Nashville Lifestyles Magazine December 2020

Happy holidays! I’ve been ready to say that for months. I don’t mean to be a Scrooge, but I am beyond ready for this year to be over. That said, I don’t want the holidays to pass by too quickly. I love Christmas, and I am determined to make the most of it this year. We deserve a celebration after all we’ve been through. For sure this year, I want go to Cheekwood for their Holiday Lights. There are more than a million lights there. I personally think it is one of the most magical places in Nashville. Our friends at Opryland have some cool stuff cooked up, too. They have a walk-through experience where you’re in scenes from Christmas movies. There are 13 to be a part of and it is…

Almost six million Americans have Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and many live in a long, lonely silence. Families are forced to watch their loved ones fade away, losing their connections to the world around them before their lives, and until now the treatments were often as heartbreaking as the disease. But a simple playlist of music has just been proven to help in ways big pharma can’t. You may have seen the effect in viral videos online, with blank-faced seniors seeming to come back to life as they listen to tunes from their happier days. Or perhaps you caught the feature film Alive Inside, which first brought the phenomenon to public attention in 2014. Spearheaded by the non-profit Music & Memory, more than 5,000 healthcare organizations in the U.S.…

Kathie Lee Gifford doesn’t like the phrase “reinvent yourself.” (“For how can I reinvent myself when I never invented myself to begin with? God created me, and He created you too,” she says.) She’s not a big fan of the word “retire” either. So, when the beloved television host left big city life after decades in front of a camera, she was ready to “re-fire”—a term she much prefers to the others. On April 5, 2019, after 11 years on the TODAY Show with her co-host and now dear friend Hoda Kotb, she said “goodbye to TODAY and hello to tomorrow.” Gifford describes a day of “great joy” when she flew to Nashville to celebrate with friends. Little did she know Nashville would become the place where she would write the…

“The truth is, Black music and American music are inseparable,” says Tuwisha Rogers-Simpson. She is the vice president of brand and partnerships for the highly anticipated National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), set to open January 18, 2021. “The story of the city and how it has built itself to get to where it is today is similar to the story of Black music in America. We believe that this is the right city to tell this story,” says Rogers-Simpson. “It is in our name, the National Museum of African American Music. Nashville really is the centralized place and crossroads of America.” Soon NMAAM will tell that story to a large audience, from a high-profile location at the Fifth + Broadway mixed-use development. The opening of the museum, like much in…

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf) Gifty, a PhD candidate in neuroscience, lost her brother to a heroin overdose, and her mother is depressed and suicidal. Studying reward-seeking behavior in mice, Gifty, a Ghanian immigrant raised in the South, turns to science to make sense of her family’s suffering. But she also finds herself drawn to the evangelical faith of her childhood. Gyasi weaves together the complicated threads of depression, addiction, and grief with a search for truth in science and religion. (Available now.) A Measure of Belonging Edited by Cinelle Barnes (Hub City Press) In this new and timely essay collection, Cinelle Barnes brings together 21 writers of color to share their experiences of the new American South. Featuring essays from Kiese Laymon, Osayi Endolyn, Toni Jensen, Nashville’s own Tiana…

LUKE DICK Music From the Documentary Red Dog One of country’s most eccentric songwriters dug into his colorful roots with a film about the topless bar where his mom worked, and its soundtrack is just as brilliantly weird. With help from Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, and more, Luke Dick finds beauty in the unconventional. (Available Dec. 4) GEORGE SHINGLETON Out All Nighter Lower Broadway may not feel the same this year, but you can bring its spirit home with George Shingleton’s Out All Nighter. With a rambling, live-country sound and a barrel-chested vocal that recalls Travis Tritt, eight bar-top anthems and whiskey-soaked reflections are on tap. (Available Dec. 4) CALL ME SPINSTER Call Me Spinster With a debut EP that’s equal parts quirky and cool, sister trio Call Me Spinster plant their flag as Chattanooga true originals. Grounded…