Our Critics Picks
THURSDAY 2/14
Old Stuff and Things That Grow
ANTIQUES AND GARDEN SHOW OF NASHVILLE The stuff green thumbs can do in a concrete big box will make you fall to your knees in horticultural wonder. In fact, this 18th
annual event benefiting the Exchange Club Charities and Cheekwood is
guaranteed to make you feel like a lousy DIY landscaper and gardener,
but the prospect of learning a trick or two is worth the trip. It’s
also the only place in town where you can shop for both orchids and pie
chests, which, let’s face it, we all need. There are also featured
speakers, notably Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun
and three other books, Bramasole rehabilitator and all-around food and
garden goddess (Thursday 10:30 a.m.). Wear your comfortable kicks.
Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the gate. For information, visit antiquesandgardenshow.com. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Nashville Convention Center —LIZ GARRIGAN
Music
BEAT The
influence of electronic music and technology is more prominent than
ever on rock’s national scene, but Nashville’s rockers have been a
little sluggish about incorporating synthesizers and beat machines into
their usual repertoire. In an effort to remedy this deficiency, yet
another local music collective has crawled out of the woodwork—this one
calls itself BEAT. Aspiring to build a thriving community of
electro-oriented rock ’n’ rollers, BEAT hopes to bridge the gap between
synthetic and organic music. Their first event is scheduled for
Thursday night and features funky white kids Kink Ador, rock-heavy
hip-hoppers Knapsack Heroes, Quiet Entertainer and DJs Viper, Melator
and Kidsmeal. 9 p.m. at Exit/In —SETH GRAVES
Lenten Film Series
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
For Valentine’s Day, make Tim Robbins your cellblock bitch as the
Downtown Presbyterian Church shows Frank Darabont’s 1994 Stephen King
adaptation, one of the most beloved movies of the past two decades. The
film is free and open to the public, as is the light meal that precedes
it at 6 p.m. For more information, call 254-7584—or heck, just tunnel
your way in. Bring your own shank. 7 p.m. at Downtown Presbyterian Church
—JIM RIDLEY
Party Time
MEAT RAFFLE
This event could be one of two things: a) an English-style hipster
dance party or b) a carnivorous Minnesota-style lottery. Our source at
the club will only say that “It’s an anti-Valentine’s Day party, and
there will be meat involved somehow.” This is probably the place to be
if you’re on the prowl for a good “hindshank,” in the mood for some
tasty “nubbins” or just looking to scope some grade-A “loins.” 9 p.m. at Mercy Lounge —SEAN L. MALONEY
Puppets of Romance
CURSE OF THE DRINKING CLASS PRESENTS A VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE
Whether you’re a frustrated romantic or a fat, happy lover, tonight’s
festivities should round out Valentine’s Day nicely. DJs Emily and Anna
of WRVU’s Curse of the Drinking Class will spin records for
dancers and heartbroken wallflowers alike. Murfreesboro punk rockers
The Valentines are set to perform along with Black Patch Music and Dave
Cloud’s Gospel of Power. Make sure to stick around and catch the Pull
the String Puppet Players as they dramatize Hilarity and Despair,
William Tyler and Garland Gallaspy’s 2006 compilation of
answering-machine messages scrounged from piles of forgotten
garage-sale cassettes. Appropriately enough, the puppet show will
animate the moans, tirades and pleas of jilted lovers. Hilarity has
already been released on LP, so this performance should take its
real-life material into new realms of creepiness. All that’s lacking is
a portal into John Malkovich’s head. 9 p.m. at the Basement
—EDD HURT
Music
BELPHEGOR
Austrian Satan-worshipers Belphegor play black-tinged death metal, a
combination once unthinkable but now common, as sectarian hostility
between the two camps has recently died down. For the Satan devotee,
Belphegor’s undying love for the Dark Lord is sure to captivate. Songs
like “Lucifer Incestus” and “Swarm of Rats,” which more or less equates
Jesus to rat shit, serve as impassioned testimony to the band’s sole
preoccupation. For good measure, the band closes these numbers with
sounds of rats and Lucifer growling (or is it burping?) post-coitus.
But for all their somber-faced effort, Belephegor really are a lot of
fun—album titles like Bondage Goat Zombie and Goatreich-Fleshcult make that abundantly clear.
7 p.m. at the Muse —SABY REYES-KULKARNI
FRIDAY 2/15
Amy Lavere
Music
AMY LAVERE “Killing him didn’t make the love go away,” sings Amy LaVere on the lead track of Anchors & Anvils. The statement is simultaneously heartbreaking and darkly funny—owing much of its complexity to the way
she sings it. LaVere is a sly vocalist—equal parts coy and
no-nonsense—with confidence and soulfulness to spare. Many of the songs
on the album aren’t her own, but she imbues them with a clever,
youthful sensibility. Opening up are local country revivalists Those
Darlins. This is the kind of girl power it’s easy to get behind. 9 p.m. at The Basement —LEE STABERT
Jared Micah & Hats
Music
JARED MICAH & HATS W/VICKIE SUE AND THE DISSONANCE
For a town steeped in tradition, Nashville boasts a surprisingly ample
experimental underbelly. Weird-for-weird’s-sake experimental collective
Jared Micah & Hats have discovered a baby sibling in the equally
strange and similarly named revolving door clique Vicki Sue and The
Dissonance. While Micah & Hats carefully alternate between soothing
melodies and acerbic clamoring, the Dissonance eschews puzzling
arrangements for a hypnotic, atonal drone that purrs underneath Vickie
Sue Gunderon’s jazzy vocals. The two join forces for a costume gala
this weekend with anomalous folkies the Betty Rats,
guitar/drum-free-jam duo Gunslinger and Stationary Odyssey. 9 p.m. at Springwater —SETH GRAVES
Theater
READ OUR LIPS This production is more or less a Vagina Monologues
spin-off. The multi- and transgendered cast explores “thoughts,
feelings and experiences of vaginas” with a broader focus on
motherhood, menstruation, growing older and other V-Day-type concerns.
Many of the performers are stage newcomers or proudly spiritual
amateurs, and all of the material is original and written by the
company. Magda Oakewoman directs. Proceeds from the show are earmarked
for Mending Hearts, a West Nashville transitional living facility and
safe haven for women at risk. For more information, write
ReadOurLipsNashville
@gmail.com. Feb. 15 & 17 at Café OutLoud; Feb. 16 at First Unitarian Universalist Church
—MARTIN BRADY
…And Leon’s Getting Laaaarger!
BELCOURT MIDNIGHT MOVIE: AIRPLANE!
If you’ve never seen the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker crew’s 1980
disaster-movie parody with an audience going batshit at every
fearlessly stoopid gag, well, you deserve to have nun Maureen McGovern
dislodge your IV bag. And if you’re one of the five people who laughed
at Meet the Spartans, you’ll have to be carried out like Lt. Hurwitz—you know, the poor shell-shocked bastard who thinks he’s Ethel Merman. Midnight Feb. 15-16 at the Belcourt —JIM RIDLEY
Music
DAVIS RAINES CD RELEASE “A rather ornery collection” is how Davis Raines describes his new album Going to Montgomery,
though in reality it’s far more appealing—a generous dollop of classic
country outlaw songwriting in the vein of Kris, Waylon and Johnny.
Raines hosted the long-running All Points South writers’ night at The
Sutler before the Franklin Road establishment closed its doors, and
he’s had a bit of songwriting success himself, with cuts on records by
Kenny Rogers, Pam Tillis, Pat Green, Pinmonkey and Walt Wilkins.
Highlights include the title track, which ties together the complicated
history of the South (“Where it’s hard and hot and hateful, where it’s
soft and cool and sweet”) and “Big Jim Folsom,” an entertaining ode to
one of Alabama’s more colorful historical figures, a pro-civil-rights Southern governor in the 1950s known as “the little man’s big friend.” 6 p.m. at Douglas Corner
—JACK SILVERMAN
Music
BRAD PAISLEY On Paisley’s latest, the terrific 5th Gear,
the country star effortlessly flips the conventional pop conceit that
adolescence is nirvana and domestic, grown-up life is pure hell. This
switch is epitomized in the lovely and beautifully written ballad,
“Letter to Me,” where an adult Paisley tries to tell his younger self
that better days are ahead. Whereas the optimism of most country acts
comes across as a result of Music Row’s marching orders, Paisley seems
like he is having the time of his life, cracking jokes and playing
guitar as if he is possessed. 7:30 p.m. at Sommet Center —WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Theater
THE LAST FIVE YEARS Boiler Room Theatre first introduced this two-person musical to Nashville theatergoers in 2004. Jason Robert Brown’s contemporary story updates the old Abie’s Irish Rose
idea—nice Jewish boy meets good Irish Catholic girl—and charts the
couple’s life through courtship, marriage and divorce via 15 emotional,
soliloquy-like songs. Jeffrey Ullom directs the Vanderbilt University
production. Feb. 15-22 in Vanderbilt’s Neely Auditorium
—MARTIN BRADY
Salvador Dali, "The Dream"
Get Surreal
MONET TO DALI: MODERN MASTERS FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
Another show of famous names, this new exhibit at the Frist spans the
turn of the last century and covers the shift from realism to
surrealism in European art. Acting as an effective bookend to the
Center’s Picasso/Matisse show last year, this show features work by
both of those masters as well as Gauguin, Seurat, Renoir, Monet, Dali
and others. The Cleveland Museum’s collection is well known for its
depth and variety, and with over 75 paintings and sculptures, Monet to Dali is part gallery show, part history lesson and an invaluable primer for this crucial period in European art. Feb. 15-June 1 at Frist Center for the Visual Arts —JOE NOLAN
Theater
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
Nairobi Café Theatre sponsors this dinner-theater production of Ntozake
Shange’s award-winning 1975 play, which broke serious theatrical ground
as a vehicle for black feminist empowerment and still resonates today
with its themes of spiritual growth, self-sufficiency and beauty amid
sadness. Veteran Nashville actress Stella Reed directs a cast that
includes Fiona Soul, Antonia Tyus, Keisha Cunningham and Candy Robins. 7 p.m. at Inspiration Centre (2286 Rosa Parks Blvd.) —MARTIN BRADY
SATURDAY 2/16
Roots Rock ’n’ Roll
WEBB WILDER
Just a tall, big-footed sprout when he first billed himself as “last of
the full-grown men,” Wilder has fulfilled that prophecy—and his promise
to always play both kinds of music, “rock” and “roll.” More than 20
years on, he and his fine band the Beatnecks continue to give a
vigorous shake to rock’s strongest, deepest roots. Amazingly for
someone with such a strong reputation for live performance, this
longtime Nashville resident recently released his first concert album, Born to Be Wilder. As
always, he still testifies like a gospel-channel believer, spewing
theories about the power of music and love in tales featuring UFOs,
circus characters and guys who can’t help but taste the bait. 7 p.m. at 3rd & Lindsley —MICHAEL McCALL
CD Release
THE MATTOID
With a band that’s part comedy troupe, part performance art group,
Ville Kiviniemi—a.k.a. The Mattoid—has made a splash in recent years
with the hodgepodge he calls “Sango.” The minimal but quirky Mattoid’s
popularity has grown courtesy of insight along the lines of “Crap your
craps and fuck your fucks / It’s party time.” With songs that are
generally funny, often good and sometimes crass, the Helsinki-born
Mattoid’s latest, The Glory Holy, has been picked up by
Infinity Cat. Also on the bill will be the tongue-in-cheek
electro-clashers The Spring Hill Spider Party. 9 p.m. at The Basement —MATT SULLIVAN
Food for Thought
FOOD SECURITY SUMMIT Enough
with the jokes about “threat-level eggplant.” Food security is a
serious issue in Tennessee, where 60 percent of the population is
overweight and obese, requests for emergency food assistance are
increasing and local food production is declining. Food Security
Partners of Tennessee, a project of Vanderbilt’s Institute for Public
Policy, will bring together farmers, chefs, retailers and health-care
providers to discuss food-related issues from hunger and poverty to
obesity and land use. Mayor Karl “It’s All Connected” Dean will speak
at 10 a.m., kicking off a day of presentations by local and national
experts. For more information, call Cassi Johnson at 322-5638 or visit
foodsecuritypartners.org. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church (3900 West End Ave.) —CARRINGTON FOX
Music
COWBOY JACK CLEMENT ON THE MIDNITE JAMBOREE Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s 2007 documentary film, Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies, revealed
Clement as the protean figure he’s always been. A Memphian who moved to
Nashville in the mid-’60s, Clement captured Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole
Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” in one take at Sun Studios, wrote the
much-covered rock ’n’ roll classic “It’ll Be Me” and produced records
by Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Louis
Armstrong. More recently, Cowboy Jack has released a solo record, Guess Things Happen That Way,
which features a version of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ “No
Expectations” alongside his “Ballad of a Teenage Queen.” In his own
way, Clement has always been a conceptual artist—his versatility
elevates him to auteur status. Expect the hits, a few jokes and maybe
even a dance step or two. Midnight at Texas Troubadour Theater —EDD HURT
Countrypolitan Legend
NASHVILLE CATS: JERRY KENNEDY
As much as any Nashville producer, Jerry Kennedy took the
countrypolitan style to its logical—and baroque—conclusion. Hailing
from Shreveport, La., Kennedy played guitar behind Faron Young on the
Louisiana Hayride, cut blues sides with Jimmy McCracklin and, in 1961,
came to Nashville, where he worked alongside Shelby Singleton at
Mercury Records. At the label, Kennedy made his mark as a guitarist,
A&R head, executive and producer. He cut memorable records with
Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom T. Hall and Young, whose 1971 “It’s
Four in the Morning” is a superb example of Kennedy’s production
aesthetic. Purists might decry Kennedy’s penchant for using strings,
horns and backup singers, but his records endure as fascinating
conjunctions of down-home feeling and commercial aspiration. Today’s
Nashville Cats program will feature photos, recordings and film clips,
and Kennedy will answer questions about his remarkable career. 2 p.m. at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater —EDD HURT
Theater
MY WAY
From 1999 to 2004, artistic directors David Grapes and Todd Olson
helmed Tennessee Rep. They did a lot of serious theater in that time,
but they also collaborated on this side project—a musical revue
celebrating the songs and style of Frank Sinatra. The show originally
had a brief local run at TPAC, and since has taken off as a regional
and community theater staple. (The creative team has also launched a
similar vehicle centering on Tony Bennett.) This new mounting of My Way
stars John Winters, Tiffany Herlein, Noah Aberline and Allyson Pace.
Tom Thayer stages the action and Wayne Wyman is music director. Through March 1 at Roxy Regional Theatre, Clarksville —MARTIN BRADY
Music
ALIAS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Featuring some of Nashville’s finest classical musicians—10 of the 11 members are in the Nashville Symphony—Alias performs
a more daring repertoire than your typical chamber group, and all
proceeds from performances go to local charities. This concert features
Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C major and American composer Michael Torke’s Telephone Book, a post-miminalist piece with jazz and funk influences. This show benefits the Nashville Adult Literacy Council. 8 p.m. at Blair School of Music’s Turner Recital Hall —JACK SILVERMAN
|
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
|
|
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
|
SUNDAY 2/17
Brian Ashely Jones
Music
BRIAN ASHLEY JONES An excellent guitarist and thoughtful singer-songwriter, Brian Ashley Jones wears both hats on Courier, an
acoustic trio album featuring bassist Tisha Simeral and Dobro player
Mark Van Allen. Songs like “Johnny Appleweed,” “More than Survive” and
the title track incorporate bluegrass and mountain folk influences.
“Free to Miss You” is sweet acoustic country, while “I Ain’t Jokin’ ”
features Jones indulging his blues, um, jones. On newgrass
instrumentals “Pull ’Em Up” (featured on the PBS TV series Road Trip Nation) and “As of Yet,” the band members show off their considerable improvisational abilities. 8 p.m. at Windows on the Cumberland; also playing 7 p.m. Tuesday at Sambuca —JACK SILVERMAN
The Belcourt Gets Bogarted
NASHVILLE FILM NOIR FESTIVAL: THE MALTESE FALCON/THE BIG SLEEP/IN A LONELY PLACE Wanna know why Jean-Paul Belmondo walks through Godard’s Breathless thumbing his lip and incanting, “Bogie…Bogie..?”
Here’s the birth of cool: three of Humphrey Bogart’s greatest roles,
side by side—as the thuggish Sam Spade in John Huston’s early Dashiel
Hammett noir The Maltese Falcon; as Chandler’s wisecracking Philip Marlowe in Howard Hawks’ convoluted The Big Sleep; and as the hot-headed antihero of Nicholas Ray’s devastating In a Lonely Place. Regardless of the weather, these would be good nights to dust off that old trench coat. In a Lonely Place through Feb. 14; The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep Feb. 15-17 at the Belcourt —JIM RIDLEY
Music
EVANGELICALS If
you’re looking for a way to escape reality this week, look no further
than oddball psych-pop group The Evangelicals. These kids from Oklahoma
are as likely to toy with minimalist instrumental arrangements as they
are to rampage into post-Pavement oblivion. Their sophomore release, The Evening Descends,
is plenty dark for a pop album, boasting numerous tales of mental and
emotional breakdown. Their music reflects that, moving from blissful
pop to a schizophrenic, unruly mess of swirling noise, fuzzy guitars
and gushing synthesizer. 9 p.m. at The End —MURRAY SHARP
Music
EARLY DAY MINERS
Somewhere between the arid shimmer of Mojave 3 and the spare loping
ache of Red House Painters lies the stake of Early Day Miners. The
Bloomington, Ind., quintet opened shop in ’99 as a side project for
frontman Daniel Burton, whose day job was with instrumental post-rock
trio Ativin. Burton’s laconic baritone drips like syrup over the
textured thrum. Though willing to get the amps buzzing, the Miners’ MO
is more often finesse, with understated melodies that linger like
smoke. 2006’s Offshore EP conjures the salty, decaying air of Burton’s Gulf Coast youth from jams reconfigured on computer. 9 p.m. at the 5 Spot —CHRIS PARKER
Classical Duo
GIL AND ORLI SHAHAM
These two siblings, both classical virtuosos, are as likely to front
the world’s greatest orchestras as they are to strip it down to just
violin and piano. Their repertoire can be similarly eclectic, as it is
for this duo concert presented by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.
With 36-year-old Gil Shaham on his 1699 Stradivarius, and 32-year-old
sister Orli Shaham on Steinway piano, they’ll pirouette from a
sprightly Mozart sonata to two movements from an impressionistic
Gabriel Fauré suite to 20th
century works by Béla Bartók and Karol Szymanowski. On a
post-Valentine’s Day weekend, the accent will be on beauty and seamless
interplay, but with enough challenges to keep the wits sharp. 7 p.m. at Schermerhorn Symphony Center—MICHAEL MCCALL
MONDAY 2/18
Music
TIM FINN
As with many sharp-penned rockers of his generation, Finn has evolved
from spiky new-wave pop to a more graceful style that emphasizes melody
and lyrics packed with wit and wisdom. At 55, the former leader of New
Zealand’s Split Enz makes music closer in spirit to his collaborations
with his brother Neil Finn of Crowded House than to the vaudevillian
rock of his old band. Finn has maintained Nashville connections over
the years, with longtime manager Barry Coburn based here. His most
recent solo album, Imaginary Kingdom, was recorded here in
collaboration with producer Bobby Huff. In one of the album’s songs,
“Secret Heart,” Finn claims music can be so much more than “rhythm and
rhyme,” then spends the rest of the album proving it. 8 p.m. at the Belcourt —MICHAEL MCCALL
Vagina Time
EVE ENSLER Valentine’s Day 2008 marks the 10th
anniversary of Eve Ensler’s founding of V-Day, a global effort to
combat domestic and other violence against women and children. As
author of The Vagina Monologues, Ensler has probably been
denounced by more Young Republicans and Old Baptists than any other
playwright of the new millennium. Performances of her heartbreaking—and
often very funny—play have taken place in 120 countries, raising more
than $50 million. As part of a 22-city speaking tour leading up to a
star-studded performance in New Orleans, the always lively and
surprising Ensler will appear at Vanderbilt. Tickets are $25. 7 p.m. at Vanderbilt University’s Student Life Center —MICHAEL SIMS
TUESDAY 2/19
Wilder and Wilder
NASHVILLE FILM NOIR FESTIVAL: DOUBLE INDEMNITY/SUNSET BLVD.
First, if you’re going to kill somebody over a dame, make sure the dame
is Barbara Stanwyck. Not a jury would convict you. Second, if you’re
going to wind up face down in a Hollywood has-been’s swimming pool,
make sure you at least get to warm up the deck chairs first. This sound
advice comes from two hard-boiled gems by Billy Wilder, whose rep as
one of Hollywood’s sharpest comedy directors has never eclipsed the
cold black heart of his noir dramas. Edgar-winning novelist and Watkins
Film School chair Steven Womack, no slouch himself with a hot roscoe
and a cold lead slug, introduces the James M. Cain proto-noir Double Indemnity (7 p.m. Feb. 19). On the 20th, film scholar Joy Ramirez introduces Sunset Blvd., with Gloria Swanson unforgettable as faded silent star Norma Desmond. Who says the pictures got small? Feb. 19-21 at the Belcourt —JIM RIDLEY
Poetry
JAMES HOCH
Simple words and short lines are the favored devices of poet James
Hoch. His work is lauded by critics and prize committees, but its
accessibility also makes it popular with a broad range of readers. It
is equally at home on Slate.com or in The Kenyon Review. Hoch’s
website bio offers a résumé that includes “dishwasher, cook,
dockworker, social worker and shepherd,” and his poetry seems to draw
from all that gritty experience, spawning unsentimental, stark verses
such as “Sound of a Body Falling off a Bridge”: “Feet shuffling off a
stone pillar / simple but not easy. A young tree / fracturing under the
sudden weight / exactly how one imagines it.” Hoch will read from his
works; a reception and book signing will follow. 8 p.m. in Vanderbilt’s Buttrick Hall —MARIA BROWNING
Music
DOWN Featuring
key members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Eyehategod, Crowbar,
and Superjoint Ritual, New Orleans Down traffic in swampy,
Sabbath-inspired riffs with a touch of blues. More an ongoing gathering
of longtime friends than a traditional supergroup, Down (which actually
formed in the early ’90s) have developed into a seasoned unit that
bring new levels of maturity, versatility and soul to their work.
Recorded in the aftermath of Katrina, new album Over the Under
finds the band members coping with their sense of personal loss in what
could easily be metal’s most heartfelt and adult treatment of death and
destruction to date. Yet another vehicle for frontman Phil Anselmo’s
expansive range, the band makes expert use of big, dramatic hooks and
creeping atmospheres in a listening experience that haunts and rocks in
equal measure. 9 p.m. at Cannery Ballroom —SABY REYES-KULKARNI
WEDNESDAY 2/20
Music
VAST
Thank goodness VAST leader/nucleus Jon Crosby didn’t sign to Shrapnel
Records when he was given the chance as a teenaged guitar prodigy, or
else who knows how differently his career would’ve turned out. VAST’s
stock in trade is mixing industrial beats and atmospheres with rocking
electric guitars and toned-down acoustic touches, but the outfit’s true
strength lies in Crosby’s ability to make the music swell with grand,
sweeping hooks and smoothly executed changes in harmonic directions
that suggest a classical film-scorer’s mind at work. Crosby has the
ability to take your breath away and thus elevates his music far above
the often trite and overly dramatic stylings typical of industrial
rock. 9 p.m. at Mercy Lounge
—SABY REYES-KULKARNI
International Lens
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
More relevant than ever after almost half a century, Gillo Pontecorvo’s
gripping 1965 docudrama about Algeria’s mid-’50s resistance to French
rule depicts urban warfare and grassroots terrorism with chilling
accuracy—so much so that the Pentagon screened it before the Iraq
invasion. Hope somebody took notes during the parts about how outside
crackdowns tend to politicize the apolitical. Also showing at Sarratt
this week is the 2004 South African drama Yesterday (7 p.m. Feb. 18). Both screenings are free and open to the public. 7 p.m. at Sarratt Cinema, Vanderbilt —JIM RIDLEY
Bard Talk
ANN COOK CALHOUN: MORAL QUESTIONS IN SHAKESPEARE
Calhoun is a local academic icon with an expertise in Shakespeare.
Besides her years on the faculty at Vanderbilt, she is a former
executive director of the Shakespeare Association of America, and has
worked as a dramaturg and advisor for the Nashville Shakespeare
Festival. These weekly discussions revolve around morality in the
Bard’s plays, with Calhoun deconstructing and illuminating five key
works: The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, Hamlet, Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale. 6:30-7:30 p.m.Wednesdays through March 12 at Christ Church Cathedral —MARTIN BRADY
Music
THE BELLEVILLE OUTFIT
Because this young Austin six-piece occasionally jumps through old-time
American swing and string-band jazz—even their name comes from an old
Django Reinhardt tune—they occasionally get compared to the Squirrel
Nut Zippers or fellow Austin combo Asylum Street Spankers. But their
instrumental virtuosity, tricky arrangements and sophisticated
songwriting touch moves their music beyond fun revivalism. In truth,
their forebears are bands like Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks, the Nitty
Gritty Dirt Band and another Austin outfit, Uncle Walt’s Band, which
featured the father of Belleville’s lead guitarist Warren Hood. With
Rob Teter occasionally giving over lead vocals to fiddler Phoebe Hunt,
the band doesn’t stay in one place or within one genre for very long.
Their debut album, Wanderin’, suggests they’re capable of heading in most any direction they wish. 8:30 p.m. at Douglas Corner —MICHAEL McCALL
Music
JIMMY STEWART & FRIENDS
Country fans who know him as the long-tenured fiddler for Brooks &
Dunn and bluegrass enthusiasts who recall his mid-’90s dobro playing
for Doyle Lawson and others may be equally surprised by Jimmy Stewart’s
slo-mo emergence as a solo artist. Work on his Warner Brothers debut is
proceeding in fits and starts, but in the meantime, Stewart’s
revisiting the bluegrass scene with this appearance, abetted by a group
that includes the Steeldrivers’ Chris Stapleton, bass man-about-town
Mike Bub and the dextrous (and recently wed) Jason Mowery on mandolin.
Stewart promises some “songs I grew up singing,” but he’ll also be
dishing up acousticized material from his album, which features a tasty
blend of influences ranging from Elvis to Kenny Baker. 9 p.m. at Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER