Vol. V. Issue 5 by The East Nashvillian

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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PUBLISHER Lisa McCauley EDITOR Chuck Allen COPY EDITOR Nicole Keiper

CALENDAR EDITOR Emma Alford

DESIGN DIRECTOR Benjamin Rumble

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Chuck Allen

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Stacie Huckeba

ADVERTISING DESIGN Benjamin Rumble

SOCIAL MEDIA Nicole Keiper

ILLUSTRATIONS Benjamin Rumble, Dean Tomasek

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ellen Mallernee Barnes, Melissa D. Corbin, Timothy C. Davis, Jeff Finlin, Randy Fox, Jon Gugala, James Haggerty, Eric Jans, Jennifer Justus, Daryl Sanders, Tommy Womack CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Leah Cameron of Sneaky Ninja Inc., Dave Cardaciotto, Stacey Irvin, telefunky, Tiffany Mitchell INTERNS Victoria Clodfelter, Emily Hunerwadel ADVERTISING CONTACT Lisa McCauley lisa@theeastnashvillian.com 615.582.4187

www.theeastnashvillian.com

Kitchen

Table Media Company Est.2010

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©2014 Kitchen Table Media P.O. Box 60157 Nashville, TN 37206 The East Nashvillian is a bi-monthly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. This publication is offered freely, limited to one per reader. The removal of more than one copy by an individual from any of our distribution points constitutes theft and will be subject to prosecution. All editorial and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media unless otherwise noted. Reprints or any other usage is a violation of copyright without the express written permission of the publisher. Correction: In our March|April 2014 issue, page 67, Tarrick Love was incorrectly quoted as saying he likes the “Wild Factor” in homes, when the quote should have been “Wow Factor.” Mr. Love was also misquoted as having said “Bynum doesn’t necessarily have a grasp on budget.” Mr. Love assures is that this is certainly not the case. Please accept our apology for these errors and any hard feelings they may have caused.

“Word is that you are looking for a Realtor. I closed on a house in East Nashville.

It was a

c o mm un i ty ho ur Come visit us for community hour, where a portion of our proceeds benefit Lockeland Design Center PTO. Snacks, drinks and kids menus available.

Monday - Saturday, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Jeremy is knowledgeable, extremely

familiar with the East Nashville market and trends and he is a joy to work with—unless

you are looking for a pushy, obnoxious guy who thinks he knows what you want more than you do, dresses like it’s 1980 and wears way too much Polo cologne.

Then he is definitely NOT your Realtor.” —John, Golden Spiral Creative JEREMY HUNDLEY, REALTOR Hodges & Fooshee Realty Inc. call or text 615-481-7321 HundleyHouse @gmail.com

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COVER

TO BE HEALTHY DRINK LOCKELAND SPRINGS WATER Stimulates the Appetite • Aids Digestion By Timothy C. Davis

FEATURES

HOPE REBUILT

Rebuilding Together renovates 15 Cleveland and McFerrin Park homes By Ellen Mallernee Barnes

Nashville’s Annual Hot Chicken Festival brings pain, pleasure and excruciating heat — and we wouldn’t want it any other way By Randy Fox

This June marks the 10th anniversary of Bonnaroo’s famed Hay Bale Studio; here’s a look at the guys who’ve made it happen CHAD EVANS: Supplier of mega-cool gear By Randy Fox

ELIJAH “Lij” SHAW: The Hay Bale Sessions

Stratford STEM Magnet High School starts over to revolutionize Nashville’s workforce, with or without college By Jon Gugala

CHICKEN SHACK BOOGIE

INSIDE HAY BALE

STEM-ING THE TIDE

THE BURNOUT DIARIES

PICTURES FROM THE RIVER’S OTHER SIDE

Todd Snider writes a book By Daryl Sanders

Filmmaker Ron Coons captures a moment in time with “East Side of the River” By Randy Fox

By Jeff Finlin

Airbnb THE EAST SIDE WAY

From the Boom Chucka Boys to newlyweds to a Sigor Rós bandmember, there’s just no telling who owners might rub elbows with at the latest idea in lodging By Jennifer Justus

ON THE COVER

LOCKELAND SPRINGS Design by Benjamin Rumble

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

16 18

18 Goodnight, Sweet Prince

In Business News ... By Eric Jans

By Chuck Allen

Overlay Me By Timothy C. Davis

COMMENTARY

12 Editor’s Letter 14 Astute Observations

96 East of Normal

By Chuck Allen

By Tommy Womack

By James “Hags” Haggerty

IN THE KNOW

Know Your Neighbor: Cabot Cameron By Ellen Mallernee Barnes

Artist in Profile:

71 Cookin’ in da Hood 73 East Side Calendar By Melissa D. Corbin By Emma Alford

Gwil Owens By Jeff Finlin

PARTING SHOT

Steve Chapman

Country Music Marathon

Photographed by Dave Cardaciotto

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THURSDAY THURSDAY

June 5

EAST PARK

FREE FREE CONCERT!

Enjoy a night of music and magic with the Nashville Symphony! FOR MORE INFO: 615.687.6400 NashvilleSymphony.org SPONSOR

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Keep Your Hands Off Of My Stack

elcome to our latest issue. This one has it all: history, art, food & lodging, music, rants, raves … even Bonnaroo. Seriously, who could ask for anything more? If holding a bona fide, printed-in-the-USofA on actual paper magazine is too old school for you, well, heck, you can read it online or even download a .pdf for later perusal. I know how hard it can be to maintain a sunny attitude these days, what with humanity slowly coming to terms with having seriously screwed up the only home it has. It’s as if we’ve been on an industrial age bender and are suffering a hangover of hubris. What amazes me is how desperately people cling to the status quo. The idea of taking a different approach seems to make us soil our collective diapers. Public transportation? Hell no, I’ll die without my car. Sustainable agriculture? Sounds communist. Ridding the beef and poultry supplies of growth stimulating antibiotics? Let the free market decide.

“

people who have worked hard and surmounted the seemingly insurmountable in order to achieve greatness. I’ve always believed hard work and ingenuity should be rewarded accordingly. The free market isn’t the issue. Nor is it self-interest. To deny we all have self-interest is disingenuous. The issue is that we’re asking the wrong questions. We are much closer to agreement than things might appear on the surface, if only the conversation changes from one of ideological finger pointing to one of an earnest search for the right questions. For me it’s simple: What constitutes quality of life? Set aside all other arguments and simply ponder this one question. I would argue that, in large part, East Nashvillians have considered this. Furthermore, I would venture a guess that quality of life is a primary reason the East Nashville community has become so popular.

We are all responsible.

”

That’s right, every last one of us is responsible for the la-la land in which we live.

Obamacare? The socialists are coming! Government? Who needs it. Climate change? It’s a left-wing conspiracy!!! Yeah, optimism is an elusive mistress. I recently read a study that finds only one in three adults in this country can name the three branches of government. Wow. That simply amazes me. The monkeys are running the zoo. Is it any wonder we’re in a pickle? When high school students are asked what they want to be when the grow up respond in huge numbers, “famous,” and then are asked, “famous for what?” and they reply, “Who cares? Just famous,” … WOW. We are all responsible. That’s right, every last one of us is responsible for the la-la land in which we live. China sucks, but I love my iPhone. Do you shop at Wal-Mart? Then never, ever bitch about jobs being shipped overseas. Ever. Did you lose your job during the great recession, but you still have an account with Bank of America? You’re either ignorant, or you’re stupid. Hate customer service at Comcast but scream for deregulation? You can’t have both. Celebrating rugged individualism is a national pastime. The old “he started out barefoot and dirt poor and now he’s a millionaire” story is ingrained in the lexicon. I have no qualms with this. I’ve known plenty of people whose attitude is to do their bare minimum in order to get by, just as I’ve known

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One of the reasons people have become freaked-out lately about some of the residential development isn’t that they’re anti-development per se, rather, it’s that they’re anti-homogenization. As we awaken from the dream of never-ending growth, we’re realizing the importance of our local communities, our local businesses, our local schools and churches and sidewalks and dog parks and green spaces. We realize the importance of our local culture. When we’re are willing to become honest with ourselves about what it really means to have a high quality of life — which is different than a high standard of living — we then become willing to assess the true costs of all of our decisions. We realize there is no “out of sight, out of mind.” Everything we do to our environment, we do to ourselves. The resources we consume now mean fewer resources down the road. The earth doesn’t need us. If we destroy the environment we destroy ourselves. Geological time is beyond our comprehension, though not beyond measurement. Take a walk down to Lockeland Springs and check out the ruins of the bottling company to see evidence of how quickly Mother Nature reclaims what we leave behind. Asking new questions. That’s what it’s all about.

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LOCATED BEHIND UGLY MUGS

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{ ASTUTE OBSERVATIONS } for the

E ast Side ...& beyond By

James “ HAGS ” Haggerty

There’s Groove in them Grooves

reetings once again, dear readers of The East Nashvillian magazine.

I have consumed a half pot of coffee and an orange and just finished listening to sides one and two of Donny Hathaway’s long playing 33⅓ rpm record, “Extension of a Man,” part of this Sunday morning’s easy vinyl soundtrack. Which brings me to the topic for this month’s column … Records: mysterious, romantic grooves full of sound. I love thee.

I love walking to the shelves, scanning the covers. What do I want to hear? First record this morning, something mellow to go with coffee. Bill Evans Trio Live’s “Waltz for Debbie.” Evans’ subtle playing warms up my brain and happiness fills the room. A moment in time, 1964: Glasses clinking, voices murmuring softly, I am there. I’m in the audience, listening, maybe on a date with my beautiful girl. Aaaah, records … The following is a true story. I went to a 4th of July pool party full of fun, food, laughter, bikinis, and more than one beer. When I got home, it was not time for a nightcap, nor was it sleepy time. No, this called for more than a nightcap — a night sombrero, perhaps. Straight to the stack for the soundtrack. “Van Halen II” of course. Turn it up! I did just that, more and more. I was having a party with Eddie and Diamond Dave! Blew a tweeter somewhere around the outro to “D.O.A.” I had a replacement tweeter … five minutes later? “Fair Warning,” “Mean Street” for the win! Such is the power of records. That tweeter blowing late night VH party might as well have been July 4th, 1989, just out of high school, on fire and wide open; music for

—

young people, by young people. Too loud? Never! “Fair Warning” spinning on the turntable took me there. Records are like that. The grooves hold memories. Your old pals, your old flame. The time you packed eight people in a Chevy Chevette and drove eight hours to go to the show. Records sound great, with their big, dimensional sound. I love ‘em. I have digital music but I prefer a clean record every time, both sonically and philosophically. They are a direct link from the band to me. Played and recorded, pressed at the plant and shipped to the record store. Then comes the treasure hunt through the shelves and hurrying home. Drop the needle and there it is — from a spinning tape machine to my spinning turntable. That is sexy. That turns me on. That is real. When you buy an MP3, what have you got? Space on a hard drive or something invisible in an imaginary Internet cloud, I think? MP3s: zeros, ones, algorithms that don’t sound good. I suck at math. Records are tangible. I can see, hear and touch them. A record is a physical artifact of a moment in time. Donny Hathaway is no longer with us, but he was with me this morning in my living room. His music, his voice. Dimensional, real and alive. You can’t hold an MP3 in your hands and dig on the artwork or the picture of the band recording in some exotic studio location like Montserrat or Switzerland or London or New York City. Nope. You can’t read the liner notes to learn which musician played the solo that really captured your ear. Turn off the computer. Turn on the turntable! In closing, dear reader, I leave you with point five of the foolproof five point seduction plan of ladies’ man and ticket scalper Mike Damone from the classic Cameron Crowe film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: “And five, now this is the most important, Rat. When it comes down to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of ‘Led Zeppelin IV.’” Get your groove on, East Nashville. Happy listening!

Once Hags’ dreams of being a musician had been trampled upon by the hard realities of life, he decided to become a bass player. When he’s not in the studio, Hags can be seen eight nights a week playing around town with pretty much everybody. Fortunately, he still finds time to provide The East Nashvillian with his “astute observations” about life here in the promised land.

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Free Meet & Greet Friday May 16 6:00 PM at the Entrepreneur Center May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

EAST SIDE BUZZ

In Business News ...

THE LOCAL TACO COMING TO 11TH and Fatherland is the big news this month. As their name suggests, the restaurant specializes in tacos, and they plan to apply for a beer and liquor license. This is The Local Taco’s sixth location (the third in Nashville), and they plan to open this summer, joining vegan restaurant Spark of Life, juice bar Lynne Lorraine’s, and retail stores Thrive and nancybgoods in the newly constructed building at 1100 Fatherland St. We were heartbroken to hear that Ken’s Sushi was no longer moving to 923 Main St. That space will, however, still house a sushi restaurant: It was announced recently that Koi Sushi and Thai would be moving in. This will be the Japanese restaurant’s third location in the Nashville area, and they also plan to open this summer. Paro South has acquired the former home of All Nite Glass, at 626 Main St. It sits across the street from Christian Paro’s Center 615, on the block that includes Greg’s Auto, Little Italy Pizza and Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish. They plan to have two retail/restaurant spaces downstairs and office space upstairs.

Bella Nashville Bakery (1010 Fatherland St.) and Five Points Cocina Mexicana (972 Main St.) are open; Eastside Fish has closed, and Ghot Wingz has taken over their space at 2617 Gallatin Pike. Work is set to start on the third phase of

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Walden — directly across the parking lot from Jeni’s, Silly Goose, and Ugly Mugs — in the fall. The historic house currently occupying that space will be torn down to accommodate a new building similar to the first two phases. The new development will have retail on the first floor, and two floors of apartments above. POP will take over the former Steve’s Restaurant location at 604 Gallatin Ave #201, introducing a new concept to Nashville: a pop-up restaurant space. Different restaurant concepts will try out their menus over a time period or guest chefs will host events. Grab more info at www.popnashville.com. Ground is about to be broken for a new apartment building on the lot to the east of 5th and Main. EOA Architects — who recently relocated their offices to 5th and Main — is designing the four-story project, which will include 238 apartments. Video production company Moo Creative also recently moved into 5th and Main. Other businesses in the building include The Bradford Group, Edward Jones, and Antica. Boutique musical instrument store The Old Time Pickin Parlor has moved to East Nashville. They offer music lessons and instruction catering to alternative/roots musicians and carry retail items for sale. They are located near Sweet 16th Bakery at 307 N. 16th St. Vintage/antique store Lost Century opens soon at 1011 Gallatin, right next door to Spot’s Pet Supply. Artisan chocolatier/confectioner Chocolate F/X joins the Shoppes at Fatherland this spring. They’ll take over Baxter & Bailey’s current space, after the luxury dog product providers move to a larger space in the complex near Fatherland. — EJ

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ESB

Overlay Me

BRETT WITHERS, PRESIDENT OF THE Eastwood Neighbors Neighborhood Association, tells us that the expansion of the Eastwood Neighborhood Conservation Overlay passed all three public hearings in March and April, and that the legislation, signed by Mayor Dean on April 16, became effective on April 18. The expansion, he says, more than doubled the size of the district to cover about two-thirds of Eastwood from Gallatin to Porter and from Eastland up to Douglas/the CSX railroad tracks. The new boundaries also include one block on the east side of Porter where Cafe Fundamental is located. At press time, Lockeland Springs has an expansion of their Overlay up for public hearing before the Metro Council. This expansion would cover the area from Ordway up to Eastland and from Rudolph to North 18th S. If approved on May 6, this expansion could take effect by Memorial Day. Withers said a few other proposals are looming, including a possible county-wide ban on umbilicals and tall/skinny houses and a new category of Overlays. — TCD

his photograph, he offered no indication that his health had taken a turn for the worse; quite the contrary — he was very upbeat and excited about the entire experience, wanting me to make sure I did right by him with my photograph. He loved the idea of having his picture taken at the corner table with the old photographs that once hung in Es Fernandos many years ago serving as a backdrop. The last time I saw Ernie was about a week later when I was in Rosepepper for lunch. I tried to say, “Hi,” but he was busy pitching in during the lunch rush and I couldn’t get his attention. He loved Rosepepper and was proud to have been a pionier in East Nashville’s bar and resturant renaissance. A memorial service held March 31 at Rosepepper in his honor was a testament to the community Ernie helped build. The tequila flowed right along with the tears, and, though bittersweet, the joy of celebrating a life well lived outweighed the sorrow of Ernie’s passing. Here’s to Ernie Chaires. Peace be with you, my friend. — CA

Goodnight, Sweet Prince

IT IS WITH HEAVY HEARTS THAT WE SAY goodbye to our friend and neighbor, Ernie Chaires, who passed away on March 23. He was 62. Ernie was the focus of our Know Your Neighbor feature in the March|April issue, and when I met him at Rosepepper to take 18

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Hope

Rebuilt Rebuilding Together renovates 15 Cleveland and McFerrin Park homes by Ellen Mallernee Barnes

orothy Miller, age 77, has nine children, each of whom she raised in the little blue house with the green tin roof on Meridian Street where she has lived for more than 40 years. If you knock, Dorothy will invite you in. She’ll pat and smooth a place for you on her sofa and tell you anything you want to know. She’ll be especially happy to see you if she’s first been able to fix her hair, which is dyed a dusty purple.

After Dorothy’s children were grown, she used her Cleveland Park home, built in 1930, as a daycare. She used it, too, as home base for her family during the holidays. But last year Dorothy’s children told her it was time to host Christmas somewhere else. The walls of Dorothy’s home recoil from the ceiling, terribly water-damaged because of a leak in the roof. A metal tub catches the rainwater that sluices into her kitchen. When it’s storming the tub has to be emptied in the middle of the night. Throughout her home the floors sag. The toilet often won’t flush. But Dorothy points out the good — her “old-timey” built-in broom closet, for instance — right along with the bad. “I love old houses,” she says proudly. This will be the last time Dorothy’s house will look like this. Thanks to the local chapter of a national nonprofit called Rebuilding Together and the friendly mob of architects, engineers, contractors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers (some from across the country) that Rebuilding Together has assembled, Dorothy and 14 other homeowners on Meridian and nearby Stockell Street will get all the necessary repairs that their old homes need to be safe and healthy. It will cost these homeowners — who are for the most part elderly and who live at or below the poverty level — nothing. “These are critical repairs that keep people safe and give them back basic function that most of us take for granted,” says Rebuilding Together

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executive director Becky Carter. The repairs are a gift from Rebuilding Together, and the building materials are donated or deeply discounted by corporate sponsors like Lowe’s, Louisiana Pacific, First Tennessee Foundation, SunTrust Foundation, and Huskey Lumber. Each year Rebuilding Together Nashville, which takes applications through its website, “rebuilds” 20 to 40 individual residences throughout the city, but this month the chapter will hold its first-ever community rebuild. From Thursday, May 29, through Saturday, May 31, the Building a Healthy Neighborhood event will see a tremendous amount of elbow grease applied to the 15 Cleveland and McFerrin Park homes selected by the Rebuilding Together team. They’ll also cut the ribbon on a new playground they’ve assembled at Glenn Elementary on Cleveland St. “Cleveland and McFerrin Park are going

through an exciting transition, a transition we believe we can help with,” says Megan Kruse, an AmeriCorps project coordinator serving with Rebuilding Together Nashville. “During the past few years, crime has decreased, services have increased, and investors and realtors are buying and renovating properties. Increasingly, Cleveland and McFerrin Park are places where people want to move to and live. Many of the longtime residents who remember what the community was like less than a decade ago want to be part of this community revival and renewal but do not have the means or the money.” Twenty volunteers and a “house captain” are assigned to each rebuild. A lanky, dark-haired architect named Jonathan Sexton, of Smith Gee Studio, serves as Dorothy’s house captain. From the Rebuilding Together headquarters at Cummins Station, he catalogs the areas of her home that most need attention, namely the roof and drywall, though the broken windows,

“This was a good house. It is still, but it needs some work done on it.”

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

flooring, and plumbing also cry out for repairs. Projecting budgets for the rebuilds is no easy task. Sexton says he hopes not to find mold when he and his team rip into Dorothy’s home, but with a grin he points out that her walls have so many holes that the home is actually pretty well ventilated. “This was a good house,” Dorothy says. “It is still, but it needs some work done on it. I wasn’t able to have the work done on it that was needed, and that’s the reason I was so proud to see somebody come around and try to help.” Many decades ago, before Dorothy lived on Meridian Street, she lived in public housing. In the ’60s, she worked for a woman who gave her the money to buy this house in exchange for Dorothy’s care of the woman’s special needs son after her death. “She told me she was going to help me buy a house,” says Dorothy. “She said, ‘My husband is stingy, but this is my money,’ and she said, ‘Dorothy, you is so sweet, you is good. I want you

to get you a house and get out of the projects.’ She did what she said and gave me the money to buy my house.” Along with her own children, Dorothy cared for the boy until his death. She sat on the nest egg left for her by his mother for 10 years before her daughter discovered the Meridian Street house for sale and ran home to tell Dorothy about it. Today Dorothy loves this house as much as she did the day she first laid eyes on it. From her bedroom come the sounds of a soap opera

on her old TV set. Settled on her sofa, hands resting peaceably in her lap, she appears on the precipice of something. There is joy in her eyes. Other than a large photograph of her beloved late son, she’s taken down all the mementos from her walls in anticipation of the transformation that will take place here. The renovations are still nearly two months away. “They’re going to paint my walls,” says Dorothy. “They didn’t tell me what color, but I hope it’s a beautiful color because I like bright things. I just want it beautiful.”

— Dorothy Miller

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

KNOW

your

NEIGH

BOR

Cabot Cameron Story by

Photograph by telefunky

Ellen Mallernee Barnes

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

efore Cabot Cameron came to be Nashville’s tree-guru-in-residence, he lived alone amidst 100 acres of thick New Hampshire timber in a post-and-beam cottage he built himself. “It was my after-college project, but it was kind of unrealistic to live so far back in the woods,” he says. The Western New York native found his way to the White Mountains outside of Franconia, N.H., as a ski racer whose college team practiced there. “That mountain community was so attractive to me that I thought that would be a good place to live,” he says. “I started my forestry business there because I didn’t even know arboriculture was a career.” Within a

Hampshire, Cameron crafted the exceptionally well-respected and service-minded Druid Tree Service, now in its 36th year. Today he’s proud to reveal that beyond workers’ compensation, the company provides health insurance, paid vacation, and retirement pay to its employees. “We make sure our foreign-born workers are documented as either guest workers or green cards, and they get continuing education in safety and the field of arboriculture by becoming certified tree workers, climbers, and then arborists,” says Cameron. What exactly do Cameron and his team of workers, climbers, and arborists do? Other than drive around East Nashville and shake their heads wearily at all the tree “topping” going on? (Incidentally, trimming the top of a tree — known as “topping” — is, Cameron says, “done out of ignorance.” Many people

“My favorite tree is a white oak, and the reason is because the druids would do their ceremonies in white oak groves. It’s the oldest living tree around here.” couple of years, Cameron met an arborist frank enough to tell him he didn’t have the brawny build of a logger but the physique of an arborist. Cameron quickly and happily went from tipping trees over on a dime to climbing them, trimming them, protecting them, getting to know them. Cameron, who lives with his wife Angelia and their two teenagers in Lockeland Springs, first brought his expertise to Nashville in 1978 because a friend here told him the city was untapped. There were no arborists in the phone book then. Between extended ski trips back to New

think that if a tree is tall it’s more likely to fall, which is not necessarily true. Thinning a tree of its dead branches, rather than topping it, will prevent both gravity and wind from taking a toll. As for the job description, it’s extensive. Druid Tree Service variously handles plant health care, pest and disease control, tree removals, tree trimming, and stump grinding, among other things. One of only a few members of the American Society of Consulting Arborists in Tennessee, Cameron often takes on large-scale projects like pre-construction site assessments, property disputes, and tree law. He talks often of

stewardship, which sounds something like parenting when it’s described, in that there’s plenty of attention paid to the care, nourishment, and future well-being of trees and shrubs. If there’s such a thing as an old soul, Cameron appears to be one, with clear blue eyes and his silver hair knotted back. “He loves his trees, and he loves the birds that live in the trees,” says East Nashvillian Dorinda Lee, a friend, former employee, and longtime customer of Druid. “At Cabot’s house, if you get into the freezer, you will occasionally find a really gorgeous, really dead bird that he found on one of his hikes that he thought was so beautiful and that he cared about. Particularly if it’s a bird that’s endangered, he’ll bring it home and keep it for a while. It’s kind of his way of paying respect; does that make sense? That’s Cabot. The most important things in the world to him, besides his family, are the environment, trees, and endangered animal life.” What may sound like a rather benign and bohemian profession is actually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America’s deadliest job. A missing fingertip on Cameron’s left hand seems to speak to that, but he says he lost it not trimming a tree but building that secluded cottage in the ’70s. Though Cameron prefers to access trees the old-fashioned way (by climbing them instead of by bucket truck) Druid Tree Service uses the best and safest modern equipment to scale customers’ trees in and around Nashville. These days Cameron doesn’t climb trees for work anymore — only occasionally for fun — but he spends more time than ever thinking of them. Though he calls the Bradford Pear and the Hackberry his “bread-and-butter” trees, as they’re so prone to splitting and toppling, he says, “My favorite tree is a white oak, and the reason is because the druids would do their ceremonies in white oak groves. It’s the oldest living tree around here.”

How to Climb a Tree “Kids love to climb,” says Cabot. “I would definitely encourage them to climb trees. When monitored properly, it’s a safe, good physical activity, and it gives them confidence and strength.” Here he shares his tree-climbing tips: 1) As a parent, you coach the child on climbing by being there. Just like climbing a ladder or a wall, make sure they have three points of contact at all times — either two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand. This three-point configuration, which keeps you in constant contact with the tree, is the safest way to climb. 2) The best trees to climb are the ones that have a lot of horizontal branches and don’t have any thorns. I recommend the white pine, small red and sugar maples, magnolias, and crabapple trees.

3) As you move through the tree, move constantly, slowly, and thoughtfully. You want to stay fairly close to the trunk because the strongest part of the limb is where it’s attached; the outside of the tree bends, so you could lose your balance out there. 4) Teach your children to break off the dead branches and clean the tree as they climb. You may just find you have a budding arborist on your hands.

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Artist IN

Profile

GWIL OWEN

By Jeff Finlin

tepping out on the deck outside of Howlin’ Books on 8th Avenue South with artist, songwriter, and bookstore owner Gwil Owen, the sky is spitting out an ocean of blue against the backdrop of a yellow brick wall. Having just looked at his recent collage work, the colors of the world seem a bit more vibrant. Archetypal visions and mayhem are dancing like spiked sugar cubes in my head. The flavors of the day seem a little stronger and cutting, the conversation a little deeper. I find myself wanting to write 900 words for this article, cut them up in pieces and throw them

down randomly on the page, just to see how it would read. That’s what Owen’s work does to you: It seems to spawn creation itself. “I’ve got a friend who can contemplate a subject for a year,” says Owen. “After that, he’ll sit down and write a beautiful song about it in about five minutes. My life never happens like that. It’s just not the way I work. My thing lives in the moment. I start throwing something against the wall and I find something that sticks to it … and then I find something that sticks to that … and then again. May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Photograph by telefunky

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Owen at the Howlin’ Books store, located next door to Grimey’s New & Preloved Music on 8th Ave. S. The store shares retail and office space with Grimey’s Too.

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“It’s a perfect metaphor for making a collage, really,” he says. “The thing I’m learning is that everything I need is already inside of me. When I started my used book business years ago I discovered that everything I’d done previous in my life was useful. All those years I spent as a kid, devouring books and science fiction, was knowledge I could use in selling books. When I became a songwriter, all the years of listening to records was useful for that. And now, being a book dealer for years seems to have become useful in my ability to make collages. It’s crazy.” Looking at Owen’s collage work is like taking a walk through a surreal world spit out tenfold then devoured again by itself. It bounces up at you like a wounded survival story with a heart. It’s topical, archetypal, and moving. It’s a world put on edge by a truth that may scare you a bit. Made mostly of inspiration and cutouts from old books and manuals he has lying around, Owen has found the creative in the discarded — gold in the trash pile. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., and raised in rural Ohio, Gwil Owen moved to Nashville as a songwriter in 1983. After kicking around for a few years, his band, The Thieves, was signed to Bug/Capitol Records and put out one record, “Seduced By Money,” in 1988. He went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 1999 for a song co-written with Allison Moorer called “A Softer Place to Fall,” which was featured in Robert Redford’s film “The Horse Whisperer.” The Gwil Owen/Kevin Gordon songwriting collaboration “Deuce and a Quarter” was recorded By Keith Richard and Levon Helm for the album “All The Kings Men,” which featured performances by Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana. Somewhere along the line Owen started a small business selling books online. Last year he partnered up with Grimey’s New & Preloved Music and Jessica Kimbrough to open the wonderfully inspiring Howlin’ Books on 8th Ave. The collage work came back to him after a longtime friend asked if he would create a collage for the cover of an album he was working on. Owens had played with collage back in his younger days and agreed. What he found was a creative avenue that had been missing in his life. He began ripping up old books, manuals, and scraps of paper he had lying around and pasting images together real time (no computers). “What came out,” Owen says, “came out fully formed. It’s something I had inside of me that I had no idea was there.” He spent the next six or eight months making work, and then approached Meg MacFadyen, owner and operator at Art & Invention Gallery in East Nashville, with his work. “Gwil came in and showed me what he was doing and I had my socks knocked off,” MacFadyen says. “He has taken collage to a whole new art form, I think. The work is elegant, beautiful and interesting, as well as thought provoking.”

She hung his work in her gallery right away. When asked if making collage has made a difference in his creative life, Owens replies, “Oh it’s huge! I mean, I still make music, but I don’t have all the tools I need to make that a lot of the time. So I had this desperate need for a creative outlet. What I’ve discovered is that I can take these old books and magazines that come across my desk every day, cut them up, and sit down there in my basement and make these creations quietly. It doesn’t wake the kids, and it’s the exact same process as making music for me.”

Willem de Kooning was once quoted: “Sometimes there can be no creation without first destruction and in that case destruction becomes a creative act.” And that’s what it feels like is going on here. There’s a semblance of something put together with the muse of a bygone master, working with form and function by feel, without a plan. It’s deconstruction, abstraction, and idea carved in and from a momentary subconscious spark and reconstructed for our viewing pleasure.

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Chicken Shack Boogie Nashville’s annual Hot Chicken Festival brings pain, pleasure, and excruciating heat — and we wouldn’t want it any other way

Story by Randy Fox Photographs by Stacey Irvin May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ormer mayor Bill Purcell talks about one of his great passions in the same friendly, easygoing manner that made him such a wellliked politician. It’s only when you consider the subject matter that you realize there’s a touch of crazed obsession behind that even tone. “One day my scheduler said Prince Charles’ girlfriend’s son wanted to meet me,” Purcell says. “I wasn’t sure about that, but she said, ‘He wants to eat hot chicken.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m in. Let’s go!’” At the time, the Royal Consort’s progeny, Tom Parker Bowles, was traveling around the world, researching unique and local food for his book, “The Year of Eating Dangerously.” The mayor was happy to accompany Bowles to the location Purcell often referred to as his “second office,” Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. “He had heard this talk about hot chicken,” Purcell continues, “and he wanted to try it. He said, ‘I’ll have the extra hot.’” “I said, ‘No, don’t have the extra hot.’” “He said, ‘I’ll have the extra hot.’” “I said no, and he said, ‘Well, I’m having the extra hot!’” I guess with Prince Charles’ girlfriend’s son there’s some point where you have to let him have his way. It was significant

because when the book came out, it was one of the few times when someone actually said in print that the mayor was right and he was wrong. He said he thought he was going to die.” Purcell punctuates the end of his story with the knowing smile of a true fan of the culinary trial by fire known as Nashville hot chicken. Like Purcell’s tale, the story of how a uniquely Nashvillian spin on Southern fried chicken came to be the city’s signature food, the centerpiece of an annual festival, and a culinary export is a story of unbridled passions, unexpected consequences and unearthly spices. Although Nashville now boasts a variety of hot chicken choices, local legends agree that the birth of Nashville’s nuclear-powered fowl was the result of revenge gone awry. In the 1930s, Thornton Prince, the founder of Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, was a notorious rounder. After a late night of carousing, he returned home to his regular girlfriend who offered to fix him a fried chicken breakfast. In a legend-spawning moment of pique, the wronged paramour laced the poor cluck with a mega-dose of cayenne pepper. Although Prince most certainly suffered a burning comeuppance, the incident also inspired a transcendental vision of gastronomic delight.

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To paraphrase a well-worn adage, with great hot chicken comes great responsibility. By the late ’30s, Prince was hawking the hot-chicken gospel to hungry Nashvillians. For the next 60 years, Prince’s remained the royalty of Nashville hot chicken. Eventually a handful of competitors, such as Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish, brought their own variations, but it would not be until the 21st Century that Nashville hot chicken blazed its way onto the world’s menu. During his term as mayor (1999 to 2007), Bill Purcell became an outspoken champion for Nashville hot chicken and the East Side restaurant where the gastronomic incineration began. Purcell’s passion for Gallus gallus infernicus led directly to the founding of the Nashville Hot Chicken Festival in 2006. “We were celebrating our bicentennial as a city,” Purcell says. “As we thought about what makes us special and unique, our thoughts turned to food, and we realized that the only truly indigenous food, the food that was utterly unique to Nashville, began in Nashville, and was available nowhere else in the world, was Nashville hot chicken.” For the uninitiated, the idea of hot chicken might sound like a pleasant challenge — “How bad can it be?” But although “spicy fried” and

It’s only after the incineration of various mucous membranes that panic sets in for the regretful hot chicken novice. Immolation may seem imminent, but once the burning passes, the urge to return once again to the test range begins to grow. “Nashville hot” may both dwell on the same spectrum, their positions parallel the range between a lowly candle flame and the raging heart of a thermonuclear bomb. It’s only after the incineration of various mucous membranes that panic sets in for the regretful hot chicken novice. Immolation may seem imminent, but once the burning passes, the urge to return once again to the test range begins to grow. “Well, it wasn’t that bad,” one thinks. “Perhaps I’ll try it a little hotter the next time.” And so the circle of Nashville hot chicken addiction begins.

t’s a circle that’s continued to expand. Now in its ninth year, Nashville’s annual Hot Chicken Festival, held in East Park each Fourth of July, draws more than 5,000 attendees. It’s a group that includes both hardcore hot chicken fans and first timers. Although the festival continues to grow, it has remained one of the most efficiently run and low-cost events on Metro’s calendar, thanks to the dedication

of the all-volunteer committee that organizes the event each year, the volunteer staff and a loyal line-up of local vendors and sponsors. Local food writer and committee member Kay West recalls how former Mayor Purcell set the tone for the annual event. “I think it was his last day of office,” she says. “He called the committee down to the courthouse to the mayor’s conference room, and he made us promise that we would carry on the Hot Chicken Festival.” Fellow committee member Jesse Goldstein confirms the dedication of the organizing committee and all of the volunteers. “Every year,” he says, “everyone is completely exhausted and says, ‘This is it, I’ll never do this again,’ but by the end of the day we’re all looking at each other. It’s such a great day and it’s like, ‘When’s the next committee meeting?’” As one might expect, the main focus of each year’s festival is hot chicken, with the most prominent Nashville purveyors of peppery

pullets in attendance and selling their blistering wares, as well as providing free samples to those attendees willing to show up early in the day. This year’s line-up will include Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish, 400 Degrees, Pepperfire, Hattie B’s, and Smack Yo’ Mama. The festival also features a small, select group of other food vendors. “We try to be true to Nashville hot chicken and not just let anyone in who is just selling a piece of chicken with hot sauce on it,” West says. “The first year we only had hot chicken vendors. We’ve added more vendors, but we have a limited amount of space. They have to have some type of relationship to hot chicken or offer something cold as a counterpoint — chicken tacos, barbecue, ice cream and sno cones.” Some vendors have won a spot in the festival by offering their own unique tie-ins to the honored bird of the day, such as Biscuit Love’s acclaimed “Princess Hot Chicken Biscuit.”

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Veterans of many trials by fire while in office, former mayor Bill Purcell and current mayor Karl Dean are well-prepared to take on the hottest of the hot chicken as judges for last year’s mucous-membrane meltdown.

Fire trucks aren’t just a prominent feature in the parade: They also come in handy when a novice hot chicken diner bursts into flames.

“To Protect and to Burn” —Motto of the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition

One of the most significant vendors and sponsors is Yazoo Brewing Company, who has been a major part of the festival since 2007. “The Festival would probably not happen if it wasn’t for their support,” West says. “Every penny from what they sell goes back to the event. It would be one thing if they donated some beer to sell, but it’s so much more than that. They come to the meetings, submit ideas, and they show up with their team of people and manage all the sales.” The beer sales are particularly important, not only for funding the festival, but also

for supplying the majority of the annual operating budget for the Friends of Shelby Park. The community organization’s board president, Richard Bess, says that current Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors was instrumental in founding both the Friends of Shelby Park and the Hot Chicken Festival. She recognized an opportunity to link the two. “Friends of Shelby Park pays for the Festival and all the proceeds come back to us,” Bess says. “We turn around and use that money for different projects in Shelby Park

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that can range from invasive plant removal to special events at the community center and restoration of park facilities like the mission lodge picnic shelter.” Future plans for Shelby Park improvements that will be financed by proceeds from the Hot Chicken Festival include a dedicated bike-ped path from the Shelby Avenue entrance to the Shelby Bottoms Greenway, renovation of tennis courts, restriping of roads and a proposed re-routing of traffic to untangle the park’s “spaghetti junctions.” Along with the sales by professional

White bread, pickles, and a breast of deep-fried chicken with enough spicy heat to kill a small animal. True Nashville-style hot chicken is a monument to soul-searing simplicity.

vendors, the Festival includes the Amateur Cooking Contest in which non-professional cooks square off against each other to produce the best soul-searing yardbird. The winners receive a special trophy that Kay West lovely refers to as the “ugliest, most coveted trophy in the world.” Jesse Goldstein supervises the amateur competition each year. “The winners are great, and the failures are spectacular,” he says. “We’ve had three separate winners that have turned it into a business. It’s been fascinating to watch the amateur contest and see how people’s concept of hot chicken has changed. I’ve seen how that definition has narrowed into something pretty consistent. You’ve got to have white bread, pickles on top, and what’s in the middle really has to be a Nashville-style hot chicken.”

n the last year, Goldstein has focused even more attention on the parameters of what constitutes “Nashville-style” hot chicken. “In 2006, other than Purcell and a few diehards, there were few people promoting hot chicken,” he says. “But now there are restaurants in New York, Chicago, and Asheville, N.C. — all claiming to be Nashville-style hot chicken. It started to concern us. There should be someone guarding the definition. We were already a group of volunteers, and a non-profit organization, so we took the opportunity to protect the guys that are doing it right.” While every hot chicken cook has their own “secret recipe,” in general the very guarded process includes a marinade, frying in castiron skillets or a deep fryer, a cayenne pepper sauce or dry rub, white bread and pickles. The process of refining a definition has led

to a proposed organization, the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition, with the motto, “To Protect and to Burn.” The coalition will include all the Nashville hot chicken vendors, establish the basic guidelines of what constitutes Nashville-style hot chicken, and promote the local hot chicken scene with a “hot chicken tour” or other promotional ideas. In addition to the hot chicken, the festival also includes live music and the “world’s most efficient parade,” which kicks off each year’s festivities with its short two-block path down Woodland Street between 6th and 8th. But perhaps the most popular activity is the annual “hot chicken virgin viewing” that Goldstein describes with a smile. “For anyone who hasn’t been to the festival before,” Goldstein says, “I would say park C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 8 8

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ast Nashville has become an epicenter for the ever-growing — or over-publicized, depending on whom you ask — back-to-basics movement, with the term “artisan” being used to describe providers of everything from belts and ties to metalwork and meat butchery. For the most part, these people, and this movement, have been lauded. Who doesn’t like the concept of things made logically, lovingly, and locally? And yet, the movement rankles some. Artisan-style bacon bigshot Allan Benton once told me (good-naturedly) that while the term “artisanal” might have helped him sell a few extra slabs, he still felt rather “of a sort” about the descriptive: “I mean, my parents, everything they did was artisanal. By necessity.” Which is another way to say that nobody is reinventing the wheel here, as admirable as his or her intentions might be. Then again, the wheel still works as well today as it did eons ago. But what if I told you Nashville had an artisanal bottled water company? That’d be kind of cool, right? What if I told you the company delivered the water in an old-timey wagon, straight to your front door? That those deliveries — of fresh water that bubbled forth right here in East Nashville, out of the actual ground, bottled in actual hand-spun crockery — came every day except Sunday, ’cause Sunday’s when they have a co-ed kickball game? (Er, church?) Sounds too good to be true, right? Well it is, and it doesn’t. Exist, that is. But it did. These hip-before-their-time H2O purveyors were called Lockeland Springs Water, the “spring” in the title being what’s called a pioneer spring. This pioneer spring served what was called Lockeland Mansion. The mansion, formerly located on the site that’s now the Lockeland Elementary Design Center, was named by Col. Robert Weakley in the 1790s after his wife’s maiden name. Until it was folded into Nashville in 1905 (or 1906, depending on whose account you believe), Lockeland was its own separate entity, used as a country getaway for people living in the far-off environs of, say, Midtown or West End. Anyway: fresh clean air, and crisp, cool running water. Idyllic, right? Well, as usually happens with good things, someone came along — the aforementioned Lockeland Springs Water company — and saw money to be made. The springs on the old Lockeland property, as it turned out, boasted dissolved lithium salts. A speculator named James Richardson bought the old Lockeland mansion and eight of its acres in 1900 and bottled the water, touting it as a general elixir and balm, good

for what ailed you, headaches to heart trouble. Richardson prided himself on the quality of both his water and his business, as the advertisement at the end of this story indicates. His pride was not misplaced: The water won the grand prize at the St. Louis Exposition (you know it as the World’s Fair) in 1904, for its “unique mineral composition and salubrious quality.” Then something happened (no one quite knows what), and the land lay fallow for a time. It became a big tangle of privet and bush honeysuckle, and as years passed, the farmland became subdivisions, and the little parcel passed hands from private to public and back again. And some people, who you’ll meet below, took a look at the land and the spring — springs, actually — and the crumbled bricks and old cistern tanks, and saw something there: an opportunity. And Metro Parks agreed with them. They saw an opportunity to add another park to the city, one designed more for contemplation and intellectual curiosity than hosting cookouts. One that could be used as a learning center, a hands-on environment

However, if you look closely enough, Lockeland’s evolution is evident. Conspicuously absent today are the aforementioned privet and bush honeysuckle, each bush hand-pulled by students, volunteers, or both. Dozens of little trees and bushes, obtained from the State of Tennessee for nothing more than the asking, are covered in a plastic mesh (young plant life is something of a delicacy for deer). Bits of glass and crockery — many dating back to the turn of the century or before, some bearing the Lockeland Springs Water markings — dot the landscape. It’s tedious work, to be sure. But it’s a thoughtful pace he’s after, says Polk, noting that he and the other folks behind the park’s renaissance want to preserve a sense of, if not grandeur, something greater than ourselves. This means getting it right, and sometimes moving forward in a slower fashion than some might like. “From my perspective ... a longer time frame has its positives, since the area and its ecology are in several ways quite fragile,” Polk says. “Removal of the invasive brush from the

“Bringing people to the springs has

been a great joy for me. Everyone who visits the park gets inspired and instantly starts talking about ideas for improvement.” — Dr. Bo Daniel Parr, LSNA Lockeland Springs Park Project that can be used as a vehicle to teach ecology, science, history, biology, and archeology. One that could bring an already rather close-knit neighborhood even closer. As Jim Polk, a Holly Street resident, former biology teacher and learning specialist — as well as co-chair, with Bo Daniel Parr, of the Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association Lockeland Springs Park Project — will tell you, even show you if you have the time, there’s more here than meets the eye. Because once you get a sense of what a neighborhood’s past is, it’s amazing the perspective it can give you on the future.

arks are where we go to relax, unwind, and re-energize — to take a little vacation from life for a few precious minutes. Lockeland Springs Park, as it stands now, is not a little-vacation kind of park. It’s tree-canopied, sun-dappled and pleasant enough, but uprooted logs lay where bridges ought to (and used to) be, and there are no real trails yet.

valley has both positive and some potentially costly effects to the soil, aquatic, and streamside ecology. The valley slopes are steep and subject to erosion if not dealt with cautiously. The valley floor consists of a thin layer of soil interspersed with stone and rubble, which is in many places often covered by water. The birds and other animals present live on the available food sources including the seeds of the same invasive plants we are attempting to remove. Though we are replacing honeysuckle and privet bushes with native species of nut, fruit and berry trees and shrubs, the new plants are of course much smaller than those being removed, and will require time to develop the root systems needed to increase the stability of the soil and begin to bear additional food for, hopefully, increasing animal populations. We have visitors arriving daily to use and enjoy the park in its current state, of course. [But] time, perhaps a couple of years, will be needed for volunteers to first find, apply for, and then gain the necessary funding and then to install such envisioned improvements.”

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Polk says that park volunteers currently have an allocation from the Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association to work with on smaller improvements such as signs, benches and tables, and tech-savvy ideas like QR code tags that folks can scan with their phones for more information on, say, a specific spring or brace of indigenous trees. Polk says almost all the work being done in Lockeland Springs Park is volunteer-based, with the exception of design by Metro Parks, occasional assistance from the Metropolitan Sheriff ’s office in removing brush, and the Parks maintenance crew mowing the entrance area on Woodland. Rebecca Ratz, a park planner with Metro government, says that the Park Board assumed ownership of Lockeland Springs Park in July of 2010 “because of its high value as a cultural and natural resource, importance as part of Shelby Park’s watershed, and strong interest from the community in its protection.” For the previous 15 years, the park property had been overseen by the Metro Development and Housing Authority (MDHA), who were initially granted the property by a private citizen. That connection with Metro Parks doesn’t mean the cash is flowing at Lockeland as easily and effortlessly as the cool, clear water does, however. “When Metro and its affiliated agencies are looking to dispose of property, the Parks department often land banks the property for future open space,” Ratz says. “In the case of Lockeland Springs, a group of neighbors spearheaded restoration of the area in order to get the property open to the public sooner. Many parks have ‘friends of ’ groups who work to maintain and beautify a park, but most are formed around established parks. With Lockeland Springs, the neighborhood group started from scratch and spearheaded the master plan process, community outreach, and monthly clean-ups.”

“There are so many opportunities that it can get overwhelming to think about doing all of it,” says Dr. Bo Daniel Parr, co-chair of the LSNA Lockeland Springs Park Project. “I imagine it will be a work in progress for a while. There are paths, and we have removed enough trash and invasives to actually get a sense of how the water comes out of the ground and how it flows. However, we are hoping to get some infrastructure placed and some additional educational support in the next two years.”

opportunity. This property could be an amazing history and nature lab for the students of the elementary school and a natural sanctuary for wildlife and people. We decided to join forces and started having monthly cleanups and started introducing other people to the area. Bringing people to the springs has been a great joy for me. Everyone who visits the park gets inspired and instantly starts talking about ideas for improvement. To me, that is part of the magic of the springs — [they] bring out

“ With Lockeland Springs, the

neighborhood group started from scratch and spearheaded the master plan process, community outreach, and monthly clean-ups.” — Rebecca Ratz, Metro Parks Parr says that the important thing is to make sure any future improvements are done with an eye on, well, the future. To remember that success will be measured not by the clock, but the calendar. “This project came about very organically,” she says. “Most of us are neighbors who have been inspired in some way while in the springs and decided to work together to get it cleaned up. I believe Jim Polk and I started talking about it at the coffee shop one day. This was after it had been designated as a park. It was safe from developers, but it was just sitting there. Jim was interested in cleaning it up, and I, as a mother of two elementary-aged kids, was interested in using it as an educational

the altruism in everyone, and we all have something to offer.” To that end, Parr is currently looking to get two grants for infrastructure and for education and perhaps an outdoor classroom over the next couple of years. In the meantime, Vanderbilt School for Science and Math scientist/instructor Chris Vanags has already engineered many “field trips” to the park, even in its unfinished state. Because of its unfinished state, to hear him tell it. “I’m always looking for ways to involve our students in local field-based research projects. When I moved to East Nashville seven years ago, I fell in love with Shelby Bottoms and worked with Denise Weyer to design and

An incomplete list of things Jim Polk thinks Lockeland Springs Park can teach us: • Water and soil quality/conservation: the power of human actions to do good and harm • Human dependency: the importance and value of the services that natural systems provide • Agency: demonstrating/exercising students’ capacity to effect positive, concrete change • Beauty: appreciation of the beauty of the earth, natural formations, plants and animals • Patience: learning that some things require time to develop and cannot be manufactured

• Nutrition/food security: forest/orchard sources of important foods like nuts, berries, fruits • History: our roots/connections with the hunter-gatherer, agrarian and pre-industrial eras • Geology: limestone from ancient oceans, caves and springs • Paleontology: fossils, Tennessee/North American megafauna, extinction

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• Plant and animal identification, food chain connections, importance of diversity • Temporal cycles, contrasted with industrial, linear time: daily/seasonal/annual cycles • Nutrient cycling in natural systems—outputs become inputs; closing human-disrupted cycles • Observation, measurement, recording: plant/ animal populations, weather conditions, etc. • Skills, participation, and job roles in conservation and restoration of natural systems

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implement a student-based long-term ecological research project in the park. Through this project, students have been monitoring invasive plant species, wetland soil characteristics and surface water quality at Shelby Bottoms and Lake Sevier. When Bo [Parr} took my daughter’s Brownie troop over to explore the springs, my wife, Loren, came back to tell me of this wonderful place, and we eventually made the connection to the headwaters of Lake Sevier. “Bo brought me into the project and

introduced me to Rebecca Ratz, which ultimately led to a project that brought in three of my students — Scherley Gomez, Sam Klockenkemper, and Rachel Waters — who did the initial mapping and chemical characterization of the springs and also designed and disseminated a survey to gauge community interest in the project and prioritize redevelopment of the park.” Vanags says that he has since brought numerous classes to the springs to continue the original VSSM team’s work, and, to that end,

will host a grouping of 48 students in June, variously conducting research and working, physically if need be, to restore the area to a more natural, pre-invasive, state.

ake no mistake: There is still plenty of work to be done on, and in, Lockeland Park. However, as the park is a living, breathing thing, there will always be work to be done, if it is indeed to survive. There will be upkeep to consider, as well as heretofore unseen challenges that will need to be navigated. And yet, say the volunteers, the park is ready for you, right now. It’s ready for you to listen to the slow bubble of the springs, to smell the flowers, to feel the crunch of leaves under your feet. It’s ready for you to come see what has been done, and see what can be done. Anyone’s interest in and use of the park, they say, will be helping save a piece of our past with an eye toward future generations. Volunteer Joel Daunic, father of 102.5 The Game radio personality Willy Daunic and proprietor of the non-profit “traveling summer camp for kids and active seniors” The Generation Connection, says that even if the water is not as restorative as Richardson might have advertised in the daily papers 100 years ago, the park’s charms work a certain kind of magic. “With each cleanup I am amazed how much more pretty it gets. Many others say the same; especially who have already added its beauty to their walking or jogging regimen.” Daunic — an indefatigable privet-puller according to Polk — notes that the best exercise that Lockeland Springs Park offers is perhaps the exercise of the mind; the “peace of ” variety in particular. He’s a longtime advocate for and resident of Lockeland Springs, and is proud of what the neighborhood has become. He also wants people to know what it was, and what it will be. “Hearing people say how communities named themselves after landmarks that no longer exist — ‘Thousand Oaks’ for example — was all the ‘research’ I needed [to get involved],” he says. Thanks to people like Polk, Parr, Daunic and others, the little wooded wetland, which has never stopped offering up its gifts, once again has a name. And at the same time, a neighborhood learns about its own.

For more information, call Jim Polk at (615) 507-8844 or email communityjim@yahoo.com. 42

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Photograph by telefunky

Chad Evans and Lij Shaw share a lighthearted moment recently at The Toy Box Studio.

INSIDE the

HAY BALE

This June marks the 10th anniversary of Bonnaroo’s famed Hay Bale Studio; here’s a look at the guys who’ve made it happen

had Evans and Elijah “Lij” Shaw know how to embrace the moment. The key that unlocks the door to the moment is, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” If the focus of the moment happens to be you, then approach it with self-effacing humor. Don’t talk about what you’re “gonna do,” because that is an insult to the moment you’re in. There’s no “gonna do” — only “doing.” Besides, once you’re over the threshold of the moment it’s already over and another, new moment has taken its place. Such is the way Evans and Shaw have been able to take on the extraordinary feat of assembling a recording studio in a trailer that’s covered by hundreds of bales of hay, in the middle of nowhere, from scratch, in the backstage area of one of the biggest festivals on God’s sorta-green earth. And, as of this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, they’ll have done it 10 years in a row. Such feats of superhuman no-sweat-edness in the midst of tens of thousands of very sweaty people are what Chad Evans — the commander-in-chief of Vintage King Nashville and Hay Bale’s supplier of the gear, and Lij Shaw — the owner/operator of East Nashville’s The Toy Box Studio and Hay Bale’s master-of-the-realm/recording engineer, are all about. They put it all together and pull the whole thing off because, well, they know what the hell they’re doing, and they’re accomplished at what they do. Make no mistake, theirs isn’t a job to be taken lightly, nor is it one for the faint of heart. Even the most run-of the-mill recording sessions come with their fair share of pressure and high drama. Multiply that by a factor of 10. Add to that the fact that there is no “fix it in the mix” option. Oh yeah, then there’s dealing with the hundreds of people involved in the whole shebang — including the artists. For anyone less than dialed into the moment, the entire experience would probably result in a nervous breakdown of the thumb-sucking, fetal position, crying-for-mama type. Nevertheless, here they are, 10 years on. May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Photograph by telefunky

CHAD EVANS

Supplier of mega-cool pro audio gear By Randy Fox

n the office of his Berry Hill business, Vintage King Audio, professional “gear guy” Chad Evans talks about one of the most unusual recording studios he’s equipped. “It was back in 2005 that my friend Roger Allen Nichols wanted to audition a piece of equipment,” Evans says. “I brought it over to the studio where he was working, the Toy Box,

run by Elijah ‘Lij’ Shaw. It was right down the road from my house in East Nashville. I was looking around and getting to know Lij, and he said he was building a studio at Bonnaroo. He didn’t have much gear, so I offered to help. I immediately drove to my house and gathered up microphones and whatever I had on hand because he was leaving in two days. That was the start of it.”

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Since that ad hoc beginning, Shaw’s “Hay Bale Studio” has become a fixture at the annual music festival in Manchester, Tenn. The temporary but fully equipped working studio built inside hundreds of hay bales (used for sound insulation) works around the clock during the four-day festival, as bands cut tracks for broadcast on various radio and video outlets that cover Bonnaroo. “The next year I had more time to plan it out,” Evans says. “I put the gear together every year, make sure it all works, and hand it off to Lij. Even though Bonnaroo is this giant festival that happens every year, the nuts and bolts don’t come together until about four weeks before the festival. I kind of anticipate it, then I just wing it and make it happen.” When it comes to equipping recording studios, Evans has been making it happen in Nashville for over a decade, with small studios tucked away in basements or backyards and large, state-of-the-art professional studios. Evans has built a reputation as one of the No. 1 gear guys in the business. Combining salesmanship, technical expertise and creative design, he has worked with such celebrated clients as Jack White, the Black Keys, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, and Rascal Flatts, while also giving the same care and attention to the home-based studios of less-flashy clients. Like many classic Nashville stories, Evans’ path to success included some unexpected turns. Born in Pittsburgh, Penn., and raised in Utica, N.Y., Evans came from a musical family, and followed the dream of becoming a rock star to Boston, New York and Nashville. “Like every other person, I came here for music,” Evans says, “but the wrong kind of music. I was in a psychedelic rock band, which in the mid-‘90s in Nashville was not the thing to be.” Evans wasn’t the only one finding hard times in Nashville at that time. The local rock scene of the ‘80s had wound down and the pop-country-stadium-rock hybrid of Garth Brooks and other crossover artists had become the main focus of Music City. A small underground rock scene was still raising a ruckus in venues like Lucy’s Record Shop and the Springwater, but any hope for rock‘n’roll dreams looked pretty remote. “I got lost in the industry of pop-country music, which I really didn’t fit in,” Evans says. “So I went back to school for audio engineering and started working around town. I worked for one of the biggest studio groups in Nashville, but around 2000 to 2002 a major shift started happening. The recording budgets started drying up and the big studios were laying off guys and reducing staffing. At the time my uncle was an executive with Guitar Center. I was on the phone with him talking about life and bitching about paying my bills, and he told me they were going to open a Guitar Center in Nashville. I went ahead and applied and got a gig at the store here.”

Evans soon discovered the shift that had thrown him out of his engineering work was benefiting him in his new job. “I was one of the first employees in the professional sales division,” Evans says. “I found myself riding the wave of musicians who were forced to start building their own studios or recording out of their homes. Within three to four months I had doubled my income, and then I tripled it.” With his experience as a working musician and recording engineer, Evans found himself in a unique position. “I knew what a professional expected, what they wanted to hear and see,” he says. “So I found this weird niche that I never anticipated. It was certainly not what I had dreamed about when I was 16. I never dug the corporate structure, but I was generating enough revenue that they were very hands off. The business just kept growing and growing.” Advances in technology and the new world of smaller, start-up studios and home-based recording meant that both established musicians and engineers along with ambitious amateurs had access to professional level recording equipment at a much lower cost. That was a change that became particularly important in the new century as A&R budgets for major labels dried up and the long established idea of “talent development” became a thing of the past. “The major labels aren’t really looking to develop new talent the way they used to,” Evans says. “They’re looking at how they can financially exploit the artists they already have to the upmost limit. [If you’re starting out] there’s really no avenue other than the do-it-yourself method now. A guy in his house can spend a moderate amount and record on a professional level. You couldn’t do that before. You would have to buy a $100,000 tape machine and a $600,000 console — it was a million-dollar venture even into the ‘90s. The shift has opened up creative expression to anyone with an idea in his head.” The change in technology sparked a “baby boom” for small studios in Nashville, a city that already had one of the world’s largest collections of recording studios per capita. “I don’t even think it’s a per capita thing anymore,” Evans says. “Without a doubt Nashville is the densest music production community in the world. People from other cities think I’m full of shit when I talk about all the studios, but just here in Berry Hill there are dozens of recording studios or mastering facilities. Two blocks one direction is Peter Frampton’s studio, and two blocks over there is Jonathan Cain from Journey’s studio, and John McBride’s Blackbird Studio is just two blocks that way. Just drive around these blocks and you’ll see little tiny houses with an addition behind it where music is being made. It’s the same way in East Nashville. I’ve been living on the East Side since 2005 and every month I learn about another guy that has a room and is making records.” The DIY spirit that Evans finds in the recording studios tucked away in classic houses

is one of the features that attracted him to East Nashville. “Going to shows at the Slow Bar and the 5 Spot originally brought me to East Nashville,” he says. “I heard the warnings about how ‘bad’ it was, but I dug it. I bought a house, so I’m all in. “I lived in several different places when I was younger, often in what people would say were sketchy areas, but I always liked the diversity of cultures. That’s what appealed to me about East Nashville: the energy, the diversity, the human element, and then the charm of it — the houses, the look. It seemed more like where I’m from, so it felt like home to me from the get go.” That same independent spirit eventually led to Evans parting ways with the corporate structure of Guitar Center. He then approached the family-owned, Detroit-based company, Vintage King Audio — world-renowned specialists in vintage and small-run, handcrafted audio equipment. He convinced them to open a Nashville showroom and office in early 2013, with Evans personally overseeing the design of the office space, making it a friendly hang-out for fellow musicians rather than a high-pressure sales floor. “I’ve always felt that Nashville was lacking a true professional shop where musicians can go to test the gear, hear the gear, and become familiar with everything that is out there. I had spoken with the owners of Vintage King over the years, trying to find esoteric equipment for clients. I eventually hit a point where I couldn’t facilitate their level of product through Guitar Center. For example, a guy and his son build a line of compressors or mic pre-amps in their garage. A corporate chain would never carry them, but that’s the kind of equipment we sell. We’re trying to provide experiences and not just mass-produced product.” Strolling through the different rooms at Vintage King Audio feels like gear-head heaven. A cool Mid-Century Modern esthetic rules with room after room of instruments, switches, dials, and lights — each one promising that unique sound or lost chord just waiting to be discovered. For Evans, the real heaven isn’t the technology; it’s the city and the people like him that have made it their home. “Nashville is a beautiful place,” he says. “It’s a small city, but it seems like half the population is all music all the time. I’m just glad I found a spot and home in it. When I came here I didn’t find the warmest welcome, and I battled with staying, but I hung in there and tried to figure out what to do, and every complaint or criticism got washed away. I saw the growth of downtown, the music scene started to widen out, and the restaurant scene blossomed. I’m so glad I stuck it out. Something told me to just shut up and deal with it and things would get better, and they most definitely did.” Visit Vintage King on the web at: vintageking.com/nashville May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ELIJAH “Lij” SHAW The Hay Bale Sessions By Jeff Finlin

fter graduating from architecture school in St Louis, Elijah “Lij” Shaw was dissatisfied. He’d gone through the whole process, and what he found at the end left him flat. “In architecture school they always described architecture as frozen music,” he says. “I thought to myself, ‘Screw that, I’m going to go do liquid architecture.’” So he joined his keyboard-playing brother in Hong Kong to play in a blues band for six months. The excitement of music, dim sum and Kentucky Fried Chicken on every street corner was too much to pass up. When the band went into a studio to record, Shaw became intrigued with the recording process. “I saw what was going on and thought to myself, ‘You know, I could do this,’” he says. So, after his run through the Orient, Shaw decided to look into recording schools in the US. He applied to about 50 schools and finally landed down at MTSU in Murfreesboro. Shaw had no plans to stay in Nashville after school but wound up with an internship at Woodland Studios in East Nashville. “The first project I got introduced to was Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris recording ‘Wrecking Ball,’” he remembers. “Looking back, it was amazing. I was so green. I had no idea that I probably shouldn’t have gone up to Lanois and introduced myself and started asking him all kinds of silly questions. But he was very nice and he would come in and check out my student mix project in the other room.” Another key milestone for Shaw while at Woodland was meeting Robin Eaton and

Brad Jones, who were there to mix Jill Sobule’s self-titled record for producer Roger Moutenot. “I didn’t come here for country music, so when I heard what they were doing I got excited,” says Shaw. After graduating from school a year or so later, he was down and out. Finding himself with no job and a wrecked car, he happened to hear that Jill Sobule record again on local radio. “I found the name of Robin and Brads’ studio (Alex The Great) on the back of the album, looked it up in the phone book, and just called the number,” says Shaw. “Brad Jones answered the phone, and we started talking. They invited me in on a session, and I ended up working there for years. Only in Nashville, right? “I feel like I learned all that I needed to know about the technical aspects of a recording session, session flow and feel from Brad Jones. All the songwriting, creative, and people skills stuff I learned from Robin Eaton,” Shaw continues. “Those guys were indispensable to my career.” Shaw started working with other bands outside of Alex the Great, and eventually opened his own studio in East Nashville called The Toy Box Studio. He started producing and recording bands himself locally and nationally, and found he was being asked to set up makeshift studios in odd locations around the country. He also partnered with a his band mate Chris King from the St. Louis band Enormous Richard and started doing a series of field recordings à la Alan Lomax. “Chris and I would throw all of our recording gear into a car and drive up and

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

down the east coast and find people to record. We’d drive up to Queens to record blues artist Rosco Gordon in his high-rise apartment and then we’d drive over to Connecticut where we recorded the poet laureate Leo Connellan. We’d set up shop in an old train depot in Marshall, North Carolina. The word would get out and people would start showing up. Old raconteurs from the hills and musicians young and old would just come out to play and be recorded. It was amazing.” During this time Shaw discovered his affinity for live, in-the-moment recording. “I think that is where the magic really happens, for me, when it comes to recording,” says Shaw. “There’s something special that happens when everyone is in the same room making eye contact and music together.” Fast-forward a few years to Manchester, Tenn., and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Sean O’Connell, who was doing a radio broadcast in association with the festival

called “Hotel Bonnaroo,” contacted Shaw. “They would put together two artists from the festival roster and take them into a studio to do a cover song together and then broadcast it to syndicated radio stations across the country,” Shaw says. “They hired me to do one here in Nashville with Warren Haynes and the band Gomez doing a cover of John Lennon’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.” They recorded the song from start to finish in about six hours and then wound up playing the song together that night during a Gomez performance at the sold-out Ryman Auditorium. To see the whole thing come together and then top it off by performing the song live at the Ryman that night for thousands of people was incredible!” In 2005 O’Connell called Shaw again and asked him what it would take to set up a real recording studio at the Bonnaroo festival itself. “I knew this was going to be awesome,” Shaw says. Solidifying a partnership with Chad Evans at Vintage King in Nashville they secured all

the top-notch gear they needed. “The plan was to bring in a double wide trailer and just park it right behind the two main stages. We would bring the bands in and record them right there,” explains Shaw. “The problem was the sound leakage from the stages, of course.” Sean ran into a local farmer who suggested bringing in bales of hay to cover the trailers and insulate them from the sound of the two main stages. It worked perfectly. Thus began what is now known as the famed Hay Bale Studio at Bonnaroo. Teaming up with Music Allies and Vintage King they record 40 bands for 40 different radio markets. “Each hour during the festival another artist comes into record a few live tracks in our humble studio,” Shaw says. “We record, mix, and master live to two track recorders and upload directly to radio, all from our high tech hay bale studio.” “You know, all the way back to the very first band I played in it seemed that the very best stuff I did was always recorded as a live

band,” says Shaw. “The best results were almost always achieved when everyone was in the same rooming looking at each other and playing together live. There is a certain energy there that when captured, can’t be beat. As much as my school experience and Nashville tries to teach you to overanalyze things when making recordings, I learned that the best music almost always comes from people communicating, interacting and playing together in the moment. That’s what the Hay Bale Sessions at Bonnaroo is all about. I get a quick sound check, I mix everything live, the band is playing live, and it’s going to the recording gear live. It’s pure performance top to bottom. I think that’s what makes the Hay Bale Studio and Sessions so special. For me, its where the magic really happens.” For more info and music from the Hay Bale Sessions go to thetoyboxstudio.com/hay-studio/

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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STEM-ing theTide Stratford STEM Magnet High School starts over to revolutionize Nashville’s workforce, with or without college

by Jon Gugala

n May, a demolition crew will enter Stratford High School to rip out the past. As part of a $20 million facelift, workers will be replacing the outdated HVAC systems, windows from the 1950s, asbestos floors, and energy-inefficient ceilings. The work also symbolizes ripping out another, more notorious piece of the school’s recent past: Until 2010, Stratford, at the corner of Preston Drive and Porter Road in Inglewood, wasn’t the type of school to which parents wanted to send their children. And East Nashville residents, if they could afford not to, didn’t. A quick Web search reveals just how bad problems were at Stratford. Thefts. Stabbings. Rapes. In 2006, 772 of Stratford’s 993 students — 78 percent — were defined as “truant,” meaning they’d tallied five or more unexcused absences. It was the highest percentage of any Metro Nashville Public School, and Metro Police has long said it believes in a link between out-of-school teens and increased crime levels. That year, the most likely time for an East Nashville juvenile to commit a violent crime was on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday between 10 and 11 a.m. But this isn’t a story about where Stratford High School, which died of asphyxiation on its own toxic

output, has been. Rather, it’s about a new, robust, and smaller experiment called the Stratford STEM Magnet High School, which has partially filled the halls since the 2010-11 school year. In May, when the last of Stratford’s ignoble heritage is torn out and thrown into industrial-sized dumpsters, it will physically be free of its past. Jennifer Berry, PhD, is chipper and energetic. With brown, chin-length hair and colored hornrimmed glasses, she is eager to be a tour guide for the new Stratford STEM Magnet. Berry is an Academy Coach; “Academy” is the divisional nomenclature for the school’s two main wings of study. Those two wings further subdivide into several “pathways,” each of which are equivalent to a college major. The idea of having a major in high school is something universally part of the MNPS system, not just Stratford. Its significance is largely credited with raising attendance rates, lowering discipline incidents, and producing a higher number of graduates citywide. “It’s an interest path, and what does interest do? It gives you buy-in,” Berry says. “Because of the academies of Nashville, there’s been some significant change in each [school] in a positive manner.” But while “majoring” in city high schools may be responsible for an increase in every area in

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

which Stratford was once deficient, it’s only the tip of the revolution that this model is banking on. STEM is short for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and this is where Stratford stands apart. A national program, STEM is designed to build the skilled workers of tomorrow in high school rather than college. The way they do this is with a lot of expensive equipment, funded through President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top Fund, for which Stratford qualified chiefly due to its contemptible prior performance. At Stratford, there are two pathways in the Academy of National Safety and Security Technologies: National Security Technology and Computer Simulation & Game Programming. The Academy of Science and Engineering has pathways in Interdisciplinary Science and Research, Engineering, and Biotechnology. In addition to providing students with the skills and expertise required to embark upon a high-paying career path right out of high school, the STEM program also gives students a choice when it comes to another major issue: student loan debt. CNN recently reported that the typical undergraduate in the class of 2013 left academia saddled with over $35,000 in college-related debt. A recent report titled “Graduate Student Debt Review” by Jason Delisle, director of the New America Foundation’s Federal Education Budget Project, goes even further. Delisle finds that the average college student who then goes on to grad school enters the workforce $57,000 in debt, with the 90th percentile cracking six figures. Upon completion of a four-year high school stay at Stratford STEM, a student can achieve national certification in security or biotechnology. Either certification will qualify a job candidate for a career with entry-level salaries starting at $40,000 to $50,000 a year. “I was always told that if I had a bachelor’s degree, I was gonna be set for life. Now, you’ve got to have at least a master’s degree,” says Michael Steele, Stratford’s executive principal. “What we have discussed as a team here is that we want our students to be able to make their choice [to go to college] when they graduate from high school.” For decades high schools have been pumping students into college — or being asked why they’re not — feeding an arms race for higher education. Steele is OK with students now having a choice, chiefly because there wasn’t one before. After the first two years of feeling out what it meant to be a STEM school, Steele traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Obama’s STEM director along with 15 other school representatives from across the country. Even then the STEM director wouldn’t spell out the finer points of what a STEM school had 54

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

PROJECTED PERCENTAGE IN JOB INCREASES (2010-2020)

Info-graphic from www.ed.gov/stem

14%

ALL OCCUPATIONS

16%

MATHEMATICS

22%

COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYSTS

32%

SYSTEMS SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS

36%

MEDICAL SCIENTISTS

62%

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS

PROJECTED PERCENTAGE INCREASES IN STEM JOBS: 2010-2020 to be. The brilliant/scary thing about STEM is that it’s left to individual schools to tailor their programs toward the tech industries in their community, responding to what Berry calls “high wage, high skill, high demand” jobs. So, what does Nashville have? Security and healthcare, among others. Stratford STEM was practically given a blank check to buy the cutting-edge equipment on which students train. The reason the STEM administrators knew what to buy and what to teach points to another important piece of the STEM puzzle: Business Partners. Business Partners — leaders in the various tech and security industries in Nashville, such as Vanderbilt, Nissan, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Universal Robotics, and many others — are the real reason the Stratford experiment hasn’t become a money-pit debacle. These business leaders donate time to work with teachers and administrators, advising them on what they as employers need in their workforce, as well as interacting with the students themselves to provide a tactile example of what a particular career might look like. “What’s the whole reason why we have education?” Berry says. “It’s to provide that next supporting workforce out there.” Not that Berry doesn’t want students to go to college, and not that there aren’t opportunities for even those who get jobs out of high school C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 9 0

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

The

Burnout

Diaries

Todd Snider writes a book

by Daryl Sanders

odd Snider glances around the East Side office as he considers his latest endeavor within the context of a career spanning 20-plus years. After a few moments, he leans back, smiles, and says, “For a burnout, man, I’ve done a lot of stuff.” It’s true: For a self-described “lazy-ass hippie” and the mastermind behind a company called Aimless Incorporated (he’s “the Vice President of the Abrupt Plan Change Department, soon to be expanding in pointless directions”), Snider has, indeed, done a lot of stuff. Over the past 15 months, the man whose main goal is to have no goals has been especially productive, too. He released two albums under his own name on Aimless Records: “Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables,” which he co-produced with Eric McConnell, and “Time As We Know It: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker,” produced by Don Was. In addition, he recorded and released an

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

eponymous album with Hard Working Americans, the new jam band he formed with Dave Schools of Widespread Panic. And despite spending a good deal of time on the road in support of those three critically acclaimed albums, he took on acting, too, starring in the independent film “East Nashville Tonight,” which debuted at the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. On top of all that, he recorded a cover of War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends” with Turbo Fruits, which was recently released as a 10inch vinyl picture disc on that band’s own Turbo Time label for Record Store Day. If all that weren’t enough, Snider also found time to write his first book: the autobiographical “I Never Met A Story I Didn’t Like: Mostly True Tall Tales” (295 pages, Da Capo Press), which hit bookstores on April 22. “I did it mostly for glory, or to be able to call myself an author,” Snider said, when asked about the inspiration behind the book. “And second, probably, for money.”

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Although he downplays it, Snider’s pride in the book is evident in the introduction: “I could have called it ‘Smoking Grass and Dropping Names,’ because it’s mostly that,” he writes, in typical, self-deprecating fashion. “No way it’s not a book, though. I totally wrote this. High five.” The story of how Snider became an author began last year with a show in New York City. As usual, he told a number of stories during his performance. After the show, a literary agent — the guest of Snider’s manager, Burt Stein — approached the folk singer backstage.

“Do you have those stories written down?” the agent asked. “Yeah, but I don’t really know how to spell or do punctuation, you know,’” Snider told him. “But if you had someone to help you with that,” the agent continued, “would you have enough stories for a book?” Snider thought about it for a moment, and said, “Yeah.” A few months later, Stein got a call. “He said this company [Da Capo] would give me

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

a bunch of money if I could make up 90,000 words,” Snider recalled. So he made up 90,000 words. As the title suggests, the book is a collection of stories, many of them expanded versions of the ones Snider has told for years in concert — such as the story of KK Rider and the one about Bill Elliott, both of which appeared on his 2011 release, “Live: The Storyteller” — and stories about the people behind some of his songs, such as late East Nashville

icon Skip Litz (“Play A Train Song”), West Tennessee bar owner Michael “Moondawg” Webb (“Moondawg’s Tavern”) and Homer, Alaska’s own Digger Dave (“Digger Dave’s Crazy Woman Blues”). There also are stories about Snider’s encounters with celebrated figures, including Kris Kristofferson, Garth Brooks, John Mellencamp, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Matthew McConaughey, Slash, Lance Armstrong, Roger Clemens, Ed Bradley and Hunter S. Thompson. But mostly, the stories are about how Snider became a music “lifer,” and the people who helped him reach that status — people like Jerry Jeff Walker, Kent Finlay, Keith Sykes, Bob Mercer, Jimmy Buffett, Tony Brown, John Prine and Al Bunetta. To pull the stories together into a book, Snider enlisted the help of good friend and music journalist Peter Cooper. “I had done a shorter version of each of these topics, so we took those and expanded on them,” Snider recalled. “It didn’t take us long. He typed while I talked, and he can type as fast as I talk. “As Peter typed, if he had observations, he was cruel enough to share them with me, and kind enough to share them with my book,” he added with a laugh. “After we’d sit for a few hours, he would go home, and the next morning, he would drop off a [draft] of what we had done. I would make some changes here and there, and cut out some stuff. And then we had to change some stuff for some people, like if someone was breaking the law, but they didn’t get caught for it and I named them. “And a few friends opted out of some moments [in the book],” he continued. “Some guys with kids, which I understood.” As one might expect, “I Never Met A Story I Didn’t Like” is filled with tales of excess. It begins with Buffett pelting Snider with grapefruit and ends with a drug-related trip to the hospital. In between, he tells how

he became a burnout, survived his sunglasses-at-night phase, got fired by his record label and assaulted by Hunter Thompson, met his wife in rehab, won Jerry Jeff ’s celebrity golf tournament, and reached the conclusion that the best way for him to make a positive contribution to the world was to never grow up. Although Snider said “almost every chapter stems from something from the shows over the years,” fans already familiar with much of the material in the book will not be disappointed, as he shares many new details, and also sets the record straight on a number of

stories which have been embellished over time as they were told in concert, such as the story about the first time he tried psychedelic mushrooms. It was his senior year in high school, not his junior year. And he didn’t quit the football team to join “the burnouts in the smoke pit” after doing the ’shrooms, but rather did them when he was out with a broken hand and already wasn’t going to play. As he explains in the book, “The reason I made myself a junior in the story was because that’s the age I wanted to reach back to and say, ‘You can C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 9 0

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Pictures River’s FROM THE

Other Side Filmmaker Ron Coons captures a moment in time with “East Side of the River” by Randy Fox

or photographer and filmmaker Ron Coons, the idea for his directorial debut didn’t come as some eureka moment of inspiration. It was nurtured slowly, over multiple evenings, songs, and pints of good beer. “I’ve been going to the Family Wash since it opened,” Coons says. “No matter who plays, there comes a time in the evening when things kind of wind down, and there are always three or four world-class musicians in the place — people who are out there killing it on a regular basis with someone on the road or in the studio. But there they are, arguing with [Family Wash owner] Jamie Rubin about some Queen song, or some Bad Company album. It piqued my interest as to why all these great musicians were drawn to this neighborhood.” That persistent question eventually led to “East Side of the River,” a documentary and accompanying photo book chronicling the musicians and individualists who came together to rebuild a neighborhood by their own standards. The film is a mosaic of interviews that recount the changes that swept through East Nashville during the late ’90s and early aughts. “I like to say I got 50 people to tell the story, one sound bite at a time,” Coons says of the film’s easygoing, improvisational style of storytelling, touching on major events like the rebirth of East Side live music venues and the 1998 tornado. “I started this movie with

an idea,” Coons says. “No script, no treatment, and no real end game. All I had was the idea and the skills to make a movie.” Those skills came from Coons’ years of experience as cameraman in video and film production. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Coons graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in telecommunications and moved north to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. “I’ve been behind a still camera for probably 39 years and a movie camera for probably 31,” Coons says, “shooting everything from ‘National Geographic’ to ‘90210.’” In late 1994, he relocated to Nashville with his girlfriend, a Music City native who wanted to return home. Coons found easy employment in the booming video production business that was being fed by the mainstream country crossover machine. “I was shooting two videos a week between 1996 and 1999 — Sammy Kershaw, Doug Stone, Joe Diffie. I’d go back to L.A. to shoot Faith Hill videos in the desert. And then it all crashed around 2000.” Even though the nature of his business changed and he eventually parted from the girlfriend that brought him here, Coons made a home for himself on the East Side. “When we initially moved here we rented a house near Hillsboro Village. In 1995, the house we were living in sold for $141,000, and we had to move. I found a house in Inglewood for $75,000, and it was pretty much the same house.” May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Like many people drawn to East Nashville in the mid-’90s by lower real estate prices and sturdy, personable houses, he discovered the neighborhood’s bad reputation to be exaggerated. Not that there weren’t areas with problems, but there were also broad areas that were no more “dangerous” or “safe” than any other middle-class neighborhood in Nashville. “We didn’t have any crime problem at all,” Coons says, “but we had all the issues people mention in the film — no good grocery stores, only fast food restaurants, and no nightlife or music. You just had to adjust your mindset. You had to go across the river to do your shopping and to go to bars and restaurants.” Enchanted by the diversity of East Side neighborhoods, and the contrast of urban decay and grassroots regeneration, Coons began shooting photos in East Nashville and Inglewood, with the plan of eventually compil-

“

musicians’ community. It’s off the beaten path, for four or five years many people didn’t even know where it was, and it’s a safe haven for musicians. Robert Plant has been in there and nobody bothered him or freaked out.” After a decade of living in Nashville, Coons returned to the West Coast for a job he thought was too good to pass up. “I thought I had gone for good,” he says. “But things didn’t work out after a year or so. I was living in Burbank, and even though I was making more money, I was just living paycheck to paycheck. Even when I had time off, I was still stuck in L.A. — it was just depressing. I realized that I had a lot more fun in Nashville. “I came back to visit, and I was here for a week. The last day I was here I drove around with my realtor. She showed me this post-war cottage in Lockeland Springs — 700 square feet for $90,000. She was a typical realtor, ‘Prices are

L.A. is full of musicians, but it’s not a neighborhood.

Nashville is a neighborhood.

It’s a community.

ing a photo book. He later brought his friend and fellow photographer John Partipilo in as a collaborator on the project, but as the project progressed, the narrative that Coons saw being played out made him start thinking beyond still photography. Coons was documenting the growth of a community of musicians, artists and other creative-minded individuals who valued the opportunity to live in a neighborhood of people with similar interests and challenges — whether it was dealing with dodgy neighborhoods, saving money through DIY house renovation, raising families, or sharing a love of music and arts. A growing community of musicians naturally called for a neighborhood live music venue, a place where musicians could try out sets, hold impromptu jams, or just socialize. Thus was born the Radio Café, opened by Mac Hill and housed in a former drug store at the corner of Woodland and North 14th (now Mad Donna’s). It was soon followed by Mike “Grimey” Grimes’ almost “accidental” take-over of a former dive bar in Five Points and its transformation into the Slow Bar (now 3 Crow Bar), and the opening of Jamie Rubin’s Family Wash in a former Laundromat on Porter Road and Greenwood. “I sort of missed out on the Radio Café scene when it first opened,” Coons says, “but I became a regular at the Slow Bar and Family Wash once they opened. I don’t want to pinpoint just the Family Wash because it’s not fair to the other bars, but it really became a nucleus for the 62

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

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going up tomorrow! It’s the last “cheap” house in East Nashville.’ I drove to a cash machine, got out $500 for earnest money and ended up buying a house.” After moving back to Nashville and settling into his new home in Lockeland Springs, Coons continued working in film and video production and married an East Nashville native. All the while, the idea for a documentary continued to gestate. As the changes in East Nashville and the city as a whole began to attract international attention, he came to the realization that the East Side was entering a new era, and the time to tell the story he envisioned was now. “There are a lot of people that moved here in the late 2000s that have no knowledge of what the Radio Café was,” Coons says. “They have no concept that Beyond the Edge was once a caved-in cinder block warehouse. Just 10 years ago, there was nothing but Radio Café, the Slow Bar and the Family Wash. Everyone thinks the neighborhood is so cool now, but many don’t know why. It was all the hard work that went into the neighborhood and the people that moved here and opened businesses when no one else would.” In the fall of 2012, Coons began work on the film. “I made a short list of about 25 people I knew from Family Wash,” Coons says, “and people that were vital to the story like Mac Hill with the Radio Cafe, Mike Grimes with the Slow Bar, and Diane Garrier from the 5 Spot.” “My focus was on the musicians in East

Nashville. I had that big question, ‘Why are there so many world-class musicians here?’ They came because it was a cheap place to live, but there was more than that. There was no script, I just wanted to interview everyone I could and see what they had to say. I did have about five questions I started with, things like: When did you move here? What’s it like living in a neighborhood with all these peers? “L.A. is full of musicians, but it’s not a neighborhood. Nashville is a neighborhood. It’s a community. If you give something to the neighborhood, someone is going to appreciate it, and if you need something you’re only a couple of phone calls away from help. That applies to gigs, home repair, and the way people live their lives. That’s what makes it a real community.” As the interviews began to accumulate, Coons discovered that sense of community also applied to the making of the documentary. “I’d interview one person,” he says, “and they would ask, ‘Have you talked to…?’ So there would be one name knocked off the list but two added. The list probably grew to around 160 people; I eventually interviewed about 70.” Coons started by asking the question, “Why do people move here?” but he discovered something much deeper than cheap real estate prices or a hard-to-define aura of hipness. The treasures and travails of East Nashville neighborhoods, combined with a strong DIY ethic and the communal nature of music and other creative endeavors, engendered a deep sense of community pride in many East Side transplants — an appreciation for their own “Island of Misfit Toys” that rejected the facile, cookie-cutter opulence of McMansions and Hummer Houses. With property values rising, opportunistic developers grabbing every vacant lot, and eager buyers waiting in lines, there can be little

doubt that the days of the “East Side Pioneers” are drawing to a close, but it doesn’t mean what was built must now be lost. Ultimately, the roots put down by the people who first succumbed to East Nashville’s quirky charm may hold the key to it weathering the perils of becoming an “it” neighborhood. It’s a mindset and attitude that Coons’ has experienced first hand. “There was a dirt lot with a trailer across the street from us,” Coons says. “One day the trailer was gone, the orange fence was up and they were grading the lot. I looked it up on Metro’s website. It sold for $144,000 — just the dirt. If somebody offered us $150,000 for our little ramshackle house, we would be 100 percent out of debt on everything and we would have money in the bank. But we would never own property in Lockeland Springs again. We’d be living in a condo somewhere else. We would never make it back to East Nashville, and that’s something we won’t give up.” “East Side of the River” received enthusiastic responses at recent preview screenings held at The Building and the cradle of its formation, the Family Wash. Coons is currently taking pre-orders for a DVD version and ironing out various technical details and music licensing issues. Looking ahead, the experience of being a one-man production company has given Coons a taste for more. “I’ve been thinking about delving more into the stories of certain musicians from this film. [East Nashville] is such a rich environment for stories.” That’s a statement that’s evident in every frame of “East Side of the River.” “It’s not everybody,” Coons says, “and it doesn’t tell the whole story, but I think it does tell important parts of the story. Mike Grimes said it best. He was referring to the Slow Bar but it also applies to the movie: ‘It was a moment in time.’” May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Air bnb

the East Side way From the Boom Chucka Boys to newlyweds to a Sigor Rós bandmember, there’s just no telling who guests might rub elbows with at the latest idea in lodging

by Jennifer Justus

ast Nashville keeps its rooms for rent like its many home recording studios: underground, in basements, or in backyard garages. They might be hard to spot at first, but they’re plentiful and often tricked out in the authentic ways that matter most. Looking up a map of East Nashville on Airbnb, the service that connects travelers with hosts who have rooms for rent, shows about 150 rentals. It’s a revelation to those of us who offer family members and friends air mattresses or stale rooms at Madison motels. No

offense to the Best Western, of course, but staying in someone’s home can offer a rich and enlightening experience of the city. Since it began in 2008 in San Francisco, Airbnb has experienced tremendous growth with rooms in homes (and tree houses, teepees and boats) in more than 34,000 cities and 192 countries. Last summer, Airbnb rated Nashville 8th in its list of America’s Most Hospitable Cities based on guest reviews. As for East Nashville, we checked out what the neighborhood has to offer and spoke with a few hosts about what it’s like — and what it takes — to open the doors of their homes and welcome guests.

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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37206

Rodney Jenkins

ody Jenkins, a full-time painter and designer, emigrated to the United States from France bringing modern, European panache with her. A wrought iron chandelier, for example, hangs from a tree in the yard where she has hosted many expats, musicians and neighbors for parties over the years. So during a trip back to her home country with husband Rodney Jenkins, the couple zigzagged from Northern France to the Mediterranean Sea, stopping at bed and breakfasts along the way. “I wanted to get the full-on experience of the host telling me the places to go,” she said. After returning to Nashville, the couple welcomed a daughter and considered opening their own B&B to bring in extra money. “I’m looking at this house and thinking, ‘This is a huge house,’” she remembered. As she searched online for rules about B&Bs, she stumbled across the Airbnb site. She planned to rent out three rooms in her house: two on the main floor, and one in the basement.

But first, she needed to convince Rodney. “He was not keen on the idea at all,” she said. Dody persuaded him to try it for one month. They listed the house on a Thursday and by Saturday of the same week it was booked. The month grew into more than a year, and “we haven’t quit yet,” she said. Dody and Rodney have since welcomed guests from across the globe ages 18 to 80, and while she said it’s nothing short of a job keeping rooms ready for guests and coordinating stays, she also estimates that about 70 percent of guests keep to themselves. Others have joined them at the table for dinner, and one couple who visited while considering a relocation to Nashville have become neighbors and friends. And even when Rodney and Dody aren’t involved, the table where they leave breakfast for guests each morning serves as the spot for bringing others together. “You’ll hear six people at breakfast who were strangers before,” she said, “now laughing and having the time of their lives.”

Courtesy Dody & Rodney Jenkins

Dody

Ruthie Lindsey hen a member of the band Sigur Rós contacted Ruthie Lindsey about staying in her home, he offered concert tickets as part of the deal. Though she was out of town at the time, Ruthie welcomed the musician and his girlfriend and accepted the offer for the nearest show after her return. “I flew back in on a Tuesday night late, and then jumped in my car Wednesday morning and drove to Birmingham with one of my best girlfriends,” she said. “We had the most incredible night. They brought us backstage, and we ate with them, and we were front row for the show. … They were so awesome. The coolest people.” It’s one of many stories Ruthie could tell about the folks who have rented parts — or all — of her home. Guests often want to know where to go in the neighborhood and end up hanging out with Ruthie and her friends. The first guests she hosted, a couple from Australia, will be married later this year in Los Angeles, and she hopes to attend. Ruthie, who has lived in Nashville for 11 years and works as a stylist, designer and decorator, embarked on the Airbnb adventure last spring, when she found herself single with extra room in her previous home. “I was like, ‘Well this would be a great way to bring in income,’” she said. “I love meeting

people. I love learning about people’s lives from all over the world. So it just seemed kind of like a natural fit.” Her father’s travel style inspired her. He researched out-of-the-way places and sought out the “scenic route,” as the family called it, taking back roads from Southern Louisiana where she grew up and learning from locals. “I know when I travel I want to get in

with the locals. Where do the locals want to eat? Where are the hole-in-the-wall places? Where’s the local music? Not necessarily the most touristy places,” she said. “I think Airbnb is a great way to get in a neighborhood and interact with people. … I think there’s a greater sense of community too. … They’re really getting the Nashville experience and the East Nashville experience.”

Photograph by Tiffany Mitchell

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

Steve

alk through the door of Sarah and Steve Weadick’s basement-level space and you’ll find personal touches, like their favorite Drew’s Brews coffee and a plate of Kringle pastry that Sarah has shipped from her hometown in Wisconsin. Show prints hang on the walls alongside artwork by the Weadicks’ friend Patrick Arena. And Steve keeps part of his record collection stacked by a player along with a guitar by the TV. They appreciate these kinds of details — clean, comfortable and local — when traveling, so it’s in turn what they offer to guests. Sarah estimates that about half of their guests have traveled through Airbnb previously, but all guests so far have come with an open attitude of consideration. “I think it’s revolutionizing the way people travel,” she said of Airbnb. “The people we’ve been getting are really conscientious travelers, very respectful of the space and they want to experience Nashville off of Broadway or outside of a hotel. They want to see the neighborhood.” The Weadicks keep a list of favorite places to eat and hear live music and even provide a few beer tokens for local happy hours. Their first visitors, four guys from Canada in a rockabilly band, stayed a week. “They planned originally on going to a studio or songwriting space, but then the music just happened here,” she said. When the Weadicks had a dinner party with their musician friends, the instruments and voices pulled them all together. “The Boom Chucka Boys joined us, and before I knew it, our house was totally filled with music,” she said. “It was amazing.” Beyond the experiences, it also helps

Photograph by Leah Cameron of Sneaky Ninja Inc.

Sarah

cover about 75 percent of the mortgage. Sarah works in nonprofits and has a crafting business making baby fashions called UberDee, while Steve works in medical sales. “This just allows flexibility and to actually save money,” she said. Hosts and guests rate one another after visits, which allows selectivity on everyone’s part. In addition to guests in the music business, they’ve hosted visitors looking to relocate to Nashville as well as neighbors who had rented out their entire Nashville home on Airbnb and needed a place to stay in the meantime. “Maybe it’s my nonprofit background, but I’m a strong believer in [the idea that] you learn things and your perspectives change when you meet strangers from across the country and even your own neighborhood.” Even though East Nashville hosts a variety

of listings, Sarah said she’s communicating with visitors via email or in person on a daily basis or every other day. And with the separate entrance, guests can keep to themselves too. “The only time we can hear people is when we’re in our living room and the people are hanging out here with friends and they’re all laughing,” she said. “Or, we can sometimes hear if they’re really getting down on the guitar. It just makes me happy that people are having that kind of experience in our space.” And it’s connecting people in ways that other types of travel might not allow. “You’re in someone’s home. You get to know their dog. They love Uber,” she said of the labradoodle at her feet, “as they should.” Visit theeastnashvillian.com for direct links to the Airbnbs in this article.

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

trawberries are in season! Packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, this seed-speckled little fruit is actually a member of the rose family. The seeds, oddly enough, are not seeds at all — they’re dried fruits called achene, which have their own seeds. Strawberries grow best in loamy soil (stocked with sand, silt and some clay), and like to run, so they need plenty of space and should be planted in either late fall or early spring. Of the three main categories of strawberries — Day-Neutral, Ever-Bearer and June-Bearer — June-Bearers tend to offer the best results for home gardeners.

FROZEN STRAWBERRY GOAT YOGURT

makes 2 quarts Noble Springs Dairy goat milk yogurt was used for this recipe and can be found at many Nashville Farmers Markets. It is perfect for lactose-intolerant lovers of ice cream. Rich in probiotics, goat yogurt assists in the digestion process and keeping a healthy gut.

Ingredients

Directions

• • • • • • • • •

Heat coconut milk with sugar on low heat. Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved and chill. Meanwhile, mix together goat yogurt (reserving 2 teaspoons), powdered sugar, vanilla extract, fruit pectin and strawberry puree. In separate bowl, thoroughly blend cornstarch and reserved yogurt. Add to goat yogurt mixture. Stir in the coconut/sugar mixture thoroughly. Using an ice cream freezer, freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

1 cup coconut milk ½ cup sugar 3 cups goat milk yogurt 1 teaspoon corn starch ½ cup powdered sugar 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon fruit pectin ½ cup strawberry puree 1 cup chopped strawberries

Note: This recipe is best served immediately due to the moisture content and a low fat content. Introducing alcohol, pectin and cornstarch results in a creamy texture. In this case vanilla extract was used for the alcohol, but can be substituted by vodka or any other preferred liquor. If there is a need to make ahead of time, limit freezing time to four hours.

Cookin in da ’

’HOOD Recipes from East Nashville favorites

By Melissa Corbin

uess what else is in season? Farmers Markets, many of which include farmers selling the most delicious strawberries available. East Nashvillians are lucky to have several Farmers Markets nearby:

The East Nashville Farmers Market (May 14 to Oct. 29, Wednesdays 3:30-7 p.m.) S. 20th St. (Shelby Park, near the baseball diamonds), Nashville, TN 37206 Nashville Farmers Market (open year round) 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37208 Amqui Station and Visitors Center Farmers Market (starting June 1, running Sundays noon to 3 p.m. through October) 301 B Madison St., Madison, TN 37115 Hip Donelson Farmers Market (starting May 9, 4-7 p.m. Fridays) 2730 Lebanon Rd., Nashville, TN 37214 For a complete listing of Tennessee Farmers Markets visit www.picktnproducts.org.

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May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

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EAST SIDE C A L E N D A R

Emma Alford Calendar Editor

UPCOMING PEDAL ON

Nashville Bike Month

Month of May, citywide

In Music City, May means wheelin’ and dealin’. May is the city’s bike month, which gives all the cycling enthusiasts a chance to share their love. Walk/Bike Nashville, cycling clubs, shops, and organizations tag team these four weeks to create a citywide month full of bike-related events. There will be tons of group rides, classes, organizational events, and of course, parties. Bike to Work Day, Tour De Nash, and the Nashville Bike Summit are just a few of the things bikers have to look forward to in May. Check online to see what’s happening in your neck of the woods. www. nashvillebikemonth.com

POUR ME ANOTHER

Music City Spirits and Cocktail Festival

May 7-11, citywide

PourTaste duo Jon and Lindsay Yeager are throwing Nashville’s sommeliers and mixologists into the limelight for this liquor-soaked, beer-battered five-day festival. Nashville’s culinary scene has been making headlines for some time now, but don’t forget that this city knows how to pour a drink too. They’ll showcase the best cocktails and bartenders Nashville has to offer. Different locations across the city will host seminars and tast-

ings to suit whatever your tastebuds desire. You can learn more about how to craft that perfect after-dinner cocktail while trying out some new spirits. Some events will take place right here on the East Side, including The Treehouse and Pavilion East. Buy your tickets to individual sessions online. www.musiccityspiritsandcocktail.com

RUFFLE YOUR FEATHERS

7:45 a.m., a free breakfast will be served at the Public Square and Mayor Karl Dean will give a short address. You’ll burn some calories, avoid traffic jams and get a chance to take in the city. Meet-up points in East Nashville include McFerrin Park, 5 Points, Tom Jones Park, Riverside Village and Shelby Bottoms. Check online to find all locations and times. www.walkbikenashville.org

PLAYDATE WITH PUJOL

East Nashville Chicken Chase

Pujol Sucks III: Mojo Rising

Saturday, May 10, Pavilion East

Fly the coop and strut over to Pavilion East for the first-ever East Nashville Chicken Chase and Hot Hen Hoedown. The novelty alone should draw you in, but this fest is free, so you really have no excuse to miss it. You won’t find the answer to the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg — but you will find a chicken chase, a fashion show for those hot hens, an egg hunt and lots more. They even have a “Farmhouse Spa” set up where you can score a massage (no talons involved). 1006 Fatherland St., www.eastnashvillechickenchase.com

9 p.m., Saturday, May 17, The East Room

Nashville’s Dead has risen. Nashville-based punk rocker Pujol is throwing his record release party on the East Side, rowdiness guaranteed. His new album, “KLUDGE,” comes out on May 19, but you can grab your copy of the LP at the show. Natural Child, Denney and the Jets, and Fox Fun will help move the night along with their tunes, culminating in a garage-rocked, sweat-drenched set from the man of the hour. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137, www.facebook.com/events/630053533746059/

TECH US TO CAMP

DROP THOSE KEYS

PodCamp Nashville

Bike To Work Day

Time varies by location, Friday, May 16, citywide

As part of Nashville’s Bike Month, Walk/ Bike Nashville is hosting a citywide “Bike To Work” day. Save the gas, call off your carpool and grab your helmet. There will be more than 20 meet-up points across the city, so find the one closest to you and join other cyclists to make your commute together. At

Sunday, May 17, Nossi College of Art

PodCamp is returning for everyone who is passionate about creating any type of digital content, i.e. pretty much anything and everything on the World Wide Web. At this digital media unconference, regular conference rules need not apply: The content of the sessions is determined by those who sign up to attend; conversation is encouraged; and if

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ESC you’re stuck in a session but want to slip out to catch the end of another, there’s an open-door policy (so you won’t catch any ugly eyes for scooting out early). This is a great forum for bloggers, educators, podcasters, and all types of content creators. Think of it as a one-day summer camp for techies, bloggers, or Keyboard Cat enthusiasts — basically, anyone who is interested in engaging in conversations about digital content. 590 Cheron Rd., www.podcampnashville.org

DIFFERENT SPOKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS

Tour De Nash

7 a.m. Saturday, May 17, Vanderbilt University/citywide

Cyclists will be taking to the streets this May to celebrate Nashville Bike Month. If you’re really feeling in the spirit of bike month, you can’t miss the Tenth Annual Tour De Nash, a ride throughout all of Nashvegas. This year’s tour will commemorate the grand opening of U.S. Bicycle Route 23, a statewide bicycling touring route that runs through Nashville. All skill levels are invited to join in on this ride, which will showcase the bike-friendly facilities of the city. You can choose which route floats your boat (or should we say stirs your spokes?): the eight-mile family ride, a 30-mile Gran Tour or 60-mile Metric Century tour. All routes will have rest stops for riders so you can refuel. Family rides are free, but there is a cost for Gran Tour and Metric Century cyclists. An early signup will get you a discount. You’ll feel good knowing the money goes back to Walk/Bike Nashville’s continued advocacy of active transportation in Music City. After the ride, they’ll celebrate all that sweat with an after-party at the Capitol District Street Fair in Morgan Park. You’ll even get a discount on all your brews. Get to pedalin’. www.walkbikenashville.org

“EDUTAINING” THE EASTSIDE Mr. Bond and the Science Guys Science Shows

10 a.m., Saturday, May 17, Pavilion East

Mr. Bond — the East Side’s very own Bill Nye, of sorts — is here to remind you that science is fun. Along with his Science Guys, Bond will be touring around East Nashville pushing his own scientific agenda in a fun, “edutaining” way. He’s hosting shows across the neighborhood to raise funds for different charities. While the shows are technically free, attendees are encouraged to make donations to the charity of the month. 1006 Fatherland St., www.mrbondscienceguy.com 74

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

LAY OF THE LANDSCAPE

Nature Painting Night Series: Courtney Johnson

6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, May 22, Shelby Bottoms Nature Center

Head on over to Shelby for a 21-and-up painting class in the park, led by local artist Courtney Johnson, who’ll give you some quick tips on creating abstract landscapes. You’ll want to preregister for this one before it fills up. To register, call 615-862-8539 or email shelbybottomsnature@nashville.gov.

ART. MUSIC. PARTY.

Seraphine Music & Arts Jubilee

8 p.m., Friday, May 23, The East Room

Named in honor of the French painter Seraphine Louis, this night is a celebration of the creative mind’s “irrepressible urge to create,” and is sure to be teeming with the creative juices of local artists and musicians. An art exhibit will showcase the work of a handful of artists and there will be performances from Good Sex, Thunderfog, Richard Koozie, and The Grayces, too. Only 5 bucks at the door — go support the fruits of creativity. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137, www.facebook.com/events/282583538563781

PICNIC FOR THE PICKERS

Picking and Picnicking

12 to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Shelby Park

Shelby Park is hosting a pickin’ potluck for Nashvillians. They’re inviting all the string kings to come out, play, and enjoy some tasty food. If you can’t play worth a lick, listening is free. Come help the park pick its way into summer. Don’t forget to pack your own picnic. If the weather gets rough, they’ll move the party inside. To register, call 615-862-8539 or email shelbybottomsnature@nashville.gov.

STRUMMING AGAINST SLAVERY

Uke Can End It

5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Sunday, May 25, Fanny’s House of Music

Join Fanny’s for an evening against slavery. There will be an outdoor picnic, with a performance by ukuleleist Charissa Hoffman and a handful of guests speaking on the continuing issue of slavery worldwide. This event will cap off a 100-day campaign by “Uke Can End It” to raise money for the International Justice Mission charity. International Justice Mission seeks to help individuals across the globe that are victims of slavery, sex trafficking, and other forms of oppressive violence. Donate

ESC money to the campaign at https://fundraising. ijm.org/campaign/2652/Uke-Can-End-It/. Don’t forget to drop in for the pickin’ party and support this great cause. 1101 Holly St., 615750-5746, www.facebook.com/UkeCanEndIt

SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

Fascination Street

9 p.m. Saturday, May 31 and June 21, East Room

The East Room has carved out a night just for the new wave/goth punk crowd. DJ Ichabod and Baron von Birk promise to stay true to the post-punk foundations of sound and ideas. You won’t hear techno or futurepop, but you will hear classics like Bowie and The Smiths blended with up-and-coming goth artists. It’ll be Just Like Heaven. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137, www.facebook. com/TheEastRoom

EAT (EAST) FOR THE CAUSE

Yum!East

6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, June 5, Pavilion East

Yum!East is coming back for your taste buds again. They really know how to stir things up in the kitchen on the East Side. For the second year in a row, they will showcase the culinary talents of the best restaurants, chefs, food artisans and specialty purveyors this side of the Cumberland. Most importantly, proceeds from the event will benefit Fannie Battle Day Home For Children. Tickets will cost $45, and admission includes an open bar, samples of food and drink from oodles of East Nashville businesses and live music. You’ll even leave with a nifty souvenir glass. Tickets go on sale May 2 on the Yum!East website. 1006 Fatherland St., www.yumeast.com

SUMMERTIME SYMPHONY

Nashville Symphony’s Summer Concert Series

8 p.m., Thursday, June 5, East Park

Nashville Symphony is out for summer. They’re kicking off their annual summer concert series this June. The orchestra will be performing works by Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland, Tchaikovsky and more. The show will go on throughout the summer in several different concert locations, free of cost (unless otherwise noted).The symphony is strutting over to East Park June 5. To finish out the series, they will throw a final hoorah for the summer down in Riverfront Park as part of the city’s Fourth of July celebration. Check out the website to see the various concert locations. 700 Woodland St. www.nashvillesymphony.org/tickets/community_concerts

BUILD IT FOR BOOKS

Little Library Mosaic

4 to 7 p.m., Saturday, June 7, Shelby Bottoms Nature Center

There is no Dewey Decimal System needed for this fun-sized library. Across the country, folks have been installing “Little Free Libraries,” which are essentially small boxes filled with books. The only policy: Take a book, leave a book. Shelby Park is building its very own teensy library, so stop by and help them out. The workshop, sponsored by Turnip Green Creative Reuse and Nashville Public Library, will enlist you to help put together and decorate the box o’ books with green-friendly, reused materials. The baby biblioteca will be placed in the park, chock full of books for your enjoyment. For more information, call 615-862-8539 or email shelbybottomsnature@nashville.gov.

WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

Martha O’Bryan Center’s 29th Annual Miss Martha’s Ice Cream Crankin’

3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 8, First Presbyterian Church The Martha O’Bryan Center hosts the sweetest summer fundraiser this June. They’re putting on their annual ice cream social with Purity Dairies to raise funds for all the work they do throughout the year. With hundreds of gallons of the good stuff on site, you can double down on ice cream scoops through the afternoon. There will also be plenty of other fun activities for the kids once they have their fill. Individuals, churches and groups are also encouraged to whip up their own batch of ice cream to enter in Purity’s contest. The flavor deemed “Best In Show” will be made by Purity next year. Don’t let your chance to see your own flavor on the shelf “melt” away. Discounted presale tickets can be purchased on the center’s website before the event; day-of tickets will run $10 for youth and $13 for adults. 4815 Franklin Rd., www.marthaobryan.org

FREAKY FRIDAY

Trick or Treat Tattoo’s Friday the 13th Special

Friday, June 13, Trick or Treat Tattoo

Friday the 13th just became your lucky day: The hallowed date returns again in June, so here is your reminder to drop in at Trick Or Treat Tattoo to celebrate it appropriately. Captain Morgan honors this ill-fated spot on the calendar with a set of flash tattoos at the appropriate price of $13. Who knows, maybe this could be the best way to beat your triskaidekaphobia? Embrace the superstition and honor the ominous day the right way. 2100 Greenwood Ave., 615-881-5889 May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ESC HAPPY CAMPERS

Great American Backyard Campout

Saturday June 28 to Sunday June 29, Cornelia Fort

Want to see Shelby after dark? The National Wildlife Federation is celebrating the outdoors with their annual Great American Backyard Campout, so the park is hosting its own special sleepover. You can have an evening under the stars with activities and guidance provided by nature center staff. Register in advance to get the details on this slumber party. To register, call 615-862-8539 or email shelbybottomsnature@nashville.gov.

DRINKING CREATIVELY

Paint Nites

Throughout March and April at Fat Bottom Brewery and Rumours East

Let your inner artist come out and play. Paint Nite hosts paint parties, where artists take you step-by-step through an entire painting. They provide all the goods you need to get going: brushes, paints, and even a smock. Artist Sara Beigle is bringing her brushes to the East Side, and she’s even offering a $20 discount for you East Nashvillians if you enter the coupon code “eastnash20” when buying tickets online. Buy yourself a drink and release all inhibitions. It’s time to make your masterpiece. Purchase tickets at www.paintnite.com. Rumours East: May 21, June 25 Fat Bottom Brewery: May 27, June 17

RECURRING TAKE ME TO THE PICTURE SHOW

Grassy Knoll Movie Nights

7 p.m., second Sunday of each month, May 11 and June 8, side lawn @ Bongo Java East

Bring your own blanket, relax and enjoy the show: Grassy Knoll Movie Nights are back! They’ll be playing our favorite cult classics all summer. You know you’re tired of paying $11 to sit in a stuffy movie theater. Get out and enjoy the summer breeze — it’ll only cost you $5 to watch, or $4 with a canned food donation to Second Harvest (only $1 for the kiddies). Food trucks and local brews will be on standby, so you won’t go hungry or thirsty. Check Grassy Knoll Movie Nights’ Facebook page for what they’re showing each month. 109 South 11th St., www.facebook.com/grassyknollmovies

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

BRING IT TO THE TABLE

Community Hour at Lockeland Table

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

Lockeland Table is cooking up a family-friendly afternoon to help you break out of the house or away from that desk for a couple of hours. Throughout the week, they’ll have a happy hour of sorts. They’ve got a special snack and drink menu, as well as a menu just for the kiddies. Have a drink and feed the tykes. A portion of all proceeds will benefit Lockeland Design Center PTO, so you can feel good about giving back to your neighborhood while schmoozing with your fellow East Nashvillians. 1520 Woodland St., 615-2284864, www.lockelandtable.com

FARM FRESH

East Nashville Farmers Market

3:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Shelby Park

Amqui Station Farmer’s Market

12 to 3 p.m. Sundays, Amqui Station, Madison

The East Nashville Farmer’s Market will kick off another fresh season on May 14, this time with a change of scenery, in Shelby Park near the baseball diamond. This means more room for your favorite fruits, vegetables, and other artisan products. Madison will also be revving up its own market in June. Take a detour from your usual trek to Kroger and stop by these markets to meet the farmers and artisans who grow and make your food. You’ll find locally grown organic and fresh produce, local cheeses, milk, breads, herbs, fruits, vegetables, jams and jellies. A few merchants even sell handmade goods, such as soaps, candles, pottery, and jewelry. They also accept SNAP (food stamp) benefits. Grocery shopping has never been this fun, or homegrown. The Farmers’ Markets will run through the end of October. www.eastnashvillemarket.com; www.amquistation.org

EAST ROOM HAS JOKES

SPiFFY SQUiRREL Sundays

7:30 p.m. Sundays, The East Room

The East Room is making a name for itself in Nashville’s comedy scene. East Room honcho Ben Jones has started up SPiFFY SQUiRREL Sundays through NashvilleStandUp.com, and he’s bringing in an array of national and local funny guys and gals. This independent comedy show is the best place for the up-and-coming comic to flex their funny bones. If you’re looking for a laugh, check it out. Five bucks gets you in the door. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615335-3137, www.nashvillestandup.com

BIG NEWS! On or about June 1st, we are moving to our beautiful, new dental office located less than a half mile away from our present Nashville location! This dental office is an upgraded facility with easy handicap access at 2120 Murfreesboro Pike.

TWO LOCATIONS: INVISALIGN is a method for orthodontic treatment that uses a series of removable clear teeth aligners; this is used as an alternative to traditional metal dental braces. ORAL CANCER is on the rise, come in for your screening today of $35, regularly $65.

Cool Springs: 1735 Galleria Blvd, Suite 1073 Franklin, TN 37067

New Nashville Location: 2120 Murfreesboro Pike Nashville, TN 37217

615.771.7733 fax: 615.771.7766

615.366.4141 fax: 615.399.9702

NextGenerationDentists.com info@NextGenerationDentists.com May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

ESC STOP, SHOP AND SWAP FOR THE SONGSTERS

Nashville’s Musician’s Swap Meet

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. the first and third Sunday of each month, The Building

If you’re among the sea of musicians and songwriters in Nashville, you might want to drop in on the monthly Musician’s Swap Meet at The Building in 5 Points. The musically inclined gather to buy, sell and trade their gear. There’s always a smattering of various musical odds and ends: guitars, drums, amps, fiddles, horns — you name it. You’ll also find vinyl, artwork, clothing and other music-related memorabilia. This folky flea market of sorts is free and open to the public. Stop by, grab a coffee at Bongo Java, grub down at Drifters and check out the musical arsenal. If you’re interested in renting a booth for the swap, contact Dino Bradley at 615-593-7497. 1008C Woodland St.

I’M WITH YOU IN ROCKLAND

Kerouacs Beat Mondays

8:30 p.m. Mondays, Performing Artist Co-op

The Performing Artist Co-op, aka the “Purple Theater,” has seen the best minds of our generation, mad, starving, hysterical and naked. OK, so we won’t take it that far, but the theater has created a forum for lovers of the Beat generation to share their own writing. They’re calling all you Dharma Bums to bring out your prose, poetry, or music to this laid-back listening party. It’s reminiscent of a 1950s lounge setting — the kind of joint you might have seen Burroughs stumble into on a hard night. Five bucks gets you in the door to this open mic and lends you a strong brew of coffee or tea. (If you require some other type of liquid courage, it’s BYOB.) 107 N. 11th St., www.facebook.com/purpletheater

HIT THE OPEN ROAD

Open Road Monday

8 p.m., Mondays, The Building

The Building’s four-year tradition of “Open Road Monday” rambles on. It’s a weekly show that features one or two different bands every week, promptly followed by an open mic sesh. It’s just a $5 cover and BYOB. Check out some of the budding talent the Building is showcasing over here on the East Side. 1008 C. Woodland St., 615-262-8899, www.facebook.com/ pages/Open-Road-Mondays/267241132017

SHAKE A LEG

HONESTLY, OFFICER...

Keep On Movin’

10 p.m. until close Mondays, The 5 Spot

For those looking to hit the dance floor on Monday nights, The 5 Spot’s “Keep on Movin’” dance party is the place to be. This shindig keeps it real with old-school soul, funk and R&B. Don’t worry, you won’t hear Kesha — although you might see her — and you can leave your Apple Bottom jeans at home. If you have two left feet, then snag a seat at the bar. They have two-for-one drink specials, so you can use the money you save on a cover to fill your cup. 1006 Forrest Ave., 615-650-9333, www.the5spotlive.com

East Nashville Crime Prevention meeting

11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesdays, Beyond the Edge

Join your neighbors to talk about crime stats, trends and various other issues with East Precinct commander David Imhof and head of investigation Lt. Greg Blair. If you are new to the East Side, get up to speed on criminal activity in the area. If you are a recent victim of crime, they want to hear your story. 112 S. 11th St., 615-226-3343

HAVE YOUR PIE AND DRINK A PINT, TOO

$11 Pint & Pie Night

6 p.m. to midnight Tuesdays, The Family Wash

RINC, Y’ALL

Scott-Ellis School of Irish Dance

4:30 to 5 p.m. ages 3-6, and 5 to 5:45 p.m. ages 7 & up, Mondays, Eastwood Christian Church Fellowship Hall

You’re never too young — or too old — to kick out the Gaelic jams with some Irish Step dancing. No experience, or partner, required — just you, some enthusiasm and a heart of gold. 1601 Eastland Ave., 615-300-4388, www.scott-ellis.com

Every Tuesday night at The Family Wash, you can score a pint of beer and a shepherd’s pie for just $11. The reigning music venue on the East Side, The Wash is home to an abundance of good music, and on Tuesdays, the club plays host to the long-running songwriter series Shortsets, hosted by Cole Slivka. They offer a wide selection of craft beer, and they even have a vegetarian shepherd’s pie for herbivores. So sit back and enjoy the show, along with your pint and pie. 2038 Greenwood Ave., 615-226-6070, www.familywash.com

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For complete student consumer information visit lincolnedu.com/consumerinfo. A branch of the Indianapolis, IN campus. 17/125430414-4483

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4/23/14 4:38 PM

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

Nashville’s Premier Social Experience

ESC FAT BOTTOM FOR YOUR BUCK

Dave Pahanish with Special Guests

Q: What’s better than a craft beer and a tasty meal? A: Cheap craft beer and a tasty meal. At Fat Bottom Brewery, you can grab a pint and an entrée for just $10 on Tuesdays. Peruse their beer garden; they’ve got plenty of options for the seasoned beer drinker, and they’re always kegging fresh batches and pouring cold ones. 900 Main St., www.fatbottombrewing.com

East Nashville singer-songwriter Dave Pahanish hosts a weekly residency on the right side of the river, right here in 5 Points at The Building. Each week he will perform and bring along a few special guests to showcase as well. In addition to the bands, they’ll also clear the stage for an open mic. Don’t forget to BYOB. 1008 C. Woodland St., 615-262-8899

4 p.m. until close Tuesdays, Fat Bottom Brewery

TELL ME A STORY

East Side Storytellin’

7 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of each month, Mad Donna’s

Looking for something to get your creative juices flowing? East Side Story has you covered. They’ve partnered with WAMB radio and Mad Donna’s to present East Side Storytellin’, with book readings, musical performances and author/musician interviews all in one evening. They host this lovely event twice each month. Check the website to see who the guests of honor will be for each performance. The event is free, but you’ll have to reserve a spot by calling ahead. 1313 Woodland St., 615-262-5346, www.eastsidestorytn.com

NO LAUGH TRACK NEEDED

Ultimate Comedy Show by Corporate Juggernaut

8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, East Room

League Bar and Specials after Games Join as a Free agent or

www.goKickball.com/Nashville GKBsu14 = early bird registration discount 80

PANFISH IS IN THE BUILDING

$10 Pint and Entrée Special

Corporate Juggernaut — a series of comedy shows put on by Gary Fletcher, Jane Borden and Brandon Jazz — has taken up residency in the East Room with a weekly open-mic comedy night. Brad Edwards is your host with the most and his backing band is The Grey Grays. You can always expect to see fresh material and new talent. Doors and sign-up are at 8 p.m. Get out and help support Nashville’s burgeoning comedy scene. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137, www.facebook.com/TheEastRoom

UKE IT IF YOU GOT IT

Nashville Ukulele Monthly Jam

6 to 7:30 p.m., third Monday of each month, May 19, Fanny’s House of Music

Fanny’s calls in all the uke-heads once a month for a jam night at their House of Music. They invite all skill levels and anyone else who might just want to drop in for a listen at this ramble. 1101 Holly St., 615-750-5746

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

8 p.m., Wednesdays, The Building

TOAST TO MOTHER EARTH

East Nashville Green Drinks

6-9 p.m., third Wednesday of each month, Village Pub & Beer Garden

Tired of talking sports and gossip every night out? Village Pub has something in mind for the greener East Nashvillians. Once a month they host an evening for environmentalists to sit down for a drink and discuss ideas for a greener future. You’ll be saving the planet, one drink at a time. 1308 McGavock Pike, 615-942-5880, www.greendrinks.org

ART IS FOR EVERYONE

John Cannon Fine Art classes

6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays, The Idea Hatchery

If you’ve been filling in coloring book pages for years but you’re too intimidated to put actual paint to canvas, it might be time you give it a try. Local artist John Cannon has been teaching small, intimate art classes at The Idea Hatchery since September; this keeps the sessions low-pressure and allows for some one-on-one instruction. If you’re feeling like you could be the next Matisse with a little guidance, sign yourself up. 1108-C Woodland St., 615-496-1259, www.johncannonart.com

BLUEGRASS, BEER, BURGERS

Bluegrass Thursdays with Johnny Campbell & the Bluegrass Drifters

8 p.m. until close on Thursdays, Charlie Bob’s

To celebrate your post-Hump Day, head to Charlie Bob’s and bring your axe along. Watch North 2nd Street’s own Bluegrass Drifters kick things off, then join in on the pickin’ party afterward. Have a burger, buy a few beers and add a little ‘grass to your life. Oh yeah: It’s also dollar hot dog night. 1330 Dickerson Pike, 615-262-2244, www.charliebobs.com

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ESC

TROUBADOURS AND VIRTUOSO’S UNITE

UnBound Arts Presents: Third Thursdays

7 p.m., third Thursday of every month, The Building

UnBound Arts has come up with a unique way to combine the worlds of visual and musical artists together in one evening, with an aim of promoting camaraderie, collaboration and fusion between the various disciplines of the arts. Each month UnBound seeks out intriguing artists and displays their work while musicians play a few sets of their best stuff. Think of it as a hybrid art opening/rock show. Come join in on this artistic amalgamation. Contact unboundartsnashville@gmail.com for further information. 1008 C Woodland St.

SING ME A SONG

David Bermudez and Jonas Stein drop the needle on vinyl all night with only the numbers that’ll make you shake what ’yer mama gave you. If you haven’t been yet: Don’t deny yourself a good time. 2511 Gallatin Rd., www.thefoobarnashville.com

CAN’T FORCE A DANCE PARTY

Queer Dance Party

9 p.m. to 3 a.m., third Friday of every month, 5 Spot

Once a month The 5 Spot spouts rainbows and rains glitter. On any given month, the QDP is mixed bag of fashionably clad attendees (some in the occasional costume) dancing till they can’t dance no mo’. Help pack out the cozy club, shake a leg, slurp down some of the drink specials, and let your true colors show. After all, The 5 Spot was named the second-best place to dance in Nashville. 1006 Forrest Ave., www.queernashville.com

SoWN

8 p.m., last Thursday of each month, The Building

Once a month, The Building is calling in all the best and brightest songwriters in the city to showcase and connect with industry professionals. Songwriters know how difficult it is to break through in Music City, so a good place to start might be right here on the East Side. Don’t forget to BYOB. 1008 C. Woodland St., 615-262-8899

PALAVER RECORDS POW WOW

Palaver Thursday Showcase

9 p.m. Thursdays, FooBar Too

Looking to hear some fresh new tunes without paying a pretty penny to do it? Head over to FooBar on Thursday nights — East Nashville-based record label Palaver Records hosts a weekly showcase to promote both local and traveling acts. It gives them a chance to scout performers, offers bands an opportunity to promote themselves, and gives music lovers a cheap show to catch during the week (only $3 at the door — you can’t beat that in Music City). You can see an array of different genres from week to week, and the beer always flows easy at Foo with $3 drafts. 2511 Gallatin Rd., www.palaverrecords.com

SHAKE YOUR FOOBAR

Sparkle City

10 p.m., Fridays, fooBAR

Foo’s best dance party with their freshest DJs happens every Friday night. Spinmasters

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

GUFFAW AND GET DOWN

Luxury Prestige III and Moving Forweird

7 p.m., third Friday of every month, The East Room

Get all your giggles and jiving done in one spot on Friday nights at The East Room. At 7 p.m. Luxury Prestige III — a scripted comedy competition where the audience chooses the winner — kicks off. Each month features live sketch and scripted video competitions for prizes, plus a musical guest. Cover’s $3. Starting at 10 p.m. after Luxury Prestige III, The East Room hosts Moving Forweird, a techno/acid/industrial dance party. DJs Talk, Leto, and Grey People spin the beats. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137, www.facebook.com/TheEastRoom

WHOSE EASTSIDE IS IT ANYWAY?

Music City Improv

8 p.m., third Friday of every month, The Building

Music City Improv puts on their high-energy show at The Building each month, and every month’s show is different, featuring a healthy mix of short- and long-form improv, plus live and video sketch comedy. Think of it as your own local “SNL” on a Friday night. This gig tends to sell out, so buy your tickets in advance online. 1008 C. Woodland St., www.musiccityimprov.com

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ESC THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING…

First Time Stories

7 to 10 p.m., first Friday of every month, Actor’s Bridge Studio

Whether it’s about that first prom night (when you weren’t crowned king or queen), your first concert, or maybe that first kiss, stories of

firsts are the stuff of the stage. Actors Bridge hosts an open mic night that such soliloquies are made for — they call it “storytelling karaoke.” They only ask that you tell it straight from the heart in less than five minutes. Share your first, and it won’t be the last time you make it out to this night. Admission is $5; bring a few extra dollars for the cash bar. 4304 Charlotte Ave., www.actorsbridge.org

GET YOUR CREEP ON

The Cult Fiction Underground

8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Logue’s Black Raven Emporium

The Cult Fiction Underground is housed beneath Robert Logue’s Black Raven Emporium off Gallatin Rd. Every weekend they host screenings of rare and classic horror and cult films under the shop for $5, and before (or after) the film, you can socialize and have a drink in the gothic-style bar and lounge area. The dim basement creates an intimate gathering space for cult and horror fans. It looks like the kind of place Edgar Allen Poe might’ve stumbled out of over 150 years ago. The entrance is behind the building and parking is free. Check out Black Raven’s Facebook page to see what films they’re screening each week. 2915 Gallatin Rd., 615-562-4710

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS & EVENTS SHELBY HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

AMERICAN LETTERPRESS SINCE 1879 Find your favorite new poster from iconic Hatch Show Print, hand-printed with wood type and imagery from the historic collection. New this spring: take a guided tour through the history of Hatch Show Print, learn about letterpress printing, and pull your own commemorative print to take home with you!

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

MAXWELL HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

EASTWOOD NEIGHBORS

6:30 p.m. second Tuesday of every other month, Eastwood Christian Church 1601 Eastland Ave., www.eastwoodneighbors.org

STEP INOSurIDSEtory 224 5th Ave South • Nashville, TN • 615.577.7710 HatchShowPrint.com • @hatchshowprint Hatch Show Print is another historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, a Section 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964.

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

GREENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

6 p.m. second Tuesday of every month, House on the Hill

909 Manila St., www.greenwoodneighbors.org

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

ESC

EAST NASHVILLE CAUCUS

5 p.m. first Wednesday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct

INTRODUCING

The East Nashville Caucus provides a public forum for East Nashville community leaders, representatives, council members and neighbors. 936 E. Trinity Ln.

CHAMBER EAST

8:15 to 9:30 a.m. first Wednesday of every month, location changes monthly

The Chamber East meets every month for a networking coffee to discuss community updates and how to grow and improve the East Nashville area. Check the News & Events page at www.nashvillechamber.com to see the location of each month’s meetings.

CLEVELAND PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

C O N N A S .

CRAFT

BEER COCKTAILS

+ A NEW

DRINK

6:30 p.m. second Thursday of every month, Cleveland Park Community Center

610 N. Sixth St., www.facebook.com/groups/ClevelandPark

INGLEWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

7 p.m. first Thursday of every month, Isaac Litton Alumni Center

4500 Gallatin Rd., www.inglewoodrna.org

MCFERRIN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

ROSEBANK NEIGHBORS

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

MENU 1313 W O O DLAND ST 615.226.1617 86

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2014

HISTORIC EAST NASHVILLE MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION

6 to 8 p.m. second Tuesday of every month May’s mixer will be held at Alpha Grapics June’s mixer will be held at Two Ten Jack

HEMNA is a cooperative formed among East Nashville business owners to promote collaboration with neighborhood associations and city government. Check the association’s website to learn about the organization and where meetings will be held each month Contact lisa@theeastnashvillian.com with your questions. www.eastnashville.org

DICKERSON ROAD MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION

4 p.m. last Thursday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct

936 E. Trinity Ln., www.dickersonroadmerchants.com

MOMS CLUB OF EAST NASHVILLE

10 a.m. first Friday of every month, location varies by group MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support) Club is an international organization of mothers with three branches in the East Nashville area. It provides a support network for mothers to connect with other EN mothers. The meetings are open to all mothers in the designated area. Meetings host speakers, cover regular business items of the organization including upcoming service initiatives and activities, and also allow women to discuss the ins and outs, ups and downs of being a mother with other women. Visit www.momsclubeast.blogspot.com to determine which MOMS group your residence falls under. Inglewood: 10 a.m. (email inglewoodmoms@gmail.com for location) Lockeland: 10 a.m. East Park Community Center, 600 Woodland St. Eastwood: contact chapter for time and location

If you have an event you would like to have listed, please send information about the event to calendar@theeastnashvillian.com. For more up to date information, be sure to visit us at theeastnashvillian.com

ALTHOUGH THIS CITY IS KNOWN FOR ITS MUSIC, ITS FOOD SCENE IS SOMETHING WORTH SINGING ABOUT!

–SouthernLiving.com/2013

May | June 2014 THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM

CHICKEN SHACK BOOGIE C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 3 7

yourself in one spot where you can watch people take their first bite of hot chicken. There is a lot of amusement that comes from that.” The soul of the Nashville Hot Chicken Festival can be found in its sense of humor and absurdity: eating blistering hot chicken on

a blistering hot day. It’s a mix that speaks to Nashville’s unique combination of traditionalism and weirdness. After all, Nashville is a city renowned for simple songs of country life and values sung by performers decked out in the most outrageous, rhinestone-encrusted finery. No city on Earth has produced more music that equally honors sin and salvation, Saturday night and Sunday morning, the depths of despair and the joy of life. So what could be a better embodiment of Nashville’s soul than

hell-spawned spice and heavenly flavor? Hot Chicken Ambassador No. 1, Bill Purcell, hopes the searing poultry tribute to Nashville’s yin and yang continues. “What has happened in many other cities is that a homegrown event, a celebration of place, becomes a kind of generic party. My hope is that the Hot Chicken Festival remains a celebration of how special Nashville is as a place.” Jesse Goldstein also sees that special “Nashville-ness” in each year’s event. “There’s a real communal spirit, and I think it speaks to the hot chicken fan base. One of my favorite memories from last year was Neil McCormick from Yazoo standing on top of a table leading hundreds of people in a rousing rendition of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ before last call. “It’s incredible to see how many people come out on what is inevitably one of the hottest days of the year to sweat and experience an interior chemical peel. Last year was the first year we had rain. Of course I was there first thing in the morning, and I was moping around — ‘Who’s going to come out in this rain?’ I was walking by the Biscuit Love truck and Karl Worley saw my face and said, ‘If people come and stand in line to get hot chicken in 100 degree heat, they’ll do it in the rain.’ And he was right. They did.” 88

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STEM-ING THE TIDE C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 5 5

to eventually get more schooling. “We’re just trying to give our students the best opportunity for post-secondary opportunities,” she says. Can a high school replace a college? Berry balks at that. “We recognize not every student” — and here she catches herself, because it’s still hard to say that not every kid should to go to college; it flies in the face of the modern education system. She rephrases pragmatically: “You’re never going to get a hundred percent of anything to actually occur, so we’re not going to get a hundred percent of our students into college. Fine. But we need a hundred percent of our students to go into the workforce.” Would she be OK with a lower percentage of Stratford students going to college if it meant more of them finding jobs? “The reality is we’re trying to prepare students for a life after high school,” says Berry. “It may not include college. But I think that’s the new age of education.” Here is what the new age of education looks like: There are colleges with less well-equipped labs than Stratford STEM Magnet. Students are poking at cancer cells. They are extracting DNA. They are watching and smelling and feeling how fast chickens decompose in an interior courtyard a la the University of

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fuck all the sports shit and get into the Dead, you know. Or do any fucking thing you want. You’re gonna die in your own arms anyway.’” While he is happy to be a published author, Snider doesn’t put writing the book on the same creative level as his songwriting. “I wouldn’t say it was an artistic thing,” he explained. “It was more like morning coffee time to me, hanging out with Cooper, which I do a lot, and telling my shit, over-pontificating. “But I like it, and when I read it back, I was like, ‘Alright, yeah, that’s a fucking book. That’s as much a book as some other stuff.’” Snider bravely opted to not whitewash any of his past, as some might have, owning up to mistakes and to people he’s wronged along the way. “If there was another reason besides glory or money [for writing the book], it would be the opportunity to make amends with some people in a public way,” Snider said. That would include the man who inspired him to become a singer-songwriter, Jerry Jeff Walker. “I love him,” Snider said. “I don’t

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Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, aka the “Body Farm.” The murder scenes where they conduct forensic investigations have their own classrooms. There are robots and computer-aided drafting and video equipment enough to re-film “Avatar.” The community that surrounds Stratford has been slow to come around — once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes. But there are changes there, too. Principal Steele says the former police commander of the East Precinct told him that since the restructuring of Stratford, property crimes had fallen by 3000 percent. This stat comes close on the heels of Stratford’s exponential rise in attendance. “We don’t want to take all the credit for that, but we’re taking credit for encouraging our students to be here and making it interesting while they are here,” Steele says, “as opposed to being out and breaking the law. “Let’s be honest; prior to four years ago, people weren’t buying a lot of [Inglewood] houses because if they had children they weren’t going to send them to this school,” he goes on. With East Nashville bolstered by the city-leading elementary school Lockeland Elementary Design Center, as those kids get older they have to go somewhere, and for the first time parents may look at Stratford as a viable option. Berry says that there’s already been a marked increase in students that are zoned in the

know what he’s gonna think of the book, you know. There’s a story in there about me bailing out on vacation and stealing his old lady’s weed. We’ve never discussed it ever. I bet he reads the book and we still don’t talk about it. That’s what I’m hoping.” Jimmy Buffett, who tried with varying degrees of success to give Snider guidance when he was signed to Buffett’s Margaritaville label, is another person he hopes will read the book. “There will be some things that I hope that he will be able to see I have considered and thought about,” he said. After a short pause, he added, “But who knows how people who are in it are going to respond?” Snider has already done a limited number of dates in support of the book, traveling by tour bus mostly in the South. The appearances included a screening of an abridged version of “East Nashville Tonight,” followed by readings from the book, and a segment in which Snider takes questions and song requests. He even had a podium built to use for the readings, just like a real author. “People have been asking me, ‘How of much of it is true?’ And I say, ‘Most of it.’ But I forget I say shit in there like I know karate,” he said and laughed. “I think I say I scored

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Stratford area who are returning home from other private or public schools. In the 2012 school year, 35 students returned. This year, it’s 50. But the real question is: Will it work? On May 22, Stratford STEM Magnet High School graduates her first pure class: four years of STEM untainted by the legacy of the old system. Will those supposedly high-paying jobs be waiting for them with open arms? When 70 percent of all Tennessee high school graduates require remedial classes in math or English, will Stratford students be ready to enter post-secondary schooling if they so choose? On those lucrative jobs, Berry says that no student she knows of has confirmed a job offer. “I don’t think [the seniors] know past May. They’re focusing on graduating.” She also says that only 20 percent of graduates have said they will choose the same major in college as they did in high school. How will a new Stratford affect its neighborhood, its property values, and its future homeowners? The jury is still out, and Berry, Steele and the rest of East Nashville are eagerly awaiting the verdict. Then again, the verdict may already be in if one chooses to follow the money. Right across the street on Porter, as the old bits of Stratford are thrown into dumpsters, new homes are being built.

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EAST of NOR M A L By

Tommy Womack

United, but Disconnected ... I pick my son up from the Nashville School of the Arts at 3 PM every weekday. Sometimes I have to wait a bit, if he’s mingling with his friends, and I don’t mind because he’s an only child and I’m just happy he has friends. Besides, when he’s out there on the lawn with them, he’s at least not texting them. He’s making eye contact, breathing the same air and using words from his mouth with a modicum of spontaneity. Who would have ever thought human interaction would become a semi-lost art. Once he deigns to walk to the car, his eyes are trained on the terrain before him, and he uses those eyes to find the handle on the car door and then to see where the car seat is, and those are the last occasions, until we get home, when his eyes are not on the phone. I ask him how he’s doing and he mutters “good” without looking up. I’ll take that. He’s a 15-year-old kid; if I don’t expect more than a grunt, I’m never disappointed. It’s not like he’s isolating. He’s in touch with people constantly. There’s always a text coming in, or an email, or a new video to look at, or a funny meme. It’s endless. Life is on a conveyer belt that moves temporary stimuli past him, some of it leaving residue on his consciousness and a lot of it moving on down the line as if he’d never seen it at all. I’m no better. I’m looking at my phone at stoplights, setting a terrible example; and then there was that time when I texted “walk the dog” to him from the other end of the house, rather than getting up and infiltrating that rancid battlefield he calls a bedroom.

He likes to go to all-ages punk shows now. I drive him to whatever hovel the show is at, and I let him out, and it’s cute to watch him be with all his little punk friends, all of them so adorably spiky and transparent. I’m happy he’s going to these events for the same reason I’m happy to take him to shows at the Bridgestone — he gets to experience a crowd, a communal gathering. There’s nothing communal about a text, or watching a YouTube clip in your room alone, or watching a show on Netflix without that feeling of a whole nation watching it at the same time you are. It’s all individuals linking with individuals, for little individual bits of time. It’s the province of middle-aged men to be crotchety and ruminate about the good old days, and how everything’s gone to hell in a handbasket now, so bear with me. When I was a teenager, sonny boy, there was one topic of conversation at school every Monday — the band that had played on “Saturday Night Live.” We all saw Devo on that same night, at the same time, and wondered what the hell that was all about. We all saw the Stones really blow it in 1978. I remember taking a break from a toga party to watch The Clash on the short-lived “Fridays” show; and along with me, thousands of teenage brains across the country were being coated with the experience all at the same time. Nathan (that’s my son) can see that performance of The Clash any time he wants now. It’s out there. But who is there at school on Monday morning to discuss it with? Ah, the good old days. We were less connected then, but more united, too.

— Tommy Womack is a singer-songwriter and author, and a former member of both Government Cheese and the bis-quits. His memoir, Cheese Chronicles, has just been released as an e-book by Amber House Books. Visit his website at tommywomack.com and keep up via his popular “Monday Morning Cup of Coffee” series. His column, "East of Normal," appears in every issue of The East Nashvillian. He is currently working on both a new memoir and his seventh solo record.

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PARTING SHOT

STEVE CHAPMAN AS JOGGING ELVIS THE COUNTRY MUSIC MARATHON PHOTOGRAPHED DAVE CARDACIOTTO

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