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Your guide to the season’s best futuristic art shows, citywide film festivals and queer book clubs

FALL GUIDE 2026

NANCY BAKER CAHILL’S “CORPUS,” FROM THE FRIST’S SHIMMER: DREAMING THE POSTHUMAN

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WITNESS HISTORY Buddy Miller bought this Wandre Soloist model guitar—designed and manufactured in Italy by Antonio Vandré Pioli and distributed in the U.S. by Don Noble & Company—at a pawnshop for $50. It became a mainstay for Miller’s live performances and studio recordings. From the exhibit Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present artifact: Courtesy of Buddy Miller artifact photo: Bob Delevante

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CONTENTS NEWS

9 BNA Police Have Used Clearview AI Facial Recognition Since 2020 A technology that’s ‘just as invasive and powerful as license plate readers’ is running searches on behalf of law enforcement BY NICK PIPITONE

9 Local Ear Doctors Help Music Industry Workers Who Have Tinnitus FDA-approved treatment, coping mechanisms help lower the volume BY HANNAH HERNER

10 Metropolitik: City Leaders Are Mentally Preparing to Remake Metro Council A pending opinion from the Tennessee Supreme Court could define 2027 elections BY ELI MOTYCKA

11 Pith in the Wind This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

13 COVER PACKAGE: FALL GUIDE 13 Mark Scala’s Final Major Curatorial Endeavor at the Frist

Nashville Ballet presents Nick Mullikin’s Giselle • HEATHER THORNE

Talking to the Frist Art Museum’s chief curator about Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman

Comedy Band Camp, Geese and more

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

14 Must-See Museum and Gallery Exhibitions Andrew Combs at Julia Martin Gallery and a West Nashville Art Crawl top our autumn highlights

MUSIC

ON THE COVER:

33 Rites of Passage

Nancy Baker Cahill’s “CORPUS,” from the Frist’s Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman

Ahead of a Sept. 30 Ryman show with Linda Perry, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of seminal folk-rock duo Indigo Girls discuss reflection and change

BY JOE NOLAN

16 LGBTQ Events The opening of Vanderbilt’s Jackie Shane archives tops our list of can’t-miss LGBTQ events for fall

BY ANNIE PARNELL

The Scene’s live-review column checks out AmericanaFest

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34 The Spin

BY ANNIE PARNELL

18 The Season’s Best Theater, Dance and Opera The Rep’s John Proctor Is the Villain and a tale of protoJapan lead our picks of top performances

BY AMY STUMPFL

20 What to See at the Nashville Film Festival From The Leader to Songs From the Circle, here are our thoughts on 14 films showing at this week’s 57th annual fest

BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM, ANNIE PARNELL, GRACE BRASWELL AND JULIANNE

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NEWS: METROPOLITIK

CITY LEADERS ARE MENTALLY PREPARING TO REMAKE METRO COUNCIL A pending opinion from the Tennessee Supreme Court could define 2027 elections BY ELI MOTYCKA

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

PET OF THE WEEK!

don’t know what’s causing it, here’s our treatments for it.’” For some, tinnitus is mild enough that they don’t seek treatment. For the rest, it’s trial and error. At its worst, it can affect sleep, concentration and ability to hear people. “The brain thinks it’s a threat and keeps checking for that threat,” and it depends on how you react to threats overall, Thomas explains. “My main takeaway that I help my patients understand is that tinnitus is a symptom of hearing changes, but it’s driven by stress,” Thomas says. “Stress in the brain, stress in the body. It’s typically the emotional response that is driving how long your tinnitus is hanging on, or what else you have going on in your life.” While there are no surgical or pharmaceutical treatments for tinnitus, some things can ease it. Background noise, caffeine reduction, stress reduction and regular sleep don’t necessarily make it better, but they strengthen a person’s ability to cope. In addition, well-tuned hearing aids will help those who have the condition coupled with hearing loss. Maskers — noise produced in the room or fed through hearing aids — can help, as can neuromonics, which mimic tinnitus in an effort to reduce the sound over time. The latest breakthrough is called Lenire, the only treatment approved by the FDA to treat tinnitus. The device stimulates two sensory pathways to retrain the brain and reduce the effects of tinnitus, coupling sound therapy in headphones and mild electrical pulses to the tongue — a method called bimodal neuromodulation. Thomas has seen patients report lower rates of anger, desperation, frustration and depression after using the device for one hour per day for 12 weeks. Habituation is one goal — meaning, as Thomas puts it, “I hear it, it doesn’t bother me.” She helps patients go from feeling like they’re hearing a constant police siren to simply living near an airport — habituation means they stop hearing the planes over time. “The best way to prevent tinnitus is to protect your hearing,” Thomas says. “Then I would say the best way to prevent bothersome tinnitus is to learn about it. Educate yourself on what tinnitus is, so you have all of the tools to understand it and to change your perception of it.” ▼

THE METRO PUBLIC COURTHOUSE Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings. The Tennessee Supreme Court picked up its pace throughout the summer, issuing small flurries of decisions throughout July and August, but it has remained silent since an unrelated disbarment opinion on Sept. 4. Nashville has been waiting impatiently — maybe not the average resident, who likely can’t recall their specific council district number among the 35 apportioned districts across Davidson County, but the legal and representative components of Nashville who sued over the state’s attempt to cap “metropolitan councils” at 20 people. Lynchburg and Trousdale, Tennessee’s only non-Nashville metro councils, have nothing to worry about — they’re already compliant with the 20-member cap. Nashville’s five atlarge councilmembers make it a 40-person body in total, unwieldy and unpredictable, but also amenable to the hybrid citizen-lawmaker once praised as the ideal atom of democracy, especially by conservatives. August 2027 city elections will look like years past if Nashville wins its lawsuit to keep the current council structure in place. If the Tennessee Supreme Court affirms a lower court ruling from last year, which the city appealed under former legal director Wally Dietz in summer

2025, big changes will remake the chamber as a smaller body likely hosting better-staffed and better-funded local lawmakers. “The Tennessee Supreme Court is keeping us all in suspense about the fate of our Metro Council as we await a ruling,” says Tyler Chance Yarbro, a former Metro public defender and private-sector attorney who succeeded Dietz in August. “While we are thinking through all possible outcomes, we remain hopeful that the Court will agree with the trial court’s original decision and vindicate Nashville’s right to determine how it governs itself. Yarbro, who will help steer the city’s response to whatever opinion does come down, declined to go into detail about contingencies. Councilmembers, like city attorneys, are privately gaming out what might happen and to whom. A third of the city’s councilmembers are currently term-limited — continued eligibility for at least 10 members may be another question in a new, structurally distinct body — and with the body capped at 20, districts would consolidate under several more, pitting current members against each other in August. Should the court affirm a 20-person cap, Metro will be left to respond with next steps and implementation. They would navigate uncharted — and unchartered — territory. Winter and spring could bring a mini charter

convention where members seek public input alongside a formal legislative process to draft and adopt new maps. For prospective candidates, conflicts of interest will loom over debates about what lines are drawn. Mayoral and vice mayoral elections are already beginning to shape the chamber 11 months from Election Day. “ The council office, the mayor’s office and probably the planning department are gonna have to all work really closely together — under the law, council will effectuate changes, but that doesn’t make it council’s decision,” Councilmember At-Large Quin Evans Segall tells the Scene. “A lot of us think that there needs to be some sort of public process around this. The [Metro Charter] itself was a very public process. The question is, how do we do it in a way that gives voters a say in the very limited amount of time we’re going to have? Particularly, how do we do that in our current environment, when everyone is rightly worried about our democracy?” The Metro Planning Department produced maps in 2023 when the state legislature took its first pass at reducing Nashville’s Metro Council. As the legal process slowly unspooled, longtime city planner Greg Claxton helped develop these concept pieces, according to those familiar with the process. (Claxton declined to speak with the Scene for this story, citing the ongoing court case.) Two maps reviewed by the Scene, one with 15 districts and one with 17 districts, would create a chamber with stark differences. Both expand the city’s downtown power center under one candidate, consolidate East Nashville under another, and give most of Nashville by acreage to the two or three members representing Bellevue and the county’s sparsely populated northern hills. Reduction can be efficient and inelegant. Evans Segall, who also works full-time as an attorney, doesn’t want to get into how much time she spends on council business. Members balance their day jobs with city service, which pays a little more than $25,000 annually. It’s a pittance compared to peer cities like Charlotte, Austin, Denver and Phoenix, which keep smaller councils that provide models for a potential Nashville remake. Today, the city’s lawmakers squeeze phone calls, meetings and emails around normal life and workdays. Like many, Evans Segall speculates that, if the court cuts the council in half, fewer and bigger districts will require higher pay and dedicated personal staff to keep up. Shrinking the council could also balloon total costs for members and council staff. It would also filter candidates based on who can take the salary, what careers can tolerate a four-year gap and who wants to be a full-time councilmember. It would select professional politicians handling more constituents across more land — smaller and bigger government at the same time. ▼

PITH IN THE WIND

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/NEWS/PITHINTHEWIND Money, time, effort and controversial campaigning have produced almost 75,000 signatures for the anti-racing coalition tied to billionaire John Ingram seeking a ballot referendum in August 2027. Canvassers wheeled boxes of paper signature sheets to the Metro Courthouse Friday morning. Also present were “Decline to Sign” opponents who have fought efforts to ban racing at The Fairgrounds Nashville. The petition campaign, which organizes under several names and dispatched a team of green-shirted canvassers across Nashville this summer, needs the signatures of an estimated 41,000 Davidson County voters in order to land on the August ballot. It’s the latest move in an ongoing racetrack power struggle that sees billionaires on both sides. Election officials now have 30 days to certify signatures. Pending certification, voters can expect even more fairgrounds campaigning throughout 2027.

State Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) rallied supporters outside the Cordell Hull State Office Building Monday morning to announce legislation to end corporate electioneering in Tennessee races. With several months left before the next state legislative session, details are scarce about any forthcoming bills, and Oliver says she will wait until the Nov. 3 election before tapping a counterpart to sponsor related legislation in the Tennessee House of Representatives. The issue enjoys bipartisan support at the federal level, and Oliver told reporters she is specifically looking for a Republican to carry her legislation in the lower chamber. For now, Oliver will advocate for campaign finance reforms via Stand Together Tennessee, a new advocacy coalition.

A new poll released Thursday shows Democratic nominee Jerri Green gaining on Republican Marsha Blackburn in the race to be Tennessee’s next governor. The poll asked 600 likely voters a series of questions relevant to the race. When initially asked who they planned to vote for, 45 percent said Blackburn, and 36 percent said Green. That 9 percent gap is progress for Green’s underdog campaign in a state that has elected only Republican governors for four straight cycles. Pollsters later provided “biographical descriptions” about the candidates to respondents. Each candidate was rated more positively after those statements, but voters narrowly ranked Green (42 percent) above Blackburn (41 percent) when asked who they “trust to address the issues most important to voters.” The poll was paid for by the Progress Fund, a political action committee funded by Knoxville developer and philanthropist Phil Lawson, who has given $50,000 to the PAC this year and is listed as treasurer. So far, Green is the only candidate to receive funding from that PAC.

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

“COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE” BY MARGUERITE HUMEAU

MARK SCALA’S FINAL MAJOR CURATORIAL ENDEAVOR AT THE FRIST Talking to the Frist Art Museum’s chief curator

ART COURTESY OF FRIST ART MUSEUM

about Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman

“WE ARE IN HELL WHEN WE HURT EACH OTHER” BY JACOLBY SATTERWHITE

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

FOR 26 YEARS, Mark Scala has been curating art shows in Nashville. As the Frist Art Museum’s chief curator, he’s introduced generations of audiences to globally influential contemporary art and artists. But he’s also shaped the way Nashville thinks — his exhibitions make big, complicated ideas feel approachable and engaging. Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman, which opens at the Frist on Sept. 25, is his final major curatorial endeavor before his official retirement at the end of the year, and in many ways it’s the culmination of his work at the Frist’s helm. The exhibition includes 17 visual artists working in technologies like animation, augmented reality, virtual reality and AI. I spoke with Scala in the Frist’s cafe the week before installation began, and we spoke about his legacy, the future of AI, and his hopes for Nashville’s future. This interview has been condensed for clarity.

Something I’ve always found exciting about the shows you curate is how you’re able to take really cerebral, almost philosophical perspectives and find artists who are working with the same ideas. That’s been central to my work as a curator — to make connections for people, and to help them understand even the most difficult, challenging ideas. But the thoughts that I find manifest in the art are also things that people are already thinking about.

Do you feel like artists are particularly skilled at being able to make those big ideas accessible? It’s always an interesting dance between the curatorial concept and the artist’s own practice.

I wouldn’t include an artist who didn’t feel comfortable being included, or feel comfortable with my understanding of their work within this larger context.

How does Shimmer fit into this trajectory? What is it that’s making you think about the posthuman at this point? I mean, every single

show that I have done has planted the seeds for the next show. With Paint Made Flesh, there was this Jenny Saville painting, and I learned that she had worked with plastic surgeons who refer to themselves as “Michelangelos of the flesh.” So that made me think about art in relation to technology and in relation to science. And that became Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination. And you know, what I’m starting to think of is that one of the throughlines in most of these shows is humanity in relation to technology, to science, to philosophy.

I feel like the history of art is a history of religion in a lot of ways, similar to how science has sort of taken the place of religion in society. So it sort of makes sense to me that artists are continuing to explore the same ideas that artists have always been exploring. It’s all about what it means to be human, right? And I don’t think today you can separate that question from technology, but I also don’t think you can separate that question from our relationship with nature, and that’s where the posthuman comes in. Posthumanist philosophy is unlike humanist philosophy, which centers on humanity as being the be-all-end-all, at the top of the ladder in terms of our species development, which gives us certain

freedoms and rights to exploit the non-human. The post-human will say that’s a mistake. Because we’re actually so closely related to the world, to every single natural element, every species, every rock — there’s a connection there. And when something happens to one type of being, it happens to others. So does technology move us away from ourselves? Or does it move us — can it move us — closer to ourselves?

Everyone has been talking about the technology around AI and how rapidly it is advancing — not only in the art world but just in general. Everyone is afraid, and it’s not in the distant future anymore. It’s such an interesting thing. There are maybe six or seven artists in Shimmer who are using AI — not as the sole means of producing their work, but as a tool that they add to. For example, Marguerite Humeau needed to be able to show termites dancing, right? And so she used AI to show termites dancing. It’s a very specific thing. She’s not taking from other artists, and I think that’s a big distinction. That’s what I think a lot of people — a lot of musicians and artists — are very concerned about. If their work is being data-mined and used without their permission, and adapted and adjusted and manipulated without their permission, that is a real concern. And it’s a legitimate concern. But right now, the larger concern — the concern that’s outweighing everything else — is human extinction.

And if we avoid AI out of fear, then that makes room for other people, the people who aren’t avoiding it, to know it so much better. And then

they’ll control things. So that’s part of what I hope people will come away with from this show. Right now it’s an open field. A lot of these artists are using AI in subversive ways, in ways that it is not meant to be used, in ways that will help us build a sense of empathy with the world. And not only are they really smart, but they have a very keen social awareness and cultural awareness. Part of the conversation is, how do you take art and remove it from this kind of enclave, and so it becomes effective in a larger sense?

And you want to be able to have challenging, difficult conversations in a museum setting, in an art setting. That’s sort of the goal, right? You know, Amelia Winger-Bearskin is absolutely brilliant, and she uses AI, but she’s also very leery of it. You know, I think most of these artists, even if they’re using AI, they’re probably more aware than any of us what the dangers are, what the pitfalls are. And so I’d much rather have them doing work with AI than somebody who is just embracing it wholeheartedly, who thinks it’s the salvation of the universe, like all the tech bros are telling us to do. ▼

Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman Sept. 25-Jan. 3 at the Frist Art Museum

NASHVILLE SCENE •SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

MUST-SEE MUSEUM AND GALLERY EXHIBITIONS Andrew Combs at Julia Martin Gallery and a West Nashville Art Crawl top our autumn highlights BY JOE NOLAN

THERE’S NO ART season like fall art season. The mid-September heat wave may still be fresh in all our minds, but spiritually I’m already lost in a land of sweaters and kickoffs, chili and cornbread, fly-fishing and firepits, and cool evenings at gallery hot spots fueled by community, conversation and cabernet sauvignon. Autumn weather may be fashionably late to Middle Tennessee this year, but the visual art scene is bustling, delivering a cornucopia of shows and displays that all touch on

the handmade and the natural. Of course, I see all of this as more evidence of the Romantic renewal that is reinvigorating gothic cinema and pushing contemporary art toward the abstract renderings of the natural, revisiting the aesthetics of early American modernism and renewing transcendentalist themes. Expect natural materials, craft arts, painting and photography all made by (probably mostly) organic humans.

ART BY ANDREW COMBS

“TENDER WISHES” BY RIMA DAY

PAINTING BY DAX VAN AALTEN PHOTO: BRENT COMBS

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SCHWEIKERT PHOTOGRAPHY AND RED ARROW

OCT. 3-31

Opening reception 3-9 p.m. Oct. 3 Julia Martin Gallery

THROUGH

JAN. 6

OZ Arts

OCT. 10-NOV. 21

Opening reception 5-8 p.m Oct. 10 Red Arrow

ILLUSTRATION: CONNER HALL

OCT. 19-DEC. 4

Andrew Combs’ latest exhibition opens at Julia Martin Gallery in early October. Combs’ work has appeared in Martin’s group exhibitions,

Mono No Aware Mono No Aware at OZ Arts brings together work by artists Rima Day and Lanecia Rouse. The show is curated by Sai Clayton, and it takes its title from a Japanese term describing the bittersweet awareness of impermanence. Vintage

Dax van Aalten: Incidental Meditations

Red Arrow celebrates the harvest with Incidental Meditations, a solo exhibition of six new oil paintings by Tennessee-based artist Dax van Aalten. Nearly a decade into his relationship with the gallery, van Aalten continues his in-

Obscuring, Revealing

Opening reception 4-6 p.m. Oct. 22 Belmont University’s Leu Gallery

Later in the season, Belmont University’s Leu Gallery presents Obscuring, Revealing, a group exhibition of Nashville-based photographers who are testing the boundaries of documentary practice through personal narrative, formal experimentation, historical allusion, alternative

DEC. 5

West Nashville Art Crawl

10 a.m.-5 p.m

Andrew Combs: Skim the Sky

Just about the time the holiday panic really starts to chill your bones, the West Nashville Art Crawl returns to bring together artists and creative spaces across the West Side in a oneday celebration of art, music and culture. This

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

but Skim the Sky is his first solo gallery show. It features new paintings and assemblage by the Nashville-based singer-songwriter, who has pursued an increasingly serious visual art practice alongside his music career. Combs deploys acrylic and oil painting combined with wood-

working into folky forms that find their footing in abstract expressions of horses, constellations and geometric designs. The opening reception on Oct. 3 includes a live music performance on the gallery’s porch around 7 p.m.

melancholy autumn, anyone? The exhibition spotlights found objects, photographs and books that act as carriers of inherited and collective memory. Day works in thread, fabric and paper inspired by nature and the human body, and the fact that her work has been featured in Beautiful

Bizarre magazine should give you a sense of her visceral aesthetic. Rouse is the sister of Nashville poet Ciona Rouse, and her multifaceted practice spans collage, abstract painting and photography at the intersection of art and spirituality.

tuitive, process-driven practice in which forms suggest leaves, water, flowers, weather and terrain without resolving into specifics. The work smears the borders between abstraction and representation, landscape and surface, and renders impressionistic scenes that read more like places from memories or dreams. It’s gorgeous

stuff, and it’s also right on time with contemporary trends pointing toward the formal, abstract and natural. This show is another example of Red Arrow’s commitment to the cutting-edge aesthetics that continue to earn its artists national attention.

processes, and the blurred line between fact and fiction. The show is organized by students in Tom Williams’ museum studies course in collaboration with director of galleries Katie Mitchell, and it features works by Caroline Allison, Sam Angel, Carolyn Benedict Fraser, Armon Means, Vesna Pavlović, Kristine Potter, Tamara Reynolds, Chris-

tine Rogers and more. Until Nashville manages to conjure a gallery dedicated to contemporary photography, it’ll take shows like these to demonstrate just how packed with talent our local art community continues to be.

drive-it-yourself tour includes creative venues, studios and artists’ homes across Sylvan Park and the Richland/West End neighborhoods, featuring ceramics, sculpture, painting, textile work, furniture-making and leather crafts from Zach Campbell, Roger Clayton, Twyla Lambert

Clark, Bryan Rumfola, Audry Deal-McEver, Sarah Clinton and more, as well as exhibitions at LeQuire Gallery and Random Sample. Visit westnashvilleartcrawl.com for the full list of participating venues and artists. ▼

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LGBTQ EVENTS The opening of Vanderbilt’s Jackie Shane archives tops our list of can’t-miss LGBTQ events for fall BY ANNIE PARNELL

AS THE SAYING goes, Pride is all year long — and with a full slate of autumn offerings, Nashville’s LGBTQ events calendar certainly doesn’t end in June. Whether you’re looking to learn something new or just get out of the house, this fall’s options range from film screenings to a 5K run and a “creepy, horny and empowered” immersive theater experience, à la the New York Macbeth revamp Sleep No More.

GAY FARMERS MARKET SUMMER 2026

LAUGHS AT LIPSTICK PHOTO: CALEB ABERNATHY

OCT. 6

Vanderbilt University’s Special Collections Library

Vanderbilt University’s Jackie Shane Archives Among the most notable of this season’s queer events is the opening to the public of Vanderbilt University’s Jackie Shane archives. Shane, a

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

groundbreaking Black trans soul singer, was born in Nashville and began her career in the Jefferson Street music scene. She returned to the city from her adopted home of Canada after rejecting the confines of the music industry, and recent years have seen steps to uplift her story and celebrate

her legacy. Presented by Vanderbilt Special Collections, MashUp and Nashville Black Pride, the October reception will feature nonalcoholic beverages and light snacks. It’s free and open to the public, though RSVPs are encouraged. Stay tuned for more Scene coverage of the archives.

Local venues are also offering recurring fall programming throughout the season. Alternating weekends through

OCT. 18

OCT. 23 & NOV. 20

Gay Farmers Market

Laughs at Lipstick Comedy Nights

Music City PReP Clinic

The Lipstick Lounge

Through

JAN. 31

WEEKLY

Dreamscapes

College Night Wednesdays

The Untitled Nashville Hotel Queer Choctaw artist Benjy Russell’s photography exhibit

Play Dance Bar

For returning students, who can get in free with a valid college ID until 10 p.m.

More upcoming LGBTQ events:

SEPT. 24 SEPT. 26 SEPT. 26 SEPT. 28 SEPT. 29

ILLUSTRATION: CONNER HALL

SEPT. 30 OCT. 3 OCT. 4 OCT. 6 OCT. 11 OCT. 17-18 OCT. 17 16

Queer Men’s Book Club: Dancer From the Dance, 7 p.m. at Frankie J’s 34th Nashville AIDS Walk & 5K Run, 7:30 a.m. at Neuhoff District Trans Jam Bender, an all-ages, LGBTQ-only “transgender musical jam session,” 2 p.m. at Drkmttr Collective 9 to 5 film screenings, 3:40, 8 and 8:30 p.m. at the Belcourt Tacos & Trusts: An estate planning information session presented by Rainbow Collective 615 and Memento Law. Free registration and tacos, with micheladas and nonalcoholic drink options available. 5:30 p.m. at 1903 Old Hickory Blvd. Indigo Girls and Linda Perry (check out my interview with Indigo Girls in this week’s music section!), 7 p.m. at the Ryman Queer Dance Party: RBQDP at Rosemary & Beauty Queen Novelette Book Club: Stitched: A Novel (purchase a copy of the book to join), 6 p.m. at Novelette Books Sappho Book Club: The Starving Saints, 7:30 p.m. at Frankie J’s Nashville Public Library Queer Book Club: Muñeca, 10 a.m. at Chapstick (RSVP via email to megan.adoviaso-jones@nashville.gov) The Pride of Homecoming: An LGBTQ TSU homecoming celebration, 10 p.m. at Timeless Events Center T. Minton author discussion: The Belcourt Theatre: Nashville’s Oldest Neighborhood Cinema at the Southern Festival of Books, 1 p.m. at the Tennessee State Museum’s Duck Room

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

OCT. 18 OCT. 21 OCT. 22 OCT. 22 OCT. 23 OCT. 29NOV. 1 OCT. 30 OCT. 31 NOV. 7 NOV. 7 NOV. 8 NOV. 19

Silas House author discussion: The Tulip Poplars in conversation with Kevin Wilson at the Southern Festival of Books, 12:30 p.m. at the Cumberland Tent Aaron Lee Tasjan album release show with Madeline Kelson, 8 p.m. at The Basement East Queer Men’s Book Club Read+Watch (open to all): It Came From the Closet and Sleepaway Camp, 7 p.m. at Frankie J’s Mickey Sunshine, Quinn Hills & Salt Water Baby, 8 p.m. at The East Room Guerrilla Toss, 8 p.m. at Drkmttr Collective The Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcasts, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. (sold out), Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. (sold out), Oct. 31 at 11:59 p.m. & Nov. 1 at 10 p.m. at the Belcourt COVEN Haunt and Nocturnal Femme Concert, an immersive haunted house, live music and performance art experience. Proceeds support the American Red Cross, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Healthy and Free Tennessee. 8:30 p.m. at The Mil at Cannery Hall. Queer Dance Party: Boo! at Brooklyn Bowl HoliGAY Market, a holiday market with LGBTQ and ally vendors, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at 1903 Old Hickory Blvd. People’s Pride 615 Picnic, 11 a.m. in East Nashville, RSVP online for address Dan Deacon with Terror Pigeon, 8 p.m. at The Basement East Joy Oladokun, 7:30 p.m. at the Ryman ▼

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THE SEASON’S BEST THEATER, DANCE AND OPERA The Rep’s John Proctor Is the Villain and a tale of proto-Japan lead our picks of top performances

AS MUCH AS I look forward to the arrival of autumn, there’s always a certain melancholy that surrounds the season. The days get shorter. The bright blossoms of summer fade, and even the colorful leaves eventually fall. But with the new season also comes a promising new arts calendar, packed with ambitious, thought-provoking theater, dreamy dance works and more. Here are just a few of the most intriguing performances to experience this fall.

OCT. 2-18

TPAC’s Johnson Theater

nashvillerep.org/john-proctor-is-the-villain

OCT. 2-4

TPAC’s Polk Theater

nashvilleballet.com/giselle

OCT. 8 & 10 TPAC’s Jackson Hall nashvilleopera.org/tosca

OCT. 23-24

OZ Arts

ozartsnashville.org/leila-ka

The Noah Liff Opera Center nashvilleopera.org/fortuna

Kimberly Belflower’s acclaimed drama John Proctor Is the Villain was a huge hit on Broadway last year — it earned seven Tony Award nomi-

Nashville Ballet Presents Nick Mullikin’s Giselle

Giselle is widely known as one of the ballet world’s most enduring — and technically demanding — works. Essentially a ghost story,

Nashville Opera Presents Tosca Puccini’s masterpiece Tosca comes to vibrant life at Nashville Opera this fall, balancing passion,

Leïla Ka’s Triptyque: Bouffées, You’re the One We Love and Pode Ser Fortuna the Time Bender vs. the Schoolgirls of Doom As you can probably tell from the outrageous title, Fortuna the Time Bender vs. the Schoolgirls of

ILLUSTRATION: CONNER HALL

NOV. 14-15

OZ Arts

ozartsnashville.org/kedagoro

KEDAGORO’s The Age Is Yours, My Liege! (A Tale of Proto-Japan) OZ Arts welcomes acclaimed Japanese director and choreographer Reisa Shimojima and the

KEDAGORO’S THE AGE IS YOURS, MY LIEGE!

Nashville Rep Presents nations, including Best Play. Set in small-town the piece centers on a group of high John Proctor Is the Villain Georgia, school girls as they study Arthur Miller’s classic

OZ Arts kicks off its 14th season with the U.S. premiere of French phenom choreographer Leïla

NOV. 13-15

PHOTO: TOSHIE KUSAMOTO

BY AMY STUMPFL

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

play The Crucible, reconsidering John Proctor’s merits (and morality) through a modern feminist lens. For this performance, director Lauren

Shouse has gathered a solid ensemble, including New York’s Lucas Calhoun. Smart, funny and surprisingly heartfelt, it’s the sort of show that’s bound to have audiences talking long after the curtain comes down.

Giselle follows a poor, brokenhearted peasant girl who joins the ranks of the dreaded Wilis — a vengeful group of ghosts who have all been betrayed by their lovers. This marks Nick Mullikin’s first full-length ballet as the company’s artistic

director, and audiences can look forward to new choreography, fresh design elements and a “reimagined” conclusion. As always, the Nashville Symphony will be on hand to perform Adolphe Adam’s richly evocative score.

politics and plenty of star power. The thrilling tale follows the jealous diva Floria Tosca as she struggles to save her lover from the corrupt police chief Scarpia and his henchmen. John Hoomes directs, and soprano Brittany Olivia Logan (a

recent graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera — and one of the hottest up-and-comers in the opera world) makes her much-anticipated role debut as the beautiful Floria Tosca.

Ka’s Triptyque: Bouffées, You’re the One We Love and Pode Ser. Offering “three powerful portraits of womanhood,” the performance takes on complex themes of resistance, liberation and self-discovery. Largely self-taught as a young dancer, Ka went on to work with legendary French choreographer

Maguy Marin. Since then, she has been taking the dance world by storm, even choreographing the finale for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour. Lauded for balancing raw, visceral physicality with hiphop and contemporary forms, Ka has been called France’s “most in-demand young choreographer.”

Doom is not your typical opera. In fact, it’s more of a comic book/superhero story, with music and libretto by Jason Powell. Set in quiet “Anyville,” this campy story finds our time-bending heroine Fortuna (and her nerdy sidekick Joe) doing battle against the evil Headmaster and his ma-

levolent minions called — you guessed it — the Schoolgirls of Doom. Delivering a wild mashup of musical styles, it draws from the worlds of opera, Broadway, Hollywood and Gilbert and Sullivan — with a nice touch of ’80s soft rock.

daring artists of her dance-theater collective KEDAGORO straight from the international premiere of The Age Is Yours, My Liege! at New York’s Japan Society. Committed to the idea that “dance is a method for interpreting the world,” Shimojima has never been one to shy away from provocative

works. And her rebellious spirit is on full display here. “Blending kinetic choreography with surreal theatricality and biting humor,” the work takes on Japan’s national identity and the origins of its imperial rule, while serving up everything from pastel princesses to an oversized hamster wheel. ▼

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WHAT TO SEE AT THE NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL From The Leader to Songs From the Circle, here are our thoughts on 14 films showing at this week’s 57th annual fest BY SCENE STAFF AND CONTRIBUTORS IT’S FESTIVAL SEASON in the film world — including here in Nashville. This fall alone, local filmgoers can catch exciting and eclectic screenings all across the city at the International Black Film Festival (Sept. 30-Oct. 4), the Nashville Horror Film Festival (Oct. 3-4), the Film Endowment Festival (Sept. 26) and Vanderbilt University’s International Lens series (most Thursdays through early December). The Nashville Jewish Film Festival wrapped earlier this month, and the Nashville Film Festival kicks off this week. The 57th edition of Music City’s most prominent festival will include more than 150 films and will last through Sept. 30 at the Belcourt, the National Museum of African American Music, Regal Green Hills and the new Nashville Yards venue Hooky Entertainment. This year’s lineup includes potential awards season players like the Sylvester Stallone origin story I Play Rocky (6:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green Hills Theater 3), Carrie Coon-starring mystery The Liberation (7 p.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green Hills Theater 4), British auteur Mike Leigh’s purported final film Tender Loving Care (8:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Hooky) and biopic Tenzing (5 p.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green Hills Theater 5), which features Tom Hiddleston as Sir Edmund Hillary. Two pieces of special programming to check out: the opening-night presentation of the documentary Frampton (6 & 6:15 p.m. Sept. 24 at Regal Green Hills Theaters 3 & 16), which was created by a team of mostly Nashville-based filmmakers and will feature an appearance from longtime local Peter Frampton; and Spotlight: Kurdish Short Films (11 a.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green Hills Theater 15), which was created in partnership with the Kurdish Culture and Music Association and the New York Kurdish Cultural Center. Visit nashvillefilmfestival.org to purchase passes and single-screening tickets and to see a full lineup. Below find our thoughts on 14 titles — both feature-length and short films — showing at this year’s Nashville Film Festival.

FEATURE FILMS MALLORY’S GHOST Mallory’s Ghost makes literal a classic dating pitfall: feeling haunted by a partner’s lingering exes. Mallory is insecure about her own creative prowess, and a writing retreat with her boyfriend Sam fuels her self-consciousness when their host Lorna lets it slip that he previously brought his last girlfriend Louise to the same house — doubly so when she starts to see Louise’s spirit manifesting in the yard. It’s a great watch, with such strong assurance in its own logic that its fantastical twists feel natural, and featuring nuanced commentary on creativity and insecurity. It’s also damn funny, as in a hilariously pretentious dinner-party question from Lorna: “Is that true, you have a creative mind?” 6:30 p.m. Sept. 25 at Regal Green Hills Theater 15

ANNIE PARNELL

CROOKS At only 76 minutes (with credits!), Mickey

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER Mahershala Ali (aka the man who could’ve been the next Blade), you star as a hitman in Bassam Tariq’s strange action-drama. We’ll save our in-depth thoughts for when Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother gains its wide release, but let’s just say a film about a religious single-dad assassin in the middle of a war between a religious zealot and a Muslim porn king shouldn’t be this sincere. 9 p.m Sept. 25 at Regal Green Hills

Theater 15 CRAIG D. LINDSEY Keating’s stylish genre exercise Crooks flies by in a flash. Faye (scream queen Angela Trimbur) and Johnny (The Guest’s Chase Williamson) decide to rob a gangster. Said gangster sends his most fearsome hitman, The Ghost (longtime character actor Keith Kupferer), after the fleeing duo. All three leave a trail of bodies in their wake. But what’s an overly familiar premise is just window dressing for something darker and stranger. A lonely diner waitress named Blanche (the show-stopping Paul Thomas Anderson favorite Melora Walters) enters the picture, knocking this commonplace crime story off its axis. 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at Regal Green Hills Theater 14

LOGAN BUTTS

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER What do you do when your chance to play a big-screen badass superhero gets canceled by the studio, leaving you with all this martial-arts training you learned for the role? Well, if you’re

STRAY EMBERS We’ve all seen the flood of goodwill and support that comes in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster — but what happens when the Red Cross and rescue workers go home? Stray Embers, a documentary directed by Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin, opens in the aftermath of the 2018 wildfires that decimated Paradise, Calif. Following survivor Brad Weldon, the doc explores the awkward and often ignored long-term work of rebuilding a life. Together with the found-family of fellow survivors sheltered in his home, Weldon and Paradise at large witness the rebirth and renewal that comes in the wake of unthinkable disaster. They eat together, mourn together, and slowly begin to rebuild something vaguely resembling their old lives. With immersive cinematography that envelops you in the massive scale of the Northern California forests, the film beautifully depicts the parts of a life cycle not often seen on film.

11 a.m. Sept. 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 5 HANNAH CRON

SPARKS

MALLORY’S GHOST

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

Fans of the 2024 animated indie comedy Boys Go to Jupiter will enjoy Sparks, a magical-realist coming-of-age story that establishes itself as “a film set in a city in northwestern Nevada” in its opening credits. There a group of teenage friends dreams of time-traveling through a reservoir portal to glamorous locales: Y2K Berlin, Woodstock, 1960s Paris. When Cleo (Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher) moves to town, the escapism becomes real, and the group starts to get pulled between the lives they lead and the ones

they dream of. It’s a sweet indie charmer about the mythology that suburban malaise creates — and the magic of finding yourself through movies. 1:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 15

ANNIE PARNELL

LITTLE HOLLYWOOD, TENNESSEE One of the best looks at a truly local subject at this year’s festival, Little Hollywood, Tennessee follows high school students from across the state during the three-week Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts program on Middle Tennessee State University’s campus. The program includes students who are studying all aspects of the arts, but Christian Whittemore’s documentary homes in on 24 filmmaking-focused students as they try to accomplish the seemingly impossible: developing, writing, shooting and editing a feature-length film. Since the students reside on campus for the three weeks, they are truly living and breathing the project. And as an alum, counselor and faculty member of the program, Whittemore offers a perspective that is subtle and personal. 2:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Regal

Green Hills Theater 16 LOGAN BUTTS

SEAHORSE Sometimes the only person who can save you is yourself. Seahorse explores this ethos through a raw, unfiltered look at grief, trauma and mental illness. The film’s writer-director Aisha Evelyna stars as Nora, a sous chef who begins a journey of self-discovery after a bicycle accident leads to her reuniting with her estranged homeless father. With hints of surrealism, Seahorse sees Evelyna navigate a complex father-daughter relationship and all the nuances that exist in between. Amid the film’s heartfelt glimpse into rebuilding one’s life, it also offers brief doses of comedic relief and cheeky references to influencers’ impact on the modern dining industry.

5 p.m. Sept. 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 5 JULIANNE AKERS

SONGS FROM THE CIRCLE Featuring interviews with Grand Ole Opry members Luke Combs, Carly Pearce, Darius

“APART” Rucker, Vince Gill, Ashley McBryde and 34-year member Marty Stuart — the last of whom is described by McBryde as the “lighthouse” of country music, a beacon to other performers — Songs From the Circle documents the Opry’s 2025 trip to Royal Albert Hall in London. Alongside the requisite archival footage of icons like Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton, Circle features candid rehearsal footage shot at Abbey Road in the run-up to the Opry’s sold-out 100th anniversary show at Royal Albert, and ends with the main event. As much concert doc as reverent history lesson, it’s a must-see for any country music fan who wants to know how the sausage is made. 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 3

D. PATRICK RODGERS

THE HAUNTING OF PENNHURST We fear what we don’t understand — that’s a long-held truth in human culture. For centuries, and even for some people today, that fear includes a misunderstanding of people with physical or mental disabilities. The documentary The Haunting of Pennhurst confronts this head-on, chronicling a group of disabled performers who stage a haunted house in Pennsylvania’s former Pennhurst Asylum. The scare actors and creative team behind the haunt fight to recontextualize institutionalization and the conversation around disability at large, taking the power from what was once a place of pain and suffering and using it to further the cause of those hurt by

THE LEADER

Pennhurst. Intercut with historical footage and microfiche, the doc is certainly disturbing, but not without good cause. Disabilities aren’t scary, but the way we treat them often is. For a viewer with disabilities or mental illness, this packs a powerful punch, but all stand to learn something from this provocative haunt. 7 p.m. Sept. 26 at

Regal Green Hills Theater 4 HANNAH CRON

CRYSTAL CROSS Crystal Cross is one of those rare finds: a movie about Christianity that doesn’t try to convert. Instead, it centers on the opposites-attract relationship between plucky, devout singer Dottie and misanthropic, self-destructive James, who are drawn to each other on a drive to California. Filmed partially in Nashville and Memphis, the film’s road-trip twee and faith reckoning suggest Little Miss Sunshine and Electrick Children. It feels at times a bit too structured, nested in both a frame narrative and a series of chapters — but Crystal Cross has some real gems. Two of them: A gallows gag in which James tries to commit suicide by running a Tesla in a garage but fails (no emissions), and Dottie’s music, which is part Lana Del Rey, part Natalie Bergman. 8 p.m. Sept.

26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 5 ANNIE PARNELL

THE LEADER On paper, The Leader sounds like comedy. Its subject, the Heaven’s Gate cult, seems at first absurd — members were required to have match-

ing bowl-cut hairstyles, they believed that UFOs were sent by God, and they called their bodies “vehicles” with a hard H. In an early scene set in 1982, Jim Parsons walks through a grocery store while wearing a visor with blinders on it and a teal windbreaker, and when a woman brushes a piece of lint from his shirt, he has an orgasm in the middle of the checkout aisle — he later cries about ruining his six-year run of celibacy. But the scene is presented without any hint of humor, and Parsons is heartbreaking as a troubled, imperfect person who desperately wants to be healed. It takes the careful treatment of writer-director Michael Gallagher to expose the cult’s deeply sad, tragic reality. Astonishing performances by Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga anchor the film’s success — without their commitment to the over-the-top, troubled characters, the story falls apart. Luckily, they hold it together masterfully. 6:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green

Hills Theater 14 & 7 p.m. Sept. 29 at Soho House Cinema LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

SHORT FILMS “DAYLIGHT” Director Jon Kasbe’s short documentary “Daylight” plays like an installment of Modern Love. The impactful film follows Joe Garcia, author of the viral New Yorker essay “Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison,” as he approaches release following decades of incarceration and prepares for the potential of seeing his long-lost love once again. The short’s power is two-fold: exploring the power of love as a tool for hope, and examining the impact of music and arts access inside American prisons. Swift’s music gave Garcia the tools to express his desire for change and a fresh start. His favorite lyrics? “I’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night, and now I see daylight.” The short film is a must-watch for the romantic and the advocate alike. 10:30

“MIMIC” Ambitious in reach and structure, this moody short serves just enough information to kick the constructivist paths in the brain into overload. It’s a relationship drama (much respect to star Brennan Kelleher), sci-fi extravaganza and suspenseful body-horror effort, but what impresses the most is that A.F. Madison’s film keeps all its plates spinning. The foundation is strong enough that you could get a feature or streaming series out of this with very few shifts from the razor-sharp menace we’re given here. It’s always good when Tennessee voices show how it’s done. 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 16

JASON SHAWHAN

“APART” It’s time to get pissed off at apartheid all over again with this harrowing animated short, directed by South African visual artist Pola Maneli and co-written by Spike Lee. Set in late-’80s South Africa, “Apart” depicts a bond between two soccer-loving boys that’s on the verge of disintegrating when a Black kid offers one of his kidneys to his sick white bestie, only to get pushback from his bestie’s racist cop dad. We won’t give away the outcome, but we will say it’s another heartbreaking reminder of how destructive (and pointless) racism can be. 11 a.m. Sept. 27 at Regal Green Hills Theater 5 CRAIG D. LINDSEY ▼

a.m. Sept 26 at Regal Green Hills Theater 15 HANNAH CRON

ILLUSTRATION: CONNER HALL

NASHVILLE SCENE •SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

AFromBIG OL’ BAG OF MUSICAL TREATS Johnny Blue Skies at Bridgestone Arena to Medium Build at Brooklyn Bowl and beyond, here are our picks from a jam-packed concert season BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

NEKO CASE JESSE WELLES

PHOTO: JAXON WHITTINGTON

PHOTO: HANNAH GRAY HALL

ILLUSTRATION: CONNER HALL

THE LINDA LINDAS FALL TRADITIONALLY MEANS a calendar overflowing with concerts of all shapes and sizes in Music City. Whether you’re looking for an enormous spectacle or an intimate listen, Nashville has you covered this season. You could easily fill your dance card with the biggest gigs, but you’d miss out on a ton of great ones in cozier environs. The Blue Room at Third Man Records hosts songsmith Squirrel Flower Oct. 8, dream-popping aces Wishy Oct. 23 and experimental instrumentalist and composer L’Rain Nov. 19. East Side honky-tonk Skinny Dennis has an album release from singer-songwriter Chloe Kimes on Oct. 15, plus shows from country phenom Joshua Ray Walker Oct. 22 and torch singer par excellence Nicole Atkins on Dec. 3. Music City drama queen and alt-pop ace Vivienne Blue returns to Drkmttr on Oct. 7, experimental rockers Guerilla Toss play Oct. 23 and live-wire Kansas post-punk duo Sweeping Promises is back Nov. 18. The ’58 at Eastside Bowl gets a jump on spooky season Oct. 3 with the 20th installment of horror host Dr. Gangrene’s Horror Hootenanny. Springwater hosts album release parties for two inventive songsmiths: Jung Min-Noh on Oct. 17 and Warren Byrom on Oct. 24. Musician and Belcourt staffer Quinn Hills is leaving town, and hosts a farewell party Oct. 22 at The East Room with Mickey Sunshine and Salt Water Baby. Seasoned country singer-songwriter Chris Gantry celebrates his new LP Worth Every Nail Oct. 24 at The End. Untitled Nashville Festival brings a lineup of legends and up-andcomers in noise music to a location revealed only to ticket buyers on Nov. 13 and 14. Long-dormant Nashville rockers Imaginary Baseball League have been back onstage this year and are at The 5 Spot on Nov. 14. Moving up in size: Phenomenal folk singer and storyteller Willi Carlisle plays The Basement East Oct. 7, The Linda Lindas rock up on Oct. 19, and Aaron Lee Tasjan celebrates the July release of Get Over It, Underdog Oct. 21.

GLORILLA

SQUIRREL FLOWER PHOTO: ALEXA VISCIUS

Progressive (that’s politically speaking) country songsmith Bryan Andrews comes to The Basement East on Nov. 16. Brooklyn Bowl hosts a kickass double rock bill with Soccer Mommy and Snail Mail Oct. 14, the homecoming tour stop from stunning singer-songwriter Medium Build on Nov. 19 and 20, and world-beating heavy-rocking Texas crew Die Spitz Nov. 21. There are more shows than you can shake the proverbial stick at on the midsize venue level. That’s due in part to the jam-packed launch lineup for The Truth, the 4,400-capacity venue spearheaded by ticketing and touring giant Live Nation near its local office in Wedgewood-Houston. Contemporary country icon Miranda Lambert plays the inaugural gig on Oct. 1, followed by gnarly and snarly Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers on Oct. 6, superstar producer Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers (supported by indie breakout This Is Lorelei) on Oct. 8, Jack White on Oct. 9 and 10, and The Chicks on Oct. 15. The rocking Bitch Cabal Tour with a Wednesday/Mannequin Pussy double bill stops in Nov. 2, followed by Memphis hip-hop badass GloRilla Nov. 4. Queer country standard-bearer Orville Peck rides in Nov. 15, and stellar country singer-songwriter Wyatt Flores appears Nov. 21. If that weren’t enough, Louisiana sludge champs Acid Bath play Dec. 4 with help from none other than Nashville expat rock heroes JEFF the Brotherhood. The Truth’s nearest competitor is AEGowned downtown spot The Pinnacle. Its lineup this season isn’t as eye-popping as last year’s inaugural season (which included Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Jack White and, uh, Paul McCartney and Erykah Badu), but there’s still a lot to look forward to. That includes protest

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

singer Jesse Welles on Oct. 16, post-punkers Interpol on Oct. 17 and a Knocked Loose double bill with Denzel Curry on Oct. 19. If he doesn’t cancel for reasons that could include being too sleepy, Morrissey is set to play Oct. 25. The Ryman has a full calendar too, with standouts like ascendant pop-star-slash-varietyartist Audrey Hobert on Oct. 6 and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s annual residency Oct. 15 through 17 and Oct. 22 through 24. This year Isbell and company are highlighting a wealth of Memphis music in the support slots at these shows. Songsmiths extraordinaire Neko Case and Allison Russell have a doubleheader on Oct. 30, while country-rock master Dwight Yoakam plays Nov. 4 and 5. Outstanding folkpop-mericana songsmith Joy Oladokun makes a hometown stop on her tour Nov. 19 — hot on the heels of the September release of Hope Is a Heavy Thing and with “art&B” maestro Houston Kendrick opening — and The Mavericks salute the memory of late leader Raul Malo on Dec. 4 and 5. Fans of progressive rock, jazz fusion and their brethren are especially well-served this season. BEAT (that’s Adrian Belew and associates performing music from King Crimson’s groundbreaking 1980s catalog) is at the Grand Ole Opry House on Nov. 18. Meanwhile, Thundercat is at Marathon Music Works on Halloween, Ami Taf Ra and Kamasi Washington bring The Prophet and the Madman to City Winery Nov. 17, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin brings its program built on the Italo-disco-kissed score to giallo classic Tenebre to Eastside Bowl Nov. 21, and viral Quebecois microtonal fusion oddballs Angine de Poitrine play Brooklyn Bowl Nov. 27. The Nashville Jazz Workshop hosts A

Tribute to the Music and Sound of ECM — a salute to the German indie label that has championed forward-thinking jazz for more than 50 years — on Oct. 3. The workshop is also a partner in the second annual Nashville Jazz Festival with Kirk Whalum, Rod McGaha, Dara Starr Tucker, Sofia Goodman and many, many more, happening Oct. 24 and 25 at 3rd and Lindsley. The scale of arena and stadium shows means you’ve probably already made your plans, but here’s your reminder rundown. Bridgestone Arena hosts Sturgill Simpson’s Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds, celebrating their country-disco hit Mutiny After Midnight, on Oct. 2. Rising country stars The Red Clay Strays have a two-nighter at the home of the Preds Oct. 22 and 23, and post-grunge pop queen Olivia Rodrigo brings the party for You Look Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love on Nov. 23 and 24. Phoebe Bridgers’ two-nighter following Lost Weekend at Bridgestone on Oct. 10 and 11 sold out with a quickness, as did Steve Lacy’s Oh Yeah? Tour stop at Municipal Auditorium on Nov. 2. There’s often a show or two set for Nissan Stadium or Geodis Park in the autumn, but not for this year — notably, it’s the last season the Titans will play before moving a few feet to the new Nissan Stadium — at the time of writing. However, Tennessee State University’s Hale Stadium hosts the second annual Roar on the Yard on Oct. 16. It’s a daylong pep rally that’s part of the school’s homecoming festivities, capped by a show featuring Atlanta rap legend T.I. and the revered and Grammy-winning Aristocrat of Bands. (The homecoming game pits the TSU Tigers against Morgan State University’s Bears, and is Oct. 17 at Nissan Stadium.) If there’s one thing you can pretty much always count on, it’s that there will be more shows. Don’t see something that strikes your fancy right now? Keep an eye on our pages for more announcements. ▼

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CRITICS’ PICKS: WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

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THURSDAY, SEPT. 24 [A CHANGE OF SEASONS]

CHEEKWOOD HARVEST

OK, it may still feel like summer out there, but according to the calendar — and the good folks at Cheekwood — autumn has officially arrived. You can celebrate the new season with Cheekwood Harvest now through Nov. 1. This year’s festival promises a wide range of family-friendly activities, including the ever-popular Pumpkin Village (featuring 100,000 locally sourced pumpkins) and the Scarecrow Trail (with a slew of sweet storybook-themed scarecrows). Plus, Harvest Nights return on Thursday evenings, inviting guests to stroll the grounds while enjoying live music, food trucks, cocktails and a host of seasonal fun. New this year is the gorgeous Marigold River — a vibrant display of more than 2,500 orange, red and yellow blooms lining the walkway from the Bradford Robertson Color Garden to Arboretum Lawn. It’s a festive display that’s sure to put you in the mood for fall. And while you’re there, be sure to check out the 12th annual Japanese Moon Viewing (Sept. 27) or one of the many seasonal gardening or botanical classes available. AMY STUMPFL THROUGH NOV. 1 AT CHEEKWOOD 1200 FORREST PARK DRIVE

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THURSDAY / 9.24 ART

FESTIVAL

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Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

[EVERYDAY RESISTANCE]

ALL THE DAUGHTERS: CARE, MILITANCY & INHERITANCE

All the Daughters: Care, Militancy & Inheritance is a video-based group exhibition co-curated by Haein Kang and John Warren at Vanderbilt’s Space 204 gallery within the campus’ E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center. The show gathers moving-image works including animation, documentary and experimental narrative focused on women’s stories across generations,

BEACH HOUSE PAGE 30

geographies and speculative futures. Artists Keanani Afu, Heejoo Kim, Kelly Gallagher, Janie Geiser, Young Joo Lee and Jodie Mack explore care as both intimate support and contested terrain, and militancy as both overt political struggle and the quiet daily acts of refusal. The show’s themes range from the intimate to the cultural, the personal to the polemic, and the works’ formal variety makes this display a dynamic gallery-wide experience. The exhibit closes on Friday, so see it while you can. JOE NOLAN THROUGH SEPT. 25 AT SPACE 204, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 1204 25TH AVE. S.

Be Moved. Be Amazed. BE. HERE.

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Conventional narratives about the range of Nashville music tend to overlook the contributions of the city’s avant-garde rock scene. Starting Thursday at Betty’s Grill, a group of artists whose work goes from noisy free jazz to Sonic Youth-style guitar rock, with stops at R&B and country-rock, gathers for three nights of Resolute Fest. Organized by guitarist Joseph Page, who leads Nashville rock band Vladopus9, Resolute Fest started in 2017 and ran until 2020 at various venues around town. This week’s shows mark Resolute Fest’s return to Nashville, with 17 artists hitting the stage at Betty’s. The aforementioned Vladopus9 sounds like Sonic Youth reconfigured as comedy music, and their 2026 single “Grimm Poobah” features Page’s abstract guitar accompaniment and sardonic lyrics delivered by singer Lisa Rau. Meanwhile, Nuclear Bubble Wrap specializes in psychedelic rock with satirical elements, as you can hear on their 2026 release “Healing Hand.” For fans of jazz-informed experimental music, Skin Tension’s 2025 album Inaugurate Renaissance ought to fit the bill, while Country Death evokes the style of The Byrds circa 1970. There will also be appearances by The Chewers (who sound like The Residents), spoken-word artist Simp Goddess and avant-R&B band Altered Statesman. The fest is free all three nights. EDD HURT

FILM

SEPT. 24-26 AT BETTY’S GRILL 407 49TH AVE. N.

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MATTER OF HEART

Carl Jung is a cultural and scientific figure who looms so large that it’s hard to think of him as a guy who lived and was active not all that long ago. Indeed, the father of analytical psychology — who died in 1961 — stayed active well into his 80s, and a decade after his death, American psychologist Suzanne Wagner set to work interviewing and filming Jung’s surviving family, friends, patients and colleagues. The result was 1986’s Matter of Heart, a documentary described by local nonprofit the Nashville Jung Circle as “a vivid record of Jung’s life and influence and an extraordinary act of historical preservation.” On Thursday, the Nashville Jung Circle will present a screening of the film, with Matter of Heart producer Michael Whitney — a former Angeleno turned longtime Nashvillian — set to lead a post-screening discussion. As the NJC’s Adele Tyler points out, “Jung’s name pops up often in our culture” — including in Matt Johnson’s recent Anthony Bourdain kinda-sorta biopic Tony. D. PATRICK RODGERS 7 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

ART

SHOP THE SCENE

[JUNG AT HEART]

[BIRDS OF PREY]

DEADLY PREY GALLERY POP-UP EXHIBITION

Deadly Prey Gallery’s hand-painted bootleg movie posters have a fascinating origin story,

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

emerging as promotional materials made by local artists for Ghana’s 1980s rural pop-up “mobile cinemas.” They’re true DIY, a response to adverse conditions and life under a military dictatorship with audacious, eye-catching creativity. Today Deadly Prey preserves them, and works with artists continuing the tradition in Accra on commissions for contemporary films and TV. Case in point: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver commissioned a custom poster this year for Emmy voting season — and it depicts Oliver wielding two guns and drinking wine with a horse, surrounded by blood and explosions. For two days this month, Deadly Prey will host a pop-up at Cë Gallery, offering exhibition tours and a print sale. ANNIE PARNELL SEPT. 24-25 AT CË GALLERY 112 GALLATIN PIKE S. [PSYCHEDELIC BLUES]

COYOTE MOTEL

First and foremost, Coyote Motel guitarist and frontman Ted Drozdowski is a storyteller and a bluesman. “I’m fascinated with using blues as a foundational point,” Drozdowski tells the Scene. “And I’m also obsessed with storytelling and songs that tell stories.” That’s evident in Coyote Motel’s most recent album, 2024’s The River: A Songwriter’s Stories of the South. It’s the soundtrack recording for the award-winning musical and cultural documentary of the same name, which Drozdowski wrote, co-produced and stars in, along with the other members of the band. “It tells 10 stories … about the people, places and lore along the Tallahatchie, Mississippi and Cumberland rivers,” he explains. The group’s current lineup — Drozdowski (guitar, lap steel, diddley bow), Sean Zywick (bass), Kyra

JOSH JOHNSON

Curenton (drums) and Laurie Hoffma (theremin, percussion) — will take the stage at The 5 Spot Thursday in the evening’s early slot for a set of “psychedelic roots” music that Drozdowski says will “draw heavily from The River soundtrack,” but will also include material from Coyote Motel’s earlier releases and maybe even some songs by his previous group, Scissormen. Roots-rock singer-songwriter-keyboardist Chip Greene’s band is also on the bill. DARYL SANDERS 6 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT 1006 FOREST AVE.

FRIDAY / 9.25 COMEDY

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[GRAY HOODED SWEATSHIRT]

JOSH JOHNSON’S COMEDY BAND CAMP

There are a lot of hardworking comedians on the road, but I bet there’s just one who’s also made a personality test to sort you into a camping troop based on which wild animal you’d talk to first, if given the ability. Josh Johnson, the constantly touring comic who first rose to mass attention as a correspondent on The Daily Show in 2024, is coming through Nashville with his Comedy Band Camp at the Ryman. Nashville’s only the third city on the tour, so details on what to expect aren’t entirely clear — outside of press materials promising “a comedy music experience.” Johnson is a prolific comic who’s always working with new material, and the Ryman is the perfect place for him to be joined by whatever marching bands he has up his sleeve. Whether or not roasted marshmallows will be provided has not yet been confirmed. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER SEPT. 25-26 AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

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[EDGE OF THE CITY]

SON LITTLE

I heard Son Little’s 2022 album Like Neptune as a sparely arranged and delivered neo-soul album that gave the California-born and New York-raised singer room to stretch out. Like Neptune came across as a little downbeat even when it rocked out, and “No Friend of Mine” registered as an excellent song about how the people closest to you can end up betraying your trust. The production on Little Neptune folded in electric guitars, keyboards and backing vocals that didn’t overpower the songs. Little’s 2026 album Cityfolk continues in the vein of Little Neptune, but Alabama Shakes keyboardist Ben Tanner co-produced it with an ear for structures that are more minimalist — and more keyboarddriven — than on the previous album. Little’s overriding theme on Cityfolk might be how the demands of the city are balanced by its pleasures, and Tanner’s production gives the music a modernist edge that works perfectly. Cityfolk isn’t all about production, since Little proves himself an excellent songwriter on “In Orbit” and “Whip the Wind,” which you could imagine being performed as conventional neosoul. The album isn’t retro, and that counts for a lot these days. Tonina opens Saturday at The Blue Room. EDD HURT 8 P.M. AT THE BLUE ROOM AT THIRD MAN RECORDS 623 SEVENTH AVE. S.

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GUILTY PLEASURES

Twenty-five years ago this month, beloved ’80s tribute band Guilty Pleasures played their very first show. As founding member Mike Grimes remembers it, the gig was on a Thursday night at his former East Nashville club Slow Bar a couple weeks after 9/11. “I needed [a booking]

for the calendar,” Grimes says. “But I remember that night also being booked for people to heal. … We had an American flag right behind the stage.” Guilty Pleasures will celebrate its 25th anniversary Saturday night at 3rd and Lindsley, and three of the people who were onstage that first night are still performing with the 16-piece group — Grimes (vocals), John Deaderick (keyboards) and Trisha Brantley (vocals). Another original member, Daniel Tashian, will appear with the group as a special guest vocalist. Guilty Pleasures have decided to call it quits later this year, so Saturday’s show will be their final appearance at the club that has been their primary home for nearly a decade. It will also be the last chance to catch them before a pair of farewell shows at The Basement East Thanksgiving weekend. In addition, the producers of the forthcoming documentary on the band, Feeling Guilty, will be on hand to offer fans one final opportunity to talk on camera about the group. DARYL SANDERS 8 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY 818 THIRD AVE. S.

FILM

3RDANDLINDSLEY.COM

[FOLKOCRACY]

Here’s a bulletproof date night idea: Dinner and a show at City Winery with one of the most sophisticated songwriters on tour this season — Rufus Wainwright. Born in New York and raised in Montreal, Wainwright’s known for crafting ambitious and theatrical tunes, such as the fan-favorite 2007 number “Going to a Town,” his ever-popular take on Leonard Cohen’s timeless “Hallelujah” and the go-to 2001 track “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk.” This weekend, Wainwright plays City Winery on a run of solo shows that include multinight stops in intimate rooms across North America. Wainwright’s career ranges from opera compositions to folk collaborations with Brandi Carlile and worlds of music in between. It’s not often that such a celebrated musician plays a stripped-back show in a room built for enjoying up-close performances filled with storytelling from trusted songwriters. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER SEPT. 25-26 AT CITY WINERY 609 LAFAYETTE ST.

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[THE TREES CRY OUT AS THEY DIE]

STUDIO GHIBLI FEST: PRINCESS MONONOKE

So often, seeing a film in theaters is an experience available only upon its release, but Studio Ghibli Fest is continuing to bring the legendary studio’s movies back to the big screens. This week, Princess Mononoke returns to theaters, bringing the story of Ashitaka — a young prince afflicted by a cursed attack and searching for a cure — to life. Ashitaka becomes entangled in a fierce conflict between an ancient forest — home of wolf goddess Princess Mononoke — and a growing human settlement in need of resources, home of industrialist Lady Eboshi. The film highlights the importance of coexistence between humanity and nature through the lens of war. Grim imagery of brown water, pouring blood and damaged creatures, all drastically contrary to most of Hayao

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10 YEARS OF ‘UNDERCURRENT’

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SUNDAY / 9.27

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[BEACH HOUSE HANG]

BEACH HOUSE

I was a 14-year-old high school freshman in 2015, scrolling through the depths of Tumblr when I discovered the “Space Song” off the record Depression Cherry by Beach House. The song (brand-new at the time, though Beach House formed in 2004) was my introduction to the Baltimore-based dream-pop band. I was immediately hooked. I remember describing to my friends that listening to “Space Song” felt like I was floating. Later, when I was 21 and on a first date with a boy who I would end up dating for two years, “Space Song” played at least three times as the coffee shop’s playlist looped. Maybe that was a bit of foreshadowing. Nevertheless, Beach House is a band that sticks with you. Their timeless, twinkling arrangements and synthheavy sound have surely set the tone for plenty of the indie-pop acts that have emerged over the past 20 years. The group is now headed to Brooklyn Bowl on Sunday for a sold-out show. JULIANNE AKERS

8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL 925 THIRD AVE. S.

[LONELIEST GIRL]

KACEY MUSGRAVES

Back from her post-breakup sojourn in Mexico, Kacey Musgraves is bringing her tour in support of Middle of Nowhere to her adopted hometown with a two-night Bridgestone Arena stint. The excellent album, which was released in May, features the two highest-charting songs of Musgraves’ career: the hilarious innuendo-fest “Dry Spell” and the sultry instant

AJ GHENT & HIS SINGING GUITAR

1 30MKTG_Scene_1:2Page_PrintAd_Rolling_09.17.26.indd NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

DYLAN GOSSETT & CHARLES WESLEY GODWIN

A one-two punch of country-folk troubadours known for writing sing-alongs that leave you simultaneously crying in your beer and shouting for more? Say less. Dylan Gossett and Charles Wesley Godwin — two solid players in the “sad songs make me happy” area of today’s country-roots landscape — will bring a coheadlining show Saturday night to The Pinnacle. Gossett, a Texas native who caught fire on social media with self-recorded videos showcasing his take on Red Dirt storytelling, plans his return to Nashville for the day after his sophomore album Ramblin’ hits streaming services and recordstore shelves. Godwin, an Americana-leaning picker from Morgantown, W.V., tours this fall in support of Christian Name, a 13-song LP that debuted in July and includes collaborations with Luke Combs and Wyatt Flores. Show up early to the gig to catch an opening set from Sony Music Nashville upstart Max Alan. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER 8 P.M. AT THE PINNACLE 910 EXCHANGE LANE

SARAH JAROSZ

The CMA Theater is a property of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

[COAL COUNTRY]

GEESE

MONDAY / 9.28 MUSIC

MUSIC

UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER

line-dancing anthem “Mexico Honey.” I’m excited to see her cinematic tunes performed on a big stage. One of the coolest aspects of the tour is how many different openers are being showcased throughout, including Scene favorites like Carter Faith and Charles Wesley Godwin. In Nashville, country-Americana band Flatland Cavalry is opening both nights. Fun fact: Flatland Cavalry lead singer Cleto Cordero is married to country singer-songwriter (and Oklahoma! super-fan) Kaitlin Butts. LOGAN BUTTS SEPT. 27-28 AT BRIDGESTONE ARENA 501 BROADWAY

MUSIC

Miyazaki’s previous work, drive the message home. Princess Mononoke gives no clear answer to the turmoil, instead leaving moviegoers reflecting on their role in nature. This profound, complex epic, rich in mythology and history, is sure to light up theaters and challenge viewers. Visit gkids.com/ghiblifest for showtimes.

[DUCK DUCK …]

GEESE

“Geese Never Thought They’d End Up Here,” reads a recent Rolling Stone headline. No, the mag isn’t talking about the long-necked water birds, but instead referencing the shaggy-

SEPTEMBER 30

INDIGO GIRLS WITH LINDA PERRY

OCTOBER 3 & 31 9 TO 5

FILM

[POUR MYSELF A CUP OF AMBITION]

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: 9 TO 5

Let’s be honest here: The death of Dolly Parton fucked us all up, and I’m quite certain people will be celebrating her life and legacy whenever and wherever they can. Before her passing, the Belcourt programmed a Music City Mondays showing of 9 to 5, her 1980 bigscreen debut. Along with providing a classic theme song that shockingly didn’t win a Best Original Song Oscar, she shares the screen with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as office employees fed up with their dickheaded boss (Dabney Coleman, all mustache and male toxicity). The screening is already sold out, but thankfully, the Belcourt has set up two more screenings that day, giving all the Dolly fans in town a chance to watch this country angel on the big screen again. Rebecca Seaver, executive director for Dolly’s Life of Many

Colors Museum, and Beth Abernathy, archive collection manager for The Dolly Archive, will both introduce the 8 p.m. showing. And don’t forget about the Dolly 9 to 5 costume exhibit that’ll also be at the theater. CRAIG D. LINDSEY 3:40, 8 & 8:30 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

WEDNESDAY / 9.30 FILM

haired New York indie-rock band (not to be confused with jam band Goose). Geese, having recently addressed the allegations that they are a psyop, are now set for a two-night stint at the Ryman in support of their 2025 record Getting Killed. The group of 20-somethings has come a long way since playing Nashville DIY venue Dkrmttr in 2023. Skyrocketing to indie fame and captained by lead man Cameron Winter (and his unnerving yet entrancing vocals), the group has become one of the bands of the 2020s. They’ve sold out concert venues across the world, captivating fans with heartfelt tracks like “Au Pays du Cocaine,” “Cobra” and “Taxes.” It’s these songs of love and innate irony that make Geese’s music magnetic, not to discount the epic energy of the full-fledged rock ’n’ roll tracks off 2023’s 3D Country. Welsh freak-folk instrumentalist Gwenifer Raymond will open. JULIANNE AKERS 8 P.M. SEPT. 28-29 AT THE RYMAN 116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

[ON THE HUNT]

MICHAEL MANN’S MANHUNTER: THE FINAL CUT

Michael Mann is in final-cut mode these days. Next month, he’ll release a 4K-enhanced final edit of Miami Vice, the 2006 big-screen reboot of his beloved ’80s cop show. But first, he’ll take it back even further to 40 years ago, when he dropped his uber-stylish 1986 serial-killer thriller Manhunter in theaters. Forever known as the first movie that brought author Thomas Harris’ prized cannibal mastermind Hannibal Lecter (played here by a pre-Succession Brian Cox) to the big screen, Manhunter has Mann turning Harris’ Red Dragon novel into a cool-looking but uneasy ride. (Don’t worry, Hopkins fans — The Silence of the Lambs is next weekend!) Future CSI star William Petersen is a tormented FBI profiler roped back into tracking down — and getting inside the mind of — a toothy psychopath (Tom Noonan, RIP). Manhunter is a cunning cult fave that set off the police-procedural wave, inspiring everything from David Fincher’s doom-andgloom murder-mysteries to the myriad crime dramas that make up most of primetime television. Let’s see how much heat (sorry, I can’t help it!) Mann brings to this brandspanking-new restoration. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes. CRAIG D. LINDSEY OCT. 3-4 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

6-8 PM

RYMAN HAUNTED HISTORY TOURS NOVEMBER 4 & 5

DWIGHT YOAKAM WITH SUNNY BLACK

DECEMBER 4 & 5

THE MAVERICKS

A MUSICAL CELEBRATION HONORING RAUL MALO DECEMBER 30 & 31

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW WITH NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS FEBRUARY 11

ALI WONG

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM MARCH 11

SAMMY RAE & THE FRIENDS ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

Coming up at THURSDAY

10/1 FRIDAY

10/2 THURSDAY

10/8

SATURDAY

10/10 FRIDAY

10/16

SLOTHRUST AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH COPELAND SQUIRREL FLOWER THE SCHIZOPHONICS SUPERTASTE with THE VELVETEERS

with DARI BAY

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NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

MUSIC

RITES OF PASSAGE

Ahead of a Sept. 30 Ryman show with Linda Perry, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of seminal folk-rock duo Indigo Girls discuss reflection and change

PHOTO: SHERVIN LAINEZ

BY ANNIE PARNELL

INDIGO GIRLS

AFTER MORE THAN four decades working together, the Indigo Girls are still evolving. In 2020, the duo released their most recent LP, Look Long — a reflective record with roots in drives to-and-from Nashville from their home turf in Georgia. Look Long continues Amy Ray and Emily Saliers’ career of musical activism. It also has the expansive view of existence that’s become an Indigo Girls trademark, braiding science, religion and politics into a syncretic way of looking at the world. Before their fall run of shows, the pair announced that Saliers had been diagnosed with two movement disorders that affect her ability to sing. “We’re trying to look at this organically, as a process of our own aging,” she shared. The shows continue, and on Sept. 30, they’ll play the Ryman with support from Linda Perry, who might be best known as frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes but released a new solo LP, Let It Die Here, in May. Ahead of the show, Saliers and Ray caught up with the Scene about reflection and change — and teased new music. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Tell us more about the show. Emily Saliers: These are our first dates we’re doing with Linda Perry, so we’re super excited about that. Obviously, we have a lot of respect for her and love her work, and we love the Ryman. I mean, the Mother Church! It’s always great to be back there, and we have friends in Nashville. We spend a lot of time in Nashville making music and doing workshops, so it kind of feels like home away from home.

How has your creative process evolved over the years? Amy Ray: We write separately. We’ve tried to write together, and it just doesn’t work. Back when we were in high school and college, I didn’t know that well how to play. So it used to be Emily teaching me a harmony part, and me having to play chords that adapted to not being as good on the guitar. So our creative process was very hands-on — sort of laborious, but fun. Over the years, we’ve gotten better at what we do individually. I can write harmonies now. It’s just the way things hopefully run in any relationship, where you improve, and you bring more to the table. We haven’t done a new record in three or four years, so we’ll see. We don’t even know what the next creative process is going to be like. Look Long is your 15th studio album. Are the two of you looking back at all? ES: In some ways. For me, the Lilith Fair documentary came out [last year], and I reflected on that time. We’ve done shows with Brandi Carlile and reflected on her trajectory, and when we first connected with her. The Daisy Chain Fields Festival that Olivia Rodrigo put together was unbelievable. I mean, what a triumph. It’s made me reflect on our career in a way that’s relational to the fact that these young artists now are doing these wonderful things, and they’re giving back to society and culture in ways that are really important. Amy and I were always looking for pop stars to get involved in activism along the way, and it was really hard to find people who were willing to do that.

AR: Yeah, we were both in a reflective place when we made that [album]. I watched that Lilith Fair documentary, and I didn’t remember half the things. I actually didn’t realize that we had been on the same stage with Erykah Badu. I was having an out-of-body experience when I was there, or something. Sometimes I’m reflective, but I really like to move forward. There’s so much great new music. I love making records. I love writing songs, and I love seeing new bands. It’s a really crazy time with so much stuff going on, and it’s good to think back on other times when it felt like things were insurmountable. It seems like there’s this real nostalgia for the intertwining of music and social movements from the ’90s. AR: In the ’90s, I mean, there were so many great activist bands then. ... What I think now is so cool is women do have a better place than they had. Even though it feels very “manosphere” right now ... there are so many strong women doing great activism and being heard, and not being buried. Back then, it was hard. Sometimes you just felt like there was a vacuum in the press to get attention for these underground artists that were doing really big things. It feels now like it’s more wide-open. Look Long also continues this ongoing conversation in your work between science and religion. Can you talk more about that fascination? ES: My dad was a theologian. We went to church together, but we went to church at Emory University, so it was a little more ecumenical. ... I grew up in a faith that didn’t come down hard or be judgmental. But as time went on, I found myself separating from the dogma of organized religion. Sometimes the language holds me back. Like, what is the intelligence of the universe? But for me, I started to see connectivity between this awe-inspiring design of the universe and how it relates to us as animal creatures here on earth. As human beings, we’re endowed with this consciousness that can be both problematic and liberating. A song like “Change My Heart” — it’s about Trump and it’s about physics. ... And the same thing with “Look Long,” it’s a song about perspective, and I’m talking about telescopes and microscopes and looking into the stars. When I’m writing these images of science along with what might be considered religious imagery, they just find a comfortable spot with each other. You both have mentioned the many artists and activists working today. I’m wondering if you could share some of your favorites. ES: I love MUNA. They’re one of my favorite bands right now. Maddie Zahm — she actually left evangelical Christianity, and now she’s this

queer artist who speaks very openly about that. MUNA — Katie [Gavin] and I have become friends. ... Katie and her community, they’re all activists. I met some of her friends at a show; they were so impressive. They’re these people who just risk everything, and they go to the Middle East to try to get food to Palestinian people. We’re both huge Justin Vernon fans, for his ethos of artistry and care for the world. I’m speaking for Amy now, but [we are] big Phoebe Bridgers fans. And as I said, I’m so impressed with Olivia Rodrigo. I don’t know Chappell Roan’s history of activism, but I get the sense that she’s an amazing artist. And of course, boygenius ... all these young [people] — particularly women, not necessarily queer, but at least allied or adjacent. AR: I like Bad Bunny. There’s such a strident comment with his music, and he’s not afraid to make a statement. I think he’s been very inspiring for a lot of people. Jesse Welles — that kid’s amazing. I was talking to Adam from Guster — who helped start REVERB, that thing that greens tours — and he was talking about Billie Eilish, and all the stuff that Billie tries to accomplish environmentally. Amythyst Kiah, somebody we both like a lot. Amythyst is just a great young writer, and she says a lot of really important things about what it means to be Black in this culture, especially in the Americana culture. She’s taken the lead from Rhiannon Giddens, who always also led the way on that, and Elizabeth Cotten and all the earlier people. Anything else that you want to make sure we talk about? AR: My country band that I’ve had for 15 years now has a live record coming out in the winter. and Emily’s got a musical called Starstruck. When is it going to New York, Emily? ES: In the fall of 2027. We just had a run last spring at Bucks County Playhouse, and we’re hoping to be in New York next fall. And then Amy and I, we have plans — we don’t know when — but to start releasing new music. Rather than focus immediately on an album, we’ll probably start releasing songs. We’re talking about different people who might produce the songs. And to me, that’ll be fun. It’s just kind of taking a different approach. ▼

Playing 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Ryman

NASHVILLE SCENE •SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

MUSIC: THE SPIN

917 Woodland Street Nashville, TN 37206 | thebasementnashville.com basementeast thebasementeast thebasementeast

10/15 8/25 ax and the hatchetmen

the renaissance room

10/19

10/21

10/18

10/16

the linda lindas

after

2/17

aaron lee tasjan

W/ grace bowers

just announced

marian hill

W/ Madeleine Kelson

Upcoming shows sep 24 the gringos w/ sidecar sep 25 post sex nachos w/ The Foxies & Fetch Tiger sep 26 damien jurado w/ st. yuma & adam voith sep 29 rebecca black sep 30 the bros. landreth w/ Madeleine Roger oct 1 juice w/ Claire Ernst Oct 2 hot in herre: 2000s dance party oct 5 bleach w/ pomegranate & meadowglade oct 7 willi carlisle w/ dylan earl oct 8 finn wolfhard w/ malcy Sold out! OCT 9 ace - A Celebration of the Life & Music of Bobby Weir oct 11 golden: a k-pop kids party! oct 12 russian circles w/ pelican oct 13 mind enterprises w/ FRED FANCY oct 14 olivia o'brien w/ maya donovan oct 15 ax and the hatchetmen w/ the hails oct 16 the renaissance Room oct 18 After oct 19 The linda lindas w/ grace bowers

oct 21 aaron lee tasjan w/ madeleine kelson oct 22 chasing abbey oct 23 Michigander w/ chapel and Noah Torralba oct 24 My so-called band: 90s Halloween! oct 25 edgehill w/ palmer & meadowglade oct 26 wednesday 13 w/ dead on a sunday & above snakes

OCT 27 PORCH LIGHT w/ HOTEL FICTION OCT 29 Donny BENÉT w/ OTNES OCT 30 THE BENDS oct 31 Early show! rock and roll playhouse: halloween spectacular for kids oct 31 blade rave nov 2 maddie zahm w/ semler nov 3 the olllam w/ Rachael Davis nov 5 deer tick w/ dug nov 6 sawyer hill w/ never ending fall nov 7 havok w/ hellripper, slackjaw, & xoth nov 8 dan deacon w/ terror pigeon nov 10 sim w/ zero 9:36 & aurorawave

Stop by Lowbar located underneath the basement east for drinks, pool, darts, karaoke and more! Open 5pm-late

BY BAILEY BRANTINGHAM, ANNIE PARNELL, GRACE BRASWELL AND JULIANNE AKERS

PHOTO: ERIN FOLK

w/ the hails

AND THAT’S AMERICANA

MELISSA ETHERIDGE

AMERICANAFEST came roaring out of the gate on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and we kicked off our festival week at 3rd and Lindsley. Rock ’n’ soul powerhouse Maggie Rose drew on her bottomless reserve of vocal firepower. Queen of heartland rock Melissa Etheridge joined Rose for a smoldering duet on “Poison in My Well” before Rose finished her set with one final belt on “No One Gets Out Alive.” Etheridge returned to the stage to round out the party in her signature charmingly commanding fashion. She highlighted songs from her latest LP Rise, and the audience erupted for catalog classics “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One.” Etheridge left the room with one final yowl: “I’m the only — see ya, Nashville — ooooooonnne.” Tears came quickly at the Ryman Sept. 16 as the Americana Honors and Awards unveiled

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 | thebasementnashville.com thebasementnash thebasementnash thebasementnash

10/01

10/02 marc ridge & the revelers w/ alejandro preschel

six foot blonde

w/ Genevieve Heyward

sep 28 Unkl Sham w/ Hidden Sixes and Khris Glaring [8pm] sep 29 FREE SHOW! RACHEL CURTIS [5:50PM] sep 30 Brandon Jane w/ Stephanie Chapman [7pm] sep 30 nico welsh w/ doug south & ella choi [9pm] oct 1 kaylee keeney w/ joiner [7pm] oct 1 marc ridge & the revelers w/ alejandro preschel [9pm]

oct 2 practical magic sisterhood in song [7pm] oct 2 six foot blonde w/ genevieve heyward [9pm]

Tsunami [9pm] Don't miss new faces Night every tuesday at 7pm!

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICANAFEST

Upcoming shows sep 24 freddie mcclendon w/ bishop riley [7pm] sep 24 powerplant w/ knifey & cabletv [9pm] sep 25 jason white & david mead w/ Daniel Tashian [7pm] sep 26 The Sternwheelers, Doon the Brae and Grace Broadhead [1pm] sep 26 maddie medley w/ ziona riley [7pm] sep 26 telescreens w/ connor kelly & the time warp [9pm] sep 27 CASHVILLE TRASH PANDAS W/ AMELIA WHITE [7PM] sep 27 edm takeover! W/ franki*, Nikki Shotz and Phifer b2b

BRANDI CARLILE

a prerecorded video message from Dolly Parton, who died in August, accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award. Frustrations rose in the crowd when the video’s audio faltered at first. But a moving “Coat of Many Colors” tribute performance from Song of the Year nominees I’m With Her and winner Brandi Carlile — as well as tongue-in-cheek acknowledgements from hosts The Milk Carton Kids and Americana Music Association executive director Jed Hilly — dissolved the tension. Parton’s fellow Lifetime Achievement honorees were Robert Plant and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who celebrate the 50th anniversary of their debut self-titled album in November. The original lineup of the Heartbreakers staged a rollicking three-song reunion performance with Chris Stapleton, and Petty’s daughter Adria Petty accepted the award on her late father’s behalf. Presenter Nathaniel Rateliff accepted Tyler Childers’ Album of the Year award for Snipe Hunter on his behalf, and Gillian Welch accepted her and David Rawlings’ win for Duo/Group of the Year. Welch admitted that she thought it was “a mistake” they’d been nominated because they haven’t released music in the past year. Ken Pomeroy accepted her award for Emerging Act of the Year, performing “Days Getting Darker” from her album Cruel Joke, and 2023 Emerging Act winner S.G. Goodman followed up with her own “Snapping Turtle.” Multiple speakers reckoned with AI: The Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale expressed support for Jason Isbell in his ongoing lawsuit with Suno, and Allison Russell celebrated the fact that all of the honorees were “100 percent human” while presenting the Artist of the Year award to Molly Tuttle. Jesse Welles, who was recognized with the Spirit of Americana award last year, performed his protest song “The Nerd Reich,” and Emerging Act of the Year nominee Mon Rovîa performed his own “Heavy Foot.” More tearjerker moments came as the ceremony honored the memories of Todd Snider and The Mavericks’ Raul Malo. Hayes Carll and Elizabeth Cook performed Snider’s “Play a Train Song,” and the conclusion to the show was a

A BREAK THAT HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES Electrify your time in Music City with a stop by the Gibson Garage, Nashville’s legendary guitar experience & music venue.

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209 10TH AVE S, NASHVILLE, TN | OPEN DAILY

NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

9.27

FREDDY JONES BAND

DOLLY PARTON DRAG BRUNCH

9.29

BACKSTAGE BRASS

9.28

CHARLIE HUNTER TRIO

9.30

10.01

BEast STREET BAND

ISAAC SLADE FORMERLY OF THE FRAY

PLAYS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

10.2 LUNA WITH SISTER RAY DAVIES 10.3 A FOREIGNER’S JOURNEY TO BOSTON MUSIC CITY STONES BRUNCH: 10.4 THE STONES WITH STRINGS! 10.4 DALEY - US TOUR QMA VIBES PRESENTED BY 10.5 THE QUARTET MUSIC AWARDS000 PURESOUL PRESENTS 10.6 THE MUSIC OF JAMES BOND 10.7 ELLE VARNER LIVE 10.8 ONE FUNNY LISA MARIE BEATLEDUDES CELEBRATE 10.9 JOHN LENNON’S BIRTHDAY 10.10 R&B BRUNCH - DENIM FLY BAD PLUS: 10.10 THE FAREWELL TOUR LEVERT EXPERIENCE: 10.11 THE A LEGACY REVIVED 10.12 GAELIC STORM 10.13 SILVANA ESTRADA

10.14 CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR STORY 10.15 RNB AFTER DARK 10.16 PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON MEN: TRIBUTE TO 10.17 PIANO BILLY JOEL & ELTON JOHN 10.17 BOB SCHNEIDER WITH BILLY HARVEY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY 10.18 ALUMNI PRESENTS: ANDRE WARD GOSPEL & JAZZ BRUNCH

9.29 CURTIS SALGADO 10.1 KITTY STEADMAN, TALL PAUL & KRISTIE BOBAL 10.3 PIERRE BENSUSAN: THE INFINITE GUITAR TOUR 10.4 MICHELLE SHOCKED 10.15 NELLIE MCKAY 10.17 SUE FOLEY 10.23 CINDY ALTER

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NASHVILLE SCENE • SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2026 • nashvillescene.com

PHOTO: VICTOR J REED

9.27

MARY GAUTHIER

moving all-hands performance of The Mavericks’ “Dance the Night Away.” Sept. 17, we got in a showgoing mindset early and got to The Lipstick Lounge at noon for the annual Queer Roots party, an AmericanaFest staple co-organized this year by OUTlaw Pride and Bluegrass Pride. The historic East Nashville venue is one of a dwindling handful of lesbian bars in the U.S., and it’s been a gathering space for the Nashville LGBTQ community for decades. Decked out in glittering gold and pink — its own kind of drag, if you will — the spot was once again the perfect host for a day of celebrating the richness of storytelling and queer culture in and around roots music. When Jaimee Harris played “Orange Avenue,” there was hardly a dry eye in the room as she examined the horrific tragedy of the 2016 shooting at the Pulse queer nightclub in Orlando, Fla., from the perspective of a victim whose family didn’t know they were gay until they died. Harris’ partner, legendary singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, joined her onstage and they performed a few songs as a duo. The silver-haired, quick-witted Gauthier has a magnetic stage presence, and the packed room was pin-drop silent as she shared some songs from her new LP Reckoning, due Sept. 25. She spoke plainly and poignantly about being the first openly gay person to play the Opry. “It’s just who I am, and you are who you are,” Gauthier said. “Let’s just try to get along and make good music. But I’m not going to hide because me being here makes you uncomfortable.” From country twang to folk-punk-rock fusions, the wide breadth of Americana was on full display at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Sept. 18. Nashville’s Brennan Wedl kicked off the evening with a full band, playing songs like “High Priestess” and “Scorpio” from her self-titled record released in August. It wouldn’t be AmericanaFest without some pedal steel, but Wedl also weaved in acoustic and grungy electric guitar parts. Through it all, she exuded confidence, making for an instantly charming stage presence. Later in the night, singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt let her set serve as a release party for her third album Fools for the Fleeting, released that day. Pruitt and her full band put on a touching,

emotional set that the crowd was ready to sway to. She entranced the audience with new songs like “Little Boxes,” a meditation on being addicted to your phone and social media. She shared thoughts on the need to intentionally cultivate diversity in Americana music. “We need more lesbians in folk-Americana,” Pruitt said, introducing her early standout song “Loving Her.” “We need more Black people in folk-Americana. We need all demographics. ... This song is about loving whoever the fuck you want to love. It’s 2026.” Amid the usual Saturday evening bustle in East Nashville, fans flocked to The Basement East Sept. 19 to wrap up this year’s fest. Following Kentucky-born singer-songwriter Hunter Flynn, Nashville’s Lilly Hiatt took the stage with a set of country-inspired indie rock. Highlights included a new song called “Crystals” and “Trinity Lane,” the titular tune from her 2017 breakthrough record, named for the East Nashville thoroughfare where she then lived (and told the crowd is still her favorite road in town). She called out the particularly quiet audience. “That’s my favorite thing about Americana week, though,” Hiatt said. “I am a songwriter, and y’all do like the words. It means a lot. Shit you wrote just hanging out in your kitchen, feeling sorry for yourself — it’s reaching people.” This was right before a soulful, bluesy set from Oklahoma-born longtime Nashvillian Parker Millsap. For part of it he sported a comically large cowboy hat, which he explained was inspired by the tide of festivalgoers in Western headgear (but who might know more about hatmakers than livestock) rolling into town each September. At 11 p.m., 22-year-old Athens, Ga., singersongwriter Julia Barfield closed out the night with a solo set of intimate, tender and hopeful songs about missing your hometown. Barfield concluded with the heartfelt “Lathemtown,” which closes her 2025 debut EP Keep to Me. She gave us some words of empathetic wisdom (and University of Georgia fandom) to carry with us. “Be good to each other, be kind as much as you can be — and go Dawgs,” she said with a laugh. ▼

PHOTO: VICTOR J REED

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | BAR RESTAURANT | PRIVATE EVENTS

PARKER MILLSAP

BACK OF THE BOOK EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 1

Across 1 Sound like heaven 5 Game of observation for travel 11 Ad free 14 Brief in pants 15 Correct thoroughly 16 Bad feel 17 Try to place connoisseurs? 19 Cells in compound 20 Checks with style 21 To cop 22 Competition, for starters 24 York ___ 26 Place recording 27 Signals over game 29 Maturity approaching 31 Crows to relatives 32 Free booze 33 Confidentiality of letters? 37 “Done well” 38 Short for “info flight” 39 Sponge bath 40 Nothing doing 41 Say “minus C” 42 Set off 43 Practice Japanese 45 Equal roughly 46 Into light 49 Nags about noise? 51 Land of Spot 52 On-off signs 53 Lines some over draw

57 For repentance some feel 58 Details insignificant contests 61 Spending limits it 62 Forum discussion, popular once 63 Cut short 64 Rock-___ 65 Out with ate, ate, ate 66 Website gift custom Down 1 URL starter 2 Asian sea currently undergoing replenishment efforts 3 Civil rights icon Parks 4 Shift the gears of, in a way ... or a hint to this puzzle’s Across clues 5 ID in some data breaches 6 Elite H.S. class covering the Constitution 7 Visionary … or what you’ll need to return to when solving this puzzle’s Down clues 8 Loads 9 Babe in the Hundred Acre Wood 10 One advocated for by the National Prison Project 11 Whittled (down) 12 Biblical mount

25 29

31 37

19 21

NO. 0820 12

Puzzle by Hoang-Kim Vu 13 It’s worth remembering! 18 “No idea” 23 Distinctive expression ... or a hint to this puzzle’s Across clues 25 Feature of San Francisco’s Lombard Street 26 Mole, e.g.

27 Firm 28 Like many cricket fields 30 Plan to contribute to, for short 31 One of 1,909 for Willie Mays, for short 34 “___ the Explorer” 35 Some distance away

36 Declare 38 “Oh no! A mouse!” 39 What the second number indicates in men’s jeans sizes 41 Univ. with an annual Mystery Hunt 42 Eager response to “Wanna join?” 44 Goes nuts for

46 Around 47 Garden-variety 48 Wasn’t paying attention 50 Lauder of cosmetics 52 Designer Cassini 54 “I don’t really care / If ya think I’m strange / I ___ gonna change”: Joan Jett

55 N.F.L. commentator Collinsworth 56 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, e.g. 59 Letter after chi 60 The “S” of E.S.T.: Abbr.

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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE Z A G B E E P P A R I A H O K R A R I C O L A I MO O R A T E D L O B S T E R S S T U M P A V E C R E P T E S P O U S E S H E R A L D S T E A M E T D S P I E S T A L L S A B E R A X L E S F A V A B R R S I M S A D N EW J A K O B F A R M S P E N D A Q U A R I U M S N OWE D R OM A N S O A R E B U N S I Z I N G U P B O B C A T K N I T O P T O R A N G E S O N Y N T H T A N N E D Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

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