This week’s picks written by Todd Anderson, Martin Brady, Doug R. Brumley, Chris Davis, Jonathan Flax, Paul Griffith, MiChelle Jones, Noel Murray, Jim Ridley, Ben Taylor, Angela Wibking and Ron Wynn
Thursday, 11th
The Flatlanders Imagine that three members of a favorite local band go on to successful solo careers, then, after 30 years, reunite and finally receive the acclaim they deserve. It might sound like a new movie from DreamWorks, but it’s real life for The Flatlanders, the obscure yet influential band from West Texas. Back in the early ’70s, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore put out an 8-track tape that very few people heard but eventually became a cult hit. Last month, the three released a follow-up, Now Again, that’s garnering critical praise, selling well and popping up on radio playlists. The Flatlanders appear at Dancin’ in the District along with headliner Keb’ Mo’ and Jupiter Coyote and Pheromone.
—P.G.
Mayhemporium The Coalition, an organization of Nashville-area bands, continues its four-day showcase of mostly local metal at clubs around town. Featured acts include Dharmakaya, Eclectic Bullet, Cab Over Pete, Subsonic, Totem Soul, Gear Driven, Koi and Julius Seizure. For locations and lineups, see the Music Listing.
Saddlesong If you haven’t had a chance to hear them, you can catch perhaps the best country-rock band in town at The Basement, or swing by the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum at 5:30 p.m. to see what all the fuss is about.
Friday, 12th
Swan Dive Bill DeMain and Molly Felder seamlessly meld Bacharach, Jobim and McCartney into three-minute wonders that never feel contrived. This week, Nashville’s Compass Records releases the pair’s latest album, June, which came out last summer in Japan; the newly remastered version will contain three bonus tracks. Swan Dive’s sprawling backing band alone should make for pretty close quarters at The Basement, where the duo celebrate June’s stateside debut.
—P.G.
Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals Starvation League Away from his namesake hard rock band, Bobby Bare Jr. gets the chance to indulge his love of Britpop on Young Criminals Starvation League, a gratifying record of offbeat, mostly acoustic ditties that split the difference between Beggar’s Banquet and The Queen Is Dead. An assortment of the friends and well-wishers who helped put together the League will join Bare at the Slow Bar for what’s sure to be a night of amiable, often electrifying music-making. Bare will also play some of his new material 6 p.m. Thursday at the Tower Records on West End.
—N.M.
Barry Manilow Call him Neil Diamond without the pretension, call him America’s over-the-counter dispenser of industrial-grade saccharine. When this jinglemeister’s hook-bearing instinct for the jugular connects—as on “Mandy” or “Daybreak”—resistance is futile. And frankly, he’s more of an influence than today’s crop of piano-based power-poppers would ever admit. Remember when people laughed at Burt Bacharach? Hey, if Billy Joel and Elton John finally got cred, Manilow’s time will come. He plays the Gaylord Entertainment Center with Curtis Stigers.
—J.R.
The Jack Silverman Ordeal Guitarist Silverman’s quintet play an inventive blend of fusion, funk and rock, mixing material with spirited tempos suited to dancing and extended pieces that showcase the band’s rhythmic and harmonic dexterity. They make their first appearance at Cafe 123.
—R.W.
The Secret Commonwealth In 1692, Scottish clergyman the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle preserved the lore of the “little people”—the faeries, fauns and elves whose unseen presence impacted area farmers—in The Secret Commonwealth. The book’s title implies a magical civilization obscured from the gaze of everyday folk, which pretty well describes the musical palette of local band The Secret Commonwealth, who cover a wide range of English, Scottish and Irish tunes—from traditional ghost songs and reels and jigs to Donovan’s “Season of the Witch”—and invest them with psychedelic potential and achingly beautiful harmonies. The play at the Boro.
—C.D.
Daikaiju Huntsville, Ala.’s answer to local surf-rock faves Los Straitjackets sport a Japanese theme replete with kabuki masks. Those masks might also be a nod to KISS, though, since Daikaiju like to pepper their surf instrumentals with ’70s hard rock stomp, as well as spacey interludes and an occasional reggae lilt. They play at Springwater.
—B.T.
Friday, 12th-Saturday, 13th
7th Annual Watertown Jazz Festival The organizers at the Watertown Festival deserve kudos for presenting this eclectic bill of area jazz performers. Jim Hoke’s dynamic nonet, Pat Coil’s trio, the always outstanding Barber Brothers Quintet and pianist Lori Mechem and Ritmos Picantes are among the top acts on Friday, while the Beegie Adair Trio with saxophonist Don Aliquo, the Modern Jazz Tuba Project, Liz Johnson’s latest quintet and the duo of Annie Sellick and Moe Denham are among those on tap Saturday. There’s no charge for the festival, which begins at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in the historic burgh of Watertown. For information, call 444-2570.
—R.W.
Iron Horse Before Ron Keel made his reputation in the ’80s with hard-rocking pop metal bands such as his namesake act Keel—and Steeler, the group that launched the career of Scandinavian wunderkind Yngwie J. Malmsteen—he came to Nashville as a teenage songwriter seeking his fortune. Nashville’s musical traditions continue to inspire Keel, who returns to town with his new Dublin, Ohio-based band Iron Horse, a hybrid Southern rock/biker metal act with its own Swedish shredder to boot. Robert Marcello’s lightning-fast filigree accents the steel horse rockers as Iron Horse play Friday and Saturday at Antioch’s Bikini Beach Bar.
—C.D.
Saturday, 13th
Joe Pisapia A couple of weeks ago, artist/producer Pisapia took the stage at the Belcourt’s “Vaudeville in the Village” for a sneak preview of the material from his new solo record Daydreams. One song left the audience dumbstruck: “Dancing Partner,” an ode to Pisapia’s late grandmother that was as emotionally direct as it was rhythmically complex. Unabashedly folky and plunked on a weather-beaten guitar, the song had little in common with the breezy, layered Pet Sounds pop that fans associate with Pisapia’s regular group Joe, Marc’s Brother. But it augurs well, not just for Daydreams, but for the live show Pisapia has planned to introduce it. Accompanied by a small onstage orchestra, Pisapia plays a CD-release show at the Belcourt. See story on p. 29.
—J.R.
Aereogramme A real coup for The End, as the club hosts one of the “bands of the moment” from the U.K. Aereogramme’s 2001 LP A Story in White channels the rambling post rock of the band’s prior incarnation, Ganger, into dynamic art-metal in the same strata as Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead and some of the dreamier Amerindie punks. The Scotsmen’s approach is to coast along on lulling melodic breezes and then dive into a wrathful torrent of noise; they provide both halves of their musical personality with the fullness of their imagination. This is magnificent stuff—rock ’n’ roll as awesome natural wonder.
—N.M.
Mike iLL Read the press about Mike iLL, and you wouldn’t expect his latest release as Mad Happy, Feel Good Music for the Broke Middle Class, to be so upbeat. Over the years, iLL has established himself as a DIY troubadour: He’s rarely stopped touring the country, often accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. We hesitate to mention the Elliot Smith comparisons since iLL is well established in his own right, but if you’re a fan of Smith’s, iLL should be right up your alley (except that his tuneful songs still have plenty of punk dirt on them). He plays at Springwater.
—T.A.
Moe Denham Organ Trio & others The celebration continues at Ed Smith’s Jazz store as he marks his move to his new location at 265 White Bridge Road. This week, Smith will host his own mini-festival, led by Hammond organ authority and soul-jazz wizard Moe Denham—who teams with vocalist Annie Sellick—as well as the Barber Brothers Quintet and Waldo Weathers & the Mix, an ensemble that shift from funk to bop at a moment’s notice. The music starts at 1 p.m.
—R.W.
Travis LeDoyt Billed as the “World’s Best Young Elvis,” LeDoyt is reportedly an eerie reincarnation of the King, reminding casino, fair and festival audiences that he was, in fact, born in 1977. LeDoyt banks on his youth by focusing exclusively on the years 1954 to 1959. This early Sun and RCA period of Presley’s career yielded a pile of No. 1’s, and to see LeDoyt perform these tenderhearted ballads and rave-ups without irony makes the whole thing somehow less campy. His show takes place at Gallatin Civic Center.
—J.F.
sunday, 14th
Neil Halstead If this resident of Cornwall, England, had a dime for every time he was compared to Nick Drake, he’d never have to tour or record again. But the Mojave 3 frontman isn’t in Drake’s class just yet, though the reference is pretty obvious, thanks to the fingerpicking and breathy vocals on his solo debut. Sleeping on Roads succeeds more often than not, opening with “Seasons,” in which the singer espouses the therapeutic qualities of his beloved pastime, surfing. The nine tracks present a cast of characters preoccupied with wistful, well-intentioned escapism, their thoughts peppered by references to sun, stars and floating away. The record’s sequencing creates pleasing undulations of mood, from mellower lullabies to more upbeat selections, including “See You on Rooftops,” which ends with a slow crescendo of noise referencing Halstead’s shoegazer past with the band Slowdive. He plays WRLT’s “Nashville Sunday Night” live broadcast from 3rd & Lindsley, with opener Neilson Hubbard (see below).
—D.R.B.
Neilson Hubbard Why Men Fail, Hubbard’s follow-up to 1997’s The Slide Project, was one of last year’s most remarkable efforts. Part of the record’s revelation is that its lo-fi, worlds-apart approach diverges so dramatically from the straight-lined power pop of The Slide Project. Far from an aberration, however, Why Men Fail’s melancholic, confessional vein is actually a return to form. After all, This Living Hand, the band Hubbard co-fronted with Garrison Starr in the mid-’90s, was similarly dark-hued and took time to reveal itself. He opens for Neil Halstead at 3rd & Lindsley.
—J.F.
Sandra Dudley and the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta Proof that Nashville and Memphis aren’t always at odds, this concert presented by the Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society features artists from both cities, as Nashvillian Sandra Dudley is highlighted along with the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta at the Belle Meade Plantation. The program will range from pre-rock and show tunes to blues, torch and classic jazz material.
—R.W.
Monday, 15th
The Shins/Beachwood Sparks As happens to most next-big-thing artists, New Mexico’s The Shins often get pigeonholed. The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Moody Blues, Magnetic Fields—each was repeatedly name-checked in the press to describe Oh, Inverted World, The Shins’ vintage, trippy and harmony-laden debut. See them live, though, and decide for yourself. James Mercer’s reverb-y vocals and surreal lyrics alone should make a case for something beyond such rote and lazy comparisons. Beachwood Sparks are The Shins’ Sub Pop labelmates, and are also a quickly acquired taste. They practice similarly potent and modern avant pop, but with a bit more psychedelia and alt-country in the mix. The two bands play at Slow Bar.
—J.F.
Tuesday, 16th
Xiu Xiu/Kill Me Tomorrow/Casiotone For The Painfully Alone The End hosts a stellar bill of West Coast underground acts. Bay Area band Xiu Xiu—named for the title character in Joan Chen’s film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl—make very distinctive music that’s as engaging as it is jarring. Imagine the Sun City Girls as an all-synth backing group for crooner Nick Cave and his jazz band to get a middling idea of their sound. They craft songs from dissonant microtonal synthesizer ambience and electronic tones—textures that might sound unwieldy or pretentious in lesser hands—without sacrificing melody or narrative structure. San Diego trio Kill Me Tomorrow sound like a more experimental and synth-dominated version of early Pavement in that their hooks emerge from a shroud of pleasing noise. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is the project of Owen Ashford. As the name suggests, CFTPA is a moveable confessional limited only by the life span of AA batteries and answering machine tapes.
—C.D.
Michael Burks When word first surfaced about blues singer-guitarist Burks, it seemed like he was just another overly hyped would-be rocker flirting with faux blues. Then he began touring, followed by a strong debut album that framed a rich, convincing voice around a serviceable, disciplined guitar style, and it was clear Burks really had the goods. He appears at Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar.
—R.W.
Wednesday, 17th
Drive-By Truckers Celebrating the rerelease on Lost Highway of their Southern Rock Opera, the Drive-By Truckers are this week’s highlight at 12th & Porter. After two albums of raucous psychobilly, the Alabama quintet rewrote their own rulebook with the wildly imagined Opera, ostensibly a narrative about the fictional, Skynyrd-inspired band Betamax Guillotine and their rise to fame and fortune. Woven into the narrative, however, are acute defenses of Southern rock’s legacy and mythos, as well as a pointed take on former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. The Truckers are a rollicking live act, with wailing three-guitar attacks and a contrasting dynamic, à la Jagger and Richards, between front men Patterson Wood and Mike Cooley.
—J.F.
The Knack/The Shazam Back in the day, Detroit’s platinum purveyors of power pop were clobbered by critics as the ultimate new wave sellouts. However, the backlash that followed their blockbuster 1979 LP Get the Knack has subsided, and what remains is the simple fact that Doug Fieger and company did more to popularize power pop than anybody. Just don’t make us say the name of their enduring hit, or we’ll be stuck all day humming “My Shar”—dammit! There it is! Make it stop! The Knack play a free Uptown Mix show with The Shazam.
—J.R.
Lola Jacques Demy’s 1961 “musical without music” follows a single-mom cabaret performer (Anouk Aimée) searching for love and fulfillment in the seaside town of Nantes. Bittersweet and sexy, brimming with movie allusions, this anticipates Demy’s beloved The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by three years; its restoration is a valentine to movie lovers. Appropriately, it’s the centerpiece of this weekend’s Bastille Day celebration in Hillsboro Village (see Events, below), and it continues throughout the following week at the Belcourt. We can’t recommend it highly enough. See the article on p. 33.
—J.R.
Road to Perdition Sam Mendes follows his Oscar-winning American Beauty with this handsome, meticulous period imagining of Depression-era Chicago gangland life. Tom Hanks plays the mob enforcer who struggles to keep work and family separate, until a tragedy sends him on a vengeful mission with his 12-year-old son. The movie opens Friday at local theaters; see the review in our Movie Guide on p. 67.
—J.R.
Halloween: Resurrection TV’s newest reality show—a group of obnoxious characters spending the night in Haddonfield, Ill.’s most notorious haunted house—gets a special guest who’s sure to boost the Nielsens: sultan of slash Michael Myers. Scream along with Jamie Lee Curtis and Busta Rhymes when the 24-year-old Halloween series unrolls its latest slab of dripping meat this Friday. Also opening: Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course and the sci-fi dragon fantasy Reign of Fire.
—J.R.
Theater
Jack & Jill Sudden Theatre Productions is making its Nashville debut with this presentation of a Jane Martin play concerning love, sex, marriage and divorce, which was cited as best new drama in 1997 by the American Theatre Critics Association. Brent Cheatham directs. Running for eight performances at Bongo Java After Hours Theatre, July 11-21.
—M.B.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat The biblical story of Joseph and his “coat of many colors,” as told through the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyrics of Tim Rice, started as a “pop cantata” in 1967 and eventually became an international phenomenon. This gala production marks the debut of the Renaissance Players, Dickson’s new troupe of resident community performers, whose creation is a part of the local Renaissance Center’s expansion of its theatrical season. Running weekends July 12-21; for information, call 740-5600.
—M.B.
Like It Was the Last Day Nashville actor/writer jeff obafemi carr has officially launched his Amun Ra Theatre, which will begin a full season of activities in 2003. Part of ART’s mission will be the development of new works by African American authors. ART’s New Playwrights Series kicks off Friday with this reading of a script of carr’s own creation, concerning a black Alabama family in the 1960s. The event takes place at the Z. Alexander Looby Theater; for information, call 506-5988.
—M.B.
Art
Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art “A Century of Progress: 20th Century Painting in Tennessee” opens Saturday. Two years in the making, the exhibition includes an extraordinary selection of 68 paintings by 50 artists who painted in Tennessee during the past 100 years. Paintings range from 19th-century romantic genre scenes to Depression-era landscapes and works from contemporary masters. The show runs through Oct. 13 and then goes on tour.
—A.W.
Zeitgeist Once again, this Hillsboro Village gallery celebrates summer with its “Switchyard” show, featuring works by 18 emerging artists. The invitational group exhibit highlights artists whose work is more often seen in alternative and academic spaces than in commercial galleries. To spice things up even more, the works get switched out with new ones by the same artists every few weeks until the show closes in September. Meet some of the artists at the opening, 6-8 p.m. July 13.
—A.W.
Frist Center for the Visual Arts Learn more about the incredibly hip array of objects included in “Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960” from Brooke Rapaport, associate curator of contemporary painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the organizing curator for the show. Rapaport presents a free lecture 6 p.m. July 11 in the Frist Center auditorium.
—A.W.
Reading and Writing
William Price Fox Fox’s new novel, Wild Blue Yonder, tells the often humorous, often poignant story of Earl Edge, a scrappy soldier in World War II. Like the protagonist, Fox lied about his age to join the Air Force, leaving his native South Carolina two steps ahead of the law and the school principal. Fox later became a writer when he wrote a Village Voice column, filling in for an intoxicated friend. Later came books (including Ruby Red), TV and film scripts and magazine articles. Currently writer-in-residence at the University of South Carolina, Fox signs his book 2 p.m. July 14 at the Barnes & Noble in Brentwood.
—M.J.
Events
Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum In country music, you don’t get much more authentic than the Carter Family and the Stonemans. Way back in 1927, the original members of those musical families participated in the Bristol Sessions, the legendary RCA recording sessions that helped to popularize country music around the world. In honor of the 75th anniversary of that historic event, Janette Carter and Patsy Stoneman, daughters of the original Bristol Sessions musicians, will perform songs and share stories at 7:30 p.m. July 11 in the Ford Theater. Reservations are recommended by calling 416-2096.
—A.W.
7th Annual Celebration of Cultures As Nashville grows and diversifies, so does the city’s biggest event honoring cultural diversity. This year’s celebration includes theater, dance, music, food, lectures and kids’ activities expressive of more than 50 different cultures. The event is July 12-13 at Scarritt-Bennett Center.
—A.W.
Bastille Days in the Village Celebrate France’s Independence Day this weekend in Hillsboro Village, July 12-14. Events include a reception at Carissa’s Antiques, film screenings at the Belcourt, a brunch catered by Provence at Antics and special French menus at Jackson’s Bistro and Sunset Grill. For information, call 773-8066.
—A.W.
