Richie Kirkpatrick is pacing back and forth on the concrete floor of the ‘charming’ porch area of The Springwater Supper Club, his thin hand lifting a cigarette to just below his handlebar mustache. Kirkpatrick is dressed in a dapper black suit, dark silk shirt and red tie this evening - appropriately maniacal attire for the foreboding Springwater on a cold and rainy October night.

After months of shows on many stages around the country with Bobby Bare Jr’s Young Criminal’s Starvation League, you would think a performer would be over the jitters, but tonight is not a normal performance for Ghostfinger. I fail to notice at first that no other members of the band are present. Onstage is a guitar, a chair and a kick drum. Tonight it will be Ghostfinger in its rawest form - just the pure unadulterated wit and genius of Mr. Kirkpatrick flying solo. (more…)

Nashville has a bad habit of ignoring her best and brightest children; Nashville culture produces an artistic endeavor that is truly original, even revolutionary, and nobody who “matters” in music city seems to pay any attention.

Luckily, Nashville has a great aunt of sorts named London. She takes our wayfaring children under her wing, invites them in for tea and crumpets, and even offers to let them stay as long as they like, or until they get on their feet and make a few quid. (more…)

Punctuate Your Thanksgiving Holiday with a Collards & Caviar Productions presentation of “Having Our Say” a play by Emily Mann, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.

Collards & Caviar, is Nashville’s newest and most unique theater company and they’re off to a terrific start. Their first production, “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery”, a collaboration with SistaStyle Productions and part of the First Annual Shades of Black Showcase, garnered favorable reviews from both The City Paper and The Nashville Pride. (more…)

East Nashville has seen a dramatic transformation in the past decade. Historically the east side of the river has always been more progressive than the other parts of Nashville, and today it is a hotbed of what just might be an artistic renaissance… especially if you are involved with music performance and production.

There is something about East Nashville that attracts musicians and artists. That something might just be other musicians and artists, but it also could be the relatively affordable housing, the best coffee shop in Nashville (Bongo Java), the hip music-friendly clubs (Radio Cafe, The Family Wash, The 5-Spot), as well as an overall hometown-within-a-city vibe. You might just forget you’re in Nashville if you stay for a spell. (more…)

What happens when East meets West in the world of dance? Join an exciting opportunity to experience Chinese Traditional Dance presented by TPAC. Panelists will discuss how the arts reflect world cultures, specifically highlighting Chinese and Western dance traditions and their influences on each other. Jen-Jen Lin and additional dancers with the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville will perform excerpts illustrating the mutual inspirations.

Founded in 2002, the mission of Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville is to promote awareness, understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the Chinese arts by presenting visual arts, crafts, performing arts, and culture to the public. CAAN activities include seminars, art exhibitions, classroom teaching, educational workshops, and public programs for children and adults. (more…)

Actor’s Bridge of Nashville presents How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, which will be their final and most exciting show of the season at the Darkhorse Theatre in Nashville.

How I learned to Drive has been described by the New York Times as a “Superb comic drama… haunting… a lovely, harrowing guide to the crippling persistence of one woman’s memories.” (more…)

“Heaven’s Coast” is a series of photographic images that capture connections to the ocean and the coast. The show, with the title inspired by a memoir by Mark Doty, tells a story about the unique ways in which we experience our coastal landscapes. Using a photojournalistic style to document different activities and moments, the images are then transferred to large stretched canvases to alter the scale of the work. The transfer process is imperfect, resulting in images that look slightly distressed and aged. (more…)

So the Nashville Scene prints a huge cover story on The Features dramatic drop by 800 lb gorilla, Universal Records: the article chronicles how the poor lads had to choose between covering a Beatles song for a credit card commercial and losing their record deal. They chose to get dropped and keep their credibility. Everyone gasps and pats them on the back, their EP is released, and a month later I see a CityBank commercial with a cover version of “All You Need is Love.”
“Catchy tune…” (remember Val Kilmer’s Jim Morrison when he sees a cheesy Ford commercial using Light My Fire?) (more…)

Nashville-Based The Comfies are lead by former Feeble Weiner bassist Ben Harper. Bringing along some of the infectious pop sensebility of the Murfreesboro / Nashville breakthrough band that had everyone jumping up and down and screaming “Weiner!” over the past few years, The Comfies extend that with a somewhat less campy, yet just as melodically deft pop sensibility. They have been compared to “The Posies or Velvet Crush, with a dash of Bowie and big sprigs of Mersey.” (more…)

If you like the feelgood 70’s philly-esque sound of Josh Rouse, you will undoubtedly dig the latest release by Nashville’s Curt Perkins, titled Get Something Started. Several friends recommend that I check out Curt live, and I have to admit, it was a phenomenal show. The music has a great vibe: Part R&B, part rock, all right. The record is even better, with outstanding production and solid song craft.

This stuff is portable sunshine…

The similarities to Rouse are not a coincidence; Perkins has worked with Rouse for years, as a multi- instrumentalist and co-writer. Their hits have hit the top-30.

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Art and Invention Gallery located in Five Points, East Nashville presents Urban Frescoes by photographer Bill Brimm. The main focus of this exhibition is images on walls within urban areas and their relationship to society. Graffiti, signage, color, texture and decay are integral parts of the palette that creates these revealing photographs. This body of work was shot over the last three years in Peru, Mexico, Chicago and Nashville. (more…)

The one and only Reeves Gabrels has been appearing every Sunday down at the Family Wash with “Loud Night,” backed by a revolving group of fantastic musicians from East Nashville and beyond. Gabrels is considered one of the most revolutionary guitarists working today, having worked with Bowie, Tin Machine, Public Enemy and many others.

Sets consist of a variety of Gabrel’s original material: mostly straight-up rockers penned by the virtuoso guitarist featuring intelligent arrangements and sharply crafted lyrics. Of course, you can also expect extended improvisations with Gabrel’s experimenting with digital toys, in particular a (Korg?) tone pad that allows him to dramatically bend and modulate his signal using a touchpad. Guitarists and rock fans alike shouldn’t miss this opportunity to see Reeves in such an intimate environment! (more…)