Outside Mercy Lounge during the final show on 5/19/2022
It was truly a kick to the gut to learn that, after nearly 20 years as a pillar of Nashville’s collection of music scenes, the Mercy Lounge suite of venues — Cannery Ballroom, Mercy Lounge, The High Watt and event space ONE — would shutter in May. Unable to agree on terms of a new lease, the business owners are on the hunt for a new place to open up shop, while the property owners plan to reopen the venues under new management and under the name Cannery Hall on a date TBA in 2023. In the final few weeks of Mercy-as-we’ve-known-it, an array of artists came through and paid tribute — including Bully, Tristen and Lilly Hiatt — offering both a poignant reminder of what spaces like this mean to a music community and a bold exclamation point to mark the end of an institution.
