The East Nashvillian 6.2 Nov-Dec 2015

Artist in Profile: MERRY BETH MYRICK | Know your Neighbor: BOB BORZAK

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER VOL.VI ISSUE 2

Beyond FAITH DREW HOLCOMB makes a joyful noise

Ears Wide Open

Super Powers

Nashville Symphony is seeking ‘hidden gems’ for Accelerando

How a move to East Nashville invigorated NPR’s lead music critic Ann Powers

Rock & Roll Radio, Let’s Go! WXNA wants the airwaves and it wants them now

It’s an Ornaments Christmas, Charlie Brown For a decade, Jen Gunderman and her musical collaborators have made every Christmas a ‘loo-loo’

The 2015

DOG TOYS | SWEETS | JEWELRY | SOAPS | CIGARS | CLOTHES | MUSIC

HOLIDAY Page GIFT GUIDE 41

WINE | BOOKS | ORGANIC GOODS | ANTIQUES | ENTERTAINMENT

JOIN US for a

WOODLAND STREET CHRISTMAS

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"The Heart of Christmas" Worship Experience 9:00 AM The Branch Service 11:00 AM

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Authentic Nashville Big Band in Concert with Special Guests! Fun for the whole family

A Christmas Musical presented by NFCN Kids

A Classical Christmas Concert Featuring Trevecca Symphony Orchestra & Choral Union

6:00 PM

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"Lux Aeterna"

A Christmas presentation of the NFCN Preschoolers

"The Jazz Alliance" featuring Santa & Friends

"Arrest These Merry Gentlemen"

The Branch Service 11:00 AM

"Hooray For Baby Jesus" 9:00 AM The Branch Service 11:00 AM

9:00 AM

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Nashville First Church of the Nazarene 510 Woodland Street www.nfcn.org

5:30 PM

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 5:00 PM

*Other worship services every sunday: Haitian Congregation - 10:00am African Congregation (in swahili language) - 10:00am

PHANTOM BODIES

The Human Aura in Art

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is supported in part by

Through February 14

This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. It is made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Dedalus Foundation, Inc. Additional support has been provided by the Frist Center’s Friends of Contemporary Art. Adam Fuss (British, b. 1961). Medusa, from the series Home and the World World, 2010. Gelatin silver print photogram, edition 3 of 9, 94 1/2 x 56 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read, New York. © Adam Fuss

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

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PUBLISHER Lisa McCauley EDITOR Chuck Allen ASSOCIATE EDITOR Daryl Sanders COPY EDITOR John McBryde CALENDAR EDITOR Emma Alford CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Emma Alford, Rebecah Boynton, Sarah Hays Coomer, Timothy C. Davis, Randy Fox, Holly Gleason, James Haggerty, Amy Harris, Nicole Keiper, John McBryde, Tommy Womack CREATIVE DIRECTOR Chuck Allen DESIGN DIRECTOR Benjamin Rumble ADVERTISING DESIGN Benjamin Rumble

ILLUSTRATIONS Benjamin Rumble, Dean Tomasek

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Stacie Huckeba

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Cain Barnes, Kelli Dirks, Eric England, Amy Harris SOCIAL MEDIA Nicole Keiper Kitchen

Table Media Company Est.2010

ADVERTISING SALES Lisa McCauley lisa@theeastnashvillian.com 615.582.4187 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Jaime Brousse, Nikkole Turner ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER Victoria Clodfelter

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

©2014 Kitchen Table Media P.O. Box 60157 Nashville, TN 37206 The East Nashvillian is a bi-monthly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. This publication is offered freely, limited to one per reader. The removal of more than one copy by an individual from any of our distribution points constitutes theft and will be subject to prosecution. All editorial and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media unless otherwise noted. Reprints or any other usage is a violation of copyright without the express written permission of the publisher.

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

COVER STORY

56 BEYOND FAITH

Drew Holcomb makes a joyful noise

by Holly Gleason

FEATURES

36 POETIC CATHARSIS

82 SUPER POWERS

Coping with the loss of a dear friend led to East Nashville writer’s new chapbook, Stamped

How a move to East Nashville invigorated NPR’s lead music critic Ann Powers

By John McBryde

By Holly Gleason

41 2015 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 66 ROCK & ROLL RADIO, LET’S GO!

89 EARS WIDE OPEN

Nashville Symphony is seeking ‘hidden gems’ for Accelerando

By Emma Alford

By John McBryde

WXNA wants the airwaves and it wants them now

By Randy Fox

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ON THE COVER

IT’S AN ORNAMENTS CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN

DREW HOLCOMB Photograph by Eric England

For a decade, Jen Gunderman and her musical collaborators have made every Christmas a ‘loo-loo’

By Randy Fox

Visit

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM for updates, news, events, and more!

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

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IN THE KNOW

Matters of Development

30 Artist in Profile: Merry Beth Myrick

By Nicole Keiper

By Rebecah Boynton

18 Hey, Y’all, Knock off the Noise

Your Neighbor 39 Know Bob Borzak

By Timothy C. Davis

By Tommy Womack

22

Overlay My ’Hood, Please

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New Digs for the Great Escape

95 East Side Calendar

By Randy Fox

By Emma Alford

By Timothy C. Davis

COMMENTARY

AUXILIARY

12 Editor’s Letter

93 Cookin’ in the ’hood

By Chuck Allen

By Amy Harris

26 Astute Observations

Shot: 114 Parting Matthew Pelham of The Features

By James “Hags” Haggerty

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By Chuck Allen

Simple Pleasures

By Sarah Hays Coomer

112 East of Normal

By Tommy Womack

Visit

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM for updates, news, events, and more!

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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EDITOR’S LETTER Gratefully yours

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ratitude. As a concept it sounds easy, right? Count your blessings. Have an “attitude of gratitude” and all that. With the holiday season approaching comes a certain amount of reflection with regards to friends and family members no longer with us. It’s a shame that we tend to take people for granted until they’re gone. Why not be grateful for them right now? Part of it has something to do with an unwillingness to accept others as they are, rather than as we want or expect them to be. Stepping deeper into the abyss, one could argue that one’s ability to accept others is directly proportional to the ability to accept one’s self.

Sure. But are you grateful for you? I’m not talking millennial-style narcissism here.

Nor do I speak of some arbitrary measure of worth based on comparison to others. All of the modern, post-industrial age concepts of self-worth are really a marketing ploy anyway. Being grateful for you exists on an entirely different plane, one outside the reach of

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

masterful, mass media manipulation, which is probably why the concept isn’t discussed very often. It’s easier to market to groupthink.

So, as you travel the well-worn road through the holidays, try to remember to be grateful for yourself — for your unique you.

No one else has what you have, and no one ever has or ever will. This isn’t a call to arrogance; it’s actually just the opposite — it’s a call to humility. It isn’t about awarding you a “participation trophy” either. But how else do we ever find ourselves without first accepting ourselves with gratitude?

I’m grateful for me. And, in moments when I see clearly, this gratitude unfolds toward other people in my life. The abundance of truly, remarkable “selves” I know is incredibly humbling. Without them, this magazine wouldn’t be. To everyone who has ever contributed to The East Nashvillian in any way, I’m grateful. To those whose stories or photos have appeared on our pages, I’m grateful. For our readers and the advertisers that make publishing this possible, I am truly grateful.

Enjoy our holiday issue.

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

EAST SIDE B U Z Z FOR UP-TO -DATE INFORMATION ON EVENTS, AS WELL AS LINKS, PLEASE VISIT US AT: THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Matters of Development

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY After a good couple of years of emptiness, the cute blue Riverside Village house that Old Made Good once called home is now percolating again: “Espresso and wine eatery” Perk and Cork opened in mid-October at 1304 McGavock Pike, serving coffee and espresso beverages, baked goods, and sweet and savory panini, plus cheese plates and more.

The building retains its historic charm and the decor is relaxed and homey — think burlap curtains and Mason jar light fixtures.

At press time, the wine side of things was waiting on bureaucratic stuff, but plans were for a curated and welcoming list.

The shop/restaurant is open Monday to Sunday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. perkandpork.com Last issue, we mentioned the expansion of the Fatherland District, with three Fatherland Corner buildings popping up at South 10th and Fatherland and bringing in businesses, including some folks relocating from existing District spaces.

As that shuffle begins, we have a few tidbits on new players and a new space for a familiar player.

New: In the coming months, The Shoppes on Fatherland will welcome Pauli’s Place, a women’s boutique stocking new and preloved designer clothing, accessories, shoes, and

boots, in Suite 205 (Project 615’s spot).

The name is a tribute to owner Randi Michaels Block’s daughter, who was adopted from Bulgaria this year.

At press time, Block hadn’t set an opening date yet, but November/December was the plan. Keep an eye on our blog (theeastnashvillian.com/blog) for more on Pauli’s Place.

Meanwhile, longtime Fatherland business Baxter Bailey & Company shared news in October about their move to Fatherland Corner (10th and Fatherland) — they were eyeing an early November move-in at press time, so by the time you read this, they may already be putting out the welcome mat in front of the new space, steps away from the old space (1006 Fatherland, Suite 101A, open until the new one is).

Related, September brought another new gallery to the East Side art scene: Modern East Gallery, at 1006 Fatherland St., #203, in the Shoppes.

Modern East’s focus is on photography, and it’s led by shutter pros Jennifer Stalvey and Brandon Felts, the gallery’s resident photogs and the folks who’ll be organizing solo shows and group thematic events there.

They hosted a grand opening party on Oct. 10, coinciding with that month’s East Side Art Stumble art crawl, sharing their own work,

along with the work of fellow photographer Kelsey Swanson.

Modern East is open Thursday to Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., and by appointment. moderneastgallery.com If you love to cook in Nashville, good chance you’ve made the acquaintance of My Friend Who Loves to Cook, a.k.a. Samantha Williams, who for years has milled the superpopular Sunday Morning Pancake Mix out of her McCarn Street kitchen.

Williams recently made the move into a nonhome kitchen, partnering up with Woodland Presbyterian Church to mix and mill at their place. As holiday sales for her mix — stocked with nine organic grains and lots of tasty — ramped up, she prepped to hire neighbor help, with a particular focus on hiring women struggling with homelessness.

“I always pictured myself in some kind of nonprofit, justice work, so this is a pretty natural move for me,” she said. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of expanding the company if there wasn’t a meaningful purpose to it.”

For more on Williams and her Pancake Mix, stop by myfriendwholovestocook.com.

As we were putting this issue to bed, the owners of new Inglewood bookstore Atomic Nashville were putting the finishing touches on their new place at 1603 Riverside Dr. (in the former Friendly Arctic Printing space).

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

The shop’s focus will be books, art, and music, all “with a decidedly local slant.”

To keep up with the latest, drop by/follow facebook.com/atomicnashville.

We’d been waiting since deepest summer to see what was cooking over at Cantrell’s BBQ Pit, which was working on a reinvention.

Reinvention complete: The restaurant reopened in September as East Nashville BBQ Company, with a new menu, cool/bold

new signage, and some fun meal deals (like a brown bag lunch special, with a sandwich, chips, and a drink for $5).

Don’t let the “new” word scare you, though — barbecue comforts abound: pulled pork, mac and cheese, turnip greens, spicy slaw, and the like.

East Nashville BBQ Company is open Monday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at 829 Lischey Ave.

East Side craft brew providers Little Harpeth Brewing officially opened up their taproom in September at 30 Oldham St. Snag pints, flights, and growlers there Friday, 5 p.m. to 9ish, Saturday, 2 p.m. to 7ish, and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 6ish.

“Low Power, High Voltage Radio” station WXNA, successful crowdfunding campaign behind them, got itself a physical studio space. No, it’s not in East Nashville, but don’t be bummed — WXNA remains East Sideinfused in many ways, including the board of directors being manned and womaned by the likes of East Nashvillian contributors Randy Fox and Heather Lose, among many others.

The WXNA digs are at 1604 Eighth Ave. S. on the top floor of the historic Victorian that also houses Grimey’s New & Pre-Loved Music and The Basement. For more: wxnafm.org. or, for a whole lot more, check out Fox’s story of WXNA’s genesis on Page 66.

Although news broke recently that investors have bought the home of Edgefield Sports Bar & Grill at 921 Woodland for a nice $1.3 million sum, the Nashville Business Journal soothed regulars’ worries: “That’s a longstanding, established tenant, and we look forward to having them in their existing space for a number of years,” new owner Elliott Kyle told the publication in late September.

New brewers Smith & Lentz have now opened the doors on their tap room at 903 Main St. They are currently open Tuesday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 2 to 10 p.m.; and Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.

CLOSINGS AND MOVES Maybe the hardest-hitting East Nashville closure news over the past few months: The Silly Goose abruptly shut its doors in midOctober after more than six years in business at 1888 Eastland.

Over those six years, the cozy eatery grew to be one of the more consistently praised East Nashville food haunts, with chef and leader Roderick Bailey and sous chef Ashlee Saylor spreading the Goose notoriety on Food Network competition show Chopped, and the restaurant earning positive nods from here to The New York Times.

Bailey followed up the closure with a statement, sharing appreciation and a little uncertainty: “To all of you who came to eat with us over the last six years — thank you,” the missive read. “I hope you felt the love in our food, our music, and the way we treated you. Life is messy and so is the restaurant business.

The Silly Goose took everything I had every day. It was hard, rewarding, beautiful in all its imperfections. I have no idea what the universe has planned for me next. I have faith and hope and I am filled with gratitude for

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

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what the Silly Goose and the last six years have been.”

No word yet on what’s taking over the restaurant’s former space.

Vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free restaurant and bakery Khan’s Desserts, located in the Porter East cluster on Porter near Eastland, also closed up shop in mid-October.

“Khan’s has outgrown our small space, but the rent has gone up greatly, and without partnership or investment, we are unable to move to another location,” a social media announcement read.

Khan’s opened in that space in 2013, and offered a menu well beyond desserts, from sandwiches and biscuits to, more recently, vegan soft-serve ice cream.

No word yet on what’ll be taking over that space, either.

We’ll soon see a bigger Red Arrow Gallery, as the art haunt — which opened in Inglewood’s Riverside Village in March of 2014 — shuffles down to a new home at 919 Gallatin Ave. (near Petway).

“Riverside Village has been a wonderful home for the last year, but development and growth in the neighborhood, as well as the gallery outgrowing its space, forced us to begin looking for a new location,” a September announcement from the gallery said. “We are fortunate to have met an amazing landlord who supports our vision and is allowing us to keep Red Arrow in East Nashville.”

The move so soon after opening was unexpected, and the idea of heading to another part of town was considered. But in the end, the Red Arrow folks felt drawn to staying on this side of the river. To make sure they can accomplish another build-out so soon, they turned to crowdfunding to raise relocation funds.

“Red Arrow established itself in East Nashville. The place we call our home,” a Kickstarter message from the gallery reads.

“We have collaborated with other galleries to begin our own Art Stumble. We joined teams with Maplewood High School, hosted field trips for Isaac Litton Middle School. We open our doors to everyone in the neighborhood wanting exposure to artwork, some who have never stepped foot in a gallery. We continue (to) cultivate all of these relationships. Red Arrow Gallery needs to stay in East Nashville.”

Owners are hoping to have the new space open in time for a January show; if you’re holding this in your hands before Nov. 16, drop by theredarrowgallery.com to learn more about the Kickstarter campaign and/or to contribute.

You might have noticed the closure of East Nashville Cooperative Ministry’s space at 807 Main St., but worry not — the ministry hasn’t shut down, it’s just on the move.

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

At press time, those folks were in the process of moving north to a new space at 3117 Gallatin Pike (the former home of Inglewood’s Asian Market, which moved to nearby 3231 Gallatin).

“We are really excited about the move,” ENCM board treasurer (and longtime contributor to The East Nashvillian) Eric Jans told us in September. “The sale of the building cleared up some financial issues for us. We didn’t have the funds to put the kind of renovation into the old building that it needed. Fortunately it is in a hot location and we were able to sell it and find a larger but less expensive building that is more centrally located for our mission.”

COMING SOON We should see another bar join the East Nashville landscape this fall: Bar Luca, working on opening up at 1100B Stratton Ave. (on the corner of Stratton and Gallatin, next to Moto Moda), is aiming to be a friendly neighborhood drinking spot with a full bar, seasonal food menu (with items like cheese boards and charcuterie), and a curated wine list.

We spoke with co-owner Abi Hewitt in mid-September, and she tipped us to a nonpretentious vibe and a big crew of locals teaming up to bring Luca to life.

“There’s lots of us involved in it,” she said.

“We like to think of it as by the community, for the community.”

No set opening date at press time, but check in at LucaNashville.com for updates.

We’ve shared a few updates in past issues about in-the-works East Side brewery Southern Grist, set to take over the former Boone & Sons location on Porter. Good news: Those folks told Nashville Post in October they planned to start brewing in December, with the tap room opening in early 2016.

—Nicole Keiper

Have a “Matter of Development” you’d like shared in East Side Buzz?

Reach out to Nicole and let her know. nicole@theeastnashvillian.com

Hey, Y’all, Knock Off The Noise

EAST NASHVILLE MIGHT NOT BE THE most famous musical zip code in Nashville — that’d probably be 37203, comprising Music Row and its surrounding environs — but it’s arguably had just as many column inches dedicated to it over the last five years. The east side of the river might not have much to do with contemporary country music, but its devil-may-care, freak-flag-flying, allare-welcome ethos has not only made for interesting, diverse neighborhoods, but also an interesting, diverse music scene.

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Light appetizers served @ Amerigo Italian Restaurant (Nashville)

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

This kind of dashed-off cool — musical and otherwise — is attractive to people, especially younger, more affluent people, which means with each new transplant, the demographics of East Nashville are slowly changing. More money is entering East Nashville, and with it, as Biggie Smalls warned us, comes more problems, or, at the very least, some new problems.

Newly elected District 6 Council Member Brett Withers tells The East Nashvillian that he’s heard from a wide swath of his constituency in the month or so since he was sworn in. There are the usual queries about traffic and crime and development, he says, but the most noise he’s been hearing is about … noise. To be more specific, it’s the kind of “noise” that comes out of amplifiers and P.A. monitors.

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Whether it’s aural waves floating away from community, park-held events like East Side Social, or larger, more venue-centric sonic booms emanating from the likes of the new Ascend Amphitheatre, there is a subsection of our community who aren’t at peace with their perceived lack of quiet. Withers says that the situation has gotten so heated so quickly that residents’ complaints have begun to bypass Metro Parks and Recreation, and instead are now forwarded straight to the mayor’s office.

Nothing is imminent in a legislative sense, Withers notes. But he says that Parks has urged council members to open a dialogue with the residents of their districts, to better define guidelines for the types of events the Parks system holds the power to approve.

Other council members in areas with a strong live music/community activity presence (12 South, Sylvan Park, etc.) are looking to East Nashville for answers, Withers says, at a time when many are not even sure what the questions are.

For a more in-depth look at the issues surrounding the noise complaints, be sure to check out Tim’s story in the January | February edition of The East Nashvillian.

Is this a case of a few squeaky wheels looking for some legislative grease, or could it be symptomatic of a larger issue? How do residents new to the area, perhaps boastful of the area’s vaunted musical reputation in theory more so than in practice, play into the issue? How late is too late for an amplified community event in an area rife with schoolage children? How much of the blame lies with corporate-run entities like the Ascend Amphitheater, whose location is such that East Nashville receives the majority of its bassladen blowback? (Withers notes that most other non-Parks-overseen venues, including the Amphitheater, are closed venues already covered by existing ordinances — much to the chagrin of some residents, including those in Edgefield, upset about the new Basement East location on Woodland Street.)

And what of Airbnb parties, a relatively new development? Or community events like the Shelby Park Picture Show? If restrictions are to be placed on these sorts of nontraditional events, where does it all end?

Perhaps a better question — one that we as a community must answer — is: Where do we even begin?—Timothy C. Davis Editor’s note: In the interest of full disclosure it should be pointed out that The East Nashvillian is a partner in East Side Social as well as The Shelby Park Picture Show, both

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

of which are mentioned in this story and were singled out for complaints registered with councilman Withers.

Overlay My ’Hood, Please

A NEW CONSERVATION ZONING OVERLAY for a large portion of North Inglewood is moving quickly toward final approval.

Encompassing the Inglewood Place and

Jackson Park neighborhoods from Kirkland Avenue to Winding Way along Gallatin Pike, the overlay will require all tear downs, new builds, and additions to go through a review process and meet specific guidelines in order to match the historic character of the neighborhoods, according to District 7 Council Member Anthony Davis.

“We don’t have duplex zoning in North

Inglewood,” Davis says, “so we’re not seeing as much redevelopment as other parts of East Nashville, but there have been some tear-downs and new construction that have caused concerns. We want to make sure we hold on to the historic stock and character that we have.”

The overlay was first proposed over a year ago, but staffing issues at the Metro Historic Zoning Commission caused a moratorium on processing new proposals. Davis worked with the council to add an additional staff member to the commission to allow the Inglewood Park-Jackson Park and other proposed overlays to move forward.

“The overlay is moving through the process now, and it should be in place by the end of February,” Davis says. “We’ve held two public meetings, and it received 100 percent support from the neighborhood residents that attended. People were complacent about it for a long time — thinking that the redevelopment wouldn’t reach into that area.

We’re all looking forward to having it in place so residents can feel comfortable about the future of the neighborhood.”

—Randy Fox A draft of proposed guidelines and map are available through the Metro Historic Zoning Commission’s website at: http://www.nashville.gov/Historical-Commission/About/Historic-Zoning-Commission/Whats-New.aspx

New Digs For The Great Escape

A NASHVILLE FIXTURE SINCE THE LATE 1970s, The Great Escape has always made its bones appealing to the collector in us all. At first, the store slung vinyl LPs, books, and comic books. Then came the advent of compact discs, and vinyl took a nosedive; however, a comic book boom was in its infancy. By the late ’90s, the speculative comic book market collapsed, and digital ruled the musical roost; fortunately for The Great Escape, vinyl has once again become the new music medium of choice for the young/expendable-income crowd, and video game sales are shooting through the roof.

Such media malleability has allowed The Great Escape to not only survive where other, bigger media conglomerates (see Borders, Media Play), and dozens of smaller enterprises) have failed, but even thrive — indeed, at a time when others are closing their stores, The Great Escape is expanding.

Since opening on April Fools’ Day 1983, the Madison location of The Great Escape had been housed in a strip mall at Old Hickory Boulevard and Gallatin Road.

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SHOP LOCAL

T 

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urnip ruck he

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Organic, Natural, Local, Fresh, Delicious & Healthy Produce, Groceries, Supplements & More 701 Woodland St. - East Nashville, 615 650-3600 321 12th Ave S. - Gulch, 615 248-2000 Nashville, Tennessee www.theturniptruck.com November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

Now the chain has moved into the former BuyBacks location at 105 Gallatin. Great Escape CEO Gary Walker says that the new location will boast over 6,000 square feet of space, and will include items like magazines and sheet music — previously only available at other locations — in addition to the usual selection of vinyl, comic books, movies, and video games.

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“We heard that Buybacks were relocating back in spring, and immediately contacted Kimco Realty stating our interest in relocating,” Walker says. “We started our Madison store in 1983 in a location about three doors up from Burger King, and when the building next to Old Time Pottery became available, we moved to that location, allowing us to double our small space. Because our

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Madison operation has been quite successful in recent years, it was a natural evolution to relocate to the Buybacks location when it became available.”

Walker says The Great Escape’s main customer base has always been the collector, and, as such, the company’s focus has always been on amassing as many collectibles as possible, operating on the idea the consumer may happen upon items they may not know they want before walking in, but soon after finding, can’t live without.

“Our philosophy of doing business has always been to buy a lot of product, pricing it to sell, and operating on a large volume of sales,” Walker says. “The variety of product that we offer for sale and our business strategy of bargain prices seems to be significant factors in our continuing to be in business almost four decades. It’s always been a part of our strategy even from the time we were a mobile operation doing flea markets and conventions. We have a 15,000-squarefoot warehouse, which allows us to make large acquisitions, and we have buyers who regularly travel to other states when we hear about collections that come up for sale. We also rotate product among our four stores.”

Walker says the new store will be a boon for record collectors in particular. “One factor in our current success has been the resurgence of vinyl, and its continued growth is important to our future,” he says. “Our first priority is to expand our selection, and we expect to have twice as many preowned LPs for sale [than the old store housed]. We will also be expending our selection of singles, both 45s and 78s. We also have space to enlarge our selection of used turntables and speakers, a product line which we feel has great potential for growth.”

Walker says the very nature of his business — appealing to collectors of all sorts — means that customers will travel to find the items they want, and he hopes the location’s upgraded vinyl collection will continue to siphon customers from East Nashville and beyond.

“We have never done any surveys or given any real thought to where our customer base comes from,” Walker says. “I’m sure that some of our customers, particularly those who are avid collectors, frequent both of our Nashville locations. Obviously, we believe The Great Escape has a bright future, or we wouldn’t be in an expansion mode by relocating our Madison store to a bigger location with added overhead. We believe as long as a segment of the public prefers to see and feel the product they’re interested in instead of shopping from a computer monitor, there will continue to be a need for our services.”

—Timothy C. Davis

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Astute OBSERVATIONS James “Hags” Haggerty

An ounce of prevention ...

I

t was a Monday morning. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. The clock radio read 9:35. I did a little math, almost eight hours of sleep. Not bad. I reached for my smartphone and had a nice guided meditation with my man Deepak and his meditation app.

As I brushed my teeth, I pondered the morning’s music selection: Brubeck? Nick Drake? NPR? I heard a faint tapping. Was that a knock? I decided not to answer. Whoever it was, at 10 a.m. on a Monday, was not getting my attention. Curiosity got the better of me, however, and I stepped out to the front room for a look.

A silver SUV was parked in my driveway. The driver, passenger, and the knocker drove off as I peered through the lifted blind. Their car made no other stops on the street. I wondered if some touring band was dropping by, perhaps a campaign of some sort? Was my lawn to be ripped up for sewer maintenance?

I opened the door to investigate. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had stopped by to inform me, via flyer, that I needed to study the Bible. “Since when do Jehovah’s Witnesses only visit one house?” I wondered. Was I a special case? Did my house give off the appearance of holding an overt heathen in need of saving? I felt my nerves begin to jangle. I thought of the recent break-ins nearby.

I began to freak out. The Witnesses were going to drive back by to see if I had opened my door to the message of Jesus. If I hadn’t, they were going to kick it in and take my stuff! I had errands to run. Should I stay or should I go?

I made a list: Kroger, bank … East Side Gun Shop? What would I do if someone kicked my door in? Brain them with the cast iron skillet? Go broadside to the head with the Les Paul bass? I felt myself spiraling from Chopra to O’Reilly. The phrase “cold dead hands” came to mind.

Was there a militia I could join? Maybe I could be in charge of the manifesto?

I took a few deep breaths. I reckoned that if someone were to kick my front door in, I would quickly exit out the back. I decided I did not want a gun for the same reason that I do not want a motorcycle. I began my errands.

As I washed the sap from Frank Sinatra Junior’s exterior, I thought about calling the police. I sat in the car and dialed the nonemergency number. I was informed that due to higher than normal call volume, my hold time would be in excess of 10 minutes. Were the Jehovah’s Witnesses ripping and running through Inglewood?

Were concerned citizens jamming the phone lines?

When I returned to my little cottage, I knew what this column would be about. I thought about us, East Nashville. I thought about the recent muggings and the robberies. I got journalistic. I called the East Precinct and had a very informative and thought-provoking conversation with a police officer. I called my local councilperson.

I have astute observations: We live in an exploding neighborhood in a booming city. There is more money in East Nashville now than there has been since they started bottling the Lockeland Spring. Thieves see money, and they want to take it. There are criminals in the world. Should we live in fear? Should we allow hysteria and paranoia to govern our behavior?

The simple answer is absolutely not. Treat yourselves and your neighbors with respect. Keep an eye out. If you go out for a good time, don’t leave the bar alone and walk home at 3 in the morning. Inventory your valuables.

Make a list of serial numbers so that you can identify your property in the event of theft. When walking to or from your car, scan your surroundings. Get your head out of the phone and pay attention. Thieves like surprise.

Don’t give it to them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

See you around the neighborhood, East Nashville!

I hope you have a happy, healthy, peaceful, and joyous holiday season.

Hags is a part-time bon vivant, man-about-town, and contributor to The East Nashvillian.

His full-time gig is playing songs from first note to last as a bonafide bass player.

Any donations to the Hag’s Foundation will be used for regular maintenance on his beloved land yacht, Frank Sinatra Junior.

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e to pag Turn o read 74 t Hags’ about -life, real ay holid or. v endea

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simple PLEASURES

By Sarah Hays Coomer

I

Bodies in motion

found a butterfly on the sidewalk yesterday — freshly passed, wings fully spread, lying still on its back as if it expired midair and floated to the ground. I picked it up for a friend, an artist who had recently revealed to me her love of such things. Though I cringed at the thought of carrying a butterfly carcass in my hand (not my thing), I figured it would be better served by making the trip to her home than by getting run over by a bike.

It was so large that the only way to transport it without doing damage was in my open palm, cupped gently against my side to prevent the breeze from carrying it away. I corralled my pit bull with my left arm, pulling back on his leash to slow our pace, and set out on the six-block walk home with my right arm crooked stiffly at 90 degrees.

As I walked, protectively hunched over, I could see passing drivers craning their necks to see what was wrong with me and realized that from a distance at 40 miles per hour I must have looked impaired somehow, either injured or disabled. People stared freely, peering out over their dashboards as they drove down the tree-lined street, seemingly unaware that I could see them right back.

It made me think of a personal training client of mine, a young woman — currently 20 years old — who had a stroke at the age of 11. She navigates the world with a severe tremor and no feeling in one side of her body. She has told me what it’s like to be stared at — carelessly, thoughtlessly stared at.

Walking down the sidewalk that day, I felt the drivers’ eyes on me and got a taste of what it’s like to be watched, but not seen, observed as an object of curiosity and pity.

As a woman, I’ve been objectified countless times on the street, dodging catcalls from passing men, but this was different. These stares were not overt. They were silent, sideways observations; strange and disconcerting.

Of course, I wasn’t disabled or injured — I was just transporting a dead butterfly, trying to keep her wings intact. But to do that, I had to make my way down the street with what looked like a broken wing of my own, and that sort of thing makes people nervous. Bodies that don’t conform make people nervous.

I work with other people’s bodies for a living, and the greatest gift I have received from that work is the ability to see beauty in every living, breathing one of them — no matter what size they might be or what disability they might have. Our bodies are all a little odd, but there is reliable elegance in muscle and bone working together to move and lift and breathe.

I catch myself staring at strangers on the street, too, but for a different reason. I’m in awe of their ability to stay coordinated and in motion, to push a double stroller up a hill, to ride a bike, or corral a rambunctious, slobbering, joyful harem of mutts down the street. Sometimes it’s OK to look – but not to judge; instead to watch and learn the value of bodies we so often dismiss or neglect based on how they appear.

The butterfly was delivered safely. By the time she found her final resting place on a small branch in my friend’s curio cabinet, she had arched her back and stiffened into an upright pose with wings back and together, as if about to take flight again.

We all have a broken wing now and then, especially around the holidays with our hearts wide open and the weather putting us on ice. As winter creeps in, I can feel my own wings curling up, my back arching against the cold. But my clients have taught me to feed and nurture my body, to value whatever capacity I have, whenever I manage to have it. Working with them has taught me to notice what’s right with other people’s bodies instead of what’s wrong and take inspiration from that — and to keep right on moving.

Sarah Hays Coomer is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, and prenatal fitness instructor. She kinda likes to exercise, kinda not, and loves all things sugared, salted, fried, or dipped in dark chocolate. She runs a free wellness group in East Nashville for anyone looking to raise a glass to good health, and her book on wellness will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2016.

You can find her at www.strengthoutsidein.com or on twitter @strengthoutside

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Artist in Profile

MERRY BETH

Myrick

Through hard work and self-determination, an East Nashville jewelry designer turned a childhood interest into a livelihood B Y R E B E C A H B OY N T O N

I

mpeccably clad in flat zipper booties and ripped jeans, Merry Beth Myrick is teeming with enthusiasm as she illustrates her passion for metalsmithing, the launch of her custom jewelry line Merry Beth Myrick Designs, and where she finds artistic inspiration. Blue plastic frames and a mane of cocoa brown layers surround a smile that lights up the room. There is a buoyant zest and exuberance about her that makes you silently question what she knows that you don’t. She sits cross-legged in her Holly Street home studio as she launches into an hour of nostalgic show-and-tell.

“See, this is something that really inspires me,” she begins. A slender wrist wrapped in sterling silver bangles dips into a frayed denim pocket to reveal a small round object she presents on an outstretched palm.

At first glance, it looks as if Myrick holds the skull of a blue jay — smooth, gray, hollowed, and delicate. She rolls it across her fingers like an enchanted child admires a trinket. “It’s a petrified walnut we found in our pond filter,” she says. “It must have been there for years. I had to save it. The texture is beautiful.”

Herein lies the foundation of Myrick’s work — a fervent affection for the palettes and textures found in nature coupled with an innate sentimentality for the everyday objects she collects. “I’m sentimental to the extreme,” she confesses, finding inspiration in the tiny

treasures she has saved from her childhood and abroad: a rock from Greece, feathers from Hungary, a seashell from the Gulf of Mexico — each item is a muse, and every story is important.

Although the sentimentality in her work sets Myrick apart, it is her skills as a metalsmith and the fine techniques she employs that keep her clientele in steady rotation.

Copper, brass, sterling silver, and gold are hand-forged, fold-formed, and oxidized, creating hammered lines and crude, natural surfaces. Her blending of mixed metals with semiprecious stones and geometric shapes lends a raw elegance to her designs that has made Myrick one of Nashville’s most up-andcoming jewelry artists.

“I live for raw stones and materials that I can manipulate into beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art,” she says. “I especially love mixing metals. Being raised in the South, we were always taught not to mix our metals, but mixing textures and elements is a huge part of what inspires me to create. So I say wear what you want! It’s all about self-expression. Forget the rules.”

As the daughter of a seamstress and a self-professed “rebel-at-heart,” Myrick developed a love for self-expression at an early age.

She remembers sketching designs for her own outfits at age 8, seeking an individual style that was somewhat difficult to obtain in her hometown of Martin, Tenn.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC ENGLAND 30

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Merry Beth Myrick kicks out the jams.

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Myrick at work in her Lockeland Springs home studio hand-forging the metalwork for one of her signature pendants.

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Artist in Profile “Growing up in a small town, everyone shopped at the same boutiques and wanted the same brands, but I always held an appreciation for original style,” she explains. “I made my own jewelry out of safety pins and beads, and I would draw the clothes I wanted and my mother would create the patterns and sew them for me. She really encouraged me to be creative. I remember going on many trips to Hancock Fabrics with her as a little girl, and thrift stores to buy clothes to repurpose into new outfits.

“My mother is a huge inspiration to me,” she continues. “She knew her style and was comfortable with it; it’s very elegant and put together.

She encouraged me to be myself, to like what I like, and to be confident and happy. It’s why she named me Merry. People ask me all the time why I am always smiling: I’m just happy.”

Coming face-to-face with Myrick’s unbridled enthusiasm is not for the frail. At just shy of 6-feet tall with an almost bone-crushing embrace, Myrick doesn’t just hug, she defibrillates, resurrecting the weary hearts of unsuspecting acquaintances with every signature hug. Like stepping off a roller coaster, you’re left feeling exhilarated, a little wobbly, with a renewed zest for life. “I’m very passionate and oddly strong,” she says. “Besides, it only hurts if I really love you.”

It is still show-and-tell hour in Myrick’s home studio as she leaves the room momentarily to return with a three-layered pearl bracelet. “I made my own prom jewelry when I was in high school,” she says. “For this piece, I used fake pearls and dental floss, but the silver clasp is what’s special.

It belonged to my grandmother and it was such a big deal that she had given it to me. I was so proud.” She adds the pearl bracelet to her wrist of silver bangles, admires her work briefly, and continues without missing a beat.

After high school, Myrick spent four years at the University of Tennessee at Martin working toward a fashion merchandising degree, but transferred to Middle Tennessee State University her senior year to earn an accredited degree in textiles, merchandising, and design. It was there where Myrick began to come into her own as an artist and designer.

“I really began to gain my independence and step outside my box,” she says. “I had never lived anywhere where I didn’t know anyone, so I waited tables, went to school full time, and met so many people. I joined a wonderful design program with other females who enjoyed expressing themselves as much as I did. I challenged myself and wanted to prove myself. It was the best thing I ever did.”

Myrick made the move to Nashville the day she graduated from MTSU and began a career in wardrobe styling and personal shopping. Jewelry was still something she created for friends and herself — buying beads and pendants and putting things together — but it wasn’t until 2005 when she attended her first silversmithing class November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

33

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Artist in Profile

I love Nashville! As an artist, this is such an exciting time to live here. And I’m not leaving.

that she began honing her skills in metal work and jewelry art. “I went to the Donelson Senior Citizen Center for silversmithing and lapidary class,” she says. “I became a member and everything. Needless to say, I was the youngest in attendance.”

With these first classes, Myrick’s work began to skyrocket. She began forming her own metal work, cutting custom stones, and in 2006 she introduced Hardwear Merry — her first handcrafted jewelry line of eclectic, repurposed pieces.

“Hardwear Merry was inspired by the objects I’ve collected from my travels and childhood,” Myrick says. “I take outdated or discarded pieces and redesign them to create something new, original, and beautiful. It’s low-impact, bohemian, and very sentimental.”

Hardwear Merry Jewelry has been featured in boutiques such as Alegria and Pangaea in Nashville, and A. Wickey Gallery in Seacrest Beach, Fla., but can now be purchased through the company’s website or by custom order. Myrick also hosts jewelry sales on her Facebook page every Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Today, Myrick is an accomplished metalsmith and jewelry designer who pushes her skill set through continued education.

She has completed classes and workshops at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Sarratt Art Studio at Vanderbilt University, and Indiana University in the MFA metalsmiths program. Her boutique studio is a veritable workshop with torches for soldering, kilns for enameling, a mix of mandrels for shaping, and more hammers than most people will own in a lifetime.

Unpolished stones, gauged wires, and sheets of metal fill every drawer, folder, and chest.

This year marks the official launch of her hand-forged metal design line, Merry Beth

Myrick Designs, and the release of her newest collection is set to premier this fall. Expect to see an emphasis on semiprecious stones like moody jaspers and deeply saturated agate contrasted with textured copper, sterling silver, and brass. Myrick also hosts personal shopping experiences for customers in her boutique studio where clients can peruse her original pieces or place a custom order.

“I love creating custom orders for my clients,” she says. “They open up to me and tell me their stories, and I’m able to learn so much about them through the process. Being able to design lasting pieces for them and touch them in that way is amazing, because to me, the gift is just as important to the giver as it is to the receiver.”

Looking to the future, Myrick says, “My goal is to keep expanding my knowledge and talent as a jewelry designer. I want to grow my business and keep breaking rules. I’m going to continue to create self-expressive, original pieces of sophisticated, timeless jewelry.

“I love Nashville!” she adds. “As an artist, this is such an exciting time to live here. And I’m not leaving.”

Turn to Page 44 of our 2015 Gift Guide to see a sample of Myrick’s work.

37206.

More real than estate.

Aaron Armstrong Real Estate Consultant, East Nashville Resident 615.807.0579 | For a free home value visit EastNashvilleHomeValue.com

INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Catch the shuttle to the show from the 5 Spot at 5:30 and Soulshine Pizza 6:00.

musiccityroots.com November | December 2015

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Poetic CATHARSIS Coping with the loss of a dear friend led to East Nashville writer’s new chapbook, Stamped

P H OTO GR A PH BY CA IN B A RN E S

T

he call came at 3 a.m., a time of day when phone calls rarely bear good news.

A little more than five years ago, East Nashville writer and poet Emma Alford was at her boyfriend’s house in her hometown of Cleveland, Miss., when her ringing phone woke her at that wee hour from a restful sleep.

By the time she had finished hearing what her best friend’s sister had called to tell her, more than Alford’s sleep had been disturbed.

Much more.

“When you get a phone call like that at 3 in the morning, you know it can’t be good,” Alford says of the moment she had learned that her absolutely best friend, Cassidy Grant, had been in a car accident and suffered severe brain injuries that would lead to her death just a few days later. “It completely shook me, I was very numb. I was sick to my stomach and really, really angry at that point — and then it turned to sadness.”

Alford and Grant had both just turned 20 that summer of 2010 — within a week of each other, in fact — teetering, as Alford puts it, between adolescence and adulthood. The two had known each other since middle school, where they became fast friends and were each other’s foundation through high school.

Grant left to attend college in Texas, but a physical distance was not enough to keep them apart.

Grant’s death left Alford out of sorts and in a haze, but she soon found that writing about it eased her pain somewhat. She continued writing and found it had a way of bringing forth all those feelings she had internalized.

Those writings have led to Alford’s completion of a new chapbook titled Stamped, a collection of poems in which she taps into the experience of losing someone who is very, very close. Scheduled for publishing in mid-January, Stamped incorporates a series of postcards that Grant had regularly sent to Alford after she had moved to Texas. Alford’s poems are a conversation of sorts with her deceased friend, directing each line toward her. They capture the

experience of loss, but also the humor and subtleties of a friendship cut short much too early.

“I know the feeling of loss is very universal, it’s something that everyone experiences and something we all have to deal with at some point,” says Alford, who is also calendar editor and a regular contributor for The East Nashvillian. “I hope that, in that way, it can be comforting to someone else who has lost a friend. I hope that someone who has lost someone can read it and know it’s OK to feel the way they feel and that it is probably healthy to feel that way.”

Alford has enjoyed writing since she was a little girl, her jottings-filled notebook always at her side. When classes at Delta State University in Cleveland resumed a few weeks after Alford had lost her best friend, she enrolled in a poetry workshop class taught by poet Mike Smith. One of her assignments was to write an anagram of another piece of work, and she chose to use one of the many postcards she had received from Grant. The idea to merge the postcards with the poetry took off from there.

“Writing these poems was very cathartic for me,” she says. “I had things I needed to get out, and I couldn’t say them because when you’re that sad about something, your voice breaks and you can’t vocalize it. But you can write about it. I think writing about her — I was talking to her when I was writing them — was my way of communicating things that I couldn’t say to her anymore. I think that was more helpful than anything else I could have done.”

The chapbook’s title has a double meaning, with one being the more obvious reference to stamps that are used for mailing postcards.

“It also refers to the imprint that someone leaves behind on a person, the way someone marks you in life and shapes the way you live your life,” Alford says. “I can safely say that Cassidy has left a huge imprint on my life, the kind of person I am. She actually did that before she passed away. I think people have that with a lot of relationships.”

Stamped, from Finishing Line Press, is Alford’s first published work of poetry. The book will be available online at www.finishinglinepress.com. More information can also be found on Alford’s website at www.emmaalford.com.

By John McBryde November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

KNOW your NEIGHBOR

“i

Bob BORZAK

’ve been in East Nashville 30 years. Same campaign) didn’t happen,” he says. “But house on Woodland — we bought it one of my campaign promises was to do condemned. My mother used to give me a something about Cayce.

by Tommy Womack hard time because everybody Continuing, he adds, “People else in the family bought houses, said it can’t be done, it won’t be and she kept bugging me: ‘When done, others have already tried, are you gonna have kids and buy a and I wouldn’t be doing myself house?’ So I bought one. She comes any favors by trying further.” to see it and breaks down in tears.

But after his health scare and Says, ‘you wait all this time to buy his scuttled campaign, he says, a house and this is the best you “I didn’t have to worry about it got?’ I tried to explain to her, I’m anymore, since I wasn’t going a designer, so to me this is a clean to be elected to city council, so slate! I redesigned that house and now it was going to be an independent effort.” built a business around it after He was sent home from the that. So yeah, this fall is 30 years. hospital on election day, and November ’85.” ran fortuitously into Randall The East Side has certainly Gilberd, an investment banker been fertile loam for fixerwith a sympathetic ear. The uppers, and many residents two of them founded the gamely refurbish their homes.

Cayce Place Revitalization Some enjoy it, and once in Foundation. The mission a while someone finds their statement was “to break the calling. Since wrestling his cycle of multigenerational own decrepit domicile into poverty through the holistic shape, Bob Borzak has been revitalization of Cayce Place, redesigning other people’s including mixed-income houskitchens and home theaters, ing, world-class schools, and a among other things, for three broad network of social supdecades, and his ambitions port programs.” That was 2012, haven’t been limited to simple and things moved quickly dwelling houses. In the past few from there. years, he’s set his sights on what Taking their cue from may be the ultimate challenge: Purpose Built Communities, a Cayce Place Homes. All of them. foundation which spearheaded Called an island of poverty successful neighborhood revitalization programs in Atlanta surrounded by renewal, Cayce and New Orleans, they set sights Place — and any redevelopment on a holistic ground-up reinvention thereof — had long been considered of the neighborhood. “There is a a dead issue. But Borzak was one of provision for another school to be a small cadre of believers who saw built on the property,” Borzak says. possibilities. He is the vice president “Purpose Built Communities feels and cofounder of the Cayce Place the important thing is that all the Revitalization Foundation, a group schools are neighborhood schools, so that spearheaded a strategy: moving the kids don’t have to take buses.” the residents out into temporary Borzak’s and Gilberd’s efforts got them both nominated for 2013 housing, razing and rebuilding their houses, and moving the residents back into a far more attractive environment that would include East Nashvillian of the Year. Since then, Metro Development and schools and amenities, and a whole new sense of possibilities for all Housing Agency (MDHA) has approved the Cayce project, and what who live there. was once judged impossible is now in the pipeline.

A gentle, white-haired man with glasses and a spray of whiskers, So what does he like to do when not reinventing the neighborhood? “I love to cook,” he says. “I love to go camping. My whole Borzak is a Cleveland native who studied industrial design at Auburn family are tent campers and backpackers when we have the energy University before settling in Nashville. “I’ve lived here now longer than to do that. And I’ve been involved with the neighborhood here for I’ve ever lived anywhere else,” he says, “so I consider myself somewhat years. We set up a neighborhood watch group, which I’ve been a part of a native.” of since the tornado happened. We’ve got one of the lowest crime Always active in the community, he once mounted a campaign for rates in the city now. And a lot of it has to do with the neighborhood city council. “In the middle of running for council, I decided to have working together.” a brain aneurysm, which didn’t bode well, so needless to say it (the

“

P H OTO GR A PH BY KE LL I D IR KS

We’ve got one of the lowest crime rates in the city now.

And a lot of it has to do with the neighborhood working together.

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Dr. Summer Mobley

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On staff since 1978

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Auburn University 1978

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

2015 holiday ** * ** *

GIFT GUIDE D

eck the halls and roll your cheese balls — the holiday season has returned. Skip the mall and forget Amazon, we’ve got some great ideas for gifts that can be found right here in Nashville. We hope this will help your make a dent in those daunting shopping lists with some of our favorite local gift items that’ll stand out under any tree.

Critters for the

Baxter Bailey & Company, a bowwow

boutique, is great fur the mutt on your list. They offer quality items for high-class hounds. We love all their merchandise, but these Tiger Seamz toys are durable and adorable — they’re adurable! They’re seatbelt-seemed, mega-stuffed, and fitted with invincible squeakers for even the chompiest of cujos.

GIFT GUIDE

By Emma Alford

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Owl - $10.99 Squirrel - $19.99

1006 Fatherland St. #101A 800.535.8184

J Prices vary between individual commissions, so please request a quote 1108-C Woodland St. 615.496.1259

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You can find John Cannon Fine Arts in the Idea Hatchery at 5 Points. He offers painting classes to folks of all ages and skill levels, sells his artwork, and will commission a piece that’s perfect for your home. We East Nashvillians love our animals, so a pet portrait could make a purr-fect present for someone this holiday. Speak with John about his commission work. Spot sure would look good in acrylic, don’t you think?

Nobody likes the smell of a wet dog, nobody.

For someone flustered by bathing their fur balls, Cloud 9 Mobile Grooming has them covered. The mobile pet grooming service comes to their clients, so forget about those anxiety-filled trips to the groomer.

The hours spent cleaning up after a bath catastrophe can be a thing of the past. We think a gift certificate from Cloud 9 Mobile Grooming would be the perfect present to the animal lover on your list. It will have some tails a waggin’.

Services starting at $65

615.351.8473 cloud9mobliegrooming.com

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GIFT GUIDE

Pamper

New for the

yourself

PONY SHOW East Nashville has strokes for all kinda folks: adults and tots.

Of course we love anything that represents the East Side so these onesies were a MUST for our gift guide. “Some Bunny” onsies and kids tees are America made products printed on 100 percent organic cotton with environmentally friendly ink. Onesies come in sizes 3-24 months. Kid tees available in sizes 2-6.

Matching mama tees are printed on organic bamboo.

Some Bunny onesies & kid tees - $32 Some Bunny ladies t-shirt - $44

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needs covered. Organic facials, massages, mud baths, soaks, scrubs, and soaps — they have it all. They’re East Nashville transplants, but we are SO happy they made the move.

We think a jar of their house-made clay mask would make a fantastic present. Their face will thank you later.

Going Green- $24 Tickled Pink - $24 Moroccan - $28

922 Main St. Suite C. 615.750.3701

Music City Healing Arts takes a unique

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holistic approach to massage and wellness in general. Owner Jillian Reed specializes in Thai Yoga massages, acupressure, and reflexology. Reed isn’t your typical massage therapist, and she can guarantee customized service suitable for anyone on your list.

So whatever the needs of that special someone might be, you can let them decide by picking up a customized gift certificate from Music City Healing Arts today.

Services starting at $50 801 Woodland St. 615.243.6068

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O.liv Body Bar has everyone’s pampering

723 Porter Road Instagram@ponyshownashville ponyshownashville.com

Onesies - $15

615.810.9113 smilemommy.com

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Smile Mommy! Diaper Service

services the dirty baby bottoms of East Nashville and beyond. They’re the only cloth diaper service in town, providing delivery and pickup of 100 percent cloth diapers, plus all the needed accouterment, right to your door.

Weekly pickup makes for happy babies and even happier parents. This year we are loving these punny onesies: “POOP it happens” and “Change Me.” They are adorable for any diaper-donning babe on your list. The onesies, from Rabbit Skins, are 100 percent cotton with easy-tear labels to keep that sensitive baby skin smooth. Available in sizes 6 to 24 months.

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Divine Art Café serves toffee with a mission. They’ve been making toffee for sometime, but the café is relatively new to the East Side. This candy stop is a nonprofit that gives back to the community by employing individuals in recovery, the disabled, and the elderly. Visit the café for breakfast or lunch and pick up a few boxes of this delicious sticky stuff. They have some mouth-watering flavors to choose from: butterscotch, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and coconut. You can buy this gift knowing that it goes right back into helping at-need individuals in your community.

Box of toffee - $12 each 604 Gallatin Ave. Suite 109 615.953.1325

GIFT GUIDE

Mom Sweet Tooth for the

Sweets for a sweetheart? Or maybe just that coworker you have no clue what to get. Nashville Sweets will help lay it on thick with their scrumptious selection of sugary goodness. They specialize in custom cakes, cookies, cake pops, and many more dessert treats. We love their adorable designs.

They’re so cute you could just eat ’em up. If a sugar fix is on your list, snag up some of these freshly made, hand-painted sugar cookies or cake pops, available in perfectly festive designs.

Cake pops come in half-dozen gift boxes or go full monty with an entire dozen in a standup gift arrangement.

Cake pop gift arrangement (12) - $30, half dozen - $15 Hand painted sugar cookies - $6 each 803 Woodland St. 615.707.2832

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GIFT GUIDE

Her for

J This gift allows you to say, “You’re glowing.”

Glow Skincare has every lady’s facial needs covered, including facials, waxing, laser treatment, injectables, and more. Grab a gift certificate and let the lady on your list choose just what she needs. They will have some special offers available between now and the holiday, so call ’em up to see what kind of deal they can cut you.

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Leah McIntyre necklaces from $64-208

1106 Woodland St. 615.226.2070

Ladies love the outdoors, too.

Davidson Farmers Co-Op has an

array of supplies for those who’d rather spend their time breathing in the fresh fall air. They have a selection of ladies Under Armour gear to keep everyone warm and stylish when the temps start to drop this season. Pick up a piece to keep the women on your list warm this year.

Please visit the Co-Op for prices and selection

3511 Dickerson Pike 615.860.4774

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In the heart of 5 Points you’ll find Art and Invention Gallery. They’ve been around for years and they’re behind the beloved Tomato Art Fest. Art and Invention offers a huge selection of artistic styles and price ranges in fine art, crafts, original furniture, and jewelry — fit for any size budget. They have several beautiful pieces from jeweler Leah McIntyre; just gawk at this Druzy crystal necklace with labradorite beads.

We are obsessed with East Nashvillian Merry Beth Myrick’s jewelry — as you can probably tell since she’s our “Artist in Profile” for this issue. Merry Beth Myrick Designs is a hand forged, uniquely sophisticated line of timeless jewelry with a strong emphasis on individuality, originality, quality construction, and American sourcing, all produced right here on the East Side. She names the pieces after family members (including ones of the canine variety), making this unique work even more personal.

Gift certificates starting at $20 1013 Fatherland St. 615.226.4627

Riverside Village Pharmacy has more

than just your prescriptions. They’ve got the charming vibe of an old-timey drug store with an assortment of local goodies and that aspirin you stopped there for in the first place.

Molly Earrings - $176 Betty Necklace - $310 merrybethm@gmail.com Instagram & Facebook @Merry Beth Myrick Designs

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For the health-conscious chick, check out their stocked supply of holistic supplements, providing a little bit of everything — from everyday vitamins to the more specific needs like cold busters and energy boosters.

Riverside also carries the Hello Soap line of all-natural soaps, scrubs, and salves. Both all natural and locally made, these will have any lady on your list singing in the shower.

Hello Soap - $4.25-16.99 Holistic products - $7.99-18.99 1406 McGavock Pike 615.650.4444

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GIFT GUIDE

Him for

Hunter’s Custom Automotive has been in the vehicle biz for over 45 years now.

They are the perfect spot for the car fanatic on your list. They have grills, guards, gears, rims, tinting, and more. They have over 5,000 items spanning the full gamut of supplies to supe up anyone’s whip. The Trifecta Soft Folding Tonneau Cover is a great buy for the truck driver.

This truck bed cover guarantees easy installation, durability, and is spring loaded for easy opening and closing.

It is custom-sized for any pickup, so PICK UP yours today.

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Tonneau - $339 with installation 975 Main St. 615.227.6584

J J At Davidson Farmers Co-Op you can probably find a boatload of gifts for the guys on your list, but these Orca coolers are extra cool for any outdoorsmen. They have heat/ cold retention technology and come with a lifetime warranty. Plus, they come in plenty of different sizes, so estimate the number of beers he’ll need to fit in it and go from there. We also think Orca’s coffee mugs and tumblers are a great add-on or stocking stuffer, to keep that hot cocoa or coffee piping hot.

3511 Dickerson Pike 615.860.4774

Heater - $94.99

1018 Woodland St. 615.227.1240

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Please visit the Co-Op for prices and selection

Cumberland Hardware is East Nashville’s charming neighborhood tool shop in the heart of 5 Points. They have any screw, nut, or bolt you could ever wish for, sold with a heavy dose of hometown charm.

Plus, we love that you get to visit with their friendly shop cats (you’ve probably seen them bathing in the sun in the storefront windows).

Everyone needs to stay warm during these brutal winter months, so let someone on your list cozy up with this Homebasix Vertical Infrared Quartz Heater. It’s a sturdy hot spot with thermal overload protection and the tip-over safety feature.

For the classy stogie smoker on your list, East Nashville’s premier cigar shop Smokers Abbey has everything you need. They have all the necessary gadgets and doo-dads for the cigar enthusiast. This fine East Nashville tobacconist has a full setup for the selective smoker; we recommend this bundle: a portable humidor, lighter, and a quartet of velvety cigars. Make their gift go up in smoke.

Humidor - $21 Lighter - $13

604 Gallatin Ave. #102. 615.678.8458

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MENU: GALLEiLRLYEs&wEEts.coM

N As h v

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GIFT GUIDE

Rock star for the

Another Nashville staple, the Country Music Hall of Fame, is a quintessen-

tial stop in our city. But since you can’t fit the museum in a box under the tree, take the next best thing and grab some swag from the CMHF shop, Circa.

The Country greats looked even greater in person, but these shirts will have to do for a gift. Check out Circa’s awesome selection of t-shirts featuring music legends, like this Graham Parson’s pick.

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And last but not least, you can’t go wrong with this killer cowgirl scarf. Seriously — what’s not to love?.

1101 Holly St. 615.750.5746

224 5th Ave S. 615.256.2805

Fender Lunchbox - $14.95 Graham Parson’s T-shirt - $45 Cowgirl Scarf - $14.95 222 5th Ave. S. 615.416.2001

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Delgado Guitars is a family-run, handmade guitar business. Manuel Delgado, a third generation guitar guru, now runs the show. Every instrument is uniquely customized and one-of-a-kind. You won’t find another place like Delgado, which is why we think they have the perfect gift for the rocksmith this year. They have all your needs covered, be it new instruments, accessories, or repairs — they do it all. However, for this guide we’re highlighting something basic that every player needs. Check out Delgado’s selection of awesome straps, perfect to gussy up any ole guitar. Also of note, Delgado is offering free installation on electric pickups purchased in store through the New Year.

919 Gallatin Ave. #10 615.227.4578

Hey, Swashbuckling Santas, you’ve got to add this CD to your holiday jam mix. Landlocked resident East Nashville pirates Tom Mason and the Blue Buccaneers have released an album to bring you all kinds of seasonal seafaring cheer. “A Pirate’s Christmas” will be the best (and only, we’re assuming) pirate Christmas album you’ll own. It has 11 tracks to shiver ye’ timbers — including a piratical reimagining of “The Night Before Christmas.” Walk the plank, shoppers. Order your copy online; these pirates offer discounts for multiple copies. Don’t worry, they accept payments other than gold. tommason.net

Guitar straps - $19.95 (while supplies last) Free installation on pickups purchased in store.

Offer good though 1/1/16

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Tote bag - $25 Coffee mug - $9.95

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T-shirts - $20

If you’re a local, we don’t have to explain what Hatch Show Print is all about, you just know. For the music lover, pick up one of the classic Hatch poster prints, a tote bag (everybody needs one), or a coffee mug — or all three! It is such a uniquely Nashville gift we recommend these items for everyone, rock star or not.

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Shopping for a music lover? You must stop

by Fanny’s House of Music (the name makes that obvious, right?). Fanny’s has plenty of strummin’ instruments for the pickers and grinners, plus tons of vintage goodies. We can’t get over their spectacular screen-printed tees. Any rock star must own one of these stylish tops if they ever expect to make it on the Ryman stage. Show Fanny’s some love by snagging one of these beauts.

They’re locally designed by Scott Guion and printed by Friendly Artic. Extra soft, and available in all sizes.

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Every young rock star needs a Fender lunch box: just fill it with some sweet tea, Nashville hot chicken, and Goo Goo Clusters.

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CD - $15

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GIFT GUIDE

Homestead for the

All Seasons Gardening & Brewing Supply Co. is a prime spot for all all kinds

of gifts for all kinds of folks. They offer organic gardening and home brewing products that are earth-friendly and dedicated to environmental preservation.

Wallpaper & Designer Home Consignments has the most diverse

609 Lafayette St. 615.324.1010

Now this Drexel Mid-Century Hutch is a gorgeous addition to any home. We all know how “in” mid-century furniture is these days.

Santa can’t fit this one down the chimney.

The home-brewer on your list might enjoy Ricki’s Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheese Making Kit. Recipes and supplies include enough to make 30 1-pound batches. Now that’s a cheesy gift.

Drexel Midcentury - $1,888 Trapp Candles - $25 - 45 Spray - $15

On the green front, All Seasons has a stylish Ragna Hanging Planter, which comes with a 22-inch cable for hanging from any nook or cranny. You can even buy them preplanted and ready to go. We’re also green about their Terrarium Combo Spheres — perfect for low maintenance moss and air plant designs. The folks at All Seasons will help you get it planted and throw in some twine for hanging.

Cheese making kit - $25.99 The Ragna Hanging plant - $39 Terrarium Sphere - $17.99 924 8th Ave. S. 615.214.5465

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

$23 per bottle

Otto’s Framing Co. is on call for all your framing needs. They will build custom frames tailored to your size, style, and budget. But they’re not only about square frames; they made our gift guide for their unique wood cutting boards. This checkerboard chopping block is made from local Tennessee walnut and maple wood and finished with food-safe mineral oil and beeswax. It’s the perfect, unique edition to any kitchen.

Cutting board - $110

615.861.9663 ottosframes.com

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3701 Gallatin Pike 615.292.7590

Visiting City Winery Nashville is an experience. The space is unique: a fully functioning winery, a fine dining restaurant, and a music venue. For the wine lover this year, pick up a bottle of Roundabout Red or Two Rivers Chardonnay from their reserves.

Add a Vinofile membership for VIP perks at the venue. It’s the kind of present that warms you from the inside out.

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selection of wallpaper in the city (hence the name) and a vast selection of home décor items, with the variety to fit any feng shui you’ve got going on. We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite items, with a range in price depending on for whom you’re purchasing.

These Trapp candles have high-quality fragrances and are an easy gift pick. Candles are always a safe bet for that not-so-easy-toshop-for someone.

for

Readers Defunct Books is new to East Nashville,

so help welcome them on the scene this holiday season. Defunct specializes in used, out-of-print, rare, and collectible books.

They’re buyers, sellers, and traders, which is good for everyone. We drooled over their gorgeous vintage collection of Tolkien. Along with signed collectables and rare 1st editions, one of these bounded beauties would make a lovely present for the discerning bookworm/ collector on your list.

See the store for details

3511 Dickerson Pike 615.860.4774

Contrary to the name, there are no gifts of the equestrian variety at PONY SHOW East Nashville, but you will find oodles of interesting, locally made items and vintage finds. For that friend always blaming all their problems on Mercury Retrograde, Pony Show has a beautiful 2016 moon magic lunar calendar. Each is individually printed, numbered, signed, and embellished with gold detail. The print features the moon detail for each day of the year, plus all the important cosmic happenings listed on the side. To take this astrological gift a step further, you could pick up one of their Gold Dust moon cycle tees; printed with environmentally friendly ink on American-made, enzyme-washed tees.

The stars will thank you.

Abode Mercantile is a petite little shop

with an all-too fitting name, located in the Shoppes on Fatherland. They specialize in locally made and crafted gourmet foods, homewares, and other great assorted gift items. They’ve got some great bath products to warm and soothe those winter-chilled bones. Pick up some Soak bath salts, soaps, and scrubs — polish off the gift with their body cream. Added plus: they’re usually serving hot coffee or cocoa to warm those winter fingers while you shop.

118 S. 11th St. 615.928.8963

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around for over half a century, all the while proffering supplies for all of your gardening, farming, and home project needs. If you’re shopping for a green thumb, some Botanical Interest seeds would make a great present for the urban gardener. Plus, when it’s harvest time you can invite yourself over for dinner without seeming rude.

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J Davidson Farmers Co-Op has been

Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner, 1st edition - $125 Hockey Tonk (signed by players on the team) - $35 Lord of the Rings trilogy (including 1st U.S. edition of The Return of the King) by J. R. R. Tolkien - $1,000

Soak Bath Salts - $15.99 Soak Shea Butter Cream - $9.99 Soak Natural Soap Bar - $8.49

1006 Fatherland St. #102A 800.535.8184

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2016 lunar calendar - $18 Gold Dust moon cycle ladies t-shirt - $44 723 Porter Rd. Instagram @ponyshownashville ponyshownashville.com

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GIFT GUIDE

Homestead for the

Fat Crow Press — the home base of artist Julie Sola — can absolutely guarantee a one-of-kind gift, literally. Each one of her linoleum and woodcut prints is slightly different. She has all sorts of handmade items featuring her designs, including lamps, pillows, puppets, fabrics, prints, and more.

These precious tea towels will stand out in any kitchen.

cont.

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Tea Towel - $20 each

1108 Woodland St. Unit D 615.364.1567

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Citrus Lavender Soap - $4.99 Thrive Oils - $9.99 1100 Fatherland St #107 615.944.1534

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Thrive, a “store with a cause,” is a special little stop on your shopping trail. They offer a fresh take on things, selling only sustainable, fair trade, and organic products. You can find a menagerie of present picks at Thrive — home items, accessories, essential oils, and more. Thrive’s own line of products offers some great options for gifts; check out their soaps and essential oils below. We also dig their rose water spray.

Nest 615 is as the name says, a treasure

trove nest of sorts. They stock antique furniture, plus plenty of vintage odds and ends, including jewelry, housewares, and more. This cute little shop is charmer and we assure you will find some uncommon and distinct gifts, including this vintage decorative hanging picture. And while you’re there, check out these unique button rings — they might be just the thing to finish out your shoppping list.

Hanging picture - $8 Button rings -$10

1110 Gallatin Ave. 615.873.4314

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GIFT GUIDE

Creative for the

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We think giving the gift of music, in Music City, is the perfect idea. The Nashville Symphony offers gift cards in any denomination; they can be used toward concert tickets, drinks at the bar, or shopping in the Symphony Store. Purchase yours at the Schermerhorn, by phone, or on their website.

Gift card

1 Symphony Place 615.337.6398

J Take someone to OZ this holiday season.

Nashville Repertory Theatre brings Nashville amazing plays that captivate audiences all year long. Their seasons are filled with creative shows that inspire and engage the community through live theatre. Buy someone on your list tickets to an upcoming show of “A Christmas Story” while you still can. It’s not a Red Ryder BB Gun, but this gift won’t shoot your eye out either.

Tickets start at $25

OZ Arts Nashville is our city’s unique

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505 Deaderick St. 615.244.4878

destination for experiencing unique contemporary visual and performing art. Choose to give someone the gift of an OZ membership this year and they will have access to free admission to select programs, a free ticket to a visiting artist season performance, special invitations to Take OZ-only events, and more. Oh yeah, and you get a free T-shirt with each membership.

Take OZ membership: $100, T-shirt included

Email membership@ozartsnashville.org or call 615.350.7200 to purchase. 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle.

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Drew Holcomb at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Beyond faith

Drew Holcomb makes a joyful noise

by Holly Gleason | photography by Eric England November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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t’s 7:30 on another Monday morning. But with the Americana Music Association Awards three days away, most practitioners of the grayest genre in the world are already over-scheduled and trying to fit whatever they can in whichever cracks they can find. Or so it is for the industrious, the committed, those artists who know when you work beyond easy genre definitions making a career work means always being adaptable.

Tucked in a private booth in the back of a bustling downtown restaurant, a man with an impossibly dark, impossibly thick beard sits thoughtfully, if not affably, over his coffee. If 7:30 in the morning isn’t a very rock & roll hour to be getting down to the business of discussing his artistry, he is passionate enough about his work to not just be there, but to arrive early — and awake.

Immediately following, there’s a photo shoot at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where he will headline on Dec. 23. He has “the hat,” the one he’s known for, in the car; but for now, he is once more a man of a certain age, having breakfast and talking about the things he’s passionate about before the work day begins. Only Drew Holcomb’s passion is his work.

Indeed. Holcomb is the oddest kind of artist: someone not only willing to do the work, but someone invested on a cellular level in the music he makes. For the Memphis-born, -raised, and -honed singer-songwriter — and leader of the East Nashville-grounded band The Neighbors — his career is in large part built by tens of thousands of miles driven in a Volvo wagon, myriad songs written on the path to songs like “Live Forever,” which became the anchor of TNT’s 2011 Emmy-winning NBA commercial Basketball Forever, and selling out the hallowed Ryman Auditorium earlier this year.

Success didn’t just happen. It wasn’t some momentum supernova. Drew Holcomb showed up, and showed up, and showed up.

Just like this morning. In spite of glaring early morning sun, horribly tangled traffic, and the theoretically unrock & roll hour, he showed up.

And — for a man whose music leans to the melancholy and whose resting countenance suggests a strong bent towards taciturn — he’s happy to be here.

“When I was first planning on being a musician, I told my father I was going to be a traveling singer-songwriter, and he said, ‘Are you going to work hard at it?’” Holcomb offers,

sweeping away any notion he’s put himself out, doing an interview at such an unglamorous hour. “I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘Well, OK then.’”

Holcomb’s voice drifts off. Not because he pinched off some piece of the story he didn’t intend to tell, but to consider the weight of what giving his word meant all those years ago as a boy from Memphis going to the University of Tennessee and trying to find his place in the world.

His dad was a dentist, who got bored and started a financial services business. “He was a risk taker, but he showed me you can do what you want. You just have to do it. And to this day, if I’m playing Nashville or Memphis, he’s there — and he’s bought 10 tickets. He’s very social, and he’s always inviting people to come to the show. In Memphis, it’s why my fan base skews a little bit older.”

Holcomb understands that careers that last

Opening a four-week residency for Cory Brennan at the P & H Café, billed as “The Beer Joint of Your Dreams” on its own website, clarity struck the young songwriter still seeking his voice. If he wanted to make it work, he was going to have to change his game, get a focus and an anchor.

“When I decided to move back to Knoxville, to try to convince Ellie to marry me, I was like ‘What am I doing?’ And that’s when it started to change.”

Ellie. Daughter of producer Brown Bannister, music lover, fellow UT student, soon to be a creative pivot in Holcomb’s life, both as a member of his band The Neighbors and as inspiration for the songs, as well as the woman who’d become the mother of his children and eventually the 2014 Gospel Music Association Dove Award winner for Best New Artist, Ellie Holcomb provided a great anchor as well as the wings for this story of a true working-class musician.

Back then, with a badly broken heart, knowing her friend’s intention, the young English major who received her Masters of Science in teacher education a year later — as well as creating a thesis entitled “Singing Shakespeare: Music Inspired by the Master of the Word” that provided a way to teach the Bard through cross-disciplines — was not ready to embark on a romance with the darkest browneyed man. So like all the great Shakespearian plays, Holcomb found himself bound to this woman he loved by their shared love of music.

“I wanted to teach history, and I met Ellie through music. We were both music junkies in college, going over the mountain to see Damien Rice at The Orange Peel — Nickel Creek, Rilo Kiley, Guster, Pat Green. We took a class together in Appalachian folk music, which required a few road trips. We were friends for years; she was singing with me whenever I’d play Knoxville.”

And like so many young dreamers, Holcomb was trying to put a career together, while trying to woo a girl who wasn’t having it. “I had friends at Auburn, Opileka. I did the open mic nights at Eddie’s Attic [in Atlanta], I’d play Knoxville and Memphis.”

Speaking, his voice is flat, easy. Like his songs, he eschews drama in the telling. Even keel, he knows in many ways none of this story is special. Except he’s here, and he made his dreams — of music, of love, of family — come true in a way that may defy America’s bigger/ faster paradigm, but it is exactly as he’d hoped.

Patience. Perseverance. Showing up.

“I said, ‘When you’re ready for your first date, I think I’ve earned it,” Holcomb recounts of a courtship that started to be serious as →

Music is a “soundtrack

that gives people hope.” are built slowly, often through the process of grueling self-examination and the willingness to show people who you are beneath the bravado. Scrape away the obvious, see what’s left.

It’s the soul search in the music that makes it matter.

For a kid playing covers in a Memphis bar, trying to cobble together “the life,” music was also a way of finding out who he was — and music as road to self-discovery is part of the reason his plain-spoken lyrics have found such connection beyond the sizzle of the more established record business.

“When I was young, there was a pressure to be cool, maybe 21 to 25 years old,” he confesses. “You know, stay out late and create a story that really wasn’t who I am. I was in Memphis, and in some ways, you’re always that person you were growing up.”

Playing music where your friends come out and drink beer can, indeed, arrest one’s development. Somehow, though, the young man recognized without knowing there was more to it than being a hero in your hometown.

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Anybody’s view influences the paradoxes of my faith:

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their music, but one of it’s been defined by doubt.

”

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he was getting more serious about chasing his music. “I was writing her letters every 10 days.

I also hired David Mead to play a Knoxville show for her and her friends as a graduation present right after Indiana came out.

“At the Double Decker Festival in Oxford, Miss. — Emmylou and Buddy Miller were headliners — I pulled her aside, and said, ‘I’ve been thinking about our conversation, and is it time for that date?’”

Their first date was Patty Griffin at the Ryman in 2005. They sat in the back row. Five months later, they were engaged.

Newly wed, trying to make it happen, he did what so many do: hit the road, played his songs, made little records — starting with 2005’s Washed in Blue — and kept trying to build a foundation that would create a career.

“I’d been picked up by a little college booking agency — Wally’s World of Entertainment — and I was lugging my own tiny PA into a lunchroom at a little community college where kids would see me and put in their ear buds.

Two and a half years, 250,000 miles.”

That’s a hard way to go. Missing his wife, he suggested she quit teaching or he quit music. His biggest fan, Ellie said, “Let me finish the school year.” In May, she was on the road, adding her distinct voice — an almost earthily ethereal contrast to the solid earnest tone of Holcomb’s baritone — to his songs of longing, faith, love, and hardship.

He also looked at the songs he was writing — “Kings of Leon one day, Steve Earle the next: I was writing my influences, all these adulterated things — and started to wonder.”

S

omeone had told Holcomb, “When you write the right songs, they’ll do the work for you.” The songs that were populating his first few albums weren’t, even though he was sure they were. Frustrated that nothing was happening, Holcomb had arrived at the proverbial crossroads.

“I’m a hustler,” he explains. “I’ve always been able to scratch out a living. I booked myself for six years, probably 600 shows. Just call up, ‘Hey, Mr. Club Owner Guy, wanna book a show?’ I had a philosophy: try 10 things, if one worked, that was a good day.”

But getting by and growing are very different things, especially when your music matters to you so intensely. He began to think about the future, about the band that grew out of his East Nashville friends, The Neighbors.

“Ellie and I’d just had a conversation that it wasn’t really working,” he confesses. “I’d play Atlanta twice a year; we’d gone from 80 to 120 to 400. But where to from there? We decided we’d give it ’til Christmas.”

Things were changing, not the least being his writing. “Live Forever,” the song that went on to drive that Emmy-winning NBA campaign for TNT, poured out of him quickly. Written for his nieces and nephew, it is a song of hope

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and light, seeking faith without preaching and believing in what can be instead of the world’s obvious harshness.

“Live Forever” was that song.

Getting booked into the iconic 40 Watt Club in Athens., Ga., for the first time, Holcomb saw the shift. “It was a $5 show — and suddenly 175 people showed up. The song had been out a month and a half, but the response? It felt like Woodstock!

“We had a show at Stubbs in Austin. It was the same thing.

“I’d wanted to go to law school, and the only way I could do it was to join the Marines. I’d had a meeting with a recruiter. I was working out, getting in shape.”

He knows this, too, is an age-old story: dreamer runs out of road or gas or will, explores options. In most cases, dreamer walks away. For Holcomb, destiny stepped in. “For me, it was the kind of realization that just hit me. I felt like I’d been trying to force the issue, to try to break down the door. So deciding to quit, I was suddenly making music for music’s sake — and that’s when things changed.

“The songs were starting to work. We had Dualtone in our corner (for 2011’s Chasing Someday) and decided to go after radio.

Suddenly, we had a team, and a booking agent came to us. Instead of calling people, they were calling us.

“There was still a lot of discovery on that record,” he says. “We still had a lot of work to do, but the songwriting was getting there — and that’s the important thing. It was coming from the heart, where the other felt more like it was coming from a sense of principles, how you’re supposed to do it.

“Looking back, it felt like you’re climbing in a fog, and you’re gonna turn back because it’s been a long time, and you’re not finding the peak. I narrowed my scope of what I was interested in; and when it started to happen, I found an incredible sense of relief, but also a sense there was work to do — and we could do it. Becoming clear, we were now forming our own identity, not just amalgamating all our influences.

“I have a really great band — and this was our own house.”

That band — guitarist Nathan Duggar, bassist Rich Brinsfield, and drummer Jon Radford, along with Ellie — helped not just excavate and define Holcomb’s sound, they were also compatriots in the career build that would matter. Weened on Wilco, Tupelo Honey, U2, Thad Cockerill, Tom Waits’ Closing Time, OK Computer, Patty Griffin, Tom Petty, the Americana staples, Otis Redding, Motown, and Dylan’s Slow Train Coming, they melted those things down and emerged with a strong populist bent and an empowerment curve lyrically and melodically that made believers of those who listened.

Believing is also part of the magic. →

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So help us help our neighbors, and let’s make the future brighter together. Please visit NESPowerNews.com to enroll and donate today.

GIVING. A GREAT USE OF ENERGY. November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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November 22

TOKENS SHOW

featuring Lee C. Camp, Secret Sisters, Andrew Peterson, Buddy Greene and more!

December 6

THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA 12th Annual Christmas Rocks! Tour

December 20

THE ARCS

December 21

A JOHNNYSWIM CHRISTMAS

December 29

DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE

December 30

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW

January 10

SAM’S PLACE: MUSIC FOR THE SPIRIT

hosted by Steven Curtis Chapman and featuring Hunter Hayes, Rend Collective, Plumb and more

February 27

TOMMY EMMANUEL with Paul Thorn

March 15

THE PIANO GUYS

April 17

CHICK COREA & BÉLA FLECK

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Opening for diverse artists Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Susan Tedeschi, the Avett Brothers, Robert Earl Keen, and Marc Broussard, there was an eye-opening stint with Needtobreathe that further focused Holcomb’s faith/music balance.

Growing up as part of Memphis’ Young Life, an organization that espoused a “come as you are” ethos more than a hard Christian environment of judgment and truncating a teenager’s evolution, Holcomb embraced its expression of faith. “This was a ministry where kids could smoke and wear their bikinis and have a good time, try to find their faith in their life. I went for six, seven years. And as someone leading singing, it’s Coldplay and Bruno Mars.”

From that perspective and watching Needtobreathe’s success, Holcomb took into consideration what he was writing, and dove deeper into his soul. Leaning forward, he explains in a solid tone: “I’d consider myself a man of faith, but not with a very concrete Evangelical way of it. I don’t get up onstage in a church and tell people what they should be thinking. But I can get up on a stage in a bar and tell people about my struggles and the path I’ve taken.

“Christian music is a genre, it’s not a point of view. I have lots of friends in that world ... but I don’t want people to think my music’s in any way proselytizing — because I think your journey is a very personal matter.

“There’s so many things the church gets associated with that I’m just like ‘No thanks.’

For me, I want to get out of the way and let my music be the thing. Musicians have a reputation for ostracizing people where music is supposed to bring people together, to create a shared identity, a shared experience. Whether they’re dancing their asses off or listening to a Ben Folds’ ballad, crying in their beer, you want people to feel like they can — and you want them to feel less alone.”

Feeling less alone is what drew Holcomb to music. It is what drove him on, past the place saner men would’ve walked way. Not a Don Quixote blithely following a dream, looking for a windmill to tilt, he confesses, “Anybody’s view influences their music, but one of the paradoxes of my faith — it’s been defined by doubt.

“I was a pallbearer eight times before I was out of college,” he says. “My brother, a friend who died of a coke and Oxy OD, grandfathers, old dear family friends. As soon as my brother died, I spent the next six years asking God, ‘Do you exist? Do you care?’

“The defining moment of my songwriting — if you’re asking me to go there — was our fifth anniversary. Ellie and I hiked in the Alps, and before our trip, I was in a pretty dark place with my faith. I spent one long night, sitting on top of this mountain, asking God to talk to me. I sat there, and all I got was resounding silence.”

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

He doesn’t look sheepish, but Holcomb knows how those words could sound. The man who spent a good part of 2015 on the Tour De Compadres with faith-smearing rockers Needtobreathe, Ben Rector, then Switchfoot and Colony House realizes that cross-format (and faith) appeal can unite people.

“Music is a soundtrack that gives people hope,” he offers. “You look at Springsteen — and he’s a preacher in a different way. I’m not sure of a lot, but I’m sure of that. He tells his fans: ‘You’re not alone. You matter. I know your story’s hard, but you’re not the only one. We need each other.’ That’s the thesis — without buttering over the hard stuff, he makes people believe they can, they’re seen. He acknowledges what’s rough, but he gives them a kind of hope that matters.”

Not that Drew Holcomb thinks he’s Springsteen. He doesn’t. Beyond dialed into the reality, after a decade of chasing the dream, seven full-length releases, including live and Christmas projects, placements in several cable and TV shows, including United States of Tara, How I Met Your Mother, The Cleaner, and House, M.D., and playing shows ranging from the Ryman to Bonnaroo, he realizes where he is and where he hopes to be.

“I wanna be one of those guys who has a career as a well-respected singer-songwriter into my 60s, with a band and crew who’ve been there,” he says humbly. “Like Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Van Morrison. I look at Jason Isbell, and I think it’s so different from what I do, though we’re both Americana — and we’re both trying to say something that lasts beyond the moment.

“You live — and you see: death comes. It teaches you, especially through music, not to be afraid of it. Instead (music)’s about making sense of life. You have friends get cancer, get divorced, have stillborn babies. Those are all things that happen — and there are no words for it. But music is a salve for those things that happen in your actual life.

“Some critic says (about 2013’s “Good Light”) it’s sunny chaos. But really it’s about having nothing to hang onto that’s a low point of their life — and you get to the chorus, you’re telling somebody at their lowest point they matter.”

Holcomb pauses again, lets the contrast between what was written and what the song is doing sink in. “That’s not sunshiny, that’s something for people who need to think it’s worth it. To me, that’s what it’s all about.”

Drew Holcomb’s successful road traveled this year brings him home for a performance at Shermerhorn Symphony Center with his wife, Ellie.

Drew & Ellie Holcomb’s Neighborly Christmas takes the stage Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m., when Holcomb’s band The Neighbors — along with visits from some very special guests — will also be on board performing Christmas standards, original holiday tunes, and some Holcomb favorites. nashvillesymphony.org/tickets/concert/drew-holcomb

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Rock & Roll 66

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

The WXNA board members relaxing at Grand Victor Sound.

L-R: Randy Fox, Ashley Crownover, Jonathan Grigsby, Laura Powers, Pete Wilson, Heather Lose, Roger Blanton

radio, let’s GO! WXNA wants the airwaves and it wants them now STORY

Randy Fox | PHOTOGRAPHY Eric England

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Heather Lose

Heather Lose

Randy Fox

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n a cool, fall Saturday afternoon recently at Drifter’s BBQ in East Nashville, a mix of music filled the air — hot rhythm & blues, power pop, vintage hillbilly, Japanese rock & roll, punk rock, hip hop and more. I was one of several DJs manning the turntables. All of us are part of a dream that’s been in the works for more than four years — WXNA 101.5 FM, “Low Power, High Voltage Radio.” As we played music that you can’t hear on any commercial radio station in town, supporters of that dream milled about on the patio, proudly clutching T-shirts with the logo of Nashville’s newest, but not-quite-here-yet source of music, cultural, and public affairs programming — a reward for their financial contribution. As a member of the board of directors of WXNA, it’s been an exciting journey for me, and I’m honored and happy that The East Nashvillian asked me to tell the story of a dream for great radio that is only a few months away from becoming reality.

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

The story of how a group of seven Nashville music fans navigated federal bureaucracy and by-theirbootstraps’ fundraising to bring WXNA to life really begins with the death of Vanderbilt University’s former broadcast radio station, WRVU-FM. For over 40 years, WRVU broadcast an eclectic mix of music and programming on 91.1 FM. While “91 Rock” originated as a student-run operation, the station’s management gradually opened the doors to Nashville’s vast supply of music fans, welcoming a limited number of non-Vandy affiliated DJs. Nonstudent shows — D-Funk, Out the Other, Loud Love, The Kynd Veggie Show, Out ov the Coffin, George the Bluegrass Show, Best of Bread (and my show, The Hipbilly Jamboree) — brought a wide variety of music to the station, provided continuity to WRVU’s ever-shifting schedule, and attracted loyal followings.

Although the station evolved into a hybrid of student radio and community-freeform programming, control ultimately belonged to the Vanderbilt Student Communication board. In September 2009, the VSC board forced the station to remove the majority of nonstudent community volunteer DJs. A year later, the board announced they were considering the sale of the station’s broadcast license. Several months of protests from student DJs, Vanderbilt alumni, and Nashville residents followed, and a Save WRVU campaign was launched to oppose the sale.

Despite the protests, WRVU-FM suddenly went silent on June 7, 2011. The 91.1 FM frequency was transferred to Nashville Public Radio’s new classical music station, WFCL, pending finalization of a $3.35 million deal for the broadcast license. WRVU was to continue as a primarily student-only operation via webcasting.

While protests and legal challenges of the sale continued into the next year, Heather Lose, who had

“

Ashley Crownover

hosted a happening hoedown of rock and roots music, The Honky Tonk Jukebox, on WRVU, was hatching a plan B to revive independent community freeform radio, unfettered by academic ties or corporate control.

“I had met Sharon Scott through the Save WRVU campaign,” Lose recalls. “She was working on securing a Low Power FM license for a start-up station in Louisville, Ky., and encouraged me to do the same for Nashville. Once I knew the possibility existed, I called several ex-WRVU DJs. Some of them moved on after a few early meetings and others drifted in, but everyone believed in the vision.”

That vision was an independent, freeform, community-focused radio station freely mixing all varieties of music and fully reflecting the diversity of Nashville’s music and cultural scene. A place where knowledgeable DJs would program their own shows free of mar-

“

It’s a two-way street. We want people to love our station, but that means we owe something to them.

Pete Wilson

—Ashley Crownover

keting or corporate restrictions; where niche cultural programming would be welcome. It’s a model that has worked for many other listener-supported freeform stations — from WFMU in New Jersey to KEXP in Seattle — and yet had never been attempted in Music City USA. Lose had worked in commercial radio, including time at WRLT, Lightning 100, in Nashville, but she also had firsthand experience with listener-supported freeform radio at 3,000-watt station WDBX in Carbondale, Ill. “That’s where I learned how it’s done,” she says, “pledge drives, events, building relationships. WDBX was supported by college students, Carbondale residents, and farmers from the surrounding community.

They all loved the station so much, and if you produce great radio, the community will be there for you.”

Being a Low Power FM station — defined by the

→

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Laura Powers

Laura Powers

FCC as nonprofit, community-focused stations broadcasting at 100 watts or less — meant the broadcast range of the proposed station would be limited to the urban core of Nashville, although webcasting would extend its reach around the world. While the need for old-school, over-the-air radio in the 21st century might not seem obvious to everyone, some — like Pete Wilson, former host of the much-loved jumpin’ jive and rhythm revue, Nashville Jumps — have good reasons for their dedicated supporter of broadcast radio.

“We love radio because of the depth of its history and traditions,” he says, “but it’s not just a legend. It still works. When Nashville Jumps was on the air, any Nashvillian who stumbled upon it while they drove

Jonathan Grigsby

“

On Record Store Day, I was struck by how many people we met who were new to Nashville and told us about how they missed the independent freeform stations in their old hometowns.

—Laura Powers

to work could keep listening if they liked it. That joy of accidental discovery simply doesn’t exist with online radio.”

Even though the proposed station shared similar goals with WRFN-LPFM, Radio Free Nashville, which had been on the air since 2005, there was still room for another independent voice. Ashley Crownover, who hosted the free-wheeling ’70s pop confections of Alphabet with Ashley on WRVU, had a very specific vision of combining musical alternatives with public service.

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“With radio, we have the power to connect individuals into communities,” she says, “whether it’s just people who love Terry Jacks’ ‘Seasons in the Sun’ or people who need some real help with their lives. It’s a two-way street. We want people to love our station, but that means we owe something to them. We can get information to people that will help make Nashville a better and more unique place.”

T

he first meeting of what would become WXNA’s board of directors met on March 20, 2012, at the Gerst Haus.

Over the next 20 months and ample supplies of sauerkraut, giant pretzels, and fishbowls of Gerst, a group that included Lose, Wilson, Crownover, Roger Blanton, and me began untangling the mysteries of establishing a nonprofit organization, deciphering the application process, securing radio engineering studies, and most of all, waiting for the FCC filing window to open.

Then, on Nov. 11, 2013, the official application was filed with the FCC, and the group settled in for the long wait. Over the next year, it became clear that the application process wasn’t just a matter of filing and forgetting, as various amendments were required to stay in the running. Blanton bulldogged the process though many twists and turns. As a former Vanderbilt employee, he had launched his theme-driven, multigenre jamfest, Delicious Elixir, on WRVU just a year before the station left the air and witnessed the dramatic difference between on-air radio and the lonely world of webcasting.

“It was like a ghost town.” Blanton says. “All the phone calls ceased — requests, questions, ‘Hey, that’s a great song’ — all that ended. It was kind of like dating an ex-girlfriend. You were there, but it was really difficult to feel any of the love you once had. That’s why I was determined to get back on the air.”

Finally, on the morning of Dec. 4, 2014, without any fanfare or ceremony, the FCC posted the construction permit on its website for Nashville’s newest radio station, broadcasting on 101.5 FM with 100 watts of power. After waiting for more than a year, the sudden announcement took the group by surprise. The construction permit meant there were now 18 months to raise money, build the station, and get it on the air.

The dream had gone legit.

Along with the celebrations came a genuine, “Oh crap!” moment. What to do next? As the group scrambled to figure it out, one step was easy — the name for the new station. The consensus was something that embodied both independence and a focus on Nashville. Early on, the idea of having an “X” in the call letters had been appealing; the board members were all ex-WRVU DJs, and it just sounded cool.

With that in mind, WXNA was a perfect fit.

Picking a name was the easy part. There was a ton of work to do — document filings, brand creation, tax issues, a fundraising campaign to build from scratch, and more. With these monumental tasks facing the board, two more ex-WRVU DJs were recruited.

Jonathan Grigsby had hosted Time Out for Fun on WRVU before teaming up with Crownover November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Roger Blanton

for Set Records to Stun, a morning mix of sly, sci-fi geek-centric humor with a musical menagerie of ’70s pop, ’80s new wave, and modern indie rock, guided

by Grigsby’s musical mantra, “Music should make you move either emotionally or physically, or both.”

Grigsby also brought 10 years of experience as a public accountant and a willingness to relieve the numbers-challenged board members of the financial and bookkeeping chores.

“

What we are building really is a gift to Nashville.

It’s going to take everyone who loves great music to keep it alive and keep it interesting.

—Heather Lose

The other addition was Laura Powers, the former host of the beloved morning cuppacoffee punk rock program Needles + Pins on WRVU. One part award-winning advertising, marketing, and business whiz and one part punk rock mom, Powers brought the organization skills of Joan Holloway combined with the gumption of Riff Randell.

With a “Magnificent Seven” in place, the group quickly began the process of building a radio station.

In February, WXNA’s first public event was held at Grimey’s Too. For the informal meet and greet, expectations were kept low, but the response was encouraging as a sizable crowd showed up with not only good wishes but several donations. Two months later, WXNA made its “official” debut on Record Store Day with the “pop” of its explosive logo (designed by Blanton). With booths at Grimey’s, The Groove, Fond

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Object, and Third Man Records, the station was introduced to hundreds of Nashville music lovers.

“On Record Store Day, I was struck by how many people we met who were new to Nashville and told us about how they missed the independent freeform stations in their old hometowns,” Powers says. “They were surprised that Nashville didn’t have anything comparable and were really excited about WXNA. It confirmed for me how important building this station is.”

Although WXNA had received several donations, a much larger amount needed to be raised quickly in order to rent and build studio space, buy a transmitter and antenna, and get on the air. The group began building a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000, knowing that it would be necessary to tell WXNA’s story to as many people as possible. Local filmmaker Elvis Wilson volunteered his time and skills to produce two outstanding videos for the campaign. Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau supplied fantastic original music for one of the videos, while Los Straitjackets and Steelism were kind enough to allow their recordings to be used in the second video.

On Aug. 5, 2015, WXNA’s Kickstarter campaign launched, followed by a month of highs and lows, excitement and anxiety as the counter climbed toward the goal. Live DJ appearances at Tomato Art Fest and Yazoo Brewing helped spread the word. Kickstarter named WXNA “Project of the Day,” and WTVF NewsChannel5 leant their support with a series of news stories.

When the Kickstarter campaign drew to a close on Sept. 9, $55,310 had been raised. Since then things have moved quickly for WXNA. Prime studio space became available on the top floor of the building that is home to Grimey’s and The Basement. The station’s radio engineer is working rapidly to begin installation of the broadcast antenna in Germantown. And volunteers, potential DJs, local businesses, and nonprofit organizations have all offered support. Barring unforeseen problems, WXNA-LPFM should be on the air well before its June 2016 deadline. As exciting as the journey has been, the history of Nashville’s next great radio station is just beginning.

“What we are building really is a gift to Nashville,” Lose says. “It’s going to take everyone who loves great music to keep it alive and keep it interesting — call in requests, come to our events, post about us on social media, tell your friends you love us, apply to become a DJ, and contribute financially. What we really need is for people to feel empowered that this is their station.

We’re building it, but everyone that loves the idea of great radio has to be a part of it.”

The East Nashvillian & WXNA send a special thanks to the Grand Victor Sound staff for making us feel welcome during the photo shoot for this story: Cassandra Tormes - Studio Manager Gena Johnson - Engineer Robert Artress - Assistant Engineer As well as to the following individuals for helping to make it all happen: Aubrey Preston - Benefactor & Keeper of the Faith Jay Millar - Sundazed Music Bob Irwin - Sundazed Music

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It’s an

ORNAMENTS For a decade, Jen Gunderman and her musical collaborators have made every Christmas a ‘loo-loo’ story Randy Fox | photography Stacie Huckeba

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Christmas, Charlie Brown

The Ornaments serenade the grownup kids at East High School.

Left to right: Victoria Clodfelter, Jen Gunderman, Jenny Davis, Lisa McCauley, James “Hags” Haggerty, Jamie Harris, Martin Lynds, Sara Martin, Tom Mason, Chuck Allen, Joe Pisapia

November | December 2015 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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F

or a band whose sole purpose is to play the soundtrack of a 50-year-old TV Christmas special for just one week out of the year, the gig would seem a rather simple one — show up, play the tunes, collect the money, go home. For keyboardist Jen Gunderman, however, being the leader of the seasonal combo The Ornaments is anything but humdrum.

“Our shows at the Belcourt are always wonderful,” Gunderman says. “The very first year, the parents started letting the kids go down front. Before we knew what was happening, there was a little baby mosh pit — children pogoing like I’d never seen before in my life. There was one little girl who hooked her fingers onto the stage and swung her leg up. She was going to get on that stage no matter what, and then her mom came running up and grabbed her. It was hilarious and so fun. What’s going on in front of us is always more interesting than what’s on the stage.”

Such a spontaneous audience reaction is helped along by the music — Vince Guaraldi’s classic jazz soundtrack to the beloved holiday animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas. For the past decade, The Ornaments — Gunderman on piano, James “Hags” Haggerty on bass, and Martin Lynds on drums, along with an assorted mix of guest musicians — have been bringing musical Christmas cheer to Nashville audiences.

The Ornaments’ performances go beyond the simple invocation of nostalgia or the pure joy of a group of experienced musicians jamming familiar tunes. The group’s annual shows have come to symbolize Nashville’s fellowship of musicians, as well as the joy of sharing special musical moments with an audience. But alongside that seasonal celebration of music and camaraderie is the story of Gunderman’s personal artistic and emotional journey. It’s a tale of discovery that reflects Charles Schultz’s unpretentious, yet complex tale of the search for the true meaning of Christmas and how even the saddest of Christmas trees can become a centerpiece of joy and goodwill with some help from friends.

G

underman’s personal musical journey began when she was only a few years younger than Schultz’s cartoon musical prodigy, Schroeder. “I started piano lessons when I was 5 because I had a kindergarten teacher who played that I really admired,” she says.

“I went to high school in Kansas and college in New York, and I studied classical music pretty much exclusively and majored in classical piano.”

Although Gunderman loved all types of music, her concentration on classical was the result of the limited musical options that seemed available in the pre-riot grrrl world of the 1980s. “I was in a jazz ensemble in high school, and I loved rock & roll, but I’m not sure I ever saw a woman playing on stage in a side role,” she recalls. “I knew I didn’t want to be a lead singer, so being a rock musician just wasn’t on my radar. I was very serious about music, but I didn’t think there was much potential for me to play professionally because I knew I wasn’t a good enough classical player. When I got out of college, I moved to Manhattan, and the second job I got was working in the A&R department at Columbia Records.” →

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The Ornaments are serious about not taking themselves too seriously.

Left to right: James “Hags” Haggerty, Jen Gunderman, Martin Lynds

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“

The Ornaments grew out of a rotten experience, but it’s become a beautiful and positive thing.

Working for a record company kept her around music, but Gunderman wasn’t expecting to play. That’s when a chance occurrence planted a seed that eventually sprouted opportunity. “I met the band DAG,” she says. “They were a funk/R&B group from Raleigh, N.C., who were signed to Columbia. They were recording an album in Muscle Shoals. I was the assistant to the A&R guy, and he was cool enough to let me tag along. One day we were in the studio and nothing was happening, so I sat down at the piano and started playing Chopin.

The producer came in and was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ because I was just the girl that answered telephones. I ended up shaking a tambourine on some of the recordings, and it was so fun hanging out and watching them record.” Although the rock music bug had bit her, Gunderman didn’t realize how deeply the contagion had entered her bloodstream until she left the record business to continue her education.

“I was in the middle of a Ph.D. program in Seattle when the guitar player from DAG called and said their keyboard player quit,” she recalls. “I spent a couple of years on the road in the van, and that’s how I got into playing with bands.”

Relocating to Raleigh, Gunderman also strengthened her relationship with guitarist Audley Freed. His band, Cry of Love, was signed to Columbia as well, and the couple had been dating since meeting in New York.

They married in 2000, and that same year, Gunderman left DAG to play keyboards for the country rock outfit The Jayhawks.

“That was a couple of years of amazing learning,” she says. “DAG’s music was probably more technically challenging, but the Jayhawks would just let anything happen. They hated

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

—Jen Gunderman

”

rehearsing and were pretty freewheeling, so that’s where I learned how to improvise and really play with a band.”

After two years with The Jayhawks and a year backing singer-songwriter Caitlin Cary, Gunderman moved to Nashville with her husband. She quickly became an in-demand session and road player.

“I took Will Kimbrough’s advice and said yes to everything that people offered,” Gunderman says. “I started gigging all over town, doing session work or playing live gigs, but the stress of both Audley and I being freelance eventually got to me. We had just bought our house in Inglewood, and I thought one of us needed to have a steady job. I sent a letter to every music school and music store asking if they had a room where I could teach piano lessons. The only person I heard back from was the Dean of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt.”

Gunderman soon joined the school as an instructor and has divided her time between academics and session work for more than 10 years. “I was lucky to find such an open-minded dean,” she says. “I think the combination of graduate school and being in rock bands piqued his interest. It’s been a great working relationship.”

Like the phone call that brought her into the rock world, the next change in her career came about purely through happenstance.

“I was in a van on the road with Eric Brace’s band, Last Train Home, and we were listening to the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas and agreeing that it was the best Christmas record ever made,” Gunderman says. “I just happened to mention that I had sheet music for it, and we should get together some time and jam with it. Eric got so excited about the idea that he called Jamie Rubin at

A holiday tradition since 1916 The Family Wash, and five minutes later, there was a gig booked. It just went from there.”

First broadcast in December of 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has become a holiday tradition. Adapted from Charles Schultz’s popular comic strip, Peanuts, and broadcast on national network television every December for the last five decades, the show now has generations of followers who have grown up watching Charlie Brown’s search for the true meaning of Christmas.

Even though its limited animation may seem dated by today’s digital standards, Schultz’s classic tale combines whimsical humor with the deeper themes of loneliness, depression, and the over-commercialization of Christmas. The story is powered by a superb piano jazz soundtrack by Guaraldi that mixes Christmastime standards (“O Tannenbaum” and “What Child Is This?”) with memorable originals (“Christmas Is Coming” and “Christmas Time Is Here”). For Gunderman and the musicians that joined her, it proved to be the perfect match of the immediately familiar with the opportunity for creative reinterpretation.

“It’s just a straight-ahead small jazz combo sound that never goes out of style,” Gunderman says. “We’re not jazz musicians. It’s imperfect the way we play it, but I tricked myself into thinking that there wouldn’t be any heavy jazz players listening to us.”

The Ornaments’ “imperfect” performances were an immediate hit with audiences. After the first year at The Family Wash, the group expanded to other venues, spreading several shows throughout the week before Christmas.

“When we sold out the Belcourt the first time, I thought, ‘Oh Lord, they’re going to think we’re such posers,’ ” Gunderman says.

“But I think the fact that we were not so precious with it — asking people to sing along, having guest musicians come up and jam with us — enables us to get directly to the joy of the music rather than worrying about being technically perfect. It really evolved organically. We’ve never had a problem finding →

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bookings. People started approaching us, and we had to decide how many shows we could do in a week. Jim Gray from Last Train Home played bass the first couple of years, but he bowed out once we decided to make it an ongoing thing. Hags came on board at that point, and it’s been the three of us for eight years now, along with various guests.”

Over the years, the lineup of guests has included such first-class Nashville players as multi-instrumentalists Jim Hoke and Randy

Leago, pedal steel player Pete Finney, guitarist Joe Pisapia, sax player Jimmy Bowland, trombonist Roy Agee, and many others.

“There’s genuine joy at all the gigs,” Gunderman says. “The feel changes depending on who the extra players are. We never rehearse with any of them and even though the soloists only play on a few songs, what they contribute is so wonderful. That’s something that’s helped to keep everything fresh musically. There’s plenty in there to keep us interested, especially

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great people on different instruments pulling it in one direction or another every night.”

For The Ornaments’ 10th anniversary, they are focused on the three Nashville venues that have become the band’s traditional residences, along with a private performance at a local retirement community. The Ornaments will be performing two shows nightly at The Family Wash, Dec. 16-19, and 21, a brunchtime show at The Family Wash on Dec. 20, a children’s matinee at the Belcourt on Dec. 19, and a closing show at 3rd & Lindsley on Dec. 22 that will feature a guest appearance by the brass ensemble Tuba Christmas Nashville. In past years, each show has attracted a different audience and brought special surprises, whether it was spontaneous pogoing preschoolers just discovering the feet-moving bop of “Linus and Lucy” or an ad hoc choir of retirees who blended their voices on the “loo-loo-loo’s” of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

In addition to the joy of performing, camaraderie, and audience reactions, Gunderman also has a deeper emotional tie to the music and the annual presentations — one that she’s kept close to her heart for the last 10 years.

“The guys in the band know this, and some of my close friends know it, but I would never mention it during a gig — these shows are for my dad,” she explains. “He died suddenly and unexpectedly on Christmas morning in 2003. The next year Christmas was still just a nightmare, but hearing this music was the first Christmas-related thing that I could even stand. Like Charles Schultz, my dad was from Minnesota, and he loved Peanuts, and he loved that record. When we played that first gig at The Family Wash in 2005, it made me feel good about at least a piece of the holiday.

“Afterwards, I realized this was the way to reclaim the holiday and pay tribute to my father,” she continues. “Christmas is hard for everyone.

We all have a family member that is missing or some type of conflict, but we’re supposed to be having a good time. The Ornaments grew out of a rotten experience, but it’s become a beautiful and positive thing. It’s taught me a lot about working through grief, and working through the fear of being the lead person on stage, and even the fear of playing jazz.”

Beyond her personal emotional connections to the music, Gunderman sees a universal appeal in the simplicity of the message of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

“There is such an earnestness to A Charlie Brown Christmas,” she says. “It’s not saccharine.

It’s really quite dark in places, but it speaks truthfully to the difficulty that most people have with the holidays. Even children can pick up on that. It’s about redemption — not feeling right at Christmas and then learning how to feel right. I think it was a magic moment in pop culture history, and it’s miraculous that it still resonates with people 50 years later.”

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Ann Powers at her Inglewood home, which happens to sport a serious vinyl collection. photograph by Kelli Dirks

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Super

POWERS How a move to East Nashville invigorated NPR’s lead music critic Ann Powers

By Holly Gleason

“H

ave you met Ann Powers yet?” The New York Times lead music critic Jon Pareles asked me over lunch in the early ’90s. “You’re going to really like her.”

I was skeptical. Between the overly analytic critics who pinched all the life and passion out of the music they covered — theoretically music for actual people who loved music — and a new trend of writers using music criticism as a way of gaining access to celebrities’ lives, I was becoming cynical about the kind of life force music coverage I’d grown up on, the kind that captured your imagination and spun whole people through their stories where distanced artists had formerly existed on a plane miles from the rest of us, those people listening wherever life had put them.

The Russian Tea Room, all red leather banquettes with expensively papered walls covered almost completely with art in heavy gilded frames, seemed the antithesis of a place to discuss a young woman coming from the San Francisco Weekly by way of Seattle’s indie music weekly The Rocket. Yet, as the courses arrived, the notoriously persnickety — and at times, prickly — critic assured me Powers was curious and open to understanding things in their context.

Had Pareles and I not been friends since my own days as a music critic writing for Rolling Stone and The Los Angeles Times, I would’ve thought he was palming me off. He was a

busy man, expected to cull and dissect the best of all types of popular music. There was only so much he could do.

When I finally met the red curly-haired, bespectacled Powers, the man many considered the most powerful pop music critic in America had actually sold her short. Her eyes sparkled with delight talking about the scenes she’d covered and intrigue in the world of current mainstream country music that she had never considered.

Sitting in a diner near Union Square, Ann Powers was urbane, witty, passionate. She wanted to know not just how or where or why music happened, but the way it held and reflected communities. Not just how she felt about the various works, but how it represented segments of the population that embraced it.

Powers started covering music in high school, writing for The Rocket where she eventually came into her voice under legendary editor Charles Cross. She was at ground zero of the grunge explosion, then went on to San Francisco Weekly, where she honed her chops writing a weekly club column and covering as diverse a music scene as existed anywhere in America.

That she would go on to be the music editor at The Village Voice and The Los Angeles Times, the director of the Experience Music Project, and later NPR’s lead music critic, never crossed my mind. But had someone showed me a crystal ball with her career trajectory, I would’ve responded, → “Of course.”

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‘‘

The most important thing for a creative person to hang onto is the ability to mess up, to get it half right and right in a way they didn’t expect.

Ann Powers is singular in how she approaches music and culture, global in seeking connections, fervent in her response. A devotee of pioneering critic Ellen Willis, she — along with Evelyn McDonnell — would co-edit a female compendium Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap and her own Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America.

This was also a woman on the move. Her husband is the equally well-published social and music critic Eric Weisbard, who succeeded Powers as the director of Seattle’s Experience Music Project. An odd career trajectory landed the critic power couple in Tuscaloosa, Ala. — by way of Weisbard’s tenure track in the University of Alabama’s American Studies program. Suddenly, they

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were in the heart of the South. It was 2009.

No one could’ve guessed, or anticipated, its impact on Powers. But the shift in living dynamic led to — after several years — the family relocating to Nashville, with Weisbard commuting to his professorship. If their arrival seems like it’s more of the sudden 6-1-5 hipness boom, it’s anything but.

Still, however she got here, America — and Music City — is in many ways the richer for her presence in our city.

Having lived in San Francisco’s Mission District in the ’80s, Brooklyn in the ’90s, Seattle’s Fremont Ballard in the 2000s, as well as Los Angeles’ Mount Washington adjacent to Eagle Rock neighborhood, she is no stranger to cities on the verge. In that, she recognizes

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

the pulse that draws people in and the inherent danger that comes with becoming the epicenter of cool.

“I started coming to Nashville for Americana Fest four years ago,” Powers recalls over breakfast. “And it was instant. I started to realize there were all these growing scenes here. Country music is based here, but there’s all kinds of singer-songwriters, punk rock, alternative things — and a rock scene that supports Jack White, the Black Keys, and Kings of Leon.

“All the people who are the blood and bones of what you hear — it’s a place where they’re visible and their stuff matters. People are going out and hearing music at night. And there’s a layer of creative people who are behind the scenes — producers, engineers, songwriters, session players — that contribute to the energy that’s here.

“This is how popular music gets made,” she continues. “At NPR Music, we’re very interested in the process and the working lives of artists. Those are stories we want to tell, and not just the people you know.”

Also, weighing Atlanta and New Orleans, both 3- to 4 1/2-hour commutes from Tuscaloosa, Nashville won out. After five years in a college town built on “the University, Greek life, and football,” it was time for Powers to return to what fed her.

“Most of the venues (near her Tuscaloosa home) hosted cover bands, so for me to see what was happening on a national scene, I had to drive an hour to Birmingham. That isn’t easy when you’re a mother of a school age child.”

Noting that most nationally touring acts play Nashville, she’s also aware of the diversity in Nashville — and the opportunity for artist residencies. “I saw Dave and Phil Alvin (founders of California blues/roots punk band The Blasters) play City Winery; saw Aaron Lee Tashjan in a small room like The 5 Spot,” she says. “Then that same night, Eric went to the Mercy Lounge to see Destroyer.

“You could’ve gone to any number of shows, all different kinds of music. And there’s this aspect of residency, too. You have groups like The Time Jumpers every Monday night at 3rd & Lindsley, the very best of the best — and you can see them.” →

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A

nn Powers is unusual. She’s been invited to Prince’s house — at the Purple One’s behest — to preview music from an upcoming album. She’s been courted by Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, U2. In part because of the publications she’s written for, but also for her acumen in analysis on political, sexual, gender, and cultural planes as well as her unabashed love of music.

Beyond that, she admits, “Nothing is better than being in a crowd dancing and feeling joy as musicians give it their all — whether that’s at a landmark venue like the Hollywood Bowl or some dingy club on the — no longer dingy, I guess — Lower East Side. This is what I now find so invigorating about being in Nashville.

Live music every night, every day!”

The Bachelor of Arts in poetry and the master’s degree in American literature she earned also provide a far broader perspective than even “knowing” the details of music. And it is by embracing a vast path that she’s been able to make some of the connections that give her writing and reporting such resonance.

“I haven’t had one breakthrough,” she begins, trying to ground her path. “Every step taught me something different. I guess I think I’m still breaking through — everything.

“Getting my master’s in American literature at UC Berkeley taught me so much about criticism, about how theoretical frameworks shape

art and can deepen critical readings of a work, about the history of popular culture, and the ways in which the art world operates beyond the simple dichotomy of ‘artist’ and ‘critic.’

“Since I started writing music journalism in high school, that was always central to my identity as a writer. I somehow was able to understand, fairly early, that I’d only get better the more tools I acquired to help me think more clearly and know more widely what others have thought about culture.”

For Powers, beyond the obvious curatorial take on the world around her, there is the investment in communities and being part of where she lives. Already conversant on stores like Fond Objects and the food court at Nashville Farmer’s Market, she was drawn to East Nashville for the neighborhood feel that is rooted in generations.

“When we were moving to town, we always hoped we’d call East Nashville home because those neighborhoods are connected to where artists and creative people and young families have been able to move and live in harmony with people who were already there,” she says.

“We were able to find a historic home and moved to a block with a community we could be part of. There’s nothing more irritating than someone who moves to town and considers themselves an expert. I’m a newbie here, and I love everything about where we live.”

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Knowing the stakes that come with the influx, Powers pauses, weighing the reality communities like this face. “I hope these neighborhoods can maintain sustainability,” she says. “I’ve seen most of those neighborhoods tip past the point of sustainability for most people because one thing I’ve noticed about young creative people whom I encounter is the anxiety of being able to have a stable paycheck and a career to be able to afford a reasonable residence [like this].”

B

ohemianism has shaped — and at times, challenged — her take on music, criticism, even where she’s lived. Looking back on her career, she muses about her two stints at The New York Times with The Village Voice in the middle: “I’d left graduate school to be a stringer there after having been recruited by the great Jon Pareles — but I wasn’t ready for that platform yet.

“I was relatively young and very passionate about my beliefs and I needed to be in an environment where others who shared my values were doing work that I found deeply meaningful. I needed to be among my own when I went to The Voice. There I was constantly challenged to refine my sense of politics and of how culture connects to social movements and political change.

“When I went back to The Times, I was ready, I think, to translate my ideas to a more general readership. That was a huge step for me, to learn to put my own passions aside somewhat and think about how people unlike myself [in terms of being a bohemian, basically] connected to music and to popular culture in general.

In the midst of that shift I wrote my first book, Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, which was an attempt to tell my own story of living in the ‘alternative’ world in a way that also spoke to those who might not be otherwise connected to it.”

Powers still has the twinkle in her eyes, the smile on her lips, when she talks about the realm of bohemianism. “When your main concern isn’t, ‘Will I be able to pay my rent?’ but more, ‘Will I have an amazing conversation with my friends tonight when I go out, about relativism and politics, punk rock, gender stuff ?’ — that is everything, and there are so many holes in the safety nets now. It’s not so easy to dedicate yourself to that old-school bohemian life. Foolishly, perhaps, I didn’t think about where I’d be at 35 — and with our changing economy, the things have shifted, too. But people like myself today — and my 20-year-old self who’s worked at Tower and had five roommates and thought twice before I got the special chow mein at the Chinese restaurant because it cost more.”

Powers both understands and rues the reality. Half-joking, she offers, “It’s like ‘Plan Your Career in Five Easy Steps — and Take Your CO N T I N U ED ON PAGE 106

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

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EARS Wide OPEN Nashville Symphony is seeking ‘hidden gems’ for Accelerando

By John McBryde

F

rom the beer-splashed honkytonks to the ornate choir lofts, the music that flows through East Nashville is as diverse as the people who call it home.

Musicians of all stripes find their muse on the East Side. Rock & roll is prevalent, as are country, jazz, and hip-hop. Blues, bluegrass, and dance tunes permeate, as do folk, gospel, and the “Pride of the East Side,” Stratford High’s marching band. The hills are alive, as the song goes, and somewhere within this melodious community may just lie the nugget that Walter Bitner is after.

Bitner is director of education and community engagement for the Nashville Symphony, and the job he took in November 2014 has recently sprouted in a whole new direction. Bitner is charged with overseeing a Symphony initiative known as Accelerando, a music education program that will technically kick off in January and become fully functioning by September 2016. It’s designed to prepare gifted young musicians in grades 5-12 of diverse backgrounds to pursue music at the collegiate level and beyond.

“American orchestras today do not typically reflect the rich diversity of their communities,” Symphony president Alan Valentine said in a news release announcing the initiative. “The ultimate goal of the Accelerando program is to build a pipeline of talented musicians who will form the next generation of American orchestra musicians.

With support and leadership from our community partners, the Nashville Symphony will expand opportunities for students from communities currently underrepresented in

our orchestras and will help them reach their full potential.

“The Nashville Symphony’s mission is fueled by the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to experience music through both listening and learning. We are beyond thrilled that we will be able to provide students from underrepresented communities in Middle Tennessee with access to high-level, intensive training, and we hope to make a meaningful impact on our community and, ultimately, on orchestras across the country. With the launch of this program, we’re looking ahead to a strong future for both Nashville and the communities across the country and around the world that will benefit from it.”

Bitner and his staff, along with the program’s four community partners, are seeking young students who will form the foundation of the program’s first year, and they’re concentrating their search on students who come from typically underrepresented communities as they relate to symphony orchestras — communities such as East Nashville, Bitner says.

“We hope to reach into East Nashville as well as other parts of the community,” he says. “The main goal of the program is to find students who will ultimately become professional orchestra musicians so our orchestra and other orchestras in the United States will look like the communities that they serve. East Nashville has a quite a diverse population, and I would hope we would find students and families there interested in this program.”

Since its founding 69 years ago, the

Nashville Symphony has held at its core the importance of music education and community engagement. It now reaches more than 100,000 adults and children each year through various programs, including the Curb Youth Symphony, school ensembles, and after-school programs, among others. But prior to Accelerando, programs have not been targeted specifically toward ethnic communities.

“Our mission is to bring music to every part of the community, and we do bring a lot of programs,” Bitner says. “The focus of so many of our programs is kind of a broad reach affecting a lot of people. And I think it’s important that the Symphony is also touching these students who have [recognized] that music is not just an important part of their life, but that it’s a vocation for them, and that the Symphony is there to provide a resource that no one else can provide.

“It’s very important for the Symphony that we are supporting those parts of the community that traditionally are not seen as being part of the community the Symphony serves — really for our continuation as an institution. This is an issue not just for the Nashville Symphony but for orchestras all over the country.”

One that has particularly recognized the significance of providing music education to a minority population is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which implemented its Talent Development Program more than 20 years ago. The TDP identifies and develops African American and Latino classical music students who are musically gifted and motivated, preparing them for careers as professional musicians.

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“It’s been very successful,” Bitner says of the Atlanta program. “A lot of their graduates are getting into major conservatories around the country and winning competitions and beginning to audition for symphony orchestras.

My staff and I researched, visited, and met with their director. We have learned a lot from them as we’ve been designing the Accelerando program. Of course, there are differences in Nashville and Atlanta, and Accelerando will take on its own character as we grow and learn what works for our community.”

Through a partnership with Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Conexión Américas, and Choral Arts Link, Accelerando will kick off in early 2016 with informational meetings for prospective students and their families. Auditions will be held in March and April for students in grades 4-8, and provisional acceptances will be announced in May. Trial lessons for provisionally accepted students will begin in June before the inaugural Accelerando class starts in September. The plan is to enroll six students in the first year, and then add five each ensuing year until the class is capped at 24 students by 2021.

Accelerando participants will receive yearround instruction from Nashville Symphony musicians as well as from qualified local instructors, and will have annual solo recital and ensemble performance opportunities. The program will provide summer music activities, such as workshops and camps, and students and their families will also receive guidance and counseling on every aspect of preparing for a career as a professional musician. Additionally, participants and their families will be eligible for complimentary tickets to Nashville Symphony Classical Series performances.

“The idea is they would stay with us until they graduate from high school,” Bitner says.

“The goal is to give them the lessons and other aspects of musical training, anything necessary for them to get into music school at the college level.”

Bitner has been around the rostrum when it comes to performing, conducting, and teaching. He conducted his first orchestral concert at age 21, leading members of The Florida Orchestra, and has led hundreds of student performances in the years since. He came to the Nashville Symphony after teaching for seven years at the Nashville School of the Arts, and prior to that was conductor and founder of the Music City Youth Orchestra. Throughout his career, he has helped guide students from all backgrounds.

“My experience showed me that there is no discrimination when it comes to how much musical talent people have. It’s really across the board,” Bitner says. “My students from all diverse backgrounds had talent. But what I saw was, with music, training is such a huge component of a musician’s capacity as an artist. But

there are inequalities in how people are able to develop that talent. Those inequalities often fall along cultural, economic, and ethnic diversity.”

In the meantime, the search is underway throughout Nashville’s ethnic communities.

There are certainly reasons for East Nashville to get a look-see, based on its diverse makeup and its propensity for nurturing young musicians. In addition to Stratford High, for instance, strong music and band programs are also part of East Nashville High and

Meigs Middle Magnet schools, among other places. In addition, institutions such as W.O. Smith Music School and Choral Arts Link have students from the East Side enrolled in their programs.

“We will be putting out our messages about this program to as many parts of the (Middle Tennessee) community as we can, to find these children and their families,” Bitner says.

“I know these children are here in the communities, it’s just a matter of finding them.”

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N

elson Mandela once said, “There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Ambition is something we can all admire, but having the ability to pursue several dreams and remain sane and passionate is another thing altogether.

Meet Salem Elkhatib — owner and chef at Italia Pizza and Pasta, full-time electrical engineer, and a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt.

Originally from Cairo, Egypt, Elkhatib’s experience with food is rooted in cultural Mediterranean dishes that were often cooked and shared in his local community. So when Elkhatib left Cairo to study electrical engineering in the states, he carried this tradition with him and would often cook for his friends. This was when he realized that cooking was something he loved to do. Not just because of his cultural DNA, but because cooking for people brings him to life.

After several years of working and traveling as an electrical engineer, Elkhatib decided

Cookin IN THE ’ ’HOOD Recipes from East Nashville favorites

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to settle in Nashville to work and pursue his passion for cooking. Opening Italia Pizza and Pasta, a mom and pop restaurant in the heart of Lockeland Springs, Elkhatib merged pizza with his Mediterranean background. He serves a variety of unique savory dishes and innovative cuisine, such as his vegan pizza, gluten-free crust, and hummus pizza.

These dishes may seem normal now, but when he began this venture 12 years ago, most Nashvillians did not have “gluten-free” in their vocabulary. Yet, the appreciation Elkhatib received from the diet-conscious customers, his value for clean eating, and his drive for inventive cooking caught on, making him a forerunner in the industry.

Italia is more than a restaurant; it is a product of Elkhatib’s heart and a place Nashvillians can call their own.

Try his hummus recipe to serve as a snack or buy one of his delicious crusts and make your own hummus pizza at home.

INGREDIENTS

Place chickpeas in a pot and cover them with water. Heat the water until it begins to boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let them soak in the refrigerator overnight.

Olive oil (optional) 1 lime (optional)

Place chickpeas in a bowl, cover with water, and refrigerate until they are soft.

Once the chickpeas are soft, rinse and wash them. Place them in a blender and add 1 cup of tahini. Blend for two minutes. Add cumin and desired amount of olive oil (up to 1 cup), then blend until pasty. At the very end, squeeze lime and add to the mixture. You can freeze the hummus, or serve in a bowl with pita bread and vegetables, or use as a base on pizza.

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UPCOMING TALKIN’ TURKEY

Boy Scout Troop 3 Annual Turkey Fry Fundraiser Nov. 1-26

You love a fried bird but maybe you don’t love the frying? East Nashville’s Boy Scout troop can take care of that for you. Their annual turkey fry will begin taking your turkey to-dos on Nov. 1. Pick up your bird the day before Thanksgiving.

2412 Gallatin Ave.

WE’RE BATTY

Street Theatre Company presents ‘Bat Boy’ Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Nov. 6 – 22, Bailey STEM Magnet Middle School

He was raised in a cave; half bat, half boy, he’s bat boy! This camp-horror is funny, ironic, and unique. Catch one of its performances this November. Showtimes are Fridays and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 5 p.m.Tickets are available in advance on Street Theatre Company’s website or by phone at 662.554.7414, prices are “pay-what-you-can.” To the bat cave!

2000 W. Greenwood Ave.

TAKE US TO MARS MARS Variety Show 9 p.m., Friday, Nov. 13, The Building

They tout this evening as a “night of relentless

entertainment,” so brace yourselves and BYOB for the final installment of MARS and one of the last shindigs at The Building. First they brought you “Life” and “Death’— then turned The Building into a “Porch.” The finale is appropriately titled “Blowout.” You can expect performances of all shapes and sizes, including live music, spoken word, live art, burlesque, and whatever else they can conjure up. Fork out $10 for this one-of-akind evening.

1008C Woodland St., 615.262.8899

SLAM DUNK

photoSLAM 7-9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14, Main Street Gallery

You’ve heard of a poetry slam, but what about a photo slam? Replace the words with pictures and you’ve got it. Here is the idea behind this fast, urban-style barrage of art. You hop up and show 10 images in two minutes. You may speak to the images, play music, or let the images talk for themselves. All ages and skill levels welcome, but the photos must reflect travel in some way.

Show up to sign up as early as 6 p.m. and bring your pics on a USB flash drive. The evening will be hosted by soul songstress and spoken word artist Kemi Bennings. An added bonus, Main Street will also be hosting a full gallery of travel images with their exhibit, “Travelogue, A Journey Around the World.” We can honestly say you’ve probably never been to a photo slam before, so try something new and maybe find some inspiration for your next vacation. Admission is $10.

625 Main St.

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SMOOTH AS A BABY’S …

Smile, Mommy! Cloth Diapering Informational Workshop 6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 17, Baby + Co. East Nashville-based baby bum service, Smile, Mommy! is hosting an informative workshop to get new parents privy to the perks of cloth diapering. Save the Huggies for someone else.

3212 West End Ave.

MIXER IT UP WITH NAMA NAMA Monthly Mixer 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 17, and Jan. 12, Amerigo Italian Restaurant

NAMA, Nashville American Marketing Association, hosts a monthly mixer to explore the trends — new technologies and techniques of the trade. Meet for the mixer to learn all about the tools they’ve got in their shed. You’ll meet marketing gurus from a wide array of industries. Light apps are served. Register in advance on NAMA’s website. Free to members and $5 for newbies.

1920 West End Ave.

NAMA-STE COFFEE Get to Know NAMA Coffee 8 to 9 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, Jan. 21, StagePost Studios

NAMA is all about introductions.. Their monthly coffee meet-ups are a great chance to learn more for would-be or first-time members. See what

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NAMA is all about and what a membership can do for your career It’s free to attend, but register on their website to let them know you’re dropping by.

255 French Landing

RETURN OF THE UNDERGROUND

East Nashville Underground Nov. 19-21, The Basement East

We know you missed it. The basement show turned full-fledged music festival has returned — and it’s bigger and better than ever. They’re bringing back old friends of the fest, bands from seasons past. East Nashville has steadily changed since the fest took its two-year hiatus, but the Underground hasn’t. We don’t think they could’ve said it any better in their event announcement: “For just a weekend let’s get back to our old East Nashville roots by getting drunk and taking photo booth pics.” They’ll have more than 20 bands and DJs over the weekend, with lots of local favs taking the stage. Just to name a few: Ranch Ghost, Blackfoot Gypsies, and Kansas Bible Company.

Check their Facebook for the behemoth lineup.

We don’t want you to have to wait another two years for the next reunion, so don’t miss this one.

Tickets are $35 for the whole weekend and $50 for a VIP pass including four free draft beers, a festival shirt, access to the VIP area, and more swag. Individual tix will be sold at the door for $15, but will be limited. Go. Run. Seek cover in the Underground.

917 Woodland St.

The mantra, “Skip the mall, shop local,” pretty much sums it up. You can pass up the angry mobs of Macy’s and settle for something a little more civil — and local. Deets aren’t confirmed yet, but in years past Friday offers a day of music with bands on the side lawn beside Bongo Java East, and a local craft brewer serving up pints to brighten your hassle-free shopping experience.

Some 5 Points stores will be offering holiday discounts, and these haunts will have a far more unique selection of gifts than WalMart or Target, without the stampedes. Get out during this weekend and walk off that second helping of turkey while you put a dent in that endless holiday shopping list.

1100 Forrest Ave.

WE MUSTACHE YOU TO RUN

SHOP YOUR BLOCK SATURDAY

LUNGevity Foundation’s Breathe Deep Stache and Lash 5K 7 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, Shelby Park

Bring out the ‘stache-shaping cream if you’re all natural or find those leftover stick-on handlebars you have from your Halloween party. This facial hair 5K is a timed run and untimed walk to benefit critical lung cancer research. Find the craziest mustache or eyelash get-up you can — real or fake — and head to Shelby Park.

The wilder the facial hair, the better. They will also be selling staches and lashes on site. This year they hope to raise $40,000 for Lungevity, an organization funding lung cancer research, education, and support.

NIGHT FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

Benefit for Standing Rock Reservation 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 21, Global Education Center To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, The Global Education Center and Kening Productions are presenting an evening of music and education. Singerwriter-guitarist and social activist Kenny Mullins will be performing songs from his latest album, Sister, Oh Sister, as well

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as songs by Native American writers, in a program that honors women. There will be special guest performers, plus speakers discussing issues concerning women in modern day society, focusing on Native women who live on reservations out West.

Suggested donation is $10. Proceeds will go to The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center on Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

4822 Charlotte Ave.

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

BLACK FRIDAY BE GONE

5 Points Friday and Shop Local Saturday Nov. 27 and 28, 5 Points

Gallatin & Eastland Small Business Saturday Block Party 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 28, Various Gallatin/Eastland shops.

Rebuffing the big box Black Friday and online stores’ Cyber Monday, Shop Local Saturday is alive and well in East Nashville. Scoot down from 5 Points to the shops along Gallatin and Eastland that are hosting their own block party. The businesses in the 600 and 500 buildings (Sisters of Nature, Kitty, Local Honey, etc) will be striking up deals and doling out refreshments. Gallery Luperca will host a pop-up market with shopables from Closet Case Vintage, Fanny & June Hats, Lederach Ceramics, and other locally produced jewelries and goodies. More details to come.

500-600 Block of Gallatin.

KICKING CANCER

Sad Spaceman Promotions Showcase 8 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 28, Mad Donna’s

Sad Spaceman, a grassroots organization based here in Gnashville that focuses on promoting and exposing up-and-coming musicians, hosts a monthly showcase at Mad Donnas. But, this one is a little special. This “Kicking Cancer” lineup is a benefit for a fellow Spaceman, kickball teamster,

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and friend of the organization who is battling stage IV cancer. Proceeds from the show will go toward care and medical costs. Five bucks at the door and you can see Amos Moses and the Legend, Bentley Caldwell Music, Johnny Moe Kid, and Blue Matches. Lotta bang for a little buck.

1313 Woodland St.

invited. Stay tuned to their Facebook for location details as they are finalized.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

The Lockeland Springs Celebration of Home Tour has been around for 37 years now, with East Nashvillians opening their doors season after season. Treat yourself with a trot around some of the beautiful historic homes that make up the Lockeland Springs neighborhood of East Nashville. The tour is sponsored by a number of local businesses and it is the Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association’s only fundraiser throughout the year. Check the LSNA website to learn about the homes included, event sponsors and ticket vendors.

Fannie Battle Caroling, Greater Nashville area Dec. 1–24

Fannie Battle Day Home for Children is continuing a yearly tradition of caroling this season, a staple of the organization since 1916.

Every year families, churches, companies, schools and other organizations carol their way around the city, collecting money for Fannie Battle.

Raise your voices if you’d like to raise money for a childcare center that’s provided support to struggling low-income families for years. Sign up to deck the halls. This musical tradition continues through both caroling door-to-door as well as a variety of creative endeavors.

To become a caroler, call 615-228-6745, email caroling@fanniebattle.org, or visit www. fanniebattle.org/caroling

WE’RE ALL MAD HERE Mad House Comedy Jams 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, Mad Donnas

We ain’t mad about it, there is another comedy night in Nashville. Mad Donna’s plays host to a night of laughs and tunes on the first Thursday of November and December. Mad House Comedy Jams offers a full gamut of entertainment, showcasing four to five stand-up comedians, an improv act, and a musical guest. Check their website and Facebook to see who’s performing.

Good food, good comedy, and 2-4-1 margaritas, it’s a no brainer.

1313 Woodland St. 615.226.1617

EAST C.A.N. ROCKS AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE

East C.A.N. Holiday Open House, 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, TBD

The East C.A.N. organization will be hosting its 7th annual open house this December to celebrate the holiday season and their group’s anniversary. The organization has been helping save, rescue, and adopt animals on the East Side for over half a decade now. You can go and mingle, meet some of the East C.A.N. crew, some of the foster parents for animals, or their newly adopted families. They’ll have beverages and appetizers for everyone. Don’t worry: they’re not asking for donations and they won’t push you to adopt that adorable, homeless hound dog — it’s just a laid-back celebration and everyone is

HOME, SWEET HOME

Lockeland Springs Celebration of Home Tour Dec. 5 and 6, Lockeland Springs Neighborhood

UPCOMING

ART EXHIBITS Modern East Gallery Brandon Felts “In Fear of Form” and Jack Novak-Zarate “Cnidaria’” Oct. 22-Nov. 29

Jennifer Stalvey “Music Tree” Oct. 29-Nov. 29

Main Street Gallery “Travelogue, A Journey Around the World,” Various photographers

Opening reception 5-7p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12

photoSLAM hosted by Kemi Bennings 7-9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14

Red Arrow Gallery The Red Arrow Art Gallery Curates OZ Arts Nashville Red Arrow Retrospective and 2016 Preview Opening reception 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 5 Nov. 5-Dec. 30

Gallery Luperca Paul Grellong’s “Manuscript” presented by N&XT Installation by Leah Sawyer

Screenings Nov. 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, and 14 at 7 p.m.

Michael Ray Nott’s “Decidedly Human”

Opening reception 6-9 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 12.

Deadline for “No Skyline Nashville” entries Calling for entries of work about Nashville that don’t reference the skyline Submit by Dec. 25

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

EAST SIDE CALENDAR

S EHV EENLT SB&YC LPA SAS ERS K Fall Colors Walk

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Autumn and Art

2-3 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 14 All ages, registration required

have to reserve a spot by calling East Side Story ahead of time.

1701 Fatherland St. Suite A, 615.915.1808 (East Side Story)

ANSWER ME THIS

Trivia Time!

8 p.m., each week, 3 Crow Bar, Edley’s East, Drifter’s, Edgefield, Lipstick Lounge

East Siders, if you’re one of the sharper tools in the shed (or not, it’s no matter to us), stop by one of the East Side locales to test your wits at trivia.

They play a few rounds, with different categories for each question.There might even be some prizes for top scoring teams, but remember: Nobody likes a sore loser.

Monday at Drifter’s Tuesday at Edley’s BBQ East, Edgefield Sports Bar and Grill, and Lipstick Lounge (7:30 p.m.)

Thursday at 3 Crow Bar

Star Party with Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society

6:30-8:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14 All ages

Build Your Own Bike Pannier

6:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18 Ages 12 and up

Autumn Sunrise

6:30-7:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 20 All ages, registration required

Seed Swap

9-10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 21 All ages, no registration

On Local and Urban Agriculture, Sustainability, and Seed Saving: Author Janisse Ray 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 21 All ages, registration required (space is limited) *Check online to see what Shelby has planned for December.

TENNESSEE TITANS @ NISSAN STADIUM

12 p.m., Nov. 15 vs. Carolina Panthers 12 p.m., Nov. 29 vs. Oakland Raiders 12 p.m., Dec. 6 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars 12 p.m., Dec. 27 vs. Houston Texans

TSU TIGERS 2:30 p.m., Nov. 7 vs. Murray State (Hale Stadium)

RECURRING TELL ME A STORY

East Side Storytellin’ 7 p.m., the first and third Tuesdays, The Post

Looking for something to get your creative juices flowing? They’ve partnered with WAMB radio to present an all-out affair with book readings, musical performances, and author/musician interviews in just one evening. Look for this event twice each month. If you want some adult beverages, feel free to BYOB. Check the website to see who the guests of honor will be for each performance. The event is free, but you may want

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609 LAFAYETTE ST. NASHVILLE, TN 37206 | 615.324.1010

NEW YEAR’S EVE

EARLY & LATE SHOWS

with MARTY STUART

AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES

UPCOMING SHOWS 11/10 rachael yamagata opener tony lucca

11/10

ben caplan lounge show

11/13

jared & the mill and frontier ruckus lounge show

11/14

Siriusxm’s the buddy and jim show

11/15

w/ buddy miller and jim lauderdale & special guests jack ingram, tony joe white and chip esten

Ballroom thieves & the bros. landreth

11/16

an intimate evening with dan penn

11/17

tab benoit

11/18

david bromberg quintet

11/19 11/20 11/21 11/22

OPENER edward david anderson

jerry douglas presents:

the earls of leicester

SING US A SONG

HIT THE OPEN ROAD

Join Mad Donna’s for their night dedicated to all you songwriters out there (which is most of Nashville, right?). The first half of the night is dedicated to a singer-songwriter set, with an open mic at the end of the night. Check out the sweet drink specials, too.

1313 Woodland St.

The Building’s four-year tradition of “Open Road Monday” rambles on. It’s a weekly show that features one or two different bands every week, promptly followed by an open mic sesh. It’s just a $5 cover and BYOB. Check out some of the budding talent The Building is showcasing over here on the East Side. Visit The Building before they close their doors on November 21.

1008C Woodland St., 615.262.8899

HIP-HOP AT THE SPOT

SHAKE A LEG

M.A.S.S. (Mutual Admiration Society of Songwriters) 7-10 p.m., every other Sunday, Mad Donna’s

The Boom Bap 9 p.m., fourth Sunday of every month, The 5 Spot

Once a month, The 5 Spot brings the beats and you bring the moves. Think of it as a hip-hop roundtable. A mess of DJs — resident hosts and guests — spin their favorite tracks, rotating throughout the night. Let their records bring the ruckus to you. This soiree was so popular it’s spread to other cities, but you can catch it where it started here in East Nashville.

1006 Forrest Ave., 615.650.9333

EAST ROOM HAS JOKES Spiffy Squirrel Sundays 6 p.m., Sundays, The East Room

The East Room is making a name for itself in Nashville’s comedy scene in part through Spiffy Squirrel Sundays, started up by The East Room head honcho Ben Jones through NashvilleStandUp.com. Hosted by local comedian Chad Riden, the shows bring in an array of national and local funny guys and gals, and it’s quickly become one of the best places in town for up-and-coming comics to flex their funny bones. If you’re looking for a laugh, check it out. Five bucks gets you in the door. They usually have some music planned for post-laughs, so stick around to see the bands.

2412 Gallatin Ave.

ashley monroe sold out

opener ryan beaver

scott weiland and the wildabouts opener the icarus line david mayfield & sean mcconnell

11/22 CITY WINERY JAZZ BRUNCH FT. LYNN BEAL BIG BAND

11/23 MUSICIAN’S CORNER BENEFIT: THE LAST WALTZ 11/24 TRACY LAWRENCE MISSION:POSSIBLE

BRING IT TO THE TABLE Community Hour at Lockeland Table 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, Lockeland Table

Lockeland Table is cooking up family-friendly afternoons to help you break out of the house or away from that desk for a couple of hours.

Throughout the week, they host a community happy hour that includes a special snack and drink menu, as well as a menu just for the kiddies. A portion of all proceeds benefits Lockeland Design Center PTO, so you can feel good about giving back to your neighborhood while schmoozing with your fellow East Nashvillians.

1520 Woodland St., 615.228.4864

10TH ANNUAL TURKEY FRY CONCERT 100

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Open Road Monday 8 p.m., Mondays, The Building

Keep On Movin’ 10 p.m. until close, Mondays, The 5 Spot

For those looking to hit the dance floor on Monday nights, The 5 Spot’s “Keep on Movin’” dance party is the place to be. This shindig keeps it real with old-school soul, funk, and R&B. Don’t worry, you won’t hear Ke$ha — although you might see her — and you can leave your Apple Bottom jeans at home. If you have two left feet, then snag a seat at the bar. They have two-for-one drink specials, so you can use the money you save on a cover to fill your cup.

1006 Forrest Ave., 615-650-9333

RINC, Y’ALL

Scott-Ellis School of Irish Dance 4:30-5 p.m., ages 3-6, and 5-5:45 p.m., ages 7 & up, Mondays, Eastwood Christian Church Fellowship Hall You’re never too young — or too old — to kick out the Gaelic jams with some Irish Step dancing. No experience, or partner, required. Just you, some enthusiasm, and a heart of gold will have you dancing in the clover before you can say “leprechaun.”

1601 Eastland Ave., 615.300.4388

JAZZY BOTTOM FOR YOUR BUCK East Nashville Jazz Jam 7-9:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Fat Bottom Brewery

Q: What’s even better than cheap craft beer and a tasty meal? A: Cheap craft beer, a tasty meal, and a jazz jam. Fat Bottom Brewery offers their $10 pint and entrée special accompanied by a jazz jam hosted by local drummer Nicholas Wiles. It’s a chance to meet some other jazz cats and play your poison. Peruse their menu and beer garden and pick a brew; they’ve got plenty of options for the seasoned beer drinker, and they’re always kegging fresh batches and pouring cold ones.

900 Main St.

DRAG B-I-N-G-O WAS HIS NAME-O Drag Bingo 8-11 p.m., Tuesdays, Mad Donna’s

Drop by Mad Donna’s Loft for the rotating cast of Drag Bingo-callin’ queens. Each week, they’ll

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have prizes for the first to get to B-I-N-G-O, plus drink specials. They’re calling your name — and possibly your number/letter combo.

1313 Woodland St.

NO LAUGH TRACK NEEDED Ultimate Comedy Show by Corporate Juggernaut 8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, The East Room

and Mary Jay Berger host this pugnacious evening.

Performers will show off their storytelling, stand-up, sketch, and musical comedy acts. If the $5 price tag and laughs aren’t enough to make your tail wag, a portion of ticket sales will benefit MidSouth Pug Rescue.

1313 Woodland Ave.

❦

ART IS FOR EVERYONE John Cannon Fine Art classes 6-8 p.m., Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2-4 p.m., Saturdays, The Idea Hatchery If you’ve been filling in coloring-book pages for years, but you’re too intimidated to put actual paint to canvas, it might be time to give it a try.

Local artist John Cannon teaches intimate art classes at The Idea Hatchery, and the small class

Local jokesters have taken up residency in The East Room for Corporate Juggernaut, a weekly series of open-mic comedy shows put on by Gary Fletcher, Jane Borden, and Brandon Jazz. Brad Edwards is your host and his backing band is The Grey Grays. You can always expect to see fresh material and new talent. Doors and sign-up are at 8 p.m. Get out and help support Nashville’s growing comedy scene.

2412 Gallatin Ave.

SPINNING SMALL BATCHES

Small Batch Wednesday and Vinyl Night 6-9 p.m., Wednesdays, Fat Bottom Brewery

Fat Bottom has plenty of things happening on Wednesday nights — reason enough to move your own bottom over there. Each Wednesday they have food specials and a small batch brew release. They’re called small batch for a reason, so get there early enough to sip one. They’ll also have special guest DJs every week spinning their own vinyl, but you can even bring your own records if you’ve got a special song request. It’s an excellent way to get through hump day.

900 Main St.

TOAST TO MOTHER EARTH

East Nashville Green Drinks 6-9 p.m., third Wednesday of every month, Village Pub & Beer Garden

Tired of talking sports and gossip every night out? Village Pub has something in mind for the greener East Nashvillian. Once a month, they host an evening for environmentalists to sit down for a drink and discuss ideas for a more sustainable future. Think about it like this: You’ll be saving the planet, one drink at a time.

1308 McGavock Pike, 615.942.5880

PUG, NOT SMUG

Comedy Pug Hugs 7:30 p.m., third Wednesday of every month, Mad Donna’s

Contrary to the name, you won’t see pugs taking the stage with their stand-up routine. You can, however, expect to see a fresh lineup each month full of local and national funny dudes and dudettes. Nashville comedians Paulina Cornbow

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size keeps the sessions low-pressure and allows for some one-on-one instruction. If you’re feeling like you could be the next Matisse with a little guidance, sign yourself up.

1108-C Woodland St., 615.496.1259

WALK, EAT, REPEAT Walk Eat Nashville 1:30-4:30 p.m., Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fridays, 5 Points

What better way to indulge in the plethora of East Nashville eateries than a walking tour through the tastiest stops? Walk Eat Nashville tours stroll through East Nashville, kicking off in 5 Points, with six tasting stops over three hours. You will walk about 1.5 miles, so you’ll burn some of those calories you’re consuming in the process. This tour offers the chance to interact with the people and places crafting Nashville’s culinary scene.

You even get a little history lesson along the way, learning about landmarks and lore on the East Side. Sign up for your tour online.

YES, IT’S LADIES’ NIGHT

“Dame’s Day” Happy Hour 6:30-10 p.m., Thursdays, Pomodoro East

It’s ladies’ night and the feeling’s right. Pomodoro East is making a happy hour just for the broads.

Gals can grab a Genny Light for $2, bubbly for $3, wine for $4, and well-crafted Hangar 1 cocktails for $5. They’re calling all contessas and queens — go wet your whistle.

701 Porter Rd., 615.873.4978

PALAVER RECORDS POW WOW

Palaver Thursday Showcase 9 p.m., Thursdays, fooBAR Too

Looking to hear some fresh new tunes without paying a pretty penny to do it? Head over to fooBAR on Thursday nights — East Nasty-based record label Palaver Records hosts a weekly showcase to promote both local and traveling acts. It gives them a chance to scout performers, bands an opportunity to promote themselves, and music lovers a cheap show to catch during the week (only $5 at the door). You can see an array of different genres from week to week, and the beer always flows easy at foo Too with $3 Yazoo drafts.

2511 Gallatin Rd.

HONESTLY, OFFICER ...

East Nashville Crime Prevention Meeting 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Thursdays, Beyond the Edge or Drifters 102

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM November | December 2015

Join your neighbors to talk about crime stats, trends, and various other issues with East Precinct commander David Imhof and head of investigation Lt. Greg Blair. If you are new to the East Side, get up to speed on criminal activity in the area. If you are a recent victim of crime, they want to hear your story.

BLUEGRASS, BEER, BURGERS

Bluegrass Thursdays with Johnny Campbell & the Bluegrass Drifters 8 p.m. until close, Thursdays, Charlie Bob’s To celebrate your post-Hump Day, head to Charlie Bob’s and bring your axe along. Watch North Second Street’s own Bluegrass Drifters kick things off, then join in on the pickin’ party afterward. Have a burger, buy a few beers, and add a little ’grass to your life.

1330 Dickerson Pike, 615-262-2244

DON’T BE BASHFUL No Shame Theater 8-10 p.m., Nov. 19, The Building

Call it an open-mic night of theater. No Shame gives everyone a chance to show out their material in front of a live audience. The only rules are your act must be no more than five minutes long, totes original, and no harm to the audience in the process (physical or emotional, be nice guys). For every installment, 10 slots will be open with sign-ups an hour prior to show time. If you just feel like watching, cough up $8 at the door and BYOB. For you local filmmakers, they also accept digital short submissions. Get out to The Building for this unique no-shame night before they close up shop on Nov. 21.

1008C Woodland St.

YARNING IS CONTAGIOUS Stitch-n-Bitch 6-8 p.m., Fridays, Nutmeg

We all know the quintessential image of an old woman knitting by the fire — so take that, add a few more stitchers and seamstresses, throw in some wine, and you’ve got yourself a Stitch-n-Bitch. Bring your supplies, or better yet, buy some there. Get hooked.

1006 Fatherland St. #204

ROCKIN’ AT THE SPOT

Tim Carroll’s Friday Night Happy Hour 6-8:30, Fridays, 5 Spot

Your local watering hole has rocker Tim Carroll’s band playing their way through happy hour every Friday. It’s a great Spot to grab a beer and hear some tunes to kick off the weekend — drinks are discounted and the music is free.

1006 Forrest Ave., 615.650.9333

EAST SIDE CALENDAR

SHAKE YOUR FOOBAR

WHOSE EAST SIDE IS IT ANYWAY?

Foo’s best dance party with their freshest DJs happens every Friday night. Spinmasters David Bermudez and Jonas Stein drop the needle on vinyl all night with the numbers that’ll make you shake what ’yer mama gave you.

2511 Gallatin Rd.

Music City Improv proudly puts on their highenergy show at The Building in East Nashville each month. Every show is different, featuring a healthy mix of short- and long-form improv, plus live and video sketch comedy. Think of it as your own local Saturday Night Live on a Friday night.

This gig tends to sell out, so buy your tickets in advance online. Check this show out before The Building closes its doors on Nov. 21.

1008C Woodland St.

Sparkle City 10 p.m., Friday, fooBAR

DO THE JITTERBUG Jump Session Swing Dance Classes 8 p.m.to midnight, Fridays, DancEast

Grab your partner and swing on over to Jump Session’s swing dance classes at DancEast.

They’ll be dipping and hopping all night long to 1920s-1940s jazz. Put on your zoot suit and give it a twirl. If you’re a newbie, they have a beginner lesson from 8-9 p.m., with the full-on, dance hall party starting after. You can hit the floor for just $7, or $5 if you have a student ID. 805 Woodland St.

CAN’T FORCE A DANCE PARTY

Queer Dance Party 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., third Friday of every month, The 5 Spot

On any given month, the QDP is a mixed bag of fashionably clad attendees (some in the occasional costume) dancing till they can’t dance no mo’ at The 5 Spot, which was coincidentally named the second-best place to dance in Nashville. Help pack out the cozy club, shake a leg, slurp down some of the drink specials, and let your true colors show.

1006 Forrest Ave.

GUFFAW AND GET DOWN

Luxury Prestige III and Perfect Timing 7 p.m., third Friday of every month, The East Room

The East Room always has you covered for Friday nights. You’ll be able to get all your giggles and grooves in one spot. At 7 p.m., Luxury Prestige III, a scripted comedy competition where the audience chooses the winner, kicks off the evening.

Each night features live sketch and scripted video competitions for prizes, plus a musical guest. Pay $3 to get your kicks. Starting around 9 p.m. after Luxury Prestige III, it’s East Nashville’s very own comedy game show. Three teams of two compete, with the audience helping judge the winners of each round. Think classic game show with a mix of humor and local tastes intertwined. Sorry, Wayne Brady or Drew Carey will not be hosting.

2412 Gallatin Ave.

Music City Improv 8 p.m., Nov. 20, The Building

THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING …

First Time Stories 7-10 p.m., first Friday of every month, Actor’s Bridge Studio

We all have our firsts, some better than others.

Whether it’s a story about that first prom night when you weren’t crowned king or queen, your first concert, or maybe that first kiss, these stories are the stuff of the stage. Actors Bridge hosts an open mic night for which such soliloquies are made. They call it “storytelling karaoke,” and they only ask that you tell it straight from the heart in less than five minutes. Bring your first, and it won’t be the last time you make it out. Admission is $5 (bring a few extra bucks for the cash bar).

4304 Charlotte Ave.

TURN THIS ONE OVER Palaver Records Presents at Turn One 9 p.m., Saturdays, Turn One

Palaver Records is casting out its net a little further into the dives of East Nasty. They have their weekly showcase spot at fooBAR and now they’re moving down Gallatin with another evening of music at Turn One. Each Saturday, they will have three bands to get your grooves going. Tip: This haunt is cash only with games galore. Get your shuffleboard on, shoot some pool, or throw darts while you listen to the Palaver lineup. Bring enough dough for the $5 cover and your tab.

3208 Gallatin Pike

STUMBLE ON

East Side Art Stumble 6-10 p.m., second Saturday of every month, multiple East Nashville galleries

We don’t art crawl on the Eastside, we art stumble. Every month, local galleries and studios will open their doors after hours to showcase some of the fabulous work they have gracing their walls. Participating venues stretch across East Nashville — Gallery Luperca, Modern East Gallery, Red Arrow Gallery, Sawtooth Printshop,

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and Main Street Gallery, to name a few. You can expect to see a diverse, eclectic mix of art, affording the opportunity to meet local artists and support their work. Local retail stores are stumbling in as well, with some businesses participating in a “happy hour” from 5-7 p.m., offering discounted prices on their merchandise to fellow stumblers. Be sure to check out the happy hour deals in The Idea Hatchery.

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PARTY FOR A CAUSE LightsOut Events 7:30 p.m., fourth Saturday of every month, The East Room

The East Room is getting a little philanthropic.

Every month, the venue hosts a show in partnership with LightsOut Events to benefit selected charities. Four bands perform and proceeds go toward the cause of choice for the month. One of the event’s most notable

benefactors is Notes for Notes, which provides musical instruments and lessons to children.

(We know how much you love that, Music City.)

Come on out, and listen to some local acts for a good cause.

2412 Gallatin Ave.

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NEIGHBORHOOD

MEETINGS & EVENTS Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association 6:30 p.m., second Monday of each month Quarterly meetings are held at Mad Donna’s Locations vary, visit www.lockelandsprings.com for more information.

Shelby Hills

Neighborhood Association 6:30 p.m., third Monday of every odd numbered month, Shelby Community Center 401 S. 20th St. www.shelbyhills.org

Maxwell Heights Neighborhood Association 6 p.m., fourth Monday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct 936 E. Trinity Lane

Eastwood Neighbors

6:30 p.m., second Tuesday of every month, Eastwood Christian Church 1601 Eastland Ave. Odd Month Happy Hour: Sept. 8, 5:30 p.m. @ Eastland Cafe www.eastwoodneighbors.org

Greenwood Neighborhood Association Some people might see a girl with issues. We see a free thinker and a budding writer who’s trying to figure out her identity.

6 p.m., second Tuesday of every month, House on the Hill 909 Manila St. www.greenwoodneighbors.org

East Nashville Caucus

5 p.m., first Wednesday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct The East Nashville Caucus provides a public forum for East Nashville community leaders, representatives, council members, and neighbors.

936 E. Trinity Lane Learn how you can make a difference in a teen’s life at OasisCenter.org

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR

Chamber East

8:15-9:30 a.m., first Wednesday of every month, location changes monthly The Chamber East meets every month for a networking coffee to discuss community updates and how to grow and improve the East Nashville area. www.nashvillechamber.com/calendar

East Hill Neighborhood Association

MOMS Club of East Nashville

10 a.m., first Friday of every month, location varies by group MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support) Club is an international organization of mothers with three branches in the East Nashville area.

It provides a support network for mothers to connect with other EN mothers. The meetings are open to all mothers in the designated area.

Meetings host speakers, cover regular business items of the organization including upcoming

service initiatives and activities, and also allow women to discuss the ins and outs, ups and downs of being a mother. Check their website for the MOMS group in your area. www.momsclubeast.blogspot.com

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6:30 p.m., second Wednesday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct 936 E. Trinity Lane

Cleveland Park Neighborhood Association

6:30 p.m., second Thursday of every month, Cleveland Park Community Center 610 N. Sixth St, www.facebook.com/groups/ClevelandPark

My GreenInsights

Inglewood Neighborhood Association 7 p.m., first Thursday of every month, Isaac Litton Alumni Center 4500 Gallatin Road www.inglewoodrna.org

McFerrin Neighborhood Association

6:30 p.m., first Thursday of every month, McFerrin Park Community Center 301 Berry St.

Rosebank Neighbors

6:30 p.m., third Thursday of every month, Memorial Lutheran Church 1211 Riverside Dr.

HENMA

“ ” Ciara prides herself on constantly learning new things, and that includes managing her money. She recently sat down with her Regions Banker, Mandy, who taught her how My GreenInsights could help her build a budget she could live with. Ready to move your life forward? We’re ready to help.

Watch Ciara’s real Next Step story and plan your own at regions.com/ciara regions.com/ciara..

6-8 p.m., second Tuesday of every month, location varies HENMA is a cooperative formed among East Nashville business owners to promote collaboration with neighborhood associations and city government. Check the association’s website to learn about the organization and where meetings will be held each month. www.eastnashville.org

Dickerson Road Merchants Association

4 p.m., last Thursday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct 936 E. Trinity Lane www.dickersonroadmerchants.com

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© 2015 Regions Bank. Actual Regions customer compensated for her appearance. | Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

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Super Powers CONTINUED FROM 84 Anxiety Meds.’ ” But as a student, a curator, a critic, and an editor, she also realizes that in some ways, experience remains the one thing that can’t be taught — only learned through practice and engagement.

“I wish every young music writer could have this opportunity [Powers is having in Nashville] — watching the music every night,” she begins. “It’s easy for people to live on the web, get the music virtually. They can absorb the music through the cloud, but I don’t think you really get the essence of it. Being in a crowd, absorbing what the audience is giving, what the players are giving — that’s a big piece of it.

“Live music has been something I’ve done my whole career. I’ve sacrificed quite a bit of my hearing and possibly some of my skeletal system standing in clubs since I was 15 — being in a city where seeing live music every night is rejuvenating.”

Being alive is part of why people lean into music, why they come home from work and go out. Just as powerful as it is keeping one vital, it can often be a form of generational binding.

For Powers, who was the bright high school kid a local band manager once vouched for to The Rocket, the identity one forges “in the scene” can also lead to growing up outside the obvious and beyond the expected.

With a 12-year-old daughter, both wicked smart and precocious, the need to create a world “where there were more kids like she was” created an onramp into Powers’ new community. Looking to situate her daughter amongst peers, the family’s spring arrival allowed for enrollment in Nashville’s pioneering Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro.

Ten years into being, many of the former students are now returning to teach — and lifetime friendships are being formed. When you’re almost a teenager, it’s a place that can truly be your own.

“My daughter is a young rocker who plays the drums,” Powers explains. “I wanted her to be in a place where there were other girls like her. Girls who are into the Black Veil Brides, who care about punk rock and are different in many ways — because that’s how you become who you really are.

“Through the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp, not only did she meet other kids like her, but we met an amazing community of people who are invested in the kids and education. These people are progressive, cool, feminist, and really fun!”

Powers’ enthusiasm is palpable. “A great example of that is Jessi Wariner, who goes by Jessi Zazu,” she continues. “She’s an incredible 106

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person, but she’s also a painter, a feminist, an activist, as well as part of Those Darlins.

Knowing there are people like Jessi out there, that makes me feel good because I know my tween isn’t going to be interested in going to 3rd & Lindsley to see The Time Jumpers or the Ryman to see a roots music icon.”

Having been supported by her own parents when Powers announced she wanted to be a poet, she realizes the value of differentiation and identification in girls growing up. And even if Mom is the lead music critic for NPR, someone who can grok the music you’re rocking at 12, that doesn’t mean you don’t need your own music — or a place to put the angst, aggression, and beyond.

“When I look at Nashville, there is so much great here! Infinity Cat is here. Dan Pujol.

Daddy Issues is an all-girl band for someone like my daughter. A lot of the stuff coming out of East Nashville — or wherever the next East Nashville is — there’s plenty for someone young and defining themselves.

“So many young people are coming here to not only try to throw their hat in the ring, to maybe be a rising music star, but also to make the best kolache, the best hand-tooled leather belt. That creative energy is exciting — a real spirit of craft and, to use a far overused term, artisanal focus.

“Young people are making great stuff, whether it’s food or coffee or a yoga studio,” Powers says. “That energy is being produced and offered on a local level, produced for the community they’re a part of.”

Connections. It’s why Ann Powers does it, the way she sorts and orders her creativity and her world. As a woman who once wrote a cover story for The Village Voice headlined “Queer in the Streets, Straight in the Sheets,” she is working on a new book about “the intersection of music and sexuality as it’s unfolded over more than a century of popular music.”

But more than friction, for Powers, so much of what she does is delving into how people come together and forge bonds, about creative combustion and how tribes find themselves. It is also — as she’s already noted — about the process of how creativity emerges and manifests, something being inside a place like East Nashville affords.

“The most important thing for a creative person to hang onto is the ability to mess up, to get it half right and right in a way they didn’t expect,” she says. “I wish there was more focus in our conversations about craft, more fostering original expression.

“So many people here are devoted to making things. That creative energy is exciting, and I hope it will continue to grow.”

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East of NORMAL TOMMY WOMACK

I

All grown up

drove up to Bowling Green for a photo shoot the other day, leaves falling all brown and yellow and burnt orange, the low sun casting long shadows. I get weepy whenever I’m up there. I lived there 12 years and spent my second of four childhoods among its leafy languor. I thought I was an adult then, and I had a lot of fun with other people who thought they were adults, too.

East Nashville reminds me of Bowling Green way more than anything on the West Side does. The houses are more real on the East Side. They look real in Bowling Green, too, albeit subdivided into four or five apartments as often as not. Those tiny apartments are because of the college — Western Kentucky University, the Hilltoppers. I graduated in December of ’84, got a job at Famous Recipe Fried Chicken on the 31W Bypass, and formed a band. I was 22 years old, an adult, certainly.

There were a lot of great musicians that came out of Bowling Green in those days: Sam Bush, Byron House, Bill Lloyd, Jonell Mosser. I saw them all play and sing at Picasso’s, downtown off the square that all small towns have. Picasso’s was on 10th Street, I lived on 12th Street. It was impossible to get a DUI. You had to want one to get one in that environment. It was a simple routine: Go to Picasso’s, see a band, spend your life savings on beer, and meander on foot in the vague direction of home. And should you see a party on the way, noise bursting from one of those big, Southern, subdivided houses, you stopped in to investigate it. It didn’t matter. We had no curfews; we were adults.

One night, my bass player in Government Cheese, Billy Mack, left Picasso’s pie-eyed piss drunk and started walking home. He lived a block west of me just past 13th Street. On and on he walked his little piss-drunk way, doubtless whistling a popular hymn. He took no notice of the

street signs as they ticked down: Sixth Street, Fifth Street. He walked through the ’hood with none of its hazards troubling him. And it wasn’t until he got to the Barren River that it occurred to him something was amiss. Wait a minute. There’s no bridge on my way home! He did the only thing he could do. He turned around and toddled his way back in the proper direction, back through the ’hood and off to bed. It’s OK, officer. I’m an adult.

Beth and I were living together at 12th and College streets. Neither set of our parents knew.

Then one day Beth’s mother let herself in with a key she’d acquired somewhere, and there I was in the living room in my undershorts, my telecaster around my torso, a cig on my lips, a sweating Budweiser on the table next to me, a roach in the ashtray, and R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant blaring on the stereo. It would have been an awkward scene had I been the least bit capable of embarrassment, but, as it was, what could she say? I was an adult!

It’s not that we didn’t think of the future. We did.

But it was like a year-end term paper, due the first week of December, and here it was still August; like it was yesterday and will be tomorrow, into perpetuity, August forever.

Whenever I get back to Bowling Green, it all comes flooding back. I wonder where so many of those people are now. For a tiny few that I know of, it’s still August, but most of us are hastily writing that paper. I never leave that town without tooling up College Street, up into the eyes of the Henry Cherry statue at the top of the hill, the eyes that stared a hole in you when you drove up to it stoned.

I drive by where Picasso’s once was, where the Alibi disco was, Mariah’s, Mr. C’s, my old jogging route, and all those little touchstones from a time when we all were adults. We could buy beer, live in apartments, and pay the rent. And we hadn’t the faintest clue how young we really were.

—Tommy Womack is a singer-songwriter, author, and longtime member of Government Cheese. Their first album of new material in 23 years, The Late Show, has just been released and is available from govtcheese.com.

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PARTING SHOT

MATTHEW PELHAM

THE FEATURES EAST SIDE SOCIAL

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK ALLEN

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