Little Jimmy Dickens and Jessica Frech in Jimmy’s dressing room at the Grand Ole Opry.
A lot has been made of the so-called "creative class" and the unique benefits cities stand to gain from attracting imaginative, driven individuals — the kind who can help spur innovation and growth. In putting together the Scene's fourth annual People Issue, we cast a wide net and found what most Nashvillians already know: Our city is teeming with just these kinds of people. Everywhere we turned, it seemed, we were running into them — from a duo of upstart fashion designers who built a business out of a trip to an alpaca farm to a former Silicon Valley official who's gearing Nashville up to become a technology boom town, from an Argentinian born architect-turned-councilman to an unlikely viral video star moonlighting as a college student, from a legend of the Opry to a legend of Olympic track and field. And whether it was building community in once-blighted corners of East Nashville or enabling a new generation of chefs, we found people who were not only up to the task, but finding ways to thrive, and new ways to create — even when being creative just means hustling harder than anyone else in the game.
The People:
The Legend: Little Jimmy Dickens
The Community Builder: Dan Heller
The Power Couple: Peter Depp and Kristin Vasquez
The Broadcaster: Tom Randles
The Barber: Mark Walker
The Internet Star: Jessica Frech
The Teacher: Gatluak Ter Thach
The Chef: Laura Wilson
The Artist: Vesna Pavlovic
The Councilman: Fabian Bedne
The Saxman: Bobby Keys
The Coach: Ed Temple
The Networker: Liza Massey
The Designers: Jamie and the Jones
The Enforcer: Brian McGrattan
The Bird Brains: Birdcloud
The Poet: Sebastian Jones
The Geeks: Janet and Mike Lee
