Funding for The Good Road has been provided by-- The Buccaneer Beach and Golf Resort, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Philanthropy Journal, stories about bold people changing the world.

Bank of America.

What would you like the power to do?

Music is the great unifier with power to change the world.

Musicians create that positive change music each and every day.

In Your Ear Studios, diverse musicians creating diverse music that unifies.

Here in Asheville, we're a mix of genres, a hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything, all drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always, Asheville.

There's a whole lot of good out there wherever you look, in our towns, in our communities, in the world.

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From the honky tonks of Broadway to the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville isn't short on venerated music venues.

And if you're looking for country music, you don't have to look much further.

If however, you want to scrape past the rhinestone veneer, you will find a whole spectrum of venues and spaces that thrive on the unexpected, the underrepresented, and the downright weird.

Because no matter the genre, musical communities are built around the performance spaces that support them.

And today, we're starting with one of the most surprising structures this side of the Aegean Sea.

Can you see my-- Anchoring Nashville's west side, are Centennial Park and its preeminent structure, the Parthenon, a scale replica of its namesake in Greece.

It towers above the trees and running paths of the park.

Inside, it harbors one of the most surprising landmarks in Nashville, if not the southeast.

A public private partnership between Metro Nashville and the Centennial Park Conservancy has nurtured it into a cultural and community gathering place for the entire city through programs like Musicians Corner, Echo, Earth Day, and more.

We're meeting with Katie, Parthenon education director for Metro Parks.

This is Athena, she is the goddess of many things in ancient Greece.

You can see from some of her symbols, she's the goddess of victory arts, crafts, weaving, war, strategy, also the patron god of Athens.

And then the connection between the Parthenon here and Athens, how does that even make sense?

In 1897, there was the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

And the people of Nashville were going to build a building.

And they were going to build an art museum.

And by that point, Nashville had already been known for decades as Athens of the West, pre-westward expansion then, Athens of the South.

And so they thought we need to build an art museum, why not build it as a Parthenon representing our city.

So this has been an icon for Nashville for a century and that's important.

It's so funny because the branding of Nashville is Music City.

I would imagine that were we to do this today, this would be Dolly Parton.

I'm here for it.

Originally, the Parthenon was made of wood and plaster, so it was meant to last six months, but it was so popular that after the exposition ended, all the other buildings were torn down.

The only thing that remains is the Parthenon.

And it remained that temporary structure for about 25 years until the city decided to make it permanent.

So Katie, you actually lived and worked in Greece.

I used to live in this teeny tiny village called ancient Corinth.

I used to work at excavations at the Agora in Athens.

And for me, our Parthenon is so amazing because you can see the achievements that the architects made 2,500 years ago.

And it helps you picture the past.

It helps you see color it.

Helps you see scale.

I love the fact that this becomes a space for so much more than what one would imagine.

Next, we take a walk with Musician Corner curator Justin Branum and Musician's Corner artist, performer, and music therapist Kyshona Armstrong.

A board member experienced speaker's corner in Hyde Park in London.

Oh.

yeah.

And came to the conclusion we're in Music City, we should have something like that for musicians.

And it's grown over the years into a full blown festival.

It's now attended by over 75,000 people annually, with about 25 shows a year.

Kyshona, you're a singer, songwriter, your music therapy.

So I had been writing a lot with patients and with my students back in Georgia when I was a music therapist there.

But I needed a break from working in mental health.

Right away, I got connected with Musicians Corner not only performing and writing, but also I was still allowed to go in and use my skills as a music therapist to help people tell their story, share their songs, learn that their voices are important.

And it's been an honor to have Musicians Corner in the community work that they do here with the conservancy as an outlet to continue to spread the messages of those who might not get that opportunity.

There's all these different forms of music, not just country music here in Nashville.

You guys are offering a place for that to happen.

I think there's so many opportunities for people to experience country in Nashville because of the history here, but there's such a large artist community outside of that that we truly want to make sure that every genre is represented on our stage.

And so we try to ensure that opportunities on our stage are equitable across race, gender, and genre.

Every year, we're trying to really just level the playing field a little bit.

And we're in a storytelling town.

We can think of it as a country town, but in truth, this is a town of storytellers, from everything you guys do inside with Echo, to Earth Day, and then we've had Spanish-speaking bands and musicians up here.

And I think it just opens up the accessibility.

And this park is for the people.

What's your favorite thing about your job?

I think for me, I always think back to this moment being side stage during a concert and just looking out at a crowd of people and just seeing the joy on their face, how much live music really meant to the community, and to be able to play a small role in helping to cultivate that, for me just brings a lot of joy.

In this town, you can get wrapped up in the machine of Music City.

To remember that in each person, you are a human, you are a human, you are a person, you are someone walking your own story.

And in this moment that we're coming into contact, there's this thread that's happening between the artist and the audience.

I love that, just reminding us we're all human.

We are all connected.

No matter our differences, we are connected.

That same drive for connection is a big part of our next stop.

Many things await you on Broadway.

What you may not imagine waiting for you is the newly opened National Museum of African American Music, NMAAM.

We were lucky enough to speak with museum president and CEO Henry Hicks inside the main galleries.

I know it's a labor of love, but it's a labor.

Yeah, absolutely.

So 20 years in the making, actually maybe 22 or 23.

And it really started as an idea, just an idea to put an African-American oriented cultural institution in the heart of Nashville to really tell the full Music City story.

Location is everything.

Yeah.

So tell me why Broadway?

So being here makes the point that African-Americans in this city and African-Americans in this country are really central to what our country's culture is.

Weaves a story, it tells a tale and, it really helps you to understand the journey of a people from Africa and to these shores and the experience that they had here and the experience of assimilation and then ultimately migration, all the while bringing parts of the past and the culture that they had to leave behind and really then integrating it with parts of the culture that they were introduced to to create something new.

So even the derivation of country music comes from gospel and-- Gospel and the blues.

And really when you study the Great Migration, what you realize is that the Great Migration introduced these new African-Americans to Scot-Irish settlers and others who were living in the mountains of West Virginia and North Carolina and Kentucky.

And so that deep southern new forming African and now African-American form of music integrating with that European form of music created country music and bluegrass music.

And that's what makes this museum so unique is that it does blend the history, as well as the music.

And then you appreciate the music even more.

And you appreciate the artist even more.

And really, truly it is the soundtrack for all of us.

Yeah.

When we first came in here, I was like, how do you pull into a single space a history that's so broad and deep?

And actually, one of the things that I loved about that is that you can really deep dive into all of these genres and individual songs and artists and stuff like that.

We had excellent scholarly help and assistance with folks that really know what they're doing.

We also wanted to make sure that the place would be some place that grandparents as well as grandkids would be attracted to.

And so we leaned on technology.

We can always add data to the technology to tell a continually evolving story.

And then the way the galleries are designed, they really take you on a historical journey from the 1600s all the way through to the present day, touching on key moments in time, whether it's the Great Migration or the Harlem Renaissance or the initiation of the war on drugs and the music that emerged out of those periods of time, the story unfolds as you go through.

So when it was open to the public and you as the visionary walked in, what was it like to walk into this place?

Oh, my gosh, it was an emotional release to have been able to get it done.

I'll tell you the thing that was most joyous to me.

One Saturday, I was in the museum and I was in the lobby and the song the wobble came on.

And as the song came on, two or three employees started to dance and do the wobble.

And that was really cool.

But then some of the guests joined in, and then more of the guests joined in.

And I was able to see in one moment through one song the realization of the dream right there.

Central to NMAAM's vision is a desire to bring the outreach and education work out of the museum and into the community.

Their education director Tamar Smithers talks about their Museum Without Walls program.

We have programs that engage students from the kindergarten level up to 12th grade, as well as collegiate.

One of our most popular youth programs is Start From Nothing to Something program.

And it teaches on how innovative African-Americans and enslaved Africans had to be when they came to this country to create music.

Because we all know they couldn't bring their instruments.

They could only bring what they could remember.

Music education is not just about music.

So what are some of the other benefits that people get by being involved in these types of programs?

Music is amazing, right?

Right.

It brings people from all different cultural backgrounds together to experience this amazing art form.

But it also has the power to transform lives and other facets as well.

I consider myself as a vessel to be able to deliver and help provide pathways for access to this music education, this arts education, I think is truly, truly important.

The importance of these songs that you guys are curating here at the museum, understanding what the history and things like that, it feels like it's got a really long tail of benefits to us as a society.

Absolutely.

We think of our tagline, which is "one nation under a groove," which is from the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic song.

And it really speaks to the testament of music being that great unifier.

It doesn't matter where you come from.

It doesn't matter where you grew up.

Everyone loves music, right?

Everyone is able to come together to the central point to experience this amazing art form.

It's African-American music and it's about the contributions that African-Americans have made to American music.

But African-American music and black music is American music.

Another outlier just across the river in East Nashville is the iconoclastic DRKMTTR, one of the last truly independent venues in Nashville that are dedicated to all ages shows and the artists first mentality.

Run with blood, sweat, and tears by Olivia, Chappy, and their original founder Catherine, who's currently out on tour.

What is this place?

I like to describe it as more of like a punk VFW hall type situation.

It kind of has that feel, doesn't it?

So it's more we have had dance parties.

We've had plays.

We've had bingo nights, drag nights.

We do markets.

But again I guess, the root of what we do is all ages shows.

And when we say all ages, we mean all ages.

And we'll have little kids with their baby headphones on.

And we'll have grandmas asking for earplugs.

And it's truly communities.

I noticed all the earplug.

Well, they're gone now.

Have you actually done any country music venue?

I think the first show there was a country band at the old DRKMTTR.

You guys are part of the problem.

And then you guys open up this space, which is the last kind of independent music venue or one of the very last.

Slowly but surely, unfortunately, a lot of those venues are kind of turning into more corporate Live Nation owned places.

And we're also the only female-owned venue.

Yeah.

I would imagine that indie community is like really close.

Nashville's an interesting city because there's a big scene.

And there's a lot of small scenes in that big scene.

But those scenes all work together.

That first show at the first DRKMTTR was a math rock band, a noise rock band, and a country band.

Everyone came and everyone got along and everyone liked everything.

This is where we're trying to showcase music.

We don't want people to just stand outside drinking a beer or whatever, smoking.

Why are you coming to a show?

You want to be in community with the music and with the people around you.

So that's really the vibe here Forever a DIY show is $5 because Fugazi said it was back in the 1980s.

And when we moved into this space, we were like $10 will be the minimum amount because we can't do that anymore.

We're an artist first venue.

So we really just give the lion's share of what we make to the bands, which leaves us sometimes in a hard predicament because how do you make money off of, well, these days music in general, live music.

I would imagine the main generator of cash is the booze, right?

Mostly it's PBR.

That was when Smuts showed up, a Chicago-based band needing to load in for the show that night.

We use this opportunity to try some of the world famous vegan gorilla biscuits, the only food on the DRKMTTR menu.

Started making vegan biscuits.

They're vegan.

They already smell good.

All right.

I'm trying hot sauce.

Hot sauce on it is really good.

But they're local obviously.

We just like to feature our friends here as much as we can.

I mean, you guys really do support the community, support the bands, support your friends, support people that are coming in here.

I mean, it feels like a family.

Yeah.

And part of our mission too and a big part what I wanted to bring to this space was a political angle.

Right.

So for us, we've always wanted to be able to host for free local organizations who want to have meetings or fundraisers and things like that.

So that's also a huge part of how we want to bring community into this space.

So this is the third location that you guys have had.

What's the future for you guys?

That's an interesting question.

And now we're kind of exploring more options, what is a nonprofit status because right now we're not.

But what would that look like for us, would that open different doors for funding?

Of course, one day maybe we would love to have a bigger space.

So we have goals and dreams like that.

But you know-- It's all about the money.

It's all about money.

Well, comrade, I can tell you your biscuits are great.

It brings people in too.

This same DIY mentality has also led to the creation of the East Nashville based series Lockeland Strings, a concept created by singer-songwriter Lydia Luce and producer and artist Jordan Lehning that pairs songwriters with string players for a community-oriented pop up show in order to raise awareness for a local nonprofit.

We sat down at the East Nashville staple Basement East, joining us for Lockeland Strings founder Lydia as well as composer and player Larissa Maestro.

They invited founder Jen Starsinic and artist, teacher Rachel Rodriguez from Girls Write Nashville, a local nonprofit that teaches girls creative development skills by pairing them with professional artists and songwriters.

Larissa kicked it off by describing her first trip to Nashville.

Before I moved here, it appeared to me to be like a country music sort of amusement park in a way.

It was like, is this really-- this is all that's here.

But then when I moved here, I realized, of course, that's not all that's here.

There are people that come here to be artists.

And when you have a community of people who all move to a place to make art, they're going to find ways to do it.

So it's like the LA story, a lot of people from all over the country converge, in Nashville, is that kind of the national story as well.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, it's a city of transplants for sure.

I mean, I'm not from here.

Nashvillians are kind of like unicorns.

If you come to a place like Nashville or LA or New York with one mission in mind and it doesn't work out and you feel like you have failed in some way, but maybe that wasn't your path.

And so I always encourage young artists to-- you have so many gifts and use them.

They're uniquely yours.

And you'll be amazed if you just open it up what the opportunities will come that will fulfill you in a way that you didn't expect.

I know for me, specifically, I have now come to feel like there's something that I want to do for Nashville, that I feel like my presence here is actually important.

I mean, just thinking about the diversity factor.

I'm Filipino-American.

There aren't a lot of Asian-Americans in the south.

That's a reason to stay, though.

Yes.

You came here with an idea, now all of a sudden it's your idea.

But where do you see this thing going?

I do think that it's up for us to fight for what we believe in and what the real value of the city is because so much of our organization is about talking with kids who grew up here who see what is being valued in their city, and that it's not them, and saying, this is your city.

This is your government.

These are your buildings, your streets.

This is your home.

Music has such an opportunity to explain where we are today, help when it hurts.

We've had tornadoes here.

You guys have had reliefs.

Literally right here.

The tornado was right here.

Exactly.

And again, you guys have that tool.

Girls growing up, now that is how they start to express themselves.

I mean, I've been involved in a lot of recording country music.

I've never felt cared for by the country music establishment.

I've felt cared for by other communities in Nashville.

We were talking about identity and the fact that your own personal identity matters.

And working with Girls Write, I don't know who gets more out of the session than girls I'm with or me because I see so much of myself in them.

And I grew up in a really small country town.

There were three people of color, which was me and two other Latino boys.

But here, there's so much more diversity.

It's a bigger city.

I want to encourage the girls to be proud of who you are, where you come from, keep the language going, keep the culture going.

Don't look at it as a negative, but just that you have more to offer the world.

And as they're songwriters and artists being true to themselves rather than like trying to write to an audience, that's the only way it comes off authentic.

Oh, my god, when I first moved here, somebody set me up on a rite.

Be like honky tonk badonkadonk had just like-- you were trying to recreate that.

And they were like, let's write a song about a honky tonk.

And I was like, what makes you think that I know anything about writing it?

I literally just moved here from Boston, Massachusetts.

That's right.

I am a Filipino-American woman.

I think about Lockeland Strings, you guys seem to be playing honestly for yourselves.

It does feel like a community that you guys care about the stuff that you're doing.

Yeah, I feel like curating the shows, I'm just picking people that I want to see live or get to play with or be in a space with, get to work with.

There's so many people that I admire in this town.

And then that authenticity attracts other people.

I think what's drawn is to who you authentically are, what's your culture, what's your identity?

That makes me think of the piece that you wrote for the Lockeland Strings show we did at the live spot.

It was so beautiful.

And I can't even remember how to pronounce the instrument.

Bandurria.

Please do it for me.

Thank you.

And I had never seen that instrument before.

I've never heard of it.

And I guarantee you that most people in the audience weren't aware of it.

So like that felt to me like you were introducing this beautiful Filipino piece with string quartet.

And it's just a different vibe.

Yeah.

That's what's been inspirational for us because while Nashville feels homogeneous from the outside, from the inside not so much.

And where it's going feels like it can go who knows where.

You guys all seem so passionate about what you do.

And success, of course, I don't even know what that means anymore.

Is it money?

Yeah.

I think we're in the midst of a sea change just in American culture, where we're redefining what success looks like.

I want to look at what is going to make me healthy as an artist and a person and what is going to make my community healthy.

And I want to see where those things intersect.

And that is the place I want to focus on.

And that's success like that.

That's success to me.

That is success.

To success.

To success.

However you define success, the people and communities you surround yourself with are often what gives it meaning.

And music in all its myriad complexity is a kind of shorthand for building these communities and strengthening the connections that bind them.

We are all striving to connect, to find common ground.

Music and the space and communities we create for it has the power to bring us a little bit closer.

There's so much more to explore, and we want you to join us on The Good Road.

For more in depth content, meet us on the internet at thegoodradio.tv.

Hear more great stories, connect to organizations, and make sure you download our podcasts Philanthropology.

Funding for The Good Road has been provided by-- What makes a good road?

Blazing a trail, making a difference, being unafraid to take the path of most resistant.

Toyota has a beyond zero vision for a carbon neutral future, that lets you find your own good road with Toyota's electrified lineup, including battery electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles.

Designed to get you where you want to go, from work, to school, or wherever your adventures take you.

Toyota is all about paving good roads.

Proud sponsor of The Good Road.

Toyota, let's go places.

Here in Asheville, we're a mixture of genres, a hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything, all drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always, Asheville.

Music is the great unifier with power to change the world.

Musicians create that positive change music each and every day.

In Your Ear Studios, diverse musicians creating diverse music that unifies.

Bank of America.

What would you like the power to do?

Philanthropy Journal, stories about bold people changing the world.

The Buccaneer Beach and Golf Resort, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.