Nashville Scene 5-28-26

A four-part look at the fallout from the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session on congressional redistricting

SEEING RED

WITNESS HISTORY

Lainey Wilson wore this Galvan London suit, this vintage Ranch Maid western shirt, and this jade squash blossom necklace during the Grand Ole Opry’s second show on the night of her induction, June 7, 2024.

From the exhibit Lainey Wilson: Tough as Nails

New State Laws Allow Expanded Attorney General Interference

As a result, physicians and patients denied abortions are still awaiting their day in court over a 2023 lawsuit

BY HANNAH HERNER

Tony Carruthers’ Execution Delayed

After Doctor Unable to Administer IV

Gov. Bill Lee issues one-year reprieve after emergency filing with Tennessee Supreme Court

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, MIKEIE HONDA REILAND AND STEVEN HALE, NASHVILLE BANNER

We Walk With Marqus

Remembering beloved Nashvillian, community advocate and friend Shawn Marqus Dromgoole, who died in February BY KASHIF ANDREW GRAHAM

COVER PACKAGE: SEEING RED

Where’s My New District? Who Are My Candidates?

Following redistricting and ahead of the August primaries, see what congressional district you’re now in — and who’s running BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Tennessee’s Civil Rights History

Underscores Congressional Redistricting

While state Republicans largely dismissed discussions of race during the special session, Democrats and political scientists note that race is at the forefront

BY JULIANNE AKERS

Chaos Unfolded During Special Session

A lot happened during the legislature’s whirlwind threeday session. Here’s what you might have missed. BY EMILY R. WEST

Outnumbered State Democrats

Fight Redistricting in Court

TNDP chair: ‘We are not going to stop trying to show that these maps are racist, that these maps are wrong, and that they should not be enforced’ BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

PICKS

Hellbender on the River, Tennessee Desi, A Slice of the Community Pizza Festival, Echo & the Bunnymen and more

FOOD AND DRINK

Same, but Different

Old Hickory Lake’s beloved Cherokee Steakhouse is poised to reopen early this summer in Lebanon, thanks to new ownership BY MARGARET LITTMAN

BOOKS

Chance Encounter

Ann Patchett’s Whistler delivers family drama in a lighter register BY HAMILTON CAIN; CHAPTER16.ORG

MUSIC

Ahead of the Beat

Maestro Leonard Slatkin looks ahead with the Nashville Symphony BY AMY STUMPFL

It’s a Tennessee Thing

Starlito and Bandplay’s Not the Country You Know is a Southern-fried double album BY LOGAN BUTTS

Sowing What You Want to Reap

Nathan Evans Fox plants seeds for a better future with Heirloom BY BEE DELORES

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Pull Chains, Country Westerns and more at No Quarter BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

FILM

Stale, Mate

Nate Bargatze’s Nashville-set The Breadwinner feels like something we’ve moved past BY KEN ARNOLD

Storm Front

Anthony Maras’ Pressure shows a battle behind the front lines BY ELI MOTYCKA

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD AND THIS MODERN WORLD

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EVENTS WE’RE INTO

MOVIES IN THE PARK RETURNS The 32nd annual Movies in the Park series will take over Elmington Park every Thursday in June with free-to-attend screenings of your favorite movies! For more information on this event, visit fwpublishingevents.com/ movies-in-the-park.

NASHVILLE TEQUILA FESTIVAL RETURNS JUNE 6 Grab your boots and your crew for the Nashville Tequila Festival on June 6 at The Yard at OneC1ty — premium tequila and an unforgettable night await. Snag your tickets today at 615festivals.com/tequila.

NASHVILLE PRIDE KICKOFF PARTY Nashville Pride will host a kickoff party June 23 at 6 p.m. at the Virgin Hotel. Enjoy an evening of live entertainment, a cash bar and a chance to celebrate Pride weekend. Buy your tickets today at nashvillepride.org. WIN TICKETS TO EM BEIHOLD AT THE BASEMENT EAST Em

AT THE BASEMENT EAST The Basement East presents Boot Scootin’ Boogie Nights — A Night of ’90s Country on Friday, May 29. Hosted by the supergroup Neon Rainbow, a collective of some of Tennessee’s top musicians. Buy your tickets today at thebasementeastnashville.com.

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THROUGH AUGUST 30

Drawn from the collection of Tate, UK, International Surrealism from Tate: Fifty Years of Dreams focuses on the trajectory and international reach of surrealism through key themes like dreams, desire, mysterious energies of the natural world, and the politics of freedom. Presented a century after the first surrealist exhibition in Paris, International Surrealism from Tate features familiar artists like Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Dorothea Tanning as well as artists whose work deserves to be better known like Kati Horna, Malangatana Ngwenya, Osamu Shiihara, and Lionel Wendt.

Downtown Nashville 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

Get tickets and information at FristArtMuseum.org

Connect with us @FristArtMuseum #TheFrist

Organized in collaboration with Tate

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How do you find out what’s happening in your community?

When a school board rezones a neighborhood, local news is how families find out in time to respond.

When a health clinic opens, it’s how neighbors learn it exists.

When disaster strikes, it’s how people know where to go and what to do.

But that only works if the information is reaching people in ways that are useful.

We are asking residents across Middle Tennessee to share how they get local information and what may be missing.

NEW STATE LAWS ALLOW EXPANDED ATTORNEY GENERAL INTERFERENCE

As a result, physicians and patients denied abortions are still awaiting their day in court over a 2023 lawsuit

BY HANNAH HERNER

AFTER FILING A LAWSUIT in 2023 asking for clearer exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion ban, physicians and patients were finally set to take the stand in Davidson County Chancery Court last month.

Seven women who were denied abortions while experiencing dangerous pregnancy complications were slated to testify alongside two doctors on April 27. The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

One week before the trial, the state — represented by Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office and several private lawyers — made a last-minute appeal backed by legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly this year. The legislation (House Bill 1791/Senate Bill 1731) expanded the state’s ability to appeal an interlocutory order of a circuit or chancery court, meaning the state can now more easily appeal a non-final order issued during litigation, stopping a case in its tracks.

Another piece of 2026 legislation repealed the state’s waiver of sovereign immunity on lawsuits that challenge the enforceability of a state law. With sovereign immunity — or government protection from being sued — back in place, the state claims the lawsuit’s basis is moot. However, the plaintiffs have filed an opposition claiming that the law cannot be applied retroactively.

On April 22, the court canceled the trial. It has

TONY CARRUTHERS’ EXECUTION DELAYED AFTER DOCTOR UNABLE TO ADMINISTER IV

Gov. Bill Lee issues one-year reprieve after emergency filing with Tennessee Supreme Court

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, MIKEIE HONDA REILAND AND STEVEN HALE, NASHVILLE BANNER

This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Visit nashvillebanner.com for more information.

TONY CARRUTHERS’ DEATH sentence was stopped, temporarily, at the last minute on May 21.

As the state of Tennessee attempted to prepare

not yet been rescheduled.

Among the plaintiffs set to testify were OBGYN Laura Andreson and Allie Phillips, the latter of whom was denied an abortion. Both Andreson and Phillips have run for office in the years since the lawsuit was filed. Plaintiff Dr. Heather Maune, a Nashville-based OB-GYN, says she wanted to be involved with the lawsuit because she feels she cannot properly take care of her patients under unclear abortion laws — something that carries added risk for her patients.

“I know of all the countless hours that myself, the other plaintiffs and our legal team have been working on the case, and I’m really looking forward to our time to tell our story in front of the three-judge panel,” Maune says. “It just feels like we’ve been waiting for a long time, and felt like the rug was pulled out from under us right as we’re about to be on the precipice. It was very disappointing.”

Local attorney Tricia Herzfeld says invoking an interlocutory appeal could become commonplace, whereas before the new legislation, it would typically be used only in very specific and rare instances. Cases would be elevated to the Tennessee Court of Appeals only if the ruling of the trial court drastically departed from constitutional norms, Herzfeld tells the Scene

An interlocutory appeal adds six months to a year-and-a-half to any case, she notes.

Carruthers for execution by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, the doctor contracted by the Tennessee Department of Correction could not find a vein for a backup IV to administer the dose of pentobarbital. According to an emergency filing with the Tennessee Supreme Court, protocols called for putting in a central line, but the doctor was “not qualified” to perform the procedure.

“Shortly after the motion was filed, Governor Bill Lee issued a reprieve,” the court posted minutes later. The reprieve is for one year.

According to TDOC, an attempt to insert a central line “pursuant to the protocol” was unsuccessful.

“This was a tortured, botched execution,” Carruthers’ ACLU attorney Maria DeLiberato told media Thursday. “I mean, there’s no question about it. By the grace of God, he’s still alive. But they tortured him, trying to find a vein.”

Sitting outside the prison after the execution was called off, DeLiberato told reporters that state executioners spent more than an hour trying to successfully insert the secondary IV line — according to protocol — including attempts on Carruthers’ left arm, feet, hand and jugular vein before attempting a central line in his upper chest. By the time that failed, DeLiberato said, Carruthers was “in agony.” Still, she said

“You’re going to have to build in the fact that if you win on ... anything relating to the government, you’re going to have an automatic appeal that you’re then going to have to get through that whole system before you can get the case back down to trial court and get to trial,” Herzfeld says. “It’s delaying justice for harmed people across the state.”

This isn’t the first time the state has tried to get the abortion lawsuit delayed or thrown out.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed some narrow abortion carveouts in 2025. A threejudge panel ruled against the state in October to allow the trial to continue. In 2024, in a separate lawsuit, the Davidson County Chancery Court ruled that Tennessee doctors who provide abortions during a medical emergency to protect the life of the mother will not be punished.

The 2025 law specifically permitting abortions in cases of molar and ectopic pregnancies was a good addition, Maune says, but still left questions.

“It still is very unclear and leaves a lot of gray zone in how interpretation could be made as a practicing physician,” Maune says.

It’s not the first time there have been big changes to the court system on Skrmetti’s watch. In 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court adopted rules establishing a three-judge panel to hear constitutional challenges to state laws — challenges that were previously heard by the

the execution team made one more attempt to insert a line, this time in his right shoulder, before the execution was called off.

Throughout that process, media witnesses were held in the viewing room adjacent to the execution chamber. With the lights off and the curtain closed, they could not see the extended struggle to establish IV lines.

Some of the activity in the execution chamber could be heard, however. At one point, before the doctor on the execution team attempted to place the central line, he could be heard telling Carruthers that he was about to administer the local anesthetic lidocaine. Minutes later, in an exchange she later confirmed, DeLiberato could be heard questioning if the doctor was qualified to perform the procedure.

“I am qualified,” he said.

“Do your job, sir,” said Riverbend warden Kenneth Nelsen, according to DeLiberato.

Just after 11:20 a.m., almost an hour into the executioners’ struggle to place IV lines, Carruthers could be heard groaning in pain.

“You all should have been in that room with me,” DeLiberato told media afterward. “If the state of Tennessee is going to execute its own, there has to be full and complete transparency. There was no transparency here, and this botched execution showed

Davidson County Chancery Court.

That move was in an effort to consistently win constitutional challenges to state laws, says Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), who made a plea on the House floor this year against legislation allowing more legal power for the attorney general’s office.

“Their argument was, they were losing constitutional cases — constitutional challenges to their unconstitutional laws — just because they were being heard by Davidson County Chancery Court judges,” Clemmons tells the Scene “But that’s not why. It’s because the laws were unconstitutional.

“I’ve always been concerned and remain concerned about the attorney general,” Clemmons continues. “The attorney general is an unchecked office. Nobody has the ability to check him or remove him from office in the state government.” ▼

why there must be.”

The dramatic events capped a week of activity in state and federal courts and included a last-minute denial by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to stop the execution.

The state received further scrutiny this week about the quality of the lethal injection drugs. Prison officials

refused to confirm whether the pentobarbital they planned to use to execute Carruthers was expired. After a 1996 trial, Carruthers received three death sentences for the 1994 kidnapping and murder of three people: Marcellos Anderson, Anderson’s mother Delois and Anderson’s teenage friend Frederick Tucker. In 2000, co-defendant James Montgomery received a new trial, after which he pleaded guilty and received a 27-year sentence. Montgomery was released in 2015.

Since the trial, in which Carruthers represented himself, he has maintained his innocence. Before the trial, he clashed with six appointed defense attorneys, after which the judge declined to appoint a seventh. Attorneys have argued that severe mental illness has prevented him from working with defense attorneys and preparing an effective defense in court.

Carruthers’ attorneys said that during the trial, the state relied on the testimony of a paid informant who later recanted his testimony, saying prosecutors had coached him.

Carruthers’ attorneys exhausted potential paths to relief. Attorneys argued he is legally incompetent to be executed due to psychotic delusions. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 130,000 people signed a petition asking Lee to postpone the execution until DNA and fingerprint analysis could be performed on still-untested crime scene evidence, including the victims’ fingernails. On May 20, Lee declined to grant clemency. The ACLU also filed lawsuits in state and federal courts requesting a stay of the execution until the completion of DNA testing and fingerprint analysis, but the Tennessee Supreme Court and U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson denied the petitions within the last week.

On May 20, the ACLU applied directly to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution, once more requesting DNA and fingerprint testing. That appeal was denied the next morning.

“Can this really be happening?” wondered Carruthers’ sister, Dr. Tonya Carruthers Hervey, at a public plea for her brother’s clemency on May 18 at the Tennessee State Capitol. “Has this been happening for so long? And why, when we have the technology to have gotten all of our questions answered a long time ago?”

Hervey recalled a brother who made money in the summer cutting lawns, then took his three siblings to Kroger to buy snacks with his earnings.

Carruthers was set to be the 11th person killed by the state since Tennessee reinstated its death penalty in 2018. Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, Christa Pike and Gary Wayne Sutton are all scheduled to be executed before the end of 2026.

Following the litigation surrounding Byron Black’s execution in 2025 — in which the Tennessee Supreme Court overruled and reprimanded the trial court for its ruling — the high court has taken a more immediate role in execution litigation. An amended rule now requires “collateral litigation” related to the “method or timing” of an execution to be filed directly with the Tennessee Supreme Court. Pike’s legal challenge to her execution is currently pending.

This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.▼

WE WALK WITH MARQUS

Remembering beloved Nashvillian, community advocate and friend Shawn Marqus Dromgoole, who died in February

BY KASHIF ANDREW GRAHAM

COMMUNITY ADVOCATE Shawn Marqus Dromgoole II passed away suddenly on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. While he was known by both Shawn and Marqus during his life, in recent months he had returned to just Marqus.

“Uh-oh. What did you say about me?”

Marqus Dromgoole’s voice was kind of sing-songy. He let his body rest against the wooden railing as he slightly raised one of his perfect dark eyebrows. He seemed amused — he struck me as the kind of person who was used to being misunderstood and was now waiting for the latest in a long line of such instances.

I looked away for a minute, and exhaled into the late-summer night. Around us, voices and music blared on the balcony of Rosemary & Beauty Queen. In the 10 minutes we had known each other, I’d already confessed to poorly analyzing his story on a podcast the year before. Following the murder of George Floyd, Marqus had posted in the Nextdoor app that he was afraid to stroll in his own Nashville neighborhood as a Black man, which led to his creation of a thousand-person walk. It made national headlines. I later talked about the story, trying to get into the psyche of someone I did not know.

That was how our friendship began. With my confession and his grace — followed by six years of neither of us returning to listen to the podcast. It just became a part of our story. Something that we would tell people at parties.

Those first walks became a nonprofit, More Than a Walk, which took Marqus across the continent. Connecting people through history, fitness and the arts became his ministry. He appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show and behind pulpits — pulpits that some people in his community did not think he was qualified to speak from. To me, though, he seemed to appear at The Mall at Green Hills every time I was there. Under the gauzy light of the mall’s skylights, we strolled and talked about our devotion to clothing.

We were both collectors. Not only of garments, but of usable art. I had a prized typewriter collection then, but it was nothing like Marqus’ earthenware. He first told me about his complete collection of early Franciscan tableware while we were taking a car ride one afternoon. He seemed proudest of the pieces painted with apples, not simply for their worth, but because they had been denied to him by disapproving family members when he was a child. Boys were not supposed to want china. But he persisted in finding the treasures elsewhere, with the encouragement of his mother and grandmother. He collected enough earthenware to throw a banquet for everyone

he loved. I love that word for him: earthenware. Maybe it’s a morbid reflection, but I think that’s what Marqus now is. An earthen vessel. A part of our sacred coming-together.

And our first coming-together was because I did not truly understand Marqus. What was ironic about my critique on that podcast was that Marqus’ neighborhood was also mine. I could have walked to his house in a few minutes. Except I too was afraid to walk in our neighborhood. He had expressed something so vulnerable, and people came to his aid. Maybe my aversion to his statement was because I just wanted the nighttime streets to feel like they were mine — I didn’t ever want to have to admit that I could not do it alone.

A popular life coach I follow would call what I was doing “spiritual bypassing.” It takes courage to say “I’m scared.”

The thing I realize only now, while writing this piece, is that I am a direct beneficiary of We Walk With Shawn, the community walks organized by More Than a Walk. Sometimes

breakthroughs are made by imperceptible degrees. I am not sure when the feeling of fear went away. Whether I was racing down Belmont, on the edge of a runner’s high, my mouth sucking in air, amber sun on my face. Or whether I was looking into the shiny storefronts on 12South. But I walked in my own neighborhood. And now, even as the big new houses lean over the boulevard, their shadows cannot erase our footsteps.

I’m glad that neither Marqus nor I ever listened back to that podcast episode. I finally listened a few days ago and realized it was not nearly as critical as I’d remembered. But thinking I had been critical led to friendship, and led to us realizing that we had so much in common. Maybe being tough on yourself has its unlikely benefits.

I think, finally, of an old church song that seems to be both prayer and promise.

I’m gonna walk those streets of glory, by and by.

I sure hope so. I sure hope so. ▼

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WITNESS HISTORY

Saturday, May 30

SONGWRITER SESSION Chris Wallin NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, May 30

POETS AND PROPHETS

Salute to Songwriter Ashley Gorley 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, May 31

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Dean Berner 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, June 6

SONGWRITER SESSION Byron Hill NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, June 7

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Charlie Worsham 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, June 13

SONGWRITER SESSION Carl Jackson NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, June 13

HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party 6:00 pm

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

Sunday, June 14

HATCH SHOW PRINT Family Block Party 10:00 am

HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP

Locals Kids Always Visit Free Plan a trip to the Museum! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties always visit free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.

PROTESTERS LED BY REP. JUSTIN PEARSON (D-MEMPHIS)

MARCH UP THE STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL, MAY 5, 2026

SEEING RED

A four-part look at the fallout from the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session on congressional redistricting

PHOTOS BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

In September of last year, the Scene ran a cover package under the headline “Gerrymandering Works.” In several parts, the story laid out how redistricting efforts by Tennessee’s Republican supermajority have reshaped the state’s congressional districts and diluted Nashville’s political power. We knew it was a relevant story, but we didn’t know just how prescient it would prove to be.

The week after the Tennessee General Assembly gaveled out of its 2026 session, the United States Supreme Court issued a blow to the 1965 Voting Rights Act via its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling set into motion a chain of events that resulted in Gov. Bill Lee reconvening the legislature to redraw Tennessee’s congressional map — to redistrict Memphis and gerrymander the state out of its sole remaining Democratic seat in Congress. Over the course of three rapid-fire days in early May, the GOP pushed through its plan to redraw Tennessee and split Memphis’ majority-Black voting bloc in three. Democrats objected. Protesters demonstrated. National outlets tuned in. But the redrawn map passed, and now Democrats’ only recourse is through the courts — a process that continues to play out as this issue goes to press.

In this week’s issue, we take a four-part look at the fallout of the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session on congressional redistricting. Read on for more. D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

WHERE’S MY NEW DISTRICT? WHO ARE MY CANDIDATES?

Following redistricting and ahead of the August primaries, see what congressional district you’re now in — and who’s running BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

IN 2022, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority split Nashville — a longtime Democratic stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives — in three, diluting the city’s political power across the redrawn 5th, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts. Following this month’s special legislative session gerrymandering Memphis in much the same way, Nashville still remains carved in three, but the districts are different.

The 4th, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts now intersect at the southern portion of Davidson County.

Those districts collide near Berry Hill, with the 7th running south of I-440 and east of I-65. The 6th sits north of I-440, and the 4th lies mostly to the east of I-65 and south of State Highway 155 within the confusing and convoluted map The 7th encompasses the majority of Davidson

County as well as all of Cheatham, Robertson, Dickson, Macon and Trousdale counties, along with the majority of Sumner and Montgomery counties.

U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps — the Republican 7th Congressional District incumbent — won the seat in last year’s contested and nationally watched special election, defeating Democratic nominee and current state Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville).

Van Epps is uncontested in this year’s Republican primary. Behn is not running for the seat this cycle, but two of her former primary opponents — state Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) and political consultant Darden Copeland — have thrown their hats back in the ring for the Democratic Party nomination. Fellow Democrats Saletta Holloway and Joshua Warren Sales as well as independent candidates Andrew J. Koontz and Lowell Reynolds are also vying for the 7th seat.

The 6th District now includes a track of middle and eastern Davidson County that stretches eastward into small portions of Sumner and all of Wilson, Smith, DeKalb, White, Putnam, Jackson, Clay, Overton, Cumberland, Morgan, Fentress, Pickett and Scott counties, as well as a sizable chunk of Campbell County. That seat is currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose, who is leaving Congress in hopes of being Tennessee’s next governor. State Rep. Johnny

Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) is leading the pack of four Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in the 6th, alongside Natisha Brooks, Jon Henry and former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary. Five Democrats — Lore Bergman, Mike Croley, Christopher Martin Finley, Miriam Leibowitz and Chaney Mosley — are also running for the seat, as are independent candidates Christopher B. Monday and Angus Purdy.

The 4th District stretches southeast into the majority of Rutherford County and encompasses Cannon, Coffee, Warren, Van Buren, Bledsoe, Sequatchie, Grundy, Marion and Franklin counties. Republican incumbent Rep. Scott DesJarlais — who has long been met with numerous personal and political scandals — is facing three primary challengers: Thomas E. Davis, Joshua James and Harold “Rocky” Jones. Victoria Broderick, who was defeated by DesJarlais in 2024, is again running for the Democratic nomination, as is Nashville Metro Councilmember Mike Cortese, who was running in the 5th prior to the redistricting. Other Democrats in the race include Cliff Huffman, Tim Lanier and Joyce E. Neal. Independent candidate Jacob Kristopher Anders is also running for the seat.

Redistricting now means that no part of Davidson County will be represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District — to the glee of many Nashvillians. ▼

TENNESSEE’S CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY UNDERSCORES CONGRESSIONAL

While state Republicans largely dismissed discussions of race during the special session, Democrats and political scientists note that race is at the forefront

BY JULIANNE AKERS

DOZENS OF SIGNS read “Black Voters Matter.”

Scrawled across countless other posters was the phrase “Protect the South: No Jim Crow Maps.” These words were spelled out on placards carried by hundreds of protesters who flooded the Tennessee State Capitol earlier this month during a special session eliminating Tennessee’s only majority-Black district at the federal level — which also serves as the state’s only Democratic seat and includes much of Memphis.

Following urging from President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Gov. Bill Lee called the special session to redistrict Tennessee and ensure that the state’s congressional delegation is fully Republican — a push that comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling gutting civil rights protections outlined in 1965’s Voting Rights Act.

If you ask members of the state’s Republican supermajority, who speedily approved the new

congressional map, the districts were drawn only to ensure Tennessee’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives reflects what they call the state’s “conservative values.” They say racial demographics were not a factor in congressional mapmaking.

That’s not how Tennessee’s Black Democratic lawmakers see it.

State Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) tells the Scene the new congressional map has caused a “deep level of hurt.” She notes this is especially poignant given Memphis’ role as a backdrop for the civil rights movement and as the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

“It’s not just about partisan redistricting,” says Akbari. “It’s about disrupting Black community in Memphis and disrupting our voices and our ability to be heard on a federal level.”

During the debate over the maps, state Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) grilled state Sen. John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) — who carried the redistricting legislation in the Senate — over his knowledge of Memphis’ demographics. When asked by Lamar on May 7 whether he was aware that Memphis is a predominately Black city, Stevens — who attended law school at the University of Memphis — said, “I am not.”

Lamar went on to ask, “Are you aware that Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District is the

only majority-African American congressional district in this state?”

“No, I have no knowledge of that,” Stevens maintained.

The day before, Lamar posed the same questions to Stevens during a committee debate. Then he replied with, “I think you know the answer.”

Akbari says she thinks this was Republicans’ method of keeping any talk of race completely out of the discussion.

“Everyone knows the demographics of this state and demographics of one of our major cities, our second-largest city, our largest county,” she says of Memphis-Shelby County, which ranks among the U.S. cities with the highest Black population.

During one of the special session’s most notable moments, Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) stood on her desk on the Senate floor, unveiling a sheet reading “No Jim Crow 2.0” and “Stop the TN Steal.” She sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn often referred to as the Black National Anthem.

“I felt like if Black voting rights were not the thing to fight for, then what is?” Oliver tells the Scene of her decision to act in protest, which drew condemnation from Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge). “This is the ultimate stand to take, and as a sitting senator, I needed to send a message to my colleagues who pride them-

selves on order and decorum, that what they’re doing is so out of order. It is so unprecedented that it requires an unprecedented response.”

In an interview with the Scene, Oliver recalls becoming emotional during a church service at Nashville’s historically Black Capers Memorial CME Church in the weeks following the special session. When the congregation began to sing the Black National Anthem, she began to cry.

“I just can’t hold back tears on just how much we are still having to fight the same fight that my parents and grandparents fought, and my great-great-great-uncle, who fought in the Civil War, for me to have freedom,” Oliver says. “We’re still fighting, and it’s also proof of just how fragile our democracy really is in our country right now.”

To her Republican colleagues who argue the redistricting doesn’t involve race, Oliver has a blunt response: “It’s just a bunch of bullshit.”

“We know what racism looks like,” Oliver says. “We have experienced it. We have lived experience. Our very existence is proof of that. We know what racism looks like, smells like, sounds like, tastes like. And this was racism, point blank. Period.”

Dr. Sekou Franklin is a longtime local political scientist and current political action chair for the NAACP’s Tennessee State Conference. (Disclosure: He has also written opinion pieces

for the Scene in the past.) Franklin has worked in and studied redistricting and voting rights for more than 15 years, and he testified against the maps before Senate and House committees during the special session.

Franklin tells the Scene that the Supreme Court’s decision is both destructive and unprecedented. He says this could have larger ramifications outside of just Tennessee’s congressional maps, and the ruling could allow for gerrymandering at the local level including state legislative seats, county commissions and school boards.

“The Supreme Court [ruling] was an attempt to put not just their fingers on the scale but to put their whole body on the scale to shape and alter elections to the disadvantage of Black folks,” says Franklin.

He says the decision essentially gives legislative bodies a blueprint — or in his analogy, a recipe — for stripping predominately Black areas of political representation.

“Like down to how you measure how many ounces of sugar you put in a cake, it gives them a recipe for eliminating majority-Black districts,” says Franklin.

The Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus did not respond to the Scene’s request for an interview with Sen. Stevens. ▼

CHAOS UNFOLDED DURING SPECIAL SESSION

A lot happened during the legislature’s whirlwind threeday session. Here’s what you might have missed.

BY EMILY R. WEST

WHISTLES SOUNDED and protesters yelled at the Tennessee State Capitol on the final day of this month’s special legislative session on redistricting. After a whirlwind three days, the state’s Republican supermajority approved the redrawing of Tennessee’s congressional lines — much to the lamentation of those standing outside the House and Senate doors.

In those three days, Republicans cleared galleries and committee rooms, claimed they didn’t know Memphis was majority-Black and moved through legislation to reconfigure the state’s congressional districts at rapid speed.

“There was a court case or two recently that changed different aspects,” said state House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) during the committee process. “Then, what you have had is red and blue states redraw the map in their area. That becomes the benchmark, which is the reason we are back here. No racial data was used in the drawing of this map.”

During the final moments of the session on the Senate floor, Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville)

climbed atop her desk, brandishing a white sheet featuring the words “No Jim Crow 2.0” and “Stop the TN Steal.” That action — condemned as “outrageous and unprecedented” by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) — demonstrated just how strained relations were between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans said Democrats should maintain decorum. The vastly outnumbered Democrats said the supermajority wasn’t listening to any of their objections.

“They have made a mockery of this legislature,” Oliver tells the Scene. “I stood when I couldn’t do anything else. I stood, and I stood for the people. I stood for the future generations of Tennessee.”

As he entered the Capitol on the final day of the session, Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) set fire to a printout of a Confederate flag. “We will not go back,” said Jones. Despite protests from Democrats and dem-

onstrators, the House approved the maps along party lines. Following the vote, Democrats headed to the well — the space on the House floor where lawmakers present legislation. They linked arms, while Jones pointed a bullhorn at Sexton.

As a result of the protests, Sexton removed the majority of the House Democrats from their committee assignments for the remainder of the year

“The protesters were the most aggressive, violent and vile we have seen,” Sexton told the Scene on the last day of the session. “We are reviewing all individuals who were in the gallery today. We are also investigating the actions of several members on the House floor who intentionally disrupted the House session, brought banned items on the floor, broke decorum and jeopardized the safety of others.”

House Minority Leader Karen Camper (D-Memphis) called the committee removals

“one of the most troubling abuses of power this legislature has seen in recent memory.”

“Let’s be clear about what is happening here,” Camper wrote in a release. “This is not about decorum. This is not about rules. This is about power and control.”

As of press time, Democratic Senate members have not received any procedural backlash from what happened in their chamber. A spokesperson for McNally says he “is currently reviewing and considering several possible actions he can take against those who participated in the blatant violation of civility and decorum during the special session.”

Also during the session, Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) had a suggestion for the legislature: “Let Memphis secede,” he said. Parkinson said if the legislature is going to “pound on Memphis,” then the state no longer needs their tax dollars.

“Black representation was not given freely,”

OUTNUMBERED STATE DEMOCRATS FIGHT REDISTRICTING IN COURT

TNDP chair: ‘We are not going to stop trying to show that these maps are racist, that these maps are wrong, and that they should not be enforced’

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

WHILE THE STATE’S Republican supermajority worked quickly to draw a new congressional district map at the behest of Donald Trump, Democrats worked quickly on a legal strategy to fight back.

“We worked hand in hand,” Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Rachel Campbell tells the Scene. “And we stood strong and firm with our caucus as they were there on the state legislative floor, in the committee meetings, trying to get things on the record that we needed to make sure that we understood from the Republican Party — so that when we took this to the court, we could have their words and make sure that we were clear on what their plans

were and why they did what they did.”

Since the state is controlled by a Republican supermajority, preparing for a legal battle going into this month’s special session was really the only option Democrats had.

“That means one party runs roughshod over the other party, and the truth of the matter is that you know politics benefits from competition,” says John Geer, Vanderbilt University distinguished professor of political science and co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll. “All the other redistricting spurred by Donald Trump’s efforts to redraw the Texas district is leading to a lot less competitive districts, and that’s bad for the country. We need more competition, not less.”

Parkinson said. “Some of you say that you’re my friend. But the shame is all over your face. Perhaps the legislature should explain why Memphis should be part of the state of Tennessee. Don’t hide behind the maps. Let Memphis secede from the state of Tennessee. Let my people go. I am dead-ass serious. Allow us out.”

The Tennessee Highway Patrol removed demonstrators from the House gallery during the session. KeShaun Pearson — the brother of 9th Congressional District candidate and state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) — was arrested for refusing to leave the gallery as it was cleared. The Scene followed state troopers to a white van, in which KeShaun Pearson was to be taken to the Davidson County Downtown Detention Center for booking.

Rep. Pearson was present in the gallery, yelling at troopers when his brother was arrested. KeShaun Pearson was released that same day. ▼

issues around the new redistricting laws. Those efforts are all moving swiftly through their court processes, with hearings happening and rulings in process as this article is being sent to press.

“I just think it’s important to have different people in different groups advocating for different parts of this egregious, egregious decision that was made,” Campbell says.

“We’re going to follow this fight all the way till the end. We are not going to stop trying to show that these maps are racist, that these maps are wrong, and that they should not be enforced. Full stop.”

This isn’t the first time Tennessee Democrats have had to take to the courts to wage their fight.

“We, along with other plaintiffs, sued … back in 2022 [when Nashville state House and Senate seats were redistricted], and we won,” Campbell says. “It went on appeal, and then [the state] won. So this is not the first time that we’ve opposed redistricting, and this is certainly not the first time that we … have opposed the policies of the Republican Party.”

Because the U.S. Constitution gives power to states to draw their districts, legislators aren’t likely to give up that control, Geer tells the Scene But decentralizing that power is a way to fix the flaws of the political system.

Geer says the swiftness of the special session — which happened in the midst of the congressional election process — is a central part of the problem.

“I think it undermined small ‘d’ democracy to do this so late in the game,” Geer says. “I’ll let the lawyers and legal experts argue about the merits of the particular decision, but having this decision issued so late by the Supreme Court, and then the quick reaction by the state legislature, really does change the game midstream.”

While the Tennessee Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against the maps in the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee, three other lawsuits have also been filed challenging different

“It’d be much better to have some sort of bipartisan commission or some sort of independent commission that would draw the districts, but that’s a very hard sell,” Geer says. “But finding a way to draw districts in a fair, more reasonable way that fosters competition [is one solution.]”

Another solution, according to Geer? Increased public opposition to redistricting. In April, Virginia saw a very close vote over a ballot measure on redistricting

“This fight belongs to all of us, not just Tennessee,” Campbell says. “It belongs to this entire country, because if they can do it here, and they can do it in South Carolina, and they can do it in Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama and Florida and Texas, they can do it everywhere, and they will. So that’s why it’s important that we take the fight to them now to stop this spreading across the country.” ▼

MAY LINEUP

5.1 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

5.2 Casey Beathard & Tucker Beathard

5.3 Jason Eady, Abe Partridge

5.9 Chase WrightChasing Shadows Album Release Show

5.13 Chase RiceUnheard Songs, Unforgettable Hits SOLD OUT

5.14 Rebecca Lynn Howard, Bridgette Tatum

5.15 Aaron Nichols & Friends From The Voice w/ Craig Wayne Boyd, Aubrey Nicole, Austin Gilbert

5.16 Waymore’s OutlawsRunnin’ with Ol’ Waylon

5.17 Danielle Nicole

5.21 History Of Country Music Presented by CJ Field

5.22 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

5.23 Mo Pitney

5.26 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Brett Sheroky, Tana Matz, Nate Fredrick

5.27 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Plays and Sings The Judds!

5.28 Annie Bosko, Rachel Thibodeau

5.29 Nashville Live Band Karaoke

THURSDAY / 5.28

FRIDAY, MAY 29

MUSIC

[BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES] ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

British post-punk legends Echo & the Bunnymen bring their 2026 North American tour to Nashville Friday night with a stop at Brooklyn Bowl. It will be the group’s first appearance in the city since July 2018, when they played the Ryman. Billed as The Very Best of Echo & the Bunnymen: More Songs to Learn and Sing after their 2006 compilation of the same name, the tour celebrates the band’s long and storied career and features performances of their best-known material. The group was formed in Liverpool, England, in 1978 by vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. After they rose to prominence in the U.K. in the early to mid-’80s, McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career in 1988, and the remaining members ultimately disbanded in 1993. McCullough, Sergeant and Pattinson re-formed the group in 1997, but Pattinson departed the following year. Since then, McCulloch and Sergeant have continued to perform and record under the group’s banner, most recently releasing The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon in 2018. On the current tour, they are backed by bassist Stephen Brannan, drummer Simon Finley, guitarist Pete Reilly and keyboardist Mike Smith.

DARYL SANDERS

8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL

925 THIRD AVE. N.

people still play the music the way it used to be. Nashville’s Joshua Hedley adds fiddle to the album’s “E-350,” about loving your van. EDD HURT 8 P.M. AT SKINNY DENNIS

2635 GALLATIN PIKE

OPERA [IN THE GARDEN] AN EVENING WITH NASHVILLE OPERA

We often associate the opera with grand concert halls and opulent theaters. But there’s really nothing quite like an evening of music under the stars. This week, Nashville Opera is treating local audiences to a lovely concert at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens. Opera artists will present a lively program that blends familiar opera arias, beloved Broadway show tunes and even a few Nashville-inspired numbers. Guests are welcome to bring lawn chairs and blankets, and you’ll want to arrive early to sample delicious treats from local food trucks. A selection of wine, beer, cocktails and nonalcoholic beverages will also be available for purchase, and tickets include access to the grounds, gardens and mansion. (The mansion will be open until 9 p.m.) And be sure to check out other upcoming shows from Nashville Opera — including various community performances through the Opera on Wheels program, Jukebox Live (Aug. 29 at the Noah Liff Opera Center) and the 2026-27 season opener of Tosca (Oct. 8 and 10 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall). AMY STUMPFL

6 P.M. AT CHEEKWOOD ESTATE & GARDENS 1200 FORREST PARK DRIVE

MUSIC

[PASSING THROUGH] SUSTO STRINGBAND

It’s worth remembering that the Americanafolk-rock band Susto took their name from a medical syndrome that’s specific to Latin America and translates as “panic attack.” The band has been around — writing for the Scene, I noted what I heard as a “spooked, sneaky” vibe on their 2014 debut, and I detected hints of Jesus rock, yacht rock and novelty rock on 2017’s & I’m Fine Today. Susto leader Justin Osborne moved to Asheville, N.C., in 2021 and started playing with the city’s Holler Choir, which led him toward a traditional, stringband style on Susto Stringband’s 2025 Susto Stringband (Volume One) and their new Susto Stringband (Volume Two). Osborne, who now lives in Austin, Texas, definitely has a way with titles, and Volume Two sports a cover of the & I’m Fine Today track “Diamond’s Icaro.” The string-band overlay works — if Susto has a bent and pop-adjacent approach to old-time music, Osborne’s collaboration with Holler Choir brings out the pathos in his songs. Volume Two peaks with “Last Chance Linda,” about an older woman who sits in on fiddle one last time with a band that’s passing through, and is amazed

COMMUNITY

[THE DEVIL YOU KNOW] HELLBENDER ON THE RIVER

I’ve been volunteering with the Cumberland River Compact since I moved to town. The nonprofit then had the same goals as today: to help keep the Cumberland watershed clean through a variety of programs. But back then, the organization was smaller, without its own office space. Today the compact is located in the Neuhoff District, right on the banks of the Cumberland. And Neuhoff’s outdoor Platz is the location for its Hellbender on the River, a fundraising party named after North America’s largest salamander. The evening will feature food and drink — including a tasting of Ingram Distillery whiskey aged on a barge — live music, raffles and a virtual reality experience that will take you to some of the compact’s restoration projects throughout the Cumberland Basin. Tickets are available online, and proceeds support the work of the compact, including stream restoration and protecting the hellbender’s habitats. MARGARET LITTMAN

6 P.M. AT THE PLATZ AT NEUHOFF

1320 ADAMS ST.

FILM [IT’S LIKE A HORROR MOVIE!] MILESTONES OF THE LAST QUARTER CENTURY: HOUSE

Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House has the perfect origin story for a cult classic. As the story goes, Obayashi was asked by the Japanese studio Toho to make a film similar to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws In answer to that, he took inspiration from his young daughter Chigumi’s fears and his own childhood trauma from witnessing the bombing of Hiroshima, and produced a feline-themed, haunted-house acid trip with a blues-rock soundtrack to match. Like most haunted-house movies, in House, the domestic sphere is the site of terror, but it’s one of a singular few in which the furniture literally eats its victims alive. The film languished for years after its 1977 release, before being dusted off at Kim’s Video and given

Castle Grayskull fortress/carrying case — filled with all my action figures — from the trunk of my grandma’s car when she picked me up, I should be psyched about the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie. Unfortunately, the first live-action adaptation from 1987, by ’80s cheapo factory Cannon Films, is a disaster that made me turn my back on the whole franchise. Released during the same summer when Cannon also ruined childhoods with that shitty Superman sequel, this Masters has Dolph Lundgren as a monosyllabic He-Man, battling archnemesis Skeletor (Frank Langella) on Earth, where our hero gets help from a young Courteney Cox, playing an orphaned teen. Before you catch the $200 million reboot (I guess this makes up for the canceled sequel the original prematurely teased in a post-credits stinger), the Belcourt will have a midnight showing of the $22 million monstrosity — in glorious 35 mm! — complete with an “I HAVE THE POWER” scream-off contest and an intro from filmmaker Wolfe MacReady. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

MIDNIGHT AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MUSIC [SUPER SIDEMEN] LESTER WINCHESTER MCKENDREE ALBUM RELEASE

Villeneuve’s work in the Dune films. Plus, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, two of our best movie stars, are fully committed to the bit. But the movie’s mega-success signaled a shift in Gerwig’s career. Rather than returning to the mid-budget world that gave us two of the best films of the 2010s (2017’s Lady Bird and 2019’s Little Women), Gerwig will likely spend her foreseeable future making Narnia movies for Netflix. At least one of her peers, Ryan Coogler, made a bold return from franchise purgatory last year with Sinners, but it can be a tough system to escape from once a director is entrenched in it. Selfishly, I’d like Gerwig — one of vanishingly few young name-brand directors out there — to use her growing clout more like Jordan Peele, who is scaling up while staying original. But it’s hard to complain when the work is as lovingly crafted and thoughtprovoking as Barbie LOGAN BUTTS MIDNIGHT AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

[DO-RE-MI]

THEATER

BACKLIGHT PRODUCTIONS & NASHVILLE OPERA: THE SOUND OF MUSIC

fan-created subtitles. One of the revamp’s first theatrical screenings was through the Belcourt’s Midnight Movies series — and this week, it returns as part of the theater’s Milestones of the Last Quarter Century Series. Poster artist Sam Smith (aka Sam’s Myth) introduces Saturday’s showing, which also features a pop-up from Press Play Video ANNIE PARNELL

MAY 28 & 30 AT THE BELCOURT

2102 BELCOURT AVE.

FRIDAY / 5.29

FILM [BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL] MIDNIGHT MOVIES: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

As someone who once flexed on their elementary school classmates by snagging the

Three accomplished and versatile musicians who’ve backed a host of top bands and artists have joined forces in the new supergroup Lester Winchester McKendree. Their past collaborations and experiences date back to the late ’80s, with stints backing numerous rock, country, blues and pop greats. Rhythm ace Jimmy Lester has been the drummer for Billy Joe Shaver, Los Straitjackets and Webb Wilder. Keyboardist Kevin McKendree has provided sizzling accompaniment for Lee Roy Parnell, Delbert McClinton and Brian Setzer, while Mark Winchester has been a great songwriter, vocalist and bandleader who’s worked with Emmylou Harris and The Planet Rockers as well as Setzer. Earlier this year, this dream rhythm section gathered in McKendree’s Franklin Rock House studio primarily to cut a tremendous collection of Winchester originals, plus two instrumentals. They’ll be performing those songs plus other equally strong numbers as they celebrate the release of their debut album They Got It All Friday night at Eastside Bowl. RON WYNN

8:30 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL

1508A GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON

SATURDAY

/ 5.30

FILM [HI, BARBIE!]

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: BARBIE

I have a complicated relationship with Barbie — both the movie itself and what it means for Greta Gerwig’s career. The Will Ferrell-heavy middle section really doesn’t work for me, but the opening and final acts — essentially everything in Barbieland — are downright transcendent. It’s some of the best tentpole worldbuilding and filmmaking in recent memory, right there with Denis

If you’re a serious theater fan, you’ve no doubt seen Rodgers and Hammerstein’s iconic musical The Sound of Music. But this weekend, you can experience this timeless classic in a whole new way, as Backlight Productions teams up with Nashville Opera for a fun, inclusive sing-along production. More than 50 artists (across two casts) with intellectual and developmental disabilities will be performing alongside Nashville Opera artists and staff — including chief strategy and operations officer Keri Alkema (who’s taking on the role of Mother Abbess), special projects and executive adviser Carol Penterman, education and engagement associate Sarah Antell, plus longtime chorus members Frank Convit, Claire Paschal and Emily Apuzzo Hopkins. Through this unique partnership, Nashville Opera has been able to provide valuable artistic and educational support, while helping introduce Backlight artists to the world of opera. But don’t worry — you don’t have to be a professional singer to get in on the fun. This special sing-along show was made for everyone to enjoy. AMY STUMPFL MAY 30-31 AT CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN ACADEMY’S SOLI DEO CENTER

2323-A OLD HICKORY BLVD.

COMMUNITY

[A PIZZA MY MIND] A SLICE OF THE COMMUNITY PIZZA FESTIVAL

You might know North Nashville native Jerome Moore as a local community booster. You also might know him as a prolific podcast host and co-host (with a list of credits including our own Nashville Scene Podcast). And you might know him as host of Nashville PBS’ public affairs series A Slice of the Community, where he interviews politicians, nonprofit leaders and other community figures about issues that face Nashvillians of all stripes. Jerome is also a big fan of pizza (I know, who isn’t), and this

June 4 - 7

Come together to celebrate and explore all weekend long at Cheekwood’s annual Community Celebration festival. Discover American art in the Mansion & Museum, the blockbuster America the Beautiful train exhibit, daytime and evening concerts highlighting American musical traditions and gardens in full bloom.

Half-price daytime admission. Reserve tickets at cheekwood.org.

weekend he’ll host A Slice of the Community Pizza Festival, a fundraiser for his program featuring a stacked lineup of local vendors. Among those slinging slices at the fest will be 312 Pizza, City House, Five Points Pizza, Nicky’s Coal Fired, Pinky Ring Pizza, Pizza Assurda, Pizza Lolo and St. Vito Focacceria. There will also be opportunities to meet a lineup of awardwinning local chefs, shop the wares of several vendors and participate in some kid-friendly activities (including a kids’ pizza-making station with chef and Hell’s Kitchen champ Alex Belew). Now is a particularly crucial time to support public television programming, and to do that in this case, all you have to do is show up on a Saturday and eat some pizza. Jerome really couldn’t have made that any easier for us. Get tickets and more details at wnpt.org/events

D. PATRICK RODGERS

11 A.M.-3 P.M. AT NASHVILLE PBS 161 RAINS AVE.

PARTIES

[MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE] UP-DOWN PROM 2026

Heading to East Nashville arcade bar UpDown doesn’t usually involve getting dolled up. But for one night only, the bar wants you to dress up for Up-Down Prom 2026. The all-adult (21-and-up) evening is a chance to wear that lightblue tux, buy a corsage and have the evening that your teen self wanted. There’s no admission fee, no advance tickets required — just show up dressed to the nines for a night of themed cocktails, prom-inspired playlists, classic decor and a photo booth to capture the night. If you have an old prom dress taking up space in your closet, you’re encouraged to bring it to donate to Love the Dress TN, an organization that provides free prom dresses, shoes and accessories to high school students in Middle Tennessee who may not be able to afford them. A collection box will be available on site. MARGARET LITTMAN

7 P.M. AT UP-DOWN ARCADE BAR 927 WOODLAND ST.

MUSIC

[STRAWBERRY LEMONADE] FULTON LEE

When I need to stop myself from doomscrolling but somehow cannot just put. down. the. phone, I watch Fulton Lee videos on Instagram. Self-described as a “bubblegum funk” artist, Lee makes music by recruiting strangers into his creative process. Nashvillian Lee became a viral favorite for using handwritten signs on street corners with lures such as: “Sit Here If You Can Sing” or “Stand Here if You Had a Bad Day.” For his Sing With Me summer tour, he recruits one singer from each city to join him onstage. In addition, he promises an interactive, collaborative evening of positivity. And while I (introvert alert) absolutely do not want to be called up onstage, I’m looking forward to viewing the community experience from the safety of the audience at The Basement East. It’s an 18-and-up show, although younger fans can attend with a legal guardian.

MARGARET LITTMAN

7 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST

917 WOODLAND ST.

FILM [DOWN IN THE VALLEY]

MILESTONES OF THE LAST QUARTER

CENTURY: WILD RIVER

Fifteen years ago, Elia Kazan’s 1960 melodrama Wild River kicked off the Belcourt’s Visions of the South series, an expansive program that featured everything from rare films from Black filmmakers to freakin’ Deliverance. Montgomery Clift stars as a Tennessee Valley Authority supervisor who works to get a stubborn old matriarch (Jo Van Fleet) off her slowly flooding land, pissing off the ass-backwards residents in the process. He also has a very intense affair with the lady’s widowed granddaughter (Lee Remick). Kazan shot in locations throughout the state for this portrait of a true moment in time when change was coming — and a lot of people weren’t ready for that. Nearly everyone in this hothouse fire, from the racist townsfolk to Clift’s commitment-phobe protagonist, tries to stave off the future before inevitably having to — gasp! — get with the times. Belcourt education and engagement director Allison Inman (who also directed the documentary Mud on the Stars: Stories From Elia Kazan’s Wild River, which is showing alongside the Milestones of the Last Quarter Century series on June 6) will give an intro before each of the three screenings. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY MAY 30 & JUNE 1 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

SUNDAY / 5.31

FILM [JUST TROUBLE AND WORK] MILESTONES OF THE LAST QUARTER CENTURY: SÁTÁNTANGÓ

When the Belcourt announced it was going to show Sátántangó, I was immediately excited. Directed by Béla Tarr — the Hungarian master of slow cinema — the film has become a white whale for many cinephiles for one big reason: the gargantuan runtime. Over the course of seven-plus hours, this poor village will be visited by a man they once thought dead as he tries to manipulate the townsfolk. It’s a bleak tale that unfolds with creeping devastation, all captured in stark black-and-white cinematography. The film also boasts merely 150 individual shots in total, according to Tarr, all long takes seemingly without end. This is slow cinema at its most challenging. But despite the severe time investment, dire atmosphere and lingering camera, Sátántangó has become one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time. What Tarr crafted here is nothing short of spectacular, and to be completely honest, when were you going to watch a seven-hour behemoth like this in your home? When else can you brag to your friends that you got to see this Hungarian arthouse classic in a theater? Sátántangó is showing Sunday at the Belcourt as part of the Milestones of the Last Quarter Century and Weekend Classics series. IAN MATTHEWS NOON AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

Singer-songwriter Mo Sabri was born and grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., in the Appalachian cradle of country music, and he’s steeped in that tradition. Sabri is also a first-generation American whose family immigrated from Pakistan, and has deep connections to the musical traditions of Sufism — an Islamic religious practice with a focus on spiritual experience — and qawwali, a Sufi devotional singing practice. Many of his single releases have been strongly in a contemporary country vein, sonically at least; his 2023 track “The Color of My Heart” has a unifying message that you’d hope to hear more of from mainstream country. Sabri’s forthcoming album Tennessee Desi intends to thoroughly incorporate both of the traditions that are such an intrinsic part of his identity into a whole new sound, and he’s planned a very special concert to debut the material with a group of the Nashville Symphony’s unbeatable musicians. In addition, the event marks the end of Eid al-Adha, one of the two major springtime holidays in Muslim observance.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

2 P.M. AT THE SCHERMERHORN

1 SYMPHONY PLACE

FILM [I LIKE VIOLENCE] TEKKONKINKREET

Though it’s vastly underrated, Michael Arias’ Tekkonkinkreet is an animation enthusiast’s dream. Adapted from the manga of the same name, the film centers on the intricately drawn cityscape of Treasure Town, a desolate cyberpunk downtown inspired in parts by Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In Treasure Town, all the city’s population of street orphans have is each other — something brothers Black (Kuro) and White

(Shiro) know all too well. Black, the older of the pair, has more street smarts, but White’s innocence offers its own kind of wisdom. As they fend off developer-funded yakuza, they navigate the city with surreal acrobatics, clinging to each other and their senses of self in the midst of displacement and violence. To mark the 2006 film’s 20th anniversary, local Regal cinemas will be screening Tekkonkinkreet May 31 and June 1 — with a new 4K remaster courtesy of GKIDS, the distribution company that handles most Studio Ghibli releases, plus Angel’s Egg and Cartoon Saloon hits like The Secret of Kells ANNIE PARNELL

MAY 31-JUNE 1 AT LOCAL REGAL THEATERS

BOOKS [AMONG THE STARS] LOIS LOWRY AUTHOR EVENT

Thanks to novels like The Giver and Number the Stars, author Lois Lowry’s work has become a staple among late-elementary and middle school bookshelves. Her books are not only captivating stories but also provide young readers with their first introduction to heavy subjects like the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II. Lowry explores themes of morality, individuality and the questioning of authority — some of which have led to her work being the target of book bans in schools across the U.S. Now Nashvillians have the chance to hear from the Newbery Medal-winning author as Lowry is set to give a keynote address focusing on the inspiration behind her 1989 novel Number the Stars, which follows a Jewish family’s escape from Copenhagen during World War II. Hosted by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, the event is free, and attendees can register at tnholcom.org. Parnassus Books will be selling copies of Lowry’s work, and she will be available for a book signing.

JULIANNE AKERS

7 P.M. AT THE TEMPLE

5015 HARDING PIKE

VOTING NOW OPEN!

Discover the best of Williamson County with Williamson’s Best, your ultimate guide to the area’s top businesses, services, and experiences. From local boutiques to standout restaurants, we want to highlight the places that make our community special — and now, it’s your turn to choose the winners!

Voting for Williamson’s Best is now open. Check out this year’s groups and categories, and follow us on social media for updates!

@williamsonscene

FOOD & DRINK

SAME, BUT DIFFERENT

Old Hickory Lake’s beloved Cherokee Steakhouse is poised to reopen early this summer in Lebanon, thanks to new ownership

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

EMILY AND JOE AKERS love their rural Iowa town, except for one thing. “We’re landlocked up here,” Emily says. “Any family vacation we’ve ever been on, we have to drive a distance to see water.”

When Joe bought the family a boat, it was too long and had too much horsepower to be docked at any lake near them. (“I don’t know if he did that on purpose,” Emily says with a laugh.) The couple had friends in Tennessee and had visited the area several times. Eventually they bought a home at the Gallatin Marina on Old Hickory Lake.

“Even the drive from the airport, once we start to see water, calms your entire soul,” she says of Nashville’s rivers and lakes.

It might have been less calming, though, when they learned that the Gallatin Marina didn’t have a spot for their boat.

They found a slip at Cherokee Marina & Campground in Lebanon, just a five-minute boat ride away. It was a lucky find — and not just because they finally had somewhere to dock the boat. Hanging out at Cherokee Marina and talking to regulars, they heard folks reminiscing about Cherokee Steakhouse, a waterfront restaurant that opened in 1958, even before the marina existed. Cherokee Steakhouse was both an institution and a bit of an oddity. While most steakhouses conjure images of velvet booths and well-heeled guests, Cherokee was often frequented by people wearing flip-flops who smelled like sunscreen and bait. For decades, Cherokee was BYOB, so people walked in with small coolers carrying one six-pack of beer. Not the standard steakhouse modus operandi, but it was beloved.

To Emily, Cherokee Steakhouse didn’t sound that unusual. In fact, it sounded a lot like J. Bruner’s, the 43-year-old steakhouse she and Joe bought and now run in Clarinda, Iowa. The

more she heard people wax nostalgic about the old Cherokee Steakhouse, the more interested she was.

Cherokee Steakhouse was sold a few years ago, when its owners were ready to retire. Cumberland Canteen, a more traditional waterfront restaurant serving wings and pizza, opened in its place. “It bombed,” Cherokee Marina manager Ryan Williams says. “It was not good.”

With Cumberland Canteen closed and marina management wanting a restaurant to serve boaters, campground residents and locals, Emily and Joe got an opportunity. With two partners, Levi Davidshofer and Kyle Margison, they leased the space and announced that they were reopening Cherokee Steakhouse at Cherokee Marina & Campground in early summer 2026.

“The concepts are so similar by serendipity,” says Emily, comparing Cherokee Steakhouse with J. Bruner’s back in Iowa. “Their vision and our vision are very similar. One of the initial conversations was us just talking to someone out on the dock one day. They said, ‘There used to be this great sirloin for two or three or four.’ I said, ‘We have that up in Iowa!’ That was on the original J. Bruner’s menu. I’ve never seen that on any other menu. So to hear it 10 hours away, you know, at a marina, made me think, ‘This could work.’”

Hand-breaded onion rings, catfish bites and prime rib are dishes that will appear on both the J. Bruner’s menu and the new Cherokee Steakhouse menu. Steaks (from Midwestern cattle) are hand-cut at J. Bruner’s — and they will be at Cherokee, as they have been in the past. Emily says former Cherokee owner Keith Cunningham stopped by to share some of his old sauce recipes. Some new dishes, like an Iowa breaded pork tenderloin (“That’s kinda like our state bird,” the Akerses joke), will be added, plus chicken and waffles at brunch.

Clarinda has a population of a little more than 5,000, so Emily says J. Bruner’s has had to be something for everyone — from people looking for fine dining to those wanting a quick bite. Because of that, she thinks they are well-positioned to uphold Cherokee’s classic dichotomy, serving as a place for families fresh from the campground pool as well as for people looking for a special night out. Pizza, appetizers and burgers will feed the casual crowd. But whether guests sit in the dining room (“the dry side,” she calls it) or the dockside lounge, they will be able to order from either menu.

As soon as Emily posted online in March about the couple’s plans to reopen Cherokee, internet denizens began weighing in on posts in Gallatin and Lebanon community groups, voicing their opinions about what Cherokee Steakhouse 2.0 needed (i.e., steak for two, salad bars, rolls, lazy susans in the middle of the table and reasonable prices). They also told stories about 60th and 70th anniversary parties and wedding receptions at the now-shuttered spot, and about Cherokee sponsoring a local bowling league. Williams too has a poignant memory: The last photograph he has of himself with his late father was taken at Cherokee Steakhouse.

The new Cherokee Steakhouse won’t be a carbon copy of the 1958 model. It’ll have a liquor license, with crafted cocktails, beer and wine. About half of the beers on tap will be local brews. During the pandemic, when business was slow and people wanted to be outdoors, Williams built a large, dog-friendly outdoor patio with seating for 200, an outdoor bar and space for live music.

Decor has been updated to be modern and appropriate for a marina — but not hokey, Emily says. Two pieces of original art, sculptures of a Native American and a blue-kerchief-wearing chef, are back, and she’s hiring local artists in-

cluding a watercolorist to provide original art. The building has a separate party room, and Emily expects it to be available for private events in the future.

Some of the Akerses’ kids are school-age, so Emily has been in Iowa with them as the school year wrapped up. Joe has been in Lebanon hiring staff, testing recipes and getting the restaurant ready to open in the next few weeks. (They’re waiting on permits and other last-minute logistics.) J. Bruner’s slow season is spring and summer — what Emily anticipates will be Cherokee’s busy season — so some staff may come down to oversee training and help get processes in place.

The previous owners told Joe they once had a day with 700 meals served, so combined with the online enthusiasm, Emily, Joe and team are gearing up for crowds. Between the inside and outside, the restaurant can seat 277 people.

Cherokee Steakhouse will be open yearround, with afternoon and dinner hours Monday to Thursday. Fridays will include lunch, and Saturdays and Sundays will include brunch. Live musicians will play on weekends.

In the old days, families used to sit and feed the ducks while they waited for a table. Just like the old days, the new Cherokee Steakhouse won’t take reservations — at least not at the start — so when the restaurant opens, bring the sunscreen and be ready to wait while taking in Old Hickory Lake views. Duck feeding optional. ▼

Cherokee Steakhouse cherokeemarina.com/ new-restaurant

405 Cherokee Dock Road, Lebanon

CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Ann Patchett’s Whistler delivers family drama in a lighter register

BY HAMILTON CAIN

WHILE MUSEUMS ARE among New York’s crown jewels, I revere one above all others: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which seemingly goes on forever, with entire wings devoted to Ming Dynasty scrolls, African sculpture and a stunning series of European galleries. Ann Patchett pivots off the Met in her subtle, spirited new novel Whistler, which follows one 53-year-old woman as she reckons with her half-forgotten childhood and considers parenthood in a fresh light.

Daphne Fuller, Patchett’s protagonist, lives with her husband Jonathan, a retired physician, in suburban Bronxville, N.Y. She teaches English to teenage girls at a private school. Her younger sister Leda, a psychologist and columnist for The New York Times, resides with her Korean American husband in a sprawling apartment on the Upper West Side. Two years apart, the sisters grew up in Boston, daughters of Abigail and Buddy Zabriskie, who’d divorced after Buddy decided he’d spend his best life as a fisherman, “sitting in a shed somewhere mending lobster traps, his phone long disconnected for nonpayment.” Abigail forged her own path; her aspirations led her into Boston’s vibrant publishing community in the 1970s, where she worked as a publicist at Houghton Mifflin before settling down with Lucas, a “positivity” guru, and raising an additional pair of sons.

But between these marriages there was an

interlude and another husband: the cunningly named Eddie Triplett, odd man out in Abigail’s threesome of spouses. Daphne’s chance encounter with Eddie at the Met, some four decades and change after she’d last seen him, launches Whistler and compels Daphne toward a reconstitution of her relationship to her family — indeed, her understanding of family itself. An eminent editor at Random House still tending a stable of authors, Eddie conjures Daphne’s memories of his brief time (less than two years) as her stepfather. He was calm, capable and charming, devoted to Abigail and the girls. And they all loved him back. Perhaps surprising to Daphne (and Patchett), Eddie is the kind of man who can diagnose a sick child and cover meetings and drop-offs for his wife while maintaining his own high professional standards. He’s an excellent vehicle to scramble clichéd notions of both fatherhood and motherhood. Together, Eddie and Daphne piece together their years of separation and the traumatic event that ripped them apart, rekindling their bond. The Triplett marriage had ended mysteriously in 1980, after Eddie and 9-year-old Daphne were injured in a car accident on the drive home from a hospital visit after Leda’s appendectomy. Repressed, the trauma now roars back, unleashing a Pandora’s box of deceptions. This is vintage Patchett. She pins down a hinge moment, a before and after that alters

a family. The divorce was swift, and Eddie was erased from their lives as Abigail’s daughters clung to happy memories, at least for a while. The author brings her honed scalpel to bear on hidden motives, shifting between Daphne’s perspective and a third-person account of the ordeal. Eddie had been trapped in the wreck, and Daphne wriggled free and then sought help. Patchett tips in flourishes — Eddie’s manic thoughts as the car pitches down a steep hillside, the ease with which man and child forge a strategy for survival, a myth of a horse named Whistler.

After they have reunited, Eddie sweeps the adult Daphne into an extension of a world she already knows: wedding soirées at New York’s prestigious Century Club, barhopping among glamorous hotels, hobnobbing with the city’s luminaries, real people thinly disguised — a Manhattan idealized in its celebration of elegance and affluence. Yet something gnaws at Daphne. A secret emerges, upending her sense of her past:

How was it that a weekday trip to a museum with my husband had plunged me back into childhood at the age of fifty-three?

I knew what Leda would say. She would say it was because childhood never leaves us. We seal the room up and cover it in sheetrock. We dry and sand and paint, but the

pocket of history remains, and sooner or later someone always winds up tapping on the wall, commenting on the way it sounds strangely hollow in there, and then the whole thing comes tumbling down.

And yet it only tightens the connection between Eddie and Daphne.

Whistler is Patchett in a lighter register, its tempo brisk as a short story’s. It’s a drama of manners, a nostalgic interpretation of what family looks like in a rarefied space far removed from soaring gasoline prices, populist anger and Trumpian rage. It’s also a lament for our vanishing literary culture. It may lack the narrative heft of The Dutch House and Bel Canto, but it scatters a similar fairy dust across its pages, delivering its pleasures with wit and panache.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee ▼

Whistler: A Novel

By

Ann

Patchett

Harper 304 pages, $30

Patchett will appear 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 31, at Harpeth Hall

Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring Heidi Newfield, Clint Daniels, Ben Williams with Will Banister

The Babys - Celebrating 50 Years with Rob Talton

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends - A Day of Music and Community Together in the Fight Against Huntingtons Disease featuring Jake Burman & Company, Henry Cruz Band with special performances by Wendy Moten + Judy Paster

& The Believerz with John Salaway & Friends & Bell Garland

on 3rd featuring Kent Blazy, Victoria Shaw, Leslie Satcher + Jon Wayne Hatfield + Regan Stewart The Time Jumpers

Nashville Navy Party 2026 featuring Darryl Worley, Danielle Peck, Wynn Varle, Jeff Bates, Whey Jennings, Taylor Austin Dye, Justin Andrews, Ray Scott, Kelly Neff, Jaime Fox, David St. Romain, Porter Martin & The Heels

Country For A Cause hosted by TG Sheppard & Kelly Land along with Devon O'Day featuring Neal McCoy, John Berry, Hannah Dasher, Ty Herndon, Mark Wills, Makenzie Phipps, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, The Malpass Brothers, The Kody Norris Show, Jake Hoot, Linda Davis, Daniel-Elle Kleha, Allie Colleen & More!

bad bad luck, the sheaps, The pyschs, & el siren [9pm]

los locos tristes w/ aprendiz [9pm]

Laney Jones and the spirits and more [9pm]

Nathan evans Fox w/ stephanie lambring [7pm] Fungkshui w/ Omcat [9pm]

outlaw country sunday service [5pm] free show! Georgia lines [6pm]

lunaly w/ saint lavender [7pm]

quail p w/ anella [9pm]

syd taylor [7pm]

AHEAD OF THE BEAT

Maestro Leonard Slatkin looks ahead with the Nashville Symphony BY

AMY STUMPFL

NASHVILLE SYMPHONY’S newly appointed music director Leonard Slatkin is set to receive the prestigious Lincoln Medal on Sunday as part of the Ford’s Theatre Society’s annual gala in Washington, D.C. It’s a significant honor, celebrating Slatkin’s remarkable 60-year career, including his passion for music education along with his tireless advocacy for the nation’s repertoire. Yet even as he takes a moment to reflect upon his many accomplishments, Slatkin remains emphatically focused on the future.

“I’ve never really been one for looking back,” says Slatkin, a six-time Grammy winner and recipient of the National Medal of Arts. “But this is such a tremendous honor. And it’s especially gratifying to be recognized for my work in education, and as a champion of American music. These things are so important to me — it’s the work that keeps me energized.”

The internationally acclaimed conductor, composer, author and educator was named the symphony’s new music director in February following his previous appointment as music adviser in 2025. Slatkin also served as Nashville Symphony’s music adviser from 2006 through 2009, during the opening of the Schermerhorn.

“You know, about eight years ago, when I stepped down from my music directorship in Detroit, I really felt that I was ready to slow

down,” he says. “I had run five different orchestras over the years, and thought that’s enough — I don’t need to be an administrator anymore. I would guest conduct, write music, write my books and those sorts of things. But then I was asked to advise the Las Vegas Philharmonic — just to help out as they searched for their new music director. And when [Nashville Symphony’s president and CEO] Alan Valentine called me and said they needed something similar in Nashville, I was happy to jump in. I’ve always loved the orchestra, from the first time I worked with them, and I’ve seen them fairly regularly over the years. But after a few trips to the city, talking through ideas and plans, it became clear that they needed more. And honestly, I realized that I’d been missing the work — that sense of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. It’s a big job, but what an exciting time.”

Slatkin says he is eager to build on the foundation created by music director laureate Giancarlo Guerrero, who concluded his tenure with the symphony in 2025, and he’s currently considering a wide range of initiatives pertaining to education and outreach. He’s particularly keen to explore opportunities for new technology and content development. A vibrant 81 years of age, Slatkin — who recently completed a nine-week, 10-city European tour — is constantly looking for

the community. Even if you’ve never been to a concert, that recognition is important. That’s something the city can take pride in, and be inspired by.”

Slatkin hopes the 2026-2027 season also will serve to inspire, with programming that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Schermerhorn, the 80th anniversary of the symphony itself and the nation’s 250th anniversary. September’s opening weekend is particularly notable — a decidedly American program that Slatkin says will feature as-yet-unnamed “high-profile members of the Nashville music community.” And in January, the symphony will record David Del Tredici’s Final Alice with soprano Hila Plitmann — something he calls “a bucket-list item.”

“It’s a sensational piece that calls for a virtuoso singer,” Slatkin says of the 1976 neoromantic piece, which is based on the last two chapters of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “It’s one of the most important works in the repertoire, and this will be a significant recording for the orchestra. It’s also going to be a marvelous multisensory experience, with projected sets and other enhancements. “It’s an exciting time. I’m thrilled to be back with Nashville Symphony, and feel privileged to be part of this next chapter.” ▼

IT’S A TENNESSEE THING

ways to connect with new audiences through social media and on his own website

“While on tour, I thought it might be fun to post a picture in each city, asking ‘Where in the world is Leonard Slatkin?’” he explains of a recent social media endeavor. “We added a video component, asking followers to guess where I was. It’s a small thing, but such fun, and it really created quite a buzz with people commenting and sharing. And that’s the goal — engagement, reaching people who are like, ‘Hmm, maybe we should check this out. Maybe we should go to a concert?’ I also like the idea of working with local university students to create new video content — things we could share in advance, or even during a concert. People listen with their eyes now. Of course, we never want to detract from the music, but there are so many ways to add to the experience, and to connect with new audiences.”

He also wants Nashville audiences to connect with individual members of the orchestra, whether in a concert setting or out in the community.

“It’s important for people to see and get to know the orchestra, just as they know the people playing on the hockey team or the football team,” says Slatkin. “Let’s get their faces up there on posters and banners, let’s get them out in

Starlito and Bandplay’s Not the Country You Know is a Southern-fried double album BY LOGAN BUTTS

STARLITO IS NO stranger to a collaborative album, especially one where the veteran Nashville rapper teams up with a fellow Tennessean. During his nearly 25-year career, ’Lito has released Star & Gotti with Memphis MC Yo Gotti, StarBucks with Nashville’s ultimate hip-hop OG Young Buck and, of course, the long-running Step Brothers series with Don Trip, another Memphis star.

Starlito has once again bridged the musical gap between Memphis and Nashville (though not exactly the geographical one, more on that in a second) with a joint effort. This time he’s teamed up with a producer to create a specific sound rather than trading bars with a fellow MC. Enter Bandplay. Hailing from Middle Tennessee — he was born and raised in Columbia — Bandplay made his name crafting hits for Bluff City rappers like Key Glock and late folk hero Young Dolph. His work on tracks like Dolph and Glock’s hit “Major” is filled with the hard-hitting hi-hats found throughout trap music, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bandplay’s work on the twangy Starlito collab Not the Country You Know, a double album released in March and entrenched firmly in Nashville both sonically and lyrically. The pair heads to Exit/In on Friday, June 5, as part of a series of shows celebrating the album.

In the music video for the opening title track,

featuring a hook from R&B singer Bryant Taylorr, ’Lito is rocking a cowboy hat on a farm surrounded by tractors as he raps about jumping on I-40 to “grab something from Arnold’s.” But the country-fied songs aren’t gimmicky like, say, Morgan Wallen and Lil Durk’s “Broadway Girls” or BigXThaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s “All the Way.” The country touches add to the authenticity as Starlito brings the level of consistency and sincerity we’ve come to expect from his rhymes.

Part one of the double album, subtitled Unhappy Hour (the second half is named Last Call), features a killer one-two punch near the end with “Is You Cool,” co-starring the aforementioned Young Buck, and “How You Wanna Play,” which has a scene-stealing guest verse from another local rapper, Six Street Lil Mac.

These tracks make it abundantly clear that Not the Country You Know isn’t just about adding a twangy flair to Starlito and Bandplay’s hip-hop sound. The album, which chronicles a rapidly changing city, could easily be

called Not the Nashville You Know. And after 25 years, if there’s one person I trust with chronicling a transforming Music City, it’s Starlito. ▼

SOWING WHAT YOU WANT TO REAP

Nathan Evans Fox plants seeds for a better future with Heirloom

BY BEE DELORES

NASHVILLE SINGER-SONGWRITER Nathan

Evans Fox is well aware that his new record Heirloom, finished two years ago, carries significantly more weight in 2026.

“America has always had this class of folks who have experienced the cost of living in an empire,” Fox says. “That net is widening, and more and more people are being put in touch with that.”

Fox weaves the moral inheritances we all carry into the roots-rocking, banjo-laced, unpolished and unfussy sonic tapestry of Heirloom. Halfway through the album in the title track, he assesses his own. He reflects on the things — tangible and not — he wants to leave his new child, as he sings: “I’m looking for signs while we work for rich men / Biding our time till Jubilee comes.”

works in across his album’s 12 songs. State politics in his adopted home play a role, as he references Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on “Landlords, Bill Lee, Etc.” and “Racecar.” The first song features recordings of Lee, as well as state House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), made during speeches after the 2023 shooting at the Covenant School.

“There’s a seat at the table,” Fox sings earnestly in the second of the two, playing on Lee’s ongoing refusal to participate in federal programs that provide assistance to families trying to keep their kids fed in the summer. “Don’t matter where you’re from / Everybody got a right to eat.”

sponsibility to “look out for my people,” he says. “I want to be a good neighbor.”

The stories at the roots of Fox’s songs are not new — not for humans in general, and not for him. Growing up on fourth-generation family land in Western North Carolina, he came to understand how military service, labor and policies decided by others have affected his family history. “I tell everybody at my shows that Uncle Sam is the real patriarch of most of our families,” he says, “and it’s certainly true in my family.” In the closer “I Know the End,” he confronts America’s perennial wartime and the way it shapes lives long after a given conflict is over and service members turn to other toil: “All that war and work came home every time.”

Those are the social and political planes Fox

Fox also deconstructs a strict evangelical upbringing and what it means to be a good human. Religious institutions meant to build up marginalized communities so often bring abuse and harm.

“There’s also a lot that I learned about the things that are capable of bringing people together,” says Fox. Thus, he centers his faith in a newly reconstructed understanding with “Hillbilly Hymn (Okra & Cigarettes),” a scorcher you might hear at a Friday night revival in rural America. Bluesy foot stomping drives a loose choir of voices, capturing the soul-connecting experience of honest faith rather than striving for vocal perfection. Naturally, there are also plenty of hard truths embedded in that communal feeling, as he sings: “Ain’t gotta act mean to be treated fair / All the living’s honest and dying too / Our bodies return as heirlooms.”

In conjunction with the album’s release, Fox recently launched The Anti-Confederate Southern History Reading Club on his Substack. It grew out of a deep conviction and moral re-

As of this writing, 996 people have already signed up for the course, set from June 1 to July 22 and featuring readings from three books. Neal Shirley and Saralee Stafford’s Dixie Be Damned, Robin D.G. Kelley’s Hammer and Hoe and Danielle L. McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street demystify the romanticized South through anti-Confederate politics and anticapitalism, while also touching on gender and Southern religion. “There’s a sense of kinship that’s really driving it,” Fox notes.

Between Heirloom and the Substack course, Fox dismantles perceptions of country folk, too. “The queerest spaces I’ve ever been in are country,” he says. “I was telling somebody about queering a lawnmower — the biodiversity of things is a queer ethic. That also extends out to your relationships with other people and to your gender identity. I know so many country folks who are gender-nonconforming without knowing it.”

Fox feels a responsibility to champion an alternative to popular conceptions of rural life. “I look at what’s being sold now, and it’s just monocropped, suburban and gridded values. It doesn’t read as country to me because it’s so goddamn basic, predictable and repetitive.” ▼

MUSIC: THE SPIN

ZEN ARCADE

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

THE UNOFFICIAL THEME of May 20’s gig at East Side pinball bar No Quarter was new songs and old friends, with three acts consisting of just five different people, most of them toggling between lead and sideperson from set to set, even from one song to the next. The group with the most players is Pull Chains, a meeting of the minds between Memphis-raised, Asheville, N.C.-residing punk tunesmith par excellence Greg Cartwright, with Joey Plunket from stalwart Nashville rockers Country Westerns and his old friend from Atlanta “Gentleman Jesse” Smith also contributing tunes, and Asheville drummer-about-town Eliza Hill keeping time.

No Quarter is an arcade and sports bar primarily, but has a side room that can host shows, as well as a smoking patio from where bands can be seen and, if loud enough, heard clearly through two windows on the side of the building. Smith kicked things off with a solo acoustic set. He overcame loud talkers and pinball machines on the bar side of the curtain that threatened to drown out his melancholic yet driving, Tommy Keene- and Paul Westerberg-inspired originals — which, with a band behind him, could easily have gone from good to great.

Little did I know we’d get to witness that soon. More than once, Cartwright emphasized that Pull Chains isn’t solely his project — songwriting is done collectively, whenever the members can find time to link up here or in Asheville. Smith’s songs for this band, and in general, were entirely new to me. Occupying the scrappier side of the power-pop spectrum, they were loose in a good way. He, Plunket and Hill all asserted themselves confidently, the bass and guitar interplay was colorful, and the drumming uncomplicated but authoritative — especially on a late-set standout ID’d by Plunket as “I Know, Right?”

Regardless, Cartwright is the draw. The voice

and face of Bluff City garage rockers Reigning Sound between 2001 and 2022 (in addition to tons of other projects like The Oblivians), the 54-year-old musician is an indefatigable songwriter whose influence, especially around these parts, can’t be overestimated. Ahead of Pull Chains’ set, he performed alone on guitar and vocals. Haunting yet comforting, it conjured traveling alone at night, catching a beautiful, timeless song on the FM dial just before it disappears into static. It came early, but was my favorite part of the evening. Plunket, sitting onstage, eyes closed, lost in thought, looked inclined to agree. All the material played Wednesday is slated to come out on an LP tracked this week at the Bomb Shelter here in town. Keep an eye out.

I’ve spilled lots of ink in these pages on Country Westerns over the years, but six years onward from their instant-classic self-titled 2020 debut, singer-songwriter-guitarist Plunket and drummer Brian Kotzur are a veritable local institution, a go-to answer to any question about good, active Nashville bands. There will always be a place for gritty, jangly, quintessentially American indie rock of this ilk.

But for a band so seemingly straightforward, Country Westerns have also always shown a penchant for experimenting with the delivery. An early incarnation featured then-Bully bassist Reece Lazarus on saxophone; after bassist Sabrina Rush moved on, the core duo had to figure out how to still sound like a full band. They’ve recorded and toured as a trio with other bassists, but lately they’ve come up with a recipe that calls for Plunket’s ebullient 12-string to fill the soundscape and for Kotzur to somehow make keeping time and playing synth bass simultaneously look easy. Staggering material from their forthcoming third LP — which had more of a Tom Petty influence than I can remember ever hearing before — appeared alongside tunes that’ve never left the set list like “Guest Checks” and perennial closer “I’m Not Ready.” This performance felt mellower than others I’ve seen, but coming at the end of a gloomy-weather day, suited the mood. ▼

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Nate Bargatze’s Nashville-set The Breadwinner feels like something we’ve moved past BY KEN ARNOLD

THE FAMILY COMEDY has always been a staple of the Hollywood summer calendar, with early-summer blockbusters acting as cultural bellwethers. They are the movies that define eras, like The Goonies and Big in the ’80s. Yet for every E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, there is a Mac and Me — it’s a beloved genre that elicits plenty of nostalgia, but there are more bad entries than good. As much as we may want to love a lighthearted family comedy with local ties and a likable lead, Old Hickory native Nate Bargatze’s The Breadwinner is one of the genre’s more forgettable recent entries.

Nate Wilcox (Bargatze) is a successful Toyota salesman and his household’s sole breadwinner, supporting his stay-at-home wife Katie (Mandy Moore) and their three daughters. Katie takes an invention onto the show Shark Tank, where she is given a conditional offer — she’ll get financing for her project, but only if Nate takes time off from work to be a stay-at-home dad. The catch: Nate is completely and utterly incompetent at anything and everything other than selling cars. He has to survive being a single parent for two weeks while Katie develops her business. As one might gather from the premise alone,

this is a film that feels outdated on arrival. The idea that a nuclear family still needs a stay-athome parent is one that feels unreflective of the times. Most American households are now dualincome, and most two-parent households see both adults working full time and still providing childcare. The insistence from The Breadwinner’s characters that there needs to be one stay-athome parent indirectly demonizes parents who want to work. Seeing a car salesman providing for a family of five in a large, two-story house in the suburbs — with the main conflict stemming from his wife receiving equity investment to start a business — is out of touch with modern reality. At times it feels almost insulting. The incompetent-dad trope — centering on a man who is completely unable to take care of himself and relies on his wife to do everything — is sadder than it is funny. It attempts to center on the difficulty faced by stay-at-home moms, but also leans on tired gender roles by depicting the film’s only other stay-at-home dad as hyper effeminate.

The Breadwinner is also laden with product placements — and the Toyota placements feel particularly egregious. Nate’s die-hard Tennessee

Titan fandom functions as a major MacGuffin in the film’s plot, leading to awkward clashes between Nissan Stadium’s signage and the film’s frequent Toyota mentions. An ex machina Walmart-centric portion of the film breaks any semblance of cinematic immersion, feeling more like a commercial break or an unskippable ad.

The Breadwinner is a Nashville-set family comedy that probably doesn’t feature enough Nashville in it to gain a local cult following, but it’s also not the sort of trainwreck that can provide ironic entertainment. It relies on outdated ideas of gender roles in a nuclear family — gender roles that are fading from memory more and more by the year. It attempts to evoke nostalgia from previous decades, but you can’t define a generation if you’re stuck in the previous one. ▼

The Breadwinner PG, 100 minutes

Opening Thursday, May 28, at Regal and AMC theaters

STORM FRONT

Anthony Maras’ Pressure shows a battle behind the front lines

BY ELI MOTYCKA

GOOD WAR MOVIES always show how much of history follows from the smallest contingencies. Now base everything — an invasion, a war, humanity’s future — on analog weather data, and out comes Anthony Maras’ Pressure, a D-Day historical drama based on David Haig’s stage play of the same name.

Suspense depends on an audience that can’t quite remember its history. Two weathermen, honest Brit James Stagg (Andrew Scott) and obedient American Irwin Krick (Chris Messina), compete for credibility in the tense days leading up to the Allies’ invasion of Normandy. President Eisenhower has meticulously prepared to launch thousands of troops, air cover and fleets from England, and is sweating the one thing he can’t arrange in advance: clear weather across the English Channel in early June. With an unseasonal pressure system moving in, obsequious Krick is willing to give the general the all-clear, cherry-picking charts along the way. Stagg, however, won’t budge from a gloomy forecast that predicts towering waves and thick cloud cover along the French coast — the recipe for an Allied slaughter and exactly the news an ornery Eisenhower doesn’t want to hear. This premise sets up a straightforward conflict and a pleasing climax, heightened by Stagg’s speech about trusting science over the pull of a confirmation bias — so long as viewers don’t spoil Eisenhower’s climactic decision by remembering the invasion’s actual date.

Stuffed with cotton dress uniforms, countryside finery and the whirring instruments, maps, charts and machines of the 1940s, Pressure briefly disguises war as an alluring high-stakes parlor game somewhere between poker and chess. Maras does well to puncture this illusion with contemporaneous shots of detained Allied troops numbing their anxiety with liquor while they wait for Eisenhower’s ominous order. When German bombers strike a nearby maternity

ward, leaving Stagg’s pregnant wife unaccounted for, it adds pressure of a third kind, forcing him to display an inhuman commitment to the broader war effort.

As Stagg, Scott executes an excellent leading performance, albeit next to a mostly one-dimensional cast that includes Damian Lewis. (The two previously invaded Normandy together with Easy Company in Band of Brothers, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ classic miniseries.) One exception is Kerry Condon as Kay Summersby, Eisenhower’s aide-de-camp and a subtly effective mitigating force within the apparatus.

Teamwork, sound leadership and all sides of masculinity are tested as Hollywood finds yet another angle from which to dramatize World War II heroics. Eight decades after the invasion itself — a success, it turns out, thanks to an unexpected break in the clouds — the world wars keep getting turned inside-out by entertainment executives. While Pressure may not rise to compete with modern wartime classics like Dunkirk, 1917 or All Quiet on the Western Front, it’s still good enough to terrify a typical American into admiration for the difficult decisions and miraculous luck that shaped generations of relative peace. Its stressful 100 minutes leave a single impression: Let’s never, ever do that again. ▼

Pressure PG-13, 100 minutes

Opening Friday, May 29, at Regal and AMC locations

ACROSS

1 “Truth be told …”

7 “___ so!” (German “I see!”)

10 Hoax

14 Big name in skin care

15 Leader whose face is shown on renminbi notes

16 Ashen

17 Spot for a catnap?

19 Innings : baseball :: ___ : curling

20 Lead-in to Geo

21 Symbol of mass density

22 They’re noisy little buggers

24 Kinkajou cousin

26 Expected outcome

27 Circa

29 Experience deep affirmation, in modern lingo

33 On guard

34 Center

35 Opus ___

36 Follower of open or closed, sartorially

37 Spaghetti-strapped tops, informally

38 Pass (out)

39 Reaction to a sock

40 Tasty item that, paradoxically, can have “ugh” in the middle

41 Queen’s collaborator on the 1981 hit “Under Pressure”

42 What the “Music City Miracle” and the “Immaculate Reception” took place in

44 Alternative to bow ties

45 It might follow “ye”

46 “___ days are gone”

48 Test release?

51 Qt. or pt.

52 G.I. entertainers

55 Trawling, say

56 When many rainbows appear

59 Like some chances

60 Steering aid

61 Sign on a restroom door

62 Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu, in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie”

63 Science guy Bill

64 Ring combo DOWN

1 Babe in the woods

2 Adidas competitor

3 *Material for a sidewalk

4 Media exec Sarandos

5 “You game?”

6 *To a degree

7 “Why ___ even here?”

8 It might come after trig

9 *Lack of pulchritude

10 Pickle portions

11 Something that’s kept in the family ... or a hint to making sense of three pairs of answers in this puzzle

12 Alan of “M*A*S*H”

13 State of a playroom, often

18 Lush

23 Young stud

24 Bungee jumping necessity

25 “Assuming there’s no other option for me …”

27 Withdrawn

28 *Choice cut

30 Go over for publication

31 Start of a counting rhyme

32 Company that famously used the Beatles’ “Revolution” in a 1987 TV commercial

33 Lots and lots

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

34 Thick locks

37 *Supermarket shopper’s clipping

38 Alternative to a cup

40 Owie kissers, perhaps

41 Member of a wedding party

43 Twinkles

44 *Sport that uses mallets

47 “You ___ me worried!”

48 Something to be done

49 Louisiana’s Grand ___ State Park

50 Speak while looking up, perhaps

52 Foot or stone

53 Goulash, e.g.

54 Really, really

57 Wrath

58 Weird Al’s “___ to a Superhero”

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FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE

WHEREAS, DEN 827A

Dewees LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company, executed a Construction Deed of Trust dated October 17, 2022, of record at Instrument No. 20221018- 0113835, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, as subsequently modified by that First Amendment to Deed of Trust, of record at Instrument No. 202404080024599 said Register’s Office (“Deed of Trust”) and conveyed to Richard A. Bynum, as Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure the payment of certain indebtedness (“Indebtedness”) owed to Studio Bank (referred to as “Lender”); and WHEREAS, default in payment of the Indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust has occurred; and WHEREAS, David M. Anthony (“Trustee”) has been appointed Substitute Trustee by Lender by that Appointment of Substitute Trustee of record at Instrument 20260422- 0033087, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, with authority to act alone or by a designated agent with the powers given the Trustee in the Deed of Trust and by applicable law; and WHEREAS, Lender, the owner and holder of said Indebtedness, has demanded that the real property be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said Indebtedness and the costs of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust.

NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Friday, June 12, 2026, at 1:00 o’clock p.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows:

Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 20221018- 0113835, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Friday, June 12, 2026, at 1:00 o’clock p.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 20221018- 0113835, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

Land in Davidson County, Tennessee, being Unit 827

A on the Plan of Davis Estates, attached as Exhibit "B" to the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for Davis Estates, a Horizontal Property Regime with Private Elements, of record in Instrument No. 20200527- 0054523, in the Register's Office for Davidson, Tennessee, to which reference is hereby made for a more particular description of said unit.

Being the same property conveyed to DEN 827 A Dewees, LLC by Quitclaim Deed from Rodney Davis and Deborah Davis recorded simultaneously herewith of record in Instrument No. 20221018- 0113834, Register's Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

Map/Parcel No: 118- 02- 1N001.00CO

FORECLOSURE

Land in Davidson County, Tennessee, being Unit 827 A on the Plan of Davis Estates, attached as Exhibit "B" to the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for Davis Estates, a Horizontal Property Regime with Private Elements, of record in Instrument No. 20200527- 0054523, in the Register's Office for Davidson, Tennessee, to which reference is hereby made for a more particular description of said unit.

Being the same property conveyed to DEN 827 A Dewees, LLC by Quitclaim Deed from Rodney Davis and Deborah Davis recorded simultaneously herewith of record in Instrument No. 20221018- 0113834, Register's Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

Map/Parcel No: 118- 02- 1N001.00CO

of Trust and applicable law, will on Friday, June 12, 2026, at 1:15 o’clock p.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise, homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows:

Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 20221018- 0113837, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

Land in Davidson County, Tennessee, being Unit 827B, on the Plan of Davis Estates, attached as Exhibit "B" to the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for Davis Estates, a Horizontal Property Regime with Private Elements, of record in Instrument No. 202005270054523, in the Register's Office for Davidson, Tennessee, to which reference is hereby made for a more particular description of said unit.

Being the same property conveyed to Davis Estates Nashville LLC by Quitclaim Deed from Rodney Davis and Wife, Deborah Davis recorded simultaneously herewith of record in Instrument No. 202210180113836, Register's Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

Opry Mills Mall

NOTICE Danny Ray Parker: A Complaint For Divorce has been filed against you. You are hereby ORDERED to appear for hearing on that Complaint on June 16, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. at Dickson County Chancery Court, 500 Spring Street, Charlotte, Tennessee 37036 or to otherwise enter an appe arance in this matter. If you fail to do so, an order may be entered against you for the relief requested in the Complaint. You may view and obtain a copy of the Complaint and any other subsequently filed legal documents in the Chancery Court Clerk’s Off ice at the address shown above.

NSC 5/14, 5/21, 5/28, 6/4/26

EMPLOYMENT

Senior Associate, Operations Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Nashville, TN. Assist clients in optimizing all aspects of their operations to evolve from being solely costeffective enablers to becoming key sources of competitive advantage. Req. Bach’s deg or frgn equiv in Bus Admin, Mgmt, Engg, Finc, Eco or a rel fld, + 3 yrs of rel wrk exp OR.; Master’s deg or frgn equiv in Bus Admin, Mgmt, Engg, Finc, Eco or a rel fld, + 1 yr of r el wrk exp. 50% telecommuting permitted. Must be able to commute to the designated local office. Domestic and/or international travel up to 80% is required. Mult. Pos. aval. Sal. range: $178,000$182,000/yr. Please apply by sending your resume to US_PwC_Career_Recruitme nt@pwc.com, specifying Job Code TN4851 in the subject line.

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Grand Ole Opry

TOP 2 BARS

Twin Peaks

WHEREAS, Davis Estates Nashville, LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company, executed a Construction Deed of Trust dated October 17, 2022, of record at Instrument No. 20221018- 0113837, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, as subsequently modified by that First Amendment to Deed of Trust, of record at Instrument No. 202404080024598 said Register’s Office (“Deed of Trust”) and conveyed to Richard A. Bynum, as Trustee, the hereinafter described real property to secure the payment of certain indebtedness (“Indebtedness”) owed to Studio Bank (referred to as “Lender”); and WHEREAS, default in payment of the Indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust has occurred; and WHEREAS, David M. Anthony (“Trustee”) has been appointed Substitute Trustee by Lender by that Appointment of Substitute Trustee of record at Instrument 20260422- 0033086, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee, with authority to act alone or by a designated agent with the powers given the Trustee in the Deed of Trust and by applicable law; and WHEREAS, Lender, the owner and holder of said Indebtedness, has demanded that the real property be advertised and sold in satisfaction of said Indebtedness and the costs of the foreclosure, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the loan documents and Deed of Trust. NOW, THEREFORE, notice is hereby given that the Trustee, pursuant to the power, duty and authority vested in and imposed upon the Trustee under the Deed of Trust and applicable law, will on Friday, June 12, 2026, at 1:15 o’clock p.m., prevailing Nashville time, on the steps of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201, offer for sale to the highest and best bidder for cash and free from all rights and equity of redemption, statutory right of redemption or otherwise, homestead, dower, elective share and all other rights and exemptions of every kind as waived in said Deed of Trust, certain real property situated in Davidson County, Tennessee, described as follows: Legal Description: The real property is described in the Deed of Trust at Instrument 20221018- 0113837, Register’s Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

Chili’s Grill & Bar

LongHorn Steakhouse

ENJOY THE OUTDOORS

Land in Davidson County, Tennessee, being Unit 827B, on the Plan of Davis Estates, attached as Exhibit "B" to the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for Davis Estates, a Horizontal Property Regime with Private Elements, of record in Instrument No. 202005270054523, in the Register's Office for Davidson, Tennessee, to which reference is hereby made for a more particular description of said unit.

Cedar Hill Park

Centennial Park

Treetop Adventure Park at Nashville Shores

BEST PLACE NEARBY TO SEE A SHOW

Bridgestone Arena

FAVORITE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD BAR Fox & Hound

BEST LOCAL FAMILY OUTING

Dave & Buster’s Nashville

Being the same property conveyed to Davis Estates Nashville LLC by Quitclaim Deed from Rodney Davis and Wife, Deborah Davis recorded simultaneously herewith of record in Instrument No. 202210180113836, Register's Office for Davidson County, Tennessee.

COMMUNITY AMENITIES

Swimming Pool

Fitness Center

Clubroom

HealthStream, Inc. seek multiple Senior Software Developers in Nashville, TN to design, develop, and maintain the software products offered by HealthStream in accordance with technology best practices and product offerings. Multiple positions available. Reqs. BS+3 yrs. exp. To apply, submit a resume to https://www.healthstream.co m/about/careers, OR submit a resume to https://jobs4tnwfs.tn.gov/, OR mail resume to: HealthStream, Inc., Attn: HR, 500 11th Ave North, Suite 850, Nashville, TN 37203. Must reference Job Title & Job Code: 000141. EOE.

HealthStream, Inc. seeks multiple Sr. QA Analysts in Nashville, TN to provide Quality Assurance expertise across the entire software development lifecycle and perform software testing functions. Multiple positions available. Reqs. MS+2 or BS+5 yrs. exp. To apply, submit a resume to https://www.healthstream.co m/about/careers, OR submit a resume to https://jobs4tnwfs.tn.gov/, OR mail resume to: HealthStream, Inc., Attn: HR, 500 11th Ave North, Suite 850, Nashville, TN 37203. Must reference Job Title & Job Code: 44708