Welcome to Backstory: let’s take a look at surprising and scandalous chapters in Tennessee history.
From literal monkey business to a full-blown, decades-long hoax, we’re looking back at some of Tennessee’s most eyebrow-raising moments.
These stories are compiled from the catalog of the NashVillager podcast, where host Nina Cardona breaks down the day’s news, with a healthy dose of history and context.
This project is funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee administered by the Tennessee Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial.
Tap link in bio to see our collective Tennessee Backstory.
Photo credits:
Slide 3: Tennessee State Library & Archives
Slide 4: Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee
Slide 6: The Tennessean via Newspapers.com
Jason Isbell and several other musicians have filed a class action lawsuit against Suno, accusing the AI music maker of training its models on musicians identities without their consent.
Suno is an AI company that can generate a fully-fleshed song with as little as a one-word prompt.
The suit notes that Suno says that users are blocked from using specific names in their prompts, but that when Jason Isbell`s name was typed into the prompt box, it created an Americana song with clean male vocals and a country twang.
The lawsuit states that Suno encoded the identities of countless artists into it’s AI model without permission and now exploits them for its own profit.
The suit comes amidst an avalanche of suits against Suno in the past week. Canadian music rights organization announced a suit for copyright infringement, a Mexican music label and publisher is suing, and major labels Universal and Sony are in the middle of a blockbuster lawsuit right now.
Photo: Amy Harris / Invision/ AP
Tennessee is about to experience another oven-like heatwave, reflecting a dangerous trend of oppressive heat and humidity, reports Environmental Reporter Caroline Eggers
The state likely has five times more heat-related deaths than counted in official tallies, according to a new investigation from NPR and Boston University.
The model estimated about 125 heat-related deaths per year in Tennessee each year between 2018 and 2025.
Nationally, the model estimated 9,000 annual deaths, with a third happening in Texas and Florida alone, also five times higher than official counts.
Heatwaves have already become hotter, happened more often and lasted longer in recent decades, and further climate change will further intensify heat.
Tap link in bio for more from environmental reporter Caroline Eggers.
Images: George Walker IV / AP, Climate Central, Pawel Janiak / Unsplash
“The Christian music business is a business,” says Michael Passons, who achieved tremendous success in it with the vocal pop group Avalon. “And in that culture, being a gay person was bad for business. So, everyone was gonna lose money.”
“I was very aware of the deafening hypocrisy of the whole thing,” he goes on, “that there’s so many gay and queer people who have sung and composed amazing religious music.”
When the other members of the group forced him out, he was effectively blacklisted from the entire Christian music industry, and had to completely rebuild his relationship with music.
Last summer, during Ty Herndon’s LGBTQ-affirming CMA Fest concert, Passons revisited “Testify to Love,” a signature hit from his old group, with new intentions: “I’m reclaiming it for myself and anybody else out there who felt like they had to give up their love for God to be who they are.”
After he and Herndon re-recorded the song, the new version debuted at number three on Billboard’s Christian Digital Song Sales chart and topped the iTunes Christian chart too.
Passons is quick to clarify: “That was not my intent. I did not want to get back into that world. But the algorithms don’t know what to do with the song that says ‘God’ other than to put it in the Christian category.”
He and Herndon reframed the song as a Pride anthem by releasing a club remix from producer Dave Audé in June.
“I wanted to reclaim something that I thought was taken from me,” says Passons. “But also I felt like that song had been kept in a small box, and it’s so much bigger than that.”
Tap link in bio for the full story from Senior Music Writer Jewly Hight.
Photo: courtesy of Michael Passons
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 100 people in Memphis early Sunday morning. It marks the largest raid in the city’s history, according to the local immigrant rights group 901 Vecindarios.
While Memphis police helped manage traffic and crowds afterward, Mayor Paul Young condemned the raid and says local police weren’t involved in planning or carrying it out.
“I know that distinction does not erase the fear people are feeling today,” Young said. “But I can assure you of this: the people impacted … are our neighbors. They are part of our Memphis community, and they deserve to be treated with dignity.”
Tap link in bio for more from WPLN reporter Marianna Bacallao (@ba.marianna).
Image: 901 Vecindarios
Since her passing, Nashville’s Dolly Parton murals have been covered in flowers, cards and novena candles with Dolly’s face where Mother Mary’s usually is.
Some cards call her “Saint Dolly,” praising her as an example of how to live a Christian life.
As Marianna Bacallao reports, at Riverside Commons, the new church community honored her life with a special communion service. Hawkins said it’s a place not to praise Dolly, but an outlet for grief over her death and appreciation for her life.
Around the lavabo bowl, churchgoers make clothespin butterflies out of glitter paper.
Dolly’s butterflies, Hawkins said, are also a symbol in Christianity.
“That was a lot of what Dolly loved about (them.) Butterflies are a symbol for resurrection and also a symbol for the Holy Spirit,” Hawkins said.
Follow for more and tap link in bio for the full story from Marianna Bacallao.
"You got to lean into everybody`s gifts," says Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes. "I am having the time of my life."
When the Alabama Shakes made "I Must Be Dreaming," the band`s first album in more than a decade, they didn`t slip back into old patterns — they created a whole new rhythm. And that led to a collection of songs that feel supple and deliberately unhurried in the face of frenzied, dehumanizing forces at work in the world.
“Zac, in a lot of ways, was the heart of the creative process of this,” guitarist Heath Fogg says of bassist Zac Cockrell, “because he had so much material that he had been working on.”
Cockrell had recorded a pile of instrumentals at home, after his kids were in bed. And he brought those to Shakes sessions. He’d cue up various musical fragments to see which ones excited his fellow Shakes.
In the past, front woman Brittany Howard filled the generative role for the group. She was the one who brought a desktop computer full of ornate musical visions to the making of the Shakes’ second album, “Sound & Color.” For Howard, it was a whole different way of writing to begin songs with their riffs and grooves.
After talking with all three band members about how the new songs came together, senior music writer Jewly Hight asked Howard to film behind-the-scenes to show us how their collaboration has evolved.
Tap link in bio for more.
Notable quotables for the week largely focused on the passing of country music legend, philanthropist and beloved Tennessean, Dolly Parton.
But WPLN also covered other goings on in the community, including the outlook for Flock cameras in Nashville, and how some churches are finding resourceful ways to help struggling neighbors access food.
Tap link in bio for our in-depth stories and to sign up for the NashVillager newsletter, a human-powered 5-day-a-week email direct to your inbox with local stories, info, and ticket giveaways.
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‘They’re putting kids’ lives at risk’: How abuse in a Tennessee businessman’s juvenile prisons remained under wraps
Tennessee’s highest-security youth prisons are operated by a single private company. Former staff say they felt pressure to hide abuse and other serious incidents from the state and to handle medical emergencies without calling 911.
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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