Lewis’ voice is such a sweet instrument that it always comes as a shock whenever some harsh emotional truth comes spilling out of her mouth. If her way with a barbed hook suits the pop dramatics of her day job fronting the band Rilo Kiley, it’s also just right for the brand of low-key country-soul she pursues on her first solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. Playing off the Greek-chorus harmonies of Kentucky twins Chandra and Leigh Watson, Lewis creates a separate universe just south of the one that L.A.’s Rilo Kiley inhabit. It’s a place where the past keeps screwing up the present, where illusions are slipping away with the future and where God may or may not be listening. And it all sounds chillingly lovely. ( www.jennylewis.com , www.thewatsontwins. com) Belcourt Theatre —CHRIS NEAL MUSIC THURSDAY, 23RD BOBBY OSBORNE TRIBUTE CONCERT It’s impossible to briefly recap the brilliant joint career of Bob and Sonny, the Osborne Brothers, but it’s fair to say that they are among bluegrass music’s most important figures. Though Sonny recently retired from performing, Bobby’s moving ahead on his own. His brand-new CD, Try a Little Kindness, shows that he’s headed back to the future by leaning toward the country-bluegrass blend that the Brothers created back in the ’60s and ’70s—and that he’s still one of the best singers around. To celebrate the album’s release and testify to the brothers’ profound influence, organizers have gathered a pack of bluegrass high fliers, most of whose careers are difficult to imagine without the Osbornes’ innovations. While there are bound to be instrumental pyrotechnics, the heart of the evening is sure to be a hefty dose of jaw-dropping and gut-wrenching singing from some of Nashville’s best—and though Bobby may be headed for his 75th birthday, he’ll be right in there with the young’uns. Scheduled performers include The Grascals, Claire Lynch, Alecia Nugent, Marty Raybon, Larry Stephenson and Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives. (www.bobbyosborne.com ) Belcourt Theatre —JON WEISBERGER GARRISON STARR/STRAYS DON’T SLEEP Mississippi-born Starr changed several aspects of her life in the last year, including moving from L.A. to Nashville and writing bolder, more emotional lyrics. Her sweetly melancholic new album, The Sound of You and Me, is filled with touching images and heartbroken self-awareness. “In the shadows / I am born again,” she sings in “Sing It Like a Victim,” and the conviction running through these songs provides the evidence. Starr’s record benefits from the production of Nashville’s Brad Jones and Neilson Hubbard, who add atmosphere and off-kilter depth to the singer-songwriter’s folk-rock style. Hubbard takes that sound a few steps further with Strays Don’t Sleep, a new collaboration with Nashville rocker Matthew Ryan. The easy description would be to say the project marries Hubbard’s power-pop with Ryan’s guitar anthems, but the truth is that Strays Don’t Sleep develops a new sound for both. Their forthcoming album is at once beautiful and unsettling. ( www.garrisonstarr.com , www.straysdontsleep.com ) The Basement —MICHAEL McCALL CLARE BURSON Burson’s “Take Good Care” beat out 15,000 other contenders to move to the finals of the 2005 International Songwriting Contest. Like just about everything on her Idaho EP, “Take Good Care” is Lucinda Williams-style Americana darkened with reverb-laden guitars and subtly driving drums. Burson’s voice is clear and beautiful, with a dramatic tension that suggests she’s holding back its full power. In last week’s issue, we mistakenly said her show was on March 22; it’s actually this Thursday. ( www.clareburson.com ) Family Wash —JESSICA FRIEDMAN CORY BRANAN This guy is a singer-songwriter with a rock aesthetic—onstage, he moves back and forth from the mic, alternately barking, singing sweetly and withdrawing to almost a whisper. Branan’s new 12 Songs is a little like his live show: idiosyncratic, at once shy and intensely charismatic, calculated but at the same time reckless. His lyrics often read like poetry—fractured, exquisite catalogs of images and phrases: a foot on the brake, parted lips, the girl pulling her sweater sleeves over her hands. But that seriousness is matched by a dark wit and dry sense of humor—bonding with a girl over Miami Vice, being “secretly enamored” though she was “obviously hammered,” singing about the “prettiest waitress in Memphis” slipping her finger into his sweet tea. ( www.corybranan.com ) 3 Crow Bar; Branan also plays a 6 p.m. in-store March 23 at Grimey’s with Garrison Starr —LEE STABERT FRIDAY, 24TH DOGME 95 Nick Wright takes his DIY aesthetic seriously. Recording under the name Dogme 95, he wrote, sang and played all the instruments on all but one track on his CD The Reagle Beagle, which he describes as “the fictional tale of a songwriter on the boat with Charles Darwin, during his studies on evolution, origin of the species and survival of the fittest.” The album also qualifies as DIQ—on the liner notes, he claims to have written most of the songs in one day. Like a primitive Sufjan Stevens, Wright uses a central conceit as a unifying thread while walking a fine line between earnestness and irony, never falling completely to either side. Listeners with a low tolerance for arty rock might find it pretentious, but The Reagle Beagle is not so much affected or pompous as joyous and genuinely whacked-out. The 5 Spot —JACK SILVERMAN SATURDAY, 25TH SWITCHFOOT If there was an award given for Greatest Mood Switch Between Albums, then these San Diego rockers would’ve won it for their last two CDs. Their major-label debut, 2003’s The Beautiful Letdown, was an energetic, tuneful, all-too-rare mainstream rock plea to seize life by the throat. Led by singer-guitarist Jonathan Foreman, the group also used the opportunity to keep their Christian origins covert without sacrificing any uplift. But now Nothing Is Sound arrives, and Foreman sounds lost and hopeless. On too many songs, he moans about the sorry state of the world, which would have been all right had he found a way to do so with some evocative detail. That said, Switchfoot have plenty of material that isn’t depressing, and chances are that it will make up the majority of their set list for this show. ( www.switchfoot.com ) War Memorial Auditorium —WERNER TRIESCHMANN SUNDAY, 26TH OASIS Known more for their sibling rivalry than their music, Oasis have struggled to live up to the hype of their first two albums, but the Gallagher brothers saved face with their latest record, Don’t Believe the Truth. Instead of arrogant anthems like “Rock ’n’ Roll Star,” we get the humbler “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel,” a conversation with God after a night of heavy drinking. Liam and Noel Gallagher are the only original members of the band left, and Ringo’s son Zak Starkey has become a temporary one, both solidifying the band’s idol worship and strengthening their sound. (Starkey has worked with The Who since 1996.) Oasis play their first Nashville show this week, and though Liam’s cigarette-and-alcohol-cured voice isn’t what it once was, local Britpop fans have been waiting a long time to see them. The show is sold out. Ryman Auditorium —CLAIRE SUDDATH MUTE MATH For the most part, Mute Math turn their influences into a distinctive sound even when they borrow so freely that they risk imitation. Paul Meany’s singing is the most obvious case in point, with rhythmic phrasing and a faint British accent lifted from Sting. That Meany is open about this suggests a confidence in his intentions and in the underlying music. Mostly on the strength of the latter, his creative gamble pays off; with just a few exceptions, the band make a respectable showing of using individual ingredients—Edge-like guitar accents, Radiohead-inspired keyboard swirls—that belong to other people. ( www.myspace.com/mutemath ) Exit/In —SABY REYES-KULKARNI CHRIS & AURORE Though the guitar/harmonica pairing and ethereal harmonies of this Boston duo’s gospel-tinged protest songs could have been beamed directly from the ’60s folk revival, their lyrics spin darker, contemporary tales spiked with surreal imagery. “To Never Again,” for example, is an antiwar parable from the perspective of the “rich man’s son” who brought it on: “So he took the whole world and swallowed it down / And it burned in his stomach till there was no one around.” It’s a jarring—and effective—contrast to the pair’s otherwise easygoing sound. ( www.chrisandaurore.com ) Bluebird Café —KATIE DODD SCOTT MILLER & THE COMMON-WEALTH The former V-Roy strikes a nice balance between rocking and storytelling on his new Citation, which opens with a coming-of-age tale that begins with lustful backseat fumbling and emerges into an adult life where rock ’n’ roll remains an inspiration in the ongoing battle against compromise and futility. Working with Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, Miller stays in touch with his inner rebel while alternating between hillbilly folk and spitfire garage-rock that tries to ignore how well-crafted his songs are. He convincingly covers Neil Young’s “Hawks & Doves,” but it just as easily could’ve been Tom Petty or his former mentor, Steve Earle. ( www.thescottmiller.com ) 3rd & Lindsley —MICHAEL McCALL WEDNESDAY, 29TH MARK SLAUGHTER WITH GUNNAR NELSON AND KELLY KEAGY The dreaded “hair metal” label will surely be applied to this aggregate of appealing 1980s and ’90s hard-rockers (plus promised “special guests”), but it doesn’t quite fit any of them. Nashville resident Mark Slaughter led his eponymous band through the last days of that era without getting too much mousse on his hands. The similarly self-named outfit starring Gunnar Nelson and his twin brother Matthew was a traditional pop-rock act; these days they’d be Fall Out Boy. Drummer and singer Kelly Keagy’s Night Ranger was born in the pre-hair-metal early 1980s, a meat-and-potatoes rock band whose driving, melodic hits (“Sister Christian,” “Four in the Morning”) hold up well. This is an acoustic show, but don’t worry: as Night Ranger taught us, you can, in fact, still rock in America. Oh yeah, all right! ( www.slaughterweb.com , www.thenelsonbrothers.com , www.nightranger.com ) Mercy Lounge —CHRIS NEAL MERLE HAGGARD Recently crowned with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and currently back on country radio in a duet with Gretchen Wilson, country music’s greatest living singer-songwriter has been enjoying another renaissance of late. He’s back on Capitol Records, which released his solid 2005 album Chicago Wind, along with a bunch of his early albums in loving twofer packages. Once again in good health, he’s lean, spirited and sounding as good as ever, as evidenced by recent Nashville sessions where he joined Willie Nelson and Ray Price for an upcoming album from a musical Mt. Rushmore of surviving country legends. This historic theater tends to bring out his best, too. ( www.merlehaggard.com ) Ryman Auditorium —MICHAEL McCALL CLASSICAL BLAIR STRING QUARTET PLAYS BARTOK Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was probably best known for collecting Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music and incorporating it into classical compositions and forms. The six string quartets he wrote span his career and reflect his stylistic trajectory from roots in Romanticism to a more modern sound. Vanderbilt’s Blair String Quartet will play the entire cycle of Bartók quartets on two successive Fridays, March 24 and 31. The first pair of quartets, composed in 1908 and 1915-17, reflect an advanced late Romantic nationalist style that uses Hungarian and Eastern European rhythms and scales. In the third and fourth quartets from 1927-28, Bartók distilled those rhythms into something more abstract, astringent and dissonant, but still with the steady headlong drive of a village dance. Dense dissonances appear again in the Quartet No. 5 (1934), but mixed with more folkloric material. His final quartet, written in 1939 (six years before he died and nearly his last composition), seems to transcend historical categories to arrive at a universal style that achieves the calm, stately quality of a baroque passacaglia or fugue. The concerts start at 8 p.m. in the Blair School’s Ingram Hall. —DAVID MADDOX THEATER GOD’S MAN IN TEXAS Lamplighter’s Theatre of Smyrna concludes its first full-scale season with this popular play. David Rambo’s script, concerning the clash between two Texas pastors—one an aging legend, the other his supposed protégé—has received two high-profile mountings by Tennessee Repertory Theatre in the not-too-distant past. This production, staged in Lamplighter’s new, multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art facility, is under the direction of Arwen Meek. Performances are weekends, March 23-April 2. For tickets, phone 534-0148. —MARTIN BRADY ART ROY VILLEVOYE: “PROPELLER” In “Propeller,” Dutch artist Roy Villevoye uses large-scale photography, film and an artist book to send us on a journey though the Asmat, a virtually impassable swampy area on the western coast of New Guinea. But don’t expect National Geographic. This artist doesn’t want to give any answers—he wants to raise questions by confronting the viewer with challenging images. In one photo, Villevoye is standing among a group of four local men, all wearing T-shirts with Osama Bin Laden’s larger-than-life face hovering above a city skyline, complete with planes circling overhead. To these New Guineans, it’s just a T-shirt, but for a Westerner, it offers an opportunity to question preconceived notions about faraway cultures, as well as the repercussions of globalization. In a short documentary, also titled “Propeller,” Villevoye interviews village elders, a Dutch pilot, the sister of a European missionary and others about an Allied fighter jet that crashed in the Asmat jungle in 1944. The film reveals the stark differences between how cultures create their histories—namely, the Westerner’s need for linear fact vs. the Asmat people’s preference for mythical storytelling. The exhibit opens Thursday, March 23, at Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.; Villevoye will give an informal artist talk at 4:15 p.m. on Friday. —JESSICA FRIEDMAN “RUSSIAN COLLECTION” There have been a number of noteworthy Russian art exhibits visiting the U.S. in the past few years, and LeQuire Gallery is bringing its own version to Nashville. Creating the kind of figurative painting and sculpture the gallery is known for, the five featured artists in this show should feel right at home. Shalva Bedoev, Murat Kaboulov, Magrez Kelekhsaev, Anatoly Melnikoff and Vladimir Soskiyev are old schoolmates who grew up together making art behind the Iron Curtain in the former Soviet Union. Although their work differs stylistically, these award-winning artists all draw their inspiration from a common culture and communicate in the kind of language that is always shared among lifelong friends. LeQuire Gallery opens “Russian Collection” with a reception on Saturday, March 25, from 6 to 8 p.m. LeQuire Gallery is located at 4304 Charlotte Ave. —JOE NOLAN J.D. WILKES Plowhaus Artists Cooperative opens “Wunderkammer: The Comic and Sideshow Art of J.D. Wilkes” with an artist reception 6:30-10:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23. A genuine Kentucky Colonel, Wilkes brings the same cockfight-on-crack fury to his elaborate graphite sketches that he does to his performances with his group, Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers. His “freak show” banner art has graced the band’s CD covers and will be on display, along with samples of Wilkes’ “Legend Has It...” comic strip. The show closes four days later on Sunday, March 26. —JOE NOLAN CARYN CAST AND ELLE LONG: “THE BIRDS WILL SET YOU FREE” Caryn Cast’s colorful portraiture incorporates various symbols in an effort to help the viewer connect with her themes. In her latest work, currently on view at The Art House, she uses avian imagery to represent the fleeting and elusive nature of personal truth. The other featured artist in this show, Elle Long, designs garments in which she attempts to incorporate personal and political values into her definition of fashion. There will be an opening reception Saturday, March 25, 6-8 p.m. The show will continue through April 20. —JOE NOLAN BOOKS A. VAN JORDAN It’s a rare poet who can do justice to a tragic, real-life narrative, while simultaneously reveling in the verbal play that is poetry’s primary allure. In contemporary poetry, one of those elements usually winds up being sacrificed in favor of the other. But A. Van Jordan has gotten the mix just right with his new collection, M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A. He uses a brilliant array of forms to tell the story of MacNolia Cox, a 13-year-old African American girl who made it to the final round of the National Spelling Bee in 1936, only to be cheated of a win by hostile white judges. As in his previous book, Rise, Jordan explores the breadth of African American experience by focusing on the interior states of his characters and the small, intimate moments between them. MacNolia’s defeat is an echo that reverberates through a chorus of many voices: her husband, her employer and a cast of black cultural icons, from Josephine Baker to Richard Pryor. Jordan honors the memory of the proud, word-loving child (and the disappointed woman she became) by letting MacNolia herself speak with uncompromising irony and self-awareness. Jordan will be the featured speaker at Austin Peay State University’s Asanbe Diversity Symposium. He will deliver a lecture, “Space, Time and Race: From MacNolia Cox to the Present,” at 1 p.m. March 23 in Gentry Auditorium, and will participate in a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Dwonna Goldstone at (931) 221-7886. —MARIA BROWNING VANDERBILT SPRING SYMPOSIUM The role of the writer/critic brings the schism between creative writing and literary theory to the fore. Though writers often find themselves at home in either camp (Eudora Welty and Nick Tosches come to mind), in the university setting, the divide between craftsman and critic has led to increased compartmentalization. English departments, it seems, are experiencing the same practical and theoretical disconnect found in disciplines such as medicine and religious studies. In an effort to explore—if not reconcile—these differences, Vanderbilt’s Spring Symposium brings together three writers known for both critical and creative endeavors: Linda Gregerson, David Lehman and James Woods. Gregerson is the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of English at the University of Michigan and is also an internationally recognized poet whose collections include Waterborne and The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep. Woods serves as a critic and senior editor at The New Republic. His first novel, The Book Against God, generated a few less-than-favorable reviews, which some sources have claimed were payback. He’ll read from his work in Room 126 of Wilson Hall at 4:10 p.m. on March 23; Gregerson will follow on the same day with a reading at 8 p.m. in Room 101 of Buttrick Hall. The three will discuss their often conflicting vocations at 1:10 p.m. March 24 in Room 103 of Wilson Hall. That same day, Lehman, the series editor of The Best American Poetry and the author of five poetry collections, will read from his work in Room 101 of Buttrick Hall at 4:10 p.m. The event, which is sponsored by the Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Program, is free and open to the public. —PAUL V. GRIFFITH FILM C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA—DIRECTOR’S PANEL Already shaping up as one of the year’s first arthouse sensations, Kevin Willmott’s controversial mockumentary retells American history as if the South had won the Civil War, replete with commercial breaks for the “Slave Shopping Network” and Darkie toothpaste. (The commercials are fake; the products, alas, often aren’t.) In a real coup—perhaps an unwise choice of words—director Willmott will discuss the film following the 7 p.m. screening Monday at the Belcourt, sponsored by the Fisk University Race Relations Institute and the upcoming Nashville Black International Film Festival. See www.belcourt.org for more information. —JIM RIDLEY INSIDE MAN We’ve been hoping Spike Lee would eventually try his hand at a big-budget action thriller; the trailer for his caper film looks strong, with shrewd cop Denzel Washington pitted against holdup mastermind Clive Owen and sinister smoothie Jodie Foster as a daring robbery unfolds. It opens Friday, along with the gaming shocker Stay Alive and next year’s Best Picture shoo-in, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector.—JIM RIDLEY TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY The latest filming of an “unfilmable” novel—in the tradition of Ulysses, the Proust adaptation Time Regained and Christmas With the Kranks—Michael Winterbottom’s zany adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s 18th century pre-postmodern classic largely ducks the assignment, getting lost instead in endless digressions and bawdy tomfoolery. In other words, it’s a roaring success. The filming itself is the subject, as British comics Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon bicker over billing, supporting-role status and the exact shade of their yellowed prosthetic teeth (“pub ceiling”) while the director (Jeremy Northam) juggles budget crises and the onset of a Big American Star. Recommended to Python and Ricky Gervais fans, it opens Friday at the Belcourt. —JIM RIDLEY TRIUMPH OF THE WILL/KNOW YOUR ENEMY: JAPAN The Downtown Presbyterian Church, of all places, hosts the nerviest double feature you’re likely to see all year: the pairing of Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous 1934 enshrinement of Nazi might and pageantry with Frank Capra’s U.S. military-backed 1945 propaganda film, which portrays the Japanese as bloodthirsty barbarians. The screening starts 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the sanctuary, preceded at 5:30 by a meal; both are free and open to the public. Call 254-7584 for more information. —JIM RIDLEY MEMORIES OF MURDER If you have a pal who’s resistant to checking out foreign movies, Bong Joon-ho’s acclaimed police procedural might be the start of a beautiful friendship. Based on an actual case, the seriocomic South Korean thriller places a city cop and his rural partner in pursuit of a sex killer, as the details of provincial life intrude on the investigation. Sponsored by Nashville Premieres—and deserving of a better turnout than the near-silence that greeted their Belcourt festival last week—it screens Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema; see the review on p. 62. Also at Sarratt this week: the Oscar-winning doc Born Into Brothels. —JIM RIDLEY