Music, music and more music, of all kinds: rock, country, jazz, Americana, hip-hop, classical. More than enough reasons why Nashville is deservedly called Music City.
Best Damn Singer-Songwriter: Lonesome Bob Nashville is home to thousands of troubadours, many of whom have talent and attitude to burn. Yet towering above them all—in stature, depth, wit and chops—is Robert Chaney, a.k.a. Lonesome Bob. Here’s a guy who can not only pull off a rhyme like “cross in urine” and “shroud of Turin,” but does so with the aplomb of someone writing for both The Onion and The Nation. Best of all, Bob’s flinty baritone has much the same force of truth as Waylon Jennings’ did—that is, he doesn’t sound nearly as lonesome, on’ry or mean as he might look.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Music Row Tunesmith: Darrell Scott Most writers on the Row seem perfectly content to churn out pro forma pap and laugh all the way to the bank. Not Darrell Scott, who has written or co-written smart, full-of-heart hits for everyone from Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt to Sara Evans and the Dixie Chicks. Scott’s finest moment to date, though, is “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” a chilling tale in which the protagonist escapes the coal mines of eastern Kentucky only to be forced to return and, ultimately, get stuck and die there. The song showed up on 2001 albums by both Brad Paisley and Patty Loveless, the latter’s version being the best, especially when, biting down hard on the chorus, she sings, “Where the sun comes up about 10 in the morning / And the sun goes down about 3 in the day / And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you’re drinking / And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave.” There has yet to be a worthier heir to “Rank Strangers.” Never will be, either.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Song-Poet: David Berman David Berman of the Silver Jews is a great writer—of poetry, of prose and of songs. Which is enough to give him the lead over more heralded talents like Josh Rouse or Steve Earle, to name just two darlings of Nashville’s music scene. Berman, on the other hand, is unmanageable, the sort of bad-boy singer-songwriter Nashville has needed ever since Kristofferson “borrowed” a helicopter to hand-deliver his tape to Johnny Cash. Yet Berman is less likely to drop his own tape off than recommended reading along the lines of Ben Marcus’ The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women. At present, he’s working on a new book of poetry, preparing a reprint of his first poetry collection, Actual Air, and about to start working with Will Oldham on the collaborative Silver Palace project.
—Chris Davis
Best Country Singer-Songwriter: Alan Jackson Jackson’s got a fine enough singing voice, a purling guy-next-door drawl that gains depth and resonance with each passing year, but it’s as a tunesmith that the self-described “singer of simple songs” has really begun to outdo himself. Much as Merle Haggard did during the 1960s, Jackson has lately emerged as the voice of the nation’s “silent majority,” writing from the point of view of the proverbial little man, and doing so in no-frills verse that shoots from the hip as well as from the heart. Jackson wrote or co-wrote better than half the material on his latest album, which—in addition to “Where Were You,” his moving, at times vexing reflection on the events of Sept. 11—finds him pondering his daddy’s passing (“Drive”), his first car (“First Love”) and his shortcomings as a husband (“Work in Progress”). By turns tender, wry and self-deprecating, songs like these herald Jackson not only as a voice to be reckoned with, but very likely one for the ages.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Female Country Singer Who’s Still a Force on the Charts: Trisha Yearwood From Reba, Patty, Pam, Suzy and Alison to Wynonna, Martina, LeAnn, Sara and Lee Ann, Music Row has produced some terrific female voices over the past couple of decades. None of them, though, is in quite the same league as Trisha Yearwood, a singer who’s the closest thing to a real live diva that Nashville’s got. Trisha can torch it up like Patsy, air it out like Ronstadt and swagger like the King in black leather, her every move as credible and commanding as the next. She’s even held her own singing with Pavarotti, and with Spike Lee filming the event to boot. And for cool, there was Trisha’s 2000 appearance at the Ryman, a soul-on-ice show that was every bit as amazing—and intense—as the one grrl-punk trio Sleater-Kinney put on at The End the night before.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Singer (Non-Classical): Maura O’Connell This Irish-born Nashville transplant not only possesses a gorgeous, strapping alto, she draws on what seems to be an inexhaustible reservoir of pathos as well. On her latest album, produced for maximum punch by Ray Kennedy, O’Connell has her way with latter-day heart songs from the pens of, among others, John Prine, Kim Richey, Ron Sexsmith, Malcolm Holcombe and Van Morrison. The real heart-stopper, though, is the record’s cover of Patty Griffin’s “Poor Man’s House”; summoning empathy and indignation in equal measure, O’Connell sounds like she’s calling justice down from heaven itself.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Electro-Pop Singer: Annette Strean, Venus Hum Though she grew up on Rosemary Clooney and Julie Andrews, Strean traffics in a decidedly postmodern vein. Retaining the natural drama and old-school flavor of these early influences, her live performances are charismatic, celebratory and fully in the moment, a trait that often lends a refreshing unpredictability to any Venus Hum show. Abetted by the deft electronic popcraft of bandmates Tony Miracle and Kip Kubin, Strean has grown this past year into a vital presence in her own right, commanding attention with a playfulness that matches her often sultry, strikingly poised delivery. Her stylistic range, however, may be her greatest strength, as rhythmic workouts blend convincingly with lonesome-ache balladry in the course of any well-spent evening with Venus Hum.
—Jonathan Flax
Best Overexposed Singer: Annie Sellick She’s featured in ads, in every third line of the music listings in every entertainment guide in town, and most likely in the lounge of the restaurant you’re eating in, but Nashville’s still not tired of the dreadlocked damsel and jazz gypsy that is Annie Sellick. Jazz crooners and shut-eyed swayers don’t do bus benches or billboards, but Annie’s face is a familiar one—a sign that paying her dues is paying off.
—Danny Solomon
Best Frontman: Col. J.D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shackshakers The man is a mutant—meant in the most flattering way possible. If Ned Beatty’s character in Deliverance had defied biological imperatives and given birth after the unholy union in which he had to “squeal like a pig,” that being would have developed into the persona channeled by Col. J.D. Wilkes when he takes the stage to front this house-rockin’ aggregation of misfits. Part carnival-barker, part Iggy Pop, part Chicago bluesman, Wilkes backs up his outrageous antics with great singing, some bad-ass blues harp work and a sincere passion and deep understanding for the country, blues and rockabilly genres that inform his music. The Shackshakers are always a great live show—and if you have out-of-town guests, they’re a great introduction to the real roots of the Nashville music world.
—Jack Silverman
Best Postmodern Folkie: Masa Masaaki Takahashi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1972. Arriving on the shores of California at age 19, “Masa” spoke not a lick of English and lived his first years in America in utter isolation. But after a random encounter with a guitar in the back of a record shop—and five years of English-language tutorials via bad television—he would reinvent himself as a “modern folk rocker.” Since relocating to Nashville in 1999, this acquired taste has slowly won over crowds at 12th & Porter and the Slow Bar, who are surprised to find an engagingly sincere artist under the seemingly comedic pretense. With songs like “Tell Me, Judge Judy,” the record industry kiss-off “I Want More Money” and the call-and-response crowd inciter “Please, Please, Please and My, My, My,” Masa provides a pleasingly unselfconscious musical foil to Nashville’s folk rock community.
—Jonathan Flax
Best Classical Soloist:Felix Wang Soloists mostly solo with accompaniment—a piano, a guitar, a small ensemble, a full orchestra—but Felix Wang (of the Blair String Quartet) recently soloed solo in some of the most demanding music known to exist: a suite by J.S. Bach for unaccompanied cello. The work has some half-dozen movements, each based on a dance form, about half of them stylized and for ears only, the remainder simpler and still danceable. The dances come from all over Europe, in varying meters and tempos, some languorous and lyrical, some aggressively percussive. If a performer is a musician—or not—such a suite will make that known. Not that there were many doubts, but we now know with certainty that Felix Wang is a musician.
—Marcel Smith
Best Soloist: Terry Kinakin An original player in a town loaded with dull copycats, Kinakin is Brian Setzer, David Grisman and Jerry Garcia tossed in a blender—a quick-fingered ace who blends pop, jazz, bluegrass and blues into a style all his own. His forthcoming sophomore disc, Dream I’m With You, should prove ear candy for the progressive Nashville jazz and swing crowd. He has that rare mix of talent and personality, a soloist who follows the “if it’s not fun, why do it” mentality.
—Brian Blackwell
Best Improviser:David Maddox As sometime guest of the Transcendental Crayon Ensemble and the Voight-Kampff Collective, Maddox has become known around town as an adept saxophone improviser. In addition to his local associations, he maintains a busy career regularly collaborating with musicians in Chicago and Houston. He plays sensitively and is able to add to any situation, be it traditional jazz or live Webcasts with bands like Nautical Almanac. His solo appearances, such as a recent performance at Dickson’s Renaissance Center, are rare, so check him out when the chance arises.
—Chris Davis
Best Guitar Hero: John Danley The world is full of high-minded music majors all too ready to loose their rambling, multi-part instrumental opuses on the world, but Nashvillian-by-way-of-Alabama Danley pushes past other would-be experimental composers by coaxing pleasing songs from his picked, fingered and brushed acoustic guitar. A spiritual descendant of Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges, he creates folksy, atmospheric instrumental tableaux that are grounded in Canvas & Rhythm, as he titled his wonderful 2001 album.
—Noel Murray
Best Collaborator: Bill DeMain Ask a musician in Nashville if he or she has ever met Bill DeMain, and if the answer is yes, the next words out of his or her mouth will likely be, “We’re getting together next week to do some writing.” On a perpetual quest to pick the brains of his fellow craftsfolk, the Swan Dive co-founder and pop music scholar meets his colleagues with guitar in hand, ready to explore his obsession with words and his love of melody in new and ever more inspiring settings. Such pop-rock heavyweights as Marshall Crenshaw, Bill Lloyd, Jill Sobule and Amy Rigby have worked with DeMain, as have the countless songwriters whom DeMain meets on his frequent “writing tours” of the West Coast. He’s what local music scenes are all about.
—Noel Murray
Best Turntablist:Dr. Obviously Obviously, it’s Dr. Obviously, whose sense of humor is as sick as his beats are hard. Any man who can turn Gilda Radner’s “Let’s Talk Dirty to the Animals” into a bumping hip-hop anthem is worthy of much respect, and his current excursions into dub, folk, metal and house give him both a stylistic breadth and the advantage for refreshingly newfangled sounds. His first album, The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow, is the kind of homegrown party record that keeps asses shaking and minds activated, laying out bear traps of sonic collage that entice listeners, then bite them with a backbeat so sneaky it wears two pairs of socks. Audiences for his weekly gig at the Muse know the score.
—Jason Shawhan
Best Hip-Hop MC: Hot Sauce Nashville has a small but eager-to-be-heard community of unsigned rap artists waiting for a shot while performing at the few local venues that book hip-hop acts. One standout is MC Hot Sauce, who, as the members of local outfit Utopia State were heard to exclaim, is “real hip-hop.” Too many sucker MCs believe the road to fame is to mimic the style and image of whatever rapper currently tops the charts. Hot Sauce impresses without artifice—no “ice,” no entourage, just beats and tight rhymes.
—Mark Mays
Best Jazz Act:Jeff Coffin Mu’tet Saxophonist Coffin is a consistently compelling, constantly evolving soloist and composer. He has gained national recognition for his work in Bela Fleck’s Flecktones, but hard-core jazz lovers will find more to love in the Jeff Coffin Mu’tet. On his latest release, Go-Round, Coffin’s vision of modern jazz is at once challenging and accessible, forward-thinking and rooted in tradition. His recent shows at Cafe 123—showcasing the world-class talents of a number of Nashville-based musicians—have evidenced the rumblings of a growing jazz scene in Music City. (Kudos to the Nashville Jazz Workshop for their invaluable educational efforts, which have also given momentum to this development.)
—Jack Silverman
Best New Jazz Act:Barber Brothers It was just 22 years ago last week that the Barber twins were born three months premature—and the initial prognosis for healthy development was not good. After overcoming that harrowing beginning, the brothers have gone on to amass impressive résumés. In 1998, trombonist Roland and saxophonist Rahsaan were each selected as outstanding soloists on their respective instruments in a national Jazz at Lincoln Center high school competition. In 2001, Roland won the Frank Rosolino jazz solo competition of the International Trombone Association. Together, as the Barber Brothers, the siblings recently released their debut disc, Twinnovation, and the initial word on the street is quite promising. Recent Cafe 123 appearances have displayed talents far beyond their years, highlighting their distinct individual musical personalities without the slightest bit of competitive friction. Their return to Nashville after graduation from Indiana University’s acclaimed music program is a coup for local jazz lovers.
—Jack Silverman
Best Classical Ensemble: The Blair String Quartet Our town has some good classical ensembles, but the most consistently delightful is the Blair String Quartet. Each fine player is able to meld with the three others to make a wide range of exacting music unforgettable. Even their names make music: Christian Teal, Cornelia Heard, John Kochanowski, Felix Wang. They’ve played the gamut of music scored for string quartet—from robust Haydn and crystalline Mozart through aggressively percussive Beethoven and Bartók to hauntingly surreal Morton Subotnik. They’ve also done wonderful stuff with guest players as well. Abetted by violist Kathryn Plummer and cellist (and former member) Grace Mihi Bahng at a recent concert, they installed in my head some marmoreal Brahms that will live as long as I do.
—Marcel Smith
Best New Band: Ragman Son Revue Songwriter Angelo Petraglia—known to most Nashvillians simply as Angelo—has been a fount of material for country and roots-rock artists looking for less typical, more soulful songs to play. He recently returned to the performing side of the equation with his band, Ragman Son Revue. He half-sings, half-speaks his songs in an assured but unpretentious manner over infectious, old-school R&B and soul grooves spiced with hip-hop samples, guitar, organ, a killer horn section and bitchin’ backup singers. But unlike a lot of the “modern rocker-meets-hip-hop sampler” drivel that permeates the airwaves, Ragman Son Revue have a sophistication, maturity and timeless quality that embodies Angelo’s many years toiling away in the music industry. There’s no substitute for experience.
—Jack Silverman
Best Alt-Country Band: (Tie) Pinmonkey/Saddlesong Though they’d likely balk at being tagged alt-country, the fact is that by any accepted definition of the term, Pinmonkey and Saddlesong are not only squarely alt-country, but they also blow away most of the retro-minded neo-honky-tonk acts who dwell outside of Music City. Outsiders may not understand how much guts it takes to be a country band in Nashville, which makes Pinmonkey’s and Saddlesong’s respective successes all the more impressive. The former have moved from a for-fun outlet to scoring a major-label deal with RCA, while the latter have scrapped from smaller clubs to larger clubs in the mode of indie-rock workhorses. And though they’re on separate paths, the bands show a stylistic similarity in the way they vivify the rural and old-fashioned and make it relevant for modern times—precisely the original mission of the alt-country movement.
—Noel Murray
Best Young Band: Jetpack The future of nerd rock can be summed up in two words: Jetpack activate. This band of barely legal boys from Arkansas have been burning up the stage at 12th and Porter with the likes of the Luxury Liners and The Features and selling their High School Girls EP to those of us who’ll say we knew them when. Lead singer and Elvis Costello look-alike Sean Williams lays out the lyrics to hook-laden numbers like “Walkie Talkie” with force and seriousness that belie his baby face and quirky jerks.
—Danny Solomon
Best Old School Punk Band: (Tie) Cheetah Chrome/The Doom Daddies/The Lemurs The moniker Music City U.S.A. doesn’t specify a genre, which is a good thing, since former Rocket From the Tombs/Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome makes his home here. This first-wave punk legend’s local gigs so far haven’t eclipsed his glory days with those bands, but his current group is stocked with creative players who have no problem living up to the legacy. Chrome’s bassist, Andy Zachary, also logs time in two other notable old-school punk acts, The Doom Daddies and The Lemurs. The Doom Daddies play swaggering, no-frills, glam-influenced punk à la the New York Dolls. The Lemurs have a bigger bag of tricks, nonchalantly tossing off telepathically improvised rock songs that reference the full spectrum of punk rock, from Nick Lowe to the Television Personalities to the Stooges.
—Chris Davis
Best Emo Band That Doesn’t Suck: Silent Friction So many young bands in Nashville seem to be tribute bands in disguise, copping a popular band’s style under the pretense of “new” music. Silent Friction offer the opposite. Their live performances belie their inexperience, with charismatic frontman Matt Bell delivering his lyrics with paranoid stoner intensity, lead guitarist Kelby Caldwell pulling solos that walk the line between cock-rock indulgence and Built to Spill-esque artistry, and bassist Nathan Hansen and drummer Dan Sommers providing an inventive rhythm section. Their standout track is “Fuck Girlfriends,” a Weezer-style ballad with a guitar-screeching climax. (An added bonus: They’re probably the only band whose members have all posted their diaries on diaryland.com.)
—Deke Shearon
Best Cover Band: Guilty Pleasures The name says it all. Guilty Pleasures are purveyors of musical pornography—those cheesy pop records you wanted to sneak out of the store in a brown paper bag before you ran into one of your friends. Slow Bar owner Mike Grimes has envisioned the concept as karaoke with real, live backing musicians instead of prerecorded tracks. A veritable who’s-who of Nashville talent and a few non-musicians take turns fronting the band to deliver schlock rock standards from the ’70s and ’80s. (Grimey reserves veto power if a song is too good.) Highlights have included Kim Collins (of Kim’s Fable) tearing up Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and Will Kimbrough resurrecting Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero.”
—Jack Silverman
Best Welcome Return:(Tie) The Obscure/The White Animals OK, so The Obscure only took about a year off, but they came back blazing, releasing a tuneful, emotionally rich LP (Laughs Like a Whip, Looks Like a Dagger) that furthers the already imaginative, steely garage-rock sound they displayed on their debut EP. They may be part-timers, only in it for kicks, but The Obscure are leaving behind an impressive legacy regardless. And speaking of impressive legacies, brace yourselves for a summertime revival of local legends The White Animals, who have an entertaining set of smoky new originals available from their Web site, www.whiteanimals.com. In a few months, they’ll be back in the clubs—their natural habitat ever since their heyday in the ’80s.
—Noel Murray
Best Trend in the Local Music Scene: Contemporary Christian Bands Reconfiguring as Modern Rock Bands Contemporary Christian music (CCM) acts have the advantage of a built-in audience, but the disadvantage of having to tailor their message and their sound to fit the often maddening (and often unspoken) guidelines for the format. Several Nashville musicians—including more than a few songwriters—have been quietly breaking away from CCM to follow their muse wherever it may lead. The highest-profile defectors locally are the members of Edmund’s Crown and The Luxury Stars, who now apply their talent for hooks to music that is fun and meaningful in a different kind of way.
—Noel Murray
Best Sign of Promise in Local Rock Bands: The Letter P The three most compelling young bands in Middle Tennessee don’t have much in common, save for one thing: The letter “P.” Pheromone play resounding post-punk ballads with adventurous arrangements and off-kilter hooks. Popshow stretch folksy rock songs into heartening epics. And Popular Genius give pithy pop a youthful sting. But all three do share a willingness to find fresh ways to convey emotion through melodies and tones. They’re explorers all, and if they stay on track, they may end up leading our next generation of music-makers.
—Noel Murray
Best Country Record Producer: Allen Reynolds Byron Gallimore and Mark Wright might be the hottest country producers in town right now, but Allen Reynolds remains the best. A protégé of the great Cowboy Jack Clement, Reynolds has worked over the years with singers from Don Williams and Johnny Rodriquez to Crystal Gayle and Emmylou Harris. His only big-name client now is Garth Brooks, but the records they’ve made together over the past 13 years should be required listening for every aspiring producer, country or otherwise. Warm, roomy and uncluttered, these collaborations—all of which employ analog as opposed to digital recording technology—stand in sharp contrast to the brittle, crowded-sounding projects that have become the Nashville norm. At a press briefing last fall, Brooks admitted that, if left to his own devices, he wouldn’t have the discipline to stick to Reynolds’ less-is-more aesthetic, and that regardless of whether his performances succeed or fail, Reynolds’ touch is unassailable. Indeed, Reynolds is the main reason Garth’s records don’t sound like anyone else’s.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Recording Engineer: Mark Nevers In a town glutted with great sound engineers and producers, Nevers is one of the best. His big ears and ability to get great sounds attracted the attention of gospel producer Sanchez Harley in the late ’80s. Others apparently share Harley’s confidence in Nevers’ abilities; he has recorded or engineered records by country stars Alan Jackson, Sammy Kershaw and George Jones, as well as producing records by a growing roster of indie bands including Silver Jews and Lambchop, of which he is a member. Nevers recently finished a solo record by Bobby Bare Jr. for Bloodshot Records, in addition to projects by the Rev. Kirk Franklin and fellow ’Chopper Alex McManus’ amazing solo outfit, The Bruces.
—Chris Davis
Best “Mainstream” Country Album: Patty Loveless’ Mountain soul With a mitt full of Grammies and sales of 5 million and counting, the O Brother soundtrack has done more for old-time music than the rest of the competition combined—and with next to no radio airplay. Even better, though, is Mountain Soul, Patty Loveless’ back-holler remembrance of things past. The album’s centerpiece is “The Sounds of Loneliness,” a song that Loveless wrote at age 14 when she and her family were stuck in Louisville, pining for their old home amid the coal mines of eastern Kentucky. With twin fiddles droning their ancient tones and Patty sounding the cavernous shaft of her cold, aching heart, the recording doesn’t just seem older than the hills, but as old as loneliness itself.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Indie Country Album: Phil Lee, You should’ve know me then In the world on the other side of the sun, Phil Lee cranks out crappy million-sellers, has his own celebrity bowling show, requires a pontoon boat to carry his cash. In our world, Phil Lee makes records like this one. His second album, produced by Richard Bennett, brims with raunchy wit, piercing pathos and pitiless sympathy for people driven to screw up their lives, all yoked to sterling twang-beat melodies and a band that couldn’t stop kicking ass if its boots were nailed to the floor. The highlight is the jaw-dropping title tune, in which a drug-dealing, wife-beating, stripper-snogging louse apologizes for the tame, decrepit pushover he’s become. Scratch that first sentence. In the world on the other side of the sun, Phil Lee makes records like this one and Music Row force-feeds it to country radio. That bit about the pontoon boat full of cash stands.
—Jim Ridley
Best Country Single:Lee Ann Womack’s “Ashes by Now” The title track of Lee Ann Womack’s I Hope You Dance grabbed all the headlines in 2000, and rightly so; the record’s anthemic quality, even universality, made it a beacon for much of 2001 as well. Nevertheless, the best single to chart out of Nashville last year was another track from that album, a cover of Rodney Crowell’s torch-twang anthem “Ashes by Now,” in which the fire in Womack’s ravaged soprano is palpable. Lyrics to the contrary, it’s as if Womack is going to self-combust there on the spot, with Mark Wright’s hard-charging arrangement fanning the flame.
—Bill Friskics-Warren
Best Song:“The Replacements,” by Tommy Womack In eight-and-a-half minutes, via a string of loose couplets and an increasingly lush shuffle arrangement, Nashville’s number-one rock ’n’ roll fan documents his turbulent personal relationship with the music of the most magnificent and frustrating band of the ’80s. Womack confesses that he started out thinking The Replacements were overrated imbeciles, until he caught them live on a good night, and came away thinking that they were “like crawling inside of Exile on Main Street and pulling Never Mind the Bollocks up to your chin like a sonic quilt.” As Womack describes it, “They were nice guys and they were dicks / You didn’t know what they’d do / One show might run 31 songs and alter your perspective / And the next might fall apart before it got to number two.” Honest and moving, “The Replacements” stands as an insightful piece of rock journalism and a winning song to boot.
—Noel Murray
Best Album of 2002 (So Far): (Tie) Departure Lounge, Too Late to Die Young; Lambchop, Is a Woman; Josh Rouse, Under Cold Blue Stars A few months in the year, and already we’ve got three bona fide works of rock art with a Nashville connection. Departure Lounge’s dramatic, atmospheric swirl of positivism and melancholy on their trip-folk sophomore LP, Too Late to Die Young, makes us wish that Tim Keegan and company had recorded the record here. But the neo-Nashvillians cut Too Late in their native U.K. last year. We’ll cheer for its success regardless. The grind of making snap judgments on ever-increasing stacks of new product has led many rock critics here and abroad to underrate Lambchop’s Is a Woman, which is less immediately accessible than the group’s last release, Nixon. But if given time to soak in, the album creates the feel of a logy late-afternoon daydream, and is thus as extraordinary and thoughtful as any music these Nashville treasures have yet created. Finally, there’s Josh Rouse’s absolutely perfect Under Cold Blue Stars, which I can praise just by noting that not a day goes by when I don’t want to spin it again; it’s concise, catchy and singularly rousing.
—Noel Murray
Best Local Rock Label:(Tie) Twitch/Spat! Nashville is certainly most well-known for its Tin Pan tunesmiths and its country recording industry. Two new record labels hope to change that perception, somewhat, to include modern rock and hardcore punk. Tom George’s Twitch imprint was originally intended as a vehicle to release recordings by his band, Asschapel. Their debut, Total Worship, is a stunning metal album that only hints at the fury of their live shows. Future Twitch releases include a just completed album by Lady Cop (formerly the Hissyfits) and Asschapel’s second LP. Stacy Fleeman, part-owner of Spat! Records with partners Jay Roller and Chad Shearer, formed the label because he tired of seeing great local bands never get their due. Spat! has a large roster of local artists, which includes veteran local acts such as Baby Stout, Spider Virus and Fleeman’s band, Dharmakaya, as well as newer bands like Fall With Me and The Obscure. Fleeman has secured a worldwide distribution deal through Cargo Records that should help him in his goal to put Nashville on the rock map.
—Chris Davis
Best Classical Premiere: “Sea Without a Shore,” by Conni Ellisor Over the last half-dozen years, Conni Ellisor has done several impressive premieres with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Last fall, she did one that moved me to my core. NCO had commissioned “Sea Without a Shore” especially to be played with the internationally renowned percussion quintet NEXUS, abetted by local marimba virtuoso Christopher Norton. Some of the work’s power derived from the fact that it was played in part by instruments bespeaking the beginnings of human music—sticks and gourds and hanging bits of things. But much of the power came out of the character of the composition itself: The music gradually emerged out of silence, evolved into a cosmos of controlled turbulence and lapsed into silence again. It was a potent emblem of what music does, and what people do.
—Marcel Smith
Best Music Booker: Jim Pitt, Acme Booking Reliable, self-effacing and unfailingly friendly, Pitt seems temperamentally unsuited to the music industry and high-powered network television. For starters, he has astounding taste. As talent coordinator for Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Pitt has consistently booked the coolest musical guests on TV—starting with Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Luna, Super Furry Animals and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, to name five among hundreds. To the great fortune of Nashville concertgoers, Pitt is also booking shows now at the Belcourt Theatre. Recent smashes include the Blind Boys of Alabama and the first Nashville concert by red-hot jazz vocalist Norah Jones, a shrewd gamble that paid off when seemingly every major news outlet and syndicated radio show in the country plugged her record the week before the gig. (“It made me look like I knew what I was doing,” Pitt says.) Upcoming Belcourt shows include Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ nearly sold-out two-night stand (April 21-22), Patty Griffin (May 7) and wry troubadour Loudon Wainwright (May 13).
—Jim Ridley
Best Club: Slow Bar 2001’s hottest venue succeeded where several now defunct restaurants and nightspots failed: It made East Nashville a magnet for club-hopping singles, out-of-town visitors and an unending stream of acts who sensed that its instant audience and neighborhood-pub vibe was something special. From Departure Lounge’s remarkable fortnightly residency to the Guilty Pleasures cover nights (see above) to such touring bands as The Glands and Japancakes, the warmth and immediacy of the shows had many listeners buzzed before they’d had their first Sam Adams. And on the rare nights there’s no one onstage, it has the best jukebox in town. Kudos to Mike Grimes and his former partner Dave Gehrke for creating space for something to happen—and on quiet nights, for nothing to happen, enchantingly.
—Jim Ridley
Best Bluebird Alternative: Guido’s New York Pizzeria Conversation in real life: “Hey, got any gigs?” “No, I’m playing at Guido’s.” True, no platinum-card Music Row weasel is going to put your tunes on endless hold at this Vandy-area pizza joint. Instead, you’ll find the cream of the city’s bohemian-underground folkies—people like the Spiritual Family Reunion and the Cherry Blossoms—sharing a postage-stamp basement stage with primo garage-rockers Jack and the ever-surprising David Cloud and the Gospel of Power. You’ll also find a hip, more-attentive-than-they-look audience tuned in to some of the most striking music in town. Plus, there’s beer, cheap killer pizza by the grease-dripping slice, and no table minimum. And the best part is, if some pretentious wannabe tries to shush you, you can whang ’em with one of those metal trays.
—Jim Ridley
Best New Music Venue:The Basement It might only take four walls, a semi-sturdy microphone and a bartender to make a music venue, but there’s much more than that to Eighth Avenue’s newest nightspot, The Basement. There’s the directions: Any place that advises its clientele to “turn on to the alleyway by Tokyo Sauna” has some serious faith in its product—and well it should, given its inviting vibe and its strong bookings. Smoke ’em if you got ’em, but you’ll take your business outside at The Basement. The collective lungs of Nashville’s listeners thank you.
—Danny Solomon
Best Classical Venue: Ingram Hall at Blair School of Music Most listeners don’t yet know what the Nashville Symphony or a Nashville Opera production really sounds like, because the halls in which these groups have to perform dampen or disfigure what is heard. Blair’s new Ingram Hall is an acoustically superb state-of-the-art facility. It is handsome and comfortable—and there’s not a bad seat in the house. It has a shortcoming: It only seats about 600. Maybe it will start up some horn honking to get the Symphony’s projected performance hall built ASAP.
—Marcel Smith
Best Chamber Music Venue: The Grand Salon at Belmont Mansion Chamber music is rightly made by friends for friends in a relaxed atmosphere in somebody’s home—Old Papa Haydn and young master Mozart wrote string quartets to play together with a couple cronies for Count Esterhazy and his friends. The room needs to be acoustically good, and it needs to seat comfortably some 100 listeners who really love to listen. The music needn’t be always superb—though that possibility should always be real. The Grand Salon in the Belmont Mansion has been such a place for some years now. May it be so for many more.
—Marcel Smith
Best Honky Tonk:Norma’s Dusty Road When slow bars are too fast-paced and the New New Nashville looks like a New New Plague, there’s always Norma’s Dusty Road, at once a relic of Nashville’s past and confirmation that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s true that the honky-tonk did move nearly nine years ago from its longtime place at the foot of the Woodland Street bridge in East Nashville to cinderblock digs on First Avenue just south of downtown. But the new walls, cluttered with promo photos and snapshots of the striking owner with legends ranging from Porter Wagoner to Ray Charles, tell similar stories as the old location. Or you can just ask Norma to tell you. She should know; she was there.
—Chris Davis
Best Karaoke Bar:Lonnie’s, Printer’s Alley Grab a bucket of beer, a pen and a cocktail napkin, and you’ve got yourself a good time at Lonnie’s Karaoke in Printer’s Alley. It’s all the ABBA you can stand to sing and more Hank than you ever wanted to hear, but sometimes the talent tops anything you’d spend big money to see down at the GEC. Ever seen a Texan tourist do the duet of “Islands in the Stream” by himself draped in a purple boa and wearing a Dr. Seuss hat? You might at Lonnie’s.
—Danny Solomon
Best Alternative to the Gaylord Entertainment Center: Municipal Auditorium Maybe it’s just because it’s the only large-scale venue left without a company commandeering its name, but Municipal Auditorium is experiencing a renaissance of late. Formerly the haunt of Bob Dylan, among other rock giants, Municipal has most recently played host to more contemporary bands like Tool and Weezer, the latter of whom write on their Web site, “The venerable Municipal Auditorium in Nashville must have been designed by someone who liked inclines, because the whole structure was designed around these huge sloping pedestrian ramps that made it a skateboarders’ paradise.” The charms of the auditorium don’t stop with its ramps.
—Deke Shearon
Best Overattended Show:The White Stripes If you were among the hundreds who wedged into The End for a glimpse of Detroit duo Meg and Jack White, the year’s most heavily hyped indie act, you probably still have the imprint of somebody’s elbow in your ribs. The heat produced by the Whites’ amphetamine-Zep riffing was intense, but it was minty-fresh breath compared to the steamy fog of sweat, smoke and pheromones the crowd exuded. We now know, however, that even sweaty, The Rage’s Kristin Whittlesey is a fox.
—Jim Ridley
Best Underattended Show: Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre After hearing this Portland, Ore., group at Springwater, I was floored as much by their original blend of new wave and hardcore as I was by their original fashion: Picture a mullet-era Keith Richards or Johnny Thunders glamorously appropriating op art. And, as with the best of punk bands, the fashion signified something that the music delivered in spades. Their choice of covers was impeccable—The Screamers’ “Hurt,” the best version of the Stones’ “The Last Time” I’ve ever heard and Josie Cotton’s “Johnny Are You Queer?” Their original songs were also memorable. They have since released a great full-length album, available at Off 12th Records.
—Chris Davis
Best Concert of 2002 (So Far): The Fisk Jubilee Singers in Ingram Hall The inaugural concert in Blair’s new Ingram Hall was a doubly historic moment. The hall’s opening was alone a worthy event: That space enables music to be heard as it has not been before in this town. But this concert was also the first time the more-than-a-century-old Fisk Jubilee Singers had performed at Vanderbilt. And a group better suited to showcase that space is hard to imagine. The room enabled 600 hearers to listen as if the performance was for each alone, as some dozen young people sang, unaccompanied, from memory, a program of traditional African American songs in subtly sophisticated arrangements. The entire program was a carefully rehearsed and flawlessly sustained dramatic presentation recalling a bitter past and foretelling a hopeful future.
—Marcel Smith
Best Ambient Music:Islamic Center of Nashville People in Nashville are so used to listening that neighborhood walks often turn pedestrians into incidental audiences. Depending on where you walk, quiet perambulations can expose the hum of electric lines forming harmonies with traffic against the pulse of your gait. My favorite open-air sound, though, occurs every Friday near 7 p.m., just as the Islamic Center of Nashville at the corner of 12th Avenue South and Sweetbriar begins its evening services. The Koranic chanting of the Muslims worshiping inside fills the surrounding area with a beautiful noise.
—Chris Davis
Best Reason for a Musician to Stay in Nashville: More Talented Musicians Per Capita Than Any Other City in the World Perhaps a bold statement, but even musicians who migrate here from New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans usually agree. New York may have cornered the market on jazz, and other cities may maintain preeminence in specific genres, but the overall level of musicianship, professionalism and sheer talent in Nashville is unparalleled—even if the music business itself sucks. Go see a band in Nashville play a style of music you don’t like, and there’s a good chance you’ll still be impressed that whatever they’re doing, they’re doing well. Much of Nashville’s best music goes on under the mainstream radar, in both the indie-rock and roots-country worlds. And with regular weekly or monthly gigs by the likes of Mike Henderson, the Time Jumpers, the Sidemen and the Gypsy Hombres, to name just a few, it’s easy to forget just how spoiled we are.
—Jack Silverman
Best Song:“The Replacements,” by Tommy Womack In eight-and-a-half minutes, via a string of loose couplets and an increasingly lush shuffle arrangement, Nashville’s number-one rock ’n’ roll fan documents his turbulent personal relationship with the music of the most magnificent and frustrating band of the ’80s. Womack confesses that he started out thinking The Replacements were overrated imbeciles, until he caught them live on a good night, and came away thinking that they were “like crawling inside of Exile on Main Street and pulling Never Mind the Bollocks up to your chin like a sonic quilt.” As Womack describes it, “They were nice guys and they were dicks / You didn’t know what they’d do / One show might run 31 songs and alter your perspective / And the next might fall apart before it got to number two.” Honest and moving, “The Replacements” stands as an insightful piece of rock journalism and a winning song to boot.
—Noel Murray
Best Album of 2002 (So Far): (Tie) Departure Lounge, Too Late to Die Young; Lambchop, Is a Woman; Josh Rouse, Under Cold Blue Stars A few months in the year, and already we’ve got three bona fide works of rock art with a Nashville connection. Departure Lounge’s dramatic, atmospheric swirl of positivism and melancholy on their trip-folk sophomore LP, Too Late to Die Young, makes us wish that Tim Keegan and company had recorded the record here. But the neo-Nashvillians cut Too Late in their native U.K. last year. We’ll cheer for its success regardless. The grind of making snap judgments on ever-increasing stacks of new product has led many rock critics here and abroad to underrate Lambchop’s Is a Woman, which is less immediately accessible than the group’s last release, Nixon. But if given time to soak in, the album creates the feel of a logy late-afternoon daydream, and is thus as extraordinary and thoughtful as any music these Nashville treasures have yet created. Finally, there’s Josh Rouse’s absolutely perfect Under Cold Blue Stars, which I can praise just by noting that not a day goes by when I don’t want to spin it again; it’s concise, catchy and singularly rousing.
—Noel Murray
Best Local Rock Label:(Tie) Twitch/Spat! Nashville is certainly most well-known for its Tin Pan tunesmiths and its country recording industry. Two new record labels hope to change that perception, somewhat, to include modern rock and hardcore punk. Tom George’s Twitch imprint was originally intended as a vehicle to release recordings by his band, Asschapel. Their debut, Total Worship, is a stunning metal album that only hints at the fury of their live shows. Future Twitch releases include a just completed album by Lady Cop (formerly the Hissyfits) and Asschapel’s second LP. Stacy Fleeman, part-owner of Spat! Records with partners Jay Roller and Chad Shearer, formed the label because he tired of seeing great local bands never get their due. Spat! has a large roster of local artists, which includes veteran local acts such as Baby Stout, Spider Virus and Fleeman’s band, Dharmakaya, as well as newer bands like Fall With Me and The Obscure. Fleeman has secured a worldwide distribution deal through Cargo Records that should help him in his goal to put Nashville on the rock map.
—Chris Davis
Best Classical Premiere: “Sea Without a Shore,” by Conni Ellisor Over the last half-dozen years, Conni Ellisor has done several impressive premieres with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Last fall, she did one that moved me to my core. NCO had commissioned “Sea Without a Shore” especially to be played with the internationally renowned percussion quintet NEXUS, abetted by local marimba virtuoso Christopher Norton. Some of the work’s power derived from the fact that it was played in part by instruments bespeaking the beginnings of human music—sticks and gourds and hanging bits of things. But much of the power came out of the character of the composition itself: The music gradually emerged out of silence, evolved into a cosmos of controlled turbulence and lapsed into silence again. It was a potent emblem of what music does, and what people do.
—Marcel Smith
Best Music Booker: Jim Pitt, Acme Booking Reliable, self-effacing and unfailingly friendly, Pitt seems temperamentally unsuited to the music industry and high-powered network television. For starters, he has astounding taste. As talent coordinator for Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Pitt has consistently booked the coolest musical guests on TV—starting with Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Luna, Super Furry Animals and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, to name five among hundreds. To the great fortune of Nashville concertgoers, Pitt is also booking shows now at the Belcourt Theatre. Recent smashes include the Blind Boys of Alabama and the first Nashville concert by red-hot jazz vocalist Norah Jones, a shrewd gamble that paid off when seemingly every major news outlet and syndicated radio show in the country plugged her record the week before the gig. (“It made me look like I knew what I was doing,” Pitt says.) Upcoming Belcourt shows include Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ nearly sold-out two-night stand (April 21-22), Patty Griffin (May 7) and wry troubadour Loudon Wainwright (May 13).
—Jim Ridley
Best Club: Slow Bar 2001’s hottest venue succeeded where several now defunct restaurants and nightspots failed: It made East Nashville a magnet for club-hopping singles, out-of-town visitors and an unending stream of acts who sensed that its instant audience and neighborhood-pub vibe was something special. From Departure Lounge’s remarkable fortnightly residency to the Guilty Pleasures cover nights (see above) to such touring bands as The Glands and Japancakes, the warmth and immediacy of the shows had many listeners buzzed before they’d had their first Sam Adams. And on the rare nights there’s no one onstage, it has the best jukebox in town. Kudos to Mike Grimes and his former partner Dave Gehrke for creating space for something to happen—and on quiet nights, for nothing to happen, enchantingly.
—Jim Ridley
Best Bluebird Alternative: Guido’s New York Pizzeria Conversation in real life: “Hey, got any gigs?” “No, I’m playing at Guido’s.” True, no platinum-card Music Row weasel is going to put your tunes on endless hold at this Vandy-area pizza joint. Instead, you’ll find the cream of the city’s bohemian-underground folkies—people like the Spiritual Family Reunion and the Cherry Blossoms—sharing a postage-stamp basement stage with primo garage-rockers Jack and the ever-surprising David Cloud and the Gospel of Power. You’ll also find a hip, more-attentive-than-they-look audience tuned in to some of the most striking music in town. Plus, there’s beer, cheap killer pizza by the grease-dripping slice, and no table minimum. And the best part is, if some pretentious wannabe tries to shush you, you can whang ’em with one of those metal trays.
—Jim Ridley
Best New Music Venue:The Basement It might only take four walls, a semi-sturdy microphone and a bartender to make a music venue, but there’s much more than that to Eighth Avenue’s newest nightspot, The Basement. There’s the directions: Any place that advises its clientele to “turn on to the alleyway by Tokyo Sauna” has some serious faith in its product—and well it should, given its inviting vibe and its strong bookings. Smoke ’em if you got ’em, but you’ll take your business outside at The Basement. The collective lungs of Nashville’s listeners thank you.
—Danny Solomon
Best Classical Venue: Ingram Hall at Blair School of Music Most listeners don’t yet know what the Nashville Symphony or a Nashville Opera production really sounds like, because the halls in which these groups have to perform dampen or disfigure what is heard. Blair’s new Ingram Hall is an acoustically superb state-of-the-art facility. It is handsome and comfortable—and there’s not a bad seat in the house. It has a shortcoming: It only seats about 600. Maybe it will start up some horn honking to get the Symphony’s projected performance hall built ASAP.
—Marcel Smith
Best Chamber Music Venue: The Grand Salon at Belmont Mansion Chamber music is rightly made by friends for friends in a relaxed atmosphere in somebody’s home—Old Papa Haydn and young master Mozart wrote string quartets to play together with a couple cronies for Count Esterhazy and his friends. The room needs to be acoustically good, and it needs to seat comfortably some 100 listeners who really love to listen. The music needn’t be always superb—though that possibility should always be real. The Grand Salon in the Belmont Mansion has been such a place for some years now. May it be so for many more.
—Marcel Smith
Best Honky Tonk:Norma’s Dusty Road When slow bars are too fast-paced and the New New Nashville looks like a New New Plague, there’s always Norma’s Dusty Road, at once a relic of Nashville’s past and confirmation that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s true that the honky-tonk did move nearly nine years ago from its longtime place at the foot of the Woodland Street bridge in East Nashville to cinderblock digs on First Avenue just south of downtown. But the new walls, cluttered with promo photos and snapshots of the striking owner with legends ranging from Porter Wagoner to Ray Charles, tell similar stories as the old location. Or you can just ask Norma to tell you. She should know; she was there.
—Chris Davis
Best Karaoke Bar:Lonnie’s, Printer’s Alley Grab a bucket of beer, a pen and a cocktail napkin, and you’ve got yourself a good time at Lonnie’s Karaoke in Printer’s Alley. It’s all the ABBA you can stand to sing and more Hank than you ever wanted to hear, but sometimes the talent tops anything you’d spend big money to see down at the GEC. Ever seen a Texan tourist do the duet of “Islands in the Stream” by himself draped in a purple boa and wearing a Dr. Seuss hat? You might at Lonnie’s.
—Danny Solomon
Best Alternative to the Gaylord Entertainment Center: Municipal Auditorium Maybe it’s just because it’s the only large-scale venue left without a company commandeering its name, but Municipal Auditorium is experiencing a renaissance of late. Formerly the haunt of Bob Dylan, among other rock giants, Municipal has most recently played host to more contemporary bands like Tool and Weezer, the latter of whom write on their Web site, “The venerable Municipal Auditorium in Nashville must have been designed by someone who liked inclines, because the whole structure was designed around these huge sloping pedestrian ramps that made it a skateboarders’ paradise.” The charms of the auditorium don’t stop with its ramps.
—Deke Shearon
Best Overattended Show:The White Stripes If you were among the hundreds who wedged into The End for a glimpse of Detroit duo Meg and Jack White, the year’s most heavily hyped indie act, you probably still have the imprint of somebody’s elbow in your ribs. The heat produced by the Whites’ amphetamine-Zep riffing was intense, but it was minty-fresh breath compared to the steamy fog of sweat, smoke and pheromones the crowd exuded. We now know, however, that even sweaty, The Rage’s Kristin Whittlesey is a fox.
—Jim Ridley
Best Underattended Show: Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre After hearing this Portland, Ore., group at Springwater, I was floored as much by their original blend of new wave and hardcore as I was by their original fashion: Picture a mullet-era Keith Richards or Johnny Thunders glamorously appropriating op art. And, as with the best of punk bands, the fashion signified something that the music delivered in spades. Their choice of covers was impeccable—The Screamers’ “Hurt,” the best version of the Stones’ “The Last Time” I’ve ever heard and Josie Cotton’s “Johnny Are You Queer?” Their original songs were also memorable. They have since released a great full-length album, available at Off 12th Records.
—Chris Davis
Best Concert of 2002 (So Far): The Fisk Jubilee Singers in Ingram Hall The inaugural concert in Blair’s new Ingram Hall was a doubly historic moment. The hall’s opening was alone a worthy event: That space enables music to be heard as it has not been before in this town. But this concert was also the first time the more-than-a-century-old Fisk Jubilee Singers had performed at Vanderbilt. And a group better suited to showcase that space is hard to imagine. The room enabled 600 hearers to listen as if the performance was for each alone, as some dozen young people sang, unaccompanied, from memory, a program of traditional African American songs in subtly sophisticated arrangements. The entire program was a carefully rehearsed and flawlessly sustained dramatic presentation recalling a bitter past and foretelling a hopeful future.
—Marcel Smith
Best Ambient Music:Islamic Center of Nashville People in Nashville are so used to listening that neighborhood walks often turn pedestrians into incidental audiences. Depending on where you walk, quiet perambulations can expose the hum of electric lines forming harmonies with traffic against the pulse of your gait. My favorite open-air sound, though, occurs every Friday near 7 p.m., just as the Islamic Center of Nashville at the corner of 12th Avenue South and Sweetbriar begins its evening services. The Koranic chanting of the Muslims worshiping inside fills the surrounding area with a beautiful noise.
—Chris Davis
Best Reason for a Musician to Stay in Nashville: More Talented Musicians Per Capita Than Any Other City in the World Perhaps a bold statement, but even musicians who migrate here from New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans usually agree. New York may have cornered the market on jazz, and other cities may maintain preeminence in specific genres, but the overall level of musicianship, professionalism and sheer talent in Nashville is unparalleled—even if the music business itself sucks. Go see a band in Nashville play a style of music you don’t like, and there’s a good chance you’ll still be impressed that whatever they’re doing, they’re doing well. Much of Nashville’s best music goes on under the mainstream radar, in both the indie-rock and roots-country worlds. And with regular weekly or monthly gigs by the likes of Mike Henderson, the Time Jumpers, the Sidemen and the Gypsy Hombres, to name just a few, it’s easy to forget just how spoiled we are.
—Jack Silverman
