The East Nashvillian 10.5 July-August 2020

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Elephant feeling

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Our New Reality As Seen Through The Eyes Of The Beholders

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theeastnashvillian.com Founder & Publisher Lisa McCauley

Creative Director

Chuck Allen

Layout & Design

Benjamin Rumble

Editor-in-Chief

Photo Editing

Chuck Allen

Travis Commeau

Randy Fox

Benjamin Rumble, Scott Guion, Dean Tomasek

editor@theeastnashvillian.com Managing Editor

Illustrations

randy@theeastnashvillian.com

Social Media Manager Contributing Writers

Buick Audra, Manual Delgado, James Haggerty, Tim Stegall, Lauren Turner, Ron Wynn, Tommy Womack Contributing Photographers

Travis Commeau, Chad Crawford, Jeremy Harris, Monica Murray, Michael Weintrob

Liz Foster

liz@theeastnashvillian.com Advertising sales@theeastnashvillian.com Marketing Consultant

Coral Sherwood Ad Design

Benjamin Rumble

The East Nashvillian is a bimonthly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. All editorial content and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media, LLC unless otherwise noted. 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.

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COMM EN TARY Letter 9 Editor’s

By Chuck Allen Doves Will 11 White Mourn In Sorrow

F E E L I N G T HE E L E P HA NT 22 Introduction The inspiration behind “Feeling the

By Randy Fox

Observations 14 Astute

By James “Hags” Haggerty

Elephant”

By Chuck Allen

Collective 19 Our Nightmare

cover illustration Feeling the Elephant

by Benjamin Rumble

By Chuck Allen

of Normal 57 East

By Tommy Womack

& Positivity” ... Always 24 “Love Jason Eskridge lives for harmony but would like to see more respect for Nashville’s black musicians and better representation in the music industry

By Ron Wynn

TOM ATO ART F EST...I SH 39 Intro 40 Schedule of Events While Distancing 42 Uniting Jack Davis and Good Neighbor Festivals continue celebrating community

the Gap 28 Bridging Mimi McCarley and Muziqueen Ewing advocate for the local Urban music scene through Nashville Is Not Just Country Music

By Buick Audra

Can Be Said 30 What Reflections on systemic racism by a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage

By Manual Delgado

By Randy Fox

Grooves 32 Alternative How East Side record stores are navigating the pandemic

I N TH E KNOW Your Neighbor 17 Know Heather Magann

By Lauren Turner

By Randy Fox

Care & Concern 36 Community in the Time of Covid

Marilyn Greer discusses the challenges she and her neighbors face

By Randy Fox

parting shot Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

by Scott Guion

ART I ST I N PROF I L E Looks Good On You 48 It Photo Essay

By Jeremy Harris

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Sound Of Freedom 44 The Little Richard, 1932 - 2020

By Tim Stegall

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Thanks For Believing In Us

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or the second issue in row, we at The East Nashvillian found ourselves faced with a conundrum. The first time, back in March, we were just about to go to press when the tornado hit. This time around, it happened after witnessing George Floyd’s murder. Add to this, our Managing Editor, Randy Fox, suffered the loss of both parents to COVID-19.

Nothing has been easy for anyone these last few months. But, like everyone else, we’re just trying to figure out a way to keep doing what we do. We’re among the fortunate. Being able to work from home is a luxury not afforded everyone. Our many friends in the entertainment and service industries are especially hard hit, with retail trailing not far behind.

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Advertisers like The Nashville Symphony may never be the same. Our cultural institutions are under severe duress. The independent music venues, the breeding grounds for new artists and songs, are facing an existential crisis. Meanwhile, owners of the tourist traps downtown — monuments to getting wasted while listening to cover bands — are giving everyone else the middle finger by refusing to follow the guidelines.

Looking on the bright side of things, we still have enough advertising support to publish this issue. It’s amazing, really. They’re invested in maintaining a cohesive community and recognize the importance of doing so. And then there’s the added bonus of Tomato Art Fest ...ish. While it won’t be nearly the same as it has been in year’s past, for obvious reasons, just having it at all is somewhat triumphant.

If we’ve ever needed a Uniter, not a divider, it’s now.

Editor’s LETTER

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White Doves Will Mourn in Sorrow

BY RANDY FOX

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n Tuesday, May 5, around 8:30 p.m., my phone rang. The caller ID showed it was my dad.

“Randy,” he said, with his voice cracking.

“Mom just died.”

As my father began to cry, my brain immediately kicked into a weird, calm taking-careof-business crisis mode that I’ve experienced before in times of stress. I gathered the facts, and I tried to calm my father. The pastor from his church was with him. No, he had not called 911 yet, just the pastor. He was sure my mom was dead. She had been feeling especially weak and lethargic for several days and needed help standing up. He tried to help her, and she took a gasp for breath and died in his arms.

I told him to call 911 and call me back. I stayed on the phone with him as paramedics arrived and confirmed my mother was dead.

While I talked with my dad and reassured him, the question was already in my mind: Could this be COVID-19?

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hen my mother began sliding into dementia around 2010 (right around the time of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and my mother’s 80th birthday) my father was resolute on three points: (1) avoid a nursing home for my mom and himself at all costs (2) he would be my mother’s primary caregiver, and (3) his main goal, as he often said, was to “live one day longer than my Ruby.”

In late March, shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown began, my mother broke her hip.

After hip replacement surgery, she was moved to a nursing and rehab center in Russellville, Kentucky, just 17 miles from my parents’ home.

The facility was under strict lockdown, and Dad could only see my mother through the lobby window and talk to her on his phone. I knew he was lonely, cut off from my mother, church activities, and the local Saturday night karaoke

sessions where he loved to sing Eddy Arnold and bluegrass songs. I also felt slightly hopeful that the current situation might keep them both safe.

On April 30, I’d planned a call my father in the evening, after he visited mom. It was my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary, and I knew the day would be hard for him. That afternoon, I got a call from the nursing home about my father checking my mother out of the facility against her doctor’s advice. Calling him immediately, I confirmed she was home. He wanted her home for their anniversary, and with the help of the caregiver who helped him out around the house, they had brought her home. As our conversation wound on, I found my initial surprise and frustration mixing with compassion. I didn’t think it was a wise decision, but I hoped I was wrong.

Five days later, my mother died.

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he next morning my sense of dread grew. My father called about the funeral arrangements and began by saying he didn’t want me or my brother to attend the service. It was going to be a simple graveside service with no attendees, but there was a chance Mom might have had, as he worded it, “that terrible virus.” I also discovered that the nursing home my mother was in already had several confirmed cases of COVID19 (and they would eventually tally over 50 confirmed cases).

Over the next few days, I talked to my father every day, checking on his physical and emotional condition. On Friday, May 8, we had a long conversation. He’d just finished riding the exercise bike in his living room, his preferred form of workout since he now needed a cane or a walker, and because it allowed him to keep watching Westerns on MeTV. We talked about Mom, and even though he was still deeply grieving, there was a note of hope. “It’s going to be really hard without Mom,” he said. “But I think I’ll be okay. I’m pretty good at adapting.”

A little over 48 hours later, my dad was in the hospital. Sunday night, after he’d gone to bed he began having trouble breathing. Shortly after midnight he called his brother, and my aunt and uncle drove him to Logan County Memorial Hospital in Russellville, where he was admitted.

The next day, when I spoke with him, he was receiving oxygen and was still short of breath but otherwise alert. The following morning he seemed in an even better mood — more concerned about the soggy bacon with his breakfast than worried about his health. I joked that as long as he had his appetite, he could beat anything.

That night I got a call from the hospital confirming he had COVID-19. He was doing well but required 15 liters of oxygen per minute to keep his blood oxygenation at an acceptable level.

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To put that in perspective, he now needed air that was 80 percent oxygen, compared to the 21 percent oxygen in the atmosphere.

The next morning he had no interest in food and was even weaker. I told him to get as much rest as possible. “If there’s anybody that can beat this in their nineties, it’s you,” I said.

“I sure hope so,” my dad replied with little enthusiasm.

Over the next few days, I could hear a precipitous decline in my father’s energy and focus.

On Sunday, I headed north to visit him and secure some paperwork at his house to pay his bills. It was becoming apparent he wasn’t going home anytime soon.

At the hospital, I walked through the grass at the back of the building and peered into the window of his room. The nurse spotted me first, and my dad looked excited to see me. We spoke briefly on the phone. His frailty was shocking.

My dad was not a big man, but he’d always been solid, like a bull terrier, stubborn to a fault at times but with a hearty appetite for work and play. Just 10 days earlier he’d been cranking away on his exercise bike while Marshall Matt Dillon tracked down outlaws.

But by the next day, my dad had taken a dramatic decline. He was regularly coughing up dark brown phlegm, and they were trying to stay ahead of pneumonia. One of the nurses arranged a Zoom call via a tablet she held for him. He was hard to understand unless he pulled off his oxygen mask, which made him out of breath within seconds.

The same day, I received the call I’d been dreading. His doctor spelled out the facts compassionately but in detail. The virus had ravaged my father’s lungs; there was no real hope of recovery. It was just a matter of time.

May 20, 2020, the day after my 57th birthday was the last time I spoke to my father.

The nurse held the tablet for him but he never seemed to fully comprehend it was me on the screen. With his oxygen mask on, he was hard to understand. He seemed to be repeating something. The nurse removed the mask and, with his speech slurred, he said, “When am I going to be with Mom? Can I go be with Ruby now?”

Over the next 12 days I continued calling the hospital daily. The nurses I spoke with were first-rate — compassionate and thorough. Each time, I received a report on his condition, but it was always the same. He was mostly incoherent; speaking just agitated him.

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n Monday, June 1, 2020, at 10:59 a.m. CDT, my father, Frank Jewell Fox, died at the age of 92, just 27 days after my mother, Ruby Jeanette Fox, died at the age of 90. My father was killed by a virus that was allowed to run rampant in the United States through incompetence, ignorance, neglect, and greed. An enemy is still being

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given aid and comfort by people too selfish or shortsighted to take the simplest and most basic precautions to slow its spread. Although my mother was never tested for the virus, in all likelihood, it was the cause of her sudden heart failure, making her one of possibly thousands of unrecorded COVID-19 fatalities.

Even under the best circumstances, my mother and father may have still been victims of the virus. While it would not eliminate the

grief, knowing that the unifying American spirit of community, shared sacrifice, and compassion that rose to meet past challenges faced by our country would provide solace. Instead, we live in an era where the concept of “government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,” was usurped four decades ago by: “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Once again, we are reaping the bitter fruit of that foolish and insidious mantra.

Astute O B S E R V A T I O N S

All’s Well But Not Well B Y J A M E S “ H A G S ” H A G G E R T Y

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Hags is a full-time bread baker, erstwhile bass player, and goodwill ambassador for The East Nashvillian.

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Illustration by

reetings, friends. I hope that you are all well and healthy. If Covid-19 has robbed you of a loved one, please accept my sincerest condolences. I’ve barely left the house since March. Someone asked me if my caution was due to an underlying health condition. I said yes, it’s called fear of death and love of breathing (FODLOB). I suffer from FODLOB. Like all my brothers and sisters in the gig economy, my gigs and economy went away. Playing bass for money? Not anytime soon. To the folks I see packing bars and partying like it’s 1999, I say this, you are selfish, moronic, dangerous assholes. Fuck you.

Your willful ignorance astounds and offends me to my core. You are a threat to our collective health. You are despicable. There is no defense for your behavior. I suppose you are following 45’s example. He’s going to drive your pedal tavern straight off a cliff.

I’m sure you will be fist bumping, pussy grabbing, and chugging White Claw straight to the moment of impact. I wouldn’t care if this thing wasn’t so contagious. Is the word exponential really that difficult to comprehend? Let me put it in a way that you might be able to more easily wrap your backwards ballcap around. It’s like when you add ketamine to your all-day margarita buzz, only a bit deadlier. If any of you survive, you shall henceforth be referred to, by me, as the survival of the shittest. Bless your heart. You’re just idiots, is all.

What’s a man to do when his job disappears overnight? Pivot, that’s what. I’ve got a six-day-a-week job now. I’ve gone from bassist to sourdough-bread baker, and I love it.

A few years ago, I started baking sourdough bread for fun and therapy. After the 2016 election and the ensuing ennui, I found myself drawn to the creation and nurturing of a sourdough starter.

It takes time and attention to create a starter, but it is very rewarding to see those microbes bubbling away. The sourdough starter is a tiny

universe of activity and I am its benevolent custodian. It rewards my time and care with delicious bread. After the election, this truly became my way to “act locally.” My worried mind found comfort in the steps, the details, the weighing of ingredients, and the beautiful, crusty on the outside, creamy and custard-like on the inside boules baked in heavy cast iron pots in my home oven. The next thing I knew, I was baking constantly, experimenting with different flours. There was no way I could eat it all.

I started giving away bread to friends. They loved it. They started to call and ask for more. More than one friend suggested that I sell it. I started baking and selling eight boules per week. Just enough to pay for my habit. Before the pandemic came to town, I was baking and selling 12 per week. Back in March, that quickly turned to 24. Now I’m edging up on the legal limit of 100 per week. The State of Tennessee’s cottage kitchen law allows me to earn a living from my home. I feel incredibly fortunate. All of my gigs for the year got cancelled in about five minutes. After the panic subsided, I went to work on getting a supply chain together. I had my home mill. I knew I could get wheat berries for the flour blend that I created. I still needed a reliable source for bread flour. I found a vendor up in Queens that was willing and able to ship reliably.

I created an Instagram page and a logo for my new business, Haggerty Sourdough.

The amount of support and love that I have experienced, along with the socially distant conversations during pickup, are truly heartwarming. Providing a bit of comfort and deliciousness for folks has given me a purpose. I’ve been working six days a week and don’t have much time to watch the news. Although I’m truly grateful to be in this position, I still have meltdowns from time to time, which are usually caused by accidentally watching a press conference. I’ve got a safe way to keep the lights on and the mortgage paid; I’m still making a living with my hands and still giving folks enjoyment and comfort. It’s a lot like making music.

In closing let me say simply, “Thank you.”

A L L P O L I T I C S I S L O C A L In this very important election year The East Nashvillian turns an eye to our neighbors and their concerns, opinions, and activism. Watch this space for future profiles from across the political spectrum.

KNOW your NEIGHBOR

Heather MAGANN B Y

P H OTOG RAP H BY M ON I CA M U RRAY

“O

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L A U R E N

T U R N E R

ur movement cannot be reduced to a trend when real lives are at stake.”

—Heather Magann

Heather Magann graduated from Belmont University last month with a degree in Music Business and works at the Belcourt Theatre. The pandemic has rekindled her passion for water coloring, and she’s been sharing her paintings and selling them through social media with a definite purpose.

“Through my art I have been able to donate over $400 to Black Lives Matter and the National Bail Bond Network,” Magann says. “The arts community boasts some of the most politically-engaged people in Nashville, and I am honored to be a part of it.”

Magann was one of the 10,000 that marched in the June 4th rally organized by Teens for Equality and was heartened by the turn-out and display of mutual respect protesters showed for one another amidst the ongoing COVID crisis. “It was powerful to see so many people marching and screaming in defense of black lives,” she explains. “It is, understandably, a difficult time for a lot of people to get out of their homes and fight. Everyone that I could see was wearing masks and trying to keep a respectful distance from one another. I would say that if you are apprehensive about going to a protest, there are plenty of ways to participate in the movement from home. However, the power of a physical protest is unmatched, and you won’t regret it. Also, make sure you get tested for COVID afterwards!”

For Magann, speaking out against police brutality and systemic racism is nothing new. “Police brutality in the black community has been on my mind long before the death of George Floyd,” she says. “It’s a constant thought in the back of my mind. The fact that someone like me can do everything right, and still end up dead because they ‘resisted arrest.’ Or that someone like me can be arrested for having pot and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. Or that someone like me can be shot dead in their own home for no reason.”

While Magann continues to experience these issues personally, she is noticing non-black folks engaging with them in a new way. “The only difference now is

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that it’s not just black people that see it” she says. “Social media has opened the eyes of people that have been stuck in a bubble of white privilege. People that, before, couldn’t care less about what happens in black communities, are finally seeing the hardships we face on a day-to-day basis. Racism has a wide range, from microaggressions to murder, and people are finally starting to educate themselves on what they can do to change. It isn’t enough to be ‘not racist’ anymore; you must be anti-racist,” she concludes with a nod to the oft-cited Angela Davis quote.

While Magann planned to vote for Bernie Sanders, she has resigned to cast her vote for likely Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in November; as well as participating in local elections and grassroots organizing. “I believe getting Trump out of office is a priority,” she says. “He has been a symbol of hatred for four years now, and his responses to current events have been repulsive. Unfortunately, we are boxed in, because it seems like our only other option is Biden. A lot of people in my circle have been taking matters into their own hands. The government has failed us, and we all must fight in order to make a change. Protesting, donating, emailing, and calling our elected officials are things we can do to incite it, but we can’t stop until there is justice for every single person that has been failed by our ‘justice’ system.”

Magann obtains her news information from a variety of sources in order to factcheck and confidently speak out on issues. “I like to have a lot of options, because I know that most news sources have some form of bias,” she says. “I’m always trying to learn, especially when it comes to politics. I’m trying to learn more about local politics right now, so I can be more politically active here in Nashville.”

Defunding the police is the issue that Magann is most invested in locally. “I know that it may not come from either of the candidates, but I hope that the current movement does not lose momentum by the time of the election,” she says. “It may not be a direct result of the election, but I’d like to see it in Nashville sooner rather than later.”

Follow Heather and purchase her artwork via Instagram at @heather.com.

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Donald Trump’s Nagging Problems Are Our Collective Nightmare

BY CHUCK ALLEN

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n February 3, I embarked on the Norwegian Pearl for the Cayamo 2020 cruise. Although everyone was aware of “the coronavirus,” as it was known at the time, it seemed a distant threat. Even so, the cruise line had begun issuing protocols and screening for passengers who may have recently traveled to China. The crew, including my cabin steward, was predominately Filipino. I wonder how they’re doing now. On January 22, just over a week before setting sail, President Trump made this now-famous statement: “We have it totally under control.

It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

The day I disembarked, on February 10, the president said at a campaign rally, “Looks like by April, you know, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that’s true.”

Upon my return to Nashville, I remember going to our office and joking with my neighbors about it, giving them hugs and saying, “I hope you don’t give me the’ rona.” The magnitude of the situation hadn’t quite set in, for us or, it would seem, for the occupant of the Oval Office. Complacency was encouraged by the president, as demonstrated by a Tweet February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

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Two days later came the first report of community transmission in California, which we now know was a milestone, a threshold that, when crossed, makes it very difficult to contain an outbreak of a highly infectious virus. History may very well mark this as the day the US began losing the war. Nevertheless, that same day during the coronavirus task force’s press briefing, Trump said, “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”

That the Trump administration had wholly ignored a pandemic response manual meticulously crafted under the Obama administration in the wake of the Ebola outbreak had yet to be reported. In hindsight, it is clear that, as the novel coronavirus was invisibly advancing through the population, the White House considered the pandemic a public relations issue rather than a public health issue.

Understanding that a thriving economy is key to his reelection, Trump was ignoring scientists’ dire warnings about the consequences of leaving the pandemic unchecked. Rather than putting the nation into lockdown, he waited. In his over-riding desire to keep the economic numbers high, he ignored his scientific advisors and based his administration’s complete response on reelection rather than mitigating the pandemic’s impact.

As if to emphasize this, on Friday, February 28, Trump went into full gaslighting mode at a campaign rally in North Charleston, S.C.: “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. … One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over. … And this is their new hoax.”

When the history books are written about the year 2020 in the United States of America — and they will be, the above statement will likely be pointed to as the day of division. It was the day Trump gave the true believers their marching orders as regards the pandemic.

Cynically propagated through Fox News, disseminated though the far-right infotainment ecosystem, and underpinned by thousands of conspiracy theory based YouTube videos shared relentlessly across social media, the message was clear: This virus is a hoax foisted upon YOUR president by the radical-leftist Democrats to undermine MY reelection bid.

Folks in East Nashville didn’t have much time to think about the president’s deflections because four days later, during the wee hours of Tuesday, March 3, a tornado ripped through.

A week of mourning, cleaning up, and benefit shows followed. The last time I ventured out to a club was for the Cafe Rooster show at Dee’s on March 5.

But by the following week, the reality of the pandemic returned when Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office on March 11. While tacitly acknowledging the threat, the president doubled-down on minimizing it. He touted travel restrictions to China, subsequently characterized as closing the gate after the horses have left the corral. He called it a “foreign virus” to signal “the other” as the real enemy. He called for payroll-tax relief — long the golden goose amongst the libertarian crowd in the GOP — while ignoring the evidence that an economic shut-down was likely and far greater measures would be required.

And, perhaps most ironically, he called for unity.

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hat was glaringly missing was a plan, probably because there wasn’t one. Trump was never willing to take any responsibility for failures, and he wasn’t about to change his tune now. So, rather than demonstrating leadership, he pushed it off to the states.

Unfortunately, many of the states have Republican governors, including Tennessee,

which meant Trump’s mendacious plan to shirk responsibility would have trickle-down effects and leave cities across the country to fend for themselves.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a “Safer at Home” order, which closed non-essential businesses and warned residents not to leave their homes for any reason other than required errands or exercise.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee waited over a week to follow suit. Still, he even then said in a news briefing, “This is not a mandated ‘shelter in place’ order, because it remains deeply important to me to protect personal liberties.” In other words, through a winkwink, nod-nod, he signaled to his base that their individual choice to do whatever they want supersedes their obligation as citizens to prioritize the health of the community.

So we began our isolation. As it progressed, the outlook became darker, more opaque. A new reality started taking shape. The more we learned about this particular virus and its spread, the more we realized large indoor gatherings were particularly suspect. The live music industry virtually ceased to exist and, with it, the livelihoods of those who depend upon it. The fall school year became a cipher.

Daily outrage over the Trump administration’s

grossly inept handling of the crisis became the norm.

The president launched millions of trolls by saying on March 23, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.” By the middle of April, he tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” (caps his), about Michigan and two other states with Democratic governors, seemingly offering support to protesters crowding capitals who are opposed to states’ restrictions and closures.

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nity be damned. The stage was now set for the next chapter of the history books: The murder of George Floyd.

For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held prostrate, handcuffed Floyd to the ground with a knee compressing Floyd’s neck as he cried, “I can’t breathe!” We watched in horror and disgust as the life left George Floyd right before our eyes.

The ensuing protests against police brutality and systemic racism which swept the nation were on a scale not seen in our country since the ‘60s. But even as Mississippi, of all places, lowers its rebel flag for the last time, Trump insists on calling into question its legitimacy.

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Speaking from the White House lawn on July 4th, he said, “We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing. We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children.”

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owever, President Donald J. Trump can’t get rid of the one threat bothering him the most: the ongoing pandemic. In what may have been the interview of his career, Chris Wallace grilled Trump on his administration’s failures, laying bare his inability to address those failures with anything other than self-aggrandizing responses. After being shown a montage of videos in which he repeatedly claimed the virus was just going to “disappear,” Trump said, “I’ll be right eventually. It is going to disappear. I’ll say it again, it’s going to disappear and I’ll be right.” Wallace then asked if his previous statements in this regard discredited him, Trump replied, “I don’t think so, you know why? Because I’ve been right probably more than anybody else.”

That was July 19. On Fox News Sunday.

Of course, elsewhere on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and the rest of

the ‘infotainment” gang continue spewing untruths and divisiveness, keeping their viewers addicted to outrage and fear and their Number One fan, Donald Trump, happy.

Perhaps the writers of those history books will be able to determine which chapter we’re in right now. As of today ( July 20), the United States has suffered 143,032 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19. Among these are the mother and father of Randy Fox, our Managing Editor. You may have already read his essay about losing his parents, “White Doves Will Mourn in Sorrow,” on page 11. (If you haven’t, you should.)

In addition to having the world’s highest death toll, the US also leads in the number of confirmed cases, currently 3,895,803 out of 327.2 million. Brazil, population 209.5 million, is runner up with 2,118,646 cases.

No one knows, nor can anyone predict how this will all play out. Hotspots are growing worse nationwide as civil unrest continues. It appears reasonably certain a large swath of the citizenry lives in an alternate reality created by, as Steve Bannon so elegantly put it, flooding the zone with shit. Meanwhile, everyone else is attempting to navigate uncharted waters amid a hurricane hoping for some sign of safe harbor.

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The original inspiration for this edition of the magazine arrived by way of Bill Lloyd’s 1983 song “Feeling the Elephant,” which kept creeping into my mental soundscape as the events of 2020 unfolded.

Based on the ancient parable Blind Men and an Elephant in which a group of blind men attempts to discover what an elephant looks like by feeling it, the song seemed to crystalize our situation. Each of the blind men was limited to “seeing” only one part of the elephant, therefore conceptualizing what the elephant looks like based on what they’d touched.

In one version of the parable, the blind men end up fighting over what the elephant looks like, stubbornly holding on to their impressions of what they “saw.” To me, it speaks to the difficulty we each face in understanding this experience.

Everyone has a unique perspective, whether they agree or disagree with their neighbors about the macrocosm of what’s happening. Hence the reason why the chorus of Bill’s song kept running through my head: We’re all feeling the elephant blind and feeling the elephant blind and feeling the elephant it’s all we know — Chuck Allen

feeling

ELEPHANT 23

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“Love & Positivity” ... Always Jason Eskridge lives for harmony but would like to see more respect for Nashville’s black musicians and better representation in the music industry

ntil recently, guitarist/vocalist/bandleader Jason Eskridge’s primary focus during any given week would be “Sunday Night Soul,” the vehicle for local, regional, and national performers he’s helped make a Music City staple for over six years. Eskridge had already done something most folks wouldn’t when he decided to relocate to Nashville 21 years ago. He abandoned a high-paying gig with NASA in Huntsville, Alabama, to join loads of other aspiring musicians in this town’s highly competitive scene. But his talent — a powerful, dynamic voice, impressive guitar skills, and immense on-stage flair and charisma, were such it didn’t take long for him to become a familiar face on bandstands, not just in Music City, but many other places.

From serving as an opening act for Aaron Neville and Jonny Lang to doing background vocals for a host of A-list country acts like Randy Travis and Lyle Lovett, Jason Eskridge consistently demonstrated he was a standout.

Eskridge also had another advantage that helped him get a foothold: He knew some key players locally. “Like many, I came to Nashville to pursue a career in music,” Eskridge recalled during a recent interview. “Because my introduction to Nashville as a music town was through the CCM [Contemporary Christian Music] industry, namely Gotee Records and Nicole Mullen, I wasn’t really faced with the daunting task of starting from ground zero. I had some pretty solid relationships here even before I arrived.”

Still, he didn’t just want to be a successful part of someone else’s operation. Eskridge had bigger goals beyond establishing himself as a performer.

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Photograph By Michael Weintrob

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BY RON WYNN

Instead, he wanted more exposure and notoriety for other artists like himself, people who weren’t country, folk, Americana, rock, or pop. They were mostly black acts, trying to become famous in a city whose once-proud legacy as a behemoth in R&B and soul circles had nearly been bulldozed to oblivion by urban renewal that wiped out a large part of the Black music infrastructure.

Eskridge certainly wasn’t the first person to be a tireless advocate for black music and African American performers. Still, he came up with the idea that set him apart from others — a multi-artist performance showcase he billed “Sunday Night Soul.”

Upon taking the idea to the owners of The 5 Spot, Eskridge says the immediate reaction was ideal. “It was very much accepted and supported,” he adds. “Because of the melting pot that Nashville has become, there are fans of every music genre here. In short, I don’t think a genre of music exists that wouldn’t at least find a small following here. As for The 5 Spot, they have been nothing but supportive since day one. Again, having forged relationships with them before I approached them about Sunday Night Soul, I expected no less than for them to get behind me and support it, which is exactly what they’ve done.”

Sunday Night Soul features artists doing both their own tunes and covers of soul and R&B classics in a manner that keeps dance floors filled.

But then came the horrific event of May 25. George Floyd, a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was flung to the ground by police, then (now former officer) Derek Chauvin put his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. For what? Floyd may or may not have passed a counterfeit $20 bill. As a stunned nation viewed continuous footage of Floyd on the ground, shouting, “I can’t breathe,” passions ignited across America.

Black folks had been marching and protesting against police misconduct and brutality for decades but were now joined in the streets by whites, both young and old, as well as Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans.

While sadly some demonstrations degenerated into scenes of looting and rioting, the vast majority were and remain peaceful.

As a result, police misconduct and systemic racism have come under constant examination inside and outside corporate America, as well as every marketplace in every American city.

When asked how the protests have affected him musically, Eskridge responds this way: “As a songwriter and social media influencer, I tend to write and post about love and positivity in hopes to bring some goodness into the world through my words.

As of late, I’ve felt compelled to not only continue to spread those messages, but to also speak more deliberately and specifically on the realities that I and so many others face as a black man in America.”

A generally upbeat, optimistic person, no one could ever accurately stick the “angry black man” label on Jason Eskridge. But even with his track record in Nashville over two decades and the ongoing popularity of Sunday Night Soul, like every other African American, he has memories of racist behavior and attitudes. “Yes. Once I was on stage at a popular venue, and I asked the sound engineer — who was also the owner — to make a change to my monitor mix to which he replied over the speakers for everyone to hear, “Would you like some watermelon too?” I walked off the stage and never returned. That venue has since closed down.”

Eskridge is unconcerned about whether he’s ever gotten the support from the city’s culture power brokers he

deserves. “I don’t know that I’ve ever looked to be supported by the establishment,” he responds. “I’m more inclined to invest in individual relationships. I’ve definitely been supported by those.” However, he is outspoken when it comes to the issue of how black musicians and artists are viewed and treated locally. When directly queried about whether Black music has gotten the institutional respect it deserves here? “Not really,” Eskridge says. “There have always been soul nights, etcetera for black artists, and those who love that music, but in my experience that world has always existed independently of any industry attention. The success of Sunday Night Soul has been mostly because it was developed as a grassroots platform that depends primarily on individual relationships rather than industry backing.” →

Jason Eskridge is streaming Sunday Night Soul live from The 5 Spot, and you can keep up with his ongoing commentary and observations on his Facebook page @jeskridge

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feeling the ELEPHANT He also doesn’t buy into the notion that being a black artist comes with a duty to address social issues in his music. “I don’t necessarily think that artists have a responsibility to address those issues in their music,” he adds. “But I think that in a perfect world, they would use the platform created by their music to address those issues.” He sees

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Sunday Night Soul as a vehicle that can bring people together, and doesn’t anticipate it will be specifically addressing the protests when it returns. Eskridge elaborates by saying, “Since day one Sunday Night Soul has strategically set out to be a platform that encourages diversity, inclusion, and unity. We will continue to stand and build on those principles.

The only thing that will change concerning the presentation is that we will be adding live streaming.”

His previous statement notwithstanding, Eskridge does have definite ideas about changes he’d like to see regarding the treatment and promotion of Nashville’s black musicians. “As a performer, I would like to see more local black artists considered for lineups of local music festivals, etcetera. As a singer/songwriter, I would like to see more blacks invited to the proverbial songwriting table. I believe that when telling a story or relaying information, the more diverse the perspectives the better. I would also like to see us looked at for more than just our musical abilities. I would like to see more blacks in leadership and decision-making roles as those roles relate to how business is done. It often seems to me that the only time black voices are valued is when we’re singing, playing, or serving to bring some sort of validation to the music that is being made, but not when it’s time to make important decisions. It is difficult to invest time, energy, and resources into a system where you don’t see yourself represented in the leadership, especially as a minority.”

He also has no reservations about advising or inviting other black musicians to relocate here. “I would [encourage that],” Eskridge continues. “There really are only a few cities where you can live if you want to be truly immersed in a thriving music scene; Nashville is one of those cities. And while we definitely have some growing and improving to do, the groundwork has been laid for Nashville to become the premier music city — pun intended — in the United States no matter the genre. I would just strongly encourage them to make sure they have a support system that consists of people who believe in them, but also people who will be honest with them even when it’s something that they don’t want to hear.”

“I think like with most things, my experience has been a mixture of highs and lows,” Eskridge concludes in assessing his career in Nashville to date. “Because of my time here I’ve been able to perform on some of the most prestigious stages in the world. I’ve been paid to travel and have experiences that I otherwise wouldn’t have. At the same time, I and many of my colleagues have been overlooked for opportunities that would have allowed us to bring a potentially new and absolutely more diverse perspective to the overall voice of Nashville. To be clear, we aren’t looking for handouts, just an opportunity to be a substantial and lasting part of the music that makes Nashville ‘Music City.’ ”

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Bridging the Gap Mimi McCarley and Muziqueen Ewing advocate for the local Urban music scene through Nashville Is Not Just Country Music

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BY BUICK AUDRA

e hear a lot of language about inclusion, equity, and representation right now. We hear it being chanted in the streets; we hear it being discussed in board rooms, in emails, in workplace guidelines; we see it all over social media. For some, this may feel new; for others, less so.

For Mimi and Muziqueen, a pair of women in Nashville’s Urban music scene, this is the daily focus — and has been so for years. For these two industry mavens, this is a mission.

When Thalia “Muziqueen” Ewing and Jamila “Mimi” McCarley came together, they had accomplished a good deal in their respective careers. Muziqueen, a Nashville native, came from publishing, artist management, copyright clearance, and royalty processing. Mimi, originally from Dayton, Ohio, came from songwriting, producing, and networking. The two initially joined forces on a few publishing projects and quickly learned that they had a shared vision: a reality in which Nashville’s Urban music community had access to resources, information, opportunity, and economic stability — the same things that the Country Music machine provides for its artists and industry professionals. In 2014, they founded Nashville Is Not Just Country Music and set about creating space for the people they were working with.

The quarterly mixers were first. Without any initial partnerships or outside funding, Mimi and Muziqueen booked spaces, spread the word, and watched the community show up. There was such a need that people were coming in from other states, filling the rooms with eager conversation, spilling out into the parking lots, and hanging well past closing time. They knew they had tapped into something vital.

“There’s so much longing for community that they would gather in the parking lot. This is how much of a scene there is that’s not being represented at all,” says Mimi.

The Urban Writers Rounds were next. Started at The Local in 2018, the monthly events became a draw for artists writing in Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop, EDM, Rock, Gospel, Christian, and other genres. As the crowds grew, so did support for their efforts. The work has been sponsored and supported by Sheree´ Spoltore´ of Global Songwriters

Connection and 2L’s On a Cloud, among others. The most recent round, in February of this year at Acme Feed & Seed, was standing room only.

The rounds are meant to be as diverse as the community they represent, curated by a balance of genre, gender, and ethnicity. “The intention is to make whoever is in the audience feel like they can relate to somebody on that stage,” says Muziqueen.

In addition to creating spaces and platforms for the members of the Urban music scene, they have expanded their work to include music business education. It became clear to them that many of the artists and producers they were working with had little-to-no information about the systems music must pass through in order to be viable for sync placements, licensing, publishing, or any other professional avenues. As a way of distributing these resources, they started the “Monetizing Your Music Series” using Instagram live conversations; according to Mimi, this was “birthed out of seeing the communal need for education, resources, and empowerment.”

Though the scene that NINJCM champions and assists in cultivating is vast and varied, Mimi and Muziqueen say it is under-represented in the mainstream Nashville machine so far. They cite this as the next piece of their plan. As the city grows and changes, so must the visible representation change in the different tiers of the Nashville music industry, they say. If there are no executives who specialize in the genres that fall under the banner of Urban music, how will these artists, producers, and business community members find a way to thrive here? Why would anyone choose to stay here in lieu of locking-in with already existing opportunities in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta? These are the questions Mimi and Muziqueen are asking, and they’re not alone. Calls for representation and equality on Music Row as well as other parts of the Nashville music industry were on blast at a recent march for justice on the Row. The call is not just for representation, but for the industry to make real room for change, to make sure that these diverse voices feel heard and safe in the room.

“I know a lot of companies, with everything that’s going on, are having conversations about ‘what can we do,’ and I think open dialogue with the people in this city that are actually having an impact as relates to creatives, as it relates to music business,” says Mimi. “I think opening up that conversation — because sometimes you’re assuming that you know what is needed — and I think you have to just open up the door for a conversation with the right people and include those people. Not just externally, but bring it in a little closer. Music Row is in a position to do that.”

While the coronavirus may have temporarily moved their efforts to online formats, Mimi and Muziqueen have no plans to slow down. The educational series, COVID-19 Creative Check-Ins, and an upcoming virtual writers round are all part of what they’re doing — in addition to working with artists and producers for sync and licensing opportunities via their new partnership with RipTide. The focus remains on amplifying the scene around them, and providing the tools needed for achieving economic growth with one’s work.

“We’re building with the future in mind. We’re building with the present in mind.”

Nashville, like the rest of the world, is in a position to embrace change right now, and that includes the way the local music industry does business—and with whom. NINJCM has already done a fair amount of the footwork in building a network of creative people who are ready to walk through new doors, to be part of new dialogues.

“We’re woke, we’re ready, and we’re here for the work,” Mimi says.

photograph by Chad Crawford

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Thalia “Muziqueen” Ewing (L) and Jamila “Mimi” McCarley, founders of Nashville Is Not Just Country Music

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hat can be said that has’t already been said? What stories, whether perthey expected me to agree with them because I am “one of the good ones!” sonal or from other minorities, might my sharing help rattle you to the My white friends had forgotten or began to see me as one of their own core to the point of making you unable to continue to dismiss the realities because I don’t speak English with a broken accent. I listened to music of what many nonwhites face in the U.S.? they listen to, I love American football and American T.V. shows and When asked to write this, I thought the words would just fall from movies, so they could feel safe and say, “Come on, be honest, most are drug my lips to the keyboard of the atrocities lived day in and dealers and rapists,” or “Stop saying out by people of color, but as I reflected, I found myself you’re Mexican-American, you’re struggling with what to say that would add to the convereither American or you’re not.” It sation in a meaningful way. As I searched, I found myself didn’t matter to them that I am a experiencing feelings of anger and frustration recalling first generation American and both story after story of being marginalized, insulted, feared, my parents were born in Mexico. laughed at, dismissed, ignored, put in “my place.”

I didn’t have to pay Ancestry.com I work hard not to live in the past or at least not dwell to figure out where I came from; I on the negative of the past, so this opportunity to share know my heritage and history. my story forced me to go back to moments I had blocked Or hearing the comments or out. Moments I had to put somewhere deep inside to not outrage when they would see an block my progress going forward. I have always known interracial couple and they forgot I myself to be a fighter, I have fought for almost everything was not white and my wife is. One of substance in my life, but I never asked “why” or felt neighbor once asked me, “Manuel, sorry for myself. When someone tells me, “No,” that just what do you think of all these fuels my fire to prove that person wrong. gays?” I replied: “Well … , I believe What I also discovered is that in addition to being a God calls on us to love everyone

BY MANUEL DELGADO fighter, I am also a survivor. However, not in a way one not judge them.” Neighbor: ”Well, might think of that word. When we think of a “surviwhat about all these black men with photograph by Michael Weintrob vor” we imagine someone who has survived cancer or white women?” Me: “ … , Julie and come home from war, someone who has survived abuse I are a mixed couple!” Without hesor addiction and come out the other side alive, perhaps still living with itation they responded, “But at least you’re not black.” the reality and pain of their experience, but evolving from it. We view “Come on, be a man! Stop being a pansy!” “Try and Jew them down the survivors as a person who has become victorious over their oppressor and get a better price.” “Maybe we ca, n----r rig it.” “Just hire a spic and or circumstance. you’ll save money.” Or my favorite (and by that I mean the one I hate Now, imagine someone who is not rescued from their abuser. Someone the most), “All these Mexicans. … ” when every brown skin person who who finds a way to continue living amidst the abuse. They are “survivspeaks Spanish is called a Mexican. It doesn’t matter if they are from ing,” but without victory. They continue to live, meaning they continue Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Honduras, to breathe, but they are aware that at any moment, their abuser can turn Venezuela, etc. AND, when they don’t wish to offend me, they call me their anger toward them. Wondering if you will be greeted in the morning “Spanish” as though that is a complement. So, why then do all the white with a warm “Good morning” or a slap to the face because something was people who are supporting this hate get angry when we call you racist or not done the way your abuser wanted it done. Anything that goes wrong bigot or white supremacists? I mean, you’re speaking the same language is your fault, expectations are not met and you are to blame, achievements as them, right? are not made and you are the reason why. Imagine if you can what living Until you truly want to listen and learn what the struggle POC go that life would feel like. through, don’t try to earn your badge showing you’re one of the good My whole life, people have made assumptions about who they think I white people by going to a protest to make sure you have social media am, what they think I am capable of, all based on my skin tone. In order proof that you’re not racist. Don’t call me to say you want to learn, then to survive and not grow to be angry (“That angry Mexican … ”) all the call ALL protesters looters and thugs and post “white lives matter” vidtime, I have found ways to ignore, dismiss, and even make excuses for eos. A blacked out profile image is not even close to being enough. I the comments. “I will rise above and not prove their stereotype of me”; hate to break it to you, but POC know when you are trying to seem like “He didn’t mean that, he’s my friend and I know his heart”; “They’re just you give a damn. Stand and move toward change for your neighbors and ignorant and I won’t waste my time.” I could write a book on excuses or community. Make friends that are POC and not just the ones you think phrases POC use to dismiss these comments. When EVERY brown skin are the “safe” ones to befriend because they are more like you. person is called “a Mexican” and “Mexican” becomes a bad word. If you Many of my brothers and sisters from the white community care and are Caucasian, have you ever heard someone say that word, “Caucasian,” work toward equity for all and see the importance of highlighting black and then had to study their intent behind it? Have you ever asked, “Did lives at this point because our black neighbors are needing to have the they mean that in a demeaning way or are they actually just referring to focus on them now. Of course all lives are important, but when you have my race or ethnicity without malice?” dealt with a little controversy as a white person these past few years and A little over five years ago, people, including friends I have known begin to call it reverse racism because you are being called out on missing for 20-plus years, began to speak to me and say things to me in a way the point, then guess what, you’re missing the point!

I had never experienced up to that point. I was able to point out the Until you feel the same outrage for a child being put in a cage — or bigoted comments and negativity aimed at me from strangers, but it was a women being sexually assaulted — or a school being massacred by a now being done in an open way as though whites suddenly felt that they gunman — or humans being beaten or killed because of who they choose were given permission or empowered to say what was always in their to love — and the outrage being felt for the murder of George Floyd, we heart without repercussions. These friends sat across from me or spoke won’t see change. And if you feel nothing over any of these, then it is you with me on the phone and made comments and used stereotypes as if that should be feared.

What CAN Be Said.

Reflections on systemic racism by a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage

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Luthier Manual Delgado pictured with some of his signature instruments in Delgado Guitars’ East Nashville showroom.

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Alternative Grooves

W How East Side record stores are navigating the pandemic

BY RANDY FOX

hile the COVID-19 pandemic affected every aspect of life, the swift shut-down of non-essential business in March was particularly devastating for local retail stores, with record shops being a prime example.

“It’s all my worst fears being realized overnight,” Grimey’s New & Pre-Loved Music co-owner Doyle Davis says. “Every business strategy we had was to get bodies in the door.

We know that every time we have a live event, we’re going to have a better day than when we don’t. All of our revenue was immediately cut off. All the revenue we generate today goes to paying bills from yesterday — and we had no savings socked away for a rainy day.”

For a business with a tight cash flow and built on a foundation of community, in-store browsing coupled with the experience of holding a physical product in your hands, the arrival of the pandemic was cataclysmic. This isn’t due only to loss of new record sales; current industry estimates place used records at 40-60 percent of all vinyl sales. It’s a vital driver in the resurgence of locally owned record shops and for some stores, like Nashville stalwart The Great Escape, browsing and the lure of never knowing what you’ll find in the bins is central to their business model.

“We’ve always been more of a used venue,” Great Escape co-owner Rob Baker says. “We had about three different plans that we went through when this started. All of our retail stores eventually closed to the public with only our Bowling Green [Kentucky] store offering curbside pickup. Fortunately, we’ve been selling on eBay and through our website for years and we increased those offerings two to three fold, but we had to reduce our staff significantly.”

Vinyl Tap 2038 Greenwood Ave., vinyltapnashville.com

The Great Escape Nashville | 5400 Charlotte Ave. Madison | 105 Gallatin Pike N. thegreatescapeonline.com

Because of The Groove co-owner Jesse Cartwright’s pre-existing health conditions, the necessity of reducing in-person contact was a particular concern. Fortunately, Cartwright and his partner, Michael Combs, had a lifeline already under construction.

“I feel like we were lucky because we were already in the process of creating an online store.” Combs says. “We just had to rush it along.

Nowadays you have to compete with Amazon. We’re working with a direct ship warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, in addition to having the product shipped to our house for local fulfillment via delivery in East Nashville, Inglewood, and Madison.”

Internet sales also proved to be a temporary lifeline for Grimey’s.

Initially, working by himself in the store, Davis began turning Grimey’s into an online business. Creating a virtual record store from a site previously used for gift certificates and store t-shirts.”

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We’ve had a handful of people with resistance to wearing a mask, but in every single case they left, got a mask, and came back in and bought records.

—Doyle Davis, co-owner of Grimey’s New & Pre-Loved Music

Grimey’s New & Preloved Music & Books 1060 E. Trinity Lane grimeys.com

The Groove, 1103 Calvin Ave. thegroovenashville.com

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“The response was incredible,” Davis says. “I was shipping records to every state in the Union.

I even got orders from Germany, Australia, and Canada. We knew Grimey’s was a nationally recognized brand because of all the press we’ve had, but I didn’t think of it that way.” Davis was eventually able to bring a few employees back to work to help with mail orders and curbside pickup.

Davis and his staff also figured out a way to reconfigure their many popular in-store events for the new post-COVID world. “Luckily we’re in Nashville, so we have access to a lot of Nashville artists that have international followings,” Davis says. “They come in to record a streaming performance, and we can have them sign all the copies of the record they’re promoting. So far we’ve sold through every signed copy we’ve put on the website. Lucinda Williams, for instance, I probably would have brought in 20 for a regular release date, but she signed 200 copies of her record and we sold them all. We were going to order 700 copies of Jason Isbell’s new record for a Brooklyn Bowl appearance that got scrapped, but we sold 859 without the promotion.”

At Vinyl Tap, personal service became the main focus for owner Todd Hedrick. Taking orders over the phone or through emails, he began offering curbside service and free delivery on the East Side.

“I had to lay off all my employees so I was handling all the orders by myself,” Hedrick says.

“Business stayed steady but only about a quarter of what we normally do. Of course, since we’re also a bar and Metro passed a temporary permit allowing us to sell beer to go, that was an extra source of revenue.” →

feeling the ELEPHANT As the shutdown went from days to weeks, Nashville’s record shops demonstrated the small business innovation and adaptability that politicians frequently praise but do little to facilitate. The frustration grew as well-intentioned government initiatives were bungled by mismanagement and outright corruption. First was the promise of Small Business Administration loans that were mostly devoured by large corporations. The Great Escape and Grimey’s secured loans in the second wave of funds, but an overabundance of bureaucracy and vague guidelines resulted in a flimsy lifeline. The same lack of leadership became apparent on the State and local level as the push to reopen businesses overtook measured guidelines based on the science of epidemics.

The Great Escape’s Charlotte Avenue and Madison stores reopened to the public on May 13, two days after Nashville entered Phase One of the Roadmap for Reopening plan. Other stores hesitated with the The Groove reopening on June 3 and Grimey’s on June 9.

“At the point where Tennessee and Nashville started opening up and it became obvious [the officials] were not going to make

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their decisions based on the trends going down, I realized we were on our own,” says Davis. “The extra unemployment benefits were going to run out in July, and I wanted my staff back. To get my staff back we had to generate more revenue. We were also seeing more demand from the customers — more phone calls asking when were we going to reopen. I didn’t think there was going to be an obvious right time to reopen, so we’re just threading the needle trying to keep everyone safe but also generate the needed revenue.”

Opening safely and legally presented a special challenge for Vinyl Tap. As a retail store they were allowed to open in Phase One of the Roadmap plan, but as a bar they could not reopen until Metro entered Phase Three on June 22. After experimenting with private shopping appointments for the record shop two weekends in a row, both the record store and bar reopened to the public on June 25.

“We’ve created a culture where people could shop for records and enjoy the bar,” Hedrick says. “If we were just one or the other we’d know exactly where to stand but that’s not the case for us. We couldn’t stay closed indefinitely. While we had some luck with online sales and special orders, we have lots of

expensive inventory just sitting if people can’t see for themselves what’s in here.”

As the first store to reopen, The Great Escape required masks for all their employees, but made it optional for customers with reminders about social distancing. They also reduced hours and the number of days open to allow for cleaning and stocking the store, while operating with a reduced staff.

“We’ve found that most of our customers are self-policing their behavior,” Baker says. “I haven’t seen anybody being reckless or inconsiderate, and we’ve been very pleased. I think there was a lot of desire to get out and flip through the bins. The whole concept of our business is you don’t know what you’re going to find when you walk into the store, and an online store can’t duplicate that. So people were definitely ready to do some digging.”

Grimey’s is also operating with reduced hours to allow for cleaning, stocking, and recording performances for online streaming. Davis hopes to have their full staff back on the payroll by the end of July, but they’re following a stricter course in other areas — allowing a maximum of 20 customers in the store, requiring masks, and placing a sanitation station by the front door.

“We’ve had a handful of people with resistance to wearing a mask, but in every single case they left, got a mask, and came back in and bought records,” Davis says. “Most of them had one in their car. If you think about it we’re in here for eight hours breathing this recirculated air and customers in general are in here for 15-20 minutes; we are the one at risk, so making them wear masks keeps us safe. It’s a pretty easy policy to stand behind.”

At The Groove, reduced hours and required masks are also procedures, with Combs working as the sole in-store employee. Cartwright is working from home and only coming in once a week to mow the grass. Combs says customers have been enthusiastic in their support of both the shop and the safety measures they’ve taken.

“Most people didn’t know about [Comb’s] health issues until all this. They’ve been asking how Jesse is doing, so it’s been great. I had an incident with a customer who was in the shop and Facetimed her dad to see if he wanted this record. He said, ‘I don’t want a record from any place that makes you wear a mask.’

But she apologized.”

Whatever comes next, the record shops of Music City are dedicated to keeping the platters spinning and the music flowing. As Rob Baker says, “It’s too soon to make broad statements about what we’ll do in the long run, but The Great Escape has been in business for 43 years, and we’re certainly committed to keeping it going.”

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Community Care & Concern in the Time of Covid Marilyn Greer, Vice President of the the Cayce Place Residents Association, discusses the challenges she and her neighbors face

“If anything, I’d say people have come together more and are nicer to each other.” Marilyn Greer, speaking to the impact BLM protests have had at Cayce Place.

A

BY RANDY FOX s with many Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic was a blow to Marilyn Greer’s personal and financial well-being. After losing her job at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center when programming was canceled for the rest of the year, she found herself stuck at in her Cayce Homes apartment with no income.

“It was really hard for me at first. There was no money coming in, and it was also really hard mentally because I’m a go-getter,” Greer says. “I would sit on my porch to get some air, but I’m used to doing something all the time. I had to find other ways to release the stress and there’s no better way to do it than clean the house.”

While Greer kept herself busy at home, forced isolation was especially challenging for the gregarious and ever-on-the-move community activist. As Vice President of the Cayce Place Residents Association, a board member of both the Envision Cayce neighborhood revitalization project and the anti-poverty non-profit Martha O’Bryan Center, founder of the youth mentoring group Positive Attitude, and East Nashvillian of the Year for 2019, Greer’s life is centered around being a force for positivity. But being forced to exchange social distancing for social interaction didn’t blunt her care and concern for her community.

“A lot of people, especially young people lost their jobs. My neighbors had the same worries about money I did. Their kids weren’t going to school so they needed more food at home. A lot of them could rely on family, but thank God for the Martha O’Bryan Center.”

Although many of the community organization’s facilities and programs were shut down or postponed by the pandemic, they were able to continue supplying vital supplies to neighborhood residents along with escalating their partnership with Second Harvest Foodbank to distribute food boxes in the parking lot at their Seventh Street South facility.

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“They were giving out food boxes left and right,” Greer says. “I would say Second Harvest tripled the food they brought to Martha O’Bryan — milk, vegetables and more. They also didn’t limit people on the amount they could receive, and that got me through until my unemployment started rolling in. It was the same for other people.”

In regards to combating the spread of the virus, Greer says the Mayor’s office and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) have been proactive in distributing information, reducing personal contact at business offices, and providing free testing for residents.

“I appreciate the Mayor and the Health Department,” Greer says. “They did testing here at the basketball court and at every MDHA property in town. Only a few people were positive and no one in Cayce.”

In addition to Cayce being fortunate in regards to the spread of COVID-19, Greer says the protests and social unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd and other incidents of police violence have had little negative impact within the Cayce community.

“Some people did go out and protest, but overall the community has stuck together,” Greer says. “If anything, I’d say people have come together more and are nicer to each other.”

As our country and the world continues to face new and seemingly insurmountable challenges, talking with Greer serves as a reminder that concern, compassion, and hope are renewal resources that we all can supply, simply by standing up and making a difference in our local community.

“This is a time when people really need help,” Greer says, “And people just have to look out for each other.”

Photograph By Chad Crawford

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h h

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17th annual j

TOM ATO ART FEST... ish

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Although it may look a little different this year, it’s our pleasure to announce that the celebration of the Uniter, Not the Divider, the tomato, will be bringing together the fruits and the vegetables for this, its 17th, year. The 2020 Tomato Art Fest...ish will feature many of its usual traditions—some in person, some in cyberspace, all with the same beloved wackiness.

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We think there is no finer collection of tomato art to be found east of the Mississippi, and maybe even in the entire tomato-eating world!

(We would say UNIVERSE, but that would just be bragging.) Now, we realize this is a bold statement, so you will just have to come out and see for yourself if you think we are right!

WHERE: 1106 Woodland St. Ste. D (former Art and Invention Gallery) WHEN: Thursday — Sunday, August 6-9 COST: Free (August 7-9) GALLERY HOURS: • Thursday, Aug. 6, from 6-9 p.m. (Ticketed Pre-View only) • Friday, Aug. 7, from noon to 9 p.m.

• Saturday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Sunday, Aug, 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

TORNADO RELIEF CONCERT

CYBERSPACE VENDOR MARKET

Join us in East Park on Saturday August 8 for an incredible show to raise funds for the hospitality workers, musicians, and artists of East Nashville affected by the March Tornado.

Specific non-profit beneficiaries to be announced.

WHERE: East Park WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 8 Entertainment: TBA COST: Starting at $40 TIME: 7:30–10 p.m.

No tickets will be sold at the door, this event is expected to sell out quickly.

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woodland

The Tomato, THE uniter of all fruits and vegetables, loves to celebrate even the simplest of grains. Join us for the ever popular Tomato Art Fest Cornhole Tournament in the Eastside Cycles lot. This fun event involves two players tossing bags of corn at a 6” hole 10 yards away. Sound easy? Don’t be fooled! Come show off your skills and walk away king of the Cornhole toss.

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WHERE: MOAB Parking Lot (corner of 11th and Woodland Streets) WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 8 TIME: 11 a.m. until a champion is crowned!

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Attendees will additionally be able to tune in live to the Online Vendor Marketplace on Saturday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the opportunity to engage with/learn more about several of our incredible participating artists, artisans, and crafters.

Advance registration required to participate.

holly

russle

WHERE: tomatoartfest.com WHEN: August 1 - 15 (Interact with vendors on Saturday, Aug. 8, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

COST: Free to check out, but please support local businesses by purchasing items

CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT

Each year the Push, Pull, and Wear Parade fills the streets in East Nashville with a variety of entries including marching bands, local organizations, creative costumes, and tomato themed floats. At 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, pull out all the bells and whistles for the official judging.

Decorated porches should include people in costumes that fit our fruit or vegetable theme.

WHEN: August 1-8; official judging begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 WHERE: Five Points Area COST: Free!

PRIZES: Winners will receive a cash prize and tickets to Official Tomato Art Fest Events

Shop from the best local and regional vendors for Tomato-inspired and original wares online from August 1-15. Vendors will create special videos and items specifically for the Tomato Art Fest that you will not want to miss!

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2020 Porch Parade 11th

TAF...ISH SCHEDULE & EVENTS • TAF...ISH SCHEDULE & EVENTS

TOMATO ART SHOW

TOMATO ART PRE-VIEW EVENT

BLOODY MARY GARDEN

The ever-popular Tomato Art Pre-View offers the art lover a wonderful night of sights, sounds and flavors! Event-goers get to be the first to view this year’s tomato art while enjoying tasty tomato treats.

Sponsored by, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, & The Bloody Buddy

Sponsored by Center615, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, & The Bloody Buddy

Tickets include the following:

WHERE: 1106 Woodland Street D (Formerly Art and Invention Gallery) WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 6 COST: $30 advance/$35 week of event TIME: 6-9 p.m.

CONTACT: hello@goodneighborfestivals.com

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Unite your taste buds for this special event! Bloody Marys, Mimosas, Craft Beers, oh my! Rejoice Bloody Mary fans, the 3rd Annual Tomato Art Fest Bloody Mary Garden Party is back!

Where: The Pavilion East (1006 Fatherland St.)

When: Saturday, Aug. 8, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• Sample up to 10 different types of Bloody Mary mixes

with Tito’s Vodka • One full Bloody Mary or mimosa • Staffed garnish bar • Special curated snacks in a commemorative tote • Live entertainment

COST: Tickets starting at $40

• Shaded areas to hang out with games • Local craft beer samples • Air conditioned restrooms • Photo opportunity • Access to local food vendors • Costume contest with prizes

Calling all kids! Now is the time to show off your artistic skills and become a tomato artist. Your artwork should include at least one “tomato-like” element of any kind. The rest is up to your imagination.

WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 8, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

WHERE: 1106 Woodland St., Suite D CONTACT: Kelsey@goodneighborfestivals.com Deadline for art submissions: August 3

Artwork should be dropped off: 1106 Woodland St, Suite D on Friday, July 31 from noon to 4 p.m., or Monday, Aug. 3, 3-6 p.m.

Art Pick up: August 8, from 5-6 p.m., or August 9, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Age Categories: 3 yrs. and under; 4-6 yrs.; 7-9 yrs.; 10-11 yrs.; 12-13 yrs.

Join us online Wednesday, August 5 at 10:30 a.m. for an entertaining story that celebrates the great uniter, the TOMATO! We’ll have stories and songs for children of all ages, featuring our juicy garden friend! Don’t miss this fruit and vegebration!

Guidelines: • Artwork should be 2-dimensional and can be done in any media- paint, pencil, crayon, pastels, collage, etc.

• Due to hanging and size constraints, please, NO canvases or framed artwork with glass. Please use paper or thin poster board.

• Artwork should not exceed 12”x18” or 18”x18”.

• One entry per artist.

• Artist’s name, parent’s/guardian’s name, age, phone number, address and email address should be listed on the back of the entry in the top left corner.

WHERE: Virtual - Tune in at tomatoartfest.

com

WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 5 TIME: 10:30 a.m.

COST: Free!

CONTACT: If you have any questions, contact Mr. Andrew at 615.862.5866

Judging will include creative art awards for: Best of Show and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each category.

EEUMC’S TOMATO ART KIDFEST East End UMC looks forward to contributing to Tomato Fest in our own unique way, as we have done for years! This year will be much different, of course. In order to maintain social distancing, we will not be hosting activities on-site in the park next to the church. However, we will be distributing some snacks and offering a take-home Tomato Craft for our youngest tomatoes. Please stay tuned for more details as the event approaches!

Hosted by East End United Methodist Church WHERE: Corner of 12th and Holly Streets WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

CONTACT: Emily at emily@eastendumc.org

h BIGGEST TOMATO CONTEST Has your garden produced the biggest Tomato you have ever seen? We will be the judge of that! Enter your prize tomato in our Biggest Tomato Contest!

Share your entry in Instagram stories and tag @ TomatoArtFest to be entered WHERE: tomatoartfest.com WHEN: Week of July 27- July 31; winners announced on Saturday, Aug. 1 CONTACT: hello@goodneighborfestivals.com

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FAUX PAW FASHION SHOW The Faux Paw Fashion Show is open to pets of all species, and is a costume contest to see who can dress their dog, cat, bird, monkey, lizard, ferret, reptile, marsupial, insect, etc., in the best-looking tomato inspired outfit that can be dreamed into existence!

Categories for this year: Most East Nashville, Best Unity Costume, Fan Favorite, Most uncooperative, Most likely to succeed, Class Clown, Most Socially Distant.

WHERE: Virtual WHEN: August 1 - 8 COST: $10.00 entry fee (Proceeds go to support EAST C.A.N.) ENTER TO WIN: • Share your entry in Instagram stories and tag @nasheast-

can and @TomatoArtFest

BEAUTIFUL TOMATO PAGEANT

Here is how it works: Take an ordinary tomato, and dress, adorn and decorate it as if it were an entrant in a beauty contest, or headed to a costume party. (It helps to think of your tomato as a small, round person who is just ripe to get dressed up and go out on the town!)

Share your entry in Instagram stories and tag @TomatoArtFest to be entered to win

WHERE: tomatoartfest.com WHEN: Week of July 20 - 24 TIME: Judging will take place on July 25 CONTACT: hello@goodneighborfestivals.com

• Make a $10 donation to East C.A.N

TOMATO

Haiku CONTEST

HAIKU: an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively.

Winners announced on Tomato Art Fest social platforms and app Saturday, Aug. 8.

Submit tomato-related haiku in classic 5-7-5 style.

Snag some pretty sweet prizes.

• Heirlooms (adults, ages 17 & up) • Greenhouse (youth, ages 16 & under) • Funnies (humor) • Oddities (limerick, sonnet, freeform,

anything under 200 words)

It is free to enter, and each person can submit up to five entries.

Email entries to tomatohaikucontest@gmail.com by August 1.

Please include your name, age, contact number, and title of each submission. a few more the events on next page

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TAF...ISH SCHEDULE & EVENTS • TAF...ISH SCHEDULE & EVENTS

kids Art Show

TOMATO STORY TIME AT THE INGLEWOOD LIBRARY

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BLOODY MARY CONTEST Who has the best Bloody Mary recipe in all the land? Each year we search the globe (or just east Nashville) for the best homemade recipe.

3 Crow Bar is hosting a virtual competition to find the BEST Bloody Mary of 2020. Submit your favorite recipe and the bartenders will recreate it for judging.

Judged by a panel of experts!

Sponsored by 3 Crow Bar and Tito’s Vodka WHERE: Virtual WHEN: Register by July 28, Winners Announced August 8.

RECIPE CONTEST Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to make the most delicious Tomato Pie or Preserved Tomato Dish. Put a fresh spin on a classic or create an entirely new recipe that will make our judges beg for more, and then enter that dish in the 2020 Tomato Art Fest recipe contest! We can’t wait to taste the magic you create, and YOU can’t wait to win all our fabulous PRIZES.

WHERE: Lockeland Table (1520 Woodland St.) WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 8 TIME: Drop off entries between 10-11:15 a.m.

CONTACT: Mike Smith (mike@letsconjure.com) The smaller details: • VERY limited space is available for assembly if needed; please work quickly and

think through presentation ahead of time for speed, accuracy, and kindness to other entrants • Contestants will not be present for judging • Entries do not have access to heating or cooling so please bring ready to present • 3 copies of recipes are requested that contain full ingredient listings and clear instructions. If you plan to bring any accouterments (chips, bread, etc.) also note what that is, recipe instructions per previous if you made it, and clear sourcing info if you did not.

• Serving platters et al are not returnable so please plan accordingly.

• Results will be announced via email. Prizes will be awarded for 1st and 2nd.

(VIRTUAL) TOMATO 5K

Sign up to complete a 5K on your own course, on your own time, between August 7-9 in this special fundraising event for the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA in East Nashville. You can run, jog, or walk it all at once, or gather your family in festive outfits and split the distance over the weekend. Make it your own! Submit your results online to see how they compare to your fellow runners.

Hosted by the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA WHERE: Virtual!

WHEN: August 7-9 REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3eirs7b CONTACT: Ronald Gooch at 615.228.5225

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Uniting Jack Davis and Good Neighbor Festivals continue celebrating community

A

By Randy Fox t the beginning of 2020, Jack Davis and his team at Good Neighbor Festivals prepared for another busy year of managing community festivals and events with their trademark efficiency and innovation. With years of experience managing a full schedule of popular events — Sevier Park Fest, Nashville Pride, Light the Nations, Tomato Art Fest, and more — they seemed ready for any challenge. Until a once in a century pandemic began to spread around the globe.

“The first realization that [COVID-19] was going to have a dramatic impact was around the first week of March,” Davis says. “We were watching the East Coast start to shut down and started looking at our calendar. At that time, we were hoping it would only be a couple of months, but clearly, that changed pretty significantly.”

As the number of new infections began rising and cities and states imposed restrictions on crowd size, Davis and his team were forced to confront a new reality. With the arrival of Spring, festival and event season was just around the corner, starting with Sevier Park Fest on the first weekend of May. On March 20, with only six weeks to go, the festival was canceled.

“We made that decision fairly quickly, not knowing what the rest of the year was going to look like,” Davis says. “We started looking at alternative plans for each of the events rather than making a blanket cancellation across the board.

We are lucky to be a part of community events in Nashville, and we did not feel like pulling out of all of them at the same time was the best idea when we can be pretty damn creative if we have to be.”

Recognizing that different events called for different strategies and logistics, Davis continued the one-size-doesnot-fit-all approach. “Some events have traditionally always been at a particular time,” Davis says. “Like the American Artisan Festival; it has always been Father’s Day weekend and relies on people traveling from all over the country. We canceled that event because we didn’t see people traveling significantly for the remainder of the year.”

For other events, Davis looked at the possibility of rescheduling to later in the year, perhaps in an altered form. That was the case for one of Good Neighbor’s largest events, Nashville Pride. Because the annual celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and civil rights is usually held in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots which launched the Gay Pride Movement, Davis felt it was important to celebrate the occasion in some form. That led to the creation of several online-only events, including Pride in Local Music, a Livestream event celebrating LGBTQ+ musicians in Nashville as well as Austin, Texas.

h

h

While Distancing

“We worked with several organizations to produce three or four weekly series online, and we also moved a number of our traditional marketplace vendors who are part of Nashville Pride each year to an online store,” Davis says.

“We were pretty happy with the results.”

One example of Good Neighbor Festivals’ creative and socially distant approach to live events was the first Drag Drive-In at Studio 615 on June 19 and 20. By putting a unique twist on the classic drive-in experience, the show featured live performances by several popular drag performers. Attendees enjoyed the show from their vehicles with the audio broadcast through their car’s FM radio. Davis says Good Neighbor has plans for more drive-in events later in the year.

Of course, Good Neighbor’s biggest event of the year, at least in terms of attendance, is the Tomato Art Fest. More than just an event, it’s become a symbol of East Nashville pride, spirit, and unity. Although the standard-issue Tomato Art Fest was off the table, Davis and his team crafted an alternative, which emphasizes the core values of the festival while promoting safety during a pandemic.

“This year’s Tomato Art Fest is a hybrid of online pieces with a few small in-person gatherings that we hope we can still have, but we’re monitoring the situation to adapt to the facts [of the pandemic].”

With the festival’s origin in a Tomatothemed art show, Davis knew continuing that portion was vital. “There are two pieces to this year’s art show. The gallery show that is open to the public will remain much the same,” he says. “It will be back in the former Art & Invention building, which is now remodeled.

It will work like any retail establishment that is currently open — masks will be required, the number of people in the show will be limited, and all of the surfaces and restrooms will be cleaned on a regular basis.

“We have almost 100 local and regional artists signed up, so we’ll have upwards of 300 different pieces of art this year. If you don’t feel comfortable coming into the gallery you can view all the art and purchase it online.

There will be a ticketed preview event on Thursday, August 6, with extremely limited capacity, and tickets for the event will come with an access code for early access to the online gallery.”

The annual Bloody Mary Garden Party is also on the schedule with social distancing measures and a significantly reduced number 43

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of tickets. While the multiple music stages of past Tomato Art Fests will be missed, Davis is currently planning a Tomato Art Fest concert in East Park with tickets for distinct, sectioned-off areas to ensure social distancing.

“We have artists ready and willing to participate, but we will probably not finalize that event until the last week of July,” Davis says.

Davis also devised a plan for the Tomato Push, Pull, & Wear Parade, the centerpiece event of each year’s festival, to continue by turning the concept of a parade inside out.

“We couldn’t let go of the celebratory spirit of Tomato Art Fest, and we felt like the parade was the easiest piece to maintain the tradition,” he says.

Houses and businesses on the parade route can register online to become tomato-themed stationary floats. Their owners will be encouraged to dress in the usual wacky

and wonderful costumes that have become a hallmark of the annual parade, with prizes awarded to the best-decorated houses. Maps will be available online, and the decorations will be maintained throughout the first week of August, allowing spectators to “parade” the route at their own socially distanced pace.

While science requires individuals to maintain their physical distance amid a pandemic, our need for social interaction and unity in the time of crisis means that our sense of community is more important than ever. No matter what happens next, Davis and his team plan to continue crafting events — live or virtual — centering around fun and community pride.

After all, it’s what a good neighbor does.

“Everything this year has an asterisk next to it that means ‘subject to change,’” Davis says. “So we’re taking it week by week and month by month, just like everyone else.”

July | August 2020 theeastnashvillian.com

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THE SOUND OF

May 9, 2020: News leaked that S aturday, Richard Wayne Penniman of Macon,

Georgia — better known as Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “innovator, the originator, the emancipator, the architect of rock ‘n’ roll” — had passed on, a victim of bone cancer according to his lawyer, Bill Sobel. He was 87.

His place of death? Tullahoma, Tennessee – 63.95 miles outside Nashville. Oxford American writer David Ramsey, in a beautiful 2015 profile titled “Prayers For Richard,” indicated the singer had “reportedly been living the last several years in a penthouse suite at the Hilton hotel in downtown Nashville (the Hilton will neither confirm nor deny that they have a guest named Mr. Penniman).”

“Most Nashvillians I’ve talked to have no idea,” Ramsey continued, “although a local country singer told me he once happened to spot Richard sitting in the passenger seat of his black stretch Cadillac Escalade, the window cracked. He shouted out Little Richard’s name and Richard rolled down the window to say, ‘God bless you,’ and hand him a book of prayers.”

“I came to Nashville to see my sister,” Ramsey quoted Little Richard as informing a crowd gathered at a 2014 luncheon held in his honor at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon, hosted by the National Museum of African American Music. “I bought a home for me and her here in the hills.

And I went in for surgery on my hip. I was walking on my way in but I couldn’t walk out. The hip surgery was really bad for me. I haven’t walked since. I’m in pain twenty-four hours a day. I have never seen nothing like it.”

Thereafter, if anyone spotted Little Richard, he was in that wheelchair, his head now bald on top with white fuzz over his ears, wearing a suit displaying none of the sartorial flash for which

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LITTLE RICHARD 1932-2020

BY T I M ST EGA L L

he’d been known. And he’d be preaching the word of the Lord, displaying a homophobia more apropos of Westboro Baptist Church than the once-flamboyant, self-proclaimed “king AND queen of rock ‘n’ roll.”

“God, Jesus — He made men, men,” Little Richard informed the Christian fundamentalist Three Angels Broadcasting Group in a 2017 interview. “He made women, women, you know? And you’ve got to live the way God wants you to live. So much unnatural affection. So much of people just doing everything and don’t think about God.” Little Richard apparently thought of God a lot in his final years. Or should I say, the Rev. Richard Penniman did? This should have surprised no one. All of rock ‘n’ roll’s early pioneers who were true sons of the South — Penniman, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, you name it — grappled with the battle between Saturday night and Sunday morning. All had been raised in the church, and all had felt the liberating power of barrelhouse boogie and blues. They knew they made the music of and for the sinners. But

no one felt the anguish of those conflicting impulses harder than Little Richard. It led to him periodically leaving music to preach the gospel. The most notorious instance?

1957, when he enrolled at Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood College to become ordained after having seen a sign in Sputnik flying over an outdoor stage he was tearing up with his demon music in Australia. It’s easy to gather he’d seen his post-op crippling as another sign: God had smote him.

The only way to live his final years in peace, then, was to turn his back on Little Richard again and spend his last days as the Rev. Richard Penniman.

But his Nashville residence is most intriguing given the historical context in which he rose to fame. After all, in 1956 and 1957, a good portion of Nashville was terrified of Little Richard, completely unaware that he had honed his revolutionary sound in many of the nightclubs that lined Jefferson Street. For the country music establishment, all that mattered now was that he, and all those good country boys following his and Elvis’s lead, were going to be the death of country music. Bad enough that Presley kid was transforming potential Grand Ole Opry stars into greasy-haired rockabillies every time he curled a lip and shook a hip. As Bob Luman famously said of witnessing a 1955 Elvis Presley gig in Kilgore, Texas: “That’s the last time I tried to sing like Webb Pierce and Lefty Frizzell.” But Little Richard?

Whom all these boppin’ hillbillies idolized and covered, including Elvis? He dressed like a neon peacock, swished like he preferred men over women, had a face-full of Max Factor pancake/lipstick/eyeliner →

and played loud, raucous noise! And he was, as Chuck Berry sang in code, a “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man!” at whom their delicate Caucasian teenage flowers were screaming and peeing their panties!

Awop bop aloo bop a lop bam boom! It sounded like nonsense to adult ears. And yeah, “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” “Lucille,” “Keep A-Knockin’,” “Rip It Up,” “The Girl Can’t Help It” — all recorded, released and annihilating the charts within a two-year span — were nonsensical. They were the most rockin’, exciting nonsense ever made. But they were more profound in their own way than the collected works of Yeats or Keats or whomever you might care to name. They were the sound of sex and liberation. Little Richard was the sound of freedom.

That’s what scared all these good Christian grey flannel Caucasian parents of 1956 and 1957, the Howard and Marion Cunninghams of the day.

It’s what scared the powers that be on Music Row. For one thing, this uppity non-Caucasian homosexual’s shows were drawing white and black teens. They were side-by-side, enjoying themselves. And — Shock! Horror! — perhaps some might have been dancing together.

Little Richard may have done as much for the cause of desegregation as Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, and Malcolm X combined.

Interesting to think about, in these postGeorge Floyd days, when racism is dominating the news again.

As for the frequently hurled accusation of cultural appropriation Little Richard often screamed about? Yes, Pat Boone ruined a number of Little Richard classics and charted higher with each one; even King Elvis, great as he was, could not do Little Richard songs justice — his renditions of things like “Tutti Frutti” and “Rip It Up” just sounded stiff and frantic. (His “Long Tall Sally” was pretty good, though.) But be honest: No one remembers the Pat Boone records. They were weak. If you hear “Long Tall Sally” on oldies radio, you hear Little Richard’s recording, not Pat Boone’s. If you have “Tutti Frutti” in your record collection, you have Little Richard’s recording. The real thing always obliterates the cheap knock-offs in the long run. Little Richard won. History will remember him. It won’t even remember the label heads, publishers, and promoters — they’re the real devils of the piece! They’re the ones who worked Little Richard to death and pocketed the money! There are your white supremacy!

But did Little Richard invent rock ‘n’ roll, as he so often claimed? No. Not even Elvis did.

Face it — in the six months before “Tutti Frutti” was even recorded, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley & His Comets all issued monumental rock ‘n’ roll hits, and the

musical stew pot that they sprang from had been simmering for years. What Little Richard innovated was the hard-driving “straight-eight” beat that characterizes the most propulsive rock ‘n’ roll, all the way to punk rock. He — and drummer Earl Palmer, the other hero of those classic Little Richard 45s — pounded the bejeezus out of eighth and sixteenth notes down at Cosimo Mattassa’s J&M Studios in New Orleans. That’s that propulsive freight train rhythm that even Buck Owens tapped into on all his classic Capitol singles in the Sixties. It’s a groove as innovative as Ray Price’s honky-tonk shuffle with the walking bass line.

That pounding eighth-note drive is what Little Richard ultimately brought to rock ‘n’ roll.

And here he was in his last days, in country music’s capitol, which was so terrified of him in the 1950s. Perhaps the only way Little Richard could live in Nashville was to abandon his dangerous charms and serve God. Was it a survival mechanism? No, that spirituality was as much a part of his DNA as those straight eights. The tension between the two fueled the music that liberated the world. One might even dare say it eventually killed him as surely as bone cancer did. But as he told Time magazine upon the occasion of Elvis’s 1977 death: “I ain’t rockin’ no more, and now he ain’t rockin’ no more.” That’s the saddest thing, ever. R.I.P., Little Richard.

Grace Higginbotham & Grant Bramlett

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Jeff Barrie

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Jon Latham

OD ON YOU.

Justin Hammonds

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ARTIST I N

P R O F I L E A photo series by Jeremy Harris

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ARTIST I N

P R O F I L E

Herschel Lamont

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Stephen Barry

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IT L O

Brendan Malone (The Cowpokes)

Josie Karre

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Sean Cunningham Ryan Sweeney

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ARTIST I N

P R O F I L E

Artist’s Statement

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ike so many people in our community, when the pandemic first hit, my livelihood as a working artist vanished overnight. The best year of my career was canceled. As the crisis deepened, I found myself mourning the loss of social interaction — a major creative outlet for me — more than any lost work. But I knew I wasn’t alone.

Inspired by the creativity and compassion of my fellow East Nashvillians and craving human connection, I set up a socially-distanced outdoor studio in my backyard to photograph my friends and neighbors wearing their face masks. What started as a fun way to beat the isolation and idleness quickly became a project that allowed me to use my skills to document the times and create images that send a positive message.

—Jeremy Harris, July 2020

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Masks are not political. Masks are not fear. Masks are science. Masks are empathy for our fellow humans. WEAR A MASK, NASHVILLE.

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This is my record of the creative, stylish, empathetic Nashvillians who trust science and care about others. I hope to continue the project for as long as I can, as long as people are willing to swing by, and as long as this message is necessary.

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E A S T OF N O R M A L Ignorance Ain’t Bliss

BY TOMMY WOMACK

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ou would think that in these times we’re living in, we might have all made use of the time wisely. We could’ve cleaned out the spare room finally, fixed that gutter on the end of the house that came loose in 2014, learned Italian, tried to finally get through that Cormac McCarthy book you bought ten years ago, gotten to know your wife, learned how to make lasagna, done anything! And yet, for four-odd months we’ve done nothing. All of us … until we’ve had to. The time has passed for making a funny video involving the whole family doing the Macarena. The time has passed for everyone to set the phone on vibrate and check out. Now we’ve had to check back in. Way in.

You’ll notice in convenience stores when buying cigarettes or beer that whether people are wearing masks or not they all have the same look in their eyes. It’s this mixture of fear, fatigue and … remorse? Yes, remorse. Remorse for what? We don’t know, but we know we did something. At some point in the recent past, we all, as a collective, did something; we offended the all-being keeper of natural law. Either that, or God is an asshole.

Well, let’s take a look at what it is we may have done to upset Earth’s bodily humors. Let’s see. There’s the defenestration of the Amazon rain forest. That’s bad. There’s the factory hog, chicken, and beef farming that’s left chancre sores on the planet’s crust that are visible from space. That’s bad. But those things have been going on a while. It must be something more recent. To this writer’s reckoning, there’s only one thing we’ve done recently that’s so bad it merits a pestilence. We allowed a culture to come about where cops find it at all reasonable to crush a man’s windpipe with a knee, and we elected Trump.

Think about it. Who is more fitting to preside over a plague?

For almost four years now we sat at home and stopped watching the news; beaten over the head till we’re senseless to all his bad vibrations as he’s spread the most toxic and malevolent disease of all: ignorance. As he’s playing a lyre while Washington burns, we all join in. We want to be ignorant. A small, healthy level of ignorance is how we survive. What did he tweet today? Please, don’t tell me. What international treaty did he withdraw us from today? Please, don’t tell me. What unhinged behavior did he exhibit to the press corps today? Please, don’t tell me.

Now, of course, if Hilary had been elected, we’d still have this virus. Trump didn’t cause it. The good people of Wuhan never meant for this to happen. Shit happens. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed 30 million people. World War II killed 50 million people.

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We’re coming up on 150,000 American deaths from Covid-19 right now (although losing John Prine feels like he should count for more than one regular human death). These things happen.

And maybe the reason it’s happened this time (if there is any reason at all) is that the germs have come to kill off the willfully and maliciously ignorant.

If a barely literate redneck who couldn’t find France on a map refuses to wear a mask, let him! It’s his life, not mine. I’m wearing the mask to protect ME. Let him get infected! Let him take that contagion home to his toothless brood. May they all develop fevers and coughs while huddled around the TV watching Hannity and congratulating each other for not letting the government tell them what to do, and for that matter, enough of this stopping-at-red-lights bullshit. Who is the government to tell me when I can or can’t stop my car!

Now, surely I don’t wish death on all stupid rednecks, do I? That would be harsh and unfeeling. I really don’t wish ill on these people simply because they’re ignorant, do I? Well, heh, yes I do. I’ll admit that in private reflections I give in to the schadenfreude of seeing Darwin’s Mighty Hand sweeping across the fields and leaving MAGA cap-wearing bodies scattered like Civil War dead the day Tommy Womack is a after Shiloh. And I’m sure they feel musician and writer. the same way about me.

His current book, And so you see, the way I’ve occudust bunnies, is pied some of my lockdown time is to available at Grimey’s, bang out a toxic polemic that pays 25 Parnassus, Amazon and tommywomack.com cents a word. I also have a spare room with a drum kit and three amps in it and CDs scattered all over the floor that I’ve been meaning to put right for, oh, forever. I have unread books on my shelf by Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Meecham, Steve Gorman, and several others that I’ve been waiting for the “right time” to read. I have twinkly lights to hang up in the living room that I’ve been waiting for the “right time” to put up. But I’m not going to do those things tonight. I’m going to watch an episode of Law & Order that I’ve seen three times already, and then I’m going to stare at my phone with a look of fear and fatigue. And, for some reason, remorse.

PA R T I N G S H OT

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Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing June 3, 2020 illustration by Scott Guion

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