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FEBRUARY 22–28, 2024 I VOLUME 43 I NUMBER 4 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE
GOP CRANKS UP THE RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION >> PAGE 7
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THE WILD COW HELPED INSPIRE A NOW-THRIVING VEGAN SCENE >> PAGE 26
A LOOK AT THE DISTRICT 1 SCHOOL BOARD RACE >> PAGE 8
Emotional Warrior
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More than six years after Jessi Zazu’s death, the local artist and musician’s final project is entering the world BY SEAN L. MALONEY
2/19/24 4:24 PM
WITNESS HISTORY This denim Tamorah Marie outfit, embellished with fringe, beads, appliqués, and rhinestones, was worn onstage by Tanya Tucker in 1993. The following year a gold certification for sales would distinguish Tucker’s 1993 album Soon. From the exhibit The Road to the Hall of Fame artifact: Courtesy of Tanya Tucker artifact photo: Bob Delevante
RESERVE TODAY
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
CONTENTS NEWS 7 GOP Cranks Up the Rhetoric on Immigration At the state and federal level, Tennessee Republicans are making noise about the southern border BY MATT MASTERS
8 Vanderbilt Graduate Students Push for Official Campus Union Organizers collect authorization cards, the first step toward a vote on official recognition BY ELI MOTYCKA
8 A Look at the District 1 School Board Race The MNPS district — which covers the northwest quadrant of the county — is the only contested seat in the election BY KELSEY BEYELER
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9 Back to the Pitch Nashville SC hopes offseason additions will push them over the postseason hump in 2024
Linwood Regensburg and Jessi Zazu in 2014 • PHOTO BY ANGELINA CASTILLO
BY LOGAN BUTTS
BOOKS
9 Pith in the Wind
28 Good Troubler
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog
COVER STORY 11 Emotional Warrior More than six years after Jessi Zazu’s death, the local artist and musician’s final project is entering the world BY SEAN L. MALONEY
19 CRITICS’ PICKS
Billy Strings, Touched by Sun Fest , Maya Antoinette Riley, Blonde Redhead and more
FOOD AND DRINK 26 A Plant-Based Bounty
FILM 34 Taking the Throne
Raymond Arsenault offers the first comprehensive biography of civil rights icon John Lewis
Wim Wenders and Kōji Yakusho look for the poetry in routine with Perfect Days
BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR; CHAPTER16.ORG
BY KEN ARNOLD
MUSIC 31 Blood, Sweat and Tracks Brian Brown gets ready to celebrate 10 years — and counting — of outstanding hip-hop
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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
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MARKETPLACE
BY BRITTNEY McKENNA
31 Speaking Up Blues maestro Shemekia Copeland sings of our world in crisis on Done Come Too Far
ON THE COVER:
Linwood Regensburg and Jessi Zazu in 2014 Photo by Angelina Castillo
BY BEN ARTHUR
32 She’s Got Everything She Needs
The city’s vegan scene is thriving, thanks in part to support from the now-closed Wild Cow
Cat Power’s homage to an infamous Dylan concert transcends nostalgia
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
BY TOBY ROSE
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33 The Spin The Scene’s live-review column checks out Juvenile at Brooklyn Bowl
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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FROM BILL FREEMAN
WHO WE ARE
SCREENSHOT VIA CBS
EMBRACING INCLUSIVITY: GAETZ, THE SUPER BOWL AND THE CALL FOR UNITY THROUGH THE BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM
WELL, HERE’S A head-scratcher for you. U.S. Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida recently declared that he would pass on watching Super Bowl LVIII because of the singing of the Black National Anthem. Can you believe it? According to social media posts by Gaetz, he had a chat with his wife about it, claiming that the Super Bowl would be “desecrating America’s National Anthem by playing something called the ‘Black National Anthem.’” “Why are we desecrating the national anthem if we play another song after it?” asked Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. “How does that make sense?” In 2020, the NFL began hosting performances of the song in response to the uproar over racial injustice following George Floyd’s murder. What’s called the Black National Anthem is actually a song named “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — it’s been included in the Super Bowl pregame ceremonies for four years now. James Weldon Johnson wrote the song’s lyrics back in 1900, and it got the official nod from the NAACP as the Black National Anthem in 1919. (As an aside, I thought Andra Day did an amazing job on the song. She’s a great talent and also a Christian and a believer that we can all be united.) But this year’s Super Bowl is not the first time this issue has been in the news. In 2023, after cataloging the number of sporting events that had featured the Black National Anthem, Forbes reported on those who were upset by the song’s inclusion. At that time, in addition to Arizona Republican Kari Lake sounding off about the song, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was upset and accused the NFL of being divisive. Every issue has two sides, but Gaetz boycotting the Super Bowl over this? Perhaps Uygur is right that Gaetz wasn’t planning to watch the game to begin with because he isn’t really a football fan. Gaetz seemingly used the opportunity to jab the NFL for having the song performed. But the Black National Anthem isn’t just any song; it symbolizes the struggles faced by the Black community. It was adopted
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by the NAACP and echoed through the civil rights movement. The NFL isn’t just doing this for show — they’ve put down $250 million over the past decade to tackle systemic racism and historic injustices. Black History Month is upon us — it’s a time to honor the achievements and contributions of African Americans. Singing the Black National Anthem during the Super Bowl aligns with acknowledging and rectifying historical injustices, promoting inclusivity and highlighting a shared history. It is not some kind of malicious tactic to divide us. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s there as a reminder that we have all come this far together — and that together, we can continue to grow. Obviously, “The Star-Spangled Banner” does indeed represent all of us. We are all here, all free, because we all fight together. But that does not mean an anthem specifically for Black Americans should not be performed in honor of them, their ancestors and their history. The Black National Anthem isn’t about stirring up trouble; it’s a call for unity, understanding and progress. It’s a symbol of the ongoing battle against racial inequality. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t about political ideology; it’s about acknowledging, understanding and moving forward toward equality. As we navigate Black History Month, let’s celebrate the diversity that fortifies our nation. Embracing the Black National Anthem — no matter how often it’s performed at an event — is a step toward a more inclusive America. This is our chance to reaffirm our commitment to equality for all.
Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and The News.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Patrick Rodgers MANAGING EDITOR Alejandro Ramirez CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: SENIOR EDITOR Dana Kopp Franklin Brittany Howard’s latest ARTS EDITOR Laura Hutson Hunter What Now on repeat MUSIC AND LISTINGS EDITOR Stephen Trageser DIGITAL EDITOR Kim Baldwin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cole Villena CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Silverman STAFF WRITERS Kelsey Beyeler, Logan Butts, Stephen Elliott, John Glennon, Hannah Herner, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Eli Motycka, Nicolle Praino, William Williams CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sadaf Ahsan, Ken Arnold, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Rachel Cholst, Lance Conzett, Hannah Cron, Connor Daryani, Steve Erickson, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Amanda Haggard, Steven Hale, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, P.J. Kinzer, Janet Kurtz, Christine Kreyling, J.R. Lind, Craig D. Lindsey, Sean L. Maloney, Margaret Littman, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Jason Shawhan, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Nicole Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian EDITORIAL INTERN Sol Ayala ART DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones PHOTOGRAPHERS Angelina Castillo, Eric England, Matt Masters GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Sandi Harrison, Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Haley Durham PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Christie Passarello FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Olivia Britton MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER Robin Fomusa ENJOYING: BRAND PARTNERSHIPS AND EVENTS MANAGER Alissa Wetzel Boston Commons’ Lobster Roll PUBLISHER Mike Smith ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Michael Jezewski SENIOR ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS MANAGERS Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Niki Tyree, Keith Wright ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS MANAGERS Teresa Birdsong, Maddy Fraiche, Kailey Idziak, Allie Muirhead SALES OPERATIONS MANAGER Chelon Hill Hasty ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATES Audry Houle, Jack Stejskal SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Susan Torregrossa PRESIDENT Mike Smith CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Todd Patton CORPORATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth Jones IT DIRECTOR John Schaeffer CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Gary Minnis FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman
For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 VOICE Media Group: National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com ©2024, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
NEWS
GOP CRANKS UP THE RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION At the state and federal level, Tennessee Republicans are making noise about the southern border As the spotlight on the U.S.-Mexico border intensifies, Tennessee’s elected officials have been turning up the heated rhetoric and preventing meaningful immigration reform. On Feb. 7, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a bipartisan border security bill that had been negotiated for months and could have radically changed U.S. border security and immigration policy. The GOP has long argued that the U.S.-Mexico border is one of our biggest domestic issues, citing national security concerns including cartel violence, the flow of drugs including fentanyl, human trafficking and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Even so, nearly every Republican senator — including Tennessee’s Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty — voted against the bill, arguing it wasn’t tough enough. “If my Democratic colleagues are serious about working with us to secure the border, they should call for a vote on the Secure the Border Act (H.R.2), which arrived in the Senate on May 15 and has languished without even a hearing,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Any proposal that fails to secure the border is unacceptable,” read Hagerty’s statement. “I’m a hard no.” Some Democrats said MAGA Republicans voted no to help embattled former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, in his quest to retake the White House. On Feb. 4, Gov. Bill Lee joined 12 other Republican governors from across the nation in traveling to Eagle Pass, Texas, where they met with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The visit came in the midst of a legal showdown between the state of Texas and the federal government regarding jurisdiction over the border. Lee committed to “deploying two waves of state active-duty soldiers” to assist the Texas National Guard and Texas law enforcement agencies. “This crisis will only become worse if immediate action isn’t taken,” Lee said. “That’s why governors are working together to do what the federal government won’t do, and that is secure our nation’s southern border.” Republicans have argued that Biden could simply use his executive authority to address the border crisis, but the president has said that he wants Congress to act by sending a bill to his desk. LOCAL IMPACT “Every state is a border state” has become a favorite slogan of many GOP leaders in Tennessee and beyond. In September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to several municipalities in Middle Tennessee, stating that 573 “noncitizens” from Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras and Mexico who are going through
PHOTO COURTESY OF TN.GOV
BY MATT MASTERS
GOV. BILL LEE JOINS SEVERAL OTHER REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS the legal immigration process would travel to the area, specifically naming Nashville, Franklin and Murfreesboro. While the cities of Franklin and Nashville confirmed that they received the letter, there’s no evidence that any large group of migrants has been transported to Middle Tennessee, as seen in other parts of the nation. “The City has not received any reports of individuals arriving in our City since this letter,” Franklin officials tell the Scene by email. “We followed up with the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security and they have not received any information about individuals coming specifically to the Franklin area.” A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security says the department didn’t receive the letter and has not received details from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the planned travel of migrants. The letter went unnoticed by the general public until earlier this month, when reporting by several local TV outlets sparked some public concern. The letter even came up in a Williamson County GOP forum featuring three candidates for sheriff. All the candidates said illegal immigration is an issue in Williamson County. Candidate and current Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Darren Barnes said “more than 500 immigrants” were bused to and dropped off at a Cool Springs hotel. Barnes later told Scene sister publication The News that he found out after the forum that he was misinformed. Tennessee’s Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles called the letter and the traveling of migrants in the U.S. “DHS’s shady shipment of illegal aliens in our community.” Ogles has also introduced the clumsily named “Sending Evading Non-Doc-
umented Threats Home Especially Migrants Biden Accepted Carelessly and Knowingly Act” — or the “SEND THEM BACK Act.” The proposed federal legislation would mean that anyone who has entered the U.S. illegally since Jan. 20, 2021, would be “subject to expedited removal” even if that person “indicated an intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution.” On Feb. 2, Blackburn and Hagerty sent a letter to the federal DHS “demanding information” about the September letter, saying: “Releasing migrants into communities across the country is a dangerous and irresponsible attempt to hide the true extent of the Biden border crisis, and it is making every town in America less safe.” The same day, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a press conference that his administration has been in contact with state and federal agencies, as well as in conversations with other mayors and groups providing community resources for immigrants and refugees. “One of our priorities of the city is to ensure that we are taking care of one another, and so we are looking at [whether] we have the capacity,” O’Connell said. “We used some of our American Rescue Plan funding to provide immigration legal services, but we need to understand also what’s happened, so that’s one of the things we’re looking for guidance [on].” One group that provides resources for immigrants is Franklin-based nonprofit Better Options TN, which was founded in 2016 to help immigrant families find footing in Middle Tennessee, from finding reliable food sources to securing housing and jobs. Better Options CEO Luis Sura says hundreds of migrants arrive in the area each month; some stay permanently, and others move on. Most travel not as large groups
of undocumented migrants, he says, but generally as families or individuals who are working through legal channels. “Right now, the majority of people who are crossing the border and coming to Tennessee, they are under [Humanitarian or Significant Public Benefit] Parole or about to get their political asylum application,” says Sura. He adds that many migrants are looking to Tennessee over areas like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles for the same reason that many American citizens are moving to the state: because they’re seeking a safe, prosperous place to work and raise their families. In 2023, Better Options TN helped 10 families become established in the area. He says all of them are now working and living without assistance. “If we house these people and find them a job, which is very easy, these people are not going to be in the streets,” Sura says. “In three months, they’re going to be on their own, contributing to the community, contributing to the city with their taxes.” At the state level, Republicans continue to propose legislation targeting immigrants. On Friday, TIRRC Votes — the political arm of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition — released a list of bills they’re advocating against in the state legislature. Those range from legislation requiring driver’s license exams to be administered in English only to a proposed ban on transporting undocumented people into the state. IMPEACHMENT AND RETIREMENT The border has also been a focus of Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who has been on a monthslong mission to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Green, who represents Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, called Mayorkas “the number one domestic threat to the national security of this country and the safety of Americans.” Green delivered on his promise last week, when the House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas in a 214-213 vote — one week after they failed to do so in a 214-216 vote. While the impeachment eventually passed, Mayorkas’ removal is expected to fail when the U.S. Senate returns to session, meaning that the symbolic victory for Green and other Republicans will likely remain just that — a symbolic moment in the ongoing political theater of an election year. On Valentine’s Day, Green announced his retirement from Congress, saying, “It’s time for the Senate to step up.” He told The News that “securing the border and ending the border crisis will remain a top priority” for the remainder of his term. ▼
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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VANDERBILT GRADUATE STUDENTS PUSH FOR OFFICIAL CAMPUS UNION Organizers collect authorization cards, the first step VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY GRADUATE students have collected hundreds of union authorization cards from colleagues, leaders say — a major step in winning official recognition from the school before the end of the year. Late last year, campus organizers officially associated with the United Auto Workers, which claims more than 400,000 active union members, in hopes of unionizing an estimated 2,200 graduate student workers. Students cited insufficient pay, unsafe working conditions and precarious terms of employment during a lunchtime rally hosted by Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United on Feb. 14 outside the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Organizers began circulating union authorization cards in late January, kicking off a lengthy and complicated process that could win student employees union protections, including the ability to collectively bargain with Vanderbilt. These cards signal a student-employee’s desire to vote on a union. Cards go to the National Labor Relations Board, the independent federal entity that adjudicates labor disputes and elections. Signatories remain anonymous to an employer — it’s illegal for Vanderbilt even to ask who signed — and with enough cards, the NLRB oversees a formal union election. Kelly Cunningham, co-president of Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United, tells the Scene that organizers expect to collect signed union authorization cards from about 60 percent of eligible student-employees. Signed cards from just 30 percent of student-employees could trigger an official union election overseen by the NLRB.
Organizers are holding out for a supermajority before filing for a vote, a tactic intended to build momentum and emphasize union strength. “We’re hoping to have an election before the end of the year,” says Cunningham, a Ph.D. student in philosophy who also teaches undergraduates. “It’s about a living wage. It’s about making things fair and equal.” About 50 people showed up at Vanderbilt’s Library Lawn for the Valentine’s Day rally. Supporters’ signs showed off slogans like “You Can’t Spell Union Without ‘U’ and ‘I’!” and “Vandy’s Stipend Breaks My Heart.” Major questions remain about the real size of the campus bargaining unit — the subset of employees potentially covered by a union contract — a determination that ultimately falls to the NLRB. The Vanderbilt administration, which would bargain opposite a graduate student union, said the following in a memo to faculty on Oct. 31: “We do not consider graduate students to be employees and do not believe that they meet the definition of employee under the National Labor Relations Act. As a result, we do not believe unionizing is appropriate for our graduate students.” The memo highlights recent steps by the administration to improve graduate students’ pay and health benefits and explains how to talk with students about unionization without violating labor laws. Chancellor Daniel Diermeier previously opposed student unionization at the University of Chicago, where he served as provost. In response to questions about union organizing, Vanderbilt shared a written statement with
the Scene that reads, in part: “Graduate students receive a comprehensive package of financial aid that includes tuition remission, stipends, funds to support their professional development and other financial support. We look forward to our upcoming meeting with the Graduate Student Council, the elected representative body for graduate students, to share some positive updates regarding increases in stipends.” A 2016 ruling by the NLRB set off a graduate student unionization wave across the country. The decision, prompted by student organizers at Columbia University, officially extended protections of the National Labor Relations Act to graduate research and teaching assistants at private universities. Columbia, Harvard, New York University, Yale, Northwestern, Georgetown and Brown all won graduate student unions in the subsequent years, many of which are represented by the UAW. Graduate students at Emory and Duke won unions in August. Princeton raised graduate students’ stipends by 25 percent in response to union organizing efforts. Student-employee unions have longer, deeper roots at public universities like Michigan, Wisconsin and California. Employees of the U.C. system won new contracts in late 2022 after 48,000 workers went on strike. A $9.7 billion endowment headlined Vanderbilt’s strong 2023 financial report, which the school released in November. The school included $937 million in cash and cash equivalents in the same report. Graduate students say that base pay across most departments ranges from $28,000 at the Peabody School of Education to $38,000 in the biomedical sciences, wage levels that precipitate a cost-of-living crisis among students at one of the nation’s wealthiest schools in one of the city’s most expensive areas. A 25 percent bump in base stipend pay would cost Vanderbilt about $20 million annually. Graduate work creates a particularly lopsided power dynamic for international students, who depend on university support for a visa and legally can’t work additional jobs. Other graduate
A LOOK AT THE DISTRICT 1 SCHOOL BOARD RACE
On Feb. 8, a candidate event and spaghetti supper hosted by advocacy organization Opportunity Nashville allowed District 1 voters to voice their thoughts to candidates. Attendees asked about candidates’ stances on state-driven policies and discussed concerns about inadequate funding and opportunities for students in District 1. Demytris Savage-Short is the only Republican running for school board. She declined the Scene’s interview request, but a campaign flyer lists “protecting parental rights,” “promoting education NOT indoctrination” and “financially equipping District 1 schools” as priorities. At the Feb. 8 event, she said she took her student out of Metro Nashville Public Schools to be home-schooled. Two of the District 1 candidates currently work in Nashville schools and would therefore have to resign if elected. Dominique McCord-Cotton is a teacher at East End Prep Charter School who says she can bring a “fresh” perspective. When it comes to voting to approve or deny charter school contracts within the county, McCord-Cotton says “it would depend on context.” She says she supports traditional public schools and public charter schools that can meet students’ needs.
McCord-Cotton says she’s seen a need for more student resources, more teachers and more information for community members who want to engage — and says her experience as a teacher showed her how to advocate for these matters and establish partnerships around school communities. “I truly believe when parents, teachers and the community are all aligned, students have the best outcome,” says McCord-Cotton. Currently a school counselor at Amqui Elementary, LaTonya Winfrey has also taught in MNPS. She says her candidacy is inspired by her experience fighting for her son — who has autism — and other exceptional education students to receive proper resources. In addition to advocating for more resources, Winfrey says she wants to enhance transparency and communication around school board matters such as the budget. While Winfrey believes “parents should have choice” about schools, she does not believe the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission should be able to overrule MNPS decisions. “I advocate for my kids,” says Winfrey. “It’s not just the
toward a vote on official recognition BY ELI MOTYCKA
The MNPS district — which covers the northwest quadrant of the county — is the only contested seat in the election BY KELSEY BEYELER
EARLY VOTING IS CURRENTLY underway in Nashville’s countywide primaries, with Election Day on March 5. Though school board elections historically have not been partisan, a 2021 law changed that for Nashville, and so primaries in Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are on the ballot. Districts 3 and 5 each have one uncontested candidate — former Metro Councilmember Zach Young in 3 and TK Fayne in 5. Incumbents Freda Player (District 7) and Abigail Tylor (District 9) are also running uncontested. District 1 is the only seat with more than one candidate.
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students are explicitly discouraged from taking second jobs and face restrictions on the amount of hours they can work for Vanderbilt, organizers say, though many take off-campus employment anyway to make ends meet. Rent and fees at the Broadview apartment complex, a Midtown residential building recently completed by Vanderbilt, start around $1,550 per month. It’s 57 percent full as of Feb. 15. Broadview is advertised as student housing, but some graduate students see it as the symbol of an out-oftouch employer. Cost crunches have gone hand in hand with professional and academic pressure. In 2022, students called for more responsive mental health care and healthier workplace expectations, especially for Ph.D. students, after a rash of graduate student deaths by suicide. The VGSU, a volunteer coalition of graduate students that has anchored unionization efforts for several years without official union protections, helped students win dental coverage in 2023 with petition drives and public advocacy. When and if students get enough signed authorization cards, graduate student organizers will file for an election with legal help from the UAW. At that point, Vanderbilt could choose to recognize a graduate student union voluntarily or force a campus-wide vote. Graduate students win a union with a simple majority of votes. “We’ve had many victories through the power of collective bargaining,” Ethan Link told the crowd on Feb. 14. Link is an organizer with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, which has represented dining and maintenance workers at Vanderbilt since 1972. “Of course, there’s pay increases and benefit increases, but the real power is the dignity and respect that you will earn — and you must earn it — that will protect you against unfair and unequal treatment. It’s going to take a long time, and it’s going to take hard work, but I know you can do it. I want to congratulate you on taking your first step. We’re proud to stand in solidarity with Vanderbilt’s new graduate student union.” ▼
kids when I have them — I have students that I started with in seventh grade, and now they’re 35 and I still keep in communication with them, helping them with their kids in the school system.” Robert Taylor has run for the seat before. An educator at Meharry Medical College, Taylor has also worked as a family involvement specialist for Whites Creek Cluster schools. In his experience as a board member at charter school Smithson Craighead Academy, Taylor says he has learned the importance of supporting leadership and turning struggling schools around. Regarding charters, Taylor says the district currently has enough to meet the goals of a charter model. If elected, Taylor says he would continue to advocate for investments in under-resourced and understaffed schools, generate community conversations about education, and encourage teacher retention and recruitment. “I’m looking at this as, ‘What can we do as an entire community to address education and how can we focus on making our public schools the best option for parents?’” says Taylor. ▼
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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SPORTS PITH IN THE WIND
BACK TO THE PITCH Nashville SC hopes offseason additions will push them over the postseason hump in 2024
NASHVILLESCENE.COM/NEWS/PITHINTHEWIND
BY LOGAN BUTTS
PHOTO COURTESY OF NASHVILLE SC
THEY SAY DEFENSE wins championships, but for Nashville SC that folksy bit of coach-speech needs a bit of amending: Defense provides a stable foundation for regular-season success, but a team needs more firepower to win in the postseason. It’s not as catchy as the age-old adage, but it rings true for NSC’s entire MLS tenure. In the four seasons since transitioning to the top level of American soccer, NSC has yet to finish with a losing record, nor have they missed the postseason. That’s a remarkable accomplishment for a fledgling top-flight franchise. But the Boys in Gold have also never advanced past the second round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. Over three playoff games in the past two seasons (MLS moved to a best-of-three first-round format in 2023), NSC combined for a whopping zero goals in back-to-back first-round exits. Zero goals across three games! Yes, Hany Mukhtar is a swashbuckling league MVP in his prime, but there’s only so much one player can do — especially in the postseason, when opposing managers home in on a team’s weaknesses. The three-time MLS Best XI honoree has amassed 131 goals and 67 assists across all competitions since suiting up in the Gold and Blue. But he’s also seen a number of promising offensive co-stars go by the wayside. After an up-and-down first season with NSC, Haitian international Fafà Picault (and his teambest five goals, non-Hany division) is moving on to the Vancouver Whitecaps. Dax McCarty — an integral figure in the club’s MLS transition, but who’s begun to show his age — is also gone, off to rival Atlanta United. For all his game-changing golden retriever energy, Jacob Shaffelburg is more of a role player than a bona fide No. 2. Randall Leal can’t seem to stay healthy. Sam Surridge and Teal Bunbury have yet to live up to the co-star billing. Enter Tyler Boyd. The 29-year-old former United States Men’s National Team selection may not have the most explosive career stats, but he was the L.A. Galaxy’s go-to option in his inaugural MLS season last year and has nearly a decade of experience playing in the top-flight leagues in Portugal and Turkey. If nothing else, on paper, Boyd will be the top attacking co-star Mukhtar has had since coming to Nashville. NSC also shored up the midfield, adding parttime starters Amar Sejdić from Atlanta United and Dru Yearwood from the New York Red Bulls, as well as McKinze Gaines from Charlotte FC and Nashville SC Academy prospect Isaiah Jones. Jones, whose brother Malachi was drafted eighth overall out of Lipscomb University by New York City FC in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, came to Thompson’s Station with his seven siblings in 2013 and is NSC’s second homegrown signing. The still-league-best defense returns all its key
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green will not seek reelection in 2024. Green was first elected to Congress in 2018 and spearheaded the impeachment last week of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Green’s 7th Congressional District was gerrymandered after the 2020 Census to take on part of Nashville, including North Nashville and downtown. Brandon Ogles, who represented Williamson County in the state House from 2018 to 2022, is the first Republican to confirm a run for the seat, though it’s unlikely he’ll be the last. A cousin of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, Ogles posted on social media that he had picked up candidacy papers, calling “the government in Nashville and the government in Washington D.C.” the greatest threats to Tennesseans’ prosperity. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry is currently running for the Democratic nomination for the district.
HANY MUKHTAR IN THE NEW NASHVILLE SC KIT members: USMNT defenders Walker Zimmerman and Shaq Moore, part-time model Lukas MacNaughton, the consistent Daniel Lovitz and ever-present netminder Joe Willis. Plus, the team added the reigning PAC-12 defensive player of the year, Cal’s Wyatt Meyer, with the 11th pick in the SuperDraft in December. On Feb. 22, NSC will make its international club competition debut with a Concacaf Champions Cup match against Moca FC out of the Dominican Republic. Three days later, Nashville will kick off the regular season at home against the Red Bulls. There’s much to look forward to in 2024 for NSC, including the debut of a new community-focused kit inspired by Nashville’s
neighborhoods. It will likely be another steadily productive regular season. As someone who grew up playing and loving soccer in Middle Tennessee, I still find it hard to believe Nashville has a professional team, much less a consistently successful one. It’s not something to take for granted. But for 2024 to be a true triumph for NSC, an improved postseason showing — if not an outright deep run in the MLS Cup Playoffs — is somewhere in the vicinity of necessary. Imagine saying that to a local soccer fan in 2018. ▼
Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Thursday officially kicked off the campaign to put a transit funding referendum on the November ballot. The Metro Council still must approve the proposal before it can go before Nashville voters. O’Connell says his effort would focus on sidewalks, signals, service and safety, and is establishing two committees — one focused on community priorities and one focused on the technical aspects of a transit plan — to meet in the coming weeks. A specific plan is expected to go before the Metro Council after March. Speaking of Nashville and transportation, the Music City Grand Prix announced last week that it will move to the Nashville Superspeedway in Wilson County after three years of running in downtown Nashville. Race officials say the move is due to construction of a new Titans stadium.
On Saturday, a Nazi group showed up in Nashville. Republican state House Majority Leader William Lamberth posted on Twitter/X about the rally, saying in part, “Go away Nazi thugs.” That’s rich, says contributor Betsy Phillips, since little more than a year ago Lamberth was standing in front of a crowd of Proud Boys at a rally on War Memorial Plaza bragging about achieving their shared goals of persecuting trans people and denying them health care. Perhaps, Phillips writes, white supremacists continue to show up in Tennessee because they identify with our state leaders’ politics.
NASHVILLE SC REGULAR-SEASON KICKOFF 4 P.M. SUNDAY, FEB. 25, AT GEODIS PARK NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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BELMONT
Youth Art and Design Programs
Belmont University offers an array of summer programming in visual art and design disciplines for ages 6-18. Our programs help kids and teens develop creatively as they cultivate skills in problem solving, communication and innovative thinking. All programs are held in college studios and use high quality materials, and all programs are led by outstanding artists, designers or professional art educators. Each program ends with an exhibition to celebrate student achievements with friends and family! belmont.edu/ youth-art-programs
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
Emotional Warrior
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
JESSI ZAZU AND LINWOOD REGENSBURG
More than six years after Jessi Zazu’s death, the local artist and musician’s final project is entering the world BY SEAN L. MALONEY
FRIDAY, NASHVILLE ROCK ’N’ ROLL duo Mama Zu releases its debut album Quilt Floor. But the voice and vision of the group won’t be able to participate. Jessi Zazu, who was also a founding member of beloved Middle Tennessee rock act Those Darlins, died of cervical cancer in September 2017, before sessions with multi-instrumentalist and producer Linwood Regensburg — Zazu’s fellow former Darlin and the other half of Mama Zu — could be finished.
But now, nearly seven years since the pair entered the studio, Zazu’s final creative endeavors are making it out into the great wide world. Quilt Floor is an album of amazing energy: Featuring songs with titles like “Emotional Warrior,” “Hole Thru My Head” and “Made of Dreams,” it’s confrontational and questioning, equal parts empathy and hilarity. It’s the sound of a country girl with cosmopolitan concerns giving the universe a quick jab to its uncaring chin.
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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“It’s not like this was being made because Jessi thought that she was going to die,” says Regensburg, on the phone in January from his snowbound studio in East Nashville. “This was made under the guise of, ‘She’s going to get better, and this will be the glorious part of the story where the hero is back and all the bad stuff is in the past.’” But the bad stuff wasn’t in the past. In addition to Zazu’s illness, global-scale bad stuff was just on the horizon while this record was being made, and the tapes would be shelved. It was a project without a frontperson — on hold until … well, a moment not dissimilar to the cultural and political climate it was created within. Quilt Floor, both out of time and of its time, is a fired-up and freaked-out self-portrait of a young woman reacting to the horrors of the early Trump era, polished in the claustrophobia of the pandemic, released into the morass of 2024, where that duality feels more right than it should. “I do think that it can be a positive,” Regensburg says. “You can look at it as inspirational, but that wasn’t necessarily what was happening.”
ZAZU WAS BORN in Franklin, Tenn., and grew up in Kentucky. She was a creative force from the word go. “She would sit on [her father] David’s lap while he worked at the table — he did illustration — for hours and hours,” says Kathy Wariner, a visual artist, Zazu’s mother and a co-founder and board member of Jessi Zazu Inc., the arts nonprofit launched in her daughter’s memory. “So she never really took art classes.” By all accounts, Zazu was a natural artist with a preternatural sense of confidence. After attending early installments of the Southern Girls Rock ’n’ Roll Camp (now the Yeah! Rocks Summer Camp) held at Middle Tennessee State University, she moved to Murfreesboro, drawn to the town’s flourishing and freewheeling creative arts community. She started a band with SGRRC co-founder Kelley Anderson and SGRRC counselor Nikki Kvarnes that tapped into their Southern roots and DIY proclivities. “Jessi wrote more songs than anyone that I’ve ever known,” says Kvarnes, on the phone from London. After moving to the U.K. when Those Darlins dissolved in 2016, Kvarnes honed her skills as a portrait artist. A mother of two, Kvarnes has recently returned to the world of music, jamming in the living room with neighborhood friends. “In between writing songs, [Zazu would] be, like, having a sketch, a drawing — constantly. ‘Do you ever stop making things?’ She’s like, ‘I gotta get to my garden. I’ve got just a billion projects on all the time.’” The three bandmates took on the stage surname Darlin and barnstormed their way from the house shows of Rutherford County to stages across the globe. Regensburg, who had built a reputation as an explosive guitarist in a succession of short-lived artsy-punk outfits, joined Those Darlins on drums just a few months before their self-titled debut album was released in 2009. (“It was that simple — I was available,”
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he says.) Prior to Those Darlins, there was one EP; two more studio albums followed in 2011 and 2013. “[During] my tenure with Those Darlins, we were just working incredibly hard,” says Anderson. She left the band in 2012, and is now a professor teaching finance at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she recently joined the community marching band Honkers and Bangers. “We were out there pursuing the thing, and it kind of consumes your whole life — all the things that you have to do to support the creative output.” The all-consuming nature of band life suited Zazu, who was a one-woman factory of art and ideas. Her unflagging sense of humor and her need to process the world around her in novel ways would fuel her through often-intimidating expectations of life on the road and in the studio. “On tour, things get really hard, and sometimes they get kind of dark,” Anderson says. “[Zazu’s] sense of humor was always there.” “God, she was a tiny girl with freaking punch,” says Roger Moutenot. The renowned producer and engineer contributed to Quilt Floor, and produced both Blur the Line — the 2013 album that would become the Darlins’ swan song — and later sessions for an unreleased album that precipitated the Darlins’
breakup. “She had a lot to say, and saw the world in a really unique way. She had no doubt who she was and what she wanted to say. … She cared about issues in the world and was letting it all out. It was beautiful to see.” That steely-eyed artistic vision would run headlong into the equally entrenched artistic vision of Kvarnes, a woman she had spent nearly a decade living and working and creating with. The two would come to an impasse, complicated further by personal and societal issues encroaching on the sessions. “The mood was a little tough,” Moutenot explains. “The girls were finding that they wanted to go in different directions. Nikki wanted to do the pop kind of fun stuff, and Jessi wanted to be serious and sing about issues in the world. So there was a little butting heads on that end of it. Otherwise they were best buds and loved each other, but that was just a little quirk in the making of the record.” “Jessi was going through a whole lot of stuff that she was not [vocalizing] to me, and I don’t know if she was to anyone else,” says Kvarnes. “She was internalizing, I think a lot of pain and anxiety and worry with stuff that was going on, maybe physically with her. I don’t know. There was a lot of stuff going on with Jessi the past two years of the band. … The band wasn’t getting along great for the last two years either.
Mama Zu’s Quilt Floor is out Friday, Feb. 23, via Cosmic Twin/Thirty Tigers Listening party and benefit auction 7 p.m. Friday at Retrograde, 2714 Clifton Ave.
It was up and down, as all relationships are, but creatively, we were having a very hard time connecting because her experience was so different from mine, and I was just on a different thing.” “When we were working on the Darlins record, [Jessi] would nap a lot,” says Moutenot. “I thought that was kind of weird. And that was the beginning — something was going on.” The band’s breakup would drag out longer than intended. Those Darlins’ final tour, a string of sold-out dates with ascendant Americana star Shakey Graves, would get snowed out. The makeup dates — contractual obligations that were too lucrative to bail on — would drag out the band’s demise over the early months of 2016. The typically high-energy Zazu seemed exhausted at the merch table, but you would have never known from her onstage persona. Those Darlins would end as they started: a thrilling and thoroughly engaging live experience.
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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FEBRUARY 27 AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH
GODSMACK
WITH BASTIAN DA CRUZ MARCH 1 & 2
RANDY ROGERS BAND
WITH WADE BOWEN (3/1), STONEY LARUE AND
CODY CANADA & THE DEPARTED (3/2) MARCH 8 & 9
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS WITH DANIEL DONATO MARCH 19
REVOLUTIONARY LOVE
THISTLE FARMS BENEFIT WITH THE FISK JUBILEE SINGERS AND SPECIAL GUESTS MARCH 20 & 21
SIERRA FERRELL
WITH NIKKI LANE (3/20) SOLD OUT AND VADEN LANDERS (3/21) LOW TICKET ALERT MARCH 26
BRELAND & FRIENDS WITH AVERY ANNA, DALTON DOVER, JOSH GROBAN, WALKER HAYES,
CHASE RICE, CAITLYN SMITH, THE WAR & TREATY AND DRAKE WHITE
APRIL 4
THE WOOD BROTHERS WITH JOBI RICCIO
East Nashville
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PHOTO: JUDE FERRARA
Antiques
THOSE DARLINS IN 2011
“WE DID OUR final tour, and then a month later was when she found out that she had cancer,” Regensburg says. After a quick breather, Regensburg and Zazu had been sketching out ideas for the first project of the post-Darlins era. “This is how absurd everything is: The day that we were supposed to get together and just get lunch and make a plan, that was the day things started to go south.” Following Zazu’s diagnosis, her mom and her brothers Emmett and Oakley moved into her rental in North Nashville to coordinate care. Watching her typically high-spirited daughter dimmed by the early stages of cancer treatment, Wariner noticed that creative work maintained a sense of normalcy for Jessi, and even provided a needed boost of optimism. “She was in a much better place while she did art or music, but I think she was a little too sick at first to think about music,” says Wariner. “She just was sleeping a lot, then not sleeping a lot — they put you on so much medicine, the chemo and the radiation and all that. So art seemed to be doable.” Zazu had developed a broad circle of fans and friends between Those Darlins, her continued work with SGRRC and She’s a Rebel, the girlgroup tribute show series that brought together some of Nashville’s most talented underground artists to sing the praises — and songs — of the mid-20th century’s beehived badasses. This was a group of friends who would show up and show out. When Zazu announced her diagnosis, her community came out to support her in ways both big and small. They helped her put to-
The recordings became a dialogue between two voracious listeners about sounds they love — the songs are a colloquy on the joys of art and creation when life isn’t always joyous. gether an extensive show of her visual art. And as the arduous bouts of early treatment ebbed, they bolstered Zazu’s return to the studio. “She is a real artist, for real,” says Buddy Hughen. As a member of his wife and collaborator Tristen’s band, the longtime local musician, producer and engineer toured with Those Darlins toward the end of their run, and he came in to record Quilt Floor. Regensburg played most of the instruments, and Zazu sang. “She was in a pretty weak state most of the time,” Hughen recalls. “We never really talked about her cancer or anything like that. She had an oxygen tank when she was doing vocals. She would sing, and then we would take five and she would just breathe for a while, and catch her breath, and kind of get recentered and do another take. She was really generally in a great mood the whole time, through all that discomfort and stuff.”
Nashville MVP Larissa Maestro, a composer and Americana Music Association Honors and Awards-winning cellist, tours with Allison Russell and Hozier among many more projects. Among those is Quilt Floor. “She was quite sick,” Maestro remembers of the sessions. “She didn’t have any hair. She was going through treatment I think at the time, and she was quite thin and tired. But she was always still Jessi. She was always still, like, ‘Punch it.’ She always wanted everyone to show up as their full selves, and that was something that [is] really empowering for someone like me, who is really used to going in and molding myself into whatever the person wants from the way that I sound.” Regensburg, in his role as producer and player of most of the instruments, took voice memos, notes and between-nap conversations and turned them into the bones of songs. With
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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PHOTO: STEVE CROSS
THOSE DARLINS IN 2015
a vague plan to let the songs follow their own path, the tonal palette shifted, expanding beyond Those Darlins’ hillbilly roots and indie-garage-glam final form without leaving them behind entirely. The recordings became a dialogue between two voracious listeners about sounds they love — the songs are a colloquy on the joys of art and creation when life isn’t always joyous. “When she was dying in the bed on morphine — I mean, it was the last day before she passed away — [Linwood was] in there with a guitar, playing some song parts and getting her opinion about it,” Wariner remembers. “And she could just barely nod or say yes or no.”
FAST-FORWARD THREE years to the pandemic and a world on pause. Without shows, tours or a recognizable music industry, there were a lot of musicians returning to old ideas, restarting projects long shelved. Regensburg was among them. He spent the years between Zazu’s death recording guitar on friends’ studio sessions and performing with Philadelphia art-rockers Low Cut Connie, enjoying the lowered creative stakes of playing other people’s songs in other people’s bands. “If I was home, I would maybe pull up a session and try to work on something, but — I don’t know, it wasn’t in any focused kind of way at all,” Regensburg says. “And then late 2020, I still had a lot of time on my hands, and it just seemed like, ‘Oh, this is the time.’ I started to feel this guilt because I’m, like, ‘Oh, I should have started this the moment that the pandemic started.’” Just as Regensburg was ramping up overdubs, there was another delay. In the process of breaking up a dogfight on a late-night walk through Five Points, Regensburg broke his hand. Quilt Floor is not an album about being sick, but its post-production phase was certainly about healing. “Finishing this on my own was really isolating,” Regensburg says. “But I also kept finding these little North Star moments in songs that were grounding and joyous, and made me re-
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connect back with why I wanted to make music in the first place.” Quilt Floor’s artistic success — hell, its mere existence — exalts the idea of unbridled creation, of artistic minds that can’t be slowed by sickness or grief or commercial interest. Regensburg and Zazu have created a testament to the best thing about an often arduous lifestyle and career path: playing music with your friends. Quilt Floor’s punk spirit and rebel attitude in the face of personal and societal pressure might not have intended to be inspirational, even if the inspiration is just to punch a shit-talker in his jaw. “It’s an elevation of everything that [Those Darlins] ever made,” says Kvarnes from half a world away. “I lost my dad the year after, and lost a couple people [after that]. It’s been a lot of grief since her, and I’ve never felt something so ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ as listening to this record. It makes me feel like they’re both just right next to me.” The album’s release party will be held Friday at Retrograde Coffee’s City Heights cafe on Clifton Avenue. It’s a dance party and auction with proceeds benefiting Jessi Zazu Inc., and the last bit of promotion for an album without a frontperson around to do interviews, tell stories and play shows. As Regensburg prepares for the release, it’s natural to speculate about what Zazu would be doing now had things been different. Would she have gone the incense-and-ambient route? Would she be fronting a feminist disco orchestra? Would she have made an album about having been sick? The only sure thing: She had a lot more music and a lot more art inside her. “It doesn’t get any better than being able to collaborate with another artist you really believe in, and who motivates you to be your best,” Regensburg says. “And even though that time was fleeting, it’s still something to be grateful for.”
Sean L. Maloney is the author of 33 ⅓: The Modern Lovers from Bloomsbury Publishing. He and Linwood Regensburg played their first DJ gig together 20 years ago this week at the Campus Pub in Murfreesboro. ▼
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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2023/24 SEASON
NASHVILLE SYMPHONY COME HEAR EXTRAORDINARY JUST ANNOUNCED | ON SALE FRIDAY
THIS WEEKEND
Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, greatest hits, and a laser light show.
MAY 5 | 8 PM | ASCEND AMPHITHEATER AUG 18 | 7:30 PM
THE MUSIC OF PINK FLOYD
FEB 22 TO 24 | 7:30 PM
FEB 25 | 7:30 PM
KEM
ELGAR’S ENIGMA
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
Nashville Symphony Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor Jennifer Koh, violin
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
Nashville Symphony Brent Havens, conductor Justin Sargent, vocals
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
COMING SOON TO THE SCHERMERHORN MAR 1 | 7:30 PM Jazz Series
THE DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA
MAR 10 | 7:30 PM Presentation
MAR 16 | 2 PM & 7:30 PM MAR 17 | 2 PM Amazon Movie Series
APR 5 & 6 | 7:30 PM Classical Series
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
ENCANTO IN CONCERT with the Nashville Symphony
MAR 14 | 7:30 PM Special Event
MAR 21 TO 23 | 7:30 PM FirstBank Pops Series
APR 12 & 13 | 7:30 PM APR 14 | 2 PM Classical Series
AIR SUPPLY
Presented without the Nashville Symphony.
MAR 7 TO 9 | 7:30 PM Classical Series
WEST SIDE STORY AND HARLEM with the Nashville Symphony
THANK YOU TO OUR CONCERT PARTNERS
THE IRISH TENORS with the Nashville Symphony
BEETHOVEN AND SHOSTAKOVICH with the Nashville Symphony
MUSIC OF ELVIS WITH FRANKIE MORENO and the Nashville Symphony
DAWSON, PRICE, AND GERSHWIN’S AMERICA with the Nashville Symphony
The Ann & Monroe Carell Family Trust MOVIE SERIES PARTNER
FAMILY SERIES PARTNER
POPS SERIES PARTNER
BUY TICKETS: 615.687.6400
music director 18 Giancarlo NASHVILLEGuerrero, SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
NashvilleSymphony.org/Tickets
MUSIC LEGENDS PARTNER
WITH SUPPORT FROM
CRITICS’ PICKS: WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO
PHOTO: JUSTIN HUGHES
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
DANCEAST: WAVERING SPACES
DancEast Collective has been a major force in Nashville’s contemporary dance scene since 2008, providing a warm and welcoming environment for students of all ages and backgrounds. In 2022, this thriving nonprofit expanded its mission by launching its resident professional company, with an eye toward supporting original new works and artists while encouraging multidisciplinary collaborations. You can experience the organization’s latest effort this weekend, as DancEast Company presents Wavering Spaces at 100 Taylor Arts Collective. Choreographed by Lindsay Fine Smith and featuring an original composition by Nashville-based cellist Chelsea McGough, Wavering Spaces “explores balance amid a neverending loop of self-doubt.” The site-specific performance — which features six dancers, along with live cello accompaniment from McGough herself — promises a uniquely inspiring evening of dance. The company also will perform Looping Duets, a new piece created by DancEast Collective artistic director Elizabeth Wilkinson. Plus, there will be a short presentation from the DancEast Collective Youth. AMY STUMPFL 6:30 P.M. AT 100 TAYLOR ARTS COLLECTIVE 100 TAYLOR ST.
BETH TRABUE GORHAM: POINT AS I POINT PAGE 20
ECHO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: BEN SOLLEE PAGE 22
JON BATISTE PAGE 24
[ROLLING]
NPT: A SLICE OF THE COMMUNITY LIVE TAPING
There’s something fascinating about being in the room as television is made — the lights, the cameras, the behind-the-scenes secrets. At the next taping of A Slice of the Community at Nashville Public Television, Nashvillians will have the chance to do just that. Host Jerome Moore leads thoughtful conversations about social justice with community leaders packed into 26-minute episodes. I’m a longtime fan of his Deep Dish Conversations series, which tackles similar topics. Moore is one of the few doing long-form interviews with Nashville’s leaders in this way. This episode’s guest is Tim Wise, a Nashville native who wrote the highly lauded White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son. The NAACP calls him “among the nation’s most prominent anti-racist educators and authors.” What a treat to hear from him live, and for free. On top of it all, the event includes pizza from 312 Pizza. See Moore masterfully mix hard news with a candid and fun affect —
then pay attention to the Scene’s social media channels to hear him co-host a new iteration of the Scene’s podcast. HANNAH HERNER 8 P.M. AT NPT’S STUDIO A 161 RAINS AVE.
FOOD & DRINK
DANCE
[AN UNWAVERING FORCE]
COMMUNITY
THURSDAY / 2.22
SATURDAY, FEB. 24
[ŽIVJELI! CIN CIN!]
YOLAN X CAFÉ ROZE COLLABORATION DINNER
Chef Julia Jaksic of Café Roze and Roze Pony will join Yolan’s chef Tony Mantuano in the kitchen to create a five-course dinner celebrating the Adriatic Sea. Jaksic’s Croatian roots and Mantuano’s Italian roots come together for one night. “Sometimes Croatian foods feel like Italian, which makes sense since Croatia was ruled by Venetian rule for a long time,” Jaksic says. Also, both countries have a coastline along the Adriatic. The two will make a menu that includes pljukanci pasta with wild mushroom ragu and black winter truffle, and brudet, a traditional Croatian seafood stew with scallops and langoustine. Yolan pastry chef Noelle Marchetti developed a dessert of caramelized puff pastry, vanilla bean diplomat cream and whipped sweet cheese. Modifications for vegetarians and vegans are
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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the series: “Most of the work is created during my time off in the summer. That space between Memorial and Labor Day stretches out before us as it always has, and offers me a period of a few months when, un-tethered by work, I can dive with my children into the magical promise of summer.” LAURA HUTSON HUNTER ARTIST’S RECEPTION 3:30-5:30 P.M. AT HARPETH HALL’S MARNIE SHERIDAN GALLERY 3801 HOBBS ROAD
[I CAN TALK]
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB
MUSIC
If you think you’ve never heard a Two Door Cinema Club song, respectfully, I think you’re mistaken. Some of the band’s hits were practically in the water supply of the 2010s. Check out “What You Know” or “Undercover Martyn” or my personal favorite, “Something Good Can Work.” What a nice sentiment! It’s the kind of bouncy synth pop that is indicative of the era and that I personally adore. I’d argue that Two Door Cinema Club is easy to love, too. Their 2010 debut Tourist History is a top-10 album for myself, my brother, my mom and my dad. The band has released some stellar music since, including the 2023 single “Sure Enough,” which keeps up the vibes they’re known for. That said, I’ve seen Two Door live several times, and you don’t have to worry: They’re not too pretentious to play their hits. It’s not very often that the Northern Irish trio makes the trip across the pond, so it may be worth seeking out a resale ticket for this long-sold-out show. Get there early for the super fun Joywave to set the tone. HANNAH HERNER
[HARPETH CINEMA]
WILD AND SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL
FILM
FRIDAY / 2.23 [ON THE SILVER SCREEN]
TENET
“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in a nutshell. The mind-bending James Bond riff, released during the pandemic lockdown, is finally getting the full-fledged theatrical rerelease it deserves. Since the Regal Opry Mills is now capable of screening 70 mm IMAX prints — with Nolan himself the rumored benefactor behind such upgrades — it is one of just 12 theaters in the world screening Tenet loud and clear as it’s supposed to be seen. The movie, with its forward
20
OUT THE BLUE FEAT. GOODY, RON OBASI, AMBER AIS & ÀLÏEN
STEPHEN TRAGESER
BILLY STRINGS
[BIG-TIME PICKIN’]
BILLY STRINGS
Billy Strings — the bona fide bluegrass badass who’s cut songs with Willie Nelson and shared stages with Post Malone — returns to downtown Nashville this weekend for a twonight stand inside Bridgestone Arena. You read that right — a bluegrass picker, playing two nights in an arena. The size of the room speaks to the explosive popularity of Strings, a road-dog picker who’s known for marathon live shows that blend bluegrass know-how with a jam ethos and a touch of headbanging. The shows come as part of a three-night run in Nashville for Strings, who wraps the weekend with a more intimate gig Sunday at the Ryman Auditorium. This may be a newly growing annual tradition for Strings, who played the same three-show,
double-venue run in Nashville last February. And — as when many Nashville-based artists roll back into town — you never know what may be in store. During the Bridgestone shows last year, Strings brought out ace blues guitarist Derek Trucks. At the Ryman he performed an expansive, rollicking set of bluegrass covers, paying homage to the genre’s deep roots inside the so-called Mother Church. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER FEB. 23-24 AT BRIDGESTONE ARENA (501 BROADWAY) FEB. 25 AT THE RYMAN (116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.)
ART
and backward time-travel stories happening simultaneously, was a bit overwhelming for many viewers at the time. But my God, the sights (Inverted driving! Planes crashing! John David Washington and Elizabeth Debicki!) and the sounds (Ludwig Göransson’s thumping score! Robert Pattinson’s crackling dialogue!) were overwhelming. “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” LOGAN BUTTS FEB. 23-28 AT REGAL OPRY MILLS 570 OPRY MILLS DRIVE
MUSIC
FILM
7 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. N.
The idea of the Wild and Scenic Film Festival is to use film to inspire people to care about the environment and nature and then do something about protecting it. The festival runs in different cities, and in each place, proceeds benefit various local projects. In Middle Tennessee, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival will screen documentary films focused on issues related to the mission of the Harpeth Conservancy and its advocacy for Tennessee’s rivers. The screenings will be held at Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Soli Deo Center. In addition to the professional documentaries, the festival will show a film that CPA students produced about the Harpeth Conservancy’s work. MARGARET LITTMAN 6:30-8:30 P.M. AT CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN ACADEMY 2323 OLD HICKORY BLVD.
[BLUE MOODS]
This is a great week to get to know your local and regional talent in Black music, with several fantastic shows on the docket. Friday’s Out the Blue party is a great place to start. Amber Ais has a knack for neo-soul-kissed pop songs that could easily translate into any mainstream context she’d like them to; but she makes them her way. Her most recent single “Don’t Make It Hard,” a nuanced song about trying to overcome challenges in a relationship, is a perfect example, but she’s got an extensive catalog to draw on. Àlïen, meanwhile, is celebrating a recent artistic rebirth and renewal, adding fantastic new dimensions to her R&B sound. Among much else, Goody is an ambassador for fashion brand Marc Jacobs; appropriately, his flow is distinctive and stylish, and several of his singles’ beats incorporate sounds from the dance world. Ron Obasi has honed his ability to turn powerful philosophical insights into headnodding rhymes, and catching him in person is the only place better to hear them than on the expanded reissue of his October release 30 Sunz.
[GET TO THE POINT]
BETH TRABUE GORHAM: POINT AS I POINT
Nashville native Beth Trabue Gorham is one of the area’s most exciting photographers, and Friday’s artist’s reception provides a rare opportunity for the public to see her work exhibited. The body of work in Point as I Point was taken between 2015 and 2023 and revolves around the artist’s sons Martin and Charlie. There’s a rich tradition of photographers using their children as subjects, and Gorham herself was an assistant to Sally Mann, the photographer who perhaps most famously captured her children in their youth. But Point as I Point is special — Gorham’s shots have a timeless quality that is both deeply personal and cinematic. From her artist’s statement about
7 P.M. AT AB HILLSBORO VILLAGE 2111 BELCOURT AVE.
FILM
MUSIC
not possible, but gluten-free and pescatarian options will be available. MARGARET LITTMAN 5-10 P.M. AT YOLAN 401 KOREAN VETERANS BLVD.
[FIREPOWER]
THE MONK AND THE GUN
In the 2023 dramedy The Monk and the Gun, playing for a weeklong run at the Belcourt, Bhutanese writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji (Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom) takes us back to the mid-Aughts, when the Kingdom of Bhutan officially joined the 21st century after the abdication of its king. Eventually, the Bhutanese got television, the internet and this peculiar thing called democracy. As government officials travel from village to village teaching locals how to take part in a mock election, a monk (Tandin Wangchuk) goes around asking people if they could spare some firearms for his lama’s upcoming day-of-the-full-moon celebration. He comes across an antique Civil War rifle that a couple of guys (Tandin Sonam, Harry Einhorn) also have their eyes on — and are ready to fork over a bunch of money for. Dorji uses lush, beauteous visuals and sly, pointed satire to make a quaint and humane film about what happens when the best and worst of Western culture show up in a part of the world that was doing just fine without it. CRAIG D. LINDSEY FEB. 23-29 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER FEBRUARY 25
MARCH 5
CAT POWER
GEOFF TATE & ADRIAN VANDENBERG
CAT POWER SINGS DYLAN:THE 1966 ROYAL ALBERT HALL CONCERT
JOHN MAILANDER’S FORECAST WITH LIV GREEN
APRIL 25
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ROBERT CRAY BAND
DIXIE DREGS
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MARCH 6
PRESENTS
TINSLEY ELLIS
WITH SHANNON McNALLY MAY 2
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MATTEO BOCELLI
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO
MARCH 21
A NIGHT WITH MATTEO
LADYCOUCH
WITH POTATO GUN CANYON
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
21
[SIX DAYS ON THE ROAD]
JAMES McMURTRY
PHOTO: MARY KEATING-BRUTON
JAMES McMURTRY
Hounds are jam-packed with juicy detail that’s simultaneously funny and moving — in my favorite tune on the album, “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call,” he mentions “proper diction in the north Florida redneck lexicon” and endures a drive back to Atlanta via the scenic route with a disgruntled domestic partner who blames him for everything that’s going wrong. “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call” is also notable for the high level of its musical concept, which includes a post-Steely Dan structure that contains a startling guitar solo and a chorus that goes, “I keep losing my glasses.” Similarly, the delicate sonics of the superb track “Jackie” support one of McMurtry’s sharpest — and most moving
22
[HISTORY LESSONS]
MIKE FLOSS AND ROD McGAHA: REGENERATION LIVE
The ongoing story of Nashville music involves lots of knowledge and tradition handed down over generations, reinterpreted and shaped in new and beautiful ways. The children of great musicians, if they become musicians themselves, often make music that’s notably different from that of their parents. The changes over time — and the stories of why and how they happen — are part of what gives music its incredible cultural importance and communicative power. That’s something worth celebrating, especially in our historically musical town; because of the creeping stain of long-standing racism, Black musical legacies don’t get recognized enough. Outstanding rapper and community activist Mike Floss and his dad, jazz trumpet champion and visual artist Rod McGaha, are teaming up on Saturday to showcase their individual talents as well as the threads that connect them. Floss’ ability to nail you with the unassuming wisdom in a bar you never saw coming is sophisticated, and his approach rhymes with how McGaha uses his phrasing and other technical skills to express a vast range of emotion without words. McGaha’s
[IN THE SHADOW OF THE GODDESS]
ECHO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: BEN SOLLEE
The Parthenon’s Echo Chamber Music Series is a prime example of getting the most out of a beloved city institution. The series brings vocalists and instrumentalists into the vaunted replica Greek temple, allowing Nashvillians to experience intimate performances at the foot of the gleaming statue of Athena. This week’s edition features Ben Sollee, a Kentuckyian and graduate of the University of Louisville School of Music known for emotive cello performances and compositions that have featured in popular media like Weeds, Parenthood and the ABC special Base Ballet. He’s also notable for his social activism, speaking out in support of environmental causes in his coal-dominated home state and beyond. I’m already a fan after learning that he has embarked upon multiple bike tours, where he and his road crew biked from gig to gig hauling instruments, merch and gear in trailers behind their two-wheeled steel horses. (He probably would have had an easier time if he played the ukulele or flute rather than cello.) Pedal on down to Centennial Park and experience this multifaceted performer for yourself. COLE VILLENA 7:30 P.M. AT THE PARTHENON 2500 WEST END AVE. [CELEBRATING BLACK WOMANHOOD]
MAYA ANTOINETTE RILEY: STILL RISING: A BLACK FEMME CABARET
Street Theatre Company’s popular cabaret series has quickly become a fan favorite, shining a light on some of the city’s finest musical theater talent. This weekend’s edition features Nashville’s own Maya Antoinette Riley with Still Rising: A Black Femme Cabaret. Presented on the edge of Black History Month and Women’s History Month, Still Rising promises a joyful celebration that “centers the Black female voice through song and poetry.” Audiences can look forward to a wide range of genres, including everything from folk and musical theater to flamenco, jazz, pop, disco, R&B and gospel. There will be plenty of familiar tunes from the likes of Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston and Donna Summer, along with lesserknown artists like Buika and Chika. There also will be spoken-word selections from poets like Lucille Clifton and Maya Angelou. It’s sure to be a magical evening and a great opportunity to check out one of Nashville’s rising talents. AMY STUMPFL
7 P.M. AT THE BARBERSHOP THEATER 4003 INDIANA AVE.
CRYSTAL ROSE MUSIC
KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD BAND W/ SAMANTHA FISH & JESSE DAYTON
Since his debut at the tender age of 16 — nearly 30 years ago — Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been regarded in the highest echelon of blues guitarists. The Shreveport, La., native released his 11th studio album Dirt on My Diamonds, Vol. 1 in November. Longtime collaborator and vocalist Noah Hunt — who first teamed up with Shepherd in 1997 for the platinum-selling single “Blue on Black” — is again featured alongside drummer Chris Layton, who may be best recognized as one-half of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s legendary rhythm section Double Trouble. Shepherd and company continue to push blues music further into the future on Diamonds. The title track is a backcountry powerhouse complete with punchy horns and blistering guitarwork. Sings Shepherd: “All we are is love and scars / Play the blues / And the dark don’t end / Till the light gets into you.” Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton open the show with cuts from their stellar co-release Death Wish Blues, produced by acclaimed artist Jon Spencer of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. JASON VERSTEGEN 8 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
MUSIC
The easy singability of the tunes Texas songwriter James McMurtry delivers on his 2021 album The Horses and the Hounds conceals the sheer craft he puts into his narratives. McMurtry’s songs for The Horses and the
[BLACK AND BLUES]
SUNDAY / 2.25
[SOUL TO SOUL]
TOUCHED BY SUN FEST
It’s not too often that you get the chance to be a part of Nashville music history. Now’s the time. Last year’s self-funded inaugural Touched by Sun Fest sold out, and now in its second year, the event is celebrating the wealth of talent outside the country genre. On the path to the fest becoming a Nashville staple, the organizers of this year’s installment, led by local musician Crystal Rose, have received a Metro Arts Thrive grant and partnered with Girls Write Nashville to bring an even bigger lineup. The bill features touring artists Julia Cannon, Siena Liggins and Tonina, the last of whom is a rising star who’s been featured on Billboard, Rolling Stone and even President Obama’s best-of-2018 list. By spotlighting and championing nonbinary and female BIPOC artists across various genres, the fest will weave in the magic of art and poetry to showcase the incredible reach of Black women in music. Touched by Sun is more than a festival; it’s a movement. TOBY ROSE 6 P.M. AT FLAMINGO COCKTAIL CLUB 509 HOUSTON ST.
MONDAY / 2.26 SCIENCE
MUSIC
If Tennessee’s false springs and dreary rains have got you down, Cheekwood has the antidote. The final performance of the year’s Cheekwood Winter Concert Series is upon us, bringing the heat with salsa music from the 13-piece Music City Latin Orchestra. Grammy Awardwinning instrumentalist Giovanni Rodriguez will lead the show, putting the sounds of Cuba and the rest of Latin America at the forefront of an evening of sultry melodies in the newly renovated Massey Hall. Don’t let the season discourage you! While the estate certainly thrives in gorgeous weather, Cheekwood’s gardens are abundant year-round, with dogwoods, daffodils, star magnolia and more on view through February. Plus, you can look out at the evergreens from the hall’s floor-to-ceiling windows — you know, when you’re trying not to dance, but failing. If you can’t make this one, rest easy knowing that Cheekwood hosts concerts like this — with the region’s best players, writers and singers — year-round. RYNE WALKER 7 P.M. AT CHEEKWOOD 1200 FORREST PARK DRIVE
MUSIC
CHEEKWOOD WINTER CONCERT SERIES
artwork, which a release describes as “vivid digital collages of Black liveliness,” will also be on display at the show. Come early and take it all in. STEPHEN TRAGESER 8 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.
THEATER
[SALSA INTO SPRING]
— pieces of narrative art. Meanwhile, the title track might be the best trucking song written since Earl Green and Carl Montgomery came up with “Six Days on the Road,” a 1963 hit for Dave Dudley. McMurtry describes a degraded post-Trump landscape throughout The Horses, and the easeful flow of his songs only increases the tension. Texas singer-songwriter Betty Soo opens. EDD HURT FEB. 24-25 AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY 818 THIRD AVE. S.
MUSIC
MUSIC
SATURDAY / 2.24
[STARRY MESSENGER]
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON
As one of the most recognizable and respected astrophysicists of the modern era, Neil deGrasse Tyson has done it all. From writing the bestselling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry to hosting television programs and podcasts, being named People’s Sexiest Physicist Alive in 2000 and even surviving a run-in with the wings of death on the third season of Hot Ones, Tyson has been putting astrophysics in the public eye and communicating grand ideas and theories in simple, relatable and entertaining terms for quite some time now. He’s perhaps better at his craft than any scientific figure since Carl Sagan released his instant smash book Cosmos or Bill Nye starred in the iconic Bill Nye the Science Guy. Tyson is a fantastic public speaker, and he’s set to perform his latest lecture, The Cosmic Perspective, at TPAC. Given how well the famed physicist was able to communicate scientific ideas and theories during his encounter with
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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A N A L O G AT
HUTTON
HOTEL
PRESENTS
ANALOG SOUL
03
MAR
A CELEBRATION OF MAKING NOISE Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Lovenoise, the pioneering Blackowned concert promoter in Nashville, has played a transformative role in reshaping the city's live music landscape. Lovenoise has been a crucial platform for Black music, particularly in hip-hop and R&B, reaching underserved audiences across generations. DOORS: 6 PM SHOW: 7 PM GA: $5 RES: $20
MAR
MAR
FEB
FEB
25 ANALOG SOUL 27 JASON CARTER BAND 01 ROCCSTAR WIRELESS 02 PRESENTS: LIVE FROM MUSIC CITY
ALEX SLAY AND FLIGHT JUMPER W/CLOVER JAMEZ & BRIAN SOUR
MAR
MAR
06 THE RUMBLE 09 nobigdyl. MAR MAR MAR MAR MAR MAR MAR
10 ANALOG SOUL YAYENNINGS & 12 SUPER FELON 13 SOUTHERN ROUNDS 17 ANALOG SOUL 19 JAMES OTTO 24 ANALOG SOUL 28 SOUTHERN ROUNDS COUNTRY SOUL SESSIONS
PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH PHILLIP LAMMONDS
DOORS: 6 PM SHOW: 7 PM GA: FREE RES: $20
13
MAR
12
MAR
UPCOMING
DOORS: 6 PM SHOW: 7 PM GA: $20
ALL SHOWS AT ANALOG ARE 21+ 1808 WEST END AVENUE, NASHVILLE,
TN
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
23
• SCARLET MAGNUM • MY FRIEND THE GHOST • BENNET LEMASTER
SUN 2.25 • SAMANTHA HENSON • TAXIWAY • GREAT AMERICAN CANYON BAND MON 2.26 • FAME AND FICTION ALBUM RELEASE SHOW FEAT: • 76TH STREET AND SUZIE CHISM TUE 2.27
• ULTIMATE COMEDY FREE LOCAL STAND UP!
WED 2.28 • PALMYRA • DISSIMILAR SOUTH • PURSER THU 2.29 • FREE BEER (NOT A JOKE) FEAT: • AMERICAN SNAP • TONY SALOMONE • ANGE
7PM Ryan Harris Brown • Julie Lavery 9PM Leah T • Jake Fields • Melissa Erin
sat 2/24
7PM Cole Ritter 9PM Carl Tatz • Dana Cooper Phoenix Mendoza & Josh Leo
mon 2/26
7PM Mary McGuinness • Domino 9PM Chester • Luke Smith • Samuel Caster
tue 2/27
7PM McKenna Stamm • Sarah Haglund 9PM Ellie Stone • Elizabeth Davis Sydnee Conley
@THEEASTROOM
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON some of the hottest wings on the internet, it is difficult to imagine just how engrossing and illuminating Tyson’s lecture will be sans the increasingly intense hot wings. ROB HINKAL 7:30 P.M. AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL 505 DEADERICK ST.
MUSIC
2412 GALLATIN AVE
fri 2/23
THANK YOU for another Hot Chicken Week win, Nashville!
[DINNER PARTY]
BLONDE REDHEAD
During a recent performance and interview with legendary Seattle radio outpost KEXP, longtime Blonde Redhead frontwoman Kazu Makino told host Cheryl Waters that she wanted her 2019 solo album Adult Baby “to be successful enough that I didn’t have to do another Blonde Redhead album.” It was a refreshingly candid admission, though Makino did go on to note that working on the album she ultimately made with Blonde Redhead — last year’s Sit Down for Dinner — was a great experience. And we’re lucky Makino got back together with her longtime bandmates, Italian-born twin brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace, to make it. Sit Down for Dinner is one of the New York-based indie-rock trio’s best efforts in a rich 30-year career. Their first LP in nearly a decade, Dinner is full of gorgeous, melodically rich dream pop — Makino’s breathy vocals soar over swirling shoegaze arrangements on songs like “Kiss Her Kiss Her” and “Melody Experiment.” It’s a rare delight when a band with 10 albums spread out over three decades can keep on making careerbest material. What’s more, Blonde Redhead is known for exceptional live performances. If you can help it, don’t miss this one. Squirrel Flower opens. D. PATRICK RODGERS 8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.
MUSIC
TUESDAY / 2.27
9040 Carothers Pkwy | Franklin, TN 37067 | 615.472.1332
24
PHOTO: AMAZON
SAT 2.24
4PM Open Mic Night w/ Elray Jackson 9PM Sarah & Shannon Residency w/Teddie Collinz
[THE VIBEZ TOUR]
GODSMACK W/BASTIAN DA CRUZ
Yes, you heard that right. Godsmack, known for rattling arenas with double-drum battles, vicious pyrotechnics and Sully Erna’s gravelly scream, is doing a … well, it’s not exactly an acoustic tour. The tour, as Erna put it himself,
has “an acoustic vibe” but includes both acoustic and electric sets, featuring tracks from the catalog that often get missed during the arena tours, as well as covers from some of the band’s influences. Why take such a 180? Since the release of his bestselling memoir The Paths We Choose and the filming of a documentary based on it, Erna has seemed more keen on telling his story and the story of Godsmack. The show will be accompanied by years of memorabilia, like the brass sun from the Faceless tour and the gargoyles from the Awake tour, and stories from nearly 30 years of being a band, all meant to create the vibiest atmosphere possible in the already stunning Ryman Auditorium. Expect nostalgia, sure, but Erna hopes you see another side of Godsmack as well. RYNE WALKER 7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
WEDNESDAY / 2.28 MUSIC
THU 2.22 • ANASTASIA ELLIOT • RIGOMETRICS • THE AFTERNOONERS
thur 2/22
[WHEREVER YOU ARE]
JON BATISTE
Sometimes music fans may see an artist billed to play a venue and think, “Yes. This is actually perfect.” That’s Jon Batiste at the Ryman Auditorium. Batiste — a Juilliard-trained musician who brings a taste of pedagogy and popularity to his rich, award-winning catalog — heads to Nashville’s famed downtown tabernacle in support of World Music Radio. It’s the 2023 follow-up to WE ARE, the album that took the Grammy Awards by storm in 2022, winning Album of the Year. The 21-song World Music Radio — which channels the concept of an interstellar radio DJ exploring the sounds of Earth — features a who’s-who of guest performers, including Kenny G, Lana Del Rey and Native Sound. (Don’t sleep on the Native Sound collaboration “Raindance.”) And with Batiste’s dedication to groove-filled storytelling and eccentric showmanship, it’s exactly the type of show that could send a Ryman audience buzzing down Broadway after his final notes fill the hall. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER 7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS
2.26 JOHNNY CASH BIRTHDAY BASH
3.03
ROBERT JON & THE WRECK
FEATURING A.R CASH: A TRIBUTE TO JOHNNY & JUNE
3.10
MAURICE “MOBETTA” BROWN
3.13
TANK AND THE BANGAS
“THINK TANK” 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW
3.15
3.17
ANTHONY NUNZIATA
LAUREN JANE GRACE
SINGS ROMANTIC CLASSICS AND ORIGINALS
BACKED BY MATT PATTON & MIKEY ERG WITH THELMA AND THE SLEAZE
2.22 AN EVENING WITH DEANA CARTER SHEMEKIA COPELAND 2.24 WITH KEVIN GORDON CITY OF LAUGHS 2.24 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW NASHVILLE BEHIND THE 2.24 FEATURING THE KINLEYSSONG AND FRIENDS 2.25 COMEDIAN TORREI HART BEATLES BRUNCH 2.25 NASHVILLE FT. FOREVER ABBEY ROAD AND FRIENDS 2.25 MARGO CILKER WITH MEREDITH LANE EVENING WITH GREG KOCH 2.27 AN FT. THE KOCH-MARSHALL TRIO NEXT WOMEN OF COUNTRY 2.27 +CMT SONG SUFFRAGETTES 2.29 MATT ANDERSEN MADDIE IN THE MORNING LIVE 2.29 WITH TS MADISON THE RAPTURE TOUR WITH JOHNNY 3.1 MANCHILD & THE POOR BASTARDS AND SPECIAL GUESTS HOLDFAST
JOHN CAFFERTY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND MONDLOCK WITH 3.2 BUDDY MIKE LINDAUER AND JIM MORAN 3.5 SOFAINE PAMART 3.7 SEAN MCCONNELL WITH LIZ LONGLEY 3.8 CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO END OF THE LINE: A TRIBUTE 3.8 TO THE ALLMAN BROTHERS 3.9 CRYS MATTHEWS WITH SETH GLIER RON POPE’S “A DROP IN THE OCEAN” 3.9 15TH ANNIVERSARY WITH TAYLOR BICKETT & ROBBY HECHT GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS “UNCERTAIN 3.12 COUNTRY” WINTER TOUR 2024 GIRLS ON THE RISE FT. ANGIE K, ALLIE COLLEEN, RILEY ROTH, JULIA CANNON, 3.14 JESSLEE, SASHA MCVEIGH, CASSIDY DANIELS, CHARLY REYNOLDS, HASTING 3.16 DRAG BRUNCH 3.1
WEDDING CELEBRATIONS AT CITY WINERY
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
25
FOOD & DRINK
A PLANT-BASED BOUNTY
THE WILD COW
The city’s vegan scene is thriving, thanks in part to support from the now-closed Wild Cow
WHEN LONGTIME East Nashville restaurant The Wild Cow closed in December, it left a buffalo-beans-and-greens-shaped hole in the city. For 14 years, The Wild Cow was the heart of vegan and vegetarian living in Nashville. Not only did the restaurant feed folks a plant-based diet (including spinach dip, vegan Reuben sandwiches and the aforementioned buffalo beans), but The Wild Cow and its owners also helped launch many other like-minded projects and restaurants. Walker Brothers Kombucha co-founder Luke Walker interviewed for a job as a prep cook at The Wild Cow the week he moved to Nashville. He started working there the following week. “The Wild Cow’s greatest gift to Nashville was the incredible community it fostered,” says Luke. “It offered an environment in which there was no pressure for employees to prove themselves, [with] an unspoken understanding that they would show up, work hard and be themselves. The philosophy seemed to be something along the lines of, ‘Assume the best in people, and the best will follow.’” And the best did follow. When Luke and his brother Sam Walker were ready to start their own business, The Wild Cow supported them. “They helped Walker Brothers Kombucha get off the ground, taking a chance on us and our product from the very start and being true ambassadors of what we do,” Sam says of The Wild Cow co-owners Ryan Toll and Melanie and John Cochran. In addition to Walker Brothers, many beloved vegetarian- and vegan-friendly Nashville staples — including High Garden Tea, The BE-Hive Deli & Market and Graze Nashville, the latter an East Nashville vegan bistro co-owned
by Nick Davis, a former Wild Cow employee — were launched with the support of The Wild Cow. The Wild Cow wasn’t just about the food, says Toll, who started cooking at the restaurant in 2014 and became a partner in 2019. “It was about the vegan lifestyle,” he says. “There are lots of reasons that people become vegan. For John and Melanie, it was animal welfare. For me, starting as a teenager, it was personal health and health of the environment. But for everyone, there is a philosophy behind it, and The Wild Cow helped create a community for people who had a vegan lifestyle.” “The Wild Cow was a place of kindness and warmth, toward customers, the earth and life,” says Lindsey Bathke, an East Nashvillian who lived two blocks from The Wild Cow when she moved to town in 2013. She had been a vegetarian for more than a decade at that point (though not yet wholly vegan) and remembers the comfort she felt being able to eat anything on The Wild Cow’s menu. Photographer Emily April Allen remembers The Wild Cow as her pick-me-up after a long workday, a motivation to get through the day to dinner. She used to be wistful on Tuesdays because The Wild Cow kitchen was closed that day. Now every day feels like a Tuesday, without a taco salad or gyro salad. In a joint statement in December, Toll and the Cochrans cited rising rent and food costs as some of the reasons for their difficult decision to close. In addition, just four months before the March 2020 tornado and the onset of the COVID pandemic, the team moved into a bigger restaurant on Fatherland Street — a larger space
PHOTO: MICHAEL W. BUNCH
BY MARGARET LITTMAN
to support during the months when they could not be open. When The Wild Cow opened on Eastland Avenue in 2009, vegan and vegetarian options in Nashville were much more limited. Comedian Aziz Ansari even had a bit about it in a 2015 episode of his Netflix series Master of None: The dining options for his vegetarian date are limited to a cup of pickles, a banana and a square of cornbread. Today, though, Nashville has a “great vegan scene,” Toll says. Many restaurants with omnivore menus have more than pickles and bananas as options for those who want to eat a plant-based diet — from vegan sausage at Retrograde Coffee Co. to many juice and smoothie spots, to the Vegan Supreme pizza at Nicky’s Coal Fired and the sublime Veggie Bún Riêu at East Side Pho. Downtown Nashville’s House of Cards speakeasy offers perfection in a vegan surf-and-turf. And the city
has a healthy lineup of all-vegetarian or vegan kitchens (see our list). Next week, Toll — along with his business partner John Wood — is launching Season Nashville, a vegan meal service of prepared and easy-to-complete dishes available for delivery. Eventually, Toll and Wood hope to expand into a physical space for pickup options. But they’re taking things slowly at first, with a small kitchen and a limit of 30 customers at a time. (There will be a waitlist to accommodate others.) The meal-plan service model will allow Toll to experiment with new recipes, which was his favorite part of cooking specials at The Wild Cow. He expects there may also be a few recipes customers like Bathke and Allen will remember. “I think we can make it easier to become vegan,” says Toll. “It can be intimidating to cook with tofu and seitan, and those are things I nerd out about.” ▼
WHERE TO GO FOR VEGETARIAN EATS If you’re inclined to lament The Wild Cow’s closing by thinking there aren’t other vegan or vegetarian options in the city, try one of these 22 meat-free alternatives.
AVO: Located in the OneC1ty complex, AVO serves cooked and raw vegan dishes with an emphasis on gluten-free and locally sourced ingredients. It is perhaps best known for its avocado margarita. 4 City Blvd.
Copper Branch: One of downtown Nashville’s affordable secrets, this chain sells beet-and-brown-rice burgers, falafel, chili and more. 601 Church St.
AVO
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Deep Sea Vegan: Open one weekend a month at Hunters Station and other pop-ups across town. Look for the Calamari Po’boy and fried seafood substitutes made from hearts of palm. 975 Main St.
THE BE-HIVE DELI & MARKET
PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
The BE-Hive Deli & Market: If you’ve eaten vegan pepperoni, Italian crumbles or other faux meats at a Nashville restaurant, you’ve likely eaten something from BE-Hive. Their East Nashville deli makes sandwiches with their faux meats, including crunch wraps and fried chxn. 2414 Gallatin Ave.
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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PET OF THE WEEK! Name: TISIPHONE Age: 2 yrs Weight: 53 lbs.
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E + ROSE WELLNESS E+ ROSE Wellness: Multiple locations (including the Gulch, Wedgewood-Houston and Brentwood) make it easier to find plant-based food across town. The Nashville Hot Kale is a perennial favorite. 610 Merritt Ave. and other locations Golden Plant Vegan: Find this food truck in the Easy Money Cash Center parking lot four days a week. Try the birria tacos or the jerk mushroom tacos. 718 Gallatin Ave. Graze Nashville: Nick Davis’ East Nashville bistro serves a popular weekend brunch. 1888 Eastland Ave. Grins Vegetarian Cafe: Located on the Vanderbilt campus but open to the public, Grins (pronounced “greens”) was the city’s first all-vegetarian restaurant. It is also certified kosher. 2421 Vanderbilt Place Hey Hey: Plant-based Asian fusion from the AVO team. 4 City Blvd. Jamaicaway Restaurant: While not exclusively plantbased (meat is on the menu too), this spot inside the Nashville Farmers’ Market is popular with vegetarians for its meat-free Jamaican specialties, including spicy jerk seitan. 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.
SUCCULENT VEGAN TACOS Lucky Vegan: Mushroom miso soup, teriyaki chick’n onigiri and other dishes are available Saturdays at the Richland Park Farmers’ Market. Order in advance and your dishes will be waiting for you. 4711 Charlotte Ave. Morsel: Morsel makes all-vegan and gluten-free baked goods — including scones, doughnuts and brownies — sold at shops around town. Look for the pastries at Crema, All People Coffee, Matryoshka Coffee and elsewhere. Radical Rabbit: Vegan soul food (don’t skip the fried jackfruit) sold at pop-ups around town and for home delivery. Season Nashville: Ryan Toll and John Wood’s new vegan meal delivery service. Succulent Vegan Tacos: Mexico City-style vegan tacos can be found inside the Nashville Farmers’ Market. It is also certified kosher. 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. Sunflower Bakehouse: Donelson’s vegan and gluten-free restaurant is stocked with savory burgers, salads, sandwiches and lots of sweets. 2414 Lebanon Pike
Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
PHOTO: JESSICA AMERSON
Come meet Tisiphone at NHA today!
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Sunflower Cafe: Essentially a meat-and-three without the meat, this cafeteria-style vegan spot in Berry Hill offers a large menu, with lots of choices. 2834 Azalea Place The Southern V: Using in-house seitan, The Southern V creates Southern-style vegan dishes. Use the self-serve kiosk for dining on site. (Takeout is also available.) 1200 Buchanan St. Trippy’s Plant-Based Diner: Crunchwraps, sandwiches and loaded fries, plus daily specials. 811 Dickerson Pike
JIMHITE SKINNER BANDFREE THU THUR5-7pm 6PM W ANIMALS 2.1 9-12pm EVAN DINICOLA, MIKKI, ZIP, GATLEN GUNN $10 2.22 6PM W HITE ANIMALS FREE FRI 5-7pm MOTONES FRI 2.2 2.23 SAT 4-6:30pm 4PM KEVIN WOLF FREE DOSSTONES SAT 2.3 2.24 7-8pm PRAUSER , TODD DAY WAIT $10. 9PM NATALIE CROCTOPUSS , PUMP ACTION POPLARRABBIT CREEK 9-12pm& DEADFOOT, CLUB, GATLIN GUNN $10
True Food Kitchen: This Green Hills outpost of the chain isn’t entirely meat-free, but its menu includes many vegan and vegetarian dishes, with an emphasis on reducing inflammation. 3996 Hillsboro Pike
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4PM JAY PATTEN BAND FREE
SUN 2.4 4-7pm SPRING WATER SITIN JAM 2.25 9-12pm MOTHERS MONSTER, ENEMY,@ABYA $10ATER OPEN MIC WEDAMONG 5PMTHE WRITERS THE W
Vegelicious: Offering vegan soul food with two locations — one in Antioch and one near Fisk University — this is the place to get your vegan mac-and-cheese fix. 793 Bell Road and 513B Fisk St.
2.7
WED 5- 8pm WRITERS AT THE WATER 2.28 9-12pm DAISY SELLUS, BECCA ROSE, ASHTEN $10 - LATE NIGHT 115 27TH AVE N.AKINS, OPENMAC WEDGREER, - SUN 11AM 115 27TH AVE. N OPEN WED.-SUN. 11AM-LATE NIGHT
Woodlands Indian Vegetarian Restaurant: Since 2004, Woodlands has been Nashville’s go-to vegetarian restaurant. The lunch buffet is particularly popular. 3415 West End Ave.
SUNFLOWER BAKEHOUSE
WOODLANDS INDIAN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
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BOOKS
GOOD TROUBLER
Raymond Arsenault offers the first comprehensive biography of civil rights icon John Lewis BY MICHAEL RAY TAYLOR
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WITH JOHN LEWIS: In Search of the Beloved Community, Raymond Arsenault, professor emeritus of Southern history at the University of South Florida, has produced the first comprehensive biography of the famed civil rights leader and longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Emerging from a poor farming community outside Troy, Ala., Lewis rose to prominence with the 1960 Nashville lunch counter sit-ins and dozens of protest events that followed. Those included the Freedom Rides and the infamous “Bloody Sunday,” when he received a nearly fatal beating on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Later, during more than 30 years as the representative from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, Lewis became known as the “Conscience of Congress,” and he was still engaging in the nonviolent resistance he called “good trouble” just six weeks before his death in 2020 at the age of 80. Lewis’ first formal act of protest occurred when he was 20 and attending the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville. Influenced by radio sermons from Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis helped organize the first student-led sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters in Nashville department stores. Arsenault calls the sit-in on Feb. 27, 1960, which led to mass arrests, a “turning point for Nashville’s Black community, much of which rallied behind the arrested students.” As one of 82 arrested that day, Lewis was shoved into a crowded police wagon. “Now I knew,” Arsenault quotes Lewis as recalling later. “Now I had crossed over.” In the spring of 1960, “the movement in Nashville, as in other centers of activism, was still in infancy, and no one knew where it was headed. But [Lewis] knew he wanted to be a part of this unfolding story of liberation, not just as a stage of his college-age transition to adulthood but as a lifelong commitment.” With that commitment, Lewis began six decades of the “good trouble” that fills the remainder of the book. In scenes that are vivid yet scrupulously researched — as attested in more than 50 pages of chapter notes — Arsenault details the various organizations, personalities, triumphs and setbacks Lewis encountered during key moments of the civil rights movement. One such event began a few months after the
Nashville sit-ins, when a handful of students, including Lewis, became the first “Freedom Riders” willing to risk their lives on integrated bus rides through the Deep South. As they were beaten and arrested in several states, the protest drew national attention and soon expanded to 436 riders — and a thorn in the side of the nascent Kennedy administration. As author of the 2007 book Freedom Riders (a tie-in to an episode of the PBS series American Experience), Arsenault had already interviewed dozens of surviving protesters, politicians and others involved in the campaign. The scope of detail and actions he assembles for the biography cinematically profiles all the major characters involved — not just Lewis. By the time the book gets to the 1965 voting rights protests in Selma, the action is at fever pitch. When Dr. King tries to breach the color bar at the city’s whites-only Hotel Albert, a white supremacist begins kicking and punching him. Lewis, who is standing nearby, grabs the attacker, “immobilizing him with a bear hug.” A keen proponent of nonviolence, Lewis later explained that “at that moment something shot up in me … something protective, something
instinctive.” The subsequent “Bloody Sunday” confrontation between unarmed protesters and state troopers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge served as the opening scene of the best-selling March trilogy, a series of graphic novels Lewis wrote with co-authors Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell beginning in 2013. Younger readers who may know Lewis and the Selma story from the series can follow a literal blow-by-blow of the dramatic encounter in Arsenault’s biography. Yet the book’s most relevant — and prescient — chapters may be the later ones covering Lewis’ final years in Congress. During the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump’s rhetoric reminded Lewis “of the no-holds-barred politics of the factional leaders who once presided over the Jim Crow South.” As Lewis “witnessed the Republican Party’s complicity in Trump’s abandonment of common decency and the traditional norms and responsibilities of governance, he had the sinking feeling that American democracy itself was slipping away.” He thus leads 23 other Democratic members of Congress in boycotting Trump’s inauguration and in later opposition to many of Trump’s policies. “Part of his rationale for making ‘good trouble’ was to bring the nation closer to the realization of its professed ideals,” Arsenault writes. Diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in December 2019, Lewis spent his final weeks championing that cause. To its last page, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community presents not only the definitive history of an admirable American, but a gripping account of an American struggle for freedom that continues today. To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community By Raymond Arsenault Yale University Press 588 pages, $35
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MUSIC
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TRACKS
Brian Brown gets ready to celebrate 10 years — and counting — of outstanding hip-hop BY BRITTNEY McKENNA
SPEAKING UP
Blues maestro Shemekia Copeland sings of our world in crisis on Done Come Too Far BY BEN ARTHUR THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY, the blues has been filled with women willing to stand up against injustice and speak their truth. Think of Mamie Smith, whose “Crazy Blues” — arguably the first commercially successful recording in the genre — challenges racist and sexist views on Black women’s femininity. Or Ma Rainey’s “Cell Bound Blues,” which critiques abuse from male partners and the blind eye turned by society. Jump forward a few decades to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” a haunting and grisly depiction of lynching that captures the collective horror and grief of African Americans. And then there’s Shemekia Copeland, whose booming voice and attentive pen capture
Playing 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, at The Basement East
able to say that I’m 10 years in the game, to say I’ve had music out for that long. It’s really crazy because I’ve seen so many people come and go, or start and not finish. I just hope that, come the 27th — and really just from here on out — peo-
ple understand that, you know, it’s never overnight. No matter what they tell you, it may look like it, but it’s never overnight. You gotta keep going. Gotta keep striving. And you know what? So far, so good.” ▼
modern struggles with tact and grace. Her oeuvre is intensely expressive and evocative. Her three most recent records form a trilogy that comments on race, oppression and politics. The idea began in the wake of 2018’s America’s Child. Written directly after the birth of her son, the record features an array of guests like John Prine and Emmylou Harris, and several songs by revered writers like Mary Gauthier. Next came Uncivil War, recorded in December 2019 and released 10 months later. It earned her a fourth Grammy nomination and critical acclaim as one of the best blues singers of her generation. “But then, all hell broke loose,” Copeland tells me over the phone, in reference to 2020. “There was just so much horrible stuff happening in our country during that time. And I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really want to talk about this.’” Copeland’s latest record, 2022’s Done Come Too Far, grew out of anxieties heightened that year, including the election, the pandemic and police brutality. In her words, it’s a “time capsule” for the era. The first track, “Too Far to Be NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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PHOTO: RXCH PORTER
lot of folks. So that says a lot about me and the stuff I was trying to do.” Brown plans to play every song from 7:22 at the show, and he’s also hard at work on incorporating the intervening decade’s worth of music into his set in a way that flows musically and shows how he’s grown as an artist. He’ll be joined by a full band, with singer A.G. Sully and aforementioned rapper Chuck Indigo — who he calls “two of my favorite artists in the entire world” — playing opening sets. “I want to move forward through my career and highlight songs that were either inspired by or maybe even better versions of what’s on 7:22,” Brown says. “Taking those songs and being like, ‘This is how I was feeling. This is what it was.’ And it led to me making songs such as [2018 single] ‘The Dreamer’s Anthem,’ or ‘Runnin’’ from Journey.” Brown credits his band as an integral part of bringing his songs to life. “We’ve all got musical elements or skill sets that bring out the best in one another,” he says. “We’re gonna do our best to stay faithful to the originals. But also, I have an old soul, so I’m always throwing a cover or two into one of my songs. So you’ll definitely be hearing a lot of that — in terms of songs that influenced me and inspired me to a certain extent, that really went a long way in terms of helping to mold my career and my sound.” The songs in the set from BBGonProfit show off one of Brown’s most vibrant projects yet, with features from A.G. Sully and 30 $ALE$. Carmine Prophets will be part of the live show too, DJing for Brown. Brown’s focus is squarely on the show right now, though he does hope to release new music in the next few months; keep an ear out for new releases around his April 22 birthday. He’s also getting ready to drop visuals for BBGonProfit, saying he wants this next era to bring growth beyond his comfort zone. Until then, there’s plenty to celebrate. “I’m very proud that I’ve done such — to be
PHOTO: VICTORIA SMITH
MAKING IT A DECADE as a musician is no easy feat. Just ask Brian Brown, who will celebrate the 10th anniversary of his debut EP 7:22 at The Basement East on Tuesday. Since that 2014 release, the born-and-raised East Side rapper has become a beloved fixture of Nashville’s ever-blossoming hip-hop scene. He’s collaborated with a wealth of artists like Reaux Marquez, Yours Truly Jai, Chuck Indigo, $avvy and Namir Blade, while dropping stacks of solo tracks and EPs and two full-length records. Brown released his first LP Journey in January 2020, so the pandemic came crashing down before the masterful entertainer could give it the live treatment it deserved. On the third anniversary of its release last year, he finally got to celebrate it, along with the then-new EP Two Minute Drill. Tuesday’s show is a chance to showcase a bit of BBGonProfit, his November collaborative album with producer Carmine Prophets, but it’s also a special opportunity for the MC to reflect on how far he’s come since 7:22. Catching up with the Scene ahead of the show, Brown shares that revisiting his old material was a surprising and inspiring experience. “One thing that was so interesting was how passionate I was — maybe even angry, to an extent,” Brown says. “At that time, I was 20 years old, and I was a couple of years removed from dropping out of Western Kentucky [University]. And one of my friends had committed suicide that summer. And I just remember that moment kind of made me lock in and get as focused and as dedicated to the cause as I possibly could.” You can plainly hear his drive on 7:22. Its opening line, after all, is Brown announcing, “I swear I’m gonna get it.” And he did. “As crazy as it may have been to be so hostile, it’s just where I was at the time,” he explains. “I’m glad I was able to get that off. And people were able to relate, man. I still have people telling me all the time that ‘The Dollar Menu Ballad’ or songs like ‘Fukit.’ are still in the rotation for a
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Gone,” is a blistering guitar number centered on civil rights history, making reference to Rosa Parks on the bus in Montgomery, Ala., John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Martin Luther King Jr.’s last moments at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. It’s a manifesto against racial violence: the hate that terrorized Parks, fractured Lewis’ skull and murdered King. Not just that, but it’s a plea for the next generation not to forget where they came from while continuing the forward march toward progress. Maybe it’s because of her recent Grammys appearance, but I’m reminded of Tracy Chapman, whose tender voice criticizes systems that pin down Blacks and whites alike. Done Come Too Far was heavily influenced by the anxiety around raising a child today. “The Talk” expresses the fear of raising a son in a police state that constantly targets African American men. The song captures a parent’s delicate discussion with her son about police brutality, something no parent should have to fear but so many must. It ends on a haunting note: “As sure as you’re Black / There’s a target on your back.” “Ever since he was able to talk,” says Copeland, referring to her son, “I’ve been telling him, ‘Discipline will save your life someday.’” The next song, “Pink Turns to Red,” is also dedicated to him. It’s a biting, painful recollection of a school shooting, especially poignant in light of the Covenant School shooting. The song directly references radio host Alex Jones and the conspiracy theories he promoted about the Sandy Hook school shooting — “Said it never happened, it was fake / How much more can we all take?” — before reflecting on the senseless pain of gun violence. Copeland’s own history is steeped in the blues. Born in Harlem, her childhood was spent around guitars and clubs, soaking up musical knowledge from her father, famed musician Johnny Copeland. In the ’50s, he recorded blues records throughout the South, but moved to New York City in 1976. Three years later, he signed to Rounder and put out a phenomenal run of records culminating in the Grammy-winning Showdown!, a collaborative album with Albert Collins and Robert Cray. In his later years, the elder Copeland played at an array of high-profile festivals, including a famous appearance at Montreux Jazz Festival with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Against this backdrop, Shemekia Copeland first began considering a career in music. “It was always around the house,” she says. Her first time onstage was at the legendary Cotton Club, the Harlem venue where artists like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway honed their skills. From there, she went on tour opening for her father, and it’s been a wild ride ever since, including four Grammy nominations, playing at the White House, opening for The Rolling Stones, meeting her musical heroes like John Prine and releasing some damn good blues records. “I cherish all the great moments that I’ve had, you know, but the greatest moments haven’t happened yet. … [I’m] just looking forward, no matter what.” ▼
Playing 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, at City Winery
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SHE’S GOT EVERYTHING SHE NEEDS Cat Power’s homage to an infamous Dylan concert transcends nostalgia BY TOBY ROSE
PEOPLE HAVE EITHER never heard of Cat Power, the stage name of singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, or they’d lie down in traffic for her. Born in Atlanta, she has played all over the world to sold-out audiences and released 12 albums since the mid-’90s, battling with mental health and medical conditions but continuing to create. Her evolution of moods and styles has been essential to her career, and some consider her records modern classics. Mostly, devoted listeners are drawn to her voice. Marshall has the ability to bring all her feelings to the surface through songs that express life’s beauty and pain. She is also an exceptionally gifted interpreter of other artists’ music and has released multiple collections of cover songs. From mega-hits like the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” to songs that deserve to be remembered better like “I’ll Be Seeing You” (made famous by Billie Holiday), Marshall renders them with exquisite beauty and an emotional depth sometimes overshadowed in the original versions. Recently, Marshall has turned this talent toward her idol — and someone else who can be a polarizing figure — Bob Dylan. In November 2022, she performed her most ambitious homage to date: At London’s Royal Albert Hall, she reimagined the infamous concert Dylan performed a few hours away at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966. Until
an official release in 1998, bootleg copies of the show recording were labeled with the wrong location, so it was known as “the Royal Albert Hall Concert.” His landmark Nashville-recorded album Blonde on Blonde had been released in the U.K. the day before the show. The first set was acoustic, well-received by an audience that looked to Dylan as a folk hero, above the commercial aspirations of rock music. The second set was electric — backed by The Hawks, who would later rename themselves The Band — and so divisive that one heckler notoriously shouted “JUDAS!” at the perceived turncoat singer. Fueled by the escalating discontent, Dylan heckled back, mumbling into the mic to trick the crowd into quieting down and instructing the band to “play it fucking loud” as they roared into the show-closing “Like a Rolling Stone.” Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert is a song-by-song re-creation of Dylan’s set list that night. Though the arrangements are largely faithful to the original concert, Marshall avoids the nostalgia trap of merely mimicking Dylan’s own phrasing and channels the mythic energy of the show, which happened five years before she was born. And, well, it sounds like Dylan on downers. Her sultry voice is pitched far deeper than Dylan’s, making it easier to understand the lyrics — and has there ever been a better lyric than “Drawing
crazy patterns on your sheets”? Whatever you’re going through in life, there’s a Dylan song for it, adding to the sense that he’s the only one who ever figured it out, and that feeling radiates out from Marshall’s interpretation. Marshall is on an international tour for the album, which stops Sunday at the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was firing on all cylinders at her Memphis show in December. Its breathtaking acoustic portion felt intimate, pumping new luster into well-worn classics, while the electric set was raw and joyous and hopeful. The audience skewed older, including perhaps some fans who were discovering Dylan themselves in 1966. Far from the original show’s skepticism and unease, they seemed to revere both the material and the new perspective Marshall brought to it. Instead of dancing as she usually does, she stood mostly still, propped up on 5-inch Louboutins, effortlessly breathing her own spirit into the songs while also capturing the essence of her hero. ▼
Playing 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater
NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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MUSIC: THE SPIN
CALL HIM BIG DADDY BY STEPHEN TRAGESER “IT’S FREEZING OUTSIDE,” said Juvenile, taking a breather during Friday’s show at Brooklyn Bowl. “Where the fuck that shit come from?” The preceding week was unseasonably warm and springlike, but evening showers precipitated a sudden return to midwinter that might have dampened the mood at your average gig. But Juvie is a legend from the Cash Money extended family, heroes of New Orleans hip-hop who played a major role in putting the Dirty South on the map in the rap world. It might have been a couple days past Mardi Gras, but he and The Tiny Desk Band — a condensed touring unit including members of the massive ensemble that backed him up for his sensational 2023 Tiny Desk Concert — were in town Thursday and Friday to party, and they weren’t about to let anyone get out of the building without getting down. To set the mood, a pair of DJs traded off about every 15 minutes over an hour-and-a-half block. Up first in the rotation was Nashville’s own Spice J, and it’s hard to imagine a better choice. He’s deeply tuned-in to New Orleans music; since he’s the first person I heard bumping Big Freedia around town back when she was first making waves outside Louisiana, I’ve taken to calling him Music City’s Honorary Ambassador of Bounce. More importantly, he’s a master at working the crowd by showing them how much he’s digging what he’s playing, constantly dancing and lip-syncing along whether the track is “No Ordinary Love” or a mashup of “Miss New Booty” and “The Safety Dance.” He also seems to have discovered a magic spell in Tevin Campbell’s 1993 slow jam “Can We Talk”; I’ve heard some good sing-alongs, but I can’t remember one more enthusiastic than when Spice J cued it up and turned the mic to the audience. That lit a fire under Juvenile’s touring opener Core DJ Kev, who brought a great contrast with high-energy Aughts rap tracks like Dorrough’s “Ice Cream Paint Job” and Choppa’s
“Choppa Style.” The crowd was fully hyped up and limber by the main event, which kicked off just a little after 9:30 p.m. Wearing his big fuzzy hat like a crown, Juvenile came roaring out of the gate with “Ha,” a song from his landmark album 400 Degreez; that record dropped in 1998, and this live-band tour is partly to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Most of the lines reflect on a person’s actions or circumstances and end in “ha”; sometimes it’s a scornful laugh about poor choices or bad luck, and sometimes it’s Juvie expressing surprise about things going well for himself, or seeing things in himself he might not have expected. Friday, it felt like a well-deserved victory lap, and it was at the start of the show. Punctuated by a call-and-response that tied the show to Mardi Gras Indian traditions, the hourlong set paid ample tribute to 400 Degreez, including a ferocious run through “Welcome 2 Tha Nolia” and the indelible all-time party-starter “Back That Azz Up.” As you might expect, “Azz” ended the show on a high note, preceded by the ultra-groovy “Slow Motion.” There was a mellow take on 2006’s “Rodeo” too, among lots of tributes to the Cash Money crew Juvie came up with. Big Tymers’ “Get Your Roll On” was a natural highlight, as was “I Need a Hot Girl” by the Hot Boys, the ’90s NOLA rap version of a boy band made up of Juvenile, Lil Wayne, B.G. and Turk. As during the Tiny Desk Concert, Juvenile acknowledged that he wasn’t even on the original “Hot Girl” track (though he was in the video), and shouted out Turk’s verse, which he turned into his own part on Big Tymers’ “Project Bitch.” Despite struggling a little with a strained voice, Juvie had a sold-out crowd to help him perform “Project Bitch” a cappella. They sang back every word to that song and practically every other one. The show ran like clockwork, despite a brief interruption for what looked like a medical emergency. I could see someone being escorted out about five minutes later, so it seems all ended well. If you’re lucky, you live long enough for things you thought of as new and exciting to become meaningful cultural touchstones. New Orleans rap has been instrumental in shaping hip-hop’s development in the 21st century. Juvenile appears rightly proud of his contributions, and it feels great to see the world loving him back. ▼
Saturday, February 24
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PHOTO: PAIGE KEITH
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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FILM
TAKING THE THRONE Wim Wenders and Kōji Yakusho look for the poetry in routine with Perfect Days BY KEN ARNOLD
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Photo by Jonathan Godson
— SceneWeb France
IN 2020, THE Tokyo Toilet Project started its mission to redesign 17 public restrooms in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. The project’s goal was to change public opinion of restrooms by working with 16 highly renowned architects and making stylish designs, such as the famous transparent restroom by Shigeru Ban. What’s more, each toilet receives three daily cleanings, plus monthly deep cleans and maintenance. But the toilets were unveiled to the Japanese public during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the nation was closed. Project lead Koji Yanai decided to invite acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders to Tokyo in hopes that these new toilets would inspire him. Indeed, Wenders was inspired to capture the moments of Tokyo returning to normal as the pandemic waned. He cast legendary Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho in the main role, and Perfect Days was born. Hirayama (Yakusho) is a member of the maintenance team at The Tokyo Toilet. He wakes up every morning before work to water his plants, grab a coffee from the vending machine and pop a cassette tape into his van for the commute. At work he wipes down each toilet and moves on to the next one, stopping at lunchtime to enjoy a sandwich in the park, where he indulges in his hobby of taking pictures of trees. He visits his favorite restaurant after work, enjoys a nice book before bed and does it all again the next day. This is Hirayama’s daily routine. But routines don’t always unfold the same way as the days tick by. Little differences and daily challenges from co-workers and family begin to rear their heads. Perfect Days is all about the little things in life, and it shines in its depiction of life’s occasional simplicity. Through Hirayama’s routine, we are slowly pulled into his life and become progressively more invested in the character. It’s a strategy that pays off when the movie slows us to its meditative pace and lets the beauty of life’s
small joys shine. It’s a tranquil film, due in part to both the dreamy documentary style of cinematographer Franz Lustig and minimalist sound design that captures the ambience of the parks where the toilets are located. The score consists of the contents of Hirayama’s cassette collection, including The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and Lou Reed. Despite the language barrier between the director and his lead actor, Wenders and Yakusho work together brilliantly. As they explained during a press conference at Cannes, where Yakusho won the prize for Best Actor, the duo worked through a tight three-week shooting schedule without rehearsals. Yakusho improvised entire scenes and also went as far as to work with Tokyo Toilet maintenance staff while Wenders hammered out a script in only two weeks. Together they created a character that serves as an inspiration for the people who feel burnt-out in their current life to take care of all the things that we take for granted — down to the place designated for disposing of waste. Perfect Days is a modern masterpiece and a celebration of life. It’s a movie that may inspire you to try taking your time to breathe, slow down and live in the moment. Led by Yakusho’s award-winning performance and Wenders proudly displaying his Yasujirō Ozu inspiration on his sleeve, this is a rare bright spot of happiness proving that the small moments that make life worth living can be found anywhere — even while cleaning toilets. ▼
Perfect Days PG, 125 minutes; in Japanese with English subtitles Opening Thursday, Feb. 22, at the Belcourt
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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BACK OF THE BOOK EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
THIS TIME AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE BROUGHT TO YOU BY KENNETH TROOPE AT COMMUNITY MORTGAGE ADVISORS 58
Part of some Italian church names
“Ol’ Man River” singer, traditionally
59
Jeremiad
5
Rights advocacy org.
60
Take a ___
9
“The food of love,” per Shakespeare
ACROSS 1
14
DOWN
Source of down
28
Scattered, as seed
29
Uninspiring
30
Prefix with directional
34
Hot shot?
Expeditions, e.g.
35
Challenged
2
Coming to blows, say
39
3
Indigenous race in the “Avatar” movies
Cheery refrains from the Seven Dwarfs
41
Big-game hunting targets in the classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game”
1
Territory reached along the Oregon Trail
27
15
Pirate’s swill
16
Feeling the need to pace, say
4
17
Actress who portrayed Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois
5
Radiant
42
Most prying
19
Spring zodiac symbol
6
Old-fashioned news source
43
Aerodynamic resistance
20
Cocktails with brandy and crème de menthe
7
Records
46
Take a ___
8
47
Ape
“Gross!”
Holy title in Tibet
21
9
48
Doomed to fail, for short
Charger dodgers
Early Quechua speaker
22
10
49
Co-Nobelist of 1978
Open on Christmas, say
23
11
What “T” stands for in video game ratings
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Awards that only one college athlete has ever won twice
What a provocateur aims to do
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“Money ___ object”
50
Peut-___ (French “maybe”)
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Concern for a dermatologist
51
High-end camera brand
18
World Vision and others, for short
52
Stressor for some H.S. sophomores
54
Dip stick?
29
Some stock in the exotic pet trade
31
Cow, often
32
Japan’s ___ Castle
33
K-O connector
34
Ones getting the last word in
36
Spot for a hymnbook
37
Country west of Zambia: Abbr.
38
Katey who played TV’s Peg Bundy
39
Something that a ram and a Ram have in common
40
Atkins, for one
44
Tackle box assortment
45
The “O” of 18-Down
46
Said nasty things about
48
“We appreciate the contribution”
53
Shouts of accomplishment
54
Complete reversals
55
Church chorus?
56
Really cool, in dated slang
57
Black-and-white danger
What Columbus thought he’d reached in 1492
21
Utensil for peeling
23
Ratfink
24
Soars near the shore, maybe
25
Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short, in a 1986 comedy
26
Away from
NO. 0118
PUZZLE BY JON MICHNOVICZ AND CARL MICHNOVICZ
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Which has been filed in Fourth Circuit Court, Davidson County, Tennessee, And your defense must be made within thirty (30) days from the date of the last Publication of this notice, which shall be published for four consecutive weeks in the Nashville Scene newspaper. You are further directed to file your defense with the Clerk of the Court and send a copy to the Plaintiff’s attorney at the address listed below. In case of your failure to defend this action by the above date, a judgment by default may be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. Joseph P. Day, Clerk Issued 01/31/24 Plaintiff: Maha Alhassan WELTY LAW OFFICE Nicole Giometti-Black 4525 Charlotte Ave. Nashville, TN 37209
FOR SALE Auction March 2, 2024 @11:00am Located at Elm Hill Marina 3361 Bell Road Nashville, TN 37214 The following list of boats will be set for auction: 1. 1974 Erickson Sailboat 1975 TN # TN 1511 CC Hull ID: 125 (unsure) 2. 1972 Erickson Sailboat 1973 TN #: TN 8576 KD Hull ID: 4. 1990 Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser 1991 TN #: TN 7607 BE Hull ID: SERM 6335 F990 5. 1982 Sea Ray Runabout 1983 TN #: TN 1955 DK Hull ID: BL4A 11CC F788 or BL4A 11CG F788 6. 2019SundancerCenterCons ole No TN # 5620RA Hull ID: SVTB 8726 E718 7. 1998 Tahoe Pontoon TN #: TN 2256 CF Hull ID: DVN 2798 1D848 8. TN2916DR Hull S001430778-S25 H52 1978 Santana 9. TN6406EK Hull RAY263840173 1973 Ranger 10. was last TN registered owner in 2017. Unknown brand, “Scotian” TN# TN8836BU HIN# HUN54475M79H-27
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100 John Green Pl, Nashville TN 37174 southavenatcommonwealth.com | 855.646.0047
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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NASHVILLE SCENE • FEBRUARY 22 - FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • nashvillescene.com
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