Banner & Company

Not many people have held Hank Williams demo recordings with his handwriting on them. But Alan Stoker has. He recently retired from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where he worked for 50 years, much of it spent preserving and archiving rare — and sometimes fragile — recordings. He was there long enough that some of the recordings he archived he returned to a second time in order to digitize.

Alan was born into a musical family; his father was Gordon Stoker, a member of the Jordanaires, one of music history's most storied vocal groups — working with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and countless others over a decades-long career. Alan's father gave him his first tape recorder, which set him on the path to audio engineering. He's pretty good behind a drum kit, too.

Guest: Alan Stoker, musician and audio archivist

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Lilly Sabella

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"I guess I'm a completist," artist Wendy Murray says of herself. And right now she has an appropriately ambitious project under way: drawing every building on Gallatin Pike. Or, as she likes to say, "the Gallatin Pike" (an homage to Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip). Maybe you've seen her out with pens and museum board, sketching that day's subject.

Originally from New Zealand, Wendy has taught art at Sydney University in Australia and completed an internship here at Hatch Show Print — where the commute back and forth sparked her interest in the busy East Nashville thoroughfare — making posters, zines and all manner of artwork along the way.

Guest: Wendy Murray

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Lilly Sabella

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This month marks 100 years since the Scopes "monkey" trial in Dayton, Tenn. The simple version is that a 24-year-old teacher had been charged with breaking a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution. But as national press descended on this small Tennessee town — at least 150 reporters and photographers in all — it soon became clear that this was bigger than a simple criminal trial. It was as if science itself stood accused.

Writer, former Banner reporter and MTSU professor Leon Alligood has long been obsessed with the Scopes trial. This week, he has written a deep dive on its lasting importance for the Banner. Among the questions the trial raised: What is the role of government in education? What should children taught or not taught? Can science be trusted? The parallels a century later are striking.

Guest: Leon Alligood

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Maryam Abolfazli was born and raised in Nashville, into what she describes as a "a big and loving Iranian family." Some members of that family still live in Iran, where, already contending with a repressive government, they have also lived in a time of war and now, lingering uncertainty.

All of this hits close to home for Maryam, who has worked in the Middle East and retains close ties with her extended family. As a fragile ceasefire appears to hold, we asked her what it's been like to follow the news from Nashville, knowing loved ones potentially remain in harm's way.

Guest: Maryam Abolfazli, activist and Iranian American

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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The late Dr. Paul Kwami was the music director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers for 28 years. He passed away in September 2022. Before his death, Dr. Kwami recorded an interview for a documentary project about Nashville music venues, which has not been heard until now. This week's episode, drawn from Banner Executive Producer Demetria Kalodimos' archives, also features the Fisk Jubilee Singers in their first-ever performance at the Bluebird Cafe.

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When the Banner needed someone to sketch the recent trial of Glen Casada and Cade Cothren in federal court — where no cameras or digital devices of any kind are allowed — we turned to artist Paul Collins. His courtroom sketches, created on paper with pencil, marker and other dry materials, brought the trial to life for our coverage, along with several other Nashville outlets.

Paul knew from a young age that he wanted to be an artist, but his parents didn't necessarily agree with that choice. Still, he found a way into a career, eventually combining his love of art with something else he'd always wanted to do: teach. Paul's recent work has been increasingly public, including free "vote" signs and a large-scale art book project called the Unbannable Library.

Guest: Paul Collins

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Phil Bredesen is a big believer in the public good. As mayor of Nashville, he pushed to create more public spaces, like the downtown public library. He also sought to invigorate the core of the city, in part by bringing big-time sports to town. (Wait until you hear the story of how he got to the final handshake on an NFL franchise.) As governor of Tennessee, Phil worked to acquire and preserving public land.

These days, fishing and grandchildren occupy more of his time than they once did, but he keeps his ear to the ground. And while he doesn't always like what he hears, he's still interested in finding common ground among folks who might otherwise disagree. His podcast with former Republican governor Bill Haslam is indicative of the centrist thinking that got Phil elected as a Democrat in a red state.

Guest: Phil Bredesen

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Music historian Don Cusic has played many roles — songwriter, producer, novelist, professor. (Not to mention putting in a stint at a newspaper in Cookeville many years ago.) Decades ago, he pulled into Nashville in an old VW bus that doubled as his home until he found his footing writing about music.

Since then, Don has written 28 books, ranging from a biography of Roger Miller to an encyclopedia of cowboys. His latest delves into the life of one of Nashville's most influential figures. Chet Atkins: Mr. Guitar took Don more than a decade to write, and is informed by both research and his personal proximity to the late songwriter, producer and instrumentalist.

Guest: Don Cusic

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Five years ago this week, Watkins School of Art, Design & Film held a socially distanced commencement ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It would the last in the school's 185-year history, as it later merged with Belmont University. Steven Womack taught at Watkins for 25 years, and he details his time there — and the school's demise — in a memoir titled Death of a College.

Before he ever stepped into a college classroom, Steven was a writer (inspired first by Robert Penn Warren) of multiple novels, beginning with Murphy's Fault and including many mysteries after, including a Nashville-set series featuring the detective Harry James Denton, and the newly released stand-alone, Blood Plot.

Guest: Steven Womack

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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With the state of Tennessee set to restart executions this month, federal public defender Kelley Henry is even more busy than usual. Her client Oscar Smith is the first man scheduled to be killed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Her team has exhausted its legal options, and Smith is set to be executed on May 22. He will spend 14 days on death watch, instead of the customary three.

The drug that will be used to carry out that execution, pentobarbital, is not without controversy, and the state has not disclosed where or how it obtained its supply. Henry has pressed for transparency, claiming that the state should not be able to hide the identity or identities of whoever supplied the drug. Whatever the outcome, Henry is determined to keep fighting for the rights of "her guys" — a fight she has promised herself to continue as long as she lives.

Guest: Kelley Henry, supervising assistant federal public defender

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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