STATE’S PARTNERSHIP WITH TURNING POINT USA RELIES ON POLITICAL PRESSURE
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From immigration enforcement to voucher expansion, the Republican supermajority is pushing for Tennessee to be the nation’s conservative leader
State’s Partnership With Turning Point
USA Relies on Political Pressure
Republican lawmakers’ agreement with the rightwing organization is not backed by legislation
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball Returns Feb. 4
The league wants to make Nashville a destination for pro women’s hoops BY COLE VILLENA
COVER PACKAGE: BACK TO THE HILL
Law Enforcement and Immigration
Republican supermajority’s law enforcement bills serve as vessels for immigration action
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
The State of State Leadership
Expect state lawmakers to jockey for leadership roles during this year’s session BY ELI MOTYCKA
Culture War Issues
State GOP aims at undermining gay marriage, removing discrimination protections and more BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Education
Vouchers are likely to once again dominate the education conversation this year on the hill BY JULIANNE AKERS
Health Care
Democrats target medical debt and maternal and infant mortality, Republicans seek to tighten regulations on AI health care BY HANNAH HERNER
Budget
Is Tennessee’s budget tight? It depends who you ask. BY EMILY R. WEST
Sudan Archives, WXNA January Showcase, Friendship, Bootsy Collins 50th Year Celebration and more FOOD AND DRINK
Date Night: Woodland Wine Merchant, Aloha Fish Company and AVO
Take a BYOB sushi class on the West Side, then walk to drinks and dessert BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
BOOKS
Elevation
With Vigil, George Saunders revisits the fraught relationship between life and death BY SARA BETH WEST; CHAPTER16.ORG
CULTURE
Sensitive Kid
Talking to comic Sheng Wang about plants and childhood ahead of his show at the Ryman BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
Original Recipe
OG Basement co-owners Mike Grimes and Dave Brown prepare to celebrate 21 remarkable years of their indie music venue BY DARYL SANDERS
Into Gold
Bre Kennedy finds the best parts of herself in The Alchemist BY GRACE BRASWELL
FILM
The 2025 Jim Ridley Film Poll
Dedicated to the Scene’s longtime critic and editor, our annual poll asks cinephiles, critics and industry insiders about 2025 in film COMPILED BY JASON SHAWHAN
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD
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Apple Podcasts! Betsy Phillips and Braden Gall dive into Nashville culture, music, news, history and plenty of hilarity. Head to nashvillescene.com/podcast to listen now. Pet First Aid Crossroads campus will host a Pet First Aid + CPR class for pet parents on Feb.
In my 35+ years living and working in Nashville, I’ve navigated the twists, turns and now expansive growth of this wonderful place. Let me help you make the best choices in your biggest investment — real estate. I’m so grateful for my clients’ great reviews, repeat business and continued referrals. I’d love the opportunity to help make your Real Estate Goals a reality!
to now be with Onward
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Kicking off the Frist’s 25th-anniversary year, In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century highlights the central role women have played—and continue to play—in Nashville’s vibrant visual-arts community. The exhibition consists of nearly 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles and installations by 28 Nashvillebased artists and recognizes the impact women have made on the city’s creative landscape for decades.
Republican lawmakers’ agreement with the right-wing organization is not backed by legislation BY
TENNESSEE’S BACKING OF Turning Point USA Club America chapters in public schools is not supported by legislation, but rather the threat of political pressure.
On Dec. 12, Republican leaders including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and the state’s Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson attended an event announcing a partnership with Turning Point USA, a right-wing advocacy group co-founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012. The state’s partnership with the group was formed, according to Johnson, “with a shared goal of establishing Turning Point chapters at every high school, every college.”
On Jan. 22, TPUSA senior director Josh Thifault spoke to around 100 Williamson County Republicans at Franklin’s Temple Hills Country Club, where he boasted about a new partnership with the Indiana state government in addition to partnerships with Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida.
“There are a lot more conservative high schoolers than there are ones who show up at Turning Point meetings, and they feel like this is something that might hurt [their] future,” Thifault told Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene. “I want to remove that stigma.”
“We need to create a culture that values free speech so that these high schools can become free marketplaces of ideas,” said Thifault. “I think that’s how everyone wins, and I think that actually will reduce a lot of conflict when you can freely talk about what you believe, with your faculty members, with your fellow students, then you don’t secretly hate people because you think they’re against you. … When free speech wins, students win, and you have an open environment for learning.”
Thifault told attendees that finding staff sponsors at schools in “liberal” areas is “the number one thing that keeps Turning Point from growing.”
“It’s actually a considerable administrative hurdle to find a staff sponsor in very liberal areas, liberal states, but also liberal areas of red states like inner-city Nashville, inner-city Memphis,” he said. “Because if you’re the coach or the teacher or the administrator who’s putting your name down as the sponsor of your Club America, I mean, you’re probably not going to get promoted. You might get fired. So we need to give these people some sort of legal backing.”
During the Dec. 12 partnership announcement, Johnson said that any schoolteacher, administrator or staff member “who attempts to impede the organization or the establishment of these chapters, or attempts to stifle the voice of any young conservative in the state of Tennessee” would “face serious consequences, including
HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
possible legal action.”
But it appears the threat is largely toothless, as Johnson has said the state’s push for Club America chapters does not have any legislation attached to it.
“It’s a handshake statement of intent,” Johnson told Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene on Dec. 21. “There’s no money. There’s no legislation. I know the left is going crazy, but it’s no different than a chess club. It’s no different than Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or drama club or something. If a group of students wish to form a chapter, they go through the oral process, and then they can have it.”
“Ultimately, that would be up to the school board to hopefully take appropriate action to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Johnson. “I hope it never is an issue, but if someone does try to thwart the efforts of a group that’s following all the other rules to start an organization, then we’ll hope the [school] district takes appropriate action. If not, then we’ll pursue something.”
When asked to clarify on Jan. 5, Johnson said he wouldn’t assert political pressure on a school or school board, but was confident that some Tennesseans would push back if the establishment of a Club America chapter was impeded in their local schools.
“Williamson County already has Club America chapters,” said Johnson. “It hasn’t been an issue here, and I really applaud our school administration and our school board for being open to any group that follows rules. So I’m very proud of Williamson County, and I don’t expect any problems anywhere else in this state, but if there are, then we’re gonna have to have a conversation.”
Thifault told the Williamson Scene that TPUSA could push for future supportive state legislation “if it’s needed.” He also told the crowd at last week’s event that his organization is
In the wake of severe winter weather, Mayor Freddie O’Connell and several Metro officials addressed the media Sunday afternoon, confirming that more than 215,000 customers were without power. By late Monday morning, that number had lowered to 175,000, with the mayor telling reporters the city had made “impressive progress.” Crews were still restoring power and roads as the Scene went to press this week. See the latest updates at nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind
actively working to strengthen the power of the partnership with the help of lawyer Kelly Shackelford, the president and chief executive officer of the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, to “draft the language for executive orders for these governors to sign that actually lock in some of these promises that are made at the press conferences.”
First Liberty Institute describes itself as being “dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans.” Thifault declined to go into further detail about the proposed executive orders. A request for comment from the Scene was not returned by Gov. Bill Lee’s office in time for publication.
Charlie Kirk’s Sept. 10 killing sparked vigils across the country, as well as the firings of several people in state and university roles who criticized Kirk and his political views. Among those was an Austin Peay State University professor who was fired and then reinstated, receiving a $500,000 legal settlement. Both the Tennessee House of Representatives and Senate have approved a Republican-sponsored resolution memorializing Kirk, with legislators set to debate a bill that would annually recognize Sept. 10 as “Charlie Kirk Day.”
TPUSA partnerships in public schools mark not just another battle in America’s culture war, but an opportunity for the conservative group to mobilize young and future voters ahead of a critical midterm election.
“We have at this point an active, vibrant chapter on almost every midsize major college in all 50 states, and pretty soon, I think we’re going to hit the 4,000 mark on chartered Club America high school chapters,” Thifault said. “Pair that with an enormous voter registration effort, and you’ve just created a machine to activate and track, and then using the Turning Point Action staff, drive out to vote a lot of young America.” ▼
Vanderbilt University will take a major first step in February as it seeks to redevelop 40 acres off West End for a new “innovation neighborhood.” At a community meeting last week about the project’s potential impact on area traffic, university representatives shared that they plan to bring a broad rezoning in front of the Metro Planning Commission next month, paving the way for 20 years of development. The school’s plan, if approved, could allow Vanderbilt to build up to 35 stories in some areas, like the corner of West End and Natchez Trace — currently a Wendy’s. In the 1970s, Vanderbilt claimed much of this land by litigating a controversial application of eminent domain over residents’ opposition.
In the wake of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killing another American citizen in Minneapolis last weekend, Scene opinion columnist Betsy Phillips directs her latest installment toward ICE officers themselves. “When you look back at history or around at the current state of the world, what makes you so sure that you will also be protected? Do you really look at yourself and the elites who are pushing the policies you’re enforcing and think you’re on the same team?”
The league wants to make Nashville a destination for pro women’s hoops
BY COLE VILLENA
ATHLETES UNLIMITED PRO BASKETBALL is back in Nashville. The women’s league returns Wednesday, Feb. 4, and players and league leaders are hoping to follow up on a strong inaugural season at Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
“We knew when we decided that we wanted to come here that this is a place rich with basketball history,” says Megan Perry, AU’s vice president of basketball. “Professional women’s basketball belongs in the state of Tennessee, for sure, and within Nashville, absolutely.”
Athletes Unlimited landed in Nashville in 2025 during an unprecedented wave of interest in women’s sports, but the city has shown that this new interest wasn’t just a blip. Beloved local lesbian bar Lipstick Lounge opened women’s-sports-focused bar Chapstick in September, and the Vanderbilt Commodores have torn through competition throughout the 2025-26 season. The city even made a pitch for a WNBA expansion franchise in spring 2025. (The Tennessee Summitt, which would have honored Vols coaching legend Pat Summitt, lost out to bids from Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.)
For its part, AU set records in attendance, viewership and merch sales during its first year in Music City. Perry was especially encouraged by strong social media growth.
“For almost 30 years, we’ve known that there’s a product, and now we have numbers to back it up through social engagement,” says Perry. “There’s no barrier to women’s sports anymore. It’s not broadcast media executives validating or not validating the product. Fans are able to validate it.”
AU has leveled up their own product with their strongest roster since launching in 2022. Twenty-seven of the 40 competitors are also WNBA players, including Kia Nurse, Aerial Powers, Lexie Brown, Bria Hartley, Shey Peddy, Izzy Harrison and Alysha Clark. Harrison and Clark are Nashville natives, and they’ll be joined by Izzy’s sister, Lipscomb University alum Dorie Harrison. Then there are the newcomers, including Te-Hina Paopao, Kaitlyn Chen and Aneesah Morrow. Also new to AU this year: Tina Charles, the hall-of-famer and all-time WNBA leader in rebounds and field goals made.
“I’m excited to play against the young’uns, you know?” says Shey Peddy, the 2025 AU Defensive Player of the Year. “Me and PaoPao have got a little competitive thing going on right now. … I’m excited to play with [the rookies], I’m excited to play against them.”
Bria Hartley, another second-year AU player, first visited Nashville when her UConn Huskies won an NCAA title at Bridgestone Arena in 2014. Like Peddy and so many other women’s hoopers,
she spent years playing basketball overseas to supplement income from the WNBA. It’s a common experience, especially since a WNBA season is just half as long as an NBA season.
“Besides being pregnant with my child, I did basically seven years straight,” Hartley says of international play. “Sometimes I was coming late from overseas into W games, or you’re playing in the WNBA Finals and then you have seven to 10 days to get overseas.”
With the launch of AU in 2022 and Miami-based Unrivaled in 2025, players now have an option to play domestically year-round. And extra income isn’t the only benefit.
“The best thing is that you can have your family come and visit you,” says Peddy. She goes on to say: “To have that option to make extra money on the side outside of the league and not have to just depend on the W contract, I love it. I love that Unrivaled’s doing their thing in Miami, and I love that we’re growing in Nashville.”
Athletes Unlimited has an unorthodox format where rosters rotate through a weekly schoolyard draft, and a player is crowned champion rather than a team. This emphasis on efficient individual play allows players to set their own goals for the season.
Hartley used the 2025 AU season to find her feet and rediscover the joy of playing following an injury. She was one of several players to turn a strong AU season into additional WNBA opportunities in 2025, with Hartley setting a career high in starts. Peddy became a key late-season contributor to the Indiana Fever, and she says her time playing with AU’s constantly shifting rosters helped her make an immediate impact among new teammates.
“I think they really structure it for you to come and get what you need,” says Hartley. “The way I played here, I don’t know if I’ve been in situations, post-injury in the last few years, where I was able to play that freely.”
League leaders expect player enthusiasm to help fuel another exciting season for fans.
“We had such a great experience last year that this year, we’re looking to carry that momentum forward,” says Perry. “We know that Nashville is a destination, and it is becoming that for professional women’s basketball as well.” ▼
GAME DAYS ON WEDNESDAYS, FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS FEB. 4-26; FINALE ON SUNDAY, MARCH 1
ON ESPN, WNBA APP, TENNESSEE
This fringed buckskin jacket was worn by musician and producer Mickey Buckins on the cover of the Fame Gang’s 1969 album Solid Gold from Muscle Shoals.
From the exhibit Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising
From immigration enforcement to voucher expansion, the Republican supermajority is pushing for Tennessee to be the nation’s conservative leader
The 2026 session of the 114th Tennessee General Assembly had been gaveled in for little more than a week when fears of a looming winter storm led both the state House and the state Senate to cancel much of their planned business for the final week of January. Even so, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority had already made their priorities clear.
So what’s top-of-mind for the GOP, whose party members outnumber the Democrats more than 3-to-1 in both chambers of the legislature? For starters, it’s likely that they’ll attempt to expand Gov. Bill Lee’s school-voucher program, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. Republicans have also shown that they want to impose new penalties and expand law enforcement powers related to immigration, with a few dozen immigration-related pieces of legislation already filed. Meanwhile, the culture war rages on, with state Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) having filed a number of bills that target the state’s LGBTQ community — not to mention a couple of pieces of legislation named for recently assassinated right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk.
Technically, the Tennessee Constitution’s sole requirement of the state’s two legislative chambers is that they balance the government’s annual budget, so amid all the customary bickering and bureaucracy, they’ll more than likely get that done. We can expect to see Republicans’ budgetary priorities laid out when Gov. Lee delivers his State of the State address on Feb. 2 — the final State of the State from the term-limited governor.
In this week’s issue, we outline what Tennesseans can expect to see from the Tennessee General Assembly in 2026, from leadership jockeying and culture-war squabbling to budgetary allocations and health care legislation. Read on for more.
—D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Republican supermajority’s law enforcement bills serve as vessels for immigration action
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
IMMIGRATION IS IN The spotlight during this legislative session, with more than 40 immigration-related bills having been filed by the 114th Tennessee General Assembly as of this writing. Many of those bills aim to impose new criminal penalties or expand law enforcement powers related to immigration.
On Jan. 15, the state’s Republican leadership announced a sweeping set of bills formed in partnership with Stephen Miller, who works as President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser. Miller has overseen the federal government’s nationwide immigration crackdown. The proposed legislation includes: efforts to make it illegal to be in Tennessee if a final deportation order has been issued; requiring driver’s license tests to be administered only in English; prohibiting undocumented people from obtaining license plates; barring out-of-state commercial driver’s licenses for undocumented people who are driving semi-trucks; a mandatory verification of all new hires by state and local governments; proof of U.S. citizenship in order to obtain professional licenses or public benefits; and court cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as reporting requirements for state government interactions with undocumented immigrants.
For their part, though vastly outnumbered in
both the House and Senate and unlikely to pass much legislation of their own, the state’s Democrats are pushing back. At a press conference on Jan. 20, the Tennessee Progressive Caucus — which includes Democratic state Reps. Gloria Johnson, Shaundelle Brooks, Justin Jones, Gabby Salinas, Jason Powell and Justin Pearson — offered up a suite of bills aimed at diminishing ICE’s power in the state. Among those is House Bill 1442 — or the “Stop American Gestapo Act” — which was introduced by Jones (D-Nashville) in June and would prohibit law enforcement agents from wearing a “mask, face covering, or personal disguise while interacting with the public in the performance of the law enforcement officer’s official duties.”
Other notable law enforcement and criminal justice bills have also been filed — including the following, which aim to increase penalties for specific existing crimes.
Senate Bill 1698/House Bill 1441 would increase the penalty for criminal impersonation of a law enforcement officer if someone impersonating an officer is committing or attempting to commit a violent crime.
HB 1444/SB 1475 would increase the penalty for aggravated cruelty to animals, and add that offense as one that could see a juvenile defendant classified as a serious youthful offender by a court.
STATE REP. JUSTIN JONES ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION
SB 1660 would increase the penalty for committing arson at a “pregnancy resource center.”
A pregnancy resource center is defined as a “nonprofit organization that provides care and resources to assist women and families facing difficult or unexpected pregnancies, including providing counseling, financial assistance, food, clothing, and medical assistance to pregnant women and reimbursing social service providers who prepare adoptions throughout the state for services and programs targeting at-risk women and families with immediate and ongoing needs related to unexpected pregnancy.”
HB 1521/SB 1736 would increase the penalty for leaving the scene of a fatal traffic accident.
HB 1455/SB 1493 attempts to tackle a growing issue with artificial intelligence programs and self-harm by making it a class-A felony to “knowingly [train] artificial intelligence to encourage the act of suicide or criminal homicide, or act in specific manners, including developing an emotional relationship with an individual or simulating a human being, including in appearance,
Expect state lawmakers to jockey for leadership roles during this year’s session BY ELI MOTYCKA
REPUBLICANS’ FIRM GRIP on the Tennessee General Assembly has converted much of its politics into theater. The GOP’s complete control over committees and floor votes means legislative priorities, viable bills and even the basic flow of discussion can largely be determined before any gavels strike. Interesting politics happen when an internal wedge issue — like last year’s voucher opposition from Republican reps worried about rural public schools — divides enough of the party to force backroom dealmaking. In front of the cameras, members often dabble in the performing arts rather than good-faith debate, with key votes largely locked up by caucus leadership. The futility and frustration of being a Democrat in the state legislature has many trying to get out.
Nashville’s Democratic Reps. Bo Mitchell, Vincent Dixie and Aftyn Behn jumped at the surprise chance to vie for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a gerrymandered Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that more than one candidate privately acknowledged as a fool’s errand during the compressed campaign season. State Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis announced his own campaign to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep.
Steve Cohen in October, aiming for the only federal seat held by a Democrat in Tennessee. State Sens. Heidi Campbell and Jeff Yarbro tried for Nashville mayor in 2023, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville tried for U.S. Senate in 2024, and state Rep. Caleb Hemmer — a promising up-and-comer just four years ago — announced his own retirement from the chamber in November after two terms.
Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, who ran for Memphis mayor in 2023, and her Assistant Minority Leader Harold Love Jr. steer Democrats in the lower chamber, while Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari and Assistant Minority Leader London Lamar lead the Senate’s six Democrats. The party is likely still navigating fundamental internal debates as Democrats’ youthful stars Pearson, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Gabby Salinas lead the Tennessee Progressive Caucus. That caucus debuted this year without high-profile progressive Behn, who tells the Scene she was busy with legislative programming during the group’s first press conference earlier this month.
State House Speaker Cameron Sexton has wielded conservatives’ power in the General Assembly since succeeding scandal-ridden Glen
Casada (who will avoid prison time thanks to a pardon from President Trump) in 2019. Sexton has focused on serving Gov. Bill Lee as a loyal lieutenant, largely avoiding political controversy — though reporting has raised questions about decision-making in his personal life, as the Crossville representative was discovered to own a Nashville residence in 2023. In the fall, a Briley Parkway altercation between a Metro Nashville Police Department officer and Sexton’s state-trooper escort indicated that the speaker enjoys the trappings of a high political perch. Messier floor speeches and bills have fallen to House Majority Leader William Lamberth, an ambitious second-in-command who seems to enjoy provoking Democrats and waging culture war. Fellow Republican Reps. Gino Bulso, Lee Reeves and Jody Barrett all ran campaigns for U.S. Congress in the fall, ultimately losing to Matt Van Epps in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of East Tennessee presides over the sleepier state Senate. McNally will mark 40 years — 10 of them as the Senate’s leader — in 2027. Not even emergency heart surgery, which McNally endured in Nashville during the 2023 legislative session, kept him off the dais for
voice, or other mannerisms.”
SB 1588/HB 1504 would create the “Capitol Hill protection zone around the state Capitol grounds and surrounding state government buildings, including the grounds and roads immediately surrounding such buildings,” and would see an increase in the presence of law enforcement officers in and around the Capitol.
In a Jan. 15 press conference, bill sponsor and House Majority Leader William Lamberth insisted that the proposal has nothing to do with countering protesters who frequent Capitol Hill.
HB 2036, introduced by Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville), would prohibit anyone who is not a natural-born citizen of the United States or who holds a dual citizenship from qualifying as a candidate in a primary election for federal office in Tennessee. Garrett argues in a press release that “being born in the United States should be a basic qualification” to holding federal office, and that this “ensures Tennessee is represented by leaders with an unquestioned allegiance to our nation.” ▼
long. His long career was threatened more directly by seemingly flirtatious comments on a young man’s Instagram posts, which provoked a failed no-confidence vote from colleagues and mocking at the national level. Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Williamson County and Deputy Speaker John Stevens are two (relatively) younger colleagues in chamber leadership who may be interested in taking his gavel.
Bigger seats loom beyond the Capitol that may influence party dynamics this spring. Goodlettsville’s Rep. Johnny Garrett, the Republicans’ House whip, is running (and fundraising for) a campaign to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. John Rose in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. Rose faces U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in the Republican primary for Tennessee governor, and the party split might tempt some elected officials to take a side. If she wins the gubernatorial race (and she’s expected to), before scheduling a special election for her former Senate seat, Blackburn would appoint a successor — immediately vaulting one lucky Republican into the political stratosphere. Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs is the consensus pick, one Republican state representative tells the Scene, though any Republican will likely take the chance to curry favor with Blackburn as the veteran campaigner aims for the governor’s mansion. ▼
State GOP aims at undermining gay marriage, removing discrimination protections and more
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
The return of the 114th Tennessee General Assembly sees the continuation of America’s culture war. This time, the state’s Republican supermajority is emboldened after the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term — and his self-described campaign of “retribution.”
On Jan. 13, the first day of the state’s legislative session, the first bill passed in the House was House Bill 884. Filed in 2025, the legislation expands the state’s definition of an “adult-oriented establishment” to include commercial businesses, with the bill now working its way through Senate committees.
State Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), a self-described “culture warrior,” has once again filed several anti-LGBTQ bills. Among those is HB 1473, which openly aims to circumvent the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the 2015 U.S Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage. Bulso’s bill “prohibits the board of professional responsibility from disciplining or sanctioning an attorney for declining to officiate a marriage between two persons of the same sex.” HB 1742, or the “Banning Bostock Act,” would remove prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, referencing the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County Bulso previously made national headlines when he sponsored a bill designed to effectively ban Pride flags from schools, though it died on the Senate floor last year. He pledged to bring the bill back this session, but has instead offered
a new bill — HB 1474, or the “No Pride Flag or Month Act,” which reads that “an LGBTQ flag or emblem must not be displayed or maintained on property owned by this state or a political subdivision of this state,” effectively expanding the proposed ban beyond just schools.
The Brentwood lawyer says he will also push for the passage of his 2025 bill HB 26 — the “Unborn Child Protection Act of 2025” — which would see civil penalties for the use of abortion pills that are sent through the mail and result in “the death of an unborn child.” HB 1491, or the “Protecting Religious Liberty and Expression in Public Schools Act,” is another Bulso bill. The legislation aims to “put voluntary prayer back in public schools” and “teach the Bible as history and literature” and has already seen pushback from some Williamson County Schools Board members.
Bulso is also sponsoring HB 1476, or “The Charlie Kirk Act,” which he says “requires our public institutions to adopt a statement of academic freedom.” “It requires them to enforce it,” says Bulso, “and it requires discipline in the event that we have violence that’s taken against invited speakers or even someone trying to drown them out and not allow them to speak.” He also seeks to see the state designate Sept. 10 as Charlie Kirk Day. Both bills are named after the rightwing political activist who was assassinated last year in Utah. On Jan. 15, the House quickly passed a resolution honoring Kirk, and the state has partnered with Kirk’s political organization Turning Point USA to establish Club America
chapters — which will push Republican talking points — in “every high school, every college” in the state.
But Bulso is not alone when it comes to pushing culture war legislation. SB 1664/HB 1665 would prohibit health care providers from “asking certain listed gender-related questions to a minor unless a parent is physically present and fully informed and provides written consent to such questions and the questions are directly related to the diagnosis or treatment of a specific medical or psychological condition currently being evaluated.” That legislation is sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose (R-Tipton) and Rep. Aron Maberry (R-Clarksville), who are also sponsoring SB 1665/ HB 1666 — which would include “honorifics” in the “prohibition on requiring a student, teacher, employee, or contractor to use or provide a person’s preferred name or pronoun.”
Vouchers are likely to once again dominate the education conversation this year on the hill
BY JULIANNE AKERS
THE CREATION OF a statewide school voucher program, largely pushed for by Gov. Bill Lee during a special session, became one of the defining moments of last year’s legislative session. The matter may soon come before lawmakers once again as Republicans eye an expansion of the program and Democrats push for accountability. When the so-called Education Freedom Scholarship program passed in 2025, it created 20,000 vouchers for students, each worth a little more than $7,000 to cover private school tuition and additional education-related expenses. Under the current program, half of the vouchers are awarded based on financial need, with the other half made available to students regardless of family income.
Lee has said he wants to expand the number of vouchers offered, though the exact amount is not yet known. With a potentially tight budget year looming, voucher expansion could mean costs have to be cut elsewhere. As reported by Tennessee Lookout, some rural Republican lawmakers
have also expressed opposition to expanding the program due to the fiscal note. Rural areas in Tennessee also typically have fewer private schools than the state’s more populous cities.
As of this writing, more than 50,000 applications have been received for the program ahead of the 2026-27 school year. The governor’s office has touted the number as an example of high interest in the program.
State Democrats have long opposed vouchers, saying they take money from public schools, adding that private schools have the power to deny admission to students based on disabilities and other factors. Lack of transparency on who exactly is benefiting from vouchers has also become a concern, and some lawmakers are working on legislation to increase oversight.
State Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) tells the Scene he intends to sponsor legislation requiring the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury to audit the voucher program, reviewing student eligibility, deposits and expenditures and whether the
funds are used for intended purposes. Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) are pushing transparency legislation filed last year (Senate Bill 1338/House Bill 1052) that would require the comptroller’s office to create an annual report of information about students participating in the voucher program. The report would then be submitted to the General Assembly for review. Proposed Republican-sponsored legislation (SB 1643/HB1544) would require the Tennessee Department of Education to submit an annual report on the program to the legislature. Outside of vouchers, several controversial education bills from last year’s session could make their way back into lawmakers’ discussions this year. One bill in particular (HB 793/SB 836), sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), would prohibit undocumented students from attending public schools. An alternate version of the bill would charge public school students tuition if they can’t prove their citizenship status. The bill passed in the
HB 1271/SB 936, meanwhile, “declares that the policy of this state is that there are only two sexes, a biological male and a biological female.” SB 2118, introduced by Sen. Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun), would prohibit TennCare coverage for medical procedures “for the purpose of enabling the individual to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the individual’s sex, or treat purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the individual’s sex and asserted identity.” Another bill, SB 2045, introduced by Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), would require a quarterly report to be filed with the state’s department of health on the “number and type of disciplinary actions taken against a health care provider for knowingly performing or offering to perform on a minor, or administering or offering to administer to a minor, a prohibited medical procedure.” ▼
Senate but never made it to the House floor for discussion, with Lamberth saying it was stalled while he awaited information from the U.S. Department of Education regarding funding concerns. At a press conference on Jan. 15, Lamberth said the bill was still alive. At that same press conference, Republican lawmakers said they want to verify the immigration status of all public school students in Tennessee.
Also revived from last year’s session is an attempt to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools. HB 662/SB 714 would strip a large portion of control from the district’s school board and create a state-appointed oversight board. The body, made up of Shelby County residents, would wield a majority of the power over the school system’s operations, which include its budget and its contract with the district superintendent. State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) has said the legislation comes as a method to improve academic performance in the district, though Democrats call it an overstep. ▼
Democrats target medical debt and maternal and infant mortality, Republicans seek to tighten regulations on AI health care
BY HANNAH HERNER
WITH THE STATE having nearly completely banned abortion, legislation related to abortion seems to largely be a thing of the past.
However, Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) and Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) have introduced House Bill 1528/Senate Bill 1743, which posits that life begins at conception — at least in wrongful death claims. Bills seeking to further limit access to abortion pills (which are already illegal in Tennessee, though the state cannot control mail between states) could be on the horizon too. House Republicans have also listed regulating the use of artificial intelligence in health care as one of their legislative priorities this year.
SB 1469/HB 1723 from Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah) and Rep. Ron Travis (R-Dayton) appears to target family influencers, requiring a parent to set aside a portion of money earned from videos featuring their child for the child. The legislation would also allow the minor to request deletion of such content once they reach adulthood.
Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) told the Scene in August that she plans to file bills related to simplifying the process for child care center regulation. Meanwhile, her colleagues Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) and Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) have introduced legislation (HB 156/SB 36) that seeks to exempt child care agencies from paying business tax. Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) has introduced SB 1598, which would prohibit medical debt from being shared with credit reporting agencies. More than 12 percent of Tennesseans have medical debt, making it the seventh-highest rate in the nation. Lamar has also revived a bill designed to keep people under 18 continuously enrolled in TennCare, rather than having
Is Tennessee’s budget tight? It depends who you ask.
BY EMILY R. WEST
CRAFTING AND PASSING Tennessee’s $60 billion budget is the one constitutional duty the legislature has to uphold each year.
The answer as to how easy that will be in 2026 differs based on which of the two political parties you ask. Republicans, who hold the state’s supermajority, acknowledge the budget could prove tighter than in years past. Democrats have a more dire assessment, insisting the state is headed toward a “fiscal cliff.”
Revenues for December — released in mid-January — showed a brighter point for Tennessee. Sales tax is the primary driver of Tennessee’s budget, along with fuel, franchise and excise and corporate taxes.
to recertify yearly.
“People are forced to make decisions around being able to pay rent or being able to choose life, and that’s being able to afford the health care you need to survive,” Lamar tells the Scene “I don’t think the two should be competing with each other.”
Lamar has found a bipartisan issue in doula care. She’s introduced legislation to align with federal law that prevents hospitals from turning away women from the emergency room when they are in active labor. She’s also once again pushing for TennCare to cover doula care this year. Women on TennCare, who account for approximately 50 percent of the state’s births, are more likely to experience maternal mortality or infant mortality. Recent state-funded pilot programs have found that those with a doula are less likely to die or experience stillbirth or adverse health conditions — there’s no negative outcome to utilizing a doula, Lamar says.
“I may be a Democrat, but I think advocating for maternal health is pro-life policies,” she says.
“I think it is one of those things where I can see alignment with my colleagues over division.”
A personal experience prompted Lamar to introduce this year’s SB 1565/HB 1534, which would establish a program providing funds to offset burial costs for women who experience a stillbirth — something that happened to her during her first year as a legislator.
“We’re living in a state that has now banned abortion, and we’re [one of] the highest in the country for maternal mortality,” she says. “We have a high infant mortality number. That’s a real expense for families that they’re not expecting. … I think we’ll help bring dignity to an already tough situation.” ▼
“Total revenues in December exceeded our budget estimates, primarily due to strong corporate tax receipts,” says the state’s finance and administration commissioner Jim Bryson. “Sales tax revenues for the month, which reflect November’s retail activities — including Black Friday and post-Thanksgiving sales — performed largely as anticipated, showing steady growth. Corporate tax collections, including franchise and excise taxes, were particularly robust. Although fuel tax revenues were slightly below expectations, all other tax categories performed modestly better than our projections.”
Even so, Republicans and Democrats agree that an infusion of new money from above-estimated tax revenues will not cover all of Tennessee’s needs. Currently, a backlog of infrastructure projects has risen to nearly $80 billion. Those needs range from sewer, water and stormwater to parks, roads and schools, according to a 2025 report from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
For Davidson County, those needs land around $15 billion. The report found that the county’s top necessities are school buildings, public buildings and transportation.
“We ran out of money for the things we really needed to do three years ago,” says Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), the House Democratic Caucus chair. “Think about it like this. Costs are only going to increase. Roads and infrastructure maintenance will only increase with each passing day. Instead of modernizing the way we fund projects, they have allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate.”
While infrastructure needs plague the state, Sen. Bo Watson (R-Chattanooga) — chairman of the Senate’s Finance, Ways and Means Committee — says Tennessee will never be able to fund all its needs in any given year. However, he notes that a new funding formula could be needed for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Currently, the gas tax funds roads, and the state doesn’t issue bonds or borrow money for road projects. TDOT officials made that plea with the legislature in mid-January in one of its first transportation committee meetings.
“I think the transportation committee,
along with finance, are looking at alternative strategies of how that kind of funding can be improved,” Watson says. “I think this will be a session where we will do a lot of discussion about that. I am not sure any decisions will be made regarding that.”
Despite infrastructure needs, Democrats worry that the things Republicans choose to spend new funding dollars on could prove unsustainable. Particularly, Democrats don’t want to see more funds go toward vouchers — known in Tennessee as Educational Freedom Scholarships. Gov. Bill Lee would like to see a program expansion, after more than 50,000 families applied for the dollars for the 2026-2027 school year.
“The first rule of holes is to stop digging,” says Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville). “The last thing we can do is double the size of the voucher program to some of the wealthiest families in the state. It will bust the budget if it continues to grow like it did last year. We have to stop doing stupid things.”
With Gov. Lee currently in the final year of his second term, Republicans say any huge budgetary moves would likely wait until a new gubernatorial administration is seated. House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) says if a new idea arises, however, he wouldn’t hesitate to push it through.
“It’s a healthy conversation to say the budget is tight,” says Lamberth. “I would phrase it this way. I am not saying yes or no to what we have seen filed by our colleagues. I don’t anticipate the governor has some massive program he wants to roll out, and I am going to wait until we look through what has been filed by my colleagues, then see whether or not there’s anything big there. I am not going to close off the possibility.”
The first look at a budget will arrive with the governor’s State of the State address in early February. ▼
TUESDAY, FEB. 3
MUSIC [FIDDLING AROUND] SUDAN ARCHIVES
Brittney Parks has a brilliant knack for the unusual. Under her stage name Sudan Archives, the singer/producer/violinist has created music that doesn’t fit squarely into a preordained genre space. In her music, I hear elements from the past five decades — SZA’s left-of-the-dial R&B, Erykah Badu’s vulnerable soulfulness, Björk’s twisted electronics, the ’80s synth-funk of Herbie Hancock and the groove of Nigerian twins The Lijadu Sisters. Parks has a keen sense of style that creates earworm hooks out of obtuse musical ideas that are generally not found in R&B. She works with screeching string arrangements and strident synthesizers, leaving behind the hit single format in pursuit of avant-garde compositions. With each of her three albums, all released by Peanut Butter Wolf’s Stones Throw Records, she shows an expansion of creativity and craft. She can pivot between ethereal and guttural, organic and digital, mellow and intense. Parks’ tour opener is a fellow violinist who takes the instrument into new territory. Cain Culto, a Kentucky artist, fuses fringe pop and hip-hop with folk sounds of the Caribbean and Appalachia. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST
917 WOODLAND ST.
RECORDED LIVE AT
ANALOG : CODY JINKS PAGE 18
AGRUPACIÓN SEÑOR
SERRANO: BIRDIE PAGE 18
20TH ANNUAL LITTLE
HARPETH RIVER
CLEANUP PAGE 20
[ANIMAL FARM]
MUSIC
AGRICULTURE W/KNOLL & SOOT
If I’m being honest, I’ve always found most black metal to be a little annoying. The guitars sound like a family of gnats stuck in my ear canal, and the shrieking gets on my nerves after about two songs. There are occasional exceptions, but those generally fall into the category of artists who use black metal as a base on which to build something more interesting — abandoning all the usual conventions for grander artistic ambitions. Stuff like Ulver, Panopticon or Liturgy. I’ve recently added Agriculture to the list of BM acts I dig. The L.A. quartet’s 2023 self-titled album is full of nuance and experimentation. Last year’s follow-up LP The Spiritual Sound moves the Aggies even further from USBM (United States black metal) tropes. The high-art compositions on their sophomore full-length would be just as much at home in the Y2K Rhode Island noise-rock scene as they would in the Norwegian scene of the ’90s. Show up for the locals, because the whole show should be stellar. Tennessee death-
grind masters Knoll scratch an itch similar to Agriculture, crafting a dissonant metal chaos that shares common musical ground with Sun Ra and Sonic Youth. And Soot’s disharmonious dirges makes them an outlier in Nashville’s roster of heavy bands. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR 1111 DICKERSON PIKE
MUSIC
[TALKING BOOTSY, BABY!] BOOTSY COLLINS 50TH YEAR CELEBRATION
Fifty years ago, former James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic bassist-vocalist William “Bootsy” Collins stepped into the spotlight with his debut album Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band and never looked back, funking his way into popular music history. Known for his monster bass lines and comic vocals, Collins is one of the pioneers of funk. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band, the National Museum of African American Music is hosting a conversation with Collins Thursday evening moderated by Marcus K. Dowling. The conversation will cover Collins’ groundbreaking career, enduring influence and ever-evolving artistry. Interestingly, Collins worked in Nashville
early in his career — his first session with Brown was in 1970 at Starday-King Studios on Dickerson Pike, where they recorded the seminal funk track “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine.” Thursday’s event will include a one-night-only display of Collins’ iconic stage wear. In addition to general admission, the museum is offering a special “VIP experience” that includes an exclusive 30-minute meet-and-greet with Collins prior to the event, priority seating for the moderated conversation and a copy of a limitededition vinyl record by Collins. DARYL SANDERS
6 P.M. AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC
510 BROADWAY
[SOUTHBOUND]
Bands from across Nashville and the South will converge at The East Room Thursday night for a showcase of the newest in shoegaze and dreamy, hardcore-inspired indie rock, with many of the groups celebrating their debut releases. Post-hardcore band Horsehell released the debut album Nothing, an Infinity in October, weaving together shoegaze and metal noise to create a droning, heavy sound that gleams with distortion and atmospheric textures. Penny Loafer — a Georgia-based indie-rock band known for upbeat, lush guitar and longing, witty lyricism about the experiences of young adulthood and the stab of growing pains — will join, along with new four-piece indie-rock band Jeer. Rounding out the bill is Sour Tooth, who released their debut Wilt in the fall — a Nashville-based, ’90s-inspired alternative and post-hardcore band with a moody, gothic sound. LILLY LUSE
8 P.M. AT THE EAST ROOM
2412 GALLATIN AVE.
[HIPPIES AND COWBOYS]
MUSIC
RECORDED LIVE AT ANALOG : CODY
Since its debut in 2024, the PBS program Recorded Live at Analog has showcased intimate performances from Michael McDonald, Sierra Ferrell, The War and Treaty, The Black Crowes, Molly Tuttle, Ketch Secor and more. Similar to Austin City Limits and Tennessee’s own The Caverns Sessions, the series, filmed at Hutton Hotel’s live music venue Analog, is a livemusic lover’s dream made possible by public programming. For Season 3, outlaw-country favorite Cody Jinks will take the stage. A thrashmetal artist turned country troubadour, Jinks released his breakout album I’m Not the Devil in 2016 and dropped his most recent record, In My Blood, last year. Jinks has a slew of high-profile events and festivals on the docket, from the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo to Montana’s Under the Big Sky Festival — so an intimate Nashville show is a rare opportunity for fans of the Texan. And Analog is such a cozy venue; it’s a little like seeing a world-class musician perform in your own living room.
BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
8 P.M. AT ANALOG AT HUTTON HOTEL
1808 WEST END AVE.
Nashville’s newest rock supergroup Million Dollar Emperors will celebrate the release of their debut album Thursday night with a show in The Lounge at Eastside Bowl. Released to digital platforms on Jan. 17, the eponymous full-length features 10 tracks that hit a sweet spot between classic British rock of the 1970s and Southern rock of the same era. The group features five veterans of the Nashville rock scene — Joe Blanton (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica), Tim Carroll (lead guitar, vocals), Robert Logue (bass), Seth Timbs (keyboards, vocals) and Jonathan Bright (drums, vocals) — and their experience is evident in the accomplished songwriting and tight performances on the album. The band came together after Logue took Blanton to check out one of Carroll’s weekly Rock ’n’ Roll Happy Hour shows at The 5 Spot. Soon thereafter, Blanton and Carroll got together for a writing session, which resulted in “Sidetracked,” one of the standout cuts on the album. Recognizing they were onto something, Blanton, Logue and Carroll enlisted Bright and Timbs to round out the lineup, and the Million Dollar Emperors were born. While Blanton is the primary lyricist, every member of the band has at least one songwriting credit on the album. According to Blanton, MDE plans to play the entire album at Thursday’s show. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT THE LOUNGE AT EASTSIDE BOWL
1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON
ART [CITY OF WOMEN]
IN HER PLACE: NASHVILLE ARTISTS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Several of Nashville’s most influential artists are women. Their practices extend from the internationally recognized — like work by María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Shannon Cartier Lucy — to those that are deeply rooted in our city’s communities. A new exhibition at the Frist Art Museum, In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century, brings together nearly 100 works — spanning painting, drawing, sculpture and installation — to trace these artists’ impact and to suggest how their work resonates across Nashville. The expansive exhibit was co-curated by artist Sai Clayton, the Frist’s senior curator Katie Delmez and the Frist’s community engagement director Shaun Giles
— a combination that signals a point of view concerned not only with the strength of the art on view, but with how that work circulates beyond the gallery, shaping educational experiences and community life as well as aesthetic standards. Disclosure: I co-edited the exhibition catalogue with Delmez, and also contributed one of its essays. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER THROUGH APRIL 26 AT THE FRIST 919 BROADWAY
THEATER
[IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD] AGRUPACIÓN SEÑOR SERRANO: BIRDIE
Founded in Barcelona in 2006, Agrupación Señor Serrano has built its reputation on innovative, genre-defying performances, which offer an ambitious blend of live action, video, sound and scale models. The internationally acclaimed theater company arrives at OZ Arts this weekend with its powerful production Birdie. Touching on everything from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller The Birds to the game of golf, mass migration and human resilience itself, Birdie takes audiences on a fascinating journey that shifts between two very different worlds — one of great privilege and progress, and the other “fractured by war, displacement and environmental collapse.” It’s a clever, thought-provoking piece that digs into the rich complexities — and stark contradictions — of the human experience. This is a rare opportunity for local audiences to experience a groundbreaking arts company, as the group wraps up a limited U.S. tour that has included stops at the Lincoln Center in New York (as part of the esteemed Under the Radar Festival) and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA in Los Angeles. AMY STUMPFL
JAN. 30-31 AT OZ ARTS
6172 COCKRILL BEND CIRCLE
Samuel D. Hunter has been called “one of the finest playwrights at work today.” He’s known for penning thoughtful, character-driven works, such as The Whale (later adapted into an Oscarwinning film starring Brendan Fraser) and, more recently, Little Bear Ridge Road (which earned
terrific reviews, especially for two-time Tony winner Laurie Metcalf). This weekend, Actors Bridge Ensemble continues its 30th anniversary season with Hunter’s compelling two-hander, A Case for the Existence of God. Exploring themes of “parenthood, financial insecurity and empathy,” this potent drama unfolds in a smalltown loan office, where two men connect over relentless family and economic pressures and the elusiveness of ordinary dreams. A Case for the Existence of God premiered off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in April 2022, earning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. The always reliable Leah Lowe directs for Actors Bridge, and the cast features Nashville favorite Shawn Whitsell, along with newcomer Chris McCreary. AMY STUMPFL JAN. 30-FEB. 8 AT THE ACTORS BRIDGE STUDIO 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.
Léna Bartels’ September album The Brightest Silver Fish dwells in dualities. With a pushand-pull between intensity and softness, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Portland, Ore., musician threads dreamlike textures with sardonic alt-rock wit, suggesting Aimee Mann or Nina Nastasia with lulling, blithely morbid lyrics. It’s a sound that pairs perfectly with her current tour mate, southwest Virginia artist Ian HatcherWilliams, whose ambient folk project Lamplight roots the subconscious in the domestic. His 2024 self-titled album centers on his move into a Roanoke farmhouse and the meaning of home more broadly, with nods to Broken Social Scene and Duster. On Friday, the pair’s Southern run comes to Drkmttr, where they’ll play a cozy winter’s night with Billy Campbell’s noise-rock project Make Yourself at Home and “Nashville slow-whatever” act Off to Sleep. ANNIE PARNELL 8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR 1111 DICKERSON PIKE
[SPREAD LOVE. SPREAD GAME]
Very few cultural touchstones have remained active and relevant for more than a century. The iconic, barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters are well on their way. The basketball exhibitionists are headed to Bridgestone Arena this weekend for a pair of games on their 100 Year Tour. The Globetrotters’ unique brand of merry antics — equal parts circus act, basketball-skills display and stand-up comedy routine — created an entire genre of entertainment that is still thriving today. (See also: mega-successful baseball jokesters the Savannah Bananas.) Nashville has a pretty rich history with the Globetrotters — a dozen or so former Tennessee State University Tigers have suited up in the instantly identifiable red-white-and-blue uniforms. Former state and Metro politician Brenda Gilmore even led the
1.22/23
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is c bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.
1.10 William Michael Morgan
1.15 Britnee Kellogg
1.17 Mitch Rossell
1.18 Dixieland Delight
1.19
1.21
Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadlecek and Guests Craig Campbell, Mason Maddocks, Brendan Stevens, Mike Sweep
Jamie O’Neal Gypsum Album Release Show
1.22 Ashley McBryde: Just Me and My Shadow
1.23 Ashley McBryde: Just Me and My Shadow
1.24 Buddy’s Place 15th Anniversary Show w/ Kayley Bishop, Fraser Churchill, Abbey Cone, Sean Kennedy, Paul Sikes, Striking Matches, Cyndi Thomson
1.26 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Play The Chicks “Wide Open Spaces” w/ Bryan Simpson, Caitlyn Smith, Moose Miller, Abbie Callahan, Aniston Pate
1.29 The Sadies
1.31 Aaron Nichols
recognition of the Tiger-Globetrotters with an official state House resolution back in 2009. Here’s to 100 more years of finger spinning, alley-oops and behind-the-back dishes. LOGAN BUTTS
2 & 7 P.M. AT BRIDGESTONE ARENA
501 BROADWAY
The Philadelphia band Friendship — featuring guitarist Peter Gill, percussionist Michael Cormier-O’Leary, bassist Jon Samuels and lead vocalist Dan Wriggins — is embarking on a winter tour of the South, with a special double stop in Nashville. The four-piece is touring in support of their fifth full-length album Caveman Wakes Up, released in May of last year by Merge Records. Sonically and thematically, this LP is both a continuation and an expansion of the band’s past repertoire, a rough-around-the-edges blur of country and folk music. Using objects and moments that the casual observer might consider forgettable — hanging out on a stoop, griping over an unlikable roommate, crying over a video about first lady Betty Ford — Wriggins’ keen lyricism assembles a portrait of working-class life in Pennsylvania that is simultaneously melancholic and reverent. Friendship will spend Saturday afternoon at Grimey’s, with a free live performance and album signing starting at 4:30. They’ll then head over to Springwater Supper Club and Lounge, where they’ll be joined by local act Styrofoam Winos and Texan singersongwriter Natalie Jane Hill. In lieu of normal ticketing, the Springwater performance will be first-come, first-served for the first 100 patrons, with the show starting at 8 p.m. KATHERINE OUNG 4:30 P.M. AT GRIMEY’S (1060 E. TRINITY LANE); 8 P.M. AT SPRINGWATER (115 27TH AVE. N.)
MUSIC [PUT ON A SHOW]
Free-form volunteer-powered radio station WXNA is putting on a benefit show at Drkmttr Collective this weekend with the help of a quintet of local bands. The showcase was orchestrated by WNXA DJs Camille Brinson and Avery Carey, who both host weekly shows and wanted to put on an event with a stacked bill of emerging Nashville bands to bring in a new audience and fundraise for the station. Celltower is an emo band featuring Luna Kupper from Nashville favorites Total Wife, and
Impediment released the first single off a new demo tape in the fall. Techno-noise band Argus, indie group Superhero and ’90s-inspired dreamrock band S3pt3mb3r complete the show’s lineup of up-and-coming artists. On top of great music, there will also be made-to-order screenprinted shirts and other swag, and WXNA DJs will be on hand for information on how to get involved with the station. LILLY LUSE
8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR 1111 DICKERSON PIKE
AROUND THE RIVER BEND]
The first month of 2026 is nearly over. How are those New Year’s resolutions holding up? Perhaps yours fell by the wayside, or maybe you never really got around to thinking one up. If that’s the case — or hell, even if you want to do something selfless and productive for no particular reason at all — here’s an opportunity to establish some good 2026 vibes. On Saturday, volunteers will gather at the John P. Holt Brentwood Library for the 20th annual Little Harpeth River Cleanup, hosted by Harpeth Conservancy and Brentwood Noon Rotary Club. A 10-mile stretch of Middle Tennessee’s Little Harpeth River will be divided into 12 sections, with volunteer teams splitting up to remove litter and debris from riverbanks. Check-in begins at 8 a.m., and volunteers will be provided with a light breakfast as well as trash bags, safety vests and other cleanup tools. Organizers ask that anyone who’d like to participate sign up via harpethconservancy.org. Here’s your
chance to do some good, simply for the sake of doing something good. You won’t regret it.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
8 A.M. REGISTRATION, 9 A.M. CLEANUP AT THE JOHN P. HOLT BRENTWOOD LIBRARY
8109 CONCORD ROAD, BRENTWOOD
MUSIC
[DECEMBER RAIN] JON
My friends and I drove from Memphis to Columbia, Mo., in April 1993 to see the debut show by the reconstituted version of Big Star, which included Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton along with Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of the power-pop band The Posies. In particular, Auer meshed his guitar with Chilton’s, and the original two-guitar concept of Big Star also transpires throughout their October 1993 show at The New Daisy Theatre in Memphis, which exists as the definitive video document of the band, 2014’s Live in Memphis. On their own, The Posies usually came across as somewhat less wimpy than you might have thought at first, and their 1993 album Frosting on the Beater is classic — and somewhat tense — power pop. The Posies continued to record before splitting up in 2021. Meanwhile, Auer has always struck me as an underrated singer and songwriter. His 2006 solo album Songs From the Year of Our Demise features atmospheric tracks like “Song Noir” and “Six Feet Under,” which sound great even as they peer into the darkness. As Auer sings in “Song Noir”: “Nothing stings like December rain.” He’s a confident performer with real chops on guitar, and he’s got a song bag. EDD
HURT
7 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT 1604 EIGHTH AVE. S.
TUESDAY / 2.3
ART [WE’RE FOR LOVE] PAINTING AND HER WOMEN: A FEMINIST PALETTE SHOW
Painting and Her Women: A Feminist Palette Show is a 33-artist group show examining how
women’s contributions to culture-making are often rendered secondary, anonymous or overlooked. This display smartly focuses on formalist concerns rather than resorting to cliché critical content and activist lecturing Painting and Her Women foregrounds the materials and processes that sustain artistic practices. Of course, these include paint palettes, but also implements like the biscuit cutters and rolling pins associated with traditionally feminine domestic chores. The results are elevated artworks with advocacy baked into their textured surfaces and colorful gestures. The show highlights process, labor and material intelligence as key components of authorship, challenging the meanings of labels such as mother, woman and lady painter. The show also includes work by gentlemen painters, with a roster boasting Nashvillians and former Nashvillians like Lindsy Davis, Nick Stolle, John Paul Kesling, Virginia Griswold, Donna Woodley and more. The show launches on Feb. 3 with an opening reception, followed by an artist-led walk-through at the Wedgewood-Houston First Saturday Art Crawl on Feb. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.
JOE NOLAN
THROUGH FEB. 24 AT DAVID LUSK GALLERY 516 HAGAN ST.
WEDNESDAY
[OPENING ACTS]
I’ll be danged if James McMurtry didn’t come up with 2025’s definitive song about the music business — “Sailing Away,” a track on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy, which is one of his best albums to date. I’ve been a fan of this storyteller of the fading liberal fringe for years, and the degraded United States he described on 2021’s The Horses and the Hounds has become even more problematic as Trump continues to roll out his obsessions. In short, McMurtry is a Texas singer-songwriter who seems to like rock ’n’ roll and specializes in a kind of studio rock that also makes room for pop. The aforementioned “Sailing Away” demonstrates McMurtry’s savvy as a record maker — the track develops into music that surprises because he understands how to open out his arrangements. “Sailing Away” questions whether McMurtry can even go on in the music business, and it features the album’s best line: “Opening for Isbell in some cavernous room.” In the equally surprising track “Pinocchio in Vegas,” which might be 2025’s best song about the legal system, McMurtry gets off the album’s secondbest line: “He had to sue Walt Disney over copyright control.” Starting Feb. 4, McMurtry settles in for a two-night run at 3rd and Lindsley. BettySoo opens. EDD HURT
FEB. 4-5 AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
WINTER IS NOT my season, Gentle Reader. The sun has many important roles, like keeping the planets in orbit and being my personal battery. Without consistently bright days and a bare minimum of 70 degrees, I’m a black-and-white version of myself. A pale blob under an oversized fleece blanket. Yes, I’ve tried supplements, and no, I’m not buying a therapy light. The only cure for my condition is spring.
When I must trade my nubby gray slippers for shoes and venture out into the world, I make it snappy. That was my initial plan when I left my early-January haircut in OneC1ty: Hustle to the parking lot, fire up the seat warmer and head home. Instead, I detoured into Aloha Fish Company, which I’d been meaning to check out since they opened in November, and left with a spicy salmon roll and a rare spark of excitement in my cold, cold heart.
In addition to fresh fish, poke bowls and to-go meal kits, Aloha offers sushi classes. I’ve dropped not-so-subtle hints to my husband Dom for years that a sushi class would make a fun night out, none of which he picked up on. And I’ve Googled “sushi class, Nashville” a few times, but all the options had sad Airbnb Experiences vibes. I don’t want to learn how to make sushi in a brewery — I want to learn next to a display case of tuna that’s been flown in from Hawaii. Aloha is local, and looks legit. As soon as I got home, I reserved two $65 spots for a 90-minute Sunday class via Instagram DMs. Within minutes I received a confirmation note with a heads up to BYOB.
“We’re taking a sushi class,” I said to the guy behind the counter who asked if he could help. “What can we take that’ll pair well?”
“Now? You’re going right now?”
“Yes.”
“OK, then it’ll need to be cold.”
He led us to the refrigerated whites and pointed out a few, explaining how the acid in the Columna Albariño, Ladeiras do Xil O Barreiro Valdeorras or Domaine Bailly-Reverdy Sancerre would work with delicate fresh fish.
Take a BYOB sushi class on the West Side, then walk to drinks and dessert
BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
Whites aren’t my favorite. I asked about beer. He stepped to the right and tapped the door in front of Pap Pap’s Salted Lager by North Carolina brewery Fonta Flora. “This was inspired by a grandpa who drank Coors Banquet and put a pinch of salt in it to make it even more thirst-quenching,” our guide said, adding that it would complement the salinity of the fish. Sold. I’m a sucker for a good story. And anything salty.
We were done, but Woodland Wine Merchant makes me want to linger. The West Side sister of the original WWM in East Nashville’s Five Points, it feels like the Parnassus Books of alcohol — well curated and displayed, complete with recommendation tags and un-
Woodland Wine Merchant 4101 Charlotte Ave., Suite E140 woodlandwinemerchant.com
Aloha Fish Company 3 City Ave., No. 200 alohafishcompany.com AVO 4 City Blvd., No. 104 eatavo.com
obtrusive help. Instead of dreamy book jackets, stickers and greeting cards, there are artsy wine labels, strainers, shakers and muddlers. And I both need and don’t need them all.
After checking us in, Aloha co-owner Jennifer Cline had Dom and me select our spots at the standing table set for 14 in the middle of the dining area and put our belongings on the tray underneath. I asked where the chef was going to stand, and she pointed to the end of the table. This very eager pupil set up next to it.
The middle of the table was lined with prepped fillings (sliced avocado, cucumber, jalapeño and sprouts), toppings (chopped green onion, orange and green tobiko, black and white sesame seeds) and sauces (eel, yum yum and spicy aioli) for the two sushi rolls we’d make, and there was a mat, makisu (bamboo rolling mat) and napkins at each place setting. Dom split a Pap Pap’s Salty Lager between the two travel wine tumblers we got at the 2025 Best of Nashville party (the class is BYOG too) as Chef Tim introduced himself.
We chose from six kinds of fish — cooked shrimp, eel, swordfish, Ōra King salmon from New Zealand, hamachi from Japan and bigeye tuna from Hawaii, all of which was picked up at the airport earlier that day — for the first roll (or futomaki), in which the nori was on the outside. And we did it all again for our inside-out roll (uramaki), with rice on the outside. Meanwhile, Chef Tim taught us about sushi rice, the best knife zone to use when cutting and many more tips and tricks I thought I’d remember but have since forgotten.
Despite the fact that I signed up for the sushi class and built my rolls step by step, I was still stunned to look down and see that I’d actually made sushi. Sushi that did not fall apart when I ate it. Sushi that tasted better and cleaner than the $20 rolls I’ve eaten all over town. Dom was just as proud of his little sushi babies and elbowed me to take pictures of them. This required a second trip to the napkin stack. Despite dipping my fingers into the water bowl we each
received, I had rice everywhere. I was not alone: Toward the end of the class, I looked up when a woman at the far end of the table asked a question. There was a little clump of rice clinging to her hair.
I suppose some people would be full and ready to head home after making and eating two sushi rolls, but I am not one of those people. I craved something sweet to balance out the salt — and I wanted to download the experience with Dom before we went home and settled in for a long winter’s nap. Easy enough to walk across OneC1ty’s sand volleyball court to AVO, Nashville’s longtime plant-based vegan restaurant that originally occupied the shipping container where Aloha is now.
Despite the layout of this particular Date Night, AVO is often my first and only stop, especially for a solo lunch at the bar, and always when I want something substantial with big flavors and zero meat. I’m a huge fan of the OG nachos with cauliflower-walnut chorizo and coconut cream. I’m an even bigger fan of the email/post that owner Annie Choo shared in October, a beautifully honest mission statement of sorts about the realities of the restaurant business — especially a vegan one. I think of it often. Underneath the moss-covered chandelier, AVO’s communal table was set for a vegan-cup-
cake-decorating class, with bags of colored frosting for each guest. Dom and I scooted into the L-shaped nook directly to the left of the door, behind the painted concrete blocks, sipped a nonalcoholic spicy paloma and High Garden’s Daily Strength decaf tea and shared a chocolate avocado tart with walnut-date crust. The avocado adds such a rich, velvety element to the chocolate, making it somehow thick and light. And if it wasn’t in the name, you wouldn’t know it was there at all. ▼
With Vigil, George Saunders revisits the fraught relationship between life and death
BY SARA BETH WEST
I DON’T RECALL exactly how I first discovered George Saunders’ work. I was teaching contemporary American lit, focusing on short stories, and I’m pretty sure I stumbled upon his In Persuasion Nation in the library stacks. Reading those first stories was like jumping into very cold water — bracing, invigorating, somehow fun despite the odd and unexpected assault of the writing. And there was something else, too. Beneath the wit and the biting observations, beneath even the inimitable capital-V Voice, was a quiet insistence, begging you to hear it: Pay attention, now. This is important
After winning the 2017 Booker Prize for his wildly inventive and thoroughly humane Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders was catapulted into a new stratosphere of attention, and with the massive success of his Substack Story Club, he has become a kind of guide for all kinds of searching souls. Introducing him as the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 2025 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, host Jeff Hiller called him “the ultimate teacher of kindness and of craft.” So perhaps it will come as no surprise that his latest novel, Vigil, raises nuanced questions about both.
joined at times by other spirits, including two of Boone’s work colleagues in life, both named Mel. To avoid confusion, the Mels go by their last initials, “R.” and “G.” These two reinforce the dying man’s internal insistence that he has done nothing wrong: “Doesn’t every idea, said R., even those judged by some standards to be fallacious or those which have been disproven outright, deserve to be honored with the public’s attention?”
Saunders is not, you might note, subtle.
Except that he is. And therein lies the beautiful and maddening complexity of his work. It is crude but seductive. It is absurd without sacrificing any measure of gravity. It is lively and amusing and deadly serious (pun fully intended).
There’s a brute simplicity to Vigil, but it’s a simplicity that needles and provokes, which means it’s not simple at all. Like Lincoln in the Bardo, Vigil occupies itself with death and the otherworldly figures that accompany that transition, but in this version, the chorus of ghosts is reduced to two main spirits: the novel’s narrator — Jill “Doll” Blaine, who died in the 1970s — and a ghost she calls the Frenchman, an otherwise unnamed man from an earlier era who claims responsibility for inventing the engine.
Jill has arrived at the deathbed of K.J. Boone, CEO of an oil company and well-known climate change denier. Jill’s job, as she sees it, is to comfort the dying as they pass from this world into the next. Like the traditional figure of a psychopomp, she does not judge, feeling for her charges an “old, familiar, generalized fondness” for the person “who had not willed himself into this world and was now being taken out of it by force.” The Frenchman, on the other hand, does not hold so objective a view of this dying man, insisting with firm clarity that “he is no good” and urging Jill “to lead the CEO, as quickly as possible, to contrition, shame, and self-loathing.”
Though these two are the primary parties in the death experience of Boone, they are
As Jill struggles to suppress the memories of her former life and focus on the work of “elevation” before her, and as Boone’s daughter struggles to reconcile her good, kind, loving father with the sure knowledge of his deep and consequential failures, any one-dimensional version of his life and death — or any person’s life and death — becomes untenable. Justice is not always served. People are not always held accountable for their actions. People do not so easily forgo their own view of themselves as fundamentally good and loved and worthy of that love.
And maybe, the book seems to be arguing, they shouldn’t have to. In the moments after Boone’s death, the Frenchman confronts Jill with a question: “Tell me, do you believe it? Really believe it? Bad and good are the same? Damage does no harm?” She doesn’t offer an easy answer but ends where she began, with a kind of clarity: “I felt a familiar, powerful truth being beamed into me by a vast, beneficent God, in the form of this unyielding directive: Comfort. Comfort, for all else is futility.”
Perhaps that’s a kind of answer after all.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. ▼
Vigil
By George Saunders
Random House
192 pages, $28
Saunders will discuss Vigil with Ann Patchett 6:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at a ticketed event at Montgomery Bell Academy
BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
IT’S NOT PARTICULARLY surprising to learn that comedian Sheng Wang is into plants. The comedian, who is performing at the Ryman Friday — his first solo performance in Nashville — has the perfect disposition for a botanist. He never rushes a joke, and he appreciates a slow, deliberate reveal. His first stand-up special, Sweet and Juicy — directed by his friend and fellow comic Ali Wong for Netflix in 2022 — leans into that measured pacing and knack for observation. He seems continually at ease. When I tell him that his delivery makes me think he must have grown up watching Def Comedy Jam, he acknowledges the influence, but amends it a bit.
“I definitely grew up watching Def Comedy Jam commercials,” he says. “But I didn’t have HBO as a kid. I mostly just watched PBS. I wasn’t even watching Seinfeld or Friends. Mostly it was just nature. I was running around the backyard, playing in the bayou, catching tadpoles and frogs and turtles and digging holes in the yard.
“That’s kind of where I’m going back toward — really being in awe of plants and life.”
By now it’s clear that being a sensitive kid has proven itself useful. Wang says his observational instincts might also be a byproduct of the immigrant experience. His family moved to Houston from Taiwan in the early 1980s, and he
grew up as a member of an extended Taiwanese household.
“You’re in this weird world,” he explains. “You don’t fit in, or at least you don’t feel like you do. There’s a sense of being outside the norm, a sense of not belonging, that made me more observant.”
That mixture of sharp insight and mild-manneredness gives Wang a unique point of view that seems to resonate with comedy audiences. Sweet and Juicy was his first special, and it’s the way many of his fans discovered him — not through his work as a writer on the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, or from the three episodes of Last Comic Standing he was on. It seems like an ideal environment for a comedian to break through — he’s approaching celebrity, but on his own terms.
Much of what lingers from Sweet and Juicy is about the indignities of aging — the wholesale purchase of lotion at Costco, the discovery that you can’t swing on monkey bars as well as you’d remembered. He spends several unhurried minutes on the ritual of using the pump of a nearempty bottle of lotion like a dipstick, twisting and dragging it across a leg as a way to evenly disperse moisture.
The new material, Wang says, is even more
had the chance to shine. She is fully potty-trained, crate-trained, and is doing wonderfully living with kids. She’s loving every moment of being in a home. Now, all that’s missing is her forever family. If you’re looking for a loving companion, Nymeria is ready to meet you and start her next chapter by your side.
deliberately paced. “It’s evolved quite a bit since I started touring over two years ago,” he explains. “It’s pretty dense. It’s a little bit more poetic in some ways, and some jokes feel like they’re kind of a spoken-word piece, almost.”
His attention to rhythm and minute detail mirrors the way he describes engaging with the natural world — it’s an exercise in close observation rather than quick payoff.
“It just takes a moment of noticing. Appreciate how big that tree is, how thick that trunk is. Just noticing things is exhilarating, whatever it is. Any pattern, any design, anything that can heighten your understanding of this thing in your world a little bit more. That’s exciting, right?
“If you just look at anything, like a blade of grass,” he continues, “it’s doing its own thing. It’s just life living. Look at that thing and just recognize that there is something there that is also within you. And that that’s life. It’s got no baggage, it’s got no anxiety. It is thriving.” ▼
Sheng Wang 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at the Ryman
Backstage At 3rd: Songs and Stories with Gordon
The
Story
James McMurtry and The Martial Law Review with BettySoo James McMurtry and The Martial Law Review with BettySoo
OG Basement co-owners Mike Grimes and Dave Brown prepare to celebrate 21 remarkable years of their indie music venue
BY DARYL SANDERS
ON A RECENT AFTERNOON at The Basement, Mike Grimes is reflecting on his 21 years as coowner of the club located downstairs at 1604 Eighth Ave. S. “All we wanted to do was fucking sling beers and do rock ’n’ roll, and that’s what we did,” Grimes says. “That’s what we’re still doing.”
Grimes and his longtime business partner Dave Brown will celebrate more than two decades of rocking, rolling and sliding beverages across the bar with a special pair of free 21st anniversary shows at the club Thursday and Friday. Daniel Tashian, Aaron Raitiere, Weekend Jimmy and the Easy Party, Flight Attendant, The Clutters, Madi Diaz, Patrick Sweany, Jillette Johnson, Lillie Mae + Rische Love, Katie Pruitt and the Bobby Bare Jr.-led Pixies tribute band Is She Weird? are among the artists who will perform.
When asked the significance of celebrating the club’s 21st anniversary, Grimes jokes, “Our little baby Basement’s old enough to drink.” He then goes on to explain it’s actually because they didn’t celebrate their 20th anniversary. “We were just in the weeds doing stuff and never got around to it.”
Before Grimes took over The Basement, it was operated by Steve West, one of the owners of the building who was also the former owner of storied downtown venue 328 Performance Hall. West opened The Basement in summer
2001, but booked music only a couple of nights a week.
That changed when Grimes took ownership in February 2005, less than a year after moving Grimey’s New & Preloved Music — the acclaimed independent record store he co-owns with Doyle Davis — to the building’s street-level space in spring 2004. (The record store moved to East Nashville in 2018, but the music venue remains in place.) When he first broached the idea to Davis of moving Grimey’s to West’s building, Davis suspected he had an ulterior motive.
“I told him where it was, and he goes, ‘Oh, you want to go over to that space because The Basement’s underneath it, and you want to jump back into booking music,’” Grimes recalls. “And I couldn’t say I wasn’t interested in doing that.”
Grimes had previously co-owned Slow Bar, the influential East Nashville nightclub that closed in September 2003, and he still had an itch to run a club. Here and there during the remainder of 2004, he booked shows at The Basement. Then early in 2005, he approached West about taking over the club.
“He said, ‘I’m not sure if I want to do it as a 50-50 partner, but I could just rent it to you if you want,’” Grimes recalls. “And I’m like, ‘OK,’ because it was already ready to go.”
Grimes brought in Geoff Donovan as his partner, and they invested in a better PA system
for the club. Donovan oversaw the bar while Grimes handled the bookings. Their first show was on Feb. 5, 2005. The night began with a showcase for singer, songwriter, pianist and producer Charlie Peacock and ended with a performance by indie-rock outfit Manchester Orchestra.
“In retrospect, we kind of hit that one out of the park,” Grimes says.
Brown, who had previously worked at East Side music-scene hub Radio Cafe, started as a bartender at The Basement in October 2005 and soon became bar manager. “Immediately I knew that The Basement was where my heart was, and that it was such an amazingly special place,” he says.
When Donovan decided he wanted to get out of the business in 2010, Brown bought his share and became Grimes’ partner.
“We became a very good team,” says Grimes. “I ran sound and booked shows, he booked some shows, ran the bar and kept the numbers in order, and we became more profitable.”
After the team opened The Basement East on the other side of the Cumberland River in 2015, the Eighth Avenue club became affectionately known as “The OG Basement.”
The pair has hosted some unforgettable and important shows at the club over the past 21 years. One they both mention is Metallica’s show at The Basement on June 12, 2008, which
Grimes calls the club’s “highest profile” show.
The group performed for select fan club members, label personnel and music press.
“Metallica wanted to do an underplay while they were in town for their Bonnaroo performance,” he says. “They also wanted to mend some fences with people they had pissed off regarding the Napster thing.”
Asked to run down other memorable shows, Brown and Grimes reference performances by legendary artists such as Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Robyn Hitchcock, Guy Clark, Tony Joe White, Lyle Lovett, John Doe and Jandek. They also list an array of shows by legends in the making, like Cage the Elephant, Brendan Benson, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Lumineers, Justin Townes Earle, Yola, Sturgill Simpson, Molly Tuttle, Tyler Childers, Lucy Dacus and The Weird Sisters.
“To me, the beauty of The Basement from day one was that it’s street level-rock ’n’ roll,” Brown says. “It’s where young kids come to get their start, get their footing and get their sea legs onstage. And you just can’t duplicate or replicate that young, fiery passion of kids making music and getting their start. That was what attracted me to The Basement in the first place. I am a believer in the power of music. I think it changes people, and to see those kids onstage playing their heart out and having the time of their life — that’s what makes it worthwhile for me.”
Bre Kennedy finds the best parts of herself in The Alchemist
BY GRACE BRASWELL
Va
SINCE FEBRUARY 2015, Bre Kennedy has been in Nashville writing songs that directly reflect her journey as a seeker of truth. In making her fourth studio album The Alchemist, she finally found what she was looking for — within herself, and through some of her hardest experiences.
“Every single day of my life I’m becoming somebody, and I have a choice in who I want to become,” Kennedy tells the Scene, a mug of coffee firmly in hand at Dose in East Nashville. “When I was writing The Alchemist, I just remember just thinking, ‘I want to write to my future self.’ And that’s how I’ve written all of my songs without realizing it.
“It’s so lonely out there, no matter who we have. At the end of the day, it’s just us and ourselves. I always thought that the best parts of my life were the accolades … but it’s actually in the valley lows. It’s in the worst parts of my life that I realized I’m becoming who I am, and that’s really amazing.”
As Kennedy began work on The Alchemist in May 2024, she also took on an unexpected role as a caretaker for her grandmother. Kennedy split her time between Nashville and her grandma’s home in Utah, a place covered in wildflowers and filled with the lingering scent of Pall Malls — a house she was exceedingly proud to own.
“My grandma’s the OG alchemist,” Kennedy says. “She really came from nothing, and then she bought her own home. She won’t even let her partner of 30 years live with her. She’s gifted me her home. It’s like she’s passing the flame to me. She found out that she could take all the brokenness in life and make it beautiful, and she’s given me that.”
The songsmith’s journey to this new era of
self-discovery started a few years ago. Kennedy had a burning desire to learn more about her mother, who struggled with addiction during her childhood and continues fighting to stay sober. Their first real conversation in years sowed the seeds for a strong and beautiful bond of womanhood between Kennedy and her sister, mother and grandmother. As it blossomed, it bore fruit in many songs on The Alchemist Sadly, Kennedy’s grandma passed away Jan. 17, between our interview and the album release — set for Jan. 30, when Kennedy will celebrate with an intimate show at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, supported by Abigail Rose and Joey Brodnax. But she at least got to hear (and put her stamp of approval on) Kennedy’s new work.
Kennedy’s voice is breathy and delicate over the inventive indie-pop arrangements on the album, but she writes with fierce strength, illuminating tender moments of sturdy hope throughout the LP There’s power in her ability to be vulnerable, and she is an artist who naturally pours out her soul in a way that’s infectious. The titular song closes the album, and it features standout lines like: “My mother cried when she opened her eyes / She was born in a fire so she lived in the rain / And I got a sky that was ripped open wide / It poured like a river that washed me away.” Kennedy opens up space for heavy conversations — ones that are reassuring in our human desires to be less alone.
“In the song, when I say, ‘Making friends with the girl who’s just doing her best / Here’s to the alchemist,’ I thought it was me talking to me. But it was actually me talking to my mom. This album truly started when I chose to show up as my best in this season of life.” ▼
ONCE AGAIN, we gathered a ragtag bunch of critics, filmmakers, icons, exhibitors, educators, distributors and assorted miscreants to talk film. We do this annually to commemorate the memory of late, great Scene film critic and editor-in-chief Jim Ridley, and also to get at what has lingered in the mind after the velvet crush of wave one of awards season.
THE TOP 25 OF 2025
1. Sinners
2. One Battle After Another
3. Sorry, Baby
4. It Was Just an Accident (یک
5. 28 Years Later
6. Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi)
)
7. Eephus
8. Weapons
9. Marty Supreme
10. The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)
11. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
12. Bugonia
13. Frankenstein
14. Blue Moon / No Other Choice (어쩔수가없다)
16. The Long Walk
17. The Testament of Ann Lee
18. Hamnet
19. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
20. Castration Movie Anthology
21. Train Dreams
22. Twinless
23. Bring Her Back
24. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You / Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
WHAT MUSICAL MOMENT HAS STUCK WITH YOU THIS YEAR?
I’ve never seen anything quite like the time-jumping, genre-bending sequence in Sinners, compressing the history of American popular music and dance into just a few minutes. Ryan Coogler uses the scene to make an argument, showcasing how deeply Black culture has influenced popular culture. But he also aims to dazzle and to thrill, dropping something unforgettable and unexpected in the middle of what is, ostensibly, a horror movie. Absolutely amazing.
PARTICIPANTS
Dedicated to the Scene’s longtime critic and editor, our annual poll asks cinephiles, critics and industry insiders about 2025 in film
COMPILED BY JASON SHAWHAN
NOEL MURRAY
I’m sure I’ll be echoing others by saying that I find it hard not to jump immediately to the “I Lied to You” sequence in Sinners! Talk about a sequence that really felt like something we’d never seen or experienced on the big screen before, in all its cinematic and symphonic reverie. At the core, though, the transcendence of that scene is the way it represents a short-lived place of celebration, safety and belonging for a people who have long been ostracized and oppressed. Sinners is full of powerful and melancholic yearning for a world where that kind of belonging can last longer than sundown. GEORGIA COLEY
As a kid, I wore out my VHS of Fantasia 2000, which features for its finale Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. In the animated short, the goddess of nature is stalked and nearly subdued by (what else?) a molten bird that scorches all of her beautiful creations. Just when we are led to believe that the goddess of nature has been burned alive, she rises from the ashes, symbolizing the power to change and grow, even in the aftermath of disaster. Hearing this suite so many times as a kid prepared me for Wes Anderson’s almost obsessive use of the same piece in The Phoenician Scheme. The arrangement of the Firebird Suite in Anderson’s film is surprisingly low, slithering, and as seductive as the greed that stalks Zsa-Zsa Korda, the film’s principal character. However, in keeping with the music’s theme of change, we watch Zsa-
Sean Abley, Jason Adams, Kevin Allen, Ken Arnold, Sean Atkins, Jess Bennett, Brooke Bernard, William Bibbiani, Billy Ray Brewton, Sean Burns, Logan Butts, BJ Colangelo, Harmony Colangelo, Georgia Coley, Micheal Compton, C.K. Cosner, Jacob Davison, Alonso Duralde, Steve Erickson, Dom Fisher, Dr. Gangrene, Zack Hall, Odie Henderson, Quinn Hills, Dave Irwin, Michael Jay, Bede Jermyn, Brennan Klein, Rob Kotecki, Benjamin Legg, John Lichman, Craig D. Lindsey, Brian Lonano, William Mahaffey, Super Marcey, Teddy Minton, Noel Murray, Brian Owens, Annie Parnell, Charlie Quinn, D. Patrick Rodgers, Witney Seibold, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Sam Smith, Graham Skipper, Scout Tafoya, Erin Thompson, Kyle Turner, Dave White, Lisa Ellen Williams, Cory Woodroof, Ron Wynn, Tony Youngblood
Zsa grow. Just when it would have been so easy (if destructive) for Zsa-Zsa to forsake his found family and stay headlong in his gambler’s pursuit to maintain power, status and sway — just when it would have been so easy for Zsa-Zsa to give in to the same greed that motivates so many of the world’s most influential people — he changes. He becomes a more sympathetic person and (of all things) an attentive father. JESS BENNETT
My absolute favorite was the rap battle between Too $hort and Entice and Barbie from Danger Zone in Freaky Tales. That whole sequence took this old white boy right back to my middle school days in the late ’80s when I was listening to that very song on repeat and singing right along, imagining some of the lyrics as my own rebuttal for being disrespected as a shy, quiet, closeted kid from both my peers and authority figures. In the funniest (and the most genius) way — Spice Girls’ “2 Become 1” at the end of Together
In the most cinematic way — George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” setting the tone at the start of Weapons. In the worst way — the entire ’80s New Wave soundtrack for Marty Supreme, which was completely pretentious and off-putting for both the era and the subject matter. DAVE IRWIN
Lots of good choices make it hard to narrow to one, so I will cut it to three. The use of Tears for Fears in a specific moment of Marty Supreme was a chef’s kiss. The haunting rhythmic musical
numbers in The Testament of Ann Lee are a thing of cinematic beauty. And if we are expanding it beyond films released in 2025, getting the chance to see Sign ‘O’ the Times in IMAX was almost as much of a religious experience as Ann Lee.
MICHEAL COMPTON
The musical sequence in Sinners was one of the most thrilling moments in 2025 film. SEAN ABLEY Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters and The Testament of Ann Lee all have so many moments to consider that they pretty much own this category. The funniest of musical moments was the way Dust Bunny uses Sister Janet Mead’s version of “The Lord’s Prayer,” followed very closely by what M3gan 2.0 does with a certain Kate Bush classic. The sexiest musical moment was “Janaab e-Ali” from War 2. Much respect to Bread’s “Day by Day” in Hell of a Summer, Book of Love’s “Boy” in Companion, Jim McDonald’s “Hold Me Tight” in Peter Hujar’s Day, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 1” in Black Phone 2, “The Night” in Miroirs No. 3, “My Boo” in Friendship, and pretty much everything in New Wave. The Denzel/A$AP Rocky recording studio rap battle in Highest 2 Lowest and “Kali Shakti” in Maa are flawless numbers, and every time Zodiac 3000 from the evil band showed up in The Toxic Avenger was a moment of joy. I loved the trippy drones of Rabbit Trap, which feel like what it would be like to hang out at Chris and Cosey’s estate. Also, respect to insane musicals like Sirāt and Hurry Up Tomorrow, which see your good/bad binary and say “absolutely not.” Alien: Earth’s use of “Mountain Song” sent me back into a Jane’s Addiction revisit, which was a complicated experience, and lastly — shame on every one of you for ignoring Kiss of the Spider Woman JASON SHAWHAN
It’s fresh on my mind so perhaps there’s some recency bias here, but I really enjoyed the Tears for Fears needle-drop in Marty Supreme. Sometimes a musical moment can be both utterly on-the-nose and exactly what a film needs.
D. PATRICK RODGERS
It’s really hard to choose between hearing the cathartic lyrics and sounds of “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” by Tears for Fears to
the pyrrhic and karmic end of Marty Supreme, and being left in the dark as the organ in “Infinite End” by Maxime Denuc looped over and over with soul-shaking grandeur while processing the mind-melting grotesquerie that was The Ugly Stepsister KEVIN ALLEN
After two hours of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, there is a final 10-minute scene in which newcomer Aiyana-Lee appears for the first time and steals the entire movie when she auditions her original song for Denzel Washington in his penthouse apartment. Wow! A star is born. MICHAEL JAY
In what was an otherwise unremarkable movie, The Accountant 2 had a honky-tonk scene worthy of an oral history. Then there’s the obvious options — the year’s most go-for-broke scene, the absolutely breathtaking, history-spanning performance of “I Lied to You” in Sinners. And the Steely Dan needle-drop in One Battle, which brought me to tears. LOGAN BUTTS
It’s obligatory to mention THAT Sinners scene and THAT The Life of Chuck scene, but the frenetic scores to One Battle After Another and The Mastermind gave me life, not to mention the rocking needle-drops of Sister Midnight and The Secret Agent TONY YOUNGBLOOD
I did not like Eddington, but I thought its use of Bobbie Gentry’s “Courtyard” was great. The nihilist film guys were really liking ’60s folk songs this year — Lanthimos’ “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” needle-drop in Bugonia was also pretty unforgettable. ANNIE PARNELL
TIME FOR BOLD STATEMENTS.
I am optimistic that next year will be a better year for movies. ERIN THOMPSON
Sinners was a mess of a movie. The midpoint musical sequence was as cringe-inducing as the ending montage in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon BROOKE BERNARD
Despite all the negative things that can rightly be said about the current social and political situation, I remain convinced that ultimately good people will return to positions of authority, both in the arts world and in politics. In the meantime, those who are in positions to tell the stories that are needed, in whatever genre they feel comfortable, should continue to do so. Their work helps others feel like continuing to do whatever they can to make things better in their communities and nationwide. RON WYNN
Popcorn should be free. DOM FISHER
Just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD! I’m looking at you, Ethan Coen, The Weeknd and everyone involved in the Five Nights at Freddy’s film franchise! We need more quiet, “under the radar” films like Sentimental Value, Sorry, Baby and The Life of Chuck to remind us that it’s just as important to watch movies in order to “feel” instead of simply being “entertained.”
DAVE IRWIN
Wake Up Dead Man is even better than the original Knives Out, and may well be Rian Johnson’s most personal and profound film to date! Avatar: Fire and Ash is a little lost in the sauce, but that’s only because there is a lot of delicious sauce to get lost in! Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning was quite the letdown for me — and I hope they continue the series to eventually stick
the landing! KPop Demon Hunters is Frozen for a new generation — but much better, funnier and even more creatively animated than Frozen! Roofman is probably the movie I’d be most likely to recommend to anyone on the street this year. Eddington and One Battle After Another make a hell of a double feature, if you can stomach the grim and cogent depictions of our age!
GEORGIA COLEY
I think Osgood Perkins’ movies are dreadful. Sorry! D. PATRICK RODGERS
In about 10 years, we’ll look at AI in art the same way we did the high-frame-rate boom of the early 2010s. It won’t catch fire with audiences like some people want it to because of the uncanny valley. At least HFR had soul behind it; AI is just gimmicky slop from The Algorithm. At least for the arts, AI will take its rightful place alongside JibJab videos and custom celebrity birthday cards as content curio best suited for snail mail and misleading Facebook posts. CORY WOODROOF
This isn’t that bold, but we need theatrically released comedies now more than ever. There’s been a glut of trauma in our world that ends up reflected on our screens, but in 2025, the most healing experiences I had at the movies involved having good dumb fun chuckling with a bunch of strangers in the dark. Not to string-quartet it on the deck of the Titanic too much, but when our reality’s so dark, does the majority of our quality entertainment/escapism really need to be so miserable? Thanks The Naked Gun, Friendship and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie! ZACK HALL
As a work of filmmaking, Marty Supreme was almost inarguably a well-constructed film — that is, if you’re into the signature freneticism of a Safdie movie. But it is not at all the kind of story we need in this cultural and political moment, which is to say it takes yet another uncritical view of a selfish, ego-driven man, failing up. It’s another aggrandizing celebration of the men we’re all still suffering on the daily and would like to dethrone already: the ones disproportionately running our states and country. Marty Supreme, in these times?! Get over yourself. TEDDY MINTON 2025 was trash. Everything’s expensive. Times are hard — I saw Jeff Bridges in a T-Mobile commercial with Druski, for Chrissakes! People would rather stay home than go to the movies, and I really understand that. If a trip to the grocery store can bankrupt you, you know frequent visits to the multiplexes are rare as hell. Streamers will continue to take over everything, literally turning us into the people from Wall-E. The AI movie is coming, and it’s gonna be garbage — but it’ll clear a billion anyway. I give the studios five years. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
AI-generated content has no place in the movies. ANNIE PARNELL
Quentin — we think you’re good to retire now. At first we were all like, “No, don’t!” Now I think we’ve had our fill. You made some great movies. Thanks for that. You’re also a holier-than-thou, self-righteous P.O.S. who needs to keep his toxicity to himself. K, thanks! BILLY RAY BREWTON ▼
TO
Saturday, January 31 SONGWRITER SESSION Carson Beyer NOON · FORD THEATER
Sunday, February 1
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Bernie Leadon 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, February 7 BOOK TALK 100 Years of Grand Ole Opry with Craig Shelburne and Brenda Colladay 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Linda Davis and the Scott Family 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, February 21 SONGWRITER SESSION Erin Enderlin NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, February 21 POETS AND PROPHETS Josh Osborne 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
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1 Response to discovering the theme of a crossword
4 Dashing through the ___ ...
8 Foam on a seashore
12 One who runs, informally
13 Possible base for a Caesar salad
14 Of help
Dawdle
18 Some anxious behavior on one’s feet
20 Stew (over)
21 In a ___ open sleigh ...
23 Where Bart Simpson directs his prank calls
24 Buffet stand vessel
25 Rare day for an N.F.L. game: Abbr.
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51 What’s seen “all the way” through this puzzle?
54 Ryan with swimming gold medals in four straight Olympics
56 “All that being said ...”
57 Ado
59 “Yes ___!”
60 Something typed in this field: YYYY
61 Fashion designer Lange
62 Many a vacation package
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3 Ready to go
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6 Portuguese greeting
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11 Vodka-and-pineapple juice cocktail popularized on “Sex and the City”
15 Sews up
17 Phil of the Grateful Dead
19 Uber-enthusiasts
22 Someone who might ask “Mother, may I?”
27 Zoom call issue
28 “S.N.L.” V.I.P.
29 Pilot who shares a tent with Yossarian in “Catch-22”
30 Sides of pie slices, essentially
31 Ballon ___ (soccer star’s award)
TO
34 Slangy “dude”
35 White House family of the 1980s
36 Tax dodger’s fear
37 Loc. ___ (footnote abbr.)
38 Very in
39 Big name in windows and doors
43 Raider in times past
44 A person
45 Go “Phew!,” say
46 “He has my permission”
47 Total slimeball
49 Intl. org. with 12 stars on its flag
52 Halal cart offering
53 Elided farewell
54 Do pretty much nothing
55 Between you and me
58 At whom you might yell “Are we watching the same game?!”
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