The annual cluster grope known as the NEA Extravaganza once again engorges the city’s nightclubs this weekend, and once again the desperate and the deserving will share stages in a mad circus that demolishes any dividing lines between art and commerce, fun and business, music and money. Even if the Extravaganza is billed as a celebration of the many music communities that exist beyond Music Row, there’s no denying that local business insiders continue to exert a powerful influence over the event.
Participants have complained this year that the Extravaganza is all about politics, about who buddies up to whom. Of course, such griping surfaces every year—which isn’t to say that it isn’t warranted. For those trying to find an open door into the music industry’s ivory tower, any hint of inside power plays only confirms their suspicions that such an event serves the city’s well-connected business leaders better than it serves hardworking artists yearning for a break.
That said, there’s plenty of music to be enjoyed at this year’s Extravaganza. The event is teeming with performers who appear regularly in town, so it’s up to fans to decide whether to catch their favorite local act at a more comfortable time or whether to support them in a potentially high-profile appearance. The schedule also features plenty of little-known local bands who don’t usually get the chance to perform to weekend crowds, and there are several solid out-of-town artists making rare Nashville appearances as well. Our best advice to club-goers is to plan ahead, be flexible—and feel free to stand up and dance at any time, no matter what the A&R guy at the table behind you says.
The sheer number of bands makes it impossible to mention every promising show, but there are still quite few we’re excited about:
Thursday
Amie’s presents a hard-rock show that proves aggressive sounds haven’t all been played out into pat formulas. Among these is a rare and welcome club appearance by CYOD, the Nashville studio group whose fascinating underground recordings fuse late ’60s/early ’70s Detroit punk, found sounds, and a barrage of percussive effects and media-damaged ideas. The group, which includes Bloodsucker Records founders Marky Nevers and Tony Crow, appears live about as often as Halley’s comet, and the results could be nearly as brilliant.
On the same bill, the young members of Daphne’s Operation and Methadone Actors suggest that the future of Nashville rock may be capable of breaking through old barriers. Across the street, the tuneful and compact Betty Rocker and the exuberant Jump Little Children and Everything should brighten up a bill of jam-oriented bands.
Pop fans are directed to Al E. Kats for a set by Ron Sexsmith, whose quavery, expressive voice and elliptically beautiful songs made his debut LP one of last year’s treasures. Arrive early and sneak a peek at A&M recording artist Paul Thorn, who’ll be opening for Sting in coming weeks at Madison Square Garden. At Henry’s down the block, Swan Dive, the elegant duo of vocalist Molly Felder and guitarist Bill DeMain, serves up a tart cocktail of cabaret jazz and torchy lush-life pop that’ll leave you shaken and stirred.
For sardonic, darker-edged pop with imagination, twisted wit, and hooks to spare, head to the Ace of Clubs for Igmo, the brainchild of Will & the Bushmen’s Mark Pfaff; the group resembles a Monty Python movie unreeling at double time to a Stiff Records soundtrack. They’re followed by Shazam, an endearing Cheap Trick fan club outfitted with snazzy songs and classic rock-god poses.
At the Sutler, Lucinda Williams anchors a wall-to-wall night of roots-based music. Also on the bill are Mandy Barnett and Joy Lynn White, two stylish belters who could make country radio a much nicer place to visit; Walt Wilkins and Phil Lee, a pair of hard-bitten up-and-comers loaded with style; and Kevin Gordon and John Sieger, two capable, charismatic songwriters whose undeniable talent should have them playing to national audiences. Across town, some of the nation’s leading alt-country lights shine at 328 Performance Hall. The roster includes the delightful North Carolina band Jolene, whose blend of college-radio rock and shambling country is one of the genre’s best hopes.
Wolfy’s features a solid lineup of adult singer-songwriters, with the early-evening triumvirate of Kent Agee, Mark Irwin, and Darrell Scott proving especially promising. At Jules a similar bill features local tunesmith Elisabeth Cutler, whose delicate voice belies the mad romanticism and angry edge of her lyrics.
Friday
The Waco Brothers are booze-bound comrades who recognize no cultural or stylistic borders. And with their Nashville appearance, the Chicago-based band (which features Mekons mainstay Jon Langford) should show that energy and ideas conquer form and formula every time. The Bros. headline an energy-packed roots-rock show at 3rd & Lindsley that will also include Austin’s highly touted Hang Dogs and the planet-rocking Sonny George.
Good record label showcases abound Friday night. At 12th & Porter, Oh Boy Records shows its preference for highly evolved individualism and smart wordplay with a show featuring R.B. Morris, Todd Snider, Jamie Hartford, and newcomer Chris Webster. To prove that eclecticism works best when paired with a high level of musical quality, Compass Records brings together the jazz of the Alison Brown Quartet and Victor Wooten, the rootsy rock of Farmer not so John, and the accomplished pop-folk of Clive Gregson and Pierce Pettis, among others, at the Bluebird Cafe. At 328 Performance Hall, Murfreesboro-based Spongebath Records shows off its youthful pop-rock wizards in a strong lineup of diverse yet tuneful bands, including Self, The Features, Gumption, Fluid Ounces, Fleshpaint, and Caesar’s Glass Box.
At Douglas Corner, Atlanta-based Daemon Records, owned by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, presents its inventive stable of unusual rock bands, including the bizarrely playful Rock-A-Teens, the theatrical Belloluna, and the Tantrums, a rock ’n’ roll group featuring uncommon singer-songwriter Danielle Howle, who knows how to captivate an audience. The always reliable Sugar Hill Records turns the focus on craft and musical integrity with its Station Inn lineup, which features the great Guy Clark, groundbreaking instrumentalists Jerry Douglas and Chris Thiele, and entertaining punk-bluegrass trio the Bad Livers.
If you don’t feel like patronizing a record-label showcase—and who could blame you?—the Sutler offers one of Nashville’s most overlooked treasures, Buddy and Julie Miller, the greatest husband-and-wife country team since George and Tammy, or maybe John Doe and Exene Cervenka. The Millers don’t play out around here nearly enough, so you’ll just have to miss Touched By an Angel for once. At Amie’s, Cheetah Chrome of the seminal punk outfit the Dead Boys headlines an evening of scorched-earth pop and rock.
Saturday
For students of music history—and anyone who wants to see local R&B legends in action—Saturday’s Blues Writer’s Night at Canyon Country is the event of the weekend. The mighty Ted Jarrett, now in his sixth decade of producing, writing, and arranging, joins Music City R&B greats Roscoe Shelton and Earl Gaines, along with Fred James, Mary-Ann Brandon, and songwriter Bonnie Hayes. Jarrett tells us he hasn’t performed onstage in 40 years, and Gaines and Shelton are two of the most powerful and distinctive vocalists ever to record in Nashville (maybe ever to record, period). Historic events are rarely this much fun.
Robyn Hitchcock has one of the most peculiarly inventive minds ever to tackle pop songwriting; the Englishman will be joined at the Bluebird Cafe by The Dear Janes, a duo that puts an assertive and complex edge on acoustic pop music. At 3rd & Lindsley, Amy Rigby makes her first full-fledged Nashville appearance since the release of one of 1996’s most impressive records, Diary of a Mod Housewife, which uses pop, psychedelia, and heart-tugging country to explore modern relationships. Joining her is another highly developed songwriter with a strong individual voice, Mary Lee Kortes, who introduces her new band, Mary Lee’s Corvette.
On his new Upstart LP Iodine in the Wine, Boston sensation Dennis Brennan plays some of the toughest, brainiest, most plaintive blue-collar rock this side of the Iron City Houserockers; his live show at the Sutler should be a blast. At Caffé Milano, trumpeter Rod McGaha joins a bill of progressive jazz that shows a rarely exposed side of Nashville music. Former Shakers vocalist Rebecca Stout, who hushed the noisy “Imagine No Handguns” benefit last December with a heartbreaking rendition of “Beautiful Boy,” leads the Treason Records show at 12th & Porter. At the Exit/In, two of Nashville’s best hard-rock bands, iodine and Stella, join the amazing Five-Eight, which ventures up from Georgia to show that rock music is still capable of cathartic release.
A horde of alt-country bands symbolically recapture Lower Broadway Saturday night in the name of the legendary 1940s radio show Boone County Jamboree. At Robert’s Western Wear, Bloodshot recording artists the Handsome Family, the Volebeats, Hazeldine, and the Grievous Angels perform songs in tribute to such Jamboree stars as Merle Travis and Cowboy Copas. Tootsie’s, meanwhile, features four of Music City’s finest off-the-Row country bands: Lonesome Bob, the towering Kentucky hillbilly singer Hayseed, the superb husband-and-wife duo the Calvins, and Paul Burch, whose Pan-American Flash is the most original hard-country record to come along since Buddy Miller’s Your Love and Other Lies.
Down the street at Wolfy’s, the Iowa City quintet High and Lonesome plays engagingly scroungy country-rock beefed up with Stonesy raunch; they kick off a lineup that includes Chicago’s twangy Pinetop 7, Bo Ramsey, and Six String Drag. Acclaimed D.C.-area singer-songwriter Kevin Johnson and ace tunesmith Hank Cochran—who was the ornery hit of the Nashville Music Awards—are among the featured performers at Ernest Tubb Records.
Rounder Records pulls together an impressive lineup for its Saturday showcase at the Station Inn, which features David Olney, Barry and Holly Tashian, Lorianna Reiner, and the Burns Sisters. The act not to miss, however, is Slaid Cleaves, a muscular Maine-to-Austin singer-songwriter whose No Angel Knows adds urban swagger and folkie sincerity to tunes that have the breezy snap of mid-’80s roots-rock. The album was produced by Gurf Morlix, who brought the same warm, intimate, yet rugged sound to Lucinda Williams’ best records.
Alternatives
Don’t miss the three-day Anti-Extravaganza at Lucy’s Record Shop. It’ll likely be your only chance to see Portastatic, the inspired side project of Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan, on its brief U.S. tour. Portastatic headlines Friday night with fellow Merge recording artists Lambchop; other events include Thursday’s “House O’ Pain Night,” with Fun Girls From Mt. Pilot and the Teen Idols, and Saturday’s ska-punk hootenanny. The Anti-Extravaganza won’t be any less crowded—it may be even more so, if previous years are any indication. But at least you can let your laminate cool.
