FEBURARY 10–16, 2016 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 6
A KILLING IN THE HILLS For decades, the Spencer family sought justice for Judy. But what if they got the wrong man? BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS
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“Think about it. You come here, create something good and then we go back. When you go back, you come out with nothing, right? It’s not like, ‘Oh I have nice car, big house, you can take it with you.’ No, the good things that you make, you create yourself. Help people, support children with cancer, anything. Do whatever you can to help your fellow human out. That, you can take it with you.” —LUCKY VORACHACK, SPOTTED FISHING IN FOREST PARK ON FEBRUARY 6. riverfronttimes.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE
11.
A Killing in the Hills
For decades, the Spencer family sought justice for Judy. But what if they got the wrong man?
Written by
NICHOLAS PHILLIPS
Cover by
KELLY GLUECK
NEWS
CULTURE
DINING
MUSIC
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21
29
39
The Lede
Calendar
Your friend or neighbor, captured on camera
Seven days worth of great stuff to see and do
8
25
Tax Trouble
A recently filed lawsuit raises a very real problem with St. Louis’ earnings tax, writes Sarah Fenske
Film
Robert Hunt goes back to Old Hollywood for the Coen brothers’ latest, Hail, Caesar!
26
Stage
Stray Dog’s I’ll Be Back Before Midnight will scare the crap out of you, Paul Friswold reports
Fancy That
Cheryl Baehr finds herself surprised -- and charmed -- by Truffles Butchery
32
Side Dish
Lucky to Have the Work
Jason Isbell is the right man for the job, writes Jeremy Essig
40
A Valentine’s Double Date
Tommy Salami -- a.k.a. Tommy Andrew -- is running the kitchen at Randolfi’s
Southwest Watson Sweethearts and the Aching Hearts turn a case of mistaken identity into a dual record release show
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44
First Look
Moya Grill suggests Ethiopian is the fast-casual food we’ve been missing
36
Food News
Bootleggin’ BBQ wants you to eat more beaver
Homespun
Letter to Memphis: Come on Home
46
Out Every Night
The best concerts in St. Louis every night of the week
47
This Just In
This week’s new concert announcements
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NEWS
The Problem with the Earnings Tax
T
he Polsinelli law firm is on a roll. The Kansas City attorneys have been expanding across the U.S., with 21 offices and reported profits of $650,000 per partner. Starting salaries for first-year lawyers are reportedly at $125,000 — near the tippy top of the local legal market. But here’s the thing about rich people. They tend to just keep getting richer — and they do so by cutting deals that aren’t available to working stiffs like you and me. And so it is for Polsinelli, whose St. Louis office exists in a special situation unknown to the rest of us slobs. Namely, ever since 2010, when Polsinelli pays the city’s half-percent payroll tax and its workers pay the 1 percent earnings tax, the city kicks a chunk of that money right back to them. That $1,250 taken out of a firstyear Polsinelli lawyer’s salary doesn’t go to subsidize police and fire and parks. Oh no. It goes right back to those partners. It’s a skunk deal — and it’s not just Polsinelli. Turns out Anthem Companies, the insurance provider, has a similar arrangement with the city. They kick in payroll and earnings tax, and then the city kicks it right back. These deals were cut a few years ago (2009 for Anthem, 2010 for Polsinelli), and they won’t continue indefinitely — only until the companies have been reimbursed for the costs of upgrading their offices. In Polsinelli’s case, that’s apparently about $3 million. But $3 million is a lot of money. And beyond that, there are two reasons these deals are under the microscope now. One is that a feisty libertarian lawyer with the improbable name of Bevis Schock filed a lawsuit in late January to challenge the special tax deals as unconstitutional. Since Schock is the same lawyer who got red-light cameras booted 8
RIVERFRONT TIMES
The city’s earnings tax will be up for a vote in April. | RUDY BALASKO
from the city, you know this litigation has the attention of the powers that be. Two is another thing that happened just recently — the Board of Aldermen voted to put the earnings tax on the April ballot. State law requires that we voters get a chance to decide whether to retain the tax for another five years, and we’re now due. Schock swears that the timing is pure coincidence, but it couldn’t be worse for the city. City leaders are going to be making an argument asking us all to pitch in — even as Schock’s suit is Exhibit A in how not “all” of us are actually doing so. Forget those welfare queens demonized in the Reagan era. In St. Louis in 2016, the people milking the system are corporate lawyers and insurance execs. The rest of us, of course, are still stuck with the bill.
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I
f I sound a bit like Bernie Sanders here, well, so be it. There’s a reason Sanders is polling much better than Hillary Clinton among younger people, and even Republicans, and it’s not because we’re all secretly socialists or have a thing for Grandpa. I think it has far more to do with an increasing sense in America that the game is rigged, and that people like the Clintons (or the Bushes, or their friends, or their fancy law firms) are doing the rigging. I write this as a supporter of the earnings tax — as a person who just bought a house here, I have every motivation for St. Louis to succeed. And on a national level, I sincerely believe that most of us don’t mind paying our fair share of taxes if that means a safe country with good national parks and a reasonable safety net. We just hate paying more while the smart people, the selfish people, are finding
loopholes that allow them to cash in while we all just keep slaving away, waiting desperately for a cost-of-living increase that, in this economy, will never come. When Sanders rages against the big banks, they’re standing in for every single entity that’s found a way to raid the treasury and get big government contracts or nice fat tax refunds, while the rest of us work harder and harder to support them. “Only the little people pay taxes,” sniffed Leona Helmsley — and increasingly, in the U.S., she’s right. It’s not just taxes. Find me a regulation, and I’ll find you someone who’s hired a lobbyist to get around it. It’s why the city’s smoking ban is such a crock. They cracked down on the little bars, banking on the fact that they couldn’t afford much of a fight, even while carving out a big fat exemption for the deep-pocketed casinos. Is anything more infuriating than one set of rules for people with money, and another for small business owners just trying to stay afloat? Which brings me back to Polsinelli. Ostensibly, the city cut a deal with Polsinelli because the KC firm was consolidating offices — moving 80 employees into downtown St. Louis from Clayton at a time when migration was flowing in a distinctly different direction. Since Polsinelli was spending $3 million or so to fix up its offices, shouldn’t St. Louis cut them a break, and remit taxes back to the firm in exchange for its troubles? Except, well, if they get a break, why not everyone else? Why not the single mom struggling on a teacher’s salary? Why not the clerk at Phillips 66? Why can’t my salary go to fix up my piece-of-shit office? And it’s not like Polsinelli hasn’t been enjoying the rewards of the money it funneled into its office space. As an online video tour of the space shows, it’d be worth paying for this kind of upgrade even if the city wasn’t refunding a big portion of its taxes. (Through a spokeswoman, Polsinelli declined comment. On behalf of the city, spokeswoman Maggie Crane said the city counselor was reserving comment since he has yet to be served with the lawsuit.) Continued on pg 9
EARNINGS TAX Continued from pg 8 To some extent, Schock’s suit is opportunistic. Special deals are in place all over the city. Real estate developers, for example, frequently get approval for Tax Increment Financing, or TIFs. That allows them to get real estate taxes kicked back into their own coffers, in exchange for improvements to a property. But even if they’re morally the same, legally, there’s a difference between TIFs and “refund” schemes like the ones granted to Polsinelli and Anthem — and that “legally” may be the difference between a fool’s errand and a successful lawsuit. “We ended up looking at a lot of these types of arrangements,” Schock says. “And these are the only ones I found where I couldn’t see any authorization at all under the state statutes or the Constitution.” Either the city was just making things up to suit its purposes, or, he says, “I’m just a bad lawyer and I couldn’t find any lawful authority for this.” Based on how the red-light camera suit turned out, I’m guessing it’s not the latter. Schock is suing on behalf of a guy named Thomas Neuner, who owns a barge servicing company down on the riverfront. Neuner has five employees, Schock says, and they all pay the earnings tax, just as he pays the payroll tax. He’s also made some upgrades to the space he rents for his business. Yet no one ever offered him a special deal. Writes Schock, “The hundreds of businesses in the City of St. Louis which make improvements to their real estate each year, with the exception of [Polsinelli and Anthem], receive no refunds of their paid in Earnings Taxes and Payroll Taxes...” While declining comment on the specific allegations in the suit, the city spokeswoman, Crane, says deals like the one offered to Polsinelli are part of a “toolbox” used both to attract new businesses and retain the ones we have. To Schock, though, that’s hogwash. “Whether people stay or go is primarily affected by the quality of the government,” he says. “People want to be in a fair, honest environment. This is America.” Yes. Yes, it is America. And as it’s become increasingly clear, for guys like you and me and Thomas Neuner, that’s exactly the problem. – Sarah Fenske
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A KILLING
The Bethlehem School in Dent County, still empty when investigators snapped this photo a decade after the crime. COURTESY OF BRYAN CAVE
IN THE HILLS For decades, the Spencer family sought justice for Judy. But what if they got the wrong man? BY NICHOL AS PHILLIPS
A
Part one in a two-part series.
t midday on March 11, 1982, two brothers steered their truck off Route 32 about eight miles southwest of Salem in the Missouri Ozarks to go feed their cows. Gerald and James Nickles trundled through some woods and parked at a gate. They stepped into a clearing around the one-room Bethlehem School. The building stood vacant, unused for decades. Its yard was littered with Busch cans — a common nuisance, since local teens favored this spot for boozing and necking. While tidying up, though, the
brothers glanced at the yard’s edge. A pair of white panties dangled in the brush just over the barbed wire fence. “I smelt the perfume off the clothes,” James would later testify. They approached and saw more items: Levi’s jeans, a sock and brushed-suede shoes — one missing a shoelace. Proceeding to the rear of the school, they noticed twin drag marks in the dirt. The brothers followed the marks to a waistdeep outhouse foundation about 50 yards away. Now they were vexed. They suspected someone had ground-butchered one of their calves and dumped the carcass. The pit was heaped with logs
and leaves. Peering in, they spied a human leg. James rushed to a nearby home and phoned the Dent County Sheriff’s Department. The dispatcher there radioed Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Gary Dunlap, who arrived around 1:40 p.m. When Dunlap climbed out of his patrol car, James pointed at the hole. The trooper walked over to it. He moved some debris and discerned a female body. Kneeling, he pressed his fingers to her neck for a pulse. It was chilled and stiff. She was a brunette, five foot three, 115 pounds. She lay nude, save a bra and velour top hitched up to her armpits. She had been strangled with her own shoelace, riverfronttimes.com
then blasted in the neck with a shotgun. At that time, 14,500 people lived in Dent County, a rolling plateau of pasture, oak and cedar. St. Louisans knew it as float-trip country, two hours southwest by car, a place where you could canoe along the bluffs of the Current River. The area was still absorbing years of flux: Many folks had left the fields to toil in the factories and shops of Salem, the only town, while a few thousand newcomers had moved in. The old clans still knew each other, but on that afternoon, a dozen men converged on the scene — troopers, the sheriff, the coroner — and no one recognized the girl.
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
Continued on pg 12
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AContinued KILLING from pg 11 “She’s laying there crumpled up in a dirty hole with us standing over it,” Dunlap recalls. “It didn’t seem real.” The trooper left the crime scene by heading east on 32 back toward Salem, then abruptly pulled over. His colleagues had halted at an iron bridge. Acting on a hunch, one of them searched the dry creek bed below and picked up a leather purse. The driver’s license photo inside matched the victim. It was 21-year-old Judy Spencer. The Spencers were a well-respected family with a plot of land south of Montauk State Park, down in the valley carved out by the Ashley Creek. Kenneth Spencer, Judy’s dad, raised beef cattle and co-owned a lumber mill there. Kenneth and his wife Mildred were founding members of the Montauk Baptist Church. They were strict parents who led their children to services thrice weekly. Judy was the baby daughter — the fifth of the six Spencer kids. A feisty extrovert, she had made cheerleader at Houston High School in adjacent Texas County. She loved to go sledding with her nieces and nephews, to water-ski on Table Rock Lake and to sail her Oldsmobile down the back roads at night, windows down, singing along to eight-track tapes of the Eagles and REO Speedwagon. Fresh out of business college, she had returned home to work the switchboard at Salem Memorial Hospital. She rented a house on the east side of town and trimmed the long caramel hair of her youth to a short bob. She was a young woman, striking out on her own. Then this. “The entire county still is in shock this week over the horrible murder of the Spencer girl,” the Salem News opined. “This heinous crime has caused considerable fear.” Senior circuit judge and former Dent County Prosecutor J. Max Price recalls the impact as “tremendous,” adding, “You couldn’t go into a restaurant without hearing about it.” What stunned locals wasn’t just how the young woman died; it was who she was. In dozens of interviews with Riverfront Times, they utter the same phrase again and again: Crimes like this just didn’t happen here. Not to families like the Spencers. And the Spencers proved extraordinarily driven to get justice 12
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covered decades late often remedies a wrongful conviction, but here the Bryan Cave team argues that it caused one. They believe that the jury misinterpreted the fingernail DNA — a largely unexplored corner of forensic science — and never got to hear about other likely suspects. The campaign to free Nash is only the latest twist in a case that has altered dozens of lives, in several states, for 33 years and counting. “A lot of cases, I never hear about again,” says former highway patrol sergeant Henry “Jamie” Folsom, one of the investigators. “This case never goes away. It just keeps resurfacing.”
W
Above: In the late seventies, Judy made cheerleader at Houston High School in Texas County. Below: The Spencer family, from left to right: Judy, Betty, Jeanne, Paul (below), Glen, Mildred and Kenneth. | COURTESY OF THE SPENCERS for Judy. For 27 years they prodded law enforcement to solve the case, with no results. Finally, in 2008, the state tested Judy’s old fingernail clippings and detected a trace amount of DNA belonging to Donald “Doc” Nash, her boyfriend at the time of her death. The Spencers had long eyed Nash with suspicion. When a jury convicted him of the murder in 2009, they felt their prayers and per-
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
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sistence had paid off, at last. But not everyone is convinced. Three attorneys at Bryan Cave, a prominent St. Louis-based law firm, believe Nash, now 73, is innocent. They are so sure, they’ve agreed to represent him pro bono. When they last took on such a case, they won, and the exoneration sparked national headlines and a multi-million-dollar settlement. Yet this one is different. DNA dis-
hen Donald “Doc” Nash took a shine to Judy Spencer in the summer of 1981, her family wasn’t keen on the prospect. The rugged laborer with the mustache and hazel eyes was 39 years old — nearly 18 years her senior. And he wasn’t an observant Christian. “We socialized with people from our church,” says Judy’s older sister, Jeanne Paris. “He just wasn’t our kind of people.” Unlike Judy’s father, Nash owned neither land nor business. He’d grown up poor in Dent County, for a time living in a dirt-floor shack. His mother, who was part Cherokee, raised him and four siblings after his dad, a violent alcoholic, abandoned them. She fed the family by shooting possum, squirrel and rabbit. Nash topped out at only five foot six, but learned how to scrap with his older brothers. At age twenty, he got caught stealing from a grocer in Salem and was convicted of felony burglary, then received two years probation. Whereas Judy had attended business college, Nash never even went to high school. He married young, raised a daughter and worked at his father-in-law’s gas station in Salem making $1.25 an hour. In the 1970s, his prospects brightened. Mining companies had discovered a 60-mile strip of lead ore just across the county line. It was called the Viburnum Trend. Missouri was soon producing almost all of the country’s lead, which went primarily into car batteries. Nash landed a job underground at the Amax company’s site. Eight years later, he transferred up to the smelter and grew active in union affairs. Continued on pg 14
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AContinued KILLING from pg 12
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Judy Spencer and boyfriend Donald “Doc” Nash shortly before her murder. | COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL By 1981, Nash was making about $14 an hour at the most productive lead mine in America, but was in divorce proceedings with his wife. He blew off steam at local bars. His favorite was the Tower Inn, a windowless tavern in the basement of a ten-story hotel. Loud and smoky and crowded, it was the epicenter of Salem’s nightlife. In the parking lot one evening, Nash met Judy Spencer. He invited her to a bar in Rolla where a band was playing. “We were dancing, and she was loving on me,” Nash recalls. “I just worshipped her.” Within a few months, Nash moved into Judy’s house and helped with the rent. He felt ready for renewal. He’d recently totaled his Pontiac Grand Prix while drunk, replacing it with a 1979 Chevy pickup. New truck, new girlfriend, new home, new start. Judy confided to friends that she liked Nash because he treated a lady right, unlike boys her own age. Something about the words he spoke in his gravelly voice appealed to her. They planned to get married.
“They seemed happy,” says Janet Edwards, who had been Judy’s best friend since high school and, like her, worked at the hospital. “Doc seemed a little bit possessive, though,” she says, adding that Judy seemed to notice it, too. The day before the murder, Judy and another hospital colleague, Suzette Edmundson, both had appointments right after work with the same podiatrist in Pulaski County, 60 miles away. Judy offered to drive. She took Nash’s pickup because the couple had traded vehicles that morning (it was Nash’s turn to drive carpool to the mine, and her Oldsmobile had more room). Edwards tagged along on the bench seat, just for fun. After the doctor’s visit, they dropped off Edmundson, then continued to Edwards’ apartment. Judy wanted to keep chatting with her best friend, so they went inside. Around 7 p.m., Judy felt compelled to check in with Nash, who was at home waiting. She called him and fibbed, claiming she was still making her way back to Salem, but would arrive home shortly. Nash didn’t buy it. He drove
her Oldsmobile over to Edwards’ ground-floor apartment. Sure enough, there sat his pickup. He abandoned Judy’s vehicle in the lot and walked toward his own. Judy, realizing she’d been caught in a lie, went out to speak with him and exchange keys. Edwards couldn’t hear their exact words, but watched through a window as Nash flung Judy’s keys into the grass, then drove away. Judy came back inside.“I guess that it’s over this time,” she announced. She reported that Nash had just told her, “That will be the last time you lie to me, bitch.” She added, “He thinks I’m ugly. He doesn’t like my hair this way.” So Judy went over to the kitchen sink, drenched her hair under the faucet and restyled it. It seemed like a trivial act at the time — Edwards didn’t pay close attention. But decades later, the moment would take on a critical significance. Judy drove to get gas, then went home to Nash. The couple argued, Nash would later say, while Judy pulled off her dress slacks and put on jeans, a black top, brushed suede shoes and a windbreaker. Then she left. Her next stop was back at Edwards’ apartment. Judy was upset. Her relationship looked doomed, she told her friend. The two women talked for a while until Judy decided to drive to Houston, “just to get away.” Edwards chose to stay home. When Judy drove off, it was about 8:30 p.m. They never saw each other again. “I’ve always regretted not going with her,” Edwards says. “I don’t believe it would’ve happened if I’d gone with her.”
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ash called Edwards twice that night asking about his girlfriend, then several more times the next day while Edwards worked at the hospital. By 3 p.m., Judy hadn’t shown up for her evening shift. “I became worried,” Edwards would later testify. “She was very responsible when it came to a work commitment.” Edwards met up with Nash and together they drove to Houston, the small town in Texas County that Judy had mentioned before her disappearance. They saw no trace of her. Returning to Salem, they stopped at the couple’s house to check the answering machine. While they were there, the phone rang. A friend of Judy’s working at the hospital told
Judy Spencer’s body was taken to a funeral home in Salem, where Sgt. P.J. Mertens clipped off her nails one by one into white envelopes. This clipping was routine. The invention of DNA tests was still two years away. “I have clipped so many victims’ fingernails, I reached a point of wondering why I was doing it,” Mertens would later testify. “I was just following procedure.”
O Judy washes her Oldsmobile, which was later found abandoned in a ditch on Route FF. COURTESY OF THE SPENCERS Nash to come right away. When they arrived, they saw Trooper Gary Dunlap standing in the hallway near the emergency room, along with Judy’s colleague, who announced, “Here comes the boyfriend now.” Dunlap turned to face them. He told them Judy was dead. “Oh my God!” cried Nash, who became “visibly upset,” according to the trooper. Edwards crumpled to the floor, screaming. A doctor had to sedate her. Nash agreed to be interviewed down the hall, in the hospital’s chapel. “How did she die?” he asked the trooper. “It looks like she was shot,” Dunlap replied. Nash started sobbing — a “crying fit,” Dunlap would later describe it. Dunlap read him his rights, and then Nash recounted his activities of the night before. Once Judy had left the house for good, he said, he worried about her driving around alone at night. Within minutes, he hopped in his truck to go look for her. He’d even passed her at one point in downtown Salem going the opposite way, he said. But by the time he’d made a U-turn, she was gone. Nash then made a comment to Dunlap that would come back to haunt him: If Judy was really drunk, he observed, she would get in a car with anybody. “Over the years, I’ve talked to people and interviewed people,” Dunlap says. “And you just never know who’s lying to you and who’s telling you truth.”
A
round 10 p.m. that night, Trooper Dunlap was standing in the sheriff ’s office swapping info with a supervisor when a county resident called the dispatcher. A maroon car had been abandoned near his home since morning, he said. He relayed the license plate number. It was Judy Spencer’s Oldsmobile. Dunlap and several colleagues rolled out to the scene, about twelve miles northwest of town on Route FF. They discovered a four-foot skidmark on the pavement leading up to the car. Its nose had dropped into the ditch, which was shallow but steep. The back wheels had apparently spun out as the driver tried to reverse. Dunlap and a sergeant grabbed flashlights and climbed down to take a look. The car was unlocked, with the keys in the console. Several items lay on the floor, including an empty Busch bottle on the passenger side and an empty Busch can on the driver’s side. That single Busch can may have matched the other five found at the Bethlehem School, making a six-pack. Yet patrolmen would discard all six cans without dusting for fingerprints. After they towed the car to Troop I headquarters in Rolla, however, two sergeants dusted the side windows and discovered four sets of latent prints. When the prints didn’t match Nash or anybody else at that time, they were filed away. So was another critical piece of evidence: the victim’s fingernails. riverfronttimes.com
n Judy’s last Christmas with her family in December 1981, she donned a Santa Claus costume to ho-ho-ho for her nieces and nephews. “That was Judy in the height of her glory,” recalls Jeanne Paris, her oldest sister. (One niece memorably inquired, “Why does Santa have blue eyeshadow?”) Paris is now 62, but her resemblance to Judy’s photos is clear. They share a similar gaze and tip of the nose. Paris was close to Judy, but being six years older, felt like her protector, too. She wasn’t thrilled with the guest Judy brought to Christmas that final year, Doc Nash. “He was very nice and civil,” Paris recalls, “but I can’t say I ever really liked him.” Still, in the aftermath of the murder, neither Paris nor her parents imagined Nash could be involved — until they spoke with Dent County Sheriff Clifford Jadwin. Jadwin was then in his second term as elected sheriff. He knew the Spencers. On the day Judy’s body was found, the sheriff descended to Ashley Creek to deliver the bad news in person. He didn’t oversee the investigation — it was the highway patrol’s case — but he sat in while patrolmen questioned people. Before the funeral, Jadwin took Kenneth and Mildred Spencer aside. He said that, in his mind, the primary suspect was Doc Nash. “I had him pegged from the very beginning,” Jadwin tells RFT. “I just never could prove it.” Jadwin admonished the Spencers to act naturally around Nash, lest they tip law enforcement’s hand. So for a few Sundays after the murder, as Nash accompanied Judy’s parents to Montauk Baptist Church, they feared their daughter’s killer sat beside them on the pew. “The law had already told us he was the one that did it,” Mildred Spencer said in a deposition. “Doc would never look us in the eyes.
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So I don’t know. We just had that feeling.” So did the highway patrol. Two weeks after Judy’s death, they gave Nash a polygraph test. It lasted more than two and a half hours. The technician labeled his attitude “nervous” and his movements “extreme,” before concluding that “he was not telling the entire truth.” The scrutiny was getting to Nash. On May 21, he called Janet Edwards to complain that Judy’s father and a local preacher had just urged him to take another polygraph. Edwards invited him over to talk. By this time, Edwards too suspected Nash. She tipped off investigators, who outfitted her kitchen with a hidden microphone. Sheriff Jadwin and a highway patrol lieutenant hid in her bedroom, listening. Nash arrived at 9:35 p.m. He did not confess. “This whole damn town thinks I done it,” he said. “You can’t imagine, Janet, what I’m going through.” “Is that why you turned to Della?” Edwards asked. “Della is a friend.” “Bullshit!” By then, Nash was living with 23-year-old Della Wingfield, an acquaintance of his daughter. Nash had dated her the previous year, before he got serious with Judy. Once Judy died, Nash needed to vacate the couple’s house so that her conservative parents wouldn’t know they’d lived together. He
needed a new place to live, and Wingfield did too, so they both moved into the same trailer. “It hasn’t even been three months and you couldn’t even wait that long,” Edwards said. “OK, Janet,” Nash replied. “I’m not going to argue with you.” He did admit to some things in that taped conversation. He admitted to being a jealous boyfriend (“I was jealous because I loved her”). He admitted to being unable to clear himself (“I don’t have an alibi”). He admitted to hitting Judy once (“All I did then was slapped her jaw a little bit”). And he swore to stay unmarried — and to hire a private investigator to hunt down her killer. Instead, he married Wingfield the next year. He never hired a detective. And he also quit speaking to the authorities. “He lawyered up,” recalls Jadwin, “and that was the end of it.” Nash didn’t slink into the shadows, though. He remained in Dent County and got elected president of his union, United Steelworkers Local 7447, which boasted 500 members. When they went on strike for seven months in 1984, Nash was quoted frequently in the Salem News as a negotiator. After the mine and smelter shut down two years later, he and his wife moved to Illinois. Yet the Spencers kept on him. In March 1985, Jeanne Paris hired a private investigator to give the case
a fresh look. Within months, he too viewed Nash as the culprit. The Spencers bought ads in three area newspapers in early 1986 offering a $25,000 reward for info leading to the conviction of Judy’s killer. “We believe we know who committed this crime but we need more evidence,” they declared. “Won’t you please help? Let’s put this person behind bars for what he did. Your daughter, sister or friend might be next.” Paris always kept an open mind to other suspects, she says. “It wasn’t that we wanted to make just anybody pay,” she tells RFT. “We wanted her killer to pay.” But she mailed many cards and letters to Nash. “Have a happy March 10,” she wrote him in 1987. “Please know that my family will never let up on you until you are in prison and paying for taking Judy’s life.”
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n March 12, 2007, Jeanne Paris dialed highway patrol headquarters in Jefferson City to plead for action — again. It was the 25th anniversary of her sister’s murder, and still, no arrests. This time, Sgt. Jamie Folsom picked up the phone. A hulking ex-Army investigator with a country baritone, Folsom had worked on crimes in Troop I’s zone since 2001. Now he was in charge of that three-person unit. He already knew of Paris, who had (Above) Judy’s clothes, found on her body and tossed into the woods at the Bethlehem School. (Below) Tests showed no trace of semen. | COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL been calling for years. “I’d never seen anything quite like that,” Folsom tells RFT. “She could structure his forensic sci- ever, extract a tiny mixture of DNA just never let it go. So I told her ence course around the Judy Spen- from the left-hand fingernails. Part we’d take a look at it.” cer case. The family consented. of it belonged to Judy, and part to He and his team pulled the The Salem News caught wind of an unidentified male. Folsom’s old evidence out of storage and the class and ran a story, which got task, then, was to find out who. shipped it to the lab for DNA test- picked up by other Ozarks media. Folsom and his partner Scott ing. Then they leafed through the The sheriff’s office fielded calls Mertens (son of P.J. Mertens, one piles of reports. It took months; from people with new tips and of the original investigators) drove other cases diverted their at- theories. out to see Nash on March 13, 2008. tention. Paris called every three Yet Folsom grew irritated. The By this time, Nash was 65, a weeks for updates. On some oc- class had somehow obtained cop- semi-retired maintenance man. casions, she broke down in frus- ies of official reports from an open He was living in a trailer with his tration. murder case, weakening his ad- third wife, Terry, in Beaufort, a Her sister-in-law, Darla Spencer, vantage as an interrogator. small community 75 miles northwas frustrated too. She’d married “Jeanne and Darla were trying east of Salem. He had not been Judy’s younger brother decades anything — that’s how desperate charged with any crime in the inearlier and could still recall Judy they were,” says Folsom. “But it tervening 26 years. calling her “little sis.” could’ve backfired.” On the morning investigators In 2007 Darla was working as a On Valentine’s Day 2008, state arrived, he was leaf-blowing his records officer at a jail in Licking crime lab analyst Ruth Montgom- side yard. They walked down to and mentioned Judy’s case to her ery contacted Folsom. She had see him. warden, Michael Bowersox, who tested Judy’s fingernails. Flashing their badges, they exwas also an adjunct faculty memOne of the right-hand nails was plained the new DNA finding. They ber at Drury College’s campus in broken, indicating a struggle, but asked him to swab his own mouth Cabool. Montgomery couldn’t extract a us- to be eliminated as a suspect. Nash Intrigued, Bowersox asked if he able profile from it. She did, how- agreed, giving them two samples. riverfronttimes.com
“As Nash was utilizing the buccal swabs,” Folsom later wrote in a report, “he appeared to be very nervous as his hands were shaking.” Nash walked them back to their Impala, then asked, “Will you let me know if I am eliminated?” Folsom agreed to do so. Then the patrolmen drove away. In the car, they noted how Nash had phrased his question: He wished to know if, not when, he was eliminated. “To us, that was kind of an odd statement,” Mertens would later say in a deposition. On March 19, Montgomery concluded that Nash’s DNA sample was consistent with the unknown male profile. Folsom again drove out to Nash’s trailer on the afternoon of March 26. Nash was already on his front porch with his schnauzer, who barked hysterically as Folsom approached. The officer recorded their conversation with a hidden microphone. After some small talk, Nash said, “I don’t want to talk no more. I’ve told them everything I know about this case.” “I’m gonna tell you straight up, though,” Folsom said. “You matched the DNA that we found on her body.” “That can’t be possible,” Nash said. “That can’t be possible,” he said again, then a third time. “It is possible,” Folsom said. “We matched your DNA to evidence at the crime scene there and evidence on Judy’s body.” “That just can’t be,” said Nash. “Just no way, because I did not have a thing to do with it.” Nash excused himself to go fix his sink. But Folsom had one last question. “I have to ask you this,” he said. “It’s a part of my job: Did you kill Judy Spencer?” “Nope,” replied Nash. “No sir, I did not.” The next day, Nash was charged with capital murder. Advised by his attorney, he turned himself in at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department the following morning. When Folsom picked him up for the transfer to Dent County, Nash was cordial, he recalls. Folsom offered him some gum and made a comment about the weather. Nash didn’t respond. He just stared out the window.
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t Nash’s initial arraignment in Salem on March 31, 2008, Judy’s mother Mildred, then 77, read aloud from a sheet of paper, opposing Nash’s release on bond. He might flee, she warned, and any delay could outlast her husband’s health, or her own. “We deserve to be a part of this,” she said. Nash’s family attended the hearing, too. His older brother Kenny, a soon-to-be-elected alderman of Salem, was there. So was Nash’s wife, Terry. He blew a kiss to her. Salem News publisher Donald Dodd also sat in the courtroom, watching. Calm and reflective by nature, the middle-aged Dodd had taken over the daily from his stepfather in 1996 and begun writing weekly columns. Many were folksy and light, but when wading into local debates, he became a voice of reason, the unofficial conscience of Salem. Dodd had friends in both the Spencer and Nash clans. “This will be a heart-wrenching process,” he wrote in his column the next day, “[but] our judicial system is not all about emotion and family ties, revenge or exoneration. Our prayers should not be for guilt or innocence, but for truth.” Nash’s bond was set at $750,000, cash only. His attorney got the venue shifted north to Crawford County, though a scheduling conflict bumped the trial itself to the neighboring county’s courthouse in Rolla. The jury was bussed there on the evening of Sunday, October 25 and sequestered at the Comfort Suites for the week of the trial. The gallery filled up all five days, recalls Dodd. Appointed media coordinator by the judge, he had to organize TV news crews clamoring for footage. Security was beefed up, too. Justifying this extra expense later, assistant attorney general Ted Bruce wrote, “The concern over violence and disruption was real.” The Spencers sat mostly on the left; the women wore purple in solidarity with other victims
of domestic violence. They also wore Judy’s rings, Paris says, and spritzed on Jovan Musk Oil — the perfume Judy always wore. “We were hoping Doc could smell it,” she says. Assistant attorney general Ted Bruce presented his case over two days. He ended with his key witness: state lab technician Ruth Montgomery. A seven-year veteran, she’d worked on hundreds of cases and handled thousands of pieces of evidence. Montgomery testified that the smallest amount of DNA she could work with was one nanogram, or one billionth of a gram. In this case, she had found a mixture of five nanograms under all of Judy’s lefthand fingernails combined. The mixture was equal parts Judy and Nash, she claimed, with no third party detected. On the stand, Montgomery never directly refuted the notion that such a mixture might be normal for a couple that was living together. She didn’t have to. The prosecution held a trump card: Judy had washed her hair in Janet Edwards’ sink the night before she died. “I would expect that washing your hair, the mechanical manipulation of the scalp or the hair would remove DNA from underneath the fingernails,” Montgomery testified. “I cannot give you a quantity that would or would not persist … but I would expect that it would have a great effect.” The inference was clear: The only way to explain Nash’s DNA under Judy’s nails was to assume she clawed at him in her final seconds. Yet Bruce assured jurors in his closing statement that to convict Nash, they didn’t even need the DNA. For one thing, he reminded them, Judy’s body showed no trace of sexual assault, nor was anything stolen from her purse. Discarding any motive of robbery or rape, he said, what’s left is a boyfriend irate over a break-up. Nash likely caught up with Judy driving on Route FF, the prosecutor suggested, then forced her off the road, took her to the school-
“Our prayers should not be for guilt or innocence, but for truth.”
house and strangled her. How else, he argued, had Nash been able to list every item of Judy’s clothing on her last night alive? “Does a married man, much less a boyfriend, know what kind of shoes a woman is wearing on a day?” Bruce asked jurors. Nash only knew “because he had to reach down and look at those shoes and pull that shoestring out before wrapping it around her neck and killing her.” He also referenced Nash’s comment that if Judy was drunk, she’d get in the car with anybody. “Is that what you say when you hear that the woman you supposedly loved had died?” Bruce asked. “What a terrible thing to say.” And then there was Nash’s move-in with Della Wingfield just days after Judy’s funeral. “He said he loved Judy,” Bruce said, “but she’s not even in the grave and he’s moving on.” Finally, there was the way Nash trembled when he swabbed his own mouth for DNA for Sgt. Folsom in March 2007 — and the way he’d asked, “Will you let me know if I’m eliminated?” If? “See, a slip of the tongue sometimes tells us more than that person wants us to know,” Bruce said. He added, “It’s kind of like a puzzle. Everything comes together.”
T
he jury’s first vote revealed eight favoring guilt, with four unsure, according to a juror who asked RFT not to print her name. Within four hours, the holdouts relented. “The DNA was the solid foundation,” the juror says. “And there were so many inconsistencies and lies he told. That would be circumstantial, but that hurt him a lot.” They reached their decision at 6:59 p.m. on Thursday, October 29. When the judge read their guilty verdict aloud, Nash lowered his eyes and muttered “oh my God.” The Spencer family tried to stifle their sobs. “I cannot even describe the elation and the release,” says Paris. “This is what we had worked for.” Seven weeks later, a judge sentenced Nash to life in prison. Paris was allowed to read an impact statement. She wished Nash “a long, miserable and uncomfortable life” behind bars, and that he would “die a broken, lonely person” for killing Judy. Added Paris, “I hope she spit in your face with her last breath.”
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ash’s first defense attorney, Frank K. Carlson, is based in Union, but on a recent December afternoon, he sits down with a reporter at O’Connell’s Pub in St. Louis. Ordering a shot of Jameson and a pint of Guinness, the grizzle-jowled lawyer recalls a case that, as he puts it, has been a burr in his saddle for a long time. Carlson explains that his first rule as defense counsel is to avoid deciding on his client’s guilt or innocence. Rather, he lasers in on the state’s evidence and attacks it. “Frank fights like hell for the benefit of his clients,” says William “Camm” Seay, the now-retired judge who presided over Nash’s arraignment. “He can even be overbearing at times.” When Carlson first weighed the state’s case against Nash, he thought it so feeble that he doubted it would survive a preliminary hearing. But it did. Within a year, the state offered him a deal: Have Nash plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 27-year sentence with the possibility of parole after nine years. But Carlson broke his own rule: He concluded Nash was a nice man, and incapable of murder. He and his client chose to take their chances with a jury. After the conviction, Carlson appealed directly to the Missouri Supreme Court, but the justices upheld the verdict in May 2011. At that point, Nash wanted new counsel. Carlson, meanwhile, wanted to give the incoming attorneys a chance to attack him as ineffective, a standard avenue of appeal that he himself couldn’t have pursued. He took out a deed of trust on Nash’s property to secure the fees for himself and six colleagues; those fees exceeded $1 million. Then he withdrew. Carlson officially moved on, but his client’s plight never left him. “I still lose sleep over this case,” he says, staring at the table top. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.” The worst part, Carlson asserts, is that there’s a whole different side of this murder that he never got to present to the jury. “Donald Nash did not commit this crime,” he says. “I know who did.” n
Next week: The fight to prove Doc Nash’s innocence. riverfronttimes.com
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
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Hans Graf, conductor Maureen Thomas, actress Laurel Dantas, soprano Debby Lennon, mezzo-soprano DeWayne Trainer, tenor Members of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus; Amy Kaiser, director
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THURSDAY 2/11 Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre
Georges Rouault, The just man, like sandalwood, perfumes the axe that strikes him.| PLATE NO. 46 FROM MISERERE ET GUERRE, 1926. ETCHING. MOCRA COLLECTION.
The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (3700 West Pine Mall; mocra.slu.edu) possesses one of the few complete sets of Georges Rouault’s etchings suite, Miserere et Guerre. Every decade or so the museum puts all 58 works on display, both to showcase Rouault’s masterpiece and to remind us of the horrors of war. Rouault made these pieces between 1914 and 1927, drawing inspiration from the devastation of World War I and its lingering aftermath in his native France. They primarily depict human beings wracked by suffering and stalked by death, but there are also small instances of mercy to be found in them. His etching Wars, detested by mothers, shows a mother and child embracing in the encroaching darkness, their bodies haloed in the light of their love for each other. Miserere et Guerre is on display 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday through May 8. Admission is free.
FRIDAY 2/12 The Dispute: A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters In Enlightenment Era France every philosophical question has an answer, including the extremely French question, “Who invented infidelity, man or woman?” In this farce, a prince has isolated four orphans — two boys, two girls — on a remote estate, with each raised in solitary confinement for twenty years. Now is the time to let them loose and watch as they discover the opposite sex, sex and (hopefully!) cheating. YoungLiars, a new theater company, presents an adaptation of Pierre de Marivaux’s The Dispute: A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters
BY PAUL FRISWOLD as its inaugural production. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (February 12 to 26) at the ballroom of Centene Center for the Arts (3547 Olive Street; www.youngliarsdispute. brownpapertickets.com). Tickets are $10 to $20.
Educating Rita Poor Frank is a failed poet who’s drinking himself into a stupor
while teaching desultory classes at his local university. What could save him from himself at this point? But the question proves to be not “what,” but “who” — Rita. She’s a young hairdresser who dreams of bettering herself to escape her working-class life, so enrolls as one of Franks’ students. Rita’s lively attitude and desire to learn shakes Frank out of his rut and makes him see the world anew, but the longer they’re together, the more riverfronttimes.com
she begins to adopt some of the pretensions of academia. Willy Russell’s comedy Educating Rita is about starting over and re-engaging with life. West End Player’s Guild presents the play at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (February 12 to 21) at Union Avenue Christian Church (733 North Union Boulevard; 314367-5686 or www.westendplayers. org). Tickets are $20.
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CALENDAR Continued from pg 21
Celebrate 20 years of Riverdance this weekend. | ROB MCDOUGAL
Gidion’s Knot In Johnna Adams’ drama Gidion’s Knot, a parent-teacher conference becomes a searing journey into the heart of terror and self-doubt. Gidion, a primary school student, has committed suicide. His grieving mother and his overwhelmed teacher are left to talk about what happened and to try to understand the reason. Was Gidion being bullied by the other children, or was he the one doling out the abuse? Could either woman have stopped it from happening? Is one of them more at fault than the other? St. Louis Actors’ Studio stages Gidion’s Knot at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (February 12 to 28) at the Gaslight Theatre (360 North Boyle Avenue; 314-458-2978 or www.stlas.org). Tickets are $30 to $35.
SATURDAY 2/13 In it for Love St. Louis Ballet traditionally presents a program for lovers around Valentine’s Day, and this year is no exception. In it for Love is a new Christopher D’Amboise ballet set to six Beatles’ songs (“Blackbird” and “When I’m 64” among them) and one John Lennon solo song (“Imagine”). The performance also includes choreographer Brian Enos’ Bloom, and friends Gen Horiuchi and Joseph Morra have together created a new romantic piece espe22
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cially for the show. Performances of In it for Love take place at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday (February 13 and 14) at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus (1 University Drive at Natural Bridge Road; 314-516-4949 www. touhill.org). Tickets are $22 to $51.
And in this Corner...Cassius Clay Muhammad Ali wasn’t always the greatest boxer of his era. He started out as Cassius Clay in segregated Louisville, hemmed in by racism and limited opportunities. But Clay didn’t see it that way; he believed he had unlimited potential and was destined to do great things. Thanks to his incredible boxing talents and help from his coach (a white police officer), Clay proved to the world he really was the best. Idris Goodwin’s play And in this Corner...Cassius Clay is about a young man’s rise to the top of the sports world. It’s also about how, when he got there, he realized he could become great in other, more meaningful ways. The play is performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (February 12 to 28) at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue; www.metroplays.org). Tickets are $14 to $18.
BAFTA AWARD AWARD GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEE ®
BEST ACTRESS Maggie Smith
“ACTING LEGEND MAGGIE SMITH’S TOUR DE FORCE.”
SUNDAY 2/14 Riverdance Riverdance burst onto the scene twenty years ago, introducing the vitality of Ireland’s native dances to the larger world. Even saying the name aloud probably makes you think of the title piece, a great mass of dancers pounding out that familiar rhythm as one. But there’s more to Riverdance than just Irish dance; the show tells the story of Ireland from its creation, through the Bronze age to the diaspora of the nineteenth century. Then the story jumps to America, and the Irish dancers encounter tap, flamenco and even Russian dancers in their new home. Dance St. Louis brings the twentieth anniversary world tour of Riverdance to the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; 314-534-1111 or www. fabulousfox.com) this weekend. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday (February 12 to 14) at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; 314-5341111 or www.fabulousfox.com). Tickets are $30 to $100.
TUESDAY 2/16 Disgraced Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for his drama Disgraced, which takes on all the classic conversational no-nos: race, religion and justice. At the center is Amir, a non-practicing Muslim American corporate lawyer, and his white wife, Emily, an artist. When Amir’s cousin Abe asks for legal help defending an imam charged with aiding terrorists, Amir is stuck between family and professional considerations. His troubles only deepen when a dinner with his black colleague and her Jewish husband turns into a serious discussion about the case and Amir’s role in it. The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Disgraced Tuesday through Sunday (February 12 through March 6) at Webster University’s Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; 314-968-4925 or www.repstl.org). Tickets are $17.50 to $79.50.
-Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST
ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER
MAGGIE SMITH
THE NOW PLAYING
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VALENTINE’S WEEKEND 2016
4-Course Dinner & “Be Mine” Burlesque/Caberet Shows
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They coulda been a cute couple | PARAMOUNT PICTURES
WEDNESDAY 2/17 Pretty in Pink John Hughes was so effective at capturing the heartbreak and angst of teenagers in the ‘80s that he changed the way people perceive the decade. The real soundtrack was Phil Collins and Lionel Richie, not the hip English bands (New Order, the Smiths) that dominate Hughes’ soundtracks. But that’s part of the charm of a film like Pretty in Pink, which is now 30 years old. Molly Ringwald is a poor girl with great fashion sense who falls for a rich pretty boy (Andrew McCarthy). Can their budding romance triumph above the peer pressure of their friends? Her friends are far more interesting, by the way; Duckie (Jon Cryer) is a new wave Teddy boy with a heart of gold and the body of a true geek. All McCarthy has is James Spader in one of his earliest “menacing creep” roles. Pretty in Pink is screened at 2 and 7 p.m. today at Wehrenberg Des Peres 14 Cine (12701 Manchester Road; www.fathomevents.com). Tickets are $12.50. Planning an event, exhibiting your art or putting on a play? Let us know and we’ll include it in the Night & Day section or publish a listing in the online calendar — for free! Send details via e-mail (calendar@ riverfronttimes.com), fax (314-754-6416) or mail (6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130, attn: Calendar). Include the date, time, price, contact information and location (including ZIP code). Please submit information three weeks prior to the date of your event. No telephone submissions will be accepted. Find more events online at www.riverfronttimes.com.
Confirmation #:
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FILM
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George Clooney is an overdressed kidnapping victim. | ALISON COHEN ROSA/UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Hooray for Hollywood Joel and Ethan Coen have fun with a cast of stars in Hail, Caesar! Written by
BY ROBERT HUNT Hail, Caesar!
Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. Now open at multiple theaters.
I
t’s 1951, the Hollywood studio system is still at the height of its power, and Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is having a bad day. As the head of production at Capitol Pictures (yes, the same place that hired Barton Fink a few years earlier), Mannix has to deal with a pregnant, unmarried star (Scarlet Johansson), coach a singing cowboy miscast in a sophis-
ticated comedy, distract a pair of vulture-like gossip columnists (both played by Tilda Swinton), persuade a panel of clergy to give their stamp of approval to his forthcoming Biblical epic — and locate the missing star of said epic — while still finding time to go to confession daily to lament his inability to stop smoking. There was in fact a real Eddie Mannix, a vice president at Metro Goldwyn Mayer from the silent days until his death in 1963. He went into Hollywood legend as a fixer, the man who kept MGM’s stable of stars out of the papers and sometimes out of jail. There are even rumors that he used criminal connections to permanently remove some threats to the studio’s wholesome image, but these are largely the stuff of legend. (The 2006 film Hollywoodland repeated a popular story that Mannix — played by Bob Hoskins — was behind the death of actor George Reeves.) Brolin’s Mannix is a much less threatening figure, and Hail, Caesar!, the latest film from the always unpredictable Joel and
Ethan Coen, makes him not the heavy, but rather the catalyst driving an all-star look at Hollywood’s past. It’s a satire of the production system and an affectionate tribute to the kind of filmmaking it nourished. (Cinematographer Roger Deakins is an essential collaborator, as he was on eleven previous Coen films.) There’s also a Hitchcock-inspired subplot involving the kidnapping (and political education) of the aforementioned absentee star (George Clooney, not quite as goofy as in previous Coen films, but blissfully slow-witted nonetheless), and, perhaps to shake off their work on the very un-Coenlike Bridge of Spies, a fair amount of humor based on the mostly exaggerated threat of Cold War-era Hollywood Reds infiltrating the film industry. Much of the humor is gentle and cartoonish, such as the earnest floundering of cowboy Hobie Doyle (a fine performance by Alden Ehrenreich), and a stand-out musical number with Channing Tatum (imagine On the Town with a hint of homo-eroticism), worthy riverfronttimes.com
of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. As Hollywood spoofing goes, the tone is closer to Singin’ in the Rain than The Day of the Locust, yet the film raises a few sharp points about movie piety and the day-today business of producing fantasy for the masses. The Coens have often displayed a wild sense of humor (sometimes too wild, as with Burn After Reading), and Hail, Caesar! follows in that broad tradition. But it also brings to mind the more inquisitive fatalism of their underrated 2009 film A Serious Man. Despite his Hollywood trappings and tough-guy determination, Brolin’s Mannix is a Cold War everyman, trying his best to keep his studio running smoothly when all the odds — Commies, irresponsible stars, egomaniacal directors, dirty laundry and whatever God he can get the most people to agree on — are against him. And for all their knowing recreations of film history and encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture, the Coens remain among the current cinema’s finest examiners of human nature. n
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THE ARTS
[ S TA G E ]
My Funny Valentine Slightly Askew moves As You Like It to the Ozarks, with delightful results Written by
PAUL FRISWOLD As You Like It
Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by Ellie Schwetye Presented by Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble through February 13 at the Chapel (6238 Alexander Drive; 314-827-5760 or www.slightlyoff.org). Tickets are $15 to $20.
Y
ou get two kinds of Shakespeare in St. Louis: traditional, in doublet and hose, and conceptual, in which the director has a personal vision that breaks the play out of the 17th century and sets it loose in a new time and place. I’ll take it either way — there’s never enough Shakespeare on stage for my liking — but I’ve grown to prefer the conceptual productions, because they always end up feeling more human and alive. Ellie Schwetye’s adaptation of As You Like It for Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble takes a few liberties with the old comedy, moving the Forest of Arden to the Missouri Ozarks in 1929. Her vision is also a musical one, with the better-known monologues in the play becoming period-perfect songs played live by the cast (and ringer Jason Scroggins of the Foggy Memory Boys). It’s a fizzy and funny show that whizzes by in 100 minutes of comedy, romance and silvery wit. There might not be a better Valentine’s Day date in town. Schwetye has streamlined the plot, focusing less on the war between two dukes and more on the multiple romances that spark into life. Orlando (Kevin Minor) is a wealthy young man whose older brother Oliver (Will Bonfiglio) is denying him his inheritance. Or-
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Jacques (Rachel Hanks) won’t be cheered up by Orlando (Kevin Minor). | JOEY RUMPELL lando wins a wrestling match to prove his worth (a stylized dance performed with Rachel Hanks as the champion wrestler, Charles) and also wins the heart of young Rosalind (Cara Barresi). She’s the daughter of a banished duke, and, with her cousin Celia (Kate Donnelly), is being held hostage at court. But Rosalind is soon banished, too. With Celia, she runs away to the forest to live with Rosalind’s father. Orlando soon follows, unaware that Rosalind has disguised herself as a young man for safety. Once everybody’s in the woods, romance blossoms everywhere. Schwetye and Bess Moynihan together designed the magical forest setting, which includes real trees, a cabin, strings of lights and a star projector that brilliantly illuminates the high ceiling at the Chapel, the performing arts space where this production is being staged. Elizabeth Henning’s costumes are a mix of rural work clothes for the native foresters and posh-preppy styles for the nobles — imagine the chicest episode of Hee-Haw and you’re in the ballpark.
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Barresi and Minor make a fine pair, even with Barresi disguised as a boy. She’s all tough talk to his face but a moon-eyed girl when he leaves, which makes Donnelly’s Celia mock her lovingly. Donnelly has a gift for both the dialogue and the comedy, at one point winning a big laugh with nothing more than a swift exit, while Minor is every bit the fainting lover, and masterful with the language. That high roof swallowed up a few lines here and there throughout the night, but never one of Minor’s. Rachel Hanks plays the melancholy Jacques ably, even when she isn’t speaking. The cast sits in a group at stage left when they’re not in a scene, swilling moonshine from mason jars and laughing softly, but never Hanks; her mouth gnarled up in a frown, she stares angrily at the sky. Only her brief encounters with the fool, Touchstone (a very keen Tonya Darabcsek), bring her out of her perpetual funk. Hanks also gets to sing the famous “all the world’s a stage” soliloquy, and she does a bang-up job. Jason Scroggins and cast are credited for
the music, which is bluegrass done right — rootsy and foot-stomping. All of it emphasizes how naturally musical Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter is; there’s nothing forced or faulty in the marriage of dialogue and music. In fact, the songs work so well that when a non-Shakespeare lyric pops up, it doesn’t sound out of place. Chris Ware, playing the forester Silvius, sings a chorus of “Frog Went A-Courting” while wooing his Phebe (Mollie Amburgey) and immediately becomes the most likable lover on the stage. Ware has an expressive face and he knows how to use it; Phebe’s rejection of him and his dogged love serve as the earthy counterpart to Rosalind and Orlando’s noble courtship. Orlando and Rosalind may get the speeches, but Silvius and Phebe get the music, as when Ware brings down the house with a rip-snorting performance of what sounds like an original song to his brown-eyed girl (the chorus is “you can’t go home again”). This is a show for lovers of all ages, and people of all kinds — hence the title. n
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Feel the Love at Jax Cafe JOIN US FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE
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CAFE
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[REVIEW]
Fancy That Don’t let the uptown address fool you. Truffles Butchery is affordable — and delicious Written by
CHERYL BAEHR Truffles Butchery
9202 Ladue Road, Ladue; 314-567-9100. Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sun., 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
O
nce upon a time, a tiny, artisanal butchery shop opened in Ladue. Truffles Butchery, as it was called, aimed to fill a void in the St. Louis food community — a butcher counter of a bygone era where you bought meat from a guy in a white coat who knew your specs and always tipped the scale in your favor. The place would be unlike anything St. Louis had seen, at least since the advent of shrink-wrapped meat sold in sterile grocery stores. It would feature local, humanely-raised meat. It would sell “off cuts.” It would have its own aging room, lined with pink Himalayan sea salt. And it would be all but forgotten when its alter ego opened up a few months later. Perhaps I am being overly dramatic. It’s not as if Truffles Butchery, the meat counter and small market that sits adjacent to its sister concept, Truffles Restaurant, is struggling in any way. If anything, business appears to be good at the year-and-a-half-old shop, as evidenced by the steady flow of regulars and the fact that its chicken pot pie might as well have a waiting list. There’s no denying, however, that the buzz that surrounded Truffles’ October 2014 opening has been drowned out by the butchery juggernaut that is Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions. And that is curious to me. This is not to take away from Bolyard’s. The Maplewood shop deserves every accolade it receives — personally, one of the best meals
The Butchery offers delicious sandwiches —- and oh, that pot pie. | MABEL SUEN of my life involved a pork chop purchased there. I just find it a little odd that it dominates the foodie conversation in St. Louis when the folks at Truffles Butchery are doing basically the same thing. Steve Caravelli, Truffles Butchery’s executive chef, chalks up his shop’s lower profile to the fact that it aims to be the quintessential corner butcher — an amenity to the folks who live in the three-mile radius surrounding the Clayprice shopping center, rather than a destination spot. The atmosphere certainly conveys this. The small, one-room shop looks like something you’d see in Midwest Living. There is no room to eat inside — the butchery is strictly a grab-and-go operation. What little space exists is equally divided between the butcher counter on one side and high-end provisions such as artisanal jams and local honey on the other. The low ceiling, brick-colored stonework and wooden shelves create a warm feeling, as does the heavenly smell of smoked meat and spices that hits
you when you walk through the door. The showpiece lies at the far end of the space: a dry-aging and curing room with, yes, pink Himalayan salt-lined walls on three sides. The fourth side is mostly glass so patrons can see the shop’s wares in various states of aging. I’d heard the butchery had an excellent sandwich counter, but I always felt too self-conscious to drop by with the junkiest car on the lot. I wish I’d had gotten over that sooner. The small — and surprisingly economical — menu covers the basics, but it’s the extra touches that elevate the sandwiches from the usual deli-meat-on-white-bread fare. Truffles’ turkey, for instance, is brined, rubbed with Cajun spices and smoked so that deep, savory notes permeate the meat. It’s sliced thin and piled on house-made ciabatta with lettuce, tomato and a mouth-puckering mustard aioli. Roast beef is equally impressive. Caravelli & Co. rub the meat in spices, then sous vide it, in essence steaming it to a perfect rare. Traditional horseradish cream and chedriverfronttimes.com
dar cheese finish off this Platonic form of a roast beef sandwich. The Truffles team does not make the meats that fill “the Godfather” — prosciutto, capicola, salami cotto, coppa and mortadella (they go through too much to keep up with the demand), but they do know how to assemble an Italian sandwich that rivals what’s found on the Hill. The portion of fatty meat is monstrous, but homemade giardiniera cuts it with delicious, fiery heat. Peppery pastrami and house-fermented sauerkraut combine for the butchery’s ode to the Reuben. Instead of Thousand Island dressing, however, this version is slathered with rich “Comeback” sauce, a similar, yet spicier, chili/ mayonnaise-style condiment that originated in Mississippi. Truffles goes more classic with its chicken salad, a creamy — if not overly white-pepper heavy — pulled chicken and herbed concoction placed atop ciabatta. The shop also offers a fried chicken version, but Continued on pg 30
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Executive chef Steve Caravelli. | MABEL SUEN
TRUFFLES Continued from pg 29 something about combining mayonnaise and chicken skin gave me pause. It’s no surprise the pulled pork was spectacular, considering that the butchery uses spectacularly marbled heritage hogs. The excellent spice rub, however, shows that they aren’t relying solely on the quality of the meat. The thyme-forward rub forms a crust on what seems like each delicious chunk of pork. It’s sauced, though so lightly it may as well have been nothing more than spice-infused drippings. It’s served with white cheddar cheese on ciabatta, though I could have cut to the chase and eaten it out of a to-go liter. I was also lucky enough to get my hands on one of the butchery’s hard-to-come-by takeaway pot pies, and now I understand the fuss. The golden-brown shell is basically butter in flake form. Even after a minute in the microwave (I grew impatient with the oven heating instructions), it remained a crisp container for the creamy chicken and vegetables inside. Your Southern grandma would bow her head in reverence to this perfect example of down-home cooking. Though Grandma would prob-
ably feel the need to wear her Sunday best to pick one up, if she even went to Truffles at all. The Ladue address is intimidating, and I know I can’t be the only 99 percenter who feels awkward walking in surrounded by the area’s finest-heeled residents. But I’d argue that this feeling has less to do with any real difference between Truffles and a place like Bolyard’s and more about perception. We’re obsessed, in St. Louis, with dividing one another up by socio-economic class. Substitute “where do you buy your meat” for “where did you go to high school,” and you’ll be able to neatly categorize a person. It doesn’t have to be that way — and biting into my gargantuan $7.99 turkey sandwich, I realized this butchery is no less accessible than any of the other sandwich counters I’ve visited in the city’s more blue-collar corners. My erroneous perceptions made me just as guilty as everyone else for not paying attention to this gem. It’s a good thing I got over them. This is a meal I would have hated to miss. n Truffles Butchery
Turkey sandwich ....................... $7.99 “The Godfather” ........................ $7.99 Roasted pork sandwich .............$8.99
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SHORT ORDERS
[SIDE DISH]
The Great Tommy Salami Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
I
’ve known people for quite a few years who didn’t realize it wasn’t my real last name,” says Tommy Andrew of Randolfi’s (6665 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-899-9221) about his nickname. “I tell them my real one, and they say it doesn’t sound right, and all I can think is, ‘Who has salami as a last name?’” Andrew credits chef Josh Galliano with dubbing him “Tommy Salami” back in their days at the late, great Monarch. “We’re both Irish-Italian. He started calling me it one day and it stuck like glue,” Andrew recalls. “Seriously, people don’t even realize it’s me when I say, ‘It’s Tommy Andrew.’” In fairness to Galliano, he couldn’t have bestowed Andrew with a more appropriate moniker. The St. Louis native grew up on the Hill in a large Italian family, and got his love for cooking from his uncle Gianni, who is also in the restaurant business. His first restaurant job was at the Italian mainstay LoRusso’s on Watson, where he saw a job in the kitchen as a way to bring home the big bucks — a fact he now laughs at. “I was bussing tables and one day saw the dishwasher had a check for $300,” Andrew explains. “I was fifteen and thought, ‘Man, he’s rich!’ I asked to wash dishes and did that for about a month. They saw I was a hard worker so they threw me on the line. I just started advancing from there.” Following LoRusso’s, Andrew worked at a few top restaurants in St. Louis — Monarch, Prime 1000. His most unique gig, however, was as part of the culinary team at a restaurant on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Andrew loved his time in Arizona, but he admits, “I’m a homeboy. I love St. Louis and 32
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Tommy “Salami” Andrew gets back to his Italian roots at Randolfi’s. | SPENCER PERNIKOFF missed my mom. I just wanted to come back.” When Andrew heard about the chef de cuisine position at Randolfi’s, he suspected it was the right fit but wanted to make sure. “Whatever job I took next, I knew I wanted it to be a head chef position and I didn’t want to settle,” Andrew explains. “So I worked there for a month for free.” For two days every week, he showed up at the restaurant to get to know the food, the kitchen, the staff and owner Mike Randolph himself. He was sold. “It’s been really great working for him,” Andrew says of Randolph. “He’s a great chef — both food smart and book smart. He’s inspired me to think of things I’ve never thought of. Working for him has made me a better chef.” Andrew took a break from developing Randolfi’s new menu to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage scene, why you’ll never find truffle oil in his kitchen and why Patrick Swayze’s character in Road House is the coolest guy on the planet. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? I didn’t go to culinary school, and I just jumped into this indus-
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try at a young age. Everything that I learned was from trial and error to get where I’ve gotten now. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? I’m sure this goes for a lot of folks in the industry, but a triple shot of espresso. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? That’s a tough one. I’d say that I would want to live my life like Patrick Swayze’s character Dalton from Road House. I could roundhouse-kick people, but I could also seduce women. What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? There’s a great sense of chef camaraderie in St. Louis right now. Even the people that I’ve worked with in the past have supported my new job at Randolfi’s. They support what we’re doing. It’s all about getting a little help from my friends. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Hana Chung. She works at Byrd & Barrel, and I’ve worked with her in the past at Juniper as well. She can throw down in the kitchen better than 90 percent of the dudes I know. She’s a badass. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene?
Brad Bardon, who is next door at Público. Eating his food completely destroyed me — it was one of the best meals that I’ve had in St. Louis. The spotlight is on him and the restaurant right now for a reason. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Liver. Because I love to drink and I love the flavors. If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing? I would probably be a conservation agent for Missouri. I love the outdoors and I support what they do at the Missouri Department of Conservation. Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen. Truffle oil. It’s an ingredient to make crappy dishes appear to be fancy. What is your after-work hangout? The Whiskey Ring on Cherokee — they have really great cocktails and a selection of whiskeys. I’m definitely a whiskey drinker. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? A slinger from Courtesy Diner — goes hand and hand with whiskey. What would be your last meal on earth? My mom’s lasagna. n
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Fresh Pressed Sandwiches Homemade Soups Wood Fired Pizza Local Beer • Local Wine Ice Cream • Snacks
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f you are anything like me, your first thought upon tucking into lunch at Moya Grill (567A Melville Ave., 314-833-6621), the weeks-old Ethiopian spot in the Delmar Loop, won’t be “hmmm, interesting” or even “how delicious!” Instead, you will find yourself asking, “What took them so long?” These days, you can get just about any cuisine in the U.S. in a fast-casual setting. What Chipotle did for burritos is now happening with pizza, with calzones, with salads, with Chinese food — even, here in St. Louis, with Filipino food (at the excellent Guerrilla Street Food). But up until discovering Moya, I hadn’t been aware of any fast-casual Ethiopian, even in L.A.’s Little Ethiopia district, which is filled with excellent restaurants from the east African nation. And as this place shows, the combination of ancient cooking techniques and quick, pared-down presentations is nothing short of dynamite. After all, this is incredibly approachable food. Ethiopian restaurants generally serve two types of dishes. A wot is a thick stew of minced meat or vegetables, frequently lentils. Tibs, meanwhile, is a classic saute — mostly meat, stir-fried with onion, peppers and garlic. Both are served on the spongy bread called injera; you use it instead of silverware, pinching and mopping up hunks of meat or veggie. It’s quite tasty. And, as it turns out, it also lends itself easily to the fast-casual treatment. Stroll up to the counter at Moya and choose a wot or a tibs, and then pick how you want it served: the classic style, with rolls of injera on the side;
fit-fit, which is tossed with pieces of injera for fork eaters (although fingers are OK, too); or ba-rooz, which is served with rice in a style Americans may be more used to, thanks to the ubiquity of Mexican food here. Pro tip: Order yours in the classic style. Sometimes, the old ways really are the best. The space is stylish, all blond wood and clean lines, with big windows facing Melville Avenue. You order at the counter, and service is friendly and fast; if your visit is anything like mine, they’ll have your lunch to your table in just a few short minutes. You can also get it to go. Speaking of carryout, in addition to the very tasty tibs and the various wot options, Moya offers a pair of sandwiches, ready-made for American efficiency. The Gabi Wrap, at $7.50, is the perfect choice for someone who wants to dip his foot into Ethiopian food. It’s actually kind of like an Ethiopian take on a Taco Bell soft taco, only with clean flavors and fresh ingredients. Minced beef with mild spices is served in a wrap along with tomatoes, chickpeas, lettuce and a light sauce. Unlike Taco Bell, it makes for a very satisfying lunch. Moya Grill is the brainchild of the family behind Meskerem, the more traditional Ethiopian restaurant on South Grand, and it’s clear from the little touches here that the owners are restaurant veterans. From the easy-to-follow menu to the from-scratch food, their competence is on display in every detail. Lots of places are pulling out of the Loop these days. Moya, though, gives them something to miss. But maybe it won’t be forever — because I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see this concept take off, across the city and maybe even beyond. Who’s to say in ten years there won’t be a Moya on every corner? Hey, it worked for Chipotle. – Sarah Fenske
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Spice Up Your Valentine’s Day! Serving St. Louis since 1995 Lunch Buffet Everyday 11:30 am - 2:30 pm Fine Dining everyday after 5 pm
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Beaver ham steak. | BUTAUTAS BARAUSKAS
For Lent, Eat More Beaver
B
ootleggin’ BBQ (1933 Washington Blvd., 314-241-5999), the downtown Kansas City-style barbecue joint that opened in October, wants to help you properly observe Lent this year in the traditional Catholic way: by eating some beaver. “Apparently back in the 1800s the Catholic church decided that since the beaver spent 70 percent of its life in water it is considered a fish, and is therefore acceptable to eat for Lent,” says owner/pit master Brenton Brown. “So we’re going to serve beaver.” It’ll be a special throughout the month. Brown references a 2013 Scientific American article entitled “Once Upon A Time, The Catholic Church Decided That Beavers Were Fish.” It explains that in the 17th century, the Bishop of Quebec argued to his superiors in the church that his flock should be allowed to eat beaver on Fridays during Lent, despite the fact that meat is forbidden. He said, essentially, that since the semiaquatic animal is a skilled swimmer, it should be counted as a fish. The church agreed. And that classification apparently still stands today. Though it does not address the animal specifically, the United Conference of Catholic Bishops’ online “Questions And Answers About Lent And Lenten Practices” doesn’t rule it out, either. It explains that abstinence laws bar meat from animals such as chickens, cows, sheep or pigs — all of which live on land. Even birds fall under that rubric, and moral theologians have traditionally taught that we should abstain from animal-derived products, including
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things like broth or consomme. Fish are a different category of animal. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted. And since a beaver is not a chicken, cow, sheep or pig, nor is it a bird, you may be golden. Brown says they intend to prepare the animal a couple different ways. With the beaver’s tail they will make a gumbo. They will also smoke the beaver and serve it “like a regular meat.” There will be beaver tacos, too. Brown can’t help but giggle a bit when he mentions that last one, though we’re not sure exactly why. The beavers themselves will come from Harr Family Farms, already a favorite at the Soulard Farmers Market, and the dishes will be served every Friday during Lent. “I do not know of any other place [in the country] that regularly serves beaver,” Brown says. “From the research we’ve done, it used to be very popular because there were like 400 million beavers around back in the 1800s, but they just got trapped so much that they’re down to like 20 or 30 million. But they used to just be part of the daily diet — which I think is part of why the Catholic church said, ‘We gotta allow this to happen.’” The question remains: How does beaver taste? “Beaver is very much akin to beef but more of a texture consistency of venison — and that’s similar to how it cooks, too,” Brown says. “And I promise you, the beaver will be shaved before you eat it.” Oh god. We get it now. – Daniel Hill
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Tickets On Sale
NOW
Jason Isbell Feb 17 • Peabody Opera House Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, 800-745-3000, and at the Ford Box Office at Scottrade Center. J a s o n I s b e l l .com
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MUSIC
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Lucky to Have the Work Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell proves he’s the right man for the job Written by
JEREMY ESSIG Jason Isbell 7 p.m. Wednesday, February 17. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market Street. $34.50 to $49.60. 314-241-1888.
A
s a touring songwriter, Jason Isbell’s life may seem worlds apart from the exhausted but appreciative laborer he describes on the title track of his newest album Something More Than Free. Yet the two share one important trait — a willingness to do the work. “Go back to David Bowie,” Isbell says. “Would you rather be David Bowie or Morrissey?” The late Bowie was known for always staying busy while. as for Morrissey, after a spate of canceled shows, Isbell notes, “I’ve heard he can’t even get some gigs anymore. He’s become a disaster.” He adds, “One guy did the work and the other didn’t, and they started out with arguably the same amount of talent.” Growing up in northern Alabama, Isbell was taught how to play music at an early age by his grandparents, who also served as his primary babysitters. A reliance on the family bond is still important in a lot of rural Southern families, Isbell says — especially in areas where basic services can be more than an hour away. “Everybody has to work, they need somewhere to take their kids, too… Or a woman who’s being beaten by her husband, [she needs to know] she has someone else to stay with,” he says. “If not for family, people would still have really bad times.” As much as characters from
“I don’t get uncomfortable writing about personal things. It’s my job.” | COURTESY ALL EYES MEDIA those families still inform Isbell’s writing, his inclusion in another Southern family also played a large role in his development as a musician — the legendary music community of Muscle Shoals. “It’s always been a really positive thing,” Isbell says, mentioning his time spent with legendary bassist and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio founder David Hood, among others. “I got to know them as people before I knew their work… They were always hopeful for your future. There was no stress; [I was] trying to learn. It was always about the work.” Isbell’s most recent batch of work, Something More Than Free, found the artist writing from a different perspective. Where his previous output dealt with with darker personal issues like addiction and divorce, he’s now clean, married to fellow musician Amanda Shires and raising the couple’s first child.
“I came to terms with all the emotional bullcrap,” Isbell says of the time between 2013’s Southeastern and the new album. Yet in making peace with his past, he also had no problem finding new things to write about. “Inspiration is the easy part,” he says. “I don’t deal with writer’s block; I don’t get uncomfortable writing about personal things. It’s my job. There’s plenty of stuff out there to write about.” Isbell says he often finds the “spark” for his writing in something as simple as overhearing a conversation. While this can lead to him writing from the perspective of someone else — as he does on the album’s title track — the singer says he prefers to write in the first person as much as possible. “Jokes and songs usually come out better in first person,” he says, adding that he attempts to write as riverfronttimes.com
conversationally as possible, looking for “less flashy” words during the editing process. “It’s important for me to write the way people talk.” Equally important, it would seem, is making sure people hear his songs. Speaking from a hotel room in Miami on January 30, Isbell had just returned from a tour of Europe before embarking on a songwriters’ cruise featuring John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams and Shires among others. When that wraps up, he will embark on a U.S. tour that lands in St. Louis on Wednesday, February 17. Then it’s on to Australia. Isbell’s current schedule has him criss-crossing the globe through March. He doesn’t mind, though — and his reasoning is a familiar refrain. “I think a lot of people would like to have my job,” he says. “[If I’m going to have it], I might as well do the work.” n
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40
B-SIDES
Songbirds and Love Ballads Southwest Watson Sweethearts and the Aching Hearts turn mistaken identity into a dual record release show Written by
KATELYN MAE PETRIN The Ryan and Kellie/Ryan and Kelly Valentine’s Sweetheart Showdown 8 p.m. Sunday, February 14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10-$12. 314-7733363.
G
etting Ryan Spearman and Kelly Wells in a room at the same time can be tricky. Between their various podcasts (separate and together), music careers (solo, in groups and as the duo the Aching Hearts) and other projects, the pair doesn’t often have a free moment. Getting them in the room with their friends and fellow folk musicians Kellie Everett and Ryan Koenig, a.k.a. Southwest Watson Sweethearts, is even rarer. As Wells puts it during a meeting with RFT Music, “Who knows where the other Ryan and Kellie are?” (For reference: Everett was traveling through Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, while Koenig was in Nashville.) But this Valentine’s Day, it’s happening: Southwest Watson Sweethearts and the Aching Hearts are teaming up at Off Broadway. “We got the matching outfits, the matching names, the matching genres and the dual CD release,” says Spearman. It’s a love story, of sorts, between two performing duos. Star-crossed musician couples — one set always busy at home, the other traveling across the country --- with this show as the climax, the great coming-together of souls. The four have been joking about joining forces for years. “The whole Ryan-Kelly / Ryan-Kellie thing has been apparent since we both figured out that we
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Kelly Wells and Ryan Spearman, a.k.a. the Aching Hearts. | COURTESY ACHING HEARTS PROMO
were the same names doing the same thing,” says Koenig. Beyond just the names and the genres, Spearman looks a bit like a member of Pokey LaFarge — with whom Koenig plays. They also have the same friends in cities around the United States, which has led to cross-state mistaken Ryan-Kelly sightings. For Wells, one such mix-up turned the collaborative show from joke to necessity. After a concert at Off Broadway, Spearman and Wells were talking to the performers. “The band was like, ‘Yeah, man, thanks for letting us stay with y’all.’ And we were like, ‘Are they stayin’ with us?’” remembers Wells. They were actually staying with Everett and Koenig — but it took a manager to solve the confusion. “That’s when we realized we gotta capitalize on this and do something together.” The show isn’t just a gimmick, though. The four are good friends, and for Wells, the joint performance is “like a Valentine’s present to ourselves.” Spearman has his own take: “It’s like the Kellies and Ryans are on a double date.” “Yeah, we’re just gonna do it,”
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chimes in Wells, giggling. Though the show has been in the works for more than a few months, they haven’t had the time to practice together yet. No one seems worried. Koenig even chuckles as he admits, “That will only happen a few days before the show.” But, promises Spearman, “We’re gonna make it good.” The plan is for each couple to play a one-hour set. For the finale, each musician will pick out a song with “heart” in the title, and the four will sing together. They’ll be matching, too — both Kellies sew clothes. Their separately designed Western outfits come from the same bolt of fabric, which Wells says is “symbolic of how their music works with ours.” The similarities between their new releases bear out this thesis. Both albums were recorded in Spearman and Wells’ home, just a room away from each other. And since Spearman himself produced the other couple’s record, he’s intimately familiar with the tracks. “Every time I listen to it I’m like, ‘Ah, that’s the kind of song I wanna write,’” he says. The album, Endless Horizon, fea-
tures harmony vocals with Everett on the guitar and Koenig on a host of folksy instruments that range from banjo to harmonica. It’s the Southwest Watson Sweethearts’ first full album together, and it went unusually well. “This is the only CD release show I’ve ever done where I’ve had the CDs in my possession over two weeks before the show,” says Koenig. The songs, as Koenig puts it, “run the gamut from serious to lighthearted.” They were recorded for Big Muddy Records in Spearman’s Spare Room Studios --- a space “the size of a large closet.” Many are about Missouri. They include the self-explanatory “Even if No One Loves You, MoDOT Cares,” a ditty about MoMo the Missouri Monster, and a historical tale about the Legend of the Missouri Bald Knobbers (a vigilante justice group Everett’s family belonged to). They also include what Everett calls the couple’s “personal theme song.” “Southwest of the City” describes their life together in a “cozy bungalow” off the intersection of Southwest Avenue and Watson Road. Continued on pg 41
LOVE BALLADS Continued from pg 40 For Everett, it’s important to celebrate the region. “We’re proud of where we live, and think there’s something special about adding to the canon of regional music,” she explains. This sentiment characterizes the album; although the songs sound like they could belong to Missouri’s long history of folk tunes, they’re all original compositions. That’s what the other Ryan and Kelly do as well — both duos mix original and traditional folk tunes and dwell on similar themes, though the Aching Hearts are a bit darker. The path to their new album, entitled Tell It to Me, was a bit of an “existential crisis,” according to Wells. The record reinterprets traditional songs and classic country duets. From the beginning, they wanted to mix old and new. “We tried to, in the modern context, create a kinda old-timey recording,” says Spearman. But after they recorded the whole album in their spare room, they felt they didn’t quite capture the “old” they wanted. So they scrapped their work, set up two mics in the corner of the living room, and redid the album. “We exchanged the campfire for the microphone and just snuggled up to it,” says Wells. The result? A record that the musicians hope sounds like a “brighter version of a ‘60s folk album.” Several Levin Brothers covers and some folk songs that have been “in the fabric of American songs for as long as anyone can remember” made it onto the final version. They promise a number of songs about death and loss. “We’re both kinda happily obsessed with the dark side of life expressed through music,” says Spearman. While Everett considers most of their new album “whimsical and fun,” Wells admits with a grin that her favorite themes are “whiskey and heartbreak.” For the Valentine’s Day show, the Southwest Watson Sweethearts plan to add a dose of levity; the Aching Hearts, a dose of booze-soaked darkness. Despite the gooey conceit of matching lovers, there’s also a nice mixture — new and old, happy and sad, fanciful and serious. The show won’t be a mush-fest — but it won’t be all misery, either. Wells muses, “Maybe it’s for people who are realistic about Valentine’s.” n
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 TH
Nephari Burton CD Release - R&B Doors 7/Show 8pm - $10
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 TH
Geeks Who Drink - Trivia - 8:30pm- FREE
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ON SALE 2.12 AT 10AM
THUR. 5/12
ON SALE 2.12 AT 10AM
1/8 2.12 AT 10AM ON SALE WED. 6/1FRIDAY
WEDNESDAY 2/10
FRIDAY 2/12
SATURDAY 2/13
WEDNESDAY 2/17
THURSDAY 2/18
SUNDAY 2/21
UPCOMING SHOWS 2.24 HOODIE ALLEN 2.25 DARK STAR ORCHESTRA 2.26 & 2.27 CELEBRATION DAY: A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN 3.4 METRIC 3.6 GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS 3.9 OLIVER HELDENS 3.12 BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME & AUGUST BURNS RED 3.13 MELANIE MARTINEZ 3.15 X AMBASSADORS 3.20 BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY 3.24 EXCISION 3.25 TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS 3.26 ADAM CAROLLA 3.27 RICK ROSS 4.9 YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND 4.10 UNDEROATH
4.13 WELCOME TO THE NIGHT VALE 4.15 CHARLES KELLEY 4.16 JIM NORTON 4.22 ANDREW BIRD 4.23 CHRIS D’ELIA 4.27 THE ARCS 5.3 ANIMAL COLLECTIVE 5.4 AMON AMARTH 5.20 JOSH RITTER 5.22 BOYCE AVENUE 5.23 MIIKE SNOW 5.26 BLOC PARTY 5.28 TECH N9NE 6.7 RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: BATTLE OF THE SEASONS 6.8 LEON BRIDGES 6.25 BLUE OCTOBER
visit us online for complete show information facebook.com/ThePageantSTL
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thepageant.com // 6161 delmar blvd. / St. Louis, MO 63112 // 314.726.6161
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FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
RIVERFRONT TIMES
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44
HOMESPUN
LETTER TO MEMPHIS Come on Home lettertomemphis.net
Letter to Memphis
7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 14. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Avenue. $10. 314-925-7556.
W
hen Devon Cahill and Gene Starks first partnered as a musical duo, Letter to Memphis was a folk-leaning outfit heavy on cover songs. Occasionally friends would join them on stage, and low-key gigs at south-city establishments (including the late, lamented La Tropicana market) helped eradicate the pair’s shared stage fright. “When we started out, it was vocals, guitar and two really scared people holding on for dear life,” laughs Cahill. In the five years since those initial gigs, the band has grown to include two more members (Paul Niehaus IV on bass and Sarah Velasquez on violin) and turned its focus to Cahill’s strong voice and heart-on-sleeve lyrics. Come on Home, the band’s sophomore release, continues that evolution. Niehaus engineered the album in his home studio and, as Cahill tells it, was something of a jack-of-all-trades instrumentalist who helped alter the normally acoustic group. “There are a lot more electric tones,” says Cahill, though the band didn’t abandon its folk roots. “There’s mandolin in there, there’s lap steel — there are still some of those rootsy instruments.” A sense of exploration, both musical and spiritual, heralds the opening of the album. “Anthem of a Wanderer” is the loosest and most quixotic track on the ten-song offering, with Starks’ plangent, circular guitar pattern offering a ruminative jangle against searching drums and fervid cello. Cahill’s lyrics are an encouragement to seek out love, peace and inner acceptance — themes, she says, that set the stage for the rest of the record. “It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album and that’s why I wanted to lead off with it, just because I think it’s really powerful and I hope it draws the listener in,” says Cahill. “Both of
us have had some struggles in our lives, so writing something that’s kind of uplifting is really therapeutic and cathartic for both of us. And I think that song is very much a case of that.” The musical drama of the opening track helps prop up some of the pithy — if a bit generalized — words of encouragement. Letter to Memphis takes the opposite approach on the following song, the album’s title track. “Come on Home” has its roots in Cahill’s family history, the depth of which belies the song’s upbeat country arrangement. “The title track of this album is about my dad,” says Cahill. “I had sort of lost my relationship with him. He is a recovering alcoholic and a recovering addict. He was living for many, many years in Ohio with his wife. Almost two years ago now I got a call from him, and he needed me to come and bring him back to St. Louis.” Cahill took a redeye flight to Cleveland and drove her father the ten hours back that same day; he entered rehab the next. “My dad and I are very similar people — we’re kindred spirits — and that song is kind of about that family love and making that reconnection,” says Cahill. “It’s a personal thing that happened, but it’s something that I thought I should write about.” Cahill wrote the bulk of the album, but Starks composed the music and lyrics for one of its most arresting moments, the gentle, mournful waltz of “To the River.” The words cast a vague outline of loss and regret, with Cahill’s vocals mirroring the magnetic pull of a codependent relationship. The band channels a different kind of romantic force on the next track, “Drawn to You,” with layers of vocal harmony and Velasquez’s drawn-out violin lines enhancing the group’s soft-touch approach with barely-there traces of funk and angst. You won’t hear radical stylistic shifts on Come On Home — most songs hew toward pretty acoustic numbers, with
traces of country and introspective indie-folk fitting nicely into the formula. “It is on the softer side, all of our music,” says Starks. “And it’s not always soft themes — sometimes there are darker themes that come through. But we present it in an uplifting way; it’s almost like we have our arm around the listener, telling them it’s OK. You can make it through.” And what became of those two scared people, holding on for dear life when Letter to Memphis began? Five years in the band have given both Cahill and Starks an outlet to grow, and the varied songs on Come on Home show both a deftness in musical arrangements and an insight on songwriting that toes the line between personal catharsis and relatability for a larger audience. “It’s funny; I did all this performing as a kid and I was really fearless, but once I became more self-aware as I got older, I fell out of it for a long time,” says Cahill. “Doing theater, you get to hide behind a character. Now, I can’t get enough of it. I just want to be singing on stage all the time, every day.” –Christian Schaeffer
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FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
RIVERFRONT TIMES
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46
OUT EVERY NIGHT
THURSDAY 11
[CRITIC’S PICK]
CITYBOIENT: w/ Lou Kang 9 p.m., $10. Fubar,
Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-7266161. LIQUID STRANGER: w/ Space Jesus, AU5 8 p.m., $20. 2720 Cherokee Performing Arts Center, 2720 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-276-2700. LONGHEAD: w/ Sole Loan, Drew Sheafor 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. MICHAEL BOLTON: 8 p.m., $59.50-$89.50. Lindenwood’s J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, 2300 W. Clay St., St. Charles, 636-949-4433. THE PEACH KINGS: 7 p.m., $8-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. THE PINES: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. TRAE THA TRUTH: 7 p.m., $12-$52. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.
FRIDAY 12 ALARM WILL SOUND: 8 p.m.; May 26, 8 p.m., $20. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St.
VALENTINE’S DAY WITH ERIN BODE: Feb. 12, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb. 13, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; 7:30 &
3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. JIM JEFFERIES: 8 p.m., $39.50-$49.50. The
4444.
THE GORGE RECORD RELEASE SHOW 9 p.m. Friday, February 12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Avenue. $8 to $10. 314-833-5532.
Slowly, steadily, a tremendous fire creeps underground, unstoppable, unquenchable. The flames cannot be seen by the naked eye, but still they burn. In their path lies barrel after barrel of discarded radioactive waste — the sins of the past, remnants of humanity at its most inhumane. We had naively hoped they’d forever remain buried and forgotten, but still the fire burns ever closer. If this all sounds like the setup for a bitchin’ metal song, well, it is. In fact, it is the basis for the entirety
9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
of St. Louis prog-metal band the Gorge’s new album, Thousand Year Fire, which is being released at this show. The Gorge took this very real scenario, currently playing out in Bridgeton, and wrote an album just as explosive and dangerous as its source material. If the nuclear apocalypse is indeed to come to our city, at least we will have a fitting soundtrack. Heavier Than Time: Fellow St. Louis riff-masters Path of Might, Alan Smithee and Grand Inquisitor will open the show. Never mind the danger at the landfill; the sheer sonic destruction at the Demo just might kill us all instead. –Daniel Hill
MONDAY 15 CHILDREN OF BODOM: w/ Havok 8 p.m., $20$22. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. MARBIN: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314621-8811. TIM ALBERT AND STOVEHANDLE DAN: w/ Randy 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.
TUESDAY 16 GRANT LEE PHILLIPS: w/ Steve Poltz, Heather Maloney 7 p.m., $15-$18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. JAMAICA LIVE TUESDAYS: w/ Ital K, Mr. Roots, DJ Witz, $5/$10. Elmo’s Love Lounge, 7828 Olive Blvd, University City, 314-282-5561. JEALOUSY MOUNTAIN DUO: w/ Jitters, Hardbody
Louis, 314-533-9900. ALEX GRENIER TRIO: 7 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar,
p.m.; Feb. 13, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb. 14, 7:30 &
S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.
8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson
3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Wash-
OPTIMUS REX: w/ Reptile Lord, JusTed 8 p.m.,
Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.
BRIDLED SPELLS: w/ Demonlover, Strong Force,
ington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
free. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-
JITTERS: w/ Jr. Clooney, Hardbody 9 p.m., $5.
9050.
Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St.
PIRATE SIGNAL: w/ Reptile Lord, JusTed 8 p.m.,
Louis, 314-772-2100.
Marble/Wall Duo 9 p.m., $5. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.
SATURDAY 13
DAN HUBBARD CD RELEASE SHOW: 8 p.m., $10.
ACID KAT VALENTINE’S DAY: w/ Wray 9 p.m., $5.
free. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-
THE RUTHLESS: 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor,
Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-
Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St.
9050.
5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.
773-3363.
Louis, 314-772-2100.
SAM TRIPOLI: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill, 6504
SKIZZY MARS: w/ Kool John & P-Lo 7:30 p.m.,
DENNIS DEYOUNG: 8 p.m., $45-$65. River City
THE ARCHITECTS: 9 p.m., $8-$10. The Firebird,
Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.
$15-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester
Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St.
2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
SO MANY DYNAMOS: w/ Rumpshaker 9 p.m., $7.
Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.
Louis, 314-388-7777.
BROLY BIRTHDAY BASH: w/ John Boi, Communi-
Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis.
WHISKEY SHIVERS: 7 p.m., free. Off Broadway,
DOUBLIN’ DOWN 3.0: w/ Mister Melvin, Hal
cation, Fusion, Key Lo Da Don, Lockdown, Killa
VALENTINE’S DAY WITH ERIN BODE: Feb. 12, 7:30
3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
Greens 9 p.m., $5. Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee
Ice, Boobie G & Willow 7 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar,
& 9:30 p.m.; 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb. 14, 7:30 &
St., St. Louis.
3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Wash-
WEDNESDAY 17
THE HUSH LIST: w/ New Lingo, Made in Waves,
CUPID’S CRAWFISH BOIL: w/ DJ Sexauer, Zach’s
ington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
BEN NORDSTROM: 10 a.m., $12-$65. The
OATM 8 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St.,
Wrath, DJ B Hoff 4 p.m., $20. The Demo, 4191
YOUR ‘80S VALENTINE: w/ Hidden Lakes, Moon
Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis,
St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.
Bandits, DJ JILLIAN 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready
314-533-9900.
PAT SAJAK ASSASSINS: w/ the Tennis Lesson,
DANIEL ROTH & THE MOTHS: w/ Casey Bazell
Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-
BOB “BUMBLE BEE” KAMOSKE: 8 p.m. Beale on
Bear Cub 9 p.m., free. Foam Coffee & Beer,
Band, Edgefield C. Johnson Duo 9 p.m., free.
833-3929.
Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-
3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.
Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis,
RAGGED UNION: w/ the Scandeleros 9 p.m., $7.
314-241-2337.
SUNDAY 14
The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis,
DANIEL ROTH AND THE MOTHS: w/ the Casey
THE MINOTAURS: w/ Ryan Markovich 9 p.m., $5.
6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.
314-775-0775.
Bazzell Band, Edgefield C. Johnson Duo 9 p.m.,
Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St.
JASON ISBELL: w/ Shovels & Rope 7 p.m., $34.50-
ROBERT EARL KEEN: 8 p.m., $30-$40. The Ready
free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St.
Louis, 314-772-2100.
$49.60. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St,
Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-
Louis, 314-241-2337.
NEPHARI EP RELEASE: 8 p.m., $10. Cicero’s,
St. Louis, 314-241-1888.
833-3929.
GEORGE WALLACE: 7 & 9:30 p.m., $35-$55. Lum-
6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-
MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb.
THE SOUTH CITY TROUBADOURS: w/ Miss Molly
iere Place Casino & Hotel, 999 N. Second St., St.
0009.
18, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb. 19, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.;
Simms Band, the Riverside Wanderers 9 p.m.,
Louis, 314-881-7777.
THE PLOT IN YOU: w/ Lorna Shore, Ascension of
Feb. 20, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $35. Ferring Jazz
free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St.
MAG JACKSON: 8 p.m., $10-$15. Cicero’s, 6691
Akari 6 p.m., $13-$15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive
Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-
Louis, 314-241-2337.
Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.
St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
571-6000.
STS9: 8 p.m., $27.50-$30. The Pageant, 6161
MAZE FEATURING FRANKIE BEVERLY: 7 p.m.,
SCOTTY MCCREERY: 8 p.m., $47.50-$57.50. River
MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb.
Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.
$45-$125. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave.,
City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino
18, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Feb. 19, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.;
TORN AT THE SEAMS: w/ Another Day Drowning,
St. Louis, 314-977-5000.
Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.
Feb. 20, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $35. Ferring Jazz
Noesis, Ecclesiast, We Are Descendants 6 p.m.,
MIKE STUD: w/ OCD: Moosh & Twist, Futuristic
SKATE MALOLEY: w/ Derek Luh 6 p.m., $25-$70.
Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-
$8. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-
8 p.m., $20-$24.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar
Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
571-6000.
9050.
Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.
TOR MILLER: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Blueberry Hill,
PETER CASE: 7:30 p.m., $17-$23. Off Broadway,
VALENTINE’S DAY WITH ERIN BODE: 7:30 & 9:30
MOTHERS: 8 p.m., $8-$10. Old Rock House, 1200
6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-
3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
46
RIVERFRONT TIMES
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
riverfronttimes.com
7880. GAELIC STORM: 8 p.m., $25-$27.50. The Pageant,
[CRITIC’S PICK]
Low.
LOW 8 p.m. Saturday, February 13. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $20. 314-7733363.
Like Yo La Tengo, another band helmed by a husband and wife that recently came to town, Low has survived a few decades as mid-level indie icons through both restless creativity and the solid dependability of their songs. That would sound like faint praise if only thousands of other bands had not flashed and burned during Low’s tenure, using the same rudiments but missing
the essential spark that Mimi and Alan Sparhawk bring to their music. Last year’s Ones & Sixes continues the reinvigorating streak of The Invisible Way from a few years before, with characteristic steeliness and Spartan production yielding to subtly engrossing compositions. Studio-Hopping: After working with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy for 2013’s The Invisible Way, the band decamped to Justin Vernon’s April Base Studios in Eau Claire, Wisconsin for Ones & Sixes. –Christian Schaeffer
THIS JUST IN
People, Modern Man, Sat., April 30, 7 p.m., $12.
4 HANDS 4 BANDS CHILI COOK-OFF: W/ Dibiase,
Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
Brother Lee & the Leather Jackals, The Ol’ One,
FREDDIE GIBBS: Fri., April 15, 8 p.m., $18-$20.
Two, Hope And Therapy, Sat., Feb. 27, 8 p.m.,
Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
$4. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-
HAR MAR SUPERSTAR: Fri., May 13, 8 p.m., $15.
535-0353.
The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-
AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE: W/ Motograter, Tue.,
0353.
June 21, 7 p.m., $13-$15. The Firebird, 2706
HOME & AWAY REUNION SHOW: W/ the Few, Talk
Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
to You Never, the Cinema Story, Better Halves,
BØRNS: Fri., June 10, 8 p.m., $18-$20. The
Sat., March 26, 7 p.m., $7. The Demo, 4191
Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,
Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.
314-833-3929.
HONKY: W/ Valley, Voidgazer, Thu., April 28, 8
BEACH SLANG: W/ Potty Mouth, Dyke Drama,
p.m., $15-$17. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis,
Sun., May 15, 7 p.m., $13-$15. The Firebird,
314-289-9050.
2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
THE HOOTEN HALLERS: W/ the Tillers, Sat., April
BILLY JOE SHAVER: Sat., May 21, 8 p.m., $20-$30.
16, 9 p.m., $10-$12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp
Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-
Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
773-3363.
IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION: Thu., March 17, 8
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER: W/ Fallujah, Dis-
p.m., $12-$14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave.,
entomb, Tue., May 24, 7 p.m., $20. Fubar, 3108
St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
JAVIER MENDOZA CD RELEASE SHOW: Fri., April
BROKENCYDE: W/ Justina Valentine, Challenger,
15, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th
Fly Method, Tue., March 29, 7 p.m., $12-$30.
St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.
Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City,
JC BROOKS & THE UPTOWN SOUND: Sun., April
314-862-0009.
17, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave.,
CAROLINE GLASER: Fri., April 8, 8 p.m., $13.
St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University
KEVIN GARRETT: W/ Matt Woods, Fri., March 11,
City, 314-727-4444.
9 p.m., $12-$14. The Demo, 4191 Manchester
THE DAWN DRAPES: W/ Doctor Delia, Tue., May
Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.
24, 7 p.m., $10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd.,
LAMB OF GOD: W/ Clutch, Corrosion of Con-
University City, 314-862-0009.
formity, Thu., May 12, 7 p.m., $35-$40. The
DEERHUNTER: Tue., April 26, 8 p.m., $20. The
Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-
Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,
6161.
314-833-3929.
LARRY CAMPBELL & TERESA WILLIAMS: Tue.,
EXPIRE: W/ Out Of Time, Lowered A.D., Perfect
April 19, 8 p.m.,
TNT Glass
Designs All-American
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6163 EAST DELMAR LOOP | 314.863.8860
Wed. Feb. 10 9:30PM Voodoo Players
Tribute to Neil Young
fri. feb. 12
10PM
Big Sam’s Funky Nation from New Orleans with Guests Grooveliner
sat. feb. 13 Andy Frasco and the UN Birthday Bash
Wed. Feb. 17 9:30PM Voodoo Players Tribute to The Blues Brothers
736 S Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102 (314) 621-8811
Continued on pg 48
riverfronttimes.com
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
RIVERFRONT TIMES
47
DID YOU KNOW: 1.3M PEOPLE READ
THIS JUST IN Continued from pg 47 [CRITIC’S PICK]
EACH MONTH?
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
South City 3552 Gravois at Grand
314-664-4040 Open until Midnight Fri & Sat
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
St. Peters
1034 Venture Dr.
(70 & Cave Springs, S. Outer Rd.)
636-928-2144 Open until Midnight Thurs-Sat
riverfronttimes.com
Grant-Lee Phillips.
GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 16.
Grant-Lee Phillips’ voice floats above his music — a blend of atmospheric folk, highly orchestrated acoustic pop and tense, often surprisingly muscular rock — as if he wished to be untethered from the world. And though he made a name for himself on the LA ‘90s scene with the band Grant Lee Buffalo, that world has been largely intimate, pastoral and spiritual. Even when recording an entire cover album of tunes from the
‘80s, he’s remained a dark-minded seeker of mystical and social truths. His forthcoming album The Narrows pays at least partial tribute to his Native American heritage; his songs, and that soaring voice, continue to cast the spell of a shaman. Sweet Satirist: Some know opener Steve Poltz as a guy who once wrote a hit for an ex-girlfriend named Jewel; more should know him as one of the wittiest and warmest solo performers around. –Roy Kasten
$17-$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St.
Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City,
Louis, 314-773-3363.
314-862-0009.
THE LUMINEERS: W/ Soak, Sun., June 12, 7 p.m.,
ROGUE WAVE: Sat., May 21, 8 p.m., $16. Old
$27-$42. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market
Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-
St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888.
0505.
MUDDY RIVER RAMBLERS: W/ Scrambled, Fri.,
ROLAND JOHNSON SOUL ENDEAVOR: $7. Beale
March 25, 8 p.m., $7-$10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar
on Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-
Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.
621-7880.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD: Wed., June 1, 8 p.m., $30-
SENSORY OVERLOAD 2: Sat., March 12, 7 p.m.,
$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis,
$18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester
314-726-6161.
Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.
NEW MAYANS EP RELEASE: W/ Union Rags,
SPEAKERS IN CODE BIRTHDAY PARTY: W/
Scarlet Tanager, Fri., Feb. 26, 9 p.m., $7-$10.
Escondido, Wed., March 23, 8 p.m., $10-$12.
Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-
Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-
773-3363.
773-3363.
NO WAY BACK FEST: Sat., March 12, 1 p.m.,
STARMAN: A TRIBUTE TO DAVID BOWIE: W/ Karate
$8-$10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University
Bikini, Brian McClelland, the Daisy Ad, Fri.,
City, 314-862-0009.
March 18, 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509
OCEAN DISCO: W/ the Driftaways, Thu., April
Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.
21, 8 p.m., $10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd.,
TANK: Wed., March 23, 7 p.m., $45. The Pag-
University City, 314-862-0009.
eant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-
QUAERE VERUM: W/ the Gorge, Ashes and Iron,
6161.
Autumn Tint, Tue., March 8, 7 p.m., $8. The
TRIBAL SEEDS: W/ Anuhea, E.N. Young, Fri.,
Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-
May 6, 8 p.m., $16-$18. The Ready Room, 4195
833-5532.
Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.
THE ROADS BELOW: W/ Jeske Park, Mandy
TROGLODYTE: Thu., March 3, 8 p.m., $10. Fubar,
+ Trey, Foothold, Fri., Feb. 26, 7 p.m., $10.
3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.
The Old Rock House, 1200 South 7th Street. $15 to $18. 314-588-0505.
SAVAGE LOVE INTROPERVERT DUMPS EXTROPERVERT BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: Gay male in my late twenties. I recently ended things with a guy. Our relationship started as a strictly sexual one. We’re both involved in the kink scene in our city and have interests that align in a particularly great way. Quickly it became clear there was a real connection. The next two months were great! I had a toothbrush at his place within three weeks. But early on, I noticed that he was a much more extroverted person than I was. He would laugh loudly at movies, work the room at parties, say things about kink in the middle of crowded restaurants. I prefer to blend in. Initially I thought of this as “the price of admission,” but it soon became tiresome. I ended things, telling him that there were conflicts with our personalities that made a relationship difficult, not specifying what. He fell for me—he’s stated it over and over—but I don’t want him to think he has to change who he is to be with me. I’m confused, Dan. I loved being in a relationship again (I’ve been single for a VERY long time), the sex is great, and finding someone who shares your kinks and you’re attracted to emotionally is rare. We have a ton in common
when he’s being down-to-earth. He’s asking me to reconsider. Was I right to end this? Tired Of Being Single He shouldn’t have to change who he is to be with you, TOBS, but what if he wants to? It’s unlikely he’ll morph into an always-quietly-tittering, always-discreetly-kinking introvert, just as you’re unlikely to morph into a braying, oversharing extrovert. But if making an effort to dial it back is the price he has to pay to be with you—along with reserving convos about his kinks (and, by inference, your kinks) for fetish clubs and play parties—why not let him decide if he’s willing to pay? Gays represent a tiny percentage of the general population, TOBS, and kinky gays represent a not-so-tinybut-still-smallish percentage of the gay population. I don’t think you have to marry this man, regardless of his flaws, just because you’re gay and your kinks align. But you should think twice about discarding a guy who’s gay and kinky and whose company you enjoy most of the time just because he gets on your nerves now and then. At the very least, you owe it to yourself, just as you owe it to him, to be specific about the reasons you pulled the plug—because he might want to make an effort to win you back.
There’s a lot that’s good here— your kinks align (rare!) and you enjoy spending some-but-not-all of your time together (common!)—and there are always work-arounds for the bad. An example from my own life: My husband is way more extroverted than I am. So sometimes he goes to movies, restaurants, clubs and concerts without me. I stay home and read or sleep or clean. And then, when he gets home, we have something to talk about—how the movie was, whether the restaurant was any good, who was out at the clubs, and if there were any cute boys in the band. He doesn’t make me go out; I don’t make him stay home. It’s a work-around that works for us. With some effort, TOBS, you could find the work-arounds that work for you two: He makes an effort, when you nudge him, to dial it back; he goes to comedies with his friends, dramas with you; if he’s working a room, he won’t take offense if you slip into another room. Give it—give him—a chance. Hey Dan: I’m a gay male college student in a healthy D/s relationship with a bisexual guy. My boyfriend posts pictures of our kink sessions to his Tumblr. (No faces.) A trans woman active in campus queer politics confronted me today. Ze had seen my boyfriend’s Tumblr (!) and recognized me (!!!). Ze demanded I stop
riverfronttimes.com
49
engaging in BDSM because ze has to see me on campus and knowing my boyfriend “controls and abuses” me is triggering for zir. Ze said images of me in medical restraints were particularly traumatizing. Ze was shaking and crying, and I wound up comforting zir. I stupidly let zir think I would stop. Now what? Scenario Utterly Bananas P.S. Ze also threatened to out my boyfriend if ze saw new pictures go up on his Tumblr. My boyfriend is already out—about being bi and being kinky—so he laughed it off. But how fucked up is that? You tell this woman you take orders from your boyfriend, SUB, not from random campus nutcases. You advise zir to stay away from Tumblr porn ze finds traumatizing. And if ze pushes back, you explain to zir that if anyone’s being controlling and abusive here, it’s zir. And if ze starts shaking and crying, SUB, direct zir to the student health center. And for your own protection, SUB, tell zir all of this with at least one witness present. Document everything, and if ze keeps getting in your face about your consensual, nonabusive D/s relationship, take the ironic step of filing a restraining order against zir. Listen to Dan’s podcast every week at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
RIVERFRONT TIMES
49
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
riverfronttimes.com
Wall Ball 2016
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Saturday, February 27 7-11 pm
$35 General Admission $60 VIP includes beer/wine & 6:30 p.m. early admission
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For more information, call (314) 865-0060 or visit artscopestl.org/wallball Sponsored by
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800 Health & Wellness 805 Registered Massage
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Call Cynthia today for your massage. M-F 7-5, Sat. 9-1. 314-265-9625 - Eureka Area #2001007078
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Flexible Appointments Monday Thru Sunday (Walk-ins welcome) 320 Brooke’s Drive, 63042 Call Cheryl. 314-895-1616 or 314-258-2860 LET#200101083 Now Hiring...Therapists
Make Every Day Special with a Luxurious Asian Massage at Spa Chi Massage & Day Spa 109 Long Rd Chesterfield MO 636-633-2929 www.spa-chi.com
Ultimate Massage by Summer!!!! Relaxing 1 Hour Full Body Massage. Light Touch, Swedish, Deep Tissue. Daily 10am-5pm South County. 314-620-6386 Ls # 2006003746
810 Health & Wellness General ARE YOU ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDICATIONS OR HEROIN? Suboxone can help. Covered by most insurance. Free & confidential assessments. Outpatient Services. Center Pointe Hospital 314-292-7323 or 800-345-5407 763 S. New Ballas Rd, Ste. 310
ELIMINATE CELLULITE and Inches in weeks!
All natural. Odor free. Works for men or women. Free month supply on select packages. Order now! 844244-7149 (M-F 9am-8pm central) (AAN CAN)
100 Employment 105 Career/Training/Schools
THE OCEAN CORP. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298
120 Drivers/Delivery/Courier ! Drivers Needed ASAP ! Requires Class E, B or A License. S Endorsement Helpful. Must be 25 yrs or older. Will Train. ABC/Checker Cab Co CALL NOW 314-725-9550
167 Restaurants/Hotels/Clubs HIGH-END HOTEL SEEKING Servers, Cooks, Dishwashers & Housekeepers. Background Check req. 314-863-7400
190 Business Opportunities Avon Full Time/Part Time, $15 Fee. Call Carla: 314-665-4585 For Appointment or Details Independent Avon Rep.
500 Services 525 Legal Services
File Bankruptcy Now!
Call Angela Jansen 314-645-5900 Bankruptcyshopstl.com The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.
Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500
ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON
The choice of a lawyer is an important decision & should not be based solely on advertising.
527 Legal Notices AT&T Mobility Services, LLC proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at a top height of 115 feet on a 115-foot building at the approx. vicinity of 625 North Euclid, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO 63108. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Erika, e.diak@trileaf.com, 10845 Olive Blvd, Suite 260, St. Louis, MO 63141, 314-997-6111 LEGAL NOTICE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF SPARTANBURG IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS CASE No. 2015-CP-42-2587 Frank Clyde Miller v. Summer Lashley (aka Summer Morrison) TO THE DEFENDANT ABOVENAMED: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to answer the Complaint herein, a copy of which is herewith served upon you, and to serve a copy of your Answer to this Complaint upon the subscriber, at the address shown below, within thirty (30) days after service hereof, exclusive of the day of such service, and if you fail to Answer the the Complaint, judgement by default will be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. Spartanburg, South Carolina Dated February 5th, 2016 John C. Strickland Attorney for the Plaintiff 184 N. Daniel Morgan Ave Spartanburg, SC 29306 864-699-8164
AT&T Mobility Services, LLC proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at a top height of 115 feet on a 115-foot building at the approx. vicinity of 625 North Euclid, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO 63108. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Erika, e.diak@trileaf.com, 10845 Olive Blvd, Suite 260, St. Louis, MO 63141, 314-997-6111
530 Misc. Services WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201
400 Buy-Sell-Trade 420 Auto-Truck
P.O. Box 545 • Malden, MO 63863 • 1.888.276.3860 • www.smtds.com
314-579-1201 or 636-9393808 1 & 2 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome
ST. JOHN $495-$595 314-423-3106 Special! 1BR.$495 & 2BR.$595. Near 170 & St.Charles Rock Rd
315 Condos/Townhomes/Duplexes for Rent CLAYTON-CONDO $1100 Evelyn-636-541-1403 8111 Roxburgh-2 bdrm, 1 bath, garage, hrdwd flrs, washer/ dryer, walking distance to Downtown Clayton, Galleria, The Boulevard (Maggianos-PF Changs), Shaw Park & MetroLink. SOUTH-CITY $440 314-223-8067 Spacious 1BR, 2nd flr, garden entrance, hdwd flrs, kitch appls, near Grand busline
317 Apartments for Rent CENTRAL-WEST-END! $500 314-309-2043 Newly updated! Budget apartment, all kitchen appliances, central heat/air, pets welcome, on site laundry, off street parking! rs-stl.com RG964 Turn Your Tax Refund Into A New Car for 2016! GUARANTEED FINANCING! Over 1,200 Cars, Trucks & SUV’s in Stock. Call Brad Gillen 314-292-8748
600 Music 610 Musicians Services MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians? A Band? A String Quartet? Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians? A Band? A String Quartet? Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30
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DELMAR! $420 314-309-2043 Sharp 1 bedroom, all kitchen appliances, central heat/air, newer carpet, pets, off street parking, close to everything!! rs-stl.com RG962 DELOR! $525 314-309-2043 Spacious 2 bedroom, big basement, central heat/air, redone hardwood floors, all appliances, large yard for pets! rs-stl.com RHABN DOWNTOWN Cityside-Apts 314-231-6806 Bring in ad & application fee waived! Gated prkng, onsite laundry. Controlled access bldgs, pool, fitness, business ctr. Pets welcome FLORISSANT! $375 314-309-2043 Month 2 Month! 1 bedroom, hardwood floors, central heat/ air, w/d hookups, basement/storage, off street parking, utilities paid! rs-stl.com RG96Z GRAVOIS! $425 314-309-2043 Only $200 deposit! Ready to rent 1 bedroom, kitchen appliances, hardwood floors, pets allowed, central heat/air, first floor!! rs-stl.com RG963 KINGSHIGHWAY! $380 314-309-2043 Priced to rent! 2 bedroom, hardwood floors, full basement, all kitchen appliances, w/d hookups, off street parking! rs-stl.com RG960 LAFAYETTE-SQUARE $685 314-968-5035 2030 Lafayette: 2BR/1BA, appls, C/A, Hdwd Fl MORGANFORD! $385 314-309-2043 Redone 1 bedroom, all appliances, central heat/air, storage, nice carpet & tile, pets ok, part utilities paid, w/d hookups! rs-stl.com RG961 NATURAL-BRIDGE! $550 314-309-2043 Roomy 3 bedroom, basement, fenced yard, appliances, walk-in closets, vaulted ceilings, off street parking, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RHABO NORTH-CITY
1-BEDROOM-APTS 314-921-9191 4008 Garfield $315/mo-$415/dep 5071 Ruskin $375/mo-$475/dep ~Credit Check Required~
OVERLAND/ST-ANN $535-$575-(SPECIAL) 314-995-1912 1 & 2BRs-garage. Clean, safe, quiet. Great loc-near 170, 64, 70, 270 RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $525-$565-(SPECIAL) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton. SOUTH CITY
When you need help,
one call does it all.
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SYSTEM
SOUTHERN MISSOURI TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL
ST. CHARLES COUNTY
300 Rentals
1-800-345-5407
$400-$850 314-7714222 Many different units www.stlrr.com 1-3 BR, no credit no problem SOUTH ST. LOUIS CITY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 1, 2 & 3 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome
SOUTH-CITY $400 314-707-9975 4321 Morganford: 1 BR, all electric, hdwd flrs, C/A. SOUTH-CITY $495 314-707-9975 Grand & Bates: 1 BRs, hardwood flrs, all electric, C/A. SOUTH-CITY $499 314-707-9975 Jamieson & Nottingham: 1 BR, all electric, hdwd flrs, C/A. SOUTH-CITY $525 314-223-8067 Move in Special! Spacious 1BRs, 1st flr, Hdwd Floors,C/A, new windows, W/D, lrg fenced yard, near Grand bus SOUTH-CITY $575 314-968-5035 Newly Renovated, 1BR 1BA, 3850 Park Ave Located directly behind Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. Less than 1 mile from SLU. New Kit. Appls & Cabinets, C/A, Coin Lndry, Off-St. Pkg, CATV wired & carpet. Park Property Developers LLC
UNIVERSITY-CITY $895 314-727-1444 2BR, new kitch, bath & carpet, C/A & heat. No pets WESTPORT/LINDBERGH/PAGE $525-$575 314-995-1912 1 MO FREE!-1BR ($525) & 2BR ($575) SPECIALS! Clean, safe, quiet. Patio, laundry, great landlord! Nice Area near I-64, 270, 170, 70 or Clayton
www.LiveInTheGrove.com 320 Houses for Rent BROADWAY! $725 314-309-2043 Nice 2 bed house, finished basement, garage, central heat/air, large fenced yard, kitchen appliances, ready now! rs-stl.com RHABV GRAVOIS! $700 314-309-2043 Big 2 bedroom house, full basement, fenced yard, central heat/ air, kitchen appliances, pets welcome, ceiling fans, ready now! rs-stl.com RHABU GRAVOIS! $795 314-309-2043 Spacious 3 bed, 2 bath house, full basement, hardwoods, family room, central heat/air, fenced yard, appliances, pets, many upgrades! RHABX KINGSHIGHWAY! $650 314-309-2043 Sharp 3 bed house, full finished basement, central heat/air, hardwood floors, fenced yard, off street parking, available now! rs-stl.com RHABT NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome OLIVE! $600 314-309-2043 Redone 2 bedroom house, full basement, central heat/air, fenced yard, loaded kitchen, low deposit, month 2 month lease! rs-stl.com RHABR PAGE! $650 314-309-2043 Remodeled brick 2 bedroom house, full basement, central heat/air, hardwood floors, nice deck, fenced yard, off street parking! rs-stl.com RHABS SOUTH-CITY $850 314-374-4345 (Sublette & Fyler-Near The Hill) 2 BR, 1 BA, all appls, W/D, lg fenced yard & lg garage plus prkg in back. Quiet Street. Pets OK w/deposit. ST-CHARLES-ROCK-RD! $750 314-309-2043 Remodeled 3 bed house, central heat/air, thermal windows, fenced yard, hardwood floors, all appliances, pets welcome! rs-stl.com RHABW BROADWAY! $725 314-309-2043 Nice 2 bed house, finished basement, garage, central heat/air, large fenced yard, kitchen appliances, ready now! rs-stl.com RHABV GRAVOIS! $700 314-309-2043 Big 2 bedroom house, full basement, fenced yard, central heat/ air, kitchen appliances, pets welcome, ceiling fans, ready now! rs-stl.com RHABU GRAVOIS! $795 314-309-2043 Spacious 3 bed, 2 bath house, full basement, hardwoods, family room, central heat/air, fenced yard, appliances, pets, many upgrades! RHABX KINGSHIGHWAY! $650 314-309-2043 Sharp 3 bed house, full finished basement, central heat/air, hardwood floors, fenced yard, off street parking, available now! rs-stl.com RHABT NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome OLIVE! $600 314-309-2043 Redone 2 bedroom house, full basement, central heat/air, fenced yard, loaded kitchen, low deposit, month 2 month lease! rs-stl.com RHABR PAGE! $650 314-309-2043 Remodeled brick 2 bedroom house, full basement, central heat/air, hardwood floors, nice deck, fenced yard, off street parking! rs-stl.com RHABS
575
SOUTH-CITY $600 314-707-9975 Gravois & Pennsylvania: 2 BR, all electric, hdwd flrs, C/A.
IF YOU DESIRE TO MAKE MORE MONEY AND NEED A NEW JOB EARNING $45-$50 thousand the 1st year, great benefits, call SMTDS, Financial assistance available if you qualify. Free living quarters. 6 students max per class. 4 wks. 192 hours.
SOUTH-CITY 314-504-6797 37XX Chippewa: 3 rms, 1BR. all elec exc. heat. C/A, appls, at bus stop SOUTH-CITY OPEN-SUNDAY-2-4pm 314-518-4645 4919A Murdoch-Lovely 1 br w/enclosed sunporch, appl, no pets. Immediate Occupancy.
• More driving time than any other school in the state •
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314-754-5966
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ST. LOUIS AUTO STOP Call Brad Gillen (314) 292-8748
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MUSIC RECORDSHOP
Looking to sell or trade your metal, punk, rap or rock LP collection. Call us (314) 675-8675
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ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON 314-621-0500 The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.
South City Scooters Great Selection of Scooters! Sales & Service.
@ the corner of Connecticut & Morgan Ford. 314.664.2737
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY & CHARLIE!
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Ultimate Massage by
Summer! SWEDISH & DEEP TISSUE FULL BODY MASSAGE Daily 10 AM-5PM
South County Lemay Area
314-620-6386
# 2006003746
Classic Massage
We have the BEST PRICES in town! We beat our competition hands down!
• 60 Minute Foot Massage $20 (9:30am-12pm) $30 after ute Body Min • 60 Massage $49 • 90 Minute Foot & Body Massage $59 • 120 Minute Foot & Body Massage $75 (636) 220 3147 14760 Clayton Rd., Ballwin MO, 63011
Across from Wildwood Parkway and Shell gas station in Wildwood Plaza, next to Domino’s Pizza on Clayton Rd.
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016
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