Our Critics Picks

A lot of cities ended up where they are because of a river—for generations, urban riverfronts were the site for practical things like handling goods, moving people around and making and storing stuff. But with urban deindustrialization, riverfronts became industrial wastelands, neglected and even frightening. Recent decades have seen a remarkable shift as city after city reclaims its waterfront. Nashville arguably has been slow on this curve, but with tangible developments like the football stadium, riverfront concerts and new bridges, and plans in the works for the baseball complex, the next step is to figure out how to make the riverfront a healthy part of the city. To that end, the Metro Planning Department and the Army Corps of Engineers are conducting a redevelopment master planning process for the riverfront, and as part of that the Nashville Civic Design Center is leading a series of public forums to get input and ideas. The first session may be the most interesting, with some background and then “input on big ideas.” If you ever had a thought about how we should use and live with the river, here’s a chance to weigh in. As with any major urban design project the issues will be complicated. For instance, whom is the riverfront for? Tourists? Locals? Downtown residents? Sports fans? There will be future forums on Sept. 26 and Oct. 25. —DAVID MADDOX MUSIC THURSDAY, 24TH COLLEEN MCFARLAND W/JOE PAGETTA Like Buddy Miller or Lucinda Williams, McFarland infuses the blues into her mid-tempo roots-rock tunes, giving them a gritty feel and for-the-ages mysticism that keeps her lyrics from falling into the self-obsessive indulgence of many other singer-songwriters. She doesn’t force herself or her songs on listeners, instead keeping her smoky alto evenly tempered so it drips with inner strength and sensuality. Her songs draw the attention they need on their own, with a compelling mix of dreamy imagery and direct emotion. When she whispers, “I don’t wanna be good,” to a potential lover, she’s not just encouraging him to step forward: she’s also communicating that she wants to break beyond conventional niceties to taste the more voluptuous fruits of experience. In a strong bill, McFarland joins adult rocker Joe Pagetta, whose new recordings, due this fall, show he continues to explore the melodic strengths and small-group dynamics that make classic rock so timeless. Radio Café —MICHAEL McCALL RAINN BENEFIT CONCERT A lineup of the Gabe Dixon Band, Garrison Starr, Rachel Sage and Tyler James would draw any night in Nashville, but this Thursday there’s added incentive to show up. All four artists will be performing as part of a benefit for RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-assault organization. Starr is a forceful performer, instilling her Southern-influenced rock tunes with understated girl power and moments of vulnerability. Local singer-songwriter Tyler James’ mellow indie-pop draws on classic folk influences, providing the perfect backdrop for casually insightful lines like, “How does someone go about a change? / ’Cause trusting my own will has been in vain.” All proceeds benefit RAINN’s Sexual Assault Online Hotline. (myspace.com/rainnbenefitconcert) 3rd & Lindsley —LEE STABERT THE AFROMOTIVE Fronted by Cote D’Ivoire, West Africa, native Kevin Meyame (who sings in French, English and his native language, Baoule), The Afromotive fuse the polyrhythms of Afrobeat with funk and extended improv. Featuring three horn players and a variety of hand percussion, the 10-piece Asheville, N.C., band create hypnotic grooves with plenty of instrumental variety to hold your interest, though their main intent is clearly to get your body shaking. If you can stand still listening to their music, check your pulse—you might be dead. Of local interest, guitarist Lapo Casini grew up on The Farm, the intentional community in Summertown, Tenn. (www.theafromotive.com) Windows on the Cumberland —JACK SILVERMAN RHETT MILLER & THE BELIEVERS If you go see any white dude with a guitar this summer, make it Rhett Miller, best known as the frontman of veteran twang-pop outfit Old 97s. Miller is one of the most underrated songwriters of his generation—he can be clever, earnest or downright heartbreaking, with a distinct delivery that can make even the most ironic statement quietly devastating. Take “Designs on You,” where he tells his would-be lover, “I won’t tell a soul except the people in the nightclub where I sing.” He has a vintage sensibility, writing songs the way they used to be, with beginnings, middles, ends and the occasional delicious twist. It’s a shame his recent solo work has been undone by overproduction, but that shouldn’t be a problem at the Mercy Lounge, so long as he continues to perform with his signature sweaty punkabilly attitude. On stage Miller is all windmill pickin’, headbanging mayhem, which makes it even more astounding that he manages to sing that good. (rhettmiller.com) Mercy Lounge —LEE STABERT JOHN TULLY/SPIRITUAL FAMILY REUNION John Tully writes songs just for the love of it—after all, he has a pretty serious full-time gig as an ER doctor in Galway, Ireland. But, through his cousin in Nashville, he managed to get his demo into the hands of the Silver Jews’ David Berman, who liked it so much he insisted that Tully come to New York to open a couple of high-profile Jews shows at Webster Hall earlier this year. In fact, Berman told Mojo that Tully’s demo comprised “the best set of songs I heard [in 2005].... The music alternately reminds me of Richard Thompson and Rowland S. Howard.” Tully favors passion and urgency over detachment and irony—though his writing is literate, he’s more interested in making you feel something than making you think he’s clever. With his wistful voice and lilting brogue, he at times sounds like Syd Barrett reborn as an Irish folk-singer. Spiritual Family Reunion, who also have opened a few Silver Jews shows this year, share a love for ethereal, mournful country with other Nashville acts like Lambchop and Ole Mossy Face. Reverb-drenched lap steel, distorted guitars, piano and rambling grooves flank Patty LeMay’s tender voice, which flutters like the downtrodden hearts of her songs’ protagonists. Their more rocking numbers, like “Sparkle Across the Water,” approach the ragged glory of Crazy Horse, with LeMay’s plaintive cry suggesting a female Neil Young. Five Spot; on Monday, Aug. 28, Tully plays The Basement and Spiritual Family Reunion play the Mercy Lounge’s “8 off 8th” show —JACK SILVERMAN FRIDAY, 25TH KELLEY MCRAE Most songs about Johnny Cash focus on his image as a rebel, a hell-raiser or a tortured seeker of universal truths. But McRae, a Texan residing in New York City, finds a new angle: She wants to love someone the way Cash loved June Carter. That may sound cheesy, but McRae turns it into a layered meditation on what matters in life. McRae’s earned a budding reputation in arthouse clubs like Manhattan’s Knitting Factory and The Living Room by forgoing irony and sarcasm, instead exploring the modern experience with a refreshing directness that finds freedom in living and loving ethically and honestly. She breaks past the usual sensitive singer-songwriter limitations with a booming, R&B-influenced voice and by augmenting her acoustic instruments with sweet, quartet-style harmonies and soulful touches of organ and accordion. 5 Spot —MICHAEL McCALL PAM TILLIS OK, it’s a bit of a stretch—after all, Pam Tillis doesn’t really have that much in common with Egyptian ruler Cleopatra. Well, beyond having famous fathers (Pam: Mel Tillis; Cleopatra: Ptolemy XII) and persistent personalities: Cleopatra survived a coup and exile to return to the throne through canny political and personal machinations, but Tillis has survived the music industry for 25 years, no mean feat in itself. Oh, and of course Tillis co-wrote and recorded 1993’s droll “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial” (one of the 19 Top 20 hits she enjoyed during that decade), which is excuse enough to enjoy one of country’s true queens and the Frist Center’s The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt exhibit at Frist Fridays. (pamtillis.net, egyptatthefrist.org) Frist Center for the Visual Arts —CHRIS NEAL VENUS HUM Unless the band has already split up and is fighting about who owes what on the studio bill, most CD release parties are happy occasions. But the celebration for Venus Hum’s third album, The Colors in the Wheel, ought to be especially sweet. Nashville’s own electronic pop trio returns after a two-year layoff in which the regular pressures of staying together as a band were complicated by singer Annette Strean losing her singing voice. Strean’s stadium-sized voice was the key reason this bouncy laptop band could hold its own with the likes of Stereolab and the Blue Man Group. On the new album, Strean mulls over her illness with more than a few verses about forgetting what’s outside and staying in bed. Her renewed vocal chords have taken on a more husky tone, which plays off nicely against the pastel-bright dance music. (venushum.com) Mercy Lounge —WERNER TRIESCHMANN SATURDAY, 26TH THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION Since settling into their current lineup, The Carter Administration have made a habit of putting out at least one recording per year. With their follow-up to the stellar Air Guitar Force One not likely to see release until ’07, the band took things into their own hands. Recorded mostly at home on an 8-track, God and Country is a quick, hooky romp through the halls of power pop. Stripped of studio gloss, the six-song EP is a good representation of the band’s lean rock sound and unimpeachable songwriting. As always with the Carters, this is catchy stuff with a sneaky grin—for example, the arena-rock mannerisms of “Kentucky Is Ohio’s Alabama” (written well before Stephen Colbert hassled Oregon’s Wikipedia entry), or the subtle wisecracking of “Don’t Mess With Tennessee.” They’ll be giving away copies of the EP free with paid admission. (cartereight.com) 3 Crow Bar —STEVE HARUCH MONDAY, 28TH AN ALBATROSS Earlier this year, Pennsylvania’s An Albatross released their third full-length, Blessphemy…of the Peace Beast Feastgiver and Bear Warp Kumite, continuing the noisy, psychedelic grindcore upon which the band forged its 2003 debut, Eat Lightning, Shit Thunder. Barreling through 18 tracks in just over 20 minutes, Blessphemy finds the band still lost somewhere out in left field. Implementing circus-like arrangements and even the occasional dance breakdown into their art-metal, the band still manage to be inaccessible without alienating listeners. Despite the brevity of their songs, they aren’t just unrealized sketches—the most challenging moments are over before the listener becomes too uncomfortable. During their set, you’ll likely find yourself either nodding your head or scratching it—probably both. (analbatross.com) The End —MATT SULLIVAN TIFT MERRITT In the six years since Ryan Adams introduced Tift Merritt and her band The Carbines to manager Frank Callari, Merritt has released two very eclectic albums. Her debut, Bramble Rose, is a mellow, melancholy alt-country collection driven by Merritt’s stellar rhythm guitar work. Songs like the tender, reverb-laden “Supposed to Make You Happy,” the pedal steel-infused title track and the country-rocker “Virginia, No One Can Warn You” showcase Merritt’s facility at spinning introspective lost-love tales. Her rousing 2004 follow-up Tambourine presents a marked contrast, with Memphis soul roots and upbeat tenor. The uplifting tale of life on the road “Late Night Pilgrim” and the Dusty Springfield-inspired “Good-Hearted Man,” elucidate the production changes best. The centerpiece of each album and The Carbines’ live show, however, is Merritt’s hard-edged soprano, which is childlike and innocent at times, tenacious and brassy at others. (tiftmerritt.com) Centennial Park —TRACY M. ROGERS TUESDAY, 29TH THE GRASCALS Hometown favorites The Grascals aren’t just celebrating the release of their second CD, Long List of Heartaches (Rounder), but also their leap from IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2005 to nominations for Vocal Group of the Year and the top-shelf Entertainer of the Year honors this time around. The new disc makes a convincing case that the nods are well deserved, offering the same blend of traditional and country-flavored bluegrass that marked their debut, but with even stronger material and nifty guest appearances by George Jones, Dierks Bentley, Steve Wariner and the Jordanaires. The sextet owes an obvious—and acknowledged—debt to the Osborne Brothers; still, they don’t recap Bob and Sonny’s sound so much as take the Brothers’ savvy combination of artistry and commercial sense into the 21st century. And with the Station Inn having served almost literally as the group’s birthplace, this show ought to be especially full of energy and high spirits. Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER WEDNESDAY, 30TH CHRIS WEST Kicking off the opening track of his first solo record with a funk line on baritone sax that dips down and scoops up big chunks of sound, Chris West announces his intentions square in the face—serious jazz chops put in service of making an audience move. The philosophy characterizes many of the places where West has made his name around town, like the Guy Smiley Blues Exchange, his Tower of Power tribute band Bump City and the bluegrass-crossed-with-the-kitchen-sink sound of Ballhog. The tracks on Jazzmanic show his command of the full range of saxophones and flutes, imaginative combinations of voices and well-constructed tunes that always find a new corner to turn. On the CD he constructs thick ensemble passages from his own overdubbed horns, but also gets help from first-rate players like his GSBE cohort Graham Spice, trumpeter Jim Williamson and Jeff Coffin, the preeminent local sax player, one of West’s teachers and an obvious role model. Some of these players may be among the guests at his release show at Mercy Lounge, which also features the percussion duo RhythMystik. Mercy Lounge —DAVID MADDOX CHRIS THILE A divorce and a relocation to New York City resulted in a surprising move for the young mandolin phenom: he’s returned to his bluegrass roots. Of course, the Nickel Creek mainstay’s restless impulses mean he twists those roots with fierce and idiosyncratic force. His solo concerts and albums—his sixth solo CD, How to Grow a Woman From the Ground, comes out Sept. 12—tend to be even more eclectic and chops-oriented than his trio work. But more than in the past, the line blurs here as he mixes dazzling instrumentals with sensitive, highly personal tunes. “I am in trouble, but you’re not what I need,” he whispers in his fragile tone in “Stay Away,” the kind of blunt, open-vein songwriting that marked the last Nickel Creek album. Naturally, his band features several young, gun-slinging peers—banjoist Norm Pikelny, guitarist Chris Ethridge, bassist Greg Garrison and fiddler Gabe Witcher. They’ll be pushed and challenged throughout the night. Belcourt Theatre —MICHAEL McCALL THEATER DEATHTRAP This popular thriller by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil) finds a fading playwright scheming to “collaborate” on a script with a former student. His real goal is to murder the younger writer and present the man’s already well-crafted play as his own. Ingenious plotting combines with clever comedy in a vastly successful Broadway stage script that was made into a 1982 film starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. The new Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre production, under the direction of Melissa Williams, includes the reliable Phil Perry-Dixon, Barn standby Dietz Osborne and veteran performers Linda Speir, Lane Wright and, in her Chaffin’s debut, Martha Manning. Performances are Aug. 29 through Oct. 7. For reservations, call 646-9977. —MARTIN BRADY ANCIENT HISTORY The fledgling Diffusion Productions’ second effort is this two-character David Ives piece that explores personal need and communication. A former editor at Foreign Affairs, Ives is an eggheaded writer who brings sharp wit and intelligence to his plays, which have included the loopy satiric revue All in the Timing (produced locally in 2003 by ACT I) and the literate and sophisticated Don Juan in Chicago. Matt Bassett directs actors Emily Fitzpatrick and Benjamin Reed. Performances run through Aug. 27 at Bongo After Hours Theatre. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call 385-1188. —MARTIN BRADY COMEDY CHRIS PORTER Chris “Willy Wonka” Porter’s built-for-comedy frame is tall and gangly. He sports a gravity-defying Jewfro and, when flummoxed, his eyes pop out of his skull like Barney Fife on a bad-hair day. As one of the top three finalists on the fourth season of the NBC reality contest Last Comic Standing, the born-and-bred Midwesterner showcased his top-notch relationship humor—primarily his trials and tribulations with women and bewilderment at why very few will concede to date him. But there’s more to the Comedy Central veteran than angst and awkwardness: the dude loves dissecting drug humor, Middle-American mind-sets and anything and everything relating to The Black Crowes. Porter performs at Zanies Aug. 24 through 27. —JULIE SEABAUGH THE DREW KARAOKE SHOW Located at 207 14th Ave. N. in the Church Street district, Lucky’s Garage is Nashville’s newest party club. The venue has a spacious “automotive repair shop” atmosphere and includes two bars, dartboards and a dance floor. Part of the complex is also the proposed site for a future performing space for theater, comedy and dance groups. One of the key organizers of the theater-building dream is IdeaProv founder Paul Bellos (a.k.a. “Paulie”), who will merge the spontaneous impulses of improv with the popular plebeian art form of karaoke at Lucky’s grand opening on Aug. 24. Audience suggestions provide the jumping-off point for rewording well-known hit songs, with (we hope) comical results. You can catch the show at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 p.m., in between dancing and drinking. There’s plenty of free parking. For more information, visit www.ideaprov.com or call 423-2171. —MARTIN BRADY ART “ANGLES ON ABSTRACTION” Gallery One’s new show features the work of three artists: Patrick Adams, Katharina Chapuis and Christina Doelling. Adams and Doelling use techniques of abstraction with material whose origins are still recognizable. Adams creates large, stately landscapes where the details of land and sky are reduced to simple, balancing forms. Doelling’s fragmented takes on still life are more quickly paced. Chapuis is the pure abstractionist of the bunch, focused on creating intense and luminous manifestations of color. The show opens with a reception, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug 25. —DAVID MADDOX “HIDDEN: A BASEMENT ART SHOW” Nashville’s art scene has become a haven for underground art exhibitions and collectives. One of the most difficult challenges for such ventures is finding an appropriate showing space—ideally, the viewing environment has as much character as the work itself. “Hidden” brings an eclectic body of work into the walls of a church-turned-nightclub-turned-church-again, The Anchor. The work spans genres from painting and sculpture to textiles, photography and furniture. The exhibition focuses on emerging Nashville artists, with multiple works from each participant, and also spotlights another venue willing to offer its space to local artists. “Hidden” is on view at The Anchor (629 Third Ave. S.) from Aug. 2 through Sept. 7; an artist reception, featuring live music, food and drinks, takes place 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 25. —ARMON MEANS AVANT-GARAGE SALE 2006 Culminating on Saturday, Aug. 26, this one-week sale features vintage art, art-related products and collectibles from The Arts Company’s archives and private collections alike. Show up early on Saturday for priced-to-go discounts in the Arts Company’s unique garage-space gallery. The markdown madness takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. —JOE NOLAN JASON BRIGGS AND CHRIS SCARBOROUGH: “GLIMPSE” The Tennessee Arts Commission might have thought about scheduling this show closer to Halloween—both of the artists produce subtly creepy stuff. Briggs makes ceramic sculptures that take on unidentifiable organic forms. He doctors the surfaces with hair, rubber and metal to create apertures that look like intimate parts of some animal, ready to secrete, expel or ingest something. With their textural contrasts of smooth and rough, hard and soft, the surfaces and forms repel and attract at the same time. Scarborough works in several media, introducing elements of anime cartoons, especially their oversized eyes, into figurative drawings or manipulated photographs. Those eyes give his subjects a freakish quality—in the photographs, they look as much like elaborate mannequins as human models. Like the tension between repulsion and attraction in Briggs’ sculptures, Scarborough’s pieces put the viewer in a position where the natural and unnatural struggle for dominance. The exhibit runs through Sept. 29. —DAVID MADDOX FILM WEEKEND CLASSIC MATINEE: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY If, like me, you grew up watching Sergio Leone’s operatic spaghetti Western on TV—where the movie’s widescreen visuals were so chopped and mangled that gunfighters appear to be shooting at nothing—seeing it this weekend at the Belcourt will be like watching a new, even better movie. Time has been kind to Leone’s violent, sardonic pistol operas, and the epic 1966 conclusion to the “Man with No Name” trilogy is a feast of flinty black humor, outlaw superheroics and outrageous bloodshed, with Clint Eastwood’s “good” squaring off against super-bad Lee Van Cleef and rabbity Eli Wallach over a cache of Confederate gold. Sure, you could stay home with the DVD—but until you’ve seen Van Cleef’s “two beeg eyes” billboard-size and cold as the Reaper’s touch, you’ve never seen Leone’s work at full strength. Part of the Belcourt’s new series offering a different classic film every weekend—upcoming selections include Casablanca, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the reconstructed version of Sam Peckinpah’s Civil War epic Major Dundee—it screens 11:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. —JIM RIDLEY QUINCEANERA In Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s big-hearted Sundance prizewinner, a pregnant Mexican teen (Emily Rios) finds a new home with her great-uncle (Peckinpah veteran Chalo Gonzalez) and rough-trade cousin (Jesse Garcia) in a neighborhood facing gentrification from the upscale gay landlords upstairs. The film opens Friday at Green Hills; see the capsule review in our Movie Listings on p. 73, with a full-length review online at nashvillescene.com. Also opening this week: the OutKast vehicle Idlewild, Broken Lizard’s Beerfest, How to Eat Fried Worms and the Mark Wahlberg football saga Invincible. —JIM RIDLEY KOYAANISQATSI Godfrey Reggio’s trippy 1983 documentary attempts to visualize the modern world’s “life out of balance” with time-lapse camerawork and other photographic effects, cut to an influential Philip Glass score that evokes a carousel spinning out of control. The movie will be shown on DVD at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, as part of the monthly film series at the Nashville Civic Design Center, 138 Second Ave. N. The presentation is free and open to the public. —JIM RIDLEY THE LATE SHOW: THE GOONIES Twenty years ago, most folks thought this would go down in history as the worst movie ever to bear the name of executive producer Steven Spielberg. But an enormous cult has taken this overbearing “Little Rascals” retread to heart, for reasons I can’t begin to fathom: it’s like being locked in the play area at Chick-fil-A without air conditioning. Nevertheless, Goonies groupies will get a chance to do the Truffle Shuffle and compete in a One-Eyed Willie look-alike contest 11:30 Friday night, as the Belcourt concludes its hugely popular summer late-show series. A no-frills screening follows 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Coming this fall: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Big Lebowski and—start your vocal warm-ups—the R. Kelly Trapped in a Closet Sing-Along! —JIM RIDLEY