In which we talk with Mary Mancini about the legacy Lucy’s Record Shop, punk and “alternative” music in the Nashville 90s, and the import of all ages venues. This is such a lovely chat, I am so excited for you to listen! Lucy’s Record Shop Podcast: https://lucysrecordshop.com/ Lucy Barks Documentary: https://archive.org/details/LucyBarksADocumentar…

I talk with artist Kevin Guthrie about his time in Nashville and his development as an artist even though he gets a little weird about accepting the term. His show, A History of Tofu in America, will hang at the Julia Martin Gallery through the end of April 2022. Within we discuss all sorts of stuff, from his times on the road with Pavement and the…

Today I talk with Caitlin Rose, who recently reissued a 10th anniversary edition of her record Own Side Now. We discuss music making, living with tricky brains, and being weird kids. It’s a fun, sprawling conversation with an extraordinarily gifted songwriter and musician. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is …

Today we’ll talk with Steven Hale, the great and prolific Nashville Scene journalist. Steven tells us about his reporting regarding the proliferation of fentanyl poisoning and its impact on record rates of drug overdoses in the city. His piece in the Nashville Scene — “The Other Epidemic: Fentanyl Is Killing People in Nashville at a Staggering Rate…

Behold! The second installment of our two part series on The Bell Witch. Today weâ€re going to dive into the actual story—well, the QUOTE actual story—and get into many of the details that tend to be omitted in its retelling. Weâ€ll get to know M.V. Ingram, the author of the first book on The Bell Witch, a bit better, and weâ€ll examine theorie…

In this episode weâ€re evoking spirits, and weâ€re telling old stories. Youâ€ll hear about the Bell Witch, sure, but this story is not about the Bell Witch. You donâ€t need any more of that—itâ€s been done. Itâ€s a tour, itâ€s a movie, itâ€s another movie, itâ€s a documentary, itâ€s a number of different books, itâ€s a number of different episode…

We talk with writer and journalist Craig Havighurst about the history of the Station Inn and its fate after the passing of owner JT Gray. We also discuss what Craig is excited about for the rest of 2021. In addition to being a writer (he wrote Air Castle of the South: WSM and the making of Music City in 2011), Craig is a staff music producer for WM…

In which Nashville Demystified RETURNS and catches up with the splendiferous Maggie Rose. We discuss Maggie’s upcoming album Have a Seat, her podcast Salute the Songbird, and some of the lessons she’s learned after a decade and a half in Nashville. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own Thi…

Rebroadcast from September 25th, 2019 Thelma and the Sleaze, for those not in the know, is an all-female queer southern rock band thatâ€s been around for almost a decade. While singer band center of gravity Lauren “LG” Gilbert doesnâ€t live in Nashville—she lives in Alabama as youâ€ll hear here—she long lived in Nashville and the band has deep …

Today we talk with author Steve Haruch. We discuss his wonderful new book—which was published by Vanderbilt Press—called Greetings from New Nashville. Steve edited the Greetings, and two of his essays are featured amount a number of others by some of my very favorite writers in the city. By looking at the time period between 1998 and 2018, it e…

Today weâ€re going to spend some time getting to better know the late Christine “Teeny” Jarret — professional wrestlingâ€s grand dame — by way of talking with her grandson and biographer Brennon Martin. Christine “Teeny” Jarrett—by all accounts—lived a true Nashville rags to riches story. Over the course of her 50-year career in wrestling, …

I’ve long been a fan of Berman’s music and prose, but I think Menthol Mountains (his blog) is my favorite of all of his outputs. It speaks to me as a person who considers himself thoughtful and big hearted and is profoundly confused by what it is to be a person In These Times. By way of the various texts shared, there are nods to the absurdity, the…

This is a rebroadcast of an episode that originally aired on August 29th, 2019. While Alex recovers a lost audio file, please enjoy this wild, wild episode (again or for the first time). In 1982, the Nashville Flame volunteered to have himself lowered into a dangerous, long-decommissioned mine to recover the bodies of two murder victims. Eight year…

Tony Alamo — his church Alamo Christian Ministries, his store The Alamo, or the Al-ah-mo, and his wife Susanâ€s dead body — were one of the first phenomena I heard about upon arriving to Nashville. In this episode we get to the bottom of all things Tony Alamo with author Debby Schriver. Debby is the author of Whispering in the Daylight: The Chi…

In this bonus episode, we talk with Tristen Gaspadarek about the Please Vote Nashville voter guide. We dive into the origins of the organization, democratic participation generally, and how the skills one develops as a musician / DIY artist are transferable to civic engagement. Early voting for the state and federal primary begins today, July 17th!…

An episode in two parts, an Interview and an Essay. Our interview is with Marlene Twitty-Fargo, the drag persona of Tim White. Marlene is the leader of a bad called The Twat Biscuits and is a ton of fun. Tim has lived in Nashville since 1988. Our essay comes from Jack Evan Johnson, a writer and musician living and making a living in Nashville. Alon…

As a teenager in 1920s Birmingham, Alabama, Nick Gulas left his job at a bakery to learn the ropes (pun intended) of working in the wrestling business. Once he knew a thing or two, he came to Nashville and made both the city and the sport his life for over 40 years. For a good long time he was King. We explore Gulas†life and the pre-WWE days of w…

I was going to do an episode about Spanish Flu in Nashville—I very well might at some other time—but instead I decided to look at what life was like in the city, and the country at large, in 1918. The two big stories of that year, in retrospect at least, is the end of what we now know at the First World War and the rise of Spanish Flu. So let 

Itâ€s been a week. Itâ€s been a month. Itâ€s been a year. And itâ€s only April. So I took a break from heavy stuff this week to talk sex in the isolation age with Tessa Lowe of Primrose Path Boutique. Thereâ€s also a super-long introduction about COVID-19 and, if youâ€re interested at all, where Iâ€m at these days. Additionally: First, I surprised …

The second in our three episode arch about the 1998 tornados is about the day of the tornado itself. K-Ci & JoJo were huge and the winds were catastrophic. We also revisit last weekâ€s episodes about casualties, and learn a bit more about Tom Colletta. If you have stories to share about the tornado, or any TN natural disaster for that matter, pleas…

In the first of a three part arch about the 1998 Nashville tornadoes, we meet Tom Colletta and Kevin Longinotti — men who were pinned by two of the 20,000 trees stripped, uprooted or blown over on April 16, 1998. We also talk about the time I — a 15-year-old juvenile delinquent from Maine — got Kevin Smith to donate to the recovery efforts. I…

By the second half of the Reagan Decade, Lower Broad was on its way to becoming a tourist destination. An impressive ascent, considering it was more or less a war zone. How did it do it? It replaced “low class” drunks with “high class” ones through investment, selective enforcement, and heavy policing. We also meet a teenage boy who was used as bai…

We are in the middle of a miniseries called Music City Tales From the 1980s, and this is a companion episode that goes deeper into some of the stuff we covered in last weekâ€s exploration of Lower Broad. Next week weâ€ll run part two of that episode, but for now weâ€re going to talk a bit about sex work during the Civil War and then weâ€re going to…

This week we embark on a two part look at Lower Broad; starting with how the area went from being the sort of place most folks didn’t engage with after dark to becoming a budding tourist destination. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack …

Today we talk with the wonderful Carlene Carter. This is not an official installment of Music City Tales from the 1980s, though itâ€s strongly related. Letâ€s say that itâ€s a companion episode. Carlene Carter is a legendary singer with a career that spans over four decades. She has released a dozen albums on her own, and she has recorded as a memb…

In March of 1983, WSM launched The Nashville Network, TNN for short. It was an entire television network devoted to country music and programming, and largely produced at Gaslight Studios at Opryland USA. Today we look at how televisions show like Hee Haw, and a phenomenon called “The Rural Purgeâ€� made all of this possible. We also look at how …

Opryland USA was around for most of the 70s, it opened in `72 after three years of concepting and construction. It was around for most of the 90s — it shut its doors for good on December 31, 1997. Opryland was, though, around for the whole of the 1980s. If you were a kid in Nashville in that decade, thereâ€s a strong chance you knew the park inti…

This is the first of a ten episode miniseries about Nashville in the 1980s. Let’s get to know Music City city as it was in Reaganâ€s decade, and understand how the hell it got to this place. It wonâ€t be all politics. Weâ€ll get to know Sheriff Fate Thomas and Mayor Bill Boner a bit better — and Bonerâ€s predecessor, Richard Fulton. Weâ€ll hang out…

I spent an hour with The Weird Sisters before accidentally getting too stoned and having to skip a party. We turned the interview into a galactic sound collage. Featured in this episode are four Weird Sisters songs: Carol of the Bells (cover) Masterminder Rewinder The Martian Queen Will You Be Mine More from The Weird Sisters Official Site: theweir…

Sean Nelson is a writer / music journalist / haver-of-opinions / singer / musician. He wrote for The Stranger forever and ever and talked to some of the very coolest people along the way. If you donâ€t know his writing, you probably recall that he once exclaimed that heâ€d like to publish zines / rage against machines whilst singing in the band Har…

Anthony Simpkins is the creator of GemsOnVHS. He is a Musicologist and documentarian. Early in their careers, he has captured intimate performances by Lost Dog Street Band, Matt Heckler, Erin Rae, Casper Allen, Sierra Ferrell, and more. We talk about genre, curation and how he goes about finding the artists he documents on his popular YouTube chann…

Phoebe Hunt is a fiddler, singer/songwriter and yogi. She came to Nashville by way of Brooklyn by way of Austin and we talk about everything from music-as-a-healing-force to past lives. More from Phoebe Hunt Official Site: phoebehuntmusic.com Twitter: @Phoebe_Hunt Instagram: @phoebehuntmusic Facebook: /phoebehuntmusic Watch Phoebe’s visual album on…

Maya de Vitry is, as we establish here, a singer/songwriter based here in Nashville. She released one album – Adaptations — earlier this year and she JUST completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for a new album called How to Break a Fall. Up until two years ago she was in a well-loved band called The Stray Birds. We talk about post-Stray Bir…

Today I talk with Jacob Jones who, is a realtor, a communications strategist, a musician and the DJ behind Motown Monday. The later phenomenon—a dance night at the 5 Spot on Monday nights—has garnered international acclaim for just being a really fucking fun night. We also talk about the time he was present at a school shooting and how somethin…

Mercy Bell is a singer and songwriter based in Nashville. I think we determined that her genre is pop-folk, or folk-pop, or pop-alt-country, or just regular alt-country, but we also determined that genre is tricky. We also talk about her. Her self-titled record is out now. I also dive into the times Roy Acuff ran for governor, and what that meant f…

Erin Rae is a musician based here in Nashville. She is a delight. Here she shares her history in the town, insights on establishing boundaries as a working musician, and tips on where to get the best antiques in town. Here she is… Official Site:erinraemusic.com Twitter: @erinraemusic Instagram: @erinraemusic Erin Rae photo by @lauraepartain More on…

Bebe Buell is a force of nature. Itâ€s a cliche, but itâ€s the best way to describe her. When sheâ€s in the room, you absolutely know it. She is one hundred percent personality. She is a musician. Rick Derringer and Ric Ocasek produced her first EP. Sheâ€d later go on to record under the name the Gargoyles. Sheâ€s been recording off and on for the …

Thelma and the Sleaze, for those not in the know, is an all-female queer southern rock band thatâ€s been around for almost a decade. While singer band center of gravity Lauren “LG” Gilbert doesnâ€t live in Nashville—she lives in Alabama as youâ€ll hear here—she long lived in Nashville and the band has deep roots here. Thelma and the Sleaze has …

Hey, do you remember when it felt like people were seeing religious figures in every day items like—all the time? There’s Mary on toast. There’s Jesus in a pan of bacon. Well back in the 90s a customer at Bongo Java—a Nashville coffee house—spotted an image of Mother Teresa on a bun and it kicked off a decade of wild shenanigans. There’s acti…

Nashville Demystified is a show in which I, Alex Steed, get to know this city better by talking with the folks who live, work, agitate and make art here. Today we talk with Steven Hale, a reporter for Nashville Scene. Specifically, we talk with Hale about Tennesseeâ€s death penalty and his coverage of it. Steven Hale is a journalist who lives in Na…

Ben Swank got to Nashville a day or so before Third Man launched and so his and the labelâ€s history here in the city are more or less one. Since Nashville Demystified is primarily interested in understanding how the city is, how the city was, and where the two meet in the middle, Third Man is an interesting focus. It just celebrated its tenth anni…

In 1982, the Nashville Flame volunteered to have himself lowered into a dangerous, long-decommissioned mine to recover the bodies of two murder victims. Eight years earlier, he experienced something even stranger than a couple of frozen corpses at the bottom of a 250 foot deep hole in the ground. Also, we take you down a fever dreamy rabbit hole of…

Today weâ€ll talk with Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza. Robyn lives here in Nashville and is a queer, non-binary, Latinx poet and holds a PhD in theology. Robyn is also author of the book Activist Theology, which is a collection of stories about how they found their way as an activist, a theologian and a person living in this weird and unstable time. …

I donâ€t know what I have to offer any ongoing exchange or collective mourning about David Berman outside of the fact that I loved this person Iâ€d never met and that I will miss him. Berman was one of the first singers / poets / bandleaders in whom I heard the whole of my own lived truth better than I felt capable to putting myself. Iâ€d heard on …

Today I talk about–and I hate how timely this conversation is–Nashvilleâ€s history of white supremacist violence with author and historian Betsy Phillips. Specifically we talk about bombings that took place over a half century ago, but as this week reminds, the mass violence of white supremacists is something that is not part of our history–it is p…

Here is a quick Ernest mini-episode. I talked with Jim Varney documentarian Justin Lloyd, who is also Varney’s nephew. I thought it would be a nice follow-up to last week’s conversation with Ernest writer Daniel Butler. While neither Lloyd or Varney are Nashvillians, the character of Ernest was birthed there. This blew my mind when I found out abou…

Special thanks to How Did This Get Made for letting us use their audio at the start of the episode. We’re stoked Jenni Lyn Gardner was able to come onto the show and talk about her work, her experience as a musician, and her life here in Nashville. Jenni Lyn is one of the founding members of Della Mae — a Grammy nominated band that has truly been…

Today we open with a bachelor and bachelorette party fever dream. I give a good deal of background regarding the MNPS funding issues to this point. Jack Evan Johnson of Honkytonk Badonkadonk shares an essay from their June issue. The July issue is out now. Then I talk with teachers Missy Lindsey and Erin Hunt about what it’s like to work in underfu…

We talk with Jack Evan Johnson and Cybelle Elena of Honkytonk Badonkadonk. Jack and Elena launched the monthly zine a year ago this week. They discuss their background as musicians and artists and explain why Nashville may not be over after all. Honkytonk Badonkadonkâ€s birthday / anniversary party Donkfest is on Saturday, July 6th at The Cobra. Ca…

Today we talk with: Eleanor Buckland [Lula Wiles] Evan Winsor [Bluegrass Wednesdays] James Kee [Bluegrass Wednesdays] Eleanor discusses why professional musicians†concepts of “homeâ€� can be especially unique. Evan and James, both professional musicians themselves, talk about how and why Bluegrass Wednesdays (at the American Legion Post 82) cam…