What can you do with the bills you had during the winter storm in Nashville? You can apply for reimbursement. The aid can help reimburse temporary housing and living costs if you were displaced, as well as home repairs.
Tennessee has now been approved for a major disaster declaration for the January ice storm.
This allows individual residents in 29 counties to apply for cash assistance from FEMA. It applies to Nashville and most surrounding counties (see the list below).
You can apply by:
visiting DisasterAssistance.gov
calling 800-621-3362
using the FEMA app
Eligible counties: Benton, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester, Clay, Davidson, Decatur, Dickson, Dyer, Fayette, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Lewis, Macon, Madison, Maury, McNairy, Montgomery, Perry, Robertson, Rutherford, Shelby, Sumner, Trousdale, Wayne, Williamson and Wilson.
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Senior music writer Jewly Hight has been covering what`s happening with AI in music for for the last two years. From the passage of Tennessee`s ELVIS ACT, to the rollout of Suno and Udio, litigation, and the quietly expanding use of AI in sessions.
So when she got a press release about Soundbreak — a new AI music-generating platform launching in Nashville with songwriters behind it — it seemed too different to ignore.
Behind the app is Kevin Griffin, who came to fame leading the alt-rock band Better Than Ezra and became a player in the music business ecosystem of middle Tennessee. He decided to channel his concerns about apps like Suno into action.
What’s notable about Soundbreak is the fact that it’s built around a roster of established writer-artists who signed on to participate and help shape AI models that reflect their signature styles. And they get a portion of both the subscription earnings and song ownership when users choose to “co-write” with them.
Watch Jewly in our reels as she creates a song called “Control” on the app. Do you like Song Option 1 or Song Option 2? Drop a comment to let us know.
Tap link in bio for more. And be sure to check out Key Changes, a “reporter’s notebook” view of the trends in the music industry.
Photos: Jewly Hight
When Senior Music Writer Jewly Hight got a press release about Soundbreak — a new AI music-generating platform launching in Nashville with songwriters behind it — it seemed too different to ignore.
Behind the app is Kevin Griffin, who came to fame leading the alt-rock band Better Than Ezra and became a player in the music business ecosystem of middle Tennessee.
What’s notable about Soundbreak is the fact that it’s built around a roster of established writer-artists who signed on to participate and help shape AI models that reflect their signature styles. And they get a portion of both the subscription earnings and song ownership when users choose to “co-write” with them.
Watch Jewly as she creates a song called “Control” on the app. Do you like Song Option 1 or Song Option 2? Drop a comment to let us know.
Tap link in bio for more.
Hundreds of cherry trees were given away for free today at the Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival.
The festival, held downtown in Public Square Park, across the river from the Nissan stadium, was full of sound, art, and commerce. There were food vendors. Taiko drumming and bamboo flute performances. Tea ceremonies. Bonsai trimming. Sumo suit wrestling. And of course, Japanese Elvis - an Elvis impersonator who flew in from Japan..
Music and culture reporter Justin Barney gives the festival highlights and a bit of the economics that connect Tennessee and Japan. For instance, there are 200+ Japanese businesses statewide that employ over 50,000 Tennesseans, and Bridgestone has had a headquarters in Nashville since 1983,. The Nashville - Japanese ties are undeniable, and maybe correlates to the fact that the FIFA soccer team from Japan chose Nashville as its base camp before the World Cup.
There`s more more to come after the Cherry Blossom Festival. Follow us for coverage on the Japanese soccer team`s base camp here in Nashville.
Even if your knowledge of classical music comes from listening in dentist waiting rooms, you know the music of Yo-Yo Ma.
He`s been famous since he was five years old when he played for President John F. Kennedy as a child prodigy. He`s 70 now and this Sunday at the Grand Ole Opry, he will play a 293-year-old cello and give his, "report card on life," in a show titled "Reflections in Words and Music."
Ma told our reporter Justin Barney: "I will share with you everything that I have learned in my 70 years of life. Here`s my report card — this is my report to you on what I`ve seen and what some of my conclusions are. We have it within us to be hopeful. To be collaborative, and to constantly renew ourselves so that we can actually keep our American experiment going strong."
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Tennessee will be one of the first states to pilot the White House’s immigration agenda, reports Marianna Bacallao (@ba.marianna). Statehouse Republican leadership collaborated with U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and the Justice Department to craft the legislation.
The package of bills focuses on increasing verification for legal residents and requiring local law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Nobody in Tennessee is asking for this. Everybody`s asking for affordable housing, right? Everybody`s asking ... to be able to afford the groceries,” said Cesar Bautista, member of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
Tennessee already has laws against sanctuary city policies that may shield immigrants from ICE, but House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the city’s Democratic-leaning cities are using a “loophole.”
Tennessee will be one of the first states to pilot the White House’s immigration agenda, reports Marianna Bacallao. Statehouse Republican leadership collaborated with U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and the Justice Department to craft the legislation.
The package of bills focuses on increasing verification for legal residents and requiring local law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Photos: Bruce Newman (AP) George Walker IV (AP), Marianna Bacallao (WPLN)
America’s rural hospitals are closing at an alarming pace. And Tennessee has the highest closure rate. It’s a Healthcare Hollow.
In a series of reports this month, WPLN takes an in-depth look at the crisis and what is being done to reverse this course.
“There was something definitely wrong somewhere. Some red tape, some bureaucracy, something that was causing the closure of so many — I mean, it wasn`t just a coincidence that all these small communities lost their hospital at one time,” said Wess Ward, mayor of Linden, Tennessee, whose hospital closed and then re-opened in September, 2025.
Health Reporter Catherine Sweeney takes us to Linden — a rural Tennessee town that watched its hospital go dark but is now on the path to recovery.
Tap link in bio for more and follow along for more rural healthcare coverage from Nashville Public Radio`s series Healthcare Hollow.
Photo credits: LaTonya Turner, Catherine Sweeney
It’s that time of year when music halls of fame make their big announcements. And since everyone has their own definition of musical greatness and who embodies it, people have OPINIONS.
Senior Music Writer Jewly Hight is accustomed to hearing fellow writers, artists and fans make a case for performers they feel are overlooked by these institutions.
She`s looking at three halls: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame.
And she`s learned from the discourse swirling around the nominees and inductees that a lot of people don’t really know how the processes work.
In this edition of Key Changes, Jewly will give you the background and the current lowdown on these halls and how they work in a side-by-side comparison.
Follow along for more, and head to YouTube for the full breakdown.
Curious Nashville Returns!
Back by popular demand, the WPLN fan favorite series Curious Nashville is here to investigate oddities, share local history, tell stories of interesting people, and explain how local institutions operate.
You ask the questions, and we answer.
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