. “Who did?” I asked. “Well, of course, Anastasia,” Lois said, as if this information should have been obvious. “Of course,” I said, falling into a kind of deception of my own by pretending to know what and who this woman was talking about. “She wore overalls with floral blouses and combat boots and she was utterly feminine and was totally, totally self-contained,” Lois said. “She knew what she wanted, went where she wanted to go, and always did what she said she was going to do. Every place she went, she sent me a picture of herself, which I would put on my refrigerator, so I always knew where she was. I could almost pretend that I was traveling with her.” She looked at me dreamily from behind her thick glasses and continued. “Colorado, Atlanta, New York, Seattle, and finally, India, where I lost track of her. But by then my refrigerator was covered over with photographs of Anastasia, so it’s a good thing she stopped sending pictures. The greatest thing about Anastasia, you see, was she didn’t wait for something outside herself to tell her who she was. She knew who she was, and she made her dreams happen.” “And you?” I asked. “Did you make your dreams happen?” Lois snorted as though this were an absurd question. “Of course not! I married an ordinary man of the verbal abuser type and had boy/girl, boy/girl,” she sang in chant-like succession. Soon after that she sat up straight in her seat and said. “I’m going to a bar and have a few drinks. Would you like to join me?” “Indeed I would,” I said quite truthfully, for I was charmed by this woman’s lack of rancor and bitterness towards her friend, who seemed to
have fared better in life than she had. Lois had managed to internalize some of her friend’s happiness from afar and to accept her own fate with dignity and grace. “I have to go to the art store first but I’ll come back and join you,” I said. “It’s a bar called The Library,” she said. “Over there.” She pointed vaguely and got off the bus. After the hour or so it took me to get supplies and ride the bus back to Cumberland, I got off and looked around. Though I asked many people, no one had heard of “The Library.” One young co-ed googled it for me and said that The Library was not on Cumberland but on Gay Street. I was waiting for the bus on 17th and Cumberland when I saw Lois coming towards me, weaving and stumbling, her shirt unbuttoned and hanging out of her jeans. She was still
BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY
carrying a drink, which she would stop and take a sip from every few steps as she sang the last verse of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” at the top of her lungs. “Lois,” I called out. “I’m over here at the bus stop.” “Anastasia,” she called back. “I’m not Anastasia,” I replied, and she looked up at me in surprise. She put her hands on her hips and peered into my eyes. “Well, if you are not Anastasia, then who the hell are you?” she asked indignantly. “I’m Donna,” I said, becoming confused myself. Everything and everyone seemed to have disappeared from the street save Lois and myself, as though we had entered an alternate reality that held only she and I and our fragile memories of times briefly recalled before being lost to us. ◆
Spir it of the Staircase
BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY
’BYE
www.thespiritofthestaircase.com
November 19, 2015
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