This Is Nashville

Behind every Instagram ad, commercial, or TV trailer you see, there is a fierce battle over what song gets to play in the background.This song what gives the ad a feeling. Music sync, as it’s known, is a place where many independent artists in Nashville can still make their living. But like everything, it’s changing, partly because it’s an increasingly crowded field and partly because of the capabilities of AI. Today, we've got the latest installment of Music Citizens. Plus a look at what’s next for our series following the roles that make the music business what it is.Music Citizens is a podcast series by WNXP and Nashville Public Radio about the people who make music work. Each episode will explore what it takes to do the jobs that keep the music business moving and introduce you to the characters who are often well known within their worlds — but whose vital work goes largely uncelebrated. Listen to all episodes at wnxp.org.This episode was produced by Justin Barney and Mary Mancini.Guests Katie Jelen, founder, Honestly Good Music Stephen Schmuldt, songwriter, producer, composer Andrew Weaver, music supervisor, Triple Threat Supervision

Banjo Hall of Famer Ned Luberecki joins us in the studio with a banjo on his knee.We ask Ned about the banjo’s role in modern music, his long road from growing up in Maryland to Music City, and the role sobriety has played in his success. We also explore the collaborative spirit that keeps him in Nashville and how to look cool while your fingers are flying. “Resting banjo face” really is a thing.This episode was produced by Mary Mancini.GuestsNed Luberecki, musician; teacher; banjoist for the Becky Buller Band; host of More Banjo Sunday and Derailed on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction

Autumn aligns with several significant days for American Indian communities – Indigenous Peoples’ Day (the second Monday in October), the National Day of Mourning (the fourth Thursday in November), and November is National Native American Heritage Month.At least 17 states and Washington, D.C., officially observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Our state is not one of them, although in 2017, Nashville's Metro Council became one of the first capital cities in the South to officially recognize the day.Today, leaders in the American Indian community sit down for a roundtable discussion about fall celebrations, declining diversity initiatives and why it’s important to continue celebrating their culture. Plus, we preview the Wilco Pow Wow and IndigeNash, Nashville’s first Indigenous arts festival.This episode was produced by Mary Mancini & Jewly Hight.

We’re searching for headstones and sifting through dusty documents in our attics.It’s a show about investigating our family histories. We can all become amateur genealogists as we ship off our spit to see where our DNA fits, but there’s more to it than a simple spit take if you really want to help fill out the picture for future generations. We’ll have a few folks speak from experience and some pros talk to us about how to use local libraries and archives as we talk about the why and how of mapping our family trees in Middle Tennessee.This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. Guests: Gloria Ballard, genealogy researcher Charlie Peacock, musician, genealogy researcher Kelley Sirko, Metro Library Archivist  Trent Hanner, Tennessee State Library Archivist

While the neon marquee of the shuttered Belle Meade Theater lives on, the lobby of the once-ornate theater now lies empty. The cinema closed in 1991, and became a bookshop, then a grocery store, and now, sits mostly empty along Harding Pike. This prompted Curious Nashville listener Richard Daniel to wonder about a remnant of the theater: the marble plaques in the lobby that were covered in celebrity autographs — with names ranging from Walt Disney to Dinah Shore to Tennessee Ernie Ford.He asked Curious Nashville: Whatever became of the marble slabs that were in the lobby of the Belle Meade Theatre?This led WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams to examine how those plaques came to be and where the live now.Plus, we’ll take up Nashville’s history of celebrity culture — like, why were these celebrities at the Belle Meade Theater in the first place? — and the evolving media landscape.Guests: Dr. Claire Sisco King, Professor of Communication Studies and Chair of Cinema, Media Arts, and Theatre at Vanderbilt University Dr. Sarah Childress, executive director at Metro’s Office of Entertainment This episode was produced by Cynthia Abrams.