Change sometimes feels as difficult as it is inevitable. The rapid changes to Nashville’s built landscape can be whiplash-inducing to folks who’ve lived here for decades. Fatalism creeps in, often accompanied by complacency.
I get it. The city of today bears scant resemblance to its pre-2000 self. If this sounds like a generational take, it is. It kinda has to be.
How can I expect someone who wasn’t alive in the ’80s to understand that vibe? Justas I can’t understand what it was like to be 21 years old in 1956 – as Elvis was when his first American No. 1, “Heartbreak Hotel,” dropped. Seems fairly obvious, but maybe not.
Even so, we’re extremely lucky to live in Music City because it remains MUSIC CITY. The easiest way in to gain understanding of one another is though music’s way of expressing generational zeitgeist.
News is news and is absolutely necessary, but music transcends in ways that news can’t when capturing a moment. The same should be said of the visual arts.
We explore all of these topics, beginning with “A Requiem for Arnold’s.” Guest contributor Tom Morales – a Nashville icon in his own right – recounts a conversation with his friend, Rose Arnold, about the closing or her family’s landmark meat-and-three. Don’t miss the twist of perspective on the implications facing legacy, locally owned businesses, along with a possible remedy.
Leslie LaChance then speaks to Frist curator Katie Delmez for a profile of indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson. “The Body Electric,” which runs February 2 through April 23 at Frist Art Museum, is a tour de force by Gibson that should fall into the not-to-be-missed column.
Speaking to the earlier statement about finding a way in to generational zeitgeist is our featured interview with Joy Oladokun. What’s most special about Joy’s music and lyrics is the connection they create to our humanity – something that supersedes the generational.
Photographer Chad Crawford and I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Joy during the photo shoot, which includes her prized Ford pickup.
Chad has known Joy for a while as her producer for Apple Music, and he emphasized the importance of capturing her chill demeanor and vulnerability. We got exactly what we were hoping for. The profile by Randy Fox does the same.
So, if change is giving you whiplash, put on some Joy, go to the Frist, and grab a bite in Germantown (and learn about how the city operates).
And remember, even ’70s stalwarts REO Speedwagon had a song called “Roll With the Changes.”
Much love,
