EN May-June 2015 by The East Nashvillian

Know Your Neighbor: DAVE CRUMPTON + SUNNY BECKS-CRUMPTON = HENRIETTA CRUMPTON

MAY | JUNE VOL. V ISSUE 5

All Quad’s Children

how Quadrafonic Sound Studios became ground zero for the other side of Nashville

Sarah POTENZA a voice beyond THE VOICE

East Nashville LITTLE LEAGUE teaches kids the fundamentals of the game — and more

Artist in Profile

DeAndre

Lilly Hiatt

HOLLAND

finds her own path to success

+ Bonnaroo Works Fund East Nashville Sports

May | June 2015

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May | June 2015

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PUBLISHER Lisa McCauley EDITOR Chuck Allen ASSOCIATE EDITOR Daryl Sanders CALENDAR EDITOR Emma Alford EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Danielle Dietze CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rebecah Boynton, Timothy C. Davis, Randy Fox, Holly Gleason James Haggerty, Nicole Keiper, John McBryde, Ron Wynn, Tommy Womack CREATIVE DIRECTOR Chuck Allen DESIGN DIRECTOR Benjamin Rumble ADVERTISING DESIGN Benjamin Rumble

ILLUSTRATIONS Benjamin Rumble, Dean Tomasek

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Stacie Huckeba

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Dave Cardaciotto, Eric England, Marshall Fallwell, Tyler Goldman, DeAndre Holland, Keep3 SOCIAL MEDIA Nicole Keiper

Kitchen

Table Media Company Est.2010

ADVERTISING SALES Lisa McCauley lisa@theeastnashvillian.com 615.582.4187 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Jaime Brousse, Nikkole Turner INTERN Victoria Clodfelter

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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.

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COVER STORY

34 SARAH POTENZA A voice beyond The Voice By Holly Gleason

FEATURES OF FUN, 365 DAYS 33 4OFDAYS MAKING A DIFFERENCE The Bonnaroo Works Fund is ‘sharing the wealth’ in more ways than one By Randy Fox

44 PLAY BALL!

East Nashville Little League teaches the fundamentals of the game — and more By John McBryde

52 SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER

Lilly Hiatt finds her own path to success By Randy Fox

ON THE COVER SARAH POTENZA

ALL QUAD’S CHILDREN

How Quadrafonic Sound Studio became ground zero for the other side of Nashville

Photograph by Stacie Huckeba

By Daryl Sanders

69 KICKIN’ IT

East Nashville Sports lets you play like a kid By Sarah Hays

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May | June 2015

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

IN THE KNOW

15 Matters of Development

26 Artist in Profile: DeAndre Holland

18 Zoning, Zoning, Zoned

43 Know Your Neighbor: Dave Crumpton

18 Farm Flavor

Your Neighbor: 51 Know Sunny Becks-Crumpton

By Nicole Keiper

By Ron Wynn

By Chuck Allen

By Tommy Womack

By Rebecah Boyton

By Tommy Womack

East Nashville Farmers Market Guide

Your Neighbor (Jr.): 59 Know Henrietta Crumpton

By Rebecah Boyton

22 Is RAD all that rad?

By Tommy Womack

By Timothy C. Davis

75 East Side Calendar

22 A Letter to the Editor

By Emma Alford

By The Cayce United Leadership Team

AUXILIARY

COMMENTARY

73 Cookin’ in the ’hood

12 Editor’s Letter

By Amy Harris

By Chuck Allen

106 Parting Shot: Turbo Fruits

24 Astute Observations

By Dave Cardaciotto

By James “Hags” Haggerty

104 East of Normal By Tommy Womack

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EDITOR’S LETTER

‘Another Day’

wo of my favorite songs share the name “Another Day.” Both are about existential loneliness. One of them, written by Paul McCartney (his first post-Beatles single), has as its protagonist a woman facing the tedium of a work-a-day life without a lover. The other, written and performed by Roy Harper (and covered brilliantly by This Mortal Coil), deals with reflections upon a relationship that could have been, but wasn’t. Each in its own way captures that bittersweet pathos we all share as human beings. How easy it is to forget the suffering of others. One of the more poignant things about music — great music — is it reminds us that we aren’t alone in our suffering, and by doing so, makes us more attuned. In Harper’s song, the line, “The night is young, why are we so hung up in each other’s chains,” speaks to the emotional bondage created when we project our own fears onto others — and vice versa. It’s a worthy life that is spent learning how to rid oneself of such behavior, because it isn’t easy. The easier path is one of isolation, much like the woman who, “Alone in her apartment she’d dwell, till the man of her dreams comes to break the spell,” as McCartney put it. As we move through our days resisting the temptation to retreat can be challenging. Earfuls of politics (guilty myself on that one), war, oppression, and basically all the ills of the human race inundate us constantly. Sometimes there appears to be no respite, no solace. Some of us go to church; others work out. All of us are searching for peace. If you’re hoping for a point, much less an answer,

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then read no further, because I have neither. I’m not even sure why “Another Day” popped into my head and struck me as material for this. Maybe it has something to do with needing some lunch. One thing of which I’m certain, however, is this is one killer edition of our humble magazine. We’ve got stories of triumph over adversity, and a story about playing kickball just for the damn hell of it. And there’s the Know Your Neighbor Jr. piece on 7-year-old entrepreneur Henrietta Crumpton, who’s not only cute as a button — she makes … buttons! We’re thrilled to have contributing writer Holly Gleason, whose cover piece on The Voice contestant Sarah Potenza is: The. Real. Deal. Plus, John McBryde steps up to the plate and knocks it out of the park with his piece “Play Ball!” about the resurgence of Little League baseball here on the East Side. DeAndre Holland shot the photographs for that piece, and he is the subject of this edition’s Artist in Profile (Ron Wynn paints a wonderful portrait of Holland through prose). The ever-intrepid Randy Fox turns in two this go ’round. First up is the story behind the Bonnaroo Works Fund. Next is his profile of the ebullient singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt. Rounding out our features is one near and dear to my heart: associate editor Daryl Sander’s “All Quad’s Children” about the legendary Quadrafonic Sound Studio. All in all a fine piece of reading material if I do say so myself. Enjoy.

May | June 2015

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

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

Matters of Development

THE TURNIP TRUCK BROKE GROUND on its new location the second week of April, and with that, their new, much larger home at Woodland and Seventh (with 12,000-plus square feet of space over three stories) is officially on the way. The East Nashvillian spoke with owner John Dyke late last year as plans were initially coming into focus, and he talked about some of the additions we can expect at the new location, including a large juice bar, hot bar, and salad bar, an expanded bulk foods section, a bakery, a full meat and seafood department, and a cafe. The new additions bring to the East Side some of the best-loved parts of their store in The Gulch, though our new Truck will be quite a bit larger than that location. No time frame yet for when the doors will open (though eyes were on this summer), but Dyke did share his excitement about the tangible step forward. “This May marks 14 years of The Turnip Truck in East Nashville,” he said. “As construction on our new building ramps up, we

look forward to serving our community for many more years to come.” In other neighborhood grocery news, a mini-remodel of the Eastland Kroger was under way this spring, including, according to corporate spokesperson Melissa Eads, new decor, shelving, lighting, and flooring. The renovations were expected to wrap around press time, in late April. The Basement East, another much-anticipated addition to the neighborhood at 917 Woodland, kicked off a grand-opening week of shows on April 22 with sets from Chuck Mead, My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel, and a host of others. Otherwise known as The BEAST, The East Side sister to The Basement, the long-loved haunt beneath Grimey’s, is a significantly larger space — at a capacity of 400, about four times the size of its older sibling — with a fittingly expansive deck and an already highly praised sound system. Via Facebook, co-BEASTmaster Mike Grimes, who runs the space with Dave Brown, says he’s “looking forward to an amazing ride” now that he again has a venue on the East Side. (Longtime Nashvillians still tell wistful tales of Grimey’s former place, The Slow Bar, which occupied what’s now 3 Crow Bar’s home before closing in 2003.) Visit thebasementeast. do615.com to keep up with The BEAST’s schedule; for booking, hit thebasement615@ gmail.com. New bar Duke’s also opened in late April, taking over Nuvo Burrito’s former space next to Marche Artisan Foods at 1000 Main St. They’re serving beer and booze, and

according to one of their posts on Instagram, they’ve got “a rockin’ sandwich situation” and “good vibes all night longggg.” New owners will be taking over the circa-1898 Victorian at 1603 Woodland St., long known as the Top O’Woodland Historic Inn & Wedding Chapel. Its fifth-ever owner will be Lyon Porter, who currently runs Brooklyn’s Urban Cowboy B&B. Porter wasn’t ready to share specifics about renovation plans yet, but he was ready to beam about his expanding business’ new home. “We are so excited to be coming to East Nashville and cannot say enough about how lovely and welcoming the community has been,” he says. The expansion to Nashville was inspired by “an imbibed conversation” with Travel + Leisure editor Nate Storey last summer, then cemented after a fall visit with East Sider Ruthie Lindsey and “a bit of magic.” Urban Cowboy B&B’s aesthetic is a bit different from Top O’Woodland’s — a “modern luxury Brooklyn townhouse with an Industrial Williamsburg/Adirondack/cowboy sensibility” — so it will be cool to see the kind of changes Porter brings to the historic manse. The East Side craft beer family is set to have two new members, joining Little Harpeth Brewing and Fat Bottom Brewing, which as our last issue noted may be on the way to relocating outside the neighborhood. Smith & Lentz Brewing is expected to take over the Worm’s Way location at 901 Main St. Partners Kurt Smith and Adler Lentz, who come this way from Austin, are reportedly working on a small-batch brewery and taproom there, having turned Eastward after a fire damaged their original space downtown. Heading northeast to Porter Road, the former Boone & Sons space is expected to be reborn as another brewery and taproom, Southern Grist Brewing Company.

May | June 2015

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

No information on when they will open just yet, but stay tuned to our blog at www.theeastnashvillian.com/blog for updates as we get ’em. A welcome goes out to accessories company fashionABLE, which moved its offices/showroom over to the East Side from 12South. The company’s scarves are handmade in Ethiopia — the bedrock of a mission of creating sustainable employment for women in Africa. Their space at 900 Lischey in Cleveland Park is shared with artist/designer Lindsay Sherbond of Lindsay Letters. To learn more about fashionABLE’s work and check out/ purchase their scarves, bags, and jewelry, visit livefashionable.com. The Greater Grace Temple Community Church at 901 Dalebrook Ln. is set to be redeveloped by Bristol Development Group into 15 condo units, with four or five additional single-family homes on the nearly two-acre property, according to The Tennessean. Work isn’t expected to begin until 2016. Real estate investment group Corner Partnership LLC recently purchased a .66-acre hunk of property in Riverside Village for $1.3 million, The Tennessean reports. Said hunk includes recordsand-more shop Fond Object and The Red Arrow Gallery. No word on any changes in the works.

The past six months or so have brought a lot of change to Inglewood’s Riverwood Mansion, since chef Debbie Sutton and the 8 Lavender Lane Catering and Event Planning staff took over the place, and that’s only continuing. Sutton and chef Trey Cioccia of The Farm House have partnered to create a garden on the Riverwood grounds, with an aim of bringing super-fresh ingredients to diners at both chefs’ places. Ground on the new garden broke in early April. “Fresh produce will be grown, harvested, and then served at Cioccia’s restaurant and incorporated into Sutton’s catering menu,” a release from Riverwood says. “We’re excited to be participating in this important initiative and to use our land in a way that supports local businesses bringing the community fresher food.” The East Side outpost of salon and shop Local Honey opened officially on April 6 at 519 Gallatin Ave., near Barista Parlor. Not familiar with the Local Honey oeuvre? Their tagline is quite helpful: “We sell clothes. We do hair.” The new location is open Monday to Friday, 9 to 7, Saturday 9 to 6, and Sunday noon to 4. More at www.lhnashville.com. The original Local Honey is at 2009 Belmont Blvd. Roy Meat Service recently opened a new

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

space at 605 South 19th St. near Shelby Park, sharing everything from ribs to steaks and other forms of “pure meat goodness.” Request said goodness at the shop or by calling 615-227-2583. Barnes Produce also recently moved from the Nashville Farmers Market to Inglewood, setting up at 4000 Gallatin (at the corner of Ardee and Gallatin). They’re carrying a mix of fresh regional and local vegetables (everything from beets to broccolini) along with eggs, meats (like jowls, sausages, and bacon), local honey, jams, jellies, and more. They’re open Monday to Sunday, 8 to 6. East Nashville-bred dog boarding and daycare space The Dog Spot has yet another new location to boast about. In addition to their original location in the neighborhood and their Mt. Juliet space, there’s now a Spot in West Nashville at 5001 Alabama Ave. Those folks celebrated its grand opening on Saturday, April 25, with a party and open house. The Nashville Sounds’ new home, First Tennessee Park, hosted its first home-game crowd in mid-April, and though the ballpark’s opening isn’t exactly East Nashville-related, some of its in-house food offerings are. East Side mainstays Pepperfire began their run as the “Official Hot Chicken Provider of the Nashville Sounds” with the stadium’s first season. Snag some Pepperfire at any of the team’s upcoming home games (schedule at NashvilleSounds.com), or at the restaurant (2821 Gallatin Pike). Shortly prior to Logue’s Black Raven Emporium’s shuttering late last year, its longtime downstairs partner, Cult Fiction Underground, announced plans to move to a larger space on Trinity Lane in the former Southern Bred restaurant location at 1048 East Trinity Ln. The opening of that expanded home for the grind house theater has hit a few snags, and in order to complete the necessary repairs to get approved by the city, Cult Fiction is seeking help via a crowdfunding campaign. Launched in April, the campaign vaulted to its $5,000 goal with a big donation at the end of the month, but friends and supporters can still chip in and snag donation rewards, spanning from buttons and stickers to free movies and private screenings once the doors open at 1048 E Trinity Ln. For more info or to contribute, visit gofundme.com/rah8ns. East Side business Storage Treasures, which stocked a wildly varied trove of storage auction-picked goods at 2501A Gallatin, closed in March. Owner Mike Hendershot shared via Facebook: “I just can’t focus on it anymore because my construction business has took off so hard.” The shop opened in 2013. —Nicole Keiper

May | June 2015

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

Zoning, Zoning, Zoned

BRETT WITHERS WILL BE TAKING an extended hiatus from “Zoning, Zoning, Zoned.” In light of his candidacy for the District 6 seat on the Metro Council, we felt it could be perceived as biased on our part and a conflict of interest on his. We will pick up where we left off in our next issue with an interim contributor. — The Editor

Farm Flavor

ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS, FROM May through October, a growing number of East Nashvillians grab empty totes and make their way to Shelby Park. Their destination lies by the Cumberland River where more than 40 Tennessee farmers and vendors surround a sundrenched grassy knoll. In its infancy, the East Nashville Farmers Market was a humble, grass roots gathering, but has grown to become the neighborhood destination for local food, culture, and East Side-style community. It began in 2004, when Delvin Delvin, Jr. of Delvin Farms delivered boxes of vegetables to East Nashville subscribers every Wednesday at the Turnip Truck. It was the beginning of the 5 Points revitalization, a time when Shelby Park was underutilized, and the need to cultivate

community was strong. Delvin had a vision to create a venue where customers could connect with local farmers, while simultaneously connecting with their neighbors. So in 2007, with five vendors and humble beginnings, Delvin launched the first East Nashville farmers market in the parking lot of the Turnip Truck. “We were the only community market at the time,” Delvin recalls. “It was the downtown market, Franklin Farmers Market, and us.” And as one of the two producer-only markets in the area, demand grew and popularity spread fast. New regional farmers began to knock on Delvin’s door, and within two years the market outgrew its original location and transplanted to the larger parking lot of the Free Will Baptist Church on 10th Street. Gradually, Delvin added new vendors and diversified selections. Organic strawberries and blueberries — as well as food vendors — lured local residents from their homes. Adults devoured the fresh foods while they shopped; children enjoyed the activities, berries, and ice cream. With the addition of staples such as locally baked breads, farm eggs, and cheeses, the market garnered such a dedicated weekly following that Delvin began to search the neighbor-

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hood for a more appropriate home. Today, Shelby Park is a vibrant, multi-use recreational area that now hosts the market every Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. “The park is our permanent home, and we couldn’t be more thrilled,” says Delvin, who is most excited to be rid of asphalt and vending in the grass. Shoppers enjoy the many park amenities, such as playgrounds, hiking trails, and newly paved greenways, and arrive on bikes and with baby-strollers to spread out blankets and enjoy the lawn. Come ready to enjoy fare from local food trucks or simply relax with a loved one to bluegrass and old-timey bands. This month, the market is beginning its ninth year, and the flavors of Tennessee are more complex than ever. Expect to find seasonal favorites this spring such as fresh strawberries, asparagus and kale, but keep a keen eye out for specialty items such as fresh pastas, kombuchas, Greek pastries — even native and exotic mushrooms. There is no predicting how much this market will grow now that it has found a warm, sunny spot to establish its roots, but it will be a welcome respite from the daily grind to spread out a blanket, relax, and watch it flower and fruit during the years ahead. —Rebecah Boynton

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

A Brief But Definitive Guide To The East Nashville Farmers Market ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS, FROM May to October, local residents flock to Shelby Park in search of fresh farm produce, community, and culture. The East Nashville Farmers Market has become the neighborhood destination for East Siders — both new and old alike — who want to experience true Tennessee flavor. Therefore, we give you the most authoritative (and briefest) of guides to the East Nashville Farmers Market — how to get there, what to do, what to bring, and what to expect.

Bike, hike, canoe, or convertible

Shelby Park underwent an infrastructural face lift last year that has made the park more traversable than ever before. Added bike lanes, greenways, and realigned parking have created a safer and more pleasurable trek to the market grounds. Shoppers arrive via fixed-gears, baby-strollers, wagons, and pick-ups, because how you come doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re there. Tip: To make the most of your afternoon, take advantage of the many park amenities such as the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center, hiking trails, and a Cumberland River boat ramp.

Pack a blanket and relax

The grassy lawn at the center of the market is where shoppers congregate and listen to music. Families enjoy fare from local food trucks while kids gather for story time and dance to the band. Don’t be surprised to find plenty of berry-stained grins and ice cream that ends up on more mouths than in them.

Load up the little ones

The ENFM offers an exciting venue for kids to explore new experiences. Tasting samples, observing honeybee hives, petting snakes, and painting pumpkins are all fun and educational activities that influence a child’s wonderment for food and agriculture at an early age. And the playground and swing sets help expend unwanted energy before bedtime, too.

Bring your SNAP dollars

The ENFM was the second farmers market in the state of Tennessee to accept SNAP benefits, and with the newly implemented SNAP Back program, the market matches up to the first $20 SNAP dollars spent. True, cash is al-

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ways best when shopping at the market, but bringing your SNAP dollars gives you a much bigger bang (read: an explosion of fruits and vegetables) for your buck. Note: In addition to SNAP/EBT cards, debit and credit are also accepted at the information booth. However, small service fees do apply.

Shake a farmer’s hand

There’s no better way to discover diversity in local produce than to shake the hand of the person who grows it. What could seem like a typical display of the usual seasonal fare is often riddled with interesting new cultivars and heirloom varieties of standard favorites. Simply strike up a conversation with a Tennessee farmer (they love it, you’ll see) and you may be surprised by what you will learn. —Rebecah Boynton For more information regarding what to bring to the market, FAQs, special events, and kid’s activities, visit the market’s website at http://eastnashvillemarket.com/

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EAST SIDE BUZZ

Is RAD all that rad?

DESPITE OUR CURRENT, PHOTOfriendly, “It City” status, the percentage of Nashvillians living in poverty is 18.9 percent, according to the most recent Metro Social Service’s Community Needs Evaluation. This is above both the levels for the state of Tennessee (17.9 percent) and the country as a whole (15.9 percent). All told, some 40,000 Nashville households do their best with an annual income of less that $15,000. To put that into perspective, $15,000 — which is the high end of the poverty spectrum — comes out to about $60 per day for a household before taxes. No matter how you slice it, it’s not an easy way to live. Combined with the day-to-day issues residents of places like Nashville’s James A. Cayce Homes must endure — crime, blight, crumbling infrastructure — just getting by is a struggle for many. As it stands, the poor already start behind the proverbial curve ball capital-wise, and if the population of a given area grows faster than the money coming into it, that level often drops from generation to generation. In his best-selling 2005 book “The End of Poverty,” American economist Jeffrey Sachs argues that the best way to escape these poverty traps is for agencies to behave more like venture capitalists — not trickling in a portion of the money needed to address issues over a long period of time, but rather dousing the spreading flame of poverty with one larger, all-quenching shot of capital. There’s a new idea gaining steam to address projects like Cayce, and it sounds like skater slang: it’s called RAD, or Rental Assistance Demonstration. It’s a concept that gets to Sach’s privatization idea, at least in implementation. Its proponents believe that it will help solve the capital problem crippling Cayce and similar projects. Others, including members of the Cayce United Leadership Team, aren’t so sure. (See sidebar with open letter to the community from the leadership team.) Under the new plan, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will allow the Metropolitan Development and Housing Administration (MDHA) to use RAD to convert all of Nashville’s public housing to place-based Section 8 housing. Currently, all of Nashville’s public housing is federally owned and managed by MDHA. Under the RAD umbrella, the MDHA — meaning, in this case, Metro government — will own the properties. This ostensibly allows MDHA to use the land as collateral for loans. The Cayce United Leadership Team is worried about RAD’s accelerated implementation, and point out that there is, as of yet, little data on its efficacy. Whereas current affordable housing is more or less guaranteed by the federal government to be inexpensive for the long-term, under RAD, this guarantee is only good for about one generation — 20 years. There also is the risk that if the MDHA borrows money to redevelop Cayce (or any other affordable housing), and for some reason 22

can’t pay back the loan, the land subsequently becomes the property of the lending institution. That is a concern for housing projects like Cayce sitting atop highly coveted real estate. However successful the beta testing has been on RAD, there are still other, as-yet-unanswered worries — namely, that putting the fate of public housing in the hands of local public housing authorities will lead to only the more economically viable projects being selected. The MDHA’s failure to directly address questions about RAD at a recent board meeting hasn’t helped the Cayce United group sleep any easier. (The MDHA didn’t respond to a request for comment prior to publication.) HUD estimates some $26 billion is needed for repairs to our country’s 1.2 million public housing units — or about three weeks’ worth of the Untied

States’ 2015 military defense budget. In our current political climate, lawmakers are loathe to ask the public for any additional money for federal programs, for fear of ballot-box backlash when the next election cycle rolls around. All of which has led us to where we are now. Regardless of the current data (or lack thereof ), it appears that the U.S. is inching ever closer towards an overwhelming privatization of public housing. Whether this alleviates the many problems still facing these residences remains to be seen. To those living in public housing — and their children, and their children’s children — the current debate could literally have life-or-death consequences. —Timothy C. Davis

A Letter to the Editor

Public housing residents are asking questions. Are you? We are residents of public housing. We are mothers, fathers and grandparents. We are working, formally and informally, to support our families and improve our community. We care about the future of our neighborhood and our neighbors. Any day now, you’ll be hearing about how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has approved the Metropolitan Development and Housing Administration’s (MDHA) request to convert all of Nashville’s public housing to place based section 8 housing through a program called Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD). What does that mean? Right now, Nashville’s public housing is owned by the federal government, and managed by MDHA. Under RAD, MDHA becomes the landowner, allowing them to use the land as collateral to borrow money and fund maintenance and/or redevelopment projects. Why does that matter? RAD could radically change the lives of more than 14,000 people living in Nashville’s public housing today, and the opportunities for housing for thousands of families in the future. Whether that change is for the better remains to be seen. RAD is the first step towards the redevelopment of James Cayce Homes — home to over 2000 residents of East Nashville. While the redevelopment plans sound good, residents are concerned. We have been asking MDHA questions, like: How will MDHA involve Cayce residents in the redevelopment? Will the redevelopment happen all at once — which will require at least temporary displacement of over 2000 people — or section by section, which will minimize displacement? What kinds of relocation support will MDHA provide residents? As Cayce residents, we recently attended an MDHA Board meeting to ask these, and other, questions– none of which were answered sufficiently. Residents want to be involved in decisions that affect our

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families’ future. Nashville — will you advocate for residents’ involvement in the future of our neighborhood? RAD doesn’t just affect Cayce Homes — it affects the future of affordable housing in all of Nashville — and all of us should be asking questions. Public housing as it stands now is guaranteed to remain affordable long-term. RAD will transform this permanent stock of affordable housing into housing that is only required to be affordable for 20 years. However, the city could adopt a longer affordability term. At a time where Nashville is facing increasing needs for affordable housing — we need to do all we can to preserve the affordable homes we have now. Nashville — will you preserve affordable housing long-term? There is another risk with RAD. If MDHA borrows money to redevelop areas like Cayce Homes, and can’t pay back its loan, the bank will take the land and is not required to maintain affordable housing. To safeguard against this, the city can adopt a formal policy that MDHA will only seek HUD approved loans. This way, if MDHA cannot service their loans at least the land returns to be held in trust by HUD, rather than a private bank. Nashville — will you protect your investment in affordable housing? Cayce residents, like all residents, want to know we have a place to raise our families. We want good jobs, a grocery store, strong schools and improved transportation. The redevelopment could guarantee housing, jobs, and improved services, and we plan to do all we can to make sure that it does. Growth in Nashville doesn’t have to leave anybody behind. Nashville – will you ensure neighborhood development that helps all people thrive? —The Cayce United Leadership Team: Sonaida Adams, Darrell Franklin, Marilynn Greer, Vernell McHenry, Constance Rhea

CORRECTION In the Issue 5, Volume 3 East Side Buzz section “Zoning, Zoning, Zoned” we reported the following: In Council District 7 (Anthony Davis), two projects in the 1100 block of Chester Avenue behind the Walgreens were approved with enthusiastic supporting comments from Chester Avenue residents. These include a multi-family project immediately behind the Walgreens and the 16-unit Woodland Grove cottage development further

east on the same block. Woodland Street Partners worked with the Chester Avenue neighbors to envision both projects to fit the context of that street. In fact, only one person, Lauren Cardwell, commented on this particular proposal at the October 7, 2014 Metro Council meeting. Therefore, it was an error on our part to report these two projects “were approved with enthusiastic supporting comments from Chester Avenue

residents.” We regret and apologize for this unfortunate error. This matter was brought to our attention by Mrs. Cardwell. She was kind enough to attach a written transcript of her comments, which we believe gives voice to many of the concerns East Nashville residents face. For that reason, we are publishing those comments below, unedited, in full.

TRANSCRIPT OF COMMENTS MADE BEFORE METRO COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 2014 My husband, a native Nashvillian, and I moved from New York to East Nashville in 2005. Like many folks, we were attracted to East Nashville because of its walk-ability, its proximity to Downtown, and its historic homes. However, the two most significant factors in our decision to move to and eventually buy a home in East Nashville were its affordability and the diverse, creative community it offered. Only in East Nashville could we buy a home set between a retired, African-American Air Force officer who was born in the home where he lives and a Caucasian lesbian couple transplanted from Texas and New York. Our East Nashville community of friends and neighbors includes people of a variety of colors, sexual orientations, and family make-ups, and from a variety of nations. We count among our East Nashville friends artists, public servants, musicians, accountants, retirees living on fixed incomes, single and stay-at-home parents, lawyers, veterans, doctors, Goodwill employees, farmers, and entrepreneurs. East Nashville is a unique gem in the city’s crown, a gem that has landed our city on the pages of The New York Times and Southern Living again and again, a gem that has attracted tourists to our city, helped re-vitalize our urban core, and enabled transplants from all over the world to find a home here. Let us not be mistaken on why that is. It is a neighborhood’s residents and the community they create together that determine the life and culture of a neighborhood. The historic affordability of East Nashville, both for renters and buyers, has been key in fostering and maintaining the diverse, creative collection of folks who call East Nashville home and who have made it the desirable neighborhood it is today. Recently, our little stretch of Chester and Chapel has lost several longtime neighbors due to gentrification, including an older woman who’s an in-home health worker, a single mother and her children, a

multi-generational family, three retired folks who had called Chester home for most of their adult lives, and a paraplegic bachelor who works at Goodwill. They have moved to more affordable housing farther away from the urban core, their employment, their healthcare, and transportation options. These are the people of East Nashville. These are the people who are already our neighbors. These are some of the folks who have made East Nashville what it is today. If we as a city move forward on developments that promote gentrification and do not take care to intermix them with affordable housing options and to safeguard existing affordable housing, East Nashville will lose our artists, our single and stay-at-home parents, our public servants, our musicians, our retired citizens who have spent their lives in the neighborhood — in short, the people who have made East Nashville what it is today. We as a city will have failed to care for all of our neighbors, and our great city will lose this truly unique, irreplaceable gem in its crown. I urge you to work towards preserving and establishing truly affordable housing options, intermixed with the gentrification that is occurring in East Nashville as you move forward on proposals like the rezoning on Chester Avenue. In order to preserve the diversity and creativity of East Nashville, we must safeguard affordable housing options. Thank you. Lauren Cardwell is a stay-at-home mother, doula, childbirth educator, homeschool teacher, and homeowner on Chester Avenue. She is married to a career Metro public school teacher.z

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Astute OBSERVATIONS James “Hags” Haggerty

Sunny Side Up

’ve spent a lot of time ruminating over the state of affairs in our neighborhood, and I am going to share the fruit of my mental labors with you:

Shut up, East Nashville. Quit your bitching!

“Wait just a minute Hags, what?” That’s right, I wrote it, and I mean it. I dislike the term “tall skinnies,” but we all know what they are, where they are, and how they make us feel. They suck. But you know what really sucks? Walking, driving, larking, biking, jogging around the neighborhood and waving an angry inner fist or middle finger at the sky and cursing inevitable change. It’s an unavoidable fact of life: Everything changes. What can one do? The way I see it from my Inglewood cottage is thusly: We have three choices: Move to the country or Donelson. Stay and live on in anger, pining for the good old days. Or take a step back and reflect — ruminate if you will. In the last five years or so, Nashville has become hip, cool, the place to be. More than any other neighborhood, East Nashville is the landing spot for a lot of folks. U-haul couldn’t be happier. Our little oasis has hit the tipping point. New York is cool. Paris is cool. L.A. is cool. Those cities are what they are, their identities are literally written in stone. I am a curmudgeon. Like the mighty salmon, I swim upstream. East Nashville, I pose questions: Is our neighborhood, in and of itself, cool? Are our streets and buildings that much different than those in Green Hills, for instance? Our Kroger stores are definitely different, but I digress. Is our city and our neighborhood cool like the media bandwagon says it is?

My answer is this: I don’t think so. I think we are way more than that. Our identity is not written in stone. We make this neighborhood every day. We the people. We the community: the artists and musicians; the small business owners; the multi-generational families; creators of every stripe. A diverse group generates our neighborhood, and we’re all still here doing our thing. That is what makes East Nashville great; the energy, the creativity, and the vibrancy — in short, all of us here together. Greedy, shortsighted developers can’t buy that, can’t bury it, can’t knock it down, can’t cram four houses on it, or sell it. We own it, and it’s not for sale. Well, maybe we can make a deal on a few songs. So get off of the social (complaint box) network and go socialize with your neighbors for real. Go see some world-class live music. Take a walk on the Greenway or play a round of golf. Enjoy a fantastic meal at a first-rate restaurant. Go to a great bar. Support your neighborhood’s independent businesses. Remember when those things didn’t exist? That really sucked. I know I’ve been critical. I am, after all, an upstream swimmer. But as is my custom here at “Astute Observations,” when I criticize, I like to offer solutions. In the spirit of conciliation, I’ve got a great idea for the real estate developers: Buy up the strips of high-interest lending businesses, pawn shops, used car lots, and such along Gallatin Pike and put your developments there. That will give us all yet another reason to celebrate. We will stand on the sidewalks and cheer your bulldozers on. Keep on the sunny side, East Nashville. Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. State your concerns to the ballot box. Vote! Happy spring to all, and don’t forget to change the oil in your lawnmower. See you around the neighborhood.

Hags is a part-time bon vivant, man-about-town, and contributor to The East Nashvillian His full-time gig is anchoring the low-end as a bass player. Summers can be slow for full-time bass players, so any cash donations made to the Hags Foundation will be accepted with gratitude. No checks, please.

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Artist in Profile

DeAndre Holland

Young East Nashville photographer is looking for something the average person wouldn’t notice BY RON WYNN PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEANDRE HOLLAND Many people are content to master one skill and stick to it exclusively. But a combination of youthful exuberance and creative energy drives 21-year-old East Nashvillian DeAndre Holland, who has long been interested in both graphic design and photography. He not only has a foot in both worlds, but in the past, has pursued each vigorously. Despite being passionate about both, photography now seems to be inching ahead of graphic design as his primary obsession. While visual appeal would seem the obvious thing linking these fields, Holland maintains there are still plenty of differences between them.

DeAndre Holland photographed by “Keep3” 26

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“W

Artist in Profile

ell, yes, you can see some connections, but for me, the approach and the appeal are very distinctive,” Holland says during a recent lengthy interview. “Graphic design’s appeal for me was through illustrations. You are drawing something and now, with digital a big part of graphic design, there’s also a mathematical component. Photography on the other hand is about something more stark, trying to capture something special and unique. But with both, for me I’m interested in trying to make things more interactive, get a reaction from the person’s who is viewing it. “I come from a family of artists,” he continues. “I’ve been drawing since I was 10. It’s something that comes naturally, the images I see and the impressions that I get from them. One of the things that I don’t want to do with either graphic design or photography is something that’s obvious or conventional. I’m always looking for something that the average person wouldn’t notice. “One thing with ads for instance, where you do layering with the designs digitally — that’s something I enjoy. I don’t want to just do a static setting or pattern. I want someone to see it and react to it, whether it’s positive or negative. Not so much to take attention away from the product, but to get them more engrossed with the total picture. “I try to always look at scenes and scan them for the things that others wouldn’t notice. For example, if I’m taking a street scene, I’m going to look for someone standing over in the corner smoking a cigarette who’s not even really paying attention

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

to the fact that they are on camera. What you can catch in that moment, the expression when it’s unguarded, that’s the thing that I want to get with the camera. Now there are some people who wouldn’t even notice someone smoking, and others who wouldn’t shoot it because they don’t like smoking. Me, not only do I notice it, but I try to see what makes it different, then shoot it to accent that difference.” Although hardly a grizzled veteran, Holland’s had some intriguing experiences already. These include an extended trip overseas in 2012 that took him to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Barbados. “I was with my grandmother on that trip,” he says and laughs. “I was doing graphic design and taking photographs and also spending time with her. But I think that’s when I really began to get a feel for what I wanted to do. Even though I initially thought that graphic design was going to be my main feel, photography really began to attract me. Besides the incredible scenery and people, it was when I really started to get in my head the feeling that I could make a living as a photographer, and that it was really what I wanted to do.” Ironically, Holland is actually trained as a graphic designer, studying design at Nossi College of Art. “I did enjoy doing illustrations for a time,” he adds. “I might even be interested in maybe doing some for magazines or for editorials, though I was never interested in being an editorial cartoonist or working on comic books. It was more I saw graphic design as an outgrowth of the drawing I’d always done as a kid.” Holland learned photography on the fly, and since leaving Nossi, has worked as a freelance photographer on various

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“ Artist in Profile

I try to always look at scenes and scan them for the things that others wouldn’t notice. assignments. He says he’s been heavily influenced by what he terms “street photographers, people with an eye for the unusual.” He’s equally influenced by both Chicago and New York photographers, and cites traveling among his favorite things. “My ideal assignment would be to just go places and not really be looking for any one thing,” he continues. “For instance, riding on a train and seeing different locales, or walking through neighborhoods and catching shots of different houses or people not especially in a rush, just kind of going from place to place.” He’s worked at both Frozen Design and the Nike Store in Opry Mills, with the latter being part of why he’s gravitated more towards photography lately. “I’ve produced a lot of shots for the advertisers, and really enjoy that even though you’ve got to test your imagination sometimes to find ways of making things stand out. But that’s the challenge and the joy of photography for me. I also do shots of the athletes, and that’s something else that I really enjoy.” Oddly, for someone so keenly interested in scenes and visuals, Holland has no desire to be a photojournalist, at least not

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

in the standard sense — or in the news or political vein. But he is very much interested in having his own magazine. “That’s a major goal, to have a publication of my own that combines the best of the things that I’ve learned from photography and also graphic design, and one that incorporates the elements of social media as well. That’s something I think is really needed, a magazine that’s visually exciting, that can catch the eye, but also has the immediacy that you get with social media.” He also enjoys commercial work, but wants to ultimately be in control of whatever he does. “I really want to have my own thing going at some point in the future,” he concludes. “Not that I have any problem working for or with other people, but I’ve got some very strong ideas about the types of things and subjects that I want to shoot and do in the future. I really think I have a vision and eye that’s unique, and I want to find the best way of showing that to people. I want to go to Columbia School in Chicago and complete my degree work, then take that and continue to develop something that really takes the notion of interactive visual art and photography to another level.”

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

4 days of fun,

365 DAYS OF MAKING A

DIFFERENCE

The Bonnaroo Works Fund is ‘sharing the wealth’ in more ways than one BY RANDY FOX

“Y

ou can’t fully understand Bonnaroo until you have been there,” Nina Miller, executive director of the Bonnaroo Works Fund, says. Her favorite memories from the yearly music and arts festival held in Manchester, Tenn., are not the big-name rock stars or the well-celebrated party atmosphere. “The first time I was there, the gates hadn’t opened yet, but there was such a feeling of peace,” she says. “I was watching a city being built. It’s got its own post office. It’s got its own medical center. It’s got everything. And then when they open the gate, 80,000 people come in and there is a palpable rush. You can feel it. There’s something very powerful about it in the very best sense of the word. It’s a place where everyone wants to be part of something bigger. Even when you’re working your tail off, you’re doing it for something bigger than yourself, and everyone feels that.” That feeling of being part of something bigger has found real world results through the Bonnaroo Works Fund. The nonprofit charitable foundation gives back to the communities of Middle Tennessee through grants to many organizations and programs. “From the beginning of Bonnaroo in 2002, the founders of the festival wanted to give back to the surrounding communities in large amounts and significant ways,” Miller says. “They’ve donated to nonprofit organizations and other agencies that may not be nonprofit, but that do good work.” Some of those early donations included $30,000 for building a skate park in Manchester and purchasing new band uniforms for the Coffee County High School. As the Bonnaroo festival grew, the need for a more formalized and efficient method of administering grants also increased. In 2009, the Bonnaroo Works Fund was organized as a formal entity, and recently became a stand-alone, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. “Since 2009, the fund has made grants upwards of seven million dollars to over one hundred organizations,” Miller says. “We work with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. They administer the funds for us, and they are so good at what they do.” Miller brings her years of experience working with nonprofit organizations. Before joining the BWF in 2013, she served as executive director of the Gibson Foundation for six years, a position that also joined the music business with philanthropy. “I found the similarities intriguing and the differences compelling between Gibson and Bonnaroo,” she says. “I was very impressed with what the Bonnaroo Works Fund was doing and what they had accomplished. They thought big — focusing on the arts, education, and the environment, specifically environmental sustainability. Although the focus was predominantly on the Coffee County region, they were also giving to

surrounding counties and communities, including Davidson County.” Grants from the Bonnaroo Works Fund have benefited Coffee County school libraries (with more than 4,000 new books purchased), the Manchester Municipal Arts Commission, the Coffee County Soil Conservation District, and the Nature Conservancy in Tennessee. Specific projects organized by the fund have included a beautification project for New Union Elementary School and providing free energy retrofits to low-income families in Coffee County. Closer to Nashville, Bonnaroo Works Fund grants have supported the Music Makes Us program which provides funding for music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Notes For Notes organization that sponsors after-school music programs in Boys & Girls Clubs, land management programs through the Friends of Warner Parks, the PENCIL Foundation’s Reading Partners program, and many other worthy causes. “Because our mission is driven by arts, education, and the environment, those types of organizations get priority in the grant process,” Miller says. “But we also get some requests that are less of a direct mission fit, but have some core piece that is so compelling we choose to support them too.” The funding for the Bonnaroo Works Fund comes from many sources, Miller says. In addition to $2 from every Bonnaroo ticket sold and direct contributions, there are several events and programs that raise money both at the festival and throughout the year. These include onsite and online auctions of music memorabilia, the annual Roo Run — a 5K on-site race, the Root for Roo on-site tree planting program, and licensing fees collected from the sales of Ben & Jerry’s Bonnaroo Buzz ice cream. “It’s a very exciting time for the Bonnaroo Works Fund,” Miller says. “We’re raising our visibility, and at the same time, raising more funds. When a project is completed in a community, someone asks, ‘Where did you get the money?’ and the word spreads. “Right now we’re in the process of our grant-making cycle for 2015. We’ve received over 100 grant requests this year. The number of applications has more than doubled in the last two years. “Bonnaroo has several great slogans that express their philosophy,” Miller says. “Play as a team, radiate positivity, don’t be ‘that guy.’ The Works Fund is truly about distilling the essence that is found in the four days of Bonnaroo and then spreading it out to others. We want to generate that same feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself. It’s not just four days of having fun and doing good. It can be a year-round experience.”

Even when you’re working your tail off, your doing it for something bigger than yourself

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Sarah Potenza

A voice beyond THE VOICE Story by Holly Gleason

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

Stacie Huckeba 34

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ack fat. Sarah Potenza talks about back fat. A lot. It keeps coming up when the 35-year old soul/roots vocalist speaks in that voice that twists through emotion like a cigarette being ground out with purpose. To look at her — robust, abundant, classically Italian — it’s hard to imagine what her obsessive referencing is fueled by. Certainly it’s not a discussion of cooking soul food or an impending Victoria’s Secret ad campaign. But every three or four exchanges, the phrase rises up and hangs there like drapes that don’t match. Sarah Potenza, recently eliminated from The Voice, was the hipster contestant on the singing talent contest — subdivided into teams to add dimension — that’s as much cult of personality as actual talent. As an East Nashvillian, she is seemingly an enemy of the enterprise; as a struggling rock/Americana songwriter, she was merely looking to get heard as her window of opportunity was narrowing. If you can name any winner from the show — beyond team captains Blake Shelton and Adam Levine, and to a lesser extent Christina Aguilera and newest host Pharrell Williams — you’re invested. Committed viewers have an involvement with story lines, host/mentor relationships, and the zeal sports enthusiasts have for their favorite team. Here’s a reality: None of The Voice winners have gone on to have the impact of the

shows, you’ve got one round to shop a deal. Then you’re damaged goods. The ones who go away, take the tools they’ve learned, figure out what they want to do artistically, then come back. The ones like Miranda and Kacey, who went away, they’re the ones who seem to have the better chance.” Which brings us to Potenza, back fat and a dream fought for, clawed for, and workedtwo-jobs for before The Voice came calling. Less than two weeks after elimination, she and her husband/bandmate Ian Crossman are in a local restaurant, considering the path, the consequences, and yes, the role of back fat in how fairy tales play out and — perhaps — unravel.

“I

had a plan,” Potenza says, laughing, her voice as husky as it is earthy. “I thought about it a lot. But you don’t think you’re gonna get four chairs turning around — you don’t realize how much pressure there is. Time’s passing, and I get thirsty when I’m nervous — I was thirstier than Todd Snider after he smokes a great big bowl. Everyone was waiting for a decision, and I’m going back and forth, and the celebrities are saying all these things.” Sarah Potenza had a plan. First, however, she had a failed audition. Feb. 2, 2014. Raining, cold, 6 a.m. on the sidewalk outside the Nashville Convention Center. One more face in the crowd, hoping for a break. One more cattle in the call. Nothing happened. That was that.

“

& the Tall Boys, logging upwards of 250 dates a year in a van with no real manager, agent, or publicist; the woman who’d come to East Nashville after American Songwriter painted a picture of a creative zone that mirrored her notion of what her music could be. For the bespectacled two-jobber-workingon-a-dream, the call looked like an opportunity to finally get seen in a meaningful way. To Crossman, it triggered concern. The initial rejection weighed heavily on his wife, but more importantly, he says, “I come from a punk/DIY background. I didn’t want to lose artistic integrity. My dad, who was a blues musician, used to say, ‘Integrity, that’s what you’ve got. People come because you’re the real deal.’”

s a small girl, Potenza would beg her father to send tapes to Ed McMahon, hoping to be on Star Search. Forget that after years of crummy gigs barely getting by, she was waitressing at the Family Wash and working as Elizabeth Cook’s assistant, trying to earn the money to record on her terms. “It’s hard to be 35, singing rock & roll, and having back fat on that show,” Potenza allows. “But 50,000 people tried out, and I made it! I got that call. Every single thing I’ve worked for: Being a poor working class girl, who came to East Nashville to make this record; knocking on doors that didn’t open, then this? “I think I knew what it could do — being on TV in front of 20 million people. People would respond if I appealed to them as a human be-

I thought about it a lot. But you don’t think you’re gonna get four chairs turning around American Idol trifecta: Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, and Jennifer Hudson. The Voice, in spite of ratings dominance, has yet to produce a star with the trajectory, let alone the critical acclaim/awards velocity, of Nashville Star alums — not even winners — Miranda Lambert and Kasey Musgraves. The winners tend to be archetypes. Pretty enough, perky enough, talented enough. Often some young ’un in a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney trope, who America falls for. Or someone like Taylor Hicks or Ruben Stoddard who is a polemic: “the old guy,” “the fat one.” But it doesn’t matter. These shows rarely launch real careers. USA TODAY’s senior music writer Brian Mansfield, who’s covered Idol for seven seasons, admits, “When you come off one of these 36

Until the phone rang. It was now April. Her audition had been a bust, but a Music City Roots video on YouTube caught the attention of one of the show’s producers. No matter how much fairy dust they sprinkle on random auditions, many contestants are ringers. The person on the other end of the phone was very interested in Sarah. They knew she’d auditioned, but the YouTube performance outweighed whatever hadn’t scanned. Come to Memphis; try out again. This time, she wouldn’t have to get in line before daybreak, fight the cold, hope for the best. She’d be walked in, sing three songs, see what happens. Clearly, the show had developed an interest in the Rhode Island native who’d gone to Chicago to stake her claim; the songwriter-singer who started the blues/country Sarah

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ing, not a product, not a pop star, but a real person facing real challenges. “You’re gambling you don’t win,” she continues. “That you won’t get opted into their talent option — and you’re gambling your autonomy as an artist. I was willing to gamble. The odds were I wasn’t going to be marketable enough for them to sign me. Rock doesn’t sell. Women even less. Then I’m plus size on top of that.” But as Tug McGraw chanted on his way to the New York Mets ’73 World Series, “You gotta believe.” For the not-quite-as-young-as-they-usedto-be couple, it was hard. “Ian said if I do the show, it would destroy us — and I knew if I didn’t do the show, it would destroy us. I’d be onstage in East Chuckafuck, and I’d look over, see him playing guitar with all these

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SARAH POTENZA WITH HER HUSBAND AND BANDMATE IAN CROSSMAN CHILLIN’ ON THE EAST SIDE May | June 2015

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“

It looks like two minutes, but really it was 20, People just wanted me to make the decision people playing Keno, stuffing their faces with food, and it would … .” Potenza’s voice trails off. Nothing more needs to be said. Crossman offers, “It comes down to the Butthole Surfers: Regret what you do, not something you don’t do.” ake a moment to consider Sarah Potenza’s own music. Steeped in Lucinda Williams’ raw ache and willingness to descend into the worst of it, Potenza is not a gut-busting faux catharsisist. She knows who she is. While never one to flaunt her singing (“Audley Freed and Jen Gunderman were like, ‘Oh my God! Is that the waitress from the Family Wash?’”), she’s not afraid of her truth. Closer to Etta James, she sounds rough, raw, immersed in what she sings. Soulful, sweaty. Not coming at what it feels like, but taking feelings from the inside out. “My Turn,” the title track of her work in progress, takes Bob Seger’s “Beautiful Loser” and expands the notion.

“I’d written all these songs about life, and unfairness, and struggle,” Potenza says. “About working so hard and never being in the right place, never getting the break. A lot of people see people getting lucky — it’s another part of the story — and it’s not them. We live in a day and age when being genuinely talented isn’t valued. That’s really hard. Really hard. “The record we’re trying to make is about the struggles, the triumphs, the joys, and shitty things we’ve been through.” Not that that was what The Voice was looking for. She knew that going in. “I was something they’d never encountered. They’ve had people who were a little more butch — but they were lesbians. I was a 35-year-old married woman who didn’t have children. But I felt if I could really be me, I was totally into working with the machine. “Playing the game was for me to be the anti-contestant.” She pauses. The trouble wasn’t the singing, the stage presence, the music.

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“The clothing was really hard,” she continues. “I felt pressure to wear high heels and a dress. If you look at the women who’re still on the show, the ones who’re left are really feminine. Elizabeth (Cook) helped me really get my look together, and I’ve never looked better. But I feel like, even with all that, they have a kind of formula.” With her glasses, her more rocker style, Potenza stood out. But she stood out even before the coaches knew what she looked like. To ignite Rod Stewart’s worn out “Stay With Me” — channeling its brash and unforgiving “fuck me and leave” brio — it takes grit, restraint, soul, and the kinetic notion of satisfaction missed. Watching Pharrell Williams smiling before he turns, then up and dancing after his turn, seeing Christina Aguilera studying Potenza’s technique, Shelton’s eyes twinkling as he listens — something’s going on. But it’s Levine, so serious, then so thrilled when he turns. The grown-ass woman, denim-clad, motorcycle jacket open and cowboy boots flew in the face of any expectation he might have had. Potenza was a rocker, something Levine knew a lot about. “It looks like two minutes, but really it was 20,” she explains. “People just wanted me to make the decision. Watching Adam and Pharrell ferociously fighting over me. At one point, Adam said something to me to that he wanted to make sure I could be the rocker that I am, that I felt like. “He’s the exact same age as me, grew up with the same ’90s rock things like STP [Stone Temple Pilots]. He seemed to want me more.” It was so obvious. Only Sarah Potenza had a plan. Go with Blake. With his easy humor, he reminded her of Ian. As the country guy, she’d likely be his only rocker. “Besides, Adam is the Sexiest Man Alive. How do I deal with that?” But it was more than dumpy girl gets hot guy nerves. Potenza, who’d fought so hard for so long, had thought this out. “I’ve made so many decisions with my heart, not my head. I’d studied the show, looked at the judges. I didn’t want to fuck this up, so I stuck with the plan.” The plan didn’t make sense to the people watching, but it seemed to work. She kept advancing. “Gimme Shelter” in the Battle Round hit her sweet spot, though Hannah Kirby, a purer singer, made a giant leap in aggression. Clearly Potenza’s Mary Clayton-channeling

performance hit harder. When it was time, Blake picked every chunky middle-aged woman trying to make life work’s doppelganger. As Potenza already noted, there’s more to winning The Voice than singing. “I knew there was going to be a price to pay for the exposure,” she says. “I just didn’t know what it was.”

eyond how one looks, life at The Voice” isn’t what you think; meetings, fittings, consulting with your coach, working up songs, doing photo shoots and promotion, and no privacy. Everyone has a roommate. One can only leave for short walks. You must keep your cell phone on. There’s nowhere to hide. You have so many things to do you never get to decompress. There’s so much pent-up inside, and so much coming at you. What’s it like to have no control of your life at 35? “When Ian and my dad would come, I’d go to their room and sob,” she says. Before The Voice was a glimmer, the couple had listened to the audio book of Betheny Frankel’s A Place of Yes in their van. Frankel talked about doors opening and walking through them. She also said reality TV was the hardest thing she’d done in her life. For two true believers, who’d lived in Chicago’s Humboldt Park when “the gun shots were real and you’d see police in flak jackets out the back door,” this chance to break through the indifference was life proving Frankel right. “The importance that’s placed on each and every thing. You try not to think about [what other people think], but the stakes were so high. I tried to control the situation instead of letting it flow. I may’ve made some decisions based on fear, versus what I wanted to do. Maybe if I’d’ve done whatever I wanted instead … . “You pick a song, you know it could make or break you. The pressure is magnified by the pressure to stay on the show. You’re emailing back and forth with your coach — ideas for the songs, how to do them.” At one point, Shelton suggested “I Wanna Know What Love Is.” At another, Potenza wanted “You’re Not Alone,” the title track of Mavis Staples’ Jeff Tweedy-produced project. “They thought it was obscure. But I think they underestimated America. That line ‘Every tear on every face tastes the same.’ Me singing that on their show? People would understand; no, they’d feel that.” In spite of The Voice’s mainstreamity, Potenza has no complaints. She knows Jason Isbell drew down on it in Rolling Stone, but she found that experience — in spite of its intensity — made her better, stronger. “You have to commit to every note,” she says. “To do that live-or-die performance every time, you have to know that song, that melody, the emotion before you can even start to change it.

“Singers don’t practice every day, or stretch beyond what they do. I’ve got a confidence now in my instrument ’cause I know I can do it. I know where to put my breath to hit that note.”

o baby’s got back fat kept going. Until ... . Potenza survived the Knock Out and the Battle Rounds. For all her conviction, she knew what happens to girls like her. There are Cinderella moments, but there’s a midnight every day. She chose “Free Bird,” figuring the Southern

rocker would strike a chord in people. “To get down on my knees and wail this song, to really deliver before I get kicked off the show? YES! It’s super-cliché, but being a person from the North, it’s not worn out to me. I’d had a gritty country/blues band in Chicago, so I wanted to slow it down, make it folkie almost. Think about the message: If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?” Before taking the stage, she saw Blake and Pharrell talking; they pointed at Hannah. She

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KNOW your NEIGHBOR

P H OTO GR A PH B Y D AV E CA R D A CIO TTO

ou have an appointment with a home inspector, and up rolls a guy looking like a 21st-Century Buddy Holly, driving a 1959 Chevrolet panel van, his name emblazoned on the side, black-and-blue glasses above his smile, and his pompadour coifed up front with a rolling curl like a tubular surfer’s wave.

Dave CRUMPTON

sitting in singer Tommy Keenum’s garage. A new engine, new brakes, and a new radio later, his name and phone number big by Tommy Womack as life on the side, Inspector Dave had a mode of transport that could hold a ladder, serve as a shingle for the world to see, and function as the closest thing he has to an office. His job itself is fairly straightforward. “I show The first thing people up and look at the outside think of when looking for of the house, take time to a home inspector is not see if there’s any cracks in great hair and a great car, the foundation, mismanagement of water, see how but this is East Nashville, the heating and cooling is where a genial 40-yearinstalled, then I get up on old, Dave “Inspector Dave” the roof and look around. Crumpton, works his trade I go inside, check all the of nine years and seeks doors, windows, outlets, to make an ordinarily appliances, heating, cooldry-as-dust piece of business into something fun ing; and then comes the and revelatory. fun part, getting under the house.” “I got into home inspection because I wanted to This is where things can help educate people about get chancey. Possums under houses don’t like interhomes before they bought lopers, as Crumpton has them,” he says. “And I wondered, ‘How can I make this discovered on occasion. “A a creative, involved, interachomeowner once offered tive experience for people, to loan me his shotgun if and not just some boring, I would go back under the stoic exercise?’ ” house and shoot the possum,” he says. “I declined.” Crumpton grew up in Voted “Best Home Franklin, where he spent his Inspector” in the Nashville teenage summers working Scene, Crumpton has for his grandfather building houses. “I really enjoyed been in the business long that,” he says, “learning enough to have repeat what quality craftsmanship customers. And with is. And then my grandNashville booming, business is mother was also very creative and nonstop. “People I helped eight or artistic.” He carried the lessons nine years ago are looking to buy he learned then into his first proagain, and they’re reaching out. fessional venture: designing and East Nashville, North Nashville, 12 building furniture. South are all seeing such a rush of “I went to UT Knoxville, studnew people. I read a statistic that a ied art education and philosophy, 1,000 to 1,200 people are moving and then traveled a bit, went to into town every week.” Europe for a while, then New York, then came back down south He does two or three inspections a day, with no employees. “I’m and wound up back in Knoxville, honing my skills designing and a one-man show,” he says. building furniture. I spent a decade doing that and really enjoyed it. “Everything in the buying process is contingent on the inspection,” Crumpton says. “I’ve seen so many buyers feel overwhelmed Then my grandfather started having health problems, and I moved back home.” and just need to know what’s going on with their property. I look There was a school in Nashville teaching home inspection for to help people be part of the process and make it as fun as it can be the requisite 90 hours, and Crumpton signed up. Then he found in what can be a stressful time. I try to bring some lightness to it, “Bessie,” a cream-colored ’59 Chevy Apache panel van that was some excitement.”

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“I try to bring some lightness to it, some excitement.”

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Play

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Ball!

East Nashville Little League teaches fundamentals of the game — and more

By John McBryde

East Nashville Little League’s 2015 Opening Day in Shelby Park

Photography by

DeAndre Holland May | June 2015

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s a volunteer with the East Nashville Little League calls the names of the 26 teams participating in the 2015 season, players pour out from behind the right field fence and begin lining up like the unfurling of a multicolored ribbon. Trotting out are boys and girls donning Cardinal reds, Dodger blues, Marlin neons. Michael Bell, the PA announcer and one of the many volunteers who are lending time and enthusiasm to the revitalized youth baseball league, adds a little juice to his introductions of each team: “All the way from Oakland, please welcome the Athletics,” he bellows. “From Atlanta, let’s hear it for the Braves. Straight from the Bronx, give it up for the Yankees.” It’s a sun-splashed opening day for the more than 300 youngsters ages 4-13 who have turned out to play America’s pastime in a three-field complex at Shelby Park. What is now branded the East Nash Little League has started just its third season, though its ancestry dates to 1914 when baseball was first played in Shelby Park. The festivities continue as Emily Roig, a singer-songwriter who moved to East Nashville in 2014, sings a stirring national anthem and concludes with an emotional first pitch from one of the players in the 11-13 age division. Mac Sharp, who lost his father last year to a tragic accident, tosses the ceremonial throw to his grandfather, Gary Sharp, and follows that by piercing the April air with the two words that all baseball fans eagerly await each spring: “Play ball!” And so begins the two-month season of the ENLL, where baseball is used to not only teach the fundamentals of hitting and fielding, but also to impart lessons meant to stretch a lifetime. The league has players of all skill levels, primarily boys, but an increasing number of girls, as well. It doesn’t necessarily exist to turn out the next Little League World Series finalist, á la Goodlettsville or South Nashville of recent years, but rather to embrace and to reflect the diversity that makes up East Nashville. It’s a multicolored ribbon, if you will. “If you look around, you’ll see that this is really a representation of East Nashville,” says Brent Truitt, coach of the 7-8 division East Nash Orioles that include his son, Jake, on the roster. “We have musicians, lawyers, architects, blue-collar workers — lots of different people.” Truitt, a musician, record producer, and Grammy-winning engineer who plays mandolin for The Steeldrivers, is something of an East Nashville pioneer, having lived here since 1984. He believes this newest version of urban baseball has pulled together the community in an almost unprecedented fashion. “It’s very neighborhood-oriented, from the volunteers, the parents, the kids,” says Truitt, whose wife, Kathy, is also a key volunteer. “Lots of friendships have been made between the kids,

and we’ve become friends with other parents.” That’s precisely the point says the man who spearheaded the development of East Nash. Darrell Downs was selected as president of ENLL when a grassroots consortium worked out plans to launch a program that would play under Little League rules, but shun more restrictive measures such as holding tryouts, and he envisions plentiful competition infused with lessons of character building. “We want every child in East Nashville to be able to experience baseball, but we talk a whole lot more than just baseball,” Downs says. “It’s a community environment. “There are a lot of life lessons to be learned, and baseball is a good vehicle to teach them. It sounds like a cliché, but there’s not one single coach that doesn’t talk to kids about more than baseball. And at the end of the day, we can compete with anybody else in this area.” Downs and his wife, Denise, moved to East Nashville in early 2012 with their then-15-yearold daughter, Brittany, and 11-year-old son, Clay. They had previously lived in Charlotte, N.C., where Downs had grown up with a love of baseball instilled in him by his father, a high school baseball coach for 35 years. Clay shared his dad’s passion, so Downs went seeking a place where his son could register to play in the upcoming season. What he found was a program in a funk. The ENLL had formerly been Jess Neely Athletics, with baseball having been played under the sanction of Dixie Youth Baseball for most of the 50 years it had existed in Shelby Park. The league’s three fields were the home of some top-notch teams and games, and a who’s who of Nashville athletes wielded bats and gloves there — former NBA basketball player Ron Mercer, former major-league outfielder Michael Coleman, and former NFL wide receiver Cory Fleming, to name a few. But the program fell on hard times after the Cumberland River submerged the complex during the Nashville flood of 2010. A year later, Major League Baseball donated nearly $70,000 to help the league recover, but interest had waned and spirits had fallen. With their son set to play in the 2012 season, the Downses had volunteered to help however they could. Darrell offered to do things like cutting grass, and Denise worked in the concession stands, and it was during a meeting after the season had ended that Darrell was asked to run the show. “This program wouldn’t exist without Darrell and Denise,” says Brett Vargason, the league’s director of sponsorships and parent of a son who plays. “They really are the crux of this, from a macro level vision-wise and from a micro level in their hands getting dirty.” Work on righting the ship began immediately, according to Downs. He had tough decisions to make as he sifted through the issues blocking progress. “We took over the program and had to

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We want every about a

child in East Nashville to be able to experience baseball, but we talk whole lot more than just baseball. It’s a community environment.

”

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make changes right away,” he says. “The league was $10,000 in debt, and vendors hadn’t been paid in a year. My wife and I went and met everybody and said we would pay them, whether it was $25 or however much. A few of us sat down and started figuring out a plan, which was to reach out to the community and get them to understand how this program works. “In places like Franklin, Murfreesboro, or Mount Juliet, the city comes in and takes care of the park. They set it up, they build the mounds, they bring in the dirt. We actually rent this facility from the city. Anything that needs to be done here, besides a landlord-tenant relationship, is the league’s responsibility.” The group consulted an accountant and was told the best option was simply to shut down the existing league and start fresh. The new program was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and when the 2013 season began, Jess Neely Athletics had changed to East Nashville Little League. The number of players has nearly tripled from where it began two years ago. “We see growth every year,” says Bell, the 48

opening day PA announcer who serves as the league’s vice president. “We’ve grown from putting signs all over East Nashville and knocking on people’s doors to promote the league to doing very little marketing.” Word of mouth is helping to bring in volunteers, truly the backbone of the league. As expected, many are parents who are realizing the benefits of the program and want to be involved. Some, such as Bell, a seventh-grade math teacher at a Nashville middle school, have no children, but possess a passion for baseball and its merits as a teaching tool. And then there’s the volunteer who more or less stumbled into the role. Nick Ewald, director of coaches for the ENLL’s 11-13 division, climbed over the outfield fence with a friend one Saturday night while Downs was completing some clean-up duties and his son was taking a few swings with the bat. “We saw the lights were on, and we just wanted to come out and throw the ball around a little,” Ewald recalls. “I saw Darrell and his son, and I was a pretty good player so I offered to

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give his son some tips. Darrell told me I should coach, so I showed up Monday ready to go.” Downs says Ewald made contributions from the get-go. “He’s done so much for our older kids, and they really look up to him,” Downs says. “It’s been amazing. I always say we got one of our better volunteers because he was trespassing. He’s giving back to a community where he didn’t even grow up.” Jamaal Stewart, on the other hand, did grow up in East Nashville and was considerably influenced by the youth baseball he played in Shelby Park. He was part of the Jess Neely League from age 7 to 19, playing on a team that won a state championship in 2008. Stewart graduated in 2007 from Stratford High, where he played football and baseball, and was on the football team at Cumberland University in Lebanon his freshman year before transferring to Tennessee State University and earning his degree. Now a teacher and coach at Overton High, Stewart is giving back to his old league and his community as an ENLL umpire. He may not CO N T I N UED ON PAGE 97

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KNOW your NEIGHBOR

PH OTOGR AP H B Y D AVE C A R D A C IOTTO

“I

Sunny BECKS-CRUMPTON

was at the Alley Cat in 2004 While walk-ins are welcome, on ‘70s vinyl funk night, and 98 percent of the sales are online. “Most people we sell to are I saw a girl hula-hooping,” by Tommy Womack making their own hoops. We’ll Sunny Becks-Crumpton recalls. get a few people here and there “I had never hula-hooped in my we’ll make a hoop for, but for the most part life, believe it or not. I thought it looked like the it’s for the do-it-yourself person. I started the coolest thing ever. I cornered her and said, ‘ You business in my house, making the hoops and need to teach me how to do that!’ From then on, I selling them. And because I was teaching went back every weekend to practice. It never occurred to me I could practice at home; it had to be classes, I had a ready audience.” at Alley Cat. I went from learning to showing While Becks-Crumpton no longer teaches off my tricks. It was my way of dancing, ’cause classes, nor offers them in the shop, she did then the guys couldn’t come up close. You had this initially, coming up with the curriculum as barrier, where you could be fun and free. And she went along. She sketched out three sixthen I had friends who would want to learn the week periods of classes, in which six-to-10 moves, and I thought, ‘Oh, I should teach classes.’ moves would be learned each of the first two So it all just kind of found me, and one thing led periods, and then in the third all the moves to another.” would be incorporated. (You would be forgiven for thinking there is only one basic A decade on from her hooping epiphany, hula-hooping move, but there are more than Becks-Crumpton runs hoopsupplies.com, a a few — the swish, the warrior, the wonder one-stop shopping place for all things hoop. woman, etc. — involving every limb and The Hoop Factory at 805 Woodland serves body part.) as the nerve center. Under that banner are When pressed for what she does for fun, several other businesses: Jump Rope in perhaps a laughable question for a mother of a Can, House of Fifi, and the Hankabee three, she doesn’t hesitate: “I come here! To Button Company. But the main attraction work!” She loves the creativity and the chance — and main space-taker in the shop — is to expose young and old to the time-honthe hoops. Big industrial shelves hold over ored playtime and fitness tools of hula hoops and the customizable 80 different colors of raw hoop tubing, while other shelves hold all “string your own beads” jump ropes sold in cans decorated by young manner of sparkly decorative tape with which to create your own onelocal artists. of-a-kind hoop. Looking forward, Becks-Crumpton says, “I don’t see any limitations “We’re in this shop four years now.,” Becks-Crumpton says, cutting an artistic figure with her shoulder-length gray hair and pink with where we can go with this. I think the ultimate goal is to create an ’50s-esque teardrop glasses. “In the past, people who made their own environment that feeds young entrepreneurs who are into what we’re hoops had to buy the tubing from one place, the tape from another. doing from a creative realm. We’re a smorgasbord of things that seem Everything was outsourced to different places. And I thought, why not to work randomly, when they probably maybe shouldn’t have worked. have it all in one spot?” We just like to spread happiness and color.”

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Good day sunshine! Lilly Hiatt greets a new day at Cornelia Fort Airpark

Photography by

Eric England 52

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

SOMEBODY’S

Daughter Lilly Hiatt finds her own path to success By Randy Fox

May | June 2015

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“M

y father gave me my first guitar when I was 12,” singer and songwriter Lilly Hiatt says. “I still have it. It’s my favorite, a beautiful 1953 parlor-size Martin. I immediately put stickers all over it and a picture of Eddie Vedder because I loved Pearl Jam. I thought I was making it pretty, but I totally defaced it. Dad never gave me any crap about it. He was like, ‘Okay … .’ That’s how he’s always been. He encouraged me to be me.” While that type of parental encouragement is valuable for anyone, it’s especially true for Lilly Hiatt. As the daughter of renowned singer-songwriter John Hiatt, she faces both the advantages and challenges of being a “legacy artist.” It’s a common predicament in Nashville, a town where sons, daughters, grandkids, nieces, and nephews of musical legends are in ample supply. While her genetics may be a conversation starter or a point of interest, when it comes to her chosen career, it’s the music that matters. Over the past few years, Hiatt has been finding her own path to success as demonstrated on her 2013 recording debut, Let Down, and

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WHEN I WAS 12, MY DAD SIGNED ME UP FOR GUITAR LESSONS,

and I hated it!

now her new album, Royal Blue. Born in Los Angeles in 1984, she spent little time in the City of Angels before moving to Nashville with her father. Growing up in the Music City, Hiatt experienced a different relationship with her father from the standard Mondaythrough-Friday, workaday schedule of most parents. Especially after the breakthrough success of his 1987 album, Bring the Family. “I remember when things started to pick up because it was exciting,” she says. “He was on the road a lot, and I missed him, but he was always very present in my life. It’s not like a 9-to5 job where you only see your dad at night and he’s tired. When he was home, he was really involved. It was never like ‘Where’s Dad?’” Although he was very focused on his family, his work remained an important part of home life. “There was always music in the house,” Hiatt says, “records being played or live music. From a really early age, I loved singing. I never made a conscious decision that it was what I wanted to do. I thought of it as ‘just what people do.’ I really wanted to play music. I never felt any pressure to take up music, but I was

really shy about singing in front of people. “When I was 12, my dad signed me up for guitar lessons, and I hated it,” she continues. “I was super lazy about practicing; I did not want to learn the stuff I was being taught. I just wanted to play the songs that I was hearing on the radio, and I eventually figured out how to play on my own.” In high school, Lilly found confidence in numbers, performing in chorus and school musicals. She eventually worked up the nerve to perform solo as part of Battle Ground Academy’s prestigious Artist Guild program. “I first auditioned my junior year, and I was so nervous I totally blew my audition,” she recalls. “I remember going to see Emmylou Harris at the Ryman that night and thinking, ‘I bet she never failed an audition.’ My chorus teacher really encouraged me to try again. I auditioned again my senior year and made it.” After graduation, Hiatt headed for the University of Denver. But even a thousand miles from Nashville, she found her interests still turning toward music. “I played some open mic nights here and there, but I didn’t play a

“

real show until my junior year of college,” she says. “I met my friend Eric Knutsen, and he encouraged me to start playing out. Denver is a very musical place, but it’s a different kind of scene from Nashville. I guess it was easier to start playing there than at home.” In 2006, Hiatt graduated with a degree in psychology, but her primary attention had turned to Shake Go Home, the band she formed with fellow D.U. students, and that was a road that led back home. “I convinced my band to move to Nashville,” she says. “Denver is a really hippie/jammy world, and it was a really different scene in Nashville. That was a weird time trying to get a grip on the differences. We had no idea what we were doing, but I really thought that in a year or two, things would be off and sailing. “We had really good players, but we were all over the place in our influences and couldn’t seem to merge them into something bigger. We were trying to be a democratic band without one guiding voice because I didn’t know how to step up and be that. We practiced and worked really hard, but we just didn’t have

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a focus. After about a year and a half, we went our own ways. “Right after the band broke up, I started playing solo a lot, and that forced me to figure out where I wanted my songs to go,” she continues. “I started writing a lot. I wanted to start fresh without the mindset of ‘I’m writing songs for a band.’ I started playing with a lot of different people. I met Beth Finney and Jon Radford. Jon knew a lot of musicians in town. I started trying things out with different people and that led to a pretty solid group.” In addition to Finney on lead guitar and Radford on drums, Hiatt recruited Jake Bradley on bass and Luke Schneider on pedal steel. With her band in place, she brought them into Doug Lancio’s East Nashville studio in 2012 to cut her first album, Let Down. The record clearly displayed her solid songwriting

and enticing vocals that could slide between the steel-reinforced rock of “Big Bad Wolf ” and the twang town charms of “Young Black Rose.” “I’m really proud of the way that first album came out,” Hiatt says. “As for the twang in my vocals, I don’t know where it comes from. My dad doesn’t have a Southern accent. I don’t have one speaking, but it comes out in my singing. Even when I think I’m disguising it, my voice is so twangy. I guess it’s just growing up in Nashville. [My band and I] all grew up not really being into country music, but we were surrounded by it, and I’m proud of that. That ‘Southern thing’ is more in me than I realize.” With her penchant for country-rock fusions, and unpretentious and honest writing built around a solid turn of phrase, the comparisons to her father’s songwriting were inevitable. It’s

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a yardstick that Hiatt has no problems standing beside. “I didn’t realize ‘John Hiatt’s kid’ was such a thing until my career started picking up, and then every person mentioned it,” she says. “It makes sense though, and it never struck me as offensive. My dad and I have a really good relationship, and I think that helps. I suppose it might be a sore spot to have that constantly reinforced for kids who are estranged from their ‘famous parent,’ but he’s been a guiding light for me. It’s not like I’ve tried to ride his coattails or take advantage of my name, but it’s a real thing, and to deny it would be silly.” One way that familial connection benefited Hiatt was gaining an audience with the powers-that-be at Normaltown Records, a subsidiary of New West, the label that her father has called home for more than a decade.

“

I think a lot of my writing is now coming from the realization that the world isn’t black and white. There is a lot of gray, but there can be peace in accepting that not everything works out.

“

After self-financing Let Down, she pitched the album to Normaltown, who signed her and released the album to critical acclaim and moderate financial success. “I’m lucky to have them behind me,” Hiatt says. “Let Down was everything I could have wanted for a first record. A little part of me was hoping maybe I could quit my day job. That didn’t happen, but I did get to do a fair amount of touring, word started to get out, and it was warmly received by a small but satisfactory number of folks. It made people interested enough that they asked, ‘What’s next?’ ” The answer to that question was delivered recently with the release of her new album, Royal Blue. While still growing from rootsy soil, the album also marks Hiatt’s excursion into a wider sonic landscape. Working with local producer Adam Landry, she recorded Royal

Blue at his Sylvan Park studio, Playground Sound. The album mixes elements of dream pop synth and indie rock guitar fuzz to propel sharp, incisive, and occasionally sardonic examinations of affairs of the heart. “Working with Adam was a lot of fun,” Hiatt says. “Going in, I didn’t think I wanted synth on my songs, but Adam introduced that concept and it was really weird and cool. I loved trying to get out of the box, but not in some contrived sense of wanting to make a record that sounds like this artist or that artist. I went in wanting to make a record that sounds like me. I’m a singer-songwriter, but I enjoy listening to grunge, noisy stuff, indie rock — my influences are all across the board. When it comes to blending influences, I think now is the time that anything goes.” That swirl of influences reinforces her

songwriting through the dreamy daze of dissatisfaction found in “Far Away,” or the twangified and pragmatic wit of “Jesus Would’ve Let Me Pick the Restaurant.” Hiatt’s songs are dispatches from the rocky road of relationships — tales of bruised hearts and the wisdom that is left by the passage of pain. “I think a lot of my writing is now coming from the realization that the world isn’t black and white,” she says. “There is a lot of gray, but there can be peace in accepting that not everything works out.” Although critics and fans frequently see connections between a songwriter’s work and their personal history, Hiatt has found that being the daughter of a successful songwriter has only reinforced those perceptions. The song, “Somebody’s Daughter,” has been singled out

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KNOW your NEIGHBOR {Jr.}

Henrietta CRUMPTON

PH OTOGR AP H B Y D AVE C A R D A C IOTTO

enrietta Crumpton (aka Hanke) runs the Hankabee Button Company. She makes customized buttons, magnets, and nametags for clients as diverse as Montgomery Bell Academy, Greenbrier Distillery, the Junior Roller Derby, Bang Candy and the Fox For Mayor campaign. She’s involved in both manufacturing and sales, visiting local businesses, pressing the flesh and handing out business cards. She has four orders in queue to fulfill by next weekend. She’s also 7 years old and a first-grader at University School of Nashville. Hanke fell in love with a button-making machine last December when her mother, Sunny Becks-Crumpton, bought one for use in her hula-hoop and jump rope shop. A feisty little girl with a spray of freckles and a boyish haircut, Hanke was in the car when her mother mentioned to her older sister, Madeline, “You know,

by Tommy Womack

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you should start a button-making business. No one in town is doing it and there are lots of bands.” When Madeline showed no interest, Hanke shot her hand up. “She’s very much in charge of the business,” Becks-Crumpton says. “She’s an extremely serious-minded child, one of those kids who does everything 100 percent. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t take breaks to jump rope, but she’s hungry. She has the entrepreneur’s spirit.” Hanke comes in to the Hoop Factory after school to manufacture the buttons (leaving it for an adult to put the pins in). She doesn’t work every day, though. After all, she’s 7 years old. “I like to ride my bike with my dad,” she says, “and play with my dog!” Her financial goal is serious and focused. “I want to buy a Tesla because it doesn’t use gas.” That’s a lot of buttons, but she does have nine years before she gets her license, so there’s time.

I want to buy a Tesla because it doesn’t use gas.

May | June 2015

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Norbert Putnam (left)and David Briggs in front of Quadrafonic Sound Studio in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s. (Photo courtesy of David Briggs)

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Quad’s ALL

CHILDREN

How Quadrafonic Sound Studio became ground zero for the other side of Nashville

By Daryl Sanders

eil Young. Joan Baez. Dan Fogelberg. Kris Kristofferson. Jimmy Buffett. Dobie Gray. Bob Seger. J.J. Cale. Michael Jackson. Donovan. The Pointer Sisters. These are just a few of the legendary recording artists who worked at Nashville’s Quadrafonic Sound Studio in the 1970s when the facility became ground zero for the growing number of rock and folk sessions in the city. Considering Quadrafonic’s influential place in Music City’s history, surprisingly, it was not originally intended to be a place where records would necessarily be made. Near the end of 1969, a pair of celebrated session musicians, old friends from Muscle Shoals, keyboardist David Briggs and bassist Norbert Putnam, purchased an old, two-story house at 1802 Grand Avenue, a block off Music Row. They had plans to put in a studio where they could write and experiment, a place more accommodating to musicians than the studios in which they normally worked. They set about converting the front porch into the control room and several of the rooms on the ground floor into the tracking area. “As the construction came along, Elliot Mazer stopped by one day,” Putnam recalls. “Elliot was one of the first New York producers besides Bob Johnston to come to Nashville to record. He brought a bunch of folkies down here. So Elliot’s walking through the old house and says, ‘I like this place. It’s got a good feel to it. I would record here.’ Then he said, ‘Why don’t

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you put in a 16-track and a good console — I’d come over here.’” Mazer first came to Nashville to record in 1963 with El Trios Los Panchos, an internationally famous Latin trio, who recorded with the city’s famous A-Team of studio musicians. “That was my beginning in Nashville,” he says from his home in North Carolina. He returned in 1968 to produce the Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia. “The next chance I had was when I met Albert Grossman, and Albert [managed] Ian & Sylvia and Gordon Lightfoot and Dylan, and Dylan had already done some stuff in Nashville. Albert said, ‘Listen, if you want to take those kids to Nashville, go.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, great.’ So I took Ian & Sylvia down there and we did an album at Bradley’s Barn.” Drummer Kenneth Buttrey, who was in his mid-20s at the time, became the leader on those sessions, and he brought in a number of younger musicians he played with regularly. “I had come down earlier to observe a Vanguard session with Ian & Sylvia, and that’s when I

to 1802 Grand and suggested that Briggs and Putnam make it a master studio. “We thought about it, and we met with Elliot again — he wanted to come in as a partner,” Putnam says. “There was this new influx of folk rockers coming down, so a couple of weeks later, David and I decided to bite the bullet and buy the gear. “So that’s how Quad came into being. Elliot was the one who sparked the idea of it being a real studio.” They equipped the studio with a Quad 8 console and a 16-track Ampex MM1100 twoinch tape machine. “It was a great console,” Briggs says. “A lot of the big hits [tracked at Quad] were cut on that console. The Quad 8 sounds better than just about any console I’ve ever used.” According to Briggs, it was an easy decision to bring Mazer in as a partner. “He had several accounts, and we could start right away with some work, and it would be worth it.” Partnering with Mazer began to pay off

for us to try them out,” he continued. “We had the first parametric equalizer. It was made by George Massenburg and Burgess McNeil. They were up in Baltimore, thereabouts, and they’d come down, and we’d try it out. They’d change it, and we’d try it out more. Anyhow, that’s when we started getting peripheral gear. And I built direct boxes using transformers, UTC transformers, so that we could hook them up to record out of a guitar or out of a power amp, whichever you felt like doing. This was before there were any direct boxes that you could buy. I built them. That was in 1970. “One thing with Norbert was he would try it. If it was new, and he had used it in another studio, we would have one at Quad real soon.” It was Putnam’s fascination with cutting-edge technology that inspired the studio’s name. As he related to Sound On Sound magazine in 2003, he had been in discussions with engineers at CBS Laboratories in Connecticut about the emerging quadraphonic format, and decided to name the facility Quadrafonic

“

One thing with Norbert was he would try it. If it was new, and he had used it in another studio, we would have one at Quad real soon

met Kenny and Norbert and Briggs, I believe,” Mazer continues. As he got to know these younger session musicians, the idea evolved that they should form an instrumental group and make records of their own. That was the birth of the ninepiece session supergroup Area Code 615, which fused country, rock, and R&B. A number of the musicians currently being featured in the new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, were in the group, including Buttrey, Briggs, Putnam, multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy, guitarists Wayne Moss and Mac Gayden, fiddler Buddy Spicher, and pedal steel player Weldon Myrick. With Mazer producing, they went into Moss’ Cinderella Studio and recorded what would become the group’s eponymous debut in 1969. “I took the first album up to Polydor in New York,” Mazer recalls. “They heard it and said, ‘This is great, let’s have it.’ Boom!” The label released a second album on the group in 1970, A Trip In The Country. In February of that year, the group performed four dates at the Fillmore West, opening for Country Joe & The Fish. It was on this trip that Mazer first learned about Briggs and Putnam’s plans for a studio. When they returned to Nashville, he made his first visit 62

even before the studio was officially open. “He mixed ‘Long, Long Time’ there before we even had the big monitors hooked up,” Briggs says of the acclaimed track from Linda Ronstadt’s 1970 album, Silk Purse, which Mazer produced in Nashville. “He hooked up some JBLs.” Engineer Gene Eichelberger began a long association with Quadrafonic during the studio’s first year of operation. “Gene was the guy,” Briggs says. “We had hired another engineer, but he got in over his head, which we found out pretty quickly. Gene had been doing some maintenance work for Wayne Moss out at Cinderella, and we all thought he was pretty smart. So we got rid of the other guy and hired Gene.” Eichelberger had worked on the second Area Code 615 record at Cinderella. “That’s how I met Norbert Putnam, David Briggs, and Elliot Mazer,” Eichelberger told author Gary Gottleib in 2010. “Elliot asked me to come in and do some work for him, and I did, because the guy they had hired, he could wire, but he couldn’t put a system together and make it work. So, they hired me, and I went to work for Norbert, David, and Elliot at Quadrafonic Sound. That was the beginning of ’70. “It was a great studio because we’d try anything, and since we were people who tried anything, we would get people to build things

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Sound. Around Nashville, the studio soon became known as Quad, which inspired T-shirts that read, “All Quad’s Children.”

few albums recorded at Quad in the first two years served to put the studio on the map nationally. The first being Joan Baez’s Blessed Are … , which was cut there in January of 1971. “Joan Baez calls me up about the same time that we’re opening and she says, ‘I want you to lead my sessions. I’m doing a new album and Kris Kristofferson will produce it,” Putnam says. Baez wanted to use some of the guys from Area Code 615 because she wanted to “try to get a hit record.” “Of course, we were finishing Quad at the time, and I’m thinking ‘I wonder if I could talk her into cutting at Quad.’ So I said, ‘That’s easy — I’ll put the band together. Would you come and use our new studio?’ and she said, ‘Sure.’” Putnam laughs, as he recalls the conversation. “I called David and said, ‘We’ve got our first big act coming in.’ “So I booked the band, and six weeks later, or however long it was, I’m on my way on Monday afternoon to Quad,” he continues. “We’re going to record Monday through Friday — 2 to 5, 6 to 9, and 10 to 1 a.m. We’ve got 15 sessions to record 22 songs.

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Norbert Putnam (above) and David Briggs (below) are among the legendary session musicians featured in the Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. (Photo by Eric England)

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“So I come through the door about a quarter to 2, and Kris is in the back in the coffee area, and he’s wasn’t looking all that healthy — he looked slightly inebriated to me, and I think perhaps he was. Kris was a little shy about the technological part of making a record. As I came back to talk with him, he said, ‘I don’t know shit about all those lights and buttons. You could plug your bass in the deck, and you could play in there and listen and help her. I just don’t want to get into all that,’ he said. “So I ran upstairs and found Joanie, and she said, ‘Can you help me get this record produced?’ I said, ‘Love to.’ Ten minutes later, we’re starting on the first song. “Of course, I got lucky because one of the songs she had chosen was Robbie Robertson’s ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.’ ” When Putnam and Briggs opened Quad, they wanted to one-up Bob Beckham, head of Combine Music, who famously offered free beer to songwriters at the end of the workday, even writers not signed to Combine. So they

“ That’s what we’re here for — we’re here to make records

decided to have a free open bar at Quad, 247, and their lounge soon became a destination for the city’s hipper songwriters, people like Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Donnie Fritts, Guy Clark, and Jimmy Buffett. During the time Baez was working at the studio, the lounge would be overflowing with not only writers, but also their girlfriends; which is how “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” came to have between 15 and 20 people singing on the song’s chorus. “One of the things I discussed with Joanie was wouldn’t it be great to have a huge group of people singing along, as people do in a concert,” Putnam explains. So he recruited the songwriters in the lounge, as well the girlfriends who were hanging out, to lend their voices to the chorus. “We tried to put the ones who were least inebriated up closer to the mic, and we put the drunks in the back. I triple-tracked it, so we

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Norbert Putnam stands at the console in the control room at Quad Studio while Joan Baez naps on the floor during the making of her acclaimed album, Blessed Are … . (Photo by Marshall Fallwell)

had close to 60 voices singing on it — and it was magic!” he says with a laugh. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” would become Baez’s one-and-only top 10 hit, reaching No. 3 during a 13-week stay in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It not only brought welcomed attention to the fledgling studio, it launched Putnam’s career as a hit-making producer. He would soon be helming albums for Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffett, Buffy Sainte-Marie, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Eric Anderson, and Steve Goodman, among others.

month after Baez was at Quadrafonic, Mazer brought the next big act to the studio — Neil Young, who was in Nashville in February of ’71 to appear on The Johnny Cash Show after a short winter tour in support of After the Gold Rush. “I went to Nashville at the end of the tour to do the

Johnny Cash television show, which was new and really hot at the time,” Young recalled in his 2012 memoir, Waging Heavy Peace. “Bob Dylan had just done the first one, and everyone wanted to do it. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt were doing the second show, and so was I. Everyone loved Johnny Cash; he was the real thing. The show was all about the music, and it was cool, very real. While I was there, I met Elliot Mazer, the record producer.” Mazer hosted a dinner for Young, Taylor, Ronstadt, and a few others, including Young’s manager, Elliot Roberts, whom he had known from New York. At the dinner, Young asked Mazer about Quadrafonic. “He said, ‘You have a studio and a band?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, they’re great.’ He said, ‘Well, can I come in tomorrow and do some recording?’ And that was it.” Even though it was a Saturday (Feb. 6) and most of the Area Code 615 guys were not available, Mazer rounded up Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and pedal steel player

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Ben Keith, who would go on to work with Young for four decades. Young dubbed these Nashville musicians The Stray Gators. “By midafternoon, we cut ‘Out On The Weekend.’ I got sounds going, and Neil came into the control room and heard the playback and just about collapsed,” Mazer recalls. “He said, ‘This is wonderful sounding.’ He said to me later he had never come into a control room to hear a playback where the playback sounded better than what it sounded like in the studio. I said, ‘That’s what we’re here for — we’re here to make records.’ ” The two dates that weekend were the beginning of the sessions that would become Young’s most successful album, Harvest, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and earned triple platinum certification for sales. It yielded his only Top 10 hit, “Heart of Gold,” which reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 during 15 weeks in the Top 40. “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” were also recorded during those first sessions at Quad, and after taping their appearance on the Cash show, Ronstadt and Taylor stopped by the studio to add backing vocals to those tracks. “That was Linda and James and Neil sitting on a couch in the control room with a mic in the control room, and that’s how I overdubbed those vocals, which Neil couldn’t believe,” the producer explains. Young and Mazer went back to Quadrafonic a few years later to record tracks for Homegrown, an unreleased album whose legend has grown exponentially as the decades have passed.

“O

ne of the biggest things we did that helped our reputation more than anything was Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” which was a smash, and that became a big account for us with Mentor Williams for awhile,” Briggs says. The Williams-penned song from the album of the same name went to No. 5 during a 15-week run in the Billboard Top 40. “Mentor came here and did a demo and saw what we were doing,” Briggs explains. Williams made his first trip to Nashville in 1971. After a meeting with Chet Atkins on Music Row, he explored the surrounding area. “All the little houses were publishing houses, or they were recording studios,” he recalls by phone from his home near Taos, N.M. He walked over to 18th Street and ended up at Quad, where he met Troy Seals. Seals was a then-unknown songwriter-guitarist, who would go on to have his songs recorded by some of the biggest names in popular music, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Etta James. At the time he met Williams, Seals was just getting his start in Music City and had only recently become the first songwriter signed to Danor Music, Briggs’ and Putnam’s

newly launched publishing company. “I played some songs for Troy, and he played me some songs that just blew me away, man,” Williams says. “I hit it off so well with Troy that I spent most of the rest of that trip writing songs with him. “I told him I was planning to record an album with Dobie; that I was close to making a deal. I had signed Dobie to my production company, and there was an A&R guy at Decca that was really interested. I stayed a couple weeks and wrote several songs with Troy. We met every morning at eight o’clock and just had a ball. I knew I had a friend for life with Troy.” Williams got a firsthand look at the studio, and he says he ‘just loved it.” He made plans to return with Dobie once he had a deal in place. Back in Los Angeles, Williams feared he was on the brink of losing his songwriting deal with his publisher because he had yet to write a breakout hit. “That weekend, I sat down and sort of wrote about how I was feeling, and “Drift Away” came out in about 10 minutes,” he says. “I was writing the song to myself, you know — and I think that’s why so many superstars recorded it.” “Drift Away” has been recorded more than 400 times, including cuts by Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Ringo Starr, Ike & Tina Turner, and the Neville Brothers, but none of their versions has topped the success of Gray’s rendition recorded at Quadrafonic.

ithin a couple of years, Mazer sold his interest in Quadrafonic back to Briggs and Putnam. “There was a lot of Neil Young stuff going on in California, a lot of CSNY stuff to do, and I was spending more and more time out there,” he explains. “So there was a lot of reasons to leave Nashville at that point.” The studio continued to prosper; it was so heavily booked that Briggs and Putnam could rarely get in to do their own projects. When a group of doctors from Atlanta offered them a million dollars for the facility in 1979, they decided to sell it. Even though the studio remained in operation for more than three more decades, when the group from Atlanta bought it from Briggs and Putnam, it was in many ways the end of an era in Music City. Putnam refers to those days as “Nashville’s Golden Age.” It was time when great things were accomplished by the producers, songwriters, and musicians affectionately known as All Quad’s Children. (Editor’s note: This is the second in an ongoing series of articles The East Nashvillian will publish that dig deeper into the history behind the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s new exhibit: Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City.) May | June 2015

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Kickin’ it

East Nashville Sports lets you play like a kid By Sarah Hays Photography by Dave Cardaciotto

ll Meredith and Jason Goucher really want to know is this: Do you want to come out and play? Anticipating an affirmative answer, this past winter the couple launched East Nashville Sports, an alternative sports league featuring kickball, Whiffle ball, and rock & roll cornhole. Kickball sign-ups began the first week in May, and the seven-week season debuts under the lights at Shelby Park in June. Games will take place every Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., a fulfillment of Meredith and Jason’s master plan to “kick the weekend off early.” “He’s found his happy hole here,” Meredith says of her husband’s love for the sports league. “Look at him — he’s glowing.” It’s true: Jason’s all-consuming passion in life seems to be kickball. When he talks about it, it’s like watching an 8-yearold boy talk about outer space, complete with animated hand gestures and a giddy incapacity to sit still in his seat. “It’s just something we love to do, and we feel like the community needs it,” he says. “It’s a break-the-routine thing. I mean, people can go out and sit at a table and drink if they want to, but it’s like, ‘Hey, let’s do something different. Let’s be active. Let’s play a game we played when we were kids.’ It’s very

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follow through. What many folks would consider passing whims of fancy become massive undertakings for them, and the inspiration can come from anywhere. The origins of their relationship are murky, but according to Jason, “like a jerk,” he rejected her invitation to dance at a house party in Murfreesboro in 2004, telling her that he was “allergic to dancing.” A few weeks later at another party, he found her “wrestling with some dude in the living room and stopped to ask if everything was cool,” before heading back out to the patio to hang with his friends, who were members of a “guttural, fantasy, metal band, named Destroy, Destroy, Destroy.” “The guy I was wrestling with wouldn’t stop licking my face,” Meredith coolly explains. “He was in a ska band and worked at a local, vintage clothing store. I was trying to wrestle him to the floor to get him to stop. It was my totally Meredith Goucher demonstrates her Olympian kickball form nonaggressive way to get him off of me — and when I was done, I went out to the patio to see if those guys could get my back.” noncompetitive, all about having fun.” Jason was enamored. Two weeks The spring season of rock & roll cornlater, Meredith left town for the summer. “I hole began in April at The Crying Wolf on was totally kidding with him when I left,” she Woodland Street and will run through May says. “I told him, ‘If you’re really into this, you 21. Each evening of competition features a have to write me a love letter every day that theme, such as Wet Hot American Summer, I’m gone.’ And he did! He wrote me a letter My Bloody Valentine, Tarantino, and Dazed every day for three months and called every and Confused, with music and participants’ night at 10 p.m., because that’s when we had costumes fitting the motif. free minutes.” When Meredith and Jason get an idea, they They were married in 2013, and the result

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Hey, let’s do something different. Let’s be active May | June 2015

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It’s about having fun, taking us back to a place when things really didn’t matter that much

of their union is a palpable celebration of living that doesn’t stop at kickball and wrestling. They spent two years (2009-2011) making a B horror flick called Girls’ Night Out about lady hipsters at a clothing swap who get tweaked out on pills and start killing each other for body parts. Meredith came up with the idea while volunteering at the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp. She attended a “swap and shop” one of the women was throwing. “Everyone kept complimenting each other, you know how women do. ‘Oh, I’d die for your legs,’” she recalls. “So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we just started killing each other? Wouldn’t that be a funny movie? Maybe I should make a movie!’ I had no business doing it. I didn’t even own a video camera, but they all got behind me. Women like me. They totally got it.” Jason was the props guy and did all of the music with a little help from Matt Hearn of Turbo Fruits and Brian Kotzur of Silver Jews.

ith the establishment of East Nashville Sports, these paragons of playfulness are extending an open invitation to the neighborhood “to come out and have a good time.” They’re hopeful to have Whiffle ball up and running by the fall, but in the meantime, Jason says, “It’s getting warm, it’s time for kickball.” For any of the ENS leagues, players can sign up online (www.eastnashvillesports.com) as a team captain, a team player, or a free agent. The cost is $50 per person per season, less than $5 per game, and there are, of course, prizes. The spoils that go to the top three teams are grab bag gift cards from local sponsors: Bongo Java, 5 Points Pizza, I Dream of Weenie, Fond Object Records, Pied Piper Creamery, Sky Blue, Bagel Face Bakery, and Turtle Anarchy Brewery. They’re also hoping to have food trucks on-site this summer to fuel the crowd. Drink specials at the cornhole tournaments are provided by Turtle Anarchy.

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Spectators are welcome, and it is rumored that “Randy Summers, Tennessee’s worst Hulk Hogan Impersonator,” might make an appearance on the kickball field. Meredith hopes “the people who participate just want to play or meet new people. Maybe they’re new to town, or have been here a while and just want a change.” “It’s about having fun,” Jason says, “taking us back to a place when things really didn’t matter that much — because when it comes down to it, it’s adult recreational kickball. It’s not the Super Bowl.” Kickball, leg warmers, banjo players in cleats and short shorts — that’s what they’re peddling. If you’re looking for a good time in a throwback sort of a way, East Nashville Sports is for you. “It’s way more fun than sitting on the couch.” Jason concludes. Summer Kickball Shelby Bottoms June 18 - August 13 Thursday’s 6:30pm - 10:15pm $50/person for the season Registration May 4 - June 3 eastnashvillesports.com/leagues

Jason Goucher using the legendary “side-foot” technique

May | June 2015

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

Cookin IN THE ’ ’HOOD Recipes from East Nashville favorites

BY AMY HARRIS

“S

trawberry fever!” was a popular saying in the late 1800s when strawberry shortcake parties were the way to kick off summer. Even Harpers Magazine noted the craze in 1893: “They give you good eating, strawberries and short-cake — Ohh My!” Contrary to popular belief, strawberry shortcake is not a spongy white piece of cake with strawberries on top, nor is it a strawberry-flavored cake. Shortcake is actually a rich biscuit. Looking at the ingredients, one might presume that the shortcake will taste bland or boring, but once it’s layered with sweet vanilla whipped cream, freshly picked strawberries, and a drizzle of honey, it becomes the celebrity of desserts from the 1800s. Pastry chef Jaime Miller of Lockeland Table Community Kitchen and Bar has shared her interpretation of this iconic treat so you can kick off summer right. Her shortcake is a perfect balance between a crumbly scone and a freshly baked biscuit. “It’s the easiest shortbread to make, and one of my favorites,” she says. Miller is confident you can replicate this light, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth dessert, but you can also bypass using your oven and instead stop by Lockeland Table for a taste of this strawberry heaven.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE RECIPE (Serves 9-12) SHORTCAKE

3 cups self-rising flour 4 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon sea salt 8 tablespoons good, unsalted, very cold butter, like Plugrá 2 2/3 cups cold heavy whipping cream Preheat oven to 450 degrees and butter a quarter-sheet pan or an 8-inch by 13-inch glass baking dish. Add flour, sugar, and salt into a stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment. Blend. Add butter and blend for about 3-4 minutes, or until butter and flour look coarse, with no-larger-than pea-like butter bits. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add up to 2 2/3 cups cream until dough comes together in a shaggy mess. On a floured work surface, work the dough together, then fold it on itself a few times until no longer clumpy. Spread the dough into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a light, buttery golden brown. Let cool before serving.

STRAWBERRIES

2 pints of Delvin Farms strawberries, hulled and sliced 1 cup sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest Combine all together. Let stand for at least three hours before stirring and serving.

VANILLA WHIPPED CREAM

1/2 quart heavy cream 1/8-1/4 cup confectioners sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Seeds of 1 vanilla bean. Combine in a stand mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk until medium peaks form. Should your whipped cream deflate during storage, just rewhip.

TO SERVE

Cut shortcake into squares. Top with strawberries and whipped cream. You could go crazy and add some vanilla ice cream.

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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

EMMA ALFORD CALENDAR EDITOR

M A R C H - A P R I L 2015

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

UPCOMING FARM FRESH

East Nashville Farmers Market

3:30 to 7 p.m., Wednesdays beginning May 6, Shelby Park Amqui Station Farmers Market 12 to 3 p.m., Sundays beginning May 3, Amqui Station, Madison

The East Nashville Farmer’s Market will kick off again for another fresh season on May 6 in Shelby Park near the baseball diamond. Madison will also be revving up its market on May 3. Take a detour from your usual trek to Kroger and stop by these markets. They offer the ”cream of the crop” in locally grown organic and fresh foods. Peruse the local cheeses, milk, breads, herbs, fruits, vegetables, jams, and jellies. A few merchants even sell handmade goods, such as soaps, candles, pottery, and jewelry. Go out and meet the farmers who make your food. They also accept SNAP (food stamp) benefits. Grocery shopping has never been this fun — or homegrown. The East Nashville Farmers’ Markets will run through the end of October, while Amqui will run until August 30. Double down and visit both.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE KICKBALL GAME East Nashville Sports Kickball Season

Registration May 4 through June 3

We were all SO good at kickball back in the grade school days. If you think you’ve still got the chops, you can register for East Nashville Sports’ upcoming season online at www. eastnashvillesports.com. The season kicks off on June 18.

I AM CORNHOLIO Rock ’n’ Roll Cornhole

7 to 10 p.m., May 14 and 21, The Crying Wolf

You’ve missed the boat on signups, but exercise your right to witness by watching the last few matches of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Cornhole season at The Crying Wolf. It’s an excuse to drink beer and watch something other than baseball. 823 Woodland St.

RUFFLE YOUR FEATHERS

East Nashville Chicken Chase

Saturday, May 9, Pavilion East

Fly the coop and strut over to Pavilion East for the second annual East Nashville Chicken Chase and Hot Hen Hoedown. The strangeness alone should draw you in, but this fest is free, so you really have nothing to peck about. We still don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first — but we do know this is guaranteed free fun. Among some of the oddities of the afternoon: a chicken chase (winner gets an Eggcellent Trophy, they’re so punny), a fashion show for the big-breasted hens, chicken poo bingo, and a Rooster Coop full o’ hot wings. They even have a “Farmhouse Spa” set up where you can score a massage, among other spa amenities — don’t worry, no talons involved. Free childcare and a petting zoo can be found in the Kid’s Corral. They’ve got something planned for every bird of a different feather. Don’t be a chicken; cluck it out. 1006 Fatherland St.

country’s work environment over the last 150 years. The exhibition will feature collections from the National Archives and Records Administration, including photographs, recordings, and worker accounts from the last century. 711 S. Seventh St.

DRINKING CREATIVELY Paint Nites

May 13, June 10, POP

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 everything 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 East Nashvillians if you enter the coupon code “eastnash20” when buying tickets online. Grab a drink and release all inhibitions; it’s time to make your masterpiece. 604 Gallatin Ave., No. 201

DROP THOSE KEYS

ART MEETS FURNITURE

Bike To Work Day

One of a Kind Furniture Show

10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, May 9, The Idea Hatchery courtyard

This new show is in its inaugural year. Think 2D art meets the 3D world. Local visual artists have applied their artwork to fine furniture. This show will be small and intimate, featuring one-of-a-kind pieces, hence the name. Participating artists include Bill Brim, Mark Sloniker, Sheri Oneal, Dicki Soloperto, Mark Whitley, Elizabeth Foster, Becca Ganick, Peter Lawrence, Bret McFadyen, and Stephen Forrester. 1108 Woodland St.

EXPLORING AMERICA’S WORKFORCE “The Way We Worked,” Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition

On display May 9 through June 13, Martha O’Bryan Center

Humanities Tennessee and the Martha O’Bryan Center have partnered up to host the Smithsonian Institution’s “Museum on Main Street” traveling program. “The Way We Worked” is an original exhibition that explores America’s workforce, focusing on the changes in American culture that have affected the

Time varies by location, Friday, May 15, 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 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. To find the one nearest you, scope out the meet up points in East Nashville listed below. Check online to find all locations and times. Tom Joy Park 7:30 a.m. Mas Tacos Por Favor 7:40 a.m. Yeast Nashville 7:50 a.m. Mitchell’s Deli 7:20 a.m. Portland Brew 7:35 a.m. Eastside Cycles 7:45 a.m. Two Rivers Skate Park 7:05 a.m. Shelby Bottoms Nature Center 7:30 a.m.

WINING AND DINING

Nashville Wine & Food Festival

12 to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 16, Riverfront Park Nashville is taking it to the river for the second annual Wine & Food Festival. There

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will be vintners from around the globe pouring their products right next to some of Nashville’s own chefs and their best cuisines. There will be plenty of wine to put color in your cheeks, food to fill your belly, and music to please your ears. This festival has all of its bases covered. General admission tickets are $79, which gives you full access to the food and wine spread. The event will help raise funds for the Nashville Symphony. You can toast to that! 100 First Ave. N.

HAITI, HEALTH, AND HAPPY Health and HappyFest

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 16, Nashville First Church of the Nazarene

Friends of Haiti is hosting its annual event celebrating holistic health and clean living again at Nashville’s First Church of the Nazarene. This multicultural fest will offer free health screenings, samplings of international cuisines, live music, and family friendly games and activities. The festival helps raise funds to support local educational programs, such as English Learner Language (ELL) and life skills courses. Come on get happy. 510 Woodland St.

YOUR OWN FAIRY GNOME COTTAGE

DIY Fairy/ Gnome Cottage Workshop

1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, May 17, Paper Moon Crafts

Build your own adorable fairy or gnome cottage at this DIY workshop hosted in the cozy airstream at Paper Moon Crafts. Call it what you want, fairy or gnome, but it seems like the difference between “diary” and “journal” to us. This is grown-up class, however, feel free to bring your little ones for some whimsical inspiration, just watch the hot glue. Buy tickets online. 1108 Woodland St.

SMOOTH AS A BABY’S … Smile, Mommy! Cloth Diapering Informational Workshop

6:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 20, NOVA Birth Services

East Nashville-based baby bum resource, Smile, Mommy! Diaper Service is hosting an informative workshop so new parents can be privy to the perks of cloth diapering. 401 Center St., Old Hickory, TN.

EAST SIDE STORY IS HOWLIN’ AT THE MOON The Wolf’s Bane Release

Friday, May 22, East Side Story

East Side Story doesn’t just sell books anymore — they’re publishing them! Their first published work, The Wolf ’s Bane, is a collaboration between author Betsy Phillips and local illustrators from Platetone Printmaking. The book will be released by Nashville Limited Edition Club and made available through East Side Story. East Side Story will host a kick off, of sorts, in the shop this May. Two editions of the book will be available: a signed, limited edition with original prints bound in leather and a perfectbound paperback version with digital prints of the artwork. 1108 Woodland St., Unit B.

IT’S A TWO-WHEELIN’ MUSICAL ODYSSEY Tour De Fun

Saturday, May 23,11 a.m. until sundown, multiple East Nashville locations

This two-wheeled, ride-along festival is part of the citywide bike month celebration. This fest spans 12 venues with more than 30 musicians performing across East Nashville. Here’s the rundown: The day kicks off with a bike safety seminar in Riverside Village, then from there, participants ride out to the various venues throughout the afternoon, catching tunes and spinning wheels all day long. At sunset, things will wind down at The Crying Wolf. Don’t forget your helmets.

SUMMERTIME SYMPHONY

Nashville Symphony’s Summer Concert Series

Dates TBA

Nashville Symphony is out for summer — outside that is. They’re kicking off their annual summer concert series this June. The shows under the stars will go on throughout the summer in several different concert locations, free of cost (unless otherwise noted). 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 their website for the various concert locations.

EAT (EAST) FOR THE CAUSE Yum!East

6 to 9 p.m., Thursday, June 4, Pavilion East

Yum!East is back for your taste buds again. They really know how to stir things up in the kitchen on the East Side. Yum! 76

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showcases the culinary talent of the best restaurants, chefs, food artisans, and specialty purveyors this side o’ the Cumberland. Most importantly, proceeds from the event will benefit Fannie Battle Day Home For Children. Tickets will cost $45, and it’s worth it. Admission will include 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. Buy your tickets on the Yum!East website. 1006 Fatherland St.

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. 4815 Franklin Pike.

JEWELRY HATCHING

Based On: Words, Notes, and Art from Nashville Book Release

SHINE! Jewelry Show

10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 6, The Idea Hatchery

The nest of shops known as The Idea Hatchery is teaming up for the first annual SHINE! Jewelry Show. New pieces from local designers, such as Crescent Moon Jewels, Suzanne Myers, and Carrie Nunes will be front and center. Get your sparkle on. More details to come. 1108 Woodland St.

O N N A S

. C

brunch

POP-UP SHOPPING AT THE PARLOR

week

end Now open @

9AM 2-for-1 mimosas & build your own bloody mary bar

1313 Woodland St 615.226.1617 78

Summer Pop-Up Collective

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 13, Barista Parlor

Come check the caravan of small shops market outside Barista Parlor — grab an iced coffee and peruse the pop-ups. Pop-Up Collective is a traveling collaboration between SCOUT, Love Virginia Ruth, and Temperate online stores. Barista neighbors Moto Moda and Sisters of Nature will be joining in on the fun, plus more. You’ll see clothing for bigs, littles, babies, men, and women. Leather goods and home wares will “pop-up,” too. Oh, and of course there will be music. It’s guaranteed to be a good time. More details to come. 519B Gallatin Ave.

WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

Martha O’Bryan Center’s 30th Annual Miss Martha’s Ice Cream Crankin’ and Summer Social

3 to 5 p.m., Sunday, June 14, First Presbyterian Church This summer the Martha O’Bryan Center will be hosting the 30th annual Miss Martha’s Ice Cream Crankin’ and Summer Social, the sweetest fundraiser of the year, sponsored by Purity Dairy. This social helps raise funds for all the work the Martha O’Bryan Center does throughout the year. With hundreds of gallons of the good stuff onsite, you can double down on ice cream scoops throughout the afternoon. There will also be plenty of

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TELLING NASHVILLE’S STORY Monday, June 15, Belmont University McAfee Music Hall

This special piece of work is a collaborative effort between our own East Side Story and The Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville. They’re publishing an anthology, Based On: Words, Notes and Art from Nashville. It’s a hodgepodge of short stories, songs, and visual artwork from local authors, musicians, and artists. They’re marking this epic collaboration with a concert on Belmont’s campus, hosted by Music City Roots host Craig Havighurst with performances from most of the anthology’s contributing artists. All proceeds from the book and launch event will benefit the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. If you wish to donate money to this Nashville project, you can receive an autographed copy of the book and CD, plus admission to the event. 1900 Belmont Blvd.

PRINTMAKE IT IF YOU GOT IT Printmaker’s Festival

10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 20, The Idea Hatchery courtyard

This festival is returning for it’s second year, featuring the bee’s knees of the local print scene, with a few talented out-of-towners from Illinois. Artist booths will feature their latest works, with prints for sale. Some of the artists showing are Lisa Kessler, Sawtooth Print House, Hatch Show Print Moonlighters, Kangaroo Press, 30 Silent Mockingbirds, Fat Crow Press, and Meat & 3 Printing, If you’re looking to gussy up those drab walls, this is your stop. 1108 Woodland St.

HELLO, SUMMER Summer Solstice Party

Saturday, June 20, side lawn at Bongo Java East

Summer is upon us. 5 Points is celebrating the solstice again this year with its second annual Summer Solstice Party featuring local brews, tunes, and artisans. While they don’t have all the details hammered out just yet, we know

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you can expect cold beer, live music, local goods for sale, and some of the city’s finest food trucks. Stay tuned for more details. 107 S 11th St.

FEEL GOOD FIBERS First Annual Eastside Fiber Festival

9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 27, Pavilion East

Calling all fiber farmers, artisans, makers, and weavers: this festival is for you. The first ever fiber festival will stitch off this June. Anyone appreciative of fiber arts is encouraged to attend. There will be a stage featuring live fiber art demonstrations and plenty of hand-spun, hand-dyed fiber materials, maker tools, and more for sale. Stay posted for more details. 1006 Fatherland St.

TAKE ME TO THE PICTURE SHOW

Grassy Knoll Movie Nights

7 p.m., Second Sunday of every month, side

lawn at 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. Get out and enjoy the summer breeze. Who needs IMAX? Park it on the grass next to Bongo East instead. 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 screening each month. 109 South 11th St., www.facebook.com/ grassyknollmovies

TELL ME A STORY East Side Storytellin’

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

Looking for something to get your creative juices flowing? East Side Story has partnered with WAMB radio to present an all-out affair with book readings, musical performances, and author/musician interviews in just one evening. Look for this event twice each month. If you want some adult beverages, feel free to BYOB. Check the website to see who the guests of honor will be for each performance. The event is free, but you’ll have to reserve a spot by calling East Side story ahead of time. 1701 Fatherland St., Suite A, 615-915-1808

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OMG, DOGS!

East C.A.N. Monthly Adoption Event 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., first Saturday of every month throughout the summer, OMG Cute shop, cute dogs, maybe even cute humans — this event is doggone adorable. East C.A.N. will be hosting a monthly adoption event at OMG throughout the summer, with precious adoptable pups on-site in search of their fur-ever home. You can buy the vintage Justin boots you’ve been eying and find a fur nugget to chew them up in one stop. Help support both of these great East Nashville staples. Even if you’re not looking to adopt, who can resist giving a pooch a good head scratching? 3701B Gallatin Pike

‘EDUTAINING’ THE EAST SIDE

Mr.Bond and the Science Guys Science Shows

Locations and times vary

Mr. Bond and his crew are here to remind you that science IS fun. The East Side has its very own Bill Nye of sorts. Mr. Bond is back again, touring around East Nasty, pushing his own scientific agenda in a fun, new way. He calls it “Edutaining” — educating and entertaining. He’s hosting a monthly show at different venues across the East Side to raise funds for each individual location he has chosen. For the summer, the science guys have put together some special summer reading programs. While the shows are technically free, attendees are encouraged to make donations to the charity of the month. The theory of gravity will pull you right into these shows. See the locations of the performances below. 10 a.m. Sat. May 2: Pavilion East for East CAN Summer Reading Programs 3:30 p.m. Tues. May 19: East Branch Library 3 p.m. Tues. June 9, Madison Branch Library 11 a.m. Sat. June 20, Inglewood Library Shelby Bottoms Events and Classes Check online to learn about more Shelby Bottoms events for the summer. Body Works Yoga: 10 to 11 a.m., Saturday, May 16 * Ages 18 up, registration required Celebrating a Century of Birds: all day, Saturday, May 9 *all ages, Spring Bird Hike beginning at 8:30 a.m. with events throughout the day Wet and Muddy: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, May 9 * All ages, registration required Storytime: 10 a.m., Saturday, May 16 *All ages, no registration required Nashville Bike Month Sunset Ride: 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 21 *All ages, registration required, approximately two-hour outing. East Nashville Tales: 12 to 3 p.m.,

EAST SIDE CALENDAR

Saturday, May 30 *All ages, no registration required Lazy Gardener’s Guide: 2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 6 *All ages, registration required Sunset Picking Party: 6:30 to 8 p.m., Friday, June 12 *All ages Papa Nature: 2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 20 *all ages, registration required Campout at the Nature Center: begins at 6 p.m., Saturday, June 27 and ends Sunday, June 28 at 9 a.m. *all ages, registration required

RECURRING ANSWER ME THIS Trivia Time!

8 p.m., each week, 3 Crow Bar, Edley’s East, Drifter’s, Edgefield, Lipstick Lounge East Siders, if you’re one of the sharper tools in the shed (or not, it’s no matter to us) stop by one of the East Side locales to test your wits at trivia. They play a few rounds, with different categories for each question. There might even be some prizes for top scoring teams, but remember: Nobody likes a sore loser. Monday at Drifter’s, Tuesday at Edley’s BBQ East, Edgefield Sports Bar and Grill, and Lipstick Lounge (7:30 p.m.) Thursday at 3 Crow Bar

SING US A SONG

M.A.S.S. (Mutual Admiration Society of Songwriters)

7 to 10 p.m., every other Sunday, Mad Donna’s

Join Mad Donna’s for their night dedicated to all you songwriters out there (which is most of Nashville, right?). The first half of the night is dedicated to a singer/songwriter set, with an open mic at the end of the night. Check the sweet drink specials out, too. 1313 Woodland St.

HIP-HOP AT THE SPOT The Boom Bap

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

Once a month, The 5 Spot brings the beats and you bring the moves. Think of it as a hiphop roundtable. A mess of DJs — resident hosts and guests — spin their favorite tracks, rotating throughout the night. Let their records bring the ruckus to you. This soiree was so popular it’s spread to other cities, but you can catch it where it started here in East Nashville. 1006 Forrest Ave., 615-650-9333

EAST ROOM HAS JOKES Spiffy Squirrel Sundays

6 p.m., Sundays, The East Room

The East Room is making a name for itself in Nashville’s comedy scene in part through Spiffy Squirrel Sundays, started up by The East Room head honcho Ben Jones through NashvilleStandUp.com. Hosted by local comedian Chad Riden, the shows bring in an array of national and local funny guys and gals, and it’s quickly become one of the best places in town for up-and-coming comics to flex their funny bones. If you’re looking for a laugh, check it out. Five bucks gets you in the door. They usually have some music planned for post-laughs, so stick around to see the bands. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137

STOP, SHOP, AND SWAP FOR THE SONGSTERS

Nashville’s Musicians Swap Meet

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

If you’re among the sea of musicians and songwriters in Nashville, you might want to drop in on the monthly Musicians Swap Meet at The Building in 5 Points. The musically inclined gather to buy, sell, and trade their gear, and 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 musicrelated 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. 1008-C Woodland St.

BRING IT TO THE TABLE

Community Hour at Lockeland Table

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

Lockeland Table is cooking up family-friendly afternoons to help you break out of the house or away from that desk for a couple of hours. Throughout the week, they host a community happy hour that includes a special snack and drink menu, as well as a menu just for the kiddies. A portion of all proceeds benefits Lockeland Design Center PTO, so you can feel good about giving back to your neighborhood while schmoozing with your fellow East Nashvillians. 1520 Woodland St., 615-228-4864.

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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

SHAKE A LEG Keep On Movin’

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

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

RINC, Y’ALL

Scott-Ellis School of Irish Dance

4:30 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 will have you dancing in the clover before you can say “leprechaun.” 1601 Eastland Ave., 615-300-4388

JAZZY BOTTOM FOR YOUR BUCK East Nashville Jazz Jam

7 to 9:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Fat Bottom Brewery

Q: What’s better than a craft beer and a tasty meal? A: Cheap craft beer and a tasty meal. Q: What’s even better than cheap craft beer and a tasty meal? A: Cheap craft beer, a tasty meal, and a jazz jam. Fat Bottom Brewery just added a little soul to their $10 pint and entrée special. Each week they’re putting on a jazz jam hosted by local drummer Nicholas Wiles. It’s a chance to meet some other jazz cats and play your poison. Peruse their menu and beer garden and pick a brew; they’ve got plenty of options for the seasoned beer drinker, and they’re always kegging fresh batches and pouring cold ones. 900 Main St.

DRAG B-I-N-G-O WAS HIS NAME-O Drag Bingo

8 to 11 p.m., Tuesdays, Mad Donnas

Drop by Mad Donna’s Loft for the rotating cast of Drag Bingo callin’ queens. Each week, they’ll have prizes for the first to get to B-IN-G-O, plus drink specials. They’re calling you’re name — and possibly your number/ letter combo. 1313 Woodland St.

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NO LAUGH TRACK NEEDED

Ultimate Comedy Show by Corporate Juggernaut

8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, The East Room

Local jokesters have taken up residency in The East Room for Corporate Juggernaut, a weekly series of open-mic comedy shows put on by Gary Fletcher, Jane Borden, and Brandon Jazz. Brad Edwards is your host and his backing band is The Grey Grays. You can always expect to see fresh material and new talent. Doors and sign-up are at 8 p.m. Get out and help support Nashville’s growing comedy scene. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-3353137

SPINNING SMALL BATCHES Small Batch Wednesday and Vinyl Night

Wednesdays, Fat Bottom Brewery

Fat Bottom has plenty of things happening on Wednesday nights — reason enough to move your own bottom over there. Each Wednesday they have food specials and a small batch brew release. They’re called small batch for a reason, so get there early enough to sip one. They’ll also have special guest DJ’s every week spinning their own vinyl, but you can even bring your own records if you’ve got a special song request. It’s an excellent way to get through hump day. 900 Main St.

ST. LUCIA | MYA | THE VERONICAS CAZWELL, CHAD MICHAELS

SHELLY FAIRCHILD, SINCLAIR, HANK & CUPCAKE, INDIANA QUEEN, *repeat repeat, OBSCENITY, JAYDEN DIORE FIERCE, QDP, DJ RON, DJ REMEDY, DJ LADY B & MORE TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW AT NASHVILLEPRIDE.ORG

driven by

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TOAST TO MOTHER EARTH East Nashville Green Drinks

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

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

PUG, NOT SMUG Comedy Pug Hugs

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

Contrary to the name, you won’t see pugs taking the stage with their stand-up routine. You can, however, expect to see a fresh lineup each month full of local and national funny dudes and dudettes. Nashville comedians Paulina Cornbow and Mary Jay Berger host this pugnacious evening. Performers will show off their storytelling, stand-up, sketch, and musical comedy acts. If the $5 price tag and

laughs aren’t enough to make your tail wag, a portion of ticket sales will benefit MidSouth Pug Rescue. 1313 Woodland Ave.

SPITTING RHYMES

Token Notes Promotions Presents: Braggin’ Rights Open Mic Rap Battle

8 p.m., second Wednesday of every month, The Building

Find your flow and head over to The Building for a freestyle, open-mic rap battle sponsored by Token Notes Promotions and PaShun Music Branch. If you think you can lay down a few lines, bring all the bravado you’ve got to this battle. If you just want to see a good show, then come out to hear the rhymes. Ten buckos at the door. BYOB, as always, at The Building. 1008 C Woodland St.

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

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actual paint to canvas, it might be time to give it a try. Local artist John Cannon has been teaching intimate art classes at The Idea Hatchery since last year, and the small class size keeps the sessions low-pressure and allows for some one-on-one instruction. If you’re feeling like you could be the next Matisse with a little guidance, sign yourself up. 1108 C Woodland St., 615-496-1259

WALK, EAT, REPEAT Walk Eat Nashville

1:30 to 4:30 p.m., Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fridays, 5 Points

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

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YES, IT’S LADIES’ NIGHT “Dame’s Day” Happy Hour

6:30 to 10 p.m., Thursdays, Pomodoro East

It’s ladies’ night and the feeling’s right. Pomodoro East is making a happy hour just for the broads. Gals can grab a Genny Light for $2, bubbly for $3, wine for $4, and well-crafted Hangar 1 cocktails for $5. They’re calling all contessas and queens — go wet your whistle. 701 Porter Rd., 615-873-4978

PALAVER RECORDS POW WOW Palaver Thursday Showcase

9 p.m., Thursdays, fooBAR Too

Looking to hear some fresh new tunes without paying a pretty penny to do it? Head over to fooBAR on Thursday nights — East Nasty-based record label Palaver Records hosts a weekly showcase to promote both local and traveling acts. It gives them a chance to scout performers, bands an opportunity to promote themselves, and music lovers a cheap show to catch during the week (only $5 at the door). You can see an array of different genres from week to week, and the beer always flows easy at Foo Too with $3 Yazoo drafts. 2511 Gallatin Rd.

HONESTLY, OFFICER ... East Nashville Crime Prevention Meeting

11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Thursdays, Beyond the Edge

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

BLUEGRASS, BEER, BURGERS

Bluegrass Thursdays with Johnny Campbell & the Bluegrass Drifters

DON’T BE BASHFUL No Shame Theater

8 to 10 p.m., third Thursday of every month, The Building

Call it an open-mic night of theater. No Shame gives everyone a chance to show out their material in front of a live audience. The only rules are your act must be no more than 5 minutes long, totes original, and no harm to the audience in the process (physical or emotional, be nice guys). For every installment, 10 slots will be open with signups an hour prior to show time. If you just feel like watching, cough up $8 at the door and BYOB. For you local filmmakers, they also accept digital short submissions. If you’d like to screen something, check their FB page for more details. 1008C Woodland St.

YARNING IS CONTAGIOUS

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

To celebrate your post-Hump Day, head to Charlie Bob’s and bring your axe along. Watch North Second Street’s own Bluegrass Drifters kick things off, then join in on the pickin’ party afterward. Have a burger, buy a few beers, and add a little ’grass to your life. 1330 Dickerson Pike, 615-262-2244

Stitch-n-Bitch

6 to 8 p.m., Fridays, Nutmeg

We all know the quintessential image of an old woman knitting by the fire — so take that, add a few more stitchers and seamstresses, throw in some wine, and you’ve got yourself a Stitch-n-Bitch. It isn’t a new concept, but Nutmeg, a sewing and crafts supplies store in

May | June 2015

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR the Shoppes at Fatherland is. Welcome this spicy new edition to the neighborhood by dropping by one of these sessions. Bring your supplies, or better yet, buy some there. Get hooked. 1006 Fatherland #204.

ROCKIN’ AT THE SPOT Tim Carroll’s Friday Night Happy Hour 6 to 8:30, Fridays, 5 Spot

GUFFAW AND GET DOWN Luxury Prestige III

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

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

competition where the audience chooses the winner, kicks off the evening. (They were selected Nashville Scene’s 2014 winner for best sketch comedy night.) Each month features live sketch and scripted video competitions for prizes, plus a musical guest. Pay $3 to get your kicks. Starting at 10 p.m. after Luxury Prestige III, East Room has bands playing until 1 a.m. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137

Your local watering hole has rocker Tim Carroll’s band playing their way through happy hour every Friday. It’s a great Spot to grab a beer and hear some tunes to kick off the weekend — drinks are discounted and the music is free. 1006 Forrest Ave., 615-650-9333

SHAKE YOUR FOOBAR

Sparkle City 10 p.m., Friday, fooBAR Foo’s best dance party with their freshest DJs happens every Friday night. Spinmasters David Bermudez and Jonas Stein drop the needle on vinyl all night with the numbers that’ll make you shake what ’yer mama gave you. 2511 Gallatin Rd.

DO THE JITTERBUG Jump Session Swing Dance Classes

8 to 12 p.m., Fridays, DancEast

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

CAN’T FORCE A DANCE PARTY Queer Dance Party

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

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

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR

WHOSE EAST SIDE IS IT ANYWAY? Music City Improv

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

Music City Improv proudly puts on their high-energy show at The Building in East

Nashville each month. Every show is different, featuring a healthy mix of shortand long-form improv, plus live and video sketch comedy. Think of it as your own local Saturday Night Live on a Friday night. This gig tends to sell out, so buy your tickets in advance online. 1008 C. Woodland St.

THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING… First Time Stories

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

We all have our firsts, some better than others. Whether it’s a story about that first prom night when you weren’t crowned king or queen, your first concert, or maybe that first kiss, these stories are the stuff of the stage. Actors Bridge hosts an open mic night for which such soliloquies are made. They call it “storytelling karaoke,” and they only ask that you tell it straight from the heart in less than five minutes. Bring your first, and it won’t be the last time you make it out. Admission is $5 (bring a few extra bucks for the cash bar). 4304 Charlotte Ave.

TURN THIS ONE OVER Palaver Records Presents at Turn One

9 p.m., Saturdays, Turn One

Palaver Records is casting out its net a little further into the dives of East Nasty. They have their weekly showcase spot at fooBAR and now they’re moving down Gallatin with another evening of music at Turn One. Each Saturday, they will have three bands to get your grooves going. Tip: This haunt is cash only with games galore. Get your shuffleboard on, shoot some pool, or throw darts while you listen to the Palaver lineup. Bring enough dough for the $5 cover and your tab. 3208 Gallatin Pike.

STUMBLE ON

East Side Art Stumble

6 to 10 p.m., second Saturday of every month, multiple East Nashville galleries

We don’t art crawl on the Eastside, we art stumble. Every month, local galleries and studios will open their doors after hours to showcase some of the brilliant work they have gracing their walls. Participating venues stretch across East Nashville — KT Wolf Gallery, Red Arrow Gallery, Sawtooth Printshop, and Main Street Gallery, to name a few. You can expect to see a diverse, eclectic mix of art, affording the opportunity to meet local artists and support their work. Local retail stores are stumbling in as well, with some businesses participating in a “happy hour” from 5 to 7 p.m., offering discounted prices on their merchandise to fellow stumblers. Check out the happy hour deals in The Idea Hatchery.

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR

PARTY FOR A CAUSE LightsOut Events

7:30 p.m., fourth Saturday of every month, The East Room

The East Room is getting a little philanthropic. Every month, the venue hosts a show in partnership with LightsOut Events to benefit selected charities. Four bands

perform and proceeds go toward the cause of choice for the month. One of the events most notable benefactors is Notes for Notes, which provides musical instruments and lessons to children. (We know how much you love that, Music City). Come out, and listen to some local acts for a good cause. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137

WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME Desire/Desire/Desire

9 p.m., first Saturday of each month, The East Room

If you’re looking for a place to shake it out to some tunes that don’t include the latest and greatest from Billboard’s Top 100, The East Room fits the bill. They host a dance night solely dedicated to only the most dark and sensual tunes of years past. This party, created for “electric youth and dream warriors,” blends all types of dark pop, including (but not limited to) Italo disco, freestyle, synthpop, lazer soul, hi-NRG, and electro-hop. DJs Baron Von Birk, Grey People, and HYPE lay down the tracks for the evening. 2412 Gallatin Ave., 615-335-3137

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS & EVENTS

SHELBY HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

MAXWELL HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

Thursday 12:10 pm

A T H I R D B E D R O O M G E T S T H E G R E E N L I G H T, THANKS TO THE RIGHT LOAN FROM REGIONS.

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 month, Eastwood Christian Church 1601 Eastland Ave., www.eastwoodneighbors. org

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GREENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

EAST NASHVILLE CAUCUS

5 p.m. first Wednesday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct The East Nashville Caucus provides a public forum for East Nashville community leaders, representatives, council members, and neighbors. 936 E. Trinity 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

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FOOD • LAWN GAMES • MUSIC

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EAST SIDE CALENDAR networking coffee to discuss community updates and how to grow and improve the East Nashville area.

EAST HILL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

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. 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

CLEVELAND PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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

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.

HENMA

6 to 8 p.m., second Tuesday of every month, location varies HENMA is a cooperative formed among East Nashville business owners to promote collaboration with neighborhood associations and city government. Check the associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website to learn about the organization and where meetings will be held each month. www. eastnashville.org

DICKERSON ROAD MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION 4 p.m., last Thursday of every month, Metro Police East Precinct 936 E. Trinity Ln., wwwdickersonroadmerchants.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 May | June 2015

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for two more minutes, I wanted America to see my face.” Tom Petty is right: the waiting is the hardest part. “I just wanted them to get it over with, to say it. The impact wasn’t nearly as bad as the bracing for the accident when you see it coming.” Then it was over. Shelton crossed the stage,

THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM May | June 2015

hugged her, and whispered that he’d email his cell phone number. To date, he still hasn’t. Potenza packed her things, including some expensive show outfits she’d never buy and headed home.

“P

eter Fisher texted Elizabeth and asked if I could come play the Opry that night,” she marvels. She did, performing a Joplinchanneling “House of the Rising Sun.” There is a Kickstarter campaign picking up steam, music being made. My Turn may benefit from the experience. “There are all these emotions coming out.” Potenza and Crossman talk about working long days in Chicago, packing up gear, taking the bass amp on a dolly on the L. They remember driving all the way to Utah en route to the Strawberry Festival, suddenly cancelled for fires, and turning back home. It’s not an easy dream. Sarah Potenza and Ian Crossman don’t care. “I still have the first piece of paper from someone who requested one of our songs,” the guitarist explains. “You go back to that minute, to someone asking for ‘Who But A Fool’ — and it all makes sense.” “I just want to sing,” she picks up. “Sing your heart out to three people in a bar? Sure. But 20 million? That energy? When you’re wanting to sing, the joy is in pouring my heart out like that — because it proves something about what this music means. “I don’t own a house — or have kids. I drive a tour van I’ve put 300,000 miles on. At any time, I’ve got 300 dollars, 20,000 worth of debt from touring. I don’t have a 401(k), or any of those things people who say ‘Get a job’ have. But I am a singer — and I have this. “(The Voice) opened so many doors for me. But the truth is: I always had the keys, I just didn’t know how to use them. When you’re doing (the show), you’re on that level, a soul level — and there’s no room to fuck up, that’s when you learn this stuff.”

got a feeling in the pit of her stomach. Then she walked out and saw her father and husband sitting in the audience. Whatever had happened, she’d gotten this far. She scorched the moth-eaten AOR classic. Inside, she knew. “It’s why I took my glasses off. I figured if I’m going to be on the show

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fit the exact definition of volunteer since he is compensated, but it’s at a reduced rate from what he’s paid at other umpiring jobs. He believes that just being part of the league’s comeback is more valuable than any amount of money he might collect. “There’s nothing like coming home to a great program like they have here,” says Stewart, who has been umpiring since he was 15 and has been head umpire for the Jess Neely and East Nash leagues for five years. “They got some people who know what they’re doing, and they’ve really turned it around. It’s the best atmosphere, and it’s the most kids I’ve seen playing here in a long time. There’s lots of involvement.” While the idea of community is central to the league’s mission, and no child is denied an opportunity to play, participants insist it isn’t all singing around the campfire. “You want to have competitive baseball,” Vargason says. “It’s not good just to have junk.” And indeed, they’re playing some pretty good baseball in East Nashville and turning out some fine athletes. To find those diamonds in the rough and move them toward developing their talents, the league has been fortunate to enlist the help of some volunteer coaches with an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball. Someone like Pete Hawes, for instance. A Nashville resident for around 20 years, Hawes absolutely embraced baseball as a youngster growing up in Southern California. He played shortstop all four years at the legendary University High in Los Angeles, and eventually played in the instructional league as a rookie for the San Diego Padres. He knows baseball and can spot the raw talent that may not have otherwise been discovered were it not for the ENLL. “There’s an obvious need down here for instruction, and there’s an obvious affinity for it,” Hawes says. “People want to see it. A great example of that is in a kid named Malcom on my team. He first came to play with jeans on, no cleats or hat, and within five minutes, I could see that he’s probably my most talented, most athletic player. “When you’re around the more established areas (outlying suburbs), you just don’t see that. They’re all so well-groomed. Here, it’s really apparent that you’re giving a kid a chance.” The ENLL is still finding its footing in what could be described as its early innings, but Downs and others involved are optimistic it’s on the right path to attract more kids and community input. The league’s board is working with Metro to secure funding one day to add a field and make the complex a quad that becomes a centerpiece. “Our ultimate goal is to create the best small program in the state of Tennessee,” Downs says. “We can’t compete with Murfreesboro because they have 15 fields. We have three. East Nashville has athletes. We’ve got parental support. We’re getting the proper coaching. And it’s taking a village to run it.” May | June 2015

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by almost every reviewer as a slice of musical autobiography. It’s an assumption that Hiatt finds amusing. “I love reading people’s takes on songs,” she says. “I had a feeling that song would get pinned as that, which is fine with me. I think it ties in some to that, but I was really questioning more about God and bigger picture stuff — where this character fits in universally. But people should interpret it the way they want. I don’t like to get into, ‘I wrote this to mean that.’ “I heard Bruce Springsteen say something along the lines of ‘the beauty of a song is that the meaning changes from person to person.’ So why take that away from people by spelling out how I wrote this exactly about that? I’ve done that, but I’m starting to lay back on it a little. A song can mean so many different things to different folks. I have some songs that I wrote when I was 24, and now that I’m 30, some of the meanings have changed for me.” Since its release, Royal Blue has received both positive notices and a few of the usual less-than-stellar reviews from Internet critics. It’s a common reaction that most artists face to their sophomore effort, especially for those looking to expand the direction followed on their debut. But as with the relationships she writes about, Hiatt has learned to accept the good with the bad. “You’re not supposed to read the reviews of your album,” she says. “But now we have Twitter that notifies you. And I get emails that say ‘you’ve been mentioned.’ How can I not click and look? I called my dad the other day in tears, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, don’t read them, just stop.’ But then I read the good ones, and it’s like ‘yay!’

Hiatt performing at Grimey’s for the the release of Royal Blue

“You have to believe in yourself more than anyone else,” she continues. “You have to believe in what you do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be doing it. In regards to the negative stuff, at least it’s making someone feel something, so I’ll take that.” Although Hiatt is still navigating her own road to success, one of the earliest lessons she learned from her father is the one she values the most. “The best advice he gave me is don’t try to be something else, just be you,” she says.

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“I always think of that every time I get frustrated with all the crap in the music industry. It’s pretty simple but straight-up advice.” It’s that advice that she’s carried with her all the way from that first “perfectly good guitar” that she defaced as a 12-year-old Pearl Jam fan. “Well, later down the road when I was in college, he got that guitar cleaned up for me,” she says. “It’s proof that even when you’re standing on your own, it’s a good thing to have your dad looking out for you.”

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East of NORMAL TOMMY WOMACK

Color it springtime — for now ...

pring is here. And thank God. Winter is as close as my male faculties get to understanding what pregnancy must feel like. By the time it’s almost done with, you’re at your breaking point. For God’s sake, enough already! Like birthing, winter saves its worst pain for last. Was it just a few short weeks ago when school was out for a week — for the second time — and the single-digit temps made you gasp when leaving the house, if you even left the house? Yes, I can look at my calendar and count backward. It wasn’t so long ago. But we made it through. (Push! Push!) And now everything is beautiful again. Spring is a celebration of color after a cold stark purgatory when everything looked like faded ‘70s film stock. Suddenly the world explodes in saturated hues like a photosynthetic flash mob. There is something reassuring about rampant greenery. It tells me that we haven’t yet fully gang-raped the planet and left it a bald heap of tectonic charcoal. In the South, we have those gorgeous light-purple trees and the winsome off-white ones. Now, for the purposes of writing this column, I could have easily found out what those trees are called, whether they’re cherry blossoms or dogwoods or rosebuds; but I don’t want to find out. There is something I cherish about just knowing them by their colors. That’s all they have to be to me — pretty and colorful — reassuring me with every year they come back to say hello. They don’t seek to know my name, and I don’t need to know

theirs. I do believe they have a consciousness, that they see us and hear us, and appreciate it when we talk to them (and I do). Maybe you can’t get a tree to do your taxes, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of intelligence there. A giant, century-old David Byrne with bark looking back at nature’s consistency, season after season; same as it ever was, same as it ever was. Now, there are drawbacks to all this lush and fecund Southern grandeur. For instance, until I moved to Tennessee, I had no idea that I was allergic to anything. I’d lived in Kentucky the first 29 years of my life and had never sneezed once, and then I moved here, to a place where you have to turn on your windshield wipers to get rid of the pollen; a place where little white wispy bits of fluff blow off trees and fill the air like you’re living in the middle of an antihistamine commercial. And it won’t be long before the sun’s demeanor goes from benevolence to malevolence, from giver of life to Satan writ large, beating us down with brain-boiling heat. And the humidity — don’t get me started. Let’s just call it what it is — steam. Soon enough, you’ll be wearing soupy air like a hooded bathrobe soaked in mayonnaise, walking outside and feeling like an unmade bed. That’s what we have to look forward to. But not quite yet. It’s not time for that just yet. It’s spring. Celebrate it. Live in its moment. Go on a picnic. Jog. Plant a garden. It won’t be long before you’ll be wearing a wicking shirt at Tomato Fest and schvitzing your nads off.

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

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PARTING SHOT

TURBO FRUITS

GRIMEY’S RECORD STORE DAY 2015 PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE CARDACIOTTO

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