The East Nashvillian 7.4 March-April 2017

MARCH | APRIL VOL.VII ISSUE 4

Wisdom & Poetry The mastery of Rodney Crowell

March | April 2017 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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CANNERY BALLROOM

RYMAN AUDITORIUM

MARCH 13 AT MERCY LOUNGE

MARCH 20

with Ethan Gruska

with John Reilly & Friends

AGNES OBEL

REGINA SPEKTOR

APRIL 7

MARCH 24 & 25

with Stanaj

with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives

JOJO

STEVE MILLER BAND

APRIL 14 AT MERCY LOUNGE

APRIL 8

with Dori Freeman

with The Paper Kites

SAM OUTLAW

PASSENGER

APRIL 22

APRIL 12

with The Lonely Biscuits

with Julien Baker

THE WEEKS

THE DECEMBERISTS APRIL 24 & 25

APRIL 28 AT THE HIGH WATT

THE STORY TOUR: AN ACOUSTIC EVENING WITH BRANDI CARLILE

SUSTO

with Becca Mancari

MAY 5

MARATHON MUSIC WORKS

PIXIES

with Public Access TV MAY 10

APRIL 25

STEVE WINWOOD

TODRICK HALL

with Lilly Winwood

AUGUST 25

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

RYMAN PRESENTS AT THE OPRY HOUSE OCTOBER 29

EXIT/IN

2CELLOS MAY 11

LEWIS DEL MAR with Blaenavon

BRIDGESTONE ARENA AUGUST 13

ROGER WATERS

TPAC JUNE 4 AT JAMES K. POLK THEATRE

BIANCA DEL RIO

JUNE 12 AT JACKSON HALL

SIGUR ROS

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APRIL 27-30

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FIND YOUR CEN T ER

AT T HE FR IST CEN T ER .

SECRETS OF

919 BROADWAY DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE FRISTCENTER.ORG

BUDDHIST ART Tibet, Japan, and Korea

#BUDDHISMFCVA

Through May 7 This exhibition was organized by the Newark Museum.

Platinum Sponsor

Supporting Sponsors

Hospitality Sponsor

Supported in part by the 2017 Frist Gala Nirvana and Mandala Society Patrons and

Buddha, Tibet, 15th–16th centuries. Mercury gilding, copper alloy, and turquoise. Newark Museum, Purchase 1920 Shelton Collection, 20.45

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PUBLISHER Lisa McCauley EDITOR Chuck Allen ASSOCIATE EDITOR Daryl Sanders COPY EDITOR John McBryde CALENDAR EDITOR Emma Alford SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Nicole Keiper CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Emma Alford, Peter Chawaga, Randy Fox, Holly Gleason, James Haggerty, Nicole Keiper, John McBryde, Tommy Womack CREATIVE DIRECTOR Chuck Allen DESIGN DIRECTOR Benjamin Rumble PHOTO EDITOR Travis Commeau ADVERTISING DESIGN ILLUSTRATIONS Benjamin Rumble Benjamin Rumble, Dean Tomasek CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Giles Clement, Travis Commeau, Eric England, Tina Gionis

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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.

First Church of the Nazarene 510 Woodland Street East Nashville

We Love Kids

Plug in

We cherish each child that steps foot through our doors. That’s why we place a deliberate emphasis on safety and spiritual growth within each stage of their lives, from the nursery through college.

Sing in the choir. Play in our orchestra.

Play in an adult or junior recreational sports league. Volunteer with our prison or urban ministries. You don’t need to be a member to participate in our many opportunities. Everyone is welcome!

u c a n fi n d o Y

af e amily her We Love Nashville

What Church Used to Be

Our five congregations include African Refugees worshiping in Swahili and Haitian immigrants worshiping in the Creole language. Additionally we provide a free hot meal on Sunday evenings for anyone in need or seeking fellowship, as well as working with our East Nashville schools and community needs.

We are an intergenerational congregation that strives to make everyone, old and new, feel accepted and loved. We offer Sunday morning traditional and contemporary services as well as Sunday school, Sunday evening worship and Wednesday evening electives with many events and activities throughout the week.

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PHONE 615 227 6584

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COVER STORY

50 WISDOM & POETRY

The mastery of Rodney Crowell

By Holly Gleason

FEATURES

64 GOOD TIMES NEVER SEEMED SO GOOD

COVER SHOT

The Black Diamond is a believer

By Randy Fox

RODNEY CROWELL

Photographed using the tintype process by Giles Clement.

Find out more about the photographer — and the process he used for our cover shot — on page 60.

70 WHAT MORE CAN A POOR BOY DO? The Blackfoot Gypsies are ready to take it To the Top

By Randy Fox

76 OPEN-DOOR POLICY

Nashville First Church of the Nazarene welcomes the city's immigrant community

By Tommy Womack

82 TED TALKS TO YOU

Leslie Belknap hopes to change the world, 18 minutes at a time

By Randy Fox

Visit

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

17 Matters of Development

By Nicole Keiper

IN THE KNOW

Advocate Fights Short-Term 27 Local Rentals

Your Neighbor: 39 Know Debbie Barnett

By Peter Chawaga

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By Tommy Womack

The Theater Bug Performs for East Nashville

in Profile: 40 Artist Michael Weintrob

By Peter Chawaga

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By Randy Fox

East Nashvillians Stand Up for Women's March

89 East Side Calendar 114

By Peter Chawaga

By Emma Alford

COMMENTARY

PARTING SHOT

14 Editor’s Letter

Megan Palmer

By Chuck Allen

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By Michael Weintrob

Astute Observations

By James “Hags” Haggerty

35 Guest Commentary

By Emma Alford

112 East of Normal

By Tommy Womack

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EDITOR’S LETTER I wanna be sedated

G

reetings from your friendly neighborhood enemy of the people!

Golly gee whiz, it’s been an exciting winter. The outpouring of love for our fellow man demonstrated by the new occupants of the West Wing has been truly exceptional.

Speaking of things presidential, the latest buzz has Oprah considering a 2020 bid for the White House. If successful, this would mean a member of the First Family lives on the East Side. Of course, it would also mean traffic disruptions when she visits Vernon, but I doubt it will be as bad as being cordoned off from downtown during a Titans game. Oprah would probably have a decent shot if she decides to go for it, since future presidents will most likely need celebrity status to win. We the People don’t have the time to go beyond name recognition for stuff like presidential elections. Thankfully, Oprah seems to possess a spirit of inclusiveness, so even the perpetually underserved demographic of middle-aged white dudes should do OK. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see what the Supreme Leader has in store. We’ll be winning a lot, apparently. Wars? Winning.

Trade? Winning. Late night comedy shows?

Most definitely winning. I think the FBI should be investigating Late Night and SNL for colluding with Russian intelligence to swing the election. And while they’re at it, Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith, since the GOP loves trotting out their songs to get the juices flowing among the true believers,

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thereby giving them a royalty bump.

Jingoistic lameness for the authoritarianminded. Closer to the truth, as far as the American mindset is concerned, would be something like The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.”

While we’re on the subjects of winning and sedation, the “War on Drugs” looks to be making a comeback. Yep, our new Attorney General hates potheads. He was cool with the KKK until he found out some of the members smoke weed. At least he has his priorities straight. I think it was Nixon who started the war on drugs some 45 years ago. It didn’t have much effect on drug consumption, but it was tremendously successful when it came to removing a vast number of Democrats from the voter rolls by throwing them in prison.

Anyway, winning the “War on Drugs?” Good luck with that, pal. You might instead try being truthful when testifying before Senators.

Unrepentant libtard snowflake Nixon also created the EPA. It’s about time a forwardthinking administration decided to take on the tree-huggers who continuously threaten us with a livable environment. After all, doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that the earth is ours to rape and pilfer for profit? Let’s build pipelines with American steel! Yeah, that’ll work. Alternative facts have found a new home, and it’s called the White House.

It’s highly likely anyone who believes this president will bring back Main Street is in for a rude awakening. Main Street disappeared because of winner-take-all, laissez-faire capitalism. A cabinet full of billionaires probably won’t be very interested in changing that.

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Matters of Development NEW AND NOTEWORTHY The past few months have been particularly busy on the clothing/fashion front in East Nashville.

Just as 2016 was wrapping up, we got news of a new vintage haunt: Black Shag Vintage, now open at 1220 Gallatin Ave., Karen Goodlow Designs’ reborn historic fire hall No. 18, now known as The Station.

At Black Shag, you’ll find vintage clothing, shoes/boots and accessories, with a particular focus on vintage concert T’s — if your heart yearns for a real-deal 1982 Iron Maiden cut-off, good chance this is the place you’ll find it.

The shop’s hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 Sunday, and Mondays by appointment. For more, visit blackshagvintage.com.

Over at the Shops at Porter East, new wom-

en’s fashion destination The Shop by Amelia Styles opened in early February, sharing “women’s clothing that’s current, versatile, and all under $100.”

Founder Millie Leach first launched Amelia Styles as a style blog, which grew into an online retail hub last year, and now, a brick-and-mortar space. She’s open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 to 4 Saturday and Sunday, at 729 Porter Road. You can browse/shop online at ameliastyles.com, too.

Amelia Styles isn’t the only new fashion name at Porter East: At press time, The Mill Boutique — which will also be stocking women’s clothing, accessories, and more — was getting ready to host its grand opening party at 737 Porter Road.

Although The Mill also has internet roots — it’s a self-described “boutique born from Instagram” — this shop isn’t the first physical location. The O.G. Mill Boutique over in The Nations opened in 2015.

To keep up with the latest The Mill news, head

to the source: @shopthemill on Instagram.

Back in the July/August issue, we mentioned a new vintage shop called Gunstreet Goods, which was doing some weekend sales-by-appointment visits in a space on Gallatin Pike in Inglewood. As of early February, the shop’s open 11 a.m. through 7 p.m. Tuesday thru Saturday in a different location: 935 Woodland St., beneath High Garden.

Moving from clothing/etc. to the beauty biz, we got another new salon as February kicked off: Rudy’s Barbershop joined Burger UP, Pet Wants Nashville, and others at the Hill Center Five Points, moving into 960 Woodland St. Rudy’s is a West Coast chain, and the East Nashville shop isn’t their first in Nashville — another location opened late last year in Edgehill Village, too. Their slant is a “rock & roll vibe,” and prices run from short cuts in the $30 range to long cuts in the $40 range, plus color and other services.

East Nashville hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. all week. For more, hit rudysbarbershop.com.

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EAST SIDE BUZZ Meanwhile, a longstanding East Side salon unveiled some big changes recently. In January, Platinum Salon’s skincare-providing partners, Glow Skincare, announced a partnership with fellow skincare pros Ona Belle Meade, and a fitting new name to go along with it: Ona Skincare East Nashville.

Ona East Nashville’s still at 1013 Fatherland St., and you can learn more at onaskin.com/east.

With your hair and skin taken care of, here’s a new place to go and show off: Inglewood Lounge, the brainchild of Actual Food’s Dan Forberg, which opened in late January at 3914 Gallatin Pike.

The lounge is open seven days a week, 5 p.m. “until late,” serving an eclectic and globally inspired mix of food (like poutine, veggie curry, tacos), plus cocktails, wine, and beer.

Forberg totally overhauled the space — once a Mrs. Winner’s — in his off-hours, and it now has a cozy, retro vibe that certainly doesn’t betray its humble drumstick-slinging beginnings.

“It’s been a long time in the making,” Forberg said in a release, just ahead of opening day. “After a year and a half of figuring out how to renovate a crummy, old fast food restaurant into a unique and fun spot, I am excited.”

For more, head to inglewoodlounge.com.

Looking for a new place to live in stumbling

distance of the Lounge? New “boutique apartment community” The Volta at 4303 Gallatin Pike was getting ready to start leasing for March at press time, with one- and two-bedroom units and rents starting at $1,150 a month. (It won’t just be residential — retail/office space is in the planning, too.) To take a look at the options, visit home.cozy.co/profile/TheVolta.

On the roommate front, Brainfreeze Comics — which traffics in “small press and alternative comics and zines” — recently shacked up inside Gift Horse, at 1006 Fatherland St., #301. The comics spot was hanging out at The Groove for a bit, but the Gift Horse partnership allows more room for their selection of “handmade one-of-akind objects of art to masterfully reissued collections from renowned alternative publishers.”

Shop there 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 6 on Sunday. More at brainfreezecomics.com.

CLOSINGS AND MOVES Last issue, we opened this column with news about Wylee’s on Woodland, the rebranded face of the former Mad Donna’s at 1313 Woodland St. That new incarnation ended up being shortlived, as Wylee’s announced a Feb. 13 closure with a printed note posted inside the front door.

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“With time comes the necessity to evolve and grow and so we have decided to close our doors … to discover that next adventure,” the note read.

If you missed the opening news: Wylee’s was unveiled in December during a TV pilot filming led by Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer and featuring Middle Tennessee-based pop achiever Sheryl Crow. The moniker combines the names of Crow’s two sons, Wyatt and Levi, and the menu unveiled during the filming was stocked with Crow-nodding items, i.e. “‘All I Wanna Do’ is Have Dessert.”

A longtime employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing show-related confidentiality agreements, told us restaurant traffic took a nosedive after the rebrand, and that customers were vocal about the themed approach being an ill fit for East Nashville.

Mad Donna’s had been at 1313 Woodland since 2008, taking over the space after the closure of Radio Cafe (now back in action at 4150 Gallatin Pike in Inglewood). No word yet on what may take over the Woodland location.

Also in last issue’s column: News about the opening of an East Nashville outpost of Murfreesboro-bred kids shop The Crazy Kukla Boutique.

In this issue: news of a swift and unexpected closure there.

The East Side Kukla opened at 1900 Eastland Ave., Unit 102, last fall, joining the flagship store located on the square in Murfreesboro. In mid-February, owner Kimberly Simpson shared news of both shops’ last days: Feb. 18 for Nashville, March 4 for The Boro.

“My personal life is much different now than when we opened the store nearly two years ago and closing is the best decision for my family,” Simpson wrote. The Murfreesboro shop opened in 2015.

Another February shuttering: Porter House Bistro, at 1115 Porter Road, also ended its run. The French-inspired eatery opened in 2014, and over the past year or so, there had been some uncertainty there — last May, chef/ chief Drew Bryant announced that stalled lease negotiations were necessitating a change in address; in July, he announced that the restaurant would be staying put. Things seemed to stabilize before Bryant shared the closure news in February.

“We are so thankful to everyone who has supported us from the start and to our incredible employees for all of their hard work,” he wrote in the announcement.

We haven’t heard any mutterings yet about a new business taking over that space.

At the start of the year, “damn fine candy” makers Walker Creek Confections shuttered their East Nashville shop in the IDEA Hatchery at 1108 Woodland St. We asked owner Cathy McCook about the closure; she said she didn’t have anything more to share, but did want to emphasize that Walker Creek “enjoyed being in East Nashville and serving our customers there.”

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EAST SIDE BUZZ The East Nashville location opened in mid-2015.

Their artisan toffees/caramels are still readily available in Tennessee — the company’s headquarters are about an hour east of Nashville in Watertown, and they recently opened another location in the Factory at Franklin. You can also shop online at walkercreektoffee.com.

East Nashville sweets shop Chocolate F/X closed its doors in February, after about three

years in the Shoppes on Fatherland. Owner Andrea Smith brought her confectionary and special-effects-design skills here from Atlanta, and earned big fans for creative flavors and aesthetics — anything from super-spicy ghost-pepper caramels to chocolate Friday the 13th masks.

“We are eternally grateful to everyone who made it possible for us to serve up scares, sweets, and smiles over the past three years,”

Smith wrote in an announcement on social media. “… We’ve loved every single minute of it.”

Chocolate F/X’s devotees can still snag Smith’s creations via chocolatefx.net.

Not a food closure, exactly, but a big change: Early in 2017, East Nashville cheese monger Kathleen Cotter announced that her Bloomy Rind Artisan Cheeses, rooming with Porter Road Butcher for the past five years at 501 Gallatin Ave., would be going away, in a sense, as she shifted attention to the wholesale side of her cheese business.

The exit was “in a sense,” since while Cotter won’t be there mongering Wednesdays through Saturdays, her cheeses are still in the house — going forward, PRB is offering a Bloomy Rindpicked selection of cheeses all week.

“I feel both a little sad and very optimistic,” Cotter wrote in an announcement. “Sad because I will miss seeing my awesome customers every day. Optimistic because this step is the next right step (I hope!) in making The Bloomy Rind into a financially sustainable business.”

Not going away: Cotter’s annual Southern Artisan Cheese Festival, expected to return this year.

Another big change for a beloved neighborhood brand: In February, Hey Rooster General Store owner Courtney Webb announced that her shop would be heading west to take over the former Bookman/BookWoman space in Hillsboro Village.

She had been at 1106 Gallatin Ave. since 2013, lining shelves with a broad mix of handmade/ small-batch/curated items, from regionally made food products to textiles printed by Nashville makers.

Webb said in an announcement that while she was torn about leaving East Nashville, the new location had some big pluses for her Hey Rooster vision. “My shop always looked like it should have neighbors sharing walls and people walking on the street outside,” she wrote. “To me, we’re just kinda picking up our little slice of life and placing it down in an environment I always imagined it to be.”

At press time, the new Hey Rooster was set to open in March. Regular updates/online shopping at heyrooster.com.

COMING SOON Probably the biggest coming-soon news to hit the East Nashville wires recently: a new Hill Center Greenwood development in the works at Gallatin and Greenwood avenues, due to be anchored by a Sprouts Farmers Market.

The project is a long way off — a presentation released in January indicated a fall start for site work, with an intended spring/summer 2019 opening. But the vision has certainly earned a lot of attention.

Along with the proposed Sprouts market (a 29,000-square-foot store), this new Hill Center

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EAST SIDE BUZZ would include an additional 12,500 square feet of retail/restaurant space, plus 80 residential units and multiple parking lots (151 spaces in the main complex, an additional 76-space parking structure across the street, along with a one-story retail space).

Camille’s Market, the Athlete’s Foot, and Young’s Fashion are currently located where the main Hill Center Greenwood complex would be.

If you’d like to explore the plans, head to hghill. com and click on “New Projects.”

Hill Center Greenwood isn’t the only major development in the planning on our side of the river: The New Year also brought news about River North, a 100-plus-acre project on the east bank, set to include residential, retail, office, and entertainment space, plus green space and waterfront activity space.

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As envisioned — and alongside the huge TopGolf entertainment complex that’d be its neighbor — River North would drastically recast that part of town, still far more industrial than residential or commercial (though significant city attention’s been paid to revamping the area in recent years).

The first steps in this massive project are expected soon — Chicago-based Monroe Investment Partners intend to get moving with first phase “The Landings” in the second quarter of 2017.

Learn more/check out renderings at rivernorthnashville.com.

East Nashville may be getting another hotel, too, joining the planned Holiday Jones boutique hotel project on Main Street. The Tennessean reported in January that Bobby and Kathryn Bubis were proposing a 21-suite, short-term vacation rental-style hotel at 931 Main St. Dubbed Hotel Air BTB, the hotel would be booked using space-sharing site Airbnb, the report said, and prices would be around $500 a night for its four-bedroom, two-bath suites.

The project’s still a distance from being a done deal, and the proposal’s earned concern from some in the community (including District 6 Metro Council member Brett A. Withers, who responded to us via Facebook, “I can’t imagine how a staffless AirBnB hotel on Main Street will not experience crime issues”). But the Bubises are hoping Hotel Air BTB will be up and going next spring.

Other proposed development tidbits: Nashville Post reported that a 110-unit condo project is in the works at 1404 Dickerson Pike (and would include a number of spaces priced at $99,000); and at 1041 East Trinity Lane, work on a condo complex with about 6,000 square feet of commercial space may start early next year.

Near the location of that latter project, we already have some new local businesses putting the finishing touches on their spaces. “Photo studio/ office/art gallery/small venue” Nous Art House and houseplants/seasonal gardening essentials/ home goods shop Flora are taking over separate parts of a 2,000-square-foot, shared space at 305 East Trinity Lane, and at press time, had plans to open their doors in March.

Flora, led by locals Kerbi Howat and Kate Holl, will occupy the storefront facing Trinity, offering specialty houseplants and related items. Nous, behind Flora, will serve as local photographer Ashtin Paige Yetton’s studio. As things ramp up, the three friends expect to host an array of events, from plant workshops to art shows and intimate concerts.

Learn more at floraplantshop.com and ashtinpaige.com.

Although we lost some food purveyors recently, some new ones are on the way.

East Siders Manny Hatz and Josiah Johnson are teaming up to launch The Mainstay, a new restaurant at 501 Main St., most recently home to The Vine (which closed last May).

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EAST SIDE BUZZ The plan: a more low-key hang serving “elevated bar food with a farm-to-table concept,” at a $10 to $20 price point. “It’s not supposed to be a finer dining or special occasion-type of restaurant,” Anna-Vija McClain, who’s working on The Mainstay’s branding, told us. “It’s supposed to be more of an everyday-use type of restaurant.”

At press time, April 1 was the planned opening date.

The former home of Perk & Cork, 1304 McGavock Pike, is also in the middle of transforming into a “welcoming, chef-driven eatery, and friendly neighborhood destination for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch” called Fort Louise.

Inglewood resident Jessica Bower — who opened clothing, accessories, and home goods Boutique Steluta at 1601B Riverside Drive last fall — is the brains behind Fort Louise, which is named in honor of Louise Clark Fort, the mother of East Side airpark namesake Cornelia Fort.

She has a “substantial interior remodel” in the works, and intends to build out a full back porch to create a space for “prime al fresco dining and drinking in the warmer months.”

In charge of the Fort Louise kitchen: Chicago chef Greg Biggers, the current executive chef at the Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile’s Cafe des Architectes. The Alabama native has a serious pedigree — he’s done time at famed restaurants like Morimoto in Philadelphia, TRU in Chicago, and McCrady’s in Charleston. He’ll be maintaining his Cafe des Architectes position as he takes on the new Nashville project.

Perk & Cork was in business for about a year at that location before it closed last October; before that, vintage shop Old Made Good called the space home.

Come spring, new local craft beer/food spot Preservation Ale House should be joining the historic Morris Jacobs Building at 307B Wilburn St., in McFerrin Park.

The restaurant’s co-owners, Pat Isbey and Jeff Bergman, are both locals, and told the Nashville Post that they plan to “assimilate within the neighborhood as opposed to simply operating our business there.” Bergman’s set to be in charge of the brewing, with Isbey — someone regular Station Inn-goers might remember as the head of Jimmy Carl’s Lunchbox — leading the kitchen’s Korean-influenced menu.

Stay tuned by likingfacebook.com/preservationalehouse.

On the working-off-the-calories front, the former Horner Rausch Optical Co. space at 968 Main St. is set to be home to a new health and wellness stop, with Marathon Pilates, bWELL Massage, and P3nashville combining forces.

Marathon Pilates already has a 12 South location, and P3nashville (which offers physical therapy, massage, nutrition services, and more) has a West End space. bWELL is a new brand

from longtime LMT Lisa Brown, who’ll have a private massage space and “full complement of equipment.”

On Instagram, the Marathon folks called the new East Side team-up a “grand adventure,” and said, “Together we will be working to improve alignment, balance (and) movement efficiency, and to optimize whole-body health.”

Work was humming along on the new lo-

cation at press time — explore more ahead of their opening at marathonpilates.com, p3nashville.com, and bwellmassage.com.

Have East Side development news to share? Reach out to: nicole@theeastnashvillian.com.

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EAST SIDE BUZZ Local Advocate Fights Short-Term Rentals Grace Renshaw didn’t need a new house.

She and her husband had already paid off their mortgage, but it seemed like a good opportunity to invest in something that they could rent to their daughter and her roommates. So, in the spring of 2015, they purchased half of a duplex on Douglas Avenue in a vibrant neighborhood with a good mix of different people.

Within the year, the other half of the duplex became a short-term rental property. Renshaw had no idea that meant the property would soon become a nightmare, one that challenged her belief that local homeowners were foremost in the minds of legislators.

“We got the notice that the duplex’s other owner was going to rent it short term and I thought, ‘Great, I’ve got three 20-something girls living under the same roof with a steady stream of transients,’ ” Renshaw recalls. “We have no idea who’s checking in and who’s checking out, and we don’t have any power to control it.”

According to Renshaw, District 18 Council Member Burkley Allen’s first draft of an ordinance to amend Title 17 of the Metropolitan Code for short-term rentals required that potential renters receive the permission of adjacent neighbors and limited the amount of Type 2 (not owner-occupied, single-family unit) rental permits to one per person, keeping investors from buying multiple properties and exclusively renting them out. Allen then revised her bill to become the much more permissive ordinance Nashville now has.

As it stands now, owners of Type 2 and Type 3 (not owner-occupied, multifamily units) rentals are only required to inform neighbors if they plan to rent short term — not obtain their permission — and even that notification is only necessary if the neighbor shares a driveway or wall, says Renshaw. While ownership of Type 2 rentals is limited based on census tract, there are no limits on Type 1 (owner-occupied) or Type 3 rentals.

“They set up a system that opens neighborhoods to the kind of commercial activities that they had never been open to before,” Renshaw says.

The ordinance also qualifies Type 2 and Type 3 rentals for residential use, as opposed to commercial use, explains Renshaw. While other commercial uses of these types of properties, like turning them into music studios or massage parlors, are restricted, short-term rentals are allowed because they are deemed “accessory uses” of the residence.

“That’s true if you actually live there and are renting one of your rooms part of the time,” Renshaw says. “But if the house is solely used for short-term rental, then it’s a primary use and a commercial use. But our law says that it’s a residential use and that it’s an accessory use. That’s

dishonest. I want the law to be honest.”

Allen did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the original draft of the ordinance or reasons for any changes it had undergone.

Ultimately, Renshaw thinks these rules allow for the type of renters that disrupt the quality of life for many in East Nashville. “If you’re on vacation, of course you’re going to stay up late and

enjoy yourself by the pool, and you’re going to drink more than you do regularly,” she says. “If you’re doing that in a residential neighborhood, all the people around you will have to get up for work and school and so on. It’s not a particularly compatible use.”

To fight the rules she sees as unfair, Renshaw writes articles for local publications, participates in several advocacy committees, and lobbies

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EAST SIDE BUZZ local government. “I want to see Type 2 and Type 3 rentals eliminated,” she says. “I think that any commercial business that is unsupervised is a bad model.”

But Renshaw acknowledges that it won’t be easy to sway decision makers in a city that’s become as development-driven as Nashville has.

“I honestly think our ordinance is vulnerable to a valid legal challenge and that Metro has very cynically calculated that there wouldn’t be enough people to get the money and bring that challenge,” she says.

Advocates for the elimination of short-term rentals hold out hope that others will see that they simply want what’s best for their neighbors.

“I think you have to try,” Renshaw says. “This law sends a really awful message, which is that Nashville cares more about tourists and the tourism industry and the development industry than they do about the quality of life and the property values of permanent residents.”

— Peter Chawaga

The Theater Bug Performs for East Nashville So many of East Nashville’s endeavors enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the community, giving neighbors a chance to grow and explore while benefiting from their creativity and enthusiasm. The Theater Bug, a children’s theater company located in the back building of New Life Baptist Church, is one such endeavor, providing the neighborhood’s youngest residents with training, an opportunity to perform, and much more.

The Theater Bug offers free and low-cost programming to students who require it. In an effort to grow in that capacity, the company will be hosting a fundraiser, The Bug Ball, on April 6 at The Pavilion East.

“Our hope with The Bug Ball is to reach some new supporters who may not know much about what we do and have some capacity for giving to a program like ours,” says Cori Anne Laemmel, the theater’s artistic director. “We want to do what we do for a long time and to have the ability to keep growing.”

The event will also be a celebration of the community that has proved to be so well-suited for the company. “East Nashville is the perfect blend of family, art, and quirkiness at its core, and that lines up perfectly with how I wanted The Bug to feel,” Laemmel says. “I think that so many of the kids in this community have been raised around art and a love of it has been cultivated in their homes. … I wanted to provide an opportunity that was close to home for kids to not only explore the arts, but to help them find other artists.”

Finding East Nashville as the perfect home for her theater six years ago, Laemmel has been dedicated to serving the community, as well as its budding stars. “At least once a year, The

Theater Bug takes on what some call an ‘issue-based show,’ ” she explains. “During these shows, we partner with another organization that works with kids, but in a different way than we do. These organizations help us tell the stories of their kids from the beginning of the scriptwriting process, through rehearsals, and even into the actual production.”

Over the years, The Theater Bug has partnered with The Special Education Advocacy Center, a group supporting educational rights for children with disabilities; Miriam’s Promise, a local child-placing agency; and The Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network; among others.

In conjunction with Gilda’s Club Nashville, a cancer support group, the company produced The Barefoot Children in the City of Ward, a play about children with terminal illness.

“We consider each of these organizations to be dear friends now and have been able to spread their message using our small but mighty platform,” Laemmel says. “Our mission is about confidence, community, encouragement, and how beautiful it is to be educated in the lives of our peers.”

Helping spread awareness for these organizations and giving children the chance to engage with them makes The Theater Bug especially important in East Nashville. But in a broader

sense, their mission is to instill participants with an arts education that will benefit them in any walk of life, anywhere.

“When you are part of a cast, you are needed to make the machine go,” Laemmel explains.

“You are celebrated. Our group is all ages and backgrounds, and they are pulling together to create. You are teaming up to make something that didn’t exist before and giving it as a gift back to the community. You win every time.”

— Peter Chawaga

East Nashvillians Women’s March

Stand

Up

for

On Saturday, Jan. 21, millions of people from all over the world demonstrated solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, an event demanding support for social justice issues following a divisive presidential election.

Citizens across the country participated, including about 15,000 from Nashville. The local event saw them march from Cumberland Park to Public Square, holding signs and chanting, with nearly all of their calls for change pointed squarely at President Donald Trump.

Of course, East Nashville was well represented among these advocates for change. And for many, the compulsion to demonstrate needs

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EAST SIDE BUZZ no explanation. “I don’t think it was as much a conscious decision as simply being compelled to show up,” explains Heather Lose, a graphic designer and founder of freeform radio station WXNA, who lives in Inglewood. “I mean, our country just elected Donald Trump as our leader, and your readers know all the stuff he’s done and said, so why waste column inches regurgitating it all, right?”

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Attendees chose to participate in support or defiance of any combination of issues, from health care to immigration. If an overriding mission can be distilled from such a large event, it was a day of protest for the direction the country seems to be headed with particular emphasis on protecting, or instilling, women’s rights.

“I participated to make it known that I support all of the women’s rights that our previous

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and current generations have worked so hard to obtain,” says Val Knust, a massage therapist who has lived in East Nashville since 2004 and serves on the board for the Historic East Nashville Merchants Association. “We all want the new administration to know that we stand together and will continue to pursue justice for the rights we have and will not be quieted when threatened by removal and/or restriction of our rights.”

Though Nashville is well known for its status as a blue city in a red state, there were some questions about how much of a crowd would attend the event. For those who were there that day, those fears were quickly abated.

“I had heard on Thursday that the Nashville attendance was predicted to cap over 6,000,” says Wendy Winsor, a financial analyst and longtime East Nashville resident. “By Friday night, it was over 7,000. When I showed up Saturday morning, cars were already backed up across the Shelby Street Bridge almost an hour before the event was to begin. Ten thousand marchers was the updated estimate and, as everyone knows, by the end of it all there were over 15,000.”

Anger may have driven most attendees to demonstrate and frustration with legislators still abounds, but many left Nashville’s Women’s March with a feeling of hopefulness that if such an event can take place, it shows that they are not alone.

“The march was very peaceful with all genders, all races, all people coming together in equality,” says Heather Baker, a branding specialist and East Nashvillian for 17 years. “Men, women, fathers, mothers with strollers, grandmothers to teenagers who marched, all bonded together for a greater message. That message was about our future, our voice, and equality for this world.”

East Nashville was represented at the parent march in Washington, too. “Honestly, words are hard to describe the feeling of being there amidst almost a million people standing up and chanting for the same cause,” says Kim Collins, a musician, interior designer, and wellness coach from East Nashville. “I mean, I don’t know if any of us attending knew what to expect. We just knew that it was important to be there. It felt like you were in the nucleus of a major historic shift. … As I looked out to the endless sea of people, tears swelled. I could not believe how many people peacefully showed up.”

For many, the day marked the beginning of more actions to come, not just a standalone event. It’s fair to say that the country can expect more calls for change out of East Nashville in the future. “I will continue to work to make my voice and those of others heard by our representatives and senators,” Winsor says. “There is a lot of energy that can be harnessed from what I saw on Saturday.”

— Peter Chawaga

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Astute OBSERVATIONS James “Hags” Haggerty

On the ropes with Mr. Orange 2017 is off to a shocking start, huh?

I feel like I’ve spent 10 rounds in the ring with fear and hate. I’m like a metaphysical Rocky Balboa, me versus the man in the orange trunks. He wants to put me in a body bag or a rubber room. His finishing move involves ripping out my soul and frying it up for a late-night, post-Twitter snack. I’ve got my back to the ropes and despite his diminutive hands, my opponent packs a mean wallop.

I’m down, but I am not out. Mr. Orange has me off balance. His blows are erratic and out of nowhere. I can’t seem to defend against them. I’m backpedaling. I can’t see out of one eye, and everything is a bit foggy.

I’m stunned, staggering, and covering up, just trying to make it to the next round. My legs are like rubber, and despite my resolve, I may hit the canvas.

I need the sage trainer Mickey Goldmill to lay some of his hardscrabble, pugilistic wisdom on me: “Go for the ribs, Hags. Don’t let that bastard breathe!” That’s good advice, Mick. Thank you, but I’m exhausted.

For months now, my head has been filled with the ravings of an absurd reality show caricature spewing bald-faced lies at maximum volume. I don’t think my psyche can take another alternative fact or FAKE NEWS diatribe. I’m an artist, man. I’m sensitive. I need a break, a DC-free zone, if you will.

For the sake of my sanity, I am turning off the news. I am shaking off the punches, the shock, and the vitriol. Records, books, conversation, cooking, romance, meditation, sunlight, that’s what I need.

I am going inward. I am refortifying. I reject this stupefying shock and awe campaign designed to keep me off balance and distracted. I’m not simply running away and locking myself in the house with my records. Actually, that’s exactly what I’m doing, but with good reason.

We’ve got a very tough fight on our hands. It’s Joseph Campbell time. It’s Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker stuff. It’s Brody versus Jaws. I’m hitting the metaphysical gym. I’m training. I’m sparring.

I’m meditating, and I’ve got my representatives on speed dial. In order to effectively fight this battle, I’ve got to marshal my power. My bloviating, blustering, bullying opponent be damned. I’m comingback swinging.

The way I see it from my Inglewood living room window is, thusly, we have two choices, love or fear.

Let’s choose love. Mr. Orange runs on fear and creates hate.

I was playing a gig with a friend recently. We were discussing the divided states of America at the bar afterward. He said, “It’s time to let our freak flags fly, we’ve got to be our best selves.” He was right.

That’s my strategy. I choose love. I reject hate. I reject walls. I choose inclusiveness.

We live in a town full of musicians, songwriters, and artists of very race, creed, and color, freaks of every stripe. In our community, by being who we are, we can lead by example. By pouring our passion into the things we make, be they art, music, a great meal, or a fabulous cocktail and sharing them both locally and around the world, we demonstrate the best qualities of the human spirit, the best parts of Nashville, the best parts of ourselves. That demonstration alone conquers hate.

By coming together and celebrating the diversity of our community, we triumph over the darkness.

Inspiration, hard work, equality, respect, empathy, and joy are the remedy for this fearful malady.

We are the people. We are America. Vote. Protest Create. Lead.

Oh, one more thing: I know I’ve been on a bit of a political jag lately, but fret not, my friends; my inner comedic curmudgeon is back from a vacation at Don Rickles’ ranch and will be visiting with you shortly.

Hags is a part-time bon vivant, man-about-town, and contributor to The East Nashvillian who earns his keep as a full-time bassist extraordinaire. Stay tuned, for we’re confident he will return to for as happy-go-lucky-unencumbered-by-fear-of-dystopia-Hags by the Spring.

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Guest Commentary

I Wore A PINK PUSSY HAT IN DC

By Emma Alford

J

ust before 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20, we stuffed our signs — plastered with varying degrees of sarcasm, wit, and political directness — under the chartered bus and boarded it.

Every poster board was a small testament to what was weighing heavily on all of us; it had been confirmed, inaugurated, and situated in our nation’s capital earlier that afternoon. Donald Trump was now our president. We were headed to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., as a statement to our new leader and his administration: Women’s rights are human rights.

The event sparked from a Facebook post by former attorney Teresa Shook the day after the election. As the post went viral, officials in the nation’s capital prepared for an estimated crowd of 200,000; actual attendance approached the 500,000 mark. D.C. Metro reported more than 275,000 rides by 11 a.m., two hours before the march even began. That was already 82,000 more rides than the previous day at the same time during Trump’s inauguration. Rough estimates indicate marches across the country drew more than 3 million people, with some estimates nearing 5 million. The marches also spread internationally to nearly every continent.

Chatter on the bus ranged from “Free Melania” comments to the price of toilet paper and the exorbitant amount their children used. There were several mother-daughter groups, friend duos, and a few one-off singles like myself. I sat next to a woman named Laura, who had owned an art gallery in downtown Nashville, but lost it when the recession hit in 2008. She works in Metro Nashville Public Schools now and raises her 8-year-old son (whose Star Wars fleece blanket she brought along for the ride). When I asked her if she was happy with her job change, she laughed and said firmly, “No, no I’m not.”

Our bus was completely full, save for three seats reserved for women who had to cancel at the last minute. In total, 53 of us piled into the bus, mostly women and a few men who appeared to be accompanying their wives or female friends. A pattern of pink, freshly knitted pussy hats scattered around the seats.

One woman brought extras along to pass out on the bus, while another handed everyone “Pussies Against Trump, Cant Grab This” pins. I donned my own pink hat, knitted by a friend’s

mother who regretted not being able to attend. Despite her absence, she sent me on my way with some cash, the fleshy cap, and some advice: “Those that choose to put their heads in the sand only strengthen the tide of hate.”

We left on our 10-hour drive early enough to account for any traffic outside the city. And there was a lot of traffic, with chartered buses crowding the interstate as we approached the capital. Their destination — and ours — was RFK Stadium, where the rally was held. The Washington Post reported the week before the march that parking permits for buses at RFK had already reached 1,200, five times the number of permits granted for President Trump’s inauguration the day before.

As we exited the bus, grabbed our signs, and began to make our way toward the rally point, I decided to walk with our two rally captains and the group of ladies with them. I didn’t know a soul on the bus, so I figured it best to find a group and stick with them. Among our small pack were three 20-something women, myself included; an all-smiles expectant mother; and a middle-aged woman named Sheila who was prepared to walk the 2-mile march route with her walker. Sheila suffers from a number of diseases, with a nerve condition being the most painful and debilitating. As she jokingly told me, “My body will be paying for this march all next week.” She might have been the most enthusiastic of the five of us.

National Guard soldiers greeted us with huge smiles as they directed pedestrian traffic. Women shouted, “Thank you for this,” a phrase I would hear repeated throughout the day to both soldiers and police officers — all of whom returned a warm smile or “Happy to help.”

The crowd quickly thickened as we neared the area where the rally would be held. We left Sheila at the ADA entrance and continued on. A few short minutes later, we found a spot from which to watch the rally, and although we were so far back we couldn’t see the stage, we were lucky enough to be near a screen showing the performers and speakers. People began scaling port-a-potties to sit on top for a better view.

The rally began with Charlie Brotman — the 89-year-old who announced the last 11 inaugurations, from Dwight →

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IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE STATION, WE’LL CHANGE IT FOR YOU.

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FROM GOSPEL TO METAL, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT’S NEXT ON NASHVILLE’S FREEFORM RADIO STATION.

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Eisenhower to Barack Obama — telling us he was elated to be opening the rally since he’d been booted from his usual duties at presidential inaugurations by Team Trump.

To say the rally had a full lineup would be a huge understatement.

Actor America Ferrera, a daughter of Honduran immigrants, kicked things off with a powerful speech, voicing concerns for young immigrants and the hateful credo adopted by the new administration. “It’s been a heartrending time to be both a woman and an immigrant in this country,” she said. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. We are America. And we are here to stay.”

With over 30 scheduled speakers, including 6-year-old Sophie Cruz, Gloria Steinem, Michael Moore, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif ), and Alicia Keyes, the rally went on for four hours, perhaps too long for those eager to march. Ashley Judd vibrantly recited Franklin, Tenn., teen Nina Donovan’s “Nasty Women” poem. (Safe to say Judd will not be receiving an invitation to the White House anytime soon.)

In one particularly powerful moment, musician Janelle Monáe brought out the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Dontre Hamilton as they led a call-and-response chant of their sons’ names. Monáe reminded the crowd to remain resilient in the face of challenges to their civil rights. “And whenever you feel in doubt, whenever you want to give up, you must always remember to choose freedom over fear.”

We maxed out at just over three hours; regrettably, we missed a surprise appearance by Madonna, but we were ready to start moving.

There’d been whispered rumors that the march was cancelled, which, of course, wasn’t true — the route had been diverted to Pennsylvania Avenue. There were simply too many people to march down the original route, which was gridlocked with bodies. We walked the parade route that our now-president had taken just the day before.

I’d seen the photos of barren parade stands on Inauguration Day. Now they were filled with protesters waving signs, blowing whistles, and cheering us on. The march moved past Trump International Hotel where a man shrouded in a rainbow flag holding a megaphone said, “I’ll be your tour guide for D.C. today. To your left you have Trump Hotel; as you pass I’d like you to raise your middle finger and say hello.”

Marchers followed his instructions as they passed the building, now in the midst of a

$2 million lawsuit for failure to pay contractors. Later in the day marchers would leave their signs in front of Trump’s hotel and the White House as a parting message to the new administration.

Several chants erupted along the protest route: “We will not go away, welcome to your first day,” “This is what democracy looks like,” “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and “We are the popular vote.” Many signs referenced Trump’s “Grab them by the pussy” comment. One fluffy Husky wore a poster strapped on its back that said, “Huskies against treason.” A solemn-looking young boy stood on top of a concrete pot holding a sign above his head with a pink-painted fist on it that said, “Outraged.”

Such were the sights as we slowly marched our way down Pennsylvania Avenue. Although it wasn’t the original route, law enforcement rolled with it and let the marchers continue.

They finally stopped us when we reached 15th

“

people sprawling the streets of NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We weren’t sure exactly what the victory was, but it felt like one. A woman walked down the aisle of the bus, showing a picture of her with a group of “Bikers For Trump,” all smiles. “They were so polite,” she remarked, surprised.

The news the next day was filled with shots of marches across the country and the world, dominating headlines throughout America and abroad. Monday followed with our first press conference from new White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, where he went on to blatantly lie about the size of Trump’s inauguration crowd. It was clear that the march had been so large it bruised our president’s ego.

Alternative facts aside, America showed up for the Women’s March in D.C. and across the U.S. Political scientists have said that it was the largest demonstration in our history, with 1 in every 100 Americans marching to protest Trump’s inauguration. These protests were peaceful and no arrests were made.

Now, just a few weeks into Trump’s presidency we’ve witnessed a rapid-fire approach to controversial directives.

Never mind the first 100 days; in his first 100 hours President Trump had banned Muslims and refugees from entering the country, revived the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, gagged the Environmental Protection Agency, and taken the first steps toward directing the construction of his border wall.

I hope that the millions who showed up to marches across our country remember to stay vigilant. In the week following the march, there were demonstrations around Nashville nearly every single day. For every controversial appointment or executive order, there was a rally. A Nasty Women exhibition at The Basement East drew a huge crowd and spread awareness for and racked up donations to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker have stayed fixed in my “recently called” list, and I imagine that’s where they’ll stay for the coming months.

As I write this, I am preparing to attend a vigil this evening to support immigrants and refugees.

The fight is only beginning. For those that marched, let it be a springboard into continued activism in your community. Don’t be overcome with a feeling of powerlessness and victimization. Don’t let this movement become swallowed by hopelessness when the odds seem so against us. Our country cannot remain great without the voices that make it so.

I’m reminded again of a sign I saw in D.C. “We won’t be silenced.” We won’t.

I’ll be your tour guide for D.C. today.

To your left you have Trump Hotel; as you pass I’d like you to raise your middle finger and say hello.

Avenue, just before the White House. It was around 4 p.m. by this point; exhausted, tired, and hungry, I was ready to depart the march.

But the march wasn’t ready to give up yet. It kept going. Women in front of me split off down side streets and continued marching as I headed toward the subway. Officers maintained their benevolence, clearing traffic and escorting marchers.

I made my way to Metro. A line wrapped around the block to get inside, a sea of pink hats and protest signs. I waited patiently in line as we entered the station and descended the escalator. Soft chants of “My body, my choice,” “Her body, her choice” echoed around us.

Finally we reached the bus and were eager to see coverage of the march. Because of the huge crowds, most people didn’t have service. Texts from the course of the day clicked in from my boyfriend all at once: “So many people,” “The crowd is huge,” and one “You ok?”

He’d stayed home to attend the protest in Nashville and march with his band, The Weeks.

He told me how blown away and moved he was by Nashville’s turnout. The TV screens in the bus switched on to show us expanses of

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KNOW your NEIGHBOR

“Y

ou know, we’re coming up on our 30th anniversary this year. When we started, it was a group of folks who met in a living room because their friends were dying of AIDS and they didn’t know what to do. People in the hospitals didn’t know, doctors didn’t even know how it was transmitted, so there was such a lot of ignorance around it since it was a new epidemic happening. Back then it was a death sentence. And it no longer is, because of medicine and science and the amazing progress that we’ve made. If it’s caught, then with proper nutrition and exercise, you can get on the medicine and live a long normal and healthy life, just as you would without it. It’s a matter of getting tested, and catching it in time.” — Debbie Barnett

Debbie BARNETT

we have two entire insurance wings here that do nothing but billing and processing and getting people signed up

by Tommy Womack during open enrollment and get insurance for everybody.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Barnett has worked almost exclusively for nonprofits or otherwise benevolent associations for her entire career life.

Prior to Nashville CARES, she spent over a decade at World Vision, a nonprofit disaster relief organization. “We did child sponsorship,” Barnett says. “We would sponsor a (concert) tour in exchange for an opportunity to give an appeal from the stage, and get kids sponsored, so I managed everything from the volunteer effort, to working with the artists onstage to give them direction on how to give the appeal and that sort of thing. I did that until about seven years ago.”

Los Angeles native Debbie Given how that job didn’t Barnett, an East Nashville resident for 20 years now, came necessarily tie her to living in aboard as chairman of Nashville California, she moved to East CARES two years ago. In the years Nashville during her tenure before her involvement, the orgathere and became active in the nization had indeed gone from a community. (Up until a couple living room to a sizable structure of years ago, she was the chairperson of the East Nashville listserv). After on Thompson Lane. Nashville CARES leaving World Vision, she went to work offers services annually to 55,000 Middle 15th Annual at Siloam Family Health Center, which Tennesseans infected and affected by Dining Out For Life cares for low-income refugees and imHIV/AIDS, including HIV prevention migrants. “I was there for five years until education to more than 35,000 youth April 18, 2017 I came to Nashville CARES, which was and adults, and essential support services to men, women, and children living with This event has raised over $1.2 million dollars just this past June,” she says. since 2003. The funds raised in 2016 were Barnett’s hobbies are part-time avthe disease.

In addition to doing swab testing for used to educate over 35,000 adults and youth ocations. Blue House Photography is a the HIV virus (of which they did almost in the community for increased understanding business she ran to keep the lights turned 12,000 last year alone), many more ser- and prevention of HIV transmission, advocate on in the lean times between working at vices are offered at the facility. “Here in the nonprofits, and then there’s debsperfor responsible public policy, and provide fectbite.com, an appetite-inducing selecthe building we do a lot of behavioral services to improve the quality of life for tion of photo essays on Barnett’s favorite health counseling, which is psychology 3,000 HIV/AIDS clients and their families. different recipes. and counseling for people who have been But her passion now lies almost endiagnosed, especially people who have tirely in her work. She says, “We’re makbeen recently diagnosed, because there’s ing progress, but there’s still such a huge a shock that they go through for a while,” number of people who are HIV positive and don’t even know it, Barnett says. “A lot of our clientele are low income, so we do a lot of because they’re not being tested, and not being proactive about case management that helps with things like housing and utilities and food, and just helping connect them to the right resources. their health, so we still have a lot of work to do. The disease is still in epidemic numbers. It is improving, and now it’s just a matter We help out on a ton of insurance, getting people signed up for of catching people before the disease progresses in them and it’s both health and dental — dental health is extremely important too late.” to people with HIV because teeth can deteriorate quickly, and so

P H OTOG R AP H B Y TIN A GIO NIS

Nashville CARES

For more information on saving a life — perhaps your own — visit nashvillecares.org, call 800.845.4266, or visit them at 633 Thompson Lane March | April 2017 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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Artist in Profile

MICHAEL WEINTROB INSTRUMENTHEAD puts another face on music B Y R A N DY F OX

MICHAEL WEINTROB’S PORTRAITS OF MUSICIANS ARE startling, whimsical, and unconventional, to say the least. A flute player holds his instrument at the ready, but no lips touch it as his head is a bundle of bamboo flutes that jut upward from his shoulders. A cheeky banjo player hooks his thumbs behind his suspenders, but no smile shows on the colorfully decorated banjo head that juts from the neck of his denim shirt.

Other portraits feature guitars, keyboards, drums, saxophones, and more, all transformed into the heads of the musicians who wield them.

While the images may be disorienting at first, it’s simply the world of Instrumenthead, the portrait series that photographer Michael Weintrob has devoted years to and is now coming to full fruition with the publication of a deluxe art book featuring 369 full-color examples of Weintrob’s melding of musicians with wood, brass, steel, and plastic.

“I believe portrait photography is about taking an honest portrait,” Weintrob says. “And I believe my Instrumenthead work is a way to capture an honest portrait of musicians.”

While it’s generally said that the eyes are the window to the soul, Weintrob’s work makes both the obvious and subtle connection that for musicians, it’s the instruments they employ that embody their personalities. It’s a simple but powerful insight, and one that Weintrob did not discover overnight.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Weintrob attended college for a year in Boca Raton, Fla., before transferring to Colorado State University in 1996, where his love for music found an outlet for expression.

“I was studying public relations and wanted to work in the music scene,” Weintrob says. “I had taken pictures before, but I wasn’t really into photography until I got an internship with Bill Bass Concerts, a promoter outside of Denver. We worked with the Aggie Theater in Fort →

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Michael Weintrob holding his weapon of choice — a Nikon D4S — at his East Side studio.

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TOM BLANKENSHIP

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A A R O N L E E TA S J A N

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Weintrob quickly built a reputation for his concert photography and secured the position of house photographer at world-renowned Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver. Although his primary focus was concert photography, he never passed up the chance to take portrait shots, as in 2000, when he stumbled upon a fun “gimmick” while shooting a backstage portrait of The Derek Trucks Band.

“I’d been shooting the band and wanted something different,” Weintrob says. “I told the bass player to put the neck of his bass down his shirt and cover his face with it. That made me realize I could talk people into doing crazy

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unlock his creativity as a portrait photographer, not realizing the answer had been in front of his face, and his subjects’ faces, for many years.

“About 2008, I was thinking about what I could do that would be different,” Weintrob says. “How could I keep evolving as an artist? I found this book, Disciples, by James Mollison, in a bookstore in Brooklyn. It was all portraits of the fans of different bands, shot against a plain white background. The idea was to guess which artists they were fans of based on their portraits. It was simple, consistent, and it told a story. That’s when I thought about the photos I had taken of musicians with their instruments over their faces.

“Instrumenthead became my art project, and it took on a life of its own. My iPhone played a big part in my success. I was still making a living shooting concerts, but I

“

things for portraits. From then on I started asking people to pretend their instrument was their head for part of the shoot. It just added fun and momentum.”

By 2003, his concert photography was regularly appearing in national magazines, and he was ready for the next step of his career.

“I had topped out in my profession in Colorado and decided to move to New York,” he says. “When I got there, I met with my editors at Vibe, SPIN, Rolling Stone, and Time magazine. They all told me the same thing. My live music stuff was as good as it gets, but if I wanted to be a portrait photographer, I needed to study and find my voice.”

Moving to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, Weintrob joined the local community of photographers and artists, taking the opportunity to learn from his peers. He continued to find success as a concert photographer, but his desire to make the jump to portrait photography never wavered. He continued staging ad hoc portrait shoots backstage and secured work shooting portraits. He began to push himself harder, trying to find the key to

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would go to music festivals and when I met musicians, I would show them the gallery of Instrumenthead photos on my phone, and they’d want to do it.”

As he travelled around the country, Weintrob set up temporary studios specifically for portrait sessions with musicians. He soon discovered the process he developed to create the perfect Instrumenthead portrait also informed his voice for conventional portraits.

“People started thinking of me as a portrait guy,” he says, “and I started picking up album cover work. It wasn’t about money, it was about creating art, but the money started to come as a result of me pursuing the art.”

The process he developed for his portrait sessions is one that he still follows today.

“Musicians show up with all their gear and I get them to perform for me to make them comfortable,” Weintrob says. “Musicians are not models, and they’re usually the most comfortable when they’re performing. Then I would shoot normal portraits of them with their instruments. The Instrumenthead portrait is always the last thing we do. →

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Artist in Profile The whole shoot may take two hours and theInstrumenthead portion only takes five minutes.”

Although his Instrumenthead work became his No. 1 passion, Weintrob managed to keep that passion mostly to himself and his subjects for several years.

“For the longest time I would only show the work to people in the business — the artists, their agents and managers. I kept it secret because I didn’t want someone to steal my idea.

Around 2012, I did the first exhibit of my Instrumenthead work in Barcelona, Spain.

Shortly after that, I got an email from someone saying, ‘Great photo in MOJO magazine!’

I had done work for MOJO, but not recently.

It turned out there was a photo of an electronica musician with his instrument covering his face, but it was not my photo. That’s when I knew I needed to do an exhibit in a big way and do it fast.”

Weintrob decided the perfect showcase would be the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, but with only eight weeks until the start of the festival, he had to move fast. Calling in favors from many friends in New Orleans, he was able to mount a major exhibit that featured 75 prints of his Instrumenthead work that ran for two weeks and attracted over 7,000 attendees. With the exhibit a success, a book seemed to be the next logical step.

“When I talked people into doing a shoot, I would always say there’s going to be a book,” Weintrob says, “but I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I met with several big publishers and they told me there was no market for the book, so I thought how can I create a market for it?”

Over the next year, Weintrob used the prints made for the New Orleans show to stage showings at galleries across the U.S. At the same time, he was also shuttling between his home in Brooklyn, working in the Nashville area as the house photographer for the PBS concert series Bluegrass Underground, and visiting his ailing mother in Birmingham.

After his mother passed in early 2014, Weintrob moved to Nashville to be closer to his father. In October 2014, Weintrob debuted a new Instrumenthead showing at OZ Arts Nashville. The opening night of the show included performances by 20 of the Nashville musicians featured in the portraits.

With over 500 Instrumenthead portraits completed and the buzz generated by many exhibits, Weintrob decided the time for “the book” had arrived, and he would apply the same by-the-bootstraps attitude of his exhibits to the publication of a first-class art book. In October 2015, Weintrob launched an IndieGoGo campaign that generated over $51,000 to make Instrumenthead: The Book a reality. In the last year, he’s worked overtime, overseeing the design and printing arrangements for the first publication by his new company, Magnet Bound Press.

“My whole career in photography has been backwards,” Weintrob says. “I was never an assistant. I never worked for a famous photographer. I just kind of snuck in the back door. Then everyone told me you have to sell a book, then do exhibits, but I did the exhibits first and now the book. To be a success you have to be ready when a door opens, and the worst thing you can ever do is believe what people say about you, that’s when ego and narcissism take over. You just have to believe that your work is good, treat people with respect and the way you want to be treated, and when you see an opportunity, just go for it.”

Instrumenthead: The Book will be released by Magnet Bound Press April 21 and can be preordered at instrumentheadbook.com

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On the brink of Close Ties, Rodney Crowell considers the past as a gateway to his future, while the Grammy-winner’s rich journey makes him Nashville’s poet laureate of now.

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WISDOM & POETRY The mastery of Rodney Crowell

BY HOLLY GLEASON PHOTOGRAPHY BY GILES CLEMENT

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You get to where you burn off the downside of vanity.

When you’re in your 60s, if you’re worried about that, you’ve got your head up the wrong ass.

‘‘

R

odney Crowell has stopped the interview. Midsentence.

The normally thoughtful Texan has been discussing Close Ties, his 18th album, and when he emphatically picks up, it’s a pivot. “What I’m proud of is the work that I’ve been doing for a while. I am proud of my first album, and of Diamonds & Dirt, but since The Houston Kid, I stand behind a lot of the work — and I don’t cringe. That is a very big deal.”

Considering Crowell is considered the next generation Kris Kristofferson, a progressive traditionalist who brings emotional vulnerability and near poetry to country, roots, and Americana music, it’s a striking revelation.

Perhaps because Close Ties finds the 67-year-old icon regarding his career in toto, as well as the creative forces around him throughout his journey, this musical macro-focus — and reckoning — might make sense. But with the exception of a couple of flaccid albums for MCA in the ’90s, where he futilely tried to recapture the landmark Diamonds & Dirt’s record-setting five No. 1s from a single album, it’s almost as if the Grammy-winning songwriter has lost perspective.

Or like his dear friend and sometime mentor Guy Clark, who died last year, Crowell’s standards have risen over the years to something mere mortals should not aspire to. When Rodney Crowell landed on most people’s radar, he was playing Emmylou to Emmylou Harris’ Gram Parsons: a rhythm guitar player/harmony singer who understood country music as only a child of the rock & roll era could.

Since the ’70s, he’s written seminal hits for Waylon Jennings (“Ain’t Living Long Like This”), Crystal Gayle (“Til I Gain Control Again”), The Oak Ridge Boys (“Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight”), Bob Seger (“Shame On The Moon”), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (“Voila! An American Dream,” later their first No. 1 “Long Hard Road”), as well as providing a fistful of Harris’ best-known and -loved songs (“I Don’t Have To Crawl,” “You’re Supposed To Be Feeling Good,” “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”).

He produced several of Rosanne Cash’s early albums, including her debut Right or Wrong, the progressive country breakthrough Seven Year Ache, and Kings Record Shop, as well as cowriting the Grammy-winning “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me.” As Emmylou’s Sancho Panza and Cash’s husband, as an extension of the Texas triangle of songwriters/artists/bohemians Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Susanna Clark, their friendships and collaborations became a Bermuda triangle of restoring integrity to country’s roots by embracing the Louvin Brothers, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash, while making way for Tom Petty, John Hiatt, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen to coexist.

Socially, they were the cool kids in a post-new wave boom; but even more than finding synthesizers and guitar tones to go with mandolins and steel guitars, they fixated on the poetry that came from country.

If Crowell’s first three albums for Warner Bros. didn’t crystallize him as a star, they made him a hipster’s secret handshake. Anyone who had a clue knew: Rodney Crowell was the shit.

By the time Diamonds & Dirt appeared on March 30, 1988, he’d had a failed new wave/rock & roll attempt. Street Language, released by Columbia, featured a throttling “Let Freedom Ring,” a churlish “Ballad of Fast Eddie,” and “Oh King Richard,” an homage to NASCAR’s Richard Petty, but rocker Crowell — even in spite of touring with the BoDeans — failed to ignite. p

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A

fter nearly a decade, Crowell leaned into his strengths: mining the gut bucket sense of country, honed playing drums in Houston beer joints behind his dad, bringing the post-hippie ethos Harris embodied, a hint of the new wave Cash flirted with. Nobody expected Diamonds & Dirt to become the first country album to have five No. 1s, nor to turn the top shelf songwriter/ producer into a bona fide sensation.

Suddenly, Crowell was a supernova. Performing on the Grammys, most-nominated on the country award shows, a bona fide sex symbol in a wife-beater and a bolo tie, all those things meant big money. For him, but also for the handlers, and so began — and what nobody realized at the time — perhaps the greatest conflict of his life.

Rodney Crowell, white trash kid who shot a .22 into the floor of the front room of their three-room shotgun shack on Houston’s Telephone Road, had a poet’s soul and a poor boy’s heart. You wanna get out, but what happens when you do? When you take that money, what comes with it?

In 1989, Crowell called home after losing every award — Album, Song, Single, Male, Video — at the Academy of Country Music Awards, returned to the table dejected. “Rosanne said I looked miserable,” he noted, putting his napkin back in his lap. The talk at the table returned to music and people we loved; he did look a little sad.

No matter the work done in the brink, even the trilogy of The Houston Kid, Fate’s Right Hand, and Sex & Gasoline, there is often a gap for artists between what works and what matters. For Rodney Crowell, the gulf is closing.

After years of Guy Clark chiding him, “Are you a poet or a pop star?” he’s found his true center. Close Ties is a reflection of the journey and shedding to be the man sitting at this table, eyes afire and arms flung sideways. He laughs after he makes this declaration — recognizing it could be pompous, but knowing passion is its own reward.

“I Don’t Care Any More” is a slinky creeper that whirls into a full-on indictment of the man he used to be, or rather the motivations that drove a phase of his life. As the lyrics tumble from his lips, it’s the biting confession of a grifter and lady killer staring down the barrel of his cons and seeing how little it really meant.

“One would hope one outgrows such things,” Crowell marvels. “Dwight Yoakam and I were out there in our bolos and wife-beaters under denim jackets, and that’s a certain amount of vanity. You know, ‘There’s a guy who knows how to put it together.’ But looking at that guy walking down the street with his silver tips on his boots? Ooooh, I was packing a lot of insecurity, the insecurity of not appealing — and now that’s just not attractive to me.

“You get to where you burn off the downside of vanity. When you’re in your 60s, if you’re worried about that, you’ve got your head up the wrong ass.”

He pauses for a moment. Crowell is still a good-looking man, no doubt.

But this is something else, something deeper. Continuing, he says, “When I was writing ‘I Don’t Care Any More,’ I was sorting through those things that drive us when we’re young, sorting all of that, and shedding it.”

Not that Crowell has gone to seed. He thoughtfully rebuts, “I’m probably more focused on my image than I was in 1987. Touring with Emmylou [for a pair of duet albums Old Yellow Moon and The Traveling Kind] reminds me: She takes that stage as the woman who plays those songs — honoring all that means. For her that can mean two hours of makeup, getting the clothes just right; but that’s what the songs deserve.” p

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As Muddy Waters said, ‘I’m a man, I ain’t no boy,

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M ‘Goddamn you, rot in hell’? That’s not about the person who walked out on me, it’s about who I was then and how I responded and felt back then.

‘‘

aybe it was the slow wasting away of Susanna Clark, last year’s death of her husband, Guy, as well as the deaths of Crowell’s longtime publisher, his business manager, Merle Haggard, friend/Willie Nelson bass player Bee Spears, among many, that made him ruminative. Perhaps the lessons learned working on Chinaberry Sidewalks, his The New York Times best-selling memoir about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Houston edited by the legendary Contemporary Classics founder Gary Fisketjon, or collaborating on Kin, the all-star song cycle about coming of age as part of a white trash family cowritten with acclaimed memoirist Mary Karr (The Liars Club, Cherry) that turpentined whatever lacquer there was.

Whatever it was, Crowell came into Closer Ties, porous and open.

Working closely with New West Records A&R head Kim Buie, Crowell was back-and-forth about what he wanted. Buie combed through songs, asking questions and seeing what held together. Though initial talks were about a Texas boogie/blues project, something Crowell’s roadhouse upbringing would support, a deeply personal song cycle seemed to rise.

“In going through the material, I gravitated to the weightier, grittier, and more emotionally bare stories, and began connecting some of the narrative threads,” Buie recalls. “Something in there began to resonate; it led Rodney and I to imagine if this record was a soundtrack to a film what kind of story it would tell. What would that story sound like? Gravity was a key word from the start.”

“Kim brought an objectivity that let me be completely subjective,” Crowell explains. “She was drawn to the very personal songs, as I noticed in her responses. The more personal, the more she’d respond; I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s what we should be doing.’ It was a real anointment.

“Objectivity has no place in creating a work that speaks to the layers … and having been a producer for myself a few too many times, where my objectivity got in the way, something got lost because you can’t be listening to the bass part and release all the emotion inside a song.”

Emotion was a big piece. In part, because of all the loss Crowell had been facing (“When your lifelong friends start dying, your own mortality comes into focus … you realize mortality is something you face on your own.”), but also through an extended trek he’d made through the blues. Between dates with Harris, serving as the music coach for Tim Huddelston’s Hank Williams in I Saw The Light, and living, he did a deep dive into the blues — and it struck him.

“As Muddy Waters said, ‘I’m a man, I ain’t no boy,’ ” Crowell intones with a touch of awe. “That idea: more than anything I’m satisfied. I feel satisified. When you listen to Howling Wolf, Charlie Patton, Lightning Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bill Broonzy, Mance Lipscomb, there’s an immediacy and intensity. … And it was never with ‘I’m going to make a blues album’ in mind, but my intention was it would inform my writing.

“There was no expectation that I’d write ‘Baby Please Don’t Go,’ but I can say ‘I Don’t Care Any More,’ ‘East Houston Blues’ came from that, as did ‘Nashville 1972.’ It’s what you evoke sometimes.”

T

he man T Bone Burnett once chided, “You write for the A students, Rodney; if you wanna make some money, you better start writing for those D students,” evokes a day in Nashville long gone. Back when Bishop’s Pub was where the starving songwriters congregated to play their songs, Crowell lived in a fall-down house on Acklen with Skinny Dennis, Richard Dobson, and any number of folks — including Steve Earle, Johnny Rodriguez, David Olney — drifting through, and Guy and Susanna’s house was as much p bohemian salon as marital domicile.

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As the songs were culled, there was a narrative — of a life lived in song, memories made as a genre of music, or three, were chiseled into being.

All falling through space, centrifugal force holding him in place, Rodney Crowell witnessed the rise of hippie country, Nashville’s credibility scare, and the birth and maturation of Americana. It swirled around his friends, his wife, his life — and nobody gave it a second thought. That’s part of, most likely, what made it so special.

No one conjured or conspired to “create” those guitar pulls at Guy and Susanna’s — captured on the lost, and recently found, documentary, Heartworn Highways. People came, brought their best songs, hoped to lay everybody else out on the floor with what they’d just written. They were young and creaseless; Steve Earle literally looks like a kid.

That same glow informs “Nashville 1972,” a song as literate as it is fond.

A patchwork of details and moments, the talent percolating is superseded only by Crowell’s self-effacement.

Acoustic guitar warm and welcoming, the details about the dog — named Banjo — and the girl — named Muffin, mother of his oldest daughter, Hannah — set in motion a tilted world of creative combustion that was Nashville then. Name-checking Harlan Howard, Tom T. Hall, and Bob “MacDill” as the standard-setters, he catalogues the details of oddities and humanity before running up on Willie Nelson, “with some friends at a party/I was 22 years old, and he musta been pushing 40/ There was hippies and reefer and God knows what all, I was drinking pretty hard/ I played him this shitty song I wrote, then puked out in the yard.”

“I played Kim ‘Nashville 1972,’ and her response was immediate,” Crowell recalls. “She was, ‘That has to be on the record. It tells the whole story.’ ” Bucolic in a post-Outlaw sense, “Nashville 1972” sets the stage for restless songwriters trying to craft poetry from life on the fringes. It bookends “Life Without Susanna,” the churlish recounting of the slow death of Susanna Clark, who went into decline following the death of Townes Van Zandt. Pulling zero punches, Crowell goads the listener into sharing his frustration at the situation.

“When Susanna died, of course I was going to write a song about her,” Crowell acknowledges. “When she was getting a little closer to the edge, I knew I was going to write about the loss.”

Here again, that blues immersion simmers. Beyond the unvarnished lyric, the pain of living informs the vocal’s moan. His performance finds the Grammy-winner at his most unselfconscious.

Life without Susanna Started when Townes Van Zandt died From that day on, she hid out undercover Her Percocet and cigarettes along for the ride …

I tried tough love tenderness and anger But nothing pierced the fortress inside her mind Life without Susanna Troubles me in ways hard to express As she withdrew, I grew distant and judgmental A self sure bastard and stubborn bitch locked engaged in a deadly game of chess “To me, it’s a love song,” Crowell says, turning the words over. “And I thought about it. Because I could write a Hallmark card, but that’s not the deal. My voice inside said, ‘Write the truth.’ Here’s how I feel … and here’s how this was.

“As Willie Nelson wrote ‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground,’ which I also believe was about Susanna, you want to write true.”

For Crowell, Clark, Van Zandt, and so many others, Susanna Clark’s presence — as a painter, songwriter, and woman — was daunting. p

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GILES CLEMENT: PORTRAIT OF A WET PLATE PHOTOGRAPHER

Silly boys, blind to get there first Think of second chances as some kind of curse I’ve known you forever, and ever it’s true If you came by it easy, you wouldn’t be you “I didn’t have the best relationship with Susanna,” Cash replied by email. “She always scared the shit out of me. She could be incredibly imperious and opinionated. She didn’t like women very much — she preferred to be with men. … Her part on this song was very much HER. Rodney really captured that voice of authority and tolerance. He drew out her kindness.”

“It Ain’t Over Yet,” which also features The Civil Wars’ John Paul White, is a bright slice of encouragement to a man not quite sure how he feels about the end stages of aging. Stoic, proud, aware of his diminished capacity, the sweeping acoustic track suggests that life can be sweet wherever you are and however you’re living it.

“Rosanne knew what I was trying to do, and she got it,” Crowell acknowledges with a smile. “I actually took the song over to Guy. His health was failing, and I took it over, and we didn’t … ” They didn’t write the song together, but “It Ain’t Over Yet,” like “Many A Long & Lonesome Highway” from Diamonds & Dirt’s follow-up, The Keys To The Highway, twists the two men’s lives together into something wise. If the former is reckoning with aging, the latter looked at death and acceptance from a younger man’s place.

“The second verse is me, and the first verse is Guy,” Crowell says. “It doesn’t follow the sequence of events; it’s not literal. But the song was informed

by Guy’s dying — and we all knew it; he knew it, but he intended to keep living.”

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Giles Clement, a professional photographer for some 17 years and a Nashvillian since 2015, thrives on mistakes. He enjoys the trial and error, the uncertainty that can come with his tedious process of portrait photography. Whether it’s Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, or — in the case of the cover shot for this edition of The East Nashvillian — Rodney Crowell, Clement gets as much satisfaction in what he might be doing wrong as he does in the finely tuned finished product.

He claims that’s the magic of wet plate photography. Through styles known as tintype and ambrotype, it’s a process that dates to the mid-1800s whereby a glass photographic plate is coated with iodized collodion and dipped in a silver nitrate solution just before use. In these days of iPhones, selfie sticks, and Instagram, wet plate photography is not exactly ubiquitous.

But for the past four or five years, Clement has made the process his calling card. He says it fit his personality. “I like things that are a bit of a puzzle, a challenge, so I think that’s part of what got me [hooked],” he explains. “If I was able to make a perfect tintype every time, I probably wouldn’t do it and would just go to film. With a digital camera, I know that every time I push the button the camera is going to perform flawlessly. The medium is not giving back to you at all. With tintype, you get feedback because things don’t always go as planned. I like that. Some of my favorite images weren’t planned, they just kind of happened.”

For the cover shot of Crowell, Clement got particularly experimental. He used an 1849 lens he had happened upon in an antique shop in Chicago. “I like the

way it captures that vintage look I don’t get with more modern lenses,” he says.

Clement didn’t grow up with designs on becoming a photographer. His dad dabbled in it a bit, but the son’s interest came at age 18 while he was reading an autobiography of a World War II photographer. That led him to learning more about the art and eventually launching a career as a photojournalist. Within about six years, he left the journalism field and began shooting musicians and performing artists at concerts, festivals, and the like, and was increasingly doing individual portraits backstage.

Clement was already using large-format film for his portraits and other sessions, and he more or less stumbled on the wet plate process while poking around in an old camera shop and finding a lens that was used on a World War I spy Zeppelin. “I started experimenting with it in my apartment, and I kind of got hooked on it pretty fast,” he recalls.

The process and materials that Clement uses in his tintype and ambrotype photography are basically the same as what they were in the 19th century.

“I’ve modified a few things to make it safer,” he explains. “Some of the old guys were using cyanide. I don’t use cyanide, [because] I have a dog I care about.”

Clement says he knows of only a couple other photographers in Nashville using the wet plate process, and not very many across the country. It’s the ideal medium for what he likes to do, however.

“I’ve always been drawn to doing portraits,” Clement says. “I think there’s something about removing everything else and having somebody’s face tell the best story about that person.”

— John McBryde

For more information and to see other examples of Clement’s work, visit gilesclement.com.

Photograph by Chuck Allen

Crowell remembers setting his chair outside the door to her bedroom, an action that said he was not condoning what he viewed as a slow suicide.

“There’s a lot of bitterness, heartache, and sorrow for one of my closest friends,” he concedes. “After Townes died, she literally went to bed. She was in control. She knew exactly what she was doing — a slow suicide fueled by pain pills and booze.

“I don’t think there’s a truer song, certainly not emotionally truer. And I can say those things because I did love her. She was a stubborn bitch — and a muse, and a goddess, and a poet, and an inspiration.”

Susanna’s voice is palpable. It echoes on “It Ain’t Over Yet,” a song Crowell intended to write with Guy. Embodying where the iconic Texan was during — ironically — life without Susanna, the bridge finds Crowell’s ex-wife inhabiting her worldview. In her auburn velvet, Cash croons:

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Good Times Never Seemed So Good The Black Diamond Is a Believer

By Randy Fox

I

n July of 2012, Theron Denson aka the Black Diamond — the black Neil Diamond tribute artist — was booked to play East Nashville’s annual summer block party, Thirth of July. He had one very big problem.

“I was embarrassed because I didn’t even have a band yet,” Denson says. “All these big names were playing, and I walk in with nothing but my sequined shirts and my CD of backing music. I went out, started singing, and the crowd surged from the beer stand to the stage. It blew my mind.

I did my first set and walked off to do a wardrobe change. Chuck Mead was standing by the dressing room trailer. He said, ‘Are you seriously doing a wardrobe change? Right on, man!’

“I went out to do my second set and the audience went nuts because I was in different clothes.

When I finished, Chuck said, ‘I have no idea how we’re going to follow that. You just killed it.’

At that moment, I officially became part of the Nashville music scene. I knew I was going to stay here.”

Denson’s bombastic charisma is plainly evident whether he’s selling carbon copies of “Sweet Caroline” and “Forever in Blue Jeans” to a hot, thirsty crowd or just talking one-to-one in the

sun room of an East Nashville bungalow. As he spins tales of his adventures, he gestures with his hands and often jumps up to reenact the scenes he’s describing. It’s a passion for grandiosity that is requirement No. 1 for anyone hoping to follow in the footsteps of the “Jewish Elvis,” but the “Black Neil Diamond” also adds a 100 carat-sized helping of positivity, charm, and affability. Love is never on the rocks for the Black Diamond.

The son of a career Army sergeant, Denson spent much of his childhood moving from base to base, eventually settling in Charleston, W.Va., after his father retired from active service in 1976.

Throughout Denson’s nomadic childhood, one element of his life remained constant. “I was always singing, and I always loved music,” he says.

“I would sneak into my older brother and sister’s rooms to swipe their Temptations and Supremes records to listen to on my Fisher-Price record player. I grew up in the Church of Christ and all the music was a cappella — no piano, no organ, just your voice. That’s where I honed my singing ability.

“Even in first grade, people commented on how deep my voice was and how far it would carry,” he continues. “I was around 11 when the →

Photography by Eric England

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The Black Diamond can’t help but smile, sitting encircled with LPs recorded by his “mentor.”

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white ladies at church would hear me singing ‘How Great Thou Art,’ and turn around and say, ‘My goodness, young man, you sound just like Neil Diamond!’

I was like, ‘Who is Neil Diamond?’ I thought maybe he went to my church.”

As Denson entered his teen years, the comparisons to the full-throated master of melodramatic pop increased. “I started to take umbrage when people told me I sounded like Neil Diamond,” he says. “I was a young black guy, and he was an old Jewish guy. He wasn’t really old, of course, but when you’re a teenager, 40 seems ancient. I would sing songs by anybody but Neil Diamond.

I loved Barry White, Isaac Hayes, Lou Rawls, and especially Donna Summer, but people would still say, ‘You know who you sound like?’ and I would say, ‘Yeah, Kenny Rogers.’ ” By the age of 15, constant comparisons wore down his resistance.

Purchasing the soundtrack for the Neil Diamond film, The Jazz Singer, he embarked on an exploration of Diamond country. “That album had so many gems on it — ‘Love on the Rocks,’ ‘America,’ ‘Hello Again’ — but to me they were all equally fantastic,” Denson says. “We had a talent show during my junior year, and I chose ‘Songs of Life,’ which remains my favorite to this day.

That’s when I got my first real applause. The audience gave me a standing ovation, and I was hooked.”

Although Denson found his musical mentor, dreams of show biz success were temporarily set aside. After high school, he attended college in Oklahoma and California with plans for entering the ministry. While he was at Pepperdine University in Malibu, he became best friends with Malik Pointer, the son of Ruth Pointer of the acclaimed Pointer Sisters. Denson spent over a decade in the Los Angeles area, often socializing in show business circles while never actually considering a career as an entertainer, even while others noticed his uncanny vocal resemblance.

“In 1997, I was staying with Ruth Pointer,” Denson says. “She would call people on the phone, put us on the speakerphone and say, ‘Guess who’s at

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‘My goodness, young Neil Diamond!’ I was I thought maybe he

my house?’ I would start singing, ‘Hello, again, hello.’ ... They would say, ‘Neil Diamond! Is that you, Neil?’ and Ruth would crack up. She loved doing that to people.”

In 2000, after 15 years of what he calls “the gypsy life,” Denson returned home to West Virginia. His Neil Diamond impersonation gradually evolved from a party trick to a part-time profession. He also began to share Neil on his day job as a hotel desk clerk.

“I would sing to everyone that I checked in,” he says. “They would be traveling and looked weary, and I thought they needed a Neil Diamond song. They would go off to their room with a smile. Then human resources told me I had to stop singing or they would fire me. The guests loved it, but my coworkers didn’t. So I walked out of the Marriott, looked up at heaven and said, ‘Well, God, it looks like it’s you, me, and Neil Diamond.’”

Armed with nothing but a telephone book, a cassette tape of karaoke tracks, and an ample supply of chutzpah, Denson began calling law firms and other professionals. He had two questions: “Do you hire entertainment for office parties?” and “Do you like Neil Diamond?”

“They would ask me if I had a press kit,” Denson says. “I would say yes even though all I had was one newspaper story that I copied over and over.

That was my press kit. I would wait a few days and then walk into their office wearing a fancy shirt and start singing.”

Fortunately, Denson’s guerilla marketing led to gigs instead of arrests. He began building a reputation in the Charleston area and eventually stumbled upon the perfect name for his act. “For about two years I was calling myself the Surreal Neil or Unreal Neil,” he recalls. “I was singing at a TV station in Charleston, and the host talked to audience members. This guy said, ‘I thought he sounded just like Neil Diamond and he’s from West Virginia, the land of coal. So I guess he’s the Black Diamond.’ That’s when the light-

man, you sound just like like, ‘Who is Neil Diamond?’ went to my church. bulb went off in my head.”

As the Black Diamond, he secured a weekly Thursday night gig at a local pizza parlor. While the salary was only $100 a week and all the pizza he could eat, it paid off. In 2003, a visitor from Los Angles caught Denson’s act and later told one of the producers of the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, “You’ll never believe what I saw in West Virginia last week. ...” When news of the Black Diamond reached the talk show host, Denson soon found himself on a Greyhound bus headed for Hollywood.

“They wanted to fly me first class, but I don’t fly,” Denson says. “When I got to Los Angeles, the bus station was in the seediest part of town, but there was a luxury car with a driver holding a sign, ‘WELCOME BLACK DIAMOND.’ All the people on the bus are like, ‘Who are you?’ I had no answer because I was as shocked as they were. I just ducked in the car and we headed for the studio.

“I had no idea what they even wanted me to do other than sing, but they reassured me the floor director would work with me until I got it right,” he recalls. “They gave me a script. I read it over, and the director told me to do it one time for the studio audience and act like it was for live TV. I did it, thinking it was a rehearsal, but Jimmy Kimmel walked out, shook my hand and whispered to me, ‘Let’s have fun.’ It was the show.”

For the next hour, the Black Diamond was the centerpiece of the show as Kimmel included him in each interview and chatted with him between guests. The Black Diamond also closed the show with a rousing rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” → March | April 2017 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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After his brush with Hollywood fame, Denson returned to West Virginia. In 2006, he moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., and eventually found work in the Detroit and Chicago areas.

After three years of working that market, he decided it was time for the Black Diamond to conquer Las Vegas.

“I was still working from a CD of backing tracks,” Denson says. “I soon found out I had to have a band in Vegas. I didn’t know how to start a band, so I put an ad on Craigslist — ‘If you’re a musician and you like Neil Diamond, I’m starting a band.’ I thought I would get three or four people at the most, but it seemed like every musician in Vegas called me.”

While Denson had high hopes, Luck proved not to be a lady when it came to the City of Lights. After a year of scattered bookings, he returned to West Virginia, ready to hang up his sequined shirt for good. But fate had another chorus for the Black Diamond, in the form of an unexpected phone call from King Errisson, “The King of the Congas.” The longtime member of Neil Diamond’s touring band had heard of the Black Diamond and tracked him down out of curiosity.

“I told him I thought it had run its course,” Denson says, “and he said, ‘Before you give up, I think you should go to Nashville because you’ll shock and awe them there.’ I said, OK, but I really thought Nashville was nothing but 10-gallon cowboy hats. It took me about a month to move.

When I stepped off the bus in Nashville, I had a Mary Tyler Moore moment, looking around the city. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, brother, here we go again. I hope King is right.’ ” Denson rented a room in the Cleveland Park area, and was soon spreading word of the Black Diamond, one person at time. “Every night I would walk from Cleveland Park to the Red Door Saloon in 5 Points,” he says. “I would get there about 9 o’clock at night and sit at the bar and say, ‘Guess what I do?’ to random people, ‘I’m the black Neil Diamond.’ I did that night after night, thinking that eventually the right person would hear about it. At 1 a.m., I’d walk back home. I gave myself six months for something to happen. Then one day I sauntered into Porter Road Butcher Shop. I started talking with the owners, and I told them I sang Neil Diamond songs. They looked at each other and said, ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ ” That chance meeting led to his first Nashville gig, in the backyard of Porter Road Butcher’s next door neighbor, The Groove, on Record Store Day 2012. His crowd-stopping performance at the Thirth of July block party followed, and the Black Diamond soon became a fixture of the Nashville music scene, especially after he recruited local favorites Heath Haynes & The Hi Dollars as his backing band for a two-year stint, simply by walking up to them at The 5 Spot and delivering the irresistible line, “I’m the black Neil Diamond!”

Over the last five years, Denson has worked

with some of Nashville’s best musicians and booked shows across the country. After years hustling his own bookings, he recently signed with a management company and enjoyed an extended booking in Florida. For his next show in Music City, at the Exit/In on April 14, he’s teasing a grand spectacle with special guests to usher in the “next chapter” in the Black Diamond experience.

“People sometimes ask me if I feel like I’m cheating because I sing Neil Diamond’s songs,”

Denson says. “Not at all, because I’m the first person to admit that I’m riding on his coattails. He’s taken me on a great ride. I’ve gotten to go places and do things I never thought I’d be able to do and make a lot of people happy. Music should be fun. Sometimes people overthink it, when really the question is, do you enjoy the song? Then enjoy the song. I never thought that Nashville would turn out as well as it did. People say, ‘Really? You can do Neil Diamond in Nashville?’ and I tell them, ‘You can do anything in Nashville.’ ”

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WHAT MORE Can a

POOR BOY DO? The Blackfoot Gypsies are ready to take it To the Top

BY RANDY FOX | PHOTOGRAPHY BY TRAVIS COMMEAU

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Blackfoot Gypsies (L-R): Matthew Paige, Zack Murphy, Oliver “Ollie Dog” Horton, Dylan Whitlow.

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I

“

“

was at my day job last week,” Blackfoot Gypsies drummer Zack Murphy says, “and I heard these Music Row bros that were moving into the office building. ‘Hey!’ one of them said to another one. ‘We’re writing a song about moving in. Come on up and get some Dickel!’

All I could think was, ‘God, I want to shoot all of you. You’re the reason I’m still working this shitty day job.’ ” The rest of Blackfoot Gypsies crack up with laughter around a table at The Family Wash. It’s a Monday afternoon and the band is finishing a working lunch — sitting around sharing stories from the road and answering questions about their new album, To the Top. Murphy considers how his last statement sounded, and then backs off a bit.

“Well,” he says, “I hadn’t had my coffee yet.”

Day job frustration is commonplace among musicians in any town, but especially so in Music City where the class divisions between musicians are an ever-present fact of life.

It’s a very old story. Bands slug it out for years — long nights playing club dates and even longer days spent on the road, living on top of each other in a van that can break down at any moment; making records they pour their souls into, only to be greeted with indifference; toiling for years, becoming a “cult artist” — a star to some, while scraping by on a hundred bucks a week.

Meanwhile, in another part of Nashville, there’s a different class of musicians. They’re sitting in offices, taking meetings, and writing songs about pickup trucks, girls in Daisy Dukes, and partying on a Friday night. That’s not to say they didn’t face lean times on their way up to the world of baseball caps, sippin’ whiskey, and comfy writing rooms, but at some point, they gave up the rock for the gold.

The Blackfoot Gypsies long ago planted their flag firmly in the rock. Formed in 2010 by Oregon-transplant Matthew Paige and Nashville native Zack Murphy, the duo spent three years bashing out minimalist DIY roots rock at clubs and small music fests, along with self-releasing two rowdy EPs and a full-length album, On the Loose.

Looking to expand their sound, Paige and Murphy recruited bass player Dylan Whitlow and harmonica player →

Once you can figure how to make the ‘you’ part of it as loud as it can be, that’s when the juice starts flowing.

—Matthew Paige

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“

We had a lot of time to play these songs, so it felt like they were good and greased.

Oliver “Ollie Dog” Horton in the fall of 2013.

With the complete Blackfoot Gypsies lineup in place, they began refining their sound through scores of live dates sandwiched between day jobs. After self-financing the recording of a second album, the band signed with Nashville indie label Plowboy Records.

Released in the spring of 2015, Handle It demonstrated just how far the band’s sound had progressed from the lo-fi riot of their early days. While garnering critical acclaim, it was just a gateway to the true hard work. The last two years have been filled with live shows, hard traveling, their first European tour, and the recording of a new album. The school of rock & roll is not easy, but the Blackfoot Gypsies have obviously learned from every minute of it, whether they’re kickin’ out the jams on stage or reflecting on their experiences as a travelin’ band.

“We’ve definitely progressed,” Paige says.

“We’ve picked up on that reading of the minds that comes from playing together.

We’ve gotten wiser with our moves, and better

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—Matthew Paige

at connecting with our audience. And Ollie Dog is a full-blown cult figure, that’s a pretty big deal.”

Ollie Dog laughs at the comment. Although he’s several years older than the other members of the band, and has played music since his teenage years, joining Blackfoot Gypsies was his first time as a full-fledged member of a band.

“It’s been good,” he says. “It’s what I was looking for, being part of a band, and seeing pretty women wherever you go.”

“Ollie Dog’s wisdom is priceless,” Paige says.

“He always knows when trouble is coming. If we listen to him, we avoid a lot of trouble.”

Ollie Dog laughs, then says, “You just have to call on old pappy.”

Proof of the band’s progression and the rock & roll wisdom they’ve acquired is evident from the moment the needle hits the groove of their new album, To the Top. While Handle It was a strong record that positioned the Blackfoot Gypsies in the forefront of Nashville’s roots rock community, the opening notes of To the

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Top announce the arrival of a truly great rock & roll band — no other qualifiers required.

“Working with a label upfront was very different,” Paige says. “We had a budget for the first time, and that was very cool. We could get horn players and other studio musicians and didn’t have to worry about being in the studio too long.”

Recorded at Matthew Stager’s Electric Kite Studio in Madison, To the Top jams the pedal to the metal with hard rockers that invoke the feel of such classic early ’70s musical icons as the Rolling Stones, Faces, and Mott the Hoople, while still sparking and spitting 21st century fire. Tracks such as “I’m So Blue,” “Promise to Keep,” and “I Had a Vision” vibe on the era of classic country-blues-big beat mashups while never falling prey to the cloying trap of retro rock or the carny act of musical impersonation.

“We had a lot of time to play these songs,” Paige says, “so it felt like they were good and greased.”

But ass-shakin’ rock & roll is not the only charm to CONTINUED ON PAGE 106

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Open-door

Policy

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Nashville First Church of the Nazarene welcomes the city's immigrant community

By Tommy Womack | Photography by Eric England

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n Nashville’s increasingly diverse culture quilt, it’s not unusual for a church to have one Sunday service in English for run of the mill Americans, and another service (often at the same time in an adjoining chapel, or room, or in the gym) for an immigrant community that has become an intrinsic part of the church, with its own pastor and the service conducted in the congregation’s native language.

Two congregations in mostly larger Nashville churches are not that out-of-the-box. Five going on six is another matter.

Nashville First Church of the Nazarene at Fifth and Woodland has for eight years now hosted a Haitian congregation, and two years ago saw the birth of another congregation: members of eight different Congolese tribes who have emigrated from Africa and found new homes for themselves in Nashville. These two groups have been on the receiving end of lots of helping hands on assimilation, no small part of which has been done by the church itself — along with adjoining concerns such as the 510 Foundation — helping the immigrant population find jobs, find homes, learn English, and even get treated to the odd hot meal here and there. There are several other congregations under the roof, but primarily when talking about the diverse communities at the Church of the Nazarene, you’re usually talking about the Haitian and the Congolese African congregations, and the Emmaus homeless outreach.

“When I came to the church in 2011, the Haitian congregation attendance each Sunday was around 70 or 80 people,” senior pastor Kevin Ulmet says. “Today, weekly attendance averages between 125 and 130.

“The same pastor (Maromy Samuel) is still in charge,” Ulmet continues, “and they’re having a very effective ministry. These are established immigrants who are full citizens for the most part, and have been here for years, and they are established in their communities. They have jobs and most of them own homes.” The initial influx of Haitian populations in the U.S. was driven by a variety of situations in their homeland, including periodic political upheaval, poverty, and the simple time-honored worldwide tradition of moving to America looking for a better life.

"When people hear about an ethnic church, they usually have many assumptions, but our Haitian congregation is more than just a community of immigrants who are here to live the American dream," Rev. Samuel says. "But we continue to invest in our local community and help connect resources with the global needs through various projects and ministries."

That’s the Haitians. The Congolese Africans, by contrast, are not merely looking for a better life; they’re refugees escaping a horror show — a 20-year-old civil war, internecine tribal violence, repressive regimes, and bloodshed. 2016 saw the biggest numbers yet in the U.S. of Africans from the Congo region managing to escape their nightmare at home and find a new start in America. But it didn’t just start last year, it’s been a constant flow for the past four or five years.

The first Congolese refugees to show up at the →

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church were there in the fall of 2014 for the English language classes offered through the 510 Foundation. (The church’s address is 510 Woodland St.). The foundation is a separate entity from the church and exists under the umbrella of East Nashville Life, a series of neighborhood ministries. The first Congolese families to visit the church for Sunday morning services came on Easter Sunday 2015, and within weeks that group of attendees had swelled to several dozen people, on their way to rapidly becoming their own group. “Now, that congregation has grown to be between 150 and 200,” Ulmet says.

“A lot of churches have disconnected alternative congregations using their facilities, but our church isn’t like that,” Ulmet points out.

“These are fully integrated communities within the church. We have two Sunday morning services that are for the more typical, historic (largely white) congregation, then we also have the Haitian service, which is in Creole.

Then we have the African service, which is in Swahili. And those four church services are all on Sunday mornings at the same times — and we also have a fully integrated children’s ministry.” (All the toddlers of the various nationalities play together in the same nursery at the same time, putting truth to the notion that racism has to be taught. The youth groups are integrated as well.)

“We have a fifth congregation,” he continues, “which we call the Emmaus, on Sunday afternoons, which ministers to a majority homeless population, although we do have people coming from the housing projects as well, within walking distance. And that congregation has now bloomed to about 180 every Sunday afternoon at 5:30.” Services at Emmaus come with a full hot meal. “It’s the only ministry of its kind in downtown East Nashville on Sunday afternoon. There’s a children’s ministry during that service as well.”

The church is now in the process of expanding to include a sixth congregation, a Hispanic group, which will also meet on Sunday mornings, begging the question: Where will they put them all? “We already have several families attending, and we’re going to start a Bible study soon, and from that will spring a full congregation,” the senior pastor says.

“Our church is just one part of the community of concerned residents in East Nashville and has the facilities to provide, among other things, a meal plus worship opportunity for local folks, including the homeless,” parishioner Michael Gray says. “Our urban pastors attend all kinds of meetings. I have been known to invite folks I meet on the street. After doing this for many years, I believe NFCN has street cred — a reputation for providing meals, a shower opportunity, and general respite.”

Gray is an instrumental figure in Cheryl’s List, another 510 Foundation entity. Cheryl’s List runs a storage facility for good secondhand

furniture, on the common-sense notion that the next step after housing a homeless family is giving them something to sleep and sit on. While there are similar programs also in operation in Nashville, Cheryl’s List goes one better: They deliver the furniture using a proper truck, which had always been a thorny missing piece of the puzzle for other similar outreach organizations.

“Cheryl’s List has its own board, applies for its own grants, and in general exists outside the church in the greater Nashville community,” Gray says. “We do take referrals from the Emmaus pastors, but we also take referrals from various civic agencies working with the homeless population, agencies like Centerstone, Operation Stand Down, Nashville Rescue Mission, Room in the Inn, VA Homeless, Catholic Charities, Metro Social Services, Streetworks, etc. We think of ourselves as part of a big team. We are a practical extension of the NFCN worshipping community.”

Eric Jans, like Michael Gray, is another very active lay member of the church. “The church is over 100 years old, but in recent years, the congregation had largely moved to the suburbs,” Jans says. “There wasn’t a lot of East Nashville people coming here. It was mainly people who’d grown up in the church, now living in places like Hendersonville or Franklin, coming in on Sunday morning and then going back home. I worked with the Merchants’ Association and the church approached me about ‘Christmas Fest,’ a market that invited in a lot of retail merchants from East Nashville, and strengthened ties with the local community.” Jans points out the church not only recently became debt-free, but they sold the vacant lot across the street for a fair bit of coin. (Condos will occupy that spot now, for which you may applaud or curse as you see fit.)

Press and media never report on planes that don’t crash, and that may be a sticky wicket for the images of churches in America. We hear all the time of Jim Bakker types who live high on the hog, or pastors like Jerry Falwell who seem as interested in political matters or sexual mores as they are proclaiming the word of God. With Nashville First Church of the Nazarene, there is at least some proof in the pudding — that collection plates lead to food in homeless and low-income bellies, as opposed to paying for private jets or other similar instances of largesse.

“We didn’t set out to do all that we do.”

Ulmet says, “Rather, it’s been brought to us by the reality of our city. And we recognized that, to truly be a community church in the area that we’re in, we had to open our doors to all people.

It’s very exciting to see all this happening.”

For more information on Nashville First Church of the Nazarene, visit nfcn.org March | April 2017 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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TED Talks

LESLIE BELKNAP HOPES TO CHANGE

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to YOU

THE WORLD, 18 MINUTES AT A TIME

By Randy Fox | Photograph by Travis Commeau

Under the direction of Leslie Belknap, TEDxNashville gives the city a global platform and enhances its reputation as an innovative and creative city.

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Nissan Stadium Parking Lots

May 6 & 7, 2017 12pm–8pm each day

àBest Taco Competition

àMargarita Mixdown Competition

àHot Pepper Eating Contest

àChihuahua Costume Contest

àTaco Eating Competition

àSpecialty Margaritas

à‘Ibiza Night Club’ Salsa Dance Tent àVIP Taco Experience àHourly Taco Giveaways àMechanical Bull àKid Zone

àMariachi Bands

VIP | Judge Pass | GA Passes on sale

Tickets on sale at NashvilleTacoFest.eventbrite.com Promo code: Eastnashvillian for $5 discount Kids 6 and under are free with RSVP. Discounted tickets for kids (7–12), Military and First Responders.

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“M

y heart has always driven my decisions,” Leslie Belknap says, reflecting on the career path that led to her position as executive director of TEDxNashville.

Belknap’s role as Nashville’s co-organizer of TEDxNashville might lead one to think that statement was made in the standard TED Talk setting — standing on a stage, speaking to a small audience and millions of online listeners. Instead, Belknap is sitting at a table in an East Nashville coffee shop. In contrast to her mastery of public communications, she seems a little nervous speaking about herself one-to-one, but a small case of the jitters does nothing to blunt the passion she has for her work.

“During and after college I spent most of my time traveling through northern Mexico (working on a photo documentary series),” she says. “I was seeking groups where Spanish was not their first language. They have something like 68 languages that are spoken in Mexico because of all the indigenous groups trying to maintain their identity. It opened up my eyes to the needs in those communities, and I thought getting a medical degree would allow me to connect with those groups and other indigenous groups around the world.”

A native of Chattanooga, Belknap spent her childhood and early teenage years in Tennessee. When she was 16, her family moved to Washington state where she graduated from high school. Securing a media arts degree from Prescott College in Arizona, she lived in California, New Mexico, Montana, and Arizona before embarking on her expedition through northern Mexico. Her experiences south of the border prompted her to consider a dramatic career change.

“I moved to Nashville in 2011 to apply for Vanderbilt’s Master of Nursing program,” Belknap says. “I was about to submit my application when I was offered a job with a local presentation design and presentation training agency. As part of that job, I spent a lot of time training speakers, as well as researching and writing about public speaking.

As a result of my public speaking expertise, I was recruited by TEDxNashville to coach TEDxNashville speakers.”

‘‘

18-minute maximum presentations addressed a large variety of topics, often through storytelling. The popularity of online TED Talks has boomed in recent years with an estimated combined online viewing total of more than 2.4 billion. The standard TED Talks format — a large, barren stage featuring a lone speaker wearing a headset microphone — has become a ubiquitous part of pop culture, copied by other conferences, parodied by comedians, and used in commercials for a variety of products.

I loved that process so much that when our company decided to drop community service work, I continued to work with TEDxNashville as a volunteer.

TEDxNashville is a local nonprofit company licensed through the nonprofit media organization TED. TED was founded in February 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman as a conference focused on the convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED). Beginning in 1990, TED became an annual event, and the slate of speakers gradually expanded to include presentations by scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists, and many others, fulfilling the company’s motto, “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

In 2006, TED began offering free, online streaming videos of “TED Talks.” The

TEDxNashville held its first event in 2010, and Belknap began working with the organization in 2013. Her experience teaching public speaking and her desire to make a difference in the world made her a natural fit for the organization.

“The company I was working for helped TEDxNashville revamp their speaker training program, and I worked directly with TEDxNashville speakers,” she explains. “I loved that process so much that when our company decided to drop community service work, I continued to work with TEDxNashville as a volunteer. I eventually joined the board about three years ago.” →

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Belknap became cochair of TEDxNashville’s speakers committee, and in February 2016 became the executive director. Her first major event in her expanded role was the seventh annual TEDxNashville conference. Held on April 15-16, 2016, at the War Memorial Auditorium and Tennessee Performing Arts Center, it attracted 3,000 attendees for 20 talks by a wide variety of speakers and performances by 29 artists.

“TED began offering Level 2 licenses in 2015,” Belknap says. “They allow a TEDx organization to hold a two-day event and TEDxNashville was one of the first to receive that license. Our main conference is particularly important since our primary source of revenue is the sale of conference tickets and support from our sponsors.”

Belknap’s list of favorite Ted Talks includes two from the 2016 TEDxNashville. “The Spacetime Symphony of Gravitational Waves” by Dr. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, associate professor of Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, is a lively and entertaining explanation of gravitational waves, Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and a philosophical observation on humanity’s place in the universe.

“One of the beauties of TED Talks is that they can take the most complex ideas and condense them to a form that most laypeople can understand,” Belknap says. “And (Dr. Holley-Bockelmann’s) talk was a wonderful example of that, and how everything we do leaves a permanent impression on the fabric of space.”

Another of Belknap’s favorites is “Heroes and Villains: Is hip-hop a cancer or a cure?” by Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae. Over the course of 18 minutes, Lecrae constructs a powerful

narrative of how hip-hop music transformed from a source of social commentary to the perception that it glorifies crime, drug use, and misogyny. He also presents a path for the music to become a force for positive social change.

While TEDxNashville recruits speakers from around the world, as was the case with Lecrae, the majority are recruited from the Nashville area. “We strive to mostly have local speakers because we want to put Nashville’s brilliance on a global platform.” Belknap says. “We coach our speakers to relate to a global or at least national audience, so their message will be appreciated by

‘‘

cover diverse topics that include the reclamation of public spaces, the future of humanity and robots, forgiveness and criminal justice, how the intersection of sex and race created popular music, and much more.

“Our theme this year is ‘Illuminate,’ ” Belknap says. “Along with our main event, we’re also planning several smaller, one-day salons, a health care-focused event in August at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and a dinner series that will be by invitation only.

We’re also tentatively planning a youth event in November.”

TEDxNashville is viewed as one of the top curators in the world, because Nashville is a magnet for brilliant people.

as many people as possible. By giving Nashville a global platform, we help to enhance our reputation as an innovative and creative city. We’re a hub for start-ups and research and there are a lot of really important ideas developed here. The fact that we’re not a business or sales conference and that you’ll hear important ideas in a short format helps to grow our understanding of the world. I’ve been very pleased to hear that within the TED community, TEDxNashville is viewed as one of the top curators in the world, because Nashville is a magnet for brilliant people.”

This year’s TEDxNashville conference will be held on March 17-18 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Twenty speakers will

Although the short format of TED Talks precludes in-depth examination of a topic, Belknap says the easily digestible format and noncommercial, nonreligious, and nonpartisan policies make them the perfect means for planting signposts leading to greater exploration.

“The TED’s guidelines for talks prohibit sales, religious, or political agenda,” she says. “A TEDx event is a safe space for new ideas in their purest form. More importantly, accessing TED Talks is free anywhere in the world through TED.com and various social media platforms.

I think that’s especially important in this time when science and journalism are under attack.

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR EMMA ALFORD CALENDAR EDITOR

M A R C H | A P R I L 2017

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

UPCOMING CATCH THE THEATER CAMP BUG Theater Bug’s Spring Break Audition Camp Auditions: March 13, 3-8 p.m.

Camp: March 20- April 1, Theater Bug

If you and the kids are skipping the beach this spring break, settle for something a little more theatrical. Theater Bug has another production in the works from Che Pieper — this one act play Another Endeavor will be casting two casts of 20 students each (ages 6-13). All that register will be cast, but expect these spots to fill up fast.

4809 Gallatin Pike

EN X EA

Brunch With The Dead Deads At SXSW Saturday, March 18, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Private Location, Austin, Texas

It’s Saturday morning at 10 a.m., you are at SXSW, and you just woke up with a welldeserved hangover. Where do you go? Well, if you are a Nashvillian, The Dead Deads want to make you breakfast. Join them, along with The East Nashvillian, for a house party with

beers, bloodies, and eggs-in-a-hole. They’ll be spinning an EN-themed playlist and encourage all Nashville bands and fans to come hang, get fed, and make friends. The event is free to all Nashvillians and their guests. Message The Dead Deads on Facebook for the location.

CAN’T HAVE BEER WITHOUT YEAST A Feast With Yeast Craft Beer and Kolaches

12 p.m., Sunday, March 19, Smith & Lentz Brewery

We love to brunch here in Nashville, and while the midday meal is usually accompanied by a mimosa or Bloody Mary, it’s time to mix things up a bit. You can brunch with beer at Smith & Lentz with some delicious bites compliments of Yeast Nashville. They’ll be pairing beers to pastries — you can sample all the beers and pastries for under $20. Sounds like a deal to us.

903 Main St.

IF DOGS RUN FREE East C.A.N. Benefit “Dylan to the Dogs”

8 p.m., Friday, March 24, The Basement East

furry benefit concert to support the work they do throughout the year. The lineup hasn’t been determined yet, but we can guarantee they’ll be playing only Dylan covers and there will be lotsa dogs. Pups will be on the patio for petting all night. Ten bucks at the door.

917 Woodland St.

IT’S SCIENCE, PEOPLE

Mr. Bond and the Science Guys 4th Annual Science Spectacular 10 a.m., March 25, April 22, May 13, Shelby Bottoms Nature Center

Mr. Bond and his motley crew of scientists are returning for their annual fundraiser at Shelby Bottoms. They will put on one monthly performance from March through May. These “edutainers” put on a highenergy, interactive science show that will get the kids’ neurons firing. Everyone in the audience gets to participate in their own experiment (don’t worry, Mom, no explosions involved). Attendees will be encouraged but not required to make a donation. Donations benefit Shelby Bottoms, so you can help your favorite park and entertain your brain in the same afternoon.

1900 Davidson St.

Doggie and Bob Dylan lovers, come one, come all. East C.A.N. is hosting a folksy and

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GREAT BOWLS OF FIRE!

Nashville Chili Festival

12-3 p.m., Sunday, March 26, The Basement East

As a solo act, on dogs, on taters, on burgers, on cornbread, on Fritos, or over noodles; chili is a versatile delicacy. Chili-mongers from every area of the country think their mama can make the

best bowl of the hot stuff, so it’s only fair we let the fine folks of this city show what makes their masterpiece tops. If you think your chili reigns supreme, prove it during this year’s contest.

Check Nashville Chili Festival’s website for info on submitting your batch. But it’s basically this: make it good, make a lot, and bring your own ladles. All contestants will be judged based on a panel of judges; a fan favorite will also be chosen.

Proceeds benefit Community Shares. So if you’re down for sampling a smorgasbord of chili, head over to The Basement East.

917 Woodland St.

THE FUTURE IS NOW Boys and Girls Club Great Futures Gala

5-9 p.m., Saturday, April 1, Omni Nashville Hotel

Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee has a slam dunk host for their annual gala this year: hoops legend Shaquille O’Neal. A former participant in the program, Shaq is now a national spokesman for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and has donated over $1 million to its outreach efforts. The Great Futures Gala will kick off with a reception and silent auction, followed by a dinner, speakers, and a live auction. This evening helps support the operation of eight middle Tennessee clubs that serve over 4,000 youth.

250 Fifth Ave. S.

FEELING ON EDGE-HILL Edgehill Rocks

Saturday, April 1, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Edgehill Village isn’t just good for tacos and gelato; they’ve got a pretty sweet annual day festival that’s rolling around again this April.

They set up two stages for music all afternoon and invite craft vendors and food trucks to park themselves in the street, along with a children’s area to keep the tots busy. Check their website for details about music and vendors. edgehillrocks.com Edgehill Avenue and Villa Place

TUNE IN FOR SENIOR PROM

Radio Free Nashville’s Twelfth Birthday Bash

1-4 p.m., Sunday, April 2, Yazoo Brewery

This city’s progressive community station, Radio Free Nashville, has made it to the 12th grade (or year) and they’re hosting a senior prom to celebrate their graduation. Whether you want to relive the glories of old, or make new memories to erase the horrors of high school, they’ve got you covered. Disco balls, the “possibly spiked” punch, and a crowning of king and queen make this the real deal. Dance contests, games, and prizes, too. Proceeds from this prom will sustain and help keep Radio Free Nashville on air. Pick up your date, don’t forget the corsage.

910 Division St.

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BEER FLOWS EAST East Nashville Beer Festival 12-5 p.m., Saturday, April 8, East Park

We’ll take a beer with a side of East. East Nashville Beer Fest is returning for its seventh year and remains the one-and-only, beertasting festival this side of the Cumberland.

The day-drinking commences at noon and will feature beers from over 45 brewers with more being added to the lineup daily. You can expect to see your local favs — plus plenty more happy hops from across the country. This year, they will have an expanded offering of Belgian and German beers, compliments of Woodland Wine Merchant. The Basement East is in charge of the music lineup, and as always, there will be food trucks aplenty. Games, selfie, and photo booth opportunities included. eastnashvillebeerfest.com.

700 Woodland St.

PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY BLOSSOM ON TOP Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival

9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 8, Nashville Public Square

Maybe you’ve got a cherry blossom tree in your yard or maybe you just want to learn more about the land of the rising sun. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a free, familyfriendly hoorah of Japanese culture. The fest kicks off with the 2.5 mile Cherry Blossom Walk at 9 a.m. along the Cumberland River Greenway, followed at 10 a.m. by the event itself at Public Square. You can see a sampling of Japanese culture, contemporary and traditional, including martial arts displays, cuisine, music, and plenty of children’s activities. Proceeds from the festival go toward a city beautification goal, the planting of 1,000 cherry trees across the city over 10 years.

10 Public Square

PICK A PLANT Perennial Plant Sale

9 a.m., Saturday, April 8, Nashville Fairgrounds

For you green thumbs out there, you won’t want to miss this opportunity for a shopping spree. Break out your green for the Perennial Plant Society’s yearly sale. This year they’re offering over 450 varieties for gardens tiny and titanic. Added bonus, these folks can offer you some expert advice on choosing what to grow for this region. Gloves on and shovels out.

500 Wedgewood Ave.

DINNER WITH A CAUSE Dining Out For Life

Tuesday, April 18, various locations

If you’re feeling generous, make this Tuesday a special date night. Across the country, restaurants will participate in this nationwide fundraiser to raise money for HIV/AIDS services and organizations. Participating restaurants will donate a portion of all sales on this day to Nashville CARES, an organization that offers services to over 60,000 Middle Tennesseans suffering from the HIV virus and AIDS. Order that cheese plate and decadent dessert in the name of a good cause.

Restaurants will donate between 30 to 100 percent of proceeds to Nashville CARES. For a full list of participating restaurants: diningoutforlife.com

WINE FOR A REASON Fifteenth Annual Wine Tasting & Silent Auction 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, April 21, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church

East Nashville Hope Exchange (ENHC) is a nonprofit that works to strengthen the literacy of at-risk youth in the East Nashville area, primarily serving the Stratford and Maplewood clusters. But for one night they’ll unwind and raise some dollars for all the work they do. Their annual wine tasting and silent auction will feature wines from around the world, a silent auction, and some live music.

Local retailers and restaurants from the area have donated items for the silent auction.

Cheers to this!

419 Woodland St.

DROP THE NEEDLE Record Store Day

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 22, The Groove and Fond Object Records

Record Store Day has been celebrating indie shops slinging vinyl for 10 years now, so keep spinnin.’ Streaming schmeaming. We don’t need your iTunes, Pandora, or the latest hipster Spotify playlist. The Groove and Fond Object Records get it (and all those other indie record stores around Nashy). Head to your nearest vinyl source to celebrate National Record Store Day. Be doubly supportive and buy some local music.

No firm deets were nailed down yet, but you can expect some sweet sounding deals, craft brews on-site, live music — and, of course, records. recordstoreday.com 1103 Calvin Ave. & 1313 McGavock Pike

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LIFT YOUR SPIRITS

Music City Spirits and Cocktail Festival April 27- 30, Pavilion East

Do you have an affinity for tasty libations?

The mixologists of Music City have teamed up to honor the craft of cocktails with various sessions that focus on different liquors and cocktail combos, providing plenty of information on how to pour one up like a pro.

While there won’t be food inside the events, there will be food trucks lined up outside the gates to keep you well fed. Each event is individually ticketed, or you can buy a pass for all of ’em if you’re feeling particularly thirsty.

1006 Fatherland St. Themes for each day are:

Bourbon and Bluegrass Thursday, April 27, 6 to 9 p.m.

Polynesian Pop: A Tiki Extravaganza Friday, April 28, 6 to 9 p.m.

Shaken & Stirred: A Mod Martini Party

ALL the time. So if you do plan on crossing the river, we recommend this two-day partay in Sevier Park. On Friday, they’ll have a ticketed festival with some local acts, and they’ve already locked in The Lone Bellow, Muddy Magnolias, and Family and Friends. The following day ushers in a free, day-long festival, featuring tasty eats and drinks, artisan vendors, live music, and kids activities. On Saturday you’ll also have a chance to glimpse Nashville’s largest burrito (we hear it’s going to be 6 feet long) and participate in the Edley’s BBQ Hot Wing Eating Contest, if that’s something you’re into. Just be sure to bring the Tums. sevierparkfest.com 2031 Lealand Lane.

LET’S ROCK Y’ALL Rock Out East Nashville 1-8 p.m., Saturday, May 6, East Park

As if there wasn’t already enough live music for you to catch, here is another shot to see some great local bands, in a great local spot, with some great local brews.

Rock Out East Nashville will be born this May, a perfect unofficial start to summer.

Local groovers Los Colognes have already signed on for the bill, and we expect many

more talented folks to take the stage. The event will benefit Operation Stand Down, a nonprofit that supports vets and their fams.

Keep yourself abreast by checking the fest’s socials. In the meantime, early-bird tickets are already on sale.

700 Woodland St.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? Bark in the Park

11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 13, Wilson County Fairgrounds

We’ve got something for you to bark about.

This dog-tastic event has something for two and four-legged mammals. There’ll be food, craft vendors, giveaways, games, contests, and live music for us, along with treats, vaccinations, lure chasing, Pawcasso pawprint artmaking, and an agility area for the fur nuggets. This hound-down is a fundraiser for New Leash on Life, an organization that provides a number of services to benefit animal welfare. Bring your pooch and support something grrr-eat.

945 E. Bauddor Pkwy, Lebanon

Saturday, April 29, 12 to 4 p.m.

Brain Freeze: A Cocktail Comeback Sunday, April 30, 1 to 4 p.m.

HIGH SCHOOL HOMEGROWN

Stratford Farmers Market 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 29, Stratford STEM Magnet School

The teens over at Stratford have been getting their hands a little dirty. Students will be selling seedlings they’ve grown and cared for throughout the school year in the campus greenhouses. On top of the fresh stuff, students will also be selling handmade soaps and T-shirts. You can even take a tour of the greenhouses, if you’re feeling it. Proceeds from the market will benefit Stratford students, local businesses, and charities.

1800 Stratford Ave.

A SEVIER-IOUS OCCASION Sevier Park Fest May 5 & 6, Sevier Park

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•••

RESIDENCIES AND SHOWCASES Cole Slivka’s Short Sets

Tuesdays, 8-10 p.m., The Family Wash

Carpetbaggers

Rotating Lineup Tuesdays, 10:30 p.m. (after Short Sets), The Family Wash

$2 Tuesdays hosted by Derek Hoke 9 p.m., Tuesdays, The 5 Spot

Tim Carroll’s Rock & Roll Happy Hour Fridays, 6-8:30 p.m., The 5 Spot

Jazz Dinner with Stephen Davis & Bryan Clark

•••

ART EXHIBITS DON’T FORGET TO 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 East Side, 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. 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.

Saturdays, 7 p.m., The Family Wash

EAT OUT FOR A GOOD CAUSE! Tuesday April 18, 2017

RED ARROW GALLERY

“My Love Divine”

By Kate Krebs Opening reception March 11, 6 p.m.

March 11–April 2 Dane Carder Opening reception April 8, 6 p.m.

April 8- May 14

ART & INVENTION GALLERY New Works by Duy Huynh Through March 26

RED ARROW GALLERY AND GALLERY LUPERCA World’s Most Dangerous Artist”

By Ben Lankford March 4-25, East Side Project Space.

507 Hagan St.

PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS SO FAR...

For an updated list of participating restaurants visit: www.DININGOUTFORLIFE/NASHVILLE.com

More than 20,000 diners are expected to dine at over 80 restaurants throughout Nashville and surrounding counties to raise more than $160,000 to support the work of Nashville CARES. Restaurants participate in Dining Out For Life by donating a generous percentage of proceeds from the day’s meals to Nashville CARES. Dining Out For Life is the first dine-out fundraiser of its kind and has raised millions for HIV/AIDS service organizations across North America.

PRESENTED BY:

1808 Grille Nicky’s Coal Fired 417 Union Nomzilla Batter’d & Fried Boston Seafood Park Café House Pomodoro East Blue Moon BBQ Provence Breads & Café, Castrillo’s Pizza of Inglewood Downtown Library (Carry-Out ONLY) Provence Breads & Café, Castrillo’s Pizza of Sylvan Park Hillsboro Village (Carry-Out ONLY) Puckett’s 5th & Church Castrillo’s Pizza of Donelson Red Pony Restaurant (Carry-Out ONLY) SILO City Fire Stirrup Nashville Clawson’s Pub & Deli Suzy Wong’s House of Yum Epice Table 3 Restaurant etc.

The Chef and I Etch Restaurant The Flipside Five Points Pizza The Lipstick Lounge Frothy Monkey 12th South The Melting Pot Fondue Frothy Monkey Downtown Franklin Restaurant Frothy Monkey Downtown Nashville The Old School Farm to Table Kalamatas - Green Hills The Pharmacy Lockeland Table Tin Angel Marche Artisan Foods Twin Kegs Margot Café & Bar Twin Kegs 2 Midtown Café Urban Grub Miel Restaurant

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✴✴✴

THEATER|OPERA The Theater Bug presents The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Marsh Madness Hike and Picnic 12-1:30 p.m., Friday, March 24 All ages, registration required

March 9-11, 7 p.m.

RECURRING

Nashville Opera presents Carmen

SHOP AROUND SUNDAY

505 Deaderick St.

•✳•

SHELBY PARK EVENTS & CLASSES Pre-K Saint Patty’s Day 10-11 a.m., Friday, March 17 Ages 3-5, registration required

Spiffy Squirrel Sundays 6 p.m., Sundays, The East Room

4809 Gallatin Pike

April 6, 7 p.m., & April 8, 8 p.m.

TPAC’s Jackson Hall

EAST ROOM HAS JOKES

Sundays at Porter East

12-4 p.m., First Sunday of every month, Shops at Porter East

The shops in Porter East open their doors the first Sunday of every month for a special little parking lot party. You can expect to enjoy a selection of rotating food trucks (and flower truck), fixups from Ranger Stich, and occasionally catch some good tunes. Amelia’s Flower Truck will let you build your own bouquet while Ranger Stich weaves some amazing chain stich on your favorite denim. You can also grab a bite to eat from Terminal Café or some of the on-site food trucks.

700 Porter Road

Pictured: Tamiko Robinson Steele and Eddie George

A RAISIN IN THE SUN

BY LORRAINE HANSBERRY

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.

RINC, Y’ALL

Scott-Ellis School of Irish Dance Sundays at DancEast: 2-3 p.m., 7-12 years; 3-4 p.m., teen/adult Mondays at Eastwood Christian Church: 5-6 p.m., all ages

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.”

DancEast, 805 Woodland St. Suite 315 Eastwood Christian Church, Fellowship Hall, 1601 Eastland Ave. 615.300.4388

BRING IT TO THE TABLE

Community Hour at Lockeland Table

4-6 p.m., Monday through Friday, Lockeland Table

FEATURING

EDDIE GEORGE MARCH 25 – APRIL 15, 2017 At Johnson Theater, TPAC

TICKETS: (615) 782-4040 NASHVILLEREP.ORG

SEASON PARTNERS The HCA Foundation on Behalf of

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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

Take a Stroll Your free personal, digital concierge app for adventuring in Nashville.

PARTICIPATING MERCHANTS Wildhorse Saloon

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Legends CornerLive Music

Hardrock Café

Boot Country

Nashville Crossroads

The Stage on Broadway

Fontanel

Acme Feed & Seed

Goo Goo Shop

Music City Center

Ernest Tubb Record Shop

Juice Nashville

The Second Fiddle

The Nashville Cowboy

Tinney Contemporary

The Arts Company

Gray Line Tours

BTJ Insurance

Hilton Downtown / Trattoria Il Mulino

MANY MORE COMING SOON!

FOR MARKETING: strollnow@gmail.com March | April 2017

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ANSWER ME THIS Trivia Time!

8 p.m., each week, 3 Crow Bar, Edley’s East, Drifter’s, Edgefield Sports Bar & Grill, 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

Drifter’s Tuesday

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

Thursday

3 Crow Bar

LET’S GET FREAKY Freak Me

HAGZILLA ROCKS!

Mondays, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., The Basement East

Hags’ Late Nite Moonglow LP Record Show

SHAKE A LEG

East Nasty bon vivant James “Hags” Haggerty caps off Monday evenings at The Wash, spinning “whatever comes straight out of his head” — which could be anything from Iggy Pop to Andrew Gold to Dizzy Gillespie to The Bee Gees. Whatever is on Hags’ playlist, the vibe will be cool. $2 domestics, and it’s free. Be there or be square!

626 Main St. A

The one and only Freak Me party leaves it all on the dance floor at The Beast. They tout themselves as the “freakiest dance party in Nashville.” This hip-hop and R&B jive gyrates every Monday for free, 21 and up. Shake your tail feathers on over.

917 Woodland St. 615.645.9174

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

11 p.m.-1 a.m., Mondays, The Family Wash

TELL ME A STORY

East Side Storytellin’

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

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

1701 Fatherland St. Suite A The Post East 615.457.2920 East Side Story 615.915.1808

JOIN THE LEGION Honky Tonk Tuesdays

8 p.m., Tuesdays, American Legion Post 82

Every Tuesday, the usually members-only American Legion opens its doors for a hipster hoedown. They play the oldies and goldies of country music, a night filled with Merle Haggard, Ray Price, and maybe a little Hank Williams. What else makes this one-off, opendoor policy night stand out? FREE parking, NO cover, and CHEAP drinks — all of which are getting harder to come by here in East Nashville.

3204 Gallatin Pike

NO LAUGH TRACK NEEDED

Ultimate Comedy Show by Corporate Juggernaut 8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, The East Room

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.

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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.

GET YOUR GREEN ON

CRAWLIN’ TO THE FATHERLAND Fatherland Shoppe Crawl 5-8 p.m., last Wednesday of every month, Shoppes on Fatherland

shoppers. Each month they will have special sales, food trucks, and, like any proper host, wine. The compact complex houses more than 20 shops now, so you have plenty of places to peruse and scale down that shopping list.

1006 Fatherland St.

Crawl on over to the Shoppes on Fatherland for their monthly shopping free-for-all. Shops keep their doors open late for you twilight

Engage Green

First Wednesday of each month, locations vary

Tap into your eco-consciousness every month when Urban Green Lab and Lightning 100’s Team Green Adventures join forces for Engage Green. Join these enviro-crusaders for a discussion that highlights government agencies, businesses, and organizations that practice sustainability. They will provide you with info on these trends and way to make them an affordable and convenient part of your own life. You can expect an hour-long presentation or demonstration with a fun, hands-on component. Green looks good on you! urbangreenlab.org

HOPPIN’ & HOWLIN’ Laugh It Off Open Mic Comedy Smith & Lentz Brewery

7 to 9 p.m., Wednesdays, Smith & Lentz

Cheers to laughing, we could all use a little more of it these days. Smith & Lentz is hosting a night to split your sides with a some open mic standup comedy. The evening is hosted by local funny guy Josh Wagner. Show up early to sign up if you fancy yourself a comedian or just drop in to enjoy a few rounds and a couple of laughs. Shotgun Willie’s will be on hand slaying with their Texas-style BBQ. Admission is free.

903 Main St.

TRANSFORMING AT THE POST Free Conscious Transformation Groups

7-8:30 p.m., Second Wednesday of every month, The Post East

Looking for a supportive environment to focus on your professional and personal development?

These monthly meetings foster a place to focus on conscious transformation teaching, tools, and meditation practices to promote and hone in on a plan of action to support your transformation.

The meetings are led by Energy Healer Ben Dulaney. Think of it as conscious coupling with other like-minded folks.

1701 Fatherland St., Suite A, 615.457.2920

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR

ART IS FOR EVERYONE

John Cannon Fine Art Classes 6-8 p.m., Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-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 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 p.m., Thursdays 11 a.m., Fridays and Saturdays, 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.

Corner of 11th and Woodland Streets

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CINEMATIC HOP-STERPIECES

Brew & View — Movie Nights at Smith & Lentz Brewery 6:30-11 p.m., first Thursday of every month

They’ve got some good things brewing for viewing over at Smith & Lentz these days.

The hop-masters are throwing their own movie night each month with two backto-back pictures. Flick picks chosen from the suggestion box at the brewery. They’ll show the films on their 120-inch projector screen, serve up their delicious beer and free popcorn (no movie night is complete without it). Shotgun Willies will be dishing out their BBQ, too. Even better—it’s free.

903 Main St.

AFTER HOURS SHOPPING

Third Thursday at Porter East Till 8:30 p.m., third Thursday of every month, Shops at Porter East

The Shops at Porter East are extending their hours for you weekday warriors pushing that 9-5 job. The third Thursday of every month they’ll keep their doors open until 8:30 p.m. to give folks the option to shop at a later hour, for the peeps that can’t make it in during typical business hours. The shops will offer refreshments and treats, plus food trucks. Different vendors and music will also be on hand to keep things interesting.

700 Porter Road

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HONESTLY, OFFICER...

East Nashville Crime Prevention Meeting

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Thursdays, Various Locations

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. Check the East Precinct Facebook page for location.

701 Woodland St., 615.650.3600

END THE WEEK ON A HIGH NOTE Family Wash Fridays Noon-2 p.m. every Friday, The Family Wash/Garage Coffee

Friday lunch never tasted so good with these weekly lineups of music featuring a “Secret Special Guest” at The Family Wash/Garage Coffee. This end-of-the-week event is presented

by WMOT/Roots Radio 89.5 and hosted by Roots Radio DJ, Whit “Witness” Hubner.

626 Main St. A

ROCKIN’ AT THE SPOT Tim Carroll’s Friday Night Happy Hour 6-8:30 p.m., Fridays, The 5 Spot

Your local watering hole has rocker Tim Carroll continuing his long tenure as the musical host for happy hour every Friday evening. The fabulous Luella has joined Carroll on vocal

EAST SIDE CALENDAR

duites, and you can catch The Cure’s Reeves Gabrels sitting in with some otherwordly guitar riffing when he’s in town. If you’re looking for a local musical institution, the search is over. And speaking of local institutions, did we mention it’s at The 5 Spot? With discounted drinks and no cover charge, this one can’t be beat.

1006 Forrest Ave., 615.650.9333

CAN’T FORCE A DANCE PARTY Queer Dance Party

9 p.m.-3 a.m., third Friday of every month, The Basement East

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’. The dance party has migrated over to The Beast, which gives shakers and movers even more space to cut up. Shake a leg, slurp down some of the drink specials, and let your true rainbow colors show.

917 Woodland St., 615.645.9174

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

Honky Tonk Saturday Nights 7 p.m., first Saturday of every month, The Basement East

In the spirit of The Grand Ole Opry, The Basement East turns honky tonk for one night every month. Different local musicians will take the stage, playing homage to our city’s country roots. Grab those cowboy boots if you got ’em, and get some “Honky Tonk Blues.”

917 Woodland St.

POETS WHO KNOW IT Poetry in the Brew

5:30 p.m. Second Saturday of every month, Portland Brew

Wordsmiths out there: East Nashville’s own open mic poetry night goes down at Portland Brew once a month. A poet is featured every month, with a chance to promote their work and read for 15 minutes — all the other poets get five minutes live. Arrive early because this poetry powwow fills up fast and there is limited seating. Sign-up for the open mic begins at 5:30, with reading starting at 6 p.m.

1921 Eastland Ave. 615.732.2003

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS & EVENTS

HISTORIC EDGEFIELD CRAFT SHOW AND FLEA MARKET 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 8, East Park (Future dates: July 4, Sept. 9) 700 Woodland St.

East C.A.N. 2nd Annual Clothing Drive with Soles 4 Souls April 22 – June 16

HISTORIC EDGEFIELD NEIGHBORS

7 p.m., last Tuesday of odd numbered months East Park Community Center Social gatherings held in even numbered months. historicedgefieldneighbors.com 700 Woodland St.

LOCKELAND SPRINGS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

6:30 p.m., second Monday of each month Locations vary Visit lockelandsprings.org 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., shelbyhills.org

MAXWELL HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

Drop locations TBD, pick-up service available.

Check East C.A.N.’s Facebook page for details.

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EASTWOOD NEIGHBORS 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 11 Eastwood Christian Church 1601 Eastland Ave

Odd Month Happy Hour 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 14, location TBA eastwoodneighbors.org

GREENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIAITON

6 p.m., third Thursday of every month Kipp Academy

EAST HILL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

6:30 p.m., second Wednesday of every month Metro Police Precinct East 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. facebook.com/groups/Cleveland Park

INGLEWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

123 Douglas Ave.

EAST NASHVILLE CAUCUS 6 p.m., April 5 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

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MCFERRIN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

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301 Berry St.

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

HENMA

6-8 p.m., date TBA, location TBA

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 quarter. eastnashville.org

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 four 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. momsclubeast.blogspot.com

fin.

Have a happening? Let us know!

calendar@theeastnashvillian.com

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Wisdom & Poetry CONTINUED FROM PAGE 60

March 29

THE RIDES

STEPHEN STILLS KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD BARRY GOLDBERG

with special guest Los Lobos

April 16

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY .

100.1 fm

April 19 WILD WEST COMEDY FESTIVAL

PATTON OSWALT

April 21 WILD WEST COMEDY FESTIVAL

JUDD APATOW

April 28 & 29

DAWES .

100.1 fm

May 12 & 13

DREW HOLCOMB & THE NEIGHBORS The Souvenir Tour

.

100.1 fm

May 17

MASTODON

with Eagles of Death Metal and Russian Circles

June 2 2ND SHOW ADDED!

FOUR VOICES

JOAN BAEZ, MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER AND INDIGO GIRLS AMY RAY & EMILY SALIERS

June 9

PAUL SHAFFER

& The World’s Most Dangerous Band with surprise guest vocalist

June 24

PUNCH BROTHERS August 5

JOHN KAY & STEPPENWOLF

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When down on my luck kept me up for days You were there with the right words to help me crawl out of the maze When I almost convinced myself I was hipper than thou You stepped up with a warning shot, fired sweet and low across the bow Now you don’t walk on water, and your sarcasm stings The way you move through this old world sure makes a case for angel wings I was halfway to the bottom when you threw me that line And I’ll quote you now verbatim: get your head out of your own behind Cash marvels at the song’s hope. “The song is the definition of poetic wisdom: looking back and not letting it pull you down the abyss, but using it to leverage yourself back into the present,” she says. “This song isn’t a page out of a diary. It’s a work of art, and no one under 50 could have written it. The regrets and longing pile up, the losses accrue, the urgency of how little time is really left — all that gathers weight, and Rodney wrote the essence of that with the most deft hand, clear eye, and open heart.

“I think it’s one of his best songs.”

Crowell now is the elder statesman. He doesn’t dwell on it, nor feel like he’s arrived. In spite of the awards, the hits, the latter day covers

by George Strait (“Stars on the Water”), Tim McGraw (“Please Remember Me”), and Keith Urban (“Making Memories of Us”), the tours with Harris and the acclaim for Chinaberry Sidewalks, there is always creativity ahead.

With Close Ties, Crowell examines his past, using it — as he always has — as fuel for better songs. Always drawn to women, Susanna is not the only muse. Several songs explore complicated sexual and personal dynamics.

Unconventional, yet real, the songs benefit from artistic license.

“Reckless” is an erotic dream of being seduced by two strange women, a dream he had

Rodney Crowell’s latest record, Close Ties, drops on March 31.

He’ll be performing at this year’s TEDxNashville, to be held in Andrew Jackson Hall at TPAC, the afternoon of Saturday, March 18. Tickets to the two-day event can be found at tpac.org.

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lying in bed next to his wife, the actress/writer Claudia Church, whom he deems “the true love of my life” — a dream that compelled him to get up and write. “I’m Tied To You,” featuring Sheryl Crow, sees a lofty man indulged by an earthy woman who understands his folly.

And there is “Forgive Me Annabelle,” a complicated reckoning with a woman hated and raged at.

“Talk about harsh language,’ Crowell marvels about “Annabelle” as the discussion evolves. “ ‘Goddamn you, rot in hell’? That’s not about the person who walked out on me, it’s about who I was then and how I responded and felt back then.”

It is all part of coming into one’s own, coming to terms with one’s life and legacy. For the first time in his career, Crowell — along with coproducers Buie and Jordan Lehning — wanted to share his work with his peers in advance of the album release. Reticent about whom, he finally admits copies were sent to Fisketjon, Joe Henry, Billy Gibbons, and Elvis Costello.

“I was excited and proud enough of this record that I wanted to share it. I’ve never done that before,” Crowell says at our first meeting.

“Billy Gibbons is someone I have conversations with, talk to, but I never sent him a record before.”

Fisketjon, who once sliced through Crowell’s metaphors with a green pen, has already responded that he’s listening repeatedly. Elvis Costello sent a note that “the themes for farewell and resolution are never forced or trite. It’s easy in its beauty.”

And Cash, who knows Crowell’s work as well as anyone, agrees. She says, “He was always a deep and soulful songwriter, but the depth he’s gained with aging and maturity has been inspiring to watch. It’s interesting to see the language, the very words, the characters and images he’s accessed in this deeper level, as well as perspective: looking back, but not with nostalgia. Wisdom and poetry. He hasn’t changed, he’s achieved mastery.”

FRIDAY MAY 5TH CONCERT

FRI MAY

5

SATURDAY MAY 6TH FESTIVAL FREEE

CONCERT TICKETS & MORE INFORMATION

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What More Can a Poor Boy Do? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 74

be found on To the Top. There is also the Big Easy-style second line groove on “Back to New Orleans,” the down-home cosmic country jams on “Woman Woman,” and even the sawdust-infused hillbilly stomp with “Potatoes & Whiskey,” a track that features a vocal assist from honkytonk queen Margo Price.

“I had Margo in mind for that one as soon as we wrote it,” Paige says. “We all knew Margo from her Buffalo Clover days, and she came in and recorded with us right before she hit big. It’s all about the timing.”

Combining their DIY ethic and hard-earned experience with an assistance of an artist-focused record label, the Blackfoot Gypsies have managed to pull a blank page from the era of classic rock & roll and write their own story upon it. They’ve produced an album that strains at the seams with great songs and potential hits, rather than a half-empty basket for one or two radio-friendly singles.

“We had to finally stop recording songs,” Paige says. “It wasn’t like we only had 15 songs to record. We just kept going and finally Zack said we have to pick a stopping point. Still, the whole thing only took eight whole days of recording.

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Matt’s studio was the right place at the right time.

He gets such a gritty vibe and he’s knowledgeable and is good at what he does.”

One of the band’s biggest supporters is Plowboy Records General Manager Ben Ewing. A 40-year veteran of the music business, Ewing began his career as an assistant to legendary record man Phil Walden. Ewing knows that enthusiasm for his artists is part and parcel of his job description, and yet when he speaks of the Blackfoot Gypsies, his fervor runs much deeper than standard issue record label hype.

“First time I saw these guys play, it was right after they had finished recording the album,” Ewing says in his thick western Kentucky accent. “I told Shannon (Pollard, head of Plowboy Records) to get ready to call the Brink’s truck because you’re going to need it to haul the money away. A couple of days went by, and I heard the rough mixes on the record. They had put on that record, what I heard live. There’s no gimmick to this. They just took the approach they were going to record what they felt. That’s how they used to make records. They weren’t thinking we gotta record this one for rock radio, and we need one for Americana, and we need another for whatever the hell you call it.”

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There’s a palatable excitement as the members of Blackfoot Gypsies talk about their future plans and hopes that their new album might be the breakthrough elevating them away from shitty day jobs and overheard conversations of Music Row bros. But there’s also cautiousness, tempered by long road trips, hours of playing to half-empty rooms, and the knowledge that one can do everything right in the music business and still end up far from the top.

“For us, the business of playing hasn’t changed a lot, but it’s better and there is more of it,” Murphy says,. “It’s still very hard at times because the path is not illuminated. You just have to try things and see if they light up. If someone plays us on the radio, great, but you wonder if people are listening to the radio. We still hear good stations, but there are a lot of towns that if you turn on the radio, it’s like, ‘Oh God, why?’

It’s just another Clear Channel station, playing the same stuff. Then you see more people coming to our shows, and we’re selling more albums at those shows, so it means we’re doing something right.”

Ultimately, keeping the faith for a rock & roll band in the 21st century boils down to →

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What More Can a Poor Boy Do? the same crazy reasons that have motivated millions to strap on electric guitars and bang out power chords in basements and garages for the last six decades. Rock & roll is a religion where every true believer doesn’t make it to heights of glory, but the one sure way to fail is to waver in your faith.

“You have to find yourself,” Paige says. “You

have to understand what you’re doing and know that it’s nothing new in general, but the you element of it is new. Once you can figure how to make the you part of it as loud as it can be, that’s when the juice starts flowing. You have to keep your influences at a certain distance. Do your interpretation of the style or idea. Don’t be them, be you.”

Blackfoot Gypsies new album on Plowboy Records hits this April, with an album release show at Little Harpeth Brewery, April 14th at 8pm

TED Talks to You CONTINUED FROM PAGE 87

“There’s a buzz now about the echo chambers that people find themselves in through social media. People tend to seek out sources of information reflecting their personal perspectives and ignore sources that don’t match their biases.

Attending TEDxNashville is a great way to break out of that bubble. Even if you disagree with a certain talk, it’s only going to take 18 minutes or less of your time, but hopefully, it will open you up to new ideas.”

There’s little doubt that Belknap is a true believer in the core, driving philosophy of TED. Her fervor is especially interesting in today’s hardline partisan atmosphere, as it can’t be classified as left or right, up or down, or black and white. It’s a belief that the free and easy flow of information is crucial to a better world.

“When I talk about topics that are near and dear to my heart or big life changes, I often reference a TED Talk,” she says. “I definitely think if you stumble across the right TED Talk, it can be the catalyst you need to make a life change.

“If I wasn’t working with TEDxNashville, I think I still would have ended up working to spread paradigm-shifting information and ideas in some way. The reason I wanted to become a nurse practitioner was to make the world a better place, but I like to think that I’m now in a position to accomplish that goal in a different way. TED likes to say their talks cover the whole spectrum of human ingenuity, and hopefully, the lasting impact of those ideas will change the world for the better.”

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East of NORMAL TOMMY WOMACK

Dolly Dagger’s jagged edge

I

hate Vanderbilt’s guts. I hate every brick, every squirrel. I won’t even drive by it. If ISIS had a basketball team and played Vanderbilt, I don’t know who I’d root for.

I feel this way as only someone who’s worked there can understand. I toiled there 15 years. I know the beast.

Vanderbilt is a dour city within itself teeming with worker ants who dream of sitting in hot baths, opening their veins and bleeding to death. You check your sense of humor at the door.

I couldn’t be dryly snide in emails there, and if I can’t be dryly snide, I basically have no reason to live.

Don’t get me wrong; almost everyone I ever worked with there was nice to me — in a stultified corporate way. But the one person who wasn’t nice at all made everything a sulfurous, gurgling pot of Satan’s pus. Let’s call her Dolly Dagger.

She wasn’t a bitch on wheels — she was a turbo-psychotic, pin-pulled howitzer, scorched earth, toxic flecks of spittle, cuntasaurus rex bitch on wheels. I’ve never met anyone like her, and I’m going to do my best to never meet another one. If I have to walk out an 8th floor window to keep from meeting one, get the body cast ready, I’ll be right down.

It had been a bad week. August 2003. I’d spent a night in a mental hospital on Monday, one of only two times I’ve been incarcerated. (The other was jail, which was better because I at least had a good buzz on in jail.) I was out of work, depressed out of my mind, self-medicating, and prone to spontaneous crying jags over the mockery I’d made of my life.

The week got worse. On Friday at noon, Beth was canned.

It was devastating. She was the breadwinner. Two hours later, Vandy Temps called with an offer — office assistant for three weeks or until the position is filled. Sometimes when one door closes, God opens a toilet bowl. And I dove right in. I lasted the three weeks and got the job.

It was just Dolly and me in a little office. No one else. Dolly didn’t like me one bit, but no one else applied for the job. Her voice dripped with a world-weary shot of invective. She had a face like a bull and was coated with a patina that hissed, “Don’t fuck with me.”

Now let’s let a cat out of the bag: Dolly was black (still is, I’ll assume), and I was not only very white, I was a mental patient.

She’d probably deny it to her dying day, but the racial vibe was there. I got nervous about asking her questions, because she would huff, roll her eyes, and say something like, “You don’t remember?” It wasn’t long before I was scared to death of her. I knew that if I got in her face and it led to an Employee Relations

intervention, I was as well as sunk. She was a black, struggling, single parent going to college every night, perpetually tired and at her wit’s end, while I was a white pothead recently released from a laughing academy. The jury wouldn’t be out 10 minutes.

I applaud her struggle — but still, I’ve met cops at three in the morning who were serene fucking Buddhist monks compared to her. If I’d only gone with my second option that first day — smoking a big joint and showing up dressed as a wasp — things might have come to a swift merciful end. But I didn’t, and nor did they.

I had no prospects elsewhere. This was life, from now on. The atmosphere was so toxic I began throwing up on the way into work. Every now and then I’d say or do something and get a, “Tommy, it offends me when you do that” and I’d have no idea what she was talking about. I’m aware that white people tend to do and say things that piss black people off, but a little private upbraiding out of earshot of others would have been nice. She didn’t care if there were others in the room or not.

One day the copier needed service. Transparencies were jamming in the machine. An appropriately dour serviceman told me we were using the wrong kind of transparencies. Dolly walked in the copier room. I told her, “We’ve been ordering the wrong transparencies.” The rest of the day went on with no incident. The next morning we arrived at the office at the same time. She went to her side, I went to mine. And all of a sudden it came. Before sitting down, she turned toward me. “Let me just tell you!” she shrieked, “WE didn’t order the wrong transparencies! YOU ordered the wrong transparencies!” I hadn’t even taken my coat off. And this was just the beginning of the day.

All the day before and all night long, she’d stewed, tossing and turning. I was in The Twilight Zone. Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo!

I thought I was stuck there for life. I had assurances from friends that this too shall pass. I didn’t believe them. But 13 months after our dance of love began, in September 2004, Dolly sheathed her dagger and transferred to another department.

About a year after that, Employee Relations called. I answered, and a man asked if anyone there had ever worked with one Dolly Dagger. Well I’ll be, I smiled. She’d found someone else to tussle with, and this time it went all the way to Employee Relations. Did I work with her, he asked. I said (hell) no, and I passed the buck to my department head. I wasn’t getting near that situation with tongs, especially without assurance of an 8th floor window.

Tommy Womack is a Nashville singer-songwriter, musician, and freelance writer.

Keep up with his antics on Facebook and at tommywomack.com.

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PARTING SHOT

MEGAN PALMER

INSTRUMENTHEAD P ortrait

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