Nashville Demystified

Ben Swank got to Nashville a day or so before Third Man launched and so his and the labelâ€s history here in the city are more or less one.

Since Nashville Demystified is primarily interested in u…

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 somethi…

Today weâ€ll talk with Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza. Robyn lives here in Nashville and is a queer, non-binary, Latinx poet and holds a PhD in theology. Robyn is also author of the book Activist The…

I donâ€t know what I have to offer any ongoing exchange or collective mourning about David Berman outside of the fact that I loved this person Iâ€d never met and that I will miss him.

Berman was on…

Today I talk about–and I hate how timely this conversation is–Nashvilleâ€s history of white supremacist violence with author and historian Betsy Phillips. Specifically we talk about bombings that t…

Here is a quick Ernest mini-episode. I talked with Jim Varney documentarian Justin Lloyd, who is also Varney’s nephew. I thought it would be a nice follow-up to last week’s conversation with Ernest…

Special thanks to How Did This Get Made for letting us use their audio at the start of the episode.

We’re stoked Jenni Lyn Gardner was able to come onto the show and talk about her work, her exper…

Today we open with a bachelor and bachelorette party fever dream.

I give a good deal of background regarding the MNPS funding issues to this point.

Jack Evan Johnson of Honkytonk Badonkadonk share…

We talk with Jack Evan Johnson and Cybelle Elena of Honkytonk Badonkadonk. Jack and Elena launched the monthly zine a year ago this week. They discuss their background as musicians and artists and …

Today we talk with:

Eleanor Buckland [Lula Wiles]
Evan Winsor [Bluegrass Wednesdays]
James Kee [Bluegrass Wednesdays]

Eleanor discusses why professional musicians†concepts of “home” can be es…

Typically Nashville Demystified is conversation and interview heavy, but again I am just off vacation and so I am without an interview. And, and this is the focus of what follows, on my way back fr…

Todayâ€s guest is Veronica Kavass, who is a writer, an educator and a private investigator. We talk with her about the Nashville of her youth and the Nashville of today. Veronica was our “New Nas…

Michael Eades is the creator of the network that hosts us, and the host of a podcast of the same name. Michael’s show serves as an introduction to all sorts of music that touches or has roots in th…

I talked with Toby Leonard, who has been with the Belcourt Theater for nearly 20 years and now serves as the theaterâ€s Program Director. Toby is behind selecting many of the films that play, and d…

Todayâ€s guest is film critic Jason Shawhan. Jason works at the legendary Belcourt theater and he writes for Nashville Scene. Jason tells us everything there is to be known about Nashville, and he …

Typically, the show is one where I talk with a relatively new Nashvillian about something Iâ€d like to understand further, then I talk with someone whoâ€s been here longer and presumably an expert …

“The thing I think we forget is you and I have one life to live on this earth. If you believe in reincarnation, itâ€s awesome, but right now we only have one. What are we gonna do with out life, op…

First we talk with Brittany Haas. Haas is, according to the people who know these things, one of the most talented fiddle players in the world. She has toured and played with many of the best, incl…

Last week we talked about John Hartford with Matt Combs, the celebrated, respected, and award-winning fiddler and mandolinist who moved to Nashville in the 90s and became close with Hartford.

This…

In this inaugural episode of Nashville Demystified, host Alex Steed talks with fiddler, singer, songwriter and New Nashvillian Carolyn Kendrick about the influence that Newgrass pioneer John Hartfo…