“The audience couldn’t applaud; they had to snap their fingers instead.”
* Terry Fest at MD Loft ::: If East Nashville is the Village of our times, the area from Five Points up through Foo Bar on Gallatin Pike is its new age (yet less scenic) MacDougal street. I moved to Nashville knowing about places like the 5 Spot, Family Wash, the aforementioned Foo Bar before I even arrived, but I didn’t know about a place called Mad Donna’s and the space upstairs, called MD Loft. Just a few days after I dropped my bags down on the floor of my temporary apartment on Fatherland Street, I received an email from my brother Ilan (in Paris) about a musician named Greg Garing who’d be playing that night at the MD Loft. Though across an ocean, Ilan is an old-time, bluegrass and klezmer musician, who has a group in France called Les Old Timey Messengers, recently played banjo on R. Crumb’s McCamy’s Melody Sheiks and was making this sort of music in Brooklyn years ago, way before it became cool to have a fiddle in your band (I’m his sister, I am allowed to say these things). So anyway, Ilan knows what’s up in Nashville. We went to the MD Loft that night, climbing the stairs, ordering a whiskey in a thick glass. There weren’t many people there, and the man behind the bar, Terry, seemed to know most of them, talking about how he wants to turn this place into a constant source of local music. I quickly learned that Terry is the mastermind of the place, the John Mitchell to The Gaslight Cafe. And it was an amazing night; Greg Garing slapping at his guitar, singing old Hank Williams songs. I knew I moved to the right town. It’s wild how Terry has grown it since. Whenever I go back, I see the same characters: Terry of course, slinging beers and cheap margaritas along with a cast of musicians who play or drink there often like Kim Logan, Shane Turmarc, Cale Tyson, Kelsey Waldon. I used to imagine it was the 1960’s, but soon I realized that the here and now, thanks to places like this, will do just fine, thank you.
Starting tonight, Terry is throwing his second Terryfest, a celebration of all things MD Loft. For no cover, you can see the likes of Jacob Jones, Magnolia Sons, Lonely H, Mercy Bell, Buffalo Clover and many more every night through Saturday, playing past midnight. I’ll be bringing my sister on the 30th, who will be in town from NYC. Complete the family circle, I suppose. For more information, click here. (click the photo at left to see the full lineup)
* Nashville Horns Presents: Allen Thompson, Buffalo Clover, and Derek Hoke at the 5 Spot ::: It’s hard to talk about East Nashville music without mentioning the 5 Spot, and it’s easy to do with an event like tonight. I wrote my own ode to The 5 Spot here, particular Derek Hoke’s $2 Tuesday. Tonight is the second installment of Nashville Horns, an amazing night of brass and sax. More info here.
* Also in East Nashville ::: The Trails, Uberphonics, Les Racquet at Foobar.
* Echo Group, Meadownoise, Tower Defense at the Stone Fox.
Lockeland Springsteen 