Vol. 2, Issue 20 - May 19, 2016 by Knoxville Mercury

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B uild ng aC mmunity Living off the grid—and seeking enlightenment— at Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center BY ELEANOR SCOTT

NEWS

A High School Sophomore Brings Art to Knoxville’s Homeless

JACK NEELY

A Saturday Afternoon Tour of Downtown Burlington

MUSIC

KSO Prepares for a New Future as Current Season Ends

OUTDOORS

Backpack Cuisine: Creative Ideas for Cooking Out on the Trail

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CONTENTS

“ This world of ours must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

16 Building a Community

COVER STORY

Y ou might not expect to find an off-the-grid, planned community of nature lovers in Grainger County. But the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center is a 120-acre spiritual retreat that controls conservation easements on nearly 500 acres near the small town of Washburn, Tenn. Started in the 1970s with a 40-acre parcel of former farmland, it may be an anomaly in some ways. Yet, Narrow Ridge is one of several alternative communities that carved out a space in the inexpensive, secluded land of rural Tennessee. And while interest in Narrow Ridge has ebbed and flowed over the years, with financial woes nearly tanking the retreat in the early 2000s, a recent wave of devotees has breathed new life into the community. Eleanor Scott makes a visit.

NEWS

Also look inside for our publication on local creative home design.

14 Street Art Although Kinley Koontz has started a “Garden Project,” she’s not growing plants. She’s bringing art supplies to the poor and homeless, because the 15-year-old wants them to experience the personal growth that happens through self-expression. S. Heather Duncan reports.

Press Forward 2016 Our annual fundraising campaign is on! Donate to the paper: gofundme.com/pressforward2016. Buy an ad: sales@knoxmercury.com. Tax-deductible donations to KHP: knoxmercury.com/KHP.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 Letters to the Editor 6 Howdy

10 Scruffy Citizen

44 Program Notes: Handsome and

Start Here: Believe it or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory PLUS: “Photo Recollection: Knoxville Streets,” a photo series by Holly Rainey.

62 ’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

Jack Neely takes a stroll through downtown Burlington.

12 Small Planet

Patrice Cole backtracks the path of your drinking water, from faucet to river.

CALENDAR the Humbles’ new album and an online guide to contemporary art in Tennessee.

45 Inside the Vault: Eric Dawson

looks back at Knoxville Stomp— and the pioneering work of Bradley Reeves.

46 Classical Music: Alan Sherrod

48 Spotlight: Sturgill Simpson OUTDOORS

60 Voice in the Wilderness

Kim Trevathan gets some cooking tips while judging the culinary competitors at the One Pot Cookoff.

closes the book on the KSO’s season.

47 Music: Mike Gibson chases down those Damned Angels.

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

MORE CUBA FALLOUT

Jack Neely is a national treasure. Jack’s passion for the history of his home town, his remarkable knowledge of Knoxville, and his graceful writing style are exemplary and have attracted readers for decades, whether his work appeared in Metro Pulse, the Knoxville Mercury, or his many books and essays. Few cities in America today have the benefit of such an endlessly interesting guide to their local history. Recently, Jack described James Agee’s visit to Havana and Sloppy Joe’s bar in 1937. Agee found the place dismal and wrote that “the tourists themselves seemed to be a little embarrassed.” As it happened, I recently received a photograph of my grandparents in Havana in Sloppy Joe’s bar in 1929. And indeed, they too “seemed to be a little embarrassed.” A deft piece by Jack Neely, I would have thought—mostly devoted to Agee, a one-time member of the Episcopal Church in Knoxville, a home-town boy who made good in the larger literary world before his untimely death as a young man. Yet one of your many other readers chose to denounce the story—and Jack Neely—in unexpectedly personal terms. [“Jack Neely: Stay Out of Cuba, Mercury,” Letters, May 5, 2016] Professor Jon Shefner, head of the sociology department at the University of Tennessee, in a recent letter to the editor, said he was “trying hard to like the Knoxville Mercury,” pronounced the Mercury “ponderously and overly self-impressed,” and attributed these flaws to “over-reliance on Jack Neely.” Singling out a single paragraph in a 22-paragraph essay, professor Shefner criticized Jack Neely for “his own stereotypical criticism of Cuba as a dictatorship,” derided as “silly” his comparison of the relative stability of Knoxville to the instability of Cuba, and concluded with an odd and unnecessarily ad hominem attack “Jack Neely would probably write better if he wrote less.” Professor Shefner is fully entitled 4

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

to his own views of American foreign policy in Central America and no doubt many of your readers might agree with those views. Perhaps Dr. Shefner is the right person to “cover Cuba,” to use his own phrase, and perhaps the Mercury might wish to invite him to make that contribution. But in the meantime let us also remember that the Mercury is a free, local, independent newspaper, trying to make its way in a tough economic market by focusing on local architecture, local political events, local musical offerings, and, yes, local history at a time when conventional newspapers can no longer afford to do so. The Mercury—and Jack Neely—are important parts of our community and worthy of our support. I for one would welcome more, not less, of Jack Neely’s essays and I suspect there are many others in Knoxville who feel the same way. Charles Fels Knoxville

DEPOT DECEPTION?

I’ll keep this short but brevity makes it no less important. I am very disturbed that Home Depot stores are selling garden plants treated with neonicotinoids. This pesticide may be “Gov’t EPA Approved,” but it has been proven to be toxic to honey bees and other beneficial pollinators and garden friends. And our poor bees and other pollinators are doing it tough right now. So my grumble: Today, I purchased a bunch of pollinator-attracting plants from the South Knox Home Depot, but when I got home I found that every plant had been treated with neonicotinoids—I returned them and voiced my concern. According to its corporate policy on neonicotinoids (which is clearly stated online), Home Depot has promised an 80 percent neonicotinoids reduction by now—yet 100 percent of the plants I purchased were treated. I don’t feel that Home Depot is doing what they promised.

Additionally, there was no clear signage telling me the plants were treated and dangerous to pollinators. Am I dumb or were they sneaky? I don’t know, but the teeny-tiny tag telling me the plants were treated was completely hidden behind the large informational plant tag. For my part, I didn’t look for a second tag and I got caught out. Silly me, but I want to alert others. Please look for this tag and please do not buy the plant if you find it. I normally purchase plants from independent nurseries like Stanley’s where I know the plants are safe for my garden, but I got carried away while on another errand. It happens. Fool me once shame on you, but fool me twice—no way. Our lovely wildlife depends on us all working together. And please remember that we vote with our dollar. Robyn Cooper Knoxville

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

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 Donna Johnson Ian Blackburn Rose Kennedy Brian Canever Dennis Perkins Patrice Cole Stephanie Piper Eric Dawson Ryan Reed George Dodds Eleanor Scott Lee Gardner Alan Sherrod Mike Gibson April Snellings Carey Hodges Joe Sullivan Nick Huinker Kim Trevathan Chris Wohlwend

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com

BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Scott Dickey scott.dickey@knoxmercury.com

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 706 Walnut St., Suite 404, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS calendar@knoxmercury.com 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. © 2016 The Knoxville Mercury

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

Illustration by Ben Adams

HOWDY

Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX Alex Haley, author of Roots, moved to Knoxville in the last decade of his life. He’s honored with a large statue in Alex Haley Square, which was for a few years was the largest statue of an African American in the world. However, he was not the first Knoxvillian who’d written a genealogical saga about the African American experience in the South before the Civil War. That honor belongs to educator Charles W. Cansler, who wrote a book called Three Generations, published in 1939. Yasameen Hoffman-Shahin (also known as TheyCallMeYaz on WOZO’s Down 2 Brunch) live-streams her walk to Sassy Ann’s for the second annual Beyoncé appreciation night on the app Periscope. PHOTO RECOLLECTION: KNOXVILLE STREETS by Holly Rainey (loveh865.com)

QUOTE FACTORY “ You can park for free in the downtown garages on weekends.” —Hannah Bjorndal, a Washington, D.C., wedding photographer, citing one of her reasons for liking Knoxville, which debuted at #8 in Travel+ Leisure’s America’s Favorite Cities. (She also mentioned Knoxville’s natural beauty in the magazine’s article about its survey.)

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

5/19 FUNDRAISER: SPRING CELEBRATION 5/20 Q&A: DAVID FREEMAN THURSDAY

6-8:30 p.m., Emporium Center for Arts and Culture (100 S. Gay St.). $20. Circle Modern Dance is celebrating its 25th anniversary of bringing contemporary dance performances to Knoxville. The troupe’s core dancers and guest performers will be dancing on all three levels of the Emporium, and previous generations of dancers will be sharing their stories. There will also be a silent auction, featuring local artists and vendors. Info: circlemoderndance.com.

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

FRIDAY

7 p.m., Church of the Savior UCC (934 N. Weisgarber Rd.). Free. When it comes to power company heads, few have the track record of David Freeman—or the controversial reputation in the industry. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter to chair the TVA board in 1977, he stopped construction of nuclear power plants and advocated against coal, a philosophy he took with him to other utilities. In this discussion, he’ll share what he thinks TVA should be doing now to help save the planet.

5/22 LECTURE: NINA MARTYRIS SUNDAY

3 p.m., Mabry-Hazen House (1711 Dandridge Ave.). $40. The historic Mabry-Hazen House is serving up an interesting brew called Tea & Tattle: afternoon tea with a fascinating guest. Nina Martyris is a freelance journalist who has contributed to the New Yorker, the Economist, the Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal. Coincidentally, she also contributes to NPR’s Tea Tuesday column. Info: mabryhazen.com/tea.

The Island Home community is actually NOT ON AN ISLAND! It’s named for the fact that it’s very near one of Knoxville’s best-known islands, Dickinson Island, now location of the Knoxville Downtown Island Airport. It was originally the site of a model farm and retreat of prosperous Knoxville merchant Perez Dickinson, originally from Amherst, Mass., and a cousin of poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s second home—where he entertained, but never slept—still stands on what’s now the campus of the Tennessee School for the Deaf.

5/26 PUBLIC MEETING: DOWNTOWN PARKING THURSDAY

5:30 p.m., East Tennessee History Center (601 S. Gay St.). Free. The ever-contentious issue of public parking downtown gets its own hearing as deputy to the mayor Bill Lyons presents the city’s plans, which include new meters that can accept credit cards and track actual use; a standardization of meter rates and hours; and a strategy for enforcement.

Enjoy Our Spectacular

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May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

The Fragile 15 Knox Heritage announces its short list of historical resources that are threatened, but show promise for new life in the future.

s always, this year’s announcement includes a few surprises.

1. Knoxville College no longer has full accreditation and is currently closed. But the hilltop campus of the region’s oldest historically black college is still beautiful and architecturally impressive. Six buildings, mostly brick collegiate buildings, are especially notable, including McKee Hall, Wallace Hall, Elnathan Hall, McMillan Chapel, Giffen Memorial Gymnasium, and the President’s House. Four of them date to the late 1800s, and some of them were visited by major figures in history, from Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King. All are reportedly in states of decay with little likelihood that they’ll be fully used in the near term, and have become a dilemma for an institution with a venerable history but little means of maintaining its facilities in the 21st century.

Pike, on the semi-rural northwest side of town. Built in 1910, it was the home of the founder of the once-huge furniture chain that was headquartered on Gay Street. As has recently come to light, Sterchi (1867-1932) played a significant role in the national popularization of country and folk music in the 1920s. He’s profiled in the Bear Family Records box set, The Knoxville Sessions.

4. Fort Sanders houses and grocery. Three wooden Victorian houses at 1802, 1804, and 1810 Highland Avenue, all have associations with prominent former residents. An adjacent early 20th century commercial building, former home of a longtime grocery, We take the Greyhound Bus Terminal for granted, but the faces 18th Street. In 2000, after a lengthy Magnolia Avenue landmark’s mid-century modernist design, series of discussions including hospital seen here soon after its construction in 1960, sometimes representatives, all four were included catches the attention of architecture-loving visitors. within a defined neighborhood conservation zone intended to preserve the Image courtesy of Knox Heritage core of Fort Sanders’ historical housing www.knoxheritage.org stock. After that publicized agreement, 2. The Cal Johnson Building, built on the hospital purchased the buildings, the 300 block of State Street in 1898, is evicted their tenants, and in 2013 sought permission to demolish the one of the very few unrenovated historic buildings downtown, but it buildings, without announcing specific building plans for the site. has a much more extraordinary distinction. It’s a large building built The buildings have since been vacant and untended. by a man who was raised to be a slave. Cal Johnson (1844-1925) owned racetracks, a chain of saloons, an early movie theater, and this building, which was originally a clothing factory but later hosted Knoxville’s 5. The Paul Howard House at 2921 N. Broadway, an early 20th-century earliest car dealership. It’s now the only surviving structure associated bungalow, is one of the last well-preserved residences on that with Johnson, and his name appears high on the facade. He and his once-lovely avenue in North Knoxville, and was home to several civic wife lived next door, in a house torn down long ago. Thoughout downleaders. Recent plans for a Walmart on the site were canceled, but town’s revival over the last 25 years, the Cal Johnson Building has been the house and its tree-shaded grounds are still for sale, in an area now vacant or used only for storage. The building’s current owners have dominated by chain retail and large parking lots. previously proposed tearing the building down, but after a city initiative to impose protective H-1 zoning on it, recently assured the 6. Maybe the most unusual house on this year’s list is the Joseph Metropolititan Planning Commission that they were in the process Knaffl House at 3837 Speedway Circle in the Burlington area of East of fixing it up and saving it. Knoxville. It’s the oldest and largest house on that unique oval street, which traces the route of an 1890s racetrack. But it’s unique because when it was built, as the home of nationally renowned art photographer 3. Most have never seen the James G. Sterchi House, at 809 Dry Gap

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 8

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

The Fragile 15 Joseph Knaffl (1861-1938), it was downtown—on Gay Street near Main. In the way of the mid-1920s construction of the Andrew Johnson Hotel, the Knaffl House became the most ambitious house-moving job in Knoxville history. Its new owner, who lives in another county, has expressed an intention to demolish it.

‘30s, though one may be much older. It’s still home to a few thriving businesses, but several of its buildings are empty, and some have been demolished in recent years. It’s the subject of a new initiative by Knox Heritage to be organized as a historic district. 11. Built in 1927, hilltop Rule High, at 1901 Vermont Ave., near Lonsdale, closed in 1991, but still belongs to Knox County. A proposal suggests a possible future for the huge building as administrative offices for the school system.

7. The Greyhound Bus Station, on Magnolia at Central, may be the biggest surprise on the list, as one of the newest ever to make the Fragile 15. Built in 1960, it’s an example of mid-century modernist design, which has gained new appreciation in recent 12. Built in two stages, in 1925 and 1929, years. The station is reportedly likely Pryor Brown Garage, at the corner of The offbeat Victorian Joseph Knaffle House was moved, in the Market and Church, is among the oldest to be vacated by the bus line. 1920s, to a modern suburban neighborhood almost three parking garages in the nation, and served miles away, a feat of house-moving rarely attempted today. A that purpose until recently. Its owner 8. The University of Tennessee’s new owner reportedly wants to demolish it. once expressed an intention to demolEstabrook Hall (1898) is the secish it, but several downtown developers ond-oldest academic building on Image courtesy of Knox Heritage want to convert it to other purposes. campus. The unusual Victorian www.knoxheritage.org building on UT’s Hill is a rare landmark with associations with the Summer 13. The French Broad River Corridor School of the South, a weeks-long Chatauqua-style program for is a one-of-a-kind entry in the list, as a partly natural region with thousands of teachers from across the country, a century ago; and historic sites associated with the early settlement of Knox County. with the founding of UT’s College of Architecture and Design. Some campus plans have called for demolishing it, but UT has indicated a willingness to keep it if it’s economically feasible. 14. The intriguing mansion behind the wall at 4848 Lyons View, the Eugenia Williams home, designed in 1940 is one of only two examples of the Texas architect John Fanz Staub (1892-1981) in his home 9. The 1925 Sanitary Laundry at 625 N. Broadway, a modern marvel town. Owned by UT since its last private owner died almost 20 years when it was built, is on the rapidly developing north side of downtown, ago, it has deteriorated but remains impressively intact. within walking distance of new businesses. It’s been deteriorating for some years. The city recently obtained it to make it available for private development, but has declined the only proposal so far.

10. The Burlington Commercial District is the little “downtown” in East Knoxville along Holston Drive and Martin Luther King Drive, near Chilhowee Park. Its buildings date mostly to the 1920s and

15. South Knoxville’s long-empty South High, built in 1936 at 953 Moody Ave., is a dilemma, or opportunity, comparable to Rule High. It has been subject to preservation efforts in recent years, but none have resulted in a definite plan.

Source: The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox Heritage.

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

As Is A Saturday afternoon in downtown Burlington BY JACK NEELY

aybe you haven’t spent much time in Burlington since Ruby’s Coffee Shop closed, 16 years ago. But when you get to the eastern end of MLK, it’s still tempting to pull over and get out of the car. A cluster of about 20 pre-war buildings line streets that converge at interesting angles. You’ll likely be hearing more about Burlington. It made an appearance this week on Knox Heritage’s annual Fragile 15 list of endangered historic resources. The preservationist organization has already been working toward making it an accredited new historic district, with potential tax credits to encourage development. No one recalls why folks started calling it Burlington, a century or more ago. It has seen better days. Several buildings are boarded up. Several others are missing altogether. Still, it’s an interesting place to walk around on a Saturday afternoon. Unchained Bail Bonds has a couple of long old-fashioned bus-stop benches out front. “Benches are under surveillance,” a sign says. “We don’t mind you sitting here, but please take your garbage with you.” It seems fair enough. Burlington’s flea market, unhailed by any explanatory signage, is a tradition of long standing. It happens several days a week, especially Saturdays. It’s more or less a garage sale in a big gravel parking lot. No antiques today. You’re more likely to find used shoes, lawnmowers, football helmets, Disney videotapes, automo-

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

tive magazines. Like most of Burlington, it’s biracial. People who don’t look like they’d get along get along. People like to trade, and they trade what they have. A few sell new things. A van makes a portable key shop; within, a locksmith is busy at his grinder. A modest farmer sells bright-green tomato seedlings. There’s hardly anything trendy about it, but a food truck, or rather a food camper, is called Chicken and Waffles. Chicken is “$1, any piece.” Waffles are more pricey, at $3. On the corner is Lema’s World Famous Chitlins. It’s been there for 30 years, longer than most Kingston Pike restaurants last. Next door is Lema’s Gold Room, advertising “Late Night Dining.” Four old men sit in folding chairs on an eminence, surveying the flea market. They are declaring their personal philosophies. One is wearing a white yachting cap, and appears to be the captain of the group. “You can change your clock,” he says. “But time goes on! You can’t change time!” He speaks as if he knows the subject well. Time is Burlington’s theme. A lot of these buildings were built when Burlington was on the loop at the eastern end of the Magnolia streetcar. Some took the 2-mile ride to Chilhowee Park, but others got off at Burlington to shop or have some lunch or see a movie. Burlington was where we went when we needed a vacation from Knoxville.

The last streetcar ran in the summer of 1947. Burlington’s 278seat movie theater, built the same year as downtown’s Tennessee Theatre, closed in 1958, and was torn down a few years ago. Greenlee’s Drugstore closed long ago. A recent effort to renovate it for a restaurant got just halfway there. The fruit or a mulberry tree makes the sidewalk beneath it too slippery for a careless stroll. Old buildings that once tried hard to look modern are now empty. Old styles peek out here and there. A long-closed barber shop has a curved masonry corner, a memory of art deco. An elegant old Gulf station, the subject of some recent care, is a relic from the era when people preferred to fill up stylishly. There’s still a fire station in Burlington, #6 in fact, next door to Elk’s Lodge #1152, in an old house. Nearby is the headquarters of a motorcycle club. Around the corner is the back door of the Lunch House, which serves breakfast all day on Saturdays. Inside, above the lunch counter, are autographed pictures of soul singer Clifford Curry, boxer Alonzo “Big Zo” Butler, and Johnny Knoxville. The Burlington Fish Market still does business in a cinderblock building on Fern Street. Like a speakeasy, it doesn’t need a big sign. It’s open three days a week, offering whiting, trout, perch, mullet, buffalo fish, or Virginia drum, by the pound or on a plate. It is, as far as I know, unique. Burlington became well known in the 1920s, when it first got numbered street addresses. The empty brick building with the arched second-floor windows looks older. The Electric Service Co., before that, the A&P,

before that, who knows. When it was built, the main reason to get off the streetcar here was Cal Johnson’s Racetrack, the most popular horse-racing destination in the county. In 1910 it hosted the region’s first aeroplane landing. In 1921, the half-mile oval became a unique residential development called Speedway Circle. Amongst vacant and underused buildings, Barnes’ Barber Shop does a brisk business, several customers today alone. Like most Burlington business, it’s cash only. People often ask Ernie Barnes if he takes credit cards. When he says no, they argue. “We do all we want to do,” he says, smiling like the good guy in an old cowboy movie. “In God we trust. All others pay cash.” Barnes is a clear-headed fellow who could pass for 70. But when he’s framing a story about this barber shop, he lets slip that he’s a World War II veteran. He served in the Navy, in the Pacific, on a destroyer called the U.S.S. Blue. “I got in on the tail end,” he says. He saw Guam and Singapore. At home, he took up his dad’s trade. R.C. Barnes was cutting hair near here by 1924. Ernie opened his first shop in 1947, a few months before the trolley stopped. But that was across the street. “I’ve been right here since ‘51,” he says. “I had five barbers then.” He still has five chairs. Today his only assistant is his daughter, Debby. He just turned 89, and has no imminent plans to quit. He finishes up a customer, a fellow perhaps a little younger than he is. He still likes Burlington, but would like to see someone come fix up some of these old buildings he knows well. ◆

“You can change your clock. But time goes on! You can’t change time!”

QUOTE FROM A DONOR “I believe the Knoxville Mercury, in small and often under-appreciated ways, helps shape our use of resources and our patterns of interaction with each other. Little by little, it raises awareness, broadens and enhances the fabric of social connection and, at the same time, provides a sharp, sometimes irreverent, but always entertaining view of Knoxville’s distinct flavor.” —JUDY LOEST

QUOTE FROM AN ADVERTISER “I have placed advertising in the Mercury for a number of our clients. We used the Mercury exclusively for advertising one of those clients— Gourmet’s Market—leading up to the 2015 International Biscuit Festival. By the time the festival opened, people were lined up around the block to get their hands on a Gourmet’s Market chicken biscuit (and Gourmet’s Market ended up winning Last Biscuit Standing at the festival). Shortly thereafter, we started running ads for our own company in the Mercury.” —RICK LANEY, President, CEO, Rick Laney Marketing, LLC.

QUOTES FROM A STORY SUBJECT “Knoxvillians who enjoy classical music in their city already know how incredible it is that a city of Knoxville’s modest size supports and is home to the KSO, KO, UT School of Music, and more. We musicians feel equally fortunate that Knoxville has Alan Sherrod and the Knoxville Mercury.” —GABRIEL LEFKOWITZ, Violinist, Composer, Conductor

Donate to support quality local independant journalism. Visit GoFundMe.com/PressForward2016.

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

SMALL PLANET

Water Works What process does drinking water go through before it flows out of your facet? BY PATRICE COLE

lint, Mich.’s water woes suggest this might be a good time to take a closer look at something we very much take for granted. Ten percent of the world’s population lives without access to water that is safe for drinking and bathing. That’s twice the population of the United States. Yet virtually everywhere in America you can turn a tap and out flows abundant potable water that costs next to nothing. Let’s go microscopic and take a fantastic voyage through one of our local systems that delivers the resource that is our most immediate need after oxygen. We begin at the end of the line, a faucet somewhere in Knoxville supplied by KUB. About a quarter-million people receive that water at a cost of about one-half cent per gallon. After we squeeze through the faucet valve we find ourselves in a pipe that is copper or PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) if installed in this century, PVC if installed in the late 20th century, or galvanized iron if older than about 1970. Lead water pipes were banned nationwide in 1988. Once we’ve passed through the water meter we have to travel some of the 1,400 miles of distribution pipes back to the treatment plant. Older parts of that distribution system, about 42 percent of the total, are galvanized, cast iron, and cement. Newer pipes that comprise about 58 percent of the distribution system are

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

plastic or ductile iron. According to KUB no lead pipes remain in the distribution system upstream of the meters. As part of its Century II long-range program to improve and maintain utilities, KUB replaces 1 percent of the distribution system each year with newer materials. Along our journey we might go through pump stations and storage tanks that ensure 24 hours worth of stored water in the unlikely case of overall system shut down. When we finally arrive at the treatment plant we encounter the final stages of treatment that include chlorination, fluoridation, and addition of a corrosion inhibitor. Chlorination kills any pathogens that might have slipped through the treatment process, and it keeps on killing any pathogens that might be encountered along the way to the tap. If your tap is close to the treatment plant you might notice more chlorine odor in the water, because chlorine dissipates quickly over time, and a certain amount must be in the water at the farthest point in the distribution system to protect those customers. Fluoride is added to the water to prevent tooth decay, a practice that began in the United States in 1945. Fluoridation has always been controversial with some, but Knoxvillians voted in 1972 to have fluoride added to their water. Tennessee requires the addition

of corrosion inhibitors to public water supplies. Corrosion can cause metals to build up in the water, and that seems to be what happened in Flint. KUB uses the corrosion inhibitor zinc orthophosphate. As we work our way backwards through the treatment process, we encounter a filter made up of 12 inches of sand and 20 inches of anthracite. The filter catches any particulates that didn’t settle out in the clarifier, a tank the water spends some time in after having coagulants added to capture suspended solids and other contaminants in the intake water. We’ve had another little blast of chlorine between the filter and clarifier, and yet another dose where the intake water enters the clarifier. As we continue back toward the Tennessee River, we have to slip through the screen that keeps fish, insects, and debris from coming in with the 34 million gallons of water pumped from the river every day. That intake water is monitored continuously for turbidity (cloudiness), algae, dissolved organic chemicals, pH, and temperature. If we continue on up the Tennessee River and either of its major tributaries, the Holston and French Broad Rivers, we would see relatively little industry for a long ways. We might also notice more sustainable agricultural practices that add less mud, pathogens, and toxic chemicals than in years past. The quality of the source water in the river is an important part of why we can feel good about our water supply. What we might not notice from our microscopic vantage point is that our treatment plant off Riverside

Drive is one of the most beautiful, ornate buildings left in Knoxville. Built in 1927, the Mark B. Whitaker Water Treatment Plant’s elegant windows, marble floors, and other architectural features were meant to be enjoyed by the public. Sadly, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 heightened concerns for sabotage of public water supplies, especially in urban areas where many people would be affected, so access to the treatment plant is now very limited. A lot of testing is done to verify the safety of our water. KUB has its own in-house, state-certified laboratory so it can do more testing for more parameters than required. In fact, the annual water quality report for 2015 states that KUB performs more than 100,000 tests annually and checks for over 150 contaminants. Any customer with concerns about their water quality can contact KUB to have their water tested. You might still be one of those people who prefer to drink bottled water for a variety of reasons. But it’s comforting to know that the safety of our water supply is one less thing to worry about. It’s also a reminder of why it is so important for everyone to protect watersheds. The people and communities who draw water from the Tennessee River downstream of Knoxville deserve the same safe, affordable water supply we enjoy for an average of $22.45/month per household. ◆ Patrice Cole taught biology, ecology, environmental planning, and sustainability at the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State Community College. Small Planet examines local issues pertaining to environmental quality and sustainability.

You might still be one of those people who prefer to drink bottled water. But it’s comforting to know that the safety of our water supply is one less thing to worry about.

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May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

Photos courtesy of Kinley Koontz

Street Art A high school sophomore brings art supplies—and a creative outlet—to Knoxville’s homeless BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

lthough Kinley Koontz has started a “Garden Project,” she’s not growing plants. She’s bringing art supplies to the poor and homeless, because the 15-year-old wants them to experience the personal growth that happens through self-expression. “We’re helping to grow people,” she says. “I see people as flowers: All different but all beautiful, and you just have to give them water and sunshine to grow. I’m just providing the water and soil, and they are creating the beauty.” Ashlee Price, a member of The Garden Project board, recalls being mesmerized by this description, and by Koontz’s further metaphor that “you can’t tell how a person is by the seed” before they are given a chance to grow. “My jaw was just on the floor when we’re talking about this kind of stuff, because she’s so young,” Price says. The West High School sophomore started bringing canvas, paints, charcoals, friendship bracelets, and other art supplies to people living under the bridge near the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission last fall. She had been going to KARM with a church group since middle school to talk with the women there about God,

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

but she saw them really blossom when she started bringing crafts, games, and nail polish along. “It was like an escape,” she says. “They weren’t dealing with their struggles when they picked up a paint brush.” This inspired her to bring more supplies and share these opportunities on Sunday afternoons with the homeless in a parking lot near the mission. “Plenty of people come there with food, and that’s awesome,” she says. “They’re taking care of the physical needs. But no one is really taking care of their mental needs.” Koontz says she was amazed by how enthusiastic homeless men were when she approached them with the chance to wield a paint brush. “One man writes poetry and paints these gorgeous landscapes,” she says. Another enjoys cartooning. “I’m continually surprised by the talent I see in these people. To see this kind of emotional outpouring—I was really shocked by it.” A few friends from school joined her and have taken up the regular work of providing artistic opportunities to the homeless. Seeing the difference it made inspired Koontz to branch out.

She is in the process of registering “The Garden Project” as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and already has a board (including Price). Her goal over the next two years is to raise money for a small art bus which she can outfit with supplies like clay, paint, and yoga mats. Then she can drive art opportunities directly to people of all ages. In particular, she hopes to establish a relationship this fall with an after-school program for elementary school students so she can give at-risk children a chance to try art projects.

Koontz wants to shift her focus to include children because she recognizes that many of the factors that lead to homelessness start early. “I want to promote self-expression in the younger generation, starts those habits youth… and increase mental fitness through various forms of art,” she says. Price has been able to see how confidence and mental wellness issues start in elementary school and translate into high school. Price is a former elementary school teacher who is now a guidance counselor through the Boys and Girls Club at West High, where she guides students toward secondary education. A friend of Koontz’s family, Price remembers as many as four years ago seeing Koontz’s list of ideas and goals on the back of the girl’s bedroom door—including the concept of The Garden Project. Price says she is interested in starting a nonprofit related to cancer herself, and has been inspired and learned from the younger girl. Koontz and her family believe in the effort enough to pay for the art supplies out of pocket and with the help of a few donations from friends. In the long run, Koontz says, she’d like to set up a show of participants’ art, perhaps through the Dogwood Arts Festival. “I really want to make it something these people take pride in, because self-confidence is really a big part of it,” she says. She learned that herself through art classes at Halls Middle School and now West High. “I do credit my art teachers Ms. Ayers and Ms. Adams with helping me express myself and allow myself to flow out of any media they put in front of me,” Koontz says. “I love artistic expression and wanted to share that experience with others.” ◆

“I see people as flowers: All different but all beautiful, and you just have to give them water and sunshine to grow. I’m just providing the water and soil, and they are creating the beauty.” —KINLEY KOONTZ

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

B uild ng aC mmunity Living off the grid—and seeking enlightenment— at Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center BY ELEANOR SCOTT

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

Photo courtesy of Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center

Top: The entrance to Narrow Ridge with the Mac Smith Resource Center in the background. Right: The library inside the Mac Smith Resource Center. Left: Strawbale Lodge, one of the rental cabins at Narrow Ridge.

Photos by Eleanor Scott

n 2005 Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener, a psychologist in her late 30s with a home and practice in the suburbs of Nashville, hiked up Log Mountain in rural Grainger County on a vision quest. For three days and three nights, Wood-Von Mizener wandered alone in the mountaintop wilderness, eating nothing and drinking little. It was summer, very humid, and very green. “I was scared,” Wood-Von Mizener says. “I didn’t know what to expect. There was fear of being alone, and fasting is not easy for me. But I was ready for the clarity I was seeking. My biggest fear was that I’d come to the end of the three days with no transformation, no change.” This solo fast on the mountain is part of an eight-day nature immersion experience, one of the flagship programs at Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center, a 120-acre spiritual retreat that controls conservation easements on nearly 500 acres near the small town of Washburn, Tenn. Guided by Narrow Ridge founder Bill Nickle, the solo-fast participants engage in wilderness survival training, three days and three nights of fasting and solitude, and a sweat lodge ceremony. Deep in the backwoods of the politically conservative state of Tennessee, this eco-minded spiritual retreat, started in the 1970s with a 40-acre parcel of former farmland, may be an anomaly in some ways. Yet, Narrow Ridge is one of several alternative communities that carved out a space in the inexpensive, secluded land of rural Tennessee. There’s The Farm, a former hippy commune in Middle Tennessee; Short Mountain Sanctuary, the LGBTQ collective near Smithville, Tenn. whose members call themselves Radical Faeries; and locally, The Ridge, Rollo Sullivan’s “third-world paradise” of fainting goats and houses built with reclaimed trash in the woods of South Knoxville. Tennessee has an underground counterculture streak; though interest in Narrow Ridge has ebbed and flowed over the years, with financial woes nearly tanking the retreat in the early 2000s, a recent wave of devotees has breathed new life into the community. In her suburban house in Hermitage, Wood-Von Mizener read and was inspired by Stephen Foster’s The Book of the Vision Quest, in which Foster describes a “mystical, practical, and intensely personal journey of

“Working in a natural environment is therapeutic in deeper and broader ways than meeting with another individual within four walls.” —Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener, Narrow Ridge director and former psychologist

self-knowledge.” She found Narrow Ridge through a Google search (Tennessee + vision quest.) “Bill sent me a copy of handwritten directions. I came out here and I thought, Oh my gosh, I hope these are good people. Because my phone’s dead and I’m in the middle of nowhere,” Wood-Von Mizener says. She did find “good people” in the quiet, deliberate Nickle, a Methodist minister now in his 70s, who imparts a message of environmental unity and social tolerance. At the root of Narrow Ridge is Nickle’s effort to lead people to forge a profound personal connection with the natural world, to develop a love for the earth that inspires land conservation and sustainable lifestyles. Alone in the woods, hollow with hunger, Wood-Von Mizener derived meaning from the metaphors she saw in the landscape and wildlife, experiencing an

unfolding of peaceful insights, and the growing certainty that she belonged there, right there, in the lush woods on the edge of Hogskin Valley. “I fell in love with the mountains,” Wood-Von Mizener says. “Even though I grew up in Hendersonville, my family for generations had been Appalachian. Something in my DNA was connected to this type of place. There’s a nesting feeling, whether you are in the valley or in the trees on the mountain. The sheltering trees, the low mountains, it’s nurturing. I had a real sense that the squirrels, the birds, the groundhog that approached my campsite, were very aware of me. You think you are going on the mountain alone, you realize you are not alone, at all. You have the opportunity to feel both your smallness and your significance. There’s truth in both, and you can’t get that from any sacred text, it’s something you have to experience.”

Two months after her mountaintop experience, Wood-Von Mizener signed a lease in one of the land trusts managed by Narrow Ridge. Over the next few years, she would craft a plan to extract herself from the comforts and consumerism of her cookie-cutter suburban existence to pursue a life “boiled down to the essentials” in a rural landscape, bringing her husband, Jason Von Mizener, along for the ride. Eventually, she took on the role of director of Narrow Ridge, making a fraction of the income she made as a medical professional in Nashville. She now leads “vision fasts” herself with Nickle as her co-director. “Working in a natural environment is therapeutic in deeper and broader ways than meeting with another individual within four walls,” Wood-Von Mizener says. “The notion that the healing that I would participate in was not just for humans, but for the broader community of life, was something that tugged at my soul. I was determined one way or another to figure out how I could be a part of it.” Some, like Wood-Von Mizener, come for the spiritual programs and end up staying. Today, 15 people are full-time residents on the land trusts, a historic high. Five years ago Narrow Ridge looked a bit like a retirement community. Even now, the average age of a resident is 60+, and many are retired, living out their golden years in a peaceful setting with a handful of neighbors who share their environmental values. But a shift in both demographics and focus is afoot. In the past year, seven young couples secured lease sites with dreams to build a sustainable homestead or somehow use the land to earn an agricultural living. This influx has been aided in part by an anonymous benefactor providing interest-free loans in an effort to continue the mission of Narrow Ridge.

The Lay of the Land

The road from Knoxville to Narrow Ridge dwindles to a twisty country lane snaking through the valleys and hillsides of Grainger County. Cell phone service is spotty and GPS is unreliable. At the entrance to Narrow Ridge stands the Mac Smith Resource Center, a rebuilt old mountain shack May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

Far left: Narrow Ridge Director Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener and founder Bill Nickle sit beneath a painting in Strawbale Lodge depicting the “Vision Fast,” one of the spiritual retreat’s flagship programs. Top left: Bill Nickle’s house, an example of strawbale construction. Bottom left: Nickle’s kitchen, before he switched to a wood-fired stove.

housing the library and meeting room, with a strawbale addition to the back. This is one of several examples of strawbale construction showcased on Narrow Ridge, a natural building method embraced by contemporary environmentalists for the renewable nature of straw and its high insulation value. The walls of strawbale houses are stacked rectangular bales of hay dressed with plaster, giving the building a hearty, earthy presence. Nickle’s own home is a showpiece of sustainable building. The trim strawbale house sits on a south-facing slope. Sunlight warms the open kitchen and dining room. There’s a cozy living room nook with a wood burning stove, and a second story bedroom loft. It’s spare yet comfortable, finished with traditional materials: rough-hewn posts, clay tiles, and local stone. The underground water catchment system filters rainwater for washing and bathing. Fixtures are stylish and old fashioned: a porcelain sink, clawfoot bath tub, and wood-burning cook stove. Elements of modern technology—a high-end composting toilet and solar panels that produce more power than he needs—promise an efficient, low-impact home of the future. In 1972, Nickle bought 40 acres of cheap rural land, the kernel around which Narrow Ridge would form. Throughout the 1960s Nickle had worked in Methodist churches with young adults, including a stint as a campus minister at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Nickle was 18

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

unhappy with the way institutional churches dealt with young people during and after the Vietnam War. He felt the Methodist churches in which he worked ignored the “spiritual needs” of Vietnam veterans and conscientious objectors. “I like to use the word spiritual more than religious because some of these young men weren’t religious at all,” Nickle says. “Some of them were really religious—but there was a whole gamut of these young men. There were gays involved as well.” From the very beginning, Nickle intended to provide a refuge for people marginalized by society, founded on the hope that close encounters with the natural world would provide meaning and purpose to their lives. The first resident of Narrow Ridge was a single draft dodger in the 1970s. “He had tried to get his conscientious objector status,” Nickle says. “The draft board wouldn’t even let me speak for him. Because they had a quota, it didn’t matter if you were a conscientious objector or not. He ran, and I provided a place for him.” Today, Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists, a Druid priestess, agnostics, and people who practice a loose animism reside at Narrow Ridge. For Nickle, a spirit of tolerance and diversity is derived through the lessons of nature. “The natural world is very diverse; if it’s a mono-crop, we are in trouble,” Nickle says. “We have to be able to appreciate each other and accept each other’s differences. That’s what really

builds community that’s viable, that’s exciting, that has a lot of life in it.” Nickle named Narrow Ridge after a concept of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. “I have occasionally described my standpoint to my friends as the narrow ridge,” writes Buber in a letter to his biographer Maurice Friedman in Encounter on the Narrow Ridge: A Life of Martin Buber. “I wanted by this to express that I did not rest on the broad upland of a system that includes a series of sure statements about the absolute, but on a narrow rocky ridge between the gulfs where there is no sureness of expressible knowledge but the certainty of meeting what remains undisclosed.” Narrow Ridge is a metaphor for a philosophical concept and also the literal lay of the land, located along the edges of Hogskin Valley. The land is furrowed, with hilly fields, patches of woods, slopes and valleys. Log Mountain rises above all. For Nickle, the Earth is not merely a pile of resources to be conserved and meted out judiciously, but a living connection with the divine. “We are one with the natural world; once we understand that oneness with all of creation, we can be healed,” Nickle says. “As long as we feel separated from the natural world, healing is difficult. We are not unique, as a species. The Earth wasn’t created and then humans were placed on it, humans came out of earth, and when we understand that, our own illnesses are seen in another light.” In the 1990s, Nickle collected a

small group of benefactors inspired by the mission of environmental stewardship who donated land and resources, greatly expanding the reach of Narrow Ridge. One important benefactor, a Smokey Mountains park ranger named Mike Wilbur, found himself a millionaire through the most painful circumstances—a lawsuit against the gas company after a gas-related accident killed his entire family. Wilbur used that money to buy land for Narrow Ridge. Mac Smith, for whom the resource center is named, was another important supporter. Today, Narrow Ridge controls 120 acres of community land and four land trusts: Black Fox, Hogskin Valley, Little Ridge, and the newly acquired Nicely Farm. The land trusts expanded the function of Narrow Ridge from a weekend spiritual retreat to an opportunity for people to lease and preserve rural land from degradation and development, or build their own sustainable homestead. In the past, lease-holders were mostly upper-middle class environmentalists leasing land to support Narrow Ridge’s mission of conservation. Lease-holders make a one-time upfront payment to hold a site for 99 years, and can sell the lease for no more than 3 percent per annum above the base rate to prevent speculators trying to make a quick buck on cheap land. And the land is mouth-wateringly cheap. Lease sites range from a 2.5-acre site in Black Fox for $10,000, to a 8.5-acre lot in the Nicely Farm for $30,000. The land is remote, though, and without the conveniences of electric lines, water hook-ups, or septic systems, few people have ever lived at Narrow Ridge full-time. Over the years, Nickle has himself left Narrow Ridge, sometimes for years at a time, to take jobs in Methodist churches or work on environmental programs. Without Nickle’s leadership, energy and income stagnates. “I felt Narrow Ridge should not be equated with one person,” Nickle says. “I thought I should step aside and let the organization stand on its own.”

Whether he likes it or not, the success of Narrow Ridge has been tied to Nickle in the past. Since Nickle’s return in 2003 he has led the push to create environmental programs, sustainable building workshops, and gardening and yoga classes generating income for the center. Narrow Ridge rents out several cabins, including the Strawbale Lodge, for those seeking a rural weekend getaway. Community events like Hogskin History Day, music jams, and Solstice and Equinox celebrations have boosted interest and increased donations, allowing Narrow Ridge to acquire more land and add features like the Natural Burial Preserve [see sidebar.] Nickle has himself chosen his future resting spot in the preserve, under a persimmon tree. He does not plan to have a headstone of any sort. Narrow Ridge will be his legacy. His hope is that with the young people living and working on the land trusts, and with energetic leaders like WoodVon Mizener, the mission of Narrow Ridge will forge ahead in his absence. “The hope for the future is that we will be more sustainable,” Nickle says. “With climate change—I think there are still some doubts, people are not really aware of the desperate situation right around the corner. We hope by reaching out to people, building community, continuing to grow and strengthen our sense of spirituality here, [we can] teach sustainability so people can move in those directions in a more aggressive way. Whether I am here [to witness it] or not, the foundation is strong. I’ll bet on it.”

Off the Grid

Martha Pierce, 62, moved to Narrow Ridge in April 2015 and began building her own 750-square-foot strawbale house on her 5-acre lease site. A row of solar panels face the valley. She moved into her house with the interior still unfinished, and lives there with her dog, Sassy, and three cats. The two-story house has a perfectly square footprint and a simple shed roof supported by stick frame construction. The exterior strawbale walls are very thick, providing deep window seats and sills. Pierce has learned carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work while building this house with the help of friends and volunteers. “I think it’s valuable for the students [who visit] to meet Martha, drill in her hand,” Wood-Von Mizener

says. “Sustainability is what we are trying to promote, but also challenging the notion there is one prescribed way to live. You come here and see living examples of options. You have this one precious life and you have options of what you do with it. We hope to expose seekers to new ways of being.” Narrow Ridge’s building guidelines encourage houses that use less polluting energy sources. Land-use restrictions include bans on clear-cutting trees, toxic chemicals like pesticides or fertilizers, and dusk-to-dawn security lights. House plans must be approved by a hydrologist to prevent erosion and cannot exceed 2,500 square feet. Off-grid houses are encouraged. Pierce’s house, heated with one wood stove, is almost suffocatingly warm on a sunny winter day. The interior glows with golden light from the yellow pine floor and unfinished beams and studs. An antique piano sits against a wall. The upstairs walls are undressed, and Pierce has hung canvas over the exposed straw. Large multipaned windows set in the corners of the room reveal a sight surreal in its dreamworld beauty—a narrow valley, and beyond, Log Mountain, the site of vision quests. The mountain fills the windows making it seem close enough to touch—and at the same time, defines the vastness of space between it and the little house on the hill. In Pierce’s former life she was director of a Methodist camp in Florida, an experience that gives her perspective on human/nature interaction and leaves her well-positioned to lead programs and events as operations manager at Narrow Ridge. Eight years ago, Pierce came to Narrow Ridge as part of the Caring for Creation Conference, and signed up for a 24-hour natural immersion experience. “Twenty-four hours was enough to let me know I wanted to be here. I just didn’t know how,” says Pierce, who appreciated the rural Tennessee landscape and the community of like-minded environmentalists. “At Narrow Ridge what impacted me more than anything else was that

the people here lived what they believed, and they believed enough to change the way they lived,” says Pierce. “I had always been environmental but I had never known other people crazy enough to do that. And it just resonated with me that I wasn’t alone. I was a part of a group who would be willing to change.”

Youthful Pioneers

Beth and Bob Graves, both 29, live with their 6-year-old daughter, Natalie, on their homestead at the edge of the woods. The yard is strewn with building materials, and they’ve chopped paths through a thicket of blackberry briers. The Graves are roughing it more than anyone else on Narrow Ridge, scratching out a living. They have lived in a tiny unfinished structure on their 6-acre lease site for over a year without running water, indoor plumbing, Internet, or reliable electricity. This humble living situation is both a realization of environmentalist ideals and the result of material poverty. Neither Beth nor Bob had much money growing up. Beth’s family moved

around a lot, living in a succession of apartments in Philadelphia, Penn. and Knoxville. They were always poor, but Beth grew up in a household of lively dinner table discussions about philosophy and politics. Her parents taught their children the importance of environmental responsibility, social justice, and good food. In the summer of 2002, when Beth was a teenager, her parents, Frank Callo and Susan Bradford, took an internship at an organic farm on Narrow Ridge. “We wanted to do something different and fun, have a little adventure with the kids,” Callo says, “When we got here, we really fell in love with it. We loved the wholesomeness of our kids running around while we’re harvesting things, getting to be outside, play in the grass, look at birds. I would come out in the morning and the valley would be filled with morning mist. The sun would hit this mist and it would just glow. You could see the ridge floating, appearing to float, on this sea of sunlit morning mist. You could stand in the middle of a field at 2 in the afternoon, and it would be so quiet that

Top left: The kitchen of Martha Pierce’s 750 square-foot strawbale house, which she built herself with the help of family and friends. Top right: An antique piano, passed down through the women of Pierce’s family for generations, sits in the living room. Right: Martha Pierce in her unfinished bedroom, with canvas draped over the walls of exposed straw. May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

“Spiritual ecology is interesting to me. I believe everything has life-force and energy. If God is anything, God is the world we exist in. Some of that stuff can get pretty hippy dippy and that’s not where we are coming from.” —Rachel Milford

your ears would sing, the way they do in a quiet room at night. Having lived in the city all my life, to have that kind of quiet, I can’t even begin. Gooey words like ‘spiritual’ come to mind. We felt that we have to at least try to stay here. How are we going to make a life out here beyond this internship?” The Bradford-Callos rented a cabin and became the Narrow Ridge facilities managers. They mowed, maintained batteries and composting toilets, prepped cabins. For a time, they were the only people living full-time at Narrow Ridge, and after three years Narrow Ridge ran out of money to pay them. “There wasn’t a real viable way to make a living out there, for us,” Callo says, “We couldn’t find our way in. We didn’t have any way to purchase one of those land trust sites. So we couldn’t establish any kind of a homestead out there. It was demoralizing.” Rachel Milford and her husband Matt Ellison, both in their 30s, are on the cusp of signing a lease on an

8.3-acre parcel of south-sloping hillside with a view of Norris Lake. Milford makes a living through her herbal medicine company, Reclaiming Your Roots, and performing with her puppet troop, Cattywampus Puppet Council. Ellison is a bio-systems engineer who works for Aries Energy, a solar panel company. “I flip-flopped a little bit,” says Milford, “I am very active in the Knoxville community and I want to continue to be. But I also want a calm, beautiful home in a rural setting. There’s been a lot of back and forth.” Milford and Ellison knew several of the young leaseholders. Kellie and Aaron Burns, owners of the organic honey company The Burns and the Bees, use their lease-site to house their beehives. Two other young couples are building a yurt on a shared lease site. Milford would like to use her land to grow herbs for her business. “One of [Narrow Ridges’] biggest issues is they want all these young

people to come in, but young people don’t have a lot of money,” Milford says. “We have jobs, we are not retired, and [we’re] not ready to stay out there. We have to continue to make money. Are we going to make money off the land? Hopefully, but probably we are still going to have to do distance work.” Milford’s desire for unpolluted land and her interest in herbal medicine is fueled by her own health problems, which she says are partly attributed to “multiple chemical sensitivity. ” She avoids exposure to pesticides and herbicides and found it appealing that these are banned at Narrow Ridge. For Milford, the land and the shared environmental values are the draw, the spiritual aspect is secondary. Perhaps a generational issue: Milford seems to casually accept the same concepts of social diversity and environmental conservation that made Nickle an outlier in the 1970s. But also, the younger generation seems more focused on how they can make a living from the land. “Spiritual ecology is interesting to me,” Milford says, “Matt grew up Southern Baptist, I grew up Jewish, neither one of us attends a house of worship. Both of us feel we are most strongly connected to our spiritually in nature. I believe everything has life-force and energy. If God is anything, God is the world we exist in. Some of that stuff can get pretty hippy dippy and that’s not where we are coming from. We are not running around in tunics trying to connect with the spirit of the soil.” Also not “hippy-dippy” is Beth’s husband Bob, a reserved country boy

who grew up in a working-class family just down the road from Narrow Ridge. He remembers having the impression that a bunch of “college kids” hung out there some weekends, and he remembers his dad warned him to stay away from those people. Bob’s father builds prefab houses for Clayton Homes, and Bob grew up helping him with construction projects. A far cry from the conscientious objectors that were Narrow Ridge’s original residents, Bob is a sergeant in the Army Reserves. He’s held a series of blue-collar jobs, and after a period of unemployment, recently found a job with a landscaper. Bob identifies as Christian, but doesn’t go to church, and doesn’t vote. Beth did vote, terrified at the thought of a Trump presidency. Beth’s liberal ideals and Bob’s apolitical conservative views intersect at the homestead they are building together. “Here, we are on the same page,” says Beth. Their house is the size of a large tool shed and the entire thing cost $4,000. Natalie’s room is the loft, a sunny space full of toys and dress-up clothes. A bookcase separates the tiny living room from the parents’ tiny bedroom. Their toilet is a 5-gallon bucket in an old plastic Port-a-potty shell behind the house. They didn’t have any electricity, until, with their tax return, they bought one solar panel and one battery, enough for three hours of power a day. They use that power to light a lamp to cook and eat dinner, and maybe watch one DVD on their flat screen TV before the power dies. Unlike the natural construction of many of the buildings on Narrow Ridge, the Graves’ house is cobbled together with materials chosen for their cheapness and availability: blemished sheetrock, OSB particle board, and cull lumber from the sawmill. The vinyl siding on their house cost $25 for the entire lot. “Ultimately we’d like to have a house that’s more green, as far as the components that built it. But it’s a consolation knowing that our [carbon] footprint right now is very small,” says Beth. Far left: Strawbale Lodge is the largest strawbale building at Narrow Ridge overlooking Hogskin Valley. Top: Kellie and Aaron Burns, owners of the organic honey company The Burns and the Bees, house their beehives on their lease site on one of the land trusts. Bottom: Rachel Milford and Matt Ellison are part of a new wave of young couples buying leases on the land trusts.

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

eth stirs a pot of chili bubbling on the propane stove in her makeshift kitchen. She hands Natalie a piece of green pepper from the cutting board. The kitchen is the largest, most developed area of the house. She hand-washes dishes in tubs, stores food in coolers, They haul their water from a local spring. The water situation is hardest for Beth, as a housewife who cleans things all day. They are saving up to finish their rainwater catchment system, but the Graves’ biggest challenges are money and time. “Time management in this situation is a lot different from when your home doesn’t require so much of you,” say Beth, “You have to get wood to burn, you have made sure you change the bucket every two days.” Beth is homeschooling Natalie, a talkative first-grader. Natalie loves riding her Big Wheel down the dirt hill, and GoldieBlox, a toy, she explains, that “teaches girls engineering concepts.” She misses the Internet, she says, and cartoons. Beth is expecting their second child in May. “I am isolated up here,” Beth says. “But as a young mom, I don’t feel any more isolated than I did living in the middle of town. I don’t have too many people, but that’s always how it’s been.” For Bob, a man who’s suffered unexpected job loss, unemployment, and a home foreclosure, he is happy to have a home that is paid for, no matter how humble it is. “Waking up in the morning, and you don’t have to worry about paying rent, or utility bills. The amount of bills we have is not much, compared to average. The peace and quiet and the lack of stress about worrying about bills, that’s my thing about it,” he says. The little isolated vinyl house without running water is in many ways an authentic echo of the cabins of Appalachian pioneers. Though difficult, Beth is living the homesteading dream her parents were not able to realize. “I’m super proud of her,” Callo says. “It’s hard. Being able to bear the isolation and the hard work and the no electricity and sometimes it’s too hot and sometimes it’s too cold. Everything you have to do is backbreaking and not having a big community of kids for her daughter. She really, in my opinion, is a badass.” “The thing that occurs to me every morning is how lucky we are to

be out here,” Beth says, “Even though we are not there yet as far as having an up-and-running homestead, we are working toward it. The goal is to establish a home for our kids. A working homestead so there will be a house here, there will be animals, they’ll have everything they need. I don’t plan on ever leaving.” “When people come here, they sometimes glorify those of us who have chosen this as if we’ve somehow make some great sacrifice,” Wood-Von Mizener says. “There are challenges, but ‘sacrifices,’ I don’t think that’s a word that sums up my experience here. I think I’ve claimed much more in rewards that I’ve ever made in sacrifices.” ◆

Green Burial at Narrow Ridge Natural Burial Preserve

A timber-frame pavilion stands on a remote hill in Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center’s community land, overlooking Hogskin Valley. The only decoration is a bell, made from an old oxygen tank. A few feet away are gentle mounds of earth. The pavilion provides shelter for the funerals of the people buried in Narrow Ridge Natural Burial Preserve, opened in 2009. This is one of the few natural-burial community cemeteries in contemporary Tennessee history. At Narrow Ridge, natural burial means bodies are not injected with preservatives, the body is buried in a biodegradable shroud or casket, and the earth is left as undisturbed as possible. Small horizontal grave markers made of local stone are allowed; of the five people buried there, only two have markers. Commercial cemeteries within city limits often have covenants requiring embalming and metal or concrete caskets, but Narrow Ridge leaders found few state laws regarding burial. “Laws [regarding burial] tend to be pretty old,” says Narrow Ridge director Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener, pointing out that until recently, all burials were natural. “It’s pretty open for natural burial preserves to be established.” University of Tennessee law professor Becky Jacobs volunteered to help parse the legalities of establishing a natural-burial community cemetery, and the process turned out to be pretty simple in rural Grainger County. Narrow Ridge only had to apply for exemption from commercial cemetery status; Jacobs facilitated the application and the state approved the preserve in 2012 with no problems. The average cost of a typical funeral in Tennessee is almost $8,000. Burial at Narrow Ridge is donation-based. A trusted local with the proper equipment will dig the grave for

$250. It would be possible for a person with no funds to be buried for free, if their friends and family were willing to do all the work now usually left to professionals—transportation of the body, the ceremony, and the opening and closing of the grave. The first person to be buried there was Jack Cassel, a UT professor and Narrow Ridge volunteer, who died in 2009 before the legalities of the cemetery had been worked out. Acting fast, Narrow Ridge quitclaim-deeded him a 10-foot by 10-foot plot, and buried him there on the hilltop, as per his wishes. “It was Jack’s last act of rebellion,” Woods-Von Mizener says. She likens the natural burial movement to the natural birth movement. “Just as we can reclaim the rights to tending to the births of our own children,” she says, “We can do the same with the rites of caring for our dead.” In March 2014, Rikki Hall was buried in the preserve on the hillside overlooking Hogskin Valley. Hall was an avid hiker and outdoorsman in his 50s when a brain tumor claimed his life. A biologist, activist, and writer, Hall wrote the column Sideways Glance for Metro Pulse and edited the environmental newspaper Hellbender Press. Around his small gravestone someone has planted native grasses and flowers. The day he died, Hall’s friends dug his grave by hand, and camped out nearby in sleeping bags under the stars. Log Mountain looms over the hill, seeming very close and very far at the same time. —Eleanor Scott

Top: Bob, Beth, and Natalie Graves in the yard in front of their home, which they built from scavenged or blemished materials. Middle: Six-year-old Natalie Graves shows off her loft bedroom. Bottom: Beth Graves makes dinner in her makeshift kitchen.

May 19, 2016

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MAY 2016

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table of contents

Welcome to Our New Abode

QUICK IDEAS

4 Locally Grown | Cool housewares and decor from Knoxville designers

If you were visiting Knoxville (or planning to move here) and picked up some of

ROOM REMODEL

those handy real estate guides at the grocery store, you might get the impression

6 Fountain City Shaker | Cabinetmaker

that living here means one thing: buying a mini-mansion that’s indistinguishable from your neighbor’s—in a subdivision named after an Olde English village. But there are other options in Knoxville for those who seek living spaces that are creative, modern, unique—you just have to know where to find them. With Abode, we hope to become your guide to finding great home design in Knoxville. Consider this a sneak preview for an ongoing magazine that celebrates the area’s most unique houses—whether they’re floating, tiny, or something else entirely. Plus, we’ll look at the local craftspeople, renovators, innovators, designers, and architects who help make living in Knoxville different from any other place. Got a cool house Knoxville needs to see? A fascinating preservation project? New ideas for sustainable living? Drop us a line at editor@knoxmercury.com.

Daniel F. Duncan creates a classic feel for a modern kitchen | BY DENNIS PERKINS

HOUSE TOURS

8 Repurposing History: White Lily Flats | An apartment building that doesn’t ignore its industrial past. | BY TRACY JONES

12 Organically Modern: A Holston River Home | A truly modern home that’s in tune with its landscape. | BY TRACY JONES

PRESERVATION

16 George Barber’s Final Home | A Parkridge

history sleuth tackles a basket-case preservation project | BY ELEANOR SCOTT

LISTINGS

20 Upscale Urban Living Options

And if you happen to own a home design or real estate-related business that needs to reach our audience of discerning consumers, let’s talk! For information about advertising in Abode, contact us at: sales@knoxmercury.com or 865-313-2048. —Coury Turczyn, editor

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the kitchen

Fountain City Shaker Cabinetmaker Daniel F. Duncan creates a classic feel for a modern kitchen

start a remodel, they may have too much space, so we may to add an island to make it work.“ In this case the owners’ desire for lots of counter space created a wide-open area that they filled with a large island, which Duncan built with wide drawers and electrical outlets to create both a table space and a storage and work area. He was also able to complete the surface with only two boards, which gives the surface a particularly smooth and attractive finish. The cabinetry itself, like the table, is made in a Shaker-style feel from cherry wood finished with a long-lasting conversion varnish, which, as Duncan explains, “has a catalyst that’s added to the finish, so when it goes on it bonds. It’s pretty A BODE

tough stuff. It lasts for a long time, it’s easy to clean; wine doesn’t get on it—it won’t stain. In fact, it can be used as floor finish so that’s how tough this stuff is.” The Shaker style emphasizes utility but, Duncan adds, this design is more of a Shaker feel, which “is fairly simple, but there’s a little more pizazz to it.” As an example, he points out the stainless steel countertops (selected by the owners and made by a local metal fabricator, FourSeasons MetalWorks): “I was concerned about the stainless steel with the Shaker style, but it looks pretty good.” But none of the features detracts from functionality. That’s clear from one of the most useful and nifty aspects of Duncan’s design: a pull-out MAY 2016

Photos by David Luttrell

n To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch famously advises his daughter Scout that, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” That’s true in all sorts of ways. So when Daniel F. Duncan starts to work on a kitchen, he starts by just standing around. “People think I’m crazy at first, because I just walk in and stand around in the kitchen for a long time,” Duncan says. Should you engage Duncan in a consideration of your cooking space, it doesn’t take long to learn that he isn’t thinking about cabinets, per se—instead, he’s thinking about your entire kitchen experience, the way that you live and work in it. One of Duncan’s most recent projects embodies his approach—a remodel of a cramped galley style kitchen in a Fountain City home built in 1929. The owners, desperate for space, had resorted to keeping their microwave at the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement. So, lots of counter space was their first objective—and the best way to achieve that was by adding onto the house; the kitchen is, in fact, an entirely new space. Armed with a rough set of drawings from the architect, Brewer Ingram Fuller, Duncan had an open slate. “In some ways, this was a unique project in that the owners knew what they wanted, but they were open to some suggestions, too. And they were interested in quality,” he says. “It was also unique because it was a really was a big, well-organized kitchen.” The new kitchen occupies about 225 square feet, but all that open space is actually more of challenge than it seems. According to Duncan, “There’s an ideal size for a kitchen to make it efficient. So when people

BY DENNIS PERKINS

spice cabinet located beside the oven area that stands almost 6 feet tall. The narrow shelves allow perfect visibility and also have rails that keep all the jars and bottles secure as it rolls in and out of the wall. Just above that cabinet and over the stove, Duncan built another wide and deep cabinet filled with dividers that’s extraordinarily useful to the well supplied cook—the slots make order out of the frequent chaos created by the irregular shapes and sizes of cutting boards, serving trays, and baking sheets that never match well enough to nest neatly in a pile. These features are the result, Duncan says, of long experience: “I’ve done a lot of kitchens and I kind of know what works, now, you have to be flexible if the client wants changes—it’s their kitchen… It’s important [to design] for whoever cooks—the kitchens I design and build are working kitchens.” Duncan has spent the last 38 years perfecting the approach to his

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craft. He came to cabinet making while working as a Volkswagen/ Porsche mechanic when a customer in need of help with some woodworking inadvertently introduced Duncan to his vocation. He says it was just that simple: “I ended up helping him and quit doing the car stuff. I just got into it.” From that point forward, it was a matter of on-the-job training. He’s quick to add that, “One thing that most people don’t realize is there’s just no training for this, you can’t go to school for it—you have to do it. And that’s the worst thing that’s happening, it’s harder to fi nd cabinet makers.” But that’s a search worth spending some time on. That’s especially true if you want a kitchen that really cooks—as this one clearly does. ■ Cabinetmaker Dan Duncan built a custom kitchen island with wide drawers and electrical outlets to create both a table space and a storage and work area.

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HOUSE TOURS

unique

Repurposing History White Lily Flats BY TRACY JONES

here was a time in Knoxville when many perfectly good buildings met the wrecking ball once they outlived their original purpose. Even beautifully constructed, iconic pieces of architectural history were left to sit vacant, invite vandalism or decay, and then be declared too far gone to save. Maybe that still happens sometimes. But not with a growing network of heritage preservationists and savvy developers who are repurposing the historic gems in Knoxville’s urban center and making them shine. Once the manufacturing center for the south’s best flour (ask a foodie), the four-story brick White Lily Flour building (at Depot and Central avenues near the Old City) is now home to White Lily Flats, a fully leased residential complex from Dewhirst Properties. The developer has preserved much of the space’s manufacturing history (gears Photos by George Middlebrooks

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HOUSE TOURS

and levers, maple beams and corrugated metal, hand-labeled machine instructions) while creating individual studio and one- or two-bedroom units with guaranteed urban sophisticate appeal. White Lily Flats opened for leasing in January 2015 and was fully occupied a couple of months later, ushering in a new chapter for what was once one of Knoxville’s most important industrial centers. It was built in 1885 by J. Allen Smith & Company, who struck baker’s gold with the development of White Lily Flour. The manufacturing concern changed hands many times in the 120-plus years after, but the mill ran 24 hours a day in Knoxville, until the J. Smucker Company moved operations to the Midwest in 2008. Dewhirst bought the property in 2011, having completed a successful similar transformation of the JFG Coffee plant in the Old City and having become one of Knoxville’s premier evangelists for repurposing our once-vital industrial center. Dewhirst Properties’ Drew Holloway says the success of JFG Flats was a confirmation that this kind of project could work, and while there were a lot of unknowns in turning the aging flour plant into sleek residences, “To see the interior was to see the potential.” In deciding what to incorporate into the building and its individual units, Holloway says “whatever offered color and texture” was an easy choice to leave in, as were the original “funky details.” Anything that lent authenticity was kept, while whatever made the place inhospitable was removed. In a third-story one-bedroom apartment, the living and sleeping areas are separated by a site-original sliding The four-story brick White Lily Flour building (at Depot and Central avenues near the Old City) was built in 1885 by J. Allen Smith & Company. Refurbished industrial gear has been commissioned into a striking light fixture that’s the first thing you see on entry. A retro-futuristic control panel was once essential to the making of a multi-million-dollar product; today it’s a favorite talking point. A BODE

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HOUSE TOURS

red corrugated metal door; Holloway says the apartments that featured those original industrial doors were the first to be leased. Behind the mid-mod-influenced seating area hangs a yellow ladder to nowhere, while in the bedroom another yellow ladder leads up to a small storage loft, both original to the building. Exposed pipes run along the top of the loft and into the spacious bathroom. In the living area, a massive maple beam rises up from the hardwood floors. It provides a natural focal point between the kitchen and seating areas and lends an unexpected warmth to the exposed brick and metal around it. The building’s common areas are also a celebration of its heritage. Refurbished industrial gear has been commissioned into a striking light fixture that’s the first thing you see on entry. A retro-futuristic control panel—a puzzle of switches and levers—was once essential to the making of a multi-million-dollar product; today it’s a favorite talking point. There is a blown-up lobby photograph of the building as it looked originally, when J. Allen Smith built it, and the corridors feature a print of a vintage advertisement celebrating the “flowers of the south”—dogwood, azalea, “White Lily Flour.” As much as there is to see inside the building—and you could never get tired of looking for the unexpected whirligigs, pumps, pipes, and fuses—the view from it is like nothing else in the city. It sits across from the train yards behind Southern Railway Station, and the view from the above particular The flour company and its building changed hands many times in its 120-plus years, until the J. Smucker Company moved operations to the Midwest in 2008. Dewhirst Properties has preserved much of the space’s manufacturing history while creating individual studio and one- or two-bedroom units. Reminders of the building’s industrial past are everywhere, with distinctive fittings in apartments and common areas. A BODE

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HOUSE TOURS

In deciding what to incorporate into the building and its individual units, Dewhirst Properties’ Drew Holloway says “whatever offered color and texture” was an easy choice to leave in, as were the original “funky details.” Anything that lent authenticity was kept, while whatever made the place inhospitable was removed.

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third-floor apartment is an invitation to trainspotting. In addition to secure entry, the building’s residents also enjoy a rare city boon: a residents-only parking lot. Across from the building’s spacious residents’ parking lot on Depot sits the new music venture the Mill and Mine, Dewhirst/Ashley Capps project, unveiled during the nationally celebrated Big Ears Festival in late March of this year. Knoxville has had a lively downtown scene for a couple of decades, and a lively Old City scene for about a decade before that, but until very recently those were considered two discrete areas. White Lily Flats is one of the obvious points of integration. With views toward downtown but steps from the Old City, and with a history that is solely, purely local, this building is at the crossroads of a Knoxville that is a thriving, resident-friendly urban center. One with a history worth saving. n

HOUSE TOURS

modern

Organically Modern

A Holston River Home

BY TRACY JONES

War-era farmhouse and another custom modern home. Once you reach the top of the hill where the home sits, you might as well be miles away from everyone. It was important to both Sohn and Anderson to preserve as much of the hushed wildness of the landscape as possible. She grew up spending summers at her grandparents’ home outside of Oregon, the Narrows, which was also nestled in the trees, and the woods are also something

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Photo by Bruce Cole. Rendering courtesy of Sanders Pace Architecture.

overed in moss and nestled under a thick canopy of trees, the boulders dotting the landscape look almost like living things, sleeping giants. Above them perches a one-of-a-kind home, modern and warm, airy and grounded, so in tune with the landscape you can’t imagine it ever wasn’t there. “We wanted a clean, warm space,” says Laura Sohn, the restaurateur and event planner who owns the home with her husband, Carlos Anderson, a nurse. “Something not just modern but organically modern.” Looking for privacy and peace, the two purchased a 20-acre parcel of rocky cedar forest along the Holston River in eastern Knox County, about 20 miles from town. The tract is part of what was once a large farm, with the river-bottom land divided into 5-acre parcels. Neighboring residences—which are not visible from the home—include an abandoned Civil

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that speak profoundly to her husband. The two wanted a one-level environment with seamless transitions between outdoor and indoor living spaces and as much natural light as possible. All on a budget. For this challenge, they turned to lead architect Brandon Pace and architect Michael Davis, both of Sanders Pace Architecture in Knoxville. Sanders Pace is known for the sleek new Wild Love Bakehouse on North Central, the renovated Southeastern Glass Building at Jackson and Gay, and other notable Knoxville projects. The couple were acquainted with the architects and knew they would “put their own stamp on things.” “We trusted them,” Sohn says. “If you’re going to work with someone creative and interesting, why doubt them?” Pace and Davis set out to explore the site with the owners,

HOUSE TOURS

looking for a way to maximize the views and take advantage of natural light exposure. “Early in the design process we presented options for the house that were primarily linear,” Davis says, “which paralleled the contours of site but seemed to lack an engagement with the hillside and potential for views into the forest.” The architects’ solution? “We presented an option which projected Photos by Tricia Bateman

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the living room and kitchen into the forest, which created a ‘Y’ shaped floor plan. This created a house with three wings, with each wing having three different exposures and three different relationships to the landscape,” Davis says. The resulting home is more than 2,500 feet of air-conditioned space, with more than 3,500 square feet under roof. The exterior is clad in native cedar and topped with a seamed metal roof. The outdoor living areas, off the different branches of the house, include an outdoor shower and several conversation areas. “My favorite part of the house is the relationship of indoor and outdoor space at the dining area and rear porch,” Pace says. Davis adds, “No room feels the same. Sometimes you are very close to the ground, like on the back porch, and other times you feel like you are in a tree house, like in the living room.” Rocks that were dug up in creating the foundation were moved to other parts of the landscape, and in one case used as a stepping structure to one of the decks. The architects were hands-on during the overseeing of the construction, as were Sohn and Anderson. Everywhere in the home there are windows. Sohn says that thanks to the “insane insulation” of the windows and the quality of the design and materials in construction, their electric bill is about 30 percent less than it was in their previous home, a rambling older home in north Knoxville. Thanks to the three exposures, the sun follows the day’s general pattern, rising in the windows that light up the master suite. “I love the mornings,” Sohn says, “But I don’t sleep much past nine anymore.” Every ray of sun during the day is taken advantage of, something that’s especially important in the winter. In the evening, if Sohn’s cooking (and that’s one of her biggest loves) at the extra-tall island that holds the gas range, she has a perfect view across the living space into the trees as the sun fades out behind A BODE

MAY 2016

HOUSE TOURS

them. Curving canister lights above the island and recessed track lighting light up the living area, and discreetly covered electrical outlets on the floor of the main space mean that an impromptu stint of workfrom-home doesn’t mean being chained to a desk or a table. The feeling inside the house is one of fun and home, reflecting Sohn and Anderson’s choice not to go “hypersleek, hypermodern.” Pops of blue cabinetry liven up the kitchen and add to the sense that a party could break out any moment. Along the northern wall in the main living area, patterned textiles create bench seating atop of part of the “75 linear feet of bookshelves” that Sohn requested. Across the room is a series of custom-built mobile shelves that were commissioned from Knoxville artist Forrest Kirkpatrick and his Fork Design. Kirkpatrick also built the room’s big conversation piece, a coffee-table crafted from a slab of timber harvested by the timber company her paternal grandfather founded. The house is filled with personal touches: an art collection that Sohn’s father gave the couple, which pops like it never did in the couple’s former home; framed photographs from the couple’s travels along the walls of the main living space; her favorite cookbooks filling up the shelves that line the back of the kitchen island; her grandparents’ dining table in the alcove facing the home’s southern exposure. Like the home Sohn’s grandparents built and lived in for 60 years, where her large extended family still returns each summer, Sohn and Anderson want this to be an anchoring refuge for themselves and for their family and friends. She has thought about additional bungalows or studios on the property, as her grandparents built on theirs, but for now is happy to enjoy the views from everywhere and dip into the river for a swim when the Holston warms. The couple has all the time in the world to make additional plans. The house—and this land— aren’t going anywhere. n

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MAY 2016

PRESERVATION

barber house

George Barber’s Final Home A Parkridge history sleuth tackles a basket-case preservation project BY ELEA NOR SCOTT

Photos by Eleanor Scott

he small two-story house at 1707 East Glenwood Ave. in Parkridge sits a little back from the road, on top of a small hill. The freshly-scraped wood siding is mottled with dark green stain and flecks of old white paint. A temporary electric pole stands in the front yard and sheets of plastic flap against the chimney. Renovation is afoot! Thanks to the sleuthing of preservationist Greta Schmoyer, we can be pretty sure this plain little 1,100-square-foot house is the work and last home of famed architect George F. Barber, best known for his mail-order catalogs of ornate Queen Anne-style home designs. Though his houses are scattered around the world, the largest collection of Barber homes is found in Parkridge, where the self-taught architect lived for most of his career. Barber moved to Knoxville in 1888 and built a large Victorian home for himself on Washington Avenue, still standing today. His much grander second home on the same street has since been destroyed. By digging through archives and old records, Schmoyer found proof Barber had, for unknown reasons, sold that grand home and was living in the simple house on Glenwood Avenue at the time of his death in 1915 at age 61. When Schmoyer bought the house in 2014 for $30,000, it was a trainwreck of neglect and questionable remodeling. The wide wood siding was hidden under “hideous” aluminum siding and the unique notched porch rafters were mostly gone, Schmoyer says. Vandals had broken the windows and the roof leaked. The house sat vacant and condemned for 15 years behind a tall screen of weeds. Schmoyer, who lived just down the street, heard rumors the abandoned house had

ties with the famous local architect. When the owners put up a for-sale sign, she jumped at the chance to steward a piece of history. “This is my neighborhood and I don’t like to see old houses being torn down,” Schmoyer says. “Any time you start scratching the surface on a historic project you find so many more fascinating pieces of the puzzle. When we lose any older house, you lose all of those puzzle A BODE

pieces and people may never be able to put them together again.” Schmoyer holds a couple of graduate degrees, and works for the USDA inspecting laboratories. She is by habit a thorough researcher, and her interest in the house sharpened the more she dug into its history and construction. Schmoyer found deeds proving George and Linda Barber bought the land in 1906, and had a house MAY 2016

built there. During renovation she found the name “Barber” written on the back of a door casing, as if a lumber mill had marked it with the customer’s name. Completed in 1913, this house lacks the whimsical elements of Barber’s iconic buildings—no carved spindlework, no storybook balconies. Some features, like its outsized columns, do keep in character with the Colonial revival elements in Barber’s later work. Did Barber design his last home? George’s son, Charles, also a successful architect, was designing buildings in Knoxville by 1913, but Schmoyer rejects the theory that Charles Barber built her house. “[George] Barber wasn’t an invalid at that point. His son Charles was an up-and-coming player in the Knoxville architectural field, but his father would have been capable of designing his own house,” Schmoyer says. The Barbers only lived in the house for two years before Laura died unexpectedly of a stroke. Nine days later, George died as well. Both were fairly young, and neither had been in ill health. George Barber’s official cause of death: “nervous exhaustion, result of worrying over wife’s sudden death.” “Basically a broken heart,” says Schmoyer, who taped copies of the Barbers’ death certificates to her wall with other historical documents. Schmoyer hired contractors to replace all electric, plumbing, and gas. She hired a mason to repoint the brickwork and rebuild the chimney. She and her mother, Denise Schmoyer, are doing much of the painstaking restoration work themselves. Schmoyer uses Craigslist and eBay for antique fixtures and obscure materials, and Google

to research restoration techniques. The biggest project the mother-daughter team has tackled thus far has been stripping the interior woodwork. Originally, all the woodwork had a clear shellac fi nish showing off the natural grain of the wood. When Schmoyer bought the house, the woodwork was thick with many layers of grubby paint. The Schmoyers heated the paint with a heat gun, which is like a big hairdryer. When heated, the layers of paint loosened, and they scraped off more easily. Schmoyer removed the old shellac underneath with steel wool and alcohol. She then reapplied the historical fi nish, dissolving flakes of shellac in alcohol and rubbing the product into the woodwork with a rag. “Shellac is very nice; it’s very bizarre,” says Schmoyer, “It’s made by the lac beetle. It doesn’t protect the wood from water as well as polyurethane, but I think it makes a more smooth, beautiful fi nish.” Following an Internet tip,

PRESERVATION

Schmoyer removed all the doorknobs and hinges gummed with paint, and soaked them in a pan on the stove. The heat softened the paint, and she was able to scrub the hardware to a high polish. “It’s important to bring back our old houses to what they were supposed to look like,” Schmoyer says. “It’s not just an aesthetic thing; the houses were made with stronger materials back then. A lot of the craftsmanship that was employed is no longer to be found at any price. With labor and Googling how to do things you can end up with a fi nished house that looks like it should, and saves a lot of resources.” Today, pieces of the house are immaculately fi nished, but a lot of work remains until it’s livable. “If the goal was to finish this house in x number of days so I can get it on the market, it doesn’t become a passion,” Schmoyer says. “Anytime you get really involved in a project you end up falling in love with it.” ■

Photos courtesy of Greta Schmoyer

TOP LEFT: Greta Schmoyer demonstrated the woodwork restoration process for a neighborhood home tour with a partially stripped and refi nished interior door, from smudged white paint at the bottom, to fi nal shellac fi nish at top. TOP RIGHT: The original dark green exterior stain is visible beneath the chipping white paint. Schmoyer ordered a custom-mixed green paint to match the original color. BOTTOM RIGHT : DIY restoration tip: Simmer paint-encrusted hardware in a pot of water on the stove, scrub away softened paint with steel wool for a polished gleam.

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real estate

Upscale Urban Living Options It’s no secret that downtown residential living has boomed in the past decade—but now it’s set to explode as new buildings and new renovations open their doors. Here are the latest.

811 East

The Daniel

Marble Alley

Located across from the Knoxville Police Department, 811 East is a petfriendly community and offers large one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments renting from $895 to $1,035.

Named after the John H. Daniel company, which resided in this Old City building for 86 years, the Daniel offers luxury lofts, ranging from 460 square feet to over 1,600 square feet.

The biggest new construction project in downtown in generations, Marble Alley is a community onto itself with lots of apartment rentals between $974 to $1,879.

811 EVOLVE WAY 865-522-0667 LIVE811EASTDOWNTOWN.COM

118 WEST JACKSON AVE. 865-264-0699 THEDANIELONJACKSON.COM

300 STATE ST. 865-544-1193 MARBLEALLEYLOFTS.COM

River’s Edge Apartment Homes 1701 ISLAND HOME AVE. 865-225-9838 RIVERSEDGEKNOX.COM

This new complex outside of the Island Home neighborhood in South Knoxville sits near the Tennessee River and offers apartments from $970 to $1,195.

But wait, there’s more! Here are new residences currently under construction or development: HISTORIC KNOXVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

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Century Building

Penney’s

The Mews

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centurybuildingknoxville.com This survivor of the “Million Dollar Fire” of 1897 offers a historic setting for condos ranging in price from $299,000 to $479,000.

This large building was indeed once the home to J.C. Penney’s store in Knoxville. Newly refurbished (complete with a bowling alley!), Penney’s now sells living spaces from $369,600 (1,400 square feet) to $705,000 (2,420 square feet).

100 MEWS WAY 865-524-2525 FACEBOOK.COM/THEMEWSDEVELOPMENT

Located near the corner of Central Street and Magnolia Avenue, one block north of the Old City, this brand new condominium development features one- to two-bedroom residences.

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A BODE

MAY 2016

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Welcome to Our New Abode

Let the Knxoville Mercury and Abode become your guides to the area’s most unique houses—whether they’re floating, tiny, or something else entirely. We’ll introduce you to local craftspeople, renovators, innovators, and architects who make living in Knoxville unique. For information about advertising in future issues of Abode, contact us at: sales@knoxmercury.com or 865-313-2048.

DP_restoring-knoxville_1-2pg-v.indd 1

3/9/15 11:10 AM

Award-Winning Journalism for Knoxville Mercury Wins Golden Press Card Awards

In our first time entering the Golden Press Card Awards, presented by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists, the Knoxville Mercury scored 13 wins— competing against the largest daily newspapers in East Tennessee. Beyond our three Awards of Excellence, we took prizes in general reporting, illustration, editorial writing, sports reporting, columns, and photography. 1ST PLACE: AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING “Checks and Balances” by S. Heather Duncan

FEATURE WRITING “Hemp Pioneers” by Clay Duda

PAGE DESIGN Knoxville Mercury Covers by Tricia Bateman

JOURNALISM ISN’T EASY. AND IT ISN’T FREE. Although we don’t charge for our content, it costs money to produce. So if you’ve ever thought, “I’d pay for this!” then now is the time to do just that. Please contribute at GoFundMe.com/PressForward2016

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 43

A&E

P rogram Notes

Finding Art A Knoxville couple launches a crowdfunded contemporary art website

Handsome and the Humbles Have Mercy

mbition can be overrated. Take the local four-piece alt-country band Handsome and the Humbles—initially conceived as a part-time cover band, it’s taken them almost three years to record and release their debut album, Have Mercy. (There was a promising five-song EP in 2014.) The band—guitarist/singer/songwriter Josh Smith, guitarist Jason Chambers, banjo player Zack Miles, and bassist Tyler Huff—seem content to play some music together and take whatever else comes as a bonus. The new disc reflects the band’s workmanlike attitude, which is more than the backhanded compliment it sounds like. Have Mercy is a modest but appealing collection of old-fashioned, straightforward No Depression-style country rock; the 13 blue-collar songs here echo ’90s bands like the Jayhawks, the Old 97’s, and Uncle Tupelo, with hints of the Drive-By Truckers and Bruce Springsteen. (There’s a welcome lack of influence from contemporary Ameri-

45 44

Inside the Vault: Bradley Reeves

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

ollowing a successful Kickstarter campaign, LOCATE Arts has launched its website, locatearts.org, which lists exhibits of contemporary visual art across the state, as well as artists working in the field and a blog with artist profiles and studio visits. The nonprofit’s Knoxville co-founders, Brian and Carri Jobe, are kicking off the effort by curating an exhibit of Tennessee-based artists called LOCATE Arts presents: mysterious flight of the peacock, which opened at the COOP Gallery in Nashville on May 7. Carri, a painter, is originally from

Nashville. Brian, a sculptor from Memphis, teaches at Pellissippi State Community College and has worked for the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in San Antonio. “We want to strengthen the dialogue between cities and also show it to the world,” Carri said in a November interview about the project. “That way, Tennessee gets recognition for what’s happening here, which is a lot, and it also helps us grow contemporary art scene and get us on the bigger stage.” (S. Heather Duncan)

cana touchstones like the Avett Brothers and the Lumineers.) It’s not just the reference points that make Have Mercy such a likeable album, though; Smith is a gifted songwriter, with a novelist’s eye for telling details and an ear for melodies that feel instantly familiar. (He’s also smart enough as a singer to let the songs do most of the work.) And the Humbles provide just the right backdrop for his songs, whether it’s the crunchy bar-band rock that propels “Burn,” the wistful jangle of “Knoxville Lights,” or the haunting backwoods drama on “The Ballad of Rose Thompson.” The album clocks in at just over 45 minutes—that’s an average of under three and a half minutes for each song. By the end, though, the dark edges of Smith’s songwriting start to feel like a bit of a drag. He and his bandmates clearly have a lot of fun when they play. Maybe he could let some of the characters in his songs have some, too. (Matthew Everett)

Classical Music: KSO’s Future

Music: The Damned Angels

Inside the Vault

Brad Reeves, former director of TAMIS and current host of Jazz Me Blues on WDVX, airing Thursday nights at 10.

Lost and Found A look back at Knoxville Stomp—and the contributions of TAMIS co-founder Bradley Reeves BY ERIC DAWSON

he Knoxville Stomp Festival of Lost Music took place two weeks ago, and maybe you’re tired of hearing about it, but this is a biweekly column, so I hope you’ll indulge me as I make a few observations. The festival (organized by the Knox County Public Library) was launched to celebrate the release of a four-CD set of recordings made at the St. James Hotel in downtown Knoxville in 1929 and 1930. During the weekend, much was said about the research that went into the book that accompanied the set and how much was left to be discovered. A few new connections were made when the grandson of session artist Hugh Ballard Cross appeared—he had seen a WBIR piece about the event and recognized a picture of his grandfather. He was introduced during a panel and spoke, and though we

learned more about his courtship with his wife than about his grandfather, we have his contact information and will follow up. There was also a record show, where TAMIS acquired a singular acetate recording by Maynard Baird, probably the most popular musician in Knoxville during the 1920s. Baird and his jazz band recorded several tunes at the sessions; this 1950s-era acetate finds him still going strong on a tune by Bert Hodgson. The Knoxville Stomp was, in some respects, a niche event. Though most of the participants’ names wouldn’t be recognized by many, they’re some of the most respected names within the world of popular-music scholarship and roots music. If there was a celebrity’s celebrity for this group, it was Candie Carawan, who attended a lot of the

events. Musicians and speakers sought her out to chat and reminisce; one was Dom Flemons, who remembered time he spent with her and her husband, Guy. Author Elijah Wald stopped her to tell her he had a significant section on Guy in his new book about Bob Dylan’s appearances at the Newport Folk Festival. The four-day event drew people from all over the world—England, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. A local expat Frenchman said he was making his friends back home jealous with text messages about what was happening throughout the weekend. He said they would definitely attend if it happened next year. In fact, everyone who spoke with us wants it to happen again. We’ll see.

This whole thing started 85 years ago, of course, with the actual recordings, but Bradley Reeves has done a significant part in keeping interest in the Knoxville sessions alive. Reeves founded the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound with his wife, Louisa Trott, in 2005. It started as a stand-alone nonprofit, operated by Reeves and Trott out their Bearden apartment; after a few years, the archive moved into the East Tennessee History Center, where it found a partnership with Steve Cotham and the McClung Collection. In 2013 TAMIS became part of the Knox County Public Library. If you’re reading this, you’re probably somewhat familiar with TAMIS and what we do. We post pictures, films, and occasionally music online, to give people a sense of what we have, but that’s just scratching the surface. TAMIS has thousands of reels of home movies originating from East Tennessee, as well as locally made films and television programs on film and video. Thousands of records, reel-to-reel tapes, acetates, and other audio formats also reside in the archive, many of them master tapes

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from local studios and other one-of-akind recordings. Our photography and artifact collection is growing as well. It’s the largest moving-image archive in the state, and an important one for the Southeast in general. We get requests from all over the country looking for footage. All of that is in Knoxville because of Reeves, whose last day as co-director of the archive was on Friday, May 13. He’s had a lot of help from a lot of people over the years, especially from Trott, but for more than 10 years he has been the person making phone calls, knocking on doors, crawling around in barns and basements, traveling miles and miles to rescue this history and preserve it. Few people know how fragile a medium film can be, to say nothing of video, and he’s been trying to rescue as much as he can before it becomes unsalvageable. He was collecting materials most other institutions were ignoring. Reeves hasn’t operated TAMIS like a traditional archive. To be sure, he’s spent a lot of time in a small basement room archiving and transferring film, video, and audio, but it was his ongoing quest for acquisitions and his demeanor with donors that made TAMIS’s holdings so impressive. On one cold call with him, I refused to get out of the car because about a dozen not terribly friendly looking dogs were gathered outside a trailer door. He was nervous, too, but he had a lead and wanted to see what he might find there. He still gets frequent calls, emails, and cards from donors he worked with years ago, just checking in to see how he’s doing or to thank him for his work. The extent and importance of the TAMIS collection may not be fully realized for many years, but Knoxville, East Tennessee, the entire state, the whole nation—let’s get grand and say even the world—owes Reeves a huge debt for saving crucial parts of this region’s cultural history from ruin. Thank you, Brad. ◆ Inside the Vault features discoveries from the Knox County Public Library’s Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, a collection of film, video, music, and other media from around East Tennessee. May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 45

A&E

Classical Music

Final Episode

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KSO prepares for a new future as the current season ends BY ALAN SHERROD

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

t seemed quite natural that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, having survived a season of episodic appearances by guest conductors vying for the position of music director, would end that season with music from Richard Wagner’s epic four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, arguably the greatest episodic musical journey of all time. Although the current journey by the orchestra will officially end when KSO’s selection committee announces its pick for the orchestra’s eighth music director, a new journey will then begin. As expected, the orchestra’s Masterworks performances at the Tennessee Theatre last week revealed much about where KSO is now and what the future may bring. This season-closer was placed in the immensely capable hands of the KSO’s resident conductor, James Fellenbaum, who has filled all the concert spots this season that weren’t taken by one of the candidates, including all of the Chamber Classics concerts at the Bijou Theatre. Just as he had done with the season opener in September, Fellenbaum gave the audience a superb program last week, filled with clever moments and solidly captivating performances. And, as evidence of his command of both the material and the orchestra, he conducted the Wagner and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 without a score. Fellenbaum’s choice for the Wagner was The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure by the Dutch arranger Henk de Vlieger. The one-hour orchestral distillation of the roughly 16 hours of music from the four operas—Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämerung—unobtrusively combines excerpts and Wagnerian leitmotivs into an ingeniously cohesive piece that is remarkably faithful to the texture of the operas. Aiding the

audience’s comprehension were projected supertitles that announced the 14 sections and provided themes and story details along the way. The orchestration—heavy in woodwinds and brass, including four special “Wagner” tubas—consumed KSO’s full roster, plus many extras summoned from elsewhere for the occasion. At the pinnacle of many individual performances were the heroic “Siegfried” horn themes, played radiantly and majestically offstage by KSO principal horn Jeffery Whaley. Although Ring purists may dismiss an orchestra-only compression such as de Vlieger’s, the work makes Wagner’s musical and dramatic arc over the four operas accessible, beginning with low strings in the depths of the Rhine and quietly ending back there, three operas later, as the gold ring returns to the Rhinemaidens and the river. The problem, as Fellenbaum discovered, was having a brief moment to savor the completion of the arc before the wild ovation consumed the orchestra, just as the fi res consumed the Hall of the Gods in Valhalla. Fellenbaum opened the concert with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, one of four overtures that the composer tried out for his only opera, Fidelio. The work’s dramatic richness and textural depth—and its length—

place it more in the category of a symphonic poem than an overture, which is almost certainly the reason Beethoven eventually put it aside. A nice ear-opening touch, in a performance that had many, was placing principal trumpet Phillip Chase Hawkins at the rear of the balcony for the offstage trumpet announcement that, in the opera, indicates Florestan’s freedom from prison. Coming between the Beethoven and the Wagner was the Tennessee premiere of Dreamtime Ancestors, a new work by the contemporary American composer Christopher Theofanidis. The work was commissioned by the New Music for America Consortium, a group of mid-size orchestras (including KSO) that have joined together to promote new works by American composers. Dreamtime Ancestors was inspired by Australian aboriginal creation myths. The work is in three through-composed sections; each begins with a theme that then develops through iteration. While it has intriguing depth and interesting instrumental color, harmonic references, and rhythmic variety, its dreamtime connections are hazily unfocused, if not downright esoteric, even as musical abstraction. Maybe that was precisely the composer’s intention. While KSO’s season fi nale always invokes wistful moments, this particular moment is a rare threshold occasion for the orchestra as it waits to greet a new music director and to embrace its future. If the next five years are as musically productive for the orchestra as the last five, then Knoxville and the KSO audience will truly be in for something amazing. ◆

As expected, the orchestra’s Masterworks performances at the Tennessee Theatre last week revealed much about where KSO is now and what the future may bring.

Music

Southern-Fried Sleaze The Damned Angels remain faithful to the Sunset Strip and dirty rock ’n’ roll BY MIKE GIBSON

ike Vince Neil on Shout at the Devil, Adam Matthews and Donnie Thunders were too young to fall in love. Smitten with the sleazy sixstrings and tattooed excess of Sunset Strip hair metal, Matthews and Thunders found themselves finishing high school in the late 1980s, scant cultural moments before the music they grew up on was swept away in a sea of angst and flannel. Yet now, the better part of three decades later, the two are finding that they are just young enough—as the Knoxville contingent of pan-Southeastern sleaze-rock act the Damned Angels—to ride an all-new wave of postmillennial glam. “There’s a bigger underground scene for the music we play than a lot of people realize,” says drummer Thunders, washing down a chicken wrap with a draft beer at a downtown bar. “Everywhere we go, we have people come up to us, thank us for playing some real, dirty American rock ’n’ roll.”

Also featuring guitarist Devin Holiday, out of Atlanta, and singer Scott P, from Asheville, the Damned Angels look like they just got off stage at the Roxy, circa 1981, all black denim and dyed-black tresses and heavy costume jewelry and faded sleeves of tattoos. Yet for all their seedy retro style, the Angels are more than just some hoary tribute act. Guitarist Holiday’s sleazy, sinuous riffs are at once streetwise and Southern-fried, coming off a bit like Electric Gypsy-era L.A. Guns as reimagined by Alabama Thunderpussy. Vocalist Scott P’s brutal, cauterized yowl sounds much like that of Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe, if Downe were to lose half an octave and maybe gargle a teaspoon of battery acid along with his morning mouthwash. Having formed about three years ago—Matthews says the band members had ties dating back to previous local and regional outfits and pulled

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together when Scott P set about finding new playmates in 2013—the Angels have recorded only a handful of songs to date, only three of which are available for streaming on the band’s ReverbNation page. The reasons for that aren’t entirely clear, although Matthews promises that “we’re going to try to get some fucking product out as soon as we can.” In the meantime, the Angels have been playing all over the Southeast, sharing the bill with ’80s diehards like Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer and the aforementioned Faster Pussycat, as well as with like-minded new bands such as Asheville’s Gutterhound and Nashville’s the Tip. Matthews says he’s heartened by the fact that the music he loves has found something of a second wind, in the person of neuvo-sleaze acts with names like Billion Dollar Babies and Hell ’n’ Diesel and Lipstixx ’n’ Bulletz and Gasoline Queen. But what if the hair metal renaissance proves to be little more than a hiccup, a tiny retro blip on the cultural radar? “It won’t matter,” Matthews says, adjusting his black baker’s cap with a beery chuckle. “This is what I do. I’ve looked this way and lived this way for the last 25 years.” ◆

WHO

The Damned Angels with Tractorhead

WHERE

The Open Chord (8502 Kingston Pike)

WHEN

Friday, May 20, at 8 p.m.

HOW MUCH $5

INFO

openchordmusic.com

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 47

MUSIC

Thursday, May 19 ZACK MILES • 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 WARREN PINEDA AND JON MASON • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM DEEDEE BROGAN • The Orangery • 6PM JACK HERRANEN AND THE LITTLE RED BAND • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM THE JON HATCHETT BAND • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • The New Orleans based Jon Hatchett Band combines many elements of American Roots music, including honky tonk, swing, jump blues and bluegrass, to make original songs and play standards that are both danceable and reflective. THE SCRUFFY CITY SYNCOPATORS • Market Square • 7PM • Go back in time as the Scruffy City Syncopaters play music from the late swing area, featuring post-World War II tunes. • FREE KATHY MATTEA AND BILL COOLEY • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Grammy Award winning singer Kathy Mattea and her longtime collaborator, guitarist Bill Cooley, have shared one of Nashville’s most musically rich partnerships for over two decades. The duo meets as old friends, welcoming you into The Acoustic Living Room to share songs and stories near and dear to their hearts — including Kathy’s beloved classics such as “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” “Where’ve You Been?,” and many other hits. • $23.50 BIG SHOALS • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM BEN DONOVAN AND THE CONGREGATION • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE HARMED BROTHERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. CHRIS LONG AND GARRETT IVEY • SoKnox Studios • 7PM THE THRILL IS GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: TRIBUTE TO B.B. KING, VOL. 2 • Relix Variety Theatre • 8PM • Featuring Devan Jones and the Uptown Stomp with Jenna Jefferson, Blair, Jody, and Cal Robbinz. The King of the Blues passed away on May 14, 2015, and some of Knoxville’s finest will pay homage to his memory. • $12 CATS AWAY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM Friday, May 20 THE BANKSTERS WITH MATT CAMPBELL • 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 ALIVE AFTER FIVE: SOULFINGER • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The spring series concludes with one of our favorite bands at AA5, a super tight group with a smoldering hot horn section. Led by vocalist and keyboard/harmonica player, Tim Spencer, Soulfinger is groovin’ in the 21st century with 20th century Old School R&B, Soul, Funk, and Blues, playing songs made famous by Otis Redding, James Brown, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, and many more. • $10 WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM JIM BUTTERWORTH AND JOHN THOMAS OAKS • Vienna Coffee House ( Maryville) • 7PM • FREE THE JOEY PIERCE DUO • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM DAN BLAKESLEE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • With a suitcase of songs, Maine folk troubadour Dan Blakeslee ventured into the subways of Boston in 48

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

1995 to practice his craft. He has been making music and art throughout New England ever since, leading him to tour the U.S. performing with The Low Anthem, David Wax Museum, Lydia Loveless, The Lumineers, Liam Finn, Brown Bird, Joe Fletcher, Death Vessel and Kimya Dawson among others. • FREE TOMMY EMMANUEL • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • It’s Emmanuel’s integrity that makes It’s Never Too Late a guitar album that’s believable to both studied guitarists and everyday music fans. • $36-$49 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • FREE STURGILL SIMPSON • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is the rare album that traverses the entire world, both musically and lyrically. It’s dizzyingly diverse, jumping from one style to the next, with ports of call in Motor City and Music Row, Harlem and Stax, Berlin and London, yet it never leaves Simpson’s very specific point of view. • $35.50-$45.50 • See Spotlight on page TK. THE DAMNED ANGELS WITH TRACTORHEAD • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Loud, gritty, American-made rock ‘n’ roll. All ages. • $7 • See preview on page 23. THE CRUMBSNATCHERS WITH BABY BABY AND THE TOM PAPPAS COLLECTION • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Full of brain-scrambling jumps between punk assaults and catchy indie-rock choruses, the band’s sound is equal parts chaotic and contrived. AVENUE C • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM PAMELA KLICKA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE VANCE THOMPSON • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM • $5 PISTOL CREEK • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM IAN THOMAS AND THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM BLAIR CRIMMINS AND THE HOOKERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE KAYA PROJECT WITH PSYCHONAUT, SLOW NASTY, AND P3RIPH3RAL • The Concourse • 10PM • 18 and up. • $7-$10 THE DEAD RINGERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. LAVIS BOARS • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 MATT A. FOSTER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM Saturday, May 21 DUANE RUTTER WITH PHOURIST AND THE PHOTONS • 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 KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM LUCY ROSE GEORGE • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE THE DIRTY DOUGS • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM TOMMY EMMANUEL • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • It’s Emmanuel’s integrity that makes It’s Never Too Late a guitar album that’s believable to both studied guitarists and everyday music fans. • $36-$49 DEMON WAFFLE WITH THE BILLY WIDGETS, FINAL FIGHT, AND MENACE FROM EARTH • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • A high-energy blend of reggae, rock, punk, soul, ska, and funk. • $5 C. VAUGHN LESLIE AND BOYS’ NIGHT OUT • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Playing authentic R&B and beach music. • $10-$15 YEAR OF OCTOBER • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. K-TOWN MUSIC • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM JANA KRAMER • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • Jana is no stranger to the bright lights with her impressive string of

movie and television roles, but she credits her recent break into the music industry as her most important accomplishment to date. • $10 THE WILL YAGER TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE KENNETH BROWN • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM • $5 HUDOST • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM THE JUKE JOINT DRIFTERS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE COSMIC SITUATION • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

MAIL THE HORSE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The story begins years prior to Mail the Horse, when a ragtag group of musicians and artists gathered weekly in woodsheds, kitchens or wherever they could find space in coastal New Hampshire to share their work and collectively scratch an artistic itch none of them could reach on his own. In this setting, they discovered they shared substantial common ground in their musical tastes, and bonded over a love for timeless rock’ n’ roll, the short-fiction of Raymond Carver, and outsider folk music. KAREN REYNOLDS • Floyds Antiques • 6PM • Part of the Floyds Music on the Lawn series of free spring and

Photo by Paradigm Agency

CALENDAR

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

STURGILL SIMPSON Tennessee Theatre (604 S. Gay St.) • Friday, May 20 • 8 p.m. • $35.50-$45.50

Sturgill Simpson’s 2014 album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, made him the latest in a long line of saviors of country music. (The title has since been passed on to Chris Stapleton.) Metamodern Sounds, produced by outsider country all-star David Cobb—who has worked with Stapleton, Shooter Jennings, Jason Isbell, and Jamey Johnson, among others—is an amalgamation of outlaw and psychedelic country, with a little bit of Dwight Yoakam’s hip-shaking Bakersfield swagger thrown in. It’s exactly the kind of vintage-sounding album that long-suffering country traditionalists like to regard as a sign that things are finally headed in the right direction in Nashville. Simpson’s new album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, released last month, is not the follow-up that most fans would have expected. A Sailor’s Guide is weirder, in fact, than the relatively by-thenumbers weirdness of Metamodern Sounds—a nautically themed song cycle, mostly presented from the perspective of a father to his son, full of heavyweight horns and funky organ and featuring a downcast cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” It’s easily the most distinctive album to top the country charts this year, and probably in several years. But A Sailor’s Guide also puts Simpson in a new position. Can an album of psychedelic roadhouse funk save country music? If Simpson has a number-one album, does country still need saving? Whatever the answers, it’s clear that Simpson’s never had anybody else’s mission in mind. (Matthew Everett)

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

summer concerts. • FREE THE FORLORN STRANGERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Forlorn Strangers are a Nashville-based Americana quintet. Their music is rooted in family harmonies & flavored with guitars, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and foot stomping percussion. • FREE MARK MCHENRY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM Sunday, May 22 THE MALIBU DIAMOND BAND • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 11AM SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE JAMES ARMSTRONG • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 4PM • Come join the Smoky Mountain Blues Society as they present some of the best known regional Blues Music artists performing on specialty cruises on the Tennessee River. From April through October, blues lovers will convene to celebrate this truly American art-form during a 3 hour Sunday afternoon cruise on the Star of Knoxville Tennessee Riverboat. Visit smokymountainblues.org. • $16-$20 HELLYEAH WITH ESCAPE THE FATE, NEW YEAR’S DAY, AND FROM ASHES TO NEW • The International • 7PM • Headbangers, take note! Don’t waste time concerning yourself with the band members’ impressive resumes or with dwelling on their previous work. On Blood for Blood, Hellyeah lives in the here and now. 18 and up. • $19.99-$24.99 SAM LEWIS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • With his compelling songs, stirring melodies, and preternaturally soulful voice, Sam Lewis has quickly established himself as one of Nashville’s most talented new tunesmiths. DAPHNE LEE MARTIN WITH GEORGIA ENGLISH AND THE JUKEBOX KIDS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. Monday, May 23 THE WHISKEY BENT VALLEY BOYS WITH THE LOCAL HONEYS • 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 VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE JAZZ TRIO • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 5PM • FREE FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM Tuesday, May 24 KATIE GARRINGER WITH MITCHEL EVAN AND THE MANGROVE • 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 BRIAN CLAY • Red Piano Lounge • 7PM MARBLE CITY 5 • Market Square • 8PM • Live jazz every Tuesday from May 3-Aug. 30. • FREE PAUL LEE KUPFER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Originally from the Mountains of West Virginia, Paul Lee Kupfer has traveled as a solo performer and band leader since 2006 while living in Philadelphia, California, Tennessee, Montana and towns in between. Restless touring and writing has allowed him to share the bill with some of his heroes. Wednesday, May 25

CALENDAR

HOOT AND HOLLER WITH MIA ROSE LYNNE • 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 GROOVE THERAPY • Red Piano Lounge • 7PM NICK DITTMEIER AND THE SAWDUSTERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • A four piece Americana band from Louisville, for fans of The Band, Little Feat, and the Turnpike Troubadours. • FREE TENNESSEE SHINES: THE BROTHERS COMATOSE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Expansive, uplifting, and just downright beautiful, The Brothers Comatose’s new release, City Painted Gold, is one of the most anticipated records of the coming year. The San Francisco band offers a Southwestern-tinged, rowdy stringband sound that will translate into a party scene on our stage and on the radio. • $10 THE HUNTER SMITH TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUPER BOB WITH ANNANDALE, BELFAST 6 PACK, FINAL FIGHT, AND VICTIMS OF EUPHORIA • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • A fun, energetic, captivating, physical expression of music with an energy and presence beyond the words that can be written in a bio. All ages. • $8-$10 STEPHANE WREMBEL • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM • Wrembel has been leaving audiences spellbound with his high-energy improvisations and an unparalleled level of virtuosity for over a decade. His ability to meld traditional Gypsy Jazz with world and rock elements has given way to a genre only identifiable as Stephane Wrembel. He finds the space where Django Reinhardt meets Pink Floyd on a path laid by John Coltrane. He has headlined at Lincoln Center, played major festivals, recorded with mandolin legend David Grisman, toured with master violinist Mark O’Connor and shared stages with everyone from Elvis Costello to Patti Smith to The Roots. His limber chops dazzle audiences around the world. Part of Kukuly Uriarte’s Hot Jazz Nights series. 18 and up. • $15-$20 COPIOUS JONES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. KRISTINE LEVINE • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM Thursday, May 26 JESSICA MARTINDALE • 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 DOUG AND DOUG • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 5PM WARREN PINEDA AND JON MASON • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM CINDI ALPERT • The Orangery • 6PM THE GREG HORNE BAND • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM KITTY WAMPUS • The Rocks Tavern • 7PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. THE YOUNG FABLES • Market Square • 7PM • The Young Fables are a country music duo comprised of East Tennessee natives Laurel Wright and Wesley Lunsford. • FREE KANSAS • Back Porch on the Creek • 7PM • Kansas has spent more than four decades as a part of the soundtrack of the lives of multiple generations of music lovers. The band’s first public statement appeared on their self-titled album in 1974. “From the beginning, we considered ourselves and our music different and we hope we will always remain so.” Little did this legendary rock group realize that back in the early ‘70’s, what seemed to be

“different,” was actually ahead of its time. • $43-$53 HOOT AND HOLLER • Sugarlands Distilling Co. • 7PM • FREE IAN THOMAS AND THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM MONTGOMERY GENTRY • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • From “Hillbilly Shoes” to “Headlights,” Montgomery Gentry has become one of the most identifiable duos in the history of country music—as much for their outlaw-meets-gentleman sensibilities, their yin and yang personalities and their intensely energetic live performances as that balance of voices that gives their brand of country an edge or their version of Southern rock a softer place to fall. • $15 THE BLUEPRINT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM CAPTAIN IVORY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. Friday, May 27 HARVEST THIEVES • 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 MALIBU DIAMOND • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM ANDY SNEED • Bluetick Brewery ( Maryville) • 7PM • Andy Sneed has been writing and performing music for over 30 years. In the last few years he has performed in venues, festivals and songwriting events throughout East Tennessee, in southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. Sneed’s songs can be funny, thought-provoking and touching all at the same time. HARVEST THIEVES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE METAL ALLIANCE TOUR: DYING FETUS AND THE ACACIA STRAIN • The Concourse • 7:30PM • One of the most infamous and influential death metal bands of the past 10 years, Dying Fetus pummel and pound their signature-style brutality into the worldwide landscape with the subtlety of full-fledged war. Descend into Depravity takes Dying Fetus to new sonic levels, and is easily the bands finest hour. They’re joined by the Acacia Strain, Jungle Rot, Black Crown Initiate, and SystemHouse 33. 18 and up. • $22.50-$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 DIRTY POOL • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM KITTY WAMPUS • Buckethead Tavern • 9PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. GREG TARDY • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE STRUNG LIKE A HORSE WITH DUSTIN SELLERS AND WIGGINS AND HAACK • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM LEFTFOOT DAVE AND THE MAGIC HATS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM KATE AND COREY • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE MOTEL MIRRORS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Motel Mirrors is a Memphis-based band featuring Amy LaVere, John Paul Keith, and Will Sexton. LIVINGSTONE WITH CRYSTAL BRIGHT AND SILVER HANDS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. FREEQUENCY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM Saturday, May 28 ADDISON JOHNSON • 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 COLE GRAHAM AND PAUPER’S PRAYER • Vienna Coffee House ( Maryville) • 7PM • FREE CANDICE MCQUEEN • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 49

CALENDAR (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE MASS DRIVER WITH WOLVES AND WOLVES AND WOLVES AND WOLVES, LA BASURA DEL DIABLO, AND THE BAD IDOLS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • The band’s founding credo, as guitarist Drew Fulton tells it, is rooted in “power and energy and riffs, without any heavy-metal darkness or imagery.” The band’s sound comes off as a mash-up of Fu Manchu-style fun-time riff rock with the occasional splash of Nebula tail-of-the-comet spaciness added as a good-customer bonus. And the lyrics—in which Fulton and bassist Rodney Sheehan hold forth on weighty world affairs such as big robots and BMX bikes—are delivered with the same groovy sense of cadence and in the same cheerful yelp favored by Fu Manchu singer Scott Hill. All ages. • $5 HARVEST THIEVES • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. SOUTHBOUND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM AFK WITH HOVERBOOTS, PAERBAER, AND FRESHCUTT • The Concourse • 9PM • Dallas Texas native and bass producing monster AFK is no stranger to the electronic music scene. With over 9 years on the decks and in the studio, AFK has captured the attention of music heavyweight hitters such as Must Die, Getter, Datsik, Mayhem, Jauz and more. As 2016 unfolds, it become more apparent that this is AFK’s year with several scheduled releases followed by an EP out Summer. 18 and up. • $7-$10 MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE HACKENSAW BOYS WITH ROMAN REESE AND THE CARDINAL SIN • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM GRITS • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM ANCIENT WARFARE WITH WHITE GREGG AND HORIZONTAL

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

HOLD • Pilot Light • 9PM • Based in Lexington, KY, with roots in both Savannah, GA and the California coast, Ancient Warfare are currently promoting their Summer 2015 Alias Records release, The Pale Horse. Since 2011, they have developed a fierce reputation for hard work and dynamic performance, sharing stages with artists such as Raveonettes, Heartless Bastards, The War on Drugs, Chelsea , Mr. Gnome, Horse Feathers, The Features. Ancient Warfare’s live show ebbs and flows from hushed harmony vocals to austere, tube-driven waves of sound. 18 and up. • $6 PALEFACE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE SUPATIGHT • Preservation Pub • 10PM KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM • Numerous titles from the Fuego’s long and varied set list are associated with—or performed in the style of—the late Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. In Paris between the World Wars, Reinhardt, with violinist Stephane Grappelli and others, invented the radical music still referred to as hot jazz. Sunday, May 29 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE FRANK TURNER AND THE SLEEPING SOULS • The Concourse • 7PM • For three long and often lonely years of life on the road, plying a brand of honest and passionate folk/punk, Frank Turner continued to rise to prominence with an ever increasing following. But it was in the sweaty

climes of the Lock Up Stage at Reading and Leeds 2008 that his solo career really started to take off. • $20-$23 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM DIGG • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Thursday, May 19 VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE OPEN MIC NIGHT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • Visit viennacoffeehouse.net. • FREE IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE Saturday, May 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, May 24 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE Wednesday, May 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 ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT • Asia Cafe West • 7PM • Bring an acoustic guitar and a few songs every Wednesday. Sign-up sheet available 30 minutes prior to 7 p.m. start. Three songs or 10 minutes per performer. • FREE Thursday, May 26 VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE OPEN MIC NIGHT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • Visit viennacoffeehouse.net. • FREE SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE Friday, May 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 a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Saturday, May 21 TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative once night. 18 and up. • $5

SKEE BALL TOURNEY! FUNDRAISER FOR WUTK!

WITH EMCEES ROB & DEREK FROM THE FUNHOUSE

PRESENTED BY

ThurSDAY, June 16 @ SUTREE’S registration 5pm-6pm - Tourney starts at 6

Teams of two - $10 entry fee all proceeds benefit WUTK! Great prizes for Final 4 teams - Raffle prizes for all

Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 50

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

Sunday, May 22 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunage in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE Sunday, May 29 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunage in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Saturday, May 21 OAK RIDGE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA • First Baptist Church of Oak Ridge • 2PM • Featuring Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, Finlandia by Sibelius, and Bernadette Lo performing Brazilian composer Osvaldo Lacerda’s Cromos Piano Suite. Sunday, May 22 OAK RIDGE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA • Cokesbury United Methodist Church • 4PM • Featuring Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, Finlandia by Sibelius, and Bernadette Lo performing Brazilian composer Osvaldo Lacerda’s Cromos Piano Suite.

THEATER AND DANCE

Thursday, May 19 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • The play’s subtitle is “Prince Ferris’ Day Off,” because the play is a witty and clever mashup of the Grimm fairy tales of Snow White and Rose Red, as well as the iconic 1980s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. May 6-22. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 Friday, May 20 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • The play’s subtitle is “Prince Ferris’ Day Off,” because the play is a witty and clever mashup of the Grimm fairy tales of Snow White and Rose Red, as well as the iconic 1980s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. May 6-22. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 Saturday, May 21 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • The play’s subtitle is “Prince Ferris’ Day Off,” because the play is a witty and clever mashup of the Grimm fairy tales of Snow White and Rose Red, as well as the iconic 1980s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. May 6-22. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 Sunday, May 22 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • The play’s subtitle is “Prince Ferris’ Day Off,” because the play is a witty and clever mashup of the Grimm fairy tales of

CALENDAR

Snow White and Rose Red, as well as the iconic 1980s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. May 6-22. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Thursday, May 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, May 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. Saturday, May 21 SILLY SATURDAYS: A COMEDY SHOW • The Square Room • 9PM • Hosted by Lawrence Owens with DJ Stearl the Pearl. Headliner Dave Martin from HBO Badboys of comedy and also featuring The Carolina Queen of Comedy, Sweet Baby Kita. • $22.50-$25 Sunday, May 22 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Monday, May 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. Free, but donations are accepted.• FREE ON THE MIC WITH MIKE • Scruffy City Hall • 7PM • Bee Valley Productions and Scruffy City Hall are proud to present an attention-deficit, topsy turvy take on the late-night talk show format. Mike Bartlett created the show as a way of marrying his passion for music and comedy; the purpose is to showcase the abundance of talented artists in the Knoxville music scene. Each episode features unique interviews and performances from Knoxville’s best artists, as well as sketches, segments, games, and more. Visit beevalleyproductions. com/comedy/onthemicwithmike. Tuesday, May 24 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 OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Doors open at 8:30, first comic at 9. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun email us at long branch.info@gmail. com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE Thursday, May 26 SUGAR HIGH! COMEDY SHOW • Sugar Mama’s Bakery • 8PM • A new comedy showcase at the brand new home of

Sugar Mama’s on the 100 block. No cover. • FREE FULL DISCLOSURE COMEDY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Full Disclosure Comedy is Knoxville’s long-form improvisational troupe, bringing together community members for laughs and overall general merriment. Friday, may 27 SMOKY MOUNTAIN STORYTELLERS • Vienna Coffee House • 7PM • FREE Sunday, May 29 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

FESTIVALS

Friday, May 20 BLOUNT MANSION STATEHOOD DAY GARDEN PARTY • Blount Mansion • 6:30PM • Join us for our annual Statehood Celebration. There will be a cocktail supper, live music, and a silent auction. To RSVP call (865)525-2375 or go to www. blountmansion.org. BLOOMIN’ BBQ AND BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL • This May 20 and 21, downtown Sevierville blooms for the 12th annual Bloomin’ BBQ & Bluegrass festival. With more than 40 cook teams battling it out for $17,500 in cash and prizes during the Bush’s Best Tennessee State Championship Cook Off, you know there’s going to be plenty of great BBQ. • FREE Saturday, May 21 SMOKY MOUNTAIN SCOTTISH FESTIVAL AND GAMES • Maryville College • You don’t have to be Scottish in order to enjoy this festival! Originally founded in 1981, this is now one of the oldest Scottish Festivals in the country, with dozens of pipe and drum bands filling the air with colorful sounds, vibrantly attired dancers performing traditional highland dances, sheepdog demonstrations, and a plethora of traditional Celtic food vendors. BLOOMIN’ BBQ AND BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL • This May 20 and 21, downtown Sevierville blooms for the 12th annual Bloomin’ BBQ & Bluegrass festival. With more than 40 cook teams battling it out for $17,500 in cash and prizes during the Bush’s Best Tennessee State Championship Cook Off, you know there’s going to be plenty of great BBQ. • FREE TENNESSEE MEDIEVAL FAIRE • Tennessee Medieval Faire • 10AM • The festival will come to life on May 14 and run the last three weekends in May, including Memorial Day. This year’s festival is portraying the historical year of 500 after the fall of the Roman Empire. Visitors can cheer on their favorite knight at the live-action jousts, laugh with comedic characters and thrill to warriors’ chess. For more information, please visit www.TMFaire.com or like them on Facebook. • $16.95 Sunday, May 22 SMOKY MOUNTAIN SCOTTISH FESTIVAL AND GAMES • Maryville College • You don’t have to be Scottish in order to enjoy this festival! Originally founded in 1981, this is now one of the oldest Scottish Festivals in the country, with dozens of pipe and drum bands filling the air with colorful sounds, vibrantly attired dancers performing traditional highland dances, sheepdog demonstrations, and a plethora of traditional Celtic food vendors. TENNESSEE MEDIEVAL FAIRE • Tennessee Medieval Faire • 10AM • The festival will come to life on May 14 and run the last three weekends in May, including Memorial Day. This year’s festival is portraying the historical year of 500 May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 51

CALENDAR after the fall of the Roman Empire. Visitors can cheer on their favorite knight at the live-action jousts, laugh with comedic characters and thrill to warriors’ chess. For more information, please visit www.TMFaire.com or like them on Facebook. • $16.95 KNOSHVILLE JEWISH FOOD FESTIVAL • Arnstein Jewish Community Center • 11AM • You might be familiar with bagels and lox, or challah bread. But what about shakshuka or mandlebrot? The Knoxville community will have a chance to try both of these Jewish foods, and many more, at the first-ever “Knoshville” Jewish Food Festival. Knoshville will also feature Israeli dancing, music, and an art gallery. • FREE Monday, May 23 PINT OF SCIENCE FESTIVAL • 7PM • The Casual Pint is set to bring scientists out of labs and into breweries to share their research in three venues over three nights as part of the annual Pint of Science global festival. Speakers will give talks on neuroscience, supercomputing, 3D printing, brewing science, herpetology, and much more. Pint of Science is a non-profit outreach organization bringing stories of science, and the scientists behind them, to cities across the globe. Events will be held at Saw Works Brewing Company, Crafty Bastard Brewery, and Last Days of Autumn Brewing Company. Tickets to attend cost $5 per night and are available online through the Pint of Science website at pintofscience.us/events/Knoxville. Knox Brew Tours will provide a shuttle from The Casual Pint of Downtown to each venue from 5 - 6:30 p.m. and back from 9 - 10:30 p.m. for an additional $5 per person. •

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

$5 Tuesday, May 24 PINT OF SCIENCE FESTIVAL • 7PM • The Casual Pint is set to bring scientists out of labs and into breweries to share their research in three venues over three nights as part of the annual Pint of Science global festival. Speakers will give talks on neuroscience, supercomputing, 3D printing, brewing science, herpetology, and much more. Pint of Science is a non-profit outreach organization bringing stories of science, and the scientists behind them, to cities across the globe. Events will be held at Saw Works Brewing Company, Crafty Bastard Brewery, and Last Days of Autumn Brewing Company. Tickets to attend cost $5 per night and are available online through the Pint of Science website at pintofscience.us/events/Knoxville. Knox Brew Tours will provide a shuttle from The Casual Pint of Downtown to each venue from 5 - 6:30 p.m. and back from 9 - 10:30 p.m. for an additional $5 per person. • $5 Wednesday, May 25 PINT OF SCIENCE FESTIVAL • 7PM • The Casual Pint is set to bring scientists out of labs and into breweries to share their research in three venues over three nights as part of the annual Pint of Science global festival. Speakers will give talks on neuroscience, supercomputing, 3D printing, brewing science, herpetology, and much more. Pint of Science is a non-profit outreach organization bringing stories of science, and the scientists behind them, to cities across the globe. Events will be held at Saw Works Brewing Company, Crafty Bastard Brewery, and Last Days

of Autumn Brewing Company. Tickets to attend cost $5 per night and are available online through the Pint of Science website at pintofscience.us/events/Knoxville. Knox Brew Tours will provide a shuttle from The Casual Pint of Downtown to each venue from 5 - 6:30 p.m. and back from 9 - 10:30 p.m. for an additional $5 per person. • $5 Saturday, May 28 TENNESSEE MEDIEVAL FAIRE • Tennessee Medieval Faire • 10AM • The festival will come to life on May 14 and run the last three weekends in May, including Memorial Day. This year’s festival is portraying the historical year of 500 after the fall of the Roman Empire. Visitors can cheer on their favorite knight at the live-action jousts, laugh with comedic characters and thrill to warriors’ chess. For more information, please visit www.TMFaire.com or like them on Facebook. • $16.95 MARBLE SPRINGS STATEHOOD DAY CELEBRATION • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 10AM • June 1st, 2016 will be the 220th anniversary of Tennessee’s admission as the 16th state in the year 1796. In conjunction with the Historic Homes of Knoxville, Marble Springs State Historic Site will commemorate this occasion with free site tours on Saturday, May 28th. Along with scheduled guided tours, guests will get to walk through Living History encampments, view open hearth cooking demonstrations, and enjoy some 18th century music. For more information please email info@marblesprings.net, call (865) 573-5508, or visit our website at www.marblesprings.net. • FREE

Sunday, May 29 TENNESSEE MEDIEVAL FAIRE • Tennessee Medieval Faire • 10AM • The festival will come to life on May 14 and run the last three weekends in May, including Memorial Day. This year’s festival is portraying the historical year of 500 after the fall of the Roman Empire. Visitors can cheer on their favorite knight at the live-action jousts, laugh with comedic characters and thrill to warriors’ chess. For more information, please visit www.TMFaire.com or like them on Facebook. • $16.95

FILM SCREENINGS

Sunday, May 22 NOKNO CINEMATHEQUE: ‘THE SANDLOT’ • Central Collective • 2PM • A new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his team in this coming of age movie set in the summer of 1962. Together, they get themselves into many adventures involving rival teams, lifeguards, and a vicious dog. • FREE Monday, May 23 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE FANTASTICK! FILMS SUMMER SERIES • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 6PM • Join us on select Mondays this summer for local films and filmmaker Q&A and discussions and a featured nationally or internationally acclaimed film. Features include John Legend’s Can You Dig This? (May 23) and More Than Honey, directed by

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

Markus Imhoof (June 6). Tuesday, May 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 Friday, May 27 TAKE BACK YOUR POWER • The Birdhouse • 7PM • Come learn about KUB’s new smart meter program, starting this July, and the different risks this program poses to our community. This award-winning documentary investigates so-called “smart” utility meters, uncovering shocking evidence of in-home privacy invasions, increased utility bills, health and environmental harm, fires, and unprecedented hacking vulnerability—and lights the path toward solutions. Movie begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by Q&A about the specifics of the KUB program. • FREE

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Thursday, May 19 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average. Weather permitting. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Join us every Thursday night at our store for a fun group run/walk. We have all levels come out, so no matter what your speed you’ll have someone to keep you company. Our 30 - 60 minute route varies week by week in the various neighborhoods and greenways around the store, so be sure to show up on time so you can join up with the group. All levels welcome.fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE RIVER SPORTS THURSDAY EVENING GREENWAY BIKE RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Every Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 join River Sports Outfitters on an easy paced, beginner friendly Greenway Ride. Bring your own bike or rent one for $15. Lights are mandatory on your bikes from September through March. After ride join us at the store for $2 pints. riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY THURSDAY GRAVEL GRINDER • North Boundary Trails • 6:30PM • Join Knoxville Bicycle Company every Thursday evening for their gravel grinder. Meets at 6:30 pm at North Boundary in Oak Ridge, park at the guard shack. Cross bikes and hardtails are perfect. Bring lights. Regroups as necessary. Call shop for more details. Weather permitting - call the store if weather is questionable. knoxvillebicycleco.com. • CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph. Must have lights. Weather permitting. cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Friday, May 20 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store

CALENDAR

every Friday evening from 6-7:30 pm. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 pints in the store afterwards. riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE

Quench thirst. Follow us on Facebook. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES TUESDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE

Saturday, May 21 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: DEEP CREEK TRIPLE WATERFALL LOOP • 7:30AM • We will hike sections of the Deep Creek, Martins Gap and Sunkota Ridge Trails. After climbing to and descending from Martins Gap, we will finish by walking alongside Deep Creek. This hike is rated difficult due to the 14-mile length, including a 3.5 mile climb to Martins Gap. Meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Hwy at 7:30 AM, and expect to arrive back at Comcast by 8 PM. Leaders: Steve Madden, smadden@aaasouth.com & Steve Dunkin, jsdunkin@roaneschools.com. • FREE KNOXVILLE OPERA GUILD CROQUET TOURNAMENT • University of Tennessee • 10:30AM • Knoxville Opera Guild will host the 11th annual Knoxville Croquet Tournament on the grounds of the UT RecSports Field Complex on Sutherland Ave. The lively tournament consists of two-player teams who will proceed through up to five wickets. Along with playing croquet on the green, attendees will enjoy a gourmet brunch and high tea, raffle prizes, a bocce game and vintage automobiles. The heads of the Knoxville Opera, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Museum of Art, and the Clarence Brown Theatre will compete for Knoxville’s most prestigious croquet award. For more information, please call Audrey Duncan at 865.588.8371. • $100

Wednesday, May 25 KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • Visit ktc.org. • FREE FOUNTAIN CITY PEDALERS SHARPS RIDGE MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Fountain City Pedaler • 6PM • Visit fcpedaler.com. • FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • On Wednesday nights we hit the local trails for an easy-paced mountain bike ride. Riders of all skill levels are welcome, and if you would like to demo a mountain bike from our shop this is a great opportunity to do so. Rides are weather permitting. If the trails are too wet, we do not ride. Check out our Facebook page or give us a call at 865-540-9979 for more info. • FREE

Sunday, May 22 KNOXVILLE HARDCOURT BIKE POLO • Sam Duff Memorial Park • 1PM • Don’t know how to play? Just bring your bike — we have mallets to share and will teach you the game. • FREE RUN AND WALK FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS • University of Tennessee • 9AM • Join us in our race to raise awareness and end the stigma behind mental health illnesses. Proceeds will go to the Helen Ross McNabb Center, a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide mental health care to individuals who would otherwise have no options. The Run for Mental Health Awareness will be a 5K beginning on Pedestrian Walkway next to John C. Hodges Library. Register at eventbrite.com. For more information visit globalserviceprojects.com/mha/. SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: JUDGE BRANCH WILDFLOWERS • 1PM • This will be an easy 3-mile hike to see the late season wildflowers on the Judge Branch Trail in Frozen Head State Park. Meet at the Oak Ridge Books-a-Million, 310 South Illinois Avenue, at 1:00 pm. Leader: Don Dunning, dedz1@aol.com. • FREE Monday, May 23 KTC GROUP RUN • Mellow Mushroom • 6PM • Visit ktc.org. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE TVB MONDAY NIGHT ROAD RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • The soon to be famous Monday night road ride happens every Monday. We usually split into two groups according to speed. Both groups are no-drop groups. The faster group averages over 17mph and the B group averages around 14mph. • FREE Tuesday, May 24 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10:30AM • cycologybicycles.com. • FREE HARD KNOX TUESDAY FUN RUN • Hard Knox Pizzeria • 6:30PM • Join Hard Knox Pizzeria every Tuesday evening (rain or shine) for a 2-3 mile fun run. Burn calories. Devour pizza.

Thursday, May 26 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average. Weather permitting. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Join us every Thursday night at our store for a fun group run/walk. We have all levels come out, so no matter what your speed you’ll have someone to keep you company. Our 30 - 60 minute route varies week by week in the various neighborhoods and greenways around the store, so be sure to show up on time so you can join up with the group. All levels welcome. fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE RIVER SPORTS THURSDAY EVENING GREENWAY BIKE RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Every Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 join River Sports Outfitters on an easy paced, beginner friendly Greenway Ride. Bring your own bike or rent one for $15. Lights are mandatory on your bikes from September through March. After ride join us at the store for $2 pints. riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY THURSDAY GRAVEL GRINDER • North Boundary Trails • 6:30PM • Join Knoxville Bicycle Company every Thursday evening for their gravel grinder. Meets at 6:30 pm at North Boundary in Oak Ridge, park at the guard shack. Cross bikes and hardtails are perfect. Bring lights. Regroups as necessary. Call shop for more details. Weather permitting - call the store if weather is questionable. knoxvillebicycleco.com. • CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph. Must have lights. Weather permitting. cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Friday, May 27 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store every Friday evening from 6-7:30 pm. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 pints in the store afterwards. riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, May 28 KTC EXPO 10K AND 5K • Downtown Knoxville • 8AM • The EXPO 10K/5k is more than a race: It is Knoxville’s oldest and most beloved community running event. In its’ 38th year, it is truly a tradition. It is the only race that celebrates the family by having mother/son, mother/

Knoxville’s BEST live music venue 6 nights a week!

Happy Hour 3pm to 8pm Huge selection of Craft, Import & Local beer Locally roasted coffee

thurs may 19 • 8pm Matt wright & the leftovers w/ pat beasley band, & Shimmy & The burns $5 • all ages ( americana )

fri may 20 • 8pm

damned angels w/ tractorhead $5 • all ages ( rock )

Sat. May 21 • 8 PM

C. Vaughn Leslie & Boys' Night Out $10 ADV | $15 day of all ages ( r&b / beach music )

mon may 23 • 6pm

FANTASTICK! FILMS Summer Series w/ LEIGH ANN JERNIGAN “CAN YOU DIG THIS” directed by john legend $10 • all ages ( film ) "Coolest venue in town! Not too big, not too small. Great sound system and audio engineers. Lights show, good food, cold beer and a music store in the back. Oh, and they give lessons, too. Seriously? I still can't believe this place is real." -Austin Hall of Sam Killed The Bear

Knoxville’s Best Musical Instrument Store

8502 KINGSTON PIKE • (865) 281-5874 openchordmusic.com

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 53

CALENDAR daughter, father/son, father/daughter, wife/husband, and three generations categories. It is the Knoxville Track Club’s event of the year. • $35-$50 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: INJUN CREEK, TED’S BRANCH, LITTLE RHODODENDRON CREEK, AND RHODODENDRON CREEK OFF-TRAIL • 8AM • We will begin this hike at the Greenbrier Ranger Station going up Injun Creek to a little past the former school site where we will cross the creek then climb up through the Joe Hollow and over James Ridge to Ted’s Branch. Hike: around 8 miles, rated difficult due to some thick vegetation and steep terrain. Contact the leader for meeting time and place. Leaders: Ed and Pam Fleming, edwrdflm@aol.com. • FREE Sunday, May 29 KNOXVILLE HARDCOURT BIKE POLO • Sam Duff Memorial Park • 1PM • Don’t know how to play? Just bring your bike — we have mallets to share and will teach you the game. • FREE

ART

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) APRIL 27-JUNE 25: Arrowmont staff exhibit, featuring artwork by Jeda Barr, Nick DeFord, Kelly Sullivan, Vickie Bradshaw, Bill Griffith, Kelly Hider, Jennifer Blackburn, Ernie Schultz, Heather Ashworth, Laura Tuttle, Bob Biddlestone and Jason Burnett.

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. MAY 3-28: An exhibit by the Tennessee Watercolor Society. Bliss Home 24 Market Square MAY 6-31: Artwork for the International Biscuit Festival by Hannah Holder. Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 Broadway MAY 6-31: Body as Art, featuring clay figure work by Annamaria Gundlach. The District Gallery 5113 Kingston Pike APRIL 22-MAY 31: Along the Way, oil paintings by Kathie Odom. Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. MAY 6-28: Artsource 2016, featuring artwork by Knox County art educators. East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 16-OCT. 30: Come to Make Records, a selection of artifacts, audio and video recordings, and photographs celebrating Knoxville’s music heritage and the 1929-30 St. James Hotel recording sessions. Emporium Center for Arts and

Culture 100 S. Gay St. MAY 6-27: Recessive, photographs by Abigail Malone; photography by Rachel Quammie; and International Latino Art Exhibition. Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. APRIL 22-MAY 20: Find Ourselves, paintings and drawings by Sarah Moore. Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive MAY 6-AUG. 7: Full Stop, a large-scale installation by painter Tom Burkhardt, and Contemporary Focus 2016, with artwork by installation/video/sound artist John Douglas Powers. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass. Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike APRIL 28-MAY 21: Paintings and photography by Ursula Brenner, Elaine Clark Thomas, Jillie Eves, Ted Borman, and Ann Allison-Cote. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JAN. 23-MAY 22: Maya: Lords of Time. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on

the Roman Frontier. Westminster Presbyterian Church 6500 S. Northshore Drive THROUGH JUNE 26: Artwork by Donna Conliffe and Ann Dally.

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Friday, May 20 KNOX HERITAGE LOST AND FOUND LUNCHEON • Knox Heritage • 11:30AM • Jack Neely and Kim Trent will discuss the history of preservation in Knoxville. Space is limited and advance reservations are required. To make reservations, call Hollie Cook at 865-523-8008 or email hcook@knoxheritage.org. DAVID FREEMAN: WHAT TVA SHOULD BE DOING TO HELP SAVE THE PLANET BUT ISN’T • Church of the Savior United Church of Christ • 7PM • As TVA Board Chair in the 1970s and 1980s, Dave Freeman was instrumental in making TVA a national model for promoting energy conservation and renewable energy resources. As the crisis of global warming accelerates across the globe, TVA once again has the potential of becoming a national and world leader in renewable and sustainable energy production. What has to happen to transform this vision to reality? Come join the conversation. • FREE Saturday, May 21

Light it Up!

Business

Product awareness

We are refurbishing our iconic marquee and vertical sign this summer and need your help. Help us shine brighter! Buy a bulb or purchase limited edition merchandise to help support the project!

Company goodwill

There’s never been a better time to “go public.”

To learn more or to donate, visit tennesseetheatre.com/marquee

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

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Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

MANNY SETHI: ‘THE AMERICAN DREAM IN TENNESSEE’ • Union Ave Books • 5PM • Book signing with Manny Sethi, The American Dream in Tennessee: Stories of Faith, Struggle, and Survival. • FREE Wednesday, May 25 AN EVENING WITH SHARYN MCCRUMB • East Tennessee History Center • 7PM • Spend an evening with award-winning Southern author Sharyn McCrumb. McCrumb will discuss her new novel, Prayers the Devil Answers, which tells the story of Ellie Robbins, who is appointed to serve out the term of her late husband as sheriff of their rural Tennessee mountain town during the later years of the Great Depression. The novel is the latest in McCrumb’s Ballad series. For more information about this author event hosted by Friends of the Knox County Public Library and the East Tennessee Historical Society, visit knoxfriends.org/news-events/sharyn-mccrumb/. • FREE

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Saturday, May 21 CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL OF READING • World’s Fair Park • 10AM • The Spy Guy, a not so secret agent, is joining Danny Dragonbreath and the very curious Ladybug Girl in World’s Fair Park to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer. This year’s Festival will host some of the most popular and acclaimed children’s authors and illustrators in the country. Headlining the day are David Soman, illustrator of the very popular Ladybug Girl picture book series and Ursula Vernon of the Dragonbreath graphic novel series. R. • FREE Monday, May 23 MCCLUNG MUSEUM STROLLER TOUR: GEOLOGY ROCKS! • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 10AM • Join us for a morning out as our museum educator leads engaging gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their young ones. Crying and wiggly babies welcome. This month we explore Geology in our Geology and Fossil History of Tennessee Gallery. The event is free, but limited, and all attendees must register to attend online. Registration opens a month in advance and closes the day before the tour. Visit eventbrite.com. • FREE

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

Thursday, May 19 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises. Come prepared to sweat. Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 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

CALENDAR

one. Special attention will be provided to beginners interested in learning how to knit and experience the meditative quality of knitting. Supplies provided. Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 2PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20 to partake in the libations. BEGINNER’S ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 7PM • The class is set up in a series format with each week building on the last. However, each class will be beginner friendly, incorporating intermediate options for more experienced fliers. New content is explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes, providing a space for students to form a strong foundation of skills. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, close fitting long pants (no zippers or buttons), and water. No partner needed. • $15 Saturday, May 21 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE OUTDOOR WRITING WORKSHOP: “I’M NOT FISHING, I’M WORKING!” • Central United Methodist Church • 10AM • Outdoor writer and columnist for the Knoxville Mercury Kim Trevathan will teach an outdoor writing workshop to outdoor enthusiasts on May 21. Writers will learn how to construct adventures with compelling content and how to multipurpose it for different genres. To register for the workshop, visit http://knoxvillewritersguild.org/events/ outdoor-writing-workshop-im-not-fishing-im-working or send your check to KWG Workshops, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville, TN, 37939-0326. • $35 RAIN BARREL WORKSHOP • Farragut Town Hall • 10AM • Would you like free water for your gardens? Come make your own rain barrel. The rain barrel workshop is brought to you by the Water Quality Forum. Cost is $40 per barrel, and advanced registration is required. To register, please contact Kellie Caughor at the UT Water Resources Research Center at kcaughor@utk.edu or (865) 974-2151. • $40 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: MINDFULNESS IN EVERYDAY LIFE • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • Life is full of challenges. What can we do when our lives feel out of control? A practice of mindfulness can help. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. FIRST TIME 411 • Trotta Montgomery Real Estate • 12PM • This is a class for first time home buyers instructing attendees about the whole process of home buying. What will be offered: The opportunity to speak to agents, lenders, title specialists, and inspectors. Also, there will be free coffee and snacks. It will last 3 hours but the attendees can come and go as they please. Totally free. • FREE Sunday, May 22 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Sunday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE

CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique. This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance. No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. • $10 ROOFTOP YOGA • Central Collective • 6:30PM • With Jennifer Beyt Coffin. Visit exploreyourcore.co. • $10 Monday, May 23 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. KNOXVILLE KETTLEBELL CLUB BEGINNERS CHALLENGE: STRENGTH AND STABILITY • Bullman’s Kickboxing and Krav Maga • 9:30AM • Have you been looking for a way to get fitter, happier, and healthier? Do you have any nagging injuries and are looking for a program that will accommodate your current level of fitness and also take you to the next level of strength and stability? Join us for this six-week series introducing the ancient strength-training kettlebell workout to make modern life feel better. Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m., starting May 23. • $180 NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 10AM • Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com. Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion. CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: QUICK AND TASTY COOKING • Cancer Support Community • 12PM • Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. Tuesday, May 24 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Capoeira originated in Brazil and is a dynamic expression of Afro-Brazilian culture. It is an art form that encompasses martial arts, dance, and acrobatic movements as well as its own philosophy, history, culture, music, and songs. Visit capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 GENERATIONS GENEALOGY RESEARCH GROUP • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 5:30PM • Generations Genealogy Research Group is open to people of all ages interested in May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 55

genealogy and family history. ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 7PM • The class is set up in a series format with each week building on the last. However, each class will be beginner friendly, incorporating intermediate options for more experienced fliers. New content is explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes, providing a space for students to form a strong foundation of skills. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, close fitting long pants (no zippers or buttons), and water. No partner needed. • $15 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: CELEBRATE SUMMER • Karns Senior Center • 11AM • Join Master Gardner Lynn Carlson to talk about making your outdoor containers a rainbow of color. Design, color balance, proportion—there is no one perfect design, so think outside the pot for this one! Call 865-951-2653. • FREE Wednesday, May 25 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • A rotation of core members and guest artists of Circle Modern Dance teach this class. They present a variety of modern and contemporary styles, including Bartenieff and release-based techniques. This class is primarily designed for students with a basic knowledge of modern dance technique and vocabulary, but is open to any mover who is willing to be challenged. CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 7:30PM • This is a basic ballet class open to students of all levels of

experience and ability. Students will learn new steps, build coordination and flexibility, and learn choreography. • $10 KNOXVILLE KETTLEBELL CLUB BEGINNERS CHALLENGE: STRENGTH AND STABILITY • Bullman’s Kickboxing and Krav Maga • 9:30AM • Have you been looking for a way to get fitter, happier, and healthier? Do you have any nagging injuries and are looking for a program that will accommodate your current level of fitness and also take you to the next level of strength and stability? Join us for this six-week series introducing the ancient strength-training kettlebell workout to make modern life feel better. Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m., starting May 23. • $180 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822. NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com. Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion. CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: THOUGHTS GETTING YOU DOWN? • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • Are thoughts keeping you up at night or making a challenging circumstance worse? Cognitive-Behavioral psychologist Dr. Denise Stillman will discuss the power of our thoughts and teach ways to enlist our thoughts as our allies. A light dinner will be provided. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

CLIMBING FUNDAMENTALS • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Come learn the basics of climbing every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Space is limited so call 865-673-4687 to reserve your spot now. Class fee $20. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • $20 Thursday, May 26 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 2PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises. Come prepared to sweat. Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20 to partake in the libations. BEGINNER’S ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 7PM • The class is set up in a series format with each week building on the last. However, each class will be beginner friendly, incorporating intermediate options for

more experienced fliers. New content is explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes, providing a space for students to form a strong foundation of skills. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, close fitting long pants (no zippers or buttons), and water. No partner needed. • $15 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822. KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: CELEBRATE SUMMER • Humana Guidance Center • 3:15PM • Join Master Gardner Lynn Carlson to talk about making your outdoor containers a rainbow of color. Design, color balance, proportion—there is no one perfect design, so think outside the pot for this one! Call865-329-8892. • FREE FIND YOUR PARK: SEVEN ISLANDS STATE BIRDING PARK • REI • 6PM • How did this dairy farm become one of Tennessee State Park’s newest additions? What’s to see out there? What can I expect when I visit? What is a ‘birding park’ anyway? Visit rei.com/stores/knoxville. • FREE Saturday, May 28 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE Sunday, May 29 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Sunday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE

& se oxv s e n ille, T e n

CALENDAR

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

Presented by

Explore Knoxville in a New Way! Bbbb.visitknoxville.com

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

CALENDAR CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique. This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance. No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. • $10 ROOFTOP YOGA • Central Collective • 6:30PM • With Jennifer Beyt Coffin. Visit exploreyourcore.co. • $10

MEETINGS

Thursday, May 19 SCRUFFY CITY ORCHESTRA • First Baptist Church • 7PM • A new venue for musicians from the greater Knoxville metropolitan area, Scruffy City Orchestra, kicks off with regular rehearsals on Thursdays. Conductors are Matt Wilkinson and Ace Edewards. Prospective members, especially string players, are encouraged to contact Alicia Meryweather at ScruffyCityOrchestra@gmail.com for more information. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 4:30PM • 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. Saturday, May 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 100 BLACK MEN OF GREATER KNOXVILLE • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 10AM • The 100 Black Men of Greater Knoxville’s purpose is to serve as a catalyst to empower African-American and other minority youth to individually and collectively reach their full potential through maximizing their resources that foster and enhance achievement in education and community and economic development. To accomplish this objective, we partner with primary and secondary schools and community organizations engaged in similar activities. Sunday, May 22 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites

you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering on Sundays. 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 information call 865-497-2753 or email community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshiping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general. Open meeting, rotating facilitation, collective model. Y’all come. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • 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. Our monthly celebrations feature a different theme every month, with inspiring speakers and lively sing-alongs. Our community is also involved in rewarding service projects, with various discussion groups and events planned throughout the month. Sunday Assembly Knoxville is part of the international movement of people who want to celebrate the one life we know we have. We meet the fourth Sunday of every month. Assemblies are attended by around 50 people, are family-friendly, and children are welcome. We always follow up with a potluck, so please bring your appetite and a dish to share. To find out more, visit our web page (http:// knoxville-tn.sundayassembly.com) or email saknoxville. info@gmail.com. • FREE BIRDHOUSE SUNDAY DINNER POTLUCK AND PRESENTATION • The Birdhouse • 6PM • Join us for a potluck dinner at 6 p.m. and a presentation at 7. We will be learning about the Knoxville Housing Cooperative in the 4th and Gill Neighborhood—its history and purpose in our community, how it started, and why we still need it. Every month, the Birdhouse hosts a Sunday dinner program. It begins with a potluck dinner, followed by a speaker and presentation on a wide range of timely topics. Sunday dinner is always free and open to the public. Please bring a dish to share—but if you are for some reason unable to contribute food, please just bring yourself, and share in our feast. Children are especially welcome here. • FREE

financial aid

cohorts

tutoring

Monday, May 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 meets the fourth Monday of each month. • FREE Tuesday, May 24 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 Wednesday, May 25 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GROUP • Naples Italian Restaurant • 11AM • Guest speakers read from and discuss their work. All-inclusive lunch is $12.00. RSVP to 865-983-3740. THE BOOKAHOLICS BOOK GROUP • Union Ave Books • 12PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly book discussion group. Visit

865.694.6400

www.pstcc.edu

A TBR INSTITUTION AN AA/EEO COLLEGE

May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 57

CALENDAR unionavebooks.com. • FREE KNOX HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND LIBATIONS • The Crown and Goose • 5:30PM • Join friends of historic preservation for a drink and good conversation. No need to RSVP, just stop by. Free and open to the public. • FREE Thursday, May 26 SCRUFFY CITY ORCHESTRA • First Baptist Church • 7PM • A new venue for musicians from the greater Knoxville metropolitan area, Scruffy City Orchestra, kicks off with regular rehearsals on Thursdays. Conductors are Matt Wilkinson and Ace Edewards. Prospective members, especially string players, are encouraged to contact Alicia Meryweather at ScruffyCityOrchestra@gmail.com for more information. • FREE Saturday, May 28 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, May 29 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering on Sundays. 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 information call 865-497-2753 or email community@

Thursday, May 19 - Sunday, May 29

narrowridge.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshiping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general. Open meeting, rotating facilitation, collective model. Y’all come. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE

ETC.

Thursday, May 19 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE SPRING CELEBRATION FUNDRAISER • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • A live performance and silent auction featuring local artists and vendors, plus refreshments from Blackhorse Pub and Brewery and Bistro at the Bijou. Your support can keep us dancing for another 25 years. • $20 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • Marble Springs State Historic Site is proud to present the sixth season of Shopping at the Farm, the Marble Springs Farmer’s Market for our South Knoxville community. The market will be held Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. beginning on May 19 and continuing weekly through Sept. 22. All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products, and artisan crafts. This year we will be allowing the

addition of antiques vendors. • FREE HISTORIC SOUTHERN RAILWAY STATION FOOD TRUCK PARK • Historic Southern Railway Station • 6PM Friday, May 20 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE ANNUAL GALA • Jackson Avenue Terminal • 7PM • Illinois native and University of Tennessee alumna Paula Pell will be awarded the CBT Artistic Achievement Award at the Clarence Brown Theatre’s annual Gala. The CBT Gala benefits the Clarence Brown Theatre Artists Endowment, which helps bring professional guest artists from across the United States to the CBT to engage and teach undergraduate and graduate students, all while creating the world-class, professional theatre experiences Greater Knoxville audiences have come to expect. Saturday, May 21 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE STOP TRAFFIC FASHION SHOW • Awaken Coffee • 7PM • Join Lox Salon for a fashion show to raise money and awareness for the local charity, Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking. Fashion by Bula Boutique, hair and makeup by Lox Salon, entertainment by DJ Wigs, and hosted by Awaken Coffee. Pre-sale tickets are available at Lox Salon, Bula Boutique and Awaken Coffee for $7, or $10 at the door. Drinks will be served. • $7-$10 BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM COMMUNITY WORKDAY •

Beardsley Community Farm • 9AM • We ask that volunteers come dressed for working outside, wear closed-toed shoes, and bring a water bottle. Wearing layers is a good idea this time of year. Our Saturday Workdays are open to the community, so there is no need to sign up in advance. Come for the whole morning or just come for an hour. We look forward to working with you! If you have any questions email us at beardsleyfarm@gmail.com. • FREE GOOD SPORT NIGHT • Central Collective • 5PM • Here’s the deal. You purchase a ticket to a mystery event. Show up to the Central Collective at the specified date and time, and be ready for anything. You might walk into a baby goat petting zoo, or a punk rock concert, or a blind chocolate tasting, or a lecture about the Big Bang. These are events for folks who are curious, adventurous, and like trying new things and meeting new people. Worried that you won’t be able to participate because of food/ alcohol restrictions, physical ability or other preferences? We’ll do our best to give you the information you need to decide if this month’s Good Sport Night is right for you. If you show up and cannot participate for an unforeseen reason, we’re happy to give you a credit for a future Good Sport Night. Cocktails included in price. Don’t drink? Shoot us a message and we’ll hook you up with a reduced-cost ticket!Light snacks, garden party attire optional (don’t wear heels). Physical activity includes a bit of walking. No kids. • $25 Sunday, May 22 FEAST FOR THE FARMERS • The Old City • 6PM • Join Chef

music festival • june 4th

Robinella - The Whiskey Gentry - Shannon Whitworth & Barrett Smith - Cherohala - Katie Pruitt

This intimate, outside performance will be presented FEATURING: on the stage of the beautiful Dancing Bear Lodge. Robinella - The Whiskey Gentry - Shannon Whitworth &

FESTIVAL GROUNDS OPEN AT 3:00PM, MUSIC STARTS AT 4:00PM

Barrett Smith - Cherohala and Katie Pruitt

TICKET PRICES

Tickets are Admission: available for purchase General $20on-line: - $30DancingBearLodge.com | VIP: $75 General Admission: $25 in advance | VIP: $75

ONLY 500 TICKETS AVAILABLE A portion of the proceed will benefit the Appalachian Bear Rescue. AppalachianBearRescue.org

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

CALENDAR Tim Love in celebration and support of Knoxville’s local agriculture. Love will host an outdoor five-course dinner benefitting surrounding farms. Tickets cost $200 per person and include a five-course dinner with beverage pairings. Feast for the Farmers will take place on N. Central Street between Jackson and Willow. For an official invitation, please complete the online form here: http://cheftimlove.com/feast/. • $200 MABRY-HAZEN HOUSE TEA AND TATTLE • Mabry-Hazen House • 3PM • Join us for a short Tea Talk, and travel through the inns and alleys and elegant drawing rooms of London to learn about this fascinating chapter in the history of a beverage we love. Nina Martyris is a freelance journalist who moved to Knoxville from Mumbai in 2009. Tickets for Tea & Tattle are $40 and may be purchased online by visiting www.mabryhazen. com/tea or calling 865-522-8661. A tour of Mabry-Hazen House will be offered after the tea. The event will take place rain or shine. • $40 FIRST CREEK CLEAN SWEEP AND PADDLEBOARD DEMO • Volunteer Landing • 1PM • Keep Knoxville Beautiful and Billy Lush Board Shop are cleaning up first creek at Volunteer Landing. Adventure Board Company will host a board demo from 1-3pm (free). Clean sweep is 3-4:30pm. Terrapin Beer Co. pint night to follow at the Beer Porch (inside the board shop). All beer proceeds will benefit the Legacy Parks Foundation. During the pint night, we will be raffling off a brand new 2016 Adventure Board, an Osprey pack, paddling coupons, and more. Food will also be available for purchase. Come for a part or for all of it. SOCIETY OF APPALACHIAN HISTORIANS CONFERENCE • East Tennessee History Center • The three-day conference brings together scholars of Appalachian history who will share their latest research about the region’s history. Topics include backcountry veterans and the legacy of the American Revolution, sexuality and gender in Appalachia, pre- and post-Civil War’ agricultural transition in the region, and discipline and punishment in coal mining and religious circles. The conference also will include a walking tour of downtown Knoxville with historian Jack Neely and a peek into the East Tennessee History Center’s archives. The Society of Appalachian Historians aims to provide a forum for the distribution and discussion of innovative historical scholarship various aspects of Appalachia. Learn more about the organization online. • $40 Monday, May 23 SOCIETY OF APPALACHIAN HISTORIANS CONFERENCE • East Tennessee History Center • The three-day conference brings together scholars of Appalachian history who will share their latest research about the region’s history. Topics include backcountry veterans and the legacy of the American Revolution, sexuality and gender in Appalachia, pre- and post-Civil War’ agricultural transition in the region, and discipline and punishment in coal mining and religious circles. • $40 Tuesday, May 24 SOCIETY OF APPALACHIAN HISTORIANS CONFERENCE • East Tennessee History Center • The three-day conference brings together scholars of Appalachian history who will share their latest research about the region’s history. Topics include backcountry veterans and the legacy of the American Revolution, sexuality and gender in Appalachia, pre- and post-Civil War’ agricultural transition in the region, and discipline and punishment in coal mining and religious circles. • $40 Wednesday, May 25

MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE UT FARMERS MARKET • University of Tennessee • 4PM • Since 2010, the UT Farmers Market has provided a venue for area producers to sell healthful, local food to the greater Knoxville area. This year the market is expanding its community offerings. The UT Farmers Market is free and open to the public every Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. in the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. Market activities will be scheduled through Oct. 19. For more information about the UT Farmers’ Market you can visit the market website: vegetables.tennessee.edu/utfm.html or find it on Facebook. • FREE Thursday, May 26 SHINE, WINE AND DINE: ARROWMONT ANNUAL ART AND WINE AUCTION • Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Gatlinburg) • 5:30PM • Benefitting Arrowmont’s educational programs, Shine, Wine and Dine is a fun and exciting event featuring art by top regional and national artists and craftspeople. Take home a glorious painting, exquisite piece of pottery, lovely hand-dyed scarf, or choose a dinner with elegant wines. Other fun auction items include cases of wine, exciting getaways, fun events with Arrowmont artists and many other desirable items. MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products, and artisan crafts. This year we will be allowing the addition of antiques vendors. • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR • Rothchild Conference and Catering Center • 10AM • The fair will consist of approximately 20 vendors and will feature locally made arts and crafts created by Etsy sellers, art students, and many other amazingly talented East Tennessee residents. Visit smokymountainarts.org. Saturday, May 28 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE

Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com

LITTLE RIVER STAFF At Little River Trading Company, we know that our most valuable resource is our staff. They are the folks who greet you at the door as if you are coming home. It is not unheard of for someone to walk in the door and ask for “the shoe queen,” who we all know is Maggie, or request a pack fitting from Mike, the self-proclaimed workhorse. Wildcat is known as our triple crowner (that’s hiker lingo for completing the AT, the Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail). We also have several climbers that have summited peaks in Colorado, Mexico and Peru, and a staff member that completed El Camino in Spain in the summer of 2015. Everyone here has a story of adventure, and would be happy to share it with you and help outfit yours. As well as experiences, our well rounded staff is constantly gaining knowledge through shop clinics, online training, and product testing. Come on in, meet our staff, and celebrate 20 years of outdoor excellence with us!

Get ready for your next outdoor adventure here! 2408 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy 725 Watkins Road Maryville Maryville Store Hours: M-Fri 9-7pm Store Hours: M-Sat 10-7pm Sat 9-6pm • Sun 12-6pm Sun 12-6pm 865.681.4141 865.983.8095 www.cycologybicycles.com www.littlerivertradingco.com May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 59

OUTDOORS

Voice in the Wilder ness

Photo by Kim Trevathan

CONTESTANT JULIAN ADAMS

Backpack Cuisine Judging the culinary competitors at the One Pot Cookoff BY KIM TREVATHAN

hen photographer Randy Russell and I canoed the length of the Cumberland in 2003, we had cooking wars each evening after paddling our 20-odd miles. I favored the macaroni and cheese based dinner with tuna or chicken from those foil packages. I mixed in canned mushrooms, black olives, and Rotel tomato sauce in a pot and heated it up. Hot sauce de rigeur. He favored a rice base, as I recall, and sometimes resorted to the pre-packaged dehydrated dinners, which required the intricate process of boiling water. It was all about convenience and bold flavors, aesthetics and presentation irrelevant. We joked about writing a Cumberland cookbook with an emphasis on weight loss. Despite my lack of qualifications, this past Thursday, May 12, I had the honor of serving as a judge in the

KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

second annual One Pot Cookoff at the Little River Trading Company in Maryville. The other judges were Amy Campbell, host of Tennessee Farm Table on WDVX; and Christopher Snyder, founder of Bluetick Brewery and formerly a chef at Blackberry Farm. All of us—contestants, judges, and Little River staff—gathered around the Switchback Craft Beer Tavern bar in anticipation of meals suitable for backcountry consumption. The rules for the cookoff were tough. You had to use a stove you would take camping, you had to cook all food on site, and there was a short list of utensils you could bring, including one knife, one cutting board, one plate, one spatula, one bowl, and so on, just as if you were lugging all this stuff in a backpack up the side of a mountain. Plus, you had

THE WINNER: ED ZUBKA’S QUESADILLA to have it ready in 30 minutes. Jaia McClure, the organizer of the event, told the contestants to start their camp stoves. As judges, we milled around and watched preparations. Julian Adams, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, began chopping carrots for his beef stew. Next to him, Ed Zubko poured a cup or so of white, cheesy liquid into his skillet and watched it bubble on low heat while Campbell pumped him for information. At the other end of the bar, Dan Howett began his pizza in a pot by preparing couscous, his version of a crust. His parents, next to him, cheered him on. Adams’ parents were there too, but they kept their distance from the boy, who seemed more serious and intent than his competitors. Not that Zubka and Howett were there just for kicks. Before the clock began ticking, Zubka, who would soon be off to Fontana Lake for camping and walleye fishing, said, “I’m gonna win this thing.” This was not idle chatter. He won the competition last year with something he called an “inside-out omelet.” After a while, Zubka’s quesadilla and Adams’ beef stew began to compete for best aroma. By this time the Boy Scout had chopped up a red onion and garlic cloves, and Zubka had flipped his quesadilla so that the lightly crisped side emitted a redolent

CONTESTANT DAN HOWETT steam. His stove was an MSR Dragonfly, which, he said, enabled you “to simmer all day or turn it up to melt the bottom out of your pot.” McClure served us the samples in paper containers about half the size of a Dixie cup, and she made sure we didn’t linger too long on one of the dishes. We had to eat, assess and fill out these forms with numerical ratings for taste, creativity, presentation, simplicity/backcountry-able, with extra credit for a beer pairing. The quesadilla was first. It was crusty and delicious, as I recall, but I could not help thinking that it looked like an omelet in the pan while Zubka was cooking it, not a mark against it, just disconcerting. None of the dishes looked good in the paper cup, but in the pan, Zubka’s, a yellow, sizzling crescent, looked like something that would make you happy after a long sweaty day on the trail. On my left, Judge Snyder didn’t say a word until he prodded McClure to bring us the beer samples. A veteran judge of cooking contests, he was focused on the cuisine. I had to fight myself not to sneak a look at his forms. The pizza in a pot was amazingly good, though it helped that couscous and pepperoni are two of my favorite foods. Howett did not scrimp on the pepperoni, earning him taste points. His dish, like Zubka’s, looked fairly

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THE JUDGES: AMY CAMPBELL AND CHRISTOPHER SNYDER easy to prepare, his ingredients in small, easy-to-open packaging. He did chop the string cheese up before adding it in. He provided his complete recipe and noted that before excursions, he boils sausage and takes it along for the pizza: “It’s safe to eat for three days deep into the backcountry,” he said. Adams’ stew tasted the best to me, and as camp food, it would provide the most comfort, with the mixture of broth, ramen noodles, and tender chunks of beef at the bottom of the cup like little nuggets of reward. The garlic added some punch and the carrots were cooked to perfection, not too soft, their crispness adding texture to the broth and soft noodles. At the same time, the fresh vegetables and all the chopping would mean quite a bit of labor for some tired camper, and I knew from taking long canoe trips that fresh vegetables didn’t stay fresh long without a cooler and ice. Uncooked meat presented the same problem; either you had to pre-cook, kill something, or come upon a grocery store in the wilderness. I felt a little anxious because my score sheet criteria were evening out each contestant, and Snyder and Campbell seemed really confident as they worked. Campbell was writing a novel in the “comments” section of each form.

McClure prefaced her announcement of the winners by commenting on how close it had been, only a point or two separating the three of them. Howett’s pizza in a pot won third prize, Adams’ beef stew second, and Zubka won fi rst with his quesadilla, starting a cooking dynasty with his second win in a row. Adams came up to each of us judges at the end of the evening, shook our hands, and thanked us for our participation. Randy Russell and I found out on the Cumberland trip that the best food was given to us: fried chicken, green beans, and new potatoes at Defeated Creek Campground in Trousdale County, Tennessee; the best hot dogs I’ve ever tasted (and coldest beer) handed down to us from a cabin cruiser on Old Hickory Lake. That’s how I felt about being a judge and watching these cooks labor over camp stoves; give me food and I’ll eat it. Conceiving a dish and preparing it in 30 minutes on a camp stove? Impressive work. ◆ A writing instructor at Maryville College, Kim Trevathan is the author of Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on East Water and Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland. He will teach an outdoor writing workshop on May 21, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church (201 E. Third Ave.). Info: knoxvillewritersguild.org.

UNCLE LEM’S MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS 9715 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37922 865-357-8566 - unclelems.com

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May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 61

’BYE

Sacred & P rofane

The Apartment Struggling with another day of perfection BY DONNA JOHNSON

y apartment follows me wherever I go, leaving me no peace from its constant demands to rearrange the contents within its walls. It is almost impossible to rest here, as my apartment compels me to do things with such force it’s like a prison guard and I am its prisoner. Thus, I will wake up at all hours, as if I must clock into the night-shift and begin working voraciously, persistently, without sitting down for a minute until my work is done. This might take as long as 18 hours, though I try to minimize this activity to 10 hours a day. But no matter how long it takes, I must soldier on until everything is perfect. And what is perfect, you may ask? Perfect is when everything matches, including the furniture, paintings on the walls, and the clothing I am wearing, down to the matching scarf on my dog, Mallory. Sometimes this means I must paint over every painting in the house, which, as you can imagine, is quite time-consuming even though I am a fast painter. Then I must clean up all the paint I have dribbled over the floor, which is also

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY 62

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY May 19, 2016

very difficult, especially when I have let it dry. It causes great problems with my husband, who cannot understand my constant activity of rearranging. He will say to me, “My dearest, the apartment looks beautiful. Can you not come to bed now?” I lie to him just to keep the peace: “Of course, my love, I’ll be right in.” And sometimes I actually do this, daring to assert my will against that of the apartment’s, but I know it isn’t any use. Within a few minutes I will remember something I forgot to do. Perhaps a tea towel that once matched the previous color scheme of red was left out in the new color scheme of blue; now that towel calls for me to get up out of bed and put it out of sight, or spend another 10 hours making sure everything coordinates with the blue. This can go on for days. Sometimes, just to spite the apartment and assert my own self-control again, I will sit down on the couch in front of the window with the perfectly matching curtains, vase, and flowers, and within seconds I will fall asleep (passed out is more like it) for two or three fitful hours. I have no

peace: Even in my dreams, I am rearranging the furniture, putting up new curtains, and making sure the towels, sheets, paintings, and ashtrays are color-coordinated and in perfect balance. My best friends, Harriet and Leonard, are not unaware of my activities and never fail to comment on the appearance of my apartment. When they arrive this evening, Harriet sits on the couch in her pale yellow dress and waves her hand around the room. “My, this arrangement of blues quite complements the blue of your eyes.” “Thank you,” I reply, sitting and rocking in the blue chair across from them, having taken a small Valium before they arrived so that I could actually socialize a bit with my friends. It is a struggle to keep my eyes open, though, exhausted as I am from the previous evening’s labor—so I sneak into the bathroom and swallow half an Adderall, which puts

me in a fine state of mind. I am able to converse almost like a normal person, which clearly I am not, but neither are Harriet and Leonard. It all goes well as Leonard sits in the corner in his morose, judgmental state, drinking one Diet Coke after the other, and Harriet and I sip hot tea out of fragile blue and yellow china. Harriet discloses that she decided not to sell her house after all, at which point Leonard is roused from out of his near-comatose state to ask: “What about those 24 boxes of books we lugged down the stairs to get rid of so that we could sell the house?” Harriet smiles at him, revealing her beautiful dimples: “Why, we’ll just have to carry them upstairs and put them back on the shelves.” She begins to file her nails, pretending not to notice the stricken look on Leonard’s face as he contemplates all the work he has in store for him, just to reverse all the work he has already done helping his beloved Harriet. I know well what

And what is perfect, you may ask? Perfect is when everything matches, including the furniture, paintings on the walls, and the clothing I am wearing, down to the matching scarf on my dog.

’BYE he is feeling and groan for him. After they leave, I sleep for an unheard of (for me) eight hours. When I wake up, birds are singing outside my window and the smell of honeysuckle seems to free my spirit, until I hear the compelling voice of my apartment ordering me to begin a new day, a new color scheme, a new round of torture. “You don’t order me around,” I declare, and I shake my fist in the air, light a cigarette, and sip the previous night’s wine. “I’m the boss here.” The living room looks beautiful in the soft morning light—lavenders mixed with palest blues blended with cream lace and darker blues and indigo. It is a delight and I am happy for a few moments until the nagging voice of compulsion returns. There must be a way out of this—I

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

cannot go on like this, I think. There is a way out of this. Pouring a large dollop of whiskey into my coffee, I pick up the phone and dial the number of my doctor, who will prescribe another round of Paxil for me. She calls in my prescription and I get ready to pick it up, wondering why I didn’t do this sooner. Sometimes the best solution is the easiest one, the one right in front of your nose, the one you neglect to take because it seems too easy—and because we don’t feel we deserve to be happy. But I do deserve to be happy; we all do. Putting on a plaid shirt and polka-dot shorts, I place an unmatching collar on Mallory and march out the door, out of the apartment, and go to pick up my medicine as the sun warms the top of my head in a most magnificent way. ◆

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COMMUNITY

BEAR - is a 10 year old senior tabby mix! He LOVES attention & would be great in any home. He’s been at the shelter for more than 2 months & needs a loving home to retire in. Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-2156599 for more information.

ELDON - is a 5 year old domestic shorthair mix. She is merry and fun loving. Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

DANDIE - is a 4 year old hound / mix! He’s such a fun, loving dog who needs to go to a permanent home! He requires daily exercise & would be great in an active home around kids! Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

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May 19, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 63

New and Improved

Downtown FREE Trolley Routes starting May2nd! WW W. K A T B U S . C O M

Now serving many fun and unique destinations including:

To the Old City

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U.S. Post Office

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History Center

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To the Coliseum

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Tennessee Theater

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Downtown Library

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Theater

First Tennessee Bank BB&T Bank

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Dwight Kessel Garage

Andrew Johnson Building

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Hampton Inn

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Hilton

To UT and University Commons

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Charles Krutch Park

Elevator access to Worlds Fair Park

Knoxville Convention Center

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UT Conference Center

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Walnut Street Parking Garage

Holiday Inn

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Market Square

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Summit Towers

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Mast General Store

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Johnson

Take a look at our map and plan a Park FREE trip with us starting May 2nd.

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Visitors Center

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Upgraded and extended service hours that include weekday service until 8pm and Friday and Saturday service running until 10pm! Cal

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• The Old City • Worlds Fair Park •The University of Tennessee

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City-County Building

Blount Mansion