Vol. 3, Issue 5 Mar. 09, 2017

NEW LOOK, SAME GREAT TASTE!

March 9, 2017 knoxmercury.com V.

3/ N. 5

Gatlinburg has bigger problems than rebuilding resort cabins—the workers integral to its tourism industry are on the verge of homelessness

BY S HEATHER DUNCAN PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MCCOLLUM

Beer Board Crafts New Ordinance for Self-Serve Bars

New Clues About the Location of Vagabondia

Borderland Tees’ “Capitalism for the Common Good”

Guy Marshall’s Forward-Looking Americana

OLD GR AY CEM ETERY A wa l k t h r o u g h a fa s c i n at i n g m e m o r i a l pa r k .

for him. Tyson Park is also their bequest to the city.

Old Gray, established in 1850, was Knoxville’s first garden-style cemetery. Although it’s privately owned, Knoxville has used the 13-acre space on the northwest corner of downtown almost as a public park since the Victorian era.

A major effort is underway to improve its pavement and plantings—it has so many trees, Old Gray qualifies as an “arboretum”—and to reconstruct the once-famous Ella Albers Fountain, an elaborate Victorian fountain featuring three statues of women.

It memorialized Ella Albers, the 37-year-old wife of Union veteran and pharmaceut ical pioneer Andrew Jackson Albers. When and why it vanished is a bit of a mystery. Although one respected history states it was donated to a World War II scrap drive, a Knoxville Journal article in October, 1949, shows a photo of the tall fountain “in remarkably good shape,” though missing its two lower statues.

By most accounts, it was completely gone before 1960, though its circular marble base remains today.

Another obelisk memorializes “Parson” William G. Brownlow, the outspoken Unionist editor, Reconstruction-era governor, and U.S. senator. His grave is just across the lane from a memorial for Col. Henry Ashby, a Confederate commander who was shot to death in 1868 by former Union Maj. Eldad Cicero Camp—who is also buried at Old Gray.

All three of the combatants killed in the infamous Mabry-O’Conner gunfight on Gay Street are buried at Old Gray, with the same death date indicated: Oct. 19, 1882.

The graveyard has multiple literary connections, including parents of playwright Tennessee Williams and novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett. One famous grave is no longer a grave at all. Though still marked “TAYLOR,” the plot was once that of Robert Love Taylor, beloved governor and senator, whose burial here in 1912 drew an estimated 40,000 mourners. A thinly disguised description of his burial and subsequent exhumation, 26 years later, for reburial at his family home near Johnson City, appears at the beginning of Pulitzer-winning author Peter Taylor’s final novel, In the Tennessee Country. The author was the senator’s grandson.

Most of the statues in Old Gray memorialize women who died young. The Ella Albers Fountain, erected in 1890, was Old Gray’s symbolic centerpiece for about 60 years. It disappeared by degrees sometime in the middle part of the last century, but a major capital campaign aims to restore it.

Old Gray’s name is in honor of the English poet Thomas Gray, author of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” the popular 1751 poem about mortality. The name was the choice of Sarah Cocke Reese, the wife of prominent attorney, judge, and university president William Reese.

Gray Cemetery became distinguished as “Old Gray” in the 1890s, after the establishment of suburban New Gray Cemetery on Western Avenue.

The first grave in the cemetery, that of ironworker William Martin, who was killed in a Fourth of July cannon explosion in 1851, was unmarked until recently.

The largest grave in the cemetery is the tall obelisk that memorializes the Tyson family. It includes the graves of Lawrence Davis Tyson, a successful industrialist and World War I brigadier general; his philanthropist wife, Betty; and their son, McGhee Tyson, who died in a naval plane crash in the North Sea in the final weeks of World War I. Knoxville’s airport is named

Lee “Bum” McClung, whose heroics at Yale, 1888-1891, made him one of America’s first national football stars—and who later became U.S. Treasurer, is buried in the elaborate McClung plot.

Old Gray is associated with old-family affluence, but hundreds of immigrants, from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and other nations, are buried at Old Gray. Most were white, but several blacks, including at least one former slave, are buried here. One grave, for Grace Abbott, is inscribed “Born a slave, died a child of the king.”

For more, see oldgraycemetery.org.

The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Lawson McGhee Library Image courtesy of Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection • cmdc.knoxlib.org

Source

T h e K n ox v i l l e H i s to ry P r o j ec t, a n o n p r o fi t o r g a n iz at i o n d e vot e d to t h e p r o m ot i o n o f a n d ed u c at i o n a b o u t t h e h i s to ry o f K n ox v i l l e , p r e s en t s t h i s pag e e ac h w e e k to r a i s e awa r en e s s o f t h e t h em e s , p er s o n a l i t i e s , a n d s to r i e s o f o u r u n i q u e c i t y.

L e a r n m o r e at

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knoxvillehistoryproject.org

o r em a i l

jack@knoxhistoryproject.org

March 9, 2017 | Volume 03: Issue 05 | knoxmercury.com “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” —Vladimir Lenin

HOWDY

6 Local Life

by Marissa Highfill

8

OPINION Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely tracks down rumors of Vagabondia Castle’s location.

9 Perspectives

Joe Sullivan examines the life expectancy of President Donald Trump’s bear market.

10 Much Ado

Catherine Landis takes a close look at what being “pro-family” really means.

A&E

22 Program Notes

Local startup Hologram Electronics wows guitar nerds with innovative effects pedals. Plus: Mic Harrison.

23 Shelf Life

Chris Barrett checks out some new selections from the library’s A/V shelves.

24 Music

Carey Hodges talks with the members of Knoxville Americana band Guy Marshall.

25 Movies

April Snellings goes on a date with Logan.

CALENDAR 26 Spotlights

COVER STORY

16 Burned Out

NEWS 12 New Taprooms Brewing

Pour Taproom wants to introduce a new concept to Knoxville beerdrinking: self-serve taps. But it’s going to take a new ordinance to make it legal. Shannon Carey reports.

The devastating wildfires in Gatlinburg sent thousands of people out of their homes— but one group of residents will be affected for years to come: the low-income workers

PRESS FORWARD 14 Borderland Tees

Meet the co-founders behind a custom T-shirt business that uses its profits to minister to those in need. Rose Kennedy reports.

who serve as the backbone of Sevier County’s tourism industry. The lack of affordable

Locust Honey, Son Volt, The Harlem Globetrotters, Dragonfly Aerial Arts, and more.

OUTDOORS

42 Voice in the Wilderness

Kim Trevathan takes a short walk on the Appalachian Trail.

’BYE 44 Open Book

by Harry Whiteside

46 Spirit of the Staircase

by Matthew Foltz-Gray

47 Crooked Street Crossword

by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely

47 Mulberry Place Cryptoquote

by Joan Keuper

housing, public transportation, and jobs is forcing them onto the streets, as S. Heather Duncan reports.

Help Support Independent Journalism!

If you appreciate having a locally owned media voice for Knoxville, consider pitching in. Find out how you can help: knoxmercury.com/donate.

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 3

From the Art Director

Design Updates W hen I first created the page designs two years ago (time flies!), we hadn’t published a paper yet and were making a lot of educated guesses. We picked a name, made a list of stories we wanted to cover, and leaped into the void.

Now we’ve settled into some routines and have a better sense of who we are and who we want to become. Last summer we took time for an off-site planning meeting and refined our mission statement, clarified our values and goals, and defined our personality.

Our mission is to report essential stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told, informing readers about Knoxville’s critical issues, vital personalities, and unique cultural heritage.

KNOXVILLE, TN

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Tuesday - Saturday Lunch 11:30 - 3 | Dinner 5 - 10, Open until midnight on Saturday Take-Out Available | Gift Cards Available W CLINCH AVE NEXT TO THE YWCA

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Naturally, there were some characteristics that were getting lost or were out of sync with the old design. The original design elements were inspired by the vintage name and styling of the wings, which felt a bit formal next to some of our news and entertainment coverage. We value our connection to the community, but the design was a little stiff and fussy.

The goal of the design update is to reflect the personality, energy, and accessibility we’re striving for in our content. Plus, from a practical standpoint, the Opinion and News sections didn’t match other sections and the first pages of A&E and Calendar were easily missed. Here’s how those goals will manifest in the new design.

Navigation: We’ve rearranged the contents page and made the section headers consistent from Howdy to ’Bye so it’s easier for you to find the stories you love most.

Photos: We want you to get to

know us and vice versa. To that end, you’ll see photos of many columnists next to their bylines, occasional photos and blurbs next to our staff and contributors list, and more faces of you, our fellow Knoxvillians, wherever possible.

Type: Our nonprofit budget still restricts our paper options and the grayness of the paper will remain a challenge to readability. However, we do think the wider letter forms and the little bit of extra space between lines will help. Plus, matching our publication typefaces to the logo creates a more unified look.

Dot Patterns: Little strips of halftone dots remind the viewer of our roots in print and reflect how we want to stay a little rough around the edges.

Irregular Shapes: Boxes that are not quite straight-edged or square create an energy and casualness with a more handmade feel.

Flexibility: Cover-story content can range from entertainment to local personality profiles to serious news.

Those designs will still need flexibility to fit the needs of different types of content, but a more stable and clear framework surrounding them should help them both fit in and stand out.

Entry points: Look for callouts throughout that point to deeper content on our website and social media. A&E is introducing more short reviews of local bands, albums, and venues. The Calendar will keep you busy with a Weekend Guide and Quick Picks in addition to our Spotlights.

D

esign updates may seem superficial, but they are vital to our success. Strong, consistent visuals help us increase the recognition of our name while we’re still growing. Good design supports storytelling, reveals personality, and encourages dialogue.

To that end, I hope you enjoy reading these stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told, get to know us better, and let us know what you think.

—Tricia Bateman

Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

Coury Turczyn is preparing himself for his annual nervous breakdown!

This new tradition started shortly after the founding of the paper you hold in your hands. When will it strike next? No one knows!

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 Thomas Fraser thomas@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS Chris Barrett Catherine Landis Ian Blackburn Dennis Perkins Hayley Brundige Stephanie Piper Patrice Cole Ryan Reed Eric Dawson Eleanor Scott George Dodds Alan Sherrod Lee Gardner Nathan Smith Mike Gibson April Snellings Carey Hodges Denise Stewart-Sanabria Nick Huinker Joe Sullivan Donna Johnson Kim Trevathan Tracy Jones Chris Wohlwend Rose Kennedy Angie Vicars Joan Keuper Carol Z. Shane MULTIMEDIA ASSISTANT Jeffery Chastain

Our scary film critic, April Snellings, is nominated for a Best Article award in the 15th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards!

Her piece on Shirley Jackson, “The Witch of North Bennington,” can be read in issue #170 of Rue Morgue magazine.

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Charlie Finch CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Matthew Foltz-Gray PHOTOGRAPHY INTERN Marissa Highfill

Meet the one and only Jack Neely at the 2017 Neighborhood Conference (Saturday, 7:30 a.m.2:30 p.m., at the Knoxville Convention Center).

The director of the nonprofit Knoxville History Project will be manning a booth, talking about history, and handing stuff out!

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Michael Tremoulis michael@knoxmercury.com BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Scott Dickey scott.dickey@knoxmercury.com

When rare bits of free time or spare dollars come available, Tricia Bateman is slowly fixing up a 93-year old craftsman home in Parkridge with her trusty pal, Leo the Italian Greyhound. (He’s not much of a handyman.)

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 618 South Gay St., Suite L2, Knoxville, TN 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 Robin Easter Tommy Smith Melanie Faizer 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. © 2017 The Knoxville Mercury

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 5

DUMPSTER highlights DIVE Weekly from our blog CIVIC ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES New weekly blog feature! From government forums to town-hall meetings, there are more ways than ever to become engaged in Knoxville’s civic and social discourse. Each week, we’ll round up noteworthy public events that come to our attention.

OLD CITY MURAL TO RETURN Old City real-estate developer Leigh Burch appears to have learned an expensive lesson about preservation—he says in a press release that he’s paying for a complete restoration of the popular Old City music mural that he had painted over last spring.

He’s hired the mural’s original artist, Walt Fieldsa, to restore his work.

LOCAL LIFE Photo Series by Marissa Highfill

Saturday’s 10th Annual Mardi Growl, presented by Young-Williams Animal Center, celebrated Knoxville’s canine citizens (and Mardi Gras) with the most adorable parade in town. Dogs competed in categories such as Pet-Owner Look-a-like, Most Unique Mixed Breed, Best Costume, Best Naked Dog, and Best Dog Couple. Among the esteemed judges were freshly announced gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, and Visit Knoxville’s Kim Bumpas. Meanwhile, pedestrians had to watch where they walked.

STORIES AND FACES FROM ACA FORUM By ones and twos they came to the podium in front of a packed house for a Feb. 24 town-hall meeting on the Affordable Care Act. Their voices didn’t quaver and their courage didn’t falter as they shared intimate details— before an overflow crowd of at least 400 people in the Whittle Springs Middle School auditorium—about their health problems and physical and financial challenges. Some 40,000 people in the Knoxville area alone could lose their insurance carrier in 2018.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

3/10 SIXTH ANNUAL CIRCUS EXTRAVAGANZA 3/11 2017 NEIGHBORHOOD CONFERENCE 3/15 “WILLIAM FRANCIS YARDLEY: KNOXVILLE TRAILBLAZER” FRIDAY

7:30 p.m., Clayton Performing Arts Center at Pellissippi State Community College. $10-$12.

Knoxville has its own circus! Presented by the nonprofit Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio and One World Circus, local acts will perform daring feats on aerial silks, trapeze, stilt-walking, bungee, cyr wheel, and more. Proceeds will help underwrite Dragonfly’s circus classes for at-risk youth. Runs through Sunday, March 12. More info: dragonflyaerialartsstudio.com.

6 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

SATURDAY

7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Knoxville Convention Center.

Free.

It’s the ultimate neighborhood organization throwdown, presented by the city of Knoxville. Just some of the information resources include: Twenty workshops on a wide variety of topics (such as crime and public safety, zoning and neighborhood protection, anti-blight resources), and over 80 booths manned by city and county agencies.

WEDNESDAY

Noon, East Tennessee History Center (601 South Gay St.) This Brown Bag Lecture by attorney Joe Jarrett examines the life of African American lawyer, politician, civil rights advocate, and gubernatorial candidate William Yardley—whom Frederick Douglass deemed “one of the most remarkable men that I have met.” Info: easttnhistory.org.

3/16 KEC MAKER MEET-UP THURSDAY

5:30-8:30 p.m., Modern Studio (109 W. Anderson Ave.). Free.

The Knoxville Entrepreneurial Center hosts its Maker Meet-Up in a new, suitably maker-friendly space. Come meet other local makers in the Knoxville creative community and find out more about Modern Studio and other maker spaces. Info: facebook.com/modernstudioknox.

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March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 7

Scruffy Citizen | Perspectives | Much Ado

Finding Vagabondia New clues, and two theories about a novelist’s legendary inspiration

BY JACK NEELY

A

researcher happened across some clues to an old mystery that’s been nagging at me for a quarter century. In the mix is a pretty incredible coincidence.

For a column in Metro Pulse back in the ’90s, I outlined the Knoxville years of Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The British-born author was beginning her extraordinary career as a novelist when she lived in downtown Knoxville around 1870, in a house she called Vagabondia Castle. It was her family’s second Knoxville residence, as I learned through her son Vivian’s 1927 memoir. Free of adults after her mother’s death, the house became a bohemian haven for young artists and musicians in what was otherwise a rough-edged postwar wreck of a town.

The name “Vagabondia Castle” was ironic, I gathered; it was “rather roomy but dilapidated” even when the Hodgsons and their friends lived there. A book she began there, though set in London, was called Vagabondia.

Her son said it was based on people and situations she knew in Knoxville.

No one has ever identified with certainty where Vagabondia Castle was. City directories from that era are spotty. Most houses didn’t have numbered addresses. From Vivian’s account, we know Vagabondia was very near the river, and close enough to the gas plant to smell it. I’ve pictured Vagabondia in the Maplehurst area.

Just after that column came out, 20-odd years ago, I was in the kitchen

8 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

fixing some supper when a very old woman telephoned. She had read my column and wanted to talk about something she remembered.

I keep office hours, but old ladies prefer to call me at home. I’m not always ready to take notes.

What she told me was surprising.

In the 1920s, along Henley Street near Cumberland, was a tea room. “In those days ladies went to tea rooms,” she said. And there they’d have a light luncheon, or perhaps play some bridge.

The particular tea room she remembered was in an old brick house. And the house had a brass plaque on it. The plaque said “Former Home of Author Frances Hodgson Burnett.”

It intrigued her even then. In the 1920s, all smart young women had read Frances Hodgson Burnett. Her novels had already inspired a dozen movies.

I’d never heard of the tea room with the plaque on it. I scribbled her memories down on whatever was handy, maybe the back of a grocery receipt. I wrote her name and number, and the name of the tea room. Then of

course I misplaced it.

Ever since, I’ve wondered whether the house she remembered, the one with the tea room, was Vagabondia Castle itself. But I couldn’t remember the name or other details.

A clue arrived by way of Lucy Curtis Templeton. Her work is still fresh, more than half a century after she retired as a News-Sentinel writer. She was a cosmopolitan columnist. Her job was to write about birds, flowers, and people overlooked by the mainstream rush.

Born in 1878, she knew Knoxvillians who remembered the Civil War. She flourished in the radio age, and wrote about that, too. She liked modern Russian literature, and wrote about that, too.

Though she hadn’t known Burnett personally—the novelist left town just before the columnist’s birth—Templeton knew Knoxvillians who remembered Burnett.

Scholar Paul Brown, by day a Morgan County public-school music teacher, has been researching James Agee, tracing that author’s family around town over a period of several decades. The public library’s “Papers to Pixels” project directed Brown to a Templeton column with a bit of information I’d been missing these last 20-odd years.

As she asserted in a 1927 column, Templeton learned, based on the memories of people she trusted, that the former home of Frances Hodgson Burnett was a place then known as Tinker Tavern.

“Tinker Tavern” doesn’t sound like the name of a ladies’ tea room, but I recognized it as the phrase the old lady used. It was not on Henley, but on Cumberland near Henley. Tinker Tavern was a popular destination for bridge games, 5 o’clock teas, sorority luncheons, librarians’ dinners. I’m not sure men were welcome.

“The Burnett family, I am informed

“The [Frances Hodgson] Burnett family, I am informed by people who know, lived at one time in the old brick house on the corner of West Cumberland Avenue and Henley Street, now known as the Tinker Tavern.”

—LUCY CURTIS TEMPLETON, 1927

by people who know,” Templeton wrote, “lived at one time in the old brick house on the corner of West Cumberland Avenue and Henley Street, now known as the Tinker Tavern. Possibly the Writers’ Club might be interested in marking this place.” (Her reference to “the Burnett family” may be a supposition that the author lived there after her 1873 marriage.)

The reason Paul, the Agee scholar, got interested in Burnett is that the house had another literary distinction. It was a literary neighborhood. A various times, close neighbors included the father and grandfather of playwright Tennessee Williams, Jackson biographer Sam Heiskell, and future critic and environmental essayist Joseph Wood Krutch.

Brown discovered the house Templeton identified as the Frances Hodgson Burnett home was also the home, for a spell in the 1890s, of Joel, Emma, and Laura Tyler: grandparents and mother, respectively, of yet-unborn author James Agee.

Templeton didn’t claim the house was Vagabondia, just that the Burnetts lived there. During the Vagabondia era, Frances was still a Hodgson.

Brown suggests another plausible theory, that Vagabondia was three blocks closer to the river, at the corner of what was then Front and High (now an odd remnant, the corner of Front and South Broadway, neither of which still exist except right there).

A woman listed as “Mrs. H.A. Hodges”—perhaps a misprint reference to one of the Hodgsons—lived there in 1869. That house did have “a backyard running down to the Tennessee River,” as Vivian Burnett described.

That corner’s been vacant as long as I can remember.

If Templeton’s 1927 column resulted in a marker on the house, it probably wasn’t there more than a few months. As near as I can tell, that house was torn down by 1929, for the widening project that became the Henley Street, in preparation for the wonderful new bridge. Henley Street was no longer the quiet residential street of intriguing literary heritage and women’s tea rooms. It was suddenly America’s main route to the suddenly popular new Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Scruffy Citizen | Perspectives | Much Ado

Irrational Exuberance Redux?

Trump’s bull market may be headed for a fall

BY JOE SULLIVAN

I

t’s doubtful whether Donald Trump is on his way to making America great again. But one thing that has been going great since he got elected is the stock market.

From election day through March 1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed more than 15 percent to a record 21,115. This jump represents an extension of what had already become one of the longest and most robust bull markets ever. The Dow’s 219 percent increase since a Great Recession bottom of 6,626 in March, 2009, ranks second only to the 518 percent run-up recorded during the 13-year bull market between 1987 and 2000, For 13 consecutive days in late February, the Dow set a new record high each day, which is yet another record.

Since the stock market had been relatively flat for most of 2016 prior to the election, one has to conclude that Trump’s surprise victory gave impetus to its post-election surge. The conventional explanation is that investors collectively concluded that a Trump administration would spur economic growth or at least corporate earnings on which stock market valuations tend to be based.

Since the economy as well was already approaching its second-longest expansion on record (exceeded only by the 1991 to 2001 period), that also seemed like a leap of faith. But

Trump was promising big tax cuts (especially for corporations), increased defense spending, a trillion-dollar investment in infrastructure, and no cuts in Social Security or Medicare. That added up to a hugely stimulative fiscal policy because there’s no way promised cuts in non-defense federal spending could begin to offset the deficits beget by revenue reductions and pump-priming. Indeed, Trump was quoted by Fox News as saying, “A balanced budget is fine. But sometimes you have to fire the well in order to really get the economy going.”

That’s about what Ronald Reagan was saying in 1981 when he pushed through the big tax cuts that Reaganomicists were claiming would stimulate the economy sufficiently to generate enough revenue to offset the tax-rate reductions over time. What resulted instead was a huge federal deficit that drove interest rates to record levels, stifling the economy into a recession yet also prompting Reagan’s 1982 tax increases, the largest of the post-war era.

When it comes to the stock market, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (considered a better proxy for the overall market than the Dow) is already approaching a valuation peak relative to earnings that’s only been reached twice before. The guru of such valuations is Yale economist and Nobel laureate Robert Shiller. His preferred way of calculating the S & P’s price/ earnings ratio is to use a 10-year average of earnings as the denominator to smooth out cyclical effects.

The Shiller PE Ratio, as its known, has averaged about 16 over the long haul. Only twice has it exceeded 30. The first time was just prior to Black Tuesday in 1929.

The second time was in the late stages of the bull market leading up to the bursting of the so-called dot-com bubble in March 2000, after which the S & P declined by nearly half and the NASDAQ by a whole lot more.

Indeed, it took 15 years for the NASDAQ to recover to its pre-bubble level.

As of March 1, the Shiller PE Ratio was perched at 29.52, having risen from just over 25 since last November’s election. So it wouldn’t take much to push the ratio above 30 once again.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the sky is going to fall imminently.

In December 1997, then chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan famously warned about “irrational exuberance” in the markets, a term that also happens to be the title of a Shiller book. At that time, the Shiller PE Ratio had just exceeded 30. But it kept on going up for over two more years before peaking at 44.2 on the date the dot-com bubble burst in March 2000.

As an old adage goes, people who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. But in this case history suggests a Trump bull market could have considerably more lift left before it comes tumbling down, possibly bringing Donald Trump down with it.

History suggests a Trump bull market could have considerably more lift left before it comes tumbling down, possibly bringing Donald Trump down with it.

BUY LOCAL or

BYE, LOCAL Support the local economy by spending your dollars with Knoxville businesses.

Are you eager to reach active local shoppers?

Advertise with us! sales@knoxmercury.com March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 9

Scruffy Citizen | Perspectives | Much Ado

Misidentification Want to call yourself pro-family? Act like it.

BY CATHERINE LANDIS

I

t’s time to take the “Family Values” mantle away from people who use it as a cudgel against those who don’t see eye to eye with them. No longer can we allow people to identify as “pro-family” while they champion policies that hurt the actual human beings in those families.

When you control the language, you control the issues. Republicans have speciously called themselves “pro-family” for so long it feels tribal.

The rules are simple: If you are “moral” then you must be “pro-life” and “anti-gay,” and by default that makes you a Republican—and that gives you license to set up hierarchies of people, allowing you to discriminate while still calling yourself “moral.” It’s a sham and a con, but Tennessee is still in its grips.

News Flash! Tennesseans do not live in a world where nobody’s gay, where’s nobody’s transgender, where women don’t need abortions, where people don’t have sex outside of marriage, where people of color are treated fairly, where everybody can afford health care, where immigrants don’t enrich communities, and where children don’t need much. But listening to our representatives in Nashville and Washington, you’d think we do.

In Nashville they’ve been mulling over bills that would cast our LGBTQ neighbors as second-class citizens: jeopardizing their marriages, parental status, and civil rights. They’ve threated bills to further restrict

10 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

abortion access, endangering women and handicapping physicians. They’ve talked seriously about allowing guns everywhere.

Up in Washington, where they could be passing immigration reform with a path to citizenship, they are content to watch the horror show of breaking up families. And since they failed to tell the truth about the benefits to the Affordable Care Act a long time ago, they are now forced to choose between taking a political hit or taking away people’s health insurance. All the while they remain silent as the greedy, narcissistic, bullying, racist, sexual predator they elevated to the White House condemns a generation of refugees to misery and death in the name of “national security.” And they’re the ones pretending to be “pro-family?”

For too long, progressives have ceded to the “religious” right the habit of grounding issues in moral language, particularly regarding reproductive decisions. The Orwellian claim to family values starts with sex and feeds on banning abortion. That’s the mother lode, the golden egg, the biggest lie of all. Try sending an email to Sen. Lamar Alexander—first you

have to choose a subject line from a list that includes: Pro-life and Family Values. As if one has anything to do with the other.

Not anymore.

“Pro-life” never has meant pro-life, only forced-birth. Despite propaganda disseminated by craven opportunists, no one is “pro-abortion.”

No one needs an abortion. Until she does. And unless you’ve been in those shoes, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Abortion can be safe and legal or dangerous and illegal.

That’s the choice. Women who object to abortion need never have one, but they should be careful about the power they hand to the state. Any state that can force a woman to give birth against her will can turn around and force her to abort.

“Pro-lifers” often fundamentally misunderstand the science behind pregnancy. They discount the importance and limitations of birth control. They deny the irresponsibility of abstinence-only sex-ed. They propagate lies about “babies yanked out of wombs” or the “selling of fetal tissue.” They seize on one story to represent all women while silencing the voices of women whose experiences don’t mesh with their beliefs. In the Texas Legislature, “pro-lifers” claimed they were “saving babies” when they cut funding to reproductive health clinics. What they got instead was a doubling of maternal deaths in just two years. We simply can no longer allow people like Sen. Alexander to get away with conflating “pro-family” with “pro-life.”

No one gets to be “pro-life” by ignoring the needs of actual children, dismissing the plight of refugees, or discounting the danger of environmental degradation. No one can yack, yack, yack about how guns don’t kill people, people kill people, so “it’s a mental-health issue,” while cutting mental-health funding. Pro-gun, forced birth, anti-LGBTQ, anti-labor,

No one gets to be “pro-life” by ignoring the needs of actual children, dismissing the plight of refugees, or discounting the danger of environmental degradation.

anti-universal healthcare, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-government (except when tax dollars enrich your buddies who own charter schools and private prisons): These are not family values. These are the values of extremists who want to reshape our communities to fit their own vision without looking to see who lives here. Who are the families?

Favoring one kind over another is not pro-family.

“Family values” means fostering an environment that supports all families: a living wage; child-care access; paid family leave; health-care access; a robust and truly fair public educational system; universal pre-K; comprehensive sex-ed; access to safe, legal birth control and abortion; clean water; clean air; protection from gun violence; protection from discrimination based on (but not limited to) gender, skin color, nationality, religion, sexual preference, gender identity, income, disability, and educational level.

(For clarification, protection from religious discrimination does not mean using religion to single out people to discriminate against. If treating gay people like second-class citizens is a “Christian value,” it’s not one Jesus would have recognized.

Lots of people manage to practice their religion without taking over the public square.)

Words matter. Blathering about bootstraps, “freedom,” and sexual purity doesn’t help families. You can’t eat an abstract idea. Or pay a medical bill. Or obtain birth control. It’s time for progressives to take our language back, to use our voices to stand up and say, loud and proud: Progressive values are pro-family and pro-life.

Most importantly, they are the values that sustain and advance human rights.

With Much Ado, Catherine Landis examines how political decisions and social trends affect the lives of the people around her. A former newspaper reporter, she has published two novels, Some Days There’s Pie (St. Martin’s Press) and Harvest (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press). She is on the board of Planned Parenthood of Middle & East Tennessee.

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March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 11

Pour Taproom co-owners Joel McLead, Caitlin Riley and Mariah McLead stand outside their future location in Jackson Terminal in the Old City. The self-serve craft beer tasting room is set to open in April or May 2017. (Not pictured is co-owner Sam Natour.)

Photo by Shannon Carey.

New Taprooms Brewing Beer Board crafts new ordinance to permit self-serve bars

BY SHANNON CAREY

K

noxville’s City Council was confronted with a real stumper in January: A franchise called Pour Taproom was asking for a beer permit, but this was not your average bar. This particular taproom runs on a self-serve model with patrons pulling their own brews, a model that’s never been offered in Knoxville before.

Or has it? While Pour Taproom is the first beer establishment to offer a self-serve model, drink., the wine bar adjacent to Bistro by the Tracks in Bearden, has offered self-serve wine for years.

The city’s beer board issues beer permits within city limits, and wine permits are issued by the state. Beer board chair Brenda Palmer and beer board attorney Rob Frost both said they were aware of drink., but the beer board’s current permits don’t cover self-service.

That’s all about to change, though, as City Council and the beer

12 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

board craft a new ordinance, based at least in part on the Pour business model and the limits the self-serve technology imposes on Pour’s guests.

“We’re looking at the elements that Pour does, because they seem like reasonable elements, and try to work them into a new ordinance to allow this business model,” Frost says.

“They definitely had input, and they sent back to me some of their suggestions, which we are considering.”

Pour Taproom’s Joel and Mariah McLead moved to Knoxville from Asheville in pursuit of a dream: to open a fun, thriving business with friends Sam Natour and Caitlin Riley.

They hadn’t finished unpacking their U-Haul before Joel was called to appear before City Council Jan. 17, to defend that business and its self-serve concept to Council members yet unfamiliar with it.

The Pour Taproom franchise was founded by Nate Tomforde three

years ago in Asheville using computerized taps created by iPourIt, Inc. Pour also has locations in Greenville, S.C., and Santa Cruz, Calif. The Knoxville location is currently scheduled to open in April or May in the Old City’s Jackson Terminal.

After discovering Pour Taproom in Asheville, the McLeads and their friends were fascinated by the self-serve concept and thought about opening their own bar, but decided to stick with Pour’s franchise opportunities. The concept works like this: patrons are greeted at the door by a Pour employee who scans their IDs and credit cards and issues each patron a wristband. When a patron approaches the taps, the wristband activates the taps, allowing the patron to pour anywhere from a taste to a full glass, and charges the credit card only for that amount.

That technology has a flip-side: It automatically cuts a patron off at two glasses of beer, about 32 ounces. The patron must talk to a Pour employee before he or she is allowed to continue drinking.

“I was just like, what a genius concept,” Joel says. “It’s pretty darn cool technology.”

But, while that technology is a draw for first-time visitors, Joel says it isn’t the business’s focus—Pour is more of a tasting room than a bar. With 50 beers on tap and another 16 taps featuring cider, mead, and wine, Pour is about having the flexibility to try something new without committing to a whole pint, he says. Concurrent with

Knoxville’s growing craft beer industry, Pour aims to give patrons an opportunity to taste local brews, then refer them back to the breweries where their favorites came from.

According to Joel, the self-serve tech isn’t an excuse to keep staff costs low. Beertenders (who will make a living wage plus tips, not just $2.13 plus tips, he says) will guide customers through the beer-choosing process like docents at a museum, helping them find new beers to fit their tastes.

B

ut customers serving themselves alcoholic beverages is not altogether new to Knoxville. drink. at Bistro by the Tracks opened in Bearden in 2012. Lana Shackleford is a manager at drink., whose parent company is Aubrey’s. She says drink.’s self-service wine machine promotes the same taste-and-explore atmosphere as Pour’s taps.

Shackleford calls the self-service wine machine a “social experiment,” which encourages people to mingle and discuss the wine. As with Pour, drink. patrons can choose a taste, a half glass, or a full glass of each wine.

“Especially with the higher end, we have wines that are $35 per glass,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to taste a wine that you might never afford or explore an obscure varietal.”

But does self-serve lead to over-drinking at drink.? Shackleford says no.

“Of course, you monitor people’s behavior, but we’re really fortunate in that it’s kind of fancy here,” she says.

“We don’t typically get the people who are pounding back shots and beers. It’s just not that kind of place.”

Pour Taproom Knoxville’s co-owners feel the same way about their potential clientele. Even though Knoxville is a college town, their target audience, and the patrons of

“We want to be part of the community, and we’re going to do everything we can to be good neighbors. That’s what’s influenced all of our decisions so far.”

—CAITLIN RILEY, POUR TAPROOM CO-OWNER

COMING SOON

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very visionary architect should have a loyal patron.

Frank Lloyd Wright had the Kaufmanns, who commission ed iconic Falling Water in south west Pennsylvania, where the home stands preserved as a modern masterpiece.

In Knoxville, in 1954, Ben F. McMu rry Jr. had Dr. Harry Jenkins. McMu rry was only 28 when Jenkins asked him to design a contemporary home on one of the best lots on Chero kee Boulevard.

West Knox ville had never seen anyth ing quite like it. In the mid-1950s, mode rnistic house s, as the style was called then, were locally few and far between.

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8

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other Pour locations, tend to be around 35 years old. That’s the way the business is set up: No one gets in the door who isn’t 21 or accompanied by a parent or guardian.

“You can’t just say, ‘I’m here for the food,’” Joel says.

An employee can allow a customer to drink more than two glasses during a visit, but via computer the employee has access to everything the customer has purchased and when they purchased it, including whether or not the customer has eaten food or had high-gravity beer. The co-owners say this helps the employees make more informed, considered decisions than other bartenders might.

But while Frost and Palmer both say the Pour model seems responsible, they are concerned that future self-service bars might be less so.

“A lot of laws exist or are designed to address people who aren’t as caring or responsible,” says Frost, adding that in his research he found self-serve beer establishments that allow up to 50 ounces per person at once.

“If I had that much, I can tell you I shouldn’t be driving,” he says. “Some of these places have little to no supervision or employees. You can have a person on the front door, and then the patrons have free rein of the alcohol, and there’s no monitoring going on.”

“We need to develop some standards to make sure it is consistent,” Palmer says.

Palmer adds that overdrinking and public safety is always a concern of the beer board, but they also don’t want to block economic development.

“The beer board and the city takes their duties very seriously,” Frost says. “We have a big student population, and we want to have a system in place that doesn’t create more DUIs and underage drinking.”

Frost says the new permit to allow self-serve beer is being drafted and is not on City Council’s agenda yet.

Optimistically, he says it may be on the agenda for the last meeting of this month. Otherwise, it will probably be next month.

“It’s our desire to have everything wrapped up before (Pour’s) opening,” he says.

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Highway (see “Futu re Past,” page 12). But in Sequo yah Hills, the dramatic glass and steel and marble-façade masonry struc ture was a wonder—a nd the talk of the town.

Today, the “Jenk ins House,” now home to Unive rsity of architecture profes Tennessee sors Marleen and Tom Davis, is as contempor ary and striking as it was when it was built.

“He hired a relati vely young architect and trusted his vision ,” says Marleen Davis about the relationship between Jenki ns and McMu rry. A popular physi cian, Jenki ns was marr ied to Varin a Mayo Jenki ns (of the seed comp any Mayos) and the family lived in a very different , Mediterranean-s tyle home at the time.

The Jenki ns were Sequoyah Hills neigh bors of Ben McMu rry Sr., F. the architect’s father and a found ing partner of the

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March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 13

Focus: Business & Innovation

Borderland Tees

Bob Riehl and Jenny Arthur

cofounders, Borderland Tees

A custom T-shirt business that also ministers to those in need

B

orderland Tees is a low-cost screen printer in South Knoxville specializing in custom T-shirts. Funds raised by the for-profit sustain a community ministry based on individual relationships, which sometimes involve assisting with medical, legal, or housing issues for those in need.

“We believe the greatest poverty in our community is a poverty of relationships, so we offer a place of community to anyone who needs it,” says co-founder Jenny Arthur, who is a minister. “We also offer pastoral care and spiritual direction to those without a church home.”

She and Bob Riehl started Borderland in 2008 after Arthur was seeking a way to help a delusional homeless man, Stanley, who sought out the church where she was working. She enlisted Riehl’s help and he came up with the idea of offering the man work through the print shop he owned then. Over many months of delivery road trips, Riehl and Stanley learned to trust each other, paving the way for Arthur and Riehl to also help him establish disability claims and seek medical care.

All this happened in a way Arthur says she never would have been able to achieve in a traditional church office setting. Nine years later, Arthur and Riehl share what makes this model work.

What is at the core of the idea that this particular outreach works best as a “for profit?”

Riehl: We wanted to create an

14 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

organic, sustainable model of ministry that can thrive without fundraising.

We call it “Capitalism for the Common Good.”

Arthur: Relying on our own earnings gives us the flexibility to meet needs that fall outside the reach of a “program” that treats everyone the same; we treat each other as individuals. And everyone here contributes to the work of the shop.

Do you have any professional background that helps make this work?

Arthur: I am an ordained minister as well as a professionally trained chaplain with 20 years of experience in a church setting. I grew up in Gatlinburg and have an affection for T-shirt art.

Riehl: I trained as a spiritual director at Shalem Institute and have been in the screen-printing business for about 45 years.

How does the screen printing fund the other efforts?

Arthur: We try to make it much like monasteries, where people spend much of their day making something to sell to sustain themselves. Though we are not a jobs ministry, the money we make allows us to pay the people who work here and to pay those who come in to do some work for a couple of hours or maybe a couple of days.

And it allows us to provide additional support as needed—legal, medical, housing.

Riehl: When people ask if they can donate to our social enterprise,

Photos by Marissa Highfill

BY ROSE KENNEDY

we encourage them to buy some shirts instead.

What’s your price structure?

Riehl: We are traditional screen-printers and we print bulk orders of 36 or more, keeping pricing simple with a flat rate of $6 a shirt on a good quality Gildan tee, and charging a bit more for larger sizes or different types of shirts.

Arthur: The reason it’s so cheap?

For one, you see our building, quite small and pretty old. We’re like a little factory, we don’t have a lot of overhead or managers or a receptionist to answer the phone, and Bob and I certainly don’t care about making a lot of money.

Are there limits on what the T-shirts can say?

Arthur: We print anything except the truly egregious, having to do with cruelty to animals, racism, that sort of thing. So far, it has not been a big issue. We are a wholesale printer, so

Borderland Tees 802 Sevier Ave. 865-414-7163 or 865-363-4302 borderlandtees@gmail.com borderlandtees.com or facebook.com/borderlandtees Programs Borderland Tees raises money by printing custom T-shirts, then uses the profits to help individuals in need.

How You Can Help Order some T-shirts in bulk (orders of 36 or more at $6 per shirt)! And with its CommuniTees program, Borderland works with nonprofit or charitable organizations to sell their shirts online.

To learn more about Stanley’s experience with Riehl and Arthur: borderlandtees.com/ourstory

NEW SERIES Borderland, and it is a fun place to be.

Do you have a favorite T-shirt slogan from over the years?

Jenny: “Non-Judgment Day is Coming” and “America: Mother of Exiles” both reflect our mission.

How long will this continue? Could it expand?

we do not sell individual shirts. But recently we started an online “CommuniTees” program to sell benefit tees for organizations that are compatible with our mission. A few examples of that include Myles Walker, a local man who does Tourette’s advocacy; the Feral Feline Friends; Knoxville College; and Bridge Refugee Services.

In these cases, we keep an inventory on hand and send organizations the proceeds when a shirt sells. We have some nice Tennessee Raccoon shirts at Ijams Nature Center and Time Warp Tea Room, too.

Arthur: This is our calling and life’s work, so we hope it will continue for a while.

Riehl: Right now, we expand by helping others develop their own small businesses and their capacity to give back. We also have a dream of getting a second screen-printing machine to employ women looking for a fresh start.

What is something simple that people in this area could do to help advance BT’s goals?

Riehl: People could assist our goal of sustainability by ordering T-shirts from us.

Arthur: Mother Teresa said that the greatest poverty in America is a poverty of relationships. It is within the power of every person to relieve this poverty by offering friendship, not just a referral to an agency.

Look for more inspiring stories in every issue this year!

Know someone doing amazing things for the future of Knoxville?

Submit your story suggestions to: editor@knoxmercury.com Contact us for sponsorship opportunities: charlie@knoxmercury.com

CATEGORY: ARTS & CULT URE

Is there a spiritual component to this work for you? A religious one?

How do you measure success?

Arthur: All we do is say “yes” to relationships. We don’t think in terms of success or failure. When we are true to our calling, we have seen good things happen for people.

Riehl: We knew this model would work because it did with Stanley. All kinds of people find a home at

Carpetbag Theatre The local com munity theater compan y celebrates five decades of uncovering East Tennessee’s unt old stories

BY MAT THEW EVER ETT

Know someone doing amazing things for the future of Knoxville?

Submit your story suggestions to: editor@knoxmercury.com

F

ew com mun ity theater orga niza tions focus as intently on the word “com mun ity” as Carpetbag Theatre has for almost five decades.

The Knoxvill e-based profe ssion al, nonprofit com pany is dedicate d to telling the stori es of people hidd en by official history—b lack , gay, and poor people, among others, who have been writ ten out of textbooks and ignored or overlooked by the mainstrea m culture.

This weekend, Carpetbag will stage Between a Ballad and a Blues, the company ’s 2008 musical about the life of East Tenn essee blues and jazz pioneer How ard “Lou ie Blui e” Armstrong. It’s the first of six scheduled productio ns over the next three years to celeb rate Carpetba g’s 50th anniversary in 2019.

Between a Balla d and a Blues will be held at the Clay ton Cent er for the Arts (502 E. Lamar Alex ander Park way, Mar yville) from Thu rsday, Feb. 23, thro ugh Sunday, Feb. 26.

Visit carpetba gtheatre.org or claytona rtscenter. com for info.

Tickets are $20/$15 for seni ors and students .

a Highfi ll

Contact us for sponsorship opportunities: charlie@knoxmercury.com CATEGORIES Civic & Humanitarian Arts & Culture Business & Innovation Environmental & Sustainability Health & Food Education

LINDA PARRISBAILEY Carpetbag Theatre executive and artistic direct or and playwright in residence

Photos by Mariss

Arthur: We are rooted in the practices of Christian contemplative prayer, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, as well as Tolstoy’s story “The Three Questions.” We both have years of Taoist study.

Riehl: We feel that our highest calling is to build relationships based on love, sacrifice, and joy. We find that most of the people who stick around embrace these same values, and we learn much from their sometimes greater faith.

Why is the 50th anniv spread over three ersary celebration years

14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY

February 23,

2017

?

During out 40th anniversary, we tried to get ever ythin g into the sam e year, and it was very stres sful. We wanted to remount our original prod uctions, so this time we thought doin g two a year and featu ring six of them was the way to go, and the way to build up to the 50th anni versary in 2019 .

Why are you starting Ballad and a Blues? with Between a

It’s one of the most recent prod uctions. It has a more regional appeal, and it has more music. And it’s a production that we’ve been doin g excerpts from at the Louie Blue festival for nine years. We wan ted it to be familiar; we wanted peop le who’ve whetted their appetite alon g the way to see the full production.

What made you want Howard Armstrong to write about ?

The first time I ever heard How ard Armstrong was an NPR inter view back in the late ’70s. I heard this ama zing story teller. I heard a loca l story. And I also heard a story about diversity that I don’t think people talk about in East Tennessee.

I think people really didn’t know about commun ities in East Tenn essee

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 15

Gatlinburg has bigger problems than rebuilding resort cabins—the workers integral to its tourism industry are on the verge of homelessness

BY S HEATHER DUNCAN PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MCCOLLUM

A

s November’s deadly wildfire raced down the mountain behind the Gatlinburg motel where they lived, Shannon Lemmon and Titus Glover tossed clothes in backpacks, shouldered their daughter’s Christmas presents in a laundry bag, and started trying to outwalk the flames.

Behind them, Lemmon says, their landlord knocked on doors trying to collect the weekly rent from Rainbow Motel tenants, who are mostly service 16 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

workers in the town’s tourism industry.

Owning no car, Lemmon and Glover set off on foot down Highway 321 and were fortunate to be picked up by a policeman, who drove them to a shelter.

That night, the fire licked right up to the back of the hotel—but stopped.

Their room was spared. Lemmon’s workplace, Dunkin’ Donuts, was unharmed. The fire that began in Great Smoky Mountains National

Park—the engine of Gatlinburg’s tourist economy—went on to kill 14 people and destroy the homes of around 900 families.

Those made officially homeless had help. They were eligible for $1,000 a month from the Dollywood Foundation for six months. FEMA approved $3.3 million for individual disaster assistance related to the Gatlinburg fires, including $1.6 million to repair or replace burned housing,

says Bettina Hutchings, FEMA external affairs officer.

But Lemmon and countless other hotel and restaurant workers didn’t fit the criteria. Their workplaces closed, or laid off employees, or cut work hours to a handful a week. People who make a living cleaning vacation cabins suddenly had half as many to clean, with half as many guests staying there.

Like Lemmon and Glover, many of these service workers lived in the aging

Left Top: The remains of a destroyed home along Campbell Lead Road in Gatlinburg.

Below: What’s left of Country Town N’ Suites in Gatlinburg.

weekly-rental motel rooms that pass for “affordable housing” in Gatlinburg. The rent is still due, even as their income wafted away like smoke.

Fire never touched them. The place where they worked wasn’t scorched.

But they have been burned, all the same.

A worsening housing shortage, combined with an exceptional drop in tourism and sparse help for those whose homes remained intact, has left many low-wage workers in Gatlinburg on the cusp of homelessness. The fire also revealed as never before the number of people who were already homeless, and who aren’t eligible for resources geared toward fire victims. Even the temporary shelters have all closed.

“So many people, who mostly work in the tourism industry, are maybe one paycheck or illness away from homelessness,” says Dick Wellons, executive director of Smoky Mountain Area Rescue Ministries. “One catastrophe in their life, and all of a sudden their budget is gone, and they find themselves without a place to stay.”

THE OTHER GATLINBURG The hotel room Lemmon and Glover were sharing in February was lined with bags of clothes and baskets of toys stacked shoulder-high. A corner was curtained off as a sleeping area for their daughter, a kindergartener at smoke-damaged Phi Beta Phi Elementary. They had no kitchen, but a microwave and toaster perched on a tall shelf.

“We fell through the cracks because of how specific things are to get help,” said Lemmon a few weeks ago.

Dunkin’ Donuts put the family up in a hotel for a few days after the fire,

but then laid off most of its workers the week of Christmas, according to Lemmon and others who worked there.

Glover had lost his job shortly before the fire. Although he was recently hired

by Dick’s Sporting Goods, he was getting only 24 hours a week and had to wait three weeks for his first paycheck.

For three months, he gave up taking his blood pressure and diabetes medicine.

Cara Parker, team leader for the Tennessee Recovery Project, says restaurant and hotel workers have struggled to maintain their housing as they encounter unbudgeted expenses like the replacement of smoke-damaged clothes and spoiled food, or medical bills from breathing smoke.

The Recovery Project, a FEMA-funded program run through the Helen Ross McNabb Center, is following a steady stream of tips about people living in tents, storage units, sheds, cars, or condemned rooms in the burned remains of motels. “We meet one person living in a storage unit, and they tell us about four other families,” Parker says, adding that her group helped 20

families, including some children, out of this situation in January.

Lemmon’s landlord took her to court for back rent. She pulls out a notebook recording her failed efforts to get help with expenses: from Red Cross, FEMA, the Dollywood Foundation, and more.

(Hutchings says FEMA has paid more than $1.7 million for uninsured property losses like furniture, vehicles, or medical supplies. But many applicants living in motels say they were denied. And many would have little chance of being able to pay back the loans FEMA has offered individuals through the Small Business Administration.)

Lemmon had been buying a friend’s car, but it burned in the fire.

Without transportation, she couldn’t find any jobs within walking distance.

She would have been eligible for supplemental food stamps to replace the food that spoiled when the power was off. But because she had to bum multiple rides to get to the food-stamp office, she missed the application

deadline, Lemmon says.

In February, Smoky Mountain Area Rescue Ministries donated her a car, expanding her work options, but weeks later she still hasn’t been able to find a job.

Many had little to do this winter but wait: Wait for the tourists and the jobs to come back. Wait for the tax refund. Wait for some source of money to help them get out of this place.

This is not the Gatlinburg most people see from scenic rental cabins, or from streets lined with fudge shops.

This is the other Gatlinburg. The fire has exposed the struggles of the people who smile behind the counter, deliver the dinner trays, and clean the sheets the next morning.

“A huge issue is people who didn’t lose their homes or jobs but were way cut back on their hours,” says Morgan Henschen, who started the Gatlinburg Citizen Fire Relief Facebook group and has volunteered ever since to connect residents with resources.

“They’re not sure where to go because they’re not technically fire victims.

We’re helping a lot of those people, but we’re almost the only ones.”

Melanie Cordell, executive director of the Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless, says her organization has come in contact with about 100 households like this. “They feel pushed aside, so we are trying to figure out with the county what we can do for this population, because they are either faced with homelessness or are living in motels,” she says.

Glover and Lemmon had actually broken up three weeks before the fire.

Glover was paying friends to sleep at their place, but it burned.

With Glover homeless and both jobless for more than a month, the couple was forced together again.

They remained supportive of each other, but the tension was palpable.

In their darkened motel room, Glover smoked, punched buttons on his phone, and lobbed something at a roach.

“We try to make this place nice, March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 17

but it’s hard when you have to fit everything in such a small space,” Lemmon said.

There are hardly other options.

“In Gatlinburg, hotels are taking up apartment space. There is not enough land for both,” says Stanley Taylor, chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless.

“For good or ill, what Gatlinburg has done is choose to use that space for tourists.”

Yet without the service workers, there would be no tourists, notes Rachel Dodgen, a builder and artist whose ancestors were among the original settlers of Gatlinburg.

“It’s a shame there are 11 million people that come to the park, and we don’t have affordable housing for the people who run this beautiful town,” she says. “I feel like the city runs on people that are invisible, and they want to keep them invisible.”

A LONG, HARD WINTER The wooded foothills where fire flowed like lava are now lushly green, but undulating scorch patterns flit over mountain slopes like the shadows of clouds. Charred foundations flicker by along the roadside—often just feet from untouched buildings and Gatlinburg’s ubiquitous winter holiday decorations, twinkling incongruously among the rubble.

The economic damage lingers, too. December tourism revenue is down more than a third compared to the same month of the previous year, the Knoxville News Sentinel has reported. With less money coming in, businesses are hiring fewer workers or reducing staff hours.

A $5.8 million grant through the U.S. Department of Labor is set to provide disaster relief employment to about 200 people, although many of those will be manual labor clean-up jobs. The first $2 million in this funding was announced Friday at a job fair at Rocky Top Sports World.

Work is always harder to find during Gatlinburg’s off-season. The Sevier County unemployment rate fluctuates heavily by month, often ranging from around 4 percent in June to 7.5 percent in January. (The Tennessee Department of Labor plans to release this January’s figures 18 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Thursday.)

The Sevierville metro area had an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent for December, almost the same as the previous year.

“Certainly the fire has an effect, but there are still plenty of jobs,” said Allen Newton, executive director of Sevier County Economic Development Council, in early February. “I don’t think it’s any different from any other January or February. Just about everybody I know is hiring.”

That’s not what business owners and service workers have seen.

“A typical winter is nothing like it is right now,” says Billy Brotherton of Sevierville. He says his wife worked 30 to 35 hours a week last winter at The Island in Pigeon Forge, but is now down to about 15.

Brotherton lost his job at Buffalo Wild Wings when his car broke down.

Smokey Mountain Area Rescue Ministries donated the money to get it fixed, but he can’t find another job.

“I’ve been out putting out applications all day, and everyone is telling me they won’t hire until March or April,” he said in February.

Brotherton lives in a duplex with his girlfriend, but they are afraid they’ll have to sleep in their car if they can’t catch up on the rent.

“I have to get a cyst removed from my arm today, and don’t know how I can pay for the antibiotic prescription after,” Brotherton says. “The money

From Left: Titinae Lemmon, 5, Shannon Lemmon, and Titus Glover in their shared room at the Rainbow Motel in Gatlinburg. This month, Lemmon says, her landlord kicked them out of the Rainbow, even though they were ready to pay the rent.

we’ve got, we have to use for gas” for his girlfriend to get to work.

That dilemma is becoming more common. “We’re seeing people having to prioritize money for food rather than purchasing medicine, having to prioritize the limited gas money they have to get few work hours they have rather than coming to medical or mental health appointments,” says Parker with the Tennessee Recovery Project, which began Jan. 1 to provide people affected by the fires with counseling and referrals for help. The program’s 27 caseworkers have been going door to door, helping 200 individuals and families by mid-February, Parker says.

Sevier County assistance groups all say this year has been worse than usual. Tourism is down because many people think the fire destroyed more than it did or that attractions remain closed.

The effect has been compounded by the winter slump starting a month early, during what is usually a very profitable holiday season, says Parker.

Bill Black, director of Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries, says on average he sees people bringing home about 40 percent less pay than during a normal winter. Many service workers pick up extra jobs to tide them over, he says, “But this year

there are no second or third jobs.”

The resort ministry, a 36-year-old nonprofit closely associated with the Sevier County Association of Baptists, is one of the few in the county that provides direct support—like cars, gas cards, furniture, mattresses, and help paying bills—to what he calls (to quote the Bible) “people living outside the camp.”

The reduced spending by cash-strapped locals perpetuates the cycle of losses for struggling local businesses. Jan Brady, owner of Whole Earth Grocery on Highway 321, says her business is down 40 percent from a normal winter.

This year, the lunch counter attached to her organic retail shop is bringing in half her income, instead of just extra money on the side. “People still have to eat,” she says with a shrug, ringing up sandwiches and extra drinks for a group of wood-removal contractors—the only ones who seem flush.

Brady says many of her customers are locals. “At the beginning, people came out to support local businesses,” she says. “But the residents are not back on their feet like they thought they would be, and reality has set in.”

THE HOUSING CRISIS Holly Drybaugh missed the fire because she was in the hospital with pneumonia. Her husband and 12-yearold son, however, felt it up close. They didn’t leave because they had no car.

Her son cowered in fear in the bathtub while smoke poured under their door at the Rainbow Motel. For days, Drybaugh didn’t know whether they were alive. When released from the hospital, she joined them at the Rocky Top Sports World shelter.

There, a Red Cross caseworker helped the family develop a plan. It did not involve returning to the Rainbow, where Drybaugh says she has waged a constant battle with roaches and bedbugs. But, she says, by the time she and her husband found an apartment they could afford, her Red Cross case worker had gone home to Florida and the agency said it had no more money to help with a security deposit.

The family had to discard their smoke-damaged furniture. They are

still sleeping on cots they received from FEMA, Drybaugh says. Her husband was laid off from Dunkin’ Donuts and, like most people, still had not heard back by mid-February from his application for disaster-related unemployment benefits.

They are not in as dire straits as some of their neighbors, thanks to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, which hired at the shelter after the fire. Drybaugh and her husband now clean the aquarium at night, for a combined 50 hours a week of work.

She says Ripley’s provided gift cards so she and her husband could buy Christmas presents for their son. The company’s human resources officials have said they’ll pay the rental deposit if Drybaugh can ever find an affordable apartment.

If. In the tiny dining room at Whole Earth Foods, Miranda Paulk is working with Rachel Dodgen on floor plans for rebuilding Paulk’s house, currently in ashes. As a real estate agent, Paulk is watching rental costs climb while houses sell quickly—“not for low prices.”

“We’re a low-wage economy, for the most part,” says the soft-spoken Paulk, who serves on the board of Smoky Mountain Family Matters, a nonprofit that helps connect needy families find resources so family members can stay together. “We had people living in overpriced, overcrowded weekly hotels…. Everyone, including employers, benefits from more livable housing.”

On Feb. 9, the Coalition for the Homeless surveyed 28 rentals—including houses and trailers in rural parts of Sevier County—finding only two that were both renting at fair market price, and ready for someone to move in, Cordell says.

“When the fires destroyed homes of people at all income levels, it drove up the prices of less-expensive apartments and drove up demand for them, meaning low-income people suffered the most,” Cordell says.

Weekly rental hotels are not real “affordable housing,” she adds, as many are plagued by crime and provide no way to cook healthy meals.

Wellons says the quality of housing available to low-income

BY THE NUMBERS

Renting in Sevier County Someone working minimum wage in Sevier County can afford to pay $377 in rent a month, far below the fair market rent for any type of apartment. A minimum wage worker would need to work 59 hours a week to afford a studio apartment.

workers in Sevier County is generally poor, although rent is among the highest in East Tennessee.

“A lot of these landlords are not good folks,” he says. “Yet they’re charging a ridiculous amount: $800 to $1,000 for a motel room you probably wouldn’t even walk into, as far as needing to be cleaned, as far as insects.”

According to the Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless, the mean wage of a renter in Sevier County is $8.48 an hour. To afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent, which is $563, a person making that salary would need to work 51 hours a week year-round, Cordell says. “This means that housing is unaffordable, even for people working full-time jobs over minimum wage.”

For minimum wage, it’s almost hopeless: You can afford to pay $377 in rent a month, less than the rent for even a cheap weekly motel room.

Traditional, higher-quality apartment or home rental agreements require leases and usually first (and sometimes last) month’s rent, plus a security deposit and utility transfer fee. That often translates to $1,000 to $1,500 up front, which most service workers don’t have, says Kathi Parkins, executive director of Family Promise of Blount County. The organization provides shelter services and transitional housing to the homeless.

The deposit isn’t the only roadblock: Living in a motel doesn’t provide a documented rental history, making it more difficult to be approved for a lease, Parker says.

The whole dilemma is likely to worsen, because hotels in Sevier

The mean renter wage in Sevier County is $8.48 an hour.

An unused section of the Rainbow Motel in Gatlinburg.

County typically increase their rates in March as tourists start to compete for those rooms, Fortner says.

“We have been faced with having to move the survivor population from motel to motel because they are getting full and don’t want to use that reduced rate they’re offering us,” says Cordell. “That’s traumatizing to these households.”

To top it off, Cordell anticipates that many people will lose their current housing when the Dollywood Foundation assistance ends in May. She says the coalition is trying to prepare by saving some of its grant money and seeking more.

A HOME AWAY The Coalition for the Homeless, Helen Ross McNabb, and Family Promise all received federal funds to rapidly aid house fire victims. The Coalition— which serves 13 counties, including Knox, with just three caseworkers— has been designated the lead agency to help solve homelessness caused by the fire.

It is still paying for 31 households living in motels, using $5,000 of state funding and $13,200 from the Pigeon Forge Rotary Club, Cordell says.

The federal department of Housing and Urban Development granted the Coalition a waiver in late February to place fire victims in housing that exceeds fair market rent, a practice normally a forbidden by HUD. (The rent still has to be consistent with similar units nearby, Taylor says.) The coalition will pay the first month’s rent, and the East Tennessee

To afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent (which is $563), a person making the average renter wage would need to work 51 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.

For a two bedroom apartment (FMR is $696), a renter would need to work 63 hours a week, or 1.6 full time jobs.

Prior to the fire, there was a shortage of 1,270 affordable homes available to the county’s 1,820 extremely-low-income (making 30 percent of AMI or less) renters (available meaning not occupied by someone of a higher income). There was a shortage of 1,635 homes available and affordable to the county’s 4,380 very-low-income renters.

In Sevier County before the fires, 80 percent of extremely-low-income, 78 percent of very-low-income, and 46 percent of low-income households were paying more than 30 percent of their small income to rent.

Source: Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless Foundation will pay half the monthly rent for 11 months.

Cordell says the agency has identified at least 131 households still in need of housing assistance, and its goal is to house 50 of them by the end of March—although only 26 available units have been found in Sevier County, even with the waiver.

And the program also creates what Taylor calls an ethical dilemma: Short of a big income boost, there’s no reason to believe these families will be able to pay the full rent on their own, so they could end up homeless March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 19

again in a year.

Up to now, the affordable housing available has been mostly around Dandridge or in Knox County. Cordell says 186 households have been rehoused after the fire, including 14 assisted by the Coalition for the Homeless, but Taylor says the coalition could find homes in Sevier for less than a handful.

Family Promise of Blount County had federal funding to help people relocate and re-establish child and medical care, but only a handful of families would use it, Parkins says. “I know there are still people out there that we could assist and house, but they have to come here.”

Others refuse assistance rather than be relocated in Knoxville because they consider the city’s lower-rent neighborhoods unsafe, Taylor says.

Many can’t afford to commute even if they want to, because their cars are unreliable, Parkins says.

In Gatlinburg, many service workers walk to work. But a lot of walkable housing burned.

Wellons says that even when trolleys are running during the tourist season, it would take several hours to travel between the towns, and nothing regularly connects Gatlinburg to Sevierville. “Trolley service was never intended to help the workers, just to keep extra tourist vehicles off the road,” he says.

“Transportation is what’s killing us,” Drybaugh says. When she had to go to court in Sevierville, she payed $50 for a taxi. She walked the 19 miles back.

Cordell says Sevier County officials have been willing to discuss busing as many as 100 families from Knoxville to Gatlinburg for work, or providing a more county-wide bus system. “It’s just we don’t know if the population would actually use it,” she says.

When Gatlinburg and Sevierville mayors were asked about whether they’d consider more commuter-friendly bus or trolley service, county spokesman Perrin Anderson replied only, “Transportation issues are a part of what is being looked at by the (Sevier County Economic Development Council) and local 20 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Jan Brady, owner of Gatlinburg’s Whole Earth Grocery and Cafe, says her business is down 40 percent from a normal winter.

governments in regards to housing.”

Amanda West is the rare Gatlinburg service worker who commutes.

She lives in Knoxville but has worked for five years at Cupid’s Outlet in Gatlinburg. When it closed after the fire until February, West says she was able to collect just $197 a week in unemployment—less than half of her previous income.

Her partner, who had been taking college courses, had to stop. For months they applied unsuccessfully for jobs in Sevier and Knox Counties.

When Cupid’s Outlet reopened, they were two months behind on rent. The Coalition for the Homeless helped them catch up, and they recently received help with an electric bill and gas from Smoky Mountain Area Rescue Mission.

“People who had $800,000 homes and insurance, they got thousands of dollars,” says West.

“There could have been just a little bit for those of us who work every day to pay our bills, then when our jobs were taken away, there was nothing.”

PRECARIOUSLY HOUSED In the weeks before the fire, Glover says, he was paying $125 a week for a house in Baskins Creek where he couldn’t live. Before moving in, he had to repair the floor, empty rotted food from the refrigerator, and try to eliminate the roaches and bedbugs.

Meanwhile, he was paying friends

nearby to crash at their place.

Today, Baskins Creek is a burned-out valley where cinder blocks and metal skeletons teeter above steep slopes. In mid-February, utility workers in bucket trucks were still rehanging power lines among burned vehicles spray-painted with red x’s.

Glover says the friend he was staying with received money from the Dollywood Foundation, but Glover initially didn’t. He couldn’t prove he lived there and had no original copy of his lease on the fixer-upper.

“It’s been so hard to get help without proving where I lived,” he says. “My lease burned up in the fire, and they won’t take a replacement one. I had a receipt for rent but they wouldn’t accept it.”

In the end, after several months, he was approved for Dollywood Foundation money, Lemmon says.

David Dotson, president of the Dollywood Foundation, says it is still accepting and approving new applications. The foundation requires evidence tying someone to a burned property. Utility bills, mail to the address, or a car registration will do.

“Our goal is to get to yes,” he says, and the foundation approved applications 85 to 90 percent of the time.

But Dotson says some people have tried to fabricate proof, including landlords “vouching for more people than could possibly live there.”

Glover’s undocumented sublet, unknown to the landlord, isn’t unusual, Parker says.

The Tennessee Valley Coalition on Homelessness calls this group “precariously housed.” Ironically, because they have the wherewithal to get a roof over their heads, they can’t get help. Neither can Sevier County residents who were homeless before the fires—a population that is apparently larger than previously realized.

They aren’t eligible for the new rental assistance from the East Tennessee Foundation, for example.

“People have some pretty complicated living situations,” Dotson acknowledges. The Dollywood Foundation handles these individually, but generally it won’t pay more than one related family from a single address, he says. For example, if two adult brothers and their wives and children were living in a two-bedroom apartment, they would probably receive $1,000 a month altogether—but if two unrelated families were living there, they might each get that much.

Both these scenarios are common among Hispanic workers in the Gatlinburg area, says resident Jose Fernandez. (Because he is in the country without a proper visa, his name has been changed to protect his identity.) When the family that paid the security deposit received Dollywood Foundation money, he says, some split it with their secret sub-letters. Others did not.

The family of Fernandez’s girlfriend moved in with them for several months after losing everything in the fire, Fernandez says. There were 16 people, including children, in his two-bedroom apartment. Fernandez was attempting to feed them, but his wife’s hours had been cut from as many as seven days a week to two, and his restaurant pay had plummeted from around $325 to $45. (He has a second job doing manual labor that pays $300 a week.) His 18-year-old son, who came to the U.S. two years ago to escape a criminal syndicate that had killed Fernandez’s brother and nephew, lost his job cleaning at Westgate resort. Fernandez is also paying child support for a 6-year-old son, who lost his home in the fire, and sending money home to support two

children and his parents in Honduras.

“When my son was working, I paid everything here and he was sending money home for my parents and brother and their house. Now I have to cover everything,” Fernandez says. When Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries offered to pay the $650 rent for January, “I almost cried,” he says.

Hispanic residents, who make up 18 percent of the county population and mostly work in hospitality, were hit especially hard by the fires. Many couldn’t document where they were living or were afraid to ask for help because of their immigration status, Fernandez says.

“A lot of people have no Social Security numbers, so they don’t bank, and all their money burned up in their house,” he adds.

A LONG ROAD HOME For those whose homes burned in the fire, there is some good news this week: The Housing Committee established after the fire is identifying scattered sites by Friday to locate new modular homes for about 80 families, Cordell says. Details are still being worked out.

Local leaders recognized Sevier County’s housing problem before the fire, and the Economic Development Council had already started a housing study. In partnership with the City of Gatlinburg, the council is looking at incentives for developers to build “workforce apartments,” and Newton says he expects to make specific recommendations in another month or so.

Cordell says local governments are discussing low-income tax credit vouchers to encourage mixed-income housing. “(Newton) and his team are definitely looking at, and have identified, developers to look at a multi-income apartment complex development,” Cordell says. “They’ve explored best practices from outside the county to implement internally,” and have a deadline of a year to establish something before the East Tennessee Foundation assistance runs out for families renting units above market rates.

She called it “a great starting point” but added, “It will not solve the

problem at large…. The housing situation is very serious.”

Dodgen and Paulk suggest that the FEMA funding and recovery donations flowing into Sevier County should be used to buy chunks of burned acreage or empty lots in different neighborhoods, then designate the land for affordable housing.

Mountain Tough, a nonprofit created a few weeks ago to pick up when short-term relief ends, might play a role. However, the organization was envisioned to focus on people who lack enough insurance to cover the loss of their homes. That’s something Black, with Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries, and Parker, with the Tennessee Recovery Project, have been campaigning to change as Mountain Tough defines itself. Black is hopeful, heartened by how the community has pulled together since the fire.

Mountain Tough aims to have case workers (some bilingual) on the job by April 13, says Ellen Wilhoit, chairman of the group’s board. The nonprofit may become the umbrella for many community committees that formed to handle different angles of the disaster, like housing and “unmet needs,” she says.

Wilhoit says Mountain Tough’s board is still defining who the organization will help. She says she hopes the nonprofit can partner with national groups that have shown

Melissa King lives at the Rainbow Motel in Gatlinburg, and often watches her friend James McGill’s daughter, Brianna. Both King and McGill lost their jobs when their places of employment burned down; both are still waiting for unemployment benefits.

interest in building houses locally.

“Mountain Tough has been extremely receptive to take information from us and suggestions on how we can help the families and individuals we are finding,” Parker says. An emergency shelter is the most immediate need, she says, since many service workers could find stable housing once the tourist season picks up.

Cordell says the fire has caused the homeless population that existed before the fire to find its voice. “We have really tried to advocate for them with the county that they are in need as well,” she says.

Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and Gatlinburg County Mayor Mike Werner referred all housing questions to county spokesman Perrin Anderson, who provided very general answers.

“Housing was an issue before the fires and we still have concerns about that,” Anderson wrote in an email. “All options are being explored for affordable housing.”

One small affordable housing complex is breaking ground on a burned parcel in Gatlinburg. Jeff Schoenfield, who owns All Pro Realtors, has submitted to the city his final plans for “Gatlinburg Parkview Apartments.” They will replace a strip

mall that housed his company’s office at the base of Ski Mountain Road.

The insurance settlement provided funds to build 22 mostly one-bedroom apartments that will rent for $650 a month, hopefully by late summer, Schoenfield says.

If that project makes a return, Schoenfield says he’ll pursue building a larger affordable-housing complex in Sevier County.

“I feel Gatlinburg, and Sevier County as a whole, is terribly limited with respect to future growth because we can’t house the workers we need,” Schoenfield says. “I would love the county and the cities to cooperate with plans to make properties available” for more affordable housing, because high land values make it hard to entice developers to build lower-rent units, he says. Another option would be for cities to extend water and sewer utilities to open more areas to apartments, he says.

Small efforts to address the lack of housing are being made by charities. Paul Danis, president of Live-It Ministries, says the Seymour-based nonprofit has plans to partner with the Appalachian Service Project to build five homes for some of the 70 uninsured or under-insured families who lost homes to the fire. Live-It, which usually focuses on home repairs for the elderly and widows, also owns a house that was donated in Gatlinburg that it plans to rebuild in March for a homeless family. The group has been in discussions with Smoky Mountain Family Matters about building tiny homes on a 10-acre parcel in Kodak. The Family Matters website describes the project as ten 700-square-foot homes in a development to be called “Sanctuary Hills.”

For folks living day to day this winter, many of these plans seem very distant. This month, Lemmon says, her landlord kicked them out of the Rainbow, even though they were ready to pay the rent.

She and her daughter took the car and are staying with a friend in Kodak. Glover has Dollywood money now but can’t find a weekly rental in Gatlinburg, and is staying at overnight hotel rooms—at higher prices—to keep his job.

They are now literally homeless.

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 21

Program Notes | Shelf Life | Music | Movies

Special Effects Local startup Hologram Electronics wows guitar nerds with innovative effects pedals

I

n his cozy workshop in a North Knoxville warehouse space, Ryan Schaefer clicks a button on an effects pedal, plucks two strings on his guitar, and closes his eyes as the notes swell into one never-ending chord, hanging perfectly and unnaturally in the air.

“See, there—you just play a few notes and you have the soundtrack to a Herzog documentary,” Schaefer says.

The pedal is called Infinite Jets Resynthesizer, and Schaefer should very well be able to describe it: He’s spent months fine-tuning every blink and twiddle in preparation for the device’s official unveiling on Thursday.

Retailing for $425 and likely to sell out its preorder offering within hours, the complex stomp box has the potential to be something of an event in the tight-knit but booming boutique guitar-effects industry.

“I don’t know what this one’s going to do, but people seem pretty excited about it,” Schaefer says.

Schaefer, the frontman for local noise-pop institution Royal Bangs, has reason to be confident. Infinite Jets is the second pedal available from his Hologram Electronics, following the Dream Sequence, a novel blend of rhythmic delay and octave that sold out limited-production runs throughout 2016. The unexpected response to that debut offering—also $425 a pop,

22 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

with the quality and careful design to back it up—put Schaefer and co-creator Jason Campbell in a daunting position to meet demand.

“There was a lot of hype surrounding the pedal, and I think people perceived it as being very hard to get,” Schaefer says. “But it was really that we just couldn’t make very many of them at a time.”

By the time the Dream Sequence went on sale, in January 2016, Hologram had already moved into its own space. (Two years of research and development had left Campbell’s living room an unnavigable mess.) But the consistent response, including a year-end bump courtesy of niche YouTube listmakers, led to a crash course in full-scale business concerns.

Campbell and Schaefer hired a small staff (currently Teddi Kreutzberg and Blake Cass) to help build

The release of the $425 guitar pedal has the potential to be an event in the tight-knit effects industry.

and ship the pedals. They enlisted an American company to pre-produce the pedal’s circuit boards, speeding up production and offering a better grip on quality control. And demand from influential resellers recently spurred Hologram to offer the Dream Sequence outside of the company’s own online store.

The evolution has enabled Hologram to ship nearly a thousand Dream Sequences into the hands of adventurous guitar players and producers around the world, including a number of notables Schaefer and Campbell decline to brag on. But despite the sprint, says Schaefer, demand has kept the pedal on about a one-month back order.

“So now we make way more of them, and it’s still kind of hard to get,” he says.

The expanded operation has, however, left its creators room to develop their follow-up, Infinite Jets. In fact, the pedal’s quick turnaround is itself the payoff of one of the first decisions the pair made for Hologram: to develop a stomp box template they could repurpose as necessary, and start off with their boldest possible vision.

“We came up with all these ideas about what we could do with it. Then Jason developed this hardware platform that, if it can do what the

Dream Sequence can do, it can do all of the rest of it,” Schaefer says.

Plugging the mostly-assembled pearl-white pedal up to the one of the workshop’s many guitars, Schaefer gleefully shows off presets that instantly evoke the Radiohead or My Bloody Valentine guitar textures he’s spent the past months bending his software to match. But it’s the pedal’s key feature set, an endless sustain that grabs tones and seamlessly extends them, that Schaefer believes will find favor among musicians.

While the Dream Sequence offers its own sonic frameworks, Infinite Jets invites performers to create their own from scratch.

“A lot of these ideas actually predate the first pedal, but we didn’t use them there because it’s kind of the opposite,” says Schaefer. “Dream Sequence is taking your playing and conforming it to its own rhythm, but the new one takes what you’re playing and completely abstracts it.”

At its most basic, the effect is, as he says, like something out of a finished film score. If that’s not intriguing enough by itself, Hologram will be releasing an extensive demo video as soon as the preorder is live. Just keep in mind that the first batch may be gone before you’re done watching.

—Nick Huinker

Program Notes | Shelf Life | Music | Movies

New Again LOCAL MUSIC REVIEW

Mic Harrison

Some new releases at Knox County Public Library freshen up familiar sounds

BY CHRIS BARRETT

Vanishing South

K

noxville’s Mic Harrison and the High Score are best known for plying a muscular brand of Americana—its primary roots in honky-tonk and trad county, crossbred in later generations with Alex Chilton-style power pop—that’s better suited to nights on the town than to moments of back-porch rumination. But the band’s latest record, Vanishing South, is as contemplative as it is shit-kicking, as if Harrison and the boys have taken the time to stop, assess their considerable group and personal histories, and author a thoughtful, album-length thank-you note to everyone who’s been part of the trip.

There’s still plenty of fun-time Americana on Vanishing South. The opening track, “Salt Stained Road,” is tightly coiled country rock in the vein of Steve Earle. “Never Be This Way Again” is a sly rethinking of the La’s “There She Goes,” and “Indiana Drag Race” is a classic Harrison rockin’ country rave-up.

But those rowdier moments are balanced by a series of sweet homages, to supportive spouses (“Woman,” “Make Time Bend”) and to roots and family (“Home,” “Make Your Peace.”) And then there’s the title track. A dusky lament for a departed lover, the song hints at a sense of loss that goes much deeper than the “she’s gone now” tropes would seem to admit. It’s a subtlety, but an accessible one, still very much in keeping with the plainspoken ethos of Harrison’s puissant blue-collar rock ’n’ roll.

—Mike Gibson

BILL EVANS Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest (Resonance, 2016)

ISABELLE FAUST WITH IL GIARDINO ARMONICO Mozart: Violin Concertos (Harmonia Mundi, 2016)

This double-disc set of forgotten music from a short-lived Bill Evans lineup is a welcome exception to many rules. The tapes really were lost, languishing among the estate of deceased German jazz producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, who recorded Evans in his home. A colleague of Brunner-Schwer’s had heard Evans with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival (a Verve recording of their set won a Grammy) and helped facilitate this session just a few days later. Zev Feldman—supposedly the Indiana Jones of jazz artifacts—tracked the recordings down via rumors and family survivors.

The music captured during this ad hoc session is sublime and exceptional. It captures Evans, one of the most expressive and influential pianists of the 20th century, as he is changing styles from subdued whisperer to percussive poet. And DeJohnette, who would soon become famous as the engine behind Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, plays with incredible subtlety and finesse, nearly making his kit part of the piano. Evans is clearly exploring and he is clearly pleased with what he’s discovering.

The most striking memory of an observer present at the session was that the musicians did not need to speak to each other. Fifty years out, the music—nearly two dozen standards—still leaves little unsaid.

Remember the name Isabelle Faust.

KCPL added her fantastic recording of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin last spring.

Such nerve—Arthur Grumiaux and Gidon Kremer fenced that music off as man-land decades ago. Faust approaches the Bach as human and living rather than sacred and distant; she allows more light and air into the music than we are accustomed to hearing. Her version probably won’t replace those male reference recordings, but it should join them on a short list of essential listening.

With this new recording—again, two hours of familiar work by a revered composer—Faust whisks away two centuries of undue emotional austerity to revive and revitalize some of the most lush and lively music you’ve ever heard—or never heard, as the effect may be. Faust is recorded here with the suspiciously stylish and attractive Giardino Armonico, more or less the SEAL Team 6 of 18th-century period performance. The ensemble elevates and propels these pieces, allowing Faust a varied and dynamic musical landscape with which to interact. Full of surprise, humor, and musical innovation, these concertos are benchmarks of the form. Mozart wrote them while in his teens; some attribute their brilliance to the fact that, at that time, he considered himself a violinist. (As a musician, he would later dedicate himself to keyboard instruments.)

Faust’s treatment of this music can easily lead one to believe that it was written by someone smitten with her instrument.

DE LA SOUL And the Anonymous Nobody (Kobalt, 2016) Pos, Mase, and Dave—the New York trio known as De La Soul—are uncommonly literate, patient, and musical.

They manage to be insistent without being aggressive and are more likely to upset your equilibrium with their tag-team Ted Geisel wit than with playground profanity. Their music is rhythmic but never rhythm-dependent. But the mainstream hip-hop industry doesn’t know what to do with them. The band’s back catalog is in the wind, since Warner Bros. couldn’t be bothered to secure rights to the brilliant samples on the group’s early records. This new record was financed by a Kickstarter campaign, and aside from programmed loops and beats features mostly live musicians. Usher, David Byrne, Jill Scott, and the Swedish electronica quartet Little Dragon help spread the sounds out stylistically. Nobody doesn’t aspire to change the world. It just wants to turn some frowns upside down. And that, sigh, may be change enough.

NAQSH DUO Narrante (ECM, 2016) The Naqsh Duo consists of guitarist Golfam Khayam and clarinetist Mona Matbou Riahi, both women, both natives of Tehran who studied music abroad. The players are clearly of a mind on the limitations of formal structure and the charms of improvisation. Otherwise, their musical meetings over the course of these nine compositions seem to occur largely by chance.

Khayam and Riahi alternate the tasks of rhythm and melody, only rarely approaching harmony or unison. There are elements of Iranian traditional music and ceremony, made exotic by their origins and familiar by the instruments presenting them. The result is something lovely and original and well worth hearing.

Shelf Life explores new and timely entries from the Knox County Public Library’s collection of movies and music.

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Program Notes | Shelf Life | Music | Movies

Progressive Country Guy Marshall looks ahead to a new album and a refined sound

BY CAREY HODGES

I

t’s a big night for Guy Marshall. And judging by the rowdy crowd that’s packed out Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria in the Old City, things are going well before the set even starts.

In fact, the closer you get to the stage, the more it becomes apparent that things are going really, really well.

The fans occupying the first few rows in front of the Knoxville Americana act (the married duo of guitarist/ bandleader Adam McNulty and vocalist Sarrenna McNulty, guitarist Eric Griffin, drummer Zach Gilleran, bassist Travis Bigwood, and fiddle player Frank Bronson) are crammed shoulder to shoulder, with folks shuffling to find space to watch the group.

But once Guy Marshall launches into its first song, the group has won the room. Adam and Sarrenna lock in on each other as they sing, while the rest of the band weaves between bluegrass-style ballads and raucous

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country-rock jams.

Throughout, the group’s confidence is evident. They’re clearly not concerned with how long it takes the crowd to join the party—they know it’s worth the wait.

“It’s really humbling to see people getting into the music,” Sarrenna says.

“Early on, it was really only close friends and family coming to shows.

We’d have 20 or so people at places like the Longbranch Saloon, and that was a lot. Now, the people that we don’t know outweigh the people we do. The thing that really blows my mind is when I see people I don’t know singing the songs. ” The band’s show at Barley’s on March 3 was the start of an IndieGoGo campaign to fund Guy Marshall’s second album. Over the past four years, the current lineup of the band has performed at venues across Knoxville. As their fan base has swelled, they’ve steadily progressed

from coffee shops to Rhythm N’ Blooms and, recently, the Bijou Theatre. In February, the trio of Adam, Sarrenna, and Bronson landed a last-minute supporting spot for Rufus Wainwright at the iconic theater when the scheduled opening act couldn’t make it in time.

“There’s a lot of important things about that show to us,” Adam says. “I started listening to Rufus when Sarrenna and I first started dating, and I introduced his music to her. He was and still is one of our favorite artists. To be asked to open for him was bizarre and incredible. The stars just aligned.”

Now the band is looking beyond East Tennessee, with plans to use the money from their crowdfunding effort to record a follow up to 2015’s The Depression Blues. The goal of the campaign is to raise $10,000 to professionally record, mix, master, and distribute the album. But the band

says they’ll realistically need $12,750 to achieve everything they want.

As far as material goes, Adam points out that most of the songs are ready to go.

“We have seven pretty new songs that are from within the last year, and we have a few others from the last album that we didn’t release,” he says.

“Plus, we have others from way back when. I just need a little more time to make it flow as a cohesive album.”

On The Depression Blues, songs like the band’s popular “Cowboy Ballad” focused on the past. Many of them celebrated the life of Adam’s late grandfather, the band’s namesake, Guy Marshall. Now, the band is looking ahead, focusing less on nostalgia and more on the present.

“A lot of the words from my earlier songs were romanticizing the past,” Adam says. “In my immaturity, things were better. Now I think, ‘Well, of course they were better.’ I didn’t understand what was going on around me. I didn’t understand the evilness in the world.”

In addition to recording an album, Guy Marshall plans to use the money they raise to expand their reach across the region. To help, they’ve hired a manager, Oslo Cole, and a booking agent, Cory Smith. For the next year, they expect to book more shows around the Southeast and beyond.

“The two of them getting excited about what we’re doing has really reunited the band in certain ways,” Sarrenna says. “It was kind of a struggle for a bit. We were playing a lot in Knoxville and it was totally fun, but I think we were all like, ‘What’s next?’ Now, dates are filling up on our calendar and it’s given everyone a new motivation as a team.”

Going forward, the band hopes that fans will continue to support them in whatever way they can. And, judging by the Barley’s show, that support will be enthusiastic.

“It’s really less about attracting fans and more about building a community,” Adam says. “If you can donate, that’s great. But we really just want people to share—share our music and tell your friends about it. Tell the folks you know to come see us and see what we’re all about.”

Program Notes | Shelf Life | Music | Movies

Future Shock Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine saga ends on a spectacularly bloody high note

BY APRIL SNELLINGS

I

t’s no coincidence that the most interesting superhero movie franchises are also the most stylistically pliable ones—city-pummeling mayhem and save-the-worldagain story lines get tiresome, but there’s something really satisfying about watching the Captain America series bounce from square-jawed war movie to Cold War thriller territory.

Logan, the third Wolverine movie and 10th X-Men film, takes that flexibility to a new level. It’s so far removed from its predecessors in tone, style, and content that it’s hard to even think of it as a superhero movie. Gritty, spectacularly bloody, and intensely elegiac, it’s Unforgiven by way of Fury Road, with shades of Cormac McCarthy and a soupçon of Lone Wolf and Cub. It’s also socially and politically reflective in ways that are more

unsettling than any of its predecessors. The X-Men movies have always leaned heavily into aligning their characters with persecuted minorities, but they’ve always laced that social commentary with notes of reassurance. In Logan’s grim vision of 2029 America, the country’s few remaining mutants share the crosshairs with immigrants, and the plot centers on a desperate bid to find sanctuary in Canada. America has simply become too hostile for hope.

So when we catch up to the superhero formally known as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in his best and supposedly final outing as the character), his 140-something years on this planet have caught up to him in the ugliest of ways. As far as he knows, the once-burgeoning mutant population has dwindled to three, himself included. The augmentation that imbued him

with mutant status and gnarly abilities is now slowing killing him, and he has succumbed to the nihilism he previously (if barely) held at bay.

Not that anyone could blame him; he lives in an abandoned smelting factory in the desert and works as a limo driver, ferrying belligerent frat boys and drunken bachelorette parties back and forth across the border.

Grizzled and defeated, his life revolves around caring for a dementia-stricken Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart at his King Lear-iest), who’s prone to psychic seizures so deadly that the government has classified his brain as a weapon of mass destruction.

So the clock is already running down on these characters when a Mexican nurse named Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) tracks Logan down and begs him to help usher her charge, an 11-year-old mutant girl

whose powers are painfully familiar to Logan, to a maybe-mythical place where she can meet up with other young mutants. Laura (Dafne Keen, in a fierce and remarkable big-screen debut) can hold her own in a fight with the paramilitary cyborgs who are chasing her, but she needs a father figure, and crotchety ol’ Wolvie, who carries an adamantium bullet in his pocket in case he ever gets the gumption to do himself in, needs a reason not to use it. Just sit back and wait for the redemption to start.

Only, you’ll have to wait for a really long time. It’s telling that the film opens with an unprintable expletive, ends with Johnny Cash’s apocalyptic “When the Man Comes Around,” and features countless head-skewerings and face-stabbings along the way. Director James Mangold, who co-wrote the script with Scott Frank and Michael Green, feels no pressure to force his second Wolverine movie (he also helmed 2013’s The Wolverine) into a franchiseor family-friendly format. Logan is unapologetically downbeat, graphically, sometimes disturbingly violent, and the pace has more in common with the classic Westerns he emulates—Shane gets several explicit callouts—than the considerably more frenetic X-Men movies. (No wonder Mangold is reportedly working on a black-and-white version of the film, a la George Miller’s Black and Chrome edition of Fury Road.) He’s also gutsy enough to scale back both the scope of the film and its stakes; the plot’s resolution probably doesn’t matter much to anyone who isn’t directly involved in its final confrontation, which makes the outcome all the more poignant.

For all its grit, violence, and pervasive melancholy, though, Logan is never dour. It doesn’t have much use for superhero pyrotechnics and easy solutions, but it’s laced with moments of gentle humor and an abiding affection for its characters and cast. Whether this is a story of hope extinguished or simply deferred is a matter resolved only abstractly in the film’s sentimental final moments.

But if Jackman makes good on his promise to hang up his claws after this one, he couldn’t have hoped for a better way to go out.

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SUN VOLT

Thursday, March 9 — Sunday, March 19

MUSIC Thursday, March 9 THE FARMHOUSE GHOST WITH JESS NOLAN AND KATIE PRUITT • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate

Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE WOOKS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 6PM • The WDVX 6 O’Clock Swerve is weekly musical trip with talented regional artists featuring live performances and insightful interviews in a living room atmosphere. • FREE GET THE LED OUT • The International • 8PM • Get The Led Out is a group of professional musicians who are passionate about their love of the music of Led Zeppelin. 18 and up. Visit internationalknox.com. • $20 TANNER RUTHERFORD WITH DOGWOOD TALES AND THE DAWN DRAPES • The Open Chord • 8PM • Tanner

Rutherford (formerly The Valley Opera) is a Knoxville-based singer-songwriter using metaphor, myth, and melody to encourage empathy. He’s celebrating the release of his new EP. All ages. • $5 THE WOOKS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Energetically honoring the sound of traditional bluegrass and mountain music, with threads of singer-songwriter, rock, and jam band music woven throughout, The Wooks are as at home on a festival stage as they are in a barn in the heart of Kentucky’s horse country.

THE HEAD AND THE HEART WITH MT. JOY • The Mill and Mine • 8PM • It wasn’t that long ago that the members of Seattle’s The Head and the Heart were busking on street corners, strumming their acoustic guitars, stomping their feet and singing in harmony as they attempted to attract the attention of passersby. That unbridled energy informed their earliest original material, which was honed in local clubs before eventually being captured on the band’s 2011 debut album for hometown label Sub Pop. • $37-$41 KNOX COUNTY JUG STOMPERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM • The Knox County Jug Stompers have settled on a more or less authentic reproduction of the jug music made popular throughout the South nearly a century ago by Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers and other bands with similar names, like Clifford Hayes’ Old Southern Jug 26 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Band, the Dixieland Jug Blowers, and the Seven Gallon Jug Band.

THE GET RIGHT BAND WITH KYLE COX • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Friday, March 10 THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz

musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

JIMMY AND THE JAWBONES WITH MATT URMY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE KELLE JOLLY AND THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL BAND • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The AA5

winter series concludes with the premier performance of the 2nd annual week-end long Women in Jazz Jam Festival, coordinated by Kelle Jolly. This evening’s performance will feature an as yet unannounced lineup of fabulous female jazz musicians and singers will perform. Visit knoxart. org. • $10-$15 BEN SOLLEE • Modern Studio • 8PM • Infowars is an invigorating collaboration between long-time percussionist Jordon Ellis and folk-pop cellist Ben Sollee that recaptures the live sounds and ideas experienced throughout their time on the road together. • $15-$18 TRAVIS MEADOWS • The Open Chord • 8PM • Living comfortably under the radar, Travis Meadows is overwhelmingly recognized by top recording artists as a true songwriter. • $15-$20 BIG COUNTRY’S EMPTY BOTTLE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM MIC HARRISON AND THE HIGH SCORE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • For those who don’t know, Mic Harrison is the beer-swilling, big-hearted blue-collar guitarist, singer, and songwriter who moved to Knoxville from a West Tennessee sawmill back in the early 1990s, taking a spot beside songwriter extraordinaire Scott Miller as co-frontman of local Americana standouts the V-roys. Harrison and the band are celebrating the release of Vanishing South.

Visit micharrison.com. • $5 SELECTOR DUB NARCOTIC WITH HARD FEELINGS • Pilot

Photo by David McClister

28 Locust Honey

Thursday, March 9

TANNER RUTHERFORD

Open Chord Music • 8 p.m. • $5 • All ages • Until recently, local singer-songwriter Tanner Rutherford performed as the Valley Opera, recruiting a rotating cast of other musicians to give shape to his earnest, sentimental folk-pop. He’s dropped the band name and gone strictly solo for his new EP, which is being released at this show. With opening acts Dogwood Tales and the Dawn Drapes.

Friday, March 10

BEN SOLLEE

Modern Studio • 8 p.m. • $15-$18 • Cellist and art-pop composer Ben Sollee, a veteran of the Rhythm N’ Blooms festival, teamed up with percussionist Jordan Ellis for last year’s high-concept Infowars. They’re touring together and will make a stop at North Knoxville’s new community art space.

DRAGONFLY AERIAL ARTS CIRCUS EXTRAVAGANZA: NEVERLAND

Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30 p.m. • $12 • The local aerial arts school and performance group serves up a new interpretation of the Peter Pan story, complete with pirates, airborne acrobatics, and a colony of lost children. Repeat performances will be held on Saturday, March 11, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m.

SELECTOR DUB NARCOTIC

Pilot Light • 7:30 p.m. • $7 • All ages Calvin Johnson, best known as the frontman of the influential ’80s alternative pop band Beat Happening and the founder of K Records, also led the dance-rock collective Dub Narcotic Sound System in the ’90s and early

’00s. He released This Party Is Just Getting Started, the first album from the solo offshoot of that group, in 2016. With Hard Feelings.

Saturday, March 11

J.D. WILKES

Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10 p.m. • Free • Kentucky wildman J.D. Wilkes leads both the Legendary Shack Shakers and the Dirt Daubers, two of the most unorthodox, adventurous, and unpredictable bands of the roots-music revival of the last 20 years. He also occasionally performs solo, as he will this Saturday night in the Old City.

Tuesday, March 14

CARNIFEX

The Concourse • 7:30 p.m. • $17-$20 • 18 and up • The San Diego band Carnifex (that’s Latin for “butcher”) continues its months-long tour in support of last year’s Slow Death, the band’s sixth album of metalcore mayhem.

With equally intense openers Fallujah, Rings of Saturn, Lorna Shore, and She Must Burn.

THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS

Thompson-Boling Arena • 7 p.m. • $23.50$123.50 • The NBA’s free-wheeling offensive displays of the last few years still haven’t caught up with the Harlem Globetrotters and their unprecedented display of basketball wizardry.

Wednesday, March 15

SON VOLT

Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • Jay Farrar and his band of alt-country survivors have just released their eighth album, Notes of Blue—22 years after their classic debut, Trace. With Johnny Irion.

March 9 — March 19

Light • 7:30PM • Selector Dub Narcotic is Beat Happening main man Calvin Johnson’s DJ/electronic music alter ego. All ages. • $7 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Jason Thompson’s band doesn’t play bebop, the mainstay of the American saxman for more than half a century. He prefers to do something different. Frog and Toad can sound more old-fashioned than bebop, with Dixieland and ragtime tunes.

But then, in the same set, they’ll sound more modern than bebop, with funk or fusion, or something original he wrote last week. • FREE RED MOUTH • Preservation Pub • 8PM • Red Mouth is an eclectic songwriter and performer from Muscle Shoals, Al. recalling acts such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Captain Beefheart, Gris Gris era Dr. John, and Tom Waits as much as the soul and country music that is typical of his home region. 21 and up. • FREE TAMARA BROWN • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE MATT FOSTER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM UNIVERSAL SIGH WITH CORNBRED • Preservation Pub • 9PM • 21 and up.

CAUTION • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM ROBINELLA • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM REBEL MOUNTAIN • Two Doors Down ( Maryville) • 9PM

Saturday, March 11 THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz

musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

ANDREW ADKINS WITH BRI MURPHY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE LOCUST HONEY • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Locust Honey, Chloe Edmonstone and Meredith Watson bring their experience in old-time, bluegrass, and pre-War blues to both their original material and the traditional songs and tunes of the American Southeast. • $15 ANNANDALE WITH THE DEAD DEADS AND AMONG THE BEASTS • The Open Chord • 8PM • Annandale is a hard

rock/alternative project of musical refuge, rebirth, and self-discovery. All ages. • $8-$20 THE DREAD SCOTS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM J.D. WILKES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • J.D. Wilkes, best known as the founder of the Legendary Shack Shakers, is an American musician, visual artist, author, filmmaker and self-proclaimed “southern surrealist”. • FREE HAROLD NAGGE AND ALAN WYATT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE REFLECTORS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM

CAPTAIN SUCK AND THE MEDIOCRE BAND • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM MIDDLE FINGER • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

THE STREAMLINERS SWING ORCHESTRA • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM CANDY DURMAN WITH IAN DAVIDSON AND EXIT 65 • Pilot Light • 6PM • $5 WARBAND WITH HEADFACE • Pilot Light • 10PM • Local thrash metal and punk. 18 and up. • $5

Sunday, March 12 THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz

musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 11AM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE MAIL THE HORSE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Mail the Horse is a country clunker of a five-piece careening down a highway laid to waste with Stones psychedelia and heartbroken hymnals, the tailpipe stuffed with marigolds. • FREE EVE TO ADAM WITH MESSAGE FROM SYLVIA, MEDICINE MAN, AND SOMETHING WICKED • The Open Chord • 8PM

• NYC’S guitar-driven, anthemic rock band Eve to Adam is not content to re-hash the same old song of yesterday, in the name of the all-mighty buck. All ages. • $12-$15

Monday, March 13 KELLY MCRAE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue

Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE EVENING NEWS WITH PAT BAKER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • FREE BEN RICKETTS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Ben Ricketts, an experimental singer-songwriter from Oxford, MS, will be bringing his unique brand of psychedelic folk and pop to Preservation Pub. 21 and up.

Tuesday, March 14 RYAN GREGORY FLOYD • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue

Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE MATT NELSON, GARRIT TILLMAN, AND JAKE EDWARD SMITH • Pilot Light • 6PM • A free live improv

showcase. 18 and up. • FREE CARNIFEX WITH FALLUJAH, RINGS OF SATURN, LORNA March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 27

March 9 — March 19

SHORE, AND SHE MUST BURN • The Concourse • 7:30PM

Wednesday, March 15

• Allow us to introduce Carnifex. Derived from the Old English word for executioner, their moniker could not be more appropriate. It’s a word that reeks of death and destruction from the Dark Ages to describe a fiercely morbid death metal band. 18 and up. • $17-$20 BRAD PARSONS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • When Brad Parsons steps out on a stage, it’s not long before he overpowers a roaring crowd. With little but his voice and an acoustic guitar, Parsons channels raucous energy into original songs that are as hopeful as they are heart-wrenching. • FREE THE VOODOO FIX • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

CHAD ELLIOTT WITH BRANDON FULSON • WDVX • 12PM •

Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast 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 • Jason Thompson’s band doesn’t play bebop, the mainstay of the American saxman for more than half a century. He prefers to do something different. Frog and Toad can sound more old-fashioned than bebop, with Dixieland and ragtime tunes. But then, in the same set, they’ll sound more modern than bebop, with funk or fusion, or something original he wrote last week. • FREE

SON VOLT • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Just now pushing fifty, Jay Farrar, the creative force behind Son Volt, is still not as old as his voice. Not nearly. His singing voice, an ageless gift which sounds something like old timber looks, like the unpainted walls framing Walker Evans’ best portraits from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: simple, durable, weathered and grooved and unplanned. Visit sonvolt.net. • $20 THE CREATURES IN SECRET WITH ADRIFT ON RIVER STYX, VIA VERA, AND THESE VICES • The Open Chord • 8PM •

The Creatures In Secret is a metal band based out of Knoxville, Tennessee. With influences spanning from Miss May I, As I Lay Dying, Sworn In, and August Burns Red to Green Day, Panic! At The Disco, and Fall Out Boy, TCIS brings an onslaught of intense riffs, brutal breakdowns, catchy grooves, and beautiful choruses. All ages. • $8-$10 THE CAM DUFFY BAND WITH MILKSHAKE FATTY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Thursday, March 16 DAVID G. SMITH WITH IAN THOMAS AND THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate

Locust Honey Laurel Theater (1538 Laurel Ave.) • Saturday, March 11 • 8 p.m. • $13 • jubileearts.org or locusthoney.com Chloe Edmonstone and Meredith Watson take a respectful—but not necessarily reverent—approach to the music that inspires them. As Locust Honey (sometimes billed as the Locust Honey String Band), Edmonstone and Watson have recorded two albums of classic old-time country, first-generation bluegrass, and early 20th-century folk music, with a few originals thrown in for good measure, along with unexpected interpretations of more familiar material (like their takes on songs by Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and George Jones).

The duo’s two albums—He’s No Good (2012) and Never Let Me Cross Your Mind (2014)—are a refreshing reminder that this was communal music, for dancing and singing along to (and for sharing misery, too). Edmonstone and Watson have serious chops (they trade off on banjo, guitar, and fiddle) and deep knowledge of traditional music, but they don’t let that get in the way of a good time. Never Let Me Cross Your Mind, in particular, is as fine and rousing a contemporary take on old-time Appalachian music as any listener can reasonably expect, full of raging dance tunes, weepy ballads, banjo breakdowns, and high, haunting harmonies.

(Matthew Everett)

28 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ZACK MILES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 6PM • The WDVX 6 O’Clock Swerve is weekly musical trip with talented regional artists featuring live performances and insightful interviews in a living room atmosphere. • FREE SCHOOL OF ROCK MIDSEASON SHOWCASE • The Open Chord • 6PM • Students from Knoxville’s School of Rock pay tribute to the British Invasion and Southern rock to benefit the Ovation Music Fund scholarship program.

THE DARRELL WEBB BAND • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM OLD SALT UNION WITH JENNI LYNN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Old Salt Union is known for playing music by their own set of rules. While the men who make up the group are not complete rebels, they are certainly focused on exposing people to a purer, more exciting, and more original form of music. • FREE SOUL MECHANIC WITH VOODOO VISIONARY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Friday, March 17 FOUR LEAF PEAT WITH STOLEN RHODES • WDVX • 12PM •

Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE STOLEN RHODES • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8PM • $5 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Jason Thompson’s band doesn’t play bebop, the mainstay of the American saxman for

more than half a century. He prefers to do something different. Frog and Toad can sound more old-fashioned than bebop, with Dixieland and ragtime tunes.

But then, in the same set, they’ll sound more modern than bebop, with funk or fusion, or something original he wrote last week. • FREE DENNIS STROUGHMATT ET L’ESPRIT CREOLE • Laurel Theater • 8PM • In the heart of North America is a story that remains to be told, the story of the French creoles who founded the illinois country over three hundred years ago. Along the Wabash and Mississippi River corridors, today they remain with their songs, stories and language, and one music group continues to carry the torch of this enduring culture....Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole. • $15 JAMES SEATON • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 8PM SORDID ST. PATRICK’S DAY • The Open Chord • 8:30PM • With Rat Punch, Genki Genki Panic, White Stag, and Summoner’s Circle. Presented by Night Owl Music. All ages. • $10 KAMINANDA WITH LIVING LIGHT, DRUMSPYDER, AND SIRIUS COLORS • The Concourse • 9PM • 18 and up. •

$12-$15 INSECT TO MONARCH WITH DIVIDED WE STAND • Barley’s

Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM THE COVERALLS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running bar/wedding/special event favorites are masters of mood—they know what an audience wants, whether it’s Top 40 hits, Motown, classic rock, or jazz standards, and they deliver, on time, every time.

THE JAYSTORM PROJECT • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM MOJO: FLOW • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM SAME AS IT EVER WAS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Knoxville’s best—and only—Talking Heads tribute band. • $5 STRUNG LIKE A HORSE WITH STEPPIN’ STONES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • One of Clay Maselle’s newest songs is titled “Trailer Park Astronaut”—a fitting description for the quirky “gypsy-punk garage-grass” he creates with Chattanooga’s Strung Like a Horse. Backed by fiddle, banjo, upright bass and a percussion stool, dubbed “Bertha,” adorned with rotary phone bells, the frontman sings in a half-yelp/half-yodel about murder, bird dogs, and broken hearts.

MEOB WITH GROUNDHOG AND SPADES COOLEY • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 FOUR LEAF PEAT • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Four Leaf Peat is East Tennessee’s premier traditional Irish Band and has been performing locally and regionally since 2004. Traditional Irish music ranges from vibrant dance tunes to soulful songs and Four Leaf Peat’s performances are always marked by a keen sense of the tradition mixed with just the right amount of influence from the rich musical history of East Tennessee. • $21.50

Saturday, March 18

March 9 — March 19

DENNIS STROUGHMATT ET L’ESPRIT CREOLE WITH PONY BONES • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate

Special, a six-days-a-week live-broadcast lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE WOODY PINES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE MIKE MCGILL AND JAY CLARK • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM THE BLUE EYED BETTYS • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE SUN-DRIED VIBES WITH PERMAGROOVE • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM SHORT TERM MEMORY • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM HILLBILLY JEDI • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM SWINGBOOTY • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM • Local gypsy jazz. 21 and up. • $5 KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM ANCIENT WARFARE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Ancient Warfare’s live show ebbs and flows from hushed harmony vocals to austere, tube-driven waves of sound. • FREE IAN THOMAS AND THE BAND OF DRIFTERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

FOLK KILLER WITH WHITE GREGG AND BURNING ITCH • Pilot Light • 10PM • The music of White Gregg sounds like it takes a lot of thought, a lot of effort, and a lot of arguing to compose and execute. Antecedents might be Captain Beefheart, U.S. Maple, This Heat, and The Flowers of Romance-era P.I.L. Not that they necessarily sound like those bands, but they seem to share with them a need to interrogate the dynamics of rock music and song form, an abhorrence for playing things straight. On a night when they’re hitting all the right notes, it’s about as good as rock music gets, though it may take seeing them a few times to realize some of those notes are meant to be there. 18 and up. • $5

Sunday, March 19 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou •

12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 11AM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE THE JON WHITLOCK TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Jon Whitlock, Meade Armstrong and Jessica Watson make music that is loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow by picking, bowing, strumming and plucking strings together and apart and each with their own voice they sing words that sometimes rhyme… and sometimes do not. They’re celebrating the release of a new CD. • FREE WAYLAND • The Open Chord • 8PM • Wayland is a four piece rock n’ roll band consisting of Mitch Arnold on vocals, Phillip Vilenski on guitar, Dean Pizzazz on bass, and Nigel Dupree on drums. All four members

have deep roots in the midwest, and the band is named after Phillip Vilenskis hometown of Wayland, MI. All ages. • $10-$15 DAY AND AGE WITH LUNG • Pilot Light • 9PM • Lung is a two-piece, comprised of electric cello and drums, based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Their sound is dark, haunting, thick, and moving. Their style defies conventional genre definitions, evoking the driving sludge of early grunge/post-rock, with layered, symphonic dark rock ballads. 18 and up. • $5 BASHFUL YOUNGENS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS Thursday, March 9 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel •

7:15PM • Visit jigandreel.com. • FREE

Sunday, March 12 EPWORTH MONTHLY OLD HARP SHAPE NOTE SINGING • Laurel Theater • 6:30PM • Visit jubileearts.org. • FREE

Monday, March 13 MONDAY BLUES • Bar Marley • 8PM • Live every

Monday, blues, jazz, funk, reggae and jam musicians from all over Tennessee meet at a backwater crossroad to sit in and show what the blues are made of. • FREE

Tuesday, March 14 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER-SONGWRITER NIGHT •

Preservation Pub • 7PM • 21 and up. Visit scruffycity. com.

OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. Visit jigandreel.com. • FREE

Wednesday, March 15 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. Visit Facebook.com/BrackinsBlues. • FREE

Thursday, March 16 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM •

Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

Visit jigandreel.com. • FREE

Sunday, March 19 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Sunday of each month. Visit jigandreel.com. • FREE

www.TennesseeTheatre.com

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 29

March 9 — March 19

Old City this weekend to party like it is 1999.

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Saturday, March 18 TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative once night. 18 and up. Visit facebook.com/templeknoxville. • $5 SOUTHBOUND SATURDAYS • Southbound Bar and Grill • 9PM • With DJ Eric B.

Friday, March 10 SOUTHBOUND FRIDAYS • Southbound Bar and Grill •

before. In this onsite production of Verdi’s masterpiece the audience will become a part of the show as guests and onlookers into Violetta’s public and private world. Visit marblecityopera.com. • $25

Friday, March 17

REWIND DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 8AM • Dance

Civic Auditorium • 8PM • It’s a full night of Journey’s greatest hits and maybe one or two that are just for the die-hard fans of one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

KSO MASTERWORKS: LEFKOWITZ PLAYS BRAHMS • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • Talented KSO Concertmaster Gabriel Lefkowitz returns to the Tennessee Theatre stage bringing life to Brahms’ Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in D Major for the March Masterworks concerts. • $13-$83 MARBLE CITY OPERA: ‘LA TRAVIATA’ • Knox Heritage • 7:30PM • Come be a part of La Traviata as never before. In this onsite production of Verdi’s masterpiece the audience will become a part of the show as guests and onlookers into Violetta’s public and private world. Visit marblecityopera.com. • $25

the night away to hits from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. 18 and up. • $5

Thursday, March 16

Saturday, March 18

KSO MASTERWORKS: LEFKOWITZ PLAYS BRAHMS •

MARBLE CITY OPERA: ‘LA TRAVIATA’ • Knox Heritage •

Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • Talented KSO Concertmaster Gabriel Lefkowitz returns to the Tennessee Theatre stage bringing life to Brahms’ Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in D Major for the March Masterworks concerts. • $13-$83 MARBLE CITY OPERA: ‘LA TRAVIATA’ • Knox Heritage • 7:30PM • Come be a part of La Traviata as never

7:30PM • Come be a part of La Traviata as never before. In this onsite production of Verdi’s masterpiece the audience will become a part of the show as guests and onlookers into Violetta’s public and private world. Visit marblecityopera.com. • $25 POULENC TRIO • Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • Founded in 2003, the Poulenc Trio

9PM • With DJ Eric B. RETRO WEEKEND DANCE PARTY • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM

• Hanna’s Retro Weekend dance party with DJ Ray Funk is where you will hear all of your favorite 80’s and 90’s dance hits. So get down to Hanna’s in the Old City this weekend to party like it is 1999.

CLASSICAL MUSIC Saturday, March 11 KSO POPS SERIES: THE MUSIC OF JOURNEY • Knoxville

Saturday, March 11 SOUTHBOUND SATURDAYS • Southbound Bar and Grill •

9PM • With DJ Eric B.

Friday, March 17 SOUTHBOUND FRIDAYS • Southbound Bar and Grill •

9PM • With DJ Eric B. RETRO WEEKEND DANCE PARTY • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM

• Hanna’s Retro Weekend dance party with DJ Ray Funk is where you will hear all of your favorite 80’s and 90’s dance hits. So get down to Hanna’s in the

Yee-Haw Brewing Co. Presents tHe 2017

Arcade Decathlon Benefiting

A contest featuring a different arcade game each month to Round 9 crown the next november 16 king or queen Galaga of the arcade in Knoxville!

Round 8 Grand Prize for october 19 Ghosts & the winner of Goblins ROUND 1 is 2 tickets to the 2017 Big Ears Festival!

Round 7

wUtK 90.3

Round 1 Thursday March 9 Skeeball

2017

Each event is a mini-tourney to determine who squares off in the Round 2 Championship event.

April 20

Foosball “Foos20!”

Round 3 May 18 Afterburner & Tomcat

Championship Event december 14

September 21 All proceeds go to darts help to keep Volunteer Radio 90.3 Round 6 The Rock on the air!

August 17 Pinball Sponsored by Harrogate’s Lounge and KS Absher Marketing & Events

Registration: 6-7 pm Competition: 7 pm

10

$

registration fee for each event

Round 4 June 15 nBA Jam

Round 5 July 20 Cruisin’ uSA

Cool raffle prizes eaCh night for partiCipants!

Stay tuned to WUTK and check out wutkradio.com for details!

Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 30 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Poulenc Trio Saturday, March 18

Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • Founded in 2003, the Poulenc Trio is the most active touring piano-wind chamber music ensemble in the world.

The trio, consisting of oboist James Austin Smith, bassoonist Bryan Young, and pianist Irina Kaplan, will perform music

by Glinka, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Rossini, and Cuong, as well as Poulenc’s masterful Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano. Subscription and individual tickets may be purchased online at www.ORCMA. org or by calling (865) 483-5569. • $25

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATE PROGRAM Our 24-hour accelerated program is a practical review of project management techniques, tools, and practices. With this knowledge, you’ll establish yourself as someone who can deliver results in the workplace.

Practical Project Management Course April 7 - May 19 (6 Friday sessions) Course # 17SPM103 $1,199 Project Management Exam – Intense Review June 2-16 (3 Friday sessions) Course # 17SPM104 $549 Call 865-974-0150 to prepay for both courses at a discounted fee of $1,499. www.utnoncredit.com

March 9 — March 19

is the most active touring piano-wind chamber music ensemble in the world. The trio, consisting of oboist James Austin Smith, bassoonist Bryan Young, and pianist Irina Kaplan, will perform music by Glinka, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Rossini, and Cuong, as well as Poulenc’s masterful Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano. Subscription and individual tickets may be purchased online at www.ORCMA.org or by calling (865) 483-5569. • $25

THEATER AND DANCE Broadway at the Tennessee Theatre TENNESSEETHEATRE.COM • Rent A re-imagining of

Puccini’s La Bohème, Rent follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. This timeless celebration of friendship and creativity reminds us to measure our lives with the only thing that truly matters—love. Friday, March 10, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, March 11, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. • $37-$77

Clarence Brown Theatre CLARENCEBROWNTHEATRE.COM • The Busy Body A

young woman, her handsome lover, and their friends plot to escape a controlling guardian in this hilarious Restoration comedy. Will a nosy nobleman ruin the plan or save the day? Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. through March 12. $22-$42

Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio Circus, Pellissippi State Community College

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

experienced comics interested in joining in the fun can email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE

Thursday, March 9

Saturday, March 18

PIZZA HAS • Pizza Hoss • 8PM • On the second

JAMES GREGORY • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • For decades, the unforgettable caricature of veteran comedian James Gregory has stood grinning: his shirt untucked, his arms outstretched, a carefree welcome to a down-home, hilarious comedy experience. It’s storytelling at its best.

The trademark caricature is the essence of humorist James Gregory’s comedy: rib-tickling reflections on life from the front porch. • $32

Thursday of the month, Pizza Hoss in Powell hosts a showcase featuring sets from some of the best comedians in East Tennessee along with selected up-and-coming talent. Each month one of the hosts of Rain/Shine Event productions (Shane Rhyne, Tyler Sonnichsen, and Sean Simoneau) serves as your guide to introduce you the best of our region’s comedy scene. • FREE

Monday, March 13 FRIENDLYTOWN • Pilot Light • 7:30PM • A weekly

comedy night named after the former red-light district near the Old City. Visit facebook.com/ friendlytownknoxville. 18 and up. • FREE THE DELIGHTS IMPROV TROUPE • Casual Pint (Farragut) • 7:30PM

Tuesday, March 14 KNOXVILLE POETRY SLAM • The Open Chord • 8PM • All

FESTIVALS Friday, March 10 THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

ages. • $5

Saturday, March 11

OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon •

THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every Tuesday night. Doors open at 8:30, first comic at 9. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or

DRAGONFLYAERIALARTSSTUDIO.COM • The Adventures

Sunday, March 12

of Neverland A retelling of the Peter Pan story where the Darling children are transported (by flying, of course) to a circus called Neverland. There will be pirates, lost girls, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell. Friday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 11, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m. • $12

THE WOMEN IN JAZZ JAM FESTIVAL • Local jazz musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail. com, or visit www.womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

Knoxville Children’s Theatre

IRISH FESTIVAL • Market Square • 3PM • The Irish Festival will kick off St. Patrick’s Day on Friday and continue on Saturday in Market Square, downtown Knoxville. The Irish Festival is appropriate for the entire family. We will have festive music, inflatable bouce houses, slides and an obstacle course, carousel for the little ones, face painting, games and activities, popcorn, cotton candy, vendors and other fun activities for kids of all ages. • FREE KNOXVILLE ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE • Downtown Knoxville • 7PM • Saint Patrick’s Day began as a religious holiday in Ireland for Irish Catholics. In America, it has come a day to celebrate Irish heritage and culture. What a better way to celebrate than with a parade. Celebrating East Tennessee’s rich Irish heritage and acknowledging the role Irish immigrants and Americans of Scots-Irish descent

Friday, March 17

KNOXVILLECHILDRENSTHEATRE.COM • Disney’s Beauty

and the Beast Jr. Based on the original Broadway production and the Academy Award-winning motion picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. is a fantastic adaptation of the story of transformation and tolerance. Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. through March 12. $12.

Oak Ridge Playhouse ORPLAYHOUSE.COM • The Odd Couple Neil Simon’s

popular and enduring comedy about mismatched middle-aged roommates Felix Unger and Oscar Madison comes to the Playhouse for the first time in nearly 50 years. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. March 10-19. $16-$22.

The Women in Jazz Jam Festival Friday, March 10

Local jazz musician Kelle Jolly presents the second annual Women in Jazz Jam Festival. Contact Kelle Jolly at (865) 622-7174 or at womeninjazzjamfestival@gmail.com, or visit www. womeninjazzjamfestival.com for more information.

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 31

March 9 — March 19

have played in the history of Knoxville, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade comes back to Knoxville.

Followed by live music by Sneaky Pete on Market Square at 8 p.m. • FREE ROMANCING THE SMOKIES • 7PM • Romancing the Smokies will bring several romance authors to the Knoxville Airport Hilton, in Alcoa. On March 17, there will be an ice breaker based in the land of the Emerald Isle, with fairies and leprechauns. The next day, the Clean Reads Spring Luncheon provides a plated lunch with all the trimmings, beautiful spring décor, which will be given away as prizes. A huge book signing, open to the public will start after lunch. That evening, the Dark Hollows Press/Painted Hearts Publishing Masquerade Gala offers fun in the form of casino games, a photo booth and heavy hors d’oeuvres, ending with a Blind Book Auction. • $65

ROMANCING THE SMOKIES • 12PM • Romancing the

Saturday, March 18

MOSSY CREEK DOCUMENTARY ARTS FESTIVAL • Carson-Newman University • 9AM • The Mossy Creek Documentary Arts Festival screens documentary shorts and feature films for the campus and community. It is a place for students, faculty, filmmakers, photographers, and the general public to share in stories and consider important issues facing the region and the world. Past festivals have featured Academy Award-winning filmmakers and compelling new documentary projects.All screenings are free and open to the public. Seating is limited. A complete schedule and film descriptions can be found at cn.edu.mcdaff. • FREE

IRISH FESTIVAL • Market Square • 10AM • The Irish

Festival will kick off St. Patrick’s Day on Friday and continue on Saturday in Market Square, downtown Knoxville. The Irish Festival is appropriate for the entire family. We will have festive music, inflatable bouce houses, slides and an obstacle course, carousel for the little ones, face painting, games and activities, popcorn, cotton candy, vendors and other fun activities for kids of all ages. • FREE

Smokies will bring several romance authors to the Knoxville Airport Hilton, in Alcoa. On March 17, there will be an ice breaker based in the land of the Emerald Isle, with fairies and leprechauns. The next day, the Clean Reads Spring Luncheon provides a plated lunch with all the trimmings, beautiful spring décor, which will be given away as prizes. A huge book signing, open to the public will start after lunch. That evening, the Dark Hollows Press/Painted Hearts Publishing Masquerade Gala offers fun in the form of casino games, a photo booth and heavy hors d’oeuvres, ending with a Blind Book Auction. • $65

FILM SCREENINGS Wednesday, March 15

Saturday, March 18

Newtown Saturday, March 18

The Birdhouse • 8PM • Newtown uses deeply personal testimonies to tell the story of the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, the deadliest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history. Through poignant interviews with parents, siblings, teachers, doctors, and first responders, Newtown documents a traumatized community still reeling from the senseless killing, fractured by grief but driven toward a sense of purpose. Screening is free and open to the public, followed by a town-hall style discussion. • FREE

32 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

NEWTOWN • The Birdhouse • 8PM • Newtown uses deeply personal testimonies to tell the story of the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, the deadliest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history. Through poignant interviews with parents, siblings, teachers, doctors, and first responders, Newtown documents a traumatized community still reeling from the senseless killing, fractured by grief but driven toward a sense of purpose. Screening is free and open to the public, followed by a town-hall style discussion. • FREE

SPORTS AND RECREATION Thursday, March 9 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 two- to three-hour ride at 20-plus mph pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15-18 mph. Weather permitting.

Visit 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. Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Come run with us. Every Monday and Thursday year round we do a group fun run through the neighborhood. Open to all levels of walkers and runners. Everyone who participates earns $1 off their beer. Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES DOWNTOWN GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for our winter greenway rides to downtown and back. Ride is 30+ miles at a 13/14 mph pace.

Visit cedarbluffcycles.com. • FREE

Maynardville, the 11 mile course delves into long forgotten, mud-slogged crevasses thought to be haunted by haints, demons, banshees, phantoms, and poltergeists. We will also offer a five-mile option for those who choose to spend a bit less time on the trail, although Grand Prix points will only be awarded for the longer race, and a shorter still, but equally delightful, kids trail mile course will be offered for the young ‘uns. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

And the kids race is only five bucks (ten if you want a shirt just like the grownups!). Oh, yes, there is a hill on the long course. And a few bumps on both. Visit ktc.org. • $15

Saturday, March 11

Monday, March 13

SOLID ROCK 10K/5K/1-MILE FUN RUN • Cedar Bluff

KTC GROUP RUN • Balter Beerworks • 6PM • Join Knoxville Track Club every Monday evening for a group run starting at Balter Beerworks off Broadway.

Meet at 6 p.m. for fitness, fun, and food. Afterwards, a dollar off drafts. This is a pretty well-lit route but you’ll still need some reflective gear and preferably a headlamp or flashlight for safety. Visit ktc.org. • FREE TVB MONDAY NIGHT ROAD RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • The soon to be famous 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 17 mph and the B group averages around 14 mph. Visit tnvalleybikes.com. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Come run with us. Every Monday and Thursday year round we do a group fun run through the neighborhood. Open to all levels of walkers and runners. Everyone who participates earns $1 off their beer. Visit beardenbeermarket.com.

• FREE

Baptist Church • Cedar Bluff Baptist Church is over 100 years old. The church is currently building a new sanctuary to accommodate the growth and future of the church. All proceeds for this road race will go towards the church’s building program. • $20-$30 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: CEMETERY HIKE • 9AM • The hike will begin on the Maddron Bald Trail, with a shortcut to the Maddron Cemetery. For questions, contact Frank March at frankamarch@gmail.com.

Any hikers wishing to carpool can meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Hwy, at 8:00 am. Leaders: Frank March at frankamarch@gmail.com and Richard Ryburn. • FREE WEST BICYCLES SATURDAY ROAD RIDE • West Bicycles • 9AM • Join us every Saturday morning for a group road ride. Divides into two groups: A Group at 17-20 mph and B Group at 14-16 mph. Store open for pre-ride services including full service tech support, energy bars/gels/chews, clean restrooms, plenty of parking, and terrific routes. Cookies and coffee on return. Visit westbikes.com. • FREE BIKE ZOO SATURDAY ROAD RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Join us every Saturday morning for a group road ride.

Divides into two groups: A Group at 17-20 mph and B Group at 14-16 mph. Store open for pre-ride services including full service tech support, energy bars/gels/ chews, clean restrooms, plenty of parking, and terrific routes. Cookies and coffee on return. Visit westbikes.com. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY SATURDAY RIDE • Knoxville Bicycle Company • 9AM • Join us every Saturday for a group road ride. Divides into groups: shorter route is 27 miles; longer route is determined at regroup at Melton Hill Dam. Weather permitting.

Visit Facebook.com/KnoxvilleBicycleCo. • FREE

Sunday, March 12 KTC DARK HOLLOW WALLOW • 2PM • In the wooded hollows of Big Ridge State Park east of Norris near

knoxmercury.com

Visit us online for a complete list of local events.

Tuesday, March 14 THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS • Thompson-Boling Arena

• 7PM • The Harlem Globetrotters are legendary worldwide, synonymous with one-of-a-kind family entertainment and great basketball skills for the past 90 years. Throughout their history, the Harlem Globetrotters have showcased their iconic talents in 122 countries and territories on six continents, often breaking down cultural and societal barriers while providing fans with their first-ever basketball experience. Visit harlemglobetrotters.com. • $23.50 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. and 10:30 am for a road ride with two group options. Weather permitting.

Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE

March 9 — March 19

Thursday, March 16 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE •

Wednesday, March 15

Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a two- to three-hour ride at 20-plus mph pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15-18 mph. Weather permitting.

Visit 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. Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Come run with us. Every Monday and Thursday year round we do a group fun run through the neighborhood. Open to all levels of walkers and runners. Everyone who participates earns $1 off their beer. Visit beardenbeermarket.com.

• FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES DOWNTOWN GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for our winter greenway rides to downtown and back. Ride is 30+ miles at a 13/14 mph pace.

Visit cedarbluffcycles.com. • FREE

SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: RICH MOUNTAIN/ CROOKED ARM RIDGE/INDIAN GRAVE GAP LOOP • Smoky

Saturday, March 18

Barley’s St. Patrick’s Day 5K Sunday, March 19

Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 2PM • Join us for the 5th anniversary of the best St. Patrick’s Day 5k in Knoxville.

All proceeds go directly to Emily’s Power For A Cure. EPFAC is a foundation whose purpose is to raise funds and awareness for neuroblastoma research. • $35

Mountain Hiking Club • 8:30AM • This Rich Mountain loop hike will include the Crooked Arm Ridge, Indian Grave Gap, and Rich Mountain trails. Hike: 8.2 miles, rated moderate. Option to add Indian Grave to Rich Mountain Road, for additional 2.2 mile out and back.

Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 8:00 am or at the Cades Cove entrance parking lot at 8:45 am. Leader: Ray Fuehrer, Ray.fuehrer@yahoo.com. • FREE FLEET FEET WEDNESDAY LUNCH BREAK RUN • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 12PM • Join us every Wednesday at for our lunch break run. All levels welcome. We’ll run 30-60 minutes. Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • If you are visiting Knoxville, new to town, new to the club, or just looking to get more involved, this is the place to start. A festive and relaxed group get-together occurs every Wednesday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. at Runners Market. Visit ktc.org. • FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature Center • 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. Call 865-540-9979 or visit tnvalleybikes.com. • FREE

LUCKY KIDNEY RUN • Market Square • 10AM • The

Lucky Kidney Run will feature 6K and 2K courses, in Market Square, downtown Knoxville. The 6k course is an out-and-back down Gay Street, through the Historic 4th and Gill neighborhood. The 2K course is a similar out-and-back down Gay Street, turning down several side streets and circling back to Gay. Awards ceremony to follow. • $35 WEST BICYCLES SATURDAY ROAD RIDE • West Bicycles • 9AM • Join us every Saturday morning for a group road ride. Divides into two groups: A Group at 17-20 mph and B Group at 14-16 mph. Store open for pre-ride services including full service tech support, energy bars/gels/chews, clean restrooms, plenty of parking, and terrific routes. Cookies and coffee on return. Visit westbikes.com. • FREE BIKE ZOO SATURDAY ROAD RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Join us every Saturday for a group three-hour road ride of 50+ miles at a fast pace of 18/20 mph. Weather permitting. Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY SATURDAY RIDE • Knoxville Bicycle Company • 9AM • Join us every Saturday for a group road ride. Divides into groups: shorter route is 27 miles; longer route is determined at regroup at Melton Hill Dam. Weather permitting.

Visit Facebook.com/KnoxvilleBicycleCo. • FREE

Sunday, March 19 March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 33

March 9 — March 19

BARLEY’S ST. PATRICK’S DAY 5K • Barley’s Taproom and

Pizzeria • 2PM • Join us for the 5th anniversary of the best St. Patrick’s Day 5k in Knoxville. All proceeds go directly to Emily’s Power For A Cure. EPFAC is a foundation whose purpose is to raise funds and awareness for neuroblastoma research. • $35

reception will be held on Friday, March 10, from 6:30-8 p.m.

Project.

DOWNTOWN.UTK.EDU • March 3-31: Film and video art

Gallery 1010

OLDCITYJAVA.COM • March 3-31: New Schema,

by Kevin Jerome Everson.

ART.UTK.EDU/GALLERY1010/ • March 16-18: Everything

paintings by Van Walker.

East Tennessee History Center

Bends to the Bloom, prints by Gabrielle Buuck. A reception will be held on Friday, March 17, from 6-9 p.m.

RALA

Arts Synergy Art Educator Exhibition.

Downtown Gallery

ART

EASTTNHISTORY.ORG • Nov. 19-April 30: Rock of Ages:

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture

ARROWMONT.ORG • Feb. 15-April 8: Back to Work,

KNOXALLIANCE.COM • March 3-31: Abingdon Arts Depot

mixed-media sculpture by Jackson Martin.

Market Gallery members’ Group Show.

Juried Members Exhibition; The Art of Surrealism by Jose Roberto; artwork by Coral Grace Turner; Vintage Reinventions: Steampunk Creations by Eric Holstine, Jason Lambert, and Jason Edwards; and art by Joe Bracco.

Central Collective

Ewing Gallery

THECENTRALCOLLECTIVE.COM • March 3-27: Wood/

EWING-GALLERY.UTK.EDU • FEB. 27-March 19: 70th

Metal/Clay/Cloth, an exhibit by Heather Ashworth, Katie Dirnbauer, Ellis Greer and Amanda Humphreys.

Annual Student Art Competition Exhibit.

Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville)

FOUNTAINCITYARTCENTER.COM • Through April 6:

Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce

Paintings by Aleex Connor. March 10-April 6: Southern Appalachian Nature Photography Society Exhibition and Knoxville Book Arts Guild Exhibition. An opening

OAKRIDGECHAMBER.ORG • Feb. 23-March 23: Atomic Integration, photographs by Ed Westcott of the African-American experience during the Manhattan

East Tennessee’s Marble Industry.

Art Market Gallery ARTMARKETGALLERY.NET • Feb. 28-March 31: Art

CLAYTONARTSCENTER.COM • March 6-24: Dogwood

Arts Synergy Student Art Exhibition and Dogwood

Fountain City Art Center

Bach or Basie?

Your music, your choice.

Your classical and jazz station.

FIX THIS BASTARD 34 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017 WUOT_Ad_4.625x5.25_ClassicalJazz_KnoxMerc.indd 2

9/17/16 5:00 PM

Knoxville Museum of Art KNOXART.ORG • JAN. 27-April 16: Outside In, new paintings by Jered Sprecher. Feb. 3-April 16: Virtual Views: Digital Art From the Thoma Foundation.

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

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture MCCLUNGMUSEUM.UTK.EDU • Feb. 3-May 7: Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt. Ongoing: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

Old City Java

SHOPRALA.COM • March 3-31: Paintings by Sarah

Moore.

Westminster Presbyterian Church WPCKNOX.ORG • March 5-April 30: Paintings by Shirley

Wittman and blown glass by Johnny Glass.

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS Thursday, March 9 LEGO ROBOTICS GROUP • Blount County Public Library •

6:30PM • For kids 7-11. If your kid loves LEGOS, they will love learning new STEM skills while exploring the world of LEGO robotics. Call (865) 982-0981 to register. • FREE

Friday, March 10 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM •

March 9 — March 19

Thursday, March 16

For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. • FREE

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY TEEN NIGHT • Cancer

Saturday, March 11 WDVX KIDSTUFF LIVE • WDVX • 10AM • Sean

McCollough’s weekly kids’ music show hosts a live studio audience on the second Saturday of each month. Visit wdvx.com. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • Students can learn the basic principles of computer programming, also known as coding. By participating in the newly-formed Blount County Nerd Group, students seventh grade and up can learn skills such as making simple games, developing professional websites and creating mobile apps. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY CHESS GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle- and high-school students. • FREE

KMA Art Activity Day Sunday, March 12

Knoxville Museum of Art • 1PM • Every second Sunday of each month, the KMA will host free drop-in art activities for families. A local artist will be on-site to lead hands-on art activities. • FREE

Sunday, March 12 KMA ART ACTIVITY DAY • Knoxville Museum of Art •

1PM • Every second Sunday of each month, the KMA will host free drop-in art activities for families. A local artist will be on-site to lead hands-on art activities. • FREE

Monday, March 13 KIDS IN THE ARTS SPRING CAMP • The Birdhouse • 9AM

• An art camp for kids, ideally from ages 9-12, interested in yoga, dance, art, improv, hooping, gardening, and music. The classes will be taught by local artists: Aaron Campbell (improv); Alex Pulsipher (music); Courtney Davis (dance); Jen Sauer (art and gardening); Cynthia Baglin (art); Daniel Kroemer (art); Ajeet Khalsa (yoga); Amber Goodson (art); and Andi Glytch (hoop dance). • $200

Tuesday, March 14 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY KID TO KID: FUN WITH A PURPOSE • Cancer Support Community • 3:30PM •

Your children will gain coping skills and have opportunities to talk about a loved one’s cancer diagnosis while also having fun. Please call before your first visit and RSVP. 865-546-4661 for more info.

All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

KIDS IN THE ARTS SPRING CAMP • The Birdhouse • 9AM • An art camp for kids, ideally from ages 9-12, interested in yoga, dance, art, improv, hooping, gardening, and music. The classes will be taught by local artists: Aaron Campbell (improv); Alex Pulsipher (music); Courtney Davis (dance); Jen Sauer (art and gardening); Cynthia Baglin (art); Daniel Kroemer (art); Ajeet Khalsa (yoga); Amber Goodson (art); and Andi Glytch (hoop dance). • $200 BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY LITTLE LEARNERS GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 10AM •

Recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions

focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Kids will complete themed and timed LEGO challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS GROUP • Blount County Public Library •

5:30PM • Coordinated by Brandon Clackum, a Maryville City Schools teacher. All ages are welcome but the game is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Join in the fun of this tabletop role-playing game by learning about the game and sharing your love of fantasy. • FREE

Wednesday, March 15 KIDS IN THE ARTS SPRING CAMP • The Birdhouse • 9AM • An art camp for kids, ideally from ages 9-12, interested in yoga, dance, art, improv, hooping, gardening, and music. The classes will be taught by local artists: Aaron Campbell (improv); Alex Pulsipher (music); Courtney Davis (dance); Jen Sauer (art and gardening); Cynthia Baglin (art); Daniel Kroemer (art); Ajeet Khalsa (yoga); Amber Goodson (art); and Andi Glytch (hoop dance). • $200 BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY BABY AND ME GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • Recommended for ages 2 and under. These lapsit sessions for baby and caregiver feature short stories, action rhymes, music and pre-literacy tips and tricks for caregivers.

It is also a great time for caregivers and babies to socialize. • FREE

Support Community • 6PM • A monthly networking group for teens ages 13-18 who have a family member with cancer. Teens come together to talk, have fun and find support from peers whose lives have also been impacted by cancer. Please call before your first visit and RSVP. 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. • FREE KIDS IN THE ARTS SPRING CAMP • The Birdhouse • 9AM • An art camp for kids, ideally from ages 9-12, interested in yoga, dance, art, improv, hooping, gardening, and music. The classes will be taught by local artists: Aaron Campbell (improv); Alex Pulsipher (music); Courtney Davis (dance); Jen Sauer (art and gardening); Cynthia Baglin (art); Daniel Kroemer (art); Ajeet Khalsa (yoga); Amber Goodson (art); and Andi Glytch (hoop dance). • $200 LEGO ROBOTICS GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 6:30PM • For kids 7-11. If your kid loves LEGOS, they will love learning new STEM skills while exploring the world of LEGO robotics. Call (865) 982-0981 to register. • FREE

Friday, March 17 KIDS IN THE ARTS SPRING CAMP • The Birdhouse • 9AM • An art camp for kids, ideally from ages 9-12, interested in yoga, dance, art, improv, hooping, gardening, and music. The classes will be taught by local artists: Aaron Campbell (improv); Alex Pulsipher (music); Courtney Davis (dance); Jen Sauer (art and gardening); Cynthia Baglin (art); Daniel Kroemer (art); Ajeet Khalsa (yoga); Amber Goodson (art); and Andi Glytch (hoop dance). • $200 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. • FREE

Saturday, March 18 KNOX LIT EXCHANGE • Central Collective • 11:30AM • The Knoxville Literary Exchange is a free, monthly poetry and prose writing workshop open to high school age students. The workshop will focus on giving students the opportunity to engage in writing, share their writing, and receive encouraging feedback--all in a supportive, safe space. The Knoxville Literary Exchange meets every third Saturday in the fall (September, November, and December—the October meeting is on Oct. 22) and spring (February, March, April, May). For further information, please contact organizer Liam Hysjulien at KnoxLitExchange@gmail.com. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • Students can learn the basic principles of computer programming, also known as coding. By participating in the newly-formed Blount County Nerd Group, students seventh grade and up can learn skills such as making simple games, developing March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 35

March 9 — March 19

professional websites and creating mobile apps. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY CHESS GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle- and high-school students. • FREE

Physics will feature physics faculty talking about their areas of expertise and how they pertain to the world around us. • FREE

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

ROBERT CRANNY • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Local poet,

Friday, March 10

Sunday, March 12 author, playwright and screenwriter Robert Cranny, who hails from Dublin and New York, will give a reading and book-signing of some of his works in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. • FREE

UT HUMANITIES CENTER CONVERSATIONS AND COCKTAILS SERIES • Holly’s Gourmets Market and Cafe

Tuesday, March 14

• 6PM • The programs provide the community an opportunity to interact with guest scholars as they discuss history, all while enjoying special dinner and appetizer selections. Reservations are required, and seating is limited. A reservation can be made by calling Holly’s Gourmet’s Market and Cafe at 865-330-0123. • FREE

March 14 • Knoxville Civil War Roundtable • Bearden Banquet Hall • 7PM • Featuring notable historians and other Civil War experts. Call (865) 671-9001 for reservations. • $3-$17

Saturday, March 11 SATURDAY MORNING PHYSICS • University of Tennessee

• 10AM • Antimatter. The Big Bang. Ghostly neutrinos.

The public is invited to spend Saturday mornings this spring with the University of Tennessee Department of Physics and Astronomy, learning about intriguing and newsworthy science topics. Saturday Morning

36 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS|MEETINGS •

Friday, March 17 KNOX HERITAGE LOST AND FOUND LUNCH • Knox Heritage • 11:30AM • Knox Heritage continues its series of educational lunches. A free lunch buffet will be served beginning at 11:30 a.m. and the program will begin at 12:00 p.m. Reservations for lunch are required. Call Hollie Cook at 865-523-8008 or email her at hcook@knoxheritage.org to make a reservation. • FREE

Knox Heritage Lost and Found Lunch Friday, March 17

Knox Heritage • 11:30AM • Knox Heritage continues its series of educational lunches. A free lunch buffet will be served beginning at 11:30 a.m. and the program will begin at 12:00 p.m.

Reservations for lunch are required.

Call Hollie Cook at 865-523-8008 or email her at hcook@knoxheritage.org to make a reservation. • FREE

Sunday, March 19 JULIE ALBRIGHT: CAT BEHAVIOR • McClung Museum of

Natural History and Culture • 2PM • As the PetSafe Chair of Small Animal Behavioral Research at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Albright also conducts research into the causes and best treatments for problem behaviors in

companion animals. The lecture is part of exhibition-related programming for Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt. • FREE

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS Thursday, March 9 ANDREW HERRINGTON: “THE REALITY OF SURVIVAL” • REI

• 7PM • When the going gets tough, do you have what it takes to survive a wilderness emergency?

Join local expert Andrew Herrington as he breaks down the essence of The Reality of Survival. • FREE SECRET SHOWGIRL WORKSHOP SERIES: BEWITCHING THE BOA • Modern Studio • 7:30PM • Bewitch the boa and

find your flair with some feathers and friends. Learn a sexy, sizzling boa mini-number and moves to make them swoon. • $10 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER COURSE • Halls Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

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 capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Balanced You Studios

March 9 — March 19

• 6PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@ gmail.com. Donations accepted.

KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Every Tuesday and Thursday. First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4 BEGINNER ACROYOGA CLASS • Breezeway Yoga Studio • 7:30PM • Each class explores the foundations of the AcroYoga practice. We work closely with spotters, providing a safe and supported environment for newcomers to immerse themselves in the practice.

Come and learn what it means to trust, to let go, to fly, and to play. No partner needed.• $15

Friday, March 10 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER COURSE • Farragut

Town Hall • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822.

AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER COURSE • Halls

Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

Saturday, March 11 IMPROV DANCE AND CONTACT IMPROV JAM • Modern

Studio • 11AM • Unleash your creativity and connect with your spirit during this very special improvisational dance jam. • $5 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: HEALING THROUGH ART •

Cancer Support Community • 1PM • No experience necessary. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

KNOX HERITAGE PRESERVATION NETWORK • Knox Heritage • 10AM • The monthly workshops feature guest speakers who are specialists in windows, flooring, roofing, stained glass, tile, plumbing, electrical, and more. For more information visit knoxheritage.org. • FREE

Sunday, March 12 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS •

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE: MODERN DANCE FOUNDATIONS CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM •

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10

Monday, March 13 HANDS-ON BIKE MAINTENANCE: FIX A FLAT • REI • 6PM •

If it hasn’t happened yet, it will. You’re riding along happily when a flat tire stops the fun. In this Hands-On class our bike techs will share tips and tricks for fixing a flat, changing your bike tube and getting back on the go. • $20-$40 KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING BOOT CAMP • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $15 MONDAY NIGHT YOGA • Church Street United Methodist Church • 7PM • Cost is $5, with first class free. Bring a mat and strap. In the class we stretch, bend and relax with low light and music. It is suitable for

beginners and all levels. No advance registration required. Contact Micarooni@aol.com with questions. • $5

Tuesday, March 14 KMA CLAY AND FAUNA WORKSHOP • Knoxville Museum

of Art • 10AM • Jump into spring with clay creations such as floral wall hangings, garden animals or vessels. This workshop is tailored to all skill levels, just bring your imagination. All sculptures are fired and completed with Patina finishes. Materials, tools, firing included. March 14-April 11. Visit knoxart.org. • $150 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY NUTRITION AMMUNITION

• Cancer Support Community • 12PM • Call (865) 546-4611. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

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.

Visitcapoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 SHEBOOM!: A WEEKLY DROP-IN DANCE CLASS FOR ALL BODIES • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts •

6PM • We focus on getting de-stressed and mindful on the moment at hand. Wear work-out clothes or comfortable clothing to move in. Dance sneakers, jazz/ballet slippers or sneakers will work. We then get in the groove, 20 minutes of movement designed to build stamina and cardiovascular health so we can stay strong, feel better and get ready to do what we do every day. Then we dare to dance. We work on nailing a small routine for the night and owning our space on that dance floor. Every body deserves to feel pumped, powerful, positive and passionate about the way they move, groove and who they are.

Each week we do something different from jazz to funk to hip hop to lyrical. • $10 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Balanced You Studios • 6PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@ gmail.com. Donations accepted.

KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Every Tuesday and Thursday. First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4

Wednesday, March 15 HANDS-ON CHEESE-MAKING WORKSHOP • Central

Collective • 6:30PM • Join Ms. Moffatt in her next cheese making adventure: learn how to make creamy, tangy and delicious goat cheese. • $37 HANDS-ON CAMPING: CAMP STOVES AND WATER FILTRATION • REI • 6PM • In this hands-on course, you

will sample advanced camp stoves and water filtration tools. We will discuss how to use and maintain different stoves, water filters and water purifiers. You will leave this class knowing which

equipment is right for you and how best to use the tools you already have. • $20-$40 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER COURSE • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6:30PM • 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. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10

Thursday, March 16 AARP DRIVER SAFETY SMART DRIVER COURSE • Karns Community Center • 11:30AM • Call (865) 382-5822.

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 capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Balanced You Studios • 6PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@ gmail.com. Donations accepted.

KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Every Tuesday and Thursday. First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4 BEGINNER ACROYOGA CLASS • Breezeway Yoga Studio • 7:30PM • Each class explores the foundations of the AcroYoga practice. We work closely with spotters, providing a safe and supported environment for newcomers to immerse themselves in the practice.

Come and learn what it means to trust, to let go, to fly, and to play. No partner needed. • $15

Saturday, March 18 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.

BIRDHOUSE ACROYOGA WORKSHOP • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • AcroYoga is a dynamic partner practice that blends the wisdom of yoga, the dynamic power of acrobatics, and the loving kindness of healing arts. • FREE

Sunday, March 19 CANDLE-MAKING PARTY • Central Collective • 4PM •

Make your own scented (or not) soy candles. Cost includes supplies and a mason jar for one candle, but feel free to bring spare tea cups, glasses, or other vessels for extras. • $15 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE: MODERN DANCE FOUNDATIONS CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM •

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10

ARAM

The

from ERA:BetheThere Beginning!

New Music Director Aram Demirjian will conduct these upcoming concerts at the Tennessee Theatre!

NEXT WEEK

LEFKOWITZ PLAYS BRAHMS March 16 & 17 • 7:30 p.m.

Aram Demirjian, conductor Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin DVORÁK: Scherzo capriccioso SIBELIUS: Spring Song; GRAINGER: Irish Tune from County Derry (“Danny Boy”) MAXWELL-DAVIES: Orkney Wedding with Sunrise; BRAHMS: Violin Concerto Sponsored by Brogan Financial Retirement & Legacy Planning

COMING IN APRIL

GOLKA PLAYS CHOPIN April 20 & 21 • 7:30 p.m.

Aram Demirjian, conductor Adam Golka, piano Sponsored by John H. Daniel

COMING IN MAY

BEETHOVEN’S 5TH May 18 & 19 • 7:30 P.M. Sponsored by The Trust Company

CLASSICAL TICKETS start at just $15!

CALL: (865) 291-3310 CLICK: knoxvillesymphony.com VISIT: Monday-Friday, 9-5 March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 37

March 9 — March 19

MEETINGS Thursday, March 9 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit

farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE

book club of the Rationalists of East Tennessee meets on the second Sunday of every month. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE

ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS/DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES • The Birdhouse • 6PM • A 12-step meeting

Monday, March 13

for adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes. The group offers a safe space for emotional healing. Contact Laura at 706-621-2238 or lamohendricksll@gmail.com for more information or visit the international ACA website at adultchildren. org. • FREE BLACK LIVES MATTER • The Birdhouse • 7:30PM • #BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. Visit blacklivesmatterknoxville.org. • FREE

Baptist Church • 6PM • Are you facing criminal charges? Do you know someone who could use support with a criminal case? Community Defense of East Tennessee is a grassroots organization of community members who provide support for families and individuals facing charges in the criminal justice system. Contact us at communitydefenseET@gmail.com or (865) 214-6546. • FREE

Saturday, March 11

COMMUNITY DEFENSE WEEKLY MEETING • Tabernacle

Tuesday, March 14 STFK SCIENCE CAFE • Zoo Knoxville • 2PM • FREE HARVEY BROOME GROUP OF THE SIERRA CLUB •

Sunday, March 12

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • The Sierra Club is a national, member-supported environmental organization that seeks to influence public policy in Washington D.C., in the state capitals, and locally through public education and grass-roots political action. • FREE

SKEPTIC BOOK CLUB • Books-A-Million • 2PM • The

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY PROSTATE CANCER

AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit

farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE

NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • This drop-in group is an opportunity for men to network with other men about their experiences with prostate cancer. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • West Hills Flats and Taps • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation. Everyone welcome. Visit meetup.com/ KnoxvilleAtheists. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • 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

Wednesday, March 15 THE SOUTHERN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly discussion

Orion Astronomy Club Wednesday, March 15

The Grove Theater • 7PM • ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge that was founded in April 1974 by a group of scientists at the United States Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We serve Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and the counties of Anderson, Knox, and Roane.

We meet on the third Wednesday of each month for coffee and conversation, and our program begins 15 minutes thereafter. • FREE

2016 - 2017

S E A S O N PERFORMANCE

May / 13 / 2017 7:30PM

The HillBenders present The Who's "TOMMY"

photo Mariane Staab

A Bluegrass Opry 2016 -2017 SPONSORS

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38 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

CLAYTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

on the campus of Maryville College 502 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy. Maryville, TN 37804

BOX OFFICE: 865-981-8590 ClaytonArtsCenter.com

SOLUTION TO CRYPTOQUOTE

What a beautiful community and beautiful city this is. I love entertaining you and thank you for letting me entertain you. It’s a privilege. I like to give back.

— Tom Cruise, at the Knoxville premiere of “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” to benefit Regal Cinemas’ charity, Variety

March 9 — March 19

group about Southern books and writers. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE ORION ASTRONOMY CLUB • The Grove Theater • 7PM • ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge that was founded in April 1974 by a group of scientists at the United States Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We serve Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and the counties of Anderson, Knox, and Roane. We meet on the third Wednesday of each month for coffee and conversation, and our program begins 15 minutes thereafter. • FREE AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY HEAD AND NECK CANCER EDUCATION AND SUPPORT MEETING • Cancer Support

Community • 4PM • This new program will provide an opportunity to meet others living with head and neck cancer with emphasis on education and shared experience. Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. • FREE

Thursday, March 16 TIP JAM ARTIST MEET-AND-CREATE • Emporium Center

for Arts and Culture • 10AM • International creative-process community The Iteration Project will be hosting bimonthly artist meet-and-create hours. Tip Jam is a time for creators in any discipline to get together and create inspired by a common theme. Creation, exploration, and discussion are at the heart of the hour-long meeting. • FREE AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • CSC is

committed to providing bereavement services to those who have lost a loved one to cancer. Please contact our clinical staff before attending. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOMA, AND MYELOMA NETWORKER • Cancer Support

Community • 6PM • This drop-in group is open for those with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myeloproliferative disorders and their support persons. Participants will be able to exchange information, discuss concerns and share experiences. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS/DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES • The Birdhouse • 6PM • Contact Laura at

706-621-2238 or lamohendricksll@gmail.com for more information or visit the international ACA website at adultchildren.org. • FREE

Saturday, March 18 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY WOMEN WITH ADVANCED CANCER NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community •

1:30PM • Join other women who are living with cancer as a chronic illness to discuss feelings and experiences that are unique to women with advanced cancer. Please call before your first visit.

Call 865-546- 4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

Sunday, March 19 RATIONALISTS OF EAST TENNESSEE • Pellissippi State

Community College • 10:30AM • The Rationalists of East Tennessee focus on the real or natural universe.

The group exists so that we can benefit emotionally and intellectually through meeting together to expand our awareness and understanding through shared experience, knowledge, and ideas as well as enrich our lives and the lives of others. The Rationalists do not endorse or condemn members’ thoughts or actions. Rather it hopefully encourages honest dialogue, analytic discussion, and responsible action based on reason, compassion, and factual accuracy. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE THE SONS OF UNION VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR • East Tennessee History Center • 2PM • Call 574-210-9267. • FREE AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit farragutalanon.org or email FindHope@Farragutalanon.org. • FREE

REGISTER TO WIN BY ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: WHICH ARTIST WAS FEATURED IN THE FILM ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, DIRECTED

BY BIG EARS ALUMNI JIM JARMUSCH? ENTER BY SENDING THE ANSWER TO CONTESTS@KNOXMERCURY.COM

ETC. Thursday, March 9 KNOXVILLE SQUARE DANCE • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Jubilee Community Arts presents Knoxville Square Dance with live old-time music by the Helgramites and calling by Stan Sharp, Ruth Simmons and Leo Collins. No experience or partner is necessary and the atmosphere is casual. (No taps, please.) Visit jubileearts.org. • $7

"THE MOST ADVENTUROUSLY PROGRAMMED FESTIVAL IN AMERICA"  ROLLING STONE WINNERS CHOSEN AT RANDOM AND WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON MARCH 17 TH .

Saturday, March 11 NOURISH KNOXVILLE WINTER FARMERS’ MARKET •

Central United Methodist Church • 10AM • The Winter Farmers’ Market, held in the Historic 4th and Gill neighborhood, will host farm and food vendors selling pasture-raised meats, eggs, winter produce, honey, baked goods, artisan foods, and more.

Outside, food trucks will be serving up lunch from locally sourced ingredients. Visit nourishknoxville. org. • FREE SEND YOUR EVENTS TO CALENDAR@KNOXMERCURY.COM

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 39

The Long View

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE

$32-$35 • 18 and up

Wednesday, May 3 I PREVAIL WITH STARSET, VAMPS, AND COVER YOUR TRACKS • The International • 7 p.m. • $20-$25 • All ages MACHINE GUN KELLY • Bijou Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • $20 •

18 and up

Friday, May 5 STARS ON STAGE GALA FEATURING MARTINA MCBRIDE •

Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $59.50-$250

Saturday, May 6 K CAMP WITH KLEAN KEAM AND TROP BLANCO • The

ROBERT EARL KEEN

International • 10 p.m. • $20-$60 • 18 and up

Monday, March 20

DARK STAR ORCHESTRA • The International • 8 p.m. •

ROBERT EARL KEEN WITH DAVE KENNEDY AND RUSS TORBETT • Bijou Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • $32

$25 • 18 and up

Tuesday, March 21 REVEREND HORTON HEAT WITH UNKNOWN HINSON, GODDAMN GALLOWS, AND BIRDCLOUD • The Concourse •

MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES •

Tuesday, April 25

Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $35

SURFER BLOOD • The Concourse • 8 p.m. • $12-$15 • 18

and up

BRIAN WILSON PRESENTS PET SOUNDS: THE FINAL PERFORMANCES • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $60-$120

DOGWOOD ARTS RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS MUSIC FESTIVAL •

Wednesday, April 26

Sunday, May 7

Downtown • $65-$190

DAWES • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $29

IN FLAMES WITH AVATAR • The International • 8 p.m. •

Friday, April 7-Sunday, April 9

$25-$30 • 18 and up

8 p.m. • $22-$25 • 18 and up EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $89.50-$125

Saturday, April 15

Thursday, April 27

SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX • Tennessee

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. •

THE BLACK ANGELS WITH A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS •

Theatre • 8 p.m. • $39.50-$105

$25-$35

The Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • $18 • 18 and up

Thursday, March 23

Tuesday, April 18

THOMAS RHETT WITH KELSEA BALLERINI, RUSSELL DICKERSON, AND RYAN HURD • Knoxville Civic Coliseum

STEEL PANTHER • The International • 8 p.m. • $22-$45

• 7 p.m. • $37.50-$79

Thursday, March 23 – Sunday, March 26 BIG EARS FESTIVAL • Various venues • $49.50-$300

Monday, March 27 LOCAL NATIVES WITH LITTLE SCREAM • The Mill and

Mine • 8 p.m. • $25

Friday, March 31 KILLSWITCH ENGAGE WITH THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND JASTA • The International • 7:30 p.m. • $25-$99

Wednesday, April 19 NATHANIEL RATELIFF AND THE NIGHT SWEATS WITH SERATONES • The Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • SOLD OUT

BLINK-182 WITH THE NAKED AND FAMOUS AND WAAVES •

Tuesday, May 9

Knoxville Civic Coliseum • 8 p.m. • $32-$86

SPOON • The Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • $25 • 18 and up

Friday, April 28

Thursday, May 18

CAGE THE ELEPHANT: LIVE AND UNPEELED - THE ACOUSTIC TOUR • Bijou Theatre • 8 p.m. • $49.50 CODY JINKS WITH WARD DAVIS AND COLTER WALL • The

and Mine • 8 p.m. • $30-$33

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE WITH CIRCUIT DES YEUX • The Mill

Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • $25 • 18 and up

Saturday, May 20

JASON ISBELL WITH WILLIAM TYLER • Tennessee

Saturday, April 29

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW PERFORMING BLONDE ON BLONDE • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. • $39.50-$49.50

Theatre • 8 p.m. • SOLD OUT

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE WITH DUSTIN LYNCH AND CHRIS LANE • Thompson-Boling Arena • 7 p.m. • $25-$75

Wednesday, May 31

JASON ISBELL WITH WILLIAM TYLER • Tennessee

Monday, May 1

and up

Theatre • 8 p.m. • $44-$79

PIERCE THE VEIL AND SUM 41 WITH EMAROSA AND CHAPEL • The International • 7 p.m. • $32-$60 • All ages TUESDAY, MAY 2 CHEVELLE WITH AEGES • The Mill and Mine • 7:30 p.m. •

Saturday, April 22

Sunday, April 23 THE TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS WITH THE CORDOVAS • The

Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • $18 • 18 and up

Tuesday, April 4

BEACH HOUSE • The Mill and Mine • 8 p.m. • $27 • 18

Friday, June 16 GLADYS KNIGHT • Tennessee Theatre • 8 p.m. •

$49.50-$115

RICHARD THOMPSON WITH JOAN SHELLEY • Bijou

Theatre • 8 p.m. • $29.50-$45

Wednesday, April 5 THE WOOD BROTHERS WITH NOAM PIKELNY • Bijou

Theatre • 8 p.m. • $23.50

Thursday, April 6 I LOVE THE ’90S TOUR WITH SALT-N-PEPA, ALL 4 ONE, COLOR ME BADD, COOLIO, TONE LOC, ROB BASE, AND YOUNG MC • Knoxville Civic Coliseum • 7:30 p.m. • $43-$105 KENNY ROGERS • Knoxville Civic Auditorium • 7:30 p.m.

• $54.95-$99.95

Friday, April 7 40 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

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Photos by Kim Trevathan

Voice in the Wilderness

Going Uphill A taste of the AT via Big Creek area’s Chestnut Branch Trail

BY KIM TREVATHAN

M

y plan was to pick up Ben Montgomery, the great-great nephew of the famous Grandma Gatewood, from Sevierville’s Rose Glen Literary Festival and take him for a hike in the Smokies.

I spent a couple of days worrying over where to take this guy, who had written a biography of Gatewood, the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail, completing it at the age of 67 back in 1955, when the trail was in bad shape and poorly marked.

Maryville College biologist Drew Crain suggested the Little River/

42 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Cucumber Gap/Jakes Creek loop at Elkmont. Travis “Shepherd” Hall, a 900-miler who conceived the Smoke Ring Trail, suggested Porters Creek or Ramsey’s Cascade in the Greenbrier area. Good trails all, but I’d walked each of them myself, and I wanted to stray from the familiar to discover a trail along with Montgomery.

I still hadn’t decided on a trail that Sunday morning when I was preparing to go to the literary festival, thinking I might drive Montgomery up past Sevierville to the Cosby area, maybe meander toward the old-

growth loop at Albright Grove. I considered hiking up to Spence Field on the AT, but we wouldn’t have enough daylight to do that.

Then I happened to reread an email that made me realize Montgomery had been here and gone back to Florida on Saturday. Disappointment, embarrassment, and then relief swept over me. I hated to miss him, but now I could hike wherever I wanted to on this sunny late winter day. I didn’t have to worry about impressing anyone, about being a guide and hoping the Smokies showed its best face to the relative of one of its most famous hikers. I didn’t have to hope that we’d see a bear at a safe distance.

I headed out from Maryville in the general direction of Maddron Bald Trail with the notion that I’d try to make it to Albright Grove. It always does me good to hike beneath the winter skeletons of giants reaching up to a blue sky.

I made it to Cosby by way of Sevierville, lost track of the turnoff, and ended up at Big Creek Ranger station, where I parked and hiked up the nearest trail: Chestnut Branch, which happened to lead to the AT. If I couldn’t be with Gatewood’s nephew, at least I could commune with her spirit on the 2,000-mile trail she’d walked in her Keds.

I read later in Hiking Trails of the

Smokies that there were vestiges of settlements up and down this trail: rusted implements, English ivy, remnants of rock walls and fence posts, all of it lost on me.

This was a climb, relentlessly uphill for 2.1 miles. I meditated on the 67-year-old woman who hiked a thousand times that, no doubt on steeper grades. I put my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

At what I thought was nearly the top of the ridge, I met a youngish hiker coming down. He said I was about halfway and that it got really steep at the end, news I could have done without.

Five minutes later, I met Craig, from nearby Newport, who revised the estimate to the ridgetop. He had the biggest can of bear spray I’d ever seen in a holster on his belt. It was the size of spray paint can.

He said he’d bought it after an acquaintance was mauled near Elkmont a few years back. And, yes, he’d seen bears on this trail. We talked about trails we loved. He’d hiked to Mount Cammerer 178 times. I liked the old-growth giants of the Boogerman Trail, but he said it felt a little dull and needed a vista.

Having broken a heavy sweat, I removed a layer while talking to Craig, then put it back on as the breeze

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Craig had the biggest can of bear spray I’d ever seen in a holster on his belt.

It was the size of spray paint can. cooled me down again. If I wanted to do a loop, he said, I should take a right on the AT, hike to the road and back down to the parking lot, 5 miles instead of the planned 4.

“I might do that,” I said, thinking no way in hell, I’m already beat.

The uphill grade gentled out for a while and then it climbed steeply through a thicket of rhododendrons to the top of the ridge.

I walked a quarter-mile one way and a quarter-mile the other way on the AT, imagining the ghost of Grandma Gatewood coming through here that spring, in May, after about a month of hiking from Georgia. She was about to leave the Smokies and head into the Pisgah National Forest where Max Patch Mountain awaited her.

Like me, she loved the tunnels created by the overarching rhododendrons, which partly sheltered her from the rain. Sweating from my 2-mile hike, I marveled at her achievement, at anyone’s long-term commitment to hiking that far, putting one foot in front of the other billions of times.

There were easy days and difficult ones for her, and I hoped that she came through here in high spirits.

Gatewood’s next stop of note: Hot Springs, N.C., where a woman would give her a glass of buttermilk and a piece of cake.

I recommend Chestnut Branch as a short, intense trail that takes you up to the historic AT. More importantly, I recommend just going to the mountains, without an agenda or a clear destination, and taking the first trail that feels right.

If you opt for a more direct route to Chestnut Branch, take I-40 east to Exit 451. It’s 2.3 miles to the Big Creek Ranger Station.

Montgomery emailed me and told me he had hiked up Alum Cave Trail, a good one that I hadn’t even considered.

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.

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March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 43

Open Book | Cartoon | Puzzles

didn’t sell wine or liquor—just beer, at most maybe 10 varieties on tap. You didn’t come to Toddy’s because they advertised “THE LARGEST SELECTION OF DRAFT BEERS IN THE UNIVERSE!” Rather, you went there because that was where your friends were. Everyone had at least one thing in common; that is, everyone enjoyed, for whatever reason, the BDT. Maybe that’s not much, but it was a start.

Sometimes it was the start of something big; people occasionally met their future spouses there. People became friends, maybe hooked up, maybe broke up; in short, a lot of real life was experienced at Toddy’s.

At the wake/celebration, we shared our memories and, inevitably, mentioned the uncertain future.

Where can we go now, knowing there could never be another BDT? For instance, where will The Lawyers go to plot and plan the future of Knoxville?

Where will Hank go to offer his sage observations on the state of Tennessee athletics? Where will Perry go to pontificate on the evils of the Republicans and the virtues of Holly Warlick?

Without getting his ass kicked?

Where can I go and sidle up to the bar, catch Lydia’s eye (one of the many sweet bartenders), and say in my very best Bogart, “Sooooo, (snort, snort) you come here often?” Where will mild-mannered, level-headed, and future barrister TJ go and offer up thoughtful mediations between tipsy, hot-headed opinionizers? Where can Jeffrey go… to just be? Where can any of us go—Buddy, Catherine, Jenni, Wyatt, Edee, Lanahan, Chick, Ashley,

Requiem for a Dive Bar With the closing of the Back Door Tavern, tears (and beers) flowed

I

got some bad news the other night, and I ended up having to go to a funeral. Actually, it was more like a wake. I couldn’t believe it at first, but the updates convinced me that the end was indeed near, so I went off to pay my last respects. The news had obviously traveled fast, because when I arrived the parking lot was full, and cars had spilled over into the surrounding streets and nearby businesses.

But this wasn’t an ordinary wake.

The mood was not melancholy at all.

In fact, it was more like a celebration, with lots of conversation and laughter as everyone shared their memories of the soon-to-be-departed. The emotions were festive, not depressed, for this was not a life cut short. Rather, it had been long and colorful; it had touched many lives, and it had been lived to the fullest. I think “Toddy” would have approved.

Another reason this wasn’t an ordinary wake is because “Toddy” was not an ordinary person. In fact, Toddy wasn’t a person at all. Toddy’s was a bar—a neighborhood dive, if you will, located in the heart of Bearden in a, what… an old house? A hardware/ liquor store/who-knows-what kind of building? I’ll bet most people who travel that busy section of Kingston Pike every day don’t even see it.

Bearden must have been very different when the place was built; it was considered “West” Knoxville then, and the building sat among motels and businesses that populated the main road to Nashville.

When it closed for good the other day, Toddy’s (or the Back Door Tavern,

44 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

to use its real name) was about 40 years old. The interior was retro, but not because some interior designer had come along and suggested that an “old-fashioned” ambiance might be good for business. It simply had never been updated. No slick countertops, no glitzy lighting, no glass and chrome, no credit cards (!), no counterfeit faddishness posing as the most recent up-to-date authenticity.

Consequently, the clientele was retro, too, or at least appreciated that particular brand of quirkiness. I’ll bet my meager savings that the wooden bar was original, the wooden walls were original; I think the bar stools, what was left of them, were original.

(The men’s restroom hadn’t been updated, either.)

Judging by the pictures on the wall, everyone who was anyone in Knoxville frequented the BDT over the decades. Many left signed photographs, complete with words of affection and appreciation, eventually to be framed and hung in what would become a visual anthology of regional history. The General, Ray, Dolly, Peyton, Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, coaches, celebrities, politicians, athletes, and many more left their pictures and kind words. And not just famous people; many were of ordinary BDT patrons, perhaps holding up a big fish, often holding up an adult beverage, or maybe caught in an embarrassing moment deemed worthy of immortality.

To walk into the BDT was like walking back in time. The walls were aged wood; it felt “warm” inside. They

Photo by Harry Whiteside

BY HARRY WHITESIDE

and the many others—where we will feel at home, among friends, like we did at the BDT? Keeping things organized behind the bar were Reta, Big Daddy, Danielle, Liz, Holly, Lee, Jo, Izzy, and Sophie, among others, including at one point a girl named Deana Carter who aspired to be a country music star (she succeeded.) And always there was Barry, the owner and mild-mannered sweetheart-in-chief, offering his ever-present smile and good cheer.

No matter how informed or prepared we are, we are never quite ready when the end comes. The loss of a loved one changes the lives of those who remain, and the loss of the Back Door Tavern is, for those of us who knew and loved it, like a loss in the family. At the very least, it was where family gathered and did what families do—laugh, share, argue, say hurtful things, work up the courage to apologize, forgive, and then get on with life.

Generations of people, both the renowned and the inconspicuous, found there a welcoming respite from a wearying world. We all came together the other night to mourn its passing and to celebrate its life. It was a fun night; it was poignant; it was splendid. And then, at long last, as we knew they must, the lights went out.

Toddy’s Back Door Tavern, age 40-ish, is gone. Rest in peace.

Got a thoughtful and/or amusing piece of writing in your back pocket? Send it to editor@knoxmercury.com.

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A forum for local marketing pros to share their ideas.

Finding the Sweet Spot

C

onsumer research is tough. Wait. Let me back up…knowing people is tough. I don’t imagine that’s a big shocker, but when you make a living of it, we just need to say it out loud sometimes. It’s hard enough to understand our own choices and behaviors, right? Well, my business goes a whole layer deeper—understand a stranger in the shortest amount of time, then predict how they’ll respond in a given situation.

Historically, consumer research looks like a sterile office and a series of bland questions with a clipboard in hand. *Ahhh yes, Focus Groups* Now, marketers prefer witnessing consumer experiences live, rather than talking about it later. Think of it this way—if you’re trying to understand thought patterns and resulting behaviors, would you rather have it explained a few weeks later, or see it for yourself in real time? That’s why I spend my time in stores understanding the decision process. I promise it’s not as creepy as it sounds.

Traditional sociological approaches can be used, but attitudes and decisions are skewed by the mere presence of another person—not to mention how probing questions disrupt the natural rhythms and routines I’m trying to understand. Imagine you are trying to understand the “what’s, how’s and why’s” surrounding the emotional connection of greeting cards, and you’re right there—smack dab in the middle of it—when a romantic card is exchanged among significant others. This is the moment us marketing researches are looking to understand.

Often times I need to tease apart the most boring, mundane behaviors to reveal unsolved

problems in everyday life—so imagine me sifting through hours of GoPro footage trying to identify behaviors and rituals that brands and products are built upon. Cooking dinner.

Nighttime channel-surfing. Snacking behaviors. Bathroom cleaning rituals. No seriously… it’s my job to watch people like you do these things and understand it all.

Technology prominence and usage in our modern culture has offered a more seamless way to peek into “pure” everyday experiences, but often leaves us with a lot of outstanding questions, so the best researchers and marketers rely on their street-smart intuition to fill in the gaps with additional, straightforward research.

The best in our business know how people think, and they know how to get closest to the

fragile moments in inconspicuous ways. Many might think it odd to think of researchers as “Creatives,” but we really are; we figure out how to unravel everyday experiences in order to draw conclusions, and there’s really no textbook answer for the right approach. Rather, it’s about finding the sweet spot to get closest to the heart of the experience, but without changing it.

CALEB BOAZ has always had a curiosity that’s led him to ask “Why?” about everything, and while it may have got him in trouble as a child, has led to a successful career in market research at U30 Group, working with some of the world’s biggest brands.

These columns do not represent the opinions of the Knoxville Mercury.

March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 45

Open Book | Cartoon | Puzzles

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY www.thespiritofthestaircase.com

46 knoxville mercury March 9, 2017

Open Book | Cartoon | Puzzles

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BY JOAN KEUPER

Each letter takes the place of another letter.

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CAN YOU DRAW A RACCON? New Wildlife Rehabilitation Nonprofit Organization in Knoxville is in need for a Logo.

Donate your drawing -please contact Susana at Wildliferehab@ raccoonkingdom.org PLACE YOUR AD AT STORE.KNOXMERCURY.COM

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LEXI AND RAYDIANCE - are two female pit bull mix dogs. Lexi, a 7-year-old with a tan-and-white coat, and Raydiance, who’s 11 and reddish brown, have been at Young-Williams since Jan. 11 and need to be adopted together. The two can live in a home with other pets or with children. Lexi and Raydiance are very affectionate with loving personalities, and enjoy having fun together. You can definitely tell that they have come from a loving family because they are some of the best dogs we’ve seen.

Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

TONI - is a fluffy, adorable snuggly 2-year-old domestic medium hair / mix who’s looking for a loving home. She is very talkative and enjoys being held! Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

MAHINA - is a gorgeous, happy-go-lucky 7-year -old retriever/mix looking for a forever playmate!

She loves other dogs and would do well in a home with an active family who enjoys the outdoors! Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

and support the Mercury at the same time!

Order classified ads online from the comfort of your own home or mobile device.

Just $10 for 200 characters or $14 for 400 characters.

Listings will run in print and online for one week.

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COUPLE HOPING TO ADOPT: We are a loving, professional couple eager to grow our happy family.

Our warm, nurturing home is waiting to welcome and cherish your baby!

Expenses paid. Anne & Colin. 1-877-246-6780. http://www.facebook. com/AnneandColinAdopt/

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ADOPTION

SELL YOUR STUFF

MULBERRY PLACE CRYPTOQUOTE

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Place your ad at store.knoxmercury.com

ORDER NOW

store.knoxmercury.com

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IUHMDAT March 9, 2017 knoxville mercury 47