Nashville Scene 2-20-20

City Limits: A proposed bill could help save home studios in Nashville Page 9

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Convenient East Nashville Location

Contents

feBruary 20, 2020

6

32

Walk a Mile: Chestnut Hill and St. Cloud Hill ...............................................6

The Ghost Hunter

City Limits

In the second installment of his column, J.R. Lind explores the historic Nashville neighborhood containing City Cemetery, Fort Negley and St. Patrick

By J.R. Lind

Making Room .............................................9

Books

Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell cracks cold cases from the civil rights movement By aRam goudSouzian and ChapteR 16

33

musiC

A bill that would allow home studios and other businesses to serve clients on site moves closer to becoming law

Singing Out .............................................. 33

By Stephen tRageSeR

For the Love ............................................. 33

11

Outstanding storyteller Joy Oladokun on finding her voice in Music City

Crime and Punishment Under Bill Lee

YBN Cordae cleared a path for himself with The Lost Boy

Cover story

The governor has said criminal justice reform is a top priority — but how far is he willing to go?

By Steven haLe

17

CritiCs’ piCks The Triangle & First Fruit, Daisy Hernández, The Descent, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Jefferson Street Art Crawl, Cam’ron, Lost Dog Street Band, Soul Power, Opeth and more

By BRittney mcKenna

By oLivia Ladd

Lost Boy Takes Flight .............................. 35

West Nashville’s best Indian spot offers lots of flavor in these little packages

By JenniFeR JuStuS

30

danCe

WIFE’s Kristen Leahy on ‘The Grey Ones’ and Monstrous Femininity

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Tyler Childers with Daughter of Swords at the Ryman By edd huRt

38 fiLm

The Sea and the Belles

What She Said embraces Pauline Kael as a vivacious, unapologetic voice in American cinema

Cheap Eats .............................................. 28

Celebrate Nashville’s ‘Oltrarno’ Eateries During East Nashville Restaurant Week

The Spin ................................................... 36

The French Connection ........................... 27

By dana Kopp FRanKLin

You Can Vote for President Now

By aLeJandRo RamiRez

27

Once Upon a Time in France delivers French comfort food along with adorably cozy ambience

Nashville Symphony Announces 2020-2021 Season

Katie Pruitt is herself on Expectations

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a ceaselessly beautiful depiction of queer desire

food and drink

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By eRiCa CiCCaRone

Byline Brag

By eRiCa CiCCaRone

39

NEW YORK TIMES CrossWord

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NASHVILLE SC STADIUM RENDERING

SCORE CARD: COOPER AND INGRAM GET AN A, SCHULZ AND CHAMBER GET A C I am very glad to see that Mayor John Cooper and Nashville SC have successfully agreed upon a plan for The Fairgrounds Nashville that puts the city first.

Knowing the parties, it’s clear that putting Nashville first has been the goal of the negotiations from the beginning.

Businessman John Ingram brought Major League Soccer to town because it is the fastest-growing professional sport, and many of Nashville’s new and longtime citizens are fans. Mayor Cooper also put Nashvillians at the forefront, working to minimize the fiscal impact of the soccer stadium and preserving options for our historic Fairgrounds Speedway.

I was impressed with how Cooper and Ingram managed a tough public process.

They conducted their business equitably, expressing their zeal for both MLS and racing to succeed in Nashville. Both kept their promises throughout the compromise.

Cooper kept his promise to be fiscally responsible, and Ingram kept his word that Nashville SC will be a model for community support and paying for services with a livable wage.

The potential benefits from a wellexecuted fairgrounds plan will be another unique Nashville asset. Accommodating both professional racing and soccer on the fairgrounds’ 117 acres, Nashville could easily expect an annual economic impact nearing $500 million. If NASCAR is able to return to a renovated and expanded speedway, the annual economic impact from that alone could easily be in the hundreds of millions. Five years ago, the Fairgrounds Speedway’s short-track cousin, Bristol Motor Speedway, reported a direct economic impact of $417 million and an indirect impact of $1.4 billion over the three years preceding the report.

MLS’ estimates of its direct economic impact are also impressive at $77 million annually. Its economic windfalls of construction positions and permanent stadium employment are also considerable.

It’s inarguable that sports fans are loyal and generous. Name your sport, and each fan base has proven that it’s made up of staunch supporters. They’ve proven it in Nashville over and over again. The Nashville Predators’ 2017 Stanley Cup run, for instance, generated more than $50 million for Nashville in direct economic impact during just 11 home games. The NFL flexed its fiscal muscles recently, when the 2019 NFL Draft generated a whopping $224 million in total economic impact for Nashville.

Talk of economic impact brings us to the issue of how Nashville’s business community has weathered the negotiations and the prospect of these two major sporting venues at the same fairgrounds location. It’s fair to say that uncertainty has ruled the day. Studies of MLS’ economic impact encouraged corporate support, but questions of the breadth of the impact were cold water in the simmering pot.

Local businesses near the fairgrounds were boosted by the prospect of two professional sports venues in this fastchanging neighborhood, but the protracted negotiations were somewhat dismaying.

In fact, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Ralph Schulz’s open letter to Mayor Cooper urging him to proceed with stadium construction was able to persuade only a mere handful of companies to join him. Out of the 40,000 companies located in the Nashville region, according to the chamber’s own data, Schulz was able to encourage only 100 or so companies to sign his letter. While the chamber is composed of many of Nashville’s strongest and largest corporations, and its board of directors is headed by capable leadership in Pinnacle’s Rob McCabe, the chamber itself was able to summon only a meager response.

More than 8,000 people signed the petition to build the MLS stadium; 4,848 people signed to protect Fort Negley; an astounding 66,833 people signed to protect our famous cherry trees. But the chamber was able to corral only a little more than 100 companies and individuals to sign its open letter to Mayor Cooper? Even the lighthearted petition to bring Whataburger to town has more than 6,000 signatures! For its ineffective show of might, I would have to say the chamber deserves a C for its efforts.

If we were to grade this whole negotiation, I’d say Cooper and Ingram earned an A. They worked diligently and fairly to provide a deal for Nashville in which everyone wins. Cooper ensured that MLS didn’t impede future speedway success or cause an untimely financial burden through its construction and infrastructure costs. Ingram ensured that the MLS stadium would be constructed at the agreed-upon location and maintained his commitment to the team, its fans and to Nashville as a whole. Compromise has resulted in a win for Nashville!

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Bronte Lebo Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Christie Passarello Production Coordinator Matt Bach Circulation Manager Casey Sanders Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Events Managers Ali Foley, Caleb Spencer Publisher Mike Smith Advertising Director Daniel Williams Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Daniel Collins, Debbie Deboer, Robin Dillon, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Brandi Nash, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

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city limits

Walk a

Mile

with J.R. Lind

Chestnut Hill and St. Cloud Hill

In the second installment of his column, J.R. Lind explores the historic Nashville neighborhood containing City Cemetery, Fort Negley and St. Patrick

By J.R. Lind | photos by Eric england

Adventure Science Center St. Patrick Catholic Church

The route: From St. Patrick Catholic Church on Second Avenue north to Chestnut Street, then west to Third Avenue. North on Third then west on Cameron. North on Fourth to City Cemetery, then following Oak Street around to its intersection with Bass, walking Bass to the planetarium.

Number of cranes: None Abandoned e-scooters: None Once a month, reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind will pick an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he’ll walk a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville. If you have a suggestion for a future Walk a Mile, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

T

here have been lots of beginnings at Nashville’s St. Patrick Catholic Church over the past 130 years.

Founded in 1890, the Second Empire church opened to serve the growing Irish community settling south of the city, joining other parishes erected primarily for the benefit of immigrant Catholics — among them St. Lawrence for the Italians in what is now Joelton and the Church of the Assumption for the Germans in, uh, Germantown.

Almost from its beginning, St. Patrick served a special role for Irish Travellers, an peripatetic ethnic group whose American branch considers Nashville particularly important. The tradition of Traveller families returning to Nashville in early May persists, though in smaller numbers than before. For decades, though, the Travellers would come to Nashville and then head to St. Patrick to baptize their children, to get married and to hear a Mass for their dead, whom they would traditionally bury at Calvary, the Diocese of Nashville’s cemetery on the other side of the river. Their gravestones are distinctive, often extravagantly decorated with brightly colored baubles and photographs — a stark contrast to the staid monuments

6

more common in the burial ground. But in any event, St. Patrick is special to the Travellers — so much so that the families donated statues of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Infant of Prague to the parish.

Across Second Avenue stands Johnson Alternative Learning Center, a Metro school whose functional architecture is zhuzhed up with a funky midcentury entry awning.

But before there was a school, there was a legendary piece of Nashville — and national — sports history. Like St. Patrick, Wilson Park was a place of gathering for a people separated from broader society by culture and tradition — but it wasn’t by their own choice, as St. Patrick was for the Travellers.

In March 1920, Nashville businessman Tom Wilson founded the Elite Giants. But that’s not “e-LEET” — it’s properly pronounced “E-light,” with a hard emphasis on the first syllable. In 1921, the team swept the Montgomery Grey Sox to become Southern Colored Champions. In 1929, the Elite Giants — formed from a merger of two earlier teams, the Maroons and the Elites, and who’d been playing as independent team — were invited to join the Negro National League, which was founded in Kansas City, Mo., the month before Wilson began the local club. Wilson paid for and built a park for the Elites that year, and it bore his name until it closed in 1946. The team had long since left Nashville, eventually settling in Baltimore, where they won the Negro National Title in 1939 and 1949.

The area between Second and Fourth avenues, known as Trimble Bottom, was the center of Nashville’s African American life in the early 20th century, where black Nashvillians rubbed shoulders with the growing Irish community. Wilson Park eventually grew to hold 8,000 fans and was one of only three stadiums nationally built specifically for use by a Negro League team. But Wilson was a savvy businessman, leasing the park for use by white teams — particularly the hometown minor-league team the Nashville Vols — for spring training. On warm-up tours and barnstorming circuits, both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played at the park.

Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella also played there during a tour with the Baltimore Elite Giants.

Though new homes — mostly of the talland-skinny variety, of course — have started to creep into the neighborhood, they’re mostly south of St. Patrick and Wilson Park.

North, toward downtown, the homes are still of vintage style with front porches mere feet from the sidewalk. There’s no sense of architectural unity; there are low-slung bungalows, houses with tin roofs, imposing Queen

Anne townhouses. Some have been meticulously cared for (or meticulously restored), while others offer a definite sense of having been lived in for a century. Still, it’s hard not to be charmed by the variety of it all, as the homes stand in the shadow of the looming sameness of those tall-and-skinnies.

Turning onto Chestnut, signs of coming change are even stronger. The reimagined

May Hosiery Mill, formerly a stocking factory, is just a few blocks and a railroad crossing ahead. There are vacant lots with the little flags that spring up like oracular dandelions when a new building is due. On this particular block, though, there are just two buildings. One, a dilapidated white twostory that, at least once in the fairly recent past, was a pizza joint, seems to be >> p. 8

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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empty. Scrawled in spray paint on the door: “I’m sorry.” The apology comes off as pure and earnest, if left for inscrutable reasons.

The paint trickled down the door like tears before it dried. Across the street: Layman Drug Company. For most of its 130 years, the building was what it says it is: a druggist.

Now it’s an audiovisual studio, but it’d be impossible to know that just looking at it from outside — it looks like a perfectly restored turn-of-the-century drugstore, complete with a lovingly maintained vintage CocaCola advertising mural.

Continuing north on Third, there are more vintage homes, but now more of them neighbor vacant lots. One, painted in bizarrely glitter-infused olive green, includes a sign reading “Sauvage” with an arrow pointing to the rear of the home. There didn’t appear to be anything untamed back there, but then again, why risk learning the hard way that the sign really was a warning? (After further investigation, it turns out Sauvage was formerly an art studio and gallery.)

Eventually, the residential gives way to the light industrial here, a predictable outcome given the proximity of the rail line and, more cynically, given the proximity of neighborhoods once populated by the underclass. Though there’s still a butcher supply, an ice-machine service, a bolt manufacturer and a bolt wholesaler apparently doing brisk business, signs of change are here too. There’s a CrossFit gym next to a boxing gym, and one wonders just how many of each Nashville can possibly sustain. There’s an overriding sense that these are just the advance guard, and once just one of the legacy manufacturers shutters and sells to a developer, well, après ça, le déluge.

That said, nearby is perhaps Nashville’s greatest monument to permanence. City Cemetery opened in 1822 “on the plains south of town.”

There have been 20,000 burials there in the nearly two centuries since. It’s more or less impossible to be buried there now unless your family has a plot in place, with one exception. Former mayors of Nashville (and Metro) are entitled to a spot, a privilege extended most recently to Mayor Richard Fulton, who, after his death in 2018, became the most recent person buried there. Fulton’s

arrival forms a link in a great chain that goes back to the founder of Nashville, James Robertson, who with his wife Charlotte (of “Avenue” fame) and his son Felix — the first European child born in Middle Tennessee — share a family plot, often decorated with flowers from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

There are former mayors, former governors (including William Carroll, the first governor to declare himself “the business governor,” and judging by the size of his monument, business was very good indeed), and people whose names have become streets. But there are also the people whom those people enslaved, along with free people of color from before the Civil War and after, including two of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. There are men who were incarcerated at the penitentiary who died during the cholera outbreaks of the 1830s and a communal plot for unincarcerated victims of the same disease. That plot once included former President James K. Polk, who succumbed to cholera and was buried in the mass grave, before he was re-interred outside his home downtown, as per the explicit instructions in his will — though he and his wife Sarah now reside on Capitol Hill and hopefully never in Columbia, as historicalrevisionist state legislators have proposed.

A man named Smith C. Clark paid, presumably, a handsome sum for an all-brick mausoleum when he met the fate of every man. He did not, however, spring for a copy editor. The plaque reads he was born in “Ithica, New York,” rather than “Ithaca.”

Cemeteries often give the strong sense that we all come in and go out the same way, and Nashville’s original elite lying beside people who lived in slavery or men who died in prison makes that very clear.

The gate donated by the Gen. William Bate chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy leads onto Oak Street. And lest we scoff at former politicians insisting they spent time at City Cemetery looking for vandalism, as former Mayor Megan Barry notably once claimed to do, let it be known that the B in Bate’s name has been marred to read “Hate” — a comment, one assumes, on honoring the rebellion.

Oak Street hugs the side of St. Cloud Hill, offering glimpses of downtown through the

big box buildings nearby. It crosses the rail line, where a long freight train passed below during my walk, its top dusted by snow as it rumbled from the north. There are signs still on the hill, home of Fort Negley, of the camp that once existed on its side before the trees were clear-cut. Trash, yes, and discarded tarps and blankets. But also a handwritten sign asking for money and assuring the giver they are beautiful.

The hill and the fort are special places — sacred almost, in the way St. Patrick is.

Fort Negley — and its sister ring-forts, built by the Union after occupying Nashville — was constructed in large part by former slaves who fled to the Union lines, and freed blacks conscripted out of Nashville’s churches. It was garrisoned by, among others, members of the United States Colored Troops. For decades, it was a symbol of the strength of Nashville’s African American community, despite it being targeted by ill-informed Klansmen who tried to host cross-burnings — odd given its construction history and the general embarrassment that the Battle of Nashville was for the Confederacy.

So strong was the hold of the fort that after the war many of the laborers stayed on St. Cloud Hill, creating what was essentially the city’s first black neighborhood, which eventually bled down the hill into Trimble Bottoms. Even those who moved away to North Nashville and elsewhere would, like the Travellers to St. Patrick, come back to the fort.

On the north-facing side of the hill sits Adventure Science Center, and north of that, downtown. The front of the science center offers the most complete panorama of the Nashville skyline, stretching east to west — so wide it’s impossible to take in with one look.

The interstate runs almost at eye level, giving it a futuristic feel, as if the interstate is instead a monorail zooming around the city.

The mile ends just outside the Sudekum Planetarium — fitting in its way, because this mile wound through neighborhoods and by places marking how Nashvillians, those held back by birth and hatred, and those who weren’t burdened by those enormities, strove to make places their own, reaching ever higher.

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Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 3:59 PM

city limts

MAking RooM

A bill that would allow home studios and other businesses to serve clients on site moves closer to becoming law

By Stephen trageSer

A

long-running legal debate — one that puts a spotlight on the issue of livability in our changing city as well as the changing global entertainment industry — is getting closer to being settled.

Running a business from home continues to play a huge role in the American economy. That’s especially true in the music industry, which is a massive part of Nashville’s cultural heritage. Section 17.16.250 of the Metro Code prohibits home businesses from serving clients on site, which poses serious problems for collaborative businesses like home recording studios.

Legislation that would modify the law to allow clients on site — with limitations on business hours, parking and more aimed at preserving the character of residential areas — was proposed in the fall by Councilmember Dave Rosenberg, who represents District 35 on the southwestern side of the county. The bill, BL2019-48, has been modified and is set to be read at public meetings of the Planning Commission on Feb. 27 and the Metro Council on March 5. If the resolution passes at the council, it will require just one more reading there to become law.

For years, Section 17.16.250 has not been strictly enforced. There’s no one from Metro staking out tutors, stylists or accountants to see if they’re breaking the law. If you’re a business owner who’s cultivated a good relationship with your neighbors, chances are you’ve had no problems. But that isn’t always the case.

In 2015, longtime local audio engineer Lij Shaw received a Grammy in the mail for work he did at his East Nashville home studio on Mike Farris’ album Shine for All the People. A few weeks later, Shaw also received a cease-and-desist letter from Metro based on an anonymous complaint.

Despite taking care to be on good terms with his neighbors — he got signatures from 40 of them on an application for a specific plan zoning permit, which was denied — Shaw found himself in a legal mess that made it impossible to do the work that was his primary source of income at the business he’d been building for more than a decade. With help from the Institute for Justice and the Beacon Center, Shaw filed a lawsuit against the city in 2018, which was dismissed by Davidson County Chancery Court in October.

“I think that you have to have that entire ecosystem from the ground level right up to the high-profile music industry,” Shaw told the Scene in December. “If you tear up the roots, then the entire tree dies.”

Though multiple previous attempts to change the law have not succeeded, there’s been a positive response to Rosenberg’s proposal. Simultaneously, Shaw has launched a grassroots campaign called Save Home Studios, which supports both the issue and the bill and whose Change.org petition has earned more than 100,000 signatures. On Feb. 23, the campaign will host a free show

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to raise awareness for the issue at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, with performances by Farris, Tommy Womack and others who’ve used home studios to make records that are vital to their careers.

Shaw has also been rallying supporters to appear at Metro Council meetings and other community gatherings. Still, he points out a catch that makes it difficult for homebusiness owners to speak up on their own behalf. If they identify themselves in public, they can become targets for anonymous complaints themselves.

The Scene spoke to several such business owners on the condition of anonymity. One is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter whose résumé runs the gamut from major label pop and Americana albums to indie releases by widely loved locals. Over a quarter-century of living and working in Nashville, he’s seen the passion and ingenuity of musicians remain robust, while budgets have continued to shrink and the cost of living has risen. Home studios have played important roles in the industry throughout his career, but they’re even more important today.

“We’ve been in the gig economy since before that was even a term,” he says. “This is not to take away from the Sound Emporiums and the Ocean Ways. You still need those beautifully tuned rooms of excellence. But I think that we all have to be honest about [how] there are just more people doing creative work with fewer dollars, and we’re all responding to that.”

Every supporter we spoke with raised the point that home businesses — studios and otherwise — have been serving small numbers of clients in person for decades, contributing to the community and seldom bothering anyone.

It’s worth noting that creating a professional recording environment is vastly different from (and typically quieter than) having band practice or hosting a concert.

“It is a huge step forward from the complete prohibition that there is now,” Rosenberg says of his bill, “and an opportunity for musicians and studio owners to show what they already know. And that’s that they’re good neighbors and that they want to be a part of their neighborhoods — because they already are, and aren’t here to be intrusive in any way.”

Email Editor@nashvillEscEnE.com

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nashvillescene.com | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | Nashville Scene

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“Currently, we are spending too much to send too many people to prison for too long,” Curcio said.

Even Tony Parker, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, said, “It’s clear we cannot incarcerate our way out of the issues facing Tennessee’s criminal justice system.”

The report identifies the main drivers of that dynamic as steadily increasing sentences and steadily decreasing rates of release on parole. From 2009 to 2018, the average sentence served by prisoners convicted of all types of offenses — including nonviolent crimes — increased. The average time spent incarcerated grew the most for people serving drug sentences.

Among the report’s other striking findings is Tennessee’s rising female incarceration rate — female felony admissions have increased 12 percent over the past decade.

The task force was convened by Gov. Bill Lee in June 2019, just five months after he

took office. During his 2018 campaign, Lee spoke often about his experience with the prison ministry organization Men of Valor and the way it compelled him to work on criminal justice reform — in particular, rehabilitation and re-entry. His frequent refrain: Ninety-five percent of the people in Tennessee’s prisons will be released back into communities throughout the state.

For progressives interested in trying to fix the state’s broken criminal justice system, Lee’s victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary provided some hope. His interest in the issue seemed far greater than that of his predecessor, Bill Haslam, and he was preferable to other GOP candidates from further to the right, like former U.S. Rep. Diane Black.

But as Lee enters his second year in office, the extent to which he will alter the state of crime and punishment in Tennessee remains an open question. His talk about redemption and rehabilitation rings hollow

Gov. Bill LEe

nashvillescene.com | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | Nashville Scene

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Photo: Daniel Meigs

W

hen Tennessee’s Criminal Justice Investment Task Force released its report and policy recommendations in December, it offered a notably blunt assessment.

“Over the past 10 years, Tennessee’s incarceration rate has risen to 10 percent above the national average, and its communities are no safer for it,” reads the report’s opening paragraph. “Despite incarcerating more people and spending over $1 billion annually on corrections in the state budget, Tennessee has the fourth highest violent crime rate in the nation and a high recidivism rate, with nearly half of individuals rearrested within three years of their release from custody.”

Rep. Michael Curcio, a Dickson Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and worked on the task force, put it more succinctly in a statement released with the report.

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2/17/20 3:23 PM

In his State of the State address earlier this month, Lee uttered the words that startle those dedicated to ending the phenomenon known as mass incarceration.

“First and foremost, we must be tough on crime,” he said.

The phrase “tough on crime” is closely associated with the policies that led to the explosion of the prison population in the ’80s and ’90s. It has also often been used as a cudgel against politicians who have suggested that we might consider putting fewer people in prison and start letting more people out — proposals dismissed as “soft on crime.”

Lee seems to be attempting a balancing act, maintaining that Tennessee can be both “tough on crime” and “smart on crime.” In his comments accompanying the task force report, Curcio appeared to lay out a sort of mission statement for this approach.

“This undertaking has shown that we need to do a better job of separating those we are mad at from those we are afraid of in our criminal justice system,” Curcio wrote.

Despite the task force’s outline of how average prison sentences have grown over the past decade, and how that has contributed to a corresponding increase in Tennessee’s prison population, Lee’s legislative agenda this year will include bills creating harsher criminal penalties. In particular, he will push increased penalties for theft of a firearm and reckless endangerment of a police officer or first responder.

It will come as little surprise to longtime observers of the state legislature or criminal justice politics that a recent tragedy has inspired pro-carceral legislation named after the victim. House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who works closely with the Lee administration, is sponsoring the Spencer Bristol Act. The proposed legislation significantly increases criminal penalties for suspects whose attempts to evade arrest lead to the injury or death of an officer. Bristol was a Hendersonville officer who was hit by a car and died while chasing a suspect in December.

The primary thrust of Lee’s criminal justice agenda this year, though, will be efforts to improve the probation and parole systems.

These structures ostensibly exist to be alternatives to incarceration or a way out of it, but they can paradoxically be the mechanisms that pull people into prison.

“Each year now in Tennessee we have a 50 percent recidivism rate,” Curcio tells the Scene. “So for every two people coming out of prison, you’ve got one of those people going back into prison. Inside that 50 percent statistic, 40 percent of those are for technical violations. So these are things that if you or I did them, they would not be a crime.”

The task force found that while the number of people snagged by such technical violations — noncriminal acts that nevertheless

12

Despite the task force’s outline of how average prison sentences have grown over the past decade, and how that has contributed to a corresponding increase in Tennessee’s prison population, Lee’s legislative agenda this year will include bills creating harsher criminal penalties. violate the terms of a person’s parole and can send them back to prison — has decreased in recent years, it is still a significant driver of the state’s recidivism rate. In 2018, according to the task force, the state saw more than 4,200 revocations from community supervision for a noncriminal violation.

“Folks are serving their time — they’re fulfilling what the judge sentenced them to,” Curcio says. “But then when they come out of prison, we’ve got an alligator in every single puddle that they pass.”

Curcio says he recently met with a man incarcerated at Turney Center Industrial Complex, a state-run prison in his district a little more than an hour west of Nashville.

The man had come up for parole and been released — he got his life back and his wife back, Curcio says. But a technical violation sent him back to prison.

“Now he will serve a longer sentence than he would have served had he just waived parole and said, ‘No thanks, I’m gonna stay here,’ ” Curcio says.

He goes on: “If your opinion is, ‘Yes, these folks have broken the law, and we have to do everything we can to nail them against the wall,’ what I would argue to you is, we’ve done that. That’s what the prison time was for. But now if we continue to move the goalpost on them or yank the rug out from underneath them, we’re actually encouraging more criminogenic behavior.”

One fact highlighted by the task force

lee delivers his state of the state address

looms over any discussion of how to improve conditions for prisoners who are released on parole: Relatively few prisoners ever get that far. In fiscal year 2019, according to the task force, the state Board of Parole conducted more than 14,000 hearings and granted parole in just 24 percent of those cases.

Observers hoping to see that number increase were concerned by Lee’s appointment of former Republican state Rep. Mae Beavers to the Board of Parole in December.

Beavers was a strident social conservative in the legislature, as well as a reliable source of controversial legislation.

The governor’s full legislative agenda is not out yet. But Curcio says efforts to help formerly incarcerated Tennesseans re-enter their communities can be as simple as making it easier to get a state ID. Lee has said he wants to expand and improve community supervision with the hope of helping people who are out on parole avoid violations and readjust to life outside of prison. In his State of the State address, he also said he plans to “expand our recovery courts so that veterans and those struggling with addiction or mental health challenges will have access to specialized supervision.”

The task force report suggests that one important step could be reducing probation terms to focus resources on the time periods when people are most vulnerable.

“Research demonstrates that the initial

days, weeks, and months an individual is on supervision are when an individual is most likely to reoffend or violate the terms of their community supervision,” the report reads. “Studies have found that supervision resources have the highest impact when they target this critical period of supervision. Yet, while the research shows revocations are most likely during the first few months of supervision, an individual in Tennessee can be on supervision for up to 10 years.”

Speaking to a gaggle of reporters last week, Lee addressed the question of whether his proposals on criminal justice so far fulfill his rhetoric.

“Criminal justice reform will be an ongoing effort that won’t stop,” Lee said. “We passed some legislation last year. We will pass more legislation this year, and I don’t expect that we’ll stop, because there’s always need for improvement. We don’t ever get things solved in one step.”

Reform-minded lawyers and others who work in the trenches of the system every day are eager to see the governor take on bigger pieces of the problem. But they remain encouraged by the steps Lee has taken so far, and by what could come next.

Last year, Lee signed legislation eliminating the state fee for expunging diversion charges and convictions. Haslam had previously cut the fee in half.

“It wasn’t sexy or anything,” says Nashville attorney Daniel Horwitz, who has advocated for people attempting to navigate the expungement process. “It wasn’t the sort of thing that anyone does a statewide victory tour on. But it was really, really important for a lot of people who could not otherwise access expungement, because they couldn’t afford it.”

It’s also much easier, logistically and politically, than getting broader sentencing reform bills through the legislature.

Another move from Lee that has advocates like Horwitz cautiously optimistic is his decision to loosen the guidelines for pardons and commutations. In theory, the new requirements should make it easier for people in prison to qualify, meaning more people will be eligible to be granted early release or have an old conviction pardoned by the governor. The catch is, it’s still ultimately up to Lee. His predecessor did relatively little with this unfettered power;

photo: State of Tennessee

in light of the three executions he has signed off on. A fourth, the electrocution of Nick Sutton, is set for Feb. 20.

At the same time, Lee has already achieved some small but significant changes that have been praised across the political spectrum. His focus thus far has been on low-hanging fruit, albeit fruit that others before him declined to pick.

He has set far more ambitious goals, though. The task force’s report makes clear the size and scope of the problem. It also provides a rubric by which the governor can be judged.

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 3:56 PM

Hear it Here LIVE PERFORMANCE

GRAHAM NASH

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Among Graham Nash’s half-century-spanning mix of achievements and accolades: He wrote and performed on Top 40 hits across decades, earned two Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions (with Crosby, Stills, and Nash and the Hollies), two Songwriters Hall of Fame inductions (as a solo artist and with CSN), and a Grammy award. In 2016, the veteran singer-songwriter released This Path Tonight, his first solo set of new songs in fourteen years. On his current tour, Nash offers a broad but intimate view of his entire creative career.

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Under Paul’s leadership, that label became a market leader, releasing music from Guy Clark, Nickel Creek, Dolly Parton, and others. Paul also nurtured many young professional women who went on to play key roles throughout the music industry. Free and open to the public.

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Haslam granted just nine commutations, 35 pardons and one exoneration during his eight years in office, with the majority coming during his final month in office. The most notable of those actions was his commutation in the case of Cyntoia Brown, who spent 15 years in prison for killing a man when she was 16 years old. The commutation followed years of local activism and a celebrity-led international campaign.

Governors rarely grant pardons and commutations before the end of their tenure, fearing political backlash for showing mercy to people who have been convicted of crimes. For that reason, the fact that Lee altered the guidelines so early in his first term caught the attention of close observers. But Lee has yet not granted clemency to a single prisoner — not to any of the men who have gone to the execution chamber on his watch, nor to anyone else.

“There is no right to clemency,” Horwitz says. “So even if you check every box, even if it’s very clear that you qualify under the governor’s criteria, the Board of Parole doesn’t have to recommend you for it, and the governor doesn’t have to grant it to you.”

If Tennessee ever sTops sending too many people to prison for too long, it will be because of significant reforms to the state’s sentencing code. It hasn’t been overhauled since the late 1980s, and in the decades since it has been filled with various triggers and traps that create mandatory sentences or increase already-harsh ones.

Lee’s task force recommended that a working group give the code a comprehensive review “focusing on addressing the data trends related to increasing sentence

14

lengths and time served in prison as well as establishing certainty in sentence lengths.”

That work is getting underway with an eye toward proposing changes in next year’s legislative session. Some people involved in the process believe even that might be overly ambitious and that a piecemeal approach is more likely.

But that last line in the task force’s recommendation — “establishing certainty in sentence lengths” — is likely to be a point of contention. It hints at an approach favored by many of the state’s prosecutors known as “truth in sentencing.” In other jurisdictions, truth-in-sentencing policies have been associated with mandatory sentences and moves to shrink or even abolish the parole system.

Supporters of the approach argue that it is unfair for victims to see an offender sentenced to a vaguely defined sentence that can change depending on various factors while the person is in prison. A prosecutor, they say, should be able to sit down with a victim and tell them that if their assailant is convicted he will serve, say, 10 years and not a day less.

But that sort of approach would appear to be at cross purposes with efforts to shrink the prison population and release the rehabilitated back into their communities.

Among the concerns raised by people who are skeptical of moves toward truth in sentencing is that it could eliminate incentives for good behavior, education and other steps that can currently lead to early release.

In the meantime, individual legislators are looking to chip away at harmful pieces of the sentencing code. Curcio is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate a mandatory minimum associated with “drug-free school

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

zones.” Currently, a person arrested for a drug crime within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, public library or park in Tennessee faces a sentence that can put nonviolent first-time offenders in prison for longer than someone convicted of rape. In dense cities, these zones can cover most of a county. And the law gives judges no discretion when it comes to sentencing.

Curcio’s bill would reduce the zone to 500 feet and eliminate the mandatory sentence, allowing judges to evaluate specific circumstances.

“It’s already a crime to sell drugs,” he says. “It’s already a crime to sell drugs to children. It’s already a crime to have drugs on a school campus. All of these things are already crimes.”

Curcio says money spent on those cases — and those long prison sentences — is better allocated toward prosecutors and public defenders, judges and law enforcement. He says having more resources in those areas would help the state “adjudicate justice much more quickly.”

The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference worked to see a similar bill defeated in 2018. (Curcio has also been on the other side of these debates; last year he led the successful effort by state Republicans to limit the power of Nashville’s new Community Oversight Board.)

Memphis Sen. Ramesh Akbari, who chairs the Senate Democratic caucus, tells the Scene that when it comes to criminal justice reform, “even having the discussion is a big step” in Tennessee. She is sponsoring bills to decriminalize marijuana and restore formerly incarcerated people’s voting rights.

Her big project, she says, is also related to sentencing. The law made infamous by the Cyntoia Brown case requires that minors convicted of first-degree murder serve 51 years before they are eligible for parole.

Akbari wants to see that reduced to 30 or 25 years. (Ideally, she says, she’d reduce it further than that, but she knows even a modest reduction could be a political long shot.)

The legIslaTure, Though, remains full of people who believe in harsh punishment. Most legislative sessions include a variety of bills aimed at increasing prison sentences, not reducing them. There is an appetite among some legislators this year, sources say, to expand the list of crimes that are eligible for the death penalty.

As ever, lawmakers are burping up redundant or problematic bills alongside the reform-minded legislation. One Republican bill that would have criminalized wearing a hood or mask on public property was introduced but withdrawn after scrutiny.

Another, sponsored by two Memphis Democrats, is aimed at people who steal packages off of front porches — that one has prompted some observers to note that stealing another person’s property is already a crime. Still another bill, sponsored by disgraced former House Speaker Glen Casada, would create a public online registry of people convicted of more than two DUIs. If the governor is going to turn Tennessee away from mass incarceration and remake the state’s criminal justice system, he’ll have to contend with the ideologies and impulses that got us here. It’s too soon to say if that’s what he really wants to do. emaIl edITor@nashvIllescene.com

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Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y

R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

T O

D O

Sugar Man, Detroit songwriter Sixto Diaz Rodriguez — who performs under the mononym Rodriguez — has seen something of a resurgence. The film explores the mythical status achieved by the Mexican-American songster, who became something of a legendary figure in South Africa and elsewhere thanks to his small but powerful catalog of socially conscious psychedelic-folk music. Indeed, 1970’s Cold Fact and 1971’s Coming From Reality are beautiful, intimate records, full of warm instrumentation and tender lyricism. Though Rodriguez hasn’t released much in the way of new material since his late-in-life career revitalization, he has hit the road fairly often, bringing songs like the Dylan-esque “Inner City Blues” and the universally accessible “I Wonder” to live audiences. He’ll hit City Winery this week for a performance billed as “A Night of Music and Conversation,” where Kentucky’s S.G. Goodman will appear in support.

8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St.

PA G E

18 AUTHOR EVENT WITH DAISY HERNÁNDEZ

The award-winning memoirist speaks at Vanderbilt

PA G E

22 MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: SOUL POWER

A captivating doc about a legendary music festival

MUSIC

PHOTO: HANNAH MILLER

D. PATRICK RODGERS

PA G E

25

KYSHONA

CHELSEA LOVITT ALBUM RELEASE

Sharing an album-release bill at Analog

Mercy Lounge

TERRY ADKINS: OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS EVER ON THE ALTAR

[A DOUBLE BILL OF DANCE]

THE TRIANGLE & FIRST FRUIT

If you know Banning Bouldin, you’ve likely been inspired by her. After dancing internationally for nearly a decade, Bouldin returned to Nashville and established the daring contemporary dance collective New Dialect in 2012. But after

receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, Bouldin turned her focus to choreography, exploring complex ideas of strength and physical limitations with fresh eyes. The Triangle enjoyed a sold-out premiere at OZ Arts in 2019, along with a run at the esteemed Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

The performance builds on and challenges concepts of physical strength, delivering “a surrealistic combination of conceptual fashion, sculpture and powerful imagery.”

New Dialect returns to OZ Arts this weekend to present The Triangle, along with the world premiere of Miami-based dancer/ choreographer Rosie Herrera’s First Fruit.

It’s sure to be a hot ticket — and an inspiring evening. Feb. 20-23 at OZ Arts, 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle AMY STUMPFL

KIM RICHEY W/MANDO SAENZ

Nashville is a city filled with singersongwriters, not to mention songwriters who write for other people and do a little singing themselves. I can’t think of a better example of the Nashville singer-songwriter aesthetic than Kim Richey’s 2018 fulllength Edgeland. Over the years, Richey has flourished as a songwriter, writing tunes for the likes of Trisha Yearwood and Patty Loveless. Along with her songwriting smarts, Richey also exerts a cool, calm authority as a singer. On Edgeland, producer Brad Jones gives Richey a rich backdrop that references progressive folk and Beatles-style rock on the track “Pin a Rose.”

Meanwhile, Richey duets with singer Pat McLaughlin on the post-Everly Brothers

THE TRIANGLE

PHOTO: ANDREA BEHRENDS

This Terry Adkins exhibit is a big deal.

Adkins, who died at age 60 in 2014, was a Fisk alum and an incredibly influential artist, and yet this exhibition is somehow his first in Middle Tennessee. Terry Adkins: Our Sons and Daughters Ever on the Altar opens on Thursday at both the Frist Art Museum and Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery. Among the show’s 40-something sculptures, works on paper and videos are several pieces influenced by the artist’s experience in Nashville, specifically his time at Fisk. Look for tributes to the legacies of several influential black figures, among them Jimi Hendrix, Bessie Smith and W.E.B. Du Bois. Through May 31 at the Frist, 919 Broadway; through Sept. 12 at Fisk, 1000 17th Ave. N. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER DANCE

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26

[ART AND INVENTION]

MUSIC

ART

THURS/2.20

[COOL, CALM, COLLECTED]

[A HUNTSMAN OR A PLAYER]

RODRIGUEZ

In the wake of 2012’s Academy Awardwinning documentary Searching for

nashvillescene.com | FEBRUARY 20 – FEBRUARY 26, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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2/17/20 3:24 PM

critics’ picks

1/2 MILE OFF BROADWAY ON THE SOUTH SIDE

LUNCH FROM 11AM MON-FRI DINNER FROM 6PM EVERYDAY FREE PARKING • SMOKE FREE

2/20 FRI

2/21

JONELL MOSSER AND FRIENDS

8:00

WMOT FINALLY FRIDAY (FREE)

12:00

JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS :

8:00

BACKSTAGE NASHVILLE LIVE VIP HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

12:30

FEAT. STUART DUNCAN, ANDREA ZONN AND TODD LOMBARDO THE FARMER & ADELE, HEIDI NEWFIELD, LATRESA & THE SIGNAL AND JB STRAUSS

PEARL SNAPS 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH CALEB CAUDLE SAT

2/22 SUN

2/23 MON

2/24 TUE

2/25 WED

2/26

TIM AKERS & THE SMOKING SECTION JUNIOR BROWN BIG STAGE MONDAYS HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

THE TIME JUMPERS ROSS MATHEWS NAME DROP TOUR BACKSTAGE @ 3RD: LINES AND RHYMES

“A NIGHT FOR ROBBY TURNER“UT!

8:00 8:00 2:00 8:00 8:00

1:00 8:00

CHRIS STAPLETON, JAMEY JOHNSON, MO PITNEY,SOLD O JIM “MOOSE“ BROWN, HEIDI NEWFIELD, JAMES OTTO, JESSI COLTER AND SPECIAL GUESTS THU

2/27 FRI

2/28 SAT

8:00

WMOT FINALLY FRIDAY (FREE)

12:00

THE DAYBREAKS W/ VOLUNTEER, JUDE SMITH

8:00

BACKSTAGE NASHVILLE LIVE VIP HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

12:30

W/ HILL COUNTRY

AMANDA BROADWAY BAND, EMI SUNSHINE, RON POPE, KERRY HART

3/1

WARD DAVIS W/ JOSH MORNINGSTAR SIERRA HULL

MON

BIG STAGE MONDAYS HIT SONGWRITERS SHOW

2/29 SUN

3/2

18

MICKY AND THE MOTORCARS

THE TIME JUMPERS

3-3 Brian Schopp 3-4 Keith Burns (of Trick Pony) w/ Presley & Taylor / Emily West and Friends 3-5 Big Shoes feat. Rick Huckaby, Mark T. Jordan, Will McFarlane, Kenne Cramer, Tom Szell and Bryan Brock 3-6 Bart Crow w/ Hardin Draw 3-7 Trigger Hippy w/ Nicole Boggs & the Reel 3-8 Kelsey Waldon 3-9 The Time Jumpers 3-10 NASH FM Rhythm & Boots : Secret Show!

3/11 Dave Barnes, Matt Wertz, Andrew Ripp,Steve Moakler 3/12 Layla Tucker 3-13 The Midnight Riders Allman Brothers Revue w/ Special Guest Jack Pearson 3-14 World Turning Fleetwood Mac Revue 3-15 Yonder Mountain String Band 3-16 The Time Jumpers 3-17 SIXWIRE and Friends 3-18 - 3-19 Nashville Blues & Roots Alliance Show 3-20 Vinyl Radio 3-21 Robben Ford 3-23 The Time Jumpers 3-24 - 3-28 TIN PAN SOUTH 3-29 Brandy Clark : Who You Thought I Was Tour 3-30 The Time Jumpers 4-2 Matthew Perryman Jones & Friends 4-3 The Eaglemaniacs : The Music Of Don Henley and The Eagles 4-4 Resurrection: Journey Tribute 4-6 The Time Jumpers 4-10 Pat McLaughlin Band 4-11 The Long PLayers 4-13 The Time Jumpers 4-14 Songs and Stories for St Jude 4-15 Colin Linden 4-17 &18 Ray Wylie Hubbard 4-20 The Time Jumpers 4-24 Hurray for the Riff Raff 4-25 Guilty Pleasures 4-27 The Time Jumpers 5-2 Steve Moakler 5-4 The Time Jumpers 5-6 Koch Marshall Trio feat. Greg Koch 5-9 Rubiks Groove 5-10 Eric Hutchinson 5-11 The Time Jumpers 5-15 12 Against Nature Steely Dan Experience plus Live From Ventura Boulevard 5-17 Pokey LaFarge

8:00

8:00

[INTERNATIONAL LENS]

Author EvEnt With DAisy hErnánDEz

Daisy Hernández is the full package: She reports on issues affecting Latinx and immigrant communities for The New York Times and The Atlantic, spins compelling short stories for prominent literary magazines, and writes for NPR’s All Things Considered and CodeSwitch.

Cosmopolitan called Hernández’s memoir A Cup of Water Under My Bed “an honest, sometimes harsh look at what it’s like to have a foot in two worlds.” Hernández also edited Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, which earned a place on Buzzfeed’s “19 Books on Intersectionality That Taylor Swift Should Read.” In other words, clear your schedule for Thursday’s reading and talk. 7 p.m. at Vanderbilt’s Buttrick Hall 101, 2400 Vanderbilt Place ERICA CICCARONE [STAR SEARCH]

housEquAkE FEAt. JEt troublE, John tuckEr, MAggiE MilEs, MAylyn & MAuDE lAtour

Housequake, the pop-music showcase organized by local talent buyer and scene booster Tyler Martinez, brings a stacked bill of talent that’s come from all over to be part of its February edition. The flavor of all five singer-songwriters performing could best be described as mainstream contemporary pop steeped in R&B, hiphop and electronic dance music, but their writing chops make it easy for their music to navigate between genres. There’s Dallasbased Jet Trouble, whose recipe includes highlighting his Christian faith. Columbus, Ohio, native John Tucker has spent the past few years in Nashville building a sterling catalog of singles with low-key production, while Maggie Miles, a recent arrival from Virginia, opts for maximalism; those two are neck-and-neck for the most sophisticated lyrics of the bunch. Maylyn, a Mississippi native who splits her time between Music City and Los Angeles, seems to be getting closer to finding her own voice as she writes for a ton of others as well as herself; New Yorker Maude Latour is also sounding less like Lorde and more like herself as she keeps working. 8 p.m. at The High Watt, 1 Cannery Row STEPHEN TRAGESER

Fri/2.21

8:00 2:00

EDD HURT

MUSIC

THU

COMING SOON

tune “Leaving Song” and harmonizes with fellow Nashville singer-songwriter Mando Saenz — who joins her this week at The Basement — on “The Get Together.” The show finds Richey making a Nashville stop before hitting the road in March in support of her new album A Long Way Back: The Songs of Glimmer, which recasts her 1999 album Glimmer as stripped-down folk rock.

7 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S.

BOOKS

818 3RD AVE S. DOWNTOWN • 259-9891

INFORMATION AND TICKETS 3RDANDLINDSLEY.COM 866-468-3401 • TICKETWEB.COM

MUSIC

3RDANDLINDSLEY.COM

PRIVATE EVENT INFO FROM 30 TO 700 GUESTS EVENTSAT3RD@GMAIL.COM

[THROWING A MEAN TAROT]

EvAn P. DonohuE AlbuM rElEAsE FEAt. zionA rilEy & suPErMElt

New music from singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Evan P. Donohue is a rare treat. His forthcoming full-length Page of Wands is only his third album in more than a decade of writing, recording

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 3:24 PM

critics’ picks

FEB 19

FEB 21

CHELSEA CUTLER

YETI FILM TOUR

FEB 22

FEB 25

W/ ALEXANDER 23, X LOVERS

SPACE JESUS

CMA SONGWRITERS SERIES

FEB 27

MAR 07

W/ TSURUDA, TIEDYE KY, ONHELL

BLACK TIGER SEX MACHINE W/ BLANKE, VAMPA

W/ ROSS COPPERMAN, JUSTIN EBACH, ASHLEY GORLEY, JON NITE, BOBBY PINSON, AND MORE

R&B ONLY

W/ TIARA MONIQUE, APEX LAURENT

MARATHONMUSICWORKS.COM 1402 clinton st. nashville, tn | BOX OFFICE: FRIDAY 10AM - 4

evan p. donohue

[DARKEST DEPTHS]

Midnight Movie: The DescenT

It’s in vogue these days for mainstream horror movies to focus on the trauma of their central characters, from the griefstricken family in Hereditary to Laurie Strode in the recent Halloween reboot, which focused as much on her efforts to live

with PTSD as it did her attempts to escape Michael Myers. But Neil Marshall’s 2005 film The Descent dealt with the mental fallout of violent tragedy before it was cool. The rare horror movie that passes the Bechdel Test, it’s about a woman, Sarah, and her daredevil friends, who go on a caving expedition after Sarah loses her husband and child in a horrific motor accident.

Sarah wants to spelunk her way out of the depths of depression, but she’s offered no such relief, as the cave soon reveals itself to be an endless horror show — an already formidable physical environment that’s stalked by not-quite-human mutants. Some horror movies make you want to take a shower when you’re through with them; The Descent will make you crave the daylight.

Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. NATHAN SMITH

MUSIC

FILM

and playing with a kaleidoscopic heap of bands in town, as well as going on the road as a front-of-house engineer. Finishing the album has been a labor of love that’s involved booking studio time as the funds were available (and running a successful Kickstarter campaign to wrap it up in 2019) to treat the songs to the best recording possible. The end result offers up all the whip-smart Elvis Costello-meets-Difford and Tilbrook lyrical turns that fans have come to love, with a bit of psychedelic groove and a great deal to say about contemporary society. Helping Donohue and his band celebrate the release will be superb songsmith Ziona Riley and energetic psych punks Supermelt. 9 p.m. at The 5 Spot, 1006 Forrest Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER

[REASONS TO BELIEVE]

Jason Boland & the stragglers

Trying to define the genre called Red Dirt country can be tricky. It’s a capacious style, or set of styles — artists as diverse as Cross Canadian Ragweed,

nashvillescene.com | FEBRUARY 20 – FEBRUARY 26, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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What’s next?

critics’ picks

PHOTO: CAMERON L. GOTT PHOTOGRAPHY

Tennessee Performing Arts Center

FEB 19

FEB 29

Diary of a

MAR 3-8

The Art of International Whiskey

Wombat

Made possible by

MAR 7

MAR 12

MAR 16

War Memorial Auditorium

Chris Knight and Reckless Kelly play a Texas-meets-Oklahoma hybrid that references Western swing, outlaw country and Texas two-step. At its best, in the work of Oklahoma-bred band Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Red Dirt manages to be both progressive and history-minded.

Boland & Co. began releasing albums in 1999, and their ninth studio full-length, 2018’s Hard Times Are Relative, works variations on classic country that definitely aren’t retro. Boland escapes the orbital pull of traditional country on the remarkable Hard Times track “Dee Dee Od’d”: “Go-go, go-go dancers / Find a reason to believe / Three of them died of cancer / And Dee Dee od’d,” he sings. Meanwhile, the fiveminute song “Grandfather’s Theme” is another unclassifiable slice of prog-country.

Thematically, Hard Times belongs with recent albums by The Mekons and Tyler Childers — American culture may be dying, but we still got Oklahoma. Outlaw-country singer Caleb Caudle, whose 2018 album Crushed Coins skirts the edges of Red Dirt country, will open. 8 p.m. at 3rd and Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S. EDD HURT

ART

SAT/2.22

MAR 18

War Memorial Auditorium

MAR 22

MAR 24-25

TPAC.ORG 615-782-4040

Groups of 10 or more call 615-782-4060

20

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

TPAC.ORG is the official online source for buying tickets to TPAC events.

[NIGHT CRAWLER]

Jefferson street Art CrAwl

Thirty-two years after it opened, Woodcuts Gallery and Framing is still a Jefferson Street mainstay that draws artists and art lovers from all over the country. This month’s edition of the crawl will feature some of owner Nate Harris’ favorite artists on display in the space, including Ludie Amos, Frank Frazier, Jamaal Sheats and Greg Ridley. Over at One Drop Ink Tattoo Parlour and Gallery, owner Elisheba Israel Mrozik will feature portrait artist Cassidy Morgan. Morgan renders famous figures with texture, using only the humble pencil. Two blocks away, Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center will show work by pop artist Preston Mitchell.

When you’re done with all that, head over to Jefferson Street Sound museum for a tour through the historic musical legacy of Jefferson Street. 6-9 p.m. at various locations ERICA CICCARONE

[MIDWEST BEST]

titonton DuvAnte

Titonton Duvante comes through Drkmttr this week, and he’s bringing along Kush Jones, Maniia, Max Warrs and SD Ultra. From Columbus, Ohio, Duvante has enjoyed a cult following for some 25 years, and has several albums in the works this year on his imprint Residual Recordings, formed in 1998. His tracks range from ethereal, chillhop-inspired beats on “So Far, So Good” to dark, funky grooves that sound like they belong in an underground Paris bar, showcased on “Exit Your Body.” Meanwhile, tracks like “Stellar Radiation” have the same spacey vibes as early LCD Soundsystem. The other DJs on the bill are just as diverse, offering jungle, U.K. grime and more, including Nashville-based Maniia, who has a selfdescribed “totally bonkers” set planned for the evening. Because of Duvante’s range in tone and mood and the fully fleshed-out set of artists, there’s sure to be something for just about everyone at this all-ages show.

7 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike ABBY LEE HOOD

MUSIC

FEB 28-29 Back by Popular Demand

MUSIC

Jason Boland & The sTragglers

[DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY]

CAm’ron

Cam’ron and his Dipset crew dominated East Coast rap in the mid- to late 2000s.

Killa Cam kicked off the decade with a pair of hit singles — 2002’s “Oh Boy” and “Hey Ma” — and Dipset’s 2003 group album charted well. Singles and mixtapes and albums kept flowing in the following years, and Cam’ron became one of rap’s legendary personalities: He rapped absurd lyrics, trolled Bill O’Reilly and rocked garish amounts of pink. But his favorite project from that era was Purple Haze, an album that underperformed due to delays at RocA-Fella Records. While Cam was relatively quiet for most of the 2010s, he made a lot of noise in December 2019 when he dropped Purple Haze 2, a follow-up 15 years in the making. It’s not a dramatic comeback, but Cam shows he still has some gas left in the tank of his pink Range Rover. Local MCs Tim Gent and Petty will open the show. 9 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland Ave. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

thebasementeast basementeast thebasementeast

917 Woodland Street Nashville, TN 37206 thebasementnashville.com

CAM'RON // FEB 22

w/ DBlokk Jmac, Tim Gent, Petty & DJ Coop

LOST DOG STREET BAND // FEB 23 w/ Casper Allen

MARCH 1

JOSH GATES LIVE!

An Evening of Legends, Mysteries, & Tales of Adventure

YBN CORDAE // FEB 24

JORDY SEARCY // FEB 26

w/ 24KGoldn

w/ Carly Bannister

MARCH 3

GEORGE THOROGOOD

AND THE DESTROYERS CROBOT // FEB 27

BBNO$ // FEB 28

Aeges & Like Machines

w/ Lentra

MARCH 21

Upcoming shows Feb 21 Feb 29 Mar 1 Mar 3 Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 12 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 19 Mar 20 Mar 22

QDP Illiterate Light w/ Shane T Dan Deacon w/ Ed Schrader's Music Beat ELOHIM w/ Bahari and Mehro Fruition w/ Katie Toupin Archers of Loaf w/ Peachy The Nashville Moth StorySLAM: CHALLENGE Hailey Whitters w/ Ben Burgess Damon Johnson w/ The Ladies Of Black Lips w/ Poppy Jean Crawford & Butthole Rumours - A Fleetwood Mac Tribute Sarah Shook & the Disarmers w/ The Yawpers

Southern Underground Pro Wrestling Rare Hare 12: Well, they USED to be hits The Ataris w/ H.A.R.D. Tow'rs w/ A Boy and His Kite John Moreland w/ S.G. Goodman Life of Agony w/ Doyle, All Hail The Yeti & Denman

Mar 23 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 31 Apr 2

Best Coast w/ Mannequin Pussy The Brook and the Bluff TAUK w/ Three Star Revival The Birthday Massacre w/ Julien-K Stick Men featuring Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto,

Apr 4 Apr 5 Apr 7 Apr 8 Apr 9 Apr 10 Apr 11 Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 16 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 20

Meg Donnelly (2pm) Chris Renzema w/ Ry Cox Flora Cash w/ Beau Young Prince Chaz Cardigan Avi Kaplan w/ Paper Wings The Districts w/ Glove Jade Novah Torres Brent Faiyaz w/ GRIP SOLD OUT! The Lil Smokies Lilly Hiatt w/ The Harmaleighs King's X w/ Sound and Shape SOLD OUT! Dick Jr. & the Volunteers

Apr 23

BRIAN REGAN

and Markus Reuter

w/ The Station Breaks Patrick Watson w/ Charlie Cunningham

MARCH 29

ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT

SEPTEMBER 27

JEANNE ROBERTSON ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

OCTOBER 4 LIVE AT THE OPRY HOUSE

MOTEL RADIO // FEB 22

SMART OBJECTS // FEB 23

w/ Nightingail & Juno Dunes

Feb 20 Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS

w/ Arts Fishing Club & Kate Vogel

UPCOMING SHOWS

Kim Richey w/ Mando Saenz (7pm) Miller and the Hunks

w/ Digital Brains & City Silos

Katie Pruitt SOLD OUT! Tyler Lance Walker Gill w/ Boys Club for Girls

Feb 24 Feb 24

The Heavy Hours (7pm) Nicholas Jamerson & The Morning Jays

Feb 25 Feb 25

Myron Elkins (7pm) New Faces Night ft. Maddy Walsh &

w/ Brit Taylor (9pm)

The Blind Spots, Dry Reef, Joel Levi, Lindsay Perry, Colton Venner, Cameron Jayne, Lipstick Kid

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

Feb 28

Craig Waters and the Flood

Feb 28 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 4 Mar 4 Mar 5 Mar 6 Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 7

w/ Lamont Landers (7pm) The Ivins w/ HER, The Other LA & Jet Setting (9pm) Miss Mojo w/ Emily Chambers & Your Neighbors James Steinle w/ Jace Everett The Mattson 2 (7pm) David Adam Byrnes w/ Tom O'Connor (9pm) Sir Woman (Kesley Wilson of Wild Child) Lowen (7pm) Miki Fiki w/ Fulton Lee & Ally Burgess (9pm) Trev Leigh w/ Mad Welsley (7pm) Caleb Johnson (9pm)

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 thebasementnash

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NOVEMBER 21

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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Feb 6 – 29, 2020

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AT H U T T O N H O T E L P R E S E N T S

EP RELEASE PARTY

MAR

ALEX WONG & MADISON MALONE

MAR

TRIBUTO EN VIVO – HOMBRES G VS. CAIFANES SETH COOK AND ERIC BURGETT LIVE

TUNES, TALES AND TROUBADORS

DOORS: 6:OO PM SHOW: 7:OO PM 21+ EVENT DOORS 6PM | 18+ NATHAN THOMAS

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ALBUM RELEASE PARTY FOR KYSHONA AND AMANDA BROADWAY BAND

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LOS PERICOS

TONY LUCCA & FRIENDS SONGWRITER SHOWCASE OVERSTREET

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T I C K E T S AVA I L A B L E V I A E V E N T B R I T E E N T R A N C E T H R O U G H T H E I R O N G AT E S AT 1 8 0 8 W E S T E N D AV E N U E A N A L O G AT H U T T O N H O T E L ANALOGNASHVILLE

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NASHVILLE

Weekend ClassiCs: Rebecca

There aren’t any literal ghosts in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the greatest ghost stories ever committed to film. The first American production by the master of suspense — and his only film to win a Best Picture Oscar — it’s possessed by memory itself rather than supernatural apparitions.

Joan Fontaine is the lead, but she’s not the title character. Rebecca — the deceased first wife of the wealthy baron whom Fontaine’s character marries — is a woman we never see, but whose presence can be felt in every tortured moment. At first the nameless bride thinks it’s just that she’s not as capable or composed as her predecessor, but soon she realizes that much more nefarious machinations are afoot. It’s Hitchcock at his most gothic, a gilded melodrama as much as it is a psychologically motivated thriller. It’s a haunted-house movie where the haunting is all in your heart and head, and it shows this weekend as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing Weekend Classics series. Feb. 22-23 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Avenue NATHAN SMITH

[CANDID CAMM]

CaMM w/Chris lee & leah sykes

“They say I don’t sound like I’m from Memphis,” hip-hop artist, Bluff City native and Belmont grad Cameron Bryant, alias CAMM, told the Scene last Record Store Day. He’d just caught us off guard with a full-band in-store set that was both technically impressive and thoroughly uplifting. “I look up to guys like Three 6 Mafia,” he went on, “but I’m trying to be a voice that says, ‘Hey, you don’t just gotta figure out how to be the best in Memphis.

You can make it out of that situation.’ ” The son of a pastor, Bryant lists Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper and J. Cole as influences, which — listening to his recorded material — checks out. His single “Promise,” released digitally in the fall, is his latest.

Headliner Chris Lee is also in his mid-20s, also grew up in the church and also went to Belmont, but has a pretty major item in his CV to set him apart — a featured role in the Chicago production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Nashville-residing Floridian Leah Sykes rounds out the triple bill. 8 p.m. at the High Watt, 1 Cannery Row. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

sUN/2.23 MUSIC

www.chaffinsbarntheatre.com or call 615-646-9977 ext 2

[HAUNTED HEART]

MUSIC

FILM

rebecca

MON/2.24

[WEIGHT OF THE WORLD]

lost dog street Band

Lost Dog Street Band’s 2019 full-length Weight of a Trigger isn’t a completely depressing album, but it does get the job done pretty well. Like a lot of Americana that abjures things like arrangements and complex song forms, Weight of a Trigger might work better as text-with-music than as musical ideas that support words. Still, bandleader Benjamin Tod’s lyrics have integrity. The record’s “Given Up Faith” sums up the band’s preoccupations — in the song, happiness is a faint mirage on a rapidly receding horizon. Another Weight tune, “Terrible and True,” finds Tod trying to make peace with his bad habits: “I’m always empty / Don’t you know me / By the time I get to you,” he sings. There’s something undefined about the music on Weight of a Trigger, but Tod isn’t afraid to make his voice as ugly as the situations he describes.

Opening at The Basement East will be Texas singer Casper Allen, another exponent of expressionist country. 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. EDD HURT

FILM

HAPPY hour music

critics’ picks

[MAKE IT FUNKY]

MusiC City Mondays: Soul PoweR

Jeff Levy-Hinte’s 2008 documentary Soul Power shares a lot stylistically with music-festival films like Woodstock or Festival Express — performance footage, behind-the-scenes interactions between artists, administrative woes and classic shots of stagehands assembling trusses.

Soul Power relays the story of Zaire 74, a three-day music fest in September 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire. The festival was intended to precede the title fight between Muhammad Ali and reigning champ George Foreman (the so-called Rumble in the Jungle), though plans changed and the match was delayed by six weeks. The movie features unforgettable moments of Ali’s braggadocious brilliance, as well as incredible performances by American artists like James Brown, B.B. King and The Spinners, not to mention African stars like Miriam Makeba and Afrisa. The film showcases the incredible trans-Atlantic exchange of sounds between American jazz and funk musicians with their African

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_2-20-20.indd 22

2/17/20 3:25 PM

criTicS’ pickS

FILM

TUES/2.25 [QUEER HERE]

InvIsIble: Gay Women In southern musIc

Much ado is (rightfully) made about the lack of representation for female artists on country radio. But far less talked about are the difficulties faced by queer women seeking any visibility — radio or otherwise — in the country and Americana scenes. On Tuesday, the filmmakers behind Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music will premiere a film that seeks to highlight exactly that: the plights of queer women artists trying to make it in the “man’s town” of Nashville.

(You may remember the film from the Scene’s 2019 Pride Issue, which featured an interview with producer Bill Brimm about the documentary’s fundraising goals.) Featured queer artists in the film include Mary Gauthier, Ruthie Foster and Chely Wright, with appearances from genre mainstays like Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, Rodney Crowell and others. This event has sold out.

7 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

MUSIC

BRITTNEY McKENNA [BACK ON TRACK]

Soul ASylum & locAl H

[FOLLOWING THE MUSE]

StAn lASSiter’S mAdmuSe

Nashville-born guitarist Stan Lassiter came to prominence in the late ’70s, when he led fusion-jazz band The Stan Lassiter Group. Now 67, Lassiter continues to push the boundaries of guitar playing.

After taking a break from live playing to work in academia — Lassiter is a well-respected guitar teacher who’s also taught jazz improvisation — he returned to the stage in 2014. That was great news for guitar fans, and this week’s show at Springwater is part of an ongoing residency that will stretch into the fall. He’ll be

pHOTO: TONy NELSON

Soul Asylum always trailed their fellow Twin Citians The Replacements and Hüsker Dü in terms of cred and overall influence. But neither Bob Mould nor Paul Westerberg came close to moving the units or enjoying the cultural prominence that the foursome led by Dave Pirner did during the ’90s. Spurred by the success of their alternative-rock/adult-contemporary

crossover megahit “Runaway Train,” Soul Asylum played the Clinton inauguration in ’93. Pirner also dated Winona Ryder for three years, even appearing alongside her in the era-defining Reality Bites. But the aftermath was as rough as the heyday was charmed — the band was toast by 1998, and guitarist and co-founder Karl Mueller succumbed to cancer in 2005. Pirner has endured — older, wiser and low-key, writing the kind of quality jangle-pop that reflects a life thoroughly lived. Soul Asylum’s Nashville date precedes the April release of the band’s 12th album, Hurry Up and Wait.

Fellow Midwesterners Local H, meanwhile, got in the door with their 1996 post-grunge classic “Bound for the Floor” and never let it close on them. Nearly 25 years onward, Local H’s live shows are consistently raging, and the group’s studio albums have never lacked intensity. Of particular note was the 2003 EP No Fun, which minced few words in its railing against the Bush administration and the Iraq War. I can only imagine what outspoken bandleader Scott Lucas has to say about the guy currently in charge. 8 p.m. at The Cowan, 500 Cowan St. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN MUSIC

contemporaries. 7:30 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. P.J. KINZER

soul asylum’s Dave Pirner

nashvillescene.com | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | Nashville Scene

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critics’ picks

Kyle Edmonston. Lassiter can be delicate — check out his sprawling 2012 full-length Little Zenphonies for Guitorchestra.

Meanwhile, he says playing with MadMuse gives him a chance to roam in the field of rock music. He performs a Beatles medley that includes plenty of quotes from the Fab Four’s psychedelic period, along with superb picking that references any number of rock, country, soul and jazz styles.

Lassiter is a monster player who tests the boundaries of his various vernaculars.

Check the Springwater calendar for his future dates. 6 p.m. at Springwater, 115 27th Ave. N. EDD HURT

ALI SONL I ALISON BREARZ OOTS

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MUSIC

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The great Carmen Miranda — aka “The Brazilian Bombshell” — may well forever be known as that song-and-dance gal from the Golden Age of Cinema with the fruit basket on top of her head. Helena SolbergLadd’s 1995 documentary takes us back to Miranda’s heyday, using biography and directorial reverie — she even got actor Erick Barretos to play Miranda in a few fantasy sequences — to chronicle Miranda’s career from Brazilian star to Broadway rising talent to the highest-paid female entertainer in the U.S. After watching this documentary, you’ll have a greater understanding for the lady in the tuttifrutti hat. Benjamin Legg, senior lecturer of Portugese at Vanderbilt University, will present the film, and as always, the International Lens series is free to attend.

7:30 p.m. at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema, 2301 Vanderbilt Place CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Presented by

Meet the competitors Nina Singto Chef and Owner Thai Esane

[HAPPY RETURNS]

John McCauley

Even most casual fans know that Deer Tick frontman John McCauley is a proud son of Providence, R.I. But it seems natural for him to put down roots in Music City, a town with a rich history of great songwriting. Deer Tick may be about to enter a new phase — its most recent release, 2019’s Mayonnaise, is a collection of alternate takes and covers sprinkled with new songs that felt like tying up loose ends. We may learn more about that when the band headlines Nashville’s Sevier Park Fest in May, but Tuesday

night’s show puts McCauley squarely in the spotlight, a place where he seems to thrive even if he isn’t always comfortable.

You might see him playing a few from the songbooks of Nirvana, Paul Simon or the underappreciated polymath Ben Vaughn, or just digging deep into his own extensive catalog. A few friends are expected to drop in (exactly who hasn’t been revealed, but Vanessa Carlton, who’s McCauley’s wife and has a new record coming in March, is a good bet), and fellow nuanced songsmith Becca Richardson will open. 8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. STEPHEN TRAGESER

WED/2.26 MUSIC

atur live musicwf/GeamblE

[BEND SINISTER]

opeth

Even when I listen to the English version of Swedish prog-metal band Opeth’s 2019 full-length In Cauda Venenum, I don’t understand many of the words. In fact, I recommend you start with the Swedishlanguage release of In Cauda Venenum.

(The album’s title translates to “poison in the tail,” but might read better as “surprise ending.”) At 67 minutes, In Cauda covers all the bases, from languorous acoustic reveries to Mellotron fantasias and riffbased songs in funny time signatures.

In Cauda might be about the poisonous nature of the Trump era, but I get off on the sinister formalism of tracks like “Next of Kin.” Meanwhile, the seven-minute tune “The Garroter” sports an atmospheric string arrangement and a couple of brief, jazzy solos. I think I understand some of the words to “The Garroter” — is vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt really singing “The beautiful people look down / From ruby vantage points”? I hope so. Opening will be Swedish psych-rock quartet Graveyard. 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N. EDD HURT MUSIC

2219 Elliston Place with his trio, MadMuse, which 321-4457ingappearing includes bassist Bill Francis and drummer

[PUNK-SUTAWNEY PHIL]

DaDDy Issues w/heyroCCo, realIty soMethIng & WaxeD

It’s not a groundhog’s shadow or downtown Nashville’s budding cherry blossom trees that’ll tell you winter’s finally starting to thaw — you know spring is on its way when all the local bands start popping their heads out of their rehearsal spaces in order to play shows again. Such is the case with this stellar Drkmttr offering, which will be the first show of the year for some of Music City’s best rock bands — Daddy

Nina Singto, born in Laos, fled from communism at a young age with her family to the United States. Growing up with a family in the food industry, Antioch’s very own King Market, it was inevitable that she would find success branching out with her own restaurant in Music City.

Nina is best described as a “jack of all trades” or, as she prefers, “Queen of All” at Thai Esane. You can catch her there at front-of-house or in the back prepping fresh house delicacies like the Steamed Dumplings, MalaysianStyle Noodles, and various other authentic Thai dishes.

Known for their unique Thai spice, Nina and the kitchen staff at Thai Esane know how to bring the heat!

Thursday, march 19

6-9:30 PM / Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum

Who will prevail in this year's throw down? only one way to find out!

Get your tickets at www.ironforknashville.com 24

daddy issues

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 3:25 PM

critics’ picks

MUSIC

Issues, Reality Something and Waxed.

Especially enticing is Waxed’s opening set, as the trio just released the strong new full-length Butterflies Garden in January.

Butterflies is loaded with dreamy powerpop songs about love and broken hearts, with both bitter and sweet moments that will please fans of Chumped (RIP) and Swearin’. Also on the bill is South Carolina’s Heyrocco, a rock band that, on its 2016 fulllength Teenage Movie Soundtrack, manages to sound like Built to Spill one minute and All-American Rejects the next. But on last year’s Mexican Ashtray, the band sheds the overt pop, opting instead to lean into a Sebadoh-meets-Flaming Lips vibe. Also on the bill will be a pair of longtime Scene faves — grunge-poppers Daddy Issues (who headline) and Reality Something. Neither band has released a fresh record in a couple of years, but both know how to deliver killer live shows. 7 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike MEGAN SELING [DOUBLE TROUBLE]

Kyshona & amanda Broadway Band alBum release

MUSIC

Both Kyshona and Amanda Broadway Band have new albums — Listen and The Ache, respectively — due out on Feb. 28, so the two acts have planned a special doublebill release show to celebrate. The bands will take over Analog at the Hutton Hotel on Wednesday night to perform new tunes from their latest projects, both of which draw from, as the artists themselves explain it, “themes of empathy, social awareness, finding common ground and understanding internal struggle.” Look for powerhouse vocals and a refreshing, genre-agnostic blend of folk, soul, rock and gospel from Kyshona; Amanda Broadway Band will bring groovy rock with blues and funk undertones and plenty of energy. 7 p.m. at Analog at the Hutton Hotel, 1808 West End Ave. BRITTNEY McKENNA [PURE FROSTING]

Chelsea lovitt alBum release Feat. J.d. wilKes, matthew Paige & amy darling

The story of Mississippi-born, Nashvilleresiding roots-rock songsmith Chelsea Lovitt’s debut LP You Had Your Cake, So Lie in It can get a bit tangled. To get to the point, Lovitt recorded the album in 2016 with notable producer-engineer Andrija Tokic at The Bomb Shelter, a vinyl pressing was released in 2018, and that’s been the only way you could hear it — until Feb. 28, that is. On Wednesday, Lovitt and her band will celebrate the forthcoming digital release of the album, a collection of songs that hop nimbly from garage to country-soul as they make use of an idiosyncratic observational style she says she developed growing up in Mississippi. “I think it makes you very selfaware, and also hilarious,” Lovitt told Scene contributor Edd Hurt in 2018. “Your sense of humor is on another level. It’s from a place of dysfunction and complete backwards, at times, mentalities.” Joining Lovitt will be Legendary Shack Shakers’ wild and wooly frontman J.D. Wilkes, Matthew Paige (leader of the blues-rock outfit Blackfoot Gypsies) and country-and-blues-schooled rocker Amy Darling. 8 p.m. at Mercy Lounge, 1 Cannery Row STEPHEN TRAGESER

THis Week’s LisTinGs Thursday, Feb. 20

aT 10:00 Parnassus book Club discussing The Age of Light aT 4:00 sToryTime with mary Cady

saTurday, Feb. 22

aT 10:30 saTurday sToryTime aT 2:00 kelly oliver

Kassy O’Roarke, Cub Reporter sunday, Feb. 23

aT 2:00 — TiCkeT required sCoTT hamilTon

Fritzy Finds a Hat

aT 6:30 Jerry miTChell

monday, Feb. 24

Race Against Time

Tuesday, Feb. 25

aT 6:30 Tim Grahl

The Threshing Wednesday, Feb. 26

aT 6:30 mary kubiCa

Pop Goes the Country D

ottie West’s crossover into pop culture came, somewhat fittingly, through a song meant to sell pop. She recorded “Country Sunshine” as a 1970s Coca-Cola jingle, and after beaming into millions of living rooms across the country, it became a #2 country hit, just missing the pop Top Forty. West maintained a tight connection to her country roots throughout her career, with hits including the Grammywinning “Here Comes My Baby.” But she also managed to beat the pop popularity of “Country Sunshine,” when “What Are We Doin’ In Love,” a 1981 duet with fellow Country Music Hall of Fame member Kenny Rogers, cracked the Top Twenty.

The Other Mrs.

Thursday, Feb. 27

aT 4:00 sToryTime with mary Cady

parnassusbooks.net 3900 Hillsboro Pike in Green Hills 615.953.2243

above:

Dottie West

photo: walDen s. fabry from the fabry stuDios collection at the country music hall of fame anD museum

@parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks nashvillescene.com | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | Nashville Scene

criticspicks_2-20-20.indd 25

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Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

food and drink

The French Connection Once Upon a Time in France delivers French comfort food along with adorably cozy ambience

By Dana Kopp Franklin feel grateful to Monsieur Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the 18th-century food sage who popularized the potato in France.)

On the entrée side: Steak frites, or steakand-fries, is a French bistro classic, and certainly has been available in Nashville before, but this version includes an extra dollop of Gallic cuisine: Your steak is topped with your choice of classic French sauces, including anchovy butter, roquefort sauce and sauce au poivre vert (green peppercorn sauce). The steak is sizable at 350 grams — that’s more than 12 ounces — and is accompanied by a heaping haystack of crispy, thin-cut fries.

If you’re more inclined toward veggies than boeuf, there’s Le Régal Provençal, a vegetarian dish where minature squares of buckwheat pasta are topped by one of France’s most famous rustic specialties: ratatouille, a melange of vegetables including zucchini, eggplant and tomato, and in this case, adorned with a couple of delectable spears of fried asparagus. Laurent imports the tender pasta from the French Alpine region, where they are famous. Though I’m a meat eater, I found the entrée plenty filling, and you can also request a vegan version, served with rice instead of pasta.

Perhaps the prettiest dish is crevettes à la Marseillaise, featuring succulent shrimp flambéed in pastis (an anise-flavored spirit), served on a bed of both white rice and red rice from the Camargue region of France. It tastes as delicious as it looks.

Newly added to the menu is another satisfying entrée, poulet à la crème: a moist

crevettes à la Marseillaise

Photos: Daniel Meigs

A

small sign at the new bistro Once Upon a Time in France says it all: “Restaurant Familial. Cuisine Traditionelle Françoise.”

Once Upon a Time in France represents something truly delightful for Nashville: A French bistro owned by a French family, serving traditional French bistro cuisine. It’s the project of ownermanager Melvil Arnt, a young Frenchman who came to Nashville to work in the music business, but eventually noticed a bistrosized hole Once Upon a Time in France in our city’s 1102 Gallatin Ave. dining scene.

615-649-8284 (Let’s face it: Onceuponatime-infrance.com Nashville’s restaurant Onion soup $7 options are Parmentier de canard $8 Poulet à la crème $18 expanding Le Régal Provençal explosively, (ratatouille) $18 but there’s Steak frites $20 Crevettes à la Marseillaise $20 still plenty of room for improvement.) Arnt recruited his French chef father, Laurent Champonnois, to join him as a partner in the business, and Arnt’s mother Valérie Le Rhun also signed onto the bistro’s hospitality team.

In a spectacular visual achievement, the family took an extremely humble space (the former Steak & Pizza at 1102 Gallatin Ave. in East Nashville) and transformed it into a gorgeous evocation of a 1920s bistro in France. The dining room now features a black-and-white checkerboard floor and warm-hued stained-glass light fixtures; a small marble-topped bar takes center stage.

Various mementos adorn the walls, suggesting items turned up at a particularly charming thrift market in France. A tiny side room where patrons sip drinks and wait to be seated is full-blown art deco, with gilt-patterned wallpaper and brass lamps.

All the rooms are united by tin ceiling tiles pressed in a deco design. The whole effect is flat-out adorable.

The warmth of the decor is matched by the satisfying nature of the cuisine, which can best be described as French-style comfort food. The menu is small but gem-like, with a half-dozen hors d’oeuvres and a similar number of entrées.

Any bistro dinner, in my opinion, should start with the French onion soup. You shouldn’t miss Chef Laurent’s version, which he calls “La Soupe à l’Oignon de mon Père” (“my father’s onion soup”). It’s a family recipe in which the flavors of the broth are made even richer with the addition of port wine and an egg yolk. Piping hot and topped with a blanket of melted cheese, it’s the ideal winter warmer.

Another less familiar appetizer is equally hearty: parmentier de canard. It’s sort of a French version of shepherd’s pie, with duck instead of lamb. It’s served in a shallow baking dish in which a base of savory pulled duck is topped with creamy potatoes au gratin. It’s outstanding. (And it makes one

nashvillescene.com | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | Nashville Scene

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2/17/20 5:43 PM

food and drink

poulet à la crème

tions, and there’s only a small waiting room available. But don’t give up. Cruise by at off hours and check out the line. Also, since the business just opened in December, it’s possible the crowds may ease up eventually.

A golden hour is right at 4:30 p.m., when the restaurant opens. You may feel like an old fogy eating so early, but it’s worth it to be swept away on a cozy culinary visit to France.

Email arts@nashvillescene.com

Photo: Daniel Meigs

chicken leg, deboned and stuffed with fresh tarragon, served with rice and a killer cream sauce, studded with exquisite locally sourced mushrooms. Again, it’s comfort food — shades of an American weeknight casserole, but gloriously assembled in a much more sophisticated way. (Laurent decorates the end of each chicken leg with a classic paper crown, a defiantly old-fashioned touch.)

It’s a splendid menu, and here’s the kicker: The most expensive item is the steak, at a mere 20 bucks. That’s not exactly a giveaway, but it’s far less than what Nashvillians are used to paying for a good steak.

You may find yourself splashing out a bit more for a cocktail or a glass of wine. Once Upon a Time in France, not surprisingly, has a great selection of French wines from various regions, plus cocktails and a hearty list of European beers (including Kronenbourg 1664, described as “the French Budweiser”).

It’s unlike any other drinks list in town, and a very welcome amenity. And again, the prices are reasonable, starting at $5 for a glass of the house red. Even the bottles of wine don’t seem to be marked up excessively, though if you want to splurge you can ask to see the separate reserve list.

Once Upon a Time in France is a marvelous place to hang out and recharge, and if there’s any caveat, it’s that the joint is always jumping — meaning it can be hard to get in. The restaurant doesn’t take reserva-

Good stuff, $10 or less Chaatable — Happy Hour Shammi Sliders — $7

Photos: Daniel Meigs

P

28

erhaps it’s because the recent news of Krystal filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has me feeling nostalgic, but when I recently tasted the Shammi sliders at Chaatable, they took me back to a familiar, happy place. The soft, warm bun and thin patty with a crunch of onion. It also didn’t hurt that it was happy hour.

Sliders, like tiny Tabasco bottles and the miniature bottles of Heinz that come with hotel room service, tend to offer big taste in adorable packages. But these made-from-scratch sliders (called “Shammi the Way” on Chaatable’s pun-heavy menu) take the concept so much further.

With only four components — all of them house-made — they are basically Chaatable nesting dolls of flavor to be unpacked. The patty alone (no wider than a 345 40th Ave. N. chaatablenashville.com teacup) comes with a list of spices as long a CVS receipt: Ground lamb is seasoned with chopped mint, turmeric, cumin, crushed coriander seeds, garam masala, Kashmir chili powder, ginger, garlic, lemon and more. It’s a riff on a shami kebab, a popular Indian snack. Here the patty sits instead on a squishable pillow, or pav (Indian-style roll). Pickled onion tops the patty, slicing through the spice with tang and texture, and the bottom layer gets a smear of fresh mint-cilantro chutney, which looks like moss from a fluorescent forest.

Shammi sliders appear on Chaatable’s lunch and dinner menus with sides, but two sliders alone are just $7 during happy hour (Monday-Friday, 4:30 to 6 p.m.). And Chaatable’s sliders don’t seem to be going anywhere, whether or not Krystal sticks around. “It’s been on the menu since we opened,” says chef Praveen Pedankar of the item. “It sells a lot, so we keep it on.” JENNIFER JUSTUS

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 5:43 PM

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nashvillescene.com | FEBRUARY 20 – FEBRUARY 26, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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dance

They Think They can Rejoice School of Ballet’s The Little Engine That Could empowers dancers with disabilities

By Bailey Basham

P

T U O RE MO

people in our society to get to experience art like this, and it’s our whole goal to be able to expose every single person to art if that’s what they wish for,” says Cross. “The confidence that these dancers develop in being able to work on something together and make something beautiful all while learning from teachers that look like them, it’s remarkable. The role is perfect for a dancer in a wheelchair. It articulates that it doesn’t matter what situation you have in your life, you can still succeed and be a hero and be a part of something wonderful and something inspirational.”

Victoria Clerico is a faculty member at Nashville Ballet’s school, and a former member of Nashville Ballet’s NB2 dance company.

She says part of Rejoice’s mission aligns well with that of the Adaptive Dance program.

Through the program, Nashville Ballet aims to create opportunities for children of all abilities to experience the joy of dance while developing body awareness, coordination and balance in a traditional studio environment.

“One of our core beliefs is that everyone is a dancer,” says Clerico. “Artistic experiences should be accessible to everyone, but often there are barriers for many different reasons. We’re trying to bridge those gaps and show that artistic movement is something that everyone can be a part of.”

Clerico says that like every dancer, those in the Adaptive Dance program develop their own style through exploring different movements. Some students dance moving mainly their legs and feet, and others focus

photo: Josh oakEs

T E G

atricia Cross started dancing when she was a little girl, and she quickly fell in love with the exploration of different stories and feelings through movement. Through her professional work as the founder and executive director of Rejoice School of Ballet, she’s gotten to hold onto that falling-in-love feeling as an adult by sharing the art of dance with her students.

Rejoice provides high-quality ballet instruction to low-income students and students of color on a sliding scale, and the school has never been known to shy away from pushing the limits of the art form.

For the past 22 years, Cross and the young dancers at Rejoice have used imaginative choreography to challenge the notion of what dance can be, embracing different cultural traditions, telling difficult stories and redirecting the spotlight toward dancers of color.

In its upcoming production of The Little Engine That Could, Rejoice plans on maintaining that m.o. of challenging the status quo — this time, by encouraging the audience to reimagine what a dancer can look like. The lead role of the Little Engine will be played by 8-year-old Lani Martinez, a dancer in a wheelchair who’s a student in Nashville Ballet’s Adaptive Dance program. In the story, the Little Engine carries toys from a toppled train car to the children of a nearby town, and Cross says the role is perfectly written for a dancer of different ability.

“There are so many obstacles for some

on their upper-body movements.

“Dance is such a human thing, such a pure form of expression and a way to have fun,” says Clerico. “The way each dancer moves is individual to the way they choose to express themselves, but the students using chairs maneuver the way they normally do. There’s not much need for special accommodations. At its core, this is about our dancers just getting into the music and moving in a way that feels good.”

Gerald Watson, who is a company member with Nashville Ballet and an instructor at Rejoice, says that because both organizations are so committed to inclusivity, the partnership came naturally.

“Everybody has the ability to do good work. They just need the tools to do so, and that’s what each of these programs is about,” Watson says. “From the moment I first saw Lani dance, I knew she had to be a part of this show. Just watching the way that she never slowed down or felt small or seemed self-conscious — she looked in complete bliss about being able to share herself through dance, and it reminded me that that’s what I set out to do when I was younger. To see her so happy doing what she knows and sharing it with people, that inspired me.”

Watson says Martinez will demonstrate the story’s themes of resilience, friendship and the value of hard work — all things he has seen her exhibit both in and out of rehearsals.

“Lani has such grace and determination, and she really makes the show what it is,” says Watson. “She is not trying to be like anybody else on the stage. I truly believe that everybody has a gift and something that sets them apart — something that allows a person to be able to succeed. And watching her now, you can tell she’s found hers.”

Email arts@nashvillEscEnE.com

Rejoice School of Ballet pReSentS The LiTTLe engine ThaT CouLd feB. 21-MaRch 1 at 4th StoRy theateR at WeSt end United MethodiSt chURch RejoiceBallet.coM HTTPS://WWW.FWPUBLISHINGEVENTS.COM

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Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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2/17/20 4:58 PM

THROUGH MAY 31 Landscape paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), widely regarded as Britain’s greatest painter, are now on view at the Frist.

Come witness the power of Turner’s palpable atmospheres, stormy seascapes, transcendent effects of light, and epic scenes of history.

Downtown Nashville 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203 FristArtMuseum.org

J.M.W. Turner: Quest for the Sublime was organized in cooperation with Tate.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

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| february 20Art – february 26,a2020 | Nashville nashvillescene.com Scene J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, 1842. Watercolor on paper, 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. Tate: Purchased with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Fund (with contribution from the Wolfson Foundation and including generous support from David and Susan Gradel, and from other members of the public through the Save the Blue Rigi appeal), Tate Members and other donors 2007. Photo © Tate, 2019

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books

The GhosT hunTer Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell cracks cold cases from the civil rights movement

By ArAm GoudsouziAn

J

erry Mitchell hunts for ghosts, and Mississippi is haunted by them.

Perhaps more than any other state, it struggles to reckon with its history of racial violence and oppression — a history that shaped the inequalities still Race against time: a plaguing the state RepoRteR Reopens the Unsolved mURdeR cases today. Through his dogged and couraof the civil Rights eRa

By Jerry Mitchell geous reporting, SiMon & SchuSter Mitchell investigated 432 pageS, $28 a number of cold Mitchell will diScuSS cases from the civil hiS Book at 6:30 p.M. rights era, resulting Monday, FeB. 24, at in the imprisonment parnaSSuS BookS of some notorious white supremacists. His new book, Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era, recounts his search for the truth. It is a riveting read, an extraordinary tale full of dramatic twists and chilling details.

Mitchell was a longtime investigative reporter for The ClarionLedger in Jackson, Miss.

The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (the socalled “Genius Grant”), he has won a host of journalistic honors, including the George Polk Award and the Sidney Hillman Prize. Mitchell has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2018, he founded the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. He answered our questions via email.

Race Against Time begins and ends with the 1964 “Mississippi Burning” case, when Klansmen in Neshoba County murdered the civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. What challenges did this case pose for you? Lots of challenges. At the beginning, I didn’t have a transcript of the 1967 federal trial, and even when I did, I didn’t know if any of the witnesses were still alive or where they lived. Putting together the case was a step-by-step process that involved years of work. Even though the attorney general’s office in Mississippi looked at the case in 1989, it wasn’t finally prosecuted until 16 years later, when Edgar Ray Killen finally went on trial.

You helped to put violent white supremacists such as Sam Bowers, Byron De La Beckwith and Edgar Ray Killen behind bars. What are some of the common threads in their outlook? How do they see the world? All of them bought into a white supremacist view of history and the world, believing white people had created some of the world’s greatest inventions and that “racial amalgamation” had led to the downfall of civilizations. Beckwith and Bowers were

believers in “Christian Identity” theology, which teaches that Adam and Eve were white people, that nonwhite races are “mud people” (and, like animals, have no “souls”), and that Jews are offspring of Satan. (It is awful and racist. Unfortunately, a fair number of people still teach this and believe it.)

At times, you suggest the personal strain of pursuing these cold cases. What were your fears?

What were the potential dangers? Well, the last thing you want is for the Ku Klux Klan to hurt your family. That was my greatest fear.

I did my best to keep my family at a distance. I didn’t give out my home number, my address, any of those things that I thought might help them find me. Of course, then the internet came along and made it incredibly easy for them to find me.

In the epilogue, you describe the work of investigative journalists as not only “a pursuit of justice,” but also “a pursuit of memory.” What does this mean? How might it shape the larger society? As investigative journalists, our job is to expose the truth. The KKK believed in white supremacy and repeatedly sent the message that white people held the power, that minorities must live in fear, and that white people get to write the history. Unfortunately, that proved true for many years, and Sam Bowers was remembered as a small-town pinball operator rather than a mass murderer.

African Americans were called “enemies” in their own nation, the same country their ancestors helped build, shape and improve for centuries.

In reinvestigating these murders, we as journalists can help correct the record and reclaim the memory from Klansmen and their sympathizers in the halls of power.

You recently left The Clarion-Ledger to begin the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.

Why did you make this decision? What are your goals in this endeavor? Newsrooms are vanishing in Mississippi and with them the investigative reporting that this state desperately needs. That’s why I started the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. We want to shine a light into the darkness. We want to expose corruption, malfeasance and injustices. And we want to raise up the next generation of investigative reporters. This work is simply too important to let it fade away, and I hope others will agree and support our fledgling nonprofit.

To read a longer version of this interview — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARtS@NASHvILLESCENE.CoM

Nashville Scene | february 20 – february 26, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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music

Singing Out Katie Pruitt is herself on Expectations

By Brittney McKenna

T

Playing Feb. 21 at The Basement and Feb. 22 at Grimey’s

photo: alysse gafkjen

he wait between writing the first lines of an album and the moment that album actually sees the light of day can be a long and frustrating one. Every so often, though, it works in the artist’s favor for an LP to have a little extra time to gestate. For Nashville singersongwriter Katie Pruitt, spending several years with her debut album Expectations not only gave her the chance to craft an LP on which she sounds like herself, but also offered her time to make peace with the deeply personal narratives she crafts in her songs.

“I’ve been writing this for the past four or five years, and it feels like a full-circle type of moment, like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another one,” Pruitt tells the Scene. “I feel like I’m in a good place emotionally to be talking about some of this stuff, and that feels good.”

Expectations is Pruitt’s full-length debut, and it’s out Friday via Rounder Records.

The rootsy, rocking, soulful album follows several years of buzz surrounding Pruitt, whose 2018 live session with the Nashville web channel OurVinyl generated significant excitement for both her skillful vocals and vulnerable songwriting. She recorded Expectations alongside her friend and producer Mike Robinson. She credits him for the moment she felt like her recorded music truly matched her artistic vision.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a record for a while,” she says. “I was trying to study, from other people I knew, the right way to do it and trying to figure out what that looked like for me. … I had worked with several producers in town. They were all great, but I never heard myself coming back at me.

I heard the songs, but I didn’t hear me.”

Pruitt took the demos she and Robinson had been working on to the staff at Rounder and explained to them: “Look, I understand my friend Mike has literally no experience as a record producer, but I would like him to produce my record, please.” To her surprise, Rounder agreed. They also gave her creative control over the musicians who played on Expectations, despite encouragement at some of those early meetings with producers to choose hired guns over her own touring band.

Together, Pruitt and Robinson found ways to build intricate, hook-laden arrangements that matched the emotional heft of her lyrics without overshadowing the songs’ powerful narratives. Pruitt’s songs deftly and compassionately chart themes like queerness, familial conflict, religion and mental health.

On “Georgia,” Pruitt explores the complexities of coming out to loved ones. The song begins with a sparse piano arrangement that builds to an emotional crescendo at the song’s bridge.

“I wrote ‘Georgia’ right after I came out to my parents,” Pruitt says. “They were having a really hard time with it and didn’t want to talk about it, and there was this big, gaping hole in the middle of our world and our relationship. So I wrote it from a place of fear, of never being able to resolve that

with them. But we’ve done a lot of work — they’ve done a lot of work — so we’re on the other side of that issue now.”

A standout track from the OurVinyl release was “Loving Her,” which also appears on Expectations. The success of that song was an early breakout moment for Pruitt, who opens the track with a gut-punch of a lyric: “If loving her’s a sin I don’t want to go to heaven.” She wrote the song after an uncomfortable phone conversation with her father, who objected to Pruitt’s thenburgeoning relationship with her girlfriend, on the grounds of his religious beliefs.

“I was talking to my dad on the phone and he basically said, ‘I don’t understand it. I don’t think it’s right,’ ” she says. “That obviously stirred something up in me. We were both really upset, not being able to understand each other’s perspectives on it. …

I couldn’t understand why the God that they were putting so much trust and faith in was seeing who I am as completely wrong.”

Pruitt is eager to get her new music into listeners’ ears. All the same, it seems like the time she’s spent with the songs on Expectations has already had a profound impact on her as an artist and as a person.

“They were all songs that I wrote when I was processing a heavy emotion or an intense time in my life. And I still identify

For the Love Outstanding storyteller Joy Oladokun on finding her voice in Music City

By Olivia Ladd

J

oy Oladokun knew she wanted to move to Nashville within 30 minutes of her first visit. She was visiting from Los Angeles, where she had relocated after college and was working as a Playing Monday, Feb. 24, guitarist and backup at The High Watt singer. Charmed by the city and attracted to the way other songwriters and musicians seemed able to work and live seemingly normal lives with their families, Oladokun came to the conclusion that she stood a better chance of having a full-time career in music here.

“Music-wise, all my heroes spent time in

with those, but I’m singing them from the other side now.”

Email music@nashvillescene.com

Nashville or are from Nashville,” she tells the Scene over the phone. “So many of my songwriting heroes have a deep connection to the city. I found myself in L.A. a lot of times looking at people who were further down the road than me and being like, ‘I don’t wanna be like you when I grow up.’ When I’m in rooms with people [in Nashville], most of the time they’re motivated simply by, ‘How do you tell a really good story?’ I don’t know [if] there are tons of other places in the world that are doing that and doing it so well.”

Her gamble to move across the country paid off.

Oladokun is now signed with publishing company Prescription Songs, and since settling in Nashville, she’s followed up her 2016 LP Carry with a slew of singles that showcase her unique artistry.

Oladokun’s storytelling is steeped in personal perspective. The singer-songwriter approaches soul- and R&B-influenced pop music with a refreshing delicacy, pairing lyrics that are often yearning, reflective and confessional with minimal arrangements and hymn-like structures. Her songs make the individual experience feel universal. >> p. 35

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music

YBN Cordae cleared a path for himself with The Lost Boy

By Alejandro Ramirez

Y

BN Cordae wasn’t an unknown element in the first half of 2019.

Barely into his 20s, the rapper had already built up a rising-star reputation with a steady stream of mixtapes and noteworthy singles. But he shone even brighter than expected with his debut album The Lost Boy, released in July, making fans and newcomers alike stop and take notice.

The LP mixes the confessional and the nostalgic. On one track, Cordae is a wayward kid talking shit. Elsewhere, he asks for mercy and forgiveness. Later he reminisces about the holidays at his grandma’s house. Going into The Lost Boy, Playing Monday, Cordae already had Feb. 24, at The plenty of experience Basement East diving into his own psyche. His early mixtapes, under the name Entendre, were titled Anxiety (2014), I’m So Anxious (2016) and I’m So Anonymous (2017).

They tackled similar themes to those approached on The Lost Boy, honing his rhymes and observations with each release.

But 2018 was when he made the biggest splash with the track “Old Niggas,” a spirited defense of his generation and response to J. Cole’s “1985,” a somewhat scolding track aimed at younger rappers. Cordae, who credits many old-school lyricists as influences, followed up with “Kung Fu,” an exhibition of dizzying raps and hard-hitting bars.

Part of what makes The Lost Boy such an exciting album is that Cordae uses every tool in his kit to its best effect. In the second track, “Have Mercy,” Cordae shows off his punchy, boastful lyricism, while the chorus paints a picture of a young man who can’t quite get right, though he probably knows

Even her heartbreak ballads have a thread of optimism backed by spirituality, a worldview she’s adopted over the years from growing up in the church space and reckoning with her sexuality.

“Sunday,” released in the summer, is a song about coming out that’s honest about both the fear and the relief that are part of that process. Oladokun says she didn’t realize what she was writing the song about when she started it, but by distilling her emotional experiences into art, she created something that could help others cope.

“I think part of the reason I came out is, emotionally, I felt like it can’t be an accident that I am a queer woman of color in this day and age,” Oladokun says. “I can’t be silent and pretend like it doesn’t matter and ignore it. Making those decisions to empower yourself and to take care of yourself and then use that freedom that you’ve fought for to help liberate other people is everything. That approach is how I view my songwriting.”

better. “Sweet Lord, please have mercy,” raps Cordae, “I know I used up my three favors / Back to sinnin’ like a week later.”

That dynamic holds true across much of the album. Even in his more vulnerable moments, Cordae maintains a level of swagger and authority on each track. He’s the kind of dude who talks about trauma, hardships and setbacks in a matter-of-fact way — presumably because he has some perspective on the past. The straightforward delivery doesn’t diminish the soul-searching, and instead sounds honest.

While the 22-year-old was raised just outside Baltimore and currently lives in Los Angeles, it’s easy to see that star Chicago rappers from the past decade have heavily influenced him. The warm samples, confessional lyrics and mix of soul and gospel sounds recall work by Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Chance the Rapper. We’ve been seeing their aesthetic influences on rap for a long time now (especially Ye’s and Cudi’s), but it’s become even clearer that they’ve set up a framework for artists who want their albums to be more than a showcase of rap skills. Kids like Cordae are out to release a combination of artists’ statements and personal manifestos, wanting to drop the next College Dropout, Man on the Moon or Acid Rap — no doubt in the same way older generations wanted to mimic the iconic and idiosyncratic arrivals of The Wu-Tang Clan or A Tribe Called Quest.

Appropriately, Chance contributed a feature to The Lost Boy, on the song “Bad Idea.”

And that’s just one of the high-profile guests the album boasts. Cordae and singer-drummer-rapper-superstar Anderson .Paak trade kinetic back-and-forth bars on “RNP.” Pusha T, who dropped a crop of scene-stealing guest verses in 2019, does it again on “Nightmares Are Real,” recounting his young start in the drug game with menace and gusto, adding a sharp edge to the album’s loose narrative about redemption. Meek Mill appears on the penultimate track “We Gon Make It,” which, as the title implies, is one of those anthems for dreamers. Meek’s famous struggles with the legal system are mentioned on this track, and the Philly rapper lends weight to the cho-

rus when he asks, “We ain’t never had a shot, how we gon’ take it?”

The Lost Boy isn’t just about internal or professional struggles. “Family Matters” focuses on the troubles facing Cordae’s family members, which his relatives are slow to share with him. Cordae wonders if they just don’t want to burden him while he’s “chasing dreams,” as he raps: “The crazy part is they don’t even say a thing / They don’t want me to worry, just go and make the cream.” But even if that’s the case, the chorus, sung by Arin Ray, makes it clear that family sticks together: “It’s been hard for me / To see what Photo: Shannon Beveridge

Lost Boy Takes Flight

Over the past year, Oladokun has spent a lot of time writing in her East Nashville home and reexamining what she’s after. Earlier this year, she posted four demos of songs she had been working on to YouTube. She wanted to put them out into the world in a pure form, as she heard them in her own head. Instead of selling a finished product, she felt liberated by giving fans something that was still in development. The new songs touch on topics like overindulgence in vices and relationships both spiritual and concrete, as well as members of a couple keeping space for each other after the honeymoon phase is over.

In “Faithful,” Oladokun examines anxiety about the ways other Christians may perceive her. She grew up singing in her family church in Casa Grande, Ariz., and later worked at a church in college. This is where she came to learn how to use

you been goin’ through / It’s tiring … No more suffering in silence.”

The closing track “Lost & Found” makes it clear that Cordae sees a promising future for himself. He’s got plenty of evidence to back that up, not the least of which is the pair of Grammy nominations he earned: Best Rap Album for the LP, and the track “Bad Idea” for Best Rap Song. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t take home the hardware — all the accolades and co-signs from star rappers have grown out of something that Cordae has built for himself.

Email music@nashvillescene.com

her rich, warm voice, as she does so well in her songs.

She finds it easy to see why so many people are passionate about their faith, but at the same time she questions how someone can say that God cares for everyone while excluding people of different sexual orientations. As a queer person whose spirituality is an important part of her daily life, Oladokun has learned to focus on self-acceptance and empathy.

“Being a black woman inhabiting a lot of white spaces, sometimes I’ll say things and feel things and be like, ‘Oh, these people don’t understand my tension and frustration because they haven’t experienced it,’ ” Oladokun says. “[‘Faithful’] became a reminder to me that I am a representative of my people and justice in the spaces that I happen to be in, and [to] continue to be faithful to that in a way that’s kind and compassionate.”

That’s a common thread through Oladokun’s songs — they each feel like a candid, stream-ofconsciousness note to herself. Her vulnerability is key to helping her work through and let go of negative emotions, and that in turn makes clear that she’s coming from a place of honesty.

Email music@nashvillescene.com

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The Spin

Trip in The counTry

By Edd Hurt

W

riting about country music over the past decade, I’ve talked to a fair number of old-school producers, songwriters and singers about country as an art form. For the most part, that has proved somewhat counterproductive. When I’ve mentioned the small — but very big — word “art” to great figures who populated Nashville’s country landscape in the 1960s and ’70s, they have tended to ignore the question entirely. They were, they told me, craftspeople who had definite ideas about quality control, but they didn’t consider themselves artists. How this applies to Tyler Childers, who is the current torchbearer for so-called authentic country, is simple: Childers is an artist, but his artistry is completed by his relationship to his audience.

That relationship — loving, raucous, shot through with pain — was on display Sunday night at the Ryman. Childers wrapped up a four-night stand at the Mother Church with an impeccable performance that was augmented by the sold-out crowd’s participation. Responding to Childers’ world-class songwriting, they sang along and stomped in the pews almost loudly enough to rouse Capt. Ryman himself.

Like any significant country artist, Childers speaks both for himself and for his audience. He does this through his songwriting, which is pithy, self-deprecating and, you might say, honest. A native of Lawrence County, Ky., Childers lays out the many

snares, traps and unsavory side roads that country life offers. Again, like all great country artists, Childers has a light side that coexists with a darker part of his personality. In many of the songs he played Sunday night, he presented himself as a stranger in his own skin, and — to allude to blues and R&B songwriter Percy Mayfield — a stranger in his own hometown. Like, say, George Jones, who often sang material that suggested he was painfully aware of what you could call his dual identity, Childers is a consummate artist who seems to understand the value of that duality.

Childers describes this hardscrabble landscape brilliantly on his 2017 full-length Purgatory and the equally trenchant 2019 Country Squire. As pure writing, these critically and commercially successful albums hold up to repeated listening, as Childers’ version of the Country Squire track “Creeker” demonstrated at the Ryman.

Similarly, “Nose on the Grindstone” and “Bottles and Bibles” had the air of casual masterpieces. Childers’ writerly skills make his songs models of narrative concision that are catchy and dense with detail.

Following an opening set from Daughter of Swords (aka Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, whose trio Mountain Man opened for Kacey Musgraves at the Ryman in 2019), Childers kicked off his performance with a 30-minute set of songs he performed solo. Childers is a superb guitarist with a finely calibrated sense of time, and his style amounts to a canny post-bluegrass solution to the problem of solo self-accompaniment. Every song was anchored by his rock-solid picking, which included licks you might think you’ve heard before. But one of Childers’ great virtues is his originality as a musician — his conception of country includes a deep respect for the pop virtues of brevity, com-

pression and chord changes that turn out to have been subtly tweaked.

During his acoustic set, Childers sang “Matthew,” another brilliant song from Country Squire. He did Utah Phillips’ “Rock, Salt and Nails,” perhaps most famously covered by proto-outlaw Steve Young in 1969. (I heard Kentucky-born singer and songwriter Jim Ford’s crazed 1969 recording of “Harlan County” in the pre-show music. It’s a song that seems key to Childers’ aesthetic.) Again and again, Childers varied the shading of his vocal performance, from conversational aside to high-and-lonesome bluegrass wail.

Childers didn’t merely sing his songs — he acted them.

It was, quite simply, one of the finest performances I’ve seen by a country artist.

What I found fascinating about Childers’ artistry is its relationship to what you could call showbiz. The acoustic set was an amazing example of pure musicality and smarts.

His full-band set, on the other hand, drew upon Childers’ strengths as a singer and bandleader, and it demonstrated how savvy a performer he is. His band played basic two-steps and shuffles that sometimes had subtle touches of the Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers Band. In this sense, Childers does exemplify what’s usually called outlaw country.

Of course, Childers most exemplifies what you might call the Good Fight in modern country. He upholds the verities, and he writes in a populist tradition that pop country usually ignores. But he understands country as entertainment that provides a release. He’s one of the finest minds working in pop music at the moment. But when he and his band covered Charlie Daniels’ 1970 hit “Trudy,” I had a moment when I didn’t give a damn about art at all.

Email ThESpin@naShvillESCEnE.Com

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film

The Sea and the Belles Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a ceaselessly beautiful depiction of queer desire

By Erica Ciccarone

I

n a time when the debate about gender representation in cinema has been heated, a quiet, powerful film is slipping by without much fanfare.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the fourth film from French writer-director Céline Sciamma, will likely outlive such conversations — it’s an achingly gorgeous picture that resists conventions and charts new territory in queer cinema.

It’s 1770, and Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has come to an island in Brittany, France, to paint the wedding portrait of a young noblewoman, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Héloïse left a convent after her sister took her own Portrait of a Lady life by throwing heron Fire R, 121 minutes; in self from Brittany’s French with English rocky cliffs, and she subtitles must now marry Opening Thursday, Feb. her sister’s fiancé, a 20, at the Belcourt Milanese nobleman.

But Héloïse doesn’t want to marry the nobleman. She refused to sit for a portrait by the last artist the family employed, as if doing so could delay the inevitable marriage. Her family hires Marianne under the pretense that she’s simply there to take Héloïse for walks — to supervise her so that she does not choose death over marriage to a man she has never met, as her sister did. The painter must observe Héloïse closely by day and

Byline Brag What She Said embraces Pauline Kael as a vivacious, unapologetic voice in American cinema

By Erica Ciccarone

F

ew cinematic and television depictions of critics paint them in a positive light. Think about it. There’s the stick-in-the-mud theater critic in Alejandro Iñárritu’s Birdman, who promises to “kill” Riggan Thomson’s play after he insults her. There’s the acerbic, blackmailing Addison DeWitt in 1950’s All About Eve, and the joyless food critic Anton Ego in Pixar’s Ratatouille.

Rarely do we see honest depictions of the motivations and inclinations of professional critics. But the new documentary from Rob Garver, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael — which shows Feb. 23-25 at the Belcourt — attempts to shine a light on an What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael extremely influential NR, 95 minutes American film critic who Feb. 23-25 at the withstood as many slings Belcourt; on sunday, and arrows as she flung.

Feb. 23, there will be a discussion after the 4:20 What She Said’s tight p.m. screening with MTSU 95 minutes tell the story professor Will Brantley, editor of Conversations of Pauline Kael’s professional life and impact. with Pauline Kael

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go back to her room to paint from memory each night.

What follows is a story of pauses and glances that build toward intimacy. At times it’s restrained, at times it’s ecstatic and otherworldly. Sciamma’s script is spare, and every word carries weight. Less central to the plot but still a potent character is Sophie (Luàna Bajrami), the servant of the house, whose role shows how some women did — and do — subvert gender and class distinctions, to create a small domestic space on their own terms.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is ceaselessly beautiful. Cinematographer Claire Mathon frames her shots like they’re paintings, hyperconscious of how elements are positioned and how they relate to one another. As Marianne sneaks in a sketch on the beach, Héloïse walks behind her toward a massive stone archway that’s been carved by the sea. Mari-

anne must perceive the most subtle details of her subject’s body, while Héloïse takes in the grand ocean and sky, a view that seems to quake with feeling. The ocean recalls a Renoir seascape; hunks of bread and cheese on a table in the firelight recall a Cézanne still life. In one scene that’s distinctly reminiscent of van Gogh, the three women hunt for herbs in a field of tall grass that undulates in the breeze. Mathon sets her lens on Marianne’s canvas as she paints, and we watch her manipulate paint and charcoal. Despite the gorgeously designed costuming and the film’s desolate but exquisite 18th-century setting, Portrait doesn’t feel like a period piece.

The experience of being closeted, of being trapped in a world that denies queer people sexual freedom, is all too contemporary.

Merlant and Haenel are both superb in their roles. As Marianne becomes more conflicted about her secret mission — and more

She began her work as a film critic by reviewing movies on public radio, for which she was not paid. She then moved on to brief stints at national publications, where she was either fired because readers hated her unabashedly honest reviews, or she left on her own accord, unhappy with editors who softened her criticism. Kael received her first big break in 1967, when she was hired at The New Yorker, and there her voice became so definitive that her reviews could singlehandedly make or break a film. She loved movies that other critics hated (like Last Tango in Paris) and hated movies that others loved (like Lawrence of Arabia).

She published more than a dozen books of criticism.

Background about Kael’s life and influence is piped into the documentary through her own writing as well as through the accounts of her daughter. This is supplemented by interviews with filmmakers, critics and authors, including Quentin Tarantino, Camille Paglia and James Manrique, as well as archival footage of Kael’s appearances on talk shows and newscasts.

It’s tough to translate the life of a writer to a visual medium, but Garver manages to do so by showing film clips throughout the documentary. Some of the clips are taken from a film being discussed — usually paired with the sound of someone reading one of Kael’s reviews — but others serve to illustrate elements of Kael’s life. We see her love for cinema not only through listening to her dynamic prose, but also through cinema’s use as a sort of visual soundtrack to her life. It’s what so many cinematic depictions of critics overlook — whether critics are condemning a work of art to the trash heap or anointing it as heaven-sent, the feeling at the heart of their criti-

cism is head-over-heels love for the form.

Garver devotes only a short time to discussing how Kael’s gender impacted her work and how it was received. Kael herself notes in a television interview that while women have long been accepted on the screen, they meet extra scrutiny as critics because the job involves analysis, intelligence and the ability to argue rationally — qualities women were not thought to possess in abundance, especially in the era of Kael’s rise as a professional. But the film could have — and should have — made more of this. Feedback from Kael’s readers was often laced with sexism — one letter featured in the documentary suggests that she wouldn’t be able to make a film without possessing a pair of balls. Even Kael’s friends featured in the film describe her as com-

entranced by Héloïse — her professional demeanor softens, yielding to vulnerability. As Héloïse is drawn to the ocean and those jagged cliffs, Haenel expresses the character’s longing for sexual and personal liberation that’s as threatening as it is exhilarating.

Best of all, Haenel embraces Héloïse’s anger, communicating it in small ways — a tense jaw line, an upright posture, nostrils that are just slightly flared — that give her a righteous edge.

Prior to the mid-20th century, women mostly fit into the history of painting as subjects — their likeness captured by and for the male gaze. Because of this, male desire is often imposed upon women in painting, as well as in film. But with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Sciamma removes men from the equation altogether. We are concerned only with how these women look at one another, and how that translates onto a canvas. Héloïse is being seen, but not by the Milanese nobleman who will soon possess her — by a woman close to her own age, who expects nothing of her, and who understands how it feels to long for freedom and self-possession.

This is what makes the queer desire in Portrait so affecting, and Sciamma gets right what so many get wrong. For example, Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2013 scissor-fest Blue Is the Warmest Color was anointed as a masterpiece at Cannes. In that film, lesbian desire is depicted as a fusillade of pussy slaps, gasping mouths and agonized lovemaking interspersed with elaborate nude poses. Kechiche showed us what he wanted to see, focusing on his own desire — not that of his characters.

Sciamma — who is a queer woman — puts her characters in full possession of their sexuality and their bodies, and eroticism comes naturally. The result is a revelatory testament of queer desire and resilience.

Email arts@nashvillescene.com

bative, provocative and even cruel. I don’t doubt that this is true, but I wonder how her work would have been received if she were male. The film would have more depth if we could see Kael’s critical analyses and readers’ responses alongside the same by male peers.

“If they like you, you should be worried,” Kael once wrote about being a critic. Her greatest triumph was in being courageous enough to espouse her opinions in public, endure the backlash and thrive anyway. Kael was not great in spite of being a woman — she was great because she was a woman. Her courage in raising her vivacious, unapologetic and often merciless voice infused her work with a brainy authenticity that has shaped American cinema.

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SABA ABRAHA TEKLEBIRHAN In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon SABA ABRAHA TEKLEBIRHAN. It is ordered that said Defendant enter Her appearance herein with thirty (30) days after February 13, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302 Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on March 16, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

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