Nashville restaurants and the economy

Nashville doctor gives a gift of Native American history in Tennessee

I heard about this area years ago but I have yet to see it. I look forward to the opportunity that allows us all to see it so much easier. When I visit I will take some pictures and video to share with you all. Thanks to Dr. Arthur Cushman for making this possible. This should be treasured for generations to come.
~Corey

Below is a story from the Tennessean newspaper about Mound Bottom and Dr. Cushman.

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Dr. Arthur Cushman couldn't stand the idea that most people couldn't get to a place where ancient tribes once built a thriving civilization along the Harpeth River.

So Cushman bought the 65 acres leading to Mound Bottom, guaranteeing that visitors will have access to the 1,000-year-old earthworks that the state has preserved for decades.

"I believe, as Chief Seattle said, 'We belong to the Earth. The Earth does not belong to us,'" said Cushman, a Nashville neurologist with a lifelong passion for Indian culture and history.

Until Cushman made the purchase, it was difficult for anyone to get onto the property to marvel at the mounds that ancient tribes built up, one basketful of earth at a time, until they towered overhead.

By buying the gateway property, Cushman ensured that future visitors will enter it surrounded by undisturbed woods and wildlife and the remains of dozens of smaller mounds and fortifications.

"This area is still considered sacred," he said. "The earth is sacred, the trees are sacred."
Tennessee's state naturalist emeritus Mack Prichard agreed. Prichard participated in earlier excavations at Mound Bottom after the state bought the site in 1972.

"These places are very rare and unfortunately, bulldozers have been at work on most of them," he said.

Visitors to Mound Bottom can stand on the site and see a view that is not all that different from the world the mound builders knew 1,000 years ago.

Read the entire story in the Tennessean newspaper.

Another sign of changes in the music industry

Due to a slow economy and a recording industry that seems to be trying to figure out how to sell albums right now, Equity Music Group in Nashville is suspending operations. People don't seem to be spending money on albums right now and something else that seems to be changing the industry is the ability to get the music without having to buy a full album.

I hate to see this happen but hopefully the business will go on and we'll see growth in Nashville and the music industry again. Read more below and the complete story in the Tennessean newspaper.
~Corey


Little Big Town and the folks from Equity Music Group

Nashville-based independent music label Equity Music Group said Tuesday that it was suspending its operations immediately, blaming a challenging economic climate.

"Our investors tried to a find a way to keep the doors open at Equity, but with a struggling industry, an overall decline in discretionary spending by consumers and a total freeze on the capital markets" the board made this decision, said Tim Wipperman, the label's president.

Equity Music Group began in 2003, co-founded by country artist Clint Black and Mike Kraski, a former Sony/Nashville executive. The label was best known for once representing the country music group Little Big Town.

Read the entire story in the Tennessean newspaper.

The auto world may shift into the South and away from Detroit

Southern politicians have spent years luring foreign automakers to build cars in their states, with huge success. Most recently, Tennessee attracted a $1 billion Volkswagen assembly plant to Chattanooga. South Carolina has BMW. Mississippi landed a major plant for Toyota Motor Corp. Alabama boasts plants run by Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co.

It's not that Southerners are secretly wishing for the Big Three to collapse. But if those automakers were to falter, the new players are poised to ramp up production and possibly turn the South into the next Detroit.

"In the long run, having fewer competitors or weaker competitors is generally a good thing," said Efraim Levy, a senior auto industry analyst with Standard & Poor's. "It would contribute to a greater relative strength in the South."

Read the entire story in the Tennessean newspaper.

Judge Bean says he is coming back

12th Avenute location

Fans of the Texas-style barbecue stylings of Aubrey Bean will be glad to know that, even though both locations of Judge Bean's BBQ shut down recently, Bean plans to be back on the food scene in January.

Bean, 55, was sidelined by a heart attack in September, and complications followed. "After I got out of the hospital, I just needed to take some time off," says Bean, who says he's been exercising during his recovery and lost 70 pounds.
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Read the rest of this story in the Tennessean newspaper.
The original location

He played banjo while they performed brain surgery on him

Eddie Adcock had brain surgery the other day at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was awake for the entire process and played his banjo during the process. I guess you could say he was "pickin and grinnin" while the doctors "cuttin and grinnin." You really must read the story and watch the video. They are both available courtesy of the Tennessean newspaper. You can read an excerpt below from the paper.

Here is an excerpt from the story in the Tennessean...

Adcock, a well-known, well-traveled banjo player, recently underwent deep brain stimulation surgery, a cutting-edge procedure used to cure tremors. The surgery not only did that for Adcock, but also restored his dream of continuing to play music professionally.

The uncommon part was what the doctors asked him to do: play music while they worked on his brain.

A videotape of the Aug. 25 procedure shows Adcock lying on an operating table, picking an original song on his banjo while, on the other side of a plastic curtain, surgeons and nurses do their work.

Robert Plant seems to be making the rounds in Nashville

Robert Plant was spotted on the patio at Batter'd & Fried in East Nashville on Wednesday. At least, it looked like him from 100 yards back, which is how far the restraining order requires me to be at all times.

~Beverly Keel

Read more from Beverly Keel's column.

Did you feel the earthquake this morning?

Some residents of northern Middle Tennessee say they felt an earthquake centered in eastern Illinois.

Calls poured in to television stations.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports the quake was centered near the Illinois-Indiana border, about 6 miles east-southeast of New Salem, Illinois.

It was recorded at 4:36 a.m., Central time, Friday and the preliminary magnitude is estimated at 5.4.

Read much more about it in the Tennessean.

In downtown Nashville, it is round 2 in the battle of the new luxury hotel versus the honky-tonks

By Chas Sisk
Staff Writer for the Tennessean

A Colorado developer has revived plans for a controversial hotel on Lower Broadway, but historical preservationists are gearing up to fight the project a second time in a bid to protect Nashville's honky-tonk row from what they see as a 21st century intrusion.

Sage Hospitality Resources, a Denver hotel firm, wants to build a luxury hotel between Second and Third avenues and has been meeting with city officials to seek support for a revised design that would be simpler and as much as 20 feet shorter than previous ones, while adding as many as 100 more hotel rooms.
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Originally, Sage and Barber wanted a 19-story hotel with 375 rooms and 48 upscale condos. The hotel would be branded as a Westin, the developer said.

The idea drew support from many downtown business owners, who believed a hotel would give an economic boost to the area, but opponents, led by the historical commission and the staff of the Metro Planning Department, said the tower would be out of place.

Read the entire article in the Tennessean.

Tennessee is Number 1 and so is UT

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It was one for the ages, one that lived up to the hype, and one that will be remembered for decades.

And Monday, UT will be the No. 1 team in the nation.

It was a 40-minute sprint featuring dazzling speed and enough talent to fill an entire conference. And when it was over, No. 2 Tennessee made history and beat No. 1 Memphis 66-62 before a rowdy crowd of 18,389 at FedExForum.

Read the complete story in the Tennessean Newspaper
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Kix Brooks wants to be paid for Fan Fair/CMA Music Festival

Here is a story from the local paper....

Kix Brooks has caused quite a stir.

Last week, Brooks — a CMA board member and half of superstar country duo Brooks & Dunn — warned Nashville business leaders that Nashville’s annual CMA Music Festival is somewhat of a house of cards. The success of the four-day event depends a great deal on its ability to draw big names during peak touring season, but artists who come to perform aren’t paid.


Read the rest of the story in the Tennessean newspaper.

Vanderbilt Skins the Wildcats

This one surprised me and not because of Vanderbilt winning the game but in their dominance of Kentucky. I listened to it on the radio and I actually had to call a friend to have them turn the game on and verify the score. I'm so proud of the Commodores and hope that they continue to win and impress and go far in March.
~Corey



Revenge, oddly enough, wasn’t the motivation Vanderbilt took into Tuesday night’s Southeastern Conference matchup with visiting Kentucky.

Embarrassment? That was another story.

Still stinging from their performance in a double-overtime loss in Lexington a month ago — a loss that ended their 16-game season-opening winning streak — the Commodores turned the tables in a big way and sent the Wildcats home on the bad end of a 93-52 beatdown.



Read more in the Tennessean.

Nashville Rises due to Cooperation and Competition

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A consensus has formed among Middle Tennessee leaders that cities and counties need to work together more closely, but many critical decisions still have to be made before regionalism moves from a political promise to reality.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and other local elected officials have said they want to cooperate on a range of issues that cross city and county lines — traffic, air pollution, water and sewer rights.

These have grown in importance as the Nashville area's population has swelled from slightly more than 1 million in 1990 to more than 1.4 million today.


Nashphoto


But while the region's leaders say they support more cooperation, they differ over some fundamental questions:

• Should Nashville and its suburbs give regional authorities more power to make basic decisions, such as where and when roads should be built?
• Should the suburbs help pay for downtown Nashville's cultural and civic institutions, which benefit the entire region?
• Is competition within the region for company headquarters, factories and jobs good or bad?


Read the entire article in the Tennessean newspaper.

Springfield Biker Church Protects Shoppers

Riders with Covenant Confirmers Motorcycle Ministries are patrolling the parking lot after dark to deter any criminal activity and keep shoppers and their belongings safe.

Men and women on foot approach shoppers to offer an escort to their cars and a hand carrying bags.

The "Biker Escort Service" began in early December. It is the idea of the Rev. Ron Baptiste, who leads the Covenant Confirmers Ministries in Springfield.

Baptiste says he was looking for a way to give back to the community that has been so accepting of his motorcycle-riding church congregation. A Wal-Mart official says the store has no objection to the church's offer of extra security.

Visit the church website HERE.

Ride the entire article in the Tennessean newspaper.

Jeffrey Steele at the Bluebird Cafe This Friday

BMI Songwriter of the Year Jeffrey Steele ("What Hurts the Most") performs at the Bluebird Café Friday at 9:30 p.m. He'll debut songs from his new album, which hits streets in 2008. This is a rare solo Bluebird show for Jeff, and his last one sold out in three minutes. Tickets are $12.

Visit Beverly Keel's column to read more entertainment news from Nashville.

Cave Used to Create Munchies but now it Cures the Munchies

The pot cave is now the cheese cave.

Or will be in the future.

Roth Käse USA Ltd., a Wisconsin-based maker of European-style cheeses, offered the highest bid Saturday at a court-ordered auction. The company bid $285,000 for seven hilly acres and the improved cave below, which for several years was home to a clandestine marijuana farm.



The company's representative at the auction, Chuck Olson, offered little comment on the purchase after the auctioneer named him the winner.

"They'll make an announcement shortly," said Olson, who smiled widely after a half-hour bidding volley between him and another would-be buyer. Asked what the company intends to do with the property, he replied coyly, "Make money."

Unlike the previous owner's business, Olson said, the cave's new enterprise will be entirely legal "in a tasty way."

The auction was held in what had been one of the underground growing rooms in a previous marijuana operation. About 170 people, the majority of them spectators, came to watch the court-ordered sale unfold about 90 feet below ground.



Read the complete story in the Tennessean newspaper.

I'm Singing...."Why Titans, Why Titans, Why Make Us Cry?"

Well, they have done it again. We lost a game that we had until the last two minutes of the game. Dang it! This is so frustrating to deal with this cast of characters doing this kind of stuff over and over. We had it guys...what happened?

Here is an excerpt from the Tennessean article about the game;

LaDainian Tomlinson's 16-yard touchdown run in overtime gave the Chargers a 23-17 victory over the Titans today at LP Field.

The Titans' playoff hopes took a blow as they fell to 7-6 heading into their final three games, beginnining next Sunday at Kansas City.

The Nashville Westin is Shrinking

The developers of a controversial high-rise Westin hotel planned for Lower Broadway are shortening the tower by three stories, a move they said would make the project more economically viable but probably reopen it for public debate.

Sage Hospitality Resources and The Barber Group have decided to eliminate the proposed hotel's 48 condos, saying the units would be too costly to build and unlikely to sell as well as company executives had once hoped.

"Nationally, the residential market has cooled, and Nashville really is not immune to that national epidemic," Michael Coolidge, Sage's senior vice president of development said Monday.

The firms instead plan to add 75 rooms to the hotel, bringing the count to about 450. Because hotel rooms are smaller than condos, the changes will let the firms eliminate three floors, lowering the hotel to 16 stories.

Read the Tennessean for the complete story.

Natalie Grant To Perform Christmas Concert

Christian singer Natalie Grant loves Christmas, so she is having a hard time trying to fit all of her favorite holiday songs in one show.


She performs at Murfreesboro's World Outreach Church on Sunday at 6 p.m. and Monday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12, or $10 through the church.

" 'O Holy Night' is by far my most favorite Christmas song of all time," she said. "But I'm a kid at heart, so there's a lot of Santa songs."
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Read more in Beverly Keel's column.

Keith Urban Sets Sommet Center on Fire

Friday night Keith Urban walked onto the stage at Sommet Center in front of a nearly, if not sold out crowd of screaming fans and played his guts out.

“We made it back home,” said Urban at the conclusion of an audience-pleasing “Where the Black Top Ends,” which was the second song of the evening. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be here tonight, but we’ll spend the next two hours explaining it to you, at least.”

And he did, and then some.

Urban engaged the crowd with blistering guitar solos, beaming smiles, infinite energy, multiple sing-a-longs and hit after radio hit.

He and his band, which is laden with jaw-dropping, first-rate players, kicked off the show with “Once in a Lifetime” and glided through songs including “Faster Car” and “Shine” before upping the intensity a step further with an acoustic version of “Raining On Sunday,” which morphed into a sing-a-long. “Stupid Boy” followed, wrapping with an epic, frenzied guitar solo in which the gold Les Paul he was playing got the beating of its life. The audience — dotted with stars including Martina McBride, The Warren Brothers and Rodney Crowell — couldn’t tear its eyes from the stage.

Read the full concert review in the Tennessean.