Nashville Demystified

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/LucyBarksADocumentaryByStacyGoldate Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 Silver Jews to how he became fixated on Tofu. Kevin is an extraordinary dude and this was a super fun chat. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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” — came out on November 4, 2021. Since it came out, The New York Times has reported on the trend nationally, indicating that a record number of Americans — 100,000 died from April 2020 to April 2021 – and a substantial reason for that has been the proliferation of drugs cut with fentanyl. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 theories on what the haunting may have *actually* been. And! I was contacted by one of the highest authorities on all things Bell Witch in regard to last weekâ€s episode, so Iâ€ll share a bit about that. We’re joined by our pal Sean Nelson in this episode! Thanks so much for lending us your voice talents, Sean! We also pull heavily from Betsy Philips’ blog Tiny Cat Pants. Particularly these installments: The Bell Witch and Spiritualism [11.09.2010] The Bell Witch [07.28.2005] The Infamous Witch [10.01.2009] You can find Pat Fitzhugh’s Bell Witch website here: http://www.bellwitch.org/ Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 episodes of ghost hunter or spooky histories series. The Bell Witch has been done. This is a story about stories. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 WMOT Roots Radio. He is also a regular contributor for WPLN in Nashville and Nashville Public Radio, and he has produced short documentaries for permanent exhibition at the Earl Scruggs center. Craig has been senior producer, co-host and show journalist for Music City Roots, a weekly Americana radio show for over a decade. Music City Roots is in a production hiatus while the show builds a custom venue in Nashville, which he also talks about in this episode. Nashville Demystified is made possible with support by Knack Factory. It is distributed by We Own This Town. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 This Town. For more with Maggie, we had a chat about Pretty Woman earlier this week on my other podcast Why Are Dads. You can find Nashville Demystified online on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Twitter: @NDemystified Instagram: @nashvilledemystified TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsteed

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 roots here. Thelma and the Sleaze has a number of records out, but right now theyâ€re touring around and supporting their album Fuck, Marry, Kill — which I think I refer to in this interview at least once as Fuck, Murder Kill. I accept responsibility for this bad—my bad, Iâ€m sorry, LG—but I to my credit, I donâ€t know if youâ€ve ever been in a room with LG but she is an absolute force and itâ€s hard to not feel / act like an idiot in the presence of this level of stardom. Honest to god, I donâ€t say so facetiously. It was difficult to keep level headed, sheâ€s so fucking cool. But we made it. More on Thelma and the Sleaze: Official Site: thelmaandthesleaze.com Instagram: @thelmaandthesleaze Twitter: @ThelmaandtheSle as well as Facebook and Spotify More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 examines how and why the New Nashville we know today—the so-called It City—emerged and it sorts through the impact and implications of that rise. In many ways, it is a question weâ€ve been asking with every episode, and the lens through which weâ€ve been trying to look at Nashville history and so to read the take presented by this collection of essays was both refreshing and satisfying. I had a lot of a-ha moments on my journey through it. The book comes out in October, but you can preorder it now. Steve, I should tell you, is a writer, editor, and filmmaker based in Nashville. His work has appeared in the Nashville Scene, the New York Times, NPR’s Code Switch, the Guardian, and elsewhere. He is currently producing a documentary film about the history of college radio. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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, Teeny worked her way from selling tickets in the back of a Nashville, Tennessee shoe store to running a network of towns for Nick Gulas and Roy Welch to owning one of the most successful territories in the business. Regional wrestling, which once reigned supreme—particularly in these parts—fell from grace as Vince McMan Jr. built his empire through the 80s and into the 90s, but while it was huge, Teeny was Professional Wrestlingâ€s grand dame. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 economic realities and complexities, the existential dread, and the hilarity of this moment. And so this is our ode to David Berman and Menthol Mountains. I did something similar around this time last year, though that episode was specific to Nashville focused mentions in the blog. This go, I wanted to paint a broader picture of Mountains, what it contains, why it resonates so deeply with me, and why I feel like I owe it – and Berman – a debt. To do so, I reached out to friends and fellow Berman appreciators to help bring the blog to life. Caitlin Rose Tyler Mahan Coe Erin Rae Jes Skolnik Sean Nelson Sarah Marshall Jack Evan Johnson Bess Winter Luke Kennard Thomas Bryan Eaton Carolyn Kendrick And we are fortunate to be joined by the Nashville based painter, and Berman’s friend, Kevin Guthrie. I should also say that I appreciate Nicole Atkins for helping to honor Berman himself with this week’s illustration. David Berman died of suicide on August 7, 2019. If you, or anyone you know, is suffering from depression and grappling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. If anyone you know is struggling with the hardships of being an artist, please donate to MusiCares; an organization focused on providing relief for “music people struggling with financial, medical or personal crises.” More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory “Other David Bermans”, read by Carolyn Kendrick, was posted to Menthol Mountains by David Cloud Berman on May 29, 2019 The Job Application by Robert Walser read by Sean Nelson, was posted by DCB on January 22, 2019 Man and Camel by Mark Strand, read by Bess Winter, was posted without a title by DCB on August 23, 2012 Excerpt from Human, All-Too-Human by Fredrick Nietsche, read by Kevin Guthrie, was posted by DCB on June 9, 2011 The untitled parable about a rich man from Koznitz, read by Erin Rae, was posted without a title by DCB on June 18, 2013 Shel Silverstein’s Someone Ate the Baby, read by Luke Kennard, was posted by DCB on October 30, 2011 The Same Jew, read by Jes Skolnik, was posted without attribution by DCB on February 10, 2011 Excerpts from Mark Twain’s essay Concerning the Interview, read by Tyler Mahan Coe, was posted by DCB, January 24th, 2011 Excerpts from Fifteen Theses on the Cute by Frances Richard, read by Sarah Marshall, was posted by DCB on June 13, 2012 Excerpt of Golems Among Us by Byron Sherwin, read by Kevin Guthrie, was posted by DCB on October 22, 2013 Excerpts from Ian Frazier’s essay Count on Crows, read by Caitlin Rose, was posted by DCB on October 19, 2011 Basil Bunting’s Advice to Young Poets, read by Carolyn Kendrick, was posted by DCB February 22, 2011 ATTILA JÓZSEF’s Grief, read by Luke Kennard, was posted by DCB on June 30, 2019 Excerpt from Art and the Artist by Otto Rank, read by Jack Evan Johnson, posted with the title The Artist’s Fight With Art by DCB on June 24, 2019 Forest and Fruit Trees Talmudic Fable, read by Bess Winter, was posted by DCB with the title The Forest Trees and the Fruit Trees on November 26, 2012 Thomas Bernhard Quotes, read by Tyler Mahan Coe, Posted by DCB, July 26th, 2019 Successful lawyer parable from the Pirkei Avos Treasury, read by Jes Skolnik, posted by DCB with the title The Uncomfortable Train on January 29, 2011 Excerpt from Becoming Object by Masha Tupitsyn, read by Jack Evan Johnson, posted by DCB on June 16, 2013 Excerpts from Manufacturing Generation Me by Ned Resnikoff, read by Sarah Marshall, was posted by DCB on June 24, 2012 with the extraordinarily Bermanesque title: “1. Liquidate Society 2. Denigrate Community 3. Promulgate Rapacity 4. Castigate Your Progeny”

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 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 1980s Nashville. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 Children of Tony Alamo Christian Minisries and Their Journey to Freedom. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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! Visit Please Vote Nashville Official Site: https://www.pleasevotenashville.org Instagram: @pleasevotenashville More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory Tristen photo by Marcus Maddox Photography + art direction by Megan Thompson Fitchuk

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. Along with Elena Cybelle, he is the co-creator of Honkytonk Badonkadonk. His album American Pink came out last year. We open with a new Mick Mullin tune called “Thank God They Closed the Honky Tonks.” More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 wrestling, and how Nashville fit into it all, in this weekâ€s episode. Research culled from: The Greatest Wrestling in the History of the World, Nashville Scene, J.R. Lind, May 30, 2019 The King of Wrestling, Tennessean, Max York, May 18, 1975 Promoter honored for backing Lady Raiders, The Daily News-Journal, November 23, 1986 Dear Readers, The Tennessean, January 2, 1944 Mat Man, Tennessean, July 10, 1985 Revisiting My NA Roots, Jim Cornette Goddamned Sputnik, The Outline, Oliver Lee Bateman, June 1, 2017 The History of Hatch Show Print Welch Brothers History New Wrestling to Spawn War Here?, Tennessean, February 29, 1976 Chokehold: Pro Wrestling’s Real Mayhem Outside the Ring, Welton T. Johnson and Jim Wilson, 2003 Ron Fuller’s Studcast (a podcast hosted by Roy Welch’s grandson), multiple episodes More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 letâ€s just say that this is a Spanish Flu adjacent episode in which I am going to visit pieces from the Tennessean from that time. — Alex Steed Includes citations from “Scenes From a Pandemic: Nashville 1918” by JR Lind. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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 Tessa with a question about books at the end, and she provided me with a list to include in our introduction. This is that list. I Love Female Orgasm: Written by sex educators who have been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Men’s Health, Cosmo, and more. Includes a chapter for lesbian, bisexual and queer women. She Comes First: Written by a clinical sexologist and evangelist of the female orgasm. Everyone who sleeps with women should read this! F*CKED: Being Sexually Explorative & Self-Confident in a World That’s Screwed – written by the comedians behind the popular podcast Guys We F*cked. More for entertainment purposes than sex tips but we certainly need that too right now. The Ethical Slut: A practical guide to Polyamory and Open Relationships Also! We totally understand that isolation isnâ€t all chocolate and strawberries. Many folks are isolated in less than optimal partnerships. If you are facing abuse in all of this, please consider engaging the National Domestic Violence Hotline. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory

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, please leave a voicemail with your story at (615) 348-8165. What are you seeing? What gives you hope? Let us know your experience. More on Nashville Demystified Official Site: nashvilledemystified.com Instagram: @nashvilledemystified Twitter: @NDemystified Brought to you by Knack Factory