nashville Archives - Rock Oracle

March 9, 2025 Jason Shrum

Echo Pilot’s Record Release at The ’58

Let me start by saying that Punk Rock is Not Dead! I was so enamored by the garb of some of the people at the show on this night. Leather pants, mohawks, shredded jackets of jean and leather, platformed boots, piercings and tattoos glistened across the room. I was on the cusp of being the oldest in this space and basked in all these 20-something-year-olds who knew the music of the past and are now carrying the torch for the future. One kid literally had on a jacket with the phrase “Punk Rock Is Not Dead” sewn onto the back. While “heroin-sheik” has been replaced with High Noon Hard Seltzers (not a bad thing) the rawness of rock is still alive. This wasn’t necessarily a punk rock music show, but the sense was

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March 3, 2025 Jason Shrum

The New Mastersounds bring Jazz-Fusion to Nashville

I was treated to an extraordinary show last week at the world-famous Exit/In in Nashville, Tennessee with The Gripsweats supporting The New Mastersounds. The two, powerhouse, electronic-forward, funk, jazz-fusion, jam bands, put on a display of rhythm-heavy-keypunching vibe and a toe tapping cavalcade of fun on a Wednesday night. I know that’s a lot of descriptors slammed together in one nearly non sensical sentence structure, but it is well needed to identify these sets.

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February 10, 2025 Jason Shrum

Dennis Parker Shares More Than Music

Dennis Parker was here tonight with a selection of collaborators to showcase an evening of Taylor tunes. I was there, along with my dad and my (descriptive relationship status here) Nancy. Dennis and my dad go way back, but we are going to circle around to that story in a bit. Let’s talk about Dennis and where he came from and how he got to the spot that we are at now.

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December 9, 2024 Jason Shrum

Happy Elke Day!

As I stood outside The Blue Room, I felt my body battling both the 25-degree weather and the sheer excitement of the show that I was going to see. Tonight, attached to Jack White’s Third Man Records, the shivering crowd was going to be let in to Elke’s record release party. Elke was debuting her new project Divine Urge. It is her sophomore record. The show was being sponsored by Nashville’s public radio station WNXP and the former “Record of the Month” artist, Meg Elsier, was slated to be the opener. This was going to be a beautiful culmination of talent, music and like-minded folks gathered to share in the mystical power that live music holds over us.

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November 21, 2024 Jason Shrum

Beyoncé Bounced

“Cowboy Carter” has been considered a reclamation of country music because it highlights Black artists’ contributions to the genre. Many folks had hoped that it would bring even more visibility to country Black artists. Emmett Price III, dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music, said her album was “calling into question not only the historical and cultural roots of country and Western but also how we normalize certain cultural aspects of country culture.”